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Hello again, here has one more year survived in increasingly shaky circumstances. We're not going to get any younger, so let's enjoy GAMES while we can. Escapism is healthy, in moderation. Without further rambling, here is the list; but there are a few extras worth discussing. The WTF, Publisher award: Tales of Arise (2021) The game I have to disqualify from the year's top ten list for two reasons: One, I have not finished it yet. Two, a decision was made to have skills and stat boosts attached to the costumes that cost real-life money. I already paid 90 Canadian dollars to buy the game on launch day for the pre-order bonus of angel wings. I am willing to pay for meaningful content, but not for gameplay options that are arbitrarily put behind a paywall. Honourable Mentions Sonic Generations (2011) Sonic Team plays it safe here, by only putting in things that the audience has mostly agreed on as good and executing it competently. This is somewhat disappointing to me; the weirdo who wants weird and edgy stuff like Shadow the Hedgehog, slippery controls and all. Yugioh: World Tournament 2007 Elemental Hero Stratos is the best guy ever! He gets the other cool HERO dudes into your hand, and cleans out your opponent's messy back row cards. Run 3 copies, because you can in this game. Pac-Man World 2 (2002) https://youtu.be/Nx2FaW2_4L4 An ambitious effort, with 6 worlds of varied stages, each having a different music track. The game kinda loses steam after the volcano area. Rayman Origins (2011) With smooth motions, Rayman runs, jumps and slides through an assortment of awesome areas. Now, the top ten list of games that I played during the year 2021. 10. StarBoy (2021) The alien is here, and he is cute! A fairly simple game, with the mechanic of being able to walk on air when you have the light. 9. The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask (2000) https://youtu.be/Ai-_JRAqeik The trendsetter for time loops, this game has earned its reputation as a classic. Gather knowledge, and use it to help all the people, and then eventually stop the disaster. 8. Atelier Lydie and Suelle ~ The Alchemists and the Mysterious Paintings ~ (2018) https://youtu.be/K10mTmipYzI The magic of making miracles with anything you can find and put in a cauldron. This game leaves the plot light to focus on characterization, which brings chill vibes as you experiment with bringing new aspects out from your gathered materials and have cute interactions with a group of friends and fellow alchemists. It is also hella gay. 7. Rise of the Tomb Raider (2015) The story and setting were less focused than they were in 2013, but the side modes with cards that modify the game make up for it. 6. Call of Duty: World War 2 (2017) There have been many games set during World War 2. So, what makes this one stand out? The quality of the presentation and the squad. Even the silly and outlandish elements give a kind of 'camp' sincerity. 5 stars, would fight Nazis with my boys again. 5. Resident Evil Zero (2002) Horror in a train, then horror in a suspiciously familiar mansion, then horror in the basement, then horror under a church, then horror in a factory, then a loving frog eats you. 4. Pokemon Ultra Moon (2017) Four islands filled with fabulous friends. Alola is the most fleshed out region to date, and the regional variants change and bring new feelings to the first generation Pokemon designs. I love my rainbow sludge monster. 3. Final Fantasy 7 for the Playstation 4 (2020) https://youtu.be/UbAy4MfmKrE This is specifically the remake, which is great and adds standout new characters such as Shinra Middle Manager, Roche and CHADLEY. Everything looks and sounds excellent. 2. Azbu (2016) Wow it's whales! Wonderful! Swim with and save the sea creatures. 1. Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot - Trunks, The Warrior of Hope (2021) I'm contributing review energy to the Spirit Bomb that will defeat the competition! The Trunks DLC is not quite as good as the main game, but it is still worth checking out as it has new story content after the credits that has never been adapted before to a video game.
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Dec 14, 2021 06:05
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looking at the hall of fame... drat we're good at goty lists
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Dec 14, 2021 06:43
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Mamkute posted:9. The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask (2000) Whenever they release that for the N64 collection on Switch, that'll probably make my Top 10 list again. Still can't believe Skyward Sword is getting a proper Switch release before that and Wind Waker.
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Dec 14, 2021 06:51
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As of right now, there are only eight games I have yet to play that could make it on this list, but six of them are new releases I’m waiting for price drops on, one I’m waiting for the PS5 version to release, and the last I own but haven't started, but I’m pretty confident would only make the HM list at best. Overall, a decent year for video games, and I’m really hoping the back half of 2022 gets filled out with games I want, because the first half has almost nothing of interest to me, especially with the delay of Saints Row. Regardless, my current goal for 2022 is to finish the year without a single game in my backlog, as I’m closer to that goal than ever before. First, the best games I first played this year that did not release this year: Games of Yesteryear 2021 Like A Dragon https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VV1lOo-T15I Despite the slowest start in Yakuza series history, followed immediately by the worst plot sequence in the entire game (whatever the gently caress that Nanba's brother poo poo was) LAD is the best Yakuza game. I see people sometimes mention how it's obvious this is RGG's first JRPG, and while I agree on a small level, I'm also astounded by how well everything works, the minor QOL stuff absent in a lot of other JRPGs, and how seamless of a transition this series made to an entirely different genre and gameplay format, while retaining and enhancing so much of the usual Yakuza fare. This is an exceptional game, one of the best JRPGs I've ever played. The combat music is so good, the game looks great, the job system is a good start, I like all the party members (justice for Eri, we demand Seong-hui), and I'm really looking forward to what LAD2 does with Yokohama, and I hope Ichiban gets to hang out with Amasawa because Yagami was kind of a bad choice to do LJ's school stories idea with. Besides the balancing issues late in the game, and the game being a little too referential to DQ to the detriment of the gameplay, I do think the story is probably the weakest element of the game, only because it starts slow and doesn't really actually move along until nearly half way through the game. Ichiban is a great protagonist, and the second half of the story is mostly good (Mirror Face is a substory that fell into the main plot), so if anything, I have higher expectations for the next game. I really, really like this game! Probably would have ended up taking FF7R's spot last year. Genshin Impact Unless this game does something to irrevocably piss me off I have sunk too much time and money into this to give it up so it'll probably end up in the HM list every year. It's great, and despite some really aggravating missteps lately, specifically with new enemies and plot/character/dialogue writing, it's still fun and enjoyable. It's free. Play it. Death Mark A horror adventure game originally released on the Vita, Death Mark takes influence from Japanese folklore, urban legends, and real life haunts to make a great and genuinely intense experience from start to finish. Every chapter gives you a new location and two partners to explore it with. You're tasked with investigating the location in a dungeon crawler like format until all clues related to a spirit and their killings are found. Some clues can only be found with specific partners, or if you solve puzzles. Sometimes clues are gated behind "story progression", which are usually just things like short scenes establishing the spirit or giving a minor bit of character development to someone when you go to certain spots. There are about two or three clues in the entire game that are missable, which are related to something I'll mention later. Once you collect all the clues, you take on the monster in the only combat in the game: turn-based fight where you and your partner have to do certain actions in certain orders to battle the enemy, using the collected clues about the spirit and their weaknesses for help. For example, creating a makeshift shield where you open a broken umbrella and your partner slides a large piece of plastic sheet inside of it to stop the spirit from hitting you with a volley of sharp attacks. Once you successfully beat the spirit, depending on your actions in the fight, the spirit is either saved or killed, which changes the ending to the chapter as well as the overall ending to the game. Death Mark is so unique and cool as hell. The mysteries are intriguing and the puzzles both in the investigation and the boss fights can be really big brain type poo poo, in a good way. Each chapter introduces at least one new character, and they aren't exactly the most fleshed