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 Oh hello my darlings, hello! I cannot believe that we are back here again so soon! Yes it’s been a difficult year for all of us as we’ve gone through a cost-of-living crisis, war in Europe, the death of the Queen and Elon buying Twitter but forget about all that because there have also been video games! And oh, what a juicy collection of gaming morsels the industry has seen fit to serve us with this year which means it can only be time for us to arbitrarily rank our most favoured releases in numbered lists! Whether it’s the games of 2022 or the games of years past all are welcome here and all will be celebrated. I’m your girl Rarity joined once again by my co-host VideoGames for this extravagant retrospective into the year of gaming that was until we reveal Something Awful’s Game of the Year!! As ever in this OP we like to honour the year with a look back over the past 12 months but if you just want to get to the voting then here for your pleasure and your pain are the official voting rules. Read and follow them cause there won’t be any stolen elections around these parts, thank you very much. The Rules quote:1. Any game that you have played in 2022 is eligible. It could be a game from this year, it could be a game from the past, it could be a game from the future if you're some kind of time travelling god. It could be a gacha game, it could be a romhack, it could be a randomizer, it could be a mod, as long as you played it this year it's all good. The Year in Review 
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Dec 11, 2022 09:18
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The following text was dictated to me by the lovely Rarity, all words are her and faithfully transcribed as is. Even the swears.
quote:
The Hall of Fame     Which game will join this elite group?
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Dec 11, 2022 09:18
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The Resultscode:Rarity fucked around with this message at 00:10 on Jan 8, 2023 |
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Dec 11, 2022 09:19
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Rarity rules!!!!! e: veeg also 4 art
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Dec 11, 2022 09:21
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goaty
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Dec 11, 2022 09:21
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Dec 11, 2022 09:22
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Dec 11, 2022 10:06
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Video games ftw
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Dec 11, 2022 10:34
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It's the most wonderful time of the year. I'm looking forward to reading everyone's lists and a massive thank you as always to Rarity for putting in significant time and effort into running this thread and to VG for helping her! In keeping with my most treasured GOTY thread traditions I'll be posting my list like a day out from the deadline as I frantically try and play through a bunch of games that have been on my 'check this out' list all year. Mode 7 fucked around with this message at 11:09 on Dec 11, 2022 |
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Dec 11, 2022 10:42
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This is my favourite thread every year and I am excited to read each list! Also tremendous massive thanks to Rarity who spends so much time and writes such great posts for it! It would not even exist if she had not brought it over here in 2018. 
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Dec 11, 2022 10:48
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VideoGames posted:a motherfucking trombone. Hallelujah!
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Dec 11, 2022 11:21
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I don't think I will do a list this year because I didn't play as many games as usual and there was no real standout #1 for me (maybe Sifu or something idk) but I am looking forward to reading everyone else's lists 
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Dec 11, 2022 11:25
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Thanks for all the effort put into the thread Rarity! Looking forward to reading everyone's lists Still trying to think of what to put on mine, still got some time to play more games...
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Dec 11, 2022 11:55
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VideoGames posted:The following text was dictated to me by the lovely Rarity, all words are her and faithfully transcribed as is. Even the swears.
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Dec 11, 2022 12:00
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Incredible and very informative OP - I had forgotten a lot of stuff that had happened (all the NFT bullshit) and I actually hadn't heard the follow-up re: Adriana Chechik and that's just horrible. On a (hopefully) lighter note, Here's my Top Ten, click here to bypass all these  and jump straight to just the list!https://thumbs.gfycat.com/AcclaimedInbornIndianrockpython-mobile.mp4 10. DOOM Eternal (2020): For the first quarter-to-a-third of playing this, I was very disappointed with this game. I'd come in with high hopes from the 2016 Doom, hoping for more of the same, and at first it appeared that Id Software had taken all the wrong lessons from that excellent game. The ridiculous plot kept taking precedence, the Doom Slayer was just walking around doing as he was told and showing deference to people (at one point he takes a loving knee for some random King dude, what the hell?), and the early lack of diversity of weapons made the combat - the highlight of 2016 - a real slog. Then somebody told the Doom Slayer he couldn't just shoot a hole in Mars. Like a switch had been flipped, or perhaps because the game had finally hit a critical mass of building up enough skills/abilities and unlocking more weapons, suddenly the entire game improved immensely. Combat became a blast, the dumb story kept being thrown at the player but the Doom Slayer just did not give the slightest gently caress. Every moment seemed designed to let you as the player and the Doom Slayer as the character to just go ham and shoot the gently caress out of some demons. The game wraps up in very satisfying fashion, the Doom Slayer's very limited vocabulary is used to perfect effect, and by the time the game ends this feels like a very worthy successor to 2016's best in the Metal Album Covers Turned Video Game genre. https://thumbs.gfycat.com/SimplisticCheeryLangur-mobile.mp4 9. Ori & The Will of the Wisps (2020): The sequel to the 2015 game is prettier than the (very pretty) original, and shows a real growth in confidence from Moon Studios, though it doesn't quite have the same sense of magic and wonder that the first game delivered in such spades. It does hit a lot of the same strong emotional beats though, and while sometimes some of the chase sequences can be a little frustrating and there are points where it isn't entirely clear where or what you're supposed to go/do next, it's still a compelling and extremely satisfying experience. The game is full of utterly charming characters, found family, and a recurring theme that there is no (or at least very little) "true" evil in the world, just those who have suffered trauma or been exploited or been the victim of unintended consequences... but it is ALWAYS possible to come back from that, to put aside the pain and hurt and anger and try to be better. Which isn't to say the game is a hug-box or is overly saccharine, it is filled with sad and painful moments but even those are mostly bittersweet and constantly reinforce the theme that better things are always possible. It's a wonderful, entertaining, extremely well-designed action-platformer that holds up well to their Freshman effort, and if you haven't played it I recommend it highly. It's often on sale and in package deals with the original game, and is well worth the price. https://thumbs.gfycat.com/UnsungKlutzyBarbet-mobile.mp4 8. Spider-Man (2018): I listed this in my Top 10 back in 2018, when I played it on a borrowed PS4. I picked it up again when it came out on PC, with the added bonus of the DLC content that came out post-release on PS4 being bundled with it, and I was delighted to see it still holds up well almost half-a-decade later. While the open-world collect-athon nature has been done to death, and a lot of it feels like busywork to bulk up playtime, even just playing the main game only gives you plenty to do and a good deal of variety. It's not without its flaws, the forced sections where you play as NOT Spider-Man can be a little tedious as it takes away Spidey's mobility, gadgets, fighting ability etc for what are essentially on-rails stealth sections. Despite the attempts to create a lot of options for different things to do, they do often feel repetitive, the cop worship/surveillance state stuff was bad in 2018 and staggeringly tone-deaf in 2022, and the triggers for some missions are deceptively broad meaning you can sometimes end up in a main story mission when you just felt like loving about web-swinging through the city. But oh my God that web-swinging! There is nothing quite like zipping, swinging and climbing between skyscrapers, over rooftops, above traffic etc as you traverse the large, openly accessible New York City. You can play pretty-princess dress-up with Spidey in an enormous amount of alternative costumes unlocked via gameplay/challenges, there are a bunch of gadgets for Spidey to experiment with in combat, and most importantly of all they absolutely NAILED Peter's personality. He's an earnest, well-meaning and extremely intelligent and moral person... who is also a complete dork, a bumbling idiot, and appalling at time-management. Insomnia captured the soul of Spidey as a character, which along with the various Easter eggs the game provides really makes Spider-Man feel like a labor of love from true fans of the character, who is now and probably always will be my absolute favorite comic book character. I've yet to play the Miles Morales follow-up to this game, but even if it only delivers more of the same that we got from this game, I'm excited to try it, and even more excited to see what Insomnia can do next with a true Spidey sequel. https://thumbs.gfycat.com/WickedHideousGrebe-mobile.mp4 7. Ori & The Blind Forest (2015): The first of Moon Studio's Ori games, this one was a revelation that drew me in and made me obsess over helping this sweet little spirit save the lives of family both original and found, as well as all the new friends and even some enemies it met in the forest during its adventures. Right from the very beginning, the game absolutely nails its atmosphere through the gorgeous art, the wonderful music, charming character design and well-put together levels. Beginning a theme it would continue through the second game, the Blind Forest does a remarkable job of making its central villain both terrifying and sympathetic, with an "origin" that