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CharlieFoxtrot
Mar 27, 2007

organize digital employees



EDIT: MY LIST IS LOCATED AT https://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=4048665&userid=0&perpage=40&pagenumber=29#post536875258

Marking out my spot... this month is gonna be crunch time lol.

I am a Year Purist and only put 2023 releases on my main list. This is where I stand this year.

Old Games Played: Aperture Desk Job, Spyro the Dragon, Dino Crisis, Bell Park Youth Detective, Dead Cells, Legends of Runeterra, Resident Evil 2 Remake, Frog Detective 3 Corruption at Cowboy County, Elden Ring, DANCERUSH STARDOM, Synth Riders

2023 Games Played: World of Horror, The Roottrees are Dead, Gunhead, Super 56, The Making of Karateka, Samba de Amigo: Virtual Party, El Paso Elsewhere, Cyberpunk 2077 Phantom Liberty, Armored Core VI Fires of Liberation, Yeah! You Want "Those Games" Right? So Here You Go! Now Let's See You Clear Them!, Final Fantasy XVI, Astra and the New Constellation, Street Fighter 6, Hi-Fi Rush, Baba Files Taxes, Backpack Hero, The Murder of Sonic the Hedgehog, Final Fantasy Theatrhythm Final Bar Line, Yakuza Gaiden The Man Who Erased His Name, Super Mario Bros. Wonder, The Banished Vault, Chants of Sennaar, Venba, Jusant, A Highland Song,

Games I need to finish or start this month lol: Kirby's Dream Land 2,

Games I played some of but will not finish this year: Humanity, Stellaris Ghost Signal VR, Wallace and Gromit in the Grand Getaway, The Lamplighters League, Asgard's Wrath 2, Persona 5 Tactica, Tren, Mobile Suit Baba, Dune: Spice Wars

Games that are being pushed to next year: Octopath Traveler II, Baldur's Gate 3, Rogue Trader, Spider-Man 2, Super Mario RPG Remake, Pikmin 4, Jedi Survivor, In Time and Stars, Vampire the Masquerade Justice, Pizza Tower, Bomb Rush Cyberfunk, Resident Evil 4 Remake, Alan Wake 2, Thirsty Suitors, Against the Storm, House Flipper 2, 7th Guest VR, Last Train Home, Cocoon, Lies of P

CharlieFoxtrot fucked around with this message at 08:38 on Jan 1, 2024

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CharlieFoxtrot
Mar 27, 2007

organize digital employees



I need a confirmation that the deadline is in PST referring to Pacific Standard Time (US west coast) and so is in approximately 12 hours from this post?

CharlieFoxtrot
Mar 27, 2007

organize digital employees



Here we go. I am a Year Purist and only rate 2023 releases, as it really helps me think about the year in gaming. Sometimes that means something that would have obviously been on my list last year gets no points then and no points now, but that’s the path history has taken I suppose lol. So I start with an award that grants no points:

Honorary Award to Old Game of the Year: DANCERUSH STARDOM (Konami, 2018)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uhKchIC-ilU
This game is a gem. I was huge into Dance Dance Revolution and the Guitar Hero lineage back in the day, but I hadn’t really gotten big into any rhythm games recently – it’s just not the same playing them on standard interfaces. But this was the Year of the Rhythm Game for me (as you’ll see in the list), and this game was the centerpiece. I basically encountered it by chance exploring since the mall I went to go see a movie at happened to have a Round1 arcade, and this was there… I never saw the movie lol.

DANCERUSH STARDOM is a joy to play – the step charts seem simple in comparison to high-level DDR but that’s what makes it work. There’s enough of a framework to give the game-playing part of the brain rules and goals to follow, but there’s enough freedom, and the charts are designed similarly, to encourage using real shuffle dance moves. The dancepad also makes it feel like you’re not just hitting buttons and are encouraged to move around. At the same time the system is precise enough that it doesn’t feel as loose as the pose-based dance games like Just Dance or Dance Around: it really feels like showcasing your skill to nail moves on a high difficulty song. It made me look up real dance tutorial videos to get better at it lol.

