Year In Review: 2023

My yearly personal record of game notes. GOTY? Armored Core, and it’s not close. That being said, what a fucking year! Seriously, some excellent overall quality.

• Dead Space (Remake) – [8]

  A great and faithful recreation. The additional backtracking quests mostly improve the experience – the Ishimura is now an impressively connected single level, rather than stages separated by loading screens. However, the new random encounters (while a necessary evil) occasionally skew towards being annoying.

• Atomic Heart – [5]

  It's hard to give this game a higher score than this, although I kinda want to. I had a lot of fun in the middle... 50% of the game, where the open-ish world presents an interesting blend of stealth, frantic battles, and exploration; I loved finding those Portal-style testing chambers. That being said, the game just has too much wrong with it – a real lack of polish in everything but art direction. Banger soundtrack, though.

• Fatal Frame: Mask of the Lunar Eclipse – [6]

  Good to finally get to play this one. I really disliked Maiden of the Black Water (I didn't even get very far into it) but this game had a nice nostalgia hit that reminded me a lot of Fatal Frame 2, one of my favorite horror games of all time. Anyway, I had fun with Lunar Eclipse, even with the dated, clumsy controls. Honestly, my biggest complaint is that the story puts forth a lot of interesting horror concepts, but doesn't really follow through with any of them; and it's a little convoluted.

• Resident Evil 4 (Remake) – [8]

  This is an interesting remake – unlike Dead Space, it's less faithful to the original, but there's more of a throughline here from modern Resident Evils; it feels like a natural progression from 7, 8, and the remakes of 2 and 3. It takes some surprising turns, playing with expectations for those that are all too familiar with the original. A couple small complaints – some of the voice acting misses the mark in my opinion – but overall, a confident, solid modernization.

• Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom – [9]

  I feel like I'm in an awkward position, because I gave BOTW a 10 – and this game, frankly, feels even better than BOTW in almost every way. But – despite that – I think the overall quality of this game highlights the few problems it does has all the more. Some annoying UI issues really grated on me by the end (I wish I could favorite consumables for easy sorting in combat – or when I just want to make a fucking campfire!). Repeating story cutscenes were annoying, and some of the VO was questionable at best. Finally, the handling of the Sage abilities is so clumsy for such an otherwise skillfully designed game – why not just hold down A to display a quick-select radial menu for their abilities? Chasing after them mid-combat is basically untenable.
  But, I mean, there's not a whole lot here to say that hasn't already said by others; this game is simply an excellent open world with a ton of interesting and creative mechanics. And what an improvement for bosses and music compared to BOTW!

• Darkest Dungeon 2 – [5]

  A flawed but... interesting sequel? Look, I'm not sold on the whole Oregon Trail vibe, with the long stretches between events mostly just being dead air of a wagon rolling forward. It also takes painfully long to begin a run – lots of faffing about with the wagon and various menu screens and shit. Worse still, a single (probably unsuccessful) run in this (hard) game takes far too long from start to finish, and kinda goes against the whole “quick to pick up and play” vibe that you usually want from a roguelike. It wastes too much time, and that makes getting screwed by bad luck or bad play way, way too punishing.

• Baldur's Gate 3 – [7]

  Rough around the edges – some unfortunate bugs and terrible UI/UX choices. But, BG3 does a pretty damn great job at recreating an actual D&D experience within the confines of a finite video game. I also very much appreciate the balance improvements that were attempted; reining in 5e's short/long rest issues and improving internal subclass balance goes a long way to making this an engaging experience for D&D veterans. Hopefully mod support will help smooth out some of the more annoying and tedious UX issues, like sorting items, swapping party members, etc.

• Armored Core 6 – [10]

  I have some small quibbles – some of the weapons could use a buff, especially when compared to some of the more beastly configurations. But overall, this is an immediately satisfying, nearly perfect mech experience. It's simultaneously hard and easy – it all depends on your build - and almost every mech type has a time to shine. Allowing you to swap configurations on death while still keeping your checkpoint was a simple but genius design choice.

  UPDATE: Balance patches fixed my only major issue with this game. Went from 9 to a solid 10.

• Bomb Rush Cyberfunk – [TBD]

  I played this for only a session, and it kinda got lost amidst other new releases and a busy IRL schedule. Early impression was middling, seemed kinda jank, but in sort of a charming way. Need to give it another fair shake.

• Blasphemous 2 – [7]

  Good sequel. I like the three weapon system, although I feel like maybe there might be a few TOO many of those Metroidvania-style backtracking mechanics. The “locked in a room” fights are also intensely frustrating and require a bit of brute force memorization of enemy spawns, as often an enemy will spawn and immediately attack you with what may as well be unavoidable damage if you have no knowledge of what's coming. Who approved those double bell guys pincering you in MULTIPLE locked room challenges? I just want to talk. (I probably died to that enemy configuration more than anything else in the game, getting stunlocked by them in a corner – not cool).

• Resident Evil 4: Separate Ways – [7]

  The inexpensive price point (only $10 for ~4-6 hours of solid content) bumps this a point or two in my book. Overall, a solid experience that's ripe for multiple replays and speed running. The story is strained at times to make the whole timeline between Leon and Ada actually work, and unfortunately the worst parts of the DLC are half-hearted ports of original RE4 encounters that were missing from the remake (drill trap, laser hallway, the missing boss fight, etc). But, it can stand on its own as some excellent supplemental content.

• Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty – [8]

  “The game is fixed” - sorta! I still had several bugs in this playthrough, although the base game is undoubtedly better than it was at launch. For the DLC, I enjoyed the story (especially the endings!) and loved the compact Dogtown map, which was dense with great dystopian environment art. The lowpoint of this DLC was the side missions – each one has an interesting set-up, but their structure is almost always the same: get hired by an ostensibly good person for a job, but then, twist! Turns out they were hiding info from you, then supposed villain gives you an offer to betray/undermine your client, and finally you choose to side with either client or villain for quest completion. It wouldn't normally be that noticeable, but presuming you're doing all these missions together as you binge the DLC, the pattern becomes very obnoxious.

• Alan Wake 2 – [9]

  This is probably more fairly an 8, but AW2 does a lot that I really appreciate. The game doesn't rush you into action and combat, it takes it time, and strings you along with a delightfully campy story that wears its inspirations on its sleeve. Game oozes style. My biggest fear is I might have to wait 13 more years to see its conclusion! On the other hand, the combat in this game can be tedious and frustrating – the general combat encounter loop is “cycle through light sources and weapons until everything is empty,” as even with upgrades, the reload speeds in this game are painfully slow, and enemies are constantly teleporting in your face. The penultimate encounter with waves of enemies was particularly sloppy, even with NPC help. This game would be a 10 for me if the combat was a little better paced; and also, to be fair, I did encounter a few frustrating bugs.

• Lords of the Fallen – [6]

  A testament to how difficult it is to get the Souls formula juuuuust right. Everything about this game feels slightly off, like it's ~80% of the way there. And unlike a Souls game, many of my deaths in this game ultimately feel unfair, or didn't reward cautious/smart play. There's just something about compounding annoyances: enemies constantly hiding around corners (so frequent!), platforming sections, bosses with attack wind-ups that just feel wrong – it all adds up to just making the game feel like a slog.

• Darktide: The Traitor Curse Update – [8]

  A solid improvement! With this, I think its safe to say the game is mostly “done” and in a very playable state. It's not perfect, but its a great, flavorful foray into the Warhammer 40k universe.

• Pokemon Scarlet: Teal Mask + Indigo Disk – [8]

  Solid DLC – the terrarium is basically a giant free-roam Safari Zone, which felt a bit nostalgic. Lots of upgrades and things to do. Teal Mask is a little lackluster, but Indigo Disk is excellent, and the epilogue is a nice, silly, and short send-off for the game.

Year In Review: 2022

OK, so, yes - Elden Ring came out. It’s the “best” game I played this year. But it’s not my GOTY. That honor belongs to Signalis. I just love it so, so much.

• Milk Outside a Bag of Milk Outside a Bag of Milk – [6]

  • Cool little interactive story about a mentally unwell girl – it's like the kind of thing I would've wanted to make in high school, except actually good. More than worth the pocket change I spent on it; loved the art style.

• Inscryption: Kaycee's Mod (Beta) – [7]

  • Getting to see this change/be balanced in real time was cool. This is a stellar add-on to Inscryption, one of my favorite games of 2021. The name of the game here is playing dirty and using degenerate strategies – the computer opponent doesn't play fair in this one, so you must do the same in order to outpace him and win. With a little luck and some clever card evaluation skills, though, you can prevail.

• It Takes Two – [6]

  • Wife and I finally got around to this one. Lots of fun, and a beautiful environment. We had a blast trying out all the mechanics, which are doled out at just the right rate so that they never get stale.

• Horizon Forbidden West – [3]

  • Aloy is just supremely unlikable in this game - in the first one she was stoic and determined; in this game she just feels unbearably cold and standoffish. Controls felt finicky – I don't remember the jumps being so bad – although this may be an in-engine change to account for the Death Stranding-style terrain system and BOTW-style glider (both new). Gorgeous environments. Good facial animations, if a little “uncanny valley.” Biggest issue – exploration felt “by the numbers,” like finishing a chore list, ESPECIALLY after playing Elden Ring. Frustrating combat as well. Hugely repetitive, grindy, disappointing – and we don't need an animation to pick up every weed we come across.

• Elden Ring – [9]

  • Real sense of exploration, was an addicting first playthrough. Has some genuine quality of life additions to the Souls formula and solid combat; I particularly like the Ash of War system. Too many repeating bosses – understandable for a game of this size – but not a huge issue, as it lets you try out Spirit Ashes to blitz bosses you've done before.
    Like many, I feel like the general balance of the game drops off a bit after the Mountaintop of the Giants. The end game bosses in particular move so fast that it's extremely punishing to stand toe-to-toe with them. If you're in melee, the game's final encounters seem to funnel you into a dominant strategy of spamming certain Ashes of War and/or jump attacks. Which is OK, I guess, but it feels weird for a game that had such good variety before the home stretch.

