• Some Pokemon ROM hacks where the difficulty spikes were not too harsh

There are definitely some good pokemon fangames on PC that aren’t super difficult from what I remember.

• Pokemon Hidden Place ( Spanish fan game with English translation IIRC )
• Pokemon Bizarre ( another Spanish/maybe Portuguese ( I don’t fully remember ) one with English translation ). Has some memes here and there but it’s manageable.

Most other fan games I could think of are either too long, have a good amount of difficulty, or have some sort of QOL thing preventing me from recommending it.

They’re gonna be in my backlog for a while, but earlier I got Kerbal Space Program 1 ( with DLC ) all for less than $15USD before tax and the Steins;Gate visual novel for something like $3.99 before tax. Would have gotten S;G Zero as well, but I am low on funds as of now.

I personally think smaller scale 2000s collect-a-thon games like Ty the Tasmanian Tiger hold up pretty well. Never knew that specific series existed until maybe a year or two ago and I gotta say, it’s pretty good and runs real smooth on Dolphin on my Steam Deck ( and coincidentally better than the legitimate PS2 copy I have ).

I personally also think the PS2 Star Wars Battlefront games still hold up well enough. Love the lack of monetization and lack of online play because I hate competitive play as a more casual player.

Those games are definitely pass my recommendation checklist due to the amount/quality of content, and/or replayability level.

Another couple games that pass that checklist would be Final Fantasy X ( I never finished it, but had been enjoying it all the way ) and Sly Cooper 1 ( due to the time trials for each non-boss level adding a good amount of challenge and length ). Both on PS2.

In my opinion ( haven’t played or really seen the DLCs, so I’m just talking about base game ), Pokemon Scarlet and Violet.

Definitely had ups and downs when I did my only playthrough. Absolutely middle of the road compared to the official games ( completed gen 3, part way through gens 4-7 ) I have played and still even middle of the road compared to some of the fan games I’ve played over the years.

To a degree. I’m the type of person who doesn’t wanna interrupt people in a conversation if I need something from them and I absolutely hate that. Definitely should work on being a little more assertive some day in the future.

Technically I don’t think there’s a tutorial level per say as much as there is a tutorial set of levels, but Baba Is You.

The game starts off with only the controls on how to move and teaches you about how you can change the rules of the level to beat it if it isn’t possible normally, without explaining anything. Just from you exploring and testing different things. The only other time you’ll ever see any other form of level hint is maybe in the level names or if you end up in a position where you have to undo or restart the level from breaking the " [ object ] is you " rule in some way.

A lot of the game before you escape the testing track, minus maybe the point you are told about momentum jumps, feel like one big tutorial without even realizing you’re in one. It’s done very well.

I personally make a guess depending on certain games as to how long I’ve played them. I’ve definitely lost track of how long I’ve played certain games ( especially on console ) like Borderlands or Sonic Unleashed on xbox360. Especially since I never wrote any of that kinda stuff down in middle/high school because I didn’t care how long I had been playing in total.

Though, I will say that I like and dislike how Steam tracks your progress in playing games. I was roughly 4-6 minutes off of playing for 2 hours in order to buy some game related account themes but now I’m 2.7 hours in accoring to them because I ended up leaving it on in the background. In the future, I’m not gonna remember I did that, so I’ll assume I actually played all that time. There’s no nuance in their monitoring. If the game runs, so does their meter of how long it’s been on, regardless of you playing or not.

Though, I assume a good solution would be using any form of note taking program and jotting down your play times and dates and any other notes you want. Or using a spreadsheet with that same information. As long as you don’t lose that/those file(s), depending on what solution(s) you choose to take, it should be fine as long as you actually remember to do it and aren’t lazy about that, like I would be.

I don’t get it.

I’m one of the lucky people who has basically never had to introduce myself as being autistic, so no. And even then, I went through things like speech therapy growing up, so I can’t say I really stand out too much when speaking normally to strangers.

Despite using MX only for a relatively short time, just messing around in a VM for a long period of time would increase my odds of switching to something else*.

*when I need to switch to something else or find something a lot better

That is absolutely egregious. 200GB game with a 45GB update? You’d be lucky to see me installing a game that’s around 20-30GB max anymore because I consider that to be the most acceptable amount of bloat for a game anymore.

I’m so used to having a toaster for a desktop I had to look up what FSR is. I’m too college student budgeted to touch FSR.

Last I played months ago, I recall it being fine enough when I had my deck docked. FPS was stable and didn’t look too bad. Though, I’m not an expert on anything graphics, so my word doesn’t mean much.

Love it when you can get those for a cheap price. I ended up getting a copy of Borderlands 1 with DLC on another disc that’s one of those advertised for xbox one and 360 sets for a good price a few years back. Don’t remember the price, but it had to have been less than $20 before tax.

Not the newest game but still newer, but one of my biggest gripes is how much you need to be able to run the newest Ratchet and Clank. I’m lucky my steam deck can run it or I’d be screwed.

Yeah, I am not always great at reading people, so I can almost guarantee I’d fail to detect another fellow autistic person.

I cannot recall any specific programs besides a game called Feudal Tactics, but I swear I’ve seen software while looking through EasyFlatpak that surprised me.

I got to start a furry visual novel I found on itch(dot)io called Promises to Keep. It’s not complete yet, but so far I’m loving it. The character art is nice and the backgrounds are pretty good and I’m really liking the music.

I am absolutely glad I randomly found it on itch.

• Sonic the Hedgehog ( Genesis/Mega Drive )

• Chuzzle Deluxe

• Borderlands

• Baba Is You

Those would be some picks I would say are objective masterpieces, but that’s subjective, I guess.

Ever since I first heard it a few months ago, it has never left my mind for even a second.

Free by Crush 40

Sadly this great song was tied to a spin-off series killing game.