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I'm gonna copy paste mine from Twitter so sorry if I screw it up along the way. GOTY 10: Hitman 3. I've always enjoyed the new Hitman's. The newest includes five excellent levels and a train, and being able to play the entirety of the previous games together in a smaller, better looking and running package makes the World Of Assassination a highly replayable and enjoyable world to be in. Honestly, it would be higher up if I had ready access to VR, as the VR mode looks like an absolute hoot, but maybe for PSVR2, eh? GOTY 9: Wasteland 3. Wasteland 3 is the best Fallout game of the last decade. A large expanse filled with fun and interesting factions and characters, a deep combat system, and actually meaningful choices that impact your quest and indeed, the world. GOTY 8: Returnal. Housemarque know how to make bullet hell work. Their games tend towards filling your screen with projectiles and claws and screaming horror, and then asking you to avoid it all while shooting everything in the face. Returnal does this just as well as Resogun, did, while giving you a random assortment of rooms, side areas, treasuries and alien glyphs to find. None of that is ever strictly necessary, but can make your journey easier, and boy, I can see why people would find Returnal difficult even if I myself did not. It has a weird habit of making the game easier the better you do: avoiding damage means you get more max health, and can make more mistakes later on. I enjoyed the moment to moment gameplay of every run: I would have gone for the Platinum...... but I heavily dislike games where progress is gated by random spawns with no method to influence or control them. If it had those? Ways to remove artifacts from the pool? It'd be a sight higher up this list. GOTY 7: Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart. Insomniac can't miss, it seems, and Ratchet continues to be an absolute blast of a 3d platforming blaster. A wide and weird weapon wheel to wield wins points for innovation, and it's extremely well polished. Just a Good Game(tm). GOTY 6: Streets Of Rage 4's DLC: Mr X Nightmare. Yeah, I know, it's a DLC. It adds a roguelike survival mode for eight bucks that I've gotten dozens of hours out of in addition to more characters to an excellent belt brawler. So: it totally counts. GOTY 5: Operation Tango. Easily the best asymmetrical co-op game I've played, and included with Plus no less, I beat this four times in about a week with two different friends and I would do it again with anyone who asked me to. They've added new DLC for free that I keep annoying my friends to get back to, but between my moving country and Christmas, we just haven't had the chance but I'm greatly looking forward to it, and I'm definitely keeping an eye on their next game. GOTY 4: Doki Doki Literature Club Plus! I like the occasional visual novel. DDLC takes what you know about visual novels, and then uses those tropes to create a fantastic deconstruction of those very games, while having it's own new story to tell about AI, player interactions with games, and poetry as a means to bridge the gap. Add in a funky fake PC interface, some light horror elements, and a catchy tune or two, and you've got yourself a winner! GOTY 3: Persona 5 Royal. Yeah, it came out last year, I played it this year. Sue me. Persona 5 was fantastic. Royal makes it better: guns are useful, Baton Pass is a starting skill, there's new bonds to make, a new Palace to explore, and......everything else is just as good - if not better - than the original, which is already a stone cold classic JRPG. It's one of the best JRPGs of the generation, honestly, and I don't say that lightly. GOTY 2: Monster Train. I like card games. I like roguelikes. Monster Train is a card game deck based roguelike tower defence game on a train going to the heart of hell to save the universe from angels, who board your train and they don't even have a ticket, so you need to ask them to leave, though a highly customisable system of blocking with monsters, using spells to buff and damage, and spending your earnings between rounds to make your cards better. I spent over 150 hours on MT this year, and it helped me keep my sanity while moving country with no Internet or TV. I will absolutely buy and stream it whenever it hits PS, and I will probably Platinum it, assuming the Trophies aren't... monstrous. (Ba dum tish) Game Of The Year: Nier Replicant. It's a masterpiece. It is literally videogame art. It's almost as good as Nier Automata, even, though playing Automata first makes the new Ending E of Replicant even better...I honestly don't have the words to describe how Nier made me feel while I played it. All I can say is you should play it, really, and then you'll tell me I was right.
