Just a heads up for anyone intrigued by the discussions, there’s a 5 game Deus Ex bundle on Steam that’s on sale for less than $10 right now!

The Elder Scrolls Online has been my go to for the weekend so far, it’s something I enjoy dropping in and out of sometimes.

After staring at my screen for 45 minutes trying to pick a game for the weekend, I decided to start up The Sims 3 again. Just like always, the addiction is back! It seems like at least once or twice a year I go really hard on it for about a week.

This is part 3 of their series, and this part is specifically centered around smaller games. Some of the games you mentioned were in parts 1 and 2.

Endless Sky has sucked up large chunks of time from me over the years! Definitely recommend it if anyone hasn’t tried it yet. I’ve worked on several mods for it over the years, and that’s lots of fun as well.

I’m pretty sure I’ve bought Astrox Imperium, but I’ve never tried it. I’ve got so many other games I still enjoy playing that it’s often hard to start a new one!

The idea of Eve was always very interesting to me, but I’ve never tried it. The whole aspect of the massive battles wasn’t what I was looking for, I was just interested in the mining and building end of it. I could never tell if I would be able to do that without getting blown up all the time, and never wanted to invest the time in trying it without knowing. I ended up doing something similar in RuneScape. I spent most of the few years I played crafting and selling products and sometimes going on quests.

That is my primary playstyle in a nutshell! 😂 I really like the painter and writer professions, but I sometimes don’t even go that far! I’ve had sims that have never had a job and have made every simoleon by picking up rocks, playing guitar, and selling random things they found in the dumpsters around town. That’s the great thing about it, you get more freedom to do what you want.

My favorite is the Sims 3, and I’ve spent a lot of time on it! It’s a very addicting game for me, but only by spells. I’ll play it every chance I get for a few weeks, then let it sit for a long time. I’ve also played 2 and 4 as well. 2 was good, and 4 was disappointing to me. The overall gameplay wasn’t as good in my opinion, and losing the open world aspect of 3 was a negative too. Add to that the launcher and additional login requirements and I quit playing it fairly quickly.

I think the main reason I like 3 better than the others is because of the open world aspect. I can quickly switch back and forth between two sims at opposite ends of the map, and the world itself feels more real due to not having loading screens. I also like the graphics style a little better, but that’s a minor thing.

The way I normally play is to create a sim, either by picking traits or randomizing, and drop them into the world with a starter house. From there I normally have them get a job or learn a freelance skill to make some money. I generally let my sims find their own friends and spouses by finding who they get along with and going from there. I generally get at least a few generations in before I move on to another game or start over. I rarely do the challenges and things that many people do, but I have done games where I tried to keep a generational line going for a while.

I was really looking forward to both Life by You and Paralives, but the publisher and/or devs of Life by You just blew through their third release date, and have now delayed it indefinitely. So maybe Paralives will be good!

Exactly, hopefully there will be something I’ll like announced! But if not, I have old favorites to go back to as well.

I’ve only played Civilization V since New Year, but I’m thinking of giving Old World another try sometime. On the surface it’s something I should really like, but it hasn’t really grabbed me.

Nothing I’ve seen on the 2024 slate has me really excited yet, but I’m somewhat interested to see how Manor Lords and Life by You turn out.

Not exactly hidden gems, but I finally bought Stray. Also decided to pick up Xenonauts. I can’t decide whether I should grab Phoenix Point though. I keep eyeing up Terra Invicta too, but I’m almost positive it’s going to be a bit too much micromanagement for me to enjoy it.

I’m pretty sure I’m not the only one that’s less likely to click on articles like that! If they’re not going to give me an idea of what I’m clicking on, I generally don’t read it. It’s usually possible to find a few websites that have informative headlines.

I’m hoping to eventually find something that checks all the right boxes! In the meantime, I still find a few that I really like here and there, and old favorites are always fun!

I’ve definitely seen Satisfactory before, I’ve just never bought it. It looked like it could be interesting, I’ll have to look into it a bit more. Jusant I hadn’t heard of, but I’ll check it out. Thanks!

I’ll look into the Wasteland games and see what I think, might be something I’ll enjoy. I have heard some good things about the 2.0? update for Cyberpunk, so I should probably start a new save and give it another chance. I enjoy some of the cyberpunk aesthetic, so that helps.

Interesting point on the fantasy classes, I hadn’t thought of it that way previously. I’ve never been able to figure out what fantasy elements don’t work for me, because it doesn’t seem to follow any particular logic! I may give BG3 a shot if it comes up on sale at some point, it might just be a slow build and I might just need a bit more time playing for me to enjoy it.

Something like Baldur’s Gate 3 could be an enjoyable game for me, but unfortunately the world didn’t click. A friend is really into it and let me play for a while, and it just didn’t feel like a good fit. I ran into the same problem with both of the Divinity Original Sin games. I’ve never been a big fan of most fantasy settings for some reason, although I do enjoy some of them. Dread Delusion, Shadow Gambit and Wargroove 2 could fall into the same category, although I would have to watch some gameplay first. Some of the advance information on Starfield looked interesting at first, but gameplay footage I’ve watched hasn’t made me want to buy it. I would be more excited if things would be a bit more seamless. I got Cyberpunk on sale a while back and put about 10 hours into it before I quit. I can’t really put my finger on what it was, but I just wasn’t enjoying it. I haven’t played it since that point, so it may have changed for the better. I already have the Metal Gear Collection with MGS4 for PS3, so the PC port won’t be anything I’ll pick up until it goes on sale.

The two older games from Mimimi both look interesting. In fact, I did purchase Desperados III on a sale, I’ve just never downloaded it yet to play between XCOM runs!

I either never saw or overlooked Starsector, so I will have to look into that one a bit. Endless Sky is top down, so it sounds somewhat similar!

Thanks for all the suggestions!

The games that I tried for the first time and enjoyed this year were:

• Circuit Superstars
• Mafia: Definitive Edition
• Uncharted: A Thief’s Legacy Collection

Then the games that I tried and didn’t like:

• Gotham Knights
• Horizon Zero Dawn
• Red Dead Redemption 2
• Spider-Man Remastered

Games that I would be excited about if they were announced/launched:

• Kingdom Come 2
• Uncharted: The Lost Legacy 2
• XCOM3

My all time favorites list that I keep coming back to is currently this:

• Age of Empires II
• American Truck Simulator
• Civilization V
• Endless Sky
• Euro Truck Simulator 2
• Farming Simulator
• Just Cause 3
• Kingdom Come: Deliverance
• Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain
• Rise of the Tomb Raider
• Stardew Valley
• Tachyon: The Fringe
• The Elder Scrolls 3: Morrowind
• The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past
• XCOM2

You’re doing better than me! I’ve not seen anything this year that I even remotely thought about purchasing. I’m glad that some people are enjoying this year’s releases though. It’s always interesting to me that writers assume that almost everyone automatically loves every hyped game.

The Javelin is the most expensive ship you can actually buy, at $3,000. It’s still a crazy amount of money though! But if people want to pay it, more power to them. It allows me to enjoy the game with my $70 starter pack!

While you technically have to spend $25,000 to get the 600i Executive Edition, is actually a perk you get once you’ve spent that much on the game itself.