Howdy partners!
Since the year is closing out and this is still (ostensibly) a gaming board I thought it might be kind of fun to talk about what we played this year, what our GOTY was, the biggest disappointments, etc.
I didn’t really purchase many new AAA titles this year, I think Elden Ring and The Callisto Protocol were it. Of the two Elden Ring met my expectations and was excellent, and TCP was monumentally disappointing.
I spent most of my gaming budget on indie titles this year, and while I loved Elden Ring it was narrowly edged out by Infernax as my Game of the Year. Infernax was a huge surprise for me, I don’t usually expect much from the indie-retro-nostalgia bait but it blew me away. A love letter to classic NES titles like Castlevania 2, Link’s Adventure, and Faxanadu, it combines gorgeous pixel art with a banger of a soundtrack and a fun story with multiple endings and unlockable characters and I can’t recommend it enough.
A close second would be Cultic; some people have complained that Boomer Shooters are reaching over saturation by now but I play the shit out of every one and I think Cultic is the best of the lot. The shortest way to describe it would be Blood crossed with Resident Evil 4; you’re a cop fighting a crazed cult and demonic monsters in the seventies, there’s a fun arsenal of upgradable weapons, cool levels to explore, and a shitload of monsters to kill, everything a fps ahould have in other words, go nuts.
As far as what I thought sucked ass The Callisto Protocol is the only big letdown I can think of, and I’ve bitched about it enough so now I want to hear what you guys have been playing, what surprised you, disappointed you, and what you recommend.
Cheers all, and have a Happy New Year!
I apparently didn't do much outside of PSO2 and mobile gaming this year. Of what I did, Elden Ring absolutely deserves GotY, and I can't wait to see if they do expanded content, especially something centered around Miqella, whom everyone in the game absolutely simped for, but never truly showed up.
PSO2NGS is starting to shape up content-wise, but their ability to tell a story is still absolute shit.
Also played Atelier Ryza and Yakuza: Like a Dragon. Decent games.
Disappointments? I Yar-har'd FF7 Remake. Holy shit do I hate almost everything about it. I wouldn't even buy it half off on Steam. Modding Tifa into wearing Nyotengu's leather suit was the only thing keeping me going with it. The gameplay was fucked, the mapping was fucked, the "story during gameplay" was fucked. I can't even bring myself to climb the wall and finish the game. They took the three-hour introduction of the original and turned it into a 40-hour game of its own, and most of it is either padding or forced snail-pacing.
"Mobile"
"Gaming"
Exclusive concepts. Cell phone gambling addict machines made for bugmen living in cubicles are not games.
I would absolutely expect some story dlc within the next few months, there’s plenty of places they could go lore-wise and from what I remember there’s a lot of stuff about Miquella that was buried in the game data. Plus we’re coming up on a year from release so it would be a great time to put the game out there in the zeitgeist again.