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Dec 18, 2021 21:01
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Jerusalem posted:https://gfycat.com/dampdelicioushorsemouse.mp4 Cyberpunk 2077, at least on the PC, really wasn't a bad game by any means, even at release. It was just released in an alpha state and was overpromised. What was promised was "Super Witcher : Bladerunner Edition" what we got was a bubble gum pop Cyberpunk game with a lot to show but nothing to say. I found the disconnect between the world designers and the game writers to be very amusing. It's clear with all of the exploitative advertisements and the culture clash in the world the designers wanted to say something but basically nothing is said. The roleplaying is also an inch deep. Insane for CDProjekt who made a name for themselves offering compelling role-playing experiences in a world dominated by Bethesda. There is literally only one part in the entire game where you can even change the ending...which is right before the ending! That said while the game has uneven production and polish, when it lines up it lines up. The world can be very atmospheric. And the game definitely has some memorable set pieces. Not to mention Keanu Reeves performance is great, as perfectly sells Johnny Silverhand as the pinnacle "I don't give a gently caress!" character. Plus, this may take people a back but the game was very well optimized on the PC end as I had little problem running it on weaker hardware. Unfortunately due to the game releasing at least a year too early (which resulted in tons of bugs and releasing on hardware too weak to handle it), forgetting to add the "role" in role-playing (which made for a shallow gameplay experience and little replay value), and CDProjekt's PR seemingly doing everything to piss off people (which had people overthink if not just completely make poo poo up that isn't even in the game), it has become a posterchild of "disappointing hyped games". The 2020s Daikatana if you will. The game really needed to be in development for longer and be prepared for a 2022 release for at least a moderately welcomed reception. Escobarbarian posted:Speaking as a non-FFXIV player separating the expansions doesn’t really seem to me to make any sense at all? It typically makes perfect sense for an MMO due to the fact that the overwhelming vast majority of players who played the new expansions are already fully caught up with the game. Subscriber counts always explode when a new expansion releases than are cut in half just the month after and then go back down to where they were pre-expansion. What makes Final Fantasy XIV tricky is that the game has had an unprecedented amount of growth since the previous expansion that arguably the majority of players who have completed Endwalker probably spent most of their time this year playing other content from different expansions, including their main story quests. Pretty much everyone who played Shadowlands last year didn't play Legions with fresh eyes a few months before it. In contrast you could argue that a majority of current Endwalker players played Shadowbringers with fresh eyes sometime this year. Nevermind the side-content associated with it. Jerusalem posted:Seems like every year this thread gets made I end up thinking,"Man I should get a Switch....". I haven't even played any Metroid games before and this write-up made me wanna play Dread! The Switch is a very good system with a great line of exclusive games not available anywhere else. This just doesn't refer to that the games are exclusive, but that these exclusive games don't really have any comparable games on even Steam. Animal Crossing, Super Mario Odyssey, Breath of the Wild, Fire Emblem, Super Mario Maker 2, are just some titles that it's difficult to find anything anywhere else that scratch the same itch. You'll also be very surprised to find out how often you play games undocked. punk rebel ecks fucked around with this message at 21:22 on Dec 18, 2021 |
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Dec 18, 2021 21:18
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5. Pokemon Unite This game sounded dreadful at first, with its seemingly predatory pay-to-win mechanics. But the 10 minute long MOBA matches were a welcome reprieve from the slogs experienced with past experiences in League and DOTA2. I never expected to enjoy jungling as a Gengar to be so fun or to be something I would really enjoy. I fell off this game after patches that were obtuse and seemingly encouraged rubber banding, but the dozens of hours I spent playing this every day were a highlight of the year. 4. Metroid Dread A video game rear end video game. Super Metroid is one of my GOATs, and it's been a long rear end time since I've done a 2d Metroid. The movement is silky smooth, and the added melee elements and more mechanics heavy boss fights were welcome additions to the Metroid formula. I found the EMMI encounters to be more tedious rather than scary, otherwise I'd probably rank this higher. 3. Inscryption This was my most anticipated game of the year after the cryptic trailer from Devolver's E3 presentation. This game blew my mind and it's my most pitched-to-other-gamers game of the year. Can't really say much about it without spoiling such a cool and genuinely surprising and novel experience. 2. Returnal I really enjoyed the loop mechanic's necessity the narrative, and the bullet hell Housemarque gameplay neatly transitioned to this higher fidelity. I loved the challenge that it posed, though I thought the back-half of the game could have been tuned to be a bit more challenging. The visuals are stunning and I think it's the best looking game of the year. and GOTY... 1. Final Fantasy XIV: Endwalker Oh my god. There's just nothing else like it in video games. This massive and continuous story reaching its conclusion in such a completed and satisfying way is one of the biggest payoffs and most enjoyable experiences I've had in gaming over the past 30 years. I'm not a cryer in general but this game repeatedly moves me to tears and really knows how to trigger my Final Fantasy nostalgia with its references to and music lifted from past entries. The barrier to entry is high, but it's just so good. biceps crimes fucked around with this message at 21:45 on Dec 18, 2021 |
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Dec 18, 2021 21:42
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No more votes for, or discussion of, FFXIV. I don't have the time for it and will hear no more.
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Dec 18, 2021 22:12
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If you start now and make it your full-time job, you can finish all of the expansions in like, not even two months!
