52 Games. 1 Year. 2020.

toth3max · Dec 27, 2020

Sander VF said:
Just out of curiosity:

Do replays of previously completed games count? Sorry if I missed it in the FAQ.

Replays counts according to the first post, answered under "How do I know when I've completed a game?".

Sander VF · Dec 27, 2020

toth3max said:
Replays counts according to the first post, answered under "How do I know when I've completed a game?".

Thanks, I missed that.

KtotheRoc · Dec 27, 2020

81: Donkey Kong Country 3: Dixie Kong's Double Trouble! End: 12/27/2020. 3 Hours. Liked.

Ending the year on DKC 3, the final game in Rare's SNES trilogy. This game definitely feels like it was made by the B-team. Even though it doesn't hit the highs of the previous DKC games, it is still a solid platformer that is well worth checking out.

Rhaknar · Dec 27, 2020

Game #86 - World of Warcraft Shadowlands
Time: Ongoing
Rating: ★★★★

And the last game of this shitty year and pretty much the only thing I've been playing the last month and a half or so, is the latest WoW expansion Shadowlands, which thankfully is a return to form after BFA was one of my least played expansions. Great new systems, cool (if a bit short) zones, a new semi-roguelike system with Torghast which unfortunately isn't as good as I expected (but has some promise for the future) and some great dungeons and raid make this a good start to a new expansion. I still wish there was a new class (it broke the new class every two expansions "rule") but I'vebeen having fun and still haven't burned out even tho i'm about to hit the 2 month mark with it which is usually when I tap out with wow expansions, so for now, it gets a big thumbs up, we'll see if it continues into 2021.

And that's it, I won't finish anything else before the year ends for sure (again, especially since I'm pretty much only playing wow atm), so I guess 86 is the finall tally, lower than 2019, but still not bad I guess (especially when I'm also doing the 52 tv seasons challenge).

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bushmonkey · Dec 28, 2020

This will be my last entry this year as I'm going through Assassins creed: Valhalla and I will not complete that this year. I have to say that I really enjoyed this thread and it helped me focus on completing games. I completed maybe 2 games in 2019 but started hundreds. This year, I focused and completed nearly every game I played (outside of multiplayer games) and it really improved my enjoyment. The feeling of accomplishment upon completing a long game / beating the last boss of a difficult game is unsurpassed.

See you next year!

Completions since last update:
31. Doom Eternal (PS4) | 15thDec - 17hrs | 4/5
32. Jackbox Party 7 (PS4) | 25th Dec - 4hrs | 3/5

Currently playing: Assassins creed: Valhalla and Dirt 5

bushmonkey · Dec 28, 2020

Lobotomaxx said:
49/52

World of Warcraft: Battle for Azeroth | Battle.Net | 3.5/5 | ~several hundred hours

This is mostly actually for the pre-patch that came out for the newest expansion Shadowlands, but I figured I'd post the whole expansion on here. This game was alright, it seemed a little weird coming from their previous effort Legion where Horde/Alliance are sort of at a tenuous truce and working together and then just blowing it up and having them get after it again.

Island Expeditions were added which were a 3 man system where you explored islands and get collectibles. This didn't seem as "random" as they'd sold before the game came out and they could get boring pretty fast. They aren't a bad choice to use to level new characters now, however. They also added Warfronts which were a larger scale battle with 30 players building a base and storming the enemy base. It was also okay.

I can't speak to the raids as I didn't do them all. This is basically just more World of Warcraft.

50/52

Hatoful Boyfriend | Steam | 2.5/5 | 4 hours

Man, I don't know. I've played jrpg's that have dating simulator mechanics in it but not just a straight up dating simulator. And I start it off where you're trying to date birds. This is pretty weird. You go through the game and make decisions on which bird is Best Bird. I got through several endings and figured I'd seen enough. I didn't find out until a couple completions that you can skip most of the dialogue that repeats, saving precious time.

51/52

World of Warcraft: Shadowlands | Battle.Net | 4/5 | played with Whimsicalish | ~50 hours

Obviously I'm not done with this game yet, but I did play through and get to max level. This game is a little more exciting (at least right now) than previous efforts as you are going to the afterlife to fight the current Big Bad, Sylvanas. She's apparently aligned herself with chud called the Jailer who is trying to escape an area called The Maw (a particular area of the afterlife where the worst souls are sent) to presumably destroy everything.

There are four zones to level through which each have a covenant you can ally with. You can only choose one and each choice has multiple different activities you can do that are unique to them. The Maw is a sort of Dark Souls like zone where you collect a resource to use at a vendor to buy upgrades. If you die, you lose your resources but can regain them by looting your body. If you die before then, you lose them all. The enemies in the zone tend to hit harder and also are all over the place which make it more difficult.

There is also a rogue-lite dungeon called Torghast which has different themed wings and you can get powers that change your skills. As in other similar games, you can have a run where you feel like a king because you get a ton of great powers or you can get lit up and killed quickly. You have a certain amount of deaths and once they're all gone the run ends. Right now, some of the tuning on the enemies seems a bit high and the bosses are very difficult to kill even playing with a second person.

I will continue to suck time into this game and hope that it holds my attention for awhile. The first raid comes out soon and I might check it out.

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Man, if you think Hatoful boyfriend is just a bird dating simulator, you haven't gone down the rabbit hole enough yet. I would urge you to go back and finish it. It goes places.

Neil98 · Dec 28, 2020

31. Assassin's Creed Syndicate PS4
32. Assassin's Creed Syndicate Secrets of London Pack DLC PS4
33. Assassin's Creed Syndicate Dreadful Crimes DLC PS4
34. Assassin's Creed Syndicate A Long Night Out on the Town DLC PS4
35. Assassin's Creed Syndicate The Last Maharaja DLC PS4
36. Assassin's Creed Syndicate Jack The Ripper DLC PS4
37. Uncharted Drake's Fortune Remastered PS4

Chas Hodges · Dec 28, 2020

I'm at 99. What a rush!

Got a game in mind for the 100, but we'll see if it comes off or not.

5pectre · Dec 28, 2020

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54. Psychic 5 (Arcade) | 28th Dec - 1 hour | 5/5

Been in love with this game since the late 80's. Got the 1 credit clear yesterday <3

Lobotomaxx · Dec 28, 2020

bushmonkey said:
Man, if you think Hatoful boyfriend is just a bird dating simulator, you haven't gone down the rabbit hole enough yet. I would urge you to go back and finish it. It goes places.

I...lost interest when it became a

post-apocalyptic game??

and had sort of had my fill.

modestb · Dec 28, 2020

I did it!!
Master Post
Update 1 - January through April
Update 2 - April through June

I will update with reviews shortly, just the scores for the moment -

#26 - Persona 4: The Golden (PC) | June 27th | 6/5

Negatives aside, Persona 4 The Golden is one of the finest damn games I've ever had the pleasure of playing. The gameplay is exciting and tactical, fusing new persona is a fun mini-game, the s links are great, the characters are endearing and funny and heartwarming AND THAT ENDING! Literally perfect. You, the player, and you, the character, are perfectly in line in feeling as the train pulls away from Inaba as your friends chase after you on the platform - you don't want to leave these people... your dear friends. But even though you have to go you will always know that they remain in your heart and the bond you've forged will never be broken.

#27 - Darkest Dungeon (PC) | July 3rd | 5/5

Darkest Dungeon is a game about beating you down, but also about rallying back from defeat to try and snatch away some small victory. It's dreary and somber in tone and art, but thrilling and exciting in its rewards as you march along its halls. It is perfectly Lovecraftian - you can fight these horrors but they are never beaten... only sleeping, until the time is right again.

#28 - Baldur's Gate: Siege of Dragonspear (Switch) | July 18th | 3/5

Overall I do think Siege of Dragonspear is a pretty solid addition to the BG saga, albeit not really a necessary one. The combat sections are pretty solid, the characters are decent enough, and the story is good for what it is, but it doesn't really feel complete as a whole. The story beats are pretty short, and the areas you wander and explore are quite limited past their immediate quest functions. It all LOOKS great and sounds great but feels, ultimately, just a bit hollow. Probably why Beamdog never got another shot at the series.

#29 - Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire - "The Beast of Winter" (PC) | August 4th | 3/5

All in all this is a decent enough expansion on Pillars 2 that is ultimately just a bit too thin. We don't go super indepth with lore, the new character is fine but not great, the boss battles are cool but basically just two phases of the same fight (Dracoliches are awesome and underused so I will not terribly complain I guess) and its overarching narrative doesn't ever seem to lead to anything lasting in the game. It's a neat side diversion but nothing more. White March this is 100% NOT.

#30 - Alan Wake's American Nightmare (PC) | August 21st | 3/5

Most DLC are truncated and ultimately unsatisfying portions of their main game counterparts and American Nightmare does very little to disprove that notion. The gameplay and looks receive a significant bump but the writing and story are not there to match. Thankfully the AWE expansion for Control is on its way to set things right....

#31 - Control (PC) | August 26th | 5/5

The characters are personable and interesting, the art style is 11/10 amazing and stark with lighting and contrast, the story and world are INCREDIBLY compelling, the random notes and audio logs make complete sense for this setting and are all worth a read and the gameplay is still visually a delight and quick enough to not get too boring.. though I do think I need to switch up styles as fights are becoming a biiiiiit samey. Still great to float around these environments blasting off rockets though...

#32 - Control - The Foundation (PC) | August 28th | 4/5

All in all The Foundation is a decent enough expansion to Control that offers more of what we love even if there's not a whoooole lot of substance to chew on. We get no real conversations with any NPCs other than Emily who just spouts exposition about the story and there's no meaningful move forward in the main plot of the game - nothing more about the Hiss, about Hedron, or about Dylan. Just a little sidetrip to an ancient part of the Bureau and fighting some more red dudes. Damn that 80's movie sidequest though is great hahahaha... On to Alan Wake!

#33 - Control - AWE (PC) | August 29th | 2/5

There's honestly not a ton to say about this DLC and that leaves me pretty meh on it. I've spent a year after finishing Control + Alan Wake being HYPED at the two worlds colliding and our protagonists getting to interact in some way and .... nothing really happens at all? I just complained about this in the Foundation DLC review YESTERDAY but this clearly falls flatly in the 'useless DLC' column story-wise. The devs at Remedy know they can't put anything meaningful in it because otherwise AW2/Ctrl2 players will just be confused as to what the fuck is going on so nothing can really happen! It is great to hear Alan Wake's story ramblings again don't get me wrong but I was really hoping for more from all of this build up.

Ah well. Still fun to pick up desks and hurl them at enemies into walls.

#34 - Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 1+2 Remake (PC) | September 10th | 4/5

Overall there's not a whole ton to say about the game? It's pure mechanics and nostalgia and while the skating always feels pretty good and combos are satisfying to pull off for high scores it's just not the type of game to set my toe a tappin anymore. There's online multiplayer but who do I even know who would join me for it? Randos? No thanks!

#35 - Elder Scrolls 3: Morrowind (PC) | September 15th | 4/5

So yeah, the game mechanics are clunky and it looks ugly and while it has good writing - said writing is DUMPED on you in the most inelegant and awkward way possible that prevents you from actually connecting to a single damn person in this world. The leveling system is weird and requires manipulation to properly function while progress comes in big stops and starts. But past that is a great setting, superb atmosphere as you roam the hills and crags, creative and fantastic art styles for the enemies, characters and locations - a magical place where you always are curious about what else you might find over that next weird hill in the distance..

Probably a mushroom tree and a cliff racer.

#36 - Metal Gear Solid (PC) | October 4th | 4/5

The original MGS, rereleased on PC through GOG! This pairs well with my earlier run throughs of Metal Gear Solid Twin Snakes, Sons of Liberty, and Snake Eater earlier in the year...This is a bit of a difficult review to write - I basically played this game only a few months ago, its remake - Twin Snakes. I do like the voice acting better here but the permanent isometric camera is ehhhhhhhh.

#37 - Dead Space 3 (PC) | October 11th | 3/5

Overall I am glad that my expectations for this game were set QUITE low - I do think it is ultimately a pretty good game, the gameplay is solid (until the bullet-sponge enemies attack you from every angle at the last couple hours...) and the changes to resource management gives an interesting change to the core loop. The atmosphere is really well done for most of the game and is exceptional for small but significant parts of it. The story and characters are... a hot mess I guess, but the ending itself is solid and fine horror trilogy send off for our boy - Isaac Clarke.

#38 - Dusk (PC) | October 19th | 5/5

All in all it was an exciting horror/action shooter which is a genre I'm not often in to but for Spookstober I thought I'd sit down and blitz through the rest of the game. The evolving mood and threat your facing is almost Bloodborne-esque and I love that and each level is soaked with atmosphere. As the game progresses you feel significantly more powerful even as your foes level up as well. There's some bosses but they were all pretty meh but the FEEL of flying through a level fighting off monsters with my dual shotguns never really stayed past its welcome.

#39 - Silent Hill 2 (PC) | October 20th | 5/5

All in all this is an excellent horror game focused more on grief and sorrow rather than monsters going BLAHGHHFHH at you. James' tale and the stories of the other characters are moving and heartbreaking and the dialogue while sometimes a bit stilted is always heartfelt. Even more than 15 years later and already knowing much of the beats of the game I still dearly enjoyed it.

#40 - Paratopic (PC) | October 23rd | 2/5

There are some great parts of Paratopic I don't really want or need to be explained - what was that thing we found in the woods? What do the VCR tapes do, and why are some people able to 'use' them? What greater meaning is there behind the different protagonists? However there's a lot I DO want to know - why is this story told out of order? (we don't know, basically nothing is revealed of any kind of plot or information because of the order) Who even ARE these people? (we learn basically nothing about any of them, or even necessarily that they are different people or how to tell them apart) How did we get here and where do they end up because of what happens in the story? (there is basically no PLOT whatsoever leading these characters from A to B to C. We don't even know who is going where or when!)

Now, is this style of... storytelling... bad? Absolutely not. In a weird way it is very charming and if you go in knowing that none of this will make a damn bit of sense ever then I imagine it would be a fun roller coaster ride. But after playing some damn good horror stuff the past month this kind of weird pointless shit is losing a lot of its charm. If it ever had any.

Seriously though that music.

#41 - The Park (PC) | October 24th | 3/5

So yeah, the game is a literal and figurative spooky theme park for you to walk through and get a neat story told to you and some right proper spooks with a genuinely twisted yet quite open ending. I dig it!

#42 - The Last of Us Part 2 (PS4) | October 31st | 4/5

The follow up to one of my favorite games ever!! It's got a lot of really amazing parts to it, in fact I don't think much of it is really bad... It's just not put together very well. The game is divided between two main protagonist's stories which come together during the climax.... Sounds cool right? Except that you are IN THE MIDDLE of said climax when the stories switch over... and it's nearly 10 hours until you're back to it. You're then moved over to our previous antagonist of (oh hi Abby!) ad we're introduced to the other side of our story - a pity that we already know the fate of all of these people so there's no reason at all to get attached to them! But of course they're not very likeable at all anyway so that's fine... The gameplay is solid stealth/action and the AI is superb. Map transitions are a bit rough and once you get in the swing of things you learn how to skip right past enemies to the "zone breaks" to move onto the story. So yeah - the story. A tale of bitter revenge for a man who doesn't really deserve to be avenged...? There's a nice 'twist' that Ellie KNOWS he's not worth avenging but that makes it all the more bittersweet of a story - she gives up nearly everything good in her life to not even go through with avenging her 'dad'. We get some nice moments to contextualize all of our characters bad decisions. It's a game full of 10/10 moments that just don't come together into a proper cohesive whole.

#43 - Song of Horror - Epi1 Husher Mansion (PC) | November 1st | 3/5

In all Song of Horror Ch.1 is a solid introduction to a horror saga. The puzzles are thematic and not too frustrating, controls a bit wonky but the fixed camera makes it work. So far the story hasn't set the world on fire but the spooks are spooky and the atmosphere is good. Looking forward to finishing the rest of 'em.

#44 - Left 4 Dead 2 - Last Stand (PC) | November 6th | 3/5

The new campaign is called "Last Stand" which is actually a fan conversion of a L4D1 map that never got ported over and includes 2 new maps (which we played) and a variety of new weapons and modes (which we didn't play). It was a nice evening with my friends shooting through some zombies what can I say? The Lighthouse was an interesting map to end things on and I got knocked clear off a tower + ripped up by a witch so it was all good fun at the end of the day. Also they stole Brynne's ending for her one shot by having a beach!!

#45 - Streets of Rage 4 (PC) | November 11th | 4/5

Streets of Rage 4 has a super style to it and while I do think the gameplay is great, some elements of it are not to my preference which held it back a bit. Also I do think there is a bit of dearth to its content - most of its playable characters are old sprites rather than actual new characters + no ng+ + no real stats or progression type system that many newer beat em ups have do detract a BIT from the game. This however is one of the games this year I do wish I could spend more time with... maybe next year!

#46 - Castle Crashers (PC) | November 14th | 5/5

Hello again Castle Crashers! The Beat-Em-Up that started it all! It's a Newgrounds game jumped up to full-size and it is pretty frickin' swell actually. You have a pretty flimsy excuse-plot: our heroes are partying it up in the Kingdom and a pile of monster orcs drop by and kidnap our wonderful princesses and get them back! You....crusade... across the continent fighting a bunch of new enemies, beating them up, and leveling up while taking on more and more bosses in this league of evil! This still might be my favorite of the genre - the speed with which you move around the map, leveling up your new characters (who all have a different spells! Or a bunch do anyway), the amount of unlocks to replay the game for... it's just awesome honestly. It's been nearly a decade since I played through and I felt enchanted all over again! It's a stellar game about beating up dudes over and over and then throwing lightning bolts around with some absolutely sick art and music. There's mutliplayer too but I didn't get around to it this time. A great adventure!

#47 - Mortal Kombat 10 (PC) | November 18th | 3/5

The follow-up to the excellent reboot Mortal Kombat 9 - we pick up 20~odd years later with the world moved on. We got some new characters and a biiiiit of a disappointing follow-up to said excellent story. In 9 we had a retelling of 1-2-3, and now that they're heading into uncharted territory it stumbles here and there. The new cast of youngins stumbles in likeability and there are a fewwwww too many "he's just the young version of this character" but the new blood is appreciated at least. The story seems to spin its wheels a bit - we get our big bad from 1 (....was he though?) taken out but we have a lot of open questions still on what's going on with the revenants... and why is Raiden threatening to kill everyone!! The mechanics remain a solid fighter (I'm not expert but whatever) though some characters seem a lot easier to handle with more to do - but maybe I just played them crappy? It's a pity I didn't get to play with fatalities but there is plenty of brutal blows to scratch that gross Mortal Kombat itch. The game also has a variety of unlockables, single and multiplayer challenges, bur who carrrreeees. I bought MK11 shortly after finishing this so I skipped most of it and just moved onto that. So yeah, solid enough story that might be leading to something better in the future! I plan on sinking my teeth into 11 a bit more so see you in 2021!

