2025 Game Rundown

Steam Replay

7 Days to Die

In this year, this game has gone from one of my favorites to something that makes me pretty sad. I don't think I'll ever go back to it unless I tried out a big overhaul mod, such as Darkness Falls. The buds I play with are pretty skittish about mods, so it's pretty unlikely that will happen.

7 Days to Die feels like an excellent framework for a game. There's a ton of stuff there, a lot of systems to play around with, but unfortunately the developers (AKA The Fun Pimps) don't seem interested in exploring that. This is why the game has always felt half baked in the 10 years it's been on Steam. After playing this to the pseudo end-game with two different groups, I do feel a bit disappointed. Is there a higher level quest to achieve? Bosses? Some kind of spooky military base to investigate? Cure for the infection? Nope, none of this. You never find out who The Duke is, you never find out why the traders are there and why they are so well equipped. It's just a big sandbox.

The Fun Pimps tried this year and made a big release that brought back weather into the game. It was a huge failure and everyone hated it. They also added a bunch of strange objectives to "complete" each zone, which basically amounts to doing a basic task 50 times or so. Once you complete five of them, you can then build in the zone. It's needless fluff, pads out the game for some reason, basically the opposite of what this game needs.

I did try out one overhaul mod, called Project Z. Just by modifying the XML files in the game, this mod managed to do some really cool stuff. It added a lot more layers and interactions to the base game that were pretty novel. It's nothing technically too advanced. Feels like basic game development to me, and yet The Fun Pimps seem to have no interest in doing this. Maybe they are burned out from working on the same game for 10 years, however, it does show the lack of creativity they have with their own game.

Nine Sols

Excellent 2D side-scroller souls-like with some MetroidVania elements. Very satisfying boss fights. Has that same feeling you get from FromSoft games where the first time you fight a boss you think, "this is impossible." Then you start to figure it out. Then you beat it. Pretty great.

Project Warlock

Boomer shooter with labyrinth-like levels with keys and doors. Lots of cool weapons, big bad monsters, pretty good. I think you can tell if you'll like it pretty quick.

Magic: the Gathering Arena

Does this count as a game? I played a lot during the Mouse Deck domination. My absolute favorite play was to hose them with Surge of Salvation. They drop a Screaming Nemesis, swing in, I make my blocks and play Surge. Then watch them squirm realizing they are fucked.

HELLDIVERS II

It's still good.

Atom RPG

A Fallout clone, and definitely in the classic style where if you don't know what you're doing, you will get bloody hosed. So this one I didn't give much a chance. I had a tough time in the first zone figuring out how to get experience. I think I'll come back to this one at some point.

Avowed

Starting playing this on a whim when it came out. A bit weird, but I caught on, and ended up liking some of the systems. The combat took a while to get used to. I just don't get why Obsidian and Bethesda keeping making games first-person for this shit.

I played through until the third chapter, where the game really started to feel samey. I finish off this final dungeon in the area, being very bored doing it, and then I am asked to make this bizarre decision where I am forced to choose between two bad things. One of which is the agenda of one of the bads in the game. The other hurts a bunch of people in the hub town you've been doing quests for. And the obvious choice of "I will do neither of these things" is not an option. What kills me is there is a dialogue choice to say, "Do I have to choose?" and the game pretty much fourth wall breaks and tells you must choose. Nothing about this makes sense and it exists solely to make the player do a bad thing so they can experience consequences or something. Of course this doesn't work when you force the player to do the bad thing. Stuff like this is handled way better in a game like Frostpunk, where you make decisions that have consequences later on that you didn't think of. Maybe it was short-sighted to send the children to the mines?

What's even worse, is after you make your choice, an NPC in your party chews you out for your choice. I didn't even want to do the thing, and now the game has to lecture me about what a bad man I am for choosing the thing. Ugh, please shut up.

Felvidek

A real gem of an indie game that takes about 5-6 hours to complete. It's like Earthbound, from exploration to combat. The visual style is something, but to me the best part is the writing. Characters speak like the era they are in and it's just more interesting to read.

