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very silly sentiment, but let's keep this to people posting about games they liked rather than stuff they didn't.
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Dec 21, 2021 04:30
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2021 was incredible for games and I hope 2022 is as good
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Dec 21, 2021 05:16
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While basically no other aspect of this year was good, the year was filled with crazy good games, and I saw just a staggering number of series revivals that knocked it out of the park. This year saw new releases for Pokemon Snap, World Ends With You, Psychonauts, No More Heroes, Metroid, Warioware, Tales, Ace Attorney, Orcs Must Die, Age of Empires, Bravely Default, Mario Golf, and Shin Megami Tensei. While I haven't had a chance to play them all, most of these series came back from 5+ year gaps and knocked it out of the parked! It might not be very fun to wait 5 or 10 or 15 years for a game in a beloved franchise to come out, but when the faith gets rewarded, that's just a fantastic feeling. My top 10! My game selection this year was strongly influenced by last year's winners, because this is a forum filled with posters of excellent taste. I'm eagerly looking forward to trying out all the gems you goons highlight again this year! 10. Hades. I love Supergiant games, I hate roguelikes. Utterly hate them. Hades was so good it managed to hit my top 10 despite being a genre I normally turn my nose up at. The flexible combat system, just-one-more-room appeal, and solid voice/writing/characterization absolutely knocked it out of the park. 9. Academagia. This game is a life sim set in a Harry Potter-esque magic school. It's an immense beast of a game, with more than 1000 unlockable choices per turn (actions, spells, abilities, and more) which then can be further customized. It's a game that rewards you for digging into its systems by becoming ludicrously unbalanced as you get more clever with the game systems. The writing is unbalanced as a consequence of a team of people writing new adventures in something like 15 free dlc over time, but on the whole it's all great and very clever. If you're curious, there's an archived LP of it that's a great read. 8. Okami. It took me three tries over more than a decade, but I finally 'clicked' with this game and devoured the whole thing. The combination of japanese mythology, art style, and brush stroke powers all came together to make the game as fun to play as it is gorgeous. The world, aesthetics, and mechanics all reinforce each other in a way that's a rare treat. 7. Yakuza 6. The infamous baby toss is even better in context, and Beat Takeshi gave a goddamn grand slam of a performance. Beyond that - it's a good ending for Kiryu, the melodrama and the comedy are both great, and the localization continues to be one of the best in the industry. I should be feeling burned out on these after playing almost 6 in less than 5 years, but nope - excited to try out 7 in the near future. 6. Unavowed. I don't give enough love to Wadjet Eye Games in these write-ups. Unavowed is a fantastic point and click adventure game, from the best of the few modern makers of them in existence. Great writing, interesting characters, and one of the better twists I've seen in a videogame - both in terms of concept and execution. I loved it. 5. New Pokemon Snap. This game was fun, charming, beautiful, and relaxing at a time in my life when I desperately needed all of the above. But even in a vacuum it would have been a wonderful adventure and a solid realization of the fantasy behind pokemon games - the idea of a living world filled with wondrous monsters. Hopefully it isn't another 20 years until the next of these. 4. Disco Elysium. I can't imagine playing this game without the full voice acting they patched in this year. Perfect from start to finish. The voices in Harry's head are one of the best character ensembles I've seen in a game. The mystery was intriguing, the story was interesting, the characters were fun and enjoyable, the protag was a bit great and a lot of hilarious, and Kim Kitsuragi gets my award for Best Supporting Character. 3. Death Stranding Sometimes you write something so hilariously self-indulgent, over the top, and unsubtle that it wraps back around into being a meaningful contemplation about how much we need each other. How hard it is to be isolated from each other. How exhausting it is to live a life where you have to exercise planning and caution under constant threat of death all around you and seriously, seriously, how did Kojima release a game that was a perfect metaphor for the pandemic just a few weeks before it started spreading??? It doesn't hurt that the traversal-based gameplay is a lot of fun or that the world is such a vibrant character. I'm going to be thinking about this one for a long time, and if life ever feels normal again, I'll play the director's cut then to see how different it feels in 'normal' times. 2. Outer Wilds. This is the game that really wrung me out emotionally this year. Most of it hits the same spot for me as Return of the Obra Dinn. Both games are brilliant in the way they let you slowly build up your knowledge about the universe, but Outer Wilds goes even further by letting the player do whatever they want, however they want, with a smart set of clues on every planet pointing to everywhere else, so you never miss anything but you don't feel like your hand is being held. And then you hit the finale... and it's just a completely gutting and perfect ending of the game that feels like a big ball of mournful and hopeful, all wrapped up together. 1. 13 Sentinels. The wildest ride I've been on in a long time. It's a staggering narrative achievement to have 13 protagonist stories progressing largely in tandem, with a plot that is constantly throwing curveballs every 30 minutes. Every person that plays this game will incorrectly guess what is actually happening for hours on end, and every person will have a unique set of wrong guesses because of the order they play through the game. All of that, and its a fantastic, well-written and well-thought-out hard sci-fi story in its own right, on top of a fine strategy game. Absolutely astonishing. A few honorable mentions I'd like to hand out as well. Some games that didn't quite make the cut this year included moon, Witcher 3, Shadow of Destiny, and Trails in the Sky the 3rd. Great stuff, but just didn't grab me the way the top 10ers did. And at the halfway point in Great Ace Attorney I can confidently say it will be in my top 10 next year unless 2022 is just insanely bangin' on the game front. And it will probably be joined by FF14, which I am like 30 levels into the free trial of, and yeah - so far so good! Stay safe goons, and play video games.
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Dec 21, 2021 06:01
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there's plenty of good games in 2021 and people just have different tastes and maybe shouldn't just have a consensus #1 all the time
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Dec 21, 2021 07:23
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As long as you let me vote you'll never have a concensus #1. Not even if we traveled in time to the Tony Hawk years.
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Dec 21, 2021 09:01
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A wise man once said "there's never been a better time to be playing video games" and these threads are an annual testament to that.
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Dec 21, 2021 09:41
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The 7th Guest posted:there's plenty of good games in 2021 If only there was a thread where people could talk about them 
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Dec 21, 2021 09:53
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Rarity posted:If only there was a thread where people could talk about them Planning to put up the Game of the Year '22 thread early, are we?
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Dec 21, 2021 09:55
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2021 wasn't a TERRIBLE year for games, but it was definitely a sleeper year. Even the hard hitters like Metroid Dread are more like exceptionally well constructed appetizers rather than main courses. Just look at the number of lists that contain 1 or fewer games from this year. I know "old" games is the norm with this thread traditionally, but it is more so apparent this year than usual.
