Listings of Games 2022 - Too Many Game Edition

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Aria Genisi
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Listings of Games 2022 - Too Many Game Edition

Post by Aria Genisi (?) » Thu Dec 29, 2022 7:39 pm

It's that time of the year: time to reflect on the games we've played in the past year and talk about them if you want. If you wanna talk about just your favorite games or the most notable games you've played this year, go for it. If you wanna do a ranking, that's cool too. If you just wanna post a list of all the shit you've played this year and nothing else, knock yourself out. It's your list, do it how you want it.

me? I've played Too Many Games this year, and I'll have to take a hot minute to make a post about it because I've got quite a few games I've played, and I like to comment on the stuff that I've played, so I'll have to get back to y'all on mine
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Re: Listings of Games 2022 - Too Many Game Edition

Post by Vivianinatoga (?) » Thu Dec 29, 2022 8:11 pm

I almost feel like I'm going to have a more comprehensive "2022's 2020 GOTY" list than I would 2022 GOTY. Lots of good stuff I've come across or had an eye on that went on sale this year skewed my collections pretty heavily, on top of not having all that much that was coming out this year that I was happily paying full price for. Between that and tha number of massive charity bundles on itch.io, of course the "I will play this game eventually" pile grew ever bigger, but as long as the significantly discounted amounts of money I gave go towards developers doing a good job, I'm glad to show them the encouragement to make more.
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Re: Listings of Games 2022 - Too Many Game Edition

Post by Jill (?) » Sat Dec 31, 2022 2:57 am

i guess i can say a few words about the Steam games i first played this year, since i have Steam Replay to remind me what they actually were:

Mindustry - the first game people usually think of when they see this one is Factorio, but it's more like your standard tower defense or RTS game with some Factorio-like processing and logistics. that is to say, it's different enough from Factorio to be a lot of fun in its own way, and is probably a good deal less difficult to learn to play, but still very challenging

Shotgun King: The Final Checkmate - it's Chess, but you only get a black king with a shotgun and have to blast away the white pieces before they can put you in checkmate. the concept is absolute lunacy but its execution makes for a really engaging little turn-based roguelite where you are sometimes gambling on your trusty shotgun to spray its shells the way you want it to

Cult of the Lamb - cute little action roguelite where you build and manage a cultist hamlet and overthrow the old gods just for fun

TUNIC - this is something of a re-invention of the classic Zelda game, where you're not just exploring the world but actively studying its rules and facets. as you explore, you find pages of a Holy Instruction Booklet from a higher plane of existence, written mostly in a runic language you probably can't understand, but you can still infer enough from it for 100% completion without ever having figured out how to read it. i personally had some gripes with the game's combat, but the experience as a whole - which entices one to keep discovering and learning things - is nothing short of brilliant. the soundtrack is also packed with chill ambience that just presses a lot of the right buttons for me

Vampire Survivors - i imagine most of you have already played this by now. i don't claim to know what makes such a simple survival game so compelling, but whatever it is, it's all right here

OMORI - a lot of classic RPG Maker games come to mind when i think about this game, but the simplest way to describe it is Earthbound (coming from someone who has not really played Earthbound) given a rather Celeste-like narrative. it is a game about fear and depression, about a kid who hasn't left his own house in four years, and it can be fiercely relatable in spite of how extreme it is. on the other hand though, it is still mostly a bright and colorful and wacky RPG about reliving cherished memories with friends, and it has a pretty neat combat system where you use emotions as basically an elemental strength/weakness system. if you ever wanted a game like Yume Nikki to have more actual substance and clarity to its themes, i'd strongly suggest giving this one a go

ELDEN RING - this game is too hard but i liked it anyway

Dwarf Fortress - it finally came to Steam, and the new graphics are beautiful and super readable. the mouse UI is a million times better even if a few features are still currently missing. the appeal of DF is hard to really nail down, but i like to think of it as a cozy fireplace containing a miniature world, and as that world inevitably burns, the fireplace records and prints out the precise way in which it burned for you to read about in excruciating detail

