Welcome to my 2022 list of games that I loved.

2022 has been another wild ride but I probably will give it the credit of being a little less cataclysmic than last year. Is this because I left Twitter? Maybe.  

Welcome to my 2022 list of games that I loved. 2022 has been another wild ride but I probably will give it the credit of being a little less cataclysmic than last year. Is this because I left Twitter? Maybe.

*

Some supplemental awards first.

‘Oh, thank my stars co-op arrived’ award:

§ Halo Infinite

*

  ‘Please stop releasing your games in December’ 2021 awards:

§ The Gunk

§ Tunnel of Doom

*

‘You are a compelling game, but my word, your politics suck’ award:

§ Police Simulator: Patrol officers

*

10. As Dusk Falls XBO, XSX/S

As Dusk Falls is pitched as having meaningful stories and heartfelt performances brought to life by motion comics. The game follows multiple people across different threads involving a heist gone wrong, telling the story from the robbers’ and victims’ perspective. As Dusk Falls’ other big pitch is that it can be played online with up to 8 friends, and each time a choice must be made each player places a vote with the ability to override all votes. As all my friends are complete misfits, this means that instead of anything being accomplished, characters in As Dusk Falls will spend most of their time doing the worst things. To its credit, the game does a great job of keeping things on track. I am pretty sure I wasn’t supposed to laugh this much, but As Dusk Falls certainly brings it when played with chaotic pals.

*

9. Broken Pieces PC, XBO, XSX/S, PS4/5

Broken Pieces is pretty great. A 3D adventure with a focus on puzzling and some minor combat. Set in a remote French Village that seems to exist in a post-event world where it’s not entirely clear what that event was. The localization is all over the place and adds to the unnerving nature of the game. Broken Pieces’s peers are Deadly Premonition and Syberia. If either of those names make your ears prick up, then you have to try this game.

*

8. The Quarry PC, XBO, XSX/S, PS4/5 Review here

Supermassive consistently release titles that hit my top ten. Never in the top 5, but I still look forward to playing them. The Quarry is no exception. Larger and a bit longer than its Dark Pictures compatriots, it starts slower but ends up being rewarding by leaning into a goofier horror story. One of the things I’m enjoying is that the writing team started to become aware of its own tropes and then learning how to subvert them. For example, they’ve loved giving the players a ‘Drew Barrymore’ character for the tutorial – someone that shows up briefly to get murdered or sidelined. Not this time, and it’s great to see the writing being experimental and finding new ways to spin the story. However, it’s the multiplayer that keeps things entertaining as the hot-seat means that I could not predict the story twists.

Below is a heavily spoilered example:

Later in the story, after The Quarry had set up two characters and framed them as the protagonists, things turn to a pitched battle with a murderous family, everything slowed down for a second and required one of my friends to make a pivotal shot… And he missed. Both the protagonists die. The story continued without them.

What a great game.

*

7. Tunic – PC, XBO, PS4/5, XSX/S, Switch

I was unimpressed by Tunic’s demo, outside of the very nice, squidgy pastel-colored models that made everything look like it was made out of opaque jelly sweets. What I played of the demo felt like someone was just retreading Legend of Zelda. That’s not to say the full game of Tunic surprised me and didn’t ape Link’s adventures, but it’s doing so much more. The element of ‘aha!’ when a level circles around on itself made me appreciate how clever each layout was, and the unlocking of each piece of the in-game instruction manual leading to even more ‘aha!’ moments is inspired. Then, when I realized what the liner notes meant… Well, it was the first time I fully appreciated what made Fez so appealing to players. Finally, when I hit a pretty nasty bug right at the end that meant that the final boss was much harder than it needed to be, Tunic just didn’t give a shit that I made myself invincible and beat the boss without trying. The journey and the exploration was more important.

*

6. Windjammers 2 – PC, PS4/5, XBO, XSX/S, Switch, Stadia Review here

Windjammers is a unique game in many ways, I played it in the arcades back in the ’90s and then again on emulators in the 2000s. The back and forth of throwing a disc in a sort of air hockey/Frisbee hybrid is so simple, but the tactics and mind games that emerge contain so much depth. All I had craved for the last couple of decades was a decent port on my preferred console, but DotEmu (a company that is very much on a roll after Streets of Rage 4) went one better. Not only did they manage to make Windjammers 2 bigger with more varied abilities, trickshots and techniques, but also better. Although the skill ceiling is higher, it doesn’t detract from the crazy amount of simple fun able to be had. It also helps that the online multiplayer is rock-solid too.

