Author Topic: Priom's almost top 10 games of 2018  (Read 24165 times)

Offline PriomBlazer

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Priom's almost top 10 games of 2018
« on: January 01, 2019, 06:46:19 PM »
2018 is over and I decided like the last two years I'd do a top whichever amount of games I actually played that year. Now usually I make mine sometime after or before Jonezy releases his on his wordpress page. But this time I can't seem to access wordpress so boo.

Well in any case, I went back and saw that I described last year as being "stressful". So, the word I'd use to describe this year is "hectic" or "chaotic". Honestly, so much happened this year I couldn't tell what started and what ended. So as the previous year I haven't really played 10 games for a top 10 so this is my top 9 game of the year (oof, so close). As always, the game could've come out in any year I just needed to have played it this year. So without further ado:
(edit: so as it turns out I did note down that I played exactly 10 games this year so yay)


10. Playerunknown's Battleground Mobile Editions :

So...Battleground games are just about everywhere now, huh ? With enough exposure I guess I just got curious as to what all the hubub is about and so I tried PUBG Mobile. Since ya know, it's hard to argue with the low low price of $free.99 . With that being said, although I had fun playing the first few matches or so I can safely say that, this really isn't my thing.

So ya...I don't have much else to say about this game. It probably wouldn't reach this list if my "games played" count wasn't already below 10. What a way to start the list, huh ?


9. Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance


A game I started playing late December 2017 and finished in January. So this game might be my earliest gaming experience this year. This game is on PS2, Gamecube era home consoles but I played the Gameboy Advance version and I think a lot of my enjoyment came from that fact.

Normally speaking, the game is a very simplistic Diablo-esque isometric dungeon crawler toned down to it's bear minimum. But for a gba game having a 3d isometric effect along with changeable outfits, choosable stat upgrades and destructible environments. That idea alone seemed alluring to me and although the game does get a bit stale as you play through(the 2nd chapter specifically). I still had fun playing the game overall.

8.Tomb Raider(2013)


So if Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance is the first game I finished in 2018, Tomb Raider is the last game I finished and probably the one I have some of the strongest opinion about.

Ok, so here's the thing. This is, from my understanding the second time the Tomb Raider franchise has been rebooted. This time, to be more of a cinematic experience like Naughty Dog's Uncharted series of games.

To describe my opinions of the game, I'll separate my opinions on two parts, gameplay and story. The gameplay consists of as I see it 3 major portions, 1. Combat, 2. Exploration and Puzzle Solving, 3. Set pieces and Cinematic Running Away Segments.

Now personally, I found the puzzle solving element the most fun. They consists of finding certain items, solving single room tomb puzzles and collecting data entries to 100% the map that you're in. Sadly most of it has been made optional. But it's a minor gripe since I mean it's fun so I did 'em all.

Combat can also be fun. You get 5 weapon types and upgrades for all of them. The focus on only a handful of weapon helps to center combat around them I feel like and shifting between weapons to enemy position almost becomes second nature very easily. I wish they did more stealth sections though. The combat really shines during those sections and it makes sense considering they're definitely trying to aim towards realism with this trilogy of games (but really it isn't lara croft is still a one person army and I'm okay with that) but the game seems to favor to put you under heavy fire leading to one of my least favourite part of the game after you get the grenade launcher, where the visuals are dimmed and it's hard to make out anything for the cover and shoot mechanic.

As for the cinematic running away experience, can't say I like them very much. This is clearly the biggest inspiration they took from uncharted. But these sections have shaky cameras which sure looks cool, but isn't really ideal for the player, and the only reason you'd fail this sections is because you'd press jump early (because really all you do in these sections is hold a single directional button and occasionally press jump) and they mostly serve to get you from one map to another. Overall, I feel they're completely unnecessary.

The story on the other hand, hoo boi. Sure the set pieces are cool but in an attempt to make a cinematic experience I think they managed to make the most boring hollywood movie ever. Every character other than lara is bland and one directional, the story beats are so typical that you know exactly what's gonna happen and the ending is anti-climatic. But the document entries are nice, the accents are really nice and sometimes funny (not for the right reasons though) and add a little more flavor to the story.

Also multiplayer exists. For all intents and purposes it shouldn't exist and I hate that a lot of the achievements are limited to multiplayer. But meh, it's a problem for it's time.


7.Killer is Dead


Ah, Killer is Dead a janky hack and slash action game oozing with the whacky Suda51 charm you'd expect. If you're unfamiliar with suda51's work his game's sense of humour might appeal to some but off put most. I'm not entirely sure which category I fall in.

But I digress. The game is basically like your bayonetta's and your devil may cries but it's really janky and unpolished. The combat uses a combo system where the more you hit the enemies the more a bar fills up and your attack range and damage increase. So no need to learn inputs here just press the buttons away~! On the other hand, the cel shaded stylish artstyle works sometimes but looks really off other times and a lot of the challenges and side quests are near unplayable.

But looking beyond that there's actually a lot of goofy charm to behold which is why it's at this spot on the list. I mean other than final fantasy 6 which other game has you fighting a sentient train ?


6.fate/stay night-fate

The FSN visual novel seems to be considered a classic. And considering how big of a franchise it is now I guess that's an understatement. Admittedly I played through the first route so far because I played the gacha game that spawned from it and I was curious to go back and see what's the original was like.
But since it's a visual novel I can't really say anything without spoilers so there you have it. I played it, it's on the list and I'll probably play through the other two routes someday.


