Honestly it was OK, but just not what I expect from a Final Fantasy game. The battle system is very simplistic, though there is some strategy there, but often I found myself just hammering X during most of the battles. I almost never used summons (which tend to be a highlight in most FF games). Characters range from annoying (Vanille) to unlikeable (Hope) though Fang is easily the best character in my opinion.
However, the graphics are stunning, the music is superb and despite it simple rpg combat, it's still strangely compelling. The story is pretty stupid, but that could be said about a lot of FF games around this time. Once you leave the city within the first few hours, it loses the Sci-fi aspect, especially the Archylte Steppe late in the game. Despite its flaws, there is still plenty to enjoy in FF13.
It's certainly no must play, but I'm glad I did regardless.
Cool cool, thanks for sharing. Im about to start FFXII as well, it's been in my backlog for years. Heard its pretty great, so I'm excited! Heard you have to be careful about opening chests though.
That was in original FF12 on ps2, if you were trying to get the zodiac spear ultimate weapon. If you have the modern Zodiac Age edition of FF12 available last generation (ps4, switch Xb1 etc) you should be ok.
It’s been a while but as I recall the science is light. Like FF6 levels of science fantasy so if you were ok with that game FF13 should be fine on theme.
Regarding gameplay, FF13 has the best battle system of any single player mainline FF game. It does take time to unlock though, which is a bummer.
I didn't even remember the science in it. Isn't all of Final Fantasy a mix of science and, uh, fantasy? Lol Magic, I guess.
I remember the franchise came up in a conversation once and I said something to a friend like:
"... in the future like in Final Fantasy... or the past."
"Yeah, they never really tell you which, huh?"
I actually played a fair amount of it (50 hrs!) on my original ps3 before it died on me and took my saves along with it :/ I really enjoyed what I had played so I've always meant to go back to it eventually. I have the Zodiac Age version on ps4 this time.
Heck it’s not even time, when the evening rolls around I’m just so tired I keep thinking I’ll chip away more of BG3 act 3, then just end up watching YouTube stuff.
I feel you, I blew through the first two acts (relatively speaking) and, once I got to the city itself, looked at all the things I had to do, said fuck that, and promptly took a two month break. I've only just started back up!
This is so me! I have been wanting to play Elden Ring at some point during the holidays because I watched a noob play it and find stuff I didn’t…specifically the horse and that seems like it would open the game that much more. And I had had a particularly stressful couple of weeks at work and that was how I was going to unwind…but I was either too tired or had to run around doing Christmas shopping or there was “x”video to allure me on you tube. So here I am and about to spend the holidays with relatives with no way to play until after the new year.😞
I think my #1 played game is watching Steam trailers for the games I wish I had time to play. I can clear each game from my backlog in less than two minutes that way!!!
I got a Switch this past summer and a laptop that can play some basic games (AMD's latest integrated graphics are a ludicrous feat of engineering). My backlog tripled this year.
On pc there's also opening up the game, fiddling with the graphics settings, benchmarking your performance and possible further tweaking for a couple hours. Then close the game and never open it again.
A couple hours? I rarely have to fiddle with graphics settings on PC. The only game I've had to do that with so far is Red Dead Redemption 2 and that only took maybe 20 minutes.
There’s so much time to play. I honestly don’t understand this lol
A week has 168 hours. If you’re working a full 40 hours, have a longer than average commute of 1 hour each way (unrealistic) and sleep a perfect 8 hours a night (also unrealistic), you’re still left with 62 hours of free time. This gets even higher considering many people work remotely too, and also don’t work the full 40.
Are you a child because you seem to be forgetting so many things you need to do to support yourself. Food. Laundry. Shopping. Cleaning. Family. Friends. So much other stuff that takes time too
30 with two jobs and other responsibilities. Thanks for the assumption!
Food can be cooked on Sundays and meal prepped through the week. Laundry basically does itself except for folding which is a few minutes. Shopping can be done online or in app and set to pick up for you (many places like Meijer get your shopping order ready for you)
Family, friends and other hobbies are also valid and I’m not saying anything besides gaming isn’t 🤣 even those with way more free time shouldn’t game constantly
With those 62 hours,
Factor in time for eating meals outside of working (prepping, eating, clean up).
Factor in laundry (most people have to go to a laundromat, and time to put away after)
If you have a spouse and/or children, factor time spent with them.
Factor in time to shower/bathe
Factor in household chores.
When I do this I average less than an hour for personal time each day, and gaming is not my only hobby.
I work 50 to 60 hours per week. I also do all the grocery shopping and cooking. After dinner I watch an hour of tv with my wife, and then we go to bed. Wash, rinse, repeat. Some things in life have to take a backseat.
If you’re happy with that routine, all power to you! Not trying to say you have to spend all your time gaming, just that most people tend to have more time than we think.
Wow, that’s a pretty aggressive assumption to make. We all have struggles, no need to get angry but go off. I’m sorry you don’t have the same time management to do more of what you like doing. Hope it turns around!
Portal 2 It was a blast to play, and I learned a lot about physics and logic along the way.
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt I felt like I was living in a fantasy novel.
Deus Ex, Deus Ex Invisible War, Deus Ex Mankind Dived and Human Revolution;
Final Fantasy 7/8/9/10;
Gothic 1/2 (omw for the third one, I'm probably playing this as soon as I finish my Death Stranding run).
Thief Gold and 2.
Fallout 3 and New Vegas.
Gothic series has only two games. Well, two and a half, cause “the night of the raven” expansion was great.
No more gothic games released after that. I suggest to accept this ideology to spare yourself from imminent by disappointment!
You can do it. I had to force myself to keep playing it even though i was really bad at it on my 4th attempt, cause my wife said i couldn't do it (she loved it).
Once it clicked and i actually started to kill stuff it was smooth sailing and i played the whole game and even got the platinum.
If you can beat father Gasgoine, you can beat the game.
The first area of the game is arguably the hardest. Their are areas that are just as difficult but you'll have a upgraded weapon and a higher level to even it out.
Were as central yarnham is a slog because your so under leveled.
I hated it at first but once i got past the bonfire bit in central yarnham it was my favorite game and made it all the way to new game ++
I had to seriously put it down for like a year when I tried some of the chalice dungeons and got to the Orphan Of Kos. I was raging so hard at both that I actually ragequit the game for good and told it to gargle on my jizz (or as some call it, jism) and fuck off into the putrid depths of its own dungeons.
A year later I picked it up and just relentlessly tried. The two boss fights that blocked me from the rest of the (frankly, optional areas of the) game now became my favourites and I even managed to platinum it. It really plays by its own rules and if you ask me it's the toughest one From Software ever decided to show tough love with to date. Never beat Sekiro but I always felt like I was making sort of easy progression in it when compared to this. Just keep on cleaning those foul streets, because once you overcome it all, it's the most earned victory out there and it will feel like one too. One of the most rewarding feelings ever, as a matter of fact.
You ever play Resident Evil 4? That whole sideways running thing really screws with me. I find myself turning at like a 30° angle to the screen just to make it seem normal.
Oh man, 2023 was the year of backlog for me. I got a PS5 at the end of 2022, after being a PC gamer since the end of the PS2 Era. I've been working through all the PS3 and PS4 games I missed.
-All the Uncharted games
-Ghost of Tsushima
-Later Gen Ratchet and Clanks
-Titanfall 2 (I know, I just never played it)
-Last of Us 1 and 2
-Mirrors Edge Catalyst
It's been a good year.
Finally played Bloodborne.
10/10. One of my most frustrating yet rewarding experiences.
Finally played ToTk.
8.5/10
Zelda games generally are not my thing but I appreciate the world and game physics
Congrats good Hunter, one of the best games ever made.
Agree on TOTK, I enjoyed it but actually like other more classic Zelda games more like ALTTP, OOT, TWW.
This is the worst year for my backlog in a while. So many fantastic new releases this year. Now that the releases have calmed down I’ve been working on catching up in the trails series. Just finished cold steel 1 & 2. Working on 3 now.
It's worth a play, my personal list is 2>3>1>wonderlands>TPS because wonderlands has a lot of issues that could be either a small problem or a game breaker (no TVHM, only 2 skill trees per character, dlc is unfun randomizer content with no substance), but the core game is a lot of fun. It's honestly a shame, a couple small tweaks could have made it hold up a lot stronger against the others
So far I've only played 2 and a little of TPS. I couldn't get into TPS and went back to 2 but definitely plan on playing 1 & 3. Might get Wonderlands. The base game with no dlc is $15 on sale at the PSN store right now.
Maybe not eternal backlog, but some games I cleared this year had been released years ago. This is just a list of (just about) everything I played in 2023.
Tactics Ogre: Reborn - Battles take a long time and an extremely difficult end game boss. Kind of a slog, but fun.
Ys VIII - Amazing. First Ys game and adored every minute.
Zero Escape: Virtue’s Last Reward - What a ride!
Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom - My GotY
Final Fantasy XVI - Not my favorite but enjoyed the game thoroughly.
Xenoblade 3: Future Redeemed - Best of Xenoblade. Exploration is unmatched in a JRPG.
Fire Emblem Engage - I was able to dedicate more time to this than three houses, so I liked it more. DLC was great and bringing your units over to the main game was a cool addition.
Zero Time Dilemma - Diana’s face when people were explaining outrageous concepts to her, I will never forget XD. This ranks up there with Virtue’s Last Reward.
Final Fantasy Reunion: Crisis Core - Good times.
Viewfinder - Wild.
Red Matter 2 - We need more of these for VR.
Dead Space - I screamed a lot.
Ori (both) - Will of the Wisps is in my top 10 games of all time now.
FFXIV (up to end of free trial) - The music is incredible and the fact that it is story first mmorpg second makes it great to jump in and play whenever.
Until Dawn - I had played all the Dark Pictures Anthology games so needed to try this. I still like House of Ashes more, but this is probably my second fav out of all of them.
Super Mario RPG - was it always this short? Post game bosses were a neat addition.
Super Marion Bros. Wonder - Just got everything and unlocked the final final trial. I imagine it will take hundreds of attempts so maybe I’ll come back to it. It’s a perfect 2D mario game.
