October 2025 General Games discussion thread

[Colif]

Guess I will start this one...

Updates to Xbox Game Pass: Introducing Essential, Premium, and Ultimate Plans - Xbox Wire

Introducing the new upgrades to Xbox Game Pass, including Essential, Premium and Ultimate. Details inside.

news.xbox.com

Microsoft Game pass changes

reaction: Website for cancelling Gamepass currently down due to demand...

I might try to access it later. I have it but never really used it.

 

[Pifanjr]

Guess I will start this one...

Updates to Xbox Game Pass: Introducing Essential, Premium, and Ultimate Plans - Xbox Wire

Introducing the new upgrades to Xbox Game Pass, including Essential, Premium and Ultimate. Details inside.

news.xbox.com

Microsoft Game pass changes

reaction: Website for cancelling Gamepass currently down due to demand...

I might try to access it later. I have it but never really used it.

€30 a month for virtually unlimited entertainment seems like a great deal when compared to something like cable TV. Too bad that most PC games can get you far more hours of entertainment per dollar than any TV show or movie can, so it's much cheaper to just buy a few games on sale or play one of the many free or free to play ones.

 

[Frindis]

I stopped paying for Game Pass around 2 years ago or so when they stopped with the "get Game Pass for 1 month for 1SUD (something like that) promotions. That is when I knew they were going to get greedy, and I was right. I stopped using Amazon Prime when they started introducing more and more shitty games and worse and worse prime benefits, and I knew it was only going to get worse, and I was right. I stopped using Netflix whenever they made it harder and harder for more people to share the same account, and I knew Netflix would get worse, and I was right.

LOL! It's like I am psychic or something:

The end of Prime Gaming! Amazon bets on Luna with major subscription changes

Amazon is shaking things up with its subscription service! Say "goodbye" to Prime gaming....

gg.deals

 

[neogunhero]

For the last two days I’ve had this intense sharp pain come and go in the back of my neck, and yesterday morning it caused a massive migraine the second I woke up. I decided to call in from work which I always hate, I feel more guilty than satisfied that I get to rest. That didn’t stop me gaming though, I ended up picking up Yakuza Like A Dragon. As much as I like the series, I never played this one because I didn’t think I’d like the turn based combat, I never do. Thankfully it’s done in a way that is not traditional, it’s easier for newcomers to turn based combat to get the hang of.

Story wise it’s great already. I’m only 4 hours in, about half of that playtime is cutscenes, and I love it. Ichiban Kasuga seems so similar yet so different to Kiryu Kazuma, main protagonist of the core series games.

Ichiban shows a lot of character early on by being a very honest kind of Yakuza, more interested in honor to the family than collecting money. Things shake up pretty quickly and the man you thought was your mentor had seemingly turned against you after -8 years in the slammer. There is always a major dramatic switch early in the game that sets the tone of the rest of the story, some may say it’s predictable but it’s done in such a over the top dramatized way that it’s hard not to be entertained by it.

The combat was very easy to learn. Its turn based but real time in a way since your characters don’t stay still in one spot, they are constantly moving with the fight. You select between attack, defend, special moves and items during your turn, then while enemies are attacking you can land a perfect parry to reduce incoming damage. I like how when you select your attack, if there is an object in your path to the enemies you will either pick it up or kick it at the enemy. I’ve only gotten to have one other party member so I haven’t gotten to experience fighting with a full team yet.

So far I’m loving it just as much as I like Yakuza 0 and the Kiwami games. $10 for this masterpiece is insane to me. Very glad I found something good to play.

 

[dxchase]

For the last two days I’ve had this intense sharp pain come and go in the back of my neck, and yesterday morning it caused a massive migraine the second I woke up. I decided to call in from work which I always hate, I feel more guilty than satisfied that I get to rest.

Even though we all do at some point, im here to tell you to NEVER feel guilty about calling in. Thats what the time is for, whoever you are working for will still make all the money they need. Your health is 100% more important than a jobs quota and margin line. I dont know your job and life obviously lol but you shouldnt feel guilty for healing yourself.


Started playing Alien: Rogue Incursion Part One yesterday. Its... not bad, im a sucker for the Alien franchise and have enjoyed everything to come out, from the very cheesy Alien Resurrection to the brilliant Alien: Earth series and all the comics, also the game is a FPS. So i kinda had a bias going in. Also, the characters in here are from a separate alien comic series, but the story is original.

So, playing through, it feels more like, and i agree with this assumption others have made, they took a VR game and just made it for flat screens. The atmosphere is fine enough, i wish they would make it more eerie and dark with a S.T.A.L.K.E.R. -type atmosphere but, at least with HDR on an OLED, it looks fine enough.

