2019 In Games (and Screenshots): a (random) end of year review

[melkathi]

2019 saw quite a few games, and I think I ignored most of them. My personal gaming highlight was finally finishing Chaos Gate after 20 years.

Of games that released this year, it seems I played 12. And an expansion.

So in random order (because the term random has to appear somewhere in these kind of topics on this forum) :

 

Breach was this year's grand failure. A multiplayer game with one player taking on the role of the bad guy and the rest teaming up to defeat them. It had a lot of potential and when it worked it was fun. But they may have entered early access too early. Or perhaps the idea was too complicated to ever properly balance. The community was too small, the wait times too long, and the skill and power difference between players too great, so the game was removed from the Steam store and the server shut down.

 

 

Age of Wonders: Planetfall took the loved franchise away from fantasy and catapulted it into science fiction. It did a lot right with new systems, using the new setting to improve and innovate. It also did some things wrong. The new research felt dull. The economic research tree especially felt like the same slog every game. I'm waiting for the next DLC (one is already out), but mostly hope for more customization options for my leaders - they all look too alike. Triumph joining the Paradox family of course had people worried about nickle and diming with lots of tiny DLC, but so far that hasn't happened.

 

 

Dark Future: Blood Red States was a hell of a lot of fun during the beta weekend. The launch version not so much - some missions had gotten so easy I could play through them literally without looking at the screen. Auroch has worked on the game and improved difficulty, making exploding cars a lot more fun again.

 

 

Re-Legion is a cyberpunk RTS with a lot of neon. The premise is great, and you do get to make choices in shaping your cult. The gameplay seems to have you rushing your opponent though with a lot of converted civilians turned soldier, hoping your numbers are greater than his. So basically it is Syndicate's Persuadatron turned into a game of it's own. As an RTS not memorable. As a persuadatron horde simulation? Great.

 

 

Woven had failed on Kickstarter. People are idiots. Or don't check Kickstarter for computer games for their kids. Woven is cute and well written with exploration kept interesting through little puzzles. My problem? Missing a collectable in an area I can't return to. Now I have to restart. Again.

 

 

Spellcaster University is a casual Hogwarts simulation, where you build a new wizarding school to train wizards to face the Dark Lord. Cute graphics and quirky options can sometimes be overshadowed by bad luck with random events and simply not drawing the card you need.

 

 

Narcos: Rise of the Cartels is not a bad game. But it isn't a great game either, but had people hoping for something like XCOM. Eventually I'll finish it. But with so many options out there, and the ability to just play old Jagged Alliance games, it just hasn't managed to convince me that there is a reason for it.

 

 

Stygian has so much potential to be one of the best RPG games. Sadly the Kickstarter did not net as much money as the devs would have needed to complete their vision. They tried anyway and ran out of money. They released the game and did not slap an Early Access label on, which many believe was a mistake. Instead of people getting a half finished game with potential to improve and a clear indication of this, people were sold a complete game which was half finished. The devs disagree, but are pretty alone with that opinion. What is there is amazing. But it is impossible to overlook the big hole left by the things that aren't there.

 

 

Pine has you exploring an island, searching for a new home for your tribe. You enjoy long walks on the beach, the mountains, the swamp, the forest... gather materials to craft new equipment and cook food to eat. You meet a number of tribes of animal people and eventually have to ally with one to gain the assistance you need to establish a new home for the humans of the island. I find it hard to decide who to ally with, but also to remember what resource I get where.

 

 

Phoenix Point came with a lot of promise and riled people with the Epic store timed exclusivity. In the end people who'll wait a year may get a good game. In the current state the game just isn't there yet. Not because it is inherently bad (though the free aim issues should have been fixed a year ago), but because there is so much missing and the devs don't seem to understand what the game promises.

 

 

Vampire: the Masquerade - Coteries of New York "gets" the World of Darkness like no vampire game has before. It doesn't get it's chosen medium. A visual novel RPG where no choices matter and the player, regardless of character or decisions during the game, is railroaded into one, single ending. And the store had promised multiple ending. Now it promises multiple variants of the ending. And on a personal note, and a lifelong Brujah, that is not what I pictured when I was promised a Brujah.

