DrBloodmoney's Super Scientific Ranking of Games!

[DrBloodmoney]

3 hours ago, Jeanolt said:

Maybe an out of topic question but, have you ever tried to get the account to 100%? Maybe at some point of your life? Although it's possible that with so many games at least one of them glitched and you said screw it lol.

 

There's not many people with a high completion on their main account; I mean, not an account created with the purpose of 100% but actually the original one.

 

 

Nah. 

 

Wouldn't be possible, since there's a good swathe of unobtainable on my account anyways - actual, bonafide unobtainables, plus ones where you have to jump through some ridiculous hoops to do (de-patching or downloading old versions via proxy-do-dads-and-thingumyjigs)....

... and that sounds like a whole mess of crap I'm not interested in!

 

 

But even setting that aside...

...even if it was technically possible...

...I don't think it would be fun to either get it there, or to have it there.

 

I like having it high - the pursuit of high completion is fun - but I like having no issue leaving a game that I can't beat, or that I don't think is fun or worth my time.

I've no great interest in being considered a "good" trophy hunter - I would rather just faff about in my usual hap-hazard way, and see how high I can keep it while walking along the edge of crazy, without actually falling in!

 

 

Edited November 28, 2023 by DrBloodmoney

[grayhammmer]

5 hours ago, DrBloodmoney said:

 

Nah. 

 

Wouldn't be possible, since there's a good swathe of unobtainable on my account anyways - actual, bonafide unobtainables, plus ones where you have to jump through some ridiculous hoops to do (de-patching or downloading old versions via proxy-do-dads-and-thingumyjigs)....

... and that sounds like a whole mess of crap I'm not interested in!

 

 

But even setting that aside...

...even if it was technically possible...

...I don't think it would be fun to either get it there, or to have it there.

 

I like having it high - the pursuit of high completion is fun - but I like having no issue leaving a game that I can't beat, or that I don't think is fun or worth my time.

I've no great interest in being considered a "good" trophy hunter - I would rather just faff about in my usual hap-hazard way, and see how high I can keep it while walking along the edge of crazy, without actually falling in!

 

 

While we're on the topic, is there any chance that you'll analyze any of the games that you can't complete, just with a note alongside them that they can't be 100%ed?

Edited November 28, 2023 by grayhammmer

[DrBloodmoney]

 

  NEW SCIENTIFIC RESULTS ARE IN! 

 

 

Hello Science-Petes and Science-Mykas, as promised (and in some no cases requested), here are the latest results of our great scientific endeavour!

 

 

 

Trine 3: The Artefacts of Power

 

Summary: 

 

The third entry in developer Frozenbyte's Trine franchise (five games strong at this point), Trine 3: The Artefacts of Power, released in 2015, sees perennial heroes - Amadeus the polite if slightly inept Wizard, Zoya, the sultry thief with the heart of gold, and Pontius, the stout defender of the realm -  on a brand new adventure.

 

When the trio attempt to forgo the immortality the Trine granted them in the original game, and return its power to the ethereal realm from whence it came, calamity strikes, releasing a malevolent, heartless (literally) entity called Sarek within the Astral Academy. After discovering that they can defeat Sarek by finding the shards of the Trine, and combining them, the heroes set about seeking them out...

...and if you think you'll be finding out if they actually succeed, unfortunately, the answer will be not much more than a footnote in Trine 4... (more on that later!)

Trine 3: The Artefacts of Power, is, without a shadow of a doubt, the odd black sheep of the Trine franchise - and one that feels more and more so with each passing entry.

There is one very obvious and clear reason:
Trine 3 is the only entry that is in "Full" 3D.

 

All Trine games are polygonal - they are all rendered in 3D, however, Trine 3 is the only one which actually operates as a 3D game - with the mechanics designed around full 3D movement, with a Z-axis plane on the gameplay field.

 

Why would a franchise begin in 2D, then shift to full 3D, but them switch back?
Well...
...one only has to ask Rayman.
...or Mortal Kombat.
...or Street Fighter.
...or a litany of other games that made the jump, then walked it back with subsequent entries.

The fact is...
Trine's transition to 3D was not a great one.

 

The notion of going 3D in a franchise like Trine is not an inherently bad one, it should be stated. It may have been a mistake in hindsight - even a whopping one - but it's one the developer came by honestly. 
Trine games always looked great - and there was always significant depth to the 3D-designed, but 2D viewed environments. 
While Amadeus, Pontius and Zoya moved on a 2D plane, the richly detailed, gorgeous environments through which they did always hinted at a vast, beautiful world behind them, stretching off into the un-tapped Z-axis. It was only natural that players - and the developer - would want to see what those environments would be like to explore more fully. 
It's therefor a perfectly understandable wish...
...but as we all learned from watching The Twilight Zone.... one should be careful what they wish for.

 

Trine's mechanics don't translate particularly well to full 3D. 
For starters, many of the controls of Trine games are relatively fiddly already - Amadeus's positioning of the objects he conjures, or Zoya's zip-line hooking of her swinging rope or firing of her arrows, or even Pontius's positioning when sailing through the air using his shield as a parachute...
..these are staples of the core mechanics, but ones that become much more irksome when z-axis positioning becomes a concern. 

 

Trine 3 does a reasonable job of translating some of its core mechanics to a full 3D game-field - combat, for example, is more dynamic in Trine 3 than it was in either of the two previous entries (and for what it's worth, than it would be in the subsequent two entries too, which - spoiler alert - return to the 2D format,) and there are, of course, some puzzles in Trine 3 that do that feel unique, and simply couldn't be done in 2D...
...but overall, the change in format does not particularly help the game beyond the visual. 

Moreover, since Trine has always looked spectacular anyways, that benefit is not one that impacts to a level that justifies the considerable drawbacks it entailed.

 

The biggest issue with the 3D is that the developer clearly realised the issues themselves, and sought to alleviate them, but generally did so by mitigating the extent to which the 3D change actually affects the game. In many situations, the 3D environments work pretty much as the 2D ones of the previous two games did - the camera is largely fixed and the levels working essentially as 2.5D - with progress being made in relatively linear fashion, and puzzles solved in essentially 2D, but with some Z-Axis movement thrown in here and there.

In these cases, the game works largely as it did in previous entries, (and does benefit aesthetically form the change, as the environments are - as they always have been in the franchise - gorgeous, and seeing them come to life in 3D is great,) but there is an additional "fiddly-ness" of control introduced that feel like it belabours the puzzle solving. 

 

The thing with Trine as a franchise is, it has always been a game about playing with combinations of mechanics, and one that has always allowed the player to solve puzzles in multiple ways.  There is generally a "right", specific way to solve each puzzle, but the breadth of mechanics and the ways they work in tandem, and with the loose physics model, means there is often many other ways to "jerry-rig" solutions together that will also work, but are not technically the "prescribed" way. 

 

That model can have significant flaws - indeed, in the original Trine, when the developer had not yet blocked the player from simply levitating one of Amadeus's created platforms with another character "surfing" on it, 90% of the puzzles could simply be bypassed if the player chose to...
...but that issue had been tightened up pretty well in Trine 2.
Trine 2 struck a pretty good balance between having specific solutions, and allowing non-standard solutions, but having both at least take some smart thinking. Trine 3 feels like something of a regression in that aspect, in that the 3D nature of some puzzles means there are so many potential ways to bypass the intended solutions, that the game became very, very easy. 

The game's puzzles also don't all work as well in that format, and where this 3D entry is at its Trine-y best, is when it is approximating the old 2D model as best it can.

It's telling that the game, crafted in full 3D, so often reverts to essentially "corridor gameplay", where the game is "2D in all but reality" that the fundamental flaw of the game is shown to be clear to developers: this reticence to really use the new axis at their disposal betrays the simple fact that they know as well as we do, the problems the 3D format introduced.

All of these issues are important and problematic for the franchise, but actually, the biggest, most unfortunate issue caused by the game shifting into 3D hasn't event been mentioned yet- and it is a serious one:
The game was much, much harder to make in that format than the developer expected. They have stated so.

 It cost them far more in time and in development budget than they anticipated, and the result, is that it both financially imperilled the studio, and resulted in essentially being financially forced to release the game not when it was "finished", but when they simply couldn't continue as a going concern without releasing it. As a result, the final product that is Trine 3 is a game that is significantly shorter than any other entry in the series, and has no real resolution. It seems to come to an abrupt halt at what feels like a natural mid-point.

 

Most Trine games clock in at around the 8-10 hour mark for a solo playthrough - stretching, actually, in the 4th and fifth entry, to around 12-15 hours. Trine 3 is lucky to if it takes 3-4 hours - partly because so many of the puzzles are so easy, but mainly because the game itself is simple far smaller than any other entry. The dramatic increase in development resources required to craft levels in full 3D necessitated a drastic reduction in the scope of the game... not one that was planned form the outset....and it shows.

It showed in 2015, when Trine 3 was the latest entry in a trilogy, and it really shows now, when Trine 3 is the 3D, short, strange, odd-man-out in the middle of of a five-entry franchise.

 

The narrative of the game isn't ever properly concluded in the game - left, as it appears to be, for DLC, or perhaps another 3D entry, as the developer simply had to release the game in order to recoup some capital, and over financial oblivion...
...but the lukewarm reception of the 3D game meant that they went back to the 2D format with Trine 4. The began a fresh, new story, and simply relegated Trine 3 to the "nice idea, didn't work" barrel. 
Indeed, aside from a minor footnote collectible mention in Trine 4, the lore of Trine 3 is largely abandoned...
...which is to Trine 3's detriment, though I should note - works to Trine 4's benefit - Trine 4 being one of the best entries the franchise has had, and a much, much more accomplished product than its predecessor.

In terms of visuals though, that is the one area where Trine 3 is, unequivocally, a success. 
Say what you want about the regression of puzzle design, the lack of length, or the step back in mechanical prowess, Trine 3 is an absolutely beautiful looking game. All Trine games look great - each represents a real showcase of its time, as far as graphics, fairytale aesthetic, particle effects and lighting... and Trine 3 manages to translate that gorgeous design to 3D very, very well. 
Actually - it's genuinely surprising just how well. The game is 8 years old at the point of writing this review, and in the indie sphere in which Trine finds a home, I genuinely think Trine 3: The Artefacts of Power can hold up, aesthetically, to games coming out this year - and that is impressive.
There is, of course, a massive down-side to that: the game required so much resource to get that visual splendour working, that the game itself is far shorter and less varied than previous entires, and that affects the visual end of things too - there is great art, but a lot less of it...
... but one cannot deny that what limited environments there are, are an unequivocal joy to explore.

Audio is good - the voice work remains are well done as in any Trine game, however, the shorter story comes with an accompanying reduction in the amount of dialogue, and, more oddly, the number of jokes peppering it. 
Trine has never been overtly "capital-C-comedic", it's never been a franchise of belly laughs, and more one of smiles and good feelings - but the back and forth bickering between the mismatched heroes is a staple of the series, and in Trine 3, I do think that writing is at it's weakest ebb.

