GoTY 2023
Going to list every 2023 game I played, in order, of where I think they belong on a GoTY list for 2023. Since am putting all of them on this list, it is going to seem weird, until i have more than 10 on this.
List items
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NSW: An open world action adventure game with some building mechanics, weather/elements factors, lite stealth, resource gathering, and a ton of exploration. Build on a lot of the ideas from Breath of the Wild (the last zelda game), this one main new thing are its new powers. The biggest being building devices, vehicles, and other stuff. The game itself is a lot of fun, and checks nearly all the boxes. The story is good, the visuals are great, the gameplay flow is amazing, the exploring is the best for any game in the last 5 years, and overall, it lives up to the hype it had beforehand. The few missteps it does, are annoying, but nothing critical. The biggest flaw is the abilities controls not being hotkey to buttons, but instead, making the player talk to a npc to trigger them. The other two are just performance (it rarely loses FPS, but nothing major, and is better than most other games), and the combat doesn't feel as good as it did in Wind Waker (it is vastly more complex, so it has to be different, but the sword combat in past Zelda games was better). Oh, and the Korak game design does not respect the player's time.
Completed: The game, took 110+ hours, but I did it. I could have done it sooner, speed runners are doing in like 90 minutes, but for me, I wanted to play most of the game. There are still a ton of side quests i didn't do, and I only got 5 out of 20 sage stones. But beside those, i did most of the game. All 152 shrines, 120 lightroots, 60 side adventures, got a ton of armor pieces (and one of them to level 4), and like 85 korak seeds (out of like a 1000... yeah, i just didn't care for them this time. I didn't want to do the bring korak A to korak B ones, so i didn't. They would take me out of the way i wanted to go, and that is annoying, i don't got time for that... even though, i spent 110+ hours, it would be a lot more, if i did every side track thingy).
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PC: A CRPG (I think that the right term, its one of those top down, turn base, squad of hero characters (they all have abilities based off their class and items) where you make choices in the game that change events, as well as combat encounters that take place in the world's environment) that uses D&D 5e rules (though, mod a bit to fit into a video game). You can play a pre-made character, or make one of your own. Anywho, the visuals for the game are pretty good, showing off a lot of details (well, on my 4070 TI it did, but i had the settings on Ultra) on the world and characters, however, this comes at a steep price later in the game, where the devs didn't optimize their code. Resulting in lag time (in a single player game) of 30+ seconds. The story is mostly good, though, like most long games, it wears very thin, and breaks a bit by the end. The VO was just great from the start to the end, the voices for the main characters, and side characters, was amazing. Gameplay wise... its a tales of two games. The first half of the game, Act 1 (there are 3 acts, but Act 1 takes about as much time as Act 2 and 3), is great. They had this Act tested in early access for about 3 years, and it shows. Act 2 is good, by straight forward, and lacks the creativity and scope of Act 1. It isn't that it is bad, but if Act 1 was like this, it wouldn't have caught the publics interest (those who already like CRPG would have like it, but the quality doesn't match Act 1). Then there Act 3, which has the same problems as Act 2 and more. When it worked, it was alright, but it often didn't work. The performance through parts of Act 3 was just horrible, and had me concern that I wouldn't be able to finish the game, due to the game being kind of unplayable. Beyond performance issues, there are design issues too. First, the game doesn't deal with vertical buildings or floors well. Getting the camera to display a floor above or below was a real challenge. Also, a lot of the creativity seen in Act 1, was missing in Act 2 and 3. For example, in Act 1, there was a pull-y that you could shot down to break a hole into a structure. Stuff like that wasn't seen in Act 2 or 3. Also, it felt like the ending half of the game didn't introduce anything new to the story, in the sense that, in Act 1 you had a conflict between some 'good guys' in a haven, and the bad guys. And this kind of happen again, almost exactly, in Act 2. So yeah, the gameplay started strong, and then ended up okay. I still enjoyed my time with the game, and I have a positive opinion of it, but by the end, I was glad that it was over, and kind of wished that it was a little bit shorter and much more dynamic.