Backpack Hero - despite being in early access, i think i played this more than any other game this year. it's a fairly straightforward turn-based roguelite with a lot of clever inventory space-based mechanics and trickery. it's hard to place why it's so good, but i think one of my favorite things about it is just how immediate every aspect of gameplay is. like there's no "equipment" system because every item is either actively or passively usable just by being in your bag. this also lets you do wacky build-related stuff like using several of the same type of armor piece or what have you. it's just a really fun game with simplistic rules at its heart

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Re: Listings of Games 2022 - Too Many Game Edition

Post by SlateSlabrock (?) » Sat Dec 31, 2022 4:14 am

Wow, time for recaps again, huh? Time sure flies.

Hardspace: Shipbreaker finally came out of early access, and I still like it. I wish they'd been able to add more ship types, since it's mostly the same as it has been for the last several updates, and the only new ship isn't necessary once you get Javelins and Geckos. The story wrapped up decently well, but I have to admit that once they cancel most of your debt at the end, I kinda lost my motivation to continue playing. Oops. In fairness, I had done a lot of cutting up ships while it was in early access. One other quibble: There were a lot more recordings in the EA versions, and I still didn't find most of them by the end of the game. I suspect they're tied to specific ships, and once you level up, a lot of them aren't accessible anymore.

Stray is as good and bad as the reviews say. Great atmosphere, cute cat, would've gotten terrible reviews for being very minimal without the cat.

Vampire Survivors: I haven't gotten back into this for a while, and they've added so much stuff, and I don't know where to start unlocking it. Fun, but I keep feeling like taking a nap during the last ten minutes of a run.

Trombone Champ: ow my wrists

Hitman 3: I came back to this after a long break because they finally had some Hitman 3-native elusive targets. I lost interest in 3 faster than the other two because it's just shorter, and there's something about leaning so heavily on the story for this one that made the replayability weaker. Or maybe I just played too much of the others. I'll probably come back to it in January when they release the new "collect all the things" mode.

Sniper Elite 5 scratched my itch for shooty stealthy stuff after I burned out on Hitman. Fun. I'm still bad at stealth. Very awkward missing the sniper shot at the end of the game.

Per Aspera is a space colony sim with a story. Interesting, pretty fun, but a drag at the end of the game trying to meet the actual win conditions of making Mars livable.

The Wandering Village is a survival city building sim on the back of a huge monster in a world where most land has been poisoned. I like it, but it eventually runs out of steam when you make your city more or less self-sufficient. And once you run out of room on the monster's back, that's basically the end. Still in Early Access.

Warhammer 40,000: Darktide: More shooty. Repetitive, but sometimes I just want to go bash up some heretics for an hour. 'S'ok. Load times are ridiculous. Blessed Emperor, grant me ammunition!

Dwarf Fortress: Finally time to learn this. I don't know what I'm doing. Had to abandon first base because my dwarves ate all the seeds. Second base is surviving despite endless flocks of murderous ravens. Can't dig down, so I hope the mountain doesn't cave in on my dwarves' heads.

Dungeons 3 is a hero/building management game. I bought it on sale on a whim, and the Stanley Parable narrator is the narrator in this one too. Very, very heavy on the meta jokes. I don't think I finished it yet.

Satisfactory got two updates this year, and I don't have many long blocks of time to just putter around with it anymore, but I have to rebuild everything to match the new recipes, and I have to rebuild everything to get better efficiency with new recipes, and I need to find all the new recipes, and...

oh, and
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Re: Listings of Games 2022 - Too Many Game Edition

Post by Mechanical Ape (?) » Sat Dec 31, 2022 4:44 pm

There's not much to say about my gaming this year. There's not much to say about my year this year. A lot of immersing myself in comfortable old games where I didn't have to learn anything new. Those would be:

Oxygen Not Included
Frostpunk
Total War: Warhammer II (plan to get III when Immortal Empires is ready)
Eco

New games/demos I tried this year:

Dwarf Fortress: I put the free version on the shelf years ago, I think around the time military got revamped. Now I've got it on Steam but a few minutes in I found myself wishing I was in Oxygen Not Included. It's not DF's fault, it's me.

