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What are the best games you've played so far this year?
We're halfway through 2020 (can you believe it?) and I'm curious to know what everyone's highlights are so far. They don't have to be games released in 2020, just ones that you've played in 2020. Let us know what they are and why you took to them.
Just started playing The Outer Wilds and loving it. It's so weird, but the weirdness comes from actual gameplay, not some whimsical background story (although it has that, too). People said it's best to go into this game blind, knowing nothing about it and it's probably true. But to those who need a teaser, it's basically Majora's Mask meets Kerbal Space Program while being nothing like either. It's about solving a solar-system-wide mystery by following a bunch of vague clues and mastering newtonian physics in a Mario Galaxy style solar system where planets are only a few hundred meters wide. There's so much to discover and it's never shoved into your face, you actually have to go and look, make plans, figure stuff out. I hope this becomes a genre.
It's so good! Makes me happy every time I see someone mention playing and enjoying it. (It might be one of my favorite games ever.)
what the fuck
I might actually give it a shot now.
Disco Elysium, without a doubt. Some of the best and smartest writing I've encountered in a video game, and it makes the most of the isometric RPG paradigm by not shoehorning in a whole separate system of awkward combat rules, and instead leaving what little combat there is as skill checks in the dialogue system. The setting was also phenomenal and unique, and I'm very much hoping for future games in it.
The only reason the game is not on my list here is because I played it last year.
ZA/UM actually started with combat in mind, though it was already on the reduced side of things. I'm glad they pushed further into the roleplaying side of things and almost pushed all of the combat away, rendering it – rightly so – but an instance of things you character may have to end up doing.
This is the first time I’ve heard of this game, and after watching some gameplay videos I have to say it looks fascinating. This might be my next purchase.
I would definitely recommend it, even at full price, it's like a distillation of everything isometric RPGs do well, and well written and funny as hell too.
It's absolutely amazing, get it
Its gameplay is awfully gamified, its progression is gated, and its combat is gimmicky, but I loved the terrain traversal aspect of it. I loved running around the city, jumping across roofs, and climbing structures short and tall. Despite its plentiful imperfections and outright flaws, I enjoyed the parkour mechanics enough to put it on the list.
Fuck the "do anything" part: I'm enjoying the rest of it. The story is quite interesting, the urban design is vast and impressive (if sporting a few dark spots), the mechanics work together in interesting ways. I'm surprised by how much I leaned into Nico Bellic's story from the get-go. The "do anything" part just adds to it for me.
A potentially-NSFW game that's rightfully promoted as "sex-positive". Gameplay-wise, it's a worker manager game, where each of the 12 workers is a unique character you could date. The game features a lot of text and dialogue, and the writing is witty, funny, empathetic, and by no means crass or crude about the lewder parts of the story. The dates are not match-3 like HuniePot: they're fully-fledged mini-adventures centered around your date's personal story. Even the sex scenes – text only – are written in a way that makes you excited about the connection between the two characters, rather than about genitals rubbing. Easily the best "sex game" out there.
Doom Eternal - I wasn't taken by it right off the bat. After finishing the first level (and dialing the difficulty down from Ultra Violence), I put it down to play Doom 64. But I came back after finishing that game, and I grew to love Doom Eternal. It tries too hard and does too much, but it's so much fun once you've internalized all of what it is doing. Sure, you can't have a favorite weapon, and you won't get far without using all of your combat options, but it is a heart-pounding experience in a world where all of the sharp edges and excitement is usually relegated to the multiplayer.
Doom 64 - I think of this game as the ugly step sibling of Doom, but it's a Doom nonetheless. The enemy designs have not aged well at all, but this is a worthy addition to the Doom lineage. I'm glad it's been pulled out of the Nintendo 64 dumpster. It's fun. It's Doom.
Kentucky Route Zero - I played each chapter as they were released, so I was a bit taken aback by the ending. In short, I thought my save was corrupted because it drops you into a story already in progress, but not what I had remembered. It doesn't help that the final chapter is short and ends abruptly, but beautifully. I immediately replayed the previous chapters, including the interludes, and the finale fits. It's still short, but it's absolutely a fitting end to a unique and haunting game.
breath of the wild on cemu. I've played this game now 6 times through getting almost all the shrines on each play through. I first played it when it came out on wiiU but didnt get a chance to play the dlc.
with cemu you can have 'always clear' weather. there is an online save game editor https://www.marcrobledo.com/savegame-editors/zelda-botw/ the game is just amazing and with the dlc i can see what i havent explored yet and there is a lot to discover in the game
I've beaten BOTW four times (once each on regular/master on WiiU and Switch), and am thinking of doing a CEMU run. I have it set up, but want to give myself the Master Cycle to see how it changes the game from the beginning. It's really a great game, though.
