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i'm gonna have to make my list into a stop motion animation or some poo poo next year, drat
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Dec 24, 2022 19:33
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My lists are always very basic, but I try to phrase my write-ups in such a way as to maximize the chances of being used for a pull quote on the countdown. That's the real prize.
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Dec 24, 2022 19:53
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My 2023 GOTY list will require an RTX 4080 and 16GB of RAM
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Dec 24, 2022 19:59
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How many times do I have to tell people you can't list two games in one spot?  OwlGuy I'm giving the points to Citizen Sleeper unless you say otherwise also that is a cool list thank you
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Dec 24, 2022 20:01
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ShakeZula posted:My lists are always very basic, but I try to phrase my write-ups in such a way as to maximize the chances of being used for a pull quote on the countdown. That's the real prize. The real trick is to say something funny, that'll make you a lock 
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Dec 24, 2022 20:02
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Darke GBF posted:GUNTANK WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
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Dec 24, 2022 20:17
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My list is a little…weird and normie, this year, I had a few games I was hoping to play before I had to post the list, but a new gamer was born four weeks early on December 7th, and that ruined any chance I had to focus on finishing some games I was interested in. It also means I won’t have many words for the actual games. I’m definitely in some sort of a rut, where I cannot get invested in story-driven games very effectively, and instead turn to games that are easy to pick-up and drop with little investment. I hope I can re-focus myself and figure out how to enjoy the “heavier” games again. Some random categories, Games I wish I played: - Norco - Citizen Sleeper - Crystal Project Some games I’m excited to play in 2023 (but probably won’t) - Tactical Nexus (thanks to this thread) - Pentiment - Live A Live - Tactics Ogre - Front Mission A game I didn’t love unlike everyone else - Tunic (I know, I’m sorry!) Worth a Shoutout, but not on the list. - Sifu - game is cool, but I haven’t spent quite enough time with it to rank. I was not expecting the depth to the combat, or to need to play footsies. I think the defensive mechanics do feel a little light though, it seems to be a lot of the same thing, but I’m also still bad at this game. - Returnal - same as above, but I came really close to ranking it anyways. Feels good to play, has a similar vibe to Control, while being completely different (also feels like Alien). Mechanically dense, and the difficulty seems well tweaked. - Monster Hunter Rise: Sunbreak - game is good, monster hunter is good - Tekken 7, Guilty Gear Strive - Fighting Games are awesome, and I wish I didn’t have such a mental block around playing them for improvement. - Kaizo Kindergarten - Kaizo Mario is cool as gently caress, and I had a blast progressing through this. I hope to spend more time doing kaizo stuff in 2023. And, the list 10 - Apex Legends This game only really works when you’re playing with a squad, but when you are, it really works. Respawn know how to make a shooter, I just wish playing solo felt better, but it’s just not how the game is designed and that’s okay. 09 - Stray Very cute, fun story and world, with a nearly solid payoff (I can’t believe they don’t show you reuniting with your cat pals at the end). It was concise, and didn’t overstay its welcome. I also forgot about it the moment I finished it. 08 - Super Mario World One of the GOATs. This isn’t the first time I’ve played and beaten the game, but it has probably been 15 years since I last did so. I went for the 100% completion in preparation to try my hand at some kaizo ROMs, and it was a ton of fun. I also streamed it to some friends in Discord, which made it even more fun. 07 - Final Fantasy Pixel Remaster It turns out, these Final Fantasy games were always good. This was a lot of fun, and I think it holds up pretty well for a game as old as I am. It is really remarkable what developers could do with hardware like the NES. I had planned to try to play all the pixel remasters in 2022, but lost steam on the second one, maybe a 2023 goal. 06 - DOOM Eternal Mother-loving DOOM. What a well-tuned video game. They do so many things well to help a player understand the game flow, and know what to expect, or where things are. I really appreciate the color and music cues to this effort. A fun game, with some fun secrets and exploration for a linear game. 05 - Gran Turismo 7 This game had a rough launch, but it didn’t impact me much. I just like learning how to drive race cars and learning how to drive those race cars very specifically and consistently around a track. I will never get sick of turning this game on once or twice a month for a few hours and just driving in what is essentially a circle. 04 - Snowrunner What a great game. I would not have expected to be so absorbed by driving trucks around a map. I only played through the first map, but this is an excellent game to just sit and play a podcast, or relax and zone for a few hours. The progression seems well tuned, and the challenges are a lot of fun to accomplish. Plus, it’s fun to get comfortable with the tools at your disposal and learn how to navigate some difficult terrain. 03 - Fortnite I did not think I’d ever pick this game up again, but Epic has done a really good job with it? I am only playing zero build mode, but winning in Fortnite is secondary to just dropping in and running around to complete the various quests and objectives. There is just enough to do that isn’t focused on winning that makes it a low stakes way to spend some time. Plus, when you do win, it still feels really exciting. This game is made to pick up and put down as little or often as you want, and it became a perfect way to turn off my brain (or, more recently, play some video games when I’m dead tired from hanging out with a newborn). 02 - League of Legends I can’t believe I’m playing this game for the first time, and I am upset with myself…because I haven’t been playing this game for a decade like I could have. I’m sure I’ll get jaded by this game eventually, but right now, there is so much to learn, and understand, and it scratches the competitive itch, and drive to get better that I never quite got from fighting games (despite loving those too). I have some theories as to why, but I won’t get into it here because they’re extremely half-baked. This game is great, and I’m happy to be playing it. 01 - Elden Ring This was my most played game this year, what a game. I’ve seen just about everything there is for this game to offer, and while I hear the criticisms about some repeated content, I think it works? There is thematic consistency between the catacombs that make the repetitive nature of them not feel like a negative towards the game. Plus, as others have said, each one seems to have a slightly different gimmick. I really enjoyed my time with this, and have played a few different builds through the first half of the game, having fun seeing all the variety there is to how to approach this game. What FromSoft did here is extremely impressive, and I’m glad there was so much of it for me to experience. --- Merry Game of the Year to all our Gamers! I really appreciate the effort everyone puts into this thread every year and helps make this community one worth being a part of.
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Dec 24, 2022 20:21
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cheetah7071 posted:1- Atelier Sophie 2 I am so behind on Atelier games  I love them so much but I can usually only manage, like, one every year or two.
