The Queue: Have a nice trip! See you next fall!

We’re officially in BlizzCon Month! There are so many things we have to get ready even before some of us start making the trip out to sunny Anaheim that it simultaneously feels like we have tons and tons of work to do on a daily basis, and yet there’s almost nothing going on. A quiet before the Heroes of the Storm, if you will.

This is The Queue, the daily column where you ask us questions and we’re not freaking out, are you freaking out? Because we’re not freaking out.

On the one hand, yes. One of the very few things I miss about being on Twitter is discovering new indie games to play, and things like the Next Fest gives me a single crumb of that discovery feeling. Of course, it’s far more curated and there’s less lifting on my part, but it’s good in that instance.

On the other hand, I feel like every other week there’s some kind of new big festival or showcase or discount grouping. In my case, it’s real — this huge wishlist backlog of old indies is constantly popping up in things like this week’s “Tell Me A Story” promotion, or specific publisher discount weeks. I’m just kind of burned out in general. This past week, in an attempt to burn through a few in my backlog, I played through Marie’s Room, The Inheritance of Crimson Manor, and started Train Station Renovation with my train-obsessed 8 year old. And that’s before all the updates to games I’ve enjoyed in the past — Salt 2, Valheim, Stardew Valley, and Terraria all had announcements this week — and all the Blizzard games I’m into.

So, basically, I’m excited to add even more to my wishlist while also adding to a general feeling of overwhelm. Truly, this is an embarrassment of riches.

I’ll always advocate for Duolingo as a great little enriching time killer. While I doubt the claim that it would make me anywhere near fluent without a whole boatload of additional help, it feels more worthwhile to know that “salle” is the French word for “room” than to know whether some rando is the a-hole for not getting the right gift for his stepdaughter’s wedding, because otherwise I’d probably be scrolling Reddit.

A really good little lightweight mobile game I’ll always recommend is called Influence. It’s a very bare bones turn-based strategy game, and you can pick it up and put it back down with zero consequence — I’ve continued games to their conclusion literally months after I put it down. You can play the lower difficulties as a time killing serotonin sink, or pump it up for a bit of a challenge.

Another great option is Shattered Pixel Dungeon, which is also, oddly, available on Steam. It’s a very standard Roguelike with a few minor Roguelite unlocks. The depth of gameplay is surprising, though it is a classic Roguelike so if you don’t get the drops you need you may be screwed.

I’m in the middle of the same slog for Bear and Breakfast, so I just want to take a sec to commiserate. As soon as I opened the final huge multi-lodge, I kinda ran out of management steam. Also, I’m kinda bummed that the endgame is for them to all basically have the same furniture. It’s such a cute game, and I want to finish it, but it feels overwhelming, even with the animal helpers. I will say though, that the Bear and Breakfast discord has some of the best reaction emojis that you might want to join up if you have Turbo. I use the screaming opossum all the time.

Of the three you’ve listed, Disco Elysium has notably good buzz. I know Red loves 13 Sentinels, so I’ll give that one a shout purely for his benefit. I haven’t played any of them, so I won’t give them an absolute stamp of approval, but.

Right now I’m getting back into 7 Days to Die. I haven’t played in at least one full version update, so there are a lot of new weird mechanical quirks to deal with. But, as you may have gathered, I’m kinda dealing with stress in my own way, and one of those ways is by bashing in zombie heads with baseball bats. Cathartic.