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I'm not putting Elden Ring in mine out of respect for the other games. I've never stopped playing it in fact I played 2 of my top 3 because of it lol If it had released at the end of the year instead of the beginning it would probably be on a lot more lists ToxicFrog posted:I mean, this is is why Void Rains is on my list every year. Fashion souls is the true endgame. You can dodge attacks to make up for having negative damage mitigation but you can never escape a hideous outfit
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Dec 8, 2023 03:47
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An Actual Princess posted:1. myhouse.wad Thank you for this! Myhouse.wad has been a constant companion on my Youtube this year. It's like Silent Hill analysises where I know everything inside and out but I just love hearing people talk about it.
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Dec 8, 2023 03:57
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Enjoy the stream of consciousness rambling I made once I set the list of games HMs, no writeup for these: Cobalt Core, Pokemon TCG (both the GBC and the modern app), Persona 5 Tactica, Baldur's Gate 3, Fire Emblem: Blazing Blade, Marvel Midnight Suns, Dark Cloud 2 10) Mario Kart 8  Mario Kart 8 has always been one of my favorite switch games, but every time a DLC wave drops I play a new one. When the last DLC came out, I got in a voice call with a friend and played through all 96 tracks. Great time, great game. Also there's a Pokey Costume now so we spent half the time quoting old memes. 9) Dragon Quest Monsters: The Dark Prince  I'm about halfway through this and it's a delight. I loved the second one when I was a kid and this has been a real fun time. I love finding new puns to laugh at. 8) Disgaea 7: Vows of the Virtueless  I'm gonna be honest, Disgaea games hit that part of my brain that loves seeing number go up. Also I laugh at Pirilika mispronouncing japanese names. Even writing this I was reminded of Sushee and laughed again. 7) The Murder of Sonic the Hedgehog  Play this game. It's free and it's one hour long and full of so much charm. It's the best Sonic and his friends have been in years. 6) The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom  Yeah. I don't need to say anything. Nothing I say will be new information. Good game. I put link in the femboy fit for most of the game and also went all stamina. 5) Super Mario RPG https://twitter.com/MrNantendo/status/1728023264771928250 Playing the remake has taught me that the fans have been praising the wrong character. Mallow is the character from SMRPG who should be in everything. He's the better of the original party members. 4) Theatrhythm Final Fantasy: Final Bar Line  So a bit back, when we got the news that the eShop was shutting down, I saw I had about $4 in my eShop account. I went to spend it, and I was reminded that I had Theatrhythm: Curtain Call, so I looked at the DLC. Oh, that one song I really like from that FF I've started liking is one of them, lemme go download real Emotion... Fast forward to the release of Final Bar Line and I can finally actually play real Emotion! And a lot of other songs I like! Also I get to play as the best Final Fantasy characters, Agrias and TG Cid. Good game. 3) Super Mario Wonder  I fell in love with this game again and again every time I ran into a new wonder effect. Except for the one precision platforming section set to "Jump! Jump!" Everything else was fun. 2) Fire Emblem Engage  A cliche storm with the most basic of plots, derivative of previous games, and everything is pretty black and white. I loved every moment of this. The characters were full of *charm* and I loved 99% of them. Yunaka and Zelkov above the rest, obviously. 1) Cassette Beasts  Headstrong Coming back at you twice as greater than you had thought And I know the feeling That you get when you're never not quite alone And I told you To take no further steps than you have towards me You'll see It's the same old story Cassette Beasts is one of the best pokemon games I've played in ages. The music is top notch, the gameplay is delightfully interactive, and the monster designs are great. Also it's delightfully gay as heck, always a plus. For ease: 10) Mario Kart 8 9) Dragon Quest Monsters: The Dark Prince 8) Disgaea 7: Vows of the Virtueless 7) The Murder of Sonic the Hedgehog 6) The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom 5) Super Mario RPG 4) Theatrhythm Final Fantasy: Final Bar Line 3) Super Mario Wonder 2) Fire Emblem Engage 1) Cassette Beasts
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Dec 8, 2023 04:23
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Putting my list together and enjoying reading everyone's list like always. ToxicFrog posted:1. Super Cloudbuilt (2017, original 2014) What the hell's the story on this game's availability?? Looks cool as hell. I searched it and it's "no longer available" on steam and google says Windows only, but then on metacritic it appears to be on PS4 but if I search the PS store I don't see it? edit: oh poo poo, found this: https://delistedgames.com/super-cloudbuilt-delisted-steam-remaster-coming-in-2022-but-console-versions-are-gone-for-good/. "Super Cloudbuilt delisted, Steam remaster coming in 2022 but console versions are gone for good"
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Dec 8, 2023 05:11
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one of the best things about bloodborne was that to the extent you needed specific armor they are all just resistance sets so you never wind up with ugly frankenoutfits i didnt even check what the stats were on the pyramid head thing i just threw it on
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Dec 8, 2023 05:34
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ultrachrist posted:Putting my list together and enjoying reading everyone's list like always. 2022 has come and gone, and yet, it is not on Steam. It looks like the original is, but Super (a) includes all the DLCs, (b) includes some additional Super-exclusive content, and most importantly, (c) makes a lot of improvements to the physics and controls so that there are no longer keyboard-snappingly frustrating bits where your character just fails to activate her jetpack and plummets into the void for no reason. So I really recommend Super as the definitive way to play it if it's an option. I'll ask the dev what's up with that and report back.