Erica: An Interactive Thriller: This is a live action thing which feels like a throwback to '70s English horror: a young woman having witnessed a murder (or survived a murder attempt,I don't remember it was months ago) stays at a mental asylum where things are unsettling and probably unprofessional. Telltale-style storytelling, except in live action, and there are neat bits where you flick the mouse to open boxes and such. Haven't finished but it's been interesting.

Immortality: The other live action game this year.

Not For Broadcast: The other other live action game this year.

Ostriv: Pre-alpha 19th century Ukrainian town builder. On hiatus while the devs deal with their country being invaded.

Slay the Princess (demo): Sort of adventure game with Stanley Parable shades. There's a princess in the basement. Your job is to slay her. Don't ask questions. Just do it.

Strange Horticulture: aka Plants, Please. You run an herb shop in a Victorian-esque setting. People come in to request specific plants and/or progress the overarching mystery storyline. The core gameplay is sorting through your ever-growing collection and deducing from your reference book which plant is which.

that's basically it, not an interesting year
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Re: Listings of Games 2022 - Too Many Game Edition

Post by Aria Genisi (?) » Sun Jan 01, 2023 2:54 am

All Of The Games I Played 2022 Part 1
  • La Mulana 2: The Tower of Oannes - Started off with some long-awaited DLC for La Mulana 2 as my first major game for the year, and Tower of Oannes is basically Hell Temple 2. It's a bastard and a half of a level (with some pretty tricky stuff for unlocking the damn thing), but it's actually pretty fun with how it tries to fuck with the player all the time. Like, there's so many insta-death and gotchas here, but it feels less like the developers trying to be as assholish as possible, and instead, it feels like a big joke that you and the developers are both in on, because you know that the Tower is going to be rude as fuck, and the devs know that you know, and are just having fun with it. It's not super long, but unlike La Mulana's Hell Temple, I've actually managed to play this to completion. Also I replayed the whole game while I was at it, because I lost my original save. Good times.
  • Elden Ring - this is one of my top 5 best games of the year, free. I really liked Dark Souls 1 and I absolutely adored Bloodborne, so it was kind of a gimmie that I was gonna give this one a try. Hell, I even bought extra RAM for my laptop to make sure I could play it. I expected that I'd enjoy it, but I didn't realize that it would have ended up becoming one of my favorite games of the year. The open world aspect was the missing link that these games needed to reach their full potential, I feel. These sorts of games were really good, pretty tightly designed action RPG experiences, and the levels were really good, but having a larger open world for these areas to fit into feels like the sort of thing that these games were meant to have all along. The game itself is fantastic, the bosses are fantastic. If there's only one thing that could have been better, it's the music. The music was good, but there wasn't nearly as many standouts in this one compared to other games, I feel.
  • Aperture Desk Job - Hey, free game, and it's a neat and silly little game that's more of a tech demo for the Steam Deck, but it's a fun standalone game. Not super long, but it's good stuff.
  • Kirby and the Forgotten Land - Kirby is finally in 3D and it's good shit. It's another really good kirby game. Something that I like about this one is the whole post-apocalypse setting. All of the original inhabitants are gone, and the cities and such are being reclaimed by nature, and some sort of disaster has definitely happened, but I really like how it's just, it never lingers on those who are gone like that. It's not about the horrible disaster that wiped out a civilization or whatever, it's about this mysterious new world, lost to time, with new faces to greet and new mysteries to explore, especially since the original inhabitants found the means to travel across dimensions and they all just left at some unspecified point, leaving their old world behind as they explore new horizons. It's a refreshing take on approaching a post-apocalyptic setting of sorts. Also the 3D gameplay is handled well!
  • Ys Origin - Ys games are cool, and this is a good one. It's a very linear one, too, and kinda shorter, but it's meant to be replayed, as there's three different characters to play as. Great music, good gameplay, it's a fun one.
  • Ys 1 (Chronicle Edition) - I replayed Ys 1 this year, and I meant to play through Ys 2 while I was at it, but I never finished it. Maybe next year. Ys 1 though. Oh boy, this one's a rude one. And very crusty. This is the best version of Ys 1, but oh boy can you feel the crust in the gameplay design, as you basically hit max level (Level 10) before you reach the end of the second dungeon, and then the third and final dungeon takes up the second half of the game, and you can't return to the overworld once you enter it. And some of the bosses are basic as fuck with the bump combat. Basic, but bastard deluxes to fight. Dark Fact, the final boss, is super nasty in particular. It's good still, but deffo crusty. Would recommend other games in the series to play first before Ys 1.
  • The Stanley Parable - I never played the Stanley Parable, though I did have the game in my steam library! There was an enhanced remake released this year, and I was tempted to get it, but I decided to play the original version instead to get a handle on it in general. It's good, and quite silly! I did a bunch of routes and endings. Dunno if I got 'em all, but I think I got just about everything. I'll likely get the updated version sometime.
