Discussion The 2025 Game Thread: Big Stupid Games Edition

[GodisanAtheist]

Got a couple games on the burner at the moment.

Jedi: Survivor - Kids have been asking to watch me play this for a while. Transfered the 6800xt from my main PC to my Steambox so we could run this thing smoothly at Epic settings. Through the first level at this point (got to the Mantis), game is very pretty and quite fun, although my old man reflexes need to get tuned up if I'm going to parry through some of these combat encounters (or maybe lean heavy on the dual blade stance "auto parry" feature).

Game is doing a good job picking up after Fallen Order, giving Cal more skills rather then resetting his abilities to Padawan for the sake of gameplay.

Sunset Overdrive - The zany "Gen Z" open world zombie skate shooter. Game looks like a ton of fun and is running great on my 980ti (which is in my main PC now) but after Mad Max I need a little break from post apocalyptic open world shooters, even if SO's entire tone and style is on the opposite end of the spectrum, so I'll probably bench this one for a while and come back to it after Jedi Survivor.

 

[DAPUNISHER]

I really like the Jedi games, survivor is a good time. Satisfying combat and good visuals. There is the one fort where I just go there to fight every thing after I am fully upgraded and can get everywhere. It starts throwing every enemy in the area at you. Gets intense as hell.

Anyone into the killing floor series? I've never played but 3 is about to release - https://store.steampowered.com/app/1430190/Killing_Floor_3/

 

[GodisanAtheist]

I may be remembering it wrong since I was 💩 in my pants. Looks like it gets a lot of gamers.

Spoiler

-Its the kind of the thing way more open world games need and makes them more memorable than the checklist of chores they often feel like.

Throw the player a curve ball now and again, and ideally allow that curveball to interact with other game systems and snowball into a truly unique experience.

 

[GodisanAtheist]

I really like the Jedi games, survivor is a good time. Satisfying combat and good visuals. There is the one fort where I just go there to fight every thing after I am fully upgraded and can get everywhere. It starts throwing every enemy in the area at you. Gets intense as hell.

Anyone into the killing floor series? I've never played but 3 is about to release - https://store.steampowered.com/app/1430190/Killing_Floor_3/

-Played oodles of OG KF back in the day. Really fun co-op survival/horde game that can get super chaotic, but the fun is almost entirely derived from having a good group to play locally with.

Trying to play it online with randos would, imo, remove virtually all the magic.

 

[Stg-Flame]

but the fun is almost entirely derived from having a good group to play locally with.

Yeah, that's the most difficult part of the entire game - trying to find a competent group. I had two friends who I played with pretty regularly which eventually ended up with one of them quitting because we always had to fill the spaces with randoms and it rarely went well. The two of us that stuck around had fun, but it was usually offset by disappointment when randoms would either just start griefing, wouldn't play as a team, or would simply leave mid-game. I never got into the second game and completely forgot about the series until I saw people posting about the beta testers being required to sign a five-year NDA just to play the demo for the third installment a few weeks ago.

 

[igor_kavinski]

I never got into the second game and completely forgot about the series until I saw people posting about the beta testers being required to sign a five-year NDA just to play the demo for the third installment a few weeks ago.

What the heck???

 

[Stg-Flame]

What the heck???

GameSpot article

 

[GodisanAtheist]

Alright, kids have placed a strict "no playing Jedi Survivor without us around to watch the story" rule on me and they're going to be out of town for a week and a half with their grandparents so... what is a guy to do.

I installed Star Wars Squadrons and Mass Effect Legendary Edition that I got as a freebees on EA App god knows when.

Never played Squadrons before but it seems to be reasonably decent space sim that handles pretty well with an Xbox controller. My understanding is the actual campaign/story is very short and pretty simple, and I have no interest in the multiplayer so It might be a nice game to experience as a pallet cleanser.

Mass Effect LE is interesting because I've beaten all the Mass Effect games multiple times at this point but I've never played any of the DLC outside of whatever was included with ME and ME2 Cerberus Network. I'm looking to download some mods that would max out my Paragon/Renegade points and maybe max out my levels so I can just play the game in "story" mode to get to the DLC content in ME2 and 3 more quickly.

I've also installed Dawn of War 2 Retribution (which I got for free when my DOW2 on Steam got upgraded to the Anniversary Edition) which might be a fun game to try out, but RTS games are less and less my jam nowadays as they can be huge time sinks and I'm looking for punchier 30 minutes - 1 hour in and our type experiences.

 

[local]

Beyond All Reason - Just found out about this Total Annihilation/Supreme Commander successor and it is great. Fan built and free to play. If you liked TA or SupCom give it a try.

 

[DAPUNISHER]

Started Space Marine 2; this game is full nerdgasm. The visuals, the story, somehow not losing the feel of the first game while greatly improving on it. Too good.

 

[GodisanAtheist]

Ah Mass Effect. Part way through Mass Effect 2 at this point. What a well crafted game, fun narrative, complex characters.

In many ways it was peak Bioware writing.

The cover shooter combat definitely leaves something to be desired, but everything else is just primo.

