Board 8 > Ok it's time to talk about the games with played this year

(+) Yeah! (+)

Game Title - System

Good/Bad/Flawed

Your true, uncensored feelings

number/number if you're into that sort of stuff

Doesn't have to be a game that came out this year, just one you played this year.

I personally will be ranking all mine so stay tuned for that hot mess
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Okay here are the two games I played for the first time this year please enjoy

Persona 5 - PS4
Good

Mmm, you know this game oozes style and it drips like a French press, heh heh, no but I love love love love love the style, I'm not too hot on fashionistas but I am hot on Persona 5. I didn't get far though but there was a once and future waifu in my sights and I didn't hate the battle system either -- what more can I ask for from my King of Queens?

4.5/5

Horizon Zero Dawn
Goodishly Flawed

Uhh, yeah, I like the protagonist and the world and the scenery is very nice (although I don't think this engine is as pretty as, say, Fox or Frostbite or Luminous, oh well) and the combat was fun for a while. But eventually it was no longer fun and you know collecting herbs and doing samey sidequests starts to lose its appeal for me rapidly if I don't have, like, a BioWare gallery of plucky companions to banter away in the overworld, WHICH I DIDN'T.

3.5/5
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Ok let's start off with the worst game I played this year

Pokemon Ultra Moon - 3DS

Pointless

You know a game has done poorly when you're legit considering calling the BBB to report consumer fraud. Ultra Sun and moon was billed as "Rediscover Alola" Most of us assumed we were going to have a Black 2/White 2 situation on our hands. This was a reasonable assumption, consider it's been nearly 10 years since Game Freak has tried the "third version with very little added" gimmick. I know it's a little naive to assume Game Freak would ever stop screwing over their fans in a certain way, but pokemon has a way of making me an eternal optimist.

This might be the least effort ever put into a third version, it almost feels like a hate note to their fans. For example: in the trailer, we see what it very clearly looks like Lt Surge's gym, with the trash cans arranged in a familiar fashion. Someone watching this might get excited: Are gyms coming back? Will Lt. Surge be in the game? What other types of gyms will there be in the game? Then we play the game and find out its literally just a room with 4 trainers, no type theme among the trainers, and no decent reward for clearing it out. It's almost mind baffling how little effort was put into the room, the english translations aren't even well done.

One of the early trailers also showed mega evolution, which the optimistic player might see and think "oh cool, they're fixing what they did with the last game and adding mega evolutions earlier!" Nope, everything is exactly the same on that front.

I will admit, I did enjoy the surfing minigame, but even that felt incomplete. Maybe I didn't play it enough, but it seemed like there was no way to show moves other than the two listed on the screen. The pokemon selection was better, which is nice, but honestly in this romhacking world, not really worth the cost of the version.
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Ok now for the second worst game I played this year:

Fire Emblem Fates - 3DS

Flavorless

Gosh, this was a really sad game to play. Fire Emblem is my favorite series, and I've loved all the games from the bone crunching difficult 5 to the baby friendly Awakening. Fates felt like someone else's Fire Emblem though. It kind of felt like it took all the worst things about Awakening, and capitalized on that. As someone who loves the concept of Waifu Emblem and baby making, this game couldn't excite me in the same way. Every character felt hollow and pointless, and as such, making babies with them felt kind of like breeding worms. As far as the gameplay went, it struck me as the same exact problems that awakening had, too easy on normal, too RNG hard on hard.

I'm probably going to go back to this game at some point and give it another shot, but it really left a bad taste in my mouth.
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and as such, making babies with them felt kind of like breeding worms.

I feel like this has to be on the tombstone somewhere of a 19th-century nihlist woman I should have been born in time to wed
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Nier Automata - PS4

Achieves literally everything it tries to do in its story, gameplay, presentation, entirely holistically, which is insane given it's one of the most ambitious and risky games ever. The only absolute must play of the year.

Zelda BOTW - Wii U

Some nuggets of Zelda goodness are hidden inside this horribly broken mess of mechanical and visual vomit

Persona 5 - PS4

Exceeded the hype. Not only is the presentation and gameplay super improved, it added a ton more content than the other Personas, and it's pretty much all good. The story and setting and characters are super unique and surprising yet successful (although the main story definitely peaked during the first arc, but all the social links are the best in the series).

Gorogoa - PC

Bar none the best puzzle game in the "strange perspective tricks" genre. Such a pure an concise experience that I will definitely play it many times again and I'm sure it will be just as good.

Prey - PC

Haven't finished it yet but it is the pinnacle of Looking Glass style games. It takes so many standard conventions of the genre and turns them into awesome, unique, fun mechanics. Amazing level design and visual effects and characters and everything. Movement and shooting controls are pretty weak though which make combat really boring and annoying when you just want to explore and see the story.
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Ok now we're into the "goodish" games with flaws section

Xenoblade Chronicles 2 (spoiler free)

Dude WTF

Xenoblade Chronicles 2. All it had to do was be pretty good compared to X and this was going to be my game of the year. I wasn't expecting perfection, I wasn't expecting that all the series flaws would be fixed. There's no way I could have expected that I would be spending around 10 hours of my life watching some loser hold a crystal in front of their body and it flashing with three blades (for no reason) over and over again until I got the next story character. There's no way I would have expected a side quest, that's already taken 50 minutes of my time, would tell me to WAIT 50 in game minutes before I can do the next part. I couldn't have guessed that I would be spending hours per character giving them items they don't like so I could get enough affinity to accept their quest.The attempts of Xenoblade to waste my time, are more bizarre than anything. Maybe the developers felt they needed to fluff up their play time? But without all the busywork and clunky UI they still have a 200 hour game on their hands, so at what point is it enough?

Xenoblade Chronicles 2 is all in all a great game when it manages to be a game. The story is fun, the characters are great, the battle system is really improved, voice acting is great, the music is the best in the series, there's a lot of great stuff here. I would say by play time, this 300 hour game offers 120 hours of great moments. 120 hours of great moments is really fucking cool, and I wish I could recommend it without mentioning that the other 180 is just pure tedium.

Environments are also a downgrade from past xenoblades, in other games, there was nothing you could see that you couldn't explore. In 2, lots of areas are just linear paths in a bigger world that's literally walled off to you. In certain areas, interesting things in the distance are obstructed by a wall with an invisible wall above preventing you from jumping over. It just feels like a huge step backwards, and a lot less fun to explore.

I also want to point out after the great organization of X, 2 is a mess. There's no way to tell when you've done everything, there's no list of heart to hearts, the quest list looks like it was made for an iphone game, everything just feels cluttered and chaotic, which stinks because there's a lot of repetitive back tracking that needs to happen. I rarely used the follow ball in X, but I would use it ALL the time in 2, just because of how interesting a vast the enviroments are

In closing I still don't really know what to think of this game. It's really hard to justify the hours I spent unlocking core crystals, searching for an item that the buggy map point couldn't lead me to, feeding items to characters, salvaging for a RNG monster, losing a battle with a Tyrant because after 45 minutes of fighting, it managed to knock me off the precarious ledge it was positioned on. But the parts of the game that are good are REALLY REALLY good.

I'll need a little bit more time to figure out if I even like this game or not.
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Zelda BOTW - Wii U

Some nuggets of Zelda goodness are hidden inside this horribly broken mess of mechanical and visual vomit

I'm curious what makes the game visual vomit to you since I usually hear nothing but praise for the presentation
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What Remains of Edith Finch - PS4
Excellent

Short, but SO powerful. Stuck with me months after playing, and presents narrative in a way unique not only to other games of it's genre but really any games I've played.

A

Horizon: Zero Dawn - PS4
Excelllent

Kind of the reverse of Edith Finch. Aloy was excellent, and the plot was solid, but the game stuck with me more for the gameplay than anything, which was fast, fluid and thrilling for a long, long time. Was pretty much the exact difficulty level I was hoping for; not so easy it's boring but also never really frustrating.

