It's 2025 now, what are the games you'll be starting the year with?

Making a second attempt to get into Mass Effect for the first time, at least until Hades 2 gets out of early access or MH Wilds comes out
- Play the Legendary Edition if you can. Assuming you're starting with the first game, there are massive quality of life improvements in that one.
  
  I get why most people prefer the legendary remaster of the first game to the original, but I would have liked it if they'd carried a lot of the design and narative choices into the sequels. EA bought Bioware in 2007, and I think it shows, but I love jank so perhaps I'm not the most impartial judge.
  
  That is indeed the version I got on an absolutely cracking sale

Everspace once I'm back from my holidays abroad.
- Make sure to get the encounters dlc, it improves the main game experience, and make sure to prioritize Tareen's tasks, they take forever.
  Most importantly, start playing on easy until you're really ready and have beat it at least once.

On one hand, I really want to continue of Ghost of Tsushima.
On the other hand, I have Genshin Impact installed that Ive been meaning to try (reddit and my younger sister tell me its easily possible to do all but the highest level stuff without spending any money,/gambling and even said content is still doable with skill).
Though in the end, Ill probably default to Stardew Valley 😂
- Give Genshin a try, but be warned in advance that they have an "energy" system that determines how much actual gameplay you'll get to enjoy. It refreshes every 12 hours (without paid boosters), but iirc, they give you some freebie energy boosts in the beginning to get you hooked.
  As pretty as the game is, the hours of grind needed to make progress on leveling your characters and gear, and the relative lack of content when your energy gauge is refreshing, made me leave (someone will point out quests, but once those are done, they're done, and you'll still need to grind on top of that).
  But there's people who still love it. Maybe you will, too.
  
  Huh, chances are I actually might.
  I have serious issues running a game to the ground (aka, obsessively play just one game) before moving on, especially large games. (I WANT to enjoy them. I also want enjoy everything else in the game. End up burned out by the final boss. )
  Been trying to pace myself with Stardew, and been successful do far, but I was looking for something switch up with Stardew. This just might be it.
  Thanks for the heads up!
- I bought Ghost of Tsushima in one of the recent sales, and I've been enjoying it a great deal, so I'll likely be joining you there.
- Take this as lemmy also joining reddit and your sister in saying that all of genshin's exploration and quests are super casual and free to play characters can easily do them.
  The only thing hard to do while f2p are two endgame dungeons that change monthly. But these two endgame dungeons have nothing to do with any main or side quests and you can completely ignore them if you want.
  
  Roger, thanks for the info!

No Man’s Sky for sure will be one I play a lot. I also need an Arceus, so I am going to have to get Pokémon Brilliant Diamond, or Shining Pearl.

At some point, probably after my steam deck is fixed, I'm gonna have to start Psychonauts 1. It's been sitting in my steam library for a while and I'm positive a steam deck would be able to play through it just fine, and better than both my desktop and laptop.
- Do you know if the controls still require tweaks or does it work out of the box these days?
  
  Absolutely no clue. I have yet to even install it even once since buying it, but definitely plan on changing that this year.

I'm trying something new to me: Skyrim.
- That’s my most played game by a large margin, I used to be completely obsessed with it for years
  
  How many hours do you have in it? I'm just getting started and I'm barely out of the tutorial, looking for food to survive.

I've just got sifu from egs and will probably get either dreadhunter or windblown somewhere down the line. Along with regular runs on Dead Cells that I'm deeply addicted to.

I've just recently started playing through Wasteland 3. Been trying to start up Civ VI, but it appears as though Steam has broken it on my Mac, so I will need an alternative alternative. Maybe something from my Epic or GOG library, so my kids don't leave me out of luck when they want to use the Steam library, too.

I finally decided to go further than the elevator in MGS, so probably that, and hopefully follow up with the whole franchise (i only played mgs5 for about 5 hours).
I also started playing Black Book, interesting deck building game !

I’m currently playing echoes of wisdom and elder scrolls: oblivion.
Although I drunkenly played GTA4 while listening to early 2000s crunk rap in memory of it being 25 years since 2000
- next get drunk and play oblivion while listening to young scrolls
  https://youngscrolls.bandcamp.com/
  how about starting with Star by Adoring Fan?
  https://youngscrolls.bandcamp.com/track/star
- I really ought to give Oblivion a playthrough with a few mods. It was my first Elder Scrolls game way back when, and I think my first RPG altogether, but I was playing it on console so I couldn't change the fucked up levelling system
  
  I’m actually playing it on an Xbox 360. But I recommend trying it with mods. I’ve gone that route before

Fallout New Vegas, finally getting around to playing it!
- I played it this time of year last year, also first time. It's pretty solid, much better than FO3 which felt too shallow...
- How? Did you dig an old PC out of storage?
  I can't get New Vegas to run on a modern PC without it constantly crashing, even when with the fan patches and mods that supposedly allow it to work on newer PCs. Please share your secrets.
  
