By: Tyler Miller

This year saw me play A LOT of different games. A grand total of 29 in fact! Yesterday I looked back on the year and talked about half of those games, so today we’re gonna wrap this up and talk about the second half of the list. I have a lot to say so let’s get right to it!

Horizon Chase Turbo

Near the end of the summer, Horizon Chase Turbo was a free game with Playstation Plus. It seemed pretty cool and it was free, so I picked it up on a whim. The game isn’t mind-blowing by any means, but it’s a fun time and a nice palette cleanser whenever I want to take a break from some of the more intense games that I play. It’s a game that reminds me of old school arcade racing games, and I don’t have a problem with that. Some races can be difficult and really annoying due to the amount of opponents in the race and the course itself, but the game is never not fun. I haven’t completed everything in the game and I probably won’t for a while. Like I said before, I only play it when I feel like just chilling out and playing something that doesn’t require me to be on ten the whole time I’m playing it.

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild

This year I finally got around to playing Breath of the Wild. I know it’s crazy that I’ve had a Switch since November of last year, and only just started playing the game in August. I’m sorry! There are just so many other games that I want to play throughout the year and I try not to be playing a bunch of different games at the same time. With all that being said, yes I finally started playing the game and was looking forward to seeing what all the hype was about. Why was this a game that everyone was claiming to be one of the best games ever made? Being completely honest here, when the game first came out and everyone was making those claims I seriously didn’t understand why. Yeah it was an open world game that basically eschewed everything that you would traditionally expect from a Zelda game, but the things that it was doing didn’t seem all that crazy or revolutionary. Being able to go anywhere and climb anything from the start of the game? I can do that in Skyrim. The story? Based on everything I read, it was basically nonexistent.

The takeaway that I had was that Breath of the Wild was getting all the praise that it did because it was a Zelda game, and that if it had any other name attached to it, no one would be calling it one of the best games ever made. What made this game so special to everyone apparently was the gameplay. So when I finally started playing the game, I was looking to see if I would feel the same as everyone else. I’ve only played the game for about five hours and I feel the exact same way I did when the game first launched. The game is cool and all, but it’s not something revolutionary. Maybe I need to spend more time with the game, which is something I intend to do. As it stands right now though, the game isn’t blowing me away like it did to everyone else.

Man of Medan

Supermassive’s 2015 horror hit Until Dawn is a game that I had an absolute blast with. Understandably then, my expectations were pretty high for their true follow up, Man of Medan. The game ended up not being as great as Until Dawn was, but it was still a good game that has me interested in the future entries in Supermassive’s Dark Pictures Anthology series. While the story was good enough for me to see it through, it just wasn’t that strong. The characters and writing weren’t the best, and the pacing could’ve been better too. Perhaps the most damning thing about the game though was the fact that the decision making didn’t feel as important or have as much consequence to it as it did in Until Dawn.

Here, the most important decisions seemed to be the ones revolving around your actions instead of being an equal balance between those and conversation choices. It ended up making me feel like the dialogue choices I made didn’t matter too much in the long run. I haven’t gone back to the game since I beat it and to be honest I actually kind of forgot about the game. I see the game like a weekend horror movie rental. Good enough to enjoy for a few hours by yourself or with a friend when you want something new or different, but you won’t be thinking about it or wanting to see it again once you’re done with it.

Hue

Puzzle games are ones that I generally don’t play. I understand the appeal they have for people that love to test their brain, but I just don’t have the patience to sit and beat my head against a wall trying to solve a puzzle. Sure I can just look up a walkthrough, but I feel like that’s cheating in a puzzle game so I try not to do that. Hue was a game that a friend of mine told me about, and after watching them play it through Share Play I got it for myself. For those that don’t know, Hue is a puzzle game that revolves around colors. You play as the titular character, a young boy who’s trying to bring color back to the world.

