Didn’t really have a 2025 game “that I kept coming back to.” I played some story games, like FF7 Rebirth or The First Berserker Khazan, where I went through the campaign once, or twice in the case of DOOM: The Dark Ages, but otherwise it was older games.
I started Overwatch 2 this year (played a lot of OW1, then took a multi-year break) and have been playing it basically daily for a couple of months. It’s a PVP Shooter, so I wouldn’t say it’s some cozy chill-out game, but I’ve found a few Heroes that are just fun to play as, so I have (mostly) a good time.
Decided to check out VOID/BREAKER, a roguelite FPS, which just released into Early Access. The trailer makes it look like some crazy, super fast-paced, effects filled shooter, where you constantly destroy your environment, and maybe it gets to that point, but so far in my <10 runs, 6h, with the game, it’s been pretty basic.
Each run you choose a single weapon, so far I’ve unlocked a pistol (default), automatic rifle and shotgun, and then you’ll find different upgrades and abilities that you slot into your weapon to modify it.
The main thing of this game is the grappling hook. You can either grapple objects in the environment to throw at enemies, like explosives. Or you can grapple to specific points in each arena to fly around, but so far, for me, that hasn’t been as fun as it should be.
Then the destructible buildings, although they are really basic (mainly just boxes) and take a surprisingly long time to bring down, and even then it’s mainly in parts, not the whole thing. Unless you find some upgrades, your grenades (and the aforementioned explosives) will be the main way to destroy stuff, so you’ll have to constantly wait for the short cooldown to throw the next grenade or look for more objects in the arena.
I’ll give it some more time, because I can see the potential, but I haven’t really found anything like the “deep gun modding” or “deadly synergies” the Steam store page is talking about. 90% of the time it’s been stuff like your bullets fly faster, and your grenade deals more damage.
So many people online seem to already complain about Silent Hill f out of a few details coming out of trailers. I honestly think the game looks sick and I can’t wait to play it, expecially considering the writer’s good reputation....
For SH2, I think it was specifically because Bloober Team was working on it. They had a mixed or spotty track record before this release, so people were worried, they’d mess up the remake for a beloved game.
I think Konami also kinda “left” video game development for a time, focusing more on Pachinko machines, their health clubs, etc. So this, along with some of their previous choices, meant they didn’t really have the best reputation (and still haven’t), and people didn’t know if it was just going to be a lazy cash grab.
Silent Hill f I don’t really know what people are saying, and I haven’t looked, but I can only guess that anti-woke mob is going after the game, because you’re playing as a girl/woman, which is of course DEI, forced diversity, woke, whatever, I dunno.
Steam already marked review bombing as off-topic before, which don’t factor into the score by default, and you have to specifically select to see them.
You can disable this language filter, along with the off-topic filter (you should be able to disable them separately though, which you can’t currently).
As far as I can tell, it just uses whatever language you use Steam in. If that language doesn’t have enough reviews, it defaults to all languages.
I also just tried and set German as a secondary language, but it still just shows the score for English reviews. It doesn’t even mention German at the bottom of the page, where you get the summary, only all languages and English (and recent). If I change the language for the store, it also changes the source for the review score.
The actual reviews at the bottom of the page (Most Helpful and Recent) are pulled from the languages you’ve allowed, so I now see English and German reviews (and a Korean one, but maybe that user just uses Steam in English, but posted the review in Korean?).
The thing you’re describing definitely happens. Just did a quick check with Steam in German and every game had a few reviews in English (just checking the preview of Most Helpful and Most Recent at the bottom of the store page). Other languages are more affected, like Swedish, where most of the reviews are in English.
I don’t really see a good solution to this. If Steam is able to correctly detect the language and only show your native one, most of the time you’ll probably end up with a handful of reviews, and then Steam has to show you something else (probably English) anyway. I think currently it’s good enough, since you still get the perspective of someone from (probably) your regional or cultural background, even if the language might not fit.
As a Trails hater, I wholeheartedly disagree with you. I don’t think anyone should ever play these games, except Zero and Azure. Ignore everything else and pretend they don’t exist.
The overarching story is just terrible and makes no sense, but the absolute worst are definitely the villains. You constantly get blue balled, every time you win the fights, but then lose in cutscenes, so you end up pretty much going nowhere.
