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.
Mario Party 3 on switch still holds up and the mini games are challenging enough on Super Hard.
Tears of the Kingdom. The best fights were when I went to Ganon with 3 hearts and no gloom healing but still. The game was difficult and I still haven’t gotten all the shrines. Getting all the light roots brings back the heavy exploration that you got in Breath of the Wild in the over world. Of course the over world was the only world.
I played the remake of Story of Seasons: A Wonderful Life and it’s pretty good. It lacks a lot of gameplay when you compare it to Stardew Valley. But the family aspect was compelling. The game is a challenge tho but I like that.
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.
Empyrion (you love sandbox games with endless content with very little guidance? Try it, I’m on HWS RE server and after 260h I’m still just scratching the surface)
Marvel Midnight Suns (top notch on many levels)
Chrono Ark (one of the best roguelite deck builders for me)
The scroll of Taiwu (perfect cultivation sandbox RPG, official translation should come in 2024)
Worst : Not much… I just don’t understand why I can’t get into Thea 2. It’s supposed to kinda be my dream game. Yet, I’m always bored after 30 min.
Shoutout to Archmage Rises. It has a long way to go but it could possibly be my GOTY 2024.
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!
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.
I played the balls out of the Dead Rising series through the third game. Definitely check out 2 if you like the first one. Off the Record is a fun retread of the second game if you take a break before playing it. 3 was a bit poorer received at launch, but on an SSD, it’s still a damn fun game.
Never got around to the 4th game. It sounded pretty soulless from the reviews
It's weird that as I continue to want to play more of it, I'm annoyed by just about every design decision they made along the way. I want to get into the gun design thing even, but the perk tree system puts a roadblock in my way.
The skill tree stuff makes me feel like Bethesda finally listened to all those players who bitched about it being too easy to become “overpowered” and blamed it on how easy it was to level up and not the poor balancing with how level scaling works. So now, all the actually good, fun and useful shit is all the way at the top (or rather the bottom) of the tree, with a bunch of “milestones” you have to hit in addition to simply being the right level and/or having the previous skills in the tree.
I don't even think it's that. Lots of RPGs have had "do X more to level up X", including old Bethesda games, but it's riddled with problems, which is why most games don't do it anymore. As for level scaling, at least they finally got rid of that, but the way they guide you through the galaxy in line with your level involves basically being equally far along in each faction quest line at the same time instead of having low level factions and high level factions.
⭐ Hi-Fi Rush – Love it, hands down. This game’s like if Jet Set Radio, Scott Pilgrim, and DMC got into a fist fight and then that fist fight had a baby with Jack Black
⭐ Pentiment – I’m still playing through this one but I can already tell it’s a new favorite. Major Return of the Obra Dinn vibes
⭕ Against the Storm – This game innovates on the citybuilder genre so hard and I can’t get enough of it. If you love a challenge and hate the late-game, this is THE ONE
⭕ Psychonauts 2 – Fun and bursting with creativity… but I had to set it down after a certain point because I stopped enjoying the gameplay loop. Can’t put my finger on why…
⭕ Peglin – Yes, Peglin. The Peggle Roguelite. I like it and you would too if you gave it a chance. It’s not a forever roguelite, but I guarantee you’ll have a blast with it for 5-10 hours
❌ Deep Rock Galactic – I bounced off of this one. The game has so much charm… but I just couldn’t click with it. I think co-op games just may not be for me
Honorable Mention: TF2 – Definitely not a “new” game to me, I own TF2, I bought it with money! Even so… this year marked my return after a looong hiatus. Coming back was a total revelation – I thought I’d grown to hate FPS games – as it turns out, what I’d actually grown to hate was the modern antisocial MMR grindset. Game developers: I beseech thee… abandon matchmaking and return to 2007. Return the slab or suffer my curse
Goodness gracious you’re far further along than me! I haven’t touched it for a bit because I’ve been busy with other games, but I’ll get back to it eventually because it’s super fun. (Also GL on P20 I believe in you.)
