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breadknight-likes-things · 30 days

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World of Warcraft Plunderstorm Is Clunky, Weird, And Wildly Promising.

When Blizzard pulled back that mysterious pirate curtain and told us all what patch 10.2.6 actually was, that is to say a pirate themed Battle Royale pvp mode with a 40 level long renown pass, I was uh, surprised. I had a lot of things in my head as to what the mysterious pirate patch with no PTR was going to be, none of them are what it actually wound up being. That, as it turns out, was for the best! Plunderstorm is a weird, flawed mode, but it's not the mode itself that I'm really excited about here! I'm excited for what the mode means, that being weird experimental things that hit us with little to no warning! There is so much content in WoW going unused. Whole zones worth of areas that never really got much to do in them. Plunderstorm is literally taking one of the most egregious ones, that fully remade Arathi Highlands map that never got used outside of the one Warfront, and sticking a whole mode in it! Blizzard could continue this streak of creativity in a myriad of ways, and better yet, not tell me about it! If we had had Plunderstorm datamined like we so often do all the wonder would have been sucked out of the thing. As a big goofy surprise it's some of the most excited I've been about this game in months. I really hope stuff like this continues!

#video games #funny #pc gaming #video game #bread's game journal #game journal #World of Warcraft #WoW #plunderstorm #Dragonflight #World Of Warcraft Plunderstorm

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breadknight-likes-things · 1 month

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Wait, Suicide Squad Kill The Justice League Is Fun?

I bought this years most dunked on game over the Steam Spring Sale, which is an impressive feat for the same year Skull and Bones came out, Suicide Squad. It's not really new information that people hated this video game, and honestly it's chock full of a litany of issues and deep seated flaws.....but also it's not even really a bad game? All the pre-release footage of this game did a terrible job communicating what the game feel of this video game actually is. If anything, this is some kind of bizarro Crackdown game with the DC license placed over top of it, and that's far from the worst thing I could have expected it to be! Hell, I'm having active fun playing this thing. Which going off the virulently negative reaction to everything about this game, I'm not sure I even expected going in. Even the story people seemed to hate with a burning passion isn't even that bad. Is it cynical and dark? Yeah. Is it still kinda funny even though it's those things? Also yeah, but then, this is a Suicide Squad story, Boomerang being human garbage is funny. Granted, it's wildly underdeveloped, there are gaps in the story that make little sense, and whole characters appear once and then just seem to fade entirely into the background, but it's far from the worst comic book story I've ever seen. If anything its main issue is inferring that all of this is in the Arkham game universe, which really just does not make that much sense. Could have easily just said it was a different one, but I guess that doesn't grab peoples attention as much. This game was never going to take off, really. It's genuinely gutted to its core to fit in as many inane Live Service things as possible, but there's still something here at the core. Something genuinely fun. Something worth at least trying. Too many repeated objectives? Oh yeah. Too many enemy types? Weirdly, yeah. Too few encounters with the titular Justice League? Again, yeah. Still, there's a good time here. Not an infinite one like this game is clearly desperate to be, but like 9-10 hours? Yeah, 9 hours of a good time seems like a fine exchange for my Steam sale money. I'm about to wrap my time with the game up, but they, I had fun.

#video games #bread's game journal #pc gaming #game journal #video game #DC comics #Suicide Squad #captain boomerang #suicide squad kill the justice league #king shark #harley quinn #deadshot #ps5 #xbox series x #steam #steam games

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breadknight-likes-things · 1 month

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I've bought entirely too many games in the past week. This is the hardest I've gone on a Steam sale since my early years of having the service. I think I'm having withdrawals from last years relentless release calendar.

#video games #pc gaming #steam #steam games #meme

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breadknight-likes-things · 2 months

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Roboquest Is The Long Lost Overwatch Campaign We All Waited For.

