Posts made by Phbz

@bam541 Not having combat makes it immediately more appealing, to me.

Yeah, I think I'll pass. But I'll try the multiplatform demo hoping it changes my mind.

@dipset The only thing I think holds Ori back is that the world isn't as rewarding to explore - to me - as it could be. But it's GOAT material.

@sheria was trying to get the Switch physical edition from iam8bit but ended up losing my chance.

Animal Crossing New Horizons
*More than 200 hours playing it. It would be a game I would never touch if it wasn't for 2020. But being 2020 it made wonders for my mental health during a specially critical moment, a nationwide lockdown and me simultaneously quitting smoking. So because it was an important tool to help me with a potentially life changing decision it's my goty for 2020.

Kentucky Route Zero TV Edition
*When I finished it I felt pretty confident it was going to be my goty, but then 2020 happened. Such a well written game, experimental, creative with an abundance of magical videogame moments.

Last of Us 2
*For all the praise this game gets one I think it's not earned is direction. Pretty flawless in every other aspect.

Ori and the Will of the Wisps
*The world lacks the depth of an Hollow Knight and unfortunately it had a messy release with some technical issues. Other than that GOAT material.

MSFS2020
*Also a perfect 2020 game. Many many years since I've played a game and felt like I was experiencing something new. MSFS2020 was just that. Not common for a game to make me emotional, much less to make me feel emotional just by exploring its world.

Unto the End
*This one caught me by surprise but it only took a few minutes to fall in love with it. Can't say much about it, just that there's several design decisions that speak to me. Challenging combat system, obtuse storytelling and great use of sound and light to create an highly atmospheric experience.

Doom Eternal
*It improves on 2016 in every single way. One of the most perfectly paced games I've ever played in my life. Towards the end it drops in quality bit still great.

Wasteland 3
*Incredibly deep RPG. Sadly it suffered from a myriad of technical issues. Still a brilliant game, would rate higher if more polished.

Journey to the Savage Planet
*I just had a really good time playing it. Colourful world, some light puzzles and really satisfying exploration. Hilarious at times. From just a "having fun" perspective this is some of the most I had with gaming in 2020.

Paper Mario: The Origami Kingdom
*One of the most pointless combat systems I've played. But the writing is so consistently funny and the game keeps taking you through interesting places, characters and moments from start to finish. I was charmed into submission.

Edit*

@dmcmaster I remember being a RT showcase.

@scotty That's really surprising, had no idea. Hopefully they'll eventually make a Gears Collection soon. Microsoft makes the weirdest business decisions, never crossed my mind that at least 2 and 3 weren't available on PC.

Gears Of War: Judgement
Well, my Gears marathon is now finished. I've played all (console) Gears titles and I'm happy I did.

Judgement ends it on a low note. When I was reading the Disaster Artist book I've noticed the author was the writter of Judgement, kinda got my hopes up, and indeed the narrative structure of this game is good. You're being judged and gameplay is you telling your version of the events. Then on top of that you have modifiers for each mission that are the "classified" version. Problem? Well, gameplay wise it goes nowhere, very little variation. Some sections better than others but overall underwhelming. Then there's an extra 7th chapter more akin to classic gears, with more world building and pace variations but nothing great about it. I can see why people were not happy about it when it released. 6.5/10

Now having played all games I wish MS did an open world Gears. Such a fascinating world that in every single title made me wish to lose myself exploring it. And gameplay wise definitely explore more of its moody horror side.

@nimbat1003 In 110 hours I had one crash, one major visual glitch, two quests I had to restart and a trillion small glitches or bugs.

Almost every single story mission moment was ruined by small oddities. Near the end there's a very important fight where my enemy got stuck in a wall hanging 2 meters from the floor. One of the main characters had her boobs shaking uncontrollably for a few seconds and a ton of smaller stuff. All this happening during some of the most pivotal moments of the game. Not near as catastrophically broken as New Vegas but up there in the category of games I love and were a mess.

Youtube Video

A look on some technical stuff Ninja Theory is developing.

@b-cell But I bought Mafia because you said it was one of the best games of the year. I don't think I can ever trust you again.

The state Cyberpunk released. Was expecting Witcher 3 levels of jank but not a clearly unfinished game.

Ghost of Tsushima Don't know why exactly but I just couldn't get into it. Just not what I wanted from this game I think, nothing specifically wrong with it. And I didn't hate it, just found it underwhelming.

2020 was pretty solid

Cyberpunk 2077 (played on the XSX) Already wrote a lot about it. The (im)perfect intersection of Deus Ex, Skyrim and GTA. Loved the world, characters, story and side content. The end made me genuinely sad and eager to start a new game right away.

In my heart, filtering all the issues, this is a masterpiece. Unfortunately there's issues in literally every aspect of the game. Constant glitches, structurally broken quests, half implemented systems, generally unpolished main quests and yet I still love it.

7/10 One up from my intended 6 because the last chapter really had an impact on me. Could easily go up to a 9 in the next two updates.

Girlfriend reviews has two cool videos on Cyberpunk.

Youtube Video

Youtube Video

@scotty Game was too ambitious for their time frame. Bad project management, just that. And some naivety with the PR. There's no denying that. No one is saying all went great (not me at least).

It's just making me uncomfortable what's being pointed out as unique when most of it is quite normal. Just like trying to paint the idea of a vertical slice demo at E3 2 years prior to release as a sign something was wrong.

Specifically for Cyberpunk they definitely needed more time.

But much of what I've been reading seems like pretty common for game development. Software is modular in nature, things are indeed stitched together. And features are left out all the the time. We just don't know about it.

At this point is beating a dead horse. The problems are obvious since release day, this adds nothing. It would be praise worthy if this report had been published before release.

Bulb Boy, really bizarre and grotesque adventure game.

Pool Panic, hilarious and trippy pool game from adult swim.

Paratopic, short 1st persons horror game with PSOne graphics.

@bam541 I think it will probably come to PS too.

Youtube Video

Oh damn, I played it on the XSX already. :(