*

5. Pick Pack Pup – PlayDate

Not only does this entry give me an opportunity to brag about getting a PlayDate earlier this year, it is also a way to celebrate my favourite entry of the first season of curated games. Pick Pack Pup manages to find a new spin on the ‘match three’ genre with the character having to connect items first to package them, then they dispatch the packages, the more dispatched at the same time, the better the bonus. The game finds new ways to change up the format as the story progresses with different objectives, and the challenge modes add extra incentive to return. The story itself is a criticism of Amazon (and capitalism at large). Entertainingly, the protagonist steals a rocket and goes to Mars. For me, the most charming part of Pick Pack Pup was that it was a compulsive 3-4 hour game, perfect for a plane or car journey, and it fit perfectly into the PlayDate’s weekly offering. For those who get a chance to try the diminutive crank handheld, make a beeline for this one.

*

4. Elden Ring PC – PS4/5, XBO, XSX/S Review here

I mean, I am sure it isn’t much of a shock that Elden Ring is on this list. It’s a phenomenal achievement by From Software to pack so much into this game and still make it feel like it had a personality. It is also by far the most accessible in the franchise, with a ton of neat elements that made it so I could finally talk to some of my friends about the experience. There is something in there, though, that weirdly rubs me the wrong way – like, I am resentful that the game is basically Assassin’s Creed, only with its excel spreadsheet checklist of side missions hidden from the player. When I realized that I was ticking off a series of boxes (during a fire giant fight) it soured a game I think I otherwise might have considered perfect. Still, I have high hopes that From Software will go from strength to strength after Elden Ring’s performance and that leaves me with hope that I’ll finally get another Armored Core game. Never mind, Armored Core VI got announced this a great end of year for me. Get me a mech!

*

3. Gunfire: Reborn Switch – PC, PS4, XBO, XSX/S, Android, iOS

With one of the most forgettable names ever (frequently referred to as ‘Ghostmaster: Remix’ or ‘Gunblast: Remaster’ in this household) Gunfire: Reborn is a fantastic co-op, first-person shooter with roguelite elements. Each run allows the player to pick a class, accrue levelling-up points, better weapons, and scrolls that can buff/debuff, and the developer seems to delight in allowing the player to create utterly broken builds that allow players to go on rampages. The four player co-op elements (once players are higher level) allows for people to see the great range of different builds like the dual-wielding dog and the glass-canon bunny rabbit, while mixing and matching different styles. It’s on Game Pass right now, and even if you don’t have friends you should be playing it.

*

2. Roguebook Switch – PC, Mac, XBO, XSX/S, PS4/5, Stadia Review here

“A top ten and I only have one roguelite on here” I saym as I realize I haven’t written about Roguebook. Every year I find a game that hits me like meth — hitting me with wide-eyed nights of hours slipping by in some sort of fugue state as I play ‘one more game’.  What Roguebook improves for the Darkest-Slay-the-Monster-Train-Dungeon formula is that it lets the player feel like they have more agency in their path towards the bosses, and there feels like there’s an ability to course-correct a half-failing run with the two hero system. The most roguelite addicted have complained that there is not enough variation in deck discovery, but that wasn’t something that bothered me as I climbed through the ranks while unlocking more cards. Charming, and a fantastic entry point for people curious about deckbuilding roguelites.

*

1. Severed Steel – Switch, PC, XBO, XSX/S, PS4/5

I booted up Severed Steel before writing this to check if I was really going to make it my game of the year and got into a new game+ playthrough. Played in first-person, perspective this is a game that muses on what it would be like if Max Payne was just an endless stream of slow-motion violence set to a propulsive beat. Every level requires jumping, sliding, wall running and shooting — it’s like Cliff Bleszinski made good on his comment about how worried he was we hadn’t seen the gunplay in Mirror’s Edge and then built a game that had flawless gunplay/parkour. It’s just a cacophony of good times.

*

Most Disappointing of the year: Plague Tale: Requiem

I am still enjoying Plague Tale, and I will likely finish it, but the disappointment I feel is that it seems that the developers and I have very different ideas of what we wanted from this game. Plague Tale: Innocence was a surprise – a gorgeous title on a budget that squeezed just enough gameplay into its cutscene heavy adventure that kept me engrossed. This first entry offered up a range of tools for stealthing and killing, but rarely had big enough areas to explore the possibilities with them.

