I don't know if you've heard, but it's the year of Obsidian: Microsoft's fastest-working studio already has one 2025 RPG under its belt in Avowed, and it's putting out another one in October with The Outer Worlds 2. Completing the trifecta of 2025 Obsidian launches is Grounded 2, the odd duck of the portfolio. Not only is it a survival game rather than an RPG, but it's also the only Obsidian series that gets to release in early access.
Grounded 2 was one of the meatier demos I went hands-on with at Summer Game Fest. Microsoft let me loose at the beginning of the game with a timer, so I sped through the tutorial and made it to the new open world map ASAP—a city park that, when shrunk down to the size of an ant, looks like an alien planet.
