There are a few mobile or web idle/incremental games I have used as a substitute for a Pomodoro timer. Oh, I am really into the game and it only progresses if this is the focused tab? I really want to make progress, but I am in a period of the game where active play isn’t that rewarded, and just watching the screen while I wait to earn the upgrade is pretty boring? How about we just leave my phone with that as the active tab, and I check back when the upgrade should be earned? Keeps me off my phone and doing the actual things I should be doing instead. Somehow, “abusing” games like this works better for me than the Forest app which has the explicit intention of making sure you do not touch your screen for a set length of time and instead do something else off your phone.
What's a Pomodoro timer?There is a “Pomodoro technique” where you work for some longer amount of minutes, often 25, and then take a break, usually 5 minutes. Repeat the process a few times, then take a longer break instead of a shorter one. Repeat. The gist of “Pomodoro timer” is just whatever timekeeping thing you’re using to pull this off, whether it be a kitchen timer shaped like a tomato or a phone timer.
I also “abuse” Pokémon Masters EX in a similar fashion. You’re expected to level up with some combination of putting them through battles that cost stamina to play through, and some pretty easy-to-obtain level-up items. And although there is an Auto option I have a feeling you are intended to manually do the battles in-game. Instead, I start story mode battles which cost no stamina to play through, that still reward me with XP no matter how many times I repeat it, and have the game fight the battle for me with the Auto setting. I check back when the battle is done and restart it. I have essentially turned this into an idle/incremental game, albeit one with a pretty short time between waiting and checking back in on the game. Free level-ups! Even though it does take much longer than the intended way, which is why I suspect nobody tried to prevent this method from working. I like doing this for some reason, and it’s probably the main reason I still keep this game downloaded despite my usual allergy to gacha games.
maybe not quite what you’re looking for but the shadow of mordor series has a liiiitle bit of that. obviously not as city-focused as arkham or spider-man.
One thing I find jarring about BG3 is the lack of vo for the player character. It seems like a weird omission in this day and age. (Not counting the dumb ‘I clicked here, so my player has to say something’ vo. Like, shut the fuck up with your dumb chess references, Gale!)
I also have a tendency to not bother with VA, though, and to just click through the second I finish reading the dialogue, except for lines in particularly dramatic parts of the story. Sometimes not even then. Just figure I’d offer a counter opinion especially since this thread is probably going to be full of people who always choose voice acting when it is an option, given the thread is all about it. I am glad so many people derive joy from it, just because it is Not For Me doesn’t mean I think it’s Bad And Worthless :)
I played BG3 straight after Cyberpunk and that really stood out to me as well. The immersion and emotional impact of voiced protagonist lines really got me invested in Cyberpunk in a way I missed in BG3.
They recorded some lines for the custom character. They think aloud when you approach the gith gank squad.
They also reverted a decision to have all the origin characters do a bizarre past tense narration in favor of the present universal narration the familiar narrator VA does present tense. Maybe they abandoned having the player character speak when they changed that course.
I think the silent protagonist choice is valid in more of “sandbox” story like BG3. Speaking for myself, voiced protagonists tend to “lock” me into a specific character. I absolutely love the voice acting for Geralt of Rivia but when I play a witcher game I’m not inserting myself into the game, I’m becoming Geralt and making choices based on how I believe Geralt would make them.
I don’t really see it being a sandbox. I mean, all answers are given, and you select from those choices. That’s the same as other games that have pc vo. I feel like it would have made more sense to have no voice options at all, and to just get rid of the ridiculous quips. That way, you create your own voice in your head. In no universe would the character I created complain about having to put her hands onto everything before opening a door.
Anyway, not a big deal, but like I said, it was a bit jarring.
You’re welcome! I’ve played it a bunch, it’s essentially FTL 1.5 and extremely well made. Hope you have fun playing it!
In case you’re running on Linux, be warned that you might have to add a SELinux exception. Hit me up if that’s the case, I’ll try to find the commands.
I hadn’t played so I just checked out a beginner’s guide and I don’t think they’re very similar at all.