Roboquest is a wildly simple game. Roguelite structure, fps action, blast those robots with ever more powerful weapons, and ever more random effects and power ups. Repeat, repeat, repeat, grow stronger, get a little further each time, have fun. All that to say, it follows a formula. What it does have, that other examples of the genre don't, is a very specific feel and vibe, a familiar one at that, because frankly, it's Overwatch's. For so long I remember people alternately begging, or demanding, for the addition of some kind of single player content into Overwatch, and, well, Roboquest is it. Sure, it doesn't have the characters, and the environments are far simpler, but it has the feel nailed to a tee. It's hard to explain without just handing you the game to feel it yourself, but I swear the general feel of Roboquest is so similar to the feel of Overwatch you'd think they were on the same engine. Had Overwatch implemented some kind of mode where you run through rogue like levels with randomized loot, I can't imagine it would have felt much different. I urge any of y'all who were hurt by the lack of any kind of single player stuff in Overwatch to really give Roboquest a good look. Plus, it has a free demo on Steam, so where's the harm? Well, other than the killer robots, perhaps there's the harm.

#video games #bread's game journal #pc gaming #xbox one #game journal #video game #steam #steam games #steam deck #steam game #roboquest #robots

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breadknight-likes-things · 3 months

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I camped a lot as a kid. At the time I think I hated it. I always felt like I was being dragged somewhere, right? I guess that's basically how every suburban kid feels about being dragged into nature against their will, clutching a Game Boy Advance like it was the only link I had to the comforts of home left. I miss those campgrounds so much. I miss the smell, I miss the easy loops of designated camp sites. The campground my family went to had an outdoor movie theatre screening edited versions of whatever the summers biggest hits were. Spider-Man 2 without the hospital scene.

I miss it all so much.

#memories #camping #life #nostalgia #bread's game journal #spider-man 2

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breadknight-likes-things · 3 months

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Been thinking a lot about Wide Ocean Big Jacket again. Such a simple video game, and a simple story, but I've yet to experience something that beautifully simple and resonant since. I'm probably due another playthrough.

#video games #bread's game journal #game journal #video game #indie game #wide ocean big jacket #pc gaming #indie games #narrative games #narrative game

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breadknight-likes-things · 3 months

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Returning To The Outer Worlds Thanks To The Aid Of Money.

So, I've been playing The Outer Worlds again. It's not the game I can say I expected to dive into right now, but I did decide suddenly that I'd really like to play those two DLC packs before Avowed comes out this year. If you're not familiar with The Outer Worlds as a game, the basic longline is a Bethesda style, semi-open world (open zones, but sectioned off) first person RPG set in a far off set of colony planets ruled by comically unflinching capitalism. It's funny, it's interesting, it's well written, and thanks to the new Spacers Choice edition that I'm now playing, it looks a lot better! Getting to the heart of it, what I want to talk about is how much better this new edition looks in comparison to the original. The Outer Worlds has always been a game that was openly made on a shoestring budget, Obsidian was never shy about discussing that. Released by 2K's oft forgotten indie label, it was never a AAA work intended for a mass audience. As such, with its limited means, the game never looked all that good. Colors were flat, the open zones felt barren, and some parts of the game had....odd choices, when it came to visual design. This new edition though, despite its contentious $10 upgrade price, goes a lot farther than I've seen some people argue in fixing some of those visual ills. There is a far better usage of color, where lots of the environment colors were fairly dull in the original release, it feels like the palette has been wildly expanded upon here, and it looks great. Funnily, there are multiple locations in the game named for colors (Roseway, Emerald Vale etc. etc.) and I can say with confidence that their names actually make quite a bit of sense now. The color sets were always present, but they never had such a vibrancy that you'd have expected someone to enthusiastically name the land after the colors present. The other, very specific, thing I would point out here is the new way the games many neon signs look. They give off such a convincing type of light that I almost feel as mesmerized looking at them as the game clearly intends to be taken satirically. It's such an oddly specific thing for the visual overhaul to focus on, but I think in the end it was a fantastic idea. Their garish color lend a lot of mood to the capitalistic nightmare that the Halcyon colonies are intended to convey. It was a smart move to drill down into such a specific visual detail. Replaying Outer Worlds has me very excited for Avowed. I think Obsidian has an extremely firm grasp on this specific niche of genre, and I feel like it's been so long since I've had a fantasy version of that. Something I always vastly prefer over Sci-Fi. Can't wait to give that game a try, and even to play the parts of this game that I've yet to, This was among the good purchases I made with my capitalist nightmare money.....I think....