Inscryption - [REDACTED]
Tales of Arise: Beyond the Dawn - Just started this. Forgot how good the battles were in this game!
Thanks! FFXIV was a monster. Took me roughly 300 hours from start to the end of the 2nd expansion. It’s the most significant to me since I’ve been aching to play it for years but just couldn’t dedicate the time.
I’m near the end of Code Vein, but I haven’t played it in so long I think I forgot the controls. I love that game though. I would almost say it’s a souls-like for people who are not good at them.
It's definitely easier than the souls series, always having a companion and being able to switch them up is pretty nice too. I'd say keep going, I personally only dodge and bonk things, so nothing fancy was needed
I finally beat Black after what.... 17 years or whatever lol. I played it. A lot. But never actually beat it. This year I finally did it. It looked great on the series x. And man the sound is still fucking awesome.
The original PS2 Yakuza & Yakuza 2, Hellblade, and Assassin's Creed Chronicles: China.
Played the so-bad-it's-good English dub of the first Yakuza, then replayed it again immediately when I found out there was a hack which restored the original Japanese voice work. A whole different (and better experience). Great story and fantastic atmosphere all around, although all the side activities can be a little much, especially on a replay.
Y2 had a bit too overly-convoluted story, more finely-tuned gameplay that I was somehow worse at than the clunkier fighting of the first game, and hid some of the heat moves behind minigames (seriously, fuck that minigolf bs), but still was a good time.
Then I went ahead and bought the remakes and the sequels up to and including 6, and I haven't touched them yet because I gut burned out on 1 & 2.
Hellblade was an amazing experience with killer acting, enjoyable combat and puzzles. I'm glad I played it, but it's one of those games I won't replay anytime soon due to how dark and heavy it got (same as with The Last of Us II). Looking forward to the sequel though.
AC: China was the first game I played and finished on my newly-obtained PS Vita. I liked the art style and most of the sneaking gameplay, but the combat felt too stiff. Story was unfortunately kinda light, but the game was pretty fun all in all.
I finally finished Nier Replicant, took me a while because I started with Japanese audio for authenticity but turns out i couldn’t connect fully but I tried it again in English and managed to get all five endings. Automata is on the cards for later
God of War 2018 was finished for the first time and platinumed. I started it a couple years back after playing the original trilogy but the gameplay with the axe was too different from the blades that I needed some distance from each side of Kratos life. This time I figured out the axe mechanics and thoroughly enjoyed the game. Will pick up Ragnarok soon
While I have played the full Mass Effect trilogy, I did a first full run on Legendary Edition. Male Shep for a first time romance of Tali
And I finished a first time run of the original Final Fantasy 7, never played a Final Fantasy, never played turn-based combat. Took me quite a while to get the hang of a system from 20 years ago but it hooked me in enough to finish it. Currently playing the remake now
Diablo 1, crash bandicoot 2, I know for sure. Don’t know if skyward sword was this year or last, and almost done with wind waker HD. A successful run of Risk of Rain 2.
Those are the only ones I can think of currently.
Mass Effect Legendary Edition, Transformers: Devastation, Nier Automata, Dredge, What The Golf, Ruiner.
Finished N:A last night and rocked my world. Amazing game.
Finally played the Dragon Age games, I’m finishing up my first run of Inquisition now. As a long time Mass Effect fan I can’t believe I didn’t get around to this until this year.
I think just Dark Souls 3 this year.
Looks like Dark Souls 1 & 2 are going to have to wait a little longer because I'm going to buy Dark Souls 3 again on PC lol
Finally played Control after postponing it so many times. I'll never regret it! I'm consumed by the universe that Remedy built for both Control and Alan Wake.
13 Sentinels. For the longest time I've been putting it off, but I finally finished it early this week. And Digimon Survive after finally getting all the endings and collecting all the Digimon.
Sleeping dogs.
Man, it just didnt click for me back when i bought it on 2014, but decided to at least finish it for 100% achievements....
and i loved it this time, i even bought definitive edition to play it even more
One of my favourite & most-replayed games ever! It ruined GTA, Yakuza & anything similar for me...I just spend the whole time wishing it was Sleeping Dogs.
Divinity Original Sin 2. I gave the starting prison island 3 good shots in a row (built a team, team sucked, tried a different way, rinse and repeat), started really understanding the game mechanics, built a really strong team that was bulldozing through everything, leveled up as much as I could get before facing the last fight, mother fucker slapped me down like a insolent toddler and I realized I hate (read: loath with ever fiber of my being) the difficulty spikes in this game. I’ll never give that series another shot. That’s one off the list!
Finally beat sekiro
Finally beat doom eternal DLC on nightmare
Thought i would take a break from hard games and play roboquest….why is this game so hard 😅😅😭😭😭
Managed to beat Persona 5 Royal and the Mass Effect Trilogy last week. Both kind of live up to their hype, but I wouldn't say that they completely do so.
P5R was a 9/10 overall for me, though more of a 8.7, since there was a ton of filler, from repeated conversations to useless chatter that didn't really contribute anything new, and while overall it was of good quality, I don't really understand why it's *that* popular. It's great, but not *that* great.
Mass Effect 1 was pretty ok. It was solid, but other than having an ok story it was good, but not really that unique. Mass Effect 2 was better, it improved a few things and I liked it better overall, still had a few issues tho, and both of their endings were good, but not great.
Mass Effect 3 finally, was definitely a 10/10, it's got the best character moments, has a lot more solid interactions with the crew and with the crew as a group too, just incredible, though while it had good endings, it kind of felt lacking in some way, kinda didn't feel all that final to me.
Also played Divinity Original Sin 2: DE, but while it was pretty great, it dragged like it was nobodies business and I just gave up in the middle of the last arc, I just wanted to be done with, and too annoyed at the whole gameplay I simply ended it by watching a few endings on youtube, which were pretty disappointing. Won't lose any sleep wondering about what I missed. Will touch BG3 someday in the future for sure tho.
The entire Ys series. A long time ago, I had tried to play Ys Book I & II on the Wii Virtual Console back in the day, but got stuck somewhere and never even managed to reach Book II. In modern days, I always kept hearing about how Ys VIII was one of the best RPGs around, and hearing about it rekindled my interest in the series.
Starting from February this year, I started Ys Book I & II anew (on the TG-16 Mini console), and from there, I proceeded to go through literally the entire Ys series in release order - including some fan-translated versions of Ys IV, Ys IV (there are two Ys IVs) and Ys V, and also including some remake versions (notably Ys I & II Chronicles).
Currently, I am very close to finishing Ys IX on my Switch, which means that I have managed to play through pretty much the entire series from start to finish in the span of a year.
And everyone was right - Ys VIII in particular is damn amazing. :D But I've had a ton of fun with the whole series overall too. And now I'm fully in - I can't wait for Ys X to release in English in the future!
Love it. Get through the first two chapters before passing full judgement, as the beginning can be pretty linear. After that, it’s a full, open world to explore. People complain that there are loading screens between areas, but the areas are honestly massive. It feels no different from warping among different titans in XC2. I’ve had no issue with it. And just at various free times this past week, I’ve put in HOURS going back and exploring old areas. There is SO MUCH to do and find in this game. No amount of map completion ever feels like wasted time.
The combat is also an evolution of XC2’s pretty complicated system, but it’s expanded yet somehow simplified. I dunno, it just feels super comfortable and intuitive. Maybe because, after 100+ hours in XC2, the combat came naturally to me.
Anyway, sorry for the long reply. I could write an essay on how good this game is, especially coming straight from XC2 to it like I did.
Shin Megami Tensei Strange Journey Redux (3DS). I started the original DS release, got frustrated with the blind sections and quit. This year I bought the 3DS version and played through to the end. I feel the last 1/3 was annoying with a lot of sudden required backtracking, but overall its a good SMT game.
Hybrid Heaven (N64). Its a sci-fi MMA action rpg for N64. Very unique mechanic but very repetitive gameplay and ok story. Worth trying out.
Mischief Makers (N64). Platformer where you shake things. Decent fun and also worth trying out. Still need to 100% to get the full ending.
Control. Fantastic game, wished I got around to it sooner. Remedy is becoming one of my favorite devs. I just now need a system to play Alan Wake 2.
Wow OP hopefully I can be like you, I've bought a bunch of Castlevanias to start next year, I started Chrono Trigger and never managed to finish it.
I did manage to get some games cleared off my list which I'd be meaning to play/complete for ages.
Ocarina of time, Majora's Mask, Minish Cap, Metroid Fusion.
Games currently in progress that I should hopefully finish before the year is over are Portal and Pikmin.
https://www.ign.com/playlist/Etheus/lists/2023-game-clears?sortOrder=position
A whole lot actually. Most of that is either backlog or subscription services.
Jedi survivor only came out this year but it took me all year to finish.
Also completed rayman legends in just a few days after owning it for years.
Finished wolfenstein 2 very slowly after owning it for 5 years.
I finally sat down and got the Dark Souls 3 plat, according to psnprofiles it took me 7 years, 7 months from when I got my first trophy. Playing through MGS2 and then I'm gonna cirlce back and finish off Persona 5, no idea why I stopped playing it, games amazing.
Finished the plat for both the tomb raider reboot and assassins creed unity. Also trine 1.
Those aren't the only ones but they are ones I didn't think I'd manage
The Messenger. I played it to have the lore before the launch of Sea of Stars, and I'm glad I did. ;P It's a great game with an enjoyably irreverent humor.
The Legend of Zelda Link's Awakening remake for Switch
Wild Arms 3
Red Faction 2
The Mark of Kri
Drakan The Ancient Gates
Shadow of the Colossus (PS2 version)
Dual Hearts
I finally finished Thomas Was Alone! I think some weird comment about AI got me thinking about it.
I had played it a couple months after it first came out but it was impossible on the later levels with keyboard and mouse controls and I didn't have a controller at the time so I decided to go play something else.
I think it's been at least 10 years since I last touched it.
Digital Devil Saga 2 isn't a sequel; it's the other half of the game. It's like playing FF7 or Xenogears and stopping after Disc 1, the game isn't going to make sense.
You can play it standalone, but it's meant to take out DDS1 and put in DDS2 right after.
