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MrSlapHappy

Working on GOTY...updating my status to get rid of my last status from years ago..

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GOTY 2018

I managed to play Ten 2018 games in 2018 this year! At least 3 of them were just not interesting enough to add to this list. Instead, I have added the games that I spent some of the most time with this year, regardless of what year they came out in.

Note: It will be extremely obvious shortly, but most of this is stream of consciousness writing that has been very lightly edited, if at all. I know I am better than that, but given how much prodding it takes for me to write anything at all, this is the best I am going to do.

Both the list and the writing are an exercise I do mostly for myself. I know how to edit my work, but I have a day job and like to play video games, I don't need to make a presentable essay on my annual video games thoughts. I want to record my thoughts for the future and call it enough. Future me will hate it, but current me doesn't even like rereading pieces that I consider well-written, so I doubt future me will either.

On with the show:

Here are the ones from this year that just didn't make the cut:

Heroes of Hammerwatch

My wife and I played a bunch of the original Hammerwatch. It is kind of an indie twin-stick shooter dungeon crawler. The best part was that you had a ton of control over the game settings. We played with unlimited lives and just smashed our heads against each challenge until we saw credits. Heroes of Hammerwatch is run based Hammerwatch where you are gathering resources to upgrade your town, thus unlocking more character upgrades. Its cute, we played it for maybe a week and then forgot about it.

Frozen Synapse 2

I think I hate Frozen Synapse. I have tried the first game twice, the football-ish one, once, and I restarted the campaign in the 2nd game twice with a little multiplayer on the side. Nope, just can't do it. It plays fine and it can be fun, but when it goes wrong, it just kills it. Austin Walker sold this game to me with his game play stories and I have gotten to experience my own, but they were spread out across so much frustration. High highs and some just bullshit lows.

Artifact

I don't really play a lot of card games. I had a brief Magic: The Gathering phase in high school. I never got super serious, mostly just got some cards and learned how to play well enough to have some fun. I hear that Magic guy made this one too.

I don't know about Artifact. Its pretty, it runs well, it has cool ideas, and its really unique. It also has the same problem as DOTA. The games are just long enough to get too invested in. In a world where Magic finally put out an online game that clicked for me the week before Artifact came out, I just couldn't help comparing the two. A LONG MtG:A is 20 minutes, and if I got that far in, I don't care who wins anymore, this was fun as hell. At 20 minutes in Artifact, I have just realized that I was not eeking out a win, I have been behind the entire game and this shit is over. Its a bias mostly because I have more experience with Magic, I am sure.

A few additional caveats, I got married this year and for our honeymoon, we went to the International, where they gave everyone an Artifact key. So I got in for free. I also pulled virtually nothing of value or power out of the starting packs. So my decks are crazy underpowered which is unsatisfying...

Long story short, maybe 2019 will be a better Artifact year for me.

Conan Exiles

Exiles sure is one of those survival games. I think I got my fill of that game play when Minecraft first launched and nothing has really done it for me since. My friends, they play these games and I wanted to play with them, so I bought Exiles on sale. I made a dude with a big penis, I made a pretty lady with well balanced breasts. I made a dude with a very small penis, and then a very big one again. Then, I started playing the survival game where I start naked, run through the desert grabbing dried grass until I can make pants and a shirt, and then build a base somewhere. It seems like a pretty good one of these games. Combat seems varied, there is lots to build, the world is kind of fun to explore, and my friends are playing too.

I made the mistake of logging onto the server they rented after they put hundreds of hours into the game. Having ground their way through it once, they used admin powers to grant themselves all the building supplies they needed to make kickass castles and stuff. It was a fun evening of exploring all the cool stuff they made and the mechanics I didn't understand. I haven't played since. Maybe next year?

List items

  • I have always been curious about Monster Hunter games and this was the game that finally did it. For 2 months, I stopped playing video games. I didn't sit down to play a game, I sat down to play Monster Hunter. Anything, that wasn't playing Monster Hunter was just negative Monster Hunter time. Its beautiful, the world is fun to explore, the characters are silly, and it feels good to play. The paper thin story was entertaining enough but more importantly, created the bread crumb trail that kept me going. There was always another creature reveal just around the corner. Another creature to learn and to gear up for. I hit credits around the 100 hr mark and the spell was broken. Without the small pull of the story, I had no reason to keep pushing higher.