#48 - Hades (PC) | November 29th | 5/5

Newest game by Supergiant, the makers of Bastion & Transistor! Two games I loved quite dearly comes another 10/10 from them frankly... they can't just keep getting away with it!! A roguelike game, which I usually hate, that fits its design and story together perfectly and I LOVE IT. You're Zagreus, the son of Hades and you're trying to escape hell - everyone else is real mad about this because it's screwing up the House and Underworld. Why are you going so far... Oh don't worry the game will tell you in due time. Each 'run' of this roguelike slowly peels back layers of excellent writing, both plot and characters. You're slowly working your way up the chain to get out of hell and with each failure you make just a bit of progress, or get a new conversation, that really keeps you going. Other reviews will mention that they were EXCITED to lose each run and I definitely didn't feel that but I only quit a couple times because I was just getting tired of minimal progress, and it usually wasn't too long until a new run came along to buoy me back up. So yeah story though - greattttt! Zagreus is immensely likeable and sympathetic and the more NPCs you interact with the more you see their perspective's on why they're not thrilled with Zag for his crusade. The ending is a biiiiit too saccharine I think but the main conflict between Zag and Hades is pretty great! It's a damn well-told story and maybe I don't hate roguelikes anymore...? Nah, they still suck.

#49 - Among Us (PC) | December 11th | 4/5

Ohhhh hey! A silly hidden identity game that has nearly taken over the world! I've been a pretty big fan of the genre in board games for a few years now and this is the first video game I've seen take advantage hidden identity mechanics and it seems it has been a huge hit for much of 2020 (though it came out to no fanfare in 2018) that I had ignored until only recently. You play as a crew of some alien species that has been invaded by another alien species, the imposters, who slowly kill off the crew from trying to repair their ship and heading home. Over time you 'vote' after finding dead bodies left by the killers and our normal players attempt to deduce who is doing the murders while the imposters are trying to throw the regular players off the scent. This leads to some fun moments of scrambling as a caught-red-handed-murderer attempts to push all the blame on their recent accuser despite munching on a body mere seconds ago. I played several dozen matches over discord with some internet friends and that definitely seems the best way to play it - playing anything with internet randos sounds like a nightmare, especially a game like this with forced social elements like trying to work together to piece evidence for a good accusation. The artstyle of the game is minimal but it works quite well as a small indie project and the music is ambient and understated - pretty much exactly what you want out of an 'alien' simulator. Among Us is a solid time with friends during a pandemic where you can't really go out and I certainly enjoyed my time with it though I don't think I'll have much desire to return in the far future, I am certain it will be outdone by something else soon enough.

#50 - Persona 5: Royal (PS4) | December 23rd | 4/5

Overall, this game is a fuckin' doozy. There's so much character and style to everything you do, yet like everything that is 100% style they forget the substance in a few too many places. There's no quiet and moving stories here, only bombast and drama. It's a game about freedom and forging your own path against a world that will often get in your way and it succeeds with flying colors in that regard - I just wish it remembered the heart that 3 and 4 were built on.

#51 - Cthulhu Saves Christmas (PC) | December 26th | 4/5

It's the most wonderful time of the year! Cthulhu returns from Zeboyd games and he's going to save Christmas! Mostly because like the last game (which is actually a sequel to this one, chronologically) Cthulhu has his powers stolen by the bad guys and works with his new crew of misfits to fight through quick JRPG-style battles to get them back. In this new game obviously everything is winter themed and you fight with Copyright Appropriate companions save Santa - new in this version is R'hylationship system which means you get to hang out your party members and get neat items at the end of each hangout. The characters and writing are all pretty top-notch in what they're trying to be - witty one liners and 4th wall breaks. The game is only 6~10 hours so even by the time you might be tired of the humor the game knows itself well enough to wrap things up nicely. I do wish the Rhylationships were a little more indepth/codified, at no point do you actually know how far along in that character's story you are, nor are you aware ahead of time what you're actually getting out it (other than the name, which will at least tell you who the item is for). Outside the days you're hanging out with pals in Christmas town you go to track down the various members of the league of evil in their lairs. These lairs are all pretty cut-and-dry, while they all look quite good and with some snazzy music, they are pretty standard JRPG treks through maps while fighting "Random" encounters with basically nothing other than spare treasure chests to grab until you get to the boss. I don't think Cthulhu Saves Christmas does anything exceptional, however it does everything it WANTS to do pretty damn adeptly - the jokes are funny, the writing is cute when it's not being funny, the combat system is a solid evolution of quick turnbased battles, and the length is just right for the price and the premise. A damn solid use of my time and reminds me I really need to give Zeboyd's other games a proper shot.

#52 - Age of Mythology: Extended Edition (PC) | December 28th | 3/5

My first RTS game on my 52 game challenge... This one I did not play the campaign with, though one is available, as my girlfriend only wanted to play a bunch of multiplayer games with me. Age of Mythology is pretty clearly in the Starcraft/Warcraft vein of the mid-90s of RTS and it sticks to it by the numbers. You choose your civilization and as you advance through to the different ages your units and buildings upgrade, then you build some armies and beat up the other guys base. Pretty damn standard, right? Yes, with one very cool twist - TITANS!! Many games use the word 'titan', some use them well (I don't think I'll ever forget my first titan sighting in EVE Online) and some do not (Destiny I'm looking at you) and AoM is very much in the former - as your civ ascends to the very top of its height it may summon a single Titan unit - each has a different one, and the two I summoned were from Hades and Gaia. Hades brought forth Cerberus, a three-headed dog-man who stood 10 times the height of every other unit who emerges from a portal to the hells. These titans then stomp across the entire map (you can even see your enemies titan, because they're so huge!!) and are next to impossible to kill. From a balance standpoint I'm sure it's a nightmare but from a game feature pov? I fuckin' loved it. While I do see why my girlfriend is so fond of the series it does feel a little too by-the-numbers as I mentioned so I don't think I'd ever choose the classic RTS like C&C or Warcraft over this one. I had plenty of fun with it though watching my girlfriends titan flatten my town :D

BPHusker · Dec 28, 2020

47. Streets Of Rage 4 (Xbox One) | 12/28/2020 - 4 hrs | 3/5
I loved playing the old
Streets of Rage and was excited to play 4. By the time I got to Stage 6, I wanted it to be over. While the graphics and music were great, I HATED the gameplay. How you don't have any continues in the Arcase/Story mode is a joke. The AI was so damn cheap that I had to create a public game to beat it. Without another person, I was dying before the final boss even with 3 extra lives.

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Optional Objectives · Dec 29, 2020

No. 71 - Blind Men - 2/5

I suppose that Blind Men follows through on its premise - it only goes through the first mission in the life of a young supervillain and its aftermath. I think the disappointing thing is how insubstantial that turns out to be. There are few choices to be made in that first mission, and only a few paths extend the runtime by a couple minutes or so. That lack of substance extends to the endings - at best, they're somewhat unsatisying conclusions to a first or second chapter. There's some flirtation, but none of it is particularly hot, so that doesn't add much substance. The writers don't seem to quite be able to stick the landing in between cheesy and explicit, and so just about everything defaults to the former. All that and it doesn't quite do enough to justify the hackneyed use of KGB and GI Joe counterspies. Save yourself the time and watch a single episode of the Venture Bros., instead.

No. 72 - Shadowrun Returns - 4/5

The best part of Shadowrun Returns is how much Shadowrun is in here. The story and gameplay are straight out of the old TTRPG, right down to cameos from prominent characters. The writing strikes the right world-weary tone, the character options are fun - I played a Dwarf Rigger - and there's a solid option to stick it to the shitty lieutenant who gets in your way at the end. All that and dialog and choice options right for role-playing, even if they're not too consequential for the story. All in all, a faithful adaptation of one of my favorite old RPGs.

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Tizoc · Dec 29, 2020

145. Zero Gunner 2-

A port of Zero Gunner 2. Being a Psikyo game, it is a shoot'em-up where you control a helicopter blowing stuff up and wracking up score.
The copter you control can move around but fires in a fixed position, with the game having a button dedicated to letting you rotate the helicopter to change the direction that the turret is firing in.
On the one hand, it feels like a game that would work better as a twin stick shooter, to which I agree, as you'll want to have the copter's turret aiming at a certain angle at times to damage some enemies.
Visuals wise...well it looks like a PSOne game, even though it released on Dreamcast :V The models are smooth and clean, but it is a product of its time.
All in all I quite enjoyed it though having the first Zero Gunner game available would be nice too.

Snowfruit · Dec 29, 2020

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Final update for the year, don't think I'm finishing anything else.

Hopefully next year I'm better at keeping up with updates instead of cramming a bunch of them at once. Was doing pretty good this year until all the Covid stress hit.
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38. Guilty Gear XX Accent Core Plus R (PC) 5 hours - Nov 4
Old game got rollback added on the PC version so I jumped in. Finished story with some characters and played some matches online. It was fun for a bit but I'm too used to Xrd to unlearn all that muscle memory to really get into it.

39. Astro's Playroom (PS5) 6 hours - Nov 14
Best launch pack-in game ever. Hope they make a full game out of this, it's a Nintendo-quality platformer.

40. The Legend of Heroes: Trails from Zero (PC) 32 hours - Nov 19
So many years of waiting for this to get a translation and thanks to the awesome lads at Geofront, I finally got to make my way into Crossbell. Lloyd and the SSS crew were instantly loveable and I felt the sense of adventure return from Trails in the Sky that I was lacking from the Cold Steel series. Combat is nothing too special, better than Sky for sure but I'm too used to the Cold Steel quickness to bother with this game's slow animations so I just set it to easy to get through it quicker. I'm glad the game didn't end in a cliffhanger like almost everything else in the series does so I can play the next one after a break.

I've had Cold Steel 3 since launch but I didn't want to play it yet without playing Zero and Ao so it has remained sealed for over a year. Only one more to go now.

41. Taiko no Tatsujin: Drum Session! (PS4) 4 hours - Nov 24
Tried the game out on my PS5 with some DLC songs I hadn't played before and... I think I still prefer the Dualshock 4 for this, the d-pad on the Dual Sense doesn't feel great for this.

42. Demon's Souls (PS5) 47 hours - Nov 28
First time playing through this since I didn't have the PS3 version. It's obviously really beautiful but keeps all the stuff that feels dated about the game as well. I know they wanted to be faithful but I wish they streamlined some stuff like tendency and other annoying things like that. Probably my least favorite in the series but I still enjoyed my time and got the platinum trophy.

43. Sayonara Wild Hearts (Switch) 3 hours - Dec 3
This game kept spicing itself up anytime I had a complaint. Anytime I would even get slightly bored, it would introduce a new gameplay mechanic or way to play that kept it interesting all the way through. The great soundtrack and visuals were also a treat to experience.

44. Superliminal (Switch) 3 hours - Dec 7
Pretty cool puzzle game with a neat gameplay mechanic. Wish I had played it on PC though because you have to aim your cursor really precisely sometimes and that was kinda annoying on the Switch.

45. Marvel's Spider-Man (PS4) 30 hours - Dec 14
Finally got around to playing this. My sister gifted it to me last year but I decided to wait to play it on PS5 since I still had a base PS4 and not a Pro. Little did I know they were gonna remaster it.. still decided to play the PS4 version anyways since I already had it. This has to be my favorite version of Peter Parker ever, Yuri Lowenthal absolutely killed it. The stealth sections got tiresome after a bit but besides that, excellent game. Still have to do the DLC but I'll get back to it after a break from all the swinging.

46. Haven (PC) 10 hours - Dec 15
Almost dropped this game in the first hour by how slow it starts. Stuck with it and didn't regret it, fell in love with the characters and the world. Didn't care much for the gameplay though, felt lost way too often and like I was fighting the controls anytime I was gliding. It also seems more suited for couples to play together in co-op. It's not bad when solo but it didn't seem like the ideal way to play.

47. Among Us (PC) 3 hours - Dec 18
Finally checked this out with a few friends. I had watched people play it for hours before so it wasn't really all that exciting when you know how to play and all the ins and outs on your first time. None of the streamers I watch really play it anymore so maybe by the time the new map comes out I can jump in again and it'll feel fresh.

48. Final Fantasy XIV: Shadowbringers | Futures Rewritten (PC) 12 hours - Dec 19
This chapter felt like filler mostly, just setting up stuff for the Shadowbringers finale and lead-in to the next expansion. I really liked the new dungeon at least.

49. Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War (PS5) 7 hours - Dec 20
I haven't really played Call of Duty since Black Ops 3 but with a new console launch, I kinda just had to. Nice to see I still have the muscle memory in me as I'm going crazy with matches that end up like 40 kills /10 deaths.

50. Genshin Impact: Unreconciled Stars (PC) 50 hours - Dec 21
The first major update to this game was massive. Brought along dozens of hours of new story content that nicely wrapped up the Liyue region.

51. Green (Mobile) 3 hours - Dec 23
Puzzle game where you just go through levels moving or tapping random stuff until you figure it out. Has some great feelings when you figure out a tough puzzle on your own, but then really annoying when you're stuck and have to sit through an ad to get a hint.

52. Assemble (Mobile) 3 hours - Dec 23
Random game I tried out on Apple arcade when I had free time. It's a pretty cool puzzle game where you play as a lady who fixes stuff for people. I was more into it for the puzzles but the voice acting in the story sections kept me engaged enough.

53. Harry Potter: Hogwarts Mystery (Mobile) 30 hours - Dec 24
I was into the story and character interactions but this game could be good if only the monetization model wasn't stuck in the 2000s. It has you stop playing since everything costs energy that you have to wait until it refreshes or pay money to do it instantly. Guess I'll just have to wait for the console game for the ideal Hogwarts student experience.

BPHusker · Dec 29, 2020

48. Castlevania (PS4) | 12/29/2020 - 4 hrs | 3.5/5
I finally went back to play through the Castlevania Collection that came out a few years ago on PS4. This is the original. I remember playing this a friend's in the early 90s but never beat it. Man was it hard, but rewarding. The music is classic!

49. Castlevania: The Adventure (PS4) | 12/29/2020 - 2 hrs | 2.5/5
This was the first portable version of Castlevania that was on the Game Boy. The best thing about this game was the music as the graphics and gameplay was BAD. There are no weapons and you lose your whip power ups when you get hit - the levels were extremely droning and long. I had to use save states to get through it as some of the bosses were so cheap.

50. Castlevania II: Belmont's Revenge (PS4) | 12/29/2020 - 2.5 hrs | 2/5
The second of the GB Castlevanias. This one is a big improvement graphics and gameplay wise having added weapons. The levels are much more manageable, but the bosses are seriously some of the worst / cheapest I have fought in a game. I had to save use save states it seems like every move against the last two bosses. I don't know how anyone beat this on a real Game Boy as the cheapness is insane.

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Tizoc · Dec 29, 2020

Closing 2020 with 145 games completed~ a decent number overall. I already got a plan for what to play during 2021, which would include fangames.

Estizzle · Dec 30, 2020

Main Post

#51 - New Super Lucky's Tale (PC) - 3.5/5 - 9h46m
This was an unexpectedly fun game. When I started it I thought it would just be a complete and move on kind of thing, but by the end of the game I'd had a lot of fun! I ended up getting 100% on every level and doing all the post-game content. The variety of the worlds was greatly appreciated. The main levels were mostly good to great with a few earlier levels not quite matching that quality. There was a nice mixture of 3D and 2D levels, and even a few autorunner levels which were interesting.

I have a few gripes, though. It was *extremely* easy which was a bit disappointing since there wasn't any optional content that felt much harder. I ended the game with over 80 lives stockpiled. The optional content ranged from pretty good to "please let me move on this is so boring." I had some *serious* frame issues when getting hit, it dropped from an otherwise smooth 60 to single-digit FPS.

That being said, I did really enjoy my overall time, and I want to come back to finish all the achievements and unlock the rest of the costumes.

#52 - Astro's Playroom (PS5) - 4/5 - 2h40m
I was really wanting this to be #52. Only issue was actually getting a PS5 so I could play it (thank you 5:30AM Target restock)! Definitely a very charming game, especially for a pack-in title.

I enjoyed nearly every moment of this game. All of the level themes were cool to explore, the game showcased the DualSense's capabilities really well, and it was honestly just a ton of fun. I think the only thing I didn't enjoy was the

jungle monkey suit controls,

but even that wasn't too bad. Honestly, my biggest complaint is game length! I sort of wish it'd been longer, but it's understandable especially for a pack-in. Plus I can always go back and 100% it!

Great fun and I'm absolutely stoked for this to be my 52nd, and likely final, completion of the year.

Malverde · Dec 30, 2020

Congrats to everyone who made it. I have officially made it too! Still only counting games that released in 2020. This is totally the last time I try this madness for a while, there are too many old games I want to play now. Still have Age of Calamity and Raji as games I am still playing. I may finish Raji by the end of the day today or tomorrow but no way in hell do I finish Age of Calamity.

45. Murder by Numbers (NSW) | November | 2/5
After almost 40 hours playing this game, completing every puzzle (including the optional ones) I can confidently say I do not very much like picross style puzzles. By about the half way point I was honestly sick of the puzzles and only slogged my way through them because of the story. Each case grants access to more story but only if you get an "S rank" which means I had to play through without using the "solve this puzzle for me" assists that I totally would have used if they weren't gating that content. This in turn caused me to resent the game more because I hate the puzzles. I probably should have just gotten over it and looked up the bonus story stuff on youtube but I just sort of got stuck in a sunk cost fallacy since I have already pumped more than 20 hours into this game.

As you can see, it took me a minute to beat this game, and there were a lot of breaks in between. I got this game at launch (in March) and did not finish it until November. The story is what kept me going. The characters are all wonderful as is the design of the characters. There is a 5/5 visual novel here, it is just unfortunately hidden behind hours of picross puzzles.

46. South of the Circle (iOS) | December | 5/5
A narrative driven game that puts a spin on dialogue choices. This love story set during the cold war is completely brought to life through some amazing voice acting that helps bring the minimalist art style to life. Dialogue choices are selected based on emotions so you are never quite sure exactly what you are going to say, but I got a shaky grasp on it by the end of it. By the end of the experience I'm sure some people will be frustrated with the choice system but I loved what they did with it.