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Dec 24, 2022 20:53
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GOTY 2022 It’s Christmas Eve and time for my annual GOTY list. Happy holidays everyone! I have been looking forward to this thread from the moment I hit send on my post for last years thread. This has been quite a wild year for gaming with tons of massive new releases and had I a rather tougher time than usual trying to arrange them in a nice ordered list. First though, a few words on some games that I felt were notable but not quite notable enough to make the list Honourable Mentions: Final Fantasy VII Remake: Intermission (Square Enix, 2021 – PS5) - Final Fantasy VII Remake place number 2 on my GOTY list for 2020. I only got round to playing the DLC this year. Every bit a delight as the main game. Eagerly awaiting part 2. TMNT: Shredder’s Revenge (Tribute Games, 2022 – PS5) - I was a big stupid fan of the Ninja Turtles when I was a kid. I had all the toys. TMNT IV: Turtles in Time was one of my favourite games back in the day. TMNT: Shredder’s Revenge aims to recapture the look and feel of the old school Turtles games and wider franchise. It’s not perfect but it comes really close and it’s clear a lot of heart went in to making this game. Besides, it’s a great couch co-op beat-‘em-up for Fridgelina and I to play together and I’m always looking for games that appeal to the both of us. FIFA 22 (EA, 2021 – PS5) - I somehow played this game for the exact same amount of time as my number 1. Oops. Magic: the Gathering Arena (Wizards Digital Games Studio, 2019 – Android) -I’ve been meaning to try and rank this with the heavy hitters of the gaming year, but ultimately its just a dumb phone game I play from time to time. I do love it tho… sometimes haha. List: 10. Gran Turismo 7 (Polyphony Digital, 2022 – PS5)  The Gran Turismo series is one of the most storied and revered members of the video game pantheon, made most noticeable for its extreme attention to detail even from its earliest beginnings on the PS1. Gran Turismo is more than just a racing game or driving simulator, it is a celebration of the automobile and of CAR LIFE. My own CAR LIFE owes a lot to the Gran Turismo series. Cast yourself back to around the turn of the millennium and picture a young and eager Fridge Corn playing Gran Turismo 3 in his parent’s living room, wrestling a 1990 Mazda RX-7 Turbo tyre-screechingly around Deep Forest Raceway accompanied by the dulcet tones of The Cult’s “She Sells Sanctuary” when the thought occurs to him: he could get one of these cars, in REAL LIFE. Thus began my CAR LIFE and a few years later I had acquired that RX-7 Turbo, and another one, and car meets, track days, long drives out to nowhere, all perfumed by the sickly-sweet smell of unburnt hydrocarbons in the air. I went on to get a job as a technician at a local Mazda dealer, and while I am not so involved in CAR LIFE as a hobby these days, I still make my living by fixing cars and along with a few other major life decisions I can easily say that CAR LIFE has decidedly put me on the life trajectory I am still happily living today. And that can all be traced back to the Gran Turismo series. Cue 2022 and the return of Gran Turismo after a sort of disappointing hiatus for its 7th instalment of the series. Gran Turismo is back and its back in a big way. The fabled attention to detail has been ratcheted up to a new intensity. All cars in the game have fully modelled interiors, accurate and working instrument clusters. Even the grain in the leathers is perfectly spot on is how fine-grained the level of detail is in this game. Also included are small interviews and quotes by famous car industry personalities, often the designers themselves offering a few words on the cars that helped shape their lives and that their lives helped shape. Gran Turismo 7 is unabashedly proud of what it is: a virtual museum and theme park dedicated to the celebration of CAR LIFE, and while as a video game it didn’t suck me in as much as the series did when I was a fresh-faced teen with a gleaming new (and spotless) driving license, the long history I have with the series and this latest instalment being perhaps the most earnest and delightful yet, and certainly by far the most technically impressive, gives it more than enough reason to land at number 10 on my list. 9. Wild Arms (Media.Vision, 1996 – PS1)  First time a game older than a few years makes an appearance on my GOTY list and boy does it feel cheeky. Earlier in the year PlayStation revamped its PS+ subscription service, adding tiers and charging more money, while promising enhanced offerings. One of those enhanced offerings was to greatly expand the amount of PS1 and PS2 games available to play on the system and while the list of available games was (and still is) embarrassingly and disappointingly short, it does include the classic PS1 JRPG Wild Arms. Wild Arms had a lot of things going for it back in the day. It featured a fully animated opening sequence produced by the notable anime studio Madhouse. It boasted an absolute banger of a soundtrack by Michiko Naruke which, heavily influenced by the music found in Western films and that of Ennio Morricone in particular, gave the game a certain feel and style that was unique to JRPGs at the time. Wild Arms is also notable for having been released just prior to that of Final Fantasy VII and as such exists in a very particular point of time in the evolution of the JRPG, seeming to straddle two eras simultaneously. On one hand you have the very detailed sprite-work and top-down 2D town and dungeon environments you would expect to see in 16-bit era games, but on the other you have fully 3D rendered battle sequences that were soon to become the norm in games everywhere. Playing Wild Arms in 2022 was a treat as I haven’t visited the game in a long, long time, and I’m happy to say it mostly holds up. The soundtrack is still an amazing classic, the 2D graphics are easy to read and charming as hell. The 3D battle graphics are…. well, ugly as gently caress but to be quite honest, they were ugly in 1996 anyway. The gameplay itself is relatively simple, and battle animations are perhaps a bit overlong, but the experience is made just a bit smoother with a few QOL enhancements coming from playing the game on PS5, most notable of which is a save state and rewind feature. The plot and characters don’t go through a whole lot growth and the game never dives too deep into developing either, but even as simple and straightforward of an old-school JRPG that Wild Arms is, its still got a heck of a lot of charm and heart put into it, and that’s why it makes it into the number 9 slot on my list. 8. Horizon Forbidden West (Guerrilla Games, 2022 – PS5)  The hotly anticipated next chapter in the Horizon saga, follow up to 2017’s fantastic Horizon Zero Dawn, Forbidden West follows Aloy on her continued quest to unravel the mysteries of her peculiar post-post-apocalyptic world. The Horizon series quickly became one of Sony’s most recognised brands which was quite a feat coming as a completely new IP when it was released back in 2017, the small hiccup of being released concurrently with Nintendo’s Breath of the Wild aside. Surely now having established itself as powerful totem of modern gaming, the follow up could be released safe in the knowledge that no other title could possibly upstage it, right? It would be really bad luck to for another game to come out, one almost presciently prescribed to highlight Horizon’s more glaring flaws. Surely not… Horizon Forbidden West seeks to tell its tale and entertain the player in the typical Ubisoft-style of open-worldism. What sets it apart from the usual offerings is the uniqueness of its setting, and the combat, both of which were delights in the previous instalment. While I feel Forbidden West improves greatly in one area, it perhaps took a step back in the other. The Great Mystery having been solved in Zero Dawn, Forbidden West is free to develop its present-day world. Aloy travels further than before, meeting new peoples and tribes who appear to have at least a bit more thought put into their design. The character animation and voice acting are much improved, giving the vibrant world a much-needed breath of life. Where the game falters however, is in the combat. More options, more skills, more weapons, more elements all serve to muddle and overcomplicate the combat system. The machines are tuned to be highly aggressive giving the player smaller windows in which to line up the perfect shot. Getting hit usually means finding yourself flat on your back and immobile for what seems an inordinate amount of time. All this just served to frustrate me as the player, especially as I felt I had reached a certain level of comfortableness and mastery of the combat in the previous game. The loot and tedium required to obtain upgrade materials for your equipment didn’t help much either. The story, the characters, the vibrant world that has been built around it are all were fantastic enough for me to call this game a success but its few notable flaws are what puts this game at number 8 and ultimately behind the next item on the list. 7. Kena: Bridge of Spirits (Ember Lab, 2021 – PS5)  Kena: Bridge of Spirits is an action-adventure 3rd person character action platformer puzzler something something game. In this game you play as Kena, a young spirit guide whose job is to help troubled spirits pass on to the next world. She comes across the ruins of a town with a lot of troubled spirits. Gameplay is mostly combat oriented. It draws from the typical post-Dark Souls character action playbook. There’s a light attack, there’s a strong attack, there’s a charged attack! You can block, you can dodge, you’ve also got a bow! And some bombs? Did you mix up some Zelda in my Dark Souls?? But what really sets this game apart is the beautifully styled animation. It literally looks like a Pixar movie! Which isn’t entirely surprising either since developer Ember Lab was primarily an animation studio. This is their first attempt at making a game. Really. The game is beautiful to look at. Its characters are expressive and well-acted. It has a heartfelt story to tell of loss and regret, but ultimately of redemption. The soundtrack is a pure delight of traditionally-inspired Balinese gamelan music. I could honestly listen to this game all day. Its styles and themes of Asian-inspired mysticism feel thoughtfully applied. The only downside of this game I feel is in its combat, which although perfectly serviceable feels a bit muddled and lacking in responsiveness. It probably could have gone back in the oven for a few more minutes, but considering this was a tiny studio’s first attempt at making a game I can’t dock it too many points for that. A truly wonderful showing