A

South Park: The Fractured But Whole - PS4
Funny

Pretty much more of the same from Stick of Truth. Didn't shock me as much and didn't have as much lasting impact. It's a must-play for South Park fans but Stick of Truth was probably better overall.

B

Sonic Mania - PS4
Reluctantly disappointing

I went into this wanting SO BAD to enjoy it. And I did, to an extent. Excellent music, excellent art, mostly excellent stage design. But as a Sonic fan, the #1 thing I'm annoyed about is the obsessive nostalgia. It's a game made to please the "only Sonic 1-3 were good" crowd and it's so driven by nostalgia that it fails to recognize the bad aspects of past games. Things like annoyingly limited lives that make you replay TWO ENTIRE STAGES if a second act boss gets a cheap kill on you. Things like having the true ending locked behind one-try mini-games hidden in the levels. Whereas games like Sonic Generations and even Sonic Forces encourage you to go back and replay levels with things like hidden paths and red rings, Sonic Mania forces you to whether you want to or not.

B-

Life is Strange: Before the Storm - PS4
Cute

More Life is Strange in any capacity is good. The new Chloe voice actor does a surprisingly great job, and while the impact doesn't match the original, I'm still much happier having known who Rachel Amber really was.

A-

Doki Doki Literature Club - PS4
what

what

A-

Little Nightmares - PS4
Spooky enough

Hurt largely by the fact that I loved Inside so much the previous year. Small child in a 2D puzzle-platformer trying to survive a horrifying and mysterious world? Sounded like a recipe for success, but while the scares are great, the puzzles leave much to be desired, and the protagonist wasn't really someone I could sympathize with.

B-
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Pokemon Super Mystery Dungeon - 3DS


Stupid/Fun


I initially bashed on this game, it's method of collecting every pokemon is really just baffling. You're randomly assigned a web of pokemon, and you collect them in a preset order that doesn't seem to make any sense. It gives the illusion of a branching tree, but the method you get all your pokemon is pretty darn linear, and beyond reason. You might not get paras until 50 hours in for example even though you see him on your branching tree early in the game. As always with the series, the story is the worst thing in the world and legitimately painful to slog through, but once you're done with that 30 hour endeavor, you've got an awesome pokemon roguelike on your hands, and honestly pokemon roguelike is hard to get wrong! Even if you're forced to watch a bunch of pokemon eat dinner for 3 seconds after every completed dungeon (I guess this is like a series tradition for some goddamn reason?)
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Roughly in reverse order of my enjoyment.

Valkyria Revolution - PS4

Flawed Badly

Long cutscenes with some of the most awkward motion capture I've ever seen. I only made it to the third "chapter." Gameplay was very much Dynasty Warriors in a bad way. I would say it's the most disappointing game ever, but I wasn't really expecting it to be that great anyway.

MvC: Infinite - PS4

Bad

Yoooo fuck this obvious cash grab. The fact that Venom looks good in videos means nothing to me, since I already returned this mess months ago. People say the gameplay here is good, but it's not. UMvC3 was much better.

Splatoon 2 - Switch

Good

I never played the first one and I'm not huge on this one either, but I can tell a good game when I see it. Turf War and Salmon Run are both really fun. Single-player was kind of sucky though.

Danganronpa V3 - Vita

Good, but flawed

It vacillates between being by far the best DR and being by far the worst. You can place me in the "hates the ending" camp, but even so, it's still a pretty good game. I hate Shuichi's VA though.

Super Mario Odyssey - Switch

Good, but somewhat overrated

While this is my first actual 3D Mario since 64, I had a good time. That being said, I'm not quite sure I get what the fuss is about. It's fun, but once it's over, what's the point? I don't see myself coming back to this.

Trails in the Sky, SC - Vita

Good

Once again, the second installment of a Trails game ups the pace and stakes of the first. My Trails timeline is something like:

First Chapter - played to Zeiss, got bored quit.
Cold Steel 1 - played halfway, got bored, quit.
Cold Steel 1 - months later, forced myself through, got to the cliffhanger (holy shit)
Cold Steel 2 - obsessed now, played through it quickly, loved it
First Chapter - started from the beginning, still kind of boring, but picks up
Second Chapter - obsessed, played through it quickly, loved it

One might say they should work on making their beginnings more interesting, but that would also kind of ruin the journey.

Tales of Berseria - PS4

Good

By far the biggest surprise of the year, this might be the best Tales game. Velvet's character design is not great, and the equipment system is still confusing as hell, but everything else about the game is really, REALLY good. Personally, I still like Graces F more than this one, purely on battle system/skits. I love this cast, even if it is kind of One Piece.

Persona 5 - PS4

Good

For me, I would say that this game firmly met its expectations, which is saying something. The cast is good, the gameplay is phenomenal, the story is pretty OK. It's a bit too easy on Normal, but then again, maybe I just know how to play Persona.

Breath of the Wild - Switch

Good

Not much I can say here that hasn't already been said. A stunningly good game, the best in the series. Takes risks and succeeds tremendously.

Addendum:
Nier: Automata, Nioh, Horizon: Zero Dawn, - PS4

Good

Really quickly - I also played these three games, but not as much as the others. From what I can tell, any other year, they all could have been GoTY candidates.

Oh yeah, also

Xenoblade Chronicles 2 - Switch

Good, Bad, Flawed (some kind of mix

I'm not very far into this, but I have no idea what to make of it so far honestly. I just got access to a three-person party and battles are fairly satisfying, if not unnecessarily long. I feel like many of the game's detractors are judging this in light of stuff like BoTW and Odyssey, which is unfair. It takes a lot of stuff from the first Xenoblade and improves it. It also takes some flaws from Xenoblade and carries them over without fixing them. It also makes some things noticeably worse. There is so much stuff in here as far as systems/minigames and barely any of it feels necessary. That being said, I appreciate the unabashed "old-school" nature of the story and character designs. It really does remind me of an early Tales game or a weird cousin of Skies of Arcadia. Right now, I'm enjoying it well enough to keep playing, but I'm also decidedly not impressed.

Fate Grand Order - Android (also available for iOS)
Good

It's addicting. The battle system is simple enough to grasp and you can experiment with the hundreds of characters, but can be challenging enough in some quests. The characters are cool...though yeah, it's a gacha game. But you can finish most all content with any servants as long as you have good team composition anyway.
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Was pretty busy this year so it's a shorter list than I'd like.

Tales of Berseria - PS4
Good
Tales is my favorite series, but the last few entries and especially Zestiria have been very disappointing. This was a lovely return to form. Actual fun gameplay, a story that didn't suck, and probably the best character cast in the series, which is the most important part of a Tales game. Second only to Abyss for me, which is saying something considering Abyss is my all time favorite game.
9.5/10

Breath of the Wild - WiiU
Good
Zelda games are extremely hit or miss for me and this one definitely hit. Only blemish is the weapon durability system. I like it in theory, but it's not implemented well enough for my liking. That's a minor complaint, though. Game is still a masterpiece.
9.5/10

Trails in the Sky FC - PC
Mostly Good
Lovely soundtrack, great writing and characters. Battle system doesn't actively detract from the game or anything, but it's uninspired at best. Also, I don't know if this is an unpopular opinion or not, but the Estelle/Joshua romance sucks and it does actively detract from the game. Hope it's done a little better in SC.
7/10

Super Mario Odyssey - Switch
Good
I love 3D Mario games and this is obviously 3D Mario done right. Gun to my head, though, I don't know if I like the sheer number of Moons. I'm kind of a quality over quantity guy. That said, it tops everything but 64 for me.
Won't do a number rating because I just got my Switch for Christmas and I'm not done with the game yet.

Think that's it except for the Pokemon hack I played, which I doubt counts.
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I usually only have 5 top games, but this year has been totally awesome. Note, tons of Japanese games here.

1.Persona 5 PS4
What do you think?

