[nottorp]

> Gaming as a whole is dead for me

There are millions of indies out there. Some are worth the time. It's a bit of a problem to figure out which though.

> Haven't played online multiplayer games since ~2013

I don't think there are any non predatory online multiplayer games since 2013 :)

And there are many online multiplayer games that would have been really good as single player.

[BatteryMountain]

True, I've played many indies the last 5 years, they can be amazing indeed and feels like actual games, not chores!

I've abandoned games that are too complex too (stellaris and friends). Basically only play games that can help me decompress my mind within a two hour space before bed.

For what its worth, I use a proxmox server with pcie passthrough to a fedora instance with steam on it. Then I stream with sunshine/moonlight to my phone. My phone has a controller thing it slots into. So basically I can play Diablo 2 on my phone which is amazing. Same with Hades. Basically any game with controller support, I can play it on my phone (6.7" OLED 2340x1080 @ 120hz + HDR). Turn based games, card games, isometrics... they all work amazing! This old gaming machine (Ryzen 5 2600 + 16gb ram + GTX1660) can render almost anything at this resolution for my phone.

[account42]

> There are millions of indies out there. Some are worth the time. It's a bit of a problem to figure out which though.

There aren't many that provide the kind of experiences that 90's / early 00's AA studios did. At best you get a half-assed imitation built on top of Unity/UE.

[slumberlust]

The hottest game of the last month is a non predatory online prophunt game made by one guy. Mecca Chameleon

[nottorp]

Oh. I looked it up. Not my cup of tea but it looks like 15 million people liked it.

Now the question is, will they resist the temptation for cancerous "growth" now that they made some money?

And the sad thing is, I would have never heard about it if not for this HN discussion. I simply do not check online only games because I expect IAP fests.

[wao0uuno]

Most of the best games I have ever played are either indies or Nintendo games. Feels like independent developers and sometimes Nintendo are the only ones still trying to make fun games with original ideas while the rest of the industry has shifted its focus entirely towards cookie cutter slop and lazy remasters.

[hedora]

I just bought a pile of excellent, recent-ish games for an average of << $10 each from steam. (Summer sale; ended.)

Some were remakes/successors to excellent ps2 titles from big studios, but there were multiple new genres of games (to me, at least) from indie studios. No multiplayer bullshit or predatory dark patterns so far. I didn’t check carefully, but I don’t think any of them were released before 2020.

[wao0uuno]

Would you mind sharing some of those titles? Some of my indie favorites from the last couple of years are:

Animal Well (Unique metroidvania)

Axiom Verge (Metroidvania)

Cave Story+ (Metroidvania)

Cocoon (Puzzle game)

Cultic (Shooter)

Dusk (Shooter)

Hollow Knight + Silksong (Metroidvania)

Nightmare of Decay (Resident Evil 1 inspired horror/puzzle game with sense of humor)

Pseudoregalia (3D platformer + metroidvania)

Supraworld and previous titles in this series. (3D first person metroidvania/puzzle game)

Firewatch (Walking sim with good story and dialogues)

Orbo's Oddysey (Unique 3D platformer)

UFO 50 (Retro/minigame compilation)

Selaco (Shooter)

Ion Fury (Shooter)

Outer Wilds (Exploration/puzzle game)

Teardown (Voxel based destruction simulator with missions and multiplayer)

Spiritfarer (Tear jerker)

And some games that look promising but I have not played yet: Gloomwood, Fortune's Run, Cruelty Squad, Crow Country, Celeste, Bloodstained, Hedon, Kenshi, La Mulana, Lorn's Lure, Lunacid, Nine Sols, Pizza Tower, Psycho Patrol R, Signalis, Touhou Luna Nights, Zortch, Chants of Sennaar, Easy Delivery Co., Juice Galaxy, Metal Garden, Tiny Terry's Turbo Trip, Star of Providence, Denshattack!, No, I'm not a Human, 1000xRESIST, Wizordum, Mouthwashing, Pikuniku, Mina the Hollower, Shovel Knight, Pepper Grinder, Inscryption, Stasis: Bone Totem, Pentiment, The Drifter, The Invincible, Keeper, Caves of Qud, Bomb Rush Cyberfunk and many, many more.

I guess my point is: There are so many good ass games around that there is no reason to play any of that big corpo AAA slop.

[bigstrat2003]

I wholeheartedly agree. Very few AAA games even seem remotely interesting to me these days. Indie games are often good, as are Nintendo games, but that's about it.