So you go through different dungeons and at the end of each one, you get a new color to use that opens up other areas of the world and introduces new puzzle ideas. It’s honestly a really cool concept and a lot of fun to play. I managed to get all of the colors and make my way to another area of the world, but couldn’t finish the game. I got up to one puzzle that was just driving me crazy and haven’t been able to pass it. Maybe one day I’ll give in and just look up a walkthrough on how to get past that part, but for now I’ll just leave it on the back burner and come back to it one day when I feel like I’m up for banging my head against the wall some more.

Sayonara Wild Hearts

Sayonara Wild Hearts! Oh my gosh I could go on and on about this game forever because I love it so much, but I won’t do that. I’ve already done that enough in my review of the game. This game made my Favorite Games of the Decade list for a reason. What I will say here is that this game is an absolute joy to play and I loved every single second of it. It’s a game that I find myself replaying over and over again because of how much fun I have playing the game. Its gameplay is real simple, so I find myself going to it a lot when I just want to play something more relaxed than most of the other games I have. I also love the music, so sometimes I’ll just play through the game to hear the music alongside the visuals. If you haven’t played this game, I highly recommend you do. It’s more than worth your time and money.

Final Fantasy XII: The Zodiac Age

Final Fantasy XII is a game in the franchise that I didn’t have that much interest in until fairly recently. I’m not sure what it was about the game that made me want to play it, but something about it grabbed me. I was going to get the remaster for the PS4, but the Switch version has features that the PS4 version doesn’t so I decided to get the game for that system. So far I’ve been enjoying the game, although I haven’t played it in a bit. I’m still in the early game, with my party in Bhujerba looking for Penelo. The story has me intrigued and curious to see where things go, but I think my absolute favorite thing about the game is the combat system.

The Gambit and License systems are fun to tinker with and really allow you to build your party members to fit the roles you want them to. It’s also nice to not have to really do much when it comes to fighting enemies. I can just walk up to them and know that my team is going to perform the actions I set them up for, so I all I really need to do is keep an eye on what the enemies are going to do and if I need to step in to counteract anything. Some may see it as boring and the game playing itself, but I see it as a more relaxing way to play an RPG. Final Fantasy XII: The Zodiac Age is a game that I need to spend more time with, especially since I can play it on the go. The problem as always is finding the time to do so.

The Last Of Us Remastered

It’s been quite some time since I played The Last of Us. In fact, I don’t think I’ve played the game since I first beat it in 2013. I haven’t forgotten about it though. In fact, it’s one of my favorite games of all time. What made me come back to it this year was a combination of hype for The Last of Us: Part II, and the fact that I wanted to show my best friend the game. So we did Share Play on the PS4 and I played through the whole game for her. She really enjoyed the game’s story and liked the characters and the journey’s that they went through. For me, replaying the game was a chance for me to remember why I liked the game so much.

It also gave me the chance to play the Left Behind DLC for the game that I never played on the PS3. While I knew about the events of the DLC, it was still fun and eye opening to play through it myself and see a completely different story that I never had a chance to experience for myself. Riley is a character that I got attached to real quickly and wish that I got to see more of her. Having the context for what happened with her and Ellie in that mall is really going to make whatever happens between Ellie and her new friend Dina in The Last of Us: Part II hit even harder, and I’m stoked to really be in my feels when that game comes out next year.

Gravity Rush 2

The first Gravity Rush was a game that I absolutely loved. It had a charming cast of characters, a fun story, and gameplay that I could not get enough of. With all that in mind, you would think that I would just eat up Gravity Rush 2 and plow through it in no time. Unfortunately I can only say that half of that last statement is true. I’ve only played a bit of the game, with me only just recently arriving at the first real big city in the game. Having only played that bit of the game though, I am absolutely loving this game just like I did the first one. Soaring through the skies as Kat and taking on enemies is just as much fun as it was in the original game, and the characters and story are keeping me engaged as well.

I very stupidly made the very poor mistake of starting this game while still playing a couple other games, and just before more games came out that I planned to get. So it got put on the back burner very quickly after I started playing it. I feel bad too because I really love the world of Gravity Rush and I know I haven’t even scratched the surface of everything the game has to offer. Because I love it so much, I think that I’ll have to put one of my newer games on hold for a bit so I can play through this one some more before the big games of 2020 start to come out. I owe it to Kat to do this.