They took all the advancements from P3P and P4G, amplified them, and made a wondrous experience. It wove a delicate balance between P3s darker tones and P4s slice of life comedy/idiocy to create a game that (while not as good as P4) lives up to everything youd want from the first game in 10 years. It has great dungeon and battle design, brings back SMTs negotiation system, and Shoji Meguro killed it with his best soundtrack to date.

Too bad most of the characters kinda suck. For all the good Makoto, Sojiro, Sae, Futaba, and WAIFU-SENSEI, you get two of the worst Persona characters ever (Ryuji and Mishima), plus a REALLY bad social link with some dumbass arcade nerd who somehow rivals Nozomi from P3. And of course Morgana being a cockblock most nights. Stupid cat.

But its fucking Persona. It was awesome as all hell.

2.Yakuza 0/Kiwami PS4
GREAT (smashes people who disagree with Majimas baseball bat)

This franchise is something else. It basically mixes GTA with beat-em-ups and sidequests galore. 0 focuses on Majima becoming a lunatic, while Kiwami introduced me to the first games simple (yet gripping) story. It also introduced a interesting mechanic that tied together skill progression and fleshing out MORE MAJIMA MADNESS! I am so glad another game is coming out in February.

3.Sonic Mania Everything I think (played it on PS4)
Great

PLAY IT! PLAY IT! PLAY IT!

4.Hatsune Miku: Future Tone PS4 (Digital, with physical copies recently released)
Great

Probably the most niche game and What the fuck inducing reaction I imagine, but there is something special about this rhythm game series. It also helps when the creators dumped 240 songs in a $100 package throughout the year. Even the base game has 225 for $50-$60, so you get a shitton for your money whether you want extra or not.

It is the most challenging in the franchise, working in elements Im still trying to figure out after god knows how many attempts. Its just beyond hard. Every song and video is high quality like the arcade version, with some actual non-CG music videos thrown in to balance out the bunch. The Vocaloid thing is weird as shit, but if you get into it, you definitely get rewarded when games like this come out.

5.Ys VIII Lacrimosa of DANA PS Vita
Great

Ys has been very reliable. Every 3-5 years, these guys make something special. This time was no exception. Taking a cool premise (being marooned on an island), Adol, Dogi, and a band of merry men, women, children, and parrots (you heard me) have to scavenge for shit and get the hell off. The battles are great, the soundtrack is the best in years, and being able to switch between Adol and Dana provided a cool change of pace while building the backstory.
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6.Nier Automata PS4
Great

The original Nier was fantastic. Drakengaard 3 was a mindless fuck ton of bloody fuck ball destruction. This was a dip back into the formers bleak, dystopia with the latters emphasis on fighting. I am seeing this on a lot of game of year lists, and it is well deserved. If SE keeps publishing more gems like this, Ill forgive them for not being good at developing their own shit. Please kill them....please kill them...need more good games like Nier...please kill them.

7.DanganRonpa V3 PS Vita
Good, but flawed

Basically a better version of V1, V3 does a lot to sell itself. The game usually boils down to, Is the person you like most still alive, or are the people you hate dead first? God knows this game toyed with me on that more than once. DEGENERATE DEVELOPERS!

The franchise, despite being great at mixing the Ace Attorney and Zero Escape scenarios with dark comedy, cannot get out of its own way. The investigations take forever, the minigames all suck (including that fucking taxi one you cant skip). One of the characters was Nagito, if 50x worse, and NEVER SHUT THE FUCK UP, and the ending case is either the best thing or worst thing ever. I was on the latter, because I gave up on the series making any sense. It also helped it involved one of my preferred characters getting a moment to shine SO much, I couldnt hate the stupid shit that was going on. I was in pure love with how much the franchise just said, Fuck you, and reveled in it. I guess you could say, I GOT A ROCK HARD RAGER!

8..hack//G.U. Last Recode PS4
Good, but flawed

I was so happy to hear this existed. G.U. stands as a great game in terms of world building, aesthetic, characters, and plot. However, it is brought down so badly by repetitive dungeons and combat. While those are still present, I never felt the remake dragged on nearly as badly. They sped up the experience system to a great degree. The extra volume, while fun, is where things kinda suck. All the original voice actors were brought back (amazing when you think about it being 10 years), and they made the Haseo/Ovan/Shino thing more pronouncedwhile killing Atolis importance (HOORAY)!

The one problem with the 2-3 hour Vol. 4 campaign was the new character. Like DR, this game had a VERY bad tendency to keep harping on a characters trait to death. Just shut up. I get it. Anyway, it also boasts a weird art style in the cutscenes. It had a kind of slow down to it that threw me off. Still beautiful, but weird.

9.Demon Gaze II PS Vita
Good, but Flawed

The developers kinda suck at making other dungeon crawlers after the first one. Im glad they brought this back. Better story, better characters, and they integrated a Social Link type system well. Scenes that seem innocuous actually provided some unique moments that were great. Sure, not every character got those, and a lot of downtime boiled down to silly comedy, but the game manages to not suck.

It probably had to do with the battle system. While not as hard as the original, it does NOT screw around. Enemies and traps are very deadly, and walking into a zone labeled orange or red can be instant death. Building the characters right means everything. It helps that the cast of characters is large enough that youll find a favorite bunch, even if 3-4 are just retreads of better character classes.

10.Atelier Firis PS4
Good, but flawed

These games come out every year. That means not a lot changes, but when the franchise is more about screwing around with whimsy and creation rather than building an epic narrative, you can forgive them a little. I have liked this series since Mana Khemia. I wont say it is up with MK1 or Meruru or Shallie (personal favorites), but there just never seems a year where I dont play them.
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Uncharted 4: A Thief's End
A
A wonderful cap to a great series, even if it's the easiest and most like a movie. The characters and the way everything is presented pretty much sets the standard for modern gaming.

Until Dawn
A+
A delicious horror film with slasher and supernatural trappings wrapped in a fun adventure game skin that makes your choices actually matter as you feel nervous about the situations you're in. It's the closest to actually being in a horror film that you can get.

Thumper
A+
Probably the most mechanically satisfying game I've ever had the joy of playing. A pulsing rhythm and non-stop tension makes you grip the controller like a clamp and forces your eyes to stay open and vigilant at all times. Psychedelic backdrops from hell and Lovecraftian entities induce horror, unease and dread into the player at every turn.

Resident Evil 7: Biohazard
B+
A satisfying return to series roots that takes the best elements from classic RE and retools them to fit in a first-person perspective. It has its weak points but its obviously a terrific step for the series.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare Remastered
A
I liked this campaign a lot more than I did when I first played it back in '09. This time, I recognized the more satirical elements of it and the incredible stakes the campaign holds over your head especially prior to the "aftermath". The remastered touches add well-appreciated flourishes and details to minor things that are noticeable.

Night in the Woods
C+
I liked the story, loved the characters, but the gameplay leaves a lot to be desired. In a way, it does suit what the game is trying to convey, but ultimately it's not really that enjoyable to play. Still, I'm glad I went through it either way.

Outlast 2
A
This is a horror sequel akin to Silent Hill 2, Fatal Frame 2, or Resident Evil 2 in terms of how it improves and advances its root game in incredible ways. It's a grueling horror trip of adrenaline and psychological terror and you personally experience every minute of it, with more involved camcorder mechanics that do wonders for immersion. The story leaves just enough room for mystery and questions to make you think about it for days after.

Little Nightmares
B-
A neat, short little horror-adventure that conveys a cool, creepy, and unique world full of mystery and wonder. It's atmosphere is just enough to carry its simplistic puzzle and platformer mechanics.

Hitman
B+
A wonderful stealth game that adds just enough open world to make gameplay and the world feel emergent without sacrificing focus on concise objectives, as sidequests and main targets become intertwined. Pulling off an elaborate assassination never felt this satisfying.

