by slax
Here we go again, on my own, dun dun dah etc.
Making a list, checking it just the one time as I try and track and rank what games I've played through the year. I'm going to put games I finished and quit and whatever else, exciting stuff! We are rating these games on the 5 star 5 star scale. The first set of stars denotes whether this is a "good" game, and the second whether this is a "fun" game. I use it for movies, let us see together if it works for games! I'll denote quality with * and fun with ^ because carrots are fun! It's also just a whole lot of stream of consciousness writing, mostly to remind me of how I felt. But if you are reading this and want to chat about a game, leave a comment, happy to delve further into my thoughts.
Honorable Mentions:
Splitgate - Honestly, pretty fun! Put about 10 hours into it. All the playlists are named the same as the Halo ones which is silly!
Pokemon Unite - This game made me wish that there were more approachable MOBAs because I think the concept is cool. This game made me think about what a lane based MOBA shooter would look like. So that's nice. Also this game did want to eat your money but you didn't have to let it and could still have an okay time.
Diablo 3 Season 24/25: I got way into "watching" AEW again this year and since my favorite part of wrestling is the plot (lol. although big spots are fun too) Diablo 3 was the perfect game to play. Seasonal stuff has really been ramping up, but Acti/Blizz, needs to get their shit together and start taking care of people and protecting vulnerable populations.
Valheim: I forgot I put in like 20 hours with friends in February. Had a fine time with this game. I'm someone who takes these at a slower pace, so playing with friends can kind of be an experience of log in get all the best gear handed to me and not really know what I need to accomplish. But I think it showed some promise, just not sure what they are going to do to bring me back in.
Factorio: Just a little bit of this game, it's like a less fun but more functional Satisfactory. Peaceful mode seems to be the way to go, but you still hit a point of factory burn out.
Satisfactory: I love this game. Has a similar co-op problem to Valheim when you need to go to bed and wake up the next morning to a completely different factory that has been left producing all night. But playing solo is such a nice relaxing experience (some of the time). I always get to a certain point in these factory games though, where I'd need to rebuild everything after unlocking recipes or technologies to make everything more efficient, but I've put so much time into the original build and it's humming along nicely. I had a plan for it the last factory, but it took so long so I stopped playing. Excited to see what's next for them though.
In progress, but probably won't finish this year, SMTV, Pokemon BDSP, Diablo 2 Res, and learning Japanese I guess?
Showing 1-10 of 21 items
*****^^^^^ Finished: 2/24 I can't explain why this game hit me just right like it did, but I am a huge fan. It does so much right and makes the process of solving the mystery so fun!
****^^^^^ Finished 3/26 and Shura Playthorugh 4/1 The greatest thing that Ghost of Tsushima did for me this year is get me to finally jump into Sekiro. That and a couple of twitch streams from people I enjoy who aren't FromSoft diehards who still really enjoyed it. Having played through all of Dark Souls 1-3 this is by far my favorite From game. The combat is perfect and the mobility really sings. The game on-boards you surprisingly well for a From game and the progression in the first play through works flawlessly. There is so much to find and discover and in a real shift for From games there weren't really any areas (shy maybe part of one) that I didn't like exploring and being present in. This game is tops! The story exists and is...fine? I mean good for most of it, nonsense for part of it. The main disappointment I had with this game is that NG+ doesn't really have much for you besides the different endings. Blazing through it a second time I realized all those mini-boss fights that felt so great the first time, don't have any rewards worth fighting for. You get more money, and you already have so much at that point and barely anything to spend it on. The combat is still great, as is using all the skills and muscle memory you've built up and easily defeating enemies you struggled with the first time, but it isn't quite enough to push me through trying to get the remaining two endings, at least not for a while. Regardless. This game rips!
****^^^^^ Finished: 2/14 While Paradise Killer gives you most of your agency at the end of the game during the trial period, this game gives you more agency as you go. Both have moments where you feel so smart when you get something right. This game probably has more of those moments, the only thing holding it back is the vibe while perfect for what it was, didn't quite hit as hard as Paradise Killer, and the fact that due to some design decisions, cleaning up the remaining crew members near the end of the game is a lot of backtracking through nested memories, which while is fine, sort of lost a bit of the momentum it had going for it.