 The voice actors (returning, all three, once more) do their darnedest, and are never less than solid, but they need the writing to keep that bouncy back-and-forth going, and here, it never quite hits like it did in the past, or would again in the future.  

There is a sense, in Trine 3, that the writing - like many other things - suffered for the strain that the sheer workload of the new format put on the development team, and like many other aspects, it retains a glimmer of its original sparkle, but not quite enough to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with its kin.

Trine games are, of course, games that work in solo or co-op, and like all Trine games, I played as part of a dynamic duo with MsBloodmoney - her taking Zoya's reins full-time, and me swapping between Pontius and Amadeus - and in Trine 3, we certainly had fun in the same way we have with every entry...
... but like the writing, the puzzle design and the game itself, our experience felt a little thinner than usual.

The truncated nature of the story, and the lack of real puzzling goodness, the reduction in witty repartee between the characters, and the unfortunate lack of resolution to the plot took its toll on the game, and while we both would attest to having enjoyed Trine 3...
...both were very happy to hear, when Trine 4 was announced, that it would be returning to the 2D format we had come to love in the first two games.

Overall, Trine 3: The Artefacts of Power is not an abjectly bad game - there are significant positives to be found in it, and the developer clearly did their utmost to make the best of a game that was based on a fundamental misstep in the original design doc...
...but there is simply no denying that, while just as beautiful to look at as its peers, Trine 3: The Artefacts of Power remains the unquestionable nadir in a quality franchise. 
It is a low point in a franchise that is generally of much higher calibre...
...and given the trajectory of the franchise as a whole, when viewed in hindsight, I suspect even Frozenbyte would agree! 

 

It's not a case where I would recommend players playing the franchise simply skip Trine 3: The Artefacts of Power - I do think there is fun to be had in it, and it's interesting to see how the franchise weathered the jump to 3D, even if that weather was less than clement...
...but on the other hand, if a player were to skip any single entry, I do think Trine 3 would absolutely be the one on the chopping block. It is the low point, no matter how well intentioned (and despite a few specific, genuinely successful sections,) and in a franchise as generally stellar as Trine, it's impossible not to be a little let down by this rocky, tumultuous entry. 
 

 

The Ranking:

 

Ranking Trine 3: The Artefacts of Power feels a lot like ranking a new game, rather than an entry in a franchise already represented on the list, simply because while Trine 3 is not a terrible game, it is markedly less good than either previous entry already ranked. 
As such, while the original Trine certainly provides a ceiling...
...it is a rather high ceiling, and working down from it could take some considerable time!

As such, I considered Trine 3 in a vacuum, separate to the other two entries, and thought instead about other 3D games that look very good, but have significant issues, or that are perhaps low points in otherwise good franchises.

That led me to thinking about 3 particular games - all of which fall somewhat close to each-other on the current ranking:

It Takes Two, Sly 3: Honour Among Thieves, and Ratchet & Clank: Nexus.

 

Each of those games has some fun to be had, (and curiously, each also looks pretty dang good for their eras) but each also suffers from some significant problems. 
It Takes Two has its appalling, dangerous message, stultifyingly stupid writing and grotesque characters. 
Sly 3 is not the abject mess its predecessor was, but it has significant issues with pacing, with unfocussed gameplay, and with a dull narrative.
Ratchet & Clank: Nexus is a good enough game, but one that feels tired and a little uninspired, is far, far too short, not nearly as varied or fun as most entries in its franchise, and just doesn't quite measure up... not unlike Trine 3!

 

I do actually think It Takes Two has to retain its place - as loathe as I am to admit it. While I detest the writing in that game, I cannot deny that it is a well crafted, long, varied game, and it works mechanically in a way Trine 3 can't compete with.

 

Sly 3 is a closer call - and Trine 3 does have some elements that out-class it - namely the visuals and some of the puzzle elements. Trine 3's highest points are higher than any of Sly 3's...
..but Sly 3 is the longer, more complete game, and it has one thing Trine 3 doesn't... an actual ending to its story!
As such, I think Sly 3 also retains its spot.

 

Ratchet & Clank: Nexus is a more interesting fight though. 
Certainly it is longer than Trine 3, and more complete feeling... however, it is also a particularly striking dip in a franchise renowned for quality. That it shares with Trine 3, however, Trine 3 is still the sharper looking game, and while I'd argue Ratchet & Clank: Nexus is overall the more consistent game, Trine 3 does have its moment for genuine interest, even if the game is largely a misstep.

Nexus's problem, is that it is bland. Trine 3 is full of issues, but it is, at least, interesting - it is a franchise trying something new, and not quite getting there... whereas Ratchet & Clank: Nexus feels like a franchise treading water because it was - at that point - out of ideas.

As such, while I think both end up in roughly the same overall place... Nexus gets there by lack of trying, while Trine 3 gets there by trying too much and failing...
...and I don't like the idea of rewarding apathy over over-ambition. 

 

In the end, I do think that a hypothetical player, someone who is a fan of both franchises generally, but has played neither of these two entries, would get far more enjoyment from playing the messy-but-curious Trine 3, than the uninspired-but-competent Nexus...

...and so I think Trine 3 should, by rights, rank above Nexus, despite its flaws.

 

The game right above Ratchet & Clank: Nexus is odd, sometimes baffling Assassin's Creed Liberation, but I think that game, while also being an odd black sheep of its franchise, still outclasses Trine 3 overall...

...so Trine 3: The Artefacts of Power finds its spot!

 

 

 

 

 

Sam & Max Save the World

 

 

Summary: 

An episodic 3D comedy Adventure Game from TellTale, and a long-awaited follow up to the original Sam & Max Hit The Road, Sam & Max Save the World sees the titular pair of freelance police - Sam, the good-natured ever-patient, fedora-sporting anthropomorphic bloodhound, and Max, the hyper-kinetic, homicidal, agent-of-chaos bunny rabbit - solving a loosely connected series of absurdist crimes involving hypnotism, while juggling relationships with their eclectic (and often bizarre) neighbourhood acquaintances.

The history of Sam & Max in videogames is somewhat convoluted. After the unceremonious cancellation of LucasArt's own sequel to the original Sam & Max Hit The Road - the working titled Sam & Max: Freelance Police - was widely heralded as the final death-knell for the adventure game in popular culture, and LucasArts pivoted away from the genre their acclaim had been built on in favour of safer, more commercially viable IP tie-ins, Steve Purcell's comic-book creations seemed lost at sea in terms of videogames.
However, as LucasArts continued their pivot beyond that one game, shuttering its entire Adventure Game division, the talent that had worked there began to disperse elsewhere...
...and a large number of the original Sam & Max: Freelance Police development team began to coalesce at another company, that was toying with what was - at the time - a rather radical new idea: 
episodically released games.

That company was Telltale.

 

The match seems, in hindsight, a perfect one. Telltale were looking at lower-cost IP tie-ins, and episodic structures as a means to dramatically lower the financial risks involved in videogame development, and Sam & Max: Freelance Police was a game already planned to be loosely structured in an episodic format, based on a known and beloved (yet not prohibitively expensive,) IP. 

Indeed, while Sam & Max: Freelance Police never did release, there is a fair amount known about what it was planned to be - and while the actual plot differs from what would eventually become Sam & Max Save the World, the basic structure sounds largely identical: 6 individual episodes of distinct storylines, that are tied together by an over-arching plot line, which would reveal itself slowly, over the course of the entire game.

 

That structure is largely what makes Sam & Max Save the World work as well as it does. 
Not in the sense of release dates (I, as most players will nowadays, played the episodes back-to-back, in true "binge-watch" style!) but more in the sense that the episodic structure lends itself to what Sam & Max ultimately works best as:

the videogame equivalent of a Sit Com.

 

Most sit-com TV shows that work, do so largely because an individual episode has its own arc, and those can get as wild, or as zany, or as outlandish as the particular plot requires... but there is an audience comfort level built into the format, because of the things that persist across episodes, and the "soft reset" each new episode provides.
In The Simpsons, Homer might end up fired from the nuclear power plant in one episode, or in space in another, or on a desert-bound-vision-quest with a jackal-version of Johnny Cash... but the audience is able to easily go with it, because no matter how absurd it gets, they know that, come the next episode, the board will be largely "reset" and he will begin again from evergreen terrace.

 

That is, I think, the biggest reason why Sam & Max Save the World really hits the mark - and does so in a way that some of the subsequent games don't quite manage to stick the landing on. (More on that in future reviews!)

The persistent characters in Sam & Max Save the World - Sam and Max themselves, of course, Bosco - the paranoid, conspiracy-obsessed, disguise-wearing convenience store clerk - or Sybil -the optimistic, career-hopping, looking-for-love entrepreneur - provide the baseline in this game. 
Because each episode begins in the same neighbourhood, with Sam & Max in their ramshackle office, and generally spending the first 30 minutes of each simply tying in with these characters, to see what crazy new existential threat Bosco is fearful of, and what poorly-made disguise and hammily-delivered false accent he is using; or what new career path Sybil has decided is her calling-du-jour, the game is able to engrain the kind of "sit-com comfort" in the player that most games can't. 
The fact that Sam and Max begin each new episode the same way - with a call from the unseen commissioner received in their office, generally followed by a mosey around the neighbourhood to see what is different this time, feels oddly comforting. Settling in for a new episode of Sam & Max Save the World feels like sitting down to the next episode of a familiar comedy show, and gives the player the "on-ramp" to relax into it, while still managing to have a litany of new jokes associated with those familiar parts,  because the actual dynamics of what each character is up to are different each time...
...and will generally figure into the esoteric, absurdist methods by why the Freelance Police will solve the next bizarre case.

 

I'll talk more about the future games when they are reviewed, but I do think that if those future games have a failure, it's that they never quite manage to re-capture this true "sit com feeling". They go more and more outlandish and eccentric in their locales and situations - which is its own kind of fun - but the lack of that more rigid framing of each case, while on paper a benefit, actually doesn't really help the structure. The lack of a "base-touching" portion of each episode makes them feel more like a single story "dissected", rather than separate stories with an overarching through-line.

In terms of the actual mechanics, Sam & Max feels very much like the hold out from the more traditional Adventure Games that it is, than touched by any of the "modern Adventure Games" Telltale would pivot to later. 
Puzzles and progression in Sam & Max games are comedic in nature, and often wildly esoteric - the kind of "absurdist logic" that was a staple of games like Monkey Island, and Day of the Tentacle is still alive and well in these games.

