by tom_omb
Another year, another list. Looking back, it's easy to forget how excited I was about VR last January, but I've hardly touched my PSVR. I hope I find an excuse to dust it off more often in 2020.
Disco Elysium is the standout 2019 game I'd like to get around to playing this year. Jedi: Fallen Order was such a satisfying experience last year that I'm inclined to give Bloodborne or Dark Souls another chance this year.
My most anticipated games of the coming year are Psychonauts 2 (as it was last year), Cyberpunk 2077, Animal Crossing: New Horizons and The Last of Us 2. I also look forward to more news about new consoles, and the sequel to Breath of the Wild. It's going to be an interesting year.
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January 4 - 5 I love the style of Ape Out, it's where this game shines. The Saul Bass visuals combined with Jazz music. The Jazz motif continues as each level is broken up into sides of an album. It took only about 4 hours or so to finish. While it feels good to smash fools into walls, I felt pretty tired by the game by the end. The difficulty ramps primarily by adding more enemies. Often I got hit by from off screen. I was motivated to finish the game because I wanted to see the theme of the next level and each new visual representation.
January 14 - I thought I'd try Nioh out, since I don't take advantage of my "free" PS+ games enough. My hope was that it that it would satisfy my Souls-Like fix I have been desiring since Jedi: Fallen Order. After playing through a prologue and a separate tutorial I finally got to the game. I was having a decent time, but tired after going through the loop of dying and returning to where I had died to collect my souls (or whatever). The complex metres, stances and items systems already felt like they were piling up and I was having trouble keeping track of them. I knew it was only to get more difficult, and I felt like it was time to check out. I felt I had a better grasp on Bloodborne, and would rather return to that or Dark Souls if I were to play one of these games.
January 29 - 30 I bought this thing ages ago and have played each chapter as they come out. Now, after seven years the fifth and final chapter is out. I got it for free, so I might as well play it. I remembered very little from the previous acts. The amount of reading can get get tedious, so I didn't want to replay them. The game does very little, if anything, to catch you up with the story. Besides getting the characters a little mixed up, it didn't matter much. I was engrossed in the history and the people of this isolated little town. After a flood, the future is uncertain. Different people have come and gone over the years. One society is replaced by another. Only animals remain as a reminder of the founders, they will reclaim the land even if the people decide to leave. It serves as a metaphor for America today, or any place that has reinvented itself over a long history. The atmosphere is what drew me to the game in the first place. There was a striking mystery to the horse head gas station in the first episode. This final chapter is much more warm and inviting, but still has an ominous feeling of a place haunted by its past. February 10 I only realized when I watched the Quick Look that I missed the Act V prologue. Took me a while to get around playing it. The set up made much more sense. I assumed I had simply forgotten how Act IV ended.
February 11 - Lately I've lost the will to play games. Trying to catch up on TV shows has taken up much of time that I would otherwise spend playing games. I hope Spyro will be the first game this year I spend more than two to three sittings with. March 15 (Spyro 1) The first game of the trilogy feels dated in a lot of ways. Flying is awkward and there's virtually no effort to tell a story. But overall I had fun playing. It scratches my explore and collect itch. There's a surprising variety of inventive enemies. Bosses are very easy, but that didn't bother me too much. Most frustrating was the frequent deaths and long loads each time I would fall due to the annoying gliding. It would cost a life each time too. There are an impressive number of great looking Dragon character models. Spyro saves them, but they only have one line of dialogue and disappear. Makes me wonder if they return in the other games. I'm looking forward to seeing how the sequels improve upon the formula.
February 18- March 20 Nearly a year ago I burnt out on dreams because I wanted to play every tutorial. In hindsight I'd recommend against this, for me it was the head sculpting Masterclass that broke me. What makes Dreams so great is you can specialize and focus on the things you want to make and lean on the resources the community provides. You can't do everything on one project right from the start. Fortunately, since last I played they've added open ended quests and jams to encourage creativity for everyone. In the time since I've returned I made my first game project. It's a simple exploration game, but I spent weeks on it and learned a lot. Mostly I used premade made assets so I could focus on level design. I had to do a lot of logic trouble making that was very rewarding once I got everything to work. Cutscenes, score/item tracking, animations, sounds. I loved making it and I plan to make a more ambitious follow up.
