The final quarter of 2025 came to a close with the beginning of the new year and with it came the end of Boomer Shooter December, which was simply a hell of a lot of fun. I spent almost the entire quarter glued to my Steam Deck OLED, with only the occasional detour to the RG CubeXX. As always, there was more I wanted to get done and a few ideas that never made it off the ground thanks to my old enemy: time. But still, I managed to push through a couple of bigger, longer games that became time sponges themselves. Looking back, I probably wouldn’t do it any differently. Q4 could be one of my most satisfying quarters yet and overall a solid way to close out the year.
Without further adieu, let’s get stuck in…
I kicked off with a game I’ve owned more times than I care to admit, but never actually stuck with. Rockstar’s Red Dead Redemption followed me through my console buying and hocking phase. I had it on Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, then bought it once or twice more when I inevitably sold and re-bought those systems. Not my finest of financial decisions, but that’s all changed now… right? Hey, when is the next Steam sale? At some point I kinda convinced myself that it was basically Grand Theft Auto: Western. While that’s not entirely wrong, I think that really sells the game short. Sure, the controls and overall feel are familiar, but Red Dead Redemption’s big draw is its story and it absolutely wants your full attention. Once you’re hooked, it’s hard to focus on anything but seeing John Marston’s story through… even if it drags toward the end. I had an absolute blast with it and can’t recommend it enough. It runs flawlessly on the Steam Deck, I grabbed it during the Steam Autumn Sale and finally did it justice.
There’s plenty of games people love to say run like pure dogshit on the Steam Deck and Baldur’s Gate 3 is one of the more common targets. Believe me, those people are dead wrong. Baldur’s Gate 3 has been one of the best experiences I’ve had on the Steam Deck to date. I initially put it off after reading all the performance doom-posting, but after picking it up on sale and trying it for myself? It completely blew me away. I even wrote a review which touches on my own personal experience with it on the Steam Deck. It’s a perfect reminder to try things for yourself rather than blindly trusting random people on the internet. Except me, obviously. I wrote a guide covering the Steam Deck build and the settings I used to play through the entire campaign, Act 3 included. I’ve been a fan of the original Baldur’s Gate games since they released and I really enjoyed the nods and callbacks to them, even if it isn’t a direct continuation. Anyway, the bottom line is: Baldur’s Gate 3 is unreal. Play it. Preferably on a couch. …or the toilet. Whatever.
I’ll get to December, but earlier in the quarter I spent some time with a more modern boomer shooter. Prodeus might be a 2022 release, but it honestly feels like it would have slotted in perfectly in the ’90s. It was an unreal experience and it’s even more impressive knowing that the core team behind the game is essentially two people. Like most boomer shooters, the story barely matters, but the gameplay and sheer amount of carnage you can unleash is fan-freakin-tastic. Staying on shooters, GoldenEye 007 was the November pick for the Dusty Game Society and it was an interesting trip down memory lane. The multiplayer nostalgia and memories of Dorito dust are still strong, but the campaign just struggles to hold up. I touched on it in my review, the game shows its age in just about every way possible. The overwhelming jank is a real shame.
I’m still slowly working my way through a revisit of Sierra’s King’s Quest series and this quarter I chipped through two more with King’s Quest IV: The Perils of Rosella and King’s Quest V: Absence Makes the Heart Go Yonder. I played the ‘Retold’ fan remake of King’s Quest IV and while I genuinely appreciate the effort fans put into keeping these classics alive, I just don’t think King’s Quest IV itself is a good game. This was maybe my fourth or fifth time playing it and you can check out my thoughts about it, but it just doesn’t hit for me. I’m pretty confident it’ll take the crown for undisputed worst in the series. King’s Quest V on the other hand is a noticeable step up. It can come across as a bit stiff and the voice acting is… uh, definitely there, but the overall story and King Graham’s actions are far more believable. Rosella, a princess, traveling to another land and taking up grave-robbing? I’m just not buying it. King’s Quest V write-up: coming soon!
My Anbernic RG CubeXX basically lives in my work bag and I have no problems whipping it out when the opportunity presents itself. Heh. I only finished two games on it for the quarter, which I intend to improve on in 2026. One of those was Darkwing Duck for the original Nintendo, I first heard about it on TechDweeb’s YouTube channel and from various other retro game YouTubers since. It’s more or less Mega Man with a licensed skin and I don’t mean that as a knock on it. I’m not even a Mega Man fan and I had an absolute blast with it. It’s a typical side-scrolling platformer with action elements and I can’t recommend it enough. The other game was Ghoul Patrol for the Super Nintendo. The Dusty Game Society played Zombies (or, Zombies Ate My Neighbours in the US) as October’s spooky pick and it’s an absolute gem from my childhood. I had a great time reviewing it too, Zombies still rules. Ghoul Patrol? Well… it stinks, a major swing and a miss.
I kinda went all-in with Boomer Shooter December to close out 2025 and it was a pretty unreal way to end the year. The planning was poor, the gibs were great and it saw out the year with a bang. I covered off some of the cuts and I assure you there were more than what made that post. I managed to finish and review nine games over the month, which feels like a pretty solid effort. I won’t go into all of them here, I already did a full wrap-up and ranking for Boomer Shooter December. But I will share my three big takeaways for the month and I’ll start with Duke Nukem 3D. The loose goal was to finish the year with Duke and while that was absolutely accomplished, it didn’t end up cracking top spot and actually fell to middle of the pack which was completely unexpected. It kinda hammered home the notion that nostalgia is powerful, but it can be brutally unreliable. Aliens Versus Predator was probably the biggest casualty of that realisation. I hyped it up in my head for years, I even talked it up HARD with my brother before ripping through it. It genuinely stung, the nostalgia I had for it held it to such a high regard but actually playing it now? Awful. To end on a high note, and I don’t say this lightly: Return to Castle Wolfenstein is an absolutely underrated masterpiece.
Dad with a Deck 
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