On Mon, 2 Jan 2023 09:22:48 -0800 (PST), Justisaur
<
justisaur@gmail.com> wrote:
It looks like we skipped this one for 2021, so here it is...
(I was waiting for somebody else to start this inevitable thread; I
didn't want to be the one. But now that it's started, you betcha I'm
gonna throw in my two pence ;-)
Game of the Year 2022
I dunno if I have a /best/ game of the year, so instead here are the
typically nonsensical entries you all expect from me. I've limited my
entries to games I've played in full this year. Of all the games
below, only one of them came out in 2022 (unless we count DLC), so
these are less 'best of 2022' and more 'games that had some impact on
me in one way or another when I played them in the year that just
happens to be called 2022'. Other games may be deserving of some of
these titled, but since they weren't on my personal playlist, they
don't get included. ;-)
-----------------------------------------
* Most Played: AMERICAN TRUCK SIMULATOR
If I /had/ to pick a 'best game', "American Truck Simulator would win
simply because it's the game I played the most. But it would be an
undeserved title; I love the game and keep coming back to it (and the
Wyoming and Montana expansions were great!) but it's very niche game
and more a dependable fallback than something that seriously excites
me.
* Most "Surprisingly Better Than Expected": PANZER DRAGOON (2021)
Not a great game, but a pretty good remake that captured a lot of the excitement (and, sadly, a lot of the limitations) of the original.
It's not got any depth or longevity - it's just a bog-standard
rail-shooter, after all - but nonetheless, it kept me entertained long
enough to want to finish it. That deserves some credit, dontcha think?
* Most "Held Up Really Well Over The Years:" DEAD SPACE 2
12 years old and it's just as exciting to play as the day it came out. Excellent visual design, terrific pacing, strong game mechanics...
aside from some slightly dated texturing and lighting, this game could
be top-of-the-class in 2022.
* Most "Undeniably the Cutest!!!": STRAY
It's got a kitty cat!!!!1!
* Most "Surprisingly Worse Than I Expected: OBSERVATION
It's always the littlest things that get you. So much about
"Observation" is great, but its clumsy controls made me want to tear
out my hair. Maybe I was just expecting too much from the game.
* Most "Never Lived Up To Its Potential": GENERATION ZERO
A beautifully detailed open-world Sweden, fighting a resistance
operation against giant robots in an alternate 1980s? What's not to
like? But it has all the follies and faults of too many open-world
games; bad pacing, endless grindy crafting, and no engaging story and characters. The game could have been so much more, but ended up being
sadly tedious.
* Most "I Really Wanted to Love You But Couldn't": UNTITLED GOOSE
GAME
This is a great game, but one I never could quite engage with in the
way it deserved. It's not you, UGS, it's me. Well, maybe it's a little
bit you (your controls were a bit fiddly), but maybe if I'd tried a
bit harder we could have made it work. Sorry.
* Most Disappointing: TERMINATOR RESISTANCE
There's a lot to like about "Terminator: Resistance" - it does a
terrific job of recapturing the magic of the original Terminator
movies, and lets me live out my fantasies of fighting Skynet in the
future (I never did care much for the time-travel gimmick the movies
relied upon). But there was just a general lack of polish that made
the game a lot less than it should have been, and despite so many
people insisting this was one of the best games in the franchise, I
left unsatisfied. (The DLC wasn't too bad, though).
* Most "Gosh-Darn Purtiest GFX": THE ASCENT
The gameplay was rote action-RPG, but the visuals? No complaint there.
"The Ascent's" Bladerunner-inspired mega-city was gorgeous (if a bit
repetitive and lacking in variety), even when seen from the top-down
viewpoint.
* Most Forgettable: (tie) THE ASCENT & GENESIS ALPHA ONE
"The Ascent" might have had gorgeous graphics, but I'd forgotten all
about it until I made this list. "Genesis Alpha One" didn't even have
that much. Dull games not worth remembering, much less playing.
* Most "Doesn't Belong On This List": MAJOR STRYKER
A rote, DOS-era shmup with EGA graphics? There's nothing really wrong
with "Major Stryker" - it was an acceptable game back in 1992 - but
nothing about it stands out either. Still, it's a guilty pleasure of
mine and while I can in no way recommend anybody else go and play it (seriously, there are so many better shoot-em-ups out there!), neither
do I regret the time I invested into this game this year.
-----------------------------------------
And as for all the other games I played (or replayed) this year: "Doom Eternal", "Control", "Witcher 3", "Transformers: Cybertron", "Beyond
Two Souls", "Dead State Reanimated", "Metro Exodus", "No Man's Sky"
and all the rest (about thirty in all)? They weren't bad games (well,
some of them were!) but they didn't really make an impact on my year.
"Witcher 3" is a great game, sure, but it's the third or fourth time
I've played it. I got exactly what I expected from it: a well-crafted,
fun (if a bit long) adventure. Same with all the rest; they were
entertaining (or not!) but not surprising.
Still, overall, it was a good year in gaming, even if the bulk of my
gameplay came from older titles. I arguably may not get the same
excitement from video games as I did twenty years ago, but the hobby
still entertains me well enough. Here's hoping it's still the same for
all of you.
--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
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