Uncharted: The Lost Legacy
B-
A fun but ultimately unnecessary title that feels like an also-ran adventure that would be mentioned in dialogue. It has some cute character moments and a good ending chapter, and if you like Uncharted, it's worth a play for sure.

D4: Dark Dreams Don't Die
C-
Hey that was a pretty interesting and quirky adventure! Too bad there's no fucking ending and is a complete waste of time.

Nier: Automata
B
Combat is satisfying and the story beautifully existential, but it didn't blow me away as much I was expecting.
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The Evil Within 2
B+
Starts off with a strong first half but I will admit it drags a little in the 2nd half. Way better story than the first game (as in, you can actually follow what's going on), and the gameplay was much improved too. I think I still liked the first better though, I think it had more charm and was more of a breath of fresh air the survival horror genre needed more than this one.
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Jeff Zero posted...

I'm curious what makes the game visual vomit to you since I usually hear nothing but praise for the presentation

It has 3 completely different art styles that clash with each other. Framerate is garbage. Very low detail environments (except for a couple of areas where the framerate really dies). The generic green grassy field is the only thing that looks actually good.
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Night in the Woods
Memorable

Basically what Snake said, but I'm a little more forgiving toward it. The gameplay can be weak but the story, characters and art style all give this game a super-distinct feel from anything else like it.

B+

Hitman
solid

I suck at stealth games, generally, but still found this to be a lot of fun. While I didn't find myself getting particularly invested in the overarching story, the variety of kills and locations was a blast, and I found myself repeatedly going back to levels to try for new objectives. Almost a little too overwhelming tbh.

B+

Dishonored: Death of the Outsider
fun enough

More Dishonored is a good thing. Surprisingly fleshed out for what I initially thought would basically just be a DLC pack. Billie Lurk isn't as compelling a character as the developers seem to think she is, and the reasoning for wanting to kill the Outsider isn't particularly convincing, but overall it's a couple fun new abilities and just a really pleasant kill-fest.

B

Destiny 2
decent

Not a game I would've bought for myself, but a friend got me it and I've had fun playing it. Forgettable story, repetitive missions and a shit ton of microtransactions turn me off of it but it's still got some gorgeous worlds to explore and really solid gameplay mechanics. Headshotting aliens with a hand cannon just never stops feeling satisfying.

C+

Lego Harry Potter
meets expectations

Pretty much exactly what you'd expect. Probably one of the better Lego games out there, but really doesn't make any real attempts to separate itself from other Lego games. And never having the potential to get the bonuses on the first run is frustrating after a while. I also tried playing Lego The Avengers and Lego Batman 3 this year, but got burnt out on Lego games fast and didn't beat either one.

C+

Oxenfree
spooky

Feel like there's not much I can say without spoiling it, but it's really inventive and I pretty much immediately got hooked in the story and atmosphere, despite slight annoyances in the gameplay.

B
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Stopped bothering listing systems because literally everything was PS4
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Wow I don't play new games any more

MVC:I

was so dull and boring I never bothered learning it. I only played it with friends once and played through story once. Story was stupid fun, I'll admit, but thats about it. I got it for free. Thank god.

Overwatch

not new but still. I got into this game earlier this year and it was pretty addicting! But the biggest "Flaw" is that its a time sink. Theres no story mode, no campaign, no nothing to make it "complete". You just waste a bunch of time playing other people instead of working towards a goal. Now, theres nothing wrong with that, really. But for someone like me, I have to be able to stop. I really did get addicted to it for awhile. I had to go away from it by force. I didn't even do the Halloween stuff! I came back to it this past week though. I'm trying to have more self control this time around. Its pretty much the first ..well, modern first person shooter I've played to any extended amount of time. having to learn team comps and other shit is piled ontop of me just learning the genre. I think its a good game to start on. I like the different characters that are the "classes". I usually roll with mah lady Mei

PUGB
I've played it for a few hours with SHINE and I think its pretty fun! Its much more serious I think, especially if you have team members who rely on you. Also I can't really play it relaxed either, it requires all of my attention. We'll see how this plays out, but I like it so far. The "Battle Royale" aspect is unique to me. its cool

Tekken 7
its basically SCV. The gameplay is still great but the single player garbage is just straight ass. I've already elaborated on this dozens of times

I think thats it
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Super Smash Bros. for Wii U

I have played this game a lot this year due to me finding a competitive scene at my college and getting way better as a competitive player (even though I was practically in the top 3 players at the university when I showed up anyways). I wish Bayonetta wasn't in the game - her moveset doesn't fit with the game and she breaks a lot of the rules that you play by when you face practically any other character. She honestly makes this game a lot worse to play competitively.

But, ignore the fact that she's in the game and maybe don't make me play against Ryu or Rosa too much (hard matchups for me), and I love playing this game. I main Mario but keep trying out a ton of other characters and picking them up as secondaries because a lot of them are really fun to play. And it would be a fantastically balanced fighting game if it weren't for a couple of the top tiers invalidating half the cast or more.

Can't rate with #s. I guess fantastic but with a critical flaw or two?

Persona 5

I think the mainline story is pretty great up until you get near the end, and a lot of the characters are really good. A few of the characters are also pretty bad too though. I never really liked Mishima except for being a supporter basically, and Haru's introduction wasn't a good first impression - although she gets significantly better through her S-Link, turning into one of the better characters of the game. Does Chihaya have to say "country bumpkin" every time she wants to remind you that she's actually from a rural area?

The last boss would be dope if it weren't for some dumb ridiculous cheesy shit that is just too dumb to buy into and take seriously. But most of the twists were fantastic and it offers a good update on the Persona formula. I think overall, P4G was better, but P5 was certainly no disappointment.

(There's a lot more important things to the quality of the game that I didn't mention, this is just the first stuff that came to my mind)

8/10. Wish that some characters and moments didn't suck, but overall stylish and captivating for 95% of the story.
---

Horizon Zero Dawn

Had to dedicate a single post to this game because I have a lot to say about it.

Absolutely fantastic. I can't recommend this game enough. I think that outside of a couple of small flaws, this will be remembered as one of the best new IPs to come to the PS4. Probably one of the best PS4 games at all, really.

The storyline is pretty good, and the world is... I have a hard time finding the words for it. It stunned me, honestly. From a studio that has mostly only made rather emotionless FPS games, a world with this much history and this much impact was made. I was actually emotionally invested in characters, both those that existed in the game's time-frame and those that existed before it. I was invested in the events that were happening both before and during the game's story. I was invested in Aloy, and who she was, and what she wanted. This game made me care about a world that we don't know yet, but still one isn't too far off from our own. I expected something good out of Horizon but I don't know if I expected something like that. It really hit me in a way similar to The Last of Us at times - not always and not necessarily as hard! But certainly sometimes, and certainly still pretty hard.

The combat is simply fantastic as well. The robot dinosaur thing seems a bit silly when you first hear about it, but it makes sense within the story of the game and it really is a ton of fun to take those things down. The game gives you mostly useful tools to fight the machines, and there's a ton of depth in the gameplay. There's probably 100 ways to tackle each fight.

Not to mention, it's simply beautiful, and is probably the epitome of why AAA production doesn't have to be a bad thing.

Now, does this game do open-world as good as it could have? No, not really. SHINE likes to point toward the game's moment or two of restricting where you can go, and how the world is empty in a couple places (and how it basically tells you where all the interesting stuff is). And he's right, I guess. I spent a lot of time exploring the world, but would I have done that without chasing the collectibles for the platinum? I don't know. There's a good chance I wouldn't have. But, I don't think that's what you should look at with this game. I do think that the open world format was what best suited this game and allowed it to thrive, but that does not mean that the game is first and foremost an open world game and you should judge it even halfway based on how it does that.