Sonic Mania

I boot this up from time to time to do a run

Baldur's Gate III

Second run with my cousin. Got to around level 10. Played a monk, it was awesome. Found a lot of stuff I missed my first time around. I never went into that mountain valley area before. My first go I went through the Underdark instead. So some of the Githyanki stuff was new to me!

Portal 2

It's still good.

Chroma Squad

A decent XCOM style game. It's pretty campy. Has some strange mechanics with positioning and healing that aren't that intuitive. I got through about 5-6 missions. I'll probably come back to this one.

Baldur's Gate: Enhanced Edition

I've had this in my library for who knows how long. So let's go back and revisit this classic and see how it holds up. Well it turns out it kinda sucks ass. For anyone who's played this as a kid or teen this is definitely heresy, but damn I struggled to get through this game. There's a lot of weird obscure stuff in it. I don't just mean how second edition D&D is (THAC0, etc.)

The thing that stands out to me the most is how boring the writing and dialogue is. IMO, Fallout and Fallout 2 are still immaculate in how that game handles its dialogue trees. But damn this game felt dated and cliche. You can't say it wasn't so bad in 1998, because both Fallout games were before that and by the same bloody studio.

Another thing is I just can't handle the real-time with pause style of combat. I really tried because this game is supposed to be a classic. Fights get out of control really easily and I find myself quickloading until I can pull off what I'm trying to do. There is a satisfying thing that comes from second edition which is a wizard can just win a fight with a good color spray or fireball. to pull this off though you have to get your wizard in front and fire it off before they get blitzed and surrounded. If you can't fire off a spell at the start, it's pretty hard to use any spells once combat is underway. Most enemies are melee and will be fighting your frontline characters, and there's no guides to help you aim your spells, so you are risking friendly fire.

Despite all this, I got pretty damn far and uncovered the big conspiracy. I was approaching the final boss fight but gave up from being too burned out on it. I kinda already knew what happens because I pieced it together from what I knew from Baldur's Gate III.

A criticism I saw for this game is a lot of areas are wide open space with nothing there. It's true, a lot of this game felt empty. It's the first of it's kind. Maybe this gets better in the sequel.

Baldur's Gate II: Enhanced Edition

Yeah, after all that, I guess I'm a sucker for even trying this? My thinking was: characters start at a higher level, so that part will be easier. The sequel will have a few more things ironed out. I can actually get to level 20+.

Was any of that true? Yeah, a bit. My issue with this is more about second edition D&D rather than Baldur's Gate II. This game had a more interesting hook and a more interesting setting. The side-quests were way better than the first game. But the problem with second edition is big fights become a buff contest. I couldn't figure out how to win fights without using all my buff spells to stand a chance. I think it was a fight with some trolls in a cellar that made this clear to me. I had made it through the rest of the castle (it was tough), but and I just couldn't crack these guys. Basically, all the strongest bosses you fight are going to have insane THAC0 and AC, and they probably will also have magic resistance, so the only way is to buff your characters up to a level where they have a chance. I didn't get very far here so my read on the game on the whole might be totally wrong.

The worst part though is the spell Confusion just wrecks your party every time. There's no way to stop it after it hits. Dispel magic doesn't do anything. Only way to have magic resistance before it's cast on you. This drove me crazy, because a fight is instantly over if Minsc gets confused and just started clobbering everyone. That's the one I hated the most, but honestly there's a lot of spells and abilities that destroy you unless you specifically prepare for them.

Starcom: Unknown Space

As a kid with a Macintosh in the 90s I played the awesome games in the series Escape Velocity. They were 2D space games with simple combat and trader mechanics that included some mission chains and stuff. I tried out this Starcom game because it gave me the same vibes. This game also has a neat ship-builder mechanic. It takes a while to finish. I didn't actually get to the end because it did get pretty boring. Combat is really challenging, until you reach a certain point and then the game can't seem to throw anything challenging at you anymore.