Other Old Games Played: Aperture Desk Job, Spyro the Dragon, Dino Crisis, Bell Park Youth Detective, Dead Cells, Legends of Runeterra, Resident Evil 2 Remake, Frog Detective 3 Corruption at Cowboy County, Elden Ring (lol this would have obviously made my list last year but oh well, I’m not going to break my own rule for it), Synth Riders (Year of the Rhythm Game!!!)

2023 Games I played some of but will not finish this year: Humanity, Stellaris Ghost Signal VR, Wallace and Gromit in the Grand Getaway, The Lamplighters League, Asgard's Wrath 2, Persona 5 Tactica, Tren, Mobile Suit Baba, Dune: Spice Wars

2023 Games that are being pushed to next year: Octopath Traveler II, Baldur's Gate 3, Rogue Trader, Spider-Man 2, Super Mario RPG Remake, Pikmin 4, Star Wars Jedi Survivor, In Time and Stars, Vampire the Masquerade Justice, Pizza Tower, Bomb Rush Cyberfunk, Resident Evil 4 Remake, Alan Wake 2, Thirsty Suitors, Against the Storm, House Flipper 2, 7th Guest VR, Last Train Home, Cocoon, Lies of P (god this was a big year huh)

With that out of the way, let’s focus on what I played in 2023..

The Rest (not ranked in any order)

Astra and the New Constellation was a fun bite-sized platformer obviously designed for speedrunning, which I will never do but still found really neat . The Murder of Sonic the Hedgehog could have simply been a throwaway goof for marketing/meme purposes but it was actually a funny visual novel (the platforming segments got a bit repetitive though). Baba Files Taxes really was a throwaway goof but it did remind me to do my taxes, lol. The Roottrees are Dead (goon game apparently!) was a great way to kill an evening; deduction in the vein of Obra Dinn was really interesting. There were some issues with the AI-generated art both hampering the game’s visual identity and causing some puzzle-solving issues, but for a one-person free project I completely understand the necessity and still highly recommend it. Backpack Hero’s roguelike inventory management puzzling was fun enough, but I definitely couldn’t gel with all of the characters nor the 1.0 campaign mode, and when I saw what I had to do to get the “True Ending” to that I politely declined lol, still worthwhile to check out, though.

Venba was the more serious of the visual novels I played this year, telling the story of Indian immigrant experience through food; the cooking interactive gameplay was slight but also essential to getting into the headspaces of the characters, so it worked very well alongside the soundtrack to give it a clear, unique identity. On the unique soundtrack front, the Scottish music in A Highland Song was key to some of the best moments of the game, running across those highlands with a little rhythm game felt great. The writing and voice acting set it apart (it’s from Inkle Studios so the narrative is its strength), but some frustrations with the climbing gameplay (ambiguity on where you can actually climb or how places connect) means that it is not the “Kid Climbing game of 2023” that ranks, unfortunately.

You also climb in Chants of Sennaar, but in this adventure game it’s more linguistic rather than acrobatic, as deciphering languages is the key to solving puzzles. When you’re actually doing that, it’s amazing, but I almost gave up on it because a major early roadblock involves doing really annoying stealth sequences that almost made me give up; I’m glad I didn’t because the next areas were really interesting to explore. Another indie game with a distinct aesthetic was World of Horror; the roguelike “dungeon crawler” where the dungeon is a Japanese town with a bunch of cases to solve has some amazing 1-bit art and evokes its horror inspirations really well. The actual gameplay mechanics wore a little thin, especially once the shallow pool of events starts repeating too much. Gunhead was another fun enough roguelike; I never played Cryptark which this is apparently a 3D update of, where you take your mech and board space vessels to salvage parts while being under attack by security drones and other threats. It felt really smooth to jump in and start blasting, and really reminded me of Heat Signature, especially with slingshotting myself out of an airlock to zip around to the other side of the ship – that never got old.

