The 2023 Moosies Video Game Awards: Part 2.

Now, time for Part 2! Here's a link to Part 1, which only makes sense to read first. Unlike Part 1, I definitely dive more into Spoiler territory here, but the worst, most spoiler-y of them are hidden in Spoiler Zones. That said, for anyone reading that really wants to experience a game knowing as little as possible, don't let me ruin it for you. I get into some mechanical Spoilers for Alan Wake II below, and well I'll call out when spoilers happen when I get to the games in question.

So...enjoy!

5. Best Use of Live Action Video of the Year: Alan Wake II.

Moosey stared at their computer, the thin cursor blinking on an off, fading in and out from the white page before them. The same open source text editor they'd been using since college, over a decade ago. Open, and blank. Bright screen almost blinding in the early morning dark. Even if the sun was a ways off, this was when Moosey did their best work. Early in the morning, while they were as awake as they ever could be. Cold air biting through the thin walls of the old house, as they wrapped up with a blanket, trying to think of what to write.

It was that time of year again, December.

December brought with it not just the impending winter and its accompanying darkness, but that same old obligation. The Moosies. For over a decade now, Moosey didn't just write a simple top ten list, they had a whole system of awards. Perhaps “system” was too generous, it was mostly arbitrary. Whatever they thought would be funny, jotted down in the midst of whatever games they played. Yet it came from a place of wanting to acknowledge the noteworthy weird little things in games that would often be overlooked. Who else would take the time to applaud a running joke across a game where the payoff is easily missed, meaning most people probably never met the canine mayor?

All these years, even as they found themself writing about fewer and fewer games every year, Moosey still felt they needed to do this. If being hospitalized a decade ago didn't stop them then, a little apathy and writer's block couldn't get in their way now, surely? Yet here they were, blank page before them, their head shrouded in fog, struggling to find the words they needed.

It's not like they didn't have thoughts about Alan Wake II. It was a great game, and while not their favorite from Remedy, it was certainly one that stuck with them. Likable characters, a compelling narrative, survival horror game design, and lots of quirky weird stuff layered on top. What's not to like about a game that goes to a run down amusement park with a moose mascot (a moose-cot, Moosey giggled to themself)? Herald of Darkness was still stuck in their head, weeks after finishing the game, both the song itself, and the whole sequence around it.

No, that wasn't the problem, none of this was the problem. Alan Wake II wasn't the problem, Moosey was the problem. They'd written about so many games, hundreds of them over the years. Always the same though. Talk about the story, but not too much, don't want to spoil anything. Unless they did, then make sure it was in a spoiler zone. Need to discuss game mechanics, they're video games after all. Every little detail, go into their minutia, page after page if need be. Using written words to describe something meant to be seen through a screen, heard through speakers, and felt through a controller. Obviously the ideal way to get these thoughts across to other people.

Does anyone read this? Actually read it? Moosey didn't know. A few friends sure, but beyond that? Did it ever stick with any of them? Would anyone ever find themselves thinking about something Moosey wrote about a game? Moosey would never know, they weren't a mind reader. And even if they were, they figured that would be more a curse than not knowing ever could be. The only thing worse than dreading the answer to a question you don't want to ask is getting the answer you don't want to hear.

So Moosey sat there, cursor still blinking on and off, thinking about Alan Wake II, trying to find anything even remotely novel to say. There was Saga, new co-protagonist. An FBI agent who wants to both solve the case, and find a way to save her daughter from a supernatural mystery she shouldn't have been involved with in the first place. A compelling character for sure, even if Melanie Liburd's American accent was distractingly inconsistent at points. Which was a shame, because her performance wasn't bad, and Moosey felt sure she could have knocked it out of the park if she could just use her normal accent. She only stuck out in comparison her American co-stars. James McCaffrey and Matthew Porretta had each been in several Remedy games, playing different characters as callbacks to the increasingly meta Remedy Game Universe.

Moosey couldn't help but wonder if Liburd would get to join their ranks and be a regular in Remedy's casts, or if this was just a one off. Would she still working with this studio twenty years after her first role? Considering her character also bears her likeness, they couldn't do anything as meta as what Alan Wake II does. McCaffrey brought the voice of Max Payne while Sam Lake provided the face of Max Payne to Alex Casey, Alan Wake's not so fictional detective. It was certainly a step beyond what most other studios would do.

But then...Moosey felt like they'd been a idiot, there it was, staring them in the face the whole time. Alan Wake. He was a writer, just like Moosey. Not just like them, Alan was successful. Best selling author, able to actually make a living off his writing, something Moosey could only dream of. Out of everything they'd ever done in their life, there was nothing Moosey was as good at as they were writing, and even that they never felt like they were good enough. But still, a dream like that doesn't die easily, no matter how many times they failed, and had to try again.

But more than the desire to make money, Alan had fans, people who loved his writing. People whose lives were changed by his writing. That writing. Moosey had found the answer to their problem. Alan's writing could change the world around him. A clever idea from the original game that was made into a proper mechanic in II. Alan's writing room, where he workshops ideas into drafts, then into the manuscript, and finally into reality.

Locations and ideas, mashed together, made manifest by The Dark Place. If Alan couldn't find a way out as it was, he would write one for himself. But to do that, he'd need to finish his story, diving deeper into the macabre of horror as he himself went deeper into the oceanic lake that was The Dark Place. Alan telling himself that every time the story got darker, more sinister, that it needed to, because it was true to the story. That was the key, more than anything else, just like in any piece of fiction.

The prettiest prose in the world can be meaningless if it isn't earned, just like the ugliest words can be powerful if they are. And when they are, the world itself will shift around them. Physical locations in the game would change depending on what plot elements were attached to them; an empty subway tunnel turning into the scene of a grizzly murder after the blink of an eye, and the clack of a few keys on a typewriter.

It was brilliant. The first time Moosey experienced it, all they could think about was how much they related. Playing out scenes in their head for their next piece of fiction, or pieces they likely wouldn't get to for years, if ever. Running through it different ways, different thoughts on where to take the story, different approaches to characters, some things making small changes, others larger. A process that surely every writer had gone through, in one form or another, but one that Moosey had never really thought about before. Yet here it was, itself made manifest by the people at Remedy, in a game about a writer.

Moosey only wished it'd been pushed even further. An idea like this could be the core of a whole game, a puzzle focused adventure game about a writer reshaping the world around them. The abstract concept of writing changing people's lives made literal. Yet in Alan Wake II, it was mostly used to just move the story along, with only a slight amount of puzzle solving attached to it. Still, this wasn't a complaint. Even if they wished it had been pushed further, Moosey still loved the mechanic. Their favorite idea in a game full of creative and interesting moments.

So, this was the idea that this mechanic gave Moosey. If Alan's writing could change the world around him, change the people around him, perhaps it had changed Moosey too. Small, all but imperceptible, but it had changed them. Affected them enough to let them write about Alan Wake II, and find a novel way to do it.

Write it in Alan's style, Moosey thought to themself. Write about the writing process, just in Alan's style. The style he uses in his manuscript pages. Envision a game of the year blog, but through the lens of Alan Wake II. At least within the scope of Moosey's capabilities, they'd never be able to write and produce a full musical number. Then another idea, terrible as it was great, came to them.

What if I wrote the whole thing in that style?

No, a calmer, more rational thought overrode it. Gimmicks are only fun so long as they don't overstay their welcome, and Moosey felt like they were pushing their luck as it was. As much as Moosey liked the game, and Alan as a character, they couldn't imagine reading a whole book written in Alan's style. It was obnoxious and overwrought. Moosey also thought the frequency with which Alan started multiple sentences in the same paragraph with the character's name to be amateurish at best, and irritating at worst.

