Discussion The 2025 Game Thread: Big Stupid Games Edition

[DigDog]

You think that medieval Matt Damon movie had something to do with it?

nooooo .. no, we're talking about, idk 20 years ago ?? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_&_Blade_(series)
Mount & Blade was RELEASED e.g. as a finished product, in 2008.Alphas were available as early as 2004 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_&_Blade#cite_note-14
dude this game is ancient now.

 

[GodisanAtheist]

Still playing Halo Reach. This game is *Chef's Kiss* just pure fun.

It's got everything. I mean everything. Great graphics (for a late gen 360 game), incredible music, solid plot, pathos, fantastic level design, great minute to minute gameplay.

Just... Damn.

Slow going cause my kids don't want me playing it without them watching, but I am absolutely floored how good this game is. Easily the crem de la crem of the (Bungie) Halo franchise.

 

[DAPUNISHER]

Halo 3 has the most sentimental attachment for me, as that is the one my son and I played co-op the most. Reach is a excellent campaign too.

Still doing GTA 5 Enhanced; Lamar is a laugh riot. Trevor is the best frenemy ever. No way 6 can replicate the level of writing, it's lightning in a bottle. Danny McBride cracks me up - https://gta.fandom.com/wiki/Beyond_Insemination

 

[Artorias]

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.

Completed RDR remaster on PC. Fantastic game and overall the visuals hold up really well, they nailed the western atmosphere and Mexico in particular.

Having played RDR2 as my first experience in the franchise I feel its best to play the second(prequal), then the first, the back story and history in RDR2 makes the first so much more impactful.

Just started the Undead Nightmare expansion and so far I like the zombie western crossover.

 

[JujuFish]

A friend of mine bought Split Fiction so I've played some of that the last couple nights. Very fun game.

 

[GodisanAtheist]

Completed RDR remaster on PC. Fantastic game and overall the visuals hold up really well, they nailed the western atmosphere and Mexico in particular.

Having played RDR2 as my first experience in the franchise I feel its best to play the second(prequal), then the first, the back story and history in RDR2 makes the first so much more impactful.

Just started the Undead Nightmare expansion and so far I like the zombie western crossover.

-Good info, I've been wondering how to approach the RDR series, I've never been a huge fan of Rockstar games but I am a huge fan of westerns and we just don't get that many western games with good production values.

RDR2 goes on sale often enough, I'll toss it on the ole wishlist...

 

[igor_kavinski]

-Good info, I've been wondering how to approach the RDR series,

I played RDR1 for maybe half an hour to an hour. Riding the horse was pretty nuts (they got the dynamics and physics right which means it's not FUN coz it's all wobbly and disorienting) and trying to shoot while horse back riding was even more difficult. Will take time to get used to that. The game was really pretty though. Played it on Xbox One X I think when they brought the Xbox 360 version over, including a large texture pack to make it look right on the newer console.

Playing that game, I got the feeling that the success of GTA is unfortunate coz they have got some really bright people as employees who could've lent their talent to create some really great and varied games, had Rockstar not become the GTA company.

 

[GodisanAtheist]

Aaaaaannnndddd Halo Reach is a wrap.

Should have just ended the Halo Series there based on my understanding of Halo 4/5/Infinite, or maybe did a soft reboot of the series and let the Master Chief storyline end.

I know I'm just repeating myself at this point, but the game really did a fantastic job highlighting the best the Halo series has to offer.

Plenty of vehicular combat, fantastic music, solid gunplay and combat forward gameplay, themes of duty/honor/rage into the dying light, was just the complete package.

If you ever pick up the MCC, *Do Not Start with Halo Reach* because it will absolutely ruin the remainder of the series for you. Play chronologically by release with Halo 1/2/3/ODST first, then cap it off with Reach.

 

[CP5670]

-Good info, I've been wondering how to approach the RDR series, I've never been a huge fan of Rockstar games but I am a huge fan of westerns and we just don't get that many western games with good production values.

RDR2 goes on sale often enough, I'll toss it on the ole wishlist...

RDR2 has an amazing plot and atmosphere, probably the best I've seen in any game in many years, but the gameplay also feels slow and clunky. I'll definitely want to play the RDR remake though. As you said western games are very rare to begin with.

 

[DAPUNISHER]

rootin' tootin' lootin' and shootin' cowboy simulator 1 and 2 are outstanding games.

GTA 5 enhanced is getting a lot of love on reddit. Deservedly so. I have to wonder what is wrong with people that they complain about a game getting a FREE makeover many years later. They did the same thing with Witcher 3; whiny, petulant, pathetic creatures.

 

[GodisanAtheist]

Ok, picked up both Grim Dawn and Darksiders 3.

Grim Dawn is looking like a straight up Diablo clone, which is fine, but it's got a bit of "I've played this before" going on. Might be a good game to play while I have a show or something going on the other screen.

Darksiders 3 looks like fun. I know the Darksiders games have always been solid AA joints, a little janky, but I love the personality the games bring to the table and it looks like DS3 will be no exception.