    I went back to video games for about a month. But I found myself missing the feel of Monster Hunter and the hunting loop. Pick up quests, load up on consumables, gear up, head out, hunt, carve, repeat. I came back for a bit, but I had no specific drive anymore. I played around with some other weapons and put it down again. I am ready for more anytime.

  • The day they launched the big rebalancing patch was the first time I ever beat Dead Cells. I read the patch notes and got the impression they were correcting a bunch of exploitable behavior that I had absolutely no knowledge of. But, the rebalance was all I needed to win. I suppose its because they made it easier? I don't know, maybe I am just that good.

    Dead Cells is great. Another game that feels so good to play. Its a game that allows so many different styles of game play and rewards all of them accordingly. Fast and frantic play gets speed and damage boosts. Slow methodical styles get more resources. Weapons and items galore! It is a game I plan to return to for a long time.

  • Subnautica is a game that asks you to really consider how you feel about a wide assortment of phobias. Open water, large creatures, drowning, small spaces, darkness, aliens. It also goes to the trouble of remixing them together in constantly new and terrifying ways.

    Here is the thing about a lot of those phobias, most of them can be countered by the simple idea that there isn't anything out there in the deep water that cares about you being there. Now in real life that is frequently true, not in a single player video game about diving deeper. There IS something down there and it probably will do you harm.

    Subnautica was the first game this year that really hooked me. I played 12 hours the first day I installed it. It quickly became a game about conquering my own fear of the dark depths. It is a god damn video game, I don't have anything to be scared about... WHAT THE FUCK WAS THAT! Nope, nope, nope. Out, out, out! Up, we are going up! I am going back to the shelf to gather coral and sit in the emergency buoy to calm down.

    Anyways, there are things down in the dark, creatures that are alien and bizarre and rarely seen by humans, plus we are not on Earth so they are a bit weirder looking. But, eventually, you have seen all the creatures. You know their moves, you have a strategy, and now they aren't as scary. Suddenly, its not scary to go deeper. It becomes a video game again.

    A game about collecting the resources to go a little bit deeper, to find another piece of the puzzle, to learn a little more. Then, it is done. Put some useful stuff into a capsule for another player and then you get to go home. You get to turn it off and remember what it was like to be scared of the deep water and scared of what might be out here. You get to remember when it wasn't so frightening and when you mastered the environment.

  • I have to echo most of what others have already said about Into The Breach. Each mech squad is its own unique version of chess. Winning feels great. Losing sucks. Seeing the winning move when you were sure you had lost, well that's the special something that makes a great game, one of the best games.

    What is most interesting to me is that I have never noticed that the game was too hard or brutal or so on. Every board I have ever played, I have felt like either I have it under control or I just need to think about it longer. Much like Brad talking about spending 20 minutes to make a single turn, sometimes I go do something else while the game just idles. I bet I can pull this one back if I just figure out how to get a missile there, block that hole, maybe shove my mech first, THEN attack.

    Few games outside of the Zachtronics series ever encourage that level of consideration. Even the modern XCOMs only push for a quick calculation of hit percentage, remaining ammunition, or relative unit value, a couple minutes at most. Into the Breach, that's a game where you can lean back in your chair, sip on a whiskey, and just work through it one possiblity at a time.

  • Way back, I got into Dwarf Fortress just to find out what whether it was as impenetrable as the internet rumors claimed. My wife really got into it and I moved on. Between large patches she finds other systems heavy games to get into and RimWorld is probably the best she has found so far.

    The stories that came out of her first few dozen hours drew my interest and well now we both play a lot of RimWorld.

    My space colony has about a dozen colonists, 2-3 dozen animals, a bunch of buildings, and a graveyard filled with raiders who have tried to take it from me. One such raider is the husband of 'Maverick' my botanist and back-up medic. This is only reflected mechanically by 'Maverick' taking a mood penalty for having a dead husband. But, while you wait for your people to clear the debris, bury the bodies, and finally harvest the rice in the fields, you have time to imagine her solemnly going about her tasks.