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Dec 18, 2021 22:18
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I sure have played a lot of not 2021 games this year. 1. Deathloop I liked just about everything about this game. All its pieces are good - the powers are all good, the character writing is good, the story is good, the guns are good, it looks good, it sounds good, and the levels are all fun to explore. Every individual moment was basically a delight. All that said, the thing that puts in it the number 1 spot is the pacing. All that good stuff is fed at exactly the right place where there's always a few different things to do, but never so many you really forget what you've got outstanding. Every time I started a run I was excited for what it would bring, and every time I finished a run I got the payoff. And at least for me, the toys ran out at exactly the same time as the story did, and as the little exploration bits did. My only real criticism is that it's just far too easy. There's not actually any gameplay reason to use most of the cool powers and guns they give you because you're basically invincible and have enough firepower to beat any part of it by about 2. Guild Wars 2 I've not picked a specific expansion because the game isn't structured that way, and also it doesn't matter because it's not getting enough votes anyway. I played a fair bit of FFXIV this year and I spent so much of it thinking "GW2 does this better." The story isn't on the same level but everything around it is so much better. It's just absolutely packed with content everywhere you look, and it's pretty much all materially rewarding enough to actually do at times. Rewards are also generally done on a per player basis, and the few things that aren't are plentiful enough that it never really feels like you're competing with other players. It's also just fundamentally fun - the gameplay is engaging, it's gorgeous to look at, and the world is really well designed. The end result is a game which really lives up to the massively multiplayer category. There's always stuff happening around you, and there's always people doing it, and it's always worth joining in when you stumble across it. It's also just really well done in how accessible the content is - there's a bunch of ways to level up and then once you do that you can pick and choose your content, with none of the "you just have to get through 100 hours of ARR then 60 hours of Heavensward" poo poo. Aside from good story bits, there's fun bosses, sick cosmetics, and good build variety accessible very early on, to get you right into things, but also enough spread out into the endgame that it still feels worth sticking around. It's just the best MMO you can play right now. 3. Mass Effect 3 It's my controversial opinion that this is the best Mass Effect game. Ultimately I think that might be just because I love Mass Effect in general and this is the culmination of it, but I'll defend basically everything about it aside from the last fifteen minutes (I highly recommend alt-f4ing once Shepard presses the button and definitely shuts down all the reapers and saves the galaxy, what do you mean colour coded magic baby endings?). The story doesn't quite have the rogue heist mission charm of ME2, but the more linear structure is so much more cohesive and, in my opinion, delivers a much more "epic" (for want of a better word) and engaging story. They've refined and smoothed out all the issues, and then built back up in the gaps, and delivered an exciting action adventure in a captivating universe with very few flaws for most of it. Above everything it's just extremely enjoyable to play, which is really the most important factor. It's a game that for me has been more memorable, and more replayable, than almost any other. 4. Paradise Killer Paradise Killer is very different to everything else I've played and put on this list full of big action games. It's the best kind of mystery, where everyone is a suspect and no-one is completely innocent and every conversation changes the game just a little bit. Set in a weird and wonderful and very, very stylish world. I'm not actually sure if I got the right solution, it seems like there's multiple potential endings and no concrete answer, but I really enjoyed the journey! 5. Halo Infinite This is for the multiplayer specifically, I've not got around to the single player yet. There's a lot of bad structure in Infinite - the playlists (or lack of), battle pass, challenges, cosmetic system, etc etc etc it's been litigated a million times. Ultimately though when you get in game it's so much fun. I don't really have much to say beyond "it's so much fun" but it really is so much fun to just play and ignore all the meta-systems. I highly recommend downloading it for free, playing the multiplayer until the gameplay has stopped doing it for you, and not giving Microsoft any money. I'll be playing the campaign on game pass. 6. Destiny 2 Destiny 2 is a game that's really, really good despite being constantly mismanaged. Everything Bungie does is bad and dumb, but they have yet to sunset the fact that they have cool space magic and silly guns. I'll also nod to the aesthetic, Destiny 2 at it's core is a fantastic lighting engine with an fps attached. It's also just an incredibly easy game to drop in and out of whenever I want. I can go from thinking "I don't know what to play tonight" to being in a strike or a crucible match in all of about a minute, and it won't really matter if I haven't been keeping up my gun collection or anything. I continue to keep it installed because I still enjoy booting it up whenever I don't know what else to do, and I'll probably give them money for the next expansion even though they absolutely don't deserve it. 7. Homeworld: Deserts of Kharak There aren't enough good RTSes, and I'm really disappointed in myself it took me this long to make my way through this one. I really enjoy the balance of strategic and tactical gameplay, and how it keeps those elements without asking too much in terms of micromanagement. The persistent elements are balanced just right so you feel like you have to be careful but not that you're totally loving yourself into a corner. As a Homeworld game, it's very good to the originals - the gameplay "feel" is very well translated to the essentially 2d space, and it hits all the same emotional notes as well. It's just really good as both an RTS and a homeworld game. I wish there was more of it. 8. Nioh 2 I will be 100% honest and say I have listed this without quite finishing it. I'm just not that good at video games. The most of it that I did play was really good though. Cool world to explore, cool enemies to gently caress up, cool weapons with which to gently caress them up. I do have some concerns about the difficulty curve and encounter design (some of those enemies should not be in spaces shaped like that) but for the most part it was a very satisfying game to slowly make my way through. 