That throwback nature, of course, does make the pace of the game quite different from the more modern, "post-Walking Dead" Adventure Games. Where Telltale games would eventually pivot (very successfully) to a more "choose-your-own-adventure", fully-narrative-focussed, faster-paced gameplay framework, Sam & Max remains in the old adventure game camp: the "if-in-doubt-try-every-object-on-everything" approach, where puzzle solutions are as often the punchline to a joke as they are to a legitimate cerebral challenge!

 

It's a style of gameplay that isn't in vogue much now - and can feel frustrating to players more used to the faster paced games Telltale would eventually become famous for, but it's a style that can work well... for one specific reason, and with one specific caveat: 
Humour.

Because the gameplay is largely about simply talking to everyone, looking at everything, and trying every item on every other item, the game's success is tied pretty much entirely to how much the player enjoys the jokes, wild logic-leaps, and crazy situations that arise from that.

 

Now - Humour is a matter of taste. 
In all areas.
One thing common to a good majority of the Lucas Arts adventure games of old is that they are, to varying extents, comedic in nature...
... and it is no coincidence that most of the adventure games that are held up as classics not only are humorous, but have the same broad style of humour. 

There is a specific type of humour that lends itself very well to the genre - a sort of Monty Python/ Douglas Adams/ Terry Pratchett adjacent one, where absurdism and non-sequiturs are the basis, as it allows for a basic framework to be established, then be adorned with jokes like decorations on a Christmas Tree - hanging on every exposed branch and draped over every part, without every joke requiring a specific order, or even for the player to fully comprehend the plot they are navigating at the particular time the joke comes up.

Sam & Max, as an IP, is a good fit for the genre, as the original source material is also absurdist in the same way, and Sam & Max Save the World is a particularly good example of that kind of humour working...
...but of course, enjoyment it is dependent on liking that style of humour to begin with.

 

The biggest positive in Sam & Max Save the World (and in both the future seasons of Sam & Max,) is also its biggest flaw: it is a gameplay and humour style that will easily appeal to fans of the old adventure games it is descended from, but will likely not appeal at all to the people who didn't like those games, for all the same reasons. 

I do think that, as that old-style of adventure games go, Sam & Max Save the World is a particularly good example, both of the humour, and of the absurdist logic puzzles (in the latter case, a better example than Telltale would quite manage in future instalments of the franchise,) but it is not doing anything to pull in people not already fans of old LucasArts games...
...and since those games did die out for commercial reasons, it has to be reasoned that that audience was / has dwindled. I say that as a card-carrying, dues-paying member of it!

Visually, the game is quite nice, and while it is certainly not doing anything particularly notable technically, the translation of Sam & Max from the 2D pixel-art of the original 1993 game, to 3D polygonal environments does work remarkably well. In fact, I can think of relatively few examples where an IP has gone from 2D pixels to 3D Polygons and actually manages to better capture the look of the original IP, but here, I think that is the case. 
The environments are simple in terms of fine detail, but convey what they need to for the jokes to land, and characters look particularly well defined. Unlike some other Telltale games, characters seem to "fit" into their environments very well - there is not really any "foreground/background mis-match", or stark lines or clipping, and that is great to see.

It's a highly stylised, cartoonish world, of course - as befits the IP (and the absurd nature!), and relatively low-poly, however, it is detailed enough to easily convey the many visual and sight gags, and to punctuate the line deliveries with facial expressions. 

Those line deliveries, of course, are doing a huge amount of the work of the game - along with the writing. 
As said, Sam & Max games rely on the player enjoying the world and the characters more than anything else, and because it is all based in humour, line-delivery and landing the jokes is paramount to that. There are, it must be noted, some instances where the game trips over the joke, and tramples what should have been a good comedic bit, but these are virtually always a result of the game engine not keeping pace, or causing some hitching or pausing at the wrong moment. They are never never a result of poor line delivery, which is fun and well done across the board.

 

Writing is good - the jokes are on point within the genre, and Steve Purcell - the creator and writer of the comics is heavily involved with the games, resulting in a very accurate translation of the humour of the source material to the original storylines of the games.

The audio in the games is very good generally in fact - beyond simply the vocal performances, the music is well done and well chosen, often adding to the jokes well, and each episode ends with an original song, which are often highlights.  

 

Gameplay is, as said, in the old-school Adventure Game mould, and works very well, and the limited game engine of Telltale holds up fine for these aspects. Where it can run into trouble, is in instances where the engine is required to do more than that - mini-games for example, where action is a little more frenetic or timing-based. There are, happily, few instances of these in Sam and Max Save the World (there are, unfortunately, more in future games!) but here, nothing really causes technical issues with any of the gameplay.

Overall, Sam & Max Save the World is a very good example of the comedic, absurdist, old-style Adventure Game, modernised in terms of visuals, but retaining the old style when it comes to gameplay. The episodic nature is particularly beneficial to the game - in fact, I'd argue it enhances it far more than the same structure does for some of Telltale's other episodic IP tie-ins - and in Sam & Max Save the World, there is a particularly good balance of the sit-com structure, with the absurdist plot leanings.

 

It's a hard game to recommend for people who have no affinity or nostalgia for the old LucasArts games, of course - it is very much rooted in a style of gameplay that is largely consigned to history at this point, (and was dwindling even when Sam & Max Save the World released,)...
...however, for people who are fans of those old games, it's a hard game not to recommend!
 

 

 

 

 

The Ranking:

 

In ranking Sam & Max Save the World, the obvious comparison points are the old LucasArts type games from which it is descended - a few of which are on the list already - and some of the other Telltale games that came along after it - a few of which are also on the list already!

 

That should make things a little easier.

 

In terms of existing Telltale fare, the two highest ranked ones are The Walking Dead, and The Wolf Among Us. Now, Sam & Max Save the World is a different style of game - those two were born of the "New Telltale", where narrative, more cinematic writing was the norm, and had all but replaced the humour and puzzle elements of the older games, and so are not directly comparable...
...but both types of Adventure Game are valid, and in those two instances, I do think that their own merits justify retaining their places.

Sam & Max Save the World is a good game, and the humour and puzzles go a long way to compensating for the less enthralling narrative or the (slightly) less stylish trappings - certainly enough to easily outdo weaker "New Telltale" fare like Batman, but The Walking Dead Season 1 and The Wolf Among Us represent the cream of the "New Telltale" crop, and I think rank higher.

Further down a little though, is Grim Fandango - and that is a curious fight.

On the one hand, I think the narrative of Grim Fandango easily beats out Sam & Max Save the World, as does the imaginative world-building, and even a lot of the primary jokes...
...however, Grim Fandango is a game that is hampered by the era in which it released.

It was an early game using 3D polygonal elements, and they are very rough - and as blasphemous as it might be considered by gaming purists, I do think that those visual elements hurt it. If Grim Fandango has simply been a 2D, pixel-designed game, with all the same other elements, I think it would easily outdo Sam & Max Save the World...
...but it isn't. 
It's a great Adventure Game, but one that feels far more dated than many others - even ones that came out earlier, because it is trapped in the "early-adopter" bear-trap. It did 3D to be modern at the time, adding awkward tank controls and ugly models, but those have aged like a fine milk, and dated it exponentially. 

I think the fact that Sam & Max Save the World is maybe the slightly less engaging time, but does it in its easy-breezy, enjoyably sit-com daft way, and is funny and silly and wacky and clever in the right ways, and does it while looking and sounding much better, means in 2023, it has to outclass Grim Fandango.

The game right above Grim Fandango is Dead Space Extraction - not a comparison in any meaningful way, but I do think that holistically, I had the better time with Sam & Max Save the World, so I'm happy placing it higher...

...but the game above that, is Sackboy's Big Adventure.

 

I think the humour, fun, co-op silliness and general good time, great visuals and solid mechanics of Sackboy mean it has to retain its place...
...and so Sam & Max Save the World finds its spot!
 

 

 

 

 

 

Sam & Max: Beyond Time and Space

 

 

Summary: 

 

The third Sam & Max game, and second by Telltale released in the episodic mould of Sam & Max Save the World, Sam & Max: Beyond Time and Space sees the titular two members of the Freelance Police a year after their misadventures of the previous game, being sucked into a brand new, temporal adventure, criss crossing everywhere from Santa's Workshop in the North Pole, to a haunted vampire disco, to a Mariachi-piloted UFO, to the offices of Hell itself.

Released across five episodes this time (as opposed to the previous season's six,) the actual gameplay and tropes of Sam & Max: Beyond Time and Space remain largely similar to that of its predecessor.

The humour and writing remains the primary selling point of the game, and the tone of it remains pretty high throughout. Steve Purcell's involvement with the game remains, and as such, the characters still feel very rooted in the IP from which the games sprang, and the absurdist, non-sequitur-heavy jokes and story continue at the same pace...
...though there are a few distinct differences in the structure of Sam & Max: Beyond Time and Space, that give it slightly different feel to Sam & Max Save the World - and not necessarily for the better.

 

The true "episodic" feel of the previous game feels a little less leaned into this time. Where in the previous game, the episodic nature of the release of the game felt absolutely tailor-made, and worked perfectly in tandem with the "TV Sit-Com" feel of the story pacing, due to the "soft-reset" of location with each episode, in Sam & Max: Beyond Time and Space, the story feels less grounded.

I am aware that saying a story that has involved visits to the moon in a DeSoto, giant talking statues of Abraham Lincoln's head, and an evil goldfish named Spatula can feel "grounded" might seem absurd, (and it is,)...
...but nevertheless, the fact is that by starting each new episode in exactly the same way, and from the same location each time, Sam & Max Save the World provided itself a much more accessible, natural springboard, from which to jump into each new tale of the bizarre and outlandish. It made each episode feel like just that - a complete episode - with its own complete "episode arc", which fed an overall season arc.

 

Sam & Max: Beyond Time and Space, by comparison, doesn't feel like 5 separate episodes, as much as it does a single movie, split into 5 parts. While Sam & Max will, during each episode, return to their home turf, the game doesn't feel like it is starting and finishing an episode with each instalment, as much as providing the next chapter. 
Each episode tends to end on a cliffhanger, and the player is thrust into each new chapter right at the point the previous one ended, in whatever precarious situation the characters have found themselves.

That has the positive effect of allowing the story to get even more mad-cap and outlandish than it was before (and this is a benefit,) however, it also has the effect of almost over-egging the pudding. Because the story flits from ridiculous location to ridiculous location, and ridiculous situation to ridiculous situation, without ever having the "breathing room" provided by the early parts of the previous season's episodes, it can feel a little exhausting, and doesn't allow for the sit-com feel the previous season enjoyed. 

 

It's not necessarily a pure negative - but it is one that changes the dynamic of the game a little - and it's a little hard to describe exactly why.

