Games You've started the year off with.

What games did you start your 2021 off with?

I pretty much started it with MGS2, I mostly decided to since I pretty much ended last year with playing MGS1 for the first time.

So far I'm enjoying the gameplay and story, I kind of know what to expect and the heavy use of cutscenes and codec calls aren't really an issue. I'm really loving the MGS series so far.

I've been playing some Civilization VI on Switch since a friend gave me that for Christmas. It's definitely civ. A lot of fun and very addictive. Still it suffers from some of the problems Civ has had for years... it seems a little inelegant, with a whole ton of different systems kind of smashed together. War becomes a bit of a slog when you have dozens of units you have to move around individually, especially when the next-unit button is taking you randomly all over the map. I wish there was a way to combine units of different types to make things more manageable.

I started The Division in the beginning of the year. That game is ... shallower than I expected. There's like, 20 original missions, and then a million copy-and-pasted side-quests, which somehow seem even shallower than most Ubisoft side-quests. On the flip side, it's a good podcast game.

I’m starting the Legend of Heroes saga with the first in the Trails series. I’m just about to finish up chapter 1 and after a slow start it’s getting interesting now.

Finally finished Demon's Souls yesterday after taking a break to play cyberpunk (among other things). Thinking about Hitman 2 next in preparation for the third game.

Had a nice quick playthrough of Max Payne 3. Man that game feels good at high resolution and framerate on PC.

Playing Jedi Fallen Order. I know that game was less than ideal performance wise at launch, but now it's pretty good and the story is great.

its actually like really good.... if you were a kid in the 90s, honestly, play this game. I didn't even do trading card battlers like pokemon and stuff but I still really like this game

@bongchilla: I really wish there was a mod to turn combat off (or auto battle or something) for Trails in the Sky. Because I love following the story but hate the grind and combat is just stale for me..

But I started playing Trails in the Sky FC again after never beating it and am really hoping to story momentum can carry me through this time. I decided this is the year I finally playthrough that series as well as the Yakuza series. So I started Yakuza Zero on January 1st with the goal of playing through 6 by the years end.

Reached the last normal item level in Rocket League S2's Rocket Pass (level 70), and crossed the 200 mark overall.

Decided to 100% NBA Playgrounds before eventually picking up the second. I'm slowly working my way to Level 50 which allows you to get a loot pack every win. I've sank countless hours into that game over the years and still don't have a single Shaq, Iverson, Pippen, Bird, or that Lebron James fella.

Played a little of Man Eater and the Destroy All Humans remake, neither holding my attention long.

Still working on the last couple Rumbles in WWE Battlegrounds' story mode and unlocking the new superstars as they're released.

Played a little A Boy and His Blob remake, will try and 100% it to free some space.

Went back to the Ratchet and Clank remake, gonna go for the plat.

I need to dive back into Judgment and Fire Pro World.

I just started Twilight Princess on the Dolphin Emulator. Despite Majora's Mask being one of my favorite games of all time, as well as the video game that truly got me to love playing video games, I've only played 3 Zelda games, Majora's Mask, A Link Between Worlds, and Breath of the Wild. While I enjoyed my time with BoTW, I also found myself frustrated by the simple dungeons and annoying durability mechanic, so after watching King K's retrospectives on youtube, I recently decided to try to play through the rest of the easily available 3d Zeldas. Despite its reputation with Jeff, Twilight Princess has always been the one I was most interested in diving into. I was a little nervous about an initial tutorial slog, but I've actually really enjoyed the kind of tranquil introduction in the village so far. I've played as wolf link for about 30 minutes now, so we'll see how the rest of the game goes.

I also just picked up Xenoblade Chronicles DE, so I'm interested in diving into that, too.

Witcher 3. I have all of them so wanted to make a start. You'd think doing them in order would make more sense but I'd rather tackle the most playable one first. Enjoyable but, boy, this takes up a lot of your time. It's well written but I'm starting to skip dialogue in favour of making progress.