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Dec 8, 2023 05:49
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ToxicFrog posted:Is the list with Forspoken and Cocoon on it the true one? Yes, that was 100% a joke quote:I ask because I remember thinking that the Forspoken trailer looked sick as hell, but then actually reading about it and deciding I wasn't interested, and I can't remember why, and your description makes it sound like something I might actually like. See if you can find it on sale. If you don't like its aesthetics and core game loop, it's pretty thin as an RPG. But it's got cool magic effects and a huge number of cats to pet quote:Similarly, I disregarded Cocoon because "by the developer of LIMBO" isn't actually a selling point for me, but it sounds like it might actually be pretty cozy? It's very unlike Limbo (or Inside, for that matter). It's not horror or tension at all, beyond the premise of being alone in a strange place or vague big things moving in the background. I'm pretty sure it's not even possible to die, the worst penalty you can ever suffer for failure is being forcibly ejected from a ball and then you just go in again
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Dec 8, 2023 05:52
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Games I wanted to play: Slay the Princess: Just seems like the kind of game I'd enjoy and get a lot out of. Never got around to buying it. Armored Core 6: This is a game tailor made for me but, again, just haven't gotten it yet. Hopefully when it's on sale next for cheap. Final Fantasy 16: I do not have a PS5, or this would surely be on the list somewhere. Day one buy when it's on PC, I've heard so many good things and it looks directly up my alley. RoboCop: Rogue City: It might be poo poo. It might be really fun. It's hard to tell, but I'm intrigued. Dave the Diver: It just seems neat. Lies of P: It's not Bloodborne, but it's probably close enough. The nanosecond Bloodborne is on PC, I'm replaying it and it's going on my list for that year. 10. Brigador  From the soundtrack to the actual playing of the game to the lore bits, there’s something serene to me about playing this - it’s the sort of game where I don’t feel mad at all when I inevitably trip my mech on a fuel line and detonate spectacularly from my own hubris, seeing that money slip down the drain. I really get a kick out of mechs, let alone tactical combat sims like this. I don’t play it crazy often, but it’s something I’ll boot up when I have an hour to kill before bed and want to wind down. 9. The Dark Mod  Only really played it this month and last, but I love me some Thief-‘em-up games, and TDM is the best in the business. All the more reason to try out the Black Parade series that just came out for Thief Gold a few days ago, but I haven’t quite gotten around to it yet. Still, TDM is a great mod, and I played some great fan missions this year. It’s completely free, too, so no excuse if you like the idea of sneaking around a medieval manor and stealing poo poo with a spooky atmospheric backdrop. 8. Deus Ex: Revision  DX is a game I know like the back of my hand, and I played it again this year with the Revision maps. A really good time, and I spent a lot of the early months doing various self-imposed challenge runs, such as a reduced inventory, no augmentations, or deciding I had to kill everyone I could or kill no one at all. That said, it’s DX, so it’s not a game that makes a huge impression outside of my ambient comfort zone level adoration for it. Still, I had a lot of fun with the novel ways of playing it. I also played with the Lay-D Denton mod enabled, so that was novel too. A great performance by the lead actress, who basically nails JC’s weird inflection to a wonderful tee. 7. Project Zomboid  Currently doing a 10 Years Later run, which is a fairly novel way of going about it - it really makes you appreciate a lack of trees in the base game. Zombies have a lot more hiding places, and the world in general is just very desolate and empty of resources, forcing me to play more creatively. This aside, I played it a lot with friends earlier this year too, and we’re all eagerly anticipating the next release build, which will finally add the farming simulator dream we’ve always wanted, as well as just optimizing the game a ton. Early ‘24, I hope. 6. Shadows of Doubt  Here’s a really good immersive sim that gets to the heart of what it’s all about - offering novel powers, different ways of going about your objectives, and lots of vent crawling and generalized ratfuckery. Gig to live in a low-tech cyberpunk hellscape where soda corporations own everything and the cops no longer give a poo poo about figuring out who did the deed - there’s private detectives for that. Lots of ways to play, and I’m eager to get back to it once there’s a bit more to it. Fortunately they just added more robust mod support, and have been updating it with new content as well. Well worth the money in early access. 5. Final Fantasy 14  My game of the year in ‘21. I have less to say about it now, frankly, and there’s not a ton that hasn’t already been said. I love it to bits despite its problems, which have been sadly more pronounced lately with the slow ebb in the game updates. A lot of said updates haven’t added much to my fancy either, so it’s a shame - story wise, I feel it took a real nosedive after Endwalker, and I’m dearly hoping Dawntrail course corrects that. That said, I’ve stayed subbed the whole year and play this every single day. I got a house. I roleplay as much as I can. I’ve met wonderful people. I do the variant dungeons. YoshiP still has me in his grasp, my bitching aside. 4. Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty  So I already was an apologist for Cyberpunk even back when it first released, but back then the sheer hubris and awfulness on display was enough to make it a game I’d recommend with extreme caveats. It certainly wasn’t for the gameplay, which was a strange mix of cobbled-together cyberware powers meets Borderlands looter-shooter vibes. This game rode into my good graces mostly on the strength of the narrative, which I quite enjoyed for being as steeped in cyberpunk genre vibes as it is, accompanied by great acting and writing. The 2.0 update has completely turned the game around gameplay wise at this point — there’s actual builds, for example, and the combat is actually fun and no longer quite as looter-shooter-y. They actually made the melee combat feel a lot more pulse-pounding, and cyberware greatly enhances the whole thing with cooldown based powers. It’s a real kick. Phantom Liberty takes everything about the base game and doubles down on it in an expert way - it’s a truly great expansion, with a remarkably tense and wonderfully murky narrative that really steeps you in the spy thriller muck. No one’s getting out of this one entirely happy, and god do I love it for that. I honestly sort of prefer this to what’s next on my list, but it’s simply the better product of this year for well-known reasons. 3. Baldur’s Gate 3  BG3 is a game I immensely respect, even if I enjoyed 2077 slightly more for my own preferences. But it’s hard not to give credit where it’s due - they made a tremendously excellent game, with outstanding writing, voice work, combat and gameplay systems. Lots of reactivity to story choices that sticks with your playthroughs. I am someone who frankly does not care for Larian games by and large - I dislike OS1 and 2 because I simply do not like Larian’s typical writing style and storytelling. They really turned me around with this one - most of the companions are tremendously excellent, and despite having romanced Shadowheart, Astarion was the one I truly couldn’t get enough of. His performance is simply sublime, and his character arc a really well-done one, making him an absolute joy to have in my party for my stuffy, nice paladin girl. There’s simply too much to say about BG3 that’s positive, most of them well-worn by now, so I suppose I can afford to bitch a little. Multiplayer wise, the game feels frustrating, but this might just be due to mods and my choice of people to play with, who tended towards flakey and having their own bugs. Speaking of bugs, Act 3 got to the point where I was really just… sort of done with it? Like I wanted it to be over already. The game was long in the tooth, but I kept going, and was rewarded with a mixed bag of interesting set-pieces and lots and lots of bugs and performance issues. All that combined with an, at the time, unsatisfying epilogue left me very lukewarm about the ending stretch. But, honestly? You can’t fault them for having been ambitious and mostly getting everything right. A game that buckles under the weight of greatness all-around is definitely an interesting thing to write, but that’s more or less how I was left feeling. Every award they’ve received is well-deserved. People lauding it as the sort of game people don’t make anymore, one borne from passion, that’s all well-deserved. You gotta hand it to them, and for all my complaining about the ending stuff, I was glad I played it, and fully intend to go back some day. When it’s definitely finished and polished, of course. 2. Misericorde  Proof positive that I shouldn't write lists at 1 am by going down my steam list, this didn't make the initial cut cause I just plain forgot. I got it on itch.io! gently caress! But now that I remember, I must correct the mistake with prejudice. An absolutely wonderful murder mystery VN about nuns in the 1400s. It's an odd duck to be sure, but it really nails the vibe it's going for. This is in spite of its use of an entirely original trip-hop soundtrack and very anachronistic dialogue writing. Both of these work simply because the commitment to authenticity and the vibe of the setting is still on full display despite these things - if anything, they further accentuate the story it's trying to tell. Lots of amazing ambience and accuracy to setting, the main character is one of the best written protagonists I've read this year. She's incredibly frustrating and endearing both. I love it and can't wait for the second volume. 1. SIGNALIS  I was given this game a month or so after it came out in 2022, but I didn’t actually get around to it until January of this year. God. What a loving game. Tailor loving made for me and so many other people, judging by the wonderful fan community I’ve come to be involved in over the course of this year. They’re all wonderful. But that aside, where to start? It’s shorter. It’s melancholy. It is, strictly speaking, less of a game than something as massive as Baldur’s Gate 3 or Cyberpunk, just through sheer weight of their production. But they can’t come close to what Signalis has done to my loving brain chemistry. I adore it. I love it dearly. The soundtrack squats in my mind. It is survival horror. It is a mystery you unravel. It is a tragedy in motion about doing what you have to do because you can’t do anything else, because every other option has been expended and fought for. It is about love and robots and oppression and rebellion in the strangest of ways. It is meticulously researched and full of small, excact details that you have to search really hard for. It is exactly the sort of game that was made in a lab to appeal to me, and I cannot laud it enough for the way it has sat in my head for a year straight. I think about it every day, and I don’t want to go into it too much even here because I feel it’s better played as blind as possible, to feel that weight of the emotional gut punches it throws at you, to wallow in the desperate horror and desperate love on display. It’s not for everyone, perhaps. But it’s definitely for me, and if I play it again in any year, it will be sitting here at the top of my list again. It is my favorite game. It has supplanted everything else. I have felt miserable over this game and I love it. If any of this has spoken to you, give it a shot. rose-engine deserves your money. Erwin the German fucked around with this message at 17:04 on Dec 8, 2023 |
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Dec 8, 2023 07:09
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Erwin the German posted:5. Brigador Not a dig at you but more just generalised sadness, but my inability to use death of the author really killed Brigador for me. One of my favourite games rendered unplayable due to one of the devs coming forward as transphobic-and-proud among other chudly things, halfassing an apology and then doubling down when the heat dropped. It's an immensely cool game and I'm glad it's on your list, I just wish I could play it without feeling ick again.
