My 2021 Games Ranked By Science
I'm going to put every game I play this year ranked from first to last. I am using the scientific method. Or my stupid opinions, either way.
List items
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A fun, colourful and beautiful JRPG that was... much longer than I expected. But its epic length ends up being well warranted. Characters and enemies have awesome designs by Akira Toriyama of Dragon Ball fame. I honestly get a lot of enjoyment in seeing elements that remind me of certain characters and designs from DBZ. Of course, I think they're appealing even without that type of appreciation. Unfortunately the environments in general don't look as good, because this re-release is based on the Switch version. But that's okay because it's a good time, even if it seems very traditional for a JRPG. It helped that I haven't played one of those in a while. But really it just does all those traditional JRPG things extremely well with a high degree of polish and charm. It being so fun and colourful was a breath of fresh air for me, as someone who gravitates towards realistic and gritty games. Finally, for all the criticism the original soundtrack received, this orchestral version is fantastic, even if the overworld music is repetitive. Every time I loaded up the game I had to listen to the entire title screen music track for how awesome it is, and the rest follows in that path.
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This is very similar to the first one - an elegant wargame that distills the challenges of weather, supply and sharp timetables into an accessible framework, while straddling the line between puzzle and simulation. It also improves on almost every aspect of the first one, with more depth, a better difficulty curve, and more cool alternate history scenarios. I spent 80 hours going through the campaign and took the trouble of getting a gold medal in every scenario, and I loved doing it.
For anyone new to the wargame genre I might recommend trying the first one, though, since that one's a bit less complicated. I found this one could get a bit cumbersome because they introduce different command posts for different national armies, which might be a bit too much for a first timer. But as it is, it's a great ramp up from the first one.
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A AAA third-person shooter take on the roguelite genre. Was unsure about whether I'd enjoy yet another from this genre right now, but it went on sale and I really wanted a nice PS5 exclusive. Thankfully enough is fresh here to make the genre tropes enjoyable. Kinda reminds me of Nier Automata with its third person shooter bullet hell gameplay. Does a good job building a very strange universe and doling out interesting loot and upgrades to draw you into another run.
On the other hand, the articles criticizing the game for lacking a save and quit feature are absolutely right. A good run can easily take 3 or 4 hours if you go far. And even if you can get shortcuts, obviously you want to scour each floor to get enough powerups to handle the later levels. Apparently you can put your console in rest mode as a workaround, but I never tried it as I didn't really trust it, and I usually give myself a lot of time to get through a run. Even if I have the time it can really drag, though. I already had this game hard crash my PS5 so I'm not that positive on using rest mode with it, but I'll probably end up having to try it out. There also isn't a fix coming anytime soon, as an article revealed they don't have a way to square a save and quit with their design philosophy. Well ok then.
So yeah, the marathon sessions can drag, and yet I still feel compelled to give it another run each time because it's still a great game. Every run I make some good progress somehow, whether reaching a new level, getting crucial upgrades, beating a boss, getting a new weapon, learning something strange about the story and on and on. It feels like a big commitment but I think I'm in it for the long haul.
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A cyberpunk ARPG dual-stick shooter that distinguishes itself with fantastic style and worldbuilding. Graphically, walking through the cities is a real Bladerunner-esque treat. The world definitely borrows much from established cyberpunk and sci-fi but puts enough of a twist that it's genuinely fascinating to learn about this bizarre alien techno dystopia, whether through lore text dumps or even through random conversations by strangers on the street. For me, this is what truly set it apart.
Then the action part is good too. It has a cover system that always feels a bit awkward, since you're not really sticking to cover per se. But the guns feel and sound great which goes some way to making it more fun. You end up unlocking some pretty crazy weapons that help in this regard. I wish it took a bit more from Diablo et al and used procedural loot, whereas you really just find one type of weapon and upgrade its damage. A lot of unlockable abilities also weren't too interesting. I would say the action is more than competent, but doesn't really reach the heights of a Diablo 2 or 3.
But that's ok because the world pushes this over the edge to make it a great experience.
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A top down shooter with a pretty high difficulty curve, I really loved this game for about 30 hours, so it was well worth the admission. It was that type of addiction where I could scarcely stop thinking about how awesome it was when I wasn't playing it. You play as one soldier in an army and gradually develop more tactical decisions as you level up, but death comes quickly. Fast respawns help you get the hang of it, and the AI on both sides really help make battles fun and get you to make interesting tactical decisions.
