December 2025 General Games Discussion

[Zloth]

Dragon's Dogma 2 seems to be winding down... but I don't trust it. DD1 was winding down, too, and then pulled a fast one by replacing all the enemies in the world with higher level ones and stuck a big hole into the capital city.

They fooled me again!! Sneaky devs!!

 

[neogunhero]

PSA: Starting today, there will be a new free game to keep on the Epic Games Store every 24 hours until I believe January 1st. Make sure to keep checking back to claim all the free games. If you're going to be traveling for the holidays, it helps to log into the Epic website on your phone so you can claim the games away from your PC. Based on previous years, Christmas Eve and Christmas Day typically have the "largest" giveaways.

Follow the thread below for updates, we all do a pretty good job at posting about free games:

Page 46 - The Free Time Limited Games List

Page 46 - Love gaming? Join the PC Gamer community to share that passion with gamers all around the world!

forums.pcgamer.com

 

[Zed Clampet]

What criticism? That wasn't criticism, that was just taunting.

You've made a very silly reading of it. Having a timely reminder of a past failure is a chance to learn for the people who blindly follow everything that person says. With nearly every review that I read, a majority of the readers accept it blindly. And if it is a bad review, they even form little mobs and go harass people on the steam forums, regurgitating points from the review. Most people do not think for themselves. I think this was the perfect review to show people that the thoughts they adopt as their own from authority figures are often invalid.

Also, where did you come up with the idea that taunts could not be criticism? They certainly can be. In fact, they are a form of criticism, a bit low brow, perhaps, but they serve a purpose. They are both criticism and punishment. When I choose to use them is up to me alone.

 

[Zed Clampet]

By the way, while you are picking up your free games on Epic, there is a game they keep advertising to me for 99 cents called Country Tale 2010. If this game looks good to you, let me warn you that I can't currently think of a worse use for 99 cents. It is early access, so maybe it's improved since I played it, but it shouldn't have even been allowed in the store in its original condition, unless you think walking around a 3D environment in Unreal's preview window is a decent game.

 

[Colif]

since random hardware turned into me talking to myself - I don't blame people for ignoring it - I can guess no one noticed that I bought one of these today

XFX Mercury AMD Radeon RX 9070XT OC White Gaming Edition with RGB

RX-97TRGBBW9

www.xfxforce.com

mainly in response to

Nvidia plans heavy cuts to GPU supply in early 2026 - OC3D

Nvidia reportedly plans to axe as much as 40% of its GeForce RTX 50 series GPU production in early 2026. Why? Memory costs...

overclock3d.net

it is games related as can't play many games without a GPU... (APU are the exception)

 

[Zed Clampet]

since random hardware turned into me talking to myself - I don't blame people for ignoring it - I can guess no one noticed that I bought one of these today

XFX Mercury AMD Radeon RX 9070XT OC White Gaming Edition with RGB

RX-97TRGBBW9

www.xfxforce.com

mainly in response to

Nvidia plans heavy cuts to GPU supply in early 2026 - OC3D

Nvidia reportedly plans to axe as much as 40% of its GeForce RTX 50 series GPU production in early 2026. Why? Memory costs...

overclock3d.net

it is games related as can't play many games without a GPU... (APU are the exception)

I actually was planning to check over there. I'm way out of it because I slept too late. Congrats.

 

[neogunhero]

since random hardware turned into me talking to myself - I don't blame people for ignoring it - I can guess no one noticed that I bought one of these today

XFX Mercury AMD Radeon RX 9070XT OC White Gaming Edition with RGB

RX-97TRGBBW9

www.xfxforce.com

mainly in response to

Nvidia plans heavy cuts to GPU supply in early 2026 - OC3D

Nvidia reportedly plans to axe as much as 40% of its GeForce RTX 50 series GPU production in early 2026. Why? Memory costs...

overclock3d.net

it is games related as can't play many games without a GPU... (APU are the exception)

Congrats! I hope you got a good price on it. I really need to check the hardware thread more, it's selfish but I only check it when I have something to say... I know it's active so I need to read it more often.

 

[neogunhero]

By the way, while you are picking up your free games on Epic, there is a game they keep advertising to me for 99 cents called Country Tale 2010. If this game looks good to you, let me warn you that I can't currently think of a worse use for 99 cents. It is early access, so maybe it's improved since I played it, but it shouldn't have even been allowed in the store in its original condition, unless you think walking around a 3D environment in Unreal's preview window is a decent game.

I wonder how different the submission process is for Epic vs Steam. That game isn't on Steam, and I've seen lots of other super low budget, crappy looking games on Epic that aren't on Steam. Does Epic have lower standards than Steam?

 

[neogunhero]

View: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/yxUa5k__H8o


What is your guys' take on this?

