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Working from home gave me so much more time for games this year. I tried a ton thanks to Game Pass and put in a solid effort with 47 games this year. I have whittled down my list to ten for your viewing pleasure, or your pleasure of scrolling past while vaguely looking at the bolded names: Honorable Mentions Fuser - I don't consider myself rythmatically or musically inclined, but thankfully you don't need to be with the magic of Fuser. I didn't fall in to this as deep as Harmonix' other entries but I enjoyed my time with it, often surprising myself with mixes that I stumbled into that sounded actual DJ-quality. The magic it's doing to make everything mesh together is a great accomplishment and I'll check in on this every now and then in the future. Tetris Effect Connected - I played the crap out of the original Tetris Effect in VR and it's now been a good amount of time to revisit, so I spent a good couple of weeks battling with others and against others in the new multiplayer modes. The co-op battles have a weird difficulty scaling and can often be frustrating with the varying skill levels of pubbies, but was still a cool concept and felt really good when you got in a good cooperative flow. The different versus modes were also done well and are fun to play. It's been getting tougher to find matches which is unfortunate, but is hopefully rectified when it launches on other platforms. Satisfactory - I always struggle with how early access games should be "counted" in these and my personal rule has been to not count something until it hits version 1.0. I unfortunately also struggle with returning to games I played in early access once they hit 1.0. (Sorry, Darkest Dungeon). That said, I had a blast with Satisfactory and cut myself off with plenty of game ahead of me in order to get myself to return to it once it's actually finished. This is a great game with great incremental and carrot-on-a-stick mechanics. The constant push and pull of when to duct tape a solution versus when to completely revamp has haunted my dreams for the weeks I played it, and I look forward to getting back into it. And on to the Top 10... 10. Immortals: Fenyx Rising  I picked this up on Switch where it runs pretty terribly but I needed a mindless Switch game while doing other things and this has fit the bill very well. I play with the sound almost entirely off which from what I hear is the optimal way to play this. It screams knockoff BOTW but it turns out when you knock off a great game in a good way, you still get a good game. I admittedly haven't finished this yet, but the mix of combat, puzzles, exploration, and platforming has kept it feeling fresh throughout. Surprise hit of the year for me. 9. Neon Abyss  Grabbed this on a whim on Game Pass as it looked like a side scrolling Enter the Gungeon, and was not disappointed. There are a lot of mechanics, upgrades, perks, items, pets, guns, and even though I played this all the way through I still don't think I understood it all or had seen everything. I'm not usually great at these types of games, I never did beat Gungeon but I made steady progress through this and every run felt satisfying. The meta-progression is a little slow and grindy but is also tree-based so you can pick and choose towards your goals and playstyle. Runs were quick and always felt fresh, enemies and bosses have flavors and varieties to them to always keep you on your toes. 8. Microsoft Flight Simulator  This was the catalyst into getting Game Pass, as I was about to purchase this for $60 and then I saw that a year of Game Pass which has this included would ultimately be the same price. The premise for this is amazing - having a flight sim with the entire world (mostly) realistically modeled - and it actually delivered it. Obviously some areas of the world get a little more detail than others, but it all worked surprisingly well. I played right at launch and it wasn't super optimized and didn't run great on my machine, but that didn't stop me. I was grinning the entire time I would fly around the places I was familiar with, or wanted to check out. That was also part of the problem, as the game doesn't quite lead you anywhere and it's up to you to make your own fun. You are given the world, a selection of planes, and a text box to type in airports or coordinates. There are some landing challenges and points of interest you can search out, but I would've loved if there was more game to it, to give it some legs. It didn't keep me interested after the initial wonder subsided, but that initial high deservedly pushed it onto this list. 7.Gears Tactics  What a weird year. 2020 was the year that a new Xcom came out around the same time as a Gears of War flavored tactical game, and Gears Tactics was the better game. I checked out a quick look of this and was immediately drawn in by the overwatch firing cones. Setting up killboxes of firing cones was immensely satisfying, and most missions allowed a good amount of it. I can't tell you what I remember from the story, but I can tell you it was a serviceable tactics game. Other quality of life items like rechargeable grenades and medic grenades helped my aching fear of saving grenades and medkits until I "truly needed them" - often meaning I would never use them. Having those items being rechargeable encouraged you to use them early and often, which was very rewarding. The one downside, and a big one at that, is this gets pretty repetitive with the mission types. There are only a few and the window dressing comes off once you see that it's just rotating those types throughout the entire campaign. New and tougher enemies