September 2025 General Game Discussion Thread

[Kaamos_Llama]

Thanks for reminding me! I had made a post earlier about seeing this coming.

The first epsiode was good. Beat that through and through and have been waiting for this.

Newest entry im playing now is Dying Light: The Beast. Its better than Dying Light 2 imo, it runs really well and im always going to be mad at trying to do things at night because i punish myself by playing on hard and then trying to get the better loot at night lol. Not sure how far ill get with this one.

Diablo 4 has a new season starting next week. Havent played that in well over a month because their seasons are way too long for what they give you to do.

I've completely stopped playing Killing Floor 3. Theres less than 1k people on any given day playing. Thats how bad its been going since its late july launch. Nothing good has been added to the game and it is just boring. Tripwire has also been very quiet about whats going on with the game. Its a sad burn.

I still play Helldivers 2 too.

How did you find The Following compared to Dying Light 1?

I'm curious because people really rated that expansion and I couldnt get on with it. I didnt like the fact it was set in the countryside because it parkouring around the buildings in the city was most of the fun for me. I was assuming this was a similar situation, but I really like Dying Light so would love more of it.

Made it up to the Altus Plateau, via this guy:

View: https://youtu.be/TrDl_E9CHyo?si=I6puaKaN4a_f8Zlb

That was a close one!

I've dumped the shield and am using my spell casting in my left hand now, which is working really well. I still haven't got enough endurance to wear descent armor, though.

Nice, adapt and survive . I'd seen your screenshots the other day and I thought you already found the way to Altus.

A lot of people prefer to wear light armor because the medium and fast rolls are, well faster, but also have more I frames. Face tanking with heavy armor and a massive shield and heavy armor also works though.

I mostly like to walk softly, but also carry a big (but not ultra big) bonk.

 

[dxchase]

How did you find The Following compared to Dying Light 1?

I'm curious because people really rated that expansion and I couldnt get on with it. I didnt like the fact it was set in the countryside because it parkouring around the buildings in the city was most of the fun for me. I was assuming this was a similar situation, but I really like Dying Light so would love more of it.

I wasnt a big fan either of The Following. I dont think i finished but i did enjoy riding around the landscape in the dune buggies. This entry is set in another city, not quite like Harran from the first one, but a European historical city in the Swiss Alps. They explain why.

What i like the most about this one is the addition of this "beast mode" hence why its in the title. It gives you this period of time where you just run around shredding and beating zombies and the skill tree just only makes you more invulnerable. You can run super fast, pick up objects, extend the time etc.

 

[Kaamos_Llama]

I wasnt a big fan either of The Following. I dont think i finished but i did enjoy riding around the landscape in the dune buggies. This entry is set in another city, not quite like Harran from the first one, but a European historical city in the Swiss Alps. They explain why.

What i like the most about this one is the addition of this "beast mode" hence why its in the title. It gives you this period of time where you just run around shredding and beating zombies and the skill tree just only makes you more invulnerable. You can run super fast, pick up objects, extend the time etc.

If its set in a city then Im already way more interested, need to look into it a bit more, thanks.

 

[Frindis]

Enjoy guys

Cheese Rolling on Steam

Chase a cheese wheel down a steep hill! Tumble with friends in this ragdoll recreation of an English tradition.

store.steampowered.com

 

[Zloth]

So, mighty magma dragon defeated, new area accessed, and the enemies up here are pretty tough. I deal with them, go a little further up the hill, and a lightning dragon swoops in!? Come on! I do my summon and hide behind a big, overturned carriage. My summoned knight decides it's more important to stay near me, and just stands out in the road, getting wasted by breath weapon attacks. Eeeesh. I jump on my horse/bull/download protocol, take a couple of swipes at the dragon, and then gallop right back to where I came into the zone.

You know, I was getting that nice blind lady some "grapes" and forgot all about them. Let's go do that quest (from two zones ago). Ahhhh, much better! (And no, I did NOT tell her they were eyeballs!)

Enjoy guys

Cheese Rolling on Steam

Chase a cheese wheel down a steep hill! Tumble with friends in this ragdoll recreation of an English tradition.

store.steampowered.com

You're sure that has nothing to do with FromSoft? It sounds like their kind of thing.

 

[Kaamos_Llama]

Ive put 10 hours into Hell Is Us at this point and I have to say the highs are really high, and the lows arent all that low.

Its a bit heavy handed and I dare say cliched with the war-is-hell stuff story wise especially in the beginning but I appreciate what theyre trying to do. The tone is very self serious, and bleak, there isnt any comic relief here. I was pleasantly surprised by how they explained the way the protagonist is taking all this weirdness and death in his stride a few hours in. I wont go into it much, but theres cults and secret ancient societies at work, so lots of ancient underground temples to explore in the semi open world.