I love the world of this game - not necessarily the open world, but the world. I love the backstory, the tribes, the way the characters interact, the pre-existing religions, and how the whole world seems to connect all of these things together, fit Aloy into just about all of it even though she was once outcast from all of it, and stay true to all of it throughout the whole game. Forget needing every corner of the map being memorable or having the complete freedom to go absolutely anywhere at any time no matter where in the story you are. You don't need that. Yes, the game will force you to stay within bounds before you progress through the story, because that's what makes sense with the story they told, and its okay to let a game developer tell you that sometimes. It can be for your benefit. Yes, the game has a couple empty areas. But that's okay, because open world still fits here, and the focus isn't necessarily about having the open world filled to the brim. In fact, some of that emptiness feels like it fits and makes sense to me.

This game is about the complex new universe Guerilla has built, the deep gameplay they've given us, and the way it all comes together so seamlessly. I do have a couple complaints here, but I don't think they're important. This is probably my GotY by a good length.

9.5/10. Fantastic world, even if the "open world" isn't perfect. Amazing, deep gameplay. A satisfying full package.
---

La Mulana - Steam
Good

Oh god, I still haven't beaten it?! Only a few bosses to go... I think... I hope. Such an excellent game.
9/10

Recettear - Steam
Good

I remember spending a good deal of springtime just playing this, and still not beating it. Haiii~ -_-;
8/10

Stardew Valley - Steam
Good

I'm in Fall Year 2! I'm a cutscene away from saving the Community Center! Why don't I just login and play? I'm almost finished with the museum, almost got everyone to max hearts, and I'm almost ready to have a wife and kids!
9/10

Terraria - Steam
Good

One file for myself to slowly make my way through the world at my own, very slow leisure; the other file enjoyably with a friend, but pushed way too fast and too usddenly into hard mode craziness. I definitely miss fishing.
7/10

Trails in the Sky SC - Steam
Good

Pretty certain all I did was fight the last few bosses this year once I was a year or so removed from wanting to see every special dialogue from every boss. One of my favorite RPGs with amazing characters and music and worldbuilding. I can't wait to go back someday.
10/10

Trails in the Sky the 3rd - Steam
Good

Hey, I quit this too! Levelling my characters in the Abyss, third Tails game in a row I quit playing in the final dungeon. What is it with me and not wanting to let things end?
9.5/10

Danganronpa - Steam
Good but Flawed

There's a lot I've enjoyed so far. The characters are pretty well crafted, the mystery is good, and the ace attorney cases are decently crafted. However, I just don't feel like there's as much of a story or challenge to things as I'd like, though my tune will probably change if I ever finish.
7/10

Final Fantasy X - Steam
Good but Flawed

Until Zanarkand, a really decent story with some fun characters and cool settings. Battles are tons of fun. However... endgame content is very, very grindy and kind of hollow.
7.5/10

The Curious Expedition
Good

Fun little game to explore worlds on a Civ II map. Don't remember much about it.
5/10

Renowned Explorers
Good

Had a blast for about a month playing this over and over again until I hit Stardew Valley back up.
6.5/10

Gurumin
Good but Flawed

Fun game that reminds me pleasantly of Mega Man Legends, but story is a bit weak, camerawork sucks, and there seems to be some NES-style guesswork about what to do to progress sometimes.
6/10
---

Infamous Second Son

This is a pretty good game. I think it might be my favorite Infamous game, but I can't remember if it's better than 2 or not, I'd probably have to play 2 again to really judge that. The new powers are really cool and the incorporation of them is mostly great. They all make sense and have their pros and cons. Personally, my favorite was the Video powers, but Smoke was pretty sick too. A lot of people I've seen think Neon is the best, even though I thought it was the least effective power set. There's a playstyle for everyone in there, and there's a good chance all three of the playstyles will suit you well. I was disappointed by the last power though, simply because it doesn't feel too unique and you don't get access to it in the full game until you basically beat the game.

I was surprised by how good the story of the game was, although there were certainly moments where I wasn't that invested in it, and a few times I thought things were glanced over too quickly. Maybe it even gets a little predictable. But it's good!

Play as good Delsin btw, evil Delsin ain't bad but good Delsin just makes a lot more sense and feels more satisfying IMO. The morality system is kinda whatever anyways, but I don't personally mind it too much. It's limiting, but if I'm gonna be good or evil, I'm gonna be all good or all evil. I don't ever like to mix that up in a single playthrough. So I guess the way the morality system forced you to stick with one or the other and controlled your whole playthrough didn't mess me up. I can see how it could though.

8/10. It's fun, and a flawed morality system shouldn't keep you from enjoying the story or the gameplay.

Infamous First Light

It's Infamous Second Son, but with gameplay entirely focused on one power, a less satisfying story, and an underexplored arena mode. Fetch's neon powers are pretty sweet, so the gameplay is just as enjoyable as Second Son if not more, but the story doesn't quite keep up as much. I think it has more focus than Second Son's story, but it just isn't as interesting or well told. It definitely feels like it should've just been an expansion pack, not some weird in-between of expansion and standalone game.

Also, there definitely should've been way more of that arena mode. For how little there is in Fetch's Seattle storyline, this is where the game could've made up for it and justified its standalone status, but it kinda falls short. The different arenas don't differentiate themselves enough, there's only two modes (Survival and Rescue), and there's really just not enough content in what could've been a really awesome addition to the Infamous series, given how good First Light's gameplay is.

6.25/10. It's good as an expansion, but doesn't retain all of Second Son's positives and doesn't fully explore its own new additions, other than the Neon powers. Hardly justifies being sold separately as a standalone package. I enjoyed it despite its flaws - it's worth it mostly for those who are invested in the series, not so much for people who want a great standalone game.
---

Gravity Rush 2

I think... okay, this one is gonna be hard to write about because I really enjoyed it but I'm still conflicted on it.

I fell in love with Gravity Rush 1. It had such a fantastic charm and interesting concept. The gameplay was something fresh, the characters and world of Hekseville/The Pillar kept you reeled in, and it left some things open for the world to be explored more. It really was a brilliant way to start the franchise. Then I played it on PS4 as Gravity Rush Remastered, and I thought it was even better on PS4 due to its controls being improved. I honestly can't believe that this was a series designed for a handheld console because its got that console feel. But I guess that's what the VITA's concept was, right? A console feel on a handheld. So when Gravity Rush 2 was PS4 only, it made sense. And I think it fits being on a console. It gives the game room to grow and breathe.

There's a lot of things that I didn't like about Gravity Rush 2 though. The design of Jirga Para Lhao, Gravity Rush 2's first world, is not that great. There's a bit too much time wasted on just moving between places, and the vertical aspect of it makes it a bit of a pain to navigate until you boost Kat's stats up and unlock Jupiter mode to fall faster. The way the second act of the game suddenly ends with more questions left open then cuts to credits, only for it all to act as a ruse for the third act of the game makes no sense and really just confuses the player. There's a couple moments in the story where things just kinda happen for the purpose of allowing the story to advance, like a perfect coincidence. Except the first game relied on that a bit too, and by now it doesn't really pass as easy.

Here's the biggest disappointment though. The game delivered the exact twist that I wanted out of it at the start of the third act without being too predictable about it, and got me ridiculously hyped up to see what everything was leading to. But then, in the process of trying to capitalize on the brilliance it set itself up for, Gravity Rush 2 loses some of its charm and devalues that twist a little. The way the ending played out made sense, but it just wasn't right somehow. I feel like I wanted something a little different from the scenario that was given to me. This may not make sense, but I think it veered off into a tone and a plot resolution more fitting of Final Fantasy or Persona than Gravity Rush. It's hard to explain without spoiling a shit ton of stuff. And it kinda sounds like an unfair complaint, like just because the story didn't happen exactly like I wanted it to means I didn't like the ending, but that's not it. It just kinda took me out of one of the main things I loved about Gravity Rush 1 (and most of Gravity Rush 2, even!), and that ended up being a decently big deal for me.

