Games you played in 2020

Games
1

There’s a good 2020 gaming round up thread linked below, but a lot of my gaming this year wasn’t 2020 games. So I thought I’d start a thread for those who want to do a round up.

Though maybe there’s a Quarterlies thread I’m missing? Disregard if I’m not Qt3ing correctly. :) Anyway, here’s what I played this year.

Crusader Kings 3

This game is insanely huge, and I struggle with it; there’s so many systems and things going on that I want to understand, that I get bogged down in trying to grok them and lose sight of the goofy RPG at the heart of this game. My recommendation: Follow the prompts, but don’t worry too much about, for example, a ‘powerful vassal is angry at you b/c they want a spot on your council’. If you don’t have an open slot for them, or their stats suck, screw 'em! Let 'em be mad! They’ll start a fun plot against you or do something hilariously petty sometime down the line, and you’ll know why.

Ghost Recon: Wildlands

(aka UbiGame, Gun flavor)
Playing this and then Immortals Fenix Rising (my thoughts on that are in our thread here) back to back got me thinking a lot about why the Ubisoft Game doesn’t really work for me. I have a lot of other thoughts, but if you’re into the UbiGame, like a military setting, and love big gorgeous open worlds, this is well worth a month of Ubisoft+. For me, this was a fun rental.

Hitman 2

This is a 2018 game that’s one of the best sandboxes ever. I delved into the Mumbai location finally; it’s honking huge and little overwhelming. Escalations here were quite fun.

I also did a deep-dive into Hokkaido, using an amazing FAQ that covers…everything about this game. It has these fun ‘challenge runs’ that give you step-by-step walkthroughs for doing a main mission and getting as many challenges as possible, in service of maxing out your Mastery score. I did a challenge run for Hokkaido and finally understand how to take down Soders, the guy getting operated on by the AI. I also learned lots of little quirks about this mission, helping me love the mission a lot. Doing the challenge run also helped me understand the mission so well that I could then undertake other challenges and trials using just the knowledge in my head, and this was great fun. I found myself lying down for a nap and planning out a route to complete various challenges. A great sandbox that just keeps giving. I’m really looking forward to Hitman 3 in January.

Control

This is the recent Remedy game. It’s pretty damn great for 10-15 hours. The combat is excellent and just gets better with more tools and enemy types; frantic and dynamic in the best way. I didn’t love the exploration and got lost a lot. The story is a little too dreamlike for my taste, and while The Oldest House is a great overall location with lots of cool built-in story elements and wild/weird locations, I found myself wanting more details from the lore; a little too mysterious and unexplained for me.

Teardown

A great sandbox destruction puzzle game in surprisingly great shape for an Early Access release. You destroy basically everything (walls, windows, doors, floors, towers, beams, cars, earth movers, boats, etc.) as you try to optimize routes for thievery challenges. I wish there was a little more variety to the challenges, but man is this a fun hole to fall down for several hours.

Horizon Zero Dawn

I played more of this on my PS4 this year, getting closer to the end of the story and figuring out the combat finally. A lovely world, a decent sci-fi plot, and great action.

Assassin’s Creed Odyssey

(aka UbiGame, Sword flavor.)
I played this for 20+ hours early this year, and combining it with Wildlands and Fenix Rising is why I’m pretty over the UbiGame format. It’s got another gorgeous world to run around in, but the character and the player don’t have the same reasons to run around, so it turns into a world that’s just a big 3D task list. Fun for a while, especially if you haven’t played UbiGame in a while.

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I re-played Dark Souls 1, 2 and 3. Yea I know.

I played Sniper Elite 3.

I played Kingdome Come Deliverance and really enjoyed it.

I replayed Baldurs Gate 1.

I also think it was this year (such a weird year) that I played Bloodborne for the first time.

3

This is a great idea for a thread. Always a shame to not talk about games from past years that caught our attention this year, but useful to keep it separate from the Best of the New and Shiny!

It’ll take me awhile to remember what all I have played this year…

4

Including things that didn’t come out this year? Difficult.

5

Bloody Rally Show is my game of 2020 that came out in 2020. It’s everything I want in a racing game that I’ll likely play every day for years to come.