    It is a management sim that encourages your mind to wonder and fill in the blanks between the mechanics. Ryan, our medic turned craftsman, made countless passes at Kazuko, the misandrist lordling and 'Maverick's' sister, being rebuffed each time. Just as Kazuko was starting to warm up to Ryan, 'Kimmy' was wounded and thrown into our prisoner medical bay when her and her friends raided the colony. Once 'Kimmy' was healthy and convinced to join our little colony as our primary doctor, her and Ryan really hit it off. They are expected to marry here sometime soon. Just today I noticed Kazuko has a negative modifier on her mood for being shot down by Ryan. Want what you can't have, huh lady? That might come up again later or maybe Kazuko will start talking to Seth more.

    I am as curious about what story the mechanics will tell with these little people as I am about how the game will continue to ramp up the threats against my colony. The nearby faction of pirates continues to send better armed raiders. It is no longer single naked individuals carrying a worn out knife. I am now fighting trios and small squads equipped with patchwork armor and flimsy automatic pistols. How long until they start showing up with explosives and long range rifles? I will need to shore up the defense around my geothermal reactor and maybe build a wall around the East side to funnel raids away from my common room. Hopefully, Ryan finishes research on gunsmithing before his wedding, so we can start upgrading our own weaponry. Maybe we can get a gun turret built before next winter. Endless possibilities and endless storytelling directions.

  • I am always late to the party with Zachtronics games. I am never sure I want to jump in when the internet is talking about the game. What if it is too hard? What if I don't like it, like Spacechem? I liked Infinifactory, though. But it got so hard at a point that I just gave up. I should try that one again...or I can just get the new one.

    I like Opus Magnum a bunch. I am not great at it, but just like all the Zachtronics games, you don't have to be. I have chosen to focus on creating a system that succeeds with the minimum number of cycles I can. It might take up a bunch of space and be costly, but damnit its faster. Faster, not the fastest. I want to be faster than the 1 other person on my friends list that has made it as far as me. It feels petty to say it like that, but without a mission statement, I don't have a good way to judge how much improvement my current hot mess needs.

    My favorite part so far was creating the gifs of my systems running to show my wife. She pats me on the head and says "That's nice, dear." She doesn't understand the specifics of it, but she can admire a system running. I make a handful of gifs and then went back to the game. Hours later, I finally cracked the code on the stamina potion, made the gif to show my wife and noticed all these other gifs on my desktop. For a good 10 minutes, I was convinced I had downloaded them from twitter because they looked cool. I had to open the game and check to remind myself, I made them. It's stupid, but damn did it make me feel clever.

  • I don't play a lot of card games. But I like to play this. Like I mentioned in my "honorable mentions" for Artifact. I am familiar with Magic: The Gathering. This game just hits the right pace and level of engagement for me. I can drop in, grind through some dailies for gold and some wildcards and hop out. In the process, I might even win a few times, earning me some more gold and stuff. Games range from 10 minutes to say 30 on the far far outside. In the time it takes for me to lose 1 Artifact match, I can play 2-3 Magic games and maybe win one.

    I can read the board and know pretty easily if I should just concede now or play it out to work on the dailies. I get stuff when I complete dailies and I don't even have to necessarily win to do that. I can feel like I am improving not just by experimenting against another Merfolk deck, but maybe I unlock a new card that I want to build a whole new deck around. Its a game that respects my time and the free to play bs, just clicks with me enough to make me want to check-in tomorrow and play another dozen or so games over the course of maybe 2 hours, depending.

  • I usually wait for the inevitable half price sale on the current Battlefield. At that point, you can get the game, plus the season pass for the about $60. I haven't played a Battlefield since 4 and my friends were way into this one.