I've only encountered a few bugs, like thunderblight gannon, you need to change your framerate to 30 fps or he flies off the guardian and out into the desert, it's quite funny when it happens. also sometimes you may get 'rainbow' effects on the ground when an animation is about to play. just a quick save and reload the cemu and its fine. other than that it is perfect.
edit: I forgot to add that I use a ps4 controller using ds4windows to be able to use the gyro in the controller with cemu
*Sekiro
I tried to play dark souls a thousand of times but I just hate it. I don't know why I give this one a try and I just love it, the fights are so smooth and nice, there is almost nothing left to customize but it is extremely fun to fight all this unique bosses. The story is ok, I never feel really involve with any of the characters but is entertaining anyway.
*Detroit become human
It is more a movie than a game, you just decide what the main characters says and in the action scenes you have quick time events. Where this game excels is in the amount of possibilities, depending on what you choose the story can completely change I finish the game once and I only have scraped the surface. At the end of each chapter you can see the other possible paths depending on what you decide and most of the times you realize that only did one in 10 possible endings for just that one part. I promise you will get ridiculously attach to some of the characters and you will really suffer if things goes wrong.
*Left 4 Dead 2
A really simple game perfectly executed but you have to play it with friends I tried to play it alone and was just boring. Basically is a fps where you have to kill ridiculous amounts of zombies and try to survive with you friends. Nothing much to say about ir. If you have 3 friends and want it to play it together I totally recommend it.
Probably Metro Exodus. That game made my mouth hang open at points. Yamantau...the Taiga...Novosibirsk...it was so relentlessly bleak and grim at times, but there were occasional little monuments to optimism in the blanketing darkness, and the characters always held onto a dancing flame of hope. I felt for the crew and the friends they made; I shared in their triumphs and dismay. This was a real world, lived in. When it was all over, I missed them already, but could also be happy if this was the end of their story.
P.S. I love trains now.
Damn. It goes to Novosibirsk? I live near Novosibirsk. I've been to Novosibirsk.
That's really cool. Makes me wanna check the game out more.
Yes. Poor Novosibirsk. :(
Looks like a nice place, on the Trans-Siberian railway. I'd like to visit it one day.
It's a nice city. Very urban. It's what you get when you cross a post-Ural Russian city with a metropolis. It's the third-biggest city in Russia, after Moscow and Saint Petersburg, with 1m citizens. It's like mini-Moscow, especially when you get down to the metro.
Good infrastructure, lots of places to visit, lots of places to stay as a visitor. I just happened upon two random guys – one from Switzerland, another from Finland – when I last stayed at a hostel there. We had blini and kvass, which they both enjoyed, and then some beers, for which the Swiss guy, Martin, paid, which I thought was a classy little treat for both of us.
If you do end up going there and want someone to hang out with, give me a shout.
I'm finally discovering Mirror's Edge: Catalyst, and so far it's been a blast.
I love the graphics, the story, the music (as usual, on this one), and the gameplay.
The open-world gave me a lot of fun, even if I stopped doing side-events really quickly out of frustration for timed ones.
I've played many games here and there over the past 6 to 18 months. If you're asking for my personal "best game played this year", I guess I'd have to say Battlefield V. Yes, it was released in November 2018. But I'm the kind of person that can keep coming back to play a game again and again over 1, 2, sometimes 3 years. By far, the franchise that I've put the most hours into is the Battlefield series.
Animal Crossing was a nostalgic blast from the past, and it timed pretty well with the initial quarantine, which helped a bunch. I don't have the time to play it liked I played the original Gamecube one, but still got a lot of hours out of it so far, and I feel like I can go back later on too. Theres been lots of nice updates and new features, but still some glaring UI and multiplayer issues that shouldn't be a thing in 2020.
I play World of Warcraft mostly to keep up with my raiding guild. Overall not impressed with the current expansion. The raiding has been fun, but I find myself avoiding a lot of the other mechanics (warfronts, mythic+, visions, islands) that are daily/weekly retention grinds. Things are in a lull now as our guild has finished the final raid on heroic, so theres no new content until the next expansion pre-patch comes out and changes things.
I tried to play Fire Emblem: Three Houses and while it wasn't bad, the newer fire emblems really just don't draw me in like the old school 2d GBA games. There are too many mechanics that make the fighting something I dreaded, so it was mostly me just running around playing the story and then letting it sit for weeks at a time because I didn't have the hours needed to actually progress.
On a similar note, I have spent a lot of time playing Fire Emblem Heroes. If you can get past the gaccha RNG and the predatory monetization stuff - its actually got a pretty solid combat system that reminds me of the older GBA games. No hit chance, no crit chance, everything is deterministic and the AI always does the same thing every time. Theres definitely some depth there...but you have to grind a ways to get to it and look for communities outside of the game.
