I restarted “Edna and Harvey: The Breakout”. Partly because I wanted to play it for a long time and partly because my pc is too weak for bigger stuff. Already started it some years ago, but took a break from the game which was a bit too long to get into it again. So now I finally restarted and am verry happy with it. The dialogues and the design is just fun. Also it is quite relaxing.
ialways come back to it when i want something chill. i am building a corvette to be a flying greenhouse, and spend too much time fishing and cooking lol
Yep! 1000+ hours across PC, Steamdeck and Switch 1.
I just enjoy wandering and discovering, and looking for the perfect planet. I’ll occasionally try variant survival saves, like freighterless (using exocraft for additional summonable storage).
I don’t mind the corvette ship designing feature, but I enjoy discovering and acquiring the procedurally generated ships more, or journeying to a location from NMSCE which has a particular ship or multitool.
I like that the game mechanics aren’t wholly intuitive - it occasionally adds surprise, like finding the settlement towers have a once-a-day scan function or that a particular foodstuff in the nutrient ingestor can increase mining yields.
I played a lot of games this year, but there were main ones that “stuck” more than others. I’m a patient gamer, so most of these aren’t new releases.
I was playing a lot of Satisfactory earlier in the year. Not much more recently but I know I’m not done with that game. I started a second save to organize things better, though not sure how well I’m accomplishing that. Though this second one uses more trains while the first one had more of a road setup, including a raised highway to access the oil area in the south east. Still nothing like some of the megaatructures I see in other builds online. I try to plan for expansion, so don’t tend to “finish” buildings, but rather build up a frame that can be added to in any direction. I’d give the game a 9/10 overall.
Another game I got into for a bit was TCG Card Shop Simulator. It was fun for a bit but then dropped off hard as the novelty wore off. I think that’s how “pretend to work a job” games generally go for me. Fun and satisfying at first, but then repetitive and unrewarding later on. I’m going through something similar with Ship Graveyard Simulator 2 right now, though I’ll get to that. I’d rate it about a 6.5/10, though it feels like an 8/10 at first before dropping off to more like a 4/10 once it gets old.
I’ll give Healed to Death an honourable mention, even though I moved on from it pretty quickly. It’s a great concept IMO, since sometimes I want to do a “healing the raid” type activity but don’t want to invest the time into a MMO to get there again. But this one isn’t just playing the healer, you also need to manage a constantly revolving party’s gear and switch them to follow mode (where they do no attacking even if they are ranged) to move them out of the fire during fights. So it’s basically healer simulator but your party is always the worst. If they (actually it’s one guy I believe, so impressive job even if it is lacking overall) added better AIs that didn’t need to be micromanaged, it would be much better. I’d give it a 4/10 in its current state but it could be a 9/10 with better execution.
TMNT: Splintered Fate is very similar to Hades (in fact, I’d call it a clone). I liked it but didn’t stick with it for long. 8/10.
Schedule I is another one of those “work that is fun at first but gets old”. Though they’ve added a bunch of stuff since I last played, so I will probably check it out again at some point. Game loop is basically find a spot, produce drugs, maybe modify them by adding shit to them, then selling them either directly or via a dealer. Then use the cash to produce more drugs or get new places (both areas to produce drugs and businesses to launder the proceeds, though I don’t know if laundering even makes a difference at this point), hire workers or buy vehicles and weapons. I believe they added competing cartels in an update since I last played, so it could be more interesting now. 7/10.
Then had a short period where I was interested in speed running, though mostly just against myself, since I’m nowhere close to the top charts on anything. Did a bit with Subnautica (best time to leave in rocket was under 10 hours now iirc) and Grim Dawn (I think I got my best Act 1 time to beat the record full game time lol). No rating for speed running in general (though it does not go well with ADHD unless you hyperfocus on one game), but Subnautica 10/10 and Grim Dawn 8/10 (it’s similar to Diablo).
Widget Inc was another, it’s pretty much an automation game without logistics, where each new production building rises in cost exponentially and prestiging to increase overall production. Apparently they just released a major update yesterday (looks like it adds enemies). Not sure I’ll look into it. 6/10.
Did House Flipper for a bit, which followed the job game pattern of being fun and engaging for a bit and then repetitive. At first, I intended to get the second game, but my interest in the whole thing waned before that. It was cool that they had Kame house in the game, with hidden dragon balls to find. 7/10.
Also was playing some Dark Souls this year off and on. I realized that there was a lot more to the world than just a hard path through tough enemies. Like there’s shops, blacksmiths, and a ton of hidden things. I also tried builds other than highly mobile swords builds and found 2H is actually easier because your hits often stagger the enemies (and do way more damage), so instead of dodging and timing carefully, you can rush in and overwhelm opponents, eliminating members of groups before the others can even react. Got stuck on the gargoyles, though there were some close attempts and I’ll probably get farther the next time I pick it up. 8.5/10.
