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10) Hylics I don’t really know what to say about Hylics. It’s an rpg in the vein of like…Earthbound I guess, but it’s less about that and more about just the art. I love the way this game looks and feels and I highly recommend it to people but explaining why feels impossible. You either get it or you don’t. I need to play the second one soon. 9) The Good Life  I kickstarted this game like 5 years ago and I was not disappointed. A bizarre immersive sim set in rural England where you can turn into a dog or a cat and just hang out with SWERY’s weird characters? Yes please. If you liked any of SWERY’s previous stuff you’ll like this, if you didn’t you won’t. If you’ve never played anything designed by him in the past I recommend giving it a shot and keep an open mind. His games are that beautiful blend of ambitious and broken jank. I love it, but I understand why some people are put off by it. 8) Halo Infinite (multiplayer) https://twitter.com/ponybop/status/1461056838313689097?s=20 Honestly I’m not going to be buying the campaign until they add co-op to it. My wife and I are both big into Halo and the idea of switching off on death in Halo just feels weird to me, needs to be co-op. Anyway, I put 60 hours into the mp beta in the first 2 weeks of it being released and dragged all my friends into installing it and playing it with me. The progression system for the battle pass is poo poo (although their most recent update did improve it a bit) but the gameplay itself is just stellar. I tend to play a 5 hour session almost every night and I still don’t feel bored of it. Just needs the progression system fixed, more maps, and better playlist selection. I love oddball and ctf as much as the next spartan but sometimes a girl just wants to play slayer for 3 hours straight. 7) Travis Strikes Again: No More Heroes  Welcome to the Suda51 section of Xinder’s GOTY list. TSA is a return to Suda’s classic text-based adventure game style with a twin-stick beat-em-up layered over the top of it to keep the masses entertained. I’d actually say playing this game was my awakening to just what an amazing write Suda is. Like sure I’d played Killer7 and the previous NMH games before, but I didn’t really get it until I played TSA. It feels literary in a sense, drenched in theme and subtext about the idea of nostalgia, while also being another goofy game about a funny assassin man who murders people with a lightsaber. Also if you skip this before going into NMH3 you deserve all the confusion you get. These two games are part of a set. 6) No More Heroes 3  God I love No More Heroes 3. This is like…the ideal video game in my head. It just hits everything I want from a video game and then gives me more on top of it. That it isn’t even in my top 5 just shows how brain-damaged I am. I’d say this is the first time Grasshopper has actually cracked a really fun gameplay where I’ve actually wanted to keep playing and do fights not for any reward but just because the combat feels really fun. I also managed to go through all of Suda’s classic games over the summer before it released so I was primed for everything this game wanted to give me. My brain just stewed in this really pleasant feeling the whole time I was playing it. If this was Suda’s last game, I’d be fine with that. It’s the perfect send-off. That said, I’m really happy to hear he’s already working on more games (including a collab with SWERY). 5) The Silver Case  The Silver Case is best looked at as a sort of cipher for understanding Suda51’s writing. You can enjoy his later games like Killer7 and No More Heroes on face value and they’re really good like that, but revisiting them after playing The Silver Case is like seeing them through newly opened eyes. Themes and connections exist that I just hadn’t considered at all. Honestly, I think playing through this game and it’s sequel this summer have affected the way I view video games (and art in general) to a greater effect than anything else in a very long time. 4) The 25th Ward: The Silver Case  Speaking of the sequel, here it is. This game will slide right over you without meaning anything if you try to play it without going through The Silver Case first. It’s basically the same thing as The Silver Case but more in every regard. It does an amazing job of building off the previous game(s) and reaching new highs. Special shout out to Masashi Ooka, the writer of the Placebo storyline, for giving me a surprisingly excellent representation of a trans woman (in the sense that her struggles feel relateable and her solutions to the problems feel real). 3) Psycholonials  Yes, the new visual novel from the person who inflicted Homestuck on the world. I’ll admit I was really into Homestuck back at the start of the last decade (and then fell off on it hard) so I definitely have a starting point here. But honestly I think Psycholonials works really well, maybe even better, if you don’t know anything about Homestuck. It’s just a game about two mentally ill and online-poisoned girls who don’t know how to de-escalate constantly making a situation worse until it spirals so far out of control that they can never go back to how things were before. Also its very political and if you’re not at least a little bit of a leftist you probably won’t have a good time with it. 2) Fallow  It’s hard to write a review of a game that affected me so deeply. I'll start by mentioning that I've followed Rook for a few years now so I knew I'd enjoy this game, but I was unprepared for how deeply it impacted me. In just a few short hours, Fallow managed to touch on a great many of my own feelings and insecurities about things that I often cannot talk about, not out of fear but because there simply aren't words to describe them. It did this in a way that felt totally genuine. Fallow touched me in a way I would say is underneath words. The game also has Rook's wonderful art and music so obviously all of that is fantastic. I'd recommend everyone I know to play Fallow, but I don't think I can really talk about it any deeper than I have here. I can't really articulate what makes this game so good. You just sort of have to go through it yourself. 1) Shogi  Got a shogi set as an xmas gift last year and proceeded to spend more time playing this funny little game than I have any video game I played. I’m still pretty bad at it, but I have a ton of fun finding a hole in an opponent’s defense and levering it open with intense pressure. Games like shogi and chess just sort of never get old, there’s always a new strategy to try and it just feels good to sit across from each other and move the little pieces around the board. I love shogi. Honorable Mentions: Flower Sun & Rain, Re:Kinder, Rule of Rose, Sine Mora, American McGee's Alice
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Dec 13, 2021 10:05
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| # ¿ May 10, 2024 07:55 |
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