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Dec 8, 2023 08:10
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10. Slay the Princess There is a certain emotional state where you want to believe something can happen, even though it has failed over and over again every time it's been tried. The last time I felt this in a game was in Disco Elysium when I kept checking the cryptid traps every day even though, rationally, I knew they would be empty again. Anyway, Slay the Princess is great. Not perfect, but it says something that when I was making this list and had to make the final cuts for the top ten, this bumped off some much bigger games like pre-2.0 Cyberpunk. 9. IXION  There are quite a few post-apocalyptic survival settlement builders out there, and of the ones I've played, IXION has the best premise and execution. "Frostpunk in Space" is an apt description. The challenge is to keep your mobile space station functional long enough to find a habitable planet for what for all you know are the only surviving members of humanity, consuming more and more limited resources as it irreversibly falls apart around you. It is hard to get the balance right in this type of game, and I feel it does this quite well; you have to play efficiently to survive, it never feels comfortable, and every star system along the way presents a new set of challenges. Arguably some of the scripted events make it too hard for a purely blind playthrough but they have added an easier mode since I last played it. 8. Dave the Diver  It's easy to like Dave the Diver. The graphics and dialogue are charming, the cutscenes are fun to watch, the gameplay is casual and relaxing, and there are some absurd one-off minigames out of nowhere. 7. Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty  The plot of this game is a total mess even for someone who's very familiar with Three Kingdoms, but nevertheless it's a very solid Soulslike action game. One thing that I feel this does much better than the FromSoft games is polearms, because it leans into spears as a martial arts form with a wide variety of moves rather than only using them to sedately poke at things. 6. The Banner Saga Trilogy  I had played the first Banner Saga game some years ago, but this is the first time I've completed the full trilogy. The storybook art style, atmospheric soundtrack, and persistent choice reactivity made this a very memorable playthrough. 5. Subnautica  Subnautica nails the experience of being introduced to an utterly alien locale and gradually coming to understand it to the point of being able to navigate it safely without maps. By the time I had finished the story and was ready to leave, it really felt like home. 4. Kerbal Space Program  KSP was great for learning some orbital mechanics without dealing with the complex calculations of the real thing. Successfully landing on each planet/moon, or for that matter even building a simple plane from scratch and landing it on the ground, felt like real accomplishments. 3. King Arthur: Knight's Tale  "Kill King Arthur -- or whatever he has become -- after I took his dying vessel to Avalon." Set in a dark mirrored version of Arthurian Britain, you play as the anti-hero Sir Mordred, brought back from the dead to gather the knights of the round table and kill Arthur, again. This is a tactical turn based strategy game with some RPG elements like character skill-ups. All of the characters are based on the mythology and have unique skill trees that make them play differently from each other, and your alignment (by choosing actions towards Rightful vs. Tyrant and Christian vs. Old Faith) determines which ones join you and which ones side against you, as well as the missions you have access to. Every mission's map is handcrafted and they maintain a pretty good level of variety and challenge throughout. 2. Anno 1800  At its heart an Anno game is about managing complex production chains, but the reason I enjoyed this so much and have it ranked so high is that the game is just beautiful to look at. Pristine blue ocean water, bright green islands, golden wheat fields, impressive period architecture; I'm often tempted to just let it run for a while and pan around to enjoy the view. 1. Baldur's Gate 3  BG3 is for me a very solid 9/10; it doesn't do anything groundbreaking and the main storyline feels a bit weak towards the end, but it is obviously a labor of love that I thoroughly enjoyed despite some flaws and I can see myself coming back to it many times in the future, especially with how it keeps being improved post-release.
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Dec 8, 2023 08:55
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Keep all these fantastic lists coming! I will post a ***STATS NUMBERS UPDATE*** on Sunday of where we currently stand 
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Dec 8, 2023 10:20
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I need to find my post, disregard. Can't believe I played a new game that changes my list.
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Dec 8, 2023 11:03
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Will somebody please port Pizza Tower so it runs specifically on the off network Mac work gave me to run a single file and forgot to ask me to return
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Dec 8, 2023 13:06
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Silver Falcon posted:8) Rune Factory 5 Whoa does this actually play decently on the Deck now? Hell yeah time to redownload, what a good thread
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Dec 8, 2023 14:12
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Promethium posted:6. The Banner Saga Trilogy I played this over covid lockdown and really liked it. Glad to see it making a list in 2023! 
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Dec 8, 2023 14:49
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woke kaczynski posted:Whoa does this actually play decently on the Deck now? Hell yeah time to redownload, what a good thread It's a little bit wonky, but it plays fine. The on-screen button prompts still think you're using a keyboard, so you kinda just have to remember what button does what. The buttons still work fine. One piece of weirdness was the "Dash" action wasn't automatically bound to the proper button. I put it on the R button, iirc. That button has a lot of important functionality for navigating menus and arranging furniture and is essential for the festival where you have to, ya know, DODGE stuff. Also typing text requires bringing up the on-screen keyboard. Overall I was fine with it. Still played it for like a solid month on the Deck, happy as a clam!
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Dec 8, 2023 15:36
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Goa Tse-tung posted:I need to find my post, disregard. Can't believe I played a new game that changes my list.  It is a rookie mistake to post your list too early as there's still 3 weeks of gaming time to knock out few GOTY candidates.
