#honestly i think the game that comes closest is red dead redemption 2

[joyus-whimsy]

Autism, special interests and Red Dead Redemption 2 (spoiler free)

Towards the end of last year I started properly playing Rdr2. I’ve had the game for years but never really devoted the time to getting into it. Now, I write this before I start the last quest of the epilogue, I’m so engrossed in this game. I feel an intense emotional attachment to Arthur and the game in general. This kind of attachment isn’t something I’ve let myself feel for a while.

I haven’t let myself have special interests because it annoys or weirds out people around me. I used to try and fight it, but I don’t want to anymore. I’ve realised a lot from deconstructing internalised and social ableism, (the countless cringe compilations lined with autistic people being really into something is a prime example.)

I’ve a playlist for Arthur with music that reminds me of him, reminds me of that intense emotional connection. It’s sorta my way of sitting in and feeling how I do instead of trying to have ‘normal’ attachments to things. I used to be (and to a point I still am) scared of this intense ‘obsessive’ feeling, but I miss having special interests. I’ve felt like a shell of myself for a while and depression sorta took over my life for a while.

I see the way my constant talk about rdr2 annoys the people around me, but I don’t know if I care that much anymore. That being said, last year I made a friend that I got along with instantly and they have quickly become my closest friend. They are also neurodivergent and I’m so thankful for them. They honestly inspire me with how much they love their special interests, and I’ve been making sure they know that I don’t find it annoying. I try to get into what they like because I love listening to and sharing people’s passions. But something new happened when I was sending them heaps of stuff about Red Dead, they were genuinely interested. They said they wished they could come and play it with me (it’s summer here and we both have summer jobs so have been unable

I think I’m done putting other peoples comfort above my own, and this is just one example of that. I’m done trying to fit in because I’m inherently different. I’m autistic and I have ADHD and I’m starting to learn how to ask for accommodations and advocate for myself. I’m learning to stop running from and masking my neurodivergence because it has only tired me out. I’m glad and proud that I’m doing this, and I feel like I’m slowly getting myself back.

I’m still scared, but I’m just going to keep going, I’m done running away. Frankly, I’m proud of that.

I’m trying to find people on here that I can talk to about it. People that like this game in the same way I do. So if you check out my blog and like the kinds of things I post or repost, maybe we could start a gc or something?

[hyah-through-hyrule]

I think I figured out why I keep coming back to botw. The way it constructs it's open world is honestly brilliant. I've played a lot of other open world games since botw's release; various assassin's creeds, horizon zero dawn/ forbidden west, stuff like that. And don't get me wrong, I enjoyed playing those games too. But I noticed it got tedious and lost my interest after a while. And honestly, a lot of it has to do with how the maps work. In botw, when you unlock a portion of the map, it doesn't show you the location of anything. Not even the stables show up on the map unless you walk in close proximity to one.

Other open worlds neglect to do this. In other games, locations of things like collectables/boss fights/etc is revealed to you on the map. In botw, they use visual cues to get you to go to a location, whether it's the orange glow of a shrine, rocks formed in a specific way, ruins, etc. What I love about it is you can opt in to have help if you want (sheikah shrine sensor, korok mask, etc), rather than having it automatically unlock for you. Being able to put your own map markers is great too, i wish more games would utilize that feature.

Curious to see if anyone feels the same way, or if you have other opinions!

[hebblog]

(my) TOP VIDEOGAMES OF THE DECADE

These are just the games that I played...and could remember! There were a ton of games I couldn’t remember or just don’t have time to track down. But I guess if I couldn’t remember them the wouldn’t make the list anyway!

_______________________________________________________________________

2010: HALO REACH

Bungie’s farewell to the franchise left a really solid place in my heart, with an amazing story and online multiplayer that I STILL check in on from time to time. HONOURABLE MENTIONS: Mass Effect 2 - The ME franchise was a big part of my time in college. Red Dead Redemption - Ten years later and I’m hard-pressed to find an open world experience that immersed me in as hard as this one did! Star Craft 2 - I spent more IRL multiplayer time with friends in this than I did in Halo Reach! 2011: THE ELDER SCROLLS V: SKYRIM

I literally have to stop myself from picking this game up these days. It took my years to dig through it all, and I’m so glad I spent that much time in it! HONOURABLE MENTIONS: Portal 2 - This almost got game of the year. Almost! Gears of War 3 - This game defines one of my closest friendships :) 2012: DIABLO 3

