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TriffTshngo posted:I just decided anything I play in December after posting my list will be considered part of next year's Going to pretend I didn't read this
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Dec 22, 2022 14:31
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| # ? May 24, 2024 14:52 |
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the new year really starts in April anyway
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Dec 22, 2022 14:32
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My “games I played in 2023” note is already five games long
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Dec 22, 2022 14:35
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This is betraying the sanctity of the calendar 
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Dec 22, 2022 14:35
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Why would I start a list yet when I still have more games to play
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Dec 22, 2022 14:45
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TriffTshngo posted:I just decided anything I play in December after posting my list will be considered part of next year's because I don't want to inconvenience anybody by editing my list again a week after posting it. Because I literally did the exact same thing as last year where I posted, then played a really good Mega Man game like 4 days later. Same, I'm following the same schedule as the Cacowards here. That way I don't need to go back and revise my list at the last minute if I play something mind-blowingly good over the holidays.
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Dec 22, 2022 14:46
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Frankly this early listing simply stinks of cowardice
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Dec 22, 2022 14:46
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My cutoff date for the year is the 24th, but it's actually already gone cuz I've started writing my list earlier this year
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Dec 22, 2022 14:46
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Rarity posted:This is betraying the sanctity of the calendar time is a fake concept anyway
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Dec 22, 2022 14:49
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Regy Rusty posted:Frankly this early listing simply stinks of cowardice I had to make time to finish all the TV and movies I wanna watch!!!!!!!!!
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Dec 22, 2022 14:54
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I post my list at 11pm on New Year's Eve like God intended 
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Dec 22, 2022 14:58
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2022 (56k = no) Hello comrades! I thought gaming this year was pretty great, a year populated by long awaited remasters/remakes, an insane array of confident indie titles, and some amazing, ambitious big budget releases. I spent far too much money and time gaming this year, but in return I was treated to a diversity of titles the likes of which I've not experienced since the late 90s. Despite the disconcerting degree of market consolidation that went down over the course of the last 18 months, gaming remained something that I feel really positive about, even as the rest of life kind of stayed in the shitter. In addition to exploring a lot of new titles I returned to old favorites for a stint (Helldivers, FF XV, SOTN, Bloodborne, Monster Hunter World) and made inroads with a number of games I should've played years ago. It was all a bit too much at times, and maybe next year I'll pair it down somewhat, but overall medicating the year away with quality entertainment seemed to take the edge off other crap that went down. Anyways, I know as soon as I submit this post I'm going to feel a giant emptiness inside, so I'd like to express my appreciation to all of you out there for making this community so funny and charming, for elevating my spirits if you will. Also, thank you Rar & Veeg for putting in the effort to make all of this come together. Happy New Year, everyone! Some great stuff to look forward to next year, so let's put a bow in 2022. First off, a few specialty categories: -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- MISC  You've Been Here Before... The Last of Us: Factions / Hours played = 88  In terms of pure hours played TLOU Factions was my third highest this year, but it doesn't feel fair to rank this game with the others. My feelings on it are known already, it's the best multiplayer game ever made. The Love Affair That Wasn't Prodeus / Hours played = 3  Was pretty excited to dive into Prodeus from the look of the trailers and all of the testimonials floating around but it just didn't click, not that I didn't try, though the audiovisual presentation is totally on point and the game largely delivers what was promised. I dunno, something about the game balance or the flow of levels just didn't grab me. It's chock full of content/options and obvious passion from the devs, but I doubt I'll pick it back up. ...But For The Lack Of Time; There's Always Next Year! Tactics Ogre Reborn: Let Us Cling Together / Outer Wilds: Echoes of the Eye   These two excellent games got pushed out by the year end scramble so I'm going to give them their own reserved blocks in 2023, and take my sweet time doing it! Loving what I've played so far, diamond tier poo poo. 2022's Fall From Grace A Plague Tale: Requiem / Hours played = 22  One of my most anticipated this year based on my affection for the first game, but after finishing this I pivoted pretty hard on it. There are some amazing moments of spectacle and the soundtrack is nothing short of gorgeous, but rarely have I witnessed a story so bleak in the medium (lol 2LOU ain't got nothing on this game!), and seldom have I experienced a case of developers so fervently throwing their own characters under the bus for lack of any ideas about how to write them. That ending and post-credits stinger, woof, what a profound disservice to the world and emotional connection Asobo spent years creating. -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- PLAYED, LIKED, AND CONSIDERED ## - Sifu Hours played = ??  