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Dec 8, 2023 15:40
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Issaries posted:
I mean I just run my calendar from December of last year to November of this year so I still get 12 months of activity
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Dec 8, 2023 15:51
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^^ Same. The gaming year runs from December 1st to November 30th.ultrachrist posted:What the hell's the story on this game's availability?? Looks cool as hell. I searched it and it's "no longer available" on steam and google says Windows only, but then on metacritic it appears to be on PS4 but if I search the PS store I don't see it? So, asked the dev about this, tl;dr: publisher fuckery In more detail, the people who actually made the game do not have the rights to distribute Super Cloudbuilt as it currently exists following the expiration of their publisher agreement. It is possible to rework the game so that they can resume selling the reworked version, but this is a non-trivial process. They hope -- but cannot promise -- to have it relisted on Steam sometime in the first half of 2024. Basically, they have to rip out all the parts of the game that the publisher contributed code to and replace them with something equivalent but developed in-house. On the plus side, it looks like they've also been able to do a whole bunch of updates to the original Cloudbuilt this year, which is still listed on Steam. I do think SCB is the better version -- it looks better, handles a bit smoother, has the superior version of the soundtrack (although both versions slap), and the consumable items can give you an escape hatch if you're stuck on a level -- but a lot of the control and physics improvements from SCB have been backported to it now. And it's an excellent game in its own right. Epic High Five posted:Fashion souls is the true endgame. You can dodge attacks to make up for having negative damage mitigation but you can never escape a hideous outfit  One of the things I really appreciated about Dark Souls 3 was that its weird armour mechanics meant that the practical difference between wearing the worst armour in the game and the best wasn't actually that significant, freeing you to do battle with the true final boss, your wardrobe. haveblue posted:See if you can find it on sale. If you don't like its aesthetics and core game loop, it's pretty thin as an RPG. But it's got cool magic effects and a huge number of cats to pet Based on your writeup, I'm going to keep an eye on it in case it goes on sale, but definitely not get it for the $100-$120 they're asking for it right now. Aipsh posted:Will somebody please port Pizza Tower so it runs specifically on the off network Mac work gave me to run a single file and forgot to ask me to return
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Dec 8, 2023 16:48
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loving hell, I remember Misericorde exists and that I played it this year. I shouldn't write lists at 1 am. What a lovely game. I edited my list to rightfully include it, as well as some mentions of games I wanted to play but couldn't. I also re-ordered the games now that I'm fully awake. Sorry for the annoyance!
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Dec 8, 2023 17:04
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Out of the way, bro. Games I want to play: Resident Evil 4 Alan Wake II RoboCop: Rogue City Dead Space Remake Colony Ship RPG Honorable mentions:  Emulated Nintendo games! I played Jet Force Gemini, Perfect Dark, and the Metroid Prime remake using various emulators earlier this year. Of them, JFG gave me the most issues - no keyboard and mouse support, and it was a bit of a bugbear to get the shaders working properly, but this one will always be my favorite N64 game. The booming orchestral score and grotesque sci-fi violence will always bring me back. 5. System Shock Remake  I never played the original, but I understand that this is a pretty faithful remake. It scratched an itch I didn't realize I had for a solid dungeon crawler. Not that I mind a bit of hand-holding from time-to-time, but I really get a kick out of being set loose with only a vague idea of where to go next and muddling my way through. This approach really blurs the line between brilliant and frustrating game design, but it'll never not be satisfying when I make my way to the next story beat without needing a floating arrow to point me there. Kind of a weak endgame, but it's easy to see why the source material inspired a generation of sci fi horror. SHODAN should be the baseline for how all AIs are judged - give 'em an inch and they'll start pumping out screaming abominations of flesh and metal. We should carpet bomb Silicon Valley yesterday. 4. Lethal Company  A slapstick comedy simulator masquerading as a gig economy horror game. I don't usually go in for multiplayer, but this was an unexpected delight. Delve into dark, maddeningly labyrinthine facilities in search of worthless baubles and scrap. Lose your mind whenever mission control reports a "hostile" on scanners. Say things like "oh this is going really well so far" just as you step on a landmine. Hit a goofy-looking insect with a stop sign. Watch your friends scoff at the very notion of gun turrets moments prior to being mowed down by a gun turret. Be chased to your ship by electrified bees while clutching their valuable honey. Hail your tentacled corporate overlords with a symphony of clown horns. Rinse and repeat. Best in small doses, though. 3. Cyberpunk 2077  It's been a year since I finished this the first time around, and it's rare that I revisit a game so soon, but with Phantom Liberty and all the new changes I couldn't help it. The dystopian atmosphere is simply immaculate, as my brother has expressed in past lists. The overwhelming white noise of the Night City masses and the rumble of AVs flying overhead combine with the obnoxious flash and pop of ever-present advertising to induce something in me that honestly feels like schizophrenia, at least at first. But then you stew in it for a while, and it begins to slide off the senses as you flit from one task to the next, always on that grindset, chasing greatness. It becomes comforting, almost. It anchors you, knowing you can take a break from the killing and mayhem to simply live in this constructed simulacrum for a moment and, maybe, trick yourself into thinking it's real. Until you see the umpteenth clone of that guy you just saw walk past, of course. Anyway, that was all in the base game, but it's a big part of why I love it. What's new has made a compelling argument for why this should be regarded as one of the best RPGs of our time. The combat is tense and frenetic - I always play on the highest difficulty, which makes every encounter feel appropriately risky. A small gently caress-up on my part can always cascade into a disaster when a stray bullet flatlines me. You can actually have a build now, and when that build comes online, you can really feel its power as you begin to tear into your cybered-up foemen with renewed gusto... but there's still that chance that someone gets lucky. Like any Night City legend, your star can flame out as quickly as it rises. That balance is difficult to calibrate, so I respect