danielpholt

The Suicide of Rachel Foster It's a walking simulator in the mold of something like Gone Home; lot's of picking things up, lots of wondering around a giant house (in this case it's an old hotel). The story isn't nearly as subtle as Gone Home (which in itself wasn't all that subtle in the first place), the voice acting is up and down and the games core method of delivering it's plot is a contrived and forced; leaving you wondering why everything in this 'scary' place feels so very staged. It's fine I guess? I appreciate what it was going for, more than I do the the end product. With all that being said.... They put Hockey and more specifically, my team captain in the game. So 11/10 GOTY2020.

Can I ask why? I consider myself fairly well informed on the US election (at least compared to your average Brit) but surely even a Joe Biden is preferable to another 4 years of Trump? I totally understand people going hard against the likes of Biden, Bloomberg and Mayor Pete but I've got to wonder if it's not better to be 'anyone but Trump' at this point? Especially with the way the dude seems to be riding high in the polls?

Annapurna can do no wrong at the moment, and I'm a massive fan of the tiny/huge puzzle thing they've got going on in the trailer.

I said this on twitter at the time but admitting that you're forcing shitty working practices on your employee's doesn't negate the fact that you're forcing your employees to work them. If they really gave a shit, they'd put a stop to it immediately, and you know what? If that pisses off a few 'Gamers' on social media then so be it.

Kentucky Route Zero The game grows a little long in the tooth towards the end (maybe a problem with the genre itself tbh) but what it does well, it does really well.

Kentucky Route Zero 7 years after finishing episode one and deciding to wait the 'year or so' it'd for them to finish the entire series, I'm finally going to play through KRZ. Two episodes down so far and yeah, its a really good one of those. Lots of people are falling over themselves to give the game praise, and whilst most of it is well deserved I can't shake the feeling that this game is 2020's version of something like Night in the Woods. Again, both great games, but maybe not worth the hyperbole that seems to be attached to it.

Its on Gamepass so I figured it was worth a look. Initial impressions are that I was right.

Virginia This is my second time around on this game, after having played it upon release way back in 2016. It's a short experience (emphasis on experience) that you could easily get through in one sitting of an two hours or so. Its a walking simulator its its purest form. You walk, very occasionally interact with things in the environment and spend an awful lot of time looking at the world, and trying to decipher just what exactly is going on. And whilst it certainly doesn't totally land on that front, I give the game a pass because its just so damn perfect everywhere else. The central plot isn't explained all that well (I've finished it twice now and even I'm like ????), and it goes off the deep end at one point (which would be okay if it was a little clearer as to what the fuck is happening), but even with those complaints I can't help but love the game. There's zero-dialogue, nothing, nadda, zilch. And whilst it doesn't always work in its favour, it really helps set the overall tone for the game, and that's the games biggest selling point. Virginia is all atmosphere. I've never played a game before where everything is edited together, almost like it would be in a movie. Lots of hard cuts from one scene to the next and I absolutely love that about it. Again not for everyone, but if you're into David Lynch or Twin Peaks and that sort of thing, it's certainly worth a look. Control Ended up really enjoying my time with Control. Its the best Star Wars game released in 2019 for sure. Is it without its flaws, nope. I have issues with the way the game handles checkpoints, it didn't always run terribly well on my OG PS4 and I feel like the games main plot dies away in a pretty sizable way about 2/3 of the way through, but everything else is fantastic. And by everything else I primarily mean the side missions, the games endless amount of collectable lore and the overall look of the game; it's absolutely stunning to look at. It's just a shame that the main plot was a bit of a damp squid, especially compared to some of the truly memorable side mission content. Give me more of that stuff all day long.

Clearly this leaves only one option. The sequel you didn't know you needed, to a game you probably didn't play. 2

I've heard talk that Pikmin 4 might be on the horizon. Make of that what you will.

I actually wrote a pretty sizable list of all the games from the 2010's that I really enjoyed, however no ones interested in a long list of good, they want a shortlist of GREAT! And so here we are. Here's my 'shortlist' My top five if you will. The more observant among you will have noticed that there is in fact seven games; I couldn't decide between Superhot, Cuphead and Destiny so I ended up including them all, because choices are hard and I'm not man enough to make one okay? Destiny Superhot Cuphead Super Mario Maker 2 Rocket League PUBG Overwatch Anyway onto my favourite-bestest-super raddest-game of the decade? And the winner is??

I'm excited to see what Cyberpunk is, and The Last of Us 2 will be an experience I'm eager to check out, but I think Twelve Minutes takes the top spot in terms of what I'm really excited to play. What games are you most excited about in 2020?