Cold Steel constantly resets most progression at the start of each game, so you end up just spinning wheels for hours on end, building a relationship with characters that shouldn’t matter, until there’s a tiny bit of story (that contributes to the overarching plot) at the end of the game.
The exception in the series for me were Zero and Azure, which I genuinely liked, because of the much smaller setting and since it has nothing to do with the rest of the series, until the end of Azure, where some connection to the rest of the games is shoehorned in.
Imma be honest, I played those games all back-to-back in 2020, Sky SC to CS3, 500 hours of Trails in two months, so I don’t remember a lot about all of these.
It definitely does have some of these terrible moments, which is why I didn’t like it as much as Zero, but I still liked the smaller region more than the other games, along with the rest of the characters.
telling people to pretend Trails does not exist and to ignore them goes a little far
It doesn’t go far enough. These games should be laughed at and used as examples of what not to do.
I personally liked them better than Zero and Azure.
You are objectively wrong (although after thinking about it some more yesterday, Azure is now also on my Trails-shitlist).
Nobody should play Sky FC and think “that wasn’t very good, and the final act was garbage, but there are like a dozen more of these games, they have to get good eventually. Maybe the great world building I’ve heard so much about kicks in at some point.” NO! You can still turn back!
Nobody should get hope after playing Zero that the series might finally be on the up and up, and not hot trash. You will be disappointed!
Nobody should be like me, be literally held at gunpoint to eventually play the rest of the games, because of the hundreds of hours, that I’ve already wasted on this abomination of a video game series.
Surprise early review! I usually spend all night writing these (because I’m a night owl) and then post it first thing in the morning before I go to bed. But I wound up with a free day and nothing to do, so I decided to write a review this afternoon....
I played this for a bit last year (16h on Steam), and while I don’t think it’s bad, it does get really repetitive. Most of the weapons felt extremely similar, and eventually all my runs would play out the same, where I’d just find a choke point, funnel all enemies through there and mow them down, so it’s just a boring horde shooter. Having a dozen weapons all around your screen is only amusing for so long.
If you’re asking, that’s just the spawn animation for that particular character, at the start of a run, IIRC. There are melee weapons, none are just hands that do chops.
It’s really just another Unity asset flip, really nothing special, but I think the TCG theme is more compelling to me, compared to other games like this. Also, you can open card packs, which is really neat. Eventually, you can have employees doing basically everything for you, so you’ll just be in charge of ordering new stock and opening packs to sell individual cards.
Because it’s just another Unity game, there’s just a ton of mods already, even though the game is still in Early Access. Either QoL mods, Cheat mods, replace cards with whatever real TCG you want, whatever.
I played for around 50h shortly after launch and pretty much did everything the game had at that time, although I used mods near the end, which did speed up things somewhat. There have been some updates since then, but nothing really that made me go back to the game yet.
The game has a demo/free prologue, so you can check it out before you buy, but I don’t know how much stuff you can do in it.
Currently preparing for a Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous playthrough, but I might play something else before then.
I’m definitely not gonna make my own builds, nor am I interested in that, with the hundreds of feats and spells in the game, many of which are just traps and no real way to learn. So I’m going through a bunch of different guides, a lot of which are outdated, and am currently creating a spreadsheet for me to reference, so I don’t have to sift through different videos and websites, every time I level up or do some other stuff (like the Crusade mode). I did the same for my BG3 Honor Mode playthroughs, and it makes everything so much more convenient.
Not playing yet, but I’m preparing for Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous. I’m not gonna make my own builds, since I have basically no idea about PF or which of the thousands of feats, spells, whatever are good. There’s not a lot of info about this out there, or it’s outdated, so I’m compiling stuff in a spreadsheet, so I have easy access to everything.
Bought Titan Quest 2 in Early Access and played through the current content (Prologue + Act 1) with two characters.
While the game is fun, the current masteries (classes) are kinda boring (except Storm). For some reason, only the Storm mastery gets different basic abilities (low cost, spammable attacks), and everyone else is stuck with the dinky basic weapon attack. I also wasn’t too hot on the active abilities for the Rogue and Warfare mastery, so I basically just ran around with two passives and the default attack otherwise (which you can upgrade) on my Bowman. My first character, a Frost caster (Storm+Earth mastery) was a lot more fun, with better abilities.
I wouldn’t recommend at its current non-sale price, but it’s a good foundation, as long as the devs can keep updating the game with more stuff.
