I want to play it but I need to play the prior one first.
Yeah, from what I read it’s the same protagonist in both. Village in particular looks really neat, sadly I’m a total wuss when it comes to horror.
Watch a play, join us and laugh at their stupidity!
My read on the top post here is that we have two more days to get our votes in. So now’s the time, folks. You can always edit it later if you make a heroic effort to slide in that one last GotY contender.
- Old World
- Unpacking
- Echoes of the Eye
- It Takes Two
Subject to change, I just want to get some stuff in here.
Echoes of the Eye would be pushed off the list if I had played enough contenders this year. I have feelings about that one. It Takes Two is something I haven’t finished but if I do before the deadline I’ll bump it up.
Old World is the best civ-alike I’ve played in a long time, but unfortunately I think maybe the genre itself is no longer my bag.
I know, right?
Should have said, “I know, Wright?”
R.I.P.
{looks at avatar] … I will see myself out.
Thank you for explaining this to me :0
Is that sarcasm? I can’t read sarcasm.
- Death’s Door
Comparing Death’s door to a Souls game can sometimes be on shaky ground. The game does share more with Zelda than it does Dark Souls. But I would say the biggest factors in common apply to Death’s Door. A minimalist narrative centered around Death and dying over and over. Concentration on atmosphere and world building and the emotions they evoke. Gameplay that hinges on player skill as much as on stats and numbers and equipment. It is an intoxicating combination and I have trouble conceiving of games that play better to the strengths of the video game medium overall than the Souls games, and now Death’s Door. The moment to moment gameplay and difficulty are quite different, but qualities that bring me back again and again are the same.
- Quake
I’ve been playing retro shooters a lot in the past few years, and finding them wanting. I missed out on Quake when it first came out, preferring the mouse-look controls of Descent, which preceded it. (I didn’t know mouselook was a console command back then). The remaster doesn’t just enable mouselook, it also has excellent controller support. And the modern controls really lift the awkward layer between the player and their actions on the screen. Without it, it’s such a pure joy to play this game. What a fantastic remaster, with fantastic new levels from MachineGames, and best of all, what a fantastic original game that’s so good at being one of the most perfect pure shooters. I still count Doom II as a better pure shooter, but honestly this comes really close.
- Forza Horizon 5
I have always loved Bizarre Studios’ Project Gotham series of games as the best combination of realism and arcade racing. Bizarre’s key staff became Playground Games and their Forza Horizon series has just gotten better and better with each iteration, making just small subtle improvements that all bring so much joy. I’m an unrepentant graphics whore, and this is the most gorgeous, most photorealistic game I’ve played yet. Virtual Mexico is so beautiful, and I just loved driving around it this year.
- Halo Infinite
I really don’t understand why so few games can replicate Halo’s core gameplay loop of satisfying combat gameplay. Shoot, reload, throw a grenade to coral enemies, whack them with your gun, and now use your grapplehook to move around like spiderman. Bungie seems to know how to do it even after they left Halo behind, but they crippled Destiny and Destiny 2 by mostly tuning the single player game to be too easy the first time through. In Halo you can still set the difficulty at Heroic or Legendary, and really revel in the only perfect FPS gameplay loop that is different enough from the perfection of Quake to be apples and oranges.
- Diablo II: Resurrected
If I were to measure the amount of time I’ve played each game during my life, Diablo II would be the top game by a mile. And now, here’s a remake that adds controller support and makes the original play even better, and it looks absolutely beautiful too. Playing Hardcore characters on Diablo II hasn’t lost its charm in the years I left the game behind. It’s still so addictive. Searching for runes and gems and jewels to make my own ad-hoc equipment. Finding uniques that give me ideas for new character builds. New ways to kill my hardcore characters that only makes me determined to create another one right away so that I can make adjustments and do it right next time. Honestly, I’ve started to get into the Rogue-lite genre as of late, and Hardcore Diablo 2 is an amazing Roguelite in its own right. Strong satisfying gameplay, great loot, and extremely addictive build variety that keeps making you come back with another build idea and character.
Special mentions: I didn’t get to Psychonauts 2, but the little I played already showed the wonderful imagination and excellent 3D platformers gameplay that I was expecting. I’m sure it would been on my list if I’d gotten to it. Atomicrops should get a special mention because I really had a great time playing it this year, but they recently had a big update, and the game I enjoyed most of last year suddenly can’t be played anymore, not in the same way. So can I really vote for a game that can’t be played anymore? I loved playing through most of The Gunk, from the developers of Steamworld Dig 2. Not quite good enough to enter the top 5 but an excellent game. I loved playing Unpacking, another unique Indie game that’s so clever and finds a new gameplay verb and method of communicating things to the player.
Other games that might have made my top list include Exo One, Forgotten City, The Artful Escape and Northern Escape, but I haven’t really gotten to them yet. Hopefully I’ll get to play them this year.