out, but they usually leave the game one way or another by the end of the chapter they show up in. I highly recommend going into this blind, but make frequent saves, because boss fights can come up kind of suddenly, and sometimes the difference between killing and saving a monster might be one very specific action you did or didn't take, or a missable clue you didn't get because the game (intentionally) progressed past it. Honestly, Death Mark is like, a top 3 recommendation out of all the games here. It's a brilliant blend of dungeon crawling, adventure, puzzles, and horror. The sequel, NG, is good but much more ambitious for better and worse, and leans heavier into the visual novel aspects Death Mark didn't really have, while also being like, twice as long. The upcoming Shibito Magire is the third entry, and comes out in Japan in March, with the localization probably coming in the late summer or fall, and looks to be a "proper" sequel to Death Mark. All this to say: please play the Spirit Hunter series. Thank you. Cyberpunk 2077 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GWMSvX4Q218 Yes, the unfinished mess from a studio that took three tries over a decade to make a 7/10 game made one of the best games I've played this year. To be honest, if this game released three weeks later it would have ended up on my GOTY list, at either #4 or #5. I really, really enjoyed my time with this game. I did a pretty much completionist playthrough with female Streetkid V, and Cherami Leigh does such a great job. Who would have thought the voice actress for one of my favorite Persona characters would be good here? I ended up doing every ending back to back, starting with the ones I heard the least about to the ones I heard the most, so Sun-Temperance-Star-Devil. The Star ending is so goddamn good I kept waiting for something to come and ruin it, but it surprisingly never happened, and ended on a bittersweet but mildly hopeful note. It's a shame I had to end it all with the immensely depressing Devil, but Star with Judy is perfect and you cannot change my mind. Yes, this game has it's problems; missing features, lack of choice, illusion of choice with those present, a really uninteresting main story due to it's rushed pace and linearity, and every single system and mechanic is fundamentally flawed, but Cyberpunk still manages to be an entertaining, fun, stylish game from start to finish. I can name only two other open world games I can just throw the in-game radio on and drive around the city taking in the sights and sounds, and they both came out over a decade ago in Saints Row 2 and Grand Theft Auto IV. Night City is so, so good looking and such a well designed city parts of it actually reminded me of areas I've driven IRL, which is insane for a fictional city. Even if the streets and sidewalks are empty or filled with repetitive, inconsequential literal footnotes, Night City is still an atmospheric, beautifully crafted wonder, and it’s developed inhabitants are highly memorable. Resident Evil 2 Remake I played a couple of hours of RE7 a few years back and didn't get into it, and had a desire to try it again this year. I loaded the old save and after a while realized part of the reason I stopped playing was because I didn't really know how Resident Evil games worked, so I started a new game and after the second Jack fight, just short of where I originally left off, started enjoying the game. However, by the time Luke's section was over and the infamous boat section started I really wanted the game to be over with. By the time I finished, I had no desire to replay the game, but I had this growing desire to play RE2. Honestly, the biggest reason was because I was impressed by the game's graphical fidelity. It looked really good; and I would quickly learn it plays even better. The reason I mention all of this is because RE2 is the best part of RE7, the Main House, expanded over the course of six hours, the time of my first playthrough. I cannot praise this game enough: it absolutely consumed me for two weeks straight. The three main environments are expertly designed and give off fantastic vibes, complemented well with the tense musical score. The sound design, from the enemies to the guns to the guns making the enemies explode or burn up is so visceral. Every single character plays their role well, and Leon and Claire are genuinely really good protagonists. Mr. X is a tension machine, and even though any player can very quickly figure out optimal strategies for circumventing him, any sudden appearance means you have to completely change your route and immediate plans. The game is as short or as long as you want and I love that. It's a game where I can start and finish a playthrough while experiencing anything and everything I want to. Hell, I rarely play games more than once, and played RE2 like eight times in the aforementioned two weeks. I remember groaning when I saw the platinum trophy required Hardcore playthroughs, because I immensely dislike trophy lists with required multiple playthroughs and/or difficulty settings, but RE2 manages to make Hardcore playthroughs fun. It's quite a testament to how well designed a game is that every difficulty and route combination are all equally fun and rewarding. I have two main issues: First, I wish the secondary protagonist sections were skippable. They're both short but ultimately their brief length and complete pointlessness in repeated playthroughs does drag a bit and bring the mood down for a moment. Sherry's is worse though, just because it's five minutes of alternating between holding a button or pushing the left stick forward. Secondly, I just wish there was more of this game. I would pay any amount of money for more Leon and Claire in environments with the same design doctrine as here. I love the interconnectivity and puzzle solving, and it sucks that RE3 briefly touched on it then completely threw it out in favor of linearity, setpieces, and boss fights. I never played RE2/3 classic, but I can still see why people love 2 and hate 3, even if I think 3 is just a sometimes small, sometimes massive step down from 2. While my experience with several Resident Evil games after playing RE2 has been mixed so far, I loving love RE2 and I hope Capcom makes another RE game like this one, whether that be with Rev3 or RE9, though I have low expectations for that. Ultimately, Resident Evil 2 Remake has retroactively become my 2019 Game of the Year, unseating Fire Emblem: Three Houses, and might even be among my top 10 favorite games of all time. Next, games that deserve shout-outs: Honorable Mentions 2021 Riders Republic I didn't even consider playing this game until the Gamescom trailer earlier this year. Genuinely surprised me at how good it looked, and while it is solidly good, it's unfortunate how much potential it's missing out on. It falls short for three reasons: lack of progression, little depth, and sparse post launch support + roadmap. As of right now, the only reason to play the game outside of pure enjoyment is to grind for bucks and the RNG gear system. There's a decent amount of events and unique stunt challenges, all with different side objectives and baseline difficulty, so dedicating a few hours every so often is the best way to currently, and probably indefinitely, approach Riders. It's absolutely not as polished, content filled, or rewarding as Forza Horizon, but if you played Steep, this is essentially the ultimate and refined version of that, considering it's the same development team. $60 is a hard no but $20-$30 is definitely worth it. Mass Effect Legendary Edition ME1: I always thought ME1 was slightly over hated. I never disliked the inventory system and I feel the dialogue and choices still hold up decently well. The gameplay changes were fine, but it's really obvious that ME1 was where most of the work in this collection went and Bioware really needed another 3 months to fix all the problems updating the game brought. Lots of control lock ups, freezes, hang ups, just a slew of technical issues. Game is great though, and playing Bring Down the Sky for the first time was cool, albeit it was kind of short and uneventful in the grand scheme of things. This was also the first time I collected all the Insignias, Writings, etc., and I did not expect the ME3 pay-off at all, so that was a pleasant surprise. ME2: Always has been in my top 10 games of all time and still is. Tremendous from start to finish, never feels off. The graphical enhancements help a lot, and playing this through again reminded me of my only complaint: I wish there was a proper endgame, like Citadel's arena or something. Once you complete all missions, you can't do anything anymore, and with such a large and awesome cast, it sucks that there's a hard limit to what you can do with them. I can never bring myself to get anybody killed in the suicide mission, even a decade and multiple playthroughs later. ME3: When I played the first couple of hours of ME3, I thought I was burnt out because I had just played like 60 hours of ME in less than a week, but actually, Earth-Mars-Palaven is easily the worst section of all the Mass Effect games, full stop. It is so, so loving bad. The writing, forced linearity, level design, the weird mesh of boring politics poo poo while the galaxy is being demolished, it's god awful and it's incredible how good it starts to get the moment you step on Tuchanka. From that point forward, outside of some dumb annoying poo poo like Kai Leng and James' constant