Sorry for the late post, I moved this week and it’s been pretty hectic. I just realized now that I forgot to make a post on Wednesday.

I’ve been making progress on my first playthrough of Bloodborne and am at the Witch of Hemwick. Aside from hearing so much general praise for the game over the years, I’ve gone in blind and it’s been a real treat. If the quality of the game remains constant, I can see this easily becoming my favorite From Software game, and probably one of my favorite games in general.

squirrel
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106d

Cyberpunk 2077

I got it on the Steam sale. Runs great on CachyOS without any fiddling in the settings.

broke: I use Arch, btw

woke: I use CachyOS, btw

sincerely, someone who uses CachyOS, btw

squirrel
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26d

and a happy pacman -Syu to you too

Just reinstalled it for the third time. The expansion is great if you like the main game.

HubertManne
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26d

I reccomend a jack of all trades build where you get 15 in all stats but technical. if you don’t have the dlc just put what you can in it but if you have the dlc then bring it to 20 and make int 16. This allows you to repsec your perks to pretty much do any style of play. also cyberware will get you an effective str of 20 for doors and such and if you have the dlc you will be able to do level 20 doors. just a few int checks will be problematic. if you don’t do an addon to change it then checks increase with level so its sorta good to prioritize str and tech until you reach your max for those stats and upgrade gorilla arms as soon as you are able every time.

squirrel
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16d

Thanks for the advice, I’ll keep that in mind. But I don’t play for efficiency, I play just for fun.

HubertManne
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26d

yeah I have this power gamer side that comes to the surface even though im not much of a power gamer. Its like I love table top rp but I gotta min max a bit. I will resist the impulse to choose min/max over rp but will min/max to the max within my story line.

Mirrors Edge from 2008

Forgot how cool the visual aesthetic in this game is. I feel like it should get a remaster but Im guessing it didn’t sell well enough, could make great use of the ps5 controller.

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26d

Nice! I love that game. Now I wanna replay it…

Still holds up for the most part. Funny to think it’s a Dice (the studio) release.

mohab
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66d

I’m replaying Devil May Cry 2… man, this game is putting me to sleep 😂 I don’t even know how to describe it… it’s like playing a pre-alpha build of a DMC game made by people forced to develop it at gunpoint. Always a surreal experience.

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still ff12 with the post draklor things. I had realized I had not made it a point of getting all the stuff from each map so besides all the side quests and espers and such im getting those. few more maps to check and not sure if im going to even try getting the cockatrice from rabinastre again. also not sure if im going to try fishing at all. hopefully will be back to story soon.

Editing this because I just did Zeromus and was having a tough time and online searches were not doing me very well. I finally found a guy who broke down whats needed which is essentially to use demon shield or black masks to absorb dark damage from his minions (I had one of each) and then there is an accessory which will reduce dark damage by half. Then use shades of black or attacks with items of course. In my case I put the black mask on the person I could get the highest magic power on that had shades of black and for the other two I pioritized who had remedy 1,2,3 and then potions/phoenix down improvement licenses. Of those I took the two I could push attack power up highest. Everyone was set to use phoenix downs, remedies, and x-potions. So I sorta forgot one of the things I learned in this game and I got into a remedy loop with all the minions. I turned off using remedy and potions for the shades of black user. Since so many black mage spells are area effect about half the time the shades of black will do an area effect that takes out the minions which starts to free up the other two to attack zeromus along with the shades of black damage. Because of my mess up at the start I still came close to having to put in the other three who were not so well setup to fight him. It did help drill in my head the nead for a team to essentially always have two stat removers, ressurectors and healers and dps and not to do three (it can be split between three but no more than two doing stat removal and healing as the activation condition can happen to often. resurction is fine as if that activation condition is happening to much your likely screwed) as it can get caught into infinite loops but not just having one as death or status effects can remove the one person doing it. sending aggro away from the dps is great but less necessary than the rest.

I think posting can wait when set against real life (still, nice to have the thread), hope things went well.

Shadowrun: Dragonfall

I finished the game. As a whole it’s a better experience than the previous title, with slightly more interesting writing (both are great), better balance and an expanded format of acting as a shadowrunner. There’s only one issue that really affected my enjoyment throughout and that’s the amount of large combat scenarios (waves or rooms with 10+ enemies attacking at the same time). They weren’t a majority thankfully, but they were common enough to get a little tiring, to say the least.

I like Shadowrun in its small scale and more personal form, anything big (important jobs with tons of enemies, epic stakes) and I lose interest pretty quickly. I don’t know why games feel the need to end with saving the world or equally important scenarios but it’s the most boring direction a story can go for me at this point. Dragonfall did manage to put a reasonably interesting spin on that at least and I think it did it slightly better than Returns so kudos for that at least.

I loved the side character story arcs - small, personal, some more tragic, other ending happily. Advancing them after every run was one of my favourite parts of the game. I wish such mundane and unimportant story beats played a bigger part in RPGs in general.

