Goat of the Year, All Years: post your game lists 2018

[Aria Genisi]

it's december! that means it's the end of the year, the time when everyone starts talking about what games they played this year, usually in the form of a top 10 list

post about games you played this year in list form. do you just want to talk about this year's new games? did you just spend this year working on your gaming backlog? just want to list whatever fun games you got around to this year? i'm not your mom, go nuts. post about your year in gaming however it went for you!



For a good chunk of this year, I finished playing Yakuza 0 and Kiwami from last year, (re)played a ton of kingdom hearts games, and beat basically every single megaman game in the classic and X series in the leadup to 11. Oh, and I got Hollow Knight and beat that! Great stuff. Other than that.....

• Kirby Star Allies - I love the kirby series, so getting this one was a no brainer. I really enjoyed it at launch, though you could possibly call it a little lacking in some places. Then it started getting free updates every so often, adding bonus playable characters to represent a ton of different mainline kirby games, and then including a brand new mode with the latest update, along with an even harder version of this game's True Arena. It's really good stuff.
• La Mulana 2 - La Mulana was a game I was always fascinated with, but in practice, I never really engaged it at the level it was really intended to be approached, that is, making notes and trying to solve the game's puzzles on my own. Whenever I ran into something troublesome, I ran off to an FAQ to find the answer. The game was still a lot of fun, but I always kinda wished I didn't immediately jump to the answer all the time. So with the sudden release of La Mulana 2, I did just that. I basically wrote nearly everything down into a notebook, trying to solve it all on my own, and comparing notes with a friend whenever I was truly stumped, and I mostly kept to my vow of doing it on my own. And I ended up enjoying La Mulana 2 a hell of a lot more than I did with 1. The game is just a lot of fun to begin with, but it felt fantastic when I was trying to figure out some shit on my own, and after finally understanding how to piece everything together, finally reaching an epiphany, figuring out the right answer! It's satisfying as hell.
• Celeste - I'm gonna be honest: I enjoyed this game, but I kinda just played through the story and dropped it before trying to unlock the core or anything like that, and I'm kinda dissappointed I did that, because this game is really good! It's got great music, it's cleverly designed and I really wanna get back to playing some more of it sometime.
• The Messenger - This one's pretty dang fun. It's a really great ninja themed action platformer with some really great, funny writing and some really great design ideas that get explored. The second half has some issues with the direction it goes and while it's got really fun areas, it does let it down at times, which sucks, but not enough to sour the whole experience. Deffo worth checking out.
• Megaman 11 - megamans' is back, baby, it's good again. Aruoooo (wolf howl). it's been years since Megaman 10, and not only did they come out with a new game, they actually tried to make something new instead of yet another 8-bit throwback! Don't get me wrong, I loved 9 and 10, but they needed to do something to freshen up the series for it's return, and hoo boy did they deliver. the new Double Gear system works great, and the stages and bosses are just a ton of fun overall. Some stuff isn't as great, like Torch Man's stage, and the length of the stages making Normal difficulty feel a bit too much with it's lack of checkpoint placement, but the game is seriously a lot of fun, and is very worth checking out if you're interested in playing a good megaman game or just want to play a mega man game to begin with.
• Deltarune Episode 1 - Do I really need to say much about this game? it's really fun and cool and interesting, and I'd love to see what else Toby Fox would have in store for this. also i love both ralsei and susie, they're amazing
• Jimmy and the Pulsating Mass - If I'm going to recommend a single game from this year that more people should absolutely play, it's gotta be this one. It's a really fun and extremely charming earthbound-like RPG that takes place within the dreams of a little boy named Jimmy. It's cute, it's charming, it's intriguing, it's funny, and it's terrifying. Within the depths of Jimmy's dreams lurks all sorts of nightmares, and to make things worse, his dream world is being invaded by a mysterious entity called the Pulsating Mass, threatening both him and his family. And so it's up to him and his family to stop the Pulsating Mass before it's too late.
  
  God, this game is so good, and it really sucks that it feels like I'm the only one who's played it around here, because it's really fucking good! It's a fun, funny game with really good writing. The RPG part is really fun, and thanks to the nightmares you run into, this game has some of the best horror I've seen in a game in quite a long time. And I mean proper horror with tension and atmosphere, not just a bunch of jumpscares or some shite like that.
  