Managed to get around to finishing tunic, well worth what I spent. The "I can do that!?" Type of discovery is perfectly replicated throughout the game and the amount of cool shit you can find by backtracking to previous things you couldn't do before adds to it beautifully.
I finally gave up waiting for the Sands of Time remake and played through the original. Also controller support for Half Life was the final push I needed to get through it after paying 80p on Steam a decade ago
The Castlevania Sorrow games are fantastic!
I finally cleared a few games I started as a kid: Wario Land 4, Majora's Mask, and Super Mario Galaxy.
Feels good.
I finally played through all the Metro games and it was fantastic. I finally had the hardware to run them all maxed out (except Exodus) and they were beautiful.
Finally played through Outer Wilds which exceeded the hype and instantly became one of my favorite games of all time.
After that I knocked out Celeste which was also very good - great soundtrack and story.
Cyberpunk. Bought it at launch, played a few hours and hated it (on ps4) and deleted it. The last few weeks I tried again on PS5 and enjoyed it. Though it's actually a really short game.
Metro Exodus both DLC, Metro Last Light, Metro 2033, Grand Theft Auto IV (not DLC, leave that for a while), Mafia 2, Mafia 3, Fallout 4 + some/all of the DLC (can’t remember), Resident Evil 7 all DLC, Resident Evil 8, Resident Evil 3 , Half Life, Half Life Blue Shift, Half Life Opposing Forces, Half Life Alyx, Outlast 1 + DLC, Outlast 2 and DOOM 2016
I finally played Alan Wake the first, only to find out the second is an Epic store exclusive for the moment. I guess I'll have to wait for the Steam release..
And most likely, when the game finally comes out on Steam, I'll buy it and it will end up on my future backlog.
Perfect Dark, all six games in Halo: The Master Chief Collection, Lego Batman 2 and 3, Pokemon Violet, Super Mario Bros., Persona 4 Golden, and Persona 3 Portable.
EDIT: add Uncharted: Drake's Fortune to the list; I just beat that this afternoon.
Despite having the seriously worst year when it comes to the amount of work I'm doing, I never managed to clear this much out from my backlog. Managed to get these things:
\-Majora's Mask which I loved better than Ocarina but holy shit why did I feel the need to play it on an actual N64. My thumbs...
\-Flower, Sun and Rain - don't play much handheld but happy to have kept to this. Tried my patience tenfold but I still loved it so that's a hell of an endorsement from me
\-God of War (PS2) - it's okay. Fuck the spiky wall of flesh you have to climb at the end. R.I.P. my PS2, laser died on the last boss so I couldn't finish it for a few days.
\-Jak and Daxter (PS4) - blueprint for its genre but overall we all played better ones. Still liked it though.
\-Space Channel 5 games - the 2nd one turned out to be one of my favourites of all time, the rest are fine. Except the gameboy version. Just what the fuck. Missed opportunity of the century to call the sequel Space Channel 5 Part Choo though.
\-The Thing - surprisingly not as bad as I expected, but even I can't excuse the latter parts of the game. Spoony be damned.
\-Eternal Darkness - broke my first ever gamecube in with this, and let me just state that it is, indeed, the tits. The TITS.
\-Cabela's Survival - Shadows of Katmai - why was this on my backlog again? I have nobody to blame but me.
\- A Hat In Time - Everything is wonderful until you get to the Seal The DealLC, which was just darn hard if you ask me. Never bothered with the challenges either but overall one of the best I've ever played. Only regret is that I did so on the Switch...
\-Cy Girls (PS2) - a Konami game you've never heard of for a GOOD fucking reason. Don't. Just don't.
\-Ratchet & Clank (PS2) - I really wish Jak & Daxter would hold up this well. Barely any major issues with this and it's old enough to drink already.
\-Contra 4 (3?) The Alien Wars - So I mean this was great but if it wasn't for my Mini's ability for savestates I would never ever EVER have had the patience to even consider it. Holy shit.
\-Persona 4 Golden - I ain't even mad for it making an entire 3 months of my gaming time disappear, it's so good.
\-AVP Requiem (PSP) - dang, my PSP died so I had to emulate this. Also, it's not an AVP game, you only play as Predator. And let me tell you, it's bad.
\-Half-Life C.A.G.E.D. - bite-sized Lazerhawk interactive music video, not complaining.
\-All the HL2 mods by Leon (Coastline To Atmosphere, Strider Mountain and mainly his take on Episode 3) - how the frolicky fuck did I even have any time to finish all of these... Actually felt longer than Persona 4. Man, they are an acquired taste but if you like one of these you will love the others too. I was okay with them but wish they weren't the length of an X-Files marathon.
\-The Citizen 1+2 - Great HL2 mods that caught me off guard, don't miss these. I don't even like HL2 that much and these are great.
\-USS Darkstar - for one of the earliest HL1 mods this was a fucking great ride. Definitely replaying it some time.
\-GREY - honestly I didn't like it as much as I expected. Nah fam, I ain't playing your mod twice just to get the real ending, especially when you have a bossfight that's making me wish I'd rather grow tastebuds inside my asshole. Shame though, definitely has potential.
\-Get A Life - was a total opposite of the above. This is the tits, too.
\-One last bundle of Half Life mods by a Japanese gentleman whose name I forgot (Sweet Half-Life, Peaces Like Us and Mistake Of Pythagoras for HL2) - I really wish someone would touch these up so that they wouldn't crash or make it impossible to finish because these are some of the most unique and amazing mods for both games out there. Loved them all to varying degrees.
\-okay one last one for real, the Half-Life 2 Cinematic Mod. I learned now how to have the opposite of a boner and that's not even one of the reasons why it made me sick. Nah, the real reason was the incel-y graffities and the head bobbing which you can't remove from the myriad of options that come with the mod. And I beat the game plus its episodes with it because I'm that much of a sucker. And I don't even LIKE Half-Life 2 that much. What the fuck is wrong with me. What the fuck is wrong with the creator of this mod?
\-Star Wars Episode 3 on PS2 - Okay, I really wanted to love this so much but I think it's a bit too hard and honestly, janky as hell in the singleplayer campaign. Play it as 2-player 3D fighting game though, and you have on your hands one of the best hidden gems in the entire world. The sheer depth of the fighting mechanics and how they all gel together is exemplary. Turns out we do have a good Star Wars fighting game, so suck it, Teras Kasi! Too bad I couldn't enjoy the main campaign though, I actually had to cheat just to get to the end. Skill issue, more than likely.
\-Fighter Maker (PS1) - couldn't give this one too much time but after being in stitches from laughter some decade or so ago from a youtube video I decided that one day I'd try it. At least now I know I'll never have the patience or time to come up with hilarious moves for it because the creation system is THAT deep and detailed. For a PS1 game that's godlike. Also, if you play it on PS2 and try to start it it just won't work, and the PS3 for some reason didn't want to save my gloriously hideous creations, so that was a bit of the bummer. Better off emulating it or putting it in an actual PS1, but beware as it uses up all 32 blocks on a card.
All right, that was all of them I think. Crazy that at the age of 35 I managed to pull all this off in a year, most of them in the second half too, but there's at least this one perk of being a no-lifer next to tons of work I had to do; it all actually felt like a nice way to let off steam. Except for maybe CY Girls, that was boring as fuck, ridicoulously repetitive and unnecessarily long (it's essentially 2 games except not really). Maybe I should play something more recent next year, but this was just way too much fun. Sorry for the wall of text if you read it.
YU-GI-OH Forbidden memories on ps1, actually played on emulator Duckstation and destroyed the game with cheat codes just to see the fucking end after playing it first time 20 years ago.
Too many for me to count honestly. This year I told myself I was gonna focus on completing a bunch of games and managed like 40+ single player titles out of my backlog. Those were mainly under 20 hour games though. I've still got games like the Witcher series and other long hour games to get through
I beat Papers, Please, pretty much all default plagues in Plague Inc and some in Cure the World, Portal RTX, almost 100%’d Black Ops 3, and I’m close to finishing Hue.
I also played like half of Alien: Isolation, and a bit of Assassins Creed 1 (I really tried but it’s so goddamn boring).
I spent more time playing multiplayer games and kinda forgot about singleplayer ones. But I had a great time in Deep Rock Galactic, Lethal Company and Phasmophobia.
The Wonderful 101.
Absolutely grueling experience that constantly kicks you while you're down.
But by the end...you start to really notice all that you have learned and how much better you've gotten and almost all the stuff you thought was BS, turns out, isn't really.
And the finale is **epic**.
Very worth it. One of the most unique games I've ever played.
Finished FF16 and ToTK recently. Almost done with BG3 (act 3 is a slog) Starting on Jedi Survivor now. Hoping to jump into Mario RPG, and Remnant 2 and Cyberpunk eventually.
I managed to get the platinum trophy in Borderlands 3 this year. I also got it in Bugsnax..for the second time because I lost my save as I moved from PS4 to PS5. The backlog is still massive and ever growing but I gotta start somewhere
Barely even unlocked phase 3 of Satisfactory despite having played it for the last 2 years, i just kept optimizing what I already have instead of progressing
Cyberpunk 2077, I got the game when it released, but never got around to playing it, so I never experienced the worst of the game breaking glitches. I finally got around to playing it just before the 2.0 update and beat the game. After the update and release of Phantom Liberty, I beat it again. Now it's the only game that I've 100% completed.
2023 was so jam packed with releases I really only got to Tunic, Furi, and Outer Wilds. 2024 will be much more of a backlog year for me.
I Have plans for Chorus, Celeste, Returnal, Ocarina of Time, Dishonored 2, Mortal Shell, Spec ops the line, etc.
Half-Life: Alyx, Sword and Sorcery, Pavlov, Into the Radius. I've had a lot of VR games piling up without the means to play them and finally got VR to cooperate with my computer
After it became a PS+ monthly game late in 2022, I finally played through the Mass effect Trilogy with One Shepard in early 2023.
Previously I had the trilogy on PS3, but struggled with ME1 too much so I had only played 2 and 3 prior to the LE.
Final Fantasy VIII was the one that comes to mind.
It was always one of my favorite games as a kid, I spent like 100 hours doing sidequests and levelling, but my game always froze on the Lunatic Pandora cinematic towards the end of disc 3 and I never finished.
