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god tier, rar. you are god tier.  i'm not writing my list until the end of the month because i'm still finishing so many games 
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Dec 11, 2022 13:47
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I know we disagree often, but I really like your list 
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Dec 12, 2022 13:25
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Endorph posted:light jokes about games being bad is to me a much more positive and uplifting experience than enforced positivity all the time, which sounds actually miserable. i get not wanting it to be in this thread specifically but i would not describe calling god of war bad as 'devolving' Actually it's gotten super bad lately, and literally nobody has been enforcing positivity anywhere except this nice thread here that is happy and gay. Elsewhere the endless crap tier bargain bin jokes have turned a lot of threads into shallow, cynical, tit for tat shitshows that alienate potential new posters and incentivize thread main character behavior. It is lame and should be dropped off a cliff faster than a Tekken character.
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Dec 14, 2022 14:56
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Lisztless posted:
Kull the Conqueror posted:
Folks, you love to see it.
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Dec 16, 2022 00:43
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Tremendous list, Esco. That's a lot of good first times in one year, especially with some of those older 00's games which take a bit more effort, or hardware flexibilty at least, to get back into. I still wish I hadn't sold my copy of MGS3 Subsistence on PS2, the one that came with MG/MG2 and bonus disc, plus MG Online. Leave it to one of gaming's true pioneers to have made the first truly worthwhile remaster in the biz as well.
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Dec 16, 2022 22:16
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a kitten posted:
This image was precisely my gaming moment of the year. I went STR/INT for the entire game and was starting to think it would never pay off, until it somehow did in the best way imaginable.
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Dec 17, 2022 23:53
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drat, your list is so good! Regarding 2LOU, Hardspace, and Elden Ring you really hit the nail on the head.
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Dec 18, 2022 00:55
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Belgian Waffle posted:
Holy poo poo, how big is your list? 
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Dec 18, 2022 18:22
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Regy Rusty posted:Looks like it's 56, BP No, I mean the full list.
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Dec 18, 2022 18:29
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I love your highlights sections. goon lists still innovating half a decde on
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Dec 19, 2022 02:18
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Jerusalem posted:Earlier today at the Relax Or DIE studios.... lmao
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Dec 19, 2022 06:01
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An Actual Princess posted:
GOTY OF THE YEAR
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Dec 19, 2022 12:19
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Looper posted:
gently caress yes. One of the best stories in all of gaming.
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Dec 20, 2022 11:09
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Looper posted:i feel bad ranking it so relatively low, too many good games out there... I think most people don't even end up playing it so any attention is good attention.
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Dec 21, 2022 23:32
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10 days left 
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Dec 22, 2022 04:59
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Rarity posted:I've not even started my list oh no! 
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Dec 22, 2022 07:15
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2022 (56k = no) Hello comrades! I thought gaming this year was pretty great, a year populated by long awaited remasters/remakes, an insane array of confident indie titles, and some amazing, ambitious big budget releases. I spent far too much money and time gaming this year, but in return I was treated to a diversity of titles the likes of which I've not experienced since the late 90s. Despite the disconcerting degree of market consolidation that went down over the course of the last 18 months, gaming remained something that I feel really positive about, even as the rest of life kind of stayed in the shitter. In addition to exploring a lot of new titles I returned to old favorites for a stint (Helldivers, FF