Lurker > KCF0107

11. Far Cry 2 (Xbox 360, 2008)


I had been aware of this series for some time, but I didnt take the plunge until 2009, and that was only when Far Cry 2 was Amazons Video Game Deal of the Day for I want to say $15 when I was in college. Back then, I would often play a game right after buying it, so I remember beginning it in my dorm room. This was to my recollection the first open-world FPS that I played, and I was in awe.

Wildlife wasnt the dangerous menace that later entries had (not that it stopped zebras and gazelles from messing up my rides by running directly in my path at the worst possible time), but this was arguably the most dangerous Far Cry game that Ive played. Being in landlocked Africa, there wasnt much in the way of hiding places or easy routes to escape attackers, and if you met up with nearly anyone outside of specific places, they were not friendly, and they were often in groups. With neat mechanics that later games dropped like gun-jamming and weapon rusting, Far Cry 2 almost felt like it was doubling as a survival game of sorts.

While not a narratively-heavy game, and I honestly cant remember too much of the plot more than a decade later, they had a unique initial set-up and linking system that ultimately allowed me to craft a much more personal story in my mind. Instead of being in the shoes of a specific player, creating your own character, or choosing a male/female version of the same character, you can choose one of about a dozen characters, all with their own personalities and backstories as your character. While the attributes of your chosen character wont come into play, they will for the remaining characters that you didnt choose when they become what the game calls buddies and feature prominently in the game. You can save them, they can save you, and they will all have personal missions that you can choose to do throughout your time in the game. You can strengthen your relationship with your buddies to the point of having a best and second-best buddy, which affects side missions and who is your savior when on the brink of death. Its more novel than tangibly impactful, but I was absorbed in it all the same.

How this played out for me was like it was straight out of a movie. One of my best buddies was a Hungarian/Israeli named Paul, and during a situation late in the game (Im not sure if this was a story mission or just out and about in the world), I got into some heavy shit, and just when I thought it was over for me, Paul came to my rescue and we returned fire to our assailants, ultimately emerging victorious after a hard-fought battle. I thought it was all over until bullets came out from nowhere and instantly killed Paul. That was when I learned that buddies could die, and they didnt come back. It wasnt long after this that I was in the final stretch of story missions, and lets just say that the timing, way, and simply fact that Paul died gave the end-game a higher meaning to me.

Some time in the past decade, I did a project about my Top 100 moments in gaming. It was slightly ridiculed for including things such as Louie Anderson dancing in a Family Feud game (that might have been my #2) and basic things that gave me a great sense of wonder like jumping through a painting for the first time in Super Mario 64 when I was six or seven. I bring this up because Far Cry 2 took home the top spot and it is one that is unscripted and might have been solely experienced by me.

I was just driving to my destination when I made a turn just as a jeep full of enemies was right around the curve. Knowing it was best to just get out and take care of them, we began a firefight, and as I was about to clean up the last guy, another jeep came upon the scene, and those enemies came out. This kept happening, and it was getting darker. Eventually, there were no natural light sources, so we had to go by where gunfire was coming from or throw molotovs to cause small wildfires. After a while, I got overwhelmed, and just as I was about to perish, my buddy Andre came in, helped me up while saying an encouraging line or two, and then we got to business taking everyone out. It was just pure chaos. I had no idea how many reinforcements came, but it was a lot. I didnt even hear any jeeps, so I was either too focused on who was immediately trying to kill me, or they arrived on foot. The darkness was constantly illuminated by gunfire, and I was chucking molotovs all over the place. After several minutes, the gunfire lessened and eventually subsided completely. It was faintly visible due to a wildfire that I started by becoming a mad arsonist, but I saw Andre nearby say a few words and go on his merry way. That was when I saw the wildfire make its way to a large tree and engulf it in flames. It was soon the only thing both on fire and discernible through the night sky. Now I have no plans to become an arsonist, but my god was that so hauntingly beautiful. It felt like only a few seconds, but the flames let up, and I was left alone in the pitch black night. I think about that entire sequence, especially the lone, giant tree on fire, fairly often.

I tried to recreate that moment seemingly dozens of times to no avail. Far Cry 2 was already a special game to me, but that just put it over the top for me.

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KCF can't actually be a real person but he is - greengravy
If you smell what the rock is cooking he's cooking crap - ertyu

12. Halo 4 (Xbox 360, 2012)


I had previously played Halo: CE, 2, 3, 3:ODST, and Reachs campaigns in co-op and some solo, but 4 was the first game in the series that I began and have still only played solo. Its quite a different experience, and honestly, I think that 4 is perfect for playing solo. Im not basing that around level or firefight design but the core of the campaign was an intimate tale about Cortana and Master Chief, one that I was personally invested in, which I am better able to appreciate alone.

Still, I keep coming back to the series for its online component, and I guess I am in the vast minority that thinks 4 was the best (MCC excluded) in that regard. From a technical standpoint, games ran much smoother and experienced fewer issues than in previous games. This was a tremendous boost to my beloved Griffball (basically handball). I felt like a god in that game. If there was a professional Griffball league/tournament, back in the early-to-mid 10s, I would have totally tried out for it. Anyway, the collection of maps was also the best. I havent sat down to do a ranking of all the maps in the series, but Exile might end up on top, and Meltdown, Longbow, Perdition, and the Valhalla update called Ragnarok would all rank pretty high up as well.

Taking over for Bungie, 343 Industries also breathed some necessary life by incorporating contemporary features found in comparable games. Chief among them are a sprint button and loadouts. I dont need to talk about the former, but the latter was derided by my friends to the point of, but not solely limited to, them exiting the series. Being able to enter most games with my choice of weapons and abilities got me hooked onto it even as nearly all of my friends left. Not all players have the same interests or skill sets, so giving them the flexibility to provide an initial setup that most interests them, is more suited to their skills, or both is a basic but valuable feature. I was able to start off with two of my best weapons in the Light Rifle (an underrated but major point for 4 was that the new Forerunner weapons were my favorite in the series) and DMR, and I made my armor ability be the hologram (creates a decoy, and you dont know how valuable this is for someone who mostly plays objective games).

Despite some early growing pains, Halo: The Master Chief Collection was a huge triumph for me and still probably my most played XB1 game, but relatively speaking, Halo 5 was disappointing despite my fondness for its Warzone co-op and PvP variants. Im not sure how hyped I am for Infinite, but I will say that 343 Industries doesnt settle for staleness, so I have some hope that it will get back to the level that they achieved with 4.

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KCF can't actually be a real person but he is - greengravy
If you smell what the rock is cooking he's cooking crap - ertyu

13. Halo 2 (Xbox, 2004)


For the longest time, it felt like the majority of FPSs specialized in either single player or multiplayer, and the ones that attempted to do both stumbled in one or even both endeavors. Then in November of 2001, Halo: Combat Evolved came out and delivered on both ends, and the series has largely upheld that standard for nearly 20 years. I could have easily included 3, 3:ODST, and Combat Evolved on my list, but 2 and 4 are to me the clear best from one of gamings finest franchises.

