Since I find I'm playing fewer games the year they come out I find my game of the year lists aren't as representative of what I'm playing as they could be.
This was written as a private exercise so express my thoughts on the games I play, but you're more then welcome to read. I've noticed my writing has changed throughout the year. The act of writing this list has impacted the way I think about games while playing them. I've enjoyed it and I think I'll continue into 2019.
December - January
When I played at launch I completed every shrine and obsessively upgraded just about every armor set. Even the ones I didn't use. I eventually drew the line at the useless Amiibo armor that required excessive Moonshard and ore farming.
Last spring I knew there was more DLC coming for my GotY 2017, but I was pretty sure I was otherwise finished. The first pack didn't really get me back into the game. I dabbled with the trials, but figured I'd give them another shot when the "real" DLC pack came out.
I hit a snag pretty early on in the final DLC progression and found myself going back to my old habits. I started farming those materials like a crazy person. It was just a great excuse to get back out and explore this amazing world. At the same time I ended up farming the Stone Colossi for the monster badges I never really gave much thought to before.
Once I finished the DLC I went back to do the trials. In Zelda games trial dungeons are not my favorite, but I had to fully upgrade the Master Sword! Forcing myself to play the trials taught me to engage with the combat in a way I never needed to until then, I'm grateful for that. Although I still used a guide for the later sections, a few tips made them much more manageable.
Surely after I upgraded the all the armor, master sword, and completed the DLC I was finished with the game. If I were to collect the Koroks, you might as well lock me away in a padded room.... on the other hand it's a glaring omission to a completionist like myself. And I discovered so many areas of this world I had never seen in my first 150 hours.
So, in January of 2018, after only collecting 200 Korok seeds and competing essentially everything else I set out on a new mission to collect the remaining 700. It was a blast! I had a Hyrule map and Giant Bomb video or Netflix doc on my computer screen as I went on the greatest scavenger hunt of my life. It took me nearly all month, but I got the golden poop, along with the last of the monster badges.
This is a real good game!
February - March - April
This was at the top of my 2017 games of the year I didn't play list. I love history and my favorite thing about the Assassin's Creed series is jumping into these meticulously researched historical worlds.
After collecting Koroks in Zelda I had established a habit of watching videos while clearing out the open world map. This continued with Assassin's Creed Origins. I've never felt compelled to play an Assassin's Creed game all the way to completion before, yet I'm just about to cap this one off with a Platinum trophy (including all the DLC).
I like the lead character, Bayek, and the story, but I didn't necessarily follow the thread the whole way. Possibly my fault for distracting myself with online videos or side activities within the game.
I enjoy AC:O best as a stealth game. I found the combat pretty frustrating. The Defenses of enemies with tower shields were nearly impenetrable and boss fights were dull. They lasted ages and they hit hard, so if you weren't careful you could die from a single hit. This lead to spending much of the fight circling out of range and waiting for my health to cap.
Perhaps I could have made better use of my arsenal of skills and abilities. Yet, enemies' movements are unpredictable in the worst way. Their windows of vulnerability after a stun are non-existent after they are stunned or performing a big combo move.
Also, what's with fire in this game? It can spread crazy fast. The tiniest brush with an innocent flame can drain your entire health in moments.
Is this my favorite Assassin's Creed game? I'd need to revisit Black Flag to know for sure, but it's between the two.
March
I've been waiting for Horizon to go on sale for months. It finally did, and for reasons that puzzle me now, I thought the days before the final AC:O DLC released would be the perfect time to play it.
Jumping from Zelda to AC:Origins to Horizon I felt the degrading of the core mechanics. Particularly Traversal, combat and the bow.
Climbing in Zelda is a phenomenally liberating way to explore that world. It's pretty good in AC:O, although I missed being able to jump off cliffs with the sail cloth. But it's very limited in HZD, finding the specific climbing points was a chore. Too often they were not where you need them and hard to spot.
HZD was not a bad game, I was into the world building, aspects of the story and the dinosaur robot enemies with components you shoot off is really rad. I finished the main story, found all the collectibles, but didn't have much of a desire to do many side quests or finish the DLC.
What at sticks with me, from my time playing this game, were the nagging little things that hampered the experience:
Crafting: it was impossible to find raccoons, and if you did it might not have dropped what you needed! Health plants: sometimes there were never any around, and Fire Kiln Roots were the same colour! Inventory management: no quick sell, boxes within boxes! Deathbringers: so many cool dinosaurs, yet the boss robot they keep reusing is just a box with guns on it. Collectable NPCs are just vendors: the rewards are underwhelming and there's no fanfare when you collect them all.
