2021
New Year, new list.
List items
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Admittedly, I started playing this in the very last days of 2020, but I finally managed to beat it in the opening hours of 2021. I didn't expect to like it so much, but I understand now why people talk about it so much. Its game loop is pretty great and I love how randomly strategic every run is. Every attempt keeps you on your toes. The voice acting is also great. I had a great time with this.
DONE?
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Still playing this ocassionally.
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Started playing this again.
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I LOVED the first Spider-Man game and as a huge Miles Morales fan since his literal first debut in the comics, I was stoked for this. This game really organically features many great elements of the character's wonky comic history in a way that makes sense. Miles is a really endearing character and it makes a real difference playing through the same New York environment through his eyes. It also translates to gameplay as Miles has more powers, but is more of a fragile glass cannon compared to Peter (Still hate his new face).
This game is far shorter than its predecessor, but I actually don't think that's a bad thing. The story is great and very tight, not going into too many unrelated directions as it weaves a very strong tale and Miles personal journey is as relatable as it is strong. I really enjoyed this.
DONE
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Oh god... Where do I begin with this game?
David Cage has taken to making a story about Racism and Slavery through the allegory of the Whitest Androids you know, delivering one of the most tone deaf high budget takes on the Race I've seen in a while... And I say that having seen tone deafness of this type on a regular basis. There are a lot of VERY VERY cringey narrative choices it takes based on a very modern White perspective of slavery, racism, inequality, the underground railroad that really misses the entire point. The entire story is also told through very White Androids who I keep finding either do or say very problematic things to Black humans or Black androids in the name of "freedom", which is off putting considering how it's trying to echo Civil Rights movement as set dressing. It also boils down race to something you can just take off and walk off casually. It's very cringey to watch at points as a Black person as you kind of lament at the obvious things its very casually paying empty lipservice to.
It's pretty clear that Cage loves using the history, imagery, and plot points of racism for the sake of woke street cred, but is far too cowardly to actually say anything meaningful about any of it through the game and would rather just dance around the issue with shallow metaphors than actually addressing it. This is common in these these types of experiences by White writers, but Detroit goes nauseatingly all in with its long-winded approach.
The controls are pretty atrocious. Even casual movement has issues and all story moments are broken up by having to Hadoken your character's every movement. Prompts pop up all over the place suddenly with little rhyme or reason and can easily throw you off since nothing is consistent between them and just missing one unexpected QTE can drastically change the story. I'll admit the game looks pretty, a select few of the action sequences are pretty engaging, and the web of story choices would've been very interesting if the story had substance. There are 3 protagonists with little difference between them gameplay wise and none of them come off as particularly endearing. However, Connor's segments in the first half of the game is probably my favorite. There actually is an allure in playing a Robot Detective with his disgruntled human buddy cop partner and I actually liked his style of reconstructing crime scenes, finding clues, and negotiating with Deviants... If they only just made a game just about that, it might've actually have worked well. As is the game tried to do so much, it really does nothing at all. This is the third(?) David Cage game I've played, but the first I've finished and it was not really worth that time.
In short, please stop giving White People free license to make cowardly Racism themed stories and allowing them to use allegories instead of actually confronting the issue with some sort of sense outside themselves... Also, just stop David Cage.
REGRETTABLY DONE
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Still playing this a bunch.
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Playing through it on stream with FamicomPunch!
Halo 1: DONE
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A short game I finished in a single sitting. It's interesting, it's satisfying, and it's short... For a hike. I'm glad I finally got a chance to play this now, especially since I know the developer.
DONE
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Man this game is unexpectedly hype!
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I love the concept but jesus this game is hard. I'd even say too much so. There's so much random bullshit involved in conquering some levels that the later parts of the game cause me far more frustration than joy and while the beginning makes you feel like a badass ninja, it starts throwing so much new enemies with dumb overpowered attack methods or almost perfect formations at you as you go on that it just becomes a slog. I feel this would be somewhat alright if you had actual health instead of being killed in a single hit. I like the idea of this game a lot. The execution however is a bit of a problem.
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Started on PSNow
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I played the demo on Switch. It had giant robots and was pretty cool, so I was hyped and bought the full version on sale.
