Games you played in 2020

Games
22

I applaud your geekery. A few years ago, I might have made a list like that.

23

Wait what? Tell me more. TELL ME MORE RIGHT NOW.

24

Whoa Nelly! You have no idea the lists I have! That one is extremely small and inconsequential compared to what I can produce, trust me.

25

Yes, yes… YES! I know! DAMMIT, YES!, I know! I thought it would get better, and kept thinking that for far too long.

26

Pretty much this website tells you everything you need to know.

27

Shit, sold!

28

Played and enjoyed:

  1. Dawn of Man RTS.
  2. Ghost Recon Wildlands coop.
  3. The Saboteur.
  4. 7 Cities of Gold.
  5. Red Dead Redemption 2.
  6. Far Cry 2.
  7. Skyrim.
  8. Fable 2.
  9. ArmA II.
  10. Watchdogs.
  11. Steel Panthers
  12. Star Trek Voyager Elite Force
  13. Order of Battle
  14. Vermintide 2

Bored me:

  1. AC Odyssey
  2. Kingdom Come Deliverance.
  3. AC Valhalla
  4. The Division 2
  5. Ghost Recon Breakpoint
  6. Rage 2
29

RTS

  • Completed the story for Homeworld: Deserts of Kharak

  • Completed the main campaign in Frostpunk

  • Completed a conquest in Northgard using the clan of the stag

  • Completed Company of Heroes 2 - Ardennes Assault

CRPG

  • Replayed and completed Baldur’s Gate + Tales of the Sword Coast + Siege of Dragonspear + BGII Shadows of Amn + Throne of Bhaal + The Black Pits I & II.

  • Tried a Fallout New Vegas mod that sucked

  • Completed Book of Demons

  • Completed Divine Divinity Original Sin and Original Sin II…no more fire please.

  • Completed The Pillars of Eternity expansions: The White March 1 & 2

  • Started and currently playing Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire

Roguelikes/Lites

  • Made runs in Tales of Maj’Eyal

  • Made runs in Tangledeep

  • Made runs in Devil Daggers

  • Made runs in Scavager SV-4

  • Made and completed several runs in Renowned Explorers: International Society

  • Made and completed several runs in Into the Breach

Indie / Other / Misc

  • Completed Prey

  • Completed Oxenfree

  • Completed Kentucky Route Zero

  • Completed? Cultist Simulator

  • Replayed Subnautica but didn’t complete

  • Played XCOM 2 War of the Chosen (already completed)

  • Played Hitman 2 (already completed)

  • PLAYED LOTS of Deep Rock Galactic

Probably some other games I am missing.

30

Ohhhhh, excellent choice.

31

Divinity: Original Sin
Star Valor
Ultima IV
Savage Empire (still not finished with that one)
Pool of Radiance
Curse of the Azure Bonds
Secret of the Silver Blades
Wolfenstein: The New Order
Wolfenstein: The Old Blood
Jedi Knight: Dark Forces II
Unreal
Black Mesa
Company of Heroes
Morrowind
Tavern Guardians Banquet
Rune (original)

Those are the big ones, I think. The year for me was mostly about delving further into Retro RPG history and also going on a spate of finally finishing FPS’s where I’d made it to, or almost to, the final boss and then chickened out (Unreal, Jedi Knight, and Wolfenstein New Order all fit this bill).

Probably my most significant gaming experience of the year was playing to completion the first 3 Gold Box CRPGs. That was a big gap in my gaming knowledge filled. Also, finally beating Ultima IV was a nice one to cross off.

32

These are the games I played for the first time in 2020, some released this year and many not.

Favorites

  1. Hades : The action was fluid, the boons kept the gameplay varied in different runs, the characters and story were very entertaining. After many many runs, it did start to lose some of the excitement in the game play, but I was still engaged and wanted to see the story to the end.

  2. Control : The bizarreness of the setting was great and the action very good. I think it was one of the few games I wasn’t itching for it to end.