9. Kingdom Hearts 2 I've been going through the Kindom Hearts games very slowly since they come out on PC, but of the ones I've played so far KH2 is the best. It ironed out the vast majority of the issues I had with the earlier ones, like how Sora is less annoying and how the story is a bit more cohesive (if not coherent) and how there is a Mulan world. There are definitely issues, as to be expected from a game that's almost 20 years old, but it's still very full of charming touches and fun gameplay twists. 10. The Talos Principle I think a lot of the philosophy in this went over my head, and frankly a not insignificant amount of the puzzle design did too, but what I did get was really good. I was particularly impressed by the way they teach the player new concepts and ideas, where I barely even noticed they were doing it. It's a real masterclass in puzzle game design. Honourable mentions FFXIV: ARR and Heavensward I played this game for about 6 weeks straight and only got to about halfway through Heavensward before I tailed off, but I could definitely see the beginnings of a good game. The Crystal Tower raid series in particular was great. I 100% believe everyone ranting and raving about how great the later expansions are, I just don't really have it in me to get there. The whole thing just rolls a little too slowly. I did enjoy the time I spent but ultimately I can't really recommend anyone go for it, despite everyone else putting it high in their list. Last Epoch I thought about putting this in my main list but I wanted to stick to games which aren't obviously still works in progress (and then immediately violated it for Halo). After several ARPG disappointments over the last few years, this one is actually shaping up to be really good. It's missing a lot but there's already enough that you could theoretically call it a finished game - it's far ahead of where Wolcen ended up. I'm looking forward to where it goes in 2022. Steep This has been my go to completely-shut-my-brain-off game for several years now. I mostly ignore the challenges and actual mechanics in favour of plonking myself on a mountain and throwing myself down however takes my fancy in that moment. I don't think I can really give it a spot on my list but this game has been my companion through some deeply rough mental health times and some deeply long podcasts.
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Dec 18, 2021 22:20
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Jay Rust posted:If you start now and make it your full-time job, you can finish all of the expansions in like, not even two months! You literally cannot start now, though. Eorzea's full.
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Dec 18, 2021 23:11
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lol
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Dec 18, 2021 23:15
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It hasn't been the most exciting year for games but these are very good lists all
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Dec 18, 2021 23:26
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my gaming year was very exciting
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Dec 18, 2021 23:29
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I'm very seriously considering putting Humankind on my list so I will merely chalk this up to a difference in subjective experience.
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Dec 18, 2021 23:31
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Does anyone have a link or convenient reference for the last few iterations of this thread? I've picked up a lot of interesting new titles from reading this one.
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Dec 19, 2021 00:43
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Tosk posted:Does anyone have a link or convenient reference for the last few iterations of this thread? I've picked up a lot of interesting new titles from reading this one. 2020 https://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3950329&pagenumber=1 2019 https://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3906060&pagenumber=1 2018 https://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3875640&pagenumber=1
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Dec 19, 2021 01:34
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The fact that an expansion to an MMO is gonna win 1st place should say a lot about how mediocre this year has been for new games.
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Dec 19, 2021 01:58
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I just realized that I was misremembering the ffxiv patch schedule and my shb ranking was falsely including 2020 memories. 2021 was a lot worse for shb than 2020, and I have adjusted my list accordingly. Please update your tally rarity, and everyone congratulate gnosia on making it into my top ten
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Dec 19, 2021 02:01
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Sir Dingleby Dapper posted:The fact that an expansion to an MMO is gonna win 1st place should say a lot about how mediocre this year has been for new games. this is a thread for enjoying video games, not being mad at what other people enjoyed Perhaps you might find some games this year you missed and might enjoy from the plentiful listings in peoples top tens?