Have some time off next week as well, thanks to some medical stuff my wife has to take care of so a lot of downtime at home, might give Mad Max a shot then as well.

 

[Stg-Flame]

Grim Dawn is looking like a straight up Diablo clone, which is fine, but it's got a bit of "I've played this before" going on.

I've sunk over 1,000 hours into Grim Dawn and it's hands down one of the best ARPGs out there. Where the game truly shines is the lore (read the lore notes) and the skill system. It's balanced in a way that every single skill can be viable in the end-game and given the sheer amount of gear that's available (thousands of legendary pieces), you can take any build and turn it into something else thanks to the various transmuters available.

Granted, that's end-game stuff. If you want to just run around and watch the enemies explode, there's hundreds of ways to do that without feeling like you need to min/max your build. I'd say a solid 90% of the game's content can be completed with just about any build, but I will give you a tip if you plan on seeing it through to the end. Prioritize maxing your resistances using gear, components, and augments. Damage will mainly come from your skills so don't be afraid to swap out some damage gear with resistance gear if you find yourself taking lots of damage.

 

[Fenixgoon]

Ok, picked up both Grim Dawn and Darksiders 3.

Grim Dawn is looking like a straight up Diablo clone, which is fine, but it's got a bit of "I've played this before" going on. Might be a good game to play while I have a show or something going on the other screen.

Darksiders 3 looks like fun. I know the Darksiders games have always been solid AA joints, a little janky, but I love the personality the games bring to the table and it looks like DS3 will be no exception.

Have some time off next week as well, thanks to some medical stuff my wife has to take care of so a lot of downtime at home, might give Mad Max a shot then as well.

Darksiders 3 is more of a Soulslike than a God-of-War-like (a-la darksiders 1 and 2). That being said, I really enjoy DS3 and have beaten it multiple times. It's small and tight enough that reruns are enjoyable. DS2 is so open ended, and DS1 splits the difference size wise. Also, check your dodge settings whether you want dodge-cancels of attacks or not. That makes a huge difference (I have dodge-cancel on).

 

[GodisanAtheist]

Darksiders 3 is more of a Soulslike than a God-of-War-like (a-la darksiders 1 and 2). That being said, I really enjoy DS3 and have beaten it multiple times. It's small and tight enough that reruns are enjoyable. DS2 is so open ended, and DS1 splits the difference size wise. Also, check your dodge settings whether you want dodge-cancels of attacks or not. That makes a huge difference (I have dodge-cancel on).

- I don't know if it was included in a recent update or something but the game allows you to select between "Default" and "Classic" gameplay modes and the general consensus around the web is use classic every time. Biggest changes apparently are dodge cancelling so Fury isn't locked into an animation and Instant item use (so "insta healing") which apparently makes the game play a lot more like previous entries (more spamy combat) and less soulsy.

Granted I'm very early in the game, but the general feel isn't too far off from what I remember in previous entries.

 

[JujuFish]

I never finished Darksiders II, but I remember having a good time with it. I was playing it with my mom and her friend and our schedules stopped lining up. Might be time to get back to it.

 

[DigDog]

i am playing Prey 2017 and it's soooo good ..
i mean, it's a basic survival shooter, but the more i play, the more i see little touches of brilliance that really make me happy. Like, there's a section where you float in space around the main station you play in, and if you angle yourself with the sun, you can see your reflection, tiny, on the station. I KNOW that's nothing when it comes to coding it, but i love that someone thought "this needs this thing coded in, even though most people will not see it".

 

[GodisanAtheist]

i am playing Prey 2017 and it's soooo good ..
i mean, it's a basic survival shooter, but the more i play, the more i see little touches of brilliance that really make me happy. Like, there's a section where you float in space around the main station you play in, and if you angle yourself with the sun, you can see your reflection, tiny, on the station. I KNOW that's nothing when it comes to coding it, but i love that someone thought "this needs this thing coded in, even though most people will not see it".

- I struggled to get into Prey 2017, and I usually love Arkane games.

I'm certain its because all shock-like games have a brutal inverted difficulty and "interest curve": they start out at their absolute worst as boring mid-shooters and only really grow into full enjoyable gaming experiences 5-10 hours in after you have some abilities and a better idea of what you're doing and where you're going... but Prey17 was unusually rough in this regard.

I'll undoubtedly fire it up again here after I play some non-FPS stuff.

 

[DigDog]

I'm certain its because all shock-like games have a brutal inverted difficulty and "interest curve": they start out at their absolute worst as boring mid-shooters and only really grow into full enjoyable gaming experiences 5-10 hours in after you have some abilities and a better idea of what you're doing and where you're going... but Prey17 was unusually rough in this regard.

you are 100% correct.

