Games you are looking forward to in 2025

[DecadeRiptide]

None.

[DecadeRiptide]

Other than The Killing Antidote which was just out of curiosity, I don't think I've actually purchased a single game this year? They're all either woke or built on Unreal Engine 5.

[SpellSword]

I usually favor shooters that use 2d sprites, but Klostyn's commitment to capturing the Unreal/Turok era of shooter's feel has won me over.

If they sell it through GOG, I'll probably buy a copy when it releases.

[SpellSword]

I'm looking forward to the new 4th episode expansion.

► The developer gives a breakdown of the new features:

(Original Post Located 'here')

Guide to Remaster options and difficulty levels

We're planning to add in-game explanations to the menu for difficulty levels and options, but we didn't finish that part in time for the demo. So in the meantime, here's a guide to the Remaster’s options and difficulty levels.

Difficulty Levels

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Like the original game, there are three difficulties, but they are different from the original. In the original, difficulty affects player and enemy health, but the number and placement of enemies and pickups is always the same. Hard mode in particular is very rough as enemies have double health while the player only receives half ammunition from pickups (on top of heavily reduced max health).

In the Remaster, difficulty also influences enemy and pickup placement, and even level design in some cases. So there are less enemies on easy and more enemies on hard. At the same time, enemy health increase and player ammo supply reduction on hard are much more moderate. We feel that fighting larger numbers of slightly stronger enemies is more fun than fighting the same number of enemies as bullet sponges.

We would recommend normal difficulty for most players who are familiar with the game or similar games, and hard mode for a 2nd or 3rd playthrough. For reference, our “normal” feels like it lands somewhere between the original game’s “easy” and “normal”.

Easy

Max health: 8
Default weapon: 3-shot burst fire
Enemy kill score multiplier: 0.5
Respawn health: full

Fewer enemies, weaker enemies, more supplies, less dangerous level design

Normal

Max health: 6
Default weapon: single shot
Enemy kill score multiplier: 1.0
Respawn health: full

Hard

Max health: 4
Default weapon: single shot
Enemy kill score multiplier: 1.5
Respawn health: 2

More enemies, tougher enemies, fewer supplies, more dangerous level design, ammo pickups have slightly fewer rounds in them


Options

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Fullscreen

Toggle between fullscreen (borderless window) and windowed modes.

Presentation

Switch between classic and modern visuals. When in modern mode, visuals can be further customized using the options below. Pressing F3 (or B + Select on controller) switches this setting between classic and modern during gameplay.

Warning: If you turn off all the options in modern mode, it will be identical to classic mode and you won't see a difference when switching.

Widescreen mode

Extends the visible gameplay area up to 16:9, showing more of the level at once. Has an impact on gameplay (makes it easier) due to enemies/hazards becoming visible sooner.

Enhanced graphics

Enables parallax scrolling backgrounds and modernized graphics (enhanced color palette, added shading and other tweaks). Affects both in-game graphics as well as images in story cutscenes and dialogs.


Smooth parallax

Renders parallax backgrounds onto a separate high-resolution layer, making for much smoother background movement - but backgrounds aren't true pixel graphics anymore (background pixels may appear in-between two foreground pixels).

When disabled, parallax backgrounds are rendered into the same layer as the rest of the game, and the entire image is upscaled as a whole. This gives true pixel graphics, but background scrolling appears less smooth and jittery. Also has a lower performance impact, which might make a difference on very underpowered systems (like old integrated Intel GPUs).

We recommend trying both options and seeing which one you prefer.

HUD

Choose between three different HUD styles, including the original game’s, or turn the HUD off completely. Can also be cycled through while in-game by pressing Backspace (not possible on controller currently).

Music

Adjust music volume.

Sound

Adjust sound volume.

Sound style

Choose between two different sound styles. For technical reasons, sound effects in the original game will sound different depending on if music is enabled or not. The two available styles allow choosing between these two variations. In the remaster, having music enabled or not has no impact on the sound effects.

To hear the difference, adjust the sound volume up and down after changing the style - it plays a short preview effect each time the volume is changed.

“Default” - like original with music enabled. Sound effects are a bit “meatier”/more “punchy”, and have a harsher/dirtier character.

“Alternate” - like original without music. Sound effects are softer and cleaner.

Menu sounds

Whether sound effects should play while navigating the menus. The original game had practically no menu sounds.

Keyboard Controls

Customize key bindings.

Gamepad Controls

View gamepad controls. Currently not customizable.

Weapon auto-switch

Determines if Snake should automatically switch to a better weapon or grenade/mine type when picking one up. If disabled, the currently equipped weapon and grenade type stay selected. When the current weapon or explosive is depleted, the game always auto-switches regardless of this setting.

