fourthmonkey

[fourthmonkey]

2018 GILTY Pleasures

2018 was a very busy year for me. I sold a house, bought a house, and moved to beautiful town nestled in the mountains. This didn’t leave a lot of time for video games, but:

So once again, I made a list of Games I Loved This Year!

10. Monster Hunter: World

I always wanted to play a Monster Hunter game but was put off by the limitations of the systems the series previously graced. I’m glad that Capcom brought the world of palicoes and Poogie to the PC even if I ultimately found that the game itself wasn’t my cup of tea.

09.  Dusk

I never understood the fetish that some have for retro graphics, then I played Dusk. I love the thicc polygons and nasty textures just as much as the tight gameplay and tantalizing secrets.

08. Octogeddon

Professional wrestling has taught me that punching someone in the dick is never not funny. Turns out destroying the world as a vindictive mutant mollusk never gets old either.

07. God of War

That God of War was a gorgeous action game with exciting combat did not surprise me. That the story was good, well performed and well presented, was not unexpected. What astounded me was how many quests there were to seek out, dungeons to explore, and loot to collect in a game that could have gotten away with simple satisfying button mashing.

06. Yakuza Kiwami 2

2018 was a tale of two Yakuzas. The less said about 6, the better. Really, don’t get me started. Luckily, Kiwami 2 took the engine advancements and used them to tell a decent story that doesn’t merely continue the Dragon of Dojima’s saga. By further embellishing the role of Majima, Sega has made the series better as a whole.

05. GRIS

GRIS is a visually exquisite, but more importantly, exquisitely designed game. Delightful to control, the critical path is breezily propulsive while the optional collectibles are satisfying challenges.

04. Assassin's Creed Odyssey

I previously bounced off the Assassin’s Creed series. Fake history isn’t generally interesting to me. Since classical Greece is already so steeped in mythology, adding some Abstergo nonsense seems less egregious. It also helps that Kassandra is the most badass protagonist since Femshep.

03. Blasters of the Universe

With my new house came enough room for PSVR. At first I was underwhelmed. It wasn’t until I tried Blasters of the Universe that the whole thing clicked for me. For the first time I was actually inhabiting a game. It was so joyous that I literally broke into dance every time I beat a boss.

02. Into the Breach

I like to believe every problem has a solution if you look hard enough. Into the Breach is that philosophy made manifest. Plus mechs and Kaiju.

01. Dragon Quest XI: Echoes of an Elusive Age

It’s been a long time since a proper Dragon Quest. MMOs and minecrafts and musous are fine, but nothing beats a good RPG for me. DQXI isn’t just a return to form for the series, it’s a reaffirmation of the genre. I loved it from beginning to end to end to end.

[fourthmonkey]

2017 GILTY Pleasure Awards

Hope. That’s what I love about video games. They inspire hope. They’ve given me something to look forward to for 40 years. 2017 needed hope more than ever and video games rose to the challenge. There were more great games than there was time to play them all. Certainly more than I can count without taking off my shoes. To narrow down this list I focused on games that wormed their way most deeply into the crab-apple that I call a heart. I don’t claim that these are the best Games of the Year, but the Games I Loved This Year.

10. Tacoma

Too often stories in video games are graded on a curve. In any other medium, they’d be laughed off the stage, screen, or page. Tacoma is a good sci-fi story, full stop. It would hold up as a novella in the Expanse universe, or an episode of Firefly. It becomes something truly special combined with Fullbright’s exceptional attention to detail, innovative interactive storytelling, and great sense of pacing.

09. Persona 5

Calling Persona 5 the worst entry in the series would be praising it with faint damns. There is still something uniquely satisfying about inhabiting the mundane routines and metaphorical adventures of anime school kids. Despite any missteps, Atlus created enough new interesting characters that I am looking forward to dancing all night with them.

08. Destiny 2

It can be hard to quantify what makes a game great sometimes. Sometimes it’s easy. 1440 lines of resolution. 60 frames per second. 105 fields of view. Translating the fantastic feel of Destiny to the PC is easier said than done, but Bungie and Vicarious Visions nailed it. Destiny 2 didn’t suck me in as completely as its predecessor, but it continues to be a pleasure to play.