makes you understand how it could have ended up the way it was. That doesn't make it any less scary as it hunts and attempts to kill Ori to prevent the restoration of light to the forest, but it does continually add context to the events of the game as it unfolds. An action-platformer with Metroidvania nods, the game allows Ori to slowly build up skills and abilities that unlock new areas, adapt strategies for pre-existing locations, and simultaneously build the confidence of both Ori as a character and for the player. The game seems meticulously designed to ease the player into pulling off stuff that would have been utterly beyond their comprehension at the start of the game, with intuitive and sensible controls and well-paced introduction/development of abilities that obfuscate just how much is being asked of you, making it all feel entirely natural. If you want to play an utterly charming, emotional and well-executed platforming game, then there are very few (Hollow Knight perhaps) that I'd recommend above it. https://thumbs.gfycat.com/CriminalZestyIrishredandwhitesetter-mobile.mp4 6. Red Dead Redemption 2 (2018): Like Spider-Man, I first played RDR2 back in 2018 on a borrowed PS4. It was my Game of the Year that year, but I suspected time and familiarity would make this year's playthrough on the PC reveal to me a lot more of the gaps and flaws I might have overlooked my first time through. Nope. This is a superb game, the best Rockstar has made that I've played (the cowards won't release RDR on PC so I can't say if that was better, but I highly doubt it) and the best protagonist they've ever created in Arthur Morgan. I poured almost 240 hours into the game, which did not include any of Red Dead Online, and if I could have I would have spent longer in the mid-part of the game, before Arthur's TB diagnosis and his slow and then rapid decline in health. The level of detail is incredible, the scope of the world amazing, the huge variety in what is available, the giant gameworld and all the various NPCs/animals and events etc clashing together to create seemingly random confluence of events that can spiral into utter chaos. But beyond the general joy of simply existing in this world, Rockstar also wrote a drat good story. Setting aside for the most part the mean-spirited nihilistic writing present in GTA IV and GTA V, almost every character (including the antagonists, with one NOTABLE exception) are written like actual human beings. They're flawed, they gently caress up, they cause problems... but they're also friends, allies, well-meaning acquaintances or people temporarily aligned with you to further their own cause. The game creates a remarkable sense of community, particularly within the Van der Linde Gang's camps. There as something remarkably right about waking in the morning, pouring a coffee and standing around to chat with the others, do some chores, sit down around the campfire and shoot the poo poo, play a little poker or dominoes, go fishing, feed the horses etc before chowing down on some of Pearson's stew ("Make a big pot, I'm real hungry!"). Arthur is a fantastic character, presumably even if you play him at Low Honor (I'll never know  ), his journal offering real flavor to the experiences you take him through and how he feels about them, the gang, their future, and himself. You can walk, run, ride, take the train, visit towns, go hunting, get into shooting contests, bump into random weirdoes and get involved in their lives, be a bounty hunter, track down a serial killer, kill a vampire, discover archeological sites, dig up dinosaur bones, meet wolf-men and track down rock carvings, build up your wardrobe and your armory, get into drunken fistfights, go to jail, escape from jail, ride a hot air balloon, take a boat ride, encounter a robot and more and more and more besides. It's a huge game, a huge world, all of which makes Arthur's lamentations about the way America seems to be getting "smaller" all the more remarkable and hopefully set the stage for another prequel to come eventually in Red Dead Redemption 3. I'll be there to play it if they make it, because based on on RDR2 I am fully back onboard the Rockstar train after GTAIV and V left me feeling like I could take it or leave it. Let me be a rooty shooty cowboy again!https://thumbs.gfycat.com/GeneralBraveKouprey-mobile.mp4 5. Stray (2022): There's a story-line about robots, an underground society, a plague, subplots about various robots achieving goals or reuniting with family, a corrupted police system and machinery that now maintains a function that has long since lost any purpose etc... but at the heart of it all, what drew people to this game and what gives it so much of its utter charm is... the cat! You play a cat, a tiny little cat that gets separated from its cat friends, meets a little robot friend and sets about getting out of an underground city to find its cat friends again. Along the way it does everything a cat does. It explores, it meows, it jumps up places it shouldn't be, and most importantly it takes lots of naps! The design of the cat is exceptional, it's such a sweet little thing and moving through the levels, making new friends, solving puzzles and escaping danger is a delight. The art design is delightful and charming, the animation is strong, the robots are capable of remarkable emotional expression through very simple visual cues... but it's all about the cat! The game is more than just that gimmick though, it's a fun exploration/puzzle game where you just so happen to be a cat, but that means the environments, "normal" as they are (for an underground sealed city populated by robots!) are gigantic and cavernous and filled with any many of pitfalls... but you're also a cat, so you're more than capable of squeezing through small spots, leaping ridiculously high, and slipping stealthily past even the most observant automaton. The only real negative I had on this thoroughly charming game is that it ends with the cat not being shown to reunite with its cat friends after it gets out of the city, but other than that it's a strong end to a strong game, with a clever and fairly unique gimmick that is used well and makes for a charming, fun and often adorable experience. Any sequel would hopefully not go back to the same well and instead explore the exterior locations briefly seen at the start of the game, but after taking a chance on this first game I'd be eager to take a chance on a second. After all, it's not every day you get to be a cat! https://thumbs.gfycat.com/EarlyRecklessAnteater-mobile.mp4 4. Yakuza 6 (2016): After blasting through Yakuzas 3 - 5 in 2021, I needed a bit of a break from Yakuza. Not because it wasn't good anymore, but there's only simply so much insanity the mind can take, and that's what the Yakuza games are. Glorious insanity, but insanity nonetheless. I'm glad I took the break, it made me appreciate Yakuza 6 all the more when I finally got o play it, and really revel in the combination of hard-boiled drama and absolutely ridiculous and hilarious nonsense. This is a fitting finale to Kiryu's story... except, of course, next year we're getting the Ishin game featuring historical Kiryu with a different name, a brand new Kiryu game AND then in 2024 or so he's going to be the co-star of Like a Dragon 8! Because just like in the games, Kiryu just can't keep himself out of all this ridiculous nonsense, he's incapable of not giving 150% at all times! Though ironically, Yakuza 6 DOES scale back somewhat from the enormous Yakuza 5 and the multi-protagonist structure of the last couple of games in order to tell a simpler and more straightforward personal story. Of course, it's Yakuza, so that "simple" story is full of wild plot-twists, numerous antagonists, overly convoluted evil plots, machinations, secret societies, old man assassins, double-crosses, multiple criminal gangs and everything else we've come to expect and love from Yakuza. All the wacky goodness of the substories returns too, along with all the humor of the powerfully earnest and wholesome (if horny) Kiryu and his new friends (the Hiroshima boys are a delight) plus some old. There's a whole sub-game about Kiryu forming an army to fight a rival army whose generals are all New Japan pro-wrestlers, the usual Cabaret Club shenanigans, all the mini-games of course, slightly rude but enthusiastic children, a bunch of cameos from prior games (Pocket Circuit Fighter! Mame! Shangri-La!), plus Beat Takeshi! As far as Yakuza games go, it ranks high. The graphics are gorgeous, the engine runs smoothly if allowing for some rather hilarious physics sometimes when Kiryu punches a guy 30 meters down the road (a feature, not a bug!), and it provides all the familiar, enjoyable and often heartwarming experiences of Kamurochō that we've come to love over the course of Yakuzas 0 - 6. I can't wait to play Yakuza 7: Like A Dragon! And Judgment and Lost Judgment and Ishin! and Like a Dragon Gaiden, and Like a Dragon 8! I poured 100 hours into Yakuza 6 and hundreds more into 0 through 5, and I still want more! YAKUZA! https://thumbs.gfycat.com/DeliciousGenerousIchthyostega-mobile.mp4 3. Hitman 3 (2021): After a year as an Epic Exclusive, Hitman 3 finally came to Steam and people were actually able to play it... and boy did I play it! Sinking another 200+ hours into yet another Hitman game (and it would have been more if I hadn't put over 24 hours into the briefly available separate test run on Hitman 3's new Freelancer mode), I once again replayed all the Hitman 1 and 2 levels in 3's engine, plus all of Hitman 3's new levels as well, then a bunch of Elusive Targets (one chance only, failure locks you out), Elusive Target Arcade (3 ETs linked by a common theme, with a 12 hour block on retrying if you fail), and Featured Contracts (existing levels with repurposed targets/restrictions put in place by the community)... and I still wanted more! Hell, I even replayed Contracts, Blood Money and.... ugh.... Absolution.... I was so desperate for MORE Hitman contact. Something about these games just scratches an itch for me, and Hitman 3 continues what Hitman 2016 and Hitman 2 did so well. They wrap up the Providence storyline that started in 2016, and while the actual main plot is take it or leave it (it's fine, though I'm far more interested in 47 and Diana's co-dependent relationship as handler/assassin and their timid, hesitant and slightly confused development from professionally cordial/trusting to actual friends maybe) it serves well as a way to introduce more of the world's worst rich and influential assholes to kill in creative and highly entertaining ways. This time around you get to infiltrate one of the world's tallest towers in Saudi Arabia, a country mansion in England, a shut-down Power Plant repurposed into a rave club in Germany, the tightly packed slums above a futuristic facility in China, an expansive estate/winery in Argentina and an on-rails (literally!) train mission in the Carpathian Mountains (plus an inserted mission pre the final level of Hitman 2, set on an island in the Strait of Malacca mostly peopled by a pirate crew). Undertaking the missions sees 47 don his usual weird variety of disguises, use