 

[KMFJD]

if you like roguelite/bullethell games like vampire:survivors this might be up your alley

Save 34% on Rogue: Genesia on Steam

Walk upon a new world and slay foes endangering it. Rogue : Genesia is an action rogue-lite game, where you fight relentless hordes consisting of hundreds and thousands of monsters, make your build, break the balance, defeat bosses and save one of the many worlds.

store.steampowered.com

 

[igor_kavinski]

This game's environment reminds me of the insides of a Star Trek ship, except the colors are dazzlingly vibrant: https://store.steampowered.com/app/552880/STARDROP/

 

[GodisanAtheist]

Ok, so have a couple different games going at the moment:

Darksiders 3: yep, it's fun. I love the style, I love the characters and the world (horsemen wheeling and dealing with angels and demons, looking down upon humanity with contempt), the gameplay with the "classic" setting is a good balance between soulsy and button mashing combat, simple and uncomplicated but impactful upgrade tree, oh yeah, and did I already mention this game just oozes with style? Love the Darksiders series...

Halo 4: So the kids are invested in riding along for a Halo MCC playthrough and we're now on Halo 4. Pretty game, gameplay feels like Halo, but not much else does. Sounds design is kinda all over the place, Chief talks quite a bit, the story is clearly one of those "didn't you read all the books and comics that make the plot make any kind of sense?", the Promethean enemy design is very, very meh and sometimes quite frustrating, and a.lot of the "sandboxiness" has been removed for pure shooting galleries.

Mad Max: Honestly expected another reskinned Arkham/Shadows style game, and the h2h combat is similar, but MM is clearly trying to do it's own thing with the vehicular combat etc. Once again a game that drops with style and fully immerses itself in a zany alternate reality of the MM world. Not completely sold on the game yet, the controls are sort of tanky, the combat system is not very forgiving and is certainly less Arkham/Shadows flow combat and much more timing dependent, and while the resource scarcity in the game makes sense, it feels like one of those things that is going to get really annoying eventually.

Paused Grim Dawn for the moment. Good game, just not what I'm looking for at the moment.

 

[Stg-Flame]

Darksiders 3: yep, it's fun. I love the style, I love the characters and the world (horsemen wheeling and dealing with angels and demons, looking down upon humanity with contempt), the gameplay with the "classic" setting is a good balance between soulsy and button mashing combat, simple and uncomplicated but impactful upgrade tree, oh yeah, and did I already mention this game just oozes with style? Love the Darksiders series...

I focused most of my upgrades into Arcane Counter Damage which was hilarious from the mid to late game considering how hard your counters hit. I loved that the combat wasn't shoehorned into one specific style like some souls-likes out there. It was still perfectly viable to button mash the enemies to death or counter at the right time during your attacks to just finish them off instantly.

 

[GodisanAtheist]

I focused most of my upgrades into Arcane Counter Damage which was hilarious from the mid to late game considering how hard your counters hit. I loved that the combat wasn't shoehorned into one specific style like some souls-likes out there. It was still perfectly viable to button mash the enemies to death or counter at the right time during your attacks to just finish them off instantly.

-Yeah, going with a glass cannon build and pouring ability points into Damage and Arcane.

Have basically ignored health at this point but the cramped camera does mean some cheap hits from off screen enemies so I'll probably bulk that up a bit, but I'm going heavy on damage.

They can't hurt you if they're dead...

Makes some of the boss/side encounters a bit trickier though, have to really get that dodge timing down for those...

 

[DigDog]

i've played all of Prey, which i started right away on Hard difficulty. It plays like a far more modern version of your typical survival horror, i.e. Resident Evil. You can shoot, but you don't have the resources to shoot everything.
.. or rather .. you have X resources and, well, you decide what you want to do with them. You can invest in a shoot-everything build, and even though you need to scrounge for materials, you can just barely get by. There is a limited form of respawn as well which means always backtracking isn't doable.

Look, i just thought it was well balanced. I didn't have that moment where there's a vomit of resources and the game is just like "fuck it, just shoot everything now". I defo got a stronger character at the end of the game, but still had to look for ways to be efficient with the resources i was being given.

The plot was good. The game flows reasonably well, i had a couple of moments where i was confused as to what i had to do, but you can't have it both ways - if you want a game that doesn't hold your hand, you will have that sometimes. Prey does well in giving you plot clues in a way that you need to do a bit of thinking.

Visually it's really nice. The game interface - idk, how you interact with the UI, and with the environment - was good as well.

I don't know why this game was considered mediocre on launch. I couldn't tell you any faults that annoyed me - in fact, i was looking forward to playing, and had some veery long sessions. 22hours playtime.

i'd given it a 7.5/10 - solid recommendation, scifi survival shooter with RPG and horror elements, much fun, yay.

 

[igor_kavinski]

Prey does well in giving you plot clues in a way that you need to do a bit of thinking.

I don't know why this game was considered mediocre on launch.

That could be the reason. Also, from what I remember, I think the trailers/ads were creepy? Most people probably wrote it off as a Doom clone and decided not to try it. It could also have been released at a time when some other AAA games were making the rounds and so it got lost in the noise.