from Ember Lab and firmly puts them on my watchlist for whatever they happen to do next. Kena: Bridge of Spirits is a delightful little game created with a level of care and craft that many larger more established developers oftentimes lack. Its because of this that ultimately, I decided to place this game ahead of Horizon Forbidden West at number 7 on the list. 6. Demon’s Souls (Bluepoint Games/FromSoftware, 2020 – PS5)  That this is here is in all honesty, a bit of a surprise. I received this game for Christmas last year and played it for all of 5 minutes. Died, and turned it off. Now, I’m not new to the Souls series. I’ve played all three Dark Souls games (although I’ve only beaten the first one), I’ve platinumed Bloodborne, and I’ve beaten Sekiro, those last two games were my number one GOTYs for 2020 and 2021 respectively. However, I’ve become accustomed to only being able to devote the time and effort into one Souls type game per year before getting burned out, and there was something (what could that have been…??) about 2022 that made me think that Demon’s Souls was not to be my FromSoft game for the year. Fast-forward to just a few days ago and I’ve found myself in a bit of a gaming doldrum. Its getting toward the end of the year. I’ve finished lots of games, I’ve left many unfinished. I’m looking forward to potential games I may be getting for Christmas. I’m thinking about this list. Family is hanging around and I’m trying to prepare for the holidays and don’t have too much time to play much of anything. Let’s just faff about with whatever’s at hand instead with what time I have and not think too much about it. I booted up Demon’s Souls. Holy poo poo. It’s beautiful. It looks beautiful, and it runs beautifully. It sounds absolutely goddamn amazing! I mean, you can tell it sounds amazing the moment you start it up, but by the time I got to the Stonefang Tunnel I realised it was actually on another level. I’m sure it helps that I’ve recently upgraded my entire 5.1 system, but that is only helping to do the game justice. My speakers have nothing to do with the incredible sound design and mixing in this game. It doesn’t have anything to do with the mixture of sound and haptics coming out of the DualSense either. At time of writing, I have only played the game for a total of 7 hours. I’ve killed three bosses and have reached a fourth, but I am absolutely floored with the quality of this title. Having never played the PS3 original I wasn’t sure what to expect from the gameplay but it feels like a modern Souls game, but it looks and sounds like a next-gen Souls game. All my hats are off to Bluepoint for what they were able to create with FromSoft’s wonderful title. Even with so little time on the clock Demon’s Souls has managed to impress me to such a degree that it rockets out of nowhere to land at number 6 on the list. 5. Stray (BlueTwelve Studio, 2022 – PS5)  I’m not particularly big on indie games typically. Not that I have anything against indies it’s just that oftentimes I find them lacking in areas. There are compromises that need to be made when designing a game with a small team, with a small budget, and limited time to work. I guess it helps that the industry is evolving to accommodate for these shortcomings. You have publishers like Annapurna who are able to bankroll some of these smaller projects and provide resources that otherwise wouldn’t be available to independent teams. A lot of indie developers are being founded by experienced professionals who have worked in the industry often for some of the biggest developers, as was the case with BlueTwelve Studios being founded by former Ubisoft employees. This all leads to certain indie projects coming out looking, sounding, and playing just a good, if not better than, some higher budgeted titles, all while not losing the craft and focus that the project had in the first place. The best part of an indie title is the level of artistry that you can only get from small teams or individuals; the exact thing you tend to lose first from most AAA productions. Stray has all that in spades. Did I mention you play as a cat? You play as a cat! Press O to meow! You can jump on tables and knock everything over! Press O to meow! You can rub yourself along the ankles of a robot and get scritches behind the ear! Press O to meow! The best part though was finding a cosy quiet place to take a little nap, curling up and having the DualSense controller start purring. Hah, I was beside myself. One of the singularly most memorable moments of all my time gaming in 2022. But aside from the sheer joy of playing as a cat, there is more than just novelty to Stray. The team at BlueTwelve created a vibrant and lush atmosphere dripping with character – environmental storytelling at its finest, and this is the true strength of Stray. The narrative is fairly short and sweet, the gameplay perhaps even simpler, but the environments and locations and overarching mystery are so compelling that we can’t help but let our cat-like curiosity take over and guide us through this lovingly and carefully crafted world. Stray is a game that is more than the sum of its parts, and its successes are not just reliant on the novelty of the cat protagonist. It is a game that truly offers and wonderous and memorable experience, and that’s why it comes in at number 5 on the list. 4. SaGa Frontier Remastered (Square Enix, 2021 – PS4)  There was a very special time that a lot of us game-playing folk remember quite fondly. It was a time of wonder and a time of plenty with a seemingly inexhaustible supply of rich and varied gaming experiences available to us. I am speaking of course of the late 90’s. If you were like me, a devout worshipper of the church of JRPG then you may have also elected to follow the true messiah Squaresoft to the temple of the Sony PlayStation. In the late 90’s our faith was rewarded when Squaresoft released veritable flood of games of biblical proportions. Recite with me a few of our holiest prayers: Final Fantasy VII, Final Fantasy Tactics, Bushido Blade, Einhander, Xenogears, Parasite Eve, Ehrgeiz, SaGa Frontier. Amen. SaGa Frontier was released in 1997 in Japan and 1998 in the West, and we all got it simply for being a Squaresoft game and it was our religious duty to play it. However, I was not prepared for the arcane nature of this particular bit of JRPG scripture and struggled greatly with it. What is the purpose of this? Why has god deemed it necessary to test me with this? I lacked the theological acumen to decipher its mysteries and discarded it, my faith shaken. The SaGa series has long been known for its idiosyncratic and inscrutable mechanics, a deliberate choice on behalf of the game designers so that even they would struggle to predict outcomes with accuracy. SaGa Frontier is not the first game in the SaGa series, nor would it be the last, but for many it was the first taste, and boy was it a taste that needed acquiring. SaGa Frontier was remastered and released again across multiple platforms in 2021. At the urging of some of our community and due to my own curiosity, I decided to revisit this peculiar game. I’m glad I did. Some things need time to mature, and sometimes answers will only present themselves when we are ready to receive them. In the case of SaGa Frontier, both of these ring true. Older and wiser now, and with the help of the learned scholars of gamefaqs.com, some of whom have seemingly devoted their lives to unravelling the mysteries of the SaGa series, I can finally say “I get it.” SaGa Frontier Remastered comes to us with up-ressed graphics and few QoL updates (like being able to run risk-free from most battles), a new game + feature that allows you to tailor which aspects you want to carry over between scenarios, and the reintroduction of an entire character cut from the original release. Having finally come to grips with SaGa, I was free to drink in the whimsical nature of this game, its quirky sprite-work, and fantastical pre-rendered backgrounds. SaGa Frontier is pure delightfulness and a JRPG that every fan of the genre should have under their belt, especially now with having the definitive version to play with this remastered edition. SaGa Frontier Remastered sparked something inside me that I wasn’t expecting and that’s why it comes in at number 4 on my list. 3. Final Fantasy XIV: Endwalker (Square Enix, 2021 – PS5)  The much-lauded and SA GOTY 2021, Final Fantasy XIV was curiously absent from my list last year, despite appearing for both of the two years prior to that. There are several reasons for that, I suppose. First off is that Final Fantasy XIV is not a forever MMO game for me, it is primarily a single-player experience, especially playing it on console where chatting with other players is insanely cumbersome, so I feel no particular need to join in with the community to experience the game concurrently. Second of all, the later half of 2021, and the majority of 2022 was an absolutely hellish experience for me work-wise. I was working longer hours than usual commuting an hour each way into the city, to a job at a company that seemed determined to tear itself apart and destroy all the good things it had built over the years. We sometimes wouldn’t get home until 8pm, barely enough time to get showered, dinner on the table, and the kitchen cleaned up before collapsing from exhaustion only to get up at quarter to six to do it all over again. I wasn’t about to spend precious sub monies on a game I would barely have the energy to play only on weekend mornings. Luckily all that changed toward the end of the year when we got ourselves new jobs; ones much closer to home. To celebrate I bought Endwalker and reactivated my long dormant account. Jimothy Fridgecorn, potato bard and Warrior of Light was to ride again. Oof. Taking two years off from playing the game was not kind on the muscle memory. Further complications arose from playing on the PS5 client for the first time meaning I had to recreate my hotbars from scratch. I know you can import from other clients but my PS4 is not hooked up and I wasn’t about to faff about behind the telly to get it working again. Needless to say, I was probably not a very effective party member for the first few duties I had to complete. I had left off right at the end of the Shadowbringers main scenario so at least I had all the 5.x patch content to get myself up to speed before starting Endwalker proper, but it wasn’t too long before I was back to spinning plates and juggling cooldowns like a pro. The story of Endwalker seeks to put a capstone on pretty much everything that had gone before and as such feels a bit unfocused compared to previous expansions. Throughout the narrative you get the feeling of everything culminating to an eventual wrap up and doesn’t linger too long on location or detail. Instead