sexual harassment towards female Shepherd, it's pretty consistently good. This game also has some weird QOL issues, like the codex and journal being laughably bad and worse-than-ME2 armor customization, which could have been excused at the time, but it's really frustrating things like this couldn't have been uniformly adopted to one ideal system throughout all three games. This was also the first time I played through Citadel, and it definitely lived up to the hype. Seeing everyone together, especially Wrex, having a kick rear end time while a dumb goofy plot unravels was such a great time. The scenes in the strips were great, and the arena is so cool and definitely something that should have been retroactively added to the other MEs, or at least allowed the full inclusion of all squadmates in the series, like Virmire Sacrifice, Kasumi, Mordin, etc. Lack of meaningful consequences to dialogue or actions suck. Ending has and always will suck. High EMS Destroy is the only actual choice and is canon. The Caligula Effect 2 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K2d0fr75YF4 I really enjoyed Caligula Effect: Overdose to the point it's probably in my top 5 JRPGS, but it was brought down by a lot of missing QOL features. I was really excited for CE2 because I thought a sequel would only bring improvements, and while CE2 does alleviate some of CE:O's flaws, it also brings along worse overall writing and a baffling omission of CE:O's best addition, the Musician route. I think CE2 is a good game, and I got my $50 out of it, but I do think a possible, but improbable CE2 Overdose would help a lot. There's far worse JRPGs out there and making sweet as hell combat combos to banging vocaloid tracks never gets old for me. And finally, this-is-where-the-goty-list-actually-starts list, my top five games of the year, in descending order: Best Games of the Year 2021 5. Last Stop I was pleasantly surprised by how good this was. It does start out slow, and the three story arcs have wavering moments of peaks and valleys of pacing and quality, but the character writing and dynamics are top notch, and the general mystery is engaging. I liked all three protagonists, but John Smith's story was really fun the entire time, and a really great scene midway through his story about toxic work culture is one of the best scenes in the entire game, if not the best. Most decisions in the game don't do much other than affect how that specific conversation flows, like how a character can call you out on lying about your whereabouts if you're inconsistent at the beginning and ending of your talk with them, or the general conversation while walking to a destination can change from one topic to another. This is fine, as the game never really advertises itself as anything more than a visual novel like, and the final choices each character makes are the only ones that change the ending. Each character is kind of set in stone about their ideals, personality, beliefs, etc., so the decisions you the player make are more about asking "is this what Donna would do?" or "Would Meena value this option over another?". It's not a deep character study or anything, but it does present and deliver a much more charming experience than it first appears. The game does hit a really hard wall in the final chapter because the plot now has to introduce an entirely new area and characters, explain the overarching mystery, and solve all these new dilemmas while tying up any loose ends from previous chapters. It does succeed in bringing a decently satisfying conclusion, but it's plainly obvious that either time, budget, and/or scope hit a limit here and the developers couldn't do as much as they wanted. This game is short, being a 99% linear experience at around 6 hours. It's on GamePass, and I highly recommend this for a relatively laid-back, really delightful experience. 4. Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy A great game that achieves everything it sets out to do. Basically the entire cast is entertaining, with Mantis, Cosmo, and Gamora probably being some of my favorite characters I've interacted with this year. The plot never tries to do more than it absolutely needs to, managing to balance both exposition and character development for the Guardians and other main characters. Groot is shoved off to the side for obvious reasons, but Drax and Rocket have pretty major sections of the game devoted solely to them in either focus or narrative structure. Gamora doesn't really get this treatment but she's by far the best Guardian in many ways so while it would have been nice for her to get a bigger story focus, it wasn't strictly necessary simply because she is constantly stealing the show. Seeing people getting mad at a game they didn’t play winning Best Narrative at a show they swear they don’t actually care about is also pretty lmao. Only a few games actually impress me with their graphical offerings but GotG is an insanely pretty game with stellar facial motion capture, ironically at its best with alien characters like Nikki, Lady Hellbender, and Mantis. Speaking of, I'm not a fan of Marvel or the MCU, (haven't even watched either GotG movies), but I like how the game never really expects you to know or care about anybody preemptively, especially because some included characters and collectables in here are pretty deep cuts. This is a completely new adaptation and it respects both the new and the knowledgeable. The gameplay is the most divisive element of the game and while I wasn't as negative as some others are I did feel, especially as the game went on and combat started becoming more frequent, that all enemies could have had 5-10% less health and the overall experience would have been a lot more enjoyable. I liked the Huddle Up mechanic though because I was never really in danger when using it I got the same handful of lines most of the game, and I do wish Guardian cooldowns were slightly shorter as well. Personally, my biggest complaint is the really strange way the developers have approached saved games/chapter select with a patched in, quasi hidden Save Rollback feature, and by extension the overtly long nature of many chapters in general. Chapters either needed to be cut in half (keeping the content, just doubling the number of chapters) or having mid chapter checkpoints that can be jumped to. Another complaint is while the first two-thirds of the game have a lot of unique and consistent banter between the Guardians, the quality and quantity starts to diminish in the last act. It's still impressive the writers managed to pull off so much good dialogue that most players won't even hear, however. Overall, this is a drat good game and while it won't be something I reminiscence about years from now, it's a great, highly enjoyable effort. 3. Hitman 3 For all intents and purposes IOI considers Hitman 3 to be *the* Hitman game, and everything prior to be DLC for it, so that's the way I approached this write up and the placement on this list. I first played Hitman with the entry Blood Money when I was like, ten years old. I think I got pretty close to the end, but my most reliable memory is constantly replaying A New Life. I played Absolution when it released but remember nothing about it despite apparently getting nearly every single achievement for it. Years later, I picked up Hitman 1 GOTY and the DLC for 2, as Hitman 2 was given away through PS Plus and it gave me an excuse to finally come back to a series I've been slowly growing more interested in. In two weeks I played about 100 hours, and I wasn't even half way through Hitman 2. Every destination is its own level of quality, ranging from the top tier Miami to the bland Marrakesh, but for the most part, that doesn't stop the moment to moment gameplay of Hitman from being absolutely fantastic. Going from a absolutely idiot when I first walked into Paris to abusing the hell out of Mendoza's AI didn't feel like I "figured the game out", instead it felt like Hitman was rewarding me for knowing it's ins and outs, for sticking with it and learning what to do and when to do it. Playing the games back to back also showed that IOI knew exactly how players manipulated certain situations, so they created new environments that forced veteran players to completely change their approach, and it made sense from both a gameplay and narrative sense: the world is getting more dangerous, so the old guard either adapts, or dies. One thing I really like about every level is how most of them are static: nothing really changes unless you make it happen. Why is this a positive? Because it means when something goes wrong or is unexpected, it's a new opportunity you, the player, created, intentionally or not. Destroying all the cameras in Whittleton Creek means the targets make an emergency meeting, and you can kill both of them in one sniper shot or explosion. A body getting found means the Dubai targets are forced to evacuate, letting you cut their parachutes leading to an "accidental" fall from grace. Shooting certain bells in Colorado leads to a fiery outcome for everyone near you. Moments like these lead to dynamic and divergent gameplay where, even if you plan a specific route, you may find an entirely new objective or method you never knew about. I have exactly two problems with this game: I wish there was a better visual indicator for trespassing zones, and I wish IOI figured out how to make fun escalations, especially for how adamant IOI is about having you play them. Other than that, I cannot wait for season 2's content updates. 