Dunno if I’d call it a stinker, but my excitement for Starfield waned very quickly as I played. 20 hours in, it was still fun. 30-40 hours, I’m like, eh. Past about 60 hours I was completely disillusioned with it. The perk system is a nightmare, leveling up gets really difficult really quickly. Making money (especially after they hid all the vendor chests), getting materials, etc. is a tedious slog. The UI/UX for ship building and settlement building is painful. Settlement building in general is a pointless waste of time and takes way too long to get the perks enough to make it even remotely worthwhile.
It also doesn’t help that there’s not a native version for the Xbox One, and Cloud Play is miserable. Constant disconnects, jitters, long load times, long wait times.
SPOILER BITS
The main quest is completely pointless. It has no effect on anything. Outside of Constellation and the other Starborn, no one even knows anything is happening. Your choices don’t have any impact on anything. Side with the Hunter? Side with the Emissary? Outside of the number of dupes you fight at the end, it literally doesn’t matter. And getting to the end does absolutely nothing. Now you have to start over with a shittier ship you can’t upgrade, some armor that’s mostly fine, and literally nothing else. Nothing’s different. Sure, after enough times through, silly things start happening at Constellation. But what else? It’s not worth it.
The faction quests are fun, but then again, have basically no bearing on anything.
The companions are disappointing: ostensibly you have two lovable rogues, a religious zealot, and the most Lawful Good character who will judge you for even the slightest non-Squeaky Clean choices you make, though they all end up being basically the same.
Otherwise, you just keep running the treadmill: get all 10 upgrades to your Space Shouts, ship, and armor? And then what? Just keep going. Do it again. And again. And you still don’t have enough perk points.
On second thought, maybe I would call it a stinker. So fucking disappointing. It had so much potential.
I think there were some middling games and some really great games this year, and even the ones I didn’t enjoy were just not for me, as opposed to actively being bad games. I’m not going to board the hyperbole train and say it’s the best year for games ever, but I think it was very strong and had a lot of variety which is good for everyone. Looking forward to 2024 when I get to play everyone else’s favorites in this thread :)
How did Remnant 2 compare to Remnant 1 for you if you played both? I started Remnant 1 just before the 2nd release, and I really liked the concept but everything felt too generic and started to get old really quickly. I think the biggest issue was the procedural generation made everything too similar. The worlds all felt the same with only a few enemy types.
It may not be my top game, but it’s up there! I really glad to hear you liked it that much though, I can’t wait to see what the DLCs will look like. There’s already a lot of variety, but more stuff to do is always great.
I will agree with the other poster that already replied and say it’s MUCH better in Remnant 2. Variety in stages, story, and enemies are all much better, and the bosses/mini-bosses are more fun than the first. I loved the first game as it was a really great small party game to play online, but the second is better in almost all aspects. If you have Xbox, it just went on gamepass, and I think it’s worth your time to check it out.
As a side note, I will say that the final bosses in both games are absolute bullshit. It’s the one thing that they didn’t seem to listen to as far as criticisms from the first game. If you have a party you’ll be fine, but soloing can be tough.
After that (assuming you have a CD/DVD Drive), you’ll need to do VirtualBox’s Machine > Settings > Storage > Enable Passthrough for the DVD drive; them just plug in the game disk.
Going to have to disagree on the second bit. Nearly every game that was released on XP or earlier has run better for me with WINE or DosBox in Linux than Windows. Proton and Lutris/Heroic have only made it better. I have the Might and Magic collection and Mass Effect Remastered on my deck and both run flawlessly with little setup.
Indeed. Linux, with WINE is known to outperform Windows, sometimes by a wide margin, for older games for some time. Win98 hasn’t seen any development in about two decades. Meanwhile, people who enjoy old software have been continually improving WINE, allowing modern hardware and OS advances to be leveraged and unpatched low-level issues to be fixed. Linux is very much a better Win98 than Win98.
Starfield, Diablo 4, and Tears of the Kingdom for me.
Starfield was a hard pass at 30FPS on my Series X. But also, the gameplay and story just didn’t interest me at all.
