The Stanley Parable (PC - 2013)

First of all, this is not really a game but it's a hundred times more entertaining than most of the games out there - if you are in the right mood that is. The Stanley Parable is like a modern take on a Franz Kafka novel in FPS style with an over-analyzer narrator and a story with no real end. 

You are Stanley, an office worker. One day you realize that all your colleagues have disappeared, you are all alone in a huge office building - you need to get out, or at least find out what happened with the others. As you move around the narration helps you here and there, pointing out things, but mostly the voice just confuses you and messes up your "game" - But that's actually the point.

The Stanley Parable is not your usual FPS exploration experience, it's a totally different take on a well known genre. After the narrator restarted your game (yes, why, did you think you're the one in control?) for the 10th time you start to realize what is it all about and start to enjoy it even more.

The best thing in the game is the humor because it's funny in ways you don't expect it to be. Along the journey you will find great gags, clever and funny solutions for moving the story ahead and most importantly the narration - without it the game wouldn't be the same. Check it out if you are ready for something different and if you don't mind that this time the game plays with you and not the other way around.

www.stanleyparable.com

StarBound (PC - 2013)

First, there was Minecraft which revolutionized the sandbox / openworld / survivor gaming style, added elements like crafting, block based graphics and a complete „geo-mode” so you can build or destroy anything you want. This gave the game a great advantage and gamers a whole new perspective to look at a game and to play.

Countless clones arrived, the designers started to add rpg or strategy elements and some really nice games got developed, but the next big step in my opinion was Terraria, a really beautiful and deep experience. Visually it was a step back some might think, but for the type of genre it think 2D is more than enough and since I'm sucker for retro games it made it even more interesting for me.

I'm sure some of the designers of Terraria must have gotten involved with the development of StarBound because structually and visually it's a very similar game, still it manages to be very different and a million times bigger than Terraria was.

You can handle the universe of StarBound like your own, you can explore planets, mine for precious metals or minerals, craft, create mini civilizations, hunt animals, grow vegetables, reach asteroids or moons, different galaxies, kill bosses and most important of all, survive.  

You have to be careful with food and the temperature. Cold is a real enemy, during the night you have to find a fire to keep you warm and certain planets or moons are not even explorable until you don't get some really warm clothes because you freeze almost instantly.

It's really an amazing game, worth trying it out, but you have to be careful, it can make you sit in front of your monitor for days!

Star Command (Android, IOS - 2013)

Here is another space themed game called Star Command. It was funded through Kickstarter, developed by indie game designers Jordan and Justin Coombs. The game is a space exploration and combat simulation game, with players acting as captain of a starship who is tasked with exploring the galaxy and defending his crew from hostile aliens.

You can upgrade your ship, build and upgrade weapons, engines, shields and many other systems. You can hire crew members who can individually gain experience, level up. You can assign your crew to different rooms / systems, they can act as scientists, engineers, security etc.

You have a huge universe to explore but for the first few hours of gameplay you pretty much have to follow a linear story. As you progress and make more and more choices which effect your game you will be able to explore more freely and roam around the galaxies. Your basic goal is to save humanity from evil aliens, but it's a lot more complicated than that. During your adventures you meet many different species, you fight with some of them and help or trade with the others.

The most time consuming parts of the game are the battles, some of them can take ages and with the tricky aiming systems you have to be on the top of your game all the time not to spend 20-30 minutes with each encounter. You can install and upgrade weapon systems, assign crew members to control them. Sometimes the enemy teleports a few guys on your ship and those are the most frustrating battles, when you have to concentrate on the fight on two frontlines.

Really fun game even if the battles tend to be too long sometimes, if you are into space exploration games this one is for you for sure!

http://www.starcommandgame.com/home.html