I played a few games that were just really mediocre.
Warhammer 40k: Inquisitor was a super boring ARPG and I couldn’t put in more than a few hours. The levels were super short and just corridors.
Pathfinder: Kingmaker started out ok, but was just far too long, terribly paced, and the last third was a complete slog. This was probably the one I’d call a “stinker” the most.
Crisis Core Remake (FF7 spin off) had a boring story and lame characters. The bulk of the “content” were 300 side missions that were usually less than five minutes long in one of like six stages. I picked it up after I enjoyed the FF7 Remake far more than I thought, but this game adds nothing to the overall story. To be fair to the game though, I did complete all 300 side stories, because from time to time I like a mindless grind.
I’m continuing my four-year-old save of Octopath Traveler, where I got a third or so in. I dunno if it’s the Steam Deck, but there’s just tons of aliasing, shifting sprites and flickering, it just looks bad, and the detailed enemy sprites were the only thing I really liked about the game in the first place. Combat is also a slog at times, so I don’t know if I have it in me to finish the game.
Baldur’s Gate 3 was the best I played this year. There might be recency bias, but I genuinely think it’s one of the best games I’ve ever played. Persona 5 Royal isn’t super far behind, was also great.
Worst game I finished was Starfield. Did not see that coming. Worst overall was Vambrace: Cold Soul. Incredibly gorgeous game with a complete disaster of a core gameplay loop.
I don’t think I played any truly bad games, but I do have a list of games that I bounced off of for one reason or another. Maybe I ran out of steam to play them, maybe life got in the way and I couldn’t come back to it, or I just didn’t want to “git gud” with the limited time I have. I basically deemed them not worth my time when I did manage to sink a ton of hours into Spider-Man, Cyberpunk, and Talos Principle.
So that abandoned graveyard consists of…
Tunic - I hit a wall at one of the bosses and just couldn’t progress. Ran out of juice unfortunately.
Mr. Sun’s Hatbox - Such a weird quirky game. Didn’t get close to beating it but I got enough out of it and called it quits.
Hunt: Showdown - This one was a bummer. It’s been on my “need to try” list. I tried it, solo, and died right away. I could tell it was one of those games that needed a time investment to make it work and I just don’t have it in me.
Cult of the Lamb - Something about the roguelike aspect of it didn’t mesh with me, which is weird because I feel like that’s really become a genre I like.
Overwatch 2 - I played poorly as Lifeweaver, was griefed in chat, and quit :)
To jump in on Hunt Showdown, the initial learning curve of the game does require a little time to get used to compared to other shooters. However the biggest call out I would have is to not try playing the game solo. Hunt is very much a game that is made or broken by the company you keep while you play it and it takes a very special kind of player (a masochist) to enjoy playing it solo. Either way, definitely understandable to bounce off it, it's a great game but not for everyone.
Totally could see that being the case. I think it was a combination of seeing the difficulty curve and not having a consistent group to play with that probably did me in. I’m happy to lose and learn, but not maybe as much as it seemed like I would playing solo!
Given more time, definitely something I’d want to get into more.
I played a lot of great games this year, but also many that didn’t click with me.
There’s a huge spikes of games that I played this year, because I decided to start tackling my backlog by streaming them, these include games I’ve bought on sale, and those that are on PS+ Extre.
Can't finish because of difficulty spikes- Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown: - Dropped it after that mission where you need to protect a car, while manouvering between buildings in a city, as expected I kept crashing into buildings - Shantae: Risky’s Revenge- It was fun at first, but then there’s some precisioin platforming part, which I just wasn’t in the mood for - Super Mario 64- There’s a level where you’re first introduced to flying mechanic
Dropped it because of technical issues- Assassin’s Creed Origins- The game crashed within the tutorial area - Call of the Sea- I got motion sickness - Kena: Bridge of Spirits- Again, I got motion sickness, supposed to be an okay game. - Tardy- Weirdly because the game has lots of reading, but the fonts are way too small for me - The Ascent- Too much clutter on scene when you reached the first city / settlement. The first section feels okay, but again, some items / objects are just way too small for my failing eyes
Dropped it because it's not clicking- Gnosia- It was supposed to be fun at first, but then the rolls I got was not advancing the storyline - Grime- This feels like the moment I dislike souls-like metroidvania. It might be when I realized that I’ve picked the wrong upgrade path, and there’s limited resources for upgrading your character - Gungrave G.O.R.E- This is not a good game - Horizon Forbidden West- The combat feels worse than the first one. There’s so many more things to do that has way too many writings that I barely care enough. I’d rather have smaller number of sidequests with good writing, than a large number of them where everyone has so many stories to tell. This feels like it’s becoming a ‘forever game’, which might be good, but the combat is just not satisfying at all. - Mafia: Definitive Edition- Dropped after the racing section, was not