Is this game good? Yes. It's fun, it's fast-paced, side-scrolling giant robot action. The story is full of space anime cliche's but it's serviceable and the mech designs are great. The story ends pretty anti-climatically though, which is disappointing, and it does a pretty meh job of world building itself that well. There's also a really fun multiplayer mode as well.
Problem: The Switch version is GARBAGE. Despite not being graphically intense, this game freezes constantly and full on crashes regularly on Switch. It is not uncommon for the game to Crash your Switch mid-level and save none of your progress. Not only have I had this happen to me many times, I've had it crash mid-boss fight. Sometimes it's sudden and other times you get warned by the game constantly freezing and having seizures. I really like this game, but I can't recommend the Switch version in any way. Buy it on PC if you can.
DONE
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A really insightful and interesting game about refugees ruined by an unstable codebase that is prone to crashing for really stupid reasons despite the game being ONLY TEXT MESSAGES. I played this on my Phone but I've heard this game is prone to crash on every platform, which is a shame because it tells its story in an interesting, time-based manner.
The game is brutally simple, which is why its crashing issues are unfortunate. I have my guesses as to why a few of the crashes happened based on my understanding of games, but I don't know why the developer has never bothered to patch this...
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Just getting into it and it's really helping me get back into Photography since I can't do that... Thanks to COVID... I needed a game like this.
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In anticipation for Metroid Dread, I picked this up again. I bought it years ago and quickly stopped playing. As someone who LOVED the original Metroid II, this remake really turned me off for a variety of reasons. Nonethless, since it has the same developer as Dread, I picked it up and restarted my game to look at it with fresh eyes and see if it's better than I remember and... It isn't.
Metroid: Samus Returns is a very soulless version of Metroid II that misses the entire point of the game it's based on. I am down for a 3D remake of Metroid II, people have been trying to remake Metroid II for years. However, M:SR has very poor level design, enemy variety, and gameplay under the flashy graphics. This tries to add several new features to the Metroid franchise and one of the biggest problems with the gameplay is the Melee Counter. I am down for the idea of the Melee Counter, but the problem is the game makes you dependent on it for about 3/4 of the game. Even the most basic enemies are damage sponges that require being countered because they will either take 100 shots to the face without flinching for no reason or they can be countered and killed in a single shot. This brings much of your exploration to a screeching halt because EVERY enemy is like this and they're placed in spots your really can't avoid until you get the Space Jump and Screw Attack, so you MUST counter everything to get ahead. They should've called this Metroid: Samus Counters because that's what you do most of the time and it greatly hinders the entire game. The best thing I can say about M:SR is that the Zeta and Omega Metroid fights are more interesting, but it doesn't get what made Metroid II so great in the first place and I found playing through this game more annoying than anything. AM2R was a much more worthy remake of Metroid II. I hope Metroid Dread isn't this bad.
DONE
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Got the Limited Run on Switch so I'm replaying it a bit for old time's sake.
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Finally got around to this and I'm loving it.
Still playing
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Finished it years ago but never played the DLC. It was pretty decent.
DONE
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Overall, this is probably the weakest game in the Ace Attorney franchise by a mile. The cases were mostly underwhelming and Case 3 nearly made me quit playing because of how badly written and paced it was and how the case is literally impossible to solve without the confession 3/4 of the way into the case. However, the last case is one of the best cases in the entire franchise and kinda redeems the rest of the game for being so poor. I didn't really like most of the game at all, but that last case was, dare I say it, revolutionary.
DONE
Sill need to do the DLC.
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WAY better than Samus Returns. Enjoyed the hell out of this. It's designed super well and super tight. The EMMI sections are terrifying. The boss battles are satisfying yet hard. Environmental storytelling and storytelling in general was strong. Definitely one of my favorite games this year.
DONE
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Still playing
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Still playing
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Played for research for work contract. Interesting, if very flawed, emotion based mechanics. It's likeable enough, but the holes in its design ethos really hold it back... As does the need to purchase Apple Arcade to play it.
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Tried the free trial with friends when it first came out. Interesting for a bit, but it got old pretty quickly
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Sus
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This Pokemon MOBA is just Cross-Country Basketball. Not complaining, but not my thing. It's amusing to play for a bit though. C'mon and SLAM!
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Playing because of course I am. It's been so hype watching all the reveal trailers and playing with friends. Still can't believe Sora got in.
