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List them 2,9,3,8,4,7,5,6,1,10 if ye be not a coward I am a coward though so (not including stuff like my third playthrough of Elden Ring or my 357th playthrough of the old Baldur's Gate games): 10) Metal Hellsinger: I think I love the concept of this game more than I like the actual game (though I do like it a lot). It's got style, it knows exactly what it wants to be and it goes for it, and...I'm not really a shooter person, so I kind of drifted away from it after about a week, but it was a fun week. 9) Vampire Survivors: I was never quite as taken by this game as some but it's a perfect diversion when I am, for example, sitting in the waiting room of a phone repair place with my Steam Deck waiting for them to replace my phone's screen. Haven't really gone back to it since I made it to 30 minutes the first time though. 8) Jusant: Only played a bit of it so far but it's beautiful and I love DONTNOD probably more than they actually deserve. 7) Chorvs: Another that I've only played a little of but I love the concept of 'space fighter with superpowers' enough to get past the fact that I am really really bad at flying a spaceship. 6) Kentucky Route Zero: I played the first two parts of this back when they were first released, so I decided to go back and...I played the first two parts again. And I enjoyed them a lot. Then I played one of their interludes ("The Entertainment") and it bored the gently caress out of me and I haven't gone back for whatever reason. I will, though I will probably skip past The Entertainment. 5) Darkest Dungeon 2: A bit of a clunky UI aside, I liked this game every bit as much as the original, the unlockable backstory for everyone was fun (if depressing) and THAT EYE BOSS WAS BULLSHIT IT WAS BULLSHIT I TELL YOU. Okay I'm fine now. 4) Opus Magnum: I played a bit of this when it first released but I finally got around to finishing it (aside from the optional missions at the end and I think I could still win more games of marble solitaire) this year, and I had a lot of fun figuring out ridiculous mechanical solutions to problems. The story was fun, but slight, but the story's not really what this kind of game is about. 3) Lies of P: My game of the year of the games that were released this year (that I've played, and I haven't played a lot of the biggest releases yet, in particular Baldur's Gate 3 I expect to grab me when I get around to playing it). People are always saying how well this captures the From style but to me what I love about it is, in a game that's explicitly an adaptation of a classic story and implicitly an homage to Bloodborne, its originality. It's got a slightly janky but heartfelt charm and style, full of little details that showed that the developers were paying attention. They cared about this game and it made it easy for me to care about it too. 1-2) Gateway to the Savage Frontier/Treasures of the Savage Frontier: Yes, my Game(s) of the Year are a pair of Gold Box games from 30ish years ago, and not even the ones anyone's heard of. I'd last played Pool of Radiance and Curse of the Azure Bonds as a teenager, and loved them, but never really kept up with the series since then, much less these two later entries developed by a different studio because SSI had moved on. But I fired these up on a whim and was completely bowled over by how much fun I had with them. Like the storytelling's not gonna win awards, the character options were basically nil, and CRPGs have advanced so so much since then (and even the contemporary competition included stuff like Ultima 7) and yet the formula here is solid, and the combat's still one of the better turn-based RPG systems I've ever played, and the plot was (marginally) more nuanced than I expected it would be. The last few battles in the second game were pretty tedious reload-fests and I'm not sure that's avoidable, which is a shame, but beyond that, I had a truly stupid amount of fun with these and I'll go back and replay the more popular Gold Box entries sometime soon.
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Dec 6, 2023 21:12
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An Actual Princess posted:7. Super Mario Wonder this one gif comparison encapsulates the entirety of why i was let down when i plunged into super mario bros u on my dust-collecting switch expecting to revisit the glory days of super mario bros 3 from my youth. it just felt lifeless. i hesitantly decided to give wonder a try and was immediately hooked. i still haven't played nearly as much of it as i want/intend to but it feels so fresh and thoughtfully crafted. i might carve out some time today to dive back in and see if i can kick it a few notches higher on my own list.
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Dec 6, 2023 21:59
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DMCrimson posted:
Hell yea Misericorde! Given the immense love for Pentiment last year, people should really check out this game.
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Dec 6, 2023 22:33
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Hi, I'm sure this gets asked all the time, but what are the rules regarding DLC? Golden Idol came out last year, but I played it this one and then there was 2 DLC cases released this year. I want to know if I need to vote tactically, basically.
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Dec 6, 2023 22:47
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bone emulator posted:Hi, I'm sure this gets asked all the time, but what are the rules regarding DLC? I think there's no particular rules about DLC. There's barely any rules about games as a whole. If I recall correctly the only guidelines are for counting the votes, some DLC or Expansions aren't bundled with the original game, but some are.
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Dec 6, 2023 22:59
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As far as I understand it, if it would be listed as a separate line item in a collection it count as a video game. So expansions and mods count, but not, like, your favorite map of the stock collection
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Dec 6, 2023 23:01
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It counts if the person collating the votes (VG this year) feels like it counting
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Dec 6, 2023 23:02
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bone emulator posted:Hi, I'm sure this gets asked all the time, but what are the rules regarding DLC? You can vote for DLC! Last year, Outer Wilds: Echoes of the Eye was #43. Granted, most people will vote for the base game but it could be interesting if you felt significantly different between the base game's cases and both DLCs.
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Dec 6, 2023 23:03
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The "expansions / dlc are separate entries" was put in place to disperse the mmo votes.
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Dec 6, 2023 23:06
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Oh boy this thread.  Gonna hafta see how much I can cram in before the end of the year before my list is final though. 
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Dec 6, 2023 23:07
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I'm looking forward to whoever lives up to the DOOM wad for game nominations from last year.Red Alert 2 Yuris Revenge posted:I always enjoy the lists – I read every post in these threads – but I know not all of you are about reading. You’re about gaming! So this year I thought I’d provide an option for those of you who may wish to engage with a top ten in the most gamer fashion: blasting demons. If you’d like to instead play my goty list in Doom 2, here you go: https://github.com/RelaxOD/doomwads/blob/main/gotyrod.wad Jerusalem posted:Earlier today at the Relax Or DIE studios.... DMCrimson fucked around with this message at 23:10 on Dec 6, 2023 |
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Dec 6, 2023 23:07
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1 - Jedi Survivor I just love both Star Wars and Cameron Monaghan. I also thought the new Lightsaber styles were a great addition. Also Merrin 2- World of Warcraft: Dragonflight WoW will always be in my top 10 every year and I can't stop that. 3- Spider-Man 2 He just does whatever a spider can! 4- Suika Game Idk, it was absurdly addicting 5- Mario Odyssey I replayed this.
