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Jesus Runa, and I thought I loved FFXIV. 
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Dec 31, 2021 15:52
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| # ? May 20, 2024 22:24 |
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I deliberately stay away from AAA stuff because Hong Kong deserves to be free and companies that systematically sexually abuse their female employees are not Cool or Good at all. Here's yet another Top 10 of 2021:
Love Stole the Day fucked around with this message at 16:28 on Dec 31, 2021 |
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Dec 31, 2021 16:25
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gently caress I forgot about Psychonauts 2, have a tough cut to make
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Dec 31, 2021 16:33
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WOW, VG! It's weird how similar of a videogame time we've had! I also spent 2021 trying to finish my backlog so I could not just "fall in love for a little bit and then get distracted"! I said I was going to do 2 a month, but finished 26. As of a couple of days ago. These are only my favorite that I've finished this year. I've heard other folks say stuff, but this year has been AMAZING for games (from my perspective). As much crap as I might talk, I liked all of these enough to finish them. Mention: Astro's Playroom - I've heard everyone gush about the PS5 pack-in, but nobody ever mentions the totally horseshit trackpad section. I'll get back to it someday, but that (literally) bounced me off of it. The other parts I played were mostly pleasant fun, though. #26 The Council - Telltale-like storyteller with a lot of twists and mysteries. Starts out super strong, falters in the middle, barely limps across the line. No dogs. #25 Lego Marvel Superheroes 2 - If you've played a Lego videogame, this is one of them. That's not a bad thing. It's well done. I played it solely to play a game as Squirrel Girl, Koi Boy, Chipmunk Hunk, and Throg. (BTW, if you aren't familiar with Marvel comics, an unusually brave frog once lifted the hammer Mjolnir. He became THROG, NORSE GOD OF LIGHTNING AND THUNDER) Squirrels. #24 Rebel Galaxy - The "lite"-est of space sims. Keeps things to a 2D plane and has a bangin' soundtrack the rock genre of which I do not know the name of. It's clearly goin for wild west/Firefly vibes here and it gets it. Short and maybe a bit shallow, but it's a-ok in my book. No dogs. #23 Just Cause 4 - I'd played 2 and liked it. This is 4. Super fun 3D action gameplay, actual intended game gets a bit dry after a while. No dogs. #22 Farcry Primal - Ubisoft-like. By Ubisoft. I like some of that "climb tower to unlock region" formula sometimes, and this hit it. Underrated, perhaps? Yeah, definitely underrated. It has the VA for Adam Jensen speaking in caveman gibberish which never stops being funny. It's basically "Beastmaster: The Game". You can pet dogs, tigers, bears, pretty much whatever. I think badgers even. Hell yeah. #21 Agents of Mayhem - I can see why this got such low scores. Without the DLC and patches, this would be horrible if you paid full price for it at launch. Also, it's STILL buggy as hell. FORTUNATELY, the publisher is desperate to get any money back on this at all and it's WORTH IT. For $3 or $4 US. 3rd-person action game starring Ji-hoon (Johnny) Gat. (If you have the DLC) It's genuine fun, but a tough recommend unless you get it for 2-3 bucks. (Note that the base game does not star Ji-hoon. You need DLC to have fun) No dogs. #20 The Good Life - Woof. This is a tough recommend. It's an open-world murder mystery (that immediately forgets that it's a murder mystery) that barely scrapes by on raw charm. Hidetaka Suehiro (SWERY65) is a charming Buddhist priest who makes charming and often heartfelt games. BUT HOLY gently caress HE NEEDS TO TRADE IN WHATEVER BUDDHIST OPTIMISM THAT GETS HIM OUT OF BED IN THE MORNING AND SPEND IT ON A UX EXPERT. AND LISTEN TO THEM. The gameplay is a death by a thousand cuts. EVERY single element of gameplay has something wrong with it and it adds up to an unenjoyable gameplay feel. With a proper gameplay/UX pass, this game would be an enthuaiastic recommend. That will probably never happen. I liked the main character. She seemed at least notionally aware that she was a videogame protagonist, and she HATED that fact. You can not only pet many dogs, but you can be one as well if you want. #19 Cat Quest - Saw it played at a GDQ and folks said to pick it up. So I did. I'm guessing it was originally a mobile game, but as a simple, short, action-adventure sort of title, it lands. It's simple, dumb fun. No dogs till the sequel. Lots of dogs in that. #18 Donut County - A short, fun, silly puzzler? Very chill, though not sure if it's worth it unless it's on sale. Def so if it is. You can devour the dog with your accidental mastery of oblivion. #17 Skyrim - Played this open-world FPSlasher a decade before, but not the DLC or anything. Gave it a full playthrough on the PS5 version. The DLC's okay, but the star of the show was the PS5 port aspect. Whoever optimized this thing KNEW WHAT THEY WERE DOING. The file size of the PS5 version is under HALF of the PS4 version, and the load times are so short you can't read the game tip at the bottom of the screen in time. Nice to get 60fps without mods, too. You can let the dog lead you to a demon altar. #16 Final Fantasy 15 - I need a JRPG fix sometimes, and this was a good one. It's like most FF games, pretty but vacuous, but I liked it. JRPGs have a nasty habit of being forgettable, but at least I remember a few things about this one. That makes it a good JRPG. Setting was interesting and the interactions between the characters were good. And the weirdly obsessive obsession with obsessing about obsessive food. There's an unimportant cooking mechanic in the game that has more content and graphical fidelity than anything else in the game. This game was good comfort food. You can navigate through time with the dog. #15 Untitled Goose Game - A fun and silly goose-themed puzzler. That's what I wanted and that's what they delivered. Short and doesn't overstay its welcome. No significant dogs. #14 Dragon's Dogma Dark Arisen - I'd originally bounced off of this 3d free-roam RPG because it's the most generic POSSIBLE game. Like, humorously so. My buddy said Dark Arisen was good and improved the whole of the game and he was right. It's good Capcom fun with dumb Capcom storytelling. I like it. You can only harm the dogs. #13 Journey - The OG "games as an artistic experience" that got the public's attention. A precursor to the "walking sim". Journey is dope. Visuals and sound for wordless storytelling, done elegantly. This was the proof of concept that mass media needed to understand that games are art. Roger Ebert can go fit his whole body into a horse. Dogs are rugs now. #12 Torment Tides of Numenera - Isometric reading adventure. I loved Planescape Torment dearly. This is a sequel in many ways, but that works against it at times. This is a FANTASTICALLY good Numenera game trying to be a Torment game. That's my only big gripe. The game that captured the feel of Torment was Disco Elysium. This is just a really good Numenera game. Lots of reading. I like it. You can pet the blob. #11 Watch Dogs Legion - Open world "immersive sim"-type. I'd seen the Zero Punctuation review before I played it and Yahtzee was bang on: If you tell your own story and make your own fun, it's a good game. The game they give you is eh, but the toolset they give you is excellent. My game was about the friendship between a sexy Indian construction worker who could fly, a hermit redneck hacker, and the Irish girl version of John Wick. No dogs, despite the title. #10 No Man's Sky - An open-galaxy/space game/Minecraftish sort of deal that reminds me of Fallout 4 for some reason. I bounced off of it a few years back but I'd heard the devs had put in SOME WORK and gave it another go. Worth it! It's got the jank of a really ambitious game but it's got the good stuff as well. Lots of exploration. You can pet the dog-adjacent aliens. #9 Scribblenauts Unlimited - I loved the concept for Scribblenauts (being a genie whose power is only limited by their mastery of language) but never played one. This game (ostensibly for children) taught me how good at English I am NOT. It also taught me that most of life's problems can be solved with Valium and chainsaws. It is fun. If you can spell "dog", you can create as many as you like. #8 Deathloop - Fun "immersive sim" FPS gameplay with good setting and characters. I didn't mind the abrupt ending because you sort of knew it was coming all along. I liked the main character, he seemed to learn about his situation at the same pace as the player. As opposed to keeping the protagonists oblivious to a *big reveal* so they can have an *emotional reaction* that doesn't land. Ever. I love the broken and troubled relationship between Colt and Julianna. I can relate to it. Deathloop is good. No dogs, but some people dress like them. #7 Control - Fun 3rd person action game, but it shines in the setting elements. The combat is mechanically very good, but used poorly. The action winds up feeling like a slog at times despite the fun gameplay. That's the weakest part of the game. Visually, it's an absolute homerun. The setting got me to want to find out more about it at all times. I liked the main character. She seemed odd at first in the way she didn't react to the bizarre crap surrounding her, but later you realize she makes sense. Director Faden is a good Faden. No Dogs. #6 Stardew Valley - Played this farm-em-up before but did another full playthrough to experience the new mid/endgame content and WOW IT'S A LOT if you see it through to the end. This is a comfort game and I have no business playing it anymore, but you can uninstall it from my cold dead fingers. You can pet the dog. #5 River City Ransom - I've been in love with videogames since I first played Space Invaders in '82, but I've never been good at them. Going back to finish a beat 'em up classic felt really good. (Yes, I know it's considered an easy game, but it means a lot to me. No savestates or nuthin'!) No dogs. #4 Hades - I'm not big into roguelites (save FTL) and I'm bad at action games but iterations of this thread convinced me to give it a go. Man, this game is NOT overrated! Gameplay, style, and characters are all rock solid. 3000 years ago this would be like me talking about how I felt about the style and characters in the Bible. I played the Bible and the gameplay pales in comparison to this. It was mostly just reading. You can pet the dog. #3 The Talos Principle - High-quality 3D puzzle solving. I didn't care for the puzzle style of The Witness, because the difficulty of the puzzles were often in their complexity. This is more like Portal 1/2 or Baba is You, where the solution is simple and the difficulty is adjusting yourself to meet the puzzle. The sort of puzzles where you walk away for a while and then come back with a fresh brain and everything clicks because you haven't been running yourself into a mental rut for an hour. No dogs. #2 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim - Visual novel with pausable RTS elements. Everyone went bonkers for this in a previous thread, and while I don't think it's GOTY-level, it's darn good! Vanillaware are mostly known for their hand-drawn action side-scrollers, they did a great job breaking into something else. Trying to figure out the mysteries had me going 3 ways at once, the giant robot combat was good, the... y'know, maybe I do understand why this was a GOTY kinda game. Feelings. Lots of feelings and a neat game. Not much for dogs, but you can get a hot dog with noodles in it. #1 Pathfinder: Kingmaker - Isometric Western RPG. It's janky but beautiful and I love it. If you're not familiar with Pathfinder, it's basically DnD 3.6. 3.5 was an uncomfortable bloat party but a lot of us nerds liked that. Pathfinder basically takes 3.5 and gives it a balance pass. PF:KM felt more like a tabletop gaming experience than I've had in a long time (on an electronic device). The jank is real, but so is the fun. You can be the bears. You can play as a character who has a bear sidekick and then turn into a bear and then summon MORE BEARS. MAXIMUM BEARS GO AHEAD, ANTAGONIST, TRY TO DEAL WITH THIS MANY ANGRY BEARS Shortlist: #10 No Man's Sky #9 Scribblenauts Unlimited #8 Deathloop #7 Control #6 Stardew Valley #5 River City Ransom #4 Hades #3 The Talos Principle #2 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim #1 Pathfinder: Kingmaker
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Dec 31, 2021 16:35
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Love Stole the Day posted:list] Incorrect! So long as you played it this year, you can include it. If it was up there in your favorites of this year of playing video games, it counts.
