What videogames are you playing in 2025?

I've been testing out the D&D 2024 All-In-One Mod in Baldur's Gate 3 lately. It's definitely not perfect, and it has some homebrew stuff in there I don't much care for, but the bones of D&D 2024 are there and they honestly make it a lot more fun.

Also PSA, always play BG3 with the D20 Initiative mod.
 

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and they honestly make it a lot more fun
Thinking about rules-modding next time I play BG3, was considering that one - what are the changes that you feel improve BG3 a lot here?

On a more general note, it feels like there's a weird lack of like, urban fantasy in games, especially big-budget ones. Perhaps because it's a bit harder to do (people know what the world looks like) and if you're going to spend that much effort, you might as well appeal to horrible gun/military gear-fetishists and so on, who are a huge market (c.f. Call of Duty etc.). But like, you could do an incredible Buffy-esque open-world game, like Cyberpunk 2077/Witcher 3 or even better, Skyrim style, set in a moderately sized town like Sunnydale (and environs), and it would be incredible.

Of course someone tried and completely screwed it up in every possible way with Redfall, so I guess that's poisoned the well for now. More's the pity. I feel like had Buffy come out, say, 5-10 years ago, instead of nearly 30, we'd gave a bunch of games trying things like that. The Blade game is also supposedly still being made too so maybe that's something.
 
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Thinking about rules-modding next time I play BG3, was considering that one - what are the changes that you feel improve BG3 a lot here?
Off the top of my head:
  • Jump is closer to tabletop, as in only costs movement speed rather than a bonus action. Though you can't jump quite as obnoxiously far as you do in the vanilla game unless you cast Enhance Leap. Still useful for jumping over allies for more direct paths to an enemy or dealing with elevation changes.
  • The obnoxiously overpowered feats in vanilla BG3 (i.e. Tavern Brawler, Savage Attacker) are no longer a thing, as they are revamped into their 2024 Origin feat versions. But because Weapon Masteries are implemented in full (not perfectly, mind you, but well enough) all martial builds that didn't hinge on those two overpowered feats feel way more capable on the whole. Monks, likewise, feel better despite no longer hinging on vanilla Tavern Brawler. Also note that Thief no longer gives two bonus actions but instead got revamped to bonus-action throw (which IMO should've always been how Fast Hands was implemented).
  • This mod also implemented the Dodge action, which is neat.
  • 2024 Lunging Attack is so, so good. I put that thing on Battle Master Laezel at level 3 and she closes into melee almost without fail on turn 1 now, even on enemies ridiculously far away.
  • My Durge is a Devotion Paladin, and just like my 2024 tabletop experience, I found I haven't really missed smiting every hit. Bonus-action Lay on Hands has already come in clutch for me a few times (I'm playing a Custom difficulty which is literally Honour Mode without the single-save part). Popping Sacred Weapon without having to spend an action of any kind (and also with more uses of it) also felt really good. Doubly so in Act 2 where I've been selecting the full radiant damage option and just MELTING 80% of the enemies there, all without smiting. (I've pretty much restricted Divine Smite entirely to crits only, as I do in tabletop 2024 now.) 2024 Divine Favor with no concentration and 10 turns duration is also really nice. Because of all of the above, 2024 Devotion Paladin is also a very strong contender for Radiant Orb abuse.
  • As of the mod's current version (hope this doesn't get "fixed" down the road) the Great Weapon Fighting Style feat works on ALL rolled damage riders, making 3 the minimum roll on all of those. Which makes it far better than how it works in the real 2024 rules, where it's the clear worst Fighting Style feat. The mod's version went so well with my Devotion Paladin's Divine Favor + Everburn Blade combo early-game and will only get better with the likes of Strange Conduit Ring, Helldusk Gloves, etc.
  • The one thing that kinda sucks though is that Spirit Guardians was changed to hew stricter to RAW, as in if you're evil it's always necrotic damage, and it's always radiant if you're good or neutral. And the way the mod determines if you're good, neutral, or evil is your deity ...
    which REALLY sucks for Shadowheart in Act 2. Let's just say I was especially glad I picked Devotion Paladin for my Durge because of this.
 