Borderlands 3 has been my multiplayer game for a few close friends since it came out on steam. We aren't too far yet, but are really enjoying it. Its got the usual borderlands humor and combined FPS/RPG elements.
And I just picked up the Witcher 3 during the steam sale. Currently reading through the books after watching the show. I've heard very very good things about it so I'm pretty excited to get into it.
the witcher 3 is amazing, it can be quite a lot to take in after you finish the first 'tutorial' area.
Ori and the Will of the Wisps is a clear standout for me. I loved Blind Forest and Will of the Wisps acts as a perfect continuation. The movement options they give you are so fun that I opted to not fast-travel for most of the game and instead just enjoyed the process of moving across the map myself. It's a wonderful, beautiful metroidvania.
Portal 2 was something I hadn't replayed since its release, so I was excited to return to it given that I'd forgotten much about it. I still remembered the main highlights (e.g. the ending), but there was so much moment-to-moment stuff that it felt new and fresh to me. The game's mix of genuine humor and oppressive atmosphere is unmatched, and I feel that it still holds up in spite of engine limitations (so. many. loading. breaks.).
Shadow Complex Remastered was another return to a game I haven't played in a decade. I loved it then and am happy to report that it still holds up now. Calling it a metroidvania puts it in the same category as Ori, but the two games couldn't be more different. Shadow Complex is almost a 2D Metal Gear Solid game. The pacing of the game is surprisingly brisk, and the abilities it gives you are satisfying.
Little Red Lie is a mostly unknown narrative adventure written and developed by the guy who made Actual Sunlight (if anyone's heard of that). It's full of bleak and unflinching modern commentary and touches on themes of mental illness, economics, social class, deception, and disillusionment. It's definitely not for everyone, but if you're someone who doesn't mind games that you don't play so much as you read through, it's well worth a look.
Killing Time at Lightspeed is similarly unknown narrative adventure game. This one has you reading social media and news feeds while on a spaceship that's very rapidly traveling away from your home planet. This means that each refresh of your feed, which takes only minutes in real-time for you, represents months or years that have passed for the people back home. As such, the game gives you a very broad plot arc in a very short amount of time. I don't think the game is anything exceptional, but I do think it's cleverly done, interesting in its own right, and unlike anything else I've played.
EDIT:
Supraland! I completely forgot about this one and I'm literally playing through its new DLC right now (as in I alt-tabbed the game to write this). This game made me feel like a kid again. It's wonderfully designed and far more deep and rich than it first appears. Its puzzles are satisfying; it's filled with secrets; it doesn't mind if you use heavy amounts of videogame cheese to get places (like strategically jumping against slopes in order to climb barrier walls and get to places you're not supposed to be). It's truly one-of-a-kind.
This is more of a mini-game than a game, but I'm glad I discovered Compact Conflict. It's great if you want to play a strategy game in 15 minutes.
Here's an answer nobody was expecting:
Ys: The Ark of Napishtim
It's a simple game, it's short, and there isn't a whole lot of depth. But it promises you a challenging adventure with a good story and gameplay, and it actually manages to overdeliver.
This was basically the last game in the Ys series I missed, and now I regret the time I wasted without having played it. The only problem I have with it is that there simply isn't enough.
Ok. Hear me out. League of Legends. I've been in a slump in terms of gaming. LoL has helped me connect with friends and so far it's been pretty fun. Well, aside from playing against Nocturne mid...
Have you tried other MOBAs? If you did, does your experience with any of them compare to LoL's?
I tried playing DotA 2, but to be frank, I started feeling melancholic after playing for 15 minutes. I think my DotA friend would definitely say he prefers it over LoL due to it's mechanical depth and design, but I'd have to disagree on both points. LoL's design seems more, alive. In addition to it being much, and I mean much faster, LoL is also much more lane-based and role based; it's structure tends to make engagements much more exciting imo.
This crystallizes well what my experience with LoL has been. I wasn't able to put my finger on it before, but now that you described it, that's what it is: Dota affords a lot more freedom because of its broad mechanical base, which means that, while there's a certain semi-stable meta going on, a lot of combinations of things can go wrong, but also a lot can go right. It requires a lot more insight to nail the "right" things in Dota, and that insight requires a lot of time invested.
Got nothing to say on the matter. I'm just grateful you've shared this kind of feedback with me.
Champions of Regnum. Really fun and endlessly unpredictable RvR open team pvp mmorpg. Very populated and busy, very casual gameplay, easy going yet intense and hilarious community of players who love going to war and all the variations of outcomes.
Earlier i played Magic The Gathering (1997) and various single player Mahjong games in the style of the game as it is played in China/Hong Kong (where you build the walls of tiles)
What mtg deck did you play?