In the end, I still enjoyed this game for a gameplay concept that remained fresh and updated itself, characters that kept their charm even when the ending threatened that charm, the return of many of the best pieces of the first game, and a world that left me intrigued and fascinated right up until it finished explaining everything. And then, if I'm being honest, I wasn't left feeling like I wasn't given enough, I just felt like I wasn't given the best, and I really had high expectations for this game's resolution. So, in spite of some poor design choices and one or two disappointments with the story, it's still good. It just fell short of being great. I'm disappointed that it wasn't perfect like I was hoping out of this franchise after GR1, but I do think my expectations were maybe unfairly high. And remember, disappointment doesn't equal dislike.

6.5/10. Some really fantastic high points, and some really disappointing lows. Still enjoyable, just flawed.
---

Telltale the Walking Dead Season 3 - PC
Pointless

Season 1 was amazing, season 2 was weak but still kind of enjoyable despite the fact a lot of people hate it.
Season 3..wasn't really bad, but it was super pointless and I don't know why they even made it.
Switching the protagonist didn't really accomplish anything, everyone still prefers Clem.
Also The Walking Dead in general is getting stale, the TV show has 8 seasons and another TV show with 3 seasons, the comics were going for years, and it's still only about slow-ass moving zombies and humans living in the apocalypse, with most villains acting the same way

6/10

Super Mario Run - Android
Whatever

Released in December 2016, I think it came to Android only in 2017
It was..fine, but didn't have much meat to it, some coins were hard to get while most others pretty easy
Have yet to 100% it, but close. Didn't play for a long time though

6/10

Magikarp Jump - Android
Charming yet pointless

It's a clicker, what can you expect?
Endless grind, pointless goal, repetitive gameplay..
But hey! it does have a lot of charm for it. Funny events, cute decorations, text flavors etc

5/10

Shovel Knight : Spectre of Torment - 3DS
Great

Just another free expansion for the already-good Shovel Knight
This one was even better than the previous DLC, as they now changed some of the levels completely
Yacht Club has some promising future and I will gladly support them

8.5/10

Nier Automota - PC
Amazing

Nier Automata has some of the worst side quests I have ever seen, the gameplay is pretty straigth-forward and the combat isn't really the most complex (I mean, it's not DMC3)
But who the fuck cares? the OST is one of the best in video games, the presentation is amazing, the characters are good, the story is interesting, the robots always find a way to surprise you in unique ways (from Romeo and Juliet, to "making babies", trying to revive a dead machine, suicide to become gods etc)
And I feel like I lost a lot more by not playing the original Nier, as I am sure the references makes the game even better
I just wish it wasn't so buggy with the PC version, crushing randomly and some of the side quests not working (like YoRHa Betrayers)

9/10

Shantae Half Genie Hero - PC
It exists

I downloaded. I played. I beat it.
I don't remember anything about it. It just exists

6/10

Danganronpa Ultra Despair Girls - PC
It's fine

Fuck anyone that says it's trash. The game was legit.
Or at least, the PC version with mouse controls...
It wasn't mainline Danganronpa by any means, the story isn't as good and the combat isn't something to write home about, but it was decent all-around.
Would be hyped for a sequel honestly

7/10

Life is Strange - Before the Storm - PC
Could be better

Before the Storm started with a bang-
The first episode was surprisingly good (with an ending that should be in the top 5 in LiS moments, and Chloe seeing her father's car), I had high hopes for the other two episodes
Unfortunately, they didn't really deliver and the third episode felt pointless and disappointing.
They could have done so much more, so much more...

7.5/10
---

Metroid Samus Returns
Amazing

I don't care about you AM2R elitists, Samus Returns was great.
It was challenging, long, and really made me miss the Metroid series and be happy we get to see it back
The only real problem are the controls, I loathe the circle pad and sticking to walls with the spider ball made my hand hurt
Like, I felt pain for days, fuck this
The controls are the only thing that makes this game get a lower score then it should, otherwise it would be a 10/10
One day I will play it on a Emulator and it will be glorious

9/10

Danganronpa V3 - PC
Good

It wasn't as good as Danganronpa 2, but it was still a good game with a decent story
Ending was a love it/hate it kind of deal and sadly i'm in the hate it catagory (surprising)

7/10

Sonic Mania - PC
It's fine

Sorry but I have never been a fan of 2D Sonic, not even the acclaimed Sonic 3 and Knuckles
They all feel kind of pointless, only time I really enjoyed it was in Sonic Generations where they had Red Coins and it made me actually explore the levels
So like Shantae, I beat it, deleted it right away because whatever

6/10

Hollow Knight - PC
Promising

I am probably 30% progress in it, it's pretty good! sadly I started playing it a few days before USUM came out so I had to drop it because Pokemon is always 1st priority
Will get back to it in a few days, but so far it was good and I am looking forward to playing

8/10

Pokemon Ultra Sun/Moon - PC
Flawed

I don't know how to rank this
Should I rank it as a stand-alone game, pretending I never played the original Sun and Moon?
Or rank it as a third version?
Honestly Sun/Moon are flawed, they had a lot of problems, USUM fixed some of them (like SOS calling) but still, flawed.
They are still the hardest mainline Pokemon games, they are still the third versions that offered the most changes (not counting BW2).
But still, flawed.
They killed explorations with this gen, the most complex maps are Vast Poni Canyon and USUM Mount Lanakila (i.e still not complex)
Music isn't as good as previous games and I don't have a single nothworthy track to mention
No national dex, still can't get Hidden Ability Starters, Tapu, Oranguru, Passimian and Heatran, still can't access Gulf Course, Lighthouse and fossil restoration guy "Dream Park" still just a dream

6/10 as a third version, 8/10 as a standalone game, it's still fucking Pokemon
---

SantaRPidgey posted...

As always with the series, the story is the worst thing in the world and legitimately painful to slog through

>Story
>The worst thing in the Mystery Dungeon Series

Are you out of your mind
---

The Last of Us Remastered

It's The Last of Us with better graphics and all the DLC. Outside of me hating one or two of the DLC multiplayer maps, I can't imagine any reason why I should consider this any less brilliant than I do the PS3 version. It's my favorite game of all time. Period. Like, I think this is kinda the gold standard for a story in a game and I can't see it being topped by anything else. Something like this makes me feel like games will one day be viewed by everyone as an artistic storytelling medium in the same way that movies and books are. There's a lot of powerful commentary and powerful thematic messages in this game, and its complemented by pretty great gameplay and a multiplayer that is just as brilliant in its own way as the single-player mode is.

10/10. It's the best game ever IMO.

This War of Mine: The Little Ones - PS4

Eh, maybe my least favorite game I played this year. It's definitely not bad by any means but I'm not sure it's anything more than alright. It's rewarding to have everything going right because that won't happen unless you know what you're doing and know what you're looking for. Really, on a first playthrough for this game, you'll get your ass beat down because there's a lot to keep up with and you won't know how to keep up with all of it. I enjoy games with a lot of substance though, whether it's a fresh gameplay system, a mastery of a gameplay system, a really well told story with great characters, or some strong and real statement or emotional appeal. I'm not sure if this game held a lot of substance for me, simply because the gameplay is nothing special and the story substance is present I guess but nothing that really resonates with me. So this is a pretty good example of a 5/10 game.

5/10. Solid game that's built well with good mechanics, but there's nothing to write home about here.

Starwhal - PS4

This is a great deal of fun as a casual game to play with your friends, especially those who aren't super great at video games. You can't really be way better than everyone else at Starwhal because of how floppy and unruly the controls are, but that's the fun of it and that's on purpose. By the way, going through the single-player mode of this game and beating all the challenges is pretty damn difficult due to the controls, but its all doable.

I'm not gonna give this a number score as if you can rate a game like this.

Can't rate. It's fun with friends. Accessible to everyone. It probably gets old after a while like most casual party games with little depth do. Not bad for the time you do get out of it though.