Slow-mo slider, finally. They also nerfed the Supper shotgun and rebalanced the impaler so there's finally a reason to use any other weapon. This fixed most of my issues with the game.
I had a totally different experience. In my first playthrough I just switched weapons, when I felt like it (and for level challenges), because there’s just no reason otherwise. And the second playthrough was with only the SSG in the first half and Impaler in the second, and they just shredded everything.
I played on default Nightmare and then some custom turbo mode (150% game speed with lower damage taken and dealt, and a bit more).
As the OP said, after a few levels you can get upgrades that destroys shielded enemies quickly and for some reason the game starts spawning mostly superheated ones anyway, so you can just instantly blow those groups up.
I’m usually a normal-difficulty gamer and usually don’t turn down the difficulty from there. However, as the article says, If I started on a higher difficulty, I’m more open to go back down to the default.
There are a few games/genres like this for me. Like the Anno games, whenever I play one, I just turn it down to the lowest difficulty, and just build and expand. I kinda treat it like an idle/incremental game. That’s also why I normally don’t play any of the survival city builders, like Banished or stuff like that, it’s just not what I’m looking for.
Whatcha playing! I’m at the end of DK Bananza and will be continuing death stranding 2. DK Bananza was great! I think I prefer Mario Odyssey overall but it was a great time still
Just finished The First Berserker: Khazan earlier today. For some reason, the final boss was extremely hyped up in the game’s subreddit, and it ended up just being alright. Overall a good game, I had fun with the combat, but the story is trash and the characters are nothing, not even cardboard cutouts.
Bought it as the EA price was cheap enough to take a chance and early reviews where positive enough to signal that the game isnt completely broken.
That’s my thinking as well. I don’t mind Early Access either way, and I’m fine with coming back to the game every couple of months when more content drops.
I’m not certain I have the faith it’ll ever have 30 hours of content
Does it need to? Nothing wrong with a solid 20-25h campaign, you play through once, maybe another time with a different class or in multiplayer, and you’re done. I don’t need everything to be a forever game with constant content drops, even a game like this.
From your comments here, it seems like kinds of isometric ARPGs aren’t for you. Last Epoch, PoE, TQ2, all don’t have good enough combat, so what are you looking for?
If you still want the loot and grind aspect, maybe a shooter is more up your alley, like Borderlands or Destiny. Or maybe something like the Team Ninja third-person action games, like Nioh, Stranger of Paradise, Wo Long (and games like that).
Most of them have barely innovated on Diablo 2’s core moment to moment loop and it’s something that seemingly everyone is aware of but no studio has yet to be able to fix.
That’s what I’m saying, because for many people there is nothing to fix, because they feel it’s not broken. That’s why basically all the isometric ARPGs still go back to the D2 formula and maybe add some QoL changes.
Also, your examples and expectations feel extremely unrealistic and mostly not what ARPGs are known for, and frankly some are even incompatible with the genre in my opinion.
I see that there has been a misunderstanding on my part. I agree with your last three points, but for some of the others, things you deem fine or good currently, I’d say they are rather mediocre (like your first point).
And in the end it basically all comes down to the combat, I think the most important part of these types of games, which you think isn’t engaging enough (it’s not, but that doesn’t bother me). I think if you did change it, and “fix” points two and three at the same time, you’d lose too much of what makes these types of grindy, rng loot games work in my opinion.
Which is why I think you’re wrong with saying
but not what most people want when they go to play a video game including in the ARPG genre
I think the mindless grinding, not having to pay attention, is exactly what most people want with this type of game. Of course, that isn’t to say everyone wants that and that there isn’t a market for something else.
However, I’d personally probably rather recommend the Niohs, the Khazans, the Wo Longs, the Remnants, the whatever of the world to those people (or try SSFHC or something, I dunno).
Sony Interactive Entertainment has filed a lawsuit against Tencent over its upcoming game Light of Motiram, with Sony saying it is a "slavish clone" of the Horizon series.
The layoffs were already yesterday’s news, with basically no one talking about them. I don’t think MS needs any diversion tactics for that, and even then, Silksong wouldn’t be it.
I’ve been playing The First Berserker: Khazan. I’m maybe two-thirds through the game and generally have a good time. It’s basically Nioh with the faster paced combat, loot and mission based level format. For the first two regions, I mainly used the Spear, but recently have switched to the Greatsword. The monster bosses are fine, but some of the human bosses can be extremely infuriating, with how their stamina regenerates so quickly.
