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Tis the season...

I haven't played many 2019 games yet and I haven't yet finished any so... yeah The Outer Worlds - Still at the beginning of the second planet. Not a bad game but just not my jam and maybe I'll come back to it some day. 7/10 MechWarrior 5: Mercenaries - Dropped this until mods and patches come out that may fix some/most of my concerns. 6/10 Age of Wonders: Planetfall - I enjoyed the first map I played but campaigns where you bounce between the factions are a big NO in my book. Potential is there but I will probably never touch again which is kinda sad. 5/10 Games that I've played for the first time in 2019 Battle Brothers - This is the only new game that I've played this year that I've had no trouble getting into. Like Hurl, the graphics were the biggest barrier to entry for me as I found them off-putting at first but once I got past that it was easily my favorite new game I played this year. 9/10 Atom RPG - I didn't care for the camera and my game stalled out right after leaving the first area. I keep meaning to go back to it and then I forget it exists. 5/10 I may have missed one or two others and I also bought several others that I still haven't gotten around to yet

I have done this!

More Pillars goodness last few days I was able to clear two levels of Endless Paths some wilderness areas between Caed Nua and Defiance Bay, and built first few upgrades in my new stronghold I have arrived at Raedric’s Hold and cleared the “roofs” of “badguys” I quit just after I found some priest robes, because it was to late in the evening also three more parts of my Let’s Play uploaded into my Youtube channel, and a very big thank to Katphood for becoming my first ever subscriber Link to playlist in my signature

Hmm, let's see: Resident Evil 2 Remake - Mr X is a bit easy to game with how safe zones messed with his AI, without safe zones he would've been immensely frustrating I think, so he could've been implemented better. The police HQ is the highlight of the game and most of the areas afterwards are "just" good instead of great. These are my biggest complaints, otherwise Capcom did a great job and I'm leaning towards calling this one my personal GOTY. Also RE 3 hype and everything. Devil May Cry V - Switching between characters almost every mission and the simple one button change in the aerial combo throws off my muscle memory completely and I haven't finished it yet, but it was great fun as far as I got. Capcom's been real good this year, I hope they keep it up. Plague Tale: Innocence - It's pretty, it has varied gameplay (at least to my tastes), a mostly good story. Hugo's mental age jumping up and down like a rubber ball is a weak point but it didn't ruin the game, graphics are surprisingly pretty and it's a very atmospheric game. Good job Asobo. Guild Wars 2 - Been playing on and off since beta and while the content is arguable (and argued), it"s still fun to play when the game lets you, while the story is pretty consistently good, though like every open world game it suffers from a disjointed mood between story beats. Dying Light - Base game: amazing. I've had a lot of fun playing it, the story was unoriginal but well told. Then the DLC introduced a fun car you can ride in and a Mass Effect-grade dumpster fire ending that makes me somewhat fearful they'll pull the same crap in the sequel. Remnant: From the Ashes - Decent Dark Souls clone, fun to play but it's shorter than DS and feels emptier too. Warframe - First you enjoy the gameplay, then the grindplay kills any urge to touch it. Halo: Reach remaster - Decent game, but based on this installment I don't know how Halo ever got as popular as it is. Trying to work up the mood to play Life is Strange 2 but I just don't feel like it and the overt politicking/tribalism I've heard of/seen is cringeworthy. Witcher 1-3 - First one holds up surprisingly well despite it's age, second was pretty good too, if a bit too challenging at a few points *cough* Act 1 boss *cough*. I've put the third game on hold, I can see why this one is declared game of the decade by others but for me the open world is holding it back with either filler quests (treasure hunts), formulaic monster hunts and dull combat thanks to everything being below my level and still dying in 3 hits even when they're not. On a brighter note it's refreshing that CDPR actually, visibly had an overarching plot in mind for the three games and they mesh together in this sense really well, unlike other games and series that announce themselves as trilogies or several season long with no idea where they want to take the story. Usually I believe genres aren't better or worse when compared to one another but open world just feels like a design frame that does more harm than good. I already avoid everything roguelike because interesting concepts and fun execution don't mean jack when I can't finish or play the game thanks to difficulty spikes and randomized success. Same with open world, the disjointed narrative, boring gameplay loops and general timewasting just kill it for me.