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Dec 19, 2021 02:03
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Sir Dingleby Dapper posted:The fact that an expansion to an MMO is gonna win 1st place should say a lot about how mediocre this year has been for new games. and also play blue reflection 2
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Dec 19, 2021 02:40
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I don't usually ever care that much for the winner of this thread but I dont call it a weak year for that, my tastes and this thread don't usually align that closely. That said, Endwalker was one of the most anticipated releases of the year and has delivered on expectations so I'm not gonna be mad a game which has cultivated a loyal fanbase had its sequel be everything they wanted. Especially not in a thread about celebrating your favorite games of the year without judgement. and also play Sable
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Dec 19, 2021 02:42
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it was cool that one year where monster hunter won
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Dec 19, 2021 02:45
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BeanpolePeckerwood posted:it was cool that one year where monster hunter won MH Rise is my goty (list in progress) but I think the switch exclusivity is gonna hurt it here. World came to consoles and PC same year + was also very good
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Dec 19, 2021 02:49
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I didn't really play as many games in 2021 as I wanted to, so this is a bit of a goofy list with some older stuff in it. Honorable mentions to Yakuza 7 and Everhood, simply because I feel I didn't progress far enough in them yet to make a real judgement. 6. Inscryption  Inscryption's a funny game. What seems like a horror-backwoods themed card game turns into something else. Rather than trying to be an endless deckbuilding roguelite, Inscryption instead has several ways to break the game, some obvious and some not. In the end it's really an exploration on what makes a game fun. Is it a strong theme and lore? Unique gimmicks? Risk-reward? Pure mechanics alone? 5. Deathloop  Girlfriend Reviews was right: Not only is this not GOTY, it's not even the best game Arkane's ever made (that's Prey). But it's a fun game with fun dialogue. Arkane's choice to ditch quicksaving/quickloading to force you to live with your mistakes is great for breaking my bad habits and making me live with my mistakes. Shootin' dudes is fun, and so is exploring for lore. The only disappointment is that there's a number of really 'deep lore' sidequests that give lackluster rewards. It's also interesting that the game doesn't really provide you any answers by itself - almost all of it is either in the pre-level conversations, or tucked away in notes. 4. Pizza Game  I like playing games with my partner watching, but I've gone through most of the obvious cinematic games or Telltale-y choicey ones. Finally, someone suggested Pizza Game to me. What a ride it is. The entire game is one long shitpost. Join Kiane (pronounced like the pepper) as she tries to date boys and endure condescension from her mother through amazing routes full of twists and turns and even minigames sorta! I don't really know how else to describe this game. here have another screenshot.  3. Final Fantasy XIV: Endwalker  Of all the Final Fantasy games this one is certainly the most. That's it, really. 2. Suzerain  Suzerain seemed to slip under the radar of a lot of goons as it released in late 2020, which is a shame. It's a political sim/ choice game, set in a 'fantasy' but realistic 1950s-esque world. You've recently been elected the President of not-Turkey, and it's up to you to steer your way through the Cold War in your first term in government. I recommend it if you want to play Disco Elysium crossed with Crusader Kings 3. 1. Disco Elysium: Director's Cut  GOTY every year, game of forever. The extra quests and voice acting work to contextualise the world and draw you further into this amazing game that holds up the mirror to examine both the world around you and yourself. bewilderment fucked around with this message at 23:46 on Dec 19, 2021 |
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Dec 19, 2021 02:52
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I don't have an actual list because most of what I played this year doesn't really stand out to me. But that's true every year because my memory has always been funny and I spent more time replaying old favorites than discovering new things. However, my game of the year has to be Slay the Spire . It's the first roguelike I've ever enjoyed and it completely consumed my summer. I have put in over 300 hours with the game since June, which is nearly as many hours as I played games on my Switch in all of 2020. It made me buy Griftlands, which is also fun, and I really hope the developers make a new deckbuilder in the future because this one is tuned to perfection.
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Dec 19, 2021 02:55
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BeanpolePeckerwood posted:it was cool that one year where monster hunter won Monster Hunter World was so great, I feel bad for never "finishing" it. I was so thrilled the year Sekiro won.... well, in my heart at least, even though the thread accidentally mixed things up and swapped its place with Disco Elysium (also a great game!)
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Dec 19, 2021 03:01
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everyone's lists are super high quality this year, some super cool layouts and custom pictures and fonts holy cannoli
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Dec 19, 2021 03:03
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Jerusalem posted:I was so thrilled the year Sekiro won.... well, in my heart at least, even though the thread accidentally mixed things up and swapped its place with Disco Elysium (also a great game!)  Jerusalem posted:Monster Hunter World was so great, I feel bad for never "finishing" it. I finally "finished" early this year (hence it makes my goty list for a 3rd time), and let me tell you it was extremely satisfying to go all the way, having to completely remake my playstyle and builds several times over in order to be able to even survive some of the later stuff, eventually culminating in Fatalis. Holy crap what an apex gaming moment. I can't wait for MHW2.
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Dec 19, 2021 03:11
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Endorph posted:the expansion to an mmo is an extremely good game tho I played through the prologue earlier today after seeing it on a few lists and it's p cute
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Dec 19, 2021 03:15
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"Weak year" more often than not simply means "I primarily game on Playstation or Xbox." Nintendo and PC platforms had plenty of quality titles.
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Dec 19, 2021 03:38
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punk rebel ecks posted:"Weak year" more often than not simply means "I primarily game on Playstation or Xbox." Nintendo and PC platforms had plenty of quality titles. I mostly play on PS and I had a great year. Was def catching up on some stuff from last year but that's cool, too! Some sweet jrpg releases this year on old consoles, a few of which I haven't even gotten around to.
