60: The Diofield Chronicle. End: 11/26/2022. (3.5 out of 5)
I don't tend to play real time strategy RPGs, but I thought I'd give this one a shot. There are some things I really like about this game, and some things I really don't like about this game. I do think they could improve things in future real time strategy RPGs if they make such games, but for now I'll leave it at that.
Game #70 - Vampire Survivors
Time: Ongoing
Platform: Xbox Series X
Rating: ★★★★★
Wow this really came out of nowhere huh? Deceptively simple game with some actual depth in the builds you make and shocking fun gameplay for a game where you literally just move your character, and of course, INCREDIBLY addictive, nailing the "just one more run" thing better than most games out there. "Finished" the game but still have stuff to unlock, and more importantly, I still want to play more. Absolute banger, especially for the price.
In the summer of this year, my fiance and I moved out of the condo we shared with three other roommates, moved into his parents house, bought a house, and then moved into that house. So I did not finish as many games as I would have if things were stable. Many of them were games I abandoned months/years ago and took the time to complete. But here's the collection of what I completed:
☀️ Games Finished in Summer 2022 ☀️
Moonglow Bay - ★★★★★
Beaten: June 1st, 35 hours
I really adored this game. It's not perfect – it's got a few bugs and some mandatory sections that are a little finnicky with the control scheme – but my god, I never thought I could love a fishing game. It's got so much heart, it's such a relaxing experience, I loved going out into the bay and filling up my fishing compendium. I loved the cooking minigames and getting the maximum number of stars I could for meals. It was just really engrossing and fun.
A Plague Tale: Innocence - ★★★★
Beaten: June 5th, 16 hours
Great cinematic game with a cool concept. The rivers of rats were spectacular forces of nature, but combatting them – or the myriad of basic soldiers – never felt like much of a challenge. Still, I enjoyed all of the characters and (most of) the stealth sections, even if they were simple. Enjoyed the story too, which is why I'll be picking up the sequel at some point.
FE - ★★★
Beaten: June 10th, 6 hours
It's an easy platformer with an interesting art style and musical theming. Sort of Zelda-ish in its progression? I guess I enjoyed it at the time, and technically there's nothing wrong with it, but thinking back on it now, it wasn't that memorable.
Plunge - ★★★★
Beaten: June 30th, 8 hours
I had been playing this game for an entire year trying to beat it with the first character. It's an isometric roguelike puzzle game; you have to kill all of the enemies on a floor before you can descend to the next floor to kill more. But you're limited by your movement; you select a direction to move, and you keep sliding in that direction until you hit a wall. (Think of those puzzles where you have to slide on the ice.) When you run into an enemy, you do damage to them. It was nerve-wracking juggling multiple enemies on a stage with your small health pool, but I love a good head-scratcher.
Turnip Boy Commits Tax Evasion - ★★★
Beaten: July 10th, 4 hours
Turnip Boy can't keep his fucking hands to himself, but at least it ended with him saving the world.
I love that whenever you are given a tangible reward in this game, Turnip Boy tears it to shreds. Absolute agent of chaos.
Heavensward: A FFXIV Expansion - ★★★★★
Beaten: July 17th, ~80 hours
The first expansion in FFXIV! I was so excited for this, I had literally been playing A Realm Reborn for YEARS. Like 3 years or something. Comparatively, I tore through Heavensward. Character writing got much tighter, much less verbose and meandering. Cutscene direction really improved. The story overall was engrossing, with some really dramatic moments. The new characters were fantastic. Aymeric was there. ….Aymeric was there. <3
Dicey Dungeons - ★★★★
Beaten: August 6th, 18 hours
I love roguelikes. I especially love deck-based, turn-based roguelikes (though I guess this one is technically dice-based?). Dicey Dungeon depends heavily on luck and RNG. Each card has a dice value that is needed before it can be played. At the start of your turn, you roll a certain number of dice, and if it matches one of your cards, you can play the card. Lots of strategy, lots of crying when you get the wrong rolls. A good time.
The Gunk - ★★★
Beaten: August 7th, 7 hours
Kind of basic and disappointing. No evolution of the game mechanics, which would be fine if there was something else to make up for it, but there isn't. The story is paint by the numbers, the character dialog is bad (and the voice acting is so-so). I guess it's a fine in-between game or meditative experience (sucking up the gunk doesn't get old, at least), it is technically competent and a complete experience… but it was boring. If I could go back in time, I'd just skip this one and play something else.
As Dusk Falls - ★★★
Beaten: August 16th, 8 hours
Started off strong, ended very weakly. I love me some character drama, and this was full of it. But after the central conflict is over in the first half, it gets decidedly worse. The first half is a powder keg of conflict, with all the characters trapped in a tense hostage situation, trying to manage interpersonal conflicts while trying to survive. Once you take that away, some of the dramatic situations seemed really forced or ham-fisted. One of them even made me mad with how stupid it was.
Get in the Car, Loser! - ★★★★
Beaten: August 23rd, 11 hours
Now this one was interesting. An RPG about fighting the forces of evil – bigotry, misogyny, the things that protect the status quo and the interests of those already in power. Even though it is a world inhabited by angels and machine demons, there are parallels to the issues we're facing in our own world. The characters are a colorful cast of queer kids (and one stacked angel) who are delightful messes. It took me a minute to get used to the dialogue (it's very modern and makes me think of the way folks on the internet talk to each other) but the characters shine through and help you get used to it. On top of that, the combat was pretty challenging, a good homage to ATB turn-based JRPGs. Really enjoyed the game.
The Talos Principle - ★★★★
Beaten: August 29th, 29 hours
Great 3D puzzle game with great philosophical musings to chew on. I started this game way back in 2020, took a break because the puzzles had gotten too hard. Started the game up again this year, bracing myself…but this time I had absolutely no issues with the difficult stuff. Nice!
Outer Wilds - ★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★
Beaten: August 31st, 25 hours
Oh my god. What can I possibly say about Outer Wilds? It is the best example of a game where learning, exploration, and discovery is it's own reward. Where the only thing gating you from the end of the game is the knowledge you've accrued throughout your entire journey. Topping it all off is incredible theming on our place in the universe, how everything we have is built upon those who came before us, and that in the face of horrifying inevitabilities, at least we can say it was nice while it lasted. I wish I could forget this game, go back in time, and play it again.
Games Completed in Summer 2022: 12
Other Games Played in Summer 2022: 6 Total Games Played in Summer 2022: 18
After many hours spent playing online and arcade mode, I decided to beat each character's individual story mode, in addition to "A Shadow Falls", which would be the "main" story of the game. These storys are fine for a first attempt at this type of thing in the main series, but the overall quality of them in particular is pretty average. As a fighting game, time has made SF V a great one, with several interesting mechanics to explore, a good cast of characters and an excellent soundtrack. Despite the state that it was released, I find Capcom's effort to make this game worthy of the name it carries commendable.
62. Immortality (PC) | Nov/15 - 10hrs | ★★★★
New game from the creator of the excellent Her Story (and Telling Lies, which I didn't play), who continues his experimentation with FMV. In concept, Immortality seems like a natural evolution of what was shown in Her Story, presenting a database with several clips from different recordings made on different days. However, instead of using keywords to search and navigate between these clips, here we jump from one clip to another through faces or objects presented on the screen. The game features an opening mystery ("What happened to Marisa Marcel?"), and featured clips provide some answers, and more questions. What is most worthy of praise here is the high level of production, with some great performances, especially the protagonist played by Manon Gage. And by the time some final answers are seemingly given and the credits roll, there's still value in digging deeper for new clips and secrets, even if its "find a clickable object and hope it takes you to a new clip" mechanic eventually worns out, mainly due to the high volume of available material. One of the most interesting games of the year, just a note that you should take the warnings about its content seriously before playing.
63. Sifu (PC) | Nov/20 - 9hrs | ★★★
Sifu is a 3D beat 'em up that navigates between the fascinating and the frustrating. Visually it is beautiful, each stage presents a unique environment and there is always something aesthetically interesting in them, with an excellent use of colors. The story is a revenge cliché, but still manages to reserve one or two surprises for those who dedicate themselves to the game. "Dedication", by the way, is the word to be used when we talk about combat. There are several options for possible combos, as well as parry and dodge to deal with enemies, but the precision that the game requires is, honestly, too high for me. Combating several enemies simultaneously is quite common, and any hesitation can mean defeat, as your character's life ends very quickly. But death is not necessarily the end, as it is possible to revive at the cost of aging the character, which makes die even faster but he's able to deal more damage. This mechanic, along with the skills that can be unlocked, ends up creating a grind that I found quite boring, as it becomes necessary to repeat the same phase in an attempt to finish it in the fewest possible deaths to avoid major headaches in the boss fight, which has a considerable difficult spike. The little variety of enemies is a shame, already in the middle of the game practically all the "common" enemies have already been presented. But the biggest issue I had was with the camera. As it is not possible to lock on enemies, I would often focus on someone I didn't want to or get hit by someone out of view, and these situations greatly diminish the merits of combat for me. It's hard to focus on the perfect parry and ideal combo when I have to worry that my character isn't blocking my view of the enemy. It's curious to think about how the design decisions were made, but Sifu, at the end of the day, is exactly the game it wants to be, for better or for worse, and that's the highest compliment I can make for it.
1. Yakuza Like A Dragon (XSX) JAN 3- 123 HOURS AND 45 MINUTES 9/10
2. The Forgotten City (XSX) JAN 22- 13 HOURS AND 48 MINUTES 9/10
3. Hitman( 2016) (XSX) FEB 4 68 HOURS AND 22 MINUTES 9/10
4. It Takes Two (PS5) FEB 8 14 HOURS 12 MINUTES 4/10
5. Hitman 2 (XSX) MAR 22 45 HOURS AND 38 MINUTES 8/10
6. Unpacking (XSX) APR 7 6 HOURS AND 17 MINUTES 6/10
7. Horizon Zero Dawn (PS5) APR 18 76 HOURS AND 49MINUTES 8/10
8. FarCry 5 (XSX) APR 26 53 HOURS AND 29 MINUTES 8/10
9. FarCry 5 Hours of Darkness (XSX) MAY 1 3 HOURS AND 12 MINUTES 4/10
10.FarCry 5 Lost on Mars (XSX) MAY 6 3 HOURS AND 26 MINUTES 5/10
11.FarCry 5 Dead Living Zombies (XSX) MAY 8 4 HOURS AND 17 MINUTES 3/10
12.Life Is Strange True Colors (XSX) MAY 29 12 HOURS AND 41 MINUTES 4/10
13.Horizon Zero Dawn The Frozen Wilds (PS5) MAY 30 10 HOURS AND 11 MINUTES 6/10
14.Trek To Yomi (XSX) JUNE 18 8 HOURS AND 19 MINUTES 4/10
15.Greedfall (XSX) JUNE 27 49 HOURS AND 50 MINUTES 6/10
16.Assasin's Creed Origins The Hidden Ones (PS5) JULY 6 7 HOURS AND 35 MINUTES 7/10
17.MLB The Show 22 (XSX) JULY 9 80 HOURS And 7 MINUTES 9/10
18.Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Shredder's Revenge (XSX) JULY 10 13 HOURS AND 21 MINTUES 8/10
19.Sonic The Hedgehog (XSX) JULY 10 3HOURS AND 36 MINUTES 4/10
20.Citizen Sleeper (XSX) JULY 23 10 HOURS AND 21 MINUTES 9/10
21.Assassin's Creed Origins Curse Of The Pharoahs (PS5) JULY 25 12 HOURS 8/10
22.The Quarry (XSX) AUG 14 18 HRS AND 29 MINUTES 5/10
23.The Stanley Parable Ultra Deluxe (PS5) 14 HOURS AND 12 MINUTES 8/10
24.Immortality (XSX) SEP 6 10 HRS AND 4 MINUTES 9/10
25 Tiny Tina Wonderlands (XSX) SEP 12 26 HOURS AND 17 MINUTES 7/10
26.Two Point Campus (XSX) SEP 18 96 HOURS AND1 MINUTE 7/10
27.Assasin's Creed Vahalla (XSX) OCT 11 121 HOURS AND 29 MINUTES 8/10
28.Cult of The Lamb (XSX) OCT 19 38 HOURS AND 48 MINUTES 9/10
29.MADDEN 23 (XSX) OC 21 58 HOURS AND 3 MINUTES 5/10
30.Assasin's Creed Vahalla The Wraith of The Druids (XSX) OCT 30 12 HOURS AND 16 MINUTES 8/10
31.Assasin's Creed Vahalla Siege of Paris (XSX) NOV 23 13 HOURS AND 27 MINTUES 6/10
32. Stray (PS5) NOV 25 8 HOURS AND 17 MINUTES 6/10
I need to do quick write-ups on my completions
so something i loved /hated and overall thought on each game
1-10 (in fairness i wrote up long reviews on these up to #12)
1. Yakuza Like A Dragon (XSX) JAN 3- 123 HOURS AND 45 MINUTES 9/10
Loved- The combat system was such a great way to to lay this gem of a RPG
Hated- Small complaint but the upgrade system was too much to grind hence the over 123 hours
overall- It's my favorite Yakuza game and was a great 4 months to play a little at a time the minigames are always amazing
2. The Forgotten City (XSX) JAN 22- 13 HOURS AND 48 MINUTES 9/10
Loved- The story and the time mechanic the game respects the player and it understands what you are interested in with the story beats
Hated- The early hours are going to turn off players not invested in the story so they will lose some people
Overall- It's a wonderful story that makes me happy games like this exist so much creativity and passion
3. Hitman( 2016) (XSX) FEB 4 68 HOURS AND 22 MINUTES 9/10
Loved- Every weapon at my disposal the puzzle is how to play to the best of 47's ability/the fails are the best part
Hated- Such a small nitpick The story based on episodes is just meh I think it could be so much more (hint it was in 2/3)
Overall- The most underated stealth puzzle game of the last decade it's a triumph of game design
4. It Takes Two (PS5) FEB 8 14 HOURS 12 MINUTES 4/10
Loved- It was a co-op game i could play with my wife the gameplay had some cool ideas
Hated- The characters/The story/most levels are way too long and the ending was pathetic
Overall- I know im in the minority here but my wife agrees the most dissapointing co-op experience we have ever shared
5. Hitman 2 (XSX) MAR 22 45 HOURS AND 38 MINUTES 8/10
Loved- Incredible maps Marrakesh (nuff said), Haven island and a more interesting narrative to build on Hitman (2016)
Hated- The sequel problem in gaming not enough new improvements
Overall- Hitman 2 is more than dlc maps a more developed story emerges it just lacks the the magic of being a sequel too similar to a classic
6. Unpacking (XSX) APR 7 6 HOURS AND 17 MINUTES 6/10
Loved- Cozy game to play before bedtime /enviormental storytelling
Hated- After playing 3 stages it has nothing new to show you/the story is really predictable
Overall- It's a stuffed animal on the bed you outgrow quickly
7. Horizon Zero Dawn (PS5) APR 18 76 HOURS AND 49MINUTES 8/10
Loved- The weapons, The combat strategies,The enemy design ,the gameplay loop
Hated - The dungeons as soon as you see one that's the same thing the whole game
Overall- Its the best action combat game outside of MGS V a great start for Guerrilla games
8. FarCry 5 (XSX) APR 26 53 HOURS AND 29 MINUTES 8/10
Loved- The openess of being willing to question the players motives with gameplay that demands you understand your consequences
Hated- the worst skill tree in an open world adventure game /the way the gameplay can miss the narratives message its not a complete vision
Overall- I respect the fact a major studio put this out knowing a good majority of the audience who played it would miss their attempt to break the wall between player and character.
9. FarCry 5 Hours of Darkness (XSX) MAY 1 3 HOURS AND 12 MINUTES 4/10
Loved- Farcry went back to it's old school Farcry classic gameplay
Hated- Your squadmates yell all the time and break the stealth immersion
Overall- This is why season passes can be terrible this has nothing to do with the brillant story in FC 5 and is not a risk like Blood Dragon
10.FarCry 5 Lost on Mars (XSX) MAY 6 3 HOURS AND 26 MINUTES 5/10
Loved - They tried to make a Destiny version of Farcry in dlc/new eapons you can actually use in the main game
Hated- The y made Hurk the focus of yet another DLC I am tired of his presence as the dumb american idiot
Overall- Bug combat that doesn't make you laugh due to annoying charcters with poor side content
11.FarCry 5 Dead Living Zombies (XSX) MAY 8 4 HOURS AND 17 MINUTES 3/10
Loved The gunplay was alright there was nothing I loved
Hated- Bootleg Left 4Dead but not fun with a movie director who is desperate
Overall-The exact reason why no one should buy the Farcry 5 season pass
12.Life Is Strange True Colors (XSX) MAY 29 12 HOURS AND 41 MINUTES 4/10
Loved- The idea that you coukd do a semi open LIS
Hated- The game is not an interesting story the mechanics don't enhance the story
Overall- I have been a huge fan of LIS (LIS 2 is my favorite) this was a huge let down much like Tell Me Why
I respect the effort but this game was the most basic LIS yet i expect better
13.Horizon Zero Dawn The Frozen Wilds (PS5) MAY 30 10 HOURS AND 11 MINUTES 6/10
Loved- The enviorment was a nice addition,the combat,dlc weapons
Hated- It's nothing that you haven't already done outside the tower messing with your armour
Overall- I enjoyed the tribe storyline but outside a couple wrinkles its just more HZD
14.Trek To Yomi (XSX) JUNE 18 8 HOURS AND 19 MINUTES 4/10
Loved -the setting,the art direction,the influence of classic side scrolling stealth games
Hated- The combat I felt like i had to see everything the game could offer and it just wasn't as interesting as I had hoped in the 3rd act
Overall- All the pieces for a great small game were here but the combat was just so dissapointing it dragged the story down and felt like slog
15.Greedfall (XSX) JUNE 27 49 HOURS AND 50 MINUTES 6/10
Loved- The actual RPG elements and the enviornment that gave me a new way to communicate in dialogue based challenges
Hated- The combat felt like a ps3/xb360 era RPG that didn't have a immersive skill tree
Overall- This is what a debut with limitations plays like a cool original setting just like Vampyr which also was fascinating till you had combat.
16.Assassin's Creed Origins The Hidden Ones (PS5) JULY 6 7 HOURS AND 35 MINUTES 7/10
Loved- First time i went back into Origins in a while and the next gen patch felt great
Hated- The side quests were usually great in the main game these felt like they were left on the cutting room
Overall- I really emjoyed the the way the hidden ones builds the legend of the assassins but it's dlc whre you can just repeat yourself with no goal after the main story ends
17.MLB The Show 22 (XSX) JULY 9 80 HOURS And 7 MINUTES 9/10
Loved- Road To the Show fixed it's 21 issue of just one created player and I had the best time with my closer /right fielder
Hated- The fact the game is not prepared for a legendary player in RTTS it doesn't know what to do other than repeat itself
Overall My most played video game of 2022 it fixed my issues with 21 and besides me breakinfg the game with the greatest hitter of all time It's just a great sports game
18.Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Shredder's Revenge (XSX) JULY 10 13 HOURS AND 21 MINTUES 8/10
Loved- The best online multiplayer game i played in 2022 with friends,the variety of playstyles with various characters
Hated- tiny not a hate The game is just not great solo without friends and its not Streets of Rage 4
Overall- TMNT games have always been a great co-op experience and Shredder's Revenge is why you play games online with friends
19.Sonic The Hedgehog (XSX) JULY 10 3HOURS AND 36 MINUTES 4/10
Loved- the thought of playing a game I had never finished before and had not played in over 25 years
Hated- Sonic is just not for me the awful water level that took up most of my one night playthrough
Overall- I am now confident I never need to play a sonic game again outside Sonic Spinball
20.Citizen Sleeper (XSX) JULY 23 10 HOURS AND 21 MINUTES 9/10
Loved- THE STORY/the writing I could not stop talking about the choices that were presented
Hated- Certain endings are vague in what the player can do to acquire items
Overall- Its one of my favorite gaming experiences of the year it asks all of the questions of the player of what would you do if you were one roll of the dice away from escaping your lot in life.
