A gaming community free from the hype and oversaturation of current releases, catering to gamers who wait at least 12 months after release to play a game. Whether it's price, waiting for bugs/issues to be patched, DLC to be released, don't meet the system requirements, or just haven't had the time to keep up with the latest releases.
^(placeholder)^
The Warhammer tide games, either Vermintide 2 or Darktide. Best melee combat in a video game, relatively short rounds, and super satisfying to just genocide some heretic/xeno hordes for the Emperor/Sigmar.
You just alerted me to the existence of Orcs Must Die 3, and I am going to check it out after absolutely loving the first 2.
I was trying Terraria, which has a lot of creativity possibilities. I was trying to earthwork/terraform a small world (i.e. trying to make it level from ocean to ocean), while simultaneously "voidforming" another small world (i.e. digging out every single "removable" block before Hardmode, which obviously excluded Lihzard temple blocks, Dungeon blocks and Crimson/Corruption altars; for lava, I was using the infinite bucket trick to replicate honey in order to consume lava from the Underworld; I don't plan on reaching Hardmode for such world). I was taking blocks from the second world (the world to be voidformed) and "smuggling" them into the first world (the world to be terraformed) in order to compensate for the need for additional blocks (e.g. sand, ice, mud, etc) when biomes were generated below ocean level.
Turns out that I was doing this not exactly for fun and enjoyment, but something to "try to keep myself busy and away from bad thoughts", and that was not really a good goal for myself. By now, it has been weeks since I last played.
For me its titanfall 2. Simply because its quite casual and the rounds don't take too long. Just hop on and if you get absolutely obliderated the next round will be better.
Modded Minecraft for sure. But there are a handful of games I keep going back to and common theme for those games that I can listen to a podcast or audiobook while I'm playing them, like Rimworld, No Man's Sky, Stardew Valley, Skyrim.
OpenTTD.
FIFA, a lot of the time. Lately it's been Rocket League.
Crawl: Stone Soup. Classic rogue like. You can play it in the browser so it's very fast to get going. Minotaur Berserker is a nice semi brainless flow.
I'm partial to Gargoyle Fighter, slam maces into everything
Yeah Gargoyles! My first ascension was Gargoyle Earth Elementist, but I think EE has been nerfed since that ascension.
I never really clicked with EE, when I felt like magic I was usually doing something like Deep elf conjurer, or sometime High Elve (rip them) and go for a sword and sorcery style I really enjoyed
Gargoyle Fighter Gang! My first and only escape (3 rune) was a gargoyle fighter dedicated to The Shining One. I relied completely on shield for defense and apparently that was weird as I got a lot of shocked comments on my lack of evade
It's been a minute since I was last plugged into the dcss community, but that seems very standard for me. My best run was also a TSO fighter gargoyle, but something like 8 or 9 runes which was neat. Golden dragon armour, kite shield, and the awesome blessed whip courtesy of TSO is my end game objective
I'll play a multiplayer shooter or civilization 6
Civilization V.
Humankind for me lately, but same vibe
For me it is loading up Xonotic to strafe jump around and blast bots. The movement in Xonotic is hypnotic, and while I usually play in short bursts I don't think I will ever get bored of returning over and over again to learn the nuances and creative opportunities of combat and movement in Xonotic. All it takes is the first strafe jump to put a stupid smile on my face.
Also I love open world driving games and Motortown is my jam. I do urgent taxi jobs and just let my mind relax as I drive like a complete madman. The tire grip and burnout mechanics along with the vehicle handling in general is the best I have tried in any game.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1369670/Motor_Town_Behind_The_Wheel/
Xonotic is mint can't recommend it enough! has replaced Quake 3 for me
I’ll load up Spider-man a couple times a month just to go on patrol, and stop random crimes.
Been doing this since Spider-man 2 came out on the original Xbox. Glad the new one came out, and I don’t have to chase that kid’s damn balloon anymore.
this is a smartass answer but if no video game is catching your attention, don't play a video game. do anything else. pick up a new hobby or revisit an old one.
I got a laugh from my Steam recap because I couldn't find anything to play this summer so I got really into ice cream making. Then Satisfactory came out.
Yup. I like reading and working on coding projects.
That said, sometimes I get a hankering to play a game, but none of the dozens I have installed look interesting, so I'll go play one of my favorites (EU4, C:S, Mount & Blade, etc).
I did that a lot with Subnautica but I think I've worn it out. I would make up challenge runs for myself to spice it up and I've run out of those. It was my "I want to play a video game right now" game. I kinda wish I had fewer objections to Subnautica 2, because there's things I like about that game and things I don't and the don'ts slightly outweigh the things that do.
Guild Wars 2 and Dear Esther
When I'm too tired or depressed to dive deep into something it's always something really simple like Ring of Pain, Vampire Survivors, or other slow paced stuff.
I have no idea why, but Wurm Online always manages to draw me back. Guess it's a Zen and the Art of Imping addiction.
FTL.
HL2, Portal 2, Far Cry (1), Commander Keen, Supreme Commander, Raptor: Call of the Shadows. Halo MCC but particularly 2.
Factorio, Minecraft, Stardew Valley. Also solitaire on my phone (PySolFC).
Slay the spire. Quick 30-45 minute run is just enough to kill time.
Rogue-lites are basically made to be infinitely re-playable and if I find one I like then I keep going back to it. Enter the Gungeon is a game I've played for years. Then there was a while this spot was taken by Slay the Spire and Balatro in turn. Now I'm back to Enter the Gungeon.
Crypt of the Necrodancer.
Really fun roguelike game where you and enemies have to move to the beat of that floor's song. I think part of the reason I still play it a lot is that it's amenable to very short sessions. I've played enough that runs go fast and I either clear or die within 10 minutes.
Over 1200 hours now almost a decade after release, and a huge chunk of that is probably sessions of under 30 mins in length.
And the soundtrack is great too