June 2025 General Game Discussion Thread

[Zed Clampet]

Still have yet to pick up Dysmantle, I think the sale is over now though.

Summer sale starts in 11 days. It was on sale during the spring sale, so I'm guessing it will go on sale even though they just had a sale.

 

[Frindis]

Speaking of summer, Summer Game Fest in 12 hours.

Summer Game Fest - See What's Next in Video Games

See what's next in video games when Summer Game Fest airs live on June 6, 2025. Stay tuned for more deatils.

www.summergamefest.com

 

[Zed Clampet]

Speaking of summer, Summer Game Fest in 12 hours.

Summer Game Fest - See What's Next in Video Games

See what's next in video games when Summer Game Fest airs live on June 6, 2025. Stay tuned for more deatils.

www.summergamefest.com

I always want to watch those, but I'm usually better off reading the round-up that PCG puts out with all the trailers.

 

[Frindis]

@Zed Clampet The show(s) tends to start a bit late for me and I was up very early for swimming, so not sure how long I'll last. Hopefully it starts on time and that Activision Blizzard is not there with nonsense about another COD game.

 

[neogunhero]

I always want to watch those, but I'm usually better off reading the round-up that PCG puts out with all the trailers.

The Verge also does a great live update blog on these game event shows if you just want the quick details, but PCG goes more in depth on what was shown off.

@Zed Clampet The show(s) tends to start a bit late for me and I was up very early for swimming, so not sure how long I'll last. Hopefully it starts on time and that Activision Blizzard is not there with nonsense about another COD game.

I have the best sleep every time I go swimming, it totally wears me out. I don't blame you if you fall asleep before it starts

 

[DXCHASE]

Im hoping to pick up Tainted Grail: The Fall of Avalon during the summer games event, hopefully itll have another discount. Really liking this game and i progressed a good chunk last night (no im still in the first area, this game is pretty big).

Ran into a weird bug that my minions (story on this after). Wouldnt show up on a bridge while i was trying to fight a bounty-board bandit but his men and even himself would turn away and fight the air like there was something there. It helped me get through some tough fights but i had to re-open the game to fix it.

Still, a fun game. So with the minions...This game definitely takes the "explore to be rewarded" seriously. I spent some time looking along the coastline at the beginning of the first area and i found a cave that gave me this power to summon stuff. I thought theyd be bad or i wouldnt have the mana etc. Nope, i can summon up to 3 so naturally i just build up summoning and mana and now i roam with a pack of corpse jumpers and a skeleton broadsword user thats helping me take out above-my-power guys and getting better gear that way.

 

[BeardyHat]

So with the minions...This game definitely takes the "explore to be rewarded" seriously.

This definitely ups it on my list. I love games that do this.

Still playing Yakuza: Like a Dragon here and there. Been spending the vast majority of my time with it in the property management game, not only to get my bond up with the person who heads the management company up, but because I'm just having fun with it.

Also started playing Final Fantasy Tactics on PSX again. I've never made it very far in this game, but with the recent announcement of a remake, it's reminded me that it exists, so I figured I'd go back to it again.

Also started Star Wars Battlefront 2. First of all, I can't believe the game came out in 2017, I could have sworn it was only 3 or 4 years old. Second, it runs fantastically on the Deck. Both Skirmish against the AI and the Campaign. I have yet to try proper multiplayer, but I assume it should be similar. Lastly, the campaign is actually somewhat challenging, at least on Deck. It took me several tries to get through one section on the first mission on the Normal difficulty, which was kind of a surprise; I really expected it to be a cake walk.

 

[Zed Clampet]

The Verge also does a great live update blog on these game event shows if you just want the quick details, but PCG goes more in depth on what was shown off.

I have the best sleep every time I go swimming, it totally wears me out. I don't blame you if you fall asleep before it starts

Swimming makes me hungry. Except for that time a couple of years ago when I realized I couldn't do the things I used to do and thought I was going to drown in the ocean. That just made me exhausted.

I really wasn't going to drown, but I was getting pushed farther and farther out and was too tired to swim aggressively parallel to the shore. I was basically on my back paddling and hoping I would get out of the current while I could still see the beach. It eventually worked and I started the slowest swim toward shore ever recorded. That marked the end of my evening ocean swims during vacations

The beach we go to has lifeguards, but not after 5, and my kids are both certified lifeguards, but they were back in the room eating Cheetos or something. I was always a strong swimmer, but my confidence outlived that.

 

[Frindis]

We getting close!

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Hr6Q2hln_M

 

[Zloth]

Oh, it's on now!

Lah lah lah.... oh, it's Warren Spector showing Thick as Thieves . Errr, some sort of multiplayerness to it. Oh well, good to see Warren is still working after the Underworld Ascendant debacle.

DoubleFine and Pocket Boss.... errr, OK, that's weird. Strange things with charts.

And an indy game on helping a teen girl on a diet?

And... yeah, that's enough.

 

[Zed Clampet]

I'm done watching. We're into the weird, heartfelt indies that people will play because it makes them feel smarter than other gamers. Or something like that. There has to be an alternative reason for wanting to play a game about a boy who rolls around the world in an old tire and witnesses life snippets.