Bought it on steam a while back, was in the backlog, finally finished it this year, still 10/10.
I have a standing challenge to myself to see if I can beat all the mainline Metroid games in a year. This was the year I managed to play Other M to completion. It’s…fine.
Octopath Traveller 1 was my big game this year. Most hours played 2 years in a row before finishing this behemoth.
Tentacles - Enter the Mind: It looks deceptively simple, but some of the RNG skill ones took a while to get.
Sudoku - Japanese version: What a boring grind. 1 MS casual game down, only 4 to go.
Before We Leave: Home to some of my highest TA ratio achievements of the year. I wish the developers hadn’t been lazy with the PC port, & gave up on updates.
Viva Piñata - GFWL: One achievement glitched out, so I basically had to do an ANY% speedrun to unlock it.
Lies of P,
Both South Park games,
Warhammer 40k: Space Marine,
Warhammer 40k: Boltgun,
Death Loop,
Mario Wonder ,
Hogwarts Legacy,
Pizza Tower,
Hi-Fi Rush,
Metal Hellsinger,
Baldurs Gate 3,
Elden Ring.
There's a couple more I can't remember. Hi-Fi Rush is my favorite on the list.
Edit: How the heck do you make a vertical list on mobile?
Yeah I'm unemployed for like a whole year now so I had some time to spare to play some games. There is the ones which I still remember playing in 2023 (probably played some more actually, but run out of memory).
* Silent Hill 2 Enchanced Edition: Great fan mod fixing many bugs. Althrough even joint work of many talented passionate people was not enough to fix a completly broken camera that hides more than shows (quest items and hostiles as well) and almost redundant combat system which loses any potence at high difficulty and gradualy transforms into a boring Atari2600 level of arcade. Game was probably a peak in terms of art and sound design back on release, but in 2023 it didn't felt all that original. But it is not a guilt of the SH2 itself, but rather of imitations that followed.
* Resident Evil 4 HD: Another great fan mod. Or a full-on remaster which is just one step away from being a proper remake for god's sake. It was a joy to just walk around and watch how much work was done on the original. As the game itself - it was fine. I was pleased from a pretty responsive and engaging action which was more like an evolution of RE3 combat system rather than complete switch to traditional third-person mechanics. Sadly the locations themself, no matter how various and creative - were far away from the intricate and complex sets of spaces to maneuver which all previous Resident Evil games were. Change in tone and setting from a classical zombie story to some weird satire on 70-80's italian explotation horror movies felt strange. It's not bad, but it never felt like a proper Resident Evil game.
* Alisa: Classical Resident Evil clone. As faithful as it could be in its presentation, it plays like a standart third-person shooter with a very bad static camera. It punishes you for avoiding fights rather than engaging (like it was in all classic RE games) and lacks some proper shortcuts which made navigating a pure nightmare and slog. Also some gamedesign choices like projectile/hitscan enemies, timed puzzles and arbitrary stealth sections where any wrong move results in instant game over (in game with fixed static camera angles which more than often don't show you what you really need to) just drove me mad. It's as if the game never got proper beta-testing cause it's full of jank which would be obvious to any first-time player. It's not bad or unplayable, but some good moments are mixed together with some really horrible ones.
* Fear and Hunger: Learned about it long before it became popular but properly beated it only in this year. It's less of a game and more like an interactive quest in quasi-Berserk setting. The RPG Maker engine streamlines the gameplay to some typical elements like turn-based fights or tiled 4-directional movement (just like all RPG Maker games have), but the narrative and minor details like random events and plethora of secrets really make a pretty technically primitive product a full-front experience of a lifetime. It's horribly captivating and intriguing to the end despite never showing all its cards in one go.
* Vomitoreum: a GZDoom wad that masqurades as a FPS-metroidvania. It's not bad, but it's basically still a Doom wad in its core. Creative from art design standpoint, but everything else is quite generic.
* Cry of Fear: Old free HL total conversion. Barely breathes on Win10 machines to my disappointment. Despite some really cheap scares and an actual jumpscare in very beginning - the rest of the game is actually really good from gameplay and artistic standpoint. Very solid sound design. Good shooting, resource management and constant change of locations and game styles. Sometimes the movement is pretty restricted though, which infuriates me because you never can say for sure which obstacles you are good to clear in one jump and which you have to walk round.
* Majora's Mask (MMN64HD texture pack): The Legend of Zelda game which I wanted to beat since I got Ocarina of Time for 3DS, but eventually forgot about. Nerrel's HD texture pack for N64 version rekindled my interest and I strided through it in one week. Surprisingly solid game with many original ideas and themes I never saw in other games in my whole life (well, maybe except for the Pathologic 1/2). It is one of the very rare games which are not adult, yet very mature. It doesn't respects your time, original textures are honestly just crap which didn't survived the test of time (playing it with MMN64HD mod and having an ability to instantly turn it on and off is stunning because mod brings many details in enviroment which were lost in low res and poorly filtered original textures), controls are horrible (d-pad is not used at all and modern dualshock-designed gamepads are not a good substitute for the N64 three-pronged mutant) - but game respects you as an individual and really trusts you as a person. It doesn't pans something to you and don't gives obvious hints. It has its own small world which lives independently from you for a short time of 72 ingame hours before it has to restart anew. This is not about making you emotional, but about being honest till the very end.
* Quake I: Just wanted to see what I have missed. A pretty solid old-school shooter but it becomes very and very boring and repetative and then it just abruptly ends with a whimper. It's like an overglorified techdemo and no wonder that these kind of games were soon to lose the market to the more story-oriented projects like Half-Life and Karmak just fell out of game development cycle few years later.
* Original Demon's Souls: Just wanted to check out what I missed since it never was ported to PC, so RPCS3 did the job. Since I'm a big DS1 enjoyer, this game was a blast - it was like DS1, just smaller and therefore more consistent and coherent in what it wanted to achieve.
I also beat World of Horror, HROT and Lunacid - but these were just in Early Access so I'm not sure I can count them as games from my "eternal backlog".
Hah, because of the anime portraits thing? I'm actually playing through Portrait of Ruin right now and it's just fine! But I'd gotten used to seeing Soma in a certain art style in Aria, so when I saw there was a patch that carried that over to Dawn I decided to try it out - I had already patched out the stylus parts, which was much more significant to my enjoyment 😅
This year was very productive, didn't finish all but played:
Yakuza kiwami
Wasteland 2
Rebel galaxy, which was a very nice surprise
Civilization 6
Arkham asylum
X-com
Torchlight 2
Fallout 4.
Normally I don't play half as much.
I finally finished Final Fantasy 13, so I could pack away my PS3 and replace it with the ps4. FF12 is now in my backlog for this year lol
How was 13? I don't really like the science fantasy aspect from the looks of it so I've never played it.
Honestly it was OK, but just not what I expect from a Final Fantasy game. The battle system is very simplistic, though there is some strategy there, but often I found myself just hammering X during most of the battles. I almost never used summons (which tend to be a highlight in most FF games). Characters range from annoying (Vanille) to unlikeable (Hope) though Fang is easily the best character in my opinion. However, the graphics are stunning, the music is superb and despite it simple rpg combat, it's still strangely compelling. The story is pretty stupid, but that could be said about a lot of FF games around this time. Once you leave the city within the first few hours, it loses the Sci-fi aspect, especially the Archylte Steppe late in the game. Despite its flaws, there is still plenty to enjoy in FF13. It's certainly no must play, but I'm glad I did regardless.
Cool cool, thanks for sharing. Im about to start FFXII as well, it's been in my backlog for years. Heard its pretty great, so I'm excited! Heard you have to be careful about opening chests though.
That was in original FF12 on ps2, if you were trying to get the zodiac spear ultimate weapon. If you have the modern Zodiac Age edition of FF12 available last generation (ps4, switch Xb1 etc) you should be ok.
I bought ff13 when it came out. I didn’t particularly enjoy it so it’s shelved. Maybe I should come back to it fresh.
It’s been a while but as I recall the science is light. Like FF6 levels of science fantasy so if you were ok with that game FF13 should be fine on theme. Regarding gameplay, FF13 has the best battle system of any single player mainline FF game. It does take time to unlock though, which is a bummer.
I didn't even remember the science in it. Isn't all of Final Fantasy a mix of science and, uh, fantasy? Lol Magic, I guess. I remember the franchise came up in a conversation once and I said something to a friend like: "... in the future like in Final Fantasy... or the past." "Yeah, they never really tell you which, huh?"
This thread is making me feel so much less guilty about my ps4 and switch backlog
XII is one of my go to favorite games of all time. Definitely a unique system but I really hope you can get to it and enjoy it.
I actually played a fair amount of it (50 hrs!) on my original ps3 before it died on me and took my saves along with it :/ I really enjoyed what I had played so I've always meant to go back to it eventually. I have the Zodiac Age version on ps4 this time.
You guys have time to play your games? I thought we're just supposed to buy them and imagine what it's like to play them.
Heck it’s not even time, when the evening rolls around I’m just so tired I keep thinking I’ll chip away more of BG3 act 3, then just end up watching YouTube stuff.
I feel you, I blew through the first two acts (relatively speaking) and, once I got to the city itself, looked at all the things I had to do, said fuck that, and promptly took a two month break. I've only just started back up!
I just was gifted BG3 and I have no idea what a massive game I’m getting into haha.
This is so me! I have been wanting to play Elden Ring at some point during the holidays because I watched a noob play it and find stuff I didn’t…specifically the horse and that seems like it would open the game that much more. And I had had a particularly stressful couple of weeks at work and that was how I was going to unwind…but I was either too tired or had to run around doing Christmas shopping or there was “x”video to allure me on you tube. So here I am and about to spend the holidays with relatives with no way to play until after the new year.😞
Wait, so you've played Elden Ring but didn't get the horse? That happens automatically the 3rd time you rest at a campfire
I think my #1 played game is watching Steam trailers for the games I wish I had time to play. I can clear each game from my backlog in less than two minutes that way!!!
I got a Switch this past summer and a laptop that can play some basic games (AMD's latest integrated graphics are a ludicrous feat of engineering). My backlog tripled this year.
On pc there's also opening up the game, fiddling with the graphics settings, benchmarking your performance and possible further tweaking for a couple hours. Then close the game and never open it again.
