Here we are again, at the end of another year, and I’m going to reflect a bit on the gaming year that has passed.
Most of this year I wasn’t feeling it. I didn’t feel like playing anything new or anything at all. As usual it has to do with work, not leaving room for it. I come home, crash in the couch and can’t bring myself to start anything up.
What I usually do to get myself out of gaming hiatus, is to play something that I’ve played before and that I love. In the late summer I started playing Mass Effect: Legendary Edition again, and I followed up with Horizon Zero Dawn Remake. With Mass Effect I just wanted something familiar. That game is really legendary, and I cannot think of anything else in terms of scope, perfectly executed three-part space opera. I’m still not a fan of the first game, and I just play it to get through, but once it starts picking up in 2 and 3 this is a masterpiece.
This brings me to Horizon Zero Dawn, which feels like the start of something similar. It is the start of a trilogy that has the possibility to live up to Mass Effect. The first game is a straggling start, the second really picks up. If the third game will be anything close to the grandiose of Mass Effect 3, we might have a contender for the most epic game series.
After playing Horizon Forbidden West, I really wanted to go back and get the platinum trophy for Horizon Zero Dawn, and the release of the remaster is what really got me to it. Now that I think about it, I don’t believe the game needed a remaster. The reason they did it was because the PlayStation 5 Pro needed a remaster of that game, to show off its new capabilities.
2024 was a very slow gaming year when one of the main highlights was a remaster. The only game I really looked forward to was Astro Bot, but I haven’t got around to it yet. I will probably play it in January after I’m done with Ori: The will of the wisps.
Looking forward to 2025
There are a lot of things to look forward to. First and foremost Civilization 7, being released in February. I have played every Civilization game since Civilization 1, so this will be a day 1 purchase from me. It will also be a physical purchase, as I like the idea of having the whole series on physical media next to each other in my bookcase.
I wonder if 2025 will be the year when we will have Nintendo Switch 2. I wonder if it will get closer to the Steam Deck in terms of performance and functionality, or if it will introduce some weird gimmick which Nintendo is (in)famous for doing.
I don’t think we’ll see another Mass Effect this year, and considering the debacle of Star Wars Outlaws, I’m not sure I want to see another Mass Effect. If it’s anything like what Ubisoft did to Dragon Age, I would prefer if they’d just leave Mass Effect alone, dead and buried.
I hope that Little Nightmares 3 gets a release date and I hope that Hades 2 gets out of early access and gets a release. About early access, I am looking at Path of Exile 2, but I will not touch it before it is finished. Right now GTA 6 is scheduled for late 2025, but that date may be postponed. If it’s released in a bundle with PlayStation 5 Pro, I might get a new console for it.
My next post will be game of the year 2024.
Replay 