I’m far too broke and starved for time to really play and finish any games, but I did manage to start God of War and got impressively far (not really) into Baldurs Gate 3. Imma take it as win at this point.

Yeah, not going to go look through everything, but I did just finish Assassins Creed: Brotherhood.

Next up, probably Balatro since I just bought it to support the devs after the stupid PEGI rating and winning best indie of the year.

Not sure about the whole year, but I just beat Tunic twice today. That game is fantastic.

What a list! You did all that this year?

I got through Sea of Stars this month. Really happy with it, glad there’s plenty of endgame side-quests since I’m not ready to say goodbye. I’ll be following Sabotage closely in the future.

I in the last 4-ish months played through yonder, biomutant, ni no kuni 1+2, ff7 remake (#1), balan wonderland, several Lego games, star ocean integrity and faithlessness, tandem, all the cat quest games, several “tales of” games, and a buttload more while I still had the ps+ subscription (which expired in like… August? I won’t count those cuz I had no life at the time. Still don’t but It was worse then.)

My big push at the moment is going through some of the ps3 era titles I’ve never played. I have so many games I buy and just sit on for years… I probably shouldn’t do that, but I buy used so it’s cheaper… But those unplayed games are mostly super long story focused games, so they take a hot minute to get through. I have a few upcoming tales of games, which I now own most of, star ocean, valkeria chronicles, and all the final fantasy games I never slogged through the overwhelming tutorial on and thus haven’t played.

Any games I finish, I enjoy enough to finish. I gave up pushing through bad media long ago because there’s so much more out there. I’ve been really into big story games with minimal or easy combat, but I also really like the short and simple games that you can get through entirely in 10 hours.

Tandem was a really cute one that stuck out. I got it purely because it was inexpensive. It’s a fairly short puzzle game where one character walks through a top-down view and the other is a side scroll view. You have to swap back and forth to use them both to solve puzzles. It’s not super difficult, but it is satisfying in difficulty.

I think the only game I played for the first time during this year was Disco Elysium. And, like many others, I was wowed. I won’t devolve into purple prose or string together a maelstrom of superlatives, so I’ll just say this with possible slight spoilers:

Despite starting and stopping the game after being lambasted by the immediate consequences of my character’s deplorable, ethanol-fueled behavior that hit way too close to home, I finally came back to it with the utmost enthusiasm. Harry’s abject level of rock bottom that hits you over the head as soon as you start the game was so disturbing for me as someone with similar struggles. The helplessness to change your sorry state and to win over your partner’s approval was so affecting. It makes me wonder how many people in the throes of addiction picked this up and put it down immediately from getting too triggered.

There is so much I would love to just go on and on about so I’ll just hit some aspects that really stand out for me. One thing that I loved, so freaking much, was the wondrously imaginative nomenclature. One of the biggest killers for my immersion into a work of fiction is the vapid or lazy naming of the world—which is sadly often. I mean, come on: Revachol, Insulindian isola, Graad… Harry’s rank as “double yefreitor” or all the character paths like “Electrochemistry”… I thought it was all so very inspired. Never mind the incredible inner dialogue of each upgrade character type—Half Light’s biting dialogue is totally savage, Shivers prose of the world, Inland Empire’s unhinged musings… unreal.

I went on much longer than I meant to so I’ll just say the game world is just as inspired. It is enigmatically dystopian to the most agonizing degree. Which honestly felt just as alluring as deeply distressing for all the neat people you come across. And to segue to the last point of the characters/VAs: what a glorious menagerie of souls… I fell in love with some, wrinkled my nose at others, and found myself enraged at a few.

Hard to not write a novel, but what a freaking game.

Ketsui Deathtiny 1CC in Deathtiny mode.

Danmaku Unlimited 3 (sadly on two credits)

Titanfall 2

I remember playing Blur back in high school and was surprised with how much I enjoyed it. The gameplay was good, and it had an aesthetic that was pretty unique. Honestly I think I might see if I can dig it up from somewhere and play it again; just to see if I enjoy it as much as I did playing Burnout: Paradise for the first time in 12 years.

You think Skyrim didn’t live up to the hype?!!

Hi-Fi Rush | 9/10

The score went up an entire point when The Prodigy - Invaders Must Die started playing. I really hope this gets a sequel.

I’m so happy I didn’t know that song was in the game. I personally rate it 10/10, a perfect blend of gameplay, story, and soundtrack, with bonus points for managing to toe the line between goofy and sincere. That part at the end (“I am a rockstar”) had me bracing for someone to point out how cheesy it was, and no one does. I love a piece of media that doesn’t make fun of you for getting invested.

I realize I need to finish more games. The only four I beat this year were

Baldur’s Gate 3 | 8/10

I’m gonna be real, the replay value is not really there for me. My wizard and my co-player’s paladin are the big damn heroes, and I have trouble getting into another character. I’m not gonna get a better ending than the one I got with _______ and ____, and it feels weird being as into Karlach as I was, and then just pushing her aside and dating someone else

Outriders | 8/10

The world needs more games like this. I love that everyone recognizes that the Outrider is essentially a god. The Russian roulette scene alone brings this up from a 7, but the rather unsatisfying ending brings it down from a 9. I don’t love that they imply some big war between the altered humans, and then ditch that halfway through. The fact that Moloch is introduced as a BBEG and then you kill him in an optional endgame side mission is disappointing. The DLC though, that kicked ass… Right up until the rather unsatisfying end, again. It’s certainly much better than the main game, which isn’t really that bad to begin with. I just want to know what the Outrider learned in that ancient vault.

