Haven’t played Silksong yet, but its release did get me to play Hollow Knight which had been sitting in my library forever.
I’ve gotten partway through Expedition 33, but decided to take a break after spending ~20 hours on act 1 alone (speaking of, I think it’s about time to get back on that soon).
As much as I like single player games, I imagine the most significant amount of my time by far has probably been spent on multiplayer games like cod
I don’t wanna hype you up too much - but I’d been looking forward to playing Silksong almost since it was announced and had very high expectations, and it did not disappoint!
Abiotic Factor, has been a pearl. Survival in a 90’s science center complex in the middle of Australia. Good mechanics once you get past the water hump. The story has the right amounts of dread and humor, and the stakes /difficulty / rewards ramp up just right for me.
Oh and still playing noita… Finally cleared it this year
I’ve played Abiotic twice and have enjoyed it, but both times I’ve stopping before finishing it. I’ve been playing solo and know that playing with friends is a much better experience but sadly none of my friends want to buy it. Would you say it’s worth finishing? I’ve gotten to third third lab area
I left gaming. That’s the highlight. I’m yearning to get back tho. But my laptop is kinda struggling to play games so yeah I might be away from them for a long time ig.
Drag would like Arkham Origins please and thank you. Drag already played Knight and is curious if the rest of the series is good. It’s one of the few games drag 100%ed
There were many but the one I wanna mention is Dredge - a horror fishing game that is creepy fun. Wasn’t on my radar but popped up on gamepass and I love it.
I‘ve sorted my library by release date, and there are five games which have released this year in it that aren‘t just remastered or early access which finally hit 1.0. Of those five I‘ve played three. Also of those five, three are indie games.
Monster Hunter Wilds
Poorly received across „enthusiasts“ as too easy of a MH game. I personally liked it a lot. The wounds mechanic is fun, focus mode is good but too much, performance is absolutely horrendous. One of the things I’ve always hated with MH are those stiff ass animations that made you miss combos by a cm, focus mode helps with that but now you can just 180 during a swing which is overkill IMO. I miss tracking monsters - which made me feel more like I‘m actually hunting game - as well as wallbanging them. The current mounting feels less interesting overall. 150 hrs played and they were a lot of fun with friends.
PEAK
Probably my GOTY (cause I didn‘t play much from this year anyway, see above lol). There‘s only one thing that bums me out: The game should have DLSS/FSR cause it‘s really heavy God knows why and the internal upscaler is meh. Otherwise, the most fun I had in a multiplayer game in a long time. Did ascension 7, unlocked all the stuff, gobble up every update, great fun with friends (also if solo but less so). 110 hrs, amazing game for less than ten bucks. Fuck those sencient tornados.
Mario Kart World
Idk, as the successor to MK8 it‘s kinda mid in comparisson. The feeling of speed, the racing flow, they‘re kinda missing. Lots of uninteresting filler tracks. Idk why this had to be an open world game. Some of its soul died for that. I got gold on all the cups but haven‘t touched it since. Pro tip: If you have trouble at max diff, stop drifting. The game ups the difficulty (read: rubberbanding) PER DRIFT, and it stacks up across the whole cup!
This year I unsubscribed from FFXIV. Speaking only for myself, Dawntrail was a massive drop in nearly all aspects after Endwalker. The music and environment were great, I was positively giddy when I reached Solution Nine… but the characters are unlikable, the antagonist is boring and one-dimensional, there is hardly any payoff for setups, one of the most significant conflicts gets resolved with a fucking pep talk, most of the first half of the main story only exists to extol about how much of a chad the current monarch is. Somehow the second half gets even worse with multiple contrived plot points relying on characters being idiots and the player being a passive observer, including the reintroduction of a high profile issue that had been present for the entire DECADE of the game’s existence and resolved in a high profile way in Shadowbringers. Wuk Lamat was fine. Overused and dumb as a pair of boots, but fine.
I got to the final region, got the “I will now genocide the multiverse because my obviously unsustainable economy is running out of resources” monologue, and just stopped playing. Unless 8.0 sees some massive improvements, I have no plans to finish Dawntrail.
On the completely different end of the spectrum, Warframe is in the best place it’s ever been. The last four major updates (1999, Isleweaver, Vallis Undermind, and The Old Peace) have been fucking phenomenal, both in terms of story and gameplay. The Old Peace (released literally a few days ago) also contains the most valid crashout in history. Rap tap tap, little piggy. The new gamemodes are fun, fast-paced, and so far haven’t outstayed their welcome, although like always, I’m worried about their longevity since they’re essentially content islands.
