So I wanted to take a bit of a look at the year we've had in the video game space because as I was thinking about things that came out this year and things that are still to come this year, I realized that a lot of shit has happened and I don't think we've had such a busy year for big releases in quite a while mostly due to Covid interruptions which is really understandable. It seems three years later all the stuff that had been in the works for a while is now kind of pouring out on us for better or worse.
Nevertheless we've had some big games come out this year and while some were great for what they set out to be, others where flat out bad or disappointing. Which makes me question the delayed suffered from the pandemic and I wonder how much of the disappointing games released thus far have been a result of companies no longer wanting to sink more time into those projects.
But let me start with the good:
Hogwart's Legacy - regardless of your politics and feelings toward the creator of the HP universe, it doesn't change the fact that Hogwarts Legacy came out and was actually quite good. Clearly it's gameplay is a bit on the simple side and not a lot makes a whole bunch of sense story wise, but it's mostly bug free, polished, and delivered a vision of Hogwarts that I don't think any other game this year will match in terms of quality open world games. There are a shitload of collectibles (like 600+), tons of puzzles and secrets, and just magic to explore. It's quite nice.
One Piece Odyssey - Again this is a fair basic take on the JRPG formula based of the long running manga (which I've never read or know anything about). But it's just very fun in it's simple combat design and kind of cheesy anime storyline. It reminds me a lot of your typical Dragonquest game which are never deep in terms of gameplay mechanics, but thrive on being the best of the basics you can find and OPO definitely fits here.
Hi-Fi Rush - A surprise out of Microsoft that came out of nowhere and delivered a wonderful take on the brawler genre by combining the combat with a rhymical flow and fun cell-shaded art style. These are the gems that MS needs to pump out more often.
Theathrhythm Final Bar Line - It's a rhythm game with a shitload of Final Fantasy music. I mean....yes please.
Dead Space Remake - A faithful remake of the original Dead Space game but expanded with side quests, voiced protagonist, and new secrets. They made faithful and logic changes to the game to expand upon what the original game was without ruining what made the original so cool. Fuck vents though for real.
Like a Dragon Ishin - Technically a remake of a Yakuza spin-off that never released outside of Japan. It's samurai Yakuza. Fucking great, nothing else to say really.
Octopath Travel 2 - It's another Octopath Traveler with improvements. It's beautifully 16-bit, tightly designed, still suffers a bit from the disjointed story and boss HP Bloat. But otherwise it's a good game.
Bayonette Origins - A new take on Bayonetta's character and gameplay. Wonderful art style, fun game, little short, but good nonetheless.
Resident Evil 4 Remake - Look I may not have liked some of the changes to this game, but it's still a fantastic game regardless.
Live A Live - I didn't play this series originally, and I didn't play this remake/remaster whatever. But I've heard nothing but praises for this and so I'm counting it.
System Shock Remake - Again I've heard nothing but good things about this, even from Yahtzee which is weird.
Street Fighter 6 - The first Street Fighter game I bought since SF2 Turbo on the SNES. The world tour mode alone is worth the price of admission, plus all the other normal fighting game content. The amount of bang you get from this game is really awesome.
Dave the Diver - this little RPG is fucking fantastic, and it's incredibly deep (no pun intended).
That list is actually a pretty good track record list for only 6 months of a year.
Next I want to talk about the disappointing. These games aren't technically terrible games, but they failed to live up to expectations in my eyes and many others.
Forspoken - "I just moved shit with my freaking mind!" need I say more? The game was janky, filled with tropes, unfinished and rushed in the back half, badly written, there isn't a whole lot this game got right except having a decent idea on paper, where it should have been used as toilet paper.
Atomic Heart - The game that really really wanted to be Bioshock. even stole a bunch of Bioshock's ideas. Sadly not even a refrigerator that wants to fuck me can make this feel any less generic.
Wo Long Fallen Dynasty - The next Nioh-like-Souls-like, and not Sekiro-like game from Team Ninja. Sadly the focus on parrying doesn't work in a game that wants to swarm you with enemies without providing you other options. It never clicked with me, and I can't say I liked it either.
Dead Island 2 - Dead Island 1 wasn't great, and neither is Dead Island 2. But this game is a little forgiven for having a really fucked up development cycle and being passed around like an unwanted foster kid. I'm surprised we got a mildly entertaining and working game at the end of it to be honest. Which when you think about it, will make the bad list seem really fucking bad.
