GOTY 2017
WIP
List items
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It was hard to play PC games and not get swept up in the Battlegrounds wave. It is a phenomenon, but has proven through its continuous rise to be something greater than just a flash in the pan. The gaming landscape will be changed going forward. I am very glad I decided to jump in when I did.
I decided to check it out after the first or second GB Battlegrounds stream. I skulked around, found some guns and got shot to death. I tried again and again and again. Then, one game I heard gunshots and crept over a ridge to watch one player rush another player, gunning him down after a brief exchange. With the victor occupied looting, I saw my chance, the moment when being stealthy and focusing on positioning might just pay off. If I can just not miss... I hit more than I missed and suddenly I was alone on the ridge again, but now with more loot. Greater patience (or fear) had triumphed despite a shaky hand and a unpracticed shot. I probably died on the next ridge or in the next building, but that didn't change the simple fact that I was hooked.
Fast forward 150 hours or so and I am drunkenly debating whether or not there is ever a reason to pour out rum even though its cheap and makes your intestines ache when my buddy Brian announces "Shots. Northeast. Close."
All business now, the group does a quick assessment of our gear. "I don't have shit," Bekah replies.
"Let's just kill them and take their's," Adam shouts! The group roars in agreement and we sprint off to force someone back to the title screen and take their guns.
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A little bit Hitman, a little bit Hotline Miami with a little "Rogue-lite" unlocking of gear. Cleverly written and an atmospheric soundtrack. Its fun and makes you feel incredibly smart when you get yourself out of a terrible situation that you rushed into impatiently. Smacking someone out of a spaceship window with a giant wrench has never felt so good.
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War of the Chosen Expansion specifically.
More. More is what the War of the Chosen expansion adds to XCOM 2. More mission types. More unit types. More enemy types. New events, new weapons, new powers, new voice acting (tons more) and it wouldn't be XCOM 2 without more bugs.
The at times barely playable framework that was the initial release has been improved structurally by this patch but not without its own issues. Glaring crash issues aside, it is everything I wanted from an expansion short of adding the meld mechanics from Enemy Within.
In particular, I feel like it makes the time I spent on the strategic map more interesting. At points during the original game, I felt like at best I had a binary choice and the circumstances were such that I already knew where I was suppose to be going at any moment I wasn't in a mission. The expansion layers on several more timers and threats, but also takes some of the pressure off the moment to moment decisions of which scan site, which mission, or which camp should I be at.
The rest of it is still XCOM 2 with new bells and whistles and I love it. If only it didn't crash so damn often.
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Divnity 2 is a late addition to the collection that I have not yet fully explored. My 15 or so hours has already showed me just how well written and deeply interesting the world and its characters are. Periodically, I just stop to marvel at a while phrased sentence, a detailed backdrop or an interesting interaction of mechanics (did you know that you can vaporize blood and make blood steam?).
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The first 20 hours of this game were fantastic. I had a nemesis, I killed him and ended up with two more. I finally the fiery bastard fortress leader killed and now do my best to avoid the nearly invulnerable machine orc who refuses to actually die or be subsumed into my collective.
Its more of what I wanted from the first game...way more...way way more. 2 1/2 fortresses later and I just can't get excited to clear out another fortress orc by orc, turning as many to my side as possible along the way. Its at #5 on the list because of that first 15 hours despite how I feel about it 5 hours after that. I might return to finish what I started, but outside of the fortresses and the orcs, there just isn't much else I want to bother with. The characters and story are bland when they aren't offensively bad.
I had my fun and I moved on.
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Pyre is beautiful. Pyre sounds incredible and the soundtrack is yet another fantastic score. The world and character design is also amazing, each one a unique work of art.
I hate fantasy basketball. It is very possible I missed some massively obvious mechanic, but I struggled with nearly every match I played until the final match. Hell, it wasn't that much easier when I dropped the difficulty down.
Despite not actually enjoying the "game" part of this video game, I still loved it. From the setup of the world to the completion of the story, I wanted to learn how everything panned out. If only I didn't have to play fantasy sportball to get there.
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I need to play more Persona 5. I think I left off when it was just starting to fall into its rhythm. The music, the characters and the best styyyyyyyle since whatever the last Persona release was. I want to see more of the world. Meet more characters, collect more personas, fuse more personas and on and on. Through no fault of the game, I just struggle to play console games with my giant stack of PC games strewn across all the various libraries and launchers.
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The other major release that I purchased at the holiday break. My early impressions from coverage, podcast discussion, and a bit of gameplay all suggest that this is finally the Total War that I will really enjoy. I FOUGHT A DRAGON DURING THE LAST BATTLE I PLAYED. I shot magic spells over a wall while my cavalry charged a dragon under a sky of arrows from my nearby archers.
It makes for a damn cool story and makes me excited for the next engagement. I know there is going to be horsemen, swordsmen, archers and spearmen on the field. There might be weird magic or a griffin or something other than armored dudes running into each other too.
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20XX fills the "I want to play a new Megaman game" niche in my life. It is well constructed, but can't escape from the limited budget of a small studio. The devs executed within the scope they outlined and have produced a game that is enjoyable to play and fun to explore the unlockables.
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I love the way Dead Cells looks, the way it feels, the way it sounds. I love that the game is constantly evolving and changing as the devs continue to build on what they have created so far. I look forward to really diving deep once the game is officially released. Until then, I will enjoy jumping in every so often to do a handful of runs and see some of the new stuff. I will continue to use this as my excuse and my handicap for why I am so bad at Dead Cells until it hits 1.0 and I have no more excuses.
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An honorable mention, because like Dead Cells, I jump into Factorio to relearn how to setup a factory and see how it has changed. I forsee a very long stay in early access and I will continue to enjoy every time I stop in to see what is different.
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I play 30-60 hours a Diablo 3 a year. It might well be a problem, but I just enjoy the loop so damn much.
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A final honorable mention because I enjoy the writing and the characters from this limited scope game that I really dove into earlier this year. I purchased the rest of the series after getting into the late game of this one. Bare bones mechanics with serviceable gear and skills systems. There isn't a ton here, but what is there is well written and filled with character.
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