December - January
Last year's E3 presentation of this game got me hyped to play Wolfenstein II! It inspired me to replay The New Order since I hadn't completed it originally. While I love the story and the world of these games, my anticipation for the sequel was somewhat squashed by the intense difficulty and ammo scarcity of that replay. The launch coverage rekindled that fire, but I came to the conclusion that the easiest difficulty was for me.
I picked it up late in the year, too late for it to be considered for my GotY list for 2017. I do not regret my decision to play on easy. Most of the fighting was trivialized, but it was still possible to get overwhelmed and die. I don't want to imagine the court room battle on any other difficulty.
What I love is the pulpy tone that Wolfenstein strikes. It's full of over the top humor and shameless Nazi killing action. I can't think of a better example of a game to takes on the current political climate and racism in America.
April
Found myself playing Switch a lot more do to my new job with a lot of downtime. I thought I'd for sure get Steam World Dig 2 next on Switch, but Stardew's price bumped it ahead come buying time.
Stardew does a great job of easing players in by drip feeding goals each day. They kept me playing for a little while.
I ultimately fell off because it was frustrating to play. Walking everywhere I'd frequently get lost. I get that players would gradually learn town's layout over time, but it's a big town with lots of dead ends, forests and rivers.
Interface issues and little nagging things wore me down. Like not being able to buy anything at the store because the shop keeper wasn't standing at the counter. He was in the store, it was open, but I couldn't buy a thing. No wonder he's going out of business.
April
I bought this back in December. I skipped the Walking Dead game that came after Season 2, but I've been anticipating this one because I'm interested in following Clementine's story.
Since I bought it I kept putting it off. It can be hard to muster enthusiasm for the samey gameplay of a Telltale game and there's an unfamiliar face, bigger than Clem's, on the cover art.
Turns out that face is Javi, this season's playable character. I quite enjoyed his family's journey and how they fit into Clem's story. Particularly Javi's relationship with his brother, a character I started off hating, but grew to have an understanding for by the end.
That said, it's still a Telltale ass Telltale game. I get that having a time limit gives tension and consequence to conversations, but why does it have to be before the NPC finishes speaking? Sometimes I don't know what I'm responding to or I can't read all my options.
I found out when I began playing that there's a new game coming this year featuring Clem, it's supposed to be her final chapter. When I started didn't think I could play two more Walking Dead Telltale Games. But now that I finished the New Frontier, I'm definitely on the hook for another one of these.
April
Four months into the year and I've gotten to my first game released in 2018!
Sunday, April 22
At the point of writing this I've been playing for two days. Since I started playing Friday afternoon I've only stopped playing for long enough to eat, sleep, and leave the house for an hour yesterday.
In most games within an hour or two you discover the structure reveals itself and it becomes fairly predictable what you'll be doing for the rest of the game. Not since Paper Mario 2 has a game mixed things up this much and kept me guessing. It continues to keep surprising me.
The combat is exhilarating, I'm flying of the seat of my pants. Barely scraping through encounters as I learn the new abilities. The last thing I did before heading to bed last night was a boss encounter (the one in the dark) that I completed on my second attempt one hit away from death using every advantage I could take. The move-set isn't complex, but I'm great at hitting the wrong buttons. Right now it's a tight rope. I hope I can master it rather than get overtaken.
The relationship between Kratos and Atreus is just starting to unravel. But it touches on masculine troubles with intimacy that I personally deeply identify with. My Father and Step-Father were in an accident years ago. My father was killed. Atreus, at one point, expresses identical sentiments I have had about my Step-Father. He says the wrong person died, only he was speaking of his dead mother. At this point in our game I identify with his non-relationship with Kratos. We both don't hate our step father figures, and we each make attempts at shallow connections, but we will never be close. I expect that to change for Kratos and Atreus as the game progresses, but it's probably too late for us.
I'm sure I'll be thinking about this game all day at work today.
May 22
Now that I've cooled from my initial impression I will say what I especially love about GoW is the exploration. The hub world changes as you play through and finding new areas in environment you've previously explored is a blast. I've been hearing some people complain about finding all of the Ravens.
Ravens are my jam, but some of the tougher combat encounters I want nothing to do with. I found when finishing a hard fight, I was just pissed off at the game. Not exuberant and self satisfied like when completing a Cuphead boss. Attacks can be faster than Kratos's animations. Some of these Valkyrie fights require constant dodging, with little no no window for attacks. I was nearing a platinum trophy, but ended up not even bothering with most of the Valkyries.
I also loved how the story draws from the myths. After completing the game I read Neil Gaiman's "Norse Mythology". It shed a lot of light on how the game drew inspiration and where the story is going.
May-August
With the new expansion coming later this year I figured I'd hop in early and catch up on all the stuff I missed in the past year. Broken Isles Flying, new playable sub races, class mounts, and Argus, the new demon infested planet to explore.