Sound design is just incredible, all constant slow synth and occasional eerie singing thats reactive to whats happening on screen, really lovely stuff. The art design of the enemies fits well with it. The current dungeon Im in is fantastic with the level design looping back in on itself over and over but still progressing forwards by revealing new openings to explore. Ive liked the exploration in the over world a lot too, theres a ton to find hidden away.

The combat system gets much deeper as it goes on, it has a parry on certain telegraphed attacks, but its possible to block everything until you run out of stamina. Theres a good few different melee weapons to choose from, and a lot of different 'elements' to infuse, on top of that you have 3 slots on the weapon you can fill with different active abilities. Theres also a drone that follows you around you can equip with up to 4 different abilities of its own, attacks and distractions moves, it can even attach to your back and make you dodge super fast for a limited time. I was worried about enemy variety a few hours in, but theyre still throwing variants which are quite differet in there so will be interesting to see how long they can keep that up.

The puzzling I guess is RE from what I remember of that series, theres also a lot of Tomb Raider or Uncharted there as well its cleverly done. The lack of mini map isnt all that frustrating, but Im kind of used to not having one in 3rd person games so might be more of an issue for others.

On course to be in my top games of the year, up there with E33 for sure.

 

[Johnway]

path of exile and my obsession to get the 28 challenges continue. The good news? i'm on 23 and there are another 2 or 3 just touching distance of being completed.

The bad news? i was stupid and i could have made it 24. One misclick and hours of work lost. it wasn't i was killed or anything like that. it was me being stupid and picking the wrong prize. So back to square one and i need to set up the scenario once more and try again. failing that, i could spend currency and spend 50% of my money to do it... I think i'll wait thanks. hell i think i can spend my money better completing smaller things and work towards other challenges.

 

[neogunhero]

Newest entry im playing now is Dying Light: The Beast. Its better than Dying Light 2 imo, it runs really well and im always going to be mad at trying to do things at night because i punish myself by playing on hard and then trying to get the better loot at night lol. Not sure how far ill get with this one.

Not that I was plotting on it's downfall, but I had predicted that game wasn't going to do very good sales wise. For a long time I just kept thinking it seemed too much like a spin-off trying to please DL1 fans. Thankfully it turns out I'm wrong, 90% positive reviews out of nearly 10k total and 121k peak players is amazing. Will definitely pick that up on sale, only if my PC can handle it lol.

 

[BeardyHat]

Not that I was plotting on it's downfall, but I had predicted that game wasn't going to do very good sales wise. For a long time I just kept thinking it seemed too much like a spin-off trying to please DL1 fans. Thankfully it turns out I'm wrong, 90% positive reviews out of nearly 10k total and 121k peak players is amazing. Will definitely pick that up on sale, only if my PC can handle it lol.

I did hear on a podcast that it's closer than an ImSim than the original Dying Light, which definitely piqued my interest.

I didn't end up much caring for the first game, though I wanted to love it, so this sounds like it could be up my alley. But I agree, I'll wait for a sale.

Haven't played much the last day or two, since I've been mostly getting ready to leave where I was at and then driving all day yesterday, though I did end up playing some Advanced Wars on my handheld, which is just a great game.

 

[dxchase]

Not that I was plotting on it's downfall, but I had predicted that game wasn't going to do very good sales wise. For a long time I just kept thinking it seemed too much like a spin-off trying to please DL1 fans. Thankfully it turns out I'm wrong, 90% positive reviews out of nearly 10k total and 121k peak players is amazing. Will definitely pick that up on sale, only if my PC can handle it lol.

The game runs really well. In fact, this game is good to the point that even pirated copies of the game are able to allow coop passthrough if you can get it figured correctly. Thats rare. Being able to utilize its online features without really being online lol.

Its more Dying Light tbh outside of this beast mode (which is still cool to use btw). You got your parkour, scavenging at night where its a lot more dangerous, helping pockets of people, repairing and modding guns/weapons etc. It looks and sounds great also, all the zombie hit marks look really good and distinctive this time, like if you hit a zombie in the head you see its brain with part of the head hanging off but its still moving at you, hit him in the arm, you see the broken bone and flesh, burning marks on the zombies etc. Its a step up from the other 2.

Yea, its 60 bucks at base and im not a huge Dying Light fan either, but its worth picking it up on sale even if the sale is only 10%-15% imo. It gives you that zombie killing itch for sure. The story and VA arent bad either.