I won't be finishing off anymore games tomorrow, so going to go ahead and do my wrap up post now. With November, I have finished my 52. Came in pretty close this year vs last year when I finished almost two full months beforehand, but I ended up having much less time this year for a variety of reasons. Either way, the main goal is done, and onto the overflow.
December (54/52)
53. The Dark Pictures Anthology: The Devil in Me - Xbox Series X - 6 hours, 44 minutes
54. The Callisto Protocol - Xbox Series X - 10 hours, 56 minutes.
It feels like it's been quite a while since my last update - so here's November, including quite possibly my 2022 GotY! Main post here.
84. A Plague Tale: Requiem (Xbox Series X - Game Pass) | 5 November 2022 | 9/10
Completed with 100% of achievements unlocked (1,000G). Okay wow, this is just stunning. A sequel to A Plague Tale: Innocence, Requiem again follows the noble-born girl Amicia and her brother Hugo on a journey across plague-ridden medieval France, seeking a cure for a supernatural curse that afflicts Hugo. Once again a key mechanic of the game comes from the titular plague rats with which Hugo's curse provides an affinity - to his cost, as death and destruction seems to follow wherever he goes; Requiem is undoubtedly full of very grim, sad themes. Mechanically, the gameplay revolves around exploration, stealth and puzzle-solving, with an expanded but simultaneously streamlined set of abilities that consistently work well together.
However, where the game really excels starts with its artistic design, which is unerringly beautiful, even when in a metaphorical or literal dark manner. Environments range from lush fields and rolling waves, through a bustling festival village, to literal seas of rats and while I gather that there are expert technical analysis shows a few flaws with framerate drops, this genuinely didn't bother me at all, and I most I counted a single instance, in a cutscene, when I perceived this at all. Beyond this strength, though, we come to the well-told narrative and *especially* so the masterful character and relationship development. Voice actress Charlotte McBurney, as lead character Amicia, gives a superbly heartfelt performance throughout, despite having little previous professional experience prior to Innocence, and the interactions between Amicia and Hugo show a powerful bond that inspires real empathy; I genuinely don't think that I've ever seen such a powerful characterisation in any other game - and that includes all instances of The Last of Us, to which Requiem can in some ways be compared.
A Plague Tale: Requiem isn't quite getting a full 10/10 score from me as there is the occasional frustration in the stealth-focused elements of gameplay, but taking the game as a complete package, it's certainly a *very* impressive achievement and a story that will stay with me for a long while.
85. Mirror's Edge (Xbox 360) | 7 November 2022 | 6/10
Complete playthrough on normal difficulty. Clearly highly influential on future games, Mirror's Edge attempts a fairly pure distillation of parkour (free-running) gameplay - and when it works, it can be great. There's a satisfying fluidity to the first-person movement, achieved with an intelligently streamlined control system that maps the key controls - primarily jumping and ducking - to shoulder buttons, minimising the need to move your thumbs away from the control sticks. The art style is similarly streamlined, taking an effectively minimalistic approach to depict a near-future urban utilitarianism.
All too often, though, it becomes clear that rather than providing a semi-open world 'playground' to explore, in fact there's only one 'correct' path through a level; despite the use of a "runner vision" mechanic that purports to provide a guide to where to go, it's quite often not at all clear where that path is that allows progress, leading to significant frustration. Further frustration comes from the misjudged inclusion of combat sequences, frequently unavoidable and requiring a successful timing-based disarm action followed by some rudimentary gunplay. Running away may be possible, but then leads to the enemies (police officers, mostly) peppering protagonist Faith with gunfire from a distance - when one successful shot can send her off course and into a precipitous freefall.
Beyond these drawbacks, I can certainly see that for a certain type of player, learning the levels and attempting time trials has the potential to be really quite satisfying; I'd just like to see some more freedom in how the game allows each level to be attempted.
86. Ghost Song (Xbox Series X) | 13 November 2022 | 6/10
Completed on "ordinary" difficulty with all items/upgrades collected. Ghost Song is an overall decent Metroidvania, with a strong sense of mystery and otherworldliness in its environments but to be honest, only serviceable game mechanics. While the level design fits the bill with an apparently quite open layout, encouraging exploration, the means through which to undertake that exploration are quite limited - perhaps most immediately demonstrated by there being only two meaningful upgrades to traversal abilities. Combat is a clear focus here, e]with an interesting combination of ranged and melee weapons - repeated gunfire causes heat build-up that slows the rate of fire, but in doing so, also increases melee damage. However, the significant combat encounters typically come with bosses, and in many cases these are far too risky to encourage use of melee, epitomising the generally high level of difficulty throughout - to punishing and often frustrating effect. A 'corpse run' mechanic that sees the loss of experience from repeated deaths alongside lengthy distances between bosses and their closest save point serve to increase the potential for frustration.
There's some decent potential for customisation of approach, with interchangeable ability modules being the game's most significant collectibles, which does serve to bring some greater levels of interest to the experience - but this variety can't offset the feeling of frustration that was my overriding takeaway from the experience. Ghost Song isn't without value, and it's an impressive experience for a mostly solo developer, but if you do want to give it a go, I'd recommend playing on the easier "explorer" difficulty.
87. Call of Duty: Black Ops II (PC - Steam) | 21 November 2022 | 8/10
Campaign completed on Regular difficulty, including Strike Force win. I generally play Call of Duty games for their campaigns only, and even ten years after release, Black Ops II holds up pretty well. The story sees the return of the impactful cast from the original Black Ops, with some interesting gameplay innovations - in particular, with a modest extent of branching decision points that alter how later missions play out and a set of 'Strike Force' missions that require a more strategic approach. While each mission is inevitably heavily scripted (it wouldn't really be a Call of Duty game if they wasn't!), this is used to good effect to ensure that action and the player's investment in events remain high throughout.
The Strike Force missions justifiably divide opinion, as it's certainly a different approach, placing the player in command of a small squad of soldiers and supporting light armour, issuing attack or move orders in furtherance of often timed objectives - while also allowing direct control of any individual unit at will. However, these also present a strong potential for frustration, as allied units follow AI that's no better than typical campaign enemies and it's not uncommon to see them mowed down en masse. It's also nice to see a good degree of potential reply value across the campaign from a a series of challenges for each mission (e.g., a certain number of kills with a specific weapon, no deaths or efficient equipment use) - but the fairly lengthy extent of each mission deterred me from chasing after many of these. Even with just a single run through the game, though, I had a good time with Black Ops II's high-octane action.
88. Eastward (Switch) | 27 November 2022 | 7/10
Completed with all achievements unlocked except for Earth Born "new game+". Eastward is a 2D action RPG, somewhat styled on the classic Legend of Zelda games and Earthbound. Heavily story-driven, the game follows a pair a protagonists - John, a seemingly mute miner, and the young girl Sam - as they travel eastward, to escape and eventually confront a spreading miasma that's devastating the world. Gameplay is divided between towns where the story plays out and 'dungeon' areas focused on puzzle-solving and combat, and overall it's quite a gentle experience, with only rare occasions of significant challenge - arguably to the game's detriment overall, as some greater complexity to the dungeons would have been nice to see. Alongside this, the story segments take quite some time in character development for the core cast, which is a mixed blessing - this allows a real sense of investment in each of them, but means that the game can become really quite slow at times, with lengthy, uninterrupted story sequences. That story can at times also be quite difficult to follow properly and a fair few aspects aren't fully explained even by the end of the game.
More praiseworthy are the game's graphics, a definite standout feature as these are genuinely stunning, with incredibly detailed, beautiful pixelart throughout - even in seemingly unimportant areas of the game's world. This strong presentation is backed up by a nicely catchy soundtrack, with recurring motifs alongside fitting variety to suit each area that John and Sam travel to. Further demonstration of the impressive attention to detail can be seen from a few supplementary systems that feature throughout - particularly so a cooking mechanic used to produce healing meals and a fully-built roguelike take on the classic Dragon Quest games, available as a diversion within each town.
89. Somerville (Xbox Series X - Game Pass) | 28 November 2022 | 6/10
Completed with 100% of achievements unlocked (1,000G). The influences of INSIDE and Limbo are clear in this apocalyptic sci-fi adventure, but Somerville's transition to 3D does it few favours. Its environments are frequently unintuitive to navigate, with little to differentiate between static scenery and interactive objects - though once a puzzle becomes evident, the solution generally makes sense and is accessible with a little thought, without being excessively easy. The atmosphere and sound design is undoubtedly fantastic, but ultimately these are just in service of a fairly basic plot, perhaps inherently limited by its entirely wordless presentation and short (somewhere around 2-3 hours) overall length.
Game 22: L.A Noire (PS4) (4/5) (17 Hours) (November 27th, 2022)
This was a lot of fun, I played this in preparation for the inevitable Tim Rogers review. I'm going back on forth whether this is a 3/5 or a 4/5 but on further examination of the ending and given how much I LOVED the games detective gameplay as well as UI design I've bumped it up because what it does well is really that good. It's a flawed masterpiece because the open world sucks and the tailing scenes both on foot and in a car SUCK but they really had top notch detective gameplay intertwined with brilliant and interesting stories. The ending isn't 100% my favourite ending, but my thoughts on it now are much better than the initial ones I had.
11.FarCry 5 Dead Living Zombies (XSX) MAY 8 4 HOURS AND 17 MINUTES 3/10
Loved The gunplay was alright there was nothing I loved
Hated- Bootleg Left 4Dead but not fun with a movie director who is desperate
Overall-The exact reason why no one should buy the Farcry 5 season pass
12.Life Is Strange True Colors (XSX) MAY 29 12 HOURS AND 41 MINUTES 4/10
Loved- The idea that you coukd do a semi open LIS
Hated- The game is not an interesting story the mechanics don't enhance the story
Overall- I have been a huge fan of LIS (LIS 2 is my favorite) this was a huge let down much like Tell Me Why
I respect the effort but this game was the most basic LIS yet i expect better
13.Horizon Zero Dawn The Frozen Wilds (PS5) MAY 30 10 HOURS AND 11 MINUTES 6/10
Loved- The enviorment was a nice addition,the combat,dlc weapons
Hated- It's nothing that you haven't already done outside the tower messing with your armour
Overall- I enjoyed the tribe storyline but outside a couple wrinkles its just more HZD
14.Trek To Yomi (XSX) JUNE 18 8 HOURS AND 19 MINUTES 4/10
Loved -the setting,the art direction,the influence of classic side scrolling stealth games
Hated- The combat I felt like i had to see everything the game could offer and it just wasn't as interesting as I had hoped in the 3rd act
Overall- All the pieces for a great small game were here but the combat was just so dissapointing it dragged the story down and felt like slog
15.Greedfall (XSX) JUNE 27 49 HOURS AND 50 MINUTES 6/10
Loved- The actual RPG elements and the enviornment that gave me a new way to communicate in dialogue based challenges
Hated- The combat felt like a ps3/xb360 era RPG that didn't have a immersive skill tree
Overall- This is what a debut with limitations plays like a cool original setting just like Vampyr which also was fascinating till you had combat.
16.Assassin's Creed Origins The Hidden Ones (PS5) JULY 6 7 HOURS AND 35 MINUTES 7/10
Loved- First time i went back into Origins in a while and the next gen patch felt great
Hated- The side quests were usually great in the main game these felt like they were left on the cutting room
Overall- I really emjoyed the the way the hidden ones builds the legend of the assassins but it's dlc whre you can just repeat yourself with no goal after the main story ends
17.MLB The Show 22 (XSX) JULY 9 80 HOURS And 7 MINUTES 9/10
Loved- Road To the Show fixed it's 21 issue of just one created player and I had the best time with my closer /right fielder
Hated- The fact the game is not prepared for a legendary player in RTTS it doesn't know what to do other than repeat itself
Overall My most played video game of 2022 it fixed my issues with 21 and besides me breakinfg the game with the greatest hitter of all time It's just a great sports game
18.Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Shredder's Revenge (XSX) JULY 10 13 HOURS AND 21 MINTUES 8/10
Loved- The best online multiplayer game i played in 2022 with friends,the variety of playstyles with various characters
Hated- tiny not a hate The game is just not great solo without friends and its not Streets of Rage 4
Overall- TMNT games have always been a great co-op experience and Shredder's Revenge is why you play games online with friends
19.Sonic The Hedgehog (XSX) JULY 10 3HOURS AND 36 MINUTES 4/10
Loved- the thought of playing a game I had never finished before and had not played in over 25 years
Hated- Sonic is just not for me the awful water level that took up most of my one night playthrough
Overall- I am now confident I never need to play a sonic game again outside Sonic Spinball
20.Citizen Sleeper (XSX) JULY 23 10 HOURS AND 21 MINUTES 9/10
Loved- THE STORY/the writing I could not stop talking about the choices that were presented
Hated- Certain endings are vague in what the player can do to acquire items
Overall- Its one of my favorite gaming experiences of the year it asks all of the questions of the player of what would you do if you were one roll of the dice away from escaping your lot in life.
#21-#30 21.Assassin's Creed Origins Curse Of The Pharoahs (PS5) JULY 25 12 HOURS 8/10
Loved- The mythical beasts fights and the ability of the cursed pharoahs to show up out of nowhere added a new element
Hated- The boss fights slowly became wait for your abilities to charge and run around till then
Overall-A good finish to Origins that didn't make the mistake of trying to re-write Ac lore
22.The Quarry (XSX) AUG 14 18 HRS AND 29 MINUTES 5/10
Loved- The setting I have wanted a choose your fate game set in a summer camp
Hated- I already played this game when it was better called Until Dawn a more rewarding experience
Overall- A crushing dissapointment to someone who adores Until Dawn there was nothing new to the formula
23.The Stanley Parable Ultra Deluxe (PS5) 14 HOURS AND 12 MINUTES 8/10
Loved- The everyday mundane deadpan humor that sets up every joke as it becomes obvious
Hated- The game that is there only has a short shelf life the same joke isn't as funny 4x
Overall- I really had a great time the first three playthroughs and after that no more doors could open
24.Immortality (XSX) SEP 6 10 HRS AND 4 MINUTES 9/10
Loved- The best magic eye puzzle and the ambition of using 3 different movies with one actor
Hated- The rumble is not enough and once the game clicks you spend so much time repeating scenes to get to the secrets
Overall-The concept was brillant the execution was strong and it has stuck with me all year I think about how much creativity this experience took.
25 Tiny Tina Wonderlands (XSX) SEP 12 26 HOURS AND 17 MINUTES 7/10
Loved- The weapons that had slight variations on the borderlands theme,the supporting cast was very funny/great villain
Hated- Tiny Tina the story arc is never anything other than obnoxious no matter what they do with her character
Overall- I enjoy the gameplay the loot the ridiculous d/d plot but its still a very surface experience since Tiny is involved
26.Two Point Campus (XSX) SEP 18 96 HOURS AND1 MINUTE 7/10
Loved- It was the perfect game to play with my wife since she enjoys sims/animal crossing it allowed me to create challenges for her
Hated- The longest tutorial i played all year we couldn't unlock new maps fast enough
Overall- It was a summer game that felt like a great way for us to spend time building silly classrooms together
27.Assasin's Creed Vahalla (XSX) OCT 11 121 HOURS AND 29 MINUTES 8/10
Loved- I really liked how they took Dragon Age territory storyline and applied it to the Viking era/ Dual spear combat was incredible
Hated- The side content is just wack and there's just too much game you could easily burnout with a skill tree that is just intimidating at first
Overall- Its a well told ac game and should have nothing to do with AC as well
28.Cult of The Lamb (XSX) OCT 19 38 HOURS AND 48 MINUTES 9/10
Loved- Its the best co-op game with my wife i ran dungeons she managed the cult/cult powers
Hated- Nothing I hated but the glitches but once that was fixed I just wanted more dungeons and new weapons and curses
Overall- One of my favorite gaming expereiences was learning just how far you could push the cult to see how loyal they were
29.MADDEN 23 (XSX) OCT 21 58 HOURS AND 3 MINUTES 5/10
Loved- How stupid it is to break Face of the Franchise I can create the worst player possible and be offered the starting job no matter how many games i lose or poor play the game keeps treating me like im a sports god
Hated - Madden is a broken mess and it's getting worse every year with the hilarious glitches and bad arcade football
Overall I had to turn all the fumbles up to 100 to get the game to stop fumbling every 3 plays that's how bad it is
30.Assasin's Creed Vahalla The Wraith of The Druids (XSX) OCT 30 12 HOURS AND 16 MINUTES 8/10
Loved- Children of Danu side quests were well worth the reward and the nightmare fuel fights were very cool
Hated- The design of needing another excuse to force raids for another currency in Ireland with shipping quests
Overall- I liked the direction of Evior's journey of just giving us a new playground to hit the best parts of the main game mystery/exploration/diplomacy
November's done, and so is the likelihood of me finishing the 52-game challenge this year, probably:
41. Blue Reflection (PS4, 2017) - 31:22 - November 17
Decided to give myself a break. I dislike how in recent years, December has become a bit of a rush to get in a bunch of short games just to get to 52 in time, and I also kind of hate how the challenge as a whole has discouraged me from playing some of the longer games in my backlog. So for now, and probably into 2023, I'm cutting myself some slack. Blue Reflection was the first long-ish game in my backlog to benefit, though I actually finished it in pretty good time considering. Next up: Persona 5 Royal, finally.
I'm also playing The Entropy Center (almost done) and will dig into some of the goodies I picked up from the Steam autumn sale after that. Plus I'd still like to get back to Soul Hackers 2, now that the new patch is out. Maybe I'll even break out the Switch again; it's hilarious how I basically haven't touched it in half a year, even though I have a bunch of new games for it. One thing is very likely, though: unless I manage to finish eleven games in a month, I'm not going to make 52. And I'm okay with that.
I'm putting Marvel Snap as 'beaten' here, since I told myself I'd take a break from playing it upon reaching Pool 2 (I'm in Pool 3 now, so obviously that didn't happen). This is one dangerously addictive game, with the short matches and constant allure of new cards keeping me coming back. I could never get into Hearthstone or Shadowverse, but this game has me hooked despite not caring much for the Marvel license. Each new card I unlocked had me wanting to try out different strategies, whether that be destroying or discarding cards, moving characters around or flooding each area with super-powered squirrels.
Since the game is based around playing cards to take control of one of three random areas, you can never approach every match with the exact same strategy. The ability to 'snap' and increase how many points you win and lose from matches adds an extra layer of mind games that makes each showdown exciting, even when they rarely take more than 2 minutes.
