Board 8 > My Top 25 Video Games from 2010-2019 with Write-Ups Eventually

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tazzyboyishere
01/01/20 10:54:21 AM
#1:


I liked some video games last decade and I wanted to do a top 20, but I also wanted to talk about a few more so I made it into a top 25. This list is most likely not going to be agreed upon by everyone, but it might be pretty cool to at least see what numbers I put next to the video games. I don't actually know if I'll finish this list, but here's a breakdown by year:

2010 - 2
2011 - 1
2012 - 1
2013 - 2
2014 - 2
2015 - 2
2016 - 5
2017 - 5
2018 - 3
2019 - 2

Wow, that's pretty exciting. Now we know that anything could happen with these numbers. Except I will SPOIL the list: The Last of Us is not on the list. Thank you.

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Bossman_Coolguy
01/01/20 11:01:45 AM
#2:


Shower with your dad simulator 2015

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tazzyboyishere
01/01/20 12:54:56 PM
#3:


25. Mass Effect 2 (2010)
#2 Game of 2010

I must initially admit that 2010's Mass Effect 2 was not a reason for which I extended this list. Perhaps a top 24 video games from 2010-2019 would have been more logistical, but it is customary within our culture to use numbers divisible by 5 when discussing a top amount of pieces of media. I am merely a cog in this structure and have no way of appropriately breaking out of such a grounded expectation without looking as if I am trying to be more of a visionary than I actually am.

Mass Effect 2 is a very good video game despite my inability to actually say something profound about why it is my #25 video game of 2010-2019. It improves itself from the original through fine tuning it's gunplay to something actually not terrible, and introduces a wealth of unique characters whilst building upon previously established ones. While the original Mass Effect focused on world-building and introducing an overarching plotline above all else, Mass Effect 2 puts such things to the side as it focuses primarily on the characters which will eventually become a part of your crew. While Garrus and Tali return from the original game, every other crew member is new, with fleshed out backstories which are built upon through their personal missions.

The best part about Mass Effect 2 is it's loyalty missions. After recruiting characters to be on your ship, you get to serve as an onlooker/partner in their own personal stories. This is cool, because Commander Shepard is a boring character, even if you pick the woman voiced by Jennifer Hale. I quite enjoyed every loyalty mission with the exception of Jacobs, because it was hentai without the nudity. No thank you.

Perhaps the crowning achievement of Mass Effect 2 comes from how it handles its final mission. The suicide mission is an "iconic" part of the trilogy, and probably the franchise's climax. The amount of weight thrown onto the player through this mission gives it the air of true finality, though we know this would not be the end, as Mass Effect 3 eventually came out and was also a pretty good video game. I remember losing my favorite character during this mission my first go-around, and it pissed me off because I didn't do anything wrong. So I had to redo it and it still managed to be pretty intense. I would say this mission is probably the "most intense segment of a very easy video game of the decade", though I also just made this distinction up on the spot, and further review might suggest I am incorrect about this statement. Please comment on this write-up either with how you feel about Mass Effect 2 or if you think there is a better choice for "most intense segment of a very easy video game of the decade".

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tazzyboyishere
01/01/20 3:05:51 PM
#4:


24. Nioh (2017)
#5 Game of 2017

When discussing Nioh, it is inevitable that someone will describe it as being, "like Dark Souls". But in the year 2020, we exist in an era where saying something is, "like Dark Souls" regardless of how much it aims to be, "like Dark Souls" is wildly offensive to those who both enjoy and dislike Dark Souls. You could say that saying something is, "like Dark Souls" is the dark Souls of comparing things to Dark Souls. In order to avoid creating a difficult space for those who take offense to comparing things to Dark Souls, I will not be saying Nioh, is "like Dark Souls". So without further ado, I present you my write-up for Nioh:

Nioh is like Demon's Souls, the predecessor to Dark Souls. Not just in the fact that it's progression is linked to a manner of skill-based advancement, but also in how it goes about it's level design. The levels are fairly linear, but have this satisfying loop of wrapping around on themselves. They're super compact for the most part, making it a blast to traverse them even after many deaths. Most of this game is spent learning enemy patterns and gaining a feel for the environment relative to what enemies you're up against, and it tends to be fun, at least during the main missions. This is all cranked up when it comes to the boss battles, most of which are quite fun. The only time the combat is actually bad is against other human opponents who are technically supposed to be bound to the same rules as you. Those fights are actually not fair, and not fun by association.

