Back on the other website, there used to be a sub called r/12in12 where people would try to beat 12, 24, 36+ games per year. I never really set myself any specific target like that, but the end of year reviews were always fun to read/write. Considering that I don’t think a single game I beat came out this year, I think this is the right community to ask this.
What games did you beat this year? What did you think of them?
For me:
January:
Nothing!
February:
Spider-Man: Miles Morales 7/10
When I first played Spider-Man on a PS4, I didn’t like it. The 30fps cap made the swinging feel clunky and nothing about the rest of the game made up for it. The PC release finally comes around and at last I get the hype, the web swinging is so good. The combat is very Arkham and it’s fine, the story is fine, but the web swinging is just so good. Spider-Man Miles Morales is just more of that.
The Zachtronics Solitaire Collection ?/10
This game is responsible for Steam thinking that Solitaire is one of my favorite genres of games. There are multiple versions of the game here, most of them are fine but Fortune’s Foundation is probably my new favorite version of Solitaire. I don’t know what I’d rate this out of 10, but I got 90 hours of entertainment for my $10.
March:
Split / Second 8/10
The PC port sucks, you have to use a fan patch to remove the 30fps cap, the controller support is terrible, but there’s nothing else like it. It’s a fantastic arcade racer with a super unique premise. The rest of the industry seeing this and Blur bombing financially is probably why racing games are so goddamn anemic now which is such a shame.
April:
Rakuen 7/10
I’ve never really gotten into any RPG Maker games like this, but it had great reviews and I needed something battery-friendly to play on my Steam Deck. Rakuen was pretty darn good, the characters are well written and the environments outside of the hospital are pretty. The story is a little predictable, but I think that’s fine what it wanted to tell.
May:
Hotshot Racing 6/10
What’s here is fun, but there’s almost nothing here. I beat the entire campaign in about an hour. The AI rubber-banding was a bit annoying at times. Also re-reading the Steam page, apparently it has always-online DRM? The fuck?
June:
Universal Paperclips ?/10
I was in the mood for a clicker game. I tried Cookie Clicker first but the pacing is just so slow. Universal Paperclips is a clicker game that can be completed in a reasonable amount of time, and it scratched the itch I was looking for.
July:
Wilmot’s Warehouse 8/10
https://i.ytimg.com/vi/Ai4NZnjOdUE/maxresdefault.jpg
Super Meat Boy 5/10
I’ve forced myself to start this game so many times over the years, I finally completed it and I just don’t like it. Way too janky/buggy for a simple 2D platformer. I beat the final level 3 times and couldn’t figure out what to do at the end, only for it to turn out that the final cutscene wasn’t activating because my frame rate was too high. Ugh. It just made me want to play N++ again.
Ape Out 9/10
Ahhh it’s so good. The soundtrack and sound effects and visuals, it’s just perfect. A little on the short side (only took 1:40 to beat), but it’s pretty replayable.
Neodash 7/10
It’s basically Distance but worse. Distance is one of my favorite games of all time and is firmly a 10/10, so that’s not necessarily a bad thing. Any levels that rely on the mid-air controls bring down the experience a bit, but luckily there aren’t a ton of those.
August:
CrossCode 10/10
A top-down RPG with a ~50-hour story? I should hate this, but everything clicked into just the right place. The puzzles are fun (maybe a little too long), the combat is great, the characters are great, the story is great, I did not expect to love this game as much as I did.
Sayonara Wild Hearts 6/10
It’s basically a 1-hour music video. It’s very pretty and the songs are good, but the gameplay just kind of… exists.
Mad Max 6/10
It’s a beautiful looking game and the vehicle combat is fun, but everything else is pure mid-2010s generic open world game, complete with Arkham combat.
Riptide GP2 6/10
It’s fine, but there’s absolutely no reason to play this over Riptide GP Renegade unless you’re really board and looking for a grindy podcast game like I was. Renegade is just this but better in every way. It is a bummer that there are so few boat (or boat-adjacent) racing games coming out these days.
WRC Powerslide 4/10
It’s insanely repetitive and the driving physics are really floaty. The power-ups are awful but luckily they can be turned off in settings. The damage model is actually really good though, which is bizarre for a top-down racer. This got delisted from Steam years ago, if I didn’t already own it, I would not go out of my way to play it.
The Vanishing of Ethan Carter 7/10
It’s a fun little walking simulator mystery game, I don’t remember much of the actual story right now lol. I played the remastered version which was very pretty though.
Quantum Conundrum 7/10
It’s a 6/10 puzzle game brought up by a full point because of John de Lancie’s character.
September:
Hotline Miami 8/10
I know it’s technically kind of a mess, but like everyone else I really loved it anyway. The soundtrack is excellent and clearing rooms is super satisfying. Raycevick’s video really makes me want to play OXTO next.
PowerWash Simulator 8/10
The perfect podcast game.
October:
Cassette Beasts 8/10
The Pokemon games have always sounded interesting to me, but I’ve just never been able to get into any of them as an adult. Cassette Beasts finally scratched that itch for me, and this works way better as a concept than the Pokemon games do for me. As a bonus, the story is surprisingly good as well. Also it’s made in Godot!
Sonic Generations 5/10
I don’t like the Sonic games, but I’ve always heard this is one of the good ones so I decided to play it. A couple of the levels were fun, but most were just frustrating and/or buggy. For a character who’s entire thing is going fast, the levels sure like constantly slowing you down with obstacles that cannot be seen coming.
The Witness 6/10
90% of the levels in this game are good and clever, where finding the solution is fun and satisfying. The remaining 10% includes puzzles where the entire screen is flashing to make it hard to look at, puzzles where the answer still makes no sense even after googling it, and puzzles that cannot be solved unless you solve a different puzzle first with no indication of where that’s the case. The story is also nonsense but luckily it’s easily ignored. This video was so cathartic after finishing the game.
