Game of the Year 2020 Users Choice

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Introduction

2020 has been something of a shitshow, and I'm not referring to it in the broader, globe-encompassing, context. No, it's been a bit more personal than that. I managed to jam myself up in another unhealthy, emotional roller coaster of a situation that I can't elaborate on which ate up a lot of my free time and enthusiasm for games. Adjacent to that you have my mother's health; her MS having a sudden and seemingly rapid decline since the start of the year. And I have no idea what my situation will look like this time next year. It's been a pretty dark time for me to say the least.

Not everything was doom and gloom. I was finally able to find the courage to get my motorcycle license and my first motorcycle.. Something I've wanted to accomplish for a very long time. During the summer, I parted ways with my '94 Toyota Pickup, a vehicle I've had and enjoyed for about 10 years. Sold to a coworker, so I get to see it a little bit for the time being. Not long after, I ended up purchasing a '01 Toyota Tacoma as something of a replacement. While working on both the truck and motorcycle have been long, arduous journeys, it's helped take my mind off of things, even if only briefly.

As I write this, we're only a few weeks away from the launch of the next generation of consoles. I appear to have successfully locked a pre-order in for my PS5 via GameStop (haven't bought anything from them in years), though it was a ridiculous nightmare to do so. I'm not even sure if it's going to arrive on launch day or not [It did]. I would say I am fairly excited? I like new tech and new toys to play with. Many people groan on about the lack of game releases at any console launch, but I prefer the perspective of.. I'm going to buy it eventually anyway and there are going to be games I want to play on it. Might as well buy it now. That's not to say there isn't anything for me to play: I'm very much looking forward to the remastered Demon's Souls and even Sackboy: A Big Adventure for a change of pace. The updated Spider-Man release was included in the bundle, which could be neat to revisit on the new hardware.

I am absolutely disappointed that Sony did not take backwards compatibility to it's logical conclusion; I personally would have loved PS1/2/3 functionality, but perhaps we'll see that in a "Pro" version. Nonetheless, I still have my large library of PS4 releases, some of which may be fun to experiment with on the boosted hardware. I haven't finished Ghost of Tsushima either, so this might end up reinvigorating me to get over the finish line. Resident Evil 3 also sits here, shrink wrapped, so maybe that'll run and look better.

As for the Xbox, I don't think I have much need for it at the moment. The most interesting feature there for me is the backwards compatibility on the Series X, but I think I can wait. My library of Xbox games is not nearly as big. I barely used my Xbox this generation and at the moment my friend has borrowed my Xbox One S for maybe a year? [Update: Sold it to said friend for $100 lol] I'll probably get some version of the new Microsoft hardware eventually. Seeing as most of it is available on PC as well though, and they've really been dead in the water in terms of exclusives, there is no sense of immediacy for me.

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Woohoo! A New Generation of Consoles!

Hell yes, the PlayStation 5 has landed. After going through the many hours and days of your typical modern day hellish online launch pre-ordering debacle, I was able to secure one via GameStop as an expensive bundle.

Having used it for a couple weeks now, I'm pretty happy. It's certainly got it's fair share of OS bugs they need to work out, and maybe the interface isn't as streamlined and customizable as I'd like, but it gets the job done. To no one's surprise, storage has already been an issue. The internal, special SSD storage will fill up sooner than later, but even on the external side of things for PS4 games, I was able to mostly fill up a 1TB SSD that was formerly used in my original PS4 Pro. And seeing how I like to have a fairly substantial library of games on tap-- not to mention the fun experimentation aspect of trying PS4 games on the new PS5 hardware-- I ended up caving on a Black Friday deal and snagging a 2TB SSD.. and a couple more PS4 games off my wishlist that were low in price. Two of them I already own on PC /facepalm

Demon's Souls looks fantastic, as does Sackboy: A Big Adventure in it's own special way, but I think the real star of the show is that it's doing it while still running at 60fps. I was never a framerate snob, made obvious by how many console games I play even though I usually have a more than capable PC at hand, but yeeeaaa.. Once you try something like Demon's Souls with the ability to flip back and forth between display modes, AND the fact that I can't really see any visual fidelity difference between "Cinematic" mode vs "Performance" mode.. Why wouldn't I want the 60 frames?

It's even cooler when you can find an old PS4 game that used to run poorly, but used some form of an unlocked framerate and/or dynamic resolution scaling and it just magically looks and runs better. So far, for me, that was readily apparent in MudRunner. I don't believe I ever really played it other than for a few mins on PS4, but I'm certain it didn't run at 60. Now that it does, I had to stop myself from getting absorbed into it so I could continue installing other titles to try. Unfortunately, most games aren't so lucky. Something like Final Fantasy XII: The Zodiac Age being stuck at 30fps when the hardware could clearly run easily beyond that. I really hope devs will find it rewarding to go back and maybe quickly unlock some framerate caps on their games with some patches.

