Last one I played was Lesbian Hunter aka Gone Home and I hated it. Weak, garbage story that isn't saying anything even though I get the feeling it thinks it is. So with no interesting story and no interesting game mechanics I was left with a souless husk of a "game".

I don't like that these programs label themselves as games, because they are not. A game is something with a win state and a lose state, and to make it actually fun, a challenge to overcome. If Gone Home had labeled itself an interactive book or something along those lines, I never would have bothered with it. Besides, even as an art piece its shallow.

Other than that I guess Stanley Parable and Dear Esther count? They were okay, I suppose. I don't see the appeal of walking sims but at least the narrative was better in these two.

What's wrong with the song? I liked it. :D

Gone Home would be more aptly described as a museum simulator. The total distance covered by the protagonist can't really quality it as a walking sim, but you can pick up most objects to examine them up close, and there are audio guides to accompany you on your trip through the exhibit rooms.

The game with the best walking animation that I know of: Tomb Raider 2 :P

Myst Uru springs to mind. As in, its the only one of the series where you can see yourself walk. In third person, that is. First person doesn't afford you legs. The problem is, it is Myst and there are some lunar logic puzzles to solve in order to unlock all the walking grounds. Including one where you have to follow a trail of clues to know to walk away from the computer or do something else for a bit, a literal puzzle of waiting.

I'd also say Myst V, but you're chained to a stone tablet in that case, and there's an actual plot to be had. With a Time Lo- D'ni or two.

But I've been looking for a new walking simulator. Proteus is nice, but its only one little island. Endless Ocean 2 is quite nice in places that don't have sharks, eels, and other hazards, but I've already dropped countless hours into it. Problem being, that's also only on the Wii.

Minecraft is nice, but I want landscapes a bit more shapely than that, and I've been playing since Beta 1.3.

Terraria's scope is too limited (And most of the world is underneath your feet), and Starbound looks to be languishing in eternal beta. Windforge isn't nice and needs loads more work such as optimization and better dungeon generation.

Fez is pretty wide open, and there is no 'villain', but the world is finite. (Yet still large) I still revisit it fairly often.

Oh, here's one! Noctis IV. Classic universe exploration sim. Not procedurally generated, but you've got an entire universe in about the size of a floppy and plenty of planets to visit. Fuel is easy to get, too. Modified versions like the old CE allow you to switch on unlimited fuel.

I thought about Eidolon after watching Kurtjmac play though some of it, but the status indicators would suggest that there is some kind of failure state, I'd guess. Also, there are potent dangers, and that just isn't quite the spirit of a walking sim. Like bears.

Starflight 1&2 looked to be more up my alley, except I know for a fact that Starflight 1 has a plot that you must immediately address or face a failure state, and there are many ways to die in it.

Lifeless Planet, while looking interesting, is fairly linear, and there actually is a fair plot to it, along with some restrictions. And a few scares.

Dwarf Fortress Adventure Mode can be a walking simulator, provided you generate a world with lesser dangers in it, but to say that it lacks a flowery description of the flower you're looking at is an understatement. :P

So...any suggestions that aren't chained to Steam, Uplay, or any other dogged client? I see that the Humble Store has suffered significant Network Decay, but is still a somewhat valid choice.

It's merely a derogatory game. The genre where you piece together a story by walking around and finding clues is one genre, games where you're just there to explore are another genre, and they're totally distinct. Someone who likes story based games might enjoy the first, but might not enjoy the second. Similarly someone who wants to explore might not feel any connection to story pieces they encounter, and might even resent having them thrust on the player.

Also, people who like to explore might also enjoy other games with exploration, from MMO's to Goat Simulator, while people who like the story style games might enjoy other detective style games.

In short, "walking simulator" is just a superficial description that doesn't tell you much about what the game is like, and its origin is with people who dislike either style of game. However at this point I see only two genres here, so let me know if you think there are more.

Edit: No, not really. I mean, Ethan Carter would be considered a "walking simulator", but it's an open world adventure game, where you actually solve puzzles, and I would consider this distinct from games where you just encounter stuff that will build a story.

