Pearlmania

One Evening Games!

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Hey hello hi hello.

This is my first post in the forums, thanks for having me.

I'm looking for recommendations of short games that are easy to complete or experience in one or two sittings. I want to slip on my house coat, pour a scotch or two and enjoy a short game. Neither genre nor platform matter, anything will do.

Any ideas?

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Journey

Walking Dead Episodes

Gone Home

Last of Us Left Behind DLC (I think this is available standalone now)

Loom

Punchout!

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Portal - 3ish hours. I would feel very silly describing this game, since it's become such a massive phenomenon. It's a puzzle game.

 

30 Flights of Loving - 20 minutes to complete, another 20 to check out the commentary (which you should). A non-linear narrative heist game by Brendon Chung, originally given away to Idle Thumbs kickstarter backers.

 

The Stanley Parable - Hard to say, but probably an average of 5-10 minutes per possible ending? I have an hour played and feel good about it. I guess I would describe it as a satire of choice and narrative in games? It's funny and bizarre and surprising in the best ways.

 

edit: included some times/descriptions

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This is a great thread for reminding me of all the games I've picked up over the years in bundles and steam sales that I haven't played yet :D 

 

Asura's Wrath

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Do episodic games count? Kentucky Route Zero is fantastic, and each act is about 2 hours. I wouldn't recommend playing more that one act in a sitting, it's much better if you give it time to breathe.

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You know, a lot of these recommendations are not suitable when sipping whisky. Too much action, and two hands needed. I'm going to count an evening to be up to 4 hours, the really sort ones are marked with ^.

 

- Back to bed

- Botanicula

- Brothers

- The Cave* (multiple replays possible)

- Cradle**

- Jazz Punk*

- Little Inferno^

- Mind: Path to Thalamus*

- The Misadventures of PB Winterbottom^/*

- Mountain^

- Never Alone*

- The Novelist^/**

- Puzzle Agent 1+2

- Samorost 2^

- The Swapper*

- Time Gentlemen, Please!

- Type: Rider*

- Unmechanical*

- Vanashing of Ethan Carter*

- Windowsill^

- The Yawhg

- Town of Salem

 

^) 2 hours or less

*) these games require both hands to play

**) requires both hands, but plenty of time to pick up a glass of whisky once in a while.

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Some great games already mentioned. I'll add To the Moon :). There are a few episodic games too that work work with a chapter per evening. I really like tales from the borderlands right now

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These are all great suggestions thank you all so much!

I ended up downloading Journey on my PS4 because I didn't own a ps3 last gen and I never had a chance to check it out.

 

My review: It's good.

 

MGS: Ground Zeroes, Brothers, and The Last of Us DLC are next on my list. 

 

Sadly (or maybe not sadly) I imagine that come September 1st I'll spend all of my gaming time running around the Afghan desert fultoning as many wild animals as possible back to my weird oil rig army base in MGS:TPP. Nevertheless I used all of your great suggestions to compile a list for future reference.

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I like this thread. 

 

I recommend Thirty Flights of Loving. It really uses it's 15 minutes of duration well, doesn't waste any second of it.

 

Brothers is beautiful as well, great pick. 

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Today I played through Limbo again for the first time since it's release.

 

Looked really great on PS4 and was still just as enjoyable.

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It's a bit of an older one, but I think my favorite quick game is the cat and the coup. If you enjoy games that aren't afraid of politics it's about the CIA coup against Mohammad Mossadegh, you play as his cat.

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I don't know if it's your type of thing, but Ludum Dare entries are coming in and I think it's fun to download the ones with compelling screenshots and titles to try them out. The fact that they originate from a three-day jam tends to result in brevity. The prompt is You are the monster which, interestingly is significantly different than You were the monster all along.

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I really like this thread thread idea and don't want to be a downer, but it's not very helpful when people just list titles.  Can we at least get basic descriptions of the games?

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I'd like to second the recommendation of The Yawhg. Mechanically, it's a choose-your-own-adventure book with some light stat-management that supports up to 4 person local multiplayer, yet still works as a single-player experience. But the mechanics aren't the draw. It's a well-written, beautifully-illustrated, and superbly scored game that only requires about 20 minutes of your time.

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I don't know if it's your type of thing, but Ludum Dare entries are coming in and I think it's fun to download the ones with compelling screenshots and titles to try them out. The fact that they originate from a three-day jam tends to result in brevity. The prompt is You are the monster which, interestingly is significantly different than You were the monster all along.

 

Shout out to Lucas Pope's (Papers, Please) Ludum Dare entry, Unsolicited.

 

On Pope's site you can find all his previous Ludum Dare games, which fit nicely with this thread's theme. I'm a big fan of them - they're all darkly satisfying and well made. Anyone who enjoyed Papers, Please should definitely check them out if they haven't before. I particularly recommend The Republia Times (a pseudo-prequel to Papers).

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