Beautiful, ambitious step up from Absolver, Sifu is laser-focused on the sort of heavy repetition and player training that games like Sekiro and Nioh have been exploring in the last few years, and while it never feels quite as tight as Sekiro it makes up for it with a sense of cinematic flair and open ended scene direction that's all its own. The tutorial alone is enough to get your blood pumping, but prepare for pain. Also, the Arenas DLC is out in a few months so I imagine this could be reappearing higher up for me next year. ## - Resident Evil 2 Remake Hours played = 7  Capcom has been on fire for the last half decade, releasing technically polished and ambitious sequels within their big franchises as well as remakes of their most popular legacy titles, and REmake 2 lands right smack in the middle of that effort. It's an enormously faithful translation of what made RE2 so special 20+ years ago, but with enough of a budget to really wow you and new twists and scares to throw veteran players for a loop. I still remember my original playthroughs of RE2 '98 quite well so I decided to play this one after REmake3 which I had no history with. The feeling I came away with is that while RE2 is a timeless concept of a horror game, too much running from the Tyrant can kill the mood. So yeah, amazing quality overall, but the game had a way of feeling same-y at times. ## - Ghostwire: Tokyo Hours played = ??  Ghostwire is kind of hard to categorize. I feel like the devs spent 80% of their development budget painstakingly modeling the ephemera of Japanese life and then plopped some faux-shooter gameplay in at the last moment, and yet it's not an entirely unsuccessful operation. It really sells the mood ya know, to take the most densely populated metropolitan area on earth and delete...everyone. There's an existential horror to it that the best walking sims tend to work with, and I'm sure there are some pandemic trauma undertones waiting out there in the rain made of kanji. Additionally it's packed with weird esoteric humor and mythology that I don't feel like I am all that privy to, and the combat visuals, haptics, and monster designs are excellent. It's wild that games as weird as this can occasionally still command decent budgets. This is another title I think will pop up in the discourse after a few years, it's too much of an eccentricity to go unnoticed for long. ## - The Callisto Protocol Hours played = 12  This is such an odd duck. A wildly impressive technical showpiece, one judged under the microscope of hype and developer pedigree, kind of ends up being a genre mishmash with odd bedfellow ideas gruesomely stitched together in ways that are at once familiar and utterly alienating. It's both retro and future, tense and exhausting, repetitive and startling. It feels like a passion project crossed with an exploitation film, it wants to offend but also wants to be taken seriously. It's full of weird little bespoke details and also stuffed to the gills with punishing gauntlets. It's a masterclass of environment art, atmosphere, lighting, animation, haptic and sound design, but contains almost no sense of pacing or narrative direction to speak of. On the plus side it also has no compass, no annoying waypoints, no map, none of the handholding tutorializing of modern game design. The melee combat feels insanely innovative and just a bit on the silly side. The performance capture is unreal (4.7!) but strangely distant. Ultimately the game doesn't deserve the hate I see going around. I feel like at some point the conversation will swing back to this one eventually, but for the moment it missed its audience and is stranded in the fog somewhere. Maybe some more story DLC will round out the experience, but I'm glad I played it anyway. ## - Klonoa: Door to Phantomile Hours played = 6  A "from-the-ground-up" remake of the first Klonoa game originally released on the PSX a quarter century ago, this new edition is paired with a remake of Klonoa 2, and both games have been visually altered to what is a happy median between the pixel art of K1 and the cell-shading of K2. I still had to turn the brightness down a bit, tho. K1 is a classic of the platforming genre, both insanely cute and emotionally effective, while also being a good challenge in the gameplay dept. This new version actually suffers just a tad from slippery platforming physics that make certain parts of later levels quite tricky, but it's a minor inconvenience to once again experience that ending. Klonoa games truly are too good for this world, but maybe if this collection sells well enough... ## - Dying Light 2: Stay Human Hours played = 30  Long trapped in development hell, Dying Light 2 is one of the more ambitious independent releases on the market. The zombie-parkour sequel ramps up the cornball premise, the material division between day and night, and the scope of world interaction. There are so many systems and moving pieces at times that the parkour gameplay almost seems on the verge of getting lost in the shuffle. But ultimately what these devs have created is a huge, vibrant, and detailed dead-future playground that rewards the player for spending more time in it. The city is beyond vast and takes quite a bit of time to fully unlock, and the ability tree and progression feels rpg-like in its minutia. At the beginning of the game you will hardly climb a wall without getting winded, and by the end you will be pulling of crazy acrobatics with relative ease...and the game will make you earn/feel every inch of that progress. Don't forget to fast forward through the story though. ## - Stray Hours played = 9  The summer meme of 2022, cats have rarely had it so good in the medium. The interesting thing about Stray is that it doesn't just deliver a story about a cat, or the gameplay of a cat, it delivers the philosophy of cat. It asks you to stay curious, to jump on everything, to get in everyone's poo poo, to rub on everyone, to sleep in cozy places, be a cat in a bucket, take the weird way in, and succumb to your own hedonistic impulses. If it feels good, scratch on it. So yeah, there's plenty of cat, but there's also wonderful art direction and music, an amazing futuristic environment, a touching story, and a controller that purrs. ## - The Last of Us part I Hours played = 21  Okay, so I'd already purchased the game 4 times before I played this new remake, and logged prolly 3 thousand hours of its multiplayer over the last decade, so I wasn't exactly expecting the new graphics to sway me all that much...but good god the new visuals and haptics are amazing. What's weird is that the shiny new coat of paint only further demonstrates how much