Tomi on 25/12/2023 at 17:33
Quote Posted by Jason Moyer
The last Kylotonn WRC game was bad and the first EA one looks arcadey as hell.
I've read lots of reviews for
EA Sports WRC (such an awful name), but I can't remember any of them being overly critical about the realism or car handling. In fact most reviews have
praised the handling, including several sites that specialise in racing games. It's the performance issues, somewhat outdated graphics, and lack of polish here and there that's mentioned in just about every review.
EA WRC is surprisingly cheap for a brand new game, and it can already be found in the bargain bin, so I'm very tempted to buy it on my XBox before the end of the year. Or maybe I'll just wait some more and hope that it gets added on the Game Pass... :D
vurt on 31/12/2023 at 06:02
True Stalker (TC for Stalker)
Armored Core 6
Tears of the Kingdom (didn't play the entire game, but yeah seems to leave most other games of 2023 in the dust, like expected from a Zelda game)
Robocop
Cyberpunk 2077 2.0 & Phantom Liberty
System Shock Remake
so much i didn't play yet of the 2023 games though, even CP2077 i've just started and it seems great. But i usually wait 2+ years for fixes and mods for these titles, i'll do that for Rogue Trader and BG3 for sure..
Nameless Voice on 1/1/2024 at 15:37
2023 was a great year for gaming. I actually played a full 10 games this year, most of them 2023.
* Darktide was my most-played game this year.
After a rough launch in 2022, Fat Shark spent several months patching it, to convert it from great-but-flawed to just great.
I love how many meaningful character build choices they added in the recent big class update.
* Shadow Gambit took Mimimi's stealth-strategy formula and made it more free-form, with innovative new characters - though its story and challenge suffered slightly from this freedom.
Have only just started on the new DLC.
It's sad that this will be the studio's final game.
* The System Shock remake by Night Dive was great, and really faithful to the original.
I felt it was let down a little by the overly pixellated art and a lack of music, but otherwise it was awesome, and I wouldn't feel too bad if someone played it instead of the original.
* Amnesia: The Bunker saw Frictional moving away from their recent run-and-hide horror, and returning to letting the player fight back to some extent, while also adding some light immersive sim systems - all without compromising the horror.
* Boltgun was a retro shooter that felt a bit like it came from an alternate history where FPSes stayed using classic sprites-in-3D instead of moving to full 3D.
I liked how it added verticality and some modern mechanics to the old formula, rather than just directly copying it.
* Aliens: Dark Descent was an interesting mix of strategy-stealth-horror, managing to invoke the film's balance of powerful marines up against something even more frighting.
While your marines could win firefights, drawing too much attention would quickly get you overrun and dead.
* Shadows of Doubt, currently still in Early Access, is probably the closest thing to Warren Spector's "One City Block" concept.
An entire simulated city where everyone has a detailed life, but sometimes they murder each other and you have to use the evidence to solve these crimes.
* Honourable mention to System Shock 2, which, while certainly not a recent game, I did play and record an entire pacifist run of this year.
Sanity is for the weak!
* On the smaller side, I played Drivin' Bob, a tiny little game by Henke!
* And the demo for Sorceress, which shows a lot of promise at replicating some of Dark Messiah's great combat, but in a much lighter and more whimsical setting.
There were also a lot of other interesting games released this year which I just haven't got around to looking into yet!
Still, I have to say that "too many good new games to play" isn't exactly a terrible problem to have!
vurt on 1/1/2024 at 16:19
oh, I forgot Ready or Not, truly great :D
Bought Shadows of a Doubt, but i haven't gotten into the gameplay loop of it. Seems so.. fiddly. But once you get into it maybe it isn't.
demagogue on 1/1/2024 at 19:45
I think your intuition is probably right. Shadow of Doubt is still a mess. It has a core game concept in it that I think is solid, but so many things are off kilter ... the bizarre and unintuitive UI, the buggy or fiddly interactions, the template emails, comments, identities, and cases ... and the actual cases and core gameplay don't flow well. But for all that, I still like it, and I feel good when I crack a case. I think people are hoping that the world can take on a life of its own, where it doesn't feel so template-made and feels more simulated, or more thought it put into how crimes come together and how the evidence lays out.
What I think would be a great update is if it's not isolated crimes, but it simulates gangs, mafia and corrupt official hierarchies, so you're gathering evidence slowly from a lot of people and places about the top fish, with things like wire taps, photos of meetings, etc., things that require the criminal patterns to be simulated and actually carried out logically ... like mules pick up drugs and deliver them to the crack houses, or the soldiers use a code language with each other. I think the process of putting that kind of thing in the game would also make it a better game.
But for what it is now I still like the whole process of gathering evidence to solve a crime, wonky as it is. And it is getting better with each update. I still put it on my best of list, more for what it promises to be than what it is right now though.
Renault on 3/1/2024 at 16:54
Great year for gaming. These were my favorites that I actually played a significant amount of (no particular order):
Tchia - Really cute Zelda/Windwaker/Breath of the Wild clone, it made me happy.
Dredge - Who knew fishing could be so frightening. I loved the exploration, the variety of fish you can catch, and just the creepy mood of the game in general.
HROT - One of the best old school inspired shooters I've played. Great soundtrack too.
System Shock Remake - What can I say, they did an amazing job with this after so much skepticism.
Amnesia The Bunker - One of Frictional's best, up there with Soma. Lots of replay value. Legit scary.
Starfield - Just scratched the surface with this, but even that's over 20 hours of play. Got the feeling I'll be playing this on and off for years, especially with mods.
Alan Wake 2 - Several warts here, but I'm enjoying the story and the weirdness and the foreboding atmosphere.
Lunacid - This was a surprise, discovered it a few weeks ago. Great chill dungeon crawler with awesome retro graphics. I think I put 30+ hours into it inside of 10 days.
Assassin’s Creed Nexus VR - Another surprise. Never played an AC game before, but this version is super (I think the 1st person/VR helps). Large cityscapes to sneak around, rooftops, parkouring, assassinations, thieving, so much fun.
Thief The Black Parade - The best FM package ever released. No reason not to play and savor it.
Special Mentions:
Gloomwood - This was on my list last year, mainly for it's potential. But after all the updates this year, and new areas they added, including a large city & market section, this is a real game now. And it's an awesome ode to Thief, but with it's own unique personality. Completely worth buying now, even if you're against Early Access stuff.
Thief Fan Missions - Black Parade is obviously the holy grail, but there were other good FMs released in 2023. Check out Sunken Library, The Scholar’s Hand, Condemned Catalog, and Towers of Twilight if you still have the itch.