What I had hoped for the sequel was that Requiem would build on this solid foundation and provide more open areas to fully realize the promising stealthy/fighting dichotomy. Instead, Requiem is about a lot of walking and talking and ‘push forward to win the game’ setpieces. These are impressive, they just indicate that, given a bigger budget, there will be even fewer interesting things to do in the next game and more emphasis on bombast. I hope that is not the case, because I love the world.

The post AJ’s Top 10 of 2022 appeared first on Gamecritics.com.

In this episode, Carlos & Brad take a break from the usual format and take a look back at the end of the PS4 era by choosing their top 10 games and discussing.

They also gathered the top PS4 picks from listeners through an online poll and share the results — spoiler, they have almost nothing in common with what the guys picked!

For those of you who’d like some video, Carlos covered his list (and a little extra) right here.

Please send feedback and mailbag questions to SoVideogamesPODCAST (at) gmail (dot) com, or post them in the comments section below. Thanks!

The post So… Videogames! Ep. 208 appeared first on Gamecritics.com.

This isn’t a best-of list. There’s no reason to bother with one of those, since I’ve already been clear about the fact that the best game of the last decade is Deadly Premonition, and there’s no reason for me to spend time trying to justify the obvious truth of that statement.

Instead, I’m going to offer a list of titles that might not be the best game of their year — or even my personal favorite — but rather, a list of titles that I most closely associate with the year they were released.

2010 – Deadly Premonition

As I said, I won’t bother singing the game’s praises here. I started a YouTube channel for that purpose. To me, though, it IS 2010.

2011 — Terraria

I spent countless hours exploring the randomly-generated chasms and peaks of Terraria. I’d been intrigued by Minecraft, but found it (at the time) to be such a directionless slog that I could never get into it. Then Terraria appeared and offered me the NPCs, bosses, and progression that I craved from an open-world crafting game. Other titles have since surpassed it and even Minecraft is finally an actual game, but 2011 was all Terraria, all the time.

2012 — Binary Domain

What if, instead of a ponderous point-and-click adventure, Snatcher was the best third-person shooter ever made? That might be a question no one asked, but it’s one that Binary Domain answered definitively. It’s smart, thrilling, brutally violent, and genuinely affecting. Even a completely superfluous and buggy-as-heck microphone mode couldn’t dampen my love for this game.

2013 — Spelunky (PC)

I’d already been obsessed with Spelunky for years when this version was released, and the addiction only grew more severe when I got access to the Daily Challenge mode. The randomized worlds on which the game is built offer endless replayablilty, but they kept competition out of it. With the Daily Challenge, everyone on Earth got a single chance to take on the same seed and truly test their skills against one another for the first time. A few months later cheaters showed up and ruined everything, but for a bright, shining moment, Spelunky was the ultimate leaderboard challenge.

2014 — Rogue Legacy

Speaking of roguelites, Rogue Legacy is quite simply the most accessible entry in the genre that I’ve ever seen. The cartoony art, the straightforward controls, the absolutely brilliant tree of unlockables — RL is the rare roguelite that makes every run feel consequential. There’s so much to discover, and it all appears so quickly that it pulls players helplessly along with it, as if they’re trapped by the very curse that the family at the core of the game’s narrative struggles against.

2015 — Yakuza 5

Every Yakuza game is incredible — they’re the most reliable source of great storytelling and brawler gameplay alike. Yakuza 5 is on a whole other level, however. Telling an expansive story covering five protagonists over four cities, with gameplay that ranges from big-game hunting to perfectly choreographed dancing, it’s more than a game — it’s all games, and the high point of a series that’s had nothing but peaks.

2016 — Atelier Sophie

I’ve never played a bad Atelier game, but there was something special about Sophie. Perhaps it’s the fact that this was the first time the franchise abandoned the strict timelines that defined the gameplay of each previous entry in the series, or maybe Sophie and her Magical Talking Book sidekick are such amazing characters that it’s impossible to dislike them. Whatever the key ingredient was, this was the game that moved the Atelier series from acquired taste to essential JRPG, and remains my favorite entry of all.

