GamersHeroes Wednesday, January 1, 2025 10:21 AM As one gets back from holiday, we at Gamers Heroes have got you covered with the 5 games you must play in January 2025 - no multipage click-through required. The post 5 Games You Must Play in January 2025 appeared first on GamersHeroes. |
PCGamesN Wednesday, January 1, 2025 1:00 PM  I love Scandinavian interior design, embracing the minimalist vibe with beautiful woods and natural colors. That's why I'm in love with this DIY Nordic gaming PC build, with its beautifully crafted, custom-made oak case that's a testament to the skill of its creator, with plenty of space left for upgrades. This gorgeous Intel-powered gaming rig stands apart from the usual black or white metal boxes you'll see encasing the best gaming PC builds. The solid oak frame is precision cut, with rounded corners and aluminum mesh side covers for airflow, finishing the build off to look more like a classic 1960s radio than a full-size PC. MORE FROM PCGAMESN: Core i5 14600K review, Best gaming CPU, Core i9 14900K review |
PCGamesN Wednesday, January 1, 2025 12:59 PM  Say what you will about Star Citizen, but the people who enjoy it, really enjoy it. The gigantic space MMO, now 13 years into early access, has accrued massive, devoted player-base and an increasingly large amount of funding. 2024 was a hallmark year in that vain, with Cloud Imperium Games taking in $114 million worth of pledges from fans. Continue reading Star Citizen made more in 2024 than The Witcher 3's entire budget MORE FROM PCGAMESN: Best simulation games, Best multiplayer games, Best space games |
PCGamesN Wednesday, January 1, 2025 12:00 PM  Sometimes all you want to do is put on a suit of armor and wander around with big sword. It's why LARPing is such fun! Sadly, actual armor and actual swords are relatively hard to acquire, and using them to their fullest extent is tricky. But that's why we have Kingdom Come: Deliverance, an excellent historical action RPG that's free to own right now - but you'll want to be quick. MORE FROM PCGAMESN: Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 release date, Kingdom Come: Deliverance review, Best RPG games |
PCGamesN Wednesday, January 1, 2025 10:56 AM  World War II has been extensively fictionalized, not least in videogames, where numerous shooters, strategy and simulation games cover the conflict. One area that's relatively rare among all of these is submarines and underwater combat. UBOAT comes at WWII from that perspective, and military sim fans can now get it on Steam for a new, low price. Continue reading Beloved WW2 milsim Uboat hits lowest price yet on Steam MORE FROM PCGAMESN: Best strategy games, Best submarine games, Best WW2 games |
PCGamesN Wednesday, January 1, 2025 9:23 AM  What are the best Game of Thrones games on PC? With the second season of House of the Dragon now in full swing, fans are once again becoming deeply immersed in the world of Westeros. The TV adaptations of George R. R. Martin's work have resonated with millions of fans, and if you're looking for a new way to experience to world of A Song of Ice and Fire, we've got a long list of PC games to recommend. From complex political webs, to nuanced histories, and loads of sex and violence - there are many aspects to Game of Thrones and House of the Dragon. The games we've included in this list encompass all of these features. Some of them are official Game of Thrones tie-ins, while others are fantasy games and RPG games that have very obviously taken a large dollop of inspiration from the popular TV series and the books that inspired it. Oh, and we won't be mentioning the dreadful 2012 tie-in from Atlus USA (outside of this sentence) - this game has been banished to the Wall for crimes against the crown. Continue reading Best Game of Thrones games for fans of series to play in 2025 MORE FROM PCGAMESN: Game of Thrones games |
PCGamesN Wednesday, January 1, 2025 9:18 AM  What are the best VR games? When it comes to VR games, we're entering a golden era, kickstarted by the release of the Meta Quest 3. That being said, if you have any major VR gaming headset, you can play the vast majority of these games, all of which, we think, are the best advertisement for virtual reality. While there are many experiences out there, we're going to be more choosy, handpicking the top ones to play using the best VR headset options. After all, we only have room for the best VR games, and there've been some fantastic ones in the past year alone. If you'd rather keep your face in front of a traditional monitor, we'd point you towards the best PC games, which need just a simple old PC and none of this fancy goggles business. Continue reading Best VR games on PC 2025 MORE FROM PCGAMESN: Steam FAQ, Steam family sharing, Steam in-home streaming |
PCGamesN Wednesday, January 1, 2025 10:57 AM  It's officially 2025, and something is afoot. Mike Shapiro, the longstanding voice actor behind the ominous G-Man posted a short teaser to round out 2024. Is it for Half-Life 3? Probably not, but there's a good chance it's some form of release in the franchise. Continue reading Half-Life 3? G-Man voice actor shares mysterious teaser for 2025 MORE FROM PCGAMESN: What happened to Half-Life 3?, Best FPS games, Best upcoming PC games |
