Gaming Shout Thread

[Nag]

I'm not entirely sure what your saying here... I have a bog standard hdd attached to my Series X (won't run Series games but you can store them there) and so far never had any issues... 360 and Xbox One games automatically install to the external drive and Series games on the internal.

 

I have thought about removing it recently and just using it more like the PlayStation but needing to keep a certain amount of games playable at a time (for the Game Pass points) means I probably won't.

[shinymcshine]

I suppose I just expected with Xbox Storage management system enabled, that it'd balance out installation and saved games between the internal SSD and the expansion SSD so it didn't create issues such as I experienced.

 

And that the self help instructions might direct you to check whether storage space might be the cause of the issue.

[Sly Reflex]

As mentioned elsewhere I have been trying to play a lot of the games I have. If you are part of my community you'll be familiar with the Challenge 52 thing I have going on across various medias.

 

To qualify I have a soft cap of played for 4 hours at least, but a completion is preferable.

 

So far I'm clocking in:

1. Euro Truck Simulator 2 (hours played)
2. Creeper World 4 (hours played)
3. Monster Hunter World (hours played, although I am close to the end of the base game, Iceborne will follow and be classed separately)
4. Balatro (hours played)
5. Cyberpunk 2077 (hours played, but aiming for a completion)
6. A Short Hike (completed, fantastic game, go play it)
7. Gone Home (completed)
8. The Gunk (completed)
9. Valheim (hours played, I'm not sure this can be completed?)
10. Hyperlight Drifter (completed)
11. EDF5 (hours played, going for 100% with my crew)
12. Maneater (100% completed)
13. Supraland (completed)
14. The Messenger (in progress)

I think trying to focus on some games and really going at them until they are done has helped, as well as doing some shorter games. Generally I look through my list and pick several games and install them and then start another once I have finished one. I try to keep it variable with genre as well. Currently I have Baba Is You, Pacman 256, Slay the Spire and X-Com 2 installed and ready to go.

 

I've mostly enjoyed what I've played so far, but some of the things have been a touch disappointing. Hyperlight Drifter felt like it really under delivered on what I was expecting from it. Maneater, The Gunk and Supraland all over delivered on what I was expecting.

 

Messenger I'm not really feeling at all. I'll give it some more time but I'm not sure I'll make it through the expected 13 hours or so unless it picks its act up.

 

Anyway, the whole point of this post. How many games have you played in 2025 and what have you through of them games so far. Played from different years and across genres, or just mainlined one game specifically.

[radiofloyd]

So far I’ve played:

 

1.  Iconoclasts (Switch) - dropped after 5 hours or so, decent one-man indie game in the style of Owlboy but became too frustrating to play after a while.
 

2. Astral Chain (Switch) - played about 7 hours and counting, really enjoying this. It’s like a sci-fi Kingdom Hearts with some original combat mechanics.

[DANGERMAN]

I remember the days where I used to beat more than 52 games a year. I wish I had that sort of time and energy nowadays, fucking work. 

 

In terms of what I've played, not loads yet, and not all of them for a meaningful amount of time 

 

1. Mouthwashing. Loved this, it ended up on my GOTY list. I think it's right up my alley though, not exactly out of character to play an off-kilter indie game 

 

2. LAD Infinite Wealth. Started in December but cleared as I was going back to work. It's a great game, although it suffered a bit because I played the 1st game earlier in the year. The combat and character types are better here, but I think the story is more fun in the previous game 

 

3. Silent Hill 2. I've not finished this yet but I will. I've been really enjoying it, it's a bit of a palate cleanser after all the rpgs at the end of the year. It's just a really well done remake, especially the narrative 

 

4. Suicide Squad. I don't hate this. I mean, on a very fundamental level I do, but it plays fine nowadays. The problem is how it does out the game, several hours in and it still feels like you're being breadcrumbed through the game. You aren't just allowed to play in the world, your hours and hours in and instead you've got to do a mission that gives you a better grenade 

 

5. Gynoug. An old Mega Drive shooter illdog bangs on about. I never played it but on his recommendation I bought it. It's good. I've only had a few goes but I would like to play more 

 

With less time in it, I played some Mega Drive Aleste on the Steam Deck. I wasn't immediately good at it which made me sad. 

