What about you? Any games in the list (or not in the list but you've
heard of elsewhere) that you're waiting for, eagerly or not? Is 2025
going to be one of the great years in gaming, you think, or a fairly
humdrum experience like was 2024?
Here's a partial list of titles
It's a new year, with the promise of many new games to come. Are we
excited about any of them? Here's a partial list of titles expected to release this year; do any of these wet your whistle?
Anno 117: Pax Romana -- Assassin?s Creed Shadows -- Atomfall --
Avowed -- Borderlands 4 -- Civilization 7 -- Death Stranding 2 --
Donkey Kong Country Returns HD -- Doom: The Dark Ages --
Dune: Awakening -- Elden Ring Nightreign -- Fable -- Ghosts
of Yotei -- Grand Theft Auto 6 -- Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 --
Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza -- Mafia: The Old Country --
Marathon -- Marvel 1943: Rise of Hydra -- Metal Gear Solid Delta --
Metroid Prime 4: Beyond -- Monster Hunter Wilds -- Outer Worlds 2 --
Sniper Elite: Resistance -- Subnautica 2 -- Synduality Echo of Ada
(feel free to add to the list if you felt I missed any. I only did the
most preliminary of searches)
*
Like, I suspect most of you here, I'm not the sort to rush out and buy
any of these games on Day One. It's not worth the price nor the hassle
of dealing with unpatched bugs. Still, there are at least a few I'm
/tempted/ to Day One purchases.
Most notable is "Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2". The first game was...
well, I can't honestly say it was great. It was gorgeous certainly
(one of the best looking games in my extensive library), and I loved
its portrayal of medieval Bohemia. It had some very interesting
mechanics and a fairly good story. It did have this minor failing of
not being, you know, all that much fun to actually play. I don't
expect the sequel to be much better, but still, I look forward to
immersing myself in its world again. It's definitely one of the games
I'm most likely to buy this year.
"Civilization 7" is pretty high on that list too although honestly, I
don't really know anything about it, but... it's Civilization, damn
it. Do I need anything more? I think the biggest thing that makes me
hesitate is that I already /own/ six versions of the game and adding
another one doesn't seem necessary (especially since I'm terrified of
playing any of the older ones anyway). But I know I won't be able to
resist. Meier's got his hooks in me too deep.
Less certain to make the list is "Doom: The Dark Ages", but for
largely the same reason as "Civilization"; it's part of a franchise I
have a good deal of attachment too. Frankly, I'm not the biggest fan
of the gameplay of the newer games, but I gotta admit, I'm sort of
interested in where they take the story (Carmack would be rolling in
his grave, were he dead, for me to say the /story/ is what I'm most interested in a Doom game). But even if its comic-book schlock, I
gotta admit that the narrative and back-story Bethesda has built up
around the Doom franchise is what's got me hooked.
Other than that... well, there are a number of games that look
interesting to me, but none of them leap out and say, "Play, play,
play!" Certainly in time, most of these will get added to the library,
and many will at least get a short look-over, but I'm fine waiting a
year or six before that happens.
*
What about you? Any games in the list (or not in the list but you've
heard of elsewhere) that you're waiting for, eagerly or not? Is 2025
going to be one of the great years in gaming, you think, or a fairly
humdrum experience like was 2024?
On Thu, 23 Jan 2025 12:00:46 -0500, Spalls Hurgenson <spallshurgenson@gmail.com> wrote:
What about you? Any games in the list (or not in the list but you've
heard of elsewhere) that you're waiting for, eagerly or not? Is 2025
going to be one of the great years in gaming, you think, or a fairly
humdrum experience like was 2024?
I might have cared about Civ 7 but I haven't been keeping up with the franchise. The last Civ I played extensively was Civ 3.
The only game coming out this year that I am looking forward to is an
indie old-school dungeon crawler I already mentioned in another
thread. That is it for me. The games I got from you are going to keep
me busy for the rest of the year I think.
On Thu, 23 Jan 2025 12:00:46 -0500, Spalls Hurgenson <spallshurgenson@gmail.com> wrote:
What about you? Any games in the list (or not in the list but you've
heard of elsewhere) that you're waiting for, eagerly or not? Is 2025
going to be one of the great years in gaming, you think, or a fairly
humdrum experience like was 2024?
I might have cared about Civ 7 but I haven't been keeping up with the franchise. The last Civ I played extensively was Civ 3.
