|
One of my goals for 2024 is to actually put my opinions out into the world more, so to get an early start on that here's nearly 10,000 characters of what I spent my 2023 playing as I got over my hyperfixation on Link to the Past randomizer and played games from this millennium. Honorable mentions of 2023 titles that I will get to Eventually(tm): Baldur's Gate III Like a Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name Final Fantasy XVI Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom Spider-Man 2 SMRPG Remake Super Mario Wonder Armored Core VI Honorable mentions that I actually played this year: Backpack Hero Heretic's Fork HoloCure: Save the Fans! The Last Spell Black Skylands  ACTUAL LIST TIME https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=afcgAi5eZEQ 10) Cuisineer A relatively late addition to my list, Cuisineer released at the start of November and it's a weird-rear end fusion of Diner Dash, Animal Crossing, and Hades-like dungeon crawling. You play as Pom, an adventurer whose parents went into massive debt to fund a "once in a lifetime" cruise vacation, placing the family restaurant in peril of closing up. It's up to you to go out into the world, gather ingredients (by killing them, naturally), and use them to cook the dishes the townsfolk want to eat. In between shifts, those same townfolk will request Pom's assistance, and give her more recipes for the restaurant in return. And did I mention the food is lovingly hand-drawn in a cartoony style that still somehow makes me hungry every time a new recipe comes up? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F3Wl-OiZCO4 9 and 8) Uncharted: Legacy of Thieves Collection AKA: 9) Uncharted: The Lost Legacy and 8) Uncharted 4: A Thief's End, if actual rank matters for any points given I mean... it's Naughty Dog going back and putting a bow on the series that kept them on the map in the PlayStation 3 era and beyond, while also integrating some of the lessons it learned in making the deeply personal The Last of Us. Uncharted 4 somehow managed to keep to its franchise-pedigree of being a playable summer blockbuster in the vein of Indiana Jones while also delivering a lot of intimate, personal moments for the characters to really shine through as people. The epilogue that pretty firmly sets Nathan Drake as being done with the adventuring life as we've seen it for four (five if you count Golden Abyss) games is one of the better endings I remember seeing in awhile. So Lost Legacy had the unenviable task of answering the question of "now what?", and provides a pretty solid answer by focusing on one of the other beloved companions of the series going out and finding some answers from her past. While I would say that it is very obviously Uncharted 4 DLC that got spun out into a stand-alone title at the last minute (Naughty Dog even admits as such), it's still a very enjoyable experience that provides a blueprint for coming back to the series without dragging Drake out of his well earned "retirement" at the end of Thief's End. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kyv28kUnIZk 7) Sea of Survivors I love Vampire Survivors and other games of its ilk. In fact, roguelikes and bullet heavens were like 75% of my gameplay time by volume this year. I also have a bit of a soft spot for pirates. So when this game came to my attention, I was immediately on board. It's a drat fun game that puts a few much-needed twists on the bullet heaven formula. Firstly, you place your weapons and upgrades on a board of interconnected nodes, and there are several items that interact with how items are placed. For example, there's an item that doubles the effects of any surrounding upgrade, or another that as long as it is only connected to one weapon, causes that weapon's power to improve drastically. In addition, a large part of the meta-progression is provided to you by members of your ship's crew, who you hire for gold per run and take with you aboard ship. If you fail the run and your boat sinks, you may lose your shipmates and thus the bonuses they give you! The game is currently in Early Access with more to come, and at only $5 I think it's a steal. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QlLEmu8c-Vk 6) Death Stranding Director's Cut Metal Gear Solid is one of my "hobby-shaping" games. It influenced what I looked for in games for years, and is also probably a large part of the reason I don't like Call of Duty and other games that glorify war. So as you might expect, I followed the series, and Hideo Kojima, closely over the decades since, all the way through to the acrimonious breakup with Konami and the formation of the independent version of Kojima Productions. And what was my reward for that loyalty? Death Stranding. A game that somehow perfectly predicted the "alone, but together" feelings of the pandemic... before the pandemic hit, while also being a beautiful world to explore as you struggle to remain upright schlepping 200kg of cargo on Norman Reedus's back. I personally loved the gameplay and although the story is hampered a little bit by being 100% purestrain Kojima, I still appreciated it as well. I beat the original and finally decided to play the Director's Cut on my brand new PS5 this year, and although the Director's Cut branding is a bit of a misnomer that even the Director (Kojima) doesn't particularly approve of, the added gimmickry of the adaptive triggers and the few additions that were made to the base game don't take away from the experience. I know it's a bit of a hard sell for a lot of people, and as Barry Kramer once said, "if you don't like Death Stranding, oh my GOD do I get it", but I liked it back then and I'm still liking it now. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ot7uXNQskhs 5) Stardew Valley I've dabbled in Stardew Valley a few times over the years, each time getting a fair way into a farm then inevitably burning out or getting distracted by something else for a few months, coming back to the farm, going "what in the hell was I doing here", then deleting and starting over. This year I finally decided to change that, taking an old farm from... I believe early 2022 and seeing it through to Perfection, as in 100% of everything in the game. And wouldn't you know it, it still holds up. Even though I did the "gamer" thing and went straight to producing absolutely absurd amounts of Ancient Fruit wine from a grove fully covered by iridium sprinklers, I still enjoyed every minute of bustling around both the Valley and Ginger Island, gathering the forage, befriending the locals, and eventually settling down with Penny and enjoying the peaceful vibes of the Summit. I finished my Perfection run back in June, and as I write this in December I'm already starting to feel the Valley calling me back. The only thing stopping me is trying to see if I want to wait for the official additions of 1.6 or if I want to just go ahead and throw a few mods on the pile (like Expanded or Ridgeside Valley). also more haunted chocolatier info soon please and thanks https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qh0keDAVMuc 4) Dave the Diver HOT PEPPER TUNA. That is all. 3)-- okay okay. Ol' Dave's caught a little bit of flak for being a game that looks indie but is made by a studio under the Nexon banner, but the people complaining about that clearly didn't play the game to see that it didn't get any favors in the budgetary department. Seriously, the translation is *rough* at points. But despite that, the characters shine through in a story that doesn't take itself very seriously at all, and the stylish food upgrade cutscenes nearly made me want to get over my fear of seafood to try some sushi out for myself. And the gameplay ain't half bad either, with an engaging core gameplay loop that has you dive into the Blue Hole to seek fresh fish to keep Bancho Sushi running broken up regularly by mini-games that keep you guessing at what could be coming next. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G_iD0e_rx24 3) Laika: Aged Through Blood A Metroidvania where your main mode of transportation is a motorcycle, you reload your weapons by backflipping said motorcycle, and you can parry incoming bullets by doing sick drifts. All beautifully hand-drawn and animated, with a haunting mostly acoustic soundtrack. It's a bit on the shorter and shallower side mechanically speaking, and the storyline starts dark and stays dark for the majority of its run time, but if the trailer looks at all interesting I think it's well worth your time. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zw47_q9wbBE 2) The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild I mean... what is there to say about Breath of the Wild that hasn't already been said better (in this very thread, even)? It's Nintendo's special sauce applied to the open world formula and I'm kind of sad I didn't get around to it sooner thanks to other things that were going on in my world these last few years. I'm looking forward to getting around to Tears of the Kingdom sometime early next year. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wlq6fFOqI28 1) Pizza Tower I think the best way I've seen this game described, and it might have been on these forums, was via a comparison to another indie platformer, Celeste. "If Celeste is dealing with the aftermath of an anxiety attack, then Pizza Tower is the anxiety attack in progress." And despite that very accurate description, I mainlined Pizza Tower shortly after it came out and loved every stress-inducing second of it. Great music, tight controls, incredible attention to detail in creating A LOT of distinct animations for every character in the game. It feels weird to put this game at #1 when I beat it back in February and haven't touched it since, but a replay is never very far from the front of my mind even as I work through some of the other things I've wanted to get to this year and prepare for some of 2024's releases.
|
#
¿
Dec 7, 2023 10:54
|
|
|
|
| # ¿ May 11, 2024 16:49 |
|
|
Helping to get to the funny number on mobile! The countdown was incredible and I'm already compiling my data for next year. Currently it's a sticky note that says "tiny rogues good, omg ff7 rebirth is next month gently caress", but I'm already looking at some of my backlog and wishlisted upcoming and going "oh gently caress". Games that'll be on the list barring catastrophic fuckery: FF7 Rebirth Tiny Rogues At least one Yakuza/LAD game, probably infinite wealth tbh Unicorn Overlord Octopath 2 Pentiment Balatro Playing these too probably C-word of the Golden Idol Obra Dinn Papers Please (lmao) BG3 AC6 A bunch of bullet heavens and rogue likes ... Man I'm exhausted just looking at this list and I know I'm missing obvious ones. 2024 going to go hard, apparently.
|
|
#
¿
Jan 18, 2024 00:10
|
|
|
Jay Rust posted:It’s « case » Yeah I didn't want to risk losing my post because my phone is rear end, plus I thought the "c-word" joke was funny. Also I've already went "poo poo forgot about that one" for like five more games, so my dance card is going to be full as hell this year, hopefully.
|
|
#
¿
Jan 18, 2024 00:23
|
|