The game did get a little frustrating as I entered the higher pools, once everyone was using cards I didn't actually have access to yet. At least the game doesn't give paying players any kind of advantage since the monetisation is basically limited to cosmetic stuff. I haven't spent a cent, though I'd go for the battle pass if it weren't so overpriced in my region.
#31 - Final Fantasy XIII-2 (Xbox 360) -★★☆☆☆
After Final Fantasy XIII was criticised for being too linear, this sequel went too far in the other direction, with a largely directionless adventure through time. Final Fantasy XIII-2 gets rid of most of the cast to focus on Lightning's sister Serah and her new time-travelling friend, Noel, who have very little chemistry. Oh, there's an annoying moogle along for the ride as well.
The fun of time travel in games is changing things in the past to affect the future settings, but there isn't a whole lot of that here. In fact, the whole time travel conceit seems like more of an excuse to reuse the same environments across different time periods. Serah and Noel just kind of stumble around finding invisible items, solving random puzzles and talking about paradoxes a whole lot. I have no clue what was happening in the plot by the end, but they got Liam O'Brien to do his Grimoire Weiss voice as the villain, so I can't complain too much.
The paradigm-switching battle system is still fantastic, but fights involve a lot more quick time events, which doesn't exactly improve them. The party's third slot is now filled by a monster ally, with various beasts being recruited after battles. It's fun to fight alongside familiar Final Fantasy monsters, but levelling them is a bit of a grind and powering up certain monsters makes the battles all too easy. The only real challenge came from a huge difficulty spike right at the end.
So it's not a great game, but the soundtrack was outstanding. It's a weird mix of musical genres, featuring both hip hop beats, metal songs about chocobos and some excellent tracks by the late Origa. Playing the Xbox 360 version at a high resolution was nice, but it has a weird backwards compatibility bug where the usual stable framerate will sometimes randomly turn into a slideshow. It's a shame that hasn't been fixed yet, but it's the least of this game's problems.
#32 - Frog Detective 3 (PC)- ★★★★☆
The delightful conclusion to this trilogy didn't disappoint. As usual, the second best detective finds himself solving a mystery in a world of weird animal people where crime doesn't exist. There's some hilarious dialogue, sick scooter tricks, and a great soundtrack that features both homages to classic westerns and a worm playing ragtime piano.
#33 - Vampire Survivors (PC) - ★★★☆☆
I was ready to dismiss Vampire Survivors as some flash-in-the-pan Flappy Bird nonsense, what with its stolen sprites and sudden popularity, but it ended up getting its hooks into me. There's something undeniably compelling about powering up your vampire hunter to the point where they're filling the screen with knives, axes and bombing birds, all while searching for the sweet dopamine hit of opening a treasure chest.
It's addictive to a certain point, although once you figure out what items combo together to create powerful evolutions, waiting out the 30 minutes with your automatic attacks gets kind of boring. I didn't see the credits, but I cleared what seems like every area, so I may as well take a break. Vampire Survivors was a great game to play while listening to podcasts and sets a fun template that I'm sure plenty of games will improve on.
#34 - Pocket Card Jockey (3DS) - ★★★★☆
Solitaire and horse racing is a strange combination, but somehow it works here. Playing cards and positioning your horse has a surprising amount of strategy, not to mention a superb soundtrack. The sense of progress in raising your horse and taking on tougher races is satisfying, at least the first few times you go through the cycle.
What holds Pocket Card Jockey back is how repetitive it gets. It's also frustrating when it forces you to face off against horses you have no hope of beating. The game becomes quite the slow grind as you wait around for your prize-winning horses to get it on, hoping that their offspring will actually have decent stats and abilities. Still, it's a fun concept and I'm glad Game Freak might be revisiting it in the near future.
You know how I mentioned about Splatoon 3 being the ultimate pick me up game and something to just jump into whenever & wherever? Well Overwatch 2 has dethroned Splatoon 3 for that game that I just lose hours upon on a random sitting after work or on the weekend. In fairness to Splatoon 3 however, I was pretty hooked onto Overwatch 1 as someone who played the Beta and bought the game Day 1 for the PS4 so I would naturally like what Overwatch 2 essentially represents. Is there a whole lot of innovation with Overwatch 2 vs it's predecessor? No not really, even as someone who dipped well off the game for a couple of years. It still has an easy enough hook to it where I feel like there's a hero for everyone, whether they're support or attack/DPS or tank.
Not sure if there's a real way to complete this game but I did hit all of the battle tier(Level 80) so I feel like good in regards to closing this game out. I would say the luster of this game has already worn down on me but I might get back into this game once the next hero, Ramattra drops. Overwatch 2 is a game I still watch other streamers play, especially with the incentive of the "Twitch drops" or a way to get free cosmetic items for watching _______of an Overwatch 2 streamer. I still miss the old Lootbox system and I don't think the current system is very appealing or even good as far as earning new accessories are concerned but that isn't a deal breaker in the least bit for me.
You'll enjoy yourself with Overwatch 2, especially if you have any familiarity or at all enjoyed the original. Not too much has changed, some characters absolutely feel differently. Zarya who was my favorite tank feels a little odd with the limited bubbles but she in the right hands can still do great. Mercy feels different without the one time resurrection usage. Zenyatta who was my favorite hero feels largely untouched outside of his melee attack now having knockback ability.
The game itself is rather addictive but I think the same issue that existed with Overwatch 1 hits this game where there just isn't too much meat on the bone and that if you at all dive into competitive play(Which I once did but have no need to now), the matchmaking and "win 1, lose 1' mantra sort of kills this game in the long term. This game has introduced 3 new heroes, Junker Queen who is a tank, Kiriko who is a heler and Sojorner who is DPS/attack and the real perk to Overwatch 2 is that this is free to play regardless if you owned Overwatch 1 or not, so in that regard, it's most definitely worth a taste. Just how much enjoyment you get out of that taste may vary however.
Disclaimer: I actually enjoyed Bayonetta 1. Yes the story is goofy and all and it isn't an overly long game but heck if the combat wasn't crisp and if it did Devil May Cry justice as a game that plays very much alike it. By no means was Bayonetta a perfect game, the QTEs were downright cruel with how fast of a reaction they asked of the player where instant deaths were going to happen and I think you have to not take the score you get at the end of each chapter seriously(I was getting D's at will). But in comparison to Bayonetta 2, I think the former did what it set out to do so much better, contrary to the majority belief that Bayonetta 2 is vastly superior.
Now opinions and everything but Bayonetta 2 does the combat and deepness of it much better than the 1st one. It still plays similar core-gameplay wise but the different sets of enemies(Angels AND demons) gives you different enemy patterns in addition to the arsenal that Bayonetta the main character already provides. The Quick Time Events were cleaned up heavily where the game is much, much more lenient with the time given to press to not suffer damage/defeat or button mashing to get a climax/extra damage segment. There are flying climatic battles that are visually awe-inspiring and add a fair amount of originality needed in what is an essential hack & slash game for 8-10 hours. From a battle perspective, Bayonetta 2 does the 1st just a notch better.
Where Bayonetta 2 fails for me is a few things. The Story is even more far out there then Bayonetta 1 which sort of fell flat with me as there was a bigger emphasis on newer characters, which in theory is not a problem......unless the new characters are pretty unlikable. In whatever best way I am able to explain this, your best friend's soul is taken and that is the main priority for Bayonetta/main protagonist to go through hell and back to get her friend back. That gets lost along the way with an introduction of a new character and it sort of takes a backseat to the development of this new character and without spoiling anything, it's just a mess throughout the game. Again, you sort of know better to not expect an A+ story from a game like this but I gave up on a majority of the storytelling which somehow makes Bayonetta 1 look like Citizen Kane as far as direction goes.
The biggest gripe I have with Bayonetta 2 is it's just so linear and the overall pacing felt off with this game. Like it's fight group of enemies, walk around, fight group again, bonus mission, fight group of enemies. Rinse & repeat. I would say this is just a case of "Hack & Slash game doing it's own thing" but I never felt this type of fatigue when it came to playing Devil May Cry V which came out a few years later. I think the 3 different characters helped make the game feel fresh in that regard, where as despite the different fighting styles Bayonetta has at her disposal, it still feels like your facing the same criteria throughout the game. Likewise, the pacing of the game felt off for me. 10+ minutes of cutscene and dialogue to open the game, a little bit of gameplay followed up by more cutscenes, the game finally gets into a groove in the final 1/3 after suffering from this same issue for 2/3 of the way through. In fact, I can easily say the final 1/3 of the game is very enjoyable and on par with the very best that Bayonetta 1 had to offer. It's just the slog of needing to go through a game that has you fighting hoards of enemies with 1-2 different attacks followed up by the convoluted story(Albeit the cutscenes are skippable in fairness to the game) makes you wonder how great the ending segments of Bayonetta 2 truly are.
I thought I would like Bayonetta 2 a bit more and for most, I think the game does more of the same and if you like this type of genre as a diehard, you will probably end up liking Bayonetta 2. But for someone who plays these games but isn't fully invested in knowing all of the combo from A to Z and isn't searching hours upon end of the game's hidden lore, you may feel Bayonetta 2 just comes and goes as an experience. I might be one of the very few who preferred the original over 2 but here I am.
43) The Walking Dead Season 1+ 400 Days DLC(PS4) 11/1, 11/3, 11/5
This happens to be a replay of TWD S1 for the 3rd or 4th time while this is a 2nd run of TWD S2. Why do this here in 2022? Because at the time, this was a Halloween game for me and as mentioned by the fact that I have replayed this game 2-3 times prior, I really liked TWD S1 clearly. Likewise, the only games I played of this iconic Telltale series was TWD S1 and S2 only, I never played TWD New Frontier of TWD Final Season so it makes sense to revisit the entire series from the beginning. Not too much to really say without spoiling the game outside of saying that TWD S1 still sticks out to me as the best Telltale experience, although I will say Tales from the Borderlands Season 1 followed by The Wolf Among Us come very close to capturing how good of a pace this game had. Don't get me wrong, the visual and framerate are still atrocious, even for a PS4 collection of these games and they make this game somewhat of an eyesore but outside of that, the game has a good cast of characters and for where it was as a decision based game, it was very good. Now, the choices mean diddly squat and there's no real repercussion to what you say to a character but the voice acting of these characters still are superb(Even if Episode 1 feels a bit gimp with the production value, especially in comparison to the rest of the 4 episodes) and the story direction of where this game goes is still great. Each episode runs about 3 hours give or take so there's definitely some meat on the bone as far as content goes, even if it's linear and again the choices don't mean too much in the grand scheme of things.
So I combined the DLC with TWD S1 because of how short it is and because it's technically part of Season 1 according to the game. Because well yeah, 400 days maybe goes on for 60 minutes at best and spoiler alert
Has little to no real barring on the significance of TWD S2 with each of the characters' involvement
. It's also the worst of the 6 episodes by far because it features little involvement from TWD S1, from the cast of characters you care about outside of 1 Easter egg.
Overall, TWD S1 still holds up well even a decade after release. Not a game that will win you over if you don't like these Telltale formulatic games but if you at all like this genre, this is the one that got it's popularity out of the gates and it is good reason to see why.
44) Turnip Boy Commits Tax Evasion(XB1) 11/9-11/10
When you are down a bit upon this 52 game completion, you need essential freebies as they call it to get yourself back in the game and here is the perfect candidate for this in Turnip Boy Commits Tax Evasion. It's cute in what it tries to be, it runs about 3-4 hours tops and it's very simplistic from a combat perspective. There's no real deepness to the combat and it's very fetch questy where you need to go to point A and get an item to progress to Point B but there's nothing really wrong with that for this type of Indie game. The humor is a selling point to some, with some very Quarantine/2020 Pandemic timed puns as well as some puns you'd expect from a game that pokes fun at itself and while it all doesn't necessarily hit, there were a couple of laughs out of me to this game's credit. Not a hard game which is a plus for this one, there's again little evolvement with the combat which includes the final boss of this game. This game is very Zelda like with a top down perspective and needing to unlock puzzles to progress further but these puzzles are far from challenging and it ultimately requires timing and using one of the few game mechanics to allow you to progress. The enemy design is very samesy and the bosses are more of less fought similarly enough so if your looking for a game with clever, innovative combat, Turnip Boy Commits Tax Evasion isn't your game. Overall though, it's a game that comes, goes and lasts for a mere 1-2 nighter. Not a bad game, but probably something I will forget within a few months.
Despite finishing the game a couple of weeks ago now, I've struggled to figure out where I land on it, 4 stars up there doesn't tell the whole story, at times the game borders on 5 star territory, at others it drops down to 3, it's a bit of a whiplash inducing outing for me.
On paper this is exactly the sequel I asked for, more enemies? we got 'em, more boss encounters? you betcha? more plot developments so the game's story progress doesn't feel like a constant series of roadblocks/macguffin detours?.....errr kinda yes and no?
Look I've been in this thread multiple times over the last two weeks trying to actually type something up here, and it tends to lean towards COMBAT GUD, BOSSES ALSO GUD, TRAVERSAL MID, PUZZLES KINDA BAD, STORY MIXED, and to actually explain each of these in a way that satisfies myself is a deep spoileriffic dive into each one individually.
I'm gonna hold fire on that, and try to really just get to the point for once in my life (lol, good luck me). Ragnarok's scope is impressively huge, so much so that the game does buckle under its own weight in places. The need to be everything, appeal to everyone, justify that ludicrous price tag, chase those top review scores.
Of course all games are aiming for great review scores ideally so that statement might seem like "yeah no shit Owl", especially after the praise already heaped upon its 2018 predecessor. Yet the game I played, while absolutely a quality product, has this kinda underlying feeling of being torn between what the devs feel is their magnum opus, and what the suits and focus groups determine what makes the most widely appealing game possible.
Ragnarök has this meaty and enjoyable combat that even on normal mode can put you through the wringer, it's also got characters never shutting the eff up no matter how deep you are into the game under the guise of being helpful like it expects you to be completely hopeless.
Look when I'm in the endgame segment, when Kratos is visibly covered in smouldering flames, my health bar depletes slowly in response while the edges of the screen flare up to indicate that I am indeed on fire, it still needs Mimir for the umpteenth flippin' time to pipe up "YOU'RE ON FIRE KRATOS, DON'T WORRY, IT'LL PASS"
"YUH COVERED IN BIFROST"
"TRY USING YOUR SHIELD"
that last one really was taking the piss, the kind of annoying backseating antics that just gets under your skin in 30 plus hour long game, to say it makes Fi from Skyward Sword seem tolerable is not something I say lightly.
Modern Sony games seem straight up afraid of silence because this even happens outside of combat, the puzzles are already a sticking point for me as they've barely moved on from their basic 2018 implementation, now back for another overly repetitive round of urn smashing, sconce lighting and crane turning. Puzzles as a pace breaker are fine, what's shocking to me is both how little they evolve throughout the game (with the later sigil mecnahic being kinda actively wonky/unreliable) and how quick the NPCs are to try and just tell you the solution to each step.
The lush visual density of the game comes at the cost of clear readability, for every moment I wished the characters let me think for myself, there might be another where I'm just glancing around trying to find the interactable elements in the scene and the same thing I curse comes to my rescue in the form of a side character glaring so intently at a certain wall that it's like "oh, yeah, there's grooves to climb there".
The cast can bounce off each other in fun ways, they can interact in ill fitting MCU lite ways, the plot has hype moments, it has emotional moments, it has unearned moments, it has tonal shifts that feel like I'm playing a completely different worse game (*cough* ironwood/climbing that one wall *cough). Some characters develop in interesting ways (this game has a lot of fun with the Dwarves), some feel like I'm watching a really generic anime protag who is steps away from the power of friendship speech, and then you've got Odin and it's like "this isn't what I expected but..I kinda really like it?"
I'll always be impressed that SSM chose to not soft reboot the series and instead dared to take the mass murdering godslayer from a different era of video games and keep all his tales canonical, it's part of what gives 2018's story and character development its shine. Meanwhile Ragnarök can really feel like its pushing the limits of how much you can stretch the belief here, Kratos almost reminds me of the kind of characterisation contrast over time I'd reserve for the likes of WWE's John Cena, if you know, you know.
If you're willing to accept some leaps here and there, there's a fun popcorn flick story in here, while MCU comparisons often come with the feeling of being a dismissal/negative, the reality is I've watched like all of that stuff and I'm totally up for some bombastic action fluff with a few genuine high points sprinkled in.
The production values and performances from a title like this are always worth taking in, I don't think I'll ever truly love a game built in this mould, but I never regret taking the time to see how Sony's studios and others can push this particular branch of gaming, and Ragnarök is no doubt among the best there, even if it can seem like a theme park ride at points (like, there's a straight up log flume ride at one point lol)
Most importantly is that despite everything, Ragnarok remains a game arse game despite its cinematic ambitions, it has that level of snappy playability to it that surpasses its similar contemporaries and that counts for a lot, the crux of this is me coming back to the core combat being so fun, alongside a side of exploration with how much surprising openness lurks within this game, to the point that a late game optional area could've been an entire DLC expansion area and I'd not have batted an eyelid.
I suppose you could say that God of War Ragnarök shows the strengths of weaknesses of your modern AAA(A) in full effect, in some ways a better game than its predecessor, and weaker in others.
74. Pokemon Violet (22/12/22) ★★★
And now for a behemoth franchise that presents its outings like it can only afford two of those triple As despite having more money than God that apparently doesn't get back to the devs as much as it should.
The Donphan in the room here is of course the performance, Pokemon's 9th generation has kicked off with a new low in quality control, not just for Pokemon games, but especially among Nintendo first party titles.
And how much your mileage varies here plays a big factor in how you'll likely feel about this game, impressions ranging from the best pokemon games since Generation 5 on the DS, to the new criminal low that Game Freak can't keep getting away with, we're travelling the whole spectrum here.
So of course I land in the middle, pop me in the pokedex as the "fence sitter" pokemon because I'm out here having a lot of genuine fun with this entry, while simultaneously bewildered at some of the fuckery within. I'm oddly reminded of way back when, the long long ago when Skyrim was a new game and had yet to be re-released on your refrigerator or whatever, the game landed as an instant classic despite some truly crazy performance woes and glitches on the PS3 version.
As someone outside the hype bubble I was like "how are the people just accepting this shit?", the answer was probably just that they were having fun, and/or the issues hadn't negatively affected their playthrough.
I think Pokemon Violet finally gives me a game to place me in those PS3 Skyrim shoes, a friend of mine asking if the game is as much as a trash fire as it seems on reddit, and I'm stuck like "uhhhh, yes? but also kinda not really?", I think most have already picked their position for this one.
Let it be said, that I never fell through the earth's core, my avatar's eyes never bulged out their head, the game never even hardlocked on me.
It did however display some wackadoodle flashing lighting, has odd delays in trainer battles that reek of that classic Game Freak can't optimise for shit trope and some truly baffling camera angles or pokemon model placements when slopes are involved. Actually let me add that the battle camera in this game is absolute bollocks half the time, which is bizarre as Arceus Legends had no such issues when it came to open world encounters.
And there's the thing, Arceus Legends already exists and in a way ate a lot of this game's lunch, it's more polished, performs better, fixed a lot of small issues affecting gameplay pacing that Violet has now brought back as if these games were developed in separate companies with no overlapping development discussion.