of a single geographical area or two to focus on, the new zones added with Endwalker are, literally, all over the place. This disjointedness is I feel to the expansion’s detriment as you are breathlessly whisked away from place to place, never allowed to hang about too long and chew on the scenery. All in all, it gets its job done in the end and the inevitable climax of this long running story hits all the right notes and hits them hard. It’s a beautiful and heartfelt conclusion to a great many things that have been very special to a great many people but Endwalker’s focus on sticking the ending, rather than the journey to it, leaves it feeling a little lacklustre compared to previous expansions. Similarly, with Soken’s incredible turnout of stellar tracks for this game, his output remains of the highest quality, yet perhaps not quite as memorable as previous expansions. Still, as the dust of it all settles around me, I can hear his tunes ear-worming their way through my brain even now. Overall, while I wouldn’t consider Endwalker the best expansion of Final Fantasy XIV, it’s still Final Fantasy XIV which has become so synonymous with a level of quality that had been missing from the franchise and the entire JRPG genre for so long, and then to be able to maintain that quality for so long and over multiple expansions is a more than resounding reason for it to land in the number 3 slot on my list. 2. Tactics Ogre: Reborn (Square Enix, 2022 – PS5)  Tactics Ogre: Reborn is a 2022 reworking of the 2010 PSP reimagining of the 1995 SNES SRPG originally developed by Quest. This game is quite possibly the granddaddy of strategy RPGs and its star-studded development team features many now household names: Yasumi Matsuno, Akihiko Yoshida, and Hitoshi Sakimoto all lent their talents to this game and developed what was later to become a bit of a trademark style. Tactics Ogre: Reborn features the signature turn-based isometric grid gameplay that is the staple of the genre, tweaked and updated slightly from the original. Similarly, the sprite-based graphics have also been updated but with only minor adjustments, keeping the games original look intact. Some other updates to game systems have been added, most notably in the way the crafting and character levelling systems work, but the most significant changes are the addition of a fully voice acted script and a completely rerecorded soundtrack, which work magnificently to give the crunchy story and weighty dialogue some extra punch. I had never played Tactics Ogre before in any of its previous guises (minor lie, I tried emulating the PSP version on my phone once but it ran so poorly I didn’t stick it out for long), but I had long been a fan of the SRPG genre as far back as Final Fantasy Tactics. Seems somewhat odd that I had left this game off my radar for so long, but imagine my surprise and curiosity being peaked when this rerelease was announced. While it clearly wasn’t a game that I was going to go out of my way to play, but as soon as Square Enix saw fit to deliver it straight to my lap I was buzzing with excitement. In a gaming landscape that is becoming increasingly populated with remakes and remasters and rereleases Tactics Ogre: Reborn is perhaps one of the best I’ve yet come across. It looks and feels great in the way that it probably matches more closely with our nostalgia for 1995 games rather than actual 1995 games. The menus look and feel snappy to navigate, the sprite animation is luscious and smooth. The voice acting is really really good and the character performances suit both the video gamey nature of it being voice acting in a video game but also gives weight and believability to the narrative’s serious themes. The soundtrack is incredible. Tactics Ogre is a fantastic game in its own right, but Tactics Ogre: Reborn is so much more, a perfect combination of modern sensibilities and classic old-school gameplay and game design. There is something here that is wholly unique to the art world and it can only exist in video games. Sure, lots of films can be remastered, or rereleased with extended or director’s cuts and what have you, or music can be rerecorded or covered by other artists, but only a video game can be remade in this way. Tactics Ogre: Reborn is Tactics Ogre, but made in a way that maybe is closer to what the original developers had in mind at the time. But it is also made in a way that the developers probably could have had no idea of at the time. Tactics Ogre: Reborn makes very clever and subtle use of the DualSense controller’s haptics and adaptive triggers in ways that legitimately surprised me. These added features serve to simultaneously help replicate the feel of an older video game, while also adding dimension that would have been impossible at the time. That and all the other bits and facets that have gone into Tactics Ogre: Reborn make it clearly the definitive version of the game, but in a way that doesn’t tarnish or diminish the original in any way. Tactics Ogre: Reborn is a fantastic and nearly flawless game, but it is also a powerful showcase of the mercurial nature of video games as an art form, and for those reasons it takes a well-deserved spot at number 2 on my list. 1. Elden Ring (From Software, 2022 – PS5)  Ooooooohh. Elden Ring. From Software has been the unassuming elephant in the room of the gaming world for over a decade. Their games are famously well-known, routinely imitated, and exhaustively compared to literally everything else. The amount that From Software and Dark Souls are spoken about is unmeasurable. You can’t as much reach for your controller without tripping over some Dark Souls these days. You would think we would be tired of it by now. Thirteen years after the release of Demon’s Souls on the PS3 and the fundamentals haven’t changed much. I spoke earlier about Demon’s Souls (2020) and even having never played the original, it immediately felt like I had been playing it for years. Because I have. We all have. And yet, no one is tired of it yet. It is testament to the dedication, vision, and hard work that Hidetaka Miyazaki and the team at From Software have put into their games over the years, the level of detail and fine tuning to world-building, environmental storytelling, and meaty, rewarding gameplay mechanics that keep us buzzing for more. And we are never disappointed. All hail Big Dark Souls. For me personally, majority of the hype and buzz around the release of Elden Ring was the fact that this was to be the first From Soft game that I would be getting on release day, and playing along concurrently with the entire community. I came late to the Souls series, having played my first one, Bloodborne, in 2017 – only to swear the entire genre off for years. I didn’t play another until Dark Souls Remastered in 2019, which I managed to complete and bolstered my confidence in approaching the other Souls games. When VideoGames began streaming Bloodborne in 2020, my confidence was bolstered again, because “Heck,” I thought, “if Veeg can Magoo his way through this game, then so can I.” So I did, not only completing it and the DLC, but getting the platinum as well. I played through and completed Sekiro the following year, my winning run at the final boss still remaining as one of my most ultimate video gaming experiences. That was it. I was a From Soft junkie, but never had I gotten the opportunity to go into one completely blind and unspoiled with everyone else. How lucky for me that my first chance of doing that was with Elden Ring, From Soft’s biggest game yet. Elden Ring is Dark Souls writ-open world. I think many were rightfully wary of the concept, and to a degree I can understand a measure of distaste for it, but confidence in From Soft to not-gently caress-it-up is never unfounded. Few of us could imagine what an open world Souls game would look like other than that it would be Good. The details of course would always be down to Miyazaki and his crew to work out, as they always do. And did they how. The open world element of Elden Ring manages to reframe the entirety of the open-world genre and it does so in such a painfully obvious way: make your world interesting and intriguing to explore, and your players will explore it. No need for map icons, checklists, fetch quests constantly pushing and pulling the player this way and that. Just incredible vistas, dark corners, and illegible yet unmistakable marks on a weather worn map. So compelling was this world, The Lands Between, that one could (almost) be forgiven for not noticing the compass at the top of the screen. Elden Ring is the epitome of what the open world genre was always capable of, yet no one seemed brave enough to commit to. Elden Ring is in many ways a Souls-themed theme park. Its big, its expansive, there’s tons to do. There are small dungeons, there’s big dungeons. There’s tons and tons of weapons, spells, and newly added to the formula: spirits to summon. Respeccing is fairly simple once you get to a certain point in the game so you are free to experiment and try different weapons and builds. Elden Ring is perhaps the most accessible Souls game yet made. With so many directions to travel and options given to the player at any moment, From Soft’s traditional difficulty is never a roadblock like it sometimes could be in their older games. There’s always another route or another dungeon to delve into and a few more levels to acquire before attempting that tricky boss again. A new dynamic with your mount Torrent gives the option to players to tackle some open-area bosses on horseback rather than traditionally on foot. But in many ways, as is usually the case with From Soft’s games, we can spend ages talking about the fine delicate details yet the conclusion is always the same: this is a game that even with the best ingredients still ends up being somehow greater than the sum of its parts. With a world filled to the brim with secrets and an unending supply of surprises, and of course From Soft’s trademark gameplay there is no doubt in my mind that not only is Elden Ring the greatest game of 2022, but it just might be the greatest game of all time. If I were stranded on a desert island with the means to play only a single video game, that game would be Elden Ring, and that’s more than enough reason for it to be number 1 on my list. Easy list for Rarity: 10. Gran Turismo 7 9. Wild Arms 8. Horizon Forbidden West 7. Kena: Bridge of Spirits 6. Demon’s Souls 5. Stray 4. SaGa Frontier Remastered 3. Final Fantasy XIV: Endwalker 2. Tactics Ogre: Reborn 1. Elden Ring E: Two secs while I edit some images in fridge corn fucked around with this message at 21:16 on Dec 24, 2022 |
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Dec 24, 2022 21:12
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Lol I think I wrote way too many words.