all manner of weapons both intentional and makeshift, kill people in very simple or very complicated ways, and somehow along the way be utterly hilarious in spite of his completely deadpan delivery and monotone voice. Diana plays a bigger part in this game than any other, and the Argentina mission is a delight for the interactions 47 can have with her (yes, she's in the level!) and her reactions to seeing the bullshit 47 pulls up close and personal for a change. But it's Berlin where the game REALLY shines, as in a departure from the usual mission structure, 47 discovers 11 of the best assassins in the world have been sent after him and he quickly and efficiently overturns their mission and makes THEM the hunted. Listening to their handler (their version of "Diana") slowly realize that 47 is getting the better of them, to the point she tries to call off the whole mission, and her bitter resignation when she realizes 47 has somehow killed ALL of them (killing 5 triggers the end of the mission, but you can kill all of them if you work it right) is a hell of a moment. Check out this video for an example of somebody completely dominating this level, it's quite a sight to behold. This is one of the amazing things about the Hitman games, and Hitman 3 is no different. There are SO many ways you can approach a level, so many different way things can go, from the sublime to the ridiculous. You can be an awkward, clumsy mess and bumble your way through completing your missions, or you can be an astonishingly smooth operator who enters a mission, does his job and leaves with nobody any the wiser that he was ever there, or even that anybody was killed at all. I don't know what is next for Hitman (IOI is working on a James Bond game at the moment) beyond Freelancer Mode (which I am pumped for!) but I really hope we see more of it, because for the last 6 years these games have generated hundreds of hours of entertainment for me and I'm still not sick of it, and I hope I never will be. https://thumbs.gfycat.com/MixedGoodnaturedKid-mobile.mp4 2. Elden Ring (2022): There's always a concern that a hyped up game becomes a victim of its own hype, because how can anything live up to the imagination of potential players whose minds don't have to worry about things like work schedules, budget and time limitations or even what is technically possible. Cyberpunk 2077 and No Man's Sky come to mind, games that by all accounts were eventually patched up to something closer to what was initially promised but faced a real uphill climb to get past the initial disappointment of their release version. Not so Elden Ring, which was hyped up to absurd levels and then somehow not only met them but exceeded them, at least in my opinion. This is a game in which you had a giant expanse of open land, various buildings including strongholds, the ruins of towns, cave systems etc to explore, underground hidden environments, high up battlements guarded by dangerous beings pledged to prevent your access, swarms of patrolling soldiers for whom even death could not prevent their duty, optional bosses, hidden doors, portals, intriguing and troubling lore to discover and decipher, helpful NPCs, SUSPICIOUSLY helpful NPCs, mysterious blocked/locked locations that require rare keys to access, dragons that pushed you to your utmost, and a final boss that insisted you weren't worthy of replacing them. And all that was just everything up to the FIRST castle of the game  Elden Ring is MASSIVE. However big you thought it was, it was bigger. Everytime a massive section of the map was revealed, it just showed you how much bigger the area you HADN'T explored yet was. FROM essentially married Dark Souls to Breath of the Wild, and it was glorious, utterly glorious. There was SO MUCH and yet somehow I never suffered from choice paralysis. The game kept beckoning me to play a little longer, to explore a little more. Every time I ran into a roadblock, I knew that there was an entire massive world out there I could go explore instead of slamming my head against a brick wall. And on top of all that, it was beautiful, it was surreal, it was creepy, it was compelling and horrifying and inspiring and hellish and I just could. not. stop. playing. It is a "Souls" game, of course, so there were points I hit frustration in spite of those options, but never to the point that it made me not enjoy the game, more that it drove me to distraction and I couldn't think about anything else but how to deal with that problem... and it was immensely satisfying when I succeeded. The story was intriguing, the decision to take George R.R. Martin's written lore and then set the game hundreds (thousands?) of years later in the ruins of that society was exactly the right one. Uncovering the truth of what happened (and realizing just how much FROM - the trolls! - gave away in the first ever teaser trailer!) was an incredible experience, but then so was the entire game. I devoured this game when it came out. I obsessed over it. I assumed that nothing could top it in 2022. After all, what other game could match the breadth, the depth, the width, the sheer size and scope and audacity of what FROM produced in this, the culmination of all their work from Demon Souls through all the Dark Souls, Bloodborne and hell even Sekiro? What could compete with their masterpiece? The answer of course, was nothing... because it didn't have to. https://thumbs.gfycat.com/SpryIdealArcticwolf-mobile.mp4 1. Pentiment (2022): Pentiment is... extraordinary. It isn't close to the size (and certainly not the budget!) of Elden Ring, but it is the only other game this year that essentially became an obsession for me to play (and to some extent, the brief trial window I was allowed to play Hitman's Freelancer mode), and one I couldn't stop thinking about after I finished it. An adventure game, it tells the story of 16th Century artist Andreas Maler, close to finishing his "masterpiece" and getting married in order to be officially recognized as a Master Artist and free to open his own studio and begin a long career painting for clients. Living in the fictional town of Tassing in Bavaria where he works in the scriptorium of a double-monastery while completing his masterpiece, Andreas finds himself caught up in a murder and having to find the true culprit when his mentor, the elderly and extremely peaceful Brother Piero, is accused of the crime. But this isn't your standard detective game. Pentiment provides Andreas - who is NOT a detective - with tantalizing clues and information but never quite enough to definitively say for certain who the killer actually was... but enough to make a feasible accusation. Who you choose to accuse will have enormous implications for the town, for the monastery, for Andreas himself... and that's just the first of 3 major cases that need to be solved across a game that covers 25 years. Across that time there are changes in society, changes in the Church, changes in politics, beyond the repercussions of Andreas' actions but also affecting those as well. So why is this the Game of the Year? Because it drew me in deeper and affected me more personally than any other game this year. The characters in the village have enormous depth, their relationships and their petty feuds and their hopes and their fears and their legitimate grievances are incredibly well-realized. The art is striking and used incredibly cleverly - older characters' colors fade and become damaged like old art that hasn't been maintained, while the young characters are bright and vibrant. The use of font is perfect, particularly of importance given Andreas' love of books and of course the fact he works in a scriptorium, even if he works there as an artist and not a scribe. Everything is steeped in history but presented so smoothly that it doesn't matter if you know nothing about that period of time, you are given the context to understand what is going on or has happened and why. But that historical context is also cleverly used to hide some key major factors from the player. Because of course while people are people regardless of when they lived, there are different cultural and historical values that come into play. One of the key motivating factors behind the events of the game is something the player likely immediately sees/understands from near the start of the game... but as a modern player, the significance this revelation would have to a 16th Century Bavarian isn't quite so obvious... but it makes perfect sense when you find out. Art, music, setting, character, dialogue, interactions, consequence... it's all masterfully handled in Pentiment, with an ending that hits a strong emotional note as - in typical Obsidian fashion - you get a chance to see what happened to the characters you've spent so much time with. The game shocked me, horrified me at times, made me laugh, made me long for pleasant afternoons and evenings sharing meals with townspeople who were shockingly (to modern me) open about inviting you into their home, and made me feel guilty for the decisions I made and the effect they had. I plan to play again and again to see the way things COULD have gone, knowing that at no point will I ever "solve" anything without having the nagging feeling that I missed something, some clue, some piece of information, and that I may have sent an innocent person to their death. There are two games I played this year that stood head and shoulders over all others: Elden Ring and Pentiment. Both did very different things, both were exceptional experiences. But while Elden Ring was an incredible accomplishment... Pentiment was the Game of the Year, even if this year that distance between first and second was very, very, very close. Jerusalem fucked around with this message at 03:26 on Jan 4, 2023 |
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Dec 11, 2022 12:20
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A simple version of my Top Ten without all the 10. Doom Eternal 9. Ori and the Will of the Wisps 8. Spider-Man 7. Ori and the Blind Forest 6. Red Dead Redemption 2 5. Stray 4. Yakuza 6 3. Hitman III 2. Elden Ring 1. Pentiment
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Dec 11, 2022 12:21
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Fine I guess I'll start the spreadsheet
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Dec 11, 2022 12:39
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Lies! 
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Dec 11, 2022 12:43
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Ok J-Ru I read your list and those are some gorgeous gifs hot drat 
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Dec 11, 2022 13:01
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That's because the games are good! The best of the year in fact  Also, seriously I had forgotten just how much unbelievable NFT bullshit companies tried to cram down people's throats this year.
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Dec 11, 2022 13:15
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I'm gonna be down to the wire this year cause I'm getting GoW for Christmas and gotta beat it in time to submit my list.