  If you're interested in a really great RPG or just a really fucking good game, absolutely go check this game out! I cannot recommend it enough. If I'm going to name something as game of the year for me, it's honestly going to be this.

[Quanta]

Sure, why not?

Most of my list is games that came out in years other than 2018, so

• The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild - Easily the best open-world game I've played in my video games life. It just felt so huge, traveling around was really nice (whether on foot or by horse, but usually on foot), climbing anything and everything was a blast, figuring out how to deal with a camp or other situation with the limited tools I had on-hand was great, Lynel fights were intense and fun as heck, many of the characters were a joy to interact with, it was just amazing fun. Breakable weapons and stuff was a bit of a bugbear until I realized that it's not that big of a deal and there's always new stuff to collect and make use of, and the worst-case scenario where you've seemingly plundered every available cache of weapons in the world is rectified by the next Blood Moon, or you can pop into Hyrule Castle for a spell and steal all the primo stuff lying on the floor there before warping out.
  
  Super Mario Odyssey - I'll be honest: I've not really been too huge into the 3D Marios as I found them a challenge to control, but I decided to give Odyssey a chance anyways. Once you get used to it, it's actually pretty elegant. There's tons of trick jumps that you can make, and pulling them off is satisfying as fuck since you can skip entire sections and/or get Moons you otherwise couldn't get without possessing some enemy nearby or dealing with a maze or jumping section. Even in instances where there wasn't any Moon to get, getting into seemingly-unreachable locations meant at least a bunch of coins that were hidden from view, so it was always worthwhile to try and sequence break everything you could. Highly recommended.
  
  Tales of Berseria - I beat this last year, but this year was the year where I actually went through and really just sort of soaked it all in. It's a fantastic game. Gameplay-wise, the combo system and different characters offer a ton of variety in playstyle, and beating the game on higher difficulties requires you to fully engage with both aspects if you've any hope of circumventing enemy defenses and avoiding dying constantly. The crafting system is really grindy but is made easier in post-game once you've finished the bonus dungeon and can farm materials with ease, and you need those upgrades to deal with enemies on the highest difficulties. Story-wise, while the game is mainly focused on its revenge plot, it's primarily about figuring out one's own path through life and struggling to follow through on that, even if it puts you at odds with the people around you. It also plays with the themes of morality presented in its predecessor, Tales of Zestiria, showing you new perspectives on various ideals present in that game. Finally, its whole "emotion vs. reason" conflict gives us a glimpse of a world in which PURE LOGIC is divorced from any emotional influence, and the consequences of such a worldview (while also subtly calling bullshit on it). Go pick it up in the Steam Christmas sale or whatever and play it. PLAY IT!
  
  DELTARUNE - I mean, of course.
  
  Subnautica - Prior to this game, my only experience with the survival genre was Fallout 4's Survival Mode, which was fun enough. Subnautica, tho, was extremely fun. The ocean is beautiful and full of life (and dangers), and traversing it is as fun as it is terrifying. The Seamoth mini-sub controls amazingly well and I'm sad that I couldn't spend the entire game in it. Venturing outside the safety of the shallows represented to me a troublesome problem as I'm deathly afraid of deep water, so imagine my terror when trying to venture into the lower depths, not knowing what was down there. The thought of popping out of my Seamoth or PRAWN Suit or Cyclops to grab some resource in the darkest depths of the ocean only to be eaten by one of the nearby fauna was always in the back of my mind. Even so, it's amazing fun. Basebuilding is great, and it's relaxing to search around and collect materials or explore wrecks. I still haven't finished the game, but I still wholeheartedly recommend it.

[Jill]

i played...

King Rabbit - definitely one of the best mobile games i've ever played, filled with countless mechanical interactions, tons of well-thought-out levels and a neat level builder to boot. i've just learned that there's gonna be a steam release and i can't wait

Disgaea 5 Complete - still the best disgaea game

DragonFangZ - The Rose & Dungeon of Time - p. good roguelike but hard as hell

Celeste - amazing platformer but hard as hell

Kirby Star Allies - v. good platformer/pseudo-fighting game

Mario Tennis Aces - light on content but p. good for competitive multiplayer. i have no reason to play it now that it requires NSO

Octopath Traveler - p. good RPG

VA-11 Hall-A: Cyberpunk Bartender Action - probably the best-written game i have ever played

Minit - p. good adventure game

Super Smash Bros. Ultimate - p. good smash, probably won't last me long without even having access to online play this time around

Runner3 - i actually barely played it and i don't remember why, so consider this a self-reminder

[Orange Fluffy Sheep]

DELTARUNE - second most intense survey I've ever taken.

