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!
Funny thing, I'm a weeb and the main game that piqued my interest was that Vampire Saviors clone Hololive. It was very polished.
Another game - Acquitted, a based af game about the story of Kyle Rittenhouse cleaning hosue in Kenosha. Hard as nails.
King of Fighters XV came out. I'm a long time KOF fan - if you check my history on my banned Reddit account (fuck Reddit) I've been playing it since 98 competitively.
Oh, I played this softcore pr0n game called PumPum - I was just reeled in by the well drawn waifus. It's a shitty match-three game but the art is fucking semi-photo realistic yet anime looking top tier.
Another under the radar game that was unfortunately funded by Chinese money is Bright Memory: Infinite. It's made by a Chinese indie dev in Unity - one man wrecking crew. It's voiced in English, Chinese, and weirdly enough Japanese and the Japanese voice is Mikasa Ackerman (Yui Ishikawa) so it motivated me to play it. Plus the MC is a waifu. Game is a combination of Shadow Warrior, Devil May Cry, and a bit of CawaDooty and Bulletstorm and small bits of movement mechanics from Doom Eternal and other similar FPSes (double jumps, dashes, etc). Has a bit of jank but lots of fun. Linear story but combat is top tier.
Outfits are waifu outfits, bikini, mcheongsam, schoolgirl, etc. But again, Chinese money so, idk
I've picked up a new gacha mobile game - Goddess of Victory - Nikke. Time crisis shooter with waifus that are thick as fuck. Unfortunately, it's published by Tencent, but the dev is a Korean dev named Shift Up. I've been at odds with myself on whether to support it because it's a fun game and the character designs are top tier, but Tencent can get fucked. Also has AAA Japanese voice actresses that makes it even better.