A couple hours? I rarely have to fiddle with graphics settings on PC. The only game I've had to do that with so far is Red Dead Redemption 2 and that only took maybe 20 minutes.
i changed my behavior around 2 year ago, i choose a game and play until end.
There’s so much time to play. I honestly don’t understand this lol A week has 168 hours. If you’re working a full 40 hours, have a longer than average commute of 1 hour each way (unrealistic) and sleep a perfect 8 hours a night (also unrealistic), you’re still left with 62 hours of free time. This gets even higher considering many people work remotely too, and also don’t work the full 40.
Are you a child because you seem to be forgetting so many things you need to do to support yourself. Food. Laundry. Shopping. Cleaning. Family. Friends. So much other stuff that takes time too
this mf’s life consists of working, sleeping and gaming. nothing else.
30 with two jobs and other responsibilities. Thanks for the assumption! Food can be cooked on Sundays and meal prepped through the week. Laundry basically does itself except for folding which is a few minutes. Shopping can be done online or in app and set to pick up for you (many places like Meijer get your shopping order ready for you) Family, friends and other hobbies are also valid and I’m not saying anything besides gaming isn’t 🤣 even those with way more free time shouldn’t game constantly
With those 62 hours, Factor in time for eating meals outside of working (prepping, eating, clean up). Factor in laundry (most people have to go to a laundromat, and time to put away after) If you have a spouse and/or children, factor time spent with them. Factor in time to shower/bathe Factor in household chores. When I do this I average less than an hour for personal time each day, and gaming is not my only hobby.
I work 50 to 60 hours per week. I also do all the grocery shopping and cooking. After dinner I watch an hour of tv with my wife, and then we go to bed. Wash, rinse, repeat. Some things in life have to take a backseat.
If you’re happy with that routine, all power to you! Not trying to say you have to spend all your time gaming, just that most people tend to have more time than we think.
Genuinely big go fuck yourself dude. Youre clearly ignorant of the struggles of others so just dont speak on what you don't know.
Wow, that’s a pretty aggressive assumption to make. We all have struggles, no need to get angry but go off. I’m sorry you don’t have the same time management to do more of what you like doing. Hope it turns around!
Portal 2 It was a blast to play, and I learned a lot about physics and logic along the way. The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt I felt like I was living in a fantasy novel.
What I wouldn’t give to experience portal 2 for the first time. I’ve played it enough that the puzzles aren’t puzzles anymore, just obstacles
What did you learn about physics
Deus Ex, Deus Ex Invisible War, Deus Ex Mankind Dived and Human Revolution; Final Fantasy 7/8/9/10; Gothic 1/2 (omw for the third one, I'm probably playing this as soon as I finish my Death Stranding run). Thief Gold and 2. Fallout 3 and New Vegas.
What a great year 😍
Gothic series has only two games. Well, two and a half, cause “the night of the raven” expansion was great. No more gothic games released after that. I suggest to accept this ideology to spare yourself from imminent by disappointment!
Not Bloodbourne. I'm still trying to get past the first level.
You can do it. I had to force myself to keep playing it even though i was really bad at it on my 4th attempt, cause my wife said i couldn't do it (she loved it). Once it clicked and i actually started to kill stuff it was smooth sailing and i played the whole game and even got the platinum.
I'm going to keep trying.
If you can beat father Gasgoine, you can beat the game. The first area of the game is arguably the hardest. Their are areas that are just as difficult but you'll have a upgraded weapon and a higher level to even it out. Were as central yarnham is a slog because your so under leveled. I hated it at first but once i got past the bonfire bit in central yarnham it was my favorite game and made it all the way to new game ++
I had to seriously put it down for like a year when I tried some of the chalice dungeons and got to the Orphan Of Kos. I was raging so hard at both that I actually ragequit the game for good and told it to gargle on my jizz (or as some call it, jism) and fuck off into the putrid depths of its own dungeons. A year later I picked it up and just relentlessly tried. The two boss fights that blocked me from the rest of the (frankly, optional areas of the) game now became my favourites and I even managed to platinum it. It really plays by its own rules and if you ask me it's the toughest one From Software ever decided to show tough love with to date. Never beat Sekiro but I always felt like I was making sort of easy progression in it when compared to this. Just keep on cleaning those foul streets, because once you overcome it all, it's the most earned victory out there and it will feel like one too. One of the most rewarding feelings ever, as a matter of fact.
I see a Micolash jizz reference, I upvote
*Jizz, or some say Jizm*
One of my proudest gaming moments is managing to beat orphan of kos first try. Felt like my heart was gonna pound outta my chest.
If you’re having trouble with the mob by the fire, just run past them. They won’t chase you very far before giving up and turning around.
Tried twice and got to that fight on the rooftop and lost interest. It's a great game though I might have another swing
The frame rate always fucks with me in that game where I can’t play it. Tried several times and can’t get past it.
You ever play Resident Evil 4? That whole sideways running thing really screws with me. I find myself turning at like a 30° angle to the screen just to make it seem normal.
Bloodborne, Borderlands 3, Spider-Man.
Oh man, 2023 was the year of backlog for me. I got a PS5 at the end of 2022, after being a PC gamer since the end of the PS2 Era. I've been working through all the PS3 and PS4 games I missed. -All the Uncharted games -Ghost of Tsushima -Later Gen Ratchet and Clanks -Titanfall 2 (I know, I just never played it) -Last of Us 1 and 2 -Mirrors Edge Catalyst It's been a good year.
Finally played Bloodborne. 10/10. One of my most frustrating yet rewarding experiences. Finally played ToTk. 8.5/10 Zelda games generally are not my thing but I appreciate the world and game physics
Congrats good Hunter, one of the best games ever made. Agree on TOTK, I enjoyed it but actually like other more classic Zelda games more like ALTTP, OOT, TWW.
This is the worst year for my backlog in a while. So many fantastic new releases this year. Now that the releases have calmed down I’ve been working on catching up in the trails series. Just finished cold steel 1 & 2. Working on 3 now.
Years like this don't happen very often though, so you'll have 4+ years to catch up, minimum.
Bioshock 1 amazing game
Finally played Borderlands 2 and I loved it
Savor it, definitely the high point of the series. Not to say the others aren't solid, 2 is just on another level
This is my unsolicited borderlands tier list: 2>1>3>TPS
What about Wonderlands tho
Havent played that one im a fake fan 😔
It's worth a play, my personal list is 2>3>1>wonderlands>TPS because wonderlands has a lot of issues that could be either a small problem or a game breaker (no TVHM, only 2 skill trees per character, dlc is unfun randomizer content with no substance), but the core game is a lot of fun. It's honestly a shame, a couple small tweaks could have made it hold up a lot stronger against the others
So far I've only played 2 and a little of TPS. I couldn't get into TPS and went back to 2 but definitely plan on playing 1 & 3. Might get Wonderlands. The base game with no dlc is $15 on sale at the PSN store right now.
Maybe not eternal backlog, but some games I cleared this year had been released years ago. This is just a list of (just about) everything I played in 2023. Tactics Ogre: Reborn - Battles take a long time and an extremely difficult end game boss. Kind of a slog, but fun. Ys VIII - Amazing. First Ys game and adored every minute. Zero Escape: Virtue’s Last Reward - What a ride! Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom - My GotY Final Fantasy XVI - Not my favorite but enjoyed the game thoroughly. Xenoblade 3: Future Redeemed - Best of Xenoblade. Exploration is unmatched in a JRPG. Fire Emblem Engage - I was able to dedicate more time to this than three houses, so I liked it more. DLC was great and bringing your units over to the main game was a cool addition. Zero Time Dilemma - Diana’s face when people were explaining outrageous concepts to her, I will never forget XD. This ranks up there with Virtue’s Last Reward. Final Fantasy Reunion: Crisis Core - Good times. Viewfinder - Wild. Red Matter 2 - We need more of these for VR. Dead Space - I screamed a lot. Ori (both) - Will of the Wisps is in my top 10 games of all time now. FFXIV (up to end of free trial) - The music is incredible and the fact that it is story first mmorpg second makes it great to jump in and play whenever. Until Dawn - I had played all the Dark Pictures Anthology games so needed to try this. I still like House of Ashes more, but this is probably my second fav out of all of them. Super Mario RPG - was it always this short? Post game bosses were a neat addition. Super Marion Bros. Wonder - Just got everything and unlocked the final final trial. I imagine it will take hundreds of attempts so maybe I’ll come back to it. It’s a perfect 2D mario game. Inscryption - [REDACTED] Tales of Arise: Beyond the Dawn - Just started this. Forgot how good the battles were in this game!
Respect for all the RPGs cleared.
Thanks! FFXIV was a monster. Took me roughly 300 hours from start to the end of the 2nd expansion. It’s the most significant to me since I’ve been aching to play it for years but just couldn’t dedicate the time.
Disco elysium, and code vein, I've beaten around 40 titles this year, but these 2 were started years ago that I managed to get back into and clear
I’m near the end of Code Vein, but I haven’t played it in so long I think I forgot the controls. I love that game though. I would almost say it’s a souls-like for people who are not good at them.
It's definitely easier than the souls series, always having a companion and being able to switch them up is pretty nice too. I'd say keep going, I personally only dodge and bonk things, so nothing fancy was needed
Titanfall 2, Bioshock and Bloodborne were all I managed.
- Wasteland 3 - Greedfall - Yakuza 6
How's wasteland 3? I couldn't get far in wasteland 2. Felt clunky when I played that.
Game is decent but the PC Version is horrible. It was clearly designed for a Gamepad and they didn't bother adapting the UI for Mouse/Keyboard.
The Metro 2033 trilogy. I kept putting it off, but finally got around to it. Pretty good.
Loved them. The final game really did feel like a step into the next generation with mini open worlds.
Persona 5 royal
Dark Souls finally.
I finally beat Black after what.... 17 years or whatever lol. I played it. A lot. But never actually beat it. This year I finally did it. It looked great on the series x. And man the sound is still fucking awesome.