    For example, everyone complained about Malenia – and I agree with many of the complaints – but I also think just a few small tweaks could've made her one of the best bosses in the entire Soulsborne franchise. It's just small things – Waterfoul Dance being unreasonably hard to dodge, her healing off of shield blocking – that make you go back to that dominant strategy (if you're melee): spam jump attacks to stagger, and/or use one of the hugely damaging, low-risk Ashes of War to slay the boss from relative safety. Again, it works, it's fine, and the fight is really awesome anyway – it's just a weird choice to me. (And frankly, I'm not convinced it WAS a “choice” – feels like the last 25% or so of the game was in need of one final balance pass, but FromSoft just ran out of time.)

    Anyway, long story short, the big final bosses felt more like I was figuring out how to cheese them, rather than fight them. Except maybe Godfrey. That fight fucking shreds. Great game.

• Stray – [6]

  • A fun little walking simulator-ish adventure game. It's fun to explore and traverse is a cat, and the Kowloon-inspired environment design is great.

• Cult of the Lamb – [6]

  • Adorable. I love the style of the game. The base building and roguelike combat are both a little on the half-baked side; the Tarot card deck in particular is a boring upgrade system, and lacks a lot of the surprises and wacky combos of classic roguelikes such as Binding of Isaac or Hades. The progression balance is also a little odd, but that might be a “me” problem – I was obsessed with keeping my cult efficient, and ended up maxing out nearly everything before I even fought the third boss. But, I didn't spend THAT much time in the base building area, so I'm wondering if some of the economy cycles are too fast? Also, ran into a few soft-lock bugs but nothing too crazy, and the devs are working on it. Anyway, fun and cute.

• Splatoon 3 – [6]

  • I love Splatoon, and I do like this game. Although Salmon Run is still fun, the multiplayer experience is not significantly different enough from 2 to really hold my attention. The single player was alright, and I quite enjoyed the “diet open world” gating/unlock system. The soundtrack and diva banter isn't quite as charming as 2's, and the additional trading card game is pretty boring. Overall, still play it a lot, but I want some DLC to put some (more) fresh meat on these bones.

• Bayonetta 3 – [4]

  • Bayo's combat is smooth, engaging, and surprisingly accessible as always; I was initially turned off at the prospect of the demon puppet summoning, but once I started weaving summons into combos, it sort of clicked for me. However, that's where most of my praise ends – the good bits of the game get constantly interrupted – too many on-rails sections, too many cutscenes, boring rock-paper-scissors kaiju battles, and worst of all: Viola. Viola's combat just falls completely flat compared to Bayo, and her levels are a chore. Also dumb, dumb story – not even funny dumb, just dumb dumb.

• Signalis – [10]

  • A true love-letter to Silent Hill, and a setting after my own heart. I love almost everything about this game – the retro-future setting, the art style, the story, the loving homages to old survival horror. It might have just a tad too much backtracking due to inventory space (maybe being TOO faithful to old survival horror), but it's hard for me to fault it too much. I can honestly say that, for any faults, this is as close to a “dream game” for me as any in recent memory. Also, you know what? If they had just made it so the tool items (flashlight, camera eye, etc) took their own independent item slot instead of wasting space in your precious inventory? I think that'd bump it up to a 10 for me.

  • UPDATE: With the retooling of the module system, the “inventory pinch” is now lessened - easily bumping this up to 10.

• God of War: Ragnarok – [5]

  • Docking a whole point because Atreus will never shut the fuck up and let me solve the (already easy) puzzles on my own. I don't care for the writing here as much of the first one – it ratchets up the quirky Marvel-style dialogue far too much for my liking, and frankly the story is all over the place. Not like the first game was a masterfully deep story; it was just a solid character piece. But, in Ragnarok, it seems so to be TOO in love with story it's trying to tell – too much dialogue, too many cutscenes, too proud of itself.

    When the game does throw you a bone and interrupt the conversations with a fight encounter, it feels like it's doing so begrudgingly, like it would much rather be continuing to narrate the convoluted story of Loki and the giants and the nature of fate and soul transferring and blah blah blah. Where the game does excel is at its core: the combat. It's not perfect, but it is a pretty good masher - tense, challenging without being unfair (mostly). And the enemy variety has been increased as well, which was one of my main complaints about the first game.

    I just wish Western AAA games would be quiet and let me contemplate and explore again. See: Elden Ring.

• Plague Tale: Requiem – [4]

  • This is a “good enough” sequel, but the writing is all over the place, and the stealth is sometimes frustrating. Amecia is definitely giving Aloy a run for her money in the “poorly written strong female character” category this year. Beautiful environment art though.

• Pokemon Scarlet – [6, or 7 post December 2022 performance patch]

  • What a shame. At its core, this is one of the most fun and unique Pokemon experiences in years. This should have been the BotW for Pokemon, but it is held back by horrible environment art and unacceptable performance. If this game had more time to cook, it would've been an easy 8/10 for me.

• Darktide – [5]

  • And coming along as another entrant in the “needed longer in the oven” category, we have Darktide. There's a solid game in here. It's just buried underneath performance issues/crashes, baffling (and incomplete!) design choices, and a giant nothing of a story; why even include these cutscenes?! The strangest decisions here are removing some of the best kinds of game feel of Vermintide 2 – why do mooks spawn in monster closets directly beside you, for example? Why is there no progression of levels in a linear order? No climactic final holdouts, save for a scant few examples? Every end of mission encounter in Darktide is some flavor of “carry the same heavy object” or “burst the same demon pustules” or “defeat the same boss” - all the while you're constantly getting harassed by enemies that spawn on top of you, often in your direct line of sight. Anyway, promising core game, but awful launch; needs work.

