Atlas

Honestly? Most if not all of them.

I get tired really easily.

People, some perspective: 2008-13 GB and Whiskey Media was lightning in a bottle. If even one or two variables go in a different direction, it could all have fallen apart. The original GB core should be immensely proud of what they achieved during that time, under such tight restrictions and with no blueprint to follow. And then everything fell apart, and for a very, very good reason. They moved into a new corporate structure, killing the scrappy start-up vibe, and Ryan Davis passed away. And then the offices split. And then GamerGate turned online video game culture into something truly toxic, and then 2016 happened and everything on the internet became contaminated.

Y'all remember the tenth anniversary series they did, and Dave Snider did an audio clip on the ten times that Giant Bomb could, and maybe should, have died? Well that really resonated with me. The fact that the site was able to survive and continue to this day is nothing short of a miracle. And now they're older, they've got families, and they've brought in a new young core that is doing some pretty damn good work that often goes underappreciated because it's not as magical as those Whiskey halcyon days. That's life, I'm afraid.

I think people are asking the wrong questions. I wouldn't be wondering how does the site recapture the magic of those early years, because the answer is brutally stark and, to me, exceedingly obvious: they won't, because they can't.

And on the subject of passion, because it comes up multiple times in multiple threads: I don't believe that anyone in this thread, or on this site, has ever loved video games, or any medium, as much as Jeff loves video games. I truly believe that. He may not love modern games, or love the games that y'all care about, or he may not love the modern industry (which is frequently unlovable and seems to be becoming more so by the day). But it always winds me up when people talk about the passion of the crew because it comes across as really naive and hyper-critical.

I don't think there's ever been a better time to be a fan of video games. And this is something I've said, consistently, pretty much every year since maybe 2010? So yeah, nostalgia has never been as big of a thing for me. Some of the games I've played over the last few years include some of the most fun I've ever had playing a game. It says something that, for me, as an N64 kid who absolutely adored Ocarina of Time and Majora's Mask, I maybe had more pure moments of joy playing Breath of the Wild than I had with either of the N64 classics.

So in answer to the question of what do I miss the most...well it's the obvious old man answer (I turned 31 on Sunday), but it's the innocence. It's the not knowing/caring about crunch and abuse, or about fee-to-pay games that rely on whales. I miss the fact that my reflexes are getting worse, and that my patience and ability to mentally and emotionally commit to a game has gotten worse. I miss not knowing any better, or not knowing what I was missing out on when I choose to play one game at the expense of so many others.

I miss how exciting it was just to get a new video game, in the days when I had much more time than money. Now I'm just one of countless people who has dozens, if not hundreds, of games in their Steam account that they've maybe never played for more than an hour, if ever.

The poison headcrabs in Half-Life 2. That rattling, clicking noise still haunts my dreams.

@insomniak08: I'm exactly the same. So many games are narratively built on the foundation of being helpful and virtuous, as games have conditioned us to help people and earn a reward. I used to be much more enthusiastic about replaying a game and going full renegade, but now as an adult I just don't find choosing the most evil option to be particularly fun or interesting. I always default to being a paragon. Even in my given example, Crusader Kings II, I rarely use most of the more evil options that the game presents to you, because there's often a more ethical solution to a problem that doesn't involve murder and subterfuge.

TBF, I'm quite lawful good as a person, which I think is quite rare for people to self-identify as because it's nowhere near as cool as being chaotic good.

I used to be much more diverse in my game tastes, but I'm now much more rigid in playing games in my favourite genres, and I've fallen off a bunch of genres over the years. I used to rate western RPGs as my favourite genres, but at this point there are so many modern classics in the genre that I haven't gotten round to playing - including Witcher 3, the Divinity Original Sin games, Pillars of Eternity, etc. - that I can't call myself a massive RPG fan. I would now say my favourite genre is strategy.

