Discussion The 2025 Game Thread: Big Stupid Games Edition

Fenixgoon · Jan 11, 2025

JTsyo said:
Star Control Origins (currently playing)
Baldurs Gate 3 (might play NWN2 before buying)
Cyberpunk 2077
POE2

Haven't planned anything else currently.

NWN2 isn't bad in its own right, including the expansions. Mask of the Betrayer is widely regarded as peak NWN2.

BG3 is simply in another class altogether.

JTsyo · Jan 11, 2025

Fenixgoon said:
NWN2 isn't bad in its own right, including the expansions. Mask of the Betrayer is widely regarded as peak NWN2.

BG3 is simply in another class altogether.

I had tired Pillars of Eternity and couldn't get into it. Know how that compares?

Fenixgoon · Jan 11, 2025

JTsyo said:
I had tired Pillars of Eternity and couldn't get into it. Know how that compares?

PoE is more BG1/2 style visually, but NWN2 is largely the same in the sense of "party based RPG". the NWN2 original campaign story is not bad. Mask of the Betrayer is much better. Storms of Zehir is the biggest departure gameplay wise and has the weakest story of the three campaigns. It's still enjoyable though. It has an overworld type map with encounters in addition to fixed areas.

DigDog · Jan 15, 2025

KMFJD said:
Caves of QUD
Dwarf Fortress

that's 20 years of gaming right there, you can stop buying stuff.

Stg-Flame · Jan 18, 2025

Well, I made it 54 hours on Elex 2 and now the game refuses to load. Save files, new file, nothing I do will work and with it being a rather unpopular game, I'm running out of ideas and places to ask for help. I just want to see the end of the story, but for some reason it just refuses to work now. It was a fun game with ridiculously disjointed dialogue, but nobody plays a Piranha Bytes game for the dialogue.

Edit: Had to do a completely clean reinstall, but now it's working. I'm guessing the recent Windows update broke something because nothing else changed from last night when I last played to today.

Stg-Flame · Jan 19, 2025

Ok, finished Elex 2 and holy hell does the dialogue and terrible voice acting turn some of the emotional parts into a comedy scene. Though I don't think those two things should be a discouragement to anyone on the fence about the game because Piranha Bytes (Gothic/Risen) was never known for either of those two things. What the game does well, it really does well. The exploration is a lot of fun and you can tell they spent a lot of time turning the world into an active place that actually felt like it was lived in and the combat has been vastly improved over the first game. Plus the lore and worldbuilding is very unique.

My biggest complaint with the game isn't realistic in that it's nothing they could control. They left the game on somewhat of a cliffhanger and the studio went under last year, so there will be no Elex 3 or conclusion to Jax's story.

Now it's time to get back into Noita and actually beat it this time.

JujuFish · Jan 19, 2025

I own both Elex 1 and 2. And about a thousand other games I need to get to.

Now if only I could get stuck in a time loop.

GodisanAtheist · Jan 23, 2025

I'm on the second visit to Prague in DXMD and the game fully has its hooks in me. In a way, it's just a complete chaos simulator once Jensen is properly upgraded.

Wanted to get a Praxis kit from the Palisade bank. Snuck into the various security offices around the bank using the ducts and hacked all the security stations so all turrets and robots became friendlies.

I can hear the gunfire and shouting start up between the guards who have all been caught off guard with their security systems turned against them.

Casually walked through a raging firefight, hacked the door to the room & safe I needed to get through, and calmly walked out over the bodies of guards and destroyed turrets and mechs, no one any the wiser.

Just absolutely peak DX experience.

DAPUNISHER · Jan 24, 2025

ARC B580 has me revisiting older titles. I am doing a complete playthrough of 2013 Tomb Raider for the first time. I always wandered off a couple hours in. But like many games, the combat is much more fun as you upgrade weapons and skills. It has inspired me to play the other 2 as well.

Jumped in Spiderman Miles Morales to work on getting gold medals for an hour or so.