Nioh has a vast array of weapons and skills to use, and experimenting with each of them is encouraged through the sheer amount of loot the game throws at you. Each weapon also has three different stances, allowing for an extra layer of variety in how you approach combat. My favorite weapon type is the ax, which fits in a nice middle ground of speed and damage. You also have talismans that can do some pretty cool things, including ones that will make the enemy slow down. It's a lore-friendly easy mode and I can really get behind this. I only used it on one boss who had a grab attack that would take off half of my health bar. This grab came with no warning, and it was very annoying. I didn't feel bad about using easy mode to beat him.

Nioh will likely always draw comparisons to Dark Souls, even though I have stated that I will not be saying it is, "like Dark Souls". It is a game which uses that as an inspiration, while building it's own identity through its design and mechanics. At what point do we consider something, "inspired by Dark Souls", rather than, "like Dark Souls". Perhaps it is semantics to attempt to make a distinction between such a combination of words, but it bares understanding why the phrase, "like Dark Souls" is such a hot button issue today. Maybe Nioh's inspiration from Dark Souls overshadows it's own uniqueness. There are many parts of the game that aren't, "like Dark Souls", so it could possibly undermine the fact that Nioh is it's own thing. I personally do not care about whether or not people say video games are, "like Dark Souls", because I like Dark Souls, and things that are, "like Dark Souls", will automatically intrigue me more. Whether I find that to hold up or not has little to do with the actual video game, Dark Souls. Please comment on this write-up either with how you feel about Nioh or your general opinions on the phrase, "like Dark Souls".

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MetalmindStats
01/01/20 4:54:53 PM
#5:


I'm enjoying your write-ups so far, even though I haven't actually played either game.

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tazzyboyishere
01/01/20 9:30:53 PM
#6:


Thanks

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StartTheMachine
01/02/20 1:38:17 AM
#7:


MetalmindStats posted...
I'm enjoying your write-ups so far, even though I haven't actually played either game.

Very much this. I think Nioh was a recent PS plus game? I honestly knew nothing about it until that write-up and there is a 75% chance I'll play it now! Likely after I play through more of the 10+ games I bought on black friday, but you know.

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TexasZea
01/02/20 9:59:58 AM
#8:


predix the last of us #1

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tazzyboyishere
01/02/20 12:07:17 PM
#9:


TexasZea posted...
predix the last of us #1
the last of us will NOT be appearing on THIS list

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swordz9
01/02/20 12:09:22 PM
#10:


The Legend of Zelda: Tri Force Heroes #1
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tazzyboyishere
01/02/20 1:09:40 PM
#11:


23. Doom (2016)
#5 Game of 2016

As I've grown older throughout this decade, I've become more able to independently make decisions about which video games I find to be good or bad. Sometimes, this goes against the grain, as kids would say, of what the kids enjoy. I preface with this, because I personally believe Bethesda is terrible at making interesting video games. I have tried every game in the The Elder Scrolls franchise and they are all boring. I have not played much of Fallout 3 because the gunplay was bad, but from what I know of the story, it sounds like a 14-year old libertarian's definition of, "morally complex". Despite my personal beliefs of the company being bad at making good video games, I cannot argue that Bethesda is very good at making a lot of money. So much money, that they fund talented developers such as id in developing good video games. Like Doom.