2017 — ELEX

People call this game janky, and they’re not wrong. There’s a lack of balance to the design that could break a lesser game, but ELEX pulls it off. The developers’ passion for cramming every good idea they had into a single package results in a game with ambition to spare. As a fantasy/sci-fi/post apocalyptic action-RPG, there’s something for everyone in ELEX. It also not only features one of the best maps I’ve ever encountered, but empowers the player by giving them a jetpack at the game’s outset so they’re free to explore it at their own pace. I don’t know if there’s ever been a game more willing to trust the player’s ability to engage with it any way they want to, secure that there’s unlimited joy to be found.

2018 — Fist of The North Star: Lost Paradise

Licensed games have a bad reputation largely because they’re afterthoughts — frivolities developed by hired guns who are told to be more concerned about a release date than whether they put out a product with any lasting value. This game is the antithesis of that mindset. It’s so good that I played it from beginning to end twice, and one of those plays was in Japanese. (I can’t read Japanese.) LP is the result of a developer with a long track record of making great games getting the chance to work with an IP that perfectly matches their sensibilities. It’s also an incredible game in every way. (Also, it suddenly occurs to me that three of the games on this list were made by the same developer. The Yakuza people had a pretty good decade, it seems.)

2019 — Terminator Resistance

The decade closed out with a game that seems to have been made specifically for me. Bethesda’s Terminator was one of the first titles I played on my own PC, and for nearly 30 years I’ve preached long and loud about how James Cameron’s future war sequences offer the most natural setting imaginable for videogames. A few have exploited it — Bethesda even made some major innovations in the FPS field while doing so — but there had never been a truly exceptional game set in that world until Terminator: Resistance. Mixing solid gameplay with a good story in a perfectly realized setting, the developers made the title I’ve been waiting for most of my game-playing life. There were better games made this year, but there was only one that felt like the developers had me in mind with every design decision they made.

The post Dan’s Decade In Games appeared first on Gamecritics.com.

As a gamer, I keep a lot of lists — games I’ve finished, games I own, games in my backlog… After spending about 38 years (and counting!) on videogames it’s impossible to keep all of it straight in my head, so lists are a huge help.

As I was putting the wraps on my Top 10 of 2019, I realized that we’re also at the end of a decade, 2010-2019, so what better time to put some of those lists to good use? I would have been hard-pressed to remember what titles I picked as the best in their respective years, but thanks to the magical power of listmaking, I didn’t need to. I had it all written down!

Just to be clear, these picks aren’t the most important or most influential games of the decade — that’s a different sort of list to write — but these were all titles I had a fantastic time with and I figured it’d be a hoot to revisit them all. Yes, a hoot.

Thanks in advance for reading, and if there are some games here that you aren’t familiar with or haven’t tried, I hope you give them a shot and dig them as much as I have.

Bring on the next ten years!

2010 – Deadly Premonition my second opinion

This game is infamous for being so rough in terms of control, production values, combat, and other areas. However, for me, giving a title top honors is hardly about the best graphics or the most polish — Deadly Premonition is one of the most challenging, creative, brave and underappreciated titles I’ve seen. The work of director Swery 65 more than makes up for the technical shortcomings with a intriguing storyline and superbly-written characters I — protagonist Francis York Morgan is someone I’ll never, ever forget. Supporting its cerebral side, DP also offers a fresh take on the open-world genre that manages to avoid the usual “blow everything up” chaos and keeps razor-sharp focus on the riveting story. There’s no question that Deadly Premonition was anathema to many, but for those of a certain bent it’s a singular ride.

2011 – Dead Island my second opinion

Intense, visceral combat. An open world large enough to explore, yet one that never felt empty or pointless. Fantastic atmosphere and beautiful environments. Co-op RPG-style progression. “Realistic” quests that one could imagine doing if zombies were real. Dead Island offered all of this, and more. Although many contemporaries featured the undead, very few at the time attempted to create a zombie apocalypse in the way often written about in books or shown in movies–scavenging environments for necessities, establishing safe houses, finding medicine, and so on. Although it’s not a perfect simulation, it came closer than any other game before it, and did it in fine style.

Unfortunately, it went out to reviewers in an egregiously broken state and they rightfully trashed it. However, once the code was patched and all the rough edges were filed off, Dead Island was a true gem and went on to enjoy a long, successful run with strong fan support carrying it.