I think people who only play games like Madden, COD, Fortnite, GTA, are limited in their scope but if they enjoy what they play then that's all that matters. As he says in the video, it's the people who only play those kinds of games then complain when other people play different kinds of games.

I had a friend like this growing up and I tried to put him onto something that was pretty close to his wheelhouse, Bioshock Infinite. He only played Madden and COD, so I tried to expand his tastes a bit, but he ended up criticizing every single aspect of the game. It's almost as if he could not fathom that real artistry and creativity had been put in a game, not just some variation of Modern Warfare set in different periods of time.

People will like what they like, but I don't think it's okay to complain about people enjoying something you don't personally enjoy. I really hate country music, but I don't get mad at the people blasting it out their lifted pickups.

 

[Zloth]

People will like what they like, but I don't think it's okay to complain about people enjoying something you don't personally enjoy. I really hate country music, but I don't get mad at the people blasting it out their lifted pickups.

Music is exactly what I was thinking of when you said that! Not just between genres, but between decades as well. People get all tribal and start looking down at anyone that doesn't listen to 'the best' music.

 

[Zed Clampet]

If the makers of Outside the Blocks wrote the training program for NASA astronauts, the first step in the training program would simply be "go to the moon."

One of the most unbearable tutorials I've ever been through. I'm on day three of trying to get through it. It's unguided self-learning. I don't believe it was skippable.

 

[Colif]

Congrats! I hope you got a good price on it. I really need to check the hardware thread more, it's selfish but I only check it when I have something to say... I know it's active so I need to read it more often.

I am mostly the same with a lot of things, I only look if I am buying

You haven't missed a lot, last few posts just me talking about my pc

Its normal price is $1400 here, I got it for $900 due to Xmas discounts and a credit. Might even get it before Thursday. I won't be installing it until I can pick PC up. Hard to do with 1 foot.

 

[Zed Clampet]

I am mostly the same with a lot of things, I only look if I am buying

You haven't missed a lot, last few posts just me talking about my pc

Its normal price is $1400 here, I got it for $900 due to Xmas discounts and a credit. Might even get it before Thursday. I won't be installing it until I can pick PC up. Hard to do with 1 foot.

You need to find a game with pretty graphics on sale so you can really try it out.

 

[Zed Clampet]

@Colif Hey, this looks like your kind of thing, and it's free on Epic

Jotunnslayer: Hordes of Hel​

Sorry I have no idea how to link to anything in the Epic Store, but it's on the front page if you scroll down a bit

 

[Colif]

You are second person today to show me that game...

and you both slow as I watched someone else play it a few months ago.

Thanks but I think I pass.


Nice to see Ali express never changes, fishing for people who want a Bargain at Xmas

Scary that my PC is only just more expensive than an actual 5090... the 3rd price is more accurate and you not going to just get an empty Box for xmas.

 

[dxchase]

Anyone tried this one? Does not look too half bad

Save 10% on Terminator 2D: NO FATE on Steam

Experience the thrill of Terminator 2: Judgment Day with arcade action & pixel-perfect graphics! In this unique story blending iconic scenes from the movie with original scenarios and multiple endings, humanity’s fate is yours to decide.

store.steampowered.com

I have it! Its amazing, a really good omage to T2. The controls are tight, the boards are nice. Its worth it if youre looking for a Terminator game to replace your memories of old Terminator games from the Sega Genesis era lol. Nah, but its good, also the developer is small, so good to support them as well. The only thing is, will they do dlc thats based upon other terminator games? Because that would be cool.


@Colif Congrats on the new card! Esp. when its for yourself, it was hard for me to shop GPUs and not spend time lookin at what i like this xmas since it was upgrading for my son and not me, but the me wants one of those 3-5k cards you listed haha.



Gaming in general...well Arc Raiders is still peak in my rotation with some paladin playing in Diablo 4 and jumping into random new/old games (T2 No Fate for one and omg..Destiny 2).

Since i try to stream as much as i can, ive been trying to use this app called Eklipse to generate clips for me so i dont have to go back through my stream and do it myself. Sometimes ill get like 2 groups of raiders and i want to clip it all. Its 20 bucks a month to access the full amount of clips it can generate.

Its...ok i guess. First i dont like the sub amount, 20 bucks is steep. I wanted to try it for a month to see if its really useful and at 20 a month, for me at least, doesnt seem to be. Ill stream for a couple hours, ill go to this clip maker and look at all the clips for my past stream.

It has very bad clipping time imo. It misses crucial moments but makes a clip out of me shooting a little arc bot and thats it, but a whole team whipe doesnt get clipped at all, or its clipped at the very end. Frustrating for sure. Yes, its nice to have a bunch of clips that you can edit or change or add effects to, but id rather just have it capture the moments i want captured. You'd think fighting teams and winning would be that.

You can also set it up to where you say something like "clip that" and it makes the clip, i set it up and tried to use it but when i said "clip that" it clipped like a minute after i said that, maybe i have it set up wrong, idk.

