Board 8 > Mac Ranks 72 Games Played in 2022

(+) Yeah! (+)

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they made the bugsnax big

I knew it

1. Elden Ring (2022)
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What a game! I've tried a few modern From games in the past - Demon's Souls, Dark Souls, and Bloodborne. They're cool games, and I quite enjoyed Demon's Souls, but I've generally found them to be a bit too hard. I'm probably in the class of gamer who'd prefer there to be easy modes, and while Elden Ring doesn't quite have that, it does have the open world, which makes the game in general a lot less frustrating. If you run into a hard boss, you can just go explore around the world and have fun in other ways. There's a good mix of boss difficulty too, so fighting less hard bosses is also an option. Learning boss patterns and such can still be fun, but overwhelming them with levels works just as well. There's a huge variety of combat options, and while I'm a lamer who didn't use most of them, even the ones I did use had a decent variety. I pretty much always had fun with the combat. The huge diversity of enemies helped with that - felt like there was way more variation than any other open world game I've played. Learning how to beat a new enemy type always felt good.

But even more than the combat, the exploration is what made the game good. There's so much to see, and almost all of it feels meaningful. Finding so many new and different things was thrilling. Each of the main areas of the map felt unique, and it was easy to come across an exciting new area within those areas as well. Some of the mini-dungeons were a little copy and paste-y (I think they're supposed to be similar to the Chalice Dungeons in Bloodborne?), but they were small enough that I didn't really mind, and they got more interesting later on when they started to have bizarre gimmicks, like the snail dungeon, or the one that made me feel like I was going crazy when I kept treading the same path for new things to appear every time. There were bigger castles as well: conquering those was a fun challenge, and then there were the 'main story' dungeons which felt like almost entire games in themselves. The one city constantly blew me away with how much there was to it, and I'm sure I missed a big chunk of it too - which was okay!

Elden Ring knows how to make exploration feel good. There's always a ton of options where to go, and generally it's easy enough to find things on your own (other than the side quests, which had me resorting to guides, haha). I played Horizon shortly after ER, which got me to thinking that this is because From focused on designing this as a fun game. In Horizon, you'll go to environments that are full of trees and lush flora, so much so that it's hard to tell where things are. ER has tons of debris and structures, but the designers made it so that useful objects always stand out, so even though the game has less guidance than other AAA games, it's much easier to find things on your own. It may not be as realistic, but it's much more fun.

The horse, Torrent, contributes to this. I've seen some people complain that Torrent's less realistic than other game horses, but for my money, he's the best horse I've ever ridden. You can instantly summon and banish him at any time, he double jumps, he's fast, and he turns on a dime. Feels ways better than the horses in BotW or Witcher 3. I love when open world games give you a great traversal method, and Torrent's top tier. Adds a new dimension to the combat too, since he's a big advantage in most open world combat encounters, though loaded with disadvantages to make him not always the best option (some enemies can dismount you in one hit, which leaves you stunned and open to more attacks). Torrent's existence makes exploring so much more enjoyable.

Lastly, I'll talk a bit about the story. The side quests can be a bit obtuse at times, and I wish there was some sort of side quest tracker (they did add an NPC tracker in a patch shortly after I finished, alas). Still, all the characters are enjoyable, and they kind of feel more impactful because of how light on overt story the game is. The lore is all really interesting, and characters like Hyetta have some pretty incredible development over the course of a few short scenes - her quest will stay with me for a while, I think. It's awesome when the things you learn totally recontextualize everything you know about someone. The main story itself was cool when it popped up as well, with a flamboyant cast of characters.

I could go on a lot longer about this game. It does have some flaws - even though it's easier in most ways than previous From games, it's still hard, and I would've liked it to be a bit easier. I think it was also a bit too long - shrink the world a bit and cut out some of those copy/paste dungeons and the game would be better paced/more consistently thrilling. But those are minor problems. I had a blast almost the whole way through. Elden Ring gave me a lot of the same feelings as Breath of the Wild, but overall, I liked ER even better. This is one of the best games of all time.

Should hopefully be starting Elden Ring in a few days. Really looking forward to it.

I finished my setting up Trails from Zero file for a perfect transfer to Azure back on Friday or Saturday and just want to knock out a short VN (probably like 6-8 hours) I got gifted before starting it up.

Hell yeah. Hope it clicks with you.

I wish I was good at action games (let alone good enough to handle Fromsoft games) because the exploration sounds absolutely amazing and I'd love to be able to enjoy something so universally acclaimed

feel free to play on PC and cheat!