Completed: The game, took about 105 hours or more. I beat the game the day after the 5th patch, so i got the extra ending stuff. Geez, if i hadn't gotten that, my opinion of the game would probably have been much lower. From the sounds of it, the old ending was shallow and lite on details. Anywho, thinking back on it, and i think my big problem i had with this game is that it does a lot of telling you that you are making a difference, and not showing you. Sure, you clear out enemies (either good or evil), but it doesn't really change that much, other than having that area being empty of people. There a story line reason for that, since you have a tadpole in your head and need to get it out ASAP. But gameplay wise, it was a lot of, you did this thing and free the land (assuming you went the good route), but you can't see it, but know that it happen, cause we said so, now run forward and do more stuff that will change the world which you'll never see, so it kind of like it doesn't, but let's pretend that it does. Guess i wanted something like building something, owning a house, or some kind of mini-game thingy to be different.
Side note: There were people (ign) that were trying to parade this game out as bug free and other games should be like. And that is just bizarre. Act 3 in this game was some of the worse performance i have seen in a game in a long time. There were 5 or 6 spots on the map that would have lag of 30+ seconds (npcs wouldn't move, couldn't do commands, etc). Beyond that, there were numerous times of dialogue getting cut off, buggy quests, and combat animations displaying a 5 second lag to execute commands through out the game. My guess is that most of these people only played Act 1, and are willingly ignoring that this game was in early access for 3 years, in order to attack other games with an unfair and disingenuous way.
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XSX: A puzzle game, with a few combat encounters (not the focus, there like a handful of boss battles in total, and no other combat. No real fail/lose state for combat), where you play a bug like humanoid with the gimmick being that the world you are in, is a sphere, that you can leave, to get into another one (there are only a handful in total) and you use this ability to jump into and out of spheres (including put spheres into other spheres), sphere special powers, and the combination of these abilities to solve puzzles. The game also has a great visual style, that makes the environment feel really alien and different. However, on the flip side, it is this different nature that makes the story, or any attempt at a story, suffer. The game's story process is similar to a Limbo, where there isn't any spoken or written words, so the player has to infer what is going on. But since everything is so alien, and not realistic, there isn't much to understand. Limbo and Inside were weird, but, since it was mostly human stuff, be it afterlife or clone dystopia stuff, it was still somewhat understandable. Cocoon is just too out there, so there really no story to get. Am sure there are youtube videos and such, with people guessing what they think the story could be about. But it all just guessing. And cause of this, the game story suffers greatly, and is one of the biggest things holding this game back. The only other negative I have for the game, is it linear nature, where back tracking isn't really allowed. You can load older states to get missing events, but when you are playing the game, you can't go back. Lucky, the missing events don't really matter, so it isn't a deal breaker, but just an annoyance. Overall, the game is a lot of fun, and doesn't take that long to get through (4-6 hours, or less, if you are trying to speed through).
Completed: The game, got all the specials event, but did not get the secret ending, which i didn't know was a thing until afterwards.
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NSW : A real time strategy action game where you control a character directly, who in turn has command over several different groups of pikmin. These plant people of a sort come in different colors (which relate to their abilities. Red Pikmin are immune to Fire and are strong fighters, Ice Pikmin are immune to cold stuff and can freeze enemies and bodies of water) and the player has to use them to overcome puzzles and enemies. For the most part, the formula for Pikmin 4 is the same as the other ones with a couple of new additions. Like upgrades, a dog buddy (who has a host of abilities themselves and is super useful), and some QoL improvements.
Completed: The game, second ending. Got to the second ending, and that's good enough for me (took about 31 hours). I know there a bit more i could do, but am not going to. The game feels too long, which would have been great when i was growing up, but now that my time is limited, is a minus. Overall the game is fun, but I felt by the end that it was just too punishing, and lost the sense of progression of power. Like in most games, when you get to the end game, you feel more powerful (well, games with upgrades and such), but here, due to a lot of big enemies that can one hit kill your Pikmin, i didn't feel like i was more powerful at the end. And part of that was due to some of the big enemies not having easy exploits or patterns. Well, if they did, i didn't learn them. These complaints aside, I did have a lot of fun with this game. The level design is great, the OCD collecting was fun, visual were interesting, and the story did its job. But with all of that, it just that I don't think I would want to play another Pikmin game that plays like this. If and when they do another, I really hope they change something major. Like have the Pikmin evolve instead of just different colors (i.e. like if Reds turn into the Rock ones, so the Rock ones had all the powers of Reds, plus their own), or more complex commands/controls (the buddy system was decent, but the game loop of just throwing Pikmin at enemies has limits, and it felt like a lot of the tough enemies were just design to be a bit bullet sponge-y cause of this), or some kind of automation, factory or war map thingy... just something more and new.