Trying to curb my ALToholism by dumping some professions. So far I've only really been playing my rogue. They added 4 more character slot per realm, so that can't last.
I also joined a new guild that is annoyingly persistent about trying to involve its members in guild activities. Maybe this is what I need to break my single player habits. If not, atleast it's nice having some green chat to occasionally engage with. An improvement over my old ghost town guild.
June 23
Well, my altoholism is in full effect now. I'm half way to getting all 12 class mounts. These require completing the class hall story quests and, annoyingly, each character needs to complete the same Legionfall questing achievement too. 6 mounts earned, two 110s working on these quests, and four still left to level from 102. Invasions pop up periodically and really help with the leveling. Hopefully I'll finish before the prepatch next month.
August 11
Completed my goal just in time for the prepatch. Ditched that other guild for a new, friendly, less pvp obsessed one. As fun as the prepatch story quests have been, there hasn't been much new to do the past few weeks besides that. I tried running a few old raids I've never completed before, but I've been taking time off from WoW lately. Decided watching movies or a few episodes of Nathan For You was a better use of my time. But I'm really excited for how they are setting up the plot for this expansion and there are only a few days to go before launch!
May
I enjoyed the first game well enough and I heard plenty of acclaim for the sequel. It still wasn't quite enough to get me on board. I didn't think I needed to play another one of those. But now my habits have changed. I've been playing my handheld games much more than I would before this job. So it was high on my Switch wishlist.
I love exploration gameplay and SWD2 satisfies my needs with a cool twist on the Metroid-vania genre. It has a super gratifying reward system. Not until late in the game, when resources are scarce does it feel like a grind.
The platforming is tight and I was suprised at the many great tools and upgrades you get to navigate the world.
May
I bought Dragon Boy because of the fantastic art. I heard it was a remake of an old game, but didn't think much of it, buy once I played the game it was obvious. At first I was put off by what little the game tells you and the brutality of the lack of checkpoints.
I eventually got the hang of it and began to enjoy exploring the unconventional early Metroidvania world. The character transforms into several creatures that have specific abilities that lock other forms out of certain arms of the world. This may have ultimately screwed me over because I couldn't access the transform room at any time.
Thankfully cash earned persists through death. Saving up for the next upgrade motivated me through some tough, long grinds. Enemies have unusual paths and behaviors. They are erratic and difficult to predict.
The feeling of getting better as I repeatedly tackled a path and progressively got better at mastering each challenge was satisfying initially. I spent hours and thought I mastered an area, surely the boss was near by. I never found that boss. I could only take so much and put it down.
May
I bought this a second time on my Switch because I didn't think I gave it much of a chance on PS4. I like Metroidvania games, and people really seem to like this one.
This game, like Dragon Boy, feels like a relic from the past. It's in love with old fashioned tropes that aren't around any more for a reason.
Hidden areas in tiles that aren't distinct from others. Usually leading to nothing, sometimes a hidden upgrade, but almost never an interesting path. It's more interested in shooting than exploration.
Boss fights with no health bars and no stages lead to boring, long fights with no feedback. How well am I doing? Is changing weapons helping? The choice to endure another attempt or not was very trying.
One gun that changes the behavior of enemies and blocks is interesting. It's the one thing that shows that there may be something to this game later on. But that wasn't enough to keep my interest.
June
I heard about the mobile version of Fortnight, but I wasn't even aware they made PUBG for Android. A few guys at work were playing on their phones and I joined in for a day. It's the only version of the game I've tried despite seeing it played by the bomb crew many times.
I was appalled by the overweilming number of menus and currencies I discovered while I was searching for basic character customization.
The game plays surprisingly well on my old Note 5. While the touch controls aren't ideal, they are fairly adequate.
My primary frustration with the gameplay was the initial gearing up phase. I don't want to deal with inventory management, collecting weapons and upgrades for a short single round of gameplay. My attention span couldn't handle it, I just wanted to hop in a car and get the action started.
Maybe Arcade Mode would be more my speed, but I didn't play enough games to unlock it.
June-July
Picked this up for my Switch because it was on sale and I was into the aesthetic. I played about half of the game. It was fairly easy to solve puzzles after a few attempts of trial and error. The sluggish core mechanic of rotating the level became tiresome. Especially when the floaty gravity made it difficult to judge how the character would slide or fall off an edge. These frustrations were amplified when he was up-side-down.
I put it down for a while and when returning to it I had trouble remembering how one of the more advanced mechanics, the black portal, worked. I'm not sure I fully understood it before. That was the nail in the coffin, I probably won't return to The Bridge.
August
I heard about this game on the Idle Thumbs podcast when I resubbed and listened to some old episodes. It just so happened it was to be released on the Switch was that week.