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Dec 21, 2021 09:56
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I've noticed that people tend to respond rather legalistically to statements like "yeah there were no games that really came out this year" as if the speaker was attempting to prove their thesis for the Scientific Non-Existence of Games rather than just saying "there was nothing that interested me personally."
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Dec 21, 2021 12:04
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I have a lot of trouble ranking things so these placements basically mean nothing. I adored Metroid Dread and Psychonauts 2 but I think those have enough praise going for them that there's nothing new to be said about what wonderful surprises they were this year. 10. The Good Life Utterly unplayable. A disaster of a game with frustrating gameplay and minigames, unclear mechanics, aggressively mean-spirited and uncreative dialogue, and just generally not a fun experience. And yet, I couldn't put it down. At one point, I played it off-and-on for 12 hours and skipped sleeping that night. There's something THERE that dug its way into me and compelled me to keep coming back to it. You start to grasp its nonsense structure and learn how to bend it in ways that benefit you. Its a steep learning curb and I couldn't rec it to anyone in good conscience. But its undoubtedly a Swery game. 9. The Uncle Who Works For Nintendo You are 11 years old. You are sleeping over at your best friend's house. You and your friend like video games. Your friend has a lot of cool games. And, believe it or not, an uncle who works for Nintendo. And he's coming to visit at midnight. This game shouldn't work. It should be a shitpost game making fun of weird kids on the playground. But it becomes something... more than that. Its a story about the lies children tell, where they learn those lies, why they need those lies to give themselves power. It becomes truly, sincerely haunting. It'll maybe take an hour to get all the endings but its so worth it. Out of all these games, this one will probably stick with me the longest. 8. A Hand With Many Fingers This is a really hard sell. This game takes real life CIA files and reveals a possible real life CIA conspiracy. The gameplay is structured as such as to start you with one CIA file and let you walk back and forth through different file cases to make connections and solve the conspiracy yourself. Its a game that's designed to feel like work, but the kind of work that academics would use to explain how they get a thrill out of their job. That said, you can feel the lack of confidence in that gimmick on its own. As you walk between file case to your conspiracy room, the game has predetermined little weird signs to imply you're being watched. A car running just outside, a figure standing in the window, a telephone ringing with no one on the other end, etc. Its an attempt to give the story a concrete Narrative. But the fact is, these kinds of conspiracies don't have tidy Narratives with tidy endings. You just run out of info eventually. So the game's ending will end up feeling abrupt, because that's just how these things go, despite their attempts to gloss up the experience. 7. Overboard The creators of 80 Days put together a delightful little murder simulator. After killing your husband, you have to cover your tracks to get away with the crime and (hopefully) get the insurance payout. It’s mostly about navigating through a wacky cast of characters who have happened to either witnessed something or found evidence that you left behind. Getting a grasp of the surroundings and schedules of each passenger is a slowly building puzzle piece that helps you navigate all the different obstacles you face. Each playthrough could maybe take 10-15 minutes each and you can really vary up how you approach the puzzle box it gives you. Just a boat load of fun. 6. Turtle Head: Unmasked A 2016 rpgmaker horror game, remade by fans in 2021. You can really feel the passion behind this project, designed by a group of young kids just absolutely falling in love with some indie gem they found and trying to rebuild it from the ground up. And the efforts pay off! The character work and puzzle direction are really well done. While I got stuck a few times, I built such a solid grasp of the level design that I never felt like I was lost in the main building. The only real glitch I ran into was during a cinematic finale moment that takes you through a surreal landscape between the old and new school buildings. I ended up looping through the landscape once or twice because I returned to the old building rather than follow the ghost I was supposed to meet up with. Probably should've blocked that path off I think? The main narrative itself is really compelling as it tries to examine its silent protagonist and the stress she's under. The whole tale of depression just works. But the real highlight is the new mode. Emma's Story puts the narrative into shoes of Emma/your hint system in the main game. Apparently people didn't like Emma in the original version, but she's incredibly endearing and charming to me in this remake. She's a happy go lucky weirdo, but she's clearly trying to enforce that image to avoid grappling with the surrounding terror of the situation. Her side story dives into that mentality and portrays someone who's seriously denying her own mental health problems. Her story ends up feeling really affirming and powerful in a way I didn't expect. These sorts of games tend to rely heavily on how the villain is depicted. Initially, Turtle Head didn't particularly grab me as an antagonist. As you learn more about him and how he operates, he starts to become more "real" and terrifying. He's not some mystical spectral energy: he's a absolute creepazoid who loves torturing some kids because they vaguely annoyed his crush that he already murdered. And that's just a much stronger pitch for a villain that I expected going in. I just happened to have an itch for obscure RPGmaker horror when I played this and it filled that itch wonderfully. 5. Lacuna I put this off for most of the year because I forgot that I love point and clicks, especially mystery/cyberpunk game. I say that, but there's always a problem with film noir sci-fi dramas. They're always so brooding and focus on these sad dad cops while rambling on about technobabble concepts. That is still very true with Lacuna, but I think it has enough of a heart that it manages to circumvent a lot of normal problems. The game doesn't care much about evil AI or big sci-fi inventions that can hack the brain. The biggest sci-fi changes that the setting seems to allow is that space travel exists and cancer is eradicated. Its real interest in its sci-fi setting in the political scheming of the future and how those decisions trickle down. And its that focus that gives the game the heart it needs to keep your focus. You're offered a lot of decisions in terms of how to navigate Agent Conrad into being a sci fi cop. Being mean and threatening people will get you info, but not taking the gentler path could cost you important leads or miss information. But the gentler path is also time consuming, with plenty of back-tracking and people begging for favors. That said, I think the game struggles with trying to figure out how to accept the political criticisms its going for and the cool cast of sci-fi cops its created. When Scandals emerge as the plot continues, Conrad will whine and moan about how "these are problems of the past, do I really have the right to hurt the modern institution that's working?" Meanwhile, his partner Gary is five feet away trying to arrest every person you come across, insulting