It’s nice to see people talking about it. I caught a streamer I follow playing it like a month ago and it looked like a lot of fun.
I don’t have enough time to game to justify buying it at its most recent sale price, but I have my eye on it for the first time it gets a deeper discount or gets bundled.
I liked Deep Rock. I started playing it during the pandemic with some friends instead of doing in-person board games (and Jackbox and boardgame simulators got old). I definitely ended up playing more single player than multiplayer. Buuut I probably haven’t played it in a year? It just got really samey after getting through a lot of leveling up and unlocks.
Yup, that about sums it up: fun, but shallow. Nevertheless I think it’s worthy of a recommendation because it has a great honeymoon period before falling off.
I treat Deep Rock the same way I treat rogueli*es and arcade-style games – I can just hop on when I’m in the “dwarf mood”, play one or two missions and be done with it for the day. It’s very good for short sessions like that. Also, you can play solo no problem – you get a drone instead that can mine and shoot things.
When it comes to Deep Rock/co-op I think my issues are more associated with the underlying gameloop design. I find it hard to perform well when the “tension” ramps up and these games are kind of tailor-made to create high-tension situations. When a round ends I’m left feeling tired/deflated rather than joyful. I had the same issue with Left 4 Dead, but oddly not so for Payday 2.
In any case, I’m right there with you when it comes to TF2 community servers. I sorely wish that more games emphasized these sorts of digital “3rd places”. I have TF2 servers where I can go anytime and just… belong for as long as I please. Games should have more permanent places like that, where play and community come before any imposed win/lose dichotomy. People would be happier.
A fellow Xbox gamepass User IT seems. Pentiment is one of my All Time favorites (probably top3 at least)
This was after my First playthrough. Now, with George putting out his video, im back in. My god, its marvellous.
Hifi Rush was great, but felt too formulaic for me, so i abandoned it after the first or second Boss. Too much running arpund, No real banger music between Bosses.
On a Side Note, its kinda similiar too with Lies of Pi. I can See the great soulslike It is (3/4 in) but my interest vanishes. Too many repetitive encounters. Too linear. I feel Like Elden Ring really innovated the genre through its semi Open world approach.
Nope, I’m just someone who waits for sales and has a bit of an indie streak.
This was after my First playthrough. Now, with George putting out his video, im back in. My god, its marvellous.
I see we follow similar creators! I only just picked Pentiment up last week – Jacob Geller’s recent 2023 video is what originally put Pentiment on my radar and then George’s video gave me that final push into playing it for myself. I’m extremely glad for having done so because Pentiment has quickly become quite special to me. I already look forward to making subsequent playthroughs despite still working on the first.
Hifi Rush was great, but felt too formulaic for me, so i abandoned it after the first or second Boss. Too much running arpund, No real banger music between Bosses.
I can see where you’re coming from. From a macro perspective, the game’s essentially just a series of battle arenas stitched together by corridors and platforming challenges… nothing incredible there. What makes Hi-Fi Rush special for me is the novel fusion of rythm mechanics and spectacle fighter mechanics – they complement each other extremely well. (Forgive me for explaining at you like this. I just can’t help myself when it comes to talking about this game)
Normally, I can’t stand DMC-likes because of the requisite rote memorization. HFR flips this dynamic on its head by making the memorization incidental – it happens naturally as you practice playing the combo on-rythm. Perhaps even more importantly; just as mastery of a combo string comes within reach, the underlying musical qualities all suddenly spring into focus and turn the sequence into a musical phrase. It clicks together in a very intrinsically satisfying way IMO. Naturally, this all compounds in on itself and gets double-fun once you start improvising your own “melodies” during real combat. You like Jazz? Because it’s like Jazz if Jazz killed people.
Now, obviously this isn’t going to hit the same way for everyone (nor should it!)… but if you’ve not yet buckled down in training mode and truly mastered a string or two for yourself, then I would very emphatically encourage you to give the game a second try. I actually had to do the exact same thing myself before I really “got” the game and my mindset shifted. Hi-Fi Rush truly is the Dark Souls of 3rd-Person Action videogames
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