Doom is not a boring video game. It is also not indulgent in trying to make me feel like I'm making difficult decisions. I like this about Doom, because it accomplishes exactly what it intends to do. It makes the slaughter of thousands of nameless demons into a joyous experience, and any video game that can convince me I'm a good person after attempting genocide is pretty cool. Doomguy, the best name for the main character without a canonical name (This might not be true, I'll Google it later), is a massive asshole to every living creature in the world of Doom. I'm not entirely sure if Doomguy cares about humanity, or if he's just a sociopath who found a means to take out his homicidal urges while being deemed a hero. These are the questions I ask myself before I give myself to the sweet release of sleep. In my most vulnerable state, I dream of Doomguy and what may be going through his head as he mercilessly rips apart every demon he comes across.

Doom has some of the best gunplay in recent memory. You have a large variety of weapons to choose from, each one useful in certain situations. It adds in a necessity for movement, creating a satisfying gameplay loop which makes nearly every battleground unique. I appreciate how it removed the need for reloading, which should be common in non-cometitive shooters, as reloading, in Doom's eyes, is just a boring way to spike difficulty. You also get these wacky power-ups by running around the battlefield which make the fights more intense, but easier. I would sometimes find these power-ups after a fight and be sad that I didn't get to use them.

The coolest part about the game is it's map design. Not many first-person shooters are willing to abandon a linear structure, but Doom is not like many first-person shooters. It brings back such archaic game design concepts as branching routes and secrets in the environment. It is incredibly rewarding to scour a large area and find even the tiniest of secrets. The only thing keeping Doom from being any higher is that it can sometimes be a bit too much to take. I wish these moments were slapped in a few more spots to break up the combat. As is, this is still great. Please comment on this write-up either with how you feel about Doom, or what you believe the main character of Doom should be named. Personally, I like Floyd.

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TexasZea
01/02/20 1:14:08 PM
#12:


One of my favorite parts about doom 2016 is how the story is kind of like a generic FPS story that is intentionally bad so they have doomguy do stuff to skip the cutscenes in game
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tazzyboyishere
01/02/20 1:20:10 PM
#13:


Yeah, this iteration of Doomguy is one of the best characters to come out of the decade.

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Mac Arrowny
01/02/20 1:52:27 PM
#14:


Reading Doom Guy's history in Hell is amazing
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wallmasterz
01/02/20 2:05:27 PM
#15:


Tag

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Aecioo
01/02/20 2:21:07 PM
#16:


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Mac Arrowny
01/02/20 2:53:07 PM
#17:


Is Dark Souls the Doom of the Soulsbourne genre?
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tazzyboyishere
01/02/20 3:03:26 PM
#18:


Mac Arrowny posted...
Is Dark Souls the Doom of the Soulsbourne genre?
Definitely

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HaRRicH
01/03/20 6:33:14 PM
#19:


Taggage.

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banananor
01/03/20 10:50:35 PM
#20:


Doom 2016 is the good shit. Best single player shooter ever made. Raw fun.

Mass effect 2 was a great experience, but I don't know if I can ever play it again. The gameplay is long and kind of tedious. My enjoyment of the game came almost completely from my investment in the world, characters, and story, and since I already know the twists I dont think it'd be the same.

Doom's lore is silly although I like the high level concept. At least it doesn't get in the way of the actual game

Didn't play nioh.

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tazzyboyishere
01/06/20 11:33:18 PM
#21:


22. Uncharted 4: A Thief's End (2016)
#4 Game of 2016

In the year of 2007, Naughty Dog launched a brand new IP for the new generation of PlayStation. Coming off of the Jak franchise, one of my personal favorites, they had much to live up to. Unfortunately, Uncharted was kind of bad. But then, two years after, they made a sequel that was neat. They followed this up with a third game that was also neat. Then they took a break and made a game called The Last of Us, which was the most boring game ever made in the history of video games. Yes, this was a massive departure from the prior Uncharted trilogy which relied heavily on massive setpieces and dynamic battlegrounds. It's a shame people lose their shit over excessive crouching and barebones crafting mechanics, because otherwise we may not have Naughty Dog making a sequel, and that would have made me go, "cool".

One cool thing The Last of Us did do was present a decent story, which Uncharted was never very good at. Until Uncharted 4, that is. You could say Uncharted 4 is more of a successor to The Last of Us than it is a sequel to Uncharted 3, but that wouldn't make very much sense, because Uncharted 4 is an actively engaging experience. This experience transitions between the combat, the story, and the platforming seamlessly, creating the most involved game Naughty Dog has created since 2003's Jak II.

