The UUGPGC is taking a week off. How did you like it in 2022? What can be better in 2023? +game rankings

Hey all!

So nobody voted for any games this week and we're going to take a week off. Take this time to catch up, play other games not for the Game Club (HOW COULD YOU?) and just generally be chill and awesome people.

What did you think of the Gameclub in 2022 if you participated? Why didn't you participate if you didn't? What were your favorite games? Least favorite?

Most importantly how can the club be improved? What procedural changes would you like to see? How can I do better? IT'S FESTIVUS SEASON SO AIR YOUR GREIVANCES.

To kick off the discussion here is my totally impartial ranking of the games we played from worst to best. I will be excluding Escape Academy because I was too busy to play that one and noting the ones I didn't finish.

23) Scorn (My least favorite gaming experience of the year. Did not finish.)

22) Metal Hellsinger (Bland and annoying. Didn't play much of this one but enough to know I hated it!)

21) Exo One (Just boring. A boring, boring, game.)

20) Signs of the Sojourner (I liked the narrative okay but the card game flat out sucked. And I love card based games! Did not finish.)

19) Raji: An Ancient Epic (Kind of unpolished and not very exciting to play but very pretty. It's okay.)

18) Gorogoa (Very pretty and at times had cool puzzles but could be annoying and was not as clever as it thinks it is.)

17) As Dusk Falls (I liked this one but found the graphical style offputting and the story sags in the second half.)

16) The Pedestrian (Decent puzzle platformer. I wish the end were longer.)

15) Infernax (A fun Castlevania clone that was a little frustarting at times.)

14) Telling Lies (A decent narrative that was also a bit boring at time. I liked Her Story more and really wanted to love this but instead I just thought it was...good.)

13) Trek to Yomi (Combat was janky. Otherwise I had a good time with this.)

12) Procession to Cavalry (I thought it was clever and funny but also at times a little frustrating and very full of itself. Good overall.)

11) Unpacking (Glad I finally got to this. I didn't like playing in long sessions but it was great to do one level and put it aside for a bit and then pick it up again later. It's not as great as its reputation but I liked it.)

10) Record of Lodoss War (A pretty Metroidvania that could have used a more coherent story but at least it had a lot of fun bosses.)

9) Superliminal (A good first person puzzle game that could have been a little less of a Portal Clone but had some very creative puzzles.)

8) Pentiment (I need to play more of this but I like the art and the very deliberate pace of the storytelling. Manages to create a real sense of place with 2D art. Good!)

7) Midnight Fight Express (Fun brawler that had enough jank and annoying parts that I couldn't quite reach the flow state with it. Horrible vehicle segments.)

6) TMNT: Shredder's Revenge (Liked this game a lot. Old school throwback. No complaints!)

5) Norco (Need to play more of this but wonderful atmosphere.)

4) Paradise Killer (I love love love this game's aesthetic but the gameplay parts could be better and at times it can be a bit too convoluted for its own good. Also the lore is intentionally weird. But oh that gorgeous faux 32 bit world and those characters.)

3) Bugsnax (Loved both the story and the gameplay here. I played it on PS5 near launch and it is one of my favorites for the system.)

2) Citizen Sleeper (Probably my favorite visual novel of all time. The writing is among the best in gaming history. So good.)

1) Inside (One of my all time favorites. The atmosphere the gameplay and the puzzles. Sublime. And that ending!)

There we go, the definitive rankings. As we can see I really liked most of what I played for the club and I enjoyed the experience too. I wish there were more participants but the discussions have been fun and it has been good motivation to get through games (even if I haven't been perfect.)

8/10 would do club again. And will in the New Year. A better version of the club. WITH YOUR SUGGESTIONS!

I enjoyed participating in the club, even though I didn't play every game. It pushed me to games I wouldn't have touched otherwise, Gorogoa especially, and helped me finish NORCO. My lone suggestion is that we carve out a longer timespan every once in a while so we can tackle bigger and/or more open-ended games.

I do love a good ranking, so here's my own:

DQed (did not play): As Dusk Falls, Infernax, Midnight Fight Express, Paradise Killer, Procession to Cavalry, Raji: An Ancient Epic, Signs of the Sojourner, and Telling Lies (though my wife did and hated it).

15. Trek to Yomi - my least favorite game of 2022

14. Exo One

13. Superliminal - did not finish

12. The Pedestrian - ended just as it was getting interesting

11. TMNT: Shredder's Revenge

10. Gorogoa - one of those levels was way too frustrating but my most admired game short of Pentiment on this list for certain

9. Record of Lodoss War: Deedlit in Wonder Labyrinth: Metroidvania slashhack 2.76: :

8. Unpacking

7. Scorn - well, I liked it

6. Metal Hellsinger - barely missed my top 10 this year

5. NORCO

4. Inside

3. Bugsnax

2. Pentiment

1. Citizen Sleeper - nearly my 2022 GOTY if not for that pesky Elden Ring!

@allthedinos: I don't understand why you made a list that differed from my list, which, as I said, is definitive. And you somehow had a typo that implied you liked Scorn? Weird stuff, man.

As for your idea of making longer cycles for longer games...that was actually part of my initial pitch. I fell off it because people tended to vote against extended times when given the option but it's definitely something I would consider if others also like the idea. The downsides are that some people may forget what they played if we take too long and also you just lose some momentum. But maybe we could have midway check ins or something.