At least Sam Lake and company are better writers than Alan, Moosey thought to themself. It takes a special skill to intentionally do something poorly, assuming that even was Remedy's intent.

Moosey felt it was time to wrap this up, so they did just that. Alan Wake II was one of the best games Moosey played in a year filled with great games. Far from perfect, but one not quite like anything else they'd played, and it was going to stick with them for a long time to come.

Moosey felt sure of it. They only wished they'd had the time to play the new game plus mode patched in to see the new story content, but there would be time for that.

Eventually. Perhaps when the DLC releases...

Alan Wake II also wins:

• Best musical sequences of the year: Herald of Darkness.
• Most meta game of the year.
• Flashlights of the year.
• Mind Place and Writer's Room of the year.
• Small town of the year: Bright Falls.
• Deer floats of the year.
• Moose-cot of the year: Mocha the Moose.
• Diner of the year.
• Sweater of the year.
• Profiling start of the year.
• Cardboard cutouts of the year.
• In world television commercials and radio shows of the year.
• Pettable taxidermy deer heads of the year.
• Talk show host of the year: Mr. Door.
• Janitor of the year: Ahti.
• Three dimensional audio of the year.
• Words of power of the year.
• Non-Euclidean geometry of the year.
• Plot boarding of the year.
• Colored Lighting of the year.
• Mayor of the year: Mayor Setter.

Also, I just want to add, rest in peace James McCaffrey. The news about his passing broke after I wrote the previous segment, and honestly, it felt more respectful to not include this in that section what with how I wrote that.

He didn't have that many roles in video games, and most of those were Remedy games, but still he managed to have one of the most iconic voices in video games. Rest in peace to an absolute legend.

Game I'm Most Surprised I Got Into: Marvel Champions, via Tabletop Simulator.

I've got this friend, let's just call him, “Will.” Now, “Will” has been obsessed with a few card games, particularly Marvel Champions, for years. To the point where myself and some other friends would poke a little fun at him for how all he ever did was play card games. It was a running joke that he played into, which only encouraged us to keep teasing him about. The sort of playful teasing friends do with each other, none of it was ever mean-spirited. Anyway, the point being, since he loved Marvel Champions so much, he was trying for years to get the rest of us to give it a shot. Partly because it's a cooperative game, and us playing would mean more people to play with, but also because he believed (correctly) that we would enjoy it too.

So, long story short, eventually everything aligned, and “Will” got myself, and a couple other friends to finally try Marvel Champions, and since we all live far apart from each other, we did it via Tabletop Simulator. Using a free “Marvel Champions Hitch's Table” mod that features scans of all the cards, and is still being updated as more is added to the official game. Tabletop Simulator itself is fine, has its own quirks (and I know the developers have gotten in hot water in the past), but it gets the job done. I'd say the same for the mod. None of this is as smooth or streamlined as a proper digital edition of Marvel Champions would be, but Tabletop Simulator is relatively cheap (plus “Will” gifted it to me), and the mod is free, as opposed to the hundreds of dollars “Will” has spent buying all of the decks for the physical version.

But what about Marvel Champions itself? Well, I won't lie, it was a bit tough wrapping my head around it at first. Not because it's the most complex game in the world, more because I had never really played this sort of card game before. Even little things like why some cards have the name of the card on the top, and others on the side were tripping me up, and frustrating at first.

It turns out the answer to that is that for upgrade cards (which have the name on the side), apparently they're supposed to be placed beneath the card they're upgrading, with the name poking out from the side. I don't actually think that would be smart to do though, because a lot of upgrades need to be exhausted to use (you're supposed to rotate them (sleepy mode) to signify that), and even for heroes I've played before, I often still need to glance at the descriptions to remember exactly what they do, and that'd be a hassle if they were under something.

Thanks both to the game itself being very good, and “Will” having the patience to guide me along (due to his playing the game with his sons (one of whom is quite young)), I stuck with it, and have had a ton of fun playing it. Some of that is the nature of playing cooperative games with friends is almost always fun, but as a Marvel fan it's cool to just see how things are interpreted into a card game. I've played a bunch of different heroes at this point, gone through several campaigns, and am still being surprised at how well this game manages to convey things. Sometimes it's simple things, like Captain America's resolve to never give up coming through his “I can do this all day” ability to discard something and ready himself (I know a lot of heroes have ways to ready themselves, but Cap was one of the first ones I played, and still my favorite). Still, there's something about Cap, and his cards that just makes him feel reliable, and good in just about any situation, even if he's pretty straightforward to play compared to other heroes. But that just feels like Cap should.

Sometimes it's a bit more abstract, though. Starlord, who I initially had some trouble finding the right balance on, has what I call a Bubsy style of play. He can reduce the cost to play any card by up to three...at the cost of dealing himself an encounter card, which causes more problems for the heroes once they get to the villain phase. BUT, he also has a variety of cards that get extra effects or do more damage/thwart the more encounter cards are in front of him, so it becomes a real tight balancing act. Get more done at once, but have to deal with more problems later on. What could possibly go wrong? It's 100% what Starlord would say, and do.

Or Colossus, who is literally made out of metal, and with whom I managed to go two games in a row without taking a single point of damage. Just the night before I wrote this, I tried out Storm, whose mastery over weather could lead to some really fun swings when all the cards lined up right. Each different type of weather effects everyone, heroes and villains alike. Plus one to damage from Thunderstorm is great when it's us getting buffed, a little less so when it's the bad guys. Not that one damage is that big a deal in the grand scheme of things, but there's been plenty of times when one of us (mostly “Will,” for some reason) is down to one health. So that one extra damage could be the difference between life and death. Still, having all the cards line up just right so she can change the weather multiple times per round, and get a whole lot done was a lot of fun.

I could probably say something similar about every hero I've played thus far, and there's still a lot left I haven't tried (never mind ones like Miles and Gwen that I've only played once or twice, but would like to revisit). Not that I really want to try all of them, but I'm really impressed by the variety in this game. Both for the heroes, and the different scenarios. Fighting the four members of the Wrecking Crew at once is a very different feel than trying to keep The Collector from stealing too many of our cards.

Never mind the most fearsome and difficult of villains: Absorbing Man. His encounter in the Red Skull campaign is the one time our group has actually lost (yes, we managed to get through Galaxy's Most Wanted without losing, despite all three of us thinking we were done for during Ronan), so it's become a recurring joke that he's the strongest villain in Marvel.

I don't really have any particular interest in the deck building part of the game, but there's plenty of decks to be found online (or provided by “Will”), so I'm good there. It's fun, and I'm glad I gave it a chance. I was kinda expecting to bounce off it, but now it's given me another thing to do with friends, and that's always a good thing.

Thanks, “Will.”

4. Action Horror Remake of the Year: Resident Evil 4.

I think something in me changed when I played the Resident Evil 4 remake. It unlocked a piece of my brain, and left me in permanent “survival horror sicko mode.” But let me explain, because it was the original RE4 that introduced me to series.

See, when starting RE4 remake, like many games, it provides a selection of difficulties. And like many games, it includes brief recommendations for what type of gaymer each difficulty is suited for. Easy is for people who want to experience the story, and that makes sense. It's Normal and Hardcore that gave me pause. Normal, the game says, is for people who haven't played the original RE4, while Hardcore is for those who have.