#video games #bread's game journal #pc gaming #game journal #video game #the outer worlds #obsidian #2k games #rpg #rpgs #steam #steam games #ps5 #xbox series x #xbox #playstation

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breadknight-likes-things · 3 months

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Bread's Game Of The Year Honorable Mention #5: Diablo 4 And Spider-Man 2

I couldn't decide on which of these two games crack the very end of my top ten of the year list, because both games are very good, but also very safe. Diablo 4 doesn't take many risks in its design, despite its much vaunted transformation of Diablo into a fully fledged modern live service game. Spider-Man 2, meanwhile, is bombast and honed design, but it's a lot of the same stuff we've already seen in the other two games from this franchise. To be clear, I'm lambasting neither of these games, nor would I ever call either of them bad. Quite the opposite, both of these games do the thing they set out to very well. Spider-Man may be the exact open world action adventure game we thought it would be, but it's the ideal version of such a thing. Diablo 4 may take almost no risks in it's basic design and understanding of what the Diablo franchise is, but what the Diablo franchise is, is rock solid ARPG gameplay and endless new ways to make bad guys explode into multi-colored loot. Spider-Man 2's only real issue, at least in my eyes, is its very predictable story. I'm a comic book fan, and a big fan of Spider-Man in general, so the Black Suit/Venom storyline is so old hat at this point, that adding in the ability to play it in video game form...doesn't really add all that much. Still, that storyline does bring with it a lot of gameplay fun. the symbiotic powers you gain open up a lot of fun new avenues to feel powerful in the games many combat scenarios. Even if the story is predictable, it doesn't make the performances bad, or the characters any less endearing. Miles' half of the story, in particular is a shining bright spot. Not to mention, Spider-Man 2 puts a wise focus on some very good side content, to really round out the experience.

Diablo 4 is a great entry in the franchise, to be clear, but I still find it to be a bit of a regression. While the gameplay in general is rock solid, there are bits of it that bother me. Chief among them, an extremely obvious driving desire to return to the dark, dour and horror influenced tone of the first two Diablo games. Say what you will about Diablo 3, I never had any problem with its brighter color palette, more adventurous tone, and better sense of fun. I don't need everything in Diablo to be about how miserable life is in Sanctuary. Thankfully, as I said prior, the gameplay itself mostly maintains Diablo 3's power trip gameplay that makes up for so many fun moments. A much wider net is cast in terms of skills and specialization, allowing a far more free form character creation than could be had in Diablo 3. That brings with it flaws, but it also brings a lot of good player choice, so it's hard to really complain all that much. Both Spider-Man 2 and Diablo 4 are flawed games in my eyes, but when I say "Flawed" I mostly just mean that they don't quite stand up to the absurd flow of high quality releases we otherwise got this year. I really enjoyed my time with both of these games, even if they don't leave a long lasting impression on me for the years to come. That's worth something, recognition at the very least.

#video games #bread's game journal #funny #pc gaming #game journal #video game #diablo 4 #spider-man 2 #goty #got 2023 #ps5 #playstation #xbox #xbox series x #blizzard #sony #insomniac

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breadknight-likes-things · 4 months

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Bread's Game Of The Year Honorable Mention #4: Star Wars Jedi: Survivor