Thanks for your participation in the club. You played a lot of the games! It was always intended as a drop in drop out thing.

I don't really have too many grievances about the formatting. I definitely fell off in the back half of the club, but a new job took priority for a bit. I'm hoping to get back into a routine for next year.

I'm still playing through Pentiment, but I stream it out to some friends and have been doing the VO for it all, so it's taking a lot longer than expected. And I'm on mobile so I don't feel like typing out a ranked list for what I participated in, but I would like to come back and do that later.

The only thing I wouldn't mind, is if anyone wanted to be friends on XBL. I think seeing someone else playing the game in the club, might push me to further complete my playthrough? Could just be me,

but just in case, my gamertag is threedaysago#603 (dunno when they added #numbers since those definitely weren't there when I made my account...).

@noboners: I think swapping gamertags is a fine idea, especially because some of the games have a multiplayer component. I'm Benthemild on Xbox Live.

I need to know more about this VO for Pentiment thing. Are you doing voices? What accent? How do the nuns sound?

@bigsocrates: I am doing most of the voices! There are a couple of characters that my friends jump in and voice, giving me the time to relax for a second. But so far, in Act 1, I'm doing voices for all the adults except Sister Illuminata & Til, and my partner is doing the voices for the children. I do have a naturally very deep voice, so it's been a bit difficult differentiating so many characters. But the majority of the nuns sound either like Mrs. Doubtfire, Broomhilde from Robin Hood: Men in Tights or a very exaggerated Monty Python character.

Part of the reason our playthrough has taken so long is that I end up workshopping the voices with my friends, so we discuss the characters in great detail while trying to decide how they should sound. Which is why it has taken us 4.5 hours just to get to the murder in act 1. Andreas had more of an accent at the start, until I decided to just do my normal voice for him.

I noticed an error in your list @bigsocrates, so I made one of my own. Perhaps you can look it over and fix the obvious mistakes in your own with this superior OFFICIAL list of the best games we played in the club:

Did not play:

Metal Hellsinger - I like FPSes just fine, but the idea of having to be in sync with the music was not something my brain could handle.

Raji: An Ancient Epic - I really wanted to play this, and still hope to (I never uninstalled it).

As Dusk Falls - Could not get past the art style despite this style of game very much being up my alley.

Telling Lies - I started this prior and just knew it wasn't for me.

Midnight Fight Express - Was chosen right when I started my new job.

Norco - Need to play this but hadn't been in the right headspace.

Citizen Sleeper - See above reason.

Quick ranks (I did not finish a lot of these games, but still feel like I can speak on them some):

15.) Exo One - One of the most boring games I have ever played. I fell asleep with the controller in my hand at one point.

14.) Scorn - Gross? Boring? Squelch.

13.) Procession to Cavalry - I thought this game was going to be an appetizer to Pentiment and it ended up being a completely different meal that I was just not ready to enjoy.

12.) Superliminal - It was fine. I sometimes couldn't figure out how to progress. As far as making things big and small, it was better than Marquette.

11.) Infernax - I enjoyed this but played it with the Contra code and feel like I got a very different experience that I wouldn't had enjoyed if I didn't have a gun.

10.) The Pedestrian - Solid game that has me pretty excited to see what the studio does next.

9.) Signs of the Sojourner - I enjoyed this a lot. I have a hard time talking to people, and the card "game" provided is really kind of how it feels to talk to people for me. It just clicked, but I did not see it through to completion. If I had, it probably would be higher.

8.) Trek to Yomi - This felt like one of the first games of the club that had a decent discussion, so that bumped it up, even if the gameplay was pretty one note.

7.) Gorogoa - I love this game. I think the art is beautiful and was lucky enough to never get stuck.

6.) Record of Lodoss War-Deedlit in Wonder Labyrinth - This was the surprise of the UUGPGC for me. Friend of the site, Michael Higham had played one of the other games on stream a while back and it seemed cool, but I just wasn't aware how cool it was. Just a perfect bite-sized metroidvania.

5.) Paradise Killer - This game kicked ass. Killer soundtrack, killer look. I was definitely hoping it would receive a complete VO patch a la Disco Elysium though.

4.) Inside - I played this outside of the UUGPGC, but it is just such a solid experience. I do think it still suffers from the occasional instance where traps are unavoidable if you didn't already know they were coming, but the checkpoint system allowed me to never be upset by a sudden death.

3.) Pentiment - Still only on Act 1 but I can tell this game is for me.

2.) TMNT: Shredder’s Revenge - Played this through in one sitting with some buddies over one night. My girlfriend had never really played a beat em up outside of the Simpsons & X-Men arcade games, but she loved this one. And my other friend was a die hard TMNT fan, so he would point out all the easter eggs and give us backstory to the bosses. That night was definitely one of my favorite gaming moments of 2022.

1.) Unpacking - I have played through this on Xbox, PS5 & Switch now. I own the limited run games of the switch version. I just think it tells it's story perfectly. I am a sucker for the sounds as well. I've spent hours just moving objects onto different materials to hear the variation. Nowadays, I just turn off the setting that forces objects to be in certain areas and see what kind of relaxed chaos I can get up to.