PixlBit

These are the 20 games I played published this year. I only finished 3 of them but I enjoyed all of them in whatever time I had to give them. Here they are in chronological order. 

Jan 23: Slay the Spire: Played it on Game Pass. Liked this rogue-like card battler but got distracted by other things. I would love to return to it sometime. 

Jan 29: Kingdom Hearts III: I played the demo at least. I love those special attacks. So wild, outrageous and fancy. 

Feb 1: Wargroove: Oh man, I totaly forgot about this Advance Wars clone. I so want to get back to it. Luckily it's there in my cloud storage for all time - well, at least until the net self implodes. 

Feb 5: Etrian Odyssey Nexus: How time flies! I totally forgot about this too. Now that I've traded my 3DS in for Xbox space bucks, I can't go back to it. I am thinking of getting another 3DS sometime soon though. Funny how I like to sell and buy back things. Stupid me. 

Feb 15: Crackdown 3: So this was the first really big game for me this year. Mark and I both got it and played THE HECK out of it. We got all the agility orbs but not all the special orbs. That would be one step more hardcore than either of us. But we did scale the tallest skyscraper in the spider vehicle. That was no small feat. Mostly, though, we replayed it for the shear destructiblity. It was so much fun running the whole city down of criminal elements over and over. A very fun game despite its low metacritic score. 

Feb 15: Far Cry New Dawn: I always try the Far Cry games even though sometimes they frustrate me. I rented this and got part of the way through it before something annoyed me. I forget exactly what but it might have been some required stealth. I HATE required stealth. 

Mar 27: Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice: I rented this and really loved the presentation, story and gameplay but didn't stick with it because of difficulty. If there is one thing I can't stand in a game is having to repeat a battle or other challenge more than a handful of times. But boy, do I like the setting and presentation. 

April 16: World War Z: I believe I played it on Game Pass. I only played one or two levels of the game. It reminded me of Left-4-Dead. I certainly liked the hoards of zombies that come after you. It didn't quite sustain my interest though. 

May 14: Rage 2: Had I been fully employed at this time, I would've bought it day one. Instead it came to Game Pass and I started it there. Other things distracted me but I liked the first few hours. FPS controls are tight as heck, which is an install sell for me. I hope to get back to it sometime. 

May 28: Void Bastards: Played it on Game Pass. I really like this game but it makes me repeat levels. Boo. It's a rogue-light, so that's better. Your retain your gear after you die. I just want to feel more progression. You fight and loot through derelict ships trying to get to some objective I forget at the moment. I wanted to get there, darn it. It's very fun sneaking through robot defended ships in first person flicking switches to turn on life support or ship's power. 

June 20: My Friend Pedro: On Game Pass. This was an interesting action shooter in 2D. Your object is to Jet Li your way through enemies with as much style as possible. It almost becomes a puzzle game. As the complexity ramped up, my interest ramped down. I'm not big on repeating sequences for the best outcome. That repetition thing again. 

July 12: Dragon Quest Builders 2: I played the demo and liked it. I hope when I play the full game I don't have the troubles I had with the first one getting the building points to count. I've heard it's much improved, so I'm excited to get more time with it. 

July 26: Wolfenstein Youngblood: I played it on a rental and didn't finish it because I didn't understand how to level up your character. It was well hidden in the game menu, I felt. I want to go back and play it right. I so love the Wolfenstien games. 

Aug 13: Bard's Tale Trilogy: On Game Pass. I thought I'd really get into it but I surprised myself by not being into that old school dungeon crawl thing anymore. Maybe when i'm in the right mood. I always liked Wizardry better for some reason. I didn't like the wandering around town part of Bard's Tale. Just let me in the dungeons, I say. 

Sept. 10: Gears 5: I've played a few hours of this on Game Pass. I liked it pretty well. It plays exactly like the other Gears games. I want to get Mark into it, though, so we can play Hoard Mode again. We used to play that a lot in Gears 3. 

Sept 13: Borderlands 3: This was the second big day-one purchase of the year for me. Mark and I dug right into it and haven't stopped since. This has the best combat of all the Borderlands games. Maybe not the best story, but gameplay is fast and furious. The loot flows like water and it's endlessly replayable. I'm already finished with the first major DLC drop and ready for the next one. 

Oct. 25: Call of Duty Modern Warfare: I rented this and played several hours of it. I thought it looked stunning and played very good. I'm just not into the setting or modern military tactics. Also, the subject matter is disturbing to me. There's just nothing positive to say about the situation in Afganistan - so depressing. So I stopped as soon as a gameplay mechanic gave me some trouble. I always want to see what these quadruple A games look like. 

Oct 29: Afterparty: Thank you Game Pass, the service that just keeps giving. This is a lovely point-and-click style adventure in hell concerning alcoholism and post college anxiety. I managed to miss all that in real life by not being an alcoholic and getting anxious a year early. Yeah me. Sigh. But the game is very funny and amusing to play. It's short too. I wouldn't mind replaying it to hear that dialog again. They packed in a lot. 

Nov 8: Death Stranding: I rented this and played a handful of hours of it. It's story is quirky but very interesting. There are lots of current real-life topics wrapped up in it. It's a beautiful game too - very rich visually. The gameplay is a little bit mundane in that you are basically doing fetch quests and that's it. But, you build stuff, and fight off bandits and undead things. I hear there are zip lines later in the game that makes for faster traversal. I think with a lot of time, it could get quite more gamey. It's slow pace might keep me away though. 

Nov 15: Jedi Fallen Order: I just played this on a rental and liked it a lot. I call it a cross between God of War and Dark Souls. God of War for the huge scale of the world and puzzles and Dark Souls for fighting and resting. The world of this game is so interesting. I got attacked by a giant frog. It killed me once but I returned, learned its moves and beat it to retreave my XP ala Dark Souls. Very cool game that I will return to once I own it. 

And that's it for games I played released this year. There are so many others I wish I'd played or owned like EDF: Iron Rain. And there were so many cool rereleases and remasters this year like Baldur's Gate I & II. It was a retro gamer's dream come true. Too bad I'm not in a position right now to take advantage of it all. Such is life with lemons. Anyone got a juicer?