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Dec 7, 2023 00:25
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Before I get into the list, cards on the table. I have not played these games yet but plan get around to them ASAP: - The Invincible - Armored Core VI - Derail Valley - Six Ages 2 - Slay the Princess And I didn't play these, but they seem pretty good. No shade intended by their omission: - System Shock - Alan Wake 2 - Tears of the Kingdom - Mario Wonder - Lies of P - RE4 poo poo I wouldn't touch with a ten-foot pole: - Starfield  Baldur's Gate 3 My hype level for BG3 was through the roof, especially after playing the first couple acts of Divinity: Original Sin 2. It significantly improved on DOS2’s already-great encounter design and combat, added fully voiced cutscenes, and generally looked very pretty. On the other hand, try as I might, I could not begin to care about such a generic overarching fantasy story. It didn’t help that key characters’ lines were, in general, very poorly written and delivered with all the personality of a chatty Starbucks barista (exceptions like Withers and Astarion stood out a mile). Then there was the horniness. I don't like the options that are just there for the horny contingent – nudity in cutscenes is fine, picking dick/vag is fine for inclusion reasons (or whatever). It does seem tacky, and it seemed tacky in Cyberpunk too, to include full nudity in the character creator. BG3 goes farther than Cyberpunk and lets you disrobe your PC and all the companions at any time. I find the approach to nudity especially gross when the body and face options are so narrowly tailored to one guy's idea of sexual attractiveness. It's not the frank approach to nudity you find in other art, where old, saggy, fat, deformed, disabled bodies are also sort of, idk, presented for consideration of the human form. It's all very pornbrained. My impression of the game’s focus here has since been confirmed by, like, every single major patch’s headline feature being tweaks to the romances and better kissing animation. If I wanted a harem VN there are plenty of those around already. This all ties in with other complaints I have about the companion relationships but I've gone on too long already. Divinity: Original Sin 2 A sign of a good RPG, in my book, is that I replayed just the tutorial island three times before I felt satisfied with my party and the choices I’d made. I only got through the first two acts before BG3 came out, but Fane and the Red Prince will ride again. Boltgun I’m not a big fan of arena shooters and this was just an excellent example of an arena shooter. I did love the artwork and the taunt hotkey. Warhammer 40,000: Darktide In missions, this game is right up my alley. It’s atmospheric, it’s extremely challenging, it has the most gorgeous level art, and it forces good teamwork and situational awareness. Unfortunately, it’s saddled with a gear progression system based purely on gambling with poor odds, transparently designed as a treadmill to keep players logging in and buying new cosmetics or whatever. It could be worse: at least it’s not pay-to-win. But it’s still insulting. Space Station 14 It’s Space Station 13 with some of the most aggravating and most endearing rough edges sanded down. It's a lot of fun, but the new player experience does suffer from a community dominated by dev-run servers that gatekeep the ‘medium roleplay’ mode, where the rounds tend to run longer and all the goofy little systems and niche jobs get more opportunities to interact.  THE TOP TEN 10. Fading Afternoon A tight, stylish, well-written little beat-em-up (or not!). 9. The Witcher 3 The Witcher 3 got a graphics upgrade this year; that combined with the disappointment of BG3 prompted me to reinstall and play through it for the fourth (?) time. My nostalgia was not misplaced! For my money it’s still the best fantasy RPG out there by a mile. Restricting the array of protagonists to Geralt and Ciri allows CDPR to tell a far more complex and personal story than BG3 or any other game that has to accommodate every possible player character from ‘horny gnome’ to ‘psychopathic murdering lizardman [also horny]’. The writing is top-notch, as are all the VAs, and the cutscenes — with blocking, movement, framing, and direction that has characters interact with each other and their environment naturally — put the second-best AAA RPG of 2023 to shame. 8. Terra Invicta This one’s still in early access but what’s there (and it’s a lot) is one of the best strategy games I’ve ever played. The core conceit is, I believe, unique. In most strategy games, you play a fairly well-defined entity: a ruling dynasty, a nation, a military unit, whatever. What took me a while to wrap my head around here was the concept of playing an ideology: a stateless conspiracy of like minds reacting to the arrival of an advanced alien civilisation in our solar system. At the start, you control a small number of conspirators, powerful and influential agents spread across the globe. You can play the standard XCOM resistance fighters, or cynical kleptocrats manipulating the crisis for profit; rabid xenophobes, or subservient alien-worshippers; or scholars and philosophers committed to asserting humanity’s equality with the aliens (no one likes these guys). You don’t play a single nation; you consolidate power for your cause by manipulating nation-states into federating with or conquering one another. You often control both sides of the same war! You can suck the Arabian oil fields dry to boost GDP and accelerate global warming, or foster a high living standard and advanced research while phasing out fossil fuels, which may make earth more vulnerable in the short term. As the game progresses, and the cold war between aliens and humanity heats up, the game moves into a phase of space colonisation leading to full-scale conflict and the most plausible version of fleet combat I’ve seen (e: except Children of a Dead Earth). I’ve sunk more hours than I care to admit into this game over the last month, and I’m looking forward to many more! 7. Last Call BBS  6. Crusader Kings 3 The shining exception to Paradox’s streak of incomplete, buggy games patched up with broken DLC. What an addictive, beautiful game! What a genius behind features like travel, struggles, and tournaments! 5. Workers and Resources: Soviet Republic The best city building game of 2023, and it hasn’t even been released yet. The devs are awfully dedicated, sticking to their roadmap and releasing high-quality features with some unplanned bonuses here and there, and the modding community meets their effort with — honestly — an unparalleled, dizzying variety of period- and location-accurate buildings and vehicles. Don’t play this without perusing the 1960s Polish grain elevators and 1980s Czech apartment blocks on the Steam Workshop. 4. Book of Hours Cultist Simulator, which I played this year after my first run at Book of Hours, justly earned a lot of praise back in 2020. Book of Hours is Cultist Simulator without the constant ticking-clock pressure and with a clearer plot, beautiful art, exploration, and at least one cat. I love Stanislaw Lem, who wrote the novel The Invincible is based on, but I suspect even after I play that, this will remain the best-written game of 2023. 3. Hunt: Showdown Hunt is my favourite game of all time. It’s the best shooter of any kind, let alone ‘extraction shooter’ or ‘battle royale’. Every fight is different, every match is fresh. Winning is so satisfying, and after cracking a thousand hours played this year I often know why I’m about to lose about 30 seconds before it happens. With some recent exceptions, it is scrupulously fair and almost perfectly balanced. 2023 saw a crackdown on common third-party cheats, the addition of a new ‘roaming’ alligator boss, and (the last of this list's many superlatives) the most believable rain I’ve experienced in a game: pounding on clapboard shacks, sluicing in great gouts off corrugated iron roofs, and softly percolating through the thick bayou canopy. So why is it in the number 3 spot? Well, I played Dwarf Fortress this year, for one thing. For another, the devs haven’t been covering themselves in glory lately, creating extreme gameplay imbalances for months at a time without fixing or even acknowledging them. I fully expect it to recover in 2024 with a graphics upgrade and a new map. 2. Dwarf Fortress I played Dwarf Fortress for the first time this year with the Steam release; I put a hundred hours in still feel like I’ve barely scratched the surface, literally: I haven’t even explored the magma sea yet. My beloved, impregnable dwarven utopia will live a thousand years in peace, I’m certain of it. 1. Cyberpunk 2077 Forget new perk trees, forget new AI, forget the new driving and new apartments and deflecting bullets with electric katanas. Forget Idris Elba and the big beautiful expansion. All that crap might have pushed Cyberpunk to number 5, maybe number 3 had I been feeling enthusiastic today. But, my brother, have you heard the good news? Right now, on a winter evening in the early third millennium, in the video game Cyberpunk 2077, you can ride the loving subway and look out the window. CHOO CHOOOOOOOOOOOOO Lester fucked around with this message at 00:56 on Dec 19, 2023 |