XV, SOTN, Bloodborne, Monster Hunter World) and made inroads with a number of games I should've played years ago. It was all a bit too much at times, and maybe next year I'll pair it down somewhat, but overall medicating the year away with quality entertainment seemed to take the edge off other crap that went down. Anyways, I know as soon as I submit this post I'm going to feel a giant emptiness inside, so I'd like to express my appreciation to all of you out there for making this community so funny and charming, for elevating my spirits if you will. Also, thank you Rar & Veeg for putting in the effort to make all of this come together. Happy New Year, everyone! Some great stuff to look forward to next year, so let's put a bow in 2022. First off, a few specialty categories: -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- MISC  You've Been Here Before... The Last of Us: Factions / Hours played = 88  In terms of pure hours played TLOU Factions was my third highest this year, but it doesn't feel fair to rank this game with the others. My feelings on it are known already, it's the best multiplayer game ever made. The Love Affair That Wasn't Prodeus / Hours played = 3  Was pretty excited to dive into Prodeus from the look of the trailers and all of the testimonials floating around but it just didn't click, not that I didn't try, though the audiovisual presentation is totally on point and the game largely delivers what was promised. I dunno, something about the game balance or the flow of levels just didn't grab me. It's chock full of content/options and obvious passion from the devs, but I doubt I'll pick it back up. ...But For The Lack Of Time; There's Always Next Year! Tactics Ogre Reborn: Let Us Cling Together / Outer Wilds: Echoes of the Eye   These two excellent games got pushed out by the year end scramble so I'm going to give them their own reserved blocks in 2023, and take my sweet time doing it! Loving what I've played so far, diamond tier poo poo. 2022's Fall From Grace A Plague Tale: Requiem / Hours played = 22  One of my most anticipated this year based on my affection for the first game, but after finishing this I pivoted pretty hard on it. There are some amazing moments of spectacle and the soundtrack is nothing short of gorgeous, but rarely have I witnessed a story so bleak in the medium (lol 2LOU ain't got nothing on this game!), and seldom have I experienced a case of developers so fervently throwing their own characters under the bus for lack of any ideas about how to write them. That ending and post-credits stinger, woof, what a profound disservice to the world and emotional connection Asobo spent years creating. -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- PLAYED, LIKED, AND CONSIDERED ## - Sifu Hours played = ??  Beautiful, ambitious step up from Absolver, Sifu is laser-focused on the sort of heavy repetition and player training that games like Sekiro and Nioh have been exploring in the last few years, and while it never feels quite as tight as Sekiro it makes up for it with a sense of cinematic flair and open ended scene direction that's all its own. The tutorial alone is enough to get your blood pumping, but prepare for pain. Also, the Arenas DLC is out in a few months so I imagine this could be reappearing higher up for me next year. ## - Resident Evil 2 Remake Hours played = 7  Capcom has been on fire for the last half decade, releasing technically polished and ambitious sequels within their big franchises as well as remakes of their most popular legacy titles, and REmake 2 lands right smack in the middle of that effort. It's an enormously faithful translation of what made RE2 so special 20+ years ago, but with enough of a budget to really wow you and new twists and scares to throw veteran players for a loop. I still remember my original playthroughs of RE2 '98 quite well so I decided to play this one after REmake3 which I had no history with. The feeling I came away with is that while RE2 is a timeless concept of a horror game, too much running from the Tyrant can kill the mood. So yeah, amazing quality overall, but the game had a way of feeling same-y at times. ## - Ghostwire: Tokyo Hours played = ??  Ghostwire is kind of hard to categorize. I feel like the devs spent 80% of their development budget painstakingly modeling the ephemera of Japanese life and then plopped some faux-shooter gameplay in at the last moment, and yet it's not an entirely unsuccessful operation. It really sells the mood ya know, to take the most densely populated metropolitan area on earth and delete...everyone. There's an existential horror to it that the best walking sims tend to work with, and I'm sure there are some pandemic trauma undertones waiting out there in the rain made of kanji. Additionally it's packed with weird esoteric humor and mythology that I don't feel like I am all that privy to, and the combat visuals, haptics, and monster designs are excellent. It's wild that games as weird as this can occasionally still command decent budgets. This is another title I think will pop up in the discourse after a few years, it's too