Diablo 4 - This would have easily been on my list for Game of the Year had Blizzard not fucked with it from basically the day it released. Constantly nerfing shit and fucking with player's to slow their progression and make the game as much as a sloggy grind as possible. Every single cool combination the players found, they nerfed, no fun allowed. Have a boring paragon system instead, fuck you.
Final Fantasy 16 - Oh I'm hurt, this hurts me. I had faith in Yoshi-P, I had faith that finally we would get a modern FF game that wasn't a fucking trashy mess. Welp...depending on who you asked, we didn't get a bad FF game. We got a bad DMC spin-off with a FF coat of paint. Bad story, bad characters, epic boss fights, and okay combat. No RPG elements, pointless crafting and itemization, bare bones skill system...I'm just so disappointed.
Every year though games come out that shit the bed hard than Johnny Depp's Ex. These games are so bad they are almost good if for no other reason than to laugh at them.
Redfall - The good news is Hi-Fi Rush also came out. The bad news is Redfall is trash on every level.
Lord of the Rings: Gollum - RedFall looks like a GOTY contender compared to this. It's ugly, broken, stupid in every possible level of game design. This shouldn't exist.
All things considered, it's been a good year. Two major shitbags, but even the disappointing games aren't THAT bad, and the good list is actually quite long considering there is still 6 months left in the year for something to come out to surprise us.
Upcoming potential goes as follows:
Balders Gate 3 - I don't see how this doesn't win a bunch of awards by the end of the year tbh.
Armored Core 6 - Looks cool, but there hasn't been a game in this series in quite a while and I wonder if it can hold up to what people expect.
StarField - Just work.
Immortals of Aveum - There is a lot of hype for this, but it just looks like magical Call of Duty. Might be okay, we'll see.
Lies of P - I wasn't particularly pleased with the demo. I feel like it's another studio trying to copy Fromsoft but failing to deliver on the base mechanics that Fromsoft perfected.
Mortal Kombat 1 - It has Jean-Claude Van Damme in it.
Forza Motorsport - This one is just for me, I know none of you care.
Lords of the Fallen Remake - see "Lies of P"
Spider-Man 2 - This will be fantastic and it'll be a matter of whether anything else can top it.
Super Mario RPG - I mean, yes please.
So that's basically the year. Here's what I would like you guys to do. Tell me if I missed anything, but also tell me where you think the upcoming games will land? Will they be great, just ok, or Fallout 76.
Nevertheless we've had some big games come out this year and while some were great for what they set out to be, others where flat out bad or disappointing. Which makes me question the delayed suffered from the pandemic and I wonder how much of the disappointing games released thus far have been a result of companies no longer wanting to sink more time into those projects.
But let me start with the good:
Hogwart's Legacy - regardless of your politics and feelings toward the creator of the HP universe, it doesn't change the fact that Hogwarts Legacy came out and was actually quite good. Clearly it's gameplay is a bit on the simple side and not a lot makes a whole bunch of sense story wise, but it's mostly bug free, polished, and delivered a vision of Hogwarts that I don't think any other game this year will match in terms of quality open world games. There are a shitload of collectibles (like 600+), tons of puzzles and secrets, and just magic to explore. It's quite nice.
One Piece Odyssey - Again this is a fair basic take on the JRPG formula based of the long running manga (which I've never read or know anything about). But it's just very fun in it's simple combat design and kind of cheesy anime storyline. It reminds me a lot of your typical Dragonquest game which are never deep in terms of gameplay mechanics, but thrive on being the best of the basics you can find and OPO definitely fits here.
Hi-Fi Rush - A surprise out of Microsoft that came out of nowhere and delivered a wonderful take on the brawler genre by combining the combat with a rhymical flow and fun cell-shaded art style. These are the gems that MS needs to pump out more often.
Theathrhythm Final Bar Line - It's a rhythm game with a shitload of Final Fantasy music. I mean....yes please.
Dead Space Remake - A faithful remake of the original Dead Space game but expanded with side quests, voiced protagonist, and new secrets. They made faithful and logic changes to the game to expand upon what the original game was without ruining what made the original so cool. Fuck vents though for real.
Like a Dragon Ishin - Technically a remake of a Yakuza spin-off that never released outside of Japan. It's samurai Yakuza. Fucking great, nothing else to say really.
Octopath Travel 2 - It's another Octopath Traveler with improvements. It's beautifully 16-bit, tightly designed, still suffers a bit from the disjointed story and boss HP Bloat. But otherwise it's a good game.
