Quoting: Philadelphus

Quoting: PhlebiacWhat happens when the host creature gets an itch, and rolls over to scratch all those pesky parasites on its back?

Given its biology, I'm not sure it can roll over.

I'm kinda interested in how your villagers get up there in the first place though—the game kinda glosses over it.

Initially they could get up there when creature is sleeping. After that there's gradually more options like making the creature lie down or building some kind of lift system.

I don't remember game explicitly telling those things. Patrols just somehow return and get wood and stone up there.

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Quoting: PhiladelphusWhen you open the demo there's also a big splash screen photo of the dev team, and it made me think about how we never really see that in games. Sure, there'll probably be a list of credits when you finish the game somewhere, but seeing that photo reminded that games are made by real people, not just a scrolling list of names on a screen. It really humanized them in my mind. I dunno, it just stood out to me because I can't remember another game that did anything like that.

It's not totally unheard of. System Shock 2 did that with the end credits. When going far back enough, even having the credits wasn't sure thing. One of the first easter eggs in a game was developers name.

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Another batch from today. Most interesting games are at the top.

Astro Colony (Proton)
I played the demo some more and watched the stream, so I'm confident enough to give short review. It's a building game in first person perspective. You start in very simple space station, but can eventually dock to asteroids in order to build and mine. Lot of the production can be automated via conveyor belts. Great fun and I have still things to try out in the demo.

Demo is available only during the event (as stated by the developer, no need to guess), so if you're interested in the genre at all, now would be good time to start playing the demo. It's bit of a time sink, so if you want to try everything that's included in the demo, prepare to spend several hours with the demo.

There's system requirements for Linux, so I guess native version will come at some point.

Sweet Dreams Alex
This one is kind of tower defense inspired puzzle. Tutorial is missing few hints how to start the game, but at least points to the right direction.

Basically the premise is that you should delay the nightmares long enough so they don't reach the sleeper in time. How nightmares are delayed works quite much like in tower defense where you can place walls. Walls are just cardboard boxes in this one. And there's no towers, so you can't actually kill the nightmares.

Starts very simple, but I got stuck in bit harder level where I think I did everything that I can, but nightmares are one second too fast.

If they bring enough new things during the levels, this one might be interesting for people who love puzzles.

Grim Horde
This one is weird, basically your character is demon who can open portals that will summon the horde slowly. At the same time villages and defenders attack the portals and you. If you manage to kill villagers, you can collect souls that can be used to buy upgrades.

After a while you unlock boss battle. I'm not totally sure if its based on amount of destruction or time. Game doesn't really tell you.

I wasn't able to figure out what to do in the boss battles. But I guess this one is good for somebody who wants to try out something weird and different.

Race Me Now
Retro arcade racing game. Playable enough with keyboard.

Decent enough, but based on the demo, there are more fun racing games out there right now.

Flashout 3
Another racing game. This one is more futuristic and has weapons. It just didn't seem fun enough and tracks are harder to read because of the graphical style.

If you are not tired of Wipeout style racing, might still be worth trying out. Just don't expect too much.

Poly Fury
Quite simple bullet hell shoot 'em up. It seems to consist of boss battles where you can only move in circle around the boss.

If you want to something that you have seen in few minutes, it might work as a quick snack. But ultimately it seems bit pointless.

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Quoting: KROMI've played the demo during one of Steams Indie Demo Days and really enjoyed it. It had some fresh gameplay elements, which is kind of rare to see when you've played hundreds of games. Really nice to hear that there will be a native version. Looking forward to it.

Building and caring about your "vehicle" make it feel quite different. Also usually you can't fail in building games, but Wandering Village is not that easy.

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Quoting: hiryuI haven't tried this game under Linux in years... What is its current state? Is the performance still terrible?

Should be fine enough, depending on the system of course. I get somewhere between 160 to 220 FPS when I did quick run around the slums.

Back when I had GTX 970, game was playable most of the time, though there were times where performance was horrible right from the menu. Don't remember why.

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Few games that I played today:

Find All 3: Travel
Hidden object game mixed with a coloring book. Basically things work like in simple hidden object games, but in this one level is black and white and gets colored when you find the targets. There's little bit of gatekeeping as you have three different types of things to find at a time, by finding all the objects in a slot, slot gets another types of things to find.

Simple as that. If you like hidden object games, demo will keep you occupied for a while. If you want more, previous games in the series are not that expensive.

Pocket Wheels (Proton)
This one is kind of toy car 3D platformer. I haven't played Micro Machines, but based on screenshots, both games have graphically same idea: tiny cars in environments where you can really see that they're tiny.

Exploration is also big part of the game as level has (which in demo is a kids room) coins and batteries to collect. Coins seem to be for unlocking new cars and batteries open next room (which is not included in the demo). Level has also racing challenges.