This was thee game that year, that my friends and I would all gather around to play. Some of them still do! HONOURABLE MENTIONS: Halo 4 - I really wanted this to be better than it was, still great though! Mass Effect 3 - The only reason it doesn’t beat D3 is because of the connections to friendships. 2013: FAR CRY 3: BLOOD DRAGON

I mean, c’mon! An 80′s synth pop FPS with laser shooting dragons and cyborg ninjas on an island of death? This game is literally what goes on in my head, on screen! HONOURABLE MENTIONS: GTA5 / BF4 - Same reason, great multiplayer! Tomb Raider - Made me care about that genre of games, always thought it was boring before! 2014: DESTINY

After Bungie left Halo, I didn’t think I’d have another game franchise that I could call “mine”. Destiny, even with all its flaws, is the culmination of everything nerdy that I love. I really do feel like this is a story that will stick with me for the rest of my life - like Star Wars, or the X-Men.

HONOURABLE MENTIONS: Titanfall - Filled the whole that Destiny’s shotty PVP couldn’t. Alien Isolation - I still haven’t finished this game! I play 10mins at a time haha!

2015: ARKHAM KNIGHT

My friend borrowed me the whole series, and I spent my Christmas playing through all of them, I’ll never forget that!

HONOURABLE MENTIONS: Fallout 4 - This isn’t number one because my file got corrupted and I was so frustrated that I haven’t picked it up since! Halo 5 - I really like what this did for the franchise! I can’t believe it came out this long ago, I still dive into the multiplayer often! 2016: POKEMON GO

I KNOW I KNOW!!! I LOVE IT SHUT UP I STILL PLAY IT NEARLY EVERYDAY! THATS GOTTA COUNT FOR SOMETHING!!!

HONOURABLE MENTIONS: Gears 4 - I love what they’re doing with the story, buuut just not in love with the new characters. Doom - Loved it, awesome, so fun. But I don’t see myself (honestly) picking it up again.

2017: LEGEND OF ZELDA: BREATH OF THE WILD

One of the best stories I’ve ever played though. Period. I will play this game forever.

HONOURABLE MENTIONS: Destiny 2 - Love how they’re advancing the franchise to make it playable for years go come, and it nearly checked all the boxes for me, but still left me feeling like something was missing.

2018: GOD OF WAR

Honestly...I only started playing this a week ago! But it came out at this time, so it goes in this slot.

This was the year I didn’t buy any new games. I hunkered down and really loved what I already had.

2019: DEATH STRANDING

I literally bought a PS4 to play this game!

HONOURABLE MENTIONS: Gears 5 - It rekindled an old gaming frienship that I thought had nearly died out! Apex Legends - This studio knows how to fill PvP multiplayer holes in my heart!

_______________________________________________________________________

GAME OF THE DECADE: WORLD OF WARCRAFT!

Yes, I still play. And anyone that knows me knows this was going to take the stop spot! Going on 14yrs (I think) now, and if I can, I’ll play forever!

_______________________________________________________________________

Now it’s YOUR turn! Leave a comment or a DM and let me know what your fav games were!

[blerdstatic]

Red Dead Redemption 2 Delayed, but Rockstar Gives Sweet Screenshots for Gamer Woes

I can’t believe this $hit....Rockstar’s Red Dead Redemption 2 was the only game I was looking forward to in 2017, and now it’s pushed to Spring of 2018! That’s literally a whole year from now! I kind of wish developers wouldn’t say anything about their games until like a month before they know it’s ACTUALLY releasing. Otherwise, this early bird divulging of information keeps us anticipating for a long, long time, like Donald Trump waiting to be impeached (too soon?). 

However, kudos to Rockstar, because they knew the backlash from the gaming community was coming with this delay announcement. In return for our broken hearts, they’ve released some very fine pixel screenshots. So what I’ll be doing diving into the details, and what it could mean as far as the game’s environment, characters, and gameplay.

The 431 Train

Let’s talk about this train shot, which has a mile of information on it. The first thing I noticed was the “431″ inscribed in gold on the side of engine car. 

