I have been recommending Farm Together as a co-op game a lot lately because it is so damn simple but so good. The controls are immediately accessible, the game doesn’t give a flying fuck about stressing you out but at the same time there are a lot of systems to discover (making money isn’t trivial in this game) and the crops take realtime to grow so it naturally sets up a simple ritual with your co-op partner to play. There is not really any story to get into, but at the same time this makes it a bit more accessible to someone who isn’t already invested in video games since the gameplay loop is so immediate and unframed by any cutscenes, story setup, long tutorials or forced activities. You pick it up and start playing immediately, you decide completely how to interface with the game whether it be crunching out the numbers to figure out which crop, fish etc… to go for to maximize money, just zoning out watering, planting and harvesting or spending all your time placing cosmetic buildings and props to make your farm look cool. Want to take a break and just watch your partner play? Sure! Walk away for a half an hour if you want, you will probably have a bunch of crops waiting for you to harvest once you come back. The game really doesn’t have an opinion on how you should play it and it is great.
(It looks like a game like farmville, but there is zero manipulative microtransaction crap, just buy the game and play)
If you want more story and thematic framing, you absolutely have to try Stardew Valley, it is a co-op classic for a reason.
Also if you liked the idea of Overcooked but found it too focused on stressful energy that isn’t necessarily fun for everyone than check out PlateUp! YOU design the kitchen in plateup and add various components to it as you progress. It puts a lot more agency in the players hands instead of throwing players through a chaotic theme park ride that overcooked feels like in the harder levels. It also brings strategizing about kitchen design with your co-op partner into the gameplay loop which is great fun. You can also automate some stuff, so players can dig into that if they want to avoid feeling like the game is so focused on stressful action.
Honestly disappointed with the combination of batch awards and probably the shortest acceptance speech timer I’ve seen. This game awards felt solely for producers and publishers, not for the people who actually made these games. I get not wanting another 8 min speech, but it left a bad taste in my mouth
Been rediscovering factorio after a few busy months, it’s not for everyone, but if you look it up and it seems interesting I wholeheartedly recommend you give it a go, it is truly an amazing game
Holy shit I didn’t know that was one of the anouncements! Pony Island was so good, perfect length and amazingly immersive story wise. Inscription I really liked too but somehow I fell off after a few hours, still gathering dust on my PS5.
I decided I was done watching the game awards since it doesn’t seem to really align with what I want an awards show to be. I am curious if Dave the diver won though. With the backlash I would be a bit surprised if it did. The game awards always seems a bit reactionary. But then again that’s mostly to keep advertising happy, not the game developers.
Sea of Stars took that one. I'm pretty sure the winners are voted on by the same panel that submitted the nominees, but I could be wrong. I guess they could have also changed their minds after the nominees were announced and the backlash happened.
Yeah. Basically the people who pick the nominees vote, and the public is also allowed to vote and their results count as 1 vote. Its mainly game news outlets that do the nominees and voting
I haven’t played many of the indie games on the list, but I’m glad to see Sea of Stars get some love. It’s probably the best game I’ve played in the last year
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Aktywne