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Dec 19, 2021 04:34
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Honorable Mentions: Great Ace Attorney: I will probably wind up putting this somewhere on my list next year, but I've only gotten through the first 2 cases and don't really enjoy rushing through these games, so I just thought I'd bring it up here because what I have played is really good so far. Dragon Quest 11: Okay so this shouldn't really count because I literally loaded it up to fight the final boss on January 1, 2021 just so I could say the first thing I did this year was finally beat DQ11. But still. I love this game. I got majorly lost in the sauce on the endgame side content and kind of burned myself out on it so that's why it took me so long to get around to finishing. But man what a good game. Mario Kart 8 Deluxe: what the gently caress do you mean i went from 2nd place to 10th after getting hit with 6 items within about 20 feet of the finish line go gently caress yourself this game sucks. Final Fantasy 7 Remake - Intermission: While I probably liked this on the whole a bit more than my #10, Arkham Knight, I don't think I can quite justify including it. It's really just a fun little bite-sized side story. I never quite perfectly gelled with Yuffie's fighting style and I kind of feel like they overtuned the combat ever so slightly in this one, expecting you to be fresh off finishing the main game (which I hadn't touched in a year and a half), but all in all it was a good time. Nice to see my trash bag bdsm boyfriend Nero von Edgegoth and his stupid brother Weiss the Definitelynotsephiroth brought back into the fold. I'm not joking, I genuinely love that Dirge of Cerberus material is part of this universe and I am positively energized when people complain about it. 10 - Batman: Arkham Knight (2015) So I never got around to playing this one originally, despite being a fan of Asylum and LOVING City, because of all the negative reviews I'd seen, mostly citing the overuse of the Batmobile mechanics and the various technical issues (which were admittedly mostly on the PC version but I remember hearing the PS4 version wasn't perfect either). Sony gave it away for free earlier this year and I decided hey, why not? What people said more or less rang true; when you were fighting and sneaking and doing the Batman thing it was a lot of fun, just like the other ones, but there was far, far too much Batmobile in the game, way more than it deserved. It was not very fun to drive the Batmobile, but they clearly thought otherwise. I also found the combat got a little overly convoluted, like the red counter indicator needed about seven different kinds of reactions or gadgets and you had to memorize which one was associated with which kind of attack, and it was kind of overwhelming at points. The story was... strange. I liked parts of it, wasn't big on others. The way these games have treated women has always been pretty questionable but it got pretty uncomfortable at a few points in Knight. Scarecrow getting top billing as main antagonist was nice though. This game mostly makes my top 10 by virtue of me not being someone who plays a ton of stuff over the course of a year. This was one of the few I actually finished. I did enjoy it though! Just not nearly as much as pretty much everything else. 9 - Yakuza 4 (2011/2019) So Yakuza 4 is loving dumb. Anybody who's played the series can attest. It's a story with deep ties to the history of the series's characters and setting, going as far back as 1984 for its main flashback story beats. 3 new playable characters are introduced who share the spotlight with Kiryu. Akiyama, a former banker-turned-homeless-turned-loan shark with a heart of gold, whose fortune was amassed after gathering up a bunch of the cash that rained onto the streets at the end of Yakuza 1 and placing some very good investments. Saejima, the sworn brother of Majima, who had been sent to prison for 25 years after he enacts a hit on a rival Yakuza boss, breaking out of prison to avoid a death penalty and find out what happened to the family he belonged to after his arrest. Finally, Tanimura, a "corrupt" cop with Tokyo PD investigating the incident that kicks everything off in this game while simultaneously gathering information on the truth of who killed his father. The three newcomers and Kiryu all have paths that cross and converge at points during the incredibly convoluted series of events of this game, with double cross after double cross, swerve after swerve, and while the path to get there was pretty circuitous and stupid at points, even for a Yakuza game, the final sequence (on top of Millennium Tower obvs.) is one of the best in the series, at least that I've seen so far. Definitely a divisive one among Yakuza fans but on the whole I really enjoyed it. 8 - Guilty Gear Strive (2021) I have a difficult time with fighting games. Not because of the fact that they're unfriendly to newbies, but because I just don't have the type of brain that will allow me to stick with games and practice practice practice for as long as fighting games require. I can sit in training mode and drill it out for 4 or 5 hours, like, once, and then I feel like I don't want to touch the game again for weeks after that. I have always had the bad habit of just dropping games for a stretch of time to go play something else, and sometimes it takes me ages to come back. Arkham Knight and Hades I played most of at the very start of 2021 and have only circled back around to in the last month, for example, while Tales of Berseria took me over 3 years to get back to for more than a couple of hours here and there. Fighting games are seemingly just incompatible with how I am able to enjoy games, and every other one I've tried, I play for a few weeks, feel bad that I'm not making progress and don't have it in me to grind hard enough to make that progress, and give up. And so all that is basically prelude to say: I'm actually incredibly impressed with how long I stuck with