  3. The Last of Us Part 2 : I’m still not done with this and maybe have a soft spot for the series because of the first game. It didn’t pull me in nearly as much as the first, but it’s still good. It feels like maybe there is too much combat. TLoU series always made me feel like I was in a zombie apocalypse scrounging for precious resources. Usually I get bored doing that in games but something about these games makes it engaging.

  4. Immortals: Fenyx Rising: The exploration is so much better than the AC games. The puzzles are well done, requiring some observation, exploration, thinking - generally not that taxing but there have been some that stumped me for a while. The story and banter is amusing and adds to the game. The combat is nothing great and enemies are very repetitive. I’m kinda torn where to rank this one because the high points are quite high, but some repetition is starting to set in. I think I’m close to halfway done.

  5. A Plague Tale: Innocence : I didn’t think I was going to like this nearly as much as I did. The game play was kinda simplistic, but damn the environments were great, the story interesting and the voice actors, especially the main girl really sold it for me.

  6. Superhot: Mind Control Delete : More Super Hot so it had to be good. While not as novel as playing the first game, nothing else feels like it. Dragged a bit towards the end.

  7. Wasteland 3: The combat was perfectly fine, but the real draw for me was the way many of the choices were tough decisions and really weighed on me when trying to decide what to do. Some truly humorous, creative stuff in there too.

  8. Gears Tactics: I’m not familiar with the Gears universe, but I kinda liked the over the top summer movie vibe. The combat was solid and I liked the flexibility of moving and attacking in the order I wanted. Pulling off abilities to keep the actions coming was super satisfying too.

  9. Baba is You: Some of these puzzles got damn hard and I didn’t finish, but what a clever way to make the player solve puzzles.

The rest are ordered but not numbered

Very Good

The Colonists: There was something mesmerizing about fixing efficiency problems as I went through the campaign. Never did the combat missions though.

XCOM: Chimera Squad: Entertaining, but missing something special with the predefined characters. Breeches were fun in theory, but seemed kinda arbitrary. Still, the battles and upgrading the characters was fun.

Monster Train: Not nearly as addicting as Slay the Spire, but having the different floors was a nice twist to shake things up.

Ori and the Will of the Wisps: Still beautiful and action still good, just wasn’t as magical as the first.

Railroad Corporation: Don’t remember why I liked it as much as I did. I think it had the most frictionless track building and just felt right.

Hob: I’m still fairly early on, but it seems to capture some decent exploration and puzzling.

The Turing Test: Pretty good. Most puzzles not too difficult. Interesting conversations between AI and character.

Good

Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla: Without the beautiful environments I wouldn’t like the AC games nearly as much. I’m not a good judge of writing, but for me it ranged from engaging to skippable. I hate the icon chase and wish they designed their games to have more natural exploration and / or encorporating clues. The combat is fine, but gets very repetitive.

Dirt Rally 2: I didn’t play as much as the first, but it still seemed quality.

Faeria: Simple, fun, boardgamey deck game.

Fantasy General 2 General Edition: What it does it did right - exploring the map, fighting battles, finding loot, leveling units, until there was just too much of it. Maps got too big and the unit count too large.

Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night: Nice fluid action. Didn’t care for the art or story.

Eador. Imperium: Kind of a rough gem that can entertain but also frustrate with technical issues.

Transport Fever 2: Another good train game that didn’t quit feel as good as Railroad Corporation. A little for finicky and had some terrible objectives in the campaign.

Horizon Chase Turbo: Fun, fast arcade racing.

Yoku’s Island Express!: Mixed feelings. It was attractive, novel little pinball mini games inside a platformer, but the running around got too tiresome. Maybe because I was too inefficient in my traveling / solving areas, but it started to drag.

Dishonored Death of the Outsider: While a fine Dishonored game, I think I just started tiring of the formula.

One Deck Dungeon: Fun, simple game with dice. Good for passing some time without needing to invest a lot.

Dicey Dungeons : Another fun simple game to fit into a smaller play session or eating lunch.

Tametsi : Just another fun Hexcells type game.

