Asklemmy

Kingdom come deliverance. It was a rollercoaster. One of the first games I played after building a new computer. I progressed far enough and finally found that the combat was jank and the story was pretty garbage. Still have fond memories of the game though. Almost like the first time playing Oblivion 🙂.

Apex 🥴

Yea, Eve was fun for a day or 2, then got more boring than an actual job. Another one is Don't starve together in my opinion. No Man's sky is getting there too, with every planet looking nearly the same while pretending to be different, while your chore is to constantly fix your deadbeat ship.

Earth 2025. I don’t think it’s even around anymore. It evolved from the BRE BBS game.

Shop Titans (played on PC). It's just predatorial and I got caught in its addictive gameplay loop for every waking hour of 2 days. I'm lucky that it was only 48 hours (compared to other people) and that I hate playing on mobile unless it's short sessions of non-mechanical stuff because it seems mobile is full of games like this.

I'm always torn about Elite Dangerous, similar to Eve's grind I beleive. It's a space game that requires hundreds of hours and 3rd party databases to have any sense of efficiency. There's no true interplayer economy so you're still free to operate solo (except that one time people with fleet carriers kidnapped noobs to slave mine). I have 900+ hours in 3 years and still don't feel like I can do anything I want. I enjoy the sights, but they're really repetitive. I relax while mining, but the payout just isn't on the same level as some gaming methods. There's no campaign and the lore is just small journal entries, so progress is only measured by purchases. You're free to write your own story, but eventually you grow tired of the sandbox. The alien invasion events spiced things up about 9 years into the game's life, but even that has become a little stale. Build the meta ship, work the events methodically, go home. The real world time sunk into travel for necessary upgrades is tiring.

But then, every once in a while, I'll use my laptop on the big screen with great sound quality and I remember what makes this game so special.

Recently, project zomboid. I feel like my ratio of exploring vs inventory management is super low. And then I have one misclick against a horde and have to spend the better part of an hour to get back to what I was doing with a buddy. Still get sucked into it though regardless.

Does RSF Richard Burns Rally count? An amazing simulation with extremely accurate physics and a massive assortment of stages and cars, but it's also absolutely brutal and unforgiving. I suppose it's fairly realistic as a result, but it's more sim than game at that point. It's a ton of fun to improve at, but the chances of cracking any of the online leaderboards is fairly slim (unless you spend an absurd amount of time training).

Dragon Ball: Legends

Good mobile game with awful gatcha mechanics. After multiple attempts to quit it's like a bad relationship. I just keep coming back. I love to hate this game sometimes lmao.

Mobile Legends Bang Bang, a mobile-based LoL ripoff thats very popular in South East Asia. It is very catered to newbie and low skilled players, most items sold as gatchas, and has severe skill-imbalance in matchmaking (many suspect they will pair you with low-skilled low-winrate players if you win too much, giving birth to many grievance from good solo players).
Alas, with my rl responsibilities, I can't play more serious moba like Dota2 anymore. The only way to satisfy my crave for moba is by playing MLBB as most matches only take 12 to 20 minutes to finish. I can cram it to my commute time or break time.

Easily a game called Infra. It's an older source engine adventure game based on exploring crumbling ruins of public facilities and recording damage and things. I put over 50 hours into it (which is a lot for a first person walking simulator puzzle game) And it was just ....work. It felt so much like work. I have no idea why I forced myself through it. The environments were just so cool. But wow ...... Would not recommend.