A few things, my headspace for one. I was much more willing to go along with the ride for the first few hours in my most recent attempt. The game sort of just drops you in and asks you to figure it out, which I'm not usually into. After completing it.... that view has totally changed. Outer Wilds needs to be as vague and at times frustrating otherwise it wouldn't hit the highs it does. Playing it on the PC (with a controller) probably made a difference too. I find it a much different experience when I'm playing on the consoles, I've got much less patience and to some extent if I'm not immediately invested I find myself grabbing my phone or leaving the game running. Can't really do that on my PC.

I tried to get into this game three times on XBOX. It didn't take until I stumped for it on PC around the time I heard Austin Walker list it as his favourite game of the year (and when he loves a game, he really fucking loves a game). Really glad I ended up giving it another look, because I think Outer Wilds may end up being one of my favourite games of all time, yeah!. It's been a week since I finished it, and I still spent a good chunk of my day just thinking about it. The game itself, the music, how it handles its world and what it's trying to say about the nature of life; deep shit you know? But also I think about the time I got to the final few minutes of the game and accidentally flew my floating tin-can of death into the Sun and I thought for twenty horrible seconds that I'd robbed myself of the games true ending because I wasn't paying attention. If you've not given this game a look, I wholeheartedly recommend it. Failing that, let Austin Walker tell you about it. I grabbed Danielle the PS Move controllers for Christmas, and then Immediately went to the PS Store and bought this, you know.....for her. I really enjoyed it. Did I enjoy it as much as OG Superhot? Nah, but I think that might be more of a VR thing than a SuperhotVR thing you know? Turns out I don't necessarily want to get a sweat on when I'm playing games before work, or at any time really. I also had some rather annoying issues with tracking, but again I think that's down to the platform itself, and the fact that we don't live in one of those Kinnect/Peloton warehouse-houses that so many of our peers apparently live in?

Control First few hours were a bit of a slog in terms of raw gameplay. I was getting my ass kicked routinely and nothing made any sense. I think I'm starting to get my head around the games mechanics however, and I can 'feel the fun' a little more now I've collected a few mods/powers. Playing on a base PS4 and I've had a few ugly moments with framerates here and there but for the most part its held up an awful lot better than I thought it might, apart from the room with Anyone else think the game has just too many systems layered on top of each other? I've got like 3 types of mod, upgrades to those mods, health upgrades, energy upgrades, melee upgrades etc etc. Kinda the same issue I had with the most recent God of War. It's like they didn't know when the stop. That aside I think I'm going to stick with Control for the time being.

Mario Maker 2 takes the title for me. I didn't spend much time on MM1 when it came out, but its sequel has become a mainstay. Its a constant stream of fun, interesting takes on an already incredible formula, whats not to love? I'm still working my way through Outer Wilds, so that may end up finishing higher, and I didn't get around to Steamworld Quest or Control but both are on my to-do list.

My least favourite aspect of Breath of the Wild was without a doubt the durability aspect of its weapons.

Didn't have any issues with the part you're referring to (although I did get a hint that made it much, much easier than it otherwise would have been). I was referring to the final three dungeons. Less is sometimes more and I think the devs totally forget that when designing those fucking things. Anyways. I finished Untitled Goose Game. It's fun. Probably not the GOTY contender that the meme squad would have you think but its fun for sure.

Finished this too. How'd you feel about the dungeon design towards the end? Kinda felt to me like they'd decided to just throw as many screens (and thus repetition) at you in the hopes it'd increase difficulty when all it did was reduce my enjoyment. Aside from that, it's a really charming experience.

Ditto

Astral Chain. Astral Chain is a bit like the Andrew Garfield Spider-man franchise. Everything on paper looks amazing. However, when you're finished watching (playing) you're kind of left with a big ol' plate of 'meh'. From a technical perspective, AC is truly impressive. It runs super smooth, and looks interesting whilst doing it, the character design is fun and there's the core of a very interesting plot here. However yeah, it never finds a way to transition that into a good game. Astral Chain. Its fine.

Mario Maker 2 70 hours later, and I'm still really enjoying what Mario Maker 2 has to offer. I'm bad at it, both designing levels and you know, Mario as a whole but even for the outright incompetent there's fun to be had. I've hit something of a creative wall with designing my own levels; but I think that'll likely come back once things calm down a little at home (Life eh?). And if it doesn't? I've got a game that will give me new Mario levels until Nintendo decides to make MM3. Telling Lies I'm only an hour in at the time of writing, but its got the same hooks as Sam Barlow's previous effort; Her Story. Only there's more going on? There's certainly more characters, and as such, more perspectives to sort through, more conversations to decipher and obviously, more notes to be taken. I made my way through Her Story in 2-3 sittings, I can't see that being the case here.