Fun fact: the GOTY edition of Dead Island was only possible because GameCritics picked it as our GOTY — we were the only site in the entire industry who gave it that much love, and we took tons of flak for doing so. Sadly, the game’s PR reps not only backed out of plans to celebrate the win, they never even thanked us openly for making that version possible. Weaksauce!

2012 – The Walking Dead my review of episode 1

Although plenty of people ribbed me for picking two zombie-themed games as GOTY in a row, I didn’t choose The Walking Dead because I’m a horror superfan. No, the truth is that Telltale took one of the strongest properties in entertainment at that time and delivered the best material they ever created.

The story of Lee, Clementine, Kenny, and the rest of the survivors in a zombie-infested world isn’t so gripping because of the undead, but because they’re portrayed as believable, realistic human beings trapped in a nightmarish situation — it’s incredibly easy to relate to their struggles and choices. It’s rare to feel a connection to characters as strong as the one I felt here, and it just goes to show that there are endless stories left to tell which have nothing to do with bleeding-edge technology.

2013 – The Last of Us my second opinion

As a critic who puts a lot of weight on writing and characterization, Naughty Dog knocked it out of the park with the relationship between Joel and Ellie. After starting with a powerful opening sequence, it takes the time to properly lay an emotional foundation that creates opportunities for natural dialogue and situations despite the post-apocalyptic setting.

That same richness extends to the environments, which have no shortage of tales to tell. The most memorable example was the posthumous tale of a man hiding in a sewer, and how he unwittingly doomed a mother and her children. It would have been easy to skip such lore and rush the player to the next combat sequence, but all of the details imbue the adventure with thoughtful, meaningful atmosphere.

Oh, and the DLC titled Left Behind? It’s one of the finest pieces of videogame content ever created.

2014 – Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc & Goodbye Despair my review

I’ve never been the biggest fan of Visual Novels. Many that I’ve tried had similar issues — tedious, verbose writing and a profound lack of pizzazz in production. Not so with Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc and its sequel, Goodbye Despair. Once they start, they spring to life and there’s never a chance of being bored. (I count both of them as a one winner since the stories are so tightly interwoven and they both came out in the same year.)

Beyond flashy visuals with faux-3D pop and hot pink blood, its mix of elements elevated it past many other VNs — there’s plenty of straight-up reading to be done, but there are also investigations, building relationships, and an active “trial” system that keep things popping, not to mention the fact that one character dies in each chapter, so the player is constantly kept off-balance by never knowing who the next to go is. It’s all wonderfully tense and brisk for the genre.

Last but certainly not least, the series launched a genuinely iconic character with Monokuma, the murderous black-and-white bear . I’ve got a stuffed version looking over my shoulder right now and I don’t trust him…

2015 – The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt

While The Witcher 3 is extremely long and has pacing problems (especially in the final third) there’s no denying that CD Projekt Red created something that pushed the open-world genre forward. Every quest I went on was interesting and varied, the land felt real and had a sense of history and culture, and the writing was second to none. The campaign successfully navigates some very difficult material, as well.

The characters are just as strong as the script — Geralt of Rivia is already ranked among the greats of gaming, and he’s lifted by an extremely strong cast of wonderful female heroes. Without Keira, Triss, Cerys, Ciri and Yennefer, the adventure wouldn’t have been a fraction of what it was.

It says a lot about the quality of the game that I did absolutely everything in it, and that’s no small amount of content — it was all just so good, I couldn’t bear to miss even the smallest sidequest. And speaking of sidequests, the Hearts of Stone DLC is an outstanding achievement and a pinnacle of the medium similar to TLoU‘s Left Behind. It was a great decade for DLC!

2016 was a tough year for me… I absolutely could not choose just a single game, so I chucked the normal rules out the window and ran with a three-way split.

2016 – Let It Die Darren Forman’s review

Let it Die is a perfect example of fantastic gameplay trumping flashy graphics or triple-A budgets. Running through floor after floor of a decrepit tower while scrounging for broken weapons and battling for my life against raging psychopaths is tense stuff, heightened by the moment-to-moment management of resources and the possibility of not making it back to home base before being overcome by enemies. The supporting systems gave players reasons to come back every day, and it was satisfying in both bite-sized chunks and extended sessions. And the style! It’s crazy, hilarious, and brutal, all in equal measure. It eventually fizzled out by fumbling the postgame, but I put more than 200 hours in before that point and loved every minute.

