Looking for an oddly specific game (Or, the Minecraft Thread)

[Raemon777]

I've done some googling, but not found a game that's quite what I'm looking for.

I'm looking for a multiplayer game (I want to play with exactly one other person, although massively multiplayer might be fine as long as we can find each other and ignore everyone else). My long distance girlfriend and I don't have the time or energy for a serious MMO, but we want something fun and casual we can play together for a half hour at a time.

Needs to work on a Mac.

I think the idealized version of what we're looking for would be something akin to Journey, primarily focused on exploration and occasional problem solving, as opposed to relentless hack-and-slash. Except for the "work on a macbook" thing and the "want to get paired with a particular person instead of random person" thing.

(Minecraft might be sort of close, at least with some playstyles. I wouldn't have time to get really invested in it, and would honestly prefer more straightforwardly pretty graphics than the particular style they got going)

Anyone have thoughts?

 

[Ravenpoe]

I've done some googling, but not found a game that's quite what I'm looking for.

I'm looking for a multiplayer game (I want to play with exactly one other person, although massively multiplayer might be fine as long as we can find each other and ignore everyone else). My long distance girlfriend and I don't have the time or energy for a serious MMO, but we want something fun and casual we can play together for a half hour at a time.

Needs to work on a Mac.

I think the idealized version of what we're looking for would be something akin to Journey, primarily focused on exploration and occasional problem solving, as opposed to relentless hack-and-slash. Except for the "work on a macbook" thing and the "want to get paired with a particular person instead of random person" thing.

(Minecraft might be sort of close, at least with some playstyles. I wouldn't have time to get really invested in it, and would honestly prefer more straightforwardly pretty graphics than the particular style they got going)

Anyone have thoughts?

If you don't want to put in the dedication for minecraft, and want something more explorey and adventury than buildy and sandboxy, I'd recommend Terraria!

Though, I'll be honest, no idea if it works on macs.

 

[Raemon777]

Had considered Terraria. Doesn't appear to work on Mac. I know there are workarounds (right now neither of us has Windows installed. It wouldn't be the worst thing to get installed, but part of the issue is that we're really busy and just wanted something to chill with).

A browser-based game that's Terraria-like might be best, if that were a thing.

 

[GasBandit]

I'd seriously consider Borderlands/Borderlands 2. It's been one of the most positive co-op-with-the-woman experiences I've had to date, and there is a mac version. Only drawback is the Mac patch updates are done by a 3rd party, and they tend to run a week or two behind the PC patches. During that period, the two will have different versions that can't play together.

Might also give portal 2 a shot.

Other games we've enjoyed that might not meet your exact criteria -

Orcs must Die 2 - You be the warmage, she be the sorceress, cooperatively build traps in hallways to slaughter hundreds of oncoming orcs. Good stuff.
Demigod: MOBA game with a more sedate pace, and better bot customization - great for 2 people who want to play with the other slots filled in with bots. Might not be for mac though.
Saint's Row series - From 2 to 4, it's hard to go wrong. Little bit shooty-centric maybe for your requirements.
Minecraft - I know it looks cheesy, but don't knock it til you've tried it together. We did some amazing things in minecraft. We built incredible structures, cooperated, argued, had fights and even make up sex over things that happened in minecraft.
Guild Wars 2 - highly instanced MMO that lets you shut out everybody else, basically, when you want. No subscription fee.

 

[Raemon777]

Less interested in combat and more interested in exploration. MMOs are potentially good because it's fairly easy to do exploration with the combat being sort of incidental.

 

[GasBandit]

I think minecraft is your best bet. After a little while you won't even notice the blocky graphics.

 

[strawman]

While you're waiting for the ideal game to pop up, you should play portal in two player coop mode.

 

[Gusto]

Another vote for Minecraft, and maybe try Castle Crashers.

 

[Raemon777]

Heh. Portal 2'd be great, but I've played that before and it's kind of infuriating to play when one person knows all the puzzles. (Although... haven't paid attention to it since it came out. Dunno if there's DLC now or user generated content or somesuch)

 

[figmentPez]

It's a shame the LEGO games don't support online multiplayer (or Mac).

 

[bhamv3]

Are you guys willing to try text-based MMOs? Something like a MUD might work, although naturally you'd have to deal with the fact that there are absolutely no graphics.

