These are solid suggestions for sure! I still need to get around to the rest of the Dishonored series past the first and finish Prey.
Immersive sims I think are pretty close to what I might be wanting, but they're unfortunately not that common, and some have RPG elements I don't find enjoyable. The Arkane games you mention pretty much avoid them last I checked though, and I dig'em for it
The sad part is, those preyed upon aren't always necessarily well off enough to afford it.
It's one of those situations where either the microtransactions are in fact small, so the low costs add up over time before the victims realize it, or they're set up to pressure people into multiple rapid transactions, and so they either exploit some people's poor impulse control or gambling addictions, or more often than not, both.
arrested for photographing some abandoned urban environments ๐
honestly that doesn't seem too much of a stretch
Game was Interior Worlds btw for any interested.
Not to mention, sometimes they actively take away from the art direction. You can have a game that's clearly going for semi-realism and yet keeps damage numbers flying off like it's a comic strip, which doesn't fit whatsoever.
The strangest, funniest mixture are the games built off comic licenses that employ a semi-realistic style with damage numbers, when a better combination would be stylized so it would all fit better artistically.
Maybe it's just me, but I think it was a mistake to describe it as GaaS. I understand how they're trying to use the term, but the fact they felt the need to clarify how they meant it should have been a clear enough sign the term is rather tainted.
Worse, it may make some people skeptical & suspect that they intend to change their tune down the line. Their track record notwithstanding, that's how some may be after having been burnt before with other experiences.
I think you forgot a link to the game itself! ๐
https://www.beyondallreason.info/
That aside, I've been giving it a look again lately but haven't dove in just yet. I'm in an odd mindset atm where I don't know if I'm down to wrap my head around RTS mechanics, but I'm really impressed by the looks of the game!
Also wanna highlight that this is a great rabbit hole to go down for other open source RTS games via Zero-K, Spring Engine, OpenRA, etc.
As others have mentioned, there's online-go.com for similar to lichess.org.
On Android there's Gobandroid, but it requires this for play against AI: https://f-droid.org/en/packages/org.ligi.gobandroidhd.ai.gnugo/
On desktop there's Sabaki:
https://sabaki.yichuanshen.de/
Haven't tried Sabaki yet, as I was using GoGUI running off GNU Go for a long time, but it's no longer in development.
Gotta be real, the grind for sure. If the basic survival mechanics begin to feel like a grind rather than adding to the atmosphere, I feel like you've kinda fumbled your survival game design.
It's the difference between gathering food feeling meaningful in Don't Starve vs. feeling like it's tacked on in Minecraft survival mode, or even further, in No Man's Sky's survival-lite normal mode settings.
I haven't seen either of these mentioned yet, so you might look into Ponpu, and Light Fingers on the Switch.
Ponpu might be a little much, but Light Fingers may be a decent-ish pace, as it goes for something of a digital tabletop-like game design. They tend to go on sale around the holidays, so if you wait a little while you may snag'em on the cheap.
@showerthoughts Thank goodness the metaverse never took off, but still gotta be on guard against moves towards that BS.
@LeylaaLovee When you play a long game (i.e. 60+ hours) all the way through, it's hard to tell how much of it was genuine enjoyment over some kind of weird sunk cost situation.
Kind of like watching a show that goes on for a ton of seasons. You get into a habit and despite inconsistent quality, you keep going back and you're not sure why, especially after the really bad parts.
It's why I understand *some* of the 100+ hour playtime negative reviews, & am skeptical of positive ones.
I think I may have it wishlisted, so I'm definitely trying to keep an eye on it. Waiting till it's fully released so I don't feel compelled to play it more like pseudo-QA and enjoy it less though
Thanks for the suggestion!