much of an eccentricity to go unnoticed for long. ## - The Callisto Protocol Hours played = 12  This is such an odd duck. A wildly impressive technical showpiece, one judged under the microscope of hype and developer pedigree, kind of ends up being a genre mishmash with odd bedfellow ideas gruesomely stitched together in ways that are at once familiar and utterly alienating. It's both retro and future, tense and exhausting, repetitive and startling. It feels like a passion project crossed with an exploitation film, it wants to offend but also wants to be taken seriously. It's full of weird little bespoke details and also stuffed to the gills with punishing gauntlets. It's a masterclass of environment art, atmosphere, lighting, animation, haptic and sound design, but contains almost no sense of pacing or narrative direction to speak of. On the plus side it also has no compass, no annoying waypoints, no map, none of the handholding tutorializing of modern game design. The melee combat feels insanely innovative and just a bit on the silly side. The performance capture is unreal (4.7!) but strangely distant. Ultimately the game doesn't deserve the hate I see going around. I feel like at some point the conversation will swing back to this one eventually, but for the moment it missed its audience and is stranded in the fog somewhere. Maybe some more story DLC will round out the experience, but I'm glad I played it anyway. ## - Klonoa: Door to Phantomile Hours played = 6  A "from-the-ground-up" remake of the first Klonoa game originally released on the PSX a quarter century ago, this new edition is paired with a remake of Klonoa 2, and both games have been visually altered to what is a happy median between the pixel art of K1 and the cell-shading of K2. I still had to turn the brightness down a bit, tho. K1 is a classic of the platforming genre, both insanely cute and emotionally effective, while also being a good challenge in the gameplay dept. This new version actually suffers just a tad from slippery platforming physics that make certain parts of later levels quite tricky, but it's a minor inconvenience to once again experience that ending. Klonoa games truly are too good for this world, but maybe if this collection sells well enough... ## - Dying Light 2: Stay Human Hours played = 30  Long trapped in development hell, Dying Light 2 is one of the more ambitious independent releases on the market. The zombie-parkour sequel ramps up the cornball premise, the material division between day and night, and the scope of world interaction. There are so many systems and moving pieces at times that the parkour gameplay almost seems on the verge of getting lost in the shuffle. But ultimately what these devs have created is a huge, vibrant, and detailed dead-future playground that rewards the player for spending more time in it. The city is beyond vast and takes quite a bit of time to fully unlock, and the ability tree and progression feels rpg-like in its minutia. At the beginning of the game you will hardly climb a wall without getting winded, and by the end you will be pulling of crazy acrobatics with relative ease...and the game will make you earn/feel every inch of that progress. Don't forget to fast forward through the story though. ## - Stray Hours played = 9  The summer meme of 2022, cats have rarely had it so good in the medium. The interesting thing about Stray is that it doesn't just deliver a story about a cat, or the gameplay of a cat, it delivers the philosophy of cat. It asks you to stay curious, to jump on everything, to get in everyone's poo poo, to rub on everyone, to sleep in cozy places, be a cat in a bucket, take the weird way in, and succumb to your own hedonistic impulses. If it feels good, scratch on it. So yeah, there's plenty of cat, but there's also wonderful art direction and music, an amazing futuristic environment, a touching story, and a controller that purrs. ## - The Last of Us part I Hours played = 21  Okay, so I'd already purchased the game 4 times before I played this new remake, and logged prolly 3 thousand hours of its multiplayer over the last decade, so I wasn't exactly expecting the new graphics to sway me all that much...but good god the new visuals and haptics are amazing. What's weird is that the shiny new coat of paint only further demonstrates how much of a timeless classic this game is, how well the basic level and combat designs hold up, how psychologically effective its pacing and character development is. Sure, there are all sorts of little tweaks to the gameplay due to an entirely new physics and momentum engine, there are new surprises in store from the retooled AI, and new details to appreciate in the crafting benches, etc...but this remake does such justice to the things that were already so perfect in that original PS3 game while also further immersing the player in the wonderful mocap and environmental storytelling that the series is known for. I played on Survivor and scrounged for every single scissor-blade. Endure and survive! ## - Tunic Hours played = 12  A late year surprise, Tunic really swept me