 

[Raemon777]

We both tried single-player minecraft tonight and liked it a lot more than we expected. (I hadn't thought I was in the mood to build stuff, but the complexity-curve and exploration elements were both closer to what I was looking for than I had expected)

If anyone happens to think of something even better, that's cool, but assuming we can get a private server set-up, this seems good.

 

[GasBandit]

We both tried single-player minecraft tonight and liked it a lot more than we expected. (I hadn't thought I was in the mood to build stuff, but the complexity-curve and exploration elements were both closer to what I was looking for than I had expected)

If anyone happens to think of something even better, that's cool, but assuming we can get a private server set-up, this seems good.

If you both install Hamachi (which is a free, really easy to use dedicated gaming VPN software, and yes, it supports mac) and one of you joins the other's group, you should be able to simply use the LAN feature to play multiplayer without having to bother with a server. Basically, one of you would just go in their single player world, then click "open to lan" and the other should then see it on the multiplayer menu to join.

 

[Raemon777]

Oh, cool. Thanks!

 

[GasBandit]

Oh, cool. Thanks!

It works for just about any game that supports LAN play, incidentally.

 

[PatrThom]

Late to the party, but I have to say that for scratching that "I want to explore" itch, nothing else can really touch Minecraft.

My suggestion was going to be to give Wizard101 a shot, though you would have trouble keeping it down to only two people.
Dungeons and such max out at 4 people, but the lower level areas always have swarms of young 'uns running around, unless you play during school hours or well after hours. I don't know enough about their other game Pirate101 to know how it compares (except that I know it's aimed slightly older than Wiz101).

--Patrick

 

[Raemon777]

Had a lot of fun with minecraft the first few days.

It's sort of weird that this is the first game I preferred to *start* in Hardcore mode, rather than build up to it later. (First few rounds were just getting the hang of things, and it was neat to see different worlds as I did so).

In the joint-world my gf and I share (which is *not* hardcore ) I've started to feel a bit frustrated with dying and losing stuff a lot. But I suppose that gets better when I just stop doing dumb shit and getting killed. We also keep settling down and building a nice home... and then finding another, cooler place to build just a little bit farther away.

 

[GasBandit]

Had a lot of fun with minecraft the first few days.

It's sort of weird that this is the first game I preferred to *start* in Hardcore mode, rather than build up to it later. (First few rounds were just getting the hang of things, and it was neat to see different worlds as I did so).

In the joint-world my gf and I share (which is *not* hardcore ) I've started to feel a bit frustrated with dying and losing stuff a lot. But I suppose that gets better when I just stop doing dumb shit and getting killed. We also keep settling down and building a nice home... and then finding another, cooler place to build just a little bit farther away.

If you're interested I think I still have the map files lying around somewhere from the now-defunct Halforums minecraft server.

 

[PatrThom]

I suppose that gets better when I just stop doing dumb shit and getting killed.

You haven't lived until you're underground and a creeper blasts a hole through the floor into lava below, burning up the zombies that were chasing you but also catching you on fire until you manage to pull out that bucket of water you save for just such an emergency and dump it on the ground in front of you to put out the flames just before your last 1/2 heart disappears.

Intense!

--Patrick

 

[GasBandit]

You haven't lived until you're underground and a creeper blasts a hole through the floor into lava below, burning up the zombies that were chasing you but also catching you on fire until you manage to pull out that bucket of water you save for just such an emergency and dump it on the ground in front of you to put out the flames just before your last 1/2 heart disappears.

Intense!

--Patrick

And then the gravel falls on you and you suffocate.

 

[PatrThom]

And then the gravel falls on you and you suffocate.

Dude, I'm the admin on our server, but I don't play in admin mode (that would be cheating!). I can't tell you how many times I've done The Panic Ride Into The Depths when I step out onto a freshly discovered desert and a big section of the ground decides to give way and fall into some underground pit. Landsliiiiiide!

--Patrick

 

[Raemon777]

So far I haven't had anything quite that intense or dramatic. But my favorite moment so far:

Playing by myself on hardcore mode. Couldn't find any coal. Didn't know about furnaces or doors yet, or various other things I've since realized would have been a better solution than....

...to climb up a snowy cliff, dig a hole in the wall (basically creating the cave in "The Grinch"), and then destroying the path that led up there,so monsters couldn't follow me... and then a skeleton archer showed up and started shooting at me, and in a panic I sealed myself shut.

And then I couldn't see, and lost track of which way was out, and started digging randomly but couldn't tell where I was going. After 10 minutes of random digging into the darkness, heard the sounds of running water and monsters nearby.

