Games I am checking out because of the GOTY stuff

• I ignored Outer Wilds because it looks like a game thats not for me, but I read Alex's piece on it in his list- he is me, and he was able to push past himself to find enjoyment.
• Overland completely flew under my radar because the Switch Releases come so fast and without a lot of coverage. Abby's coverage in her GOTY video had me on board.
• Does anyone have that bug with the Epic Game Store where the game in your library is stuck on 'loading' status and you cant install it? That's me. I WANT TO PLAY CONTROL!
• I am not a call of duty person but the staff has me trying it out, that and my RTX 2070 Super.
• I already knew broccoli was good- ben should check out roasted brussels sprouts

To new players of Outer Wilds:

Just don't feel anxiously rushed because it's a time loop game. There's truely nothing to lose through the end of a cycle besides like... 20 seconds of travel time. Take your time in the initial city with everything.

Once you're out and about, the system is your oyster. There is no checkpoints, there is no right thing to do, it's all about collecting knowledge that will naturally fit together as you collect more (and that puzzle is conveniently layed out on the board in your ship [in two different arrangements, even! that you can toggle between]).

Oh and a correction to the deliberation: time freezes when you read slabs so don't feel the need to speed read.

Was going to start this exact thread.

Outer Wilds; I had the same experience as Jeff put in maybe 3-5 hours and just wasn't feeling it. In general I struggle with space flight controls.

Bloodstained; I didn't watch the Vinnyvania series. So had no idea this was something special. Passed me by completely, best thing it's on game pass!

Hypnospace outlaw: despite Kickstarting this and contributing some voixe samples for the game I gotta play this. I ended up skipping so much of the discussion as what I heard convinced me it's a must play.

Disco Elysium; I watched the quick look and I think like many it out me off but Ben's love for it changed my mind.

I bought Outer Wilds because of the discussions (I skipped over the story and top 10 list spoilers).

Ape Out was free on the Epic store like two days ago, so I'm not really giving that a shot because of GOTY, but Alex made me want to click on it more than I did before.

I want to get COD but I don't have PS+ so getting it and that seems too steep just for good COD multiplayer.

@sloppydetective: I thankfully have a horrible memory so I’ve already forgotten the spoilers lol

I going to check out Judgement. Alex made a great *ahem* case for it.

Neo Cab. The way Alex described the story, being one where you really care about someone who also takes advantage of you and everyone else, made me very interested.

Despite none of them liking the game, I ended up picking up Ancestors: The Humankind Journey after their discussion of it, and I'm enjoying it so far.

Disco Elysium. I had initially dismissed it as a stripped-down David Cage or Telltale game, but Ben's anecdote about threatening kids and its lasting repercussions was shocking so I have to see for myself. Seems like something where you have to be in the moment, in the character's shoes to fully get it.

Outer Wilds for sure. I bounced off of it super hard at first. I forced myself to push through the beginning because of how effusive the praise was from a lot of people I respect (including the GB Crew and Austin Walker).

I am so glad I did. I ended up plowing through it in three days. All I want to do is talk about it with other people who have beaten it now. It's such a tightly crafted experience that reduces video games almost to first principles, much to it's own benefit. It's charming, witty, melancholy, existentially dreadful but also heart warming and full of hope. I haven't felt that good after completing a game in a really long time.

This is actually a setting, but it defaults to on. You can also make it freeze time when you are in the rumor map and when in regular conversations. Those default to off.

I guess I knew that I was gonna play Outer Wilds some day because I muted the podcast any time it was brought up. Vinny putting it on top of his top 10 games list convinced me to play it sooner rather than later.

I heard this game described as an "adventure game" and I always thought they meant "adventure" as in how Uncharted is considered an "adventure", but I was surprised to find out they actually meant "point-and-click" style of adventure. This game is basically a modern, sci-fi take on MYST. It was surprising because it seems to have clicked with a lot of people, and who gives a shit about adventure games this day and age? A lot of adventure games live or die on the merits of storytelling and world building alone and gameplay takes a backseat. Outer Wilds is no exception, but the way the world is constructed is exceptionally well done and joyous to explore (and I'm a sucker for sci-fi). There were a few annoying puzzles where I had to wander aimlessly until basically stumble upon solution that betrays rules set up by the fiction of the universe, but that's par for the course for a traditional adventure game. Anyway, it was a pleasant surprise and I enjoyed it.