Doom Eternal (& The Ancient Gods) 8/10
November:
Superliminal 8/10
My primary complaint is that it isn’t longer. It took a little over an hour and a half to reach the end, but what’s here is fantastic.
December:
Nothing again, lol
I don’t complete many games so in 2023 it is a grand total of 2…
Inside, it was very eerie and I had fun. I even went back for the alternative ending.
Jusant, a relatively new game and I found it very enjoyable. Definitely made my top 10 games list and I still want to go back and find all the collectables.
I did not know inside had alternate ending, will have to check that out.
It’s a really short one. Maybe look up a video, probably not worth redownloading over.
Mine list is quite short:
Mass effect: Legendary edition - As it’s three games under one name it took me probably two months to complete. Coming from ESO Skyrim and Withcer 3 at first I wasn’t sure will it catch my attention beacuse it wasn’t as open as previous games, but by the end of first game I found myself really invested in story.
Blacktail - It was great weekend game. I had hard time separating myself from it.
Sipder Man: Miles Morales - really liked all interweaving of stories, fighting minions became kind of repetative toward the end, also I really liked chasing (by web swinging) missions.
LEGO: Batman - It was alright as I mainly plaed it for brain rest. Plus LEGO: batman 2 is much better in playability (and stablility).
Finally completed Little Inferno plus the DLC that apparently dropped last year(???!!!). I think it hit me harder than when I first played it years ago.
Too many 100 hidden [object] or Cats Hidden in [City] type games to count. None cost a whole lot, and I feel like I got my money’s worth.
I’m trying to go through my growing digital libraries and complete what I can. (But we all know the winter sale is coming soon…)
Huh, I don’t really track this, but Steam kinda does, so I’ll reconstruct it. I’ll give my ratings on a 5 star scale, with 3 being “fun but not special” and 5 being “highlight of the year.”
January:
- Golf Club Wasteland - 3 - apparently renamed to Golf Club Nostalgia; pretty cool golfing game
March:
- Ori and the Blind Forest - 4 - fun Metroidvanias
April:
- Deponia trilogy - 4 - I love point+click adventure games (nostalgia), and this was better than expected
May:
- Relicta - 3.5 - the puzzles were all quite good, except a couple at the end
- Nuts - 4.5 - very interesting gameplay
- A Juggler’s Tale - 4 - I’m a sucker for these kinds of games
- Nier: Replicant - 5 - fanatic story, got me pumped to play Automata, which I’m currently playing
July:
- Blue Fire - 4 - fun action game, with Metroidvania elements
- Yakuza Kiwami 2 - 3.5 - not as good as either Yakuza 0 or Yakuza Kiwami, but still lots of fun
- Raven’s Hike - 3 - fun platformer
- Klocki - 4 - fun, short puzzle game
- Zelda: Breath of the Wild - 3.5 - pretty fun, but a big disappointment vs other Zelda games
August:
- Perspective - 4 - really cool free tech demo, unfortunately, I don’t think the mechanics would work well as a full game
- The Bridge - 5 - really cool non-Euclidean puzzle game, very Escher-esque (M.C. Escher is my favorite artist, so I’m a bit biased here)
- Ittle Dew - 5 - really fun Zelda-like, with lots of great commentary/satire about those kinds of games
September:
- Darkside Detective - 4.5 - again, I love point and click games, and this was really funny too
- Hexlogic - 5 - great puzzle game with an innovative sudoku-esque feel
- Grand Mountain Adventure - 2.5 - fun, but getting around could be pretty tedious, and I wasn’t a fan of the top down view
October:
- Human Resource Machine - 4.5 - fantastic programming puzzle game, would be 5 if the last few puzzles didn’t completely suck to finish (so tedious)
- Return of the Obra Dinn - 5 - fantastic detective/puzzle game
- Darkside Detective: A Fumble in the Dark - 4 - great follow-up to the first; nothing new, just more great point+click goodness
- Zelda: Skyward Sword - 5 - fantastic dungeons, decent story and side content; I bought this and Link’s Awakening instead of Tears of the Kingdom
November:
- Instant Farmer - 3.5 - good puzzle game
- Manifold Garden - 5 - innovative puzzle game
- Cats in Time - 2 - kids liked it, but it was a finicky hidden object/escape room game
December:
- Mirrorama - 3.5 - puzzles were pretty good, but the story was really odd
- Rob Riches - 3 - fun puzzle game, not too challenging (though getting minimum moves was occasionally tricky)
- Little Nightmares - 4.5 - great game, weird story, scratched several itches; I didn’t like the DLC flashlight “fighting” sequence, and some puzzles were a little obtuse
And some bonus in-progress games I hope to finish soon:
- Nier: Automata - 3.5 so far, but likely going to be 4-4.5 later, I’m still pretty early into it (just finished first major boss fight)
- Inscryption - 5 - I’m almost done, I’m in Act 3 with two known bosses left
- Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky - 3.5 - I haven’t touched it since earlier this year, but I really enjoyed it at the time, I just haven’t been motivated to dig back in; got about halfway through I think, maybe a little more
- CrossCode - 3.5 - enjoying it so far, just haven’t played for a couple weeks; will probably play a bunch over Christmas break; score will probably go up
- Bendy and the Ink Machine - 3.5 - weird horror game, I think I’m close to finishing, but I’m not sure
- Red Dead Redemption 2 - 3 - started, but didn’t get far enough for it to grip me; the original was a 5, so I expect good things
- Ys: Oath of Felghana - 3.5 - pretty fun, but I dropped it because other games seemed more fun; will probably finish soon (about 10-15 hours in)
- Hollow Knight - 4 - just started (finished first major boss, recently unlocked fast travel), so it may get a better score as I get further
You finished all those games this year???
The ones under the months, yes.
Some I started in December of last year, but most I started and finished this year. I don’t get a ton of time to play games since I have young kids and a full-time job, but my Steam Deck makes it a lot easier to jump into a game for an hour before bed.
