March 2025 General Game Discussion Thread

[neogunhero]

@neogunhero Two Point Museum comes out on Tuesday, and the people who paid for early access have rated the game "Overwhelmingly Positive" with 97 percent positive reviews. People are claiming it's the best Two Point game.

Very excited for it, but too busy with Yakuza at the moment... You know how rare it is that I buy a new game around launch, so I may just wait for Two Point Museum to get its first sale before picking it up. Really love that series though, and I'm so happy to hear people think it's the best one so far.

 

[BeardyHat]

One thing I forgot to mention about Expeditions: Mudrunner: The first area takes place in what they call "Little Colorado" and having lived in Colorado my entire life, I see absolutely nothing that resembles my State. Now, I grant I haven't been everywhere in this enormous State, but I'm almost certain we don't have Saguaro cacti here, as well as the mesa style, red terrain (Red Rocks not withstanding) typically associated with New Mexico or Arizona.

Again, I could be wrong, but it just feels weird.

 

[March's Ghost]

One thing I forgot to mention about Expeditions: Mudrunner: The first area takes place in what they call "Little Colorado" and having lived in Colorado my entire life, I see absolutely nothing that resembles my State. Now, I grant I haven't been everywhere in this enormous State, but I'm almost certain we don't have Saguaro cacti here, as well as the mesa style, red terrain (Red Rocks not withstanding) typically associated with New Mexico or Arizona.

Again, I could be wrong, but it just feels weird.

Little Colorado is a river in Arizona.

 

[BeardyHat]

Little Colorado is a river in Arizona.

Well see, I stand corrected. Now it all makes way more sense.

This explains why it looks like Arizona...

 

[Frindis]

Been playing some POE2 with my nephew doing hardcore solo self found (cannot trade with other people and you only have one life). We stream and watch each others progress and then we "bully" each other when one of us die It is a lot of fun and quite challenging, so the big carrot is when you get that nice upgrade making you get a bit further in the game.

 

[March's Ghost]

Well see, I stand corrected.

Not really. You were correct that it didn't look like Colorado.

 

[ZedClampet]

Well see, I stand corrected. Now it all makes way more sense.

This explains why it looks like Arizona...

You know they are coming out with a new one in May call RoadCraft? It's got a demo, too. All the Snowrunner fans have been disappointed in the games after Snowrunner because they have streamlined/mainstreamed the games just a little, which doesn't actually bother me at all.

 

[neogunhero]

Split Fiction from Hazelight Studios comes out Thursday and is looking like another knockout hit from them. My girlfriend and I absolutely loved A Way Out and It Takes Two, and this looks to be just as good if not better than those. We may not pick it up right away, but sometime in the future once it starts going on sale. With their games, I'm always afraid they will end too quickly, but they have very decent lengths, usually around 10-12 hours each game. Looking forward to checking it out whenever we can.

 

[BeardyHat]

Not really. You were correct that it didn't look like Colorado.

Well, definitely, but I just feel silly for not doing a quick Google search!

You know they are coming out with a new one in May call RoadCraft? It's got a demo, too. All the Snowrunner fans have been disappointed in the games after Snowrunner because they have streamlined/mainstreamed the games just a little, which doesn't actually bother me at all.

I did see that, but I didn't realize they didn't have a demo.

Again, I can only speak from my 71 minutes of Expeditions, but I think it makes perfect sense and it seems to have actually upped the complexity, rather than steamlining things. Now you need to think about tire pressure (I think it's a pretty cool addition) and you can pick various specialists to bring out with you on various runs.

But the exploring and doing the little tasks is my favorite part of Snowrunner anyway. Running logs and equipment can be fun and I like picking the right truck and choosing the most efficient way to take stuff, but it's also a slow, meditative experience versus the exploration, which feels much more active. Expeditions seems like they kind of dumped that meditation in favor of the active exploration, which is mostly ok with me. Sometimes I like that slow experience of hauling stuff to different places, but I have to be in the correct mood, where generally I always like running my Scout around and picking different ways to get to an objective.

Roadcraft I know nothing about, other than the fact that I'll keep my eye on it and investigate it more when it eventually releases. I surmise I'll probably like it, given I've liked all this companies games so far and people can be upset if they want, screw em. People would moan and groan if they just released Snowrunner 2, whining that it's so samey, but they'll do the same if they try something different. Snowrunner itself isn't terribly different from the original Spintires, aside from finally having some good objectives and general stuff to do, which again, I think they've kind of fully explored that concept. And Snowrunner has so much content to play through, do we really need more? People seem to always want particular games to be their "forever games" and are upset when stuff isn't basically a live-service grind-a-thon.

 

[Johnway]

not much on my front, still playing AC:Valhalla and plodding around the country and its slow and steady progress. Nothing significant or outstanding.

Doom 2 news, another set of maps finished. So castle wolfenstein station completed. For a station called castle wolfenstein, there is very little wolfenstein content except for one map. Another set of competent, playable maps nothing stood out as outstanding or absolutely horrible. But we're done, so onto next station: Warehouse One.