2. Persona 5 Strikers https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=18fI53b2VFE Before I played the #1 game on here, this was my default GOTY for a few reasons; most importantly "It's Persona", and even if it did get beat out for the top slot, it's not because this game was lacking. Hell, if anything, this game kinda exceeded a few expectations. I've played maybe an hour total of musou games, and never really cared for them, mainly because I feel like I've experienced everything the genre has to offer within that timeframe gameplay-wise. Persona takes the musou formula and combines it almost seamlessly with the unique turn based mechanics the series is known for to create a more action RPG style gameplay. It's really remarkable how many mechanics Strikers retains from the main series and flows so well; One Mores, Persona skills, the protagonist's exclusive Wild Card ability, all of it fits perfectly. The few negatives are more nitpicks or extremely subjective. The soundtrack is a bit weak compared to P5/P5R, but that's a huge ask of any game. It's a bit unfortunate most of the endgame content is a huge grindfest that I will never do because it takes at least a literal dozen of hours fighting the same boss to get the platinum. Some party members are inherently not as good as other, as I legitimately only used Wolf to get his Master Arts, but some of the benched Phantom Thieves from P5/P5R got time in Strikers, as I actually used Yusuke quite a bit for the first half of the game, Haru is a AOE machine, and for as much as I legitimately loving hate Morgana, he's the best support in Strikers vs being okay in P5/P5R. The story, while predictable, does have a nice balance of the first half giving a shine to the more notoriously neglected party members of P5/P5R, and the second focuses more on the new characters of Strikers, but the game never loses that feeling and vibe of this bring a summer road trip between the Phantom Thieves, and more importantly, a group of close-knit friends. Hell, I've played at least 400 hours of the original Persona 5/Royal alone, and Ryuji's opening line welcoming Ren back put a huge smile on my face that rarely left, because even when the stakes are at the highest, the Phantom Thieves know they can win, because they are a group of rear end kicking friends, and I love them so much. ...and Game of the Year 2021: 1. Gnosia https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5StF7DfOJhs As of this writing, it is April 14th, 2021. I finished this game three days ago and I am still thinking about it. This is the game that inspired me to start writing my GOTY list early, because this game is a goddamn incredible experience. From the opening scrawl I knew I was in for a wild ride, and the quick pace the opening establishes is maintained throughout the entire game, meaning it is very easy to lose several hours of your day accusing your friends of conspiring to kill you. There is so much I love. Not a whole lot is explained about the characters, the ship, the worlds the characters are from, or even the universe itself, and it's easy to explain why - it doesn’t matter. The game, nor the situation the game is set during, allows or necessitates long winded expository dumps. The only time characters give exposition is to establish their basic backstory, or offhandedly mention the planet they used to live on. Hell, Jonas and Yuriko probably have the most backstory, and Jonas is legitimately insane and Yuriko fucks with the player so much it’s clear there’s a lot more going on with her than what she lets on, and if anything she says is even remotely true is a question she quite literally asks both the protagonist and the player. Speaking of characters, this is one of the few games I’ve played where every character has a role and fulfills it perfectly. Whether it’s the legitimately funny Shigimichi, the stuck-up Raqio, the virtuous Gina, or the absolutely beautifully written and my personal favorite Setsu, there isn’t any character I would take out or rewrite. My only complaint is that I can't spend more time with them. I want a Gnosia 2 where I can hang out with Chipie, Comet, Stella, everyone here, and hang out with my friends/enemies. Very few games affect me so much, that when the credits roll and eventually go back to the main menu, I'm just sitting there in silence, barely having a single thought go through my head, as I soak in and realize I just experienced something truly unique and unforgettable, and Gnosia is one of them. Truly one of the best games I've ever played.
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Dec 14, 2021 08:02
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Rarity posted:Point of Clarification: I updated my post accordingly. I kinda thought they were fit to be listed as a single entry, but then splitting them up let me kick Far Cry out of my top 10, so it's for the best.
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Dec 14, 2021 09:21
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Extortionist posted:let me kick Far Cry out of my top 10 Ubisoft in the mud Thanks!
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Dec 14, 2021 09:31
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10) Heisei Pistol Show Yeah I'm putting a game here that I experienced through a YouTube playthrough with dubious translation. I discovered Parun's RPG Maker works this year and was blown away by his style of storytelling and black humor. The aesthetics of Pistol Show in particular are phenomenal and I was gripped by it's narrative of a doomed gay kid on a destructive path. This is a work that has an aesthetic so singular it's going to live with me for a while. 9) Flower Sun and Rain  I played FSR as the middle part of my experience playing through Suda's entire Kill the Past catalogue of games and it was a curveball. FSR is out to make you have a miserable time in a way other games often claimed to do this intentionally aren't out to do. Something like Drakengard is out to make you have a bad time because you're playing as bad people. FSR is out to make you have a miserable time because its singular ethos is that work just plain sucks. FSR encapsulates the entire experience of working a monotonous data entry job with such pinpoint precision it shocked me. The protagonists starts out helpful and outgoing, going out of his way to take pride in his job as a finder of things but slowly grows more jaded and lashes out as the game progresses and obnoxious islanders push him into more tedium and menial tasks. You see him grow bitter and tired of the world in tandem with the baffling complexity of the game growing and the experience is unique. This is low on my list because I'm kinda rating these based on fun, but FSR will live with me for life. gently caress work. 8) Bugsnax  Bugsnax is like a child's toy for me. Playing it makes me stimulated to the point of hypnotic trance. I love it. 7) Hearts of Iron 4 but really just Equestria at War  I just started playing HoI4 because it has an MLP mod. 250 hours later yeah I'm kinda obligated to put it here because I played it for the first time this year. This game is probably bad for me. 6) No More Heroes 3  NMH3 rules. The gameplay is simple but drat fun and kinda the best action game Grasshopper has managed to develop thus far. It warms my heart from a gamedev pov that the stated reason is simply the same gameplay programmer working on Grasshopper for so long he just got really, really good at it. The game in general is a fabulous art project of tantalizing energy levels that remain high throughout the game. I love that it's incomprehensible franchise pastiche with legitimately incredibly high audiovisual artistic merit. It's just a jubilant hyperactive barrage. I loved it when the Silver Case character showed up and basically danced around going "Haha Silver Case Kamui Kamui Kamui" and that was it. Fu is really cute I would kiss him. 5) The Silver Case & 25th Ward   The Silver Case and its sequel 25th Ward comprise a postmodernist Japanese anthology novel in the style of Murakami and other contemporaries combined with the audiovisual delight of Grasshopper Manufacture. Text-based adventures highlight what phenomenal writers Suda and his co-writer Ooka really are when the story adapted does not have to adhere to the budget limitarions of a visual implemenation. The visual design is sleek and stylish and the stories build dense, complex webs of characters deftly. Despite consisting of about 40 hours of just reading the experience left me with a stimulating storytelling experience unparalleled by most games I play and re-established visual novels as one of my favorite genre of videogame. 4) Hylics  The claymation style of Hylics is simply gorgeous. Sometimes games leave me with the strong desire to create art and Hylics predicated one of my most fruitful bouts of painting in a while when I played it last February. Very excited to play the sequel. 3) Psycholonials  One of the actually quite good works of art springing from digesting 2020 alongside things like Crisis Zone. Hussie's Psycholonials is wildly energetic in a way that took me entirely by surprise. As someone whose entire personality was derailed by 2020 and set on escalating wild tracks the momentum of which I feel to this day the story resonated with me quite a bit. The dive through spiraling out concepts of identity in flux, plummet into surface level politics and spirituality, and the death drive of self-aesthetics won't resonate with everyone, but for those who interact with that kind of thing on the regular I highly recommend the VN. 2) Fallow   It's trite to compare art to its inspirations, but Fallow is equal measures Myst and Yume Nikki. A couple hour RPG Maker experience with a strong aesthetic core years in the making, alongside a lofi guitar soundtrack that evokes Silent Hill 3 but with the creator Ada Rook's signature style, it is a thoroughly atmospheric and captivating experience. One of those games that takes you back to being 13 and discovering a weird, dense game online overanalyzing every bit with people on gaming forums. It's a great time. 1) Taiko no Tatsujin  I can't name just a single game because I've fallen in love with Taiko no Tatsujin in general. I could play this game infinitely and because of the community it has online, I could. It's incredible to have a strong drive to improve my skills in a game just so I can play the hardest custom songs online eventually (I can't yet, not by a long shot). It's just plain old rhythm game bliss. Honorable Mentions: Re:Kinder, Shadows of the Damned, Rule of Rose, Halo Infinite multiplayer, LoZ: Majora's Mask, The Good Life Nina fucked around with this message at 11:44 on Dec 14, 2021 |