Act 1 is finished but the required level for the next story stuff is encouraging me to basically wring as much out of my quest log before continuing. As a result, I'm not struggling for cash but fancy clearing the map up for places of power and gear. I know the game's final quests are at 30 so, in theory, I'm two-thirds of the way there.

Good game let down by tech that has led me to a couple of dead stops.

Still playing a rally game I have a hard time remembering the name of, World rally championship 9?

Feels good with the dualsense but it's hard.

Would like to get another ps5 game (I have ds) but everything seems so ubi...

I started Return of the Obra Dinn. It’s really clever and well made! It also makes me feel dumb. It’s not unlike Outer Wilds in that way!

I finished Cyberpunk and for some reason I just kind of keep playing it. Much like Alex would talk about Assassins Creed and how it became this relaxing experience of just clearing out the map I'm getting a similarly enjoyable experience from clearing out the map in Cyberpunk. With a post-game character I can basically kill most enemies by just looking at them from afar and I've been enjoying the smaller storylines quite a bit. Although it would go against the whole open world idea, I think this game would have greatly benefited from having each area of the city blocked off and having to do a minimal amount of sidequests in each district. A lot of the people you encounter are referenced in the many datapads and shards you pickup and it feels like only now, hours after having beaten the game, I'm finally starting to appreciate the city and the myriad of small details and cookie crumbs left for you to discover.

Final Fantasy XV, Hades and Satisfactory. Enjoying all three atm. Can't decide which one I really like the best.

I picked up Yakuza:Like a Dragon and Iceborne (Monster Hunter) over Cyberpunk (I'll wait until that's patched up). It was a good decision, Yakuza caters straight to my tastes and Iceborne seems like it has a lot of content.

Having to manage my time between two big games is something that hasn't happened to me in years.. It's a good problem to have!

I didn't start the year with it exactly but I finished Yakuza Kiwami 2 two days ago after a year of dipping in and out of it. Started he first Disgaea on my switch, played through most of Murder by Numbers, have played some Risk of Rain 2 and am working my way through an Ocarina of Time playthrough for the first time in at least five years. So lots of jumping around, beyond Hitman 3 I'm not really thinking about anything coming out soon. Just gonna keep moving through what I started. Will start Yakuza 3 when it comes to game pass at the end of the month.

Just finished Dead Rising with 0 kills including Overtime. Trying to see what the minimum kills needed to beta the series. Done four games so far with no kills.

@noboners: this is my second attempt at playing and I felt the same way you did regarding the combat. So this time I’m playing on hard and at first it was a bit of a slog but after you get more orbments and characters it makes it more rewarding.

Here are some tips I found out, these are probably widely known but here they are anyway:

You can run away from every single encounter except bosses. So I only fight each monster once to put it on the monster list. You can also use this to your advantage by running into enemies from behind than immediately running since your always first to act. Makes avoiding fights super easy

Besides collecting sepith, you never need to do any grinding because monsters grant less exp as you level. So it’s not really worth it. If you want to grind sepith you can fight the shining poms (trails equivalent of metal slimes) and they give you 30 of each color sepith.

I have been using the bracer notebook way more this time and it’s worth it. It’s fun to combine differ t quartz and see what bonuses and spells you can get.

I started up another playthrough of Prey, on hard with the traumas turned on. Being three or four hits away from dying at any given point makes every moment pretty intense, and really pushes the improvisational nature of the systems. So far I'm butthole-clenching my way through the Hardware Labs and haven't installed any Neuromods, but we'll see how long that lasts. I want to save up for a purely Typhon run, I think.

Went back to The Outer Worlds and finished it start-to-finish in two days, mainly streamlining the main story. A great start to kind of a slog of a game. Monarch is ugly af technically and aesthetically and they make you spend the largest chunk of your time there navigating the frustrating invisible-walled terrain killing enemies that appear on 2 other planets. I hope they make a sequel, or something along the same lines, but if the 50(!) steam reviews for their September 2020 DLC tells me anything it's that maybe they'll go in another direction. Had a funny post-credits "where are they now" error where one of my crewmates apparently both "left in the middle of the night without a word, never to be heard from again" and then the next slide said, "they decided to become a permanent member of the crew." 6/10 I wish they took things in different directions. The game could've been a good little sandbox rpg to come back to and roleplay different builds with... but the prospect of even stepping foot on Monarch is enough to stop me from doing that.