away. It's insane that this game was largely made by one person because, while it wears its influences on its sleeve, what it does with them is so consistently creative and surprising that it managed to win my cynical rear end over with a number of transformative sleight of hand wow moments and a lovely soundtrack. A lot of what makes this game engaging has to do with how it subverts the isometric perspective and how it hides things in plain sight. Let's also just say the in-game manual, with all of its piecemeal, quirky nostalgia...is constructed very explicitly to be analyzed by puzzle lovers. Overall, I made it through nearly all of the game without help but was defeated by the final challenge, I could see signs of it everywhere I looked but couldn't put it together. So yeah, I'm either too dumb or too impatient at my age to wrack my brain over a puzzle that will earn me an alternate 30 second ending, but you know what...more power to all the brainiacs waiting in the reeds. This is the game for you. I had a ton of fun either way with this very creative indie gem. ## - Hardspace: Shipbreaker Hours played = 51  This thing delivered so well on what I hoped it would be, a veg-out 3D puzzle experience with some amazing physics simulation, great hard sci-fi art direction and ambience, and a sense of danger and craftsmanship concerning how you dismantle your surroundings. What I wasn't expecting at all was that it'd also be one of the most honest and procedural leftist games around, one that really takes stock in collective action under harsh circumstances and puts the player in the mindset of logging the time to grind out a human victory against exploitative industrial shitheels. This is the little game that could, and it was so cool to find out that right after the console edition shipped a bunch of QA workers associated with its development also managed to unionize themselves. It only takes a spark to start a fire. ## - Resident Evil 3 Remake Hours played = 9  If there's one game I regret not having space for in my top 10, it's this. REmake 3 is where I plant my flag. This is the most fun I've ever had with an RE title, soundly replacing my affection for PSX RE2. I'd never played the original RE3 so this felt extra fresh to me. The reimagining of Jill's character was right up my alley. She's written, voiced, and mocapped with such confidence and attention to detail, and her character really feels like the heart of the series to me. The pacing of the game is a bit more aggressive in its focus and less ponderous than REmake 2, and yeah there's probably one too many boss battles overall but I loved the game's willingness to skip some of the anticipatory dread and just get on with it, as well as some of the intersection with the events of its sister remake. It also doesn't hurt that this is one of the most gobsmacking visual presentations for any game made during of the 8th generation, Capcom are absolute wizards. Jill Valentine is bae. -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- THE LIST 10 - Returnal / Ascension Hours played = 25 + 55 / ♫ Ascend the Spire    My 2021 GOTY sneaks its way back onto the list thanks to the phenomenal Ascension patch, added co-op, and the Tower of Sisyphus. And as you might expect, Selene's story gets more hosed up with every new question we ask. I wish every singleplayer title had free DLC this good. Returnal is, to this day, one of the only games I've come across in the last 2 years that truly feels like a next-gen experience, and much of that comes down to the aggressive fluidity of its core gameplay and its ambitious use of sound/haptics to aid and even expand upon the gamefeel vocabulary. One of the primary through-lines of good gaming for me these days is full haptic integration with a game's sound design, just so transformative because it's one of those categories that feels like we're seeing enormous advancements every few months with this tech while graphical fidelity continues its slow trudge with ever diminishing returns. Good haptics are transformative on every game that features them, everything plays better with a DualSense. Favorite moment: Beating Veegy's tower score  09 - God of War: Ragnarok Hours played = 49 / ♫ Ragnarok    Blockbuster gaming at its finest, Ragnarok improves upon everything that the first game set out to do, while giving the PS4 and gen 8 game design its true swansong. The scale is grander, the bosses more varied, the story more intricate, and the sidequesting is fully fleshed out this time. But GOWR's finest accomplishment is something more subtle: giving Kratos a character arc worth experiencing and remembering. This was a character that was seen as unsalvageable at one point, and yet here we are privy to a story with real nuance and growth, with stakes more interesting than who gets ripped in half and who doesn't. It's an ambitious game that falters here and there, but there are more than enough moments of pure spectacle to keep the pace up and the ending just nails it. It feels like a meaty package, a complete package, a chapter that even manages to improve the 2018 game retroactively. It's the ideal big budget gaming sequel, which is all it ever needed to be. And yet it goes further. Favorite moment: Fighting Garm, my new favorite boss battle in the series. 