This...left me puzzled. I loved RE4, but I never thought it was a particularly difficult game. I know game difficulties and specifically what makes them hard have changed a lot since that era, but RE4 felt pretty average in that regard. Or at least that's my memory of it, as I haven't played the game myself since 2005, when it was a new GameCube exclusive.

So, looking at the difficulty select screen, with Hardcore saying it was for people who played the original, I couldn't not pick it, so I started the game on Hardcore. Telling myself that if it was too hard, I'd just turn the difficulty down, not realizing that you can't change it without starting a new game.

And it was brutal. The first handful of hours of RE4 remake on Hardcore, I am not exaggerating when I say it was some of the most brutal, toughest, harshest fights I've had in any game I can remember. I died frequently, and when I survived, I was almost out of ammo, out of healing items, and limping along with Leon's health in the red.

Yet I persevered. Every time I felt my resolve slipping, I told myself I'd give it one or two more tries, then I'd scrape by the skin of my teeth, and keep venturing forward. Slowly upgrading Leon's health, and his weapons, along with my own skills. Getting a better feel for how the enemies react and work, timing for the parry (and what a great feeling nailing the knife parry is!), and when the best time to use what weapons are.

The new repeater crossbow, with being able to retrieve bolts is especially useful. Ammo management was never an issue in the original, Leon was carrying far more than he'd ever need through the bulk of that game. But here, every bullet feels precious, and being able to alleviate that by reusing shots felt all but necessary to proceed.

And it even plays into other things through the crafting, which has become a staple of Resident Evil since VII. Leon's knife can break (and be repaired at the Merchant), but is supplemented with disposable knives. Those break even faster, but one of them can be crafted into a few bolts for the crossbow. So the play ended up being using a knife until it almost broke, then craft it into bolts. Yes, they're reusable, but only if they hit somewhere Leon can reach, and sometimes in the heat of battle, I miss wildly, haha. Assuming they aren't attached with explosives, those do a ton of damage, but are obviously lost after use. So it makes sense to keep crafting more.

Even though I was still dying regularly, the deeper in I got, the more I found myself not struggling, but thriving. There was never any way that this remake could fully replicate what the original RE4 made people feel, but instead of that it gave me something new. It was dangerous, and brutal, and unforgiving, and it made every encounter feel like it could be the one that broke me. The one that made me turn tail, and start over again on Normal.

Things changed once I reached the Castle though. By this point I had enough upgrades, a large enough arsenal, and crucially the body armor, so suddenly the tide started to turn. Leon now felt pretty survivable (so long as I remembered to repair the armor at the Merchant), but Ashley would get knocked down after only a hit or two, so the game didn't suddenly become easy.

Still, I kept going. Eventually Leon got upgraded enough that dying became the outlier, rather than the norm, but it stayed challenging throughout. Bosses in particular were hard, but those are supposed to be. Eventually, I finished the game, and was utterly distraught to unlock Professional Mode, realizing that the game could get even harder.

I have not tried Professional Mode.

The experience of struggling through so much of this game on such a merciless setting...like I said, I think it changed something in me. It made me yearn for the challenge. Made me want to scrape by, giving it my all to really work for victory. Not that I haven't enjoyed plenty of games on hard before, but this felt different. This wasn't just, “oh this is harder,” this made it feel like a different sort of game than what I expected. And I have to say expected because outside of playing the demo months and months ago, I can't really compare it to Normal, because I just went straight for Hardcore.

Though, despite also playing Separate Ways on Hardcore, that felt different too. Part of what made Hardcore special was the resource management. Like I said earlier, the original RE4 doled out ammo and herbs like candy, I don't remember ever wanting for anything. The newer Resident Evils, both remake and wholly original, have pushed the series back to proper survival horror. VII and 2 remake in particular are full on survival horror, and even Village is for a lot of it, but that also gets very silly and over the top in parts, so it's kind of a mix.

RE4 remake on Hardcore, though, feels like it's found the perfect sweet spot. The original was just an action game with a horror aesthetic, and the occasional puzzle to solve. On Hardcore, there's enough enemies and action that it feels true to the original, but the resources are tight enough that it feels true to the survival horror spirit running through most of the modern entries. It is an incredibly thin tightrope to walk, and I'm sure for many people they wouldn't like it, but for me, it felt perfect. Everything I didn't realize I wanted from this remake, and I'm thrilled they pulled it off.

Back to Separate Ways. I played that on Hardcore too, yet I was finding so much ammo, and so many herbs that it felt like a very different, easier experience. I almost wonder if it was a bug, or an oversight, but it didn't ruin the DLC. While I still would have preferred if it was a bit harder, it was great overall. Definitely a must play for anyone who enjoyed the base game, and not that I like to equate value to time versus price, but it's shockingly long for $10. And good too! I'm just saying it's got a lot of meat on it, especially for being half the price of the Village DLC.

And, importantly, several sequences from the original game that aren't in the core part of the remake, are re-imagined in Separate Ways. I'm not gonna say what they are, just that I was very happy to see they weren't left behind in the annals of gaming history because they were “too silly.”

Suffice it to say, I had a tremendous time with RE4 remake. Like, nothing could ever truly replicate the feeling of playing that original game back in 2005. It was genuinely revolutionary in a way that this sort of game can't be now. Not with the budgets that games this big require, and how they need to be at least relatively safe to ensure they sell well enough. But it still manages to be what it needs to be, and I'm all the happier for it.

Plus, like I said, it changed something in me. That brutal challenge made me wish I had played the Dead Space remake on hard. It directly led to me playing Alan Wake II on hard. It's got me thinking I should branch out and play more proper survival horror games, including some outside the big budget space like these. People like Signalis, maybe I should give that a shot. Maybe it's finally time to try The Evil Within 1 (bear in mind how much I love 2), which I shied away from at the time partly because of technical issues, but also because it seemed too extreme on the survival horror scale.

Until then though, I continue to be happy with this new era of Resident Evil. Outside of the 3make (which I haven't played, just watched Abby's playthrough from before she left GB), from VII onward these games have all been great, easily my favorite era for the franchise. I just feel a little trepidatious about what's next. I don't think a 5 remake is a great idea, especially if it ends up being the 3 team that makes it. I'd rather these teams work on new games (which I assume is what the Village team is doing), but only time will tell.

Resident Evil 4 also wins:

• That dog of the year.
• Jacket of the year: Leon.
• Second best jacket of the year: Luis.
• Most nostalgic quips of the year.
• Hair strands of the year.
• Crows of the year.
• Most realistic walking of the year.
• Merchant of the year.
• 3D inventory screen of the year.
• Roundhouse kick of the year.
• Suplex of the year.
• Knife parrying of the year.
• Best use of a boat.
• Best eggs.
• Escort mission of the year.
• Save screen music of the year.
• Knife duel of the year.
• Wrecking ball of the year.
• Friendly helicopter of the year.
• Most 2005 objective of the year: Destroy an AA gun.
• Jetski of the year.
• Escape sequence of the year.
• Arcade mode of the year: Mercenaries Mode.
• Best game to think about while in a vaccine induced fever dream.

Old Game of the Year #3: Xenoblade Chronicles 3.

Xenoblade Chronicles 3 has one of the most interesting worlds, and best setups for a game that I have experienced in recent years, combined with a combat system that if I'm being frank, I would describe as a cacophonous mess. This specific pairing makes this game a lot harder for me to write about than it might seem. I could just give a recap of the basic premise, then say I don't want to spoil anything else, and end with, “isn't that interesting, maybe you should go play it yourself!” I could go deep in on spoiling the plot, but given I played the game months ago, I'd feel like I would need to go read a synopsis to make sure I wasn't forgetting anything important (I don't think so, but I have a bad habit of second guessing myself).