Against the Storm

It's too good I can't quit.

Starsector

Holy shit. Holy balls. You ever play a game and after a few hours you realize it's the greatest game ever made? It's immediately life changing? What a feeling.

Starsector combines a lot of things I love: 2D space games, mercenary simulators, the good kind of sandbox, diplomacy, politics, satisfying combat, and a cycle of getting cumulatively stronger to take on bigger threats. It's kind of like Mount & Blade, kind of like Escape Velocity, kind of like a bunch of other things. And then throw it the great writing and background, it's a slam dunk.

It doesn't have a full release yet, but it's still a good time, with plenty of threads that can be "completed." Lots of ways to approach the game too. Be a pirate, be a salvager, be an explorer, be a bounty hunter, or hell go make your own colony and get some economy going. As is, I think it's a masterpiece. The fact there's going to be even more added to it is insane.

I found the combat to be pretty fun and a good challenge. A strong strip can easily overpower a smaller one. But you can be crafty if you want too. Ships can be customized a lot -- set up frigates loaded with missiles or torpedoes. Or make destroyers with machine guns to take out enemy shields quickly. You can end up with a large fleet of 20+ ships. You can pilot one of them, but there is a way to switch to a different ship if yours gets disabled or if you just feel like it.

I will definitely come back to this one in year or so. I am keeping my eye on the project.

Elden Ring Nightrein

This is a good time. It's pretty fun to play Elden Ring games co-op, for real. Instead of the temporary co-op with summoning, it's a whole run to take down a boss. The only issue here is most of the Elden Ring weapons and magic is designed for single player and has a lot of variety. In Elden Ring, you might build yourself around certain weapon, but in Nightrein you have no idea what you're going to find. You might find the "build around me" giant hammer, but it's too late to switch things up. So a some of what you find doesn't totally make sense for a multiplayer game, but that's OK. I like the randomness, and I like that it encourages improvising.

REMATCH

Decent soccer multiplayer game. Played it with my cousin and one of my buds on and off. Basically played it until I hit a skill ceiling and then let it go. Definitely a game that has certain "exploits" that you need to learn to be competitive. Practiced players can do moves where they warp around, hit the ball when they are out of range, etc. Once I got to the point I would have to learn these to advance, I gave up.

Kenshi

This game, like Starsector, is life changing. But in a completely different way. Playing Kenshi is like digging up a cult classic. Sometimes it hits and sometimes it doesn't. For me, it took a bit of effort, but it did "click" and I loved it. For a lot of people, it will be a give up and forget it experience.

There really is nothing quite like this game. The way combat and damage is done is totally unique. I've never seen a system where each body part has it's own health pool. If your guy gets hit in the left arm, their left arm takes damage. The rest of the body is OK. If your left arm is out of hit points, well it doesn't work anymore. I hope you aren't using a weapon that needs both hands. Leg hurt? You're going to be limping. Hit in the head? Sorry your knocked out.

Lots of other games have tried this "locational damage" gimmick. It was pretty popular in many FPSes. Fallout has it's own aimed shot system. But in every game there was a main HP pool that all damage eventually went to. Hitting someone in the eyes just increased the amount of damage that main HP pool would take. Not so in Kenshi.

But probably the most important part about Kenshi is that there are no level-ups, no skill points, perks, or abilities. The only way to advance and get better is to do the thing. If you swing a sword a lot you'll get better at... swinging a sword. If you mine ore with your pickaxe then you get better at that. Guess how you get tougher and resist more damage? That's right, you have to take damage. This system is delightful. You have a squad of guys and they get their ass kicked a few times. You have to run away a lot. Maybe you can occasionally win a fight. You get a bit stronger every time, even if you get your ass kicked. As long as you can live (even if you get robbed) you can still come back. Over time, the enemies that gave you trouble are not a challenge anymore. It's great.