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Dec 31, 2021 16:38
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Erwin the German posted:Incorrect! So long as you played it this year, you can include it. If it was up there in your favorites of this year of playing video games, it counts. This is an inclusive thread, all video games are welcome 
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Dec 31, 2021 16:47
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Also Disco came out on console this year anyway so it's the first time some of us could play it
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Dec 31, 2021 16:49
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Also, Disco Elysium did come out with a large content update this year.
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Dec 31, 2021 16:50
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 Because I am a huge diva I decided to make a video about my picks since my writing isn't great and my talking is much better. But there's some cool stuff to look at and even rare footage of me not jobbing in a game of Guilty Gear. Plus I didn't really feel that I could get over my emotions over the number 1 pick in text. Honourable Mentions Not in Video Fire Emblem - Three Houses I'm disqualifying this game because I've played it something like three or four times across the past three years and my rules said that only games I newly played this year could go on the list. That being said, this is the year where I've come to appreciate how much I love this game. I look forward to playing it every single week. I think the big thing that changed the way I perceived the game was Maddening difficulty, which is probably the best difficulty setting I've found in a turn based strategy game. It's tenaciously difficult but at the same time completely manageable and the freedom you have with builds allows you to pull off some incredibly bullshit in the face of overwhelming odds. Metroid Dread If I didn't hate everything about the way this game controls it would be on the list in a heartbeat. As it stands, it's a game that's near perfect in the way it represents a story, puzzling, boss fights and yet it more often than not will make me want to hurl a controller through a wall. Short List for Rarity 10: Pokemon Unite – TiMI Studio Group - 2021 9: Bug Fables – Moonsprout Games - 2019 8: Banjo Kazooie: The Jiggies of Time – Mark Kurko - 2020 7: Deathloop – Arkane Studios - 2021 6: Monster Hunter Rise – Capcom - 2021 5. No More Heroes 3 – Grasshopper Manufacture - 2021 4. Hollow Knight – Team Cherry - 2017 3. Guilty Gear: Strive – Arc System Works - 2021 2. Gartic Phone – Onrizon Social Games - 2020 1. FFXIV Online: Endwalker – Square Enix Creative Business Unit III – 2021
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Dec 31, 2021 17:01
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Natural 20 posted:
gently caress y'all the bar just got RAISED
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Dec 31, 2021 17:10
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10. DEATH STRANDING I have a lot of appreciation for this game on some weird conceptual level where I just can't believe how much effort an entire studio of game developers went through to simulate a balance system, a weather system, a pee system... it's a game about delivering packages and dodging invisible ghosts. It can be a very tedious experience, but hot drat, they had a vision and they stuck to it. Something I keep hearing when people praise this game is that they enjoy the moments where they get an upgrade that lets them skip part of the gameplay. I don't know if this makes a very strong case for the strand-type genre. I admire Death Stranding, and for a while I really enjoyed trekking through the countryside, it's chill, but it also tires me out quickly. Now I haven't touched this thing in months, because if I do I know that I will either be bored or stressed, so I keep putting it off like a chore. Eventually I'll watch a playthrough to see somebody else suffer through this absurd masterpiece. Then I can fast-forward through the delivery parts. 9. BPM: Bullets per Minute  I love making music, so rhythm games are extremely my poo poo, and seeing the genre incorporated into a roguelike FPS certainly caught my eye. How it works is, there's a beat, and you shoot on beat, you dodge on beat, you reload on beat. Simple, until you realize that every gun comes with a different pattern, and projectiles keep raining on you from everywhere. Also the floor is lava. Good luck. It's extremely punchy and slick and playing through it makes you feel like a badass valkyrie metal percussionist and/or sausage-fingered idiot. 8. Fights in Tight Spaces  John Wick Simulator. It's John Wick the card game, which really makes you feel like John Wick. Draw a card, Mr. Wick, you are John Wick and you kill people. With your John Wick moves. 7. Wildermyth  The general consensus on this game seems to be that the concept is amazing but the execution is a bit awkward and I agree with this. It tries to emulate procedurally generated pen and paper campaigns - events and characters are stitched together randomly while the main campaigns still have a hardcoded overall arc. In its best moments this leads to some very memorable situations, like when my 60 year old granny rogue oneshot the chapter boss machine god by jamming a dagger in its back. In its worst moments the game can feel like you're playing AI dungeon. Combat and strategy map are XCOM-like. It's servicable, although the leveling system is also semi-randomized, and some skill choices might not pop up before you're well into your third campaign. If you recruit too many heroes it quickly dilutes the experience. I think it would be a better game if it focused more on telling stories on a smaller scope. It tries to do too many things at once. But it's still a neat little experience, very evocative of old folk tales and ancient myths, and I will certainly carry some of those memories with me for a while. One really cool feature is that you get to keep your characters and reuse them as legacy characters in later campaigns. I have a guy called Even Grip, he's a crowman with a diamond eyepatch and a crossbow and if that doesn't sound cool to you, then we simply cannot be friends. 6. Persona 5  I feel like I had an on-off relationship with this game for half my life. The problem is that there's so much stuff to get into, that everytime I fall off for a week I don't dare to crawl back lest it punish me for my lack of commitment. Also it's one of those games that make you feel like you're close to the end and then keeps going for another 30 hours. Did I mention that I hate turn-based JRPGs? Because I do. Entenzahn, why are you playing this then? Why is it on your list, EntenDUMB, if you hate it so much? Hm??? For the story, dear reader! For those sweet moments when my party rushes into battle as Last Surprise is playing. The soundtrack slaps, the game is hype, even the gameplay is fine for what it is, I don't hate it, it's just that the dungeons go on too long for my taste. I always saw them as an investment I had to make, to progress through the plot and the relationship arcs. I guess you're supposed to map out all the ways to fuse the optimal Gigatron 9000 Personaman, but I never did that. Instead I meticulously planned out my daily meeting schedule so I could max out as many relationships as possible. Because I know I will not sit through another 500 hours of this to see three new cutscenes. Especially if I can't date Yusuke. gently caress you. 5. Pyre  I played this because I wanted to finish all the other Supergiant Games games before getting into Hades. I didn't think I would like this at all. I am a stupid man with a tiny brain. All I can say is, if this looks like a flash version of NBA2k2 to you, don't make the same mistake I did. There are some surprising meta-gameplay elements, and the various different characteristics of your players make it super fun to screw around with different tactics and dunk on some rainworms or whatever. The setting is unique, the characers are complex and interesting etc etc Supergiant Games good music. 4. Hades  This game feels like the best parts of all previous Supergiant Games titles rolled into one. The combat, the weapons, the powers, the story, the characters - the whole gang is here, and they're about to wreck your face, you better believe it buddy. I guess the open secret to this game's success is how death is never a punishment. It's baked into the story and gameplay formula and absolutely needs to happen to make progress. It's how you get new stuff. I'm usually too impatient for roguelikes, but the dungeon is relatively short, and you can get wacky boon combos right from the start. You died? Good job! Now you get to be Captain America. Are you a bad enough dude to die again and become The Hulk? 3. Phasmophobia  I'm the kind of guy who will put on a horror game and hide in the youtube comments section. I love the idea of horror, but there's something about the visual aspect where my baby brain will shut down if I expose it directly. A friend of mine suggested we play Phasmophobia, and I don't know how she got the idea, since she is also a coward. So it took some convincing (I had to get drunk), but now I'm glad I took her up on it. It's not the most intricate game, the gameplay gets simple quick, or at least it did back when we played it. But there's something about the atmosphere that makes it special. That oppressive hum when you cross the threshold into a haunted house; the crackle of your walkie-talkie as a team member starts freaking out on the other end of the map; the knowledge that, any moment, the lights can flicker and your radio will die and you will be hunted, and you will be on your own. The game builds tension, fuels your paranoia, and then the bubble pops and some rotten fucker with a meat cleaver chases after you, and you run and hide, and you die, or you git gut and become a ghost hunting badass. The real reason this game ranks so high for me is that it has served me as an entry drug into the horror genre. 2. It Takes Two  I don't think any other game has given me this much pure, unbridled joy in a long time. It's chock-full of ideas, and every level feels like a new kind of minigame. Jump 'n Runs with puzzle elements tend to bore me quickly, but this one constantly changes up the mechanics, like there's seriously always some dumbass surprise around the corner. It's extremely creative. You get the feeling they just had fun coming up with ideas and then worked their asses off to make sure the presentation does them justice. One moment you travel through magical painted vistas, then an anthromorphic book pops up to aggressively hump the air in your general direction, then you're doing sick railgrinds while you fire your machine gun at the level boss. I don't even want to talk too much about what's in this game, because the less of it you expect, the better it will be for you. Me and my friend we legit had to pause after some segments to take a breather and appreciate how sicko mode the game had made us feel. Simply amazing. 1. RimWorld  I didn't have a lot of time for myself ever since I went back to uni. Only in summer, and with covid cases finally on the downturn, I had an opportunity to once again go on those long walks, meet my friends after work, maybe decorate my new apartment. You know where this is going, I closed the blinds and spent an entire month of my life playing RimWorld. I can never tell my friends of the things that I do in this game. I like to consider myself a fairly normal human being, but when the game boots up I turn into the kind of guy who will take on a group of refugees, line them up against the wall, disarm them, separate them by their stats, send the bad ones away to hunt thrumbos bare-handed and arrest the good ones to brainwash them into joining my communist techno cult. I revel in the misery of my enemies, and everyone who is not with me is against me. Being bad never felt this good. It's the spiritual successor to Dungeon Keeper 2. RimWorld gives you a lot of freedom, and if the base game doesn't let you do it, the Steam workshop will. Want to command a robot army? Become an oil tycoon? Enrich uranium and build a nuclear arsenal to bomb the planet back into the stone age? Yup, there's a mod for that. With all the options you keep unlocking, there's always reason a to optimize "just one more thing before bed". Rebuild it. Make it bigger. Make it nicer. Remake it again, but out of gold. Your prison needs more room - time to hollow out another mountain. The old prison can be used to make space heroin. No other game this year has managed to get me addicted the same way RimWorld has. Entenzahn fucked around with this message at 21:34 on Dec 31, 2021 |
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Dec 31, 2021 17:11
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Rarity posted:Next year I'm instituting a no weird pics in your votes rule you can try but when Tower Unite banned me for 2 days and removed 2 of my models I spent 2 weeks making 13 unique hotdog centaurs as my revenge. there was also that time mods probated someone for cloaca and i drew a big cartoon about it brutally owning the mods in a way they will never recover from. so you can try to stop me but know that i am an unreasonable person with disproportionate art responses to the minorest of perceived slights.
