2018 Community Game of the Year

mrtomaytohead wrote:
Eleima wrote:

I'm working on it. Promise.

Working on what? Finishing the list, or waiting for Jonman to die?

Please don't let my impending demise get in the way of your being accomplished.

Your demise is an accomplishment.

In any event, I'm going to try to get back to Witcher 3 and play it substantively this time so I can rank it in a GOTY list. Need to know about Ciri (Siri)? I did like its questing system, at least the stuff they had in the beginning zone. So it will receive at least one vote in 2019!

And now I'm imagining a game in which we have to kill Jonman. It'll require dressing up as a pilot and then getting drunk while riding a pink flamingo. You'll need to play the level to understand.

Why not both?

LarryC wrote:

And now I'm imagining a game in which we have to kill Jonman. It'll require dressing up as a pilot and then getting drunk while riding a pink flamingo. You'll need to play the level to understand.

Jonman confirmed as Hitman 2’s February elusive target.

LarryC wrote:

And now I'm imagining a game in which we have to kill Jonman. It'll require dressing up as a pilot and then getting drunk while riding a pink flamingo. You'll need to play the level to understand.

Sounds like I have a new Unity project to work on.

IMAGE(http://achievementgenerator.net/cache/5c38b24274b30.png)

I think we have a new mini game to play at 2019 PAX West! Get Jonman! Or will he get us? Who knows?!?

Also, I need to play the Witcher as well.

Now that Jonman's dead I need some new banter. I've been thinking about how I rarely go back and replay games I've completed, and how that differs from the way I re-watch movies and re-read books. I'm curious to know if anyone replayed games in 2018 and what your experience was like. I mentioned in my list that I replayed Hollow Knight (about five times) and the Witcher 3; it was interesting to compare my first experiences with later ones. You pick up on things you didn't see the first time, etc.

The only games I replayed this year were BioShock and Torchlight.

This was my first time fully completing BioShock since the game first came out in 2007. I had made a few aborted replay attempts over the years, but couldn't get far. This time I played on PC, and I think that contributed a lot to my enjoyment this time. The movement/aiming on console always felt a little off to me, which is probably why I couldn't bring myself to get further. Being 10+ years since it came out, it was nice to be reminded what the last third or so of the game was like. I had completely forgotten Diane McClintock's character arc. I also liked seeing the Little Sister indoctrination areas. The final boss fight was still garbage, but it only took a few minutes with the right combination of ammo and plasmids.

Torchlight was one I had played a few times, never completed, and then totally forgot about until after completing Titan Quest. I was still in the mood for some ARPGing, and since Torchlight was already in my library, I figured I'd make another attempt at it.

It was a surprising experience, and I finally realized why I could never complete it previously: the controls aren't very good. Clicking on things, whether to attack them, or pick up loot, or whatever, was very imprecise. Additionally, once a ton of abilities and particle effects are firing off, it's impossible to really track what's happening on screen. I didn't really understand this until having played Titan Quest, and much tighter feeling game overall. Still, I DID finish Torchlight finally, and am confident I won't need to go back to it. I fired up Torchlight 2 after that, but realized I was all ARPG'd out after those two games. I never completed it either, so maybe one day I'll give it a go.

I replayed Bulletstorm this past year, still one of the most fun FPS games out there.

danopian wrote:

Now that Jonman's dead

IMAGE(https://media.tenor.com/images/621d0e1b10c2cb0b51cfe20b1f6807cc/raw)

RE-play games? I barely finish 'em the first time.

danopian wrote:

Now that Jonman's dead I need some new banter. I've been thinking about how I rarely go back and replay games I've completed, and how that differs from the way I re-watch movies and re-read books. I'm curious to know if anyone replayed games in 2018 and what your experience was like. I mentioned in my list that I replayed Hollow Knight (about five times) and the Witcher 3; it was interesting to compare my first experiences with later ones. You pick up on things you didn't see the first time, etc.