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Dec 14, 2021 11:40
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Nina posted:5) The Silver Case & 25th Ward These are two different games, please decide which one you'd like your points to go to.
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Dec 14, 2021 11:55
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In that case I'd pin them on 25th Ward specifically
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Dec 14, 2021 11:57
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whoa veeg did swears 
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Dec 14, 2021 12:34
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Dissapointments Disco Elysium: This game was a wonderful proof of concept for what I've been saying since the release of Planescape Torment, certain games just shouldn't have combat. The problem, for me, is the game was pitched as being insanely reactive but is fairly linear in how actual progression is done and had absolutely no idea what to do with me. I beat the game earning 0 achievements, and I got offered maybe a handful of thought cabinets throughout the entire game, and there were multiple thought cabinet thoughts that I then I had to waste a level deleting them because they were actively detrimental to what I wanted to be doing so I just stopped using the system entirely. The overall narrative is also a rushed mess, and the ending sequence, the one place where it should and could narratively adjust itself based on your choices, is completely fixed and suffers horribly from it. I would play someone's knock off of this in a hearbeat, looking at you Obsidian, and it gave me my new favorite Voice Actor who I hope goes on to a long and illustrious career. It is not on Game Pass Hades: This is my fault, I hate roguelikes. People were like "hey its the least roguelike ever, its so good" and yeah, its probably the one that most caters to me I've tried. Its still something I don't enjoy, so lesson learned. It is on Game Pass Ooops! 2: None of you have heard of this game or the movie its based on. I bought it because it is a flagrant Overcooked 2 clone. This is the single worst game I played this year because unlike Overcooked where you hold the button to cook, here you furiously mash it. For every. single. part. of. cooking. Unplayable on a fundamental level. It is not on Game Pass Top 5 1 - Sable: Someone took Breath of the Wild and cut out all of its bad parts. Well maybe not the framerate, but the rest of the junk. This is an absolute treasure of a game and I could probably talk for days about various aspects of and how they all naturally build to the games central conceit . This is game story telling, something that can only be done in the medium and never bogs you down with dialog or cutscenes. It gives you the sandbox and the narrative guiderails to tell a story that expresses yourself with nothing in the game mechanically interfering with that. Soundtrack is great too. It is on Game Pass 2 - Pyschonauts 2: A charming, smaller scope platformer with an admittedly messy ending moral fumbling supplemented by some excellent levels back to back about some tricky subjects that are handled with care and love. The game is sumptuous to look at making the most of its dreamscapes, the humor is consistent throughout, and if it could have come out like, 15 years ago, we'd have probably been sick to death of the franchise by now but instead it feels like a swan song before another very long hibernation for another title. It is on Game Pass 3 - Halo Infinite: The best multiplayer shooter in years also comes with a pretty good single player mode. Single player has lots of rough edges and corners, but the fundamentals are there you can feel it in everything you do. The only open world FPS where I have not dreaded clearing out bases and found them sufficiently fun to puzzle out and deal with. It must be mentioned this is without a doubt the finest Combat Barks in a game since FEAR in 2005. It is on Game Pass 4 - Labrynth of Yomi: Is it the best DRPG I've ever played? No, not it is not. Is it a neat, well paced, relatively easy, with simple yet decently engaging combat gimmick that is absolutely chock full bursting QoL tweaks and multiple well designed interlocking systems? Yes, yes it is. Be warned, its grim, grimy, and gross in a schlock horror way not in "I do not understand how human beings work" like similarly titled but unrelated DRPG Labryinth of Refrain. It is not on Game Pass 5 - Quake Remaster : Quake is really, really good and this is the finest remaster I've ever played because despite having played Quake like, 8 months prior to this I couldn't tell that the models and graphics were new they fit in so perfectly while still looking better like your nostalgia makes games look. You can also find posts on this very website that I didn't even realize the restored opening sequence to a level was new because it fit that seamlessly. It is on Game Pass 6-Lacuna: A short adventure game that does not overstay its welcome, has solid writing, and most importantly has what feels like actual detective work without become weird esoteric puzzles. Its a joy to play and while the narrative is on rails you feel like you've moved it around appropriately based on your choices. The sheet system should be ripped off for all future detective games. All in all, what I was expecting from Disco Elysium but it failed to deliver. It is not on Game Pass Honorable Mentions in No Order The Ruined King - A solid RPG that makes League of Legends lore more "real" and fun. Had some missing QoL at launch that keeps it from greatness in my mind, especially with the loss of features from the studios previous outing, Battle Chasers, which was effectively the prequel to this game cause hoo-boy are assets reused. It is not on Game Pass Dusk - Its a good, solid, throwback FPS but the weapon roster/enemy roster/level layout just didn't do it for me the way Quake does. Still, wonderful game, probably would be my sixth rank. It is not on Game Pass Dragon Quest Builders 2 - Have you ever wished a building game had way more narrative structure to it so you weren't just aimlessly lost but still had plenty of time to construct whatever stuff your heart desired? Here you go. A bit too much talking and drags by the end for me, but really, quite charming. It is (was?) on Game Pass Tales of Arise - They gave Tales a good combat system and tons of quality of life features, then forgot to make the late game enemies part of that combat system or how to make a satisfying story and characters through to the end. It is not on Game Pass Flight Simulator - Never in a million years would I buy this, but its fun to pick a place and fly there. Does an oddjob with Tokyo (uh, thats not a river surrounding the imperial gardens) but most places its so convincing and realistic you can get lost looking for specific local buildings and landmarks or enjoy things like the sunrise over a mountain. China is, as expected, awful looking. It is on Game Pass Barudak fucked around with this message at 01:47 on Dec 23, 2021 |
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Dec 14, 2021 14:43
