by fosssil
It was a good year for games! I got a lot of use out of my Switch in portable mode this year, and I am consistently amazed at the value that Xbox Game Pass is providing. Here are my favorites from 2019:
Showing 1-10 of 10 items
I stumbled into Outer Wilds not knowing what type of game it was, and the first few hours that I spent fumbling around the solar system were honestly pretty harrowing. I had some moments of genuine panic and anxiety in that early going, but eventually I began to understand the nuances of the tiny solar system. What followed was moment after moment of discovery, surprise, and a deep desire to unravel all of the mysteries of this world. As I reflect on the games I played this year, I can't think of a better one than Outer Wilds to be at the top of this list.
Alan Wake was one of my favorite games of last gen, and the folks at Remedy have hit another one out of the park with Control. The world-building in this game is such a treat. The framerate did chug along at times as I played on my base model Xbox One, but overall I found the gameplay to be fluid and unique. As always, I am excited to see what Remedy has in store for the future.
Man, I am so glad this game was good. I still play Battlefront 2 on an almost weekly basis (that game is actually pretty good, y'all!) but I have been desperately craving a truly narrative-focused single player Star Wars game for so long. This game had basically everything I had been craving from a Star Wars game, delivering a surprisingly lengthy campaign with great action and a strong story. Is it basically Space Uncharted with Jedi? More or less; however that is precisely what I have been craving for years since EA took over the Star Wars license. Only thing missing from this game for my tastes is a solid new game plus mode.
When it comes to horror movies and games I am a huge chicken, and I can honestly say that I hated every second of this game. Yet I also loved every second. Much like when I played the Dead Space games, for whatever reason my urge to complete this game was just barely stronger than my feelings of terror. I was scared the entire time, yet I kept powering through. One of my favorite games this year, that I will happily never play again. I am dreading the RE3 Remake this year.
I enjoyed Black Ops 4's multiplayer last year, but the fact that it was sans campaign was a bummer. It was nice to get thrown back into a nice Hollywood Blockbuster COD campaign with Modern Warfare. The multiplayer gunplay feels great too, although I think the maps are some of the weakest in the franchise. Overall, as far as COD games go, this is a good one of those.
This might sound strange, but I don't think I would have liked this game at all if it weren't for the portability of the Switch. Well, I probably would have still liked it, but I definitely wouldn't have found the time to play it had I been tethered to my TV. I probably put more than 80 hours into this game overall, and 99% of that time was spent with my Switch in handheld mode, playing in bed for an hour before going to sleep each night. I found this game to be perfect in that setting, almost like a TV show, where I was able to jump in, interact with my students or run a battle or two, and then put it away and pick it up again the next night. The tactical aspect of the game wasn't the strongest challenge, but I appreciated the great story and memorable characters.
I learned something about myself in 2019: I don't think that I like Battle Royale games that much. I think that I like the idea of them, and they have provided me with some amazing gameplay moments, but I realized that I don't really care for the minute to minute action of them that much. Spending 10 minutes focused on looting, hoping to find something good, running around for a long time, and then getting shot from some random direction by someone with a superior weapon has started to become more of a drag that even a clutch victory can't outweigh. I am finding myself appreciating the quick action and constant encounters in a Call of Duty more than the slower, methodical pace of a Battle Royale. All that said, I still really like Apex. Respawn does an amazing job of making their shooting mechanics fun, and they added a lot of smart things to this game that set them apart from other games in the genre. I play this game more or less because it's what my friends are playing, and I have my fun with it, but give me a COD or a Halo instead any day.
I had a great time with this ingenious little puzzle game. It was head-scratchingly difficult at times, but it always felt fair, which I appreciated. I also found it to be a surprisingly good couch co-op game, as it is easy for others to watch and offer suggestions for how to crack a tough puzzle. Baba is Fun.
This is the perfect example of a game that I would have probably never gotten around to playing were it not for Game Pass. I enjoyed the shooting AND the looting, and the humor/writing was pretty entertaining. If you've got Game Pass, check this one out.