07. Life is Strange: Before the Storm

Chloe is in a very cynical state of mind at the beginning of Before the Storm. So was I. Both of us are at a loss without her best friend Max. Neither of us know what to make of the notorious Rachel Amber. Chloe expects things to end tragically and I know with absolute certainty that everything does. Rachel eventually manages to win Chloe’s heart and along the way Deck Nine somehow melted mine.

06. Children of the Zodiarcs

I love turn-based tactics games. I love decks of cards. I love throwing dice. Children of the Zodiarcs brilliantly combines all these, along with adorable artwork and a startlingly dark story. Cardboard Utopia presents an all too familiar world where conflict is as unheroic as it is unavoidable.

05. Yakuza 0

I cried at the end of Yakuza 0, but before the heartbreak was 120 hours of pure bliss. There are too many great parts in the game to list. My favorite was how gloriously broken the combat becomes in the game. Exploiting Kiryu’s drunken style and Majima’s infinite durability weapons makes potentially tedious encounters ridiculously satisfying. The one criticism I have of Sega’s effort, and it’s not fair, is that the game is worse than Yakuza 5 in every way.

04. Fire Emblem Heroes

Nintendo’s forays into mobile have been mostly misses, but Fire Emblem Heroes hit me hard. I always thought the battles in Fire Emblem games were too long. Breaking the combat down into bite sized chunks was perfect for me. Intelligent Systems has been adding significantly to the game throughout the year with new events to log in for, new abilities to grind out, and new characters to collect. My most played game of the year, by far.

03. Bye-Bye BoxBoy!

A good puzzle is like a good joke. They both challenges you to think differently and delight in the change. They are also ruined if you try to explain them. So I’ll just say that HAL Laboratory’s final Boxboy game never failed to put a smile on my face.

02. The Surge

My feelings for The Surge are inextricably tied to my favorite album of 2017, K.Flay’s Every Where Is Some Where. As a custom soundtrack, a feature I insist every game should have, the album perfectly set the mood for a dystopian future by perfectly reflecting our dystopian present. Beyond that, Deck13 made enough smart changes to the Souls formula to keep me interested for three full playthroughs.

01. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild

Paul Barnett has remarked that games have more in common with literature than with art, since games depend on sense-data rather than sensation to create the player’s experience. I only mention this to say something that sounds smart because saying Breath of the Wild tops a list of 2017 games sounds so stupid. Duh, it might be the best game ever made, of course it is the number one Game I Loved This Year. Nintendo has raised the bar so high on both bespoke content and emergent gameplay that all other game makers can do is look at it in the distance and assure themselves, “See that bar? You can go there!”

[fourthmonkey]

2015 Games of the Year

It was hard to come up with a list of ten games from 2015 that I loved. Many of this year’s contenders were simply not my type and much of my time was spent dallying with darlings from previous years. It might have been easier to come up with a list of games I hated this year. That probably says more about me than the games and probably isn’t worth dwelling on.

10. Fallout 4

Speaking of dwelling, the latest tale from the vaults barely makes its way onto this list. Fallout 4 is a step backwards for the franchise. To give Bethesda its due, I did spend over sixty hours in the Commonwealth before I couldn’t take it anymore. Some of that time was actually fun and not just compulsive scavenging.

9. Guild of Dungeoneering

"We like someone because. We love someone although." I first heard that quote from a girl in high school and I thought she was terribly clever. I stalk her on Facebook now, but that is not the point. The point is that the quote applies well to games. Guild of Dungeoneering endeared itself to me because of its deficiencies. It made me realize how important it is to both encourage a player after a defeat and to reward them after a success. The game struggled with the latter, making it fun to learn but unsatisfying to master.

8. Rebel Galaxy

I love Firefly. I’ve loved broadside ship combat since Sid Meier’s Pirates! I love that Travis Baldree and Erich Schaefer wrapped one around the other like a Browncoat Beef Wellington.