Legendary Edition does a good job cleaning up the graphics across the series and making things generally a bit more coherent across the board, but its really remarkable how *fresh* a series like Mass Effect feels in 2025 since there is so little like it out there.

 

[DAPUNISHER]

Getting near the end of the Space Marine 2 campaign. I squirrel a lot, so this is my 3rd gaming session. Calling the game epic feels like underselling it. I hope they are already working on the third installment and not going to take a 13 years this time. 😂

 

[JTsyo]

Finished up Satisfactory now onto BG3. Starting off watching tutorial videos on YT since I couldn't figure out how spells worked with no mana. I was surprised they are single use until you rest.

 

[quikah]

I "finished" Expedition 33 yesterday. 1 point of advice if you play. Once you get flying just complete the game, don't do all the side content until afterwards (maybe just finish the individual character questlines, then do the final quest). I did all the side content before the end and it made the entire last area into a joke, I could just 1 tap everything, even the last boss battle. Once you finish the game it will kick you back to the save point right before the final boss. At that point, you can go out and do all the side content (there is A LOT of side content).

I have 1 optional boss left to kill (simon). He is the hardest boss in the game and is completely ridiculous in his moveset. I think I might be missing 1 or 2 records to collect as well. Not sure I will do New Game+ or not.

The story is top tier, gameplay is fun and the art and music is beautiful. Definitely GOTY for me.

 

[igor_kavinski]

The Rogue Prince of Persia on Steam

Sprint on the walls with a unique 2D movement, flowing seamlessly into fast-paced acrobatic combat as you tear through an army invading your capital city, in this action-platformer roguelite installment in the Prince of Persia series.

store.steampowered.com

Looks interesting though I would've preferred the character being a bit larger in size. These platformers would look fine on a screen resolution of 1024x768 but at higher resolutions, everything just gets smaller and smaller.

 

[igor_kavinski]

I wonder what happens if you click Request Access

Valor Mortis on Steam

Valor Mortis is a first-person action soulslike from the creators of Ghostrunner. Rise from death as a former soldier of Napoleon’s army. Wield supernatural powers, battle horrifying monsters, and unravel a conspiracy that threatens all of humanity.

store.steampowered.com

 

[DigDog]

GameSpot article


View attachment 127518

actually that's a very reasonable contract.

1. it specifies that it's only applicable to the alpha.
2. it has a fail clause if the information becomes known to the general public.

i wish the gift of reading tf you have in front of your eyes was more common; but after 15 years of office work, i have to accept it's not.

 

[DigDog]

The Rogue Prince of Persia on Steam

Sprint on the walls with a unique 2D movement, flowing seamlessly into fast-paced acrobatic combat as you tear through an army invading your capital city, in this action-platformer roguelite installment in the Prince of Persia series.

store.steampowered.com

Looks interesting though I would've preferred the character being a bit larger in size. These platformers would look fine on a screen resolution of 1024x768 but at higher resolutions, everything just gets smaller and smaller.

i watched yesteday a video on youtube regarding this. it's a youtuber i quite like, he does all things souls-like, and he was given an early-access review copy.

so this guy goes and does a challenge run of the game .. without using any weapons. And i gotta say, that completely spoiled the game for me. Game's not even released, and you go and show me how to humiliate it without even using the primary mechanic of the game .. what am i supposed to do, buy it to play it with weapons like an infant?

 

[Stg-Flame]

actually that's a very reasonable contract.

1. it specifies that it's only applicable to the alpha.
2. it has a fail clause if the information becomes known to the general public.

i wish the gift of reading tf you have in front of your eyes was more common; but after 15 years of office work, i have to accept it's not.

The whole point was that a five year NDA for early access is ridiculous. It's always possible that this is just a standard unit of time for NDAs and it's only being pointed out now because someone made it well known, but I've never heard of a beta test NDA going on for years.

Moreover, the reason I posted about it was more for people to point and laugh.

 

[DigDog]

The whole point was that a five year NDA for early access is ridiculous. It's always possible that this is just a standard unit of time for NDAs and it's only being pointed out now because someone made it well known, but I've never heard of a beta test NDA going on for years.

Moreover, the reason I posted about it was more for people to point and laugh.

hey, i'm not saying you're a stupy-dupy poopypants; but i think wherever that NDA came from, it's been interpreted in an exaggerated fashion.

I'm going on a limb and say that it's probably a early review copy that some youtuber got. And they read the "five years ermagherdz" and made it into a click-bait, but the five years here is meaningless, because it stop applying once the product is released.
And, it was likely drafted by some completely humourless legal in some stupid company's legal department and they went "five years, standard expiration" and nobody pointed out that it's stupid. But .. the contract itself is pretty harmless.

*I* signed an NDA with a famous tech giant. Their NDA is ridiculous. 1. in perpetuity, 2. covers any mention that i was ever employed by them and in what capacity. This one just says "we're giving you an alpha, you cannot make videos of it. and this applies for up to 5 years, in case for some reason we don't actually publish the game before then".