GOTY 2020

[bgmnts]

Gave up on Wasteland 3. I don't think I've played a genuinely great game since Prey, that was three years ago.

[Poirots BigGarlickyCorpse]

It's definitely been a ideal game for late-lockdown. Gameplay is a lovely refinement of Supergiant's style (Bastion, Transistor), or so it feels to me. (Edit: Maybe I should take a look at Pyre.)

I thought I'd got to the end today! Satisfying ending but kicking myself because I didn't want it to be over. Well, it's not. Lots more game and a whole other story tangent.

[Chedney Honks]

Can't really say how much I hate the Hades hype.

Best not start, really, but I have to. I can't say this stuff elsewhere because people will think I'm not nice but I'm telling you I fucking hate Hades. The epitome of middlebrow. Round off all the edges and steal steal steal from better games. Sure, might go down well with the shit munchers but it's an Innocent smoothie of a game. Divorced from the hyperbole and chatter, it's a perfectly pleasant thing but it's oh so cute. It's oh...so...fucking...cute, and absolutely delighted with itself. A real cunt mirror.

[ImmaculateClump]

Haha, yeah, I try to stay positive on gaming forums because they're sensitive types who tend to take any criticisms of games they enjoy as direct personal insults.
If I've got nothing nice to say I'll just keep quiet unless someone specifically asks for my opinion.

I have been very, very quiet about Hades. It's the roguelite for people who don't like roguelites. There, I said it. Go play Leap of Fate - https://store.steampowered.com/app/363420/Leap_of_Fate/

I've never enjoyed any of supergiants games, come to think of it.

[peanutbutter]

It's the roguelite for people who don't like roguelites.

Not sure if it was necessarily intended this way or if it was just a dig, but it's the first thing someone has said to get me interested in Hades.

[Poirots BigGarlickyCorpse]

Can't really say how much I hate the Hades hype.

Best not start, really, but I have to. I can't say this stuff elsewhere because people will think I'm not nice but I'm telling you I fucking hate Hades. The epitome of middlebrow. Round off all the edges and steal steal steal from better games. Sure, might go down well with the shit munchers but it's an Innocent smoothie of a game. Divorced from the hyperbole and chatter, it's a perfectly pleasant thing but it's oh so cute. It's oh...so...fucking...cute, and absolutely delighted with itself. A real cunt mirror.

Well aren't you a joyless bucket of fuck.

[ImmaculateClump]

Hehe, I can totally see the appeal, to be honest. If you're into that sort of character action game combat and you like a bit of narrative, I can totally see why people like it.
It's not just people who don't like roguelites, the roguelite subreddit were all over it too.

I know the people Honks is talking about though, it's a genre they've been bad mouthing for the last ten plus years and to see them going "right, now we're talking! This is the one!", it was a bit surprising.

[Poirots BigGarlickyCorpse]

I know the people Honks is talking about though, it's a genre they've been bad mouthing for the last ten plus years and to see them going "right, now we're talking! This is the one!", it was a bit surprising.

Then I partially withdraw my remarks. Felt a bit attacked. Honks is not a piece of shit but I stand by the joyless bucket of fuck.

[Spiral King]

Streets of Rage 4. Good stuff.

[Chedney Honks]

Then I partially withdraw my remarks. Felt a bit attacked. Honks is not a piece of shit but I stand by the joyless bucket of fuck.

I guess saying that it will 'go down well with the shit munchers' and it's a 'cunt mirror' would feel like a personal attack after your post, but that really wasn't directed at you. Apologies if it came across that way. It was more of a general statement.

I enjoy some of the games it stole from, so I find it relatively entertaining to dash dash dash dash dash dash dash dash dash dash dash dash dash dash dash dash dash dash dash dash dash dash dash dash dash dash dash dash dash dash dash dash my way to victory, but the voice work, aesthetic and music are ghastly. Just a horny nerd tone which makes me feel queasy, like that Nescafe cunt off Buffy smirking and rubbing his nuts.