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Dec 7, 2023 00:47
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exquisite tea posted:I believe the GOTY 2023 thread is a place where both the ascenders and descenders can coexist peacefully. I believe that on our present courses we will one day meet in the middle
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Dec 7, 2023 00:59
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I appreciate everyone doing incredibly detailed lists with long descriptions. I will not be doing that. I will, however, list some honorable mentions: Honorable Mentions (2023 Games I want to play) - These are all games that I would like to play, but haven't gotten around to them. In some cases, I'm waiting for specific reasons (waiting on Phantom LIberty until I rebuild my computer) and for others, I'll get to them eventually (Super Mario RPG is something I've played before that I'll play the remake at some point). Listed in no particular order: - Octopath Traveler II - Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty - Alan Wake II - Spider-Man 2 - Super Mario Bros. Wonder - Super Mario RPG - Steamworld Build Forever Games - These aren't going on my list because I play these excessively every year. - Final Fantasy XIV - I've been subbed for 10 years and I'll stay subbed until the day I die or until servers go down. - Genshin Impact - I usually hyperfocus this game for 2-3 months out of the year and then burn out and don't touch it until around the same time the following year. My favorite games that I played this year: #8 Dicey Dungeons - I played this a bit a while back. Recently got back into it. It's nothing crazy but it's fun to chip away at while I'm bored. It's especially good on the phone. #7 Baldur's Gate 3 - What? Only #7? I didn't beat it. I didn't even finish the first act. My wife and I were playing through via co-op around launch but found the co-op experience to be very unsatisfying. There have been so many patches that I'll probably wait a few more months and once things die down a bit, I'll go back to it for a solo run. But this game is probably objectively GOTY. #6 Raft - In contrast to BG3, Raft was a loving blast to play co-op. Had a great time stabbing sharks. #5 Final Fantasy XVI - They finally did it. They put out a game that wasn't a complete dumpster fire at launch. I don't really have much to say. I enjoyed myself. Was it the greatest FF game? Nah (that's FF8) but it was a solid entry in the franchise and after the disasters of FF13 and FF15, a "solid" game is a victory. #4 Lost Judgment - I loving loved this game. People say the story is inferior to the first game but it feels like it's trying to do something very different and I loved it. I had a good time playing as a 35 year old man hanging out with high school girls. #3 Yakuza: Like A Dragon - Kasuga is my bro and I want to be his friend. loving hyped for Infinite Wealth in six weeks. A new direction for the series and I enjoyed it. Anyone who plays the dub, unfortunately, must go to jail. #2 Like a Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name - If you couldn't tell, I played a lot of RGG games! I've finally caught up on the Yakuza/LAD universe and got to play LAD Gaiden at launch. It's a great game and feels like an apology for how Kiryu was handled in Yakuza 6. I didn't mind the smaller scope and shorter length. #1 My Time at Sandrock - A recent release. I loving loved My Time at Portia and this game is an improvement in every way. Every moment that I'm not playing Sandrock, I'm thinking about playing Sandrock. If you like cozy games and you haven't touched the My Time series, you're missing out on the best stuff in the genre.
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Dec 7, 2023 01:06
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Honorable Mentions (good games I haven't finished yet): Spider-Man 2 - Pretty much just more Spider-Man PS4, but that's still pretty good. Final Fantasy XVI - Amazing spectacle during the "good parts", but a bit slow otherwise. 5) Street Fighter 6 I'll be honest, I didn't play SF6 nearly as much as I hoped I would. I love fighting games, but I'm also awful at them. However, what I played of SF6 was a lot of fun. It did a surprisingly good job of getting new players to give the game a try, and I know a few people who have never really played fighting games that ended up getting really into SF6. Honestly, it's kind of refreshing just to have a good new Street Fighter. Not much to say about this one. I insisted on maining Jamie and lost a lot, that's about it! 4) Hi-Fi Rush There are a lot of "rhythm" games which are just "do what you would normally do in a video game, but you have to press buttons on beat". I'm not the biggest fan of those, but Hi-Fi Rush won me over. It truly commits to the gimmick - not only is combat on beat, but so are the characters footsteps, the machinery you have to platform on, and almost everything else in the environment. The characters and humor are very charming, and it has just the right amount of earnestness to avoid the "look how self-aware we are" pitfalls so many others fall into. The soundtrack is great (and it better be, considering the gimmick!) and even the "streamer mode" songs that replace the licensed tracks are pretty good. Combat options may seem a little simple by character action standards, but while it's no Devil May Cry I think it managed to strike a good balance of having plenty of options but not so many that it distracts from the core rhythm gimmick. This game seems to have been mostly overlooked, which is a shame, but I strongly recommend it if you like action and, uh, music. 3) Octopath Traveler II I love turn based RPGs, but I'm a bit picky. Sometimes they really click, sometimes I just can't get into them at all. While Octopath 1 fell into the latter category, Octopath 2 is an all around improvement. The characters are better, the story is better, the combat is better. It's to the point where it almost renders the first game completely obsolete. When I played the first Octopath, I was really bothered by the main characters not interacting very much. Octopath 2 does not correct that issue, but it's far less of a problem due to the presence of much improved NPCs in each character's individual story. Combat is quick and free of long animations (even before using the speedup options), and the soundtrack is exactly what you'd want from a fantasy turn-based RPG. It's not perfect, my main issues with it being the repetitiveness of the random encounters and the lack of difficulty by the end of the game, but it's still a good time from start to finish. I would've kept playing if there was more of it! 2) Baldur's Gate 3 I don't think this game being good was really a surprise, but I think it is a surprise it became such a big hit. I've only done a few one-shot or mini campaigns with Dungeons and Dragons, so a virtual D&D experience was welcome. It does a very good job giving you options, both with the story and in combat. Spells and abilities interact in interesting ways, and encounter design is excellent. Only a few fights feel like filler, which is pretty good for a massive RPG. I would say give a try, but statistically anyone reading this probably already has. 1) Lies of P A lot of people were surprised by there being an edgy Pinocchio soulslike. I wasn't, there's soulslikes based on everything these days. The fact that it was really good, however, caught me off guard. Despite the absurdity, this is one of the best soulslikes I've played. I enjoyed it from beginning to end, far more than I was expecting. I could go into detail about how it gets the level design right in a way that so many Souls-clones get wrong, how the parrying mechanic is satisfying and rewarding, how the blade/hilt mix-and-match system makes experimenting with weapons work in a way even From Software never achieved, or any other number of things, but I think what really makes the game work is that I had fun even when failing. I think this might be a bit controversial, as I've seen a lot of posts from others about finding the game frustrating, but I was having a good time even as a boss stomped me to death for the 10th or so time. It's been a while since I've enjoyed a game as much as I enjoyed Lies of P, and it easily tops my list as my 2023 GOTY.