“Games where kids climb” was one recurring thing for me this year; the other was “minigame collections.” Best Title award goes to Yeah! You Want "Those Games" Right? So Here You Go! Now Let's See You Clear Them! which made good on the promise of playing those games you see on YouTube ads that don’t actually exist… the pin-pulling and number tower ones were true to life and OK, the subway surfers one had annoying controls, but the game did make me actually enjoy a Towers of Hanoi-like and the Rush Hour car parking game was actually legit fun. Super 56 was the better one, though – a bunch of WarioWare style minigames that just require one button to play, wrapped up in a lo-fi aesthetic and absurdist British humo(ur)... it made the vaporware nature of UFO 50 bearable for another year lol.

OK I lied, and there is a bit of a ranking; these near misses what I thought could have made the Top Ten but there was too much stiff competition… Final Fantasy Theatrhythm Final Bar Line was an immediate buy for me because this series has just had a murderer’s row of genius composers over the years and the music is so good. Year of the Rhythm Game… I enjoyed playing through it (and will do the 150 DLC songs next year lol) but the actual rhythm gameplay is pretty much “functional” and I did think to myself, am I just doing Subway Surfers-style attention stimulation because I can’t just listen to music and do nothing else, lol?

I loved Yakuza Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name because it’s a Kazuma Kiryu game and he might be one of the greatest protagonists in video game history? I went in thinking that maybe it might have been superfluous to make a game about what he was doing during the events of Yakuza: Like a Dragon, but honestly it justifies its existence pretty well, and the moments in the game’s ending are spectacular. Maybe I’m rating it a little lower just because it is the tried-and-true RGG formula, gameplay and structure-wise it doesn’t really break from that, and I’m already anticipating they are going to outdo themselves in just a month?

El Paso, Elsewhere gets the unkindest cut… Probably completely interchangeable with my #10 but I wanted to shout that one out a little bit more because it has less visibility than this? This is clearly an homage to Max Payne, PS1-aesthetic bullet time action shooter. It’s not as skill testing as the Remedy game but I still felt drawn to keep going because charging through the levels “breaking poo poo” was satisfying, and the story woven into the interstices is perfect for this game, augmenting the experience without killing the momentum. Also the soundtrack whips hard and is worth the price of admission alone.



The Top Ten Games of 2023

#10


(OST: “Menu” by nervous_testpilot)
The Banished Vault
(Nic Tringali, 2023)
The cold equations.

Yeah the screenshot I chose for this game is the in-game manual lol, it also contains the things I thought most about with my hours in this game. This is basically a single-player version of those Euro board games where you have to maximize resource collection with a limited number of actions, which you don’t often see outside of that space so it’s already refreshing on that front. It is also impeccable in its style, with the buildings you plop down on alien planets looking so much like the pieces of those board games, while the Gothic black and white line illustrations capture the feel of your doomed journey through the cosmos and a struggle to survive, and the haunting soundtrack is something that you’d want to keep on so you can think.

You have a limited number of turns in each star system before the “Gloom” destroys everything, and so you have to make the best use of your characters to do what you need to do in time. The beauty and the pain of this game is that all the information is laid out in front of you: the cost in resources and time, how the production chains work, the difficulty of completing your objectives. You just need to plan… and planning is difficult, lol. Minor mistakes compound, ships get stranded in space because you didn’t budget your fuel properly, the terrain of the planet won’t let you build all you need to build and you have to adapt on the fly. It’s a game that feels like homework, in the best way… I once spent an hour making a strategic plan before taking a single in-game action lol, and things still fell apart. I still have much more to go with this one…

#9

(OST: “Escape from the City” by Jun Senoue and performed by Ted Poley and Tony Harnell)
Samba de Amigo: Virtual Party
(Sega, 2023)
Amigo means “friend.”

Maybe I’m rating this higher because I impulse-bought a Quest 3 and this was one of the first games I bought, but it was really worth it. In the Year of the Rhythm Game, this was something that makes perfect sense for the VR hand controllers, and wouldn’t have felt the same if I just played the flat Switch version. Swinging your arms around feels essential to get into the rhythm and the groove, which is quite important especially for the non-Sonic songs!