I didn’t 100% most of them (I don’t care about achievements), but I completed most side content.
Ah ok, cause I was sitting here going… how in the hell is this even possible?? But yeah I constantly get stuck on games cause I want to 100 percent them so I only finished about… none? Close to finishing bannerlord though
Yeah, I 100%ed something like 4-5 of them, mostly the shorter ones where you get 100% just by rolling credits (or maybe doing one extra thing). I really don’t care about achievements, though I’ll pick some up if they’re not too annoying.
I consider something “finished” if I complete the main storyline and any side content that interests me. I then mark it as “done” in Steam (I made a category) and will probably never play it again.
Still very impressive all said and done. Also im gonna steal your idea for a done category lol
Do it! :)
I saw the Golf Club Wasteland name change as well and it caught me off guard lol. I think I enjoyed the “radio” more than the gameplay.
The voice acting and scripts were all really entertaining.
The only substantial one I remember beating this year was Outer Wilds +DLC. Beautiful game that’s like nothing else I’ve played before, though I’ve got leads on other games in the same vein. Otherwise, my young kids have been getting big into co-op games, so we’re playing those alot. We never really make much progress though, so we just have alot of hours in party games.
Gosh, I’ve realized I don’t finish games lol. I’ve put many hours in Forza Horizon, Factorio, Pokemon, Cities Skylines, and incremental games but here are the ones I actually beat in 2023 so far, although I’m about to beat Pokemon Scarlet so I’ll include that too.
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Pokemon Sun (cartridge). (4/10). Why am I rating this so low? It’s my least favorite Pokemon game I’ve played. I finished it this year, but started it in 2018. The game leans way too heavy on the story and not in the gameplay. The game felt like a huge downgrade from OR/AS. It also plays incredibly slow. Not touching Gen 7 again. The battles were nice and intense with enough difficulty to excite me though.
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Chip Defense (8/10). You can find it on F-droid, and it’s free. It’s a little tower defense game with a theme on CPUs and instructions. It took me a few hours to beat all the levels and it hooked me.
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Pokemon White (emulator), limited pokemon center challenge. (9.3/10). I absolutely love Gen 5 and I did a challenge a lot like a Nuzlocke but more interesting and far less stressful. You can only catch the first pokemon on each route, and any non-forced heal would cost 5000*2^(number of prior heals done) poke dollars. That way, I could have a pokemon faint and not have it be the end of my 40 hour playthrough. I actually (unintentionally) lost to Ghetsis at the end but I planned for that and had enough money for one more heal, and then beat him the 2nd time.
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Factorio Bob’s/Angel’s (hardcore Factorio mod). (9.5/10). Do you like Factorio but want 10x more complicated recipes that include lots of byproducts to deal with? Then this mod is for you! It took me 123 hours to launch a rocket, and apparently that’s pretty quick. The base is one huge pile of spaghetti with a 90 lane bus split into three.
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Pokémon Scarlet (cartridge). (8/10). I haven’t quite gotten to the credits yet but I’ve beaten the Top Champion so I’m very close. This game is one of the most fun pokemon games imo despite being extremely flawed. The open world is a huge breath of fresh air after the last 4 gens being 4 big lines. The frame drops are not the really annoying thing about this game, it’s the cutscenes and long battle animations. (Gen 7 was even worse with this). The exploration isn’t groundbreaking but I love how random encounters were ditched for overworld pokemon (even with the lamentable draw distance), that you could run into and instantly fight without a 10s cutscene playing. Trainers are finally all optional. I don’t play for the story but it’s one of the better ones for pokemon games. Having multiple arcs at the same time keeps things interesting for me. The game isn’t the most difficult (probably average+ for pokemon standards) but I made it satisfyingly hard on myself when forcing myself to comply with set mode, no items in battle, and trying to win while underleveled. Also the music is a masterpiece, bravo Giacomo.
Hello fellow nuzlocke player. Have you tried any of the Pokemon ROM hacks? They might give you something new / more exciting to play.
I’ve played a bit of the Pokemon Adventures Red version romhack, but never completed that as it wasn’t particularly interesting. What ROM hacks would you recommend? I’d like a challenge but nothing crazy.
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Here goes mine roughly ordered by date of completion:
God of War (PC): Excellent action game all around. You can see where all that AAA budget goes.
Doors: Paradox (PC): Charming indie puzzle game, easy and chill.
Uncharted: Legacy of Thieves collection (PC): Finally an Uncharted game playable with mouse and keyboard.
The Dungeon Of Naheulbeuk: The Amulet Of Chaos - Back to the Futon DLC (PC): Expansion-sized DLC, more of the same and brings the story to a close.
The Division 2 & Warlords of New York (PC): Full 3 player co-op campaign and expansion playthrough. Not a huge fan, but enjoyable with friends.
Half-Life: Alyx (PC, Valve Index): My second full playthrough. Still amazing, still the very best PC VR has to offer.
Kena: Bridge of Spirits (PC): Beautiful and bittersweet. Not too hard but some optional challenges are.
The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom (Switch): Went in without much hype, and spent 200h over 2 months going at it. A strange case where the expansion is bigger and better than the base game 😉
Risk of Rain 2 (PC): Managed a couple successful runs in co-op then stopped. Roguelikes are not my thing, but co-op games are.
Planet of Lana (Xbox): Short and sweet puzzle platformer. Not high fidelity visuals but quite nice nonetheless.
Ratchet and Clank 2016 (PS4): Played this anticipating to play Rift Apart later on. Very good for a newcomer to the franchise like me.
Remnant 2 (PC): Excellent sci-fi Souls-like with very good replayability. Great both in solo and co-op (did ~2.5 playthroughs).
Guild Wars 2 Secrets of the Obscure (PC): Fourth expansion for this 11-year old MMORPG. Best in the genre as far as I am concerned.
