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A review of your gaming year - 2018

Started by Kelvin, December 24, 2018, 05:24:12 PM

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Kelvin

We usually have a game of the year thread, but since a lot of us have predominantly played older games or re-releases (like Dark Souls on Switch), I thought I'd make it a bit more open ended this year.

With that in mind, what games did you play in 2018? What were your favourites, and what were your biggest disappointments? Feel free to mention just a couple of highlights, or write out a whole list of everything you played and what you thought of them. I'll do the latter when I'm not on my phone, but thought I'd get things started.

Dex Sawash

Mario Kart on switch for 3 hours
Snipperclips about an hour
Arms 30 minutes

Fishfinger

All PS4:

Lots and lots of Bloodborne and Dark Souls III, both of which I loved for the intense combat, which I'd been afraid I wouldn't be able to handle. I particularly enjoyed the former for its dense atmosphere and Lovecraftian lore, and the latter for the larger range of customisation and replayability provided over BB. That said, I've still probably put more hours into Bloodborne, to the extent that a few months ago I did a full solo run for the first time, including the story chalice dungeons. I had plenty of help the first go round and it was a hoot to see how far I'd come.

Bought Elite: Dangerous in January after previously being a fan of Frontier back in the day. But I ditched it after a few weeks (20 hours?) - I thought I'd enjoy revisiting that open-ended experience again, but nah. With an eye on the CAB thread, the recent updates look promising and I'll give it another shot soon.

Endless hours of GTA 5 with friends in the first half of the year, and lots of fun with the late summer multiplayer update for No Man's Sky. Will probably return to that also before too long to sample the underwater and biome expansions.

Red Dead Redemption 2, story and online. I found the story mode immensely satisfying. I won't love the online version until they let us just play with friends: frustrating and hollow.

Thursday

My 2018 was mainly a mix of catching up with what I missed in 2017, running through all the Yakuza games in a couple of months to in preparation for Yakuza 6 (Which in terms of wanting to know backstory and characters was a bit pointless, but in terms deepening the emotional impact was worth it, although when Yakuza Kiwami 2 came round, I suddenly felt complete apathy. Other than that it's been Destiny 2 since the Forsaken expansion has been so good.

So I guess, the best games in no particular order were

Destiny 2: Forsaken
Yakuza 5
Yakuza 6
Night in the Woods
Everybody's Golf
Passpartout: The Starving Artist

Maybe I'll post in a little bit more depth about the best another time.

In terms of big hitters from 2018, I'm getting RDRII for Christmas, and God of War was... fine maybe a 7/10

I think 2017 broke me, it was such a good year for games, but it also meant there were lots of games that were really hyped and when I played them I wasn't that impressed. (God of War reinforcing this opinion, this year) It's also became tiring, and seemed pointless trying to keep up with everything just so I could have an opinion. I don't write for a site or do a podcast or anything, so who cares?



Mister Six

Mario Odyssey
Probably the most exquisitely designed game I've played in years, possibly ever. Endlessly inventive and surprising, bursting with joy and imagination, and genuinely funny to boot. Better still, it helped introduce Mrs Six to gaming, first with her on support as Cappy and later with her taking over as Mario. Glorious.

Prey
Mario Odyssey is better made, but Prey could have been made for me. It's all the things I love in a game - exploration, sidequests, great characters and plot, multiple ways of solving problems, skill trees - wrapped up in stunning graphics and splendid storytelling. The gradual scaling up of threat and reveals of the various plot twists are probably the best I've seen in video games.

Overcooked! 2
Another game for Mrs Six and I to play together, and a glorious mix of co-operative fun and high tension as you deliver ever more complex orders from kitchens on rafts, in hot air balloons and in the midst of Hogwarts-esque magical schools. Sadly they've fucked the online co-op on Switch, so only the hosting party can have two players, which means we can't play together with her sister and husband. Boo!

Zelda: Breath of the Wild
Man, I hate to be a bummer but I wasn't as enraptured by this as everyone else. The systems are great, the world is lovely and the ideas splendid, but it feels rather too directionless to me, and rather... I don't know, thin? Maybe that's unfair. I'll give it another swing in the new year, maybe track down one of those giant monsters or something.