Overall, I'm very excited to see where this generation goes. Eagerly anticipating Gran Turismo 7's release. If only Sony had found a way to incorporate physical backwards compatibility for the PS1/2/3 etc.. This would've easily been the greatest console ever. Let's see what a PS5 Pro is.

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Fresh Decade, Fresh PC

Ahh, a new PC build. Nine years since I put together my last one so, traditionally, that'd be overdue. These days, I'm not so sure so verdict is still out on whether this was really necessary. My motivation was VR for the most part. The only part I did not buy is a video card. I'm still rocking a base GTX1080 which works well enough for the most part. I wasn't about to spend $1400 on a GTX2080ti when the 3000 series is likely months away. That is when we'll really see what this setup can do. [Updated: I did end up just getting a 2080ti some months later. With this whole Covid-19 thing, sounds like the 3000 series could be a ways away.]

• AMD Ryzen 9 3900x 3.8Ghz 12-Core CPU
• Asus ROG Strix X570-E Motherboard
• G.Skill Ripjaws V 32GB DDR4 3600Mhz RAM
• EVGA RTX 2080ti XC Hybrid
• Intel 660p 1 TB & 2 TB NVME SSDs
• Corsair RM 750w Power Supply
• LG Blu-Ray/DVD/CD Writer/Drive
• Fractal Design Define R6 Case
• LG 38GL950G-B 37.5" 3840x1600 175Hz G-Sync Ultra-Wide Monitor

Time will tell if going the AMD Ryzen route was the right choice for my use case. If Intel does decide to get their shit together then I may end up switching over. Looking forward to Half Life: Alyx and Flight Simulator for stress testing. Cyberpunk 2077 as well.

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Oldies but Goodies

Monopoly (PS1) - 2/1/20 - Just had a pretty epic 4-5 hour game vs a couple AI. Wasn't planning on doing that lol Got this disc in a bundle of old games a co-worker was throwing away. Weirdly fun, even though by the end its just spamming dice rolls over and over, hoping to get lucky and get enough money back to tilt the scales in my favor. With something like Monopoly, a title that's spanned decades, formats, and platforms, I have a fascination with playing a different iteration and finding what was made better or worse. In this case, I played some Monopoly Plus (PS4) that I almost forgot I had bought back in 2014. The PS1 version moves at a faster clip and, really, the fancy visuals on newer hardware don't add much to the game.

The Game of Life (PS1) - 2/10/20 - So Monopoly was a fun surprise. It only makes sense that my mind would wander onto another board game I liked-- at least when I was younger; LIFE. What would a video game version of that be like? Did they make one? A quick eBay search says yes, they did. After haggling over a dollar or two, some cents, and a week later.. I've got my own copy! Then I played it once and.. it sucks. I think? Maybe I only liked the board game as a kid? I even had fleeting moments where I think I might've even rented this from Blockbuster way back when. Not sure what to say about it really. It just lacked the charm of the Monopoly game. It appears a version of LIFE was released for PS2 but only in Japan? Shame.. or not.

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The Doodie Pile

Need for Speed Heat (PC) - 2/22/20 - Pretty rubbish. I've played it for a handful of hours at this point and it isn't very different than the others. Now that I think about it, last time I played one of these, I got to the point of unlocking the R32 GTR, just to see it (as I own one irl) and that's what I'm doing here again. I can't stand this whole bro-street-racing-gang-life crap. I don't need a story in my racing game, but if you are going to, at least make it not shit. The vehicle handling continues to be awkward. The system of building "Heat" as a multiplier is maybe not a bad one? Except for the part where it is very easy to just get caught and lose everything, thus a giant waste of time. The cars are well modeled and there is a decent amount of customization but it is irrelevant if there isn't a game worth playing around it. I feel like I said all of this same stuff alongside the Need for Speed (2015) release. They've recently announced the reigns are being handed back to Criterion, which could go either way for me. 2012's NFS Most Wanted was probably the last one I sort've enjoyed, but also I'm not a huge fan of the Burnout games and I suspect Criterion will move it back in that direction. Give me OG Need For Speed! NFS3: Hot Pursuit, High Stakes, and Porsche Unleashed was the golden age.