47. The Pathless (iOS) | December | 2/5
Feels like a cross between Shadow of the Colossus and Breath of the Wild, with an awesome soundtrack to boot. There is fun to be had with the boss fights and the puzzles, much less in navigating the open world. The lack of a map makes traversal way more frustrating than it needs to be. You are able to use a radar vision to ping the interactive points on a map, the problem is everything glows yellow so I have no way of knowing if it is a puzzle that will let me progress or just a collectable that I have zero interest in collecting. The story itself was trite, feeling whole derivative and lacking any kind of originality or voice of its own. And speaking of voices, I actually laughed during the credits when I saw that the only two voice actors were Laura Bailey and Troy Baker. Come on, do better.

48. Battletoads (Xbox) | December | 5/5
Played through the whole thing in coop. The story and characters are all obnoxious as hell in the most charming way. Absolutely love the art style and over the top cartoon nature of the whole thing. The game is much much tougher than the visuals would suggest. It is way tougher than the bright cartoon graphics would suggest with my brother and I dying many a time before finally reaching the end. We really enjoyed all of the variety present in the game, you are never doing the same thing for very long but as someone with eclectic taste I loved the constant genre changes.

49. When the Past Was Around (PC) | November | 4/5
Absolutely gorgeous art style with some light and fun point and click puzzle goodness. Nothing particularly deep, profound, or surprising with the story but it is beautiful none the less.

50. Ikenfell (Xbox) | December | 5/5
Love the story, soundtrack, and characters. This game does a wonderful job at world building and is not shy about being completely queer. The protagonists are wonderfully developed and the story kept me engaged the whole way through. The tap-timing based combat can be frustrating at times but every once in a while I would fumble terribly and be forced to use items which I never do in these types of games so that is huge plus.

51. Cloudpunk (NSW) | December | 5/5
Played this on the Switch, and the performance is more than a little rough, with some terrible draw distances, occasional frame rate drops, and the soundtrack disappearing. That said, it is still a really really fun game to play through. You don't see open world's as well realized as this without any combat, so kudos for sticking to that. Looking at footage of this game running on the other consoles/PC is like looking at a completely different game, and yet I still really enjoyed my experience on Switch playing it exclusively in handheld mode, knocking out a few deliveries here and there. The art direction is great and the protagonist Rania does a great job of keeping the player engaged with her dialogue as she is out and about making deliveries.

52. Across the Grooves (PC) | December | 5/5
An incredibly engrossing visual novel about a record that lets you travel through time. The game completely sucked me immediately and I was constantly eager to learn more of the mystery that was set up. Plenty of choices to make along the way with some great tunes to boot. Plus the visuals are top notch, with each image a wonderful work of art.

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Memory Pak · Dec 30, 2020

Splitting the last batch of write-ups over two posts, crammed a few more in to clear the plate for next year. Manifold Garden is the stand-out of these three, definitely getting a place on my GOTY list.

80. Manifold Garden (2020, Switch) ★★★★☆
Last year's surrealist first-person puzzle game Manifold Garden arrived on consoles this year. Glad it did, too, because this was a refreshing experience. You move through a series of fractal, non-Euclidian structures which appear to infinitely repeat themselves in all directions. Your interactions with the world have you flipping the world around, meaning you can easily walk on walls or ceilings by making them your new floor. Fall off a ledge somewhere? No worries, since the world repeats itself endlessly you're actually encouraged to take shortcuts by flinging yourself into the void. If you ever placed portals on the floor and ceiling in Portal and then fell down an endless well, you'll know the thrill of seeing the world zoom by at high speed.
The hypnotic and gorgeous surroundings, coupled with an excellent score of both serene and ominous synths lend the world a mysterious feeling. Progressing by solving a puzzle is manifestly rewarding, and the game is great about wordlessly teaching its mechanics and subsequently making you feel clever for paying attention. My one minor gripe is how you can end up stuck on a puzzle if you don't understand what to do, and since many of them gate progression off, you'll just sit there stumped trying to make it through trial and error (or following a video guide).
Overall though a very polished and striking game, highly recommended to fans of Monument Valley or M.C. Escher.

81. When The Past Was Around (2020, Switch) ★★★☆☆
Short point & click adventure from Indonesian developers, about Eda and her (musical) partner (depicted here as an Owl). Mostly notable for a gorgeous animation style and soothing music (wish the loops were longer, though), since the puzzles aren't very noteworthy. The story seems poised to go for the jugular and really break your heart, and there's a standout sequence where you're tearing a room apart in search of a vital item. But it's both too short and arrives too late to really be affecting. Ultimately feels like the game pulls its narrative punches, although I could see this resonating more with others. Recommended to people who liked Florence, but wished it had puzzles. I'm just not quite the audience for this.

82. Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity (2020, Switch) ★★★☆☆
While at times a convincing facsimile of Breath of the Wild, I'm ultimately very mixed on this pseudo-prequel. Despite essentially being a beat-'em-up, the combat itself is curiously frivolous. Impacts feel light, and while the movesets are ostensibly varied you tend to default to similar attack patterns across characters regardless. It's not stylish enough outside the canned animations to impress after initial surprises wear off, nor crunchy enough to feel like you're really mowing dudes down by the masses.
Another aspect I thoroughly dislike is the story conceit: essentially this is an Elseworlds "what if" alternate timeline, a throwaway fanfiction episode at best which feels incongruous with the marketing, and undercuts the impact of character interactions and cut-scenes this very game is lovingly rendering. This works to the game's detriment: I love the portrayal of Princess Zelda in this game, she has an actual arc, and several all-time great moments. But they're rendered moot because the story does not dare to swing for the proverbial Rogue One fences one might expect for a prequel.
Where it does succeed story-wise is its theming: Age of Calamity further plays up the nature vs. technology theme present in Nintendo's 2017 opus, and while it takes a while to get going, does bring it to the forefront. Hyrule Warriors 2 also nails the visual style, with environments, animations, cut-scenes, and even menus appearing nigh-indistinguishable from its source material. Unfortunately this care does not extend to the soundtrack, which sounds like a set of remixes better suited for Smash Bros. or perhaps a Zelda themed Mario Kart course at best. Overall a mixed bag I wanted to love, but only barely like outside of cut-scenes. Three stars for now, but just barely.

Wozzer · Dec 30, 2020

Another bunch join the first post Hall of FameTM;

Almost at the end of the year now, with the new thread to go up in the coming days!

BPHusker · Dec 30, 2020

51. Castlevania II: Simon's Quest (PS4) | 12/30/2020 - 4 hrs | 3/5
It's interesting that they went completely away from stages in this one. It feels like Zelda 2 in that they changed it up. I thought it was interesting, but I wasn't a fan of the constant back and forth and and glad I used to guide to find the completely crazy hidden areas, such as the tornado. I'm glad they went back to the classic formula for the final game of the NES trilogy.

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InquisitorAles · Dec 30, 2020

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21. Little Farm - 8 hours
A surprisingly decent and fun little game from 2008, too bad it supports only 800x600 resolution.

chrominance · Dec 30, 2020

This is probably as good a time as any to post my final update:

Took me longer than I hoped to get to 52 games, but I made it! I still have a bunch of games in progress but I'm probably not going to be able to finish any before the end of the year so they'll go into the list for next year.

I've noticed over the past few months that the challenge is once again beginning to affect the kinds of games I play, which I don't think is ideal. I don't really want to have to shy away from longer games or games without a defined ending just for the sake of the challenge. Games like Hades, which I haven't gone back to in a while, and Persona 5 Royal, which I haven't even started until today, are victims of this mentality. I also don't really want to spend time away from games that I want to keep playing (hello Minecraft) just to make sure I make my quota for the month or whatever.

So I'll probably stick to my original goal of 26 games and try not to worry so much about maintaining a particular pace or even making that goal. It might also mean relaxing my standards for what constitutes a "completed" game. For example, I've finished several seasons in WRC 9; do I need to have finished or won a WRC 1 season before I can consider that game done for the list? Maybe not.

Anyways, time for some stats:

Total hours played: 1023:28, which is slightly under last year's total of 1096 hours.
Top 10 games by playtime (including post-completion):

Minecraft - 105:01 (and counting)
Tom Clancy's The Division 2: Warlords of New York - 91:13
Fallout 76 - 72:09
Horizon: Zero Dawn - 65:58
Final Fantasy VII Remake - 44:12
13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim - 40:17
Yakuza 3 - 35:48
The Last of Us Part II - 34:18
Yakuza: Like a Dragon - 28:21 (and counting, incomplete)
Picross S - 27:21

Goals for next year: Claim my post before the first page in the new challenge thread is done, goddammit

now if you'll excuse me I'm going to play some Minecraft

JudgmentJay · Dec 30, 2020

I finished my 53rd game this evening... I wasn't sure I was going to finish 52, but I managed to squeeze in one extra! Highlights of the year for me were Demon's Souls, Hades, and 13 Sentinels. Pretty great year for video games.

1. Ori and the Blind Forest (PC) | 6hrs | 9/10
2. DOOM 2016 (PC) | 16hrs | 9/10
3. The Surge (PC) | 23hrs | 7/10
4. Bioshock 2 Remastered (PC) | 12hrs | 6/10
5. Resident Evil 0 (PC) | 12hrs | 6.5/10
6. A Hat in Time (PC) | 10hrs | 8/10
7. Dark Souls: Remastered (PC) | 11.5hrs | 10/10
8. Disco Elysium (PC) | 29hrs | 9/10
9. Hollow Knight (PC) | 62.5hrs | 10/10
10. Black Mesa (PC) | 15hrs | 7.5/10
11. Ori and the Will of the Wisps (PC) | 15.5hrs | 9.5/10
12. Rain World (PC) | 26hrs | 8.5/10
13. DOOM Eternal (PC) | 19hrs | 8.5/10
14. Dark Souls II: Scholar of the First Sin (PC) | 25.5hrs | 6/10
15. Resident Evil 3 2020 (PC) | 9hrs | 8.5/10
16. Final Fantasy VII Remake (PS4) | 44hrs | 7.5/10
17. Dark Souls III (PC) | 20hrs | 10/10
18. Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice (PC) | 15hrs | 10/10
19. Yooka-Laylee and the Impossible Lair (PC) | 12hrs | 8/10
20. The Talos Principle (PC) | 27hrs | 8/10
21. Metroid Prime 2: Echoes (PC emulation) | 18.5hrs | 7/10
22. Observation (PC) | 6hrs | 6/10
23. Mario Kart 8 (PC emulation) | 4.5hrs | 9/10
24. Super Mario Galaxy (PC emulation) | 15hrs | 9.5/10
25. Journey (PC) | 1.5hrs | 7.5/10
26. The Last of Us Part II (PS4) | 34hrs | 8/10
27. World of Warcraft Classic (PC) | 267hrs | 9/10
28. Outer Wilds (PC) | 26hrs | 8.5/10
29. Titanfall 2 (PC) | 5.5hrs | 6/10
30. Death Stranding (PC) | 55hrs | 7.5/10
31. Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout (PC) | 6hrs | 7.5/10
32. Steamworld Dig: A Fistful of Dirt (PC) | 4.5hrs | 7/10
33. Super Mario Galaxy 2 (PC emulation) | 15hrs | 9/10
34. Legend of Mana (PC emulation) | 12hrs | 6/10
35. No One Lives Under the Lighthouse (PC) | 2hrs | 6/10
36. Shadow of the Colossus (PS4) | 4.5hrs | 8.5/10
37. Silent Hill 4: The Room (PC) | 9hrs | 6/10
38. 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim (PS4) | 33.5hrs | 9/10
39. Maid of Sker (PC) | 5.5hrs | 6.5/10
40. Dead Space (PC) | 12.5hrs | 9/10
41. Amnesia: Rebirth (PC) | 10hrs | 6/10
42. Hades (PC) | 95hrs | 9.5/10
43. The Outer Worlds (PC) | 22hrs | 7/10
44. What the Golf? (PC) | 5.5hrs | 6.5/10
45. Untitled Goose Game (PC) | 2.5hrs | 7/10
46. Astro's Playroom (PS5) | 4hrs | 9/10
47. Bugsnax (PS5) | 6hrs | 5/10
48. Ghost of Tsushima (PS5) | 51.5hrs | 8/10
49. Control (PC) | 31hrs | 7.5/10
50. Sayonara Wild Hearts (PC) | 1hr | 7/10
51. Demon's Souls (PS5) | 84.5hrs | 9.5/10
52. Sackboy: A Big Adventure (PS5) | 9hrs | 6/10
53. The Surge 2 (PC) | 21hrs | 7/10

Some fun stats:

1331.5 hours played (An increase of 208 hours compared to 2019)
39 new games completed, 14 were replays
2 games dropped (Kentucky Route Zero, Final Fantasy XIV)
5 games played via emulation
6 games with 100% completion
7.7 average game score
Platform breakdown: 45 PC, 4 PS4, 4 PS5
Most played game by hours: World of Warcraft Classic (267 hours)
Most played game by number of complete playthroughs: Demon's Souls (7 playthroughs)

Palomitero · Dec 31, 2020

Dec update

Main post here

Last update of the years, let's go!

50- The Pathless -8h- 4/5

Big surprise here, the game looks good but didn't expect the gameplay to be this fun.

Exploration with original and fresh mechanics, a bit of light puzzling and KINO final bosses at the end of each stage. Beautiful small open world with many little things to do.

In short, must play game this year imo, gets at my top10 at least.

6c266cb03573e976289728f7206b10809b83a23f.gifv

51- ANNO Mutationem(DEMO) -1h- N/A

This is, in fact, a short demo released the week we had the game awards.

Really promising cyberpunk game with great pixelart. I like'd what I saw.

52- Star Renegades -4/5 -15h

Another big surprise this year, decided to try it because and got really hooked for a week.

Rogue like with jrpg turn based combat, but with many nice mechanics attached. The combat system is quite deep and you get hooked when you get the hang of it and understand how the crit mechanic works.

The first few runs are hard, and you don't have a lot of characters for the party to choose, you unlock them with points you get every run.

On a side note, I enjoyed the OST a lot, with some great tracks.

Overall great experience, finally give the last spot at the top10 to this game leaving Hades behind.

Personal TOP 10 2020

Amazing year of gaming for closing the gen, despite things like the pandemic and cyberpunk apocalypse.

And with this closing another year thread challenge, this year was a close one tho. Thanks to the OP and to all for posting, it's fun reading people opinion, see you at the new thread!

BPHusker · Dec 31, 2020

52. Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse (PS4) | 12/31/2020 - 4 hrs | 4/5
I'm so happy they went back to the classic formula. I was not a fan of Simon's Quest. While this was really hard, the gameplay was very good. The music and graphics were amazing for the NES. Highly recommended!

I thought I was going to come up short, but I got through under the wire. This is quite the achievement since I seem to always add games to the backlog and don't finish them. Thanks to the OP for making this thread and for all participants as it was fun to read all the comments on the games they beat.

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Chas Hodges · Dec 31, 2020

At the buzzer I've managed to beat 104 games. The equivalent of two a week.

It's unlikely I'll ever hit this total again, so I'm reveling in the achievement today!

Some stats:

~791 hours played total

Completions by platform:

31 Switch
26 PC
14 PS4
11 Vita
3 PSVR
3 Evercade
3 XBLIG
2 Mobile
2 Gameboy
2 NES
1 Saturn
1 OG Xbox
1 Dreamcast
1 Arcade
1 Xbox 360
1 3DS
1 GBA

Baybob · Dec 31, 2020

Update #2

Well, I kind of forgot abut this until it was to late, So I ended up only beating 29 games this year, shame. here are the majority of the games I played.

4. Steamworld Dig (Switch) | 10th Jan - 4hrs | 3/5
I should of played dig 1 before dig 2, I think I would of enjoyed the first one more and been more impressed with what the second one improved upon. As the game stands it had a fun story and setting, and ok gameplay but nothing blew me out of the water.

5. Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice (PC) | 11th Jan - 7.5hrs | 4/5
An immersive experience overall, I found the puzzles to be just ok and the combat to be passable, but the story, audiovisual design, and soundscape blew me out of the water. was really worth my time going through.

6. Ys VIII: Lacrimosa of Dana (Switch) | 17th Jan - 47hrs | 5/5
The music! The combat! The sense of exploration! I adored Ys VIII for all those reasons and more, what a fun adventure and story to play thru. I still go back to listen to some of the music now at the end of the year and it brings back fond memories of the game. Cant wait to play the previous Ys's and the upcoming Ys IX.

7. The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel (PC) | 8th Feb - 75hrs | 4/5
My first kiseki game and wow I had a great time! The music put a smile on my face, it was fun learning about the geopolitical situations and the gameplay was enjoyable and just the right difficulty. My largest gripe I have is that you couldn't have all the bonding moments in the game. I can't wait to explore the world falcom has created more!

8. Old Man's Journey (Switch) | 28th Mar - 1hr | 3.5/5
A short but sweet game, with a touching story. Nothing amazing standout-ish about it though.

9. Bomb Chicken (Switch) | 2nd Apr - 4.5hrs | 3.5/5
Quite a fun puzzler with a charming premise and simple but enjoyable puzzles.

10. Bayonetta 2 (Switch) | 4th Apr - 9hrs | 4.5/5
Bayonetta 2 Was just what I wanted out of a sequel. More Bayonetta! I appreciate that it was slightly easier then bayonetta 1 and plan on going back to it in the future to improve my scores.

11. Katamari Damacy Reroll (Switch) | 6th Apr - 4.5hrs | 5/5
An absolute joy! The music is so good, the gameplay novel but simple and addictive. Absolutely one of my favorite games this year and somewhere on my top 20. simply marvelous.

12. KUNAI (Switch) | 11th Apr - 7.5hrs | 3.5/5
KUNAI is a fun but unremarkable metroidvania with one exception, its art-style is brilliant! oh and it sucks that

I missed something on the airship and could not get it after it crashed. understandable but annoying.

otherwise a good but not great game.

13. Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE Encore (Switch) | 19th Apr - 47.5hrs | 4/5
I had a blast exploring shibuya and forming bonds with the companions you have. Some people have problems with Itsuki having no personality but I didn't find it too annoying, but I wouldn't have minded him having more of a personality. Otherwise the combat was very enjoyable, the music something different to what I am used to which I appreciate. The animated cutscenes were also very fun.

14. Donut County (Switch) | 20th Apr - 2hrs | 3.5/5
Donut County was the perfect length, long enough to explore its mechanics, and short enough not to overstay its welcome. Its end credits were also very well done!

Wow Look at the gap! I was super busy during the summer and read books instead of playing games. finished 41 of those this year!