  • Franken - splendidland made a free, short and super basic RPG, and it's really cute and fun and funny! Gameplay is literally as basic as it gets, but the writing carries it extremely hard. It's just a really fun time and I absolutely recommend checking it out.
  • Jupiter Hell - Do you remember DoomRL? I remember DoomRL! I loved the game, even though I sucked ass at it. It was Doom, but remade into a roguelike. Like, actual proper old-school roguelike, and not the various roguelite games that we have these days. It's an old-school roguelike, but because it's based on Doom, it's fairly breezy and easy to get into. It can and will kick your ass if you play carelessly, but it was a joy. Jupiter Hell is literally just DoomRL but rebuilt and expanded into a larger game that is entirely separated from Doom so that the developers can sell it for money. It's really fucking good! I love it! And I actually got a winning run for once! I gotta play this game some more.
  • Drainus - Team Ladybug, the developers of stuff such as Tohou Luna Nights and Record of Lodoss War - Deedlit in Wonder Labrynth decided to take a break from metroidvanias to make a horizontally scrolling shmup, and it's really good! The basic setup is that your ship has a special reflector shield. You can only have it active for so long before it needs to recharge (And it'll recharge on it's own a second or two after not using it), but with it, you can absorb most bullets. Absorbing enough attacks can lead to you firing out homing shots in retaliation once you drop the shield. Also, absorbing attacks will also fill up energy tanks that you can spend in the pause menu on upgrading and customizing your ship's capabilities. You start off with a basic shot and can replace it with different other shots and unlock power up slots to gain options or missiles or rear-facing shots or lasers or whatever you want. It's also got a focus on story, with dialogue and such showing up between each level, as well as sometimes some mid-mission dialogue. It's just a really good, solid shooter, and you unlock the arcade modes after you clear both loops of the story.
  • Doom Eternal: The Ancient Gods Parts 1 and 2 - Oh hey, it's Doom Eternal! I loved this game! And after replaying it, I still love it! I then proceeded to play the DLC because I never got around to it. The DLC is....I've got mixed feelings about it. Ancient Gods Part 1 is good shit. It's the perfect escalation difficulty-wise after playing the main game. It will try to kick your ass, and love doing it. I wasn't as super feeling the final boss of Part 1, but it was fine. Part 2, however, feels like a misstep. It feels like the devs tried to backpedal after criticisms of the first DLC and it's difficulty, and so the gameplay just falls a bit flat. The Escalation Encounters are a pretty solid idea, where you have to deal with a big setpiece encounter, but then you can do a harder take of the encounter in the same arena for additional rewards if you'd like. But just, the story in Part 2 feels more rushed, the levels feel a lot more linear and a bit rushed, and the final boss, where you fight against the setting's version of Satan, just doesn't feel like it has the gravitas that it was trying to aim for, and the difficulty just really isn't there. Like, part of it might just be covid development wrecking havoc and the devs not getting as much work on it as they may have originally planned or whatever, but a huge chunk of it really does seem like it was just that they pulled their punches a bit too much after The Ancient Gods Part 1. It's a shame, because I loved the main game and Part 1 overall, and just wasn't feeling it with Part 2.
  • The Looker - It's a free parody of The Witness! This was a solid and fun puzzle game with some really good goofs, and it just reminds me that I need to play The Witness. I've got it on steam AND PS4, so I don't really have any real excuse, I just gotta sit down and play it.
  • Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown - Ace Combat! Been meaning to play these games for a long while, and decided to play 7 because it was on sale and fuck it. It's a good game! I really liked it, and I gotta get the DLC and play the series, because 7 was some really solid shit. There definitely was some iffy wrinkles in the story of stuff that was likely cut, but overall, I really enjoyed my time in the unknown skies of the Strangereal setting. Also Belka did everything wrong.
  • Final Fantasy Record Keeper - Man. This one is one that I'm still kinda bummed about. I've been playing this game for like, four or five years or so as my active phone gatcha game. Mostly F2P with maybe spending like, a few bucks once or twice a year because I liked the game and wanted to do some $1 pulls on Festival banners. It's been a really slow burn game in terms of content, but the gameplay being based around the ATB battle system was what really got me hooked on it. It definitely wasn't without it's flaws, and it really should have implemented Wait Mode sooner for those who were having issues with the general high speed of the ATB battle flow in endgame content, and made it a more widely usable thing. And yet, it was a game that I loved just logging into, doing my dailies really quick, and moving on with my day, and then, if I was feeling it on a day, and I had what I needed, I'd try to make progress on the major endgame content. They announced End of Service for Global in June, and the Global servers shut down at the end of September. I did at least get the last major bit of content they released for Global finished before the game shut down, and even made a video of my clear:

    The game is still running in JP, but I haven't messed with that version of it. I've moved on. I'm still gonna miss this game though.
  • Final Fantasy 7 Remake + INTERmission DLC - I've been looking forward to checking this one out, and this was really good! An action RPG remake of FF7, and it plays around with the idea of it being a remake. It's a good one. Not everyone is gonna like it, but I did really like both it and the DLC when I played the PC release of it via Steam this year. I'm really looking forward to FF7 Rebirth, whenever that releases.
  • Live A Live (remake) - Live A Live is one of those games that's been on my to-do list for a good long while. The original SNES version was really good (or so I heard), so playing the fan translation was something I wanted to do for a good long while. And then this year, they announced a remake for it on Switch. And then oops, I had to get that version. And holy moly, this was absolutely worth the wait, because it's fantastic! A bunch of unique scenarios in different time periods that have different gameplay and story focuses with their own characters and such. It's an old hidden gem of square's old SNES library, and the remake treatment with their "HD-2D" stylings have been great. This game is absolutely worth your time and deserves checking out.
  • Sonic Triple Trouble 16-Bit - I never played the Game Gear original, but this was a really fun fangame remake of an old Game Gear sonic game. Not bad at all!
  • TMNT: Shredder's Revenge - This was just a really solid beat-em-up. I gotta play this in multiplayer, because it's good, solid stuff. Great music, too.
  • CrossCode (+ A New Home DLC) - CrossCode! This was a really good game! It's a damn fun time with really good music and good story and good graphics. And some really dastardly puzzles! I really like the characters in here, and the whole setup of the game taking place in an MMO with it's own design and story. But man some of those puzzles are really dastardly! Really clever, but can be really mean sometimes!
  • Wonder Girl: The Dragon's Trap - Old-ass metroidvania game for the Sega Master System, but with a really good remake with enhanced graphics and music. Old as hell, but it's good stuff.
  • A Short Hike - A pretty short, comfy little game about a bird person hiking (and gliding around) an island park. You can take as long as you'd like, trying to hunt down secrets and explore the park, or just trying to hike up the mountain as quick as you can. It's like, an hour or two to complete, and it's just really charming and a fun little time.
  • Bioshock 1 Remastered - Hey, I got the Bioshock Trilogy on Epic Game Store at some point, so I decided to replay the entire trilogy. I played 1 and Infinite before, but I haven't messed with 2 at all, nor Infinite's DLC. Bioshock 1 feels like it's got a good setup with the underwater libertarian city that fell into ruin at some point, and you've got crazies and assholes trying to fight over what's left. Except, the game's plot focuses on the constant struggle between Andrew Ryan and Frank Fontaine, two tremendous assholes, over the control of the city, and I just can't give a shit about their fight. Ryan is a libertarian asshole who is willing to be authoritarian once Frank Fontaine proves to be a major threat to his rule. Meanwhile Frank Fontaine is just as much of an asshole as Ryan, but just a bit more evil because he's a lying conman mobster who backstabs literally everyone who works for him and keeps his allies in line with threats and such. His Atlas persona could have gone somewhere as a hero of the people, but just, he's a self-centered asshole villain and it's so damn hard to actually give a shit about the power struggles between him and Ryan, which is the entire focus of the plot. The Twist is still a really well done moment for what it is, but everything else surrounding it just is a lot of nothing that I don't give a shit about. After the twist, there's really not much else remaining for the game, which sucks, especially since the game ends with a very middling escort mission, followed by a piss easy fight against Fontaine and an extremely THEND ending.
  • Bioshock 2 Remastered - Okay, now THIS is the good shit. What if you took Bioshock 1 but improved it, and then *also* threw in a story that actually was *good*? You get Bioshock 2. I remember Bioshock 2 getting kinda shat on because it's a return to Rapture and it wasn't done by the original devs, and I guess people felt that it existed more as another game in the series ordered by the publisher so that they could get more money off of the brand. Kinda like Batman Arkham Origins, which absolutely felt like that. But Bioshock 2 is way fucking better than that. In fact, Bioshock 2 is legitimately the best damn game in the trilogy. It's a really damn solid game and having some actually damn good writing truly elevates the experience. This deserves more respect and love than it got.
  • Bioshock Infinite: Burial At Sea - Jesus fucking christ, this was the absolute worst game I played all year, and this made me legitimately angry by the end of it. So, okay, Bioshock Infinite. I played it before, but I was playing the entire trilogy, so a replay was in order. And yeah, no, this game still sucks. I enjoyed it when I first played it back in the day, but after sitting with it and digesting the story especially, it just wasn't as good as I immediately felt it was. It's just bad and stupid and overcomplicated and full of itself. The gameplay could be quite fun when it opens up, but the game is absolutely hampered by the two weapon limit. It was a tremendous mistake, and I don't know why they changed that when the first two games didn't have a two weapon limit, and the game feels actively harmed by it, as it ends up encouraging you to pick two weapons really early and just stick with them for the entire game, instead of trying to experiment and mess with multiple weapons, especially the weird variant weapons that show up late into the game. The ending does some bullshit that's very up its own ass big brained shit that, normally I'd be into the sort of shit that it's trying to pull, but the game doesn't really earn it at all. It's just a mess, especially with the Turn as the people trying to revolt against the oppressive regime are just as bad as those they are trying to overthrow! It sucks a lot, but it's not the worst. I've seen.