Dead Cells - second most prison escape groundhog day situation I've ever been in

Pokemon Reborn Episode 18 - Void Kissed -

[Orange Fluffy Sheep]

Things that were older that I played this year anyway? Uh

Super Mario Odyssey - I got it 6 days before the end of 2017, which is the best year in gaming because Nintendo slam dunked the open world genre with Breath of the Wild then Chaos Dunked their own slam dunk with the best game, Super Mario Odyssey. Never before has a game been so singularly focused on making sure that I'm having fun at every moment. Everyone else is just doing remasters because they know they can't top this. Maybe Dunkey put it best.

Fire Emblem Warriors - Not as pure unabashedly amazing as Pirate Warriors 3 but a pretty solid silver medal in terms of warriors.

Disgaea 5 Complete - The story isn't as good as 1 or 4 but the gameplay let me make a bunch of weird shit and I appreciate that.

Metal Gear Solid V: Phantom Pain - every other stealth game doesn't have active decoys - balloon copies of snake that say quips constantly- only kojima got it right

[SlateSlabrock]

Games I played this year:

• Subnautica - It's so good. Best survival/exploration/crafting/building game I've played in a long time. Ten outta ten.
• Final Fantasy XV - In terms of story, it was pretty weak, but it was a fun camping/photography game.
• Oxygen Not Included - Your standard building/management sim game, but with a heavy emphasis on gas/heat physics. I'll probably get back to it when my urgent games list is shorter, and when they've finished most of their big early access patches. It's... a little daunting at this point with all the automation/micromanagement/biomes, but the art style's charming, and I want to git gud.
• Raft - I was looking for something to scratch the Subnautica itch, and this wasn't really it, but it might be fun as a multiplayer game.
• Planet Nomads - Also something I tried after Subnautica. I actually backed this on Kickstarter a million years ago. It's okay, but very grindy. Got bored.
• No Man's Sky - Picked it up after the NEXT update. It's just such a weirdly incoherently-designed game. So many ideas and game systems, and none of them fit together. Really desperately tries to bore people to death with endless resource grinding.
• Yakuza 0 - Picked it up, sort of liked it, got distracted. Will finish eventually. It needs autosaves.
• Hitman and Hitman 2 - The sequel is a good sequel, even if the story is ridiculous. I'm glad being cut adrift from Sony didn't fatally compromise the new game's development.
• Red Dead Redemption 2 - Haven't finished it. Pretty, fun, ambitious... my god are the controls and UI bad.
• Super Mario Odyssey - I'm really bad at finishing mobile games. One of these days.
• Elite Dangerous - New update to exploration finally got me back on the horse. For now, at least. I'm hoping to get my ship upgraded and out for some deep space exploration before I get bored again.
• Cookie Clicker - Every time I think I'm out, they update they game again.

edit: missed a few

• Donut County -
• Two Point Hospital - Basically a modern Theme Hospital. Fun enough, but after the tutorial levels, it has a sudden difficulty spike that everyone seems to struggle with for a level or two. Then, by the end of the game, they run out of stuff to research, and the completion goals get sort of frustrating before the final level is... weirdly easy? I enjoyed it, but by the end, it felt like they'd had to rush the last four levels out the door.
• Not Tonight - Based on (but not created by the author of) Papers, Please. Explicitly a commentary on Brexit. It's okay but not really replayable.
• Assassin's Creed Origins - I'm not sure I'll get the itch to play Odyssey, but Origins was a massive game, and I liked it well enough. Photo mode was important to keeping me going near the end.
• Submerged - Indie. Short. Enigmatic. Buy on sale.
• Planet Explorers - Yet another attempt at finding a good survival game. Mechanics seem buggy and weird.
• Empyrion - Galactic Survival - Survival with a very Eastern European lack of UI polish. A bunch of goons have recommended this in the Subnautica thread, but wow is it clunky.

[Jill]

coming in late with

Nefarious - it's a decent platformer with a fun and cute story

[Madeline]

Here is a short list.

Celeste—difficult but rewarding. The story and soundtrack are top notch, and when you do start to understand how to clear a screen, it’s exhilarating to play. If you struggle with it, don’t be afraid to enable Assist Mode so you can at least experience the game’s core content (the A-sides and story) for yourself. I’m curious to see whatever Matt Thorson develops next.