Pokemon's secret weapon of course, is that the formula is kinda crack, it's the most easy to down JRPG out there, doesn't overstay it's welcome, offers a ton of content if you want more, lets the player express their individuality with such a wide potential variety in team building. So it's the usual "if it ain't broke..." thing, while also actually shaking up the progression and world design in a way that simultaneously makes this the boldest mainline outing since...ever?
We kinda have to shuffle Legends to the side here to support such a claim, but even with a direct comparison to that game, here's a full open world in Paldea, compared to a series of individual open maps Leegnds opted for.
The new framework of this entry makes that pokecrack even more cracked than ever, once you're past the obligatory slow intro, the game just lets you off the leash and oh my word is it freeing, I shouldn't be saying "after playing the sometimes patronising God of War, Pokemon sure feels like it respects me as a player!" yet, here I am, well except for the part where GF continue to remove features/options for no reason, RIP Shift mode, I used you once in Ultra Sun.
While the ability to go anywhere is curbed somewhat by that little thing known as "levels", it's still rather freeing, I tackled gyms above my current station, fought boss titan pokemon that turned out to be 20 levels higher than me by using the rarely required tactics, and then conversely rolled over some areas with complete ease as an overlevelled pokesmurf. The game as it stands is still piddle easy, mostly, because the endgame suddenly spikes and it's not often I get to say that's a good thing.
In fact the endgame, that converges all of the game's three main plot points together, is such an unexpected highlight that gives you a glimpse of a different kind of pokemon game, with companions bantering as you explore winding landmasses, basically Xenoblade but Pokemon.
That's another of the interesting points here, to me, the main problem with the Sword/Shield entries prior wasn't performace related or due to me expecting more from the visuals, it was the cardinal sin of the game's last third feeling positively unfinished/rushed. This time, it may feel like the game's unfinished in polish and performance, but the actual game part is all here and that's arguably more important.
As always, not giving themselves extra time to actually polish up their games has crunched game freak in the arse and lowered their defence, It'd be intereesting to see how different reviews might've been if this game at least had the polish of Legends, well what counts as polish at least in GF town.
Random other points
- The new batch of pokemon are solid as usual, but they may be my least liked of all new generations, though I respect the balls on some of these designs, it really runs the gamut from "this is just a basic bitch bird that's barely different from reality" to "cheesestring man made from golden coins", sometimes both like "here's a cute Dolphin that turns into a bizarre Dolphin superman/All Might"
- Pokemon character design continues to eternally slap, also Nemona is easily the most enjoyable rival in like, forever, and Larry is peak midlife vibe, just Larry man.
- The school setting is woefully underutlised, there's some basic sidequest/not persona social links stuff that makes use of it, but I can't help but think it's the most missed potential part of the whole game. The headmaster's pathetic disguise for the team star questline might be the most legitimately funny thing to me in the series history though.
- World design shows promise, a lot of verticality, a few caves that go deeper than they appear, the rewards for exploring are a bit middling though, TMs and bag items are nice and all, but I think some pokemon should be more hidden within the world itself, tripping over all these dragon pokemon feels wrong, tuck 'em away, make me work for them! as it stands only the new legendary quartet really lean into that.
- Town design meanwhile is all window dressing, some can be quite striking visually when the game isn't throwing a frame rate fit , but the lack of meaningful interactions within them leave them feeling flat. I don't have the same desire for building interiors as others, but they need more meat on their bones.
- A step above the weaker series outings (X/Y, S/S, those Gen 4 remakes from last year), but lacking the freshness and pleasant surprise barrage of this years own Legends
Coming up next, the final frontiers of my Sonic fandom? and the latest castlevania spinoff that's legally not actually castlevania
Uncharacteristic of Sonic Team is them actually taking their time making Sonic games, what was once a borderline annual franchise has been in hedgehog hibernation since their aggressively mediocre Sonic Forces was embarrassed by the genuine classic In Sonic Mania back in 2017.
Outside Sumo's perfectly okay racing game and some ports, it's been pretty quiet for Sonic on the gaming front, now after five years Sonic Team finally delivered the fruits of their labour, a title they claim is the new foundation for the next decade of sonic, a game where the producer stated their design intention to return Sonic to the top of the industry.
And now in the aftermath of the game's release, a new statement saying "we've still got a long way to go"
Yes, yes you do.
I'd be lying if I didn't say that there wasn't fun to be had playing Sonic's latest, if nothing else its core gameplay derived from Unleashed back in 2008 still has its pull, simultaneously that's also the game's biggest problem. Despite the "open zone" gameplay as they coined it, despite new abilities and a more involved combat syastem, the bones of this title are weary and well over a decade old.
The potential of Sonic in an open world has been something people have desired since the opening to Sonic CD, fan games have tackled the concept, and now at last Sega themselves have approached it, and done so in the most head scratching way I could think of.
One of the appeals of an open world is, of course, the world itself, when you think of Sonic's world it could be all sorts. The chequerboard hills that make up the series main and admittedly overused iconography, floating neon pinball tables set upon a nighttime cityscape, stylised interpretations of real world cities from Adventure 2's San Francisco like City Escape to Unleashed's world adventure format. For a franchise with such a rich visual history, one of the things it could boast over Mario in the 16 bit console wars even, how the heck did the team settle on Frontiers visual design I have no idea.
Actually I lie, it's clear as with most titles that have eyed up the success of Breath of the Wild, that a world of mystery and intrigue, rich in nature, Sonic is no stranger to ancient ruins and it opts to blend these with unspoilt nature, okay so that's not a bad idea...
Except for the plethora of generic vaguely sci-fi themed stage assets popping in every step of the world, a world which in itself looks so boilerplate like they used their starting base for a steam greenlight outing for the whole game.
Look, this isn't to say the game is actively ugly, I can even forgive the pop in somewhat, it looks clean, runs well enough (on PS5 here so I sure hope it would) and such.
It just inspires absolutely nothing exciting in me, these landscapes lack any true flair, I legitimately find the frame rate chuggin' region of Paldea from Pokemon Violet more visually engaging. This extends to the enemies, perfectly acceptable pointy robots, designed to look otherworldly and sleek compared to Eggman's fare, it's a step up over the game maps for sure but still has a whiff of being out of place. Well actually in part that's the idea right? the towering bosses like something out of Evangelion trouncing across a grassland and hills not unlike our own, except with the cartoon Hedgehog and his friends dropped in to a world they don't fit in.
Regardless of design intention, this is the blandest looking Sonic game to me since 06, not a comparison one wants for sure.
So the world has already lost me, what can the plot and characters do? well Roger Craig Smith is back as Sonic, except now he's putting on a version of the voice that makes it sound like an underage Sonic is trying to buy some alcohol, because we're back to serious times now dammit. It's not a bad voice acting job by any means, Amy for instance has never been less annoying, Tails actually sounds about the same and it's still the best Tails so sure, I'll take it.
Even Eggman is on for the tonal shift despite having the same OHHOHOHO-ING voice actor, once again it's well delivered, it's just jarring and serves as a wary precursor to the story being told here.
And that story is bloody boring, what I wouldn't have given for an ounce of that adventure cheese, something so bad it's good, instead I've got good performances built around incredibly stoic interactions as Sonic chinwags with his friends in the dryest manner possible, masking the lack of anything really happening despite the frequent dialogue interruptions.
I'm sure some out there are really into this, you've got Tails dropping references to previous games in passing as if to say "look, this all happened, it mattered, your love of Heroes' Neo Metal Sonic and Unleashed's Dark Gaia has been rewarded, shit even the deadly six are gonna get a name drop!", yes that's grand and all but i also don't give a damn about what you're saying here in the first place.
Tails having another character confidence crisis out of nowhere, it's been done pal, the feeling that no one really knows how to write Knuckles since his transition to being the series Piccolo or whatever, yes but what of the main plot that's driving this game forward otherwise? Well it's a mystery of sorts, just not an engaging one. Sonic and friends are trapped in cyberspace, a mysterious emotionless girl looks to hinder our hero while another mysterious robotic voice guides Sonic.
Now if you guessed that the emotionless logic driven cyber girl learns to emotion because Sonic never gives up, that the mystery voice is probably not something you want to help and that Eggman will begrudgingly help sonic out in the end, well damn spoilers son, you nailed it.
Comic fans went into this game hyping Ian Flynn to the heavens, and he sure pays respect to Sonic's past I guess? I don't think he was given much reign to write anything all that interesting here, it's perfectly functional but really serves to give relief to those who wanted Sonic to pivot away from the Saturday morning cartoon "comedy" since Colours, and it's done that, just in the most unexciting way it could. (then again, the game has quips on the same level as those games so....well honestly I don't mind them so whatever)
I've really been doing my best to not talk about the part where you play the game huh, I needed to set that groundwork, where the game already feels rather unexciting for something that's supposed to be thrilling and new.
So here's the hook, Sonic collects a bunch of trinkets scattered across slabs of land, instead of the exploration involving interesting platforming via the geography and having intriguing landmarks to hook your attention, Frontiers just spunks out the bits and pieces of Sonic's boost formula level design into micro platforming segments just floating above the ground. Grind rails pop out of nowhere, dash pads and springs just lie scattered around to automate Sonic's movement around the map or lock him into a floating platforming zone where you'll do the same stuff you've already seen before, now with more automation, now minus the varied aesthetics or rewarding layered level design of say Generations.
It's fun enough at first, slowly though the realisation hits that on the platforming front Sonic has very little new to offer and the framework of this game's design only serves to highlight the shortcomings of Boost era Sonic, in what I remind you is supposed to be the all new foundation for another decade.
As the game progresses more cracks start to show, I at least thought that it was nice the game didn't lean on 2D as much as the boost era games, ohoho silly me, I hadn't reached island 3, an island that decides to make 90% of its micro segments on the overworld force you into an often inescapable 2D perspective which jars so damn much with the entire open world concept that it boggles the mind. And here's also where the pop in can become villainous at long last, surprise springs forcing you into 2D is a hell of a thing, oh and to clarify you can end up on most of these 2D intended areas within 3D and watch as the parts refuse to connect properly in 3D and hurtle you off to nothingness.
So on top of it all being rather old hat, it basically shows you its platforming hand in the first hour and has not much else to say, and that's still the best part of the game.
Frontiers also litters its map with a recurring batch of minigame like tasks, some feeling like a bad day of Sonic Shuffle, others feeling shockingly braindead like "hold boost while in a hamster wheel for 10 seconds" or "quickstep back and forth across these buttons, there are only three lol", oh and the absolute king "parry three of these projectiles aimed right at you while you're stationary in a game where you can hold parry infinitely, you have 60 seconds to...oh you already did it".
Unsurprisingly the game is at its best with these when Sonic has to do a checkpoint race or get from point A to pint B within the time limit, an overly generous time limit at that. Which in turn makes the game's weird spikes in challenge or puzzle complexity truly bewildering, the mandatory pinball game on the worlds most boring table that can range from 5 to 30 minutes depending on pure chance flings to mind.
A game just throwing whatever it can at the wall to see what sticks, and repeating it all enough that I grew weary of every diversion outside a couple.
Mini boss enemies tend to offer a bit more variance, not much, but they at least tend to change more per island. Ranging from oddly esoteric complete with jarring gameplay transitions like the big...oil rig thing? that has you making loops on a grind rail to weaken it for reasons, the sumo foe who traps you in an electric cage which was alright except for when I fell through the floor, or the big spider whose legs you have to take out where I fell through the floor again using the required move.
Sonic's combat skills are fine, it never hits Sonic Heroes like tedium, it's incredibly simple which actually works in the game's favour, there's a very bland skill tree that offers a lot of button combo moves that play themselves, the combat looks cooler than it is, but it ain't a hot mess and feels like one of the few areas where the game offered something actually new to Sonic's kit.
Oh cripes I haven't even got to Cyberspace stages yet, so yeah, drizzling shits intensifies, These are linear stages in the style of the boost games from the last decade, the majority of which are straight up airlifted from Gens/Unleashed, even a few Adventure 2 recreations, all using the flipped assets of Green Hill, Chemical Plant, Sky Sanctuary and one maybe new and rather drab city/highway that might just be speed highway from generations minus the night lighting.
Not a single stage here plays better than in their source game due to changes to small Sonic's gameplay making him slower and less fluid, there's some novelty in realising you're playing Adventure 2's Green Forest in a Green Hill skin for a second, and then it's like "But worse in every way from gameplay to aesthetics!". What few new stages are in cyber space are worthy of Sonic Forces so, low praise indeed, and honestly Forces even has a few passable Classic Sonic stages I'd sooner revisit.
Just to really put this into persepctive, one of the layout flips comes from Unleashed's filler stages, a stage built entirely around that game's drift emchanic, without the drift mechanic, absolute clown shoes.
Every now and then Sonic Frontiers gives me a glimpse of brightness, to maybe see what others see in it, finding an obstacle course like segment better than any cyberspace stage lurking underground in an optional path, the fourth island's use of verticality in an open space as you platform up tall towers that you can freeingly leap right off of at any time. The Super Sonic segments are a bit messy and play by rule of cool, but so does every super sonic segment ever, getting multiples of them allows some interesting variety and some begrudgingly hype music that's like "Great Value Metal Gear Rising".
shame it all ends on a QTE final boss, unless you flip the dial up to hard, in which case it ends as a shmup instead, you know what? I'll take the QTE
If you bothered to read all this flaming hot take and felt like you were reading the scattered ramblings of a madman where nothing really gelled together, then that's exactly it, that's Sonic Frontiers.
There's a kernel of potential deep in here, but I'm not giving Sonic team more passes for "but next time it could be great", Lost World had potential that was never followed up on for instance. Funny how this game's open world format comes close to giving me the parkour Sonic it teased, yet still falters due to a lack of interesting mechanical depth to playing as Sonic himself, a game that lets you have the freedom to run over to a location and watch Sonic Frontiers play itself in numerous different limited ways, just remember to hit homing attack and dash every now and then.
For some Sonic is BACK, but for me Sonic is probably the furthest away he's ever been....
But hey, at least an open world mostly 3D platformer is still fairly unique, so the expereince wasn't a complete wash as a platforming fiend, now to think about how much better Bowser's Fury is in a fraction of the game time.....
61: Strider (1990 Genesis Port). End: 12/4/2022. (3 out of 5)
This game is really hard. Really, really hard. And the question is can a game this brutally difficult actually be fun? Yeah, it can be. But it's still really hard.
62: Pokémon Puzzle League. End: 12/5/2022. (3.5 out of 5)
It's Puzzle League with a Pokémon skin on top so you know it's good. Specifically based around the first region of the anime. The system itself is pretty simplistic, but it works for what it is. Not the best version of Puzzle League, but a solid enough entry.
63: Mega Man 1. End: 12/6/2022. (3.5 out of 5)
64: Mega Man 2. End: 12/6/2022. (3.5 out of 5)
65: Mega Man 3. End: 12/7/2022. (3.5 out of 5)
66: Mega Man Wily Tower. End: 12/7/2022. (3.5 out of 5)
I'm putting these all together because I beat Mega Man: The Wily Wars, which is a collection of Mega Man 1-3, plus a new little mini adventure known as Wily Tower. These Genesis ports of NES classics didn't age as well as their NES originals but are definitely a must-play for all Mega Man fans. Wily Tower is a little mini adventure that reuses assets from 1-3 and remixes things for a fun little side story. Definitely no regrets about playing these games again.
(Maybe I should have waited for 2023's 52 game challenge, lol.)
Here's another big chunk of stuff I've beaten through the year but never come to update.
21. Spyro the Dragon | PS4 | 5.5 hours | 8/15/22 | 4/5 | Platinum
I played the remastered game which had the first 3 Spyro games. I liked the first one the best out of all three because it was just free some damn dragons and collect some gems. I didn't need to see Hunter or his friends.
22. Spyro the Dragon 2: Ripto's Rage | PS4 | 7.5 hours | 8/16/22 | 3/5 | Platinum
I maybe liked this one the least? I don't remember, I didn't take any notes. I remember complaining more about it while playing though. Maybe it was because I kept having to pay Moneybags off to do stuff in the game. The jerk!
23. Spyro the Dragon 3: Year of the Dragon | PS4 | 9.5 hours | 8/21/22 | 3/5 | Platinum
This one took the longest but actually was probably the easiest to platinum because you didn't have to collect all of the gems like you did in the previous games. These were fun but I was glad to be done with them.
24. Tearaway Unfolded | PS4 | 12 hours | 8/24/22 | 3/5 | Platinum
You play a cardboard person cutout platforming through levels. The platinum sucked because it was collecting EVERYthing in the game. A port(?) of a Vita game that made use of the ps4 controller's various functions. Some of the controller mechanics didn't work well and frustrated me.
25. Kena: Bridge of Spirits | PS5 | 10 hours | 8/28/22 | 3/5 | Platinum
There was a glitch to get the harder playthrough trophy so I didn't actually have to play it twice and I was afraid it was going to be patched out when the anniversary patch came out, so I made sure to beat this in advance of that. I played on the easiest difficulty as I watched Whimsicalish struggle with the combat on hard difficulties. It was cute, very Pixar-ish.
26. God of War (2018) | PS4 | 35 hours | 8/30/22 | 5/5 | Platinum
I had actually started this game at some point in 2021 and got distracted away from it. Once Ragnarok's release got closer, I wanted to go finish this beforehand. An excellent game where you had one animation to smash monster heads under your foot. The year between playing made me forget how to play so I eventually had to turn the difficulty to the easiest.
27. South Park: The Stick of Truth | PS4 | 12 hours | 9/3/22 | 3/5 | Platinum
If you want to get the platinum in one play through, a guide is basically required as there are things you can miss and be locked out of from collecting which would require a whole second time beating the game. While dick and fart jokes generally make me laugh, a lot of the humor here was very hit and miss for me. Perhaps I'm not 14 anymore. The combat was like old turn based RPGs which became stale after awhile.
28. The Last of Us: Part 1 | PS5 | 16 hours | 9/9/22 | 3/5 | Platinum
This was...fine? I never played it when it came out on the PS3 initially but felt that the story was fine. I think it was another one of those oversold games that I missed out on and then played later and it didn't hit me the same. You kill a lot of fungus zombies in this game and it looked very good. The extra hard difficulty trophy wasn't required for the platinum so I was able to move on quickly.
29. The Last of Us: Left Behind | PS5 | 2.5 hours | 9/14/22 | 3/5 | Platinum
A side story that is told through flashbacks during the story of the game proper. Sort of a prequel with more character development for the main character Ellie. I shot some more fungus monsters.
30. Toem | PS5 | 4 hours | 9/15/22 | 4/5 | Platinum
A fun puzzle game where you take pictures and help various animal people with tasks. Pretty slick music and the puzzles were hard enough to where I felt smart for solving them but not so hard that my head hurt.
31. The Last of Us: Part II | PS4 | 31 hours | 9/27/22 | 3/5 | Platinum
A lot of the same from the first game except in this game you murder way more garden variety humans than plant monsters (although there's plenty of them too). This punishment simulator was, again, fine. I think it could've been like 6 hours shorter. The platinum required you to play through the game 1 and a half times which was Not Cool.
32. Overwatch | PC | 1320 hours (since launch) | 10/4/22 | 1/5
Why did I play this game so much? There was like no content for two years except for skins! The player base is mostly toxic and I generally just didn't talk to anyone. I didn't actually play a LOT of this in 2022 but did get some in before Overwatch 2 came out so I could compare two pieces of shit.