I think among the rhythm games I’ve played this year, this hits the best balance of music that’s fun to play with mechanics that feel like I’m “doing” something with the music, while also having a track list that I actually enjoy listening to (I’m leaning on the Escape from the City meme here but the Latin pop music is catchy and not something you otherwise see in rhythm games). This is apparently Sega’s first full VR game release, and hopefully it leads to more (CHUNITHM VR, perhaps?)

#8


(OST: ”Estran” by Guillaume Ferran)
Jusant
(Don’t Nod, 2023)
What lies above?

A game about a kid who climbs. This is a Journey-like, in that you keep going towards your destination and though there isn’t a fail state, there is still plenty of tension to be had. In this post-apocalyptic tower, you have to navigate all sorts of treacherous terrain and hazards, and though the climbing mechanics are reminiscent of the Uncharted or Tomb Raider way of handling things, there is actually some puzzling finesse to actually undertaking the climb, hammering your pitons, and assessing your environment.

I am really glad, actually, that the system is designed so that you can’t die from messing up; you simply fall back to the last safe spot. The game truly was stressful enough for me and provoked my fear of heights in ways that made me sweat more than any horror game; if I had to deal with fear of death on top of that it might have been too much. The fact that this takes place in a beautiful, artfully realized world with a haunting environmental story to tell, wrapped in a package that doesn’t overstay its welcome, made it one of the perfect capstones to this year.


#7

(OST: ”Overworld” by Shiho Fujii, Sayako Doi, and Chisaki Shimazu)
Super Mario Bros. Wonder
(Nintendo EPD, 2023)
Badge me up.

More than the tried-and-true Mario formula, it surprised me how inventive and playful this platformer was. What makes it memorable for me is that previous games had themed levels and different styles in each world, but here it’s granular, down to each level having some specific gimmick or unique element to play around with that surprises you, and before you know it there’s another one, and another one, and another one…

The way it felt to me was that experience I got from the “Jump Up, Super Star” sequence in Super Mario Odyssey, but a miniature one of those with every level. It’s the character action game design structure where you base the journey on stringing together “holy crap” moments… and then it pays it off with a finale that ties all those things together. I crashed up against the Special World challenge levels and so put them off to see credits, but I’ll definitely be back to them in the new year…

#6

(OST: ”Fete Foraine” by Haruki Yamada)
Street Fighter 6
(Capcom, 2023)
Featuring Luke from streets.

Simply a phenomenon. Life stuff meant I didn’t get a chance to delve too deeply into the crunchy mechanics nor play as much competitive as I wanted, but I thoroughly enjoyed the World Tour story mode – by no means a fully-fledged RPG or Yakuza-like, though the inspirations are certainly there. It had a breezy fun story, and encountering all the Fighting Masters in their elements were all great moments.

Since this isn’t my main fighting game, I look to it more for how it will improve the FGC event watching experience, and based on this year’s Evo, it’s definitely doing the work. The art and character design are so much better than V, the convoluted V-Trigger system has been replaced with the more legible Drive system, and everything about the presentation and flow lends itself to snappy, quick matches. Looking forward to seeing it grow!

#5
https://twitter.com/cleargatewest/status/1702946414496796986
(OST: ”Fires of Rubicon” by Kota Hoshino and Takashi Onodera)
Armored Core VI Fires of Liberation
(FromSoftware, 2023)
You’ve got a job for me?

FromSoft on all cylinders. What a world we live in, and a year this was, that a seemingly-niche franchise like this could ascend. The core mech movement and combat felt great, the bosses and encounters were stylish and memorable, and game’s momentum kept driving me forward. I’m less familiar with this series and I’m writing less about it because I’m also sure it’s covered far more eloquently by other knowledgeable people in this thread, but it reminded me of another “AC” series I have a lot of fondness for: Animal Crossing Ace Combat, with missions that make you feel unstoppable even in the face of widespread unfathomable war. I still have NG+ and NG++ to tackle in the new year…


#4

(OST: ”Fast as You Can” cover by Elsinore feat.Kayla Brown, Original by Fiona Apple)
Hi-Fi Rush
(Tango Gameworks, 2023)
Year of the Rhythm Game.

