I actually prefer games involving isolation/exploring (list)

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I seem to have a lot in common with people with ASD, everything but the non-verbal deficits & need for strict routines.

This is reflected particularly in the type of games I enjoy. To give you an idea, here are my favourites:

Kairo
Dear Esther
TimeFrame - a free online game. This is by far the most beautiful experience I've had with a game.

What they have in common is that they are set in remote, isolated locations, and a lot of exploring is involved.

I can't say I appreciate horror games though. I often find them to be too 1-dimensional.

Hmm, I kinda have some of those preferences as well.

In my case it tends to manifest as a love for "sandbox" games, particularly Minecraft. Yeah, I'll play a little multiplayer in that every now and then... typically minigame servers... but the vast majority of the time is spent in single-player survival mode, either normal version or modded version. Either way, it's just me, an unending randomly generated world with lots of stuff to do/find, and 10 bazillion monsters. I can choose my goals based on context and situation, I can choose how to go about those goals, and overall, I can just decide everything on my own, nobody to interfere (well, okay, the monsters do, but as they lack intelligence I'm not counting them), and explore anywhere that seems interesting. And of course build whatever screwball structure/thing/something I feel like (usually something practical rather than showy).

And same thing in similar games.


Agreed also on the horror games... most of them just dont do it for me. The recent Five Nights at Freddy's games being some of the very rare exceptions.

Check out "No Man's Sky" - coming out at some point in 2015; looks awesome:

http://www.no-mans-sky.com/

Whether a distant mountain or a planet hanging low on the horizon, you can go there. You can fly seamlessly from the surface of a planet to another, and every star in the sky is a sun that you can visit.

Where you’ll go and how fast you’ll make your way through this universe is up to you. It’s yours for the taking



Explore uncharted solar systems and catalogue unique new forms of life. Every planet’s landscape is different from the next, and populated by species never before encountered.

Find ancient artefacts that could reveal the secrets behind the universe.

Choose whether to share your discoveries with other players. They’re exploring the same vast universe in parallel; perhaps you’ll make your mark on their worlds as well as your own.



Every solar system, planet, ocean and cave is filled with danger, and you are vulnerable.

Your ship and suit are fragile, and every encounter can test your skills to the limit. From dogfighting in space to firstperson combat on a planet’s surface, you will face foes ready to overwhelm you.

And one mistake could see you lose everything. In No Man’s Sky, every victory and every defeat has lasting consequences



Whether you want to explore and see things never before discovered, or directly set course for the centre of the galaxy, how you play No Man’s Sky is up to you.

But you cannot take your voyage lightly. You’ll need to prepare.

Collect precious resources on the surfaces of planets and trade them for the ships, suits and equipment that will take you to your destiny in the stars

Ah, No Man's Sky, that one.... hmm, I"m not getting my hopes up too much on that one. For one reason: It's a very ambitious project, and overly ambitious projects have a habit of not ending up being nearly what they could have been.

Yeah, it could be different with that one.... and it'd be awesome if that turns out to be the case... but I dont want to get too excited for it only to be let down.


That reminds me of something else I can present here that has a few similar ideas:

http://en.spaceengine.org/



If you're gonna watch the video, watch the whole thing.... it's downright epic.

The program/game/something itself is incredible. Absolutely incredible. Explore anywhere, explore anything, to whatever level of depth/detail you want. Like, okay, in the video, when they're near a moon/whatever with all of those craters, right? That's not just some texture or something; if you dive down towards the moon's surface, you can explore each individual crater, up close, prowl around the entire moon/planet/something, look at and get close (REALLY close if you want... sit yourself down on some individual rock next to a river if you so feel like it) to individual mountains/lakes/rivers/valleys... and then maybe you look up, at all of the stars, you can click on one of them, and travel, seamlessly, towards it. If it has planets, you can interact with those. Or maybe an asteroid belt. And when you see the player sorta zooming around at hyper speed, with all of those stars flying past? Each and every one of those can be explored; you could stop the zooming at any instant, and click on one of them, and off you'd go. It's not a random "special effect". And none of these little details ever vanish; if you leave that little rock by the river, go and explore 100 other stars in a different galaxy, and come back, you can still find that same rock and set yourself down on it again if you want.

Alot of functions as well to help make exploring that much easier and fun. You can log the coordinates/whatever of any conceivable location that you could possibly be at, regardless of what/where it is, and come back to it at any time... even if you've travelled like 20 galaxies away from it. Or you could maybe find some location that's really cool, get it's exact coordinates, and give them to a friend so they can see it in their game too.