So I looked it up on google by searching “old fashioned trains 431″ and here’s what popped up, along with a few other links referencing VTS (Vermont Rail System). Now there were a few other pictures of 431 trains from Pennsylvania, but most of it was specifically related to Vermont’s rail system. So maybe 431 was a rail line going from Vermont to other parts of the country. That being said, given the size of maps these days, I’m pretty damn sure the whole game won’t be in one state or location. This could be a very massive game, and with a railway system, it could mean Rockstar is providing us a way to travel across vast distances in old west coast and middle American landscapes. 

Speaking of landscapes let’s get down into the imagery of landscape in the following screenshot.

Landscape

You’ll see the screenshot of the game in the upper left corner, and the other real photographs of Vermont landscape. If you notice, the trees look pretty similar to the game...or I guess you could say the game trees look similar to the ones in real life Vermont. 

The trees have the same triangular shape, and the same kind of spacing between the branches and leaves. The clouds look similar, and the rolling hills and mountains are also favoring each other. 

You’ll see striking similarity between the RDR2 shot on the left and an actual picture of a redwood forest on the left. A quick google search of redwood natural habitats produces the following result...

So it looks like we can put Oregon, Northern California, and Vermont as probable locations to traverse in Red Dead 2. Maybe there’ll be like an easter egg mission centered around the old classic 8-bit Oregon Trail games. 

What also confirms this northwestern region is the previous screenshot of American Bison, which during the period of 1850 to 1900 were largely located in Wyoming, where currently Yellowstone National Park resides. 

Return to Blackwater?

There could also be a return to the town of Blackwater.

Street Lights and 1880 or 1890?

In this picture we can see electric street lights and power lines, and their given rudimentary style might suggest a time period of late 19th century circa 1880 or 1890s, which would make sense considering the story of the first Red Dead Redemption, which was placed around 1911. Since RDR2 is supposed to be occurring years before RDR1, when John Marston was still part of a gang, this could make plenty of sense. Also you’ll notice the character in this screenshot is holding two different pistols, with barrels that have obviously unequal lengths. This may suggest dual wielding.

 Captain Jack Hands

Last but not least, we have this awesome screenshot of random hands with very detailed rings and gun embroidery. 

I have seen some reviews that suggest these are a woman’s hands, given the rings and the blouse-like shirt. However, if you look closely, the hand closest to us seems to have a light brushing of hair texture, which suggests it’s a man. Also, looking at the finger tips closely, at least in my opinion, those are more man-like. However, this is the wild wild west, and certainly they could be the hands of a very capable, tough, and rough female lead character. The rings on the two fingers, are that of a lion with red jewel eyes, and a very fancy letter “D”. Obviously the D could stand for a infamous character from the first Red Dead (I’ll let you figure that out). The lion ring could mean anything, and at this stage I’m just not sure exactly what it refers to. 

Overall

So there we have it. Red Dead Redemption 2 looks promising and HUGE based off these screenshots. I can imagine it will easily require 50GB on any console and even more if a PC port comes out, which most likely won’t come out until years after the console release. 

I’m sorry to hear it’s delayed, but as Rockstar stated, they need that extra time to make sure they crank out the best possible product for their eager and loyal fans. Quite honestly, I really respect that tone, especially since Rockstar has the BEST reputation for developing games that might take a while, but you know damn jack shit well you’re getting the best game out there. And for them to release these screenshots, just shows how classy the ladies and gents developing our classic western escape are. 

What do you guys think about the delay and screenshots? 

[superfreakinlonely]

This is our very first GPU review of 2020, and it’s going to be an interesting one. Back at CES AMD announced the RX 5600 XT, which is priced at $280 USD, and it’s supposed to sort of slot in between the RX 5500 XT 8GB and the RX 5700 in their lineup. They showed some specs and had a few performance lines that showed it beating the NVIDIA GTX 1660 Ti by a pretty convincing margin. That means it could also goes toe-to-toe against the RTX 2060. So guess what happened? NVIDIA decided to lower the price of their RTX 2060 to $300 USD, but good luck finding one for that price.

Things took a little bit of an interesting turn because last week AMD pulled a last minute trick on everyone who knew the specs of the RX 5600 XT by rolling out an official BIOS that increased board power, core frequencies, and memory speeds, and the effect on performance is pretty drastic. So we needed to scramble since our RX 5600 XT testing was already done, and I’m pretty sure NVIDIA is scrambling too since they have nothing that can compete.