Perhaps the most lovingly-made game on this list… everything about the style, art, characterization, and atmosphere about this game is stellar. The melding of rhythm gameplay with character action combat works really well (the platforming less so but that’s mostly forgivable). I also have to give bonus points to 808 for Best Pet Character of the Year (yes, even above Torgal).

I really appreciate that in the character action genre which is pretty dominated by bombastic dudes and ladies that destroy everything in their path single-handedly, this is a game which tries to tell a story of a journey with a whole party, and with them coming together to overcome the obstacles in their way. It’s tied into the mechanics, it’s tied into the soundtrack, and I think it’s why it feels so uplifting – a game that should be remembered for sure.

#3



(OST: ”Find the Flame” by Masayoshi Soken)
Final Fantasy XVI
(Square Creative Business Unit III, 2023)
Active Time Lore, you say?

Legitimately when the previews for this game showed a great deal of attention to examining geopolitical maps and relationship charts, I knew this was going to be a banger of a Final Fantasy. The stewards of Final Fantasy 14, who managed to right a sinking ship and make it one of the company’s greatest successes, getting to play with a bigger budget? I don’t know if this is a game for Final Fantasy first-timers, but it certainly is one for fans. The iconic summons, the well-worn series tropes spun up in interesting ways, the globe-spanning heroic journey – this is certainly the best-produced game of the year.

I will say that I wasn’t expecting this to NOT be the top game of the year, as I am a superfan of the series and could easily just throw it up there without thinking. It, however, might not end up one of the more memorable entries in the franchise – the game is pretty light on the minor moments and experiences that linger with me from other FFs: the minigames, the goofy side stories, the larger cast and the exploration that help make FFs usually feel like a grander experience. Everything is laser-focused on creating a cinematic, spectacular critical path – but that path is absolutely worth experiencing. And who knows, maybe DLC and follow-ups will help grow this world. XVI-2 would be something to see lol.

#2



(OST: “Choke Hold” by Idris Elba)
Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty
(CD PROJEKT RED, 2023)
The game is fixed.

Things have come a long way from the original Cyberpunk, which I never finished in time for GOTY lists and wouldn’t have ranked in its original state anyway. But they really put in the work, and this year’s culmination of all the improvements and iterations in the form of this expansion should be lauded. If it were a simple DLC and patch maybe I wouldn’t have thought about considering it, but Phantom Liberty as both a self-contained story and expansion of the game fits so perfectly, like it should have been there in the first place while being a unique experience all its own.

It is something that really builds upon the base game, the existing conflicts and factions disrupted by foreign intervention (and thus lends a deeper consideration of the politics of Night City and the world it exists in). Solomon Reed and Songbird are richly developed characters that really shape how you think of V and Johnny as they plunger deeper into a completely hosed-up spy story that ends exactly how cyberpunk fiction should (whichever path you choose, and you should see both of them, also holy poo poo the DLC main story ending is one of the most existentially cruel things a AAA game would dare to do). Both the bombastic action setpieces and the tense interpersonal espionage leverage how much money and how much tech is propping up this game; finally in 2023 it really has paid off.


#1



(OST: “Introduction” by Francis Mechner (C64 version))
The Making of Karateka
(Digital Eclipse, 2023 [Original Game by Jordan Mechner, 1984])
The gaming Criterion Collection.

This is an absolute landmark in, and of, video game history.

I really liked Digital Eclipse’s previous release, Atari 50, which cataloged playable versions of so many Atari games, but more importantly put them into context in documents, interviews, and other materials. Really, there is a limit to how much interest there is to pull from retro games unless you have a specific mindset. I know I couldn’t spend an hour playing one of those games, but reading and watching things about them to help inform the experience of actually interacting with them? That is my jam and something I didn’t even know I really wanted until Digital Eclipse.

