by tom_omb
I wasn't sure if I'd keep doing this for another year, but I'm in the habit now so I may as well.
As the year begins I'm still playing Inscryption and I have a six months of Gamepass cards ready to claim as soon as I'm ready. I picked it up Boxing Week along with a card for Super Mario 3D World + Bowser's Fury. This way I won't feel so obligated to milk as much as I can from a month of Gamepass and enjoy playing what I want.
Some of the 2021 games I still plan to play are Unpacking, Kena: Bridge of Spirits, Resident Evil VIllage, and Hitman 3 (with the previous two). I haven't forgotten about Disco Elysium, Ghost of Tsushima, and Immortals Fenyx Rising from my wish list last year. Feeling pretty overwhelmed with my game backlog.
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(BOWSER'S FURY) January 2 - 30 This little Mario game is a fantastic little appetizer to hold me over until the next full 3D Mario. I didn't think setting a new 3D Mario in an open world is necessarily a game changer on its own, but it adds enough new things to do to feel like a fresh evolution of the Mario Franchise. Early on I could get disorientated, unsure what island I was on, in this world where the areas aren't so thematically distinctive as they typically are in Mario games. Opening the map, fast traveling, or hitching a ride on Nessie, Mario's sea creature mount. The biggest new addition is a giant Bowser kaiju that shows up from time to time to make things tough for you. While he could be slightly annoying at times, I found I was never very far from a shine for it to matter too much. Every shine collected sends him back to his dormant state. There are certain blocks that require a fire blast from Bowser to reveal the shine hidden within, so I'd be sure to keep in mind where the closest ones were.
January 5 - March 4 (Last score shared on Twitter) The sensation everyone's playing, so I am too. A simple word game that's equal parts satisfying as it is frustrating. I play it every night on the bus coming home from work. Sharing it on Twitter is an essential part of the game loop, although I have nobody to see it and I bury them in one thread. https://twitter.com/Tom_omb/status/1480821236808650753 It's amazing how these distinctive coloured boxes have captured the mainstream zeitgeist. Even my mom had heard of it. Yet, I'm surprised I can't get her to play it. A link would be nice, when initially trying to find it I played a Boggle game from the Google Play store with the same name. Even now I have to manually put links in my tweets so I can find the browser game the next day.
January 30 - February 3 Like the best horror, Resident Evil Village is goofy fun and dripping with creepy atmosphere. It's at its best when exploring the incredibly well rendered environments.
February 4 - 6 I'm not the tidiest person in the world, but I enjoy organizing my things. It's keeping things organized that's hard. In Unpacking I don't need to worry about that, each chapter is literally a snapshot in time. Simply opening boxes of someone's stuff each move over 20 years can intimately tell the story of their life. From the tiniest details (the toys and books she keeps) to the most important moments, (relationships and career milestones). She is approximately my age, so it plays the nostalgia strings very well. I never had a Troll Doll or Tamagotchi, but they are icons that were very much a part of my childhood. Trying to decipher what GameCube Game or DVD on each box was a fun challenge. Yet, the connection goes deeper than nostalgia. This game had me reflecting on my homes, past and present, the things I've held onto and where I've kept them. Even the differences are revealing. I found myself comparing the tiniest details of my world to this woman's. It wasn't comfortable handling another person's most intimate things. The game wasn't always kind to the places I wanted to place some items. Stuffed animals go on the bed and the coffee grinder goes on the counter! Boy she has a lot of shoes and a couple items I didn't even recognize. Unpacking is a delight. A tight well made little package that doesn't wear out its welcome are like a splash of cool water on my face after playing a lengthy AAA game.
(ECHOES OF THE EYE) February 8 - 20
February 19 I played Halo infinite a bit with a friend. We played Halo 1 and 2 together co-op, so I thought we could try some split screen vs. That was fun for a while, but when we joined an online match we were completely lost. Both of us have spent more time playing Perfect Dark the last 20 years than modern online shooters, so there's a bit of a learning curve we weren't up to tackle. The news that split screen co-op has been canceled is a bit of a bummer, but we still have Halo 3. He did buy an Xbox Series S, but we haven't played anything online together yet.
February 21 For such a short experience, Gorogoa is really impressive. It's able to build upon approachably simple mechanics and create unique, complex puzzles by the later stages of the game. The music and story book art are quite beautiful too. This game peaked my interest when Vinny added it to his game of the year list in 2017. After sitting on a Wishlist for so long I'm glad I gave it a chance. Don't sleep on Gorogoa, it can be finished in a single sitting, so there's no excuse.
(THE HITMAN TRILOGY on Game Pass) February 22 -
March 7 - May 7
May 9 Townscraper is a very elegant little tool/toy for building little island towns. Colour is the only menu based modifier, placement and context decides what form is built. The list of 10 achievements give you clues as to what you can discover by playing around. Like stacking blocks to build a spire or enclose a space to build a park. They are fun to discover, but a couple are quite challenging to guess. Unfortunately, beyond that there isn't a game here at all. With such a neat mechanic, I wish Townscraper would give me an excuse to continue to play around with it beyond one session.