I'm pretty burnt on Star Wars. Since the Disney era began there's been five movies, an ever increasing amount of TV shows, and an endless parade of circular arguments of what Star Wars is supposed to be, and it all drives me near to madness. The video games though? Those have been plugging along at a high quality, and somehow, it feels like it's easy to miss that. I'm generally of the mind that video games, by their very nature and existence, are better than movies and TV. Usually, if some big media property has a game version, that's going to be the one I gravitate towards, because playing video games is more fun for me than passively watching something. Enter: Jedi Survivor, a fairly iterative and not all that revolutionary sequel to 2019's Jedi Fallen Order, but a good one nonetheless. In a year full of bombastic, 10/10 video games, it's so easy to overlook something that's just good, maybe not super remarkable, but good. Jedi Survivor has a fairly similar setup to Fallen Order. Cal Kestis is still on the Empires most wanted list. Still running missions that he thinks will further the cause of bringing down the empire, and still, frankly, being endearing as hell. The story is a bit of a surprise this time, as instead of diving further into the fight against the empire for the bulk of the game, as would be so easy, a lot of it is largely focused on the recently introduced High Republic era of tie in media. As such there's a lot more Jedi mysticism, old feuds and lost temples in this one. Not that there weren't those before, but they really get the limelight here. The gameplay itself is fairly similar, but they make some key changes that I do think results in this one being the better of the two "Jedi" games. There are more combat styles to chose from, resulting in more varied gameplay that can range from fast and furious strikes with dual lightsabers, to a two handed claymore type weapon that favors high risk with slow moving attacks. While it wasn't my favorite, there's even an interesting combat style that straight up favors Cal firing a gun with his left hand while using the lightsaber in his right. Alongside the new combat, the game takes a piece of advice from the last game that I personally had hoped for, and increases the frequency of the boss battles by quite a bit. A big improvement from the first games relative lack of them. even if some of the bosses are obvious repeats of ones that had come before, or souped up normal enemies, it still provides a fun end cap to bigger moments that sometimes that original game failed to provide. All in all, Jedi Survivor is, as I said, a fairly iterative sequel. In a year where the frequency of good games is frankly absurd, that doesn't exactly stand out. Still, it deserves a shout out, It builds on and improves the foundation set up in Jedi Fallen Order, and makes a really solid action adventure game from that. It's one worth playing. Also this game has Turgle in it. I won't spoil who that is, but this game has them in it. 10/10.

#video games #bread's game journal #pc gaming #game journal #video game #star wars #ps5 #xbox series x #steam #Star Wars jedi #jedi fallen order #jedi survivor #cal kestis #goty #goty 2023

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breadknight-likes-things · 4 months

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Bread's Game Of The Year Honorable Mention #3: Dead Space (Remake)

Genuinely, what are the odds that we get a remake of Resident Evil 4 and Dead Space within the same year? A game that completely revolutionized action horror games, and another that did a ton of good work on top of that very foundation? Just thinking about it makes it sound at best like a fools hope and at worst a total delusion: but it happened. Dead Space Remake isn't even just unlikely because of the timing of its release, it's unlikely because of how good it turned out, right alongside it's fantastic peer Resident Evil 4 Remake. While Dead Space may not be quite as transformative a redux as Resident Evil 4, it nonetheless updates a classic action survival horror game into something so modern that it's hard to believe that the game is mostly a shot for shot remake of a game that released in 2008. Some sections are altered, there are some new characters, there's a new ending, and most notably Isaac isn't a mute blank slate of a protagonist anymore (and, delightfully, he's yet again voiced by his Dead Space 2 and 3 performer), but the core of the game remains the same. This is still a story about the galaxies most notorious ghost ship. Still an action game featuring a limb dismemberment system that never really stops being fun. Still a truly scary horror game, some cheap scares. and others wonderfully complex ones (the sound design being an unsung hero). Dead Space may not have changed quite as much in terms of moment to moment gameplay as it's action horror game cousin in RE4, but the remake still manages to shine a new light on what made the original work so well in the first place. I have no idea how Dead Space remake did sales wise, but I hope it was well. Dead Space 2 remade with this level of detail, with some smart tweaks and maybe expanded areas, could be a video game all timer. So here's hoping that's something we might see some day. Even if nothing like that comes, I think we should all be thankful that we got Dead Space Remake at all. It may have been overshadowed by another huge action horror remake this year, but it deserves your attention, and is easily one of the best games to release in this ridiculously packed year.