After finishing two games I think I’m ready to say I really like this series, WAY MORE than I ever expected to. I had some reservations initially, both due to the setting (not because the idea is bad, I just wasn’t feeling it) and jumping in after a long break from isometric RPGs but these games managed to win me over.
I just wish they had more unofficial content. All I have left is Hong-Kong (with its DLC campaign) and 2 user campaigns for Dragonfall (one of them being a remake of the SNES Shadowrun) - once that’s done I’m out of modules. Cant’s say I’m looking forward to that moment.

A.W.O.L.

It’s an indie tactical(ish) FPS made in EDuke32 engine. It has decently feeling and sounding weapons with really nice sprite work, nine levels (of varying quality) and unique hand drawn cutscenes.

Game aims for a more grounded approach, with relatively low health, reloading, aim-down-sights mechanic and 4 weapon limit. Oh, there’s also localised damage system for enemies (well… head shots), simple squad mechanic (with voice acting for combat barks!) and a stealth system.

Enemies are rather brain dead and have trouble aiming when approached from slightly elevated position - they can still tear through your health if you’re not careful though. Levels are a mixed bag, some parts look pretty good, some are a bit undercooked (simple design, broken lighting on certain models, occasional lack of skybox etc). Heck, one of them might cause some Max Payne’s nightmare level related PTSD flare ups due to its design and pixel perfect platforming. On a more positive note, various map elements have pretty cool damage effects, you can really see the your handiwork after more chaotic encounters.

Outside cutscenes some story segments are displayed as dialogue boxes at the bottom of the screen. Unfortunately, these disappear pretty quickly which paired with their tendency to show up in the middle of the action make them easy to miss. It might not be the best story ever but it would be nice to have a chance to enjoy it.

It’s a neat if amateurish project but it’s fun enough way to spend 3-4 hours with. If anyone’s curious about the game it’s free on Steam.

2025 Recap

It’s the final thread of the year so I thought I’d write a short recap. I managed to finish 16 games (that I properly remember) last year, 9 of which were bought this year - I was thinking this kinda puts a dent in the idea of backlog clearing but regardless of their tenure on my “to play” list, the end result is still better than the last few years combined. Backlog is shrinking, if only a little.

Anyway, here are the games I finished in 2025:

  • A.W.O.L.
  • Ace Combat 7
  • Ace Combat Zero
  • Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex
  • Halo 1-4, ODST & Reach
  • Leisure Suit Larry: Reloaded
  • Project Wingman + Frontline 59 DLC
  • Sam & Max Hit the Road
  • Shadowrun Returns
  • Shadowrun: Dragonfall
  • Umurangi Generation + DLC

There were also other things like visual novels (if you’re interested in those feel free to join us in the [email protected] community) and some smaller indie titles whose names escape me at the moment. All in all a pretty decent number, I’d say.

Can I beat it next year? Probably not but I’ll give it a shot. There are still a lot of titles waiting for their turn so even this pace means a few years of work just to get through everything. I’ll be happy as long as I can finish the year with a slightly shorter backlog than I started it with.

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56d

Nice recap! And thanks for the well wishes. It was a pretty rough move, lots of drama with the previous tenants, but it’s over now and we’re settling in. The cats were very stressed out, which stressed me out, but they love it here now, so I’m happy. My wife seems much happier now too, which makes me happy as well. My daughter is too young to understand what’s going on (still just a baby) so she was happy the whole time, which is really the only thing that kept my wife and I grounded. All in all, super stressful couple of days, but now we’re both very happy.

All’s well that ends well then. Congrats on the move!

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36d

Thank you!

mohab
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36d

Yeah, I couldn’t finish Dragonfall because of combat fatigue. Returns was nice though.

IIRC, I think Returns, Persona 1, and South Park: The Stick of Truth are the only turn-based RPGs I actually beat.

My problem wasn’t that serious (I enjoyed the combat and only dislike the large battles) but I can see how it can be a run killer. I’m not sure if that’s of any help but I saw mentions that Hong Kong has more reading than the two previous titles, I’m definitely looking forward to that.

mohab
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26d

It didn’t help my tolerance for turn-based combat and RNG is not very high.

Good to hear Hong Kong moved in another direction. The Shadowrun world is cool, so I may revisit at some point.

Just to be clear, I don’t know if it added more reading on top of combat or as a potential alternative since I didn’t play it yet. I just heard there’s more of it (though I wouldn’t say no to improving the ratio between peaceful and combat scenarios).

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56d

Halo: Reach

I thought I’d start the year off by playing through the series using the MCC. Reach is my favourite but I haven’t actually finished any of the other so that might change.

Playing through the collection in order is it’s own fun, but Reach is another level.

viral.vegabond
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77d

Currently trying to give the ‘legacy of thieves’ collection a go. I’m not sure how long it will hold my interest, but it’s pretty good so far.