  It runs perfectly under Proton via the Steam runtime for me. Genuinely- maybe try Linux?
  
  I bought it on GOG and it worked out of the box, but I might just be lucky.

Returned to Elite Dangerous after an almost two year break. Just casually space trucking to grind out some credits while watching youtube. Once I get enough to outfit one or two new ships, I plan to finally give exploration/exobiology a try, and check out the changes to the engineering grind.
When I last played, I was kind of at the end of what I'd consider "early game", but there are a decent amount of learning cliffs. Should probably practice some of the other low level content again before moving on.
One of my cousins asked for the game for Christmas and I picked it up on sale for him, so I'm hoping we can play some together at some point.
- Amusingly, I tried X4 recently, and it's a MUCH better fit for me than Elite, mostly because I loathe MMO games that don't need to be MMO games.

Played some Doom 2 (halfway through Deck the Underhalls) today, gonna play Skyrim now (started new playthrough few weeks ago). After finishing Underhalls I'm gonna proceed to play even more Doom, and after finishing Skyrim I definitely wanna play more Morrowind, some big things released recently [1] [2].
- It always saddens me that Bethesda totally derailed past Morrowind. That was a masterpiece of a game, but ever since then it's all just plain worse, dumbed down experience. Don't get me wrong I still kind of like Oblivion, it's not a bad game, but compared to Morrowind it's just piece of shit. Haven't even tried Skyrim as I fear it's even more streamlined "experience for average Joe"...
  
  What I miss about Morrowind was how unconcerned it was with being weird as fuck, it isn't that Oblivion or Skyrim are bad it is just they feel like they got a crew cut and a Linkedin and I am like no!?! why did you sterilize all the most interesting parts of yourself!? .... even though I know why, it was a career decision.
  
  It certInly is, it feels very hollow and empty compared to earlier games. I feel that it marks the beginning of the end for Bethesda, it was a pretty steep decline from there.
  
  How to spot a Morrowind player: lol

Dredge, Disco Elysium and Mines of Moria

Just started on the Witcher series. Went pretty cheap on the steam winter sale. Looking forward to it.
- In order, from the first? I have only played W3, but I do have the classics on the backlog, or at least W2.
  
  Yea I held out on 3 until I could get 1&2 so I can get the whole story.

I finally got to Pillars of Eternity. (Not very surprisingly) It gives me strong Baldurs Gate 1 vibes, and it is pretty good so far.

I just installed MGS5 and Ground Zeros. Having never played a Metal Gear game, so I might hate it but I want to try.
- That's a crazy one to start with but it's also a very good game.

The binding of Isaac.
There's a bug update I've heard and I want to go back to see how it goes.
- Same here. I finished last year by beating Mega Satan for the first time and starting the new year with some more Isaac.

Dishonoured, Uncharted Collection
- I love Dishonored. Never played the Uncharted games but they look fun

Still on poe2 for now. Over 250 hours in by now and don't feel like stopping any time soon. I took time off from work when it launched and I'm getting back tomorrow so will have to learn how to balance the two now.

I'm currently playing Fire Emblem: three houses, restarted it last month and intend to finish it this year. Iight finish echoes of wisdom first, since it's shorter.

Of newer games i am considering super mario bros wonder or tears of the kingdom. But i also never played metroid prime (had it on gc but hated the controls) - just not sure if i want to play it on wii (i liked corruption controls) or the remastered version om switch.
Ill probably also start a ds game i never got to play in parallel.
Maybe uncharted on ps3? Never playes those. As you can see i have not yet decided :p
- If you have a pc/steamdeck there is a metroid prime hack pack that gives you more standard joystick controls for all three games. I'd recommend playing that way.
  
  How do you get that setup? My steamed is mostly stock now.
- Wonder is alright, but felt really short to me. TOTK on the other hand is an amazing mess that really hurts if you loved BOTW. Pick your poison with those two, I guess. Wonder does have a "challenge road" at the end, but it didn't feel great either.
  
  Yeah, both are okay in my book. Wonder spent to much time on the "wonders" that the platforming is just okay. And TOTK is just a more grindy BOTW.