There's alot of complicated-as-hell functions and stats and whatever to explore if you want as well.... all sorts of science-y stuff available to look at and interact with. It's a very deep and complicated program, but the nice thing is that you dont HAVE to dive into the complicated stuff if you dont want to.

It's seriously amazing, and it's super easy to just get sucked into it for hours... those billions of stars arent going to explore themselves, after all!

I dont remember what the required specs are, and I'm not sure how well or not it does on weaker PCs. I'm using a very powerful one myself, and the program runs to perfection, but I cant guarantee that'll be the case for everyone. It's worth a try though, that's for sure.

TimeFrame is actually available online, but for those who'd prefer to watch, here is a video.
It's basically 10 seconds slowed down into 10 minutes. When the 10 minutes are up, something big happens. I can't tell you why as that would spoil the effect.

This is the complete trilogy on disc.
The Prime 1 & 2 from Gamecube have been updated with Prime 3's pointer controls.
Retro took all the complaints from second game being too hard and rebalanced it for the Wii release.
Oh the original North American release has a steal book with an art book.
If you haven't played this trilogy you should.

1) Prime 1 has you take control of Samus Aran (who you always play as in Metroid) and you must figure out what happened on Talon IV by researching all the locations, artifacts, and logs that Chozo left behind. You must also stop the Space Pirates from their evil doings as well.

2) Prime 2 sends you to Planet Aether to help the light race bring an end to the war. The evil Ings were created when Phazon hit the planet and splitting into light and dark. In beginning you lose all of your gear and ship. You are forced to traverse the world defeating bosses and helping the light race defeat the evil Ing restoring the planet to its former self. Oh you do it practically alone gaining new powers too.

3) you must stop the Space Pirates from unleashing their master plan to defeat the Galactic Federation and destroy many plants. You also have to destroy the source of Phazon ending the trilogy for good.
Oh If you'd didn't already know you become corrupted along with your fellow bounty hunters by Phazon.
Hence the why Prime 3 is subtitled Corruption. You carry out your mission with the fellow hunters in the beginning.
Beware they turn on you when they fully corrupt, forcing you to kill them.


You return to Planet Zebes to recover the baby Metroid. As Samus you are forced to explore every nook and cranny, stumbling on the Space Pirates plan with rebuilt Mother Brain. If you get lost this time it's your own damn fault.
Go stop the Space Pirates and defeat Mother Brain.
It is also the pinnacle of 2D Metroid still holding up to this day.


Metroid Fusion is great game.
Instead of traversing a planet, you stay in a space station.
What is the Federation up to? What are Parasite X?
Oh you must dodge the main boss SA-X, who is a X version of fully upgraded Samus, she is more powerful than you at nearly every turn.
Beware Samus has a new powers and a different suit thanks to the X infecting her.

There is only so many places you go in this Space Station.

The game is a tad linear, but it is quite good.



Xenoblade Chronicles is an Action RPG that plays like an MMORPG. You must traverse Bionis and Mechonis trying to find your kidnapped friend, while saving the world.
You and your newly encountered friends help you along the way.
Relationships matter in stat boosting in this game.
Also a great game if you love loot.

Oh it is hard to find Wii game in North America.



Xenoblade Chronicles X the successor to the aforementioned Xenoblade Chronicles.

Earth is caught between two warring alien races.
Aliens destroy Earth as punishment for humanity's neutrality.
The great cities of Earth are launched into space, though most were found and destroy by the vengeful aliens.
The game follows the people of the ship White Whale which consist of mainly Neo Los Angeles and other parts of SoCal.
You wind up on a distant planet thanks o aliens damaging the ship in an attempt to destroy it.

That is all that is known about this ARPG coming to Wii U next year.
Oh there is an online mode as well and mechs.

Oh yeah, the Metroid games are pretty good.

I haaaaaaaaaaaated Prime though. Hate hate hate. Gone was the wonderful atmospheric platformer with well-tuned EVERYTHING, and in it's place.... an accursed FPS. I remember I had a ".....wat." kind of reaction when the game was announced. I did give it a try, but.... uuuuuugh. Never want to touch it again. I really, really hate that entire genre, and FINALLY new Metroid games came out, only to be in that very genre... argh.


My big problem with Metroidvania games as "exploration" type games: When you've run through them exactly ONCE, that's it, the exploration aspect is entirely gone forever. There's nowhere else to explore. Most of the time, I play games that use random/procedural generation to avoid that, so I can get the "exploration" aspect EVERY time I play them. I'll still do Metroidvania games, but not very often these days.