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Dec 11, 2022 13:28
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Do a list later, but man. I forgot how loving stacked this year was for games I like.
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Dec 11, 2022 13:32
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This is exciting! I’ll try to have a list with a few words, but it turns out having newborn really does throttle everything down. Not even sure what day it is. Or where I am.
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Dec 11, 2022 13:42
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god tier, rar. you are god tier. i'm not writing my list until the end of the month because i'm still finishing so many games 
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Dec 11, 2022 13:47
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I was surprised the OP didn't take up an entire page by itself lol
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Dec 11, 2022 13:59
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Regy Rusty posted:I'm gonna be down to the wire this year cause I'm getting GoW for Christmas and gotta beat it in time to submit my list. I'm also getting gow for Christmas but I always submit my list on the 24th, so i dont feel i have to rush my Christmas games. I did this with control one year and feel i would have wanted more time with it
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Dec 11, 2022 14:04
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CharlieFoxtrot posted:I was surprised the OP didn't take up an entire page by itself lol It was 14 pages long in Word 
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Dec 11, 2022 14:04
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E: forgot this was supposed to be a positive thread lol
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Dec 11, 2022 14:14
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fridge corn posted:I'm also getting gow for Christmas but I always submit my list on the 24th, so i dont feel i have to rush my Christmas games. I did this with control one year and feel i would have wanted more time with it Respectable, but I must do what I must do
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Dec 11, 2022 14:30
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God I fuckin love Jerusalem’s writing. Always have done
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Dec 11, 2022 15:01
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The last couple years, I had only ever played enough games to just fill a list but man I actually had to THINK about it this year.
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Dec 11, 2022 15:05
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Ahhh it's finally here! Thanks so much Rarity and VG for doing this every year! I had so much fun reading last year's thread and participating for the first time that I wanted to make a video for this year's thread. I think I started getting footage and making the list like three months ago because I was so ready for this year! Most of it is footage from earlier parts of each game, but the list is below the vid if you are worried about spoilers or anything. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4EZlCIHFm3A THE LIST: 10. Potionomics 9. TMNT: Shredder's Revenge 8. Gundam Evolution 7. A Plaguetale Requiem 6. Final Fantasy V Pixel Remaster 5. Xenoblade Chronicles 3 4. Stray 3. Persona 5 Royal 2. Vampire Survivors 1. Elden Ring Can't wait to see everyone else's votes! Axel Serenity fucked around with this message at 15:28 on Dec 11, 2022 |
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Dec 11, 2022 15:24
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All right, I can get in on the ground floor for a change. 10: Deathloop (2022): I will be honest, I was initially quite disappointed with this game. However it eventually just clicked for me. The key thing about Deathloop is that this is not Hitman. The game literally tells you there is only one possible "perfect loop". The best way to approach this game is as a regular immersive sim that just happens to have a time gimmick. And it succeeds very well in that regard. You get a bunch of fun powers, no karma meter arbitrarily restraining how you "should" use them, a gorgeously designed environment, a genuinely funny main character that doesn't fall into MCU Syndrome, the works. A good entry into the genre. 9: Warhammer 40,000: Chaos Gate - Daemonhunters (2022): "Hey, wouldn't it be amazing if there were an XCOM game where your soldiers could actually loving shoot straight?" I am sure other games like that exist but this one is a great one of those. Your Warhams already start out super sturdy and capable of actually hitting things and from there evolve into teleporting chain murder machines, snipers capable of psychically nuking an area, supports that pump up the previous two with AP and armor points, etc. Just try not to get bummed out by the plot involving an interstellar pandemic that you constantly have to argue with your boss about it being something to be taken seriously. 8: Hardspace Shipbreaker (2022): People think I am out of my mind when I claim I play this game to relax. Granted, I do always play on Open Shift meaning the dreaded clock is never hanging over my head but it's the way I like it. Whether I listen to the space western OST or pop in a podcast, there is something zen about slowly disassembling a craft, even when the hazards start piling up. And having quite possibly the single most pro-union message I have ever seen in fiction, let alone a game is definitely a bonus. 7: Twilight Struggle (2016): I guess I must be truly dead inside to also find enjoyment in what is essentially a simulation of how Vladimir Putin still sees the world. One of the things I love about board game adaptations is that they can make even the most complex games accessible (I don't think I will EVER have a good enough memory to play physical Magic: The Gathering without someone constantly telling me what phase it is and what I can actually play) and Twilight Struggle does so brilliantly. After a super gentle tutorial you are thrust into a super deep game of mind fuckery and constantly shifting goals. It's also super enjoyable to just go to their website and learn about what each card represents. 6: Opus Magnum (2017): While I did get quite a bit into Last Call BBS this year, this is the Zachtronics game I keep coming back to. The concepts are easy enough to understand that you don't need an external manual to explain it and the results are always beautiful regardless of efficiency. There is elegance even in the "inelegant" solutions which compels you to increase elegance. An amazing intersection of art and mechanics. 5: Immortality (2022): Sam Barlow gives us yet another FMV archive mystery that doubles as both a celebration of film as an art and a condemnation of film as an industry. The mystery might seem obtuse at first but once you hit the key revelations, you will be stunned. Looking forward to see what Manon Gage does in the future. 4: Powerwash Simulator (2022): Pure relaxation. Pop a podcast, wash, chill. Need I say more? 3: Marvel's Midnight Suns (2022): This is a game that at first glance seems to be red flag after red flag: it's yet another Marvel game in an already saturated cultural landscape, the card system and even the graphics look straight out of a cheap cash-grab mobile game, there are a ton of different currencies and mechanics that make you wonder if someone ripped out monetization at the last minute, the dialogue is once again filled with Whedon-MCU disease...and yet it all just WORKS. IMHO this is tied with Marvel Ultimate Alliance and Freedom Force as the best implementation of being in command of a team of superheroes. The heroes' various decks all make them feel unique gameplay-wise and true to their powersets and even personalities (I still chuckle at the fact that Tony Stark is such an egocentric dick that not only does he have the unique ability to guarantee redraws of Iron Man cards, but he can also become more powerful the more Iron Man cards you have in your hand). The abilities, enemies and environments are all perfectly tuned to each encounter feel like an epic superhero battle. And you get to make friends and hangout with everyone between battles. I came for the promise of a Blade Book club and stayed for joining the cast's main magic users forming a club with the acronym EMO KIDS while Doctor Strange is cheerfully oblivious to the meaning of the name. 2: Vampire Survivors (2022): Or as I like to call it "The Best 5 Bucks You Will Spend In Your Life". A deceptively simple concept that turns into a pure addiction. There is literal zero excuse not to play this game since it's so cheap. For the cost of your average phone game, You have something that is engaging enough to be addictive and requires little enough input that you can easily listen to a podcast while playing. And with an ENORMOUS amount of content to boot. Get it. 1: Elden Ring (2022): Yup. I mean, what else can I say? A game people had thought had fallen to the depths of Development Hell came out and it was glorious. FromSoft's first foray into open world showed everyone else how it's REALLY done: by creating a world full of genuine wonder and that you are eager to explore. Even all the Bethesda-esque "cookie cutter" dungeons have at least one unique thing about them. If you are going to reuse assets, this is how it's done. And all this is combined with mechanics comprised of the very best of FromSoftware's prior outings. If god forbid this were their last game, it would be a fitting capstone and magnum opus. AceOfFlames fucked around with this message at 01:57 on Dec 12, 2022 |
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Dec 11, 2022 15:25
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I nominate this thread for Thread of the Year. okay I guess i'll make a GOTY post as well.
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Dec 11, 2022 15:27
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GotY 2022 5. Pokémon Scarlet/Violet An open-world core Pokémon game finally is here, and... My feelings on it are very mixed. It's got a lot of ingredients I appreciate, but but on the whole so sloppy and undercooked that I can't fully enjoy them. The end result feels strangely hollow and bland. I've consistently enjoyed core Pokémon games for two decades, but for the first time, this is one I was comfortable putting down and walking away from not long after release. What a mess. 4. Animal Crossing: New Horizons I got a lot of mileage out of this game in early 2022, fully exploring and enjoying what its final content patch and DLC had to offer. I had a terrific time completing collections and customizing my island and resort, and was sad when I finally exhausted everything that I felt like doing. Looking forward to the next Animal Crossing game and doing it all over again, whenever it happens. 3. Pokémon Legends: Arceus For the first time since the inception of the series, the core Pokémon games stepped out of their comfort zone and truly attempted to innovate and modernize, and the resulting experiment works far better than I ever would have guessed, with delightfully smooth movement and rewarding exploration. It's ugly and basic in many ways, but if they can iterate on and enrich this formula they'll have gold on their hands. The question is, will Gamefreak let it happen? The Pokémon franchise is infamous for throwing out some of its most warmly-received features and refusing to build on them. Scarlet/Violet obviously took some cues from Arceus when it comes to movement and exploration, but those mechanics are not nearly as satisfying in that game.  2. Final Fantasy XIV: Endwalker Endwalker has kept up the marvelously high level of quality that the game has been lauded for since 2019, and I'll never stop being impressed at this team's output. It only put out two major patches this year, but the addition of the Adventurer Plates feature alone has created endlessly enjoyable player-made content. This game will always be significantly flawed due to being bloated and putting its weakest content first, but it's consistently improving with time, and I appreciate that. 1. OMORI I put it on my #1 slot last year, and since it was re-released on consoles this summer with some new content, it's rightfully at #1 again. This isn't the first game to mix wholesome, bittersweet, and horrific subject matter into a simultaneously joyful and painful journey, but its execution has done things for me that no other work of fiction has. Last year, OMORI hit me like a thunderbolt and taught me so many important things about myself, and it's never stopped helping me since. I feel weird lumping an experience like it in with more conventional entertainment, but it's a video game and it belongs here all the same.