Sonic Mania

One Fall day I just had a craving to play a Sonic game like the ones I used to play as a kid on my Game Boy Advance. Luckily Sonic Mania was free with Playstation Plus, so I scooped it up and started playing it. I only went through the first two zones in the game, but it was such a fun blast from the past. Everything from the music to the really simple gameplay, it gave me the fix that I had been looking for in such a quick burst. I still have the game on my system and I do plan to go back and complete it. That’ll probably happen when I just feel like playing something that’s more calm and different than my usual games. Either that or if I need myself another quick fix of Sonic nostalgia.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare

Going into the launch of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, I was extremely excited for the game. The campaign seemed like it would be pretty cool, but the multiplayer was what I was most excited for. The Alpha and Beta had given me real high hopes for the multiplayer, even though I had struggled in both of those pre-release demos. Then the game came out, and although it’s not bad at all, it certainly doesn’t reach the highs that I was hoping it would. The multiplayer has some great aspects such as the Gunsmith customization and fantastic gunplay, and it’s fun when all of the stars align. But overall, the multiplayer just isn’t that enjoyable to play because of some not so great maps that promote camping.

It wouldn’t be that big of a deal if there were a lot of maps with only a few poor ones, but there aren’t that many maps in any one mode, and most of the ones that are there in the game just aren’t that good. Then there’s the Spec Ops co-op mode that’s just alright and nowhere near as good as it was back in the day. Honestly, the campaign is the only part of the game that’s actual great. It’s a shame too because Modern Warfare has an extremely solid foundation to stand on, but it’s individual pieces that cause it to end up being a shaky release.

Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order

Boy do I have thoughts on Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order! I simply do not understand why there are so many people calling this their Game of the Year, or why it’s even in the conversation for being a GOTY nominee. Let me first say that I do not think that the game is bad. It’s definitely the best Star Wars game we’ve gotten in a long time (which is why I think it’s getting such high praise). It’s just not an amazing game by any means. For me, it falls right into the “Good” category. Let me explain why I say this. First let me say that I think the story is pretty good. It didn’t knock my socks off, but I did enjoy the story. I thought it was well crafted and took me on a fun journey with some interesting characters that developed in great ways over the course of the game. Even if the main character Cal is a bit boring and bland for the most part, he develops some during the story and I was in it with him the whole way.

Where things start to fall apart for me is in the gameplay. The game plays similar to a Souls game, a genre that I typically steer clear of. I have no interest in beating my head on a basic enemy because the game is meant to be incredibly punishing. Fallen Order takes inspiration from those games in regards to its combat, but it’s nowhere near as punishing which is a relief. The combat has a strong learning curve to it, with you needing to learn your enemies moves, and how to properly block and parry their attacks to take them out. I just couldn’t get the timing of parrying until damn near the end of the game, so most of the time I would just do normal blocks or dodges to get through encounters.

Part of this is because I was playing the game on Hard mode, but I didn’t realize it was Hard mode until I was almost done with the game. At that point, I decided I would just stick with it since I was near the end and had already gotten through so much on that difficulty. But part of it is also because some enemy encounters were just straight up difficult for no reason at all. Getting attacked by 3 different enemies at once up close and not being able to block or dodge their attacks isn’t fun, especially when the camera is the reason why I didn’t know one of them was about to attack me. But when everything clicks, the combat is fun and you feel powerful and badass taking on the many enemies that you face during the game.

Then there’s also the fact that checkpoints in the game just aren’t the best sometimes. Some fights would have multiple stages to them, and you would think that the game would checkpoint you around the halfway point of the whole fight. Unfortunately you would be wrong, because dying during these fights no matter how close to the end you are would always bring you right back to the beginning of the fight. This was especially frustrating during some of the boss fights, specifically the final boss fight. Completing these fights never made me feel the sense of accomplishment that you feel after beating a tough fight. They instead always made me feel relieved to finally be done with it and able to move on.