The gun sounds are kinda off. They nail the original sound of the pulse rifle, but it sounds like the guns are being shot in an echo chamber. The combat is ok, aliens sneak up on you and you have to use your detector to see them coming which adds an element of realism to the series and the AI synth with you is also not terrible either, but the Aliens are bullet sponges and you move very awkwardly (THERE IS NO JUMP!!). The FPS view is kinda weird too. The gun placement is off and it can be a little jarring to me where they sit, but i can deal with that.

Will continue to play since its Aliens.



Other than that, im basically just playing Diablo 4 at this point. Im just getting to the spot in the season where its really just about pushing up my "paragon level" to max and being able to push 1 or 2 activities to the very end. I could start another character utilizing all the new stuff this season but im not sure i will yet. Battlefield 6 comes out in a little over a week on-top of whatever else will come out before the end of the current Diablos season. Its fun but, all seasons in D4 run their time in about a month, month 1/2 with me before its boring and i want to move on.

 

[BeardyHat]

For the last two days I’ve had this intense sharp pain come and go in the back of my neck, and yesterday morning it caused a massive migraine the second I woke up. I decided to call in from work which I always hate, I feel more guilty than satisfied that I get to rest.

Ouch, sorry to hear. Migraines are the absolute worst. Hopefully you're a bit better today.

My sinus infection is finally lifting, though I'm expelling a lot of stuff...

Haven't played a ton the last few days. I'm still close to finishing RoboCop and I was pretty deep in to Baldur's Gate EE and really having fun, but the last few days I've been preoccupied with trying to get Linux sorted on my HTPC and as expected with Linux, running into issue after issue.

It's not like I can't get these things sorted, I can, but it feels a lot like playing Dark Souls, except way less fun. It's a challenge that I'm well aware I can get through, it just requires me banging my head against the wall repeatedly until there's a breakthrough; but with Linux, it's like boss after boss. You break through one and immediately run into another one and I'm just...tired. I just want this machine to work without having to mess with it, but I run into problems and hacked together solutions (which actually do work) around every corner and I'm just...

Kind of done. I've finally given in and am just forcing a Windows 11 install on this unsupported hardware (only because it's one generation out of date with an i7-7700). Apparently after doing some reading, the only a** pain I'll have to go through with is having to do yearly feature updates manually, which is just fine with me. Creating a bootable USB via Rufus and updating to 26H2 or whatever it will be is far less of a hassle than anything I've run into with Linux in just the past couple of days.

Otherwise, I'm hopefully going to get back to RoboCop and BG, but I've also started a new game for a game challenge on another forum I'm on, which is Chrono Trigger. It's currently on sale on Steam, but I've actually chosen (so far) to play it on my SNES I repaired about 5-years ago. I've got it hooked-up to a CRT in my basement and it just feels...good. I usually prefer to play on handhelds so I can move about the house, but so far, I'm enjoying the deliberateness of having to play in one spot on particular hardware. And worst case, since I'm running it off an FXPackPro in the SNES, I can grab the MicroSD and put the save on any device I want if I feel like changing over.

 

[neogunhero]

Started playing Alien: Rogue Incursion Part One yesterday. Its... not bad, im a sucker for the Alien franchise and have enjoyed everything to come out, from the very cheesy Alien Resurrection to the brilliant Alien: Earth series and all the comics, also the game is a FPS. So i kinda had a bias going in. Also, the characters in here are from a separate alien comic series, but the story is original.

Based on how you describe it and the trailers, it really looks like Alien Isolation with some pretty basic gun mechanics slapped on. Lack of jump in 2025 is crazy to me, I feel like you'd have to program a game engine to NOT allow it. It does look pretty good besides those minor gripes.

Even though we all do at some point, im here to tell you to NEVER feel guilty about calling in. Thats what the time is for, whoever you are working for will still make all the money they need. Your health is 100% more important than a jobs quota and margin line. I dont know your job and life obviously lol but you shouldnt feel guilty for healing yourself.

In my case, it's really just me and one other person who run the office's day to day operations. The other two, the owners and office manager, are pretty elderly with their own issues. Everything went smoothly even without me there yesterday, but still, kind of makes me feel a bit of guilt as my head felt like it was being kicked in by a pair of steel toe boots.

Kind of done. I've finally given in and am just forcing a Windows 11 install on this unsupported hardware (only because it's one generation out of date with an i7-7700). Apparently after doing some reading, the only a** pain I'll have to go through with is having to do yearly feature updates manually, which is just fine with me. Creating a bootable USB via Rufus and updating to 26H2 or whatever it will be is far less of a hassle than anything I've run into with Linux in just the past couple of days.

