What games did you complete in 2023?

[Lagole Gon]

What games did codexers finish in 2023?
List your games and leave a rating with a short summary.

 

[Vic]

only finished 7 games this year, despite playing a lot more, but many of the games I played were open ended.

I say this every year but I'll try to beat more games next year

 

[Lord_Potato]

1. Expeditions: Rome - somewhat woke in its depiction of ancient history but not bad in the gameplay and writing departments. Had fun emulating Julius Caesar. A pity its probably the last Expeditions game we'll get due to fucking nfts. 8/10
2. Masquerada: Songs and Shadows - an endearing yet very linear and quite short rtwp rpg in a fantasy version of renaissance Venice. 6/10
3. Bionic Battle Mutants - short fun indie tactical rpg. 5/10
4. Skyhill - survival horror with rpg and roguelike elements - you're trying to escape a skyscraper during a mysterious plague that transformed most people into monsters. Or are you really? There might be more to this story... 6/10
5. AC: Valhalla - like all recent AC games gorgeous but too long and repetitve. 7/10
6. Black Geyser - enjoyable trip in a time machine to the era of BG1. 6/10
7.Dying Light + the Following - zombie survival horror/action rpg at its finest. 8/10
8. Citizen Sleeper - melancholy in space that actually feels good 6/10
9. Memoirs of a Battle Brothel - wrpg in jrpg body, good story and writing, non-obligatory porn 7/10
10. Bavarian Tale - detective rpg in 19th century rural town, great concept but realisation could be better 5/10
11. Halfway - survival horror/tactical rpg in a massive spaceship being invaded by alien entities 5/10
12. Chernobylite - indie post apo rpg with production values of AAA, happening in Chernobyl Exclusion Zone, with time traveling mechanics. Pretty freaking rad 8/10
13. Fallout: Sonora - another quality Fallout total conversion from the authors of Nevada, 7/10
14. Pecaminosa - a detective rpg with twin stick shooter mechanics and tons of combat, cool pixelart, delicious noir atmosphere and lots of unrealised potential 5/10
15. Space Wreck - rpg from the times when games were made of soul and great ideas, not beautiful visuals and full voice acting 7/10
16. Cyberpunk 2077 - with Phantom Liberty finally left early access and realised its true potential 9/10
17: Grimm's Hollow - endearing story set in an afterlife, but a very basic rpg 4/10
18: Starfield - Skyrim in Space or Loading Screen Simulator. 6/10
19. Dungeon Rats: finally completed it on my 3rd attempt. Hard as nails but very limited in scope 6/10

Now I'm playing Colony Ship and its got a lot of promise.

Edit: forgot to add Pentiment. Not a rpg, more of an adventure. Beautiful presentation, lots of historical lore, and several criminal mysteries to solve. The Name of the Rose for our generation. 8/10

Another edit: Completed Colony Ship. Difficult game with many paths through its content. Perhaps not as story-rich as Age of Decadence but its less rigid structure is much more enjoyable to explore. 8/10

 

[Tarkleigh]

• Persona 5 Royal - My first Persona game, some of it was very strange but I liked it a lot 9/10
• Mass Effect - Replayed it after over 15 years, gameplay is very janky but the story is still the best of all ME games 7/10
• Hacknet - Nice haxxor feeling but the very minimal presentation is a problem, Exapunks was much nicer 6/10
• System Shock Remake - extremely faithful remake, maybe to a fault 8/10
• Citzen Sleeper - nice idea but overall very shallow 4/10
• Cyberpunk Phantom Liberty - Great addon and great patch, still not perfect, though 9/10

Not sure if I will have time for Sea of Stars or Ghostrunner 2 before the year runs out.

 

[Bester]

The Beginner's Guide. It's 30 minutes long.

 

[Lagole Gon]

Solasta: Lost Valley - I like the campaign structure on paper, but in practice it's very rough. But it's still Solasta, so thumbs up.
Hatred - It has a couple of fun levels. Great stress relief. Controls are not great though and late game levels don't cooperate with the gameplay.
Ghost of a Tale - Rather bland gameplay but genuinly charming and well-written. Very impressive for a one man (almost) project. Very subjective thumbs up for the charm.
Armikrog - Eh. It's fine. You can feel the cut corners. Feels like a whole chunk of story about the bad guy is missing.
Solasta: Palace of Ice - Loved it.
Baldur's Gate 3 - That's a topic for a longer discussion.
Six Ages: Lights Going Out - Might be the best Glorantha game.
Six Ages: Ride Like the Wind - This one was somewhat disappointing. It's like they were re-learning how to work with the game mechanics.
World of Horror - It has a cool style but not much else going for it. And I still played the shit out of it. Get it on sale, it's fun for two or three evenings.

 

[octavius]

Not much.

Bard's Tale 1-3 (replay)
Wizard's Crown
Pool of Radiance (replay)
Serious Sam: The Second Encounter
Maybe I'll finish Dungeon Siege before the new year.

Lots of user-made maps for Thief and Age of Wonders, and some for HoMM 3.

 

[rumSaint]

Nioh Complete Edition - 8/10, battle system is one of the most clunkiest and at the same time beautiful thing I have seen. Once mastered it's great. Lowered score for DLC bullshit (fuck you Date bosses).
Siralim Ultimate - 9/10, very indepth battle system, numbers go up simulator. Very good, highly recommend
Age of Wonders 4 - 6/10, in currenst state it's pretty good but lack of content and some odd design choices (12 turns of siege to attempt to attack a city C'MON FFS) hold this game down. Hope DLCs and patches fix it.
Fae Tactics - 7/10, FF Tactics like, very fun battle system, but only 3 people in party with one mandatory (Main Character), not too long. Good pixel art.
Warhammer: Vermintide 2 - 9/10, With buddies it's a blast
Horizon's Gate - 6/10, Wide as the ocean in game, shallow as a puddle. Sailing is cool, battle and job system is not to my liking but it's well put together. Towns and dungeons are empty though. Like every fucking town is almost same.
Remnant: From the Ashes - 7/10, kinda odd one. Seem like Dork Souls but with guns, you roll and bosses one shots you, also plot is vague as fuck. Playing with buddies is pretty fun.
Layers of Fear (2023) - 7/10, really good as walking simulator horror, great visuals, nice story, but kinda ruined by chasing sections.
Strange Brigade - 6/10, Corny dialogues and pretty good gameplay, nice fun with homies.
Cat Quest 2 - 6/10, Well a kid game. Pretty simple but fun to play with your kid.