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Getting Down & Dirty with Dungeons, Dragons, & Dice Rolls

Behold, the power of Youtube recommendations: I stumbled across Critical Role. Binged watched a bunch of said Critical Role. Bought a set of the D&D Core Rule books off Amazon to better understand and immerse myself in the game and Critical Role. Simultaneously read said books while consuming said show. Ordered a couple nice pieces of Wyrmwood + a set of dice.. just because. And most recently, played through the early access portion of Baldur's Gate 3.

I've always had a curiosity around D&D but I've never really watched it played, definitely not at the level of Critical Role. Never tried it myself in real life, as I don't really have a friend group that would. I do recall, maybe 15 years ago, a friend and I joking snuck into this other persons house where we knew our other friend with hanging out with some other people. We crept into the basement of this large, lovely house and discovered that they seemed to be playing D&D? I don't think we ever knew he played it. Anyway, I think our surprise, random appearance may have made them a bit shy or uncomfortable so they didn't really continue playing. Sorry :(

Reading through the books has been a sort've similar experience for me as when I read bits of Tolkien's Silmarillion and Lord of the Rings. Getting this sense that the material here has laid the groundwork for just about everything (western) fantasy, RPG and video games til now. The Player's Handbook might as well be a guide to playing any RPG game. The Monster Manual is wonderful as it's content are universally fascinating. And what I've read in the Dungeon Master's Guide so far might as well be creating any fantasy world or RPG game 101. Even if you don't plan or expect to play D&D itself, but enjoy games and design, these are great reads.

Then Baldur's Gate 3 enters Early Access not long after I was getting absorbed into all this. I thoroughly enjoyed my time with Divinity: Original Sin 2 (which I still haven't finished) so I had a passing interest in Baldur's Gate 3. I didn't have the original releases back in the day, but I have since bought and played them.. a tiny bit. The day before BG3 released, I fired up the Win98 machine and dropped back into my BG2 save. I couldn't recall if I was at the very start of the game or not, but I played it for a couple hours and stopped for the night. Having all this newfound knowledge of D&D has made the consumption of these titles that much more engaging and satisfying. While playing BG3, I had so much more context for all the different races, locations, and monsters. And Critical Role helped me understand how various skills and spells might be used.

I'm very happy that I saw that Critical Role Youtube recommendation and spent the couple hours to give it a chance. As is often with shows, it can take an episode or two for you to really get the gist of things and allow yourself to be absorbed and hooked. In turn, my tastes for gaming have been broadened yet again. Will I ever actually sit down and play D&D with a group of people? At this point, I'm going to say it's unlikely. I'm a fairly shy person, at least at first, but once I get comfortable around someone, I can open up and be silly and talkative etc. I hardly have any friends as it is, and still harder to find more, so the chances of me finding a group of new people are slim. Which is okay I guess, as long as they continue to make video games like these. Maybe I'll sit down and write up a character sheet someday. I've certainly got ideas.

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Still More for the Still Sealed Library

Zero Escape: The Nonary Games (PS4) - I really liked Nine Nine Nine on the DS, mostly just for the puzzles. Played a little of Virtue's Last Reward on Vita at some point. Thought I'd scoop this up for $20 just because. Thought it came with the Zero Time Dilemma as well but, oh well.

Resident Evil 3 (PS4) - Expected to play this but didn't. Something else came up. People seem to be somewhat negative about it here at the end of the year, so that's kinda killing my motivation to check it out.

Dead or Alive 6 (PS4) - The only fighting game series I actually kind of like; priced dropped below $20 so I chucked it in the shopping cart.

Streets of Rage 4 (PS4) - The "Classic Edition" from Limited Run Games. I'll be honest here.. I couldn't resist the throwback Genesis case on this.

Marvel's Spider-Man: Miles Morales (PS5) - Came in the PS5 bundle!

Garou: Mark of the Wolves (PS4) - The pseudo-Neo Geo version from Limited Run Games. Picked up that Neo Geo AES last year and, despite not liking fighting games, I actually had a little fun playing Garou.

Kingdoms of Amalur: Re-Reckoning (PS4) - I've heard this game brought up so many times since it's initial release, in a way that sounded like I might enjoy it. Again, kept it on the wishlist til it hit that magic $20 mark and put the order in. That first order ended up vanishing during shipping (along with a 2TB SSD), so I had to get a refund, wait for the price to drop down again, and then re-order it.. RE-order it? Nicccceee..

Wizard of Legend (PS4) - Limited Run physical copy. Couldn't really tell you why I got this one. Ordered it so long ago, shipped months later, and then got lost in the mail for a month. Limited Run seems to do a lot of obscure indie stuff, so most of the time I've never heard of something they've announced. I'll do a quick Google search for review/reception stuff and then watch some gameplay and decide from there. I think Wizard of Legend seemed worthy of a purchase I guess.