Speedrunner mode

Deterministic RNG (levels play out exactly the same every time)
Displays timer (total in-game time) at the top of the screen
Displays time with millisecond precision across the whole UI (status window, end of level screen, leaderboards etc.)

The only thing I didn't like was the look of the "Modernized HUD", which seems to be able to be toggled back to the classic HUD while still using the rest of the remastered graphics... so no problem.

---

The old original DOS version is available for free on GOG. It's still worth playing, so check it out if you've never heard of this one.

[Baldric]

I'm looking forward to mods more than games at this point. Modern devs are just disappointing at best, generally speaking.

[Val the Moofia Boss]

Octopath Traveller 0 launches in 4 days. It is a conversion of the gacha game spinoff (which I have heard good things about) into a box purchase singleplayer game, so you get the advantage of having a humongous roster of playable characters to pick from when mixing and matching your party. Your party size in this game is 8. Looking forward to it.

[methoxetamine]

Octopath Traveller 0 launches in 4 days. It is a conversion of the gacha game spinoff (which I have heard good things about) into a box purchase singleplayer game, so you get the advantage of having a humongous roster of playable characters to pick from when mixing and matching your party. Your party size in this game is 8. Looking forward to it.

This is all I care about for the rest of the year also

[rusty_shackleford]

Octopath Traveller 0 launches in 4 days. It is a conversion of the gacha game spinoff (which I have heard good things about) into a box purchase singleplayer game, so you get the advantage of having a humongous roster of playable characters to pick from when mixing and matching your party. Your party size in this game is 8. Looking forward to it.

Octopath Traveller 0 launches in 4 days. It is a conversion of the gacha game spinoff (which I have heard good things about) into a box purchase singleplayer game, so you get the advantage of having a humongous roster of playable characters to pick from when mixing and matching your party. Your party size in this game is 8. Looking forward to it.

This is all I care about for the rest of the year also

I tried the first octopath and was disappointed by the stories being completely uninfluenced by the stories you already did/ who you had with you

[Val the Moofia Boss]

Octopath Traveller 0 launches in 4 days. It is a conversion of the gacha game spinoff (which I have heard good things about) into a box purchase singleplayer game, so you get the advantage of having a humongous roster of playable characters to pick from when mixing and matching your party. Your party size in this game is 8. Looking forward to it.

Octopath Traveller 0 launches in 4 days. It is a conversion of the gacha game spinoff (which I have heard good things about) into a box purchase singleplayer game, so you get the advantage of having a humongous roster of playable characters to pick from when mixing and matching your party. Your party size in this game is 8. Looking forward to it.

This is all I care about for the rest of the year also

I tried the first octopath and was disappointed by the stories being completely uninfluenced by the stories you already did/ who you had with you

With the main content of that game being advertised as there being 8 different storylines, it would take a lot of effort to try to come up with and test so many unique combinations of involvement for all of the other 8 possible party members. From my understanding, the gacha Travellers of the Continent instead had 3 main storylines/routes that did not revolve around individual characters, and apparently for this repackaged version 0 the story is being revamped into two one main story route. I'd imagine that would make it a lot more feasible to come up with and test some variable lines for each character you might have.

[ZeElessarTelcontar]

I was looking forward to Kingdom Come Deliverance 2. What we got: ****** cum degenerate 2. These ******* should've been shipped back to their masters in africa. Ungrateful apes acting like leaving that c00ntinent wasn't the best thing that happened to them. Let the apes build their wakanda and stay there.

[Vaako]

octopath is from square enix I think, so it will probably have denuvo for the next 6-12months... but yes could be interesting also played the other 2.

[methoxetamine]

octopath is from square enix I think, so it will probably have denuvo for the next 6-12months... but yes could be interesting also played the other 2.

I might emulate the Switch version

[WhiteShark]

I hope someone makes a difficulty mod for Octopath 0. I really enjoyed the one I used for Octopath 1 and I've heard there's a similarly quality one for 2.

[rusty_shackleford]

With the main content of that game being advertised as there being 8 different storylines, it would take a lot of effort to try to come up with and test so many unique combinations of involvement for all of the other 8 possible party members.

What's the point of having eight different storylines that barely interact?

[methoxetamine]

With the main content of that game being advertised as there being 8 different storylines, it would take a lot of effort to try to come up with and test so many unique combinations of involvement for all of the other 8 possible party members.

What's the point of having eight different storylines that barely interact?

I can't speak for OT1 but the stories in OT2 were great so I didn't care, there was enough interaction in the end for me

[Kalarion]

Octopath Traveller 0 launches in 4 days. It is a conversion of the gacha game spinoff (which I have heard good things about) into a box purchase singleplayer game, so you get the advantage of having a humongous roster of playable characters to pick from when mixing and matching your party. Your party size in this game is 8. Looking forward to it.