 

[AdamReith]

Good year for me, first half of the year was too busy getting downsized but latter half was great:

Resident Evil 1 : Sweet

Kings Field 1 (JP) : Excellent

Kings Field 1 (US) : Excellent, now with mine carts

Wandering Sword : Very fun JRPG with good story and of reasonable length

 

[__scribbles__]

Age of Decadence - Interesting setting, decent combat and writing. -

Arcanum: Of Steamworks & Magick Obscura - It's Arcanum. -

Arx Fatalis - Really good single-character dungeon crawler that definitely lives up to the expectations set by Ultima Underworld in my mind. Sure, it has some flaws and a lot of jank, but when this game is at its best it's almost unrivalled. -

Baldur's Gate - Can't rate it. I really like some aspects and hate others, and my experience was constantly fluctuating between really enjoyable and dreadful.

Bastion - Fun little short hack-n-slash experience. Narrator was annoying but good for what it was and I don't regret the time I spent on it. -

Cruelty Squad - Extremely weird but very enjoyable, unless the graphics give you a headache. -

Dark Sun: Shattered Lands - Good exploration, quest design, and combat. I think the latter half of the game could be more difficult though, the final battle is a major difficulty spike. Also easy to play and get into, more so than almost every other pre-Fallout RPG. -

Deus Ex - It's Deus Ex. -

Gothic - Great setting, immersion and progression. Good stuff. -

KOTOR - Clear downgrade from the IE games. Decent for a classic Star Wars experience but I'd rather just watch the OT. -

KOTOR 2 - Good for what it is. -

The Legend of Zelda - It's fun. Nothing special but good exploration. -

Shadowrun: Dragonfall - Great soundtrack and setting, story was interesting and combat decent with the agris fix. -

Shadowrun Returns - Feels too long despite being less than 10 hours. Only finished it because it was short and I owned it. -

System Shock 2 - Von Braun is amazing, rest ranges from mediocre to awful. -

Temple of Elemental Evil - Full party creation, isometric, turn-based. Good stuff. -

Ultima: The First Age of Darkness - Not really sure why I finished this. Fairly impressive for a 43 year old game but not actually enjoyable to play IMO. -

Ultima Underworld: The Stygian Abyss - Weak combat and character systems, great everything else. -

Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines - Excellent writing and atmosphere. Rest ranges from acceptable to awful. -

Wasteland - Good exploration and combat. Great atmosphere, too. -

Overall a better year than last.

 

[Morpheus Kitami]

Commander Keen 1-3 - The games that made DOS a viable platform for platformers. Nice enough, but not particularly memorable outside of the first episode.
Dandy - Gauntlet before Gauntlet. Janky but nice.
Dark Ages - Early Apogee platformer. Solid but the level design gets weird.
Day of the Tentacle - All time classic adventure game.
Hunter Hunted - Unusual Sierra/Dynamix platformer, more of a puzzle game with the levels being broken down into individual ones with no continuity between levels.
Keen Dreams - Better than the original trilogy combined, but my god, is that combat awkward.
Keen Meets the Meats - Fan sequel to the former. Almost the same, but they throw a ton of tricks and traps at you.
Lost in Time - Another Coktel Vision classic, excellent puzzles and atmosphere, but as with all time travel stories, a bit goofy.
Monuments of Mars - Second game from the guy who made Duke Nukem. Single-screen platformer designed around tripping you up as much as possible. Nice, but janky.
Red Baron - Dynamix's best remembered flight sim set in WWI. Very nice despite the age.
Resident Evil - Pretty good as an action game, but by the time I was finished I was so sick of the game's "puzzles".
Shadowcaster - Raven's first FPS. Tries to be a FPS/RPG game in the vein of Ultima Underworld, but is more of an action-adventure. Very nice though.
Silent Debuggers - Aliens as a FPS better than any stand-alone Alien game did.
Tomb Raider - I once thought this was one of the best games ever made and I still do. I do think Greece could use some trimming and the combat could stand a little depth, though.
ZZT - The first game from Epic. Despite being crude, it's a very clever game.

I left out some shitty and mediocre games nobody will have heard of.

 

[3 others]

Combined 2022 / 2023 list:

La Mulana 2 Tower of Oannes DLC - - Continuation of the masochistic trolling side in La Mulana. The puzzles aren't fair, the sudden deaths come from all directions, and the final boss takes unskippable 1 minute smoke breaks when he happens to fucking feel like it, but the game is so over the top that it's actually quite enjoyable to just roll with it and appreciate this unique experience.
Cuphead Delicious Last Course DLC - - Somehow manages to improve on the audiovisual feast of the base game. The new bosses are also among the very best in Cuphead. Glorious.
Abzu - - They made a wasteland and called it game
Inscryption - - Stellar opening act followed by less impressive experiments in kitchensink auteur game design, which is always commendable even when it doesn't quite hit the mark. Nice aesthetics, nice card mechanics, occasionally nice metagame, uneven FMV.
Strange Horticulture - - Somewhat underwhelming paperspleaselike. It's hindered by being a pure puzzle solving game, basically, as there is no time pressure in any of your actions. I also feel there would have been more to wring out from just the core plant identification tasks.
Elechead - - A competent if unmemorable short platform puzzling game where the gimmick is that your robot carries an electric charge in his (detachable) head that activates/deactivates different parts of levels.
Neon White - - YES! YES! This is what a vidya gayme should feel like. Relentless action, peak performance, competitive leaderboards, functional visuals, instant retry, instant retry, instant retry, juvenile characters, an OST that attempts to single-handedly bring breakcore back from the dead... Best game of this decade.
Citizen Sleeper - - Nicely realized gameworld with a good dice-rolling daily resource-management mechanic and a strangely mycocentric endgame. Let down somewhat by its unbalanced perks & mediocre writing. I think this would have been better as a more restricted but replayable experience where you clearly have to leave more threads hanging before finishing the game.
Jagged Alliance 3 - - Who could have thought there's something salvageable in this cursed IP. Great throwback party-RPG/squad tactics game that has some issues with weapon balancing, UI design and lategame grind but shines just about everywhere else.
Jagged Alliance 2 - - Replayed the Stracciatella version while pondering about JA3. It has stood the test of time, and the hit-miss ratio of all the corny characters is at its peak here. The firefights are a bit static and the quartermastering of ammo clips in each sector gets on my nerves but the campaign is still pretty much unrivalled.
Darkest Dungeon - - Good abstract dungeon combat tactics game with strong woodcut-style art direction. My main complaint with this is that the game doesn't respect the player's time enough. Everything seems to take too much time and the treasure tetris in your finicky loot inventory is infuriating.
Case of the Golden Idol - - Repulsively ugly deduction point&click/obradinnlike with a well-tuned level of difficulty.
Dreams in the Witch House - - Odd but competently realized resource-management "RPG" / point&click / student life simulator hybrid in a Lovecraftian university. Alright puzzles, well-tuned time management pressures, but a bit too long for how repetitive the endgame gets, though. I've never played Quest for Glory. I wonder if it was something like this...?
Talos Principle 2 - - Can there be such a thing as an AAA puzzle game? Croteam aren't that big, but the presentation of this game certainly is. Great puzzles, great environments, let down by its overeager story.
Talos Principle - Road to Gehenna DLC - - Replayed this to get back in the Talos zone before the new game. The pinnacle of the series. Short, focused, tough, inventive, with a good plot structure around the relentless laser beam puzzles.
Her Story - - Surprisingly gripping experimental FMV "detective-style" game. Undeservedly shit on by gameplay purists, calling Her Story a "game" is maybe a bit much but you can't tell this type of narrative in any other medium. Perfectly fine acting also, btw.
Tunic - - Phenomenal zelda-style swashbuckling isometric adventure game that would be fine on its own but rises to legendary status with the additional meta-puzzles tied together by an in-game manual that emulates the feeling of being an illiterate 7-year old in a magical game world.
Blasphemous - - Slow, ponderous metroidvania with exquisite art design. The plot and collectibles are too convoluted for its own good.
A Short Hike - - Bought this for the kids but found myself enjoying it surprisingly much. Equivalent of a YA novel in vidya format, I guess, but still kind of wholesome experience overall.
Creaks - - Artistically striking 2D puzzler from Amanita. The puzzles are good, sure, but I was most impressed by the dynamic soundtrack in the game that ebbs and flows the closer you get to a solution. Amusingly the McGuffin of the game is referred to as a Kho-Dexx by the onomatopoeic birds.
HAAK - - Competent metroidvania. It's good for what it does, but this genre is so cramped that I had a hard time getting into this. There's very little to distinguish HAAK from all the other competent non-linear platformers.
Paradise Killer - - The game that showed me that style has a substance of its own, and a very unexpected counterpart to Neon White that gave me a lesson on what's apparently best in vidya. It's not "compelling gameplay loop", "striking aesthetics", or "well-designed mechanics". No. It's interrogating shirtless Persian faggots, hearing their distorted cries of "BLASPHEMY", and being interrupted every 10 seconds to pick up some inconsequential trinket. I have no way to describe what makes this so compelling.
Lacuna - - Good futuristic noir detective game with solid investigation mechanics and a branching narrative.
Superhot - - Made the mistake of playing this after Neon White. The gimmick of advancing time only during movement is nice but the action feels way too sluggish to get really psyched about anything.
Field of Glory Empires - - Not too much competition in the Paradox-sphere. This is a nice attempt, with especially the trade goods economy system being very satisfying to tinker with. Warfare and decadence/incline mechanics are very boardgamey, but at least they try something fresh.
Samorost 3 - - Solid musically-oriented point&click. Many puzzles are solved with literal 'moon logic', which I'm not a fan of.
Six Ages Drive Like Jehu or whatever it was - - Good sequel overall to Dragon Pass, but the endgame that stealthily revolves around a very specific character (that I got killed in an unrelated combat duel) left a bad taste in my mouth. There's no indication that THAT courtship is the "final boss" in this game. You grind, your clan prospers, and then it's game over.
Suzerain - - Very well written and designed political CYOA game. It's a lot like King of Dragon Pass in that there are underlying Systems in addition to the multiple choice prompts you click through. The characters and the narration really sell the geopolitical and interpersonal drama in Suzerain. The tension in your strained family relationships is especially well set up.
Pentiment - - Stretching the definition of "game". I think I could have experienced this walking sim masquerading as a point&click in book form without too much being lost. Apart from some sudden feminisms, the game builds a strong sense of being there, though. And the story is actually compelling. And the fonts are nice. It has plenty of things going for it.
Rain World - - Unforgiving open-ended open world survival adventure. Hard game to enjoy, impossible to not respect.
Patrick's Parabox - - Recursive sokoban-type puzzle game where you put blocks in your blocks so you can block while you block. Doesn't reach Baba Is You levels of ingenuity but does a good job of exploring the possibilities of its mechanics.
INSIDE - - Very well done limbolike that doesn't overstay its welcome. I like that while there aren't too many 'verbs' available, all puzzles are still solved with them instead of external minigames. Some of the set pieces (what the hell is that shockwave cannon!?) are very memorable, as is the final rampage in a walking moshpit.
Cocoon - - Unimpressive light puzzle adventure from the Limbo/INSIDE guys. You carry and insert balls on pedestals and shit happens.
Endless Legend - - Worthwhile attempt to do something different among the Civilization-type games. Very distinct factions, very bold design choices. I'm intrigued, yet I just can't quite get into this game.
Getting Over It With Bennett Foddy - - lol no I didn't finish this. Foddy treads the tightrope of sincere trolling very well, though.
Katana Zero - - Stylish sidescrolling Hotline Miami. You die in one hit while clearing floors from enemies with your time-freezing bathrobe samurai. Pretty good story, solid soundtrack - especially the therapist nocturne pumped full of odd chord arpeggios.