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Dec 31, 2021 17:32
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In total I've played 21 games in 2021, of which 12 were released in 2021. Out of the 21 games, 7 were time loop games! (still like them, though!) The List 10. Returnal (PS5, 25 hours) A super-polished 3D roguelite with amazing sound/music, a cool setting, and interesting story. I liked my time with Returnal but I felt like each run was a tad too long, and corpse runs (such as they were) were annoying. 9. Resident Evil 3 (PS5, 9 hours) This game surprised me but as much as I liked RE2 Remake, I somehow ended up liking RE3 more. Jill is a great protagonist and the final boss fight felt loving great. 8. Hitman 3 (27 hours) There's not much to say except that Hitman 3 is still a really good Hitman, which makes it automatically better than most games. 7. Psychonauts 2 (XGP, 17 hours) Colorful, whimsical, heartfelt game. I have only a foggy memory of the first one but I remember liking it a lot back then. The characters and art style easily carried the game for me. 6. Persona 5 Royal (PS5, 113 hours) As my first Persona game and one of the only JRPGs I've ever played, it left a strong impression on me. The story and characters were the highlight for me, though I would be remiss not to mention the amazing music and stylish visuals. 5. Metroid Dread (Switch, 30 hours) I love metroidvanias but never actually played a Metroid game except Metroid Fusion in an emulator more than 10 years ago, so Dread was another first time for me. It felt great to play and the music was good in parts. The most surprising were the boss fights. I didn't expect them to be so difficult but it elevated the game for me. 4. Outer Wilds: Echoes of the Eye (Steam, 15 hours) The original Outer Wilds was my GOTY 2019 and wow, I didn't think they could keep it up in a DLC. It honestly puts most of DLC ever made to shame, and the fact they retroactively made it an indelible part of the whole game for me, is just an insane achievement overall. 3. 13 Sentinels (PS5, 30 hours) The game's story floored me. I loved how it was presented and how you as the player end up uncovering bits of pieces of the whole puzzle while still being neatly kept in the dark until almost the very end. 2. Raging Loop (Steam, 30 hours) Raging Loop is pretty crazy. As time loop games go, this one goes places! It consumed one whole week back in spring and it's easily one of the best games I've played. 1. The Forgotten City (XGP, 15 hours) What a gem! if you told me I'm going to play so many time-loop games this year, I'd think you're crazy yet here we are, and one of them even ended up topping my list. I almost skipped it on account of it being a gussied up Skyrim mod but that would've been a huge mistake! This game has basically no fat, delivers a great story in an original setting, and even manages to avoid annoyances commonly found in time loop games. Honorable Mentions Dyson Sphere Program (Steam, 20 hours) I love automation games and DSP was a huge surprise because of how polished it already was back then. Unfortunately due Steam cloud shenanigans I've lost my 20+ hour save and didn't feel like restarting since then, otherwise this would have easily be near the top of my list. With how dilligent the dev team is, I assume it's going appear on my top 10 next year. Deathloop (PS5, 30 hours) I love Arcane and liked my time with Deathloop but it kinda fizzled out near the end. It can't topple Prey, and maybe not even Dishonored, but those are two of my all-time favorites, and there's no shame in that. Deliver Us the Moon (XGP, 8 hours) A great narrative experience that is kinda similar to other walking simulators in space, like Tacoma, but one that feels more expansive and different. One of the surprise hits for me. Life is Strange: True Colors (Steam, 12 hours) A solid entry in the series with a great protagonist and an amazing female love interest! That said, the game felt a bit stale relying on yet another superpower that I didn't feel was that great. Subnautica: Below Zero (Steam, 31 hours) Unfortunately it's not as good as Subnatica, mainly because it feels like a rehash of it, and with annoying, annoyingly big and unexplicable sections on land, which completely suck. The ending was cool but I feel no shame about cheating my way to it. The Rest Gunk (XGP, 6 hours) Last game I've finished this year (just yesterday, actually!) that I wanted to try since I usually skip the late releases. It was a nice palate cleanser with superb characters, moody music, and impressive graphics for an indie effort. The final part of the game felt like artificial padding, though. Dark Souls 3 (Steam, 71 hours) Originally, I've never made it past Pontiff Sulyvahn which is maybe not even halfway through the game. After picking the game up again this year, I had an amazing time with DS3 and managed to blaze through all the bosses. It would have probably be higher up the list if not for Ringed City which I disliked immediately and never finished it. Valheim (Steam, 13 hours) It really made my week when it was released but I soon fell off it, waiting for my friends to get it. They haven't yet and I haven't played since but I've really loved the ~15 hours I put into it in February. Inscryption (Steam, 4 hours) A game with huge hype behind it that I liked it well enough but still haven't finished, and not sure whether I will. However, the atmosphere was really, really good, and it's easily one of the most memorable games this year. City of Gangsters (Steam, 5 hours) I've only played the demo before it was released but even during my short time back in August I've really liked it. It's almost like a game from a different era with its gameplay that I think might become one of my favorites after more time in the oven. Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice (PS5, 42 hours previously, 5 hours this year) It made my list only this year because after buying it on release in 2019, I got stonewalled at the last boss and never finished it until now. It gave me a nice feeling of closure but I wouldn't feel good about it pushing other games off the list.
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Dec 31, 2021 17:44
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wuggles posted:I love the goty thread. Also once I play FFXIV I am coming back to read everyone's posts about it.
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Dec 31, 2021 17:46
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Wasn't an amazing year for games for me but I figured I'd make a quick list anyway. 5: Psychonauts 2 I think the only thing more astounding than the fact that Psychonauts 2 exists at all is that it's good. It's just a fun experience all around, though the combat isn't great (it's definitely more complex this time around, but that doesn't mean better) and while the game is very funny not every joke lands. Hence, it sits at number 5. 4: Great Ace Attorney Chronicles I had played the fan translation of 1 a year ago, but went into 2 knowing nothing. Taking both games as one experience, they may very well be my favorite Ace Attorney games. The first game is a little rough in parts, but the pair have great cases, great characters, and, like many Ace Attorney games, a soundtrack that's really good for a game about a lawyer. Not really much more to say about them without going into plot details - they're VNs, after all. 3: Guilty Gear Strive While I've spent a lot of time with fighting games, I've always been very casual (and, uh, bad). This is still the case, but Guilty Gear Strive is probably the most fun I've had with a fighting game online. Pre-release, I was skeptical upon hearing how different it was from the previous entries in the series, but while it is different it manages to be a fantastic game on its own merits. 2: Shin Megami Tensei V Shin Megami Tensei is one of my favorite series that I don't actually play all that much. Not counting Persona games, I had only finished one of them (Shin Megami Tensei IV: Apocalypse), though I'd made decent progress in quite a few. Despite trying and failing to get into Nocturne, I was nonetheless very excited to play SMTV. As it turns out, I was right to be excited. SMTV is a very well-designed game - while it's true some of the zone layouts can be confusing, I still enjoyed exploring the various locales, fusing and recruiting demons, and battling. Even the demon negotiation was enjoyable this time around, a first for the series. Sure, the reason it was more enjoyable was because they made it really, really easy, but I'd rather it be too easy than too frustrating. The game's not perfect - the ability to avoid "random" encounters so easily makes them feel like punishments rather than part of the game's flow, and the story and characters are really bad, but I'd easily recommend it to anyone who anyone who likes JRPGs (or can even just tolerate them). That all being said, I haven't actually gotten around to finishing this one either. That's because of a certain other game that came out... 1: Final Fantasy XIV: Endwalker Yes, unfortunately I'm yet another poster singing the praises of FFXIV. Endwalker is an excellent expansion to an excellent game - it's got great story, characters, gameplay, dungeons, bosses, all the things you want in a big stupid JRPG's big stupid finale. I don't think the main story is quite on the level of Shadowbringers, however - I definitely had more I didn't like about Endwalker's plot than Shadowbringer's. Still, it's impressive that they managed to end such a massive, long-running story arc in a satisfying way at all. Of course, as much as people talk about the story of FFXIV, the gameplay is important too. Without getting into too much detail about minutiae like how Ninja plays now (it's worse) or what Reaper is like (it's good), I will say I really like the boss design and (much of) the class design. While I think Endwalker wouldn't have been my number 1 most years, it easily makes it to the top of my 2021 list. Honorable Mention: Deltarune Chapter 2 Look, I like Undertale, I like Deltarune, Toby Fox's humor just really works for me (plus the music's great). I'm not putting this on the list because it's not even a complete game, but if I did it'd probably be 2 or 3.
