Last December I did an end-of-year recap thing that got a lot of fun comments. Thought I'd do it again this year! What games did you complete (or just play a lot of)? What did you think about them? Highlights? Lowlights? Might be a good chance to find some hidden gems while the Steam sale is on too.

I finished a surprisingly large number of games this year. Sorted by date completed, oldest first...

A Short Hike | 8/10

Cute, short, and fun. Perfect game to start the year.

Inside | 8/10

Limbo was the very last game I completed in '23, and I definitely preferred Inside overall. I liked the atmosphere, visuals, and puzzles more here.

Hook 2 | 7/10

NABOKI | 6/10

Up Left Out | 6/10

I bought these three as part of a bundle. Short and fun puzzle games, nothing super memorable.

Firewatch | 7/10

Definitely an enjoyable time, great voice acting, but the ending was kind of underwhelming.

Cyber Hook | 7/10

I really like this style of 3D platformer, but there aren't a lot of them. The only other one I can think of is Grapple, which was hugely underrated.

Lunistice | 6/10

Cute art style, but I remember the controls feeling a little bit janky.

Slay the Princess | 8/10

Fuckin' weird, I love it.

Unpacking | 6/10

I was disappointed that I didn't vibe with this one very much. Telling the story through the items you own is a super cool idea, but I just couldn't get myself to really care about where to place the items which is the entire gameplay loop.

Hades | 10/10 (Top 3 of the Year)

I don't like roguelikes, so I skipped Hades for a long time, but I finally gave in. I LOVED my time with this. The meta progression was done well enough that I felt like I was still making progress overall so the roguelike-ness never bothered me, and every other aspect of this game is perfection. My highest rated game of the year because I cannot find a reason to take a point away.

Trail Out | 7/10

Something something imitation, something something flattery. This is a Flatout game, but it's honestly a pretty good one. I had a fun time with it, but I'd never take this over Flatout 2.

art of rally | 7/10

I'm not a huge fan of top-down racers but with some tweaks in the camera settings it's bearable. What really hurts this game is the penalty/recovery system, it's so eager to reset your car the moment you go off the track, even if only by a hair, it destroys the flow. Graphics are beautiful though.

Hot Wheels Unleashed | 6/10

It's fine. Super repetitive, lootbox-esque progression is stupid, but it's mechanically sound. I would only recommend if you're desperate for arcade racers like I am.

Loddlenaut | 7/10

I love how cleaning games have become a genre. This is a short and sweet game about cleaning the ocean, I had a good time with this one on the Steam Deck.

Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit 2 | (the PS2 one) | 9/10

There's a decent chance this was the first video game I ever played. If not the first, it's at least among the first couple. I've started so many saves but never actually finished the career mode until now. Aside from the career structure being a bit boring, it's still a highlight of the franchise for me. Beautiful tracks, beautiful cars, top tier early '00s soundtrack, great handling, I love this game.

Gear.Club Unlimited 2 | 6/10

Look, I'm really desperate for arcade racers, okay? This one isn't a live service, isn't always online, no lootboxes, no battle passes, I'll take it.

Toem | 7/10

Cute, but there were several times throughout my playthrough where it felt like what should've been the solution wasn't, and the actual solution made less sense than what I was trying to do, which was a bit frustrating.

Hi-Fi Rush | 9/10

The score went up an entire point when The Prodigy - Invaders Must Die started playing. I really hope this gets a sequel.

Burnout Revenge | 9/10

Another game I've started many times and never finished. NFS:HP2 may have been a nostalgia-driven 9/10, but this is a genuine 9/10. Absolutely puts everything from the past 10 years of this genre to shame.

DiRT 4 | 6/10

Painfully dull. DiRT Rally is a way better sim, DiRT 2/3/5 are way better arcade racers, there is no reason to ever touch this. I finished it because I am desperate for racing games.

Ghostrunner II | 7/10

This one didn't vibe with me as much as the first, and I'm not really sure why. The bike levels were a bit janky but were still fun for variety, and I still liked the game overall, but I'm more likely to replay the first than this.

SPRAWL | 9/10 (Top 3 of the Year)

If SPRAWL didn't have a soundtrack, it would be an 8/10, good time, recommend. However, I have had this goddamn soundtrack on repeat since playing it. This is my favorite video game OST and it's not even remotely close. This is a neurofunk album with a video game tie-in.