A Last Minute Update

All right, so let’s start things off with the specs since even without the new BIOS the RX 5600 XT was a pretty interesting card. It uses the same 7nm Navi 10 RDNA-based GPU core, which is also found on the RX 5700, and it even has the same number of stream processors, texture units, and ROPs. The real differences were lower clock speeds and a 192-bit memory interface instead of the 256-bit one on the RX 5700. Some people thought that pricing was a little bit too high at $280 USD, since even though the 5700 XT officially costs $350 USD you could pick it up for between $320 and $340. However, then the new BIOS happened. And what did that do? Well the power limit was increased by about 10 watts, the Game Clock, which is where the GPU will spend most of its time, jumped up by almost 200MHz. The Boost Clock got a nice bump as well, but the biggest surprise was the memory that shot up from 12Gbps to 14Gbps.

Not only that, but AMD’s board partners like Sapphire, XFX, and PowerColor are taking things even further with their overclocked versions. Let’s take a look at this Sapphire Pulse 5600 XT for example. It’s Game Clock goes even further to 1615MHz, and for those of you keeping track that’s 240MHz higher than the RX 5600 XT was supposed to hit. The boost clock hits up to 1750MHz, and those specs get really close to the stock RX 5700. There is also a Silent BIOS, which is pretty pointless since the card is whisper quiet with its Performance BIOS setting.

Performance Boost

So how much did this new BIOS affect performance? Let’s take a look at the Pulse 5600 XT from Sapphire, remember this is a pre-overclocked GPU, but right now it is running at those speeds that I just showed. You can see that in these games there’s a pretty significant boost in frame rates, but right across every title we tested the performance increase was somewhere between 12% all the way up to 20% depending on how well the game reacted to those clock speeds. That really changed the RX 5600 XT’s outlook.

However, there is one little issue. The new BIOS was rolled out at the very last moment, and so the first batch of shipments to retailers won’t have them installed. And that’s messed up because buyers will have to find the new BIOS, the updating tool from their respective manufacturer’s website, and flash it themselves. So if you have an RX 5600 XT it’s out-of-the-box performance won’t be anywhere close to what you’re going to be seeing in the benchmarks. That kind of sucks, but it’s great to see what a BIOS update can do to the performance. However, this almost feels like a bit of a bait-and-switch by AMD. I mean it’s great to show awesome results and reviews, but you guys won’t be able to get those numbers without jumping through a few hoops first. Not only that, but it’s impossible to figure out if a card has an updated BIOS until you get it home and run AMD’s update tool. This could be a huge mess, and I’m hoping AMD and their partners make this process very clear.

The Sapphire Pulse 5600 XT

Speaking of their partners, let’s quickly take a look at the Sapphire Pulse 5600 XT. It looks like all of their previous Pulse GPUs, and that means it has two large fans and a super compact heat sink. It’s only 10 inches long and takes up two slots, so nothing extreme here. I love the fact that Sapphire doesn’t feel like they need the biggest GPU on the block to look cool. This thing is clean, good looking, and it should fit into most compact cases without any problems. There’s even a back plate to complete the overall look, and cut into that is a small bios switch. For those of you wondering, the position closest to the I/O connectors has the Performance BIOS, which is what we use for testing. While the position towards the power input holds a silent profile, that one has lower clock speeds, reduced fan speeds, and runs at a lower power envelope. As for power input, there’s an 8-pin connector and that’s about it.

Gaming Benchmarks

Let’s move onto the results. For this test, I’ll be using the above benchmarking setup, and the following graphic cards: The RTX 2060 Founders Edition, the ASUS GTX 1660 Ti OC, the EVGA GTX 1660 Super Black Gaming, the Sapphire Pulse RX 5700 OC, and finally the Pulse RX 5600 XT. As for the results, let’s kick things off with Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, and right away the RX 5600 XT is absolutely dominating the RTX 2060 and almost comes close to the RX 5700. In CS:GO, the NVIDIA cards do come out on top, especially with their 1% lows, but it should be noted we were experiencing some CPU bottlenecking here. Even though the AMD GPUs have better overall averages, I would actually choose an NVIDIA card for Fortnite since they deliver a much smoother experience. Jedi: Fallen Order shows what’s really amazing about the RX 5600 XT, which is that it can almost match the RX 5700 in many cases. The Outer Worlds really seems to favor NVIDIA cards when it comes to averages, but the RX 5600 XT delivers a much more playable experience without constant stuttering, especially when compared to the GTX 1660 cards.