Year In Review: 2021

Another year of mini-reviews for my personal reference! Choosing a GOTY is tough – Hades, Disco Elysium, Deltarune Chapter 2 and Inscryption are all worthy though.

Gun to my head, might have to go with Disco Elysium as the GOTY, but honestly, every time I think about it, I get a different answer – too close to call. Anything that I float in the 8 - 10 range below is probably deserving.

• Hades – [10]

  • Would have absolutely been my GOTY 2020 if I had played it then; I don't even enjoy roguelikes, but this got its hooks in deep. Amazing art with lovable characters and a frankly ABSURD amount of voice acting and reactive dialogue. Thoroughly enjoyed the story even if it ultimately ended up as a transparent excuse to “continue playing the game over and over.” Fun weapons and builds, and a perfect difficulty curve – I always felt challenged but never stuck.

    Only small nitpick I have is that, early on, getting an Athena buff feels borderline mandatory in order to minimize damage from the more “bullet hell-ish” encounters. You could always “git gud” - and you do, eventually - but point being: the Athena buffs trivialize a major gameplay element (dodging projectiles) far more than any of the other buffs help with anything else, at least in the early hours of the game.

• Monster Hunter Rise – [7]

  • Incomplete at launch compared to World, but I really, really dig the core combat. I was a huge proponent of the Clutch Claw system from World, and the new Wirebug system here is, I think, even more dynamic (and the customization aspect is also appreciated).

• Demon’s Souls (PS5) – [6]

  • A gorgeous remake. It is also stunningly accurate to the original from what I understand, perhaps to its detriment. Some of the game's knowledge and mechanics are so esoteric (even by Soulsborne standards!), that you would never be able to figure it out without a strategy guide. This is of course intentional, but frankly I just don't think it's very... good. Demons Souls may be the weakest entry in the series, but if nothing else, it's interesting to see how it laid the groundwork for the rest of the Soulsborne games. Also, mildest take of the century - World/Character Tendency sucks.

• Vermintide 2: The Chaos Wastes DLC – [7]

  • A “roguelike” version of the base game. The extra modifiers (and other changes) are fun, but this really needed a new enemy faction to make it shine.

• NieR: Replicant – [6]

  • This one didn't hit as hard as Automata did for – but then again, it did technically come first, so Automata had the benefit of improving the formula. Not much to say other than I really enjoyed it – I just wish it required one or two less playthroughs before you truly see everything it has to offer.

• Resident Evil: Village – [7]

  • I'm conflicted as to whether or not I enjoyed this more than RE7. The initial setup is great, with the titular village and the introduction of the villains and whatnot. But there's some weird pacing, particularly around the midpoint. Although the middle missions (Beneviento and Moreau) are awesome in their own right, they felt a little on the short side compared to Castle Dimitrescu and Heisenberg's factory, and could have benefited from even just one more major encounter in each – either an extra combat or puzzle, something.
    Also, some of the big enemies (like the axe-wielding giants and large werewolves) have bad pathfinding; sometimes, they're even placed in an environment where you can backpeddle out of their aggro radius and reset them, making them far too easy to exploit. In the final hour, this game goes insanely off the rails – EVEN for Resident Evil standards. I feel like this game's story and atmosphere could have been stronger if they didn't try to tie-in RE7's story so rigidly. Still, game was a fun romp.

• Mass Effect: Legendary Edition – [9]

  • A nearly flawless trip down memory lane. Was interesting to replay all of these games after a decade of life experience – my opinions on each have shifted slightly, but everything mostly holds up. Wish they brought back the multiplayer!

• Psychonauts 2 – [8]

  • This game impressed me – it keeps some of the old baggage of the western “small open world collect-a-thon” formula, but the world here is so dense; there are a surprising amount of things to collect and discover within a limited space. Humor and writing's alright, chuckled a few times. The combat is fine, and the art style is obviously fun and unique. Very pleasant surprise.

• Kena: Bridge of Spirits – [3]

  • A gorgeous world with average character design, a nothing story, and one of the most infuriatingly buggy combat experiences I've had in a long while. The control glitches and camera/lock-on issues were constant. And, when you combine the camera issues with an almost total lack of i-frames when dodging or being knocked down, AND a healing system that requires you to look AWAY from enemies to heal (opening you up to you yet more unnecessary damage), some of the encounters become nearly unplayable. You can't have this kind of fast-paced combat - based on dodges and parries - without the finesse and polish that makes other action games enjoyable; the stuttering controls and camera bugs made this game excruciating.
    
    For example, here's some of the most common camera/control issues I experienced:

    • Focusing on an enemy as they teleport or dodge away SOMETIMES breaks lock on and “freezes” the camera in place (i.e. stuck pointing AWAY from where the teleporting enemy) for a few seconds. I died – or at least took unnecessary damage – because of this bug so many times.