Blur 8/10

The fact that when I first played this I instantly got a message from a friend I hadn't talked to in years asking "HOW DID YOU GET A STEAM KEY" says so much about the legacy of this game. It existed for such as short period of time and was horribly underrated. (I wish I owned this game on Steam, but it was a non-Steam copy.)

Webbed | 7/10

Cute platformer, don't really much about it at the moment besides skateboarding spiders.

Bastion | 8/10

Played after putting many more hours into Hades to see where Supergiant came from. I was impressed by how well it holds up, fun to see earlier concepts that Hades would perfect.

Old School Rally | ?/10

Technically an early access game, but I finished all the available career events. Very promising PS1-style rally game.

Stories: The Path Of Destinies | 8/10

You ever have one (or hundreds) of those games you got in a Humble Bundle 5 years ago and just never touched? This was one of those, I randomly decided to play it, and it was great! Fantastic voice acting, fun story, fun combat, I wish I played it sooner.

Exo One | ?/10

I don't know what's going on and at this point I'm too afraid to ask. I think I launched a marble at Jupiter?

Hardspace: Shipbreaker | 8/10

This was my podcast game for a while. Not very deep, but it's fun to gradually tear ships apart. Definitely recommend playing on the lower difficulty, having to worry about O2 and stuff kills the vibe.

To the Moon | 5/10

Explaining why I don't like this game involves major spoilers. To keep it vague, I really don't like how they handled one of the characters in the story. If you've played the game, you either understand or think I'm insane because apparently this is a masterpiece.

ExoCross | 6/10

Very basic offroad racer. Used to be named "DRAG" but then the developers were bought by iRacing. The game seems like it was frantically rushed out of early access after that. The native Linux port is excellent though.

RUINER | 7/10

10/10 vibes, 5/10 gameplay.

Furi | 8/10

"That final boss sure was easy... oh? oh! OH FUCK!" followed by many deaths until I finally won.

Pseudoregalia | 8/10

10/10 movement/controls, but the environments felt a little bland. There's an accessibility option to put pants on your character.

Guacamelee!: Super Turbo Championship Edition | 6/10

It's fine, but nothing especially noteworthy compared to other metroidvanias I've played.

Redout II | 9/10 (Top 3 of the Year)

(I played with the assists off because I am a stubborn bastard, I have no idea how the assists change the gameplay.)

Redout II will repeatedly punch you in the face until your brain wraps itself around controlling these 2700km/h deathtraps. But trust me, once you get good, it's euphoric. One of my favorite gaming experiences this year was missing out on a gold medal in a time trial by several seconds and thinking "how the fuck is this possible"? And then I tried again. And again. Going faster, and faster, until I had beaten the gold time by several seconds. Every time you think you can't go any faster, you're wrong, just be better.

Crayon Physics Deluxe | 5/10

Great idea for a puzzle game, but the janky physics made it more frustrating than fun.

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim | 7/10

It's fine, but doesn't really feel like it lives up to the hype surrounding it.

Mini Motor Racing X | 6/10

Painfully dull career mode, but I'm desperate for arcade racers.

Parking Garage Rally Circuit | 7/10

Short but fun.

Minecraft | ?/10

I haven't beaten Minecraft in probably 10 years, so I started and new save and beat the game again for the hell of it. I'm not sure how to rate Minecraft out of 10 at this point.

Jusant | 9/10

Super beautiful and chill, I recommend avoiding spoilers and just playing it.

Dome Keeper | 7/10

Trying to keep the Hades "maybe I don't hate roguelikes" thing going, so I got Dome Keeper. I feel like it's too easy and there's not enough variety in runs, but I still had some fun with it.

Dead Cells | 8/10

And finally, one more roguelike. I've "beaten" the game, as in I've reached the credits, but only 0BC. Still playing it, but won't be chasing 5BC or anything like that. I do wish there was more meta progression with this one, a lot of runs feel like a complete waste of time which is my main problem with roguelikes, but the core gameplay is excellent.

0% new: from 2024 (average 15%)
0% recent: from the last 1–7 years (average 47%)
100% classic: older than 8 years (average 37%)

I am helped by being limited to an 8 years old notebook laptop currently.

The 5 games I have played this year, all for the first time: Stardew Valley, The Darkeness II, Star Wars Battlefront II 2005, Outlast, Oblivion.

cross-posted from: https://sh.itjust.works/post/29503020

Could be a console startup, title screen, intro cutscene, etc. I just got wired off an energy drink so I apologize in advance if this post is unhinged.