 

[Pifanjr]

After finishing Dredge I looked through my library for a new game, but nothing looked interesting. So I went back to my Minecraft Blightfall game. I don't really remember what I was doing, but there is plenty of stuff to work on regardless. For example, I should really move all of my stuff over to a single location, which is going to be a pain but will make my life a lot easier when it's done.

I also spent quite some time today setting up a way to play Pokémon FireRed on my phone today with the IronMon rules. Notably, I needed to get a ROM, then patch it with some QoL changes, then put it through a randomizer. I had some troubles with it but eventually got it all working.

The game was definitely not meant to be played like this, but as long as you don't take it too seriously it's fun to see how far you can get.

 

[JCgames]

Not sure I played the same "remember me"

The best part of the game was the exploring and story/dialougue and the memory stiff was rather unique.

It's a game that kept me going despite the mind numbing repetitive combat, that you basically just did the same combo for the entire game despite upgrades.

Then you add I think 5 bosses, all have extremely unique one way to defeat them tricks, each boss has one. I'd you find it quick enough you don't have to replay from the last save point other wise each boss will most like mean defeat and try agian. PRO TIP, figure out the trick then reload, it's a better use of time. Or maybe these kind of games are your thing and you breeze it. But for me reload was the better option.

any way you slice it the combat isn't this games strength, It's no wonder dotnod ditched it in their later games and has become a much better game maker because of it.

 

[Colif]

Buying a game based on the dev once making a great game is the same as buying something from an Italian brand name without realising that the people there now weren't the ones who made the item (and in case of Italian brands, is most likely a Chinese company using the brand name to sell you crap).

Every game needs to be judged on what it is, not who made it or the history of the company.

Its a trap to assume a company who made an amazing rpg 14 years ago is still staffed by the exact same people who made it then. Its also hard to try to keep the genie in the bottle. Often times she escapes and you left with nothing but fairy dust and a nice bottle...

And even if it is same people, we all change with time.

Lots of companies who exist now are living on good faith of customers who haven't been paying attention. Once great company names are sold in bulk to whoever will try to use them as skin suits to sell to the unsuspecting,

 

[ZedClampet]

The Merchant of Rosewall demo was really good during Next Fest, so when it launched today, I bought it. Sure enough, the game has a game breaking bug. It has checkpoint saves, and every time it starts to save, it locks the game up, and you eventually have to shut it down.

On the other hand, Two Point Museum is really good.

Edit: Merchant of Rosewall dev says she's working on a patch.

 

[Colif]

this idea isn't really new... or the first joke game about topic:

 

[Pifanjr]

I'm on attempt 27 of my ironmon Pokémon challenge (I think). Probably slightly over half of the attempts end at the first fight, just because the random starting Pokémon you get is trash. Or because you get unlucky and the random Pokémon you fight against is too good, which happened when I got a Charizard starter and my rival got a Moltres.

About half of the runs that do make it past the first fight lose within the next three fights, as then you have to defeat two or three Pokémon in a row.

So I've really only had about 4 decent runs so far, but the current one is the most promising. I have an Electrode with great defensive stats, the Ingrain move that gives him a little healing each turn and the Leftovers item that also gives a little healing each turn. He also started with the Dragon Rage move, which always does a flat 40 damage, which is amazing at the start of the game because it ignores resistances and defence values and kills pretty much everything in one or two hits.

---

I also played a little bit of Blightfall, but I mostly spend my time moving all of my stuff over from one base to another and unlocking a bunch of new research options. I got a lot of good tips from the Blightfall Discord though, so I have a lot to work on when I can continue playing.

 

[ZedClampet]

Don't take anything you read at ScreenRant.com very seriously without checking the information somewhere else. A lot of the incorrect game information that CoPilot gives me is sourced to ScreenRant. In fact, I'd guess the majority of it comes from ScreenRant.

I've notice that if you tell CoPilot that something is incorrect that it actually changes its response some time later. Either it gets flagged in their system or different sources just come out with the correct information. For example, I corrected it at one point on a mission in Weed Shop 3. I asked it the same question about 6 months later, and it gave me the correct answer, and I'm pretty sure that answer isn't available anywhere. I checked Google, the Steam forums, Steam guides, etc. Also, when it gave me the answer, instead of giving me a source, it said, "There has been some discussion that says..."

 

[BeardyHat]

Buying a game based on the dev once making a great game is the same as buying something from an Italian brand name without realising that the people there now weren't the ones who made the item (and in case of Italian brands, is most likely a Chinese company using the brand name to sell you crap).

Every game needs to be judged on what it is, not who made it or the history of the company.

Its a trap to assume a company who made an amazing rpg 14 years ago is still staffed by the exact same people who made it then. Its also hard to try to keep the genie in the bottle. Often times she escapes and you left with nothing but fairy dust and a nice bottle...

And even if it is same people, we all change with time.

Lots of companies who exist now are living on good faith of customers who haven't been paying attention. Once great company names are sold in bulk to whoever will try to use them as skin suits to sell to the unsuspecting,

Sounds like Blizzard...