 

[Zed Clampet]

The games that stood out to me were the new Resident Evil, the Game of Thrones, and then there was some other horror game, but I didn't catch the name.

 

[Zed Clampet]

@DXCHASE There's a turn-based fest going on on Steam right now. I know you're into peak gaming.

#TurnBasedThursdayFest returns for 2025 with over 400 games!

#TurnBasedThursdayFest is a week-long online festival celebrating turn-based video games.

store.steampowered.com

 

[Zloth]

Solasta 2 is on the list, even though you can't buy it yet!?

 

[Zed Clampet]

Balatro is all about fairness. For instance, you have to score 50,000 but you can't see your cards

 

[Pifanjr]

@DXCHASE There's a turn-based fest going on on Steam right now. I know you're into peak gaming.

#TurnBasedThursdayFest returns for 2025 with over 400 games!

#TurnBasedThursdayFest is a week-long online festival celebrating turn-based video games.

store.steampowered.com

I don't think I've seen the Hidden Gem category before, that's pretty cool.

 

[Zed Clampet]

I don't think I've seen the Hidden Gem category before, that's pretty cool.

In my "gems" section there are several games that look interesting to me including Abalon:

Save 50% on Abalon: Roguelike Tactics CCG on Steam

Abalon is a roguelike adventure that fuses tactical turn-based combat and card strategy. Choose your summoner and explore a tabletop world to discover its secrets. Build the perfect deck, outsmart your enemies and become legend!

store.steampowered.com

There are a few more, but Hex of Steel looks kind of like what I want in a war game

Hex of Steel on Steam

Hex of Steel is a refreshing WWII wargame covering all fronts featuring a certain amount of original mechanics. Fight in solo against finally a decent AI throughout Europe, Africa or the Pacific, or against a friend in the cross-platform PBEM or real time multiplayer. Coop is also an option!

store.steampowered.com

Plus it cracks me up that in the game blurb it says that the game features "a certain amount of original mechanics". I need that quantified. I need an exact amount.

 

[Zloth]

... "a certain amount of original mechanics". I need that quantified. I need an exact amount.

Zero is an amount, and you can be really certain about it!

 

[Zed Clampet]

I may, or may not, be done with Balatro. Unlike poker, no one is watching what I do, so I try to do the same thing every time. And just like poker, I don't care if I win any given hand (game), so if things aren't going great, I just fold/quit, and once I find a strategy that works against an AI, I don't usually find it interesting to find more strategies. Against a person that would be different.

Of course, I also posted a couple of weeks ago that I was done with Jacksmith, and that turned out to be incorrect, as I'm still playing it every day, so I guess we'll see.

 

[Johnway]

i think i might be able to finish Asscreed: Valhalla by the end of the week. Just in time for POE league. i've nearly finished jotumheim lands (mercifully short) and after i've done the river raids, and picked up some more achievements, i think i'm done. We might have a few minor activities like orlog or fishing but i don't care about those. i have of course got to do that roguelike game, but i'm not sure whether i want to play that. But we'll time frame. NextFest is this week as well, so i will be observing that.


Doom wad wise i was playing the Nostalgia Wad and i didn't realize that i had already played it until map 11 when things started to look familiar. So i stoped that and started a random wad i downloaded and it was the DoomBoardProject 64: The vast silence. What makes this special is that its using Doom64 texture pack and monsters, but what makes this REALLY special are the custom monsters they've implemented the archvile and the revenant back in. Throw in some strong map design and audio and i've been enjoying it. has Doom 3 vibes using Doom2 / Doom64 assets.

 

[DXCHASE]

@DXCHASE There's a turn-based fest going on on Steam right now. I know you're into peak gaming.

#TurnBasedThursdayFest returns for 2025 with over 400 games!

#TurnBasedThursdayFest is a week-long online festival celebrating turn-based video games.

store.steampowered.com

I am overjoyed seeing so many games that would have peaked my interest if they didnt do that! I actually played some more Exp 33 over the weekend but its been a minute so i was missing all my dodges lol.

 

[Pifanjr]

I played a little bit of Bioprototype, which is being given away for free on Steam.

It's a Vampire Survivors type game, but instead of just picking/upgrading a weapon every so often, you have to assemble them yourself from parts.

Basically you make chains of weapons and triggers. The first trigger is typically time based, so it activates the first weapon every second or so. Then the second trigger is something like "when the weapon on the left kills an enemy", which then triggers a new weapon from the location of the old projectile.

So your screen becomes filled with projectiles that spawn more projectiles that themselves spawn more projectiles until everything is dead.

I've only played a couple of waves of the tutorial, which has limited parts, but so far it's pretty fun. The only downside is that it can be hard to understand intuitively how switching parts will affect your damage output. However, the game does show how much damage each weapon did in the last wave and you can also shoot at some test dummies to get an idea of how your setup does, so you can make some educated choices.

I can definitely recommend giving it a try while it's still available for free.