I 100% Particle Fleet: Emergence. This game is great if you like systematically picking apart an opponent’s position. Took 15.8 hours to get 100% of achievements, though there’s also a bunch of other maps without achievements that I haven’t done yet and will return to when I feel the itch that those games scratch. 7/10.
I didn’t play it for very long but tried Breathedge, going for a subnautica kind of experience. It does feel like it, but I don’t think the game is tuned very well. I’m not sure if it changes later on in the game, but the part I was playing had me constantly returning to the start. I could go farther out as I upgraded, but progress felt stagnant and I gave up on it. The game did set goals at points of interest, but they were pretty far between and I felt like either I didn’t know what to do to extend my range that far or that it would be tedious as hell doing it the way I could see was possible. I’ll give it a 7/10 on the assumption that part of my issue was needing to git gud, but if I was right about it being the tedious route, I’d drop it to a 5/10.
Played a bunch of Dota 2 for a few months. They give you free dota plus access when you start, which gives access to some useful meta information, but then when it expires, the amount they want for a subscription is kinda high. I’ll give credit for coming up with a f2p system that can generate revenue without any p2w (between the dota plus and cosmetics), but the price turned me off and I didn’t feel like playing as much without that info. Maybe I’ll return to it eventually, as I did enjoy the game itself and like that the full hero list is free (unlike LoL with a rotating set of free ones, though I also don’t mind that monetization system, but I’m on Linux so LoL doesn’t really exist anymore). 7/10.
Stuck in Time is an interesting idle-ish game. You play a regressor, so a character for whom the world resets and plays out exactly the same (depending on your actions) each loop, and as you loop, you get better at doing everything. You give a series of actions to perform each loop and can tweak that list as you go for the next loop. 7/10.
Icarus is a survival game on an alien planet that was teraformed and seeded with a bunch of earth life. You start out with stone age tech (though with a modern understanding, like you can build stone age tools for water purification). I like that, even though there’s oxygen on the planet, they still have you in a atmospheric isolation suit because the air contains microbes we can’t breathe safely (though no idea how it would be safe to consume food and water in those conditions, but hey, it’s still more accurate than most “visit alien planet with oxygen” fictions are which usually just do analysis that says it’s safe to breathe the air). The open world mode is very well done, a nice combination of freedom to do what you want plus missions to do something more specific for a reward or direction. I’ve more or less mastered the forest biome and have started branching out into the arctic biome. The wildlife can be tough to deal with before you figure out how to fight certain animals (like bears and polar bears), especially when you’re stuck with stone or iron age weapons. I almost rage quit the game a few times due to a scenario that spawns a bear, which then tends to stick by your corpse and gear. But there are multiple strategies to handle them, so I suggest sticking with it and even looking up how others do it if you’re really stuck (I did for bears, though they get easier to handle with shotguns). 9.5/10.
Nova Drift is a recent game I’ve been playing, a bullet hell roguelike, so far 2.8 hours in, it’s a lot of fun. 8.5/10.
And Ship Graveyard Simulator 2 is the latest in the job games I’ve been playing. It’s following the trend, as I’ve finished tearing down the biggest ship in the vanilla game and am now on the fence about whether to a) finish up the smaller ships I skipped along the way to the biggest, b) buy some DLC with more ships, or c) just move on from this game. I will say that it is more satisfying than other job games I’ve played, but at only 23 hours in, it’s hard to say if it will have more staying power than the others. 8/10.
And on my playstation, I’ve been playing through FFX remastered. FF7 was always the “main” FF in my mind, but I think I like the FFX gang better now. I’m not as into JRPGs and the turn-based combat as I used to be, but don’t mind it so much in this game. 9.5/10.
I liked it briefly, but it fell off for me. I feel like there needs to be an area to go to, or missions to pick up, or something that is a higher difficulty. I feel like a mid-range quality ship and weapon will do everything in the game without issue, and when you continue to get upgrades and suddenly everything the game has to throw at you poses so little of a challenge you could afk while being shot at with little issue… Well, it didn’t hold my attention anymore unfortunately. I really want to like it more than I do.
After years of trying to get into Sekiro and hitting a wall and just quitting, I finally stuck with it and not only did I finish the game, I also got all the achievements.
Nice! I haven’t attempted Sekiro yet, but it’s high up on my list. I am saving it for when I have the brain space to take a proper crack at the game. I remember that my first exposure to Fromsoft games was in 2017, when I attempted Dark Souls 3 during a Summer where I extremely burnt out due to doing a soul-sucking internship. I bounced off of it so hard, and that taught me that I need to be in the right headspace to play certain games.
Most definitely. I’m currently going through some stuff, so my go-to games end up being puzzle games or something else that can be played in short bursts. Currently played “Is this seat take?”
Clair Obscur was extremely fun for me as well. Free DLC came out last week if you didn’t know. Little Nightmares series was good too. They go on sale for .99c regularly
I am using a 7-year-old video card on a 5-year-old machine and have been notified my health care premiums are going up 1000%.