7. Persona 4: Dancing All Night

Speaking of beef, I am a huge Persona fan. If I wasn’t, I doubt this game would make the list. The story mode, which should have been the highlight, was unbearable aside from the Nanako scenes. That said, dressing up Chie and Yukiko in Santa outfits and free dancing along to Snowflakes always brought a smile to my face.

6. Guitar Hero Live

The FMV career mode is goofy but the streaming music videos of GHTV are a revelation. This is exactly how I want to play a music game. Random enough for discoverability. Repetitive enough for mastery. Casual enough to pick up. Competitive enough to make it hard to put down. If only it was real drums instead of fake guitar.

5. Rocket League

Regardless of whether my team was winning or losing, no matter if I was scoring goals or scuttling about haplessly, with strangers or with friends, Rocket League was always a good time. That is a miracle for a competitive online multiplayer game.

4. The Witcher 3

Two incredibly good looking and well written RPGs were released this year. One of them is a joy to play, with combat that rewards you for exploring its nuances. The other one is The Witcher 3. While Geralt’s latest adventure is magnificently presented, it felt like 90% of the my time was spent either watching gorgeous puppets unravel their yarn or admiring the scenery en route to the next puppet show. The rare parts of the game for which I needed both hands were clumsy at best. Still a great game. I might even finish it someday, but not before I finish…

3. Yakuza 5

The year’s other ridiculously comely RPG is all the more impressive for its humble hardware home on the PlayStation 3. The attention to detail in Yakuza 5 is mind boggling, be it in the characters’ faces or the combat. Every facet of this video gem is so lovingly crafted that Sega should sell download codes on Etsy. Small example: when you are out on a date, if you walk slowly enough, your companion will sidle up next to you and take your hand. The game is full of little touches like that. It is also full of the most refined face smashing fisticuffs yet. I haven’t even gotten to the part where you train to be an idol! The only reason this isn’t higher on the list is because it came out so late in the year and the end might suck.

2. Life is Strange

I can confidently state that the end of Life is Strange does not suck. In fact, I cannot recall a more satisfying conclusion to a game. “Forgiveness is the fragrance that the violet sheds on the heel that has crushed it.” That is another quote I learned from my clever high school confidant and one that is apt here. Whatever the choices you made for Max and the awfully human community encompassing Blackwell Academy, may the violet forgive you.

1. Bloodborne

The greatest compliment I can give to Bloodborne is that it makes it hard to go back to the Souls games. They feel so sluggish and look so last gen in comparison. Though what I love most about Miyazaki’s masterpiece is the zeitgeist that developed around it. The first big exclusive for the PS4, with its built-in streaming, became a communal activity. My favorite memories of gaming in 2015 aren’t my own but are of others discovering the giddy horrors of Bloodborne.

[fourthmonkey]

Games of the Year 2014

This is the preamble to my top ten games of 2014 list which you will skip over. It is here I explain that this is just ten things I wanted to say about games in 2014 rather than a strict ranking. I further note that the game I enjoyed the most consistently throughout 2014 was Quiz RPG: World of Mystic Wiz. It is a free-to-play mobile game released in 2013 so it doesn't count. None of which matters because you didn't read this.

10 - Destiny (PVP)

People will tell you that Destiny shipped with too little content. Those people are bad at math. According to my math I have over 500 hours in Destiny, and I'm still actively playing. I've gotten more out of Destiny than I've gotten out of every other 2014 game put together. So I've decided to reserve three spots in my top ten list just for Destiny.

Let's get this out of the way first. The worst part of Destiny is the competitive multiplayer. The handful of modes are uninspired. The netcode is frustrating. The metagame of bounty farming means that no one even cares who wins. Yet I still played enough Iron Banner to get all three of my characters to at least rank 4. It was rarely very fun, but it was sometimes very satisfying.

09 - Legend of Grimrock 2

I haven't actually played Legend of Grimrock 2. I really want to though.