34. Chicory | PS5 | 14 hours | 10/29/22 | 4/5 | Platinum
You can paint the world! I am not remotely artistic so unless I was required to paint or draw something, I generally didn't. This game was about depression!
35. Telling Lies | PS4 | 8 hours | 10/31/22 | 4/5 | Platinum
At this point, I started trying to find semi-shorter games to play between my long ones to make 52. This is a mystery game where you piece together what happened to several characters using video chats and a search bar to type in key words. I'd heard this was good and it was pretty slick. Watch some lives get ruined!
36. Ape Escape | PS5 | 6.5 hours | 11/33/22 | 1/5 | Platinum
Yo, this game sucks. I know the Classics line for PS+ doesn't really change much and adds trophies but it is hard to believe this game came out the same year as FF7 (which has also aged poorly). The controls are terrible and I didn't have a lot of fun.
37. Valiant Hearts: The Great War | PS4 | 7 hours | 11/18/22 | 4/5 | all trophies
No platinum to be had here. Once upon a time, I was a history major so playing this WW1 game was pretty fun. There was a lot of information in journals and historical documents to read which educated about various aspects of battles and everyday life. Mostly just a small puzzles and platforming in the levels as well as collecting things.
38. Overwatch 2: Season 1 | PC | 60ish hours | 12/5/22 | 2/5
So, I actually dig Overwatch 2 more than the initial game. Sure, all the really did was get rid of a tank on each team, take away lootboxes and microtransaction the shit out of the game, but the actual game play was better with one less shield blocking bullets. I think a lot of their battle pass problems would go away if they included at least some currency somewhere in it. Right now you're only able to get a couple of quarters of currency a week which ends up feeling pretty bad when it'll take 8+ months to save up enough to buy a new skin. I generally avoided competitive in OW1 but have gotten to the point where I pretty much just exclusively play comp and the matches are generally pretty even. 2 of the 3 new characters are overpowered (looking at you, Sojourn) and the new Push mode is sort of not very fun either, but hey, baby steps!
39. The Gardens Between | PS5 | 2 hours | 12/8/22 | 4/5 | Platinum
Another fun little puzzle game that has a rewind mechanic to solve puzzles. Generally didn't make my head hurt and told a familiar story to me with no words. I wish there was more of an actual soundtrack.
At this point I'm going to list a bunch of mobile/unending games I've played or am still playing.
40. Diablo: Immortal | Mobile/PC | 12ish hours | 1/5
I played this awhile and it just made me want to play a "real" Diablo game even more. The monetization was pretty scummy and there were far too many currencies for me to keep track of.
41. Marvel Snap | Mobile | 12ish hours | 3/5
I never got very far in this game other than finishing the Newcomer's battle pass at the beginning. There's likely a pretty good card game here but I'm not any good at building a deck and keeping up with new meta cards as the game is updated.
42. Disney Dreamlight Valley | PS5 | 18ish hours | 3/5
I got sucked into this game pretty hard for a couple of weeks. I don't really have a soft spot for Disney or anything but something about the chores kept me interested. Something else shiny distracted me so I may be free from it's clutches but still watch Whimsicalish put time into it.
43. WWE Supercard | Mobile | hundreds of hours | 2/5
Another year of this game with wrestlers trapped in rectangles with arrows and numbers on their face. I spent far too much money in this game this year and it is a good reason I try to stay away from mobile games. They added a few new modes / events this year but it is generally something I play to waste time.
Gotta try to sprint to the finish, I have a couple more games I'll wait until I'm further into them (damn you, Dragonflight!) but hope to make my 52.
I guess I somehow need to finish 10+ games this month...
#35 - Sonic Generations (PC) -★★★★☆
Revisiting this game made for a brief but enjoyable trip down memory lane. There's a great selection of stages from all the Sonic games Sega wants you to remember (plus Sonic '06), with each getting a 2D version for classic Sonic action, and a 3D one for his lanky counterpart to boost through. Even though the Generations is a decade old at this point, the visual updates to classic stages like Chemical Plant Zone and City Escape look great and the arranged music is also wonderful. I didn't realise the Saturn version of the 3D Blast theme was such a jam.
Since it seems designed to appeal to both older and newer fans, the stages are very easy, with few frustrations outside of some mostly-optional side missions and the abysmal final boss battle. Despite that, Sonic Generations somehow didn't end up having the worst finale of any game I'd play this month.
#36 - Attack of the Friday Monsters! A Tokyo Tale (3DS) - ★★★★☆
This is one of the better-known entries in Level-5's "Guild" lineup of 3DS games, which were all handled by different development teams overseen by famous game designers. In the case of Attack of the Friday Monsters, it's by Kaz Ayabe from the Boku no Natsuyasumi series, so the game has a similar vibe as you explore a tiny town in 1970s Tokyo. Attack of the Friday Monsters leans more into magical realism, so it squeezes in some showdowns with giant kaiju monsters into its short playtime.
There's not exactly a whole lot to do but wander around town and play a rather basic monster-battling card game. Aside from the monsters showing up, it's not exactly the most exciting Friday, but it's a game that excels at immersing players in a specific place and time. The presentation is impeccable, with a great soundtrack and cosy backgrounds that make great use of the console's 3D effect.
#37 - Grand Cross Renovation (PC) - ★★★★☆
This shmup has a fun twist that helps it to stand out. Your ship comes equipped with the "Sun Blade", a devastating beam of light that can be rotated around your ship to cut your way through bullet hell. Rather than ducking for safe spaces between a hail of bullets, Grand Cross Renovation makes players feel incredibly powerful with this ridiculous screen-clearing weapon. The Sun Blade has to be used sparingly, though, since deploying it drains the ship's health bar. That said, health recovers incredibly quickly, with enemy attacks barely doing any damage.
This makes Grand Cross Renovation a very easy shmup to play for survival. I cleared it on my first run through, only using a couple of continues. Playing for a high score is where the game's risky mechanics seem to come into play, with higher scores coming from keeping your health low and going crazy with the Sun Blade. It's a lot of fun, but I do wish the presentation was a bit better. The game is filled with flashy beams of light and sudden zooms that just seem like they're used to distract from all the weird sprite scaling. Ah well, it's an indie shooter so I suppose I can't be too harsh.
#38 - Dragalia Lost (Mobile) - ☆☆☆☆☆ (it's technically unplayable now, after all)
Dragalia Lost started out as my go-to game to play on the way to work, one that I completely stopped playing once I stopped commuting. But with the game's shutdown imminent, I returned to Nintendo and Cygame's gacha-fuelled RPG to see how the story concluded. Or at least I tried to.
Going back to Dragalia Lost was generally a good time. The plot gets absurdly convoluted as it goes on, but the localisation makes the story entertaining even when it isn't actually coherent. The basic gameplay is flashy and fun, with touch controls that work really well for an action RPG and boss fights that are mostly enjoyable.
I say mostly because I had my progress halted right by a final boss that has three different forms, each more tedious than the last. His attack patterns are straightforward enough to avoid, but this topless twat has about a hundred times more HP than he should. If you go in at the recommended level, not only will the fight take so long that it'll totally drain your phone's battery, but you'll likely fail a DPS check and have your whole team wiped out. I'm sure this was a rewardingly epic finale for those who stuck with the game long enough to have teams prepared for endgame content, but I don't have hours to waste on this garbage. I expected that the game's closure at the end of November would leave me with bittersweet feelings, but it just made me bitter.
The narrative of this game revolving around a mid-life crisis, is actually interesting. The writing and characters work. The problem is the gameplay is boring and repetitive, and the game itself has a whole host of technical issues that really drag it down.
Didn't expect I'd vibe with this game's setting and premise, boy was I wrong.
Very quickly I was drawn into the time period, the power of a game to really feel like it's transported you to a different era is something powerful for sure, and this one does it without any voice over at that.
I don't consider myself much of a history buff at all, this game almost makes me want to read up some more.
The plight of the peasantry, the authority of the abbot, the controversy of Martin Luther's writings, all sounds dry as all heck on paper (aha) yet stellar writing across a wide cast pulls it all together.
The kind of game I continued thinking about after I finished, one of my biggest surprises of this year and well worth your time if you have gamepass and are into adventure games/visual novels/murder mysteries.
77. Vampire Survivors(11/12/22) ★★★★
If I realised what a love letter this was to Castlevania I'd probably have tried it earlier, a rouguelite walk 'em up made on the cheap with a lot of shall we say, familiar sprites, is probably one of the worst elevator pitches you could send my way. Despite this, VS lives up to its moreish reputation, delivering one of the most condensed and explosive power curves in video games across 30 minutes.
It first I was laughing like "lol, this is the game? the balls on these devs"
Then I was SWEATIN' it out for all those many, many unlocks, glorious dopamine feedback loop straight to my brain, along with a high amount of secrets that feels nostalgic in how plentiful they are.
Actually I still haven't figured out how to roll the credits yet, but I'll take my conquering of both a technicolour reaper, as well as the bog standard one requiring a very specific set of tools as complete enough.
How much is a unique style actually worth? A solid presentation can be worth something. The problem with Comix Zone is the gameplay is boring, repetitive, and frustratingly difficult. Which does hamper things a bit. It's still a very short game, all things considered.
There was a ton of hype & acclaim for this one and after having played it years after it was released, I can't say I that I really liked it. The biggest drawback for me when it came to Firewatch was the performance issues I was having. Having done a little bit of research prior to this game, I wanted to see if there had been a current gen patch/upgrade but I had read there wasn't such an implementation, so I stuck with my XBOX ONE to play this 2016 game and it still wasn't very good from this aspect. Forget the framerate dipping below 30 FPS, that was the least of my main issues, this game had crashed on me once along with the aforementioned borderline slo-mo walking of the game.
Even ignoring all of this, which I was still able to do hence how I finished this game, the story and gameplay weren't great. Maybe if your a hiking diehard that Firewatch did a great job capturing what it means to be a hiker but this game suffered so hard from being so restrictive of where you can go, which feels counterproductive of the whole point of being able to hike around. If you want to not put a quick travel access feature for the sake of padding your game, that's fine....if the hiking was at all fun to make it worth your while. Invisible walls galore, areas that seem like you should be able to make the jump you can't, and a repetitive amount of collectibles, the actual experience & hiking of Firewatch was alongside the performance of the game the biggest letdown upon finally playing this game. The story while at first offers up intrigue and gives your main character a bit of sympathy, you start to feel like he was just another character as the whole background of his wife sort of falls by the wayside for a vast majority of this game.
Admittedly, the best part of this game was the voice acting & dialogue of the two main characters where their banter amongst each other felt natural and felt genuine, even getting 1-2 laughs out of me at the end of the day which isn't easy. This was easily the highlight of FIrewatch as a whole but it's a shame that everything around these performances let the game down mightily. A game about hiking and the performance/framerate was mediocre and you were restricted on where you can actually explore. In the meanwhile, this might be more so on me as the player but I felt the compass/point of direction to be confusing and more times than not I was pulling out my map to make sure I was on the right track upon going from Point A to Point B. Given how a lot of the areas look the same, the game sort of had a way of thinking that you will know everything on this map when in reality, it became hard to remember how or where I got to a place instinctively. For some players maybe this compass system is better and I get what this studio was going for here, the aspect of realism and not having guide points ruin the realistic element but it just got to be burdensome having to pull out the map every minute to make sure my character is positioned correctly so that I am not accidentally going away from the objective.
For me, fortunately FIrewatch didn't overstay it's welcome and it was a game I finished in 2 sittings but it was something that having heard years of acclaim including it getting some love in tons of outlets for being high on people's GOTY for 2016 but I just didn't feel nor get that upon playing this game.
46) Somerville(XSX) 11/15
And the disappointments just keep on coming. Needlessly to say however, I don't know if I am as letdown as people who loved other games made by some of this studio's talent(Limbo or Inside) as I never played either admittedly. However, Somerville is one of those games for me that I am glad was a XBOX Game Pass game because if I paid anything worthwhile for this, I would have been frustrated. I happened to get all 4 of the possible endings so I gave this game some chances to try and win me over but it never happened.
Where this game goes wrong for me is the slow, methodical pace that plagues Somerville regularly. In a game where your earth is inhabited by aliens, you are forced to go area to area in a linear screen to screen in a methodical pace with simple but sometimes frustrating puzzles to progress forward with the game. It just feels like a boring game to play and this would be fine if the story was at all good but the game just feels like a run of the mill "Alien invasion, you need to go around and find out what is happening". I didn't really feel any emotion or anything upon the characters of this game, that isn't due to the silent storytelling either. There's just no real background of the characters of the game and they just feel like prototypical wife or baby or husband of the game.
The biggest pet peeve I had with Somerville was the sporadic checkpoint system where upon death, you can either reload immediately where you left off or if you had drowned in one segment, they put you back a good 3-5 minutes away from where you died. Thankfully, this isn't a very difficult game where this will happen often but the few times that this did occur, it was frustrating nevertheless that a game that came out in late 2022 still felt prone to doing this.
Again I gave this game every chance to be something as I played & reloaded the ending sequence 4x due to the four potential different endings(And man there is no shame in looking up how to get these endings because to say these were cryptic would be an understatement of the century) and even then there is maybe a different 1-2 cutscenes due to the choice you have to make at the end.
The lone real thing going for this game are that the visuals are pretty, especially upon playing this on an XBOX Series console. Nothing jawdropping but still pretty nevertheless. I just didn't feel anything with Somerville and felt like this game could have & should have played much better.
I needed something good at this point and time so I figured hey this well acclaimed game by tons of folks came out just now for XBOX Game Pass so lets give this a shot and deep dive in. To say I was a bit confused or overwhelmed at first would be not doing it any justice but once everything clicked with Vampire Survivors, man it clicked because this game was such an addictive, great time. It is as addictive as everyone says it is to be where I am putting forth hours on end of a sitting, where this game meshes so well is needing to catch up on any podcast or videos on Youtube or even an album while getting in a session or so of Vampire Survivors. This is largely due to how lax and simple this game can get. By no means is this something you turn on and just dominate from the get go, this game is meant to be a "get stronger as you progress" sort of deal where each run in a typical good roguelike game matters and is something you can build upon. But why this game meshes so well with something in the background is because while your attention is certainly demanded of when playing this game due to everything that is happening on the screen where one mistake can overwhelm you, this game at times can have your character practically be invincible on screen as your getting closer & closer to the timer hitting the 30 minute mark which is the game's way of saying that you completed the stage.
It's tough to describe what type of game Vampire Survivors is because it's something I can't say I have played much of. You pick a character in a very 2D, NES Castlevania art inspired and you are essentially moving up and down, left and right throughout the map all the while enemies begin spawning as your tasked in surviving 30 minutes of various monsters(If you've played Castlevania, you will recognize a ton of these shameless ripoffs!). Sounds easy but enemies begin appearing and flooding you instantly as the timer goes higher and higher, this game tries to set it up to make you fail or die due to getting overwhelmed by sheer numbers as waves upon waves of enemies keep on coming the longer you go. Your lone saving graces are that each character has a special attribute that gets them a head start out the gate and as you kill the various enemies scattered throughout, you pick up blue/green/red gems that boost your level and after each level, you are given 3(or 4 pending on luck which is one of the most vital attributes you can boost) choices of what to upgrade. It can be weapons such as whip or garlic or axe or fire wand(There's various weapons but you can only have ____ on a run) or abilities such as better luck or a regenerating shield or making your character quicker or gain EXP faster. There's a vast variety of choices you can make upon each level but knowing that each wave get tougher you get farther in the 30 minute gauntlet, you have to use some strategy and wit to pick what you pick & what to avoid. It's all about damage output and if you have a character strong enough to mow down the mobs that will(not if but will) swarm you at once.
As simple as this game is and while it is the perfect game to put a podcast or catch up on an album in the background, you will get punished by an onslaught of enemies if not prepared barring you being just amazing out the gates. What Vampire Survivors does so well is progression where due to the currency you pick up when destroying items within the environment, you can purchase skills in the main menu as well as new characters to bolster your odds of survival. A lot of the abilities I mentioned are available in this menu so it becomes very paramount to invest gold into these buff locks. The best part of this is you have the ability to dismantle what you chose if you feel you made a mistake and essentially reuse your earned gold for maybe a better use as you begin to learn the nuances of the game. Never once did I feel a run was a pure waste of time because of the gold acquired on the run ended up mattering upon these aforementioned menu selections.
In fact, I think part of the appeal of Vampire Survivors is this, it's not just addictive gameplay wise but you really get the whole "Zero to Hero" feel where progression is slow and yeah there's a literal learning curve. However, the reward of your character & knowledge of the game ends up growing stronger and you feel as a player that your time & effort pays off with success. As someone who felt overwhelmed at first with this game, seeing the credits was the true culmination of overcoming initial struggle into somewhat getting the game down pat where I felt borderline invincible(There's a surprise that happens at the 30 minute marker to try and knock you down a peg admittedly) and for that, I think Vampire Survivors does a great job in this regard.
The lone gripes I can even think of is repetitive music and the graphics admittedly are an eyesore at first and it's easy to judge this book by it's cover. I know I did so initially but upon booting this game up and really getting your teeth sinked in, you begin to see that this isn't some cheaply made shovelware sort of game. The music is good at first but when you are doing 30 minute runs of this game, it gets tiresome hearing the same track replayed and replayed and replayed, hence why this game is great for catching up on an album or podcast in the background.
Great game altogether and the cherry on top is this game is being sold for under $5 dollars(Was even cheaper not too long ago!) which is ridiculous with the content your getting in this game. I happen to play this via XBOX Game Pass but with a cheap DLC incoming, I may very well jump right back into this game after having just come off of seeing the closing credits. There's so much content that I didn't even fully get every single achievements but there's that if you really want to squeeze everything out of this game.
So one of the biggest releases of 2022 upon it's announcement was Pokémon Scarlet/Violet. Pokémon as a franchise you sort of know what your getting and coming off of playing Pokémon Legends Arceus just 9-10 months prior, I was wondering if I would be fatigued by this series but after finishing this game.....not really!
I didn't fully complete the Pokedex but I did see the ending credit and also did most of the Postgame content so I did get quite a lot out of this game. Pleasantly surprised with the amount of open world freedom you get with where you can go and how to decide, the game is borderline bragging about it consistently reminding you as you go on your way towards embarking that there's no right or wrong way of the order you play. Going very briefly through my history of Pokémon, I loved GEN 1 as a little kid and also really liked GEN 2 as well. GEN 3-5 I skipped entirely due to school but I got right back into the series from GEN 6 onward and have played most Pokémon games since, and all of the mainline ones. What Scarlet & Violet attempts to do to break the mold of what is an admittedly, repetitive, somewhat "safe" series is appreciated. There's a ton of content within the games that have you either doing the traditional 8 gym battles or battle with "Titan Pokémon" which is similar to what Pokémon Legends Arceus had in it's boss battles(Albeit without the movement element) or facing off with the game's antagonist group "Team Star" in battles very similar to a raid with the end result being a Gym Battle essentially. While at the end of the day, there's nothing too out of the norm on the gameplay of each of these missions(You are still battling with Pokémon in the typical turn based style), it was a nice change of pace for this game. Story wise, Pokémon Scarlet & Violet isn't something that will stick with you but at the same time, a lot of heart & thought was put into this game with some respectable meanings hidden inside the intentions of the characters you embark with. I definitely connected and empathized with quite a few of the characters brought forth in this game so this game, especially in comparison to it's predecessors of the series, has some personalities that you will have feeling for.