Cyclopean: I've seen dozens of pixel graphics games, but usually the
quest is as simple as the graphics. This one looks to stretch the >imagination and I've seen at least one piece of evidence that it will.
From what I can tell, KC:D 2 is going to follow the trend of the
original. There will be a lot to like about the game --it's got a bit
of something for everyone!-- but because it's trying to jack all the
trades, it's not going to master any of 'em.
DOOM: The Dark Ages catches my interest first, but it doesn't
necessarily mean I will buy it in 2025. For $80 with no multiplayer,
it's more likely to get picked up when it hits $10.
On Fri, 24 Jan 2025 09:30:21 -0800, Justisaur <justisaur@gmail.com>
wrote:
On 1/23/2025 9:00 AM, Spalls Hurgenson wrote:
I don't even know if I can rouse myself to play PC games much anymore.
I got hooked on reading sci-fi/fantasy again and have been blowing
through books like crazy.
Heh. Oddly enough, me too. I mean, I tend to go through books fairly >regularly anyway, but recently I've been hitting the pages a lot more
often. It's definitely cutting into my video-game time!
I'm working my way through Ian Bank's "Culture" series again.Well,
most of them. A couple of his books are written in first-person, and
that's just not a format I enjoy. But all the rest. They aren't
/great/, but they're imaginative and passably well written (even if
every book does seem like he just ran out of ideas and just decided to
end it at some random point).
DOOM: The Dark Ages catches my interest first, but it doesn't
necessarily mean I will buy it in 2025. For $80 with no multiplayer,
it's more likely to get picked up when it hits $10.
It's a day one PC Gamepass release (like Indy), which I'd forgotten
about, so I will be looking at this soon after release
rms
On 1/26/2025 4:03 AM, Rin Stowleigh wrote:
On Sat, 25 Jan 2025 16:26:49 -0700, "rms"
<rsquiresMOO@MOOflashMOO.net> wrote:
DOOM: The Dark Ages catches my interest first, but it doesn't
necessarily mean I will buy it in 2025. For $80 with no multiplayer,
it's more likely to get picked up when it hits $10.
It's a day one PC Gamepass release (like Indy), which I'd forgotten
about, so I will be looking at this soon after release
rms
I haven't used Gamepass, but I have used the Origin equivalent of that
(whatever they are calling it these days) to vet games that I wanted
an entire month to evaluate, but didn't want to commit to the initial
release price (which for some games is $120 for the "complete
edition").
It'd be nice if more games had demos again so you didn't have to pay for
a month of Gamepass. Especially as there's a number of games that are
on Elite Gamepass (let us gouge you for more!) that I'm mildly
interested in, but not enough to pay more.
Or "Matter", where the heroes are all (mostly) killed off and the
story ends. "Excession" is similar too.
I don't actually think it's the author running out of ideas; it's part
of his style and messaging. But given the pacing and tone of the rest
of his books, the sudden end leaving so many things unresolved (the
latter of which, I think is the whole point) is incredibly jarring.
It's as if Star Wars ended right when the X-wings start attacking the
Death Star. Because of how the rest of the story goes, you know the
heroes --armed with mystical powers and knowledge of the planet's
secret weakness-- are likely to win... but you sort of want that
resolution. And I think that's an apt comparison, because in many ways
the Culture books are very space-opera sci-fi, and that genre
typically gets its heroic end. Banks is obviously writing in a way
that purposefully subverts those expectations, which is an interesting experiment but overall not to my liking.
It's a new year, with the promise of many new games to come. Are we
excited about any of them? Here's a partial list of titles expected to release this year; do any of these wet your whistle?
-- Borderlands 4
-- Grand Theft Auto 6
#2 Outer Worlds 2 - I suppose I need to get around to playing the
original with DLCs first though.
I don't even know if I can rouse myself to play PC games much
anymore. I got hooked on reading sci-fi/fantasy again and have been
blowing through books like crazy.
On Sun, 26 Jan 2025 21:03:51 +0000, JAB <noway@nochance.com> wrote:
I did recently read Look To Windward and although I enjoyed it I'm
probably not going to revisit the series anytime soon. It's a shame
really as I like my sci-fi and I've read several of his contemporary >>fiction novels which he writes under Iain Banks instead of Iain M.
Banks. Not really hiding anything there.
Well, no worry; he's not writing anything under any name anymore.
Banks died in 2013.