Will i keep using it? For now, but not much longer, esp if its not generating more clips i want.

A 20 dollar sub is a lot for me first of all but it is beneficial in having a bunch of clips to look at and edit, even if i still have some going back to my twitch videos for manual edit. Its supposed to help get you followers and likes by having all these clips you can put on yt and tiktok etc. so i gotta give it a couple months.

Since im in my first month and ive uploaded maybe 6 clips, If i cant double or triple that number next month i probably wont continue to use it. Ill give it the first month since there is a learning curb.

 

[Pifanjr]

While I liked Mutant Year Zero: Road to Eden, it didn't really grab me and I wanted something I could really lose myself in, but nothing in my library seemed to fit my mood.

Finally I decided to check out a Minecraft mod I saw being recommended and instantly became obsessed. It has a frankly silly amount of mods, but there are a bunch of quest lines you can follow that give a clear sense of progression. Plus there's just enough lore to give me a reason to care about these quests.

The game has a lot of QoL improvements to reduce the amount of grinding you need to do, which is really nice, so I've been able to just focus on setting up my magical chickens and putting some villagers in a box to work for me, as well as creating a death trap for enemy mobs for an infinite supply of loot drops.

 

[neogunhero]

Yakuza Kiwami 1 and 2 have been re-released on Steam, and it's causing some frustration. The main reason why it was re-released is because they were released on Switch 2 alongside Yakuza 0 Directors Cut.

Owners of the original Kiwami 1 and 2 got the new version of Kiwami 2 for free, while the upgrade to Kiwami 1 costs $1.99. What??

Apparently there are no differences in Kiwami 1 besides two new songs that were previously Japan only and extra languages for subtitles. Kiwami 2 apparently upgraded its engine to the same engine Yakuza 0 runs on, along with some minor bug fixes and DLSS support. No actual content additions, visual improvements or anything like that. I guess that $1.99 is to pay royalties for the songs.

I ended up shilling out the $1.99 for one vain reason... the original versions have "(Legacy)" at the end of the titles, and that kind of drives me crazy. I can't let anyone know I'm playing the legacy version of a game that has almost zero differences between the two!! It's pretty dumb, but I was due to replay Kiwami anyways.

All of this has resulted in the review scores to be "Mixed" for both titles. While the price is the same as the originals, you can no longer buy the originals, meaning anyone new to the series looking to buy them will see the "Mixed" reviews and potentially be off-put by it.

Same goes for Yakuza 0 Directors Cut but for different reasons. First, the price has increased and you can no longer buy the original. You still get a discount for owning the original, but that's still $14.99. Second, the 30 minutes of new cutscenes are seen as a retcon, unnecessary and ruins the overall flow of the original story. Apparently the multiplayer mode is pretty basic as well, as it's essentially a co-op horde mode. To cap everything off, all three games have had their file sizes increase drastically. Kiwami 1 went from roughly 20gb to 30gb, a 50% increase for basically nothing. I think the cutscenes are now uncompressed but that is unverified. There are also speculation running around that now that these games are re-released, the sales may not be as steep or as often as the original versions.

All of this have gotten people pretty angry with Sega and RGG. It just seems like a pretty greedy move by Sega to capitalize on the growing popularity of the series while doing the bare minimum to justify a re-release. The Switch versions of Kiwami 1 and 2 could have been their entirely own thing.

While all of this is going on, Nagoshi-san, original creator of the Yakuza series, is making something really awesome: GANG OF DRAGON. A return to the crime-drama that fans originally fell in love with before things started going too far off the rails.

I'm still excited for what RGG brings next, and I know a lot of these decisions were probably made by Sega. No wonder why Nagoshi left. Kiwami 3 + Dark Ties still looks awesome and I'll most likely pick that up around launch, and I'm still very excited for Stranger Than Heaven.

 

[neogunhero]

You can also set it up to where you say something like "clip that" and it makes the clip, i set it up and tried to use it but when i said "clip that" it clipped like a minute after i said that, maybe i have it set up wrong, idk.

It must be processing your request I wonder why it only clips you fighting Arcs but not team wipes. I use the built in Steam recorder for clips, and it will have key points marked on the timeline, probably when the audio increases like shooting a gun. I would think an AI clip tool would be better at finding those moments.

Finally I decided to check out a Minecraft mod I saw being recommended and instantly became obsessed. It has a frankly silly amount of mods, but there are a bunch of quest lines you can follow that give a clear sense of progression. Plus there's just enough lore to give me a reason to care about these quests.

The game has a lot of QoL improvements to reduce the amount of grinding you need to do, which is really nice, so I've been able to just focus on setting up my magical chickens and putting some villagers in a box to work for me, as well as creating a death trap for enemy mobs for an infinite supply of loot drops.

You can't just mention magical chickens and enemy death traps without naming the modpack!