In Overwatch we’re back again to RX 5600 XT domination, where it clearly beats the RTX 2060 and leaves the GTX 1660 Super in the dust. Rainbow 6: Siege is one game that benefits from the RX 5700’s 8GB of memory, especially with the HD texture pack. However, the RX 5600 XT is still super competitive against the RTX 2060. The fact that we got Red Dead Redemption running at all is a miracle, but here the RX 5600 XT is right where we would expect it to be. As for Shadow of the Tomb Raider, the RX 5600 XT is leading the RTX 2060 again, but moving onto Warhammer 2 and it’s pretty evident that this is a tough game on any system. The RX 5600 XT really struggles to compete on 1% lows, but overall frame rates are pretty good. And guess what, we brought back Witcher 3, it’s here mostly as a reminder to check out the awesome TV series and to go back and enjoy this amazing game. You can also be confident that the RX 5600 XT is more than good enough to play the game as well.

Power Consumption

And finally we’re onto power consumption, and even with the higher clock speeds the 5600 XT manages to be a pretty efficient GPU when compared to the RTX 2060. The problem with that card is all the extra die space used for ray tracing and AI capabilities that end up having a negative impact on efficiency. But honestly it looks like we might have a low leakage core on our 5600 XT, but we will only be able to confirm that with more samples. Either way, I think this is a huge win for AMD since they have struggled to compete with NVIDIA from a performance per watt standpoint, but now they have won big in almost every way.

Conclusion

Well AMD did it again with the Radeon RX 5600 XT. Now the last minute change didn’t allow us to run all the benchmarks that we wanted to, and I’m sure it’s going to cause a lot of issues for buyers who will have to go through the process of updating the BIOS to get expected performance. However, I have to say that at $280 USD this GPU is really good, because even at the performance setting it runs super quiet, it’s super efficient, and it offers tons of performance at 1080P. Now NVIDIA did try to compete by lowering the price of the RTX 2060 to $300, but keep in mind that is the Founders Edition and it is suspiciously sold out. Even if you were to find one at that price point, it’s really difficult for me to recommend that GPU over something like the RX 5600 XT.

Here’s the deal, plain and simple, if you want an awesome card for 1080p gaming and you can afford it the RX 5600 XT is a massive improvement over the GTX 1660 Super. In some cases it almost hits RX 5700 performance levels. Although that causes some problems for the RX 5700, that cards extra memory can come in handy for some games. Sure, AMD took a while to release this mainstream model, but right now I feel like they did a really good job of creating really affordable and high performance for gamers. I can’t wait to see what they have planned out for the rest of 2020.

The post AMD Tricked Everyone! Radeon RX 5600 XT Review appeared first on Hardware Canucks.

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[terryblount]

DSOGaming – Here are our Games of the Year 2019

There have been a lot of great games for the PC this year. As such, and contrary to all previous years, we’ve decided to share with you today our Games of the Year 2019. In this list, you’ll find the games that DSOGaming’s writers enjoyed the most. Do note that this isn’t our “Top 10 Most Optimized” and “Top 10 Worst Optimized” lists; these lists will be published next week. So without further ado, here are our best PC games of 2019.

Chris Kountouras – Red Dead Redemption 2

My game of the year is Red Dead Redemption 2, simply because the game wipes its ass with every other open-world game out there. This Western ‘simulator’ provided me with a grand array of feelings throughout its very long single player story, and what a glorious story it was. Arthur Morgan might be the best developed character I ever played.

I laughed, I raged, I robbed, I saved, I killed and I died, time and time again. I lost my way an infinite number of times in this game. Going from A to B had never been so hard in a game before. There are so many things to do, that sometimes you even forget what you were suppose to do in the first place.

And now having the game on PC is a bless. Playing the game on sixty frames feels almost like a completely different game. The perfect gift for Christmas!

Happy holidays and merry Christmas DSOG readers.