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Off the top of my head:
  • Jump is closer to tabletop, as in only costs movement speed rather than a bonus action. Though you can't jump quite as obnoxiously far as you do in the vanilla game unless you cast Enhance Leap. Still useful for jumping over allies for more direct paths to an enemy or dealing with elevation changes.
  • The obnoxiously overpowered feats in vanilla BG3 (i.e. Tavern Brawler, Savage Attacker) are no longer a thing, as they are revamped into their 2024 Origin feat versions. But because Weapon Masteries are implemented in full (not perfectly, mind you, but well enough) all martial builds that didn't hinge on those two overpowered feats feel way more capable on the whole. Monks, likewise, feel better despite no longer hinging on vanilla Tavern Brawler. Also note that Thief no longer gives two bonus actions but instead got revamped to bonus-action throw (which IMO should've always been how Fast Hands was implemented).
  • This mod also implemented the Dodge action, which is neat.
  • 2024 Lunging Attack is so, so good. I put that thing on Battle Master Laezel at level 3 and she closes into melee almost without fail on turn 1 now, even on enemies ridiculously far away.
  • My Durge is a Devotion Paladin, and just like my 2024 tabletop experience, I found I haven't really missed smiting every hit. Bonus-action Lay on Hands has already come in clutch for me a few times (I'm playing a Custom difficulty which is literally Honour Mode without the single-save part). Popping Sacred Weapon without having to spend an action of any kind (and also with more uses of it) also felt really good. Doubly so in Act 2 where I've been selecting the full radiant damage option and just MELTING 80% of the enemies there, all without smiting. (I've pretty much restricted Divine Smite entirely to crits only, as I do in tabletop 2024 now.) 2024 Divine Favor with no concentration and 10 turns duration is also really nice. Because of all of the above, 2024 Devotion Paladin is also a very strong contender for Radiant Orb abuse.
  • As of the mod's current version (hope this doesn't get "fixed" down the road) the Great Weapon Fighting Style feat works on ALL rolled damage riders, making 3 the minimum roll on all of those. Which makes it far better than how it works in the real 2024 rules, where it's the clear worst Fighting Style feat. The mod's version went so well with my Devotion Paladin's Divine Favor + Everburn Blade combo early-game and will only get better with the likes of Strange Conduit Ring, Helldusk Gloves, etc.
  • The one thing that kinda sucks though is that Spirit Guardians was changed to hew stricter to RAW, as in if you're evil it's always necrotic damage, and it's always radiant if you're good or neutral. And the way the mod determines if you're good, neutral, or evil is your deity ...
    which REALLY sucks for Shadowheart in Act 2. Let's just say I was especially glad I picked Devotion Paladin for my Durge because of this.
Ok that does sound pretty hot except the last part which is a fundamental misunderstanding by the modders of how BG3 works - you should never be guessing on behalf of the player like that.
 

Everspace 2 is good fun, but it does get a bit repetitive after awhile.
Which is why it is perhaps curious that after "finishing" my first playthrough (including all sidequests and possibly all location challenges, but not most of the endgame content) I immediately turned around and started a new game where I ground my way up to level 16 before leaving the Ceto system and now I just finished grinding my way up to level 30 without even going to any ramen joints in Union, thus never progressing beyond that system either.

This time though I eschewed all location challenges and pretty much all loot that was not in a randomly generated area. But now at least whenever I am awarded a legendary item it will be the proper level for the endgame. And when I landed back on Nephtys station there was an ascendant item for sale. Though I am a bit confused as to why there was no tutorial to what that means when I equipped it.

I expected most quests for a while now are going to be resolved by my pressing the left mouse button with my level 30 superior thermo gun equpped, :D .
 


How long into the game before you dont get blown away by encounters?

Or is it just my skills are lacking?
It was like, what, maybe 6-8 hours, maybe a bit later?

The turning point for me, where the game went from "sweating on every encounter" to "I got this (most of the time)" was when I had places I could buy ships of my choice from, so could essentially choose my "class", and when I could more reliably access specific-ish weapon types to outfit those ships (though you're always responding to what drops).