The best analogy I can come up with, if you will forgive a rather specific reference, is Futurama. The difference between Sam & Max Save the World, and Sam & Max: Beyond Time and Space, is like the difference between regular episodes of the show, and those 4 feature-length movies that were made, but then subsequently split into sections to form a defacto "new season".
Those episodes that were made as parts of the feature-length instalments still work - the have the same zany humour, the same good characters, and are even able to do more outlandish storylines, given the longer format they were written for...
...but there is something that feels just not quite right with the pacing when they are split up into episodes.

Sam & Max Save the World feels like an episodic game that fits neatly into the episodic format, whereas Sam & Max: Beyond Time and Space feels like a single, long game, that has been forced into an episodic format. The result, is that the game feels just as fun and imaginative and silly as it should - and in fact, is afforded the ability to go even further into the realms of the absurd - but doesn't quite manage to be as accessible to the player, and provide the "comfortable" feel of its predecessor.

Gameplay-wise, Sam & Max: Beyond Time and Space is largely the same style as its predecessor. The puzzles remain of the "try everything", old-school Adventure Game type, and work pretty well - though there are a few in Sam & Max: Beyond Time and Space that feel a little too far beyond the pale of intuition.

In Sam & Max Save the World, there were puzzles which took a long time to solve, and seemed bizarre, but generally once solved, the thread of absurdist logic, however oddly strung it was, could be followed. The result was rarely, if ever, the player going "wait, what?" In Sam & Max: Beyond Time and Space, however, there are a few puzzle solutions - generally ones involving specific timing of item uses or combinations of items - that feel a little too esoteric - where even once figured out through brute force, the player would be well within their rights to ask "How was I ever supposed to figure THAT out!?"

Luckily though, while certainly more common than in the previous season, those moments still remain relatively rare. For the most part, the gameplay holds up just as well as the previous game - and the introduction of a more robust hint system does compensate a little for the increase in puzzle difficulty.

 

Where the game does suffer substantially though, is in the mini-games, where the game engine is required to do things it is not particularly well suited for. Sam & Max Save the World suffered from the same issue, however, Sam & Max: Beyond Time and Space features significantly more of these mini-games - namely, around the "driving the DeSoto" sections. Every episode of Sam & Max: Beyond Time and Space features one of these sections - each with its own unique twist - and each one is a chore to do. The game engine is woefully inadequate to cope with these sections of gameplay, resulting in a choppy, frame-y, pop-in fuelled nightmare of a game mode, that it is genuinely difficult to understand why the developers made the decision, A: to include it at all, and B: to repeat it so often.

The visuals and audio remain good. Graphically, these games are not power houses on the technical front, of course, but the artistic design is good, and the animations and expressions on characters are enough to sell the jokes well, and the world feels eclectic and silly in the right ways. 
The animations are a little more fluid this time out, and the environments are more varied and more eccentric, while maintaining that cartoonishly silly aesthetic, which is certainly a merit.

The score is fine - there are a few less really memorable, silly songs this time around, but the ones that are there are fun, and the general score is fine, if not hugely stand-out. the voice work is still very good - actors hitting the jokes right pretty much without fail, and there are certainly as good a ratio of successful, funny jokes this time as there was in Sam & Max Save the World.

Overall, Sam & Max: Beyond Time and Space is a worthy sequel to Sam & Max Save the World - and very much a gameplay continuation. It is tonally and stylistically a direct sequel, and so very unlikely to appeal to anyone not enamoured of the previous game...
...but equally, vary unlikely not to appeal to fans of that previous entry.

Sam & Max: Beyond Time and Space is more of the same in pretty much all senses, and as such, the minor differences - the change in pacing, the slightly more outlandish, untethered feel of the story, and the slight increase in absurdist-logic of the puzzles - are going to come down to a matter of pure taste on the old-school Adventure Game fan's part.
Personally, I missed the slightly more "formatted" sit-com quality of the previous game, but that's not to say that Sam & Max: Beyond Time and Space doesn't have its up-side... I do think there are slightly more in the way of really good jokes in Sam & Max: Beyond Time and Space - they just happen to be in a format that doesn't feel quite as suited to the episodic nature of the structure.

Still though - Sam & Max: Beyond Time and Space is more of the indelible, bizarro characters, doing silly things in the name of their own brand of questionable law enforcement...
...and for fans of those characters, the dwindling genre, and that style of odd-ball humour, Sam & Max: Beyond Time and Space is a well made entry in a good franchise.

 

 

 

 

The Ranking:

 

In ranking Sam & Max: Beyond Time and Space, two things are probably obvious from this review - that it is comparable to Sam & Max Save the World, but that it won't outrank it.

I won't re-litigate the same arguments about the game, but I sill say that while I think the positive elements of Sam & Max Save the World were enough to push it above Grim Fandango, due to some of the problems that game has in 2023...
...the fact that Sam & Max: Beyond Time and Space is "more of the same, but not quite as good" and has some additional issues (like the mini-games) that Sam & Max Save the World didn't have, and the less accessible, well structured format, means it isn't able to outdo Grim Fandango this time.

The problem with the games below Grim Fandango, is that while the difference between Sam & Max Save the World and Sam & Max: Beyond Time and Space might feel marginal - there are a lot of great games in that list, all of which are only ranking where they are by the slimmest of differences in quality too - there is a fair glut of games that are all largely good, with minor issues or small differences in overall quality. 
As such, when Sam & Max: Beyond Time and Space began slipping down, it actually slipped quite a bit farther than I expected!

 

I ended up looking at two other Adventure Games to provide a floor and ceiling - both Zoink games: Flipping Death, and Stick It to the Man.

I think that, holistically, Sam & Max: Beyond Time and Space can't quite match Flipping Death's offering. Both Zoink games are zany and silly in a way that is not dissimilar to Sam & Max: Beyond Time and Space, but Flipping Death is by far the better, more rounded, more "complete" feeling of those games. I think that while the humour of Sam & Max: Beyond Time and Space probably does (just) suit my sensibility better than both Zoink games, Flipping Death comes together in a way that beats Sam & Max: Beyond Time and Space, while Stick It to the Man doesn't...
...and since the games between them are all quite evenly matched, Sam & Max: Beyond Time and Space falls down closer to the Stick It to the Man end, than the Flipping Death end.

Looking at the games around that area then, there isn't much directly comparable, but thinking simply "would I play this game over playing Sam & Max: Beyond Time and Space?"...
...I can say the answer is "Probably Not" for Road 96, Déraciné and Death's Door...
...but "Probably Yes" for Airoheart and Donut County.

 

As such, Sam & Max: Beyond Time and Space finds its spot!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Goodbye Volcano High

 

 

Summary: 

 

A 2023 hand-animated Choose-Your-Own-Adventure Visual Novel / Rhythm Game from KO_OP, Goodbye Volcano High follows Fang - a non-binary high-school senior and lead singer in her garage band - through her final year of school in a world populated by anthropomorphic dinosaurs, as she and her group of friends navigate the trials and tribulations of ending school and looking to the future...
...a future that may very well not exist, due to a probable impending extinction at the hands of an asteroid.

An awkward student, but driven (and talented) musician, Fang is paralysed by trepidation about a scholastic future - college talk and working life - but is driven by her desire to see her band - Worm Drama, whom she and fellow friends and students Trish and Reed form - succeed. A looming local "Battle of the Bands", coupled with increasingly bleak news reports of a potential extinction event push her to fully commit to the band, but the pressures of the final year are pulling her friends in many directions, and navigating these relationships forms the crux of the plot and gameplay.

In terms of pure gameplay, essentially, Goodbye Volcano High has two elements - relationship building narrative choice, and rhythm game. 

 

The relationship-building and plot sections work somewhere between a dating sim, and a visual novel. While the majority of relationships in the game are not romantic in nature, the actual mechanics work in a similar way as they usually do in romantic dating sims. Different choices and responses in different scenes will affect Fang's relationship with one of the many tertiary characters - which is represented in game by a sort of "relationship orrery", with Fang in the centre, and other characters orbiting around her. As character relationships become closer, the icon of that specific character moves into a closer "orbit" to Fang, and the closer these relationships get, the more optional scenes or dialogue choices become available with that character.

 

It's not a particularly original concept - either the choose-your-own-adventure visual novel, or the relationship-building element - however, in both cases, Goodbye Volcano High does display a particularly well implemented version. The "relationship orrery" visual indicator is a smart, and particularly elegant way of showing that information - probably the best version I've seen (and one that the Persona games could learn from!)

 

There are some particular flourishes in the visual novel elements that are very clever too - particularly around ways to mirror Fangs own feelings with the game mechanics. 
In most cases, responses are simply chosen from a set of 3 or 4 potential ones... however, if one of the choices of response would be harder for Fang to make - if it is particularly blunt, or would take some courage - a few additional button prompts might be required to kind of "force it" - as if she is really pushing through her own inhibitions to say it.
If a response is something that she might say... but it would only be something she might "blurt out" without thinking, and would likely stop herself from saying if she paused to think... that is mirrored in the gameplay - those responses are available, but only for a second or two, before they fade, and are replaced with more diplomatic or less blunt ones.
Little touches like these are small things in the grand scheme, but they really do help to give the game a dynamism that some other visual novels can lack - and to give the player more of a connection to Fang herself - and they really work very well.

 

The are a couple of minor downsides to the narrative elements, however.

One is only really evident upon repeat playthroughs - and that is the lack of real malleability. Different responses will certainly shift the plot around a little, however, there are relatively few true deviations in the potential plot. Fang might end one game very close to some characters, and detached from others, but this only makes some relatively minor changes to the overall thrust of the plot. Some additional scenes might be seen, or a few additional dialogue choices, but not much more than that. 

Indeed, relationships do seem to operate on a "one-way" system - whereby certain responses or choices can increase how close any particular relationship is, but nothing (as far as I could tell) will ever decrease it. The player may choose to get closer to one character or another by way of a response choice, but that choice will always increase one character only - it will not decrease the other. Even certain responses that seemed straight-up mean or dismissive will not lower a character's standing - at worst, it will simply not raise it in that instance.

 

The other slight issue is the timeline - as it doesn't seen to quite make sense upon really drilling down and examining it. The game takes place over an 8-month period, as indicated on screen post-intro...
...but the actual events feel like they take place over a much shorter timeframe in terms of plotting.

The most egregious example of this is Fang and Nasir's parental absence. Their parents are, according to the game, out of town on a business trip, leaving Fang and Nasir to fend for themselves for a time...
...but this appears to last for the full 8 month period... 
...which is both a heck of a business trip, and a hell of a neglectful set of parents!

I have a suspicion that this is likely the result of simple accident - that the game was designed originally to be taking place over the short timeframe it appears to, but later development introduced the flashback element, and cemented the timeframe in a way that didn't quite mesh with the thrust of the game...

...but it is an oversight, and one that does seem silly!

The other element of the gameplay is the rhythm game sections - and these are pretty good.