Take 'em or leave 'em

Remnant: From the Ashes : I actually liked the game up until the point I hit a level that I just had trouble navigating and it got me mad so I quit.

Disco Elysium: I actually like the system that drives the game, and there were many places in the story that I enjoyed, but there were also many that bored me. I lose patience running around the maps too. My dissatisfaction with the game is probably more me than it. Maybe it was too sophisticated for me.

Shadow of the Tomb Raider: It seems like it should have been better. I enjoyed the 2 prior games a lot, but this one just felt phoned in and much less engaging. I made it through, but it was probably more my love of the prior games that drove me.

Void Bastards: I like the idea, but I really don’t like the feel of the shooting. So, mixed feelings.

Hand of Fate 2 : Lots of character, clunky feel.

Outer Wilds: It pains me not to have liked this one. The sense of wonder it inspires it really good, but I just couldn’t stand flying that rocket, especially landing on the planet with the water. Maybe one day I’ll try again.

Field of Glory: Empires: Just felt repetitious after the initial honeymoon period. Seemed very good at first but then lost interest.

Nioh: Another game where it’s probably me and not the game having a problem. I just didn’t like the stances or pace of the combat. It just didn’t feel right.

GreedFall: Interesting story, but too much repetitive combat. The writing seemed pretty bad in places. Pretty locations, but they were also repetitive.

Unexplored
Madden NFL 20
Superflight
Space Run Galaxy
Rise of Industry
Shapez. io
Stationflow
Blueprint tycoon
Plague Inc: Evolved
My Friend Pedro
Crusader Kings 3
Cultist Simulator

Hard pass
Pikuniku
Tokyo 42
SOULCALIBUR VI
Seven: The Days Long Gone

Only tinkered
Trials of Fire
Age of Empires 3 + DLC
Mindustry
Gloomhaven
Iratus: Lord of the Dead
Phoenix Point
Tropico 6
Deity Empires
Gauntlet Slayer Edition

33

Boy, you really approached Outer Wilds the wrong way!

34

I got em confused, didn’t I :-)

I updated my list

35

Ooops I forgot and added Immortals: Fenyx Rising to my favorites.

36

I played:

  • Anno 1800 - played this more than any other game. City building, plus collecting, plus incredibly gorgeous landscapes and graphics? So nice!
  • Disco Elysium - Every game with a story will feel lame compared to the narrative woven by this brilliant work of art. Best detective game ever.
  • Crusader King’s 3 - Great game but I got burned out because of extreme event repetition.
  • Surviving the Aftermath - Good game.
  • MS Flight Sim 2020 - Awesome! Need to spend a lot more time in it.
  • Endzone - As good or better than Surviving the Aftermath.
  • Battle Brothers - the new DLC was fabulous. Enjoyed every second I spent in the game.
  • No Man’s Sky - They keep making the game better and better. Love it.

I tinkered with a lot of other games, but the bulk of the time was with the above.

37

I was really frustrated early on with the combat, but eventually I got better. But one thing about the game, even better if you ran into a mob they would kick your ass. I figured that was some realism right there, and so I avoided mobs. :)

I ended up loving the game.

38

Even though I have these games parsed by month, most of these games bled over between two or more months. But, I figured since I was grabbing this list from my played games in the Weekend Gaming Update thread, I might as well list them in order.

I actually played (and talked about) a whole lot of other games this year besides the ones listed here, but rather than waste more time complaining about the ones I bounced off of (or came to realize I didn’t enjoy at all) I figured I would list only those games I genuinely enjoyed (with one particular exception I included anyway).

January:

  • Ancient Planet (Steam):
    This is a very straight forward tower defense game. Some might call it too simplistic to hold their interests, but I’m not a tower defense enthusiast and I enjoyed the time I spent with it. I just wanted a game I could relax while playing and this one delivered.

February:

  • Wolfenstein: Youngblood (Xbox GamePass):
    While I’m not going to tell all those people that hated this game that they’re wrong, I will say that I had a blast playing the game, and genuinely enjoyed the two protagonists. The game isn’t perfect, but it was a solid shooter for my money Gamepass subscription.

