So, I quit Hearthstone recently. Not just because of current events, but because I lost my taste for the game. Which is a shame, because Hearthstone is pretty well made and what it simplifies from Magic the Gathering and comparible card games is pretty inspired.

But to prevent this from being a one sided breakup post, I ask you, dear Tildos, what would you want out of a Digital Card Game? Be it a weird mechanic, playing mode, ideal platform or like this except with that, what would keep you coming back to such a game?

A "hidden gem" is a game that is considered to be great but not well-known at all. It's something you believe deserves far more recognition and reach than it currently has. A diamond in the rough.

Though a hidden gem certainly can be a highly polished experience, the term also allows a bit of roughness, leaving room for clunkiness or flaws on account of the game's scope and production values (hidden gems are rarely, if ever, big-budget). It also seems to place a slight premium on novelty and innovation, favoring but not requiring games to be fresh or experimental for their time.

With this in mind, I'm curious to hear people's opinions and hopefully get some new stuff to check out for when I find myself needing to take a break from Crash and Spyro.

• What games would you consider "hidden gems"?
• Why do you feel they fit the criteria?
• Why do you think they aren't more widely known?

Doesn't necessarily have to be that you cried, though it certainly can be. It can also be that you connected with the characters or plot, or maybe you clicked with the game's sense of humor. Maybe it creeped you out something fierce, or maybe it forced you into difficult ethical decisions. Any strong personal response counts.

• Why was the game so meaningful for you?
• How did the game use the medium to enhance its resonance?

Please give adequate spoiler warnings!
(You can use a <details> block to make a convenient collapsible section.)

I don't have nearly as much time to game as I used to, and as such, I tend to prioritize games that are quick to finish over those that want my attention for a long time. Thus, I'm curious to know: what are the best short games you've played?

I'm going to arbitrarily set "short" at a threshhold of 3 hours or less.

Furthermore, I'm referring to games that have a defined start and end, rather than potentially infinite play sessions. That means a game like The Binding of Isaac wouldn't count despite the average play session being much less than 3 hours, but a game like Gone Home would.

If you're not sure about a game's length, check HowLongToBeat for crowdsourced runtime data.

Here's a table of recommendations mentioned in the thread, and their approximate time to complete from HowLongToBeat (using the "Main Story" category).

So, I just finished playing Sleeping Dogs. It's a kung fu action game with a heavy emphasis on the hand to hand combat. It feels like it's the Arkham games roided up with some hack and slash juice. Almost all the upgrades are hand combat based, the vast majority of combat encounters are hand to hand. It's how the game was advertised, it's what all the reviews talk about, it's why I was interested in it, and why it was recommended to me. And you know what? I was way more into the shooting than the hand to hand combat.
The game does not seem all that proud of its gunplay, there's not a place to buy or customize guns, you just have to pick them up when a firefight starts and drop them after, and there's only like 3 guns total in the game. But it's some of the most fun gunplay I've played in years in a third person shooter. It heavily utilizes slow motion when you jump over cover or kick an enemy and leap into the air, incentivizing you to not just stay in cover the whole game. It really reminds me of Vanquish, which is one of my favorites in the third person shooter genre of all time.
So this got me curious, what are some games that others have enjoyed for "wrong" reasons? Wrong is in quotes, because, well, it is still something meant to be enjoyed if it's in the game, but it clearly wasn't the focus of either dev time, or marketing, or general hype around the game, or all of the above. Although if you want to share something that wasn't something meant to be enjoyed at all, like something left in totally unintentionally by the developers, feel free to share that too.

I'm not necessarily asking for the scariest one you've played but for your personal favorite/best, based on whatever criteria you choose. Games that are more horror-lite/spooky still count as well, so feel free to consider and include those.

With regards to your pick: what made it so good? In what ways did its use of horror add to your experience?

Given that a lot of horror relies on surprise, subverting expectations, or the unknown, please give spoiler warnings if you plan to discuss important aspects/plot points that might ruin the game for others.

I don't understand what makes the game appealing. It looks like it takes forever to make a level, and why would I want to play levels from random people on the internet?

I like games that you build stuff like KSP but just wondering what the appeal of SMM2 is.