The addition of the "M." in his name for his contemporary fiction
novels was largely at the insistence of his publisher, to avoid
confusion with another author. When he started writing sci-fi, they
suggested adding it in to make those novels distinct from his other
works. Or so the story goes.
On Sat, 25 Jan 2025 18:47:22 -0500, Xocyll <Xocyll@gmx.com> wrote:
Spalls Hurgenson <spallshurgenson@gmail.com> looked up from reading the >>entrails of the porn spammer to utter "The Augury is good, the signs
say:
On Fri, 24 Jan 2025 09:30:21 -0800, Justisaur <justisaur@gmail.com> >>>wrote:
On 1/23/2025 9:00 AM, Spalls Hurgenson wrote:
I don't even know if I can rouse myself to play PC games much anymore. >>>>I got hooked on reading sci-fi/fantasy again and have been blowing >>>>through books like crazy.
Heh. Oddly enough, me too. I mean, I tend to go through books fairly >>>regularly anyway, but recently I've been hitting the pages a lot more >>>often. It's definitely cutting into my video-game time!
I'm working my way through Ian Bank's "Culture" series again.Well,
most of them. A couple of his books are written in first-person, and >>>that's just not a format I enjoy. But all the rest. They aren't
/great/, but they're imaginative and passably well written (even if
every book does seem like he just ran out of ideas and just decided to >>>end it at some random point).
Consider Phlebas and that execution method?
Or "Matter", where the heroes are all (mostly) killed off and the
story ends. "Excession" is similar too.
I don't actually think it's the author running out of ideas; it's part
of his style and messaging. But given the pacing and tone of the rest
of his books, the sudden end leaving so many things unresolved (the
latter of which, I think is the whole point) is incredibly jarring.
It's as if Star Wars ended right when the X-wings start attacking the
Death Star. Because of how the rest of the story goes, you know the
heroes --armed with mystical powers and knowledge of the planet's
secret weakness-- are likely to win... but you sort of want that
resolution. And I think that's an apt comparison, because in many ways
the Culture books are very space-opera sci-fi, and that genre
typically gets its heroic end. Banks is obviously writing in a way
that purposefully subverts those expectations, which is an interesting >experiment but overall not to my liking.
On Fri, 07 Feb 2025 18:42:23 -0500, Xocyll <Xocyll@gmx.com> wrote:
Spalls Hurgenson <spallshurgenson@gmail.com> looked up from reading the >>entrails of the porn spammer to utter "The Augury is good, the signs
say:
On Sat, 25 Jan 2025 18:47:22 -0500, Xocyll <Xocyll@gmx.com> wrote:
Spalls Hurgenson <spallshurgenson@gmail.com> looked up from reading the >>>>entrails of the porn spammer to utter "The Augury is good, the signs >>>>say:
On Fri, 24 Jan 2025 09:30:21 -0800, Justisaur <justisaur@gmail.com> >>>>>wrote:
On 1/23/2025 9:00 AM, Spalls Hurgenson wrote:
I don't even know if I can rouse myself to play PC games much anymore. >>>>>>I got hooked on reading sci-fi/fantasy again and have been blowing >>>>>>through books like crazy.
Heh. Oddly enough, me too. I mean, I tend to go through books fairly >>>>>regularly anyway, but recently I've been hitting the pages a lot more >>>>>often. It's definitely cutting into my video-game time!
I'm working my way through Ian Bank's "Culture" series again.Well, >>>>>most of them. A couple of his books are written in first-person, and >>>>>that's just not a format I enjoy. But all the rest. They aren't >>>>>/great/, but they're imaginative and passably well written (even if >>>>>every book does seem like he just ran out of ideas and just decided to >>>>>end it at some random point).
Consider Phlebas and that execution method?
Or "Matter", where the heroes are all (mostly) killed off and the
story ends. "Excession" is similar too.
I don't actually think it's the author running out of ideas; it's part
of his style and messaging. But given the pacing and tone of the rest
of his books, the sudden end leaving so many things unresolved (the >>>latter of which, I think is the whole point) is incredibly jarring.
It's as if Star Wars ended right when the X-wings start attacking the >>>Death Star. Because of how the rest of the story goes, you know the >>>heroes --armed with mystical powers and knowledge of the planet's
secret weakness-- are likely to win... but you sort of want that >>>resolution. And I think that's an apt comparison, because in many ways >>>the Culture books are very space-opera sci-fi, and that genre
typically gets its heroic end. Banks is obviously writing in a way
that purposefully subverts those expectations, which is an interesting >>>experiment but overall not to my liking.
