stargazingpenguin

It certainly is a complex thing to do well! I look at The Sims 3, which was simulating those entire maps all the time, and think of how much is going on in the background. I remember seeing all the individual Sims driving around from birdseye view and realizing they were all doing their thing whether or not my Sims were interacting with them! Switching to the smaller maps in TS4 just wasn't the same. I'm also sad about Life By You, it was the one I had the highest hopes for. Maybe someday they'll make another foray into the genre.

I hadn't realized they added curved walls, I guess that's a good indicator of how long it's been since I've played it! I just bought the base game and one or two expansions before I dropped it. While I've criticized TS3 for putting a few things in expansions that I thought should be in the base game, it was at least reasonably fleshed out without them. TS4 on the other hand felt like it had gaping holes that they were going to fill with DLC later. Going free to play later on pretty much proved that to me, and the features added in the expansions didn't make me want to buy them either.

I'm hoping Vivaland turns out good! I'll be keeping a close eye on it now that I know about it. Expectations are always hard, but we'll see what happens. Hopefully they'll do an early access release or a basic gameplay demo or something. I'm hopeful that since they don't have a massive list of features that we'll maybe get a pretty good game that can be a base for future improvements!

I'm going to keep an eye on all of them and see what happens. With the current drought of good life sim games I'm afraid we'll have some developers putting out some garbage, and I'm sure in some cases some well meaning devs that get in over their heads too. We'll have to wait and see what it's like when the dust settles!

Yeah, Vivaland looks a bit like The Sims 3, and I see a touch of TS4 in there too! I'll admit that I'm probably a bit too excited about having curved walls, my first attempts at architecture will most likely overuse them. I know the multiplayer features probably won't be a big selling point for a lot of people, but I think my spouse and I could have some fun with it!

Unfortunately the Steam page for inZOI says it requires an external account to play. Which is a shame, because I'm in the same boat with avoiding external accounts as much as possible. It's one of the reasons (besides the overall money grab nature) that I've not played much of The Sims 4. They do claim that it works well on the Steam Deck in a AMA they did though.

Yeah, I keep half an eye on the genre, and I don't remember any of the major sites covering it. It looks really good, but I guess we'll see what the gameplay is like. The idea of co-op, especially LAN co-op, is really interesting! I don't think anyone else is attempting that.

Had you seen AlterLife yet? No release date yet, but it could be another contender.

I'll have to see what Paralives is like when it comes out. I initially wasn't impressed with the art style and the look of the gameplay, but I'll see what I think when people start releasing long play videos.

My PC should be more than capable of running inZOI, but like you I'll be waiting to see what Linux compatibility is like. I'm not thrilled about having a separate account just to play the game, and the AI stuff is definitely an anti-feature too. I agree that it'll probably feel a bit flat, I got that feeling from watching their gameplay videos. I was hoping it was just because it was still a work in progress, but it just felt empty.

It'll be interesting to see which, if any, wins out. I'm hoping they all do well, because good competition brings out the best in everyone!

Two more life sims on my wishlist:

AlterLife - TBA

Vivaland - 2025

I'm just hoping one of them has a similar feel to The Sims 3, my favorite of the series.

I had never heard of Vivaland, but it's on my wishlist now! We are potentially going to be spoiled for choice in 2025 if all three come out this year.

Same here. I had nearly all the XCOM2 DLC purchased from GOG, and then Steam ran a sale on the bundle that was cheaper than buying the last piece to complete the collection! Since then I think GOG have run similarly cheap sales, but it wasn't the last time I saw that happen.

I know launchers like Heroic are available, and I use it for some of my games from them, but I actually liked the Galaxy launcher on Windows. I wasn't linking it to anything else though, so I didn't run into the issues you mention.

It's sad, because I think they could do well in the Linux community. Hopefully they eventually start supporting it, but until then I'll be buying most of my games from the company that's actively contributing and improving things for the community.

I used to purchase everything I could from GOG until I switched to Linux full time. I still like the company and buy some from them, but until they become more Linux friendly or Steam gets worse I'll still prioritize Steam now. And it's not only the (very odd) resistance to making a Linux version of Galaxy, I've also seen them not offer Linux versions of games even when the developers have released it on other platforms.

I would say there's a good possibility of that!

They should really hire KSP players to do these missions. We might put a ladder over the hatch or forget landing legs, but at least we know how to fix this issue!

I've been gaming on one since 2021, and on modern games the only issues I've had are a few games with pillarboxing and pre-rendered cutscenes showing in 16:9 instead. For me the benefits of having a wider monitor far outweigh the few things I've noticed.

Why don't you recommend it? I've run into very few games that don't support a 21:9 aspect ratio, and the extra screen space is very immersive.

I've seen people doing that, I should look into doing it sometime. I mostly use the Steam Deck for handheld emulation, but it can't hurt to have more options!