Cyberpunk 2077 (PC): Been waiting for years until I heard the game was finally “finished”. Still encountered some jankiness but a compelling and memorable experience nonetheless.
Marvel’s Spider-man Remastered (PC): Had it on PS4 already for the kids for a couple of years, bought it again on PC on sale to get the best experience.
Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart (PC): Gorgeous and bombastic fun, strongly recommend. Surprisingly it’s a sequel of the main series, not of the 2016 reboot.
Jusant (Xbox/PC): Kind of a vertical walking simulator. Eerie and original, does not overstay its welcome.
Dead Space 2023 (PC): Had bounced off the original pretty quickly back in the day. This remake got me hooked all the way to the end.
Endless Dungeon (PC): Odd mix of action rpg, tower defense and roguelike. Not that great, but its co-op support picks up the slack.
Marvel’s Spider-man: Miles Morales (PC): Not as good as the original in my opinion, but tighter and shorter.
Operation Tango (PC): Co-op only short and unusual first-person puzzler.
Also, I will likely be done with Resident Evil 2 2019 and Cocoon before the year is over.
I may be missing a few, but this is most of them I think. I don’t usually have a whole ton of time to sink into a game, so I usually only finish games if I really like them, hence all the scores being quite high. Next year I want to try and expand what I play a bit, and try finishing games that might not hook me immediately. When I used to have more free time, the games that took me a while to get into would become some of my favourites, so hopefully I can find some of those next year, but it’s hard when I’ve only got a couple hours a week at the most (though I’ve had a lot more time the last couple weeks thankfully). Anyway, here’s everything I saw end credits for this year:
Elden Ring - 9.5/10 - my only souls experience before this was Dark Souls III several years ago, which I had remembered thoroughly enjoying. ER surpassed my expectations and completely blew me away. I became completely obsessed for months. Not much else got played for a while. Dec 2022 - Feb 2023 was all just ER. Very excited for the DLC, whenever that comes out.
Sekiro - 9.9/10 - the closest to perfect of any game I’ve ever played. The chained ogre and the blazing bull feel out of place, but aside from those two mini bosses, I’d say the game is flawless. Probably my favourite game of all time now. I tried playing it for a little bit before attempting Elden Ring and didn’t like it, but after I saw every last pixel of ER, I decided to give Sekiro a second chance and I’m glad I did. I’ve done everything you could possibly do in that game, probably 4-5 times. And I’ll continue to redo them, probably every year as a tradition, unless they come out with either a sequel or another game with the same combat mechanics.
Dark Souls Remastered - 9.5/10 - continuing with my FromSoft binge, DS1 blew me away about as much as ER did. Probably tied with ER for second favourite game ever. I still haven’t fully 100% completed it yet, but I’ve killed every boss and beaten the game. I do want to get all achievements at some point but haven’t gotten there yet.
Dark Souls III - 9/10 - replayed this one, and loved it even more. Nostalgia definitely helped, but so did competency. I sucked at it my first time around all those years ago, but with multiple FromSoft games under my belt, replaying this was a totally different experience. It felt amazing destroying bosses that I suffered with many years ago. The game itself also happens to be phenomenal. Probably the best collection of bosses in the series, and Midir is still the only boss I haven’t been able to beat from any SoulsBorne game.
Hollow Knight - 9/10 - played this one for the first time this year. I understand the cult-like following it managed to get. It’s awesome. I’m not amazing at it but I’ve gotten decent and I recently started a second playthrough. It’s probably a top 10 game for me.
Dishonored - 9/10 - not my first playthrough, but first in a while and somehow better than I remembered. I’ve held this game on a high pedestal for a long time, and upon replaying it, found it surpassed my memory somehow. Usually it’s the other way around. Definitely a strong recommendation from me.
Celeste - 8/10 - craving a super tough challenge again after putting a pause on souls-likes, I decided to give this one a try after hearing very high reviews. I’m glad I did, it was a blast. I haven’t completed all the optional challenges yet, but the main game and the side stuff I have done have all been exceptionally well made. Clearly a lot of hard work and love was put into it, you can tell immediately. If you just do the main content and ignore all challenges, it’s a pretty short game, but the challenges add a lot of content which I like. I’ll probably replay it in a few months.
Gunpoint - 9/10 - this one really surprised me. I figured I’d like it but damn. The music is exceptional. The gameplay is addictive. Everything about this is great. Short but sweet in the way that it makes you wanting more. I genuinely can’t wait until it’s been long enough for me to forget a lot of it and can replay it. Honestly if it wasn’t so darn short it would be a top 10 game easy, maybe even top 5. It’s just over way too soon, which is the only thing holding it back. Every single person should at least check this game out. Truly fantastic.
Starfield - 8.5/10 - weird for me to play a new game but I gave this one a chance. I know it got a bunch of criticism, but I loved it. Felt like Skyrim in space. I see why people were disappointed, and there are lots of valid criticisms. But for me they just don’t apply, and I had a blast with it. Looking forward to making a new character in the future.
Batman Arkham Asylum - 8.5/10 - probably my third or fourth time completing it, but I really enjoy this one. I think City is my favourite, but this is a close second. It’s just a bit of a shame that I have most of the puzzles memorized by now. But an absolute classic that everyone should play.
Currently playing: since the news of GTA6, I’ve been going back and forth between GTAV and RDR2, which has put a pause on the Hollow Knight replay. I’ve beaten both before, and they’re both high on my favourites list. Probably in the range of 9-9.5/10 for both. Not sure if I’ll complete either one by the end of the year, but my girlfriend apparently loves watching me play GTA which was cool to find out. She asks me every day if I can play it so she can watch. Half the time I just do stupid shit and we laugh our asses off. It’s great. Probably some of my favourite times together recently.
The game if chess. Several times too!