various minorities and the poor while he's at it. When the game gives you the option to screw over ol' Gary's career prospects, I gleefully leaped for it while Conrad cried "I can't believe I'm doing this! This job is Gary's life!" There's a disconnect happening there. Still, I think the game has the right intentions, even if its struggling to figure out what those intentions are in the wider scheme of things. It's interested in why crime happens and who funds crime and different political agendas and occasionally gets to the point of questioning the institutions Conrad belongs to. Its a solid mystery game. 4. Buried Stars A few years old in Korea but its an English 2021 release on Steam and Switch. The hit tv show Buried Stars is an American Idol/Survivor type of reality show, which features the idols competing against each other for fame and fortune. Its fiercely competitive fanbase and highly sensationalist concept is exacerbated by the show's behind the scenes manipulations. The TV execs have pushed the overworked staff into pitting the competitors against each other, heavily editing footage to change audience perceptions of these musicians, and create highly entertaining drama to build up the ratings. Unfortunately, the staff has been so overworked that the creation of a live stage center was rushed. The building collapses. Five competitors, a production assistant, and an executive are all trapped inside the remnants. Due to the special marketing circumstances behind the show, none of these survivors have a working text system. The only way they can communicate to the outside world is through not!Twitter. Oh, and one of them might be a murderer. You could maybe market this as a murder game vn ala Danganronpa, but its able to add a lot more realistic layers that make it stand out. The game is primarily interested in focusing on these toxic entertainment work cultures, how they hurt and force people into uncomfortable situations, and how social media can twist truths and deify or vilify anyone the online mob chooses to latch onto. The translation isn't perfect and there's some joke endings that I thought detracted from the message. But its a well-written character drama that works far better than it should. 3. If On A Winter's Night, Four Travelers This is probably ranked a bit too high, but these numbers mean nothing. Four Travelers exchange stories on a train, detailing painful moments of their past and the actions that brought them to the present. Its more of just an excellent tone piece above all else. A bit too much pixel hunting but the challenge is less important than the story. The Gimmick of each segment is pretty obvious from the beginning, but its still fun to learn about this characters and their tragedies. The biggest complaint is that the Fourth Traveler doesn't really get anything. I was expecting four segments, but its just three. I really hope the devs rebuild this game into something bigger, there's so much gorgeous pixel animation and character work being put into this little game. It takes maybe only an hour but its an hour well-spent. 2. Inscryption What is there to say about this that hasn't been said? I'm not super keen on card games, but this was a masterpiece. A narrative delight, with addicting gameplay, incredible aesthetic, and a fascinating world. I adore Pony Island and The Hex and this is another clear masterstroke from Mullins. I did start to burn out in the 3rd Act, but after a brief break it somehow won me back over into pure glee. 1. The Forgotten City People might be getting burned out on the time loop game genre, and I get it. But this might be one of my favorite time loop games of all time. It has so many interesting philosophical questions to pose about itself, its premise, its characters, our world... its a thoughtful game that's largely willing to let the player interpret the world however they might choose. My biggest complaints are when the game makes some assumptions about what the player might want. They think a few characters are more charming than they really are and the Golden Ending is... Well, I like most of it, but I think its a little too easy an ending for the themes its going for. But god, the themes this game is going for Even the game's existence as an ex-Skyrim mod helps elevate the story's narrative. Much of the story revolves around the examination of how stories change and evolve. How mythologies are rebuilt and reinterpreted by other cultures. Romans stole from Greeks. Greeks stole from Egyptians. So on, so forth. The Forgotten City is built on the work of other Cities. But the game the Forgotten City is itself a game built on top of a game. Its having a conversation about the existence of itself with the player and asking its audience to apply that to the rest of the culture. Its just an incredibly compelling experience, from beginning to end. Everyone should check it out.
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Dec 21, 2021 12:27
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exquisite tea posted:I've noticed that people tend to respond rather legalistically to statements like "yeah there were no games that really came out this year" as if the speaker was attempting to prove their thesis for the Scientific Non-Existence of Games rather than just saying "there was nothing that interested me personally." this was not a post
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Dec 21, 2021 12:30
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Well I guess Im buying Lacuna now after staring at it today
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Dec 21, 2021 12:51
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Looking at most of the lists. Either people played Endwalker and it ended up somewhere in the Top 3 or they didn't.
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Dec 21, 2021 13:22
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Natural 20 posted:Looking at most of the lists. Either people played Endwalker and it ended up somewhere in the Top 3 or they didn't. Selection bias at work
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Dec 21, 2021 17:35
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Lid posted:It's like 2020 was the pandemic year, the worst year ever, but there was pent up art to be made in it. 2021 was "society has fallen and we have nothing ready to release as we struggle to get back to work".
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Dec 21, 2021 18:00
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Endorph posted:nah 2021 was fine, a lot of good stuff came out this year. like blue reflection, second light.
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Dec 21, 2021 20:38
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Lady Radia posted:whenever people say it was a bad year i assume they only own a PS4 or an XBone. I don't like this take because this was a great year for console gaming too. joyless fucks are platform agnostic. I finished Kena: Bridge of Spirits and I'm not going to edit my list for this year. I'm just gonna boot it up and play it for two seconds so I can put it in next year's. what a great game
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Dec 21, 2021 20:51