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LET'S GO CRUUUUUSINNNNN!
This game is dumb and I love it.
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A beautiful 3D Visual Novel that I heard of years ago when it got announced years ago that just suddenly came out last year. It reminds me of the game I'm already making. It's A LOT more linear than I expected and much different than I expected, but I enjoyed the storytelling both in the main story, the side stories, and the stories you have to uncover throughout the Terminal. It's not a very interactive game, but I'd still highly recommend it.
DONE
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A surreal audio-visual assault on the senses. It's also very hard.
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Getting into this. Already running into a bunch of design issues. We'll see how this goes, but I'm starting to see why people don't look at this game favorably.
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A modern remake of Left 4 Dead by another name. I like it but it lacks the charm of the original game the developers made. Also I continue to be annoyed at the blood splatter on players. It's a neat effect, but it just makes them less distinguishable as not-zombies. The AI is also really, really bad. Played all the way through it with my friend Matt.
DONE
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Ugh... Where do I begin with this mess...
Let me start with saying I LOVE No More Heroes. I own the original game on the Wii. I preordered No More Heroes 2 when it originally came out. I bought and finished Travis Strikes Again on launch, even though I ended up hating it. I just bought the Limited Run Collectors Edition of No More Heroes 1 & 2 for Switch and began planning how to 3D Print a Beam Katana prop before I got busy this year. So let me just start off by saying that, despite it being my most anticipated game of the year, No More Heroes 3 is the biggest media disappointment I've had this year behind Space Jam 2 and that's only because this has more Space and Jamming than Space Jam 2 does.
No More Heroes 3 feels like a gigantic inside joke that Suda51 doesn't feel like explaining at the player's expense. Things just constantly happen for no given rhyme or reason that are completely out of place, even considering the zany nature of the No More Heroes universe. Characters just pop up all over the place of varying importance that are never explained, including from Suda51's obscure Japanese works from 20 years ago. Characters of importance like Shinobu and Bad Girl, which TSA spent spent the entire game resurrecting for some reason, are immediately written out of the narrative and sidelined. Henry is completely different for no reason. Sylvia has zero personality. Bishop is alive for some reason, even though his death was the catalyst for NMH2. A bunch of other dumb stuff happens that is neither explained or coherent and as someone who played all the games faithfully, I feel pretty insulted that I'm spending 95% of the game having zero clue what is going on. Most of Aliens you have to kill don't look like they belong in the game at all; often looking more like placeholders that never got replaced. Half of the boss roster of Aliens is a fakeout as well. Story-wise, absolutely nothing makes sense and it ends on a wimper. The writing is good in some places and Robin Atkin Downs gives an amazing performance as Travis, but that isn't good enough to make this game enjoyable to follow at all. This game is more of a sequel to Travis Strikes Again than No More Heroes 2, but playing TSA doesn't help you understand anything either.
Gameplay-wise everything also takes a bunch of steps back. Gone are your custom and dual katanas. You just have an Upgradable Bloodberry basic Beam Katana. The combat is now even more basic and unsatisfying than all of the other games, which gets even more grating by Travis and Jeane's over-repeated combat barks. The overworld from No More Heroes 1 is back and worse. Now there's 6 different locations; all of them basically empty. At least Santa Destroy in NMH1 had some distinct locations. Now it's all empty, indistinguisable fluff and most of the map in each area is walled off anyway. It's a chore to go through these empty, glitchy locations with poor colliders. Boss Battles are hit and miss. Some of them are good. Some of them are bad. Many of them are very aesthetically bankrupt despite the many aesthetics. Most Boss Battles don't even have the exciting stage leading up to them anymore to showcase their character and personality. It just feels empty all over, as if the entire game is massively unfinished.
NMH3 is a disappointment and it pains me that this is the end of a franchise that I love and that this franchise is such an empty shell of its former self.
DONE
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Got back into this. Fell in love with playing Akira.
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After so many years of loving Space Jam and its memes, I got into this on the Advent of Space Jam 2 coming out. Though Space Jam 2 was a massive disappointment, this true Space Jam sequel was not. Still not done yet, but I've been massively enjoying how jank and hilarious this amazing fan game has been on stream a bit over the past few months. Hope to finish it next year. Every gamer and baller should play this game.
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