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Dec 7, 2023 02:15
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I didn't get as much gaming done this year as I did in 2022, and unlike 2022, while I enjoyed a lot of games, none of them absolutely blew me away the way Vision Soft Reset did last year. So picking favourites was harder. That said, this was clearly the year of the 3d challenge platformer for me, with two of them making it into my top list. I was hoping to be able to consider Blue Reflection Tie, since I got that recommendation from last year's GOTY thread, but I'm only a few chapters into it thus far. Honourable Mentions These are games that I liked, but not enough to make it onto the top list. Strange Horticulture (2022) A...puzzle game, I guess? About running an herbology shop and gradually unraveling the mystery of a sinister cult. I particularly appreciate the herbal reference book with common names and descriptions that are often useless or actively misleading, but in entirely believable, realistic ways. Kandria (2023) This is here partly because it's a fun game in its own right, and partly because the developer wrote the whole thing in Common Lisp and released the whole engine under the ZLib license, a power move that I deeply respect. Shadow Tactics: Aiko's Choice (2021) It's more Shadow Tactics! This is an itty bitty expandalone set halfway through the original game, and it's just as fun as the main game. Definitely don't play it before playing the main game, though. My Games of the Year 7. The Void Rains Upon Her Heart (TBD) This is on my list every year until it releases and probably for at least a year or two after that, because I am still playing it. It's a really solid roguelite, it's a shmup with a gentle onramp for newbies and a really high skill ceiling for experts, it's cute and heartwarming and the developer is completely incapable of not succumbing to constant feature creep so it's not going to be finished until like 2025. It's one of my favourite games of all time and when version 9 lands and adds all the story it's probably going right to the #1 spot, but even with nearly all of the storyline missing it's an incredible game. It's only so low down this list because I haven't actually played as much as of it this year as I have in previous years while I waited for Tower modes, which still means comfortably double-digit numbers of hours. 6. Waves of Steel (2023) This goon-made game is a love letter to the underappreciated PS2 classic Warship Gunner 2, complete with improbably gigantic superweapons and a ship designer that starts you off building itty bitty destroyers and ends up with you asking questions like "how many railway guns can I fit on a twin-hulled battleship?". It's not as huge and perennially replayable as WG2, but it's also a one-person passion project rather than a major release by a well-established gamedev studio. And it's fun on a bun! Highly recommended if you want to zoom around in a ridiculous seagoing contraption of your own design blowing things up. 5. Fae Tactics (2020) I do like me an occasional TRPG, but they tend to be kind of hit and miss, and lately have been more miss. Fae Tactics was a welcome hit, though. It's a "menu-less TRPG", where each character has three active abilities and will automatically pick one depending on whether you target an ally, an enemy, or the unit itself. It still has plenty of mechanical depth, but this results in a very streamlined process of play and puts more weight on choosing the right units and upgrades going into the fight rather than making a small number of "god units" you can deploy everywhere. 4. Ender Lilies: Quietus of the Knights (2021) I see this described as "dark souls like" sometimes, and I feel like that gives the wrong impression. Aesthetically and thematically it's soulsy as gently caress, but unlike something like Salt & Sanctuary, the gameplay has nothing in common. It's basically a straightforward metroidvania in a world with strong Dark Souls vibes. There's no corpse runs, no stamina management -- indeed, it's quite forgiving of failure, which is good because most of the bosses smashed my face in several times before I got the hang of them. The level design starts off extremely boring but once you get out of the starting area it gets a lot more interesting. One thing I appreciate is how generous it is with interesting upgrades. Every miniboss you defeat gets you a new attack (some of which can also be used as ersatz movement abilities). Every boss gets you a new attack and a new movement ability, and (with one late-game exception, where the movement ability is just "you can open these locked doors now" with no other uses) they're all useful. I especially want to call out how getting the grapple beam reveals grapple points all over the place which let you not just reach new areas, but also enable high-speed shortcuts through rooms you've already visited. It has a few missteps (the map could be a lot more useful than it is, the final zone kind of sucks), but overall I liked it enough to 100% it, so it definitely deserves a spot on this list. 3. System Shock Remake (2023, original 1994) Night Dive kickstarted this project way back in 2015, and given the eight year development cycle, multiple redesigns, at least one engine change, and the fact that SS1 is one of my all-time favourites, I honestly wasn't feeling optimistic about this. But I ended up being very pleasantly surprised! There's a few things I wish they'd done differently, but overall this is a fantastic remake that stays very true to the source material, while looking and handling the way nostalgia says it did rather than the way it actually did. I'd comfortably recommend this both to fans of the original and people who want to see what all the fuss is about (and if you want to kick it old-school, with the release of the source code and editing tools there has also never been a better time to get into OG 1994 Shock). 2. Ghostrunner (2020) This is basically a high-speed first-person challenge platformer where you play as a cyborg ninja, which means that in addition to the (often quite spicy) platforming, you also need to kill everyone in the room. Usually, you need to do both at once, which means you need to string together the sequence of jumps, grabs, wall-runs, air-dashes, grapple-beams, and slides necessary to get from point A to point B without plummeting to your death, while also dodging or parrying enemy fire and figuring out to work a bunch of decapitations into your route. It's hard as balls (there are assist options, which I didn't end up using, but it was a near thing in some places) but also loads of fun, and incredibly satisfying when you finally nail that perfect sequence of moves. It also has a fair amount of replayability, between various secrets to find, new game +, a hard mode that adds more difficult enemy placements, and even a roguelite arena-survival mode. And while the bosses were a bit of a mixed bag, I didn't hate any of them, and both Hel and Mara were absolutely incredible fights that basically turned it into a challenge platformer rhythm game. 1. Cloudbuilt (2014) This is an early entry in the genre of "challenge platformer as metaphor for trauma processing", before that concept had been popularized by Celeste and subsequently run into the ground. You play as Demi, a wounded soldier lying unconscious in a hospital while her new prosthetics spin dreams of fragmented aerial ruins into her mind. Each level sees you speeding through one of these ruins using your jetpack, rocket boots, and gun, against a background of Jacob Lincke's incredible soundtrack. The level select has a branching structure, with each branch having its own aesthetic and challenge style, and your initial goal is just to reach the end of one of the four main branches. These all bring you to the same conclusion -- Demi awakening -- but her attitude towards what's happened to her, and her plans for what's next, vary dramatically based on what branch you followed, as each one represents a different approach to coping (or not, as the case might be) with her situation. The branches aren't mutually exclusive; you're free to explore and complete all of them, along with the optional, enemy-free "Fog" branch, and see all four endings. That's not the end of the game, though. There's also the Defiance levels, five super-hard challenges that I suspect unlock an additional ending -- but I'm not sure, because I'm still working on the last one. Or the Remix levels and Battle Challenges, which take pieces of familiar levels and put new twists on them. The level editor