I wasn't sure how much legs the concept of a zelda-like with a 60 second lifespan had. I imagined an incredibly dense world iminating from a single point. It was when I discovered a second spawn point that the concept really opened up. Though, ultimately a brief experience it satisfied my exploration itch while doing away with pesky things like combat.
A much more difficult second quest extends the value. It turns the fairly harmless enemies into vicious terrors that will kill in a single hit by restricting you to one heart. Also, the time limit is reduced to 40 seconds. Forcing you to use speedrun level precision to complete a handful of objectives.
Well worth my $11. I'd like to see what someone could do with this concept on a bigger scale.
August-November
September 8
The latest expansion for WoW started off great. Last expansion had a focus on class exclusive content, but this one is going all out on faction content. This time there are two completely different continents, one Horde and one Alliance. This echoes back to vanilla WoW, when each faction's identity was defined early on in their home zones and then lead to conflict in the "contested" zones shared by each side.
I enjoyed playing through Kul Tiras on my Alliance rogue. Discovering more about this human faction that played a key role in the Warcraft RTS games, but haven't been seen in WoW. Their massive capital city, Boralus, is a beautiful representation of Imperialist England. I spend most of my time in a small section of town with the inn, portals and crafting trainers. Unlike other hub cities Boralus expands to include a palace, slums, harbor and other districts to interact with through questing.
The rest of Kul Tiras does a great job of fleshing out the history and culture of this land. Motivated, partially, on his influence on WoW's Old Gods I recently read a collection of H.P. Lovecraft stories. I especially felt their influence this time as ancient cults lead by a hidden, evil presence from the sea is a large part of the story. Witches, pirates, giant bees, lovable aristocrats, and peaceful turtle sages flesh out the world.
While questing in Kul Tiras I would occasionally participate in a short quest on the Horde allied troll continent, Zandalar. This place remains a mystery to me because I've yet to level a Horde character. I detect a hint of satire in the alliance campaign against the trolls. I could be mistaken, but our ignorance of the culture of this land and hatred for the horde leads us to ally with the wrong people. Finishing the campaign and unlocking world quests has shed some light on this new world, but now that I'm feeling the reputation grind, I need a break. Hopefully I'll finish the Horde story before my time is up in November.
October 30
The new content of this expansion hasn't been popular among the player base. Azerite armor gives players a choice of picking a handful of buffs for each head, helm, or shoulder armor collected. The difference they make to minute to minute game play is negligible. I haven't felt the need to go out of my way to upgrade them. This means I stopped at the minimum 5 Island Expeditions, another new BFA feature.
The new Warfront is a big, confusing mess I barely engaged with. It's on a strange timer I don't understand. I got some decent gear there and they upgraded a long unused zone for this ambitious feature. It looks to bring RTS elements into big PVE Horde vs Alliance battles. I truly hope they are able to make something out of this feature that the player base can love. I doubt I would spend much time there if it was better.
I'm happy to say I participated in the first current guild raid run since Wrath of the Lich King on my Alliance rogue. Unfortunately I ended up playing my horde character almost exclusively after that. The gear grind does not motivate me to repeatedly play the same content over and over.
I really only play WoW for the story. Aside from a bit of crafting on my Warlock, I've stuck with one alt per faction this expansion. In the past it was professions that made me alt reliant. This time I vowed only one of my alts would do crafting, even then I didn't do much. This decision was a massive weight lifted from my shoulders.
Fleshing out the troll kingdom of Zandalar was just as fun as discovering Kul Tiras for the first time. I earned the gratitude of many unique loa gods worshiped by the Trolls. My favorites included the tortollan people's pilgrimage to listen the story telling turtle god, Torga. The playfully sinister Troll loa of death,
Bwonsamdi, who greets you at every graveyard when you die. Or the thieving trickster saurid dinosaur loa, Jani (god of garbage), who enjoys humbling those who would harm the forgotten poor or helpless.
In the desert zone of Vol'Dun live the banished criminals of Zandalar empire and a new scrappy scavenger race of fox people Vulpera. Also the Sethrak snake people civil war.
The Horde's role in this story is quite different. All of your heroic acts ultimately benefit the dark agenda of War Chief Sylvanas. This is most apparent in the Horde campaign on Kul Tiras. Where you'll be resurrecting key Kul Tirans as forsaken. This provides an excellent opportunity to explore what it means to be undead. This is a race of humans, formerly of the alliance, who are now at war with those they once called family because they are viewed as monsters.
Lately I've only been playing in the mornings, rep grinding on my Horde character. I only have a couple days left. I canceled my subscription, not because I'm not happy with the new features, but because it's time for a long break from WoW. I really enjoyed coming back after 15 months off for the late stages of Legion. It's time to play some different games. I look forward to returning before the next expansion's launch.
