Hello! Welcome to the first Games Release Roundup of 2025!

This week, it’s mostly leftovers and remasters because it’s January.

Yes, I’m back for the new year for the latest Geeky Brummie Games Release Roundup, a little earlier than usual. Typically this week is a dead zone for new releases, with western studios taking Christmas off and eastern studios taking New Year off. This year isn’t much of an exception, but it is possible to wrangle enough releases together for a roundup. This is mostly due to a few notable remasters releasing this week, along with a singular new indie game.

However, I also decided to cover three releases from the final weeks of December. The first three games this week all released after I’d declared Indiana Jones to be my final Game of the Week of 2024. However, I feel they’re all notable enough to cover, so with things being a little quieter this week, I’m giving them the spotlight now.

2024 Leftovers

The first chapter of The Midnight Crimes (PC) released on Christmas Day (!) so it’s not surprising this one was a little overlooked. This is a point-and-click adventure with open exploration, where you play a retired detective searching for a missing child. There’s a cool Telltale-esque art style and some interesting mechanics on show. New chapters are set for release each quarter.

A potential Game of the Week candidate if it had released in a standard week, On Your Tail (PC) is another mystery game. However, this one’s a fluffy Agatha Christie style mystery rather than a grizzled noir. And fluffy is also apt as the cast consists of a crew of anthropomorphic animals, which also makes the title a delightful pun. You play as a writer on holiday in a cosy Italian seaside town but oh no! There’s a thief! Part mystery game, part cosy life sim, On Your Tail looks a lot of fun.

Aliens: Rogue Incursion (PC, PS5) is a VR game set in the Alien universe. You play as a former Colonial Marine sneaking her way into a facility on LV-354, where something terrible has gone down. If you’ve seen any of the movies, you can probably guess what’s happened. Perfect if you’ve ever wanted to be terrified of a xenomorph jumping into your face in VR.

Re-Releases and Ports

Wuthering Waves came to PS5 in the early days of 2025. This clearly takes a lot of inspiration from Genshin Impact in both visuals and gacha mechanics, but is set in a post-apocalyptic world inspired by Death Stranding. No, it has nothing to do with Kate Bush.

Ys Memoire: The Oath in Felghana (PC, PlayStation, Switch) is a remaster of Ys: The Oath in Felghana from 2005, which itself is a remake of Ys III, originally released for PCs in 1989. It’s part of the long-running Ys series from Falcom that has gained a devoted cult following over the years, although hasn’t really reached mainstream appeal. If you like your anime JRPGs, this is generally considered one to delve into.

Speaking of handheld JRPGs getting general releases, Freedom Wars Remastered (PC, PlayStation, Switch) is a remaster of a PS Vita action RPG, which also has a dedicated cult following. It’s set in a dystopian world where people are imprisoned in cities and forced to fight wars for their masters.

Game of the Week

By virtue of being the one actual new release this week, Sea Fantasy (PC) is Game of the Week.

Although it would be unfair to simply award it the nod for that. It does also have a cool concept that would have made it a contender in a busier week, otherwise I wouldn’t be talking about it at all! It is, put simply, a fishing RPG. Imagine an old school RPG, right down to a potential world-ending conflict, and throw a lot of fishing in it.

It looks cute, you get to sail around on a boat and the fishing aspects look incredibly in-depth. What’s not to love?