I've never really been that into video games. When I was young, I played a lot of RPGs on the SNES and PS1. Within the last couple of years, I dipped my toes back in the water and tried a few out. I tried Skyrim on a friend's recommendation, but it was just a little too involved and open-world for me. I got Cities:Skylines, which I love because I love city builder sims, but that game just does not run well on any of my underpowered computers. And I loved Ori and the Blind Forest, a beautiful platformer, and I'd play it again right now if it wasn't Windows-only.

Here are my requirements. First, it needs to run well on a low-powered machine without making the fan go insane. I've got a MacBook Air 2012 and a ThinkPad x250 (Linux). Neither of these are the ideal gaming experience, I know, but I'm not looking for amazing graphics or bleeding edge technology or something super immersive. Pixel graphics are fine with me. It reminds me of my youth, anyway. I played both Skylines and Ori on my Intel NUC 4th Gen and while it worked, they both really taxed that little machine. I was able to finish Ori, but once a city reaches a certain size in Skylines, it gets unplayable.

I'm not looking for stress. I like RPGs and sims. But it doesn't have to be really hard or frustrating. I don't want to feel chased in a game. I prefer to feel that I'm driving the action and I can go at my pace. I want to feel like if I look away for a moment, I'm not going to lose everything. I'm a casual. I also don't mind if there's no defined ending of a game. For me, I'm more looking for a diversion and a slow build over some kind of constant progression/achievement type scenario.

If it has full controller support, that would be ideal. I've got a Steam controller, and I prefer using a controller to play a game. I've never liked using the keyboard to play. I'm not totally against it, but I guess I just never got into computer gaming. I pretty much always played on consoles in the past.

Linux or macOS only, please. I did have Windows installed once so that I could play games, but I'm not bothering with that anymore. I don't want to have to boot into another operating system just to play a game. I want to be able to hop in and out of a game while using my daily driver computer.

So in my research, I've looked into Terraria and Stardew Valley. These might be what I'm looking for. But I really don't know. Do either of these scratch my itch? Is there another game that I would enjoy based on what I've told you? Thanks in advance for any advice you can offer.

EDIT: Thank you everybody for your awesome suggestions. I'm still happy to hear more, as I plan to add the ones that really interest me to my wishlist and revisit later. I ended up getting Hollow Knight yesterday and I spent the whole day playing it. It's very engrossing, and it's the perfect game for me. It's so much like Ori, and that game blew me away. Chilled out, go at your own pace, exploring dungeons, challenging but not impossible (though the first Hornet fight was pretty tough for me). The game runs fine on my ThinkPad x250 (i5-5300U) in Pop!_OS Linux, apart from the initial movie scene stuttering--I just had to skip past it, unfortunately. It's such an awesome game, and I'm glad to see they've already announced a sequel. If you know of any other games that are like Ori and Hollow Knight, let me know.

I personally usually heavily mod my games, due to finding the process of modding itself fun, along with me preferring to spend a LONG time at one run through.

As an example, I'd give minecraft where I usually play so-called expert packs, which are basically taking a lot of mods and making them depend on each other for progression.