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NSW: A 2d platformer Mario game. Whose main gimmick is the wonder flowers, an item that once pick up in a stage (it isn't in all stages) a gameplay change occurs where the player has to complete it correctly to get the wonder seed (this game's version of a star). These changes include things like the player floating into the air, dodging enemies, being chased by king boo (so, kind of just going to the right, as usual, but without the ability to backtrack, and on a timer of sorts), or being transform into a spike ball which can destroy blocks to clear their path. Overall, i found the wonder changes to be underwhelming. There were a couple that change things in interesting ways, like making the game a top down game. But for the most part, they were just too simple, and repeated too many times (just with a different coat of paint. For example, the King Boo thing was repeated with lava, or bity plants too). The core gameplay is still good, and fun. On the other hand, there weren't that many new power ups, just the elephant power up, and maybe the bubble flower (i think this is new, but maybe it isn't). There is one last thing that this game does, and its a huge plus. And that's the online part. So, when you play online (there is still local co-op, which is what you would expect), the ghost of other players, playing that level at the same time, show up in your game. You don't have to worry about them getting in the way, as you can't touch each other. But if you die, you can revive by touch them, or one of their standee props (a thing you can drop for other players to touch to revive, so, you put this before tough enemies or platforming parts... or as a lot of people did, including myself, over secrets, to flag down other players so that they look at an area). This online feature was super useful, and save my hide dozens of times, help me find secrets that i would have missed completely, and used to cheese my way past parts of a few levels that i couldn't complete on my own.
Completed: The game, and all but 3 levels (there were 2 special world stages that i just couldn't complete, and these two, blocked off the final super special level (which i never even saw... :( ). Overall, the game is rather short, taking less than 10 hours to complete. With a mix bag of experiences. The wonder flowers were a let down, but the online part was great.
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XSX: An action, soul-ish, lite platformer, with easy puzzles set in the Star Wars universe. It is the follow up to Star Wars Fallen Order. And overall, it is okay... The gameplay is good, the visuals are great, audio is good too. There are some performance issues, but nothing major. But on the negative side, the game is bloated. There are too many collectables, and side paths. And while that is normally a good thing, in this game, it takes away from the experience. I ended up turning on the navigation assist option, not because i was getting lost, but so that i could figure out which ways were side paths, and which ones were the main path... guess that kind of getting lost, but not in the normal 'i don't know where to go' but more of 'i don't want to waste my time getting a paint scheme that i'll never use' type of way. And that was the big problem with the collectables, so many of them were worthless for one reason or another. Either they were costume piece that look bad (oh, look, a new shirt, whoop de doo), were just a paint scheme for a specific costume piece (now i can change the color of a shirt that i don't want, and only for that shirt, this paint doesn't work on anything else), or a piece of collectable currency (there were like 5 or more different types of these). In the end, the game took over 20-25 hours to complete, and i feel it would have been much better at half of that, with the side paths being reduce, made more obvious, and with better rewards (having paints as a collectable reward was insulting, and they should have been include with the items by default. Lightsaber parts should just have include all of them at once, same with bd-1) .
Oh, and the story was a bummer, and ended abruptly... which felt like the usual annoying mid chapter non-sense. And the game is one of those games where the player loses in cutscenes. Fight a boss, beat the boss, but in the cut scene the boss defeats you. Feels like the game is cheating with bad story telling.
Completed: The game. Did a lot of the side stuff, i think... but the overall percentage was probably like 50%... there just too much.
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NSW: A action puzzle game where the gimmick is that you can control two characters at the same time (usual) with the different analog sticks. Using the trigger buttons to do actions with them. And it works fairly well, and is fun. So the game is broken down into a few different segments. First there are puzzles, which require either both characters doing something, one character doing something for the other character to unblock them, or both characters doing stuff at about the same time to help/unblock the other one. These puzzles work fairly well, and don't get to complex, and aren't hard to control. The other big part is combat, where Chesure (the cat demon) is the tank/dps, and Cereza is the support (can freeze enemies in spot, revive Chesure). These parts are okay, and stay fresh due to the new powers you gain along the way, and the many enemy types. So gameplay wise, the game is solid. Visual wise, it has a story book look that is pretty good too. This is in game, and in the cut scenes. Lastly, the story is decent too... you'll be able to guess what happens long before it does, and some parts of the characters whining are grating, but overall, it was good enough.
