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Zore posted:my favorite Platinum game is Infinite Space 
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Dec 30, 2020 01:08
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Armored Core: For Answer for me.
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Dec 30, 2020 01:29
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Zore posted:my favorite Platinum game is Infinite Space  Though technically I think the main dev team for IS was the Steel Battalion people and Platinum just helped with some stuff and got credited as co-devs.
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Dec 30, 2020 01:41
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One thing i forgot to mention in my Dangan Ronpa V3 blurb. It has one the of hardest hitting moments ive experienced in gaming. It still stings a lil when i think about it! I really ought to start taking notes again; maybe i won't forget to add stuff like this.
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Dec 30, 2020 01:41
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Gotta love hard hitting emotion packed stuff. I was moved by Cyberpunk oddly enough (still haven't finished it yet). And Yakuza of course. The feels as they say are an important part of the art of gaming. That's why Hideo is the man. And it's also fun to throw stuff and prank people etc, there's that too.
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Dec 30, 2020 01:51
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Dearest moderator of GOTY thread, I have changed entry number 9 on my list. Please update your spreadsheet accordingly. https://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3950329&pagenumber=5&perpage=40&userid=0#post510742132
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Dec 30, 2020 02:05
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Iverron posted:King’s Field also rocks I just wish there were versions of the original games that didn’t control like poo poo and turn at slug speed. https://store.steampowered.com/app/479990/Dungeons__Darkness/
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Dec 30, 2020 02:17
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Microcline posted:8. Xenoblade DE (2020) I moved KR0 from 8 to 6 on my ballot. I voted a few days after finishing it, and honestly I don't think that did the game justice. It's not something you can fully appreciate until a few weeks afterward.
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Dec 30, 2020 02:55
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VideoGames posted:
Tales from the Borderlands was so good I haven't been able to play any "regular" Borderlands games since. I just can't see any of them topping how incredible Tales was, and everything I've heard indicates I was right to think so. It's so good, it's so funny, it's so well-designed, it's genuine and emotional and stupid and hilarious and I loved it so much. It's hard to pick out a favorite moment among so many, but it's perhaps this scene that I most often think of when I think of the game: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GMhuQ4GRzZc The first 30 seconds of this video are so, so loving good. And the intro of every episode is a masterpiece, basically.
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Dec 30, 2020 03:01
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Microcline posted:I moved KR0 from 8 to 6 on my ballot. I voted a few days after finishing it, and honestly I don't think that did the game justice. It's not something you can fully appreciate until a few weeks afterward. This is why I refuse to put a game on my list after I just beat it. Some games can be near perfect 10s in the moment, but after digesting it the flaws become very apparent. EDIT- The opposite can be true as a mere "good" game turns "great". punk rebel ecks fucked around with this message at 03:12 on Dec 30, 2020 |
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Dec 30, 2020 03:04
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Elderborn got compared to KF a few times in Steam reviews and while it’s definitely more Dark Messiah I’ll take whatever I can get.
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Dec 30, 2020 03:25
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Look what y'all made me do https://twitter.com/FlowerRhythmRMX/status/1344109754814255105?s=20
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Dec 30, 2020 03:36
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I have complex issues with the Souls games. But broadly I feel that they've done well in normalising the idea of difficulty as being a desirable thing in games. But that's offset very very significantly by the overall negative effect they've had on third person action games that have sought to emulate them. That and the idea that punishing the player for failure is somehow a good thing. If a game doesn't give me a save before a boss fight and forces me to wade through trash every time I die then honest to god I'm putting it down and never playing it again.
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Dec 30, 2020 03:49
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Natural 20 posted:I have complex issues with the Souls games. But broadly I feel that they've done well in normalising the idea of difficulty as being a desirable thing in games. But that's offset very very significantly by the overall negative effect they've had on third person action games that have sought to emulate them. That and the idea that punishing the player for failure is somehow a good thing. If a game doesn't give me a save before a boss fight and forces me to wade through trash every time I die then honest to god I'm putting it down and never playing it again. Hard disagree and this is just going to be one of those subjective things where your enjoyment of souls games comes down to how you frame the different challenges. I don't look at it as wading through trash, rather it's just another aspect of mastering a level. I really enjoy the process of optimizing the path from bonfire to boss.
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Dec 30, 2020 04:33
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Like anything, game design elements can be used well and they can be used poorly. Whether a game should give you a checkpoint immediately before a challenging section is going to depend on what kind of game it is, what kind of challenge it's trying to provide, what kind of pace, etc. I'm certain there are plenty of games that use their checkpoints inappropriately for how the rest of the game works but I'd argue that's just poor design rather than something I'd blame on the popularity of the Souls games. Meanwhile, there are a good number of games that very specifically take inspiration from Souls to great effect, like Hollow Knight or Nioh, and plenty who do so and fall pretty far short of the mark, like Lords of the Fallen. That said I also can't think of too many games that have taken Souls-like features and used them poorly without just being an attempt at a direct clone (like Lords of the Fallen). I didn't play Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order so maybe that's one? Like it doesn't seem like a widespread issue, I guess. Some features, like losing something on death, I don't see so much as "punishing players for failure" as creating higher stakes, which can be used really well. Again, it can obviously be used poorly if the rest of the game isn't really built around a mechanic like that, but I don't think it's something that's just inherently bad. Harrow fucked around with this message at 04:50 on Dec 30, 2020 |
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Dec 30, 2020 04:46
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I spent this year in almost continuous lockdown from late March to the end of October, with only a three-week respite in June/July. Video games were a pretty important part of my world for those seven months, and putting together this list has given me a chance to realise just how much. As I went back through the games I played this year, each one was like a little photograph of my emotional and mental state at the time I played it. I’m going to be incredibly cruel to the wonderful Video Games and post my list in chronological order of when I played them, rather than in order of their ranking. I’m adding a numbered version of the list at the end, though! The Witcher 3  This guy got murdered and then tried to climb over his own corpse, all while insulting me. Rude. I bought this game on Boxing Day 2019, and took it with me on holiday over New Year’s, for what is probably the last overseas trip I will have for a very long time yet. I played it in stages throughout the year, finally finishing the Blood and Wine DLC in June. I doubt I have anything new to say about it -- it’s a game with a story that, on its face, I wouldn’t have much interest in. A grizzled warrior searches for his missing daughter across a war torn land, solving problems and changing the fate of the world as he goes. But the depth of character and the quality of writing in every quest elevates it to the point where I was deeply invested in Geralt’s quest, and the lives of those he meets. There are things I could complain about -- the combat, an unnecessary loot system, some gratuitous male gaze -- but as a whole, I loved it. I would like to see more bitch sorceresses like the ones in this game. Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE  For years (ok probably like six months since I saw someone streaming it) I wanted this game to come to the Switch. Lo and behold, in January 2020 my wish was granted! TMS is the epitome of dumb, silly fun. I was like a clapping seal every time a new performance cutscene started, and really my only complaint is that there weren’t ENOUGH new songs in the latter half of the game. Honorable Fire Emblem Mention: I continued to play a lot of Fire Emblem Three Houses this year, as the DLC and Maddening difficulty came out. I finished my fifth, and probably final, playthrough. It is my favourite Fire Emblem but it was my Game of the Year last year and I consider what I played of it this year to be a continuation of that, so it isn't included in my ranking. Animal Crossing  Image unrelated to the game, except that two days after its release I became obsessed with the concept of replacing minion memes with goombas; little did I know this was only the first stage of lockdown madness. The first few months of this year I spent absolutely BUZZING for this game. Lockdown started a week before it came out, and I thought the wait for its release would be the most interminable thing I experienced this year. When it was finally island time, I threw myself in head first, and spent all of April and much of May building up my island, visiting countless goons and strangers (thank you turnip.exchange!). The game was exactly what I had been craving for months, and I had a great time designing little areas on my island that represented what I was missing in the physical world, like a cinema and communal crafting area. I was desperately pursuing the coveted 5-star rating from Isabelle, and, unfortunately, as soon as I hit that milestone I lost all desire to play. I checked in about a month ago and my villagers were a little miffed at being ignored for four months, but they seem to be doing fine without me. Honorable "life sim" mention: Story of Seasons: Friends of Mineral Town. A much anticipated remake of a childhood favourite I revisit regularly, for the most part this game brings back so much of what I love about the former Harvest Moon franchise, and improves the formula with QoL and gay marriage, but a couple of things made it lose its shine for me. One, the remake removed rival marriages, so love interests will no longer get married to each other if you don’t pursue them. To me, this means the game loses a sense of lives progressing without you, making Mineral Town feel like less of a real community. The second problem I had was with the two new characters, Brandon and Jennifer. Their writing leaned on quirky gimmicks, and suggested that the writers had forgotten that the charm of Mineral Town came from its down-to-earth residents with real problems like an estranged daughter, alcoholism, or a lack of fulfilment. If not for these two issues, this would be a perfect game to me. As it is, they knocked it off my GotY list proper, but I felt it still deserved a mention. Among Us When Melbourne’s second lockdown was announced in July, some friends organised a weekly video call where we’d hang out and play various games. Among Us was a game we returned to frequently whenever our main games finished up early in the night. It’s a pretty simple game, but supremely fun to play with friends. There’s nothing more enjoyable than suppressing an evil giggle as you run around murdering people. Fire Emblem: Genealogy of the Holy War  Some sneaky cross-promotion The fourth Fire Emblem game is one of my favourites in the series. It has never been released outside of Japan, but received a fantastic fan translation from Project Naga. To keep myself occupied during lockdown, I decided to LP it, since the only LP on the archive uses an older translation that isn’t as good. It has been a great project for me in many ways. I can share a game I love with other people, and on days where I felt like I’d accomplished nothing, I could work on a post and feel productive. As of yesterday, my LP is halfway through the game and has just passed a major turning point in the plot. Hotel Dusk Room 215 A depressing present inevitably leads to dreaming of a return to the past, and this year I went through a streak of replaying games from my childhood. The best of these was Hotel Dusk 215, a noir mystery set in 1980s California. The Nintendo DS introduced me to visual novel mystery games like this and Ace Attorney, but though I replay the Ace Attorney series regularly, I had never replayed Hotel Dusk despite loving it the first time round. That was actually a great thing, though, because it meant I had almost zero recollection of what happened in the game, and I could experience the story fresh. It’s still good!! Honorable nostalgia mentions: In addition to Hotel Dusk 215, I also played Shining Force: Resurrection of the Dark Dragon (which I beat for the first time! As a kid I could never get past the midpoint) and the Urbz: Sims in the City. Unlike Hotel Dusk, these don’t really hold up as good games, and they probably weren’t good games even when I first played them. But they kept my nostalgia brain happy for a few weeks, and that’s what matters. RingFit Adventure  A birthday present for myself as I realised how little exercise I had been getting cooped up inside all year. It has a light, fun story and gave me a lot of motivation to get moving every day. Unfortunately I have a foot injury that’s kept me away from it the last couple months, but I aim to start up again once it’s recovered. Hades  One of my last runs. The pinnacle of a Supergiant game. I have played all their games, and this is their absolute best yet. Gorgeous design, fantastic music, a compelling gameplay loop, super-fun combat, great characters and a good, simple story. I spent all of October on Hades, and it was a fantastic distraction from what seemed like a never-ending lockdown. What more can I say? It’s my game of the year. Honourable mention: I also played Pyre for the first time this year! I loved the visual novel parts but the actual gameplay didn’t really click with me. Disco Elysium Another game people on this forum have waxed on rhapsodically, and for good reason. It was deservedly game of the year last year, and I hope it gets a good showing this year too. I knew some things going in -- it was made by communists; you play as a cop; the writing is incredibly funny; your skills talk to you -- but I was still blown away by just how good this game is in all respects. Outer Wilds A last minute addition! I bought this on Christmas Day, played through the introduction, launched my ship for the first time, then stepped out without my spacesuit on and immediately suffocated to death. A+++. But seriously, the concept at the core of this game is one I love in all formats. Figuring out what’s going on is such a satisfying feeling, and if it appeals to you, PM me and I can provide you a list of media that I think give the same feeling. It is one I have cultivated over many years. Games played, RANKED 1. Hades 2. Outer Wilds 3. The Witcher 3 4. Disco Elysium 5. Animal Crossing 6. Among Us 7. RingFit Adventure 8. FE4 9. Hotel Dusk Room 215 10. TMS
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Dec 30, 2020 05:04
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Looking back it's been quite a year for Videos Game and this isn't the easiest list to cut down and order; oddly this is not because I'm struggling to place the top three or whatever, but because there's an abundance of games that I want to put in like, position 8; good and fun but not enough to hit the big leagues. First, honorable mentions: Transport Fever 2 - Yes I do enjoy building train networks yes thank you I shall partake. Major downside is city sizes just do not 'fit' properly, you end up with massive complex networks serving three cities of 5000 people. Mount and Blade II: Bannerlord - I have little doubt that once this leaves EA it's going to be on my list for that year, I still love the OG and this is basically that but better, which yeah. Cepheus Protocol: You've never heard of it? Yeah nobody has. It's really niche. It's an RTS in a big island in San Fransisco bay where there's zombies and you've gotta kill the zombies and stop them from spreading and it's fun as gently caress. Has potential, we'll have to see where they go as they continue development. Crusader Kings III: I honestly couldn't tell you what it is about CK3 that has failed to pull me back, because I caned it for like two weeks solid at release and then... didn't touch it since. Maybe DLCs will reignite the spark? Persona 4 Golden: Got this for Christmas so I haven't put too much time into it yet. So far all signs point to it belonging high on a list and I'm mostly abdicating putting it in mine so I have room for other stuff. Jedi: Fallen Order: gently caress Bloodborne Jedi Souls is way better. Okay that's hyperbole for jokey times, I've never played Bloodborne, but this is a really fun game about being a dude who hadn't completed much of his Jedi training when Order 66 occurred, and you go around some places killing some mans and robots to do Jedi stuff. It's not perfect, there's too much backtracking for one thing, but it's the first game that gave me real good "I grow in my mastery of the Force and it is cool and powerful" vibes since, like, KOTOR and Kyle Katarn games. Among Us: There's a reason every bastard on the planet played this this year, and it's because it's loving hilarious. Streets of Rage 4: Absolutely slaps and owns hard, a genuinely brilliant update of the OG games. 10: DooM: Eternal - The follow up to the remarkably good DooT 2016, Eternal isn't quite as good, but it's still a great time killing an absolute fuckload of demons and being a Very Angry Man. 9: Fell Seal: Arbiter's Mark - It's basically a love letter to Final Fantasy Tactics, which makes it weird that I like it because I think FFT is a big bag of poo poo. This game is far better. Loads of jobs, skills, combinations of things to become swole and kill stuff, has some pretty good characters and plot and stuff. 8: Ghost of Tsushima - Just remembered this existed and had to edit my list lol, which is probably why it's not higher, but it is a drat good game even if it hews pretty closely to the standard open world formula. Got some good Bushido Blade and Tenchu vibes playing this, and although there was a good deal of collectathon going on, it wasn't as gratuitous as in some games because pretty much everything is a thing in the world that makes sense, be it a hot spring or a shrine or the like, rather than just being a bunch of towers to climb. 