It’s actually a crazily cool game IMO. You heard of the hyper accelerated dragon? Of the blind swine check mate (even a blind swine can do it) others are from the 13 century and so on…
French, Danish, the London System.
There is something for everyone, even the loser (you’ll eventually lose half your games in a good matchmaking anyways) ; humility.
Chess has a wicked end game.
The whole thing feels like a chaotic system, anywhere, even when you’re winning 100 percent, the slightest insane miscalculation might smell doom.
It’s a fearsome game.
It is great, because it starts with more information and permutations than humans can handle and as the strategic window narrows to where humans conceivably can, it depends on what resources had to be expended to get there. I wish there was a video game that had a rhythm similar to chess.
The secret boss in Inscryption Act 3 had a similar feel, but the permutations were much lower. I was constantly on the verge of defeat, but pulled it out not by getting better cards, but by being more tactical with the ones I had.
I also like Europa Universalis IV for the same reason. I like starting as a small country near a large one (starting as an Irish minor is my favorite) and strategically growing in the right ways to survive. There’s a ton of knobs to turn and valid strategies, and everything can blow up with a couple mistakes.
Nothing beats playing a human being though (which a video game allows ofc) it allows, at least at my low level, a lot of manuvers depending on who you (think you) play against.
The best part of playing the witness was it helped me discover Joseph Anderson. I don’t really care for his video essays (a tad on the pretentious side for me) but his live play throughs are gold.
Oh hey, I was debating one of these…
January
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Spark the Electric Jester - Surprisingly good classic Sonic clone with a soundtrack that punches well above its weight. Doesn’t run as well as a game of its type should, however.
B (Would have been an A if not for performance issues)
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ittle Dew - Short puzzle game set up in the 2D Zelda style. Puzzles are clever enough to be engaging without the difficulty getting so hard that its frustrating. Had seen some of the characters in other games that the group produced, so it was fun to see ground zero.
B
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Freedom Planet - Decided to continue the Sonic-like train. Had bounced off of this one in the past due to the… acting… however came back after learning there was a no-cutscene mode. Has a lot going for it and an overall enjoyable experience
B
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Warhammer 40k: Dawn of War - A friend got me watching videos related to Starcraft which got me in an RTS itch. However, Blizzard is on my no-play list due to a number of reasons under the being-bastards umbrella. I thought this would get close enough. It was pretty good! Not quite what I was used to in an RTS, with just a few unit types and upgrades. The campaign was a fun little romp that put in a commendable effort
B
February
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The Procession to Calvary - Basically a Terry Gilliam animation turned into a game. Completely farcical point and click adventure. Enjoyed it quite a bit, but I can get down with stupid humor.
B
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Final Fantasy XIV Stormblood - Rather than keep a constant subscription, I’ll buy a month of time for an MMO every couple of months when I get the itch to play. My wife has been excitedly pushing me along as well so that she can talk with me more about the story. This expansion is widely considered to suffer from what I call Dark Souls 2 syndrome. Good in its own right, but sandwiched between more memorable experiences. I don’t know if I fully agree, as I enjoyed my time with this quite a bit. May have been that the location split lead to more varied environments than the ever-present cold of Heavensward. I am excited to move to Shadowbringers after getting through another season of blasted patch content.
B (Expansion grade only)
March
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Divinity: Original Sin Enhanced Edition - This was my first Larian game. I had heard that 2 was excellent and there were good words about Baldur’s Gate 3 at the time and so gave in to my completionistic nature and started with the first. It was quite good, if not quite what I was expecting. For one the tone was far more comedic than I had thought going in and it was quite different than the typical RPG by having a handful of large maps with a finite number of enemies rather than more numerous small ones that repopulate. I would come to learn that this is Larian’s style.
A
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ICEY - I had often heard good things about this and had been meaning to get to it for quite a while. I kind of wish that I hadn’t, in the end. The star of the show here is the unreliable narrator throughout. This does lend to a more interesting experience than otherwise, but ultimately doesn’t lead into a bigger theme or narrative. It still could have been a generally positive experience if the combat weren’t so pants. I didn’t hate it, but was still thoroughly let down after hearing so much praise
C
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Hedon Bloodrite - The first of the two chapters in it at least - On the edge of horny but never crosses the line into embarrassing. A solid Doom clone that favors much larger and more labyrinthine levels than its inspiration. Weapons were varied and all filled a niche rather than overlapping. Had a fun time and am wondering why I haven’t done the second part yet.
B
April
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The Murder of Sonic the Hedgehog - The title makes it feel like a shitpost, but it was cute enough. Nothing special but did pull out enough chuckles from me that I can’t disparage it too much
C
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Eternal Senia - A very simple game that I believe is RPG Maker? The graphics have that style, at least, but the combat is a bumper system more like the original Ys than anything turnbased. Again, inoffensive if a touch bland. I have a soft spot, though, for Ragnarok Online and this plays it some homage in the designs.
C
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A Little to the Left - I agree with my wife here in that the game is fine when its fulfilling its premise of satisfying organization game, however it loses faith in itself too early. That or the devs ran out of ideas for things to organize. Too many stages are spent trying to figure out the pattern that the devs want rather than simply organizing things yourself.
C
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Doom Eternal - I had a blast with this. I had liked Doom 2016 quite a bit, but this blew me away. The faster pace, more varied levels, and well designed arenas elevated this game to one of my favorite shooters of all time. Enemies are supposed to be obstacles in games, but I found myself excited whenever I knew that a big fight was about to take place just for how fun it was. It’s less that Doom Eternal is awesome, and more that calling something awesome is to say it resembles Doom Eternal.
S
May
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killer7 - I’d like to think that SUDA51 at least knows what’s going on here. I give this one a lot of bonus points to carry it through the jank, the impenetrable story, and the regular moments of getting lost for just how original it is. I can appreciate when someone tries something really out there because sometimes it leads to a real gem. While I wouldn’t say this is a gem, it is not a failure either. I can definitely understand others adoring this game.