Atlas Fallen: Reign of Sand | 7/10

Don’t get me wrong when I say 7/10. It’s one of my favorite games I’ve ever played, and I want more games like it. It’s hard to explain why exactly I like it so much, but I think I can sum it up with: many other games are rather exhausting, either mentally, or emotionally. This game doesn’t expect a lot from the player, except for proficiency with the simple combat system. The story is simple—there’s an evil god, you find a magic gauntlet that can maybe kill that god, action ensues. I can count on one hand the number of characters that I feel like the game wanted me to remember or care about.

It’s a fun game, solid 30 hours to 100%, 7/10 absolutely recommend.

Hellblade 2: Senua’s Saga | 7/10

It wasn’t as good as the first game. Or maybe it’s that it wasn’t as better than the first game as it could have been. A large part of why the first game was so engaging to me was the loneliness. It was just me and the furies, and the puzzles we were solving. Senua’s Saga introduces a few primary characters, and villages full of people, which dampens the furies’ affect on me. The game was also much more confusing. In the first game, it’s entirely nebulous what was real and what was in Senua’s head. You can interpret it as a literal descent into the underworld to attempt to reclaim her lover’s soul, or an entirely figurative descent into her own psyche to overcome the grief of losing him, or somewhere in between. Ironically, this makes it easier for me to parse, because there’s no apparent contradictions. The sequel makes it explicitly clear that Senua is engaging, at least somewhat, in real life. This makes it more confusing, because

Let me know if the spoiler tags didn’t work in your client. I think combining the ::: and the >!!< should cover all bases

Every game for the year?? That’s crazy

Highlights:

Tears of the kingdom: amazing game, sunk an absurd amount of hours into this

Like a dragon: infinite wealth: so good, favorite franchise, rgg consistently puts out quality and is the only studio ill bother to buy full price games from

Tales of arise: really good

Hi fi rush: extremely good, but no jet set radio

Bomb rush cyberfunk: not as good, much closer though. actually felt like next gen jet set radio. just wish they bothered to improve the formula at all from 2000 or whenever

Dead space remake: I found myself having to push through the end of this, got very tedious

Silent hill free game on psn (I forget the name, the suicide one): so heavy handed, awful writing, awful voice acting, but it was free so whatever

Silent hill 2: pretty great remake but wish I waited for a price drop.

Persona 3 reload: basically same as above

Ff7: solid overall, really liked it

Spider-Man 2: not as good as the first one but decent

Unicorn overlord: really good

Forspoken: not amazing but not nearly as bad as I thought it would be based on the initial reactions

Tekken 8: love it even though I fucking suck

Smt: vengeance: great

Dave the diver: played on a whim without knowing anything about it, sucked me in

I know there weee more but that’s what I can remember off the top of my head

Excited to play metaphor, hellblade 2, Indiana jones, riven remake, erdtree dlc for Elden ring, cyberpunk dlc, Alan wake 2, god of war ragnarok dlc, new taiko no tatsujin, armored core vi, like a billion more

I made posts here on some of the games I was patient on this year, so I’ll include links to those in-line here along with the rest of my list, in chronological order:

Control - I ended up grabbing–and devouring–Alan Wake 2 very soon after finishing this, mostly because one of my favorite singers ever resurfaced on the game’s soundtrack, to my complete astonishment. The setting and a few of the dialogues remain fresh in my mind, but the rest of Control ended up buried under AW2, which is saying something considering I don’t like survival horror.

Lost Odyssey - Interesting timing, as Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 was announced just a few months after I finished Lost Odyssey, a clear source of inspiration. I hear a lot from JRPG fans that wish there were more games with adult cast members and mature narratives, and LO fits the bill. “Letters from a Weakling” is still utterly devastating.

Xenoblade Chronicles 2 - Torna: The Golden Country - Mostly just more Xenoblade Chronicles 2, a new main character and some light changes to the battle system keep things fresh. Come for the soundtrack, stay for the emotional scenes. Despite being forced into hours of side quests, this was worth seeing through to the end.

Atelier Meruru - My favorite of the Arland trilogy, I was engaged by the alchemy and kingdom building throughout the game. Real fun sense of progression with city, world map, and music changes. Surprisingly touching scenes with returning characters.

Xenoblade Chronicles 3 (plus Future Redeemed) - A solid entry in a fan-favorite series I gave my thoughts on earlier, but what stands out in hindsight is how good the side quests were. A long time weakness of JRPGs, it’d be nice if the genre was spurred to step things up. The base game and Future Redeemed were sprinkled with enough Xenogears references to get my brain churning.

Atelier Ayesha - Ayesha changed the vibe in a dramatic way that I wasn’t entirely prepared for. Enjoyed that, the new cast, the story, and the soundtrack, not so much the gameplay. I’ve been proceeding through this series slightly faster than they get released, so maybe I’ll catch up some day.

Star Wars: Jedi Survivor - Plenty of spectacle and fun with lightsabers, yet all those hours spent running around are already fading from memory. The game’s focus on family and home still resonates with me in a way it wouldn’t have ten years ago.

Citizen Sleeper - Recent events have me turning this story over in my head a few times. I thought this had a strong anti-capitalist message, but I may have even underestimated it. This one’s earned a replay, and soon.

Ys IX: Monstrum Nox - I wouldn’t have made it through this game without the Ys brand, a series I grew up with. It did get better in the back half, but probably still not worth it. The city exploration did little for me and I never want to see a raid/Nox battle again. With the recent announcement of an “enhanced” version of Ys X, it’s going to be forever before I get to it. Monstrum Nox is going to be stuck in my craw for a while.

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One of them is Handshakes.

One game, Factorio. I still wanna play more!