Re-re-replaying Deus Ex: Mankind Divided.

Either Return of the Obra Dinn or Tyranny. Tyranny has been in my steam backlog for a little bit, but it feels like something I need to be ready to get mentally invested in
- Return of the Obra Dinn is similar in that you may even want to have a notebook with you, but the experience is so worth it
  
  I'm really looking forward to it. It seems to be consistently recommended as the thing that offers the most similar experience to Outer Wilds, which I absolutely adore. A good puzzle that reveals a story is always such a satisfying way to spend a bit of brain power

Spiritfall. Got it during the steam sale and I'm interested but haven't played yet. Looks like a lot of fun.

I'm not sure yet, tangentially related but is there a community to get gaming suggestions here?
- I doubt it, but you could always make a post here and you’ll get some responses I’m sure. Folks here are very good at answering questions

I am a few hours into Deus Ex: Mankind Divided. The first couple hours were unfortunately spent troubleshooting, so my overall impression is less good than Human Revolution, but now I’m picking up good speed on it.
- Enjoy it for the gameplay since the story ends in a cliffhanger for a Part 3 that will never be made. ;_;

I've got Pentiment and Persona 5 ready to go. I'll probably start Pentiment first since it's undoubtedly shorter.
Balatro looks really tempting, too, but I'd want that for my laptop or phone (?) and not my gaming PC.

Started playing Horizon Forbidden West again on my Christmas vacation. I put it down after completing the first area, but have some renewed interest.
I am also finishing up Death's Door on my Steam Deck, which is a great little game.
I am also going to try something I did in the past to help get me through some games. I'm going to set a goal of completing 2 games a month. The biggest issue in the past was not putting down games that weren't interesting me enough. I have the free time, just need that extra motivation.
- Forbidden west is great with adding complexity and new weapons and tools as you go. I lost steam after just starting the expansion but I played it a ton in a short time. I think its better on pc with mouse and keyboard as well.

Finally grabbed a copy of Sekiro, and though I’ve never been much of a fan of uncompromisingly punishing games, I’m optimistic that this will be the one that gets me there.
Haven’t started it yet, so it’s possible, if not likely that it’s going to kick my ass.
- Sekiro is awesome! I really hope you enjoy it. If you feel stuck, just watch fightincowboy's guides on youtube. It helps to view the fights from a calmer perspective -- it's better imo for learning patterns than throwing yourself over and over again at a boss.
  
  Thanks! That’s good advice. Even in easier games I always have to stop and remind myself to chill and figure out the pattern. And whenever I do, it’s much more manageable and ultimately more fun.

I am currently playing ORAS, BOTW and Rayman Legends, after finishing at least one of them I'll start with Metroid Zero Mission for once, to break that nightmare deal I did to myself of not playing more metroidvanias until I get to finish Super Metroid and SOTN!

Some ESO, some Counter-Strike in the usual amounts, however I just bought GTA IV and want to finally play the story instead of just ducking around with RPGs and "the swing" 😁
- I’ve never actually finished GTA IV before, though I have messed around in it a fair bit. It’s a great game
  
  Just found out you need to read half a book of terms to create a Rockstar Acc and need that to play the game. Refund worked tho ^^. Will probably just crack it next month.

I just started the thaumaturge and it's freaking awesome. Looking forward to Stalker 2 later this year after they patched it a bit more

I've been playing Sonic Frontiers, which has been surprisingly fun. It has a similar vibe to what "Mario Odyssey" did for mario, the mixture of 3D, camera controlled, and 2D segments was done well in my opinion.
- Personally, I actually gave it a negative review. The exploration generally is very fun, but so much of the levels, activities, combat ranged from unimpressive to infruriating. It's basically carried by just being open-world Sonic, which is a formula for success.
  I actually enjoyed the open-world HUB of Shadow Generations, and the game as a whole, much more. In fact, that game probably set my expectations too high, even knowing Frontiers was infamously janky.
  
  I should probably caveat that the last sonic game I really enjoyed and finished is sonic adventure (played some since, but none clicked). So I may not be the best "sonic" evaluator.
  But I think I get where you're coming from. A lot of the platforming is more "automated" and when it isn't it does get a bit janky. However it did a good job of making me feel fast and felt less janky than any other recent 3D sonic.

Dune Imperium: Uprising. Gotten my whole group into it. Might organise a tournament for the heck of it.
- Uprising is so much better than the base game but I don't think they have a digital version of it yet sadly
  
  I believe there's a Tabletop Simulator version out, but I don't have TTS so can't say for sure.

