Discussion The 2025 Game Thread: Big Stupid Games Edition

DAPUNISHER · May 6, 2025

JujuFish said:
I don't know what's taken me so long to try Shadow of War. I had a great time with Shadow of Mordor and it's supposed to be just as good if not better.

Killing Orcs is crack. I go to test a card or APU and the next thing I know I'm missing 3 hours. Enjoy the nemesis system, we may not see it again.

I am playing the new Indiana Jones game. I think I was 12? when I saw Raiders in theaters. One of my older brothers asked me what I thought on the drive home, and I said it was the best movie I'd ever seen. They hit it out of the park with this game. The sound effects when punching dudes is perfection.

Graphics, sound, storylines, everything is on point. Some of the most interesting side quest I can remember. Nothing feels monotonous or grindy. Even the way "shops" work is so well done compared to all of the copy pasta ways many other games do it. I am playing on game pass. I will do the Oblivion Remaster next. I never got very far in the OG, maybe 4hrs?

Stg-Flame · May 6, 2025

JujuFish said:
I had a great time with Shadow of Mordor and it's supposed to be just as good if not better.

Shadow of War is a direct upgrade to Shadow of Mordor. I have a few gripes, but those are end-game grindy gripes that don't impact the game in any way at all, so it's long overdue that you jump in head-first.

I will say that you shouldn't feel compelled to complete the online conquests simply due to how many people used a cheat engine to edit their captains into almost unkillable monsters. You can kill them, but it takes either a lot of time or abusing a very cheesy combo that's only attainable through specific legendary gear.

GodisanAtheist · May 10, 2025

Powered through Half-Life 2 Episode 1 in a Friday afternoon.

Its funny playing the episodes, they were so clearly structured to be a much larger game broken into smaller parts.

Episode 1 is really heavy on the Gravity Gun for the first 3/4 of the gameplay. Guns reenter the equation when you're out in city 17 for the last section of the game, almost like EP1 was supposed to be the tutorial run of the sequel.

Game is peppered with some fun physics "puzzles". They're pretty basic by puzzle standards, but they break up the combat nicely.

Whole game is really only 4-5 hours long, a fun quick bite of a game that scratches the nostalgia itch.

DAPUNISHER · May 11, 2025

Fired up Midnight Suns for another playthrough

GodisanAtheist · May 11, 2025

Completed the Blade of Galadriel DLC for Shadow of War

It was more Shadow of War which is nice, but it also took out a lot of what made Shadow of War so much fun. The game and main character's abilities are structured in such a way that there isn't much interaction with the nemesis system.

No orc domination, no orc recruitment outside of the story missions, most captains are already immune to basically everything except for one or two attack types so the flair of figuring out the best strategy to take out a captain is gone as well.

Eltariel's new light abilities are, to their credit, unique and have you engaging in combat a little differently than Talion did. The combat revolves around infusing enemies with "Galadriel's Light" either through area of effect attacks or more focused beams of light and once they are fully infused with light either vaporizing them or use them to trigger secondary abilities. While it is a different take on combat, it does feel like it can slow the flow of combat down unless you specifically do an AOE build.

Weapons and armor customization are mostly recolors of the base armor, except for the final hidden set of armor. Each weapon set was tied to a unique elemental/environmental ability that interacted with light infused enemies (so your poison daggers would cause a light infused enemy to explode in a shower of gore and poison while your fire daggers would cause that enemy to explode in a fireball, and your ice daggers would freeze the enemy solid). It was clever and had me switching my weapons a lot more than the base game did to match the weaknesses of the captains I was facing.

Allied orc captains are all acquired through story missions, and are all fun with quirky personalities and recruitment missions. No complaints there.

Overall, it's a fun DLC and was clearly intended to be a bridge to the third Shadow game it seems we'll never get now. You can generally pick up both shadow games and all DLCs for direct cheap, like $7 during Steam sales. If you like power fantasy open world hack n slash combat with a fun twist in the LOTR universe, the Shadow games are where you need to be.

Total playtime for 100% completion was about 4-5 hours for the DLC.

Stg-Flame · May 14, 2025

While I still wait for Nvidia to check out my card, I was able to get a "loaner" 3080 from a friend while he's out of town (I basically just took it out of his rig that's been in storage for months and will be there until November) and decided to finally jump into Dragon's Dogma 2. Considering I've been waiting almost a decade for this game, it's long overdue and it was well worth the wait. I'm not very far into the main story, but it definitely captures what made the first game amazing while throwing in a healthy mix of new features, jank, and some minor bugs. I know one of the biggest gripes from people in the first game was that your pawns talk too much, so they decided to rectify this by making sure your pawns never shut up. They did improve the pawn system in how they act both in combat and outside of combat and it's definitely back to the "teaching a toddler how to carry something" type of basics, but your pawn will slowly start doing things without you telling them, so it's a system that has a massive payoff with the time investment. It's incredibly fun and if anyone enjoyed the first game, it's more of the same with extra features and the existing features being more refined. This is definitely a game I'll be revisiting many times to try new classes.