7: Suzerain - I only got this for Christmas and I slammed through it in like, 8 hours. It's not terribly long but it seems to promise decent replay value. Anyway you're a guy called Anton Rayne who has become president of a place called Sordland, the fictional world is really fleshed out and has a long history and stuff. As Prime Minister you can now try and do a bunch of stuff, and I was like "Okay communism time" but there are existing power structures and interests that mean you don't have a free hand, and you'll have to figure out what you can compromise, or how to bring people aboard, or both. I ended the run having drastically improved healthcare and education (especially in rural areas) and did some serious infrastructure improvements, but I also hosed the economy extremely hard by getting diplomatically isolated. 6: Shadowrun Returns/Dragonfall/Hong Kong - I'm late to the party on these but after the... shortcomings of a certain other game released this year, I took the advice of a goonfriend and fired Returns up. Turns out it's great, if a little janky and short, but the next two fix that delightfully and Dragonfall and Hong Kong are two of the most fun RPG times I've had this year. 5: Resident Evil 3 Nemesis (Remake) - I spent a LOT of time playing the OG back in my teen years on an incredibly small TV in my bedroom. After REmake 2 last year I had high hopes for this, and it... didn't quite meet them but also didn't fall dramatically short. I wish they'd given us a bigger city section in the first half of the game, a bit more open and with a bit more dynamism in when Nemmy can show up and mess with you. But I had an amazing time despite that and absolutely loving blasted through the game repeatedly until I got a playtime that, had I achieved it a couple of days earlier, would have been WR territory. I hope Capcom looks real close at what worked and what didn't in the two REmakes before they set to work on the next Resi project because there are lessons to be learned for sure. 4: FFXIV - I got to playing FFXIV entirely because last year's Goon Awards Thread raved endlessly about it. I was glad to have done so because I had a great time for about 200 hours. Then I ran into an enormous brick wall that I just could never power through, I've not touched the game in six months despite thinking on like a weekly basis "Oh right I should get back to that, once I get back into it it's supposed to only get better, I had a great time with the least good content so what awaits me??" but... I just haven't. And it's not just because the content linking 2.0 and 3.0 sucks, because I can't bring myself to care about or enjoy anything else either, be it playing another class or doing fishing or racing chocobos or anything. Maybe MMOs aren't for me anymore, but this is without a doubt the apex of the traditional WoW-style MMO. 3: RimWorld - RimWorld's RimWorld, idk what to tell you, just enormous amounts of content with an insane quantity of mods available and your colonists can both fall victim to and commit heinous atrocities. Honestly, compared to Dwarf Fortress? The student has now surpassed the master. Though DF might take things back depending on how the Steam version goes. 2: Hades - For most devs, a game as good as Transistor would be a feather in the cap. Many people regard it as the least good of Supergiant's, but I've yet to see any debate about which is the best of their four games - Hades is the kind of game that gaming is for, it's why we wade through all the bad games and the buggy games and the corpo nonsense and triple-A poo poo. Because every now and then something like Hades comes along and reminds us "Oh gently caress, games can be incredible." Every single aspect of this game from the core gameplay loop to the art to the voice acting to the version of Greek myths it tells is 10/10. Astonishing. A tour de force. 1: Final Fantasy VII Remake - I'm one of those basic bitches who stans OG FFVII, it was my first in the series thanks to being a PALgoon, though I had played a couple of JRPGs before this it was revelatory and I must have replayed it 20 times since the first time I saw the ending. I was hopeful that the remake would be good, but I was not optimstic that it would live up to the original, not when that is admittedly shrouded in so much nostalgia. I was wrong. FF7 Remake takes everything about the original that was great and enhances it. The plot is batshit Nomura stuff that ends with you killing the gestalt manifestation of the original FF7 story which is insane in the best possible way. The battle system is refined to an exceptional sheen. The graphics are generally exceptional, and the soundtrack is a phenomenal mix of the old tracks and some new ones (Hand Over Hand is the bop of the year, no question about it). Expanding Midgar to the content of a full 30 to 40 hour game works tremendously well in the end, as it helps develop the place a great deal, giving a lot more emotional weight to various events in the game. After all, a megacity of such a size probably should have vast amounts of things to do and see in it. Almost every single part of the game is a perfect recreation of, or addition to, the original, though standout mention has to go to the development given to the rest of AVALANCHE which took them from characters I always liked and wished got a little more screen time, to major and central characters who I adore. And they did it all without sacrificing the goofiness of the original, including the infamous crossdressing Cloud scene* and the fight with Hell House. loving impeccable. Before release I understood the people who were leery of buying what had once been a single game in multiple parts, especially as this covers like, the first 20% of that game at best. I now think those people are chumps, because Square-Enix have earned their pay with this. Bring on the other parts! * You'd think given how I always ensured every item was the best version and how I wished I could dress all pretty like Cloud and how I hoped he had an enjoyable time dressed a as a girl and how I wished you could unlock it as a permanent outfit, that I would have at some point realized that perhaps I, myself, was not a Cis Boy sometime before my 30s. You'd think. 
Ms Adequate fucked around with this message at 05:14 on Dec 30, 2020 |
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Dec 30, 2020 05:06
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Okay so here is my list for 2020: Honorary Mentions: (in no particular order) Smash Bros DLC: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DEC51s-Dv_0 Jump Rope Challenge: Not much to this one but I will give it a shoutout for keeping my lard rear end active during the pandemic. Plus it was free so that was a nice bonus! Links Awakining Switch: Finally got some time to play this when I was on vacation back in early march. Yeah it can feel a bit stale given that the game doesn't really add anything new, but I ended up appreciating the new coat of paint enough to give it a mention. Rivals of Aether: A nice little smash bros style fighter. This games worth comes from all the amazing mods you can get on steam. Hades: Haven't been able to play this one much but I can already tell it's going to be on next years list! A fun game to watch and to play. Clubhouse Games for Switch: A charming little game collection that's a worthwhile addition to any gamers library. Call of Duty: Cold War: I really only bought this to play zombies with my friends but I did have fun with the campaign as well. Ghost of Tsushima: Another game I didn't end up having time for this year which is a real shame, because what I did end up playing was exceptional. Perhaps next year yeah. Doom 64: The best Doom game hands down. I am ready to die on this hill. Especially glad to be able to play this on modern hardware. Trials Rising: I had fallen off the Trials bandwagon after HD on the 360 so I was interested to see where the series had gone in the last 10 years. I am quite glad to say that overall it has improved. The user made levels kept me addicted for hours. My only real complaint is that the games difficulty curve was a bit too sharp for me. Overall worth a look. And now for my top 10. 10. Crash Bandicoot 4: A true return to form for the austrailian marsupial! This title has hours upon hours of replayability as well as refreshing detours with other playable characters. 9. Tony Hawk Pro Skater 1 + 2: Remake of the year hands down. Reminds me of hanging out with friends on friday?saturday nights, pizza hut for dinner and late night toonami. I miss those days. 8. Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity: The game I've put this most hours into this year by far, which came as a suprise to me given how hard I bounced off of the original. This is perhaps the first warriors game that I've played where I didn't burn out after 5 hours. The story is a bit cheesy but I honestly prefer that to Botw's barebone plot. Really worth the full 60 bux. 7. Dount County: I completely regret putting this one off. This game was an absolute treat! Reminds me of Katamari Damacy in all the best ways. 6. A Short Hike: Perhaps the most impactful game of this year A Short Hike engrossed me from start to finish. A Short Hike is indeed short (only about 3-5 hrs really) but it makes every minute count. A good game to go back to when you just want something peaceful. 5. Astros Playland: Truth be told this is the only game I've seriously gotten into on my ps5 so far, though theres a good reason for that. This title is a top tier platformer that kept me engaged the whole way through. A god-tier pack in game matching the level of Wii-Sports or Super Mario Bros. 4. Mr. Driller Drill Land: To the goons who recommended this game god bless you. It is baffling how Bamco has managed to let this top tier IP fall by the way-side. 3. Dicey Dungeons: Hol-lee-poo poo this game is addicting. After buying this on my switch like a week ago I've already put like a dozen hours in. While the opening few hours were certainly frustrating, the core gameplay loop kept me invested enough to push through. Deck builders were never my jam but Dicey Dungeons has me seriously reconsidering that opinion. 2. Animal Crossing: New Horizons: Another time consumer this reaches the number 2 spot simply for how many good memories it gave me during this poo poo show of a year. 1. Bug Fables: There are not enough words to show how much I absolutely adore this game. This game just oozes charm. From the world to the art-style to the gameplay to the characters everything about Bug Fables just hits the right spot for me. A true 10 out of 10.
