(electronic beeping) - [Falcon] We are on the brink of a new year, and with the new year comes new games. Hi, folks, it's Falcon, and today on Gameranx, the top 10 new games of the first half of 2025. At number 10 is "Sid Meier's Civilization VII," the latest 4X extravaganza from Firaxis Games.
Now, I'm not gonna say this is, like, a major departure for "Civilization," but they've added quite a few interesting things. First, ages, you have antiquity, exploration, and modern periods, in between each, there's crisis points where you have to decide what elements that you keep from the previous age as you move into the next. I do think that's a pretty cool-sounding idea.
It also is going to allow you to do some weird alternate history stuff. An example I have seen in the leaders in "Civilization" swapping, like Benjamin Franklin of revolutionary United States fame, building the Great Wall of China. At the heart of it though, it's still "Civilization," if you like previous games, I'm sure you're not gonna be particularly out in the cold with what's going on here, but these are some interesting ways of mixing up the formula that I think honestly sound good.
They could not be good, I don't know, we'll see. Obviously great ideas can be executed well and bad ideas can turn out better than you expect, so we'll have to wait for the pudding to see if the proof is in it. "Civilization VII" is coming to PC, and when I say PC, I mean Windows, Mac, and Linux.
It's coming to the PlayStations, the Xboxes, and Nintendo Switch as well all on February 11th. At number nine is "Assetto Corsa EVO. " You might be aware of the beloved racing simulator.
It's a franchise that's been going on a while. This is the open-world one. The map they've created for this one is supposedly over 600 square miles.
It takes place in Nürburgring. It's real world terrain supposedly, I don't know if it's 600 square miles of Nürburgring that are specifically recreated, or if it's areas that have been combined into a map, I don't know that, I do know that the developers have a proprietary engine that they have been working on. This game's gonna have a day-night cycle, dynamic weather, and apparently advanced vehicle physics.
Now, as you know, vehicle physics are kind of lackluster in racing games as a whole, now, whether that's arcade or simulation, so I'm interested to see exactly what they mean by enhanced vehicle physics. This one's gonna have VR support as well, which I think is a good thing. "Assetto Corsa EVO" is coming to PC via early access, at least at first, it is going to land on PS5 and Xbox Series later, but January 16th is where you're gonna see it pop up on Steam for your purchase.
At number eight is "The First Berserker: Khazan," a action-RPG developed by Nee-ple, or Neople? I don't know how to say it, I don't want to say nipple though, they're not going to make me. It's published by NEXON though.
It's allegedly a hardcore action-RPG, and it's set in the "Dungeon Fighter Online" universe. "Dungeon Fighter Online" has been going since 2005, although we in the West didn't get it 'til 2015, 10 years in. This is a single-player game.
It is a prequel set 800 years before, you know, what you could do in "Dungeon Fighter Online" now, and it's about the first berserker, of course, Khazan. It's kind of a cool idea, and if it turns out to be. .
. I would guess this will become a franchise pretty quickly, on account, "Dungeon Fighter Online's" been going for nearly 20 years at this point, has a built-in audience, and a lot of those people also like single-player games, me in particular. I have played "Dungeon Fighter Online.
" I don't ongoing-ly play "Dungeon Fighter Online," but I'm familiar enough that this definitely piques my interest, and also the footage looks pretty sweet. "The First Berserker: Khazan" is coming to PS5, Xbox Series, and PC on March 27th, however, if you want to play it earlier and without paying any money, a demo is coming out on January 16th and all the save data is transferrable to the full game. I love that companies are doing this, to be frank, it's something that gets me in the door immediately, I'm supportive of it, like, demo culture was basically gone for a very long time there, and it really provides a good way to get people into your game.
The flip-side is you have to prove it's a good game, but for consumers, that's obviously great. I'm pretty excited about this one, "First Berserker: Khazan" looks pretty cool. Moving on to number seven, it's "Killing Floor 3," the latest installment in the co-op first-person shooter series.
This one actually takes a pretty big jump, where "Killing Floor 1" and "2" are set in the sort of near future, this one jumps to 2091, and the reason for that is to plop you into a more dystopian, crazier world where Horzine is more powerful and the Zeds are much more advanced. I think from a gameplay perspective, it's probably a good idea 'cause it gives them a lot of excuses to kind of go full maximalist in everything. It's a bit of a new direction, although it doesn't look supremely different from "Killing Floor 1" and "2.