Star Fleet II is my game of 2020 that didn’t come out in 2020. What began as a game that terrified me turned into my favorite game ever, as it does everything right that a space game should.

Besides those, I played a lot of bouts of Warhammer 40,000: Inquisitor - Martyr, as it’s my perfect go-to when I want ten minutes of glorious violence that isn’t a racing game. ;)

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I played Pillars of Eternity. Too quickly, burned out, didn’t get to the sequel. I’m told that’s much better. I liked PoE.

I played Control. My first experience with ray-tracing, it’s amazing, sometimes subtle but sometimes in your face but always real. They did an amazing job with it.

Before that I played the Find a 3080 GPU. Winning that game was sweet.

I messed about in Skyrim.

I mess about in Atlantic Fleet when I’m bored. 80 hours of it and I just realized it’s Artillery from the Atari 2600, really.

I’ve played hundreds of hours of Star Wars: The Old Republic this year. It really struck me as the most chill MMO that I don’t really need other people for. Having a great time, obviously.

I played House Party I’m an adult, see.

I played Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla despite my many loud claims I would never play another AC game after Origins. I got bored with it in a few days but that’s just depression kicking in.

I played a few hundred hours of Animal Crossing: New Horizons before burnout set in super hard.

I replayed Mass Effect then Mass Effect 2 then Mass Effect 3 for at least the 7th time.

I replayed Assassin’s Creed: Syndicate because it’s still my favorite.

I played Crusader Kings III but got really lucky or good and was rolling over it after a while. I reported a few exploits to Paradox, that was neat.

I played Farming Simulator '19 for 72 hours in a five day period while binging Brooklyn Nine-Nine at the same time. This was also a despite my claim I was done with those types of games. It honestly wasn’t worth the money.

I played Master of Pottery which turned out to be far too easy in the end. It was only $4.

I’ll probably play Cyberpunk 2077 tonight to round things out for the year.

7

Amusingly, Hokkaido is a Hitman 1 location. Hitman remains one of my favorite games ever. Great writeup.

8

I played so many different games this year. I’ve got so much on my plate right now I am having trouble prioritizing. Excluding the games I tried but bounced off of:

I went on a huge Yakuza kick. I played Yakuza Zero, Yakuza Kiwami, and am currently halfway or so through Yakuza Kiwami 2. Also Fist of the North Star: Lost Paradise, which is kind of the same. Oddly, I have not tried the new one yet.

Kingdom Come: Deliverance was a lot of fun.

I played The Last of Us Part II. Didn’t love it and thought it fell far short of the original.

I played a lot of Crusader Kings III, but still haven’t finished a game.

I can’t ever get far away from XCom 2.

My GOTY may be Microsoft Flight Simulator. There’s something so compelling about it. In the same vein, I also discovered and play a little bit each day of American Truck Simulator and Euro Truck Simulator 2.

In addition to Yakuza Kiwami 2, I’m currently playing through the Demon’s Souls remake and Mudrunner.

Quick note for 2020 games I played a bit at least, but didn’t stick with: Hades, Monster Train, Xcom Chimera Squad, Gears Tactics, Age of Wonders: Planetfall.

9

Coming up on 300 hours of Animal Crossing: New Horizons, 75 of Slay the Spire, 50 of Hades, 30 of Dragon Quest XI, 20 of Smash Bros Ultimate, 10 of Breath of the Wild and Super Mario Party, and 5 of Jedi Fallen Order and Mario Kart 8. Unregisterable traces of Mario Odyssey, Octopath Traveler, Ring Fit, and Cat Quest sneak in there below that.

This was the year of Switch, apparently. Eyes keep going back to pc, though. DOOM and CIV6 are calling my name tonight, for instance…

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This was a pretty slow year for me with video games. I put like 80 hours into Tabletop Simulator which has been a friendship saver, but was otherwise largely kept away from games by a new baby.