of a timeless classic this game is, how well the basic level and combat designs hold up, how psychologically effective its pacing and character development is. Sure, there are all sorts of little tweaks to the gameplay due to an entirely new physics and momentum engine, there are new surprises in store from the retooled AI, and new details to appreciate in the crafting benches, etc...but this remake does such justice to the things that were already so perfect in that original PS3 game while also further immersing the player in the wonderful mocap and environmental storytelling that the series is known for. I played on Survivor and scrounged for every single scissor-blade. Endure and survive! ## - Tunic Hours played = 12  A late year surprise, Tunic really swept me away. It's insane that this game was largely made by one person because, while it wears its influences on its sleeve, what it does with them is so consistently creative and surprising that it managed to win my cynical rear end over with a number of transformative sleight of hand wow moments and a lovely soundtrack. A lot of what makes this game engaging has to do with how it subverts the isometric perspective and how it hides things in plain sight. Let's also just say the in-game manual, with all of its piecemeal, quirky nostalgia...is constructed very explicitly to be analyzed by puzzle lovers. Overall, I made it through nearly all of the game without help but was defeated by the final challenge, I could see signs of it everywhere I looked but couldn't put it together. So yeah, I'm either too dumb or too impatient at my age to wrack my brain over a puzzle that will earn me an alternate 30 second ending, but you know what...more power to all the brainiacs waiting in the reeds. This is the game for you. I had a ton of fun either way with this very creative indie gem. ## - Hardspace: Shipbreaker Hours played = 51  This thing delivered so well on what I hoped it would be, a veg-out 3D puzzle experience with some amazing physics simulation, great hard sci-fi art direction and ambience, and a sense of danger and craftsmanship concerning how you dismantle your surroundings. What I wasn't expecting at all was that it'd also be one of the most honest and procedural leftist games around, one that really takes stock in collective action under harsh circumstances and puts the player in the mindset of logging the time to grind out a human victory against exploitative industrial shitheels. This is the little game that could, and it was so cool to find out that right after the console edition shipped a bunch of QA workers associated with its development also managed to unionize themselves. It only takes a spark to start a fire. ## - Resident Evil 3 Remake Hours played = 9  If there's one game I regret not having space for in my top 10, it's this. REmake 3 is where I plant my flag. This is the most fun I've ever had with an RE title, soundly replacing my affection for PSX RE2. I'd never played the original RE3 so this felt extra fresh to me. The reimagining of Jill's character was right up my alley. She's written, voiced, and mocapped with such confidence and attention to detail, and her character really feels like the heart of the series to me. The pacing of the game is a bit more aggressive in its focus and less ponderous than REmake 2, and yeah there's probably one too many boss battles overall but I loved the game's willingness to skip some of the anticipatory dread and just get on with it, as well as some of the intersection with the events of its sister remake. It also doesn't hurt that this is one of the most gobsmacking visual presentations for any game made during of the 8th generation, Capcom are absolute wizards. Jill Valentine is bae. -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- THE LIST 10 - Returnal / Ascension Hours played = 25 + 55 / ♫ Ascend the Spire    My 2021 GOTY sneaks its way back onto the list thanks to the phenomenal Ascension patch, added co-op, and the Tower of Sisyphus. And as you might expect, Selene's story gets more hosed up with every new question we ask. I wish every singleplayer title had free DLC this good. Returnal is, to this day, one of the only games I've come across in the last 2 years that truly feels like a next-gen experience, and much of that comes down to the aggressive fluidity of its core gameplay and its ambitious use of sound/haptics to aid and even expand upon the gamefeel vocabulary. One of the primary through-lines of good gaming for me these days is full haptic integration with a game's sound design, just so transformative because it's one of those categories that feels like we're seeing enormous advancements every few months with this tech while graphical fidelity continues its slow trudge with ever diminishing returns. Good haptics are transformative on every game that features them, everything plays better with a DualSense. Favorite moment: Beating Veegy's tower score  09 - God of War: Ragnarok Hours played = 49 / ♫ Ragnarok    Blockbuster gaming at its finest, Ragnarok improves upon everything that the first game set out to do, while giving the PS4 and gen 8 game design its true swansong. The scale is grander, the bosses more varied, the story more intricate, and the sidequesting is fully fleshed out this time. But GOWR's finest accomplishment is something more subtle: giving Kratos a character arc worth experiencing and remembering. This was a character that was seen as unsalvageable at one point, and yet here we are privy to a story with real nuance and growth, with stakes more interesting than who gets ripped in half and who doesn't. It's an ambitious game that falters here and there, but there are more than enough moments of pure spectacle to keep the pace up and the ending just nails it. It feels like a meaty package, a complete package, a chapter that even manages to improve the 2018 game retroactively. It's the ideal big budget gaming sequel, which is all it ever needed to be. And yet it goes further. Favorite moment: Fighting Garm, my new favorite boss battle in the series. 