That said, Atari 50 was like a neat museum exhibit: really interesting to wander through, but because it had to cover so much, you pretty much just scratched the surface of what there is to talk about. With The Making of Karateka, they have shown that it is possible, interesting, and fun to do a deep focused dive on a specific aspect of game history. It helps that Jordan Mechner’s Karateka was perfect for this – the meticulous documentation of Mechner’s diaries, the various well-preserved prototypes of the game and his previous attempt at development, Deathbounce, and all the production materials that went into Karateka all come to life here. There is a really fascinating segment where you delve into how Mechner was one of the earliest to use rotoscoped game animations, and you actually get to play around with the filmed reference footage, the scanned images, and the final sprites in a simulated editing suite, it’s really cool!

This level of thoroughness extends to every aspect of the game. There’s a whole podcast breakdown of the game’s music, which was composed by Jordan Mechner’s father, Francis. There’s a great commentary on the original version of the game where you listen to the two of them walk through the game, which is a wonderful mirror to the commentary and discussion of the remake version made for this program. Remastered Karateka would be whatever on its own as a downloadable game, but playing that game, and being able to clearly see it as a response to the history of it all, and the impact the game has on contemporary game design, is really awe-inspiring.

There are so many fun details and stories about this game that Digital Eclipse have brought to life here. I’m already sold on their follow-up about Jeff Minter games, which is sure to be great as well. But I was really just amazed at how well it came together, and how perfect this was as a story – the story of father and son that unfolds in the making of this game is just wonderful to see, and actually getting to see them really makes Karateka, and The Making of Karateka, more than just some games.


The List for Tabulation, hello VG

#10: The Banished Vault
#09: Samba de Amigo: Virtual Party
#08: Jusant
#07: Super Mario Bros. Wonder
#06: Street Fighter 6
#05: Armored Core VI: Fires of Liberation
#04: Hi-Fi Rush
#03: Final Fantasy XVI
#02: Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty
#01: The Making of Karateka

CharlieFoxtrot fucked around with this message at 07:50 on Jan 1, 2024

CharlieFoxtrot
Mar 27, 2007

organize digital employees



Now that the pressure is off after posting my list, time to go back and read everyone else's, especially the ones that are coming in under the wire like assignments at the end of the semester. You can do it, lol

Mode 7 posted:


#1
The Making of Karateka (PC, Switch, XB1, PS4, XSX, PS5)


I've been writing for far too long today and I know I'm not going to find all the words I want to extol The Making of Karateka so let me just start with this.
The Making of Karateka is the most important video game released this year, for what it represents as a path forward for the way we engage with, understand and appreciate video game history.
If you play one thing from my list, one single game, please, please play this one


:hmmyes:

CharlieFoxtrot
Mar 27, 2007

organize digital employees



morallyobjected posted:

The real hero of this thread (besides VG) is Beanpole for replying to as many people's lists as he does. I do read at least parts of every single person's list, but BP puts in the work of making sure many people's get acknowledged publicly, so props to him!

Only like three more pages of lists to catch up on..

Every day I go back and read two pages of lists, I so I should be done around the time VG posts the final list. It's like my advent calendar for the coming of GOTY

CharlieFoxtrot
Mar 27, 2007

organize digital employees



Oh yeah my specialist music list:

Top 9 Rhythm Games I heard MEGALOVANIA in this year

#9 Dance Dance Revolution A3
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v9rRPtd2lV8

#8 Groove Coaster
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mUgihoDa5bY

#7 Taiko no Tatsujin
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f7Yimxud4UI

#6 pop'n music
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ALvhaGRXVjY

#5 CHUNITHM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=emkMCAbFcy8

#4 Sound Voltex Exceed Gear
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q36Dzhqra0I

#3 Synth Riders
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LG1Z3JlXHpY

#2 GITADORA Drummania
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZHKI8q-EOKA

#1 DANCERUSH STARDOM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ns4k__rjydY

CharlieFoxtrot
Mar 27, 2007

organize digital employees



I am going to check if there is a second Golden Idol Game that isn't the upcoming 3D one lol

Edit: there is not, the Rise of the Golden Idol is in 2024, which as I type it i realize is this year

CharlieFoxtrot
Mar 27, 2007

organize digital employees



ColdPie posted:

Also thanks to everyone who makes this thread happen & writes posts in it. I read every single one and jot down notes for games that look interesting, which I then never get around to because I play like six games per year.