On top of an improved story, which I will not be spoiling for anyone because spoilers are sins, the combat has taken a pretty massive rework. The previous game came out during a period where people thought cover shooters were fun for some reason. But in 2016, the year of Doom (2016) and Titanfall 2 and Overwatch, people started realizing that maybe these cover shooters kind of suck. While there is still cover shooting in Uncharted 4, it no longer has a stranglehold over every combat encounter. Enemies are now able to lose track of you mid-battle, which allows you to use cover, stealth, platforming, and the gunplay itself in ways where the only limit is the player's own imagination. No single fight in Uncharted 4 feels the same. No tactics feel as if they're the only option available. As far as third-person shooters go, Uncharted 4 may be the current peak.

Speaking of peaks, it's a shame the game does this about halfway through. Most of the best ideas come within the first half of the game, and it unfortunately fizzles out by the end. It's cool that they finally made a white American guy the villain, just like real life, but the climax with his story feels pretty unsatisfying. The story itself begins to lose steam as well once Elena finally shows up in the gameplay. Much of Nate's character study is built upon his relationship with this character, and she just kind of stops being his moral compass. They also have a piece of DLC which they released as a full-fledged game, but didn't bother removing the trophy list from the Uncharted 4 list. Pretty shitty, Naughty Dog. Please comment on this write-up either with how you feel about Uncharted 4: A Thief's End, or whether you believe predatory practices such as releasing The Lost Legacy as a full game are pretty shitty.

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tazzyboyishere
01/07/20 12:23:34 AM
#22:


21. Resident Evil 2 (2019)
#2 Game of 2019

As someone who never played the video game, Resident Evil 2 (1998), and as someone who has probably at some point in his life described tank controls as, "annoying", seeing Resident Evil 2 (2019) take a modernized approach in a style similar to 2005's Resident Evil 4 (2005), one of the greatest video games released in my current ever-expanding lifespan (1993-????), was pretty cool. I had yet to play a game in this franchise that existed prior to it's fourth numbered iteration, so I was not aware how much the gameplay would actually fit with my personal values. It involves navigating a large area which loops in on itself, which the player unlocks more of through exploration. It is quite similar to a Metroid game, except instead of getting powers as you explore, you find keys and mechanisms.

Navigating the police department was an absolute joy, and the sewers were a lot of fun too, even though everyone else disagrees with me. The lab was my least favorite, but it goes to show how well-designed each piece of this game is that I still think it was fantastic. I do wish there was a bit of variation between the two stories, even though that wouldn't make sense. There are a couple of unique areas in the police department, but I don't think there are any in the other two.

It took me a hot minute (aka one full playthrough) to realize I wasn't supposed to be killing literally everything. Zombies are there to avoid rather than execute, which adds a layer of depth not found in the other over-the-shoulder Resident Evil games. It adds a level of intensity not found in those other games. This intensity is amplified by the Tyrant, but only for about 10 minutes, at which point he becomes kind of annoying. Though I do have to give mad props for making him randomly appear with no buildup in my Claire playthrough. Probably the only legitimately scary moment in the game, at least for me.

It's pretty cool to see them giving Resident Evil 3 the same type of makeover here. I wasn't as interested in ever playing that video game comparatively speaking, but seeing as how they managed to do such a bang-up job here, it is now one of my most anticipated games of 2020, a year which has me anticipating a lot of video games. Please comment on this write-up either with how you feel about Resident Evil 2 (2019), or whether you think Resident Evil 3 (2020) will be as good.

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Mac Arrowny
01/07/20 4:35:03 PM
#23:


Mr. X's first appearance in Claire playthrough is definitely super cool.
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Mac Arrowny
01/13/20 7:11:29 PM
#24:


top 20 bump
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tazzyboyishere
01/18/20 11:11:22 AM
#25:


When I say eventually, I MEAN eventually.