Torment: Tides of Numanera
Loved this for most of its runtime, although I felt a bit ripped off when I realised that you can't return to areas once a chapter is up, and so it's possible to miss the triggers to develop your companions' backstories if you don't have them with you are particular times. Sadly I lost track of the plot as it went along and I dropped out, probably never to return, while battling the Mnemovora.

Witcher 3
Been playing this for ages. Fucked it up by trying to clear the never-ending series of sidequests and totally lost track of the plot proper. Doesn't help that the combat's a bit pish. Do plan to return and do a proper clear out in the next year.

Mario Party
Picked this up as a sorbet for when we're Overcooked out. Slight, but good fun. Thank god we found the co-operative party mode otherwise we'd be on our way to a divorce. Mrs Six is competitive.

Just Cause 3
Massive improvement on 2 in terms of variety, graphics, plot and characterisation. Shame the map's not as interesting though. Freeing the various towns and such is almost meditative, but I've run out of them now so all that's left to do is push on through the story, which is rather less entertaining.

Putty Squad
Picked this up cheapish, having never played the 16-bit versions (alas, it was never released for Amiga and I didn't have a SNES). Sadly the hi-res renders are charmless and the sound and visual style substantially less interesting than the weirdness of the first Putty game.

Sunless Sea
Picked this up cheapish years back but have only just given it a proper try. Simple - barely there, really - gameplay enlivened by the same kind of gorgeous writing you find in Fallen London.

South Park: The Fractured But Whole
Looks gorgeous - the big characters remind me of the old Don Priestly games on the spectrum - and is properly chucklesome, as you'd hope. Full of great details and Easter eggs too.

wooders1978

I think my games of the year were a little predictable but here goes:

God of war (4 is it?? The latest one...) - unbelievably beautiful immersive game (switch of the hud was the best tip I got)
Red dead redemption 2 - just an incredible open world, engaging story mode and great gameplay - shame the online version seems such a cynical money grab :(
The much maligned far cry 5 - I don't really get why this appearing on quite a few most disappointing/worst games of 2018 - I thought it was excellent

biggytitbo

Late to the ps4 party, but mostly catching up with that.

I've played better games gameplay wise, but the order 1888 made the biggest impression on me this year, you will struggle to name a more atmospheric game with a better sense of mise en scene and production design than this, even now serval years later.

Several other ps4 games were classic video game fun - Uncharted 4, Spiderman, Horizon Zero Dawn. After Nintendo Sony are thankfully keeping quality single player games alive.

Replaying Prey a couple more times reveals why it's one of the best games of recent times. It always seems to have more to give.

Will have to give a shout to dark souls, I can't say I really enjoyed it but it was undoubtedly a memorable gaming experience.

Honorable mentions - Far Cry 5 was junk food, but there's always room for that. Dishonored 2 was a typically quality offering. The last of us has tired gameplay but very strong characters and atmosphere and was definetly worth playing.

Timothy

Great thread!!!!

Favorites:

AC Odyssey:
Repetitive, stupid, but so much fun. Ultimate relax and play a game game.

Fire Pro Wrestling World:
Awesome wrestling simulator.

RDR 2:
What a ride!

Hitman 2:
Good fun. Bit short though.

Dragon Quest IX:
Up until after the credits. But really enjoyed it.

Spiderman:
Didnt expect to like it as much as I did. Slinging NY was great fun.

428 Shibuya Scramble:
Mad fun. Great interactive novel.

Mario Party Switch:
Great with friends.

Yakuza Kiwami 2:
My favorite Yakuza game, remastered.

Disliked:

Project Octopath:
Great idea but poorly executed. Really boring and samey.

Smash:
World of Light was quite boring. Online is laggy. Not my cup of tea.

Pokemon Lets Go:
Pokemon without any difficulty. Meh.

Ni No Kuni II:
First game was great and unique. This was a poor Dragon Quest ripoff.

Kingdom Come Deliverance:
Might be the worst game I ever bought on release. Buggy. Bad story. Not fun. And most of it still hasnt been fixed.

RDR Online:
Dull.

Mister Six

Prey: Mooncrash
I totally forgot to mention it upthread, but I'm not sure why as it's one of the best DLCs I've ever played. Brilliantly ekes a different game out of the existing Prey mechanics, with one of the most densely constructed environments I've seen in a DLC.

Minecraft Killing it this year with the Aquatic update, adding Dolphins and Tridents. Making a huge house on Hedgehogs server.

The Messenger Fast retro style Platformer.