the developers for striking it so effectively. I actually haven't played Phantom Liberty yet - I'm about to restart my 90-hour playthrough, in fact, to account for the recent 2.1 drop. But I'm not bothered. Just more time to spend in the dark future, making my way through Night City. As a side note, if the industry continues this trend of maximal immersion and fidelity, we're going to be in for some great gaming. This comes with an unthinkable human cost, of course, as more studios pull back from their COVID-era excesses and the layoffs continue apace. More crunch and nights spent sleeping under desks for those who remain, with little to show for it other than fake apologies on social media. One has to wonder if any of this is worth it. 2. Morrowind+Tamriel Rebuilt+A Gazillion Mods  My comfort blanket game, one I can always come back to and lose dozens of hours in. With all the mods that exist, virtually any play style can be accounted for, leading one to experiment liberally with new character concepts and mod combinations. At this point, I don't play the main story anymore - hell, I barely set foot on Vvardenfell itself. Tamriel Rebuilt and its lovingly constructed mainland are where it's at. If we want a counterpoint to the crunch and soul-draining enervation of the AAA space, we need only look to the passion fans show for 20-year-old games. This is a strange, wonderful world that captures and holds the imagination in its grip, demanding iteration, immersion and perfection. A host of mod projects have answered that call - Of Ash and Blight, Ashfall, AURA, MUSE, MGE XE, and yes, Tamriel Rebuilt. Years of tinkering and troubleshooting have led me to construct an obsessively curated mod list that includes all of the above, and the result is a game that I can truly feel at home in. The tinkling bells of TR's soundtrack plays as my character treks across a valley wreathed by overhanging mushrooms and echoing with the calls of nearby wildlife. My character is tired - my pack guar and I pause our journey as I pull out a bedroll and break camp, erecting a tent for shelter and a fire for warmth. I slap down a grill and some nix hound meat and wait for it to cook, watching the stars pass overhead and reading to pass the time. After eating, I bed down for the night. Upon waking, my guar and I will crest the hill and behold the white-marble and stately minarets of Necrom, City of the Dead, looming ahead in the morning mist. You couldn't get this in the base game, and yet it feels like it was the intended experience all along. Though the Morrowind of today bears little resemblance to the original soundscape, graphics and content of 2002, I feel like this is what the Bethesda of yesteryear truly wanted to invoke for its players. Because of the talent and passion of Morrowind's fans, who work for free and at their own pace, that vision has now been realized. And it will continue to get better from here. There is no better time to play this classic than the present. 1. Baldur's Gate 3  It's difficult to express how important this game is. It represents what the modern industry is capable of, but consistently fumbles in accomplishing. How long have we lingered in this state, basking in the schadenfreude and outrage of broken release after broken release? Maybe BG3 was rushed a bit toward the end, sure, but it came out in a far better state than anything I've seen in recent memory. And, hell, let's just celebrate something that seems like it had genuine heart and soul poured into it, rather than the mindless, algorithmic impulse to chase whatever the newest trend is. Look upon the interminable procession of brightly-colored extraction shooters from yesterday's Game Awards to see what I mean - but take heart in that the iconoclasts were the ones deemed most deserving of respect, however grudgingly. Naturally, there's every chance that Larian, a privately owned company, and thus not beholden to many of the issues and cut corners that plague much of the industry, may eventually become another Bioware or Bethesda. Basking in our good graces today, scoffed at tomorrow. But they're looking pretty good right now, so let's give credit where it's due. I honestly can't say much about the game itself that hasn't been repeated a million times in the past few months. There are no fresh observations I can impart. The game is drat good. Flawed in some ways, yes, but it's difficult not to nitpick when the overall experience is so well-constructed. Superb writing, acting and atmosphere combine with a satisfying turn-based gameplay loop. Unlike my brother, I greeted its ending with sadness, and renewed excitement at whatever might be coming next. Everything you've heard about BG3 is true, and then some. Go play it. Enrico la Spaniard fucked around with this message at 18:12 on Dec 8, 2023 |
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Dec 8, 2023 17:44
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I realized I really should have included a very important Twitch clip in my GOTY list. https://clips.twitch.tv/ConfidentExcitedPlumberPoooound-Ac9GkRvc88HOlSUY This has been rectified. Edited to my post and shared here so folks see it. TotK: it's good.
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Dec 8, 2023 19:06
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Silver Falcon posted:I realized I really should have included a very important Twitch clip in my GOTY list. Based on everything I've seen about it, TOTK is Cargo: The Quest for Gravity does Breath of the Wild and I'm honestly not sure how I feel about that
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Dec 8, 2023 19:45
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Enrico la Spaniard posted:Everything you've heard about BG3 is true, and then some. Go play it. I haven't played BG3 yet. I will soon. But i've watched a lot of videos on it. Reviews, game tips, walkthroughs. I'm intrigued with having choices that profoundly impact the story, characters, and how your game plays out. Having mature writing, with good voice acting. But the top down isometric view doesn't seem very immersive. Neither does looking at a bunch of panels of icons for 200 hours. Yet one could look at a totk video, like "30 tips you didn't know about totk" that Gamespot uploaded, and it blows your mind. And they released 4 of those. I'm not even talking about the crazy builds videos that went viral, but things that were practical and useful, but still mind blowing. I know playing with a mouse and keyboard is ideal, but that means playing at my desk, with a smaller display, and less comfortable chair. That's not the games fault, but still, i'm wondering if all the praise is from people who were previous fans of the franchise, or D&D nerds that love turn based rpg's. The building and crafting in totk could be its own game. Shrines could be its own game, like portal. The eventide type survival challenges could be its own thing. If you get tired of doing something, you could do something else thats almost a different game genre. I'm not seeing anything nearly that dynamic in BG3. But people are saying it revolutionizes the rpg genre. How so? TOTK changed my whole mindset when playing. Using your own creativity and imagination with unlimited possibilities for combat, puzzle solving, and traversal. How does BG3 top that?