20. Tales of Berseria (2017)
#4 Game of 2017

Because it's been a while since I updated this massive list of only 25 video games, I feel it's time we have a heart-to-heart discussion on what it means to be a "good video game". As I've stated before, some games like Resident Evil 2 and Uncharted 4 are good video games, which is something you, the reader, probably knew. But you probably didn't know that some of the video games I've mentioned, which I won't do again to avoid offending people who enjoy bad video games, were bad video games. I have been playing video games for 26 years of my 26-year long lifespan and I can confirm I think I might know how good video games become good video games. This is mostly a lot of fluff to lead in to my burning ulcer of a question: Is Tales of Berseria a good video game? The answer may surprise you.

Before I lay into the mechanics of Tales of Berseria's gameplay and exploration to determine if it acquires the title of a good video game, I think it's important to discuss another burning ulcer of a question: Can bad video games still be good? It would seem to be a contradictory statement, but we can answer this by asking yet another burning ulcer of a question: Are video games ART? Now that I have asked the appropriate amount of questions to discuss the video game, Tales of Berseria, we can answer these questions in reverse order, much like the film Memento except without the plot holes. Yes, video games are art. If you disagree, you are a stupid person. So, as we have answered the question of whether video games are art, we can judge games based on artistic merit, aka however the hell we want.

I did not like the combat in Tales of Berseria. It trivializes the diversity of one of the franchise's best battle systems, Tales of Zestiria's, and turns it into a lame ass button masher. You do get a lot of options as to where you set attacks to match button inputs, but unless you purposefully sabotage the accessibility of the game, every element will be linked to a single combo of the same input. Worse yet, if you crank the difficulty up to the point where you need to use such concepts as, positioning or item management, the battles actually take a year to finish.

Where Tales of Berseria truly shines is within its story elements. Sure, its super lame when taken at face value, but once you realize Velvet isnt meant to be what the kids call a total badass, and instead a person who has allowed for the idea of vengeance to cause a downward spiral of living. Tales of Berseria isnt the first piece of media to tackle the concept of revenge and why its an ultimately pointless endeavor, but anime seems super into making that shit feel cool, so it was a neat change of pace. I played Tales of Berseria during a bout of depression, and Velvets story truly spoke to me in a way. Velvets hostility towards others and failure to accept responsibility for how her actions would damage others really made me analyze how I viewed myself and my own actions. While I havent made actions which have resulted in numerous deaths and destruction, I did feel guilt about things from my past, and Tales of Berseria, likely unintentionally, made me face this part of myself and accept it so that I may improve in the future. Its a shame it fails to stick the landing by making the antagonist of the game so inexplicably evil that Velvets actions seem justified, but maybe Tales fans arent ready to have a mature response to a video game.

So even though I think Tales of Berseria is bad as a video game, I think it succeeds as something else. From its story to presentation to music to character development to, well, everything we dont initially view as relating directly to video games, Tales of Berseria knocks it out of the park. So now that weve answered the final two questions, its time to return to our primary question of, Is Tales of Berseria a good video game? The answer is sure I guess. Please comment on this write-up either with how you feel about Tales of Berseria, or whether you are a grown man who still becomes embarrassed for enjoying a hobby.

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NowItsAngeTime
01/18/20 2:39:46 PM
#26:


tazzyboyishere posted...
white American guy the villain, just like real life

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_tEiguYmgxA

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CybrMonkey
01/18/20 2:51:56 PM
#27:


Berseria's story is indeed amazing, and has probably my favorite kid character in any medium.

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MetalmindStats
01/18/20 4:09:17 PM
#28:


CybrMonkey posted...
and has probably my favorite kid character in any medium.
A certain other JRPG takes that title for me personally. Well, technically she isn't a kid, but that's an (early) spoiler.

Also, I'm still following along. I'm very much into the direction you've taken with your write-ups, but I still haven't played any of these games.

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Team Rocket Elite
01/28/20 12:21:07 AM
#29:


Bump
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tazzyboyishere
01/28/20 9:13:04 AM
#30:


I said eventually

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