" They're touting new enemy AI in this game, which I think is good. I just love that we've gone back to talking about how good enemy AI is. Now, it's probably a result of all the AI hype, but if that gives us good NPC/enemy AI in games, I'm all for it, I don't care why, I just care that it's happening.
But here's some good news for everybody who's got buddies with different consoles or platforms, "Killing Floor 3" is gonna have six player co-op and it's cross-play across all of the platforms it's on, so PS5, Xbox Series, and PC. It doesn't have an exact date, but "Killing Floor 3" is gonna land in March. I'm pretty excited for it, it looks great, looks like a big upgrade, and who wouldn't want that?
At number six is "Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2. " As you know, the original game has gotten a lot of praise, acclaim, for being a very immersive and realistic game. It doesn't look like they're switching direction, in fact, it looks like they're even more leaning into that commitment to realism, and I particularly like that they're doing that in the combat mechanics as opposed to just being, like, "Well, it's more unforgiving and that's more realistic.
" They're talking about the sword play being much more fluid. They're talking about refining the archery system, and as a byproduct, they might be a little less forgiving, but the idea is to make them more realistic as opposed to just harder. I don't know, some developers seem to have this weird belief that harder equals more realistic and that's definitely not true.
We'll see if it ends up being harder, I don't know. This one's actually got two distinct maps, so the world is quite a bit bigger. In fact, nearly double, because both maps are apparently roughly the size of the original's single map.
I don't know, in a lot of ways it really seems like this is a large upgrade from the first game, and if you enjoyed the first game, I'm sure it's gonna be worth playing when it comes to PS5, Xbox Series, and PC February 4th. Moving on to number five, it's "Atomfall," a single-player survival-action game by Rebellion Developments. This one's set in alternate history 1960s Britain where things went awry following the 1957 Windscale nuclear disaster, a real event, but also the point of divergence for the alternate history of the game.
It's five years later, you're a lone survivor, and you're in a quarantine zone. That setup might give you "S. T.
A. L. K.
E. R. " vibes, but it's a little more oriented towards the sort of crafting and survival elements, it's not, like, a sandbox per se, it's a little more narrative driven, at least from the looks, I could be wrong.
The combat looks fairly even-handed between melee and ranged and looks nothing like "S. T. A.
L. K. E.
R. ," like I said, the setup's kind of similar sounding, except we're in Britain, but the game doesn't look particularly similar. "Atomfall's" gonna land on the PlayStations, the Xboxes, PC, and Xbox Game Pass on March 27th.
Moving on to number four, it's "Assassin's Creed Shadows," the 14th major installment of the, well, storied series, let's be clear, there are some that are better than others. This game is stirring up a little bit of controversy, but if you look into what they're actually trying to do with it, I'm interested in the outcome more than the speculation. Obviously it could be a big heaping pile of dogshit, we don't know, but Ubisoft has been saying they're leaning towards the more traditional "Assassin's Creed"-style gameplay, which is kind of what I wanna see in "Assassin's Creed" at this point.
I like the open-world stuff. I made it clear that I think both of the types of "Assassin's Creed" games are good, I like the old-school kind just a little better, but I'm also kind of hesitant to lose the open-world stuff completely, and this seems like it's very in line with what I want from an "Assassin's Creed. " I mean, Ubisoft has kind of painted it like a bridge between old-school and new-school, leaning a little bit closer to old-school.
I think "Mirage" is probably a pretty good precursor as to what exactly they're doing here, you got more stealth, more assassination, more parkour focus, they're saying that the story missions are going to be a little more linear and focused, while at the same time, putting you on a pretty big map. You got Kyoto, Osaka, Iga, you got lots going on. Like I said, they've been describing it basically as what I want from "Assassin's Creed" at this point, so despite whatever arguments people are having about it, it has the potential to be a good game, now, again, I will say that doesn't mean it's going to be a good game, however, I have some hopes for it, and I will definitely be playing it.
"Assassin's Creed Shadows" is coming out February 14th, Valentine's Day. It's gonna be coming to PS5, Xbox, PC, and iPad, like I said, on Valentine's Day, so happy Valentine's! At number three is "Avowed," a first-person RPG coming to us from Obsidian taking place in the "Pillars of Eternity" universe.