[Zetetic]

I knew it'd get you worked up like this.

I've been so glad of it these last few weeks. It's comforting, which not everything should be, but it's good that some things are.

I'm not really in the mood for challenging, artistically or mechanically, at the moment, weirdly enough.

[Zetetic]

Not sure if it was necessarily intended this way or if it was just a dig, but it's the first thing someone has said to get me interested in Hades.

I think it's probably a fair description. It's determinedly built around ensuring that you're getting a constant sense of progression and extremely gentle introduction to new mechanics. It's very ... fluffy.

[Zetetic]

One of the games that has stayed with the most this year so far, despite only playing a couple of hours of it is Titan Chaser, which mostly involves driving a jankily-implemented car around an asset store-heavy landscape, listening to ... dubiously voiced commentary by the player character while shining lights or honking at megafauna.

It's something that had exactly the tone and feel I was searching for one evening (why aren't there more driving around games? Stuff built from the mould of ETS?) and is one of those things where you could so clearly feel the author behind it, that I found it very easy to forgive everything that's basically not good about it.

[Zetetic]

Paradise Killer was both very comfortable (and would have been more so if I'd known to use the footbaths ASAP) and another game that felt like being in someone else's head (three persons' heads, I think).

At the same time as being something to lose yourself in, the setting is a horrible reflection on the here and now but not in the sort of way that reduces you to a teary bile-filled mess. (There's more to think about on that point than I can comfortably manage.)

[Chedney Honks]

I knew it'd get you worked up like this.

I've been so glad of it these last few weeks. It's comforting, which not everything should be, but it's good that some things are.

I'm not really in the mood for challenging, artistically or mechanically, at the moment, weirdly enough.

I'm all for comfort gaming or comfort anything. I'm also happy for anyone who enjoys it. I just find the rhetoric around it absurd when it's simply a series of lifts. The narrative element is well done, though, even if I can't bear the tone or dialogue.

After politely smiling and nodding for months about oh yes, what a perfectly lovely game tee hee I have exhausted my supply of pleasantries.

[Chedney Honks]

If you'd like a good driving around comfort kind of game, I'd really recommend Road to Guangdong. It's part boring, relaxing road trip through 90s suburban China and part family-centred low-key visual novel type of narrative. Sparsely written but touching and humane. Music is wonderful. One of my actual GOTY.

[Bazooka]

If you'd like a good driving around comfort kind of game, I'd really recommend Road to Guangdong. It's part boring, relaxing road trip through 90s suburban China and part family-centred low-key visual novel type of narrative. Sparsely written but touching and humane. Music is wonderful. One of my actual GOTY.

I forgot to buy this a few months back, thanks for reminding me. It's the closest I'll get back to being in China this bloody year.

[Zetetic]

Looks Jalopy-esque but more narrative rather mechanically driven. Will give it a go.

[Ludicrous Display]

Tony Hawk.

[Chedney Honks]

Looks Jalopy-esque but more narrative rather mechanically driven. Will give it a go.

That's exactly right, same dev or publisher, I think.

[Zetetic]

Same publisher, which is not great given how Excalibur has treated small developers.

[falafel]

Just to chime in on Hades, I was so ambivalent I started a thread about it that nobody read. I get no pleasure out of them normally and Hades was a real exception to that






for about an hour after which I felt just as hollow and soul-crushed as every other proc gen wankbag forever game has made me feel





fuck Hades and all its tedious, vacuous antecedents and eveything that comes after

[falafel]

Joking aside, my actual GOTY is Ring Fit Adventure. Yeah, it didn't come out this year but the only game from this year that I have played is Hades because I made a commitment to go back through my backlog a bit more.