 

 

Carpocalypse I haven't played enough and am missing screenshots. You take on the roll of a little girl (Jess) who's family moves to a new town where she goes to a new school. Everyone at the school is playing this one card game that is super popular. And which promptly gets banned when weird things start to happen. Build your deck and battle other kids in card battles, while exploring a story which seems similar in tone to Costume Quest. I'm looking forward to actually playing through this one.

 

 

Spellforce 3: Soulstorm was the DLC for Spellforce 3 that released this year and motivated me to also finish the core game. The story helped flesh out the history of the game world, though the new UI and keybinding was extremely confusing. Spellforce 3 had moved away from the old formula, which was bad enough, but just as I had gotten used to it, the DLC changed everything again, feeling even more alien. On top of that, the game was obviously written in English, even though it is a German series, with a bad translation. That left a very sour taste.

 

 

 

Edited December 17, 2019 by melkathi
forgot to add the Pine screenshot...

[Keyrock]

Code Vein The game that answered the question "What if you made a Souls clone and went Full Anime?" An entry into the genre that is good, but unremarkable. A solid entry point for Souls newcomers, as the game is significantly less daunting due to the (optional) companion (with surprisingly good AI) that accompanies you throughout your vampire adventures. 

Edited December 17, 2019 by Keyrock

[Hurlshort]

2019 in review, nice! I felt like I spent a lot of the year discovering games from previous years and falling in love with them. I am too lazy to give the screenshot tour like Melkathi, but here is a bit of my favorite time sinks from the year:

Stellaris: I had this in my library for ages and never got into it, but after binge watching a few seasons of The Expanse, I needed a game to fill the void of space. I sunk 49 hours into it, and I loved that I could play it at home and on breaks at work with cloud saves making it easy to jump computers. Still, my game kind of just petered out eventually. I mean, I had an inside track on conquering the universe, but it was going to be a lot of work. Time well spent though.

Elex: Pretty solid RPG with a good open-world to explore. The setting was unique and engaging. Took awhile to get into the gameplay, and it is a bit rough around the edges, but I look forward to future games from them.

The Witcher 2: I'm not sure why it took me so long to get into this, but I finally got past the awkward love scenes and embraced the gravelly voiced protagonist. I ended up with a solid 30 hour play-through. Maybe next year I will commit to the 3rd game. I own it, but I am afraid of commitment, just like Geralt.

Vigilantes: This was actually a solid little Jagged Alliance style game with a story taken from Punisher. I ended up with a dozen hours. It really is a lot like the original Jagged Alliance, and it was fun.

Star Control Origins: Silly and fun, just like the original.

Avernum: I had this game in my library for over a decade, and then suddenly I got hooked on it while road tripping with my little laptop. I ended up with 70 hours or so in it. It was a solid RPG once I got over the lack of graphics.

Conan Exiles: Ok, this was the big one of the year. This is simply the best game I think I've played since I was hooked on Neverwinter Night. First off, they nailed the setting that Robert E. Howard created nearly 80 years ago. It is dripping with atmosphere straight from his stories and captures the best parts of the movies. Throw an amazing survival and crafting game on top of that, and you get a game I can't resist. Funcom has also consistently rolled out new content and there is an amazing amount of mod support. It's fantastic.

The Outer Worlds: I was spoiled this year by these world building devs. The Outer Worlds is easily the best story I played through. Great RPG and I can't wait for more in the universe.

Battle Brothers: I don't know how I missed this gem. I was looking for a mercenary game like JA2, and I found it in a medieval setting. The strange graphic style put me off originally, but that was dumb, because it turned out to be excellent. I sunk a ton of hours into this game recently.

[Hawke64]

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.

 

 

 

 

Edited December 18, 2019 by Hawke64

[Zoraptor]

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.

[Katphood]

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. 

 

Edited December 18, 2019 by Katphood

[Oner]

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.