Yet I really expected to keep loving it longer, especially with two WW2 campaigns. Unfortunately my interest fell steeply when my attempt at the WW2 Pacific campaign ran into some pretty frustrating balance issues. And every campaign playthrough happens on the same maps, with some variation in spawns, but not enough to get me playing through fully another time. Maybe I'll return, but I thought this game would have a longer runway for me.
It feels like a similar issue with Brigador, where the game's core combat and mechanics are really amazing and addictive, yet the lack of more maps and modes, or some sort of interesting variations, make the game wear out faster than it could. Obviously 30 hours of fun is great value, but with some more good content I could see myself enjoying so much more time with it. Perhaps I will attempt some of the WW2 content again sometime.
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It's just a stupid digital hockey card trading app, and yet it single handedly got me back into watching hockey. During the playoffs it was practically the only "game" I was playing. The daily fantasy contests use cards and ended up being a fun way to learn about each team and follow the games, especially in the playoffs. And while I thought digital cards were a pretty dumb concept verging on a scam, I found that it actually has a lot of advantages over physical cards in terms of the aforementioned contests, free to cheap entry prices (especially compared to current highly inflated physical card prices), new daily cards and weekly sets and having lots of people to trade with at all times. Also, apparently these can hold some value on ebay if you really want to sell them, though I'm not doing it for that. It also wouldn't be long term considering these aren't NFTs (yet...) and live as long as the app. But really, I just enjoy collecting cards and finishing sets. It's not like I would get anything of lasting value if I spent the same minimal budget on physical cards, that's for sure. The daily missions, collecting and trading ending up having an appeal kind of like an idle game, or at least what idle games seem to be since I don't play those. But it's just the satisfaction of continual accumulation.
All in all it's kind of surprisingly enjoyable and I appreciate it for getting me back into an old hobby.
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This basically perfected what Duke Nukem achieved with the Build Engine and it was a joy to play. Love the concept of making a modern game in a super old engine, and this shows how well it can work.
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A great, elegant wargame-ish puzzle game. Not too fiddly, and they actually make dealing with supply issues fun, and critical.
Didn't entirely "beat" the campaign because it has a weird system where "victory" actually ends the game because it wasn't a good enough victory... so why call it victory? I would replay the missions to get them perfect but Unity of Command 2 looks like such a cool sequel I'd rather move onto that. Perhaps I'll return to this one, and the expansions, after that. But really, I think the campaign system could be different - instead of requiring perfect replays (where you can play for half an hour and barely miss out on capturing that last city due to a bad die roll), have the degree of victory influence the next mission(s). (And it turns out the next game basically does that.)
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Fun fps "metroidvania" with lots of puzzles. I put that in quotes because I don't know if this really qualifies, but whatever, it a 1st person exploration/ puzzle game with some areas gated by abilities. It's got some light combat but it's only barely serviceable and not really the draw. The exploration and puzzle elements are good to great. It's very impressive that basically one person made it. It all takes place in a literal sandbox so it's got that cool Levelord-style charm and doesn't take itself too seriously. Sometimes to a fault, but whatever. There's lots of good value here in terms of a money to time ratio, if you care about that. DLC is alright too.
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Never played through the whole thing before, but the gameplay and level design holds very up well, much like Doom. Actually, the Build Engine was so impressive to me in comparison to Doom and its ilk that I decided to play all the other big games made with it. I like the straightforward old school shooting and fake 3d environments (pre-Quake), but also the Build graphics were good enough that they could design recognizable urban environments and not just the weird abstract environments of Doom et al. Anyway, this release also includes a nifty feature that allows rewinding time after death. It also has new levels, including one at a weed dispensary, because of course it does.
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I got a good 10 hours out of it playing the campaign and some procedural freelance missions. The tank controls get some getting used, to but its fun stomping around trying out different weapons and laying waste to entire cities. Cool style and lore too. The campaign has a great variety of mechs, city layouts and objectives, so that was the real draw here.
Unfortunately the randomly generated missions need some work to make them more interesting and varied. As it is they have the same objectives, many of them optional and being more tedious than interesting. It relies more on the player wanting to try different mechs and weapons, but I don't think the missions themselves are interesting enough. They end up feeling like a slog. I hope the follow up Brigador Killers gets some of this right next time.
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Played the remaster since it's on gamepass. I think the cops and robbers focus is fantastic and adds a slight mario kart feel to the proceedings without getting too ridiculous. Spike strips and EMPs flying around can really cause some great chaos. I wish more racing games leaned into this kind of silliness.