I keep trying to playthrough Outer Worlds. It is the soulless carcass of Fallout games. I've gotten the regular and Spacer's Choice Editions free so can't complain too much. It's another game where I need to stop grinding and simply play through the main story. Usually my favorite part, but this and Horizon ZD not so much.

Mankind Divided is another freebie. Thanks for the feedback on it, I'll give it a go when I get through my must play list.

Ranulf · Jan 24, 2025

12 games eh? I don't think I can promise that. Maybe I'll try DoW3 again. I played the demo years ago then never played the full game after getting it cheap in humble bundle. Such a let down from 1 and 2.

I'd love to try HZD again since its sucking up space but I don't know. That and AC valhalla I need to at least spend a few hours with.

DAPUNISHER · Jan 26, 2025

Marvel's Midnight Suns. I have not spent much time in the turn based genre but I have a metric 💩 ton of them in my GOG library from give aways.

I have to say I am really enjoying the slow pace and need to "play your cards right". Graphics are excellent and the game provides backstories and context for some of the shows and movies from the MCU.

The combat animations are nerdgasm worthy for Marvel fans like myself. I am still early on and so far Ghost Rider has the best ones. Venom looks cool as hell too.

EDIT: This feels appropriate here -

Artorias · Jan 26, 2025

Artorias said:
Thanks for doing another yearly thread. This is my list of new games I plan to start, but I still got a few to wrap up that I started last year.

To start in 2025:

Disco Elysium
Firewatch
Hollow Knight
Oxenfree
~~Resident Evil 4(2005) PC Edition~~
Resident Evil 7
Resident Evil Village
Space Haven
The Riftbreaker

Ongoing game to complete in 2025 from last year;

Cyberpunk 2077
RDR Remaster
Fallout 4
Prey

As a wild card I might re-install Alien Isolation, Steam says I last played it in 2017, I got about 20 hours into the game but was to scared to finish it. Haha. Recently got a bunch Alien videos in my Youtube recommendation and have nostalgia.

First game of 2025 completed.

RE4(2005). Aside from the tank controls(highly recommend gamepad instead of mouse) which you have to get comfortable with its aged pretty well, solid action, some B movie tropes, but is overall fun and enjoyable.

DigDog · Jan 26, 2025

did we not have a thread here were people would say, "i swear i will not buy anything from Steam until i have played such and such from my library" ...

...
like, 5 years ago?
whatever happened to those new year resolutions?

JujuFish · Jan 26, 2025

DigDog said:
did we not have a thread here were people would say, "i swear i will not buy anything from Steam until i have played such and such from my library" ...

...
like, 5 years ago?
whatever happened to those new year resolutions?

Do as I say, not as I do

DigDog · Jan 26, 2025

JujuFish said:
Do as I say, not as I do

hey, my steam library is like 7 titles total.

Stg-Flame · Jan 27, 2025

Artorias said:
First game of 2025 completed.

RE4(2005). Aside from the tank controls(highly recommend gamepad instead of mouse) which you have to get comfortable with its aged pretty well, solid action, some B movie tropes, but is overall fun and enjoyable.

I highly disagree in that the aiming is far more fun with a mouse and keyboard. The tank controls are about the same on a controller in that you just have to run in small circles or double-tap a key for a quick turn. This is all assuming you're talking about the remastered RE4.

DigDog said:
did we not have a thread here were people would say, "i swear i will not buy anything from Steam until i have played such and such from my library" ...

...
like, 5 years ago?
whatever happened to those new year resolutions?

Wasn't that the backlog threads we all did for three years post-Covid? Pretty sure many of us knocked a lot off our backlogs during those few years.

Artorias · Jan 27, 2025

Stg-Flame said:
I highly disagree in that the aiming is far more fun with a mouse and keyboard. The tank controls are about the same on a controller in that you just have to run in small circles or double-tap a key for a quick turn. This is all assuming you're talking about the remastered RE4.

Wasn't that the backlog threads we all did for three years post-Covid? Pretty sure many of us knocked a lot off our backlogs during those few years.

