Hello everyone. Hope you have all had a good week, and if you've been celebrating the holidays, have had a chance to unwind and enjoy. Its the last Sunday of the year so let's use this thread to talk about what games we played in 2025, our favorites, least favorites pleasant surprises etc.
Games I played that released this year:
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Elden Ring: Nightreign: This is probably my GOTY, but I didn't play too many games that released in 2025. Anyway, I think a lot of people were rightfully skeptical about Elden Ring Fortnite edition but it's an incredibly fun co-op game. I haven't tried the Deep of Night Mode or the DLC, but thats something I am thinking of picking up when I return home from my holiday vacation
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The Outer Worlds 2: the gameplay is markedly better than the first game, once again proving any movement system in any video game just needs a double jump. A lot of people complained about the lack of skill points you get from leveling up, but I thought it wasnt that big of an issue. One aspect I think they knocked it out the park was with the in game radio stations, they were absolutely fantastic and once i turned them on i never once turned them off. The one area I think it comes up way short of the first game is the companion characters: they simply do not match the energy of the ones from the first game. I look forward to the promised expansions.
-Becoming Saint: i picked this up because I saw Northernlion play it and I thought it looked interesting, but unfortunately there was little meat on its bones. The game bills itself as a rouge-like but there is very little variation between playthroughs. Also the devs suffered a huge aura loss in my eyes when I checked the steam reviews and they were replying to every single review. I liked the art style though. 5.5/10
Stronghold Crusader Definative Edition: 97 Year Old Game Studio Still Makes Crossbowmen The Old Fashioned Way. Stronghold crusder is one of my favorite childhood games (it taught me how the economy works). I actually didn't even know they were releasing a remaster of it until I saw that you could buy it bundled with Becoming Saint. Its the good kind of remaster: fixes longstanding bugs and actually ads some content to the game. I have worked my way through the co-op trail with my brother the past few months and we are eagerly awaiting fresh missions to be added to it.
Games I played this year that releases prior to 2025:
-Balatro: crack cocaine
-Dark Souls 1 and 3: i replayed 1 for the hell of it but I did a SL1 playthrough of 3. Very challenging, very rewarding
-Fallout 4: I began 2025 with a brutal, soul crushing period of unemployment and job hunting. To keep my spirits as low as possible, I did a playthrough of FO4 on survival difficulty. Extremely brutal in the early game, I ending up immediately siding with the Brotherhood so I could get access to vertibird transport early. Became the perfect mixture of fun and challenge once I got good armor and put in enough perks so I didn't die in 1 bullet
LA Noire: my comfort game tbh, shame they had to burn through hundreds of University graduates to make it
Rome Total War: still whips
Mass Effect 1 and 2: Playing Outer Worlds 2 made me want to play more space games, so I fired up the legendary edition for my second playthrough of the trilogy. My first playthrough I did male paragon shepherd, so this time I'm doing female renegade shepherd. They really tried to make the paragon/renegade dichotomy akin to good cop/loose cannon but full renegade means you swing between asshole and psychopath. The conversation you have with Anderson and Udina at the end of ME1 after letting the council die floored me with the renegade dialogue options; you and Udina basically become Darth Vader and Palpatine. Anyway, I will start ME3 when I get back from vacation
Hope everyone has had at least a tolerable 2025, and here's to maybe a better year in 2026!
I beat Oblivion for the first time in 46 hours. It was a fun power scale. I went from struggling on a higher difficulty against the mildest of enemies to minmaxing magic spells in my own tower to skipping through every Oblivion gate and the ending sequence with invisibility and a fuck-you spell for the bad guys. Even the guy who was supposed to betray me I told him to buzz off because I was rushing through.
Nubby's Number Factory got 15 hours from me. I ended up with one build that I liked which was the straw and I beat the 10 challenges with it. They put out more content but I don't really have a desire to play it.
Slime Rancher 2 I was a bit too right brained about for 25 hours. I rushed upgrades and automation and didn't really decorate at all. I had it so optimized that I had moments where I just had to collect resources that had a chance of spawning and ultimately benefited from a guide to find the final hidden things. That final sequence would have been more enjoyable had I spent some downtime making my base feel like my own
I played Gridmaster in Old School Runescape which would have been another solid 40 hours. I got to experience Runescape beyond the fire cape for the first time and it let me feel really cool and competent even if my power was off the charts. I got to interact, at some level, with the high level mechanics and experience what all the hubub was about.
Megabonk collected a whopping 64 hours from me. I was skeptical at first because it was slow to unlock things. But I had a moment where I put on a metal playlist, went Fox on tier 3 forest, and let myself melt into the moment and I felt that relaxed flow state I'd been chasing for as long as my sleep had been being affected by being high strung. I got everything unlocked besides the challenges because I don't want to do fragile, speed run, or extra difficult on higher tiers. When I would tilt myself off the face of the Earth I did a run of mega bonk, went for a walk, got a snack and I could focus again.
As I look at this list, I realize the majority of my gaming happened in the wake of a breakup. As if to say it was a ritual for quietly mourning the future that could have been.