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Dec 31, 2021 17:47
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Note if you want to play Agents of Mayhem, you can no longer get all the achievements as the servers were shut down and global assignments no longer track/exist
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Dec 31, 2021 18:03
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I didn't really play a lot (as in multiple) of games this year, as it was kind of a rough one, but hopefully this works: #5 Cyberpunk 2077 - An incredible disappointment in many ways, but I played it a whole bunch and managed to enjoy myself despite itself, so it felt like it'd be disingenuous not to put it on the list. #4 Disco Elysium: The Final Cut - A masterpiece. The insane voice work took what was already clearly an incredible game and turned it sublime. There's not much else to say here. #3 Deltarune (Chapter 2) - Waiting for the next big release is going to be hard, and it managed to finally draw me into playing Chapter 1, and moreso, Undertale for the first time. And all of them were great. #2 The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles - This is a close second, and on top of being an intensely entertaining title in its own right, it's also one of the greatest Ace Attorney games (because, let's be honest, it's one game, even if it cames out in two releases) in the series, and made me feel like I did when I first played AA1 in 2006. I didn't think that'd be possible again. Amazing. #1 Death Stranding - I know that it's late, but I finally had a PC (and a 5120x1440 monitor) that could truly present it in all its harsh glory, and, more importantly, I watched a stream or two of the early game for the first time, and it actually made me interested in playing myself for the first time, rather than my earlier position of 'oh, you, shine on, Kojima, you crazy diamond'. I bought it in the steam sale, approximately 9 days ago, and since then, I've played 85 hours. And I'm gonna play a bunch more today, sore third dose left arm or no. Definitely a game that got even more powerful in the last two years than it was before. Aoi fucked around with this message at 18:07 on Dec 31, 2021 |
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Dec 31, 2021 18:03
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Hello, thank you for having us all at this wonderful Game of the Year Gala. https://zippy.gfycat.com/ElderlyGrandioseDorking.mp4 10. Metal Gear Solid I decided, at some point, during this year that I wanted to replay the entire Metal Gear Solid series and really only ended up getting through the first in the series, which already is one of my favorite games of all time and I don’t think placing it at number 10, as a nostalgia game, betrays that ranking for me. 23 years on from its initial release, Metal Gear Solid remains as stylish, fun and deeply interesting as ever and full of some of gaming’s most iconic characters. I think Metal Gear Solid is rad and Hideo Kojima is truly an artist of the video game form.  9. Pyre Pyre is better than Hades and frankly it’s not even a close argument as far as I am concerned. I find the central gameplay of Pyre, which can really only be described as magic NBA jam, deeply satisfying and a joy to tinker with different team and item combinations. Pyre has some of the most beautiful environmental backgrounds I’ve ever seen. I found myself sitting, staring, at the screen just taking in and appreciating the colorful and intricate backgrounds, listening to the wonderful music and having a great time. Pyre’s signature achievement, however, is that it is a game where you can lose and it’s okay. It’s a brilliant design decision to allow you to lose games, while also moving the plot forward in a new and interesting way. The longer-term mechanic of saving certain party members, while those not chosen remain in the Downside for another another round of the Rites while the party size dwindles made for some really interesting decision making – do I want to free these characters that I have come to be fond of and find extremely useful in actual games, or should I keep them in purgatory to make my own life easier? https://thumbs.gfycat.com/ElasticExaltedAmericanbittern-mobile.mp4 8. DOOM: Eternal Mother fuckin’ DOOM.  7. Hollow Knight Another wonderful title that I am wildly late to the party on. This is one of those games where I’m mad that no one sat me down, shook me by the shoulders and told me to play as soon as possible. Hollow Knight is one of the most exemplary examples of a “metroid-vania” I can think of, please excuse me for not having played Metroid: Dread quite yet. Hollow Knight, much like Pyre above, was a game where I would just sit and appreciate the wonderful environments and appreciate how much care and effort went into every little thing. I didn’t end up going for full completion on Hollow Knight, though. I think maybe, depending on whenever Silksong comes out, I may be ready for a revisit at some point in the near future to clear up the stuff I left unfinished. https://i.imgur.com/tyEA5a8.mp4 6. Deep Rock Galactic Deep Rock Galactic, to me, is a game about chillin’ with the boys and having a good time. For me, it’s the first thing I want to reach for when co-op gaming is happening. Have not gotten deep into high level content for Deep Rock Galactic, but every time I boot this up it’s a drat good time and an equally good excuse to simply hang out and shoot the poo poo, while also shooting poo poo. The developers of DRG, seem to be pretty player-friendly, having just released an entirely free battle pass and the items that are inside will be able to be purchased with in-game currency after the season ends for anyone who didn’t gain them from the battle pass. It seems like an interesting take on attempting to do more “live” content for the game and I’m curious to see how it goes, further down the line. https://i.imgur.com/b8c5ncz.mp4 5. Guilty Gear: Strive Guilty Gear: Strive is so good it got me over my 1v1 online gaming anxiety and got me to actually put time in the lab to want to get better. Having friends that play a fighting game at the same time as you and constantly drive you to get better is a blessing. Strive’s netcode is incredibly good – in nearly 100 hours of playing Strive online I can count only a small handful of individual matches that were negatively affected by internet issues. I do think that the first season of DLC characters has been, to date, somewhat disappointing and hope that season 2 brings more viable characters to the table. Apparently there’s a story in this game that’s incredibly rad, that I’ve completely ignored because all I want to do is get online as quickly as possible and throw dolphins at people. https://i.imgur.com/6YoqvXb.mp4 4. Anodyne 2 Just go read stux’s post on Anodyne 2 from last year’s thread. https://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?action=showpost&postid=510800383  3. 13 Sentinels I was trying my hardest to get 13 Sentinels in under the wire for last year’s thread and just missed it, because I was playing Cyberpunk 2077 instead. That was, all things considered, a colossal gently caress up. I’m not sure if there’s much to say about 13 Sentinels that hasn’t already been said. I’m not even quite sure how to discuss the game in a manner that doesn’t show the game’s hand immediately – if you’re the kind of person who thinks you’d have any interest in this game I can assure you that you will enjoy it and to go in as blind as possible. https://i.imgur.com/mxz2hgx.mp4 2. Monster Hunter: Rise Monster Hunter: World gave me my first taste of Monster Hunter and I fell head-over-heels for it and sank well over 100 hours into it between the PS4 and PC releases. Monster Hunter: Rise sucked me in all over again. The wirebug is an incredible addition to Monster Hunter and the new abilities make an already deep combat even deeper. Rise has some of the most satisfying moments in gaming – from hitting your big Great Sword combo for massive damage, or a quick parry of a monster with your shield playing with the Lance or the big old Charge Blade pizza cutter, there’s always something fun and satisfying to be working towards, even in combat. I did have to temper myself somewhat with Rise, due to not wanting to burn out for the upcoming PC release, which I plan playing an immense amount of. https://i.imgur.com/V9Sanc6.mp4 1. Sekiro According to my notes, Sekiro is the second game I finished in 2021. It set the bar incredibly high, and nothing else could knock it from its perch at the top of my games list this year. I think looking at Sekiro as if it were a Souls, or even Bloodborne, type game does it severe injustice. Traversal through the world in Sekiro is fluid and meaningful. I do think that the main attraction of Sekiro is the combat and that is where it truly shines. Some may simply say “Sekiro is a glorified rhythm game” and I think those people are buttheads. There isn’t a game that, when you are executing correctly and competently, makes you feel any cooler than Sekiro does. A well-fought battle in Sekiro leaves you feeling like there is no force in Heaven or Earth that could take you on. Sekiro is a game that tries to crush your soul, and asks you to face it on even terms. When you finally break through and learn a boss’s moveset death after death, as the frustration grows, you finally make it a bit further and it all clicks and it’s the best feeling in gaming. Not being able to summon allies is a brave design decision and I think it makes Sekiro a better game for it. Sekiro is a lovely game. Rarity List: 10. Metal Gear Solid 9. Pyre 8. DOOM: Eternal 7. Hollow Knight 6. Deep Rock Galactic 5. Guilty Gear Strive 4. Anodyne 2 3. 13 Sentinels 2. MH Rise 1. Sekiro
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Dec 31, 2021 18:04
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huge toasts for the Raging Loop mentions 
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Dec 31, 2021 18:05
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I don’t feel like updating my list again but I want to give an honorable mention to Déraciné which I just slammed through last night in a single go. If you have a PSVR and Move controllers you owe it to yourself to pick this up, it’s just lovely.
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Dec 31, 2021 18:11
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Feels Villeneuve posted:huge toasts for the Raging Loop mentions I'm gonna go back and reread Raging Loop next week. It's so good 
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Dec 31, 2021 18:32
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DemoneeHo posted:I'm gonna go back and reread Raging Loop next week. It's so good Do Revelation Mode if you haven't yet, it adds an absurd amount of new dialogue and it's all great.