Definitely in my experience the Heavy ship classes - Gunship (tank warrior), Vindicator (necromancer), Bomber (long-range nuker) - are simply easier to play than the Light ones by a lot, and slightly easier than the Medium ones, because they don't rely as much on frantic manuevering to survive.

Personally I've been playing an insane amount of Cyber Knights: Flashpoint, which I highly recommend:


It's a procedural tactics game vaguely along XCOM lines but with significantly more RPG elements and character development, and most importantly, a significant stealth/heist focus, and a cyberpunk setting (of the more "nanotech" kind). Took me a few hours to "get it", and restarted once I did (develop your base aggressively and think about which contacts you're working with!). If you like tactical games with management elements like XCOM or Jagged Alliance, frankly, you'll probably love it.

Also it's by Trese Brothers who have always done incredible post-launch support and clearly still are doing that! They're planning to add four more classes to the nine (technically eleven, but the Cyber Knight and Face are special) they already have over the next year or so (!!!) as well as a ton of other content.

Speaking of classes, the ones they have are pretty cool, and you can pick two of them pretty freely (most require some kind of cyberware installation, though not all).

The main character is a Cyber Knight, which is a sort of "commander/buffer" class of a pretty powerful kind, there's one Face (a kind of Fixer who doesn't do combat/missions/hacking, but rather management stuff) and the ones the rest of the characters can be are:

Vanguard - Despite the name, this is basically the traditional "Rogue", a very speedy stealth-oriented class which also has cool holographic illusions and debuffs.

Agent EX - The other "stealth"-oriented class, this takes a "Wizard stealth" approach with stuff like zones of silence, fire-and-forget spreading security device shutdowns, what is effectively Blink (i.e. a short-range teleport), and so on. I did find the SMG-oriented side of their tree a bit disappointing compared to other weapon-specialised trees, I hope it gets revised at some point.

Soldier - A very solidly designed class focused on fully-auto weapons, overwatch, explosives, and being tough! I pretty much bring one on every mission, because sometimes you just need to drop a lot of enemies real fast!

Sniper - It's what it sounds like and is one of the better-designed "sniper" classes I've come across in tactical RPGs - also very satisfying to use with high-powered revolvers!

Hacker - The decker/netrunner, and obviously required for missions involving that. The hacking system is good (imho) requires you to keep paying attention, but also doesn't take forever or detract from the gameplay general (unusual in a hacking system!). Some stealth utility too - I have two different Hackers, one I use for "pure hacks" (which are a mission type where you just hack and nothing else, very quick!) and another I use when they need to hack on-site, who is more focused on shutting down security systems and keeping them shut down and so on.

Cybersword - A very powerful powersword-oriented class with a lot of dashes and invulnerability/force fields.

Warmachine - The cyberweapon-focused class - you can sort of specialize in cybermelee, laser eyes, or this chest-mounted blast thing I haven't really tried. Very effective in certain situations, I have mine built like basically a very fast-moving and quiet berserker.

Gunslinger - Pistol/revolver specialist with some interesting semi-stealth and debuff-oriented stuff. I haven't used them a ton because revolvers can't be silenced but I just multiclassed my Agent EX into it so we shall see how they are with normal pistols (which can be silenced). Have an ability called "Gun Kata" so surely can't be bad!

Scourge - "Shotgun necromancer" is how I think of them but they don't raise the dead (though they do have Corpse Explosion), but rather have a lot of cool land mine/aerial denial/area CC/poison abilities as well as a couple of weird stealth tricks (using nanites to delete bodies is a particularly good trick!).

The four they're adding are a guy who controls drones, one who controls packs of cyber-hounds (!!!) an assassin and a "Wireghost" which I presume will be a different take on Hacker the same way Agent EX is a different take on stealther.

The classes are kind of surprisingly well-balanced, because none of them is perfect by itself and whatever multiclass combo you take, you're going to wish for stuff from other classes too. Like, Soldier-Sniper (or vice-versa) is a very good combo for shooty-shooty (and some missions are pure combat), but lacks CC or ways to defeat security devices.

In general it's just a very involved game with a lot more depth than initially appears, I'd say, and many double-digit hours in I'm seeing new mission types, enemies, etc. - plus I haven't even met drones yet despite them clearly being a serious threat from the skill trees referring to them a lot!
 
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