Bayonette Origins - A new take on Bayonetta's character and gameplay. Wonderful art style, fun game, little short, but good nonetheless.
Resident Evil 4 Remake - Look I may not have liked some of the changes to this game, but it's still a fantastic game regardless.
Live A Live - I didn't play this series originally, and I didn't play this remake/remaster whatever. But I've heard nothing but praises for this and so I'm counting it.
System Shock Remake - Again I've heard nothing but good things about this, even from Yahtzee which is weird.
Street Fighter 6 - The first Street Fighter game I bought since SF2 Turbo on the SNES. The world tour mode alone is worth the price of admission, plus all the other normal fighting game content. The amount of bang you get from this game is really awesome.
Dave the Diver - this little RPG is fucking fantastic, and it's incredibly deep (no pun intended).
That list is actually a pretty good track record list for only 6 months of a year.
Next I want to talk about the disappointing. These games aren't technically terrible games, but they failed to live up to expectations in my eyes and many others.
Forspoken - "I just moved shit with my freaking mind!" need I say more? The game was janky, filled with tropes, unfinished and rushed in the back half, badly written, there isn't a whole lot this game got right except having a decent idea on paper, where it should have been used as toilet paper.
Atomic Heart - The game that really really wanted to be Bioshock. even stole a bunch of Bioshock's ideas. Sadly not even a refrigerator that wants to fuck me can make this feel any less generic.
Wo Long Fallen Dynasty - The next Nioh-like-Souls-like, and not Sekiro-like game from Team Ninja. Sadly the focus on parrying doesn't work in a game that wants to swarm you with enemies without providing you other options. It never clicked with me, and I can't say I liked it either.
Dead Island 2 - Dead Island 1 wasn't great, and neither is Dead Island 2. But this game is a little forgiven for having a really fucked up development cycle and being passed around like an unwanted foster kid. I'm surprised we got a mildly entertaining and working game at the end of it to be honest. Which when you think about it, will make the bad list seem really fucking bad.
Diablo 4 - This would have easily been on my list for Game of the Year had Blizzard not fucked with it from basically the day it released. Constantly nerfing shit and fucking with player's to slow their progression and make the game as much as a sloggy grind as possible. Every single cool combination the players found, they nerfed, no fun allowed. Have a boring paragon system instead, fuck you.
Final Fantasy 16 - Oh I'm hurt, this hurts me. I had faith in Yoshi-P, I had faith that finally we would get a modern FF game that wasn't a fucking trashy mess. Welp...depending on who you asked, we didn't get a bad FF game. We got a bad DMC spin-off with a FF coat of paint. Bad story, bad characters, epic boss fights, and okay combat. No RPG elements, pointless crafting and itemization, bare bones skill system...I'm just so disappointed.
Every year though games come out that shit the bed hard than Johnny Depp's Ex. These games are so bad they are almost good if for no other reason than to laugh at them.
Redfall - The good news is Hi-Fi Rush also came out. The bad news is Redfall is trash on every level.
Lord of the Rings: Gollum - RedFall looks like a GOTY contender compared to this. It's ugly, broken, stupid in every possible level of game design. This shouldn't exist.
All things considered, it's been a good year. Two major shitbags, but even the disappointing games aren't THAT bad, and the good list is actually quite long considering there is still 6 months left in the year for something to come out to surprise us.
Upcoming potential goes as follows:
Balders Gate 3 - I don't see how this doesn't win a bunch of awards by the end of the year tbh.
Armored Core 6 - Looks cool, but there hasn't been a game in this series in quite a while and I wonder if it can hold up to what people expect.
StarField - Just work.
Immortals of Aveum - There is a lot of hype for this, but it just looks like magical Call of Duty. Might be okay, we'll see.
Lies of P - I wasn't particularly pleased with the demo. I feel like it's another studio trying to copy Fromsoft but failing to deliver on the base mechanics that Fromsoft perfected.
Mortal Kombat 1 - It has Jean-Claude Van Damme in it.
Forza Motorsport - This one is just for me, I know none of you care.
Lords of the Fallen Remake - see "Lies of P"
Spider-Man 2 - This will be fantastic and it'll be a matter of whether anything else can top it.
Super Mario RPG - I mean, yes please.
So that's basically the year. Here's what I would like you guys to do. Tell me if I missed anything, but also tell me where you think the upcoming games will land? Will they be great, just ok, or Fallout 76.