Pieter Naude – Mortal Kombat 11

When thinking about the games I played this year, I noticed that most were either sequels or remakes for pre-existing franchises. Honestly, I wanted to choose my GOTY from new IP’s since our industry desperately needs some freshness with this sink or swim climate. As such, I decided that this had better be a sequel or remake that took its franchise to new levels. It had to sustain its longstanding identity, and yet improve on every single aspect from visuals to gameplay. There was only one such candidate for me in 2019: Mortal Kombat 11. Ed Boon and his team had made, in my opinion, their best fighting game ever. The fatalities had never felt more visceral, the story provided the perfect excuse to reintroduce some old-school MK, and the mechanics introduced a playing style that focused more on strategic fighting than lighting-fast reflexes. Truly an excellent accomplishment for Netherealm, and without any doubt the best I played in this year.

Spencer – Halo: Reach

I’m selecting Reach as my Game of the Year, it’s new on PC and the fact is this is absolutely how this game was meant to be played. A couple years ago Sega’s Rez came out on VR and I said it felt like Tetsuya Mizuguchi had designed this Dreamcast game as a VR title long before VR was an actual mass consumer product — but VR added so much to the experience that it made that title feel reborn.

It’s the same story for Halo, this is a franchise that has belonged on PC since its inception but was limited by the console hardware that hosted it so that Microsoft could use the strength it lends as an IP to move hardware. Understandable! But not so great for us PC gamers! Well thankfully Microsoft has decided the IP would be better off coming to PC as well as its Xbox line of consoles. Reach is the first arrival from the Master Chief Collection, which will include Halo CE, 2, 3, ODST, 4 and Reach.

The addition of mouse controls adds a fluidity that was never there on a dual analog gamepad and it feels like the premiere modern FPS franchise has come to occupy its rightful position on the premiere FPS platform.

The PC release, much like the MCC isn’t perfect. The compilation suffered from issues on Xbox One and I imagine it will on PC but it cannot be argued that these are some of the strongest games on offer in this industry and that this compilation is one of the best gaming values out there, ever. Some of the issues I’ve noticed on PC for Reach: muffled audio, crouch doesn’t seem to work correctly and occasional front end menu crashes.

In time I’m confident these issues will be ironed out but in the meantime this is a playable and definitive version of one of the best FPS games released in the last 10 years. Mouse aiming is a revelation, the multiplayer is excellent and the campaign is depressing and somber making you feel vulnerable and doomed even as a Spartan war machine. At the end though, Reach is reborn in our world as well as 117’s.

Here’s to Halo on PC, keep it coming.

Nick McCaskey – Anno 1800

Given the limited time I had to play games in 2019, my game of the year choice is less about a definitive selection and more about my personal slice of gaming. Therefore, the 2019 release I loved the most was Anno 1800, and my 100+ hours of playtime proves it!

I’m a long-time Anno fan, and 1800 was a homecoming for the franchise. It delivered the hallmark mix of soothing city-building, vast empire management, and complex economic simulation while also being the most graphically astounding and technically impressive entry in the series.

Moreover, now is the best time ever to play Anno 1800. The developers deserve kudos for steadily releasing significant patches to improve the game and add free features like a day/night cycle and much better empire statistics screens.

Another reason to jump in now is the Season Pass content is now completely released. I’m morally opposed to paying early for promises, but just last week I’ve purchased the Season Pass at half-price and look forward to enjoying the three excellent content additions to the game.

In conclusion, there’s a time and place for high-energy, scripted story games, but Anno 1800 is my fallback game when I need to sit down for a couple hours and do nothing more than leisurely expand my empire-wide bread production chains. Ah, it’s good to taste life’s simple production pleasures!

PS: As far as other “could have been GOTY if I’d played them” titles, I will mention Control, Disco Elysium, and Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order. All three seem outstanding and worthy of consideration!

John Papadopoulos – The Outer Worlds

2019 was a great year for PC gaming as we got a lot of amazing games. And, to be honest, it was pretty difficult deciding my GOTY 2019. I really loved Resident Evil 2 Remake, Gears 5 and Devil May Cry 5. A Plague of Tale: Innocence was also a stunning title, and Metro: Exodus was awesome. Still, there was “something” missing in these games.

Ultimately, I was left with three games that were the closest I could think of as a GOTY 2019. These three games were: Red Dead Redemption 2, Control and The Outer Worlds. RDR 2 is Chris’ GOTY 2019 so I believe I should choose another game.