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Dec 24, 2022 21:25
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fridge corn posted:too many words. No such thing 
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Dec 24, 2022 21:27
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Fantastic list, fridge. Your passion shines through so much. And the veeg compass joke got me 
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Dec 24, 2022 21:31
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minifridge CAR LIFE
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Dec 24, 2022 21:32
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Fridge that is a really thoughtful list! You came at things from angles I hadn't considered.
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Dec 24, 2022 21:52
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10. Gran Turismo 7 - I am and will always be a sucker for this series. It is almost the sole reason I bought a Playstation 4 as the world began falling apart, and I have logged hundreds of hours on GT7 and Sport. I like cars more than I should, but most racing games don't do it for me. Gran Turismo does. 9. Umurangi Generation - This is about where the highlights started for me in 2022. Some parts absolutely hit close to home with depictions of a military state and a society that has failed, but so it goes. All you have is a camera, and it's all you need. 8. Kid Amnesiac - So many games demand so much time to reach their conclusion, and only so many offer enough to keep me going to their conclusion. Call it a personal failing, I don't really care. That said, I will try just about any walking simulator, and this is a definite highlight in the genre. Take in this of[/b]f-kilter world, get spooked out by all manner of creatures, enjoy some concert footage in a strange place. Whatever you do, just don't worry about winning this one. 7. Sayonara Wild Hearts - I fired this one up when I needed it most. The music, the story, and the movement all provided a balm I needed. As winter's toll weighs down on me, I think I will be coming back to this one soon. 6. Going Under - Let's just say I don't love my job, and this game has provided a much needed outlet for my frustrations on more than one occasion. I am normally not one for procedurally generated anything, but sign me up when it means taking a sledgehammer (or a slab of meat) to the entirely hosed system of labor. 5. 140 - This is the first game I tried out on my Steam Deck and with it went at least a handful of entire nights. I love bright colors, and this one takes it to a level all its own. The rhythmic and pulsating gameplay really just sucked me in. Oh, and then there are the boss battles. Fair warning, they're more than a little frustrating, but also managed to give me a real feeling of victory when I did finally best my nemesis. 4. Pikuniku - This one stumped me at first, but I came back to it in the fall and suddenly couldn't get enough. Bright colors, goofy NPCs, and wonderful kicking and jumping action. All just part of another great dystopic adventure. 3. Mario Kart 8 - I remember being absolutely terrible at this game as a child. Still, with the new tracks coming, I felt I had to give it a try. Single player was fun to learn the ropes, but the real fun began when I got to play this with friends. If you've been delaying coming back, now is the time. Also, try any of the motorcycles. They utterly destroy the karts. 2. Lovely Planet - Love everything except the brutality of FPS games? loving hate getting lost in Doom and its clones? Give this one a try. Speed is encouraged and your twitch abilities absolutely will see improvement if you keep at it. All the while, this strange and wonderful world ought to put a smile on your face even as you try for the dozenth time to complete a level. 1. Dropsy - Goon made and god drat good. This game cracked me up the whole way through. It definitely was a little inscrutable at times, but the everpresent undercurrent of humor kept me going. I want to give special mention to this, as I found out about it here on these forums, and it's the same story with so many of the games I've enjoyed over the years (same case for so much else too). I lurk all over these forums. Y'all are great. Enough said.
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Dec 24, 2022 22:05
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Rarity posted:No such thing Escobarbarian posted:Fantastic list, fridge. Your passion shines through so much. And the veeg compass joke got me BeanpolePeckerwood posted:Fridge that is a really thoughtful list! You came at things from angles I hadn't considered. Thanks! Love you guys! And hell, I love video games too 
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Dec 24, 2022 22:54
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I hope they patch it! (but they probably won't  ) of the year:Pokemon Scarlet & Violet Games that I started and am actively playing and will be finished with imminently but I don't want to rush it for this list: Norco (easily in my top 10 if I finished it) Games that came out that I want to play: Tactics Ogre: Reborn Signalis Atari 50 The Anniversary Celebration Sports Story Crisis Core Most anticipated game: Final Fantasy XVI Game I continue to play way too much: Final Fantasy XIV: Endwalker (my GOTY last year) Most exciting early access game: V Rising Honorable Mentions that rank below my top 10 (in no particular order): Citizen Sleeper TMNT: Shredder’s Revenge The Quarry Tinykin Immortality All of the Final Fantasy Pixel Remasters Guilty Gear Strive Fortnite's Zero Build mode Marvel's Spider-Man: Miles Morales Nobody Saves the World Top 10 10. Splatoon 3  This release felt more incremental than I hoped. Still the multiplayer is better than it’s ever been (even though there’s still some boneheaded Nintendoness about it). Splatoon remains good. I hear the single player campaign is good, but I'm not interested. I just want to splat. 9. Gran Turismo 7  It’s more Gran Turismo. I wanted to like it more than I did, but it did make me drag out my racing sim gear, and it looks Real Good. I do hate only having rolling starts. And the shop is a bit hosed up. I don't know if it's any better now, but I got frustrated with it and put my rig back away. Whatever, if you're similarly a sufferer of being into cars, you've probably already played this. I need to pull my rig out again and play some more... 8. Tunic  I was captivated by the front half of this game. The feeling of mystery and sense of wonder in exploring this world with no hand holding and little signposting reminded me a lot of Elden Ring. I felt that the back half was a little long in the tooth, had some difficulty spikes that could have been smoothed out a bit, and I didn’t like the way it handled endings that weren’t the 100% golden path ending. Still, I think there should be more games like this, and I really appreciated my experience with it, and totally understand if it hit better for others. The manual loving slaps and I like pressing the right stick in and looking at my CRT Tunic in the background. I'll play more Finji games or other games the designers/developers make for sure. 7. Vampire Survivors  This game looked like a shovelware piece of poo poo to me before I bought it and installed it, but the hooks immediately grabbed me 30 seconds into my first run. This game is worrying, given that it's been honed to a very sharp point to stab the part of my brain that turns me into a rat in a skinner box repeatedly pulling the dopamine lever like a fiend. I think I Get slot machines now? This game turns me into a drooling, mindless husk, and I think I'm here for it? Oh god, I have 50+ hours played???? 6. Stray  Best protagonist of the year. And there's an event very close to the end of the game that is my favorite moment of the year. I do feel this game is little frontloaded, and weakens in a few latter areas though. Whatever, I get to be a cat. I really wish I got to reunite with my fellow cats 5. Marvel Snap  I hate p2w mechanics and think that online TCG are largely predatory and a Bad Idea to get into. Having said that… I was sold on just dipping my toe in since there’s no upfront cost, progress is fair and possible by not paying, and the pay mechanics seemed to be entirely for card skins or buying progress. The small decks and short round times really made this accessible and less frustrating than previous experiences I’ve had with tcg. I’m not a Marvel mark, but the illustrations are great, as is the big brassy music, animations and touch screen interactivity. This is a good game, and it’s addicting. I don’t know how long I’ll stay with it, as I fear that they may start turning the whale hunting screws tighter at some point, but I’ll have my fun with it while it remains palatable for me. 4. Strange Horticulture  This is a very chill, relaxing game. I like labeling my plants, petting my cat, and solving the various mysteries that are presented via cryptic clues. The tangible feeling tools in my workdesk, letters that are delivered, labels to put on plants, etc, reminded me of Gloomhaven in a good way. I like organizing my plants on my shelves. Something about this just feels really good to interact with and play. It being low stakes was perfect for when it came along, as I was ready for something to curl up and play with my cat while it was raining and stormy outside, and needed a break from the epic nature of other games I had been playing that were higher pressure and higher stakes. I really enjoyed the fantasy of running my own plant shop and cultivating a reputation for being a knowledgable plant knower across this fictitious version of a little slice of a dark fantasy England. I like being invited to castles and other places because there's cool loving plants that people really want me to check out. I didn't expect to like this as much as I did, it loving rules and doesn't overstay its welcome. This is a lovely game. 3. Return of the Obra Dinn /cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/61841267/Return_Of_The_Obra_Dinn_f.0.jpg) I'm late to the party on this one, but I finally got around to it. I felt like a real investigator while playing this and really enjoyed the premise. Early on, I was intimidated when I realized I needed to identify a boat full of 50+ people and their fates based on not a whole loving lot!, but I found the process to be really satisfying, especially as it concluded. The art style and presentation is so unique and arresting, and the characters felt like real people. This would have been my 2018 GOTY over RDR2 if I had played it when it came out, it has such strong competition this year though. 