08 - Klonoa 2: Lunatea's Veil Hours played = / 9 ♫ Hyuponia (Ruin of Sadness)    Revived after 20 years in pure obscurity, Klonoa 2 is probably the finest (and rarest!) platformer of the PS2 era, and certainly in my top 5 for the entire genre. The original was a 60fps cell-shaded masterwork of thrilling level designs, momentum, color, and carnivalesque musical pastiche. Expanding on the groundwork established by DtP, Lunatea's Veil blows the lid off with some of the most carefully honed platformer levels I've ever seen, all while blowing the scale of the whole operation up to enormous proportions. While the cell shading style has been removed for this remake the end product isn't all that dissimilar, just a bit more vibrant and a bit less moody. I think I still prefer the original look tho, so a few odd points off for that. The gameplay has been reproduced almost 1 to 1 however and lord how it holds up, every cannon shot, ancillary aerial pivot, every shocking blocksmash,...not a wahoo is wasted in this beast, and the finale is as thrilling and heart rending as I remember it being all those years ago. Klonoa, the Dream Traveller, he upped the ante so hard that nobody could follow him. Favorite moment: Kingdom of Sorrow, perhaps the single greatest level in any platformer. 07 - Outer Wilds Hours played = 30 + 1 EotE / ♫ The Sun Station    Few games in the last several decades have repelled me on pure instinct or frustrated the living poo poo out of me more than this. I was pressured into playing this game by GOTY thread superstar Imhotep/Bopbop, and gifted it by mod superstar and GOTY thread co-sponsor VideoGames. I waited until september/october to play it, along with the other zero-g anxiety sim of early autumn, Hardspace, ...and incidentally the PS5 version of this dropped right around then. This poo poo is my nightmare. I do not like it when celestial bodies come at me all of a sudden, it's loving menacing okay!? Giant's Deep is beautiful, and I feel uncomfortable. The Ash Twin is mysterious, and my suit has a hole in it from some loving cactus. I have 7 minutes remaining to read some tablets in the middle of a dark dead cave somewhere and everything is filling with sand. Brittle Hollow is amazing, but you know what...it feels very temperamental around there and it makes me question my choices. I cannot think outside the box, I am not a science-man, and Dark Bramble is the worst place I have ever been...from a gameplay perspective too. And yet, and yet, it all fits together. It's all so special, so different from everything else, so effective in its high moments, and so awe inspiring in its construction that I just can't help thinking ...few games in the last several decades have repelled me on pure instinct or frustrated the living poo poo out of me more than this. I was pressured into playing this game by GOTY thread superstar Imhotep/Bopbop, and gifted it by mod superstar and GOTY thread co-sponsor VideoGames. I waited until september/october to play it, along with the other zero-g anxiety sim of early autumn, Hardspace, ...and incidentally the PS5 version of this dropped right around then. This poo poo is my nightmare. I do not like it when celestial bodies come at me all of a sudden, it's loving menacing okay!? Giant's Deep is beautiful, and I feel uncomfortable. The Ash Twin is mysterious, and my suit has a hole in it from some loving cactus. I have 7 minutes remaining to read some tablets in the middle of a dark dead cave somewhere and everything is filling with sand. Brittle Hollow is amazing, but you know what...it feels very temperamental around there and it makes me question my choices. I cannot think outside the box, I am not a science-man, and Dark Bramble is the worst place I have ever been...from a gameplay perspective too. And yet, and yet, it all fits together. It's all so special, so different from everything else, so effective in its high moments, and so awe inspiring in its construction that I just can't help thinking...few games in the last several decades have repelled me on pure instinct or frustrated the living poo poo out of me more than this. I was pressured into playing this game by GOTY thread superstar Imhotep/Bopbop, and gifted it by mod superstar and GOTY thread co-sponsor VideoGames Favorite moment: Tie: Reaching the Sun Station and floating across the gap Sunshine style / the DLC opening reveal 06 - Horizon Forbidden West Hours played = / 60 ♫ Rusted Sands + Tideripper theme    Forbidden West was my summer fixation and it really captured me in a way that the first game was never able to do, partially because I was just more open this time to the concept, but also because it's just a much more refined experience. Now that we're past the rocky origin story, and the rather amazing late-reveal subplot of Zero Dawn, we're free to just cut loose in any direction and see what Guerrilla was able to accomplish with the Decima engine in the last 5 years, and that's A LOT as it turns out. Forbidden West was probably the prettiest game released in 2022, just a stunning example of environmental detail, weather, light, water, smoke, metal, and snow. Aloy now moves and animates like a dream, she grapples and vaults up things in thrilling fashion, swims in the most beautifully rendered water ever committed to a game, glides effortlessly around with her digital bumbershoot, and climbs dynamically through rocky environments. Her loadout is more diverse this time and requires more thoughtful management to survive, while the machines have really upped their game in terms of complexity and interactivity. And good god the music, the music is so pitch perfect for every moment, whether it's a climbing puzzle, a huge boss, or a chill cinematic. Where the story goes from here is anyone's guess, but FW's slice of it definitely takes some wild turns, and honestly with what we know about life in tyool 2022...it all felt rather appropriate. Bring on the DLC, and bring on part 3! Favorite moment: Reaching the depths of Las Vegas and fighting the Tideripper for the first time. 05 - Valkyrie Profile Hours played = ?? / ♫ Between the Water, Wind, and Light   /Update%2044/45-hH3qai2.gif) Nine days before the end of the year one of my favorite rpgs gets rereleased for the first time in 15+ years in order to wreak havoc on my finished GOTY list. It fits like a glove. Valkyrie Profile is one of the most gorgeous, engaging, kickass, experimental japanese role playing games to be released during the final days of the golden age of console gaming, adding to the psx roster filled with so many other classics. The soundtrack rips, the voice acting is filled with weird cringe cameos from Pokemon cartoon talent, the character roster is stacked more than two dozen strong, and the spritework is nothing short of luscious. The gameplay is like SOTN dungeon platforming but with frenetic tactical turn based battles, light social management, FF8-tier complex menu futzing and item ability/creation, and a