Ring Fit is Nintendo throwing its weight behind an actual fitness game in the way that Wii Sports just wasn't. The old Wii stuff was clearly engineered around social elements and nebulous wellbeing stuff, very low risk and quite appealing to the whole family. Ring Fit actually gives you a proper workout. It rewards form. It has skill trees and XP and an actual need to deploy skills tactically and keep on top of your resources. It has a Mario-level plot (so threadbare that it ceases to actually matter but still serves as a framework for progression), some silly puns, and catchy music. It's basically a lite JRPG that makes XP grinding actually physically rewarding. It's the only fitness game I have not given up on (at least three times a week most weeks for about nine months now with very few gaps). It's the only fitness game that's actually a game. And it's the only game where you spread your legs and fire lovehearts out of your snatch to restore your health.

https://youtu.be/LqNf6I0vIQc

Considering getting myself onto onlyfans and killing two birds with one stone

[Kelvin]

I think the takeaway from this thread is that 2020 has been a shit year for games.

[falafel]

Yep

[tourism]

Can't really say how much I hate the Hades hype.

Best not start, really, but I have to. I can't say this stuff elsewhere because people will think I'm not nice but I'm telling you I fucking hate Hades. The epitome of middlebrow. Round off all the edges and steal steal steal from better games. Sure, might go down well with the shit munchers but it's an Innocent smoothie of a game. Divorced from the hyperbole and chatter, it's a perfectly pleasant thing but it's oh so cute. It's oh...so...fucking...cute, and absolutely delighted with itself. A real cunt mirror.

lol of course

[Lemming]

I think the takeaway from this thread is that 2020 has been a shit year for games.

It's definitely not the worst year in recent memory. Just from what I've played:
XCOM Chimera Squad - easy, simple and very streamlined, but still a lot of fun and I enjoyed going around strangling people with the snake character
Desperados 3 - great game, easy choice for GOTY
Resident Evil 3 Remake - wasn't a huge fan, but it was fine for a few hours of "what the fuck, i shot it in the head 50 times and it's still fucking alive" fun
Prodeus - early access, so maybe doesn't count as a 2020 release, but what they've released so far is absolutely fantastic
Gears Tactics - very streamlined and relatively easy, but still good fun
Doom Eternal - only played a bit of this but it was solid
Crash Bandicoot 4 - again, played for about 30 seconds but seemed good
Wasteland 3 - great for what it is, big improvement on Wasteland 2's mechanics
Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord - another early access one, but fun if you want to play Warband again with nicer graphics and vastly worse performance

Plenty of others I haven't played, but looked interesting, like Half-Life: Alyx and Flight Simulator 2020. Assassin's Creed Valhalla is also probably fine, I liked Odyssey a lot and it seems like it's essentially a reskin of that.

[Zetetic]

Paradise Killer was both very comfortable (and would have been more so if I'd known to use the footbaths ASAP) and another game that felt like being in someone else's head (three persons' heads, I think).

At the same time as being something to lose yourself in, the setting is a horrible reflection on the here and now but not in the sort of way that reduces you to a teary bile-filled mess. (There's more to think about on that point than I can comfortably manage.)

To write more about this - it's a detective game. You go around an open world island, talking with something like a dozen characters, collecting things and finding stuff out and asking more questions and all that, and finally you bring everyone to trial however you want[nb]Mostly. It mostly works very well.[/nb].

What it makes it stand out is that the island is an almost entirely fantastic place to develop a sense of, conveying the horror of the setting through a vapourwave-y city-pop Dreamcast-y aesthetic. I wouldn't say that I find that aesthetic compelling, but it works very well here and is executed so effectively that it's hard not to enjoy the art of it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lTNgHKUX3eM

[Zetetic]

I'm glad that I played both Eliza and The Red Strings Club. Remember both as sci-fi novellas though rather than games, I guess. (Other than TRSC's drink mixing game, I guess.)

[bgmnts]

Wasteland 3 - great for what it is, big improvement on Wasteland 2's mechanics

Does it actually work on PC/PS4 then? It was unplayable on Xbox.

As for Resi 3, it would have been great if it was 30 quid cheaper.