I also started up The Witcher 3 after hearing Brad and Vinny call its sidequests worthwhile. I like it so far, although with a toddler around the house, I’m not sure I’ll have enough time to actually finish it. I’m very positive on the monsters and most of the writing, neutral on the combat and navigation, and negative on the menus and parts of the story that are super edgy and horny. Gwent is neat but I suck at it.

For reference, playing on a 2014-era Xbox One using Game Pass. Performance has held up and the box doesn’t whine annoyingly like it does for several other games. Visuals are well-designed and interesting, and I’m grateful you can make item descriptions large. If I have any question, it’s whether both of the DLCs are fully worth it, and if they’re both post-main storyline.

Septerra Core. I just needed to give that game a spin for realsies. Turns out that the game is a lot more fun if you can see the enemy's HP bars through a cheat. Suddenly you can sort of play the game tactically by gauging how much damage certain attacks do. It also helps to give yourself a few extra levels to start with. The start of that game really expects you to spend a few hours fighting the first enemies & walking back to heal up. Fuck that shit. It's quite enjoyable to get past that hurdle.

Been trying to beat Red dead 2. I really don't know how to feel about good vs evil play through. The evil run I felt genuinely awful. Something I haven't felt since selling some one to slavers in fallout 3.

So far, I've played to completion

Shadow of the Tomb Raider

Detroit: Become Human

Kentucky Route Zero: TV Edition

KRZ is pretty fantastic (if, intentionally, dull) but the others fit what I've come to treat January/February as, backlog months that often double as "fuck you, it's January!!" games in the style of movies that often get released this time of year. Detroit and Shadow fit that bill to a tee.

@allthedinos: Yeah, the time commitment is getting me as well. The sidequests don't tend to be quick so it's sometimes a case of putting the controller down. With the loads being so long, I've taken to relying on manual saves putting me in a better spot than checkpoints.

At least they keep three autosaves so you can rollback if you find yourself stuck in an unwinnable situation.

Playing a daily Geoguessr with my partner has been a notable habit we've formed since the new year. Built up a bit of a routine of getting a bit of Trackmania and Rocket League in most days to keep the trophies and weekly challenges coming in. I've also been flexing the brain muscles with some Cosmic Express, Path of Giants and Frog Detective. While House Flipper, Rover Mechanic Simulator, Master Potter and Mudrunner have been helping with feeling like I have an actual job at the moment. Needless to say I currently live in a part of the world where the government are really limiting what we can do outside of our flat (which given the infection rate in London I think is correct to be enforcing) so my guilt over the volume of gaming I am doing is massively reduced. I think I would go properly bonkers otherwise.

Started and finished There Is No Game: Wrong Dimension. That...has kinda been it. I’ve put some hours into random selection of games I’d already played before, like Hades and Miles Morales, but I haven’t started anything new.

I feel a little reserved about picking Hitman 3 at launch, with how fast two went on sale after release, but I could also really do with some fresh Hitman-ing, so we’ll see.

I put a fair amount of time into Spelunky 2 last year and started this year knocking out the last few troublesome trophies, got the last one yesterday which was beating the game without picking up ANY gold so I have now platinumed S2! 0.5% of players have that so I'm feeling pretty proud.

Also sat down on Saturday night and played through all of If Found.... in one sitting (It's maybe 2 and a half hours) It was a cool concept that kind of got old/tedious towards the end but it's a nice story that avoids a lot of the tropes I was kind of expecting it to fall into. I was only affected by it emotionally at one particular moment but that's more than most games can achieve so...

Finally finished Jedi Fallen Order, it's a pretty fantastic game but I put it down for a while last year and never got back round to it.

I also started Dishonored 2 towards the end of last year and finished the last two missions a few days ago, what a knockout of a game, sat on my backlog for 4+ years so it was nice to get around to it at last. May move onto the Death of the Outsider expansion/game soon but I was kind getting burnt out by the last mission.

