Normally, I play all-engrossing BIG games. Bioshock, Fallout, Civ, etc. This is NOT what I’m looking for.
What I’m looking for is what I consider an in-between timewaster game. Throughout the day, I have little breaks where I want something to fill the time while I wait for things. For example, I’m waiting on a software build right now that will take about 15 minutes. Or I wait for Mr. Athena to get done with something so we can go somewhere or do something. Or I’m on hold waiting to talk to a human and I want something to do while I wait.
Basically, I need something like this:
runs well in a window. I can’t have it taking up my entire screen because I’m often monitoring something else while I play.
starts up FAST. I don’t want something that I have to wait 2-3 minutes to load because I might only have 5 or 10 minutes to play.
can be paused at any time. I’m not going to tell the person I’m on hold with to wait because I’m almost done with this level. I have to be able to pause it on a moment’s notice.
is very casual. Civilization, for example, fits some of these criteria, but I find it’s hard to play Civ in small spurts because I need to pay attention to what’s going on a bit more than I can for this type of game.
Previous games that have fit this category are games like 10000000, Tetris and card games like Freecell.
I’m not into Tower Defense games or things like Angry Birds. For whatever reason, they don’t do it for me. What would be ideal is something arcade-y, like 10000000, but I’m having trouble finding that right quality of arcade + not dumb.
I started playing Papers, Please recently. It’s a simple but, to me at least, surprisingly fun and twisted game. I believe you can pause it at any time (though your progress is only saved in 10 to 15 minute blocks) and it can be coerced to run in windowed mode.
All of these look cool, and I may end up buying some of them for non-casual-play, but none are really exactly what I’m looking for.
Portal, for example, I love, but there’s no way I’m going to think through one of the portal puzzles while I’m on hold or something. It’s extremely un-fun for me to be halfway through figuring out a puzzle and then having to quit and go do something else.
I need brainless and fun. More “peggle” less “ongoing storyline and engrossing puzzles.” More arcade-game-ish is good, too.
Kings and Legends is a freemium card game with the solo PvE part of it being completely turn-based. As long as you don’t mind the usual tricks they use to try to get you to pay RL cash, it can provide a fair amount of fun for free. PvP matches and the 4-player boss fights have 30 second turns but if you aren’t serious about the game you can just ignore those parts of the game.
Just tried it, following your post. Fun at start, but I think it becomes quickly tedious. Also, I’m unable to feed my family, even after the death of my uncle and mother-in-law. It seems you really need to be quick to get by, and hitting keys or moving around stuff quickly isn’t my forte. It doesn’t seem you can survive by making the best choices and optimizing your procedure if you’re on the slow side with a computer.
There’s Uplink by Introversion. It’s a game about Hollywood-style hacking. There’s ostensibly a storyline – in that there’s four or five missions that aren’t randomly generated, but you can ignore them if you want.
The missions are rather short, and don’t require too much to figure out. My only complaint is that it can get a bit samey and hits the spot of obnoxiously obtuse for newcomers and obscenely easy once you figure out all the tricks (once you figure out how to rob a bank you’ve basically won every mission because of how beastly your new computer will be).
VVVVVV very simple platformer, although in the die a billion times vien. I used this as a travel game, it is a good way to kill a few minutes, doesn’t take much attention, no problems quitting the game quickly.
“You can take your turn in 5 minutes with your morning cup of coffee or in between classes. A game typically lasts several days, but hardcore risk takers can play multiple games at once and stay up all night strategizing their next move.”