#video games #bread's game journal #pc gaming #game journal #video game #dead space #ea #ea games #dead space remake #ps5 #xbox #xbox series x #steam #steam games #steam game #pc game #ea game #goty #goty 2023

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breadknight-likes-things · 4 months

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Bread's Game Of The Year Honorable Mention #2: Dead Island 2

I don't like to say things "shouldn't work" because I find it to be overtly cynical and an assumption that somehow things will always be bad until you decide, actually, it's good. Dead Island 2 probably shouldn't work this well, though. I vividly remember Dead Island 2 being revealed with that flashy CG trailer in the....I want to say, Sony E3 Press conference in the year 2015 (RIP to ever creating new memories in that framework, by the way). I didn't expect much at the time. I know a lot of people enjoyed it, but I had personally felt a bit burned from the original Dead Island. It just wasn't the game I wanted it to be, so while a second one could maybe improve on the formula, what if I just didn't like the formula? After ten years of constant delays, reshuffling, and restarting of development, what chance did Dead Island 2 even have left of being good? Turns out, a very good chance, actually. Dead Island 2 is a phenomenal video game, a very basic video game, but a phenomenal one regardless. When I say Dead Island 2 is "Basic" I mean no disrespect in that statement. Dead Island 2 feels like a video game that hammered home the fundamentals of game design to such a wild degree that even something as simple as thwacking a zombie with a piece of rebar in a fairly standard first person melee combat system looks and feels incredible. The simple, little things that we have all long since taken for granted are demonstrated here as tenants of video games, that, put in the right scenario, really are always a fun time. No part of me will ever get sick of an on demand drop kick move. Dead Island 2's plot is exceedingly simple, but it has a lot of fun with it. Zombies have completely overrun Los Angeles, turning it into a more metaphorical island (no giant Tsunami's like in escape from L.A here) known to the people as "Hell.A", but it doesn't seem to have dulled their spirits. Influencers, celebrities, actors, scumbags, normal people, etc. are all treating the fall of L.A as some kind of bizarre zombie killing party. It sounds like a tone that either wouldn't work, or would just be obnoxious, but it approaches it all with such an earnestly fun energy that it all comes together in a way I feel few had expected.

What that tone and energy lead to, is an always fun series of quests. Whether it's making your way through a Hollywood studio full of elaborate sets that all look like levels in wildly different video games, or scrounging through the exceedingly nice homes of Beverly Hills. There's always something new to find, and some new enemy to hit with whatever weird thing you happen to be carrying around for said purpose. Want to throw a bottle of water at a zombie, followed by a shrunken that somehow has lightning powers? Please do. Dead Island 2 may be a basic video game, but nobody ever said that going back to basics has to be an inherently bad thing. I talked to quite a few people who internalized those basics and assigned Dead Island 2 as "The Best 7/10 Game Of The Year" and frankly, I also thought along those lines. The further I get away from It though, the more fondly I remember my time with it. Dead Island 2 may not have been the hit that I expected it to be on a personal level, but at the time I played it, I think it was the hit I needed. It's a fantastic game that defied a lot of odds to be as good as it was, and it was one of my favorites of an already packed year.

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breadknight-likes-things · 4 months

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Bread's Game Of The Year Honorable Mention #1: Horizon: Burning Shores

Turns out, talking about video games I like is still fun, who knew? You know what video games are fun? Horizon Zero Dawn, and Horizon Forbidden West. Two games whose general reaction's to and reputations of annoy me deeply, because the annoying repeated memes of them somehow being creative failures because they came out among other unrelated fan favorites drives me mad. You know what doesn't drive me mad though? Playing the Horizon games, and Burning Shores is no different. Serving as the big expansion pack for Forbidden West, much the same way Frozen Wilds was for Zero Dawn, Burning Shores is a very solid, self contained open world experience that fans of the series shouldn't ignore. Not only do you get to explore a cool new area in the ruins of L.A, filled with lava like in the Tommy Lee Jones movie "Volcano" for some reason, but you get a solid chunk of new story for both the universes lore and characters. Hell, not to spoil anything too big, but Aloy even has a possible romantic interest in this expansion. Sort of going against my assumption this entire time that she's been AAA gamings only real Ace representation, but you learn something new every day. The new environment to explore takes a lot of cues from the already extant San Francisco area in the main game, but the tropical beaches still lend a lot of fantastic eye candy while you search around for new quests and activities. The main story is also a little bit of a wrap up situation, but nonetheless a fun one. Featuring a minor villain who escaped the finale of the main game, which I won't really get into details for because the surprise halfway through the base game really deserves to be preserved for new players. So many words to say, Burning Shores is a solid expansion, and an easy recommendation from me, even if doesn't quite break my top five this year. 2023 was so packed with good video games, that's not really an indicator of a problem.