Won't post screenshots, as I've uninstalled most games. I'll put the focus on 2019 release games since I've actually played some, with a couple of honourable mentions for other games played in 2019. Metro Exodus I've been pretty negative about it elsewhere so I'll focus a bit more on the positives here. It's certainly pretty but was almost completely smooth, nearly bug free, the gunplay is good too and well written enough that I can actually identify pretty much the entire crew. The stealth gameplay is worse than Thief certainly, but equally certainly not actively bad as it too often is in other games and works pretty logically. While I prefer a 'proper' open world system like Stalker(s) and their open world sections are a bit too small for my tastes they've done a good job with the environment. They are Billions I bought this mostly because I liked Lords of Xulima and it was the same devs, but it's a pretty good game on its own merits. It's a very typical 'survival' builder though, you're likely to lose the first playthrough of any level since you don't know what is coming or where the resources are or just where best or how much defence to invest in but will usually fly through a second with lessons learned. Dawn of Man A good time killer builder game probably best compared to Banished, and prehistoric man is an interesting and little covered time period. It's pretty well balanced and still being actively added to, if there's one major criticism it's that- much like I found with Banished- you tend to end up playing every game the same way which reduces replayability. The Outer Worlds Yeah, it's good, though not the 2nd coming. Think I described it as being a sort of archetypal 8/10 game and I'd stick with that. Doesn't really do anything superbly but at the same time doesn't do anything badly either. I had horrendous level loading crashes but it was still an easy game to finish. And Honourable mentions for non 2019 games played this year Prey (2017) A worthy successor to System Shock (2) and while I thought it dropped the ball a bit in the latter third of the game- ultimately too much backtracking and too little enemy variation- it would come very close to being a top 10 game of all time for me despite that. Frostpunk A builder that oozes atmosphere, interesting setting and is well designed and balanced. Rather like This War of Mine it has some... false/ gamey feeling moral choices and some well thought out ones. And rather like They are Billions you will stuff up the first playthrough of a scenario most of the time and it's a lot easier once you know what is coming; but as a 'flaw' that's hardly limited to those two games. Egypt: Old Kingdom Bit of an odd one for me but I really enjoyed this and found it almost infinitely replayable. Certainly not a typical strategy builder like Pharaoh or Children of the Nile and it feels rather like a directish adaptation of a board game or a FB/ Flash game but I love ancient Egypt and the simplistic feeling gameplay gave surprising depth. Probably a bit too deterministic for my liking overall (ie doesn't matter how well you're running your empire, it will fall apart when scripted to) but that's just the game's style. I also enjoyed the previous game in the series. Atom RPG Very much a direct Fallout spiritual successor, considerably more so than TOW. Not as memorable or gripping as Fallout and has some of its flaws too (hello clunky pop culture references) but it's clearly a labour of love. Assassins Creed Odyssey which I'm not 100% sure I played this year rather than last, but I'm adding it because I loved the atmosphere and I really do have to go back and finish it if only because I suspect I'll be sticking a knife through Cleon sometime. I also never thought I'd see a AAA game where history is (more or less) respected and I'd fully believe the writers had actually read Thucydides rather than just trawled wikipedia. Surviving Mars Last but not least, another flawed but enjoyable strategy builder. I could write an awful lot about this game's flaws but I did enjoy playing it a lot so won't except for the main one- lack of challenge and content in the later game. It must have been awfully, er, barren content wise without before terraforming was added since most of that takes place in the later parts. I'd also have to note that it's likely my most played game by time is actually Stardew Valley, probably for the 2nd year in a row.

My sweet old girl Bela making the most of a cold and rainy afternoon.

Congrats, TN. And thanks, Azdeus ... I'm not googling the baby poop terms. That's the type of stuff that is a need-to-know thing, and I don't need to know. Unrelated: Sleepiness, laziness, blue-funk+boredom moods, access to online munchie buying. I think I gained 4 pounds over a month. Usually in winter the video game diet has me losing weight in winter but no video game obsession this year. I need to tie my hands behind my back or something.

The game does actually keep track of your old reputation/decisions a bit in a relevant way, at least in one major way I've found.

This idea is completely preposterous. What single person in their right mind would ever think Domino's pizza is the best, let alone a group of people all agreeing on it?