08 - Klonoa 2: Lunatea's Veil Hours played = / 9 ♫ Hyuponia (Ruin of Sadness)    Revived after 20 years in pure obscurity, Klonoa 2 is probably the finest (and rarest!) platformer of the PS2 era, and certainly in my top 5 for the entire genre. The original was a 60fps cell-shaded masterwork of thrilling level designs, momentum, color, and carnivalesque musical pastiche. Expanding on the groundwork established by DtP, Lunatea's Veil blows the lid off with some of the most carefully honed platformer levels I've ever seen, all while blowing the scale of the whole operation up to enormous proportions. While the cell shading style has been removed for this remake the end product isn't all that dissimilar, just a bit more vibrant and a bit less moody. I think I still prefer the original look tho, so a few odd points off for that. The gameplay has been reproduced almost 1 to 1 however and lord how it holds up, every cannon shot, ancillary aerial pivot, every shocking blocksmash,...not a wahoo is wasted in this beast, and the finale is as thrilling and heart rending as I remember it being all those years ago. Klonoa, the Dream Traveller, he upped the ante so hard that nobody could follow him. Favorite moment: Kingdom of Sorrow, perhaps the single greatest level in any platformer. 07 - Outer Wilds Hours played = 30 + 1 EotE / ♫ The Sun Station    Few games in the last several decades have repelled me on pure instinct or frustrated the living poo poo out of me more than this. I was pressured into playing this game by GOTY thread superstar Imhotep/Bopbop, and gifted it by mod superstar and GOTY thread co-sponsor VideoGames. I waited until september/october to play it, along with the other zero-g anxiety sim of early autumn, Hardspace, ...and incidentally the PS5 version of this dropped right around then. This poo poo is my nightmare. I do not like it when celestial bodies come at me all of a sudden, it's loving menacing okay!? Giant's Deep is beautiful, and I feel uncomfortable. The Ash Twin is mysterious, and my suit has a hole in it from some loving cactus. I have 7 minutes remaining to read some tablets in the middle of a dark dead cave somewhere and everything is filling with sand. Brittle Hollow is amazing, but you know what...it feels very temperamental around there and it makes me question my choices. I cannot think outside the box, I am not a science-man, and Dark Bramble is the worst place I have ever been...from a gameplay perspective too. And yet, and yet, it all fits together. It's all so special, so different from everything else, so effective in its high moments, and so awe inspiring in its construction that I just can't help thinking ...few games in the last several decades have repelled me on pure instinct or frustrated the living poo poo out of me more than this. I was pressured into playing this game by GOTY thread superstar Imhotep/Bopbop, and gifted it by mod superstar and GOTY thread co-sponsor VideoGames. I waited until september/october to play it, along with the other zero-g anxiety sim of early autumn, Hardspace, ...and incidentally the PS5 version of this dropped right around then. This poo poo is my nightmare. I do not like it when celestial bodies come at me all of a sudden, it's loving menacing okay!? Giant's Deep is beautiful, and I feel uncomfortable. The Ash Twin is mysterious, and my suit has a hole in it from some loving cactus. I have 7 minutes remaining to read some tablets in the middle of a dark dead cave somewhere and everything is filling with sand. Brittle Hollow is amazing, but you know what...it feels very temperamental around there and it makes me question my choices. I cannot think outside the box, I am not a science-man, and Dark Bramble is the worst place I have ever been...from a gameplay perspective too. And yet, and yet, it all fits together. It's all so special, so different from everything else, so effective in its high moments, and so awe inspiring in its construction that I just can't help thinking...few games in the last several decades have repelled me on pure instinct or frustrated the living poo poo out of me more than this. I was pressured into playing this game by GOTY thread superstar Imhotep/Bopbop, and gifted it by mod superstar and GOTY thread co-sponsor VideoGames Favorite moment: Tie: Reaching the Sun Station and floating across the gap Sunshine style / the DLC opening reveal 06 - Horizon Forbidden West Hours played = / 60 ♫ Rusted Sands + Tideripper theme    Forbidden West was my summer fixation and it really captured me in a way that the first game was never able to do, partially because I was just more open this time to the concept, but also because it's just a much more refined experience. Now that we're past the rocky origin story, and the rather amazing late-reveal subplot of Zero Dawn, we're free to just cut loose in any direction and see what Guerrilla was able to accomplish with the Decima