This is one of the most original, beautifully written games I've played in years. I bought it a couple days ago and I'm hooked.

Also recommend Darkest Dungeon. Such simple stuff but made into a completely original roguelike without being just another Arkham Horror clone.

Just goes to show you how far good storytelling goes. I'll take that over the "best graphics" any day.

This and Wasteland 2 are on my "good-by life" list at the moment.

Thank god Starbound has turned into a Nintendo platforming twitch-fest or I'd really be screwed.

I love Starbound.

I'll love it more when I finally beat that God-damned crystal monster.

I am literally the worst zee captain ever. Once I forgot to turn my light back on and sunk by running into an island.

I hate the fact that Starbound locks whole planets (and at one point, the GALAXY) behind twitch-platform-combat gameplay with no save points and "do it again stupid" boss fights.

The crystal monster quest takes, what, at least 20 minutes to clear out the mine and even get to the boss? Then, even if you know the trick of hiding under the central platform, you'll probably die to fall damage at some point, and then it's 20 minutes of mines that suddenly got re-populated AGAIN.

There's no way to "level up" to be more resilient for the fight if you can't manage the platforming, since all the next-tier tech/weapons is waiting for you AFTER the boss battle, and this just happens over and over again. This mechanic really needs to die. If twitch-gamers want that kind of challenge, make winning on the first go an achievement or something and let everyone else have a chance to get through it without having to use the /admin console.

Starbound is fun, but i think its biggest problem is in the sparseness. Even with the Giraffe update and the new economy tweets, planets become useless more or less after you finish the tier. This could be solved with interesting NPC AI that uses reputation and side quests to create procedurally generated planetwide events.

I know they are working hard on NPC stuff and ship combat, so the next bug update should be pretty cool.

They also took out the ability to repair tools for some reason, and you can't sell anything to anyone.

I agree that a reputation system would be great. It'd be interesting if you had to kill a bunch of Avians to get something for a mission reward and then had to deal with the Avians wanting to murder you.

I do see a ton of potential in Starbound. All of the junk you can build with, the wiring system, etc. Add in actual trading with space combat and it'd be a bit like the old Elite game's economic system. As it stands, however, you wind up Nintendo-mining a planet for chests full of stuff you don't want to throw away in case it's part of a crafting recipe you don't have yet, and you can't progress without banging your head against the lairs of extremely difficult boss fights.

Really, it's only been a game for four years? Dear lord where have I been all this time? I'm sure I've slept some, though I'm not sure when I last saw a bed. The food isn't terrible, if you like mushrooms and bats.

Only four years he says.... only four years?

I SLEPT TOO LONG!

I played Fallen London back when it was called Echo Bazaar.

Sunless Sea is really fun so far.

I also recommend rum or whiskey, if you're into that sort of thing.

Since supplies generally are about 50% more expensive than fuel I'd suggest going full speed all the time. Also if you have the patience, stay away from the bigger engines because the fuel drain is really bigger than the bonus you get. Same thing goes for larger boats with larger crews because that increases your supply drain.

I am pretty sure you can do all the large storylines with just the starting layout.

Also your lantern drains fuel. Turn it off half of the time if you are running really low.

Oo! I know that one! 1) There's a store in London that will buy it. Forget which one offhand. Just poke around and the Captain's Book should show up there.

I know the answer to 2. At some point in history a darkness (Lovecraft blah blah) descended upon the world and it flooded. The original London was stolen by those swarms of z-bats that you see flying around.

I haven't found the Captain's Book yet. I just discovered the sun island, so pretty excited about figuring that out.