Hindsight of 2020

On 11/04/2023 at 10:17 AM by KnightDriver

November in my year-long trek through the years brings me to the 2020s. Somehow I miscalculated and didn't make December the 2020s, but whatever. December can be 2023 and no other year. So what about 2020? PUBG wins the revenue war with 2.8 billion and Persona 5 Royal tops the critics charts with a 95 on Metacritic. About the only game I've played a lot on these two lists (sales and critical) is Dragon Quest XI. Here's MY list for 2020.

Journey to the Savage Planet: This is an adventure game. You have been sent to a remote planet to deem if it is worthy of human occupation (Earth is in it's last state of ruin due to over exploitation). You have to document all life forms and discover any intelligent life, as well as insure your own survival. There's a lot of humor in the game, lots of scanning, fighting creatures, and solving environmental puzzles. I loved every minute of it. I even got a physical copy just to have. Work on a sequel exists but Typhoon Studios is now closed. Hopefully a sequel appears under a new developer.

Patapon 2 Remaster (PS4): I love the art style of this rhythm/strategy game series. I guess it's a little sumi-e in look? I owned all 3 Patapon games on PSP before I gave up on the device. I'm glad a remaster of 1 and 2 are available on PSN. What about 3?

Doom 64/Doom Eternal: These released about the same time. I had forgotten that Doom 64 was an original game by ID and not a port of Doom or Doom II. I was glad to get it again. Doom Eternal is the sequel to Doom (2016) and is just as excellent. I should revisit it.

Paper Mario Origami King (NS): I'm really interested in the whole Paper Mario series now that I've fallen in love with Thousand Year Door. Weird coincidence, I just got a origami book out of the library to try.

Destroy All Humans! remaster: I was always a fan of the Destroy All Humans! series. It went off the rails after 2 but those first two games were a lot of fun. I need to go and play this some more and its new modes.

Commandos 2 HD Remaster: I've been interested in this since in was out on OG Xbox in 2001. I liked the graphics and I was always interested in any RTS for consoles. For some weird reason, I never played it. Now that it's been remastered, I should get to it.

Torchlight III: Lovely Torchlight. Nothing like a good action RPG romp gathering loot and bashing foes.

Assassin's Creed Valhalla: I'm not always that into the Assassin's Creed gameplay but I love the Discovery mode added to Odyssey and Origins and have played through both of them. Those games were on Game Pass though and Valhalla is not, so I've yet to play its Discovery tour. I did play a little of Valhalla though and liked it. I might actually play the main game when I get it.

Gears Tactics: Love this XCOM-like version of Gears of War. I've played it off and on on Game Pass but I need to try and finish it.

Demon's Souls (PS5): I almost bought this the other day even though I don't have a PS5 yet. This and Ratchet & Clank: A Rift Apart are the main reasons I'm interested in a PS5. Perhaps when the slim appears, I'll get one.

Call of Duty Black Ops Cold War: Ever since I tried Black Ops 1 and realized it plays like old COD before Modern Warfare, I've been wanting to play the whole Black Ops series. I hope I have time to get to it.

Serious Sam Collection: Been a fan of Croteam's Serious Sam series since 2001. This collects First Encounter, Second Encounter and SS3. I happily ran through all these games again that I used to play on PC and Xboxes.

Dragon Quest XI S Definitive Edition: I took to the Dragon Quest series with VIII and have been trying to play all the other games. I've only played Dragon Warrior and some of IX. So I was determined to at least play this version especially since it was the first to appear on Xbox. Mad Krammer and I played through most of it. I stopped after what I thought was the final boss, only to discover even more content. DQ always wears me down eventually. Mad Krammer kept going but I don't think even he got to the very end of it. One of these days though.

Earth Defense Force World Brothers (NS, PS4): Weirdly, this is a pixelated version of EDF, as if a spinoff of Minecraft. Discovering it is available on Switch, I thought maybe this is the perfect EDF for a Nintendo system. I could play a EDF game on all three major consoles: 2025 on Xbox, 4.1, 5 and soon 6 on Playstation and World Brothers (also a sequel coming) on Switch. Hot damn! EDF all the way around!

Well, that's my 2020. What's yours?

Cary Woodham

11/05/2023 at 07:53 AM

Well in 2020 I was playing a lot of Animal Crossing: New Horizons. That game came out at just the right time, what with the pandemic and all. So far this new decade has just sucked. First the pandemic, then the next year my mom's breast cancer scare, then after that some family problems, and this year I had to move! I hope next year is better! I'm tired of this.

KnightDriver

11/10/2023 at 01:52 PM

Moving is no fun unless you are really looking forward to a new place.

11/12/2023 at 07:40 PM

I will say that even though the past few years were rough, everything has worked out for the most part. Even though COVID is still around, it's not near as bad as it was in 2020. My mom is cured of her breast cancer and hopefully it'll never come back. The family problems we had a year before are all worked out for the better. And even though I had to move from a house that I lived in for more than 20 years and really didn't want to move, where I moved to was probably the best possible situation. So yeah, everything worked out. But during those times at those moments, it was pretty rough. I hope I can have at least a drama-free year or two coming up.

11/13/2023 at 08:33 AM

I hope you do too.

SanAndreas

11/06/2023 at 01:56 AM

I mostly played games of yesteryear, like Pokemon Sword, Tokyo Mirage Sessions, Witcher 3, and Falcom games. Like with Cary, 2020 wasn't a good year for me beyond the pandemic. My dad had the stroke that took his life the following spring, and my mother survived him by a year. The Switch helped save my sanity during that time.

11/10/2023 at 01:55 PM

Sorry to hear that. Tough losses.

I've love to get back into Witcher 3 sometime. I also remember Tokyo Mirage Sessions coming out and read a lot of stuff on it.

daftman

11/07/2023 at 04:25 PM

That is enough games to keep one busy for at least two years O_O

11/11/2023 at 09:18 AM

Yeah, I'm trying to come up with a reasonable plan to play games this coming year, call it a resolution. It's so hard to limit the pile but there's only so much time to play them, unfortuneately. I've discovered, though, that it's okay to do some collecting. I don't have to play everything. There's value in having something. I desperately want to play everything though.

11/11/2023 at 10:38 AM

That sounds very close to my position lol. I am not a collector BUT it's nice to have things and if I DO want to play something, it's great to already have it. I want to play all these games! But I do try to not buys things unless I think I would actually play it.

11/12/2023 at 12:37 PM

Yeah, I want to play everything I buy. It's frustrating not getting to a game for years which is why I'm trying to force myself to focus on one console at a time each month, even one game at a time too.

PixlBit