I always felt that Halo 2 is what kick-started online console gaming to what it is today. It may have started with the Dreamcast several years earlier, but it wasnt until a centralized service like Xbox Live in 2002 that it became more prevalent and utilized, with Halo 2 causing an explosion of more than a million account creations around the time that it launched. I was one of them, and Halo 2 was the definitive game of my high school years.

There was a tight knit group of five of us in high school who would play Halo 2 together almost daily. They all lived close to our high school, but I lived 15 minutes out or so. Still, that didnt stop us from hanging out for a weekend seemingly every month where one night we would basically play Halo 2 LAN and pull an all-nighter on Friday or Saturday. It was pretty chaotic since usually these included somewhere between 10-20 people playing, and a few moms/sisters/girlfriends that I feel bad were subjected to our nonsense. There was little structure to what we did, and we constantly had people leaving one room to speak to people in other rooms. Room and controller swapping happened dozens of times in a single day. Im pretty sure that most of my Xbox controllers werent originally mine. The core of our group was excellent. I jokingly created a clan called the Sexy Kyle Clan as a freshman. They reluctantly joined, and I remember that we once held a matching winning streak in the upper 20s one weekend.

Back then, custom games were so prevalent and everyone had a mic. I dont even know how all these random people became acquainted with each other, but I cant remember a single time where these mega 16-player custom games where we didnt all laugh and get along. For having played this for more than 1000 hours and the technical issues that Halo 2 online was prone to having, thats quite the miracle. Thinking about this game just makes me extremely nostalgic about the memories that I shared with strangers and friends, and for the period in my life that this occurred.

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KCF can't actually be a real person but he is - greengravy
If you smell what the rock is cooking he's cooking crap - ertyu

14. Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas (PS2, 2004)


Starting with GTA III, Rockstars flagship series was outstanding with its flexible, sandbox-y world and gameplay and the marriage of crafty and dark humor wrapped up in a compelling period-piece crime tale full of biting social commentary. Coming off of two entries that I included in my Top 100, expectations were sky-high for San Andreas, and boy did they deliver.

Mission structure took a big step forward with more complex objectives, additional layers, and milking the limited capabilities of what the player can do to provide a relatively robust and varied collection of missions. Aiding in that was a different approach to its world than the series had been known for. While still primarily an urban game, they introduced forested and desert environments that were honestly refreshing even if they werent as detailed as their city counterpart. Even the cities had a lot more elevation and twists and turns given the real-world environments these were loosely based on. I still have fond memories of driving through Vinewood (based on Hollywood).

Because of the expanded efforts to the setting, the world is significantly larger than earlier entries. In a lesser game/series, that would be to its detriment due to the sheer time it can take to get from Point A to Point B and the lack of checkpoints if something goes wrong. Given the wide array of radio options full of hilarious talk radio and licensed period-accurate genre-based stations, the tangible differences and little secrets of the environment types, and the sheer joy of inciting or simply witnessing impromptu chaos makes any lengthy drive more than worth the time.

They threw a lot of things at the wall in this game, both novel and of substance. Most of it stuck, but stuff like meaningful skill progression, atrophy-based regression included, were misfires. Still, this might be the crowning achievement on one of gamings greatest series. I really need to play V more and beat it.

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KCF can't actually be a real person but he is - greengravy
If you smell what the rock is cooking he's cooking crap - ertyu

16. Ori and the Blind Forest (Xbox One, 2015)
15. Ori and the Will of the Wisps (Xbox One, 2020)



This criminally-underplayed series on B8 was the catalyst to me buying an Xbox One in 2015. I was always going to get one, but once Blind Forest came out, I decided it was time to take the plunge. It was everything that I hoped it would be and more.

When Blind Forest was in development, Moon Studios spent their first year almost exclusively on the art and controls, and both are apparent and outstanding from the start, well, at least the latter when given the opportunity. A game taking place entirely within a fictional, naturalistic environment was something completely up my alley, but the final product almost seems impossible. Whether it is night or day, in a marsh or grotto, you will be met with a painstakingly vibrant and richly-detailed blend of foregrounds and backgrounds that are sublime, perfect even. It is impossible not to stop and take it all in an overwhelming sense of wonder. It is mind boggling that a handful of people, mostly corresponding over the internet at that, were able to come up with this.

In an exploration action game such as these two, movement is something that is very important to me, and I would assume just about everyone else. Ori rises above the rest in this department with not only its responsiveness and high degree of control, but the way it fits into level and combat design make it one of the more exhilarating experiences out there. Like many games in that genre, your traversal options start out limited but expand during the course of the game. In Blind Forest, you will eventually just be able to zip along virtually the entire world in such a breathtakingly seamless fashion. Movement in this game might be my favorite in any video game, and even though it has been a couple years since I last replayed it, I still think about it every so often.

Now this isnt to say that Will of the Wisps screwed anything up. Ori still has virtually all the same tools and then some as they maneuver around the world. Its just that the game and its world are structured differently. Blind Forest was a more uniform experience that emphasized momentum and dancing through the air, so to speak, to get around the world and even fight. Will of the Wisps is a relatively slower and more methodical game with more dangerous, restrictive areas with set pieces and lengthy locked-in segments. Theres also a different combat system that has you wielding spirit weapons as opposed to the projectile-based combat from Blind Forest. Will of the Wisps completely changed things up from Blind Forest, but they did an amazing job with all the major shifts and additions.

Honestly, Will of the Wisps is the clear superior game of the two, but Im ranking them back-to-back for a reason that I dont typically value much in video games, and that is story. Neither game is story-centric per se, but due to the heavy emotional attachment to them, the few story moments do stick with you. Both feature plenty of somber themes and plot points, but I found Blind Forest to ultimately be a hopeful journey for everyone involved. Will of the Wisps, on the other hand, is an absolute fucking downer from start to finish. Some might personally interpret its ending to be hopeful. I really understand why someone would have that takeaway, but I found it to be depressingly blase, making all the sorrowful stuff from before hit even harder. Because I dont believe you can skip cutscenes, I cant see myself replaying this game for a long time, if ever, but I could easily play Blind Forest every year.