    • Lock on randomly breaks if an enemy moves too close to you (and sometimes it just felt like the lock on broke randomly for no reason?). Or, sometimes instead of breaking, it would just shift to completely different enemy on its own – extremely disorienting.

    • Ending a heavy charge attack combo makes your attack buttons unresponsive for a few frames, rather than looping into a new combo chain as any other action game would do.

    • Drawing your bow too quickly at the beginning of combat causes it to become unresponsive after firing your first arrow.
      

• Deltarune Chapter 2 – [9]

  • I just really love these games – the music, the silly humor, the weirdly serious lore, the variety of combat gimmicks, the simple-yet-effective art style – it's all great. This is a fantastic expansion onto what chapter 1 built, and I can't wait to see what's in store for chapter 3.

• Haven – [5]

  • Played this with my wife. Decent (if a little saccharine) sci-fi visual novel of lovers on the run, who settle together on a mysterious planet. Sometimes a bit repetitive, and the controls are a little wonky, but we enjoyed our time. Good couples game.

• Back 4 Blood – [6]

  • Solid “soft” sequel to Left 4 Dead. Some of the balance is kinda rough – the jump from Recruit to Veteran difficulty is too steep, and there are times the AI director feels a little broken (not just hard, but rather buggy). But I do enjoy the “deck” system, where you build your skill unlocks in a run from a stacked deck of cards. Hope the devs continue to improve this one.

• Inscryption – [8]

  • This game has a lot of things I love – it combines a fun roguelike shell with a simple but surprisingly balanced TCG game. Then, add on top of that: Myst-style puzzles and explorable environments, some deep lore told through unfiction-style found footage (think “Marble Hornets”), and a plethora of fun twists and new mechanics. All together, it's a slightly uneven experience, but wow – it's a surprising and satisfying one.

• Disco Elysium – [8]

  • Finally got around to this one. The murder mystery here is actually pretty great! Just when you think you have it figured out, it adds another little twist or wrinkle to keep you guessing. And, I love the humor and dialogue – this game truly takes the piss out of most of the major political/ideological angles you'll find in our day-to-day internet hellscape, poking fun without backsliding into complete cynicism or nihilism. The game presents a cruel, difficult world, and demonstrates how people form their identities as a refuge against the harsh realities of living in that world - be it through politics, substance abuse, or some other coping mechanism. It's dark, absurd, and filled with existential dread, but there's tenacity and hope here too. Wonderful game.

Year In Review: 2020

The tradition continues. Just some general notes on the games I played last year, so I can reference them later.

This year, my "Game of the Year" is probably a tie between Helltaker and the Switch port of Blasphemous , although nothing really blew me away - overall, a tepid year for games to contrast with the madness that was 2020 in meat realm.

• Blasphemous – [8]

  • Can really feel the love that went into this game's retro art style. It's a pretty fun little... pseudo-Soulslike Metroidvania (yuck, how's that for a buzzword soup). Bosses had some cool spectacle, and the combat was solid enough for a hack-n-slash, but the platforming is just so finicky – I ran into a few camera issues as well.

• DOOM Eternal – [7]

  • This game is a tightly designed arena shooter; very nostalgic feel. Not really my jam (I like more cinematic shooters), but I recognize this as pretty darn well made. The exploration aspects were fun too.

• Resident Evil 3 – [5]

  • A let down after how brilliant the RE2 remake was. Removed a lot of the replayability of the original RE3, with a much more linear design, removal of the branching path system, and also the outright absence of a couple of side areas (if memory serves?). Lacked the persistent atmosphere of dread from the original as well; Nemesis was kinda lame in this one, although I love his new look. Still fine, but disappointing.

• Outer Worlds – [6]

  • Decent enough attempt at a Bioware and/or Fallout-style game. Kinda ends abruptly, and the game really chugs in some areas. But it's pretty fun, and I like how there are always multiple approaches to most quest objectives.

• Deep Rock Galactic – [8]

  • A fun melding of Minecraft and Left 4 Dead. Fairly well optimized with its lo-fi faceted polygons and simple but effective use of color.

• Helltaker – [9]

  • Obviously I adore the art style. Fun distraction, and I found a few of the puzzles to be pretty challenging!

• Ghosts of Tsushima – [7]

  • A fairly well-paced open world – Witcher 3 meets Sekiro, and I think Ghosts slightly surpasses both. Love how simple and clean the melee combat is, although I enjoyed the satisfying tension of Sekiro's sword clashing and guard breaking a bit more. Story takes a little while to ramp up, and the camera is occasionally frustrating – I would prefer if it gently focused on the nearest enemies (or just had a lock on), so the player wouldn't have to crane the camera around so much in the middle of combat. Toward the end of the game, I found myself swapping “builds” constantly because of how many different, viable approaches I could take to combat encounters.

    Overall, pretty environments, good animations, decent combat, and I never really felt like the game was wasting my time (high praise for me to give to an open world game). However, I do have to dock a point or so – the game's core theme of Jin straying from the bushido code is constantly muddled, and his fall from grace never seems to really hit home. Sure, he loses his uncle and basically becomes Samurai Batman by the end of the game, but there are constant “off” moments where the game can't go ruminate too much on Jin's actions, because it has no idea how you, as a player, are playing the main character. Even if you're devoted to “honorable” combat, Jin still resorts to poisoning an entire army; and when he learns that how his own countrymen are being killed by the poison he developed, it affects him for all of about two lines of dialogue before it's time to move on. It's jarring. The main themes really could have used some polish; it's a doubled-edged sword (no pun intended) to all those different approaches to combat, I suppose.