2. Xenoblade Chronicles 3  I did find the open world to be a little empty, and the pacing/tuning was a bit off. I also wished I could skip some of the chain attack animations after a while, and the combat outside of chain attacks felt a little bit on autopilot for me. Still, this is my top cast of characters and music in a JRPG to date. I really enjoyed the side quests and plotlines, and I will never forget the ending. And the music! I rank this up there with Chrono Trigger. These factors push this game so high up for me, despite my lack of enthusiasm towards some aspects of the combat and open world. What an incredible game. 1. Elden Ring  This is the greatest achievement in the medium, ever. No notes, perfect game. TLDR: 10. Splatoon 3 9. Gran Turismo 7 8. Tunic 7. Vampire Survivors 6. Stray 5. Marvel Snap 4. Strange Horticulture 3. Return of the Obra Dinn 2. Xenoblade Chronicles 3 1. Elden Ring biceps crimes fucked around with this message at 23:22 on Dec 24, 2022 |
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Dec 24, 2022 23:14
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I don't have anything meaningful to say about these games, really, but I wanted to submit my list because I think it was a very good year in gaming. 1. Elden Ring - The first Soulsish game I've been able to really get into beyond the visuals and lore, in large part because of the caliber of the open world and how fun it is to just traipse about and see what you can find. The most fun I've had just exploring a world since Skyrim. 2. Tactics Ogre: Reborn - Not the 100% no-questions-asked definitive edition I hoped it would be, but still the best version of one of the best RPGs ever made. Great on the Deck, too, cementing it as Vita 2.0. 3. Dwarf Fortress - I've finally managed to connect with this game, both from playing a lot of RimWorld and the accessibility offered by this edition of the game, and - surprise surprise - it's amazing. Definitely one I'll have installed basically forever. 4. Citizen Sleeper - My favorite narrative bits of the year and a great cyberpunk aesthetic. The actual game bits get a bit too easy too quickly, but otherwise there's not much I know of out there quite like this. 5. Pentiment - I stan rope kid no matter what he does, and he made another banger here. 6. Victoria 3 - As someone who really dislikes the war part of PDS games this is perfect. War is often bad, and when it does happen it's mostly automated. I can spend my time instead listening to great music and making numbers go up on a lovely map. 7. Total War: Warhammer III - This is only on here because of Immortal Empires - and thus requires games 1 and 2. If you have those, though, the scope and scale is unlike anything else in strategy gaming, and probably will be for many years to come. 8. Dorfromantik - My "run based" game when I just want to chill out and create something. It's quite a feat to create a game that lets you create a beautiful world basically no matter what. 9. Norco - The small-narrative-game hits continue. I went into this game about alternate-history small-town Louisiana completely blind and came away thinking it was the closest thing to Kentucky Route Zero I've played since. 10. Tunic - I didn't get on so well with the combat in Tunic, but the discovery and sense of adventure was spot on. Great look, too. Anno fucked around with this message at 03:19 on Dec 25, 2022 |
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Dec 25, 2022 00:16
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Anno posted:I don't have anything meaningful to say about these games, really, but I wanted to submit my list because I think it was a very good year in gaming. Cool list but if you don't write at least a sentence about each game, your votes won't get counted.
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Dec 25, 2022 00:20
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FlowerRhythmREMIX posted:My list is a little…weird and normie, this year, I had a few games I was hoping to play before I had to post the list, but a new gamer was born four weeks early on December 7th, and that ruined any chance I had to focus on finishing some games I was interested in. welcome to our newest gamer, Sephiroth Battlepass REMIX
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Dec 25, 2022 00:21
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Anno posted:I don't have anything meaningful to say about these games, really, but I wanted to submit my list because I think it was a very good year in gaming. Great list! Definitely edit your post to add just a small amount about each game to make sure it gets counted
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Dec 25, 2022 00:22
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What a strange year. I felt like I played way too many video games while also feeling like I only played the same two games continuously (hint: Factorio & FFXIV). So I was surprised when I totaled 29 games, of which only 4 were replays/continuous plays. I think this was also the first year where I played the most dishonorable mentions (mainly to try and get my money's worth out of a $1 trial of EA Play). With that said, here are my lists: Dishonorable Mentions: Lost in Random, Sea of Solitude, The Artful Escape, Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice. Honorable Mentions: The Last of Us Remastered, Abzu, Firewatch, What Remains of Edith Finch, Outer Wilds, SOMA, Inside, Carrion, Tacoma. The Actual List: 10. Horizon Forbidden West Who doesn't want to fight robot dinosaurs in beautiful post-apocalyptic environments? A game that came so close to being better than the original, but fell short by some weird gameplay and story decisions. The combat was at times over-tuned, and I had hoped that the studio would realize the game would be stronger without the crafting/resource management that plagued the original. Instead, they doubled down on it, which was unfortunate. That said, the environments were stunning and when a dino fight went well, it was  Re: the story: I was invested until the very end when it all seemed to fall apart. That last fight was spectacularly dumb for multiple reasons. Here's hoping they manage to correct their mistakes for future Horizon entries.9. Subnautica: Below Zero I love Subnautica, and couldn't wait to get more. It's one of the very few crafting/survival games that I scratch with, and I enjoyed my time with Below Zero which offered much of what the original offered but was held back by stupid writing and a two-steps-forward-one-step-back gameplay over the original. The biggest offender to me was the on-land gameplay - something that I firmly believe should be such a minor part of Subnautica to almost not exist. It's a game about underwater exploration and survival! Why the hell am I running through boring rear end snow canyons trying to jank my way to a cave without a map. Give me deeper and darker secrets to explore, leviathans to run from, and tinfoil-thin bases built precariously on biome edges. 8. Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart Had a weekend of fun playing through this, which was the first 'real' PS5 game I played. The last R&C game I played was probably more than 10 years ago on the PS3, and this reminded me of the fun that this series can provide. Doesn't take itself seriously, has some unique weapons, and delivers a decent-though-remedial sci-fi story. The portal hopping was a good time. 7. Returnal Ahh Returnal, a game so dear to me but also so frustrating at times. While I haven't played the DLC yet, I spent a solid month/month-and-a-half playing and replaying the base game, running through some of the greatest environments and enemy designs across multiple forms of media. I loved the heavy Beksinki inspiration for both environments and enemies, found the story and its hints compelling, and enjoyed the gunplay. That said, I think its roguelike nature held it back, or at least the way in which the "rogue" was implemented. Having to restart at either biome 1 or 4 after a 30/40 minute run hurt its replayability and ease of pick-up-and-play. 6. God of War Ragnarok While I agree with much of the criticism that's been written about this game, I think Santa Monica Studios managed to satisfactorily end Kratos' story. But similar to S:BZ and H:FW, I didn't enjoy it as much as 2018 (there's a pattern in my list with all sequels not reaching the heights of their predecessors). Atreus wasn't as endearing as he previously was, you could tell there were story beats cut back or culled entirely, and the combat and camera made for frustration at times. But the characters, voice acting, graphical fidelity, and (when not being hit/shot from off-screen), the combat are top notch. I'm looking forward to what the studio does next, whether that's a new IP or continuing stories set in the GoW universe. 