B
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Warhammer 40k Dawn of War Winter Assault - Did you know that this game is four games? Me either. Around this time in the year, a friend of mine commit an unforgivable sin of getting me into Warhammer. I don’t know if I’m going to make it. With that interest and good feelings of the previous game, I continued through the dubiously labelled expansions. This one was pretty good! I rather liked how it was split over multiple factions rather than just being space marines the whole time. Overall just more of the same, but that’s fine when the starting point is good.
B
June
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Warhammer 40k Space Marine Anniversary Edition - Continuing what I’m sure is just a temporary kick and not something that will haunt me for years, I played Space Marine. This reminded me of the mid level PS2 game of the past that I think that the industry needs more focus on. It offered a fun action experience without requiring every coin in a sultan’s coffers to put yet more polygons on the screen. Just a jolly time killing Orcs and Chaos Marines. I sure do hope the sequel doesn’t suck
B
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Street Fighter V Story Mode - While SF4 is technically my first Street Fighter, I started right on the ass end of it. Further, I didn’t have any real kick of the game until well into 5. I’m not one to do much competitive play, both a coward and generally bad at the game, but still enjoy myself well enough with fighters. I had gone through each fighter’s personal story the year before (easier than it sounds) and wanted to clear out at least the story mode before 6 came out. Both the story and the art style gave off every impression of a kid playing with action figures, which sometimes is all you need. Given that many fighting games have recently foregone single player campaigns completely, I can appreciate even a competent one.
B
July
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Say No! More - A game about boundaries that is extremely silly. Able to entertain for a few hours despite having as minimal gameplay as you can get
A
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Later Alligator - I had been introduced to the animator’s Youtube channel the year before and so bumped this up my backlog. A very charming mini game collection that plays hard into the creator’s strengths. It requires a few playthroughs to see everything, though it’s not that long of a game so this is not an issue. The only hang up there are a few parts that drag a bit. Would easily recommend this to anyone I thought would gel well with the humor.
A
August
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Remnant: From the Ashes - This game was good enough to break me out of a Deep Rock Galactic hole that I had fallen down through the summer. A rather unique take on the looter shooter genre that was rather refreshing compared to things like Destiny or Borderlands. This was aided by a fantasy setting that didn’t borrow too heavily from Tolkein either. While there was room to improve in most areas, I enjoyed myself enough that I kept playing levels after the campaign concluded. This is even when the final boss was a bit of a let down to the rest of the game. Look forward to eventually making my way to the second!
A
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NieR Replicant - The opening of the game was slow enough to get me to fall off for a while when I originally played. I loved Automata, though, and so was determined to get back into this one. Glad I did as well! While I don’t think that it is as strong as Automata, it still pulls its weight. It was very fun seeing all of the seeds that references in Automata grew from. I’ll avoid doing too much comparison with its predecessor and say that this is a solid story held up by competent combat and an interesting world. While appreciate the art direction it takes, it was very nice to move onto something with more color.
A
September
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Shantae and the Pirate’s Curse - I have only experienced Risky’s Revenge and a tiny bit of 1/2 Genie Hero before this, so my experience with Shantae is limited. I… don’t want to say that her fanbase is inflated by character design but I’m sure it doesn’t help. This game is a fairly standard 2D platformer with the typical WayForward cheesecake. It never got so out of hand to detract, so I won’t knock any points off. Sometimes all you need is a comfortably competent game, and I think Shantae is a good fit for that.
B
October
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Dusk - In October I make it a point to focus on horror games. I find that limitations can help me pick out more obscure games in my library to try and leads to some unique experiences. At the very least, it got me to take a break from Dota 2 and Baldur’s Gate 3. Dusk is a classic style shooter and one that I associate with the resurgence of the genre. It is a very solid game that perhaps stays a bit too close to its roots at times. That said, the shooting is solid, the maps were fun even if they bleed together in my memory, and it was just the right length to satisfy without overstaying its welcome.
A
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Buddy Simulator 1984 - Every once in a while a game while come out that will have something about its general atmosphere that I feel like it is something special. Unfortunately, I mistaken in thinking this game was one of those. It is by no means a bad game, a cute meta narrative that takes place in your computer that’s all the rage these days. However the game doesn’t do enough with the concept for it to get much beyond set dressing. Charming writing keeps the game going, but the segments that comprise it are too short to be wholly satisfying on their own and two long to be completely forgiven for their blandness.
C
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Pumpkin Jack - I love a good 3D platformer, and this one was okay. The game falls more in the Crash Bandicoot camp of a long corridor level than the Mario/Banjo camp of wide open space. It drenches itself in spooky, exaggerated imagery to help distract from overall mediocre gameplay. I’m not sure if it’s intended, but I played with RTX which lead to an aggressive amount of bloom. I kept it on despite not being perhaps the best look due to it standing out and enjoying the idea of how raytracing can be used to enhance darkness rather than light.
C
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Left 4 Dead 2 - I know that this is a bit late for how big of a game this was, but I have some difficulty with multiplayer only games. As I don’t have friends that play similar games as me, I rely on whatever solo-queue a game has to offer which can make them hit or miss. This game I think is one that requires more coordination/banter with friends to be fully enjoyable because I found the experience a bit bland. There is also possibility that some of this is just “Seinfeld isn’t funny” syndrome due to it being (the sequel to) the progenitor of the co-op shooter. Not bad by any means, but can’t personally see why people can spend dozens to hundreds of hours in this.
B
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Forgive Me Father - Another classic shooter, this one going more Lovecraft than biblical hell. The comic book style, upgrade system, and abilities help it stand out in an increasingly crowded genre. The voice actor for the female lead was… I think what it was on purpose? She would not have stood out in a Neil Breen film, so I enjoyed myself with the performance either way.
