2021 was just another year of the expected high sellers: COD, Pokemon, Mario, sports games and mobile game billion sellers. 52% of the market went to mobile. Interesting. Here's what interested me and my one pick if I could only pick one.
Outriders: I played a bunch of this FPS game a year or so ago once I found out it was developed by People Can Fly, makers of Gears Judgment, Painkiller and Bulletstorm. Did you know they just released Bulletstorm for VR? I can't imagine the impact of Matt Fraction's penned F-bombs in VR. Haha.
New Pokemon Snap (NS): Rented this a few months ago and liked it a lot. I loved the original and I think I will this too. Can't wait to get back to it, on-rails and all.
Baldur's Gate Dark Alliance reissue: I played some of it again after almost 20 years. Very frustrated there's no online co-op. I don't do couch co-op anymore and neither does Mad Krammer, with whom I played the original on OG Xbox.
Capcom Arcade Stadium: I always love collections. I love the rendering of the cabinets and how you can customize a lot of aspects of the games and how they look on screen.
Ratchet & Clank A Rift Apart (PS5): My second reason to get a PS5 after the remaster of Demon's Souls. Exclusivity sucks, but I'd still love a PS5. The slim about to come out has me closely watching for sales.
Dungeons & Dragons: Dark Alliance: I think I played some of this on Game Pass a little while ago, but I can't remember if I liked it or not. But it has the DnD licence so I got to dig in deep sometime soon.
Layton's Mystery Journey (NS): So surprised to see a new Prof. Layton game and can't wait to try this one out on Switch.
Psychonauts 2: I keep returning to it and getting stuck on some platforming challenge that I really hate. Will I ever finish it? It got a lot of critical acclaim in '21, but I'm just meh about it so far.
Diablo II Resurrected: Mad Krammer and I played the heck out of this a little while back. I'd play it again.
Guardians of the Galaxy: Started it and liked it. The group dynamics in fighting are pretty interesting, and the dialog is as solid as the films. I want to get back and finish it.
Forza Horizon 5: Played this to exhaustion and all its DLC. There are still a host of achievements left, though, so from time to time, I return to try my hand at them again. Never gets boring, just other things pull me away.
Tiny Tina's Assault on Dragon Keep: I guess this was a rerelease of the DLC level as a standalone for the new Xbox Series X|S. Mad Krammer and I played it again quite thoroughly. Very good.
Serious Sam 5: Played this to the end a few months ago. Mad Krammer would have joined me in co-op but he's still using a Xbox One console and couldn't play it. SS5 is exclusive to Xbox Series X|S unfortuneately. His Xbox One DVD drive just crashed though, so soon he might have an X and I'll play it again with him. A fun FPS. I enjoyed being able to ride bulls and wreek havoc with them.
Halo Infinite: Mad Krammer and I dug into this deeply, probably last year, and beat it in co-op and got as many achievements as we could. It's still getting updates and fixes, new multiplayer maps and soon a new Firefight mode, which I'm excitedly awaiting to play right now. I've occassionally played some PVP multiplayer for Game Pass rewards, but that's not really my thing. It's an excellently designed FPS and can be as difficult as you want it (at times, it's more difficult than I want it).
The Gunk: I stumbled across this on Game Pass one day and got hooked. It's a third-person action-adventure game where you have to cleanse a planet of a slimy alien presence with a vacuume-like glove device. It reminded me of games I liked such as Journey to the Savage Planet and Island Saver. I really enjoyed it. I could play it again for completing achievements for sure.
And my one pick for the year has to be New Pokemon Snap because of nostalgia for the original and curiousity for the new version. I noticed in the hour or so I played on rental that Prof. Oak was absent, but I hear you encounter him later on in the game.
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