Just picked up a PS5 finally. Price dropped and tax free. First thing I did was go to the library. They had a copy of RoboCop Rogue city available which is perfect for me.
I've already put a hold on the dead space remake

I'm still trying to finish 2016 Doom, but life has been literally Deck blocking me for the past few months, so it's been slow going.
If i finish that game in the next few weeks, I'm going to go back and give Doom Eternal another second chance again once more. I've given it a try a number of times, just like I gave 2016 Doom a try numerous times with no luck. However, this year Doom suddenly clicked for me, and I've been playing it every chance I get (which is not much or often), so I'm thinking that may translate into finding a bit of love for Doom Eternal, even though I know they are very different games with different approaches to game play.
If that doesn't work out, then I've got a few games that I've technically "started", but I haven't gotten very far in. So, if and when I decide to pick them up again, I'll either restart them because I'm not far along enough for it to make much difference OR I'll continue playing but it's so early in the game that it's basically the same as starting from the beginning.
One game I've just recently been dabbling with is a slightly older game called "Halls of Torment". Similarish in game play to one of my other favorites "Vampire Survivors", it seems like a lot of fun. I've also recently purchased the Resident Evil 4 remake and it's a nice dose of nostalgia even though I much prefer the wiimote controls of the Wii version that I first played it on.
I'm going to be honest, Hades II hasn't really clicked for me yet and I've given it lots of tries. The first game had me hooked almost instantly, so I was hoping to find that same connection with the sequel. So far, it's not happened. Having said that, I saw that there's a new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles game in a similar style as Hades, so I got that to play. So far I like the game, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles : Splintered Fate, but I'm not far enough along in it to have a strong opinion.
And my trusty, reliable back-up plan if nothing else works out? Castlevania Dominus Collection. The Castlevania "Metroidvanias" are my favorites. I've played all of these DS games on the original hardware, but it's been so long since I played them, it will be like starting anew. Except in this case, there will be no question as to whether I will enjoy the game or not since I played them all before and loved them.
- Doom is wonderful. Eternal isnt more doom 2016 though, which is fine it's a sequel. It's the more intensive parts of doom that are amped up and forced upon you.
  In 2016 I rocked the pistol and machinegun and barely used any other weapon and I was happg
  In eternal, you either use every ability constantly and swap guns constantly or you die. It's a big loop and not cycling every ability and gun makes you lose ammo or health or whatever. It's a very jarring adjustment
  
  Sounds like Eternal might not be my thing, but who knows. One of the reasons I choose Doom over Eternal initially is because Doom lets me take my time and explore when I want to. Eternal seemed like it was go, go, go cortisol, cortisol, cortisol. And that was well above my limit.

I spent a mostly uneventful morning sailing the high seas in Sea of Thieves. It was nice.

Started my year off with a new computer and a portal speed run! Sub 27 mins with no quick saving was a solid start to the year.
Actually, playing portal on max graphics and getting 60fps was the real solid start 😅
- Oh man I loved the Portal games. I’m assuming sub-27 is good, I’m pretty sure my shortest time is like 4 hours or something
  
  It's ok world record is something like 14 iirc, but lowest I've been able to score was sub 23

I’m going to try getting back into RDR2, and start on Undertale and Prey. Maybe Shadowrun: Hong Kong and Fallout 4?

I played Alan Wake 2 last winter on my Steam Deck, fearing I would get spoilers before I build my PC. Now that I have built it, I will proceed with The Final Draft and the DLCs.
- how did you manage to play it on deck?
  
  Heroic Games Launcher and added to the Game Mode. Native resolution with FSR2 set to Quality preset. Most of the game ran at 25-30 FPS. Frankly, the game is quite slow-paced. Only problematic spots were the first boss fight in the forest during rain and the final shootout near the end of the game where it dipped to 17-18 FPS.

Im going deep into beyond all reason, warzone 2100 and speed dreams
- Beyond All Reason is the kind of rts that makes you realize chasing after Starcraft style gameplay (when Total Annihilation presented a totally different and arguably more approachable experience with shift clicking and less obsessive micro) was a fatal error for the broad popularity of the rts genre.
  A competitive rts hyper focused on apm and units that move in artificial and uninteresting ways (especially airplanes) was never going to inspire a new generation of rts fans with diverse interests and brain types to dip their toes in instead of leading to a narrower and more constrained vision of what rts games are and what kind of brain types can suceed at them.
  BAR is both a living breathing cryptid (descended from the ancient TA itself) that somehow survived the great RTS extinction event and also paradoxically a vision of the future of RTS games.