A
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Dread X Collection 2 - Really like… 9ish games, but putting them as a collection feels more fair than each individually. I technically beat all but one, but the one was difficult to the point of being obtuse. A nice gamejam style group of bite sized experiences if you want some variety when getting your spooky on. I chose 2 because of the audacity of the name “Squirrel Stapler.” I will likely do at least one more of these next year!
Varied
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Resident Evil 5 - I know going in that this was a part of Capcom’s stink period. It now in the past, I can see both why it wasn’t received the best and why the feeling has lightened over time. If games were bananas, RE5 would be one that had blackened enough that you have to have a small debate with yourself before unpeeling it. Perhaps it would be better to leave and save for bread, but I’m hungry for potassium now! It has fully leaned into action game at this point but still has enough jank in the controls to not be a satisfying one. The forced co-op was an idea, I suppose, but as someone who is always solo I hated having to deal with the aughties AI. Ashley at least never had to fight over a catwalk by herself. Bosses also took way too much ammo. Like, walking in fully loaded wouldn’t guarantee that you’d be able to kill the boss before running completely out. That said, I hope that Capcom continues their remakes with this one, because I do think you could make a great game out of it with a number of tweaks.
C
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Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night - I have very fond memories of playing Dawn of Sorrows on the DS back when that came out, so had been excited to try this for a while. While I had hoped to like it more than I ultimately did, the game was still a solid metroidvania and good time. The castle could have used a touch more variation, the areas could have been a smidge tighter in their design, and the combat a hair smoother, but the game comes together into an enjoyable package. I feel like the team could really shine in a sequel.
B
November
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Blood Code - In the same way that I like to focus on horror games in October, I like to play Visual Novels in November. It’s Visual November! Get it?.. it’s… Blood Code was a bad game to start the month on, not necessarily because it’s not a good representation of visual novels, it’s just not good. I could rant on this for a while but ultimately: bad translation, poor design regarding rewards for using your time, unclear paths to routes, and laughably bad pacing at the beginning. Arts okay, though.
D
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Milk outside a bag of milk outside a bag of milk… - Much higher production value than the first and it shows. Comes together much better too, so that the chaotic and disjointed nature can be appreciated as part of the picture rather than just as a janky narrative.
B
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Just Deserts - One of the most vanilla time-management dating sims I’ve played. The writing ended up being more respectful of the cast than I was expecting, but they attempted to put a turn based battle system into a visual novel engine and oof.
C
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World End Economica episode 1 - Very much a part one of a large story rather than its own contained story, which is perhaps the part of it that I liked the least. The focus on day trading was too specific for me to really care about as well. Turns out that I couldn’t get fully invest… interested in that kind of narrative. In the end I felt more compelled to look up the other chapters’ endings online rather than actually play through the games to get there, which is a pretty big sin when it comes to narrative driven entertainment
C
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Coffee Talk - I find that simply comparing one game to another (or worse, a mixture of games) is lazy, reductive, and ultimately unfair when critiquing games. That said, it would be very difficult to talk about my experience here without referencing VA11 Hall-A. I played the latter last year and loved it. Easy S. This game is similar to the point where it’s hard not to think about VA11 Hall-A when playing as another drink-master-talking-to-customers 'em up. This made an interesting use of its world and had a fun, if a touch underutilized, cast. The Indonesian flair added a nice flavor to the game as well. Interested in picking up the next one.
B
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Hustle Cat - I like this one for how much it is itself. A very casual game that isn’t a masterpiece but isn’t trying to be. Short story with romantic branches of working in a cursed cat cafe. The kind of moderate comfort of a TV movie on a sunday afternoon.
B
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Utawarerumono: Prelude to the Fallen - A series that I had thought would be far hornier than it ended up being going in due to my wife’s very vague knowledge of the series. The game is a very competently written story in a feudal Japanese fantasy world, something I wish showed up more in Japanese games. Its fatal flaw is the inclusion of tactical battles which the team very clearly did not fully grasp the design of. They aren’t terrible, a balance toward the player making them more tedious than anything else. However, I enjoyed the story to the point that they didn’t bother me. I cannot fully ignore them when trying to grade the game, though.
B, would have easily been A without the tactics battles
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Higurashi no Naku Koro ni: Tatarigoroshi - I went from being a fan of the series through the original anime to loving it through the games. Who would have guessed the “book” would be better than the “movie”, eh? Even as what I had thought was one of the weaker points of the overall story and already knowing its conclusion, I was fully invested in visiting it again. These games have a very different feeling of tragedy to them when you know the answers to the mysteries presented and why certain things are happening. As with the others in the series, one will need a healthy resistance to anime foibles to be able to appreciate this fully.
A
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Elisa the Innkeeper - I am trying to limit this list to games that I have finished, but this is a rare one that I know for certain that I will not finish. I applaud anyone for being able to fully create a game, but that is where my praise will end here. Not offensive in its existence, but nothing of quality.
F
December
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Unpacking - Freedom from gimmicks! For the most part. December can be my clean up month, so what better way to start than an organizing game! I love how the devs were able to convey character and narrative with so little when it comes game mechanics. Short and sweet.
A
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Nightmare Reaper - Turns out that I rather like Doom-like shooters. Now it seems like the cool kids are calling them movement shooters rather than boomer shooters, but who knows if that one will stick. Nightmare Reaper is a rogue-lite affair with a high number of rather short levels and looter-shooter elements. These both work very well in the system and lead to a very addictive game. It also has a rather unique upgrade system where each upgrade is earned by completing a simple retro minigame that take the place of skill trees. The game runs a touch long, considering it expects the player to loop through a la Diablo, but not so much that I grew tired of it.
A
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Psychonauts 2 - I had watched this game nervously the entire time it was in development. I had loved Psychonauts, but it is so easy for a narrative driven experience to fall short in its sequel. I couldn’t be happier to be wrong here. I could go on and on about all the things that make Psychonauts 2 great. I will instead just say that, in an industry that has become obsessed with outside validation, where devs spend hours and hours replicating the limitations of the real world through face scanning celebrities and making digital film grains, Psychonauts 2 shows just how spectacular of an experience you can make when you throw off the shackles of what’s real and embrace everything that video games could be.
