I got myself Cross Blitz in the steam deckbuilder sale. It’s a very hearthstone inspired TCG / deckbuilder - even including some recognisable HS archetypes like thief rogue (lol). Defo scratches the HS itch for me, but if you haven’t played Hearthstone, you might find it a lot initially.

It has a story mode with separate story for each of the 5 classes and there it is really a TCG. I played through one of them and it was pretty good, but left me wanting for more (especially given the TCG nature). I’m sure if you play through all 4 storylines, you get your money’s worth, but there isn’t really a point where your deckbuilding skills are heavily challenged.

It also has a roguelite mode which seems pretty extensive with many unlockable characters/starting decks. I’m pretty far in that and it’s fun. It also has a hard mode, which is kinda needed, as normal is a bit on the easy side.

Generally wouldn’t say it’s super deep, the powerlevel of passive relics tips it more into a “build OP deck” playstyle. But it’s really fun and has a nice colorful and cure artstyle.

Started another run of Monster Sanctuary - one of my all time favorites. It’s a mix of Metroidvania and monster tamer and both parts work really well. Monster combat is teams of 3v3 and is pretty deep with individual skill trees for each monster and tons of synergies. Metroidvania elements also work really well - there is defo quite a bit openness to which area to explore first and there are also some optional and post game areas to find.

They also included some cool features for replayability - randomizer, permadeath for monsters, and a “bravery mode” giving you 1 random monster per area only for a cool challenge to come up with a build. I have over 10 playthroughs of it :D

There is also online pvp - not sure if the scene is still active, but there was an interesting tournament scene. I’m more about the single player though

Cool sounds good!

Not sure if it’s part of Winter Sale, but I’ll get Mandragora Whisper of the Witch Tree (I’ll get it on Switch though where it’s also on sale). A work colleague heartily recommended it to me and it looks like a cool game; 2d platformer with hard “soulslike” combat, but doesn’t look like it’s going too hard on the “soulslike”. Supposedly very good exploration.

Zelda Link’s Awakening … this one somehow has both the most Nostalgia and replayability for me even though I have also played the N64 Zeldas when growing up

Factorio - of course can’t go without Cracktorio

Caves of Qud - really good mix of roguelike and open world RPG. Lot’s of replayability as well.

Diablo 2 Resurrected - one of my favrotie games of all time. Got back into it recently on Switch and it’s just soo good. Also big Nostalgia for me

Mario Kart Double Dash - need to have something I can play with my wife and Mario Kart is just the Couch Multiplayer game. Double Dash is my favorite entry of the series as well

I’d say I hit a solid ish genre mix as well with it. Pity I couldn’t fit an FPS though

Mhm I just contribute to the Wikipedia… that one I feel is super worthwhile - it actually has been under heavy criticism by the US right lately, because they only want their version of “truth” to be the only one represented. Obv inconvenient for the powers that be, if there is freely available information that they can’t control. I’m not contributing on any hot topic though (mainly music/bands) - but I still feel like everything that you can find on Wikipedia strengthens its position as a tool that people go to for info.

A local wiki also sounds cool, but I have no idea what I would contribute there.

It wasn’t “solarpunk” at the time, but I am vegetarian now for 15 years ish (since my early 20s). I do think better would be to go vegan and I have been trying to reduce dairy, but it’s a bit tricky since a) we also have a small daughter and nutrition is such a complex topic for her as well and b) my wife while having gone veggie due to meeting me is not on board with giving up cheese. It is something I want to tackle more in the future though. I’ve been mostly motivated by animal suffering and factory farming initially, but ecologically it just makes so much sense as well for climate impact, space usage, water usage, etc.

A small solarpunk thing that I am doing now is choosing regional insect friendly plants for my garden and also learning more about ecological aspects there.

Also while kinda ineffectual, I started editing Wikipedia. IMO shared knowledge building like that is also very solarpunk. It’s also some “direct action” that is suitable for a lazy couch sitter like me who struggles to do “practice” otherwise.

Also very much just a point of privilege on my side, but we did manage to build a house and I have literal solar panels on my roof. Not very punk, but very solar wow.

Gem of a game! I kinda 100%ed it. I like how the difficulty is fair, but can be extremely punishing - one wrong move can fck you up big time. Like “ohhh I did not consider that this attack also pushes the monster D:”

They announced some upcoming expansions, I wonder if one of those would address the “story always the same” part, since that does seem to be a common criticism

I got really deep into Caves of Qud (classic rogue like) after initially dropping it for being too difficult. It has a bit of a learning curve, but beyond that, it is really fun. Very engaging sci-fi fantasy world, lots of interesting things to do or see, some fun random quirks/jank, and very diverse character customization. I think what I love the most is that it’s a knowledge game, where you excel by learning some bits and tricks here and there, like the effects of cooking with certain ingredients or getting some special items with an important effect (aka cheesing stuff).

Also besides being a very hard roguelike, it is really chill in a way (also helpt by the music).

If you do have struggles with it, I can recommend giving roleplaying mode a spin, where you don’t have permadeath, or there is a website called qudzoo with some seriously good advice.