March:

  • Divinity: Original Sin 2 (Steam):
    Man oh man, I’ve been playing this game for years. I’ve restarted three or four times, but this year I got further than ever. I probably put 80+ hours into the game this year and I still feel like I’m nowhere near the end. Unfortunately I decided to stop playing because I reached a point where I couldn’t find an enjoyable difficulty setting. One difficulty was simply too hard and unforgiving, and the one just below it felt way too easy and dry. While i respect everything they did with the game, and I’ve had a lot of fun with it, I can’t help but feel like I’m never building my party “correctly.”

  • Monster Hunter Generations Ultimate (Switch):
    Back in March I said, “I’ve decided to start killing at least 1 new monsters a week.” That lasted about three weeks. The grind got me down, but it’s a brilliant game I always have fun playing, it’s just hard to motivate myself to pick it back up because I know how much grinding there is waiting for me here. it’s strange, I love playing but at the same time I’m also apprehensive about playing it.

  • Super Mario Odyssey (Switch):
    I completed the basic campaign mode a couple years ago when I got the game, but this year I decided to “finish” the game itself and collect the rest of the moons. Hahahahahahahahahahahahahaha. I was fooling myself into thinking I will ever collect all the moons. But I always have fun picking the game back up and finding three or four more.

April:

  • DOOM Eternal (Xbox One):
    I thought for sure this would be my game of the year. Based on DOOM 2016, I didn’t think anything else I played in 2020 would even come close. if I were to limit my favorite 2020 game to those actually RELEASED in 2020, okay, this would probably be in the top spot, but it turns out an older game (mentioned later) managed to give me the best gaming experience this year.

  • Age of Wonders: Planetfall (Xbox One):
    I love this game, I love this series, I love the expansions. This game has had a couple expansions this year, and they’re always great reasons to dive back in for another 50-60 hours before forcing myself to play something else for once. I only have this game listed for April, but that’s only because it coincides with the release of the Invasions expansion. I’ve actually been putting some serious hours into the game all freaking year long.

May:

  • Wonderful 101 Remastered (WiiU) (Switch):
    I loved the game on WiiU back in the day, and I love it on Switch. i actually prefer it more on Switch because of certain updates to the game that allow me to play better without the huge WiiU tablet controller, but I do love all versions of it.

  • Arkham Noir: Case #1 - The Witch Cult Murders (Physical card game):
    The first little spark of interest in physical board games that dominated my summer started here, with this game. I think I discovered this game after watching Tom put up Youtube videos about it. It’s a solo game.

  • Carcassonne (Xbox One Backward Compatibility):
    My sudden passion for board gaming saw me re-install my old 360 digital copy of Carcassonnne. Fun little game to play for a few minutes at a time between other, meatier games.

  • Deep Rock Galactic (Steam):
    One of the latest games I’ve played Co-op with my wife, and the first computer game (that isn’t Hearthstone) we’ve played together in a long time. Great in co-op.

June:

  • Horizon Chase Turbo (Switch):
    What an awesome little retro-racing title. I picked up a few Qt3 friends on my Switch specifically so we could compare times in this game and I could try to come out on top across the board. I haven’t loaded up the game in a few months, but last I looked I was still #1 on every map I played. I could try to deny that this is a call to arms, but I’d be lying.

  • Code Names: Duet (My kitchen table):
    More physical board gaming, but with my wife this time.

  • Grim Dawn (Steam):
    It would be fair to say that I probably put 80+ hours into this game every single year, and I still never manage to finish all expansions with a single character. Well, I tried again this year, but god damn there’s a lot of content, and man do I burn myself out trying to do everything at once. I’m sure i will be seeing this one again next year too. it still has so much to give.

  • Assassin’s Creed: Origins (Xbox One):
    This is the first Assassin’s Creed game I’ve ever seriously played, and hey, I finished it. i spent weeks on the game and enjoyed my time with it. This is a no-negativity post, so I won’t bother comparing certain small things to the Shadow of Mordor/War games which are just a little closer to my heart.