Whenever Fang is singing or playing music, the game will drift to a more "montage" style visual set, and involve some rhythm game dynamics, where the sticks must be shifted to match incoming beats, or the face buttons used to hit perfect timings. These sections are not particularly difficult (and truth be told, doing poorly in them does not actually result in any meaningful changes to the main narrative,) however, they are well implemented and fun to play - and helped considerably by the fact that the music is very good.

The soundtrack is all composed by Dabu, with vocals by Brigitte Naggar - neither of whom were artists I was aware of prior to this game - but both are on my radar now. The musical style is pop-y art-rock of a sort - somewhere between Lanterns on the Lake, Lovers, I Break Horses and Daughter - and works well in the context.

Indeed, the pursuit of the platinum requires quite a few playthroughs of the game, but I never got tired of playing the rhythm game sections, and that is primarily because the music itself is genuinely good!

In terms of the plot and writing, some timeframe issues aside, the game works well. The emotional truth of it working far better than perhaps the timeline-plotting elements. The characters are well defined and distinct, and the overall arcs all work. It's slice-of-life type stuff - concerned primarily with individual relationships, and the delicacy of conversations, and those only really work if the player has some investment with the characters...
... and here, it's pretty easy to do so. 

The main and secondary characters are endearing, and the overall themes work well, with the impending, potential extinction providing a suitably dire, yet nebulous "big bad" to accompany the melancholic tone inherent to teen, end-of-an-era type melodrama. 
It's relatively clear on the surface that the asteroid that may-or-may-not-but-probably-definetely-maybe-will impact is being used as a plot device to mirror angst over impending ecological disasters or fatalistic feelings in the youth over turmoil in the real world, and that's hardly an original concept in and of itself (see the comet in Don't Look Up, spontaneous human combustion exploding in Spontaneous etc,) but its a trope because it is effective, and here, it works well. The metaphor isn't overly hammered home - it doesn't need to be - and the asteroid is used more to provide a heightening of emotion and anxiety and a sense of urgency in the plot, than as a genuine "disaster-movie" type plot-point.

 

In terms of the game's main theme and style, rhythm game aside, it is impossible not to draw parallels to the Life is Strange franchise - in particular the first two games... and indeed, from a tonal and setting point of view, there are significant similarities. 

A large part of what makes those games, and Goodbye Volcano High, work is in exploring relationships between teenage characters. Both revolve around scholastic aged kids (in Life is Strange's case, Art College students, in Goodbye Volcano Highs', high school seniors,) and work within the confines of the particularly concentrated and magnified emotional resonance that relationships have in that environment, and at that age.

Both games mix the mundane aspects of schooling with the tension of an impending calamity (in the original Life is Strange, the foreboding tornado the protagonist, Maxine, has envisioned, in Life is Strange: Before the Storm, the dramatic irony of the audience knowing the eventual fate of Rachel Amber, and in Goodbye Volcano High's case, the very real possibility of the impending end of the world,) and each uses this to further heighten the stakes of the relationships.

Both use small-town settings that are idyllic, both feature protagonists who's inner monologue and inner world is far richer and more extrovert than their introverted personas... heck, both even use simple plot devices to remove the central character from any parental constraints (though in Goodbye Volcano High's case, this is actually the source of the previously mentioned, rather gaping, plot hole!) 

 

Where the games do differ completely though, is in the actual gameplay.

While Life is Strange certainly pulls the majority of its gameplay from dialogue choices, relationship-building, and choose-your-own-adventure narrative elements, it wraps this gameplay in an exploratory, occasionally Adventure-Game-style game. Arcadia Bay is an idyllic location that the player comes to know and love, because they are themselves exploring it.

In Goodbye Volcano High, however, the game takes the same tonal and stylistic elements, but present them through the lens of a Visual Novel instead. There is no exploration - indeed, there is not direct control of Fang at all - and so as nice a place as Caldera Bay is to see, the lack of any exploration mechanics afforded by the genre, (and necessitated by the art style,) means that there is never quite as much of a feeling of place. The narrative flows like a Visual Novel, with the player choosing dialogue options, but conversations and scenes are largely prescribed. There are occasional choices that may result in seeing one scene, or another, but these are driven by the choices to say one thing or another, rather than exploring and choosing who to talk to.

 

That is not necessarily a negative, of course - Visual Novel is a distinctly different genre to Narrative Adventure Game, and to view one negatively because it does not have the gameplay of the other would be foolhardy - but I cannot deny that while the characters and relationships in Goodbye Volcano High did work for me to a point, I never felt the same level of connection to the game that I did to a Life is Strange - and I don't think that is necessarily due to the characters themselves, or the writing. 
Rather, I think that the inability to simply walk around with the character on her "down-time" - to explore where she lived, and to hear her inner thoughts on random elements of the world as well as the "plot critical" ones - was the piece of the puzzle that was missing.

"Slice-of-Life" type media like these games work primarily by engraining a sense of real connection to the protagonist. While some fun could certainly be poked at Life is Strange's expense, around the abundance of random, often silly inner thoughts Max Caulfield, or Chloe Price, or Alex Chen would have when walking around their towns and exploring the minutia (and even as a fan, I poked that fun plenty!), the ability to do so really helped to create a player-to-character bond. We, as players, were privy to those inner thoughts in the "quiet moments" as well as at the plot-critical ones. The mundane and the potent moments. Because Goodbye Volcano High is a visual novel though, that aspect is absent... and the result is a more detached, voyeuristic lens through which we view the characters.

Of course, Goodbye Volcano High's art-style is the primary reason that such exploration couldn't really work...
...and that is a justification to some extent, because, man, does the game look great! 

The entire game is hand-animated, in a bright, cheery, genuinely lovely way, reminiscent of the Phoenix Wright games - though in this case, the actual design is stepped up a little more, given that the characters are anthropomorphic dinosaurs!
The details in environments are top notch, giving that kind of "nostalgia-for-a-place-we've-never-been" feeling that only good, idyllic settings can offer, and the anthropomorphic dinosaur characters are wonderfully well drawn, specific, distinct, and capable of showing a wide breadth of subtle emotion in their facial expressions and physicality.
Each character, from Fang herself, to her brother Naser, to the tomboy-ish best friend Trish, to detached, awkward Reed, to bookish potential love-interest Naomi, and each of the secondary characters of the loose group of friends are well characterised, and uniquely designed. A particular staple of good animated characters, is that each one could be instantly identified, even in silhouette, and here - partly due to the unusual dinosaur-motifs, and partly due to simple good art-design - that is absolutely the case. The lovingly designed characters really help to sell the characters well - making them endearing and likeable, working hand-in-hand with the writing.

Audio is good too. The music is, as said, excellent, featuring some quite catchy songs, that work in context and outwith, and the general score is effective and evocative.
Voice work is particularly of note - the teens sound distinct and their performances bring the characters to life very well, giving life to the characters and actually managing to sound both correct for the characters, and handling some relatively heavy subject matter with intonations that feel real, yet still capture the somewhat naive or vulnerable elements that kids of that age approach those subjects.

Fang herself is voiced very well by Lachlan Watson (of, among other things, The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina fame,) but the highlight among the high bar of performances has to be Ozioma Akagha as the "Chie-like" best friend Trish, who's character has to run the gambit from comic relief, to heart-of-the-game, to upset, to enraged, to maudlin, and Akagha plays the part to perfection. (Akagha is not a voice artist I was particularly familiar with, but when researching her, I discovered she also provided the very different, but also extremely good voice performance of the homicidal Julianna in Deathloop, further cementing my assurance that she is a gifted voice actor with a heck of a range!)

Overall, Goodbye Volcano High is a pretty resounding success, if a rather specific, acquired taste.
It's a game that takes a fairly simple set of gameplay mechanics, but finesses them well, wraps them in a quirky, relatively original concept, and does it while looking absolutely fantastic, and sounding damned good too.

It's a game that, while visually bettering it, never quite reaches the heights of some of its peers - namely the Life is Strange games - however, it does get close at times, and remains mechanically distinct enough to hold its own in that company.

For fans of such slice-of-life, teen melodrama, Life is Strange probably does remain the pinnacle of the genre in modern videogames...
...but it's very hard to imagine those fans not also enjoying the particular, curious slant on the genre that Goodbye Volcano High offers!

 

 

 

The Ranking:

 

Goodbye Volcano High is a tough one, as it's not comparable to too much on the list, since I don't play a lot of Visual Novels, but the obvious initial whittling can come from the Life is Strange franchise, which has all entries already ranked. 

 

While I said in the review that I don't think Goodbye Volcano High is quite up to beating out the original Life is Strange (and therefore, either Before the Storm or True Colours, since those are placed higher,) I do actually think that the tight storytelling and great visuals and art are enough to outdo the rockier, less finessed Life is Strange 2. 

Life is Strange 2 is the weakest of the 4 games - I do not dislike it as some do, but cannot deny that while the connection to the characters I felt in Goodbye Volcano High didn't match that of the three better Life is Strange games, I think it still bettered that of LiS2... and with the art-style, the music and all the other elements working in its favour, Goodbye Volcano High can comfortably rank above it.

 

There's a lot of games between LiS2 and the original LiS, however, and most of very different genres, so what I started doing was "quick-hit" looks at other primarily narrative, non-combat type games, and simple seeing which ones were obviously bested, or not, by Goodbye Volcano High.

 

I think What Remain's of Edith Finch is a lock to retain its place...
...but I think Valiant Hearts, while having a lot of good elements, is playing in some of the same artistic style, and emotional story, (albeit in a more sombre, serious subject matter,) but doesn't quite hit it's marks in the same way Goodbye Volcano High hits what it is aiming for, and can be outranked by it.

 

The Artful Escape, I think, has to retain its place - it's also a musical-themed game with great art, but the soar of emotion in it worked on me better...
...but I do actually think that the fun, silly-but-serious Afterparty, while good, is bested by Goodbye Volcano High's earnest teen angst, and glorious art-style.

 

That left a much smaller field, and one game on it - Dead Esther: Landmark Edition, was a real stickler. On the one hand, I think there is significant merit in Dear Esther - it practically created the Walking Sim genre, and its writing is better, though there is far less of it...
...but Goodbye Volcano High has the art that beats it, and is a more complete, longer experience, with more ups and downs and replayability...
...and while the fight was a close one, I think Goodbye Volcano High does just outrank it.

 

The game right above Dear Esther, however, is Telling Lies, and given that game is a little more unique, working in a harder genre (FMV) to get right, and also hits some emotional beats, I think on merit, it just manages to retain its place.

 

As such, Goodbye Volcano High finds its place!
 

 

 

 

 

 

Alan Wake II

 

Summary: 

 

The 2023 sequel to Remedy Studio's original Alan Wake, released 13 years after the first instalment, (and set 13 years later in-fiction,) does the not inconsiderable job of picking up the many narrative strands left hanging - by the original game, by its DLC, by its soft anthological sequel Alan Wake: American Nightmare, and by the Alan Wake themed narrative DLC to Remedy's recent IP Control...
...and pulls them together into a parallel narrative story that skips between Detective Noir, Lynchian Dreamscape, Survival Horror and Adventure Mystery, all contained in a cinematic and stylish package that feels like the culmination of nearly two decades of a singularly unusual game development studio's output and vision.