engine in the last 5 years, and that's A LOT as it turns out. Forbidden West was probably the prettiest game released in 2022, just a stunning example of environmental detail, weather, light, water, smoke, metal, and snow. Aloy now moves and animates like a dream, she grapples and vaults up things in thrilling fashion, swims in the most beautifully rendered water ever committed to a game, glides effortlessly around with her digital bumbershoot, and climbs dynamically through rocky environments. Her loadout is more diverse this time and requires more thoughtful management to survive, while the machines have really upped their game in terms of complexity and interactivity. And good god the music, the music is so pitch perfect for every moment, whether it's a climbing puzzle, a huge boss, or a chill cinematic. Where the story goes from here is anyone's guess, but FW's slice of it definitely takes some wild turns, and honestly with what we know about life in tyool 2022...it all felt rather appropriate. Bring on the DLC, and bring on part 3! Favorite moment: Reaching the depths of Las Vegas and fighting the Tideripper for the first time. 05 - Valkyrie Profile Hours played = ?? / ♫ Between the Water, Wind, and Light   /Update%2044/45-hH3qai2.gif) Nine days before the end of the year one of my favorite rpgs gets rereleased for the first time in 15+ years in order to wreak havoc on my finished GOTY list. It fits like a glove. Valkyrie Profile is one of the most gorgeous, engaging, kickass, experimental japanese role playing games to be released during the final days of the golden age of console gaming, adding to the psx roster filled with so many other classics. The soundtrack rips, the voice acting is filled with weird cringe cameos from Pokemon cartoon talent, the character roster is stacked more than two dozen strong, and the spritework is nothing short of luscious. The gameplay is like SOTN dungeon platforming but with frenetic tactical turn based battles, light social management, FF8-tier complex menu futzing and item ability/creation, and a million secrets large and small. It is one of the most glorious genre fusions ever stamped onto a disc and nothing makes me happier than to ride out the end of the year like this, in fact, I'm playing it as I submit this list. Favorite moment: Back in sack with my boy Lucian, crystal machine go brrrrr 04 - Deep Rock Galactic Hours played = 440 / ♫ March of the Brave    DRG was my most played game in 2022 by a huge margin, and one of the best PS+ titles ever given away. Many of my friends ended up logging a compulsive amount of hours in this digging and drinking sim over the course of the last 11 months, and each time Ghost Ship Games drops a new season or holiday event it seems like everyone is there to grab some new poo poo. It's just a fantastic example of how a Live Service game can go so so right, and it's not just the devs that kick rear end...the community itself is so wonderfully positive and welcoming, the four classes are all extremely engaging and well balanced, and the personal progression from newbie to 'helldiver' is so insanely cool. A full team working in sync using their abilities to traverse a difficult series of cave puzzles, it's a beautiful sight to behold. This is the lifestyle game to rule them all. Rock and stone! Favorite moment: Building a cheese-house using the platform gun, with two windows and a cellar. 03 - Inscryption Hours played = 20 + 23 Kaycee's Mod / ♫ Deathcard Cabin (reprise) (spoilers in this playlist)    Another game made mostly by a few people, I loved every ragged inch of Inscryption, every hour of this frustrating, charming, finely crafted and purposefully designed card game which I cannot talk about. I loved the music, the natural skill accretion, the rug pulls, the metatext, the humor, the nostalgia, the cringe, the varied aesthetic design, the callbacks, the genre deconstruction, the challenge, the hopelessness, the triumph, and The Stoat. I wish I could unplay this game and experience it for the first time all over again, this wonderful ode to the process of game-making, game-playing, and collectable obsession. A profoundly charming indie experience that everyone should go into as blind as possible. Favorite moment: Battling all of the Act 3 sub-bosses culminating with g0lly who teaches us about the healing power of the internet, a place where nothing ever goes wrong. 