Nuttacon's 2025 Games That Aren't Expedition 33

9. Grand Theft Auto V

It wouldn't be a Nuttacon GOTY list without at least one backlog game that has no business being here. Then again, GTAV always seems to be coming out so maybe it is a 2025 game. In any case, the optimizations and improvements they've made throughout the years culminating in the Grand Theft Auto V Enhanced edition are worth another look. With optimized code and SSD drives, the long loading times I remember are gone, making the experience much more enjoyable.

The game holds up. Cruising around Los Santos is still extremely fun and satisfying and tickles the same neurons in your brain that swinging around NYC as Spider-Man does. I never once felt like I wanted a fast-travel option because I never tire of weaving through traffic to get to my destination while listening to the impressive catalogue of licensed music. I even grew a likeness to genres I don't normally enjoy as I ventured away from my comfort zone of the dad rock station to try new things. All in all, the experience makes me extremely excited to explore the world and music that GTA6 delivers.

My goal in revisiting this game was to finally cross story mode off the list. Only twelve years too late, I can finally call it complete. I love these characters, and I appreciate the game being over the top and not taking itself seriously. Here's hoping for more of the same in GTA6.

8. Power Washing Simulator 2

Here's a real good example of "more of the same", which in the case of Power Washing is not a bad thing. I don't have much to say about Power Washing 2, other than it's what you'd expect, with a couple of tweaks.

The first such tweak makes the threshhold for completing the cleaning of a thing much more forgiving. No more hunting down that last speck of dirt. I'm actually not a fan of the change and feels it's too easy now - I think the correct answer was a medium between the two settings, but it is what it is.

I also very much enjoy the new surface washer as it glides across surfaces going "sploosh sploosh sploosh" and leaving a satisfying trail of water. But like Power Washing 1, I still found myself using the same narrow angle washer 90% of the time, which is fine. I appreciate the options being there.

Overall I feel the best thing about the game is that it's a new launching point for crazy new DLC crossovers, which was really the best part of the first one. Here's hoping we get that FF14 crossover so we can finally give Estinien the power washing he needs!

7. Path of Exile 2

It scratches an itch while also not requiring me to feed the Blizzard machine, from which I've escaped some time ago. Having seen footage of the latest Diablo which looks like Assassin's Creed: Unity-era Ubisoft barfed a load of map icons onto, I'm glad that this alternative exists with its comparatively streamlined set of features.

Streamlined, but not simplified of course. The ridiculous tech tree and gem system that scares off would-be skeleton clickers is the same thing that draws me to this game. I do hate games that feel "solved", and while I'm positive that at higher echelons of play it may have its good and bad builds, it certainly is not the case at the early stage I'm at. Also to that point, I may be the exact opposite of Path of Exile's target audience, caring little for end game grind, and being perfectly content to screw around in the Normal campaign (a thing that your hard-core players will dismissively refer to as the "tutorial").

In any case, it's still a work in progress and has not even reached 1.0 yet, but as new chapters of the campaign unfold I continue to enjoy punching skeletons with the different character classes and seeing what new gameplay we will get as time goes on.

6. Marvel Cosmic Invasion

It's TMNT Arcade Game except with the Marvel characters instead of turtles. It's a pitch that doesn't require further argument, and it's as fun as you'd expect from such a thing. The Marvel vs. Capcom DNA shows its obvious influences as you switch between 2 characters, although most of the time I was content to just stick with one.

The only real complaint here is the shortness of the game. Having completed all objectives and leveled all the characters, the only thing left to do is repeat arcade mode with the various options, though admittedly I have not done so. I am more interested in the potential for DLC characters and campaigns, which, if delivered, would make this much more of a value than I think it is right now. 4 out of 5 floor chickens!

5. Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance

Atlus's annoying tendency to re-release the "complete" version of the game a couple years after the initial release aside, I'm enjoying a modern foray into the Shin Megami Tensei world. I played enough of SMT3: Nocturne to have a previous history of the game, and can say this one feels like it has all the best things about 3 but with

the hardcore edges sligtly smoothed off which I appreciate. For example, traversal, tracking quests, and managing your demon compendium and party are much easier this time around. With the reverse compendium fusion features that show all available fusions from your party AND compedium, managing and creating new demons is as good as it has

ever been. Demon negotiation is also ridiculous as always and a welcome returning feature.

The setting and music feel give a Playstation 2 vibe in the best way, capturing that old school SMT experience. This game greatly benefits from running on the Switch, where a TV and pro controller provide the best experience, but also sometimes being able to undock and manage demons from the couch is great too.

4. Blue Prince

Blue Prince is not a roguelite. End of summary.

No, but really, I'm so tired of everything that has even a hint of run-based mechanics having to be called a roguelite. In fact let's just do away with all X-like genre names because they're the absolute worst. Making comparisons to other games is fine with sufficient descriptive language to back up the comparison, but enough with lazy genre buckets!

Blue Prince has some similarities to Myst, but rather than saying "HEY CHECK OUT THIS COOL MYSTLIKE" and calling it a day, I will proceed to use my words to elaborate. Blue Prince begins as a game about shuffling a deck of room cards to build an ever-changing mansion layout. Each room contains its own puzzles, of course, but as you traverse the rooms and build new rooms ahead of you, carefully plan out where to place hallways, deadends, or other types of rooms to maximize exploration while avoiding dead-ends (wherein you are forced to reset to a new day and new mansion).