has engendered a rich ecosystem of user-created levels, with curated lists of the devteam's favourites sorted by theme and difficulty. And even after all of that, you've only scratched the surface, because the game is waiting for you to turn on competitive mode, enabling faster gameplay, more difficult hazard placement, and half a dozen timed challenges for each level, ranging from simple time trials to one-hit-one-kill, pacifist, and item collection modes -- which you must complete with limited lives, finally explaining what those "life bonus" pickups you may have found in some levels do. Cloudbuilt's original release was, I think, a bit too rough around the edges and a bit too unforgiving to ever make my top ten. The 2017 remake, Super Cloudbuilt, was a more accessible, but the item system that made it so could also be annoyingly grindy. But in the decade since 1.0, Cloudbuilt has received constant developer support, including new levels, polishing and balance fixes for the existing levels, a kinder on-ramp for new players (competitive mode used to be the default and only mode!), improved graphics, massive performance optimizations, and a backport of the better controls originally introduced in Super, while Super itself has been pulled from sale due to publisher fuckery. I think they're both good, and I've logged dozens of hours in both of them this year, but if I had to recommend one I think it has to be the original. Which, depending on when you're reading this, may currently be on sale, so go check it out. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yeJTVTWwTxA ToxicFrog fucked around with this message at 03:30 on Dec 16, 2023 |
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Dec 7, 2023 03:19
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Lester posted:But, my brother, have you heard the good news? Right now, on a winter evening in the early third millennium, in the video game Cyberpunk 2077, you can ride the loving subway and look out the window. CHOO CHOOOOOOOOOOOOO gently caress, I was thinking I'd hold off on getting this for awhile but.... gently caress. 
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Dec 7, 2023 03:26
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Might as well. Starting at the top, then spiraling down: 1) Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom. I know. Cliché pick. But clichés exist for a reason. It's a massive game that manages to actually do interesting things with all that space. It's one of the few games where your random, stupid first idea will work. It'll take some fiddling, you usually have to understand the nature of the puzzle, but you don't go "Oh. That's what you wanted me to do, then. I wasted an hour". You go "Ha! My brilliant rocket car solution eventually worked!" even as the game actually just wanted you to pick up a rock and throw it into a hole. Sure, the plot is just there, and the map is reused, but the game just goes "So, you built a hot air balloon? Clever. Have fun." and doesn't instantly snap the balance in two, and that's amazing. You've got the most impressive tools in any game I've played since building a combat mech in G-Mod, and they're all fun and intuitive to use no matter how deep you want to dive. And again, over 100 hours and I didn't get bored. Not sure how I could hand anything else the gold and not feel a nagging doubt. 2) Armored Core 6 Yeah, this is the exact opposite of the previous entry on the list in a lot of ways. It's not open world. It's not offering you endless solutions to puzzles. It's just a fast, brutal good time where you pick a mission from a menu, kill every motherfucker in sight, and then go to the next menu to buy parts for the next mission. And it is good at it. Armored Core 6 is the promise of the series fulfilled, a massive run of missions where you, as a nameless mercenary dickhead, do dirtywork for whoever pays you the most until the end when you might or might not develop the smallest conscience. The writing is low key but sharp, the music is very good (even if it's not my favorite in the series) and the levels are varied and (usually) fun. I love the series in general, and this one feels like From's ambitions finally were matched by their resources. 3) Katamari Damacy Reroll I kinda miss the PS2 Gamecube Xbox era. It was, in some ways, the last time man's reach properly exceeded his grasp. Sure, you get games on the 360 (and even now) that run into hardware limits, but they're basically able to execute their ambitions, just with choppy framerate, horrible pop-in, freezes, and so on. PS2, you had to get creative to make a lot of game concepts work at all, so you got a lot more weird stuff. And Katamari Damacy is weird. Never played it properly until this year, but it lives up to all the love it got back in the day. 4) Mario Wonder, meanwhile... isn't that weird. Oh, sure, it flirts with it to have something on the box, but it's basically just a new 2D Mario, and a much smaller one than I was hoping for going in. Fortunately, a good 2D Mario with a lot of creative ideas and a lot of love in the small aspects is plenty good enough for the list. 5) Metal Wolf Chaos It's not smart, it's not very well balanced, it's not that deep, and it's pretty janky even on modern hardware... but it's still charming enough to make up for that. I played a bunch of other games through for the first time this year, from classics like Link to the Past to garbage like Castlevania Legends, and I'm sure I could fill a top ten if I tried, but... five will do me for now, I think
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Dec 7, 2023 05:47
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6. Aliens: Dark Descent A really incredible game out of nowhere that excelled at capturing the constant tension of Aliens, and the kickass fight scenes, with some cool innovations to the top down action genre (you control the squad not the individuals, it works really well). 5. System Shock Remake Can't believe i forgot about this, so many good games this year. I never played the original but as far as I could tell and heard its very accurate and faithful, which is impressive that the gameplay was so tight 20+ years ago. Really good and highly recommended. 4. Amnesia: The Bunker Where A:DD is more like Aliens, this one was more like Alien. If you though Aliens was tense, this game is the most intense butt puckering 5-6 hours of my life. By far this studios best effort so far and clear return to form, you play a soldier trapped in a bunker during WW1, trying to escape from some cosmic horror thats killed everyone else. 3. Amored Core 6 Buddy...  From Software does it again and makes a remarkably engaging world and story that pulls you back for multiple subsequent playthroughs. The soundtrack and character design... if yiu can call it that, are the surprising highlights here.2. Cyberpunk: Phantom Liberty I was one of the few people who loved CP2077 on release, probably due to PC, but they kept improving it and knocked it out of the park with this DLC. Ive already beaten it twice v:)v 1. Turbo Overkill AKA Indie Doom Eternal (though this comparison is perhaps a disservice to the game). Overwhelmingly positive on steam. Gonna give my GOTY to turbo overkill because somehow this game that sounds and looks stupid at a glance is one of the best shooters ive ever played, indie or otherwise. The presentation, the soundtrack, the intensity of the combat, the fact the game and intensity somehow continuously increases throughout the playthrough, like sure hell why not lets do a random vehicle section and oh my god it kicks rear end. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c6NH-TDClDA the game is both more and less chaotic than the trailer appears and the music https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GC0hrXNZRjI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VW2WYtxx39I Honorable Mention (but not part of my official list) goes to ToTK, an excellent game and everyone should play it but to similar to BoTW for me to feel confident giving it a goty nod. Mr. Crow fucked around with this message at 20:51 on Dec 7, 2023 |
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Dec 7, 2023 06:24