I have zero interest in any genre that is inherently competitive. I have never, and will never, play a MOBA, or get into competitive fighting games, or battle royale, or any of that kind of stuff.

I played it two years after release, having heard all of the hype around it and love for it, and often in that situation I can be overly critical or less likely to love a thing. But I absolutely adored Breath of the Wild. I bought all the DLC because I just wanted to play more of it and spend more time in the world, and that doesn't happen very often with me. I never expected to come away from it thinking it's maybe the best Zelda game, because I was an N64 kid and Ocarina of Time and Majora's Mask are both god-tier to me. But that's how good BOTW is.

All of my favourite games are single player games, and even those with MP elements I only play SP. I think if I did a top ten list of my favourite ever games, Breath of the Wild would miss out, but it would definitely be in a top 25.

I do think it's a bit of a slow-starter/slow-burner, because I remember talking to a friend about some of my early reservations, but a few days later I was just gushing about the game with that same friend.

Crusader Kings II is a game that allows you to coordinate an assassination plot against a baby. You can also blind or castrate prisoners, there are multiple ways to torture people, and you can be VERY racist (you can take out a loan from Jewish merchants...and then expel the Jewry from your kingdom thus nullifying your debt. What happened to the Jews after they're kicked out of your lands? Meh, not your problem, right?). It's all shades of fucked up - just like real history!

The texture quality is rubbish, but that's not unusual for remakes from this era. In my mind, I feel like I remember the sense of speed feeling slower on this game because of the lower framerate, but it runs smoothly and feels fast.

I have a lot of nostalgia for this game. To be honest, I still have a lot of nostalgia for Episode One - I don't think I could watch it and enjoy it now, but I was ten when I saw it and I thought it was incredibly cool. I played the game a ton and it was one of my favourite N64 racers. I only had an N64 (and played PC games), so I feel like I got used to slower framerates in racing games - Extreme-G and Diddy Kong Racing are both games that I loved, but in hindsight I can actually remember them feeling slower. I don't know how long the nostalgia will last, but having a portable version of a game that is near and dear to my heart is a nice, warm, fuzzy feeling, especially since I had no idea that a remake was in the works.

It's £12.29 on Switch, which is probably a bit too expensive if you don't have the nostalgia for the game, but if you're an N64 kid like I am I'd recommend checking it out. Now we just need to start the petition for an Extreme-G remake, right? And also, why hasn't there been a new F-Zero game in forever? F-Zero X was just about the only racing game on N64 that DID have a good framerate and sense of speed, and it's probably the best of the bunch even if it's not my favourite.

Super Mega Baseball 3. An excellent refinement on 2 with the same amazing gameplay, it's by far the best current sports game franchise. And that's in spite of the fact that I find the new franchise mode to be an unappealing feature - in theory, tanking and developing a murderer's row of a team sounds fun, but in standard mode you can't sim games and losing that many games just sound utterly miserable.

I fell off of Animal Crossing much, much earlier than the majority of people, and although I really liked what I played of Ori and the Will o' the Wisps, I didn't go back to it after hitting my first really tough section about two hours in. I will get round to Doom Eternal before the end of the year, and I've only played a little bit of Monster Train but I don't think it's quite as good as many others seem to think. I have zero interest in playing TLOU2 right now given the negativity surrounding the game (i.e. Naughty Dog crunch, the leaks, and the miserable grittiness).

The most fun I've had with a game this year, regardless of year of original release, was with No Man's Sky. I still haven't played Outer Worlds, and haven't even bought Outer Wilds.

The Show '19 was my first The Show game and I really enjoyed it, but it's hard for me to justify playing the same game again considering there were so many features in The Show '19 that I barely explored - I mostly played two long Road to the Show games, one as a pitcher and one as a hitter. Are there tangible gameplay improvements this time round? Or have they fleshed out some of the features in RTTS mode to make it more interesting?

I know baseball is kind of toxic right now, but obviously SMB3 is my current #1 and I could see myself playing more of The Show.