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On the second playthrough right now and while it is cool, it just hasn't grabbed me as much as I thought it would, from what I remember about those GotY discussions. Philosophically I thought this was supposed to be interesting and so far, not that much. It's all pretty obvious, with some neat little touches for sure. But I was never enamored with the core gameplay or the anime stylings.
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Excellent build engine game. After the first few levels it makes me think that this is what John Romero wanted to make when he described an "expert fps." Instead he made... Daikatana. This one is hard, and it means you can't really play fast and loose like much of Doom or Duke Nukem - at least on the normal "lightly broiled" difficulty. You have to peek around corners and shoot quickly to avoid getting chewed up by enemies. At first I thought the difficulty was a bit ridiculous, but you can adapt. It helps that you can quick save at any time, of course. But once I figured out what the game wanted from me it got more doable. The level design and weapons are a lot of fun. It's also got a cool world filled with crazy cultists screaming latin while throwing dynamite at you. It's a great original setting and I think it's right behind Duke Nukem as the second best build engine game.
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I liked the intro, and the game is better than 2 so far, but I started to realize the limitations of a linear cinematic style with serviceable combat. At least when trying to play through them all in a row. It probably helps to play these when they release because cutting edge visuals are going to be a big part of its appeal. Playing them without the same visual sheen really makes me appreciate the way Tomb Raider built on these games and put some more interesting open world gameplay in there.
I generally found that it was better to play these linear games for maybe 2 hours max because otherwise the formula starts to feel stale. You know, kinda like a movie running time, because that's what this wants to be.
I'm also mystified as to what they wanted to achieve with the difficulty level of this series. Some combat arenas end up being pretty annoying. Either there's some jank with cover, or it feels like the game wants me to play a section exactly the right way - go to this cover, find this weapon and take out these spawning enemies or be overwhelmed since you can die surprisingly quickly. This trial and error feels stupid in a game trying to be a movie - ideally you would rarely ever die but only come close, because dying takes you out of the flow. But they clearly weren't afraid of that, instead wanting to give you a decent challenge on normal. It's possible that they wanted to extend the playtime since a run with less deaths might be much shorter. I'm not saying don't make me die, but it just seemed tuned higher than it ought to be, or some encounters seemed poorly designed. I'm sure many would just say "get gud" though, which I think misses the point.
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Nathan Drake bundle. This was a great step up from the first game, and only two years later. I seem to remember that being the consensus opinion at the time as well. The gun combat has improved dramatically over the first game, as well as the cool set piece areas. Even graphically parts of it still look pretty, and I assume the remaster didn't improve much. I can see why this was so beloved. If I'm impressed with it right now, I'm sure it knocked everyone's socks off in 2009 (and I vaguely remember the Giantbomb crew saying as much).
Despite this I grew a bit tired by the end of it, and it felt more front-loaded with the best set-piece battles and escape sequences.
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I bought this game really just to support the developers who had to pull it off game stores for insulting the Chinese president. It turns out it's a great little horror game. I'd call it a walking simulator with some light puzzles, but even as someone who isn't very into those, I really enjoyed it. It's got an interesting 80's Taiwan setting and some really powerful themes about family and religion, to keep it vague. I probably wouldn't have paid full price for it normally, but I think the developers deserved it for getting the short end of the stick.
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Soviet Quake. The first episode was released in Early Access and it's great. Fantastic bleak atmosphere with good shooting and level design. Only took about 3 hours on normal, plus some endless mode. It is $20 so you'll have to wait to get full purchase value, but what's here is great. I'm not even really nostalgic for Quake, yet I still love Hrot's aesthetic and feel.
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This is a great remaster/remake, especially since it's been a while so I've forgotten many parts of half-life.
That is, it was great until a terrible bug which makes it impossible to complete a later chapter if you ever use a quick save in it. Something apparently that was in there in the beta. That's pretty amateurish and unforgiveable. I now have to use a console command to restart the entire chapter, and make sure I don't use a quick save. I suppose if I feel like going through that rigmarole, I'll finish it.
Regardless, everything up to that point was great so I'll still put it up there.
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Played it for probably 70 or 80 hours and seems like I only finished half the damn thing. Yes I did take my time with it at the beginning, but only because I didn't realize how long it was. This was somehow my first Assassin's Creed game and it was pretty fun for my time with it, but it is so goddamn bloated. As I've heard from others, if you really cut down the game world and meaningless collectibles you'd have a great game in here. As it is, it's expecting me to spend a Witcher 3 amount of time in a much duller world. The RPG combat is pretty lifeless as well. Don't think I will ever finish this one or check out the other Assassin's RPG-style games - I've probably had my fill for life.