[IndiraLightfoot]

13 hours ago, Zoraptor said:

 

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.

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.

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.

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.

Edited December 18, 2019 by IndiraLightfoot

[Oner]

You misread there something.

[IndiraLightfoot]

@Oner I certainly did! I meant @Katphood

[HoonDing]

[ShadySands]

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

Edited December 18, 2019 by ShadySands

[melkathi]

5 hours ago, ShadySands said:

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

Yeah, the campaign is bad. This is the first AoW game where I ignored the campaign and spend more time playing skirmish maps. Those can be far more interesting.

[LadyCrimson]

DMC5 (PC) - didn't finish (but it was pretty and sorta combat fun, I could understand why many may have liked it a lot)

Dragon Quest Builders 2 (PS)- didn't finish but it's fun and an improvement on the 1st game. 

Borderlands 3 (PS) - finished. It's ok, not as replayable as the first two(at least in its pre-game of the year/no dlc's yet, state).

I think everything else wasn't technically 2019 or more casual short indie PC and mobile games.
Note: not finishing a game, for me these days, isn't always a reflection on game quality but more a reflection on my increasingly shortened game sessions and lack of patience/committed motivation.

[bugarup]

Sigh. I think I just got spoilered about the ending of the game I currently play. Couldn't have picked different screenshot, could ya, Hoonding. 

[kanisatha]

On 12/17/2019 at 7:02 PM, Zoraptor said:

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.

This was my take on this game too. And the terraforming stuff late game doesn't help because it takes so very long to get it going that it does not alleviate the boredom. It's a very fun game in the early stages but eventually I just quit and restart on a different map. So I never get all the way through to the end in any of my play-throughs. Thankfully there are a ton of different maps to play on.

[Mamoulian War]

2019

My list of games finished this year. Only one is from 2019 though (technically ) And currently playing Pillars of Eternity, but I do not think, that I will be able to finish it before New Year Eve, so this might be complete list.

11 games – 8 GoG games, 1 PS3 game and 2 PS4 games

 

1 - January 3, 23:30 – My first game finished in 2019 became Xenonauts from GOG, after long break I've taken, when I've moved to my new place, two years ago. The game is excellent tribute to original Xcom games, and I've enjoyed it, despite some of the missions with Reapers were frustrating, because even if I ended my turn with lot of TUs saved for "overwatch" shots, most of my agents in most cases started to shoot at them, after they killed someone already. And that was actually the main reason, why I took such a long break from the game

 

2 - March 8, 23:30 – I have finished my first blind playthrough of Tales of Vesperia: Definitive Edition on PS4. I have been waiting for this game more than 5 years to be released in the West, on one of my platforms, after I've found out that Tales of series exist, and is awesome. The long wait was really worth it. It will definitely not be my favourite Tales of game, like for many other people, because I am bad at combat in this game but I've enjoyed the story and the characters, so I hope Namco Bandai will bring more of the Japan only Tales of games to the West.

 

3 - April 16, 20:00 – I have just finished Earthlock. A Norwegian made jRPG. The game is nice in the combat area, but the writing is not the best point of the game. Still, not bad, and I have enjoyed the game more than enough to recommend it further. I was also able to get 100% of achievements on GOG Galaxy, and it took me 40 hours in total.

 

4 - May 22, 22:45 – After many, many years, I have finally finished Septerra Core: Legacy of the Creator from GOG. I played it for the first time around year 2000, but I've never finished it. The story is pretty solid, with the exception of the ending, but in the last 20 hours of the game, the combat gets very tedious, and there is to much of it. It kind of spoiled my enjoyment of the game as a whole, and then the ending nailed it down little bit further

 

5 - June 20, 14:15 – Having it pretty long time on my backlog, I've finished Hyperdimension Neptunia VII on PS4 today. My first playthrough ended with the most common Ascension Ending. The game is IMO much better than all previous installments. Cut-scenes are shorter, gameplay is more refined, sending out scouts is more user friendly. Can't wait for the release of Super Neptunia RPG in few days.