ColdPie posted:


#6 - Chunithm - This is an arcade-only rhythm game from Sega with a unique touchstrip controller. I discovered it a year ago when I was out of town, and found out a kickass local arcade has a machine. Now I go to the arcade once every month or two to play for a couple hours and hang with some of the local rhythm game crew.


woke kaczynski posted:


Groove Coaster Wai Wai Party!!!! is a rhythm game for the Switch that I absolutely adore, to the extent that this year I started occasionally making the hour+ long trek to Long Island to go to the Round1 that actually has a Groove Coaster arcade cabinet. I like rhythm games a bunch even if I'm not incredible at them, but this has about the perfect balance for me. It's stylish as hell and I recommend checking it out if you're interested (specifically the switch or phone versions, though, the steam release is...mixed.)


Tempura Wizard posted:

2023 – The Year of the (Arcade) Rat

[...]

A big part of this is because I’m part of a family now and getting older, and that means less personal time to sit down for a 100+ hour AAA game.  Staying up all hours of the night becomes a more dangerous prospect, both for my personal life and for my health.  Arcade games are immediate because of the intended setting.  You get right into the action to set players up for the failure state, in order to boost revenue.  

There were many games I played this year, but here is a non-exhaustive list of arcade games I spent at least 5 hours on each this year (not including those in my top 5):

Donkey Kong, Dig Dug, Mappy, Progear, Groove Coaster, OutRun, Akai Katana Shin, Espgaluda II, ESPRa.De Psi, Burgertime, Crimzon Clover World Explosion, Dariusburst AC, Dodanpachi Dai-Ou-Jou Re:Incarnation



yeah i have just finished reading all the lists, and i like doing it to specifically find things like "oh yeah other people randomly got sucked into arcade games too, they still exist"

CharlieFoxtrot
Mar 27, 2007

organize digital employees



Going to give the Special Award to Game with Highest Average Score that was mentioned by more than one person to The Making of Karateka

CharlieFoxtrot
Mar 27, 2007

organize digital employees



Entenzahn posted:

I also did not get quoted, therefore, please quote this post

e: or else


Metis of the Chat Thread posted:

Solidarity, my friend

This lol, time to form a union

CharlieFoxtrot
Mar 27, 2007

organize digital employees



Dawntrail might make the list for me next year but i think there's also probably going to be an anticlimactic hangover effect after Endwalker, how do you top that

CharlieFoxtrot
Mar 27, 2007

organize digital employees



Oh yeah, if "Most Anticipated Game" can be a "legitimate" award at The Game Awards, this is my list of 20 games that might be on my 2024 top ten:

FF7 Rebirth
FF14 Dawntrail
Tekken 8
Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth
Rise of the Ronin
Dragon's Dogma 2
Avowed
Homeworld 3
Zenless Zone Zero
Hades 2
Solium Infernum
Skate Story
Revue Starlight: El Dorado
Rise of the Golden Idol
Islands of Insight
Pacific Drive
Ena Dream BBQ
ROMAN SANDS RE:BUILD
Indika
Deadeye Deepfake Simulacrum

CharlieFoxtrot
Mar 27, 2007

organize digital employees



How many people played SA Game of the Year Baldur's Gate 3 on console

CharlieFoxtrot
Mar 27, 2007

organize digital employees



This thread has encouraged me to play Lies of P this month, it's on Gamepass

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CharlieFoxtrot
Mar 27, 2007

organize digital employees



The Cyberpunk Journey is really interesting to see.

I guess FFXIV has a somewhat similar trajectory but it's going to have a gap year because of 2023 lol even when it comes roaring back this year

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