March 19 - January 1 I loved Animal Crossing New Leaf, but I was initially unsure if I would get into New Horizons. After playing the GameCube version I felt one of the follow ups was more of the same and I skipped the other (I mix up the Wii and DS versions, not sure which I played). Pocket Camp was my last taste of the series, that was underwhelming too. Thanks to the passionate community online I was fully hyped by the time New Horizons came out. Plus terraforming looked cool. This game provided the perfect escape from Covid worries. I've never shared so many game clips online. I've been inspired by the creativity of other players sharing their islands. I'm even hooked on Gary Whitta's in game talk show "Animal Talking". What makes New Horizons the best game in the series is the freedom of expression. No longer limited by only decorating your home opens up a whole island of endless possibilities. New Leaf felt restrictive in how you played the game. For example, the best way to make bells was to farm island bugs every night. Now saving my resources to craft daily hot items and selling tarantulas/scorpions to Flick got me to complete my home much faster than before. My favorite thing to do in New Leaf was trying to collect the creatures to occupy my museum. New Horizon's museum is gorgeous, it puts the old one to shame. I have completed the fossil wing (I was short by only one in NL) with the help of some new friends on Twitter, I usually play alone. My ambition is to find every fish and bug in real time over the next year. I'll try to get as many items as I can and I'm deep into flower hybrids. 2021 Update: Oh flower hybrids, when everything started to go bad. It's fascinating how complex and flower breeding is in animal crossing and it felt great getting every flower by the end. Yet it was a tedious process that took up so much time and space it got in the way of the fun, creative things I wanted to do. I'm not sure it was worth it. Even up to now I'm dealing with flower clutter. New Horizons has many design and interface issues that make it painful for long term completionist players. Like earning the gold fishing rod only after catching every single fish. Why even fish? Gold tools still break, it's not worth farming the gold! Additional storage space was added in the fall. Early on I thought storage was unlimited, but once I hit the limit I was fighting it constantly. Items that have low stack sizes became torture. I wanted to get one of each clothing item, but the dressing room interface limited what I could buy. A simple check mark (like the one next to crafted items) to indicate clothes you have in your catalogue would make things much easier. I wish the catalogue and storage was somehow combined to make item management more tolerable. I made a second character to help with storage, get additional rewards and have a new house to decorate. Compounding my frustrations when my things were in two different places, each with their own catalogue. I vowed to fight any impulses to become a collector on my second character so I wouldn't go insane. It took a while to whittle down my daily routine to simply check the shops, beach and the day's guest. I could still find enjoyment in the occasional project or seasonal event. I achieved my primary goal of collecting every fish and bug, but the museum isn't complete. On New Years Day I tried time travel for the first time, it's more complex then I thought to exploit for Redd's art and haven't played since. At this point I've taken the my longest break yet from the game with no plans on returning. I'll probably play the final seasonal updates and may finish the museum one day. For all of its ups and downs there was something special about committing to an Animal Crossing for all of 2020.
April 8 - May 6 I had almost forgotten how great Ori feels to play. It was a treat returning the this beautiful platforming world. This time the influence of Hollow Knight is very clear. The weapon combat doesn't take away that this is still a inventive platformer at its core. As much as I liked Hollow Knight, I don't miss the Dark Souls style tedious retreading and brutally hard bosses. Will of the Wisps still has its challenges, but they aren't insurmountable. Exploring the world of Will of the Wisps is a blast. The map is refreshingly forgiving. It displays many hidden secrets just by getting near them. It might be too easy if it wasn't for the often puzzling, inventive, and skillful ways you need to reach them. Ori has some of the most varied and fun traversal mechanics in games.
May 7 - 15 Doom (In addition to Ori) was why I decided to get Xbox Game Pass again. I was shocked to find it was leaving "soon" (no date given). I started playing it knowing full well that the rug could be pulled out from under me any day. The combat is a lot of fun, I can see why it's so lauded. I love how it encourages moving at all times and getting into demon's faces to get those sweet glory kills. I thought it was going to be one of those exhaustively combat heavy games, so I was surprised at how rewarding the exploration was. After a level or two I decided to knock down the difficulty to get through as much of the game as I could before my time was up. This was a liberating way to play. Knowing I probably wouldn't beat it, but enjoying it at as much as I could at my own pace. Being overpowered saved me a lot of frustration. I didn't shy away from exploration, but I didn't feel the pressure to collect everything. When the game finally expired I was near the end. I can't say I'm not let down I never finished it, found all the collectibles, or played it on normal difficulty. Yet, I'm satisfied with my time spent with Doom and feel no pressure to buy it. Knowing my time was limited from the start prepared me to let go.
May 17 - 21 The greatest strength of Sensua's Sacrifice is how it focuses on sensitively addressing mental illness through the lens of psychosis. The game takes place in the distant past, a time of superstition, long before contemporary mental health existed. Senua's reality is violent and those with her unique point of view are not treated kindly. Not unlike stigma that exist today against the mentally ill. Included is a fascinating documentary detailing how Ninja Theory collaborated with real people who have suffered from psychosis and doctors to inform all aspects of the game's design. Hellblade has a variety of combat and puzzle solving in an atmospheric world seeped in Celtic history and Nordic myth. The combat is sluggishly imprecise and can get overwhelmingly chaotic late in the game. Once I got used to it, there is a desperation and triumphant feeling to the fighting at the best of times. I'm looking forward to seeing what the announced sequel will be like.
May 22 - September 10: Knights and Bikes is a celebration of the imagination of youth, but not the most fun game to play. I adore the execution of the concept of two kid hopping on bikes and exploring an island to solve an ancient mystery. The art and story does a great job of capturing a specific place in a nostalgic time. Unfortunately it can be a bit of a pain to get around the world. Environmental art can be unclear where where you can go. I don't love how the bikes control either. It's been a few months since I've touched this game. I've been putting off this entry because I still hope to return to it someday.