million secrets large and small. It is one of the most glorious genre fusions ever stamped onto a disc and nothing makes me happier than to ride out the end of the year like this, in fact, I'm playing it as I submit this list. Favorite moment: Back in sack with my boy Lucian, crystal machine go brrrrr 04 - Deep Rock Galactic Hours played = 440 / ♫ March of the Brave    DRG was my most played game in 2022 by a huge margin, and one of the best PS+ titles ever given away. Many of my friends ended up logging a compulsive amount of hours in this digging and drinking sim over the course of the last 11 months, and each time Ghost Ship Games drops a new season or holiday event it seems like everyone is there to grab some new poo poo. It's just a fantastic example of how a Live Service game can go so so right, and it's not just the devs that kick rear end...the community itself is so wonderfully positive and welcoming, the four classes are all extremely engaging and well balanced, and the personal progression from newbie to 'helldiver' is so insanely cool. A full team working in sync using their abilities to traverse a difficult series of cave puzzles, it's a beautiful sight to behold. This is the lifestyle game to rule them all. Rock and stone! Favorite moment: Building a cheese-house using the platform gun, with two windows and a cellar. 03 - Inscryption Hours played = 20 + 23 Kaycee's Mod / ♫ Deathcard Cabin (reprise) (spoilers in this playlist)    Another game made mostly by a few people, I loved every ragged inch of Inscryption, every hour of this frustrating, charming, finely crafted and purposefully designed card game which I cannot talk about. I loved the music, the natural skill accretion, the rug pulls, the metatext, the humor, the nostalgia, the cringe, the varied aesthetic design, the callbacks, the genre deconstruction, the challenge, the hopelessness, the triumph, and The Stoat. I wish I could unplay this game and experience it for the first time all over again, this wonderful ode to the process of game-making, game-playing, and collectable obsession. A profoundly charming indie experience that everyone should go into as blind as possible. Favorite moment: Battling all of the Act 3 sub-bosses culminating with g0lly who teaches us about the healing power of the internet, a place where nothing ever goes wrong. 02 - Disco Elysium Hours played = 45 / ♫ Detective Arriving on the Scene    I had the pleasure of replaying DE again earlier in the year when I was feeling fresh and really being exhaustive and completionist about it, with the added Final Cut voiced dialogue that makes such a dramatic difference to the presentation. To be honest I don't really know what to say that hasn't been said around these parts for years now. It's a just very detailed, special, darkly humorous, artistic miracle. It is also tremendously sad and profound and personal, like a thing that everyone should have yet cannot be shared. Sometimes I'll be cleaning up at work late at night and the soundtrack will come on and I will suddenly be in tears alone in the place like a lever in my brain was thrown. By all odds this thing shouldn't exist..., like Under the Volcano, or Guernica, or Andrei Rublev. And yet the circumstances of reality somehow intervened and brought it into existence, right here, right in our life, this work of absurdism that perfectly utilizes its medium in order to deliver the maximum amount of philosophical significance. One of the greatest pieces of political art ever created. Favorite moment: Harry dreams of Dolores Dei. 01 - Elden Ring Hours played = 190 / ♫ Ancestral Spirit      FROM really managed to hold off the tide of great games this year, I don't know how. There was a tiny part of me that wondered if this would still make my #1 after so many months away, but the truth is that even Elden Ring's flaws couldn't douse its sheer ambition. It goes harder, and farther, and larger than almost any game in recent memory. An experience that stole my life in 8-10 hour chunks for 3 solid months, to the point where I felt kind of hobbled coming out of the the whole ordeal. The number of dirty tricks, cheeky surprises, vista reveals, and expansions of scope that occur in the midst of a first playthrough kind of boggles the mind, I'm looking at my Book of Knowledge right now and the level of content is insane. The GRRM writing co-credit adds a nasty sort of cynicism to the world's structured story events that I'm not sure Miyazaki and company would otherwise have been able to bring on their own, even though the moment to moment writing is of the usual high quality we've come to expect from the studio. Finally, it was simply one of the most intense 'event' games I've ever had the pleasure of experiencing. It really did conquer the loving world, dominate the discussion, draw people in, generate a poo poo ton of talking-points, and god drat...it brought us together when we needed that the most! If it's somehow not FROM's best game it's certainly their most triumphant in a way, a remarkable technical and artistic accomplishment that stayed true to its roots while broadening everyone's horizons. This flawed, weird, funny, screwed-up, beautiful thing swung for the fences and broke the loving bat. Favorite moment: Rolling STR/INT, spending 100 hours of game wondering if I'll ever find a weapon that will suit my build, aimlessly following the breadcrumb quest trail through all of the subterranean valleys to end up finding Ranni against all expectations, and for a wedding gift she gives me the Moonlight Greatsword. It was my gaming moment of the year. What a witch, what a surprise, what a game. -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- EZ list10. Returnal / Ascension 09. God of War: Ragnarok 08. Klonoa 2: Lunatea's Veil 07. Outer Wilds 06. Horizon: Forbidden West 05. Valkyrie Profile 04. Deep Rock Galactic 03. Inscryption 02. Disco Elysium 01. Elden Ring BeanpolePeckerwood fucked around with this message at 15:24 on Dec 22, 2022 |
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Dec 22, 2022 15:16
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Dec 22, 2022 15:22
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Wow a fantastic list BP! I loved reading it  Also Rarity before you ask I’m gonna guess that 10th place is just meant to be a vote for Returnal as a whole
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Dec 22, 2022 15:27
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Man, I'm excited for Returnal to come out for PC.