So, The Outer Worlds or Control? To be honest, I enjoyed both of them. The Outer Worlds is a great RPG that even lets you kill anyone and avoid combat via the dialogue tree. Contrary to Fallout 4, its combat mechanics are amazing and it was a truly amazing experience. Yes, there are some shortcomings here and there, but I really, really enjoyed it.

And then there is Control. I’ve always been a huge fan of Remedy’s games and despite a lot of players, I really enjoyed Quantum Break (I love “time travel” so give me more of these ideas/scenarios please). Control is easily one of Remedy’s best games to date. Not only that, but it’s pretty fascinating witnessing its older IPs, like Quantum Break and Alan Wake, being present in the very same universe. It’s a game you should definitely play as it has a lot of special moments, like the Ashtray Maze or what happens to Jesse towards the end of the game. However, its ending did not satisfy me as it’s undoubtedly building towards a sequel. And perhaps this is something in which The Outer Worlds excelled.

When I finished The Outer Worlds, I felt a weird satisfaction. I didn’t get any “The game ended? That’s it? It was really short. But what about this?” feeling. The game felt complete. Moreover, and while writing everything you just read, I was constantly recalling my experiences in The Outer Worlds rather than in Control. Therefore, my GOTY 2019 is The Outer Worlds.

Merry Christmas everyone and happy holidays!

The post DSOGaming – Here are our Games of the Year 2019 appeared first on DSOGaming.

DSOGaming – Here are our Games of the Year 2019 published first on https://touchgen.tumblr.com/

[xb-squaredx]

Gaming in 2018: The Good and Bad

2017 is largely considered an awesome year for video games as a whole. Plenty of fantastic titles and the impressive debut of the Nintendo Switch certainly meant that 2018 had a LOT to live up to. This past year has certainly been interesting in a great many ways; some of it’s good, some of it’s bad and a lot of it is just…business as usual. As the year is winding down, let’s take a look at some of the notable releases and happenings in the video game scene. Take it away!

The year starts off fairly strong, the first few months having a fair amount of quality titles, some even potential “Game of the Year” candidates. Both Monster Hunter: World and Dragon Ball FighterZ released not only to high acclaim and sales, but on the same day no less! A wide variety of games from several different franchises and genres dot the calendar. Co-op adventure games like A Way Out in March, the return of God of War in April competing with Nintendo’s odd Labo line of potentially over-priced cardboard and the controversial Detroit: Become Human in May. The summer saw a slew of releases, from a new entry in the Mario Tennis series with Aces, Octopath Traveler in July, and Spider-Man on the PS4 in September. The last three months see a sudden explosion of hotly-anticipated titles from some mega-franchises. Everything from Assassin’s Creed to Call of Duty to Pokemon and Super Smash Bros. sees a release, not to mention Red Dead Redemption 2 right at the end of October. Just looking at things generally, there’s a good spread, but let’s look at things more in-depth.

Fighting games had quite a few releases this year, though sadly I’d say most of them were considered underwhelming for one reason or another. Another entry in the Dissidia series was absolutely crushed by FighterZ and Monster Hunter to kick the year off, while niche fighting games like Blade Strangers, Fighting EX Layer, SNK Heroines and BlazBlue Cross Tag Battle were met with mixed reception overall. The anime crowd also got a 3D Brawler based on the My Hero Academia license…that launched the same day in the West as Red Dead Redemption 2 so…ouch. The year does see a bit of a rebound with titles like SoulCalibur VI and Super Smash Bros. Ultimate being fairly well-received. It’s nice to see the fighting game genre continue onward, and at the very least I’m glad to see attempts at innovating or just new ideas being thrown out, but they can’t all be winners.

Unfortunately, I’d say there were also a fair few stinkers released this year, or games that just failed to capture much of an audience. February saw a double-whammy of Dynasty Warriors 9 and Metal Gear Survive, two games that are largely viewed as massive step backs from their previous entries. Shadow of the Tomb Raider, Sushi Striker and Just Cause 4 released and were quickly forgotten by the general public. You have some games that received at least SOME coverage and potential success, like Ubisoft’s toys-to-life Starlink game likely being the closest thing we’ll get to a new Star Fox game for quite a while (on the Switch version at least), and a fair number of indies came out this year too, or in some cases, came to consoles and boosted visibility. Hollow Knight came out last year on Steam, but is now out on everything and that thing sold like crazy on Switch at the very least. Then you have things like Dead Cells or The Messenger, Celeste and Guacamelee 2 that also received rave reviews. While last year we had Crash Bandicoot’s remakes and Sonic Mania appealing to nostalgia, this year we saw Spyro get his turn at a remake trilogy, as well as Mega Man 11 and an 8-bit, classic-Castlevania styled throwback in the form of Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon. All that said, let’s talk the big dogs.