5. Stray I played this shortly after our cat passed and found some catharsis in both the protagonist (a non-cartoon-ified cat) and the surprisingly great cyberpunk environments and characters. I appreciated that it told its story without overcomplicating things with tedious or unfriendly gameplay. There's a beauty to its simplicity and brevity, and I'll fondly remember the nights I played it. 4. It Takes Two Had a blast playing through with my wife, who doesn't play games but enjoyed it and got waayy too much into at times--I don't think I've ever seen her sweat and swear so much, other than a few games of Overcooked many years ago. While the story was hit or miss, there were some  moments the elephant and we took pleasure in both hating that stupid book that ruined the word 'collaboration' for the both of us. It Takes Two managed to beat out many of the others simply due to how much fun we had with it.3. Cyberpunk 2077 What would have been my absolute #1 this year and possibly across all years if not held back by how buggy it is. Loved Night City, its inhabitants, and the stories told there, but experienced a pretty bad bug after hitting my first ending which immediately kept me from continuing on to see the rest of the endings. Has some of the best characters in any game, hands down, and manages to continuously deliver in spite of its bugs and development issues. 2. Factorio An addiction on an order of magnitude that very few things in life hit. I probably put 300 or 350 hours into it over the year, finally managing to launch my first rocket. Made me realize I have some sort of OCD where I just keep replaying the same map all in an attempt to see just how optimized I can make things from the very start. I had to stop myself from playing at home as I'll get way too sucked into a session and find that 8 hours passed, so now it's something I play when I travel for work. 1. FFXIV Told myself that once I wrapped Endwalker, I'd unsubscribe and play other things if not use that time for other activities and hobbies. Fast forward to now, and I find myself logging in on a daily basis with all jobs at a minimum of level 60, most tribes completed/allied or well on their way there, and continuing to work through multiple different pieces of content old and new. Probably put in 600 or so hours this year, but I don't want to look at my character's playtime for fear of it depressing me. I look forward to where they take the story and getting back together with my digital anime friends. To make it easy for Rarity/VG: 10. Horizon Forbidden West 9. Subnautica: Below Zero 8. Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart 7. Returnal 6. God of War Ragnarok 5. Stray 4. It Takes Two 3. Cyberpunk 2077 2. Factorio 1. FFXIV
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Dec 25, 2022 00:59
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fridge corn posted:4. SaGa Frontier Remastered (Square Enix, 2021 – PS4) Hell yeah, SaGa Frontier ftw nitsuga posted:7. Sayonara Wild Hearts - I fired this one up when I needed it most. The music, the story, and the movement all provided a balm I needed. As winter's toll weighs down on me, I think I will be coming back to this one soon. And hell yeah, Sayonara Wild Hearts is amazing Harrow fucked around with this message at 01:05 on Dec 25, 2022 |
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Dec 25, 2022 01:03
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Relax Or DIE posted:welcome to our newest gamer, Sephiroth Battlepass REMIX drat, this is way cooler than Byleth Metroid REMIX
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Dec 25, 2022 02:29
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having to write about your games is really stupid
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Dec 25, 2022 02:54
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Look you can put thought into a post at least once a year.
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Dec 25, 2022 02:55
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Wittgen posted:Cool list but if you don't write at least a sentence about each game, your votes won't get counted. Escobarbarian posted:Great list! Definitely edit your post to add just a small amount about each game to make sure it gets counted Fair enough! I didn’t see that bit. Will do.
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Dec 25, 2022 03:04
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asking for a modicum of thought owns actually
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Dec 25, 2022 03:04
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making a list is alreaydy thought. let people live how they want.
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Dec 25, 2022 03:09
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Relax Or DIE posted:asking for a modicum of thought owns actually I agree! Stux posted:making a list is alreaydy thought. let people live how they want. But also this. It's not that the thought didn't go into the list, I just didn't write it out here initially. But now I have, and I think it's a fair ask in the end.
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Dec 25, 2022 03:21
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oddium posted:having to write about your games is really stupid 
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Dec 25, 2022 03:21
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Anno posted:I agree! 
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Dec 25, 2022 03:24
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I dont want to examine why I like what I like
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Dec 25, 2022 04:04
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I've played so many games, but I realized they've all been from Switch or Steam Deck (besides ER). I dunno what I'd do without bed/couch gaming nowadays 10: Return to Monkey Island - I've missed old school adventure games, being able to play this on the deck made it that much better 9. Kirby and the Forgotten Land - It's loving Kirby in 3D, cmon. 8. Rogue: Genesia - A Vampire Survivor's-like, but something about it has taken over 60 hours of my life from me and I still want more. 7. Persona 5 Royal - Jesus Christ the style of this game is so good. Fun as all hell. 6. Harvestella - It's like a 3D Legend of Mana mixed with Rune Factory. The music is incredible, you really don't have to worry about farming much. You get to know all the people in the towns and it's just really wholesome and heartfelt. 5. Pokemon Scarlet - This is the best Pokemon game. I mostly play it on Ryujinx now if I want a smooth experience, but it was my 2nd most played Switch game this year at 70 hours (that's ignoring all the emu hours on PC which would be 90 maybe) 4. Vampire Survivors - Play on the PC, Deck, or Phone on the shitter. A+ Quality Experience every time. 3. Triangle Strategy - This game is incredible. It renewed my interest in SRPGs and I went on to spend way too many hours in Tactics Ogre Reborn and FE: Three Houses) 2. Xenoblade Chronicles 3 - I couldn't get through 1 or 2. 2 especially was way too anime. But 3 had me glued on my rear end from start to finish, over 100 hours into it and I loved it all. It made me tear up. 1. Elden Ring - It's Elden Ring. If we're still alive in 20 years we'll be talking about this game like it's Mario or Zelda. Masterpiece. Barreft fucked around with this message at 04:10 on Dec 25, 2022 |
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Dec 25, 2022 04:06
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Rarity posted:The real trick is to say something funny, that'll make you a lock i thought the trick was saying rarity is the coolest poster
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Dec 25, 2022 04:10
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congrats on getting a new not lovely job fridge corn
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Dec 25, 2022 04:10
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Number 10 - The Quarry: Supermassive is definitely at its best when it is making games that aren't afraid to be campy, and The Quarry is extremely campy (gently caress it, pun absolutely intended). The cast at the heart of this game do an excellent job of either making you extremely invested in them surviving the night, or extremely invested in making sure they don’t. If you’re familiar with Until Dawn, its safe to say that your opinions on that game will probably reflect your opinions on this one. Lastly, I want to shout out the inclusion of couch co-op with this game. Its rare enough as it is, and my friend and I had a blast playing together here. Number 9 - Hardspace: Shipbreaker: Admittedly I put in most of my time with this game before the full release earlier this year, and I certainly haven't "beaten" it. Just chilling in space, doing a good and thorough job of cutting down a ship, not blowing yourself up, and melting everything down to slag is a great, relaxing time. Each new hull type presents a sort of puzzle element to the gameplay as well. The first time you see each one you’re going to be meticulously planning out how to depressurize everything, how to isolate the fuel tanks, how to clear the way for the reactor once you’ve pulled it. There wasn’t much of a story yet when I was playing, but I’m pretty sure now that the story has to do with unionizing your workplace, so that’s rad. Number 8 - Signalis: I had a hard time putting into words just why I liked Signalis as much as I did. I’ve settled on this: The Silent Hill-meets-Resident Evil-meets-Nier:Automata aesthetic looked great, the story was fun to piece together, and both of those combined helped me overcome the antiquated inventory and control schemes that kept me away from PS1 survival horror in the first place. Making a game that opens a door for a genre I’ve historically avoided is cool and good, and makes it worth putting it on my list. Number 7 - SOMA: I’m years behind the curve here, I know. Like I mentioned in the last