WendyDarling wrote:

I just downloaded the Virtual Villagers series, anybody ever played those?   Are they the ones where the game keeps going while  you're not playing and your guys die?  If so, with my upcoming schedule I might be accused of genocide.

Wendy - it was a while ago you posted this, but did you ever end up trying any of the Virtual Villagers games?

I've played a few of them and find them really enjoyable. It's a totally different mindset playing 'real-time games'. 

If I remember correctly, there are three time settings: fast, slow, and paused. I tended to have it play on the fastest speed when I was actively on my computer, checking in on it frequently. Slow when I'm home but not actively using my computer and could check on it now and again. When I'm out of the house or going to sleep I always paused it. Ideally, you have everything set up so they harvest enough food as well as make progress toward solving the mysteries/puzzles without needing much of your guidance. That said, I've definitely accidentally killed whole groups of villagers more than once through inattention. 

I really like how they're both relaxed and a little challenging. You don't always know what to do, but I could almost always direct my villagers to do something that would eventually make progress toward the goal of solving the mystery. I also liked the collectibles that show up in certain areas, like shells, butterflies, pebbles. So sometimes I'd just scroll around the screen looking for those in between checking on my villagers. 

I could see it wouldn't appeal to everyone, but it's a really fun series for me. I also really love Plant Tycoon by the same developers. It's one of my favorite games for reasons I can't really articulate.

There's something zen and puzzle-y about that whole genre of games.

I have a whole bunch of games in a trials folder - games that either people recommended and I thought sounded good or that I just thought looked good while browsing or wanted to remember to try at some point. Sometimes I would try them right away, but other times they'd just sit there as I moved on to other things. So my current project is to try being disciplined and complete the trial for each game, starting with the oldest downloaded. It's actually been really fun. We'll see how far I get before I'm lured away by all the shiny new games I hear about.
 
Here are the first few that I started with:
 
Tiny Bang Story - very nice looking point-and-click puzzle/HO game from 2011. I've heard about this for a long time and am really glad I finally gave it a try. I liked how the game threw me in without many directions or a tutorial. I enjoyed figuring out what I was supposed to do. Got through the first screen area during the 1 hr trial. I would definitely like to play more if I sign up for a subscription like Funpass and would also consider buying. 

Dark Arcana: The Carnival - HOPA with a creepy supernatural theme from 2012. Like a lot of this type of game, I found it hard while also kind of boring. Maybe if I played more of these games I wouldn't get stuck so often. I played on 'Casual,' so puzzles and HO scenes were very easy, but I still often needed hints for what to do next. Just not my type of game (but I did like the monkey).

Enlightenus - another HOPA, this one from 2009(!). I liked this one more, maybe partly because it was brighter and I love the art nouveau style.  But I think it was also because I found the gameplay of the HO scenes refreshingly different. Instead of finding matches for objects, you are figuring out which thing in the scene it makes the most sense interacting with (eg. if you have cheese, feed it to the hungry mouse). Would like to play, possibly even buy.

TiramaSue wrote:

I just finished Fantasy Mosaics 13: Unexpected Visitor.  That was the 400th game I finished since I started tracking them on Jan 1, 2012.

Wow 400 games, that's impressive! 

I more or less finished Clutter II: He Said, She Said (though I might go back and play some more of the mini games). There's something so amateurish about the production values of the Clutter games I've played, but I like them anyway because the gameplay is such a different take on the HO genre. I really admire a game that can bring something new.

I checked out the first game years ago and was really disappointed that unsolicited hints couldn't be turned off, so I never bought it. Really glad the later games don't have them. 

I know some people here have been playing the new one. I'll probably keep going in order and play Clutter IV at some point, but will definitely try Clutter V eventually.

Hi everyone, it's been a real long time since I've posted here, and I haven't been playing games much at all. Just recently I have started having a little more time for games, and I remembered this forum and wondered how everyone was doing and what you all are playing. I skimmed through this whole 2016 thread and noted a bunch of recommendations!

There are only 3(!) games I've finished since early last year (although there are others I started and didn't finish):
Clutter III: Who Is the Void - I liked this a lot. These games have such a different feel from most other games, and I love that. I'm glad to see there's a new Clutter game out and people seem to be enjoying it. I'll definitely be checking it out eventually but first I'm going back to Clutter II, which I started sometime last year but never finished.

Hello Venice 2: New York Adventure
Heroes From the Past: Joan of Arc
One of the reasons I like to play M3s and other games that don't have a lot of reading and heavy puzzles is that I can play them kind of mindlessly while doing other things like listening to podcasts or half watching something. That's how I played both of these fairly generic M3 games. They were both fun but nothing special.

The other reason I sped through to finish both Hello Venice and Joan of Arc is that I decided to let my yearly Shockwave Unlimited membership expire. They've never had an awesome selection, but they are cheaper than other all-you-can-play subscriptions and I've been a member off-and-on for several years. Lately though, it seems like they don't have more and more of the games I check for.

I may resubscribe someday or I may check out Gamehouse Funpass at some point. But for now I'm going to try to get through some of the many games I've bought from BFG and other places and try out all the many many trials I've got in my downloads folder.
It's nice to have a little more time to play some games and to check in here! [img]http://cdn.boardhost.com/emoticons2/sm