GOTY 2023
2023 was certainly... a year. Didn't get to play as much as I wanted (surprise), but still played some cool stuff (and not so cool stuff).
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Another great 2D Metroid game. Loved the visuals in this game. I was hitting the screenshot button like crazy. Challenging, but rewarding when I finally beat the next boss. I'm not too deep into Metroid lore, but the story seemed buck wild too.
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I'm really liking the game so far. It's basically a really good Bethesda game set in space. And I'm totally down for that! The Crimson Fleet (pirates) questline was great. Fun twists and turns towards the end that I wasn't expecting, and some really great missions within that questline.
I love the aesthetics and atmosphere of the game. ALL OF THE PHYSICAL BUTTONS. Love the ship and console designs.
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I'm about halfway through. Really digging it so far. It's like the first game, only better. Still a decent amount of graphical glitches though, despite all of the updates. Thankfully that hasn't detracted from the story so far for me.
Also, jesus christ Merrin is so OP. Love it.
Also also, Rick the Door Technician was a real one until the end.
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I got nearly halfway through before putting this game down for a bit to play other games. There's a lot to like here, and I can see why people like it so much. The music is fantastic, the visuals are phenomenal. Cresting a hill as the sun rises to see the vistas of the world is never not amazing. The mechanics are a bit unique, but can be fun and rewarding when you're able to take advantage of them.
That all being said... the controls for this game are nothing short of ABSOLUTE DOG SHIT. Nintendo's choice of which actions are assigned to which buttons is so mind bendingly ass backwards that I'm constantly fighting the controls. They are completely counter intuitive compared to the rest of the gaming world. And on top of that, Nintendo is effectively giving a middle finger to accessibility options. There's no way to reassign buttons in game. This was a huge, valid complaint when this game came out, Nintendo even ACKNOWLEDGED this feedback, and then they proceeded to do JACK FUCKING SHIT about it in Tears of the Kingdom.
I do think it's worth it to continue playing this game. There's some great stuff in there. And if you play the game long and consistently enough you eventually kinda get used to the controls. But man, those controls really hold it back for me.
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Season 3 should have been amazing, on paper. New maps, a new weapon and a new equipment, a new armor core that everyone loves. Instead, it was a complete dumpster fire. The update completely broke the game, none of the menus would load, lag/desync was made worse. And honestly, the new weapon is kinda trash.
Season 4 was better. Pretty good even. Some good events and new maps. I didn't really care for the new armor core and battle pass though.
Season 5 is mostly better? They effectively split the season pass from the main one and then into the event ones. The event passes are bigger, and permanent now, so that's the trade off. SO MANY great maps have been added this year though. New modes as well that I haven't played too much of, but the maps alone have definitely brought this game up. FINALLY we have cross core helmets and paint jobs (mostly). I think this game's MP is finally in a decent spot post launch.
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Finally caught up on this game. Beyond Light was... fine. I still can't believe the Exo Stranger stuff was relegated to a post campaign side quest. That story is far more compelling. The Witch Queen expansion was great. Good story and wonderful new environment. Lightfall is... meh. The story was just filler nonsense and the new area is flat and boring. I'm at least having fun learning more about the game systems and trying to min/max my character finally.
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Finally, the expansions are out! The Hot Wheels expansion had an AMAZING opening. But, I'm sad to say that excitement didn't carry though. It's a very by the numbers progression. It's oddly restrictive on the cars you can use. And it's sorely lacking a city like the FH3 version had. I wouldn't say it's bad, but it's like a... one and a half steps forward, one step back kind of thing.
The Rally expansion was better overall. Pretty solid all the way through. BUT the final capstone events... weren't rally races. Which seems to go against the entire theme of the expansion. They were just typical Forza Horizon events. That was a little disappointing and not well thought out.
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I'm not very high on this game. I really like everything about it... except for actually playing it. This is partially due to my rhythm being awful. But also because I really don't like the character movement. The jump feels awful. I can never judge distances properly for the platforming. I turned on most of the gameplay assists and it didn't really help. Which is a shame because the story seems really funny and entertaining.
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This game is a pretty big disappointment. I'm not surprised, but damn. We've been waiting SO LONG for a new Motorsport, and they kinda just farted this one out. The biggest problem for me is the car progression. Instead of being able to buy whatever parts you want as soon as you have the money, you need to level up a car to unlock parts. Not only that, you need to level up EACH CAR INDIVIDUALLY. Even if you have multiples of the same car. It's beyond asinine.
The online structure is actually really appealing. It effectively just copies other racing games with a safety rating a skill rating. In theory that's great, but this being on game pass means you have people just playing it casually and ramming still. There's also the fact that I can't just hop online with an upgraded car that I want to drive to play a race or two due to the upgrade system.
There's also a severe lack of tracks. I understand that they wanted to redo a lot of work, but still, god damn. Launching with over 30% fewer locations than the previous game is not a good look.
Don't get me wrong, there's fun to be had in this game. The updated physics modeling is by and large an upgrade. But there's not enough tracks to have that fun on, and the mechanisms to have that fun are nearly non-existent.
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Wanted to throw this on here as an honorable mention. EA shut down the servers for it this year. I went back and played it for a few weekends. Such a damn shame. I played this game SO MUCH when it came out. Still my favorite Battlefield game. We need more games like this.
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