    Unfortunately, never tried the multiplayer. Looked fun though.

• Carrion – [7]

  • Just moving the blob monster around is a ton of fun, so that goes a long way. I found myself lost a few times, mostly due to the game not having a map. However, game more than makes up for it with great retro art, and a really impressively realized monster protagonist – they definitely nailed this as an homage to sci-fi horror.

• Baldur’s Gate 3 (Early Access) – [4]

  • I feel like the game is just barely too rough to be playable, even for an early access title. Our group spent more time reloading and debugging than we did playing, it felt like. There may be a good game here if the next iteration can improve the stability; it also has some pretty swing-y combat balance that I think should probably be looked at.

• Cyberpunk 2077 (PS4) – [3]

  • Oof. What can I say that isn't already apparent given the platform? Anyway, borderline unplayable, but I actually really enjoyed the characters and individual story missions. Even Keanu's cornball character – actually, especially his character. Ridiculous, over-the-top nonsense. However, one of the biggest disappointments – bugs and performance aside – is the skill tree. Good skill trees are hard to do, granted, but Cyberpunk's just feels so... uninspired. Very minor percentage increases for damage, recoil, etc are not very rewarding.
    

I bought Hades, but sadly didn't get around to playing it – there's always next year!

Year In Review: 2019

A helpful tradition of mine continues, wherein I take note of loose thoughts and impressions on games as I play them, and then record them here for my future reference.

This year, my "Game of the Year" is unquestionably the Resident Evil 2 remake. Previously, the old Resident Evil remake for Gamecube was my gold standard for remaking a game, and RE2 - somehow - surpassed it.

• Resident Evil 2 – [10]

  • This remake is damn near perfect. It changes what it needs to in order to modernize the game, but stays true to the original series, all the while delivering a gorgeously creepy environment to explore. The aiming system is so smart, for example; the accuracy of most weapons – needing to stand still in order to aim well, and having to reorient after each shot – feels perfectly modern while still matching the deliberate pacing of the original game's (now outdated) “tank control” based combat. When combined with a sizable amount of content at launch, I can't really find myself giving this anything below a 10. If I had to levy some form of criticism, it would be that the Sherry segment still isn't all that great, and the last third of the “B” route is too similar to the “A” route.

• Devil May Cry – [8]

  • First DMC game for me. A fantastic arcade style hack-n-slash with a high skill ceiling (way above where I was by the end!). The main boss repeats a few too many times, and the load screens are too cumbersome for a mission/stage-based game, but overall a really thrilling experience. V gave me carpal tunnel on my first playthrough. Cool visual metaphors with the whole “fruit” thing, though. Love it.

• Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice – [6]

  • A solid entry into the Souls series with a couple of really limiting hangups. The rhythm-based rock-paper-scissors gameplay was super engaging to me – kinda a riff on Punchout in a way? Like, each new enemy was its own puzzle to figure out, and the parry system felt very rewarding (even if blindly spamming parry was a little too effective). Stealth and platforming/verticality isn't perfect, but is a very commendable attempt. I also love the world design; Ashina Castle and the surrounding mountains were a ton of fun to explore, even if the game retreaded the same areas a few times. However, speaking of retreads, bosses repeated too much for my liking – I know it's called “Shadows Die Twice,” but fighting the majority of bosses more than once is a tad much. In addition, a couple bits of dialogue and item descriptions felt... mistranslated... but it's hard to say without knowing Japanese myself. Finally, replayability compared to previous Souls games is somewhat of an issue, considering you're limited to one primary weapon.

• A Plague Tale: Innocense – [6]

  • In terms of environment art, this game is simply beautiful; the outdoor segments have a genuine, rustic “countryside” feel, and the battlefield set piece was stunning. The story and characters are fine if somewhat unexciting, and the gameplay teeters between frustratingly restrictive and boring at its worst moments. Still, a neatly crafted world, with an interesting paranormal streak to boot.

• Metal Wolf Chaos XD – [6]

  • I love this trashy game.

• Sea of Solitude – [6]

  • An utterly gorgeous world with some fun and cute monster designs. However, I was really struggling to find interest in the game as I played it. A lot of its messaging is just so blatantly on-the-nose; there's nothing subtle or challenging about the overall story when literally every character explains exactly what is happening, as it happens. I found it to be a mostly forgettable tale, but for what it's worth, my spouse connected to the story much more than I did.

• Astral Chain – [6]

  • Wanted to like this more than I did. Good first impression, but wears out its welcome quickly. Tedious side quests, a finicky camera (manually moving your second character can cause a lot of issues), and awful platforming segments mar an otherwise decent action game. It also tries to do too much at once, leaving a lot of the special abilities you gain either underexplored or just feeling like a gimmick. Chain borrows heavily from core mechanical hooks of other action games – Bayonetta Witch Time, Dante's stance swapping, Revengence's aimed sword slash, some of Nier's upgrade systems, etc; nothing wrong with this per se, but Chain seems like it's trying to do everything at once, and executes all of it with much less finesse than the original games. Topped off with a shallow story and dull character (even for action game standards!), and it's kinda a mess. Fun, but sloppy, shallow, and exhausting.