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1. Psychonauts 2 The sequel to one of my favorite games ever that may have actually surpassed the original. Absolutely beautiful game in all aspects, from the art to the level concepts and design to the writing and the attention to detail. It's also a triumph in how to make a good sequel. Understands everything that people loved about the first, delivers more of that without forcing any reinventions, but improves on what needed improvement at the same time. It's a joy to play and experience from start to finish. 2. Dark Souls I played through the Souls trilogy for the first time this year. It's difficult to rank them, I think. You could argue for any of the three being the best in the series depending on which aspect of the games you value most. I have to choose, though, and I choose DS1 first because the inexperience with the series made the first-time playthrough riveting. Undead Burg remains one of my favorite areas in games, and when I landed there I instantly 'got' the hype of Dark Souls. Everything I'd heard about the game over the years proved true. The sense of mystery, the unknown dangers, the frustration of bonfires and losing souls (until you learn to let go...), the confusing lore, the interconnected world design. It is magical. A wonderful game. I shared much of the experience in the Steam thread as I played through the series so shout out to those posters for tagging along, too. 3. Dark Souls 3 This one I just can't stop thinking about and of the three it's the only one I've done a second playthrough of so far (though I'll go back to the others too soon enough). It has by far the best boss fights in the series - some of my favorites in any game - and I had a lot of fun planting my summon sign to help people with bosses just to experience the fights again, and this despite being a strict singleplayer-only kind of person. I also think it has the best individual level design in the series, though the world being more linear is a little bit of a bummer. 4. Prey Talos I might be one of the most wonderfully crafted locations in games, with superb atmosphere and attention to detail and a great arsenal of toys to mess around with. Really enjoyable gameplay and a fun story. A game that certainly invites multiple playthroughs and I'm already looking forward to the next one. I originally had this at number five but decided that the Mooncrash DLC being so goddamn good elevates it one spot. Mooncrash might actually deserve a separate spot on the list, being standalone and so different to the main game, but no matter. It felt great to nail the perfect run, relying on your knowledge and experience to plot a course through the map and whatever curveballs the game throws at you to successfully escape with all five characters. 5. Dark Souls 2 All roads lead to Majula.  The strange, dreamy quality of it sets the tone for the rest of the game where you're mostly out in the country in bumfuck nowhere where weirdo poo poo happens. There's a peculiarity to this game that makes it fantastically compelling, and I find it the most melancholy and loneliest of the three. It unfortunately does suffer from some infuriating encounter design and mostly forgettable bosses. loving Iron Passage, goddamn. gently caress off.6. Embracelet A supremely chill, good-natured coming-of-age story set on a remote Norwegian island. I had the loveliest time exploring the little town, uncovering some mysteries and getting to know the characters. A very cozy little adventure. 7. Wandersong A supremely chill, good-natured... wait, I just did this. But Wandersong really is genuine and heartfelt in a way few games are. It wants to give you a big hug and if you let it you will feel better. I want to write more about it but I don't know what else to say – it's just a joyous and colorful and fun game. Also the gag with the achievements made me laugh a lot. 8. Analogue: A Hate Story Bought this on the strength of a post in the EffortPost thread. It's fascinating but difficult, and there's a palpable sense of dread underpinning it as you uncover the story bit by bit, though the writing is well-paced and deftly tempers the unease with the occasional lightheartedness when appropriate. A powerful and memorable experience. 9. Tales From Off-Peak City Vol. 1 I wasn't sure what to expect of this one and I'm not sure what to write about it either. Surrealism can sometimes feel a bit forced, but it isn't here. For all its weirdness the corner of July Avenue and Yam Street feels oddly natural. It makes sense, which is a testament to how well it's put together. The game is well-written and entertaining, and often really funny too. Good insights for pizza aficionados. 10. The Big Con I often struggle with actually playing any games (or doing anything at all) because of a bunch of mental health issues. I can sit at the computer and look at all the great games in my library that I'd like to play, but translating the desire to play them into actually installing any is impossible. I just can't do it. There's some kind of missing link, an inability to translate desire into action; it's a bad case of avolition. It's incredibly frustrating and in practice means I play far less games than I'd like to (and have a far emptier life in general than I'd like to). There are probably a few games better than The Big Con that could've had this spot, but The Big Con was the first game I played after two months of playing literally nothing at all. It's a very cute and charming game, and journeying along with the well-meaning and rad junior delinquent Ali to, well, rob and swindle people, I was constantly reminded that, yes, games are so good. And that precipitated a period of a couple of weeks in which I was finally able to un-paralyze myself and play some other games, too. So thank you, The Big Con, you get the tenth spot. Sway Grunt fucked around with this message at 20:08 on Dec 14, 2021 |
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Dec 14, 2021 20:04
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Made with Ranking Engine 10.) Subnautica: Below Zero  I loved the original to death. This sequel runs better and makes some improvements but the on-land sections and the story all feel like they weren't finished in time and rushed out the door. Still worth it if you enjoyed the first and would like another helping. But if you haven't played the first then I have good news for you: you get to play Subnautica for the first time! 9.) Chicory: A Colorful Tale  https://youtu.be/hYPbC8W9eMY A thoroughly pleasant and sweet game that I managed to play on the PS5 but in hindsight PC with mouse support would have made it much better. I don't have an artistic bone in my body but I still had fun painting every tile in the world a nonsense color. The puzzles are creative and the story is touching without taking itself too seriously. If you need a mood elevator this is a good one. 8.) Metroid Dread  That's some good 2D Metroid. 7.) Resident Evil 3: Remake  I've had this game on my shelf for over a year and I never touched it. Why did I wait so long? Sure it's just more RE2 Remake but I loved that game and I like this game a lot too. Also the original RE3 was just more RE2 so it's true to its source material. It's an 8 hour action game that's fun and graphically impressive. Exactly what it needed to be. 6.) Valheim  An excellent co-op viking game with a frighteningly large procedurally generated map. Your enjoyment hinges on convincing friends to come and build a viking village with you. 5.) Psychonauts 2  I'm still kind of amazed this game actually turned out well. It's in the spirit of the first game but you can definitely tell the creators are older, more introspective, and much more world weary. That's fine, I am too. 4.) Resident Evil Village  My first PS5 game. It's a direct sequel to 7 but I don't think it quite lives up to 7. Also making it in the spirit of RE4 sounded like a good idea but that's so different from what 7 did that it clashes a bit. Still, there are lots of great and fun moments even if the entire thing doesn't quite gel. I like Resident Evil games and this is a good one. 3.) Deltarune Chapter 2  https://youtu.be/Xb1zr2QqzcM I should be sick of this nonsense by now but somehow I'm not. These games (or parts of a game) just have too much heart. (And excellent music.) 2.) Snow Runner  I can't believe how much I enjoy this game about getting trucks stuck in the mud. Have you ever asked some friends to come over and help you with a project around the house only for it to go horribly wrong yet somehow you all end up laughing and having a great time? That's Snow Runner. Drive trucks with your friends. Get stuck. Come back with bigger trucks to unstuck your other trucks. Those get stuck too. Except the one that rolled down the hill. You know what? I'm gonna say it. This is the Dark Souls of driving games. The feeling of finding a new truck or upgrading an existing truck and then blasting through a section that you couldn't navigate before provides an immense sense of accomplishment. My playtime for this game is measured in weeks. 1.) Ghost of Tsushima  https://youtu.be/sc4_dXjkCl8 An open world samurai game made by western developers? That sounds terrible. Ha! Joke's on me this was the most fun I've had with a video game since Skyrim back in 2011. The sort of game where I could wake up on a Saturday morning and play straight through until evening. I haven't done that since... well Skyrim. The combat is FUN! You don't just have to stealth it up either. They found some great ways to make kicking down the front door just as effective and fun. The armors are all very impressive and I happily spent hours on side-quests just to unlock and upgrade them. It's also an absolutely beautiful game with amazing outdoor areas that were a joy to explore. I spent a lot of time standing on mountains tops just taking in the view. I went through a particularly rough spell this year (didn't we all?) and thank goodness I chose that moment to give Ghost of Tsushima a shot. I'll always remember it for helping me through a difficult time. wash bucket fucked around with this message at 04:50 on Dec 15, 2021 |
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Dec 14, 2021 21:52
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I'd never heard of this, but I decided to put my list of 10 into it for fun, and it turned out in the exact order I had them tentatively placed. I'm taking this as confirmation that my list is correct.