I’ve been playing small, cheap, low-res social games with friends and family like Misery or RV There Yet and those are nice. But I feel like gaming broadly is starting to recede in my rear-view mirror. Too many real-world problems and stresses and not enough pay.
I am not sure what all these huge companies are going to do when nobody can afford anything anymore.
Probably a tie between getting a Dreamcast copy of Sonic Adventure for a good price on eBay. That, or getting close to finishing New Vegas for the first time, which really kicked off over the summer more than anything. Real highlights.
Though starting an account on Toon Town Rewritten and creating King Miles Purplewhatsit maybe a month to 2 months ago might also be a highlight as well. A toon town in need and all that. The cogs ain’t gonna splat themselves with pie.
As for what Steam would say, no clue because I purposefully don’t pay attention when something like Steam does some form of year in review, let alone when my phone does a weekly time spent on it review.
I remember seeing in the beginning credits one time how it’s based off of a novel and thinking “huh I wonder what its about?”
And then going back in to the bakery store and the woman was saying “its about the interpersonal conflicts of everyone living on the same street its very moving, nothing like this shite”
Hmm, definitely Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2. Best game I’ve played in years. Loved the first one and waited many years for the second game and well, to not be disappointed was great! Now that the DLC’s are done, I’m about to start a new run. Really curious what they’ve done with the monastery.
You’ve reminded me that I still need to finish that. When I started it, I played it so much that I burnt myself out on it a tad (not in a bad way, just in a way that requires I take a break and play something else for a while). I’m looking forward to getting back to it.
I didn’t play the first game, but I remember seeing a lot of the promo/development stuff about it because my partner at the time was super interested in it. My impression of the first game was that it was ambitious and interesting, but rocky in its implementation, but the second one is a refinement in all the ways you would expect a sequel to be. Certainly I have enjoyed it thus far
Edit: Steam tells me that I have 133.5 hours in this game, bloody hell. In my original post, I mentioned that I expect that the actual data in the Steam year-in-review will differ from what I remember of 2025, and this appears to be a great example of it. It seems like this was one of the games that completely dominated the first half of 2025 for me, and I didn’t even remember it
I loved the first one. I never noticed any rocky parts myself. It could be a bit difficult and it doesn’t hold your hand, but that’s what I loved about it.
I do remember that many people complained about the diffuculty of combat, but most of those issues could be solved by training and learning master strikes asap.
I would really recommend playing it. The story is great, it lets you know more about certain characters and it has some really awesome and funny quests, for example the one where you meet/get to know Godwin.
I can’t take the game awards seriously because they didn’t win anything. That game is an actual masterclass in pretty much everything. I usually hate the term “immersion”, because maybe i was just never really immersed in a video game. KCD2 absolutely did it. I think i played that game for like 20 hours before i even started a main mission. There are so many things to do and to see in this game, i absolutely loved every minute of it. The mission where you got drunk as fuck and went to look for more booze, had me genuinely laughing. When i learned that when you steal the lute for example, it’s not enough that no one sees you stealing it, when the see it’s gone and you were sneaking around there, they still figure it was you. The map and the ui is stunningly beautiful. I never loved listening to NPC’s as much as in this game.
Oh yeah, you’re right, and the side content is actually so good too. Very little worthless filler and fetch quests. The NPCs really are a highlight in this game, they’re so well-written. The Miller is amazing with his dumb bullshit about golems, and I loved the Striped Tonies!
They did the stealing thing really good. If you steal stuff and then immediately parade around in it in town, they will still go after you, because shocker: people recognize their own clothes.
It’s also one of the very few games I played where I enjoyed the horse riding.
Same, when it comes to games with vast scope and scale of a universe, it’s either this, Elite Dangerous or Star Citizen.
Elite Dangerous feels very “cockpitty” even with recent updates, it’s just not very pretty or engaging and I’ve tried several times to launch myself into it. VR was amazing for a little while, but still felt very “yellow cockpit” after a bit and a dark field of stars everywhere you look.
Star Citizen was very engaging for a bit, the open-world PVP, realistic scale, social, busy world and hyper-realism and absolutely beautiful environment have sooooo much potential, I log in annually and stand in a viewing area on a space station and just look out at the universe… but that’s it, I don’t like the janky, unpolished controls, the broken missions and lack of personalization/incentive to survive. I would even take very basic survival mechanics like base making, farming, upgrading skills and devices and places to loot and gather furnishings like No Man’s Sky. There should be a reason you want to get a crew together and hang out in a personalized ship.
No Man’s Sky feels a lot like “less intuitive minecraft” and I think I rather just play minecraft if I want to dig and build in a colorful, cartoonish world. The whole "harvest oxygen and swamp gas and process it with tungsten dust and then turn that dust into widgets which you refine into super widgets… it gets grindy and off-putting because it’s not comfortably accessible, it’s not intuitive, and that’s where my biggest beef with NMS is, the lack of an intuitive direction or goal and the feeling that there’s just too many lonely planets and not enough rewarding experience in spending so much time landing on each. Even if it was an actual MMO it would be more engaging.
bin.pol.social
Aktywne