I personally associate it with Kirby Super Star's intro, the Sega CD boot screen (non-US, I associate the US ones with Christmas), and the original Xbox startup.

Beautiful cover of a beautiful song. Still haven't beaten the game myself, one of these days I'll figure it out.

I just tried it yesterday with a friend. Survival/crafting game in the LoTR universe. Okay for an evening, not sure we'll spend much more time on it, but for what we paid, it was definitely fun.

Completely noob tip: hammers are not considered weapons, only swords are. Learned that the hard way when we spent all of our iron on hammers to discover those were only used to build, and not attack.

Trope or not, gods just end up being a common target for games about heroes escalating in power while fighting increasingly world-destroying consequences.

So, for each post, name a game and describe it, with the assumption being that every description automatically ends with the phrase:

"...and then it ends with you fighting a god."

I have just finished the Half-Life series. Prompted by the 20th anniversary of HL2, I decided to play HL1 (1997), then HL2 (2004), and both episodes. I'm currently playing through Black Mesa and it's very enjoyable so far, it's like they took everything from HL1 and removed the annoying parts, I'm excited to see what more changes they decided to make, and what other references are present.

HL1 aged badly imo, but I recognize the technical achievement that it was at the time it was released. It's full of good ideas, and I'm amazed by what they've accomplished.

HL2 didn't feel like a it has a technical leap as big as its predecessor, but the gameplay ideas in there feel more modern than most game 20 years later. The game has some long stretches that were a bit annoying but the whole journey felt worth it. During the last chapter where you get the upgraded gravity gun, I started seeing the seeds of Portal games, more so in Episode 1, it was like I suddenly understood Valve as game devs and their philosophy. Episode 2 was the most fun I had and despite being short it felt like a full fledged campaign.

Alyx was fun to watch on youtube 🤡

I'm really happy that I completed the games and can put them down (compared to grinding endlessly in live service games), I'm really glad that I now understand why the series is praised, why people are aching for the third Episode, why Valve backed themselves into a corner because of their technical ambitions.

But now, I want more of this, more of those one of a kind experiences that push the genre forward. More gameplay ideas. I'll probably replay the Portal games, but what other games would you recommend?

Some times, Half Life reminded me of more modern immersive sims I played before (Dishonored, Prey, I'll probably go back to them at some point), maybe Deux Ex, System Shock should be on my list?

Just picked up DOS1 in the steam sale; just started playing only 4 hours into it. I started a tactician run, I've been party wiped about 8 times so far.

so far I enjoy it, great voice acting. Some of the UX improvements in BG3 would be welcome, but its not too bad.

It's neat because you see the arc of the Larian engine over time.

https://steamdb.info/app/373420/

I've played Ghost Recon on and off since....well forever. I first played it on PS2, and it's the only game to get the honor of first install (and never uninstall) on every PC I've ever owned, paired with the incredible Heroes Unleashed mod. I'm going to try to explain why I still come back to it. I'll take you along with me via screenshots I took over my last few outings.

First let's set the stage. It's the futuristic year of 2008 and the world teeters on the brink of war. Radical Russian nationalists want to restore the old Soviet Union and invade neighboring Ukraine and Belarus, with Georgia soon to follow. In response the US sends your light infantry special forces unit known as the Ghosts to pull off important missions before and during the impending war. Far fetched I know.

Let's address the elephant in the room - the graphics. Ghost Recon isn't a looker, even for it's time. You can't even see your gun, just a reticle. Back then it was done due to limitations but today I still think it helps a graphically limited game hold up better than they would have. Your imagination helps fill in the gaps. Just look at this sick reload animation!

When you get down to playing and you're trying to figure out which bush hides the guy that just smoked your sniper team, all the graphic details are the last things on your mind. What you're focused on is moving in on the bad guys

At it's core the game is a tactical shooter. You use your team of 6 guys broken in up to 3 teams to scout ahead, lay down cover fire or flank. They don't do a lot on their own but the cool part is you can jump to any member of your squad. Controlling them remotely is done with a simple map, no in depth planning like in Rainbow Six/DoorKickers. You just tell what team where to go (you can link multiple waypoints to do flanks), how bold they should be in movement (stop when shot at or move forward no matter what) and how they should engage enemies (don't fire unless fired upon, normal aimed shots, or suppress/use grenades). If you want to get fancy you can even tell them what direction to face when they get to their destination

Compared to Arma 3, Ghost Recon AI is limited in functionality BUT they are so much easier to control in my opinion. In Arma it always feels like I have to be a keyboard pianist to do anything with them, let alone break them into separate teams doing separate things at once. In Ghost Recon I can't expect miracles but I can manually control them at any point to do the trickiest/coolest parts. This simplicity lets me focus on what's going on and not what key command to get them to do the right thing. More than anything I think that is the key to immersion in games, and Arma Reforger is doing well in that regard.

