February 2025 General Game Discussion Thread

[ZedClampet]

I still firmly say that the underlying cause of all of this is gamer abuse by companies like EA, Paradox, Firaxis, etc. and all the publishers who are releasing broken crap.

• You can't just buy a game. You have to pick a tier. Pay more and play earlier.
• Companies knowingly release unpolished and unoptimized games that people paid $70 for.
• Companies often put out 30, or even vastly more, DLC, some of which hobble the base game, some of which require other DLC to work properly. The cost of the total game becomes outrageous.
• They trap large portions of the games behind battle passes and charge a fortune for even single outfit cosmetics.
• They sometimes charge as much for minor DLC as full games used to cost.
• Pay-to-play games are set up like free-to-play games used to be.
• They ignore what gamers want in favor of what they think could make them the most money.
• They do playtests and then promptly ignore all suggestions.
• They release sequels that have the same bugs that were in the last game.

And there's so much more bad behavior. If I tried to include it all, the list would be massive.

And then they have the audacity to say things like "Games should be twice as expensive because we haven't kept up with the rate of inflation." Well a dollar in 2010 is equivalent to $1.45 today, yet their earnings have more than doubled during that time, and it isn't because they are working harder and making more and better games. It's the opposite of that. They are bleeding customers for everything they're worth and releasing the same trash over and over again and still they are tossing employees overboard because it can never be enough for them. If they could somehow murder customers and increase their stock prices we'd all be in serious trouble, and that's just barely an exaggeration. Hell, some days I think it may not be an exaggeration at all.

So are gamers angry and lashing out? Of course they are. It would be better if we didn't do it indiscriminately, like against Obsidian who have always been "the good guys", but it's completely understandable and not really the fault of gamers because they've been bullied and robbed as surely as any mugging victim.

 

[Alm]

I think we are seeing the limited usefulness of reviews. And negative bandwagon jumping.

But I do think all of the things Zed mentioned do detract from modern gaming and I agree that people are angry and rightly so.

Edit: I do wonder if Game Pass detracts from day 1 sales.

 

[ZedClampet]

I think we are seeing the limited usefulness of reviews. And negative bandwagon jumping.

But I do think all of the things Zed mentioned do detract from modern gaming and I agree that people are angry and rightly so.

Edit: I do wonder if Game Pass detracts from day 1 sales.

Don't get me wrong. I'm against all the gamer backlash. I've seen too many good games get caught up in all of this. I'm just saying that gamers have a right to be angry, though I wish they would be smarter about it.

As far as Game Pass goes, I don't know, but I find it interesting that they hide the major releases on launch day. When games like Avowed launch, Steam and Epic are all over it and display ads for the games all over the place. Then you go to Game Pass, and they are advertising some life sim, and the game isn't even included in the "recently added" list. I can only assume Game Pass is costing them a fortune in sales, and it wouldn't surprise me if they didn't start delaying the games coming to Game Pass, like making you wait 3 to 6 months.

Little do they know how patient PC gamers are.

 

[ZedClampet]

Here's another example of angry gamers, the Lost Skies demo has a problem. Sometimes the saves become corrupted. This is bad, of course, and you have a right to be disappointed. But this only happens after you've been playing about 6 hours. Six hours in a demo? Yes, Bosso basically uploaded the entire game as the demo. My suggestion is that you should be happy you got 6 hours of free and unrestricted play instead of crying and making threats that you'll never buy the game.

And some of the gamer stuff is just immaturity. In the last 24 hours I've seen two people request that games launch on their birthdays as if they are the center of the universe and their birthday should be taken into consideration when deciding when to launch. To be fair, it's possible they were joking, but their comments sure sounded serious.

 

[Smellincoffee]

Decided to give The Sims legacy editions a go, as I played the original from its release until the later 2000s after an upgrade made Sims 2 run perfectly for me. Reddit suggested that the steam editions are more stable than the origins editions. So far I'm really enjoying it: I remember most of my 'tricks', though I'm amused by how often I try to do things that only later games made possible -- like clicking on an avatar of a Sim to call them, or hunting for the wall tools in the top right corner instead of the bottom left.

 

[Johnway]

Path of exile, i finally got to level 80 last night and thats where i can cash out and resume playing Asscreed Valhalla. But before that some steam nextfest stuff. Comments in the relevant topic.

 

[February's Ghost]

So before I started jumping onto the NextFest demo frenzy I finished Lost Records: Bloom & Rage.

It's pretty good. It has almost all of the great DON'T NOD stuff in it, but perhaps not all of it is peak DON'T NOD. Like Life is Strange lite. My biggest issue is that not a lot of drama happens. Not a lot of action happen during the game. It's mostly just character dialog and bonding. While I find the dialog and bonding elements are well done, I just wish there was more than that in this first of two parts (second part out in April).

I think the reason the lack of action is disappointing is there are a few times where you feel like they're setting something up to happen and then, well, nothing happens. There's only a couple of moments that feel real tense that put you on edge and even then they're kinda tame. Nothing like Chloe getting stuck on the railroad tracks or trying to talk to Kate from jumping off a building.

Still, what is there is really good for what it is. If you want to play it I'd wait for the next part to be released though. I was annoyed when I got hit with a "To be continued" not knowing this was only half of the game.

 

[Pifanjr]

I ran out of demos to try, but I still wanted something that was easy to pick up and play. I ended up installing Dredge and giving it a go and so far it's exactly what I was looking for: easy controls and an interesting story that doesn't get in the way of the gameplay and gives you clear objectives to complete.