And yes, you still have to walk to most places, but they did implement an oxcart that can move you between major areas for a very small fee in which you can enjoy the ride or go to sleep and fast travel - but the cart can be attacked during the journey, so it's not a guaranteed fast travel. The last thing I'll say is that the last oxcart I took, it was attacked shortly after leaving the city by an ogre and midway through that fight, a goddamn griffin swooped down and joined the fight - while I was level 12.

I did not survive that fight.

Fallen Kell · May 14, 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.

Spend a weekend and get Firewatch done. That is worth it, and really isn't that long (even figuring out how to do a lot of things with alternative methods to get slightly different story).

igor_kavinski · May 17, 2025

All the old school gamers here may wanna check this out: http://www.portvapes.co.uk/?id=Latest-exam-1Z0-876-Dumps&exid=threads/commodoreos-3-0-size-36-gigabytes.2629949/

That size is big coz it comes with games!

JujuFish · May 17, 2025

I reached credits for Blue Prince. There is so much left to do that it's hard to call this beating the game.

Must try for anyone who likes puzzles and has Game Pass.

GodisanAtheist · May 25, 2025

Oh boy, fired up a bunch of games to see if anything grabs my interest:

STALKER SOC ENHANCED EDITION - I tried playing stalker way back in the day and bounced off the brutal difficulty curve and jank pretty hard so I figured I'd give it another shot since I got the enhanced edition for free. Where to start. The enhanced graphics are both really nice and really blurry. I don't get what's happening here, it's like the game is upscaling from a super low internal render resolution and the whole game is smeared in Vaseline. Turning off AA, FSR, etc changes nothing, game renderer is just kinda weird. Also not a huge fan of the early 2000's jank and lack of QOL features, my gaming time is very limited nowadays so I do not want to be reloading and playing sections over and over or wandering aimlessly with little explanation of where I am supposed to go. I'll keep plugging at it, but we'll see how long I stick with it.

XCom Chimera Squad - I wanted more XCom but don't feel ready for the meme that is XCom 2. I've read that CS is a gentler introduction to the sequel and also a shorter game. The mechanics are great, the concept of a human/advent squad with powers is fun, and the game looks and runs like a charm. Jury is out on the narrative and characters, they've been panned for being poorly acted and written, while I can see what people are talking about it hasn't really bothered me too much yet. I am absolutely seeing this one all the way through.

Papers, Please - A fun little indie game that has you playing the part of a border control agent for a sort of Easter German style government. You call people to your desk and they provide you documentation and it's up to you to review their papers for discrepancies, juggle ever changing beurocratic requirements, and sometimes use your judgement to allow/dent people entry for humanitarian purposes even if their paperwork isn't completely squared away. At the end of the day you take home your meager salary and try to support your wife, son, mother in law and uncle. Its a strangely addictive, wickedly effective at creating pathos despite it's simple art style and gameplay, and really brings home the point that even a lowly government agent can change the course of history through small acts of rebellion. There are 20 possible endings and generally about an hour to two hours per run, I'll play the game till I feel like I've absorbed what I can from it and move on.

repoman0 · May 25, 2025

This game Clair Obscur came out of nowhere. Nearly perfect 10 reviews all around and you can’t even find physical copies (playing on PS5). I’m really enjoying it so far, great music, environment design and characters in an interesting setting and with a European feel that you don’t see too often. It’s turn-based JRPG style. Playing with French dialogue is a must.

Stg-Flame · May 26, 2025

Dragon's Dogma 2 has consumed me in the same way the first game did, but this one is vastly superior. Plus they outdid themselves with some of the enemies and creatures you meet in-game. 70 hours in and I've barely hit the fourth or fifth main story mission because this one doesn't hold your hand as bad as the first game and there's so much more to do and explore outside of the main storyline.

quikah · Jun 1, 2025

repoman0 said:
This game Clair Obscur came out of nowhere. Nearly perfect 10 reviews all around and you can’t even find physical copies (playing on PS5). I’m really enjoying it so far, great music, environment design and characters in an interesting setting and with a European feel that you don’t see too often. It’s turn-based JRPG style. Playing with French dialogue is a must.

Playing this now. Amazing experience so far. The turn based combat is great, mixing in realtime QTEs and dodge/parry mechanics really brings it to the next level. I find turn based can get a bit repetitive at times so this helps immensely. The only complaint I have is the picto/lumina interface is a bit clunky. Pretty amazing such a small team was able to put this out at such high quality.

igor_kavinski · Jun 1, 2025

Pretty weird game: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2025320/Estencel/

igor_kavinski · Jun 1, 2025

Your Guide to the Rest of the Year in Gaming

Even if ‘Grand Theft Auto 6’ doesn’t release this year, plenty of titles will thrill gamers in 2025.

www.esquire.com

MoragaBlue · Monday at 10:09 AM

RE: Clair Obscur

Ok, been hearing and reading lots about this title. I may try it if some of you here recommend it.