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Dec 30, 2020 05:44
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DalaranJ posted:From soft didn’t put summons in Sekiro because they didnt want to playtest their ai with 2 players when it was already dying from rocks and stairs.
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Dec 30, 2020 06:09
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Geo Fixer posted:Okay so here is my list for 2020: You have great taste.
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Dec 30, 2020 06:53
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Harrow posted:Meanwhile, there are a good number of games that very specifically take inspiration from Souls to great effect, like Hollow Knight i know hollow knight def does have souls influence especially in its tone and setting but its v funny to me still bcos if dark souls had never existed this game still couldve and it wouldve simply been a metroidvania
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Dec 30, 2020 07:06
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Bottom 5 Games I played (for the first time) in 2020: 5. Final Fantasy 7: As in the original, not the remake. After the remake came out to rave review I decided that maybe it was time I finally went back and tried FF7, which I had somehow completely missed as a kid. I... don't get it. I don't care about the graphics, I don't care about the combat being turn based. I care that the story is completely nonsensical and unengaging, that the game thinks I care about these characters when, really, I've been given no reason to, and that the combat is beyond boring even by turn-based standards. If this game brings you joy - and it seems like it does for many people - then more power to you! It is not the game for me though, and it killed any interest I had in playing the remake. 4. Tales of Vesperia Definitive Edition: I had last played the original 360 version of Vesperia many years ago back when I was in HS, so I was pretty hyped for this new version that had all the until then Japanese exclusive PS3 content. However this was bad, and for two distinct reasons. The lower hanging fruit is that this was an incredibly cheap and slapdash localization effort where maybe 40% of the original voice cast came back, so characters have their VA's changing literally line to line in some scenes, and it is extremely jarring. Beyond that though I learned a harder truth: that this game I loved in HS is actually kinda poo poo, both in terms of plot and gameplay. Combat skills are locked behind an extremely limiting system that only really lets you have fun in combat once you get to NG+ and can carry everything you've unlocked over from the word go, and the plot is a meandering mess that is less a cohesive narrative and more random stuff happening at the main characters, who then react to it. 3. NBA 2K 2020: Let me be up front and say that I have no problems with yearly iterative sports games: I've been buying each year's version of MLB The Show since 2014 and have a blast every year. I thought hey why not branch out to Basketball, and unfortunately ended up throwing $69.99 down the hole in the process. For starters you need to memorize like ten full pages of controls to be able to move your character, and even then half the time the inputs just don't register properly. The story mode is some hilariously terrible garbage, even by sports game story mode standards, and the online netcode could use some serious goddamn work. Don't really have a big long write up for this one otherwise: game sucks and I wasted money on it. 2. Shenmue II: No I did not forget to put an extra I in there. Much like with FF7 Remake I was interested in playing Shenmue III, but figured I should play the older games first. I'd watched the old T40's LP of the first game and was going to watch Kuvo's LP of the second as well, but then figured gently caress it I can just buy the collection on Steam and play through II. Well, let's just say I was dissuaded from playing Shemue III. Between some of the worst controls I've ever experienced in a video game, stiff and unresponsive fighting game combat, constant dropped inputs and lag on QTE events (which may be a Steam collection issue  ) and a story that is more interested in jerking off over obscure forms of Chinese martial arts than it is developing it's central characters, I was not having a good time. 1. Halo Master Chief Collection: The time that my friends and I spent playing Halo 2 and 3 when we were in Junior High and High School has to easily total thousands of hours. I loved those games to death and was really looking forward to being able to replay them, on PC, with working multiplayer. But instead 343 kicked both games out the door when they were nowhere near ready to be played, riddled with so many bugs that just a normal run through the campaign was basically impossible, and the multiplayer was a colossal clusterfuck. This is up there with Vesperia for incredible disappointments. It is entirely possible it's gotten better since then, but honestly all of my enthusiasm has since drained out and I couldn't loving care less. You can't even argue that the MCC was poo poo because most of the developers' efforts were focused on Infinite, because that looks like poo poo too! Top 5 Games I played (for the first time) in 2020: 5. Barotrauma: Here's my hidden gem. Barotrauma is a 2D sci-fi/fantasy submarine simulation game. Yeah, try to parse that one. Basically you and some friends (and this game absolutely needs friends) have to man a submarine, and everybody picks a job (skipper, engineer, technician, medic, guard, etc) that they have to do. The sub is dark and you often only know what your other crew members are doing based on comm chatter. Everything seems calm, when suddenly the alarm blares and your engineer is screaming the reactor room is flooding. The technician races down to patch the hole, screams, and then radio silence. Security gears up and heads down, as they open the bulkhead water rushes in carrying the corpses of two crew members and three sea beasts looking for more blood. Security tries to fight them off but they forgot to bring a diving suit, so they drown in the rushing water. The sub takes on too much water and starts uncontrollably sinking, at which point you hit a depth too far and the sub and remaining crew flatten like a pancake. Game over, you actually got farther then your last five attempts and you're raring to try again! There are plenty of different missions, subs, and game types including a rudimentary campaign mode to play, and if you have enough people for it to make sense you can even turn it into a SS13 situation and have randomly selected traitors. The game is really good and if you've got friends who are willing to suffer through a fairly overbearing mandatory tutorial then you should pick this bad boy up. 4. Persona 5 Royal: Persona 5 was really good and to be honest I was kinda dreading this one coming out. Not just because it meant I'd have to play through yet another 80 hour long JRPG session, but because rumor was it retconned how terrible a certain psycopathic character in the original was because fans liked them, and I thought that was going to suck. I was wrong on all fronts, P5R absolutely loving slaps and is about as comprehensive a remaster as I could hope for. It fixed almost all the issues with the combat, added tons of additional tidbits of story content all over old content to provide more context to later events and just add more spice in general, added whole new areas to explore, completely redid every main dungeon to be more engaging, added voice acting for tons of previously silent scenes, added a new main character who is good if a little obviously tacked on until the final dungeon, and a whole new final chapter and dungeon with easily the most compelling antagonist in the game, and arguably the entire series. This is the definitive edition of Persona 5 and I highly recommend it to anybody who thinks they could get into a JRPG. 3. Monster Hunter World Iceborne: This one is kind of cheating since I almost exclusively hunted with friends, and everything is fun with friends. But what really elevates Iceborne for me is that you were not just buying the content that was there at launch with the expansion, you bought eight months worth of additional, completely free content of not-insignificant scope. Whole new monsters, new hunts, tons of events, a new siege monster, the works. There was so much goddamn value packed into this expansion that I actually felt bad and bought some cosmetic stuff I didn't need just to give Capcom some more money. The additional content has now run it's course, but