Also finally used my copy of 3D All-Stars after impulse buying it last year and I'm digging Mario Galaxy if not feeling a little bored by how short some of the levels seem and always being bumped out to the hub after getting a star, Odyssey has spoiled us in that regard. And boy am I getting some nostalgia feels for 16 year old me playing that when it first game out.

Oh yeah and I jumped into Shadow Tactics since Desperados 3 is my 2020 game of the year and I'm actually shocked at how similar those 2 games are, Desperados is basically a sequel in everything but name and setting and I think I would have actually been disappointed if I'd played them the other way around since they REALLY didn't expand on any concepts or mechanics for D3...

Maybe this year I'll delve into Monster Hunter World, idk...

Project Wingman. It's basically Ace Combat made by a couple doods from Australia. Considering how well made it is I'm surprised it hasn't gotten more attention.

I treated myself to a new PC for Christmas with oh so many ambitions of play and work. I haven't had a working PC since I accidentally bricked the last one around 2014/15 while trying to play Rogue Galaxy while also trying to render some video on a very hot day. Poor choice, in retrospect. Now in 2021, I somehow found myself falling face-first into Death Stranding. This game is dumb as hell but I just can't put it down.

This can't possibly sound reasonable, but I find catharsis in it. There is something in the solitary moments while patiently trudging across the beautiful and harsh landscape. With my own time in war now over a decade in my past, I find it almost romantic. The exact lines currently allude my grasp, something like "fuck this" and "feels good", but these little offhand comments that Sam makes in those moments stirs something in my soul from days when I was alone with nothing but my boots, some small arms, and a very heavy pack of rations and radios on my back.

Also the story is totally bonkers. I do not recommend, but am loving it nevertheless.

Amid Evil. It's a retro FPS game with today's polish. All the weapons, except the Axe, shoot magic type ammo. It flows well, player movement and platforming are smooth. The visuals are fine to pretty good.

The only thing I do not like is the story seems throw away, almost a play on Doom Eternal. But I don't see how, just so far it doesn't seem where the dev(s) invested their time.

Oh man. 13 Sentinels is a LOT. In a good way? It's been awhile since a game has rattled around in my mind this much when I'm not playing it. There's time travel and loops and I'm having a hard time keeping it all straight, but I'm digging it. It's non-linear and....it's a lot.

It's not as horny as I thought it might be. I'm digging the city defense combat more than I thought I might too. This would have been high on my top 10 had I played it last year.

If I made a "Top 10 Best Games I Couldn't Get Into" both of them would be on it.

I admire the hell out of them both, and I threw myself at them multiple times.

It wasn't the first game I played this year, but I'm currently trying to push my way through Pathologic 2. It's one of those games I've wanted to play for a long time (as someone who cheated my way through the original and found it fascinating) but always was afraid to start because I knew it would be a lot to deal with. It's been quite a struggle and very stressful, but I'm making my way through it. Determined to not cheat or change the difficulty options this time and I think I've found my groove, but we'll see what curveballs the game throws me.

Zelda: Breath of the Wild. Got a Nintendo Switch for my birthday in 2020 and have been working my way through the hits. BOTW is up there for one of my favourite open world games ever. Engaging exploration that provides a unique experience as compared to the Ubisoft model.

I bought a Quest and a Link Cable to give my fancy new PC something to do after Cyberpunk was Not What I Was Looking for, so I'm working my way through the Half Life series for the first time so I can play Alyx. Black Mesa was excellent and I'm currently halfway through HL2. Also Superhot VR is one of the coolest damn things I've ever seen.

I put Cyberpunk to bed last night and after that, I was originally planning on giving AC Origins a go but the first few hours didn't grab me, the combat just feels too light but I have been on an Anime movie phase the last month or so and I have been thinking about playing another JRPG. I want to give Trails of Cold Steel another go. I tried playing it last year but fell off during the intro. I also need to get back to Yakuza 3 as I have a lot of Yakuza games left to play. I am looking forward to getting into more Hitman levels soon.