15. VVVVVV (Switch) | 19th Sep - 2.5hrs | 3.5/5
I wish I would of played this sooner! The checkpoint system really made this game making it a joy to traverse not having to worry to much about dying because you were never too far from one.

16. Spyro the Dragon (Switch) | 26th Sep - 6hrs | 4/5
First time playthrough and wow, I am amazed that this came out 1998. the mechanics still hold up. What a fun 3d platformer. I look forward to the other two with anticipation.

17. Xenoblade Chronicles: Definitive Edition (Switch) | 8th Nov - 54hrs | 4.5/5
What a ride! The story fully delivered in spades. I love games where they make you feel small and this one does so even more then Xenoblade 2. The music also is beautiful and captivating. While it didn't overtake the second one in my Xenoblade series ranking it came close, and that is all I could ask for.

18. Tetris Effect (Xbox Series X) | 11th Nov - 2.5hrs | 5/5 - Gamepass
I have played a bit of tetris here and there, but have never dived deep and played a whole bunch. Well after I went through the audio visual experience of Tetris Effect I got hooked. I now have over 50 hours in the game and still play a few 40 line clear every few days.

19. Astro's Playroom (PS5) | 12th Nov - 4hrs | 5/5
My first playstation game ever and my first platinum as well! What an introduction. Astro's Playroom introduced me to the playstation world brimming with charm and style. The platforming, While easy was very fun and made more immersive with the dualsense. While I may not have caught all the Easter eggs, it was still fun looking at the references and knowing that there were great games out there to discover.

20. Darksiders III (Xbox Series X) | 14th Nov - 13.5hrs | 3/5 - Gamepass
Not a bad game, just not exceptional. darksiders 3 was fine but the combat did not click for me as it did with the first game and I missed the zelda like puzzles of the first games as well. I am glad the game exists, I just wish the original team could have made this game instead.

21. New Super Lucky's Tale (Xbox Series X) | 15th Nov - 6.5hrs | 4/5 - Gamepass
New Super Lucky's Tale may be baby's first 3d platformer, but it still provided a fun relaxing way to end the day. It just hit me at the right place and time of the year.

22. Bugsnax (PS5) | 16th Nov - 12hrs | 3.5/5
The Grumpuses make Bugsnax what it is. Relatable characters, a entertaining story and a novel take on monster capturing tie up Bugsnax in a pretty little package, one that I am unlikely to forget.

23. The Gardens Between (Xbox Series X) | 18th Nov - 2.5hrs | 4/5 - Gamepass
The gardens between present a simple puzzle structure that is fun to explore and makes for enjoyable puzzles that are not to hard to solve. The theming of remembering the good times you have had with your friend before they move away hits home for me and has me remembering the good times with my childhood friends as well.

24. Fractured Minds (Xbox Series X) |19th Nov - .5hr | 3/5 - Gamepass
An unremarkable experience that did not hit home for me, but didn't offend me either.

25. What Remains of Edith Finch (Xbox Series X) | 20th Nov - 2hrs | 4.5/5 - Gamepass
I had watched several YouTube videos on this game previously to playing it but the story still gripped me and took me on a wild ride. The fish factory especially hit home for me with the repetitiveness of a job and living in your own imagination. (in my case listening to audiobooks while working).

26. Carto (Xbox Series X) | 23rd Nov - 5.5hrs | 4/5 - Gamepass
The map editing ability of this little girl put a smile on my face. as did the story. It was nice to have a goal of reuniting with your grandma and not having a big bad, or almost any opposition in your way besides the puzzles.

27. The Pathless (PS5) | 24th Nov - 6hrs | 5/5
Abzu, Gris, FAR: Lone Sails ect. I am a sucker for these kinds of games and The Pathless hits a home run. The music is immersive and enthralling, the movement feels oh so good, and the story kept me going all the way home.

28. Lonely Mountains: Downhill (Xbox Series X) | 17th Dec - 5.5hrs | 4.5/5 - Gamepass
Such a relaxing fun time. Its nice to have a game that feels that it doesn't really need much of a soundtrack to create an auditorial experience. Riding a bike downhill was gripping and it was so very enjoyable finding shortcuts and trying and failing at them but then finally getting them. will be back for more.

29. Immortals Fenyx Rising (Xbox Series X) | 26th Dec - 31hrs | 4/5
I enjoyed the first half of the game more then the second half of it, But it still ended up being very fun, and interesting. I was dyeing for another Botw like experience and while Immortals Fenyx Rising did not hit all of the marks of Botw, it was enjoyable nonetheless and I hope Ubisoft keep trying with it and make it a series.

Fun stats!
Avg time: 15hrs
Longest time: Xenoblade Chronicles 54hrs
Total time: 442 hrs, not including ongoing games and uncompleted games.

Favorite games I played this year in no particular order

- Katamari Damacy Reroll
- Tetris Effect
- The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel
- Xenoblade Chronicles: Definitive Edition
- Ys Viii Lacrimosa of Dana
- The Pathless
- Carto
- Bayonetta 2
- Lonely Mountains: Downhill
- Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE Encore

I hope I do better next year!

MRYEAH · Dec 31, 2020

Congratulations to all who completed the challenge.
I will not reach the goal for the second year I'm just a participant trophy winner this year and what a year it was.

Memory Pak · Dec 31, 2020

Time to punch out for the year. Thanks for running the thread Wozzer , and everyone who participated! I loved reading people's opinions throughout the year. Hope to participate again next year.
My own numbers are quite padded due to an abundance of short games. Here's three longer/endless games which were in daily/weekly rotation for a while. Will probably continue Animal Crossing and Hades, but I'm counting them now.

83. Hades (2020, Switch) ★★★★★
Believe the hype. Got nothing to add you haven't heard/read yet, but this is my game of the year.

84. GRID Autosport (2019, Switch) ★★★★☆
Very fully-featured port of this late 2014 Codemasters Xbox 360/PS3 racing game done by Feral Interactive. Easily the best "realistic visuals" I've ever seen on Switch. With convincing sound effects, crisp renditions of famous tracks like the Yas Marina circuit, slick menus and voice-overs, GRID Auto nails the entire presentation with aplomb. The racing itself is decent too, and there's heaps of content in five categories (Touring, Open Wheel, Endurance, Tuner, Street) which further subdivide into different racing events (time trials, drifting, regular races, etc.), occurring on a wealth of circuits. In addition you can tweak a bevy of settings, and create a custom difficulty mode, or just leave it all as-is and have a decent time.
That said, despite all the options I could never find a perfect sweet spot for the A.I. difficulty: I would either overtake everyone from last place in a single lap, or struggle to finish 11th out of 16. A middle ground would have been nice. The A.I. is also quite aggressive at times which you can't tweak.
Another downside of the game is the sheer length of its campaign: just to make the final tournament you're looking at 30-40 hours of racing across all categories. Personally I got really tired of the Tuner class because drifting tournaments take forever, and the Endurance class has a real dearth of event variety too. But guess what? You can't finish the campaign before reaching level 9 in every discipline! I would have preferred to reach a total amount of experience, and just do more Formula 2 events to grind out points. Good game to play in short daily bursts over several months, though, and probably the best non-arcade racer on the system.

85. Animal Crossing: New Horizons (2020, Switch) ★★★★☆
Landing smack-dab in the middle of an emerging global pandemic and the first weeks of global lockdowns, Animal Crossing absolutely dominated games discourse for a month or two. It was never really on my radar before, and I'll fully admit I bought into the hype here. New Horizons' offering of the daily tedium which was suddenly impossible felt like a cathartic way to uphold a (virtual) daily routine.
There's lots to critique of course: the user interface slows everything to a crawl, crafting is kind of a chore, and the game constantly wastes your time (why is there even a title screen here? Just boot us right into the town!). The online mode takes forever to get going, and once you're there your possibilities for multiplayer activities are very limited. There's thousands of items, but they mostly serve as doll house set dressing, rather than offering meaningful interactions.
Most disappointing of all is the lack of depth of your villagers, who draw from a shared dialogue pool per personality type. Sometimes they'll comment on nearby items, maybe they'll give you a nickname or ask for your preferred music. You can't really play games or make music with them in a group setting, let alone invite them to your house. And yet I've grown to care for some of these critters. I've got a fun mix with the arrogant Rodney (he's my fave) living next to the upperclassy Diana, while Al sits on their porch talking to bugs.
Animal Crossing is very much what you make of it. It's up to you to get invested, decide your daily routine, shape the island, or schedule playtime with friends. Historically, that's not the type of game I gravitate towards. But hype be damned, this game hooked me. I don't know if AC:NH will ever fully transcend its moment in time for me, but while I occasionally drop it for a month, I'm always glad when I return to see my virtual buddies eating sandwiches or talking about vaporwave. It might not be my game of the year, but it's one of those quintessential 2020 releases alongside Among Us, Fall Guys and Phasmaphobia.

Illusionary · Dec 31, 2020

My final update for 2020 and I've reached 99 games - I was going to try to push that to 100, but I've been somewhat pre-occupied today and lost the momentum to quite make it. Still, that's a record for me by some distance, so I'm still pleased. Bring on 2021!

Master post here.

93. Bugsnax (PS5) | 2 December 2020
Platinum trophy earned. Well, I wouldn't have tried this at launch were it not for its inclusion in PlayStation Plus, but Bugsnax turns out to be a charmingly unique experience. Landing players on Snaktooth Island in search of the missing explorer Elizabert Megafig, the game's primary mechanic sees you searching out and capturing the various snack-styled fauna, dubbed "bugsnax" - often a puzzle in itself, as you try to work out what combination of tools and wider stimuli will render a bugsnax open for capture - in response to requests from other members of Elizabert's party. Of course, there's a fair amount of exploration beyond that, as many of the bugsnax are entirely optional, and the game even manages to fit in a few boss fights and a meaningful story.

94. Mom Hid My Game! (Switch) | 3 December 2020
All 50 stages complete. A short and fairly simple puzzle game, but entertaining enough for a hour or so, Mom Hid My Game! presents a series of increasingly bizarre scenarios in which a Japanese child's mother has hidden his 3DS-styled gaming system. With each stage being solvable with a handful of taps, its clear that the game has its origins on mobile phones, but that's not necessarily a bid thing as it makes it very easy to pick up and play a handful of levels. The lack of complexity limits its potential to excel, but there's a certain charm that makes Mom Hid My Game! a worthwhile experience.

95. Spider-Man: Miles Morales (PS5) | 18 December 2020
Platinum trophy earned. Spider-Man: Miles Morales is a great showpiece for the PS5, continuing with the fantastic freedom of exploration and fast-paced combat of its PS4 prequel while introducing an expanded range of abilities with Miles' electricity-based "venom" powers. While it can be sped through in a matter of 3-4 hours if you ignore the side-content, the main storyline is well-written and heartfelt, creating a real sense of empathy with Miles and the other primary characters with whom he interacts. The depiction of New York City is also worth a mention, here being seen with winter and the run-up to Christmas in full effect, and the PS5 allows it to feel alive with NPCs; even if interaction with most is very limited, as you swing between the skyscrapers you'll frequently find words of praise, awe - and occasional derision - from the citizenry, while the handful of side missions are enjoyably low-key, emphasising Miles' closeness with those who matter most to him. Overall, a really great experience.

96. TSIOQUE (Steam) | 18 December 2020
100% of achievements unlock. TSIOQUE is a somewhat dark point-and-click puzzle adventure, but at the same time adorably charming with its focus on a young princess, imprisoned by an evil wizard who has taken over her castle home. While clearly a somewhat stereotypical premise, it's well-used, with a nice range of immediately-recognisable areas to explore. The puzzles are fairly straightforward, with difficulty at times being more about locating the necessary items for their solution than actually using them in the right way - ultimately, it's quite standard fare on that front. However, the expressive personality of the princess as she seeks her escape does serve to elevate the game somewhat, and at just 2-3 hours in total TSIOQUE is fun to blast through for an evening.

97. Horace (Switch) | 25 December 2020
Complete playthrough. A well-made 2D platforming adventure following the 'life' of the titular sentient robot, Horace's highlight has to be its profound story, at turns touching. amusing and surreal. While platforming is the primary gameplay mechanic, often built around a gravity-manipulation mechanic and eventually becoming 'Metroidvania'-like with collectible upgrades and hidden secrets, occasional minigames and other side activities mix it up, often to good effect.

However, what drags the game down significantly is an absolutely punishing level of difficulty, which doesn't feel well-placed here and is especially frustrating when combined with the free-form exploration of some of the game's later chapters - it's simply not fun to navigate through difficult challenges repeatedly upon finding that a given direction isn't fruitful at the time. The game's story justifies its length, stretching across 22 chapters that will likely take somewhere in the region of 10-15 hours to play through, but in gameplay terms I'd gladly have seen it cut down to half that.

98. Call of the Sea (Xbox One - Game Pass) | 26 December 2020
100% of achievements unlocked (1,000G). Call of the Sea is an immersive, story-rich first-person puzzle game, following a woman seeking her husband's missing exhibition on a strange island. I'll admit in opening that the Lovecraft-esque themes that the game explores aren't particularly too my liking, but what's here is well-done, with a story log filling out as you find various books, photos and story-relevant objects - some simply there for the plot, others there to support puzzle solutions. Technically the game is well-made, with the island's beauty clearly on show, alongside impressively atmospheric music. Overall, though, I didn't find the game to be as enjoyable as I'd hoped, primarily due to the puzzle design - while there's nothing objectively wrong with it, it leans towards observation-based solutions, which I don't find as compelling as the arguably more thoughtful, environmental manipulation and logic-based approaches seen in the likes of Portal or, more recently, Superliminal.

99. Nintendo Badge Arcade (3DS) | 28 December 2020
Level 99 achieved (5,000 badges collected). An unexpected late contributor to my games beaten this year, I've been playing this mini-game for a few minutes most days for a good while and finally reached the level cap - while it's mainly been in pursuit of the elusive last couple of Zelda badges, there remains something compulsive about completing each badge set, which I've done almost entirely without micro-transaction payment (I paid on one single occasion, for access to the accompanying theme which I'm still using to this day). As a game, Badge Arcade is naturally limited in what it offers, but the wide variety of designs/layouts for each catcher keeps things somewhat interesting - an easy 'time-waster' for a couple of minutes daily!

hamsterstyle · Dec 31, 2020

My 2020 list:

1. Chasm (PC) | Jan 07 - 15hrs |

2. Wario Land 2 (Game Boy Color) | Jan 31 - 8hrs |

3. Dead Cells (PC) | Feb 14 - 66hrs |

4. Ghouls'n Ghosts (Arcade, Genesis, Supergrafx) | Feb 18 - 4hrs |

5. Made in Wario (Game Boy Advance) | Feb 25 - 4hrs |

6. Blasphemous (PC) | Apr 05 - 24hrs |

7. A Robot Named Fight (PC) | Apr 06 - 10hrs |

8. Gato Roboto (PC) | Apr 09 - 4hrs |

9. Neutopia (Turbografx—16) | Apr 20 - 8hrs |

10. Keith Courage in Alpha Zones (Turbografx-16) | Apr 22 - 2hrs |

11. Golvellius: Valley of Doom (Sega Master System) | Apr 24 - 7hrs |

12. Adventures of Bertram Fiddle: Episode 1: A Dreadly Business (PC) | May 06 - 2hrs |

13. Island Saver (PC) | May 30 - 9hrs |

14. Sparkle 2 (PC) | Jun 11 - 5hrs |

15. Timespinner (PC) | Jul 11 - 14hrs |

16. Soda Dungeon (PC) | Jul 21 - ~8hrs (370hrs idling) |

17. Sundered: Eldritch Edition (PC) | Jul 30 - 20hrs |

18. Frog Fractions (PC) | Aug 04 - 1hrs |

19. Faxanadu (NES) | Aug 16 - 8hrs |

20. Rogue Legacy (PC) | Aug 28 - 17hrs |

21. Creature in the Well (PC) | Aug 31 - 8hrs |

22. Commander Keen 1: Marooned on Mars (PC) | Sep 14 - 2hrs |

23. The Little Acre (PC) | Sep 22 - 2hrs |

24. Crystal Caves (PC) | Sep 29 - 8hrs |

25. Kid Icarus (NES) | Oct 03 - 5hrs |

26. Rise & Shine (PC) | Oct 04 - 4hrs |

27. Year Walk (PC) | Oct 06 - 4hrs |

28. Tail 'Gator (Game Boy) | Oct 10 - 2hrs |

29. John Romero's Sigil (PC) | Oct 12 - 3hrs |

30. Gigantic Army (PC) | Oct 18 - 4hrs |

31. Little Nightmares (PC) | Oct 18 - 5hrs |

32. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Fall of the Foot Clan (Game Boy) | Oct 19 - 1hrs |

33. Castle in the Darkness (PC) | Oct 27 - 14hrs |

34. Undertale (PC) | Oct 31 - 17hrs |

35. Cratermaze (Turbografx-16) | Nov 02 - 2hrs |

36. Batman (Game Boy) | Nov 05 - 2hrs |

37. Bionic Commando (NES) | Nov 08 - 2hrs |

38. One Troll Army (PC) | Nov 13 - 5hrs |

39. Rex: Another Island (PC) | Nov 18 - 2hrs |

40. The Floor is Jelly (PC) | Nov 24 - 2hrs |

41. Offspring Fling! (PC) | Nov 25 - 3hrs |

42. Another World (PC) | Nov 26 - 2hrs |

43. macdows 95 (PC) | Nov 26 - 3hrs |

44. Dreaming Sarah (PC) | Nov 27 - 3hrs |

45. Spirits of Xanadu (PC) | Nov 27 - 3hrs |

46. Grim Legends: The Forsaken Bride (PC) | Nov 28 - 3hrs |

47. Knytt (PC) | Nov 29 - 2hrs |

48. NightSky (PC) | Nov 30 - 4hrs |

49. Ikachan (PC) | Dec 01 - 1hrs |

50. Knytt Stories (PC) | Dec 03 - 6hrs |

51. Sparkle Unlimited (PC) | Dec 04 - 11hrs |

52. Shadow Blade: Reload (PC) | Dec 05 - 4hrs |

53. Hargrave (PC) | Dec 07 - 3hrs |

54. Oozi: Earth Adventure (PC) | Dec 11 - 5hrs |

55. Adventure in the Tower of Flight (PC) | Dec 13 - 4hrs |

56. Jets'n'Guns Gold (PC) | Dec 16 - 10hrs |

57. Ballpoint Universe: Infinite (PC) | Dec 17 - 4hrs |

58. NyxQuest (PC) | Dec 19 - 4hrs |

Sorry for the lack of thoughts about the individual games! A few random notes to post along with the list, though:

- Dead Cells and Rogue Legacy are still a whole lot of fun to play - there's been a lot of push-back against procedural content generation over the last few years, but with a good loop and a smart strategy for generating levels, games like these keep the idea of crafty algorithms building endless game levels exciting for me.
- Old nemeses make for big victories - Finishing Ghouls'n Ghosts was particularly great, being one of those childhood games I'd never been able to complete. I ended up playing through most of the major ports as well, and still have been giving a random one of them a run-through every other month or so. One of the best things about this challenge for me is how it can be just the right motivation to clean up old skeletons.
- Blasphemous might not be at the very top of the Metroidvania pile, but the game's beauty is something I'm still thinking about at the other end of the year. Heavily inspired by Spanish Catholicism, it immerses the player in that imagery in a way I don't think I'd have sought out on my own, and gave much more of an appreciation for the art and music of a time so entangled with general suffering.
- On the topic of suffering, Spelunky 2 exists. It's probably my favourite game of the year, but it's not on this list.
- 2020 has definitely had its fair share of great games, but nostalgia seemed especially comfortable this year:
- 1990 was a heck of a year for games
- The Turbografx was grossly underrated at the time
- Frog Fractions is still a weird, worthwhile trip a decade later
- Wario's time will come again
- An earlier start on this in 2021 is probably way more fun than the average new year resolution

CrazyAznKT · Dec 31, 2020

Final Post of the year!