helps spice it up a little bit but I would've enjoyed a bit more variety. There is also loot and perks which doesn't feel great in this type of game but I found I didn't have to min/max anything to keep it survivable. If you're a fan of Xcom or tactical games and blew this one off, you should definitely take another look. 6. Ghost of Tsushima  I picked this up because it seemed like a pretty-looking open-world action game. Looking back, they nailed the struggle of fighting honorably like a Samurai versus the dishonorable "ghost" method to even the playing field against the invading Mongol forces. Luckily I had no shame. They give you a large toolset to play how you want and you can work your way down the skill trees you want from basically the very beginning. I think this suffered a little bit from burning yourself out on the first island as I found myself rushing through the back half of the story just to see how it all ends, but I think this was a polished and beautifully designed game and enjoyable to play through. 5. Deep Rock Galactic  I grabbed this on Game Pass earlier in the year and had a great time even though I didn't have any other game pass friends to play with. It's a good game to play with pubbies, everyone is pretty friendly, and plenty of ROCK AND STONE salutes to go around. Eventually this hit the Steam sale and I picked it up once again after my friends grabbed that version, but due to crossplay issues I had to start over with a fresh character again which is my only gripe with the game. That said, I have no issues with playing it a second time as the generated levels are always fun and interesting and have many moments of panic and chaos. 4. Monster Train  My favorite work-from-home game this year. I wouldn't consider myself a huge card nerd, I dabbled in Slay the Spire and it was fun but I didn't get too far in it. Something clicked with Monster Train however, and I had a blast with it. The meta progression was very satisfying and the faction system and finding the best ways to synergize was highly rewarding. I'll never push into the high ascension difficulties but dabbling with the first few was fun enough until I ultimately moved on. Finding game-breaking synergies to chaos dunk on enemies will never get old. 3. Animal Crossing: New Horizons  I don't have a new take on this wildly popular game, but I can reiterate that this hit at the perfect time and was a great distraction to what was happening with the world. I used to play a lot of board and Switch games with my friend's kid pre-pandemic and when covid eliminated those in-person visits, we started moving those visits to Animal Crossing. Exploring and discovering things in the following weeks and visiting each other's islands was a ton of fun. The pace of the game can be infuriating to some, but stretching out that exploration and working towards goals helped this game have life for way longer than I normally would give it. I put in a lot of time here and while I'm definitely burned out and can't be bothered trying the new events and seasons nowadays, I can't ignore how much it took over my life at a time when we needed it. 2. The Last of Us Pt. 2  I was oblivious to all the vitriol going into this and still mostly am. The game is good. I think the pacing doesn't always work, and realizing I'd have to replay those three days again from a new perspective took a bit of wind out of my sails, but this game achieved what it was trying to do with me. Almost every encounter was so scrappy, vicious, and gruesome. The characters had actual weight and personality and touched me in a way that a video game rarely has. These characters don't make the best decisions and as long as you can untie yourself from that, this ends up being an enjoyable wild ride. 1. Hades  I thought this genre hit it's peak with Dead Cells, and didn't expect to spend too much time with this as this kind of game felt like it was getting stale. Intertwining a complex story into this kind of game, and doing it in a way that accommodates all sorts of skill levels and outcomes in an engaging way, is amazing. Somehow the story still works if you are able to clear it in 10 attempts or 50 attempts. I hit a roadblock on Theseus for a while but each run still pushes the story forward and there's enough meta progression and unlocks to ensure that no run is ever a waste. I did resist God Mode but I'm glad to see that it's an easy-mode with zero consequences that slowly adjusts itself to accommodate the player's skill. I've spent a lot of time with this game, ultimately doing the same things over and over, and still haven't heard repeated dialog. The difficulty pacts keep things fresh in unique ways. It's amazingly complex and approachable and polished and was an easy pick for my game of the year.
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Dec 27, 2020 21:21
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Andrew_1985 posted:1 – Watch Dogs: Legion. Nice write up! I think Legion got brushed off because on the surface it seems fairly generic open world, but there is some emergent gameplay there with the help of some head canon. I played with permadeath on to add a little spice and think it helped. It gives a little weight to your team members and makes me think who I should be sending into particular missions, sometimes as
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Dec 31, 2020 18:53
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Thanks VG, this is always one of those rare threads that's pretty awesome from beginning to end!
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Jan 10, 2021 17:24
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