    No, the worst here is the DLC to Inifinite, Burial at Sea. Burial at Sea is divided into two halves. Part 1 is...fine. It's more Bioshock Infinite taking place in Rapture pre-Bioshock 1 with Booker and Elizabeth. It's not bad, and fairly fun, but it's just really too short, and the game ends with a really unsatisfying and bad fight against a Big Daddy and the reveal that the Booker you're playing as is actually Comstock and Elizabeth is here to kill him. It's just kinda lame as a THEND for Part 1 after how short the experience is. It's fine.

    Part 2....Part 2 can fuck right off. Elizabeth dies after the ending to Part 1, killed by a Big Daddy, but because she is an immortal anomaly that can cross different timelines, she's ultimately fine, but she gives up her immortality to save the Little Sister that was nearby, but *also* because she apparently saw something important in this timeline. She wakes up, mortal, and being harassed by serial-backstabber Frank Fontaine in his Atlas persona as he and his crew has been sealed off in a disconnected part of Rapture by Andrew Ryan for his scheming. He's ready to just kill her because he's an asshole, but she quickly lies and says that she works for the scientist Dr Suchong, so he lets her live so she can get what he needs from Suchong. So, annoying start, but whatever, Bioshock stories via Ken Levine has never been good, but this isn't a super awful setup.