Because of this and it's sandboxy nature, there's all kinds of emergent situations that can happen. There was a point for me when I had about 7 or 8 people in my squad. Our equipment was crap, but we could hold our own against bandits. Some bandits chased my group towards a small shop that was owned by ninjas. I managed to fight off some of the bandits, and the ninja guards took out a few as well. I was licking my wounds, when a group of slavers walk down the road. They see the bandits, some knocked out and wounded on the ground, and run in and start putting them in shackles! Holy shit. I'm just ignoring this situation, none of my business you know, and then I realize that the slavers are also locking up one of my group who is knocked out. Just instinctively, I attacked them, to protect my team, and another fight ensued. I had no idea if I was going to win this fight, but I barely pulled through. I looted the slavers, unlocked the shackles, and got the hell out of there so I could rest up. I knew at that point this game was awesome.

Yeah, so, on top of that, you can build a god damn base. It's crazy. There's this huge ass sandbox to explore, but you can also set up your own town. A whole extra level added to the game.

All that said, it's jank as hell and requires modding, in my opinion, for a baseline experience. Fortunately, you can do that with Steam without any hassle. Definitely not for everyone, but is glorious for the people it is for.

Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire

Obsidians CRPGs are better than their first-person RPGs. This one is good, not great. That's kind of the story I'm finally coming to understand with Obsidian.

I had a good time with this one until I got sick of how they do level scaling. IMO, you're game should not be cowardly and auto-scale fights. Create a world, design it so players are pushed to the right area at the right time. Having an open-world and letting players go anywhere with the exact same difficulty is boring.

I turned off auto-scaling and the game simply isn't made for it. Big disappointment. If you take your time doing your character side-quests you will get way overleveled. Who the hell is out here, playing a game like this, and rushing through the main story as fast as possible? Insane. I didn't even do every side quest, I skipped a lot of them! And still got hella overleveled.

PEAK

Completely acceptable and fun friendslop.

Total War: Napoleon

Here's the thing with this game: Do not play the Italy campaign. It's the first in the list of campaigns so you might thing "I should do this first." Don't. It's super simplified, really boring, and has a weird player trap where one of your early objectives is crazy fortified and will kill your whole army.

Manor Lords

Quite good, but still missing something for late game. I think there's also problems with how buildings work. You have to do strange things to build a home with a large vegetable garden. What I mean is, you have to draw the boundaries of the house and contrive it to scale up the vegetable garden area to something optimal. It's weird, you'll have to play it to understand. Anyway, this game still feels like it need time to bake. I'll be keeping an eye on it for when it comes out of early access.

Last Epoch

I only played this for three or four sessions with my other cousin. It has a lot of great things going for it. The skill system is dope as hell. As with all ARPGs you have a whole slew of little baubles to collect. The cardinal sin of this game is consolification. You can only have four skills at once. What a joke. Diablo IV did this as well. How did we lose our way with this. I have a keyboard with the numbers 1-0 on top, and F1-F12 above that. Let me assign 22 skills if I want. It's insulting.

Total War: SHOGUN 2

I tried this game a few years ago and got clapped. I tried again and had way more fun after a few rough starts. I had a campaign going pretty well, then, bam, Realm Divide. If you've never played this game, the Realm Divide is a newbie trap where if you capture your 15th settlement, the rest of clans all think you are too powerful and come right after you. You need to be fully prepared for this: have armies ready, have your settlements developed, have fortifications ready, etc. I didn't know about this and well I got clapped again. Oh well. I found out that this mechanic is pretty infamous in the Total War community.

UnderRail

The best CRPG of the 21st century. I've already "beat" this game twice before so I didn't all the way complete it this time, but it's still a blast. Not for everyone, but if you really want a challenge, there's nothing better.

Spec Ops: The Line

This game has a certain reputation. I wanted to find out what that was. Imagine my surprise when I learned it was a third-person cover shooter. Good god. According to my stats I lasted 44 minutes and couldn't stomach any more.

Axis & Allies 1942 Online

Axis & Allies is my favorite board game that I will never, ever be able to convince anyone to play with me.