And I don't really want to spend time talking about the game part, because if I do it'll sound like I didn't like this game. The thing is though, I really did. I spent 130 hours in this world, with the main six characters, and all the side characters who came along for bits of the ride, and I was really invested in their journey. It's not as impressive on paper as the thirteen playable characters from 13 Sentinels, but I still think having a six member party, with every one of them getting a lot of time to be have as big of roles in the story as they do is impressive.

Yes, I know, Noah and Mio are the two main protagonists, but I'd feel bad sidelining the others. Eunie, Taion, Lanz, and Sena are all great too! Watching all their relationships with each other develop, watching all of them grow and change over the course of the game, that's really the reason why XC3 is one of my top “old games” of the year. No, I didn't love the combat, but it was fine. The biggest issue is that having seven party members active in battle at once turns it into an indecipherable mess. Made me finally realize why everything else limits parties to three or four. But the story and characters are so strong that I would have put up with a much worse combat system in order to see this through to the end.

I know XC3's expansion is supposed to be excellent as well, but I've yet to get around to it. Someday. Probably.

Of course I can't write about a Xenoblade Chronicles without mentioning the soundtrack, which is honestly one of the best I've ever heard. These games (or at least the first, I didn't play X or 2) always have incredible music, but I feel like they've topped themselves again. Part of it may be things like having a larger budget now that these games are at least mildly successful, but it also just feels more thematically tied to the game than what I remember from the first.

For example, Noah and Mio both play the flute, as part of a ritual to send dead soldiers on to whatever lies next after death (a subject very relevant to the story which I shall not spoil!). There's a lot of flute playing in the story, and that in itself is beautiful, in a deeply melancholic way. And, since the two main protagonists are flutists, there's a lot of prominent flute in the soundtrack.

Including this sick new version of “You will know our names,” which features ripping guitar alongside the flutes. I'm not kidding or exaggerating in the slightest when I say this is one of my favorite boss themes ever. The original in the first XC already was, but this one somehow tops even that.

I know a lot of this probably reads like I'm writing around the game, instead of about it, but that comes from a place of not wanting to spoil anything for anyone who hasn't played it yet. That, and perhaps a little sleep deprivation, as I feel like despite my best efforts to get sleep, I may be developing a mild insomnia. But don't worry about that, just know that Xenoblade Chronicles 3 is a great game. My favorite in the series (never mind that I haven't played half of them (yes I know X isn't directly connected like 2 is)), for sure. Even just listening to some of the music again while I write this is making me feel all emotional again, so yeah. Great game.

3. Best game to have waited about six months to play while they fixed technical issues: Star Wars: Jedi: Survivor.

Jedi Survivor is what I want from a sequel. It learns the right lessons from the previous game, improves on many things, and expands its scope and ambitions in smart ways. The combat feels better overall, and a lot more varied with the additional Lightsaber stances and greater enemy variety. The levels themselves are much larger, more interesting to explore, and return to. The one main planet Koboh is so big it almost feels like an open world. Not quite, but almost. Even the map is waaaaaay better than it was in Fallen Order!

The only problems being, while Jedi Survivor doubles down on what made the first game good, it also doubles down on some of its issues. Particularly technical ones. I very deliberately waited like six months before buying it, hoping they would update the game to at least make the performance mode relatively smooth, but at a point gave up, and just bought it when I saw a good enough deal. As luck would have it, the game got an update to fix performance mode that week. My timing could not have been better!

Even after the patch, it's still not perfect, and the primary way of addressing the framerate in performance mode was turning off the ray tracing, which makes sense. The issue with that being the game's screen space reflections are so bad that I genuinely think it would look better without reflections at all. They aren't prevalent enough to ruin the game by any means, but it is extremely distracting to be running along a stream of water, and see a Cal shaped hole in the reflection.

And that's a shame because I think this game looks kind of incredible, even in performance mode. The main characters have a ridiculous amount of detail in them, as do many of the environments. But more than any of that, the HDR is amazing. I know I'm a sucker for bright glowy lights, but this game does them really well. Not just bright lights, there's so much across the game that just looks fantastic, at least when it's working as intended.

Despite the combat being better on the whole, there's still one frustrating aspect to it. The Lightsaber stances are cool, but only two can be equipped at a time, out of five. It wouldn't be too bad if they could be swapped out in the pause screen, but nope. The only places they can be changed are at meditation spots (still working like Dark Souls bonfires), and workbenches (mostly used for customizing cosmetics on Cal's weapons, and BD-1).

A thing I think about a lot, even without this context, is the Devil May Cry series. Mostly DMC 5, but the other games too. I really do love stylish action games, and I know Jedi Survivor isn't trying to go all the way down that rabbit hole, but when a game has “pause for the right amount of time mid combo to do something different,” I can't help but think about DMC. Now, in DMC 3, they introduced styles for Dante, but they could only be changed at certain points too. Even back then, I think that really only encouraged doubling down on a single style, and probably either Swordmaster to get the most out of the melee weapons, or Trickster to have a dedicated dodge button.

In DMC 4, they realized how limiting that was, and changed it so Dante would instantly swap between his four main styles at any moment, even mid combo. DMC 4 has a lot of its own issues, particularly the Dante sections just being Nero's levels but in reverse, but this was a brilliant change that made Dante even more of a joy to play. Of course my love of DMC 5 (my game of the year 2019) is well known, and I'd still say Dante in 5 is the peak of stylish combat across any and all games I've played.

All this is to say, only having two fifths of the stances at a time is really limiting. And these are like, they don't even directly compare to Dante, because his styles only affect what the Circle button does. Probably a better comparison would be to his weapons, which he can cycle through all of mid combo as well. Cal's stances are meant to fill different roles in combat. Single blade is good for fighting single targets, and double bladed is great for dealing with larger groups. Dual wielding is super fast and a good mix of single target and group clearing, while saber and blaster has great range and single target damage. Finally, crossguard is slow and heavy, but does massive damage.

Obviously, there's overlap in them, so the game is built with this limitation in mind. But since each stance has its own skill tree to level up, the limitation encourages players to just focus on two, and ignore the rest. I ended up relying on blaster and dual wield the most, because those felt like a good reliable combination to get through most fights, and they were the ones I had the most fun with.

I just think it's a mistake to design five stances and restrain them within a system that forces people to only use two. Sure, it'd be more “complex” if people could switch between all of them at once, but I think that complexity would make the game better, not worse.

Anyway, as much as that limitation frustrates me still, I think Jedi Survivor is a really great game. I had tons of fun with the combat (again, me playing on hard because I'm a sicko (I played most of the original on hard too)), and exploring the worlds too. That said, I think I've gone on as far as I reasonably should about game systems, and should touch on the story.

Which is tricky, because I don't want to just do a spoiler zone plot synopsis. But I need to say something, because this game's ending has really stuck with me in ways that I truly, one hundred percent did not expect. There's one moment in particular that I almost want to say haunts me, and bear in mind I mean that as a positive when I say it.

Star Wars has long been about the “light” and the “dark,” both as metaphors, and as literal concepts. I tend to prefer when it's more metaphorical than literal, to be frank. As a media franchise, even when major entries (like the films) have “dark” or “bad” endings, they always have a lot of “hope” in there to balance it out.