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2023 was basically the year of fromsoft for me, the year i basically clicked on the soulsborne genre thanks to elden ring making me go back and really go at their previous iterations. With that said this year was pretty insane including a bunch of remakes of classics i never played and i still have dark souls 2 and 3 to go. with that said my 10-1 are as follows 10: Metroid Prime Remastered i still havent finished this and I keep getting distracted by other things but this was a great start to the year. I wish getting around felt a little smoother but the game doesnt really feel dated at all. looking forward to finishing this. 9: Super Mario RPG Another switch remake of a very old game but while this one does feel a little dated at times it oozes charisma and the datedness translates into nostalgia very well for me 8: Dark Souls 1 This game has im fact aged quite poorly and playing it on switch probably didnt help. Theres a lot of questionable design decisions but I couldnt put it down in spite of all these issues. 7: We <3 katamari this game is so joyful. it felt like there was less to do than katamari 1 but it was a great experience and very replayable 6:stardew valley i picked this up in the middle of wedding planning to just have something fun and easy to play with my now wife when we were burned out and cranky. my wife married shane and when i asked her why she said bc he reminded her of me and ive never fully recovered from that burn 5: Sekiro this game feels and plays so smoothly that when it clicked for me i couldnt stop playing it. it feels almost too fluid at times, like theres no real weight to anything but its a real breath of fresh air in tone to everything else ive played by from 4: super mario wonder i didnt get expect a 2d mario game to enthrall me like this in 2023 but it just looks and sounds and feels so gorgeous and it fucks with the mechanics of a traditional mario game just enough to feel very fresh. great multiplayer game too. 3: disco elysium i never bothered to pick this up until i bounced very hard off baldurs gate 3 and wanted something to scratch the crpg itch that wasnt a dnd game. this game was incredible and im going to do another playthrough very soon i think. 2: Bloodborne holy poo poo this game is basically perfect. i bounced off it on my first go but now i have finished it, it makes perfect sense why so many people credit it for getting them into from games. it feels both fluid but weighty, it has this oppressive atmosphere that is filled with beauty and disgust and is just dripping with intrigue that made it super compelling. i played through it three times in a row and am still considering a pure str play through after going dex, quality and then bloodtinge in that order. 1: Armored Core 6 i didnt really expect to love this, ive never been a mech games guy and it was super punishing trying to figure out which weapons worked best for me but once the game opened up to me it felt like building a mech was a creative exercise in its own right. i did more of the game than im proud of on the light treads and chainguns when it got too hard but approaching the game in a fair way felt incredibly rewarding and the plot was so compelling i never felt bad for cheesing a level to get to the next part of it. ~~~~<===========3
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Dec 7, 2023 07:33
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1. Armored Core VI is by far the best sequel released this year. Armored Core was always "good" but VI brings back the series with the polish it deserves. 2. Resident Evil 4 remake shows the OG is a timeless classic. The gameplay loop of exploring for treasure and resources, upgrading your gear and fighting not zombies hasn't aged one bit. 3. Lies of P is the biggest suprise of the year. It borrows most of its ideas from Bloodborne and Sekiro but done by a very talented team. 4. Front Mission 2 Remake is a 7/10 remake of a 8/10 game but it's playable in English for the first time in the series history. The story goes that a gaming CEO who has too much money proposed this remake personally. FM is barely a thing anymore but it still has its fans. 5. I'm missing a 5th game so that spot goes to Final Fantasy XVI. It came out! And it was good! Hopefully the dlc breathes some new life in the game. WaltherFeng fucked around with this message at 13:14 on Dec 7, 2023 |
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Dec 7, 2023 07:37
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8: One Step from Eden (2020):  It's a beautiful action roguelike that apparently plays similarly to the Battle Network games. Traverse stages in each world, battling a variety of enemies and bosses, and assemble a deck build from a variety of spells from a variety of categories. Tons of combos and synergy to build off of, any of which can play off of each character's unique playstyles. I reinstall it every few months because it's fast action with a high energy soundtrack with tons of builds and experimentation. 7: 7 Days to End With You (2022):  The Switch store is just an endless flood of shovelware, but every now and then a bunch of games are 90% off and I'll buy a bunch of random experimental games for a buck each. Most times they're at least worth a buck, but every now and then I'll find something that's solid gold. 7DtEWY is one of those games and has been one of the most memorable games I've ever played. You're awoken in a strange room, with injuries you can't remember, by a person you don't know speaking a language you don't speak. Over the next few days you can try to decipher her language, using her pictures, context clues, or just pointing to random objects. I'd describe it as a puzzle / visual novel, but whatever the case it really got its hooks in me. Try to interpret who you are, your relationship, and what happened, before you succumb to said injuries. The soundtrack is small as befitting the game, but it's incredibly effective and really accents the melancholy. 6: Atelier Ryza 3 (2023): I think a lot of Atelier fans were let down by this one. Gust was attempting another open world, and honestly fell a bit short of the mark. A lot of empty or mostly useless areas, some underbaked mechanics, and a difficulty curve so flat you won't even notice it. But for me the strong parts of the game were so strong the issues are easily forgiven. Ryza 1 was the first Atelier game I played, and it was during the deepest parts of Covid isolation. The light hearted and optimistic rapport between the main cast immediately won me over and I've been a fan of the group since. 2 built on the cast's relationships, and then 3 rolled around and hit me with a strong nostalgic feeling, which took me back to loving around with friends and just enjoying life over those summer breaks decades ago. Accompanied by a soundtrack that nails light hearted adventure, optimism, and determination, the overall experience is elevated past any mechanical shortcomings. The uncertainty of the future was always a theme through the subseries as well, and 3 ends with the cast finally making those decisions and ready for the summer to end, giving them a send off that I appreciated. 5: The Cosmic Wheel Sisterhood (2023):  This is the most recent game on my list that I played. In this visual novel you follow a witch in exile, banished for using her divination skills to foresee tragedy fall upon your coven. You'll spend much of your time creating a Tarot-inspired divination deck, customizing the cards you create with a variety of settings, themes and iconography. You'll be using your custom cards to provide readings for others, interpreting them how you see fit, giving your honest impressions or maybe trying to influence things to go your way a little. I dig the use of Tarot or other forms of occult cards in games. Ogre Battle, the Persona Series, and Yggdra Union among others all involve some sort of power and meaning behind the cards, so when I saw a game where that was a key mechanic I was immediately sold on the premise. And at no point was I disappointed. A story about friendship, loss, duty, acceptance, and well of course, fate. It was barely more than a few hours, but I was captivated the entire time. The music always fits the mood as well, especially during the dramatic and urgent final act. 4: Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty (2023): At the recommendation of a friend I played Cyberpunk 2077 shortly after launch. Until that point I was on the meme train with everyone else, laughing at its glorious failures and shitposting with the rest of 'em. A couple hours into the game turned completely changed my opinion. The characters, presentation and world were second to none. Night City is one of the best settings realized in a game. Phantom Liberty came along and added even more while also completely remaking some of the less interesting systems that were in place . Better mechanics, more interesting builds, and more Night City - more Cyberpunk. Everything