 

[Eisen]

Lemme see...
I didn't play much to be honest
Spongebob Battle for Bikini Bottom -
Divine Divinity(several failed attempts before, finally finished!) -
Quake 2 remaster -
NWN Eye Of the Beholder mod -
Half Life(played before but never finished) -

EDIT: Forgot about Megaman X1 to X4

Megaman X1(Replayed) -
Megaman X2 -
Megaman X3 -
Megaman X4 (Replayed)-

 

[Tse Tse Fly]

The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky -
The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky SC -
The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky the 3rd -
The Legend of Heroes: Trails from Zero -
The Legend of Heroes: Trails to Azure -
The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel -
The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel II -

then I broke

played many other games, but couldn't quite commit to any of them to the end.

 

[Abu Antar]

1. WORLD END ECONOMiCA episode.03 (1hr in 2023)
2. The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel II (2hrs in 2023)
3. Hellpoint
4. VirtuaVerse
5. Mini Ninjas
6. Alt254
7. Chaos on Deponia
8. Eiyuden Chronicle: Rising
9. Broken Sword: Director's Cut
10. Trials of Mana
11. Immortal Planet
12. Street Fighter V
13. Control
14. Disciples II
15. Jagged Alliance
16. Romancing SaGa 2
17. Devil Survivor: Overclocked
18. Championship Manager 01/02
19. Daggerfall Unity
20. Octopath Traveler II
21. Battle for Esturia
22. ArcaniA (7hrs in 2023)
23. Resonance of Fate (11hrs in 2023)
24. Warhammer: Chaosbane
25. Solasta: Crown of the Magisters (30h in 2023)
26. Greedfall
27. Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order
28. Warhammer 40K: Chaos Gate
29. Granblue Fantasy: Versus
30. Trek to Yomi
31. Axiom Verge 2
32. Caves of Lore
33. God Wars: Future Past
34. Devil Survivor 2
35. Ace Attorney
36. Injustice 2
37. Goodbye Deponia
38. Deponia Doomsday
39. The Search
40. INSOMNIA: The Ark
41. Bionic Commando
42. Mafia: Definitive Edition
43. Nephise Begins
44. Alwa's Awakening
45. Ganbare! Super Strikers
46. The Murder of Sonic the Hedgehog
47. Elden Ring
48. Demon Lord Reincarnation
49. Luminous Arc
50. Like A Dragon: Ishin!
51. Condemned: Criminal Origins
52. Pleasure Puzzle: Portrait 趣拼拼：肖像画
53. Ancient Enemy
54. Arctico
55. The Scroll of Taiwu
56. Football Manager 2024
57. Gomo
58. Beholder 2
59. Colony Ship: A Post-Earth Role Playing Game
60. Daymare 1998
61. Star Ocean: The Second Story R
62. Nox Archaist

I still have a lot of ongoing games, so this list might bgrow by 2-4 games.

 

[Catacombs]

Championship Manager 01/02

Why this version? How did it get 10/10?

 

[Hellraiser]

Homeworld: Deserts of Kharak - first time playing it, it was a lot better than I expected. Thought it would be a disappointing cashgrab hyped purely on pedigree and made by has been developers, in particular because it was retooled into a homeworld game after Epic got the rights, was pleasantly surprised instead. However considering that the first 2 or 3 missions are pretty much a tutorial, all in all the campaign is way too short. Still a nice RTS romp, with good music as well and a nice setting.

Homeworld Remastered - a bit better than it was on release because they did some engine modifications but this is still HW1 in the HW2 engine.

Starfield - the best way to describe this game is to say "a bethesda game without a handcrafted open world you can hike around", you get left with sometimes maybe even slightly improved but still crappy Bethesda game design (dialog system better than ever, background/trait related tagged options appear sometimes, nice multi-stage persuasion system, only almost all the choices are meaningless and writing/design sucks) and a ton of copy&pasted filler sprinkled through the magic of procedural generation across I forgot how many planets and moons. If you were into settlement-bulding autism in Fallout 4 even you will be disappointment with the outpost system in Starfield. The bulk of the main quest sucks and consists of go to X, do shitty minigame, go back to base to learn where to go next and do the same shit again.

At times it does do some things interesting with the main quest very late into it. And it has some decent homages to various SF classic stories/episodes/tropes (and not just shit normies would be familiar with) across the game, but bethesda's shitty writing, quest design and non-ending pretty much sour the experience despite that. I have to however give Bethesda some credit for not going the obvious star wars or star trek copying route regarding the setting and (mostly, bar the alien(?) space magic/force like powers) the main quest plot. It might be a juvenile and failed (too much of a theme park for one, plus bad writing) attempt at creating a human-centric grounded "nasapunk" setting without blatantly impossible spaceship designs or whacky rubber forehead aliens everywhere, but this was not the lazy uninspired low-effort path of least resistance unlike going for a star trek or star wars clone which I expected given bethesda's track record. Furthermore it is clear that bethesda wanted the game's universe and procedural system to be more ambitious (seamless planet surfaces no man's sky style for one, there's enough left over in the game to hint this was the idea at some point), but utterly failed and tried to salvage what they could by down-scaling the technical scope. Anyway no way in hell modders or Bethesda will fix the game ever.