Like, Empire Strikes Back, for example. Things end pretty badly for Luke and friends, but the ending still feels fairly upbeat and hopeful. I think part of that is because they all did their best, and made what felt like the right decisions in the moment, even if some of those were no win situations. Like, Luke was going to lose one way or the other whether he abandoned his training to go help his friends, or abandoned his friends to keep training with Yoda.

Jedi Survivor feels...different. Like Empire, it too is a “dark middle chapter,” but not in the way that Empire was. Empire ends with the main cast losing, but still ready to keep fighting. Jedi Survivor, on the other hand, ends with Cal winning, but not to sound cliched, at what cost? And I don't mean a cost in terms of people dying, that may or may not happen, play the game to find out. I mean a cost to Cal, and his giving in, and letting his darker side out.

I tried to avoid spoilers as best as I could, but I need to get in just one paragraph (maybe...five). Skip over it if you haven't played the game, this is the ending of the game.

SPOILERS.

It's a depressing ending, but I can't stop thinking about it. I'm sure that once Cal's story is done (presumably the next game is the finale of a trilogy) he will have come back around and be fully on the light side again, but at least for the next who knows how many years, I don't have an answer to that question. Maybe he could fully succumb to the dark side. Not become evil in the way that Ole Sheev is evil. More dark side in the sense that he wants to do good, but has given up the niceties of pretending to follow the “ideals” of the Jedi Order, and is crossing lines that he shouldn't. I think that would be interesting...but only time will tell.

Until then, I had a tremendous time with Jedi Survivor. I wish I could access all five stances in combat, but otherwise I think it does what a video game sequel should do, and is a big improvement over its predecessor. The story is a little depressing at the end, but in a good way, and I can't wait to see what happens next. I will say that if they kill off BD-1 I will genuinely cry. I love my little robo buddy to the ends of the galaxy and back.

Star Wars Jedi: Survivor also wins:

• Returning robo buddy of the year: BD-1.
• HDR of the year.
• Sliceable meat of the year.
• Unlockable facial hair of the year.
• Swooping robot/weapon customization of the year.
• Salt shaker of the year.
• Space toilet of the year.
• Alien critters of the year.
• Weirdo alien designs of the year.
• BD-Noculars of the year.
• Battle Droids/ “Roger Roger” of the year.
• Force powers of the year.
• Dueling of the year.
• Rideable friends (mounts) of the year.
• Hand washing of the year.
• Gay slug of the year.
• Fisherman of the year: Skoova Stev.
• Pistol twirling of the year.
• Most improved 3D map over its predecessor.
• Wet clothing of the year.
• DJ droid of the year.
• Most/best pettable alien critters.
• Yoshi of the year: Nekko.
• Fishtank of the year.
• Saloon of the year.
• Door technician of the year: Rick.
• Dark middle chapter/sad story of the year.
• Star Warsian soundtrack of the year.
• Turgle.

Old Game of the Year #2: Disco Elysium: The Final Cut.

Disco Elysium is one of those games where I was kind of intentionally putting off ever trying to play it. It's the sort of thing where the people who like it, really like it. And they really like people to know they like it, and it became one of those things where the Disco Elysium fans were a bit obnoxious, and at least in the realm of the people who talk about games on podcasts, and write about them on websites, the sort of already kind of obnoxious people whose opinions I don't always jive with, if that makes any sense.

That, plus my initial exposure to the game being the Quick Look Abby did years ago, it wasn't a particularly flattering first impression of the game, so it wasn't until very recently that I actually got around to playing it. Funnily enough, apparently Abby didn't get around to a full playthrough until 2023 either.

All this preamble is to say that my expectations of what I thought this game would be like were...not entirely wrong, but pretty wrong. There are absolutely still some things about this game that are obnoxious. There were some moments where I rolled my eyes, and some bits where I found myself buttoning through the long paragraphs of text rather than waiting for the voice acting to finish (particularly the dream sequences when the Limbic System and Lizard Brain just keep going on and on and on). There are still dialog choices that read like things no actual human being would ever say, and more than a few that are so racist, sexist, or whatever else-ist that it just makes me wonder what kind of person would ever want to pick them?

However, I had a realization very early in Disco Elysium about what this game actually is, or rather, a style of play that would make it click for me, and let me have a really great time with it. And that's the ability to play it as a buddy comedy where Kim Kitsuragi is the straight man (despite being a queer icon), and Harry is the wacky weird one. Kim is just here to solve a murder, but Harry is more interested in what really matters. Like cryptids! Or investigating if a particular building is cursed. Perhaps helping a bunch of weirdos turn a church into a nightclub named “Disco Elysium.” Of course communism! Specifically being the catalyst to bring it back.

The fact that Disco Elysium has as strong, and consistent a sense of humor as it does really did completely change my concept of what this game is. Listening to the podcasters of the world, it's just a serious game about serious topics. But playing it, I was finding ridiculous new things to focus on instead of the murder case almost the whole way through.

Even that murder case though, is quite good! And the game really covers just about everything you would want to investigate with a fictional murder. The horribly rotted body itself, looking for clues around the world, talking to witnesses with varying levels of willingness to cooperate, etc. And, I really cannot overemphasize that this game truly does have as many different ways to go about things, or clues and bits of dialog that impact other things as it's been made out to.

Disco Elysium has a compelling enough story and world that it could have worked as just a linear adventure game, but it's also one of the coolest RPGs I've played...ever? If I'm being truly honest, I actually don't like RPG mechanics in a lot of games. I feel like either they let you do basically anything, because the game is easy enough that nothing really matters, so the game has to be designed generically to allow for anything, or they're difficult enough that really the optimal way to play is to look up builds online. But then, what's the point of me role playing if I'm just using a template someone else created?

That's why for combat in games, I tend to prefer ones that are highly focused on a specific style of play. As an example, in terms of just the pure combat and nothing else, Sekiro is my favorite From Software game, because it is so highly focused on one style of play. The game is built around that, so I need to actively engage with every aspect of it. Contrast that with Elden Ring, which allows for a myriad different ways to play, but none of them feel quite as good to me as Sekiro, even if I like Elden Ring as a whole much more (because of the world, story, etc).

Where Disco Elysium fits into this, is that while it is an RPG, there's no combat. Not in the traditional sense, at least (there's one part that could sort of be considered a fight, but I'm not getting into that). There's a slew of different...skills, for lack of a better word, to put points into, and there are lots of skill checks along the way that might have little to no effect on anything important, or they might completely change the course of the story.

But it's not just skill checks, because these aren't just skills. They're...parts of Harry's personality? So like, for example, the higher Harry's Empathy, the easier it is for him to empathize with people. Conversely, the higher his Authority, the more likely he is to see the world through the eyes of a fascist, and instead of empathizing with someone who made a mistake and regrets it, he might want to crack down and punish them for it. It's not just fairly straightforward concepts like that, some of them get really abstract and out there.

Inland Empire, which I ended up with at ten by the end of the game (including a plus one from a bird necklace I got from Lena), is all about connecting with the abstract, the weird, and the inexplicable. And I will say, playing the game as someone obsessed with cryptids, having a high Inland Empire was pretty good at the end, but I will not spoil why. I will say though, and the game kind of gets at this with its in game descriptions, but having high stats isn't always better. Yes, I was more in tune with the weird, but that's not always helpful when trying to do the on the ground legwork of solving a real murder.

Another example, late in the game when my quest to restart communism came into being. Part of it was that, somehow, my Rhetoric skill decided it was going to sniff out fellow communists. According to the voice of Rhetoric in Harry's head, that meant literally smelling them with his nose. BUT, because I also had high Perception (thanks to obsessing about an invisible bird), Perception kept butting in to say no, actually, Harry would not be literally smelling the concept of communism. So, any time Rhetoric got a whiff of a communist, Perception would butt in, and describe actual, physical scents instead.