The only 2019 release I played was: Death Stranding It was ok. I liked the setting but the story wasn't anything groundbreaking, as a matter of fact, it was all over the place. It really showed that these guys had a limited time and budget. I enjoyed the gameplay, save for the parts were I had to deal with the tacked on 'combat'. I enjoyed traversing the world though. Oddly enough, the part that enjoyed the most was, well...delivering packages. Big surprise! As for non-2019 releases: SOMA My personal GOTY 2019. The thing is, I went in blind. If you haven't played SOMA yet, don't bother reading the description. This is what I call a good story. This is a fine example of how you can make the gamer relate to characters. I also liked the puzzles. My only gripes with the game? a.it had bugs, I had to reload a few times...on the PS4 b. the stealth was obviously annoying at times but with the new update, you can 'turn it off'. Batman: The Telltale Series Well I'll be damned, I liked this! You want a gritty Batman game/movie? You got it. This is as gritty as it gets and I liked it. If you have any appreciation for Batman, give this a try. A very mature story that keeps you interested all the way to the end. What Remains of Edith Finch A very short experience, but one that I won't forget anytime soon. It's all about the things that you don't expect to happen...this game scared me. Not by jump-scares mind you, but by making me realize what is all possible in this scary world we live in. Resident Evil 0 I finally got around to finishing this. Sure, the item management WILL eventually get on your nerves, but that grim and foreboding feeling you get by exploring the mansion was something that kept me interested in the game. I guess it is also worth mentioning that I played the game on the easy difficulty setting. Didn't feel like getting stuck halfway through because the game can be pretty hard at times. Quantum Break Not bad...not bad at all. Certainly more enjoyable compared to Alan Wake. I liked the combat and gunplay and story certainly had it's moments. I will give it another go at some point and see how it plays out with different choices. Yup, that's about it.

The games I've completed and liked in 2019. GreedFall. It was a quite good action-RPG. The story, combat, controls and the absence of DLC made it one of the best games of this year for me. Omensight. An action-adventure, where you repeat one day and save/kill/use four characters in order to discover the truth and prevent the apocalypse. Lucah: Born of a Dream. A Souls-like hack&slash. I did not quite get the plot, but the combat was engaging and the controls comfortable. BattleTech. A turn-based tactics with RPG elements. The Surge. A Souls-like. Death's Gambit. A Metroidvania with RPG elements. Yuppie Psycho. A horror-adventure. The Talos Principle. A puzzle game. Dark Souls: Remastered. It improved the controls, thus it is ultimately better, than PtD. Devil May Cry V. It was exactly the sequel I wanted. Now with better mouse support.

Sturdy Riposte rogue with Badgradr's Barricade is really good. Thrust of Tattered Veils (unlimited procs per encouter off of bash-crits) benefits from Deathblows (not Sneak Attack), so that's +100% dmg.

Taft. Ike was OK. Like Gromnir said almost all of them have positives and negatives. Who was the last good Democrat? Truman? JFK? Or Jackson? Plenty of positives and negatives for all of them. I'll tell you one thing though. Wilson was the worst President in US history bar none. I know Polk, Buchannan, and Harding are usually singled out for that honor. I expect Trump will join their ranks someday. But none of them has damaged the nation and the world so much as Woodrow f-----g Wilson. God damn the day Teddy Roosevelt decided to run for a third term. But for that Taft would have been re-elected, WWI ends differently. WWII might not happen at all or at least is very different. Mexico likely develops much quicker. And the beginning of the age of the "imperial presidency" in the US gets kicked down the road a ways. F--k Woodrow Wilson.

couple disagreements from your criticisms: am less ambivalent 'bout the world map. didn't like deadfire 'cause it necessarily led to a multitude o' forgettable and brief encounters. am knowing obsidian worked kinda hard to make all those rando world map encounters unique. *shrug* the expansions were a saving grace for deadfire overall, as bow and fs provided a couple well developed areas which were allowing for more meaningful narrative and increasing complex gameplay options. the world map one-off encounters which boosted sense o' exploration, by comparison, were sad and anemic little wastes o' developer efforts even when done well. am also gonna disagree with #18 and the boss-battle impressions. yeah, we did get bogged down in sss, but that were a matter o' choice. sss were akin to making the basement o' the ice temple in iwd2 an entire expansion. nobody forces Gromnir to overcome every sss challenge, but... completionist is gonna complete, yes? that said, other than a couple quibbles, we saw deadfire boss battles, in general, as much superior to poe fare. have kinda spoken 'bout this previous, so won't dwell. am gonna particular observe our agreement with 14 and vo observations. am knowing the vo for deadfire were a big selling point and obsidian had to pay extra to do so. having full vo meant it were much more difficult for the developers to make changes to quests, but the tragic part is the vo quality didn't even enhance our gameplay experience much if at all. meh in fact, am thinking the expository narration were a bit more tedious because it were vo. if we would have quick read through the text as we did in other crpgs, is likely we wouldn't have noticed how much we disliked the heavy-handed deadfire exposition. 'cause it were vo narration, we actual bothered to listen to all such... at least we did so the first time we played deadfire. eventual had our clockwork orange moment enduring deadfire narration. no real standouts from the vo for companions, though we kinda liked serafen and am believing xoti's oklahoma bit were appropriate even if it were annoying. the sidekicks were a non-factor for us until the expansions and then only ydwin truly got on our nerves... 'cause nobody but leonard nimoy has ever genuine pulled off the vulan schtick. obsidian spent loads o' money on vo. developer needed embrace inherent design limits when utilizing full vo. for all such cost and effort... meh. what a waste. HA! Good Fun!