12 Minutes
Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition
Age of Wonder - Plantetfall
Age of Wonders: Planetfall
Animal Crossing New Horizons (Gameplay))
Apex Legends Season 2
Arizona Sunshine - The Damned DLC
Ary and The Secret of Seasons
Astral Chain
Baldur's Gate III
Battlefield V
Battletoads
Battlewake
Beat Saber: Imagine Dragons Music Pack
Black Desert
Blair Witch
Bleeding Edge
Borderlands 2: Commander Lilith & the Fight for Sanctuary Official Trailer
Borderlands 3
BRAWLHALLA Adventure Time
Cadence of Hyrule
Carrion
CastleStorm II
Chivalry 2
Circuit Superstars
Code Vein
Collection of Mana
Commander Keen (Gameplay)))
Conan Chop Chop
Contra Anniversary Collection
Contra: Rogue Corps
Control
Corpse Killer: 25th Anniversary Edition
Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled Grand Prix
CrisTales
CrossfireX
Cyberpunk 2077
Daemon X Machina (Gameplay)))
Deathloop
Disgaea 4 Complete+
DOOM Eternal (Multiplayer)))
Dragon Ball Z Kakarot (Gameplay video)))
Dragon Quest Builders 2
Dying Light 2
El Hijo
Elden Ring
Elder Scrolls Online Elsweyr
Empire of Sin
Empire of Sin
Enter the Gungeon: House of the Gundead
Evil Genius 2 - World Domination
Fall Guys
Fall Guys
Fallout 76 Nuclear Winter (Battle Royale Mode)
Fallout 76 Wastelanders Expansion
FIFA 20
Final Fantasy VII Remake
Final Fantasy VIII Remaster
Final Fantasy XIV: Shadowbringers
Fire Emblem: Three Houses
For Honor: Shadows of The Hitokiri
Forza Horizon 4: Lego Speed Champions
Gears 5 (Escape trailer)))
Genesis Noir
Ghost Recon Breakpoint (Gameplay)))
Ghostwire Tokyo
Gods & Monsters
Greedfall
Griftlands
Halo: Infinite
Just Dance 2020
Kingdom Hearts III ReMind DLC
Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild Sequel
Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga
Lost Oasis
Lost Words: Beyond the Page
Luigi's Mansion 3 (Gameplay)))
Madden NFL 20
Mario & Sonic at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games
Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3: The Black Order
Marvel's Avengers
Microsoft Flight Simulator
Midnight Ghosthunt
Minecraft Dungeons
Mosaic
My Friend Pedro
Ni no Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch Remastered
No More Heroes III
ONINAKI
Ori and the Will O' The Wisps
Outriders
Panzer Dragoon Remake
Per Aspera
Persona 5 Royal
Phantasy Star Online 2
Planet Zoo
Pokemon Sword & Shield (Gameplay)))
Psychonauts 2
Rad
RAGE 2
Rainbow Six Quarantine
Remnant: From the Ashes
Roller Champions
Romancing Saga 3 & SaGa SCARLET GRACE: AMBITIONS
Samurai Shodown Rimururu
Shenmue III
SMITE Olorun
Sniper Elite: VR
Songs Of Conquest
Spiritfarer
Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order
Starmancer
State of Decay Heartland
Super Smash Bros. Ultimate - Dragon Quest
Super Smash Bros. Ultimate Banjo-Kazooie
Tales Of Arise
Telling Lies
Terraria: Journey's End
The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance Tactics
The Last Remnant Remastered
The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel III
The Legend of Wright
The Lord of the Rings: Adventure Card Game
The Messenger: Picnic Panic
The Outer Worlds
The Sims 4
The Surge 2
The Walking Dead: Onslaught
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt Complete Edition
The World of Dragon Quest Builders 2
Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Siege – Clutch Royale
Tom Clancy’s The Division 2: Year 1
Tom Clancy's Elite Squad
Torchlight II
Trials of Mana
Trials Rising Season 2
Unexplored 2
Valfaris
Vampire the Masquerade Bloodlines 2
Vermintide 2: Versus
Warframe: Empyrea
Wasteland 3
Watch Dogs 3: Legion (Gameplay)))
Way to the Woods
Wolfenstein: Cyberpilot
Wolfenstein: Youngblood
Yooka-Laylee and the Impossible Lair
Zelda: Link's Awakening
Zombie Army 4: Dead War

This post went well in ~books, so I figured we could give it a go here.

Top level comments should fill in the blank with some sort of descriptor identifying a kind of game you would like suggestions for. Be as generic or specific as you want.

Replies can then recommend games to that individual.

Hint: Use the "collapse replies" button to view only top-level posts.

I presume a lot of you might have noticed the discourse surrounding Sekiro and the notion that games like Sekiro could benefit from having a complementary "easy mode". The discourse is hot, and the takes are flying left and right but I'm curious to what the people of Tildes think about it.

For those of you who may be too poor to afford the latest AAA titles, or just don't want to support policies like micro-transactions and "If you're offended, just don't buy it", there are many open-source and/or free games that can tide you over. Some of my favorites are:

• FreeCiv: A civilization building game based on Sid Meier's Civilization 1 and 2
• OpenTTD: A transport network building game based off of Chris Sawyer's Transport Tycoon Deluxe
• Dwarf Fortress: Not Open-Source - fortress colony management simulator with an additional RPG gamemode

Do you guys have any other free, possibly open-source games that you would recommend?