Completed: The main game. There some extra mode that i plan to get to, since it apparently has more story elements.
Update: Finish the extra chapter, it was okay. Not sure why some youtube video made a big deal out of it. For the most part, it felt like filler. It could have been cut down to 1 normal fight, and 1 boss fight, the rest wasn't needed. It did tie back to Bayonetta 3, but not much, and didn't really change anything.
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XSX,: An open world / space game where you go around questing, grinding up talents, and getting better gear. It has some RPG elements, but they are lite. Mainly just a talent system, which isn't great, and stats on equipment. Visual the game looks alright, and they did a ton of work on VO and presentation. But there are parts that feel like they were rush in and not a lot of time was spent on them, like the UI. Which is just horrible. For example, you aren't given information on a weapons stats while in the world. So, you have to pick up a weapon, to see how it compares to what you already have. Also, the gameplay just feels dated, it like a step or two above what Skyrim did 10 years ago. Kind of feels like it just Skyrim with jetpacks, at times. Also the future setting doesn't feel like it is in the future, other than the space ships. Most of the game you are just walking around a planet or in a space station (which, plays about the same) and you just have normal guns (or lasers, but those act the same as normal guns). The biggest future part of the game is the space ship parts. But even this part is disappointing simple. Space ship combat feel more like a re-skin fighter jet dog fight game, and less like a battleships fighting each other. Lastly, the game tries to mix it up by adding player powers to the game, however, these powers often feel underwhelming, and are more in line with Skyrim powers, and less Cyberpunk 2077.
Completed: The game, did one play through, about 72+ hours, lots of side quests and such.
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NSW: A TBS squad rpg game. The latest in the FIre Emblem series. It plays nearly the same as the last few, but with one new major change. The engage system. Characters can equip special rings (1 max) that gives them stats bonus, new abilities, and a special action Engage. Which will transform them into an.. well, super hero thingy for 3 rounds. During this, they'll have even better stats bonuses, and a one time use, super ability (which recharges the next time they engage). There are 12 special rings in the base game, and 7 more in the DLC. The rings are different, and work best with different types of units. For example, Corrin gives sword bonuses, so, obviously, she goes better with a character that uses swords. The other rings work the same with other weapon types. And that's the main difference in this game.
Quality wise, the maps, visuals, performance, and some of the game systems are much better in this one than 3 houses. But on the flip side, the story is generically bad, all over. The main story isn't good, and most of the characters are dull too. The DLC story and character are decent, but there are only 4 of them, and 6 missions. I found myself skipping a lot of the support conversations with the main cast, since, they just were shallow non-sense.
Completed: The main game, and dlc in about 55 hours or so. It was fun, but, i don't think i'll remember most of it in a year's time or so. And unlike 3 houses, which i played through 3 times over 220 hours, i don't play on ever replaying this one. The game was fun, but lack an impact due to the poor story elements.
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NSW: The remastered Version. I enjoyed this game (again), but there are a few QoL things it could do, and a few overall changes to its formula that i think it needs. I don't want to start off negative, so i'll state that I think this is a good game. The environments are great, visual, audio wise, and design. The gameplay systems are mostly great. On the other hand, and this is common to most metroidvanias, I just don't care for respawning enemies. It really discourages exploration, and back tracking, which is something that these games want the player to do. Next, there no fast travel system in this game. There wasn't in the original, but it is something that has been in some newer metroidvanias, and would have made this game faster and better. Lastly, the map system needs work. The elevators should somehow link to each other, so that the player can directly see which ones connect to other ones. Overall, I had a lot of fun with the game, but I don't think I will be playing the re-re-master, if it just another graphically improvement.
Completed: The game, only got 91% of the items (didn't feel like 100% it again), and 100% of the scans.