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Dec 22, 2022 15:30
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Elden ring will be sweeping Witch of the Year 2022
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Dec 22, 2022 18:15
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Now that I've caught up...Rarity posted:SquareEnix’s latest merch release raises some eyebrows as the 1/6th scale model of Final Fantasy VI’s Terra Branford is priced at $12,000. Not least among the critics is the franchise’s creator Hironobu Sakaguchi who is very upset by the number not being limited to $9,999. oh god drat it, that got me.
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Dec 22, 2022 18:52
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great list BP
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Dec 22, 2022 19:19
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Trying to get through Crisis core before the year ends to see if it lands on the list. I have so many loving videos to make at the moment that it's not even funny though.
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Dec 22, 2022 19:32
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bone emulator posted:ok, I think I might need to play this  
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Dec 22, 2022 19:41
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Honorable Mentions Final Fantasy XIV: Still playin' it, still lovin' it. Just had too many new experiences for it to need to be put on the main list. Gundam Evolution: A real fun Overwatch clone shot in the foot by predatory monetization, rough balance, and poor network stability. Dead game. SUPERHOT: SUPER HOT SUPER HOT SUPER HOT Bugsnax: A fun and relaxing time through existential horror Bloodborne: Hey, I actually beat more than one boss in one of these! Pokemon Legends Arceus: A pretty refreshing take on the Pocket Monster formula. And now the list  Squeaking into 2022 with the last couple missions in January, Ace Combat 7 is the product of my continuing embrace of anime plane combat. I could talk about the advances in graphics, systems, and sense of realism that comes from jumping from the PS2 to the PS4. I could talk about Plane Jail, the Jail where you get a Plane. I could talk about Long Caster, a good boy who likes him a burg. But the moment that defines Ace Combat 7 for me is the penultimate mission, Lighthouse. Chiefly, its music, Daredevil. You're leading a massive cross-nation squadron in a desperate last-ditch attack against a massive drone arsenal ship running on rogue programming. The last time you came up against one of these, you needed to use a superweapon designed to shoot meteorites to even get past its shield, and it's definitely not going down here. Your wingmen are begging, praying for a miracle. And then, against all odds, the impossible happens. Accompanied by one of the most flawless goddamn needle drops that has ever been in a video game. Ace Combat is well-loved for how it uses its music to tell its story, and goddamn, this moment gives me goosebumps. I played this mission in early January and in December I am STILL thinking about Operation Daredevil. What a fuckin' game. Also how the gently caress is there an Italian bistro in Strangereal  Early in the year, I did a playthrough of the entire Monkey Island series. Yes, this was before Return was announced, I was as surprised as you were also I guess that's a spoiler for later in the list. If you were to ask me what the best Monkey Island game is, it's probably LeChuck's Revenge. But my favorite Monkey Island is and has always been Curse. I am an absolute sucker for this lovely hand-drawn animation and full-rear end voice acting the likes of which you could only afford during the CD-ROM boom. The addition of voice acting did leagues to concrete the identity of the Monkey Island cast and the game has a charm that's impossible to replicate.  You know what, I did play a lot of Teenage Mutant Turtles 3 The Manhattan Project on my Nintendo Entertainment System when I was a lad. A lesser project would have just settled for a recreation of that or Turtles in Time, a simple retro throwback. But Shredder's Revenger opts to be a NEW Turtles brawler, and boy howdy. From the beautiful spritework to the masterful tunes to the gameplay that's just deep enough to be oh so satisfying but simple enough to pick up and play, it's both a look back and a step forward.  Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door is a game where a husband has to tell his wife he loves her a hundred times before she forgives him and you have to press A through every single one. Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door is a game where I read a ghost's diary and got a game over, requiring me to replay like half an hour of the game. Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door is a game where one of the bosses is Vince McMahon. Yeah, I think I understand now.  What the heck can I say, it's Sploon! Probably Sploon at its best yet, with a brand new setting and a bunch of improvements. The single player mode is basically Octo Expansion but even bigger, and Salmon Run being 24/7 means I can actually play it now! It's probably my favorite mode! There's still a little bit of ironing out they can do regarding the monthly events, the three team Splatfests are a fun idea, but Tricolor Turf Wars don't seem to be quite there yet and the Big Run is a little underbaked, but I can make my octo dab, game of the year. Please let Melody out of the Hot Topic so we can get more Chirpy Chirps.  