First off, the way this game conveys having different thoughts in Harry's head fighting against each other is really cool. It's silly, and at times funny, but I've literally never played another game that did something like this. Then, factoring in that I only got this to happen because of both where my stats were at (from points spent and bonuses from clothing), and choices consciously made throughout the game, it truly is one of a kind. No other game really made me feel like I was “playing a role” more than Disco Elysium.

And from talking about the game with a friend after finishing it, I just know there's still so much more in there that I didn't see because I didn't have the stats, or didn't take the time to do something, or just made one choice instead of another.

Now, don't get me wrong, this stuff can be frustrating too. Stats from clothing are important, and it's cumbersome to be equipping and unequipping stuff just to get a bonus to an invisible dice roll. It can be beyond frustrating when some of these rolls fail, and things go really wrong. Like, I don't mind failing if it's something like Harry being unable to break down a door because I didn't put points into physical strength. But I do mind if I fail a check about a pinball machine, and then the game gives me only a single dialog option, and it's racist against my friend Kim. That's a case where I 100% save scummed to not be racist.

Speaking of, Kim Kitsuragi is the best. Genuinely, I know I just lathered on the praise for this game's systems, which would still be there even if Kim wasn't, but he really elevates and makes this game work. Or rather, makes the story work. He's really the perfect partner for Harry, dry when he needs to be, helpful when help is needed, and with the patience of a saint. Also a hilarious impatience for things like cryptids, AND YET, still willing to go along with it after enough prodding.

One of my favorite bits in the game is when Lena starts talking about cryptids, and Kim tries to get Harry to move along. “Just one more,” Harry asks Kim, and he begrudgingly allows just “one more.” But as any gaymer will say, one more never means one more, and Kim gives in to that too, and lets Harry ask about all the cryptids. His exasperation at this is just perfect. I love it.

Since I played The Final Cut, which has full voice acting, I do want to praise that as well. Some of the bits of Harry's internal thoughts were maybe a smidge slow (though I have to praise Lenval Brown for doing all of them), but all the spoken dialog, again, elevates the game. Kim's actor (Jullian Champenois) in particular, is key to that character, and the game as a whole working.

Disco Elysium is the perfect example of how glad I can be to have my expectations be wrong. I genuinely thought I was going to bounce off the game, and say it wasn't for me. Instead, it was one of my favorite experiences of the year. Now, to be clear, I'm still glad I waited, because I know I would not have liked it as much without the voice acting. I have no idea what else was changed, or added with The Final Cut, but I'm a strong believer that good voice acting breathes new life into good writing, and it absolutely does so here.

Plus, there's a froggy visor. It gives a bonus to perception. What's not to like?

2. Story of the year: Marvel's Spider-Man 2.

As a note, I don't really spoiltoo much, but if anyone (Callie) is reading this and wants to go into the game fresh, just skip this. You know I love the game, that's good enough, haha.

What can I say? Despite it all, after all these years, I'm still a sucker for Spider-Man. And also his partner in crime (fighting), Spider-Man. In all seriousness though, a thing I have thought about a lot is the supposed “superhero fatigue” that is brought up if not any time a new superhero thing is out, then at least for the MCU, and I feel like I have a...slightly more nuanced take on this, particularly in light of how things like Spider-Man 2 still manage to receive acclaim, and sell very well.

People aren't fatigued by superheroes, the MCU has just not been good in recent years. People are tired of the MCU, not superheroes in general. But since I don't want this to devolve into any more about the MCU than this (particularly because I haven't seen any from the last year or so (I've heard GotG 3 is very good)), how about instead I get to why I loved Spider-Man 2 so much?

Recently a couple friends and I were talking about Marvel in general, and one was a little hesitant to say Spider-Man was her favorite superhero when asked, because he's a “kinda boring answer” because he's so popular. I mean, he's my favorite superhero too, which is probably not the answer I would have given as a kid. I would've said Batman back then, but as much as Batman stories can still be enjoyable, there's just something about Spider-Man that only becomes more relatable the older I get.

It's because just like me, Spider-Man's life is also a complete mess that he has no control over. Insomniac gets that, gets that no matter what he tries to do, he always spreads himself too thin, and eventually something gives. That's just his charm, though, he always puts others ahead of himself, because he'd rather forget to pay the bill for his apartment and get thrown out than risk his friends, family, or any average person on the street he doesn't know getting hurt.

That's part of what makes the Symbiote Suit storyline compelling, because it asks the question, “What if Peter Parker was selfish?” Turns out, it isn't pretty when that great power doesn't have great responsibility holding it in check. I don't just mean literally in the sense of doing more property damage when saving the city, or beating up Kraven's thugs extra hard during fights.

This is the time to stop reading if you didn't heed my previous SPOILER warnings.

This is something I've gone back and forth on a lot in the couple months since I've played the game, and wondered how much of it is intentional or not. If I have any criticism to lay against Spider-Man 2, it's that despite ostensibly being about two Spider-Men, this is a story about Peter Parker and the Symbiote Suit. Miles is there too, he has a lot of screen time, certainly more than the first game (and considering how much longer this one is, possibly more literal hours than his solo game?), but at times he feels like he's there more out of obligation than feeling critical to the story.

He has his own B Plot to the Symbiote Suit's A Plot, and it's tied in to an extent, but it still feels tacked on. His primary motivation is he wants to find Martin Li, and...well he tells himself he doesn't want revenge, but does he believe that, or is he just saying that to convince his friends, and himself that he's better than that? Now, on paper this is well and good, and I do think it concludes well once Miles does eventually get to Li.

The only problem is...he spends the majority of the game just saying, “I gotta find Li,” and never makes any real progress on that front, until he suddenly is face to face with Li. And it's a shame, because the Insomniac incarnation of Miles has grown into my favorite over the years (I say as someone who doesn't actually read the comics), and I think Nadji Jeter's performance is as great as ever (just like the rest of the cast). Every moment with Miles and his friends and mother is great, those don't feel shoehorned in.

Though to be fair, and this is a bit more meaningful of a statement, but I feel like Insomniac's version of Peter grown into my favorite version of that character too. Unlike Miles, who didn't come into being until after Disney bought Marvel, I grew up with Peter Parker as Spider-Man. Even if my first Spider-Man was that 90s cartoon that doesn't hold up as well as I wish it did (it's not bad, just average). A lot of it is that Yuri Lowenthal, despite being in hundreds of different roles across video games and anime dubs, still manages to sound fresh, and put his all into the role.

Anyway, back to this game. While Miles is balancing his personal life with still being a relatively new Spider-Man, Peter's plate is fuller than ever. Juggling the loss of yet another job (due directly to his abandoning it to save the city), the impending foreclosure of the truly awful mortgage on Aunt May's house (and the fear of losing one of the last ties to her he has left), trying to support MJ while she's in the midst of her own existential crisis about her perceived failures in life, being a mentor to Miles (who's trying to apply for college, just putting off writing his application letter), and of course, being Spider-Man.

All this, everything feeling like it's about to spiral fully out of control, when suddenly Peter's old friend Harry returns out of the blue, not just here as a friend, but with the answers to most of Peter's problems. Come work with Harry, be a scientist, help make the world a better place. Get a huge paycheck, never have to worry about money again. And hey, let Miles take over as primary Spider-Man, he's ready, right?