#video games #bread's game journal #pc gaming #game journal #video game #ps5 #playstation five #horizon #horizon zero dawn #horizon forbidden west #aloy #horizon aloy #burning shores #playstation studios #2023 video games #2023

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breadknight-likes-things · 4 months

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Bread's Game Of The Year 2023: Alan Wake II

Alan Wake 2 is a miracle, and Remedy are miracle workers. I have vivid memories of buying Alan Wake, on recommendation from a friend I don't see often enough anymore, with money from my terrible summer job from a local theme park I think about too much. In 2010, Alan Wake, warts and all, felt like a revelation. It had a clarity of vision that few games could boast of at that point in video games. In an industry dominated by straightforward shooters and down the middle action game, it was a weird, confident, psychological horror game with more personality than most other games at the time put together. Alan Wake 2, meanwhile, is a masterpiece. I could say so many things about Alan Wake 2 and fail so miserably to properly explain what it is that this game does so right, but I'm going to try. I mentioned that Alan Wake had a clarity of vision, but Alan Wake 2's supreme confidence in it's frankly insane meta-narrative nightmare that it's two leads are trapped in, makes the original game look like, no pun intended, a first draft. From its bold, unsettling opening, to sections as supremely silly as Coffee World, Alan Wake 2 knows exactly what it is. Alan Wake 2 swings wildly between a thrilling mystery to solve, a homage to every weird TV show you've ever watched, a damn fine survival horror game, and the most wildly creative use of meta-fiction in the history of mainstream video games. By now, many scenes from this game, even if having not played it, are common sights on the internet, and for good reason. Set pieces like "Herald of Darkness", "Dark Ocean Summoning" the cursed halls of the Ocean View Hotel, and the aforementioned Coffee World put the creativity of some other games this year to shame, all on their own. I can't even get too into specifics in this post for fear of spoiling the experience for anyone else who wants to play this, and I beg people to do so. Alan Wake 2 is one of the single best video games I've ever played. In a year drowning in high quality releases, everything from new instant classic CRPG's, perfect remakes, and indie darlings, Alan Wake 2 stands tall. A force of pure creativity that seizes and capitalizes on the unique ways video games can draw us into a story, and play around with what we expect that story to be. In the original trailer for this game, Alan himself's voice over describes this game as "Not the story you wanted", but I wouldn't take anything less. Alan Wake 2 is my game of the year for 2023.

#video games #bread's game journal #pc gaming #game journal #video game #Alan wake 2 #Alan wake #goty #goty 2023 #game of the year #Remedy #epic games #old gods of asgard #ps5 #xbox #xbox series x #epic games store

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breadknight-likes-things · 4 months

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Bread's Game Of The Year #2: Resident Evil 4