In FTL you’re pretty much going from point to point on a map which mostly have encounters with single ships. You try to collect resources for upgrades or new weapons. At shops you can repair or buy things, and you’ll find new crew members there or organically through events. There are a few different ways to do combat (different kinds of guns/missiles, drones, or boarding enemy ships), and everything builds to a boss battle in the final sector.
I’m sure there are some vids that can lay out the basics in a few mins, but if it sounds anything like a genre you’re interested in I’d say 3 bucks is a steal for it. As a roguelike it’s got a lot of replayability.
Factorio doesn’t give a fuck and will let you play with up to 254 other people on the same server. Most survival crafting games have LAN, as a matter of fact. Somehow this is the only genre that will hold developers accountable on a regular basis and make them hurt for not having LAN and player-controlled servers. Not all of them will, but most will offer LAN.
All of Larian’s recent RPG efforts have LAN and direct IP connections: Divinity: Original Sin 1 and 2, and Baldur’s Gate 3.
Titan Quest, Grim Dawn, and the entire Borderlands series (outside of the GOTY edition of Borderlands 1) support LAN, surprisingly, if you want to get your loot game on.
Is Recharge RC the same as the upcoming Unreal engine racing game Recharge? If they don’t have the same lineage, they’ve at least got similar inspirations.
Warside is an upcoming turn-based strategy game inspired by (or ripping off wholesale?) Advance Wars, and it’s got LAN in its features list.
Streets of Rogue is an all-timer in the co-op roguelike department, and it too supports LAN.
A game that I download and install on a regular basis in the freeware realm is Armagetron. It’s the light cycles from Tron but in an open source LAN game. It doesn’t exactly have a ton of depth, but it’s good fun for about an hour every couple of years.
I imagine Minecraft played a large part in popularizing the concept of a player hosted server for survival games. It’s possible that the reason this genre in specific has so many titles where you can do this is because players coming from or otherwise largely influenced by Minecraft see this as a requirement if not just the standard, so devs wanting to appeal to these players may also see it as a standard/requirement.
Sure, but first person shooters always had LAN until they didn’t. Console games always had split screen until they didn’t. Those audiences largely let those features fall off in a way survival audiences didn’t.
It was such an evolutionary leap forward from the previous MM games. Everything was bigger and better. The graphics, the music, the controls. It blew my mind at the time.
I spent so many hours on this game. Probably replayed it hundreds of times. The boss battles were so epic. SIGMA! And then discovering the secret shouryuken move from Street Fighter! Wow!
Great list. But I love reading trough the reasoning behind the picks. What are yours?
Personally I think outer wilds is a one of a kind game which represents am artistic message about existence that cannot be conveyed the same way in any other medium.
I think the common denominator is a strong / immersive story and universe that appeals to me (big fan of sf), interesting mechanics and gameplay in a way that makes the game unique in its own way, and the artistic approach behind the game, so for each of those :
Outer Wilds was a fantastic experience that you can only live once, the freedom of exploration is crazy, the feelings you can go through in the span of a single minute make it so memorable, I connected with this game like no other
Death Stranding I played during one of the lockdowns, and after hiking in Iceland, it was a continuity of these two experiences that felt very personal. It was also my introduction to Kojima games. I found it to be such a premium experience and statement about video games, I loved the insanity of the plot, and once you dug deeper, you find all the artistic inspiration and process that went behind the game, it’s an insane work of interactive art
Disco Elysium I was already fully on board just learning about the game, I sympathise with the authors, the fact that it started as an rpg campaign, with immense lore behind it, love the art style, the narration, the story and its themes, I haven’t lived in post USSR Europe but the game make me nostalgic/melancholic for a time, aesthetic, struggles I didn’t know
They’re my absolute favourite but some games come close, Inscryption, Pyre, Spiritfarer…
Great points. One think I love about disco is how much expression it gives to the mundane. It’s not about firebreathing dragons but about trashcans. My most intense interaction I’ve had in this game was with a malfunctioning speaker on a office building.
I wish more people would play The Hex. I got more playtime out of Inscryption and loved it, but I played The Hex later on and I did not expect to like it more, but it’s fucking genius. I think it’s a legitimately better game.
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