Telling a winding, mesmerising - and often decidedly meta - story that both continues the curious tale of Alan Wake himself - the fiction writer who's vacation to the eerie town of Bright Falls, Washington was the catalyst for awakening the sinister entity that lives beneath the lake, and feeds on, amplifies and weaponises artistic creativity...

...and introduces a new protagonist - Saga Anderson - a gifted FBI agent with a flair for deduction and a curious connection to Bright Falls herself.

The game acts as part Supernatural Detective Mystery, and part Survival Horror, as both tales intertwine, ebb, flow, and mesh together, with Saga and her partner attempting to solve the case of a series of grisly murders using their worldly talents, and Alan struggling to finally understand, and escape, the Dark Place he has been trapped in, while evading and curtailing his sinister doppelgänger using his own set of literary skills - lent paranormal potency by their proximity to the Dark Entity.

Tonally and stylistically, Alan Wake II deviates quite dramatically from the original game. 

 

Gameplay-wise, while the original game had some obvious trappings borrowed from the wider survival horror genre (I would argue it was, in fact, most appropriately described as a "Survival Horror", though Remedy themselves do not acknowledge that, and it had some significant issues with that categorisation,) this time round, the moniker is far more apropos.

Inventory management, puzzle solving, the potent tension and anxiety created by the threat of action taking a more prominent role than the actual frequency of that action - all those are staples of the genre, and while Alan Wake did pay lip service to most of those, Alan Wake II leans into them whole-hog.

 

The narrative of Alan Wake II is fairly different also.

Most obviously, it leans far less into the Stephen King elements that the first game used. For sure, some of the Stephen King influence remains - the game is set in Bright Falls, Washington, which feels culturally and stylistically similar to the small-town Maine settings of many of Kings novels, and Alan himself is clearly inspired by King (his in-fiction book covers are clear homages to Kings, and the mere concept of having the protagonist in a novel be a writer of novels himself is a theme King has never ventured far from!), but the majority of the King influence is in elements retained from the previous game.

The new game is far more influenced and inspired by the other two influences from the original - The Twilight Zone and Twin Peaks - and leans even further into these elements this time, while adding in a significant dollop of "hardboiled gothic" of the type on display in shows like True Detective.

 

It's impossible to ignore the fact that the original run of Twin Peaks itself - arguably the biggest single influence on the Alan Wake games (Mirror Peak, anyone?) - ended in much the same way the original Alan Wake did - with the main character left trapped in his own "Dark Place"... and was subsequently revived, many years later, with that character seeking to escape, and a new set of odd circumstances befalling the town.

While there has always been rumblings of Alan Wake coming back, and Remedy always indicating that a sequel would be on the cards eventually, it's likely that the successful revival of Twin Peaks gave them the final nudge they needed - as well as probably providing a (very loose) template as to how such a revival could work.

 

Twin Peaks is all over Alan Wake II - the game is far more an investigative, detective mystery than the first game was, and the Alan sections of the game, which take place inside the Dark Place, lean even further into that, going "full-David-Lynch" in a way even Twin Peaks itself held back on. There are elements of Lost Highway, of Mulholland Drive, of Inland Empire... hell, there are even elements of Eraserhead in these sections at times, and it's remarkable how well those Lynchian trappings work.

 

The Twin Peaks-esque tone - of everything, from the most outlandish to the most benign having some element of oddness or slight otherworldliness to it - is exactly the wheelhouse Alan Wake II plays in... and the effect is the same. There is a "patchwork of oddness" element to the game, to the setting, to the narrative, to the tone, that works both to soften the distinction between reality and fantasy, and between horror and mundane, and to heighten the possible influence of all aspects on the mystery. 
Because everything - from the way in which Saga and Casey drink coffee in perfect synchronicity, to the "mayor" of Bright Falls (no spoilers!), to the strange specificity of the bizarre "Coffee World" local amusement park, to the curious (and hilarious) parodies of small-town, local-broadcast commercials, to the odd design of the buildings, to the presence of Ahti the Janitor, and everything in between, there is always something just slightly askew about the world, putting the player or viewer on edge.  
That means every element of the story and setting becomes suspect.

The player is never quite sure what elements are real and which are fiction, which are true and which are false, which are Dark Place influence, and which are simply small-town eccentricity, so every detail, small and large, are imbued with curiosity and potential mystery. In a story like Alan Wake II - where everything can be, (and often is,) connected, and important, that really works to force the player into the role of detective right along with Alan and Saga. They are analysing and investigating everything - putting clues and hypotheses together throughout the entire game, and whether these prove true or not is irrelevant. The fact is, they are fully engaged - and that is what is important.

 
The influence Alan Wake II has on the wider Remedy "universe" is significant. Remedy has always enjoyed having little nods from one game to the other - Sam Lake (the head of remedy, principal writer, and visual model for Max Payne appearing in a video section of the original Alan Wake, Alan Wake's cameo in Control etc,) however, Alan Wake II feels like the first game that really stitches everything together in way that works holistically. 

 

I am - it should be noted - not a huge fan of the current trend in popular media, of everything being shoe-horned into "connected universes". I tend to feel that Predator 2 - with its minor nod to the Alien franchise that set a million nerd-hearts a-flutter - has a lot to answer for. 
It jump-started a tiresome and reductive cottage industry of fanzine - then later internet - joy-killing meta-detection, with neck-beard-sporting comic-book-guy's the world over positively giddy as they ret-conned distinct and separate franchises into their own fan-fictitious meta-verses...

...and the media industry subsequently began to feed this desire, via connected universes like the DC or Marvel film franchises, as they frothed and salivated over the increased revenue they could tap from such fandom desires, resulting in the unfortunate situation we now have, where movies have a difficult time securing funding if they don't have hooks for spin-offs, sequels or connections to future revenue...
...but in Remedy's case, the "connected universe" elements actually feel earned, and fun, in the way they should.
They do not feel shoe-horned or driven by anything other than love of the properties and artistic desire - and as such, when they rear their heads, the effect is one that feels fun and worthy of applause, rather than the eye-rolling that has so often accompanies "cross-over" fiction in the past decade.

 

Alan Wake II straight up references and includes Control's lore (not just the AWE DLC stuff, but everything,) in an inescapable and plot critical way, cementing the connection, as well as features a serious and significant cross-over character - Ahti the Janitor - as a similarly mysterious, yet benevolent force of good that he played in Control... (and explaining a specific plot element of Control in the process!)
There are nods to Quantum Break (not just the presence of Shawn Ashmore as the Sheriff, though that certainly primes the pump!), nods to Max Payne... the "Remedy Extended Universe" is in full effect, but despite the litany of references, they never feel forced, because they are never a requirement - just a tease or a wink.

Not knowing a reference has no negative impact on understanding or following the main plot...
...but knowing them adds texture and flavour to an already flavourful stew.

 

In fact, the mere fact that Agent Casey...
...the fictional person Alan wrote about in his novels... 
...who is also shockingly similar to a real federal agent who is Saga Anderson's partner... 
...and who also looks like the actor who played the fictional Casey in the fictional films... 
...who also looks like Max Payne... 
...who also looks like the actor in Thomas Zane's first film... 
...who is also Sam Lake... 
...(keep up!)...
...is present in the game, adds a meta element that is inescapable.
That begins to take on spiralling proportions that over-spill into the real world too, once one considers that Sam Lake himself, who wrote Alan Wake, and who plays Agent Casey, is in Alan Wake II, delivering lines to Alan Wake, in the guise of Agent Casey, about having a responsibility to protect the characters whom he writes about...
...given that he is the actual writer, talking to his actual creation, about being a writer, and the relationship to his creation...

...which is him.

Anyway.

Let's just get this out of the way right now, in case it isn't obvious already: 
Alan Wake II is a brilliant game.

 

It is incredibly well crafted and well put together - it is engaging, interesting, fascinating, very fun to play, tense, alarming, surprising, curious and genuinely fresh and unusual.

 

The game is, as a sequel to the original Alan Wake, a triumph...
... though the manner in which it achieves that feat is curious, and not one I expected when anticipating the game.

 

Anyone who read my review of the original game might recall that I described it as something of a curious amalgam of good and bad - the tone, style, narrative and aesthetic were all extremely good, (particularly for the era in which it released,) but the actual mechanical "game" parts were somewhat lacking. 
Having played Remedy's much more mechanically-sound Control, I had expected that what Alan Wake II would eventually end up being, was a game in which the stylistic, narrative, aesthetic and tonal elements were on par with the original game (adjusting, of course, for the general improvements inherent with the 13 year gap in releases,) but with the mechanical elements of the game brought up to the level displayed in Control.

 

The actual end product of Alan Wake II, is not really that though. 

In terms of action and gameplay mechanics, I do think they are an improvement over the original game, but I cannot really say that they outmatch them by leaps and bounds - nor do they approach the fun or excitement of the mechanical elements of Control.

Shooting and combat, while certainly improved somewhat, remain the weakest element of Alan Wake II, just as they were the weakest element of Alan Wake...
...however, all the other elements - the ones that were already good in the original game - are so vastly, absurdly improved, and the game as a narrative and tonal package so wildly interesting, well finessed and unusual, that the game still outclasses its predecessor by a country mile. 

 

Now - that might sound like faint praise or obfuscation - stating that the thing the game really needed to improve on wasn't really, and all the things that didn't necessarily need improved on were improved exponentially...
...but it shouldn't be read that way. 
The fact is, Alan Wake II is much more than simply "Alan Wake, with better gameplay". It's easy to imagine an Alan Wake II that fits that description, and it would have likely been a good game, but the Alan Wake II we got is far more than that. It's not just good - it's unique, in ways that most games are not.

If there's one over-arching element about Alan Wake II that really stands out from many other games, its pace. The game is very deliberately paced - in every aspect. This can be a positive or a negative, depending on the situation... and on the specific tastes of the player.
 
Everything in Alan Wake II is relatively slow, and precise. The narrative, of course is paced very deliberately to work in a cinematic manner, and this is very effective in terms of story telling, though the ways the player's progress is throttled to ensure this deliberate pacing can feel, at times, a little overly prescriptive.

 

While the pace of the actual reveals of information certainly heighten and benefit the narrative elements, there are gameplay mechanics that can feel a little arbitrary in pursuit of that - specifically, in Saga's Twin Peaks-esque detective sections, the "Mind Place". 

A significant part of the gameplay of these parts involves Saga discovering elements of clues and making deductions based on these, which she maps in her "Mind Place" - a sort of internal, metaphorical base of operations, in which she constructs mind-map style detective boards, and uses her borderline psychic abilities to intuit information about people she has encountered. 