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Tried playing the free GOG classic version first, but without some modern features it's pretty rough. And I wanted to give the "big 4" Build Engine games a fair shake, so I picked up the redux version. It's not quite as good as some other source ports but shadow warrior doesn't have much good engine support.
Anyway, I was pleasantly surprised. I would probably place it at number 3 under Blood, but it is waaaaay better than Redneck Rampage. It's got some good, even great, level design and the weapons are actually pretty satisfying to use, like the rapid fire shotgun and grenade launcher. Occasionally I needed a guide to find the way forward, but not too much. I give 90's shooters a bit more leeway with that. Yeah some of the humour doesn't hold up well today, but I found myself having a genuine laugh here and there. In my opinion, build engine should have a big 3 with this being a respectable bronze medalist, and just pretend the other one doesn't exist.
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A great metroidvania like the first one. I'm not a big a fan of the weird techno-Sumerian syle compared to the first game, but it's unique and the worldbuilding and art are still great. I didn't even realize it was made by one guy which is incredible. I think that fact shows, however, in a bit of lack of polish in the level design. I got pretty stuck and had to use a guide to find an obscure area to advance the game. It's got some cool multi-world mechanics, but the other worlds never seemed very interesting. I got around 80% of items but didn't feel pushed to find the rest at the end. And since I didn't get 100% I suspect I didn't get a full ending, but what I did get was disappointing given such a large build-up in understanding the world. I also don't think the focus on melee combat worked very well, and it made for some awkward enemy and boss encounters that devolved into running at something and smashing the X button. This was an instant purchase for me and unfortunately it didn't quite live up to my own hype, but it's still a great game that's worth your time.
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Funnily enough I think the biggest thing I took from Nier: Automata was that I need to play some schmups. Some enthusiasts recommended this as a good gateway game, and they were absolutely right.
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Super cool and elegant run-based platformer. It makes me want a pair of gun shoes.
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The GOAT.
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Such a classic. I was on on a WW2 kick earlier this year and playing this was surprisingly fun again, especially with a mouse and keyboard after playing it on xbox for so long. It lead to me trying to go back and play all the CoD singleplayer campaigns I missed, since I'm rarely into multiplayer.
The funny thing is I actually think I prefer this old school game design with less forced cutscenes and more... shooting. The later CoD campaigns are less replayable to me because I have to slog through tons of scripted events when I kinda just want a fun gameplay experience. Some of them are decent fun the first time, but I like CoD 2's grounding in real-ish events as opposed to the ridiculous bombast, and perhaps questionable politics, from the later games.
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Apparently this game is very polarizing, but I enjoyed it. Frustrating at points, and while the ending has received criticism I thought it was good, if a bit confusing at first. I liked the overhead adventure game concepts and trying to figure out all the interactions going on in one small space. It definitely helps that I played it on gamepass, though.
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Apparently this is like the Doom roguelike with a fresh coat of paint. I'm into the shooting and cover mechanics. Feels like a pretty fun update on old school roguelikes without the ASCII art. Didn't see a ton of variety in enemies and worlds. Normal seemed fairly easy since I got very far on the first few runs, which removed some of the mystery that roguelikes are often good at. But couldn't quite beat the final boss on the 3rd or 4th run. It's got some slapping metal tunes and your player says some hilariously dumb shit, so that's entertaining.
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This was a good campaign, and I'm surprised it's considered weak. Also surprised that I heard bad things about the ending, as in politically how it was messed up, which I didn't really see within the game's logic. From the crop of modern CoD campaigns, it's probably up there for me.
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Great minimalist racer. I've always thought rally racing was cool and I've enjoyed a few realistic games, but they're usually pretty stressful having to pay attention to pace notes and such. This one is nice and chill, as the camera angle allows you to see turns ahead, and the normal difficulty is easy enough for me that there isn't much pressure. Your mileage might vary if you're not used to rally racing, since the handling model can be tricky even with the default assists. Yet if you figure it out it's pretty satisfying to find nice, sweeping racing lines between curves and that perfect drift around a corner.
And of course I had to buy this a couple weeks before it hit gamepass. I sometimes see games get a quick sale before hitting gamepass to get a last squeeze of revenue and I wonder if they got me with it.
Made it to Group B but haven't played in a few weeks. Just lots of other cool stuff to play.
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This was a great way to relax between exams. Short, creepy puzzle platformer, sort of like a 3D Limbo. It was a great 4 hours but I got this either for free or in some bundle, so normally a bit pricey for its length.
