Decline Will 2020 be the worst year ever for video games?

[PorkyThePaladin]

The whole year basically hinged on Cyberpunk, and now that is getting pushed closer and closer to 2021. Bloodlines 2 is now a 2021 game (however you may feel it will turn out), we've heard nothing about Breath of the Wild 2, or Elden Ring, or ELEX2 or KCD2, so I am guessing these are all 2021 or later.

Bannerlord and Stoneshard were released as alphas/betas, so it will be a while before they are actually complete games.

There is absolutely nothing to look forward to.

 

[urmom]

Grimoire 2 should be released sometime later this year.

 

[Morpheus Kitami]

It depends. Some of the stuff released early in the year seems decent to me, and there's always going to be some neat indie release uncovered, but other than that? Yeah, its looking like 2020 is the year of rereleases, betas and ports. But sucking isn't unique to video games, all things considered. Especially since TV and movies are going to have some dead line-ups later in the year.

 

[Lemming42]

No, it's been fine so far:
- Mount & Blade 2: Bannerlord (great, although you're right that it's a very obvious beta still)
- Desperados 3 (great)
- XCOM: Chimera Squad (far from perfect, but a fun diversion)
- Stellaris: Federations DLC
- Black Mesa (technically a 2020 release since it finally completed this year, good game)
- Gears Tactics (like with Chimera Squad, a bit simple but fun enough to be worth a playthrough)
- DOOM Eternal (decent enough)
- Resident Evil 3 Remake (decent)
- Half-Life: Alyx (haven't played it because i'm too poor to afford a headset, but playthroughs make it look reasonably fun for what it is)
- Command & Conquer: Remastered

There's also some games still to come:
- System Shock Remake (maybe?)
- Wasteland 3
- Iron Harvest
- Mafia Remake (very very wary of this but it deserves a chance)
- Flight Simulator 2020
- Oddworld: Soulstorm

Definitely better than most of the late 2010s, where I had trouble finding anything that looked interesting enough to play.

 

[A horse of course]

Videogames are better than ever. You're just old. You need to find yourself a good man before your ovaries dry up.

 

[sser]

It's the year of the card game. There's a zillion of them on Steam chasing the coattails of Slay the Spire.

 

[Lemming42]

‘decent enough’... A fine year indeed.

WHAT DO YOU THINK "FINE" MEANS, YOU FUCKING MEOWTH. DID I SAY "GREAT" YEAR? NO

The remakes are cool, though - Black Mesa (don't start) and Resident Evil 3 feel very distinct from the original games (especially RE3, obviously) and the C&C remaster is a fun way to revisit the originals.

A wave of "decent enough" games makes for a decent year - I found no more than three or four games to play in 2018, at least this year there's plenty to get into even if a lot of it is simple. I'd rather have a slew of stuff like Gears Tactics and DOOM Eternal than a slew of complete shit.

 

[DalekFlay]

There's only a handful of "AAA" games I'm interested in this year, but I'm not sure that's really any different from every other year. Scanning Wikipedia's 2019 games page it looks about the same, honestly. "AA" and indie stuff who fucking knows, it all comes out so fast and stacks up in ye olde backlog, it's all a blur. Not getting a new RPG in the Summer is a hard thing to get pissy about when I have a dozen in my backlog and a long list of ones I'd like to replay. Maybe you're single and unemployed though, so it's more of a problem for you.

 

[Daedalos]

The whole year basically hinged on Cyberpunk, and now that is getting pushed closer and closer to 2021. Bloodlines 2 is now a 2021 game (however you may feel it will turn out), we've heard nothing about Breath of the Wild 2, or Elden Ring, or ELEX2 or KCD2, so I am guessing these are all 2021 or later.

Bannerlord and Stoneshard were released as alphas/betas, so it will be a while before they are actually complete games.

There is absolutely nothing to look forward to.

WASTELAND 3 BRO

 

[Citizen]

Isn't bayonetta 3 coming this year?

 

[Sjukob]

Man, there's always modding scene:

 

[Thac0]

Who gives a fuck about AAA, those games are bland anyway.
Indie has been doing relatively fine. Not the strongest year even for them, but I havnt run out of stuff to play yet.

 

[HoboForEternity]

Videogames are better than ever. You're just old. You need to find yourself a good man before your ovaries dry up.

i already frozen my eggs thank you

 

[Rahdulan]

Who gives a fuck about AAA, those games are bland anyway.

Honestly, it's just a culmination of playing the exact same games with different skins for what are essentially two console generations. I don't think rehash sequels really impress people anymore, either. Maybe it's a consequence of long development cycles and trends that were new, or not as worn out, at the time simply now being old and tired when games do actually come out four-five years later down the road. AAAs can afford even less risks these days than they could before and wowing the fickle mainstream audience with visuals becomes ever harder. Indies overcoming their initial hurdles and getting a better grip on development are the future until the cycle repeats anew.

 

[GewuerzKahn]

I hope only Deadly Premonition 2 will be crappy, but in an interesting and funny way.

 

[frajaq]

yeah honestly this year fucking sucks, had to scour my old Steam library for good games to play because goddamn

 

[Sranchammer]

Go protest like the rest of your friends.

 

[Mark Richard]

It'll be a poor showing to be sure. The pandemic had a major effect on every entertainment industry, and gaming is no exception.

I don't often buy new titles in the year of their release anyway. Between Blade Runner, Styx: Master of Shadows, Ultimate General: Civil War, Pathfinder: Kingmaker, and Pathologic 2, my playlist has just been one fantastic game after another. 2020 is already one of the most memorable gaming years I've ever had!

 

[PorkyThePaladin]

Yeah, I mean things were already bad since mid 2000s, maybe 2-3 good games a year if we get lucky, but Corona made it even worse, with stuff delayed. Just a complete wasteland minus some niche indie stuff.

 

[Dickie]

Knights of the Chalice 2 releases in about a week. Best year for gaming in a long time.

 

[Lady_Error]

Play Europa Universalis instead. That one eats up time like there is no tomorrow.

 

[JarlFrank]

Was Troubleshooter released this year or last?

If this year, then INCLINE

 

[TemplarGR]

I think after 2012 (the last generally good year for games) gaming has been shit in general. We do get a few games per year that are good but no year is really exciting. Perhaps 2015, that year had Witcher 3 and Fallout 4 (and Pillars of Eternity) among others. But yeah, pretty crappy overall.

This year though, not only AAA is bad but even indies are mostly bad. Anyway i don't care, more reason not to upgrade my PC and save some monies for when the next gen hits.

 

[overly excitable young man]

I am having great fun with Desperados 3 right now and KotC 2 also is around the corner.

 

[TemplarGR]

I want to play Desperados 3 but waiting for Linux port.