Purkake

I have vague memories of promising to make a new Indie game thread in the modern FPS whine thread. The basic premise was that instead of being grumpy old grognards spending your rapidly decreasing lifespans cursing the menace of crappy overpriced AAA games that may or may not also be buggy/consolified and generally not for the audience you represent, take a gander at the burgeoning downloadable Indie market that represents some of the most innovative, fun and challenging games available today. Using my meager knowledge, I'll try to categorize the standouts and give a short description. Feel free to add discuss the games, and only the games. Most of these have demos as well, so no need to spend money blindly. (I have not actually played a portion of these, especially outside of demos, so you're getting second-hand impressions and hearsay a lot of the time) Strategy: Frozen Synapse - A turn based tactical game, the battle system resembles the UFO: Afterlight series. Focus on scenarios and multiplayer. You get a free game to give away with every Steam purchase. Gratuitous Space Battles - A diversion from the classical RTS, you design,equip your spaceships and give them basic commands and then watch the battle unfold without any further input. Flotilla - A 3D turn based strategy where you control a small squad of space ships. The combat system is similar to the one used in Frozen Synapse with a timebar instead of strict turns. Randomized campaigns. Space Pirates and Zombies - A more actiony space strategy where you equip, build and manage and small squad of ships in a giant randomized campaign. Technically still in beta, but the demo is available. AI War: Fleet Command - A very large scale and technical RTS, gets pretty crazy/confusing at times. Defcon - An awesome Wargames style global thermonuclear war simulator. Good for killing an hour in the office. Also really striking atmosphere once you get into it. Darwinia - Crazy stuff, try the demo, I don't have a clue what this is about. Harvest: Massive Encounter - Another large-scale RTS focusing on resource management and everything on a giant scale. Check the trailer. Massive Assault - A relatively standard PC RTS, make of that what you will. Star Ruler - A very complex 4X-style game with a giant procedurally generated galaxy and minute control over every little detail Achron - The only RTS that uses time travel as an active game mechanic. Create paradoxes and acquire nosebleeds from just watching the trailers! Not out yet, but you can play the beta if you preorder. APOX - Basically a squad based RTS where you have fewer units, but much greater control over them, Ground Control style. Adventure: Gravity Bone - A free concept game based on the Quake engine. Try it, it's free and only ~30 minutes long. Machinarium - A beautiful hand-drawn point and click adventure. Amnesia: The Dark Decent - The newest game from the Penumbra guys, amazing atmosphere and great horror. Hacker Evolution - Hard to classify under anything, it's basically Uplink with some extra bells and whistles added on. There's also one sequel out and another coming soon. Minecraft - A world simulator, you cut down trees, make houses, fight zombies, mine and do a billion other things. Action: Trine - Kind of like Lost Vikings, you have three characters who each have unique abilities that you need to advance, plus it looks pretty. Osmos - A gravity-based arcade-style thing, try it. Gish - An old platformer with some fun physics and style. Terraria - Taking the Minecraft forumla, making it 2D and shifting the focus on combat and leveling. Zeno Clash - Don't even ask, but the combat system is supposedly pretty awesome. Puzzle World of Goo - You build bridges and stuff out of gooballs. Very nice aesthetics and especially music. SpaceChem - Never managed to figure it out, advanced puzzle game. Audiosurf - Make your own puzzle game out of any mp3 you have. Basically an interactive visualizer. RPG Torchlight - ARPG from some of Diablo II's team. A little short and without multiplayer, but lots of fun. Penny Arcade Adventures: On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness - A hilarious RPG with an active-participation JRPG battle system, a Lovecraftian tilt and pretty good writing(if you like the Penny Arcade stuff). Unfortunately missing its last installment.

Go get AI War if you want a challenging massive(lots of units) space RTS. It's just ?2.

Speak for yourself.

It's a pretty good business move, I don't know what's the problem here. As an investor, I'd be happy that they're cutting their losses after the pre-release mismanagement.

I heard that every copy of Bethesda Fallout sold makes a little bell go *ding* this notifies Todd Howard to defile the collective Fallout memory just a little bit more.

Some really sweet weapons from what I've seen. Continuing the (new) Wolfenstein trend of really decent games that no one really cares about Was the new Wolfenstein any good? I never bothered with it, because on the screens it looked meh. I have it down as Meh+. It's pretty ambitious, but in the end, a bit dull. Vastly prefer RtCW. I think they just went a bit overboard with the "magic", that time around. It's fun for what it is. I'd call it the modern Painkiller genre. You have relatively open levels, weapon upgrades, hidden goodies along with fun weapons and enemies. It's not for everyone, but there are worse ways to chill out after a long day. Unless the new driver fries your card

I'm proud of my cynicism and find it insulting that you list that person as one of us. Take it back! *shakefist* Finno-Ugric cynic force is go!

There are many awesome games on steam for $4.99 or less. The price isn't indicative of quality, especially during the sales. Not that AP is particularly good.

ID4 isn't a franchise, so it would be unfair to compare it to the whole SW franchise, no?

Some really sweet weapons from what I've seen. Continuing the (new) Wolfenstein trend of really decent games that no one really cares about

FACT: Independence Day was more successful than Star Wars and it also was more recent. It's indisputable. Taking inflation into account?

"2 data points?" please tell me you're human. I assure you that my humanity chip is fully functional, as are the snark, cynicism and troll chips.

Soo we're basing this off of 2 data points? The plot thickens...

I like that painting.

You do get better unlocks if you do the missions and they're all really fun...

Making the world a funner place, one person at a time Be on lookout for Red Faction: Guerrilla, if the JC2 style of crazy fun appeals to you.

Purkake linked this thread more than once in the Books thread. You better believe it

Epic resurrection! *initiate spoiler-avoidance mode*

No idea, I have a special glass case with a fake DualShock 2, but I only break it in case of emergencies.

Wow, awesome summary. I didn't know I had the necromantic powers to bring forth the long dead 05'ers Nice to see you again aries. I should make threads more often...

Yeah, it had the Oblivion "mess with the AI" deal as well, I love that. Like in Fallout 2 when you piss off the guy in Den and stand behind the casino chick. Map-wide AI battle ensues.

I liked stealing stuff from shops and picking up every doodad I could find. The schematics thing was cool, but the combat was way out of balance and everything was pretty clunky as far as I remember. Was there any special significance?

A meta-forum inside another forum... Forumception? So what's the deal with Arcanum and the Knights of the Whatchumacallit?

How do they know you?

Get it for whatever runs it. It's amazing on everything.