I did get to play Metal Wolf Chaos, which might be the highlight of the year, really easy to pick up and play and just enough mental engagement to keep me coming back but never actually daunting, while also being the sort of ludicrous gaming stupidity that I miss from games this generation. Similarly I replayed Devil may Cry 5 which was just as cheese-cake fun as the first time I played it. I also quite liked Chronicon for tickling that same low mental effort -to- high satisfaction trigger.

I tried to get into Six Ages, and though I find the world-building fascinating, I have a lot of trouble getting into a strategy game with intentionally opaque goals, so didn’t get too far on that. I also tried playing Disco Elysium right in the middle of summer which was a horrible idea given the state of the world (though I didn’t know what the game was about before playing it). I love the narration style, with parts of your conscious fighting for control in the middle of conversations, but the subject matter made it far too hard to stick with. I’m saddest about not really getting into Noita, which I was very excited about but just don’t have the mental energy these days to explore a system that doesn’t want to explain itself. Hopefully I can come back to that one later to enjoy it.

Lately I’ve been playing Children of Morta on Switch and I think I’ll be playing it quite a bit longer. The short session times and diverse-but-simple character playstyles make it perfect for a general low-effort and low-time year for me. I’m eyeing the new Yakuza and maybe a replay of Dark Souls 3, but who am I kidding! I won’t have enough focused time to jump into either of them fully. Maybe I should find an easier to put down game like a JRPG? Hmm…

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What were you playing on TS? I am very curious!

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All sorts of games! Blood Rage, Rising Sun, Teotihuacan, Keyflower, Cosmic Frog, Bullet, Fort, Caylus 1303, Chaos in the Old World, The Great Zimbabwe, Luna, Hyperborea, Pan Am, and one two handed game of Gloomhaven when I was kidding myself about finishing it solo over the Covid period.

I have a friend who’s been organizing our old game group aggressively, finding the mods (or building them himself) and setting up everything for us. It’s been really nice! I love Tabletop Simulator for teaching and learning games because you can point at stuff and move it around. I feel anxious teaching friends at boardgamearena because I have to over explain since I can’t move anything. That said, we’re also 35 missions into The Crew at boardgamearena and it has been a fantastic experience!

14

I can relate so hard to this, especially with a new kiddo.

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The site I contribute to doesn’t worry about our GOTY lists being restricted to games only released that year which means you get a really fascinating look into what everyone has been playing and enjoying, and it’s also put me into a good habit of recording most of the interesting stuff I play throughout a given year. Current list and in a very loose order with notes:

  • Townscaper - The chillest builder.
  • My Brother Rabbit - Lovely hidden object game.
  • Huntdown - A very slick and stylish 2D action platformer. Great fun co-op (over Parsec!).
  • Ape Out - Hotline Miami with an ape and dynamic jazz soundtrack. A couple of frustrating bits but the action is satisfying and comes thick and fast.
  • Inside - Big and weird mood piece that’s worth playing for the final quarter.
  • The Knife of Dunwall and The Brigmore Witches - My long overdue return to Dunwall to finish the DLC. Loved these and eager to play the sequel now.
  • The Dark Mod - In the wake of Dishonored I had a hankering for Thief and this was just the ticket. Amazing labour(s) of love.
  • Journey to the Savage Planet - Metroid Prime with a wacky sense of humour.
  • Tanknarok - One of my favourite pick-up-and-play arena combat games that even features online multiplayer. Super slick and snappy. Looks, sounds and feels great.
  • Risk of Rain 2 - Played a lot in Early Access but this is one of the best translations from a 2D to 3D game. Great with friends too.
  • Atomicrops - Twin-stick bullet hell shooter, frantic farming and RTS. Not for the faint of heart. Gorgeous pixel art, zany music and amazing puns. Qt3 thread for more discussion.
  • Tenderfoot Tactics - Chaotic elemental turn-based tactics and Proteus-like exploration? Yes please. Qt3 thread with more thoughts.
  • In Other Waters - Beautifully presented and evocative underwater xenobiology game where you explore and uncover the mysteries of an alien planet. One of my favourite sci-fi stories of the year.
  • Primordia - Late to the party with this one but this was such a good adventure game, a genre I’ve neglected in recent years. There’s not a lot I didn’t love about this.
  • What Remains of Edith Finch - What a ride, and what a lot to unpack. Some of the most jaw-dropping sequences I’ve seen in games.
  • Wide Ocean Big Jacket - Such a short, low-key and effortlessly human experience. I enjoyed this a lot more than I expected.
  • Doom Eternal - Despite Eternal’s dumb story and bloated progression/unlock systems, the tightened core action loop, varied levels and improved weapons/creature designs made this such a joy to blast through.
  • Hades - Not much I need to say here but this is Supergiant’s finest game. Cool, slick and incredibly addictive. I may have some issues with Hades but they’re still percolating.

