All of those are true. But I still love it. Why? I like airships. And I like that I take my whole home with me as I explore, and don’t have to travel back to a fixed point to store my treasures. Is it derivative? Yes. Is it repetitive? Yes. Does it tick all the boxes for me to relax for a couple hours at night? Absolutely.

Yeah, you’re right it is pretty linear. Astroneer is fantastic regarding freedom, I totally agree. And I love that it doesn’t have the food and water requirements, just air. That really lets you focus more on the exploration. Haven’t played the other two you mentioned. I’d definitely say Forever Skies is a casual game. If I weren’t playing that at night, I’d probably be playing Boggle Plus or Dr. Mario on the GameBoy. If I had the time (not at 11pm) to really get into a game where I cared about story or interesting mechanics, I would be playing something better. I could finally finish F.E.A.R., after 20 years. Or start MechWarrior 5.

I love it. I only have 32 hours into it so far, but I keep coming back to it more and more. Really, just because it’s so chill. The survival aspect of it is so easy. Catch some fat dust moths, cook, and freeze. Tanks of water ready to be purified at any time. So really, it’s just a chill game where you float around and collect stuff to build a better ship. I play it for acouple hours late at night after my wife and kid are asleep to unwind. It’s not a game that takes a lot of skill or concentration, it’s just relaxing. And when I’m in my glass walled bedroom, ship swaying back and forth in a storm, I’d say it’s downright cozy. Float around, find blueprints for a new chair or lamp, call it a night.

$602.41 for 50 games in 18.4 years. Cost at today’s prices: $698. I’d say that’s a win.

2,095 hours. 72% of games played. Guess I need to get to work.

I wish I could track my pre-steam numbers. Id be interested to see how much time I put into Mechwarrior 3, or Rollercoaster Tycoon, or Unreal Tournament.

That looks awesome. It would look a little out of place next to my other pinball machines, as they’re vintage. But I’d still love it. I don’t want to have to sell two watches to afford it, though. That’s pretty expensive.

Well, I’ll give that a try, too then. Thanks for investigating! At least it’s not just me that can’t get it to work.

I’ll definitely check out OPL-PC-Tools, thanks! HDL Batch Installer just hangs on open, checking for updates. I have been running Mint since November. I can’t get OPL manager to launch at all. Regular Wine, Proton, nothing. I’ve tried brand new prefixes with fresh .NET runtime, it just refuses to start.

The ONLY thing I still apparently need Windows for is running OPL Manager and HDL Batch Installer for my Playstation 2 hard drives. Can anyone point me in a direction of Linux alternatives? I managed to get WinHiip running in Wine, but it can’t see the PS2 HDD from Wine. Pretty sure I need something that runs native, and for the life of me I cannot find anything. Which is really surprising to me.

I love Midnight Club 3 so much. That and Black just seemed (to me) to just push the envelope of what the PS2 could do. They’re gorgeous. Black can output 480p, and even with all the crazy physics and detailed textures, it never seems to experience slowdown.

Battlefield 1942, especially with the Battlegroup 42 mod.