Strive. I was playing it for a good 2 and a half months after I got it, and while I did eventually put it down to go back to other single player stuff, I didn't put it down feeling bad about myself or the game or any of it. I was having fun pretty much the entire time and I actually want to return to it at some point in 2022. I really think that's a testament (hehhhh) to how well made Strive is. 7 - Control (2019/2021) I'm not exactly a Remedy fan or anything, Control was their first game I've played, but man this game was incredibly cool. Control has the kind of art and environment design that people lauded DmC Devil May Cry for back in 2013, except the game it's attached to here is actually good. The main narrative is decent but the real meat is in the lore behind The Oldest House and the FBC, as well as the various supernatural objects they keep under lock and key. Audio logs and collectible notes scribbled by former inhabitants of the world you're running through are a tired trope of game design but the way they're utilized in Control by framing them as employees nonchalantly cataloguing and discussing their bizarre experiences working there as if it's "just another day at the office" is a lot of fun. Office correspondance between departments expressing mild annoyance with the hassles of working with supernatural phenomena on a day to day basis is actually incredibly interesting, as it turns out. On the gameplay side of things, it's more or less a standard 3rd person shooter with some light sprinkling of superpowers like a telekinetic object toss, debris shield, levitation and airdash. Fun enough but nothing all that revolutionary. The last-gen versions of Control were notorious for their poor performance, especially on the original models (with the PC version apparently requiring a rather aggressively spec'd machine to run well) but I only played it when the PS5 version came out and that ran pretty much perfectly, with only a few hiccups from time to time. Overall, an extremely cool game that I hope they revisit in the future, because I am definitely here for a sequel. Also, Dr. Darling is the best. 6 - Fire Emblem Thracia 776 (1999) A game that only ever came out in Japan for the Super Famicom. Yes, 3 years AFTER the N64. The release of this one is weird. In 2019 the Project Exile translation patch was released, which is when I first played it. There did exist a much worse, more barebones translation for it for about 15 or so years prior, but Project Exile provided a much cleaner, more comprehensive, and more accurate version. There's also the Lil' Manster version that some people prefer, which is based on PE, but there was some drama around that whole situation that I won't get into. Thracia 776 is a midquel to the previous entry, Genealogy of the Holy War, taking place shortly before and during the first few chapters of Genealogy's second generation. This one is focused on Prince Leif, son of Quan and Ethlyn, all three of whom are playable in Genealogy. Thracia details Leif's journey leading up to him meeting his cousin Seliph, offering a closer, even more grim look at the state of the continent of Jugdral that you see glimpses of in Genealogy, by focusing on Leif and his allies as they attempt a seemingly impossible resistance against the terrifyingly powerful Grannvale Empire, which is not-so-secretly being puppeted by the dark cult of Loptous behind the scenes. This game is most famously renown by fans as one of, if not the hardest and most ruthless Fire Emblem games in the franchise's history. Certainly if you don't count later entries' Lunatic/Maddening/Maniac modes, it's the hardest on its default (and only) difficulty. However, if you can overcome the game's rude tricks, traps, and the myriad of ways it stacks the deck against the player, what you find is one of the most fun and satisfying tactics games ever made. The thing a lot of people tend to leave out about how mean this game can be is that it provides the player with an arsenal the likes of which someone who'd only started playing FE on the GBA would be astounded at. Nearly every unfair trick Thracia throws at you, you can throw one right back at them, and doing so provides a very different kind of satisfaction to the typical "clear out all the enemies, get all the treasure/race to the throne" structure the series would settle into. I love this game and wholeheartedly recommend it to any FE player who hasn't tried it yet, with the caveat of: try not to look up too much stuff ahead of time, and don't be too proud to use savestates if it alleviates some frustration. 5 - Tales of Berseria (2017) I love this game. Not so much for the gameplay; I've disliked the Tales series' combat ever since Graces, and while Berseria's combat is far enough removed from what I disliked about Graces that I can tolerate it, it's definitely the weakest aspect of Tales of Berseria to me. No, this is a pure example of why I will always adore JRPGs and their ridiculous stories and characters. Girl next door big sister Velvet Crowe suddenly has her entire life ripped out from under her after her little brother Laphicet is sacrified by their brother-in-law Arthur, aka Shepard Artorious, who would come to be known as the man who would save the world from daemons. Coming out of a 3 year stint in the lowest depths of a prison dungeon, forced to feed on daemons tossed into her cell (after becoming one herself in a fit of rage that night 3 years earlier) she assembles a ragtag crew of idiots with parallel goals to go on a quest for revenge. No noble intent here, Velvet has now become Murderbitch Killbeast and wants to rip the anime pope's goddamn head off. I didn't play Tales of Zestiria, but based on what I've been told and seen from it, Tales of Berseria feels like the Tales studio's attempt at a make-good for that game. An absolutely wonderfully batshit story that goes on some pretty ridiculous twists and turns, with one of my favorite RPG parties (and casts in general) in any video game ever. Even if you're like me and