I've never finished the first game, because the "look around in the environment"-puzzles were so damn boring.

Wow, this looks amazing. Certainly a next-gen game? I hadn't played the first yet, but it's been on my list. I'm always a sucker for Norse paganism and dark Celtic occultism. Hopefully the M$ funding allows them to offer a longer richer experience. Also Heilung.

^Me too!

Been slacking a bit on taking screenshots, but since this thread's been lacking a certain something now, here we go: When playing solo I sometimes just teleport between bases, the neat thing is that the old location doesn't immediately unload, so you get a glimpse of how cool things could look with increase draw distance. The beams in the distance are caused by my Tier 3 Derketo and Set temples in my main base, usually these get unloaded (and indeed, they will be unloaded once the engine catches up), but for a brief moment one can get to enjoy what could have been... I've also been working on my fourth base now (hmm, come to think of it, I don't think I've posted any screens of No3, heh), since it's in a rather incomplete state here's a a distance shot (basically only part of the initial sandstone mockup is done, stability is iffy too, hence the holes). Figured I'd try my hand at building a pyramid, it's pretty big at 41x41 foundations, so yeah, will see where this ends Also not liking the new dodge changes, combined with the stagger changes from a few patches ago this makes it impossible to solo quite a few of the bosses, forcing even more reliance on the stand back, try to stay away, and let thrall fight "combat" style.

Thank you all for your review-ish listings of games played! These words above I wholeheartedly agree with. Assassin's I mostly played last year, but also this year, and Prey last year, but Zoraptor and I seem to see eye to eye on these two titles, and my most played game this year is probably Minecraft. I'll have to get back to you on the rather few games I played, and most of them I put away far too soon, and several were older games in my backlog. @Katphood And, yup, what remains of Edith Finch is a neat gem, a game like no other. I wasn't that scared, but it was a mind trip of quite some magnitude, that's for sure, like being in several dreams woven into one shifting entity.

Agree. Hiravias has a great Spiritshift form (Stelgaer) which is awesome for dps. At high levels (with Avenging Storm active and maxed Wildstrike + Wildstrike Belt) he can do more single target dps than a Rogue (while shifted) while at the same time do massive AoE-CC and- dmg with Relentless Storm and Plague of Insects and the like. Also great fun to play. Only thing is: if you have a lot of micromanagement-intense characters like monks and shifting druids it can become too much. So I often put in a chanter or paladin or something into the mix who usually can function well without lots of micromanagement.

Durance - I like to put Hand and Key armour on him to try and make sure he can cast the Prayer to make everyone immune since his Dex isn't great. His weapons are mostly coordinating / debuffing as not typically attacking them. Hirivais - Really good with a Spirit shift build. Use spells to prepare then send him in, late game he swings fast and hard (I saw >150 per hit including lash). Natures Mark, Taste of the Hunt, Returning Storm, Form of the Delgeman are the spells I select as per encounter, casting FotD > RS > NM then decide if time is to go into spirit shift or if need more spells first. Pretty funny when rogues etc dash past front line to him only to get smacked down in a few swings. Pallegina - Heavy Tank with shield like you say, I like Coordinating weapons to help buff the damage dealers since won't be taking lots of damage abilities/talents. I like a 2 hander such as a Estoc as 2nd weapon since typically when i'd have her switch its to take down a "boss" with high DR. Kana - Dragon Thrashed build is great and I found it works well with the Barb. Kana chips away and debuffs/buffs as needed setting up the barb. Fire scrolls + enchanted weapon and maybe a extra range 2 hander so as a 2nd liner able to hit over the front line in tight areas, especially early as he will be squishy. Stick Combusting Wounds on top and everything melts that isn't (practically) immune to fire. Just make sure to setup the chants correctly so they stack to see the true power. Barbarian - 2 hander with Blood Thirst is fun and simple. Boeroer's gone into detail on weapons already so i'll just say that a build similar to the Cauterizer can still work great without Firebrand. I did a death godlike and didn't go fire focused. Just try to maximize damage so something in carnage area dies after being chipped away by the group. Try to attack the "strong" enemies with the barb and let carnage hit the weak ones so you really hurt the strong enemy before all the squishy ones are dead. Wizard - I typically prefer Druid/Ciphers so i've never done a melee wizard. I will leave that to others though it does sound interesting. The main thing I would point out is that you have nothing to really hit enemy wizards/archers/gunners. Even with good deflection and DR you can't really tank some of the groups for long (won't spoil with specifics). I'd look at your setup spells from Druid/Wizard and see if you can blind or just kill them with ranged spells before going into melee mode. Most movement abilities come at higher levels to get to them with a melee assuming you won't be able to just run at them past enemy melee. In this group i'd prefer to have the Barb hacking through the enemy from the frontline than jumping into there backline. I think the melee wizard and Hirivais are doing the same job so i'd only have one of them in my group at a time and instead have a Fighter/Monk who could front line whilst spells are cast then dive there damage dealers. I agree with @Boeroer to that a monk is probably the best Melee class, especially in the early game. I literally just finished my PC Monk run on PotD and was very fun, so much damage from a massive tank. I'd avoided them before because I didn't like to micro casting Torment's Reach so much but I would just turn on/off the AI to do it when wanted.