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Overall there’s a pretty big gap between my top 3 and the rest of my top 10. 1- apex legends: just still the most fun competitive shooter out there. The movement and mechanics of combat are just so good it’s sort of spoiled all other competitive shooters for me. It also seems to be hitting its stride with content releases. If this game didn’t exist I’d probably have played a lot more other games this year. 2- stardew valley: the giant 1.5 patch plus local coop made this one of my most played games this year. Just a really really good coop experience- the huge range of ways you can play made it a really good fit even though we had super different things we wanted to do. It’s just super relaxing, satisfying and fun. 3- Valheim: easily my #1 out of the games which actually came out in 2021. I really liked the kinder/less time consuming take on survival mechanics. Eg just pressing a button to refill your durability on weapons meant that in general a lot of the most rewarding parts of the crafting stayed while a bunch of busywork was cut out. Combined with the fun quest progression and co-op base building/exploring it was definitely my favorite game out this year. Looking forward to going back to this in another year or two when it finally hits a full release. 4- Prey: this game was great and maybe the best thing I got out of deathloop was it convincing me to try this game again. Actually good environmental storytelling, really interesting exploration of a giant world, fun action. Just a great game. 5- Hollow Knight: currently lost and stuck, but I finally got back into this after bouncing off hard and really am enjoying the second play through. I do with navigating was a bit easier- I backtrack so much (this may be my fault)- but it’s still fun and perfect for the switch. 6- Deathloop: the story sort of sucked in the end with the final twist , and fighting was probably too easy once you realized you could headshot, but it was still super fun. None of the dishonored games had clicked with me, so it was fun getting to try out a chiller version of the game. I also just don’t play many AAA single player games, so whenever I play one I’m always super impressed. 7- Subnautica: the coop mod made me get back into this. Still haven’t gotten that that deep into it, but really enjoyed the vibes of the game and exploration. This game could probably be higher- I realize it’s a crazy accomplishment - but for some reason I’ve just not really wanted to go back to it as much as some of the other games here. 8- Creeper World 4: first intro to the series for me now that the UI is a bit more accessible. The idea is that you build towers and collect resources to fight against tides of goop spreading across the world (with fluid physics on a 3D landscape!). It recreates the experience of turtling and slowly pushing out in an RTS well. The new coop mod makes it an even better option imo. Maps can tend to feel a bit like they will be inevitable victories once you establish your first foothold, but the process is still fun. 9- Sector’s Edge: a really good lil indie fps. The hook is that the whole world is voxels and you can build or destroy it as you play. Combined with tight gunplay this was definitely a pleasant surprise for me. 10- My Time at Portia: would never have played this 3D stardew-like on the pc, but it’s perfect for mobile gaming for me. The port is janky if you try to use a controller, but the touch controls are great and the gameplay works well whether it’s split into smaller chunks or over a longer bus ride etc. Potential honorable mentions would be Total War Warhammer 2, Archvale, Don’t Starve Together, and Steamworld Dig 2. I just started Outer Wilds, but I do feel like if I started playing it earlier it would make it super high up the list. Excited to see where it goes. Similar feelings re: Disco Elysium. E: easier list for compilation below 1: apex legends 2: stardew valley 3: valheim 4: prey 5: hollow knight 6: deathloop 7: subnautica 8: creeper world 4 9: sector’s edge 10: my time at Portia tildes fucked around with this message at 23:45 on Dec 21, 2021 |
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Dec 21, 2021 23:36
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1. Apex Legends This became my go-to game for 2021 after not playing it since release. Hands down the best movement in any Battle Royale, solid gunplay, and you can find fights quickly and consistently. Got pretty deep into the macro strategy re rotations etc as well. 2. Valheim My top game actually released this year; loved building a little village and killing monsters with some buds. A good mix of free-form exploration/ building and clear overarching objectives. Setting sail in our poorly constructed longboat heading vaguely north was always fun. 3. Subnautica Downloaded the co-op mod, which definitely changes the vibe but is a great experience in its own right. A lovely world, and the additions to base building post whenever I played it last add a lot more to work towards. 4. Total War Warhammer 2 The vortex campaign really has legs with all the asymmetric dlc factions; this is the first Total War I've really gotten into since Shogun. Very hard to go back to regular settings after building a network of undercities to support my chemical weapon rats. 5. Slashers Keep The basic rhythm of the combat, as well as the weapon upgrading system and perks, just really clicked for me. The one major bit of friction was the [spoiler] platforming section [/ spoiler], but still loved it overall. 6. Creeper World 4 This hits the same notes as age of empires versus ai, plus very light factorio base defense. Pairs a tense beginning with a chill, inevitable period of closing the scenario out. 7. Sectors Edge Just a solid deathmatch shooter, with a building mechanic that turns maps into a maze of makeshift parapets, impromptu trenches, tunneling projects, etc. which works very well. 8. Towerfall Finally went through the campaign in co-op during lockdown, very much holds up - the core mechanics of dodging and shooting are such a strong foundation. Honorable mention to the NYT spelling bee app, learned some very dumb words trying to 100% them. Feels like a lot of the games everyone is listing are going to end up in my goty 2022.
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Dec 22, 2021 00:20
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RIP ZEEZ
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Heads up I edited my list to clarify that I want my XIV vote to be counted for Endwalker even though I talked about (and played) the entirety of the game and all its expansions from start to finish. Also I'm glad to see so many people talking about The Forgotten City since I wasn't sure if it was "obscure" or not but it seems like it's captured a lot of hearts! I didn't play it myself since it's not my kind of genre, but I watched a friend stream it and it was a compelling story with plenty of cool moments and choices.
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Dec 22, 2021 18:25
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Forgotten City is so good and will definitely be in my top 10
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Dec 22, 2021 18:51
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Picking up Forgotten City and Cruelty Squad in the steam sale solely on the threads recommendations. I've been putting off writing my top ten just in case they edge their way in there.
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Dec 22, 2021 19:05
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Here are some of the really great games I remember playing for the first time this year 1. Prey 2. Death Stranding 3. Dark Souls 3 4. Metal Gear Solid 3 5. Nier Automata 6. Dota 2 with controller support Overall a fine year for my personal gaming RealityWarCriminal fucked around with this message at 20:54 on Dec 22, 2021 |
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Dec 22, 2021 20:18
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Perhaps you should put them in a ranked list
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Dec 22, 2021 20:42
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Perhaps!
