Halo Wars vs Verdant Skies
Halo Wars
Halo Wars is the MMORTS spin-off that was inspired by the popular sci0fi shooter franchise, Halo. However, unlike a shooter, this time around you can choose to side with either the Covenant or the UNSC as they raise armies and battle each other on the battlefield. The game feels a lot like any other great MMORTS games, like Starcraft, but although the game supports keyboard controls, you might still want to plug in a controller because... well Halo is an XBox-exclusive series and as you might expect, its spin-offs are pretty much the same thing.The best part though is its multiplayer aspect. You can choose to play cooperatively with friends against a super strong AI in the campaign or you can go online and engage in intense, action-packed warfare with other players from all over the world through the versus game mode. However, a quick note though, waiting for its random matchmaking to find an opponent will take quite some time. So, if possible, go and meet your fellow players and add a couple of them as friends. At least when you want to play a game, you won't have to wait too long for one.
Verdant Skies
Verdant Skies is an indie farm simulation/RPG combined with a pretty unique art style and visual novel-like dialogue choices. In this game, you play as the latest pioneer who was sent from Earth to a habitable alien planet whose main job is to set up and manage the farms at the colony, but of course, you are often asked to help out other characters with their tasks. You can also interact with the characters to increase your relationship level and eventually unlock new options such as being able to date them and start a family.Verdant Skies also features a straightforward gathering and crafting where every almost every action you take in this game will cost you time and/or energy. There's no need to restore the time you lost, but energy can be easily restored by consuming food. As a game that's very similar to Harvest Moon in essence, the game's farming aspect can be impressively in-depth, allowing you to splice the genes of your crops and your livestock to produce much more superior versions.
Verdant Skies is definitely the sort of game you'd want to check out if you've loved playing games like Harvest Moon, Staxel and even My Time at Portia. The game isn't too expensive either, considering the hours you can get out of it.