Also Balatro, which I still love, but like Vampire Survivors, I want to resist falling back in to too deep 

[Maryokutai]

So far I've concluded my playthroughs of DA: The Veilguard and Ys X and started playing Fantasian: Neo Dimension, which is the current 'big' project I'm aiming to complete before tackling something new.

 

On the side I've been playing some F-Zero 99 and Mika and the Witch's Mountain, which is some kind of cute little delivery service game (likely inspired by that one Ghibli movie). I'm also still regularly going back to Botworld Odyssey, which is rather grindy, but played in short bursts from time to time it's still quite enjoyable. I've also just yesterday started BioShock on Switch, which I probably bought in some random sale, but only out of curiosity and not with the intention of going through it. It's not a particularly good port and I already played it anyway.

 

 

[one-armed dwarf]

UFO 50 is an easy way to do this.

 

I do a lot of playing games but don't play a lot of different games as such, I don't think I've ever done 52 in a year. So far it's Marvel Rivals, FFVII Rebirth PC and yet another playthrough of Doom Eternal. Also Balatro. Indiana Jones is in the bin and so is Silent Hill

 

Maybe this year will finally be the year I get into Nioh 2.

 

Basically I like games that are super absorbing whether it's cause of systems or whatever meta they have, which is why Marvel, Rebirth and Doom are there and Nioh is the one I really want to try and understand

 

Might play Eternal Strands but it's lower on the list now and I am curious about Kingdom Come 2 but want to hear takes on that game from those who didn't play the first

[mfnick]

On 03/02/2025 at 23:51, Sly Reflex said:

To qualify I have a soft cap of played for 4 hours at least,

I like this. I might adopt that as my timer to decide whether to dump a game or not.

 

All my games are in the completion thread and individual threads so a bit pointless me going into them. 
 

Just to quickly change the subject a bit. The new Retro Gamer mag has come through and it’s just insanely beautiful! 

 

Sure it’s art used alsewhere but as a big glossy cover page it’s something else. The feature on Capcom fighters is good too. 

[one-armed dwarf]

On 14/02/2025 at 20:46, Metroid66 said:

I don't know what an immersive SIM is tbh. I always thought of the first one as a horror/shooter.

 

This one is way out there, tho. It's more than a shooter in the way Dishonoured is more than a stealth game. Has a similar vibe, too.

 

 

 

I wrote this in Bioshock but felt it was too OT. Good article here: https://www.pcgamer.com/the-designers-of-dishonored-bioshock-2-and-deus-ex-swap-stories-about-making-pcs-most-complex-games/

 

Immersive sim is hard to categorise but describes games, usually FPS, which have a bunch of gameplay systems that promote emergent gameplay. They can be things like physics and powers, but also things like storylines and NPC behaviours. Or just secrets in level design. The game systems have a consistent and coherent set of rules which allow players to reasonably logic ways of combining, exploiting or influencing them somehow to get the outcome that they want (which 9/10 means beating the level, but sometimes it means other stuff). 

 

The mantra of the genre is to make players 'forget' that they are playing a game and to create this feeling of a tangible, reactive world cause of how unscripted some stuff can feel, or the flexibility of things which are scripted. Which is why these games often have multiple endings but also NPCs which might have branching paths of interaction. Like if you kill a villain in Deus Ex way before they're 'supposed' to die, or find a different way of getting rid of them. Or run away, you can do that too

 

As you can see by that word salad it's fiendishly difficult to actually describe and is quite airy, but I actually think all genres are a little bit airy in their definitions anyway. But an example would be like how in Deus Ex in the China level, you have this mission with a character who will give you information, but they will betray you later on. But if you take a different route, you can find an apartment where somebody was keeping an eye on this character and has sniper vantage on them, and you can assassinate them and completely short circuit this part of the game's story and progress that way with this sort of outside the box approach. The game does it via mission and NPC scripting but also its level design where each stage is like a miniature Metroid level in a way. 