    And you know what? Burial at Sea Part 2's gameplay is the most interesting and fun part of Infinite. Elizabeth is not a white male FPS protagonist like Booker, so trying to go guns blazing is out of the question. Instead, her more kit is more focused on stealth, and it works! It's genuinely fun! It actually feels like a callback to the fact that ye olde System Shock 2 was built on the same engine that made the original two Thief games. It's genuinely fun and unique and the best gameplay in Infinite, which is why it absolutely infuriates me that it then has the absolute worst fucking story in the entire Bioshock series and actively makes both Infinite's story AND Bioshock 1's story worse!

    It turns out that the scientists from Infinite and Bioshock 1 were collaborating with each other to create their technologies from across time and space. It's annoying that these two games *had* to be linked, but that's just the start of things. It also ends up trying to retcon Daisy Fitzroy's Turn that marked the change to the last act in the game. See, Fitzroy wasn't actually as bad and murderous as Infinite claimed she was. Oh no, the magical timespace twins actually *recruited her*. See, Elizabeth needed to be willing to use violence to stop Comstock, and so Fitzroy willingly set herself up as a sacrifice for Elizabeth's character development in Infinite.

    But that's not enough! No, we have to go even further! It gets worse, as after helping out Suchong to get what he needed from Columbia and then returning to meet with Atlas, he immediately backstabs Elizabeth to get the "ace in the hole" that he wanted from Suchong all along that he thought Elizabeth would get for him in the end in addition to raising the section they're in back to the rest of Rapture. Elizabeth doesn't have it, and we get a montage of Elizabeth getting tortured for it and what she's thinking in her head and it sucks. Then she hits an epiphany and she says she'll get the ace in the hole that he wants for real. What remains is just absolute garbage trying to tie Infinite and Bioshock 1 together in the most bullshit ways possible. The Little Sisters and Big Daddies won't imprint on each other! This was a point made earlier in the Burial at Sea DLC. Elizabeth solved it, and it then leads into the canonical death of Suchong getting destroyed by being mean to a Little Sister and pissing off the Big Daddy. The "Ace in the Hole" that Atlas/Fontaine wanted? It was the WOULD YOU KINDLY command phrase needed for Atlas/Fontaine to get the Bioshock 1 protagonist to Rapture and order him to do stuff. The thing that Elizabeth saw in the future of this timeline? The Bioshock 1 protagonist showing up and stopping Fontaine and saving the Little Sisters. Elizabeth seeing the retcon about Fitzroy? It was secretly a final lesson to her all along so she can sacrifice herself to get the WOULD YOU KINDLY pass phrase to Atlas and ensure his own downfall (as well as the downfall of Rapture) in Bioshock 1.

    All of this was just the most intense bullshit I've ever witnessed in a single go. Just a chunk of this would have sucked, but everything here together smacks of writers high on their own farts and not knowing when to just fucking stop and let a story be. They don't know how to quit, and in the process they made a tremendously fucking awful story that made both Infinite and 1's stories even WORSE somehow. I fucking hate Burial at Sea. I already did not like Infinite, but Burial at Sea is just so much fucking worse. Fuck!
  • Bioshock 2 Remastered: Minerva's Den - I knew that Infinite was going to suck, so I set aside the DLC of 2 as a pallete cleanser. After Burial at Sea, I'm really fucking glad that I did. It's basically Bioshock 2 in a smaller scale. Two major levels, and then one smaller level for the finale. New guns, new well-written self-contained storyline. It's not something that'll set the world on fire, but it really didn't need to be. It's just a really good, solid story with really solid gameplay. It really shows off that there's definitely merits to Bioshock. It's not exactly like System Shock and more proper immersive sims like that and the original Deus Ex, but it can stand on it's own as it's own thing and be good.