2016 – Overwatch

I’m not generally a fan of first-person shooters and I like online multiplayer titles even less, but Overwatch managed to click hard with me thanks to the strategic interplay between characters, and by emphasizing positive aspects of play instead of the usual stat-based dick-measuring. It also didn’t hurt that the character design is generally great, even though Blizzard manages to completely cock up the cultural aspects on a regular basis… That aside, Overwatch was quickly embedded into my family’s daily rotation and we spent many, many hours as a father/mother/son team. Epic family bonding!

2016 – The Last Guardian @MikeSuskie’s review

This game shouldn’t exist, and after it was confirmed as not-vaporware-we’re-serious-this-time-for-real, The Last Guardian should have been a failure. Thanks to switching platforms and spending nearly a decade in development, no one would have been surprised at all if it flopped. But it didn’t flop… it was brilliant. Not only is it absolutely dripping with Fumito Ueda’s signature visual style, the griffin-like creature Trico is chillingly real. The way it moves and reacts is utterly convincing, and by making the game about building a relationship with this animal, it delivers a new, challenging experience that requires patience and understanding of the kind that I can honestly say I’ve never had to employ in a videogame before.

2017 – Warframe my review

After thumbing my nose at convention by choosing three winners the year before, I did it again by picking a GOTY that wasn’t even released in the year I chose it for. The reason? Due to the changing nature of technology, things like patching and add-ons mean that very few games are ever at their best when released, and some go through radical redesigns or rebalances over time. How developers handle post-release is now A Thing and it counts for a lot, so from this perspective I felt it was only fair to consider Warframe for top honors four years after it debuted. It wasn’t a great experience when it first arrived, but it had become the best thing I played that year, and was significantly different than when I had first tried it.

Frankly, I dismissed it several times in the past because it just wasn’t up to par, but the developers never gave up the quest to constantly improve and it turned into a fantastic experience full of stylish action, not to mention it’s one of the very few games in history where I’ve actually wanted to group up with strangers and had almost universally positive experiences when doing so. There’s also tons of content that could easily last for months or years, but it’s also able to be digested in bite-size chunks, with friends or without.

Something else to celebrate is that the developers of this free-to-play title do microtransactions and games-as-service correctly — no small feat considering how many egregious examples of greed there are. Oh, and that story? When it kicks in 200 hours after you start, it’s amaaaaaazing. No joke!

2018 – Into the Breach review by Mike Suskie

Brilliant in every aspect, Into the Breach takes the standard template of turn-based tactics and tosses it on its ear by crafting a system that is absolutely transparent about what it’s going to do, and then challenges the player to make the best use of available resources. There are no tricks and no ‘gotcha!’ moments — it’s an honest, straightforward presentation that asks the player to rise to the occasion.

Each team of specialized mechs is widely varied, and brings a new spin to the combat. Some are defensive, some are offensive, some specialize in damage over time, some focus on melee, some are about repositioning… the diversity and clever design keeps each session fresh while also teaching the player through time and iteration about the sophistication hidden under the seemingly-simple hood.

Breach is also intensely replayable thanks to custom options, and the fast, bite-sized nature of missions. It’s rare to see something so completely thought-through, so rich, and so deep. I honestly can’t find fault with it, and could not pull myself away until I had done every single thing in every possible permutation. Into the Breach is a master class in small-scale design that manages to be more sophisticated than games with ten times the budget, and it’s polished from every angle. If there’s such a thing as a perfect game, this is it.

2019 – Control

As you already know if you read my Top 10 of 2019 list, I absolutely loved Control. It is by far the best thing that Remedy Entertainment has ever made, and I was glued from start to finish.

The moment-to-moment play works perfectly with main character Jessie’s ability to telekinetically grab and throw things, and there’s a wonderful balance found in going from mental powers to gunplay and back again. Control was also confident enough to build in quiet spaces and let the player breathe between skirmishes — it was hugely appreciated.

As someone who loves supernatural elements, interdimensional creatures and all sorts of mystery, it was also right up my alley by recalling things like The X-Files, Warehouse 13 and even Twin Peaks. Supporting this, the sidequests were wonderfully unpredictable, and I was surprised to find an entire cast of NPCs to interact with. The environment was also a memorable character – and perhaps the most important one. The Oldest House is an impossibly abstract metaphysical creation that serves both mechanical and narrative functions, and I couldn’t get enough of it.