Outer Wilds (PS4) - Limited Run physical copy. This got tons of praise, critical acclaim, and awards. It sounds like something I'd like, but I also got so tired of people talking about it without actually saying why it was cool because no one wanted to spoil anything. Someday I'll forget about all that and hopefully open this up to play with no expectations.

Ni no Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch Remastered (PS4) - If I recall correctly, Ni No Kuni 2 was my most disappointing game last year. I bought it because the original Ni No Kuni was such an amazing looking game, and seemed cool, but a little dull and I fell off of it at the time. I think I had just reached the point of getting the boat and the game opening up, which I would think is where it would pick up steam. So why not pick up the Remastered version for cheap and maybe I'll give it another go? Perhaps playing, and actually finishing, the sequel will give me some newfound perspective on this one.

Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition (PC) - Not sure I've considered adding unplayed Steam games here before but I probably should. Recently scooped up AoE2:DE on a sale. Was waiting a long time for it to drop down, just because. AoE2 is great and, according to my friend and the critics in general, this seems to be a worthy edition.. addition?

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'Til I can get my.. Satisfactory. Satisfactory. Satisfactory.

[I had Satisfactory at 5 on my list, but decided to remove it at the last minute. It is still Early Access, and it looks like Update 4 might be hitting sooner than later? So I might as well hold off. The game is already complete enough as it is. I guess it can only get better]

It's Factorio, but in 3D! And just as addictive! I don't remember if I wrote about my first time messing with Satisfactory, back when I got accepted into the initial Alpha stuff. I didn't play it too much, as I felt like I didn't have the free time needed to really get lost in these games the way I like. Like, black hole all consuming lost.

As I've come to learn about myself, if the time isn't right, don't force it. If it's meant to be then there will come a time. And that time did come, in the form of quarantine! I think I took a leave of work for about 6 weeks? Somewhere in that window, I decided to pick this up again, and it had become much more of a fleshed out release. It's still Early Access, but there is substance here. Just as I predicted, I got super hooked on this. One of those from-morning-til-night, 16 hours a day, for days, maybe a couple weeks, I was deep in on this. And it was great. I was going through a rough spot mentally and I really wanted the distraction.

What's to say? It's a giant menial task and logistics simulator. It's has a great look to it. The music is fantastic. I just love building and designing things, then standing back and taking it all in. Watching it do its thing. If I've I done a good job, it should operate entirely on it's own without need of maintenance or oversight. As I mentioned, it's still not the full release. I didn't even make it to the end of the current content.

I unlocked the last available tier-- Nuclear Power and such-- and felt overwhelmed. A ton more work ahead of me. I had just started messing with trains. Some of the required resources involved treks into dangerous territory and far off reaches. I had to start thinking about making entire other bases in other areas just to produce and supply stuff to some other huge factory I'd have to build somewhere. It was a lot to think about and I guess by that point I needed a break from the game.

It's great. I can't wait to see what else they do with it. I know I want to play it more because I regularly start it up, run around my base, think about what I'd have to do next, then get that overwhelmed feeling and turn it off lol Of course, I am working again so I wouldn't be able to invest the same amount of time as I did before. The time isn't right = Not going to force it.

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Final Fantasy [199]7: Replay

4/23/20 - Still in self-imposed quarantine here! Immediately after completing my playthrough of the newly released Final Fantasy 7 Remake, the seed of a thought was planted: Maybe I should check out the original again? It'd probably been 15 or so years since my initial playthrough. FF7 was technically my first run in with an RPG I think? I remember renting it from Blockbuster back in '97, and seeing as I was about 10 years old at the time, it was a bit more than my brain could grasp at the time. Having never seen or played an RPG before-- in this case a JRPG, plus the internet didn't exist for me yet, it was like looking at an alien language. I'm not sure I even made it to the reactor? I don't remember exactly how far I got but I returned it and that was that. I know my friend had the PC version, with that uniquely shaped box that Eidos released their old titles in, but we it seems we didn't talk about this game.

Time passes and Final Fantasy 8 is released. I had a genuine go at it but I didn't think it was particularly great at the time (still don't) and a lot of the more complicated aspects of the gameplay were still a bit beyond me. I reached a point deep into the game (a base in a desert?), somewhere on disc 2, where I saved prior to a boss fight with no way out or back and I couldn't find a way to win the fight as I was.. And so I gave up in frustration. Then came Final Fantasy 9, where the pieces really fell into place for me. I loved it. I would've been about 13-14 and now I was fully invested. This was my turning point for JRPGs. And why is this relevant? Because it was after this that I began going back and revisiting various games.. One of them being FF7.