Enemy AI is surprisingly good for its time. If you shoot at them their first reaction will be to run for cover or maybe take some pot shots in your direction. If you pull back and hide they will slowly make their way towards you or try to flank your last known position. They will make you regret your mistakes. Under most circumstances if you are careful and have another team nearby to back you up you'll pull through okay. If you like to live dangerously Heroes Unleashed has game modes with XXL versions that spawn way more enemies than normal and you'll probably end up regretting your life choices!

Let me talk about the Heroes Unleashed mod real quick. It takes the core vanilla game and adds HUNDREDS of maps made or imported over the years, made them all compatible with all game modes, added tons of weapons and gear etc. Gigs worth of stuff added to a base game that takes up a few MB. It feels like a massive "more of the same but better" type of mod which is the kind I like most. And if you don't like something it's easy to change it through included mini mods that act as a settings menu. You can truly feel the passion which is always great to see!

The use of mid size levels instead of wide open worlds is underrated too. I love a good open world don't get me wrong but there's something to be said for having a game where you just load it up, make a few choices and get right to the fun without a ton of travel. Most missions will last from 15-30 min which makes it nice for busy schedules.

The simple, serious and surprisingly immersive fun it provides still holds up better than many. The controls are different (but not bad) and the graphics are very dated but it has earned a spot on my desktop even to this day. Thanks for coming to my Ted Talk!

As before, Steam goes strictly by the Steam release date rather than the PC release year when determining whether a game qualifies for most of the nominations. This allows to nominate quite a number of former Epic exclusives, Ubisoft releases, or other games previously unavailable on Steam, including:

• Anno 1701 History Edition (2020)
• Assassin's Creed Mirage (2023)
• Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora (2023)
• Corruption 2029 (2020)
• Crime Boss: Rockay City (2023)
• Dead Island 2 (2023)
• Goat Simulator 3 (2022)
• Kingdom Hearts (2021)
• Palia (2023)
• Shoulders of Giants: Ultimate (2023)
• Star Trek: Resurgence (2023)
• Tchia (2023)
• The Alto Collection (2020)
• The Crew Motorfest (2023)
• The Lord of the Rings: Return to Moria (2023)
• The Settlers: New Allies (2023)
• Tortuga - A Pirate's Tale (2023)
• Touch Type Tale (2023)
• Witchfire (2023)

Edit: Added Touch Type Tale; slightly corrected the intro.

I've been playing Kingdome Come Deliverance on and off for quite a while and after finishing the story years after my initial install and I feel like I'm finally qualified to write a bit about it!

It does two things I like. First is it takes place in a non fantasy medieval setting. No dragons, orcs or spell casting here. I like that it takes an look at the real world 1400s and all the good and not so good that comes with that. Don't get me wrong I love a good fantasy setting but it's refreshing to get something a little more grounded now and then.

Second I like that your character begins as a nobody. You aren't the chosen one. You aren't a noble in a position of power. You have few practical skills and can't even read at the start. If anything Henry's superpower is learning everything he can to become the character you want him to be. You aren't born a main character and even at the end of the game you won't be the most important person in the room.

I really grew to like the combat in the game. It's easy enough to learn but hard to master but once you figure it out combat can be a ton of fun, but it does get a bit janky in larger battles with everyone bumping each other everywhere.

The world is about the right size in my opinion. The world is large enough to get a sense of scale but with a decent amount of density. Towns have different character and they have enough to discover to keep things interesting. I rarely used fast travel preferring to enjoy the rides across the countryside.

I liked it a lot and I'll be keeping an eye on the sequel after it releases!

Citizen Sleeper, a light RPG with dice-based gameplay, feels like a classic sci-fi story with contemporary ideas and worries. It's tight gameplay; I felt on edge most of my time in this decaying space station, always a sense of urgency maintaining my body and getting enough scrip for my greater goals.

All this is underpinned by some great prose. It's not quite on the level of Disco Elysium or Planescape: Torment, but even after taking in positive initial impressions, Citizen Sleeper has a surprising amount to say. The developer said they wanted to tell a story about those on the fringes of capitalism, where many of us have had to learn to survive. I think they nailed it.