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Dec 22, 2021 20:57
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10. NBA 2k22 (PS5): A horrible exploitive game with the worst microtransactions in the business but they get a point for finally adding 3v3 random no squads matchmaking which is literally all I have ever asked for from this game that I play way too much every year. 9. Death's Door (PS5): Love the art style and music and enjoyed a lot of the boss battles even though this is usually not my type of game 8. Chivalry 2 (PC): I didn't play this for all that long after release but I had a hell of a lot of fun for a while running around stabbing people with a spear 7. Backbone (PC): Annoyingly inconclusive with the massive cliffhanger last acts but I really enjoyed the atmosphere of this game 6. The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles (Switch): Not exactly anything new from this series but this provided a great distraction during the week I was evacuated for Hurricane Ida 5. The Forgotten City (PC): In a year with a lot of time loop games this was my favorite 4. Forza Horizon 5 (PC): Again a game that is basically the same as its previous iteration but I loved the open world in this game 3. Bravely Default 2 (Switch): My favorite JRPG of the year, love the battle system and I think the art style looks a lot better than it gets credit for 2. Lost Judgement (PS5): More Yakuza/Judgement, now with hoverboards! 1. (AKA The Disco Elysium award for excellence in being Disco Elysium) Disco Elysium: The Final Cut (PC): The best game of all time got better, the narrator and extended voice acting add a ton to a game that was already perfect. Games I bought but haven't played enough to fully judge yet because I am dumb: Cruelty Squad Death Loop Death Trash Guardians of the Galaxy Persona 5 Strikers Psychonauts 2 Shin Megami Tensei V
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Dec 23, 2021 00:25
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 G O T Y 2021  This page doesn't have nearly enough gifs  It was a nice, unorthodox year that saw me trying all sorts of games I would normally pass up. I'll start with small potatoes and work my way up. A big ol' thank you! to Rarity and Veegy who put in so much heart and effort every year to bring us all together in the name of home entertainment luxury spectacle and its ever-evolving artistic pleasures. And thanks to goons everywhere for being who you are and making this place special.  games I didn’t play enough of...in time for this thread: we’ll see you in ’22! • Bugsnax • Subnautica • Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne HD • Suikoden II • Indivisible • Rider's Republic other games I played this year • Destruction Allstars • My Friend Pedro • Octodad: Dadliest Catch • Superhot 'The Love Affair That Wasn’t' Yakuza 0  I’ve tried pretty hard with this one, on and off for years now, and while it’s got a wonderfully slick localization and some incredible humor…on a narrative and gameplay level it just puts me to sleep. I’m definitely going to finish it (maybe even sooner than you think) and I’m glad they’ve found a following in the west with these games since they are so totally unique. Unfortunately, I think I’m the wrong audience. Honorable Mentions Deathloop  Arkane took a big risk with this one and it seems to have paid off for the most part. Colt is a great protagonist and the fundamental gameplay is snappy and fun. Environments are well designed and even when things seem too complex to keep it all straight the systems at play manage to help the player stay in control of the chaos. It's not the best game released in 2021 but I had a great time with it and I def didn’t feel ripped off. Hopefully some story DLC can come round out what I thought was a rather abrupt ending. Nex Machina  One of Housemarque’s best titles overall, Nex Machina melts my eyes and ears with its furious voxel storm, and the soundtrack for this one is possibly their finest. Years ago when this game failed to find an audience and Housemarque subsequently announced that they were moving on from the classic bullet hell genre it seemed like a huge tragedy, and yet… Pix The Cat  Pix is a Pac-Man inspired experiement I got for free on PS+ years ago and suddenly had the urge to play again this year. It’s hard as hell and requires real memory and reflex mastery to unlock its hidden modes. No microtransactions here, it takes some skill to find the bounty in what is basically a micro-sized, fractally hallucinogenic puzzlecoaster. Don’t trip over your ducktail ! Virtua Fighter 5: Ultimate Showdown  Out of the ashes! Praise the benevolent Yakuza devs, the original king of 3D fighters returns. Beautifully restored, given away free on PS+, delivered into a world that has forgotten it ever existed. A minor miracle. Does this mean we’ll see Virtua Fighter 6 someday? My guess is that ship has sailed, but one can dream. _________________________________________________________________ 10 - Monster Hunter World: Iceborne ♫ Fatalis Final Phase Theme - Proof Of A Hero    MHW makes my top 10 again, the 3rd time in 4 years. 2021 was the year where everything came to a definitive and roaring conclusion as I passed the 700 hour mark and finished every last bucketlist item I could in MHW’s meaty ‘endgame’, including its incredible final free DLC fights with Saphi, Alatreon, and Fatalis. It took me a long time to bang this one out, and the number of times I had to reinvent myself and my entire playstyle from scratch over the last 4 years (Greatsword > Bow > Light Bowgun > Sword & Shield > Charge Blade > Heavy Bowgun > Dual Blades) in order to persevere through all the poo poo this series can throw at a player really speaks to the sheer magnetism of its world and sense of progression. By the time I’d worked my way up to Fatalis I was doing things with this game that I never would’ve imagined were possible back in 2018, and the sheer sense of ride or die that pervades later fights with overwhelmingly aggressive monsters, where I was at times just trying to do my best to support other random players and not die myself, man, it’s such a weird and cool form of team spirit. Truly, I can only imagine an experience like this coming out of Japan. And when I finally did beat Fatalis and craft a gun out of his bones…only then did put the controller down for the final time and uninstall the game. It was a boss fight that required every skill, resource, and bit of knowledge I had built up over the previous 4 years, and it was the most fulfilling moment of conclusion I could have asked for from a game that some might say…has no end. MHW looks so beautiful and runs so fast on PS5 that I simply cannot wait to see what Capcom has cooking for this series on next gen. 9 - Furi ♫ Carpenter Brut - What We Fight For    Furi is a tiny game with huge cojones. Another PS+ freebie victory, this hard as nails bullet-hell meets rhythm brawler has so much confidence in the pure, intense simplicity of its boss-rush structure and premise that it also dares to punctuate each frenetic encounter with an entirely linear walk&talk meditation scene, small moments to take a deep breath before you smash your head against the next seemingly impossible challenge. It really shouldn’t work as well as it does, and yet the thrill, style, and responsive speed of each distinct boss battle mixes perfectly with neo-samurai visuals and amazing original music from Carpenter Brut, Scattle, etc, for a psychedelic arcade romp that’s in a category all its own. 8 - Blasphemous ♫ Coplas de Incienso    Lately I’ve been reading a lot about the history of the witch hunt in Europe and the Inquisition in general, and I will admit that it’s KINDA weird that I’ve found so much kinship with a game adorned in the bizarre and hosed up cultural/religious iconography of such a shameful period for humanity, but…Blasphemous whips! It’s easily my favorite castleroid ever released besides SOTN (my #1 game of all time), with dark, novel, exotic pixel art, and a tight, unforgiving sense of difficulty that feels more like Strider x Sekiro than Richter Belmont and Alucard. The music is haunting (as others have suggested elsewhere, anyone playing this should at least try the incredible spanish voice acting, it really adds to the atmosphere) and the story’s themes are exceedingly dark and disturbing, not an ounce of camp in this game. It’s received a ton of free