I’m never sarcastic. Sometimes I try to be cynical, in the classic acception of the word, but most of time I’m just ignorant.
- Trials of Fire – Tactical genius.
- Solasta: Crown of the Magister – GUI master class.
- Haven – I felt seen.
- Life is Strange: True Colors – The power of saying “I forgive you.”
- Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart – Nostalgia combined with a PS5 in need of rays to trace.
Of great games clocking under five hours, they have a higher bar to get on the list. They have to be a distilled vision of excellence, a la Portal. I value in itself games that hold my interest for a longer period, something with layers that takes the time to reveal them, whether they’re in the play or the lore.
Library of Ruina was a surprise joy, but I was only watching a friend play through all of it. Still, imagine the impact of building nine-card decks. Every card carries weight. The setting is lusciously surreal. I found the dialogue sometimes extremely engrossing and well-written, which comes as a surprise for a translation from Korean.
Boyfriend Dungeon sold me from its first pitch at PAX West years ago, and I was very happy to play it. I think months after its release it now has the more I was left wanting. I liked how, in contrast to what I’ve seen about visual novels, there’s no choosing one path with a character. Be as romantically entangled in whatever ways you wish. It’s your story with the characters.
Bowser’s Fury showed me I can still love a Mario game. It needs to have cascade of new play mechanics introduced at a furious pace and last about four hours. Perfection. But can I vote for this given that they’re also charging for the other game in the package that I haven’t and probably won’t even launch?
Overall, I feel better casting a ballot this year. I.e., these aren’t the only five contemporaneous releases I played. I consider it a vanguard attack on the backlog. And still there are many good contenders I didn’t experience (and can’t position relatively to my votes).
- Disco Elysium: Final Cut
- Days Gone
- Mass Effect Legendary Edition
- Hitman 3
- The Forgotten City
Felt like a bit of a ‘meh’ year for me personally, mostly played older releases. Nothing released this year really gave me that buzz of anticipation.
Hitman 3 probably would have made it on the list for me if I’d actually played it. I mean, I played its engine, but only for Hitman 1!
Turns out the game I was going to list first came out in 2020 (that being, Walkabout Minigolf), so here’s my list of 2021 titles:
- It Takes Two - Simply amazing co-op experience. I liked this studio’s past games (No Way Out, Brothers), and I am anxiously awaiting their next effort. Only co-op games are amazing and I hope we get more.
- Mass Effect: Legendary Edition - I hadn’t played this trilogy since I finished ME3 back when it first came out. Lots of stuff was new to me (Citadel DLC for example), and I had a wonderful time going through all 3 games - took about 150 hours. New edition on PS5 looked and played amazingly.
- Forza Horizon 5 - Wonderful to play for 10 minutes or 2 hours.
- The Artful Escape - This is more an experience than full on game (not a lot of player choice). Still, it is a great story, fun guitar shredding, and I like that it’s compact. I need more 5 hour games, not 50 hour ones.
- The Ascent - Beautifully realized cyberpunk world with deeper-than-you-think twin stick shooter combat. Anxious to get further into this game.
I have once again updated the alphabetical list and list of voters that have been registered. Please review at your leisure and whim and let me know if there’s anything wrong up there. I will post once more sometime tomorrow.
Are you a pair of horny twenty-somethings? :)
- Days Gone
While I played and enjoyed this on the PS4, I was blown away by the PC version. What a great port. The PC version looked better and the controls were much more responsive. This time around I was more kindly disposed to Deacon and chums than I was the first time, but for me, the bike stole the show. And the hordes are scary as hell on any platform.
- Outriders
I love games that push me out of my comfort zone and this game did that in spades. Typically with shooter type games, I default to stealth sniper builds. But my trickster build forced to me to be up close and personal. A nice change of pace. The build reminds me a lot of the whirlwind barbarian I played in Diablo 3. In fact the whole game had a strong D3 vibe, as I grinded levels to help with loot drops. The end game ties nicely to the story and while it got too grindy for me in the end, I really enjoyed the ride.
- Guardians of the Galaxy
I picked this up during the Christmas Epic sale and it was a great cinematic experience. Not sure how good it was as a game though as the combat was anemic and the QTEs and boss fights were annoying as hell. But the music took me back to high school and there is nothing quite like mowing down bad guys to Hot Chocolate’s Everyone’s a Winner. Solid story and characters and the adventure game portions were superb. Nostalgia was strong with this one.
- Disciples: Liberation
You know you might be overstaying your welcome when you allow players to skip battles in a game about battles, but this is the best turn based game I played in a while. Truth be told it was the only turn based game I played in a while as it was easy to get into and figure out the mechanics.
Honorable mention goes to State of Decay 2 because recent updates were pretty significant and pulled me back in.