• Monster Hunter World: Iceborne – [9]

  • Excellent expansion. Good quality of life improvements, and a ton of new monsters. Of course, you still have to fight all the pre-expansion ones too - but they have some new tricks this time around to keep old fights fresh. It's an addictive grind through to the end.

• Death Stranding – [7]

  • Well, this definitely feels like a Kojima game. Some maddeningly tedious tasks and laughable dialogue punctuated by genuinely serene moments of introspection, where I was left alone with my own thoughts, my character, a haunting landscape, and some frankly perfect musical accompaniment. It's weirdly simple – get from point A to point B – with a lot of little, interesting mechanics gradually doled out to make it a weird... minimalist deliveryman simulator. I liked it.

• Control – [6]

  • Uncharted for people that like creepypastas. I liked it more than Uncharted, if for no other reason than the supernatural window dressing.

• Call of Duty: Modern Warfare (Campaign) – [4]

  • The Call of Duty campaigns are always a guilty pleasure of mine. This one isn't as egregiously stupid as the previous few entries, but it is – don't get me wrong – extremely stupid. The unabashedly over-the-top nightvision SWAT segments were worth the price of admission for me, but I couldn't recommend this to anyone else. Like most of the previous campaigns, it's all spectacle, and often very tone deaf to the message it's trying to convey.

• Pokemon: Shield – [7]

  • All controversies aside, a decent enough entry. A lot of “two steps forward, one step back” moves, in classic Game Freak fashion. The improvements to breeding and battle tower are welcome, and the Wild Zone is great. A bunch of weird UX issues – item sorting is underdeveloped and forgets what you “favorite” after an item changes location, for example. Personally, I think the core gimmick this gen, Dynamaxing, is very lackluster. Also, lame story, but at least not as constantly intrusive as SuMo. Banging soundtrack, if nothing else.

• The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening – [7]

  • Solid remake of a classic that I never got a chance to play. Don't know how true it is to the original, but it feels like an earnest enough attempt.

Year In Review: 2018

Once again, recording some quick notes about the games I played in the past year, along with some applicable ratings. Just, you know, as a reference for myself in the future.

This year had some solid hits, but I don't think that 2018 really holds a candle to 2017 - at least not for my tastes. At any rate, I suppose my "Game of the Year" was Hollow Knight, although that feels a little cheap, seeing as how it wasn't originally released in 2018 - it just had its Switch port this year.

Honestly, this year, I pretty much just played a bunch of Warframe...

• Monster Hunter World – [8]

  • A few minor complexity and tutorial issues can't detract from this being the overwhelmingly best game in the series. It makes smart decisions to broaden its audience and fix longstanding issues with the series – the improvement of the lock-on camera is a fucking godsend.

• Vermintide II – [6]

  • Some weird balance with some of the classes, and charmingly buggy, but is/was at least constantly improving. A solid melee-focused innovation on the Left 4 Dead formula.

• A Way Out – [4]

  • Doesn't have a very good story, and has fairly bland puzzles and gameplay – but I don't think any game has attempted to do a story-focused co-op game like this before, and that's at least commendable.

• God of War – [7]

  • The story of Kratos is extraordinarily satisfying from a meta perspective – we see this former symbol of overt, edgy machismo “grow up” and mature with an industry and audience that may have otherwise left the old God of War games behind. This character grows as a parent over the course of the narrative, while still (more or less) managing to honor the source material of the original God of War games. A highly endearing tale with some fun (if shallow) hack-n-slash, somewhat held back by a couple poorly paced story beats concerning Atreus, and noticeably limited enemy variety - particularly in the boss department.

• P.R.I.C.E. – [n/a]

  • A pretty standard point and click adventure with all of the frustrations that come with it. It's only an hour long, is free, and has a pretty cute little art style, so overall it doesn't even feel right to grade it... but I would recommend it, if one was in the mood for a digestible, visual novel + point and click adventure sorta game.

• Hollow Knight (Switch) – [9]

  • Extremely challenging and fun metroidvania with an inspiring art style. Not many complaints here: some of the sound mixing is a little off, and there's no late game money sink until the DLC (meaning you're sitting on a ton of useless cash for the last half of the game).

• Splatoon 2: Octo Expansion – [9]

  • A well crafted gauntlet of platforming and shooting challenges. Honestly, the DLC is better than the campaign in the main game.

• Magic the Gathering: Arena – [7]

  • A serviceable translation of MTG into the digital realm. I'm curious to see how this game pans out in the future, and how much resources Wizards of the Coast is going to pour into it. Is this the first honest attempt to phase out the paper card game in favor of digital? (Almost certainly not, but it will be interesting to see what comes next.)

• Super Smash Bros Ultimate – [n/a]

  • I'm not really good at Smash (or any fighting game really), but this proved to be a fun distraction. If I were a fan of the series, I'm sure I would be simply overjoyed at this game's gargantuan roster.

