chaser324

@popltree2: It actually is the NeGcon, but it does look like the logo says neocon.

@micorej328: No, I actually don't think it's on your end. It seems like the form has been changed to some sort of read-only mode.

@beggary: If you vote for the base game, it should be understood that you mean the new release/content. In previous years, this applied to things like XCOM 2: War of the Chosen, etc. and would apply to things like Bowser's Fury and the new Outer Wilds DLC this year.

@north449: It's from Astalon: Tears of the Earth.

Great list.

I really need to try out The Forgotten City. It's on Game Pass so I have no excuse to have not played it. I'm also looking forward to trying out the new Ratchet & Clank whenever we eventually cross the threshold of hardware availability and number of exclusive games that leads to me owning a PS5.

Great read. Nice seeing another list with Astalon. Feels like one of the most slept on games of the year.

I also really need to give Axiom Verge 2 and Hitman 3 a go, but for better or worse, PC games that aren't on Steam end up being easy to overlook.

@amlabella: Thanks for reading.

I totally get where you're coming from on Dread. It's very different from the games before it, and I think how much you enjoy it is dependent on how much you click with the movement/combat. Astalon is probably the best actual "Metroidvania" that I played in 2021, but I liked Metroid Dread for other reasons.

I look forward to this post every year as a way to catch up on stuff that I've missed. As of yet, I haven't found an Anthony Fantano of J-Pop/J-Rock that can help me stay current all year round - not that I really need it because frankly I'm the sort of person that listens to the same albums/songs over and over again anyway.

@arbitrarywater: Combat was almost entirely incomprehensible to me in Kingmaker until I switched to turn-based, but I did start to understand and enjoy it a lot more after I made the switch. I've been playing WotR in turn-based mode from the outset.

And I'm sure that fans of the tabletop game would've been upset if anything in the ruleset had been streamlined too much. It allows for a lot of flexibility and experimentation, but for someone with limited exposure to Pathfinder, it also means there's a lot of room for error.

Started playing Wrath of the Righteous a couple of weeks ago, and while I am enjoying the writing and characters, I'm just not a fan of Pathfinder character building and combat. It's definitely an improvement over Kingmaker though.