This is all I care about for the rest of the year also

I tried the first octopath and was disappointed by the stories being completely uninfluenced by the stories you already did/ who you had with you

With the main content of that game being advertised as there being 8 different storylines, it would take a lot of effort to try to come up with and test so many unique combinations of involvement for all of the other 8 possible party members. From my understanding, the gacha Travellers of the Continent instead had 3 main storylines/routes that did not revolve around individual characters, and apparently for this repackaged version 0 the story is being revamped into two one main story route. I'd imagine that would make it a lot more feasible to come up with and test some variable lines for each character you might have.

My experience with gachas-turned-single-player is admittedly limited, but 100% of it is them being ****. The announcement that even the already-limited 3 storylines of the gacha being mashed into a single one screams warning signals. I don't trust any studio today to make a gacha conversion period, they're clearly smash-and-grabs for whatever can be squeezed out of the fanbase in a short development timeframe. This is the highest of time preferences.

If I don't trust them in general, how much less when what content is already there is going to be butchered? They're not giving even the appearance of taking the time needed to try to reassemble something playable from the parts.

Does anyone know of examples of gacha conversions that were actually good or fun?

[Val the Moofia Boss]

I tried the first octopath and was disappointed by the stories being completely uninfluenced by the stories you already did/ who you had with you

With the main content of that game being advertised as there being 8 different storylines, it would take a lot of effort to try to come up with and test so many unique combinations of involvement for all of the other 8 possible party members. From my understanding, the gacha Travellers of the Continent instead had 3 main storylines/routes that did not revolve around individual characters, and apparently for this repackaged version 0 the story is being revamped into two one main story route. I'd imagine that would make it a lot more feasible to come up with and test some variable lines for each character you might have.

My experience with gachas-turned-single-player is admittedly limited, but 100% of it is them being ****. The announcement that even the already-limited 3 storylines of the gacha being mashed into a single one screams warning signals. I don't trust any studio today to make a gacha conversion period, they're clearly smash-and-grabs for whatever can be squeezed out of the fanbase in a short development timeframe. This is the highest of time preferences.

If I don't trust them in general, how much less when what content is already there is going to be butchered? They're not giving even the appearance of taking the time needed to try to reassemble something playable from the parts.

Does anyone know of examples of gacha conversions that were actually good or fun?

Strong disagree about the gacha genre being inherently "short lived cash grabs". Granblue Fantasy, Fate/Grand Order, and Arknights had a lot of effort poured into them in the story, voice acting, music, and even the game design with GBF having MMO esque elaborate raid boss design and Arknights with its SRPG and Integrated Strategies game mode. And then you have the new wave of 3D Chinese gachas by Mihoyo and Kuro Games which have very high production values. If you are talking about licensed IP gachas like Naruto or DBZ then yes, those were usually straight up cash grabs but most of them EOSed within a year of release and aren't what people mean when they talk about gachas nowadays.

For live service to box purchase conversions, there was the recent release of Atelier Resleriana on steam. I haven't paid too much attention to it since my interest in Atelier was limited to Dusk series but I haven't heard anything bad about it.

[Kalarion]

Strong disagree about the gacha genre being inherently "short lived cash grabs". Granblue Fantasy, Fate/Grand Order, and Arknights had a lot of effort poured into them in the story, voice acting, music, and even the game design with GBF having MMO esque elaborate raid boss design and Arknights with its SRPG and Integrated Strategies game mode. And then you have the new wave of 3D Chinese gachas by Mihoyo and Kuro Games which have very high production values. If you are talking about licensed IP gachas like Naruto or DBZ then yes, those were usually straight up cash grabs but most of them EOSed within a year of release and aren't what people mean when they talk about gachas nowadays.

For live service to box purchase conversions, there was the recent release of Atelier Resleriana on steam. I haven't paid too much attention to it since my interest in Atelier was limited to Dusk series but I haven't heard anything bad about it.

I think you misread me. I'm not saying gachas are purely cashgrabs (that would be a categorical error), I'm saying the conversion of a gacha into a singleplayer paid-for game is a cashgrab. Again, if you can cite a counterexample where the conversion didn't completely wreck the game and make it essentially unplayable, I'm all ears.

[Val the Moofia Boss]

Strong disagree about the gacha genre being inherently "short lived cash grabs". Granblue Fantasy, Fate/Grand Order, and Arknights had a lot of effort poured into them in the story, voice acting, music, and even the game design with GBF having MMO esque elaborate raid boss design and Arknights with its SRPG and Integrated Strategies game mode. And then you have the new wave of 3D Chinese gachas by Mihoyo and Kuro Games which have very high production values. If you are talking about licensed IP gachas like Naruto or DBZ then yes, those were usually straight up cash grabs but most of them EOSed within a year of release and aren't what people mean when they talk about gachas nowadays.