The dark scenes also reminded me that my PC screen backlight and matte screen look bad in very dark scenes. It seriously annoys me and I might even try to play very dark games on my TV when at all possible.
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Itch bundle. Nice little homage to Zelda II. Of course, I don't think I ever played much of Zelda II. But this seems like a short and forgiving version of that. No combat to worry about, frequent checkpoints and plenty of direction on where to go. I even like the super thick CRT filter - you can see the screen reflect in your fake television! This is probably the only time I will ever keep something like that on, because it's all about feeling those retro vibes with none of the Nintendo-hard game design.
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Fun spy tactics game the first time I played through beginner. Started a second on the experienced difficulty and it's significantly harder, but not in a fun way for me, honestly. Big difference is that enemies move between rooms more, which makes sense but also just felt like it made everything take way longer. Didn't end up playing another time.
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Good silly fun. I needed to know why Jeff thought the numbers thing was cool compared to the later games, and I see his point.
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I somehow enjoyed this more than Dusk even though I figured I wouldn't like the fantasy style as much. I was never big on Hexen. But the environments end up looking pretty cool, especially near the end. It's not too hard on normal so I actually had some fun just blasting through levels pretty quickly. But there's something about this and Dusk that I don't like that much compared to something like HROT or Ion Fury. It's just somewhat uninspired in some respects, but I can't really explain why.
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This is sort of the perfect gamepass game. A nifty, short puzzle game that I would not want to pay much for, but I'm glad I got to experience it. I don't know how they were able to program some of these strange perspective based puzzles, but it was very unique.
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Good old-school shooter fun, but started losing interest in some of the later levels. I think maybe I hit some mediocre levels.
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I don't play a lot of narrative focused walk-sim type games, which this basically is one, but I was in the right headspace for this. It's got a little bit of stealth but it actively discourages you from using its rather cool gun, which is a shame. So far though I've enjoyed unraveling the mystery. Basically makes me think of the investigation parts of Condemned: Criminal Origins (without the awesome melee combat), which is pretty on rails as a gameplay experience but is at least cool in a narrative game. Generally I think it looks great graphically, which makes me interested in this studio's Chernobylite. I can see how they may have scanned some places in, as they really capture the grimy derelict building look.
Ended up falling off this once I started Returnal because that was much more compelling. I think this story just wasn't very interesting to me and I disliked the way it gave you a cool gun while complaining when you actually used it. I would still like to check out what they did with Chernobylite as a perennial STALKER fan, but hopefully it's a bit better than this.
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A cute Paper Mario-like with bugs that just hasn't fully grabbed me yet, for whatever reason. Maybe the graphics feel a bit too indie for me, I don't know. It's like I WANT to like it more but I just find myself growing bored after a little while.
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Finally picked this up after seeing so many cool youtube videos about it. Just messed around with it for a bit, tried some scenarios, and seems like it'll be a fun toy to play with now and then. It definitely feels like that more than a complete game at this point. It's been in early access for quite a while and don't see that changing any time soon. Performance could be better, but I guess that's what you get for realistically simulating car body physics. While the crashes of course look good, the driving model is also interesting in how unforgiving it is. Even small dents on your car body can mess up a wheel and your driving line in the right place.
Looking forward to trying more weird scenarios and generally learning about all the crazy options going on here
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I got this on sale for around $2.50 and it was decent value for 90 minutes of fun. Didn't realize it but it's the same people who did Sludge Life, and I love the lo-fi aesthetic in their games. I also like the idea of little combat arenas where you just jump off the roof and deploy a parachute when you're done. I wish there were more than 20 levels but what can you do.
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An adrenaline-fueled acid trip of an fps. I only wish it took me longer than an hour to beat it, but at $3 it was worth it. You can always go for a highscore on the leaderboard if you're into that.
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It's a goddamn nightmare. It's not the best game but I guess that's the point? It's mostly about existing in some sort of garbage dystopia, because apparently we're not close enough already. I give it a lot of points for style and humour and evoking a very cursed 90's game feel, and some of the gameplay seemed on a good path, but the levels got a bit more linear and deadly and not fun... which again, maybe that's part of the statement. Still needs to be a fun game at some point.
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This is the game where the story somehow got a bit too ridiculous for me, even by CoD standards. It was still fun. Tried replaying on Hardened difficulty but it gets so bogged down in letting scripted events play out. And those annoying RTS type missions, which seemed like some sort of multiplayer mode shoe-in. Except I think it's only in the single-player somehow. Weird choice.