Hi fi rush has me enamoured!

mohab
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Game’s awesome. I won’t say the combat is the deepest, but I’ve seen some unfair criticisms from action game fans.

Like, it’s not exactly a combo simulator, but you can absolutely do touch-of-death combos on most enemies, and there are ways to work through shields quicker.

Game’s mechanically deeper than most people think, I think. Definitely some replay value there.

To me it’s the animations, the whole world being on a beat and just how lively everyone is.

After the too many connection problems with poe2 this league, I fallback on Grim Dawn.

I need my arpg fix, and there is a new expansion cooking right now.

SomeAmateur
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106d

Playing Hitman World of Assassination! I love causing chaos as Santa

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56d

Awesome pick! Easily one of my favourite games ever, and second most played game ever, but it doesn’t get talked about nearly enough on here. I try to mention it where I can, in hopes more people try it and love it, and then talk about it here. It’s definitely one of the most confusing games to try and buy, with all the different versions available, but once you figure it out, the game is excellent. It’s probably the only game I’ll actually buy all the small added content for.

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46d

Make sure to check out the Peacock Project, a self-hosted Hitman server that, among other things, lets you replay any of the old timed content you want. No more FOMO in your single player game!

SomeAmateur
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26d

That’s awesome thanks!

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36d

Not the person you replied to but I’m definitely checking this out. Thanks for the comment!

Skyrim

Still relatively new to the game (started playing it in the last couple of years) and I’m trying my first run on survival mode, currently loving it!

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Oh nice!

You know, after over 5k hours I still haven’t tried survival mode. Most of that playtime is before it was a thing but I’m guessing I probably have at least a few hundred hours after survival was introduced and I never bothered to try it. Maybe someday.

It was a little annoying at first, but now it feels very natural. Night is cold and dangerous and you get tired, so you sleep. You get hungry and food is found everywhere, so you eat. Wear warm clothes and don’t spend too much time in the cold without protection.

It kinda makes me realize that I’ve been looking for this exact thing in open world games, now I’m trying to think up some rulesets for BOTW/TOTK and RDR2 to make them similar. Maybe a survival mod exists for Red Dead?

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16d

I’ll probably give it a shot the next time I have an itch for Skyrim. I’m not usually one for survival games but it seems worth trying.

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46d

Protect your knees.

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86d

I played the intro campaign of Wildermyth, and not only is it great as the “fantasy XCOM” I was hoping for, but if you’re the type of person to headcanon little stories and relationships between your party in a tactics game, this game is for you.

JakoJakoJako13
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Foundation - Probably the closest I’ve gotten to that pure bliss city building feeling of SimCity 4. That’s with 500+ hours of Cities Skylines 1 & 2 being the last CB games I really sank time into. It’s simple but deep. Bog standard colony building ala Banished. A trade system that’s fantastically responsive and again simple. Production chains that are sensible and responsive to change. It’s a little micro heavy but it’s fine. There’s always something to do and that’s what really had me into it. When you solved one problem you move to the next one and that keeps going and going. It’s wonderful.

Stardeus - Rimworld in space. I’m not the biggest Rimworld fan but this version of it has its hooks in me. The tutorial took almost 3 hours. 12 “chapters” with page after page of info thrown at you. Once you get beyond that and start a campaign it quickly falls into place. So far I’m loving it. I usually don’t like games that you spend hours building up a base for it to be blown to smithereens in minutes for God knows what, but this one makes sense. You’re set up with the knowledge that time is not on your side and the environment inside and out will kill you. Expectations are set in a way that’s better for a player to understand losing is a part of the process.

That being said it’s a lot. I’ve barely scrapped the surface. I’m already wanting to swap body parts and put human brains into robots. I just hope the space exploration is good because I haven’t even got that far yet and my mind is like let me set up a mining operation that can rob other ships and shit.

Two I’ve barely scrapped the surface with Mechabellum and Heroes of a science and Fiction. Mechabellum doesn’t have key rebinds but it’s kind of ok because 99% of the action is mouse based. I’m a wargamer and this game is basically lost building and testing in real time against other players. Fantastic concept. I need to dig deeper to see if execution is there. I will complain about the key bindings if it starts to effect the actual game play. In one brief match it didn’t. Verdict is out.

HoSF is HoMM. Not much to say about it besides it’s been enjoyable so far. If you like Heroes of Might and Magic you will like Heroes of Science and Fiction. It could probably use some faction diversity but if you really want that go play HoMM.

Just finished up The Last of Us 2 for the first time. Fixing to begin playing the story of GTA V for the first time ever as well- played it online at friends houses in high school but never owned it myself.

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I never finished TLOU2. Once you reach halfway and have to do you know what, for like 15 hours, I noped out.

GTAV is a great sandbox and has a pretty fun main story too. Is it overrated? Probably. Is it still a ton of fun? Fuck yeah it is.

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