2019 Games Played
Here we go again.
(Year of the RPG edition)
Year of the RPG has been slightly derailed by Warframe.
List items
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Of course I am still playing one of my all time favorite games.
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I got the season pass so I'll be playing this game off and on throughout the year.
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Started in December, I'll also be messing around with this game off and on. It's still fun to jump in a murder hundreds of Ratmen.
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The game that just won't die. After all my time with this game and all the free missions that get released, I still come back to Bolivia. The main reason is that it is still fun to run around blowing shit up. And I get to help newer players with missions.
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Out of all my fighting games, this is the one I tend to come back to the most. Go figure.
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The best open world driving game ever. And one of those never ending games. I will be playing this game whenever I feel like it in 2019.
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Started Dec 2 - Finished Jan 22
I don't have a huge history with Final Fantasy games. But the ones I did play have been some of my most memorable gaming experiences. Final Fantasy XV has a beautiful mix of music, setting, and character that makes you want to jump in the car and drive to the next outpost. It's a fun game that I am taking my time with.
After 20 hours of playing this game, and the story going nowhere, I've decided to put this game aside. I only made it to Chapter 5 and I just didn't feel like playing anymore. The combat was kinda boring, I would have preferred FF 13 style over this. The story barely got going and I ended up not caring for any of the shallow characters. The joke about FF 13 was that it took 20 hours before the game got good. But even in the linear hallways of Final Fantasy 13, I enjoyed that game more than Final Fantasy 15.
As always, life is too short to force yourself to play boring games. I enjoyed the music and the setting, but that wasn't enough to keep me interested in the story or the characters.
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Started Dec 28 - Finished ...
I don't know about this one. I got this for free with the purchase of my new graphics card. I made a dude and his cat and I will give this an honest try. Maybe this will eventually take the place Wildlands has in my rotation; a game that I can hop into Online for an hour and mess around. And if not, well I didn't pay any money for it.
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Started Jan 2 - Finished Jun 17
Basically an upgraded version of Hitman 2016 which is great. I'm taking my time with this game since it's not episodic like the last one and I am enjoying every run.
First, this game takes 100 god damn gigs of hard drive space. In this case, the non-episodic format hurt the game rather than helped it. In the last Hitman game, I looked forward to every new release and replayed the levels over and over again before the next one came out. In this game, that is not the case. Every level is unlocked from the start and I tried to do the same thing I did with the first game by mastering every level before moving on to the next one. Doing this started to feel like a chore and I stopped playing by the time I got to the Mumbai level which is like the third level of the game.
Also, I mastered every level from the last Hitman game, but I would have to do it all over again in this game. It would have been nice for that progression to carry over or at least be given the choice. There is a lot of game in here, but I felt paralyzed by choice and overwhelmed by the content. That's a good thing, really. But for me, I just didn't feel like playing the game anymore. It's a little too much like the last Hitman, a game I put 90 hours into. And having to face the option of replaying ALL OF IT over again just demoralized me.
I recommend this game in the end because it's a solid Hitman game and we should support indie developers like this. But if you played the last game, know that you will have to do it all over again.
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Started Jan 23 - Finished Jan 23
This game, despite its great art style and music, made me finally realize that I don't like modern metroidvania type games anymore. Not really a knock against the game itself, but my changing gaming tastes.
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Started Jan 23 - Can't finish, really.
My first smash game and it's fun af.
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Started Jan 25 - Finished Feb 7
A diamond in the rough when it comes to turn based RPGs on Steam. This this a classic-styled turn based RPG with an overworld and 8 dungeons which can be replayed to earn more loot. The graphics are nicely colored , giving the maps a charming look. And, the main artist on the game is Joe Madureira who made a name for himself in the gaming world by creating the Darksiders look. If you're a fan of that art style you will love this game as well.
Altogether, this is a well drawn/animated game with great music, story, and setting. That alone is enough for me to recommend it. But the actual RPG elements of the game are great as well. You have character perks which allows you to customize your characters to 1 of 2 specific paths/roles in the party. The game isn't going to take you more than 40 hours to complete, so it's not too long either. And if you feel like it, you can continue in NG+.
Recommended.
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Started Feb 8 - Finished Feb 22
As the most disappointing game of 2017...it's not bad so far. In fact, I'm having a pretty good time with it.
I don't think I'll continue with this game anymore. The combat is the best part of this game. And I don't play Mass Effect games for their combat.
That said, of all the unfinished games of 2019, this is the one I'm most interested in reinstalling. Maybe one day.
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Started Feb 19 - Finished Mar 2
Yakuza Kiwami is the continuation of the story and gameplay from Yakuza 0. The difference is Yakuza 0 was built from the ground up to provide a backstory to this game using its own engine and made changes to the core game play. Yakuza Kiwami is a remake of a nearly 15 year old game.
That's both good and bad here. Yakuza 0 was an amazing experience and when compared to Kiwami, 0 is the better game by far. Zero is longer, has a better story, 2 protagonists, better side stories, and better minigames. Kiwami shows its age by being shorter and narrower in scope.
I would recommend this game only if you are familiar with the series and have played Zero already. If you are on the fence about which Yakuza game to buy, play Zero first and you will want to continue the story in Kiwami immediately after.
Kiwami is a game worth playing, but only as a continuation from Zero.
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Started Feb 23 - Finished Aug 9
My god this game is adorable. Like Final Fantasy XV, I think I'll love this one. I only hope I'm not wrong again. Well, I was kinda wrong again.