Even before the Symbiote Suit, once Harry enters the picture, Peter starts ignoring Miles. Frequently Miles calls Peter, asking for some sort of advice, only to get hung up on because Harry is calling, and Peter will, “get right back to you,” despite never actually calling Miles back. And it hurts, because I'm sure we've all been on both sides of that. Both been the friend blown off because someone else that we perceive as that person caring more about is taking up more of their time, or blowing someone off not because we don't care, but because we want to catch back up with someone we haven't seen in years.

It only gets worse and worse as the Symbiote Suit brings out all the worst parts of Peter, making him quick to snap at the littlest thing, more and more violent, and angry. Selflessness only turns into selfishness as he starts hurting everyone around him, and he refuses to see it until it's all but too late. It's nothing new, just told with the great writing and acting I expect from Insomniac's Marvel games, so it's as great as ever. Honestly, this part of the story is so good, and so propulsive that at times it's almost too good, if that makes any sense?

So, this is an open world game, with plenty of side things to do. Both more generic things, like clearing out Kraven hunter hidey-holes, and more bespoke ones with side stories, both self contained, and some spread across a series of missions. Generally speaking, I'm the sort of person that likes to do a lot of side stuff before advancing the story in games, partly because in older games, it wasn't always clear if I would even have the chance to go back and do that stuff at all. Of course, these days this really isn't a concern for most games, because developers have gotten the message, and usually let people go back and mop everything up, even if it doesn't always make narrative sense to do so.

Spider-Man 2, though, especially in the back half, the story moves at such a fast pace, and I was so drawn into it, that at a point I basically stopped doing side stuff, because I needed to keep moving forward, and seeing what was going to happen next. I know I spent more time talking about the story than I intended to, but trust me, that's only scratching the surface.

I barely even mentioned Kraven (far more interesting and compelling villain than I ever thought he could be!), and haven't even gotten to all nineteen inches of Venom himself. I spent the bulk of the game trying to figure out who was going to become Venom when all was said and done, and well, all I will say is that my main guess was actually wrong! Not that who it is was surprised in the end, but just fun that I was misled, whether by my own doing, or the game's.

Anyway, I got (somewhat fittingly, sadly) distracted from the point I was trying to make about Miles. Peter spends the bulk of the game ignoring Miles, and I can't help but wonder if that feeling of Miles being secondary to the game as a whole is intentional to go along with that, or not. Is the Martin Li stuff just shoehorned in because they knew they had to give Miles something to do, especially after his solo game was so well received (I still think that game has the best overall story of the three, as much as I like all of them)? Or did they just do a really good job of making me feel how Miles felt?

I dunno! They certainly didn't skimp out on making him fun to play, because even with Peter's fancy new Symbiote Powers, Miles is still the one I like playing more. Yes, the invisibility during stealth is handy (arguably too strong), but Miles' electric sparking Venom powers (apparently Venom as electricity pre-dates Venom the Symbiote man!) are still more fun to use. Otherwise the two play identically, even if they have some different animations while swinging and fighting.

I've probably already spent too much time writing about a game that could honestly be summed up as, “They made a third one of these, and it's still great.” I could spend more time writing about how the load times somehow feel even faster than ever (also some real good use of that Ratchet & Clank tech in that one Miles mission), I could write about how some side missions have different dialog depending on which Spider-Man is used. I could write about that one side mission involving pigeons, a certain character from the first game, and how it made me tear up a little bit. I could write about how the combat on the whole is better than ever, the set pieces bigger and better than ever, or even the weird nonsense in this game that only the sickest of sickos would include in a multi-hundred million dollar production. They reference BIG WHEEL, for crying out loud! And that's not even the obscurest, weirdest thing they include!

Really though, it all comes back to how this started. I love Spider-Man, and over the last handful of years, I've grown to love Spider-Man too. Listen, if the game can refer to both of them interchangeably like that, I can too! I think this game is fantastic, and I think it still would be even if I hadn't been a Spider-Fan since I was a kid. Honestly, if it wasn't for a certain other game, this would have easily been my game of the year this year. For a while I considered trying to gin up some extra special thing I could give that other game so I could technically say Spider-Man 2 was my game of the year, but at the end of the day, the only problem here is that there's too many good games, and that's about as good a problem as anyone can ask for.

I couldn't be more excited for what is in store for this series, even as bummed as I am about the employees at Insomniac affected by the leaks, specifically about their personal information. Like, the games industry is generally too secretive for its own good, so whatever about the games leaking. But only an awful person would intentionally leak personal information about the people working on the games. That sucks, and I can only hope that the people affected aren't affected too badly.

Marvel's Spider-Man 2 also wins:

• Most propulsive story of the year.
• “Grappling hooks” of the year.
• Swinging of the year.
• Most realistic swinging physics of the year (I can't believe I forgot to write about how you can dial down the swinging assist, and turn on fall damage so it's possible to accidentally die by swinging poorly, which I did at least once!).
• Intro of the year.
• Dynamic Duo of the year.
• Banter of the year.
• Quips of the year.
• Funniest game of the year.
• Traversal of the year.
• Superheroes who least have their lives together of the year.
• College application of the year.
• Financially troubled character(s) of the year.
• Unkempt house of the year.
• Bike riding of the year.
• Rick Roll of the year.
• Setpieces of the year.
• Sand of the year.
• Haptics and trigger use of the year.
• Photo mode of the year.
• Traced rays of the year (at least on consoles).
• Motion controls of the year (I don't even remember what these are, but I have it written down in my notes, haha).
• Pedestrian interactions of the year.
• Heroic soundtrack of the year.
• End credits rap of the year.
• Mecha-Bees of the year.
• Bee simulator of the year.
• Fish feeding of the year.
• Best use of REDACTED.
• Most heartfelt game of the year.
• Amusement park of the year.
• BIG WHEEL of the year.
• Only game brave enough to reference Dazzler of the year.
• High res photos of real life animals of the year.
• Duo takedowns of the year (again I cannot believe I forgot to mention that you can just run into the other Spider-Man, and other crime fighters in the city when getting into fights).
• 0451 of the year.
• “The Quiet Man” sequence of the year.
• Best petting a cat that's holding a Spider-Man toy.
• Best petting a tiger of the year.
• Symbiote of the year.
• Todd of the year (I'm glad that I remembered this meant Tony Todd, because at first looking at my notes I thought I meant McFarlane, the co-creator of Venom (as opposed to Tony who did the excellent voice)).
• Pettable robot dog of the year.
• Fastest character switching/fast travel of the year.

Old Game of the Year #1: Unsighted.

Considering I already wrote a full blog on this game, I'll try to keep this one relatively short.

When I think about Unsighted now, there's a few different things that stick out in my mind. Some of them are just related to the core game play, which was really great. I still think that so far as games (at least partly) inspired by the old style of overhead Zelda games go, this is easily the best one I've played. Largely that's because Unsighted isn't afraid to do something different, as opposed to just trying to ape Zelda.

But really, beyond the “play” part of game play, it's still the world, the characters, and that depressingly oppressive atmosphere that stuck with me. That core part of the design that puts everything, and everyone on a timer, even just thinking about it now makes my stomach churn. It's terrible, it's frightening, it's horrible; I wish I had been brave enough to play the whole game with it on.

And believe me, I still remember how I felt upon learning that the reason for the timers was because the devs loved Pikmin when they were kids, and not because it was just a big metaphor for the modern queer experience of watching the world, and their friends slowly fade away as everything gets worse and worse and worse. It can still be both!

