Yes, of course, and please help cement this fore-gone conclusion with a number one, a period, and then its name bolded so bold. This rabid fan wants to leave nothing to chance. What if Old World released on a different platform in 2022? It is loved. It could upset things. We must protect the precious.
Yay, Quarterlies! Thanks, Brooski!
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Elden Ring
Hearing of Elden Ring’s upcoming release, I decided to play Dark Souls 3. I had played the three earlier Souls titles and Bloodborne, so I knew I would like it. I just finally made the time. Dark Souls 3 was a magisterial conclusion to that trilogy–ordered, honed, the limits of its form. Playing DS3 was glorious, like Miyazaki and I were conversing. “Huh, I really expected a ground-triggered trap in this sort of tomb.” THUNK “Oh…yeah.” I finished DS3 the morning of Elden Ring’s release and realized I needed it.
Even so, I was wary of Elden Ring. Would an open world undo the clockwork precision of the pathways through Dark Souls, break the mesmerizing labyrinth into numerous, uninteresting Breath of the Wild shrine sites, or cool the tension of what’s around each corner with plodding traversal instead?
I still think its open-world nature is its weakest aspect, but that game is an incredible achievement. Elden Ring transforms the darkness of FROM’s earlier works into the flaking gold of past glory, the rot of a withered flower, the fading majesty of a slain great beast. Elden Ring measures you with challenge. “Thou art of passing skill” is what it taunts, but what it wants is for you to succeed. It rewards each victory by revealing more. FROM found ways in an open world to frame each area with a perfect shot, to surprise me with glorious vista. And steadily, mastery increases.
I had to play it thrice. -
Signalis. It thrives being translated from its original German. The original art creates a cognitive gap that perfectly mirrors the surrealness of the story.
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Rogue Legacy 2. Clean platforming with good variety of approaches to the combat. Never have I been so happy to play as a cook.
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Norco. The story blends the uncertainty of future technology and southern mythology, and it kept me eager to discover what was going on.
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Horizon Forbidden West. I like big bots, and I cannot lie. The game’s too big overall, less individually flavored by adding melee instead of focusing on its notable archery, and still on the edge of the uncanny valley with its procedural facial animation. The original Horizon surprised me by earning the place of robo dinos in the world and pacing a (clever and intriguing) backstory alongside the (plain coming of age) main story. I found the sequel to be pretty. I liked exploring around and through the world. And, really, those big dinosaur battles were a ton of fun.
Beyond the top five… I ended up getting PC Game Pass to play variety multi-player with friends. That put a bunch of games in front of me that I otherwise wouldn’t have gotten to this year. So, I’m quite happy to note there are other games that also released this year that I played. That top five is no mere “all I played”, no sir.
#6 onwards: Nobody Saves the World, The Excavation of Hob’s Barrow, Tunic, Immortality, Citizen Sleeper