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KCF can't actually be a real person but he is - greengravy
If you smell what the rock is cooking he's cooking crap - ertyu

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KCF can't actually be a real person but he is - greengravy
If you smell what the rock is cooking he's cooking crap - ertyu

I can't imagine the tank controls working much better with symmetrical joysticks
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KCF can't actually be a real person but he is - greengravy
If you smell what the rock is cooking he's cooking crap - ertyu

Katamari Damacy REROLL (XB1)

The nonsensical goofiness is right up my alley, and I love the concept of the game so much that I played it all the way through, but god I had to fight the controls and camera from beginning to end. I have no idea why they came up with the control scheme that they did, and changing it to simple only mitigating the issues. I only failed a mission twice (once was because my ball got stuck more than halfway through a 20+ minute stage), but the time limit was just arbitrary and prevented me from expanding and exploring to my heart's content.
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KCF can't actually be a real person but he is - greengravy
If you smell what the rock is cooking he's cooking crap - ertyu

bump
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KCF can't actually be a real person but he is - greengravy
If you smell what the rock is cooking he's cooking crap - ertyu

WarioWare: Get It Together! (Switch)

It really is a mixed bag as to how much of a fit a particular character is to any given microgame, but he microgames themselves are high quality, and I'm digging this prezzie side activity.
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KCF can't actually be a real person but he is - greengravy
If you smell what the rock is cooking he's cooking crap - ertyu

Katana Zero (XB1)

It clearly modeled itself in nearly all aspects after Hotline Miami. The gameplay formula from those, to me, works a lot better as a top-down than a sidescroller. It was still a very good game, and I am interested in the supposed sequel the game explicitly teased.
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KCF can't actually be a real person but he is - greengravy
If you smell what the rock is cooking he's cooking crap - ertyu

Gunstar Heroes (PC)

I was honestly expecting better out of something considered to be one of the best run-and-gun games, but in terms of such games from around its era, I prefer most of the Metal Slug, Contra, and Ghosts 'n Goblins games that I have played over this.
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KCF can't actually be a real person but he is - greengravy
If you smell what the rock is cooking he's cooking crap - ertyu

42. Beat another user's favorite game

Gunstar Heroes

I had been sitting on this final challenge for seemingly months, but I finally decided just to go for it.
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KCF can't actually be a real person but he is - greengravy
If you smell what the rock is cooking he's cooking crap - ertyu

Which will totally happen this weekend
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KCF can't actually be a real person but he is - greengravy
If you smell what the rock is cooking he's cooking crap - ertyu

Hydrophobia: Prophecy (PC)

Despite some intriguing elements, the game isn't good, but I felt compelled to see it through. In my head, I thought this was among the first games I bough digitally for my Steam account back in 2010, but I apparently bought more than a dozen already at that point. Still, I feel an oddly high sense of accomplishment of finally getting through this game.
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KCF can't actually be a real person but he is - greengravy
If you smell what the rock is cooking he's cooking crap - ertyu

Broken Sword 5: The Serpent's Curse (PC)

I went through the first three games (I was told to avoid the fourth) all within the past five years, and I quickly became a fan of the series. On one hand, it has the best animation in the series, returning to its origins but with modern advances in tech, and character movements actually look natural and in line with the environments instead of being awkward looking with dissonance.

On the other hand, what begins as an intriuging murder mystery with the series' supernatural/mystical elements as an undercurrent, ultimately becomes underwhelming in the final third of the game. Lack of interesting secondary characters certainly played a role, but unlike the rest of the games that I have played the supernatural threat never seemed dire or even real. They were at the forefront and genuine in the previous games, but at the very end, I was far from convinced there was any real danger from anything but the maniacs pursing these legends.

2 > 1 > 3 > 4 might be my ranking
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KCF can't actually be a real person but he is - greengravy
If you smell what the rock is cooking he's cooking crap - ertyu

Knack 2 (PS4)

Never played the first, but I heard the second was a vast improvement, so I picked it up when it was $5 during a PSN sale years ago. It was pretty good action game, though it was sometimes hard to discern enemy projectiles, and Knack's dodges kind of suck.
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KCF can't actually be a real person but he is - greengravy
If you smell what the rock is cooking he's cooking crap - ertyu

Ikenfell (XB1)

I really got into the battle system experiementing with all sorts of character and spell combos. Battles were prone to turning into slogs, so while it did put a damper on it, I still really enjoyed battling as a whole. The rest of the package was mostly fine, though I was most disappointed in the world. Part of that was my own incorrect assumption that the game was a school RPG and not an RPG that happened to take place within what is a school. Because the game takes place in a mostly deserted school, it never really gets a chance to shine, and there wasn't much to do in terms of exploration. Ultimately, my feelings toward the game lean positive, but there was definitely some missed potential.
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KCF can't actually be a real person but he is - greengravy
If you smell what the rock is cooking he's cooking crap - ertyu

It has already been two weeks since my last update? Looks like I need to make another push soon
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KCF can't actually be a real person but he is - greengravy
If you smell what the rock is cooking he's cooking crap - ertyu

bump
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KCF can't actually be a real person but he is - greengravy
If you smell what the rock is cooking he's cooking crap - ertyu

Yooka-Laylee and the Impossible Lair (PS4)

I had my reservations after the first few levels that I played, but the further I played, the more I came to appreciate and like it. I'm still iffy on the titular level (I do feel a little proud that completing it on my 12th try might be better than the norm), and I feel like the tonics were slightly on the pointless side.
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KCF can't actually be a real person but he is - greengravy
If you smell what the rock is cooking he's cooking crap - ertyu

My Memory of Us (PC)

A nice on-rails puzzle/adventure game that took me until the very end to realize that Patrick Stewart was the narrator.
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KCF can't actually be a real person but he is - greengravy
If you smell what the rock is cooking he's cooking crap - ertyu

Supraland (XB1)

I played some very early segment(s) years ago, but I finally played the full thing recently. The exploration and puzzle elements are outstanding, but combat should have just been nixed entirely. At best, it is an inconvenience, and at worst it was a momentum and enthusiam-killing slog. Enemies keep respawning too, so that alongside the lack of an counter/tracking/map regarding secrets/upgrades (late game will see you a super expensive chest tracker, whatever that specifically does) served as a discouragement to seek out extra stuff.

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KCF can't actually be a real person but he is - greengravy
If you smell what the rock is cooking he's cooking crap - ertyu

17. The Saboteur (Xbox 360, 2009)


Pandemic Studios was quite the underrated developer in its 11 year history. Most notable for the Mercenaries, Destroy All Humans, and Star Wars Battlefront series, their swan song, The Saboteur, was their finest work.

The Saboteur is an action-adventure game in the vein of Grand Theft Auto that takes place in WWII-era occupied France. You play as Sean, an Irish race car driver, as the consequences of his actions and the events around him force him to become the titular role. I am a huge sucker for 2000s-era open-world games, and The Saboteurs World War II-occupied France was a great one. It was the perfect size and featured a lot of urban and rural environments. In the beginning, most of the world was in a striking black-and-white art style. Sure it can actually lead to some unnecessary hecticness in combat, but it was a small price to pay. True to its period are the weapons and vehicles at your disposal. Like many games from that era, they copied and made the climbing style mimic Assassin's Creed. Not as good as the real thing, but it was one of the better efforts out there.

While it is pretty standard stuff, the game is a lot of fun to play, and an experience I like to go back to every few years. However, there is one real reason why my feelings toward this game keep rising and rising over time, all the way to a Top 20 ranking here: This is probably the most satisfying Nazi-destroying game. There are plenty of games/series, most notably Wolfenstein, about giving Nazis what they deserve, but it is underwhelming that while you tend to kill a ton of Nazis, they will always come back and you dont seem to be putting a dent in their numbers/operations. The Saboteur to me was a godsend. While the Nazis do have a seemingly endless supply of them, that isnt the focus here. You are a saboteur! Around Paris and the French countryside are hundreds and hundreds of opportunities to screw over the Nazis efforts, reduce their influence, and eventually drive them out. Theres propaganda objects to destroy like speakers and statues, military efforts to blow up like AA guns, radar stations, and armored vehicles, as well as VIPs to assassinate like generals.