Per Aspera - I think this was the third time I beaten this. This is a martian terraforming sim/builder/logistics chain game, with too much storyfaggotry and writerwank about the terraforming AI main character the player controls. Even worse the actual game in story mode is constantly interupted as your AI character constantly babbles its thoughts asking some meaningless LARP question where you need to pick the answer (this is how you get a Butlerian Jihad to happen I figure). The only real choice is made at the very very end in one specific event. Sandbox mode doesn't have that though, but it also doesn't have combat (no loss honestly) and some cheevos related to events like nuking the poles (can't nuke them in sandbox, sadly), nor the challenge/speed run one I was going for this time, where you need to beat the game and a post-game objective under 100 martian years.

However the good thing about this one, with all the paid and free DLC anyway as originally it was yet another obviously not finished game released as 1.0. where the developers were finishing shit post-launch, is that it's really the martian terraforming game. It is essentially what you had about the subject in the Red/Green/Blue Mars trilogy simulated on a global scale game, with all the locations one might recognize from those books neatly labeled on the martian globe. You mine shit and manufacture shit to dump it into megaprojects like solar mirrors, hurling comets at mars, space elevators etc. all meant to directly or indirectly terraform mars. There's stuff modeled like CO2 frozen in the poles and trapped in the regolith, ice deposits can be mined but also melt away into sea level as the temperature rises, flooding, all on a planetary scale heightmap of mars reflecting real martian topography. Later on the climate and seasonal patterns simulation becomes important, as it affects your efforts to spread lichen and plants across the planet. There are colonists and colonies but they're essentially a research factory (still crucial to win though) without deeper simulation mechanics, just input enough of 2 resources, that is water and food (and I guess power like everything else needs).

Resident Evil 2 (Gamecube) - I replay this once every 2 or 3 years I think. Played Leon A and Claire B, went for A ranks in both and got them. While less "survival" than the first game and easier from an ammo perspective, there's just something about the ambience and the locations it takes place in that makes it for me the best one. That and the scenario A and B gimmick is great, but sadly this is one of those ideas that was only possible in the still pioneering years of the vidya game industry that were in the 90s, as nowadays no AAA developer would do this because of retarded focus groups, corporate committee bullshit or whatever.

Resident Evil 3 (Gamecube) - Best considered as a more actiony spin-off, while the level design and puzzles are a step down from RE2, the zombie ITZed urban locations still have some charm and Nemesis is one of the most iconic antagonists games ever had while also elegantly simple in concept.

Resident Evil 4 (Gamecube) - This is where the series turned towards full-on action and is basically a slow shooter, haven't played it in at least 15 years unlike the other games from this series. It's ok as an action-b movie like video game romp, but especially now after playing Code Veronica last year for the first time, the direction they took with 4 is very disappointing. Full 3D and I guess TPP was an obvious next step, but they shouldn't have gutted the puzzles and went all guns blazing with this series. As one of those games that pushed the ATI hardware inside the cube to the limits (well it was an exclusive for a while), it still looks rather good still, bar the obvious texture-up-close issues.

Star Wars Episode 1: Racer (Dreamcast) - I've been playing it on and off for 2, maybe 3 years and I finally got around to seeing the credits. Although confession: I did not win that one optional circuit track, the third out of four on that fucking gas giant (Bespin?), it's too fucking hard. The rest however, including the final optional lava one, had 1st place everywhere. Played with Anakin, of course. DC version is a bit choppy at times unfortunately. The career mode has a "weird" ironman-like reward system where you get credits only the first time you finish the race in 4th or better place unlike the typical way these games work with repeating beaten races/cups, so you can get fucked if you don't metagame around that. Still a lot of fun racing, sadly it also reminds me that we can't hope for good Star Wars games anymore.

Road Rash with improvement patch (Megadrive) - well my megadrive is not overclocked so I barely noticed the fps improvement, fps are still in the low teens making the snes star fox look smoother . Don't know if I wouldn't just get rid of software sprite scaling in the original developer's place (I guess they wanted to save on ROM size), maybe one day some autist makes a sega CD enhanced hack that throws the sprite scaling work to its scaling chip. As for the game itself, if you can live with the awful framerate (not an issue in an emulator, as it can run in overclocked CPU mode) this is very fun and quite relaxing. Drive forward across californian countryside, punch competitors, earn money for new bike, try not to trash your bike on obstacles or get caught by the popo. The music is actually quite decent for a western-developed megadrive game, although a bit twangy (which is why it reminds me of the JA2 music, maybe the same guitar sample was used as a basis?).

Magical Hat Turbo Flying Adventure (or something along those lines, everyone calls it Magical Hat online) (Megadrive) - the japanese game known for being retooled in the west as Decap Attack (which I didn't play FYI), as it was based on some manga or anime so I guess like with other such games licensing issues and/or 0 brand recognition were the problem. Rather easy for a megadrive game, quite colorful but all in all it's an "ok" 16bit platformer with level layouts going beyond just going to the right all the time. Also the music is quite nice at times, those Japanese composers sure knew how to do FM synth music.

Ecco the Dolphin (Sega/Mega CD) - I already wrote in the other thread about games I enjoyed this year about this one, but in short, it's a more polished (but still rough) version of a 16-bit diamond in the rough. In particular it has checkpoints in levels which makes it far less frustrating than the cartridge version (some levels are very long and have much bullshit which can kill you). Swim as a dolphin, don't drown/run out of air, navigate mazes and do puzzles or reflex-based swimming sections, learn to hate those fucking spidercrab enemies, engage in a rather original science fiction plot. Be surprised that it has insanely difficult 2-3 first levels and then suddenly it drops off for 10 or more levels being merely challenging, until the very end, having this weird |_| canyon shaped difficulty curve. All in all this is actually a rather "artsy" game for a more mature crowd. Fantastic vangelis-like synthy oceanic ambient soundtrack in the CD version that is one of my go to choices nowadays as work background music or when I want to take a nap or just chill in bed.