The premise is already cool and has a great hook, but it slowly morphs into... something else. Something where the Myst comparison makes a little bit more sense. The world slowly opens up in unexpected ways and you are solving both room-based puzzles and larger meta-puzzles. It's really hard to give specifics without spoiling anything, but every time you think you've solved the big meta-puzzle, you realize you've barely even started the game. The scope grows larger in a way I've never seen a video game grow before and that's really fascinating.

I have an admittedly limited patience for sticking with puzzle games as I just never have enough time to beat my head against the wall when I hit dead ends as I would like to, and inevitably I start seeking outside help to move things along. But I did get pretty far in this game without doing so and the puzzles felt very satisfying to solve.

My only complaint about Blue Prince is that there are a handful of puzzles that are just a little bit too much of a stretch - things that I can't imagine being possible to solve without looking up a hint or the solution. But aside from that the game offers a great, unique twist on puzzle and mystery games.

3. Jurassic World Evolution 3

Dinosaurs! And Goldblum! For these reasons, I submit Jurassic World Evolution 3 as my #3 game of the year. Other reasons include: the game feels like JWE2 but without the many launch problems. The game has a great new dinosaur breeding feature which allows you to breed dinosaurs in the wild. There is a much-improved customization system for placing and manipulating objects, and downloading creations from the community. New attractions like the jungle cruise are fun. And you can name the dinosaurs funny things like Chrono Trigger characters (why you would name the Kronosauruses anything else, I don't know).

The campaign's story is nothing special - like Planet Coaster 2 from the same developer, its story is a bare-bones premise that enables the gameplay. In the case of JWE3, it serves more as a vehicle for Dr. Ian Malcom dialogue, which, really, isn't that what we're here for? The entire campaign sees Dr. Malcom frowning and disapproving at everyone and everything happening around him and that is all I need from the campaign, really. There's some

great little nods to the movies, too, if you appreciate that sort of thing. Not being incredibly interested in sandbox modes myself, I also just enjoy having a campaign framework to give me a checklist of things to do.

As expected, the initial dinosaur roster is not huge and there will be DLC additions over time. For me, I would like to see a few improments to map editing such as better road manipulation, the ability to create bridges and advanced routes, and perhaps some new attractions besides new dinosaurs. But for now, I wholeheartedly endorse this park!

2. Final Fantasy Tactics: The Ivalice Chronicles

Final Fantasy Tactics might be the best Final Fantasy. I think we all knew that in our hearts, but now we have an updated release to reaffirm this fact. I was initially disappointed with the updated sound effects and visuals. It felt like "not my Final Fantasy tactics" because things that had been etched into my memory - such as the PS1-quality "aaargh!" sound effects of defeated enemies, or the extremely pixelated-yet-legible fonts - were now gone and replaced by something new and unrecognizable.

Don't worry about it though, because I was over it after just 1 or 2 battles. The new game looks and sounds great, and the voice acting is a welcome addition to a now-familiar story. I echo the sentiment that the story is somehow easier to follow when it is voiced. Ben Starr is also a welcome part of any game. And anyway, the original, un-retouched version is available on the disk just in case! So everyone wins!

FFT really should be a Game of the Year contender every year, because it is truly a video game of all time and continues to stand against the slop being churned out today! They don't make them like this anymore! But with this re-release, we can add it to the list in an official capacity and it finds itself as my #2.

1. Assassin's Creed: Shadows

We've come a long way from the bad middle chapter of Ubisoft's Assassin's Creed journey. I think lessons have been learned about too much map clutter, and how much we hate the animus, and it shows in Assassin's Creed: Shadows.

The map and quest board still provide many things to do, but it never feels overwhelming like the collectathon games at their worst. It feels like a "just right" amount of content. There's still some present-day shenannigans to be had, but Ubisoft has learned to quietly put that aside and remind us that "hey you can check this out, or not" and leave it be. What we're left with is a fantastic historic Japanese shinobi revenge tale intermingled with Japanese

military drama, represented by our 2 main characters Naoe and Yasuke.

I played with Japanese audio for the full experience, and Naoe and Yasuke are quite charming - the most enjoyable AC characters since Bayek surprised us with Origin's return to form. Naoe's quiet intensity plays off of Yasuke's honorable and large presence very well and their dialogue is always engaging. One of Ubisoft's greatest strengths is taking historic fact and filling in the gaps with creative fiction. History of Yasuke abruptly ends in real life, and filling that gap in with his newfound allegiance with Naoe's branch of assassin's is a cool detail.

Combat is the most fun it's perhaps ever been in Assassin's Creed. Each character has plenty of weapons and abilities to choose from so that it never feels stale. While both characters can fight, generally Naoe is better suited for stealth and Yasuke for fightin' (Naoe can get away with fighting more than Yasuke can get away with stealth - generally Yasuke's opportunity for sneaking before erupting into warfare is limited). It's great to have both styles available and I've enjoyed taking out castles both stealthily and stabbily.

Japan is gorgeous in Assassin's Creed: Shadows. I found myself avoiding fast travel in favor of riding through the country just to view the landscape (which changes with seasons, even). And while the game runs great at 60FPS and looks real smooth, I actually prefer the cinematic look of 30FPS and the high quality graphics.

The reasons I've chosen this as my 2025 Game of the Year, in short, are that it is a culmination of Ubisoft's efforts to make a good Assassin's Creed game, that it looks beautiful, and the combat is fun, satisfying, and never gets boring!