 

[neogunhero]

I ran out of demos to try, but I still wanted something that was easy to pick up and play. I ended up installing Dredge and giving it a go and so far it's exactly what I was looking for: easy controls and an interesting story that doesn't get in the way of the gameplay and gives you clear objectives to complete.

I had Dredge sitting in my Epic account for months now. I really want to give it a go someday, it seems really good.

 

[Zloth]

That guy had the decency to play 10 hours of the game before making that video, and that is more than a fair shot at it.

For a game like Avowed, I would say that's more like the minimum. The first several hours are going to be spent introducing the world, the characters, how advancement works, and so on.

Someone who decides he doesn't like a game just from the opening scenes is someone who's clueless at picking what games to play.

 

[February's Ghost]

I still have to hit the last couple of demos I want, but Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora just went on sale on Steam and 42 bucks for the ultimate edition just seemed too good to pass up. I'm a sucker for colorful worlds and Avatar's is one of the best. Half-naked 10 foot tall blue alien women had nothing to do with its appeal, I swear.

 

[isleepinabed]

Well, February has come and gone (in a few hours). Half of the month I played Assetto Corsa and the other half various shooters.
This was a month that personally (or professionally, rather) had a lot of changes so perhaps my gaming choices reflect this: these are games that are all gameplay with very few cultural or intellectual stimulation. So, perhaps, a need to distract or abstract my mind after work and during weekends.

While I broke my 2025 gaming purchases duck, they were at least modest. I have also severely reduced my wishlist (just 3 "musketeers" left) and still waiting for sales on all three before I commit to a purchase.

I'm still looking forward to going through more shooters at least up to the middle of March. I'll wait and see if later in the month I'll feel up to getting back to adventure/story-based games. I'll check the upcoming games list for March but I'd be surprised if I got something new, unless it's a well-hidden unexpected secret (like a new game by inkle or Lucas Pope).

 

[BeardyHat]

Well, February has come and gone (in a few hours). Half of the month I played Assetto Corsa and the other half various shooters.
This was a month that personally (or professionally, rather) had a lot of changes so perhaps my gaming choices reflect this: these are games that are all gameplay with very few cultural or intellectual stimulation. So, perhaps, a need to distract or abstract my mind after work and during weekends.

This is pretty much where I'm at. Nothing complicated that takes too long to get into, nothing I have to listen to exposition or watch cutscenes, pretty much just gameplay. I should go back to Dark Descent, as I'm close to the end I think, but it's been stressing me out lately and so I haven't wanted to.

Just yesterday, I did something it took me 27 years to do: completed Half-Life legitimately. Of course, I've played the game many times over the years since release, but every time I got to Xen, I'd give it a half-hearted attempt and then begin skipping around, typically skipping myself to the boss and then no clipping into his head to kill him and finish the game.

But I decided to play Half-Life all the way through this time, 95% on my Deck, so I could get better at using the Deck for shooters and had decided I was plowing all the way through; I'd figure it out and bang my head against the wall if I needed to. And honestly? Xen isn't that bad. It certainly isn't up to snuff compared to the rest of the games areas, but it's not terrible and it presents a decent challenge. The final boss is pretty annoying, until I discovered you can use the hive hand to dissipate his portals and from there, it became pretty easy.

I'm not sure that Half-Life really holds-up all that great. Or at least, it feels very dated for obvious reasons. It was the first of its kind, essentially and all the iterations on its type of gameplay have been done better over the past several years. But in spite of feeling dated, it's still fun and I kept wanting to go back to it and plow through more areas. Also, I must say, I'm surprised at how short it is; it only took me a little under 8-hours start to finish. For some reason it always felt a lot longer to me, but maybe that's just because I was younger and played it so much.

Anyway, after finishing, I had to make a decision: continue on to the expansion packs or jump into Black Mesa? I chose Black Mesa, given that part of my experiment was to see how it compares directly to the reimagining, so I started that this morning and am enjoying myself so far. It still feels largely the same, but the updated, fleshed-out and more detailed areas are a definite breath of fresh air in comparison to what feels very sparse in 1998 Half-Life.

 

[Pifanjr]

I had Dredge sitting in my Epic account for months now. I really want to give it a go someday, it seems really good.

It is really good, if you're in the mood for something simple and somewhat repetitive.

There isn't much more to the game than sailing your boat and fishing. I think all quests so far tell you to either deliver something, fetch something or find some specific fish. But the game has enough variety to keep it engaging. Each of the five areas is distinct with its own challenges and there are at least 5 different fishing mini games.

It's a great example of a simple game that knows how to avoid getting boring.

 

[ZedClampet]

Apparently Monster Hunter Wilds runs like I do except without the constant heart attacks.

 

[ZedClampet]

I'll do the monthly post some time tomorrow. Just letting you know I'm aware of what day it is

 

[Colif]

Slack, it be the 2nd by then...

I decided that since I will be removing my 4tb ssd and putting it in my new PC at some stage this year, I might as well uninstall all the Games Pass games I am unlikely to play between then and now... which should be all but I left a few there for now.

I have 21 Steam games installed but they all only add up to 121gb.

Shame you can't use old game pass games on a new install. Otherwise they be as easy as Steam is.

Curious what thinks its on my hdd still. Windirstat just shows a bunch of empty folders now.
Uninstalled Diablo 4 as well since I am unlikely to return.