I did not get a space opera vibe from the culture novels, but then I am
a fan of the original space opera author, E.E. "Doc" Smith.
Galaxy-destroying levels of power are hardly necessary for it to be
space opera. I mean, Star Wars still largely limits itself to
destroying mere planets, and it is definitely space opera. And The
Culture universe is definitely within that range (in fact, far above,
since they not only destroy planets, but build them at times)
Spalls Hurgenson <spallshurgenson@gmail.com> looked up from reading the entrails of the porn spammer to utter "The Augury is good, the signs
say:
On Fri, 07 Feb 2025 18:42:23 -0500, Xocyll <Xocyll@gmx.com> wrote:
Spalls Hurgenson <spallshurgenson@gmail.com> looked up from reading the
entrails of the porn spammer to utter "The Augury is good, the signs
say:
On Sat, 25 Jan 2025 18:47:22 -0500, Xocyll <Xocyll@gmx.com> wrote:
Spalls Hurgenson <spallshurgenson@gmail.com> looked up from reading the >>>>> entrails of the porn spammer to utter "The Augury is good, the signs >>>>> say:
On Fri, 24 Jan 2025 09:30:21 -0800, Justisaur <justisaur@gmail.com> >>>>>> wrote:
On 1/23/2025 9:00 AM, Spalls Hurgenson wrote:
I don't even know if I can rouse myself to play PC games much anymore. >>>>>>> I got hooked on reading sci-fi/fantasy again and have been blowing >>>>>>> through books like crazy.
Heh. Oddly enough, me too. I mean, I tend to go through books fairly >>>>>> regularly anyway, but recently I've been hitting the pages a lot more >>>>>> often. It's definitely cutting into my video-game time!
I'm working my way through Ian Bank's "Culture" series again.Well, >>>>>> most of them. A couple of his books are written in first-person, and >>>>>> that's just not a format I enjoy. But all the rest. They aren't
/great/, but they're imaginative and passably well written (even if >>>>>> every book does seem like he just ran out of ideas and just decided to >>>>>> end it at some random point).
Consider Phlebas and that execution method?
Or "Matter", where the heroes are all (mostly) killed off and the
story ends. "Excession" is similar too.
I don't actually think it's the author running out of ideas; it's part >>>> of his style and messaging. But given the pacing and tone of the rest
of his books, the sudden end leaving so many things unresolved (the
latter of which, I think is the whole point) is incredibly jarring.
It's as if Star Wars ended right when the X-wings start attacking the
Death Star. Because of how the rest of the story goes, you know the
heroes --armed with mystical powers and knowledge of the planet's
secret weakness-- are likely to win... but you sort of want that
resolution. And I think that's an apt comparison, because in many ways >>>> the Culture books are very space-opera sci-fi, and that genre
typically gets its heroic end. Banks is obviously writing in a way
that purposefully subverts those expectations, which is an interesting >>>> experiment but overall not to my liking.
I did not get a space opera vibe from the culture novels, but then I am
a fan of the original space opera author, E.E. "Doc" Smith.
Galaxy-destroying levels of power are hardly necessary for it to be
space opera. I mean, Star Wars still largely limits itself to
destroying mere planets, and it is definitely space opera. And The
Culture universe is definitely within that range (in fact, far above,
since they not only destroy planets, but build them at times)
Star Wars and Star Trek are NOT science fiction, they never have been. Science has never been the foundation of those shows, not ever.
E.E. "Doc" Smith was always about the science of the era and taking it
as far as it could go.
Yes that meant using tube technology - i.e. spacehounds of ipc (1948)
I do not recognize Star Wars as space opera, not even close, it's pure fantasy in space. Literally every element is from fantasy. The Hermit
who is a powerful wizard, the magic sword, the bad guy who is the
hero's father - every damn element is pure fantasy - setting it in space
does NOT make it sci fi, it's still pure fantasy.
George Lucas pulled the wool over a lot of eyes, but not mine!
On Wed, 12 Feb 2025 07:43:59 -0800, Dimensional Traveler
<dtravel@sonic.net> wrote:
I have no problem calling Star Wars 'Science Fantasy'. But Star Trek is
science fiction. It isn't _hard_ SF, as it includes social changes but
SF has a long tradition of that as well. (And Doc Smith had no real
world science to base any of the psi based aspects of Lensmen upon even
at the time he wrote those books.)