That shit doesnt return. If you destroy a fuel station, it isnt coming back. Finally, I could give the middle finger to the Nazis hundreds of times and see the fruit of my labor whenever I wanted.

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KCF can't actually be a real person but he is - greengravy
If you smell what the rock is cooking he's cooking crap - ertyu

18. Banjo-Kazooie (N64, 1998)


For about a decade, Rare was one of the premier developers in the industry and had one of the better transitions into the 3D era. Rares fourth and final game on my ranking is Banjo-Kazooie.

Following in Super Mario 64s path of providing a platformer with a sprawling hub world full of secrets and distinct, open-ended sub-worlds that test you in a myriad of ways to acquire pieces toward your end goal. While not as polished as its inspiration, Banjo-Kazooie went above and beyond and in crafting its own identity in the process, they created one special experience.

I didnt really know what to expect after leaving the intro world, Spiral Mountain, as I entered a mountain head shaped like the fantastic antagonist Gruntilda, but Gruntildas Lair might be the best platforming hub world? I feel like there arent that many platformers that even have one, especially now, but Rare totally knocked it out of the park. It wasnt merely a connector to all worlds, but it was treated as its own world, offering its own Jiggies, platforming challenges, and puzzles. Most, if not all, the sub-worlds even have an effect on Gruntildas Lair. I will never forget being blown away as an 8 or 9-year-old as one of the sub-worlds contained a button that raised Gruntildas eyes in her floor mural back in the lair, and by forcing them back down resulted, I got a Jiggy. BK had a ton of little touches like that I look back at quite fondly.

The sub-worlds are lively and the environments were crafted with a lot of care to fit the theme. Perhaps its collect-a-thon nature enhances this, but theres something about exploring the boundaries of places like Treasure Trove Cove and Bubblegloop Swamp just to see whats out there since they meticulously crafted them from end to end. There may be nothing, a few small trinkets, a Jiggy (comparable to SM64s stars for those unaware) or even danger. No matter the outcome, I didnt come away disappointed as I found an answer to my curiosity.

Who can talk about Banjo-Kazooie without mentioning the kooky characters that reside in this charmingly bizarre universe? In most games, having a bunch of dimwitted, callous, and/or disgusting characters might be a major turnoff, but not here, and their humorous gibberish speak (I sort of regret revealing what was behind the curtain when they gave interviews in Rare Replay) goes a long way to make them likable and memorable as each character has a unique voice.

While the rest of the series ended up being good games, and I commend Rare for not playing it safe and just going for it, none of them held a candle to the original. Because Jiggies are one-shot, meaning you cant go through obtaining them again, you have to replay the game in order to re-experience the parts that you loved the most. For Banjo-Kazooie, I would, and have, gladly do it all again.

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KCF can't actually be a real person but he is - greengravy
If you smell what the rock is cooking he's cooking crap - ertyu

Blossom Tales: The Sleeping King (Switch)

Trying to emulate A Link to the Past, Blossom Tales is a solid action-adventure game that you just wish did more to craft its own identity.

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KCF can't actually be a real person but he is - greengravy
If you smell what the rock is cooking he's cooking crap - ertyu

19. Project Gotham Racing 2 (Xbox, 2003)


When I got an Xbox for Christmas in 2004, I was interested in Xbox Live. I decided to go to Best Buy, and they had starter kits available. For around $50, they gave you a year long subscription to XBL, a disc for access to retro games in the original Xbox Live Arcade, a mic, and a game. My choices were Crimson Skies: High Road to Revenge and Project Gotham Racing 2. I knew that Crimson Skies was well-received, and I was very intrigued with the concept of an online dogfighter. With racing being my favorite genre though, PGR2 was so enticing even though I knew nothing about the game or series. I went with my gut, and I made an excellent decision as PGR2 was one of the defining games of my high school years.

It isn't set up like most racing games from that era. You go through a series of challenges across its three modes, many of which require you to use a certain classification of vehicle. Sometimes you race other drivers, but you just as often do one-lap time trials, drive through cones, keep your speed above a certain mark at certain points in a track, and more along those lines. It's somewhat similar to license tests from Gran Turismo but more complex and meatier thanks to its Kudos system. There's no money in the game, so instead, you purchase things (as well as unlock challenges) through Kudos. As its name suggests, you earn Kudos through remarkable performance, whether that is doing well in the challenges or on-track things like drifting through corners and overtaking opponents. I like simple things that add interesting, non-frustrating elements to a game, and Kudos was just that to me.

Single player was a nice change of pace, but multiplayer is where it's at as the community was phenomenal with its custom modes. Among my favorites was Cat and Mouse almost always played at the famous Nurburgring, the longest course in the game. Here, you played in pairs. One would be a slow vehicle (mouse) that focused on racing. The other would be a fast vehicle (cat) whose sole purpose was to thwart every other team's chances at victory, whether that means purposely crashing into other cats/mice, becoming a well-placed obstacle at inconvenient spots, or whatever tricks you had up your sleeve. The winner was the team whose mouse crossed the finish line first.

My all-time favorite custom game we played was Last Man Standing, usually played on Moscow's KGB Corner. Here, everyone chose the same slow vehicle (Pontiac GTO and Mini Cooper were the most commonly used cars). The very first race was a standard race. At the end of it, the person who came in last was eliminated, and they would become a fast vehicle in subsequent races whose purpose was to attack the racer that is currently in first place. As more people get eliminated, the crazier it gets as you have a bunch of fast cars wreaking havoc on Mini Coopers, or what have you, in the front. With a maximum of eight players in a game, having six fast cars and two slow cars at the end made for one intense finale, especially if you were one of the two competing for victory.

What made this special was that none of these custom games were official or had settings that helped in a variety of ways. It was completely community-driven, and almost everybody was on the same page. If one entered a race on KGB Corner and saw multiple people with GTOs, you just knew it was probably Last Man Standing and knew to select a fast car. Most people had mics in that game though, so someone would generally speak up to let someone who just joined know what was going on. Like a lot of racing games back then, a significant portion of the online players that I came across were in Europe. Even if I joined an Italian, German, or any other group where English wasn't being spoken, I could quickly tell if they were playing any of the famous games and knew what the appropriate action to take given the situation. I always look back on this fondly thinking how special that was.

I also have a vivid memory of some British man telling me that he liked my voice. This was at a point in my life when my self-esteem and body image were at an all-time low because of people making fun of my voice online. This man said that I sounded like John Malkovich. I took that as a compliment then. I'm not sure how I feel about that now.