72. Monster Hunter World (2018)
71. Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story (2019)
70. Dragon's Dogma: Dark Arisen (2012)
69. Rollerdrome (2022)
68. As Dusk Falls (2022)
67. Lumines (2004)
66. Halo (2001)
65. Tunic (2022)
64. Return to Monkey Island (2022)
63. Norco (2022)
62. Kirby Star Allies (2018)
61. Live a Live (2022)
60. Final Fantasy (1987)
59. Ghost Song (2022)
58. Cult of the Lamb (2022)
57. Bloodstained: Curse Of The Moon 2 (2020)
56. Splatoon 3 (2022)
55. Sly Cooper and the Thievius Raccoonus (2002)
54. Valkyrie Elysium (2022)
53. Sonic Adventure 2 (2001)
52. Until Dawn (2015)
51. Klonoa: Door to Phantomile (1997)
50. Triangle Strategy (2022)
49. Resident Evil 8 (2021)
48. Soul Hackers 2 (2022)
47. Steamworld Dig 2 (2017)
46. Streets of Rage 4 (2020)
45. AI: The Somnium Files (2019)
44. Wolfenstein: The New Colossus (2017)
43. Ys 1 & 2 Chronicles+ (2013)
42. Pentiment (2022)
41. Rance 01 (2013)
40. N++ (2015)
39. Donkey Kong 94 (1994)
38. Klonoa 2: Lunatea's Veil (2001)
37. A Short Hike (2019)
36. A Plague Tale: Innocence (2019)
35. Star Ocean: The Divine Force (2022)
34. Shin Megami Tensei: Soul Hackers (2013)
33. Returnal (2020)
32. Islets (2022)
31. Pokemon Legends: Arceus (2022)
30. Overwatch 2 (2022)
29. Xenoblade: Future Connected (2020)
28. Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin (2022)
27. Stray (2022)
26. Vampire Survivors (2022)
25. Contra: Hard Corps (1994)
24. Before Your Eyes (2021)
23. Ys Origin (2006)
22. Guardians of the Galaxy (2021)
21. A Plague Tale: Requiem (2022)
20. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder's Revenge (2022)
19. Blue Reflection: Second Light (2021)
18. Dragon's Crown (2013)
17. Tinykin (2022)
16. Horizon Forbidden West (2022)
15. Fire Emblem: Three Hopes (2022)
14. AI: The Somnium Files - NirvanA Initiative (2022)
13. Metal Hellsinger (2022)
12. Rogue Legacy 2 (2022)
11. Citizen Sleeper (2022)
10. Astalon: Tears of the Earth (2021)
9. Bleed (2012)
8. Kirby and the Forgotten Land (2022)
7. Witch on the Holy Night (2022)
6. Immortality (2022)
5. Neon White (2022)
4. Xenoblade Chronicles 3 (2022)
3. Yakuza: Like a Dragon (2020)
2. Bayonetta 3 (2022)
1. Elden Ring (2022)

And there's the whole list! Hope everyone enjoyed following along.

I enjoyed it.

I enjoyed seeing some of my favourites and got inspiration to check out/finish some stuff.

Dels posted...

I wish I was good at action games (let alone good enough to handle Fromsoft games) because the exploration sounds absolutely amazing and I'd love to be able to enjoy something so universally acclaimed

I really didn't find it a difficult game and I don't think I'm that great at action games either. As Mac pointed out, you can just leave any tough boss and come back any time later when they're a joke. The game's supposed toughest boss Malenia took me three tries. I had like close to 150 hours in the game (think I was 130ish upon beating it) so I took my absolute sweet time with it and was rewarded for exploring so much with a pretty breezy game. Actually the final boss was still tough for me though - significantly harder than any other besides the boss of Stormveil whose name I forget, which is tough because it's early on. Also I would go to grind spots later and you can spend just 10 minutes and level up a ton when you find certain ones. Obviously not particularly compelling gameplay doing that though, but it doesn't take long at all and is a surefire way to get OP.

I just can't recommend it enough and if you don't play it, don't let difficulty be the reason! The tensest thing about it is that you really can die almost any time, and when you're carrying a ton of runes in an unfamiliar area, that shit is scary (in the absolute best way).

Thanks for doing this topic! I enjoyed reading it a lot, and yeah like Dels said I now have many more games to add to my list.

Thanks for following along and commenting. I appreciate it!

Will keep this alive for a bit.