I think you can only be non-lethal, not truly pacifist, if someone cares about this difference. You still need to knock people out and do stuff to them, even if they don’t die by your hand.
It’s mainly just talking to people, but if you want to fight as few times as possible, you probably need to know the game or tons of save-scumming. You’ll also have to be ok with just missing a bunch of stuff, or pick and choose your fights, which again, needs prior knowledge.
I don’t think it’s a good way for a first playthrough.
IIRC there are six fights you always need to do (two of those in the tutorial and another shortly after, although technically you can use glitches to skip these). But if you only wanted to do these fights, you’d basically do an evil playthrough and miss most of the game, especially Act 1 and 3. And if you’re not talking to people, save-reload the correct dialogue choice, you would just sneak around everywhere, trying to avoid enemies, constantly saving and reloading, because you were spotted.
If you add a handful of boss fights, a good run is possible, but still, there’s going to be a lot of sneaking around and save-scumming.
I remember playing this on my Voodoo graphics card back in the day.
I always wanted to check it out again, but there are no proper discounts of this game anymore, and the price even increased to 20€ a couple of months back. Who thinks that anybody will buy Descent with DOSBox for 20€ in 2025? Might as well just use my old pirated copy on a burned CD I have somewhere.
I’m someone who tried a few Fromsoft games, but only really got into Elden Ring and that was the first (and so far only) game of theirs I finished.
If you want more Fromsoft, there’s going to be a lot of overlap with their Souls games, because of how From reuses assets.
Dark Souls 3 will be the most mechanically similar, but depending on what you liked in ER, it might get too similar and just feel the same, or you get frustrated when muscle memory kicks in when you do some Elden Ring move, that doesn’t work in DS3.
Dark Souls 1 might be a nice palate cleanser, as another user already stated.
If you play on console, Demons Souls or Bloodborne are also options, the latter probably being the fan favorite (or you can try to emulate it on PC). I think BB combat is supposed to be more aggressive because you can get back health, when you attack enemies after you’re hit.
Sekiro is focused on parries, and a lot faster, and more difficult.
If you want to try other developers, Lies of P is a recent one, that’s pretty good, more focus on blocking and perfect blocks, along with the BB-esque health-leech after you get hit, so you’re supposed to be more aggressive.
If you’re a Star Wars fan, the Jedi games, Fallen Order and Survivor aren’t bad, but they have some open world bloat, that you can ignore. Also, it’s an EA game.
If you like old school Zelda and puzzles, maybe check out Tunic.
If you like Crabs, try Another Crab’s Treasure, that was already mentioned here.
If you like 2D Metroid and bugs, check out Hollow Knight.
If you like 2D Metroid and little girls (what?) take a look at Ender Lilies.
If you like FPS and have friends, try Remnant for some coop fun.
If you like fast-paced action games and loot, with some souls stuff, Nioh and The First Berserker Khazan have you covered. If you want more of that along with Final Fantasy, there’s Stranger of Paradise.
If you tried Sekiro and liked it, or maybe you thought it was too hard, but it’s good in concept (and like loot) you can check out Wo Long. Also helps if you’re super into the Three Kingdoms stuff.
If you want Chinese mythology, take a look at Black Myth: Wukong.
If you like anime tiddies, there’s Code Vein, a decent game like this, on the easier side.
If you’ve tried a bunch of these games and just look for more, The Surge games are alright, nothing special I think.
If you want to defeat the woke mind virus and are extremely based, but don’t like good games, take a look at the Lords of the Fallen (2023).
I've been stuck at this boss all day, it kinda sucks. There's quite a few undefendable moves. You can't even block when it goes to its third form and takes about 1/2 health with its attack. With a character they pulled out of their butts....
I played it at launch on PC, and the only thing I remember is terrible performance in certain areas. Don’t think I had any real gameplay bugs, but maybe I just forgot.
I still didn’t like the game, but bugs weren’t really the issue for me.