The original was my favorite game of 2012. What I loved about it was that it teaches you how to do the impossible. Most of the puzzles in the game seem literally impossible at first. After banging your head against the game a while, light starts shining through the cracks, and soon you've done what you were sure no one could do.

I assume the sequel is more of that.

08 - TxK

When I first loaded up TxK on my Vita, I was standing in my bedroom, intending to lay down and enjoy some Jeff Minter madness. 30 minutes later, I found myself still standing in the very spot where I first pressed Start. I was so mesmerized by the visuals, and the music, and the gameplay that had forgotten that I had a body and that it would be more comfortable in bed.

07 - The Wolf Among Us

Telltale has perfected a new genre, the western visual novel. There are no puzzles, so they aren't adventure games. There are no panty shots, so they aren't proper visual novels. Whatever they are, The Wolf Among Us is my favorite example so far. I loved the art and the voice acting, but I was most impressed by the story. It stood well on its own, without requiring knowledge of the comics, but it also rewarded Fable fans with nods and winks and payoffs that were all the more satisfying for having seen them coming.

06 - Watch_Dogs

I don't care for stories in open world games. I find it perverse that the most non-linear gameplay is usually saddled with the most linear narrative. I only care about the world and whether I want to inhabit it.

I loved driving around fake Chicago, listening to the Wu-Tang Clan. I loved stopping random crimes. I loved being penalized for injuring civilians. I loved finding ways up buildings for unlocks and running along train tracks to avoid cops.

I hated Aiden and his family and his friends. Fortunately most of them are dead by the end. Spoilers.

05 - Tomodachi Life

For a glorious month, I was obsessed with recreating the cast of characters from Persona 3 and 4 in Tomodachi Life. I agonized over getting their faces, and personalities, and voices, and clothes just right. I cried when Chie married Akihiko. I laughed when Shinji divorced Yukari. Naoto and I raised a daughter and proudly sent her off to explore the world. It was like that episode of Next Generation where Picard hallucinates an entire lifetime. I didn't learn to play the flute, but I will always treasure the screenshots of my honeymoon.

04 - Persona Q: Shadow of the Labyrinth

As you now know, I love Persona 3 and 4, so this game had me at "Hello".  I was pleasantly surprised however that it was more than just fan service.  Persona Q is a legit dungeon crawler that reinvents familiar aspects of the Shin Megami Tensei universe in smart ways.

I always thought that the Etrian Odyssey games would be great if they only had NPCs with personalities and I was right.

03 - Dark Souls II

I don't think I need to explain what is great about the Souls games. The one area I always felt was less than great was the multiplayer. I PVPed some in Demon's Souls, but most of the time it was unwelcomed. I sure could have used help with Ornstein and Smough in Dark Souls, but rarely was able to summon anyone. It was with Dark Souls II that the promise of innovative multiplayer finally delivered. Helping people fend off invaders in Belfry Luna and then beating the boss gargoyles made me feel like a big damn hero every time.

02 - Destiny (Solo)

Destiny is multiple games to me. Doing patrols and bounties is very different from the aforementioned PVP. Where the Crucible demands focus, solo play is relaxing. Where the Iron Banner can be humbling, popping aliens' heads off is empowering. 

There is nothing better than the moment to moment gameplay in Destiny. Nothing. Some people look at the multiple reputation, currency, and leveling systems in the game as a grind to be endured. I look at them as reasons to keep returning to the exquisite gameplay.

01 - Destiny (Coop)

I had something of an existential crisis last year. I was playing Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn and enjoying it, until I got to level 50. I then found the groups in endgame dungeons so unfriendly and unpleasant that it nearly soured me on online gaming entirely. Now, I've been grouping up to kill things since 1999 in EverQuest, so it wasn't that the pitfalls of socializing with strangers was anything new to me. I just thought I was getting too old for this shit.

It was with no small amount of trepidation that I dipped my toe into the cooperative multiplayer in Destiny. Happily it ended up being the best part of the game. Figuring out the Vault of Glass together was exhilarating. Cheesing Nightfalls together made me feel like a naughty kid again. Everything is better with coop, and nothing is better than Destiny. Nothing.