Some really good discussions this year, despite the changes. Ben and Abby both killed it. I really liked Jeff getting to say his piece on Outer Wilds, instead of just quietly letting it through like he's done for a lot of games he didn't like.
It's still bizarre to me that they've not only stuck with this format but doubled down by removing even more categories from last year.
Granted, Most Disappointing was needlessly contentious because of RDR2. But Hottest Mess was such a cathartic experience each year and gave everyone what seemed like much needed stress relief from the more serious categories. It's also strange to cut categories like that or Best Moment or Best Surprise, which were always super positive and gave a lot of less popular games the chance to shine.
But yeah, good stuff. Hope everyone has a great new year.
For the record, Ben is right. I was already pretty turned off by the general tone of the game, but hearing that goddamn tune every time I turned on the signal tracker in Outer Wilds made me actively avoid talking to those hippy assholes.
I just feel like the guns are so weak and the 'mana' bar is so small, that I have to devote all my resources to whittling down numbers. Like, I could use shields and ground-pounds but that only ever got me killed. As opposed to throwing a satellite dish, which was both safer and faster than everything else I tried.
I think the problem is the guns are so situational and really requires you to spec them with mods to make them shine. And the game don't really do a great job forcing you to learn any of that. Probably doesn't help that you only can equip 2 guns at a time, and have to spread resources around for each one.
Like, by the end of that game I barely even used throw except to break armor because for the time it takes to pick something up I could walk up and just melt 2-3 enemies with my rapid-fire Spin gun, and then immediately use my boosted Seize ability to turn some of them into walking meat shields. And then while everyone was distracted with them I would just clean house.
But if I were to try to use that same gun without changing the mods on a flying enemy that was further away, or an armored heavy? Nope. Might as well be shooting blanks.
The abilities are also limited that way. I also never found a good use for shield except as a last ditch defense to get out of a corner or pick up health, and ground pound usually just as kind of a super dash.
I wish I could agree about Control. The combat's just not interesting, you have lots of abilities but finding cover and throwing rocks is still the most efficient manner of getting through these (mostly uninspired) combat sections.
That's a certainly a way to get through much of the game, but I wouldn't exactly call it efficient. Effective for sure though.
The game definitely needs a little tuning to make players more willing to play aggressively, however.
Hearing everyone finally talk about their thoughts and feelings on Outer Wilds in detail was pretty gratifying. As someone who put a bunch of time into that game and regretted every minute of it, it's cool to have someone to flat out say in plain language what they liked about it, and not just raw enthusiasm coupled with the stubbornly vague bafflement of someone who just discovered Eva for the first time.
@onemanarmyy: that's the thing I don't get. If the point of this was to avoid unnecessarily negativity and to spend less time arguing, why even bring up completely lackluster but competent games that like Days Gone or Far Cry even though they barely put any time into them?
I can understand bringing up games they found really bad but in an interesting way like Left Alive since we no longer have Worst Games, but if y'all can't even remember the specifics of a game or play enough of it to see them, why bring down the people who did get some enjoyment out of them?
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