Like every time I have a string of good games there the matchmaker just takes a whole minute on an expanded 200 ms search only to grumble and put me in a random match LMAO
Call of Duty players, when the matchmaker doesn’t just put them against people who have never held a controller before and they have to shoot at moving targets:
deleted_by_moderator
Weekly Recommendations Thread: What are you playing this week? angielski
cross-posted from: sh.itjust.works/post/44554525
Deep Dish Dungeon | Announcement Trailer (www.youtube.com) angielski
Why do new Silent Hill entries attract so much negativity? angielski
So many people online seem to already complain about Silent Hill f out of a few details coming out of trailers. I honestly think the game looks sick and I can’t wait to play it, expecially considering the writer’s good reputation....
Steam: Updates to User Review Scores Based on Language (store.steampowered.com) angielski
I know I’m late to the party but I just found out and didn’t find a post regarding this...
Trails in the Sky 1st Chapter adds Switch 2 version; ‘Prologue’ demo now available for PS5, Switch, and PC (www.gematsu.com) angielski
Random Screenshots of my Games #65 - Vampire Hunters angielski
Surprise early review! I usually spend all night writing these (because I’m a night owl) and then post it first thing in the morning before I go to bed. But I wound up with a free day and nothing to do, so I decided to write a review this afternoon....
Lords of the Fallen II - Official Announcement Trailer (www.youtube.com) angielski
They're going to keep acting like Lords of the Fallen 1 never happened eh
Valor Mortis - Reveal Trailer (www.youtube.com) angielski
This game looks crazy, but I was one hundred percent convinced this was Witchfire. It looks so similar.
Been getting more and more obsessed with supermarket simulators recently 🛒. These are my favourites, what are yours? angielski
These are the games I've been obsessing over (includes medieval themed ones):...
Weekly “What are you playing” Thread || Week of August 17th
Whatcha playing? I’m still making my way through death stranding 2....
Weekly Recommendations Thread: What are you playing this week? angielski
cross-posted from: sh.itjust.works/post/43998814
Drag x Drive | Review Thread angielski
Game Information...
Weekly “What are you playing” Thread || Week of August 10th
Whatcha all playing? I finished DK banaza. Really good but not as good as odyssey imo. Back on death stranding 2 and been enjoying the BF6 beta!
DOOM: The Dark Ages | Update 2 Release Notes (slayersclub.bethesda.net) angielski
Slow-mo slider, finally. They also nerfed the Supper shotgun and rebalanced the impaler so there's finally a reason to use any other weapon. This fixed most of my issues with the game.
Would you rather stop playing a game than lower the difficulty? The First Berserker: Khazan devs reckon you would | Eurogamer (www.eurogamer.net) angielski
Weekly “What are you playing” Thread || Week of August 3rd
Whatcha playing! I’m at the end of DK Bananza and will be continuing death stranding 2. DK Bananza was great! I think I prefer Mario Odyssey overall but it was a great time still
Titan Quest II released in Early Access (store.steampowered.com) angielski
23,99€ currently on sale for the launch week, 29,99€ afterward. Price will increase during the Early Access period to the full 49,99€....
18+ GOG NSFW Giveaway (items.gog.com) angielski
CENSORSHIP...
Sony Sues Tencent Over Horizon Lookalike (www.gamespot.com) angielski
Sony Interactive Entertainment has filed a lawsuit against Tencent over its upcoming game Light of Motiram, with Sony saying it is a "slavish clone" of the Horizon series.
Xbox returns to gamescom next month with over 20 playable demos, including Hollow Knight: Silksong (news.xbox.com) angielski
Weekly “What are you playing” Thread || Week of July 27th
Late night thread 🌃 Whatcha all playing? Ive been gone but been playing donkey kong when I can! Really awesome!
RPGs that are optionally pacifist? angielski
I’ve beat Fallout NV as a true pacifist - no companions, no death caused by me....
Remembering Descent, the once-popular, fully 3D 6DOF shooter (arstechnica.com) angielski
Vi Gameplay Reveal Trailer | 2XKO (www.youtube.com) angielski
after Elden Ring what souls game should one play next?
I really want to like the new ff7....but it's just so buggy. angielski
I've been stuck at this boss all day, it kinda sucks. There's quite a few undefendable moves. You can't even block when it goes to its third form and takes about 1/2 health with its attack. With a character they pulled out of their butts....
If algorithms could get mad I'm sure it'd be fuming angielski
Like every time I have a string of good games there the matchmaker just takes a whole minute on an expanded 200 ms search only to grumble and put me in a random match LMAO