And then realized I could turn up the brightness setting, and then I could see fine (I had dug out quite a cavern).

Then as soon as I could see, I got shot and died.

 

[GasBandit]

Hah, I forgot I still had these up and running:

http://gasbanditry.com/minecraft/

maps of the worlds we used on the minecraft server, using a google maps API.

Unfortunately, the map file for the Caprica map is MIA, and only the Ragnar map remains - and it'd be real easy to starve to death on ragnar since most of it was there before mojang invented food, or even animals. But if by some miracle you make it to Castle Gasbandia, there should be food in the chests in the kitchen off the main feasting hall.

Ragnar 332.6 megs

 

[figmentPez]

What? There are plenty of farms on Ragnar. There were animals, too.

 

[GasBandit]

What? There are plenty of farms on Ragnar. There were animals, too.

Oh yeah, I forgot about the farm you built right there at the spawn. Nevermind.

 

[Shakey]

I had avoided minecraft for a long time because I knew it would get me hooked something fierce. My GF's daughter has started playing it, and I was thinking of giving it a go for something to do together. I finally broke down and started playing it last night. I should have gone to bed early, since I'm sick, but that didn't happen. Damnit, I'm sucked in.

Anyone know if it's possible to make a private server that both android and pc versions can play on?

 

[GasBandit]

I had avoided minecraft for a long time because I knew it would get me hooked something fierce. My GF's daughter has started playing it, and I was thinking of giving it a go for something to do together. I finally broke down and started playing it last night. I should have gone to bed early, since I'm sick, but that didn't happen. Damnit, I'm sucked in.

Anyone know if it's possible to make a private server that both android and pc versions can play on?

Nope, Pocket edition is totally different from the PC edition which can't even play nice with the Xbox edition.

 

[Shakey]

Nope, Pocket edition is totally different from the PC edition which can't even play nice with the Xbox edition.

Yeah, I was hoping for a way around that. I did find Blue stacks, which is an android emulator. So you'd have to run the PE version inside that to play together.

 

[PatrThom]

Correct. The versions aren't (currently) cross-compatible. There have been some rumblings about changing this, but nothing has yet come of them.

PC version is probably the most versatile (Mac/Win/Lin) but not portable, and the portable versions (And/iOS) are much more limited in size/scope. XBox is XBox.

--Patrick

 

[Far]

Cubeworld is a more exploration focused Minecraft but won't work on macs at the moment.

 

[Raemon777]

Heh.

So, end result: She's more addicted to Minecraft than me, but I take it way more seriously than her. This produces a set of issues I hadn't anticipated.

We played a bit over the week. Saturday I wanted to... go outside, and explore the *real* world for a bit. And she was like "but... but... Minecraft!"

And then we played for 8 hours.

It ended with us finding a dungeon, getting our asses kicked, but then mining a bunch of iron, smithing ourselves a full suit of armor and weapons, making down into the depths of the dungeon, slaughtering everyone who stood before us....

....and then, right before we were going to haul everything upstairs, and then log off and go to bed, I lagged, and fell in the lava, and died.

And then I wanted to move my respawn point closer to the action, so I grabbed a bed from the top of the dungeon, and brought it down with me. I took the rest of the iron we had hidden in a chest, made myself more armor.

Then *she* died, and I had accidentally stolen her bed, so she respawned a continent away.

Then I died again.

And then we had lost basically everything we had spent the past few hours working for. And I was really sad and stressed out. And she was like "dude, it's just a game, chill out!" and I'm like "but... but... so much iron! And horrible separation cliffhanger!"

We almost went to bed on time, like responsible adults. And then she's like "so.... we could play some more..."

And then we played for another 3 hours.

My god, what have I done?

 

[GasBandit]

My god, what have I done?

Just wait till you start having arguments about design decisions on large construction projects. Though, I have to say the make up sex was pretty boss.

 

[Dei]

My husband makes giant walls and mines, I get to build the houses. Problem solved!

 

[GasBandit]

My husband makes giant walls and mines, I get to build the houses. Problem solved!

Heh, we both like to build, is the thing, not merely dig. And some of our projects really, really needed more than one person to complete.

Like this one was the last major one we completed on the HF server, loosely based on Belvedere Palace in Austria:

Spoiler

front

Various indoor shots from the first floor:

Spoiler

ballroom

indoor pool area

billiards room

library

Final aerial shot:

 

[Raemon777]

That's pretty awesome.