 

The reason why Deus Ex is so revered is partly cause of its in built 'self-correcting' style, mission scripting and NPC logic will update pretty seamlessly. It's not the only example of this in that game, it's full of these optional asides which hide themselves well but give different ways of handling the same problems. They're are first and foremost RPG games about observation and clever thinking, partly why Elder Scrolls games get bundled in the genre from time to time

 

Bioshock is criticized cause it is so binary in its interaction, giving you a goodie and baddie option to deal with the little sisters. The reason it gets lumped in with immersive sim is cause it's an RPG FPS, and most immersive sims are RPG FPS, and the developers who made it have a history with the genre in System Shock. But not every RPG FPS is an immersive sim.

 

Dishonored's version of it as far as I remember is the city gets plagued with rats the more you embrace the violent gameplay options. Which I think is interesting and I also find it interesting how many people hate that part of that game, and treat it like a fail state. But yeah these games often have stealth, but the good ones don't make it the only rewarding approach. I found Dishonored hard to get on with tbh.

[Maryokutai]

After the short Fable teaser popped up I realised that I actually played every Fable game, including the beta version of Fable Legends. Did anyone else give that one a try back then? It would technically have been one of the very first live service console games and you have to wonder what would have happened to it if MS had let it live. Might have become a big hit over time, like Sea of Thieves. I certainly did enjoy the brief time I got with it, though its lasting appeal was hard to gauge at that stage. Still have the artbook for it.

[DANGERMAN]

Before your time, and he might well have left the forum at that point, but I remember illdog played an unreleased Fable game. I remember him saying it was actually pretty good and he was surprised they never released it 

[Maryokutai]

Right, guess I should have searched first. I agree with his feedback though, it was fun and had a lot of potential. The most heartbreaking thing about it is that I received an update/newsletter from them by mail on a Friday, explaining what they've been working on and that it was close to release and IIRC the Monday after that MS announced Lionhead's closure. 

[DANGERMAN]

7 hours ago, Maryokutai said:

Right, guess I should have searched first. I agree with his feedback though, it was fun and had a lot of potential. The most heartbreaking thing about it is that I received an update/newsletter from them by mail on a Friday, explaining what they've been working on and that it was close to release and IIRC the Monday after that MS announced Lionhead's closure. 

I don't think he ever talked about it on here, sorry that wasn't meant as a lecture 😊

[Maf]

PEOPLE HAVE GROWN UP IN THE SAME AMOUNT OF TIME BOTW HAS BEEN OUT I’M GOING TO PUKE

 

 

[Nag]

That's how time works.

[Maf]

Yes, but who knew it worked at such a rate 

 

The ride is too fast I want to get off 

[one-armed dwarf]

It's a phenomenon of your brain experiencing fewer moments of novelty as it gets older or something

[Maf]

Yes, that’s my theory. Day in, day out, same shit, blurs together, can’t really remember it, it’s like it didn’t happen, hang on why has so much time passed 

 

Someone said to me it’s also because being older 5 years is a smaller part of your life. Like when your 15, 5 years is a 1/3rd of your life so it feels like a long time. But when your 35 it’s 1/7th of your life so doesn’t feel as long

 

I think I’m right, though 

[Maf]

For ages now, over in those boxes of game consoles and stuff, there’s like a…bubbling/tapping noise? Like it quietly goes “ta-ta-ta-ta-ta-ta” then it stop and goes, stops and goes. I honestly not sure if it’s rats in the walls, if there’s a small leak of running water, or the boxed PSP battery is expanding inside one of those plastic boxes and going to explode

 

But I’m not getting up to figure it out, it’s too high up

 

 

 

Riveting, I know. But just in case I die via PSP explosion I want you to know I was aware, I just couldn’t be assed to do anything about it 

[Maf]

Why is Dynasty Warriors still £50? Why is every game I buy day 1 half price 6 hours later and every game I hold off on either maintains or increases in value? I know not everything is out to get me but it doesn’t mean it doesn’t feel like it 

 

Make Dynasty Warriors cheap again! Where’s that movement