post-release content and TGK has even announced that a sequel is in the works. Day 1, baby! 7 - NieR: Replicant ver. 1.22474487139… ♫ Cold Steel Coffin (The Aerie Village)    The 1.22 ’title update’, as they call it, for this now-classic subversion of videogaming conventions is a fantastic bit of cultural restoration for one of last decade’s most endearing entries into the jrpg series hall of fame, and a big splash of polish for that 2010 rusty squeezebox combat. More erratic and uneven than its critically acclaimed sequel, NieR: Automata, Replicant is far more focused on its small and lovely cast of characters to get too bogged down with “what it all means”. That said, there are genuinely gorgeous moments to be had here, and the series’ trademark musical innovations are still present and lovingly restored, along with a few other new tidbits. Just don’t be too surprised if Taro’s trademake genre-blending ends up exhausting or trolling you. I had a great time with this one, and while the grind to see the new secret ending was perhaps the biggest 'ask' I’ve ever encountered in a videogame (to the point of near exhaustion), I am genuinely glad I was able to push through and witness the new culmination to the story. It was everything I wanted and more. What a lovely series. Here’s to years and years of future NieRs.  6 - Final Fantasy VII Remake: Intergrade ♫ The Journey Continues - Goodbye, City of Mako ( visual SPOILERS!)   The best Remake of all time just got even better. This was my #1 in 2020 and I kept playing it in 2021 on the deliciously challenging Hard Mode, gorgeously up-res’d on PS5 with zero loading times and the same cast of beautiful eco-terrorists I’ve loved for 25 years. The new Yuffie INTERmission isn’t just a clever play on words between major releases, or a great story chapter in its own right (spot that new post credits secret ending!), it’s also a perfect example of how they plan to change things up gameplay/design wise with Remake pt 2 on next gen hardware. I can see the possibilities…like beautiful colored orbs of materia bouncing around in my skull. C’mon Square, bring the love! 5 - Diablo II : Resurrected ♫ Return to Tristram    No, wait…actually, THIS is how you do it. This is how you do a remaster. Vicarious Visions, of recent Tony Hawk remaster fame, recently got gobbled up by the Blizzard beast. And what do they do next? They go to work on an utterly mind-meltingly faithful restoration of what I consider to be the most addictive game of all time, The Life Eater: Diablo 2. I managed to put 100+ hours into this remaster in maybe less than 3 weeks, and god…this is how it looked IN MY MIND 20 loving years ago! The unbelievable attention to detail that VV has put in here, the absolute dedication to staying true to what the game was back then even while adding very subtle QoL features that don’t gently caress with what the experience is supposed to be. My best friend got it, too, and has since leveled up each character class to 80 in under 2 months. It’s a drug, folks. Words cannot describe the nostalgia attack I had when I went through that portal and heard the Tristram theme again for the first time in decades. One of my favorite games ever, one of the most perfectly atmospheric games ever, treated with love and respect. Resurrected. 4 - A Plague Tale: Innocence ♫ Together Forever    What a wonderful surprise, this game, the feel-bad story of my entire year! No doubt I should’ve bought and played it years ago, but recently I got the PS5 version from PS+ and immediately upon starting it I was totally enthralled. I turned off most of the HUD and flicked the language to French and was very quickly taken with the characters, the sense of style and historical detail, gorgeous music (easily my favorite overall game soundtrack this year), and the gutsy approach to making an adventure game that doesn’t rely on cheap blood lust or power fantasy, but instead on emotional connection and problem solving. You can see the influences here: handholding and command mechanics that feel like ICO x Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons, stealth mechanics and ‘prestige tours’ straight out of The Last of Us, but what is wholly unique to A Plague Tale is the absolutely unmatched atmosphere and sensitivity to the human condition that its excellent writing, pacing, and performance capture bring to the table. Another game that hits me hard with the hosed up Inquisition themes, but I can’t help also feel that there is a climate metaphor in here somewhere as well. Don’t even get me started on how effective Asobo’s homegrown Rat Technology™ is at making you feel completely and utterly oppressed! Where did this game come from??? Needless to say I am excited for the continuation of the story in A Plague Tale: Requiem, it has immediately rocketed to the top of my most anticipated games and I can’t wait to see what Asobo does with more time and money under their belt. 3 - Cyberpunk 2077 ♫ Been Good To Know Ya    This was not a game I anticipated at all. I didn’t read previews or watch pre-release videos of it. I didn’t keep up with developer twitter or post about it in advance over the long development period. I didn’t really care at all about C2077 going into December 2020, and when it plopped on the scene with unprecedented consumer controversy I kinda just shook my head and laughed. But one day in late January I was at a game store and saw a single lonely new copy of it sitting in a promo case for $40 and I thought to myself, ‘well, I guess I could get it now and play the PS5 version when it eventually drops.’ I don’t know what it was. Maybe I just felt bad for the devs who crunched so long only to see a release day shitshow, or maybe that single copy seemed out of place looking so ignored in the harsh light of the pandemic shopping mall, like a christmas tree that gets thrown on the curb after 2 weeks. Similar to my #1 pick this sat on my shelf for a few months as I played other games for hundreds of hours, but in June my curiosity got the better of me and, as a decent chunk of a patch had just been released, I popped the fucker in. I’m really glad I eventually listened to some of the more ardent defenders of C2077 on these forums because what I found in the game was a nuanced, messy, interesting, and above all emotionally provocative experience that is stuffed with clichéd design decisions and yet simultaneously somehow unlike any other game on the market. What a strange bird this is. To be clear, I really don’t enjoy open-world GTA sandbox games all that much, or even western RPGs for that matter, and I’ve been kind of burnt out on fictional media that romanticizes futurism and the post-human, but C2077’s got so much heart buried under all that shiny machine excess and corporate cynicism. I could take or leave a lot of the traversal (which was indeed better once I got a sword and double jump skill), and I don’t really give a poo poo about skill/inventory management or intricately branching questlines (not a Witcher 3 fan)…but I was totally enamored with CDPR’s ambitious, gorgeous first-person-cinema approach to storytelling. The set dressing, the music, the attention paid to facial animation and voice acting and mood, just the overall quality of the main and side quest writing, all of this stuff kinda floored me in C2077. There were a few bugs on PS5, and parts I couldn’t wait to get over with, sure, but even 6 months after completing the game I am still haunted by how the story ended, by the fleeting sense of connection I felt to both V and Johnny, and Judy, and Rogue, but also by the sense of fatalism that the writing manages to convey in a bizarre and hosed up world that never felt as much tangible or real to me as it did emotionally authentic. And that’s the rub, C2077 may not be the best story ever told, but overall the questions that it asks and the way that it asks them really got under my skin. It’s macabre and witty, tragic and dull, and way way way too ambitious. But it’s also my favorite narrative of 2021 all told, and experiencing it in full was worth any consequent annoyance or monotony. Been good to know ya, Johnny. 