Diablo 4 was monotonous. Grinding for hours to get a percentage of a percentage increase on gear was not fun. I’ve played every other Diablo game along with numerous other action RPGs of that style, but D4 is a snorefest. It’s frustrating being chain stunned by all the crowd control, it’s frustrating that a lot of enemies have a lot of health for no reason, and it’s bland when you face the same few bosses over and over again. It wasn’t so bad in the other Diablo games because you could just nuke the bosses, but in D4 each one is a straight up chore to kill.
Tears of the Kingdom… it’s a fun action adventure game, but if it has The Legend of Zelda on it, it needs to be held to The Legend of Zelda standards. And it, just like Breath of the Wild, is an awful Zelda game. If it didn’t have LoZ on it, I’d probably rate it much higher.
**Cyberpunk 2077 (1.6)**My first open world AAA game, I really enjoyed it and even though I was a total noob the gunplay and missions were very doable. The lore in everything made the immersion so deep too. Great soundtrack too!
Slay The PrincessI really liked the writing and art. It really feels like a full experience, the voice acting is on point too (I loved The Voice Of The Smitten!!)
**Deltarune (chapter 2)**I loved Chapter 1 and Undertale, and this new chapter did not disappoint either. Didn’t had the time to play it yet until now
Worst:
Warzone 2.0Made me realise those more realistic shooters weren’t for me at all. Had only played more cartoonish shooters before (Fortnite, Valorant etc)
Hitman 3Hitman is on its own really fun, but I just couldn’t seem to find the solutions. I got stuck at the Bangkok mission.
The games that caught my attention the most were Payday: The Heist, Crusader Kings III (essentially a live service), and Hollow Knight. Honorary mention: Lovely Planet, it pushed me right to my limits, any little bit harder and I wouldn‘t have been able to get full stars. I did play some Zelda but it didn‘t blow me away.
The worst games, hmm. For sure Magicka, CTDs en masse, absolutely unplayable. DiRT 5 was a huge disappointment to me, driving felt terrible and somehow it looked worse than GRID 2019 with cars that could’ve been toy cars. An HDR spectacle though for sure.
I remember trying to play Magicka a decade ago and I couldn’t even get it to run, but it worked perfectly when I played it again recently. Maybe it’s just very flaky, but I’d recommend trying it again when you’ve got a new machine to try because it is really fun!
The Long Dark for me. No zombies, kannibals or other horror elements. Just surviving nature, wild animals and the cold on a Canadian island. I play a new playthrough when it gets cold outside every winter. I might pick up the DLC this time.
Vampire Survivors - They keep releasing new content, and I keep devouring it. This game is even more addicting than Cracktorio.
The Murder of Sonic the Hedgehog - Best April Fools joke this year, and a solid light visual novel in its own right. This was a pleasant surprise.
Remnant II - My choice for Game of the Year this year. TotK let me down, and while BG3 is solidly in the #2 spot I don’t really vibe with it. Remnant II is an excellent sequel that builds on the strengths while fixing the weaknesses of its predecessor. It’s a hell of a game that still manages to stand out in a year stacked with great titles.
Note: I didn’t play AC6 or the new Street Fighter, so I’ve got no opinion on how they match up.
Worst:
Keywe - A puzzle game where you play as Kiwi birds managing a post office in Australia. Not my thing, but my sister likes it and wanted to play the multiplayer with me. We played online and holy hell this game’s netcode is broken. We kept desyncing mid-puzzle and then whoever was hosting would have to finish the puzzle while the other stood and watched because they couldn’t see the actual gamestate. It’s probably a fine game as a solo or local play experience, but it left a sour impression.
Did Remnant 2 feel more unique than Remnant 1? I tried the 1st and fell off in the 2nd world because it all felt too similar with a handful of enemies and procedural chunks. Reluctant to try the 2nd if it’s got the same lack of variety.
I didn’t have an issue with that in Remnant 1, but I think it was improved on that front. There’s more enemy variety, with several fodder mobs and elites with unique gimmicks, and some of the bosses are straight up weird. The maps are still procedurally generated, but there are more types of maps in the pool. They do still feel samey when you get two maps that use the same chunks, but there is less overlap from map to map.