MENACE Demo

This game caught my eye. Modern tactics game. The demo was good!

Stellaris

I beat Stellaris. Yeah, that's right, I beat it. If you've played for 1 hour or 50 hours you might be thinking that Stellaris is not a game that can be beat. Guess what, it is. I won the game. I played as the communist birds and it was great. For whatever reason, Stellaris makes sense to me when other grand strategy games have bounced off. Couldn't get into Europa Universalis, couldn't get into Hearts of Iron, etc.

Total War: WARHAMMER III

Campaign with the dwarves. Malakai Makaisson. Really fun. Love the dwarf roster. Took a few tries to figure out my opening. I didn't finish the campaign all the way but got over the early and mid-game hump. Apparently this game (and all Creative Assembly games) are having a lot of problems right now. Lots of bugs and stuff. I luckily started playing this again when a critical bug got patched, so I got lucky there I guess. No interest in Pharoah. I have some interest in the Warhammer 40K game that was just announced, but that will be years from now.

REMNANT II

I played this for two sessions. It's exactly like Remnant.

CULTIC

Banger. A boomer shooter that has a perfect style of speed and violence. It's ten bucks, play it.

YAPYAP Demo

Friendslop where the gimmick is you have to speak the magic words to cast certain spells. This game feels like it has a bigger barrier for co-operation then something like PEAK.

Farthest Frontier

A city builder by Crate (who made Grim Dawn) that is a lot like Manor Lords. I think it's pretty fun, but it is missing that something special. There's something missing to do late game. And your city never feels totally sustainable. I played this for hours and then realized that I kept doing the same menial tasks over and over. Trade, for example, is a chore after a certain point. I don't know what it needs, but maybe with a DLC it can lean more into being an RTS?

FINAL FANTASY TACTICS - The Ivalice Chronicles

God damn, what a disappointment. FFT is universally lauded. I love tactics games, so when I got this remaster and fired it up I had high expectations. What a god damn travesty. It sucks ass with mouse and keyboard. Tutorial windows pop up telling you the most obvious shit while not telling you anything about weird shit (did you know you take more magic damage the higher your faith is? Does that make any sense to you?) Jobs are fine, good even, the problem is leveling them up is a chore. I'm playing garbage junk fights to get a bit more job points so I can grab a talent I want for the actual fight I want to win to advanced the story. You have to do this, because the story fights get hard. I got past a brutal tough fight, had the time skip, did a few more fights and then called it quits because fuck this grind.

Planet Crafter

I played this two sessions with a buddy and had a fine time. It's all about the crafting. No baddies or combat. This game didn't need it, because there's plenty to figure out without it. Building bases, finding resources, scavenging old abandoned bases, etc.

Flotsam

A city builder, but this time it floats. This game is downright cozy. It reminds me a lot of Oxygen Not Included, except the systems are not obscure as hell. I think this game is perfect except for one problem: near the end, you might be missing one or two things and you are at the whims of the procedurally generated world to come across them. That was certainly annoying to me. However, this lovely game does have a firm ending and a satisfying credit roll. That's something a lot of city builders are missing.

Battle Brothers

This game turned out to be crack for me. I love mercenary company simulators.

I found this game because it's what the studio that is making MENACE worked on before. I have seen it in the store many times, but never gave it try because aesthetically it looked quite unappealing. This time I finally dove in and I love it. It's challenging, and has that quality that some good games have where there is true attrition. Your soldiers can get banged up, they can die, you take casualties. It raises the stakes. But it also means that if you lose a guy in a fight, doesn't mean it's over. You can press on.

On top of that, this game definitely has that quality where you figure out what works and what doesn't. And specifically, what works best for you. After playing for probably 40 hours I figured out the swordlance is the best weapon (for me, at least.) It's a game changer. It took me way too long to figure out how essential Rotation and Recover are. That said, the game does have diminishing returns after a while. How many times can you destroy the same randomly generated group of raiders before you get sick of it? Well, I probably did that a hundred times. Highly recommend if it sounds like your jam.