02 - Disco Elysium Hours played = 45 / ♫ Detective Arriving on the Scene    I had the pleasure of replaying DE again earlier in the year when I was feeling fresh and really being exhaustive and completionist about it, with the added Final Cut voiced dialogue that makes such a dramatic difference to the presentation. To be honest I don't really know what to say that hasn't been said around these parts for years now. It's a just very detailed, special, darkly humorous, artistic miracle. It is also tremendously sad and profound and personal, like a thing that everyone should have yet cannot be shared. Sometimes I'll be cleaning up at work late at night and the soundtrack will come on and I will suddenly be in tears alone in the place like a lever in my brain was thrown. By all odds this thing shouldn't exist..., like Under the Volcano, or Guernica, or Andrei Rublev. And yet the circumstances of reality somehow intervened and brought it into existence, right here, right in our life, this work of absurdism that perfectly utilizes its medium in order to deliver the maximum amount of philosophical significance. One of the greatest pieces of political art ever created. Favorite moment: Harry dreams of Dolores Dei. 01 - Elden Ring Hours played = 190 / ♫ Ancestral Spirit      FROM really managed to hold off the tide of great games this year, I don't know how. There was a tiny part of me that wondered if this would still make my #1 after so many months away, but the truth is that even Elden Ring's flaws couldn't douse its sheer ambition. It goes harder, and farther, and larger than almost any game in recent memory. An experience that stole my life in 8-10 hour chunks for 3 solid months, to the point where I felt kind of hobbled coming out of the the whole ordeal. The number of dirty tricks, cheeky surprises, vista reveals, and expansions of scope that occur in the midst of a first playthrough kind of boggles the mind, I'm looking at my Book of Knowledge right now and the level of content is insane. The GRRM writing co-credit adds a nasty sort of cynicism to the world's structured story events that I'm not sure Miyazaki and company would otherwise have been able to bring on their own, even though the moment to moment writing is of the usual high quality we've come to expect from the studio. Finally, it was simply one of the most intense 'event' games I've ever had the pleasure of experiencing. It really did conquer the loving world, dominate the discussion, draw people in, generate a poo poo ton of talking-points, and god drat...it brought us together when we needed that the most! If it's somehow not FROM's best game it's certainly their most triumphant in a way, a remarkable technical and artistic accomplishment that stayed true to its roots while broadening everyone's horizons. This flawed, weird, funny, screwed-up, beautiful thing swung for the fences and broke the loving bat. Favorite moment: Rolling STR/INT, spending 100 hours of game wondering if I'll ever find a weapon that will suit my build, aimlessly following the breadcrumb quest trail through all of the subterranean valleys to end up finding Ranni against all expectations, and for a wedding gift she gives me the Moonlight Greatsword. It was my gaming moment of the year. What a witch, what a surprise, what a game. -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- EZ list10. Returnal / Ascension 09. God of War: Ragnarok 08. Klonoa 2: Lunatea's Veil 07. Outer Wilds 06. Horizon: Forbidden West 05. Valkyrie Profile 04. Deep Rock Galactic 03. Inscryption 02. Disco Elysium 01. Elden Ring BeanpolePeckerwood fucked around with this message at 15:24 on Dec 22, 2022 |
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Dec 22, 2022 15:16
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Thanks, y'all.  It's 19 degrees out and I'm happy to be by the fire itt with so many dope games and goons 
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Dec 22, 2022 23:59
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so many good gifs itt, veni bringing the heat not a cod fan but i need to play the IW story mode someday
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Dec 23, 2022 03:39
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i went down the hole. there was stuff down the hole.
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Dec 23, 2022 16:24
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veni veni veni posted:To me Elden Ring is at least equal to my other two favorites, Bloodborne and Dark Souls 3, but I totally feel this sentiment in some way. It's like, Elden Ring is sooo much Dark Souls in one package and really that is all around awesome, but I can't help but feel that the amount of content led to a package that wasn't as tight as their previous games, especially the more recent ones. I think Miyazaki's tendency to fly against the current of what the rest of the industry is doing + the difficulties of game development post-covid will mean that Elden Ring is the only game of its particular kind. But who knows, I certainly don't think smaller scope games are off the table at all whatever the case. edit; I'm biased tho, I'd def prefer more games in the vein of BB or DeS BeanpolePeckerwood fucked around with this message at 00:07 on Dec 24, 2022 |
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Dec 24, 2022 00:01
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Waffleman_ posted:Wishing this for FF16 
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Dec 24, 2022 02:08
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minifridge CAR LIFE
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Dec 24, 2022 21:32
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Fridge that is a really thoughtful list! You came at things from angles I hadn't considered.
