Fakey's 2019 Games of the Year
Note: As always, I include my favorite games I played this year, even if they were released before 2019.
As predicted, I had some more time to play games in 2019 than in the last several years, since my kids were born (they are 5 and 6 now...).
I still mostly played older games, rather than brand new games, but I had a ton of fun with several games, in particular, and I'm going into 2020 with a lot of energy to keep going through my backlog, including games on my brand new Nintendo Switch. :D
Another year down, I'm getting old, but as long as Vinny and Jeff are still at GB, I won't feel too old. :P
Honorable Mentions
I want to call out Burly Men at Sea, simply because it is a short game that touched my heart just a little. There are some branching paths which you'll want to replay a bit to see, and the end is just a nice little heart-warmer. :)
Florence has been talked about on Bombcasts, and while it didn't hit me as much as it may have hit others, I still think it is worth a play for anyone that has been in a relationship that hasn't worked out...
I'm only calling this game out, because I played Modern Warfare (2007) for the first time last year and then played 2 and 3 this year, and while I know they don't stand up as much as they did when they came out, they were still entertaining, and I'm glad I played through them. I plan on playing through the Black Ops games this year (or at least the first couple).
Quarantine Circular is a better game, story, and experience than Subsurface Circular, in my opinion. I think both are worth playing, but I can recommend Quarantine to any fan of this storytelling medium.
Zeno Clash 1 and 2 are old games. I played the first game many years ago and bought the second game in 2013, 6 months after it came out...only to play it 6 years later! To be perfectly honest, the gameplay of both games is really hard to deal with in 2019, and the visuals are super rough (they were even when they came out). However, the atmosphere and insane characters are still interesting for games that only take 4-6 hours to complete. So, I don't regret finally knocking this one off my backlog. :P
Most Disappointing
I love the visuals and the music of Slain so much, as a fan of metal and Metalocalypse. However, as a gamer that does not enjoy being frustrated and banging my head against things (or the "git gud" mentality), I found Slain very unenjoyable. I used cheat codes (the kind of thing Jeff has talked about on Bombcasts) for the first time ever to get through the game. I really want to buy Valfaris, the second game from the same developer, but I'm honestly worried I'll feel the same about it as Slain. :(
I played through all of Youngblood with a friend, and that was fun. I don't regret my time with it, except for the last boss, which was not fun at all... Ultimately, though, I really wanted the game to be better, and I was disappointed that I didn't really enjoy the game, at least (I love the two new Wolfenstein games before this one).
New Games that I didn't get to (but could have been contenders)
I finally bought a Nintendo Switch! But, I'm still way behind (i.e. Fire Emblem: Three Houses, Luigi's Mansion 3, etc.)
Also, I never bought a Playstation or Xbox console this generation, which honestly amazes me, but I am definitely in on buying a Playstation 5 at launch next year...as long as it isn't above $500...
I'm going to play through Outer Wilds as soon as I get through Torment: Tides of Numenara, which I'm finally at the end of (after putting it down for months at a time at least three separate times). I bought Outer Wilds last fall but just never got to it, and with all the GOTY talk, I know I have to get through it ASAP.
I have Game Pass for Windows, so I have to play through The Outer Worlds before it leaves that. :D
