I forgot about those because I never played them myself and honestly this year has been awash with so many good releases that they kind of slipped my mind. But you're absolutely right!
Interesting that they didn't include Ninja Gaiden 4 in an otherwise incredibly exhaustive list, but apart from that I think this is as close to "every notable 2025 release, summarised and collected" as you're going to get.
I think the Fascist thought is a brilliant counterpoint to the Centrist thought in terms of how they're implemented in the thought cabinet. One heals morale when you select the relevant dialogue option, one damages morale. And in both cases the morale shift is used as a narrative punctuation mark to signal the underlying delusion happening in Harry.
It's a really good game, don't let my experience with it scare you off. The world building is awesome, the graphics are beautiful and the art style is gorgeous and very unique. It also has a very interesting character customisation system where you absorb aspects of enemies.
I still half-plan (or at least hope) to return some day, I think I just need a long break.
Twice, actually. First time was the Ringed City DLC for DS3. I was already kind of burnt out after the first DLC, Sister Friede was really challenging for me and I hated how long phase 1 and 2 was, only to get one shot instantly at the start of phase three. Took me a really long time to beat her. Then in the Ringed City for some reason I struggled with the Demon Prince even more. And it had all the same things I hated: a gank fight (I struggle with tracking multiple objects so any gank fight feels almost impossible) and a super long phase 1 that just feels boring and like it deliberately wastes your time. And I don't know. Eventually I just realised I wasn't having any fun. Didn't keep going past Demon Prince, and then Elden Ring came out and I just never went back to the DS3 DLC after, and after ER I kinda moved on to other things.
And then recently it was GRIME. I was already kind of feeling Soulslike fatigue I think, and I think the game was just a bit more difficult than I was expecting. Got to the first major boss and it was a 2v1 gank fight. Eventually got through it - only to find out it had a second healthbar and then get instantly one-shot. And I just kinda realised maybe I just need a break from feeling like I suck at everything for a while. Or maybe I've finally gotten too old for Soulslikes and really difficult games. I didn't really feel that fire or that need to overcome the challenge that I used to feel that would lead me to spend days working on a boss until I beat it. I just felt tired.
F.E.A.R. was eventually fixed. I'm pretty sure only the multiplayer.exe. still has DRM. I played it recently including the expansion and it was just fine.
The only black-and-white rule is: if you're buying an older game you should always buy it on GOG. No exceptions. There's too many retro games on Steam that won't even launch on modern machines, and beyond that GOG is typically very good at including fan made patches and fixes into their versions of old games, ensuring older games actually work and are just plug-and-play.
I've honestly mostly been vibe coding my changes to STALKER Anomaly mod TALKER and writing more backstories and personalities for it. It's been fun, although frustrating at times.
I have played some Chaos Zero Nightmare on my phone. The game is fun, I just kind of wish it wasn't a gacha mobile game. Also wish the character designs were a little less ridiculous, most are acceptable but some are playing to sexuality way too much making me just roll my eyes. All the usual trappings of daily energy and menial tasks to grind out to progress and level up your characters also feel extra annoying and needlessly time-wasting when the main gameplay is so good.
The actual roguelike deckbuilder gameplay is surprisingly good, though, and so far has kept me interested. The variety and versatility of builds is a lot of fun, with lots of specific or extra-rare upgraded versions of cards unlocking niche strategies and combos and stuff like that. Balance seems surprisingly good despite being a gacha and with the right builds you can make pretty much any character you like shine.
Also the story has a fast forward button that is almost like a skip, which is great because the writing is terrible and the translation is awful. But I'm not really here for that, so I don't really care as long as I'm not forced to engage with it.
If you missed the crazy good Remedy Anniversary deal on Humble Bundle some months back and still haven't played this game it's a solid experience and I think worth it. It's probably Remedy's weakest game, but still decent and this price is solid. The integrated TV series is interesting and definitely laid the foundation for Remedy's live-action work that they later perfected in Control and Alan Wake 2.
The story is solid, it actually makes a surprising amount of sense for a time travel story. You do feel like the usual Remedy weirdness is a little tempered - it was a collaboration with Microsoft after all who weren't interested in financing any of Remedy's existing IPs at the time. It feels and plays out more like a somewhat shallow blockbuster movie compared to most of their other games - mainly interested in wowing you with impressive set pieces. Which definitely do look great, don't get me wrong.
A warning also that the PC port is pretty bad, so make sure you have a good machine.
Does the story actually get good? I tried it out around launch but when they introduced a knockoff Paimon I noped out. I was there for a dark post-apocalypse story, not Sunday morning cartoon. Not that there is anything wrong with it but just not for me. I felt a little mislead.
Recently it's been Chaos Zero Nightmare on my phone. Yeah, it's a gacha. Yeah it has some absolutely ridiculous gooneriffic character designs that makes me roll my eyes. Yeah it's poorly translated and the story is garbage.
But you know what? The actual roguelike deckbuilder game mode is actually a ton of fun. The characters are well balanced enough that I've never felt like I was behind on power even with comparably "bad" pulls from the gacha. The game has been generous enough anyway that I have a lot of pulls saved up too. And the mutability and variety in the roguelike mode is just amazing. Tons of combos, tons of variations of every card and tons of opportunities to make niche builds work just because you happened to get one specific rare upgrade variation on one specific card while also stumbling upon one specific neutral card to add to your deck and stuff like that.
It is... kind of. Hence the half-cheat. First off it's 3D, but the game is completely centered around the Oldest House, which is the headquarters of the fictional FBC. Like a Metroidvania you explore and backtrack back and forth through it and unlock new areas opening up from previous places. There is also one (although only one) proper ability gate that lets you explore previously unreachable parts of earlier areas once unlocked.
Even if you don't classify it as a true Metroidvania it's definitely Metroidvania-inspired.
I don't know, I played Blasphemous this summer and had a very mixed time with it. I really wanted to love it but it mostly pissed me off. Too much gameplay design specifically intended to waste your time and make you miserable. Which - I guess - is the point because the game is all about the virtue of suffering. I just didn't find it particularly fun to play.
It was a special event route for the Pokewalker, but you can unlock it via connecting your 3DS to a pirate network. The myth of Surfing Pikachu was a whole thing back around Gen 1&2 proper so I think they did this one-time event around the time of HGSS release as a nod to that.
Just went and read your other post. Great read. I love HGSS, I know people sometimes complain about the level curve but to me those games were always the peak of the series. So much content, so much charm, just an absolute love letter to Gen 1 and 2, the dual region is still the coolest thing ever and the Pokewalker was a great little gadget. Though I still haven't gotten my flying or surfing Pikachu from it as those fuckers have like a 2% spawn rate and no pity system.
I forgot about those because I never played them myself and honestly this year has been awash with so many good releases that they kind of slipped my mind. But you're absolutely right!