I started playing No Man’s Sky again recently. My game from XBox didn’t transfer to Steam and I didn’t feel like trying to troubleshoot it, so I just started fresh. I’ll probably play that until my new character has unlocked everything.
I also picked up Stray and haven’t yet gotten into it much. I also recently bought Everspace, but haven’t even started the game yet. Soon, though.
- I really liked Stray, short and sweet with an engaging narative and solid visual design. Simplistic gameplay, but it's satisfying enough to keep things moving.

Started Grim Dawn (ARPG) and Genesis Order (AVN, although I suppose that one is fairly recent).

Continuing Metaphor: ReFantazio. It's the most consistently polished game Atlus made (that I played) in years, though maybe SMT VV has a chance once I get to it. The only ones that come to mind are Persona 5/Royal (however much I prefer P3 and P4), and Etrian Odyssey V. Both of which had longer development times compared to their series, who knew?
My only complaint is that it doesn't have any 10/10 aspect that I'd love, most of my favourite games are somewhat flawed anyway, as long as they have that special aspect that clicks. But then, Persona 3 had nothing like that until the endgame, so there's still time for it to surprise me.
- All of my favourite games, artists, movies, and anything else I’m interested in all have something that I don’t consider 10/10 so I definitely see what you mean
  
  I think for me this weirdness is most obvious with books, the best novels that change you, stick in your memory and make you see the world differently are never 10/10s because that would mean they simply fulfilled the expectations you had before picking the book up.
  A 10/10 novel is still awesome but it is more of a comfort food experience which while wonderful isn't the same kind of experience.
  
  To clarify, I meant that I'm fine with multiple things not being 10/10 (I was thinking of Metaphor as a 9/10 across the board, assuming a 10/10 is something I say about things very rarely) as long as some one thing is, like just the ending or just gameplay. I'm not consisent with that though anyways, I thought that Dark Souls 1 really does have 10/10 world exploration early on, yet I don't like it because of a lot of other problems. It's all really just gut feelings in the end, it was the best way I could explain why Metaphor feels like it's missing something.

Return to Moria has been really fun! Playing online with my buddy all day the last two days.
Pretty slow moving for a survival/crafting game, but we're both big Tolkien fans and the fan service is pretty great.
Boss fights have been quite interesting and when progression finally happens it feels really satisfying.

Pokémon Crystal and Red Ded Redemption 2
- You’re in for a treat. Both great games
- Two of my all-time favourite games. Both are probably top 10

Yakuza 3. Probably for the 3rd time as well because there was too much time since I played and lost track of the plot.
- Nice! I just finished that game and it was quite fun. It wasn't my favorite, but the whole orphanage thing gave it a very emotional angle.

Playing through the entire Dragon Age series, then Pillars of Eternity and Sea of Stars.

Elden Ring’s expansion! I failed the tree boss multiple times, with help.
Noe, Class of ‘09: the Re-Up!
- Good luck! I absolutely loved SotE
  
  It’s so hard! I love it.
- Make sure that's the last class of 09 game you play. Do not. Play Flip side.
  
  Ahhhh I’m so sad to hear the third game isn’t good, especially after the hilarious short anime episode. I will still play it but my expectations are set hahaha

Just started Disgaea 1. For whatever reason I've bounced off this game half a dozen times since first trying it all the way back at release, but I've more or less settled into a groove with it now.
Having a good time with it, though I'm wondering if I should pick up a manual or something somewhere. Kind of obtuse systems and details I'd normally be able to get out of the UI, but not here.
- I've had games where it can take a few tries to get into it. Some of them have ended up being my favorite games.
  
  Yeah, my gaming experience lately has been a bit of tension between sticking it out and learning when to drop stuff.
  I didn't like the Trails series at first but the fourth and fifth games ended up being all-time favorites. This one's not going to get to that point, but it's also part of a larger series that could have a lot of fun gameplay to mess around with.

I started this year off with NIER (Ps3 Version). I've been thoroughly enjoying it thus far. I'll likely do several runs to get the 4 endings and full lore. Can't wait to sink my teeth into NieR Automata afterwards!

Finishing up Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom (not patient, I know), Hogwarts Legacy, and A Hat in Time.
After that, I'm excited to play some games I got in the Steam sale:
Bomb Rush Cyberfunk
Firewatch
South Park: The Stick of Truth
I'm going to try holding off buying more games this year to get through a bunch of games I have that I haven't played.

I'm gonna be booting up Pathologic 2 once my new computer comes in.