by mento
I forgot I already did the "bummed about 2019" schtick for the Shame List, so instead here's a thoughtful summary of what I anticipate will flood this Games Beaten list in the months to come:
Hella old games y'all.
Seriously, is anything coming out in 2019? Maybe some fantastic Indie nobody had ever heard of prior to it suddenly appearing on our collective radars. I might be into Psychonauts 2 and Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice as well, I guess. Oooh, and that last Shovel Knight campaign with King Knight! I think that's all.
Post-Year Statistics Time!
Showing 1-10 of 88 items
05/01. The one-hundred-and-first Indie Game of the Week. With all the hype around Life is Strange 2, it was due time to head back into Arcadia Bay one last time to see off Chloe Price, Rachel Amber, and a bunch of characters that won't soon be dead. Cheery enough, but even without the time-travelling powers the game is adept enough at its inter-personal (and gay determinant) relationships to carry this shorter adventure to its melancholic conclusion. Feelings games don't come much better. (4 Stars.)
17/01. The one-hundred-and-second Indie Game of the Week. A surprisingly feature-rich Indie RPG that took me a while to get through, combining the partially randomized dungeons of Darkest Dungeon with the carefully balanced encounters of a Zeboyd game all wrapped inside a great cel-shaded comic book aesthetic. Even with no emotional ties to the original comic book series - which ended in, like, the 90s - I enjoyed my lengthy time with this one. (4 Stars.)
18/01. The one-hundred-and-third Indie Game of the Week. The Gone Home team is at it again with another chill adventure game that has players piecing together a story told in a vaguely epistolary manner. If you like eavesdropping on potentially dead astronauts, Tacoma's got you covered. (4 Stars.)
23/01. Started this one just before Christmas and was determined to see it through even if the Xmas season brought many better games into my orbit. Honestly not the disaster everyone was making it out to be - though I had the benefit of a year-plus of patches by the time I got there - it combines some of the highs of the Mass Effect series (a personable enough team of companions and all the planet exploration you could want) and the packed to the point of overbloated open-world structure of Dragon Age: Inquisition. As with the similarly bedevilled FFXV, there are ample hints of the great game this could've been with a little more time, polish, and focus. (3 Stars.)
24/01. The one-hundred-and-fourth Indie Game of the Week. I ended up not caring a great deal for this fluorescent action game but it's relatively harmless. Switch the controls so your little space croissant follows the cursor instead of the sticky tank controls and it becomes tolerable enough. If you're looking for some EDM and abstract glowy shapes to come down after an eventful night at the cluuuurb, it should serve that role ably enough. (2 Stars.)
27/01. Jumped from one of the longest RPGs on my backlog to one of the shortest. There's plenty about South Park's humor I still enjoy, even if it's been a little more scattershot of late, and Fractured Butthole still hits the same high notes that The Stick of Truth did a few years back. Smart RPG design couched in dumb scatological humor. (4 Stars.)
29/01. My January pick for the Bucketlog: a feature that each month ticks off a playthrough that's been a very long time coming. No More Heroes 2 lacks some of the bite and originality of the first, which is typical enough for a sequel, but makes back some of that lost ground with some welcome mechanical gameplay updates. If the first one spoke to you on a transcendental level, and I know it did for some folk, then there's no reason you won't enjoy this one too. Personally, I've been done with the character action genre for a while now. (3 Stars.)
31/01. The one-hundred-and-fifth Indie Game of the Week. For whatever reason this block-breaker throwback really resonated with me, finding the right combination of power-ups, difficulty, and game mechanics to blissfully carry me through its many levels. Maybe because it feels a lot more arcadey than most games of its type. Either way, I was sprung for these witch sisters. (5 Stars.)
07/02. The one-hundred-and-sixth Indie Game of the Week. Love the Shantae series, but thought this one was a little underwhelming. Certainly nothing against the presentation - still has a banging soundtrack by Virt and it's evident a lot of KS money went on those fluid animations - but it felt like a slightly modified remake of Risky's Revenge. I think this series has a real capacity for growth, but it's kinda stuck in its comfort zone. Here's hoping the next one can break out of it. (3 Stars.)
10/02. I got hoodwinked again. Each time a new "good" Assassin's Creed comes out, I'm assured by its press that they fixed the hoary old Anvil engine and buffed out the dents, and now that this one has numbers and shit flying off enemies it's a completely new shift in direction. Nope. This is still broken-ass Assassin's Creed with another beautiful land to explore, towers (or pyramids) to climb, and people to stab in an uh-uh-uh-uh-uh fashion. I was done with its free-running problems, uninspired combat, tedious tailing and walking missions, and all the other BS over a decade ago. That said, I did enjoy my time with it, but I did with Syndicate and Black Flag too: liked but not loved, and still steamed that Ubisoft's so reluctant for a substantial do-over beyond adding colored loot and a drone-spotter bird. (3 Stars.)
