This has been a tough year for numerous reasons. I don't need to list the specific reasons, but I definitely felt like my tank was running on empty a lot of the year. Hell, a couple weeks ago I was even debating with myself whether or not I still enjoyed or liked video games anymore. I've been juggling feelings of inadequacy and general emptiness on and off constantly. Like I've had a weird underlying feeling of "survivor's guilt" bubbling under the surface. My sleep sucks. I have such a short fuse lately. The only thing consistent is that I feel like I'm constantly waking up on the wrong side of the bed.
Burnout? Great game.
Let's take a deep breath. Okay, let's take another. Did I have to tell y'all to exhale because that goes without saying I think. Sick - now it's time to look at the big picture we got going on and it turns out that there may be more highlights than I thought. I ran a race with my best friends, my partner got into grad school, met and then got to hire Jess, started a Power Ranger podcast with Matt, got to run it back and do a couple of podcasts with good ol' Benjie P, I even hosted the Bombcast a couple times, and shoot I even got promoted. I know that the year for Giant Bomb isn't what everyone expected, there's a lot of negativity online and everyone's feelings are valid. But yo dawg, put your TRUST in me. WE got this. Let's talk about some GAMES NOW HUH?!
Here’s a quick list of stuff in no particular order that ALMOST made my Top 10
- Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart
- Fuga: Melodies of Steel
- Loop Hero
- Knockout City
- Psychonauts 2
- Shin Megami Tensei V
- Wildermyth
- Unpacking
- Persona 5 Strikers
Actually I just wanted to shout out a couple more things
Favorite Movies: French Dispatch and Spider-Man: No Way Home
Favorite Shows: I Think You Should Leave, Starstruck, and Only Murders in the Building
Favorite Albums: Olivia Rodrigo's “Sour” and Vince Staples’ “Vince Staples”
Favorite Podcasts: Blank Check and Armed and Rangerous
Favorite Wrestling Moments: CM Punk returning and the Dark Order and Adam Page entrance at FFtF
Alright, now in everyone’s best Mark Henry voice
And now, it’s time for the MAIN EVENT!
Oh Hitman, you beautiful murder puzzle. I don’t know how IOI manages to do it each time, but they did it again! Hitman is such an amazing experience, whether you or someone else is piloting the ship, it is always a treat. Hell, the Dartmoor level alone is a better level/experience than whole ass games that I’ve played this year.
9. Tales of Arise
I really enjoy early Migos. The clean version of “Fight Night” and “Versace” are still in my regular rotation when throwing music on because of how complicated it all sounds, there’s almost too much happening in the songs.
That’s what Tales of Arise is. Tales of Arise is the Migos of action JRPGs.
People are constantly talking, ESPECIALLY in battle. But somehow I just love it. I love entering a combat scenario only to hear everyone calling out their special moves, emoting on how the battle is going, and other cacophonous yelling. But the combat is so neat in how you can quickly pivot to another character and then switch back to pull off a flashy team maneuver. I found the story to be fantastic as well. If you’re looking for something that straddles the line between sweet and too anime tropey, then this is it. Like yo man, this game winds up having an Anime ass opening in the first hour and then HAS ANOTHER ONE SEVERAL HOURS LATER. THEY KIND OF SHIPPUDEN YOU.
Several members of the Giant Bomb community suggested I checked this out and I’m working hard to plot my revenge on them because I have sunk an ungodly amount of hours into this game. If you haven’t heard my nearly unintelligible rant on the game a couple bombcasts ago this is a stripped down auto chess with cute pets. It’s a grand time. I’ve had to uninstall this for my own sanity.
Shout outs to pulling off the elusive Snake-Chicken-Tiger combo.
7. Back 4 Blood
I had zero interest in checking this out when it was first announced. I didn’t have the means to play the original Left 4 Dead when it was initially popping off so I had zero nostalgia for it or that style of game. If it wasn’t for the homies pushing to play some type of game together after training for the race I would have just skipped this too. But damn am I glad that they did because I loved my time with it. The card system took a while to get acclimated to, but once we got it up and running properly we were a well oiled machine. Due to the nature of the game, even if we failed a level we were bound to have a different and unique experience each time. It definitely got frustrating and felt like the deck was stacked against us, but we wound up narrowly turning it around each time. Maybe it was playing a game with some of my best friends but I genuinely loved failing because it meant more time together.