July:

  • Ghost Stories (Board Game):
    This is my favorite physical board game to play solo. it’s not strictly a solo game, but I enjoy it most when played as such. Beautiful game, too. And it dominated my summer.

  • Apocrypha (Board Game):
    I think I spent the bulk of July only playing Apocrypha (solo) day in and day out. I think I played one mission every single day through mid-August and then forced myself to set the game down and try some new things. The game took me days to fully comprehend, and by the end of it I had a pretty good routine going. I think the biggest challenge for me was table space. I learned about this game in a thread Tom created about his favorite solo board games.

  • Lost Cities (Board Game):
    Another co-op game for my wife and I. We bought and played this game a little about ten years ago, but didn’t fully appreciate it. I pulled it down off the shelf again over the summer and it turns out we love the thing. It really clicked for us this time around.

August:

  • Cogmind (Steam):
    I spent most of the month still playing a few board games already listed above, but Cogmind was my first foray back into VIDEO GAMING after being away from VIDEO GAMES for about a month or two. Cogmind is one of the best traditional Roguelikes ever made.

September:

  • Crusader Kings III (Steam):
    A Crusader Kings game I actually succeeded playing correctly. I bouncing off the prior entry of the series a few times and could never quite find that tiny spark of awesome that had everybody else enamored, but CK3 did a much better job of helping me understand what all the fuss was about. The game is so huge and daunting that, much like Monster Hunter generations Ultimate, I find myself enjoying every minute I spend playing, but I find it difficult to ever pick back up because of the monumental task I feel like I’m undertaking every time I think about it.

  • Dragon’s Dogma: Dark Arisen (Xbox One):
    Great game with a cool combat system. unfortunately I think that ultimately the game becomes too easy as time goes on, with the most difficult encounters happening well after end-game, but by that point I had already played so much of the game I was ready to move on. I thoroughly enjoyed my time with it.

October:

  • 9th Dawn III: Shadow of Erthil (Xbox):
    A fun, inexpensive, little ARPG that I put way too many hours into. it’s no Grim dawn, but it’s super simple and easy to plow through for a few minutes here and there.

  • Return of the Obra Dinn (Xbox One):
    My 2020 gaming experience of the year. I loved my time with the game and it was the perfect spooky Halloween game for me. I can’t say enough good things about this title, from the music, to the art, to the story. Amazing.

November:

  • Sniper Elite 4 (Xbox GamePass):
    I had so much fun shooting people in the face with this game, and I know I shot them in the face because the game features a nice slow-mo bullet cam that shows me precisely how each little projectile obliterated every single target. I ended up buying a few sniper games because of this title. i will get to them soon(ish).

  • One Finger Death Punch 2 (Switch):
    What a great little game, and so inexpensive. I’m currently stuck at a brick wall very, very late in the game, but every minute of the game up until that point was pure bliss.

December:

  • Worms Rumble (Steam):
    A real-time multi-player action shooter, by Team 17, and featuring Worms! My current favorite game to play for twenty minutes at a time between other, bigger games. it earned a very quick positive review form me. It feels good, it sounds good, it is good.

  • Code Vein (Xbox One):
    I finally did it! I bought a game on sale and started playing it immediately, then I wrapped it up immediately. No backlog for this one!

In addition to Worms Rumble, at this point I expect to be playing Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3 (Switch) and one of the Tomb Raider reboot games (Xbox) throughout the rest of the year/month.

39

Damn, good on ya, Conquest is damned tough.

40

This is such a great way of putting how I feel about both these games. Perfect.

41

I realized I misspoke. It was the Boar clan, which is totally OP! Their Conquest is not too difficult because they a totally OP. I tried another conquest with the Wolf clan but didn’t get very far, naturally. Maybe 4 missions deep before I abandoned it. I also didn’t like their playstyle. Probably the worst clan actually. (or I didn’t get it)