It's the time of year again, when our wallets take a whoopin. So what have y'all picked up, and what are you thinking about?
Bought
Ori and the Blind Forest. The definitive edition is $10. I jumped in just to try it out while my daughter was napping, and next thing I knew it'd been an hour. Amazing platformer - perfect controls, and one of the single best-looking games ever.
HackNET. Like $3, and I loved Uplink back in the day. Haven't tried it yet, but supposedly the story is good.
The Talos Principle. About $10. I recently re-played Portal 2, and I've been seeing this game recommended off and on for years.
Shadow of Mordor. This is that third-person action game in the LotR universe, and one that's been well-received. The GOTY edition was like $4, so figured I had nothing to lose.
Considering
Slime Rancher. Still about $14 (not discounted overmuch), but I love the art style and the idea behind it. It's first-person, and you run a ranch for slimes. The emphasis seems to be on exploration with some tycoon elements.
Northgard. Strategy/RTS-like in a fictional Norse universe. Also about $15. The mechanics remind me of Battle Realms: you gain peasants at a steady rate, whom you then turn into other types of units with the appropriate buildings. Nice art style, but I worry that it's a tad light on content still.
ARK is coming out of alpha! I've had it for a year or so now, but haven't picked it up in a hot minute. If you ever need a vouch, then its got my blessing with over 700 hours. It's grind-ish depending on the server (most are speed up resource gathering), taming/riding/breeding dinos, expansive maps with free DLCs that have even more land and designs to see, and my favorite part is the emphasis on tribes and playing as friends/groups. Makes for fun times when there's natural division of labor when so many facets of the game can be explored.
Woohoooo time to add to my collection of stuff I'll never have time to play! I can vouch for Ori and the Blind Forest. Time seriously flies and it's an absolutely beautiful piece of work. I saw GTA V is half price but that's still $45~ in NZD and I'm unsure if it's worth that for such an old game with a hefty bit of controversy around it. Stardew Valley - the mother of all time-sinks. 167 hours in I believe and still nowhere near done with what I have planned!
http://www.shiningrocksoftware.com/game/ Sort of a survival city builder game. I'm about 10 hours in on a city. Graphics are good, gameplay is frustrating at times.. The trade system gives the feeling of pure RNG. and for some reason I will randomly run out of food for no apparent reason. For $5 worth it to try it out though. I think I will be buying Astroneer but not sure when I will get the shot to play it with the summer kicking my spare time in the ass.
Oh believe me, I know some Banished. I bought it on the day it was released, and have sunk a whole heck of a lot into it (especially once I discovered Colonial Charter). Let me know if you need help with the food issue :) Astroneer looked interesting from some let's plays I've seen, but still a little light on content for right now.