Days Gone - as far as open world games go this one is similar in quality to the Mad Max one. That is to say it gets repetitive and just drags on and on at some point, with the player not getting any new toys or mechanics or whatever carrot on a stick besides story (which is merely ok). Anyway it's a game with bikers in post-ITZ zombie-infested Oregon. Stealth and combat are better than in mad max, vehicle action worse. Gimmick with zombies nests/roaming in the dozens or even hundreds that you can try to eliminate was nice though. I also have countryside roadtrip autism so riding the bike across digital post-ITZ oregon was rather fun for a while, as was scavenging for gas (until you learn the gas cans respawn in the same places, sadly). Very easy game after the first few hours, you just need to get a few perks or talents or whatever to not suck at combat. I also like the biker theme, more games should use bikers as characters, very underused concept despite biker subculture being quite compatible with games.

Dark Souls - it's dark souls, everyone and their mother has an opinion on it by now. I've beaten it for the first time, previous 2 attempts were dropped shortly after beating Smoug and Ornstein. Game is rather easy after that point besides the four kings boss and the final boss. I like how impactful thwacking things with my axe felt (always started as a Bandit) and that the game rewarded patience and a cool head rather than twitchy button mashing. The quality however does drop off after Anor Londo, although really every area after the Undead Burg can't compare to the Burg IMO.

Megaman X (SNES) - great 16-bit action platformer game despite the limitations regarding firing direction, still quite fun and not as difficult as I remembered it (although checking the optimal boss order online certainly had an impact ) after playing an emulated version or the MMX collection one all those years ago. Also that music in Sigma Stage 1, on headphones and going out of the original hardware, I was honestly quite surprised by how damn good it sounds considering the sound memory limitations and low-quality snes sound samples tended to have. The composer and sound programmer were ridiculously good.

Lord of the Rings Tactics (PSP) - an obscure janky piece of a tactical game, that you would expect to be a low effort shovelware cashgrab with some FMV sequences from the movies. Despite shitty framerates and general jank, the tactical part is quite decent with zones of control, attacks of opportunity, crowd control, a character system with quite some freedom in leveling up attributes or skills, so the developers actually cared. A bit grindy (the difficulty of the mandatory chapters seems to require grinding beaten chapters for more exp+gold, even if you do beat all the optional ones along the way), too many chapters require using specific characters (Gimli warms the bench too much), the evil campaign has shitty hero availability on top of the restrictions (BFME 1 on PC had the same problem in the evil campaign). Also ultimate abbilities/spells say "summon ents", but instead of ent units that exist in the campaign, it is just a whole map all enemy damaging spell, and every ultimate ability is like this.

XCOM+Enemy Within (PS Vita, out of all things) - this port has a very bad reputation due to technical issues, but while very choppy, with long loading, some crashes and with noticeable asset pop-in issues that increase downtime between turns, it was actually rather decent to play from the couch while babysitting or in a boring online conference call. Also it crashed like 3 or 4 times.

XCOM 2+War of the Chosen - last time I played this game I played on the highest difficulty and dropped it since it got tedious (I was already quite far with those oculus/sphere of doom enemies showing up in random missions), wondering how the hell I have beaten it on that difficulty in the past. Turns out I never did, I played on the one just below and I did so again this time. Besides the even further dumbed-down strategic layer due to lack of interceptions and even simpler base building, I mostly like the changes it did vs the first game, especially the ones meant to make it feel like a resistance against the alien menace such as stealth and the varied often hit and run mission types. Only the zombie "lost" missions were a bit tedious.

Mass Effect - went renegade vanguard, played this for the first time since ME3 came out, as it pretty much killed the franchise for me and made me erase interest in it the same way GoT's ending ruined that franchise. Mako traversing too fucking steep mountains still suck, mako driving clockwise after landing to get all loot still sucks and makes exploration busywork and unfun. Soundtrack is still good and there's no reason for me to write more and further beat the dead horse of what it does bad and good as a game.

Mass Effect 2 - continued as renegade vanguard. While the biotic powers got nerfed hard, in general I think this one has the best combat in the series. ME3 has horrible bullet sponges and required me to really turn down the difficulty due to how tedious the combat was because of it, ME2's enemies meanwhile die reasonably fast on the penultimate difficulty. ME1 had crappy tech powers and meh shootan, plus also got spongy at times, so saying ME2 has best combat is an easy choice here for me. Also ME2 orange filter is more eye-pleasing and I guess subtle than the crappy red/blue tint everything in ME3 has making that game ugly as sin (might as well make everything brown, as bad IMO). The unfortunate dumbing down from ME1 is a another dead horse I won't beat.

Crash Bandicoot (PS1) - fucking hard to get 100% in it, which I didn't yet, partially due to some design choices they fixed in the sequel (and in the remake) like crates not getting saved at checkpoiints. Forgot about that one because last time I played it was the remake version back when it released on Steam. Also fuck the bridge to nowhere level or how it is called. Anyway the whole trilogy on the PS1 is a nice 32-bit spiritual successor to the Donkey Kong Country games only using 2,5D, still feels closer to a 2D platformer than something like Mario 64 or Spyro.

Crash Bandicoot 2 (PS1) - I remembered this one being easier than the first game but still hard, unlike the 3rd one. Actually it is just as easy, managed to 100% it in a few evenings. The low polygon art style from this game onwards holds up very well, Crash 1 still looks decent but some weaker parts in the assets, but this one has more consistent quality in the art and assets.

Crash Bandicoot 3 (PS1) - Good babysitting tool, although convincing my kid to maybe let me do a level where I don't have at least a gold relic yet is not so easy. Also educational, since my kid learned new words/things such as the pyramids, two headed ogres and some other stuff by watching me play the game. Quite easy besides maybe 3 or 4 levels. Also that prehistoric stage music is a real banger, although the series in general has some nice and mostly catchy cartoony tunes (the prehistoric one isn't one of those though).