if you are looking for a loving boatload of content to enjoy, particularly with friends, pick up MHW and the Iceborne expansion, this is the best Monster Hunter game to date period and it's not particularly close. Also if you were ever warned off the series because of a steep difficulty curve or unintuitive design, know that there was a conscious effort in this one to actually properly tutorialize the player and make the various gameplay loops weave into each other much more naturally, so that you are always progressing almost everything you need to by just going out and bonking monsters over the head. 2. Hades: I loving hate roguelikes. Can't stand 'em. Binding of Issac is poo poo, Risk of Rain is poo poo, you name it I hate it. Hades is a loving masterpiece. And it is a masterpiece because it is focused first and foremost on its characters and their relationships and personal struggles, and the reward for making runs is as much the thrill of battle and attempts at victory as it is getting to come back to the hub and have more conversations with these wonderful characters, and try to hopefully make some progress towards making their lives a little bit better. Even if you die in a horribly poo poo way, you're itching to go back and talk more to Thanatos, or Megara, or hear your dad grump about how he doesn't like the color of drapes you picked for the West Hall. Everything you've come to love about Supergiant: their gorgeous artwork, incredible writing, stellar voice acting, Korb's insane musical ability, and satisfying gameplay: they're all here in spades. Moving on from the art and writing which I could gush about for paragraphs, the gameplay is great, mostly owing to the litany of different playstyles on offer. There are six different weapons that all play uniquely from one another, and each weapon has four different aspects of wildly differing approach. I guarantee you will find something that feels natural to you. There are also dozens upon dozens of different ability combos thanks to the boons the gods randomly give you run to run, and if you really want to challenge yourself then once you win enough times you can add "heat" to your runs: extra challenges that add a timer, or give enemies more health or damage, or special abilities based on their class, or disabled your own buffs. I've written too many words about Hades: loving buy it, loving play it. 1. Disco Elysium: This is the cRPG that finally surpasses Planescape: Torment. I can't talk about much of anything without spoiling things, so I'll instead give a piece of advice: don't save scum skill checks. A huge part of this game is failure, and you are narratively rewarded for failing as much as (sometimes even moreso) than you are for success.There's a remaster coming out in March with more content, but gently caress it buy this version as well because the devs deserve all your money and this is a modern day masterpiece of gaming. I know it's dumb for my GOTY to have the shortest writeup but I honestly feel like anything I say about the game will just diminish a first time player's experience: buy this loving game. Special Mentions: Persona 4 Golden: Yes I played P5 before I played P4, bite me. Bought the Steam version and had some good fun, although the randomly generated dungeons are god awful and there's tons of kinda important stuff I never would have known were even in the game had I not checked a guide. Good JRPG that does kinda show it's age unfortunately. Demon's Souls Remastered: It's Demon's Souls but with prettier graphics and running at a stable 60 FPS. Crusader Kings III: It's more Crusader Kings 2, with some fancy new stuff added in. Still broken at launch though as new Paradox releases tend to go, and I feel it needs a major expansion or two to really be worth the price tag.
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Dec 30, 2020 07:13
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Man, I'm playing Yakuza 7 right now and I'm really sad that I can't put it on my list. The game is fantastic and it's insane how well the series works as a straight up JRPG. And due to the transition it manages to break an insane amount of "tropes" in the genre.
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Dec 30, 2020 07:36
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Amazing Cultivation Simulator, #1. Praise be to Nyaa for the fantastic LP and the community effort that got enough traction to get the extremely dense and wacky kung fu colony simulator into English. https://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3945892 Second place is Densha de GO!! Hashirou Yamanote-sen, the new PS4 version of the long running Japanese arcade train conductor series that is more or less like curling or darts, only with a train full of people. Extremely relaxing once you get the hang of it, very easy to get into the zone. Chasing zeroes in that game is maddeningly fun. All the other games I played this year were okay but these are the two that take the cake. I wish Umurangi Generation worked on my computer, but them's the breaks. e: I don't even know what other games I put more than a couple hours into this year. Call of Duty Black Ops Cold War? Muse Dash? That's pretty much it. aldantefax fucked around with this message at 09:36 on Dec 30, 2020 |
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Dec 30, 2020 09:28
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Ms Adequate posted:Hand Over Hand is the bop of the year, no question about it A fellow person of culture I see.
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Dec 30, 2020 09:55
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Better get a list out there since I won't have time tomorrow, the last day of the year! Honestly a really strong year and I'm sure I've forgotten things in my honourable mentions list. Honourable Mentions Animal Crossing: New Horizons I spent a lot of time playing this when it came out and it was definitely the right game at the right time. We went into lockdown here in NZ and the game had only just come out a couple weeks earlier. Spent a lot of time with my villagers and making my island nice but then one day I just stopped. I think it had become a sort of routine for me and I was tired of it. Still really love the game and it wa definitely a highlight of the year! Control I can't believe this isn't in my top 5! It's probably 6th to be honest, but the games I played this year were really strong and maybe if I hadn't gone back to Yakuza it would have definitely been in there. I was a massive Max Payne 1&2 fan when I was younger and I enjoyed Alan Wake. Really loved this game, the story was cool, the environments were interesting even in their sort of blandness and the combat was really really fun! Crash 4 I'll be honest, I just didn't give this game enough time and need to go back to it. I really really love the original Crash games and from what I played of this it was great. Infuriatingly difficult and some of those hidden boxes just seemed bad but it still was great. Tony Hawk 1+2 Got to relive my childhood memories of playing Tony Hawk 2 so so much. Great game, feels perfect, soundtrack is pretty solid. I definitely dropped off it once I finished though, think I need the right mood to want to play it. Factorio I'll be honest, this game intimidates me. I enjoyed it a lot at first and was having fun making a spaghetti mess of conveyor belts to make stuff. Then I realised I needed to refactor my whole setup once I needed to make the next set of materials and I felt a bit overwhelmed and haven't gone back to it. The game is great though and I will definitely play it soon. Creeper World 4 If you're into tower defense or RTS games that encourage turtling then this game is for you. I had played a tiny bit of CW3 but the transition to 3D really made me fall in love with this game and I'm really enjoying slowly going through the "story" levels and am excited to jump into the user-made levels and random daily stuff too. Just really satisfying and easy to zone out to. Nova Drift Asteroids but its a roguelite with enemy spaceships and you choose different weapons/ships/shields and then choose from random upgrades. Really fun in a "one more try" way to see what the different weapons are like and how they interact with the upgrades. I will happily play this at anytime and is one of the first games I go to when I can't think of what else to play. Noita I liked those falling sand games and this is that but with much more chaos. Definitely need to go back to it now that it's finally released. And now... The Top 5 ---------------- 5. Yakuza 0 I had previously started playing Yakuza 0 a couple of years ago and always got distracted by something