    I don't play many first person shooters anymore, I did my time in counterstrike and Team Fortress 2. What else is out there, you know? That said, I appreciate a shooter that rewards those of us that are a bit rusty and can't muster the average kill counter. Kill assists in previous games were nice. Battlefield V takes it to another level:

    "Hey, you shot that guy, here is points for doing damage"

    "Look at that, you did a bunch of damage, but someone else finished him, points!" (assist counts as kill, isn't new)

    "Wow man, you sure did shoot at that guy a whole lot, how about this 'a suppression bonus'"

    "You'll probably get him next time, but while you were shooting in his general direction, someone else shot him so 'suppression assist'"

    I am boiling it way down here and honestly, once you knock the rust off a bit, I am not THAT bad. Anyways, points for objectives, points for trying, points for helping allies. There are a lot of ways to earn and Battlefield provides so many.

    Each gun feels pretty unique, they are customizable, both cosmetically and mechanically, the classes level-up and each play pretty differently. There is a surprising amount of variety in this "go here and shoot the dude" game. I like it. Plus, you can kill a guy with a shovel, its crazy.

  • I liked a bunch of the Messenger, but also played it late in the year. Somehow, I almost forgot to put Into The Breach onto my list and I did forget the Messenger. I am adding it now for future reference.

    Here is the thing, the messenger executes its whole deal super well, for about 6-8 hours. I liked moving around in the environment and I loved getting to a new region just so I could hear a new music track. More of the humor hit than missed and The Thing that happens is fun.

    After The Thing, it quickly boils down to clearing maps to find those last few objectives. Not knowing which undiscovered room is the collectible that I don't care about and one of the story pickups was super frustrating. To be fair, the game has a mechanic to circumvent the vagueness, but I just lost steam and gave up.

    Hearing Ben explain how it wraps up on the Bombcast and how his opinion seemed to have been soured by making it through to the end, just made me decide to quit early. I enjoyed my time and really only regret that the game can't stick the landing.

    Also...boy, I just wish I hadn't forgotten I had even played it. I probably took a break from writing my first list to play it even...

  • Every year I play at least 1 season of Diablo 3. I get my 30 or so hours of Diablo time and then I go on with my business. It ends up on my GOTY most years because it is still so damn good. That and I still can't get Path of Exile to click with me. Also, sometimes while I am playing Diablo 3 again, I end up not having 10 games from that year... Oh well.

    This year, a couple friends started playing. I explained the seasonal stuff and waved my hand in the direction of the weird late game stuff I have never bothered to investigate. I pick a class, I play through the story again, do the seasonal objectives, spend an hour with the cool unlock and move on.

    My friends followed my lead, but skipped that last step. They peeked into that strange late game...and then I followed them. Holy god, it's as fucking nuts as I thought it might be. But, also its like playing a new game. Multiplayer, late game, greater rifts, ancients...primals. The numbers get BIG. I can't have Netflix on in the other window anymore. If I look away, that fucking lizard thing will jump me and pop me instantly. But, if we get this mob and the guardian in the next 40 seconds, we get the bonus to upgrade a legendary jewel one level higher and maybe we can handle a GR one more level up. It's a higher number, more damage, more enemies, more loot, better loot, maybe even the best loot.

    The next season starts January 16th, I think I am going to play a Monk.

  • Warframe is that OTHER loot game I played this year with different friends who have gone deep down the rabbit hole. I was hot on Warframe for about 2 months and started to really understand all the weird ass mechanics that I just stumbled through the last few times I was playing Warframe.

    Unlike Diablo 3 and those friends, I never made it deep into the rabbit hole alongside these friends. This hole is much deeper and requires so much more grinding. I need to crack these rune things to get rare gear, but I can't get all the this gear anymore because it is in the vault. I can trade for it though. But first, I should finish maxing out these guns, this bo-staff and sword, and this frame I unlocked because of story progress. Nobody plays that frame though, unless they are really good or an asshole. Besides, if I finish the story stuff, I can see THE THING and it is apparently kind of wild.

    Look man, I don't know, I bought $20 of in-game cash to chip in for the hundred or so hours of free game I have played. I stopped playing, paralyzed with choice about what to spend that money on.

    Next time I am between games and really really want to be a weird shiny, flesh space ninja I will install it again and maybe I'll finally get through THE THING.
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