PCGamesN Wednesday, January 1, 2025 9:07 AM  Which games are coming out in 2025? If you're anything like us, your time is already stretched trying to play all the great games out right now, and the year isn't slowing down any time soon. Hope and anticipation, agony and elation - the endless cycle of emotions we go through during the annual PC release schedule. Year in, and year out, videogames are produced in such varying degrees of quality that not a single one of them is destined for certain success. Some of the best PC games of all time release alongside utter disasters, series are born while others dwindle, and occasionally a game lives up to our expectations. Below you'll find all the upcoming PC games to keep on your radar, and it's wildly varied. There are racing games, story games, city builders, and more, plus all of their expected release dates. Continue reading Upcoming PC games 2025 and beyond MORE FROM PCGAMESN: GTA 6 release date, Best open-world games, GTA 5 cheats |
PCGamesN Wednesday, January 1, 2025 9:16 AM  What are the best cyberpunk games? From neon lights and synthwave music to political commentary, AI, and body augmentation, you can probably see why anything with the cyberpunk tag becomes a favorite in pop culture. From excellent indie games like Deconstructeam's The Red Strings Club to big-hitter FPS games such as Deus Ex and Stray, cyberpunk games cover various topics, including anything from capitalism to bar-tending. There's even a Quantic Dream-developed Cyberpunk game with Davie Bowie in it. Remember that this isn't an exhaustive list of every cyberpunk game, but instead, just some of the most wonderful and weird cyberpunk games you could hope to get your inquisitive hands on. Dust off your decks and trenchcoats, head out into the rain, and marvel at our picks of the best Cyberpunk games on PC. Continue reading The best cyberpunk games on PC 2025 MORE FROM PCGAMESN: Cyberpunk 2077 Phantom Liberty review, Best Cyberpunk 2077 mods, Buy Cyberpunk 2077 |
PCGamesN Wednesday, January 1, 2025 9:19 AM  What are the best auto battlers? The auto chess and auto battler genre may have been a flash in the pan, but it's been a fascinating one to watch. It all started with Dota Auto Chess, a custom game mode for Dota 2 which then spun off to do its own thing, simply called Auto Chess. Valve took notice, and decided to create the ill-fated Dota Underlords. If you're interested in auto chess games, our list of the best auto battler strategy games will steer you in the right direction. Underlords sadly stopped receiving support at the end of 2020. However, while there aren't too many decent contenders for the crown of 'best' auto battler, the entries on this list all do something a little different, representing the best PC games the scene can offer. Continue reading The best auto battlers and auto chess games 2025 MORE FROM PCGAMESN: LoL tier list, Best auto battlers, LoL ranking system explained |
PCGamesN Wednesday, January 1, 2025 9:13 AM  What are the best FPS games on PC? From the classic physics chaos of Half-Life 2 to Halo Infinite's beautifully rendered worlds, these are the finest FPS games. For more than two decades, FPS games have been the driving force of the PC games industry. They've let us travel from the depths of Hell in Doom to the outer reaches of space in Titanfall 2. Others have taken us on a detour through the likes of Half-Life 2's zombie-infested Ravenholm, while some have embraced futuristic cities. Some of these games are old, others are new, and all are great. Warhammer 40K: Boltgun and its '90s-boomer-shooter-inspired graphics; Rainbow Six Siege's tight tactical multiplayer; Overwatch 2 and its vast array of amazing heroes. No matter what sort of virtual gunplay you're after, whether you want multiplayer games, war games, or something altogether different, the following titles will satisfy your itchy trigger finger. So crack those knuckles, and make every shot count. These aren't only the best FPS games, some of these entries are included in our best PC games too. Continue reading The best FPS games on PC 2025 MORE FROM PCGAMESN: Best FPS games, Apex Legends characters, Best battle royale games |
PCGamesN Wednesday, January 1, 2025 9:02 AM  What are the best zombie games on PC? Popular culture's fascination with the undead has given us a near-limitless supply of quality entertainment over the years. This isn't limited to TV and the movies, though - there are a host of quality zombie games you can play right now. Luckily, our list of dead-good hits has everything a zombie enthusiast could ask for, ranging from free PC games to co-op games a rather strange Lovecraftian period piece. If you like, you can even take a shambling detour through tower defense games and partake in some post-apocalypse parkour. Come with us now to find the ones worth playing as we wade through the hordes of shambling corpses. Continue reading The best zombie games on PC 2025 MORE FROM PCGAMESN: Black Ops 6 guns, Black Ops 6 missions, Black Ops 6 loadouts |
Siliconera Wednesday, January 1, 2025 3:00 PM
Not every game holds your hand and tells you exactly what to do. It might also not make it easy to breeze through the game. Neko Odyssey, Secret Character's new game about cat photography, is one of those titles. It's about appreciating cute animals and taking your time while on vacation in a small town, and that means the player needs to be willing to take it easy and slow down as they play.