****^^^^^^ Finished 7/6 I love this game warts and all. And oh boy are there some warts especially when it comes to some of the story stuff, but the nostalgia I have for this game, and the improvement of Golden really make this game great. This was my second time through Golden after playing it on the Vita back in the day and it still is such a comfort food for me.
****^^^^^ Finished: 1/3 This game is delightful!
****^^^^ Finished: 3/1 This game is still fun! I haven't played it since it game out, and I think a lot of the puzzles feel dated since it's been over a decade since it was first released, but I actually really like how dark and menacing the game feels in the middle. If it hadn't been meme'd to death, I think people who still look back fondly on the story and atmosphere. Nothing is overly surprising, but it's fun how they doled out little hints and storytelling along the way.
****^^^^ Finished: 11/21 This game is sure something. Spooky, fun, weird. Just has a lot going for it. I am almost sad it got less spooky after the first act, but still very much enjoyed what was there. I actually got a little emotional with how the (in-game) story wrapped up. I'd suggest going in blind and just seeing what's there. There are some puzzles that weren't particularly fun, but the core gameplay and the way the story unfolded was enough to keep me engaged the whole time.
****^^^^ Stopped 7/23 I'll probably play this game more. This is the year I took the plunge, bought a lot of DLC and tried to figure out how to actually play a Total War game. I've always been interested and given a couple a try but this is the first one that I kind of got a handle on the combat. This game is really good! It made me want a 40k one, because Warhammer fantasy is just okay, but I really like it regardless. There are so many races and leaders that all have different ways of playing, which is really to this games benefit. Do you like going wide, sure plenty of races for that, how about tall, you can do that too! You want archers, or artillery, or just melee, those are all options. Even if you are just playing as one race, having to adapt to what other races are doing is engaging! I had a really good time with this game.
*****^^^ Finished (100% items) 10/21 I like Metroid Dread and really wished I loved it. This was my first proper Metroid game. I played a lot of the GBA Castlevanias, but never found myself playing the other-side of the _____vania genre. I think I tried Super Metroid at one point and found the controls to be, bad? And honestly I think that might've been part of the reason I didn't absolutely love this game. It's not that the controls are bad. There are just a lot of them and a lot of situations that can require you to be doing a bunch of precision jumping and inputs to be successful. There is also so much I feel like the game doesn't tell you about the controls which is a real shame! Honestly I felt like it wasn't until nearly the end of the game, one of the last bosses, that I really started to feel what others had been talking about, that the game is such fun to play. I think if I had that background of Metroid games, I might've come to that conclusion earlier, but instead I was fighting with the controls, or playing within my limited scope of controlling Samus for so long that it might've detracted a small amount of enjoyment. The other thing was the exploration. I felt like the map was not great for remembering where I need to go back to or what I needed to do next. Maybe I was missing some obvious functionality, but I like the older grid format of Castlevania games (and I think older Metroid titles) more. The map gives you so much information that it becomes like a hidden pictures game to figure out what I missed that I just ended up wandering around until I found out what to do next. Which wasn't maybe the best strategy as it made everything take longer, but that's what you get I guess. I didn't mind a majority of the EMMI encounters, I think only 1 really frustrated me, but that was due to (intentional) limited mobility, which I didn't love in practice. The atmosphere was good! There was kind of a story which was very funny to me and I didn't really expect it. That ending though...it made me laugh out loud. I'm not sure if I was missing context, but I found it very humorous. Overall I had a pretty good time. I just felt like there were a couple of things the game could've done a better job of up front to allow someone like me to brush of the layers and get to the really fun game even quicker.
****^^^^ Stopped: 6/23 It's more Nioh, which is fun! And fists are fun to use! And just like Nioh 1 the story is there and not really told to you, you just sort of see cut-scenes of characters talking and then maybe that was supposed to explain something to you, but realistically you just need to go in your journal to understand what's going on. Just like Nioh 1 though, I don't feel a huge need to play through it multiple times, which in start contrast to Sekiro, there is a reason to do. But in Nioh 2's case, I'm not even convinced I'll finish it. Made it through most of it, had fun with friends and now feel like maybe I'm done? Who knows. Would probably suggest if someone wants to play a Nioh, Nioh 2 seems better in every way. But their similarities and playing them relatively close together probably is what slowed me down. A much better playing game than Persona 5 Strikers, but still runs into a repetitiveness that drug it down.