The player is a sleeper, a human-machine hybrid detached from the corporate network, having to start from zero. An interesting concept itself, the story is that sleepers came about as a loophole in AI prohibition: put a human to sleep and copy them into an artificial body for indentured servitude. The means of corporate control is a built-in body deficiency. You'll degrade without a very specific chemical. The sociological concerns presented by these concepts and putting these kinds of escapees in a "normal" society are also interesting. I never know who to trust as I try to survive, knowing that merely being off the corporate leash puts me at the mercy of someone looking for a cut of the bounty. Or, I might be taken advantage of by someone that knows I can't survive without stabilizer. That's just the start of it.

Very cool experience, and refreshingly compact (I was through the main story in under 10 hours). There's a sequel coming, and I'm eager to get more of a taste of the game world.

I really enjoyed the Witcher 3 so I thought I would go back and play the first two games even though some people seemed to have mixed opinions on what they think of them both. Then after playing the first two games my partner got interested in W3 so we then played through that together. I feel like now I have some good perspective to offer on the whole series and what people should do if they really enjoyed 3 but haven't gone back.

Witcher 1

spoiler

I think the biggest thing scaring people off of this game is that it is very old now and operates almost entirely with the mouse. Coming into it, I thought this would be a big deal but actually the gameplay is very simple and has aged really well for how old this game is. You should obviously be played the updated enhanced edition by the way, it really cleans up a lot of the old feel from what I could tell.

The combat is a bit clunky but if you've ever played an MMO or similar point and click combat system, its not hard. Using the mouse you can time out combos and parry but thats about it, its not very complex.

The world and story are pretty basic and again I would equate it to the light type of storytelling done in MMOs around the 2010s. If you really didn't want to engage with the combat, the game could be enjoyed through a cutscene movie and you wouldn't miss much. The characters don't have long conversations like in games since then and their personalities are somewhat lacking in depth. Also the levels are small so you really aren't missing much exploration here.

So my ultimate advice is that you will know if you like playing this game in the first hour or if you enjoy some dated MMO style games. The writing is decent and humorous as well so at the very least watch someone else play it.

Witcher 2

spoiler

I have very mixed opinions on this game and I actually didn't like it as much as the first. It definitely felt like a much shorter game but it still looks great and feels really decent to play. Switching to a stick controlled 3rd person action game is a hard thing to nail the first time and CDPR did a good job with that. Geralt controls well especially for the time period in gaming we're talking about (early 2010s).

My main gripe would probably be the writing as the entire premise of the game and how it starts is just.. kind of stupid? At least how its depicted in the game it is.

StorySpoiler

Geralt having very little suspicion of a man in a cloak with his face covered and also walking away from the king and also being the only other person in the room for this exchange is just.. not believable. And somehow Geralt is able to remember important details and people from his past but for whatever reason his entire time working with the main villain is blanked.

spoiler

Aside from just the bad starting premise, I can't really say that the story ever hooked me or kept me all that intrigued. The locations are done a lot better and the characters are much better developed though so that is a big complement. Still the levels are pretty small and you'll spend a lot of time pacing back and forth in them. Also the humor is almost entirely removed from dialog for some reason, so it makes the writing very dry in my opinion.

Would I recommend this? Yeah I probably would. If you enjoyed the third game you'll probably enjoy this as the combat is very similar and decently well done and the characters are there that you will recognize. This game provides far more backstory for the third game than the first game does so yeah I'd recommend it.

Witcher 3

spoiler

This isn't a break down of the witcher 3 but playing through it after the first two gave me a lot more appreciation for it and for where CDPR was coming from. I really enjoyed how it blended the writing style of the first and second game while also fixing a lot of the missteps from the second game. Also the DLC for this game just has such good writing and I'd almost recommend them over the second game.

Hopefully that helps some people out if you were on the fence about trying either one of them. They are much shorter than W3 so giving them a go is not the same type of undertaking, I'd recommend both of them if you fit the demographic. Playing these also made me a lot more excited to play Cyberpunk 2077 and the upcoming Witcher release for 2025/26. These games are also probably a good idea to play ahead of the remaster of the Witcher 1.

Thanks for reading and let me know if you've played these and what you think or if you want play these in the future!

cross-posted from: https://sh.itjust.works/post/28151762

Bonus: it also seems that the episodes have been rolled into the base game. Full details of the anniversary update.