For live service to box purchase conversions, there was the recent release of Atelier Resleriana on steam. I haven't paid too much attention to it since my interest in Atelier was limited to Dusk series but I haven't heard anything bad about it.

I think you misread me. I'm not saying gachas are purely cashgrabs (that would be a categorical error), I'm saying the conversion of a gacha into a singleplayer paid-for game is a cashgrab. Again, if you can cite a counterexample where the conversion didn't completely wreck the game and make it essentially unplayable, I'm all ears.

This is a very recent thing. Atelier Reslerina which released in September and Octopath Traveller 0 are the only such gacha to box purchase conversions I am aware of. Duet Night Abyss caused a stir a few months back when they announced that they would be removing the gacha element and going for a Warframe esque business model instead, and ANANTA said that they would be dropping the gacha, but those games are in development and were not already released like Atelier or Octopath CotC.

If you put it that way, then yes, it is a "cash grab" in the sense that one of their motivations would be to get more sales from Western players who are prejudiced against the gacha model, but I wouldn't view it so cynically. This does seem to be the best way to keep a game available permanently for people interested in them. There is a lot of agony in the gacha community when a game EOSes and people can't access their favorite game again, ever. In a genre where 70% of releases EOS within 3 years. Gacha devs commonly get asked if and how do they plan on supporting the game after development is terminated, but their answer usually comes down to "we'll try to keep the servers running after development has terminated so you can still connect to the game" but then the higher ups don't allow that and want the servers unplugged too. So repackaging it as an offline release makes sense. We might wind up seeing more of these conversions simply as a matter of preserving the art and so that the company can continue to make profit off of the assets after EOS.

As for the impact of the conversion on the game design, I'd imagine that there would be tradeoffs both good and bad to a conversion. Probably the biggest plus (besides getting all of the characters and only have to pay $60 once) is that you are getting a game with a set beginning, middle and end that would be easier for the devs to fine tune and balance and pace. In gachas (and live service games in general), future updates often disrupt the experience of the early game (ie you pull a powerful unit that was added later which trivializes the earlier missions, so now your are going many hours with no challenge and little engagement). Trash battles in live service games feel bad because you have to do them indefinitely so you want to min max to save your time, but in a box game with a set duration then the trash can feel like it was meant to be part of the experience. It'd also be easier for the devs to improve tension in the story since they can now kill off playable characters for real since you bought the whole package, whereas in gachas there is a common complaint about how the story is usually devoid of tension since the companies are loathe to kill off playable characters that people sank money specifically to pull that one character. So you wind up with a story where nobody you care about is at risk.

[J1M]

Got a free copy of Crimson Desert with a computer. Worth installing? Is it a soulsslop? Is it an RPG?

[DecadeRiptide]

None.

Aside from RE9 I can't think of anything I'm going to look forward to in 2026 which is sad.

[DecadeRiptide]

Got a free copy of Crimson Desert with a computer. Worth installing? Is it a soulsslop? Is it an RPG?

Well imagine black desert online but as a single player game.

In the trailers it looked really jankey but idk if it's any good now it's been released.

[DecadeRiptide]

Got a free copy of Crimson Desert with a computer. Worth installing? Is it a soulsslop? Is it an RPG?

Well imagine black desert online but as a single player game.

In the trailers it looked really jankey but idk if it's any good now it's been released.

Actually no imagine Zelda breath of the wild but with graphics from black desert online

[yangg]

Got a free copy of Crimson Desert with a computer. Worth installing? Is it a soulsslop? Is it an RPG?

I would casually install it and play for hundreds of hours. It's not soul-slop, more action RPG (the RPG part is not focused on text part, what dialogue to choose from, but rather on combat, open world and environment interaction). I didn't pre-order the game, waiting for launch cause I don't trust anyone, but 90% I'm sure to buy it day one or two.

[Breathe]

If I can ever get healthy enough to play games again I’ll be going deep into MMOs (WoW Classic, Guild Wars 1+2, maybe EQ), old RPGs on the HQ list (Kotor2, Risen series, and many others), some shooters (DayZ, Scum, CS2, Roboquest, Stalcraft, classic Marathons), and some ARPGs (PoE2, Lost Ark, Vans Helsings, Children of Morta), also Kenshi, Elden Ring, Project Zomboid, and especially Valheim.

The only new games I’m excited for are probably Titan Quest 2 and the new expansion for Grim Dawn.

[methoxetamine]

Got a free copy of Crimson Desert with a computer. Worth installing? Is it a soulsslop? Is it an RPG?

It's not a soulslike and it's apparently more of an action adventure than an rpg according to the devs, the game doesn't even have leveling

I'm really hyped for it though and plan on buying it at launch as long as everything keeps looking good until launch as far as reviews and whatnot. Check out some gameplay, the devs have put out a lot of footage over the last couple weeks