Axiom Verge—I didn’t like this the first time I played it, but it does grow on you if you give it a chance. Good controls, the level design has its ups and downs, the story has interesting ideas but could’ve been told better, and there are a bewildering number of weapons to find and try. I can see why some people love the game so much and I ended up enjoying it.

Night In The Woods—You’ve probably played this by now. If you haven’t, try it. It’s good.

Hollow Knight—very hard, and the DLCs are made for the elite players who do hitless boss runs on YouTube and Twitch. Sometimes I enjoyed it. Sometimes I loved it. Sometimes I was bored, and sometimes I hated it.

Splatoon—enjoyed it at first, went through a period of hating it, went back to loving it once I got a better grasp on the mechanics and unlocked more gear. The campaign wouldn’t have been worth $60, but with a cheap amiibo to unlock challenge stuff it was definitely worth $20.

Kirby Star Allies—Now that all the updates are out, this is a very good Kirby game with a lot of content. I will never finish any of the hardest modes. Plenty of friends and abilities to mess with.

Super Mario Odyssey—everybody in the universe has praised this, you don’t need my opinion, it is good and fun

Civilization VI—it’s more streamlined than the older Civs, which is definitely a good thing so far. I’ve only just started playing it but it’s what I want out of Civ.

[Mechanical Ape]

Let's see, what've I got?

Batman: The Telltale Series -- Oh, Telltale. But I liked their take on Batman a lot. Like, a lot. And a lot of that came from its willingness to build its own continuity and its confidence in doing so, while still maintaining the themes of the story it's trying to tell. Without spoiling anything: most of the usual characters are around in one form or another, but in (to me, at least) interesting and fresh variations. There are some really interesting ideas in play here, so if you've had your fill of classic Bat-lore and enjoy tinkering around in that creative space, then B:TTS' two seasons should offer some pleasant surprises.

Darkwood -- This is a top-down horror/survival game from Polish developers, so don't expect much in the way of cheeriness or simple answers. But I've enjoyed the weird, atmospheric few hours I've put into it so far. Something's gone wrong with the world, as civilization has been overtaken by mysterious forests and the creatures that lurk in them. You play a survivor trying to make it from Point A to Point B (I'm still too early to grasp the story), crafting and exploring your way through each day, and nervously defending your safehouse each night until blessed, blessed sunrise. It's kinda like Don't Starve's darker, more serious Eastern European cousin.

Dead in Vinland -- This is a time-management survival game where you play a Viking family marooned on an uncharted island. (You might remember a Something Awful LP of a game called Dead in Bermuda? That was basically a prototype for this game.) The art is enjoyable, the cast of characters are varied and fun, dialogue is plentiful, and there's lots to do and explore. Plus the combat system is simple yet depthful. Also there's DLC where you get a doggie!


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Detention -- Point-and-click horror adventure set in a high school overrun with ghosts. What makes this unusual is the setting: 1960s Taiwan during the martial law era. I'm guessing the school has a history of covered-up atrocities which explain the ghosts, but I haven't gotten far yet so I really can't say.

Frostpunk -- What happens when the people behind This War of Mine make a city builder. Wintry bleakness? Check. Mournful soundtrack? Check. Harsh moral dilemmas, with just enough hope to keep you pushing through? Check check. Genuinely fun and complex game mechanics? Check!

Knock-Knock -- What happens when the people behind Pathologic make a hide-and-seek game. I'm not 100% sure what the plot is, what the imagery means, or even what the game mechanics are. You are a glowering insomniac known only as the Lodger; you live in a creepy house; every night ghosts appear and you must avoid them. Also sometimes you're awake and other times you're dreaming. Probably. It's deliberately oblique and you are intended to work out the rules for yourself. I.E. the objective of the game is to figure out what the objective of the game is. I'll be damned if I know (though I've gotten pretty far on sheer bumbling), but one thing's for sure: it's weird.

Life Is Strange: Before the Storm -- Haven't picked up LiS 2 yet, but I did play the prequel in January. Gave me pretty much the same feels as the original: slightly put off at first by the angsty characters and the Very Teen dialogue, then by the end of chapter one that's all melted away and I am DEEPLY INVESTED in these people and their happiness. God damn you, Dontnod, you are too good at sucking me in.