2 - Metro: Exodus ♫ Race Against Fate (Title Version)    Metro Exodus dodged in and out of the #2 spot for me at various times this year but I think I’m ultimately happy with its placement here, and in some ways it’s like the flipside of the coin from Cyberpunk, so depending on my mood on a given day they do occasionally swap. They’re both games that are obsessed with the idea of a cinematic first person narrative, but where C2077 is bloated and overstuffed, Metro is spare and elegant. C2077 nails the presentation in a dozen different audio/visual ways, but Metro nails the progression of its sim-lite survivalist gameplay with a flawless sense of pacing. Where C2077 might have you making dialogue choices and loving with skill trees, Metro gives you a tool bag and pushes you into the silent wilderness to decide how to use it. In spirit, these two games are tied for me. Metro is less ambitious than C2077 but it also sticks the landing far better with the resources it has and stays true to its gameplay conceits at every turn. And both games have more than a little bit of jank. Additionally, Exodus features incredible atmosphere and level design, my favorite gun customization mechanics in a game, and a sense of tension, anxiety, and oppression that pushed my boundaries in all the best ways (what an amazing final level)! What really sets Metro apart, however, is its attempt to convince the player, rather obliquely, to commit themself to making moral choices within its ‘roleplaying’ framework even when the situation seems impossible and there doesn’t seem to be a right answer. This is a tricky tightrope to walk, and the game doesn’t always play fair with its audience, but for the most part it manages to put you in situations where your actions are always bouncing off of your comrades and loved ones in a dense if somewhat passive narrative tapestry. I kind of arrived at this point in another thread but: “my feeling is that the game has a strong through-line about how the world is not simply hostile but ultimately counterintuitive, that all you can do is your best and even making all the right (ie 'moral') decisions in a situation might still net an unexpected or negative outcome. The reason I think it works with the story in Exodus is you're already doing your best just to survive and escape, despite all the lies you've been told and all the crazy communities you come across, there are almost no right answers.” Overall the sense of connection, from past to future, from one railway station to the next, from the random native peoples to their various shattered environments, and from a disastrous present to a potential dream where people can live and create without fear of radiation or starvation or violence…it’s all communicated so well through Artyom’s ever-changing relationship with his wife Anna, a character portrayed with such nuance that it manages to ground the entire story and its possibilities within the player. The myriad alien locales which remind constantly of our rapidly approaching future living with climate change, a desperate struggle for subsistence with every part scavenged from a lonely corpse, and an incredible sense of tactility (nice PS5 haptics ahoy!) with which you experience that rare first-person shooter which discreetly and politely asks you to not be too itchy with the trigger finger. It all feels so wholesome, earnest, and hopeful despite the apocalyptic surroundings, and those are feelings we all could use a bit more of nowadays. Even a poo poo future is worth enduring if you have people to love. 1 - RETURNAL ♫ Hyperion Theme    Housemarque hits the bigtime. For more than 6 months a sealed copy of Returnal sat on my shelf waiting for me to give it the time of day. I’d promised myself that 2021 would be the year I would give a few of the longer games on my backlog a go (not to mention finishing a ton of books), and I mostly kept that promise, incrementally budgeting my evenings for open world games that aren’t normally my thing, or grindy jrpgs, even an FPS or two. All along there was Returnal, the kind of game I almost always go wild for right at release, it was just waiting for me to get my poo poo together. My initial impression of the thing is that Housemarque’s approach to sound design is my first truly next-gen gaming moment, even though I had already internalized the parlor tricks on display from 2020’s remake of Demon’s Souls. I was already enamored by the fast loading speeds and the lovely haptic feedback in some of these new games, but nothing on the console had really hit me in the ‘new technology’ weakspot until Returnal’s sound design did, and paired with another stellar soundtrack from a developer known for them I was in total shooter heaven as the particles began to fly. I guess that’s a long and boring way of saying that Returnal nails the fundamentals of both bullet-hell and prestige walk-n-talk so absurdly well that it’s sometimes easy to forget how experimental this genre mashup really is. I love that Returnal has got the guts to attempt a hybrid of the sort that keeps so many secrets, that it may well alienate even the most adventurous buyer with its premise, and that it has the juice to both stick the landing but also sort of keep the player in the dark about what it all means. I’m also fond of Returnal’s prickly, alienated, middle-age 'faildaughter' protagonist who feels like such a natural choice for the material but also so new, so unconventional for videogames on the whole. What a great way to tell a story about guilt, anxiety, and emotional baggage. In the end it all comes down to the gamefeel though, the fact that such depressing and serious subject matter could be so fun to sprint through at 60kmh while smashing everything in sight into rainbow colored orbs, it’s all just unrelentingly stimulating. The game’s dedication to Giger-esque alien environments, sci-fi psychodrama, detailed haptics, 3D sound design, experimental button layouts, strange HUD design…it would mean much less if it all didn’t orbit the perfectly tuned arcade shooter experience that just happens to be glamorously corrupted by state of the art prestige storytelling. Returnal is a near-perfect melding of gaming’s future with gaming’s past, the divide bridged, …which I guess was the point all along. Housemarque’s finest achievement. -- EZ list 1. Returnal 2. Metro: Exodus 3. Cyberpunk 2077 4. A Plague Tale: Innocence 5. Diablo II: Resurrected 6. Final Fantasy VII Remake: Intergrade 7. NieR: Replicant ver. 1.22474487139… 8. Blasphemous 9. Furi 10. Monster Hunter World: Iceborne
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Dec 23, 2021 00:31
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drat that’s a loving good list. Really glad you loved Cyberpunk even if you hated Panam like an IDIOT I might be mistaking you for another goon, apologies if so
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Dec 23, 2021 01:12
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Great list, Beanpole, man I hope Returnal comes out on Steam sometime soon. Anyway, I picked up Blasphemous awhile back and I guess I really should play it, but I haven't felt the motivat- Well I'm convinced 
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Dec 23, 2021 01:16
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Escobarbarian posted:drat that’s a loving good list. Really glad you loved Cyberpunk even if you hated Panam like an IDIOT I might be mistaking you for another goon, apologies if so Yeah, you got me pinned. I'll take the thrashing  
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Dec 23, 2021 01:18
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I remember getting Cyberpunk close to release and enjoying the jank even amidst all the backlash but, as always, got distracted away. Really should get back to it one of these days since I did actually enjoy the time I did invest with it. Still stupid that the knife throwing perk makes you lose your knife permanently though.
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Dec 23, 2021 01:40
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Im assuming we're allowed to update our list before the deadline, and by assume I mean I already did
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Dec 23, 2021 01:46
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Rarity posted:6. If you want to go back and edit your list after the fact then go for it, just shoot one of us a PM or post in the thread to let us know you have or it might not get counted. Looks like you're good since you posted about it in thread. P.S any edits made to my own list were because I was fixing typos, which I am terrible about picking up on before hitting the Submit Reply button.