 

6 - August 8, 22:00 – I have finished my second playthrough of Tales of Symponia on PS3. I had not enough Grade to get bonus XP nor to transfer my earned Gald for New Game+, so I had to play it the classic way. With little bit of grinding for equipment and consumables for boss fights . I was able to finish every single sidequest and minigame, with the exception of Zelos' Gigolo title (because I've picked Kratos at the end of the game), which was a mistake during my planning phase for this playthrough. I've tried to achieve as much Titles as possible, with Kratos getting all of them, so the Platinum Trophy road is now at 54%. Game is still solid gold, with very good storyline, but it has not as enjoyable combat for me as other Tales of... titles I've played.

 

7 - September 24, 0:00 – After 3 years long break, I have finaly finished my Grand Campaign of Crusader Kings Complete from GOG. In 2015, I have started as one of the smallest counties in Kingdom of Hungary, as a Count of Gemer. Due to carefull planning of marriages, I have became 31 years later the new Duke of Nyitra, and 6 more years later in 1105, the almighty King of Hungary. After that, I have slowly expanded my realm to the east and south, with occasional special marriages, to get the possibility for my children to inherit other Counties and Dukedoms. 347 years later, after I've defeated Golden Horde, Bulgars and other heathens, and had few struggles with infidels of Byzantium, I had became King of another 7 countries. I've became King of Hungary, Bohemia, Khazaria, Burgundy, Croatia, Georgia, Sicily and Rus and was once crowned as Holy Roman Emperor. My kingdom had 102 direct vassals and 197 counts, dukes, bishops, and archbishops under my command. Some of them rebelious some of them loyal, but the Kingdom overcame few of their revolts and had a potential to grow more but the end of the game in 1452 came faster than I thought

 

8 - November 4, 0:00 – I have purchased STASIS: Deluxe Edition in this years Halloween sale on GOG, and I have to say, this was one of the best gaming deals this year. The atmosphere was really tense during the whole 10 hours of gameplay and the ending was unexpected. Some item puzzles were harder to crack, but 90% of the time, they were intuitive to solve. I have enjoyed the game so much, that I have purchased the deluxe content for the developers second game in the same universe called Cayne. This one, will be my next game to play for sure.

 

9 - November 9, 21:45 – Another game from Stasis universe finished today: CAYNE: Deluxe Edition. It was as good as previous, although much shorter. The puzzles were less complicated, although few of them gave me headaches, while trying to solve them . The ending was this time much more predictable, but it did not spoiled my enjoyment of the game.

 

10 - November 17, 16:00 – I have finished story of Reynard de la Foret in Celestian Tales: Old North as my first playthrough of this game. It's short but enjoyable game in a style of JRPG, which has some interesting plot twists for player to experience. The most surprising thing for me was, that it is one of very few games, where you do not play the hero, which has to save the world, but you play a squire, who with other pupils, helps the big generals with small tasks in the background of the comming war against a threat from The North.

 

11 - November 20, 16:45 – Just few days later, I have finished the Celestian Tales: Old North – Howl of the Ravager, DLC prequel to the original game. The gameplay is the same, but you play as one of the young lords of Old North, introduced in the base game. It's little bit shorter than the base game, but last two areas were for me tedious, which little bit worsened my impressions.

[majestic]

I looked through a list of games released this year and realized I played very few of them, and of those only two for any meaningful stretch of time:

Sunless Skies: Joined its predecessor insofar as that I still haven't finished a playthrough by achieving my chosen goal, which of course was The Truth - how could anyone possibly pick otherwise? Alas, it seems as if the Truth is still out there.

Sekiro: Was fairly straightforward for a From Software game. As such it's less... burdened by an insane fanbase glorifying the narratives failures of the other Souls games as fantastic storytelling.  Superb gameplay, fun glitches, great vertical movement. Decent choice for Game of the Year.

Special mention goes to Anthem which I played for a bit with my Origin Access subscription. It was fun for a while, actually, but barely more than a proof of concept. What a waste.

