GWJ Conference Call Episode 585

Part Two of Our Games of The Year and More!

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This week the whole crew reveals the rest of their top 10 games of 2017 and more!

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Our final top ten lists will go up with the GWJ writers top ten write-ups in a few days!

00:01:40 Biggest Disappointments of 2017
00:15:50 Top 10 Games of 2017 (Part Two)

Amoebic, we're always happy to see you in Overwatch any night of the week.

But elysium needs to get back in with us.

So, Sand's kids are in tune with my mental wavelength. Terraria and Nintendo. I've put in 70 hours on Terraria recently. Ok, now that I type that, I feel bad about how much time that is, even though I know I'm typing this while in the same post talking about the Game King.

I've gone through the journey regarding Nintendo that Corey went through over the past year over the course of the two days I've had the Mini SNES.

Regarding FFXV: I want to defend the world, but now that several months have passed I can't really figure out how to explain why I loved it so much. There's something I really enjoy about being in the world, but I can't really say what drew me to it.

The discussion of Prey is so interesting to me. I played the demo and it convinced me there was a really good game narrative there, but it also convinced me I was going to find it unpleasant to play. The opening is phenomenal. I really like the sort of meta-comedy in the tutorial section where every other game applauds you for following the most basic instructions, and here they are obviously humoring you. It was a really engaging experience until... the shooting happened.

I am wondering if Arkane is really bad at configuring shooter controls to a console controller and that makes the difference. Dishonored gets a pass because I do anything but shooting in it (unless I'm sneakily lining up a dart, in which case I have time to aim), but when I had to use guns as a primary weapon in the Prey demo it just began to collapse. The Mimes had a tendency to wander that open area before morphing, there was a random challenging baddie wandering around, and I just completely lost interest in actually playing the game. I was not impressed with the glue gun.

I'm wondering if I was more of a PC gamer there'd be a difference, as I would not be surprised if this is a game that's much better with keyboard and mouse regardless of personal preference and comfort.

As for Nier: Automata... bah, you gave up when things get truly interesting! But as I've discussed with others, the secret to Route B is hacking, and if you aren't big on the twinstick-shooter elements then it's going to be a trial. But keep in mind Route C is not a repeat, and takes everything into a new direction. "Where the real Nier begins" etc. etc.

One of the more unusual things I was thinking when I was listening to Julian and Shawn (and everyone else) talking about Horizon Zero Dawn was when people wondered how it was a great "open world" game in the Ubisoft vein made by Guerilla Games. Obviously, my own perspective is rather different. It has some elements of those games in small amounts, which it turns out is good in exactly those amounts. But the bulk of the game for me was third-person shooter. It makes perfect sense that Guerilla would make a good shooter out of an open world game. In my mind map, it's very close to Infamous and not at all close to Far Cry.

ccesarano wrote:

I am wondering if Arkane is really bad at configuring shooter controls to a console controller and that makes the difference. Dishonored gets a pass because I do anything but shooting in it (unless I'm sneakily lining up a dart, in which case I have time to aim), but when I had to use guns as a primary weapon in the Prey demo it just began to collapse. The Mimes had a tendency to wander that open area before morphing, there was a random challenging baddie wandering around, and I just completely lost interest in actually playing the game. I was not impressed with the glue gun.

I'm wondering if I was more of a PC gamer there'd be a difference, as I would not be surprised if this is a game that's much better with keyboard and mouse regardless of personal preference and comfort.

Yep. I'll bet this is the case. I'm deep into Prey at the moment. It feels 100% geared to using a keyboard and mouse. That said, maybe it's just because I played the Bioshock games on PC for the most part. The combat ends up being a puzzle of how to use your limited resources, which I find quite fun since you can quicksave.

Any chance there is a link to everyone's top 10? I just started listening to this show, and I loved everyone's recommendations, but I listen at work, so I can't stop to write down all the games that sound interesting. It'd be super helpful! <3