PC gaming has broken my heart!

[paperfist]

Have you tried management simulators like Football(European) Manager? Or just simulators in general like Euro Truck Simulator etc.

While I still play a variety of games, the bulk of my time in between going through my backlog is one multiplayer(TF2) and a simulator(Football Manager).

Perhaps you are burned out? Maybe take a break from games in general and come back to playing after a few months.

I actually play Out of the Park Baseball which is a basically a baseball sim and enjoy that.

Don't think I'm burned out, just really haven't been too engaged by games as of late. I think the last game I really sank some time into was Bastion.

Your tastes probably changed. I'm 35, going on 36. Back when I was 13-20 or so I preferred more shooting or RTS games, but now I really can't stand them. Especially RTS games....god they are boring to me.

The only games I really enjoy these days are role playing games or fps/rpg hybrids and the Civ games. The only game outside of that genre that I've enjoyed in recent years was the xcom game.

Yeah no doubt my tastes have changed. I still love CIV games, but I think they've changed more than me. Seem like they are numbed down. Shooters I still enjoy, but the players online are a lot more hardcore and take some of the fun out of it.

Despite its flaws I've clocked over 300 hours on XCOM: Enemy Unknown, probably more for StarCraft 2.

I'm replaying Populous 2 via Amiga emulation atm

OMG Populous! Is it even playable graphics wise? Power Monger was also an awesome game back in the day. Loved the sound effects.

This is a valid suggestion. Get a good SDK and some modeling software and go to town. It can be a blast.

It's a real time-sink though (I remember the first thing I modeled was a basic chair prop - and I spent an entire weekend getting the thing to look right). I started getting into it with a student license for Autodesk 3DSMax and Cryengine, but real life just had too many responsibilities to get anywhere with it.

If I didn't have a real job, I would play with that stuff all day long.

If anything, it gives you a real appreciation of the level of skill and time it takes to actually put together even a very basic, short game - or how hard it is to create a big map and fill it with content (and get it to run well and look good at the same time).

I remember making maps in MoH, was quite fun and like you say a real time sink. Once you learned the tools though it wasn't so bad.

I picked up the Unity Demo and have been playing around making simple games. It's pretty simple to use and nice to see results instantly.

 

[xantub]

Yeah no doubt my tastes have changed. I still love CIV games, but I think they've changed more than me. Seem like they are numbed down. Shooters I still enjoy, but the players online are a lot more hardcore and take some of the fun out of it.

You may want to try Grand Strategy games. I used to love CIV games, but then I started playing Crusader Kings 2 and Europa Universalis 4, they make CIV 5 look like Tic Tac Toe. They are complex, will take many hours to grasp, but once you 'get them' you'll never go back.

 

[JamesV]

I absolutely HATE how every shooter is now experience and unlocks, instead of having everyone playing with the same equipment. And if isn't that, it is deathmatch which I liked 40,000 hours of playtime ago, but not so much now.

I haven't played a AAA game in years I really liked. Things like Tomb Raider and GTA 5 just aren't that fun to me anymore.

Besides Path of Exile which is great because it is complex, I mainly play indie games now, which I think are far better than any AAA title. Kerbal Space Program, Prison Architect, Cities Skylines, FTL, SPAZ, Binding of Isaac, Defender's Quest, Terraria and others by far get the majority of play time.

 

[geforce255]

Wow;

I found XCom to be one of the best games I've played in years. Gal Civ 3 is good - very much like Gal Civ 2, so the the staying power is limited.

 

[BurnItDwn]

I have played skylines for 100+ hours, and found it generally to be good.

XCOM annoyed me with the cutscenes.
Banished is fun, but there isnt much to it, 20 hours was about all I put into it as well.
Havent picked up galciv3 yet ...

Anyhow, NorseAMD mentioned them, but they are worth mentioning again, Mount and Blade (warband especially), somewhat modern game, infinite replayabillity, single player and multiplayer.

Kerbal Space Program, this game was frickin awesome back in like 0.14 free demo. Now years later, officially released, it is an epically fantastic. I have wasted over a thousand hours for sure on this


And then I also recommend, Minecraft, yes it looks like shit, but, try some of the mod packs on "feedthebeast" .... adds HUGE complex progression curves ...

 

[poofyhairguy]

Life gets more complicated and you can't commit to games that require large blocks of time.

The answer is mobile gaming.

 

[BurnItDwn]

oooh, another recent game, with tons of playability, that always manages to stay fresh and challenging... Slaves to Amok: God of Blood Chapter II: Dwarf Fortress.

 

[TeknoBug]

Recently bought Ultimate General: Gettysburg, Rising World, Savage Lands and I've had Cities Skyline for a while now, Skyline is a pretty damn good game and Rising World has some potential (if you like Minecraft-centric type games). The fact that all titles I've been buying works natively on Linux is a nice bit.

 

[Fanatical Meat]

oooh, another recent game, with tons of playability, that always manages to stay fresh and challenging... Slaves to Amok: God of Blood Chapter II: Dwarf Fortress.

You're right, I cannot get over the lack of proper mouse controls though.

 

[Morbus]

Cities: Skylines

Wrong game. Buy Tropico 5 instead.

Banished

Wrong game again. Anno 1404 was much better!

Galactic Civ 3
Civ: Beyond Earth

Sins of a Solar Empire.

Shadow of Mordor

wat?

XCOM: Enemy Unknown

Totally wrong game. Buy Xenonauts instead.

It sounds to me like your just buying into hype and new releases and the lies of the marketing machine. Get your games straight man!

 

[Sulaco]

Sins of a Solar Empire.

SotSE plays nothing like those two games, outside of the sci-fi settings and debatable "grand strategy" monikers.
Their actual gameplay and focus are quite different.

 

[SlitheryDee]

Try harder to get into Shadow of Mordor. That's the only game out of the ones on your list that I managed to get into. That's really been a short list over the last 5 years or so. Alien Isolation was another and now The Witcher 3 has captured my attention. I've found that I'm much more jaded than i used to be, but I can still get caught up in a game and play it for hundreds of hours. It has to be REALLY good though. In the past it just had to be kind of decent for me to enjoy it. That don't cut it anymore.