 

[Johnway]

The game runs really well. In fact, this game is good to the point that even pirated copies of the game are able to allow coop passthrough if you can get it figured correctly. Thats rare. Being able to utilize its online features without really being online lol.

Its more Dying Light tbh outside of this beast mode (which is still cool to use btw). You got your parkour, scavenging at night where its a lot more dangerous, helping pockets of people, repairing and modding guns/weapons etc. It looks and sounds great also, all the zombie hit marks look really good and distinctive this time, like if you hit a zombie in the head you see its brain with part of the head hanging off but its still moving at you, hit him in the arm, you see the broken bone and flesh, burning marks on the zombies etc. Its a step up from the other 2.

Yea, its 60 bucks at base and im not a huge Dying Light fan either, but its worth picking it up on sale even if the sale is only 10%-15% imo. It gives you that zombie killing itch for sure. The story and VA arent bad either.

I'll probably get DL the beast eventually, but i'll need to get DL2: reloaded first and thats assuming my PC will actually run it at all. I'll probably wait till i get my next pc. God knows when that will be.

path of exile and we have 25/28 of the challenges i need. i have a 3 or 4 of the challenges locked in and its going to need work. 2 i have locked in as absolutely guaranteed (hopefully) which leaves just the one last challenge to complete. Both are do able, and i might need to splash the cash and get the maps (i have nearly 700 chaos orbs, 6 exalts and divine orbs)i need.

Fingers crossed i get it done before october ends...

 

[Zloth]

New goal: don't lose more runes in total than it takes to raise one level.

I had to leave 7K near the bottom of the ruins at the foot of the temple where that beast guy is that always wants deathroots. I know I left 4K behind way back in the early days. There have been various other small leave-behinds here and there, so my total is (I'm guessing) something near 15K. It takes 30K to raise a level these days, so I'm still good.

I do wish games would track more stats for you. A few games would let you see some fun stats at the end of the game (like XCOM telling you your hit percentage) but not many tell you as you play. Elden Ring would be a great one for a kill list, too. For example: 80 giant bats, 13 giant singing bats, 320 Godfrey Soldiers, 20 bald eagles, 5 giant crabs, 1 Godrick the Grafted, ....

 

[neogunhero]

Finally broke out of my rut of playing nothing but Skate and have been playing STALKER Shadow of Chernobyl Enhanced Edition again. When it first came out in May it was in a pretty rough spot. Everything looked blurry and muddy, text was different, there were a lot of bugs not present in the original, and a whole lot more. They have been putting out a few updates since then and this last one that came out a week ago has put it in a spot where it's very comparable to the originals.

The graphics do look a bit better, the UI fills your screen a bit nicer, and you can now use hotkeys that were originally only present in Call of Pripyat. There are surely lots of other QOL features and fixes but these are the most noticeable to me.

Whenever I play STALKER it always takes a bit for me to get into the groove but I'm officially in it now. I've gotten geared up quite nicely, have lots of meds and ammo, and ready to travel through Garbage. Before that though I've been trying to fully clear the starting area of missions and hidden caches, gearing up more and grinding for money.

It's finally in a spot where I can recommend it to everyone, though purists may want to stick with the original. New players to the series should stick with the Enhanced Editions. The only thing I wish to see now is more mods added to the Workshop, plus a lot of them are outdated now. Would be very nice to the Call of Chernobyl mod on the Workshop.

 

[Johnway]

So yakuza 3 kiwami is finally announced, but since i played Y3 some years ago, i don't think i'll be getting it. Still, opportunity to make the game better, balance the combat add some more content (there is that extra side content playing as the antagonist ) and hopefully some more refinements.

Path of exile, not much to say. Still trying to get the last 3 challenges in the bag. Ticked off some of the content and now thinking what i should do going forward to completing the challenges quickly. I have one or 2 strategies in mind. i'll try and complete the most predictable one and splashing cash to gather everything else. I can sell off some delve currency and some of the more rarer scarabs to fund my progress. not that i need to as i have enough to buy what i need. Why i'm dragging my heels i'm not sure.

The last challenge whilst not difficult is going to be a random crapshoot. Luck will play more a part then actual skill or effort. its just waiting for the things to spawn and hoping it does.

On other news, i finally gotten round to playing Bloodshed demo on steam. Think of it as a 1st person vampire survivors game. Fairly entertaining, but after 2 rounds i think i have an idea what to expect. The samey combat will probably mean i can't play it for that long before i get bored.