Main Post

53. Kingdom Hearts: Melody of Memory (PS4) | 13th Dec - 22hrs | 4/5

I have an intense love for the Kingdom Hearts series, and I also fully recognize how inpenetrable it is to newcomers. More than any other game in the series, I cannot recommend this game to anyone less than a hardcore fan. Even for people who enjoy music games, this game plays more oddly than you would be used to. Despite all that, I had an insane amount of fun revisiting most of the iconic music from throughout the series (there's a distinct lack of bops from KH3 and KH3:ReMind). The fact that this game amounts to 20 minutes of story progression is hilarious to me and contributes to my continued love of the franchise.

54. Yakuza 3 Remasted (PS4) | 15th Dec - 64hrs | 4/5

Despite Yakuza 3 being the most dated game in the series I could possibly play, I had a lot of fun with it! I also see why they haven't remade it yet since it has an all new town now present in the modern engine. There were also numerous small surprises I got from this game that I will refrain from listing. Sayama's absence from this game is really weird. The story ended up being a bit of a slog but I really enjoy seeing Kiryu be a dad throughout this game.

55. PaRappa The Rapper 2 Remastered (PS4) | 16th Dec - 2hrs | 4/5

Short palette cleanser, yet another music game. I've been putting this off for a while but PaRappa is such a delightful series! I really enjoyed the more focused plot this time around.

56. DmC: Devil May Cry Definitive Edition (PS4) | 17th Dec - 8hrs | 3/5

And then I go and ruin my palette. My opinion of this game has gone back and forth over the years, but I do recognize all the interesting things this game does and I see how it can be some people's favorite in the series. I enjoy combat and weapon for the most part but after a while the game throws a bunch of enemies at you that are just annoying to fight. Also I wish the characters would just shut up.

57. River City Girls (Switch) | 18th Dec - 8hrs | 5/5

This game is a blast! I'm glad I got to end my completions this year on a high note because River City Girls is bursting at the seams with personality. On normal, I found the game challenging enough. I was fun figuring out the attack patterns for each boss. I loved the art direction and music and animation, just a fantastic game. I really want more from this spinoff series.

The Bear · Dec 31, 2020

I really tried this year, but I couldn't even crack 30 :(.

Well, better luck in '21 then!

Burnburn · Dec 31, 2020

Last day of the year, seems like I'm ending it on 19 this year!

17. AI: The Somnium Files (PC - December 18th - 25 hours - 7.5/10)

After the big disappointment that was Zero Time Dilemma, I took a break from Uchikoshi's games. I had noticed that I had grown a bit bitter at the fact that it seems like he's been reusing twists for a long time now. But this month I decided to try my hand at AI: The Somnium Files and I have to say I was pleasantly surprised by it all things considering. What I loved the most was that the big twist was right there in front of you, but it didn't take until the twist for it to all fit it place. Even though this time it's borrowing things from Remember 11, I feel like it was much more a twist on instead of just literally reusing the same twist. The characters itself were a bit hit or miss for me, where I really enjoyed some and really disliked some others (which you are meant to like). I also really hated the amount of innuendos thrown in the game. It just distracted me from the experience that when you were looking around a room, trying to get a bit of flavour and world-building it just ended up being innuendo after innuendo. All in all the twist really saved it for me, I was okay on it before the twist.

18. Going Under (PC - December 27th - 18 hours - 7/10)

A fun, charming and stylish rogue-lite. Coming from Hades I had a bit of a hard time playing it at first, but that's more of a sign of how great and fluid Hades was. I really liked the structure of the game where you're not redoing the same floors over and over but there's a few "dungeons" to complete. As I've been an intern not that long ago and rolled into the IT world 2 years ago the story subject really spoke to me. I've been through some of the same stuff and thought it was handled well and with a good sense of humor. It served as a good reminder that even though your work environment might be toxic, your collegaes don't need to be.

19. Sea of Thieves (PC - December 31th - 10 hours - 6/10)

I'm honestly not too sure if this game has an ending or not. I don't think it has (in the traditional sense) so I'm going to add it to the list anyway! I've been having fun playing this with friends, but it became boring quick to me. A lot of the same kinds of quest that just become more cumbersome as you gain more affinity to a faction. I've still had a good time though because of my friends and I messing around, but I'm already getting bored by it quite quickly. I do have to say that I've had the most fun when a random event pops up and you really have to work together with the crew to not let the ship sink. I hope things might get a little more fun the more I play and I'm definitely going to give it some more time to prove itself, but for now I think it'll be out of the playing rotation soon.

Main post

Chrixter · Dec 31, 2020

Another challenge completed, my sixth consecutive.

9.03m
Black Mesa
Bleed
Bleed 2
Castle Rock Beach, West Australia
Command & Conquer
Command & Conquer: Red Alert
Command & Conquer: Red Alert - Counterstrike
Command & Conquer: Red Alert - The Aftermath
Command & Conquer: Red Alert 2
Command & Conquer: Red Alert 2 - Yuri's Revenge
Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3
Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3 - Uprising
Desperados III
Desperados III: Money for the Vultures
Devolverland Expo
Doom Eternal
F-Zero GX
Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout
The Flood
Florence
GoldenEye 007
Hades
Helltaker
Kids
Kinoko
The Last of Us Part II
Marvel's Spider-Man: Miles Morales
Murder by Numbers
My Friend is a Raven
Mýrdalssandur, Iceland
A New Life
Ori and the Will of the Wisps
The Pedestrian
Perfect Dark
Perfect Vermin
Plug & Play
Rainy Season
Resident Evil 3 (2020)
Ruff Night at the Gallery
Sega Ages Out Run
Shadow Blade
Shadow of the Ninja
Sonic Generations
Sonic Mania
Star Fox 64
A Summer's End - Hong Kong 1986
The Super 1-1 Challenge
Super Mario World
Super Mario All-Stars - Super Mario Bros.
Super Mario All-Stars - Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels
Super Mario All-Stars - Super Mario Bros. 2
Super Mario All-Stars - Super Mario Bros. 3
Super Mario 3D All-Stars - Super Mario 64
Super Mario 3D All-Stars - Super Mario Sunshine
Super Mario 3D All-Stars - Super Mario Galaxy
Super Mario Bros. 35
Super Mario Kart
Super Mario Maker 2
Super Smash Bros. Melee
Super Smash Bros. Ultimate
SuperStar SMTown
The Supper
Tukoni
Wakamarina Valley, New Zealand

Deleted member 16876 · Dec 31, 2020

01. Street Fighter X Tekken
I don't know why but I always find myself replaying this game every year. As a single player game it is a blast and being on the Vita helps a lot.
02. Death Stranding
I really enjoyed this game. I beat it early this year and it was an excellent ride from start to finish. It had issues like the story being uneven and the dialogue being overly long. Those issues didn't ruin the game for me though as the gameplay in this game is one of the best out there. It is a unique game all about walking and doing fetch quest. It might sound simple but the gameplay is very deep so each mission is really enjoyable due to how the sandbox intertwines with it. Another aspect I loved is everything about Mads Mikkelsen's character. The story's bad parts were worth it due to this. Also those music segments that play every once in a while are lovely.
03. UNDER NIGHT IN-BIRTH Exe:Late[st]
Another fighter I always replay each year. It is also on the Vita so I always end up going back to it because of the smooth and excellent gameplay. Shouts out to the excellent music.
04. Doom 4
I replayed this game to get ready for Doom Eternal. I don't even know what to say about that others haven't said. It was a blast.
05. Doom Eternal
Bigger and better Doom 4. I really enjoyed the gameplay loop in this. Unlike 4, I found this to be more challenging which is awesome. The level design, new demons and other additions were great. The music as expected was great. If I had to say something negative about it, it would be how bad the story was. Going full fantasy hurt the game and made it feel way less interesting compared to 4.
06. Resident Evil 3 Remake
I was extremely disappointed with this one. I was happy the game was getting a remake. The game seemed to have addressed a lot of the complaints people had in REmake 2 like the missing enemies and stuff like that. We heard the game would be more radical in it's design and that was exciting as it made it seem like they will do something new for the series. The demo hit and we saw that the downtown map had cool additions like shortcuts and stuff like that so I thought they were going to go the bloodborne route where you have a big city to explore.

Now imagine my sadness and disappointed when the game got leaked a few days before release and we learned that the game didn't do anything like we expected. The game was instead a more linear, less interesting game than the original and it barely remade anything. It felt like the devs didn't care or play the OG game but read a wikipedia summery. I was really disappointed to say the least.

On it's own, the game is fun. A bit overpriced for what it is but it could have been fine if they made it an original game. Jill and the characters were great, so was the combat. But as a remake? It fails so much. It should have been an Ada escape game as that would fit the pacing way more than this. Instead of this they should have made a next gen ambitious RE3 remake.
07. Saints Row The Third
I replayed this game after getting the itch. I still feel that Saints Row 2 is way better but this game is fun too. The game's short length was good for a quick fun play through.
08. Doom'93
What do I say about this? It is Doom and Doom is great. It has not aged a day and is still the perfect game it was.
09. Tekken 5
I got nostalgic for this game and the simple days when I first played it. It is still a great game even if the newer game kinda made it obsolete.
10. Parasite Eve
This game really needs a re release or remake. The story and atmosphere are still as good as they were back in the day. The combat was fun but I did have issues with the walking speed in the game. It made everything slower than needed. With that said, I felt like the walking speed were good at the last boss fight. That boss fight and chase are still some of the most intense sequences ever.
11. Sakura Wars
Sakura Wars made it's glorious return and I loved it. The new characters were awesome and really fun to interact with. They did a really good job with them. Same goes to the graphics and awesome music it had. If I had to be negative, I feel like the final chapter or two were not as good. Those chapters are when the story goes full "drama" and that's the worst part. I liked the more carefree parts in the beginning as those were more focused on the characters. I also feel the combat could have been done better even though it is not a big part of the game.
12. Terminator Resistance
This is Terminator 3 in my book. The story was an awesome ending to the Terminator saga. It felt more like Terminator compared to everything else after Terminator 2. Gameplay wise it is not something special. It is fun enough but not the best out there. Regardless, I still enjoyed this game to replay it two times. That's how good it is. I am excited to replay it once again on PS5 when I get one.
13. Call of Juarez Gunslinger
This game never gets old. It is a more arcadey fps take on the COJ series and it is honestly the best one. From the story to the gameplay. It should get a sequel.
14. Streets of Rage 4
Another Sega series that returned after a long time. I wasn't sure it could be a worthy SOR game but I am glad I was wrong. After thinking about it I felt like this game is the best in the series. That's how good it was. It had the music, it had the awesome combat, it had the awesome visuals and provided a lot of nostalgia fan service to people who played the series years ago AND it also evolved the series. Awesome game all around.
15. Streets of Rage Remake
After beating 4 I decided to replay this to compare. It is still as good as it was. I enjoyed it a lot but I didn't like some of the additions like the snipers and stuff like that.
16. Final Fantasy VII Remake
I got this game after I fell for the hype. It has awesome gameplay, great music remixes and I love the graphics. With that said, I don't know if I will ever replay it. It is bloated to hell and back. What's worse is the level design which was restricted by last gen so they had to design those awful "walk slowly while the game loads" sections that made it even more of a slog.
17. Daytona USA
Awesome music, blue skies, loud cars. What more do you want?
18. Life Is Strange: Before the Storm
I replayed this with a friend. I really liked Chloe and Amber's relationship. I also enjoyed the DnD sections and the characters you play with. It was a really sad game knowing what happens later on.
19. Ghost of Tsushima
I was extremely hyped for this game and it surpassed my expectations. It doesn't really have a lot of new open world stuff but the game's content are so good that you just don't care. It was a blast and looked awesome. I loved the story and characters (Jin and the badass ladies in particular). Great MP mode as well.
20. Resident Evil 4
This game is perfect. Every time I replay it I fall in love again. I lost count how many times I replayed it.
21. Call Of Duty Modern Warfare 2 Remastered
I wanted something that I can just go into and shoot stuff. I was playing Deadly Premonition 2 before playing this but that game just made me want something actually enjoyable to play. I still have issues with how "propaganda" friendly this series is.
22. Deadly Premoniton 2
So yeah, I got a switch for this game only to be disappointed. In fact I wish this game was never made. That's how disappointed this game was. The game was a mess and much worse than the first game even though they could have improved on it. The first game has tons of issues but at the end of the day that game was still good. This one though? It was bland and boring. Whatever good moments it has, it has double as much worse moments that ruin the game. It also didn't help swery's writing was really transphobic and offensive (he tried to "fix it" after the launch but he dug a bigger hole when he started doubling down). It made me lose respect for Swery after this.
23. The Ninja Saviors Return of the Warriors
I never played this game before but the remake was awesome. It looks amazing and has a really fun combat.
24. Resident Evil 5
I got nostalgic to this game even though I dislike it. Halfway through I remembered why. It was a slog to go through compared to 4.
25. Windjammers
Windjammers is one of those sport games everyone needs to play. It is awesome.
26. Yakuza 5
I took a lot of breaks with this game. First time I went through it I loved it. Second time though? I realized how much of a slog the story was. Still, it is a really fun game aside from the story.
27. Call of Duty 4 Modern Warfare
Since I replayed MW2 I decided to replay this to refresh. It is still fun but I hate the way it portrays iraqi people. I know the game is apparently anti war game but it sure doesn't feel like it. Oh well, at least it tried, unlike MW4...
28. Assassin's Creed Bloodlines
I played this years ago PSP and got nostalgic for it. It was a nice short game but the gameplay hasn't aged as well.
29. 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim
My GOTY for this year. It was awesome and pretty much flawless. I loved the story and the music, the artwork is one of the best ever, so are the characters. The reason it is not flawless is some of the sexualization the game has. It barely has them but I wish it didn't have them to begin with.
30. Mafia Definitive Edition
This is how you do a worthy remake. Unlike REmake 3... Pretty much everything is back and improved. Especially the story which is even better written compared to the first game.
31. Outrun 2 SP
Just like Daytona, another game I replay each year due to how awesome it is.
32. Sleeping Dogs
I liked this game a lot even on a replay but I can't lie and say it didn't feel weird playing as a cop in hong kong. If this came out today it would be really problematic so maybe it is a good thing it is no longer a series.
33. Mafia 2
Mafia 1 remake made me feel like playing more Mafia. Played the original version and while not as good as it used to be, I liked it over all.
34. Streets of Kamurocho
Got this free on steam. It is more like a rom hack tbh.
35. GTA2
First GTA I ever played as a kid. I wish Rockstar would do a rerelease with QOL improvements.
36. Golden Axed
Fuck Sega for what they pulled with this. Game had potential.
37. Super Smash Bros Ultimate
Unlocked everything.
38. Red Dead Redemption Undead Nightmare
Got the itch to play something on Halloween. This mod is still great but that cliffhanger still makes me mad.
39. The Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time
One of the best games ever made. That ending still gives me chills.
40. Resident Evil 2 Remake
I went on another run. This game is great but I wish the G young were replaced by big spiders.
41. Saints Row 4
Still had some itch for more Saints 3 so I replayed this. The christmas dlc is still awesome.
42. GTA San Andreas
I keep going back and forth wether this is the best GTA or not. I say it is. I love it.
43. Far Cry 4
Had a save I started but never finished. Finally completed it.
44. GTA 3
This was released on the Vita so I decided to try it out. Ended up completing it. Awesome game and aged surprisingly well.
45. Uncharted Drake's Fortune
I needed something linear after all the open world games I played. This scratched the itch really well and that twist near the end is still awesome.
46. Mafia III
My Mafia fever didn't end so I played this. Lincoln deserves more credit as one of the best characters ever. He is one badass motherfucker.
47. Resident Evil 2 '98
Another replay of one of the best RE games ever. I like it more than the remake.
48. Ridge Racer 2
Ended up completing it out of nowhere. I wish it would get rereleased with remastered graphics. One of the best racers on the PSP.
49. Dreams
I never did play the campaign of dreams so I played it. It was an awesome 3 hours. This campaign alone is more than worth the whole game.
50. Mortal Kombat X
I decided to complete the campaign myself. I watched it before but never finished. NR needs to return to the conquest mode from Deception. Free roaming the MK universe was awesome.
51. Uncharted 4: A Thief's End
Got more itch for more Uncharted so I replayed this one. The game is still too long for it's own good. It is a good game that could use some trim.
52. Resident Evil 3 Nemesis
I replay this every year many times. Best RE game and a blast to replay due to how dynamic it is. I wish it would get a worthy remake.

I was going to play more games on PS3 like Ico and Yakuza Dead Souls. Infact I was halfway through until I couldn't find the USB cable. I guess they go on next year's list.