Timothy

I totally forgot to put Shadow of the Tomb Raider in my dislike list. What a bad way to end an excellent trilogy.

Moribunderast

#11
I got a PS4 Pro this year so have been playing a mixture of old games and new games. Adored Horizon: Zero Dawn, not just for it's world and gameplay but for the fact it was an open-world game that made it's side-missions interesting and varied. You'd only encounter the same type of mission 3-to-4 times and always with enough variation to keep it interesting - as opposed to an Ubisoft open-world where they give you a task and then ask you to do it 30 fucken times as padding.

God of War was brilliant - have never engaged with the series before but this game looked stunning and played beautifully. The combat was simple but slick and satisfying and I always felt encouraged to explore and progress. I want more games like this.

Spider-Man had too many of the general open-world tropes in terms of repetitive quests but the gameplay was fucken great. Slinging about the city felt awesome and has ruined slower-paced traversal through a big open world for me.

Dark Souls - Remastered was my first go at the series - having been scared away by the promise of cruel difficulty. So glad I gave it a go. It is a beast and oftentimes a cruel one but it coerced me into a playstyle and method I never thought I'd enjoy. There was something zen-like about retreading through the same small area, killing fuckers and leveling up so I could feel strong enough to move forward and into the next unknown hellscape. Bloodborne, which I also played, gave me the same thrill, perhaps moreso. These two games also strengthened my resolve when it comes to hard games. I still get frustrated at something very difficult and I will forever maintain that making you walk for ten minutes over-and-over each time you want to try a boss fight you've failed previously is shit for cunts BUT I am now more patient and, I think, better-skilled because these games forced me to be. There are some games I thought I'd never finish (hello Hollow Knight and Celeste) but I stuck it out and did because the Soulsborne games had taught me I could.

Vampyr created an interesting world and contrived some cool ideas in terms of leveling up through killing main characters but having to leverage that decision against it's impact on the game's difficulty and perhaps the story. I really enjoyed this, though it could be frustrating at times. I hope Dontnod make a sequel because if they can improve on combat and develop the town/character management system further I think they could make something quite special.

In terms of PC games, there were a few beauties:

Celeste - People may (fairly) mock the story and it's focus on FEELINGS AND DEPRESSION because it FEELS like so many indie games are playing that violin at the moment but the actual platforming in this game was precise and really well-designed. It could be bastard-hard at times but I always felt like I could overcome and eventually felt proud when I did.

Minit - Nifty concept where you die every 60 seconds and basically have that amount of time to further explore a map and unlock more of it. It's like a bite-sized Zelda and was a very fun diversion.

Forgotton Anne - Fucking gorgeous art-style and a fun story. The gameplay was a tad lacking so maybe this woulda been better off as an actual cartoon but I really enjoyed being in this world anyhow. Definitely worth a purchase if ye can get it at a reasonable price.

Man, seems I didn't get to many PC games this year. I BOUGHT a fuckton but haven't actually gotten to them yet.

Edit to add: was the South Park game this year? If so, that. Their TV show was middling this season but the game was fucking hilarious and fun.

I just wrote for about an hour about shmups and pressed refresh by accident. I can't tell you how much passion I put into that post. I am absolutely gutted. I had literally just finished it and was proof reading the stuff about Ikaruga. Merry Christmas.

Quote from: The Boston Crab on December 25, 2018, 10:51:19 AM
I just wrote for about an hour about shmups and pressed refresh by accident. I can't tell you how much passion I put into that post. I am absolutely gutted. I had literally just finished it and was proof reading the stuff about Ikaruga. Merry Christmas.
Apt for shmups, one mistake and your back to the start.

Thursday

Quote from: The Boston Crab on December 25, 2018, 10:51:19 AM
I just wrote for about an hour about shmups and pressed refresh by accident. I can't tell you how much passion I put into that post. I am absolutely gutted. I had literally just finished it and was proof reading the stuff about Ikaruga. Merry Christmas.

Nobody cares about your shmups anyway you tedious fucking cunt.


Mister Six

Quote from: Moribunderast on December 25, 2018, 09:46:28 AM
Vampyr created an interesting world and contrived some cool ideas in terms of leveling up through killing main characters but having to leverage that decision against it's impact on the game's difficulty and perhaps the story. I really enjoyed this, though it could be frustrating at times. I hope Dontnod make a sequel because if they can improve on combat and develop the town/character management system further I think they could make something quite special.

