mikachops

Tenet.

Boringly shot, boring set design, incomprehensible action scenes verging on bad interpretive dance at times, the central mystery being wtf the plot is is a good idea on paper (if intentional) but is so poorly executed here. Like it could work if there were interesting themes or characters to hold it up but there’s nothing here but very vague ideas explored for seconds at a time then dropped.

I also thought the visual language was so muddled, like what were those doors? The breathing masks made sense, but then I didn’t know what quark we were in 99% of the time so it wasn’t useful as a tool to help the audience. Same with the red and blue ribbons at the end - knowing which is which didn’t matter because that whole battle sequence was visual nonsense, even without the time shit going on.

The complete plot and meta story layer regarding the far future people making the algorithm is such a cool thing on paper that is just completely wasted on a bunch of sterile action scenes in hallways and highways. Like if you’re going to get wild like that, get super fucking wild. End time and explore what happens at that point, go all the way! So much time and money spent on this safe as hell, poorly executed film.

Only positives is I thought Elizabeth Debicki did a standout acting job and a lot of the costume design was excellent. Pattinson was also very good aside from some iffy acting in his introduction and some inconsistent characterisations which is wholly a script and directing fault imo.

I’d give it 1/5 stars, and even then that’s pushing it.

This sounds like Xenoblade 2 levels of bad resolution. Was one of the major reasons I stopped playing that game, so I can definitely sympathise with those disappointed here.

@scutteh: Div2 is excellent, a modern classic if ever there was one. I also played this this year and its crazy how flexible and well designed it is.

Golden Sun on a real gba sp for the first time. It’s insane how feature rich and good looking this game is on such a small and underpowered device.

I had a super enjoyable time with ARR a few months back so I can 100% recommend it as a great beginner MMO. It does a good job of introducing new concepts and teaching you dungeon mechanics, while also allowing you to just solo quest and enjoy the world at your own pace. It’s really flexible.

Saying that, the story is... bad to non existent and the last 10 hours or so killed any interest in continuing on with the next expansions but I still had an immensely enjoyable, relaxing 100+ hours prior to that which I don’t regret playing. Going into it if you set your expectations that the side quests and exploring is vastly superior to the main story quests I think you’ll have a great time with it.

Saying all this, WoW is still really good with more (and vastly more varied) content and better writing but the onboarding is a bit steeper for absolute beginners imo (though still not hard).

@meestero: I also agree with everything said here.

Edit: wow 2 year old thread? My bad lol.

@toughshed: Yeah seriously. She also had great chemistry with the west coast too, arguably better than the west coast team had together.

Abby was in the best features of the last 4 years, this is just a fact at this point.

I played a lot of games that came out this year and only a few I’d put on a list (planning on picking up Like A Dragon by the end of the year tho, can see that making it):

1. Animal Crossing - hit at the "perfect" time as it came out at the start of the covid lockdown where I live. This was the game I played to stay in contact with friends during isolation.
2. Xenoblade DE - I tapped out a couple chapters from the end and just looked up the cutscenes (gameplay doesnt hold interest for the length of the game sadly), but the time I spent exploring that world was unmatched this year.
3. Final Fantasy 14 Online - look, it’s a game that absolutely can not sustain itself for more than one expansion I feel unless you’re super invested in a guild or something, the story is butt trash bad and the supporting cast is boring, but just being in that world wandering around was the chillest time I had this year, and I played Animal Crossing. The couple of weeks I was way into dungeons was fun too. Probably never playing this game again but the short month or 2 I spent with it this year was a memorable and positive experience.
4. Noita - of the roguelikes this year this was the one that hit me. I’ll be picking it up again by the time the year wraps up.
5. Umarangi Generation - its rough in places but its relaxing with some fun designs and visuals. It also lined up perfectly with me fixing a decades old broken camera, so there’s that.

The others that stand out to me that I spent a lot of time with were old games:

• Among Us
• Splatoon 2
• Aria of Sorrow
• Pokemon Sapphire
• Metroid Fusion
• Oath in Felghana
• Suikoden 1

Of the big games I played this year that I would put no where near a personal end of year list:

• 7R was a complete and utter disaster of a game. Just the absolute worst thing I’ve played in a long while outside of like 3 chapters maybe, I have a countless number of issues with this thing.
• Hades was fine but it didn’t hit me. It’s something I can see myself coming back to though.
• Spelunky 2 is great but didn’t hook me. Think these games are handheld to me so playing on the PC felt wrong.
• Mordhau is fun but there’s too much cheating going on in it so I dropped it.

@lilnatureboyx: I think this is it, but swap Ori and Cold War with The Last of Us 2 and Animal Crossing.

I thought TLoU2 looked absolutely dreadful and the staff didn’t seem to enjoy it much, but it’s probably the dark horse of this year and might squeak its way on. Depending on how the conversations go though, I can also see something more positive taking its place as #10, but I’m just not sure what that is...

Animal Crossing in particular would be insane if it didn’t make this list (and be in the top 5) based on recent comments from Brad and just generally it taking over the world for a couple months at the start of most of western country’s covid lockdowns. It was the zeitgeist game this year, by a long shot.

Edit: The more I think about it, the more I don’t think TLoU2 makes it or gets anywhere close. Just really unsure what the #10 will be... If more people play Like a Dragon I can definitely see that making it. 7R is probably the next most likely, but people are crazy if you think it’s going to be higher than that. There’s too many issues with that thing and Vinny is very lukewarm on it, though I will admit the Jan-Ben combo might push it over the line.

#1 will be Astro’s Playroom if this is a wild year of deliberations, otherwise the safe automatic #1 is Hades.

Cool idea and I respect keeping up the interest for so long! I’m still a little confused as to why you’re developing this and who for though. Are you able to explain in a couple sentences? Is your job in game dev?

Fuck yeah.

I’m planning on taking 6 months off minimum from internet forums, news sites and politics in general. I recommend everyone make similar plans, we all need a detox.