Super Metroid (SNES) - it's super metroid, another game where everybody has an opinion on it by this point. I have to add here that I forgot how quite big but also fairly self-contained Maridia was. Was fun, played it and finished for the first time in possibly almost 20 years, and I have to admit I got stuck a few times (some things are very not obvious).

Wipeout Pure (PSP) - I'll just tick it off as beaten despite not seeing credits since I already unlocked all the tracks and everything besides the final speed classes. Definitely better than Fusion and solidly revived the series after Fusion's weak reception (still like it a lot, but it has issues), even if I miss the upgrade system from that and the long tournaments, because simply the racing is better. It's actually 60 fps for one, the physics are nice, also it was nice to see this is where some iconic well designed tracks I quite liked in Wipeout HD came from (from this game, obviously). Main flaws are that the two downloadable (they were free though) sets of tracks/tournaments (delta/gamma) are rather meh both from the visual side and from the track design side. The other one is that the unlockable and downloadable classic tracks are all done on the cheap as kind of flat-shaded polygons with no textures (probably to keep size and development time down). Also good soundtrack, unlike the kind of meh one of Wipeout Fusion, and you can even "acquire" (not sure if it was paid DLC or not back in the day) some of the iconic first Wipeout soundtrack to be part of the ingame playlist for those mid-90s rave vibes.

Subnautica - replayed it for I think a third time, while far from perfect for me this game was one of the best gaming experiences I had in the last 10 years. I didn't have that much joy from discovering things by accident since I played Fallout for the first time looking for the waterchip (and restarting the game many times due to the time limit until I found the damn thing), and similar to Fallout I wish I just forgot everything to once again experience that joy. A repeat playthrough just isn't that good, although the diving is quite zen despite some nasty overgrown sea beasts wanting to eat you. In particular I enjoy exploring sunken wrecks (very tricky to navigate and easy to drown), looting the aurora (you need to come prepared or come back multiple times with more tools, so it has this feeling of a castaway survivor adventure/scavenging expedition), and discovering things like alternative entrances to new zones as I dive deeper and deeper. Also really liked that there's no map or even compass and you need to use the tools available (beacons) or reference points to navigate and figure out where you are and figure out where to go to "progress" by yourself, unlike pretty much every modern game made for the lowest common denominator filed with quest compasses and GPS. Craftung and resource gather is a bit tedious at times, but the fixed location of the resource spawns and some tools later in the game mean that after a while you can do it in 5 minutes and then spend the next hour or more exploring, bar crafting some endgame stuff needed to beat the game.

Colony Ship - party control in combat, actual in-game world interaction/exploration rather than through dialog and far far less branching than AoD. Has an actual turn-based stealth system that I really liked. In general seems seems that the content isn't as fleshed out after Act 1. The learning by doing skill system was a surprise, it results in the game being far easier than AoD as you can finish it without metagaming around skillchecks (might miss some optional loot though). Liked it very much, finished it twice. Since I only played it and Starfield out of games released this year (and KSP 2, but that game can't be finished, yet), this is my obvious choice for GOTY this year.

Abandoned playthroughs list of shame (I have more on hold or ongoing in general, these however are abandoned/on hold for good reasons I need to complain about):

Mass Effect 3 - might resume in the next year, after the bad aftertaste of the frustrating tedious bullet sponge combat disappears, as mentioned in my comments related to ME2.
Wasteland 2: Director's Cut - tried replaying it, originally finished the non-DC version. Almost every combat encounter plays the same, so I dropped it during the canyon of the titan. Colony Ship has better encounter design and general combat mechanics. Should have replayed (and actually finished this time) Dungeons of Naheulbeuk instead of this for a TB tactical fix, or maybe replay and actually finish Divinity :Original Sin.
Elite Dangerous - I know this game doesn't really end. Anyway needed to say this is still tedious and boring and I have no clue what got into me thinking I give it yet another shot. Probably a side effect of playing Starfield and wanting to fly around space.

 

[deuxhero]

I beat Doom (episodes 2, 3, and 4 because I've beaten 1 enough), Doom 2, Hexen, and Heretic. All great, though all of them suffer from very uneven level design. Didn't do Hexen's expansion yet though since the process of patching it on Linux was enough of a pain to dissuade me from actually playing it.

Dark Forces II and Mysteries of the Sith (via OpenJKDF2) however suffer from consistently awful level design despite excellent gameplay. Levels are serviceable to "what? How the fuck were you supposed to figure that out?!".

Nioh 2 was great, though I never really bothered with the DLC/NG+.

Akiba's Trip 1 was fun, but primitive. 2 was way better, but has been retroactively censored by tranny cowards.

Stick of Truth was OK. Too much into memberberries for humor (ironic considering what created that name) until the last third. Super unbalanced.

I can probably squeeze out Rollercoaster Tycoon 2 (via openRCT) if I wanted to, but I have no desire to finish Ghost Town since it has no failure state and is purely about mastery of coaster building mechanics. I think I'd rather finish of Tales of Vesperia since I'm in the last part and got bored with all the sidequests that unlock after that town becomes inaccessible.

 

[Strange Fellow]

Dark Forces II and Mysteries of the Sith (via OpenJKDF2) however suffer from consistently awful level design

 

[deuxhero]

Yep. Some levels have good ideas with OK execution, but too many are awful. Level 6 for example is just huge with copy-paste sections and an obtuse puzzle. Some of the setpieces are great (good ways to use force speed for instance), but it doesn't fix how insane it is.

