What videogames are you playing in 2025?

[Ruin Explorer]

I think Voyager had an absolutely banging premise that I’d love to run as a campaign some time - maybe a Star Wars version - but we were then subjected to watching the live play of the most irritating PC group ever for too many years.

Absolutely this. VOY was completely fixable, and I think a lot of why people stuck with it was they were expecting characters to grow and stop being incredibly boring or annoying, but... several of them just didn't... because fundamentally the showrunners weren't very good, and some extremely bad, extremely late '90s casting decisions had been made. Like, I don't think any bad actors were selected (maybe Kes, but it's unfair, the actor had substance abuse issues), but several were just not the right actor for the part. Like, Robert Duncan McNeil as Paris. McNeil seems really nice in interviews, far more charming than Paris (?!?!), and he's quite a prolific director of TV show episodes (and also a showrunner on successful shows), many of them clearly well-directed, so I don't hate that he got the opportunity and he moved in the absolutely the right direction (from acting to directing and showrunning), but my god, Paris absolutely needed someone intrinsically charming, who you just couldn't help but like, and he wasn't able to give that performance (I'm sure in part due to choices he was being told to make by the showrunners). And like, Neelix's actor Ethan Phillips? He's good in other stuff, but the character is just loathsome. A pedo-vibes clown of a creature, and no amount of "my past is I got warcrimed" is going to fix that (why intentionally give him what was effectively an underage girlfriend who acted like a child? What was going on?!). You can kind of go two ways with a character the audience is supposed to like/understand - either get a really charming actor to play them and direct them to play charming, and/or write them a decent, likeable person and make sure you don't cast an actor who manages to undermine that. VOY seemed to attempt to avoid doing either! Don't even get me started on Chakotay, whose entire conception was based on racist drivel written by a white guy who pretended to be a native american, and who was also basically written as a creep who'd get reported to HR a lot. Again what were they thinking?! Very strange. Also very strange decision to make Paris be LITERALLY RACIST, old-school Earth racist to him in literally the first or second episode. Like what the hell man?

Arrrghhhh...

 

[jian]

Instead of the rather dull and contrived Ahsoka series we could have had a game were you play as Thrawn trying to get a wrecked Chimera back home after the Purgil ride.

That would be an amazing dark comedy sci-fi resource management game where it would gradually creep up on you that your protagonist was in fact a dedicated fascist with more than a passing physical and emotional resemblance to Elon Musk.

But it would start with some pretty challenging and interesting play rebuilding the Chimaera, exploring the Nightsister home world, keeping 1500+ Imperial personnel alive*, and negotiating with the deliberately Shakespearean Force witches. You’d play up stormtrooper necromancy for laughs which would then choke you when your most loyal and positive commander has to be reanimated as a kintsugi zombie.

*For a given value of alive, especially later.

 

[Zardnaar]

I've thought of an in Imperial game for SW D6 maybe SWSE.

I've got a story hook idea involving Rakata.

 

[Pale Violet Light]

In my effort to find the most mediocre turn-based tactics game, I’ve tried out the original Hard West. It’s a Western-themed XCOM-like with some supernatural elements. It’s broken down into several short mini-campaigns, each with an overworld map with multiple locations to visit, and a few choices to make, a handful of which are even meaningful. There are approximately 5-10 combat missions per mini-campaign. Combat is solid, a simplified version of the XCOM formula, though cover is even more important, as it reduces both damage and chance to hit. The incorporation of a luck system and a set of playing card items (bonuses change depending on your poker hand) means it’s a bit more interesting than other similar games, but it’s not amazing. Completed five of the mini-campaigns, mostly enjoyed it, but not sure if I’ll push through to the end or not.

 

[Thomas Shey]

I've occasionally thought about investing in that one but I wasn't that impressed with an LP I saw of it, and I've got like a dozen TB games backlogged, so...

 

[Pale Violet Light]

I've occasionally thought about investing in that one but I wasn't that impressed with an LP I saw of it, and I've got like a dozen TB games backlogged, so...

Yeah I picked it up on sale - would recommend if you see it cheap only. I’ve heard the second one is better.

 

[Pale Violet Light]

This is partly due to being Iron Man, partly due to rules-changes to be MORE like actual 5E

Yeah I usually play Honestman/ Bronzeman (I forget the exact definitions) because I don’t have time for full-on Honour Mode. I usually prefer the less-exploitable Honour-Mode ruleset though, which is now selectable from the menu for Custom difficulty.

