When I was kid, I could sit in front of TV for hours and sink a day or two away into a game and have no problem having to start the game over from the beginning. Time meant nothing to me and I wasted it like it was a near infinite resource.
Now I am a parent and ain’t got time for some of the nonsense that’s in games nowadays. I’m lucky if I have even an hour to play each night.
A good example: Forza Horizon 5 allows you to switch cars mid game without traveling back to a house. That to me is a huge time saver compared to the recent NFS games.
Contrarily, Forza Motorsport (2023) makes you do qualifications every round. While realistic, a big time sink.
That said, what are some of your favorite games that have respect for your limited time?
Not going to be everyone’s cup of tea, but I’ve been enjoying Idling to rule the gods. (Steam/Android cross save)
It’s an idle game that could take years to “beat”, has a pet collection/dungeon game that’s pretty fun.
You can progress only checking in a couple times a day for a few minutes, some challenges (for progression/QOL upgrades) require more activity, but overall has a nice feeling of day to day improvement.
i think bethesda games do it well but you gotta make sure you dont stop playing in the middle of a dungeon because then you will forget what the hell you were doing. but going at it like 1 dungeon or quest at a time is rather nice, its how ive played it for the last couple years
Sea of Stars is broken up into nice little chunks between save points. Also has ‘relics’ which can modify the game to be more your speed.
Any TBS game with save function (which is very common)
Roguelikes, such as Hades. A single run won’t take you longer than 30mins (and often far, far less than that – you’ll die, a lot).
Every run is progress. And if you feel like you’re not progressing fast enough, you can turn on “God Mode” (the protagonist is a god) and gain 2% damage reduction after each death, to make subsequent runs a little easier (no penalty in doing so, either).
