It's been another hard year to dedicate alot of time to gaming. My list of games this year is a bit short, so much so that I thought I must be missing some games... until I realized that I must have spent at least 90-120h+ playing Mass Effect Legendary edition over (at most) a couple of hours per night.
All of these games are bangers. No point trying to rank them, every one was great.
Actually, Gears 5: Hivebusters. I'd argue this campaign was better than the mainline single player game in some respects. Very evenly paced, great set piece moments, no insta-death scenerios. Really enjoyed the heck out of it.
Played on Xbox Series X.
For the fourth or fifth time (this time on the Series X), I played through the entire Mass Effect Trilogy and almost all of the DLC (other than Citadel which I'll come back to eventually). What a great package.
After all of these years, here are some thoughts on each of them...
- Mass Effect 1: Still my favourite of all three games, I love the universe that is setup in Mass Effect 1. It's gritty and unpolished compared to the other games, but I love it regardless. I also had a few lockups only in this remaster of ME1 that I didn't have in the other two games, but man... ME1 looks and plays so good in this remaster.
- Mass Effect 2: There isn't much to add to the common sentiment that this is one of the best ME games, but I did forget that there are some weird difficulty spikes in this game. At the mid-way point (I believe in Horizon) there is a battle in the middle of the field that is still legitimately difficult. After that the game becomes a walk in the park.
- Mass Effect 3: I always remember ME3 unfondly, mostly because of the whole galactic readiness mechanic where you needed to either play multiplayer or stupid companion apps in order to get the "best" endings. Removing it from the package just makes the whole thing better. It's still too easy to miss War Assets while playing as well (you have to be looking at the right places at the right time), but honestly, I feel it's a pretty decent game and really enjoyed playing it.
Played on Series X.
I'm not good at rogue-likes. I don't have the skill for them, nor the patience. I typically play games for their stories.
Thank goodness for Hades... I loved it so much, I played the main campaign to the credits (10 successful runs). God Mode made this accessible to me; without this, I never would have completed it. Thank you SuperGiant games.
Played on Series X.
Much like Horizon 4, I love Horizon 5. It's such a casual game that I didn't realize the hours slipping through my fingers.
Played on Series X.