True, there's a lot of difference between exploring a world, and exploring the history of the past. Still, both genres are based on the player exploring something at his own pace, without distraction from traditional gameplay mechanics. I think this is the core here: Games where the players exploration of the world is in focus.

I think is worth mentioning certain multimedia projects from the mid-nineties. This obscure genre worked kind of like your typical point-and-click adventure game, except that there were no puzzles, only pure exploration:

ScruTiny In The Great Round (1995) - this was the ultimate over-the-top artsy multimedia project, something that could only be spawned by the euphoric atmosphere of the CD-rom craze. A few links:
http://www.cdaccess.com/html/shared/scrutiny.htm
http://www.burningranch.net/scrutiny/index.html
http://www.intelligentagent.com/archive/sept_spirit.html
http://www.burningranch.net/projects.html#ascrutiny
http://www.agencetopo.qc.ca/vitrine_blog/cd_scrutiny/cd_scrutiny_fr.html

The Residents' Freak Show (1995) - a strange mix of primitive pre-rendered animation, good music, and footage of real-life circus freaks.

Mirage (1994) - technically an adventure game, but so obscure that the real attraction is to explore the games surrealistic take on the western tropes. This gives a pretty good idea of what the game offers. Here's a [url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xAp8v2KFHgs]youtube vid and here is the wishlist

Both explorations (of story AND of environment) can be done in the same game. I think my closest encounter with a walking sim was "The Path", Tale of Tales' very creepy retelling of "little red riding hood". You explore a forest and see how your caracters interact with what they find, and unlock missing pieces of the story. I... liked it, I think. In a very uneasy, creepy way, it was interesting, and the forest is really beautiful.
But it also goes headlong into trigger territory, especially if you have children of your own, so it may not be for everyone. And I'm sure some will say it's too "pretensious and artsy" to be a real game. But for me, it was an interesting interactive story.

The problem is that "walking simulator", being a derogatory term, is not very descriptive. In the RPS article Ricky thinks that a "walking simulator" is a game where you walk for no particular reason, which would exclude the games where you're meant to reconstruct a story. I guess he's just taking one of the "sub genres".

Still, I don't think that just walking around makes that a focus. Reconstructing the story is the focus, and these games are defined by that. I believe that it would be possible to change such a game to Myst-like static screens and still keep its essence, while removing the story would change the game's nature completely.

Look, I'd hate to defend Gone Home, but this is just wrong. Gone Home has a win condition: figure out what happened. People complain one can get through the game in like a minute if they have learned from outside sources where to look. Which means finding out where to look next presents a challenge. You may not like this type of challenge, you may not like the plot (I certainly don't), but to say Gone Home doesn't have game content in it is disingenuous. It's basically like saying Hadean Lands doesn't have game content because you can win it by dumping the solution script you found on the internets into a keyboard autotyper.

It has a win condition but where is the lose condition? Opening doors and hitting buttons is not a challenge, don't delude yourself. The only challenge presented in this game are the few number puzzles. I beat this game with my boyfriend and no outside help in under an hour. You walk from room to room, look at things, listen to things, and before you know it its over.

this shit is an interactive book, not a game.

Fibrillation was mildly chilling at one point. But mostly not fun. I tried Dear Esther. Something about the FOV or something makes both me and my wife motion sick (and she doesn't get motion sick at all normally). It had a FOV setting, but nothing seemed to work. After a little while, we just quit anyway.

I don't think I like walking sims.

You mean aside from the bunch of genuine, adventure game puzzles that Gone Home contained? They weren't particularily difficult, sure, but they were puzzles nonetheless. Oh wait, so all easy games are not videogames? What if I'm a reall good player, I suppose I should rename my hobby now because I find vast majority of videogames easy? ... ... Or we could just call all highly interactive media 'videogames' until someone comes up with a better term, that sounds good to me.

I'm hoping <i>Boon Hill</i> proves to be a good walking and reading sim.

So can Sir, You Are Being Hunted: play with the island generation settings, turn off the robots, and wander around deserted villages and ruined castles in the fens. More freedom than Dear Esther (then again, most things have) and more varied islands than Proteus.

I tried <span class="bold">Dungeon Nightmares</span> earlier today, it has a nice spooky atmosphere and it's quite good IMO.