PixlBit

This decade may have been about the rise of mobile and free-to-play gaming, but for Mark and I, it was about bigger and better versions of games we had been playing since the 90s: FPS’s with attitude, action RPGs and reckless racing. The only new type of game we played a lot this decade was Minecraft. Here’s a year-by-year breakdown of the games we played in co-op or just in tandem.  

 

2010 

     It felt like the end of an era with Halo Reach as the last Bungie Halo game and Fable III the last true Fable. I think Mark was less than pleased by Halo Reach because of the tragic ending, but I loved the gameplay and environments. I even got into some multiplayer with firefight mode. Fable III wasn’t as interesting as Fable II, but we both played this to completion. We tried to unlock all the riddle doors and get every strange achievement too.

 2011 

     We discovered the Gears of War?series. I picked up the first game on the cheap to give it a try and quickly realized that it was a great shooter even though it was largely in third person. I convinced Mark to give it a try and we quickly ripped through the first two games co-op. Then Gears 3 came out and we dove in day-one. We played hoard mode straight through the holidays and into the next year. It was a total blast which we haven’t relived in any Gears game since.  

     Lord of the RIngs War in the North was a great co-op action RPG which we both played as well.  

 2012  

     I got a 3DS XL for the larger screen. I like my handhelds big. I was also looking forward to the next year’s releases of Fire Emblem Awakening and Etrian Odyssey IV. 

     Mark and I discovered Minecraft when it came to Xbox Live in the spring. I scoffed at the low-res graphics and very reluctantly played a demo. Soon I were firmly hooked and so was Mark. The total hours we played both solo and co-op have probably eclipsed any game we’ve ever played.  

     After really struggling to like Borderlands 1, I finally started to like it and was ready for Borderlands 2 on day-one. It’s sort of the perfect game for Mark and I. We can play co-op, switch to single player on the fly and trade gear. The tone is comical, gruesome and the battles fierce. It hits every mark for the kinds of games we play together.  

 2013  

     I got crazy excited for Bioshock Infinite. I think I was only more excited for the release of Halo 2. I wanted so desperately to get the legendary edition with the statue of the Song Bird. I’m kind of glad I didn’t, though, because I was somewhat less excited after I played it. I still haven’t played the final piece of DLC I got from the season pass. I didn’t think the game was bad, only that I was frustrated I couldn’t interact with more of the incredible environment.  

     I got a Vita in the summer because I didn’t want to miss that gorgeous OLED screen being removed from future versions. I also wanted?Muramasa Rebirth and Dragon’s Crown.  

     There was also Diablo III on console. I think we didn’t get it until the summer of 2014, but when we did, we played it a lot. I still have to get to $1 million in gold but Mark did it.  

 2014  

     I broke down and got a XBO at the Microsoft store and a PS4 on black friday. I was excited to play the XBO version of Wolfenstein New Order after playing it on Xbox 360; and Killzone Shadowfall on PS4 because I thought the graphics were great in trailers.  

     Mark and I played a lot of Earth Defense Force 2025, Wolfenstein New Order, and Borderlands Pre-Sequel but still all on Xbox 360. Mark would get his XBO a few months into 2015 and then 360 was finally history. We then replayed Wolfenstein and Pre-Sequel on XBO.  

 2015  

     Mark and I discovered Saints Row this year with the Gat Out of Hell stand-alone expansion. This game played like Crackdown and was just as fun. We played it in co-op and cleared all the achievements. Then we played a lot of Saints Row IV but never quite finished it.  

     My toys-to-life interest began late this year with Skylanders: Superchargers and a slew of sales on older figures at Gamestop around the holidays. With four previous games in the series already out, they were getting swamped with used figures and created sales to get rid of them. I swooped in and built a grand collection over the next year. Every week for most of 2016, I scrounged the bins for Skylanders I didn’t have. Then I noticed Disney Infinity figures and started collecting those too.   

 2016  

     This year was all about Doom and discovering Forza Horizon. After Wolfenstein became such a surprise hit, I wondered if Doom could do it too. It certainly did. Who could’ve thought that such an old school formula could work with the new technology. The game was fast, bloody and challenging. I even liked the story.  

     It was the day when the first Forza Horizon was a freebie on Xbox that I tried it. Five minutes in I was excitedly telling Mark to check this out. The arcade style of the driving, the speed and destructibility of the environments all said, “new Burnout”, to me. Mark and I quickly got up to speed with FH 1 and 2 and soon got 3. We were ready on day-one for Forza Horizon 4 in 2018.  

 2017? 

     Mark and I have a long history with developer People Can Fly. We used to play their Painkiller game back in 2005. When they did Bulletstorm in 2011, Mark and I both got into it for its wild action, brutal takedowns and over-the-top attitude. Then it was remastered for the Xbox One and called Bulletstorm Full Clip Edition. What made it a day-one for us again was the preorder bonus of a playable Duke Nukem. The game was already full of zany attitude; Duke fit right in. We played it, and all the challenge levels, several times. It’s very fun.  

      Wolfenstein II was a must-play after the excellent New Order. I love Machine Games’ attention to detail. All the environments are interesting to look at and explore while you’re fighting off panzerhunds and Nazi thugs. They even created 60s style pop songs done in German. I was actually singing along to them after a while.   

     This was also the year we both put in a lot of time into tower defense game Defense Grid 2. After my sudden departure from work, I was pretty stressed out, and this game was the right balance of casual and serious to keep my attention.  

 2018  

     We both purchased Forza Horizon 4 day-one. It’s still installed on my hard drive because they’re still releasing new content for it. They’ve put some serious live-ops into this game. 

     I finally bought a Wii-U at greatly reduced price. The first two games I got were Zelda WInd Waker HD and Pikmin 3.   

 2019  

     Mark and I both got Crackdown 3 and Borderlands 3 day-one and played them until there was hardly anything left to do in them. I like that, even with so many distractions from free and cheap games, we’ve been able to complete these two in every conceivable way.  

      That’s a decade. I have to say there are many other games I’ve played on my own. I cried playing Professor Layton Unwound Future, got all excited about Epic Mickey and Steel Battalion Heavy Armor,  raged over Halo 4, bought exclusive Pandora’s Tower, wanted to sail a ship in Assassin’s Creed Black Flag, and was thrilled over the return of Valkyria Chronicles with 4. I could go on. I must’ve played a thousand games in that decade.