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Just some good top down shooter fun. Survival mode ended up being less fun than I expected from what Jeff said, since everything seems to spawn too fast before long, filling the screen. The campaign missions have better gradual spawns so they were great.
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Popped this back on my PS5 and it seems to run better than it did at release, but it's still not very remarkable. For some reason the control feels like total ass in certain cars but it also feels like the controller is partially an issue. If I play again I might try turning down the haptic feedback for this game because the throttle control ends up feeling extremely imprecise as a result of it. It also doesn't help that the Dualshock thumbstick placement feels awkward to me after years of Forza. Besides that the game is pretty unremarkable.
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Playing this in the Nathan Drake collection since I never had a Playstation console before. Apparently it's been remastered but it's still pretty rough. The shooting gameplay hasn't aged very well and it is oddly difficult and even unfair at times. But the game is about 15 years old so what are you gonna do! Probably doesn't help that I've played stuff like the newer Tomb Raiders which heavily borrowed from these games with an added modern polish. Anyway, It'll be interesting to play through the series and see how it improved and even set the benchmark for this style of game.
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Itch bundle. A cute little game. It has puzzle boxes which are fairly simple and are more just about having fun poking and prodding them, not difficulty. Occasionally there was a puzzle that ground things to a halt, either because it was unclear or from overthinking it. But for the most part it's well designed.
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I specifically played a romhack called Fire Red: Rocket Edition that recently hit final release. It's pretty great if you have nostalgia for the first pokemon games. Steal pokemon and play for team rocket while unravelling the edgelordy backstory to a series of children's games. It's got some lamer moments but the fan service is too fun and hilarious for me to mind. Balanced fairly well so far too, without needing much grinding.
Unfortunatly I fell off it because I'm a bit bored of the same old pokemon, gameplay and region of Fire Red. Even a pretty interesting take wasn't enough I guess.
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Was fine to play on xbox gamepass, but it's pretty much the same game they've been making for years. Hopefully the next gen release is a good re-haul, but I'm not holding my breath.
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Played this for a few hours and it was decent, but just fell off it. If you can tune out of the dialogue and such it's fine.
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Played a few missions of this and it was fun enough, but fell off it. Maybe space pew pew just isn't my thing. Would still like to return at some point.
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Part of an itch bundle. A short fps metroidvania with cool vibes and music. It's a got a decent story too. Worth checking out for cheap, as it's about an hour long.
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My quest to get into Souls games continues. And continues to fail. Had fun until I hit a difficult boss, got annoyed and put it down. It looked and felt great in the time I played it, but I get too annoyed with the loop. I think Bloodborne is the only possible saviour of this series for me, but perhaps like Mr. Navarro this series is just not made for me.
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A nice, cheap hour-long diversion that goes to charity, what's not to like?
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Continuing to play this from last year, nice casual OCD simulator.
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Continuing from last year. Just something to chill out and play some tunes with.
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It's okay... but I really wanted to like it more. I wanted get into some turn based wargame type stuff, especially in WW2, and this seemed like a nice gateway. Unfortunately it definitely feels like a mobile game, and while the tactics are decent, the execution seems a bit sloppy. I like the idea of fire and suppression being important, but the implementation here is rather odd and opaque. Some of things I read in the manual were just straight up wrong or misstated, which is important when little is explained the game. I can understand why they might leave some stuff under the hood for a casual game, but actually it's not very much fun when strange things happen in-game that botch a mission and I don't know why. Unfortunately the sequel seems very similar, so I went ahead and played Unity of Command instead, which turned out to be just what I was looking for (and has a great manual to boot).
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Played some levels, it's alright but meh.
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Sometimes fun to play for a quick little turn based tactics game.
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Figured I'd try this since it was free on Epic and wondered if Myst could redeem itself. I actually liked the first few hours and the world building and thought they had done well, but I hit a dead end where I exhausted my leads. I found like 10 new areas and solved a bunch of puzzles only to lead to 10 dead ends and more questions than answers. And running around the place trying to figure it out wasn't fun after some point. Then I put it down and found myself thinking about it away from the game... and had a eureka moment, which was great. Some of my favourite puzzle games have done the same thing, requiring time away to ruminate on things. However, I soon got stuck again and I never got inspiration to solve it that time. I guess I could use a guide at some point but I dislike using guides for puzzle games more than other genres because the puzzle is the whole point! If I start using a guide I start to wonder why I'm playing the thing to begin with - I'm not really interested in just a narrative. So that's why I haven't returned.