Oddly enough, I couldn't tell you much about this mysterious-to-me original playthrough. I know think it happened between 2000-2005. I have a save file at the end of the story with 90 hours on the clock. But nothing in particular comes to mind. Large swathes of the story are a blank space. During this run in present day, I had something of a weird deja vu moment while attempting to get the "Beta" enemy skill from Midgar Zolom but that was it. I remember I liking it, definitely one of the better FF titles but.. Why can't I remember anything specific? Am I that old and crusty now?

2020's Final Fantasy 7 Remake is bursting with references to the original work. And if I wanted to fully appreciate it, to try and understand where this was all coming from, I thought it might be a good idea to refresh my memory. I dusted off my PS1 copy, popped it in the PS2 that's hooked up to my favorite little RGB TV, dug deep for the Brady guide, and last but not least found a suitable memory card.. *random battle sequence screen swirl*

Annnd.. *Victory music* 70 hours of game time later and I've filled in those gaps. The original release of Final Fantasy 7 is great. After some pondering upon it's completion, I think this might be the only Final Fantasy title I have ever finished more than once? I felt a slight falter in my enthusiasm at the start. Midgar always stood out as being a bit dull? I pushed through after a day away from it and once I reached Shinra HQ, the game finally got it's hooks in me.

I'm not sure there is much to say about the whole thing that anyone who has played it doesn't already know. I went through and completed just about everything I could, aside from the crazy time consuming end-game activities such as "Master" Materia, Chocobo Raising, and thus Emerald/Ruby Weapons and Knights of the Round. I love how you get access to the different vehicles throughout the story, gradually opening up more of the world map to you. The Materia system is a lot of fun. Summons are all great and function in a way I enjoy. The original music was still great, even through the crappy old TV speakers. The characters and story are excellent for the most part, second only to FF9 for me, or maybe even on par. Managing materia and gear across various party members was the only frustrating aspect of the old game for me.

Having a renewed knowledge of all this, it's incredible how true the Remake was to the original. So many great details in scenes and in the gameplay itself. I have no idea how they'd condense this adventure into two-- even three full release games, and I have my doubts that they will even try. Hopefully I am wrong. And while I think they tacked on some big unnecessary stuff to Remakes' new narrative, the rest of it is an outstanding homage.

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The "Eh, Needs More Time?" Section

Sackboy: A Big Adventure (PS5) - I'm not sure how to feel about this one. I'm torn between two sides:

• A: It looks great. It sounds great. It plays great. The LittleBigPlanet games are pretty great. This one is pretty good too.
• B: I just can't get myself to play more than a couple levels at a time because.. it's boring/simple I guess? I don't know.

Maybe it's because I'm playing Demon's Souls simultaneously and, in comparison, Sackboy's adventure isn't nearly as engaging or challenging? But I want to play more, see more of the levels and cool, unique aesthetics and design.

Hardspace: Shipbreaker (PC) - Picked up on a whim of boredom I think. The music and style of it is cool.. but it became a tad boring after a couple levels. Still Early Access I believe so perhaps I'll revisit it in the future.

Baldur's Gate 3 (PC) - This is still just early access and only the first zone so it doesn't feel quite ready for the proper list. And I certainly spent enough time with it: A few dozen hours I believe? Was excellent. Can't wait to mess with it again upon a more complete release.

MediEvil (PS4) - Never played the original from what I recall, but I did play this briefly. Occupies the same space as the new Spyro trilogy remaster: It looks great, but the gameplay is so simple for someone my age/experience that they make me want to fall asleep. Still, I should try and play them.

Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020 (PC) - I think it was earlier this year that I played a little of this? Anyway, I barely played it and it was before the official release. I definitely want to get it. I bought the Honeycomb flight yoke and some rudder pedals last year. They just added VR support as well. Two things are holding me back:

1. I actually packed up a bunch of my stuff, including the Valve Index and my yoke/pedals in preparation for moving. Who knows when.

2. Probably the real issue is that.. like with the Alpha I tried, I'm just going to get bored very fast. I feel like what I need in this is some sense of progression. Things to do. Freight or passengers to move around. Unlocking planes gradually etc. A career mode per say.

3. Maybe a subset of that is it just feels like the game never looks as good during gameplay as it does in these trailers or screenshots. Specifically, the ground textures and surface assets. I think I had the settings maxed or close to it, but eh the details did kinda look like the old games. And this isn't unique to FS2020; I had the same feelings when I recently tried X-Plane 11.

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The Hottest Jams for 2020