The Miscellaneous PC & vidya Games Thread

[Tamas]

The gaming subculture can be really repulsive. Seemingly a constant chain of temper tantrums over this or that.

[Syt]

Gaming subculture, fandoms (Star Trek, Star Wars, MCU, DC ... ), politics, ...

[Tamas]

Gaming subculture, fandoms (Star Trek, Star Wars, MCU, DC ... ), politics, ...

True.

[Sheilbh]

Gaming subculture, fandoms (Star Trek, Star Wars, MCU, DC ... ), politics, ...

I think they're all just different types of fandoms at this point - see also sports, celebrity stans etc.

[Syt]

Good ol' tribalism, making history for thousands of years.

[Syt]

Over Christmas break I spent over 120 hours in Approaching Infinity. 

It's not the most intricate or deep roguelike that ever was (it's no ADOM, DF, let alone Caves of Qud), but it scratches the itch for some quick space exploration to do while listening to a podcast. And after 10 or so years of off an on development there's a decent amount of content here, even though you will get the same quests from races/factions (there's 12 or so linear faction questlines that lead to victory), but if you avoid the "Game Ends if You Complete this Quest" it's essentially open ended. It's more akin to, say, Diablo 1 - yes, you know the progression of levels of bosses, but it's getting remixed each time a little bit, and loot is randomized. The variation comes from what officers (and therefore skills) you get, how you outfit your ship and away team and what loot (and "artifacts") you get and what enemies (and their resistances ... ) you run into and little stories and some easter eggs. That said, on higher level content it can get tough (when you're jumped by 5 heavy enemy ships), and you will be glad to have some defensive skills besides pew-pew abilities.

It's cozy in a way, and clearing a map can be done in a minute or 10 minutes (depending on what enemies you run into). And then there's crafting/modding your own equipment, though the dev said that after a recent rework it might be a bit (IMO a lot) OP - his idea is that most equipment should be loot.

Quite the surprise for me and rather unexpected. Would recommend as coffee break game once you're familiar with the mechanics. Again, not the most mnindblowing roguelike out there, but one that seems to uniquely click for me like others haven't. Its bite sized chunks (which was a design goal for the dev) certainly play a big role in that, though. For the price I've definitely gotten my money's worth and then some

(For those interested - almost all game data is stored in ASCII txt files, jpg (or png?) graphics and wav files, so modding would be quite easy ... was thinking of doing a Star Trek overhaul of this if I ever get super motivated )

[celedhring]

Now that you mention ADOM, I spent quite a bit (not 120 hours though!) of time playing Angband once again these holidays.