I'd agree with you on classic Star Trek, but modern Star Trek is a
different beast. It's not anything about modern science or examining
how it would affect social changes anymore. It's soap opera in space
set against a background that mirrors current events. It's about the
drama and thus increasingly falls beneath the 'space opera' umbrella.
(That said, on -increasingly rare- occassion Star Trek does surprise
by being a bit deeper than usual... but so too does Star Wars
sometimes, albeit never in the main-line movies.)
On 2/11/2025 8:18 PM, Xocyll wrote:
Spalls Hurgenson <spallshurgenson@gmail.com> looked up from reading theI have no problem calling Star Wars 'Science Fantasy'. But Star Trek is >science fiction. It isn't _hard_ SF, as it includes social changes but
entrails of the porn spammer to utter "The Augury is good, the signs
say:
On Fri, 07 Feb 2025 18:42:23 -0500, Xocyll <Xocyll@gmx.com> wrote:
Spalls Hurgenson <spallshurgenson@gmail.com> looked up from reading the >>>> entrails of the porn spammer to utter "The Augury is good, the signs
say:
On Sat, 25 Jan 2025 18:47:22 -0500, Xocyll <Xocyll@gmx.com> wrote:
Spalls Hurgenson <spallshurgenson@gmail.com> looked up from reading the >>>>>> entrails of the porn spammer to utter "The Augury is good, the signs >>>>>> say:
On Fri, 24 Jan 2025 09:30:21 -0800, Justisaur <justisaur@gmail.com> >>>>>>> wrote:
On 1/23/2025 9:00 AM, Spalls Hurgenson wrote:
I don't even know if I can rouse myself to play PC games much anymore. >>>>>>>> I got hooked on reading sci-fi/fantasy again and have been blowing >>>>>>>> through books like crazy.
Heh. Oddly enough, me too. I mean, I tend to go through books fairly >>>>>>> regularly anyway, but recently I've been hitting the pages a lot more >>>>>>> often. It's definitely cutting into my video-game time!
I'm working my way through Ian Bank's "Culture" series again.Well, >>>>>>> most of them. A couple of his books are written in first-person, and >>>>>>> that's just not a format I enjoy. But all the rest. They aren't >>>>>>> /great/, but they're imaginative and passably well written (even if >>>>>>> every book does seem like he just ran out of ideas and just decided to >>>>>>> end it at some random point).
Consider Phlebas and that execution method?
Or "Matter", where the heroes are all (mostly) killed off and the
story ends. "Excession" is similar too.
I don't actually think it's the author running out of ideas; it's part >>>>> of his style and messaging. But given the pacing and tone of the rest >>>>> of his books, the sudden end leaving so many things unresolved (the
latter of which, I think is the whole point) is incredibly jarring.
It's as if Star Wars ended right when the X-wings start attacking the >>>>> Death Star. Because of how the rest of the story goes, you know the
heroes --armed with mystical powers and knowledge of the planet's
secret weakness-- are likely to win... but you sort of want that
resolution. And I think that's an apt comparison, because in many ways >>>>> the Culture books are very space-opera sci-fi, and that genre
typically gets its heroic end. Banks is obviously writing in a way
that purposefully subverts those expectations, which is an interesting >>>>> experiment but overall not to my liking.
I did not get a space opera vibe from the culture novels, but then I am >>>> a fan of the original space opera author, E.E. "Doc" Smith.
Galaxy-destroying levels of power are hardly necessary for it to be
space opera. I mean, Star Wars still largely limits itself to
destroying mere planets, and it is definitely space opera. And The
Culture universe is definitely within that range (in fact, far above,
since they not only destroy planets, but build them at times)
Star Wars and Star Trek are NOT science fiction, they never have been.
Science has never been the foundation of those shows, not ever.
E.E. "Doc" Smith was always about the science of the era and taking it
as far as it could go.
Yes that meant using tube technology - i.e. spacehounds of ipc (1948)
I do not recognize Star Wars as space opera, not even close, it's pure
fantasy in space. Literally every element is from fantasy. The Hermit
who is a powerful wizard, the magic sword, the bad guy who is the
hero's father - every damn element is pure fantasy - setting it in space
does NOT make it sci fi, it's still pure fantasy.
George Lucas pulled the wool over a lot of eyes, but not mine!
SF has a long tradition of that as well. (And Doc Smith had no real
world science to base any of the psi based aspects of Lensmen upon even
at the time he wrote those books.)
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