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Dec 11, 2022 17:00
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As an Elden Ring Hater, this year didn't have much to offer me, so I decided to go back to the classics as well as finally dig into my monstrous backlog of unplayed games (down to 70 now). Dishonorable mention: Tactical Nexus is a puzzle game all about finding the optimal route to make your Numbers go Up. It stole 230 hours of my life from me and I didn't really enjoy a single moment of it. Honorable mentions: We Were Here Forever, a cooperative puzzle game where each player is given half of the puzzle and must communicate with each other to find the solution. The only reason it's not on my list is because I haven't played it. I have played every other game in the series, and they're pretty good, but I only have one friend I play these with and their computer died the day before release, and they haven't been able to buy a new one yet. Webbed: You're a little spider and you do a lot of fun webslinging and some not so fun web construction. The concept and the movement are great fun, but the game is so lacking in polish that it doesn't quite make my top 10. 10. Stacklands - RTS Survival Card game. If you've played Cultist Simulator it's similar to that but way less obtuse. 9. Starship Troopers: Terran Command - I like rts campaigns, this is a competent rts game. The story seemed confused about whether the protagonists were good people working within a bad system, just good guys, or just plain bad people. 8. Inscyption - Great card game attached to an ok card game attached to a terrible card game. The horror aesthetics and meta puzzle progression were pretty cool while they lasted. 7. Resident Evil Village - Lady D's castle and the village were pretty cool! Would have been great if the rest of the game was on the same level. 6. Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past - I can see why this game was the biggest thing in its time, it's still a pretty great game now. There's a few hiccups throughout but there's good reasons a ton of indies are still copying its formula today. 5. FF14: Endwalker - If this list was happening in June I couldn't imagine picking anything but this as my #1, but time has significantly cooled me on this one. 4. Songs of Conquest - What if Heroes of Might and Magic 3 didn't take 5 years to complete a single mission, and had a magic system that wasn't complete garbage? It would be a drat good game I tell you, good enough to be #4 on my list even though I only just started playing it yesterday. 3. The Last Spell - Tactics RPG Horde Mode. Though it only officially released recently I played plenty of it in early access. Cutting through the hordes of enemies is very satisfying, and the special enemies do enough to challenge your strategy to keep it interesting. 2. Celeste - I put this game down for a couple years, content with how far I had gotten. I’d reached the summit, gotten the normal ending of the game with most of the collectables. I felt like I had gotten as good as I ever would at the game without a serious time commitment, so I dropped it. Coming back to it this year, I played through everything. I went back and got every strawberry and cassette tape and crystal heart that I'd missed, overcame every challenge the game presented me. It did not turn out that I had grown in skill during those years. The game was not easier than I had expected; it was harder, if anything. The main reason I got through it was that the game actively encouraged me to keep trying when it got hard. It acknowledged the difficulty of the challenges but also said I could still do it, I'd gotten this far after all. 1. Neon White - The story is bad, the dialogue is cringe, the characters suck, and the gameplay is good enough to excuse all that and still be my favorite game this year. Between this and Celeste there's clearly something I enjoy about speedrunning that no other games have been able to tap into. I'll come back and edit my reasoning to be better later, hopefully, probably. sirtommygunn fucked around with this message at 03:21 on Dec 25, 2022 |
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Dec 11, 2022 17:21
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I'm ranking completed or sufficiently-retired games I played in 2022 that received a 3.5 out of 5.0 or higher on my Glitchwave profile. To me, 3.5/5.0 is the demarcation line for games worth the time and attention. That filter narrows down the list to...48? Oh god, how much longer would this list be if I included all the underwhelming older games I tried after my Steam Deck arrived. 48. Milk Outside a Bag of Milk Outside a Bag of Milk (3.5/5) 47. Ib (3.5/5) 46. Condemned: Criminal Origins (3.5/5) 45. Franken (3.5/5) 44. Trombone Champ (3.5/5) 43. Taiji: (3.5/5) 42. Rogue Legacy 2 (3.5/5) 41. Iron Lung (3.5/5) Worth playing once for the incredible atmosphere but lasts a little too long to maintain the tension. 40. 1080° Avalanche (3.5/5) 39. Vampire Survivors (3.5/5): You, the reader, are not allowed to play this. This twin-stick-but-actually-one-stick shooter is far too addictive of a rogue-like gameplay loop that will be only mildly fun when playing yet impossible to stop. There’s lots of ways your run can end but only one way the game can end. The screen shuts off and you realize thirteen months have passed. Your credit card expired and the energy bill wasn’t paid. You open your blinds and no one is on the street. Every lawn is overgrown. Missiles screech overhead after no one was available to hit a Cold War-era deadman switch. The apocalypse is here but the energy bill comes first because you just unlucked Cavallo and want to try him out. 38. Nier Replicant (3.5/5): Yoko Taro wants gamers to consider the bigger questions in life. How do you define humanity or a soul? Are good people capable of great harm? Will there be a quest that isn’t tedious? I understand why this game’s plot is a milestone but I couldn’t get around the repetitive gameplay and lifeless world. Like hitting a rock with a sword over and over until it cracks open, then moving on to a bigger rock. 37. If Found… (3.5/5) 36. The Excavation of Hob’s Barrow (3.5/5) 35. Hylics (3.5/5) 34. Soul Hackers 2 (3.5/5) 33. AI: The Somnium Files - nirvanA Initiative (3.5/5): This is still worth playing if you loved the first game but nirvanA Initiative has a bit of sequel-itis. They’ve improved what could be iterated, like making the Somnium puzzles far more intuitive and fun, The Pokemon Go parody was an inspired choice, but wrote a mystery that’s just not as fun as the first game. In a year with so many awesome narrative-driven games, the gap between nirvanA Initiative and higher-ranked titles feels more significant despite all the still-great qualities of a Somnium game. My hot take rankings: Somnium 1 > Somnium 2 > 999 >>> VLR. The ending song is a bop! Much better than the first game, even if it's not as surprising. 32. Stray (3.5/5) 31. Persona 3 Portable (3.5/5): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eV2sRhaQrxc I wrote a longer review of P3 originally, how it started the P4/P5 social framework, offered one the best OSTs you’ll ever hear, sadly wrapped within a mediocre RPG experience. I want to replace all that with a simpler story. Around a decade ago, I checked online if I should start with P3 or P4 first. I followed what sounded like good advice to start with P3 FES on the PS2 since it supposedly had a better story and I like the sound of that! I stopped after an hour and, for some reason, never went back to pick it up. Another game may have caught my attention, I could’ve been scared of committing to the game’s length, I don’t remember. But thank god I didn’t go further. I would’ve found P3 boring, the story not especially interesting until the end, the confidants soulless and unlikable, the battles too repetitive in the dullest battle location I’ve ever seen in a video game. Persona 5 and 4 rank among my all-time favorite games but I would’ve never tried another Persona game if I committed to that first P3 FES run. It would’ve scared me off a series that I would later love, dreading an hour talking with a high-resolution Gourmet King. Playing P5 first was the dream outcome. My wife and I both ended up with multiple playthroughs, a few books and merch purchased, and we even dressed as Joker/Makoto for Halloween one year. Does any of that happen if I stuck with P3 all those years ago? PS: What was with that Chariot confidant? As a high school track runner with an oft-injured knee, I can’t imagine hearing a teammate tell me to “suck it up” and “You need to toughen up”, nevermind as the best possible answers for friendship. 30. Secret Little Haven (3.5/5): A tale of posting too much on an irreverent pink message board. 29. Journey to the Savage Planet (3.5/5) 28. Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes (3.5/5) 27. Alba: A Wildlife Adventure (4/5) 26. Pillars of Eternity (4/5): How big is my backlog? I kickstarted this game in 2012 and finally got around to playing it in 2022. Patient Gamer, indeed. It’s a worthwhile revival of the isometric RPG that hits the genre’s expected tropes and a light amount of twists on expectations. However, I absolutely loathe RTwP combat and turned the difficulty all the way down to focus on the plot. And you know what, enjoying these types of CRPGs as quasi-VNs are my current preference. I've grown to value exploration, characters, and story more than combat. I wonder how I would’ve reacted to this game if I beat it at launch instead of now. 25. Who's Lila? (4/5): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H6c-JxUDA44&t=5643s Horror games rarely scare me, in the same way that funny games rarely make me actually laugh. Most of these games know how to be in roughly the right atmosphere and include common tropes, but lack that real emotional impact. Who’s Lila fortunately knows how to disturb you well. There are a minor amount of jump scares but the game’s real quality comes from the horrors that aren’t, like the slow realization of what is going on, the nature of your character, and moments where you simply can't stop what's about to happen. The game’s emphasis on finding different endings means constant repetition, including long conversations, but when the game gets to show you something new, it delivers. 