OneShot -- This is a charming little title, a top-down adventure game where you play a young girl named Niko (who is NOT a cat even though she looks an awful lot like one). Niko awakes in a dark house in a dark world in which the sun has gone out. Bearing a new sun -- which is a light bulb -- she goes on a quest to set this world right and return home. This game is utterly, utterly charming and Niko is a wonderful character. She is sweet and friendly and you can't help but wish the best for her. It's a short game, the puzzles are simple and there are some fun narrative surprises that I won't spoil. Recommended.



Oxygen Not Included -- One of my most-played games this year, this is a colony builder from the folks at Klei. Still in early access but if you know anything about Klei, you know their EA support game is top notch. Here you manage a team of colonists to carve out a base deep in the heart of an asteroid -- shades of Dwarf Fortress, if you also had to worry about ventilation and temperature. Has that wonderful Don't Starve musical/graphical charm and, by this point, enough gameplay features to keep you busy for hours and hours.


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Subnautica -- Technically I've been playing this in EA for more than a year, but only after the full release this year was I able to actually finish it. First-person survival on an alien planet; well "on" isn't quite accurate, since the planet's all ocean and you're underwater most of the time. Often deep underwater. It's gorgeous and wonderful and sometimes supremely terrifying, and you get cool vehicles and can build undersea bases powered by alien poop. It's a fine, fine piece of work.


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Surviving Mars -- This is my #1 most-played game for the whole year. It's the mid-to-late 21st century! Mars! Go build a base on it! Use drone robots to build the infrastructure, then once you've got your space-age habitat domes built, it's time to bring the human beings. After all, you need someone to run the space labs and space mines and space factories and space shopping malls. Throwing a twist in each game is a randomly chosen "Mars Mystery" event chain, which might be aliens, or it might be a deadly plague, a rogue AI, or World War III breaking out on Earth. This is from the people who brought you the Tropico remake, and so you know what that means: a great soundtrack.


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Total War: Warhammer II -- This came out in 2017 but I just recently got around to it. I suck at TW:W generally but god damn, it doesn't matter when the Dark Elves are so much fun. They're so cartoonishly evil that they wrap around to being wonderful. Plus, war hydras.

The Walking Dead: The Final Season -- Oh, Telltale. Leaving out the corporate BS, which is not the programmers' fault, I've been really enjoying the latest misadventures of Clementine and am glad we seem to be on track to getting the last 2 chapters.

Where the Water Tastes Like Wine -- This is a strange one, barely a game at all in a lot of ways. This is a game about stories: collecting them, passing them along, watching them grow and change with each telling. It's also a game about America and the myths, good and bad, that tie it together. The setting is the Depression, a time when people definitely needed the power of story and myth (among other things, like jobs). You are a hobo, cursed by a losing poker hand to wander the 48 states and ... well, just witness things -- magical and mundane, amusing or terrifying or inspiring -- and spread these tales across the nation like a Johnny Appleseed. Like I said, there's very little gameplay, just moving your dude across the map. The real content is the stories themselves. Every vignette is voiced -- I don't know who the narrator is, but he does a terrific job -- and it's fun to exchange your tales and watch them take on strange new life. Collect 'em all! WtWTLW isn't to everyone's taste, but it's certainly a unique experience and overall I like it. Great soundtrack, too.


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[Highbrow Dash]

Here goes. I played more stuff but these are the ones that stood out:

- Celeste: I love super difficult platformers and this was a really good One Of Those, while also having a great story and charming characters

- La Mulana 2: My experience was basically the same as Genesi's, though I did look up tips to find out where to go whenever I got stumped (most times the answer was something obvious that I could've easily found if I'd taken the time to backtrack a little). Still, I tried to do that as little as possible, and taking notes and solving puzzles on my own was immensely satisfying. It helps that the puzzles were never as insanely obscure as they were in the first game, but still. It's an amazing game.
- Monster Hunter World and 4U: These two were vastly different experiences I had a blast playing through 4U's great story, smooth difficulty curve and super challenging G rank and scroll quests, but when all's said and done I keep coming back to World's "sandbox" gameplay and constant new content. It's a great time to be a Monster Hunter fan.

- Night in the Woods: This game hit me hard. I do wonder how I would've reacted to it if I'd played it back when it was released... Let's just say I can relate a lot. But I'm sure I'm not the only one.