Great games for cheap

STARFIELD

Pick a lane, Liam!

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Quoting: Purple Library Guy

Quoting: JarmerWhoa, this is a blast from the past! I think I've had this on my wishlist for ... actually I can't even remember, 4 years? More? I used to have this high on my anticipation radar, since the demo was great and the entire setting was just fantastic, but I guess it somehow got stuck in dev hell if it's still EA after all this time.

I will still keep it on my wishlist, and I hope they can get closer to a release.

Is it in EA? Huh, I guess it is. Weird that they're adding a named content update while they're still in EA.

There are a few games I know who do that. Valheim for one. Caves of Qud just had the Spring Motling update. Wayward has a big update coming soon that they're trying to decide on a name for. That sort of thing is pretty common I think.

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I played the demo for this last year (I think? Or the year before) and it was pretty fun. Might be worth a look.

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"Even we can't match the ridiculous amount of DLC that The Sims has"

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Quoting: AnzaEndzone 2

This one feels like simplified Surviving the Aftermath. Not necessarily in bad way in some cases. It's post apocalyptic city builder where plastic and scrap are important resources.

Wait, it's not an American football sim?

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Played a few more, so here are my thoughts:

SCHiM (Native): Puzzle platformer, in the sense of jumping from shadow to shadow to get to places, and having to figure out how to get there. The intro is confusing and for a while I wasn't sure what I was supposed to be doing, before finally getting to the actual gameplay after several minutes. There are one or two interesting variants on "jump from shadow to shadow", but they're only useful a couple of times so they don't have much impact. Could be a better intro to the game.

So To Speak (Native): Crashes on startup. Unplayable.

Demonschool (Native): Interesting concept and seems to be laid out well, but the combat mechanics made no sense to me at all. In particular I couldn't figure out how to confirm commands, everything I did just gave me a rejection sound. Gave up in frustration.

Dimhaven Enigmas (Native): First person puzzle game by the people who made Quern. Puzzles are less mysterious than a Myst-like, but obtuse in a more...bureaucratic way, I guess? Things are locked behind codes, you need to pick up hints from notes and memos, that sort of thing. Relatively modern-day setting, taking place at some undefined time after 1981. Seems pretty good so far, although the pixel graphics might put some folks off.

Legends of Astravia (Native): By the numbers Lufia-like JRPG, with environmental puzzles and an original combat mechanic that I'm not entirely sure I care for. Basically a simultaneous, moving timeline where certain actions speed up or slow down your character, giving it other chances for action afterwards. It's a bit awkward, but I did get used to it after a bit. Story in the demo is nothing special, basically a brief intro and dungeon crawl, with a break midway through for a short lore dump. I imagine the full game would be more fleshed out.

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I watched an hour of gameplay last week, and it's very intriguing. The art and writing are both very good, and the devs seem like really cool people.

Besides, as a Canadian I love to see Toronto falling to ruin.

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Looks like the controls issue in Just Crow Things resolved itself, but it's still got no sound. Weird.

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That was fun, let's do it again.

Die In the Dungeon (Native): I've played an earlier build of this on Itch, back when it was free. Come a long way since then, a much more refined experience as a "deck" builder with the addition of movement mechanics, relics, and different shaped dice. Runs great. Haven't dived too deeply into it, just one run, but that's enough for a good feel for the vibe. This is worth looking at.

Linkito (Native): Electronics puzzles with a mid-20th century corporate/propaganda vibe. Looks like a solid game, but I don't have sufficient brain for the genre. Runs very well though, and the vibe is on point.

Judero (Steam Play): Thought this one was native for some reason, but apparently not. Action-adventure game set in Scotland with a VERY strange aesthetic. Everything seems to be made from badly kitbashed action figures and model railroad scenery. Very weird, and honestly not coherent with the story either. Not recommended unless you're adventurous.

WHAT THE CAR? (Steam Play): I mean what do you expect on this one? If you played WHAT THE GOLF? this is more of the same, but racing this time. It's very good and you should play it.

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Time for my takes, get 'em while they're hot!

Just Crow Things (Native): Unplayable. Runs, but no sound and inputs b0rked. Constantly moves character to the right on keyboard, Steam Controller barely works, and Logitech controller can't open the pause menu. Only way to quit is alt-F4. Shame, because I really wanted to try this one.

Machinika: Atlas (Steam Play): Unplayable. Starts fine, logos appear, then sound but totally black screen. Also the usual Unity problem of opening on the wrong monitor. Again, I really wanted to try this since the first game was very good. Maybe it'll be better later, or someone will suggest a fix.

Dr. Finklestein's Marvellous Room (Steam Play): Hey! A game that runs! Oh, happy day! Not what I was expecting, if I'm being honest, and very short besides. But also very entertaining, which is fine. Basically you're walking around, taking in the ambiance, and making use of a very simple mechanic of interacting with items added to a test chamber, presumably in an effort to save the world somehow. Worth keeping an eye on, at least. No FoV setting on a first person game though, that's a MAJOR sin. Hopefully they fix that in the final game, or it's an auto-reject for me.

Dungeon Clawer (Native): Dungeon crawler with a claw machine mechanic. Your items, plus useless fluff, are tossed into a tank and you get two grabs per round, and what comes out is auto-applied to the enemies. Fun enough, and there are interesting mechanics like filling the tank with water, or enemies throwing poison in for you to pick up. But I think it needs a little more. no combat sound effects, which is odd, and the music is VERY repetitive.

Tiny Glade (Native): Probably needs no introduction. Works great, designing is intuitive. Very small amount of area or things to do at this point, but it's early days. Nice little diversion.

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