The original AI: The Somnium Files was basically Kotaro Uchikoshi's best game ever, and the sequel is...well, it's pretty alright. Nirvana Initiative has the unfortunate spot of being a sequel to a Kotaro Uchikoshi game, therefore being a sequel to a game that sold like poo poo in Japan. This time, the culprit was the first game's level of violence giving it a CERO Z rating, essentially an AO, which reduced the game's retail reach. The violence has been toned down in this one to give it a CERO D (M), but in a well-intentioned but ultimately misguided attempt to make the game approachable to a potential new audience, the story has to go out of its way to have an option that does not spoil the previous game. This leads to a story that is both too standalone, with returning characters not showing any of the growth they showed in the previous game, but not standalone enough, with some returning characters being key to the plot. There's still a lot to like, the new characters are fun, the mystery is engaging enough, and the Somnium puzzle sections have been greatly improved. But that lack of commitment to the storytelling, a weak twist and final villain, and an overabundance of QTE action scenes left me feeling a bit conflicted.  Tales of Monkey Island, the fifth game in the Monkey Island series, was seen as a long overdue return to the franchise after Escape had released 9 years prior. Anyway, it's been 13 years since Tales. Whew. Ron Gilbert returns to helm the series for the first time since Monkey Island 2, and that possibly explains why it's the best in the series since 2. It's just some good-rear end Monkey Island! The in-game hint guide is a stroke of genius design, and the ending is almost a meditation on the nature of Monkey Island as a franchise. Good poo poo.  Speaking of long dormant franchises, loving 16 years! When a cult game on the level of Psychonauts releases a follow-up after such a long time, there are understandable fears. Will the game be updated to modern standards to the point that it's no longer recognizable? Will it go the other way and stubbornly refuse to push itself forward and end up as a relic? Double Fine still fuckin' got it. Psychonauts 2 is a perfect evolution of the original game, bigger, better, more refined, and still wickedly funny. The new powers perfectly align with the returning mechanics and the worlds are more creative than they've ever been with the increase in technology. Shout outs to PSI King.  Another banger from Rope Kid. What if Okami, but instead of sumi-e paintings it was illuminated manuscripts? Following an apprentice illuminator working in a Bavarian village, just about every aspect of Pentiment's visual and gameplay design work together in harmony to reinforce the themes on display. Reverence to the past vs acceptance of the future, faith vs the truth, and the changing face of Catholicism during the Protestant Reformation all factor into three murder mysteries where you never know what the answer really is. Game made me mark out over a font.  2022 was the year I became a Gundam guy. Don't fuckin' look at me. Super Robot Wars 30, the latest entry in the long-running crossover franchise (don't worry, it's 30 because it's the 30th anniversary. It's actually more like 50 games) and the first mainline entry to get a western release, hit Steam last year and fellas...it's some Super Robot Wars. So many fuckin' robots. You wanna see Gaogaigar punch a Zaku? Maybe Getter Robo throws a tomahawk at one of those wheely assholes from Victory Gundam. An entire subplot based on the fact that J-Decker and SSSS.Gridman have two characters with similar names! In a western media landscape exhausted with multiverse crossover nonsense, something about Super Robot Wars just does it right. The way it integrates most of its series naturally into its setting rather than just relying on dimension portals (there are still some) lead to extremely funny lines talking about how Code Geass happened right after the One Year War. It's never too hard, which makes it the perfect comfort game, and while I would say Pentiment is the better game, Super Robot Wars 30 perfectly encapsulates what 2022 was to me. New interests, new favorites, new friend groups, I bought some plastic boys. We dig giant robots. Nice. 10. Ace Combat 7 9. The Curse of Monkey Island 8. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder's Revenge 7. Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door 6. Splatoon 3 5. AI: The Somnium Files - Nirvana Initiative 4. Return to Monkey Island 3. Psychonauts 2 2. Pentiment 1. Super Robot Wars 30
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Dec 22, 2022 19:56
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am i going to get super robot war pilled
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Dec 22, 2022 19:57
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Thousand Year Door on a 2022 list? You love to see it.
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Dec 22, 2022 20:03
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Some good rear end lists posted recently
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Dec 22, 2022 20:09
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I'm probably the only person who hasn't played Elden Ring yet
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Dec 22, 2022 20:11
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Waffleman_ posted:I'm probably the only person who hasn't played Elden Ring yet It's 30% off on Steam rn
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Dec 22, 2022 20:41
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Much like wrapping presents, I'm going to wait till the last minute to post my list. So far, reading about Inscryption has peaked my curiosity the most.Waffleman_ posted:I'm probably the only person who hasn't played Elden Ring yet Don't feel too bad. Apparently there is some big news coming soon, possibly an expansion!!
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Dec 22, 2022 20:45
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AceOfFlames posted:It's 30% off on Steam rn Tempting.