S
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I think I competed Tomb Raider, Super Hot,
I also played endless games: Team Fortress 2, War Thunder, Factorio, Planetside 2
Axiom Verge
Technically Eldenring sorta. I’m sorry I’m not fighting that sorry excuse for an end boss to finish an already weak story.
I’m usually better about patient gaming, but I sunk a lot of hours into a certain very popular new release this year. The older releases I did finish:
JRPGs
- Atelier Rorona. Very chill game, enjoyed it once I got into a groove. I wrote up a more detailed community post on it earlier.
- Atelier Totori. Simultaneously more funny than Atelier Rorona and more dramatic. Went some places I didn’t think it was going to go. The UI/UX in this was rough, which makes me think I’ve yet to play my favorite in this series.
- Shin Megami Tensei IV. I really had to fight to get through the first few hours of this one. I may not have if it wasn’t my Discord server’s game of the month. Had a good time with it otherwise, aside from the occasional unwinnable random encounter. Excellent soundtrack.
- Triangle Strategy. Solid gameplay, though it had fewer RPG elements than I’d like (equipment options in particular). There being a branching story was interesting, as that’s not a common thing in this genre. Not easy on the ears: atrocious English voice acting, forgettable soundtrack.
- Xenoblade Chronicles 2. If I said I found the gameplay uninteresting, the quest design dated and that I was annoyed by the overall look of the game, one would think I hated it. However, I sunk right into the story and got very attached to Pyra for an overall (surprisingly) positive experience.
- Xenogears (replay). Still one of my favorite stories in gaming. Desperately needs a re-release with an English script revision.
The Rest
- 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim. What you get when you pair a visual novel with exceptional, detailed sprite art. The combat sections are meh and I ran into more than a couple annoying chapters early, but the story has really grown on me since I finished it.
- ⭐ Hardspace: Shipbreaker. My favorite in this post. Relaxing gameplay and great unconventional storytelling. If the game had a way to import my own music, I might still be playing it.
- Metroid Dread. Super annoyed by the first couple hours, loved almost all of the rest. I also had a writeup on this one.
- Night in the Woods. Cute design and dialogue. On the other hand, I’m very uncomfortable with how plausible the story is.
- Phoenix Wright: Dual Destinies. Not the best Phoenix Wright. This one took me a few years to get through.
- Unpacking. Surprisingly moving. It’s an interesting way to tell a story, and I did enjoy the game, but I don’t think I’ll be jumping at playing any copycats this might spawn.
(Possible Minor Spoilers ahead)
I’ve half played more games than I’ve finished, but I had a decent enough track record this year, mostly with indie games. In no particular order:
Collapsed to not take up too much space
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Hollow Knight - Was a replay, but I got all the way to the Complete Soul achievement, which I’m proud of.
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Deathloop - Interesting game. I really enjoyed the Groundhog Day style mechanics and had fun achievement hunting.
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Pineapple on Pizza - Not much of a challenge to finish, but it stuck out to me as an interesting play. Very short, interesting game.
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Kingdom Eighties - Bounced of the other Kingdom games for various reasons, but this one really caught my interest. The 80s aesthetic and “Kids fighting monsters” story really appealed to me.
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Beholder 1 & 3 - Interesting games. Didn’t enjoy 2 enough to finish it.
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Dead Rising 4 - After hearing so much hyperbole about how bad this one was, I decided to finally get around to playing it and, while it was definitely not as interesting or fun to play as DR 2 for me, it was fine. After reading up on some of the dev history behind it, its foibles are pretty understandable, imo.
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Marvel’s Spider-Man & Miles Morales - Fun games. I have my own complaints about them here and there, but having been a huge fan of the PS2 Spider-Man 2 game, I’m just happy to have a modern web slinger game in an open world. Eager to play the sequel if it ever gets ported to PC.
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Dredge - Fun little indie fishing game. Short, but just long enough for my attention span with games.
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Dave the Diver - Same comments as Dredge, with the additional critique that, while the plethora of mini-games within it are interesting, some feel like they’re just there to add more onto it. Interested to see what the Dredge combo-DLC entails.
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Resident Evil VII - Not usually a fan of horror games, but this one toed the line just enough to not over-spook me out of it. Having seen some playthroughs, I wasn’t too surprised by anything, but it was fun to playthrough myself.
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Factorio - Put this one off for a long time because it looked too “technical” to appeal to me, but I decided to give it a shot as a different kind of survival sim and got hooked. I didn’t go too deep with it, but I did finish the story missions and might hop back in when the big update comes out, which looks interesting.
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Power Wash Sim - “Completing” it is a bit of a stretch, but I did finish all the missions. Interesting, mindless little game. Funny to say that I enjoyed a cleaning game, hah.
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Pikmin 4 - Never had the chance to play any of the other Pikmin games, but I did enjoy this one. My only real complaint is that, for a game that has the player unlocking abilities up to the very end, it could really do with a New Game+ mode because all that effort felt like a bit of a waste since there’s not really anything to do after getting everything unlocked.
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Grounded - Played this one while it was in beta and thought it was pretty neat. Decided to give it another go now that it’s complete and really enjoyed it. Fun little crafting-survival game with surprisingly complex combat. Probably not a great game for anyone that’s doesn’t do well with insects.
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LotR: Return to Moria - More intrigued by the setting than anything, this game was fine enough. To be honest, the gameplay wasn’t particularly great and it had so many bugs, but I did finish it through all of that.
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Heretic’s Fork - For a combo of genre’s that I generally just avoid (deckbuilders and tower defense), this was pretty enjoyable. Not a super long game to get through, and good to just hop on and get a few runs in.
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