Best Games of 2021 thread

Games
216

[Cross-posted in the Indies thread]

The IGF Awards were tonight, and Inscryption dominated:

Best Student Game
Live Adventure (Live Adventure Team)

Excellence in Design
Inscryption (Daniel Mullins Games)

Excellence in Visual Art
Papetura (Petums)

Excellence in Audio
Inscryption (Daniel Mullins Games)

Nuovo Award
Memory Card (Lily Zone)

Excellence in Narrative
Inscryption (Daniel Mullins Games)

Audience Award
Mini Motorways (Dinosaur Polo Club)

Seumas McNally Grand Prize
Inscryption (Daniel Mullins Games)

They were followed by the Game Developers Choice Awards, where indies also fared well, with Inscryption taking Game of the Year and Unpacking winning Audio and Innovation.

Best Debut
Iron Gate Studio for Valheim

Best Visual Art
Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart (Insomniac Games / Sony Interactive Entertainment)

Best Audio
Unpacking (Witch Beam / Humble Games)

Best Narrative
Psychonauts 2 (Double Fine Productions / Xbox Game Studios)

Social Impact Award
Boyfriend Dungeon (Kitfox Games)

Innovation Award
Unpacking (Witch Beam / Humble Games)

Best Technology
Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart (Insomniac Games / Sony Interactive Entertainment)

Best Design
It Takes Two (Hazelight Studios / Electronic Arts)

Audience Award
Valheim (Iron Gate Studio / Coffee Stain Publishing)

Game of the Year
Inscryption (Daniel Mullins Games / Devolver Digital)

217

None of these lists appeal to me. Although I have played exactly 1 game released in 2021. Hitman 3. Thanks to the backlog and a penchant for playing 100+ hour CRPGs I only play a half-dozen games a year.

Good news is I finally fill caught up in that department.

Stating playing DOOM (2016). I love the game introduction. Wake up on a demonic ritual slab in a high tech medbay. The demon invasion is already in full swing. Bust out out and grab the armor. Some honcho type tries to contact you via a computer and make some kind of shady proposition, immediately thrash the computer.

218

Curious about Inscryption. Is it scary? I am squeamish and avoid horror games.

219

Nah, I’d say it’s more sinister than scary. Also keep in mind that it’s turn based so you control the pacing, the game doesn’t try to make you panic or anything.

220

It’s got at least one thing in it that made me wince but aside from that you should be okay.

221

oh yeah, right - content warning: self mutilation

222

My experience with Inscryption, which I’ve yet to get back to, is that it is hardly scary or creepy or anything of the sort. It just has a weird aesthetic. Perhaps YMMV? For instance, I found Layers of Fear to be quite creepy, but others would think it has too many jump/startle scares to fit the mood.

It may be because Inscryption is a card game. That’s not really immersive for me; it’s equivalent to sitting across from someone in real life, playing a board game.

223

it’s creepypasta

224

Yeah it’s April but BAFTA just did their game awards for 2021

225

I’ll try returnal when it hits that new psplus service then I’ll forget to cancel the subscription forever

226

Whatever the BAFTAs do with their jury, I feel like they’re constantly the most thoughtful of the big awards. Even if they failed to reward Erika Mori for Life is Strange: True Colors…

227

Every award statuette given to It Takes Two should have a little barnacle attached to it explaining how bad the cut scenes were. Truly a game where if they had just left all the cut scenes on the cutting room floor, the game would be twice as good. That talking book with the made-up accent, yikes.

228

You can skip them! It’s what I did!