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PC: An action survival horror game, which is a remake of a game that came out in 2008, i believe. Unlike RE4, i think this one holds up a bit better. Or, maybe since I just didn't just directly beat ToTK, i wasn't judging it as hard. Anywho, the game was still scary, I was able to cheat at it (with Cheat engine, so that always a big plus, i do enjoy cheating at horror games), visuals pretty good, though, not great, a bit too dark, there is scary dark, and i can't fucking see the wall dark, and this game often got to the second group there. The game's level design started off good, but after a couple of hours, and with the back tracking, became a chore, and overall disappointed. The side quests were an interesting idea, but an annoyance to do. The combat was enjoyable, but i really just stuck to 1 gun for the entire game. Most of the other weapons were interesting, but not as useful as the weapon i picked as my main. And with the upgrade system being what it is, the game doesn't really want you to use all its weapons. As it goes with most action survival horror games, it was a bit too enemy heavy, leading to the feeling that most side room exploration wasn't worth it, since they mostly only had 1 or 2 items, usually minor items like an ammo clip or a small health pack, so they weren't worth the cost of resources to explore. And the game's fright pacing felt off, as it was nearly always on, so there weren't really that many parts that were design to let the player relax, and get ready for the next scary part. And without these breaks, i got rather numb to the jump scares and such. Lastly, the game was kind of buggy. During my 10 hours, the game crashed about 5 times.
Completed: The game, on easy, took about 10 hours.
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PC: An action horror game with lite open world elements, and puzzles. This is my third time playing through this game* (well, first time in the remake, and two times in the original format (that i recall, might have been more)) and the game has worn itself out. I had an okay time with it, but not much fun. The iconic moments were still cool, but they couldn't save the experience overall. My problem with the game comes in two parts. First, the game drags, the pacing feels off, and it takes way too long to complete. I ended up skipping most of the side quest stuff, and stop back tracking mostly (after the half way point) and it took me 10+ hours to beat the game. This is made worse by the same-y gameplay through out. Killing enemies on the same map areas over and over again gets old, quickly. And lacks a sense of progression (well, a better sense of progression, for me). The second problem, which was made a lot clearer since I just played through LoZ: ToTK, is the lack of mobility. This game feels outdate, like super outdate. The player can walk/run around, and climb ladders. And that's about it (other than 2 parts where there a vehicle thingy, but those are quick segments, don't factor into the rest of the game, and don't add much). So there are often small ledges that block the player's path that they have to go on a 20 minute detour to get around, when in most other games, they would just climb up the ledge in about 4 seconds. Further, it isn't that the mobility doesn't compare well to LoZ: ToTK, but to most other games. Dynasty Warrior games have better movement than this game (those you can swim in water, and jump). So yeah... the bad level design combine with the bad pacing made this game a lot less fun than i remember it being.
Completed: The game, took about 10+ hours, and got an A ranking.
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XSX: Another diablo game, similar to Diablo 3, but with different or changed classes, and a open world of sorts (though, not a good one at all). Played the game during a game trial period (of 10 hours) and found it to be an enjoyable, mindless fun, but not a good game by itself. I played the necromancer with a focus on pets. Which was enjoyable, though, a bit dull. The game's story, from what i saw (completed Act 1, was in the middle of Act 2) was the usual generic, by the numbers, diablo story line. Also, during my 10 hours, i saw like 4 other people playing. Which isn't to imply that no one is playing the game, but the system they have setup for their 'open' world is just bad. It feels lazy, and doesn't really add anything interesting to the game. They seem to only use it to be able to put side quests in areas that you have already been in. Visual, the game looks okay, but it kind of hard to read with its muted colors and camera angle. Am not sure if i'll pick this game up for myself, or if i'll just sit it out completely. Right now am waiting to see if they add it to gamepass, or some kind of cross buy thing.
On a side note, I still find that the height of the Diablo series, was the Diablo 2, expansion. Not the whole game, just the expansion. I understand that I was younger when i played it, so that color my impression to that game (and all games around that age). But I found the D2 exp to be the best part of any Diablo game so far. And that is mainly cause it felt like a real conflict. There were NPC fighting other npcs, the environment was design to have outpost, prisoners, catapults, etc... So it felt more real (to me). Since then, most diablo games tell you that its a war zone, or the end of the world (again), but they don't really show it, and it doesn't really feel like it is. Another burnt out town with some random monsters isn't interesting.