Bastion · Dec 31, 2020

Wow. My all time high as far as total games beaten. I played and beat so many big games this year. My greatest game year of all time by far. Here are my totals by platform:

PC-32
PS5-3
PS4-27
PSVR-9
Xbox One-7
Xbox 360-17
Switch-12
3DS-4
DS-3
Vita-1
PSP-2
PS2-1
PS1-1
GBA-1

Platform of the year-PS4/PSVR

2020 Game of the Year-Last of Us 2
Any Game I Played Game of the Year-Last of Us 2

Game 1-Persona 4 Arena(2012)-Xbox 360-Beaten on January 2
-I continue my Persona 3/4 marathon that started in November. I loved the story mode of this game! I do wish it was one cohesive story instead of forcing us to go through all he different characters to get the full story. Looking forward to Ultimax! 9/10

Game 2-Persona 3 FES The Answer-(2008)-PS2-Beaten on January 6
-I once again, am continuing my Persona 3/4 game playthrough. This time is is the epilogue to Persona 3. This was ok and pretty much a dungeon crawl with some story beats throughout. Without Gameshark codes, I would have never beaten it as it's hard. 7/10

Game 3-Kentucky Route Zero Act I(2013)-PC via GPD Win-Beaten on January 11
-Since Act 5 is coming later this month, I decided to finally start this game I have been meaning to play for years. I really liked the low key graphics and sound effects but, I don't really understand what was going on and found it boring overall. I will continue the series however. 5/10

Game 4-Persona 4 Arena Ultimax(2013)-Xbox 360-Beaten on January 12
-I loved this game and the story flowed a lot better than the first Arena. Great game if you like Persona 3 and 4. 10/10

Game 5-Kentucky Route Zero Act II(2013)PC via GPD Win-Beaten on January 13
-I still don't know what to think of this game. It got all these positive reviews for story and I just find it kinda of boring. Love the graphics and sound though. 5/10

Game 6-Kentucky Route Zero Act III(2014)-PC via GPD Win-Beaten on January 13
-I continue to dislike this game. Just don't see the point. I did like the song that was song in the bar. Otherwise I couldn't wait for this episode to end. 4/10

Game 7-Kentucky Route Zero Act IV(2016)-PC via GPD Win-Beaten on January 14
-Worst episode yet. I have no idea what is going on and frankly I don't care. I am playing it because I bought but no longer look forward to episode five. Honestly,, the only game I have ever played that I could wait for it to be over. The game is well made but the story is so boring and goes no where. 3/10

Game 8-To the Moon(2012)-Switch-Beaten on January 17
-I have been moved by movies and cried many times over the years, but I have never come close to crying by playing a video game. I'm not sure what it is. Same thing with scary movies and games. Games don't scare me. That all changed today when completing this game. I didn't cry but I felt emotion welling. Very touching. 10/10

Game 9-To the Moon Sigcorp Minisode 1(2013)PC vis GPD Win-Beaten on January 17
-This was a half hour long minisode that takes place after To the Moon. It was fine but nowhere near the main game. I don't really see the point of it. Maybe it will make sense in the second minisode. 6/10

Game 10-Bonfire(2019)-PSVR-Beaten on January 17
-This was a wonderful, short little VR game experience that I highly recommend. It's over in under half an hour but it's a good time. 8/10

Game 11-To the Moon Sigcorp Minisode 2(2015)-PC via GPD Win-Beaten on January 18
-I enjoyed this short Minisode. Loved the Christmas and spooky vibe. 9/10

Game 12-A Bird Story(2014)-PC via GPD Win-Beaten on January 18
-I continue to play through Freebird's games and I didn't like this one as well as To the Moon but it was still charming. 7/10

Game 13-Metal Gear Solid Rising Revengeance(2013)-Xbox 360-Beaten on January 22
-I love the Metal Gear series and had never played this one. I should have played this a lot earlier. It was an awesome action game that I loved! I miss character action games. The PS4 generation just doesn't have as many. 10/10

Game 14-Metal Gear Rising Revengeance DLC Jetstream and Bladewolf(2013)-Xbox 360-Beaten on January 22
–This was short and pretty good DLC for MGS Rising. 8/10

Game 15-Finding Paradise(2017)-PC via GPD Win-Beaten on January 25
-I loved this sequel! Very touching story and really like how it ties into A Bird Story. Can't wait for Imposter Factory! 10/10

Game 16-Aliens vs. Predator(2010)-Xbox 360-Beaten on January 27
-I love the Alien and Predator movies and I really enjoyed this game. It was cool to play as a marine, alien and predator and I enjoyed all of them. Good game with great atmosphere! 7/10

Game 17-Alien-Colonial Marines(2013)-Xbox 360-Beaten on February 1
-While the game isn't a ten, I really enjoyed the atmosphere and overall gunplay of the game. I look toward to the story dlc. 7/10

Game 18-Alien Colonial Marines Stasis Interrupted(2013)-Xbox 360-Beaten on February 1
-I really liked this dlc Better than the main game. I really like horror themed dlc and after playing this game I really want another Fear game! 8/10

Game 19-Kane and Lynch Dead Men(2007)-Xbox 360-Beaten on February 7
-I am trying to play all the PS3/360 generation games that I have wanted to play for a long time before the next gen consoles come out later this year. This game was not very good. I'm sure it was average in 2007 and it just doesn't hold up. I do want to play the sequel though. 5/10

Game 20-Call of Duty Modern Warfare(2019)-PS4-Beaten on February 9
-What an awesome campaign! I don't get people who put it down. It's like a summer blockbuster. Just enjoy the ride. I sure did. 10/10

-Game 21-Concrete Genie(2019)-PS4-Beaten on February 13
-What a special game! Just gorgeous! The kind of game that only comes out on Sony consoles. I loved the VR portion of the game as well even though it was really short. 10/10

Game 22-Battlefield Bad Company 2(2010)-Xbox 360-Beaten on February 14
-This game was very good and such an improvement on the original. Solid FPS. 8/10

Game 23-Battlefield V(2018)-Xbox One-Beaten on February 16
-Perhaos my favorite fps game of all time. I loved the War Stories so much, just as in Battlefield One. I wish they would keep putting these out as they are so good. I especially like they hit the smaller stories that aren't as well know. So, so good and am sad it's over. 10/10

Game 24-Disney Pixar Brave(2012)-Xbox 360-Beaten on February 18
-While a little generic, it was still a fun twin stick shooter. I loved the move and this was pretty good. 7/10

Game 25-Art's Dream in Dreams(2020)-PS4-Beaten on February 18
-The showcase title for Dreams had a little bit of everything-point and click, platformer, action, racing, shmup, etc. the game was ok but a little generic I thought. Not even close to Tearaway. 7/10

Game 26-Catherine(2011)-Xbox 360-Beaten on February 20
-Halfway to 52! What's stylish game this was! While the block puzzles got annoying by the end, I still really enjoyed the overall experience. I think if it was flipped with more story sequences than puzzles it would have been better. 8/10

Game 27-Root Letter(2016)-Vita-Beaten on February 22
-I really enjoyed this mystery visual novel. I played through one ending and watched the true ending on YouTube as I just don't have time to play through all the endings. 8/10

Game 28-Mass Effect(2007)-Xbox 360-Beaten on February 25
-This game has been on my pile of shame for 12 years and am very happy to have finally beaten the game. While I wasn't liking it at first, it really came around in the last half. Of course, being a game from 2007, it was a bit rough around he edges but I still loved he epicness of the game. I look forward to the DLC and Mass Effect 2 soon. 8/10

Game 29-Cuphead(2017)-PC via GPD Win-Beaten on February 29
-Well I finished my 29th game on the 29th of February-Leap Day. What a game to do it with. It really is a special game, especially graphically and musically. I love the look. I did use a trainer to beat it as I would have never finished it without it. As I approach 50 years old, I only have so much time left and I don't want to be frustrated with games. 10/10

Game 30-Mass Effect 2(and all DLC)(2010)-Xbox 360-Beaten on March 7
-Wow. What a game! I liked the original but this blows that game out of the water. I see why it's considered one of the best games of all time. Such an epic story and while I lost a lot of the the crew members, I feel that it makes it more realistic rather than having everyone survive. Can't wait for 3! 10/10

Game 31-Mass Effect 3(and DLC)(2012)-Xbox 360-Beaten on March 18
-WOW. What a game and what a series. Why did I wait so long but maybe it was best playing them back to back to back. After 80 hours or so, I have finished a wonderful trilogy and wish more games did this but understand that the cost would be so high today. Truly epic! I will play Andromeda soon but will take a break and play something g else for awhile. 10/10

Game 32-Sayonara Wild Hearts(2019)-Switch-Beaten on March 19
This might be to coolest and most hypnotizing game I have ever played, The music, the beat, the graphs, the vibration all come together in a magical, musical experience. I loooved it. The only issue is that it takes an hour to play through. Sequel please! 10/10

Game 33-The Horrorscope(2020)-PC via GPD Win-Beaten on March 20
-This horror adventure was interesting as all it did was ask questions about me and asked me to be 100% honest in my answers. Eventually they give me a word that will impact me negatively in the future. My word was "submerged". Not really a game but interesting. 7/10

Game 34-Gears of War 5(2019)-Xbox One-Beaten on March 21
-I have now played and beaten all the Gears games and they are always a good time. Four and Five have not lived up to the first four in my opinion. For me, it's the change up of characters. Gears is about Marcus Phoenix. I want to control him, not his son or some women that feels out of place with all the dude bros. 8/10

Game 35-Worse than Death(2019)-Switch-Beaten on March 23
-This was a very dark, 2d horror game that I would recommend to anyone looking for a four hour, puzzle solving mystery. A good time! 8/10

Game 36-Terminator Resistance(2019)-PS4-Beaten on March 27
-What a great game! I got this for $16 off PSN and it was a steal at that price. As a fan of the Terminator series, this was just a great experience, from the music to the story it was great. Graphics, not so much but that is ok. 8/10

Game 37-Dante's Inferno(2010)-Xbox 360-Beaten on April 1
-This game reminded me how much I love character action games. I liked the recent God of War but I loved all the previous versions better. I am so sick of "open world" anything. I really like games that have a narrative and take you on a ride. So good! 10/10

Game 38-Afterparty(2019)-Switch-Beaten on April 2
-This was a good time overall but ran pretty rough on the Switch. A good five hour romp with the total focus on story which was ok. 7/10

Game 39-Yaiba Ninja Gaiden Z(2014)-Xbox 360-Beaten on April 4
-This game got a ton of bad reviews but I really enjoyed the game until the the last two chapters as they made them last too long in my opinion. I loved the graphics and the music and the hack and slash was pretty fun as well Even if a bit repetitive by the end. 7/10

Game 40-Storm Boy The Game(2018)-PC via GPD Win-Beaten on April 5
-This was a short and sad story that played out as a 2d walking simulator with a few activities(minigames) to do on the side. I really liked this 45 minute adventure. 8/10

Game 41-Resident Evil 3(2020)-Xbox One-Beaten on April 6
I have loved pretty much all the Resident Evil games and last years remake of Resident Evil 2 was one of my favorite games of the year last year. I thought this remake was great but not as great as last years. 9/10

Game 42-The Dark Pictures The Man of Medan(2019)-PS4-Beaten on April 7
-I played this with my daughter which is always a nice time. Overall, I thought the game was ok with some good jump scares but a bit cheesy and not nearly as good as Until Dawn. 7/10

Game 43-Drawful 2(2018)-Switch--Played during Clovid 19 isolation throughout March/April
-This isn't a game you finish but played hours of this game with my family during the Covid 19 isolation. It is great time! 10/10

Game 44-God's Trigger(2019)-PS4-Beaten on April 9
-I love Hotline Miami type games and I think this is the best one I have ever played. So, so good if you like those types of games. Gaming perfection in my eyes. 10/10

Game 45-Final Fantasy VII Remake(2020)-PS4-Beaten on April 19
-I loved this game and was all I really played the last week or so which I have very rarely done with RPG games. It really makes me want to go play the original now but I want to play FF4 and 15 first. Can't wait for Part 2. 10/10

Game 46-Final Fantasy IV DS(2007)-Nintendo DS-Beaten on April 21
-I played the PSP version many years ago but now got around to the DS version and absolutely loved it. Such a charming RPG. I have a ton of DS games but this is only the second one I have ever beaten. I need to play more Ds games. They play awesomely on,the 3ds. Now I look forward to goi back to the PSP verion and play the After Years. 10/10

Game 47-Final Fantasy IV Interlude from the FF IV Complete Collection(2011)-PSP-Beaten on April 21
-i really liked this three hour interlude between IV and the After Hears. It's more FFIV. 9/10

Game 48-Phenomeno - Mitsurugi Yoishi wa Kowagaranai(2012)-PC via GPD Win-Beaten on April 22
-This was a very good ghost story visual novel that has an fan translation. It was pretty spooky at times. Really enjoyed it! 8/10

Game 49-Conan(2007)-Xbox 360-Beaten on April 24
-Every so often I look at my backlog and decide to play a game that is seen as an average game. Conan is that-average. In 2007, it was probably a 6/10 type game. People compare it to God of War but it's nowhere near as good. It was ok as I really like hack and slash games but so much worse than Dante's Inferno I played earlier. I will also add that the final boss took me over an hour to beat and it soured the entire average experience. 4/10

Game 50-Final Fantasy IV The After Years(2015)-PC via GPD Win-Beaten on April 27
-I think I had too much Final Fantasy IV recently as I loved IV on the DS and I enjoyed the Interlude on the PSP. I started playing this game on the PSP and then found out they're was a 3D remake for the PC that was liKevin the DS game. So I started over with the Pc version and loved it at first. However, there were just two many repeat dungeons and the final chapter was just way too long. The game overcame it's welcome, at least for me it did. 6/10

Game 51-Thirty Flights of Loving(2012)-PC via GPD Win-Beaten on May 1
-I don't get it. I read some reviews about how good this game is and figured I better give it a shot. Destructoid's review made it seem as it was the greatest game of all tine. I played it. It was over in 10 minutes and that was that. Unremarkable and forgettable. Seems like a game a high school kid would make. 4/10

Game 52-Gravity Bone(2008)-PC via GPD Win-Beaten in May 1
-Just made the 52 game goal! It even halfway through the year. This game was made by the same developer as my Game 51. While this is four years older, I enjoyed it much more than Thirty Flights if Loving. Still just ok and very short. 6/10

Game 53-Super Princess Peach(2006)-DS-Beaten on May 3
-I got the original DS phat the day it launched in the US and barely played it for years. I am now just staring to play some of its games and am really enjoying it. This game doesn't get talked about much but it was a really fun and light hearted platformer. 8/10

Game 54-The Stanley Parable(2013)-PC via GPD Win-Beaten on May 3
-I am glad to have finally played this game. I had heard so much about it and how great it is. I enjoyed it but it just isn't as good as everyone makes it out to be. It's a clever and funny short experience. 7/10

Game 55-The Beginner's Guide(2015)-PC via GPD Win-Beaten on May 4
-Made by the same person that made The Stanley Parable, this was another interesting "game", or should I say a commentary about games And what games can actually mean. It was ok and a little confusing at the end. 7/10

Game 56-NOVA Near Orbit Vanguard Alliance(2010)-PSP-Beaten on May 7
-This was a PSP Mini game that was a hearken back to PS1 first person shooters. Very Doom like with a Halo vibe. It was actually a pretty fun three hour game with a good final boss. 7/10

Game 57-Wide Ocean Big Jacket(2020)-Switch-Beaten on May 8
-I really enjoyed this relaxing camping experience between an aunt and uncle and the or niece and her boyfriend. Very relaxing game! Very short though. 8/10

Game 58-Pixel Ripped 1989(2018)-PSVR-Beaten on May 15
-I am starting to get back into vr again as I absolutely love it but it just isn't as easy to play as regular games as there is always set up required. Anyway, with Pixel Ripped 1995 coming out this week, I wanted to beat 1989 first and I adored this game. I will admit that I get motion sickness pretty easily in VR and couldn't finish Resident Evil 7 in vr so it's game like this that I love in VR. Such a great concept and it's pulled off so well. 9/10

Game 59-Coffee Talk(2020)-Switch-Beaten on May 17
-i enjoyed this coffee making slice of life visual novel about the challenges of racism(between different species). It was a good 3-4 hour time. 8/10

Game 60-Midnight Sanctuary(2018)-PSVR-Beaten on May 18
-Over the last five years of so, I have really come to enjoy visual novels. I have seen this one for cheap for a long time and just found out it supported VR. Playing visual novels in VR really interests me(The Dangonranpa vr experience is still one of my favorite vr experiences) and so I decided to give this one a try. While the story overall was ok and there was a lot of loading, I thought it was beautiful in VR and just really liked the experience. Going to pay Tokyo Chronus soon which is another VR visual novel. 8/10

Game 61-Down the Rabbit Hole(2020)-PSVR-Beaten on May 19
-I loved Moss as a VR game as it was like a diorama. I dont get motion sickness from these games and they are just beautiful. Down the Rabbit Hole had a similar set up and I just loved it. Great, short game! 9/10

Game 62-3D Streets of Rage(2013)-3DS-Beaten on May 25
-With SoR 4 coming out recently, I wanted to play the three originals first and saw that they were on the 3DS in 3D. I love 3D. I really miss the days when 3D was pushed. Anyway, this is a great way to play the game. Loved the 3D effect(chose Pop out option). The game is rather repetitive with the same basic enemies The whole game. 7/10

Game 63-3D Streets of Rage 2(2015)-3DS-Beaten on May 25
-I would say the exact same thing for Th is game as I posted above. A good time and loved the 3D effect. 7/10

Game 64-Trover Saves the Universe(2019)-PSVR-Beaten on May 30
-I loved this game and it was the perfect VR game for me as it did leave me with any motion sickness. I am new to Justin Roilend's comedy and I find it quite funny. 10/10

-Game 65-Fragments of Him(2016)-Xbox One-Beaten on May 31
-I bought us recently on sale for like $3 and for it was an emotional journey to say the least. It only lasted about two hours. Highly recommended if you like emotional storytelling. 8/10

Game 66-Fractured Minds(2017)-Xbox One-Beaten on May 31
-I got this game for $2 and its not worth any more than than that. Not recommended unless you want some quick achievements in about half an hour. The game dedicated To people who are struggling. 5/10

Game 67-Hotel Dusk Room 215(2007)-DS-Beaten on June 6
-I have had this game in my back log for about 13 years and I am so glad to have finally beaten the game. I really enjoyed the game and story. I would say it could have been faster paced from the walking to the text speed but overall it was a great time and I look forward to the sequel. 8/10

Game 68-The Legend of Heroes Trails of Cold Steel 3(2019)-PS4-Beaten on June 8
-I have beaten every game in this series(including Crossbell games) and absolutely love them. They are a perfect summer game. I can't wait for IV! 10/10

Game 69-Before I Forget(2020)-PC via GPD Win-Beaten on June 10
-This game was about a woman suffering from dementia, which my mom had. It was a short and emotional game. 7/10