What do I even say about Resident Evil 4 Remake? The fact RE4 isn't my number one game this year is nothing short or a miracle of quality for the #1 game, but that's not what we're talking about right now. Right now we're talking about Capcom pulling off the gaming equivalent of the called shot home run. Pointing directly at a level of quality I feel most thought was unattainable, and slamming the final product out of the park to such a degree that no remake may ever feel this way ever again. Capcom didn't have to do much to make the RE4 remake a good product. Hell, they didn't have to do much to make it a great product. Making a gussied up remake of the game that transformed action shooters way back in 2005 was probably enough to garner high reviews and player goodwill. Capcom didn't do that. Capcom went deep into the bones of RE4, the very core of that experience, and built from the ground up, a new experience, based on the one we all love, that twists, turns and polishes every little possible thing you could imagine. The basic story, of course remains the same. The core gameplay is very similar to what we've all grown accustomed to, albeit morphed and changed in key areas to update the game to modern sensibilities while losing nothing of the original charm. Even the characters are largely similar, but in this one lies I think one of the most important triumphs. The number one thing I was worried this remake would forget, is how funny Resident Evil 4 is, it didn't. Sure, things are indeed a little darker, the times are different, intentional cheese is not quite as welcome. Every character in this game is so damn charming, though. Leon is still a hyper competent super-spy dork who can't tell a good joke to save his life. Ashley has been expanded upon and is no longer a shrieking damsel in distress, but the original fish out of water energy she always had remains and works wonders in the new tone, her plucky energy a highlight of the whole story. Luis, with a new found obsession with Don Quixote, gets the best update of them all. Featuring a much clearer character arc, genuine pathos, and still keeping his cigarette smoking, dirt covered, cagey information doling charm. I say all of this before I even get into the core of the gameplay loop, which is immaculate. RE4 Remake may have an entirely different feel to the general gameplay, much weightier and with better movement options, but it fits like a glove. Even if you've never played this remake, if you've played the original game even once, this remake has a remarkable ability to feel like you've just stepped back into home after years away. Getting that first stagger headshot and seeing Leon give a good weighty kick to a Gando is an unbeatable goofball feeling in gaming, I cannot stress how incredible an experience Resident Evil 4 Remake is. Hell, I didn't even get into Separate Ways, probably the best DLC of the year. That anything beats this out for my GOTY is a testament to the astounding quality of video games we got this year, but if you know me, and the very specific niche of thing I am obsessed with, you probably already know what that'll be.

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breadknight-likes-things · 4 months

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Bread's Game Of The Year #3: Sifu Arenas

I am obsessed with Sifu. I've written about it briefly before, but sometimes I wonder if I really get the level of obsession I have with Sifu across. I think it is firmly in the top five of video games I have ever played. I think it is immaculate, flawless, a beautiful work of art that doubles as the sickest possible kung-fu game anyone could ever design. So who's shocked that its major update is among the best things I've played this year. Sifu Arenas is not complex, until it it is. Arenas on a base level, is just that, a series of Arenas. Smaller challenges that allow you to engage with the combat of Sifu, free of the trappings of the story modes levels, not that those did much other than funnel you to combat anyway. Each Arena is self contained, tweaks the existing formula of the game, and provides a new challenge to players. Some of those challenges are straightforward. Survival challenges, challenges to hit a high score, challenges that ask you to defeat enemies in a certain order. Even those simple challenges shine through with Sifu's absolutely beautiful combat systems. Where Arenas really kicks into high gear though, is when the challenges start to get weird. Say perhaps, your attacks have been swapped with those of the final boss, and you must fight your way through a large crowd of clones of yourself. Say the game becomes wildly obsessed with The Matrix, and outfits your character in the iconic trench coat, while floods of men in pristine black suits filter into the arena and your focus attacks are replaced with infinite use slow motion. You've never seen an arena that's simply a long, narrow hallway get quite as wild as when you start descending into new levels of technicolor hell as you progress. Don't even get me going on the beautiful nightmare that is the Dragon Stamp challenges, which even an obsessive like me can barely make a dent in. Arenas didn't have to do anything fancy. Sifu's combat is so divine that this update could have simply been a traditional wave mode and I'd have shown up eagerly to play again. Sloclap went above and beyond, delivering what may as well be a fantastic new game layered over top of the already perfect mechanics at play under the hood of the original Sifu. Nobody will ever get me to shut up about this game. Sifu will go down in my own personal history as a transformative experience in gaming. Arenas was a twist on it, and it was more of it, and it was incredible.

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breadknight-likes-things · 4 months

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Bread's Game Of The Year #4: Lil Gator Game

