4 ms·

This may be off-point, but are there more polished attempts at new ideas out there that are worth checking out? I can't keep up with what's worth playing anymor

by Pigo 9y ago

This may be off-point, but are there more polished attempts at new ideas out there that are worth checking out? I can't keep up with what's worth playing anymore, and don't have time to play every game hoping that it hits the mark. Anytime I check out the top ranking games, it's new Call of Duty's, Battlefields, Assassin's Creeds, or sports (blegh) and a whole host of games that disappear as fast as they show up. I'd kill for a new game that engages as much Civilization or C&C did.

hello_asdf 9y ago
Try Europa Universalis 4 by Paradox Interactive. It's a strategy game.
- Pigo 9y ago
  I think I will be checking this one out
bllguo 9y ago
It's not really new, just under the radar - but maybe Paradox Interactive's grand strategy games would be up your alley. Look at Crusader Kings 2, or Europa Universalis 4. I make this recommendation reluctantly as I despise their DLC practices, but those games are pretty great and fulfill an underserved niche. If you do decide to play them - I'd try out the base game before considering DLC, there's just way too much.
KirinDave 9y ago
Yes. Modded Minecraft (try All the Mods 3 on the twitch client, or (formerly my modpack) Resonant Rise) Challenge Pack Modded Minecraft (Currently Popular: Age of Engineering, Forever Stranded, Sky Factory 3) Factorio Dwarf Fortress Modded Dwarf Fortress Masterwork Poschengband & Tome4 represent the pinnacle (to me) of classic Roguelike design. Risk of Rain Endless Legend Endless Space 2 (Amplitude releases a consistent and growing world of fantastic games with amazing and long-lived content releases). (Just give Zachtronics all your money and take all their games, but in a particular order:) Shenzen I/O TIS-100 Spacechem Infinifactory Cities: Skylines (Paradox Interactive publishes does this and the next few, they're very good) Europa Universalis 4 Stellaris Great, thoughtful, engaging games are out there if you want them. Sadly, most people are filthy casuals now. Zachtronics games in particular stand out as turning real world thinking and skills into fun games.
- fake-name 9y ago
  I've never really understood some of the zachtronics games. Things like TIS-100 and Shenzen I/O confuse me. Why would I spend time learning some esoteric assembler that exists no where else, when you could take that same time and learn an actual assembler? I really, REALLY wish they had done something really clever, like targetted AVR opcodes or something for their vCPU. That'd make it so not only do you get to have fun, but you learn a marketable skill in the process! That's one of my major complaints about most of the "programming" games I've seen, in that most of the time, if I'm going to spend time writing code, I'd rather just hack on one of my projects then play a game with no real end-product. At least with personal projects, you wind up with an actual app at the end. I did enjoy Spacechem and Infinifactory, though I didn't finish each before becoming bored. ------
  - ngold 9y ago
    Not to mention the huge loss of a learning opportunity to have players learn programming language basics for specific real world code
    - jasonmp85 9y ago
      This smells of when industry shows up at a college and complains they aren't teaching them "what we use in the real world". After enough practice learning multiple fictional languages, learning the n+1th one should be a walk in the park! The important part is the game is fun and encourages learning. That the developer didn't choose to use an "actual" language to do so shouldn't ultimately matter if the concepts are sound, right?
    - KirinDave 9y ago
      Let me prove your axiom wrong with a counterexample. I love these games, and I can program (and have shipped to prod) in over a dozen languages including Erlang, Haskell, C++, C, Common Lisp, Java, Clojure, Scala. What you're saying is nonsense. Practice in programming is practice in programming. If we wanted to, we could make the TIS-100 system real for embedded computing and I bet it'd be popular with some instruction extensions. I did an annex course at a local middle school with TIS-100 to teach kids that programming is fun. It went over well.

by Pigo 9y ago

hello_asdf 9y ago

Try Europa Universalis 4 by Paradox Interactive. It's a strategy game.

Pigo 9y ago
I think I will be checking this one out

bllguo 9y ago

It's not really new, just under the radar - but maybe Paradox Interactive's grand strategy games would be up your alley. Look at Crusader Kings 2, or Europa Universalis 4. I make this recommendation reluctantly as I despise their DLC practices, but those games are pretty great and fulfill an underserved niche. If you do decide to play them - I'd try out the base game before considering DLC, there's just way too much.

KirinDave 9y ago

Yes. Modded Minecraft (try All the Mods 3 on the twitch client, or (formerly my modpack) Resonant Rise) Challenge Pack Modded Minecraft (Currently Popular: Age of Engineering, Forever Stranded, Sky Factory 3) Factorio Dwarf Fortress Modded Dwarf Fortress Masterwork Poschengband & Tome4 represent the pinnacle (to me) of classic Roguelike design. Risk of Rain Endless Legend Endless Space 2 (Amplitude releases a consistent and growing world of fantastic games with amazing and long-lived content releases). (Just give Zachtronics all your money and take all their games, but in a particular order:) Shenzen I/O TIS-100 Spacechem Infinifactory Cities: Skylines (Paradox Interactive publishes does this and the next few, they're very good) Europa Universalis 4 Stellaris Great, thoughtful, engaging games are out there if you want them. Sadly, most people are filthy casuals now. Zachtronics games in particular stand out as turning real world thinking and skills into fun games.

fake-name 9y ago
I've never really understood some of the zachtronics games. Things like TIS-100 and Shenzen I/O confuse me. Why would I spend time learning some esoteric assembler that exists no where else, when you could take that same time and learn an actual assembler? I really, REALLY wish they had done something really clever, like targetted AVR opcodes or something for their vCPU. That'd make it so not only do you get to have fun, but you learn a marketable skill in the process! That's one of my major complaints about most of the "programming" games I've seen, in that most of the time, if I'm going to spend time writing code, I'd rather just hack on one of my projects then play a game with no real end-product. At least with personal projects, you wind up with an actual app at the end. I did enjoy Spacechem and Infinifactory, though I didn't finish each before becoming bored. ------
- ngold 9y ago
  Not to mention the huge loss of a learning opportunity to have players learn programming language basics for specific real world code
  - jasonmp85 9y ago
    This smells of when industry shows up at a college and complains they aren't teaching them "what we use in the real world". After enough practice learning multiple fictional languages, learning the n+1th one should be a walk in the park! The important part is the game is fun and encourages learning. That the developer didn't choose to use an "actual" language to do so shouldn't ultimately matter if the concepts are sound, right?
  - KirinDave 9y ago
    Let me prove your axiom wrong with a counterexample. I love these games, and I can program (and have shipped to prod) in over a dozen languages including Erlang, Haskell, C++, C, Common Lisp, Java, Clojure, Scala. What you're saying is nonsense. Practice in programming is practice in programming. If we wanted to, we could make the TIS-100 system real for embedded computing and I bet it'd be popular with some instruction extensions. I did an annex course at a local middle school with TIS-100 to teach kids that programming is fun. It went over well.