The other gameplay aspect that I wasn’t the biggest fan of was the fact that you couldn’t fast travel at all in the game. I understand why the developers didn’t want the option to be there. They want us to explore the planets and find hidden secrets and all. But that would be so much easier to do if we could fast travel to any rest point on the map and not have to trek all the way across the planet just to look for a chest. And speaking of the chests, I hated them so much. These chests were absolutely pointless! They all offer some sort of customization for Cal, his droid BD-1, or his ship the Mantis. The thing is that none of these customization options do anything for you except change the item’s appearance. It’d be one thing if they gave you a perk of some sort or a boost to your stats in some regard, but every single chest in the game gives you a vanity item for the sake of looking pretty. Once you realize this, it completely destroys any desire to actually seek out chests unless you’re really into the stuff they offer or want to 100% the game.

Last but not least is the technical aspect of this game. Fallen Order is a great looking game… when it actually looks good. I played on a PS4 Pro and this game would stutter a lot during basic exploration. Textures would take a while to load in when going through environments, characters would take at least 10-15 seconds to spawn into an area and when they did, they would be in a T-pose first before getting into their correct position. And the load times were terrible. Whenever I died, the game would take close to a minute to load back in which is ridiculous. This is incredibly annoying when you die a lot, so I spent a good amount of time with the loading screen up while I was checking Twitter or something else on my phone.

Whew… that was a lot more than I initially meant to say, but like I said at first, I had a lot of thoughts on this game. Fallen Order isn’t a bad game at all. If a sequel is announced, I’ll definitely be interested in it and I’ll probably get it. There’s just room for improvement that if acted on for a sequel, could make the game the amazing GOTY nominee that it should be.

Titanfall 2

Titanfall 2 is a game that I’ve wanted to play for years because I was constantly hearing about how great it was. But even though I’ve seen it on sale for pretty cheap on PSN many times, I just couldn’t bring myself to buy the game when I knew I would only want to play the campaign and not touch the multiplayer. Enter December’s PS Plus free games and the next thing I know I’m downloading the game in a heartbeat. The big question is: did I like the campaign and would I have paid for it? Yes I liked the campaign, but I don’t think I would’ve paid for the game solely for the campaign. The campaign was fun, but I don’t understand why you had so many people calling it one of the best campaigns in an FPS.

I think it’s mostly because of the level “Effect and Cause.” The level introduced the concept of time travel to the campaign for one mission and required you to bounce back and forth between the past and the present to maneuver through a facility for exploration and also combat. It’s honestly a really cool level and I wish there were more awesome ideas like it in the campaign. Hell, if the whole campaign was like that it would’ve been amazing and worthy of being called one of the best FPS campaigns. But alas it was only around for one level and then the rest of the campaign was back to basics. There was some clever level design in some of the other campaign missions that I really liked, and I dug the relationship between your character and his Titan. I still have the game on my system so I think I’ll dabble in the multiplayer for a few matches just to see what it’s like and get an idea for what it is, but I doubt I’ll sink much time into it. Overall though, I did like the game and would love to see third entry in the series do more crazy and unique things with its campaign.

Borderlands 3

So for these final three games, I won’t have too much to say about them since I got them all for Christmas and have only been able to sink a bit of time into each of them. Of these three games, I’ve sunk the most time into Borderlands 3. This game is just pure chaos and joy, and I’m loving it. Although I replayed some of Borderlands 2 just a few months ago, Borderlands 3 is hitting me in a way that its predecessor just didn’t, specifically with the humor. The series is known for its humor and I’ve been getting a lot of laughs out of this game so far. Whether it be a line of dialogue that someone says or a weapon description, there’s plenty of stuff that I’m finding funny. The gameplay is also improved as well. Being able to mantle over ledges is a godsend that I can’t believe I played without in the previous games. The weapons are bombastic and fun to use, and I’m loving my girl Moze and her Iron Bear mech. I always feel real giddy and ecstatic whenever I break out the mech and start mowing enemies down without a care in the world.