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IPAD: A reverse city builder of sorts. So you start on a small-ish map where the environment has been wreck, and you place buildings (power than cleaner than a grower, than the special growers) to bring it back to life. You make certain combos to find wild life, and once you got the environment setup again, you recycle all your buildings, via other buildings, and leave the map to nature. It is simple, and on easy mode, relaxing. There were 4 normal maps, and after the final map, new modes open up on them... i didn't care to do those, since, the simple nature of the game doesn't lend itself to repeat playing.
Completed: The game, the 4 maps.
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NSW: An online racer that plays like the orignal F-zero game (i believe, its been a long time) but online, with 98 other players. Its fairly grindy, and the unlocks are slow and visual. I enjoyed the gameplay in small doses, but it doesn't have lasting power with me. Also, i don't really like online games, so... there is that big negative too.
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PC: An resource focus strategy game that is played in two parts. The first is the city map where you put houses and resource generating buildings (either mining or producer). The goal on this side is to meet the needs of the houses, so that you can upgrade them to the next tier. When you do that, there are new buildings and requirements. Overall there are 4 tiers, each, kind of the same as the last, just with new names, and an increase in demands. So yeah... it was kind of just being a lot, in order to be a lot. i.e. you spun those 2 plates, cool, now do that again, but with 5 plates this time. Which isn't that much fun when you think about it. The other part of the game is the mining part, which is kind of dungeon keeper-ish, but with less direct control. You build rooms, there are 4 for units, a few for special objects (workshop to build machines to mine, radar room to scan, armory to build traps, etc..), farm, etc. You don't control the units directly, but you do tell them where to mine. You do place traps and machines down. The underground part was fun, but shallow.
Overall, i put in about 4 hours into this game before i quit. I found that while i was playing it, i found it entertaining, but when i wasn't, i felt like i wasted my time. I think this was due to that the game keeps you busy while you are playing, spinning plates, but when i thought back on what i had just did, i wasn't amused. I know that whenever i took a break from the game. I wasn't thinking about what cool thing i would do next in it, or wondering what else it had in store for me. Instead, i just felt like i used my time doing a lot of busy work, in order to unlock more busy work. Which, works while doing it, since i like checking off boxes on a to do list, but that isn't something i want to do, just to do it.
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PC: A RTS 4x game set in the Dune universe. You control one of 6 (i think it was 6, maybe 5 or 7... so, going to go with 6-ish) factions, as you try to win by the normal 4x ways, taking out the other teams, having the most money (you buy stocks in the galaxy stock thingy, if you get the majority, you win), a lot of influence, or win the election. There a 5th way, but i forget what it is.
Overall the game looks nice, and plays fine. But, it is so, so very slow. Where Civ has the mentality of 'just one more turn' this game seems to want players to spend just one more hour. Resources are slow to build up, and after the starting few minutes, progression grinds to a slog. Worse of all, well, for me, is that it is one of those games where you lose, and don't realize/see it. The game is heavily focus on resource gathering via static buildings, kind of like an idle game of sorts, and if the other teams are making more, which you won't know about (unless you put all your spies on them... i think... i didn't do this, but it seems like it is setup that way. If not, then there is actual no way, which is worse), you'll end up losing, but won't know it, until you have wasted hours. I put in about 4-5 hours into this game, and I don't feel like that time was well spent. The game isn't horrible, but it is slow. And that might work for some people, but it doesn't for me.
Lastly, the game is in real time, and I don't think it needs to be. The RTS nature of it, actual seems like a bad design decision. It doesn't add anything positive to the game. If the game had been a TBS, I think it would have been better, since, oddly enough, it would have been so much faster.
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XSX: A rhythm action platforms, kind of a mix between DMC, and cadence of hyrule. I wanted to like this game, since a few of the staff really like it, but i just didn’t. I got to the 5th stage, before it was just too much, and i couldn’t force myself to go any further. My main problem with this game, is that I don’t have rhythm, or i should say, i can’t play a game that demands the player stay on a beat. And without that, this game is just bad. The game tries to offer a few accessible options, but they don’t help enough. First, there an on screen beat visual thingy. This, by itself, is nice, since it does help the player stay on beat. But it has a critical flaw, you have to look at it. And I found that when I used it, I was no longer looking at the game. Just the visual beat meter. Combat wasn’t me doing cool combos to the music. It was just a meter that told me when to push a button. Second, they offer a single button mode, which helped a lot with the gameplay. But the problem with that is that I still wasn’t on the beat when using it. So the main gimmick, didn’t click with me at all. Also, the game doesn’t do anything with its QTE cut scenes. And I often found myself failing those, over and over. The story is mediocre at its best. The characters are dull. Graphically, it is good, sometimes, has a cool cell shaded look going, though, the environments, were generic most of the time. The music… well… without me syncing up to it in game, it was just forgettable. I remember the first boss had a NIN song, but after that, i don’t recall another song. It was just normal background music.