Most fun I had was with the racing challenges, in the demo collecting items didn't cause any addiction. I think somebody might still enjoy it though.

Even when demo is for Windows, system requirements contain Linux, so native version might be coming up.

Adamstown
Adamstown is tile laying puzzle game about building cities. Tutorial gets easily dismissed, but luckily it can be re-enabled in the settings. Tutorial is needed as it takes a moment to get used to the controls.

Things start simple, but slowly tiles include targets. For example tile might have target of five continuous blocks of red buildings.

What makes that difficult is that tiles have hooks (I forgot what the game calls them) which enable attaching them to other tiles. Having hooks on all sides of the tile is rare. Because of that, after playing a while there might be half completed area that have no hooks available at all on its side. Which is not game over at all, you just have to start building from closest hook.

There's certainly puzzle element in there. Not wishlist material for me, but I can clearly see that this might work for somebody.

Hands of Necromancy
GZDoom based FPS inspired by Heretic. Decent level design, puzzles where just too hard for me. Might take a another look later.

If you have no idea what kind of game Heretic is, its Doom, but weapons are staves and wands. And no, Heretic was inspired by the original Doom, not the 2016 one.

Machinicide
This one is FPS that has gimmick that guns are disposable. I didn't have enough patience for it, but it also advertises that there's gravity switching mechanic.

So lot of potentially cool stuff, but for some reason it doesn't feel fun.

The rest

I also played Homemade TCG, but it seems to bit of mess right now. It doesn't seem fun.

Missile Input is broken at the moment. Good news that Python source code is included in the download, so if you treat it as programming game, it could be fun. Coincidentally description says that it's a typing game. Bit more seriously though, lets see what developer responds to my bug report.

I also played Astro Colony, which seems to be first person space station building game with some automation. I think I'll get back to that later, there's still lot of things that I haven't tried.

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Quoting: Phlebiac

Quoting: LinasI was wondering if it makes sense to buy all those weapon / costume bundles? Do they make any difference in the single player campaign?

I was wondering the same; Hellraid looks cool, but the reviews on it are still not great. The rest of the Definitive Edition DLC all seems to be cosmetic stuff, as StalePopcorn mentioned. I don't mind picking those up super cheap, but even at an 84% discount that still adds up to more than I want to pay for skins.

Hellraid is for those who hate parkour and open world, but love combat.

OK, the parkour is still there, there's just much less of it. Which means it's not an option for avoiding the combat. Combat is luckily bit better than in the main game, mainly because there's more enemy variety in most combat encounters.

I played most of it on nightmare difficulty (last boss was too tanky, so I had to drop the difficulty a bit) and hacking whatever is closest is not a good strategy as there's bigger threats. I can imagine that having maxed agility skill tree helps a lot as otherwise getting surrounded is going to be issue all the time.

So if you don't mind bit of grinding, it's worth a try on sale.

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Quoting: mircallaI thought Barkhan was going to be a game about dogs leading armies across the Eurasian steppe but I see it's a Dune RTS with the serial numbers filed off (to the point of naming the factions "Clan of Trickery" etc).

I kinda liked my version...

I tried it too. Too bad it tries too hard to be Dune game that it hasn't copied things from Total Annihilation for example. Being able to queue all kind of things is just so handy.

It still seems to be solid enough. I have seen worse.

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Quoting: Phlebiac

Quoting: AnzaDeus Ex though quite soon took immersive sims to whole another level.
Luckily it wasn't last of its kind, but there's not too many immersive sims out there.

Can you recommend some other games that are similar?

I haven't played all of these, but as far as I know, they should be fine examples of the genre: Both Ultima Underworlds, Bioshock series, Dishonored series, Prey (the Arkane game, not the earlier one), Deus Ex series and Thief series.

There's even more, but the list was getting quite long already. From the Linux native side, only Deus Ex: Mankind Divided and Bioshock Infinite are native. Rest should work with Proton as there's nothing very recent in the list.

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Quoting: scaine

QuoteLo lo lo look at you, hacker. a pathetic creature of meat and bone, panting and sweating as you run through my corridors. How can you challenge a perfect, immortal machine?

God I want this game. The original, and Deus Ex six (!) years later, sandwiching Half Life - these games defined my love for PC gaming, committed me to it completely. Sure, Doom and Quake helped, but these three were actual stories where you were the star. They were phenomenal.

Despite myself, I have such high hopes, based on that trailer. My fingers are very much crossed.

System Shock 2 shouldn't not be forgotten as it was bit more accessible version of the original, but wasn't simplified too much. Deus Ex though quite soon took immersive sims to whole another level.

Luckily it wasn't last of its kind, but there's not too many immersive sims out there.

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