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Dec 8, 2023 20:14
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Bg3 has alot of immersive simulation DNA in it so you can approach alot of problems with creative solutions. Also use that creativity to set up massive, screen shaking explosions but I digress.
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Dec 8, 2023 20:19
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I think an effective argument can be made for BG3 in terms of its reactivity to the player. Early on, especially, the game is incredibly robust to the number of choices a player can make. This translates strongly to the gameplay, where, usually if you can think of a stupid spell interaction, the game has been coded for it. In so many ways it follows the philosophy of a game like TOTK, which is always trying to find a way to say "Yes" when a player asks "Can I do this." So like, if you get a spell that raises skeleton warriors from corpses, you can pick up a bunch of corpses with your super strong warrior and carry them around to drop them at the opportune moment for a skeleton warrior jamboree. And similarly the game will deal with you killing off major NPCs and the like really well, again especially early on. I would argue that we'll look back on Totk and BG3 very differently in the future. The black magic powering whatever the gently caress is happening with Totk's physics engine is likely to be more important for gaming in the long run than BG3 proving that if you take four years to make a game and millions and millions of dollars you can in fact make enough dialogue choices to handle almost everything. And further the decline in quality of BG3 towards the end of its run is marked, in a way that simply doesn't show in Totk. But that early reactivity, that ability to do anything you want, will have captured people in the exact same way that creativity does in Totk.
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Dec 8, 2023 20:26
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I would say that BG3 and Zelda both offer deeply "immersive" experiences in the way that you use that word, but whereas Zelda mostly attempts to minimize the instances of number-crunching video gameyness in its presentation, Baldur's Gate 3 fully embraces it. All of those onscreen icons and buttons exist to find novel ways of approaching encounters at the vast intersection of environmental hazards, abilities, and dialogue that reward lateral thinking and player expression. For instance, there's one encounter in an ancient forge where you have to fight a huge metal automaton that is resistant to all forms of damage except heat and bludgeoning. You can beat him conventionally with enough blunt damage, but you can also make use of the environment by turning a valve that forces him to trudge through boiling lava, melting his armor. And once you know how the mechanics of this forge works, you can lure him into the big press in the middle of the arena to crush him when his armor is melted. But why bother with turning the valve when your mage can cast Heat Weapon, overheating his armor automatically. And then again, why bother with using the press at all when you can have your Wild Shape Druid sit on the rafters above the arena and piledrive him in owlbear form for brutal amounts of bludgeoning damage. And that's just one encounter among the hundreds of unique scenarios that also encourage you to think expressively and creatively. BG3 knows it's a video game and wants you to GAME.
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Dec 8, 2023 20:37
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I haven't played TOTK, nor will I ever (not out of any disdain, mind you, it's just not something I'm inclined to play at this point in my life), so I'm actually in no position to compare them. From my vantage point they're pretty different games anyway, so I actually don't think there's any point in doing so. I'd say BG3 touts a different sort of immersion than the "this is my home" feeling I get from playing Morrowind. As others have said, it's more like an immersive sim that offers a wide variety of approaches to problems. There's a good amount of reactivity to your character class and your actions in-game, as well as the actions of your companions. This can translate to how the enemy responds during combat, what sort of dialogue you encounter, story beats, whether certain characters appear or vanish from the plot, etc. There's a general scaffold that remains more-or-less the same, because the plot has to go in a certain, pre-programmed direction (it's a game at the end of the day - in Zelda you'll always end up defeating Ganon, right?), but there's a lot of room for maneuvering that represents the best stuff I've seen from the CRPG genre. Other games struggle to capture that level of reactivity, simply put, while BG3 makes it appear almost effortless. It's not - many years of effort and early access went into fine-tuning the experience, but drat if it didn't work out in the end. As for the format stuff, like isometric perspective and using a mouse and keyboard, uh... I dunno, this sounds like a personal preference thing. I've played like this for almost 20 years now. I don't even think about it.
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Dec 8, 2023 20:52
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Play on a controller and you can have an over the shoulder perspective. I kinda wondered how long it would take for the comparative values of Tears versus BG to come up. To me Tears succeeds because it finds the next logical direction for self directed fun and systemic interactivity. BG succeeds because it brute forces all of that by hand covering as many permutations as could be considered, and for those that can't, it relies on a less robust, but still good systemic layer. Basically Larian decided to say yes as often as possible, inefficiency of development time and money be damned. Tears opted to work with a much stronger base layer for simulation. At heart they both try to solve the same problem, they just do it in what to me feel like polar opposite development ideals. Loving all your lists. This is my favorite thread on the forums every year.