This is interesting! I've seen it in GameStop a few times secondhand and it has the look of an underperforming single-A game about it so I've always steered clear. Might look into this now and pick it up cheapish in the future.

Not for a while though as Mrs Six gave me Spider-Man for Christmas and that'll be taking up my solo play time. An Arkham City game, but in New York? Yes please!

Thursday

Vampyr I played for a bit, and found there was too much faff and dull mechanics getting in the way of the interesting bits of the game, I'd say it's worth a look though, as it'll probably be very cheap somewhere by this point.

Can you turn other people into vampires in it?

Glebe

Arkham Asylum, Arkham City and Arkham Origins and I started playing DC Universe Online again.

Lots of variety there, and bang up to date!

Timothy

After thinking things through, here my top 5:

1. Spider-Man
2. Assassins Creed Oddysey. First AC I played, really enjoyed it.
3. Red Dead Redemption 2.
4. Hitman 2. Always liked the Hitman games, and the setting in these levels was great.
5. Dragon Quest XI / Yakuza 6

And here the 5 games that disappointed or that I disliked the most:

1. Kingdom Come Deliverance. Or: How to release an utterly broken game and never fix it.
2. Shadow of the Tomb Raider. Worst way to end an, until Shadow, excellent trilogy.
3. Far Cry 5. The plot kidnappings and ending really soured me on the game.
4. Octopath Traveler. Let's play the same prologue, opening, middle and ending eight times in a row. Not boring at all.
5. Shenmue I and II. Never played them, always wanted to play them, don't think this was the best way to play them. Easy port. Lots of bugs.

Consignia

This year has signalled the death of the Vita to me, and it's subsequent replacement of it by the Switch. I think I turned it on for a brief revival of Taiko no Tatsujin in the Spring but other wise it's dead. Got more play out of the 3DS thanks to WarioWare. Which was ace BTW.

I've also gone almost completely digital now. Again thanks to the Switch. I used to love have physical versions, but these days I can't be arsed with all the tat lying around. Nintendo not really discounting games either physical or digital has meant there's little in it, so going digital has been better.

On the non-Switch front, I only played a couple of PS4 games. Spider-man, which everyone played so no need to elucidate. Yakuza 6, which was a bit of a meh ending to Kiryu's line, despite having some wonderfully bat-shit moments.

The Switch, though, has been wonderful. I travel quite a bit, so it's been a real boon to have the same game experience on the go, as it does when you sit down in your living room. Xenoblade sucked nearly half a life-time's worth of hours. Valkyria Chronicles 4 was an enjoyable return to a style that's never really been emulated. I got into a whole bunch of indies on the eshop, Steamworld Dig being a real highlight. Definitive versions of Smash Bros and Captain Toad. An enjoyable if shallow Pokemon romp. And let's not forget Game of The Year, Kemono Friends Picross.

Blue Jam

#22
Prey: Mooncrash. Same universe, totally different experience, and it does that whole "ramping up the threat" thing of the base game in a whole new way. The new world of the Pytheas moonbase is huge and detailed for a DLC add-on, another beautiful and intricate world to explore after Talos 1 in the original. New Starbender Cycle books too, yaaaay... there's so much to this game, I could talk about it all day. The Typhon Hunter multiplayer mode was a bit of a letdown but even that was a pretty original idea in this era of the Battle Royale. Prey 2 soon, pretty please.

Deus Ex: Human Revolution- good fun, boss fights aside. Another series that needs a new installment, I hope we haven't really seen the last of it.

Wolfenstein 2- you get to shoot a load of Nazis with a giant laser, what's not to love? Immensely satisfying.

MGSV- had a lot of fun dipping in and out of this. It probably is the best stealth game ever, aye. And when you fancy a change from that it's also fun to go loud. Just a big beautiful sandbox and an immensely fun and playful universe- Kojima has seriously made me want to get a PS4 just so I can play Death Stranding next year.

Alien: Isolation. Another great stealth game, and genuinely scary like Prey, the archaic save system is a bastard though.

SOMA: I never thought I'd enjoy playing a horror survival game as a walking sim so Wuss Mode was an unexpected delight. Some decent combat would have been the icing on the cake, though.

Fallout 4- with its retrofuturistic stylings and abandoned Chernobyl theme park feel this looked right up my street, unfortunately it just gave me a real sense of "just passing time before I die". It's a bit boring innit?

