The Good, The Bad and The Hyped 2017

[xMobilemux]

Another year of gaming has gone by and it's been an interesting one, it introduced me to a franchise that has been around for years and I hate myself for only getting into it this late, a famous franchise has returned to it's roots and western gaming is going down in the dumps while Japanese gaming is skyrocketing in quality.

So it's the time to list the games you liked, the games you didn't like and the games you are hyped as hell for in 2018.

As usual cause this is my thing, I'll go first:

The Good!

5:

OK I just put this on the list cause while I do like it, I still haven't finished it cause I so loath the character of 9S and can't play the game with him, his character is so god damn annoying and his combat is no fun at all, whenever he's the player character I just loose all interest in playing which is why I haven't finished the game yet.

However the parts of the game with 2B and that other chick(A4 I think), I loved those parts and they are the reason why I bothered giving this game a mention, I suppose one day I'll suffer through the 9S parts and finish the game.

4:

Yeah when I first saw this game I was one of those who thought Capcom screwed up yet again, but boy was I wrong.
Resident Evil 7 brings back the classic survival horror gameplay we've all wanted and it does it really well.
I just wish there were more monsters instead of just that Mold type, but whatever, this game is still awesome and I'm looking forward to the Not a Hero DLC.

3:

Robot dinosaurs.........what else do I need to say?

2:

Remember when I said that this year introduced me to a franchise that has been around for years and I hate myself for not getting into earlier?

Yup it's Yakuza, holy hell what a series and this remake of Yakuza 1 is so amazing and incredible story filled with so many emotional moments and down right hilarious moments on top of incredible gameplay with so much content.

By the way, Yakuza Kiwami wasn't the one that got me into the series, that honor goes to......

#1 GAME OF THE YEAR!!!

Wow, not since Bayonetta 2 have a told myself that "This is one hell of a video game!"
Taking place before the whole franchise, it was the perfect place for me to start and my god I had the most fun I had in years, it brought back the charm of playing video games again for me because unlike most games today it didn't feel like the story was taking over in any way because this game and the whole franchise manages to tell great stories without interrupting the gameplay.
This series knows when it's time to be a video game and when it's time to tell a story and they never try to force the two together.

I highly recommend giving this game a go and if you want a more in depth view of this game, check out this video, it's what convinced me to try out this game in the first place, trust me you won't be disappointed.

Also:
RIP Hiromi Tsuru
(Voice Actress for Reina)


The Bad:

Fortunately I didn't really play any bad games this year cause I tend to watch the games I plan on buying very closely and wait for reviews.
But I suppose I can list a game I was disappointed with:

I enjoyed my time with the game, but let's just say it ended up doing one of the very main things I dislike about modern games.
It seemed to want to tell a story more than it wanted to be a fun video game about killing Nazi's.
Also it was shorter than The New Order and it's ending was anti climatic, as was the pathetic final boss fight.
Still I enjoyed my time with it so I wouldn't call it bad, just disappointing.

Now for what I'm looking forward to next year!

The Hyped!!

#7

This is going to be my first crack at this franchise so here's hoping it's a good one.

#6

Really liked the first 2 games so I can't wait for this one.

#5

PLEASE be good!

#4

Again.....please be good......and uncensored!

#3

I admit I lost a but of faith in this game after Take 2 said it's gonna have MTX, but I still have faith in Rockstar.

#2

PLEASE let the rumors be true!!

#1

Yup, this is a yearly franchise I can get behind!

So those were my Good, Bad and Hyped for 2018 games.

What are yours?
​

 

[Foxtrot94]

Do they have to be games released this year, or just played this year, regardless of when they came out?

 

[xMobilemux]

Seems like I'm gonna have to add that condition since it keeps being asked.

Games released in 2017 and games coming in 2018.

 

[Foxtrot94]

Well in that case, there's only one game released this year that I played (and still play), and thankfully it's on the good side.

I've always loved Yu Gi Oh but over time I got out of the circuit because the TCG got way too complex for me to keep track of. That of course prevented me to also be interested in digital games. But with its "speed dueling" format, Duel Links might just be for me, I thought. And I was right.
Tons of events, new cards being released steadily, and a lot of updates based on direct player feedback.

Speaking of which, you wouldn't believe how consumer friendly this game is, considering it's from hecking Konami. Color me impressed, both by the game and the way it's managed.

P.S:
Taunting people as Kaiba is the best thing in the game.

 

[berto]

I'm not really the type who goes for most the big releases. I don't buy Assassin's Creed games, I don't like God of War, CoD has never interested me and other huge titles never really drew my interest. The games I was eager for weren't exactly all niche anymore but there are a lot that I was very excited for yet no one else seemed to.

