I must’ve been a magpie in another life. I’m easi🌌ly distracted by shiny things and immediately must possess them, with that obsession encompassing merch, games, books, and food. Nothing is off limits. I’m an impulsive buyer, and the bigger and shinier things are, the better. When it comes to games, this often means the most popular titles from the most well-known studios, presuming it falls in🎃to a category I like. Sorry, sportsball games, you’re not for me.
If you ask most gamers which games they’re looking forward to in any given year, they’ll likely respond with the most recognisable names on their wishlist, regardless of whether smaller ones would have caught their eye as well. We’re all guilty of this. There are plenty of indies I’m still looking forward to in 2025, but if you’d asked me🍸 what I was most anticipating back in January, it was Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii.
PSAಞ: You Don’t Need A Gaming Laptop To Play Games On A Laptop
Buying a ‘regular laptop’ has opened my eyes.
Pirate Yakuza was a banger, and deserved to be on mine and others’ radars. Many of 2025’s biggest games deserved similar praise,🐭 like Monster Hunter Wilds, Elden Ring: Nightreign, or Death Strandi﷽ng 2: On the Beach. But we’re only human, and we only have a finite number of free hours, so I can’t help feeling blinded by the brightest stars as I miss out on some of the smaller constellations.
I Need To Make More Time For The Double A’s And Indies
It’s not that we shouldn’t enjoy triple-A games, but we should be making time to appreciate the little guys. It’s too easy to forget the underdogs that dese♛rve our attention and continually risk being lost amongst the noise. Last year, indies like Balatro, Animal Well, and Thank Goodness You’re Here made big waves, and 2025 continues this pattern with double-A hit Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 already vying for the Game of the Year crown.
I was aware of Sandfall Interactive’s debut title before launch, but it was more of a maybe I’ll play this rather than an inevitable favourite. I wonder if I would have felt differently if there was a big name publisher behind it, like Square Enix, a sad truth I can’t rule out given the other RPG giants attached to it. Of course, that was before the hype train reached full spꩲeed fueled by those stellar reviews and millions of sales.
It’s easy to jump on the bandwagon and appreciate a hidden gem once everyone and their dog is raving a♛bout it, but there are so many more I fear missing out on. Besides, I shouldn’t need to wait for someone to signpost some of these great games⛎; I should be delving in and discovering them for myself.
I’ve Learned Not To Judge A Game Before Playing
You enjoy a game a little more when you stumble upon it before it’s beloved by thousands. There’s a sense of smug satisfaction that you’ve found something awesome others may be missing out 🔯on, and then you end up being the one spreading the good word.
Just don’t ever be that annoy🍒ing ‘I liked it before it was cool’ peಌrson.
Even when we’re aware of double-A or indie titles, part of the problem is there’s such a wealth of games to play in any given month that we can be too quick to write some of those that don’t immediately fit our taste🏅s. The Alters was the prime example of this.
If you had asked me earlier in the year about The Alters from 11 Bit Studios, knowing that it was billed as a survival game, I would have waved you off saying it wasn’t my cup of tea. Yet 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:after playing a lengthy preview, it became one o♏f my most anticipated games of the year and I began encouraging others to look forwar🔴d to it.
One of those many people was my husband, and he too adored it and admitted he wouldn’t have touched it if I hadn’t convinced him it was worth his time. It’s strange to think how easily I may have missed out on what became one of my favourite games of 2025, and it’s now serv☂ing as a cautionary tale for me not to judge a book by its cover, or more specifically, a game by its genre.
It’s Not Just About Prestige, It’s About Whether It’s Fun
I recently went to a Devolver Digital event and played a bunch of demos for upcoming games: Baby Steps, Possessor(s), Ball X Pit, Forestrike, and Mycopunk. Devolver is no stranger to receiving acclaim and awards for its indie🦹 games, with Cult of the Lamb and Neva being two of my firm favourites from its large roster that have won numerous awards in recent years, but when it comes to indies, success often feels like luck of the draw♐.
Indie games often have such bonkers, out of the box concepts or gameplay mechanics that triple-A games wouldn’t dare attempt because major🐽 companies don’t want to take risk❀s anymore.
This bittersweet truth was never more clear to me then when I stumbled through 🦂marshland as a man in a onesie when playing Baby Steps. Eventually, I accidentally undid all my hard work as I slid down a mountain and slipped into a puddle of wateꦑr where you can flop around like a fish, which was weirdly satisfying.
Baby Steps isn’t 📖going to be Game of the Year, but it was hilarious to play, especially with others.෴ One of the quirky things about it is that everyone who plays walks with a different gait as everyone times their steps differently.
It’s not a party game by any means, yet the setting of London’s Loading Bar, drinks in hand, and everyone's controller swapping made it feel𝐆 like one. We𓂃 cheered each other on, we laughed, and we judged how others moved this manchild around the wilderness. It was infectiously good fun. And isn’t that the whole point of games?
We’re over halfway through the year 👍and my backlog of games to play before Game of the Year season starts is already longer than I’d li꧂ke, but I’m determined to be more aware of what’s launching and taking things for a test drive.
At the heart of it, I need to remember that gaming isn’t just about playing the most critically acclaimed ꦗor well-reviewed titles, but playing games because they look fun.
CD🎀PR Not Putting Meaningless Fetch Quests In The Witcher 4 Doesn’t Mean It Won’t Have Plenty Of Filler
The quests may have me🍒aning, but plenty of them are still rote.