So yeah, I found this game disappointing, due to the high praise it is getting. But also, that makes me a bit sad/mad. Since, I want to be part of the group that enjoys it/gets it. But am not, and i know that people will keep bring it up, and praising it, and i just won’t get it. So I’ll feel left out, and such.
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XSX: A 2d platformer puzzle game in the vein of a Limbo or Summerville, where you control a kid and her pet, and have to go right (on the screen). There are the usual platform jumping, puzzles, and hiding from alien robots (or whatever is the theme of the game) that so many of these games have. The problem with this one is that it doesn't do anything interesting. The art is great, but beside that, there isn't anything remarkable about it. And with a weak story, the game just feels like it is going through the paces.
I got to a wind chime puzzle thingy, and stop there. I couldn't figure out the answer, there were 4 switches (each with 4 possible values), and while two of their values were hidden in the environment, i couldn't find the other 2. I realize i could brute force it, but, i didn't want to. I have other games I want to play, and playing this game more, felt like it would be a waste of my limited time.
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XSX: A climbing game, where you are a dude with a little blue plumb alien baby on your back, and you climb up a tall mountain, city, pillar thingy. There no dialogue in game, but there are a lot of notes. So, so many notes, paintings, and other flavor items like that, with the story is told through them. And it is a dull/shallow story that i found myself skipping through. The main gameplay loop is finding a spot that can be climb, similar to a lot of other titles where the player can only climb up at define areas instead of freely climb up like in LoZ: ToTK or even AC games, and then going from hand hold to hand hold, using whatever level gimmick is around to help. This flow is alright at the beginning of the game, but starts to break half way through. And by break, i mean, it just stops working at some spots, and it isn't clear why. I would have given up on the game at this point, had it not been for the accessibility options, which just made things worked. Not sure why, I just removed the stamina meter. But for some unknown reason, the game just decided that the handhold i had been going for, for the last 10 minutes, would just work now, even though, I wasn't doing anything different (gameplay wise). Anywho, beside issues like this, the gameplay, when it worked, was amusing at first. The default controls have you pressing the shoulder buttons to simulate arm movements, and that was kind of fun for a little bit.
Complete: The game. It is rather short, about 4 hours or so. The story was weak, the graphics were decent, the sound wasn't good, and the gameplay had critical issues. Even though this is a short game, I don't feel like it was worth my time.
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PC: A RTS game in the vein of Dungeon Keeper. The game has two main parts, the first one is where you build a base by clicking on patches of dirt to mine resources, build rooms, and set traps. And the second is where you command a small squad of units underground, and on the surface, to attack 'good guys' and their bases. Overall, the formula for this one is kind of the same as it was for the last one. With little to no change, well, none that i notice. The graphics are mediocre, the audio is okay, the design is kind of poor, and the experience is forgettable. Am not sure why i keep trying these games, i guess i still have hope that one of them, one day, will recapture that magic that was in the original dungeon keeper. However, as of now, they haven't.
Got about 8 missions in before i stopped. Even cheating at this game didn't feel worth it. Also, there were major performance issues when i had 30+ units (including worker units), which is actual a very small amount for a RTS game.