On the hand held side i am almost finished with Trails of cold steel on the vita! its been a long time coming and the last boss in the dungeon was area piece of work. Took nearly an hour to defeat grinding down the 200000 health it had. Decided to use all the expensive healing items I've been stocking for this very (annoying) occasion. Much as i was reluctant to do so. Turned into a war of attrition as i pretty much had to keep the one magic healer alive long enough to resurrect everyone else to continue the fight. if even the characters went down to 80% health i had to use the expensive spells in case the boss decided to perform a super attack that would have wiped my team out if not at 100% health. Review/comments on the usual thread to appear hopefully in the next few days.

 

[neogunhero]

So yakuza 3 kiwami is finally announced, but since i played Y3 some years ago, i don't think i'll be getting it. Still, opportunity to make the game better, balance the combat add some more content (there is that extra side content playing as the antagonist ) and hopefully some more refinements.

I really hope they do some major combat balancing. That was my biggest gripe with Y3. I finished replaying Yakuza 0 earlier this year but took a break before moving onto Kiwami, then picked up Pirate Yakuza as well. I really should replay Kiwami 1 and 2 before the next one comes out.

---

---

More Stalker SOC Enhanced Edition last night. Still in the very first zone, exploring every corner I can. I've found a lot of stashes that I must have missed all the other times I've played this game or perhaps forgotten about. I found a modded pistol with an extended mag and higher damage than the standard ones you find on most bandits, and it rules. This game just oozes with atmosphere, and the enhanced graphics and audio make it much more immersive than before.

 

[JCgames]

My new years resolution to Not play anything on my back log is still holding strong!

I did buy one game though, Dungeons of naheulbeuk's, dungeon master. I did it because im on yet another play through of this fantastic game that im now closing in on 500 hours since lauch and wanted to give it a shot as the made a game that i just adore. I will say its a refreshing take on the whole dungeom sim experiance as its all about causally decorating/building a dungeon verse any sort of tower defence speed game which is extremly refreshing. Its very sim's like in a great way with the 1ks of options.

This was great on two sides of the coin, a fun new game though i only spent a couple evenings playing, and not touch the backlog!

Now back to idle champions, the game thats sucking up all my play time for going on 3 years. Good news im nearly done with all the content, so 2026 just might be the year of the backlog!

 

[Johnway]

I really hope they do some major combat balancing. That was my biggest gripe with Y3. I finished replaying Yakuza 0 earlier this year but took a break before moving onto Kiwami, then picked up Pirate Yakuza as well. I really should replay Kiwami 1 and 2 before the next one comes out.

---

---

More Stalker SOC Enhanced Edition last night. Still in the very first zone, exploring every corner I can. I've found a lot of stashes that I must have missed all the other times I've played this game or perhaps forgotten about. I found a modded pistol with an extended mag and higher damage than the standard ones you find on most bandits, and it rules. This game just oozes with atmosphere, and the enhanced graphics and audio make it much more immersive than before.

i do have a few suggestions myself, like you said enemies blocked too often and needed to be corrected. other things i would like to see. On the other side of the spectrum the bosses were near untouchable. That triad boss was bloody annoying.

1. more variation of combat styles, i would love to see more enemies with more different combat styles. The game tries but its not very good. in theory by their stance and build we can determine what kind of combat style and how much health they have. but they all seem to fight the same way. maybe they should have targets you can't throw or are speed but low defenses, maybe they specialize in kick attacks or slower fighters that specialize in single hard hitting open palm attacks.

2. Expand okinawa. The high street is nice but i want more. Expand the entire street or something! fill it with an arcade more restaurants, mini games or side stories.

3. The dating sim game needs to be go. it is incredibly dull and the lack of money makes doing it a chore.

4. More arcade games. Sega has loads of games, that would be 1mb in size. Throw in 20 and it wouldn't break a sweat. better yet, allow me to buy a megadrive/genesis for the orphanage or something, we can have side stories where kuriyu could buy the cartridges and maybe take part in gaming tournaments!


admittedly, these things are small, but its these small details i personally appreicate. not sure if other people care or not. For example, i don't play mah jong or the gambling games as they're too tedious or complex to play.

 

[BeardyHat]

Someday I gotta get back to Yakuza: Like a Dragon. But I have a tendency to bounce around games. Speaking of...

I started Baldur's Gate Enhanced Edition. I've been waffling between playing the Android version on my tablet or on my laptop; the tablet version feels nice, but the PC version on a laptop just feels natural. I'll probably stick to playing on my laptop because it just feels natural and if I want something more "portable", I can just play on my Deck instead. Anyway, it sounded like something fun to play and it gives me something I can play around the kids, even though I'd rather be playing...