Gravity Rush 2 was a game that I never thought would come but then it was announced and it was everything I didn't know I was hoping for. It was massive, fun, charming, unique and even a bit flawed but worth every day of waiting, yet it never broke the million units sold. In fact, I'm pretty sure it never sold passed 300 thousand. Awards were handed in categories where they nominated games that didn't deserve it as much as this one did so I'm reminded that these things are popularity contests and it reflects when it's the games with the most sales numbers that get the gold not the most deserving.

NieR Automata was a great surprise. I was excited for another Platinum game and I knew Taro by reputation, that his games had great narratives, amazing stories but god awful combat and gameplay. This one turned out to be appealing enough that a lot of people really gravitated towards it and there are even rumors that it saved Platinum. It's not as great and deep as people make it out to be, at least I don't think it is, but it certainly has something and there is a lot of great things there.

Persona 5 might no longer be a niche title. Considering how popular P4 was it's provably no surprise that this one would be a success and seeing that it's one of the most stylish games I've ever seen it certainly deserves praise. I found a lot of it very repetitive but it made up for it in other aspects.

A Rose in the Twilight was never going to be a huge success. It doesn't have great appeal and it was a PC/Vita only game so it wasn't exactly going to have a huge release. Still, this game reminded me a lot of Dokuro, another Vita puzzle game, and I was really hoping for something similar.

I don't like games where the protagonists are either gay or lesbian because when they are it feels like it was a choice made to be progressive but I definitely supported Nights of Azure for almost that very reason. With that game the idea felt like it came from a more genuine place, that it came from telling a story about two girls in love struggling against something, not society or sexism, I always equate that to pandering, but something that you'd find in a romance between a man and woman. It's a hard thing to pinpoint but I certainly know when I see it. That's why I was really looking forward to the sequel. I haven't gotten around to it yet, it's in my backlog, but for all it's flaws, like the cheap production value and less than stellar gameplay, I find a charm you can't find else where in games telling homosexual love stories. Same went for Blue Reflection but that one had a lot of less than stellar reviews so I'm waiting on a price drop for now.

The Evil Within 2 was similar to GR2. It was a game I didn't think would ever happen, and while it's superior to the original in a lot of ways it's also not what I was looking for. The game is disappointing in a lot of places and while I did enjoy it and beat it like 6 times I also ended up trading it in because I knew I provably wouldn't be picking it up again. There were just a lot of small somethings that didn't sit well with me. It wasn't just the story or the terrible voice acting and script, there is a quality missing from this game that the first one had, or maybe a whole lot of qualities. Someone online said that it lacked that Japanese flair and presence the first one had and maybe they're right, so as hyped as I was with that one and as much as I enjoyed it in the end there was just something lacking.

Little Nightmares definitely peaked my interest when I saw a trailer. I might like horror games and horror in general but I'm kind of a chicken when it comes to games. Still, as simple and basic as the gameplay might've been the game definitely had a style I was really digging and since it was fairly cheap I got a copy and enjoyed it quite a bit.

I only ever beat the original .hack and considering how much a copy of part 4 costs I might never get a chance to, but on the plus side they did release a full remake of GU and one can only be grateful for remakes. I haven't gotten a copy yet but I will definitely get around to it.

I don't like fanservice games. I find them juvenile, silly and even a little distasteful, but I did play Onechanbara on the PS4 and I have to admit it was a hell of a lot of fun. Stupidity aside it's just silly fun, so when I found out that the makers of that series made another game that released just a few weeks ago I really wanted to give it a try, despite appearances. School Girl/Zombie Hunter looks like a crap game and has an almost insultingly immature concept. High school girls hunt zombies and they do so by stripping to their underwear... Still, I was also pretty dismissive of the other game and they turned out to be a lot of fun. I'm still not paying full price but I'm definitely kinda interested.

 

[Meg]

Here's my Top 10 Games for the year:

10. Dangerzone

9. MXGP3

8. NBA Live 18

7. Wipeout Omega Collection

6. Agents of Mayhem

5. Call of Duty WWII

4. Dirt 4

3. MLB 17 The Show

2. Gran Turismo Sport

1. Sniper Elite 4



The only game I played this year that I didn't like was Persona 5, which was hugely disappointing. Overall, it was a great year for games. The ones I haven't played yet, but really want to are Everybody's Golf, Prey, Redout, and Wolfenstein II.