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Dec 31, 2021 18:39
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20. sea of thieves v good sandbox for trolling your friends and telling vairous game mechanics they should be belayed. also the water looks great  19. prodigal a decent zelda clone thaht has enough of its own ideas to be fun. also a weird dating sim tho  18. new world had no interest in this until i saw the actual gameplay, insane decision for amazon to make an mmo thats so bizarrely old school but i had a lot of fun with it even with theh bugs. also v pretty   17. deedlit in wonder labyrinth ikaruga castlevania. short but very fun. incredible pixel art  16. dyson sphere program a blend of factorio and satisfactory but with a planetary scale. borrows a lot from the "two kings" but the gimmick is extremely cool. still in ea otherwise this probably couldve been higher  15. avorion a space sim where you build your own ships out of various blocks and pieces, with a focus on bosses and loot progression. really enjoyed the latter part but just couldnt get into the ship building and wished there were prebuilt hulls that werent progen nonsense. also the industry/empire stuff was way behidn a certain other game...  14. wattam a stupid baby game about being nice and making friends, luckily im a moron so i really enjoyed this. a "STRand type " game.  13. wreckfest https://i.imgur.com/BbwN0J1.mp4 12. x4 a more Full Fat space sim. huge industry and empire focus, big autonomous universe sandbox. everything from small ship dogfighting to capital ship sieges, alongside a ton of different factional storylines and choices that can get them fighting or helping each other. big mod scene that will probably get me many more hours of playtime in the next few years.   11. unbeatable its ridiculous that one of the best rhythm games of the last few years is free, theres no reason not to play thsi if you like the genre at all. good songs and really fun mapping, cant wait for the full game. please enjoy my s rank of the worost track int he entire game i promise the others arent dubstpe the chart is just very fun https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8uUEY0E8Lzk 10. e.y.e divine cybermancy   somehow never got into this game before. absolutely bizzare world to explore, mechanics and systems designed by a lunatic, dialog thats completely unhinged, locations that will be etched in my brain forever and a true ending that i did not get becausue im not playing it four times in a row right now sorry     9. loop hero  ahhhhhh a roguelite with challenge ohhhhh the mechanics... the Gameplay.... the tile interactions... the depth of stratedgyu.... Options... Upgrades... boss that will destroy you... no fail ctuscenes with interminable npcs voicing wooden lines.... ohhhhhhhhh what bounty.... yes!!! Gaming.  8. old school runescape if u had asked me about mmos before this year i wouldve said that i just wasnt into them anymore and that i had moved on; the last one i had played was ff14 heavensward and i barely made it into that expansion before quitting. it turns out it isnt me actually, its thaht modern mmos are complete garbage that have forgone any notion of player lead gameplay in favor of insipid action bar combatting thru tedious quests to get to a monotonous endgame. i held no nostalgia for this game, it was not a part of my childhood, but it drew me in anyway. there is such freedom for you to play and build how you want, so much content layered on top of each other to the point of redundancy that you can really do just about anything with your character. every stupid niche you could want is catered for thanks to the lack of culling of older parts of the game, and new contentbeing added only if the community votes it in through a supermajority ensures powercreep is kept in check. the gold standard. probably the best mmo ever made. rs3 sucks dont play it.  7. world of horror   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jVADSbJJVYMhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T7v-OmYooz4 1/2bit junji ito/lovecraft mystery solving roguelite withh rpg mechanics. say s it all really. also the soundtrack owns and the dev is back after a year of having disappeared mysteriously so, perfect time to jump in. gets all my 5 epic golden manbabies for making the concept land so well and not using jump scares. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AI9-2BXDUcwhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZXfVnnSB944   6. monster hunter rise/generations ultimate   here lies monster hunter world. on the one hand we have rise, the new installment. the gameplay has been improved immeasurably, theres new combat styles and customisation that deepens the pool for what you can do and gives you more options on how to play. alongside that the decoration grind has been removed and replaced with crafting and the much less impactful charm lottery, which makes building out your gear rewarding and fufilling and not a diceroll. on the other we have generations ultimate which does all the same things... ahhhh turnns out world just removed all of the combat stuff and created an insane deco grind for no reason lol. rise is the perfect streamlining of the older games, world now feels behind in that regard, and being on the RE engine has done so much for ti. it may be less technically demanding but the game looks much better than world overall, the weirdness of worlds engine is gone, everything is cleaner and sharper and more colorful. the wirebugs are amazing and make the levels feel far bigger than before now that you can climb all over them. everything about the game is a step up that makes world completely redundant. theres only one aspect it really falls behind in due to it being more recent and a whole dlc behind and thats absolute content and thankfully for that mhgu exists. i had expected this to be a step down from world in mechanics but its not, absolutely no idea why all these combat options are missing from world, and on top of that gu is the king of pure content, theres 1300 quests and 129 monsters to hunt across 20 something locations making world seem small in comparison. im probably going to play it forever. the qol stuff is missing but its not the end of the "World"  https://i.imgur.com/qhQIA4x.mp4 for points this entry counts as monster hunter rise. 5. fatum betula      walking... looking... thinking... sometimes touching... the primal gaming instincts... a small space to utilize these skills within... little places, with creatures to talk to, and see whats going on. why not spend some time there.      4. s.t.a.l.k.e.r shadow of chernobyl/call of pripyat/anomaly + mods https://i.imgur.com/vyofryz.mp4 i never got into stalker at the time because i was a moron and i played a few of the alpha leaks and then when soc came out i was disappointed with the first 5 minutes because there wasnt a car to drive. truly stupid. gah!!! idiot!!! stupid stupid stupid!!!! ahh i always screw up!!! im such a jerk off! GOD!!! so sick of it. this world... if i had my one wish... id remake it... from scratch... the perfect world with no flaws... ahh but id mess even that up..... gah......... curse this body.............. feh... if this is how it has to be... then ill simply become the Demon they want.................... thank you to oddium for helping me to write this review. points to stalker anomaly.= thank you.       3. metroid dread https://i.imgur.com/Vh8785r.mp4 truly we are blessed to have this game arrive out of nowhere and release immediately, and to top it off its actually incredible. possibly the best controlling 2d game of all time, certianly the best controlling metroidvania. everything feels ultra fluid with the only mark against it being that the coward developers wont let me infinite wall climb. on top of thaht the location design is excellent, the bosses are incredible with the final boss especially being gamingi nirvana. i even like adam beucause of what they do with the idea!!!!! yes!!!!!! this doesnt knock hollow knight off my top metroidvanias ever but it easily slots in at number 2 as super metroids equal. looking forward ot replaying this over the years and learning some of the skips and tricks like i did with sm.     2. critters for sale https://i.imgur.com/xdqLWMn.mp4 gently caress you play thsi game, unless you are photosensitive. thats not hyperbole, dont watch the trailer if strobing is a concern. also dont click on the spoiler below if strobing is bad for you idk if the frame ra te is high enough but still. one of a kind game. just play it.           1. shin megami tensei 5       https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZYaAKD0TEBQ this game is, on all levels, absolutely beyond anything else. the combat is sublime, the press turn system is at its best and extremely refined at this point, and on hard the difficulty curve manages to stay on pace for the entire game. the world design is a joy, with each area having its own flavor and feel. this is genuinely the world as a dungeon, rather than pointless wide open spaces with nothing in them theyve created contorting areas that are fun to run and poke around in. it isnt an open world game in any sense, its just that the roof is gone. the soundtrack is unbelievable, its on a completely different level, it is without question the best soundtrack in any video game, an absolute masterclass. any worries about shoji meguros departure from atlus can be immediately put to rest. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dlWodTMqKG8 the next section is long, and spoilered. it contains various spoilers including some late game stuff. also plelase remember this is the goty thread and you are not allowed to argue with what im about to say. heed these words carefully. but its real strength, where it really shines and what brings it up to the level of nocturne, is the world and the story it tells. it works off of nocturne by completely inverting it. in nocturnes world the humans are the key players in the events going on, they hold the ability to create a new world and they are of limited number, and while they start their journey weak they become powerful in their own right with the backing of their sponsors. smt5 doesnt care for this. in 5s world the humans are merely a tool to be used and the real focus is on the myriad fallen deities and the power struggles between them. the humans are numerous, replaceable, and malleable. if they wont do what the gods want then they can be influenced and controlled. if nocturnes humanity led it to embrace philosophy then 5s divinity pushes it to throw itself full force into theology. the sheer amount of detail and world building packed into the game is astounding. it is so DENSE with information. there is so much care and attention placed onto the mythology of how all these various religious ideas enmesh in a world where christian theology has been made literal that i was just in awe. that isnt to say there is no humanity, but the game does play a little trick on the audience. it takes the expectations of the series and plays with them. we have our law and chaos heroes, and at the start they appear to be playing their parts, but it quickly becomes clear that the parts have changed. the instruments have been switched around. a narrative slight of hand takes place, and instead of being the leads theyre shunted down to second violin, and placed under their demonic counterparts. one is never anything more than this, because hes been that since before the game began. the other we watch it happen, and at the only moment where he takes a step away from this he is forced back. and the groundwork for this is all laid earlier with lahmu, who makes this absolutely explicit in his treatment of sahori, setting out the main dynamic between humans and demons in this world. but i did say there was still humanity; there is also a trio where the human is the center. our main character is one, with his relationship with aogami being inverted from the norm as aogami completely gives himself over to the MCs will. second is yakumo and his relationship with nuwa, again reversing what we see from the rest of 5s world. the last of the three, is miyazu and khonsu. the quest line involving them really plays this up and uses it to contrast with the earlier three, with khonsu rejecting his chance to become nahobino for the sake of the human holding his knowledge, her bravery in the face of terminal illness moving him. however the dynamic then arises in a different manner as he begins to prolong her life without her knowledge, culminating in him seeking to sacrifice himself to ascend her to godhood against her will in order to save her from death. but when he realises what she wants and what hes doing he remembers that her strength in the face of death was what he admired and stops, to let things play out as she wishes. to me the way these six key relationships between humans and their paired gods/demons play out define what the game is trying to get across. to say any of this is underwritten is, in my opinion, to grossly misunderstand the core of the narrative. thats a lot of words, and i havnt even touched on the mor e theological aspects. the way christian dogma is made real, the reactions from the other former deities. the interactions between oman and khonsu and the persian gods. the kunitsukami and amatsukami. how the chaos side explodes into pantheons from across the world. the minor touches such as the nahobino all having long flowing hair, or the cleverness with which amanozako is implemented into the narrative. the first boss you fight is a giant serpent you can put to sleep!!! and its all written with both an admiration for mythology and theology and a willingness to get creative in order to fit all the pieces together. i could write thousands of words. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E5dpkZtugn8 when i see other people say that this game is somehow the lesser of nocturne in world building, that there is a lack of plot, that hours go by with nothing happening, i feel like we have played two different games. i understand if the ideas of nocturne are more subjectively interesting to other people than what 5 focuses on, but to claim there is nothing here is pure insanity. this game is nocturnes mirror and its equal. they are a perfect pairing and stand alongside each other far beyond their contemporaries. the willingness to create narratives in the way these games create them is something to be treasured and i hope atlus continues down this path again now they are back on it. smt 3 and 5 are the best jrpgs ever made. smt 5 is goty. also let me take screenshots of the last parts oft he game cowards. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y8QsOt4ugvM       list: 10. e.y.e divine cybermancy 9. loop hero 8. old school runescape 7. world of horror 6. monster hunter rise 5. fatum betula 4. s.t.a.l.k.e.r. anomaly 3. metroid dread 2. critters for sale 1. shin megami tensei 5