aren't feeling the combat I would still recommend giving this game a shot, just set it to Easy and let the auto-battle AI do it for you if you want. 4 - Deltarune Chapter 2 (2021) Man. Where to start with Deltarune? There's probably not much I can say about this game that people reading this thread don't already know. I love the dynamic between Kris, Ralsei, and Susie and how it's progressed since chapter 1. I love the focus on Noelle. Queen may be my favorite character in the entire Tobyverse. I love Cyber World's aesthetic and feel compared to the playing card/tabletop game theming of chapter 1. The music is absurdly on point. I love Spamton. Berdly is there. The final boss is a loving Punch-Out!! fight. The progression you get from the "real world" characters, despite only being a day in-universe since the last time we saw them, definitely feels like Toby's gotten about 3 years worth of experience writing in the time between chapters. There's just so much to love here and I'm so glad Toby and his crew are able to make it happen like they have. I eagerly anticipate chapters 3-5, whenever those are. 3 - Metroid Dread (2021) Dread good. That's it, that's all I got. Play Dread. 2 - Disco Elysium: The Final Cut (2019/2021) Disco good. Seriously though, there's a reason this game handily won this forum's 2019 GOTY and made #8 in 2020's. It's a masterpiece. There's literally nothing else like it and it's a wild goddamn right from start to finish and there was a bunch of poo poo I didn't even see, not even counting going through a second or third time with different stat builds to trigger different conversations both in and out of your head. I held off on playing it initially due to the sheer volume of text that I just, frankly, wasn't prepared to read, but when they announced The Final Cut I was elated. I made the right call because the voicework is beyond stellar. Like with Deltarune, there's very little new perspectives I can offer on this game that virtually everyone else hasn't expressed or seen already. It's a game people need to experience. 1 - Hades (2020) Sort of in contrast to Disco, Hades is of a similar level of quality, but in a much more classically fun video game kind of way. The son of Hades attempts to escape the underworld and find his mother Persephone with the help of his uncles and cousins on Olympus. You die and die and die and climb back out over and over and over. It's a very simple concept, polished to a mirror sheen. Supergiant games are excellent examples of why video games often have misplaced priorities; not everything needs a gigantic open world or a million sidequests. Redirecting that time and effort toward other things like the writing, voicework, and presentation of a more modestly scaled project can often turn out better than the Skyrims and GTAs and Ubisoft Tower Climber 2022s of the world. I honestly do kind of regret not picking it up until a few months after it was released last year, since I missed out on a lot of the initial discussion on peoples' preferences for boons and weapons and upgrades and characters and stuff. That said, holy hell was it fun when I finally did get around to it. TriffTshngo fucked around with this message at 04:59 on Dec 30, 2021 |
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Dec 19, 2021 04:55
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I think I'm going to write the most about what will probably be my number 7 game of the year, because no one else has, and because it is very peculiar so I want people to know exactly how it do. I don't want people spending $60 on a game they're going to hate.
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Dec 19, 2021 06:07
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The few of you posting your lists in ascending order are freaks haven’t you ever heard of SUSPENSE
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Dec 19, 2021 06:11
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Escobarbarian posted:The few of you posting your lists in ascending order are freaks haven’t you ever heard of SUSPENSE Everybody skips to #1, the order you put them in is irrelevant
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Dec 19, 2021 06:19
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Escobarbarian posted:The few of you posting your lists in ascending order are freaks haven’t you ever heard of SUSPENSE
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Dec 19, 2021 06:25
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Put them in alphabetical order instead
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Dec 19, 2021 06:29
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Barudak posted:Everybody skips to #1, the order you put them in is irrelevant I read them in order
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Dec 19, 2021 06:37
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cheetah7071 posted:I read them in order One good person still lives
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Dec 19, 2021 06:48
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You should arrange them in the true reviewer's order, in terms of how many dollars each hour of entertainment cost
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Dec 19, 2021 06:58
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i will arrange mine autobiographically
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Dec 19, 2021 07:06
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Barudak posted:Everybody skips to #1, the order you put them in is irrelevant When I tally votes I start at #10 even if I have to scroll to the end of the post
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Dec 19, 2021 07:33
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Barudak posted:Everybody skips to #1 Good lord no, the very idea of skipping a countdown to go straight to #1... that dog won't hunt, monsignor.
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Dec 19, 2021 07:57
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