I have started to notice that a lot, if not the majority, of games that make the biggest social splashes in the past couple years are smaller games - with exceptions for titles like Baldur’s Gate 3 and Alan Wake 2 which are their own labors of love on a AAA scale. Animal Well, Balatro, Dredge, Vampire Survivors, Talos Principle 2, Hi-Fi Rush…these are the games I tend to hear about the most.
The attention that a lot of AAA games get seems shallow and short-lived lately.
One of the things that’s excited me most recently is seeing new and inventive ways to use graphics and fidelity besides photorealism. Games like Gris and The Artful Escape are probably the most stunningly beautiful games I’ve ever played.
For how little cultural impact The Darkness had in the long term, I remember it being very hotly anticipated before release. I think I made myself believe I liked it more than I actually did, but it was a really ambitious and interesting title all the same.
Ha, that’s funny, that’s the exact opposite of me. But games are my downtime, and socializing is work (for me), so I am almost exclusively single-player.
Shame about Pacific Drive, but I get it. There is a ton of repetition.
For me, the fun comes, like in some other crafting games (e.g., Subnautica) and roguelikes, from chasing the next upgrades, enjoying the sense of empowerment they bring, and getting to explore new areas.
For that reason, I love the idea of survival crafting games, but I hate the sandbox, perpetual loop format most of them come in (like No Man’s Sky). Subnautica is the gold standard (with Dysmantle being a surprise second place) of having a finite, focused progression path. Pacific Drive scratches that itch.
Although, I will admit that it’s more stressful than I would have liked too. I knew about the procedural generation and run-based loop early on, but I still kind of expected something overall tranquil. But with storms coming on a timer in every junction, anomalies frequently overwhelming every space you need to explore, and the high stakes of potentially losing a lot of critical material, I found myself playing much more anxiously than I would have preferred, which is what I alluded to about the endgame.
I’m happy to say that I was one of them. Beat the game this past weekend, and have really been enjoying trophy hunting in the endgame. Without the pressure of the main story I’ve actually started to feel a little more freedom to take chances and be less concerned about damage and loss of resources.
All in all, Pacific Drive has been an absolute highlight this year.
That was actually my first thought as well lol. Maybe story mode is secondary to some people who just like the survival grind, but it’s the only part I’m interested in, and my attention in The Long Dark has come and gone waiting for it to complete.
Slowly coming to the end of Pacific Drive, which has been mostly great. I think I’ll wrap it up at the perfect time, because I’m not quite tired of it but can feel my interest beginning to wane.
I have also been playing Sea of Stars. I had one foot fully over the edge to give it up during its painfully slow opening, but I just barely made it long enough to get through the first dungeon and found myself beginning to admit that it was becoming fun. I can’t remember the last time my feelings for a game pivoted so hard, because once it opens up it is a ton of fun. I’m glad I was able to stick with it.
I played the hell out of the first DMC back in the day. Just over and over again, even on Dante Must Die and I almost never do hard modes. Apparently I really liked the relatively toned-down gameplay and setting, and the RE-inspired tone, because I never really enjoyed 2-4 the same way (2 goes without saying).
I largely ignored the series but spontaneously got the interest to play 5 a year or two ago. I did beat it, but it did not do anything for me. I was very glad to be done with it.
With all the news coming out the past couple days about The Veilguard, I’m starting to piece together a suspicion that Bioware is picking things back up where they last had decent ideas: early to mid 2010s.
I think Veilguard will feel like a stuck-in-time successor to Inquisition, stale by that period’s standards and grossly outdated by today’s, especially in the wake of Larian’s enormous success reinvigorating the kind of game Bioware has forgotten how to make.
Shame. Shortly after it’s release Best Buy was selling it for like $10, which is such a potent indicator for the state of its reputation on release. Anyway, I couldn’t pass it up. I encountered tons of bugs, but they were all superficial and didn’t impact the gameplay or my progress.
I loved it. World building and atmosphere were grade A, and I even liked Johnny Silverhand and his relationship with V. Like I said in the post, I’ve been waiting for new game plus to replay, but I guess now I’ll just dive back in without.
Watcher Knights I think are near the top of my list. I just rewatched my recording of beating them and I was fumbling so badly lol. It’s obvious I’m running with the “pure desperation” tactic rather a more skillful approach, but it finally managed to work out.
I was addicted to exploring that world but I am satisfied with the one playthrough I think.
I was persuaded to pick Elden Ring back up despite not really feeling a pull for it, but lo and behold once I was back in I fell in deep. I never actually finished the game with my first dex/bleed-based character, so I continued making my way through Crumbling Farum Azula. I’ve given Malekith a couple of attempts but I’m pretty burned out on bosses at the moment. I started up a new sorcery-based character and that’s been the real joy. Magic really does make the game significantly easier, and part of me wishes I’d done my first playthrough this way. But I’d beaten Demon’s Souls remake not too long before starting Elden Ring originally and wanted something different.
To fall back on when I get too frustrated, I’ve been playing 10tons’s Undead Horde. Their game Dysmantle wound up being a major highlight the year that I played it (I really, really liked it), so I finally bought Undead Horde 1 and 2. It’s not nearly as good as Dysmantle, but it’s a really great, lightweight dungeon crawler. I like their vibe very much and am really looking forward to Dysplaced.
I also gave the Saints Row reboot a try since it was free a while back on PS+ and it’s really, really (really) dumb. It’s also kind of fun, a little at a time. Not sure it’ll hold my interest all the way through but it’s nice having an open world game that’s just…easy to play and asks very little of the player.
I’m further behind in Ori but I’m enjoying it greatly. I’m not a big metroidvania aficionado, but I played and loved Hollow Knight despite it’s difficulty (some of the bosses really tested my tolerance for punishment). I appreciate that Ori is (so far) a more accessible game.