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Dec 31, 2021 18:45
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10 - The Good Life The good life is the story of a journalist who is desperate to determine her catchphrase. Will it be 'Goddamn hellhole' or "Yeah, baybee!"? Only you can help her decide. When the game's hardest boss battle is outdrinking a Vicar as represented by trying to keep a friction-less ball on a seesaw, you know you're playing a Swery game. 9 - The Longing The Longing is a game about being alone and waiting for the future, what you can accomplish and what effects it has on you. I thought I had better play it now for maximum emotional impact. It's difficult to find a game that's both effecting and tedious but The Longing does it. 8 - Garden Story Garden Story is almost the opposite of the Longing. It's a game about building and mending a community. It's a very competent zelda-like with a nice tight gameplay loop. 7 - SMT V Shin Megami Tensei has always been a series with great turn based gameplay and it continues to shine in this release. In addition, they made the jump to a beautiful open world with a lot of verticality, and revised the in-combat art thoroughly. 6 - Monster Hunter Rise Monster Hunter Rise takes a lot of what's great about World and adds, well, a grappling hook. A grappling hook that's integrated with your weapon, of course. And also rideable dogs. Plus, and this is the important part, it was much easier to get friends to play with me on Switch. 5 - Tetris Effect: Connected This is the first time I've played Tetris and understood that it is more than a puzzle game. The soothing mindset that certain modes of this game puts me in, well, let's just say it put in some real work this year. 4 - Dungeon Encounters Dungeon Encounters refuses to waste your time with useless frills like combat animations. It places the information you need to know on the screen distilling the combat system down to essentials. The rest of the game is about navigating the dungeon grid effectively with your movement powers. When I saw that floor 30 was just a single path labyrinth I knew I was going to fall in love with the game. 3 - Bowser's Fury This is the sequel that Super Mario Sunshine doesn't deserve. What does a Mario game with (almost) no loading screens look like? What does a game that combines the level evolutions of Super Mario 64 (Sunshine and Odyssey) with the beautifully designed powers of Super Mario 3D World look like combined with a power up storage system that actually works in an open world game? What about a Mario game where the boss battles were Kaiju fights? This game answers all these questions and more. Also the adorable cat theming is completely on point. 2 - Metroid Dread I think this game captures the original thematic intent of the metroid series better than any other game in the series. The bosses are also hard as nails and I'm actually surprised I made it all the way to the end, which is thanks to the perfectly designed checkpointing system. I didn't play the Metroid 2 remake so the smooth action and motion really caught me off guard and Flash Shift is the most fun combat ability I've ever seen in a 2D game. 1 - Hitman 3 Hitman 3 is the capstone of the Hitman trilogy. It contains nearly all the content from the entire series and most levels are pristine puzzle boxes. Certainly the levels added for Hitman 3 itself prove that the developers know exactly what they're doing with the series now. Miami is still my favorite level, but I think I might just be wrong about that, if you look at Dubai, Berlin, Chongqing, and Mendoza they're all absolutely amazing levels.
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Dec 31, 2021 18:51
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i'm a couple pages late but did yall know that FFXIV has an entire dungeon full of Einhander references
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Dec 31, 2021 19:09
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I think FFXIV has enough support without trying to get the Einhander guy's #1 vote as well This has been a great thread with some fantastic lists. Good work, goons!
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Dec 31, 2021 19:16
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Multiplayer Mentions Battlefield V Aliens: Fireteam Elite Back 4 Blood These multiplayer-heavy games were a lot of fun with friends, but not so fun solo. I enjoyed them though! Woulda-Been Inscryption This would probably be in my top 5, but I never got around to it. Next year! The List  10. Loop Hero - PC The Good: Retro vibe-y goodness. The Bad: Runs get a bit monotonous after a while. The Ugly: Misplacing a tile, ruining my perfectly aligned battlefield.  9. Yakuza: LAD - PS5 The Good: Laying the smack-down with a “Massive Massage Machine.” The Bad: Grinding for levels gets a bit tedious. The Ugly: Ichiban’s hair. (jk it’s beautiful)  8. Metroid: Dread - Switch The Good: The lights of the floors pass over Samus’ helmet as they simultaneously illuminate my face in the darkened room around me. The Bad: The controls get a bit convoluted with all of the upgrades. The Ugly: Getting slimed by Kraid’s belly hole.  7. Monster Hunter: Rise - Switch The Good: Playing tunes on my jungle stick for my friends. The Bad: So much inventory management. The Ugly: Launching into the air, preparing to land a wicked hammer smash on an unlucky monster’s brain helmet, but completely whiffing.  6. NYT Crossword - iOS The Good: Challenging my partner to Daily Mini puzzle battles. The Bad: I can only get through Monday or Tuesday difficulties. Need more smarts. Mine more smarts. The Ugly: A four-letter word for uncomely.  5. Griftlands - PC The Good: Humming the soundtrack while the characters yell alien-equivalent obscenities at me. The Bad: Runs can be kind of long. The Ugly: Mis-calculating a card that gets me killed.  4. Returnal - PS5  The Good: Dodging my way through the beautiful alien worlds. The Bad: I wish there was a bit more closure in the story. The Ugly: The wall of RNG needed for the Platinum trophy.  3. Control - PS5 The Good: Launching fork lifts into corporate demon’s faces. The Bad: Not having played Alan Wake, the DLC lost some meaning on me. The Ugly: Failing the timer for the Expeditions challenge by mere seconds, many times in a row.  2. Ghost of Tsushima - PS5 The Good: Fighting alongside Norio. The Bad: Why can’t I use a cool pole-arm like his?? The Ugly: Banging my head against the Legends Raid - Chapter 2 during the first run-through.  1. Hades - Switch The Good: The respite in Eurydice’s hut, as she lulls me to sleep with her beautiful song. The Bad: I still can’t get Achilles to reveal the hidden aspect for the spear. The Ugly: Realizing my metaphorical dad is better at video games than me. Short List 10. Loop Hero 9. Yakuza: Like a Dragon 8. Metroid: Dread 7. Monster Hunter: Rise 6. NYT Crossword 5. Griftlands 4. Returnal 3. Control 2. Ghost of Tsushima 1. Hades
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Dec 31, 2021 19:24
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Better get this in before it’s too late. I checked back on my trophy stats on one of those weird aggregator sites and I don’t think I even finished 10 games this year; nevertheless: Games I liked but didn’t finish Return of the Obra Dinn Really enjoyable, interesting - made you feel like you were doing true detective work (with the unspoken advantage of being able to peer through crimes via a watch). The graphics themselves are more gimmicky than ‘artistic’ but it’s a fun one and doesn’t detract from it, and lends to invoking a time we never saw, effectively. I bought this game solely because it was at the time on Veeg’s ‘up next to stream’ and thought that it must’ve had some good recommendations to be so. I bought it then played it for a good five hours straight. Then life got in the way and all of a sudden it had been two weeks since my first go and it was a bit too daunting to go back to. I miss having inspected quite successfully (as far as trophies had suggested) in putting names to faces. I couldn’t face starting over again at this point but I also think if I picked it up again I’d have very little idea of where to go from…wherever I was. A really great five hours - would definitely recommended this to anyone who likes puzzle (puzzows) games or fancies their detective skills. Disco Elysium As many others have said, the orgasmic frothing, almost embarrassing praise this game got on the forums put me off more than anything, but the game of the year edition came out and it was £25 so I couldn’t risk missing out on something that might really be that good. As with the above, played for five or so hours and then the next day had to go back to work. The voice work is great, bar the narrator who I have to say is more off putting than anything else, and the atmosphere is such an alluring blend of Proto-bunk and durgery. I got about five or six hours in and had to go back to life - never picked it up again. I think about going back every day but it’s too, potentially, overbearing. I keep saying to Lady Aipsh that she should play it from the start and I’ll watch/chip in but it just hasn’t happened. That said, I do have criticisms: Some of the writing reminds me of the nauseating ”I’m too clever for this/I learned humour from Kieron Gillen/ I’m the funniest one of my friend group in my outskirts of London pub” attitude, and also unfortunately how my brother speaks, but I’m willing to look past it. Will give it a proper go next year. The outer wilds I haven’t finished it, it gives me anxiety. It feels like walking to the bathroom at night from across the landing when you’re five years old. I don’t know how else to explain it. Will finish it soon but it would probably be in the top ten if I’d got the wherewithal to complete it. Games I bounced off of Judgement Really didn’t feel it. An onslaught of pop-ups and tutorials, slow mechanics and endless dialogue, and this was only after two hours. Combat felt floaty and like I was flailing rather than landing sick ankles to the back of the head. That said if I was stuck in a room for a month I’d probably be willing to go to the end, but that feels like the only situation in which I would. I also bought the full season pass or whatever version so I had a poo poo ton of ornamental cats and not-monster-power ups that I couldn’t choose between. The witness Deleted after 15 minutes, just watched Veeg play it instead. Far more fulfilling. Red Dead Redemption 2 The controls are awful. I sauntered off a cliff and killed my horse, and after walking for twenty minutes without a shop for horse smelling salts or whatever nearby I realised I was putting more time into this game to just traverse the map than I could be making dinner, so I took out the disc and never put it back in again. That drunk mission though was gold. Games that deserve Summary Incineration Jedi Fallen Order I did not play this game in 2021, nor will I play it any other year. It just haunts me. It is utter trash - frankly disgusting. An affront to gaming. A slap in the face to souls-clones. I got it launch day and it was a travesty beyond redemption. T-posing saber sponges levitating themselves off of cliffs just to kill me kill off screen. If I were reviewing it professionally I would’ve give it no score as it wasn’t anywhere near finished. This is genuinely the only game in my entire life I tried to refund, but I must have been personally denied by Mark Cerny for my sins. And I played and finished Cyberpunk 2077 with 100+ crashes, not driving above 20mph in case my console rebooted, satisfied that at least it wasn’t Jedi Fallen Order.