I could ask for. 3: Baldur's Gate 3 (2023): Yeah there are good reasons it's hoovering up every game award around. If there's anything wrong about the game, it's that when I'm about half way through it I want to start over with a new character concept and redo everything differently. Can't say much more than what everyone else has. 2: Kenshi (2018):  What is Kenshi? You could describe it as a post-apocalytpic samurai-punk open-world reactive sandbox. You'd be right, but you'd be selling the game short. A predominately solo dev's decade long journey. A squad based game focused on your free form gameplay and not linear quests. A story generator. In Kenshi you really have options as to how to play the game. Your goals, your quests, your methodology are all yours. Be a roaming swordsman accompanied only by your faithful hound, surviving as a bounty hounter. Be a smuggler and get rich bringing booze and drugs to the right buyers. Lead a squad of tech hunters, delving into ruins full of mad-made horrors looking for glimpses of the past. Build a mighty outpost to house other like minded travellers and forge them into an army. Fail to flee from some bandits, only to get rescued by a ground of zealous slavers and locked in a cage until you bust out the other slaves and stage an escape / revolt, then dedicate your skills to fighting the holy nation as a guerilla force of ex slaves. Help or hinder the other factions and change the diplomatic states of the world. Make enemies and forge alliances. Get eaten by beak things. Kenshi really just drops you in a world and lets you free. This might be the jankiest game I've ever played, but the open-ended gameplay, unique atmosphere, setting and world building are outstanding. Which leads to my number 1. 1: The Elder Scrolls 3: Morrowind (2002): There's really nothing more I can say about this game that any one of the many multi hour youtube retrospectives haven't covered. It's easy to value a game really highly due to nostalgia, but the first time I played the game was in the final days of 2018. I saw a streamer play the first half hour or so, and I knew DAGOTHWAVE, but outside of that I was coming into this game with fresh eyes. And in short order, Morrowind toppled my expectations for games in general. As soon as you're off the boat, you have near total freedom in one of the best realized settings I've experienced. Hugely customizable playstyles and character builds, a multitude of interesting factions with intertwining storylines, and an incredible modern modding scene has brought me back to this game every few months. The main quest itself is also such a strong showing. Meeting the failed incarnates, discussing history and truth with Vivec, and the face to face dialogue with Dagoth Ur are all some of my most memorable gaming experiences, and they never fail to captivate me. The beating Heart of Lorkhan providing the percussion of the main theme from start to finish of the main theme is one of the reasons I think it's one of the most beautiful pieces of music I've ever heard - mysterious, inspiring, adventurous, and contemplative - much like the rest of the game. Orcs and Ostriches fucked around with this message at 07:56 on Dec 7, 2023 |
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Dec 7, 2023 07:52
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it's a testament to just how many games there are that people will post lists of like 15 games and I'll have heard of about 2 of them lol
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Dec 7, 2023 08:44
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you guys need to number your lists
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Dec 7, 2023 10:09
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One of my goals for 2024 is to actually put my opinions out into the world more, so to get an early start on that here's nearly 10,000 characters of what I spent my 2023 playing as I got over my hyperfixation on Link to the Past randomizer and played games from this millennium. Honorable mentions of 2023 titles that I will get to Eventually(tm): Baldur's Gate III Like a Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name Final Fantasy XVI Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom Spider-Man 2 SMRPG Remake Super Mario Wonder Armored Core VI Honorable mentions that I actually played this year: Backpack Hero Heretic's Fork HoloCure: Save the Fans! The Last Spell Black Skylands  ACTUAL LIST TIME https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=afcgAi5eZEQ 10) Cuisineer A relatively late addition to my list, Cuisineer released at the start of November and it's a weird-rear end fusion of Diner Dash, Animal Crossing, and Hades-like dungeon crawling. You play as Pom, an adventurer whose parents went into massive debt to fund a "once in a lifetime" cruise vacation, placing the family restaurant in peril of closing up. It's up to you to go out into the world, gather ingredients (by killing them, naturally), and use them to cook the dishes the townsfolk want to eat. In between shifts, those same townfolk will request Pom's assistance, and give her more recipes for the restaurant in return. And did I mention the food is lovingly hand-drawn in a cartoony style that still somehow makes me hungry every time a new recipe comes up? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F3Wl-OiZCO4 9 and 8) Uncharted: Legacy of Thieves Collection AKA: 9) Uncharted: The Lost Legacy and 8) Uncharted 4: A Thief's End, if actual rank matters for any points given I mean... it's Naughty Dog going back and putting a bow on the series that kept them on the map in the PlayStation 3 era and beyond, while also integrating some of the lessons it learned in making the deeply personal The Last of Us. Uncharted 4 somehow managed to keep to its franchise-pedigree of being a playable summer blockbuster in the vein of Indiana Jones while also delivering a lot of intimate, personal moments for the characters to really shine through as people. The epilogue that pretty firmly sets Nathan Drake as being done with the adventuring life as we've seen it for four (five if you count Golden Abyss) games is one of the better endings I remember seeing in awhile. So Lost Legacy had the unenviable task of answering the question of "now what?", and provides a pretty solid answer by focusing on one of the other beloved companions of the series going out and finding some answers from her past. While I would say that it is very obviously Uncharted 4 DLC that got spun out into a stand-alone title at the last minute (Naughty Dog even admits as such), it's still a very enjoyable experience that provides a blueprint for coming back to the series without dragging Drake out of his well earned "retirement" at the end of Thief's End. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kyv28kUnIZk 7) Sea of Survivors I love Vampire Survivors and other games of its ilk. In fact, roguelikes and bullet heavens were like 75% of my gameplay time by volume this year. I also have a bit of a soft spot for pirates. So when this game came to my attention, I was immediately on board. It's a drat fun game that puts a few much-needed twists on the bullet heaven formula. Firstly, you place your weapons and upgrades on a board of interconnected nodes, and there are several items that interact with how items are placed. For example, there's an item that doubles the effects of any surrounding upgrade, or another that as long as it is only connected to one weapon, causes that weapon's power to improve drastically. In addition, a large part of the meta-progression is provided to you by members of your ship's crew, who you hire for gold per run and take with you aboard ship. If you fail the run and your boat sinks, you may lose your shipmates and thus the bonuses they give you! The game is currently in Early Access with more to come, and at only $5 I think it's a steal. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QlLEmu8c-Vk 6) Death Stranding Director's Cut Metal Gear Solid is one of my "hobby-shaping" games. It influenced what I looked for in games for years, and is also probably a large part of the reason I don't like Call of Duty and other games that glorify war. So as you might expect, I followed the series, and Hideo Kojima, closely over the decades since, all the way through to the acrimonious breakup with Konami and the formation of the independent version of Kojima Productions. And what was my reward for that loyalty? Death Stranding. A game that somehow perfectly predicted the "alone, but together" feelings of the pandemic... before the pandemic hit, while also being a beautiful world to explore as you struggle to remain upright schlepping 200kg of cargo on Norman Reedus's back. I personally loved the gameplay and although the story is hampered a little bit by being 100% purestrain Kojima, I still appreciated it as well. I beat the original and finally decided to play the Director's Cut on my brand new PS5 this year, and although the Director's Cut branding is a bit of a misnomer that even the Director (Kojima) doesn't particularly approve of, the added gimmickry of the adaptive triggers and the few additions that were made to the base game don't take away from the experience. I know it's a bit of a hard sell for a lot of people, and as Barry Kramer once said, "if you don't like Death Stranding, oh my GOD do I get it", but I liked it back then and I'm still liking it now. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ot7uXNQskhs 5) Stardew Valley I've dabbled in Stardew Valley a few times over the years, each time getting a fair way into a farm then inevitably burning out or getting distracted by something else for a few months, coming back to the farm, going "what in the hell was I doing here", then deleting and starting over. This year I finally decided to change that, taking an old farm from... I believe early 2022 and seeing it through to Perfection, as in 100% of everything in the game. And wouldn't you know it, it still holds up. Even though I did the "gamer" thing and went straight to producing absolutely absurd amounts of Ancient Fruit wine from a grove fully covered by iridium sprinklers, I still enjoyed every minute of bustling around both the Valley and Ginger Island, gathering the forage, befriending the locals, and eventually settling down with Penny and enjoying the peaceful vibes of the Summit. I finished my Perfection run back in June, and as I write this in December I'm already starting to feel the Valley calling me back. The only thing stopping me is trying to see if I want to wait for the official additions of 1.6 or if I want to just go ahead and throw a few mods on the pile (like Expanded or Ridgeside Valley). also more haunted chocolatier info soon please and thanks https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qh0keDAVMuc 4) Dave the Diver HOT PEPPER TUNA. That is all. 3)-- okay okay. Ol' Dave's caught a little bit of flak for being a game that looks indie but is made by a studio under the Nexon banner, but the people complaining about that clearly didn't play the game to see that it didn't get any favors in the budgetary department. Seriously, the translation is *rough* at points. But despite that, the characters shine through in a story that doesn't take itself very seriously at all, and the stylish food upgrade cutscenes nearly made me want to get over my fear of seafood to try some sushi out for myself. And the gameplay ain't half bad either, with an engaging core gameplay loop that has you dive into the Blue Hole to seek fresh fish to keep Bancho Sushi running broken up regularly by mini-games that keep you guessing at what could be coming next. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G_iD0e_rx24 3) Laika: Aged Through Blood A Metroidvania where your main mode of transportation is a motorcycle, you reload your weapons by backflipping said motorcycle, and you can parry incoming bullets by doing sick drifts. All beautifully hand-drawn and animated, with a haunting mostly acoustic soundtrack. It's a bit on the shorter and shallower side mechanically speaking, and the storyline starts dark and stays dark for the majority of its run time, but if the trailer looks at all interesting I think it's well worth your time. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zw47_q9wbBE 2) The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild I mean... what is there to say about Breath of the Wild that hasn't already been said better (in this very thread, even)? It's Nintendo's special sauce applied to the open world formula and I'm kind of sad I didn't get around to it sooner thanks to other things that were going on in my world these last few years. I'm looking forward to getting around to Tears of the Kingdom sometime early next year. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wlq6fFOqI28 1) Pizza Tower I think the best way I've seen this game described, and it might have been on these forums, was via a comparison to another indie platformer, Celeste. "If Celeste is dealing with the aftermath of an anxiety attack, then Pizza Tower is the anxiety attack in progress." And despite that very accurate description, I mainlined Pizza Tower shortly after it came out and loved every stress-inducing second of it. Great music, tight controls, incredible attention to detail in creating A LOT of distinct animations for every character in the game. It feels weird to put this game at #1 when I beat it back in February and haven't touched it since, but a replay is never very far from the front of my mind even as I work through some of the other things I've wanted to get to this year and prepare for some of 2024's releases.
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Dec 7, 2023 10:54
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Jezza of OZPOS posted:1: Armored Core 6 See the thing about the gatling guns is that they loving rule and you shouldn't feel bad for using them. https://i.imgur.com/ui7iF6p.mp4 This is how 621 feels ALL THE TIME Once it occurred to me to slap two of them onto my mech I pretty much never looked back, it's so much fun!
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Dec 7, 2023 10:58
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Dual gatlings and songbirds may have been cheap but it also fuckin ruled
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Dec 7, 2023 11:02
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the needle missiles were the cheese shoulder weapons du jour for me
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Dec 7, 2023 11:38
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Haha I kinda just did my list 1 to 10 because everyone else prior had done it 10 to 1. Jokes aside though I love reading this thread, makes me want to play all the games y'all loved. This year seems even more stacked than I thought as I missed indies like Sea of Stars and Dredge.
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Dec 7, 2023 19:08
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Six pages and not one mention for last year's winner Elden Ring oof
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Dec 7, 2023 19:21
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Lid posted:Six pages and not one mention for last year's winner Elden Ring oof elden who?
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Dec 7, 2023 19:26
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One person has ranked elden ring so far Maybe everyone else is still finishing it
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Dec 7, 2023 19:26
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2022 was a weak year. I doubt the second-worst Souls game would crack many people's top 5 even if it came out three weeks ago
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Dec 7, 2023 19:28
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Lester posted:2022 was a weak year. I doubt the second-worst Souls game would crack many people's top 5 even if it came out three weeks ago But what would Dark Souls 2 be doing on a list in 2023?
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Dec 7, 2023 19:29
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They said second-worst not second-best.
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Dec 7, 2023 19:30
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exquisite tea posted:They said second-worst not second-best.
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Dec 7, 2023 19:31
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I won't, because it's better than both. 
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Dec 7, 2023 19:32
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exquisite tea posted:I won't, because it's better than both.
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Dec 7, 2023 19:34
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| # ? May 24, 2024 07:12 |
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ShoogaSlim posted:you guys need to number your lists Should update the rules if its a requirement, but sure edited it
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Dec 7, 2023 20:52
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