August-September
The first time I bought Okami was ages ago on the Wii. The gorgeous art, comparisons to Zelda, and unique brush mechanics were all reasons I regret falling off at the time. It's a game I always wanted to return to.
Returning to Okami HD on the Switch, I can see why. The game gives a bad first impression.
It's incredibly talky. While you play as a silent wolf god, there's a horny blabber-mouth Sprite, Issun, that spends the majority of the game being an asshole to every character in the game. Except the women, who he calls "babe", making it even harder to tell the similar looking female characters apart. He's also keen revealing the solution to some obvious puzzles puzzles before you have a chance to try.
The brush abilities are fairly difficult to get the hang of early on. A few tricks (keep Power Slash lines horizontal and look for smoke on interactive spots in drawing mode) helped turn them from unplayable to tolerably inconsistent. On top of it all, Issun will chime in every time a brush stroke fails in scripted moments to insult you.
The story starts off fairly simple, so I was wasn't expecting much in the early hours. The typical set up is not what it appears to be and it has some surprising twists. Characters aren't always what they seem. Even Issun has a touching arch. Themes of masculine aggression, compassion and the importance of art especially rung true for me.
The open world hasn't aged well, but I enjoyed exploring its corners. The collectibles, for the most part, are too numerous to feel important. Too many non-unique treasures and consumables are the rewards from exploration. The one checklist I did care about was finding and feeding each animal type.
Combat was removed from the open world in small arenas. The camera in these areas made it difficult to follow the action. Enemies would often attack from off screen. Using brush techniques on enemies was great, if you could figure out what enemy was weak to what. The weaknesses are too specific and brush abilities too numerous to find with logic. Even the bestiary entry, earned after defeating an enemy, only reveals sometimes.
I'm glad I finally crossed Okami off of my "to play" list. If I stuck with it back on the Wii maybe I would have appreciated aspects that haven't aged so well. On the other hand, I the story may not have resonated as well with 21 year old me and the Switch's touch screen was surely an improvement over the Wiimote.
September
I hadn't played a Spider-Man game since the much talked about Spider-Man 2 on the GameCube. As great as the swinging was I wasn't yet sold on the GTA influenced barren open worlds and repetitive mission designs of the time. So I was excited to play a new Spider-Man game that would be a worthy successor of the N64 game.
I thought was already out, so by chance, I ended up buying Spider-Man 2018 two minutes before the preorder window closed. I'm glad I did, it was a much needed break from WoW.
I've never been to New York City, but it's a place I've always wanted to go. I bought GTA IV twice because I really wanted to play an open world game set there, but I never got far (I know it's technically "Liberty City"). Spider-Man finally scratches that itch. Swinging around this beautifully rendered Manhattan is a blast. A few additions to the swinging do a great job to maintain momentum and keep Spider-Man in the air.
Combat is a bit of a mixed bag. When it works well Spider-Man leaps around the battlefield, from target to target, juggling enemies in the air while dodging and tossing explosives back. Problem is far too often Spider-Man's attacks hit the wrong target and dodging doesn't necessarily mean you won't get hit. The latter is especially annoying when when the big Brute enemy rapidly attacks. It's not enough to spoil the game for me. You could even make a case that Spider-Man, barely holding on, not quite in control echoes Peter Parker's life.
Also, the story is better than any Spider-Man movie (edit: at the time I played this statement was true, but this is a good year for Spider-Man).
September
Nintendo Online has launched, along with a collection of NES games. Some I'm familiar with, some I'm not. I'm happy to say I know what Dr.Mario is now. I like the potential of this service, as there's plenty of old games I haven't played, but was never motivated enough to pick up in other incarnations. Even games I have on Wii U from Club Nintendo I'm much more likely to play on a portable device.
Like Super Mario Bros 3, I took this opportunity to play through it in its entirety. I didn't own an NES at the time, but it was one of a handful of formative games I played a lot at friends' houses. Even when I had All Stars on my SNES, I never drove myself to beat it. Before Mario 64 I tended to restart games and play the early levels more than tough out the hard parts.
I went in with the goal of seeing every level. These NES Mario games are designed to be able to skip ahead. As a kid I had no issues using warp whistles, not this time, but I didn't have any problems abusing suspend points. I remember previously playing levels as late as World 8.
To be able to finally feel first hand how the Frog Suit controls and what makes the Tanooki suit different from the tail was enlightening. There were other power ups I didn't even remember, like the level skip cloud (never used) and the full P meter tail.
This game was full of surprises. I always associated Mario World with complex back tracking, exploration levels and secret exits. So it was a revelation when I found a level that required flying through the ceiling to complete. And another level with a series of stars that must be collected in perfect execution. These were things I thought only existed in Mario Maker.