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Dec 31, 2021 19:32
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my top ten 10: House of Ashes Really nothing special, but I did complete it. I played and finished it with Lady Aipsh before the first patch came out. Had some truly hilarious bugs, voice acting and scenarios. Not scary in the slightest, with a disappointingly few cheap jump scares (I.e none). It’s like Until Dawn if you took out 99% of what made it great. The ‘playable’ parts amounted to walking down corridors for no less than fifteen seconds or just rummaging around for notepads. However, during the playable parts the lighting is some of the best I’ve seen - and I mean ever - in a game. The jankiness did lead to some funny moments, and you’re still playing(crawling) through a horror film and that was more entertaining that many films I’ve seen this year. Much more than the Green Knight, one of my most hated films of the year (sorry Esco). 9 : DMC V Everything about this game that could have been thrilling, or mechanically ‘zen’ was done better in DMC IV years and years ago. Yes, it was fun, and yes it was satisfying to finally nail a sss combo with a character who wasn’t V, whose inclusion actively detracts from the game. Other than that the level design was purely perfunctory, and the bosses where so forgettable that even after a quick Google I couldn’t remember them. Dante’s moveset has now moved beyond absurdity yet somehow seems stifled compared to IV. I regretted not skipping the cutscenes. The vast majority of fights against goons in Sekiro is more satisfying than the final fight here, but that’s more to Sekiro’s credit than this game’s faults. I’ve feel I’ve been spoiled. 8: Hitman 3 Some truly stunning level design - the deadly serious plot and voice acting somehow work so well as pure contrast to how ridiculous and slapstick the game can be, and encourages you to be. You really need to sink time into it unless you want to speedrun for it’s own sake. 7: It Takes Two I haven’t actually finished this yet - despite the odd conceit of the plot and the irredeemable main characters this is really one of the most relentlessly inventive games I’ve played in years and years. Balls to the walls goofy fun, but you’ll have to ignore some off the odd choices in its depiction of violence. Easy to pick up and it requires genuine cooperation and trust to get through. Surprisingly long too! The only thing I’m annoyed about is we accidentally started on the PS4 version and doesn’t have cross save so we’re stuck with it. Tbh I can’t imagine there’s much different in the PS5 version. 6: Doom Eternal Apparently I played it this year rather than last? This is a success of a game, but I do have have reservations. First, both DLCs kind of suck and throw too many gimmick enemies into the mix. Second, the core weapon switching mechanic doesn’t really work well on consoles and you have to sort of plan ahead so you can switch between what you expect to be your most effective two weapons. Third, intense micro-management resource doesn’t scream “DOOM” to me and yet it still works extremely well. This game got my mind and muscle memory absolutely racing and is a great exercise for multi-tasking improvement. The plot is utter poo poo and more embarrassing than anything, but the music, graphics, speed and mayhem swat those concerns out of the way. Some enemies are a bit too bullet spongey, although the visible damage mitigates that somewhat. A great FPS, but not entirely Doom. I think I might prefer that though. 5: Blasphemous A 2D Metroidvania souls-clone that isn’t a jumble of conflicting mechanics is refreshing! This game is a lot of ~vibes~ rather than hardcore tight gameplay. Platforming is basic, combat has few flourishes and yet despite some circumspect design decisions (pits 2 feet from the entrance of a room) the grimdark atmosphere and music make this a lot of fun. 4: Hades A lot has been said about this already - it made me want to platinum it and I did. Wins on most fronts, takes a pleasingly long time before it gets samey. 3: Resident Evil 8 It’s yet more Resi, it’s schlocky, embarrassing, well designed and like an action film you’re almost too ashamed to tell anyone you like. Nice clean fun, but the graph of scares over time is flat save for one gigantic spike and never returns. That’s the real missed opportunity. 2: Returnal Atmosphere thicker than your mother with gorgeous biomes and top tier technology. Incredibly fun, and drove me to play over and over again. DLC please. Probably the best game released in 2021. 1: The Last of Us: Factions/ Elden Ring Network Test Let me tell you, Factions eight years after it came out is awful to play alone. It is an endless nightmare of cheaters, people ‘bending the rules’, terrible human and infuriating tank controls. I am not a person quick to anger, to the point where people ask me why I’m not angry about situations. But this game put my teeth on edge. I’ve played the entire soulsborne catalogue without once getting physically animated. But try to stay calm in a multiplayer game where you can be quick scoped from the other side of a map by someone shooting straight through a wall, who then teabags you so hard they don’t have to time react to someone’s shivving them by slowly walking around to their back. Against my better judgement I persisted, and I kept going - I had never been so driven by anger to get better at something. And I think I did. I went from getting possibly one or two kills a game to getting the most, to actually winning for the team by own experience. Only dark souls has given me a feeling of competency as forthright as this game has. The game has a strange Resi 4 style physicality, if Leon had mud encrusted legs and had a sight to shoot time of 40 seconds. But the chunkiness of it all grew on me, and the work required to get even a single shot off was so very very rewarding. You can play it like you’re longing for a new Splinter Cell or crash through sight lines as if it’s COD, and you can still viably succeed either way. I hate this half-baked afterthought of a multiplayer mode just as much as I love it and as some other goons will tell you I’ve put a savagely embarrassing amount of hours into it. And playing with fellow goons is genuinely the best MP experience I’ve had, ever. I’m pairing this with ER’s network test because 1) why not and 2) it’s cool. The timed hours I had with Elden Ring had more wonder, majesty and surprise than anything else I’ve played this year. I took down a big dragon with Esco seconds before the demo timed out and it made me supremely satisfied. I almost regret playing it because I don’t get to go in totally fresh in February. It was like going back to the memories of someone who had a happy childhood. Short list: 10: House of Ashes 9: DMC V 8: Hitman 3 7: It Takes Two 6: Doom Eternal 5: Blasphemous 4: Hades 3: Resi 8 2: Returnal 1: Tlou/Elden Ring
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Dec 31, 2021 19:32
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I wish I was a cool guy who used awesome images to share with each game. But I don't. 6. Far Cry 6 This sucked up a week or so of play, but it's probably my least favorite Far Cry, and I played the first one back in the day. The game feels dreary, despite the beautiful surroundings. The enemies feel like they have little agency, the AI is completely lacking, and the big boss is hopelessly under-used in the first half of the game, which is all I cared to play in the end. If they make more, they really need to freshen things up. 5. Assassin's Creed Valhalla Was fun, my first forray into Assassin's Creed in quite a few years. The English countryside is nice, and the characters are solid, though the story is meandering and I lost my focus with the seemingly pointless movements around the country. My biggest problem, though, is the combat system has really lost it's dynamism with it's move from the old Batman style combat (which I admit I'm a sucker for) and some fights threaten to become a chore. I enjoyed my time with it, but after a week or so, I could feel that that time was up, and it was time to move on to something more meaty. 4. The Times Sudoku My daughter, thanks to Covid, spent alot of time here at home, rather than at university where she should have been, while most teaching went online. That meant I had my office stolen from me for large swathes of time, and I had to resign myself to having to spending an uncomfortable amount of time away from my gaming PC. Which resulted in lots of Sudoku. I think I played more of this than anything else this year. As for the client, it's pretty good, and The Times is popular for having tougher Killer Sudokus than it's rivals. I am not sure I loved my time playing this, but I certainly spent alot of time with it, and that qualifies it for position 4. 3. Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous Baldur's Gate 2 is perhaps my favorite game of all time. And these pathfinder games feel like the inheritor of that Baldur's Gate torch. They aren't as good, and there are bugs aplenty, but they FEEL like those old games, in terms of spirit, humor and balance. Much more so than the Pillars games, or the Divinity series. WotC have plumped for Larian to make the new Baldur's Gate game, but Owlcat Studios would have done it better. 2. Gloomhaven I'm a fan of the board game, and this digital version is a 100% perfect, card for card, exact replica of the board game, the only changes being ones that the original game's author wanted to include for the base board game, and included as essential errata. For a fraction of the price. And removes the tedious set-up. And is easier to play. Really awesome, can't recommend highly enough. 1. Forza Horizon 5 If Game Pass were a game, it would be number 1. It facilitates playing games like Forza Horizons with zero risk, and without it I would not have found I loved Forza Horizon games. Arcadey enough that I don't get tired with the precision and grind of a traditional heavy sim racer, but enough sim in there that I don't feel I am moving toy cars around a play mat. The new Mexican setting offers fantastic terrain and colorful buildings, although the seasons could feel more impactful, having lost a lot of variety in the move from Scotland to Mexico. But overall, the game I've enjoyed most this year. I know some people have said this was a bad year for games. I don't think I agree. It's clearly not been one of the best years, but enough stuff came out that I still have a list of games I haven't got to yet, and that doesn't happen in a dreadful gaming year. Happy New Year everyone!
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Dec 31, 2021 19:33
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Stux posted:when i see other people say that this game is somehow the lesser of nocturne in world building, that there is a lack of plot, that hours go by with nothing happening, i feel like we have played two different games. i understand if the ideas of nocturne are more subjectively interesting to other people than what 5 focuses on, but to claim there is nothing here is pure insanity. this game is nocturnes mirror and its equal. they are a perfect pairing and stand alongside each other far beyond their contemporaries. the willingness to create narratives in the way these games create them is something to be treasured and i hope atlus continues down this path again now they are back on it. Thank you, i felt like i was losing my god drat mind reading the reviews, especially from people who played nocturne. Technically i've finished this game but i'm saving my review for next year when i do a hard playthrough, finish true neutral and have more time to think about it. I'm not even sure it actually has less story sequences than nocturne, but even if it does it's consistently piling on lore and worldbuilding the whole way through. I really don't know what people were expecting but what we got was a profoundly amazing bookend to nocturne and i can't wait for the inevitable souped up deluxe version.