Super Mega Baseball 2: I don't normally enjoy sports games and I know sod-all about baseball so this was a pleasant surprise. Really good fun, and someone was clearly having a laugh with the players and their daft All-American names (BEEFCAKE MCSTEVENS, anyone?)

Got RDR2 and Just Cause 4 for Christmas, looking forward to a bit of equestrian boogaloo and creative destruction.

samadriel


That lost shmups post is probably the greatest lost post about shmups ever written. I'm struggling to contribute anything to this thread now and psych myself back up again. When I was 16, I lost a 25hr save file on FF7 and while that's basically nothing these days, back then it was like the end of the world. That was probably the greatest lost save ever compiled on a dodgy memory card. Thirty years later, I still haven't finished that game. Just can't bring myself to do it.

Lee Van Cleef

Lots of Sea of Thieves. A month of Forza Horizon 4. Bits of Yoku's Island Express.

Enjoyed all of them.

ASFTSN

Take the opposite of whatever The Boston Crab's said in this subforum and that's my year in gaming prolly

The Culture Bunker

I struggle to remember what I've played this year, had to view my trophies on the PS4 for any kind of guide.

- Sleeping Dogs: The "Definitive Edition". When it was about a fiver on PS Store. I played it on PS3 years ago, but enjoyed going through it again. Good music, fun fights, engaging game world to the degree I quite fancy visiting Hong Kong for real.

- Infamous: Second Son. From PS+. Bored after a hour or so.

- Mad Max. Again, from PS+. A lot of fun, actually, dug the whole thing about building the car up and the fighting was enjoyably brutal.

- Beyond: Two Souls. Usual guff from the dude who created it. Decent enough acting though too often I felt like a passenger who was supposed to appreciate some kind of "message".

- The Witcher 3. Absolute crap, and I curse those who sold me it as some kind of wonderful gaming experience.

- Final Fantasy XV. Somehow put in 30 hours before I realised I was wasting my life. Tedious characters, crap fighting. It looked great, I will say, and it was cool to cruise in the car listening to the FF7 soundtrack.

- Metal Gear Survive. Paid £15 for this on a gamble. Ouch.

- Grand Theft Auto V. A first return to this since I finished it on PS3 back when it first came out. An enjoyable return, worth the £20 I paid.

- Mafia III. Nothing incredible, but a fun playthrough. Nice setting, good music.

- 2064: Read Only Memories. A lot of fun.

- Dragon Age: Inquisition. Got the DLC when on sale and played through again. Highlight was perhaps David Hayter using his Solid Snake voice for a dwarf character.

- MLB The Show 18. I don't actually like baseball, but enjoy the games for the "The Show" mode. Even at 37, I still get a childish kick from seeing my avatar being really good at sports, as I was always absolute shite at anything that wasn't high jump.

- Need for Speed Payback. Bought for £15 on PS Store. Decent enough driving bits to compensate for obnoxious characters you have to play as.

gabrielconroy

My year in gaming started a little bit late really, having only bought a PS4 a couple of weeks ago. Before that I played a bit of Civ V, Wolfenstein II and Portal on PC, and a lot of Binding of Isaac.

Since I got the PS4 I've bloody loved the shit out of it. Played

- loads of RDR [really very beautiful and evocative. Undecided yet exactly how good it is, but I'm enjoying it so far]
- Pro Evo 2019 [fun, excellent gameplay. Haven't got the hang of all the skills yet and am basically trying to play it like Pro Evo 2 on the PS1 still]
- Astrobot Rescue Mission on VR [AMAZING. Magical stuff. Don't think I've had so much fun playing a game in years and years. Like a Nintendo classic in mood and animation except you're bloody only inside the bloody game, aren't you? Well, I am, in any case]

Thinking about getting the move controllers or an aim controller for PSVR. I'm also genuinely wondering whether Resident Evil would be too scary in VR. I got proper vertigo earlier playing a cartoon cutesy robot adventure, so fuck knows what it'd be like creeping around a creaking dark zombie mansion in 360 sound and virtual reality.

Bazooka

Had such a busy year, my gaming time has been squashed, but from what time I have had to play, 7th Dragon III Code:VFD on the 3DS was a brilliant and unique RPG. Yakuza 0 was a real joy to play too.