As for as blemishes go, cannot touch upon a review without bringing up the game's lousy performance on the Switch. We're talking terrible FPS drops in certain areas(It was slideshow esque when your exploring any area with flowers or detailed scenery) and tons of glitches when riding your Pokémon around(Tons have garnered infamy over the internet during the time of this games' release). They are bad and admittedly offputting, there's no denying it. GameFreak/Pokémon Team had to patch this game within 2 weeks of release to address some of these issues, that's how bad it got! Despite this patch, by the time it came out, I was already just about finished with the main game and side content so it was a good fix, albeit too late for me to maybe have appreciated the graphics & game from a technical standpoint.
However, much like with Cyberpunk 2077 for me in 2020 & for GTA 3: Remastered Edition in 2021, glitches & laugh out loud performance does not tell the tale of Pokémon Scarlet. I feel like every single year around this time of the year, I happen to play a "Rushed out for Christmas Sales" type of open world game and.....due to the story & characters, find myself overlooking the major sour patches to still have a good enough time with the game. I found the Gen IX Pokémon introduced to be pretty cool, where I kept my team for the most part as Gen IX exclusive Pokémon(Which I usually do in these Pokémon games) with a couple of real standouts(A Godzilla inspired Pokémon is pretty cool....also liked how the Fire Starter ended up becoming!).
I overall had a good time with Pokémon Scarlet but I totally get the criticism of most who wanted more and to get a game that wasn't as safe as this Generation IX game was. I happen to enjoy my time with Pokémon Scarlet a tadbit more than Pokémon Legends Arceus. I get where people are coming from who enjoyed the latter more due to it trying to gameplay a little bit off cuff than what most Pokémon games are known to present. This game should be up there for my GOTY 2021 which means this Pokémon journey hit the spot for me all things considered. With a pretty healthy length wise post game, there's most certainly tons of hours of fun to be had with this game.
I'd had this installed since it dropped day 1 on gamepass due to critical acclaim, but was tepid on actually trying it because FMV games/Interactive Movies are completely uncharted territory for me.
What started as "I'll just throw it on for ten minutes and probably bounce" became a binge across two sittings.
This is yet another heavily story focused game that's tough to talk about without giving things away, I'll say that where it goes isn't quite as engaging as it could be for me and would have me reach the ending like "...time to google this shit" , the journey there however was a pretty fun ride.
Really I was just mad impressed at how much work went into these scenes, the three different movies from different eras that feel perfectly replicated visually (right down to the numerous behind the scenes stuff and rehearsels), stellar acting that now has me on board the "Manon Gage was ROBBED at TGA" train, and in general even just seeing how bits of the movies tie together is kinda fun in itself even though not the main mystery by any stretch.
With so much out of context jumping about from scene to scene it's a pretty confusing ride initially, it's hard to tell if you're even achieving anything or playing the game correctly, popping into scenes midway through, stumbling upon some BIG stuff way before you can even grasp at its meaning.
ultimately there's not quite enough game here for my tastes, but I enjoyed it all the same.
...also I wasn't expecting such explicitness, cor blimey.
79. OlliOlli World (15/12/22) ★★★★
When I got a PSVita way back when, it came with a PSTV for whatever reason, which then came with a few free indie titles on top of that.
One of these games was OlliOlli...
I never played OlliOlli, of the free games it was the one to almost tempt my trip to the redeem code button on the PS Store but something about the way it looked always struck me as agonizingly plain.
Perhaps this hyper specific scenario was why the devs decided to make OlliOlli World look like an adventure time episode rode a skateboard through a crayons factory or something equally as colourful (reality check: I'm sure the factory would have no such colour).
I'd had this game on my list all year, so I'm glad to finally get around to it.
I guess I'd describe the game as a more evolved runner? or like a trick based platformer that feels almost like a succession of on rails vehicle section ala some DKC minecarts? 2D Tony Hawk's but like an obstacle course? look it's just kinda it's own strange thing among the sidescrolling platforming genre.
And that makes it pretty interesting to me, the candy coated visuals hide a deceptively high skill ceiling here. All the way to the end the game slowly drips in new tutorials that make you realise just how high your score attack antics can balloon to.
It's actually too much in that respect, the first two worlds have me able to meet their high scores and I'm like "yay, positive feedback and clothing unlocks", then midway through the third area the game reveals its true depth, oh shit the THPS3 manual is here to continue its trend of combo extending?! the entire game just got upended.
Once you start trying to play for perfect combo runs that fit in all manner of tricks, on top of the trickier level design it just became too much for me, still fun, but the feeling of finishing later stages without even toppling third place scores a lot of the time while the characters are like "damn, you skate god you" just felt like insult to injury.
Still that's a gitgud problem for me, otherwise it's hard for me to really find much fault with OlliOlliWorld, its esoteric world and oddball lowkey humour gives it a much more inviting and memorable vibe than the seemingly strait-laced skating style of the first two (presumably), the potential depth seems kinda insane, and even just playing through casually it's still a good time.
It can get a bit iffy towards the back end when windows between obstacles tightens and you can just kinda find you set yourself up to fail 10 seconds earlier by doing something that slowed your speed enough to not be able to make a later jump, a few trial and error like moments (to be expected with the kind of pace the game has though), the wiggle room isn't quite there compared to the first half of the game, which of course you can go back to and realise the game lowballed the score potential of those stages you "mastered" all along, which is kinda hilarious.
I did actually get the version with all the DLC, only really dipped into void riders right now, it might actually have the best stages so far with some extra dynamic tractor beam action.
Another very solid 2022 indie game
53. Mass Effect (PC) | 8th October - 25.3 hours | 4/5 : Just wanted to finally beat the trilogy with some mods I obviously can't use on console. Overall made a great game even better
54. Mass Effect 2 (PC) | 18th October - 33 hours | 5/5 : Same as the above, but it was already one of my favorite games ever and I've beaten it several time before
55. Vampire Survivors (PC) | 20th October - 41.8 hours | 4/5 : Surprise of the year, I count it complete at this date since it was the 1.0 release and I had unlocked everything I could get on the game at that time
56. Mass Effect 3 (PC) | 27th October - 35.5 hours | 4/5 : The new ending mods made the one part of the game I really don't like better
57. God of War Ragnarok (PS5) | 18th November - 41.5 hours | 5/5 : My GOTY, easily. Loved the story, the gameplay, even got the platinum on it
58. Pokemon Violet (Switch) | 30th November - 39 hours | 4/5 : I really thought I'd hate this given all the bad media around it, but outside of the slowdowns in the open world, I probably had my favorite Pokemon experience ever with this game. It even crashed less than Elden Ring did for me
59. Ni no Kuni Wrath of the White Witch Remastered (PC) | 12th December - 95.6 hours | 5/5 : One of my all time favorites, but now on PC and Remastered, making it even better
SIFU- Badass. When you got into the flow the game became addicting.
Triangle Strategy - Top 5 game of the year for me. I have a lot of positives about T.S, but its gameplay and replayability where biggest highlights. Cleared Golden Route in NG+
Bayonetta 3 - Biggest Disappointment of the year. They forgot what made Bayo a fun game to play until the very late stages as they broke up combat every chance possible. Also a technical mess on Switch. New VA does a good job. Not a fan of the new character either as their moveset was lacking
RE Revelation - The game won't set the world on fire, but I enjoyed Revelations. Fun gunplay, interesting environment to explore and extra modes are fun.
GOW: Ragnarok - Fantastic game. Got the platnium. Combat was great and overall the gameplay had a nice refinement over 2018.
Sonic Frontiers - This game is a AAA version of the flash game LineRiders. When it works, its a joy and when it doesn't your character flys off in a random direction for no reason. Had a fun time with it.
Evil West - Fun gunplay
Wild Arms 3 - Phenomenal turn based JRPG. Easily entered a top 10 RPG all time for me. Its systems are great and I am still thinking of ways to optimize characters weeks later.
The Callisto Protocol - Very love hate relationship with this game. There are times you absolutely hate the game, and others where you can't put the controller down. If you had to put me down one way or another I would say I enjoyed the game, but I think they could make a fantastic sequel if they fixed the negatives.
NFS Unbound - Not beat a NFS game since Underground 2. Captured the started from the bottom feel really well. Races are tense and you will scrape and claw your way to the top not by winning every race but steadily getting 3rd and 4ths until you can come out on top.
53 - God Of War: Ragnarok - PS5 - 43 hours / 16th December - 7/10
It took me a long time to finish Ragnarok, I kept switching to other games and having to force myself to complete it and that in itself is telling. I love the graphics, the combat and the characters but the game can be quite a slog at times, the pacing is all over the place.
35. Tales of Arise
If this ends up being my last completed game of the year then I'll be pretty happy. I'm generally uninterested in Tales games but there's something about this game that just clicked with me. I loved every minute of it. No it's not perfect and it's pretty cheesy but I don't know what it was but I just had so much fun playing this.
Ragnarok is a great sequel to the first God of War. I thoroughly enjoyed the combat, the exploration, all the small puzzles and learning more about all the different realms. It all fits together very well and I only wish there were two other regions I will not name that we could explore more thoroughly. The story is a bit more hit and miss. I enjoyed the characters and the set pieces very much but the plot itself was not very interesting, neither were the underlying themes of fate and prophecy. Some sections with Atreus in particular also felt overly long and the ending felt rushed. The first God of War was a game that did everything well but excelled at nothing. Ragnarok improves upon most undercooked aspects, especially boss fights, and has turned into one of the best games of the year for me.
1. The Forgotten City (XSX) | 3rd Jan - 8 hrs | 8
2. Psychonauts 2 (XSX) | 8th Jan - 15 hrs | 7
3. The Gunk (XSX) | 9th Jan - 5 hrs | 6
4. Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice (XSX) | 13th Jan - 8 hrs | 8
5. Expeditions: Rome (PC) | 29th Jan - 70 hrs | 8
6. Dying Light 2 (PC) | 17th Feb - 60 hrs | 8
7. Death's Door (XSX) | 30th Mar - 10 hrs | 7
8. Final Fantasy VII Remake Intergrade (PS5) | 10th April - 30 hrs | 3
9. Immortals Fenyx Rising (PS5) | 27th April - 40 hrs | 6
10. Ghost of Tsushima (PS5) | 4th May - 50 hrs | 6
11. Chinatown Detective Agency (PC) | 1st June - 10 hrs | 5
12. Lost in Random (XSX) | 18th June - 20 hrs | 9
13. Until Dawn (PS5) | 13th July - 8 hrs | 8
14. Nightmare of Decay (PC) | 15th Aug - 3 hrs | 7
15. As Dusk Falls (XSX) | 19th Aug - 6 hrs | 8
16. Lost in Play (Switch) | 3th Sep - 6 hrs | 8
17. Tinykin (PC) | 10th Sep - 8 hrs | 7
18. Halo Infinite (PC) | 18th Sep - 15 hrs | 5
19. Supraland Six Inches Under (PC) | 27th Feb - 15 hrs | 8
20. Pentiment (PC) | 18th Nov - 15 hrs | 9
21. God of War: Ragnarok (PS5) | 17th Dec - 60 hrs | 9
Game 23: TOEM (PC) (3 Hours) (December 17th, 2022)
I actually loved my time with TOEM, this might be the quintessential "cute indie adventure game" in my mind. It mixes the genuine loveliness of games like A Short Hike with an engaging world and gameplay system. I really think they did a beautiful job of making these tiny levels feel bigger than they are, feel actually connected AND having engaging missions. I 100%'d TOEM and it felt like a breeze because of how great the general gameplay loop is.
Might be my last update of the year, especially given I'm only planning on playing Final Fantasy IX for the rest of the year
Jaleco's Japan-only Dance Dance Revolution ripoff might just be my favourite bad game of all time. Like in DDR, you need to hit notes as they reach the top of the screen, although if you miss too many you have even less space to see the upcoming notes (just one of many baffling decisions). Rather than stepping in different directions, you instead need to step on different-coloured pads, which is a lot more intuitive in Twister than in a rhythm game. The song list includes a couple of pop hits from late 90s and early 2000s, including Britney Spears, Backstreet Boys and, of course, STEPS. Only these newer songs come with the original recordings and music videos, although that might not be a bad thing.
What elevates Stepping Selection to high art is the rest of the tracklist, which consists of questionable covers of past pop hits, paired with the most insane music videos I've ever seen. Even if you never touch the game, I recommend watching the background videos in all their low-budget glory. No other game has so perfectly captured the sensation of being at a karaoke bar at 2AM, awkwardly shuffling around while some drunk Japanese offrice worker belts out Footloose.
I cleared every stage on the Normal difficulty, across both of the game's discs. Yes, all of the songs are split between two CDs because apparently Jaleco were too stingy to release the game on a single DVD. I still remain unconvinced that Stepping Selection isn't just a Tim and Eric bit - each stage even ends with a "Good Job!". It's uniquely terrible and I'd absolutely buy a dance mat for it if my PS2 was working properly.
#40 - This Way Madness Lies (PC) - ★★★☆☆
This indie RPG mixes magical girls with Shakespeare's stories, but doesn't really do much with that outlandish premise. The turn-based battles were good (since they use pretty much the exact same mechanics as the dev's earlier Cosmic Star Heroine) and the retro presentation fit well, but the game's sense of humour didn't click with me at all.
#41 - Firewatch (Xbox One) - ★★★★☆
This was a very immersive "hiking sim" that got me lost in the wilderness - quite fitting for a game all about escapism. The only thing that took me out of it were some bugs, which was annoying for a game that's a few years old at this point. This was a nice, brief game that had me constantly wondering which direction the narrative would take. Although the story unfolds in a linear fashion and there's little room to hike off the beaten track, it still feels like players have enough agency through shaping their backstory and chatting over the radio.
#42 - Banjo-Kazooie (Xbox 360) - ★★★★★
I was surprised at how well the 3D platforming formula was refined just two years after Super Mario 64. This first Banjo game still feels great to play, thanks to the lead character's smooth movement and some creative level design. Each level introduces some new ideas, whether that be new abilities or transformations for the duo. The locations are also packed with hidden treasures to seek out, without ever feeling too large to navigate or going completely overboard with collectibles. It's frustrating, but I like that the "final" test of players' abilities is a quiz show, testing how thoroughly they explored Gruntilda's hideout and the various worlds and challenges within. The whimsical music, sound effects and rhyming dialogue also give Banjo-Kazooie a distinct charm. This Xbox 360 port also smooths over some problems, making for a game that still plays and looks great (depending on your affinity for googly eyes).
#43 - Her Story (PC) - ★★★★★
FMV games are… actually good? I'm a bit late in saying this, but Her Story is brilliantly designed. The game has players sorting through a series of police interviews, searching for key words that'll hopefully lead to more bits of the interview.The fragmented approach to storytelling is novel and trying to piece together "her story" is incredibly compelling. The writing and acting are what makes the game work so well; since you can only view the first five clips that use a certain word, the interviews have been scripted in such a way that words are repeated to hide certain revelations from view. There's a lot to pick apart, so I'm glad it's the kind of game that leaves players to draw their own conclusions. Her Story simply allows players to call it quits whenever they feel like they understand the full story, but everything is so ambiguous that it's impossible to truly know everything. I'll be thinking about this one for a while.
#44 - Final Fantasy XIV: Stormblood (PS4) - ★★★★☆
So far this has been my favourite of FFXIV's storylines, although it doesn't exactly seem like the most popular pick. Sure, the story was unfocused, feeling like there were two separate ideas for this expansion that were awkwardly smashed together. The characters introduced in Heavensward were definitely more interesting, even if Yotsuyu made for a fun villain. I just really enjoyed the Eastern influence on the new regions, with some beautiful vistas and creative enemy designs. The phenomenal soundtrack probably helped too. Even if there was still an awful lot of time spent collecting dung, the main quests were a bit more ambitious and the new dungeons and boss fights were good. I'm excited to start levelling up a Red Mage and try the Ivalice raids at some point.
Hmm, maybe I could've made it to 52 games if I didn't get back into FFXIV. Ah well, there's still a week or so to go.
49) A Plague's Tale: Requiem(XSX) 10/17-10/18, 11/3, 12/1-12/4
One of the better games I played in 2022 was A Plague's Tale: Innocence. It was a game that I had been meaning to experience for quite some time and was something I would put on the backburner after starting up the initial 90 minutes or so. So when the news came out about a sequel to this underrated(Or maybe now fairly rated?) game by most, I knew it was about time to play A Plague's Tale: Innocence....and all things considered, I really liked this game. The combat wasn't polished up and the stealth segments weren't always the best but I liked the story, the characters and the plot twists that came with the 1st game. The 2nd game, A Plague's Tale: Requiem had a lot on it's plate to try and matchup to at the very least. So how did this game do?
Pretty damn good! What the sequel does much better than the 1st game is the gameplay elements, in particular the actual aiming of the slingshot which reared its ugly head late in the 1st game with 1-2 notoriously frustrating sections for plenty of gamers. In addition, at least gameplay wise, this game tries to incorporate different modes of how to take on a field of enemies while your in stealth. You can either play the situation as a pacifist and avoid conflict/killing or you can outright go and kill off everyone standing in your way who are trying to hunt you down while you crouch in bushes/cover as you try to go to a new section while avoiding doom. There is a certain new aspect to A Plague's Tale: Requiem where you get an achievement(Not talking about XBOX achievements but rather highlighted medal shown) based how you handle these sequences that it's either fight or flight. This sort of slipped off to me because my overall playing style of this game is kill if I must or if an enemy is just put in a spot that it is an annoyance to do anything but kill. These games still aren't great stealth games and it as all of these type of games do(Think Last of Us series) suffer from A.I. immersion where your partner can walk around within enemy eyesight and not trigger any kind of reaction but if you do the same, enemies will follow you to the end of earth. The chasing scenes are well done and well paced, they were adrenaline pumping and it took the couple of times that they occurred in Innocence and turned it up a notch. The puzzles were few and far between and there was nothing too overwhelmingly difficult where your playthrough is stalled due to it being such a head scratcher.
The story gets arguably just as dark if not darker than the original, it feels like much more is at stake and while I feel the overall antagonist and supporting cast of characters were better in Innocence, it's the supporting cast's involvement that matter. I feel like every protagonist alongside you had a reason for why they are featured and it's a credit to the game that whenever something happened to even the supporting cast that were introduced in Requiem, that I felt the pain and plot twists that involved them. I don't want to really mention too much on the story but the ending did hit a bit, especially after everything you endured in A Plague's Tale: Innocence. I was worried about the direction that they were going to take with the main protagonist, Amicia De Rune especially in the 1st half of the game, but she rounds out to be very good in the 2nd half of the game where her angst didn't reminds me of all of the poor traits that Lara Croft had the deeper you were diving into the Tomb Raider trilogy. I felt the voice acting was better in this game even though the 1st game was still good but you can tell due to the 1st game's success that there was a bigger budget involved for this.
The graphics are just really pretty, I was often captivated with the scenery around this game. The blossoming flowers, the festivals, despite this being a game about plague & rats, the times that this game shows the towns & tranquility around the environment before it all goes to peril was breathtaking, especially on a 4K TV with the XBOX Series X. The fire the times that you were surrounded by it was great, the music that this game had fit the game as it did the 1st title.