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Dec 15, 2021 01:52
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ShakeZula posted:I'd never heard of this, but I decided to put my list of 10 into it for fun, and it turned out in the exact order I had them tentatively placed. I'm taking this as confirmation that my list is correct. It got suggested earlier in the thread. I just decided it was worth it to keep mentioning it. cheetah7071 posted:For anyone having trouble ranking, but who does have a list of games they played, here's a tool to help you out:
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Dec 15, 2021 02:50
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sure are some good and cool games here, h-heh
Erwin the German fucked around with this message at 15:37 on Dec 15, 2021 |
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Dec 15, 2021 03:07
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I like the way you formatted your list. Specifically with small thumbnails and then a link to a YouTube video without it being embedded. Imma edit my list and do a bit of that too.
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Dec 15, 2021 04:44
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GOTY Nominees 1. Returnal This is a masterpiece of game design, built by masters of their craft. If you are fortunate enough to have a big-rear end A/V system, you are in for a treat, because this game is an audiovisual bomb, even the controller haptics blend seamlessly into the overall kinesthetic experience. Returnal is for the third person action game what Sekiro was to the Souls genre for me. 2. Final Fantasy XIV: Endwalker If you care about Final Fantasy games at all, or jrpgs, or rpgs, you should play this game, start to finish. The combat is dated, the questing is bland, MMOs are a moribund genre, and yet in spite of all that, this game is just an incredible experience. The world they've built, the stories they tell, and the places you explore are all wonderful. The developers love the series, they love their fans, and the fans love the devs. Join one of the Goon guilds. Honorable mentions: Caves of Qud I'm waiting for the 1.0 release and the finale of the story to vote this as a GOTY nominee, but it'll be a shoo-in when that happens. I'm increasingly thinking Qud may be one of the most important games of the last decade or two, but it'd be a much longer post to flesh that thought out. Metroid Dread This is an amazingly well built game, and a great experience. However, you've seen and played this before, and I think the game and maybe even the genre has been pushed about as far as it can go between games like this Hollow Knight, Axiom Verge 2, Blasphemy, etc. I'd love to see what they can do with Metroid in 3d. Destiny 2 The storytelling and design teams have finally hit their stride, and they're doing some great stuff. Unfortunately, this stuff is mostly only great if you've been following the game since D1Y1. That aside, the sandbox is in a remarkably great place, and the future for Witch Queen is extremely bright, it may be Taken King levels of quality and hype. PvP is in a dire place, the bleeding of the team to prop up their new IP teams really, really, really hurt the momentum of content development, so there have been no new maps or modes in literally years, despite having a great pvp sandbox to play with. A study in contrasts. Jupiter Hell A strong, clean traditional roguelike. If you've been scared away from the genre by obtuse or inaccessible games, give this a try. Doom with the serial numbers filed off, easy to get into, easy to play. Controls great with a gamepad! The Ascent Just ok from a pure gameplay standpoint (fun coop!), but holy poo poo the visuals and atmosphere. If you dig hard on cyberpunk aesthetic, play this. Biomass This is not going to appeal to most people, and that's ok. One man tiny 2d indie game with a really, really weird and cool aesthetic. A bit like BLAME or Biomega, maybe Akira if you're familiar with those animus, or think just weird rear end biocyber exploratory sci fi. Mentions New World Best MMO, possibly of all time. Never actually played it, mind. But it's provided me more entertainment than some games I've paid for. Outriders Notable for a bunch of silly reasons. The most obvious being the catastrophically hilariously bad bugs and patches post launch. Also notable for the fans of this genre having really bizarre and unrealistic expectations for games that can be played Forever. The combination produced a flash in the pan zeitgeist of arpg/looter shooter angst that was hilarious to watch. Oh the game? It was fun to coop, and the story flirted with some interesting ideas.
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Dec 15, 2021 06:36
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7: Arknights This was on my list last year, it's still pretty fun and I'm looking forward to the new events and gameplay mechanics in the future (and new ways to bilk me out of gacha money). 6: The Great Ace Attorney This would be higher up but I haven't gotten past case 1-3, sorry! I liked what I had played of it so far though and it definitely has potential to be one of my fav AAs. 5: Final Fantasy XI During XIV's inter-patch lull days I decided to get back into FFXI. Armed with a controller and a ton of addons I found myself getting into the storylines (and the grind) which, while not presented as well as XIV's thanks to its ancient engine, were pretty decent. I managed to finish most of the major storylines so I'd like to think that I've seen enough to make a call, but there's still a few that I haven't, along with experiencing the endgame hellgrinds which I'm told are particularly terrible. 4: Trails in the Sky FC I'm pretty late to this game, but hey, it's the first single player JRPG that I actually completed in a long time, and I wasn't bored at all doing it. It was fun just going around on adventures with the crew, and I enjoyed the combat system. Having read the completionist LPs of FC, SC and 3rd a long time ago, I was vaguely aware of major plot points, but I had forgotten enough that I didn't really mind going into it knowing the main twists. Still had fun! 3: Oldschool Runescape I'm an MMO junkie, and Runescape was pretty much [i]the[/t] MMO that put me down this path back when I was a kid. Usually when I get a hankering to go back to Runescape I go to my account in the modern version, but after watching a bunch of OSRS youtube videos I decided to try out something new and fresh and went with OSRS as an Ironman account (can't trade with other players). It's certainly been interesting learning common Ironman strats and also doing quests which I haven't done in years. I play it whenever I have free time and it's quite nice and chill, making numbers go up. 2: Hades I played this early in the year after seeing all the hype in last year's thread and I wasn't disappointed. I was doing a run a day or so up until I got to the end credits. I haven't played since then but one day I'll like to get back to it and get the true ending. Also, my favourite weapon is the Hera bow. Getting the Artemis legendary boon with it along with a bunch of other +bloodstone buffs means that you basically have a bunker buster in your bow. 1: Final Fantasy XIV: Endwalker I walked to the end and I loved every goddamn second of it. The tears, the joys, the drama, all of it. I've been an XIV junkie for a long time (since the end of Heavensward) and man, Endwalker managed to bring everything I love about it to a satisfying close. Also, the gameplay is still great, with my job of choice (Paladin) staying solid with some fun new rotation tricks, and the fights are great too. Music as usual is legendary. I'm looking forward to new adventures in the patches to come. Until then, I will give you some reasonably spoiler-free out-of-context screenshots of my catgirl Warrior of Light.     