 

[Foxtrot94]

1. Sniper Elite 4

My my, what a surprise. :tongue:

 

[Meg]

My my, what a surprise. :tongue:

Yeah I really didn't see it coming. :laugh:

 

[Innsmouth]

That was great year for gaming, imo. The good for me:
Gravity Rush 2: flawed but awesome game, making wondefull conclusion to GR franchise.
Nioh: one of the best medievel japan games. It remind of souls but has enough courage to expand on it's own, while being sometimes mroe challenging than souls
Nier: Platinum games + Yoko Taro, 'nuff said
Persona 5: worthy succesor to P4. While characters are not as memorable as P4, it still easily takes a cake for me over P3.
Breath of the wild: probably best zelda I ever played. While it still fails to keep me completely engrossed, its very fun and unique experience
Horizon: probably one of the best openworld approaches I enconutered. It manages to remain explorere happy, without overloading with boring fetch quests and thousand objectives.
Evil Within 2: had lots of fun with it. Not as unique as original, but very enjoyable nonetheless.
Hollow Knight: probably best metrodivania I played for years and also my sleeper hit.
Little Nightmares: one of the best indie games, this year, being completely unique and engrossing.

the Bad:
Resident Evil 7: probably the least enjoyable Re I ever and I played almost all of them. feels like random mishmash of dozen other horror games, while retaining almost nothing from original.
Hellblade: another I should have trusted my guts about. Sadly poor combat and completely unrelatable story, made it into pretty repetative and boring semi walking simulator for me.
Tekken 7: now this is gutwrenching. I would love to like it more, but it barebones structure, along with lack of some of my favs, made it pretty overpriced experience for me.

the Hyped:
Metro: new metro game is instant "do-want" for me, so naturally I'm hyped about new one.
Scorn: game based of Giger? Seems awesome so far.
Call fo Cthulhu: seems like interesting experience, will be watch closely.
RDR2: rockstar always delivered high quality games, so I'm expecting no less from RDR
Sentinel 13: another one I really hope that turns well, but I have faith in Vanillaware.

 

[berto]

I've been thinking about the games I'm hyped for for 2018. Like I said, I'm not really one to go for the big releases so Red Dead Redemption 2 isn't exactly high on my list, especially after the trailer where it's revealed that you are playing some piece of s*** a**hole that might well have been revealed as the villain. But '18 does have a few titles that I'm eager to see more of and some that I'm actually dying to give a go. Most of the major and highly expected titles have no charm. Yeah, fancy trailers galore that promise an experience but what you get ends up being just the same thing again and again, like the trailer for Deus Ex Human Revolution where the trailer and the game were nothing alike, and too many leads are either bland, factory line, same dude/dudette that are basically interchangeable, or d-bags, like Kratos and that guy from RDR2, and lets not even start with the western female leads, and the same could be said for the gameplay and the game itself.

Anyway, complains about the state of the modern game writing and characters aside here's what I'm hoping to play in 2018 in no order in particular.

Spoiler

Sentinel 13 Aegis Rim is the new game from Vanillaware. That's it. They make f'ing awesome games and some of my favorite titles ever so I am super happy to play more.

Spoiler

DMC/Bayonetta ports. Kinda of a cheat since they're games that are already out but I really do want to play these games again. I'm still not sold on the Switch, specially when Nintendo are such a'holes but the Bayonetta ports come out on my B-Day, which some might call a sign (but not me, that'd be stupid), and DMCHD a few weeks later. I'm really eager to play those again so I have no reservations putting them here.

Spoiler

Agony might be the one game I'm super excited for that I might just watch on YouTube. I love the aesthetics. There have been so many portrayals of hell but none have ever been so directly literal to the classic idea of the Christian hell. Darkness, fire, brimstone and f'ed up demons and lost souls abound. I can't imagine the story being too profound but in terms of a tour of hell it seems like a promising prospect but honestly, I don't think I care if I actually have the controller in my hands or not so I will probably just watch in on YouTube.

Spoiler

Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night. I don't know what else to say. Symphony of the Night was a favorite of mine during the PS1 so having more of that, well, yes, thank you.

Spoiler

Call of Cthulhu almost went on a seperate list that would be titled 'Cautiously Optimistic' but what little I've seen has me excited enough to want to see more. Not sure if I'm going to play it of YouTube this one too but I'm definitely interested.

Spoiler

Vampires, anime esthetiques and Souls combat? I am definitely peaked. Code Vein is a game I definitely want a demo for if for nothing else than just to see if it is what I'm hoping it is. I like what I see and if it delivers I might even pay full price.

Spoiler

Dreams seems like the kind of thing I would spend days playing with. I am so eager to give this a try and see what I can come up with. LBP had a creation system I could never quite get used to but this just seems so expensive fascinating. If this is half of what it's promising the possibilities are infinite.

Spoiler

I've beaten Shadow of the Colossus but honestly I want to give it a go again. It's been years since I played it and it was only once so I should have forgotten most of the strategies for just about all of the titans already giving me a mostly fresh start with the game again. This one is also near my b-day so I might get it for myself because if I wait for my friends to get it for me I will be waiting way too much.

Spoiler

If there was a DMC5 I'd add it but since as of yet it's still a rumor I will wait. It's happened too many time that there is a huge rumor going that it's coming and nothing ever came of it. Pinnacle of Combat doesn't count, either.

They're not actual spoilers, I just don't want to take up too much space.