I actually wrote a lot about this in the Pile thread. I've found replaying games is a great use of time for some of the reasons you mention. It's just fun going back and experiencing something again, and helps contextualize why you ended up falling in love with games when you were young. It was all the familiarity you were able to develop with levels and game mechanics by replaying them over and over.

I dipped into an awful lot of games but never finished, such as The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess. Since I'd already beaten them it doesn't stress me out to leave them incomplete.

I did, however, play through all of Tomb Raider, Rise of the Tomb Raider, Darksiders, and Darksiders II to prepare for their respective sequels, and it was an overall positive experience. Not for Shadow of the Tomb Raider, though, which might have seemed better had I not played its superior predecessors first. But Darksiders has firmly entrenched itself in my list of all time favorites (for better or worse) while Darksiders II I have a better understanding of its failures.

Looking forward to trying to do the same with a few more games this year.

I spent all of 2018 vaguely intending to replay Shadow Tactics, which I loved in 2017 and which offers some really interesting achievement challenges. Maybe I should try that this weekend.

Of course now I vaguely intend to replay or finish virtually every game from my 2018 list...

Jonman wrote:

IMAGE(http://achievementgenerator.net/cache/5c38b24274b30.png)

DID YOU KNOW THAT JONMAN IS SURVIVED BY HIS WIFE AND HIS GIRLFRIEND

Wait, he has a wife and girlfriend?

ccesarano wrote:
danopian wrote:

Now that Jonman's dead I need some new banter. I've been thinking about how I rarely go back and replay games I've completed, and how that differs from the way I re-watch movies and re-read books. I'm curious to know if anyone replayed games in 2018 and what your experience was like. I mentioned in my list that I replayed Hollow Knight (about five times) and the Witcher 3; it was interesting to compare my first experiences with later ones. You pick up on things you didn't see the first time, etc.

I actually wrote a lot about this in the Pile thread. I've found replaying games is a great use of time for some of the reasons you mention. It's just fun going back and experiencing something again, and helps contextualize why you ended up falling in love with games when you were young. It was all the familiarity you were able to develop with levels and game mechanics by replaying them over and over.

I dipped into an awful lot of games but never finished, such as The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess. Since I'd already beaten them it doesn't stress me out to leave them incomplete.

Getting off the release hype cycle and stop feeding the addiction is healthy.

SallyNasty wrote:

Wait, he has a wife and girlfriend?

It's like you didn't even know who he was!

For replaying:

Beyond Good and Evil is still good. The PC controls are still horrible.

I can understand why people didn't like Resident Evil 3 very much when it came out. It was my first one about 17 years ago. I played 2 for the first time and then Code Veronica just recently with 3 in between. I think it's still a fun game, but it's very similar to 2 and the two on either side are much larger in scope. It did have the quick turn around and dodge.

Chrono Trigger is still fun, but I still get overwhelmed when they let you choose where to go and stop.

I like the setting in Mass Effect much more than Andromeda. I started the first bit of Mass Effect after finishing Andromeda and it was fun to talk to all the different creatures on the citadel. There are a lot of really good things in the first game even if the later ones, Andromeda included, made a lot of it better. I didn't keep playing the game.

PikaPomelo wrote:

For replaying:

Beyond Good and Evil is still good. The PC controls are still horrible.

I can understand why people didn't like Resident Evil 3 very much when it came out. It was my first one about 17 years ago. I played 2 for the first time and then Code Veronica just recently with 3 in between. I think it's still a fun game, but it's very similar to 2 and the two on either side are much larger in scope. It did have the quick turn around and dodge.

Oh, man, do I love RE3. Nemesis was my favorite of the first three. I always felt it went under the radar back then, somehow. I got it as a gift from one of my aunts and played it so much. I thought it was the perfect gameplay mix, even though, story-wise, it really didn't advance the main plot of RE as a whole much at all.

I replay Civ 6 and Endless Space 2 all the time! Wait, does that even count?

LarryC wrote:

I replay Civ 6 and Endless Space 2 all the time! Wait, does that even count?