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iPad: Playing it on my ipad. The game was included with Netflix, so that's nice. However, the game itself is not. The presenation for the game is great, the art style, VO, UI, all of that is good. But the actual gameplay is bad. And this is disappointing since the game has a cool concept. It is a lot of random guessing puzzle mechanics. So, in each puzzle, you are given a small select of scenes and actors, the puzzle itself has X amount of boxes, and for each box, you can put a scene and up to two actors in it. What that scene does, and what it does to the actor(s) in it, you have to figure out by just placing it there and seeing. Also, scenes can change actors relationships to each other, or change the actors themselves. For example, the death scene will kill an actor that you put in the grave, and you can optional include another actor, who will mourn (giving them a heart break status) the dead actor, if they were in love with the first actor. And actors with the heart break status can do other things, like drink poison, or get remarried. So, if the puzzle is asking for an actor to get married twice, you would marry Actor A to B, kill B and have A there to mourn, than remarry A to C. The problem comes from the way this is figured out, what the scenes do, and how they effect each other. While there is some logic to it, a lot of the time, it is just guessing. There are a lot of different scenes, new ones each puzzle set, and most of them aren't straight forward. Also, the game doesn't have a hint system (well, not one that i could find) nor feedback on why certain actions aren't being done. So even though, it would make sense in the players' mind that things would work one way, if that way isn't what the game exactly wants, it won't work, and it won't tell the player why. In the end, this game has an interesting concept, but bad excution.
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PC: An open area, shooter looter, horror, lite rpg game. Kind of a borderlands like game with a horror twist... well, that is what they tried for. They didn't get there, but that's what it seems like they wanted. Anywho, got this game with my video card, and didn't bother with it until the latest patch. And after about 5-6 hours with it, i can say it isn't worth it. Their core concepts of being a shooter looter and a horror game, just don't mix well. Horror games try to go the survival route, so, little ammo or supply, a few dangerous enemies, and scary designed environments. On the other hand, shooter looters go for tons or weapons and ammo (its literally the thing that suppose to be their gimmick), lots of generic weak-ish enemies, and usually have a lot of generic areas that you just get through. So, cause of this split, the game often just didn't work. Further, on a personal pet peeve level, this game pretends to have area control gameplay, take a safe house, do a couple of missions, and that area suppose to be 'retaken'. But nothing changes, it still fill with bad guys, and looks the exact same. If a game going to do area control, than they need to do what the first infamous did, when you take an area, enemies stop spawning there, and it goes back to a normal (friendly npcs, and buildings aren't on fire) look. So yeah, the game was a disappointment all around, on gameplay... performance wise, it ran fine.
Completed: The first area, including the first major boss. I was able to cheat at the game to get unlimited ammo, which is the only reason i was able to put up with it for so long. And while i did enjoy the feeling of having unlimited ammo in a horror game (it something i like a lot), even that wasn't enough to get me to finish this game.
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XSX: A third person RTS that has bad controls, UI, and flow... but has some charm, and if it was like 10 to 20 years ago, i would have played a lot more of this janky game. But now a days, i know i can play better, and that i should play better... or at least decent games. There are numerous problems with the game. The UI is hard to read (how many units of what type you have, what buildings/resources do, commands on screen), the controls are just bad (even basic gather or charge orders don't often work well, and specific commands are often more difficult than they are worth) and the gameplay flow is off putting (there a lot of defense setting, building ramps/bridges has issues, the enemy will attack random towns every so often, and there are at least 5 different resources (might be more later, i stopped playing after a little bit)). So yeah, given all of that, i decided that this game wasn't worth my time.
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XSX: A rough bioshock like game that has bad VO, story, and game world design. The game's story takes place in an alternate history Russia, where they have develop retro-future techology, mainly robots of different types, and takes place in an area that kind of like Rapture, from the Bioshock series. The problem with this game is that it has a few bad parts, and the other parts are rough, so it never gets good.
The problem areas of the game start with its VO, well, its English VO. It is just bad. And not in a funny way. Well, not for me. It is just grating, due to the sound of the voices, and the horrible dialogue. Next the story is shallow and dull. It never really finds it hook, instead from the parts i saw, it was just cliches and boring characters. Lastly, and what made me stop playing the game, was the poor game world design. I don't like respawning enemies, and this game has that in a lot of that. It is the worse in the open world part, and this system prevented me from exploring. Once the player gets out of the tutorial starting area (which takes like 3 hours) they find themselves surronded by a ton of enemies, cameras (which will trigger alarms and summon enemies), and respawn bots that will revive dead enemies. And while it is possible to run past all of this, that isn't something i wanted to do. I want to explore the world, and find stuff. So since i couldn't do that here, i stopped.
So yeah, overall, i found the game to be okay at best parts, but more often, it was just frustating.
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