You're probably well aware of this program but running something like O&O ShutUp 10++ on a Win11 install with an older CPU may be very beneficial to gain some extra performance and disable all the bloatware crud MS stuffs into it.

I usually prefer to play on handhelds so I can move about the house, but so far, I'm enjoying the deliberateness of having to play in one spot on particular hardware. And worst case, since I'm running it off an FXPackPro in the SNES, I can grab the MicroSD and put the save on any device I want if I feel like changing over.

Cross-platform progression on an SNES to handheld is insane when most modern games still don't offer that.

 

[Colif]

Creating a bootable USB via Rufus and updating to 26H2 or whatever it will be is far less of a hassle than anything I've run into with Linux in just the past couple of days.

I always update via a USB, but mainly as I am impatient and want to be on latest instead of letting windows decide when I can have it.
Or at least, I used to be. Windows updates don't really excite me now and if its going to force AI down my throat, I am willing to wait.

Friend does support for clients he builds PC for. All he getting now is panic stories from people getting Win 11 scare messages on their Win 10 PC... must be good for profits.

Just tell people their PC will explode when Win 10 stops getting updates, and you can profit off unnecessary upgrades. I used Vista for 8 years after it stopped getting support. Just use another Anti virus program when Defender stops updating. No updates can be a good thing, no new problems introduced.

 

[Pifanjr]

Even though we all do at some point, im here to tell you to NEVER feel guilty about calling in. Thats what the time is for, whoever you are working for will still make all the money they need. Your health is 100% more important than a jobs quota and margin line. I dont know your job and life obviously lol but you shouldnt feel guilty for healing yourself.

I don't think I've ever felt guilty for calling in sick. I don't call in sick very often, but that's mostly because I don't want to deal with any potential hassle if I were to call in sick too frequently. Also because the first sick day is unpaid and I'd rather just work all day at 50% efficiency than rest the whole day without getting paid.

the last few days I've been preoccupied with trying to get Linux sorted on my HTPC and as expected with Linux, running into issue after issue.

This was my experience when I tried out Linux as well. I really hope SteamOS becomes available for desktop soon so I can just use that on our old PC.

 

[BeardyHat]

You're probably well aware of this program but running something like O&O ShutUp 10++ on a Win11 install with an older CPU may be very beneficial to gain some extra performance and disable all the bloatware crud MS stuffs into it.

Cross-platform progression on an SNES to handheld is insane when most modern games still don't offer that.

I've tinkered with it on my laptop, but not much beyond that. I may give it a go depending on how things are looking on the laptop with the 4th gen i7 and 970m. It's currently running Teardown for my 5-year old and it's running a little slowly, but still playable, but I think that's pretty much how it ran before too.

And SD cards, man. Well, SD Cards and severs anyway. Grab the SD out of the FXPak Pro, put the save on my Server and then grab it through the file explorer on Android. It's pretty neat.

I actually have a Persona 3 Portable save that I started on an emulator on my phone, moved to an actual PSP, moved to a PS Vita, then back to emulation on Android.

I always update via a USB, but mainly as I am impatient and want to be on latest instead of letting windows decide when I can have it.
Or at least, I used to be. Windows updates don't really excite me now and if its going to force AI down my throat, I am willing to wait.

Friend does support for clients he builds PC for. All he getting now is panic stories from people getting Win 11 scare messages on their Win 10 PC... must be good for profits.

Just tell people their PC will explode when Win 10 stops getting updates, and you can profit off unnecessary upgrades. I used Vista for 8 years after it stopped getting support. Just use another Anti virus program when Defender stops updating. No updates can be a good thing, no new problems introduced.

Yeah, they're certainly not exciting anymore. I have a lot of old hardware lying around that I want to make use of, is my problem. Linux is great in most cases, but it's just so damned fiddly for whatever I want to do with it. I assume if I was just a developer or only wanted to use the web, it would be no trouble at all.

But I am going to keep an eye on Craigslist and see if anyone is giving away old, incompatible hardware...

This was my experience when I tried out Linux as well. I really hope SteamOS becomes available for desktop soon so I can just use that on our old PC.

The difference between SteamOS on hardware it's made for and Linux on any old thing is just amazing. I have zero complaints about Linux on my Deck and I'm regularly poking around in the desktop there, installing things that aren't meant for it, making tweaks, etc, it's no trouble at all.

But somehow, as soon as I get it on a laptop or desktop, I have nothing but issues. And it's not that I can't solve it, it's just that that's what I spend a huge amount of time doing and I'd rather get on with my life. Linux isn't hard, it just requires excessive amounts of time to get working the way I want.