Nintendo didn’t have nearly as many heavy-hitters in comparison to last year, though honestly I think it’d be hard to top that line-up anyway. The Switch’s library has ballooned since last year, a lot of that coming from ports, with that trend likely continuing into next year as well. The third party support is certainly welcome and fills out the Switch’s catalogue, though there’s an awful lot of first-party Wii U ports too. Donkey Kong Country Tropical Freeze, the Captain Toad game, as well as the first two Bayonetta games and Hyrule Warriors graced the system. Even the 3DS seems like it’s getting the shaft in terms of huge titles. Outside of a “greatest hits” of microgames with WarioWare Gold, there was a Luigi’s Mansion remake/port and…I guess Yo-Kai Watch still exists, so there’s that? The 3DS is clearly slowly being phased out, so as long as it still prints money, we’ll be seeing these strange remakes and ports…like…Kirby’s Epic Yarn coming next year…for some reason. As far as NEW titles, entries like Kirby: Star Allies and Mario Tennis Aces can be considered somewhat lacking, but it’s balanced out by a return to form for the Mario Party series, a great third-party exclusive in Octopath Traveler, a well-received DLC expansion/pseudo-sequel to Xenoblade Chronicles 2 and, of course, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. Actually, I’d say that tips them back over into pretty darn good overall.

Sony did pretty well this year, though honestly they only saw TWO major exclusive releases. However, both God of War and Spider-Man, despite having uncreative names, are clear “Game of the Year” contenders, and it surely reaps the benefits of the various third-party hits on the platform…and Detroit: Become Human, I guess. Shame about Xbox though; as far as exclusives went there was Rare’s Sea of Thieves, seen by many as too devoid of actual content to play for very long. Its E3 show was good at least! Good at showing off a bunch of games that will also be on other consoles!

Industry-wide, the year was a bit of a downer though, with some notable layoffs and studio closures, some very close to one another. Cliff Blesinski of Gears of War fame, closed down his studio, Boss Key Productions, following two back-to-back flops with Lawbreakers in 2017 and Radical Heights in 2018. As the year winded down, Capcom Vancouver closed its doors in September, with Telltale Games following soon after, generating a fair amount of media buzz over the volatile nature of employment in game development and the concept of “crunch” time in games as well. Right as Red Dead Redemption 2 came out, Rockstar also received flak for their workplace conditions when news of employees working “100 hour” work weeks was brought up as if it was some sort of positive thing.

The game industry isn’t all sunshine and rainbows; for every success story, you have a studio closing, for every hit, you have a game that crashes and burns on release. It can be hard to tell what to expect in a given year with video games, what big franchises will do and what new tent poles might pop up in the meantime. Fortnite is suddenly among the most popular games right now, and after Nintendo’s last console flopped, the Switch is on the warpath to reclaim that status Nintendo has always been known for. In this year alone, we saw several sequels to iconic, major franchises. It can be easy to forget them all, but it’s important to soak all that variety in. New Far Cry and Assassin’s Creed games, Mario Party and God of War, for starters. There are toys-to-life games and cardboard creativity, alongside your annual Madden and Call of Duty and Battlefield games, and TONS of fighting games. Capcom in general seems to be on a hot streak of hits, which considering the reception of Street Fighter V and Marvel vs. Capcom Infinite last year, is saying something. I haven’t lost my love for gaming, though I do somewhat worry how certain modern monetization trends will affect things going forward. But there are also tons of things to be on the lookout for. PS4 and Xbone are going to be on their way out someday soon (relatively speaking anyway), Nintendo always seems to have surprises under their sleeves (like announcing and releasing a SMASH BROS. game all in the same year, for one) and there exist plenty of talented developers both large and small that continue to innovate, making fun, new ideas. Here’s to 2019 hopefully continuing the trend of being mostly good!

Happy Gaming, and until next time.

-B