else before really getting far into the story (only ever made it up to the first Majima section). How had I made such a bad mistake!! The side missions are so good and stupid yet charming, and the main story knows when to be goofy and when to be super serious and it somehow just all works. Kiryu is so good and Majima is amazing too. Will definitely be continuing through the series and I'm so happy the rest of the games are coming to PC next year! Also I'm a massive fan of the Kabukicho area and miss it a lot (I was going to be travelling in Japan this year before everything happened) so this really made me happy in that way too. 4. Death Stranding I only just played this a couple months ago but it was great. I am a big MGS fan and the story in this was somehow more stupid but I connected with it a lot emotionally. Coming into it so late there was a lot of stuff people had built in the world already but that is actually a perfect fit for what the story is trying to tell, I loved giving likes to all the really useful bridges people had built. Some of the twists in the story I did not guess (I think I'm just a bit stupid with stories in this regard) and they really shocked me. Loved this from start to finish. The movement is satisfying and it was almost a relaxing zen thing to play. 3. Disco Elysium Man am I happy I finally picked this up. The previous SA game of the year was close to being my game of the year this year. The dialogue in this game is incredible and the choices I felt I had really made the game feel so solid. Kim is such a great sidekick and I love the character development as the story goes on. I don't really know what else I can really say about this that hasn't been already said but it is so great. Looking forward to maybe another playthrough when the extra stuff comes out next year! 2. Hades God this was good wasn't it? Satisfying weapons, really well written and voice-acted, just nice to look at. Again I'm not sure what else I can add that others haven't but Hades really hooked me for a couple of weeks and I'm a sucker for that roguelite "one more try" thing and games that encourage you to try different weapons with different upgrades (see my comments about Nova Drift above). Supergiant have made a really incredible game here and it would have been my game of the year if not for... 1. Outer Wilds This game was incredible. The freedom is almost overwhelming at the start of the game. What planet should I go to? What should I even be doing? What was that flash I saw when I first woke up? Why is this happening again? I loved my journey through Outer Wilds, discovering new areas and finding out clues which linked up with other areas and always motivated you to go somewhere new. A beautiful game that I wish I could forget so I could go through it all again. I almost wish they could just make another one of these with new planets and new things to discover but of course that would be stupid. We will just have to live with this game which I honestly think is one of my favourite games of all time.
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Dec 30, 2020 10:22
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FlowerRhythmREMIX posted:Look what y'all made me do 
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Dec 30, 2020 11:02
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edit: VG's Bloodborne post put a tear in my eye - want to see the movie of it. Okay, here's the top ten games I played a whole bunch of this year: 10. Snatcher (Mega CD, 1994) - Replayed it for the first time in 20 years and it's held up beautifully. One of Kojima's best games and almost certainly his funniest. Genuinely painful that this hasn't been re-released.  9. Streets of Rage 4 (PC, 2020) - Listened to the hype on here (mainly from Exquisite Tea I think) and it lived up to it. The soundtrack, art and the weight of the fighting is incredible.  8. Sayonara Wild Hearts (PC, 2019) - Was feeling particularly gloomy during the first lockdown, as well as really missing gigs and live music. This is optimistic and creative from start to finish. And the music slaps.  7. Fortnite (PC, 2020) - I never thought I'd get into this, but with schools closed and my sister working as a doctor I effectively e-babysat my young nephews on Fortnite for hours. Was really nice to hang out with them online and I think without it we'd have struggled to stay in touch as they don't have phones. Plus I'm okay at it now and we all work well together as a trio.  6. Resident Evil HD Remaster (PC, 2002/2015) - Had been putting this off for literally 20 years because I thought it looked too scary. Eventually got to it and found it hugely enjoyable. Just the absolute best survival horror experience out there and has aged ludicrously well.  5. Tell Me Why (PC, 2020) - After being let down by Life is Strange 2 and Vampyr I was on the outs with DontNod, but this dragged me back in. The limited scope and smaller cast of characters work to the game's benefit and I got a kick out of the unreliability of messages themes.  4. Paper Beast (PSVR, 2020) - Came out of completely nowhere and blindsided me. You manipulate tiny ecosystems to solve problems using animal behavior. It's a bit scary how well this is designed given the complexity of its systems.  3. The Last of Us Part II (PS4, 2020) - Yes a basic bitch choice, but this sucked me in completely for about three nights. I gave myself tendinitus from playing it too long becase I had to find out what happened.  2. Astro’s Playroom (PlayStation 5, 2020) - The absolute best introduction to a new console I've ever had. Made getting a PS5 feel like a proper event and the amount of nostalgia bombs in it is ridiculous. There's a shout-out to Vib Ribbon ffs. I've been playing Sony consoles since 1995 and I know this is corporate propaganda but it worked, dammit.  1. Demon's Souls (PlayStation 5, 2020) - Back into the mire, the misery and the frustration. I genuinely don't know why wading through a literal lake of poisonous poo poo fighting horrible monsters makes me so deliriously happy, but it does. Bluepoint loving nailed this and I will go back over and over again to marvel at it. 
Necrothatcher fucked around with this message at 11:19 on Dec 30, 2020 |
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Dec 30, 2020 11:10
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Honorable mentions in no particular order Edit: I forgot three important ones so I am adding those. Star Wars Squadrons Just a really fun, no bullshit Star Wars Space shooter with the original trilogy ships I like. It's pretty simple but has a fun campaign, fun multiplayer and great presentation. Also VR support! This game is just awesome in VR. Also, cross play for all platforms and no DLC or GAAS service stuff. Disco Elysium Really unique world with great writing. Overall an extremely memorable and cool game, although I did find it to be more of a visual novel with an RPG dressing than the CRPG it's usually described as. Amnesia Rebirth Really cool follow up and the best horror game of the year. It has some really interesting ideas and memorable set pieces. Doesn't quite live up to the greatness of Soma though. Doom Eternal: A game with some stuff I really liked and some stuff I didn't like at all, but I still feel like it needs to go in here somewhere. It's an impressive sequel that just had some design decisions that kept it from being on the real list like I expected it to be. Astro's Play Room: Just fantastic all around. The sequel to my favorite VR game that somehow manages to almost live up to the original despite not being VR . Would probably be my #2 or 3 if it was a full game. The whole series is just pure joy. Demon's Souls remake: this would have been higher if it wasn't a remake of a game I had already played 6 times, but goddamn it is a very good remake and the most PS5 thing you can play right now along with Astro. it was pretty cool to see someone else's tke on updating a Fromsoft title Resident Evil 3 remake: Not gonna lie this was a disappointing follow up to the RE2 remake and a pretty questionable use of $60, but drat I love where RE is at atm, and I enjoyed the hell out of all 5 hours of it. Call of Duty Warzone: Tbh I kind of hate this game at the moment. I don't know if I ever want to play it again. But it was my most played game this year by far. And I enjoyed the hell out of it for most of the year. It's probably the best BR ever made as far as I am concerned, but the genre can just be so miserable and frustrating I am just kind of over it in general. I'd feel dishonest not including a game I played obsessively every night for like 6 months and had a lot of fun with somewhere in here, but it was too much