    Just don't give it to the team that did Bioshock 1 and Infinite, and especially don't put Ken Levine in charge of the project.
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Re: Listings of Games 2022 - Too Many Game Edition

Post by SlateSlabrock (?) » Sun Jan 01, 2023 5:09 pm

Aria Genisi wrote:
Sun Jan 01, 2023 2:54 am
  • The Stanley Parable - I never played the Stanley Parable, though I did have the game in my steam library! There was an enhanced remake released this year, and I was tempted to get it, but I decided to play the original version instead to get a handle on it in general. It's good, and quite silly! I did a bunch of routes and endings. Dunno if I got 'em all, but I think I got just about everything. I'll likely get the updated version sometime.
Oh yeah, I forgot the Ultra Deluxe edition came out this year. If you haven't already, give the demo a spin as well.

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Re: Listings of Games 2022 - Too Many Game Edition

Post by Jill (?) » Sat Jan 07, 2023 11:41 am

SlateSlabrock wrote:
Sat Dec 31, 2022 4:14 am
Dwarf Fortress: Finally time to learn this. I don't know what I'm doing. Had to abandon first base because my dwarves ate all the seeds. Second base is surviving despite endless flocks of murderous ravens. Can't dig down, so I hope the mountain doesn't cave in on my dwarves' heads.
if you can't dig down because of an aquifer, it's okay to brute force it and then build your own walls to stop the cavern walls from leaking water. the game might fight you a bit because it auto-cancels digging designations whenever damp tiles are revealed, but you can still designate again to dig them out after the fact

i'm actually surprised at how tame aquifers are, because in earlier versions i seem to remember them immediately flooding tiles when dug out and the only way to really get past them was to use odd tricks. now you can just bust right through and have plenty of time to build a shell around your stairs to keep water out

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Re: Listings of Games 2022 - Too Many Game Edition

Post by Orange Fluffy Sheep (?) » Thu Jan 19, 2023 11:35 pm

What all was even in 2022

Shin Megami Tensei 5: I fucking love fighting demons holy shit it's not the absolute jrpg battle bliss that was 4a but in exchange it has style and a story that is really minimal but that's better than a persona gang without the slice of life of persona. The music is s+ tier too just want to throw that out there.

pokemon legends arceus: after swsh and bdsp were pretty average it is so, so wonderful to have a pokemon game this genuinely amazing and fresh.

elden ring: the most 9/10 game possible, because for every 9 parts that're incredible and fun and enjoyable and fair there's 1 that's just total dogshit. You have incredible bosses like Margit and Rennala and then you have fights like the ritual death bird that's fighting the camera more than the boss, or three guy gank messes, or bosses in arenas they can't fucking fit in. You have incredible moody and atmospheric areas and then you're in the 6000th catacomb. And so on. The 9 parts are some of the best ever and kept me at this for way longer than I should, which makes the 1 part just ache that much more. Also its character creation system should be in every game so I can disintegrate faces.

phantasy star 4: not kidding I finally played it last year. It's a great jrpg and aged pretty well. I wish it was deeper mechanically. Raja is the best.

siralim ultimate: this game was made for me, it rewards what I like doing and makes huge numbers and I can make the fastest bugs.

vampire survivors: the best $3 I ever spent

monster rancher 2: this is ny comfort game. I can always unwind with a nice youtube video and nigh muscle memory super monster raising. The port has only enhanced that with auto saves and better inventory and fast forward. I love mr2.

pokemon violet: after legends arceus hopes were high and it turns out that this kinda ruled too. Breath of the Pokemon was a good idea. I wish other people were better at raids!

tactics ogre reborn: I am a true doom lucthead and this is probably the best version on average, because it has its advantages but also its insane quirks and frustrating design choices so you can tell it's luct still.

anything else I forgot: there were a lot of games
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Re: Listings of Games 2022 - Too Many Game Edition

Post by DaikatunaRevengeance (?) » Wed Feb 08, 2023 1:47 pm

Red Alert 3 - Tim Curry. That is all.
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;) ❤️ :twasnothin: ❤️ :fancyhat:

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