This game took me just about 6 months from start to finish*. I say it that way because I quit playing the game in the second to last chapter. Ni No Kuni 2 is a charming, whimsical, and adorable JRPG. Remember Suikoden on the Playstation? Well this game is pretty much that. Its story is pretty much by the numbers JPRG but the main chunk of the gameplay is side quests. In these side quests, you can recruit new citizens for your new town. With 100 citizens out there in the world to find, help, and recruit. Each citizen has their strengths and weaknesses and you can assign them different jobs to do around your kingdom.
The main draw ended up being the biggest problem for me. The story wasn't that gripping and I didn't care too much for the characters. In fact, the 'Oh Golly Gee' of the main character was a little annoying at times. The combat was decent and on hard some bosses were a bit of a challenge. Thing is, the side quests are boring and there are a TON of them to do. I spent more time in this game roaming around fighting world bosses and doing side quests than I did doing the main story. Whenever it was time to sit down and do some story quests I always dreaded it.
The reason why this game took me so long to finally put down is that, while charming, the story never actually sucked me in. The music, art style, and combat were enough to make me play this game once a week but the tedium of actually playing the game drove me away each time. Life is too short to waste on boring games and I wasted too much time on this game already to spend another minute in it.
I'm still kind of positive about this game and it has a lot going for it. But, if you're on the fence, I'd say pass on this one. There are better games out there.
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Started Feb 23 - Finished Mach 24
Playing this game with my daughter and so far I'm liking how the decisions ripple through the story.
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Started March 17 - Finished?
I don't like Free to Play games. I used to say that the best way for me to lose interest in a title was to make it free to play. Warframe is the game that finally made me realize that I was wrong.
This is a super polished third person action game with a little bit of everything you keep you coming back for more. Quick and increasingly challenging missions, new weapons and Frames (classes) to build, and even an open world or 2 for you to run around. Above all, this game is just fun to play. The action is always satisfying and movement is a blast.
It's Free to play. But the game doesn't have the usual F2P problems. Everything in the game can be crafted without spending a dime. You can even play missions to get loot and then sell it on the market (google it) for the premium currency in which you can then spend in game. It is free to play, but I highly suggest you put in a few hours and then buy some platinum on one of the daily discounts to support the developers.
But my problem is that Warframe has no endgame. There is no final fight to take on; no galaxy wide disaster to stop. The lack of an endgame is what is driving me off this treadmill. With nothing to work forward to, I find myself questioning why I keep on going.
I recommend playing this game. Warframe is great to play. Just know what you're getting into.
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Started April 10 - Finished May 31
My son is 8 years old. He knows about Portal only through memes so I challenged him to play through the original game with me. It was a good time and this game holds up for sure.
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Started May 19 - Finished September 3
More Yakuza!
From start to finish, this was a better game than Kiwami 1 but not as good as Yakuza 0. If this game had Yakuza 0's combat, then this would be the best game of the series so far for me. It's a shame it took me so long to get into it and then to finish it. But Warframe left a big impression on me this year.
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Started June 1 - Finished ...
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Started June 4 - Finished ...
I don't really feel like spending $60-$100 on the new Mortal Kombat. So, I got the next best thing. And it's alright. I think I just need to stop spending more than $20 on fighting games I'm never going to play online.
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Started June 5 - Finished ...
More WWE with the same wonky combat. But this year has better career and MyUniverse modes so I'll be spending some time with this one.
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Started June 20 - Can't Finish
Just a solid entry in the MK series. I'm actually playing this one online and having fun with it too.
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Started - July 22 - Can't really finish.
Bought this to educate my kids about how Arcade games used to be and to see hi res pictures of Cody's ass. Money well spent.
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Started September 4 - Finished Oct 11
Now that Yakuza and Ni No Kuni 2 are finished and I am done playing Warframe and Warhammer, I can finally get back to my backlog.
This game was kinda meh really. Given the choice, I would not have bought/played this game.
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Started September 18 - Finished September 26
I finished this game for the first time in 57 hours (no DLC) and in 7 days. I simply could not stop playing this amazing RPG. And then, I immediately started a new game with a new character to see things I missed the first time through. That is not something I do often. I liked the first Pillars of Eternity but it didn't grab me as this game did. But, Pillars of Eternity 2 might be one of the best games I have played all year.
What made this game so special for me was the exploration and the story. I went completely off the rails with my adventure, by doing nearly every major quest before being asked to. In fact, I didn't even get the last 2 party members until I was level 18 (out of 20). I was having too much fun sailing around, finding an interesting location/cave/dungeon and just exploring it. The story was dynamic enough that it allowed me to do these things. I played it like Morrowind/Skyrim in a way I was often sidetracked by interesting locations on my way to do something else and got involved in a 2 hour side story on some out of the way island. My next playthrough will be more linear, more focused on the story.
However, I played this game on classic with no scaling and found the back half of the game just too easy. I didn't even have to turn off the party AI or give fight orders in the last hour or 2. But that is easily fixed by increasing the difficulty for my next play through where I will tackle the DLCs and maybe....fall in love.
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Started Oct 13 - Finished Oct 20
I don't understand the hate this game got. It's basically the combat from DOOM 2016 in an open world with a sprinkling of Mad Max. It's bloody fun. Worst part about the game is looking for optional chests that they brought over from Mad Max.
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Started October 21 - Finished Oct 28
I just kinda lost interest in this one. The action rpg gameplay was alright, but when I entered the last npc area I just didn't feel like going through all of the dialogue for all new people again.
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Started Nov 3 - Finished ...
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Started Nov 10 - Finished ...
Having never played a proper Dragon Quest game, I just know this game is going to be a treat. I am totally ready for an old school JPRG experience.
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Started Nov 24 - Finished Dec 30
This game is definitely my game of the year for 2019. I loved everything about this game, including the slow pace. It was a slow burn and it was so worth it after 80 hours.
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