24. Stanley Parable Ultra Deluxe (4/5): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4i2BfnDVZac The original Stanley Parable was an instant classic. The follow-up Ultra Deluxe material is still funny but lacks the same level of timelessness. The overarching theme of the developer’s sequel struggle lacks the genuine charm of the original’s narrator/player conflict. Is it wrong to think new players should play the original and not bother with the extra content? 23. Crystal Project (4/5): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZDokgvuuS7E After many indie attempts, someone’s passion project finally cracked the code on the ultimate comfy open-world JRPG that emphasizes exploration. It’s not a perfect game, the reliance on platforming and the lack of a strong story hinder things, but it’s an incredible achievement by a solo developer. Imagine the same game with a BG2-sized world of sidequests and content... 22. Pokémon Legends: Arceus (4/5): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lun8FPg0dbU Being a Pokémon fan is frustrating. Everyone daydreams their perfect Pokemon MMO, then plays the new generation that retreads decades of familiar territory. But they finally did it: they gave us little baby steps into the Monster Hunter-esq open world that we wanted, where you feel like an explorer with an enormous toolset of options instead of participating as a guest on a guided tour. Throw pokeballs as much as you want, battle at any time you want, and watch Pokémon live their adorable lives out in the wilderness. The edges are extremely rough when you compare Legends against modern open-worlds but the heart of something incredible shines through. It’s a title that makes you dream about future improvements, which is the most Pokémon fan thing imaginable. 21. The Life and Suffering of Sir Brante (4/5): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tEUcOyUM8KI This is what I always wanted in a visual novel, something that feels like a choose-your-own-adventure story that tracks RPG-like character stats. You make entirely text-based decisions and guide your character through life’s rough trials. The writing style is immaculate, nailing the emotional tone with terse efficiency. A tightly-constructed paragraph in this game would be ten tedious minutes in Muv-Luv or Umineko, and nowhere as affecting. The plot is hard to sit through as it extracts more misery from Sir Brante in repetitive fashion. You can keep someone from throwing a baby in front of a moving car but that baby is now a serial killer wizard and he enslaved your family, you shithead, you dick. Now restart the entire chapter by participating in medieval COINTELPRO slightly differently. It’s hard to keep emotionally involved when all results are obviously going to be miserable. 20. Ace Attorney Investigations 2 (4/5): I thought the critical praise for this game was due to selective bias: anyone playing this game must love AA already since you need to patch the fan-made English translation. I was wrong, this is a banger of an Ace Attorney game that never dips into low-quality. The mysteries are great but the characters really shine here. Miles Edgeworth is a far more engaging protagonist than Phoenix with his snooty ego on full display. If the Great Ace Attorney can make it to the US, why can’t this game? 19. TOEM (4/5): Is “new sincerity” a video game genre yet? TOEM asks you to help a wide cast of cute, mostly well-meaning characters through your unique powers. This time, you help through the power of your camera. Complete a minimum number of photo-related requests in the level and you gain access to the next world. Photography games aren’t new but TOEM builds a sweet atmosphere with its little open worlds, playful tone, and writing that may come from an Adventure Time fan. If you loved A Short Hike, try TOEM next. 18. Immortality (4/5): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Se7OpT6XTwI This is not what I meant when I said I wanted a Persona sequel *ba dum tss* Sam Barlow hit upon hyperlink media gold with Her Story, which offered players a unique way to non-linearly research a crime. Even though I thought the story and twist were too strange to be immersive, the act of discovering the situation piece by piece was stimulating and contained so much promise. He followed up with Telling Lies, which gave a simple mainstream-ready story but told in a far worse manner. It’s really not worth playing. So it’s happy news that he came back with his best work yet in Immortality. It’s a halfway point between his past two games. The story isn’t as obtuse and impossible to decipher as Her Story; more complex and mysterious than Telling Lies. As much as I want to nitpick the plot, and there is a lot to nag about, that’s not as important as how certain moments in this game scared me better than anything in years. And I’m talking scared in a genuine, dread-filled, nightmare-inducing way, not from gore or cheap jump scares. Go try this out if that sounds promising. I won’t spoil the plot but it’s hard to talk about a game so built around discovering new information right from the start. Just know that it’s still a Sam Barlow game: You’ll often get lost, frustrated, and stuck on how to find the next clue. It’s fair to call this a puzzle game that rewards random point-and-click instead of logic. Also, most people who reached the credits recommend you stop playing afterwards and not torture yourself to find all clips. I absolutely agree. 17. Wario Land II (4/5): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NbfsLOK0xSk When I first loaded my Steam Deck with EmuDeck, my expectations had to be checked with a sad acknowledgement: most of these games were going to be disappointing. Games from the 80’s and 90’s lack decades of incremental game design, can you really enjoy old games without that context? Isn’t that even worse for Game Boy games that struggled to run on primitive hardware? But here comes Nintendo’s fat libertarian to shatter that notion. Wario Land II recalls the best Mario games in terms of building novel ideas for individual levels but adds the unique-at-the-time idea of “powers” given by enemy attacks. A flame warrior hits you with fire, you lose a few coins and turn into a sprinting wreck then a walking ember…that can destroy flame-icon blocks and open new passages. This is an unbelievably impressive full-length game for the Gameboy that provides some of the best platforming gameplay. Modern indie games reference Metroidvania concepts so much that it’s a stereotype, how in the world have they not cribbed Wario Land in the same way? 16. Neon White (4/5): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f8Kjn9qw-rw Mario-Speedrun-by-FPS is such a wonderful concept, sadly shared with a medicore visual novel bolted to the side. I didn't find the story outright horrible as others found but it's also template capital-A Anime. I rarely care for time trials but Neon White makes it a captivating challenge, one where you technically reached the next chapter but you replay a past stage anyway because you know in your heart it could be even faster. Aim for the Heavens. 15. Pokemon Scarlet/Violet (4/5): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eLdcZ9KZlGA Am I insane or is the latest Pokemon the best mainline title in years…or possibly decades? Every review tells me I should utterly hate Scarlet/Violet for the framerate dips, the lazy animation moments, the open world pop-in, but it’s not nearly enough to convince me I didn’t have a fun time running around the world. I didn’t have unfun and you can’t make me not have fun earlier. Scarlet/Violet fulfills the promise of a self-directed open world of Pokemon. The new mons are some of the best in the series, the characters are great (Larry is me), and the different stories in parallel are a massive step up in quality for the series. Even the music is as great as it’s ever been. If you really want to spend time on inexcusable flaws, ask about the lack of voice acting. Why would they make all those cutscenes and emotional moments completely silent? 14. The Case of the Golden Idol (4/5): https://twitter.com/MIDImyers/status/1595431368154120195?s=20&t=Cao44n4gMWkk4PM61VJDWA Some knock-offs are better than the originator. The Return of The Obra Dinn took everyone by storm but I had a more fulfilling time solving the mysteries within The Case of the Golden Idol. It’s the same concept of investigating a frozen moment in time, but Golden Idol emphasizes a self-contained murder mystery per scene. It keeps the game streamlined on solving mysteries instead of mentally juggling details of Obra Dinn’s collection of individual deaths. Some Golden Idol scenes feel too conceptually large for the game: one case requires comparing multiple eyewitness testimonies through the game’s primitive UI, a great concept that’s tedious in practice. 