[Malcador]

 Highlights of this year for games for me: 

• Ghost Recon Wildlands, co-op was fun even if it does get repetitive but we screwed up enough to keep things exciting.   
• BFG:2 Armada - fun enough 40k game, the changes they've made from the first game are good - I still kvetch over having limited torpedoes though
• Replaying Witcher 3 NG+ and wringing the game dry - think I've sunk 200 hours into it.

Other than that though, mostly have the usual time burners of Diablo III, WoW and FM2018 as well assorted older games.   

[Hawke64]

Two more games from 2019 I'd like to mention.

Double Cross. It is a really good platformer. There is nothing exceptional, but it was engaging and enjoyable (and one bug I encountered was fixed a week ago).

The Outer Worlds. While I do not like first-person view, open-world maps and combat-wise bland companions, TOW is a very good RPG - there are an interesting branching story with different choices, skill checks for non-combat actions, good writing and memorable characters (mostly, Martin the Moon Man Mascot). I have not encountered any bugs and was able to bind actions to the 4th and 5th mouse buttons.

[ComradeYellow]

Resident Evil 2 Remake Absolutely solid remake of the original, some interconnectivity issues in regards to the A and B scenarios, lazily done but it's small potatoes when you look at it from a gameplay perspective.

Metro Exodus It's Russian and jam packed with modern hardware requirements, what's not to love?  Although I do try to shy away from post-apoc stuff because it kinda glorifies nuclear devastation to a degree and cements dangerous and unnecessary ideological differences.  Really too bad about the bugs.  Great and beautiful game right down to the nitty gritty, though,

Stellaris All in all great and appropriate Paradox game.  They all seem to suck me in for hours on end, and that's what a game is supposed to do.  Keep it up, Nordic Ubermensch!

The Outer Worlds Probably best RPG of the year, as the plot and characters are supberb, and the character building holds up.  It's lack of budget shows unfortunately but with promised DLC upcoming perhaps a 1 or 2 year down the road GOTY edition will cement it to eternal glory (maybe I'm exaggerating but wouldn't it be nice?)

Final Fantasy XV Love the open world, the graphics, the gameplay, and even the plot holds up despite some cheesey dialogue and some obvious rushed elements.  Still, for a first wide open Final Fantasy in the post-modern graphics world it is a solid start so let's hope Sqeenix builds on it in the future.

I'm sure there's many others but these are the most prominent.

[melkathi]

I am looking at Outer Worlds in the Winter sale, as with the 10 off voucher on Epic, that would be a reasonable price.

[sorophx]

I never thought I'd write this on a public forum, but my game of the decade is Red Dead Redemption 2 (best RPG since Fallout New Vegas, and yes it's an RPG, although not in the traditional sense).

I don't want to go into spoilers, but the amount of choice and consequences in RDR2 is staggering. but it's also a very beautiful game. but it's also a very detailed world. I love everything about it, even the detailed animations. it's like a love child between The Witcher 3 and DayZ, I can't praise it enough. at 17 USD on the Epic Store it's a steal.

[Hurlshort]

RDR2 was close to the top for me last year, when I played it on the PS4. It's fantastic.

[Lorfean]

My game of the year has to be Resident Evil 2. SO. GOOD. Honorable mentions for games that didn't come out in 2019 but that I played / finished for the first time last year are Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire and Resident Evil 7: Biohazard. Deadfire was, IMO, uneven but the three DLC were great and ultimately raised the overall quality of the game for me. RE7 was amazing, successfully taking the series in a new direction while managing to honor the core principles that made the series so great in the first place. Can't wait for RE3 this April

Edit: As for my game of the decade, since some of you seem to be doing that... It's probably Fallout: New Vegas. Despite the spotty engine, I just love everything about that game. It's my favorite Obsidian game and it's my favorite Fallout game (and by "Fallout game" I mean F1, F2 and FNV -- I have not and will not play any of Bethesda's).

Edited January 7, 2020 by Lorfean