2023's Megamix Playlist Ahoy Hoy
Games. I play them. I sometimes track them so I can make end-of-the-year lists for an adoring audience of five. Sometimes I even finish them.
List items
-
A really weird, delightful thing. It's basically a job management game combined with a retro-arcade simulator. The games aren't real, but a few of them feel like they could have been, and some of them are actually really fun. I think the job management sim part of this could have been blown out a little bit to overcome some early game boredom, and not all the arcade games land as well as others. But this is the backbone to something truly excellent in the future, and with DLC arcade cabinets, the sky's the limit.
-
This feels, at least in its initial hours, like diet Rune Factory 4, to the point where I'm surprised someone didn't get sued over it. I'm still early in so I'm not sure if it will have the depth of the games it's clearly based on, but the story so far is farcical enough to be endearing and the world is genuinely gorgeous. But there's a lot of this that feels by the numbers. Hopefully there's more to it under the surface, but I have the uneasy feeling this is another case of a game imitating the Harvest Moon/Rune Factory formula without ever really trying to be anything more.
-
"Spider-Man, we have reports of a psychopath serial killer."
"Can't."
"What? Why?"
"Findin' backpacks."
10/10.
-
Cute little point and clicker with a good sense of humor and short cases you can solve in a lunch hour (if that). Really liked this one.
-
It's free, which admitttedly makes me like this all the more, but I do think the basic narrative here is decent. It's over in a blink and there are maybe a few too many areas of no importance, but it's a simple narrative story with few frills and I respect that.
-
Some bizarre difficulty balancing issues aside, this is Shadow Warrior 2 meets Doom and I am all about that. The setting is great, the upgrade systems are fantastic, and I really like the idea behind the loot. The level design is sometimes more of a pain than it needs to be but it's overall a pretty cool experience.
-
Why did I wait to play this for so long? Holy shit this game is amazing. It's got the social links and school setting of something like Persona mated with classic Trails combat in a 3D setting. It fucking rules, and there's no sarcasm to that. It's complex, has great characters, is silly and fun, and the plot is keeping me thoroughly hooked. So far, it's flawless.
-
While not quite as exceptional as the first in the Cold Steel series, there are enough great moments packed into Cold Steel II to make it worth the journey. Plus, there's a villain named McBurn, so... ya know, ten out of ten.
-
So far, kind of a let-down. I'm going to come back and edit this with final thoughts.
-
A weird mish-mash of kiddie friendly and wildly obtuse systems designed by sadists who hate sensible UI or the satisfying simplicity of upgrading farms and farming from games of a similar nature. They really need to rethink that house design UI because it's an unexplained mess. The farming is mostly understandable, but needlessly complex in the way you need to surround your crops. Watering is also hilariously unexplained. I'm not sure who looked at Stardew and Rune Factory and the like and thought, you know, this, but with the mechanics of, say, Kerbal Space Program. I'm still not sure where I stand on liking this or not. I want to play it again when it's out of Early Access to see if any of this is addressed (it seems too far along, but maybe?).
-
-
-
-
-
Kind of a mess, the character models are sometimes fugly as sin, and the menu system is overly complicated when it comes to changing your title and profile information or playing games against human people,, but I love the goofy-ass world tour mode and the combat is as good as it's ever been. Serious GOTY contender.
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
Load Comments