These parts are interesting, and certainly allow for a game who's story is dense and multi-faceted to be parsed and catalogued effectively, however, they are also fairly languid in pace, and can often throttle the player's own progress, as they must ensure Saga herself is as "up-to-speed" as they themselves are to allow progress. 
If, for example, the player is solving a puzzle, and has worked out what they need to do on their own, even if they are correct, the actual ability for them to act on this deduction - to solve the puzzle - may not present itself in-game, until they have gone through the process of cataloguing those clues correctly in the "Mind Place" and have Saga make the same deduction they did. Only once that process is complete, do the solution elements become interactable in the game, allowing the player to "solve" the puzzle.

 

On the one hand, this does allow the developer to not just set the pace of the puzzle, but to also ensure that any information they wish to convey in the process of that solving to be delivered in-fiction...
... however, in a few instances, it can also have the negative effects of making the player feel less smart about having solved it without their help, or, at worst, even make them feel that their correct solution was not correct, and have them hunting around for a different solution, because the game seems not to recognise their efforts.

Those moments are sparing, thankfully, but they do happen - and as such, the player has to play Alan Wake II in a slightly different way to most other games. They need to be "on board" for the pace the game want's them to play at - because it is not going to speed up or slow down to meet them.

 

In Alan's more Twilight Zone-esque, dream-logic sequences, this deliberate pacing does work better - it tends to work more using loops and repetitions of a specific number as the story unfolds, to force the player to match the pace of the narrative beats. 
Because these sections are far more dream-like, (and often deliberately confusing,) that pacing is less of a problem...

...however, it does take a while for the actual pacing mechanics to become clear.

Alan's sections of the game essentially follow 3 main "exploratory" sections, where he uses elements of reality and fantasy to "write" his dream reality into different moulds, allowing him to progress and escape from particular areas (the writing of which has an echo-effect into the true reality of Bright Falls, affecting Saga's reality.) These sections actually work very well... but I was well past the first one of these sections and into the second, before I really felt like I had a handle on how they actually worked, and didn't feel like I was simply stumbling in the dark, blindly altering things to see what might happen. 

On the one hand, that could be argued to be deliberate - certainly I felt as disorientated as Alan himself might be, and I did eventually come to understand the strange logic to these sections... but on the other hand, those early "writing maze" sections were the only part of the game where I genuinely felt like Alan himself understood more about what he was doing than I - the person controlling him - did. 
For a game in which voice-over is used liberally, and the main character talks often to himself, as a way of conveying mechanics to the player, I do think a better job could have been done - even with only a few re-written lines - to explain exactly what we were trying to accomplish in those early sections, and why Alan was writing and re-writing his fictions.

Deliberate pacing is also the source of the element of the game that is most divisive - the combat. 
Combat in Alan Wake II is certainly more interesting than it was in the original game - there is far less of it, but when it comes up, it is far more scary and genuinely threatening, with enemies able to toy with and kill the player effectively and quickly, and so the threat level is significantly amplified from the previous game...
...but part of the reason for that is just how much faster the enemies are than the player. 

Enemies - "The Taken" - can zip around in the blink of an eye, duplicate themselves, and tend to take a random amount of damage before they go down - and the weaponry the player has at their disposal is neither terribly powerful, nor quick to use. Healing, and reloading, (particularly of the better weapons,) take a long time as compared to most other games - and leaves the player vulnerable for quite a stretch. 

More than in almost any other game I can think of, surviving in Alan Wake II is contingent on preparedness. Having multiple weapons all ready to fire - locked and loaded and assigned to "quick-slots" is imperative, as there is no pausing the game when in inventory menus, and the difference between surviving a regular enemy encounter with full health, and ending up smeared on the forrest floor like a streak of raspberry jam, can come down to a single missed shot with a crossbow... or simply not having reload it before the enemy showed up. 
Swapping weapons to another already-loaded weapon is preferable to reloading one... and the worst thing that can possibly happen in an encounter, is having cycled through all weapons and discharging them, with an enemy still standing.

 

I do contend that this slow pacing of things like reloading is deliberate. One only has to look to Remedy's previous  game - Control - to see that they have no problem crafting a frenetic, fast-paced, zippy-and-loose combat model, and so there is no question that the slower, more deliberate combat of Alan Wake II is a deliberate choice to increase the threat...
... but because the games that are Alan Wake II's obvious Survival Horror peers - the Resident Evils and the Dead Spaces and the Evil Withins etc - all use less onerous reloading and healing models, a player can easily be forgiven for finding frustration in the slow, deliberate throttling of the action. 

 

Personally, I did not find it to be a huge problem generally -  I actually appreciated how difficult and frustrating it could be, as the effect on the narrative elements and the tone did work - I was constantly worried about having enough weaponry to survive, felt genuine panic when enemies showed up, and really hunted for items to ensure I had the means to survive - all of which are staples of the survival Horror genre, and are exactly how I should feel in a game like this...
...but even I did lament the slow pacing when it came to one particular section - the soft "finale" that takes place on a beach in the later game.

That section is a clear nod to the Anderson Farm section of the original game - and does the same basic thing: have the player surviving a merciless onslaught of enemies for an extended period. 
It is the only section of the game where combat is really extended to the bombastic level the first game often went to... and in that section, the deliberately paced mechanics of Alan Wake II really show themselves to be punishing in a way that could become frustrating. No amount of preparedness could really alleviate it. The player has to be reloading multiple weapons, and accessing their inventory due to the extended length of the section, and while being attacked from all sides, it really became something of a crap-shoot as to whether Saga would manage to go through those lengthly animations before being slaughtered.

 

Aside from that particular section, however, I tend to feel like, as frustrating as combat could be on occasion, the game is doing so in a way that plays into the Survival Horror genre well - it is simply doing so to a degree, and with a level of unforgiving punishment, that most other games of the genre avoid. It is a game that, rather than "softening" the realism of combat elements to make the combat more fun, it simply reduces the frequency of those combat encounters...
...but what ones it retains, it leaves as genuinely threatening and difficult, thus ratcheting up the anxiety the player feels throughout the whole game. 

Visually and auditorially, Alan Wake II is magnificent. The game uses both in-engine, polygonal motion-captured actors, and real-world FMV liberally, and the effect is excellent - and often astounding and confounding.
Both look great - the filmed sections are very high quality, indistinguishable from high quality television or lower budget film, and the in-engine elements look fantastic.

It's surprising, actually, having played the original game fairly recently, just how little has changed in Bright Falls itself - the developer could easily have simply set the portions of the game that take place in town in a different area of it - allowing them to "redesign" the town, but instead, they do the much more difficult job of recreating the exact section of the town the player is familiar with form the original game, but to ta level of fidelity and detail that befits a Triple-A, 2023 game. The result is fascinating, because the town that the player remembers well is exactly right - everything where it should be, or changed, but with an in-world justification - and they therefore know their way around, but it still feels modern - it feels like how they remember Bright Falls, rather than like how it actually was.
(That has the added effect, of course, of feeding into Saga's own storyline - since the character they are controlling during these sections has an unnatural, unexplained familiarity with the place she is visiting, but is unsure why!)

The audio in the game is excellent too - voice work is top notch, and the soundscape and audio flourishes used to heighten the scare-factor when the Taken are present, or the Dark Entity is working its malign power - are creepy and effective...
...but it's not simply a case of these individual elements all being good that makes Alan Wake II stand out. It's that they all work so well in combination, to create a pastiche that really does add up to more than the sum of its parts... 
...and when coupled with Remedy's specific set of tones, ideas, and sheer gumption it makes for something special. 

 

There is an audacity to the game that in intoxicating - a level of sheer, brash confidence in the ability to go full throttle weird that is rare enough in general media, but in videogames, is even rarer...
... and that audacity is supported  and accentuated by the visual flourishes. 

 

Remedy has long been the single developer at the forefront of blending FMV, live-action filmed elements with polygonal gameplay - from the FMV Night Springs TV episodes in the original Alan Wake, to the hybrid TV Show/ videogame that made up Quantum Break, to the documentary style films or mock Children's Television collectibles in Control...
...but in Alan Wake II, there is a clear sense that technology has finally caught up to Remedy's ideas, in a way that allows them to manifest games in the way they always wanted...
...and that Remedy, giddy at this prospect, has finally smashed the top the box of ideas they have been filling nearly two decades, marked  "IN THE EVENT OF TECHNOLOGICAL PARITY, BREAK GLASS."

The visual fidelity of motion-captured, polygonal characters is impressive - something that other games on the forefront of such technology (The Quarry, The Last of Us Part II, Horizon Zero Dawn etc.) have already proven, but in Remedy's case, this means more than a simply increase in verisimilitude. What it effectively means, is that the blending between live-action and game becomes seamless enough - (not seamless, but seamless enough) - that they can play with the format in the ways they have always hinted at, without being anchored.

 

FMV and photo-real elements are no longer contained within specific collectibles or separated elements - they bleed into every pore of Alan Wake II, lending the already impressive look of the game a genuinely unusual, virtually unique visual style. 
There are still some fully separated FMV parts - Television commercials, or fully FMV cut-scenes, but these benefit enormously from the fact that polygonal models of the actors shown in these sections are recognisably similar to their real life counterparts, and simply seeing them is enough for the player to identify them, without any immersion-breaking expositional caveats. 

More than that though, FMV elements are consistently layered on top of polygonal gameplay elements throughout the game, to pretty dramatic effect. From the "Mind Place" sections where Saga is intuiting information about suspects - a process that is revealed to form something of a psychic bond with them -  wherein polygonal, motion-captured versions of the actors are blended with filmed FMV of the actors, to seamlessly inter-mingled "screen" elements, where FMV footage is shown diegetically within the polygonal world, to elements of Alan's story, where his ideas for stories result in ethereal, wispy visions of real-life actors overlaid on the polygonal environment, the game feels original and strange in a way that really does feel like something genuinely new.

These blending ideas have certainly existed before - Remedy themselves have been experimenting with them for years, and other developers have made some modest attempts at similar concepts - but in Alan Wake II, the concept takes such a dramatic step forward, that it has the feel of genuine originality, simply by virtue of implementation at such a dramatically superior level.
There are sections of the two parallel stories - Alan's dream-like false reality that is affected by elements of the real one, and Saga's real one, being warped and maligned by Alan's false one - where mirrored realities are overlaid on one another - Saga walking through some woods, and a vision of Alan's path through a subway tunnel will blend over it for a moment, accentuating the parallel - that use FMV elements to a level of audacious effect that is far beyond anything done with the two media previously, and as a result, give the game a visual and stylistic signature that feels genuinely unique.

