Recent reviews by Helen Keller

I know lots of my friends love this game (okay, two. Two of my friends love this game, because I really don't have "lots" of friends), but I just can't get into it. It's a side-scroller, I wanted it to be a building option or fighting option, but it manages to level between both without satisfying either extreme. I feel like it's a 2D Minecraft, and I couldn't get into that.
That being said, if you like Minecraft, side-scrollers, etc etc etc, you might like this. It's just not my thing.

If Valheim and Farmville had a love child, Stardew Valley is that offspring.

This is a video game where you start out as an actual normal human being. You can exploit various options early on to get a 1-up in the game, but ultimately you're just a youth in 1403.

You then have to become Superman and save your country. The problem is that you're still just a yokel and it's gonna take a bit to get you ship-shape to learn how to beat up the baddies, make some money, get some gear and a horse, learn how to fight and not suck at it, etc.

It's just an outstanding game for roleplaying as a 1403 late-teen/early-20ish blacksmith apprentice who'd rather just hang out with his girl and pals and have a pint.

Game is "free" but only for a basic intro game setup (aka demo). Then you have to buy the DLC (aka the actual game).

The marketing is pure bait-and-switch, and they could have easily labeled this as a demo with the full version as the "DLC".

Nope.

Super chill game to relax to.

Just get some fish, let them make more fish, find the cutest/coolest/chonkiest/noodliest/8-stripetiest ones that you like, and them share them or just keep letting them do their thing. Great to just check back in on when you feel like it or to micromanage.

Found this game on github, so technically I originally got it for free. Spent so much time on it that I decided to drop the measly $3 on Steam (so my actual time spent playing this game is probably 5x what Steam states). Then I bought it for a friend so I could throw more money at the dev, because this game has helped me to seriously chill and mellow and relax.

Works fine on my Windows computers, but doesn't on my Linux desktop.
That's not why I'm downvoting though:

The game is good for what it does, but it can't zoom out completely on larger options. I started and skipped to the "end" for the farmer picture and that was decent fun. But, I am working on the one below it (and I haven't completed, so not sure what it is), but it's severely grindy on clicking one pixel at a time. That's kinda crappy. I mean, I was picking up on the concept: run the mouse over things that haven't been painted, then come in and click each individual one inside.
It got too grindy for me.

(Still, I may have gone for it if it would run on Linux, because sometimes I like to do a little stupid grindy click stuff.)

EDIT & UPDATE! (10/2022) I see this is Steam Deck verified, so I tried it again with my new option. Sadly, the "native" controls are absolutely horrid (I dislike the sensitivity of either the touch pad or stick for a mouse), and I keep having to refer back to the graphics of what buttons are supposed to do. It's not intuitive whatsoever. Yeah, I can reassign them but... while the game was fun briefly at first, I see no reason to push through the issues to keep playing.

I see this as the lovechild of Monty Python and Sierra Entertainment (you know, the folks who did the King's Quest, Black Cauldron, Space Quest, Leisure Suit Larrys, Quest for Glorys, etc... if you gamed in the late 80s/early 90s) done in the style of Quizno's advertising campaign about 15 years ago, courtesy of Joel Veitch (rathergood).

This was (imo) more intuitive than Four Last Things (less complicated, though more railroad-y). Equally hilarious.

Additionally, the existentialism (or whatever artsy-fartsy word for it you want to use) and the poking fun at itself (though it felt more that Joe Richardson was doing self-poking) added an amusing layer.

Overall, 9/10, because I did not find the plank. That was the only achievement I had to look up.

I hate the cold in real life.
Canada is cool and all (pun possibly intended) but not really where I thought I'd like to spend hours in a game (especially when cold).
Did I mention how much I hate being cold?

Yet, Captains Shepherd won me over yet again. I've been playing since before the actual story mode, so to me it's simply a survival game with a story line on the side. The story is great so far: it's definitely incomplete, but I've finished one just fine, the second wanting more, and the current third I lost interest and went back to survival. Your results will definitely vary.

But I'm loving the survival mode. I don't really play survival games, so I may not be a great judge on that. But, I've passed over 600 hours in the game and am still getting new achievements/accomplishments. I've taken a lot of breaks, as I think it's a game you can't grind until "finished", but every time I come back, it's a new fresh breath of super cold air. I also tend to restart then too... as a hiatus without leaving yourself good notes is basically starting over anyway.

Anyway, it's not for everyone. But it's definitely a great game. I've had a few friends refuse to try it due to "you have to eat to survive", and while I understand that, I've played other survival games where you had to eat to survive... and it doesn't feel fake and annoying like that. It's just part of in-game life. And water too... so double hit on my friends' opinions.

But hey, that guy who drank his own pee doesn't seem so crazy right now...

I love to drive irl, and I sort of always wanted to be a trucker, having grown up in the US. Then I had the chance to live in Europe for a few years, and this is my free ticket back!

I managed to play the game solely with keyboard for the past 8 months or so, but now own a steering wheel and pedals, which makes it even better.

To be fair, the AI sucks, and you'll want to use mods to enhance a lot of options, but overall, SCS is a great company and they've created an awesome chill game I love to immerse myself in.

I only have played maybe 5 rounds now. This is great. I used to play FPS's a long while back but I've gotten old and farty. And tonight I'm tired, so I'm realising how out-of-the-loop I am!

It's a great sim to perk up your FPS aiming/reaction skills, or at least tell you how much you suck at them.

Downside is, I seem to not trigger any achievements, aside from the first two (they seem to be just for playing the game). But I'll keep this one around despite that. It's better than so many other games I've gotten that intro achievement for then deleted.