entry, I’m a coward, so it took me a while to get around to picking up the game after my first attempt years ago, even with the no aggression option they baked into the game. I’m glad* I was able to stick with it this time. Number 6 - Elden Ring: I don't think I'm very good at games, and Fromsoft has never done a drat thing to dissuade me of this notion. That said, I super enjoy the Souls games despite never beating them. Eventually every game from Fromsoft will sit you down, and let you know in a disappointed fatherly voice, that some of these challenges simply can only be overcome by being good at games, no amount of grinding will save you like in your other RPGs. Elden Ring may have (albeit somewhat unintentionally) created a way around that by letting you abuse the open world to get items or find boss cheese strategies in a way that we haven't seen in their other games and I loving love it. It has allowed me to get to the point where I'm looking to do the optional content just for the fun of it, rather than just sticking to the main path because it's all I can manage. The open world isn't just good for getting you an orbital death beam far, far before you're ready to wield such a thing either! It's drop dead gorgeous too! So many little details all over the place that it rivals even CDPR's strongest entries. I don't think I really need to explain Elden Ring's inclusion much farther than that. I know what it is, you know what it is, and it’s on your year-end list too, probably at a higher ranking than it is on mine. Number 5 – Stellaris: I think Stellaris might be a perfect game. The sheer scope of the detail and the control you have over your space empire is astounding. I know that’s a hallmark of Paradox games but the space setting brought me in way more than the usual time periods they cover. Usually, strategy games don’t have an emotional element to them; you just boot up the game, blow up some spaceships, have a good time, and close the game. Stellaris managed to catch me off guard and made me genuinely feel bad for at least a week. I had been elected as the galaxy’s custodian, that meant in times of galactic crisis, I was the one that was supposed to unite every military and fight it off. The galactic crisis in this game ended up being the War In Heaven scenario, where two ancient, hyper-advanced species awaken from their slumber and go to war with each other. The galaxy had two options, get subjugated by one of these empires, or unite against both. In my weakness, I saw I couldn’t beat either empire, so instead of lending my aid to the galaxy I had spend centuries finding my place in, I surrendered to the empire that was on my border. Leaving the rest of the galaxy with a force that had no chance. I failed the galaxy that day. It didn’t help that War In Heaven was bugged, so even though I was subjugated by the ultimate victor, I couldn’t win the game. I couldn’t rebel and successfully regain my independence. My only choice was to resign entirely which just punctuated my failure even more. Number 4 – Tunic: Every visual aspect of Tunic is perfect. The game is adorable to its core, and that makes getting your wonderful fox friend murdered for the first time very jarring. The game can be BRUTAL in certain sections (looking at you, Quarry, you loving dick). However, if you can overcome the difficulty, you’ll find probably the best modern example of the spirit of Zelda, with its emphasis on exploration and discovery. Tunic also gets a unique accolade in that its user manual, if you want to call it that, is extremely cute, nostalgia-inducing, and kind of genius in its own way. I would spend an unreasonable amount of money to the developers for a physical version of one. I’m also a sucker for games that get a little meta, so that gets this game some serious bonus points in my book. Number 3 - Prey: I slept on this game hard. I'm years late to the party at this point and I take full responsibility for my mistakes. From everything I had seen from the marketing of the game, my initial impression was that it was leaning more towards the narrative fps style of something like Bioshock, rather than going fully into the immersive sim style of something like System Shock 2 and I was so very wrong. I can't overstate how much fun the game gave me with just its ENTRY ENEMY. The mimics are so simple and so genius and they immediately changed the way I approached this game when compared to other first-person shooters. At first, I was cautious, checking every room for anything that looks out of place and could possibly be a threat; and I want to just focus in on that fact, the game world is detailed and thought out enough where that's a viable loving strategy, they didn't just throw a bunch of doodads at a room and call it good. Two mugs on a desk? Well that's odd, guess one of those mugs is for blood! Specifically, yours! After a while though, being cautious was simply taking too long, so a switch in my brain flipped and my new strategy was to start screaming a war cry at my desk and charge, wrench first, into any and every room making all the mimics reveal themselves so I could summarily beat them to death in a bloodlust-driven frenzy. That's before we dive too deep into the crafting, the upgrading, and the powers you eventually have access to. Once you start playing around with those you can turn the game from an intense, paranoia-fueled SS2 style experience, into a Doom that only asks that you supply your own Mick Gordon. I haven't touched the DLC yet, but I've heard it's excellent. Maybe that'll be enough to have this game show up on next year's list for me. Number 2 - Outer Wilds: Echoes of the Eye: This is hard for me. Real hard. I've had a "joke" whenever I talk about GOTYs that Outer Wilds has been GOTY every year running since it released. The game had that profound an impact on me and I love it that much. This year though, I had an actual, honest reason to put it as a contender on my list. Its DLC came out this year and I played it and I liked it a lot! Just...not actual GOTY a lot. The amount of content it adds is pretty impressive, I probably spent an additional 50% of my playtime on the DLC alone, and all of that was packed into just one world. The developers once again astound me with just how much they can do with just so little in terms of systems or mechanics. Not just that, but how well they convey it. With basically zero dialogue they manage to convey brand new ideas that cover all the bases when it comes to puzzle solving on The Stranger. My friend had a hard time not cackling when watching me play because I apparently got within inches of discovering some of the new mechanics entirely by accident and then just went to do something else in-game instead. Finally, once again, they deliver a bit of a gutpunch with the ending that left me thinking about the game for a good long while after I beat it. Number 1, my GOTY for 2022 - Inscryption Holy hell. I want to talk about so much about this game but I also don't want to write anything that might spoil anything about it. Taking away anyone's ability to play it blind is borderline criminal, so I'm just going to spoilertag most of what I type here. I can say that I love games that toy with the 4th wall, and this game fucks with it so much and has so many layers I'm not entirely sure what number wall my monitor actually counts as at this point, and the fact that there was a whole ARG happening at the same time doesn't help with that either. The dev pulling off multiple deck archetypes that feel like they could be entirely separate games, yet still work together is just a flat-out impressive feat. THEN roll in the fact that the soundtrack is full of bangers. THEN roll in the OTHER fact that the story can make you feel empathy, then anger, then give you catharsis over the story arc of a loving weasel printed in monocolor on a piece of digital loving cardboard and make you feel sad when the original villain melts out of existence while letting you know that he just had a grand ol' time playing some cards with you. All this together makes a game that is truly more than the sum of its parts. I’m probably not ever going to stop thinking about Inscryption which is why it edges out Echoes of the Eye here. Finally, on top of ALL THAT, Daniel Mullens made a card game that’s genuinely just fun to play even when you don’t keep score. That’s just loving rude, Daniel, you don’t need to show off like that. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- NUMBER ZERO AND TRUE GAME OF THE YEAR FOR FOUR YEARS RUNNING – OUTER WILDS BUT THE STUFF THAT ISN’T IN THE DLC – I warned you this was coming and you probably didn’t believe me, don’t bother tallying this Rarity, whatever winner actually gets posted is just a runner up, and that’s fine, second place is a fine position to be in! (No seriously don’t actually count this one it’s a joke) *You know, glad that I was able to continue the story and experience the existential dread that this game made me feel for a long time after I beat it Lethrom fucked around with this message at 23:41 on Dec 26, 2022 |
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Dec 25, 2022 05:07
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oddium posted:having to write about your games is really stupid People wouldn't care about this thread anywhere near as much if it was just a bunch of lists.
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Dec 25, 2022 06:48
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Relax Or DIE posted:asking for a modicum of thought owns actually
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Dec 25, 2022 07:33
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How about you have to do at least one of write and post a relevant gif
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Dec 25, 2022 07:41
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