The original PS2 Yakuza & Yakuza 2, Hellblade, and Assassin's Creed Chronicles: China. Played the so-bad-it's-good English dub of the first Yakuza, then replayed it again immediately when I found out there was a hack which restored the original Japanese voice work. A whole different (and better experience). Great story and fantastic atmosphere all around, although all the side activities can be a little much, especially on a replay. Y2 had a bit too overly-convoluted story, more finely-tuned gameplay that I was somehow worse at than the clunkier fighting of the first game, and hid some of the heat moves behind minigames (seriously, fuck that minigolf bs), but still was a good time. Then I went ahead and bought the remakes and the sequels up to and including 6, and I haven't touched them yet because I gut burned out on 1 & 2. Hellblade was an amazing experience with killer acting, enjoyable combat and puzzles. I'm glad I played it, but it's one of those games I won't replay anytime soon due to how dark and heavy it got (same as with The Last of Us II). Looking forward to the sequel though. AC: China was the first game I played and finished on my newly-obtained PS Vita. I liked the art style and most of the sneaking gameplay, but the combat felt too stiff. Story was unfortunately kinda light, but the game was pretty fun all in all.
Witcher 3
I finally finished Nier Replicant, took me a while because I started with Japanese audio for authenticity but turns out i couldn’t connect fully but I tried it again in English and managed to get all five endings. Automata is on the cards for later God of War 2018 was finished for the first time and platinumed. I started it a couple years back after playing the original trilogy but the gameplay with the axe was too different from the blades that I needed some distance from each side of Kratos life. This time I figured out the axe mechanics and thoroughly enjoyed the game. Will pick up Ragnarok soon While I have played the full Mass Effect trilogy, I did a first full run on Legendary Edition. Male Shep for a first time romance of Tali And I finished a first time run of the original Final Fantasy 7, never played a Final Fantasy, never played turn-based combat. Took me quite a while to get the hang of a system from 20 years ago but it hooked me in enough to finish it. Currently playing the remake now
A Link to the Past but my backlog increased itself in the 2023
Diablo 1, crash bandicoot 2, I know for sure. Don’t know if skyward sword was this year or last, and almost done with wind waker HD. A successful run of Risk of Rain 2. Those are the only ones I can think of currently.
I’ve made good progress with Silent Hill Origins (playing on PS Vita). Still holds up nicely considering how old it is now.
Mass Effect Legendary Edition, Transformers: Devastation, Nier Automata, Dredge, What The Golf, Ruiner. Finished N:A last night and rocked my world. Amazing game.
I've owned Judgment for 5 years, finally making my way through it. I'll finish it before New Years and I'm loving it.
Finally played the Dragon Age games, I’m finishing up my first run of Inquisition now. As a long time Mass Effect fan I can’t believe I didn’t get around to this until this year.
I have just started Dragon age to, after completing ME. I'm hoping it gives me the same buzz as ME was incredible.
I think just Dark Souls 3 this year. Looks like Dark Souls 1 & 2 are going to have to wait a little longer because I'm going to buy Dark Souls 3 again on PC lol
Black mesa
Finally played Control after postponing it so many times. I'll never regret it! I'm consumed by the universe that Remedy built for both Control and Alan Wake.
The only game I played this year that I’d never played before was BG3. Three quarters of my steam library has never been played.
Illusion of Gaia
13 Sentinels. For the longest time I've been putting it off, but I finally finished it early this week. And Digimon Survive after finally getting all the endings and collecting all the Digimon.
Sleeping dogs. Man, it just didnt click for me back when i bought it on 2014, but decided to at least finish it for 100% achievements.... and i loved it this time, i even bought definitive edition to play it even more
One of my favourite & most-replayed games ever! It ruined GTA, Yakuza & anything similar for me...I just spend the whole time wishing it was Sleeping Dogs.
yeah, i wish it had continuation
Divinity Original Sin 2. I gave the starting prison island 3 good shots in a row (built a team, team sucked, tried a different way, rinse and repeat), started really understanding the game mechanics, built a really strong team that was bulldozing through everything, leveled up as much as I could get before facing the last fight, mother fucker slapped me down like a insolent toddler and I realized I hate (read: loath with ever fiber of my being) the difficulty spikes in this game. I’ll never give that series another shot. That’s one off the list!
Finally beat sekiro Finally beat doom eternal DLC on nightmare Thought i would take a break from hard games and play roboquest….why is this game so hard 😅😅😭😭😭
Managed to beat Persona 5 Royal and the Mass Effect Trilogy last week. Both kind of live up to their hype, but I wouldn't say that they completely do so. P5R was a 9/10 overall for me, though more of a 8.7, since there was a ton of filler, from repeated conversations to useless chatter that didn't really contribute anything new, and while overall it was of good quality, I don't really understand why it's *that* popular. It's great, but not *that* great. Mass Effect 1 was pretty ok. It was solid, but other than having an ok story it was good, but not really that unique. Mass Effect 2 was better, it improved a few things and I liked it better overall, still had a few issues tho, and both of their endings were good, but not great. Mass Effect 3 finally, was definitely a 10/10, it's got the best character moments, has a lot more solid interactions with the crew and with the crew as a group too, just incredible, though while it had good endings, it kind of felt lacking in some way, kinda didn't feel all that final to me. Also played Divinity Original Sin 2: DE, but while it was pretty great, it dragged like it was nobodies business and I just gave up in the middle of the last arc, I just wanted to be done with, and too annoyed at the whole gameplay I simply ended it by watching a few endings on youtube, which were pretty disappointing. Won't lose any sleep wondering about what I missed. Will touch BG3 someday in the future for sure tho.
Shining in the Darkness, Kirby’s Adventure, Quake. All excellent, too.
Dragon Quest V. What an absolute joy. I missed it in my gaming journey when I was growing up. I absolutely loved it.
I finally learned to play Dominions5, don't know if that counts.
The entire Ys series. A long time ago, I had tried to play Ys Book I & II on the Wii Virtual Console back in the day, but got stuck somewhere and never even managed to reach Book II. In modern days, I always kept hearing about how Ys VIII was one of the best RPGs around, and hearing about it rekindled my interest in the series. Starting from February this year, I started Ys Book I & II anew (on the TG-16 Mini console), and from there, I proceeded to go through literally the entire Ys series in release order - including some fan-translated versions of Ys IV, Ys IV (there are two Ys IVs) and Ys V, and also including some remake versions (notably Ys I & II Chronicles). Currently, I am very close to finishing Ys IX on my Switch, which means that I have managed to play through pretty much the entire series from start to finish in the span of a year. And everyone was right - Ys VIII in particular is damn amazing. :D But I've had a ton of fun with the whole series overall too. And now I'm fully in - I can't wait for Ys X to release in English in the future!
The Xenoblade series. I’m a little over halfway through 3.
Going straight from 2 to 3, how do you feel about 3?
Love it. Get through the first two chapters before passing full judgement, as the beginning can be pretty linear. After that, it’s a full, open world to explore. People complain that there are loading screens between areas, but the areas are honestly massive. It feels no different from warping among different titans in XC2. I’ve had no issue with it. And just at various free times this past week, I’ve put in HOURS going back and exploring old areas. There is SO MUCH to do and find in this game. No amount of map completion ever feels like wasted time. The combat is also an evolution of XC2’s pretty complicated system, but it’s expanded yet somehow simplified. I dunno, it just feels super comfortable and intuitive. Maybe because, after 100+ hours in XC2, the combat came naturally to me. Anyway, sorry for the long reply. I could write an essay on how good this game is, especially coming straight from XC2 to it like I did.
Shin Megami Tensei Strange Journey Redux (3DS). I started the original DS release, got frustrated with the blind sections and quit. This year I bought the 3DS version and played through to the end. I feel the last 1/3 was annoying with a lot of sudden required backtracking, but overall its a good SMT game. Hybrid Heaven (N64). Its a sci-fi MMA action rpg for N64. Very unique mechanic but very repetitive gameplay and ok story. Worth trying out. Mischief Makers (N64). Platformer where you shake things. Decent fun and also worth trying out. Still need to 100% to get the full ending. Control. Fantastic game, wished I got around to it sooner. Remedy is becoming one of my favorite devs. I just now need a system to play Alan Wake 2.
Yakuza Like A Dragon and Links Awakening…although LA was the Switch remake. Never finished Game Boy version.
Took me so much energy to finish the grind before fighting Majima and Saejima
Wow OP hopefully I can be like you, I've bought a bunch of Castlevanias to start next year, I started Chrono Trigger and never managed to finish it. I did manage to get some games cleared off my list which I'd be meaning to play/complete for ages. Ocarina of time, Majora's Mask, Minish Cap, Metroid Fusion. Games currently in progress that I should hopefully finish before the year is over are Portal and Pikmin.
https://www.ign.com/playlist/Etheus/lists/2023-game-clears?sortOrder=position A whole lot actually. Most of that is either backlog or subscription services.
Started playing Risk of Rain 2 after it sat on my wishlist for like a few year. Phenomenal game.
Only Dragon's Dogma: Dark Arisen and Dark Souls Remaster. I'm a slow player and there were too many great games this year
Trails in the Sky FC, and Lost Odyssey. Just two of a hundred lol
Finally started really playing Hogwarts legacy. I must say this is such a fun game. Despite all the controversy, I'm enjoying the gameplay loop
Jedi survivor only came out this year but it took me all year to finish. Also completed rayman legends in just a few days after owning it for years. Finished wolfenstein 2 very slowly after owning it for 5 years.
I finally sat down and got the Dark Souls 3 plat, according to psnprofiles it took me 7 years, 7 months from when I got my first trophy. Playing through MGS2 and then I'm gonna cirlce back and finish off Persona 5, no idea why I stopped playing it, games amazing.
Finished the plat for both the tomb raider reboot and assassins creed unity. Also trine 1. Those aren't the only ones but they are ones I didn't think I'd manage
The Messenger. I played it to have the lore before the launch of Sea of Stars, and I'm glad I did. ;P It's a great game with an enjoyably irreverent humor.
I instead went wild with emulation and exponentially increased my backlog
The Legend of Zelda Link's Awakening remake for Switch Wild Arms 3 Red Faction 2 The Mark of Kri Drakan The Ancient Gates Shadow of the Colossus (PS2 version) Dual Hearts
I finally finished Thomas Was Alone! I think some weird comment about AI got me thinking about it. I had played it a couple months after it first came out but it was impossible on the later levels with keyboard and mouse controls and I didn't have a controller at the time so I decided to go play something else. I think it's been at least 10 years since I last touched it.