...RoboCop: Rogue City, which I'm very much still enjoying. Sitting at 13.3 hours currently and am just having a blast with the game. I'm very glad it's not just pure shooter, because while the shooting is fun, I like the other parts that are interspersed to kind of break things up; wandering around the Downtown map is fun, finding ticketable offenses, getting to choose to help people by uploading the law or "serving the public trust" by letting people off with a warning. Plus it's fun to run across random quests and things in the world to take on.

I also think it's interesting how they are economical with their setting, trying to reuse maps multiple times, such as the Downtown area, Police Station and so on. You can kind of tell it's a more budget oriented game.

Still runs badly though and doesn't look amazing to boot. I played it on my desktop today, at 1080p high, it's mostly above 60FPS, but still occasionally dips down to 40's-50's, which is frankly ridiculous. The game does not look good enough to warrant the abysmal performance.

 

[neogunhero]

Deus Ex Remastered was just announced minutes ago at the Sony State of Play showcase today. Barely any real info on it just yet, no press releases at this moment, but uh... there are so many mods to bring the game into modern machines with vast amounts of improvements. Curious to see how one of my favorite games' official remaster stacks up to the mods.

 

[neogunhero]

Deus Ex Remastered was just announced minutes ago at the Sony State of Play showcase today. Barely any real info on it just yet, no press releases at this moment, but uh... there are so many mods to bring the game into modern machines with vast amounts of improvements. Curious to see how one of my favorite games' official remaster stacks up to the mods.

Just as of right now, it's only been announced for PS5. Surely one of the most landmark PC games in existence will come to PC eventually, but as I stated before, there are countless mods that do exactly that. Not sure how excited I actually am...

 

[BeardyHat]

Deus Ex Remastered was just announced minutes ago at the Sony State of Play showcase today. Barely any real info on it just yet, no press releases at this moment, but uh... there are so many mods to bring the game into modern machines with vast amounts of improvements. Curious to see how one of my favorite games' official remaster stacks up to the mods.

Definitely gonna come down to changes and features for me. At this point in my life I've bought and rebought Deus Ex about six times since the original release and while I still go back to it from time to time, I want the changes with stuff like GMDX. But I'm old hat and I've played the game so many times, so I may not be the target audience.

 

[BeardyHat]

Just saw the trailer...kind of ew? Why are all the characters shiny? I'm not sure I dig whatever this art style is supposed to be. Kind of looks good at times, but I dunno...

View: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=f1RdKezTYNk&t=29s&pp=2AEdkAIB

 

[neogunhero]

Just saw the trailer...kind of ew? Why are all the characters shiny? I'm not sure I dig whatever this art style is supposed to be. Kind of looks good at times, but I dunno...

View: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=f1RdKezTYNk&t=29s&pp=2AEdkAIB

I kind of like the new characters, ragdolls are always cool, but it does have a bit of a nasty look to it. I'm very conflicted on how I feel about it. I think I'll stick with mods, but I will definitely check this out if it ever gets a steep discount.

For anyone who hasn't played it yet, Deus Ex is on sale for $0.97 and Deus Ex Revision is free on Steam.

 

[BeardyHat]

I kind of like the new characters, ragdolls are always cool, but it does have a bit of a nasty look to it. I'm very conflicted on how I feel about it. I think I'll stick with mods, but I will definitely check this out if it ever gets a steep discount.

For anyone who hasn't played it yet, Deus Ex is on sale for $0.97 and Deus Ex Revision is free on Steam.

Oof..JC looks like post plastic surgery Ray Liotta.

I'm just... Not feeling this at all. I'm happy to have a wait and see approach, rather than dump on it right now, but it doesn't look good off the jump, so we'll see.

 

[Johnway]

Just saw the trailer...kind of ew? Why are all the characters shiny? I'm not sure I dig whatever this art style is supposed to be. Kind of looks good at times, but I dunno...

View: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=f1RdKezTYNk&t=29s&pp=2AEdkAIB

Deus ex was one of the best games in 2000. i played the demo and loved it so much that i bought the game the next day. its one of the few games that i've actually completed multiple times.

So to see the remaster and... its such a waste of potential. i expected better then a reskin with upscale graphics etc. i think it was in line for a complete remake. lets face it even in 2000 some of the mechanics were dated or flawd as hell.

The game deserves better and this feels kinda lazy, should have taken the night dive system shock (1) approach to remaking the game. Something familiar but mechanically improved. perhaps even remaking entire levels and making it more like human revolution/ mankind divided maybe.

yeah, not exactly impressed by the "remaster". i'm getting the GTA remaster vibes all over again.