I’m hoping to play another game or three before the year’s out but we’ll see…

Yeah, this was me too.

16

True to form of finding one game and then playing the hell out of it for weeks/months, I played Assassin’s Creed Odyssey right up until I finally got bored of the DLC grind and I’m on my third playthrough of Sekiro. I’m going for the Shura ending this time and then I suspect I’m done with it.

I did start another playthrough of RDR2 but I always seem to lose steam somewhere around St. Denis, which is good because then I don’t have go through the incredibly tedious tropical island missions.

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2020 was a good year for gameplay for me, thanks to Covid my backlog for the first time in my life went down not up. Thanks to folks who make computer games, some of whom are right on this forum, 2020 was less grim than it would have been without computer games.

Hearts of Iron IV for the first time in 3 years, HOIV was not at the top of my most played game list. I still got a few games of the Resistance expansion in.

My builder phase I was rather obsessed with building space colonies, in 2020. It seems like a good back up plan in case the Covid vaccine doesn’t work out. Oxygen Not Included, Surviving Mars Green Planet, Kerbal Space Program and my new favorite Rimworld with Royalty expansion.

Classics Reimagined Xcom Chimera a very nice and unexpected DLC

Summer Sales: Atlantic Fleet, beer and pretzel WWII surface ship combat, not bad. Dawn of Man, a rather unique take on a builder/survival game worth buying on sale.

Sometimes $5 is too much for a game dept. Adventure Capitalist, Evil Bank Manager, Stardew Valley.

Three strikes and your out . Stellaris, I so wanted to love you but the continuous four steps forward, there steps back development cycle was just too much. I gave it one more shoot in 2020.
Jon Shafer’s at the gate. It is hard but not impossible to make a game by yourself. I really feel for John, but ATG is example of how not to develop a game.
State of Decay II, I am sorry I didn’t understand why this is better than the original

Two strikes but still on my flash drive. Imperator Rome the new direction seems promising, but Old World is way better.
Red Dead Redemption II. I feel like I really making a mistake not playing this. I started in fall 2019. Got through most of the tutorial, had to stop playing for life reasons. Tried again in early 2020. I’ll give it one more shot in 2021 , but probably have to start from scratch.
.

The serious games of making business. Trevor Chan continues to release new updates and DLC to his classic Capitalism, I found myself firing it up several time in 2020. Thanks to the forum, I found Software Inc as a possible successor to Capitalism, it shows promise but as one person game, I’m waiting till it gets out of Early Access to play the game.

4X done right; Gladius Relics of War, I only play a few games of Gladius in 2020, but looking forward to getting the next expansion since Tom had such positive comments.

New Game of the Year. Old World, I had a blast playing it in early access. Looking forward to 1.0 being released. It is honestly ready now but @SorenJohnson and @Leyla_Johnson have higher standards than I do.

Finally a plea to developers please but your games on Steam. I know there are financial issues with putting games on other platforms. But a significant factor in me not playing games more (RDR II, and Old World, to name two) is I just forget them. I’m on Steam every other day and scan my steam library at least few times month.

Edit: Forget a bunch of games I just played a bit.
Anno 1800 (I guess just don’t like the franchise)
No Man’s Sky Pretty game, seems like I could get into it.
Age of Wonders Plantetfall. I played a lot of this game but mostly in 2019
Plague Evolved, I know see there is a find a cure for Covid opiton. I should checkthat out.

18

Oh god, so much this.