Question. The last turn based game I had played was during what felt like a lifetime ago, BG2. I was intent on playing BG3 until I was sidetracked by ER, where, to put simply, after From's combat indoctrination, not sure I could return to find "turn based" enough of challenge.

Is there any skill involved? Or, similar to BG2's turn base, just boils down to RNG? While graphics isn't the end all and be all for me, I assume it's still respectable?

Thanks!

quikah · Monday at 12:03 PM

MoragaBlue said:
RE: Clair Obscur

Ok, been hearing and reading lots about this title. I may try it if some of you here recommend it.

Question. The last turn based game I had played was during what felt like a lifetime ago, BG2. I was intent on playing BG3 until I was sidetracked by ER, where, to put simply, after From's combat indoctrination, not sure I could return to find "turn based" enough of challenge.

Is there any skill involved? Or, similar to BG2's turn base, just boils down to RNG? While graphics isn't the end all and be all for me, I assume it's still respectable?

Thanks!

It is a mix of turn based and real time reaction. Each character takes a turn like a traditional turn based, but during that turn there are realtime actions that you need to perform.

For example when you perform a skill there is a QTE, press space (or A on controller) at the right time to improve your action (more damage/healing/buff) or if you mess it up it will do worse. The QTEs are slightly different timings depending on the skill, but so far (about 8 hrs in) are always just press a button at the right time.

On the enemy attacks you can parry or dodge the attack (similar to a soulslike in this aspect). The attacks can vary, some are just a single attack, some are a chain of attacks with different timings you need to parry/dodge. Can be pretty hard at times. Also there is a special attack the enemy can do which you need to jump over.

igor_kavinski · Monday at 12:32 PM

quikah said:
It is a mix of turn based and real time reaction. Each character takes a turn like a traditional turn based, but during that turn there are realtime actions that you need to perform.

Sounds genius. This has never been done before in turn based games?

MoragaBlue · Monday at 1:38 PM

igor_kavinski said:
Sounds genius. This has never been done before in turn based games?

Agreed!

That's a novel concept and one I've never experienced. I've never even heard of the concept. Ok, I love the parry mechanic in all games, and this sounds like a game I may like. While BG2 was my last true tun based RPG, I used to love the genre during my younger days.

The timing is about right, since I'm about to wind down RDR2, which utterly just captivated my attention similar to ER for the last several months. The great games for me is when I'm playing them, I try to slow it down because I'll miss the game so much once finished and completed.

So, while I await LOP's DLC, I may need something to tie me over. This appears to be something that may fill the void.

quikah · Monday at 3:23 PM

MoragaBlue said:
Agreed!

That's a novel concept and one I've never experienced. I've never even heard of the concept. Ok, I love the parry mechanic in all games, and this sounds like a game I may like. While BG2 was my last true tun based RPG, I used to love the genre during my younger days.

The timing is about right, since I'm about to wind down RDR2, which utterly just captivated my attention similar to ER for the last several months. The great games for me is when I'm playing them, I try to slow it down because I'll miss the game so much once finished and completed.

So, while I await LOP's DLC, I may need something to tie me over. This appears to be something that may fill the void.

Here is a random youtube short I found that captures the gameplay pretty well. (short so vertical video...)

JTsyo · Monday at 4:37 PM

Playing through Outer Worlds. meh overall.

GodisanAtheist · Monday at 4:43 PM

JTsyo said:
Playing through Outer Worlds. meh overall.

- It honestly bored me to tears. Monarch was sort of the highlight of the game, but really only because everything else was such a snoozefest not because Monarch was particularly impressive or anything.

Felt more like a game concept than an actual game in many cases.

Artorias · Monday at 5:52 PM

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.

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.

DigDog said:
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".

Just finished off Prey.....after last launching it in 2022, last save date of 2018, and 35 hours logged.

Where the F did the time go?
Why the hell did I put it in the dustbin for 7 years? Well I left the game on a timed mission, I guess I felt a bit to overwhelmed coming back to a game rushing to complete a side quest.

Fired it up last night and finished the rest of the game in 4 hours.

Its a great game.

DigDog · Monday at 6:23 PM

JTsyo said:
Playing through Outer Worlds. meh overall.

indeed, indeed.

JujuFish · Monday at 6:34 PM

JTsyo said:
Playing through Outer Worlds. meh overall.

Not to be confused with The Outer Wilds, which is an excellent game (but completely different).

Discussion The 2025 Game Thread: Big Stupid Games Edition

Super Moderator CPU Forum Mod and Elite Member

Diamond Member

Diamond Member

Super Moderator CPU Forum Mod and Elite Member

Diamond Member

Diamond Member

Diamond Member

Lifer

Lifer

Diamond Member

Diamond Member

Diamond Member

Diamond Member

Lifer

Lifer

Senior member

Diamond Member

Lifer

Senior member

Diamond Member

Lifer

Diamond Member

Platinum Member

Lifer

Lifer