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Dec 15, 2021 06:41
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Remember friends, your list must include at least 5 games to be eligible 
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Dec 15, 2021 07:11
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This year more than many I have spent wallowing in a swamp of apathy, so forgive me if my thoughts on some of these games are a bit brief. Some of them I only played at the very beginning of the year and didn't pick up again, so it's hard to remember them. But let's get into it (edited because i'm dumb) 10. New Pokemon Snap  Ah the return of a classic. Gave me much of what I was hoping for in a reboot, and a nice sense of completion to wrap it all up without the game feeling too short. 9. No Man's Sky  Played through the revamped story mode and was pleasantly surprised. It's quite well written! 8. Kena: Bridge of Spirits  This game really scratched the Zelda itch that I have been feeling for a very long time. Very cute little creatures and a beautiful world to explore. So many hats. 7. Valheim  A gorgeous, dangerous world to explore and survive in. Really cool viking lore set up and the art style is unique as well as beautiful. Very fun survival game, can't wait for more content updates. 6. Path of Exile  The game I will forever whale for, this year's leagues were quite fun and in the most recent one I got further than I ever had before. Still haven't gotten to Sirus though  5. Monster Hunter Rise  It's friggin' Monster Hunter. It's good, though fell short of my expectations after World and Iceborne. The dogs are good though. 4. Guilty Gear Strive  My first ever fighting game, I picked this one up because tons of people said it was one of the easiest to get into for beginners, and they weren't wrong! Unfortunately PvP games like this always give me tons of anxiety but this is a gorgeous, silly game that I can heartily recommend. gently caress May though. 3. Psychonauts 2  This game was a delight, an excellent sequel to the first one, still just as funny and touching. Some great level design and music, wonderful characters, and a good story. 2. Monster Hunter Stories 2  An all-around excellent game. A better Pokemon than Pokemon. Engaging combat, tons of content, a great story, and adorable baby monsters. Look at the little Deviljho! Look at the murder in his widdle eyes!  1. FFXIV: Endwalker  Yeah this wasn't even a contest. FFXIV has overtaken Okami as my new favorite game of all time. This game has brought me so much joy, and this latest expansion gave me everything I wanted. It is the awe-inspiring finale to an 8 year story and it is an absolute goddamn masterpiece. It is perfect. Kerrzhe fucked around with this message at 03:16 on Dec 16, 2021 |
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Dec 15, 2021 08:05
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I've noticed a lack of Shin Megami Tensei V on lists or in the top 5. Maybe I'm not the only one who, despite being a long time fan, wasn't "feeling it"?nachos posted:Is there a FF14 movie or recommended let’s play or something? Every year this thread makes me very sad because I will never be able to find the time to experience this game as it should be. Watching a let's play or a "cut for time cinematic" won't matter much. It's a very meaty game. While something like say Final Fantasy X is comparable to a feature film, Final Fantasy XIV is like a prestige TV series, with tons of interconnecting stories happening at once, with even the smallest of resolutions taking multiple seasons. Even if someone linked a "Let's Play" that's essentially just the cutscenes and snippets of boss battles, it would probably clock in dozens of hours.
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Dec 15, 2021 09:26
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punk rebel ecks posted:I've noticed a lack of Shin Megami Tensei V on lists or in the top 5. Maybe I'm not the only one who, despite being a long time fan, wasn't "feeling it"? It's been on a reasonable number of lists for being a somewhat niche title
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Dec 15, 2021 09:47
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Rarity posted:Remember friends, your list must include at least 5 games to be eligible I'm afraid there were only 2 GOTY candidates this year I'm ok not being counted Also your avatar rules
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Dec 15, 2021 10:11
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What's the deadline for submissions? I have a couple of games I wanna complete first before I complete my rankings but will only have time off to do extended gaming next week.
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Dec 15, 2021 10:31
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anakha posted:What's the deadline for submissions? I have a couple of games I wanna complete first before I complete my rankings but will only have time off to do extended gaming next week. It's like people don't even read the rules  quote:Deadline for submissions is 1st January 00:00AM PST
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Dec 15, 2021 10:33
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 My eyes just skipped over that part in the OP because I was too excited to read the monthly wrap up.
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Dec 15, 2021 10:38
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Rarity posted:Remember friends, your list must include at least 5 games to be eligible Me watching people leave their favorite games out in the cold by not ranking enough to affect the master list:
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Dec 15, 2021 12:44
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Regy Rusty posted:Me watching people leave their favorite games out in the cold by not ranking enough to affect the master list: Feeling the same way. Please, just add three more games, or number the ones you did not, please. Please. 
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Dec 15, 2021 12:48
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VideoGames posted:Feeling the same way. Please, just add three more games, or number the ones you did not, please. Please. Same, what the gently caress.
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Dec 15, 2021 13:34
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The only game I played this year was with your heart 
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Dec 15, 2021 13:41
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Rarity posted:The only game I played this year was with your heart The backstreet boys warned me about you
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Dec 15, 2021 14:03
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Samus must be devastated reading the thread right now where is the dread?!!
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Dec 15, 2021 14:08
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Help Im Alive posted:Samus must be devastated reading the thread right now Metroid being a non-starter is definitely the story of the voting so far
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Dec 15, 2021 14:09
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Metroid Dread will be on my list whenever I gather the brainpower to actually post it. It's one of only two 2021 games on there, I think.
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Dec 15, 2021 14:13
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More like Metroid Dreading the reveal of where it is on the SA GOTY list with no one voting for it and Nintendo choosing to end the series for another decade.
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Dec 15, 2021 14:16
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Miyamoto sweating as we speak.
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Dec 15, 2021 14:18
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Yay, I love this thread every year! Great OP  Rarity posted:Point of Clarification: Thank God, I was one game short of a Top 10 before, though now I guess I have to decide what to drop from the list 
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Dec 15, 2021 14:20
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Rarity posted:Remember friends, your list must include at least 5 games to be eligible Very well, the Twin List has been updated.
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Dec 15, 2021 14:20
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| # ? Apr 28, 2024 06:37 |
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VideoGames posted:More like Metroid Dreading the reveal of where it is on the SA GOTY list with no one voting for it and Nintendo choosing to end the series for another decade.  Looks like you're part of the problem, Veeg.
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