of a mixed bag of fun and just being loving pissed off to make the real list. Until You fall: Just a great, polished and super fun use of VR. After noodling and waggling with swords anemically for years in VR, this is the first game that convinced me it could actually feel really great, like I am really holding a chunk of metal in my hand and slicing through baddies. Top notch visuals and fight design too. The only thing holding it back, is that it feels like the prototype for one of the greatest VR games ever. It's just not a great rougelite and exploration is non existent and it's super repetitive. I am in love with what it does right though and I think a sequel done right could be a game changer for VR. Top games of 2020 (including some non 2020 stuff that I just played this year for the first time, since that seems to be kosher) 5. Hades: I'm really not a huge fan of the genre. I'll dabble in it a bit but rarely get hooked on it. I think Dead Cells was the only other one I got thoroughly hooked on, but I'm not sure I ever really liked it that much. I like Hades though. A lot. The combat is just so good and the way it doles the story out is brilliant. The best thing about it is that I think it's the only game I have played that really does loot right. Every playthrough feels like a new approach to the only criticism I have of it, which is that is does get a bit boring playing the same 4 levels 50 times in a row. I still think it's a benchmark for the genre though. 4: Half life: Alyx. I don't have a whole lot to say about this one. It's a full on AAA VR game that looks stunning and has a good story and good gameplay. it doesn't really do anything super remarkable but this is all I want from VR right now. I am just tired of wonky indie games and want some real poo poo, and Alyx delivers. 3:cyberpunk 2077 What can I even say about this one? It shouldn't be out right now. It's janky and broken and even has a lot of questionable design choices but I love it. It's one of the densest, most labyrinthian and realized open worlds I have ever seen. The art direction is fantastic. The missions are entertaining and varied, the cast is mostly great, the soundtrack, the atmosphere, animation, everything . It just hits a lot of buttons for me. I do wish I had played it in a better state sometimes though, because I would be lying if I said it wasn't a mess. it wasn't enough of a mess for it to not be one of my favs of 2020 though. 2: Alien Isolation with MotherVR... I realize this is a weird one. I played Alien Isolation when it came out and loved it so the game isn't even new to me. Was def in my top 5 of 2014. A:I is not a VR game. But it was supposed to have VR support. Somewhere along the line Reddit dug up the VR files, and some saint among men turned it into a playable mod and, goddamn. I could never play this game outside of VR again. It just makes it 5 times better. Despite not having some rough edges sanded off, and only having controller support I still think it's one of the coolest VR games I have ever played. it just looks and feels incredible to play. I honestly can't believe how good it looks without even being a resource hog like Alyx. probably the second best looking VR game I've ever played and it makes you feel like you are in the original Alien movie. Love it. Number one is a two way tie. I can't in good faith give either of these games second place. Divinity: Original Sin 2: Best RPG i have ever played. it's beautiful, challenging, massive, full of super dense exploration and a crazy amount of variety. It gives the player such an unbelievable amount to freedom that it makes most games that tout "player choice" look like a joke by comparison. After 130 hours I felt kind of lost when it was actually over and I wasn't ready for it to end. At the same time I can just go back and play it again and do everything differently. The Last of Us 2: It's just one of the most ambitious and ballsy sequels I have ever played. The scale of it all feels almost unmatched. Yeah, there are longer games, but the way it just keeps throwing new things at you for thirty+hours with zero fluff is unlike anything I have seen before. And the story is everything it needed to be imo. It doesn't hang on the coattails of the original. it sets out to do it's own thing, while being true to the original and I think it succeeds on every level. both of my number ones this year land squarely in my top ten GOATS. veni veni veni fucked around with this message at 19:50 on Dec 30, 2020 |
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Dec 30, 2020 12:14
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Dec 30, 2020 12:19
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I gotta say that one of my favorite gaming-related things of the year was going on a news blackout for TLOU2 after the spoilers and only reading the threads after I'd finished the game. Going through the pages upon pages of literally insane reactions to imaginary stuff that didn't happen in the game was hilarious. The posters basically invented a game to hate. So thanks BP for making a much much better TLOU2 thread.
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Dec 30, 2020 12:32
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I already put it on my list, but in doing so it reminded me to play some more Hades, and goddamn if Hades doesn't rule and I should have been playing it more than I did this year.
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Dec 30, 2020 13:09
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10. Astro's Playroom This little 3D platformer is easily as charming as anything Nintendo has done with the genre. Would probably be higher if it were actually a full game. 9. Bugsnax I'd have completely missed this one if it hadn't been a free title for PS5 owners. It's sort of a clever combination of Pokemon Snap and Portal and it's just the right length. 8. Immortals Fenyx Rising Ubisoft's latest IP seems to be flying a bit under the radar as people dismiss it for being a Breath of the Wild clone. It certainly takes a lot of ideas from BotW, but it stands out for its faster pace and excellent traversal mechanics that make zipping about the world a joy. 7. Final Fantasy 7 Remake I don't have as much nostalgia for the original FF7 as many people do. I played it once when it released and have largely forgotten about it, so the story here felt fresh to me. 6. The Last of Us Part 2 The story didn't have the same impact as the first but the game play and level design are still top notch. 5. Crash Bandicoot 4 I was skeptical when this was announced since Crash was a bit of a relic of the PS1 era and all attempts to revive him had been pretty unremarkable, but Toys for Bob did an amazing job here and delivered what I think is the best of the series. They really went back to what made the original games work, getting rid of the gimmicks from warped and instead expanded on the base platforming mechanics with new characters and power-ups. While it offers a decent challenge for a casual play through, they may have made things a little too difficult for completionists as my hopes for ever being able to get all the boxes started to fade around the halfway point. 4. Assassin's Creed Valhalla Another solid entry for the franchise that's been on a roll since they overhauled the game play starting with Origins. I really like how this one handled the points of interest in the open world. Instead of a million bandit camps full of randomly generated loot you usually find a unique story or puzzle whenever you come across those little dots on the map. It kept my interest in exploring up more than usual which made this the first AC game I've bothered to platinum. 3. Spider-Man: Miles Morales This doesn't depart much from Insomniac's previous Spider-Man game but the traversal and combat mechanics are already so perfect there's not much to improve on. 2. Ghost of Tsushima Yeah it's pretty much just Assassin's Creed Japan, but the combat is more fun and the encounters are better designed for stealth players than this year's AC entry. Plus it has berserk darts which are the best tool ever but have been missing from the past several AC games. 1. Animal Crossing: New Horizons I've never played an Animal Crossing game and wasn't planning on getting this one, but since literally everyone seemed to be playing it I decided to give it a shot. It turned out to be exactly the stress reliever I needed for 2020.
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Dec 30, 2020 15:49
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Glad to see Mr. Driller getting some well-deserved love in this thread. Also, you all have made me buy 13 Sentinels, so thank you for that.