I use Playnite these days so I don’t neglect other libraries and forget about certain games, and it works a treat after a bit of tweaking. Definitely check it out if you haven’t already.

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Earlier I deleted this because I thought it was too much, but now I say, so what, like it or not:

Title Play Time Comments
Aven Colony 45 hrs Tough at first, but on my 2nd attempt, it clicked, and I finished. Overall, a very nice experience.
Black Mesa 35 hrs When they released the ending, I finished from my last save from years ago, and the fact that that was possible was amazingly satisfying. Overall, very excellent!
Doom (2016) 48.9 hrs Very good FPS, but not as great or addictive as the original(s). I didn’t like the randomness of health and ammo drops by monsters when killed. It brought too much luck into the game.
Door Kickers: Action Squad 97 hrs Super fun platformer/shooter which I wish had more levels.
Dungeon Warfare 2 34 hrs Still playing, and loving so far, but after loving DW1, I expect the same.
Dying Light 87 hrs For me, a game in a class all by itself. Nothing gets my adrenaline up, creeps me out, pisses me off, satisfies me, and scares me like when I’m playing Dying Light. It’s most certainly a love/hate relationship. I can’t whole-heartedly recommend it because of all the reasons it pisses me off, but when I’m in the right frame of mind, there’s nothing better.
Elite Dangerous 10 hrs Tough call. It took 3 attempts to really understand, but I do now, and I’m still not sure if I want to jump in occasionally or just uninstall.
Final Station 12 hrs Super fun platformer/shooter I had a ton of fun with.
Hitman (2016) 22 hrs Very Good Hitman levels. As with all Hitman games, I just don’t have enough interest to replay levels for better scores. Seems like I should, but I don’t. Oh well. Done.
Kingdom Come: Deliverance 97 hrs Played for WAY TOO LONG trying to make myself like it, and finally gave up. Progress and leveling are just too slow, and combat is horrifically bad.
Metal Gear Solid 5 247 hrs Another love/hate relationship. Simply put, I hated the grinding aspect, but loved the stealthy gameplay. Once I’d “finished”, I wanted to upgrade to the better stuff, but just couldn’t face the grind.
Prey 54 hrs Nearly perfect game. One of my all-time best gaming experiences of my life. Absolute immersion. Just Wow.
20

I started the year a bit obsessed with idle clickers. I spent a month playing NGU Idle, but haven’t returned to it since about February. Strangely, I’m getting the itch to again…

After that, I cast around looking for a construction/builder game and found Graveyard Keeper to be utterly delightful, sunk a couple of dozen hours into it, never finished it, and haven’t gone back. Though I kind of want to…

When the pandemic started I played a whole lot of Twilight Struggle online with a buddy of mine for a month or so.

In April, I discovered XBox Game Pass for PC. Played a bit of Ori and the Will of the Wisps and enjoyed the hell out of some Forza. But really April was the month of A Plague Tale: Innocence, which is just such a great game.

In May, I built a new PC for the first time in 10 years and played a bunch of Half-life: Alyx with it. (And other VR games.)

But more than VR in May, I used my new PC to sink about 50 hours into Snowrunner. Love the slow, beautiful mud-soaked pace of that game. I need to get back to driving in Alaska.

June/July were for The Last of Us 2. Played it all the way through. Loved nearly every minute. GotY for me.

In August, MSFS 2020 game out and consumed my attention for a hundred hours or more. Most played game in 2020 for me for sure.

In September, I dabbled in Crusader Kings 3, trying to set up a dynasty in Africa for a couple of hundred years. And played some Hades trying to understand why people love it.

And in the later fall, I’ve finally played my way through GTA V, chewed through the first dozen hours of AC: Valhalla, and have been really liking Immortals: Fenix Rising.

I played a bunch of other things in and around all that stuff. And I probably forgot some other game I sunk a couple of dozen hours into, but it’s been a year for gaming, that’s for sure.

Favorite games played this year:

  1. The Last of Us 2
  2. Flight Simulator 2020
  3. Snowrunner
  4. A Plague Tale: Innocence
  5. Immortals: Fenix Rising
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97 hours on a game you didn’t like. Holy hell.