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KCF can't actually be a real person but he is - greengravy
If you smell what the rock is cooking he's cooking crap - ertyu

20. AER: Memories of Old (PC, 2017)


When I was a kid, many of my gaming purchases were of games that I did extensive research on. As I started going to college and beyond, the more going into a game virtually blind appealed to me. Some series, like Super Mario and Hitman, I would completely ignore any articles about a new game and would just buy it because I was always going to and really wanted to be surprised by the series that I loved. For the vast majority of games though, I would typically just look at a gameplay trailer if available or head to Youtube and see if someone made a short gameplay video themselves just to give me a basic idea of what I can expect. If it jumped out to me, I would wishlist it on Steam or bookmark the developer/publishers game page. As someone who primarily plays indie games, my approach can make it easy for games to fall through the cracks, which makes it all the more special that AER did not.

AER is an exploration adventure game you play as Auk who is tasked with discovering what is happening to the world. You will ultimately go through a simple and familiar path of finding, gaining access, and going through various ruins, complete a bunch of intuitive platforming and puzzle challenges, and see the end of your quest. It was an effective loop but not what made the game so special to me.

It begins with Auk who has a contract with a bird deity that allows her to transform into a bird at will. Flying around is such a joy. Its easy to change speeds, elevation, and turn. It may be difficult for precision landing when going at fast speeds, but theres no real risk of failure because even though the events of the game are serious and ominous, theres no chance of dying (there is no combat in the game). This encouraged me to play around. Going through clouds gives this neat visual effect, and I liked doing silly stuff like flying really fast and then transforming back into human form to skydive before transforming again to pull back up.

The game utilizes a minimalist, low-poly visual style. Its a style that Ive seen pop up more frequently in the past five or so years, and it is one that I love. Developers Forgotten Key maximized the potential of it in terms of pure aesthetics and character and environmental animations to create a truly breathtaking world that you want to explore.

The game takes place entirely in the sky. I mean, you do go inside ruins, and you can walk around on land, but the world is made up of continents suspended in the sky. Unknown events caused those continents to break apart, so you will come across dozens, maybe even hundreds of islands you can land on. I loved going around to various regions of the world, going to each island and seeing if I could piece together how the continent used to look.

The world-building in this game is incredible, giving you just enough to get a solid base grasp but ambiguous enough to allow you to come up with your own thoughts, feelings, and conclusions. Theres few characters in the game and not much dialogue. They give some exposition, while the environment does the bulk of it. This is a carefully crafted world, and it is chock full of landmarks, dwellings, cultural objects, scrolls, images of the past, and more to give you some insights of the world and its history. Exploring is one of my favorite things to do in a game, and you can be sure that I went through every square inch that I could find. If that isnt your kind of thing, that is okay because most of the world is optional, and you can just do what is required and still get a satisfactory idea of what you experienced based on what you found out about the world.

This was sadly the only game released by Forgotten Key, though I have downloaded the demos of their unreleased games. It is very tough to describe why and how much I love this game. I dont know that I ever will. I just know that I came into this game knowing very little about it and was blown away every step of the way.

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KCF can't actually be a real person but he is - greengravy
If you smell what the rock is cooking he's cooking crap - ertyu

21. Beavis and Butt-Head (SNES, 1994)


I like the concept of beat 'em ups a lot, especially from a multiplayer perspective, but, and maybe it's because of the coin-op arcade origins, the majority of those that I have played are creatively limited. They can be fun yeah, but aside from bosses, it is roughly the same experience from start to finish. Lasting appeal is almost a foreign concept for the genre, almost being the operative word as Beavis and Butt-Head is unlike any beat 'em up that I've played that was equally fun solo or with a partner.

I've watched only a little of Beavis and Butt-Head, but I still feel like they nailed the aesthetic and tone of the series. The game is just wacky and dumb from start to finish. You are free to choose one of four levels to begin (a fifth one opens up after the first four are completed), and each one is highly distinct from the rest due to its level design, enemy variety, and scripted events. You might be pushing a medical stretcher through an x-ray room shooting IV bag liquid to avoid obstacles. You might be jumping from trampoline to trampoline to avoid vicious dogs using a boxing glove on a stick. You might be hopping on pogo sticks to attack tiny, aggressive insects. These are just samples of the absurd situations that you will take part in that you just dont see in beat em ups.

Playing just a portion of one level is all you need to see that a lot of thought went into crafting this game. The game was truly impossible to predict what they would throw at you next, and that was the beauty of it.

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KCF can't actually be a real person but he is - greengravy
If you smell what the rock is cooking he's cooking crap - ertyu

22. Rocket League (Xbox One, 2015)


One day in the summer of '11, I went with some of my friends over to some guy's house that I didn't really know. He had a PS3, and we all played some game called Supersonic Acrobatic Rocket-Powered Battle-Cars (SARPBC). I hadn't played anything like it. It was a game with the abstract rules and visual flavor of soccer using ridiculous vehicles. I had such a blast in those few hours that I thought about it from time to time over the ensuing years. I had heard about Rocket League, but I didnt delve into it, so I never made the connection that it was the follow-up to SARPBC until I bought Rocket League in 2016. Since then, it has been one of my go-to multiplayer games.

RL expanded upon SARPBCs formula greatly, and while things have changed some since the developer Psyonix was purchased by Epic and later went free-to-play, most of what I love about the game has remained. The funny thing is that I barely play the standard soccer game that most available modes feature. I mostly stick to three modes: Rumble, Snow Day, and Drop Shot.

Rumble is the standard soccer game with powerups added to it. You can do things like freeze the ball, cover your vehicle with spikes so that you can literally carry the ball, a tornado that sweeps up the ball and opposing vehicles alike, and much more. I think that theres around 12 total, and they are all pretty unique from one another. The game can get absolutely bonkers, and its hard to take seriously.

Snow Day is basically hockey. I mean, theres a puck instead of a ball, and the field is covered in ice. This mode I feel plays to my personal strengths the best. Im not the best aerial player (timing is a problem for me), so a game like Snow Day where the puck stays mostly on a surface is something that I can excel at. Im also best as a facilitator (setting up goal opportunities for others and centering) and a non-goalie defender (blocking and ball clearing), and this mode is just perfect for taking advantage of my skill set.

Dropshot is definitely the most unique mode of them all. This one is I guess I would say volleyball? Each team has their own side, and your task is to damage the oppositions side by having the ball hit the ground there while you were the last team to touch it. The ball is color coded to make it clear who was the last team to touch it. A single tile takes two hits before the tile is removed, and that offers up goal opportunities for the opposing team. If you hit the ball and it lands on your side, there is no damage done, but if you hit it on your side where the floor was removed, then it will result in an own goal. Even though the aerial game is probably the most crucial here out of all the modes in the game, I still love this game to death. Im great with anticipation and have a knack for directional hitting that make me a great defender and sometimes sneaky and underrated source of offense. Sometimes I play one of the standard soccer games/tournaments or a limited time event, but I probably play Rumble/Snow Day/Dropshot 90% of the time.