feeling it. - Mass Effect: Andromeda- Dropped while in the first area. Something about the movement not clicking. - MediEvil (Remake)- Dropped after the 3rd or 4th area. - Moon: Remix RPG Adventure- This is supposed to be great, but I just got tired of the slow pace - NEO: The World Ends with You- I talked about this before, the game keeps on interrupting you. Walk to a new area, fluff dialogues, walk to another area, more inconsequential fluff dialogues. This seems to be a (bad) trend among JRPGs or anime style game. - Oxenfree- Character dialogues just don’t gel with me. Also there’s a time limit when choosing replies. - Root Double: Before Crime * After Days - Xtend Edition- The slice of life part is atrociously slow, most of them are inconsequential ‘look at me, i’m a cute anime girl’ - Sea of Stars- The combat is way too slow, and requires you to do timed button presses. Also for the part I was in, the story feels generic. - Shadow of the Beast- JUst not good - Star Ocean: The Divine Force- Arrived at port town, overtly anime character came in, dropped the game. THe combat was fun, but the character / story are not clicking - Tchia- This is supposed to be good, but I burned myself out for trying to collect everything available before advancing the story - The Adventure of Little Ralph- Feels kinda repetitive - The Wonderful 101: Remastered- I don’t think this game works well without touch screen - TUNIC- Sadly another indie trend that I dislike, difficult combat encounters that don’t feel satisfying. It’s supposed to be a very good game. - Unpacking- Played it on PS5, I dropped it after rotating object for quite a number of times. I think this game is probably better suited for mouse and keyboard - Vernal Edge- I wanted to like it, but the combat is not fun. You have a dedicated ‘Pulse’ button to heal, which throws your sword at the enemy, and you need to press attack + direction to launch an attack that could heal you, which is already a roundabout way of healing (the mechanic is not fun). Then you have enemies that need to be stunned by X number of charge attacks, and the game throws you into small combat area with 4 - 5 enemies that doesn’t get knocked back without 3-4 charge attacks.
Finished it, but it's kinda not good- Root Film- Root Letter was okay (but arguably ruined with the updated version with multiple endings), Root Film is just plain boring, especially the ending. The story was enticing at first, but nope, it became bad by the end of the game. - Shenmue II- Shenmue. - The 3rd Birthday- I like the combat, considering that it was on PSP.
Reading your post and then reading the replies made my chest hurt lol.
Bungies halo campaigns were just something special. I don’t know when we’ll see a co-op fps at that level of quality again. Those titles have lived rent free in my brain for the past decade
One thing you could do, depending on how much you and your friends enjoy a challenge. Is to do the halo 3/ODST Vidmaster challenge. My friends and I did it together twice when it was first released and those are some of my fondest gaming memories
Going to second Midnight Suns. I’m a big XCOM fan, and while there were a lot of differences, it still scratched that same multi-genre itch.
I also played (in no specific order):
Hitman - World of Assassination - A whole hell of a lot of game in one package. Definitely the highlight of the series if it is your type of game.
Horizon Burning Shores - A worthwhile reason to go back to Horizon Forbidden West, though it was over sooner than I’d like. I’d feel better about the length if it was easier to miss the story, but anyone who goes from Forbidden West to the next game without playing Burning Shores might be caught off guard by the new character. (And I’mma be mad if they don’t bring back the new character!)
Death Stranding: Director’s Cut - Another YMMV game that will suck you in if you like good progression mechanics and don’t mind a slightly slower pace. And Hideo Kojima being Hideo Kojima.
Crisis Core - FFVII Reunion - You know the old school parenting style of making your kid smoke a pack of cigarettes so they want to wretch every time they catch a whiff of them? I accidentally did that to myself with JRPGs during the PS1 era. I thought maybe Crisis Core could coast by on nostalgia factor because I was able to enjoy FFVII Remake. Crisis Core was a big stinker though. The story hits every bad JRPG/anime trope you can think of (fucking Genesis… WOOF), and the quest design seems designed to embrace pointless backtracking and tedium.
Cyberpunk 2077 Phantom Liberty - I will argue until I’m blue in the face that while the PS4 and Xbox Series Whatever was a shitshow, the PC launch of CP2077 in 2020 was only a bit rocky. All the praises that people have been singing about the game since 2.0 and Phantom Liberty? They’re praising the same elements that have made the game great since Day 1. It’s just not sandwiched between T-poses and occasional CTDs any more. PC veterans who lived through rough launches of great games (like Vampire: The Masquerade Bloodlines or, hell, Witcher 3!) were right at home. The Phantom Liberty Expansion was a great excuse to revisit Night City and remember why I fell in love with the game three years ago.
Slay the Spire - Because I’m going to hit A20 and kill the Heart with Silent eventually, goddammit.
Baldur’s Gate 3 - Because best $50 I spent in 2020.
No Man’s Sky - I waited until this year to pick up NMS and this was another one that sucked me in for a solid couple months. Hello Games has sunk years into making this game a great bang for your buck if you like exploration and building.
bin.pol.social
Aktywne