Again, go read that full blog for longer thoughts, just know that of all the non-2023 games I played (for the first time) in 2023, this is the one that stuck with me the most. I mean, maybe if I had played Disco Elysium earlier in the year, that might have been the top old game, but that one is recent enough in mind that I felt it was better to give the Number 1 to Unsighted. As meaningless as these awards are (I'm sure the devs will never even know), it also feels good to award a game made by a duo of trans women. I don't play or write about enough games made by tiny teams, or enough that are explicitly and proudly queer, and Unsighted is both.

1. 2023 Moosies Video Game of the Year: The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom.

I don't even know what more I can say about this game at this point. What else can I say about the game I put over two hundred hours into, over the course of two months? What more can I say about a game that I then proceeded to spend another month writing about? A game that even while playing it, I had the realization that this wasn't just a special game, this was becoming my new favorite game?

I guess I can say that my feelings haven't changed. I can say that I still get chills when I listen to specific songs from it. I still think about how it feels to soar between the skylands, far above Hyrule's surface. That feeling of endless freedom, at least so long as the batteries powering the rickety cobbled together nonsense I'm flying hold out, haha. Sky stretching out forever, and the vast lands down below. I still think about how seamlessly Link can dive down to the ground, and even below it to the pitch black Depths beneath the surface.

This is perhaps the most ridiculous, out there, and full of myself thought I've ever had about a game, but... I feel like playing Tears of the Kingdom is the closest to a genuinely religious moment I've ever experienced. What does that even mean?? I don't know! But playing this game affected me...spiritually? It sounds more and more ridiculous the more I try to understand it myself, but it didn't just evoke the normal feelings and emotions that I get from video games, or any piece of fiction.

I guess what I'm trying to get at is that even as someone who has written so much, so many times about video games over the years, I'm at a loss for the words to get across what this game really, truly means to me. It isn't perfect by any stretch, but it is the closest to the metaphorical, metaphysical “ideal” of whatever the “perfect video game” would be, at least that I've ever played. It is the perfect mix of player expression through open ended mechanics, and of more focused level design. It is the mountaintop, that which games have been striving to achieve for decades, somehow made manifest and real, and somehow it works.

I should just stop, this is turning into nonsense, haha. Go back and read my previous...four blogs on Tears of the Kingdom if you want more concrete thoughts on mechanics, or stories about specific adventures I had playing it. I've said what I can without it just turning into a manifesto on what the “Platonic Ideal” of a Video Game is, and I'm sorry that I'm ending this year's Moosies on such a weird note.

Just know that this is only so weird because I already wrote out every normal word I had about the game months ago. This is what happens when a game affects me so strongly it works its way through the normal, outer layers of my brain, and into the weirder, deeper parts. If there is a strongest possible praise I can give a game, it's that I love it so deeply and dearly that I exhausted every possible word I could write about it, and yet I still kept writing. Feeling compelled to write impossible words about it.

Tears of the Kingdom is not only my Game of the Year 2023, it is my favorite game that I've ever played. And I genuinely also think the greatest game ever made. I can only hope to one day again find another game that makes me feel this way.

Oh, and as a few more normal words, I am disappointed that there's no DLC coming, and that Aonuma made it pretty clear that whatever is next for Zelda as a franchise is another new incarnation of the world (ie, rebooting again), rather than a continuation of this one and these characters. I don't think they could have pulled off a third game set in this Hyrule, but I still think my idea of Link, Zelda, and friends sailing off across the sea to whatever lies beyond would have been cool. But alas, instead we'll get a new version of Hyrule, and Link will have to save the princess once again.

I'll play it.

We'll see if it makes me feel this way again.

The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom also wins:

• Hideo Kojima presents the Liquid Ocelot Award for best transplanted possessed arm of the year.
• Late Title Card of the Year.
• Ultrahand.
• Crafting/fusing/building of the year.
• Best hair of the year: Link's flowing mane.
• Best music of the year.
• Best fashion of the year
• Most “enviable gender” of the year/best game to live gender non-conforming vicariously (my gender is nonbinary but I wish it was androgynous twink with a cool messed up arm and long flowing hair who wears a skirt (this is something I wish Nintendo would embrace but I know they never will)).
• Skylands of the year.
• Robot friends of the year.
• Adventuring of the year.
• Cooking of the year.
• Tutorial Island of the year.
• Gliding of the year.
• Critters of the year.
• Best hijinks.
• Best game to try something really dumb and have it either work perfectly or fail hilariously.
• Ramp building of the year.
• Underworld of the year.
• Auto-build of the year.
• Best game to watch clips of online.
• Wile E. Coyote Simulator of the year.
• Cutest (and sadly least pettable) dogs.
• Gloomiest game of the year.
• Ambient sounds of the year.
• JoJo's game of the year.
• Best boss fights.
• Three headed dragons of the year: Gleeoks.
• Cubic constructs of the year: Flux Constructs.
• Moose of the year.
• Best game in which to watch different enemy types fight each other.
• Super Mario Sunshine/Splatoon of the year.
• Rudest house theft of the year (I'm STILL mad that Zelda stole Link's house!).
• Coziest custom house of the year.
• Jenga of the year.
• Sword delivery method of the year: REDACTED.
• Mech game of the year.
• Rideable Naruto-running robot buddy of the year: Mineru.
• Final boss of the year.

Okay, closing words, I swear I'll be quick. This was finally the year when the Moosies went too far, when I went too far, and this thing is too bigh for its own good. It turns out that most of the time I didn't write about a game on its own because I thought I didn't have anything to say about it, I was wrong, because clearly I did!

I'm going to make an honest, genuine effort to write more regularly IF ONLY to get The Moosies back under control next time. We'll see if I stick to it!

As always, thank you if you read any of either parts of the Moosies this year, and thank you if you read anything else I've written. Also sorry if you read all of it, haha.

It's a pleasure to open the year up wide with a new Moosies! Thanks for the exhaustive list of words, and for bearing some vulnerable thoughts about being creative for us to read. No matter the direction, no matter the style, and clearly - no matter how many words it is, I will be back here next year to read more. ❤

Alan Wake II is incredible. It was the only game this year that kept my attention until the end (well also Diablo 4 but that game isn't very good and is more that I am addicted to ARPGs), in a time where my brain no longer functions correctly and I lose focus/interest in things that are great for really no reason. Like sometimes tuning on the PS5 is just too much, or thinking about going through the intro of the game is too taxing...or I am just to tired to play anything that requires paying attention.

Here are a list of games I have that I did not come close to finishing despite greatly enjoying all of them:

Final Fantasy 16, Tears of the Kingdom, Fire Emblem Engage, Baldur's Gate 3, Armored Core 6, Dead Island 2 (actually am really close to finishing this one), Starfield, probably a few I'm forgetting. I never purchased Jedi Survivor or Spiderman 2 even though I want to play them because I just couldn't justify buying them when I have 20 other games to play. I still haven't finished God of War Ragnarok or Horizon Zero Dawn 2. I'm still working on Cyberpunk 2077. But here I am playing Magic the Gathering and Clash Royale...

Awesome GOTY as always!

Wow “Will” sounds like a great guy!

You can bet your buns I read all of it, and I'd do it again! This is a threat do not test me
Stellar writing, a propulsive read!

Re: LAD (from Part 1) — I was initially a bit dissapointed they couldn't let our boy rest, but Erased was a fun romp, and hopefully they do successfully cash those big story checks.

Erudite exploration of the clever design in Marvel Champions - how they introduce character and flavor into mechanics - makes my brain tingle pleasantly. Haven't actually played card or tabletop games of that ilk, but really enjoy reading about it.