I played through Far: Lone Sails and really enjoyed the light puzzle and management of the machine. It was super atmospheric and I really loved the game overall. It was a perfect casual game that really absorbed me into it. Going to play the sequel as well soon.
I haven’t played Outer Wilds but from what I know of it it should be similar. The Forgotten City is based on real world history though which was pretty interesting and it’s much more compact than what I’ve heard of Outer Wilds. It look me maybe ~7h to finish it fully, but can definitely be done faster too.
I played through The Forgotten City and really liked it! It’s a time looping puzzle game where you have to unravel the mystery of a strange city before every day it collapses into ruin. It really sucked me into the story and I could forgive a bit of the jankiness in the actual gameplay. The characters were all interesting and were very interconnected which made the whole thing feel quite alive. I didn’t love the ending (there are technically multiple but I managed to get the canon one on my play through), it was okay but a little out of nowhere, everything before that was good.
Take a look at Dredge! It’s a creepy horror-ish game where you play as a fishing boat. There are some creepy elements at night but it’s fairly causal overall. I really loved the atmosphere and light story elements as well as the fun fishing games that is the majority of the gameplay.
Honestly, Elden Ring. I kept a small notebook on the side to write down all the different bits I didn’t want to forget. Clues and quests and stuff like that. There were so many things if you pay attention and take care to try to piece together. It was really fun to come across something many hours later and then pull out the notebook to find my notes on it.
I really like watching ChristopherOdd and Gab Smolders. Odd plays a lot of tactical games and popular titles. Gab tends to do more indie and horror but also does some popular games on occasion.
Interestingly I’d say Elden Ring is the most forgiving when it came to the “death penalty” you mention compared to all the other titles. There were far more rest points and things were so much more interconnected so you can stroll through/around most of the enemies to get back to where you died. Not always but a lot of times.
Also I found that really using your summons (especially mimic!) really helped with the difficulty. Also using magic makes life way easier. A lot of people just tend to go for the pure melee build which is making life really hard for yourself.
Yeah I feel that with many hobbies too as well as gaming. I feel like there is a culture of, if you’re not doing something productive you’re wasting time. But in reality I think everyone needs a break. You can’t possibly be always productive, that ruins the whole point of relaxing!
It’s not easy to get away from either, but I’ve found that dedicating time to just not being productive and filling it with what you want to do is a good start. I work from home now so separating my day into chunks is even more important than ever because I my work space is also my PC gaming space.
Just try not to feel like you need to get something meaningful out of everything I guess. Sometimes it can just be fun.
It’s on sale right now on switch (which is where I played the first as well) but not on steam.