Disc Jam - PS4

Board 8 had a bit of a competitive scene going on this game for a while. Kinda wish it stuck around longer! This game is a lot of fun despite being rather simple. I hear it's kind of a clone of a different game? That doesn't matter much to me though.

I feel like the game doesn't always read my inputs right in terms of how I want to throw the disc and curve it and stuff, but maybe that's me being bad at doing the stick inputs and timing everything right. I had a lot of fun with this game on both a stupid fun level with friends and a competitive level. There's not a lot of depth with the different characters, and from what I understand it's not really well balanced with regards to them so top-level competitive play wouldn't be my thing in this game, but play it at a moderate level of seriousness and it's a blast. You get some intense moments and some really satisfying games that you can talk about with your fellow competitors.

7/10. Pretty good for a moderate level of competitive play, still not bad for casual play with friends either. Lacking some qualities that would give it more longevity.
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Day of the Tentacle Remastered - PS4

I was about 6 years away from being born when this game was first released. Ain't that crazy? Never really played through the whole game before, but I'd seen parts here and there.

Point and click adventures aren't necessarily my thing, but Day of the Tentacle is certainly one of the best there is within the genre. It's funny, it's charming, it's got memorable characters, and it's got a great cartoonish style. Not much to complain about other than that I'm just not the biggest fan of point and click. I can't take its legacy and or its quality away from it because of how I feel towards the genre, nor did the genre keep me from enjoying this a bunch. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying I only enjoyed this game because of the fact that its a classic. I'm basically saying I really like this game and see why its considered such a timeless classic, but I probably would not play other point-and-click games just because this one got it right.

8/10. A classic with a ton of charm, simply not my favorite cup of tea with regards to the genre.

Metro Last Light Redux - PS4

I tried to start this game on the PS3 once when it was free through PS+, but never got through it hardly at all. I'm honestly really glad I didn't play it back then too, because I hadn't played Metro 2033 yet at that point. So, after playing 2033 Redux first and then trying again to play this game, I can say I'm glad I came back to it and played through it all the way. 2033 was frustrating at first, but the more I played it, the more I came to appreciate it. Last Light is just as good, and probably a little better. Both games are great FPS titles. Metro Last Light is one of those games that I'm just happy I've played it because it feels like its easy to glance over and never really give it a shot despite how good it is (as I said, that exact thing literally almost happened when I first tried to play this game).

8/10. A great game. Good blend of FPS and a bit of survival horror. Strong story and world building when coupled with Metro 2033.
---

Final Fantasy XV - PS4

This is another game that I'm really conflicted on, like Gravity Rush 2. There's definitely some moments that made me think this was gonna be one of my favorite games ever, and then there were definitely some moments that kept it from getting near that conversation.

The battle system is really fun, but loses some of its appeal in really tight spaces like some of the dungeons, and sometimes your teammates get their ass kicked way too much way too fast. There's a lot of stuff to do in the gigantic open world, but a lot of it seems like fluff in a game that didn't quite need it, such as fishing or Justice Monsters V. So many areas in the open world are beautiful, memorable, and distinct locations that you want to go explore and enjoy spending time in, but navigating between them is long and boring regardless of whether you do fast travel or use the car/chocobo to get there. The astrals are pretty incredible summons to look at and experience, but you'll be lucky if you ever get to see half of them - Ramuh will show up over and over again while the others will rarely show their face. The side quests allow you to get lost in the world, but some of the side quests are entirely pointless and/or poorly designed (especially those damn frog missions). The lore of the six astrals and the way that various pieces of the world reflect this lore is really quite intriguing, but the game does not explore this enough and ends up leaving a lot of it unexplained within the confines of what's on the disc. The story ends up being incredibly satisfying with what I thought was a fantastic ending, but not before it strips you of that freedom to explore that you came to love in the first half of the game and forces you into a really poorly executed over-linear middle section.

See how this works? Final Fantasy XV has so many strong points, many of which are brought down at least in part by some counterpoint. This game depends on that open world with its memorable locations/hunts/good side quests, that familial bond shared between the main characters, and that strong sense of fantasy in a universe that is still rooted in familiar modern-day things like cars and smartphones. Still, I can't help but think the developers allocated their resources poorly and made some really big mistakes that end up weighing down some really special pieces of this game. It doesn't make sense for there to be so many really pointless side quests, while a pretty big chunk of the middle of the story feels poorly thought out and quickly tossed together relative to the rest of the story.

I think I was able to forgive a number of the mistakes that FFXV made, especially with the entire ending sequence from Angelgard forward and the sheer wonder of exploring the Lucian continent and all the different things that come with that. I also found myself really loving the story behind Ardyn and the astrals and the Lucian kingdom, even if the game seemed a little uninterested in fully explaining it itself. But there is no forgiving the awful chapters 12 and 13 of FFXV, as well as many of the other glaring issues. It's a good game but it is flawed in many, many ways.

7/10. Some sections feel like this game had the capability of being a near-perfect game, but there are simply too many glaring flaws for it to be considered great. It remains good despite these flaws though.
---

Sonic Mania

Just gloriously inventive and fun. What they did to the old levels as well as the new ones shows that there's creativity to spare and a ton of potential for more. I find what they did here almost as impressive as if it was entirely new content. To take these decades-old levels and then layer in this new, really cool stuff, or to find organic, enjoyable ways to incorporate old stuff in the new stages - such as reframing Sky Chase Zone as this Indiana Jones-style train scene - was just very clever. It made the very old feel fresh and exciting.

Plus it's a genesis-style 2D Sonic game which is always a big positive. Rivals Rayman Origins/Legends for best 2D game of the century, though maybe falls a little short.

Life is Strange

Picked this up a few months back. Good game and very unique, certainly among games I usually play anyway. Likeable characters, even if Max annoyed me a little bit sometimes, and good gameplay even if it did have some terrible filler ("testing powers" with Chloe for example). The 5th episode comes dangerously close to going completely off the rails too, and the dialogue and VA falls short of the best the industry has to offer.

I did like the game a lot and was sad it was over, but I don't have a big desire to go out and buy Before the Storm - didn't like the characters enough I suppose - but I'll look into the sequel when it comes out. Not enamoured with it as many others are, but a good ride that I'm happy I played.
---

Mass Effect: Andromeda

There are long stretches of the game where not much happens, but the combat mechanics mean it's still a lot of fun even at its most boring. I also didn't start playing until a few months after release so a lot of the glitches were patched out.

I really like the game on the whole. It certainly doesn't drag down the series, but it is a but more, uh, frothy. It's more amusing, more light-hearted, and even though the squadmates aren't exactly the cream of the mass effect crop (except Jaal, who is amazing and the game's true star), I liked their banter. That said the VA is probably a notch below the quality of the OT - I like both Ryders, but Liam and Gil in particular were disasters.

However that "frothiness" means it falls short of the most intense moments that the OT had - choices that were grounded not just in the characters but in wider... conceptual sci-fi...stuff, with strong overarching themes and imagery (I'm always a fan of Legion being Robot Jesus in ME3). It can't match them for tone or scale so it makes the whole thing feel slight sometimes. But the lighter tone has its own positives too.

Also I love the loyalty missions. Game totally delivered on those. The way they integrated with the overall plot, and the way they all had a good amount of setup and build up before the main mission itself, was really great.

What this game needed, more than anything else, was a sequel. It's set up for a sequel, maybe multiple sequels, and DLC. But it was released unfinished and got a huge amount of backlash and now the series is dead, and that's a shame. There are the beginnings of a genuinely terrific game, and I would have wanted to explore more of Andromeda and go after the larger Kett empire. Find out who the benefactor is. All that stuff. Provided that was executed well, they would have justified this game a lot more. In the same way the very flawed, slow, repetitive ME1 is totally justified because it helped to make ME2 and 3 so good, and they in turn make ME1 look better in retrospect.