The Bowser (King Koopa?) fight was a cool twist on Mario 1's fights by dropping him in a pit of his own making. Right after reading the Princess's self referential "in another castle" joke I decided to play through Super Mario Bros in one sitting. It wasn't as full of surprises, I realized I had played most of these levels. This time the only mid-level suspend point I used was for the most annoying jump in the game in 8-2.
It was good to have closure for both of these formative games, I'm happy to say I've beaten them both. Hopefully Mario 2, and Zelda 2 will come to the Switch soon.
September-November
Over the 60 hours of playing Hollow Knight I had a lot of ups and downs. I was initially attracted to this game because I love the art. The cartoony characters and the gorgeously rendered world alone may have warranted a purchase from me. On top of that there's been a lot of buzz around this new Metroivania that set it apart. The one sticking point was hearing how hard it is. I don't normally suffer through punishingly difficult games, but when I do it's for the art.
For the most part I enjoyed exploring the world of Hollow Knight. There's a variety of biomes that unfold in an unpredictable way that always keeps things interesting. The map isn't as precise as other Metroidvanias, this was the cause of much frustration. The game doesn't broadcast hidden areas, so I found myself slashing at and jumping into plain looking walls constantly as I played. I was playing Resident Evil at the same time, one idea I think they could have borrowed from that game was to give an indication when an area was cleared. At about 45 hours in I begrudgingly downloaded a map to avoid continued aimless backtracking across the entire world for hidden items. I felt I did pretty okay on my own, but I don't think I would have found the last couple key items without it.
Boss fights drove me up the wall! They attack from off screen, unpredictably mix up their patterns, give little to no window for healing and have NO health bar! I equipped my charms for maximum health at the cost of no healing for fights because I felt healing was virtually impossible. That didn't give me many other charm options. Fortunately there was always more of the world to explore to get stronger and come back to a troublesome boss later. Until there wasn't.
I never completed Hollow Knight, I wasn't having fun with the remaining bosses once I ran out of areas to explore. The story touches on some interesting themes, but was too sparse and vague to compel me to finish the game.
In some ways this game was made for someone other than me, and it's something I wrestled with. While I'd like to play a game that is more forgiving, many of my criticisms would change what makes the game so great. I don't particularly like boss fights to begin with. This game subverts the conventions of typical video games for boss fanatics. It's a similar struggle to how I feel about the Souls games. Early in my Hollow Knight playthough I felt compelled to buy Dark Souls for Switch, but by the end that desire faded.
October 6
Inspired by playing the NES Mario games, I went and beat Bowser in Mario World. This was my real white whale game. My long time ambition was never really to beat the NES games, but for years I've had the itching desire to finish World. I've owned it most of my life, but never got past Vanilla fortress or Butter Bridge as a kid.
As is the case with backlogs, I kept putting it off for years. I still own the cart, but this attempted complete play through is on Wii U. I hadn't touched it in a while. I had cleared up to Bowser's castle, but was working on Star Road. Tonight I just cheesed my way through to the credits using save points. After more than a quarter of a century I can say I've finished Super Mario World! Still... I don't think I'll be fully satisfied until I complete Star Road.
October
Like the Mario games Resident Evil is another long time backlog game. I never owned a PlayStation, so it wasn't until GameCube that I bought this game for the first time. I played the PS4 version this month. I like how it's basically an adventure game about exploring a spooky mansion with some legitimately great thrills sprinkled in. It's always nagged at me as one of the top games I wish I had finished.
My memory blamed limited ink ribbon saves as the reason I never stuck with it, this time I'm playing on easy for maximum ribbons and ammo.
I've rediscovered all the little ways at how Resident Evil makes things difficult for the player every step of the way. Inventory management! With only 8 inventory slots available, I was constantly backtracking to swap out items at the storage chest. A key takes up as much space as a shotgun!
I forgot zombies don't stay dead, unless you burn them or are lucky enough to get a head shot. Burning requires a full flask and a lighter. That's two inventory spaces, and frequent trips to a depleting kerosene jug. Due to that and the poor shooting mechanics I eventually started running past zombies. This was not always effective, but good enough to get around most of the time.
I realize my frustrations add to the "survival horror" spirit that makes this game special. This is a type of game they don't make anymore, for good reason. But there is a good old fashioned charm to the presentation of this game. The fixed cameras may send me through the door I just came through a few times, but they add to the horror of not seeing the danger in front of you.
Unfortunately I slowly dropped off, not getting around to playing it some nights. My will didn't match my intention. With the release of Red Dead Redemption 2, things aren't looking so good. If I do manage to return this year, I will update this entry.
October-December
This game!