I'm finally at Xen (finally, I say, as though it took forever or was a slog. It was neither.) in Black Mesa and I'm very much enjoying it. I like their vision for it, which is far, far more interesting than the original game. Plus there's HEV zombies and I just think that's cool.

I really like how they've fleshed out the lore; we see that Black Mesa actually had quite a bit presence in Xen and managed to push quite deep into it, not to mention had the ability to teleport in supplies pretty much anywhere within the world. We also see the Vortigaunts in little villages or even slave towns, forced to work and not hostile to the player, which is just neat and lines up with Half-Life 2 so perfectly.

My one complaint is that it feels kind of long. The Gonarch fight seemed to never end and since then, there's been tons more to go though. Maybe I'm just complaining because I know I'm towards the end and eager to finish, but that's how I'm feeling.

 

[Colif]

Don't take anything you read at ScreenRant.com very seriously without checking the information somewhere else. A lot of the incorrect game information that CoPilot gives me is sourced to ScreenRant. In fact, I'd guess the majority of it comes from ScreenRant.

Not sure why anyone would take notice of a website with rant in its name
I do see them show up in videos where people are reacting to articles in negative ways.

 

[ZedClampet]

Not sure why anyone would take notice of a website with rant in its name
I do see them show up in videos where people are reacting to articles in negative ways.

You have lots of Youtubers doing similar things like calling themselves "Angry *whoever*" and doing "Angry reviews" and yet people pay attention to those people. Angry Joe has been linked on here multiple times.

ScreenRant is often the number one result showed by Google. They write so many articles on so many things (they are borderline stream-of-consciousness articles) that they are frequently the only site that claims to have an answer on something. One of the reasons they are the only site with an answer is because they just make up an answer if there isn't a legitimate one available. For instance, if a question is wrong in some way, they still stick an answer to it somewhere in one of their articles. Example: How do you breed animals in *whatever game*? ScreenRant usually has an answer to a question like that even if you can't breed animals at all in that game. That's a real life example, but I can't remember what game it was now.

 

[Colif]

You have lots of Youtubers doing similar things like calling themselves "Angry *whoever*" and doing "Angry reviews" and yet people pay attention to those people. Angry Joe has been linked on here multiple times

i find him exhausting... I don't watch him but I have seen his videos before.

ScreenRant is often the number one result showed by Google. They write so many articles on so many things (they are borderline stream-of-consciousness articles) that they are frequently the only site that claims to have an answer on something. One of the reasons they are the only site with an answer is because they just make up an answer if there isn't a legitimate one available

Must be first... clilcks are more important than facts.

Being first in searches doesn't mean its the best answer... they can pay to be top... and sometimes the top results can be a trap. Userbenchmark is often number 1 result for any CPU or GPU search and they are massively biased against AMD. You won't get an honest review of any AMD item on them... shame for them the new Intel CPU have been so bad. Hard to shill for a CPU like that.

Sounds like another reason to simply ignore them if you know they do make stuff up.

Knowing who to trust and believe is half the answer to some questions. Knowing who to ignore also helps. Lessons you learn searching Google for answers of other peoples questions... as it helps if the advice you give others doesn't end up breaking their stuff... unless you work for Screenrant and don't care

 

[Frindis]

I have used Copilot for getting answers to a couple of question regarding Path of Exile 2, but both results was taken from bad sources with no clue about the game. Even worse, on YouTube there are channels that make countless of "best builds" that is not even close to be good builds. So these channels spew out false guides and similar so they can generate clicks. Pretty sad actually because a new POE player could easily get misinformation, play a broken build and uninstall/lose interest because of it.

 

[ZedClampet]

i find him exhausting... I don't watch him but I have seen his videos before.


Must be first... clilcks are more important than facts.

Being first in searches doesn't mean its the best answer... they can pay to be top... and sometimes the top results can be a trap. Userbenchmark is often number 1 result for any CPU or GPU search and they are massively biased against AMD. You won't get an honest review of any AMD item on them... shame for them the new Intel CPU have been so bad. Hard to shill for a CPU like that.

Sounds like another reason to simply ignore them if you know they do make stuff up.

Knowing who to trust and believe is half the answer to some questions. Knowing who to ignore also helps. Lessons you learn searching Google for answers of other peoples questions... as it helps if the advice you give others doesn't end up breaking their stuff... unless you work for Screenrant and don't care

That was the point of my post. To let people know to ignore them. Sometimes that's hard to do when they are the only site with an answer, but that's when you need to ignore them the most.

The only reason I'm this familiar with them is because CoPilot uses them a lot, and I check almost all the answers it gives me.

 

[Colif]

I guess they learned from Kotaku. Hate to think how many ads they have on the website.

 

[neogunhero]

I’m doing a terrible job at being a patient gamer this year. I’m going to be picking up Split Fiction tomorrow, my girlfriend and I really want to play it. We absolutely loved A Way Out and It Takes Two, and this one is getting great reviews too. Hazelight may be EA’s best studio currently.