Neko Odyssey starts off with the furthest thing from cat photography, as it sets things up by explaining a legend about a hero dispatching a demon from Cat Island and sealing them away, only for some spirits to escape and perhaps wind up as cats. Fast forward, and Miki is a young woman come to visit and stay with her aunt on Cat Island. She wants to pet and photograph all the cute kitties. In the process, she'll also help people with problems, play minigames, make animals happy, and learn more about the island.
When it comes to photographing the cats, many of them are pretty amicable to the idea. I found that for the majority of them, I could walk up, snap a photo, and be all set. In a handful of those cases, I'd also need to pet them. There are some that are a bit more challenging and may require something like food or an extra step to lure out. However, in those instances you sometimes get a hint (such as an obvious can of food image) or find a solution by being patient. Photos automatically upload to a fake social media site after, netting you likes and followers.
The only downside to the cat photos is that there isn't much variety to most of them. The cats will be in the same sorts of positions all the time generally. Once I started looking back at your feed, I also noticed many of them featured the same colors and designs too. Neko Odyssey isn't a cat photography game like the Neko Atsume mobile and VR series, where each cat is visibly unique or might show up in really fun poses depending on where they're photographed. There are a few cats that feel a little more special, especially if you end up in the brief minigames engaging with them, but I found most seemed generic.
I will say that even though there isn't that unique element where it feels like every cat is a delight and surprise, in general Neko Odyssey is a game that looks great. Secret Character went with a full pixel art approach filled with stylish character and environmental sprites. The backgrounds and locations especially look amazing, though there is unfortunately no map to help you get around the island and figure out where you have or haven't been.
It sort of feels like that is deliberate, however. While Neko Odyssey is a cat photography game, it also can feel like a slow life simulator at times. You have a town to explore, complete with places and things to see depending on the time of day you hang around and if you take the time to talk to people. You need to focus on your hunger and eat sometimes, if you want to look around everywhere. After I got through a few in-game days, I really felt like I was supposed to take my time and wander, rather than attempt to speedrun finding and photographing all the kittens. I wished I could have done more when moseying around, as I feel like there could have been more side quests. Though, to be fair, it could be that I just missed some.
Also, it's worth noting that Neko Odyssey didn't seem to completely support controller play when I played it. For the most part, I got around absolutely fine on the Lenovo Legion Go. However, when talking with people and going through shops, I'd actually need to use the touchscreen to advance conversations or to make purchases. Secret Character is very active on the Steam Discussions board for the game, so it is possible that is already fixed or could be by the time you read this.
Neko Odyssey is a leisurely sort of photography game is about taking your time as you hunt down, appease, and photograph cats. Some people might get a little frustrated by the lack of diversity, sprawling town with no map, and direction. I think it's absolutely worth the time invested, especially if you want to sit back and relax with cute characters and a charming town for an hour or two.
Neko Odyssey is available for PCs via Steam.
The post Review: Neko Odyssey Is a Slow Life Cat Photography Game appeared first on Siliconera. |
Level Up Wednesday, January 1, 2025 12:07 PM  December is here, and it's packed with an incredible lineup of game releases across all genres to wrap up the year with excitement. Whether you're a fan of action-packed RPGs, nostalgic remasters, or unique indie experiences, there's something for everyone this month. |