Well, you still need a client if you’re on mobile. I’m not going to watch my video essays through a browser if I can do it through an app. I use libretube which ends up being Piped under the hood, it’s just smoother.
I also used to use revanced because it allowed me to keep a few public playlists up to date (something you can only do by interfacing with Youtube). People have their reasons for things.
I bet it has to do with the average age of the gaming community getting older. I used to play Civ 5, EU4, CK2 all the time in college, when I have tons of free time and didnt care if I was up until 3 in the morning. Now that I have a life and a job, it takes like a week of 1-2 hour sessions to finish a game of civ 5, and the last time I played EU4, I played for several weeks and didnt even finish.
I finished Chants of Sennaar a couple nights ago, it was a lot of fun. Language-based puzzle game inspired by the Tower of Babel. It’s very pretty to look at, and a lot of the puzzles were really clever. My only real complaint is that I was really expecting the final level to be much more difficult, requiring me to do a lot of synthesizing of ideas from previous levels, but instead the final puzzles were pretty easy and linear. I’d still recommend it though, the first 80% of the game is great, and if you get that far, you’ll probably have the momentum to finish, the end doesn’t take that long.
Also a fan of Unbound! My last run I tried whatever setting it is that makes it so that all fully evolved pokemon have the same stat totals, which really made the game feel different and like I actually had options for building a team. Although I still found myself thinking “oh I can’t put butterfree on my team, it’s too weak”
My favorite hack is Gaia, it doesn’t have as many features as Unbound but it’s got the right vibes for a pokemon game while still having increased difficulty and QOL stuff.
ROM hacks of gen 3 games are pretty fun, and the most up to date ones are very high quality.
-Pokemon Gaia is my favorite, still feels like a classic pokemon game and its really polished. No postgame yet though, there’s a big update thats been “coming soon” for a few years, but the devs say they’re still working on it.
-Pokemon Unbound is by far the most complex pokemon game in existence, with content up to gen 8, side quests, mechanics from later games, and tons of postgame content. Also a more “adult” storyline, although I think that actually detracts from the feeling of a pokemon game
-Altered Emerald and Polished Crystal, if you want to play expanded versions of official games
-One that people usually recommend is Pokemon Glazed, but i don’t really like that one. It’s a big game but the balance and pacing of it is way off.
Recently I’ve been playing a massive minecraft map called Drehmal, which got a big update a few weeks ago. It’s kinda like if someone made an elder scrolls game in minecraft, with lots of exploring, loot and lore to find. Unfortunately I think something about the map, either the mods needed to play it or the size, doesn’t agree with my computer and I will get a crash after a few hours of play. So maybe I should find something else.
Minecraft. I go through phases of not playing it, but once or twice a year I’ll start up a new world and just mindlessly build and mine while listening to a podcast or an audiobook, and will play every night for several weeks. I’ve started so many minecraft worlds over the years that I really don’t need to think about what to do next
I absolutely recommend TUNIC. It’s sort of a combination of a legend of zelda/dark souls gameplay and a really interesting puzzle element. Basically, you are playing this game without the guide or any tutorial, and as you play you pick up pages of the game guide which teach you how to play, but it’s written in a language you can’t read, so you have to piece together the mechanics based on the pictures. The game is absolutely full to bursting with secrets, including a final puzzle that blew my mind when I figured it out. I played it with invincibility on so that I could focus on the puzzle element and not worry about combat so much.
It’s one of those games that you can only play once because you learn so many secrets through playing it, but it’s a truly magical experience.
I’m 100% in agreeance, making each character’s storyline its own game is the best move, it’ll get more attention than a Bachelor DLC. I was more surprised to learn that the Bachelor’s route wasn’t a dead project! And also very cool that kickstarter people get the game for free.