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Dec 24, 2022 21:52
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Feels Villeneuve posted:if you can't write two sentences, not only do you not deserve to vote but you arguably do not deserve to live
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Dec 26, 2022 01:10
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Rosalind posted:1. Elden Ring. This one is obvious so I won't even bother explaining why instead to say that to get this game I made the mistake of preordering for pickup at a local Best Buy. Arriving at store open to pick it up during a terrifyingly powerful rainstorm, I learned that they had recently changed the hours and were not opening for another 45 minutes. I waited outside in the pouring rain in February to pick up this game for that entire 45 minutes. I got back to my apartment chilled to the bone and soaked, despite having an umbrella. It was completely worth it to play it ASAP. owns. Rosalind posted:Games I hope to have time to play in 2023: owns.
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Dec 27, 2022 00:39
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I got pulled back into Monster Hunter World by a friend who's playing it for the first time. Good god, after the 700 hours I spent up to and beyond Fatalis...I loving swore I was done. What a monumental game it is.
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Dec 28, 2022 02:47
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Sir_Phobos posted:
I probably could've just youtubed it, but yeah the new ending was awesome.
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Dec 28, 2022 02:48
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bone emulator posted:Making Watchdogs your goty for tyol 2022, is incredibly powerful. Gotta respect it. I've honestly never seen a gaming flex quite like it.
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Dec 28, 2022 02:56
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op link images need a playable tutorial or one of those sony running monologues everyone is so fond of
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Dec 29, 2022 04:43
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What a cool list. I was wondering when someone would mention The Looker.
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Dec 30, 2022 08:13
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Rarity posted:I see we've reached the 'everyone rushing to finish their homework in the morning before class' stage of the thread 
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Dec 30, 2022 08:48
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Wonderful list and bespoke gifs. Your write-ups for ER, DeS, and Horizon just nail it. Yeah, DeS is king, and Horizon's soundtrack/graphics were the best of the year iyam.
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Dec 30, 2022 10:59
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Roth posted:1. Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice haha, hell yeah to all o dis so many good lists.
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Dec 31, 2022 00:51
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Gonna restart Elden Ring (PS4 version this time to double up on trophies) in the new year right after I finish shepherding my friend to the Iceborne content in MHW. Every time I think I'm done with that game I find some reason to get pulled back in, and I love see new faces light up with excitement as they carve into Nergigante brains for the very first time. 
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Dec 31, 2022 01:14
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That is an epic list, veeg. So many classic games in one year, it almost makes me short circuit. Now that you got a bunch of headliner titles out of the way I'm looking forward to seeing how you respond to some of the more niche japanese rpgs of that decade (Xenogears, Valkyrie Profile, Breath of Fire 3/4). Really jealous of your journey. Wanna play some cards?
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Dec 31, 2022 02:24
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Waffleman_ posted:I'm gonna be honest, when I was playing FF7R and it hit the point where her theme started playing, I kinda had to sit with it a bit myself. This happened pretty early on for me, too. Camera goes first person on Tifa's face in the slums with a dialogue choice right as a remixed version of the Kalm theme starts playing. I had to put the controller down. Granted it was 2020 and I was all sorts of emotionally hosed up but I'd like to think the devs knew exactly what they were doing, considering the ost makes so many people cry.
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Dec 31, 2022 02:27
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Rarity posted:Folks, we got him Owned.  My best FFfriend's VideoGame.
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Dec 31, 2022 09:09
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Rarity posted:
Fuckin hell yeah Mirror's Edge Those two games are both in my top 25 of all time and have probably my favorite videogame soundtracks ever https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iinzHZmV5Kg BeanpolePeckerwood fucked around with this message at 10:52 on Dec 31, 2022 |
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Dec 31, 2022 10:40
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Rarity posted:gently caress YEAH MIRROR'S EDGE You just made my week. I love those games so much. I's crazy, after so many years you're almost to PS4 gen where you can play ME: Catalyst and Bloodborne
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Dec 31, 2022 10:51
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