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Dec 23, 2021 01:50
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Jerusalem posted:Looks like you're good since you posted about it in thread. Everytime I re-read it I find new typos and I've decided to make peace with my mistakes instead of racking up an edit count into the triple digits
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Dec 23, 2021 01:55
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For every typo in your post one of your top tens gets ignored, starting with your #10. So at ten typos, sorry, you wasted your time (and our time)
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Dec 23, 2021 01:59
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i also typo-edited
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Dec 23, 2021 01:59
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Jay Rust posted:For every typo in your post one of your top tens gets ignored, starting with your #10. So at ten typos, sorry, you wasted your time (and our time) 
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Dec 23, 2021 02:09
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Fentry posted:10. NBA 2k22 (PS5): A horrible exploitive game with the worst microtransactions in the business but they get a point for finally adding 3v3 random no squads matchmaking which is literally all I have ever asked for from this game that I play way too much every year. Yeah, 2k has been bad for a long time but this years was the most fun i've had in awhile.
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Dec 23, 2021 02:37
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Based on my list it seems my theme for the year was "broadening my gaming horizons" 10. Far Cry 5 – Despite my longstanding love of the Assassins Creed series, and in particular the more recent open-world installments, I had never played a Far Cry game prior to this one. I had heard mostly negative things about the game honestly, especially focused on the story and the atypically-silent protagonist. But the gameplay itself was roundly praised, so I figured I'd take advantage of a good sale price to see how the Far Cry formula suited me. The answer: I really enjoyed playing this game, flaws and all. The music in particular has stuck with me, and despite the very real problems with the story I enthusiastically picked up 3, 4, New Dawn, and 6 in short order. 9. A Plague Tale: Innocence – This was a pleasant surprise as one of the free PS+ games this year. Impressive graphics, well-executed stealth gameplay, and an engaging (if a bit short) storyline all made me glad to have taken a chance on the game, and have me excited for the sequel next year. 8. Far Cry 6 - Pretty much everything I liked about Far Cry 5, I liked more in 6 (with the possible exception of the music). Just a big fun open world experience, and having the protagonist be an actual character that speaks and reacts to things made a huge difference. 7. Yakuza Like a Dragon – I've become a huge fan of the Yakuza games since returning to the Playstation fold a few years ago, and this game delivered on so many of the things I've grown to love about the series. That being said, I was initially resistant to playing the game at all when I learned of the switch to turn-based combat. That particular combat style has legitimately ruined games for me, so I had pretty much written LAD off as a skippable entry in the franchise. Last year's GOTY thread, however, had a few posts talking the game up and showing what made it great, and I was sufficiently intrigued. I still hated the combat system from start to finish, but the game did at least make a convincing case for why that particular system was necessary, and managed to make it one of the more enjoyable examples that I've encountered. And everything else was top-tier Yakuza goodness, possibly even my favorite entry in the series. 6. Mass Effect 3 Legendary Edition – In truth this is kind of a stand-in for the entire Legendary Edition trilogy, but I did choose Mass Effect 3 for a specific reason. The Mass Effect series has been one of my favorite gaming franchises since I first played the original game. Even when people raged about the ending, I still held a mostly positive view of it. Even when Andromeda became a laughingstock, I genuinely enjoyed my time with it (I even completed a third playthrough this year, and it almost made my list!). However, I hadn't actually played the original trilogy at all since Mass Effect 3 was originally released, so I was very excited at the prospect of the remastered collection. In my memory the quality ranking went the same as most people: 2, 1, 3, with the only possible debate being the first two positions. This time around though, I found the first game to be much thinner than I remembered, 2 held up just fine, but 3 was so much more fun and interesting than in my memory. I can honestly say now that 3 is my favorite game of the trilogy. Yes, even the parts with Kai Leng. 5. Lost Judgment – The original Judgment was, at the time I played it, a strong contender for my favorite game in the Yakuza universe. This year's sequel had everything I loved from the first game (an overly-complex legal plot, the usual side story silliness, and a satisfying payoff to being a completionist), plus high school drama! The school stories did give the game more of a sense of bloat than the original had, but bonus points for the developers solving the problem of “how do we avoid our protagonist beating the poo poo out of teenagers for half the game” by creating a new fighting style where he just clowns on them instead. 4. Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy – This game had all the makings of absolute garbage. It came seemingly out of nowhere, a licensed Marvel property that had already been adapted into two well-received movies, and the initial footage was less than inspiring. I had zero hype for this one right up until its release, when all of a sudden there was a growing buzz that the game was actually good. I decided to see for myself and found the story was engaging, the performances were effective both comedically and dramatically, and the gameplay was fun as hell. Definitely one of my biggest surprises of the year. 3. Hades – I spent most of last year's thread wondering just how good this Hades game everyone is talking about could really be. Well, with its release on Playsation this year I was finally able to get an answer, and that answer was “Extremely.” I'd never played a roguelike at all before Hades, and the basic elements of the genre seemed at odds with my usual gaming preferences. And indeed, after the first few hours I was ready to drop it and chalk it up to a failed experiment. But I pressed on, and somewhere along the way something clicked. By the time the credits rolled (not the true ending, I know) I knew it would place prominently on my list. It might have even placed higher, but I am a completionist and Hades has a prohibitively unreliable process for advancing the side content. Still, I'm very glad I took a chance on a game outside my comfort zone. 2. Deathloop – I don't think I was the only one who got a little sick of hearing about Deathloop at every Sony presentation for the year or so leading up to its release. I had played Dishonored years ago but aside from that had no particular affection for Arkane's work, and it really felt like they were pushing this mediocre-looking game way too hard. But again, once it was released I started hearing some really positive buzz about it, and I decided to rent it and give it a shot. Turns out the buzz was right, the game was a whole lot of fun. I loved the time loop structure and the way they used it, and the whole retro-futuristic aesthetic was great. Another game that I'm glad I took a shot on. 1. Disco Elysium: The Final Cut – Like Hades, Disco Elysium was a game that I was already tired of hearing about long before I ever had the opportunity to play it. And, also like Hades, when it was finally released for console I decided to roll the dice (no pun intended) and see what all the fuss was about. What I found was perhaps one of my favorite games of all time. It's a strange one for sure, and structurally unlike just about anything I'd ever played. But through all the strangeness and esoteric philosophical musings there is something deeply beautiful about Disco Elysium, and I found myself drawn to it more and more. I burned through my initial playthrough over a long weekend, and once I was done I didn't hesitate to start my second. Just an incredible piece of art that I plan to revisit again and again. ShakeZula fucked around with this message at 03:12 on Dec 28, 2021 |
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Dec 23, 2021 07:23
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