Speaking of Cyberpunk 2077's complete ideological opposite, we have Lil Gator Game. A video game so full of wonder and simple joy in life, it would make all the edgy mercenaries in Night City cry as much as I did. Let's not get ahead of ourselves though, what exactly is Lil Gator Game? There isn't much to describe about the whole of Lil Gator Game. It's a simple story of a kid playing pretend with their friends in the park, trying to convince his college bound sister to join in with ever more elaborate set pieces, pranks and games. The entire game is largely spent exploring the condensed island park that serves as the setting, seeking out and making new friends by completing quests ranging from as elaborate as pretending to be a vampire's minion in a seaside cave, to just giving another person someone to talk to. Lil Gator Game isn't the worlds most complex story, but it doesn't have to be. In my eyes it isn't eyeing narrative ambition, or shooting for the moon to grapple with complicated ideas. It's a game about children playing, it's a game about imagination, and it's a game about how much we value one another as people even when we seem our most deeply annoying to each other. The times in our life when one of us is building a fully fledged society out a play structure, and another is just trying to get a college freeloader to do their share of a group project. Visually, it's a game of incredible beauty. By far, the best example I could ever point to in the semi-recent sort of "crunchy" indie game look that's emerged out of the also fantastic A Short Hike. The Island that you explore is incredibly evocative of what you may remember an autumn day feeling like at a young age. Leaves changing, nature dwelling, people enjoying their time, kids maybe not quite appreciating the beauty in front of them but enjoying it nonetheless. It's one of the most stunning video games I've played in years, simplicity in art style at it's very best. Some years I find little independent experiences that shove my usual unashamed AAA fare off my end of the year lists, and those are years I look forward to quite a bit. While Lil Gator Game may not quite reach the personally resonant heights of 2020's Wide Ocean Big Jacket, for me, it's nonetheless one of the best pieces of media I engaged with this year, and one I truly loved.

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breadknight-likes-things · 4 months

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Bread's Game Of The Year 2023, #5: Cyberpunk: Phantom Liberty

2023 is one of, if not the, strongest years ever for video games as a medium of entertainment. I am limiting myself to five entries for my longer form GOTY list, because describing all ten of what I consider to be the best games of this year and why they resonate with me would be a herculean task that frankly, I don't know I have the mental capacity for anymore. I can do five though, and coming in just under the wire, isn't quite a full game, but welcome to my first instance of bending the rules in this series of posts: Cyberpunk Phantom Liberty. I don't have to get into the saga of Cyberpunk, if you're reading an online blog about video games, you probably know the story of that games fall and subsequent anime based redemption arc. Phantom Liberty, though, feels like a clean break, from all of it. Phantom Liberty had it's fair share of hype, of course, but going into this expansion pack, at least to me, felt like a good, solid clean break from the expectations that had come before and wildly affected the reaction Cyberpunk had received, and not entirely undeservedly. Phantom Liberty feels like something new, even though it was built on the much publicized enhanced bones of something old. It's funny that I want to describe the story setup of Phantom Liberty as "Straightforward" in my head, because the plot is cranked up twelve on the insane-o meter from the instant you load the quest. Phantom Liberty is a story that lifts themes, events and ideas from influences as far reaching as Escape From New York, James Bond, to paranoid political thrillers featuring a new double cross every five minutes. Somehow, in the face of all that, it tells a story that I still think I could define as simple, human, and fascinating. Even in the face of Idris Elba doing a.....strange approximation of an American accent. That they even got Keanu Reeves back in the booth to record a sizable new amount of dialogue as the infamous piece of digital shit, Johnny Silverhand, is wild. Even more wild that his best performance in the entirety of his time as the character only comes if you follow one specific line of quests that many players could easily miss. As a game, Phantom Liberty also has the undeniable advantage of coming out after Cyberpunks much vaunted 2.0 update. An update that it wouldn't be an exaggeration to describe as "Transformative". Loose collections of systems were tightened into a cohesive whole, the general play experience was wildly overhauled. Playing Cyberpunk finally feels like it approaches the game it promised to be all those years ago. So having all of this fresh coat of paint be present for the launch of a new major piece of content, is undeniably important to the success of Phantom Liberty as a whole. The trappings are familiar, but given how much has changed and improved, if you sat someone down in front of the systems at their most nitty gritty and said "This is Cyberpunk 2", it would not be the least believable statement. CD Projekt Red is no stranger to making good expansion packs. Witcher 3, famously, has two of the best ever designed for any RPG, let alone in the modern era. So I think the quality of Phantom Liberty perhaps could have been more predictable that many of us felt. Still, in a year packed so full of great games, Phantom Liberty rose above some real heavy hitters and delivered one of my favorite experiences of 2023. I don't know that I'd ever want to spend any extended period of time in Dogtown, but after this, I sure wouldn't mind visiting again.

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