They also made the area progression part of the world proc-gen, so you can encounter the areas in a different order on different play-throughs. That does help keep the replayability fresh, but it doesn’t fix the issue. It just sort of sweeps it under the rug so that it takes more playthroughs to notice.
Best: System Shock: turns out the 90s darling gal can still run with the best of them in 2023 thanks to Nightdive’s excellent remake. Citadel Station was a real blast to explore. It almost made me disappointed to see how little gaming has advanced since that time, I’d have expected to view the remake as a relic of a simpler time. Instead I played something way more fun than the typical hand-holdy shooters of today.
Cyberpunk 2077: Update 2.0 made this a real videogame. I absolutely hated playing Cyberpunk 2077 when it released, so much that I refunded it. The combat felt awful and floaty, the RPG systems felt stupid and poorly thought out, and don’t even get me started on the bugs. 2.0 is the reason to buy the game again, and with modding support already available I have a feeling this game is going to grow the kinda legs of Witcher 3 and Skyrim. CD-Projekt Red managed a real miracle. Oh, and the DLC is pretty rad too.
Warframe: There’s been a lotta new content added to Warframe this year, and it’s all been pretty good! I was a little worried about the game considering the change in leadership, but Rebecca Ford knows what the players want and seems really skilled at walking the fine line that makes a grind enjoyable. If you’ve never played, and have always wanted to play a mass murderer in space with magic powers, I’d recommend hopping in.
Worst:
Elden Ring: Miyazaki please where is the DLC. It’s been two years, I just want to play through a new poison swamp.
Definitely should give it another try if you still have it. The writing and creativity of the quests is still top tier, but now the combat is incredibly fun. You probably can use that controller, Steam is pretty good about third party controllers these days, but I wouldn’t know much. It’ll definitely play well on a controller though, though you might want to grab the keyboard if you’re going to do any advanced inventory fiddlin.
Cocoon - short with no dialog but really enjoyed the puzzles
The Talos Principle 2 - great puzzles and well done story. Really enjoyed it.
Far - Lone Sales - the start wasn’t super intuitive but didn’t take long. Short, no dialog. Ok puzzles. Fair enough especially on sale
Dave the Diver - Really good. Didn’t finish since I played it enough that it didn’t drive me anymore. That’s not the games fault since I tend to do that and rarely play longer games much with my schedule.
I expect you to die 2 - short and alright. Loved the first one, second wasn’t as good but not bad either
Stray - I really enjoyed this one. Fantastic world setting and ambiance even though it’s too short for some people’s taste I found it to be really good.
Gorogoa - Really weird and really good. I love deeper narratives revealed over time and this one hit me like Rime
You know, I’m thinking I’m either not playing enough games, or getting “too old” because most of the stuff I remember playing is either old or, ahem, adults only.
This year was the year I finally fully played Star Wars Dark Forces. Would’ve been a great game at the time, playing nowadays would be just for curiosity, really.
I played Fallout 4 a bunch, especially once I discovered how to get infinite enemies/gear/money by building settlement traps to catch Gunners. Silly loop, but I had lots of fun coming up with new ways to blow them up shortly after stepping out of the traps.
Super Smash Bros Ultimate is still the best fighting game I’ve played this year.
Phantasy Star 1 for the Sega Master System is the worst I’ve played this year. I don’t think it’d be much fun even back in 1989, because it mixes typical jrpg with first person dungeon crawling and the latter is awful. Feels like the purpose of the game was selling strategy guides and/or magazines with walkthroughs.
Apart from Subnautica, which only is tedious regarding food/drink in the very beginning, I enjoyed Unreal World a lot. It is turn based, so there isn’t any real-time time constraint imposed by in-game hunger/thirst. It also tries to feel realistic in a lot of aspects, including the amount of food/water your character needs. While at game start you of course need to focus on immediate survival (though, that depends a bit on the scenario you play), that focus shifts rather quickly to preparing for the winter, as in stocking up supplies (think: smoking/curing meat/fish, gathering fire wood,…), and building a shelter that you can heat, so you don’t freeze when it gets cold outside. Since the game is set in fantasy iron age Finland, you probably also want to build a sauna 😉.
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