I treat single wins in a strategy game as a completion for my sanity and for record-keeping. Which reminds me that I replayed Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri this past year, the best strategy game of all time, and had so much fun. Yang and Miriam are still jerks that make me feel all warm inside to annihilate into tiny pieces. The story beats are still interesting and evocative. The topography system and empathy/maturity system for native vs. human battles are still really creative. I've played it enough over the years that I still take a lot of it for granted, so there are a lot of redundant systems that I've learned to not even touch (unit building, bad policies and techs, etc.), but I still find it to be more immediately engrossing than most other strategy games I've played since.

garion333 wrote:
ccesarano wrote:
danopian wrote:

Now that Jonman's dead I need some new banter. I've been thinking about how I rarely go back and replay games I've completed, and how that differs from the way I re-watch movies and re-read books. I'm curious to know if anyone replayed games in 2018 and what your experience was like. I mentioned in my list that I replayed Hollow Knight (about five times) and the Witcher 3; it was interesting to compare my first experiences with later ones. You pick up on things you didn't see the first time, etc.

I actually wrote a lot about this in the Pile thread. I've found replaying games is a great use of time for some of the reasons you mention. It's just fun going back and experiencing something again, and helps contextualize why you ended up falling in love with games when you were young. It was all the familiarity you were able to develop with levels and game mechanics by replaying them over and over.

I dipped into an awful lot of games but never finished, such as The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess. Since I'd already beaten them it doesn't stress me out to leave them incomplete.

Getting off the release hype cycle and stop feeding the addiction is healthy.

I'm gonna put this here cause I don't know where else to put it:

Gamer Burnout

garion333 wrote:

I'm gonna put this here cause I don't know where else to put it:

Gamer Burnout

I read that yesterday. I found the article interesting, but the linked article on millennial burnout even more interesting.

I've mentioned it a while back, but this thread and other factors have alleviated a lot of that for me. I do just a bit of chasing the current / future state by watching some quick looks on Giant Bomb and reading the occasional thing on Waypoint or video on Game Maker's toolkit. I spend as much time playing games that are a few years old or discovering things from many years ago.

I saw a lot of mentions of people enjoying older games through threads here and they made it to their game of the year lists. Do you feel like that was something different and helpful?

What other things have people done?

Here’s hoping the long weekend will give the judges time to make a final tally. Very excited to see the results!

The French don't get Martin Luther King Jr. Day off for some reason

carrotpanic wrote:

The French don't get Martin Luther King Jr. Day off for some reason

I forgot she’s still in France.

Also, regarding gamer burnout, I think the biggest reason for it is if you need to keep on top of every trend as a fan or for work. Playing at my pace and being a year behind the gaming trend has kept me from not burning out, as well as trying not to overplay games and limiting my time.

jdzappa wrote:

I forgot she’s still in France.

Still? Yeah, I'm not coming back to the States. Don't think immigration and the current government would be too happy with that, anyhow.
I'm almost done, but I've been going through a really rough patch this week and haven't progressed as much as I'd hoped. I don't have custody this weekend, though, so I should be able to wrap things up between cleaning and checkbook balancing before I go back to work on Monday.

For the record, the tally is the easy part. I've known who the "winners" are for a while now. It's the banners and write up and quotes that are the most time consuming.

No worries Eleima. Sorry the week was rough. Looking forward to seeing what you put together whenever you are ready.

Eleima wrote:
jdzappa wrote:

I forgot she’s still in France.

Still? Yeah, I'm not coming back to the States. Don't think immigration and the current government would be too happy with that, anyhow.
I'm almost done, but I've been going through a really rough patch this week and haven't progressed as much as I'd hoped. I don't have custody this weekend, though, so I should be able to wrap things up between cleaning and checkbook balancing before I go back to work on Monday.

For the record, the tally is the easy part. I've known who the "winners" are for a while now. It's the banners and write up and quotes that are the most time consuming.

No worries at all. I totally get being behind on creative projects. Thanks for your hard work and looking forward to the final list.