The post Brad’s Top 10 (okay, 12) of the Decade appeared first on Gamecritics.com.

Another year, another PAX… West, to be specific!

The show is now officially over and yours truly is in recovery mode after four long days on the floor.

If you weren’t fortunate enough to attend – and that’s probably a lot of you, because those tickets went fast! – have no fear. I had on some good walking shoes and covered the exhibition, up close and personal. Of course, even with all that time I wasn’t able to see and play everything because some of those lines are crazy, and not every PR rep will let an exhausted writer jump a three-hour line. Yeah, I’m looking at you, Nintendo.

Anyway, with that in mind, here for your perusal are the top 15 notable games from the floor. Plus one!

Monster Hunter World — Capcom, early 2018 – GAME OF THE SHOW

The hype is real. I’ve been waiting years for this series to make its way out of handheld exclusivity and get back onto a proper home console, and it’s finally happened in a big, big way. While it’s the same Monster Hunter at its core, the hunting and tracking elements have been buffed up, there have been several quality-of-life improvements made, and my god, those graphics… It looks absolutely stunning, in a way that Monster Hunter has always deserved to. Longtime fans will be treated to the hunting game of their dreams, and it’s the perfect place for newcomers to jump in thanks to clear-eyed modernizations and revamps that make it far more approachable without a wiki.

Tooth and Tail — PocketWatch Games, Sept 12

I’m not a huge fan of RTS titles — the micromanagement and time pressure are too much for me, although I’m always interested to see different permutations of the formula. This trims the structure down to its essence and streamlines things for PS4, no mouse necessary. Rather than directing individual units or handling a million things at once, the player is more like a leader guiding forces, reminding me of Pikmin in a very loose sense. The pixel art is beautiful, and a great match for the ‘animal revolution’ theme as well.

Children of Morta – Dead Mage, 2018

This roguelite stars several members of a family of warriors, each with their own specialty — one goes sword-and board, one does martial arts, and so on. They all live in one house which hosts randomized story events and things which change the world depending on the actions players take in the dungeons. The combat looks solid, I enjoyed the variety of characters, and the idea of having a family element and a persistent household to add narrative and emotional elements to what is usually a minimal-story genre is quite welcome.

Trailmakers – Flashbulb Games, Early Access late 2017

This one was quite early, but I was in love with the premise — players craft any kind of vehicle they can imagine from various resources and must cross an entire planet from one side to the other, however they can. The game employs true physics, and all sorts of things are possible including with simple cars, transforming cars, robotic spider walkers, and even fully-functioning aircraft provided that the player puts all the pieces together correctly. Just tooling around with the different kinds of machines that are possible looks like an incredible amount of fun, and I imagine it’s going to be a real winner when it comes to family game time. My eight-year-old was salivating just thinking about it. Literal salivation. I had to get him a light snack.

Way of the Passive Fist – Household Games, Fall 2017

It’s been a long time since I’ve played an interesting beat-’em-up, but I’m definitely going to give this one a shot. Not only is it interesting because the main character specializes in defensive moves like blocking and parrying (he only knocks someone out with the flick of a finger once they’ve completely exhausted themselves) but the game also features a slew of accessibility options — quite possibly the most I’ve ever seen in a single game. Absolutely stunning efforts at inclusion here.

Coffence – Sweet Bandits Studios, Early Access now, consoles soon

Imagine two coffee snobs facing each other with noses upturned, each one beating the holy hell out of the other with cups and mugs full of steaming java. It sounds ridiculous, but this was one of my favorite games of the show, easily. Positioning of the cup is important (it’s controlled with the right stick) and the ultimate goal is to empty the opposite player’s cup. It’s as fast and intense as a fighter, but packed full of all sorts of pleasant idiosyncrasies and a slightly different focus of the kind that’s usually found behind a barista’s espresso maker.

Symmetry – Sleepless Clinic, Coming Soon

The presence of Polish developers was strong and impressive at PAX this year, and this was only one of many games which caught my attention — although since it includes an option for cannibalism, Symmetry won by default. A group of scientists crash-land on an alien planet, and must survive with the limited resources available to them from the wreck and the surrounding areas. They can piece together equipment as they go and will recruit lost members as they are found, but this randomized stay-alive-and-get-home game takes into account every contingency, including filling an empty freezer with the remains of any crewman who can serve the rest of crew better as a hot meal than as a pair of hands.