Does A Plague's Tale: Requiem do anything drastically different than A Plague's Tale: Innocence? Nope. And I can say that if you didn't like the 1st game, the 2nd game doesn't do much to sway your opinion. But as someone who enjoyed the 1st entry, I really feel like in most aspects, the sequel turns up the notch & felt more polished in the aforementioned combat sequences which did the trick for me in enjoying this game. Had a good time with this series in 2022 and despite the fairly moderate expectations(From me) of the sequel, I felt like A Plague's Tale: Requiem hits it on home.
50) The Quarry(XBX) 12/6, 12/11-12/12, 12/17-12/18
The minute The Quarry was announced, everything about it from A to Z was right up my alley. 1980's cheesy slasher setting, a nod to Until Dawn gameplay wise, and a cast of voice actors & actresses, some of whom I recognized instantly. Everything should have been great.......and for the most part, I had a fine time with The Quarry. But I still don't know if it is better than Until Dawn despite the latter coming out a couple years prior to.
Lets discuss positives with The Quarry. The graphics are rather impressive, playing this on the XBOX Series X. Feels and looks like a movie/horror film so job well done in this regards. I think if you have played any kind of Supermassive(Studio who made this game as well as Dark Pictures Anthology and the aforementioned Until Dawn), you know exactly what you are getting yourself into when it comes to choice making or how formulaic the game follows suit gameplay wise. It's limited movement with interactions around the environment to gather clues or lore as well as QTEs(Quick Time Events) galore that are needed to progress with your character not dying because much like with the other games, there are life & death choices that really do make you think before you act as all actions do have consequences! In addition, the gameplay is a bit more deeper than Until Dawn where it isn't just a QTE-fest. There are other options that are presented to you which includes a "Hold your breath" minigame that occurs when your hiding from imposing danger that is a bit confusing in presentation initially but it was something I sort of got by game's end. There is also very simple combat sequences where in a timed scenario, you have an ability to shoot a target/enemy in front of you so while there isn't anything too demanding, it is welcomed enough. The action sequences are pretty intense and rival what Until Dawn presented, I feel that Supermassive Games does this element so well in the two games I have played of theirs. The QTEs give you a fair amount of time in reacting, the scenes themselves are intense and can be gory if there are death or deaths occurring, and the graphics are again pretty impressive which is the cherry on top. There are a ton of endings and routes you can take and tons of interesting strategy upon how to protect a character(Purposely getting infected to avoid danger as an example might be the 1st time I have ever seen this done in a game) so there is absolutely replay value in this game.
The voice acting for the most part is good with some minor exceptions(One character I felt was pretty wooden and I was often laughing over the unintentional dialogue & voice acting by him) even though the writing/dialogue at times did leave a lot to be desired. Which sort of leans me to the negative aspects of this game. I did enjoy the overall story of The Quarry and I am satisfied by getting the ending where I saved all of the major characters/protagonists but heck if there weren't plot holes galore or actions that happen to a character that are ignored and never get brought up again. I needed 2 hands to count the amount of times I said out loud "How does that even make sense?!" so I think if you are going to play The Quarry, I think you need to put the detail oriented glasses away and sort of suspend belief when it comes to this game and just ignore how or why events occur. There's also a lot of "trial & error" events that happen which Until Dawn admittedly had a little bit but I don't think this is a major blemish as I think most players would rather have an unpredictable game over something vanilla & easy to see. There are some glitches that occur such as 2-3 characters hair just consistently moving around that were a little distract but nothing too jarring. There's a good 15 or so hours to be had with this game so it isn't too long nor too short!
Going back to the story for a second, you control a group of camp counselors who due to "circumstances" who have to survive one more night at the cabin & and at their very summer camp. Unfortunately for them, various dangers & evil awaits them so it isn't all daises and roses. Without giving away who the antagonists/dangers are in this game, it fits the mold perfectly of something from say "Wrong Way" or a Vampire inspired survival horror flick. Admittedly, the cast of characters aren't the brightest crayons in the box but again, I like that we don't have a bunch of survival savvy characters or else this becomes a borefest of a game. There wasn't any one character I truly liked or fell in love with but as a cast, they weren't far off from the Until Dawn cast. Some might feel these characters are just so clique and unlikable that it kills the meaning behind wanting to save them but I don't think there was a single character that I really wanted to suffer. Some characters admittedly get far more shine than others for reasons and I wish that certain characters didn't just fade away or get lost in the shuffle. Likewise
I really wish a better job was done on the epilogue where the surviving characters meet or interact instead of just highlights a character who lived/died and how it happened
but that is just me really wanting closure on the game.
I played this 1st one with intention to keep the characters alive but there is so many more playstyles you can have with The Quarry. See, Supermassive did a smart idea of having "Movie Mode" behind this where you aren't required to have to do QTEs or move around but can set characters up with different personalities or characteristics where decisions are mad for you based off of what was chosen. Likewise, there is "All characters must die" or "All character will live" scenarios that you have the power of controlling so depending if your sadistic or angelic, there's definitely replayability to be had with this game. It's something I would consider doing in 2023, maybe even during Halloween season. Speaking of Halloween, The Quarry isn't really scary but it does have some jump scares that even got me a few times. The game is pretty gory admittedly with decapitation, amputation occurring among other gruesome deaths/actions so discretion is advised if you want to play this game.
An overall fine outing by Supermassive games. I made the right call to jump at this game for $20 over the $70 price tag because this game really lend itself well to be an interactive movie with minimal gameplay. Not sure if it will be as good as Until Dawn, their breakout hit for the Playstation but this was very good and for what it was, pretty engaging. Found myself gripped by the end after the admitted slow start to this game with little to no real horror or danger.
51) High on Life(XSX) 12/12-12/13, 12/18-12/19
Chalk up another win for XBOX Game Pass. High on Life I played on the XBOX Series X and it was just silly fun. Full disclaimer, I am pretty tough to make laugh when it comes to gaming. What some find funny, I simply don't. Vice versa for that matter too. I said to myself that if I needed two hands to count the # of times I laughed out loud, than this game accomplished quite the feat....and two hands were indeed needed. Heck I may have even needed a 3rd.
The selling point of High on Life is the humor by far. This game was made by Squanch Games who is led by Justin Roiland, the creator of critically claimed/acquire taste Rick & Morty. Lets set the ball down flat on the ground, I am far from a fan of Rick & Morty. Can't say I have seen much of the show so I am in the group of 'This humor can go either way' but what this game does is the blending of different type of humor. Yes the game does have tons of F bombs and tons of vulgarness but it also had wall breaking that includes jokes to video games(The Psycho Mantis joke got me) to trends in entertainment to various other hypocrisies. I feel there's a joke out there thrown out in this game that will make you laugh. In addition, the voice acting was surprisingly good for what this game tries to be. Consistently reminded that this felt like an animated show on Adult Swim or Comedy Central, quite a few comics that you will recognize, which includes Roiland playing as 'Kenny' who is the starting pistol/gun you have in this game.
See, the quirk of High on Life that has it standing out from the pack is that the guns you get in this game, actually talk & interact with the silent protagonist throughout the game. Often the guns say the same things just with a different voice actor or actresses but it is often done as a silly comedic tone which almost feels like improv. standup comedy which is fine in short spurts but I can see how this can get a bit irritating on what is an 11-12 hour game(More if you want to get everything optional done in the game). Fortunately enough, Squanch games did the right thing to give you an option to lower the frequency of an NPC or gun's ability to talk so you aren't forcefully expected to play the entire way through with this feature on...but honestly, the guns aren't overly obnoxious and have some funny banter amongst themselves so I found it as a positive. To each's own in that regard though!
The gameplay is extremely standard and I feel like it is better to stand far away and not be aggressive because you will randomly lose health in a matter of seconds whenever you are in a Doom inspired battle arena fight to the end vs hoards of enemies. There's movement features such as a Jetpack or Slide Dash that you get as you progress through the game but you aren't playing or enjoying High on Life for state of the art combat. The dash and how it is implemented reminds me a bit of Vanquish with it trying to encourage you to get in & out of danger but I found the deeper I got in these combat sequences, the more likelihood I was going to die so it's a good thing to have but very seldom did I rely on it and I instead played cowardly and shoot from far. Might be a bit of a disclaimer but i've seen plenty of people mention about the lack of FOV/Field of View settings and I get that gripe, as someone who has suffered from motion sickness due to the over the top blurry games. I think I just got used to the gameplay here but yeah the colors and vivid designs of this game I can assume will be an eyesore for some players but this looked really good on my TV playing on the XBOX Series X.
Overall, one of the better games I played on the year and the comedy will be hit or miss for some players but to High on Life's credit, the game accomplished to get some laughs out of me which is far from easy, especially with this type of comedy. Seems like this game just recently hit the highest downloaded game on XBOX Game Pass PC for a 3rd party title, eclipsing Minecraft which is really good so it seems like this game has become somewhat of a hit.
52) Mega Man 11(Switch)12/17, 12/20-12/21
How fitting of the Blue Bomber to clinch number 52. It was a quiet year for me with Mega Man as I just played Mega Man 10 as my 2nd overall game of 2022 back in January but Mega Man was the reason I even clinched it in 2021 totaling IIRC 7 games beaten out of 57 on the year. So to bring you back to my wrapup of the old school Mega Man games, I began my playthroughs of Mega Man 1-11 since SEPT 2020 and we have come full circle by finishing the final game of this visit(Or re-visit in some games) of this iconic series.
I had heard tons of very good things about Mega Man 11 with the hope that this being the most recent & modern take on this decades ago beloved franchise would make the poor parts of the series digestible years later but alas, Mega Man 11 tries to desperately be a love letter to the old NES Mega Mans and include the very best, and very worse aspects of the series. If you love the difficulty of the old Mega Mans, Mega Man 11 will scratch that itch for you. Where I was a bit letdown was the lengthy levels and suspect checkpoint spots in certain levels(Torch Man, Bounce Man). Cheap deaths are what Mega Man is all about and it features spike deaths, fall deaths, knockback deaths, screen chasing instant death and while these are frustrating, it is digestible IF you have a game that respects the players time and have checkpoints and/or stages broken down into 2 parts(Think Mega Man 8 that came out during the PS1/Sega Saturn era that did this better than Mega Man 11). If you were trying to be a love letter for all Mega Mans, I think MM8 should have been a spot to turn to when it came to the checkpoint system if you want to show off your chops on how to make a Mega Man stage. While Mega Man infamously has you start back at the beginning of the level upon losing all of your lives, the catch 22 to that is the levels weren't overly long(Well most, there's ones that overstay their welcome in MM1-10 for sure). With Mega Man 11, it has levels that make you say out loud "Still not at the boss?", and if you lose all of your lives which is easy to do, you have to start back at the beginning. It's crazy to bellyache about more meat on the bone of a game, and by all means, this is a good thing.....just not when it comes to a difficult game that it is easy to die on. Make 10 robot masters if you want to think outside the box at the cost of shortening the level. I just feel like some of the levels really drag on with the gimmicks, this includes having you face the same sub-boss multiple times in 1 Robot Master level, or a stage gimmick going on 3 times(Torch Man). Felt like pure overkill in some regards and it is the biggest blemish I have with this game as a whole. In addition, the music outside of the main menu leaves a lot to be desired. A series well-known for it's fantastic and downright catchy soundtrack has one that while fitting of the scenery & theme of each Robot Master, seems somewhat uninspiring. I also found the story to be somewhat lacking but again this is Mega Man, a series you are playing for gameplay over story or anything else so it's not a major gripe.
A new mechanic that was brought into this game is the speed/power gear aspects that basically with a chargedown meter allows you to either choose more power at a certain point on your buster shots/regular pellet shots OR to slow down time(Which is vital in certain parts of the game) to not die from a cheap death or to get an advantage over a bullet sponge enemy. I can see the use of this in theory but to me, I still just ended up forgetting about this mechanic, especially the power shot. If anything, the Rush Coil & Rush Jet was used far more times in my playthrough. Again, the only time this mechanic even mattered was if I was pretty much forced to use the slowdown mechanic to give me enough time to avoid instant death from chasing me down(Think how Flash Man's powerup was used to make Quick Man's instant death lasers slow down and thus make it a far more digestible level to travel through) . I can see the potential in this exclusive game mechanic but I still feel even in the boss fights, that it's in grained for most players heads to play it traditional with your primary mega buster and whatever weapons you acquire via defeating Robot Masters.
We talked about the bad but the good is it's a fairly respectable length game of 6-7 hours(By Mega Man standards), the graphics as you would expect from a game that came out in 2018 looks good despite not going fully away from the typical OG Mega Man look and the game is very lenient and nice about giving you enough screws to buy lives, energy tanks and other add-ons or tanks(Weapon) to help your chances of progressing in Mega Man 11. With this, it's not a difficult Mega Man and it's absolutely manageable if you either grind enough or spend carefully. The game is kind enough to give you discounts on purchases too in game so instead of paying say 80 bolts for a energy tank, it can become 50% off which adds up. The boss fights are pretty wacky as each robot master(And even the bosses of the Wily stages) have their own version of either the aforementioned Power or Speed gear which looks pretty swell graphically and adds a little bit of a different element to the fight.
Overall, I would probably put Mega Man 11 towards the mid to bottom of my Mega Man rankings. The music, and the long levels are the two sore thumbs out of this game that hold it back for me. It also really borrows and takes literal boss fights of the past and borderline takes it from A to Z, only they add the aforementioned Power and Speed gears to spicen things up a little bit. You might not notice this if you play Mega Man 11 without playing the others first but you will see this right away if your playing the previous games, especially if close to one another. As a standalone game, the game is fine for what it tries to be but maybe I just came in really thinking I would be blown away with a game that was made in modern time but it was somewhat underwhelming.
Did it. With like 10 days/week & a half to spare. Back to back 52 game finishes. Was worried about this as I was heading into the Fall but I just went for overdrive with this. Probably not the last post, still working on 1-2 more games to pad the statsheet but the challenge was started and it was taken down in late December.
I originally played this on PC but replayed it thanks to Playstation Plus. I thoroughly enjoyed this Assassin's Creed. The story and characters were built with strong convictions. (The only downside was toward the end.)
The world building is fantastic. The detail on architecture and environment designs is great. You'll even see mirages in the deserts if you spend enough time traveling through them. The game is open world; however you'll have to avoid certain zones until you're the appropriate level. I don't mind that but it will limit your exploration for awhile.
Senu's an important companion. She allows you to spot enemies while you're sneaking. However, her view can be limited and it's too easy to lose sight of treasure icons. I had a couple instances when the game wouldn't recognize I killed a captain. I'd have to close the game completely.
At the end, the collectibles drag on when you have to fully explore every single area on your map. Don't get me wrong. I loved playing this and exploring. But at a certain point, collectibles become a chore. I heard this get worse in Valhalla, so clearly this doesn't get better.
56 | AC Origins: Season Pass
PS4 | Oct 21 | 16 h | 4/5
I was more excited to start the Hidden Ones DLC. Sadly, it didn't live up to my expectations. It was a short experience and the story was cliche. You see it coming right in the beginning. I wanted more information on how the Assassin's Creed group was started. You get a couple side characters to recruit but then you never see them again. There's no relationship building. It was flat.
Curse of the Pharoahs was a bit strange but way more fun! The new areas are creative and enjoyable to explore. Each zone has its own "theme" which makes them unique. The side quests were interesting because of the story. I'm glad I played this one. Huge step up from the first DLC.
57 | Telling Lies
PS Streaming | Oct 31 | 8 h | 3.5/5
The entire gameplay is watching videos. You have a search bar to type words/names and can fast forward. Super basic but it works.
The acting is fairly good. Some did better than others, but I don't recall thinking anyone did a poor job.
The biggest downside is the fact you only get to watch one side of the conservation. Most of the time you see a character reacting, usually with facial expressions, but they're silent. It's almost like dead air. You aren't getting anything out of that. Sure it's realistic. But it was also monotonous. I assume that's why there's a FF button; but you're still sitting there holding a button.
It's not going to take you 8 hours to get the whole story. My time is bloated to see every video for an trophy. It was too much though. The game could have benefited from cutting out certain videos because there are some where absolutely nothing is said. Just someone crying or being angry on a cam.
I did enjoy it though. May have to play the other games.
58 | Ape Escape
PS Streaming | Nov 3 | 6.5 h | 2/5
I have never played an Ape Escape game until this one. Now I never want to play another.
The controls are such shit that most of the challenge was fighting the controls. From jumping to swinging your net, it was all bad. Pure frustration. I wouldn't have beaten this one if I didn't have the rewind function.
Then they had the audacity of making the controls even worse for vehicles. It was maybe one of the first games to use the dual sticks on the PS controller? Probably revolutionary. But it sucked. They already had bad controls and somehow managed to make it WORSE. Yuck.
59 | Valiant Hearts: The Great War
PS Streaming | Nov 8 | 7.5 h | 3.5/5
This was an adventure game with somewhat puzzles? You have to pick up an item, to help someone, to get another item, etc. That may not sound fun but the game as a whole was enjoyable. It's heavy on story and characters which I appreciate.
I do like the art style and story telling. Those were the strongest positives. The gameplay is generally a cross between finding items to get other items to progress and recognizing patterns so you're not killed immediately. Definitely weaker than the story. It was entertaining to play but could be frustrating due to gameplay.
I am interested to learn more about the new one that was announced. I hope they improved/expanded on the gameplay.
60 | Persona 5 (Replay)
PS4 | Nov 30 | 40 h | Already Reviewed
I completed my second playthrough of P5 to earn the remaining trophies for a plat. For some arbitrary reason, there are 3 trophies you can only earn in a second playthrough. While I'm thankful you don't have to play the entire game again for those trophies, there's no real reason to require that. It doesn't change the story. You only see one extra scene but why couldn't you get that the first playthrough?
By terrible RNG luck, Lobotomaxx and I didn't get the Passionate Listener trophy the first time around. You need to "Hear 250 of Futaba's navigation lines". Basically her battle lines and they need to be UNIQUE. Absolutely zero in-game way to check this stat. Because screw you.
We didn't avoid fights. We completed every single side request and thoroughly explored dungeons for loot and personas. This second time, I used good ol' paper to check box every line I saw from her. It was the most mind boggling and awful garbage in P5. You can "farm" enemies for status effects, but you still have to hope it uses the spell, hits the right character, they don't dodge, and they don't cleanse it off themselves. So when you do find the right enemy, it's a RNG nightmare. Completely sapped any fun.
61 | The Gardens Between
PS Streaming | Dec 8 | 2 h | 4/5
Short experience but I love it when games don't overstay their welcome. I loved the art style, almost surreal environments for the puzzles. There's no dialogue and it wasn't necessary. You can understand the story that's told.
The puzzles were simplistic, easy controls. You're either walking forward or backward and sometimes using an item. Really quick to pick up.
It's a short game so if you like puzzles, I would encourage this one. I greatly enjoyed it.
62 | What Remains of Edith Finch
PS Streaming | Dec 10 | 2.5 h | 3.5/5
Somehow never played this one. Essentially a walking sim, where you are following a character retelling her family's history in their decrepit house.
It's a depressing story. You experience the family members during their worst moments. Some of experiences were powerful and moved me to feel sorrow for them.
But here's the issue with story telling when only terrible things happen to the characters and the story takes itself too seriously. At a certain point, it becomes repetitive and unintentionally comical. You'll see the story start to unfold and the game will try to one up itself with a horrible event. It continues to repeat and you start to expect it.