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Yes it's an old walking sim horror game, of which many have been made since then. But I've barely played any of those so I figured I'd try it out one of the progenitors of the genre. I actually liked it quite a bit for a while. Excellent sense of foreboding, and the anxiety mechanics are interesting. But it becomes flat after a while, especially with some of the ridiculously cryptic puzzles that practically require a guide. Those pissed me off so much I ended up rage quitting before the end in protest. But I wouldn't mind seeing what these developers did later, or maybe some other games heavily inspired by them. When I'm in a horror mood.
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Itch bundle. Seems like a hidden gem. It's called an "anti-coin collection" game, though it's more of a puzzle game where you strategically avoid or collect coins to break through or keep boxes in your way. Excellent pixel art and music. Seemed like good casual platforming, but ultimately didn't do enough to compel me to return after my first sitting.
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Played a couple hours on gamepass and didn't return. This game is all about its pixel art and lore dumps, not about gameplay. It's basically doing the Tron thing of having a world and society inside the computer, complete with its own religions. The problem is it just keeps piling on lore that isn't really very interesting, without spacing it out with enough gameplay. The metroidvania aspect seems pretty thin and the combat feels pretty sloppy. Again, it's prioritizing nice animations over snappy control, style over substance. It's too bad because it has some nice pixel art, and the worldbuilding could be good if it was more sparse. I was really waiting for the game part to open up, but after completing a couple worlds it generally appears pretty linear.
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What a shame. This could be great if or when it gets some fixes. It's basically a chill exploration game heavily inspired by Breath of the Wild, but with a unique art style taken from comics. I was so ready for this at the time, and I did enjoy it for an hour or two. But for a chill game that's about taking in the landscapes, the performance is dog shit. It really ruins the aesthetic that roaming around on your jetbike is a framey hitchfest. And yes, it seems to happen regardless of console or computer gear. On foot stuff indoors is a lot better, and if the whole thing ran that well I think it would be a treat. The other thing is that it had some ridiculous bugs in the menus. Apparently windowed full screen runs worse but I can't change the option because of this. Hilariously bad. I've also heard there are other common bugs in the game, so I decided to stop playing this for now.
The only consolation is that this is a gamepass game so I didn't spend extra money on it. I sincerely hope it gets some fixes and becomes what it can be, since it would probably be a good way up my list otherwise. Possibly my most disappointing game of the year that I actually played.
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Picked it up on the cheap to tide me over till the next Forza Horizon comes out, and it's alright. So far with default assists on it has a pretty forgiving but enjoyable driving model. However, I haven't found the best way to tune the difficulty and so far it's been pretty easy, maybe too much. Nothing much to say, just some good casual driving fun with a good variety of vehicle types.
Haven't played this after my first sitting. Really very bland and the difficulty did not work well for me.
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Free student game that is a decent 40 minutes. Hell, I would have been happy to make this in school.
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Seemed like a decent metroidvania from the little I played, though the 1 bit style can be a bit hard to parse. Makes the environments a bit less interesting as well, especially since even the original Metroid had a bit more going on visually.
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I was curious about this one after seeing a youtube video that deconstructed its game design and praised some of its innovations. It does have some interesting design elements but in terms of actually playing it, it just feels like a decent puzzle platformer. Didn't really feel compelled to keep playing. A reminder that good youtube videos can sometimes convince me that something will be better than it is.
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Checked it out right after Duke Nukem, but this one is real rough. Kind of surprising how bad it is even though it has a bit of a reputation for not holding up. The major problem is the level design. You'll get hung up trying to find nigh invisible keys, and some means of progressing are so opaque they should be secret areas instead. The gunplay is decent, though the shotgun has some strange hit detection. Unfortunately, once I realized I was gonna have to keep a walkthrough open to get through, I lost interest.
It's a shame because some of the hillbilly vibes are kinda fun. Some of the music is decent too, but with only a few tracks on loop they get old real fast when you're stuck in a level for half an hour trying to figure out where to go. Especially the one that sounds like it was recorded by someone who stormed the U.S. Capitol building. A little too close to the real redneck rampage.
I guess if this is considered one of the top 4 build engine games there just weren't many good ones. Redneck Rampage shouldn't even be considered in the same discussion as Blood, Duke Nukem 3D, or Shadow Warrior, that's for sure.
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Pretty thin even for the $5 price. Warioware and pachinko are two great things that could combine really well, but this feels like more of a baseline idea than anything more. Minigames became tiresome before I unlocked them all.
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Hard time getting into this. I think without an interesting story and nice graphics pulling me along it's hard to get into the standard JRPG combat.
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Interesting to mess around with. Sorta made me hanker for an old school jrpg.