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Dec 22, 2022 20:53
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If I can beat Elden Ring, anybody can. The whole difficulty thing is marketing, I mean the games aren't EASY but even the difficult fights are manageable and more critically the difficulty doesn't come from making the fights 15 minutes long and "full combo does 1% of boss' first healthbar" that are massively demoralizing if you make a single mistake in the back half. Margit picked up me up and wrung me out for a solid hour but I certainly learned the lesson ("This ain't DS1 motherfucker") about what is to come that he's there to teach lol. Worldbuilding, level design, and character customization has always been what makes people insane Souls sickos as I think a lot of these lists are proving.
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Dec 22, 2022 21:00
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Feels Villeneuve posted:am i going to get super robot war pilled After reading that GOTY post I am eyeballing this on the Steam store. This is dangerous.
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Dec 22, 2022 21:12
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elden ring can be the easiest or hardest souls game depending on if you want it to be easier or harder, which is nice
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Dec 22, 2022 21:13
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I'd recommend getting at least the Deluxe edition, which has all the DLC missions and characters. The Ultimate edition also includes the DLC that adds the vocal versions of the theme songs to play instead of instrumentals, but it's usually extremely expensive and you can just mod it in anyway, but it's on sale for 57 bucks right now, so if you want to, there's no better time. I got it on a similar sale from an external keyseller and the vocals really add to it lol
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Dec 22, 2022 21:16
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Epic High Five posted:If I can beat Elden Ring, anybody can. The whole difficulty thing is marketing, I mean the games aren't EASY but even the difficult fights are manageable and more critically the difficulty doesn't come from making the fights 15 minutes long and "full combo does 1% of boss' first healthbar" that are massively demoralizing if you make a single mistake in the back half. Margit picked up me up and wrung me out for a solid hour but I certainly learned the lesson ("This ain't DS1 motherfucker") about what is to come that he's there to teach lol. This is encouraging, since I’m early on in Elden Ring as reading this thread practically forced it on me. It’s my first Souls or Soulslike game, and I’m getting my poo poo wrecked in a wide variety of ways as I learn things like “break lock-on to run away” and “you can chain attacks”. I’m really enjoying it, but fearing a bit that I’ll hit a wall and never experience the game fully. I did beat my first boss last night, though!
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Dec 22, 2022 21:23
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Subjunctive posted:This is encouraging, since I’m early on in Elden Ring as reading this thread practically forced it on me. It’s my first Souls or Soulslike game, and I’m getting my poo poo wrecked in a wide variety of ways as I learn things like “break lock-on to run away” and “you can chain attacks”. I’m really enjoying it, but fearing a bit that I’ll hit a wall and never experience the game fully. Congrats! Finally besting a particularly hard boss is the best feeling. It's both the hardest and easiest depending on what you do, just invest in vigor until it's 30 or so and you'll be fine as it's the "how many mistakes can I make" stat. A lot of the trouble people have with the genre to start out with is they're either rolling too soon, too late, or too much. Figure out which one is you, then stop doing that. Elden Ring thankfully doesn't really have those walls. If you're getting annihilated you can just gently caress off and do some dungeons for a bit, get stronger, and come back with more vigor+upgraded weapon+better feel for the weapon. One thing you can do is go into a boss and just try to survive as long as you can without attacking to learn its patterns in whatever phase is giving you grief. Other hacks include beating your head against a boss, going to bed, then beating it first try the next day (usually hitless), or complaining about the boss on the internet then beating it next try. The latter also works for rare drops. Keeping lock on when running away is a taste thing. I prefer to see the thing I'm running from even if it does mean I run head first into a distressing amount of fatal drops or trees. Keep posting in the Elden Ring thread! Nothing a grizzled Souls vet loves more than following along with someone's first playthrough, I definitely wish I could Men in Black mind wipe myself and play it fresh again. I don't think anybody is going to be surprised by my own GOTY
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Dec 22, 2022 21:34
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yeah er really lets you just go do other stuff and come back stronger if you want. also lots of ppl who have played souls games will go for dodge focused builds, and while you never really want to get to the point of being so heavy you cant roll, elden ring has def made heavy armor and a huge shield really viable again and its def a good way to play if you ever find yourself struggling against certain bosses attack chains, even if you only block half the time.
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Dec 22, 2022 21:39
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Waffleman_ posted:I'm probably the only person who hasn't played Elden Ring yet Nope, I haven't either! I mean its next on the list, but its not gonna get played in time for 2022.
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Dec 22, 2022 21:48
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BeanpolePeckerwood posted:
a fantastic list and write-up, BP! this is always my favourite thread in Games
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Dec 22, 2022 21:53
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Would be mental of enough ppl played elden ring next year for it to win goty two years in a row But who are we kidding, FFXVI will win goty next year. Book it
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Dec 22, 2022 21:54
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fridge corn posted:Would be mental of enough ppl played elden ring next year for it to win goty two years in a row even if it's goty quality it'll probably have to wait until it's on pc to win goty, not enough people own ps5s, i think
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Dec 22, 2022 21:55
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the ps5 exclusy? Not bloody likely!!
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Dec 22, 2022 21:55
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