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Dec 8, 2023 21:24
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ToTK and BG3 are really weird things to compare to each other. Like comparing Elden Ring to Disco Elysium weird. BG3 plays well on a controller, btw.
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Dec 8, 2023 22:01
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Both games will be on my list (spoilers!) but I’d say while TotK is much better at answering my question of “can I do this?” with “yes”, BG3 is better at immersing me in a full and believable world.
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Dec 8, 2023 22:02
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I can vouch for BG3 playing just fine with a controller. That's how I played it. In fact, the game completely changes its UI to account for whether you're using KBM or controller (on PC, anyway). It really is a drat find game that gets all the details right!
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Dec 8, 2023 22:05
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I think BG3 and TotK are comparable in that they focus a lot on letting players try something and way more often than not rewarding them for that effort, which is always delightful. Zelda with its sandboxy building/physics shenanigans and BG with a combination of crafted narrative stuff and systems fuckery. I think it’s what makes them really stand apart from most games. There’s nothing quite like getting an idea, trying it and having it not only succeed but be acknowledged in some small way.
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Dec 8, 2023 22:13
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Anno posted:I think BG3 and TotK are comparable in that they focus a lot on letting players try something and way more often than not rewarding them for that effort, which is always delightful. Zelda with its sandboxy building/physics shenanigans and BG with a combination of crafted narrative stuff and systems fuckery. I think it’s what makes them really stand apart from most games. There’s nothing quite like getting an idea, trying it and having it not only succeed but be acknowledged in some small way. Yep this is what I was saying, but far better and more concisely.
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Dec 8, 2023 22:33
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Yeah, I would say BG3 and TotK stood out to me above all other games this year because they are the rare game that gives you tools, tells you to use them, and then those tools generally work how you expect in most situations even if you're thinking outside of the box. If I saw a problem in BG3 then I could look at my spells, items and abilities and usually find something where I can go "that makes sense" and the game recognizes it. Same with TotK where it just gives you a sandbox of tools and goes "Figure it out" and even if what you figure out is a rag on a stick it feels cool because your rag on a stick works the way you would expect.
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Dec 8, 2023 22:55
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I love BotW but TotK was incredibly boring and too much of BotW, just again and in the air. That’s not bad but like 80-70% of TotK is just BotW again. I just couldn’t be bothered to regrind hearts and stamina again. The building is a neat gimmick, but didn’t do much for me. 5). Jagged Alliance 3 - scratched a tactical rpg itch I had and did it very well. A really good game overall. 4). Everybody Golf with Your Friends - A great gently caress around with friends game and super easy and clear to pick up for anyone. 3). Baldur’s Gate 3 - everyone has written pages about it, you all get it. 2). Remnant 2 - a great co-op shooter/souls game, my friends and I had a blast and the randomized levels, dungeons and worlds add a ton of replayability. 1). Alan Wake 2 - Remedy is quickly becoming one of the best developers out there. If they figure out how to make really good combat than they would be unstoppable. Also, Herald of Darkness.
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Dec 8, 2023 23:20
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Good games In particular Order: 10) Dungeon Munchies: Solid Platformer, though the first boss needs to be toned down 9) Inscryption: Good, but the 3rd part was slow to get going. 8) Remnant 2: I want to like this more then I do, but it just feels lacking 7) FF16: Really good even about half way through 6) Genshin Impact: I just really like the feel of the game, and the characters and story are really finding their once pace 5) Balders Gate 3: I like it, but I get real bad choice anxiety 4) Armored Core 6: I am a mecha sluuuut 3) Zelda Tears of the Kingdom: Just a solid game all around 2) Pokemon Violet: Very good game, even with the technical issues. Meowscarada is my new favorite pokemon, and the fully evolved Alligator is second. 1) Warframe: It's just the perfect game for me Bad Games: Bayonetta 3: Every part where you play as Bayonetta was fun, everything else was poo poo, especially Viola Cereza and the lost Demon: The controls were a bit rough, and the last boss bugged out on me, just underwhelming in general Rune Factory 5: Tedious Anora fucked around with this message at 22:01 on Dec 9, 2023 |
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Dec 9, 2023 02:56
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I've updated my list, not to change the rankings, but to add a note about the (un)availability of Super Cloudbuilt and my thoughts on the original in comparison after the 2020 and 2023 updates (tl;dr: original loving rocks and has gotten a lot of improvements to bring it up to par with Super; just play that). If anyone else puts (Super) Cloudbuilt on their list, we should probably try to arrive at some kind of consensus on which version of the game to list, because they're basically the same game.
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Dec 9, 2023 04:11
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omitting bg3 from my list feels bad bc i can tell it is a hell of a game but i just havent quite had it shift to actually enjoying combat encounters. i can sort of tell im playing it wrong and the story has kept me going to moonrise and i keep just trying new things out and abusing the exploit where withers just doesnt give a poo poo when you steal from him to try out a bunch of tav builds and alternate companion builds to find out what my preferred playstyle is.
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Dec 9, 2023 05:55
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I want to get back to Baldur's Gate 3 next year when I can sort myself out and have the time for it. My own little story with Minor Spoilers from like the first few hours of the game: My first death was not to some combat encounter, or a devious trap, or something going wrong. I died because I just loving let Astarion drain me dry because I'm a horny idiot. It was kind of hilarious.
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Dec 9, 2023 06:47
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