If theres one thing that saddens me about the game is how lame other players are in terms of vehicle customization. You can customize a lot. You can choose a body, decal paint finish, color combination, wheels, boost smoke/form, topper and antenna. You can also select non-vehicle related areas like your nickname, player card background, goal celebration, and more. I go fully goofy and fun. Am I going to have an oversized 10 gallon hat topper with pizza wheels, a holiday sweater decal and a goal explosion that sends out a storm cloud with a face. You bet your ass I am! Whenever I play ranked mode, which sadly is most of the time because that is now the only way to play Rumble/Snow Day/Dropshot, I am met with people who go for an edgy or cool look and dont use toppers or antennas and seldom use crazy wheels or decals.

I know Games as a Service is something that I feel like B8 views negatively, but I honestly am glad they exist given the generally short lifespan of multiplayer games from generations ago. Rocket League has now been out for six years, and it is still going strong with no signs of slowing down even as hundreds or even thousands of online multiplayer games have come since to potentially wrestle players away from it.

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KCF can't actually be a real person but he is - greengravy
If you smell what the rock is cooking he's cooking crap - ertyu

Hot Shot Racing (XB1)

A modern take on old arcade racing games like Out Run and Daytona USA but with standard lap-based racing setups, including grand prixes. I say that it is a modern take not only because of the driving style but because they have timer-based checkpoints. However, I didn't see any changes surrounding that when it came to what difficulty you chose, so I wonder why they even bothered with the checkpoint system because when I routinely had a dozen or more seconds left to spare each time. I even tried it once where I purposely wiped out immediately after a checkpoint and didn't use boost or drafting just to see how close I could cut it. It was something like seven seconds, so I just don't see how it is possible to fail a checkpoint.

Other than that, it was a brief but very solid experience. I didn't care for the side modes, but the main racing portion is good with some solid course design.
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KCF can't actually be a real person but he is - greengravy
If you smell what the rock is cooking he's cooking crap - ertyu

23. Apex Legends (Xbox One, 2019)


Perhaps my extensive background in playing team sports is a major reason why I'm wired this way, but there's nothing quite like being a part of something great in a team-based multiplayer game. Not that there's anything wrong with single player games and solo-based online games, but accomplishing something gaming-related on my own isn't particularly special or memorable to me as it is something exclusive to me and can't celebrate with others. Furthermore, playing with others and beating other humans is even greater. I dont play every multiplayer game out there or anything like that, but there are a handful at any given time that I like to play semi-frequently now that there are so many quality options available.

I was skeptical of the rise of the battle royale. At the time, it was basically just slayer-based shooters, and being an objective game type fan, I wasnt sure how much I could enjoy it, especially with so many teams thrown in. My first foray was with the juggernaut Fortnite in 2018 I believe. While it was mildly entertaining, I wasnt a fan of the emphasis on crafting, and as a fan of shooters (more FPS than TPS), Im not sure if I am describing this well, but I was disappointed with the heft of guns and shooting them as well as the related sound design/effects. The game was clearly meant and marketed for people of all ages, so Im not surprised, but it just wasnt what I was looking for.

Then Respawn came along and surprise dropped Apex Legends, based on their Titanfall series, and I started playing it within the first week of its 2019 release. Im usually quick to acclimate to FPS to at least be decent, but I was not very good to begin. Kill/Death ratio isnt the most accurate way to gauge someones skill, especially in a more complicated game such as this, but there arent that many efficiency stats that can be and are collected, and during the intro period before seasons began, I had like a 0.5 K/D ratio. That being said, I had tons of fun. It isnt common for me to continue playing a game that I was struggling so much with individually (at least in terms of killing vs dying), but I could tell this was something special.

Over time, even as the game kept changing and trying out new things, I kept getting better even though I am getting older. Im no ace or anything, but Im pretty self-aware of my own strengths and weaknesses in the game, and Im a great teammate, and so I get satisfactory results more often than not. Im not someone who is win or bust. I want to have a good time and not go down with a whimper, so its pretty easy to please me here unlike other other multiplayer games.

Part of the reason why I stick around is because when I party up with strangers, which is more often these days as most of my friends have stopped playing it, Ive been teamed up with great people. I have played a couple thousand games, and the amount of obnoxious people that I have played with is miniscule.

I usually give at least some money to every free-to-play game that I play, even one that I dont stick with for long, but I have chipped in more for Apex Legends than any other. I hope Apex Legends will be around for a long time still to come, but the time and money investment that I have put into has been well worth it.

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KCF can't actually be a real person but he is - greengravy
If you smell what the rock is cooking he's cooking crap - ertyu

24. Hitman: Blood Money (PS3, 2013)


If I had to make a list of my favorite series, Hitman is definitely in the Top 10 and maybe Top 5. However, because of my requirement to play a game in full, if applicable, to be eligible for my list, only Blood Money will make an appearance. I have since gone back and played the final two episodes of the 2016 reboot that I hadnt played before, and it would have ranked as high or even higher on this list, but thems the rules that I made.

My friend had the first Hitman game, and while it was extremely rough, it showed promise to where I decided to keep an eye on the series. Silent Assassin was a great but flawed experience, my opinion of Contracts has improved over the years as a solid entry in the franchise, but Blood Money is where I/O interactive first hit it out of the park.

Blood Money is when the series really took off with the sandbox-y and flexibility that they had flirted with previously. With its abundance of intricately designed levels (A New Life and You Better Watch Out are my favorites) full of numerous fixed and moving parts (some of which have limited windows or no patterns), being able to successfully pull off your hit in the way that you want is immensely satisfying. Hell, its satisfying even if you have to make an audible or everything goes to hell, but it feels especially good to come up with a plan and have it come to fruition. It cant be understated how great it is that in a stealth game like Hitman, taking the guns blazing approach is an option and can be a lot of fun.

One thing that I dont think the game gets enough credit for is its outstanding in-game map. I cant say that I have given comparisons much thought, but it would certainly be in the running for one of my favorites in games. Silent Assassin and Contracts have very similar ones, but it is very sleek, almost like a blueprint aesthetically, uses excellent color and symbol choices so that everything is apparent, and they move in real time (that means that it doesnt pause the action). It is unfortunate that seeing it in all of its full glory can only be done on the easiest difficulty as they strip more features the harder the difficulty that you choose.

Im not one for remembering the final game I beat for each platform that I own, but I always remember that Blood Money was the final game that I beat for the PS2 because it ended up being one of my favorites for the system.

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KCF can't actually be a real person but he is - greengravy
If you smell what the rock is cooking he's cooking crap - ertyu

25. DiRT 2 (Xbox 360, 2009)


Prior to DiRT 2, I had never played a racing game with a presentation quite like this. As someone whose favorite genre is racing games, I never got into the real-life thing, only sometimes watching short-track off-road events. The point is that I wouldnt say I am part of the racing culture, but when I first started playing DiRT 2 over a decade ago, It had my attention, especially, as silly as it sounds, with its eye-catching fonts of many varieties.

You are plopped into a racing circuit area, lightly gated but within eye and earshot of various spectators/fans walking around as crews of other racers are hanging around. You head to your trailer, do some basic racing game stuff like pick a name, nationality, and beginning car, and off you go.

