@etakeh hehe. Honestly I put Lake first as it kinda fits what you said about just lemme explore a world. It's not a huge world, and there are some constraints to it IIRC, but I think it'd be a good one to start with. It's super laid back (even tho there are story elements that make you wonder if that laid back atmosphere is covering something lol). Overall just a wholesome experience.

@etakeh hmm, ok. Some suggestions of things I've played the last few years:

Lake
Eastshade
Unpacking
Gorogoa
Sable
Kentucky Route Zero:TV Edition
Exo One
FAR Lone Sails/Changing Tides
Toem
Disco Elysium
Manifold Garden
Shape of the World
Everything

A few of these may contain some reflex based sections. I play too many things to be able to perfectly recall them all. These should be more copacetic to your preferred play style. Also will feed game store algorithms so you'll see more like em 😉

@tyote I just resolved to be more informed so I started subbing to gaming mags in the 90s/got to know the clerks at Game Crazy (RIP) who would give me last month's issues that didn't sell lol. Once the internet became a real viable thing in the early 2000s I got a PC and started following stuff online. It's impossible to keep up with EVERYTHING these days tho. So many games released every day 😵

@etakeh Yeah I didn't understand PowerWash either but it got interesting reviews and was "free" with Game Pass so I gave it a shot, was pleasantly surprised, plus I caught up on my podcasts cause you literally don't have to listen to the game at all lol. I prefer my games to have story more often than not these days as well. Why I still love WoW. They have some of the best writers. It is a little hard finding good story games that aren't action based since those are what's trending these days.

@etakeh ahh. So more along the lines of point-and-clicks and their ilk, eh? . Haven Moon is decent. The Silent Age is in my library but I haven't gotten to it yet. PowerWash Simulator is good, esp if you listen to podcasts lol. There's even a story which gets pretty wild. Pentiment is excellent. Encodya was cool. um.. ooh, I Am Dead 👍 . A Memoir Blue is different but cool. I'll have to look at my recently played lists on the consoles, I played too much this year to recall it all without help heh

@etakeh Stray is great. I don't know exact counts but I must have played at least a couple dozen games from this year, mostly thanks to Game Pass. Played Horizon FW day one, which was awesome. .. I also still play WoW, LotRO, Destiny 2.. Started playing Warframe this year.. heh.

@etakeh That's how I've been with passive media. Watch the new LoTR series on Amazon? nah, rather watch the Trilogy again. Watch some new comedy series? meh. Gimme Futurama (the first run, once they left Fox I"m kinda eh on them too) or MST3K (again, the classic seasons 1-10) Gaming tho I've kept up with the new tech, even got a PS5 on launch day. I still have all my old consoles and I fire em up here and there, and most my Steam library is pushing a decade old till this winter's sale purchase.

@etakeh Oh yeah I know that feel. Running Linux since '07, it's only just now starting to get "easy" to run stuff on my PC. and with the new Steam Deck for Xmas from mah partner, it's getting even easier. Back when I started with Linux there were 20 step walkthroughs just to get the game installed or the launcher to work lol.

@tyote Yeah, I rem them days from when I was a youngster, going into the local rental place to rent NES/SNES games and having to decide what I would play for the weekend based on the box art. Boy did I get burned a lot, lol.

@etakeh hehe, just gotta commit. I"m jumping from one to another since most of my library/games I just bought are "untested" for the Deck so I'm testing em. Already got at least one I wanna sink more time into.

@tyote I tend to go with a mood or theme these days. "Think I'll get a few point-and-clicks this time. Want me some adventures and silly puzzles." or "Feeling jumpy lately, maybe some platformers."

@tyote Yup. This why my wishlist is so long tho. When you have 1700 things on there, the big sales will *always* have something good in em for me. I don't mind playing something I added on a decade ago 🤪

@tyote "well, what's 4$ over. not that big a deal. ... maybe just one more to make it an even 10..."

@etakeh Yeah, I have Game Pass, PS+ too. My Steam wishlist is 1700 deep still. I will never catch up on my backlog. I won't be able to live long enough lol.

Stupid Winter Steam Sale. How dare Valve take my money. I gotta say tho, 22 games for 30 USD is a pretty good deal. Yes, they are all already installed on my #SteamDeck. #CoSoGaming

@KarenSohne

@KarenSohne It's been 5 years in this thing. I am not a small man (6'1 and 250ish), so a 28x8 foot box is not great. However, it *is* the most, in fact *only* affordable option in this city for us at this point. 7-800 a month depending on the electric use. Bedrooms rent for more here. We've done what we can to fix it up ('97 and it's been mistreated a long time) and make it comfortable. Looking for an upgrade tho, little longer and with slides if possible. So far so good with the water today 🤞

Big storm today. Lots of rain and wind. Gotta hope the trailer don't either float or blow away. Well it won't blow away. .. probably.. It's less likely than the floating, anyway. Need to keep an eye on the runoff "creek" behind us and hope the park fixed the wall where it was broken or whatever happened that allowed us to almost flood during the huge storm last year. Foot away from water inside. This thing is a POS, but if's still worth a little something, unless it floods. #TrailerParkLife

Happy Whatever you're celebrating today, if you are. Have a good Sunday if you aren't. #HappyHolidays