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Dec 31, 2021 19:33
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I had a great gaming year, despite playing hardly any actual 2021 releases. Here is my top 10! 10. Call of Duty: Black Ops III I do not care at all about CoD multiplayer, but every once in a while I will buy the older ones cheap and play through the campaigns, they are basically dumb fun action movies. I played the Black Ops games this year, and this one was my favorite. The futuristic setting with cyborg soldiers and cool powers was a lot of fun, and I thought the plot about a rogue AI slowly taking over the player character´s brain was pretty interesting too. 9. Nightmares from the Deep: The Cursed Heart This ranking is less for this specific game than for the developers, Artifex Mundi, but this is the first of a trilogy that I think is their strongest. They are a Polish company that pumps out an impressive number of adventure games with varied Professor Layton-style and hidden object puzzles. All their games are pretty much the same, the plot usually involves some supernatural force that kidnaps a loved one or steals some magical treasure, and you try to get to the bottom of it all and save the day. The scripts are clearly written by non-native English speakers, which is actually kind of fun and endearing, except when they use some insanely obscure term for a tool or item you need to find but have no idea what it is and have to google it to finish a puzzle. The voice acting is ridiculously bad too, and the difficulty/plausibility of the puzzles fluctuates wildly, but their games fall squarely in the ¨cheesy but fun¨ range for me. 8. 428: Shibuya Scramble Very unique visual novel from a guy who later was a producer for the 999/Zero Escape games. Much more grounded than those, it takes place in real time over the course of an afternoon in Tokyo, and uses real actors and locations as the background images, with the occasional video thrown in too. The overarching plot is pretty dumb, but some of the characters are a lot of fun (especially the reporter, that dude is dedicated as gently caress to his craft). Lots of funny bad endings to find, and jumping back and forth between different timelines is a a pretty engaging mechanic. 7. Persona 5: Royal I rarely play JRPGs, but I do like the Persona games a lot, they just ooze style, and 5 really nails the feel of Tokyo in a way that I have only seen in the Yakuza games. 6. Night in the Woods What a charming game. Sad without veering into the depressing or maudlin, naturalistic writing with a lot of heart and humor, characters that seem like people I know (even though they are anthropomorphic animals). I played through it twice to see every little bit of it I could, and enjoyed every minute. 5. Hypnospace Outlaw Stellar evocation of the early days of the Wild West Internet, where everything seemed possible and somehow more real than real life. I totally would have been one of those kids wrapped up in the coolpunk scene drama. Free Gumshoe Gooper!!! 4. Assassin´s Creed Valhalla I like Assassin´s Creed, I like Viking poo poo, and I like how they changed the series into open-world RPGs, even if they are probably way too long (I am 100 hours in and still have not beaten the game, with a bunch of DLC to go after that!). I wish they had incorporated swords into flyting to really bring back insult swordfighting from the Monkey Island games though. 3. Yakuza: Like a Dragon Yakuza is probably my all-time favorite series, but going into this one I was a little worried that the new protagonist and shift in genre to JRPG would not work as well as the old Kiryu beat-em-up magic. Happily, I was wrong! Ichiban is a great protagonist, sort of a mix of the old-school honor of Kiryu and the laid-back of attitude of Akiyama, and his bromance with Nanba is just the cutest thing. Sidelining Kamurocho in favor of the Yokohama map made me a little sad at first, but the new areas is just as packed with stuff to do. If I had to pick between the new turn-based combat system and the older brawler style, honestly I would probably say I prefer the latter, but the new system is still a lot of fun, and the summons are often hilarious. I have to pick up Lost Judgment at some point to get my Kamurocho fix I guess. 2. Disco Elysium - The Final Cut I don´t have a computer capable of playing games, so I had to impatiently wait for the console port of this game that I knew I was going to love. I was right, and it was totally worth the wait. Just an amazing experience, gorgeous art, incredible writing that runs the gamut from deeply sad to hilarious, a slowly revealed backstory of post-(failed) revolution ennui and desperate hope. God I hope it gets a sequel, I want to explore every last dank corner of Revachol with my boys Harry and Kim. The only thing keeping it from my #1 spot is the disappointing console port, it was absolutely terrible on release, to the point I had to stop playing to wait for a patch because a bug prevented me from advancing the story. 1. Hades It is fairly rare for me to play a game and get genuinely interested in the mechanics and actual gameplay. I play games primarily for the story, the writing, for getting immersed in another place and time. But the gameplay loop of Hades grabbed me like possibly no other game ever has. I loved experimenting with the different weapon aspects and combinations of boons, one run turning myself into a mini-Zeus spewing lightning every time I twitched a muscle, the next dashing around like a maniac smacking enemies into walls until they explode, the next running around with a whirling buzzsaw of death cutting a swathe through the enemies in my wake. And then, on top of that addictive gameplay, there were characters I grew to actually care about, with great writing that slowly developed the relationships between those characters in a really sweet way, that emphasized their genuine respect and love for each other. The voice acting is awesome too, pretty much everyone has a uniquely memorable voice (Dionysus is my fave probably, wanna party with that bro). And the detailed painterly style of the graphics is some real eye candy. What a great game, hope they make a sequel where you actually get to fight your way up to Olympus. Finally, in summary, I have a crush on Dusa. Hirsute fucked around with this message at 21:41 on Dec 31, 2021 |
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Dec 31, 2021 19:34
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Dr. Fishopolis posted:Thank you, i felt like i was losing my god drat mind reading the reviews, especially from people who played nocturne. Technically i've finished this game but i'm saving my review for next year when i do a hard playthrough, finish true neutral and have more time to think about it. ive actually decided that next time i play smt 3 i will play it as smt 3, the pc version lets you play it without the nocturne additions for the first time ever in english. i think if you remove everything nocturne added they would be even more similar, so much of the direct story in nocturne is contained in that extra content/ending and ive also started thinking i might like the game even more without it
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Dec 31, 2021 19:37
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Hell yeah crossword and sudoku representation Will the winner of this contest represent feathery Omega? (4,2,3,4)
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Dec 31, 2021 19:46
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Aidan_702 posted:I’m pairing this with ER’s network test because 1) why not Because I can't give 10 points to both  I'm going with Last of Us as that's the game that's actually out
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Dec 31, 2021 19:53
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There are currently 4 points separating 3rd and 4th There are currently 7 points separating 7th from 10th There are currently 5 points separating 11th from 14th It's all still to play for 
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Dec 31, 2021 20:00
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 Thank u looper for the new desktop background
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Dec 31, 2021 20:05
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Didn't even realize this was here until now. That'll teach me to only browse with bookmarks! Only doing top 8 because I didn't play many games this year... I tend to play fewer games for a long time. 8) Untitled Goose Game I picked this up while I was feeling like absolute crap after getting my second shot, and it was the perfect choice. This game was just the thing I needed while feeling achy, tired, and cranky. Go be an rear end in a top hat goose and terrorize an entire town! I was giggling like an idiot the whole time. 7) Persona 4 Gold I was gifted this game awhile ago but I didn't start to play it until last month. It's pretty good! There's definitely bits that didn't age well... and parts that frankly annoy the heck out of me, but overall I like it. I love the characters, for one. I adore all of my anime children. The cast is just great overall. I love the story too. The whole murder mystery that you have to solve is really cool and I find myself really invested in what happens despite the bits that annoy me. Oh and the music is amazing and the overall presentation is really great. Everything is so stylish and snappy. Which brings me to the battles- they're amazing! Best part of the game. Everything from the music, to the sound effects, to the overall flow. Just great. I do find overall I prefer the main gameplay loop of the regular SMT games to what Persona does, but I didn't get to play SMTV yet this year. Alas! 6) Stardew Valley I've played this before, but this year I really got sucked into it hard while I was unemployed. I went for 100% Perfection for the first time ever and I loved (nearly) every second of it! I made a mountain of cash and the whole town loved me. All around good time. Stardew remains good. 5) Monster Hunter Rise It doesn't have Prowler mode, but I can forgive it to for that. I liked it much better than World. You can ride around on a doggo, run up walls, swing around like Tarzan! Oh right and there's monsters to beat in the face too. Can't forget that. I like that Rise brought back the wackier weapon designs and the brighter color palette and overall aesthetics. I was not feeling World's Gritty Brown aesthetic much at all. I expect this will be on my list again next year because there's an expansion due for it then. Can't wait! 4) Dragon Quest 11 This was my "cozy up under a blanket with a cup of tea when it's cold out" game. And boy did it deliver! It's just... comfy! You like RPGs, you'll like this one. The characters are all great, the battle system is fun, the world is gorgeous. The music kind of sucks but there's an option to use the music from a different game instead, so pick that and it's not a problem. Plus there are a lot of options you can tweak to adjust the difficulty as you like. I only went with the one that makes weaker monsters stop giving you EXP if you outlevel then by too much. Makes the game nice and balanced. 3) Monster Hunter Stories 2 I absolutely adored the first game on 3DS and this one is that, but more! It's "what if Monster Hunter, but more like Pokemon?" and therefore it is basically gaming crack to me. I liked it better than the Pokemon game I played this year. True fact! I love all my monster children. 2) Metroid Dread This was a good year for long-awaited entries to franchises! Metroid Dread, well holy poo poo this game. It's great. You like Metroid? You'll love it! Never tried Metroid but do like Metroidvanias? You will still love it! Haven't tried either? Well this is a good game to start you off! I've been waiting for the follow-up to Fusion for years. Not as long as a lot of fans of the series, as I only started playing it when the Prime games came out for the Wii Wuu, but still a long time! Samus is back, and she's pissed! 1) Great Ace Attorney Chronicles I'm making this one my number one because I can. This game is WONDERFUL. An absolute delight from start to finish. Everything from the characters, to the music, to the story, to...everything. It's just great. Especially
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Dec 31, 2021 20:10
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Rarity posted:
That’s an extremely unfair criteria - the PS5 won’t even appear on the Top 10 at all
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Dec 31, 2021 20:16
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Silver Falcon posted:1) Great Ace Attorney Chronicles 
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Dec 31, 2021 20:16
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