Edit: Went googling to see if anybody made MYST comparison and the developer's fig fundraising page straight up says "Equal parts Myst, Kerbal Space Program, and Majora's Mask" and that made me chuckle

I just finished the demo of The Occupation after hearing about it during GOTY talk and it's got a firm hold on me!

Ape Out. I had it downloaded through Game Pass, but never got around to it. But with the way Alex talked it up, I can't ignore it anymore. I generally trust his take on games (especially when there's rhythmn involved).

I passed on Outer Wilds because I didn't think it would be for me based on early coverage/discussion. After hearing about the amazing experiences some of the GB crew had with it I'm kinda sad that I missed out. Unfortunately, I think I've probably heard too many spoilers for the game at this point where even if I did go back and play it I don't think it would hit in the same way :(

Outer Wilds (a little before GOTY with how Brad talked about it)

Dicey Dungeons

Kind Words

Like seemingly everyone, I also picked up Outer Wilds. While it was very frustrating a lot of the time and I don't think I could say I loved it, I was compelled to keep coming back to it and thought the secrets were a lot of fun to uncover.

Slay the Spire. I'm a huge fan of roguelike but very much not a fan of card games.

Or so I thought. I've been playing it all weekend, and now my brother and I (who also recently tried the game) are debating which multiplayer digital CCG to get into.

There are a bunch of games I discovered throughout the year thanks to GB content, but if we're narrowing it down to GOTY, the crew sold me on Outer Wilds and Control. I was on the fence with Control and had largely written off Outer Wilds earlier in the year. In the run up to GOTY, they definitely got me with Ring Fit Adventure. There's no way I would have picked that up otherwise.

Sadly I don't play as many games but some of them I still care about so GOTY can be strange. In this case Control ended up being one of the biggest. So I just stopped the casts and I am now in the middle (I'm gonna guess 80%?) of Control. Cool game! I'm definitely having some issues here and there but overall I'm really liking it.

Then may be I'll get around to finishing GOTY cast 4 and 5. I've only listened to parts of each. I also see them making me interested in Outter Wilds. Other than that (besides the games I played ofcourse) I really don't think i'll do much more than look at a video really quick if anything at all.

........Waiting for Doom Eternal.

@darkmoney52: Try out Hearthstone. They have singleplayer roguelike adventures that are as good as StS. Several of them are also free.

Man, so many games I want to check out from last year. From the GOTY lists, top ten games I want to try are:

10. Slay the Spire
09. Sekiro
08. Hypnospace Outlaw
07. Life is Strange 2
06. A Short Hike
05. Eliza
04. Disco Elysium
03. AI: The Somnium Files
02. Devotion
01. Outer Wilds

I’ve gotten Yooka Laylee and the Impossible Lair and Ape Out free from that Epic Games free event, but I haven’t booted them up yet. I should. I have been playing What the Golf and Grindstone thanks to the deliberations though. Also thanks to Adam Conover, The New York Tomes Crossword app.

So I just finished the podcasts the other week and although I have played most of the games I knew I would be into, the one game the podcasts got me to try was Outer Wilds. While I didn’t have Jeff’s issue of not feeling like the game was pointing me in any direction, a lot of the mechanics I found out by mere chance. Learning to use the decoder or the radio thing was completely on accident.

And while the game certainly tells you ”hey, there’s some stuff on this place”, I never feel like I have enough of a perspective to piece any sort of relevancy together. So it all ends up feeling very aimless. That being said, I can see the clockwork of it all and that in and of itself is very impressive. And even solving a puzzle was very fun. However, once the loop restarts, I found that I wasn’t blown away and in fact mostly felt defeated. That’s not the game, I know that listening to the podcasts, but something about starting over on square one just felt like a chore all of a sudden. Maybe I’ll return to it some day, but my initial impression is that it seems like a very well crafted concept that demands more investment upfront than it’s willing to give you in return until a promised ’later on’.

Picked up Control, just got through the Ashtray maze which was visually astounding in an Inception kind of way.

Outer Wilds and Outer Worlds I want to grab, though I am starting a new job in a few weeks so anything very mentally involved may need to get shelved for a bit.

Dicey Dungeons I would love to see on Apple Arcade.

I went back and finished Outer Wilds (which I played at launch and had subsequently dropped about 8 hours in after wandering aimlessly for far too long) after I heard them talk about how to get into the core of Giant's Deep. I don't quite love it as much as most of the staff did, but it's undeniably a hell of an achievement and I can't wait to see what the devs make next.