Functionally, DiRT 2, which is actually the 7th in the franchise because it used to be named after Colin McRae, is similar to a lot of racing games from that era and even before. You go through various events featuring several, distinct disciplines related to real-life rally racing. Its a loop that I have always found satisfying and felt a great sense of accomplishment from, but I think that the high quality of the courses and modes are what really set DiRT 2 apart from its peers.

DiRT 2 wasnt the first, nor was it technically the first I played, but it is the racing game that I most associate with rewinds. Racing games are one of the more demanding genres out there with the need of constant awareness of course design, driving physics, car physics, and more. For many racing games, races can average around 5 minutes each, so that can be a long 300 seconds with sometimes razor thin margins for error. While some games employ what is called rubberband AI (in a nutshell, they slow down when you are in the rear and speed up when you are in front), those are more prevalent in arcade-style racing games that are geared toward kids/all ages, and beyond that, I have complicated feelings toward the practice.

Anyway, DiRT 2 is more of a hybrid (sim-leaning but with arcade elements), so I can imagine how devastating it could be to lose a race after being nearly perfect for the first 97% and then in the final stretch, you took too wide of a turn or something common of that nature. Also, with there being a lot of off-road courses, sometimes things just get weird from a jump or turn that you seemingly had little control over, amplified if being on a new course or one that you are still getting used to.

Codemasters, the developers of the series and one of the premier racing game developers out there, had a game just before this called GRID where I was first introduced to their rewind system, which I believe are called flashbacks. Depending on the difficulty you play on, you get a certain amount of flashbacks that you can use to rewind the action for upwards of something like 5-10 seconds. Its simple, doesnt feel excessive or cheap, and is a very welcome feature to a genre that demands so much from its player.

I have played most of the DiRT games, and Codemasters racing games, since then, and while I have thoroughly enjoyed all of them, nothing has topped DiRT 2 yet for me.

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KCF can't actually be a real person but he is - greengravy
If you smell what the rock is cooking he's cooking crap - ertyu

26. Rayman Origins + Rayman Legends (PS3, 2011 and 2013 respectively)

Like 80% of Origins is contained in Legends, so I could just go with Legends, I want to also give credit for Origins in case someone else has just Origins (this was written up in like late February).

Both literally and figuratively, The UbiArt game engine was made for Rayman to unleash its full potential as both a platformer and a goofy and vibrant universe. Controlling Rayman is simple and sublime and probably the best non-Mario/Sly platforming character to maneuver with. Related, but possibly the best decision the game made was the flexibility of how to approach levels given the ease of use.

Whether you want to blaze through levels, take things slow, or some combo of the two, the choice is yours. You dont have to go through a level 10 times just so you know the layout ahead of time and when scripted events occur, and the camera is always perfectly positioned to present information in a reasonable time so that you are free to tackle the game how you wish from the get-go. There are various chase/escape sequences, but they give you ample opportunities to grab various collectibles/scout out secret areas during such situations. It is such an intuitive experience, and that is a remarkable achievement given how many new and fresh ideas they give you through both games.

I cant believe that it has been eight years since Legend, and with Michel Ancel having left the industry, I have to assume the franchise is dead or will have a tough time recapturing the magic that Origins and Legends provided. As long as they keep porting Legends though, I will still buy it.

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KCF can't actually be a real person but he is - greengravy
If you smell what the rock is cooking he's cooking crap - ertyu

27. The Talos Principle (PC, 2014)


Like many puzzle games, The Talos Principle takes a central idea, light-refraction, and uses common puzzle objects like crates and barriers and finds a way to utilize them all in a myriad of ways to create a fulfilling puzzle experience, even tossing in a curveball idea or two. Its difficult to talk about the puzzle elements because I dont know what to say to give the game justice. More than most genres, I think you just have to play pure puzzle games because they will click almost immediately or not at all without much room for middle ground. I will say, and I mentioned this within the past week or so in another topic, that I like puzzle games that are, for lack of a better word, flat in their difficulty. Instead of making you go through progressively difficult puzzles, the puzzles are pretty consistent in their demands, even if the elements in play change. Theres something oddly satisfying about a game whose seventh puzzle might give you the most trouble of them all. The Talos Principle is a perfect example of this where random puzzles here and there caused me to work the hardest to solve.

Anyway, The Talos Principle does a few things that are really neat, even if I didnt truly take advantage of them. One is that you arent required to do every puzzle. How the game works is that it is somewhat open-world. It has been many years since I played this, so my memory is a little hazy as to the specifics. In the various areas of the open world are several puzzles that you can tackle in basically any order. The puzzles let you know this right away, but completing a puzzle rewards you with a certain tetromino. You use these tetrominos to unlock other areas, and the process repeats. The game has multiple endings, and I think one requires you to do all of the puzzles, but you arent forced to do them all to unlock all the puzzles in the game or reach an ending.

Another is that there are several, perhaps even more than I am aware of, puzzles that you can break using the tools at your disposal and even other puzzles. Croteam was pretty self aware of this as an intended system as some puzzles require you to use another puzzle area to solve or to reach an optional collectible, and I want to say there could even be an achievement tied to breaking a puzzle. While I did always try to solve a puzzle the normal way, sometimes I would try to get creative when I hit a wall or I was curious if I could circumvent a portion of the puzzle by doing a certain action. For the most part, I was denied, but once or twice, I got through clearly in a way that was not standard.

While you can basically ignore this, philosophy plays a major role in the game as it basically revolves around it while rarely being in the forefront. Prevalent in the eerily lonely environments are the voice of a disembodied god-like figure, audio logs of a woman, and an apparent real-time conversation with an unknown entity via computers that dole out various philosophical musings. One of these encounters using the computers cut me deep. They asked me a series of questions and came back with a detailed assessment of myself, and it just seemed like a dead ringer for me. I had to take a moment to process the realization. Im sure it was just the case of the Barnum Effect, but I was still blown away. It's not a selling point imo, but it is well-done to the point that it was the deciding factor in calling it my favorite puzzle game over Linelight and the Portals.

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KCF can't actually be a real person but he is - greengravy
If you smell what the rock is cooking he's cooking crap - ertyu

28. PixelJunk Shooter Ultimate (Vita, 2014)


PixelJunk Shooter Ultimate is a remastered version of PixelJunk Shooter 1 + 2, and given both are two halves of the same game, I don't feel like this is cheating.

There are many games in the PixelJunk franchise, but the Shooter games are the clear gems. This is slower and more methodical than your typical twin-stick shooter, but thats because I would argue this is just as much of a puzzle game as it is a shooter. You take control of a ship trying to rescue scientists in an underground area and find out what went wrong, along with grabbing gems to fulfill level-unlocking requirements.

I was immediately grabbed by the degree of control you have in your ship. It is much higher than I was accustomed to. In addition to being able to move a full 360, as well as being able to spin to deflect projectiles, the emphasis on physics in this game also has acceleration, momentum, and variable speed as key components that you will use in combat, puzzle-solving, and exploration. It definitely has a unique feel to it, and they didnt stop there to make the game stand out.

