Games

Welcome to the largest gaming community on Lemmy! Discussion for all kinds of games. Video games, tabletop games, card games etc.
Rules
1. Submissions have to be related to games
Video games, tabletop, or otherwise. Posts not related to games will be deleted.
This community is focused on games, of all kinds. Any news item or discussion should be related to gaming in some way.
2. No bigotry or harassment, be civil
No bigotry, hardline stance. Try not to get too heated when entering into a discussion or debate.
We are here to talk and discuss about one of our passions, not fight or be exposed to hate. Posts or responses that are hateful will be deleted to keep the atmosphere good. If repeatedly violated, not only will the comment be deleted but a ban will be handed out as well. We judge each case individually.
3. No excessive self-promotion
Try to keep it to 10% self-promotion / 90% other stuff in your post history.
This is to prevent people from posting for the sole purpose of promoting their own website or social media account.
4. Stay on-topic; no memes, funny videos, giveaways, reposts, or low-effort posts
This community is mostly for discussion and news. Remember to search for the thing you're submitting before posting to see if it's already been posted.
We want to keep the quality of posts high. Therefore, memes, funny videos, low-effort posts and reposts are not allowed. We prohibit giveaways because we cannot be sure that the person holding the giveaway will actually do what they promise.
5. Mark Spoilers and NSFW
Make sure to mark your stuff or it may be removed.
No one wants to be spoiled. Therefore, always mark spoilers. Similarly mark NSFW, in case anyone is browsing in a public space or at work.
6. No linking to piracy
Don't share it here, there are other places to find it. Discussion of piracy is fine.
We don't want us moderators or the admins of lemmy.world to get in trouble for linking to piracy. Therefore, any link to piracy will be removed. Discussion of it is of course allowed.
Authorized Regular Threads
Related communities
PM a mod to add your own
Video games
Generic
- !gaming@Lemmy.world: Our sister community, focused on PC and console gaming. Meme are allowed.
- !photomode@feddit.uk: For all your screenshots needs, to share your love for games graphics.
- !vgmusic@lemmy.world: A community to share your love for video games music
- !freegames@feddit.uk: A community sharing free games giveaways.
Help and suggestions
By platform
By type
- !AutomationGames@lemmy.zip
- !Incremental_Games@incremental.social
- !LifeSimulation@lemmy.world
- !CityBuilders@sh.itjust.works
- !CozyGames@Lemmy.world
- !CRPG@lemmy.world
- !horror_games@piefed.world
- !OtomeGames@ani.social
- !Shmups@lemmus.org
- !space_games@piefed.world
- !strategy_games@piefed.world
- !turnbasedstrategy@piefed.world
- !tycoon@lemmy.world
- !VisualNovels@ani.social
By games
- !Baldurs_Gate_3@lemmy.world
- !Cities_Skylines@lemmy.world
- !CassetteBeasts@Lemmy.world
- !Fallout@lemmy.world
- !FinalFantasyXIV@lemmy.world
- !Minecraft@Lemmy.world
- !NoMansSky@lemmy.world
- !Palia@Lemmy.world
- !Pokemon@lemm.ee
- !Silksong@indie-ver.se
- !Skyrim@lemmy.world
- !StardewValley@lemm.ee
- !Subnautica2@Lemmy.world
- !WorkersAndResources@lemmy.world
Language specific
- !JeuxVideo@jlai.lu: French
view the rest of the comments
Would be interested to know what games you have >500 hours in. Especially if they aren't multi-player online games.
Oxygen not Included
Caves of Qud
Not run through Steam, so no Steam stats (though available on Steam) but I'm sure that they're way up there:
Cataclysm: Dark Days Ahead
Dwarf Fortress
Dungeon Crawl: Stone Soup, though that's going back a few years.
Some others with a fair bit of playtime:
Steel Division II (really primarily a multiplayer game, but I only play single-player)
Elite: Dangerous. Though I don't remember how I accumulated that many hours. Wasn't super-impressed with the game, and would have sworn that I'd have more time in X3 (though maybe that gets split across the DLC or something).
Stellaris
Noita
Nova Drift
Starfield
Rule the Waves 3
Carrier Command 2 (Primarily intended to be played multiplayer, but I play single-player)
Kerbal Space Program
Lots of love for Starbound, that game is underrated af.
Out of those I’ve devoted a ton of time to rimworld and oxygen not included, are any of the others on your list similar, or others you’d recommend for someone who likes them? I tried dwarf fortress but I found it to be… not my bag. I didn’t get very far into it tho.
(I do like mods, so that’s an ok requirement)
I tend to like games that have lots of "levers" to play with and spend time figuring out, so I think that tends to be the unifying factor in the above games.
I don't know of anything really comparable to Oxygen Not Included in terms of all the physics and stuff. I'd like something like it too (especially since Tencent bought ONI and now has some locked graphics for some in-game items that you can only get by enabling data-harvesting and then playing the game for a given amount of time, which I'm not willing to do. They don't have an option to just buy that content. At least it's optional.)
For Rimworld and Oygen Not Included, both are real-time colony sims. Of those, the closest stuff on my list is probably:
Dwarf Fortress (note that the commercial Steam build looks quite different from the classic version, has graphics and a mouse-oriented UI and revamped the UI and such, which may-or-may-not matter to you; if the learning curve being steep is an issue, that makes it a tad gentler). Rimworld is, in many ways, a simplified Dwarf Fortress in a sci-fi setting and without a Z-axis.
