#lightyear frontier

10 games I enjoyed in 2024:

Helldivers 2

Garden Life: A Cozy Simulator

Lightyear Frontier

Botany Manor

Fields of Mistria

Farewell North

Core Keeper

Age of Mythology: Retold

The Rise of the Golden Idol

What Mecha games are you familiar with and would recommend?

So to get the obvious out of the way:

Armored Core 6, the one most people (including myself) started with and probably the easiest to get into.

Gundam Breaker 4, personally the story is a miss for me but the gameplay and the building aspect is really fun

Titanfall 2, peak FPS probably heard of it before.

Now onto the stuff I love (I still love all 3 of these above but these ones below are so niche they deserve the extra love) :

Gearbits, it's so cheap and simple but God damn is it fun, if you have a pc that connects to a socket or a laptop that uses a battery you should definitely get it, steam exclusive unfortunately.

SD Gundam Battle Alliance, my jam before I got into GB4, it is a bit grindy but it's story is enjoyable enough and the gameplay is fire, definitely get it even if you're not sold on the SD ascetic (also first PC game to feature the Xi Gundam I'm pretty sure, tho it is dlc locked)

Into the Breach, the best turn based mecha roguelike ever made, definite classic that is both challenging and fair.

Phantom Brigade, the best turn based mecha Xcom like, although not featuring a grid system it's mechanics are fun, I haven't beaten it yet but it's probably my top 3 game (poly graphics indie games save me)

Airmech, my favorite RTS ever ever made. You get to play as a transforming robot that either sends out troops all around the map in plane mode or joins the action directly in robot mode. Absolutely love it.

Lightyear Frontier, a farming sim but you get to pilot a mecha, it is a brilliant chill game and I absolutely love it, I only played the demo but I'm getting it sometime soon.

Now onto the game I haven't played but is really good from what I've heard:

Battletech, a slow strategic Xcom like that I've wanted to get into for a while, still on the list, tons of dlc and pretty expensive.

That's all I got, there's a ton more tho, oh and:

Ad | Titan deploying to combat farming zone. Prepare for crop harvest.

I saw a trailer for Lightyear Frontier and was patiently waiting - Stardew 1.6 also just came out and I decided to try the new farming game instead of restarting my farm for the 7th time. I was pleasantly surprised, the game looks great - runs well and stomping around with a giant mech was just the difference in farming games I needed. Before I knew it, it was already 11pm and I had done nothing but build out my little farm and explore everything I could. With simple missions and straightforward upgrade paths Lightyear Frontier rewards those willing to walk the extra mile to farm resources early. I really like how in the late game I found myself going back to areas I've previously got for resources. I'd start replanting the trees I cut down, feed the local wildlife and move on. It took me 19 hours to get all the upgrades, explore all the ruins and move my farm four times until I found the perfect spot. This was the game I needed to play and it was a nice breakaway from climbing ranks in Street Fighter. The game is still in early access but I had no bugs while playing, just be warned in case you do end up giving it a try. 

A farming game that is Stardew Valley meets No Man's Sky. You explore a procedurally generated universe in search of new plants and crops. Your goal is not the colonization or terraformation of these planets. As a xenobotanist, your goal is to catalog and study new types of flora. You'll discover and study the plant life of the planets you visit and take back to your ship seeds and samples. Your spaceship is equipped with plenty of farming space where you can grow and study a wide array plants native to different kinds of biomes while you travel among the stars to your next destination.

When you decide to take a break from planet exploration you can return to your homebase, set in small moon, where your main farming space is located. You'll be able to transplant the crops in your ship to the farming area in your homebase. You can hire farming rovers to tend to your crops while you are away, and when you return you use the crops the rovers have harvested to create new dishes and craft new items. You can also use your ship to travel to the planet your moon orbits, and sell some of your crops to vendors... or to cooks, crafters, and researches, who might discover uses for them you never would have imagined.

Once your wanderlust returns, you can hop back into your ship and resume exploring the universe in search of new plants.