And this is probably a better game than ME1. We could have ended up with a superior overall trilogy here. Very sad. What I hope is that it serves as a cautionary tale a little bit for AAA titles. I'm perpetually annoyed by games releasing unfinished and relying too much on updates - punishing you for being a fan and buying at launch - and by first games in a series being not-that-good but with the promise of the sequel being better (AC, Uncharted, Watch Dogs all did this among many others I'm sure). Andromeda was both of these and it killed the series dead. Hopefully devs look at what happened here and avoid this in the future?

But yeah. Underrated game, strong gameplay, characters hit and miss, good story.
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Uncharted: The Lost Legacy

This is a great game if you're already familiar with the Uncharted universe, but maybe not so great if you're not already invested in these games. It doesn't take time to explain very much outside of just a few passing mentions to previous events, so you'll need to know your stuff (especially on the events of Uncharted 2 and 4, which are probably the best games in the series so you should play them anyways).

It's not nearly as fulfilling or as full of a package as Uncharted 4, but the new take on Chloe and the introduction of Nadine as a friend instead of an enemy are both really well done. If I had one big complaint about this game, its that it feels like maybe Uncharted has peaked. Now that Nate's storyline is most likely over, there's not gonna be a lot of room to top what Uncharted 4 did, both in its level design and its incredible story. You just can't get me invested in someone like I was invested in Nathan Drake over the course of 5 games (if you count the VITA title, which I played). And that means I'm not gonna care as much. Then again, if the biggest complaint I have is "it can't top Uncharted 2-4"... well, that's a pretty high bar to clear, and certainly nothing for Naughty Dog to consider a failure. It's still really good.

There's a lot of details that I could go over, but I think I've captured how I generally feel about this game.

8/10. Will only be a treat for those who have played the other Uncharted games, and it won't wow that audience, but it'll still please.
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oh sweet this didn't purge yet.

#bump#

that's how this shit works right
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Final Fantasy XV - PS4

Flawed

I forgot that I began this year by finishing FFXV. Gotta say, this game is simply unfinished. Like MGSV, it has early sections with really good gameplay, but little story development and real lack of payoff. I like how the game starts off with little story, but then when the game becomes linear it quickly becomes, well, awful. Perhaps the added DLC helps this, but I doubt it.

Clannad
Good
I had somewhat high expectations, and this game still smashed them! It suckers you in with moe and then sucker punches you in the gut with heavy stuff.
10/10- Does both the light and serious sides of VNs well.

G-Senjou no Maou
Flawed
I quite liked the Haru and Shiratori routes, but was advised against playing the rest. That factoid, along with Eikichi being an even less likeable Sunohara, holds back what could've otherwise rivaled Clannad with me.
8/10- Great, but held back on a few points.

Pokemon Moon
Good
First mainline Pokemon game I've finished since...Gen 1 I think actually! I preferred B/W's online elements and training, but otherwise I consider this a step forward over a generation I liked already. Good starters, good characters. I do kinda miss Gyms, but I also liked the trials a lot.
8/10- Mixes up the formula just enough

#FE: Tokyo Mirage Sessions
Good
More Persona and less Fire Emblem than expected. It did neither series QUITE as well as the originals, but still a fun game in its own right, mostly carried by the gameplay. Characters were entertaining, but lacked depth, much like the story. Puzzles were fun except when they got too hard for me, and levels were similarly interesting.
7/10- Neither as good as folks'd hoped nor as bad as everybody says. Good gameplay, adequate story.

Total Extreme Wrestling 2013+2016 (In progress)
dream game series
I have a gamefile going on each of these, and have pretty much all year. And a mod going, with a bunch of playtesting. Send help.
10/10- An acquired taste.

Persona 5 (In progress)
Good
NEW PERSONA with a nice added edge! I love Persona and this might be my fave to date
10/10- it's dang persona

Culdcept Revolt (In progress)
Good
I love Culdcept, so I'm having a blast with it, and it's portable! Story exceeds my (low) expectations, and gameplay is pretty much exactly what I expected, which is a good thing. The new EVO mechanic is pretty cool, and I imagine highly exploitable for the min-maxer types. I do have a couple gripes- lack of AI/AI matchups and custom AI, lackluster online, and a story mode that is repeatedly kicking my butt. (Can't tell if it's really hard, or if I don't have good decks, or if I just suck. Probably all three?)
9/10- please let me progress

Stardew Valley (In progress)
heck yes I love Harvest Moon and Rune Factory
9/10- please watch my LP

Trails in the Sky (In progress)
Good
I fell in love with this game almost immediately. The graphics and music and general feel just click with me very nicely, and I enjoy the level of care that has gone into world building and NPC details. I'm a sucker for any kinda map-based RPG battle system, too. It's kinda long, which is not a big selling point for me, and the plot is dragging a bit. Not to the point of dragging it down, but the newness has worn off and I'm wondering how much longer it'll take for the plot to get going.
9/10- I'm gonna be playing these until 2020 and I think I'm ok with that

Gumballs and Dungeons: 9/10 exceeds expectations
Pokemon: 7/10 plz fix weather so I can play more
Fate/Grand Order: 7/10 better gatcha plz
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Tom Bombadil posted...

Pokemon: 7/10 plz fix weather so I can play more

They did, if you're talking about Go
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*checks*
nope, still 1 degree outside :(
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Oh, I see lol. I wish it was close to that warm here...
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Copy and pasting from LtM's topic

Final Fantasy XV- PS4

the good kind of boring

I really liked FFXV, I thought it was a welcome change from FFXIII where you needed to have a vocabulary lesson after every chapter to just have a FFXV where you were just driving around and listening to music and fighting monsters as you like. It really was a pretty good road trip simulator.

I didn't mind the ring halls as much as everyone else did, but it didn't really need to be in the game. I didn't think exploration was very tedious, because I LOVED riding chocobos with Vamo' Alla Flamenco playing in the background.

If they gave you the ability to change the battle music in boss fights to past game music, or not have enemy ranges change the music to the stupid sneaking music I would have liked it even more!

I for one totally support the new era of Final Fantasy without plot, honestly I wish this game had LESS plot. If it was just about noctis stalling before he had to get married, it would have been 100% better. Final fantasy has always had some of the worst plots in gaming (besides IV and VII) and I really liked the break. I'll take cup noodles advertisements over fal'cie nonsense any day.
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I played a lot of games last year (only a handful that actually came out in 2017) to where I don't even know where to start.
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colliding posted...

Final Fantasy XV - PS4

Flawed

I forgot that I began this year by finishing FFXV. Gotta say, this game is simply unfinished. Like MGSV, it has early sections with really good gameplay, but little story development and real lack of payoff. I like how the game starts off with little story, but then when the game becomes linear it quickly becomes, well, awful. Perhaps the added DLC helps this, but I doubt it.

Episode Gladiolus is just a decent DLC. Episode Prompto is good. Episode Ignis is fantastic, if only maybe a little too short.
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ah yes, MGS5 and FF15

truly the kings of

"I'm 40 hours in and still only on Chapter x, is this game fantastic or what"

posts on the internet
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Breath of the Wild - Switch
Good
10/10

Or close to it. I had a few complaints but this is my number one game of the year and definitely a strong consideration for game of the decade.

Shadow of War - PS4
Not bad. 7.5
It spends too much time repeating the first game. And the. You get a solid chapter and a half of Shadow of War. And the. A piece of shit final chapter. Good stuff but they just needed to launch off clean.

Xenoblade 2
Good sometimes
8.75
When this game is cooking, you can dump a full day into it. Good quests with crazy characters , neat side quests, exploring giant worlds. Etc. but when things arent good, then it is annoying and any other little problems with the game feel like major issues. Ive had a they fucked this up. I dont like this anymore. Im done with this bullshit. moment and then played for another four hours and loved it.
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I'll do this later when I have more time. Maybe.
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haven't listened but i like both mike bloom and liana so i will definitely follow

well said robot GTM
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