Ruiner – Reikon Games, September 2017

This hard-edged cyberpunk title was both hyper-violent and hyper-stylish. The player’s character has been mentally hacked by outside forces and must go through fast-paced scenarios while under another’s control. The action is tight, it’s brutally intense, and the developers are focused on delivering a story that’s more than just an excuse to frame the action. It seemed a bit like Hotline Miami on steroids, if such a thing is even possible.

Phantom Doctrine – Creative Forge Games, 2018

This turn-based strategy focuses on espionage and features a cold-war theme, keeping things “real” with spies, special operatives, and secret agents. Perhaps the most fascinating thing is that the AI plays against the player with the same tools at its disposal, while also also having no knowledge of what the player is doing. Essentially, each side is trying to beat the other with similar resources and tactics! There are multiple layers of intrigue and double-crossing possible, including launching your own Manchurian Candidates. Fans of XCOM will definitely want to check into this one.

Aer – Forgotten Key, October 2017

I first saw this a year or two ago, and have never forgotten it. I absolutely love the aesthetics and concept — the player is a shapeshifter able to become a large, soaring bird. The player is free to fly anywhere within the world with no limits, so the experience becomes about enjoying the freedom of having wings, exploring the land, and solving lore-rich puzzles scattered throughout the land. It’s a laid-back, somewhat meditative experience.

Donut County – Ben Esposito, 2018

In a twist somewhat reminiscent of Katamari Damacy, The player takes control of a hole (yes, a hole) that starts small and must eat small objects in order to grow in size, with the end goal of emptying each level of absolutely everything. Also, there are raccoons.

Lightfield – Lost in the Garden, Late 2017

This indie futuristic racing game combines going fast, exploration, and a bit of mechanical parkour. These ships are free to leave the ground and take flight at any time, but the catch is that they travel slower when further away from a surface. So, a good run has the player skimming structures, leaping through the air, and then diving down to cling to another surface before zooming ahead. The beauty of this concept is that the levels are take full advantage of all dimensions, so the player will commonly leap from wall to ceiling to floor and back again, taking whatever path they choose with almost no restrictions. it’ marvelously dizzying in the best possible way.

Biomutant – Experiment 101, 2018

This was a tricky one. At first glance, it seemed like little more than a character action game starring a small, fuzzy animal dual-wielding pistols and swinging a sword — a micro-sized Dante with fur, basically. Fine enough, but it probably wouldn’t have made my list without revealing a bit of the bigger picture. In store was a huge, open world full of different quests and characters that can be traversed at the player’s leisure via a variety of vehicles like a wing suit, a mech suit, an airship, and more. The demo wasn’t able to convey the full scope of what’s planned, but if the sizzle reel is accurate, there seems to be a great deal of promise beyond the hack-and slash.

SteamWorld Dig 2 – Image & Form, September 21, 2017

Few developers are able to deliver on all levels, all the time, but Image & Form don’t disappoint. Their past SteamWorld titles have been ace, and I expect Dig 2 to be no different. Players will be treated to a mining area much, much larger than the original and filled with new characters, new moves, expanded perks and basically more of everything that makes their games great. And seriously, these robots are so cute!

Dandara – Long Hat House, 2017

Coming out of nowhere, Dandara was an extremely pleasant surprise. The game features a black female protagonist who can cling to walls and leap great distances — but she can’t walk. The structure seems fairly Metroidvania in flavor, and it was a blast zipping to (and from!) any direction while navigating through corridors and tunnels. I really like the vibe of what this game is putting out, and someone able to give Samus a run for her money is always welcome.

Dead Static Drive – Mike Blackney, 2019

I wouldn’t ordinarily highlight a game that was so far out from a release date, but when a developer describes their work as a survival road trip + Cthulhu, I simply must pay attention. The demo had a cool 50’s sort of vibe to it, and the idea of taking a trip across a ruined country while stopping at gas stations and truck stops along the way in search of food and ammo is right up my alley. Plus, the bobby soxer-styled lady I was controlling peed in the bathroom standing up. Mike told me it was just a placeholder animation, but I thought it was a pretty rad bit of inclusion, even if unintended. I hope it remains an option!

…And there you have it, the fifteen best games of PAX West 2017, plus one!

See you there next year!

The post The Best Games of PAX West 2017 appeared first on Gamecritics.com.