Well, Caves of Qud was in Early Access (it just hit version 1.0 in December). I also agree that waiting 6 months to play a game or even a year is often totally worth it—unless you’re a massive fan or really want to be part of the zeitgeist and play a game on day one for some reason.

I have played Ruiner . Back when it released.... I liked it quite a bit (nice atmoshere and gameplay) not sure If I remember it being thaaaat special though ? Like I enjoyed the story etc. or what I remember.

What did you like about it OP ?

The AAA gaming sphere is fucked and likely wont become healthy again under the current system. I agree that the overall direction and trend is really fucking bad.

BUUUUT

WITH that said. Do I care? Not really. Some of the finest gaming in the entire industry is found in the indie gaming sphere. Just take some of my personal faves of 2024

Dominions 6 a massive 4X/wargame

Caves of Qud a traditional roguelike in an open world with great world-building 15 years in the making

Balatro an excellent card game

These are just some games I myself like. These are 3 games that released this year 2024. Every one of them would be deserving of a 9 or even 10/10. On top of that, these are games you could spend hundreds of hours in if you enjoyed them.

Indie games are better than ever. There are more than ever. We are kinda living in a golden age in that respect. Not even sure if it will stay that way... but even if it won’t, the amount of high-quality stuff coming out will keep me occupied for years to come.

You can say the AAA game industry is broken and I agree, but in exchange, one also has to look at the indie scene and realize we are getting about 10-20 or more awesome indie games a year.

In short- I would rather spend my time enjoying indies and talking about them then lamenting the death of the AAA game.

I played the first one for a bit and it was like a survival city builder. Is the 2nd Frostpunk more like a political sim ? If thats the case its gonna be hard to resist NOT playing it. Is it more sandboxy or story focused ? In short. Can I get a rundown how it is ?

I dont care for most city builders (like I did enjoy tropico for example) but Im not really into cities skylines stuff I think at least.

If Frostpunk 2 feels more like a politics game I would be VERY interested (the very reason why some fans of frostpunk 1 dislike game 2 might be why it could be perfect for me I guess)

FUCK. You make me feel like I need to go and play it right now but I already have so many games

I could probably link a dozen games with (in my opinion worse pixel art). I myself like it quite a bit and have 0 problem discerning what Im seeing, but thats the thing with art—highly subjective.

Captain Toad seemed super cute. Im not really much of a puzzle gamer though