Edit: is this the Voyager thread now? Er, Seven of Nine, phwoar?

 

[Ruin Explorer]

In my effort to find the most mediocre turn-based tactics game, I’ve tried out the original Hard West. It’s a Western-themed XCOM-like with some supernatural elements. It’s broken down into several short mini-campaigns, each with an overworld map with multiple locations to visit, and a few choices to make, a handful of which are even meaningful. There are approximately 5-10 combat missions per mini-campaign. Combat is solid, a simplified version of the XCOM formula, though cover is even more important, as it reduces both damage and chance to hit. The incorporation of a luck system and a set of playing card items (bonuses change depending on your poker hand) means it’s a bit more interesting than other similar games, but it’s not amazing. Completed five of the mini-campaigns, mostly enjoyed it, but not sure if I’ll push through to the end or not.

If it helps your quest, Hard West II is also profoundly mediocre, just like, determinedly "kinda ok" and really gunning hard for that coveted "nothing to write home about" award. It's definitely not a "bad game" or something, just profoundly non-compelling on pretty much all levels.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

Have been continuing an HM run through BG3, pretty far through Act 2 now, and it is fascinating that, even beyond any amount "harder" it makes the game (and HM doubles-down on that by also increasing the difficulty of fights, though they eventually patched in that difficulty level for non-HM custom games too), forcing you to live with decisions you definitely wouldn't have lived with before is fascinating, forcing you to work though options you wouldn't have taken.

Like, I'm messing around in Moonrise Towers at the moment, and there are several things I would have reloaded almost without thinking, but didn't, because I can't! A few examples just from there:

• Threw a barrel to break it open, which exploded unexpectedly, had to fight a guard who this pissed off, risking bigger problems (I was able to drop him and throw his body in a moat before anyone noticed).

• Freed both cells full of prisoners at once with the levers, didn't realize they'd immediately run for the exit (rather than talk to me about what to do) through a bunch of guards, and had to fight to defend them through multiple groups of guards, whilst they were completely suicidally charging them unarmed lol. RIP Lakrissa, maybe you shouldn't have charged a an evil Paladin full plate with a halberd and smite spells whilst you were armed only with your fists. I guess I will never get the 10gp you were going to owe me! The rest survived though I had to work for it and think of creative ways to get ahead of them (because I was a long, long way behind them to start)!

• Kicked a minor boss off a cliff before thinking about how she had loot I might have wanted (I looked it up later, she actually had a really good item, oh well). But the image of this rude idiot going flying to their doom is all the reward I need

• Got kicked off a cliff myself, had to go get res'd (indeed we nearly wiped there to one 91 HP loser of a guard due to bad decision-making).

I use consumables a lot more than previously, which is interesting. And more generally I'm seeing a lot of stuff I didn't seen my previous BG3 runs. HM also means you plan for encounters a lot more rather than rushing in face-first.

I have learned two important lessons:

1) Unlike tabletop RPGs, in BG3, the answer usually IS on your character sheet, or more specifically, in your bags. Virtually any terrible situation can be resolved with the judicious use of spells, magic items and consumables - potions, bombs, spell scrolls, etc.

2) Kicking and throwing people off of buildings, cliffs, bridges, piers, especially when you do it and get the basically redundant "stealth check" after doing it lol is possibly the funniest thing in an already very funny game. The kick has a particularly good sound effect. Just wait for someone to get to the right place, hit turn-based mode, Karlach runs up and basically sends them flying into eternity.

 

[Mad_Jack]

• Kicked a minor boss off a cliff before thinking about how she had loot I might have wanted (I looked it up later, she actually had a really good item, oh well). But the image of this rude idiot going flying to their doom is all the reward I need

I've always been massively entertained by folks getting knocked off buildings and cliffs in video games, especially when it's just a byproduct of a regular attack or you have to put some work into positioning to set it up. Skyrim was a good game for that - sometimes those guys would land like half a mile away if you shouted them off a mountaintop, lol.
In Star Wars the Old Republic this season, they've got a "dynamic encounter" that shows up sometimes on one of the planets where the entire goal is to grab a special "experimental" concussive weapon and use it to blow bad guys off of a walkway. Watching big ol' clunky lifter droids flying arse over teakettle over a railing is hysterical.