I've never completed a Rockstar game, besides LA Noire (if that counts), yet I usually end up playing them. Something about their ambition and influence hooks me every time. Rarely at launch, though. RDR2's hype drew me in harder than usual. I may have felt a bit guilty for not completing the last Red Dead. It has a particularly high critical regard in retrospect and was immune to the immature brand of humor of the GTA series. I was better prepared to accept RDR2 as a game I could be into.
Then I played it.
The snowy mountain tutorial was a compelling introduction to the characters and the story. Once I reached the open world I was smitten with the feature to study animals. I wanted to find every creature in the game and draw them in my sketchbook.
Another early goal I found was to craft upgrades for my inventory. But I couldn't until I:
-Bought crafting tools from the camp upgrade menu that I didn't discover till hours later. After I searched the shop in town because the game tells you nothing.
-Collected an assortment of "perfect hides" that require specific ammo types, weapon types, and it's not enough that you need a specific animal, but a high quality one
-Unlocked weapons that are visible, but inexplicably not purchasable in the gun shop in town
-Crafted ammo, that I couldn't figure out how until long after I had completely given up on the whole thing
-Actually track down the beasts, a whole other can of worms
Playing this game has been an experience that is full of nagging little things that add up to a whole lot. It is a maddening experience. Yet I still found myself wanting to find out why people are enjoying this game. My will was so shook I went for long periods without touching it, sometimes as long as a week. Yet my intent was always to return.
I eventually found a way to enjoy it by ignoring essentially everything but the story missions. I made sure to do any stranger missions I ran across too. Maybe late game would be the time to delve into crafting. The story of a family of bandits on the run is pretty great. There are a few too many characters in the group for me to keep track of, but a handful of them really stood out.
The detail in the world provides a spectacular sense of immersion, until I'm ripped out of it by something dumb. Like rapidly looping dialogue of NPCs telling me to hurry up when I take a direct, brief route to my horse. This is a constant for story missions and infuriating to no end. It's not so much the a slow pace that bothers me, but the game wants you to operate and its own pace. Sometimes you're thrust into surprise story missions. You'll die if you don't time your semi scripted stealth kill just when the game wants you to execute it. Looting and exploring an area after a mission will get you hunted by the authorities.
There is far more attention paid to adding detail into the world than designing a good game play experience. Hides fall off your horse, and hats off your head. It may be realistic, but it just means I don't get to wear a hat or have hides. I rely on auto aim to hit anything, but even then it may take multiple dead on shots to do damage. A few times I was ambushed by groups of guys on the road I had no hope of defeating or running from. I lost my first horse from one of these ambushes deep into the game. I unexpectedly get marked for crimes, loose honor, or blow away innocent NPCs.
I often am reminded of Breath of the Wild when I play RDR2. They both draw on the real world to attempt to push the open world genre ahead. Everything Zelda does is to support a tight gameplay experience, but RDR2 doesn't care. I imagine longtime Rockstar fans are more accustom to how these games play and can operate at the same wavelength without all the friction I've run into. This may have always been the case for me. My DNA is Nintendo, not Rockstar.
My latest unintended break from the game comes from being too busy to play games, I won't place the blame entirely at RDR2's feet. Maybe I'll return or maybe this review is my way of closing the book on this game.
(Prologue)
November 20
I was browsing the PSN store, as I often do while playing Red Dead, and noticed this free trial of Hitman 2. It's a game that has been on my radar, but for whatever reason I never bought it.
Here was my risk free chance to try it. It was only two tutorial missions, I completed each once, but I could see myself playing more of this. Both Hitman 1 and 2 are full price right now, so maybe in the new year. Until then I could further explore these two maps, I would have last night, but the next game on my list ended up dominating my evening.
November 20-21
This was a blast to complete the story (and buy every property) in virtually one sitting. I was up until 1:00 am, something I never do anymore. The perfect silly fun break I needed from Red Dead Redemption 2.
This is a great example of how the overall package can make up for core gameplay that is less than steller. While a revolving limo is unique, and there is a level of mastery that someone (other than myself) can achieve, it's not something I'd need to see expand to other games. The goofy FMV video and many collectibles kept me hooked for the night. I kept playing because I wasn't sure if I would return to it if I stopped, but I wanted to see it to the end.
November-December
Pinball Metroidvania. You wouldn't think this would work, but it does. I like Metroidvania games and I heard this was a good one, so I thought I'd check it out. It's a dense world full of secrets and wacky characters. I'm down with everything it does presentation wise. It's got catchy music and a colourful painterly art style.
Where my frustrations come in comes from its devotion to pin ball, but it's hard to knock it for that. I don't have a lot of experience with pinball. Maybe very brief encounters with digital pinball, and I'm not sure if I've ever played on a real machine. What I came to realize about pinball while playing Yoku was how randomness is just part of the experience. Sometimes the ball is going to fall between the paddles or it will take time to knock it just right to get it where I need it. I got used to it, to a degree, but it hampered my enthusiasm to fully explore the world and find all of the collectibles.