63 | Virginia
PS Streaming | Dec 15 | 3 h | 2/5
Unlike The Gardens Between, the surrealism did not work for this walking sim. There are no puzzles; you are forced to simply walk forward and experience the story with no dialogue and very limited reading. I played this side-by-side with Lobotomaxx and we were able to piece the story together.
It starts off strong but then goes into a hallucination fever dream. Terrible symbolism do not create good story telling. There are subjects in the game that kept repeating, like a cardinal, with little to no explanation of why or what it was representing. If I have to constantly guess what I am seeing to understand your story, it's not a good story. You did not do a good enough job to make it cohesive or understandable.
I have their game "Last Stop" in my to-play list but I'm not in a hurry to play it.
69: The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. End: 12/24/2022 (4 out of 5)
One of the most important and influential games ever made. Does it still hold up? For the most part, it does. It says a lot about how well designed this game is that nearly 25 years later it is still a great game.
Whoops, better get these updates out before the end of the year! I actually have beaten my 52nd game, but we'll get there when we get there.
45. October 23rd | Bloodborne + The Old Hunters | PS4 | 51h | Pseudo-Replay | ☆☆☆☆½(/5)
Here's the first game that I bought after getting my PS4 back in 2015, and also my first FromSoft game. Had an extremely tough time with most of the game, not knowing where to go a lot of the time, dying over and over again to Shadow of Yharnam, not really understanding frenzy, not picking up on any of the lore which made the experience somewhat lacking, and then dying even more to Ebrietas (Daughter of the Cosmos) before beating Moon Presence and getting an extremely underwhelming ending since I had no idea what was going on throughout most of the game.
So it wasn't a great experience back then. I didn't really know what I was getting into, and expecting more of a traditional experience and a clearer path to follow, which did end up making me a bit disappointed since everyone seemed to absolutely love the game. I just accepted that these games might not be for me, and didn't touch another Soulslike game for several yeras, but after playing both Demon's Souls and its remake in 2021 and 2022 respectively, and having absolutely loved my time with both of them, I felt like it was time to return to this game after having been granted eyes for this kind of thing.
I did enjoy my time with Bloodborne a lot more this time around, but it was very much a tale in three very distinct parts. The first part is, of course, the main game where I really did see my enjoyment of the experience being hightened quite a bit by being more well-versed in its systems, researching the lore much more than the first time and just generally having a better grasp of how I'm supposed to play the game (plus using the Blades of Mercy for most of the game which just made me feel a lot cooler than before). The non-linearity and lack of almost any sort of hand-holding, which annoyed me in 2015, also just heightened the experience here of being lost in this complete nightmare of a world and just letting go of the thought that I always needed to make progres and should instead just take my time to explore gave me a much deeper appreciation of how fantastic the level design is (though not without its fair share of pretty BS trial and error traps here and there), and my much better grasp of the combat let me see how good the gameplay in Bloodborne really is, and having a more relaxed approach to it also made me see a sort of rhythm in every encounter. Not in the way that I never got damaged or didn't die an awful lot anyway, but I also never blamed the game for my failures since I couild in almost every instance tell where I did wrong, when i maybe panicked and dodged too early, or got greedy and attacked too much. It's very clear why you were killed every time you do so, which also makes learning from your mistakes pretty easy to do. Still a difficult game at times, of course, but it's also pretty easy to learn the behavior of pretty much every enemy in the game, and from there it's just about going in with a calm mind and learning how to deal with them, even when it's you against several different types where you have to constantly roll around, gun parry, slash when there's a window. I get that it can feel very punishing and isn't for everyone, but it's supremely satisfying once you've gotten the hang of it.
Incredible art direction as well. The technical issues of the game are well known by now and it is a shame that it suffers from such noticeable frame stuttering and terrible anti aliasing (among other things), but the world itself looks incredible, and for how varied the different areas, it never loses its core identity of depicting a victorian nightmar. It's obviously very inspired by the works of HP Lovecraft in the enemy design (which is great, by the way), but the world itself feels so unique and interesting that one of the main drives for me when I replayed the game was reaching new areas just so I could see what beautiful and horrific new vistas From had cooked up for me, and I really don't think there wasn't a time when they didn't deliver. It's not at all a cozy world to be in or anything like that, but so fascinating in how the nightmare escalates throughout the game, and how that's reflected in how much more twisted later areas tend to get, and how much environmental storytelling can be found basically everywhere. Just incredible stuff.
Where the main game sort of falters is maybe that from the fight with Rom, an incredibly boring boss fight, the game does sort of lose a lot of its non-linear charm and the bosses also become a lot less interesting outside of Gehrman. Some are more difficult than others, but none of them really deliver on being all that fun to fight, with most feeling a bit too simple in their execution. They're not awful or anything, but do feel very uninspired and just like the game needed bosses to give the player some cool shit to do so that the Nightmare of Mensis didn't feel as long and dragged out as it is, but since they're not fun to fight, it just makes the area even less fun than it would have been without them. This entire end section really dragged down what had otherwise been a mostly amazing experience for me, and I do get how I could have gotten so tired of it back in the day when I was much worse at the game than I am now, with the frenzy being a thing to deal with, the extremely hard htiting enemies, having to slowly stealth kill the giant pigs to stand a chance, fighting the Shadows of Yharnam a few times, and having to wait for those elevators to come down again when I died between having a terrible time with Micolash (which is, of course, also the name of the character I play as in these games) and his constant running away, or ending with the extremely anti-climactic Mergo's Wet Nurse (which does look pretty cool, though) after dealing with some more stupid shit along the way. Can't say I'm a huge fan of any of the three, very short endings either, but they did at least feel like they fit in with the rest of the game's very minimalistic storytelling. I also don't really get the point of the weapon degradation, but I'm sure it matters more depending on what type of weapon and runes you're using.
Good thing I played the DLC after beating the Wet Nurse, though, because goddamn if this wasn't an instant 10/10 in my book. Starts out pretty safe, just reusing assets and areas from the main game, though with an even more nightmarish twist and some new routes and enemies, but it pretty quickly goes places after the first boss and just never stops. The lore is better than anything in the main game, the level design is fucking brilliant for the entire thing, the boss fights are almost all the best I've ever had the pleasure of experiencing in basically any game ever, especially the one against Lady Maria which isn't super difficult, but just such a cool fight and with maybe the best music in the entire game. It's easy, and that well with the two shark giants felt a bit cruel (did beat them to get that weapon they drop, though), but it just takes everything the main game did well, and cranks it up to 11 and the comparatively short length makes for an incredible, and incredibly tight little thing that I just wish I had played sooner so I could have spent more time gushing about it. It's rare for me to play something and not really have any complaints come up during the course of my time with it, but I genuinely can't find anything truly negative to say about Even that nightmarish escalation is somehow done better than the main game, and the environmental storytelling is just off the chrats, almost telling a complete and clear story without having to read up on the lore (which you of course should still do since it's maybe the best in any game ever made with this type of storytelling). Also just insane how going straight from the top of the Astral Clocktower to the Fishing Hamlet feels like a completely, thematically logical progression and not like one of the most jarring things ever. Also, that oppressive atmosphere throughout the entire thing? Goddamn. The one thing I don't like about The Old Hunters is that it's almost too good, I guess.
What isn't too good, though, is going through the chalice dungeons to beat Queen Yharnam. It is optional, of course, but since I enjoyed my time enough with the game to want the platinum, I decided to do this as well, and while it does start off fairly simple and the dungeons go by pretty quickly, they do eventually start to drag, and you start recognizing all the rooms pretty quickly which makes the experience a very montonous one. Sure, some bosses are unique to these dungeons and are fairly fun to fight (at least the first time), but having to face Rom again, or an overpowered Amygdala when all you have are these Blades of Mercy with barely any reach, there are certainly times where I would pray to see one of those reused room again instead of having to do these terrible fights and usually dying over and over again since I either had half health because these dungeons can be very mean, or because some of these fights are just incredibly cheap. Not that some of the enemy placement in the normal rooms feel all that fair either, but they usually dont't entail fights where they have way too much health and you get one-shotted by basically all of their attacks. The fight against Yharnam is actually pretty good, but there're a lot of not very fun things to go through before you get there. Highly doubt I'd ever go back to touching these at all when I decide to replay the game.
But that's basically all of Bloodborne. Didn't get the love before, totally do now. The main game, while fantastic overall, isn't really among my favorite games of all time or anything and my experience with it was not made more positive by doing the chalice dungeons, but on the other hand, The Old Hunters is the best DLC I've ever played and that rare case where it's actually better than the main game. As a whole, an incredible package, and one that I'll definitely revisit sometime in the future. Hopefully when it gets a remaster for the PS5, Sony!!!
Also pretty funny that this playthrough of Bloodborne, The Old Hunters, and going through all of the chalice dungeons took me about 50 hours when just beating the main game plus the optional bosses and maybe one or two chalice dungeons apparently took me 54 hours to do back in 2015.
46. October 25th | The Last of Us: Left Behind | PS5 | 2h 8m | ☆☆☆☆
I usually don't count DLC as its own separate entry in these 52 in 52 things since that would in most cases feel a bit like counting every chapter in a game as its own entry here, but since Left Behind got released as a completely standalone thing, I guess it sort of counts as its own game. Not sure whether that makes complete sense, but it is what it is.
Does feel a whole lot like DLC, though! It's very short, has some breakneck pace, and nothing that happens really impacts anything in the main story. That doesn't mean it's bad of course, not at all. The story and various types of gameplay regarding Ellie and Riley's trip to the abandoned mall is pretty fantastic, and gives us a very different experience from the more combat oriented main game, being more chill and mini-game focused and it works, giving it its own identity but keeping that Last of Us spirit through the writing which certainly does have its flaws, but is for the most part just as good as Joel and Ellie's journey. Like I said, it doesn't really affect anything in the main game or how I look at that story, but it was nice, though maybe not necessary, to get to know a bit more about Ellie from before the main story, and there are some extremely charming moments sprinkled throughout the game, like the imagined fighting game and the water gun fight, which is basically just the David boss fight but very wholesome. Can't really complain about Riley either, as the writing for her is about as strong as you'd expect from a character in this franchise (by which I mean it's very good!)
It's just too bad this part of the plot has to share screentime with Ellie protecting Joel after the University section of the main story. Yeah, obviously it's about Ellie giving it her all to protect someone she loves after what happened to her and Riley during that other part of the DLC and it does sort of a good job showing how determined she is to not experience similar things twice, so the two threads do connect in a fairly clever way, but it drags a bit. There's just too much combat here, and I don't think it was needed. Not that the combat is bad, and especially not in the remake, but there's just too much of it here and not enough time to breathe and just explore or do some light puzzling, which the main game does exceptionally well, and the other plot thread with Ellie and Riley does equally well, though with mini-games instead of shooting people. The fact that the entire DLC ends on a very overlong combat section is also very unfortunate.
It does feel like I might be a bit generous with the rating here, but it's still at least one half of a two hour DLC that's up there with the main game at its best, while the second half is a disappointment, though still not exactly bad as much as it doesn't feel completely necessary and maybe a bit tacked on. It's still The Last of Us and The Last of Us is very good, so... I don't know. Maybe it's more of a 3.5 in reality, but maybe the Christmas spirits have made me lean more positive today. Not that it matters anyway, it's just a number after all. All I can really say is that Left Behind, while not as good or tight (though much shorter) as Part I, is still a great time and certainly one to experience if you like these games. Probably not if you don't.
Probably doesn't even need to be mentioned, but looks and sounds absolutely fantastic.
47. October 26th |Ratchet & Clank: Tools of Destruction | PS3 | 9h 59m | ☆☆½
This is just more Ratchet & Clank, but probably less interesting than ever before.
36. Pokemon Scarlet
We all know this game is a complete mess when it comes to performance and graphics. That said, I had a great time with this. I haven't finished a pokemon game in years, so this felt like a breath of fresh air. I personally found the game hard towards the end and I really enjoyed the story and characters. I even liked the song!
44. What Remains of Edith Finch | PS5 | 2.5 hours | 12/10/22 | 4/5 | Platinum
A fun walking simulator that has you live memories of your doomed family members that all play a little differently. I jokingly called the swerve ending when playing it with Whimsicalish. This has been on my wishlist for awhile and I'm glad I snaked it off of PS+.
45. Chronology | Steam | 1.5 hours | 12/15/22 | 2/5
Some game that's been in my steam library for awhile, I finally got around to this. It was fine. A puzzle game that had you jump between present/past with a button push and eventually got a snail friend that could also manipulate time. The story was sort of whatever and then the game ended.
46. Virginia | PS4 | 3 hours | 12/15/22 | 3/5 | Platinum
You play an FBI agent who is a damn snitch. Also maybe there was aliens.
47. Thomas Was Alone | Steam | 4 hours | 12/20/22 | 3/5 | All achievements
You play through a bunch of levels as various four sided shapes that can all do slightly different things (float in water, jump higher, be used as a trampoline). The puzzles generally didn't make me mad due to difficulty and your characters are maybe computer chips of some sort.
48. The Bug Butcher | Steam | 2 hours | 12/23/22 | 1/5
I have no idea how or when I got this game. Basically a bunch of different bug enemies fall from the ceiling and you shoot them. There was very little story and there were enemies that could one shot you. It wasn't very fun and was frustrating with the insta-death enemies.
49. Metrico + | Steam | 4 hours | 12/25/22 | 2/5
This probably shouldn't have taken me as long as it did but the puzzles in this game DID give me problems. They're all on different graphs / charts and your movements effect the puzzle in different ways (jump to raise a platform, shoot items to move others). I liked that it was a different puzzler but was frustrated trying to solve some.
50. Ikaruga | Steam | 40 minutes | 12/25/22 | 1/5
I thought I would've gotten through all my top down flying shooter games last year but here's another one. I did not like this game. It was hard (even on easy mode) and I had to turn on free play so I could actually get through the game. There is a mechanic where you can flip between light/dark to absorb the same colored bullets but there was so much going on I couldn't really do that often.
51. World of Warcraft: Dragonflight | Battle.Net | dozens of hours | 12/27/22 | 4/5
This expansion is actually really good. You are able to fly pretty early in the story and you get to swoop around on the dragons. There is very little that makes me feel like I HAVE to play or I'll be left behind. I can play other things for a few days or a week and come back to this and not feel completely lost. The story has been whatever so far and I haven't had a chance to actually do the new raid but I ended up getting suckered into their year subscription so I plan on playing this on and off over the next year.
52. Overwatch 2: Season 2 | Battle.Net | 40 hours | 12/27/22 | 1/5
Gotta end the 52 with Overwatch again. Season 2 is making me like the game less and less after I was more pleased with it in season 1. The new tank hero is wildly overpowered and I'm not sure Blizzard knows how to balance heroes without just dumpstering them and then reworking them two years later. They're only getting out one balance patch a season (and they had said the battle pass style of game would allow them to balance more frequently). The matchmaking is still generally a fucking nightmare where you'll be place with others that are 2 complete grades ahead of you or you'll be placed with someone playing their 4th game. The skin distribution to characters also has been lame where multiple heroes have had "earnable" skins on the battle pass both seasons while others have had skins only in the cash shop which is frustrating if characters you like are solely bought for money that is difficult to earn in the game. I'll likely still play this through the next couple of seasons but every new hero they add tends to make the game less and less fun, so we'll see how long I stick with it.
I did it. A 52 game hero once again. As long as I don't get sucked into endless games (Wow, OW2, etc), I would like to think I can squeeze 52 in next year but we shall see.
The Big List is on my main post but I wanna call special attention to the best things I played in the last 7 months. All of these were 5 star experiences too.
The SUPER METROID ZELDA 3 COMBO RANDOMIZER was an awesome first time experience as a big fan of both games - especially thinking these were games I knew back and forth!
I absolutely loved KAERU NO TAME NI KANE WA NARU (aka The Frog For Whom The Bell Tolls) - brilliantly constructed, hilarious, and compact. Probably the best Nintendo game that not nearly enough people have had the chance to play, but probably should.
Played a lot of dungeon crawlers over the summer and while there was some really good stuff like the first half of Kyuuyaku Megami Tensei and Saviors of Sapphire Wings (as well as a playthrough of Stranger of Sword City that I messed up way too much on) - nothing stuck with me more than my long overdue run through LEGEND OF GRIMROCK. Probably my favorite real time combat dungeon crawler ever, and I've been playing them since Eye of the Beholder.
Finally picked up the playthrough of STRIDER (2014) that I never finished and I still wonder why I bailed on that. Severely underrated as a metroidvania and a game that expands upon the lore of the original games in incredible ways. Outrageously fun platforming.
Played a bunch of games about vampires for October, and the biggest surprise of all was DreamForge/SSI's isometric DOS RPG VEIL OF DARKNESS - really cool worldbuilding and exploration, fascinating puzzles, and an awesome final act.
Caught up on a few 2022 games and GHOST SONG, TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES: SHREDDER'S REVENGE, and PENTIMENT were among the best things I played all year (behind only NORCO and Citizen Sleeper). Tunic and Drainus came real close, though.
December has been all about DOS games, and the another game I've sought out for years came up surpassing my expectations - the Accolade "dungeon crawler in a haunted house" DON'T GO ALONE - full of innovative design and mechanics that predicted more notable games (both video games and TTRPGs).
Fully expecting I'll easily hit 52 games halfway through next year, and hopefully I'll keep up with this thread a little better in the back half of the year.
2 Days Later: Oh yeah and now I cleared Tass Times in Tonetown and Buck Rogers: Countdown to Doomsday, so uh. 113.
Home stretch everyone! Congrats to those already at 52 or past their personal goals. I'm a few posts behind, but will make it again this year (albeit barely).
47. Neo Turf Masters a.k.a. Big Tournament Golf (1996/2017, Switch) ★★★☆☆
Chipper golf game, re-released as part of the Arcade Archives Neo Geo series by Hamster. Excellent tunes, bright graphics, and simple, intuitive gameplay. Unfortunately all the courses feel almost entirely interchangeable, despite being set in Australia, Japan, the Grand Canyon, and Europe. I suppose a very generous read could interpret this as sly commentary on how the terraforming of distinct locales to fit the golf course aesthetic robs environments of their unique flora, but I highly doubt that was the intent.
48. Andro Dunos II (2022, Switch) ★★★☆☆
An unexpected sequel to Visco's horizontal Neo Geo shoot 'em up released 30 years later by Picorinne Soft. It retains the cycling through 4 weapon types of the original, but makes you strategise in which order to upgrade them to maintain a viable build throughout the run. It's easy to get baited into upgrading a single weapon type to max and point-blanking your way through the earlier stages, but this will bite you when enemies start surrounding you. Andro Dunos II is an impressive facsimile of a somewhat generic, forgotten 90s shooter. The robotic designs aren't very memorable, but luckily an at times stellar soundtrack with several undeniable bangers injects some much-needed personality to the whole affair.
54 - Jazzpunk - PS5 - 4 hours / 26th December - 10/10
I'd heard good things about this game but I didn't expect it to be so funny and with so many new ideas thrown at you relentlessly until the game ends. It was so good I finished it in 1 sitting. The couch multiplayer deathwatch mode was also a wonderful surprise that my son and I will be playing for a long while I feel.
Edit: I can't believe I've not only completed the challenge but I'm now over 52 games completed! All going well I should also finish NFS: Unbound before the year is out.