While the ships tools are pretty basic with a built-in gun, missiles, a claw, and maybe one or two more than I cant recall at this moment, they all have multiple uses for various scenarios. You might need a claw to extract survivors, rip a part off of an enemy, or use it to transport a sponge-filled water to cool down your ship or lava for you to reach the screens exit. They get a lot of mileage out of each tool, and it helps to have meticulously crafted and excellent level design.

Toss in some vibrant colors, beautiful animation (especially with liquids), and a surreal soundtrack by High Frequency Bandwidth that has long been one of my favorite VG OSTs, and you have quite the memorable experience on your hands.

While I try to push many games onto B8ers and in general try to bring awareness to them, PixelJunk Shooter Ultimate is one that I have put among the most effort (I think it has been my most gifted game in our B8 Steam Secret Santa), with many people enjoying their time with it. Success!

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KCF can't actually be a real person but he is - greengravy
If you smell what the rock is cooking he's cooking crap - ertyu

29. Beyond Good & Evil (Xbox 360, 2011)


Michel Ancel really created something special here with his action/adventure game even if none of it is revolutionary.

Here you play as Jade, a young photojournalist and one of my favorite VG characters, as she is quickly pulled into a dire situation and eventually a large conspiracy that just gets stranger as it goes on. The game takes place in Hillys with its blend of industrial and natural, modern and almost futuristic locations and elements made it one of the more rich and vivid worlds of its time and one that I still mentally travel through from time to time given how much of an impression it made on me.

The bulk of the game has you exploring and solving environmental puzzles, usually with one of two companions that have their own unique abilities to add new, albeit limited, elements to the mix. The game does feature a simple, but fun and stylish in its own way, combat system that revolves around a staff melee weapon and disc-based long-range attacks. Toss in multiple scripted segments of other genres, such as stealth and racing, and you have some variety to keep things fresh and interesting.

I also found the side activities to be a lot of fun. They were somewhat mandatory because of late-game requirements, but using Jades camera to search out living things in all corners of the world was a great excursion, and Im not one who is typically a big fan of the degree of backtracking that undertaking these tasks require.

Like I said, none of this is revolutionary, but everything clicks and gels into a very special experience. It is rare for me to replay games, especially ones that take double-digit hours such as this, but I have beaten this five or six times now, starting way back on the Gamecube in 2005. It has been a few years now since my last visit, so maybe it is time for a return.

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KCF can't actually be a real person but he is - greengravy
If you smell what the rock is cooking he's cooking crap - ertyu

The Banner Saga (Switch)

I have a love/hate relationship with games that constantly present you with lose/lose situations. It makes it all the more engrossing, but man do I fret about what I am doing and the potential consequences.
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KCF can't actually be a real person but he is - greengravy
If you smell what the rock is cooking he's cooking crap - ertyu

A Case of Distrust (Switch)

I regret not getting this on PC because I didn't realize this was point-and-click, but it was an interesting micro-noir tale.
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KCF can't actually be a real person but he is - greengravy
If you smell what the rock is cooking he's cooking crap - ertyu

Quantum Conundrum (PC)

I'm a sucker for a good puzzle game, and this is one of them. Some people prefer a progressively difficult game, but I actually like somewhat flat ones like this where random levels here and there trip you up. My only real issues is with the platforming where aside from mid-air degree of control, it could be akward and in my experience, full of input delays that lead to cheap deaths.
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KCF can't actually be a real person but he is - greengravy
If you smell what the rock is cooking he's cooking crap - ertyu

Haven (XB1)

Combat was poorly explained, poorly designed, and eventually pointless. Movement around the world was stiff and all too easy to input the wrong maneuver or fall off a ledge that can create a plethora of issues. Exploration could be a pain given the lack of a detailed in-game map to indicate elevation and objects (specifically flow lines) that are often required to reach certain exits. That being said, this game is far greater than the sum of its parts because I loved it in spite of all its glaring and numerous flaws. I got really into the loop of uncovering more of the world to understand it and find parts for your ship. I really felt a sense of progression in improving your home/surrounding area. The two leads are very likable with good voice acting too.

I can only imagine what this game could have been like with more polish and better system designs.
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KCF can't actually be a real person but he is - greengravy
If you smell what the rock is cooking he's cooking crap - ertyu

Bump
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KCF can't actually be a real person but he is - greengravy
If you smell what the rock is cooking he's cooking crap - ertyu

5. Beat a game released in 2021

Omno
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KCF can't actually be a real person but he is - greengravy
If you smell what the rock is cooking he's cooking crap - ertyu

Omno (XB1)

I was pleasantly surprised at how much more platforming and puzzle solving was involved
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KCF can't actually be a real person but he is - greengravy
If you smell what the rock is cooking he's cooking crap - ertyu

Aragami (PS4)

Cool stealth game in the mold of Tenchu. It lacks polish, but it was highly entertaining throughout. I am very much looking forward to the sequel that is soon to come out.
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KCF can't actually be a real person but he is - greengravy
If you smell what the rock is cooking he's cooking crap - ertyu

Bump
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KCF can't actually be a real person but he is - greengravy
If you smell what the rock is cooking he's cooking crap - ertyu

Night in the Woods (XB1)

Man, how long has it been since I went through Lost Constellation? Five or six years maybe?

For a game revolving around young adults/teens, the game did an excellent job I thought at avoiding unintentional cringe. With a nice, compact setting, great characters, and an engaging slice-of-life tale, you have a great adventure game on your hands. I found the dreams tedious, and I think some plot points don't hold up to scrutiny, but I thoroughly enjoyed this from start to finish, even if it took me months to get through.
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KCF can't actually be a real person but he is - greengravy
If you smell what the rock is cooking he's cooking crap - ertyu

Pan-Pan (Switch)

If you would have told me that this was made by Ustwo (Monument Valley) I would have believed you, but I guess the art style must not be unique to those games and has an actual name. Anyway, this was a neat puzzle adventure that unfortunately made the decision to give you the impression it was open-ended but instead actually force you to do things in a specific order without any forewarning or help.
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KCF can't actually be a real person but he is - greengravy
If you smell what the rock is cooking he's cooking crap - ertyu

Mass Effect Andromeda (XB1)

At its best it rivals and even surpasses the original trilogy with better explorable environments, improved combat, and a trio of squadmates in Dreck, Vetra, and Jaal that are among the series' best. The hook of all, well I didn't see at least two mentioned, the races we came to know from the Milky Way traveling to a new galaxy to call a new home was quite gripping and gave it a sympathetic sense of urgency. I do appreciate how they made it feel like a complete game, which is why the first Mass Effect might be my favorite in the trilogy.

I wish they kept up the sense of accomplishment in making other planets more viable and establishing outposts like they did with the first planet. I also wish there were more new races, though I suppose there is the possibility of one or two others given the events of the game. One of my favorite things to do in the trilogy was going through various solar systems to discover and interact/mine uninhabited planets, but it was kind of neutred in this game.

I am extremely sad that there won't be a direct sequel to Andromeda, but it at least got the Mass Effect 1 treatment as opposed to 2.
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KCF can't actually be a real person but he is - greengravy
If you smell what the rock is cooking he's cooking crap - ertyu