5.Parasite Eve


One of the two horror games I played on October this year. Admittedly, I'm not into horror. I'm okay with horror themed books(which is like the one time I prefer books as my first choice I suppose), but movies and games are a no no.
The thing is I don't dislike the concept of horror entirely but what I like is the sense of mystery, the atmosphere and dread. Which books do well, since they rely on the reader's perception. But the visual medium on the other hand, eh...I feel like they focus a bit too much on shock factor and grotesque imagery for my taste.

With that being said, I am opening up to the idea of horror videogames (still far away from movies though). And I decided to brave up and play not one but two horror themed games this year. I say horror themed because really parasite eve is pretty much a linear jrpg with horror elements.

Not in anyway a bad thing of course. I love jrpgs and the story based on a japanese horror novel certainly gripped me. Also I really like the implementation of Square's famous "active time battle system". I'm actually not a big fan of the system. I always felt like it always kinda conflicted with the planned and menu heavy nature of turn based game and SE seem to have picked up on it since they seem to have dropped the system after final fantasy 9. But limit the player to controlling only one character and make it more action heavy by allowing the player to move freely on the battlefield and having designated range for every player and enemy attack and I actually find the system rather enjoyable. Since SE seems to have moved towards a more action oriented combat system for their recent final fantasy games I can't help but wonder how a modernized version of this ATB system would be like.

With all these being said, the game isn't without it's flaws. The game uses pre-rendered backgrounds like a lot of the games of it's time. I actually like these since they really helped to create great atmosphere with the ps1's limitations. But the problem comes in function. You need to press the interact button on precise angles of the background for it to work properly and I found myself getting stuck a few times because I attempted to interact with certain objects only for it to not do anything and me thinking that's not what I'm supposed to interact with.


4.Haunting Ground


The 2nd of the two horror games I played this year. And one that falls more under the horror-genre than Parasite Eve.Although funnily enough the games do share some common elements like having a female protagonist, dramatic camera angles and disturbing sexual themes.
I originally found out about the game while doing a bit of research after watching Jontron's Clock Tower video. And this year decided "what the heck, let's give it a shot."
I was certainly worried about a few things, the game has a dog command mechanic where you control you canine companion indirectly by using the right analog stick to give commands. I was worried with this along with the fact that the aforementioned Clock Tower seemed to have some very unintuitive puzzles and of course jumpscares.
But thankfully, the puzzles in this game are done a lot better, the dog commands work just fine and Hewie easily became one of my favourite characters this year, And the game has a wonderful sense of mystery and the horror stems from inducing panic and disturbing subject matter.
So ya, I got exactly what I asked for thankfully.


3. Ys 1


Thanks to the popularity of the Soulsborne franchise, difficult video games seem to have gotten a huge surge of popularity recently. With "souls-like" now becoming a marketing term used by game publishers and journalists alike.
And then we have, The YS series, doing the exact thing since the 80s.

I bought the YS 1 and 2 package during steam's summer sale and I'm certainly happy for it. Played through 1 and hoping to play 2 soon. I think a game does something special when it can make you feel nostalgic for a game you never played and how can I not feel that way ?
I'm a sucker for oldschool jrpgs. And immediately after turning on the game the audio and visuals are just *mwah*. I especially like how the game sometimes uses isometric, sidescrolling and other perspective instead of just sticking to a top-down one. The game starts off easy enough but when the difficulty spikes it's an adrenaline pumping journey from start to finish.

But as a remake of a game from the 80s it does have a few flaws. The boss difficulty often stems from rng (most evident in the very first and final boss) and the game has a lot of cryptic things for you to do that makes you say, "How could I've figured this out without a guide."

But even with all that I loved playing this game.


2.Hollow Knight


There's so much that can be said about Hollow Knight. How amazing the visuals and audio are, how it actually deserved the title of soulslike, how great the controls are, how deep the lore is, how evident the developers' passion for this game is, how I've put 80+ hours into this game and still haven't seen everything and would love to hop back into this.

But really all that's been said before. So instead I leave you with this :

Screw the Primal Aspids !
http://hollowknight.wikia.com/wiki/Primal_Aspid


1.Fate/ Grand Order


So, ya my No.1 pick this one is a gacha game of all things...

Sure I could talk in defense of the game, like how it actually has a story or how you don't really need to roll high star characters to play through the game, how the game had an amazing ending to it's first arc, how the game uses fully scaled models skeleton-animations instead of the much common chibi style used by gacha game. But all of those would be excuses.

Like I said, 2018 has been a busy and chaotic year. I needed something that I could pickup and immediately feel some form of satisfaction and really that's all I could ask for.


And there you have it, another year neatly packaged. But to end the article I wanna give a shout out to Pokemon Go. I've been a pokemon fan since for as long as I can remember and although I can't really actively follow the series anymore I did have fun playing go while on vacation.
« Last Edit: January 01, 2019, 06:49:44 PM by PriomBlazer » »

Offline NekoJonez

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Re: Priom's almost top 10 games of 2018
« Reply #1 on: January 02, 2019, 06:46:13 PM »
interesting. I'm glad you enjoyed Tomb Raider 2013.

Offline Kiss x Miz

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Re: Priom's almost top 10 games of 2018
« Reply #2 on: January 10, 2019, 08:07:45 PM »
I'm glad you enjoyed games.

Offline NekoJonez

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Re: Priom's almost top 10 games of 2018
« Reply #3 on: January 18, 2019, 02:20:28 PM »
Looking at this post, I want to find & install a plugin that automatically resizes images.

Offline PriomBlazer

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Re: Priom's almost top 10 games of 2018
« Reply #4 on: January 27, 2019, 04:25:03 PM »
ya you do that buddy

 

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