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Dec 30, 2020 16:27
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Became a parent this year so I only finished / rolled credits on 11 games total with a few still in progress. That said I decided to add my picks from the last couple years as a comparison point and I feel like 2020 was a weak games year overall. 10. Resident Evil 3 Remake Prior: Monster Hunter World, Into the Breach It was a fun 6 hour romp. I have nothing else to say about it. 9. Paradise Killer Prior: Pyre, Mario Odyssey Someone else in the thread said it best, I wanted to like this more than I actually did. Good concept, but traversal was annoying and there are some QoL issues. 8. Ghost of Tsushima Prior: Resident Evil 7, Dragon Quest 11 Probably the prettiest and most polished open world game I’ve ever played. A fun but ultimately forgettable experience. The combat was really good though. 7. Animal Crossing Prior: Red Dead Redemption 2, Gorogoa If Time magazine had to pick a game of the year this would probably be it. It was great but like every other entry in the series I got sick of it after about 40 hours. Still worth full price. 6. Doom 2016 Prior: Outer Wilds, Tetris Effect I probably would have rated this even higher had I not played it on a switch. That said, I played through most of this game with a 2 month old sleeping on me. 5. Slay the Spire Prior: Devil May Cry 5, Football Manager 2018 Buying this on iOS was a mistake for my free time until I burned out on it. I’ll probably pick it back up at some point and sink a ton more hours into the game. 4. Witcher 3 Prior: Disco Elysium, The Last Guardian This is a replay and my second time beating the game. Still as good as ever. 3. The Last of Us 2 Prior: Resident Evil 2 Remake, Nier Automata I’m always playing like 5 games at once and this one had me hooked from start to finish, didn’t give a poo poo about anything else on the backlog. 2. Witcher 3: Hearts of Stone Prior: Control, Shadow of the Colossus remake I’d been procrasting on Witcher 3 DLC for years before finally powering through this one. It was worth it and far better than the main campaign. Best video game villain of all time. 1. 13 Sentinels Prior: Death Stranding, Return of the Obra Dinn I can’t really add anything to the existing commentary about this game. I’ve just never seen a narrative put together like this before. Structurally it's as if Ubisoft tried to make a single game with all AC protagonists as playable characters with their own branching storylines across generations all rolling up into a singular assassin/templar plot with a global codex. It’s a miracle that the story works as well as it does, it has no right to be this good. Honorable Mentions, aka games I played a lot but didn't finish Hades - would have cracked the top 3 but I haven't beaten a run yet AC: Valhalla - I ignored all the reviewers saying it gets old and samey after 30 hours. I'm 30 hours in and it's getting old. I still love it and it's way better than Odyssey IMO. Big fan of the changes to the loot and sidequest systems Eliza - Was really curious on what a Zachtronics visual novel would be like. It's pretty fun. FF7 remake - I got to chapter 13 or 14 and then TLOU2 distracted me and I lost momentum. Would have easily cracked top 10 had I finished it. Crosscode - This is a pretty good game but my god the endless timing based puzzles are loving infuriating. I dropped it after the 2nd dungeon because I couldn't take it anymore.
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Dec 30, 2020 17:29
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Ok, here goes. 10. Monster Train I really like deckbuilders and this is an incredibly solid one of those. 9. Crusader Kings 3 Hey paradox factually managed to make a game that isn't garbage at release. I think it's already more fun that CK2 is with all of it's miles of DLC. 8. Animal Crossing It's more animal crossing and I love animal crossing. There isn't much to say here. 7. Ori and the Will of the Wisps Ori 1 was a solid metroidvania that never really achieved greatness. Ori 2 improves on the original in every away. If you like metroidvanias at all you should definitely play Ori 2. 6. Final Fantasy 7 Remake After decades of square whiffing on characterization of the original cast and forgetting what made ff7 good I had absolutely no faith in the remake. Square really proved me wrong here by delivering basically a perfect expanded remake of the Midgar part. 5. Hades By far the best supergiant game so far. Gameplay is solid, writing is great (and there's a metric ton of it) + it's probably the only roguelite that actually tries to do something interesting with the gameplay loop. 4. Monster Hunter World: Iceborne Monster Hunter World ruled and this was more monster hunter world. It's great. 3. Yakuza: Like a Dragon Yakuza has been one my favorite series for a long-rear end time but I never thought of the combat as much more than an annoyance to get to the parts I really liked. The choice to go for jrpg-combat (with a job system!) instead of the traditional brawler gameplay felt like it was made just for me. The gameplay and combat ended up having a bunch of big flaws, mostly relating to this being their first foray into jrpgs, but I ended up having a lot of fun with. The rest of the game was the same old Yakuza quality, Ichiban was a refreshing breath of fresh air after Kiryu and the party dynamic was great. I really hope they continue with this style going forward. Also the english dub is super good. 2. Cyberpunk 2077 This game ended up being CDPR's return to their eurojank roots. It's a buggy mess with tons of really half-baked gameplay mechanics and various other stuff that just screams of development issues. Fortunately as an afficionado of eurojank, a game being a buggy piece of poo poo has never deterred me from liking it. Despite all the issues I enjoyed my time with the game immensely. Behind all the jank and messy stuff, the core of the game is incredibly fun and I had a blast actually playing it. The writing and the characters are excellent and everything about the story and the themes really worked for me on a personal a level. 1. Kenshi This game is an ugly janky piece of poo poo with bugs up the rear end. It's also one of the best games I have ever played and there is really nothing else like it. If you can handle the extreme jank, I can't recommend this enough. Honestly, this is game deserves a more extended writeup but I'm extremely lazy. Fortunately Stux already wrote one so I don't need to bother because I can just quote it again here (just pretend that I said all of it).: Stux posted:
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Dec 30, 2020 18:04
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Posting my list again w/ words so it gets counted! Quick and dirty list. I would have played and beaten more if it wasn't for FF 14. 1. Disco Elysium First game in a long, long time where I was absolutely drawn in by the story and characters. Ancient Reptilian Brain is one of the best character + voiceovers I've ever encountered in almost 35 years of gaming. Thank you so much goons for bringing this game to my attention. I would have never heard of it if it wasn't for this thread from 2019. 2. Final Fantasy 14 Single player RPG w/ MMO elements. Fits me perfectly. Just now getting into 4.1 content so I'm assuming the best is yet to come. 3. Red Dead Redemption 2 Best open world game w/ so much attention to detail. Love just riding my horse around and finding new locations. 4. Dragon Quest 11 S: Definitive Edition As I previously stated, I've been playing video games for quite awhile. I still remember playing Dragon Warrior 1 on the NES on my bed. The extra modes & content provided in this version really hit the nostalgia bone. 5. Astro's Playroom Now that I have 2 little ones, this game was a perfect way to play the PS5 w/ them and also learn about the new Dualsense controller. Best free game ever.
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Dec 30, 2020 20:04
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BeanpolePeckerwood posted:I'd like the whole title screen difficulty mode thing to simply fade out of existence. It's a lovely trend that people got too used to in the early 00s and has plagued game design ever since. I really wish something like the AI Director in Left 4 Dead was more common. Change the difficulty based on the measurable difficulty the player is or isn't having. If someone is blazing through every encounter really quickly by barely pressing a button because everything dies in one hit, spawn some real challenge in the next encounter. I think games also too often have a backwards relationship with progression and rewards. Most times your reward for being really good at a game are some items or tools that just make the game even easier for the person who needs it to be easier the least. I'd like to try a game where all leveling and progression was built around failure. Gain experience if you die or take lots of damage, get better weapons each time you fail an encounter. That way there are two paths to the "power fantasy." One where you gradually grow in power throughout the game until earlier enemies and challenges become numerically trivial to you. Another path, where you never die, avoid damage, and make it all the way through with the basic tools you start with and attain power by get guding. Thematically DBZ's Saiyans fit this gameplay idea, just sayin.
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Dec 30, 2020 21:16
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Andrast posted:1. Kenshi Kenshi is really good and almost made my honorable mentions. But unfortunately there just isn't as much to do in the game if you don't want to invest in property and some things are far too obtuse to do. Plus the A.I. can really kill the immersion. It sucks that my John Brown character frees slaves just for them to run back half the time to just be killed. punk rebel ecks fucked around with this message at 21:33 on Dec 30, 2020 |
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Dec 30, 2020 21:30
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Tempura Wizard posted:Also, you all have made me buy 13 Sentinels, so thank you for that. you're welcome!
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Dec 30, 2020 21:43
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