🎮 The Most Exciting Upcoming Games of 2025 p.2
GTA 6, Doom: The Dark Ages, Mafia: The Old Country, The Last of Us Part 2 Remastered, Slay the Spire 2 and more!
Hello friends,
Today is January 9th 2025 and I hope you’ve had a great week 🙌
This is the second of 2 parts dedicated to the exciting projects that are scheduled to (or at least expected) be released in 2025 and the ones that I’m personally looking forward to.
If my gamer side could have a New Year's Resolution, this list would be it 😅
All of this is brought to you in a 5 min format ⏲️
Let’s dig in!
🎮 GTA 6
Release date: Fall 2025
Probably the biggest and the most anticipated project of the past few years!
I have to be honest, I haven’t played that much of GTA to wait it with my clenched fists in anticipation. But there’s no denying that these games are one of the most influential ones on the market and maybe this is the time when I get into it.
I played a bit of GTA 4, Vice City and San Andreas back in the day, but not to an extreme extent. This one though is promised to pull all the stops when it comes out and being the most expensive game ever built, I’m inclined to believe it 😅
🎮 Doom: The Dark Ages
Release date: 2025
Announcing DOOM: The Dark Ages, the prequel to the critically acclaimed DOOM (2016) and DOOM Eternal and the third installment of the modern DOOM series. Developed by id Software on the latest idTech engine, DOOM: The Dark Ages is a single-player action FPS that tells the epic cinematic origin story of the DOOM Slayer's rage.
You are the DOOM Slayer, the legendary demon-killing warrior and the super weapon in this never-before-seen dark and sinister medieval war against Hell.
This one had my eye since the first announcement and it looks pretty amazing! I love how the devs leaned into the medieval action with the flails and the shields and all that good stuff. I haven’t played the previous games in their entirety, but this one sounds right up my alley!
🎮 Mafia: The Old Country
Release date: Summer 2025
In Mafia: The Old Country, take on the role of a new protagonist named Enzo, who survived a childhood of indentured labor in Sicily’s sulfur mines to join Don Torrisi's crime family. Mafia: The Old Country will be available on PC, PS5 (PlayStation 5) and Xbox Series X/S in summer 2025.
Can’t say I’m a huge Mafia fan, but the previous games were great and this one feels very emotional and deep somehow, so it undoubtedly deserves a spot on this list! I’ll be able to say for sure once they release at least some gameplay footage though…
🎮 The Last of Us Part 2 Remastered
Release date: April 3, 2025
Play Naughty Dog’s The Last of Us Part II Remastered, coming to PC for the first time on April 3, 2025. Bringing with it all the improvements and new modes from the PlayStation 5 version, like the roguelike survival mode No Return, Guitar Free Play, commentary, and more, Part II Remastered will allow players to experience Ellie and Abby’s acclaimed journeys, optimized and enhanced for PC.
Despite all the controversy that this part got when it was released and the fact that I’ve already played this game backwards and forwards, I’m still looking forward to reliving the journey of Ellie and Abby. Especially when The Last of Us Season 2 is right around the corner. I’m almost sure that they will announce that it will be released somewhere in spring to pair with this release 😁
If you haven’t subscribed yet, this button is just for you ⤵️
🎮 Slay the Spire 2
Release date: 2025 (Early Access)
Take a look at the first gameplay trailer for Slay the Spire 2, the sequel to the original, iconic roguelike deckbuilder–as revealed at The Game Awards!
Step into the newly evolved Spire, a twisted labyrinth teeming with strange and deadly foes. With a new and returning cast of characters, adapt to an arsenal of brand new cards, relics, and potions, each offering game-changing possibilities—or dangerous consequences.
What new strategies and challenges await…?
The game that almost became a synonym for the roguelike genre definitely deserves a spot on the list! I don’t expect this game to make as big of a splash as GTA or Doom, but it looks so cosy (somehow) and fun, that it will be almost a crime not to include it. Provided the Early Access build is not going to be a total disaster, of course 😅
🎮 Tales of the Shire
Release date: March 25, 2025
From Wētā Workshop, known for their work in the film industry, comes Tales of the Shire: A The Lord of the Rings Game, a Hobbit life sim set in the Middle-earth universe of J.R.R. Tolkien. Coming later this year to the Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC via Steam.
Speaking of cosy, this is the game that my partner would love to play. It doesn’t look like much, but where would you be able to live out the seasons as beloved fantasy characters? Again, no big splashes here, but it looks like a solid AA game that will be able to entrain you for a while (especially if you have a Switch or a Steam Deck)
🎮 The Outer Worlds 2
Release date: 2025
The Outer Worlds 2 is the sequel to the award-winning first-person sci-fi RPG from Obsidian Entertainment. Get ready for an action-packed adventure in a new colony with an even newer crew and the newest graphics! Coming in 2025.
Damn, this trailer still makes me laugh so goddamn hard 🤣 Somebody ought to give a raise to the person who made the script for this.
Obsidian promised the game to be better, to be bigger and from the looks of it, they are not lying. I’m yet to play the first one, but the part 2 sounds amazing on paper and I’m eagerly waiting to see more gameplay footage and a final release date (hopefully, this year) 😅
🫡 True Tribute!
Today I wanted to salute
from with an amazing recap of 2024!
But it’s not only a recap, as you might expect 😅
shares an amazing story of how came into being and I can’t help but feel joy that I’m a part of the same community that has such great creators! I highly recommend reading this story, you might recognize yourself somewhere along the lines😄 Personal Update
After you don’t take a vacation for a while and then take two weeks, it’s a bit hard to get back on track 😅
That being said, it’s great to get back to work and continue working on our amazing game! And while this is going on, I’m still working on a bunch of articles related to the new series of posts and have some ideas for another one, but it will have to wait at least for a bit.
Also, I have some exciting news to share! I honestly don’t know if one of my posts caught someone’s eye or if somebody is messing with my stats, but at the time of writing this, the traffic to my Substack looks like this 🤯
I know that for some writers 12k views in one day is nothing, but for me, it’s like going viral 😅
I do have a question though for other newsletter operators here, did you notice anything unusual with Substack for the past couple of days? Any weird traffic or a spike of bots subscribing? Still trying to deduce what has changed in literally a day…
This is all the news I have for you folks today.
Thanks for making it this far! 🙌
If you feel like supporting me and my work, consider Powering-Up GameDev Relay 🎮
Have a great week!
Alex from Gamedev Relay.
Thanks for the shout out!
I can't wait for another Doom game! It looks sick. Also that spike in views is great! It makes that graph look super funky though haha. Congrats!