Game of the year 2018
Of the time I spent gaming this year the vast majority has been spent with older games. After work I settle into BeamNG.drive like a worn-in recliner. I found myself too preoccupied to sink into many new games and instead found myself hot-lapping in Accetto Corsa or running through house in Seige's terrorist hunt. Games on this list like Kingdom Come: deliverance and Yakuza sit at 5-25% completion and games from last year like Odyssey and Breath of the wild remain at the final boss.
What I need from a game has changed and I only really began to understand what I'm looking for after making this list. Most importantly a game must deliver quickly, Donut county and Hitman grabbed my attention and wedged their way into the small in between hours of my schedule with their mission based structure.
Low stakes also ended up being critical to pulling me away from other responsibilities Kingdom come: deliverance would have been an Obsession for me back when I had more free time but this last year I haven't felt like engaging as much with games that have harsh penalty for loosing.
Red Dead could have easily been higher on the list as well but runs into trouble with how some of its systems slow down gameplay and throw up rode blocks for messing around. It seems like Red Dead should have cut down on consequences just a little bit and allowed me to take more shortcuts when I was in the mood to knock out some missions.
I wish I could have made myself hunker down and play through yakuza 0 but I kept bouncing off it. The characters are interesting and well written, the comedy lands more often than it misses and the missions are diverse and full of hits. Unfortunately yakuza has a tendency to drop you into missions longer than war and peace and only provides a conventional save system.
My shifting interest in gameing makes me wonder where I'll be this time next year. Will I become a one game type guy or end up playing 2 hours of everything? I guess it doesn't matter as long as I'm enjoying the time I spend and get to take part in the culture around the hobby... especially now that gaming is cool.