Year In Review: 2017

My "Game of the Year" was NieR: Automata. Closely followed by Splatoon 2.

Recorded here for posterity (but really just my own future reference), these are the games I played in 2017 and what I thought of them. Grading on a 10-point skill where applicable:

• Last Guardian - [7]

  • A nice game with good emotional notes, but its long development time really shows. Also, slightly outstays its welcome - probably could have been 30 minutes to an hour shorter and been better for it.

• Fire Emblem: Heroes - [9]

  • Fantastic gatcha "collect-n-battle" game with perfect strategy mechanics for mobile. Held my attention all year.

• Resident Evil 7 - [Objectively, a 7] [But for me personally, a 10]

  • This game is a little rough around the edges at times. However, it meant a lot to me as an honest-to-god attempt to breath life not only into the franchise, but the Survival Horror genre in general. I loved it.

• Nioh - [6]

  • A serviceable Souls clone. The weapon stance combat system is a fresh take on the formula.

• For Honor - [6]

  • A shame this game was mismanaged. It was a truly unique fighter that looked and felt visceral and satisfying. But, balance woes and connectivity issues were most likely its death knell.

• Horizon Zero Dawn - [8]

  • My wife watched me play this game from start to finish, as if binging a Netflix series. The story was simple but did what it needed to, presenting a serviceable post-apocalyptic mystery with a strong female lead. Combat was a frantic, strategic burst of stealth and action.

• Horizon Zero Dawn: The Frozen Wilds - [5]

  • Not quite disappointing, but didn't live up to the original. Story was a little "back-loaded," but there were decent enough character developments throughout. Combat was the biggest letdown, though; to ramp up difficulty, most machines now have huge amounts of HP and elemental resistance, meaning a lot of the best aspects of combat - strategic placement of traps and skillful use of elemental effects - went by the wayside in favor of just pulling out your biggest, most explosive weapon and going toe-to-toe in every encounter.

• Snipperclips - [7]

  • Cute co-op.

• Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild - [10]

  • It's very difficult to not give this game a 10. However, there's no such thing as a perfect game - the temples in BotW were fairly unengaging compared to the sprawling Hyrule Castle at the end of the game. Imagine if every temple had that level of complexity! Ah well. Also, the final boss was pretty lame.

• NieR: Automata - [6 while playing. A 10 in retrospect.]

  • This game stuck with me, and became my game of the year. It's not without flaws; the pacing of the plot is all over the place, for example. But, like Metal Gear Solid 5, this game becomes more than the sum of its parts (and that's not just a forced android pun). The story and themes were touching, the art direction was excellent, the gameplay was just classic action goodness, and the soundtrack was pure magic. A fantastic experience that I look forward to replaying in the future.

• Mass Effect: Andromeda - [2]

  • I fell asleep while playing this. Twice.

• Mario Kart 8 Deluxe - [9, or 6 if you've played it before]

  • Still the king of party racing games.

• What Remains of Edith Finch - [5]

  • An average "walking simulator" - a good enough collection of melancholy stories, but not much else. Interesting visuals, but at the end of the day, was mostly a forgettable experience for me.

• Rime - [4]

  • Boring. Art style was fine. Puzzles felt a little uninspired. Story was unsatisfying.

• Splatoon 2 - [8]

  • Fantastic shooter for all ages. Have to dock a couple points for Nintendo's continuing struggle to understand online: terrible voice chat system, clunky UI/UX choices, and just bizarre decisions overall (like limiting when you can actually play certain modes of the game). Also, just from a personal standpoint, I was kind of hoping the end of the story would have a little more "meat" to it... but that's purely on me. This is still Nintendo we're talking about.

• Hellblade - Senua's Sacrifice [7]

  • ​Flawed but fascinating. Would love to see more "short AAA" games like this. Combat was repetitive but brutal and satisfying. Beautiful environments. Would have liked to see even more varied puzzles. Mechanics occasionally frustrating.

• Persona 5 - [8? I'm not a good judge of JRPGs...]

  • This game was very long, but I was engaged and I did see it through to the end. For a JRPG, that's a compliment if its coming from me, trust me!

• Total War: Warhammer II - [Also an 8? I don't play many RTS games...]

  • This game was a lot of fun, even for an RTS novice. It's got some bad/confusing UX/UI, and it seems pretty poorly optimized to boot. However, it's an addicting "just one more turn" kind of experience, and it's got great co-op as well.

• Cuphead - [9]

  • Gorgeous testament to high-quality art direction.

• Destiny 2 - [6]

  • More of the same, surprising no one. The first raid was an absolute blast, offering balanced difficulty and a ton of interesting mechanics; the exploration and puzzle elements were also quite welcome. However, nothing can justify launching paid DLC so quickly, when the base game is fairly bare bones.

• Super Mario Odyssey - [10]

  • I don't think I have a single complaint about this game. It also, believe it or not, is a really great couch co-op experience.

• Pokemon Ultra Sun/Moon - [5, or 9 if you didn't play Sun/Moon].

  • A lackluster Pokemon sequel, almost an exact copy of the stock Sun/Moon games. Not enough new features, or even new pokemon, to justify an entirely new game.