I'll go ahead and say this, I'm just basically completely excited at the prospect of the people who were in charge of "New Vegas" making a game that looks somewhat like "Skyrim," not necessarily entirely, obviously, there's a lot of specifics to "Pillars of Eternity" that I'm sure will set it apart, and it's also not just a full-on open-world game, I think it's more of an open-zone game. I don't know how, but "Sonic Frontiers" actually managed to make it so people say open-zone, but I guess it's actually a decent description of what it is, they're not levels, but it's not an open-world, and open-level doesn't sound right, level implies a certain amount of linearity, so. .
. I don't know why I'm getting hung up on this. "Avowed" looks great.
It's Obsidian doing this type of a game. There's factional stuff that we know is going on, and allegedly, you're gonna have the same kinds of meaningful choices that you might expect from "New Vegas," and again, if you like "Skyrim," look at the game, there are things here that will appeal to you. This is a game that I'm pretty excited for, although I'll say it's very easy for me to get confused with certain other games that kind of have this aesthetic, and they all didn't do that great, so I'm really gonna be trying to wipe the slate clean as I go into "Avowed" because it's done by people who've made this type of game very well in the past, as opposed to a lot of the other games that have kind of looked like this but they're really just somebody trying to make a game that either cashes in on the aesthetic or ideas of "Skyrim.
" This goes way further than that. "Avowed's" coming February 18th to Xbox Series and PC along with day-one access on Game Pass. Definitely a must-play for me.
At number two is "Split Fiction," a co-op adventure game coming from Hazelight Studios, the creators of "It Takes Two," and obviously continuing on the innovations they made with that game. In this one, you take the roles of Mio and Zoe, who are two different writers, a science fiction writer and a fantasy writer, and basically, it takes them through an adventure that, you could probably figure out exactly what it is, combines both worlds and makes them have to collaborate. I don't know, actually a pretty good idea for an adventure game.
Something else that I think is really cool, you have to play it co-op obviously, it's a split-screen game, but they're doing something pretty cool here called the Friend's Pass. If you wanna play the game with a friend and they don't own the game, you can invite them to join the adventure, and it doesn't matter what platform they've got, it's all cross-platform, and frankly, that's cool as shit. The game's coming out on PS5, Xbox Series, and PC March 6th.
And finally, at number one is "Monster Hunter Wilds. " I mean, this is gonna be a big one. It's kind of hard to avoid "Monster Hunter.
" Now, this is a game that's not necessarily known for its story, it's more known for its gameplay, and it looks like they're advancing a lot of it. I'm very happy with the direction they're taking because "Monster Hunter World" is this big, sprawling thing, it does a great job at everything that it does, and then, they released "Monster Hunter Rise" a little bit later for Switch and then ported it to PC, and it has a slightly more vertical approach, and it looks like they're taking the sort of "Monster Hunter World" base and moving it in the "Rise" direction. That, to me, automatically gets me in the door, 'cause I really enjoyed "Monster Hunter Rise," specifically "Rise.
" It's not that I didn't enjoy "World," I actually love the hell out of "World," but it's pretty old at this point, and "Monster Hunter Rise," to be frank, looks like it's older than "Monster Hunter World" because it was designed firstly for Switch. "Wilds" just looks like a "World"-ified "Rise," if that makes sense, I don't know. I don't know if I'm saying smart things here or not.
We got cross-platform four player cooperative multiplayer so, I mean, this is gonna be a fun one for you and your buddies, and it will be landing on PS5, Xbox Series, and PC February 28th. I do have a quick bonus game for you, "Metal Gear Solid 3: Delta" is allegedly coming out the first half of 2025. If you're unaware, it's a full remake of "Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater," including all of the original voice cast.
Allegedly, there's a couple of new lines from a few people, but it's not, like, a re-recording of the whole game, it mainly preserves the original, and obviously it's a much better looking game, uses Unreal Engine 5, but allegedly, they're doing everything possible to maintain the gameplay, at least with some modern quality-of-life conveniences. I'm personally super excited for when it lands on PS5, Xbox Series, and Windows, hopefully first half, I don't wanna wait that long for it, it looks great. I do have hopes that this does well and they decide, "Ah, maybe all of the 'Metal Gear Soilds' deserve this treatment.
" Hell, contract Kojima Productions to finish up "Metal Gear Solid 5" when you redo that one too, maybe, yeah? Get David Hayter as the voice again, you know? That type of thing.
Anything is possible when it could provably make a lot of money, right? Anyway, that's all I've got for you today. Leave us a comment, let us know what you think.
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