13. R4: Ridge Racer Type 4 (4/5): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eaBUeINW_3s&t=25s Dear Mr. Hirai, I would like to apologize for laughing at your 2006 E3 conference presentation on the PSP. It was not fair to laugh at your presentation showcasing how people could play Ridge Racer portably for the first time. I grew up without a PlayStation and did not recognize the greatness of Ridge Racer and thus, didn’t recognize the truth of your announcement. I finally got to play Ridge Racer Type 4 this year and I have to say, what a fantastic game! So many games attempt a simplified arcade racer but R4 may be my favorite outside of Mario Kart. Power slides feel amazing and I never got tired shooting for the right amount of brake for each turn. The tracks bend, lift, and curve in beautiful ways. The soundtrack is an absolute banger. I miss the 90’s DnB: those fast and soft amen break drums, the low bass, and those old orchestral patches! My god, I opened Ableton afterwards just to make more music like this. It’s inspiring. I loved the futuristic and clean design language too. Is the person who designed this still happily working? I hope they are. Did I mention I played this at the same time as Gran Turismo and Wipeout? I excused my disappointment with those games, didn’t we all decide the early 3D era was the worst console generation? But R4 set me straight: it was possible to make a great and timeproof racing game for the original PlayStation. You were right all along about playing Ridge Racer and how much more amazing it is to play R4 portably! I have a Steam Deck, wouldn’t it be just as good on a PSP back then? I know R4 isn’t perfect, the racing game genre isn’t my thing, but it got so much right that I must write and apologize for my reaction to your E3 conference. Maybe you would’ve not been as lonely on stage if circumstances were different and I was in the audience shouting along with you “It’s Ridge Racer! Riiiiiidge Racer!” Love, DMCrimson 12. Dark Scavenger (4/5): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nUzfYcfY35Q A great 3-4 hour RPG-esq text adventure that functions like a Dungeon Master with a good sense of humor. You’ll click room-by-room through worlds that present silly misadventures and antagonists, with the chance of combat and the post-fight choices of weapons, items, or allies. The launch trailer promotes a "Dark Twisted Sci-Fi Narrative" which, lmao, thank god it's actually goofy fun adventure story. The interface and graphics are outright poor. You can imagine a high school sophomore freehand drawing inside a textbook or uploading a Flash game to Newgrounds in the early-aughts. But that doesn’t matter as much as the goofy loot system, the silly ways you can react to characters, and the surprising plot turns. Fun gameplay and entertaining writing shines through no matter what. I have one recommendation if you end up buying and trying this game: Never use the last resource of a weapon/item/ally. Your supply refreshes between levels and you’ll want to maximize your strategic options. Useful inventory runs low quickly and the game prioritizes hitting weaknesses to stun. 11. NORCO (4/5): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sy_1lZCu4Z4 I’m so easily taken by any game that reminds me of Disco Elysium in the slightest way. NORCO is a point-and-click game with great writing in a dialogue window that’s taller than it is wide! Ok, there are more parallels to Disco than what I’m implying. This is a game set in an overwhelming corporate hellscape, against enormous class struggles, in pursuit of a local mystery. Your character finds answers to questions in a city that would disintegrate all the same without you around. No bird internet or rocket ship cult in your hometown but the heart of the game, the unshakable corporate control over the region, keeps the game sadly relatable. 10. DUSK (4/5): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mi1e2wvBego This may be hearsay but it’s true: I often dislike older FPS games. Doom, Quake, Hexen, Duke Nukem, all the others, I only liked first-person shooters once the genre became more immersive and less about killing huge numbers of enemies (this line will be funnier once we hit this year’s #3). DUSK has a few of these modern elements but I can’t believe I love this game for all the reasons I didn’t like those older games. Turns out, I love blasting tons of demons with a giant shotgun when it’s done as well as DUSK. The development team is one to follow since they began work on something requiring more ambition… 9. Gloomwood (4.5/5): https://twitter.com/DaveOshry/status/1567957416616300544 So you’re telling me the makers of DUSK, the only game I’ve really loved in the boomer shooter genre, is now pushing out a spiritual successor to Thief? An immersive sim? In this economy? Thank goodness, because the Early Access-limited game we currently play is a fantastic modern translation of the genre. This is what your nostalgia thinks Thief 2 was like, but now it actually exists. Take the first level for example. The environmental storytelling is wonderful, you have multiple routes to explore, and a promise of an open world just beyond the horizon that builds from your early tests. Let’s pray that the remaining game updates builds on the early success but what’s available tells us the team knows exactly what oldheads like me wanted. 8. TUNIC (4.5/5): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6hJ8o-lnDxg&t=81s The last puzzle is the greatest puzzle in gaming history but you have to go through a good-not-great Zelda clone to get there. Discovering “the” puzzle is an incredible revelation that made me want to find Twitch playthroughs to see how others felt the same shock of realization. I broke out a notepad and started writing/drawing notes with a pencil and a giant smile on my face. This is the puzzle I think about when people talk about incredible moments that could only happen in video games. Make sure to turn on invincibility when you feel the combat’s getting a tad annoying. Do not let mere sword fighting stop you from unveiling the final mystery. 7. Grapple Dog (4.5/5): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CpSzms-aic0 Grapple Dog is the ideal difficult fast-paced 2D platformer for me. The world is full of 2D platformers of every style, gameplay, and difficulty and they sometimes blend together in your mind. Hell, you probably played other 2D platformers with the same grapple hook mechanic as this game (Does Worms count? It should). But Grapple Dog nails it. They’ve found every interesting platform permutation for grapple hooks and just went for it, the entire game. Has any platformer felt as good when you’re going fast? Sonic exists but it’s nowhere near the rush when your grapple hook launches Pablo the Dog through spikes, saw mills, and fireballs as a series of nail-biting grapple hook dexterity tests. The cartoony art looks even better in motion, like when piloting your little boat through the overworld that bounces up and down like a Cuphead boss. And that bright sample-heavy saturday morning cartoon soundtrack? Absolutely perfect. The only “Before I Play” recommendation I’d warn you about is the difficulty. To me, this is a nearly-perfect level of challenge through the end of World 4: somewhere around the Donkey Kong Country Returns series while offering a more forgiving checkpoint system. But there are World 1 levels that feel like late-game Mario tests and Bonus Levels that touch post-game Super Meat Boy demands of perfect execution. When the game throws you gates that require sizable gem totals, the time necessary to replay old levels for one incremental gem or complete an unforgiving bonus stage weighs on you. 6. Pentiment (4.5/5): https://twitter.com/supitscarrie/status/1596675012580327424 If there’s a genre for Night in the Woods and OxenFree walking-and-talking story games, Pentiment is now the best of the bunch. An absolute milestone for story-driven games that constantly surprises me with its sheer cleverness. I catch myself in one of Pentiment's pivotal decisions and there they are, rope kid and team, behind me with a smirk. And they're right to smirk, the stress of these weighty decisions is memorable, these difficult decisions are the point. It takes a masterful game like Pentiment to line up all these perfectly-tangible characters and small-town gossip into the game's heartbreaking investigations. gently caress, did I ever react to the ending of Act 2. That might be the most thrilling narrative sequence I've seen in a video game since Disco Elysium. The beginning of Act 3 doesn't have the same dramatic propulsion as Act 2 but eventually gets good by the end. 5. Betrayal at Club Low (4.5/5): https://twitter.com/NewsSwsArmyKnfe/status/1569207673056555009?s=20&t=KTrSVGhW0OVoGuHvs6u8gw Betrayal at Club Low is the perfect one-shot RPG campaign if you miss the show Xavier: Renegade Angel. You get to explore every detail of a small nightclub as a secret agent disguised as a pizza delivery man, interacting with every item and character for dice-rolled interactions. Beyond the janky-on-purpose art and janky-not-on-purpose UI, it’s a tightly-constructed and hilarious tabletop RPG that’s a blast to play in a single afternoon. Games usually fail at being funny, this is a rare case of video game humor actually succeeding. Funny games are often easy but this game is a hefty challenge even on normal or easy. You encounter skill checks that seem impossibly high and your single dice rolls become ridiculous combinations of a half-dozen dice with absurd conditions. The game emphasizes exploring all options on all characters to give as many secondary benefits as possible to help you when the odds look impossible. Trust yourself that there’s always an opportunity to get the odds in your favor through a backroom you haven't found yet…or just restart the game, it’s really that short. 4. Kirby and the Forgotten Land (4.5/5): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iK2DqhRRSQ4&t=192s Last year, I said Metroid Prime felt like the "right" way to bring Metroid into 3D, as if there was a single true way to convey Super Metroid’s sense of exploration and immersion that Retro luckily found. This year, I could say the same thing about Kirby and the Forgotten Land. Decades of great 2D Kirby games are in my mind, but it’s their first real 3D game that is the best Kirby game. If the game improved a few slightly-mediocre boss fights, you could honestly argue this against Mario Odyssey and Mario Galaxy. 3. Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance (4.5/5): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ih2rHwmNxA I often make mistakes. Five years ago, I bounced off Revengeance after an hour of playing. I walked Raiden around without sprinting and took more time scavenging for secret items than finding the next baddie to decapitate, ultimately deciding the game just wasn’t for me. I picked up the Steam Deck this summer and revisited past games that I retired, especially Revengeance as I felt a little regret not giving the game enough time despite the acclaim around it. And the acclaim only grew since my first attempt… Well gently caress me. I played this game like the fans suggested, aggressive balls-to-the-wall attacking for electrolytes, and I’m utterly beaming. There’s no ramp-up, you start at 100% speed and you stay in the zone. Sprint-and-Slash gameplay has never felt better and you will smile like a kid hearing dinner tonight is pizza. Cast aside your self-awareness and indulge playing an eyepatch-wearing cyborg swinging badass anime swords to a cyber nu-metal soundtrack for five adrenaline-filled hours. And somehow, somehow, MGR manages to insert a political message C-SPAM would be proud of. Just imagine the writer of Senator Armstrong’s dialogue watching Trump introduce his campaign slogan back in 2015. I’m trying to think of anything else that has been this over-the-top and a genuine classic: Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure? Everything Everywhere All at Once? But those examples are too modest to kickstart the vocals of “Rules of Nature” when you single-handedly parry a building-sized sword wielded by a mech during the first fifteen minutes of the game. Did you overthink yourself into not liking it or did you let yourself enjoy the moment? You should admit it’s fun because every boss does this music trick and it thrills every time. Months after playing, I’ve set multiple gym PRs listening to “The Only Thing I Know for Real”. I was wrong five years ago but I’m correcting past mistakes. MGR:R is god-tier. 2. Before Your Eyes (5/5): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LTI1WCopTsg Before Your Eyes is difficult to compare against triple-A titles. It’s an independent first-person game lasting all of 90 minutes that works off a gimmick of using eye movements like blinking to change scenes. The 3D graphics are simple in a way that recalls itch.io games by college teams. It’s a bit like recommending a self-published book or a local band’s album on Bandcamp that you are convinced should be right alongside established icons. Of any game in this list, it’s the one that I’d recommend first to anyone. Everyone can recognize something meaningful here. It’s more emotionally affecting than nearly every other game. I want to stay coy of the story but it will target the nostalgic part of your brain and the way you recall those early memories. They were all you could imagine at the time. They are now rarely thought about and gone in a blink. The game is gone in a blink too, but what you take away from it will last much longer. 1. Elden Ring (5/5): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OauP0B6I2jM My favorite mess. All addition, no subtraction. As if they released their next three games, DLC included, all at once. If this was the last SoulsBourne title, I would understand. Your favorite band releases a quadruple-album, your favorite movie’s director cut adds three more hours, and FROM Software releases Elden Ring. I haven’t felt this way about an open world since Breath of the Wild. Some games have larger land masses with more side quests, fine, but the world of Elden Ring is a perfect fairy tale. It’s a land I can explore with no specific reward happily. A game so enormous, you daydream about retiring early to devote your time. Exploration feels so good, speed runs feel insulting. Immerse yourself and enjoy every corner. Take as long as you need. And when you beat it, imagine closing a leather-bound book of fables and rest it on your lap for a moment in reflection. Dark Souls will be the FROM game that’s written in textbooks decades from now, Bloodborne has their best gameplay, but Elden Ring is the developer’s most impressive accomplishment, my 2022 game of the year. Another story that sums up Elden Ring to me happened over Thanksgiving when I asked someone about who they felt was the hardest boss. He took moment to consider and then described two different dragon bosses. As he describes each, I realize that I have no goddamn clue what dragons he is talking about or the areas to find either of them. Months after the game launch, when I had spent so much time in the game and various discussions/guides, there was still something completely new for me to find via word of mouth. It was Dark Souls community knowledge, a moment that proved the world was so mysterious, endlessly memorable, and worth exploring. DMCrimson fucked around with this message at 16:35 on Dec 19, 2022 |
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Dec 11, 2022 17:44
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Honorable Mentions HM: Final Fantasy VII/IX I would feel lame putting these on the list even though FF9 is "objectively" the best game I played this year, it'd be like putting Doom 2 or Tetris as #1 because I played it a bit. FF9 owns but FF7 owns almost as hard. I will play FF8 at some point HM: Slay the Spire This is the game I played the most but I'm leaving it off the list for punishment because it was responsible for me not playing very many games this year. It is too addictive and I really should uninstall it. It's so good HM: Voice of Cards (series) These are just comfy and scratch the occasional itch I have for "I want a nice simple JRPG like Dragon Quest". I don't want to put them on the list because that would be doing a disservice to what I like about these games- they're low-key, calm, and can hit you with an emotional gut-punch when the chill vibes make you unguarded. HM: Cyberpunk 2077 This game owns. I'm leaving it off the list because of some statement about releasing unfinished games and definitely not because I forgot to put it on and don't want to re-edit the list and knock Inscryption off. HM: mofumofusensen OK I didn't play this one I just wanted to throw a bone to the guy who decided to release his indie fighting game in North America because someone drew fanart of his big titty catgirl OC with a huge rear end. This was probably a joke. Games That I Didn't Play Enough To Rate In Good Faith But Probably Would Have Been On The List If I Had Played Them, Sorry Elden Ring Final Fantasy Origin: Stranger of Paradise Neon White Xenoblade Chronicles 3 Klonoa: Phantasy Reverie Series Pokemon: Scarlet/Violet Live-A-Live The Actual List 10. Inscryption I'd say more but I don't want to spoil it. I had a few complaints but there was no game on the list that hooked me as hard from the opening few minutes. 9. Triangle Strategy Speaking of being hooked from the opening few minutes, if you are the kind of person who gets immediately hooked when a game's opening cutscene talks about the political dynamics of trading natural resources, you will like this game. I loved this game. 8. Elevator Action Returns (S-Tribute) This is a game where you shoot enemies and things explode. It's really hard, and has Jad the Taff in it. If you want an arcade game where you can just shoot people for ten minutes or so, I really recommend this. It's stylish, extremely well-animated, difficult and just so much fun. 7. Fuga: Melodies of Steel I did replay this but honestly I'm mostly putting it on the list because I feel bad at not putting it on the list last year and cursing it with a HM. Thank you CyberConnect2 for spending your licensed-anime-kids-game bucks on making this, and funding a sequel despite it selling like total rear end, apparently because your CEO is literally a furry. 6. Taiko no Tatsujin: Rhythm Festival It's more Taiko. It now has an absurd amount of songs that you can pay a subscription for, which is actually a good move for me because I spent an absurd amount of money on Taiko DLC with the prior game. I am broke da-don. 5. Pentiment Josh Sawyer Presents: Wintiment. I like a good murder mystery, and my favorite murder mysteries happen to be the ones which are more about relationships in a small community than the murder itself. Combine that with a history-nerd level of detail, and a great story about faith, myth, and books, and- god I'm so glad this got released. 4. Splatoon 3 More splat so it's on the list by default. Which I haven't been playing a lot because of.... 3. Xenoblade Chronicles 2 My brain broke and I decided I had to do this before XC3 which everyone I know adores. This does everything I love about JRPGs. It's idiotically huge, it lends itself surprisingly well to short sessions because you can just explore for a bit, it has a dopamine-releasing gacha system that doesn't cost money, it has some of my favorite character designs in any JRPG, and above all, it has that utter inability to maintain any sort of consistent emotional tone that I absolutely adore. This is the genre where the Most Emotional Moment in All Gaming is backended by a snowboarding minigame and a slapstick twist involving a giant cat robot. It's all about the tonal roller-coaster and I love it. Also I haven't finished it but I don't know how bad the back half of the game would have to be to drop it down the list, so there. 2. Kirby and the Forgotten Land In retrospect it's so obvious that Kirby's slower pace, floatier movement, and emphasis on combat powers would lend itself to 3D levels, and also lead itself to having some of the most satisfying boss fights I've played in a platformer. Best game ending of 2022, hands down. 1. Dragon Quest XI: Echoes of an Elusive Age (but it probably would have been Xenoblade 3 if I had actually had time to do that one) I dunno what to say. This is just a charm festival from start to finish. I know there are people who don't like Dragon Quest, but I don't want to meet them, and IMO they should be permabanned. 0. Hollow Knight: Silksong i stole a copy from australia it's real good folks. it's good and real, and hornet is real, and she is my friend. (the list without words) The Actual List 10. Inscryption 9. Triangle Strategy 8. Elevator Action Returns (S-Tribute) 7. Fuga: Melodies of Steel 6. Taiko no Tatsujin: Rhythm Festival 5. Pentiment 4. Splatoon 3 3. Xenoblade Chronicles 2 2. Kirby and the Forgotten Land 1. Dragon Quest XI: Echoes of an Elusive Age Feels Villeneuve fucked around with this message at 18:06 on Dec 11, 2022 |
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Dec 11, 2022 17:44
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Wario Land II is an amazing game. There is a platformer called Pizza Tower coming out early 2023 which is hugely Wario Land-inspired and looks sick
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Dec 11, 2022 17:48
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Extremely good OP but I have to point out the December banner is almost unreadable on the default/light mode forum style I'll have to think about my games and make sure my post measures up to this
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Dec 11, 2022 18:29
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