Whyyyyy didn't I read the whole sentence before I googled...?

player impact on the deadfire resolution is 'bout equal to the chair to the left o' the narrator in the 'bove included scene. got a radical change to the status quo and you, the chair, sits impotent as the world tumbles into cataclysm. end? whatever. in any event, wormerine is correct 'cause the deadfire protagonist has as much claim to saving the world as does that chair in fight club. real kicker is fight club ending is less wtf-inducing than deadfire. HA! Good Fun!

I would have said TLJ since Rian Johnson obviously hated Star Wars; but then again no one hates Star Wars like Star Wars fans.

Just finished it - glorious. Can't wait for the DLC ... well, actually, I can and will.

This is the hell timeline.

DIdnt know where to post congrats but congrats @thelee i assume this is you.

Thanks, Obsidian. Really heartwarming. Just don't forget the modding tools this time, ok? Save me another chair, previous one is kind of charred.

Any chance of some HDR support next year too?

Oh yeah !! That's the best christmas gift you could make ! Thank you guys, can't wait to play it. Keep doing great work and improve. I'm glad I voted for your game, you deserve our love.

I'm really looking forward to the Steam/GOG release and finally playing the game. Hopefully there will be an ultimate edition of some kind. Since this game appears to have beat expectations perhaps Microsoft will bankroll a bigger sequel.

Outer Worlds DLC?! Christmas just came early. And so did I.

So true and the team deserves all the awards they can get, for a superb and solid RPG game. It was a no-brainer when I voted for TOW in Best Narrative, Best Performance - Ashly Burch, Best RPG, and Game of the Year nominations at The Game Awards. This so cool news! Can't wait to see what you guys have in store for us .

No, thank you Obsidian for your continued support of The Outer Worlds, and congratulations on your achievements with it so far. I'm sure we are all really looking forward to the upcoming DLC and are excited for any news you share about it.

I already can't wait. See you then ! Meanwhile, a certain colony has an appointment with the end of my big iron

I think you might be into something. Indeed I am sometimes looking up the right words. I write a lot in English in my work, but I need to speak in different language lately very seldom. One of the reasons I’ve stopped doing no commentary videos for myself is, that I simply need to train speaking, and this way it feels for me OK. I have fun with games, and still train the English conversation, even though I am only speaking to myself My best English improvement was during my Vanilla WoW “career” when I was raiding with English speaking guild, and they decided to make me Warlock officer and later Raid Leader, so I had to speak all the time but that was very long time ago, so I feel little bit rusty

First EA killed Darkspore single player, leaving me without a game. Then Squeenix killed their shop, leaving those of us who had a game on their site without games. Now gearbox is killing single player Battleborn? Yeah, I am going to limit my game purchases and concentrate on getting my money's worth out of what I got, while I still got it.

I have to say I’ve just bought Outer Worlds. So far somewhat underwhelming. Combat and stealth are kinda meh. The enemies are even tethered to the their spawn locations, so run 20-30ft away and suddenly they have a mind wipe and forget about you and run back to the spawn location. AI is pretty dumb and can’t seem to spot the player (standing) at 20ft away. hopefully the game will come into its own. I think what a lot of folks clearly like is the dialog options and choices... but the rest of the game is so far pretty average.