Warframe’s music is exceptional. I’ll always appreciate the works of Keith Power (he gave us We All Lift Together and This Is What You Are), but the current composer Matt Chalmers has elevated the game’s music both in quality and variety. Starting with 1999, there are no songs that I ever want to skip, and that includes the virtual boy band. Even if you have no interest in the game, you shouldn’t skip the music: TennoConcert 2025 (Matt is the eternally chilled out dude who sings From The Stars), Tethra Jahrak, Lullaby of the Manifold, and (potential spoilers) Roses from the Abyss.
In terms of smaller games, I fell off the wagon and had several all-night benders in Factorio. If you’re anywhere near the spectrum, that game is like crack cocaine. I had a lot of fun in Project Wingman and the biggest furball in history, I replayed Star Wars: Republic Commando, and rediscovered my appreciation for games where the player is not the Chosen One. Against all wisdom, I finally played The Mystery Of The Droods. Even knowing what awaited me, I was unprepared for the absolute jank.
On osu!, finally achieved my player goal of achieving 400pp, then saw a drastic fall on my play time exploring other games. Still doing mapping for two different osu tournaments, but maybe i’m not there forever :)
Balatro became really addictive to me. 200 hours in, still haven’t achieved completionist, but I definetly will. Fuck black deck
Marvel Rivals. Really good game overall, my initial expectations were really low considering Marvel has repeatedly fumbled my expectations on their games, but honestly the game felt like I was playing a game par with Overwatch 1 with Marvel characters.
I’ve got hooked into Trackmania very interestingly this year, my previous racing game experience was stuff like Most Wanted/Carbon, but appearently the osu! style “keep the improve grind” games interest me still. Aside from TM2020, I also got Stadium and Turbo, might get Canyon on a future sale to play.
Rhythm Doctor 1.0 came out, the last two chapters blew me away! I would hate to spoil anything, but let’s just say they have used the tricks they did on Act 5 Boss Stage exceptionally well, again.
Last Command B-Side DLC was very enjoyable. Got it the day it came out, the included content was very fun. Story was meh, but again you don’t really follow the story on a bullet hell game. The new stages were really cool.
I wasn’t expecting to play Megabonk at all, but gave it a shot thanks to my Steam Family Library. Honestly it’s a fine game, gives similar vibes to Balatro as a mob slaying game.
Lastly, got into Tetris: The Grand Master 4. It is unbelievably difficult, but have managed to unlock 3.1 on TGM mode, and on standard mode achieved 800 Master. TGM Master still feels way too tough, but I’m seeing improvements here and there.
So your staple games seem to be focused on gameplay (or you’re at the part where the story is done) while the games you think you want to play are story heavy with gameplay locked behind looking at cutscenes and listening intently to dialogue. If the first actual playing happens after only 30 minutes, you might not have the energy to sit through that. Maybe look into indie games that get quickly to the gameplay. You’ll probably find that it’s not that hard to play new games if they’re built for playing instead of mass appeal and story
There are two games I never would have considered if I hadn’t explored new / different genres from what I usually stick with, 1000xResist and Pentiment.
The latter might be my favourite by a slight margin, but either way I’m so glad I went out of my comfort zone and discovered games which aren’t my typical RPGs, action-adventure or shmups.
I’ll keep experimenting next year, I might even put together a list of genres or games I’d like to try.
I play a lot of games every year and nowhere complete anything so whatever I do complete they go into great games I recommend to friends.
Clair obscure expedition 33 was my highlight of the year. Long time since a game made me cry and laugh like this one. Completed chapter 2 but then I had enough but I want to return and look more at this and the next chapter.
No rest for the wicked is in EA but it totally captivated me for a couple of weeks. Had a lot of fun and looking forward to multiplayer and playing with my friends. I love that the devs are following their own vision and doing stuff a little bit different.
Reality Break. This one is a bit odd. I managed to buy the wrong game somehow but this was totally a hidden gem for me. No regrets and they had some big updates after I was done so I plan to return one day.
Metaphor Re Fantazio. My first game like this one and while I never completed it it made a mark.
Heart of the machine will get a small spotlight also. Very different game and something that I really have to visit again when it releases in 1.0.
I guess my 2026 will be a lot of revisits and (hopefully!!) less buying games. Another good overhaul mod of Factorio would save me a lot of money and Guild wars 2 occupies quite a bit of my gaming time.
bin.pol.social
Aktywne