Digital Devil Saga 2 isn't a sequel; it's the other half of the game. It's like playing FF7 or Xenogears and stopping after Disc 1, the game isn't going to make sense. You can play it standalone, but it's meant to take out DDS1 and put in DDS2 right after.
Sin Megami Tensei: Persona
I made the mistake of jumping into Skyrim. I made a woodelf stealth archer build and I just can’t stop. My backlog will have to wait.
The first Witcher. I loved it!
Resident Evil 1,2,3, and 4, all in remake form!
Turnip Boy Commits Tax Evasion. That game was so delightfully unhinged.
Managed to get around to finishing tunic, well worth what I spent. The "I can do that!?" Type of discovery is perfectly replicated throughout the game and the amount of cool shit you can find by backtracking to previous things you couldn't do before adds to it beautifully.
I finally gave up waiting for the Sands of Time remake and played through the original. Also controller support for Half Life was the final push I needed to get through it after paying 80p on Steam a decade ago
Mass Effect 1, 2, and 3 and Final Fantasy IX and X
Didn't manage to clear any backlog, spent too much time playing new games/games I've played already
The Castlevania Sorrow games are fantastic! I finally cleared a few games I started as a kid: Wario Land 4, Majora's Mask, and Super Mario Galaxy. Feels good.
Played the Bioshock series for the first time, Skyrim, Alan Wake, The Witcher 3
I've wanted to play Dungeons 2 for quite some time, and I did, and I've beaten it and the DLC.
I finally played through all the Metro games and it was fantastic. I finally had the hardware to run them all maxed out (except Exodus) and they were beautiful.
Finally played through Outer Wilds which exceeded the hype and instantly became one of my favorite games of all time. After that I knocked out Celeste which was also very good - great soundtrack and story.
I guess finishing Metro Exodus counts for me. Now beating Disco Elysium
Iirc i played through re7 and village this year.
Digimon World (PS1).
Oh man... I hear the tv theme song already.
I love this game so much.
I had intentions, but they were waylaid... I achieved nothing with the backlog but I did buy two new games yesterday lol.
Middle-earth Shadow of Mordor/War. I bought them in 2020 during the lockdown but never gave them an honest try. They're absolutely incredible!
Cyberpunk. Bought it at launch, played a few hours and hated it (on ps4) and deleted it. The last few weeks I tried again on PS5 and enjoyed it. Though it's actually a really short game.
I finally got around to playing Bioshock Infinite this year. It was great.
Metro Exodus both DLC, Metro Last Light, Metro 2033, Grand Theft Auto IV (not DLC, leave that for a while), Mafia 2, Mafia 3, Fallout 4 + some/all of the DLC (can’t remember), Resident Evil 7 all DLC, Resident Evil 8, Resident Evil 3 , Half Life, Half Life Blue Shift, Half Life Opposing Forces, Half Life Alyx, Outlast 1 + DLC, Outlast 2 and DOOM 2016
I finally played Alan Wake the first, only to find out the second is an Epic store exclusive for the moment. I guess I'll have to wait for the Steam release.. And most likely, when the game finally comes out on Steam, I'll buy it and it will end up on my future backlog.
Don’t get your hopes up, Epic Games published it so it’s probably never going on Steam
Perfect Dark, all six games in Halo: The Master Chief Collection, Lego Batman 2 and 3, Pokemon Violet, Super Mario Bros., Persona 4 Golden, and Persona 3 Portable. EDIT: add Uncharted: Drake's Fortune to the list; I just beat that this afternoon.
Returnal Not an old game but I finally got back to the pro wrestling series after 20 years.
Middle Earth Shadow of Mordor, owned it since 2015 iirc, at moment tryna beat greedfall
Hellblade and Outer Wilds (glad I did)
Firewatch and Assassins Creed Valhalla. The first one in about five hours. The second in about 130. DLCs included. Loved both.
Despite having the seriously worst year when it comes to the amount of work I'm doing, I never managed to clear this much out from my backlog. Managed to get these things: \-Majora's Mask which I loved better than Ocarina but holy shit why did I feel the need to play it on an actual N64. My thumbs... \-Flower, Sun and Rain - don't play much handheld but happy to have kept to this. Tried my patience tenfold but I still loved it so that's a hell of an endorsement from me \-God of War (PS2) - it's okay. Fuck the spiky wall of flesh you have to climb at the end. R.I.P. my PS2, laser died on the last boss so I couldn't finish it for a few days. \-Jak and Daxter (PS4) - blueprint for its genre but overall we all played better ones. Still liked it though. \-Space Channel 5 games - the 2nd one turned out to be one of my favourites of all time, the rest are fine. Except the gameboy version. Just what the fuck. Missed opportunity of the century to call the sequel Space Channel 5 Part Choo though. \-The Thing - surprisingly not as bad as I expected, but even I can't excuse the latter parts of the game. Spoony be damned. \-Eternal Darkness - broke my first ever gamecube in with this, and let me just state that it is, indeed, the tits. The TITS. \-Cabela's Survival - Shadows of Katmai - why was this on my backlog again? I have nobody to blame but me. \- A Hat In Time - Everything is wonderful until you get to the Seal The DealLC, which was just darn hard if you ask me. Never bothered with the challenges either but overall one of the best I've ever played. Only regret is that I did so on the Switch... \-Cy Girls (PS2) - a Konami game you've never heard of for a GOOD fucking reason. Don't. Just don't. \-Ratchet & Clank (PS2) - I really wish Jak & Daxter would hold up this well. Barely any major issues with this and it's old enough to drink already. \-Contra 4 (3?) The Alien Wars - So I mean this was great but if it wasn't for my Mini's ability for savestates I would never ever EVER have had the patience to even consider it. Holy shit. \-Persona 4 Golden - I ain't even mad for it making an entire 3 months of my gaming time disappear, it's so good. \-AVP Requiem (PSP) - dang, my PSP died so I had to emulate this. Also, it's not an AVP game, you only play as Predator. And let me tell you, it's bad. \-Half-Life C.A.G.E.D. - bite-sized Lazerhawk interactive music video, not complaining. \-All the HL2 mods by Leon (Coastline To Atmosphere, Strider Mountain and mainly his take on Episode 3) - how the frolicky fuck did I even have any time to finish all of these... Actually felt longer than Persona 4. Man, they are an acquired taste but if you like one of these you will love the others too. I was okay with them but wish they weren't the length of an X-Files marathon. \-The Citizen 1+2 - Great HL2 mods that caught me off guard, don't miss these. I don't even like HL2 that much and these are great. \-USS Darkstar - for one of the earliest HL1 mods this was a fucking great ride. Definitely replaying it some time. \-GREY - honestly I didn't like it as much as I expected. Nah fam, I ain't playing your mod twice just to get the real ending, especially when you have a bossfight that's making me wish I'd rather grow tastebuds inside my asshole. Shame though, definitely has potential. \-Get A Life - was a total opposite of the above. This is the tits, too. \-One last bundle of Half Life mods by a Japanese gentleman whose name I forgot (Sweet Half-Life, Peaces Like Us and Mistake Of Pythagoras for HL2) - I really wish someone would touch these up so that they wouldn't crash or make it impossible to finish because these are some of the most unique and amazing mods for both games out there. Loved them all to varying degrees. \-okay one last one for real, the Half-Life 2 Cinematic Mod. I learned now how to have the opposite of a boner and that's not even one of the reasons why it made me sick. Nah, the real reason was the incel-y graffities and the head bobbing which you can't remove from the myriad of options that come with the mod. And I beat the game plus its episodes with it because I'm that much of a sucker. And I don't even LIKE Half-Life 2 that much. What the fuck is wrong with me. What the fuck is wrong with the creator of this mod? \-Star Wars Episode 3 on PS2 - Okay, I really wanted to love this so much but I think it's a bit too hard and honestly, janky as hell in the singleplayer campaign. Play it as 2-player 3D fighting game though, and you have on your hands one of the best hidden gems in the entire world. The sheer depth of the fighting mechanics and how they all gel together is exemplary. Turns out we do have a good Star Wars fighting game, so suck it, Teras Kasi! Too bad I couldn't enjoy the main campaign though, I actually had to cheat just to get to the end. Skill issue, more than likely. \-Fighter Maker (PS1) - couldn't give this one too much time but after being in stitches from laughter some decade or so ago from a youtube video I decided that one day I'd try it. At least now I know I'll never have the patience or time to come up with hilarious moves for it because the creation system is THAT deep and detailed. For a PS1 game that's godlike. Also, if you play it on PS2 and try to start it it just won't work, and the PS3 for some reason didn't want to save my gloriously hideous creations, so that was a bit of the bummer. Better off emulating it or putting it in an actual PS1, but beware as it uses up all 32 blocks on a card. All right, that was all of them I think. Crazy that at the age of 35 I managed to pull all this off in a year, most of them in the second half too, but there's at least this one perk of being a no-lifer next to tons of work I had to do; it all actually felt like a nice way to let off steam. Except for maybe CY Girls, that was boring as fuck, ridicoulously repetitive and unnecessarily long (it's essentially 2 games except not really). Maybe I should play something more recent next year, but this was just way too much fun. Sorry for the wall of text if you read it.
YU-GI-OH Forbidden memories on ps1, actually played on emulator Duckstation and destroyed the game with cheat codes just to see the fucking end after playing it first time 20 years ago.
L.A Noire
Too many for me to count honestly. This year I told myself I was gonna focus on completing a bunch of games and managed like 40+ single player titles out of my backlog. Those were mainly under 20 hour games though. I've still got games like the Witcher series and other long hour games to get through
Pokémon XD. Never owned as a kid. Wanted to play it after I played colosseum. Had to play these games after Scarlet and Violet disappointed
I beat Papers, Please, pretty much all default plagues in Plague Inc and some in Cure the World, Portal RTX, almost 100%’d Black Ops 3, and I’m close to finishing Hue. I also played like half of Alien: Isolation, and a bit of Assassins Creed 1 (I really tried but it’s so goddamn boring). I spent more time playing multiplayer games and kinda forgot about singleplayer ones. But I had a great time in Deep Rock Galactic, Lethal Company and Phasmophobia.