Game 70-Final Fantasy 15(2016)-PS4-Beaten on June 11
-What a great game! This ranks up there as one of my favorite games I have played. Great action and it had great moments both big and small. 10/10

Game 71-Final Fantasy 15 Episode Gladiolus(2017)-PS4-Beaten on June 11
-This was an ok dlc for FFXV. It was basically a boss rush game that lasted an hour that fleshed out the story of Gladiolus when he left the other guys in the mainline game. 7/10

Game 72-Final Fantasy 15 Episode Prompto(2017)-PS4-Beaten on June 12
-This was one of my favorite parts of the entire game. I loved the winter environments and how it became a third person shooter. Great episode. 10/10

Game 73-Final Fantasy 15 Episode Ignis(2017)-PS4-Beaten on June 12
-Another great side story to Final Fantasy 15. I really wish they didn't cancel the ones they did. I really like these short stories. 10/10

Game 74-Final Fantasy 15 Episode Ardyn (2019)-PS4-Beaten on June 12
-The final episode in the Final Fantasy 15 saga. I really enjoyed seeing how Ardyn became the bad guy he became. Very interesting. I look forward to the novel that comes out on June 23. 10/10

Game 75-Final Fantasy V Advance(2006)-GBA-Beaten on June 22
-After playing the newest Final Fantasy, I decided to go back and play the one Final Fantasy game I had never played and I have to say I really enjoyed Going back to sprites after the beautiful 15. THe only thing I could not stand was the constant onslaught of random battles. It was so bad its the reason I'm giving is game a-7/10

Game 76-The Last of Us II(2020)-PS4-Beaten on June 28
-Wow. This game was masterfully made in all aspects. So, so good and nothing else comes close to matching it. 10/10

Game 77-Final Fantasy VIII(1999)-PS1-Beaten on July 2
-I played this a lot on PS1 when it first came out and then played up until disc 4 on the PSP and 5en got stuck. I then started playing the remastered version on the Switch which was great until I got stuck at the very end and wasn't strong enough even using the built in power-ups the game had. That's Was quite frustrating. So I went back to the PS1 vsersion (via PSP) and used some cheats to finally finish the game. I really like game as love the Balamb Garden music. So good! 9/10

Game 78-Days Gone(2019)-PS4-Beaten in July 8
-I bought this game when it came out last year and bounced off of it. After Last of Us 2, I felt like more undead action and decided on this game. What a good decision! I loved this game. I loved the gameplay look, the music, the story, the motorcycle driving, the gun and knife play, the Oregon setting, etc. The game also gives you a long game. It's not perfect, especially the frame rate, but one of my favorite games I have played the last couple of years. 9/10

Game 79-Mass Effect Andromeda(2017)-Xbox One-Beaten on July 12
-I played through the original trilogy earlier this year and was looking forward to this one. Besides the really bad facial animations of Sarah Rider, I though this was. Pretty good game. Not as good as the original trilogy but still a good space rpg. 7/10

Game 80-Horizon Zero Dawn(2017)-PS4-Beaten on July 14
-Sony first party games have knocked it out of the park this generation. With the new game recently announced for PS5, I figured I better complete the original game.A other awesome game and I really look forward to its DLC, The Frozen Wilds, next. 9/10

Game 81-Horizon Zero Dawn The Frozen Wilds(2017)-Beaten on July 16
-I enjoyed this dlc overall but dont really think it was necessary or vital to play. The gameplay is still great. 8/10

-Game 82-Death Come True(2020)-Switch-Beaten on July 17
-This FMV game where you are given choices to help solve the mystery was made by guy that worked on Danganronpa. Once I heard that, I was sold. It was about 3 hours in length and enjoyed my time with it. 8/10

Game 83-Skylanders Giants(2012)-3DS-Beaten on July 18
-I bought a bunch of Skylander Starter packs at Wal-Mart on clearance 3-4 years ago and I decided to give this one a go. I can hownthsse we're so popular for a few years. I think was a fun romp but a little generic overall. I can forgive that as it's a game made for kids. I would have eaten this series up when I was a kid. 7/10

Game 84-Ghosts of Tsushima(2020)-PS4-Beaten on July 22
-Another awesome Sony first person game. I loved the graphics, sound and the sword gameplay and really everything about this game. It is a very serious game which is probably its biggest weakness. 9/10

Game 85-We Should Talk(2020)-PC via GPD Win-Beaten on July 24
-This was a visual novel adventure where you have a few conversations in a bar and via text. The interesting part of the conversations is that it allows you to be quite selective in how you respond. The Issue is that it is over in 20 minutes or so. 6/10

Game 86-Death Stranding(2019)-PS4-Beaten on July 27
-First of all, I love Kojima games. MGS is still my favorite game of all time. His style is so different/unique from anyone else making games. This game was interesting. At times I loved the traversal, and at others I didn't. I hated when BT's showed up. I thought they ruined the traversal experience. The music was beautiful and loved the timing of it. The story was confusing but again, different from anything else. Some will love this game and others will be bored. I'm actually in the middle. 7/10

Game 87-Spiderman(2018)-PS4-Beaten on July 30
-I really enjoyed this game. It's a lot of fun but ration against all the other Sony exclusives I have played recently, it would come at the bottom of the list. I just found it to be the most generic. Still a very fun and solid game and look forward to the dlc. 8/10

Game 88-Spider-Man The Heist DLC(2018)-Beaten on July 31
-I really enjoyed this dlc as I thought the relationship and banter between Spider-Man and Black Cat was great. 8/10

Game 89-Spider-Man Turf Wars DLC(2018)-Beaten on July 31
-Indidnt like this one nearly as well. I am getting tired of going to an area to nest up a bunch of bad guys only to then go to another area and beat up more bad guys. Got kind of boring. 6/10

Game 90-Spider-Man Silver Lining DLC(2018)-Beaten on August 1
-I enjoyed this dlc a lot. It was fun and much better than the last one. With Spider Man Mikes Morales coming out soon, I hope Miles isn't as annoying as he was in this game. Constantly calling and annoying Spidey got old. (8/10)

Game 91-Vampire: The Masquerade-Coteries of New York(2020)-Switch-Beaten on August 4
-I liked this visual novel quite a bit. I love anything with vampires and the atmosphere was great in this one. It game me lots of choices within the game which was neat. I did think the ending came rather abruptly but I'm pretty sure there is a sequel coming soon which I will look forward to. 8/10

Game 92-Nier Automata(2017)-PS4-Beaten on August 7
-I went into this game with huge expectations as I had heard so many great things about it. I enjoyed this game overall but it now where near as good as some of the other games I have beaten the last two months or so. I have to give credit that the game designer was very creative with the game bu ti would have preferred a linear story instead of what they did. Too Much replay if the same game. 7/10

Game 93-Rainswept(2020)-Switch-Beaten on August 9
- I really liked this low key murder mystery. It had great atmosphere and the mystery surrounding the game was pretty good. i would recommend it to anyone that likes adventure games. 9/10

Game 94-Jisei: The First Case(2020)-Switch-Beaten on August 10
-This was a fun, short murder mystery visual novel where I have to ask questions and figure out whodunni. It was about an hour and a half. For the $4 I spent on it, I would recommend it highly. 8/10

Game 95-Watch Dogs 2(2016)-PS4-Beaten on August 14
-I beat the original Watch Dogs shortly after it came out and really enjoyed it so I am glad to have finally beat the sequel. It was a good time and I really like the hacking aspect of the game. It makes it different from all the other open world games. 8/10

Game 96-Prey(2017)-PS4-Beaten on August 22
This was a pretty decent FPS in in the same vein as Bioshock. It got kind of boring by the end and the load times were terrible. Good atmosphere but annoying enemies. 7/10

Game 97-Vader Immortal Episode 1(2020)-PSVR-Beaten on August 27
-If you like Star Wars, Darth Vader, and lightsabers, you will love this short episode. It was fun but overall, not great. If it didn't have the Star Wars license it wouldn't be talked about. 7/10

Game 98- Assassin's Creed Odyssey(2018)-Xbox One-Beaten on September 13
-It's been awhile since I've beaten a game and this game and the fact that I'm back to work for the spirits time since March is the reason why. What a great game. I wasn't a huge fan at first but it really grew on me the more I played. Loved the Greek islands and geography! Do I think the game should be smaller? Personally yes but I focused mostly on the story missions and only did extra missions if I needed to get my level up which was a bit annoying especially since I was playing on easy. Easy mode should never require grinding. 9/10

Game 99-Attack of the Friday Monsters(2013)-3DS-Beaten on September 25
-This was a short little adventure about life as young kids in a town where mysterious monsters appear on Friday's. It's cute but nothing special. I did enjoy my 3-4 hours with it. 7/10

Game 100-Devotion(2019)-PC via GPD Win Max-Beaten on September 30
-As October comes around, I like to play horror games and this one was great! I liked the first coupLe of hours a lot better than the last hour but still a great, atmospheric horror game. 8/10

Game 101-Paranormal Activity The Lost Soul(2017)-PSVR-Beaten on October 4
-I love this movie series and the VR game is pretty darn good as well as far as atmosphere and scares are concerned. Really the only issue is that I got motion sickness from it so had to stop playing after awhile. 7/10

Game 102-Scarlet Hollow Episode 1(2020)-PC via GPD Win Max-Beaten on October 4
-This was a real good, spooky visual novel/adventure game with just beautiful hand drawn graphics. The developer is hoping to have an episode out every six months or so. I hope so as I look forward to it. This episode is free by the way. 9/10

Game 103-Stifled(2017)-PSVR-Beaten on October 6
-I continue to play through horror games and this vr game was pretty good. It wasn't really scary and it had some very annoying parts but overall it was a good overall experience. The make sounds to see where you are in the environment got old in my opinion and would have preferred a regular game. 7/10

Game 104-Tell Me Why Episode 1(2020)-PC via GPD Win Max-Beaten on October 7
-I have enjoyed all of the games from Dontnod and this game is no different. I am little concerned that it might rush through the story as it's only 3 episodes But the first episode seemed longer than most episodic games so maybe it will be fine. Enjoying the story so far. 8/10

Game 105-Costume Quest(2010)-PC via GPD Win Max-Beaten on October 26
-I have been meaning to play and finish his game for as long as it has been around and I finally finish it and I have to say it was a fun little Halloween romp. I am looking forward to the sequel. 7/10

Game 106-Vampire the Masquerade Shadows of New York(2020)-Switch)-Beaten on October 31
- I enjoyed the first one and this sequel Was good as well. I enjoy anything with vampires so it was a good novel to read on Halloween. 8/10

Game 107-The Dark Pictures Anthology Little Hope(2020)-PC via GPD Win Max-Beaten on November 7
-Bis was a good horror game that would have been better with a friend. It was short but sweet and I continue to love these Supermassive horror adventure games. 8/10

Game 108-Far Cry Primal(2016)-PC via GPD Win Max-Beaten on November 15
-His was the first Far Cry game I ever finished and it was a great time. I am looking forward to getting back to guns but it was a nice change of pace. 8/10

Game 109-Tell Me Why Chapter 2 Family Secrets(2020)-PC via GPD Win Max-Beaten on November 19
-As much as I enjoyed the first episode, I thought this one was pretty slow and boring. It was ok but it just didn't have any big moments. I still look forward to the finale. 6/10

Game 110-Astro's Playroom(2020)-PS5-Beaten on November 21
-My first finished PS5 game and what a great game this is and a pack in no less. I really need to finish the VR game soon. Thanks also loved the trip down PlayStation lane. What a great idea! 10/10

Game 111-Tell Me Why Chapter 3 Inheritance(2020)-PC via GPD Win Max-Beaten on November 21
-I enjoyed this episode as it tied up the story which was pretty good. Overall, I found the game to be slow and bit boring compared to other games that Dontnod has made. Still a decent time and I look forward to their next game. 7/10

Game 112-Kentucky Route Zero Episode V(2020)-PC via GPD Win Mad-Beaten on November 22
-I finally got around to finishing this episodic game and truth be told, I haven't enjoyed it really at all. I just don't get how some people can find this game to be amazing. I did enjoy this episode the most as it was relaxing. After hearing so many good things about this series, it has to be one of my biggest disappointments in videogame history. 6/10

Game 113-Call of Duty Black Ops Cold War(2020)-PS5–Beaten on November 26
-Well another fun CoD campaign but it's quite a bit weaker than it has in a long time. Maybe it's being stuck between two generations? Anyway, still a summer blockbuster type of experience. 8/10

Game 114-Five Dates(2020)-PC via GPD Win Max-Beaten on November 28
-Over the last several years, I have played numerous FMV games and just enjoy the heck out of them. While most have been more serious, this was a light hearted dating FMV set during the current pandemic. It is very topical and only the second game I have played that have the pandemic going on during the actual game(Vampires the Masquerades Shadows of New York being the other). It was just a fun experience all around and may go back to it someday again. As a FMV game—10/10

Game 115-Spiderman Miles Morales(2020)-PS5-Beaten on December 4
-I had a lot of fun with this game. I loved that it took place during Christmas and it was always snowing. We need more games that do this. It was more Spiderman which is always fun. Do I love the Miles characters? Not really. He is kind of whiny and I just get the point of a new Spider-Man with even more powers. What's the point of playing the real Spider-Man? Regardless, it was a great time! 9/10

Game 116-Twin Mirror(2020)-PC via GPD Win-Beaten on December 9
-I have really enjoyed all the Dontnod games and this one was just ok. I found the whole split personality thing kind of strange as I would have just have preferred more focus on he story. Overall, it just felt rushed overall. 7/10

Game 117-The Legends of Heroes Trails of Cold Steel IV(2020)-PS4-Beaten on December 24
-What a great series! I have no beaten all nine mainline Trails games and every one has been an awesome experience. This is the second one I have beaten this year alone and o can't wait for the new games in the series to come over. What a great finale! 10/10

Game 118-If Found(2020)-PC via GPD Win Max-Beaten on December 24
-I loved how this game was set up. You erased the picture or words to bring up another picture or words to move the story along. It was very unique! The story was ok. 8/10

Game 119-Crash Bandicoot(from N. Sane Trilogy)(2018)-PC via GPD Win Max-Beaten on December 28
-This game was fun but very hard. I thought it looked beautiful so it was a very well done remake of the original. I look forward to the two sequels and then 4. 8/10

Game 120-Vader Immortal Episode 2(2020)-PSVR-Beaten on December 31
-This was a good episode but very short. If you love Star Wars, worth the play through. 7/10

Game 121-Vader Immortal Episode 3(2020)-PSVR-Beaten on December 31
--This was a good episode but very short. If you love Star Wars, worth the play through. I should played them tomorrow to get off a good start in 2021. 7/10

Theswweet · Dec 31, 2020

Let's go, final update of the year! I played more games this year than I've ever managed before, and that's *on top* of 900~ hours in FFXIV. Absolutely bonkers year.

#54 Castlevania: Circle of the Moon – Completed 7/16/2020 Vita (RetroArch) – 9 hours
#55 Castlevania: Harmony of Dissonance – Completed 7/17/2020 Vita (RetroArch) – 8 hours
#56 Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow – Completed 7/19/2020 Vita (RetroArch) – 5 hours
#57 The Touryst – Completed 7/30/2020 Xbox One – 5 hours
#58 Risk of Rain 2 – Completed 9/12/2020 PC – 44 hours
#59 Robotics;Notes Elite – Completed 9/28/2020 PC – 43 hours
#60 Robotics;Notes DaSH – Completed 10/5/2020 PC – 28 hours
#61 The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel IV – Completed 10/16/2020 PS4 – 108 hours
#62 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim – Completed 10/18/2020 PS4 – 25 hours
#63 Hades – Completed 10/29/2020 PC – 14 hours
#64 Alan Wake – Completed 11/1/2020 PC – 15 hours
#65 Mad Rat Dead – Completed 11/3/2020 Switch – 4 hours
#66 Undertale – Completed 11/6/2020 Vita – 7 hours
#67 Astro's Playroom – Completed 11/12/2020 PS5 – 4 hours
#68 Puyo Puyo Tetris 2 – Completed 11/18/2020 PS5 – 7 hours
#69 Bugsnax – Completed 11/19/2020 PS5 – 11 hours
#70 Demon's Souls – Completed 11/23/2020 PS5 – 24 hours
#71 Atelier Ryza: Ever Darkness & the Secret Hideout – Completed 11/30/2020 PC – 26 hours
#72 Taiko no Tatsujin: Rhythmic Adventure 1 – Completed 12/9/2020 Switch – 10? hours

Castlevania GBA Trilogy - After Symphony of the Night, I still didn't have my fill. So I loaded up my Wii U for the first time in months just to buy the GBA trilogy so I could play through 'em on Vita without any nagging voices at the back of my head. They were good! The first two have their own issues, but they're still great, while I'd 100% argue that Aria of Sorrow is even better than Symphony of the Night!

The Touryst - I wanted to get around to playing this on Switch, but never did... so when it came out on Game Pass, it gave me an excuse to boot up my Xbox. I absolutely loved this, plenty of fun platforming and puzzles, and it didn't overstay its welcome. What a charming artstyle, too.

Risk of Rain 2 - I keep forgetting that, no, Risk of Rain 2 only came out this year. The early access build has been great for a while, so what else is their to say? It had some tough competition this year, with Hades and all, but any other year it would easily be the roguelike of the year. What a fantastic game.

Robotics;Notes - I wrote a review for this one.

The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel IV - Trails of Cold Steel was a mistake.

13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim - A modern masterpiece, and a must-play. This is the type of story that can only be told through videogames, and anyone at all that's a fan of games narratives owes it to themselves to play it. Not much more that needs to be said.

Hades - The best roguelike of the year (sorry, Risk of Rain 2). The way that Supergiant weaves storytelling through the various runs of Hades is nothing short of mastery. Hades combat is fast, fun, challenging, and always rewarding. Just a top-tier experience from start to finish.

Alan Wake - This has been one of the oldest games on my Steam backlog, and I figured it was finally to finish it once and for all - I decided doing it on Halloween was the most appropriate. It has its issues, it gets fairly repetitive after a while, but I still had a great time. I should get to Quantum Break and Control something next year...

Mad Rat Dead - NIS always makes these cute little games that try something entirely new, which is part of why I have a soft spot for them. They don't always land, but they almost always accomplish something interesting. Mad Rat Dead's mix of Crypt of the Necrodancer and an action platformer was an entertaining romp, and a great first go at an interesting concept.

Undertale - Ok, ok, I finally played it. I'd pre-ordered the Vita version of Undertale years ago but never really got around to it - I decided to finally take the plunge, and I had a great time. Not much I can say that hasn't already been said, but you can tell that the game is so well-loved for a reason! What a great game.

