The Rogueies: It's On My List, I Swear awards

Look. There are so many games you guys. We can't get to all of them. But we will. One day.

We're giving out seven Rogueitonis for It's On My List, I Swear games. These are the games we know are good and we really should get around to playing, but we just haven't found the time for yet. But we will. We swear.

Cataclismo

Digital Sun have made Moonlighter, Moonlighter 2, and MageSeeker (a League of Legends tie-in game). All really cool stuff. And there’s Cataclismo, which is a castle-building tower defense game. It’s the most up my alley thing I’ve seen from them gameplay wise (League tie-in game that isn’t actually League is the most my shit thing they’ll ever do) and it looks absolutely gorgeous.

But I just missed it, man. I missed out, and there are too many things to play to go drop some cash on a rad-looking game that I just want to play for fun. That probably sounds very whiny, and just to be very clear: it is. But part of the job is playing a bunch of new stuff, and it can be really hard to go back when a moment passes you by.

I’m gonna fix that though, as it comes highly recommended by some of my co-workers here! Soon, Cataclismo. Soon.

— RG

Europa Universalis V

I love big strategy games where I get to gaze upon a map and say “Wow, there sure are a lot of politically distinct regions here, huh.” Europa Universalis V is one of the series based entirely around this big map strategy, and it's taken many successful experiments from both previous titles in the series, and other similar games like Crusader Kings. Paradox games are notoriously rough on release, but I’ve heard good things about Europa Universalis V, and I’m ready to start my own medieval government and end up hopelessly embroiled in a war for France or some such nonsense. I probably won’t know what I’m doing until a few runs shatter upon the rocky shores of bad luck and my enemies’ powerful armies, but that’s part of the fun with these kind of games anyways.

— CM

Clair Obscure: Expedition 33

So much of Clair Obscure: Expedition 33 is right up my alley. It’s moody and gorgeous and has good combat and literally everyone else says that it’s great (it swept the Game Awards). And the few hours I got to play of it had me intrigued.

But for us here at Rogue, the timing for Expedition 33 was terrible — it came out exactly one week before Polygon was sold and we all got unceremoniously fired. The oppressingly bleak Frenchness of it all just didn’t really mix well with our collective unemployment and moods.

I’ve been swearing I’ll get to it eventually for months now, but between launching the new site and the flood of new games we’ve been covering, none of us (except Ryan) have gone back.

— JP

Helldivers 2

I’ve played Helldivers 2. And Cass and Alice both love Helldivers 2. So really, Jeff should be writing this because he’s the one who hasn’t played it yet …But also, I really would like to get more into Helldivers 2 in 2026. The thing about Helldivers is that it’s pretty damn fun, in my limited experience. One of my only real memories of the game is joining an old Polygon co-workers run, which he was doing solo, seeing that he was fighting a big-ass bug, sending in some kind of summon to help, and watching as I accidentally called the pod down on the bug, killing it instantly. It was a genuine watercooler moment, and it was cool as hell.

But farming up the materials needed to upgrade all of my stuff when I just … didn’t have a regular crew? That got a little tough for me, and I just stopped having fun as the difficulty scaled up and the coordination of my random teammates didn’t scale with it. But if we can get some regular Rogue crew time in Helldivers? Well then, there’s never been a better time to fight for democracy. Or whatever Space Facism joke they use. Hopefully I’ll know by this time next year!

— RG

Monster Train 2

The original Monster Train is a game I absolutely love to pieces. I adored it on Steam when it first came out, and then I had the privilege of reviewing the Switch port at the old job a few years later. It’s one of the only games that actually captures the Slay the Spire feel as successfully as Slay the Spire does.

Monster Train 2 just came out at a weird time for me, where I was starting websites and trying to figure out what was next and also just didn’t have much money to spend on disposable income. Without getting a code in my email, I just couldn’t get in there and spend time on it.

But it seems awesome, so I’m really looking forward to rectifying that gap very soon. Hopefully, over the holidays, if I can get a good deal on the Steam Winter sale.

— RG

Demonschool

I’ve cracked into Demonschool a little bit, and I’ve already felt transported back to being a kid with a pirated copy of Final Fantasy 8, disappearing into a school-based, turn-based world of adventure and battle. So far, I’m intrigued by the cast, the soundtrack is a banger, and I think the combat has a lot of potential and depth. I just haven’t had the time to really dig past those initial impressions, since this has been such a crowded year. I’m going to find out all about these demons and this school’s hidden secrets, I promise. I just need to clear my backlog a little bit more, so I can give this game the attention it deserves. Such is the fate of an end of year release, I suppose.

– CM

Silent Hill f

I wasn’t much of a horror game kid, as I had nightmares for months playing TimeSplitters: Future Perfect when I was like 10. It was a sheltered upbringing and I didn’t see a lot of scary stuff!

Anyway, I like scary shit a whole lot now, but I entered into the world of horror games in the Dead Space era, which led to me really falling in love with modern Resident Evil and its modernized remakes. But I did check out the Silent Hill 2 remake in 2024 and I … liked it. It’s very much a different thing to Resident Evil, and it doesn’t have the same scavenging/inventory balance that I love from those games. But the vibes are amazing and the puzzles are really neat.

By all accounts, Silent Hill f is another great Silent Hill game that’s very, very Silent Hill. With Resident Evil 9 coming up so early next year, I know I’m going to replay the Ethan Winters duology and maybe the 2 and 3 remakes if I can find the time, so I don’t want to burn out too hard on scary Japanese horror games. But once the dust settles on more Resident Evil, Silent Hill f is already waiting on my PS5 for me to give it a try, and I can’t wait.

— RG