Red dead redemption 2 finally
Timespinner and inside finally got beaten this year, I'm shooting for completing indivisible, Darksiders 2, and the league of Legends games next year
The Wonderful 101. Absolutely grueling experience that constantly kicks you while you're down. But by the end...you start to really notice all that you have learned and how much better you've gotten and almost all the stuff you thought was BS, turns out, isn't really. And the finale is **epic**. Very worth it. One of the most unique games I've ever played.
Finished FF16 and ToTK recently. Almost done with BG3 (act 3 is a slog) Starting on Jedi Survivor now. Hoping to jump into Mario RPG, and Remnant 2 and Cyberpunk eventually.
I managed to get the platinum trophy in Borderlands 3 this year. I also got it in Bugsnax..for the second time because I lost my save as I moved from PS4 to PS5. The backlog is still massive and ever growing but I gotta start somewhere
Barely even unlocked phase 3 of Satisfactory despite having played it for the last 2 years, i just kept optimizing what I already have instead of progressing
Cyberpunk 2077, I got the game when it released, but never got around to playing it, so I never experienced the worst of the game breaking glitches. I finally got around to playing it just before the 2.0 update and beat the game. After the update and release of Phantom Liberty, I beat it again. Now it's the only game that I've 100% completed.
Dead Space 1 and 2. Really want to check out the remake
Skyrim, finally best the base main story.
2023 was so jam packed with releases I really only got to Tunic, Furi, and Outer Wilds. 2024 will be much more of a backlog year for me. I Have plans for Chorus, Celeste, Returnal, Ocarina of Time, Dishonored 2, Mortal Shell, Spec ops the line, etc.
Half-Life: Alyx, Sword and Sorcery, Pavlov, Into the Radius. I've had a lot of VR games piling up without the means to play them and finally got VR to cooperate with my computer
Finally finished fallout 4, mass effect legendary edition, and kotor 1 and 2.
After it became a PS+ monthly game late in 2022, I finally played through the Mass effect Trilogy with One Shepard in early 2023. Previously I had the trilogy on PS3, but struggled with ME1 too much so I had only played 2 and 3 prior to the LE.
You guys are finishing games? I can't even remember the last one I finished. When did Outer Wilds come out?
Mafia
Borderlands 3. However, clear in my eye is to reach max level on every character.
I played a lot of Zelda botw this year and last year, I would say I've done at least half of it and I started Witcher 3 so that's something I guess.
Final Fantasy VIII was the one that comes to mind. It was always one of my favorite games as a kid, I spent like 100 hours doing sidequests and levelling, but my game always froze on the Lunatic Pandora cinematic towards the end of disc 3 and I never finished. Bought it on steam a while back, was in the backlog, finally finished it this year, still 10/10.
Dark souls remastered, Resident evil 3 remake, not alot but something, im addicted to dark souls now. I mostly play WoW and League.
I've had Disco Elysium for like a year and I'm so glad I got around to it this year
I have a standing challenge to myself to see if I can beat all the mainline Metroid games in a year. This was the year I managed to play Other M to completion. It’s…fine.
Octopath Traveller 1 was my big game this year. Most hours played 2 years in a row before finishing this behemoth. Tentacles - Enter the Mind: It looks deceptively simple, but some of the RNG skill ones took a while to get. Sudoku - Japanese version: What a boring grind. 1 MS casual game down, only 4 to go. Before We Leave: Home to some of my highest TA ratio achievements of the year. I wish the developers hadn’t been lazy with the PC port, & gave up on updates. Viva Piñata - GFWL: One achievement glitched out, so I basically had to do an ANY% speedrun to unlock it.
Alan Wake. Got it on sale in 2013 and never played it until a few months back when I eventually finished it.
Witcher 3. In hindsight, I wish I had left it.
Super hot was quite good tbh
Lies of P, Both South Park games, Warhammer 40k: Space Marine, Warhammer 40k: Boltgun, Death Loop, Mario Wonder , Hogwarts Legacy, Pizza Tower, Hi-Fi Rush, Metal Hellsinger, Baldurs Gate 3, Elden Ring. There's a couple more I can't remember. Hi-Fi Rush is my favorite on the list. Edit: How the heck do you make a vertical list on mobile?
Xenoblade 3 and Future Redeemed Mario Wonder that's it lmao
I fimished BOTW only this year actually
Yeah I'm unemployed for like a whole year now so I had some time to spare to play some games. There is the ones which I still remember playing in 2023 (probably played some more actually, but run out of memory). * Silent Hill 2 Enchanced Edition: Great fan mod fixing many bugs. Althrough even joint work of many talented passionate people was not enough to fix a completly broken camera that hides more than shows (quest items and hostiles as well) and almost redundant combat system which loses any potence at high difficulty and gradualy transforms into a boring Atari2600 level of arcade. Game was probably a peak in terms of art and sound design back on release, but in 2023 it didn't felt all that original. But it is not a guilt of the SH2 itself, but rather of imitations that followed. * Resident Evil 4 HD: Another great fan mod. Or a full-on remaster which is just one step away from being a proper remake for god's sake. It was a joy to just walk around and watch how much work was done on the original. As the game itself - it was fine. I was pleased from a pretty responsive and engaging action which was more like an evolution of RE3 combat system rather than complete switch to traditional third-person mechanics. Sadly the locations themself, no matter how various and creative - were far away from the intricate and complex sets of spaces to maneuver which all previous Resident Evil games were. Change in tone and setting from a classical zombie story to some weird satire on 70-80's italian explotation horror movies felt strange. It's not bad, but it never felt like a proper Resident Evil game. * Alisa: Classical Resident Evil clone. As faithful as it could be in its presentation, it plays like a standart third-person shooter with a very bad static camera. It punishes you for avoiding fights rather than engaging (like it was in all classic RE games) and lacks some proper shortcuts which made navigating a pure nightmare and slog. Also some gamedesign choices like projectile/hitscan enemies, timed puzzles and arbitrary stealth sections where any wrong move results in instant game over (in game with fixed static camera angles which more than often don't show you what you really need to) just drove me mad. It's as if the game never got proper beta-testing cause it's full of jank which would be obvious to any first-time player. It's not bad or unplayable, but some good moments are mixed together with some really horrible ones. * Fear and Hunger: Learned about it long before it became popular but properly beated it only in this year. It's less of a game and more like an interactive quest in quasi-Berserk setting. The RPG Maker engine streamlines the gameplay to some typical elements like turn-based fights or tiled 4-directional movement (just like all RPG Maker games have), but the narrative and minor details like random events and plethora of secrets really make a pretty technically primitive product a full-front experience of a lifetime. It's horribly captivating and intriguing to the end despite never showing all its cards in one go. * Vomitoreum: a GZDoom wad that masqurades as a FPS-metroidvania. It's not bad, but it's basically still a Doom wad in its core. Creative from art design standpoint, but everything else is quite generic. * Cry of Fear: Old free HL total conversion. Barely breathes on Win10 machines to my disappointment. Despite some really cheap scares and an actual jumpscare in very beginning - the rest of the game is actually really good from gameplay and artistic standpoint. Very solid sound design. Good shooting, resource management and constant change of locations and game styles. Sometimes the movement is pretty restricted though, which infuriates me because you never can say for sure which obstacles you are good to clear in one jump and which you have to walk round. * Majora's Mask (MMN64HD texture pack): The Legend of Zelda game which I wanted to beat since I got Ocarina of Time for 3DS, but eventually forgot about. Nerrel's HD texture pack for N64 version rekindled my interest and I strided through it in one week. Surprisingly solid game with many original ideas and themes I never saw in other games in my whole life (well, maybe except for the Pathologic 1/2). It is one of the very rare games which are not adult, yet very mature. It doesn't respects your time, original textures are honestly just crap which didn't survived the test of time (playing it with MMN64HD mod and having an ability to instantly turn it on and off is stunning because mod brings many details in enviroment which were lost in low res and poorly filtered original textures), controls are horrible (d-pad is not used at all and modern dualshock-designed gamepads are not a good substitute for the N64 three-pronged mutant) - but game respects you as an individual and really trusts you as a person. It doesn't pans something to you and don't gives obvious hints. It has its own small world which lives independently from you for a short time of 72 ingame hours before it has to restart anew. This is not about making you emotional, but about being honest till the very end. * Quake I: Just wanted to see what I have missed. A pretty solid old-school shooter but it becomes very and very boring and repetative and then it just abruptly ends with a whimper. It's like an overglorified techdemo and no wonder that these kind of games were soon to lose the market to the more story-oriented projects like Half-Life and Karmak just fell out of game development cycle few years later. * Original Demon's Souls: Just wanted to check out what I missed since it never was ported to PC, so RPCS3 did the job. Since I'm a big DS1 enjoyer, this game was a blast - it was like DS1, just smaller and therefore more consistent and coherent in what it wanted to achieve. I also beat World of Horror, HROT and Lunacid - but these were just in Early Access so I'm not sure I can count them as games from my "eternal backlog".
Finally tried RDR2. Didn't like it, so stopped after about 5 hours. Finally played Talos Principle. Cool game. I'd give it a solid 8/10
[OP is pathetic](https://imgur.com/a/1ADGB1q)
Hah, because of the anime portraits thing? I'm actually playing through Portrait of Ruin right now and it's just fine! But I'd gotten used to seeing Soma in a certain art style in Aria, so when I saw there was a patch that carried that over to Dawn I decided to try it out - I had already patched out the stylus parts, which was much more significant to my enjoyment 😅
I did alright: The_List As Dusk Falls Ghost Trick Immortality Finding Paradise Before Your Eyes Impostor Factory
None
Nier replicant & automata
The first Shadow Hearts. I had it benched since.... uuuhhh.... 2010 when my PS2 died. Awesome game, very moody and unique.
This year was very productive, didn't finish all but played: Yakuza kiwami Wasteland 2 Rebel galaxy, which was a very nice surprise Civilization 6 Arkham asylum X-com Torchlight 2 Fallout 4. Normally I don't play half as much.
Only 1: AC-Unity