Astro's Playroom - Why was the best platformer I played this year the PS5 pack-in?

Puyo Puyo Tetris 2 - While ultimately a bit of a disappointing sequel, I still had a great time with this. Will I keep playing it, though? Probably not. I've got Puyo Puyo Champions on Switch/PC, and Tetris 99. I don't really need another Puyo Puyo Tetris in my life at the moment.

Bugsnax - I had absolutely no expectations for this going in, and ended up playing one of my favorite games of the year? It's a charming mix between Ape Escape and Pokemon Snap, and has excellent pacing. It's a very creative little puzzle/adventure game, and I'm glad I gave it the chance it deserved.

Demon's Souls - By some stroke of fate, Demon's Souls' remake released on PS5 exactly a year after I'd finished the original on RPCS3. Demon's Souls is still great, much as I'd said last year, and the remake is a great way to either experience or revisit it. Wish they'd fixed Maneater's AI since they fixed the fog gate glitch, though.

Atelier Ryza: Ever Darkness & the Secret Hideout - While I've been lagging behind on my Escha & Logy playthrough, I was pleasantly surprised to see just how much I enjoyed this entry in the series, to the point that Ryza 2 is unironically one of my most anticipated games for 2021. An absolutely adorable and engaging RPG.

Taiko no Tatsujin: Rhythmic Adventure 1 - I reviewed this (and the other game included with the pack)

KOfLegend · Dec 31, 2020

Finished off the year with 163 completions! The huge number of completions is due to a number of things like the pandemic, me having to take the spring semester off due to health issues and the racial injustice bundle (not a PC gamer in the slightest but I still played quite a bit of those games), so it likely will not happen ever again! Really proud that I managed to do it, though.

ETA on the 2021 thread? Seems like a lot of work so to whoever's doing it, please take your time!

Karmic · Dec 31, 2020

Joining this at the very last minute!

I ended up with 73 total completions: 59 titles, 10 DLCs, 49 titles w/ 100% trophies, and 37 platinums.

1. Don't Bite Me Bro! - Hard Difficulty Playthrough (PS4) | 6th Jan
2. Alvastia Chronicles (Vita) | 15th Jan

3. Illusion of L'Phalcia (Vita) | 20th Jan

4. Doodle Kingdom (PS4) | 22nd Jan
5. Dragon Fantasy: The Volumes of Westeria (Vita) | 23rd Jan

6. Pier Solar & the Great Architects (PS4) | 29th Jan
7. Pier Solar & the Great Architects - New Game+ (PS4) | 31st Jan

8. The Bard's Tale: Remastered & Resnarkled (Vita) | 5th Feb

9. Dex (PS4) | 9th Feb

10. Dex (Vita) | 10th Feb

11. NBA 2K19: The Prelude (PS4) | 17th Feb
12. Sword Coast Legends (PS4) | 24th Feb
13. Sword Coast Legends - Rage of Demons DLC (PS4) | 25th Feb

14. Final Fantasy VIII Remastered (PS4) | 2nd Mar

15. The Technomancer (PS4) | 13th Mar

16. Ganbare! Super Strikers (PS4) | 15th Mar

17. Rogue Legacy (Vita) | 20th Mar
18. Rogue Legacy - New Game+ (Vita) | 21st Mar

19. Sword & Fairy 6 (PS4) | 12th Apr

20. Sword & Fairy 6 - Cold Mountain Visitor DLC (PS4) | 13th Apr
21. Sword & Fairy 6 - This Mortal World DLC (PS4) | 13th Apr
22. Sword & Fairy 6 - The Moon & the River DLC (PS4) | 14th Apr
23. Sword & Fairy 6 - Unfettered Chains DLC (PS4) | 14th Apr
24. Sword & Fairy 6 - Beyond the Clouds DLC (PS4) | 14th Apr
25. Sword & Fairy 6 - Lamp of Life DLC (PS4) | 15th Apr
26. Asdivine Hearts II (Vita) | 23rd Apr

27. Dying Light - The Following DLC (PS4) | 28th Apr
28. Defender's Quest: Valley of the Forgotten (Vita) | 30th Apr

29. Defender's Quest: Valley of the Forgotten - New Game+ (Vita) | 1st May
30. River City Ransom (PS4) | 7th May
31. Phantom Breaker Battlegrounds: Overdrive - Frau Playthrough (PS4) | 9th May
32. Wizards of Brandel (Vita) | 15th May

33. Island Saver (PS4) | 16th May
34. Citizens of Earth (Vita) | 20th May
35. Whiteboyz Wit Attitude: The Pursuit of Money (PS4) | 23rd May

36. Final Fantasy XII: The Zodiac Age (PS4) | 15th Jun

37. Ganbare! Super Strikers (Vita) | 16th Jun

38. Frane: Dragons' Odyssey (Vita) | 23rd Jun - 14:28:00

39. Super Gunworld 2 (PS4) | 25th Jun

40. Knights of Valour (PS4) | 3rd Jul
41. Phantom Breaker Battlegrounds: Overdrive - Kurisu Playthrough (PS4) | 6th Jul
42. War Theatre: Blood of Winter (PS4) | 16th Jul

43. Abyss Odyssey: Extended Dream Edition (PS4) | 18th Jul
44. Throne Quest Deluxe (PS4) | 20th Jul

45. Phantom Breaker Battlegrounds: Overdrive - 100% Trophies (PS4) | 22nd Jul
46. Spelunker World (PS4) | 27th Jul
47. Skyhill (PS4) | 29th Jul

48. South Park: The Stick of Truth (PS4) | 2nd Aug

49. Bound by Flame (PS4) | 10th Aug
50. Abyss Odyssey: Extended Dream Edition - 100% Trophies (PS4) | 10th Aug
51. Cat Quest II (PS4) | 12th Aug

52. Asdivine Dios (Vita) | 23rd Aug

53. Asdivine Menace (Vita) | 29th Aug

54. Himno (Vita) | 30th Aug

55. The Adventure Pals (PS4) | 3rd Sep

56. Eternal Ring (PS4) | 18th Sep
57. InnerSpace (PS4) | 25th Sep

58. Eternity: The Last Unicorn (PS4) | 5th Oct

59. Caravan Stories - 100% Trophies (PS4) | 22nd Oct
60. Himno (PS4) | 22nd Oct

61. Costume Kingdom (PS4) | 1st Nov

62. Doodle Kingdom (PS3) | 4th Nov
63. ELEX (PS4) | 12th Nov

64. Citizens of Space (PS4) | 17th Nov

65. Haunted Dungeons: Hyakki Castle (PS4) | 21st Nov

66. Micetopia (PS4) | 26th Nov

67. Dungeon Hunter: Alliance - Rogue Playthrough (PS3) | 30th Nov

68. Dungeon Hunter: Alliance - Rogue Playthrough, Legend Difficulty (PS3) | 6th Dec
69. Rocket League (PS4) | 18th Dec

70. Dungeons & Dragons: Daggerdale - Rogue Playthrough (PS3) | 18th Dec
71. HiQ Ace Unlimited (PS4) | 22nd Dec
72. Get Off My Lawn (Vita) | 25th Dec
73. Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor (PS4) | 31st Dec

Going to try and keep up with the thread this next year, we'll see how that goes. :)

LonestarZues · Dec 31, 2020

Congratulations to everyone who hit 52 this year!

Illusionary · Dec 31, 2020

KOfLegend said:
Finished off the year with 163 completions! The huge number of completions is due to a number of things like the pandemic, me having to take the spring semester off due to health issues and the racial injustice bundle (not a PC gamer in the slightest but I still played quite a bit of those games), so it likely will not happen ever again! Really proud that I managed to do it, though.

ETA on the 2021 thread? Seems like a lot of work so to whoever's doing it, please take your time!

Wozzer will be posting the 2021 thread today/tomorrow (depending on your time zone) - it should be up in the next 24 hours.

Deleted member 5086 · Dec 31, 2020

When will the 2021 thread be up? I think I'll finally be able to commit this year. :3

Odoru · Dec 31, 2020

Managed to hit 52 games yesterday, was a fun personal challenge with a new baby and everything else going on in 2020. Going to try to participate in the 2021 thread from the get go this year(and not hours before the year ends haha)!

Luigis Mansion 3
Slay the Spire
Monster Hunter World: Iceborne
Dragonball Z: Kakarot
Links Awakening
Dragonball FighterZ
Street FIghter 5
Garou Mark of the Wolves
Guilty Gear Xrd Rev 2
Dragalia Lost
Final Fantasy XIV
Granblue Fantasy Versus
Murder by Numbers
Steamworld Quest the Hand of Gilgamech
Final Fantasy 7 Remake
Ori and the Will of the Wisps
Streets of Rage 4
Trials of Mana
Phantasy Star Online 2
Animal Crossing New Horizons
Mortal Kombat 11 Aftermath
Hades
Dicey Dungeons
The Last of Us 2
Huntdown
Bloodstained Circle of the Moon 2
Xenoblade Chronicles DE
Paper Mario The Origami King
Grounded
Fall Guys
Ghosts of Tsushima
Blasphemous
Tales of Crestoria
Night slashers
Battletoads
Crosscode
Marvel's Avengers
Wasteland 3
Among Us
Captain Tsubasa Rise of Champions
Super Mario Galaxy
Genshin Impact
Castlevania Aria of Sorrow
Ghost Trick Phantom Detective
Phasmophobia
King of Fighters 2002 Unlimited Match
Guilty Gear XX Access Core Plus R
Astrobot's Playroom
Spider-man: Miles Morales
Yakuza Like a Dragon
Samurai Shodown V Special
Monster Train

VanishingPoint · Dec 31, 2020

1.Assassins Creed - 20.3h
2.Assassins Creed 2 - 31.9h
3.Assassins Creed Brotherhood 34.1
4.Assassins Creed Revelations - 21h
5.Atelier Ryza - 77.1h
6.Resident Evil 3 - 11.9h
7.Resident Evil 2 - 30h
8.Shadow of the Tomb Raider - 16.6h
9.Xcom - 34.2
10.Minecraft Dungeons - 50h
11.Gears of War 5 - 12h
12.Gears of War 4 - 10h
13.Darksiders 3 - 25h
14.Ghost of Tsushima - 35h
15.Fairy Tail - 25h
16.The Last of Us 2 - 40h
17.Man Eater - 30h
18.Streets of Rage 4 - 5h
19.Detroit - 20h
20.Heavy Rain - 20h
21.Dragon Quest XI - 55h
22.Dragon Quest Builders 2 - 50h
23.Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle - 20h
24.Doom Eternal - 35h
25.Final Fantasy VII - 60h
26.Animal Crossing - 100h
27.Borderlands 3 - 45h
28.Pokemon Crystal - 80h
29.Pokemon Sword/Shield - 100h
30.Luigis Mansion 3 - 15h
31.Oninaki - 20h
32.Octopath Traveler - 70h
33.Tokyo Mirage Sessions Encore - 50h
34.Megaman Zero (1-4) - 16h
35.Nexomon Extinction - 41h
36.Marvel Avengers - 25h
37.Astral Chain - 19h
38.Death Stranding - 70h
39.Watchdogs - 25h
40. Watchdogs 2 - 18h
41. Injustice God's Among Us - 3.8h
42. Watchdogs Legion - 20h
43. Greedfall - 50h
44. Zelda: Links Awakening - 20h
45. Remnant: From the Ashes - 15h
46. Godfall 30h
47. Astros Playroom 15h
48. Spiderman Miles Morales 30h
49. Spiderman Remastered 45h
50. Bugsnax 20h
51. TLOZ: Age of Calamity 48h
52. Call of Duty: Cold War 5h
53. Assassins Creed: Valhalla 135h

So glad I made it on time. Been dying to join this thread.

Death Stranding - Had a blast with this game. Was a nice slow change of pace. The one thing that annoyed me was how expensive it was to build things like the highways. Definitely hoping for another game in this universe.

Xcom - I put this one off for a long time and finally decided to pick it up on steam. Struggled at first but got the hang of it and couldn't stop playing it. Ill be jumping into the second in January.

Maneater - This was a surprise. I had no intention of touching this game but I picked it up anyways. While its very repetitive I had fun doing everything in the game. Being a shark killing off hunters, civilians, and other sea creatures kept me hooked.

Astral Chain - Loved everything about this game. While I didnt rush the game I want to go back and replay it on my TV since I finished it on my Switch Lite. Just didn't feel like that did it justice.

Remnant: From the Ashes - Had no idea what this game was but once I started it I didnt want to stop. Luckily bumped into some fun randoms online that played with me for most of the campaign. I've been dying to find a co op game to play and this did it for me. Gonna finish up the expansions in January and move on but damn I hope to find another co op game.

I'll do a better job at this for the 2021 thread : )

Optional Objectives · Dec 31, 2020

No. 73 - Streets of Rage 4 - 4/5

A faithful sequel to a most excellent brawler series. The smooth cartoon graphics, varied movesets, and kickin' soundtrack all do credit to the Streets of Rage name. This one preserves its arcade-style roots while adding all kinds of accessibility along the way, from more varied characters to assist modes. 4 player co-op multiplayer is the icing on the cake. Brawlers are underrated, and SoR4 is simply a blast to play. The picture of simple to learn and hard to master, and fun the whole time.

Main Post

LonestarZues · Jan 1, 2021

Aerith said:
When will the 2021 thread be up? I think I'll finally be able to commit this year. :3

Wozzer will have the thread up sometime tomorrow.

Looking forward to seeing everyone's 2021 Completions!

BPHusker · Jan 1, 2021

Hit 52 this year right under the wire after starting and failing last year. Woohoo! I hope I can continue it next year and continue to cut into my backlog!

2020 Completions: 52/52

1. AI: The Somnium Files | 1/4/2020 - 27 hrs | 5/5
2. Tetris Effect | 1/7/2020 - 3 hrs | 5/5
3. Judgment | 1/19/2020 - 25 hrs | 5/5
4. Blood and Truth | 1/21/2020 - 5 hrs | 4/5
5. Kingdom Hearts III Remind | 2/1/2020 - 5 hrs | 4/5
6. Root Letter: Last Answer | 2/7/2020 - 13 hrs | 4/5
7. Ico | 2/9/2020 - 7 hrs | 4/5
8. Final Fantasy XV - Episode Gladiolus | 2/14/2020 - 1.5 hrs | 3.5/5
9. Final Fantasy XV - Episode Prompto | 2/15/2020 - 1.5 hrs | 4.5/5
10. Final Fantasy XV - Episode Ignis| 2/16/2020 - 1.5 hrs | 5/5
11. Final Fantasy XIV - Patch 5.2: Echoes of a Fallen Star | 2/19/2020 - 5.5 hrs | 5/5
12. Shadow of the Colossus | 3/12/2020 - 6 hrs | 4/5
13. Doom 2016 | 3/29/2020 - 12 hrs | 4.5/5
14. Power Rangers: Battle for the Grid | 3/29/2020 - 2.5 hrs | 3/5
15. Final Fantasy VII Remake | 4/26/2020 - 43.5 hrs | 4.5/5
16. Final Fantasy VII | 5/11/2020 - 20 hrs | 4/5
17. Trials of Mana | 6/1/2020 - 20 hrs | 3.5/5
18. The Last of Us: Left Behind | 6/14/2020 - 2.5 hrs | 5/5
19. The Last of Us: Part II | 6/28/2020 - 22 hrs | 5/5
20. Remnant: From The Ashes | 7/7/2020 - 11.5 hrs | 3/5
21. Xenoblade Chronicles Definitive Edition | 7/16/2020 - 67 hrs | 4.5/5
22. Xenoblade Chronicles Future Connected | 7/18/2020 - 7 hrs | 4/5
23. Xenoblade Chronicles 2: Torna ~ The Golden Country | 7/24/2020 - 18.5 hrs | 4/5
24. Ghost of Tsushima | 8/3/2020 - 25 hrs | 4/5
25. The Messenger | 8/9/2020 - 14 hrs | 4.5/5
26. The Messenger - Picnic Panic | 8/11/2020 - 3 hrs | 4/5
27. Final Fantasy XIV: Reflections in Crystal | 8/23/2020 - 12 hrs | 5/5
28. Ori and the Blind Forest: Definitive Edition | 8/23/2020 - 9 hrs | 4.5/5
29. Ori and the Will of the Wisps | 9/13/2020 - 14.5 hrs | 4.5/5
30. Marvel's Avengers | 10/9/2020 - 10 hrs | 3.5/5
31. Steins;Gate Linear Bounded Phenogram | 10/15/2020 - 22.5 hrs | 4.5/5
32. Bastion (PC) | 10/18/2020 - 6.5 hrs | 4.5/5
33. Transistor (PC) | 10/18/2020 - 6 hrs | 3.5/5
34. Pyre (PC) | 10/21/2020 - 13 hrs | 4.5/5
35. Steins;Gate: My Darling's Embrace (PS4) | 11/6/2020 - 27 hrs | 4/5
36. Super Mario 64 (Switch) | 11/6/2020 - 12 hrs | 3.5/5
37. Doom Eternal (PC) | 11/8/2020 - 13 hrs | 3.5/5
38. Astro's Playroom (PS5) | 11/15/2020 - 5.5 hrs | 5/5
39. Hades (PC) | 11/25/2020 - 22.5 hrs | 5/5
40. Yoshi's Crafted World (Switch) | 11/27/2020 - 22 hrs | 3/5
41. Yoshi's Woolly World (Wii U) | 11/28/2020 - 18 hrs | 4/5
42. Demon's Souls (PS5) | 12/5/2020 - 35 hrs | 4.5/5
43. Final Fantasy XV: Episode Ardyn (PS4) | 12/5/2020 - 2 hrs | 4/5
44. Final Fantasy XIV: Futures Rewritten (PC/PS4) | 12/25/2020 - 6 hrs | 5/5
45. What Remains of Edith FInch (PC) | 12/25/2020 - 2 hrs | 4/5
46. Lume (PC) | 12/26/2020 - 1 hrs | 2/5
47. Streets Of Rage 4 (Xbox One) | 12/28/2020 - 4 hrs | 3/5
48. Castlevania (PS4) | 12/29/2020 - 4 hrs | 3.5/5
49. Castlevania: The Adventure (PS4) | 12/29/2020 - 2 hrs | 2.5/5
50. Castlevania II: Belmont's Revenge (PS4) | 12/29/2020 - 2.5 hrs | 2/5
51. Castlevania II: Simon's Quest (PS4) | 12/30/2020 - 4 hrs | 3/5
52. Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse (PS4) | 12/31/2020 - 4 hrs | 4/5

52 Games. 1 Year. 2020.

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