Kenshi. Not a colony sim. You control a free-roaming squad (or squads) in an post-apocalyptic open world. That's actually a bit like Rimworld. However, you can set up one or more outposts and set up automated production there. It's getting a bit long in the tooth, and the early game is very difficult, as your character is weak and outclassed by almost everything. Focus is more on the characters, and less on the outpost-building -- that's more of a late-game goal. I find it to be pretty easy to go back and play more of. There's a sequel in the works that'll hopefully look prettier. Not really any other game I'm aware of in quite the same genre.
The other things on my list don't really deal with building.
Oxygen Not Included has automated production. If you're willing to go outside "colony sim", there is a genre of "factory-building games" where one controls maybe a single character or base element and just tries to create a world of automated production stuff, maybe with tower defense elements. I'd probably recommend Satisfactory if you want 3D and a first-person view. I like it, but in my book, it doesn't really compare with the games that I've racked up a ton of time on, winds up feeling a bit samey after a while, looks like I have thirty-some hours. Mindustry is a free and open-source factory builder that you can grab off F-Droid for Android to play on-the-go; that and Shattered Pixel Dungeon are probably my open-source Android favorite games. Dyson Sphere Program has outstanding ratings, but I have not gotten around to playing it.
There are a few colony sim games sort of like Rimworld or Dwarf Fortress. I tried them, and none of them grabbed me as well as they did, but if you want to look at them:
Rise to Ruins is a colony sim does have combat, but less focus on individual characters than Rimworld. I don't like it mostly because the game is not really designed to be winnable, which I find frustrating. There's growing "corruption" coming in from the edges of the map, and the aim is to try to last as long as possible before becoming overwhelmed; you can flee it to other colonies. Technically, there are some ways to defeat the corruption, but not really how the game is intended to be played.
Prison Architect. This has somewhat-similar graphics to Rimworld. You build and manage a prison. It's not a bad game, but it doesn't really have the open-world scope of Rimworld.
Timberborn. This was in fairly Early Access the last time I spent much time on it, so I'm kind of out-of-date, and it looks like it's still in EA. Doesn't have the combat elements from Rimworld or Dwarf Fortress.
Gnomoria is kind of like a much-simplified Dwarf Fortress. It didn't really grab me, but maybe it's your cup of tea.
Klei, the guys who developed Oxygen Not Included, are currently working on a new 3D colony sim called Mind over Magic. I have not played it, but if you're desperate for more ONI and like colony sims, might be worth investigating.
Thanks for taking the time to write all that out for me! I appreciate it and I’ll look into some of those!
Have a great day, friend!
Well I’m not them, but for me: KSP1: 1800.8 hours. Current cost $40 = $0.02 an hour DCS: 1294.7 hours. Money spent eh $300 = $0.23 an hour Witcher 3: 1131.5 hours. Current cost: $40 = $0.03 an hour. Civ vi: 589.9 hours. Current cost: $60 = $0.10 an hour Stardew valley: 579.3 hours. current cost $15 = $0.026 an hour Fall out new Vegas: 543.6 hours. Current cost: $10 = $0.0018 an hour
Now if we add in the $2000 worth of peripherals I have to play dcs it’s cost balloons quite a bit but, it’s not terribly difficult to get high playtimes in cheap games. I would also say the cost per hour for me is double or triple what it actually is, as these are the current prices, and besides dcs I buy everything only on sale lol.
My electricity costs to run the game are higher than the cost of the game itself at that point.
Factorio, eu4, stellaris, satisfactory, slay the spire, etc
Minecraft, slay the spire, civilisation, atomicrops.
Balatro could have been a contender but I lost interest suddenly and unexpectedly.
spoiler
Tetris the daddyFactorio, stardew, civ vi are my top 3.
RimWorld ...
Peglin for me. Cheaper world games I have an insane amount of hours in.
Baldur's Gate 3, Cyberpunk, Kingdom Come Deliverance, Witcher 3, Fallout
Really any RPG you can easily get 1000 hours of play.
FTL for me
Stellaris, civ v, oxygen not included, city skylines, x3/rebirth/4, workers and resources: soviet republic, kerbal space program, rimworld, crusader kings 2 and 3.
Basically anything civilization/city/base/colony builder is my jam and some of them have over 2000 hours over the years. I like building perfect societies and roleplay how people live in them in my head while i do it. It's one of the ways i relax and express creativity.
To be fair, while paradox games like Stellaris or the crusader kings games you mentioned, certainly have a lot of replayability (I don't really care much for CK myself but have over 1000 hours on both Stellaris and EU4), they're not great examples for where cheaper games by smaller companies offer more than expensive ones from bigger ones. Partly because paradox is fairly sizable and well known these days, but mostly because those games are quite expensive, just split into numerous expansions that come out over time. One can opt out of getting them, sure, but they're where a lot of the different options that bring the replayability come from.
I'm right there with you. I absolutely hate Paradox's DLC policy and I'm guessing they lose a ton of paying clients the moment they hit the store page and get a 200-500€ price tag for the full experience, or even over 100€ for just the best hits for a really old game. I know they have mouths to feed, but i really don't like the way they do it and how they abuse their position of niche games nobody else makes. Nevertheless, even though you may choose not to purchase their expansions, you still have extremely healthy modding communities to carry you over.
Still, i wasn't coming so much from the angle that it's a smaller company providing better value than larger companies, rather showing to the OP that there are non multiplayer games that easily can provide over 500 hours of entertainment regarding the slighly off topic matter presented on the latter part of their comment. Of note is the fact that they don't use grinding mechanics to do it, for the most part (x series can be a little grindy in some aspects, but not overly), which is the mark of how incompetent devs try to get more "entertainment" hours out of their games.
If you like Terraria, have you tried Starbound?