The story also has me intrigued so far. The Calypso twins being psychotic streamers is funny satire and I’m really interested to see where things go with them and the rest of the cast as we try and stop the twins. I don’t know if I have a favorite character so far, but I’m really liking how some of the characters from past games are being integrated into the story. Right now I’ve played about 10 hours of the game. I’m level 17 and have just finished helping Maya on her planet of Athenas, so my next stop is to help out Rhys and the Atlas company on Promethea some more. I’m not sure how far into the story I am, but it’s been great time so far and I’m excited to play some more of this game.

Pokémon Shield

Of the games I got for Christmas I’ve played Pokémon Shield the least. That’s for no reason other than I wanted to get a feel for each of the games I got and my PS4 is my primary console. Regardless, I’ve been having fun with Pokémon Shield. I just reached the Wild Area in the game so I haven’t made too much progress, but I like what I’ve seen so far. This is actually the first Pokémon game I’ve played since Black 2, and I didn’t even play that game to completion. The last game in the series that I was deep into was Diamond, so that should give some idea as to how long I’ve been removed from the series. Seeing the game look the way it does is just marvelous to me since the last time I played hardcore, things were still pixelated. It’s awesome to be playing a Pokémon game and have the titular creatures have 3D models and look so much more lively than ever before. I’ve kept tabs on the series over the years, so I know that this isn’t the biggest graphical leap for the franchise, but it’s a leap for me.

I really appreciate that now all my Pokémon get experience in a fight regardless of whether or not I used them. That tedious grind is part of why I haven’t played a Pokémon game in quite some time, so removing it is a big plus to me. I just got the ability to transfer Pokémon between my party and PC Boxes on the go which is going to be such a big help! I always wished I could do that in the past, so being able to now is such a giant relief. And in case you’re wondering who my starter is, yes I chose my boy Scorbunny. All of the starters this time around were very cute and cool looking, but Scorbunny is just so energetic and adorable that I couldn’t say no to him. He’s also a Fire type and I always choose the Fire starter. I’m excited to take on the Galar region with him and I look forward to seeing what other improvements this game has made over the previous ones.

The Outer Worlds

The final game that I’ve played this year is The Outer Worlds. This is another one that I haven’t played a whole lot of, but I absolutely love what I have played of it. For context, I’ve only played about five hours of the game so far. I just left the first planet and am all prepped to go to the next world that the story will take me to. With all that being said, boy is this game great! It reminds me a lot of Fallout with a hint of some Borderlands humor, which is a good thing because I really like both of those games. The breakdown for speccing out my character had me sitting there for a bit deciding how I wanted to play this game and what type of person I want to really try and focus on as I play, something that I did a bit of in Fallout 4, but I can tell that it’ll be far more of a focus and necessity here than it was in that game. The role that I’ve set up for myself and the skills that I’ve invested in are really deciding how I can play certain situations, and I’m a big fan of that.

I’m also really liking the choices that the game presents you with. There are some tough decisions that I’ve had to make already, and if these are any indication of how the rest of the game is going to be, then I’m in for a rough ride and many instances of staring at the TV as I consider my options and the possible consequences of my actions. The commentary on corporations and the lifestyle that they force onto people is striking and I’m all for it. I’m really hoping that the game goes deeper into it and really keeps hitting the nail on the topic because I don’t see too many games do it. This is a game that I want to spend more time with and finish before the upcoming deluge of 2020 games hits because once that happens, a lot of games are getting put on the back burner, and it’d be a shame for this to be one of them.

And that’s all folks! That’s been my look back on every game I played this year. It’s fun to do this because it allows me to remember the many games that I played and how I felt about them. Some of these games are ones that I forget about because of when I played them in the year, so it’s a nice way to refresh myself on what exactly I played and what I got from each game. I hope you all enjoyed reading these posts and maybe even try some of these games yourself if they interest you. Leave your thoughts in the comments below and let’s talk about the games!