 

[OSK]

Subnautica
- I usually don't play these types of games, but I was intrigued and picked it up. I was not disappointed. The game is amazing. I loved the exploration, feeling of isolation on an alien planet, and the subtle way the story unfolded as you played.
Expeditions: Viking
- It's probably the most mediocre RPG I've ever played.
Pentiment
- It's not a game. I like the story and the visuals, and I appreciate the underused setting... but it's not a game. This is a visual novel.
Geneforge 1 - Mutagen
- The first Vogel remake that's a straight up improvement over the original. I'd say that this is now the definitive version. He actually improved the combat for once and added some interesting quests.
Underrail + Expeditions:
- I started this game a couple times before, but I quit both times at Depot A. At the time I didn't see the appeal. It seemed super linear and the combat overly difficult. This year I gave it another try and did some research beforehand to get through Depot A, and I found the game opened up after that and became amazing. I kind of want to knock the score a bit for my earlier struggles, but the game is really good once you get a hang of things and get past that point.
The Case of the Golden Idol + DLC
- This game has such a simple concept that I'm really surprised I haven't come across a game like this before. Fun puzzles and overarching story.
Return of the Obra Dinn
- Like Golden Idol, but 3D, which is the only reason I have it lower than Golden Idol. I felt like navigating a 3D environment became tedious near the end and got in the way of the puzzle solving. Otherwise great puzzles, great environment, a neat concept, and a solid Lovecraftian story.
The Dungeon of Naheulbeuk: The Amulet of Chaos + DLC:
- This one was a big surprise for me. The game is kind of corny, but the gameplay is very good. I pretty quickly blew through the main game and the DLC.
Grim Fandango Remastered
- I'm strictly grading the remaster. The original game is a classic, but the remaster really didn't bring anything new to the table. At the very least they should have done something about that damn forklift puzzle. If I know the solution, there's zero excuse I should be struggling to achieve it in a damn adventure game.
Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 1+2
- Pure nostalgia. This is how a remaster/remake/whatever should be done. I technically haven't 100% beaten the game, but I unlocked all the non-secret levels, so I'm counting it. I'm really glad they decided to combine the first two games, because individually they're pretty short otherwise.
Monkey Island™ 2 Special Edition: LeChuck's Revenge™
- Again, I'm judging the remake. The original game is my favorite in the Monkey Island series. The remake is fine.
Cassette Beasts
- It's been a long time since I played a JRPG that wasn't a FFT clone. I played the Pokemon games as a kid, and wanted to try something similar for nostalgia. I think there's a lot of improvements over Pokemon with a non-linear world, better story, and a lot less grinding, but the type system is weird. I appreciate they wanted to do something different from the classic increased/decreased damage for typing, but what they ended up with is kind of unbalanced. Either you can completely ignore the type advantages/disadvantages becaue they really don't matter... or you really care because even a really weak attack can fuck you up. It was also really easy to create tanky or speedy monsters that could use their defense or speed for damage which made them immediately better than ones with high attack.

 

[Humanophage]

I mostly don't finish games. I leave a bit of space closer to the end so that I have the motivation to replay. I'll just list the ones I played a lot.

The grades are all high because I don't play games I dislike or that feel lacklustre. I just drop them early on.

game	rating	explanation
Colony Ship		Completed three times. Rather enjoyable, but feels like there is untapped potential in it. It's puzzling how they did all the expensive graphics and levels but didn't populate them enough even though that is cheap and probably fun. The second and third time, I was just playing for combat and the builds. Maybe 8.5, I just have a bit of a burnout right now.
Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous		What an epic game. I was worried after the intro that it was a letdown after P:K, but it turned out great in the end. Challenging, lots of builds. Could still use better exploration. Of course, the writing is questionable. Well, everyone knows WOTR by now.
Vagrus: The Riven Realms		Nice inventive Dark Sun setting, but ultimately feels too randomly generated and procedural. The writing is too verbose.
Civilization V (+both add-ons)		I mean I completed several runs in it. This is the first time I'm trying it, and I'm pleasantly surprised. It doesn't feel oversimplified and the Deity AI is still challenging. The positive surprise of the year as I had the stereotype it was all downhill from Civ IV.
Europa Universalis IV		I've completed a few runs in the past. This time, I was playing Geneva, Yarkand, and a peaceful Muscovy. It's good once you start getting immersed, but a bit gamey. I'd prefer it to be more simulationist.
Crusader Kings II: Elder Kings (rating is for mod)		I was extremely impressed by Geheimnisnacht, a Warhammer mod, which was one of the most atmospheric games I tried. This is also an interesting and immersive mod that makes you care about TES lore and which really brings it to life. However, it has some fatal flaws (they added too many small buildings without automation, so the micro is prohibitive, making lategame obnoxious). I was playing for Falkreath.
Endless Space 2		Despite being a few years old, it keeps getting major updates. Not the best AI but passable enough. Nice aesthetic and fun initial exploration. One of the rare strategies where peaceful development is very viable. Definitely liked it better than Endless Legend.
Thea 2: The Shattering		One of my favourite strategies. Contrary to the stereotype, the new combat is an improvement over Thea 1. The RPG element gets eroded after so many replays, and it doesn't feel as atmospheric as Thea 1. Interesting difficulty curve and it encourages you to break it.
Minion Masters		It's a small online PvP card/tower defence game, but I played a fair deal of it and completed a couple of seasons. It's fun to build decks and you feel superior when you beat others. No donations needed. Very polished and populated by boomers, oddly enough.

 

[Doctor Gong]

I didn't beat many games as I took a six month break from gaming.

--------------------------------

Rule the Waves 3 -- Great little Naval wargame that allows you to play as the head of a navy (various nations can be selected) from 1890 to 1970, going from the late ironclad era to the missile age. Easily one of my fave games to come out this year. I suspect it not for everyone but for those who like the idea of designing ships and then having wars break out and command them in action it is a blast.

4.5/5

Mass Effect 1 -- I know a lot of people have mixed feelings about Mass Effect, but I really enjoy the first two entries into the series. Mass Effect 1 is also nice that it not too long, but is long enough to be cool.

4/5

Dear Esther -- Meh

1.5/5

Xcom: Enemy Unknown: Just a good game.

4/5


-----------------------

I hope to finish 1-2 games over Christmas.

 

[Vic]

I didn't beat many games as I took a six month break from gaming.

FAKE

GAMER

 

[Gregz]

Jupiter Hell