I played the HD PC non-remaster. The aim does not feel right with mouse, must be some acceleration going on, and I get motion sickness with keyboard/mouse. The non-remaster was clearly designed for gamepad, your movements feel more deliberate and slower pace feels better, otherwise yes I do prefer mouse aim in general.

Fun fact. I bought RE4 in 2017 and only now completed it. 8 years in my backlog, and they released a remaster in that time too lol.

GodisanAtheist · Friday at 2:00 AM

And there it is, beat Mankind Divided. I can finally join the dozen other people that beat the game and sigh in exasperation at that ridiculous cliff hanger ending that will never ever be resolved as well as that absurd 20 minute (seriously, not kidding, look it up) end credit scroll.

Solid Shock-like, great sequel to Human Revolution. Is it DX1? No, nothing is or ever will be DX1, even Spector's turd of a sequel was a massive step down from DX1.

Is it one of the best examples of the genre currently out there? Yes, absolutely. The Anti-Skyrim, its deep as the ocean but as wide as a puddle, with dense, layered, interconnected maps that give you about a dozen ways to solve any problem and then actually respond to you even superficially if you complete things out of order or in a way that normally would softlock another game.

Anyhow, going to fire up a NG+ just to do that first mission in Dubai with my turbo jacked augmented god Jensen, maybe do a little bit of achievement hunting for laughs and giggles, but won't beat the game twice and will move on once the afterglow wears off.

JTsyo · Monday at 11:55 AM

Picked up Gears of War Tactics when it was on sale. Been pretty fun, though not a fan of picking up cases for loot.

GodisanAtheist · 2025-02-04T01:34:37-0500

And I've fired up Prototype 2... this gun b gud.

All the murder hobo stuff of the original is there in all of its resplendent glory, along with that absurd anti-hero vibe (I attempt to avenge my wife and daughter while casually ~~murdering~~ eating innocent people on the way).

People didn't like Heller as a protag apparently but he's been very entertaining so far. Dude has a mouth that would make a gunnery sergeant blush.

Game is shockingly good looking for something from 2012. Textures and poly counts are a bit low by modern standards but otherwise the object density of the world is spectacular. Large crowds, hordes of enemies, tons of giblets when you start slicing and dicing.

I don't understand how games like Prototype can't sell enough to get a sequel and get we're on GTA6 and Call of Duty 45.

DAPUNISHER · 2025-02-04T01:57:03-0500

My son and I put a lot of hours into both the Prototype games on the 360 when they were new. I loved that era of open world type games. Red Faction Guerilla, and of course, my number 1; Hulk Ultimate Destruction. I still fire that up on my modded OG Xbox with an HDMI converter.

Midnight Suns has been monopolizing my gaming time. I am impressed with how faithful the writing is to the comics. The witty banter between the characters on their private social media is on point. The turned based card game it turns out, is my jam.

igor_kavinski · 2025-02-04T08:30:35-0500

DAPUNISHER said:
my number 1; Hulk Ultimate Destruction. I still fire that up on my modded OG Xbox with an HDMI converter.

Didn't even know that existed. Described as GTA: Senseless Destruction. Hope it runs well in an emulator or something.

GodisanAtheist · 2025-02-04T10:17:39-0500

igor_kavinski said:
Didn't even know that existed. Described as GTA: Senseless Destruction. Hope it runs well in an emulator or something.

Apparently the Prototype games are basically Hulk Senseless Destruction but with a new coat of paint on them.

Prototype 1 especially, all the way down to having some of the same animations when Mercer picks up a car or does a long jump and then smashes into the ground.

DAPUNISHER · 2025-02-04T18:27:39-0500

GodisanAtheist said:
Apparently the Prototype games are basically Hulk Senseless Destruction

It isn't senseless. Hulk smash building to get coin! And puny men try to hurt Hulk. Hulk smash puny men!

GodisanAtheist · 2025-02-04T18:57:28-0500

DAPUNISHER said:
It isn't senseless. Hulk smash building to get coin! And puny men try to hurt Hulk. Hulk smash puny men!

- Hulk always has a good reason to smash. And that reason is that he's angry.

Discussion The 2025 Game Thread: Big Stupid Games Edition

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