December
Celeste is hard. Wasn't sure if I wanted to play another punishing game so soon after Hollow Knight. I got to the third (of eight) level and reached a spot I agonized over for a while. That place I find myself in hard games where I get to my breaking point.... then try again, and again. With a heavy heart I started over in assist mode. Although, in hindsight, I may have forgotten I could grip to walls and that was why I struggled so much at this particular part.
It's a neat idea to have a mode that allows the player to finely tune multiple metrics to personalize the difficulty. Early on I fell to the temptation a couple times to completely nerf the game. Yet, all I used was wall grip for the last two levels.
It's really cool that each level has new gameplay hooks. This game is full of hidden areas and clever platforming, but I can't say I enjoyed playing it very much. I spent much of my time being mad at what it was making me do and praying the end would come soon. You are encouraged to return to the levels to find secrets, strawberries and finish with better times. But they are long nightmares I don't care to relive.
Where Celeste shines brightest is the story, it's what motivated me to get through. It tackles the struggle of depression and anxiety that I can relate to. How self doubt can hold you back. Hopefully people who play this game can begin to understand mental illness learn to hold back their judgement.
December 10
Donut County is a rad little thing I finished in a sitting and completed the platinum trophy later the same day. It's a very laid back gameplay experience where the appeal is watching what clever, funny events unfold. In this sense I got a softer, simpler Jazz Punk vibe. It was always fun gobbling up everything in sight with an ever growing remote controlled hole.
BK is a likable fun loving Raccoon who's actions cause pain to the people around him. His best friend Mira shows him what it's like to loose something to try and help him understand the destruction he has caused. In a culture full of toxic discourse it's great to see a, mostly, positive story about compassion.
December
Got a PSVR this Christmas! Previously my time with VR amounted to a handful of Gear and Cardboard experiences on phones. Astro Bot is my first real game on a proper headset.
This was a great little platformer to introduce me to the new tech. The concept of controlling the camera with my own head immediately opened up new possibilities to find secrets hidden behind me or around a corner. Astro Bot is full of ideas that capitalize on VR immersion, at one point I'm knocking soccer balls with my head while seaweed dangles from it.
This is a game that owes a lot to Mario, and isn't shy about it, but what platformer doesn't? The short, themed, Galaxy like, levels don't ware out their welcome. They take the right lessons from Nintendo by focusing on what's fun and trimming the fat.
It has enough original ideas that it has its own identity. Boss characters bring personality and a sense of scale that plays well in VR. The The Astro Bots themselves are goofy little characters that will salute at you as you playfully smack them around, much like your troops in MGS5. As you rescue them they'll rocket into your controller and you can see them all pop out of the touch pad and adorably wave their arms.
Watching a virtual controller track your real life movement is another fun novelty of VR. There are a handful of abilities that utilize the touch screen and motion control to add variety to the game play. For the most part they worked okay, but I did have to restart the level once because my tracking was way off.
The music is fantastic and the Bots dance at the end of each level as you slingshot into the sun. This game is one joyful good time disco party.
December 30-31
I managed to squeeze one last game into the year to make it an even 10 in 2018.
My first impression of Moss was the sense of scale enhanced by by the immersion of a VR headset. Seated in a grand cathedral with a tome positioned in front of me I began my adventure by manually turning the page. I found myself constantly looking around, admiring each environment throughout my time with Moss. From the intimate dioramas of a village home or a stone temple's halls. To the grand vistas of a forest swamp or a castle's towers.
Moss contrasts deeply with my first VR game in its subtly. Astro Bot is a bombastic experience, but Moss takes its time, allowing you to take the deliberately told story. The adorable mouse Quill's animations are a treat. The way her tail moves or her interactions with you, "The Reader". She'll acknowledge you to point and give you hints, or offer a high five.
I had trouble with the tracking on the motion controlled portions of the game. It recommends the PS camera be placed underneath my TV, but that doesn't really work for my set up. The light environmental puzzle solving is satisfying, but combat could be a bit cumbersome when attempting to get The Reader's glowing orb to cooperate. I appreciate the ability to recalibrate from the pause menu, a feature I wish Astro Bot had.
Even without the motion control issues animation priority required a bit of a learning curve when it came to combat and platforming that requires precise timing. In one instance even one of Quill's uninterruptible pointing hint animations prevented me from making the jump I wanted to make. Requiring me to reset an elaborate timing puzzle.
Still it wasn't enough to hamper the overall experience. I loved guiding Quill through the beautifully crafted world of Moss. Smashing pots and finding hidden scrolls is as fun as it has always been, but this new headset lets me see it in a new perspective.
