The best games of 2018 (so far!)

Lower the details (especially turning off ambiant occlusion), and it should be playable on your laptop.
I wish I could play it now: there is online coop from what I understand, and it sounds like it could be quite fun.

If you’re at all into console rpgs, then Persona 5 is a must buy.

But yeah, other than that, you might as well sell the PS4 after you’re done with those games.

Whoa, thanks for the tip off on Sky Knights, never would have heard of this otherwise.

The goofy save system that requires me to remember to quicksave when I’m immersed in the experience of shooting robots and navigating levels. And if/when I forget to quicksave, my punishment for dying is being sent back to the beginning of the level because there’s no autosaving at all. It’s 2018. All real-time games should be managing saving so the player can stay focused on, you know, playing the game.

You know what else is goofy about the save system? Have you found any of the secret portals to arenas that let you earn upgrade points? I love those! And I respect that Overload only gives you one chance at them before you’re booted back to the level with whatever upgrade points you did or didn’t earn. Except the quicksave system subverts that by letting you create a save point right before you enter the portal. No need to live with a subpar result, just reload over and over until you get what you want. And so I’ve been doing exactly that because upgrade points are precious, super upgrade points even more so. It’s not my fault the save system encourages this tedium.

Thanks!

Ah I see, that’s a good point. I guess I never thought of that, because I was viewing it from a lens of Descent 4, not as a game in 2018 that didn’t have auto-saving mid-level.

After an initially positive impression of Slay the Spire, I think I’m giving up and done with it. Seems like it’s just a matter of looking up the 2 viable builds for each character then just hoping the RNG gives you those cards and the right relics. FTL eventually boiled down to “hope the RNG gives you burst laser II/flak/glaive”, but there was some other factors to consider, the combat itself was entertainment outside of upgrading, and you had a very clear cut idea of when you should give up on a run (when your weapons could no longer punch through enemy shields). In SLP, like most deck builders, the combat itself isn’t interesting because after constructing your deck, you’re just handing the reins over to the RNG.

Also playing through the main campaign for Prey now. Gameplay, graphics, and tone wise, it succeeds at being a System Shock sequel much better than the Bioshocks did. The only thing it falls short in is…horror. The enemies just aren’t scary. It feels like you’re fighting the heartless in Kingdom Hearts, there’s no real variety to them, they don’t have any of the creepy audio lines the System Shock enemies did, and their gimmick is “these coffee mugs and clipboards could be haunted! WoooooOOOOO!!!”

The weird little complaint I have about Prey is that unlike most games on Steam, plugging in a controller on PC does not enable it natively through the game. Instead, the controller method Arkane used was to just jack into Steam Big Picture mode and load a profile.

PC gamer joined in with their mid-year list:

Just like Tom, they don’t include Slay the Spire for those silly Early Access considerations. Game journalists, ha ha!

Interesting that Fortnite is on that PC Gamer list. I had no idea the game was out already. (I thought it was still in early access).

Fortnite is early access. Fortnite Battle Royale is a regular release.

Dead Space was jump scare city, but it had one of the best senses of “place” since Black Mesa in the original Half-Life.

It’s been a shockingly good first 6 months of the Year for Games. My list would be as follows:

  1. Battletech
  2. God of War
  3. OnRush
  4. Monster Hunter World
  5. Pillars of Eternity II
  6. Vermintide 2
  7. Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey Redux
  8. Ni No Kuni 2
  9. Radiant Historia Perfect Chronology

If you’re going to look up the builds for Slay the Spire you’ve deprived yourself of like 80% of the fun of the game. I’ve taught myself how to ascend with the Ironclad and it was a fun 10 hours or so that I’m going to get to do twice more with the other characters. Which is a thing you can do in a game where a complete playthrough takes 30 minutes

When it came to terrifying enemies and sound design, Prey just didn’t come close to System Shock 2 which set the bar for haunted space ship games 20 years ago (oh my god, has it been that long?). I guess it was a case of “I saw this done better all the way back in 1998” ?

Which is a shame because it’s better gameplay wise, polish wise, and mechanics wise. I just got done hosing down a heartless with a comical foam goo gun and “horror” was the furthest thing from my mind.

Yes, Prey doesn’t particularly try to be part survival horror, unlike SS2.

Or the scream of those damn monkeys.

It turns out I can’t deal with survival horror so I am glad they designed it the way it did or I wouldn’t have been able to play it. Alien Isolation sits quietly in my steam library at 4 hours of game time, unlikely to ever be returned to…

Oh, man, Florence came out this year. It’s got to be on my list. Could easily see it being my favorite of the year come December.