Also tried playing an rpgmaker game in progress, Legend of Driftwood, made by someone who posts good youtube tutorials. Unforunately, all it showed me was that maybe I won't actually enjoy standard RPG maker games.
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Decent old school shooter from a few levels I played. Thought I would enjoy more based on a youtube review, but maybe it's just a bit too old for me. I don't have nostalgia for pc shooters of this era to help me out.
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I bought this thinking about Doom, stupidly not realizing this was a Wolfenstein 3D engine game. Well, it's Wolfenstein 3D on crack. In fact this was originally planned as a sequel to that but lost the license so they wouldn't compete with Doom. And it's got all the problems of Wolfenstein, like huge monotonous maze-like levels and stupid push-block puzzles. I found those charming in Wolfenstein in their simplicity, but this one just throws the kitchen sink at it with all sorts of platforms, bounce pads, power ups and explosive weapons. It's novel for a bit but the level design and sameyness became a problem. What this does show is how special Doom was in comparison.
Then the game crashed at what I think may have been a boss fight. Technically I was playing in some Linux source port with support for windows which may have been the culprit. In general it didn't run very well, and even introduced some strange lag on my computer until I switched screens, so I wouldn't recommend it. Perhaps I shouldn't have followed a guide posted to some random Steam group. But I've also heard the game has problems with quick saves in general. At that point I decided it wasn't worth my time. On the plus side, since I played in a source port I was able to get a Steam refund because it didn't register on my play time. Winning.
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It's ok, only played a couple a couple missions.
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Kinda boring gamepass game with lame humour. Interesting idea though.
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Itch bundle. Cute concept, needs more meat on the bone. I want more cat meat is what I'm saying.
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I tried replaying this but just didn't enjoy it the second time. Just felt way too scripted next to CoD 2. First time I played it a couple years ago I enjoyed it, at least.
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First few missions were fun, but had some issues on my computer. After every mission or two the framerate starts dipping for some unknown reason that doesn't seem to be a memory leak, and I don't feel like figuring it out. Right now.
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From the itch charity bundle. It's Sonic. I didn't realize it was Sonic. I don't like Sonic. Though this is pretty good for Sonic. Unfortunately, it's still Sonic.
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Itch bundle. Cool idea but too much pop psychology and soul searching for my taste.
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Now what could this be? It's solitaire and it works. It has the animation at the end. We're good.
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Played the demo of this. No tutorial so didn't understand some stuff, and the combat seemed a bit weird and sloppy. If I end up playing this it'll probably be because I was such a fan of the Madness series on Newgrounds back in the day. But doesn't seem great.
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I was interested in trying this for free but it turns out it only includes single player? I mean the whole point of this game is to race other people's ghosts in real time. I guess I could pay $13 for a year but I wish there was at least some basic multiplayer functionality to try out free. I raced on a few single player tracks but didn't see the point.
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Your average stream bait. Nigh impossible physics obstacle course.
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Weird game for obsessive compulsives that didn't really grab me... oddly enough.
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Itch bundle. It's a very basic platformer, and you play as a radish. So there's that.
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Played the remastered edition. I hated it as a kid, and it turns out I still hate it now. I think I just hate any game that basically requires a guide... or wandering around forever to figure things out.
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I generally don't like competitive multiplayer games but this was free and looked adorable. Played for about 20 minutes and confirmed I don't wanna play shooters with other people. Personally I find it too stressful for what I want out of video games, but that's just me and my anxiety. Nothing really against this game.
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Picked it up since it's less than 2 dollars, wanted to try it just as something to mess around with when I was feeling tired, but it's a bit more involved with some rpg stuff than expected. It didn't feel great or run very well so doubt I'll check it out again.
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Acquired free I think. Fired this up for a few minutes, just not into it. Controls didn't feel good, world seemed pretty bland. To be fair, I may not have been in the right headspace for it.
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It's weird and pretty unwieldy. Which is the point I guess... but I just didn't enjoy it. Points for an interesting concept at least.
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Got it in some bundle. I can't deal with Atari games. No nostalgia. My favourite part is when the ball in super breakout can't even rebound off of more than one block. Super primitive... but it's a part of our history. Well, not mine, because this was around way before me.
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Ok I put this here because I played a stupid free steam game called Banana Hell. It's bad, don't play it. But it is an interesting part of the phenomenon of "Getting Over It"-like games. You can put very little effort and make a shitty, annoying and difficult platformer, sprinkle some lame comedy in and bingo. You have yourself a video game. I guess.
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