There are sections - more often in Alan's story, where FMV elements are so well produced as so well done (and acted) that the player can get lost in simply watching them. This is true of some of the more horrific, Cronnenbergian, Lynchian sections (for example, when Alan and his older counterpart - Tom Zane - are together on screen,) though are arguably the most hard-hitting when Alan is viewing the documentary footage made by his wife,

Alice. Alice, after the events of the original game, has gone down a dark path - partly due to her loss and lack of understanding, and partly due to the actions of Alan's dark mirror - Mr Scratch - haunting her, and has created a sort of artistic installation, piecing together elements of the darkness she knows has followed her. These culminate in a series of direct-to-camera vignettes by Alice (played extremely well by Christina Cole,) which are tragic and emotional - and acted to a level that could compete with good filmic output.

 

Probably the boldest and most memorable (and meme-able) example of this blending of FMV and gameplay comes in the fourth chapter of Alan's story - in a section called "We Sing"...
...and this section really does warrant a specific mention. 
There have often been sections in Remedy games - in the original Alan Wake, it was the Anderson Farm section, and in Control, the Ashtray maze - where the developer uses one truly grand, overtly grandiose, audacious moment as a lynchpin to the fun of the game - a phantasmagoric crescendo of sight and sound, wherein the developer "lets loose" - and allows the player to "let loose" too - delivering a set piece that is over-the-top and cathartic and borderline silly, but really hammers home just how far from the norm this developer is willing to step.

 

Now... I will freely admit - in the past, I have been perhaps less enamoured of these sections as some. They have always worked for me, but not necessarily to the level that they do for others...
...but in Alan Wake II, the equivalent section hits - and hits HARD.

This section is essentially a rock opera version of the Alan Wake story - viewed like a laser-light show in a cacophonic fandango of impossible screens, with the player moving through it at their own pace, yet somehow always working no matter how fast or slow they go - and it works perfectly... in a way it absolutely should not!
It is a section that should, by rights, be impossible to pull off - a curious musical aberration in the middle of a somewhat serious, horror story...
...yet the sheer aplomb with which it it it implemented, and the level of finesse to which it is crafted, coupled with the overall bombastity and bizzarity of it - even within an already bizarre story - lends it a giddy intoxicating glee that is impossible not to enjoy.

It is an absurdly enjoyable section - one that simultaneously makes the player's jaw drop, and a smile plaster on their face, and one that really has to be seen (and, ideally, played,) to be believed. When even Alan himself, despite his constant state of horror and confusion throughout the game, can't help but crack a smile upon its culmination, it somehow manages not to even break the immersion or tone of the game...
...because we can't help but do the same!

 

Alan Wake II is, it must be said, a difficult game to write a review for, because it is both a game that one feels loathe to spoil in any way due to the sheer joy that some of its more outlandish elements have on a first-time player, and one where the whole feels exponentially greater than the simple sum of its individual merits...

...but if there is one thing I can confidently state about the game, it is that while in the actual act of playing the game, there is not really any particular mechanical element a player would likely say "I haven't done this before"...
...I can virtually guarantee that they will, at multiple points, say "Wow, I've never SEEN anything like that in a game before."

I can also guarantee, without a shadow of a doubt, that the game experience will stick with them for a long time afterwards. 

There are very few games I have played where MsBloodmoney - my videogame literate, if not videogame fluent, better half - demanded not only that I play with her watching, but categorically forbade me from playing in her absence...
...but Alan Wake II was one of them!
A 20-odd hour game viewed as a film, watching only, is a big ask - the length of several seasons of a prestige TV show - so to see someone unfamiliar with the previous entries being so wrapped up in the story that she did not want me to even do inventory management or collectible busy-work in her absence, is, I think, a particularly pointed recommendation!

The game is, in my view, one of the better stories in "big" Triple-A type gaming, but it's not so much the story itself that is the stand out, as it is the way that story is told. 
I'd actually argue that the basic premise and plot of Control is actually the better lore, (or at least, the one most suited to my own sensibilities)...
... but the storytelling devices and the amalgamation and blending of gameplay and narrative in Alan Wake II is so far beyond those Remedy have demonstrated previously, that that distinction becomes largely immaterial. 

Whether the basic concepts of Control were more personally appealing, the actual act of seeing Alan Wake II's story unfold - from the outrageously effective Late Title Card, to the final moments - was such an experience, that I really am having trouble thinking of another game that succeeded to that same extent.

It is a triumph of storytelling, wrapped in interesting mechanics, with a tone, style, visual palate and audioscape that is mesmerising, come together to turn a cult favourite original game, into a bonafide classic as a franchise.

 

It's hard to imagine a sequel doing a better job than that!
 

 

 

The Ranking:

 

If it's not obvious already, Alan Wake II is going to be ranking pretty highly!

 

There are a few Remedy games on the list already - the original Alan Wake, and Control - and whether Alan Wake II ranks higher than its predecessor is probably obvious:

It vastly outranks it.

 

Alan Wake was a good, but flawed - often deeply flawed - game, that just about compensated for its drawbacks with some good tonal, stylistic and narrative parts.

Alan Wake II has a few little niggles, for sure... 
...but they practically melt into nothingness, when viewed in the context of all the ways in which the game is unusual, interesting, audacious and confoundingly enjoyable.

 

Whether Alan Wake II beats Control, on the other hand, is worth talking about.

I love Control - it is a smart and interesting world, a stylish game, fun, strange, unusual and peculiar, yet totally accessible and balls-to-the-wall...
...but it is still doing to in a context that is largely well understood. For what it's worth, I do think the general lore of Control is more in my wheelhouse than Alan Wake II's...
...but it doesn't matter really, because Alan Wake II is telling its story in such an interesting way, and with such flair, that it takes a less interesting lore, and makes it more interesting in practice. Hell, it even makes Control itself better, simply by connecting dots to it.

As such, I really can't see a world in which Control retains its place over Alan Wake II.

Looking above it then, at some of the real titans of the list, I was thinking about games that really use the medium, to accentuate and better their already strong stories - ones that are not only interesting lore, but work in ways that only videogames could tell as effectively as they do, and comparing.

 

I do think that Bioshock is safe - it is a much older game, of course, but a few moment in Bioshock ("Would You Kindly?") are essentially that era's "We Sing", and Bioshock is a very tough game to beat out. Even with all of Alan Wake II's amazing storytelling and visuals, it's tough for it to compete with Bioshock, since it also had moments comparable in terms of shock and awe, but had the smoother actual mechanical gameplay.

 

I think a similar argument can be made about Dishonoured actually, and a tad further down, I do have to concede that Inscryption, with its genre-shattering, fourth-wall-breaking experience also retains its place, simply because Alan Wake II has a few frustrations, and it has basically none...

... but looking at all the game right below it - Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice - I simply don't think that that great ninja-themes souls-like is able to stand up to Alan Wake II's sheer, unadulterated bravado, unique story-telling, tonal consistency, or genre-blending style. 

Alan Wake II is something pretty special in terms of how it uses the medium, in a way Sekiro, while excellent, isn't...
...and I have to admit, that if asked which I would replay, Alan Wake II would be loaded up before the question was even finished being asked!

 

As such, Alan Wake II finds its deservedly high spot!

 

 

 

 

 

 

So there we have it folks!

 

 

 Hitman 3 remains as 'Current Most Awesome Game'!

htoL#NiQ: The Firefly Diaries finally remains as the worst-of-the-worst, with the title of 'Least Awesome Game'!

 

 

What games will be coming along next time to challenge for the top spot... or the bottom rung?

That's up to randomness, me.... and YOU!

 

 

 

Remember:

 

SPECIAL NOTE

 

If there are any specific games anyone wants to see get ranked sooner rather than later - drop a message, and I'll mark them for 'Priority Ranking'! 

 

The only stipulation is that they must be on my profile, at 100% (S-Rank)....

 and aren't already on the Rankings! 

[shadaik]

59 minutes ago, DrBloodmoney said:

Goodbye Volcano High is a tough one, as it's not comparable to too much on the list, since I don't play a lot of Visual Novels, but the obvious initial whittling can come from the Life is Strange franchise, which has all entries already ranked. [...]

Excellent, I'd  been meaning to ask if this will appeal to  me as a LIS fan.  I'll note it down for once I'm done with that series.

 

Funny how I accidentally ended up with the Sam&Max games in reverse order. Did The Devil's Playhouse, have Beyond Time and Space ready but don't even own Save the World. This should result in an interesting perspective on the series' evolution, though from what I read here,  I'll probably rank BTaS behind TDP,  but rank StW higher. We'll see.

[pelagia14]

Alright, I've now got Goodbye Volcano High on my list of games to eventually get! I figured it was unlikely that it would be a 'must play' game for me, but I was also hoping that it was a relatively solid game - which your review has confirmed. I also had no idea that it incorporated a rhythm element, which is really neat! While it's a bummer to hear that there isn't a ton of deviation in plot for subsequent playthroughs, I've come to anticipate that for smaller-budget games at this point, and it just means that I should probably try to pace out my playthroughs over the course of 2-3 weeks instead of back-to-back.

 

I'm only part-way through the Alan Wake Remaster, but I am so hyped for when I get my hands on Alan Wake II - as I've heard that it is a true gaming experience with some of its set pieces or how it integrates narrative with gameplay. That immediately sold me on the game several weeks ago, and I've avoided reading too much more about the game. Thus, after the first few paragraphs of your review confirmed that I'll enjoy this game, I skipped past most of the remainder.

 

I did manage to catch a reference to Ms. Bloodmoney, so I read about how she enjoyed it so much as a 'backseat gamer' that she even wanted to be present for the busy work, which is truly incredible! Alas, if only my computer-gaming husband was willing to experience a Horror Survival game with me... 😂 I saw the italicized Twin Peaks and Twilight Zone, and I cannot express how excited I am to hear that this game leans even further into those elements (which was another instant-sell for me upon glancing at initial coverage of the game). I was also surprised to see that apparently Control's lore is integrated to some or great extent in this game - I keep forgetting that Remedy had put little references to Alan Wake inside of that game. 

 

Question for you: I have Control in my backlog, and it's probably going to be some time before I have the money to acquire Alan Wake II. Then again, Christmas is around the corner and there's always a small chance I get Alan Wake II as a gift, which would make me want to jump straight into it. I didn't read much of what you wrote in regards to Control - I'm sure you would have only detailed its connections in a vague way, but Alan Wake II seems to be a game where some of the joy comes from "aha!" moments when things come together. (And if I'm wrong, then it just means I was overly cautious in how much I've avoided reading about the game, haha!) Anyways, do you think it's important to play Control before Alan Wake II? As in, are the lore implications from Control significant enough to really enhance the story/understanding of Alan Wake II, or are they more neat little easter eggs? Apologies if you've already thoroughly addressed this question!

[DrBloodmoney]

3 minutes ago, pelagia14 said:

Alright, I've now got Goodbye Volcano High on my list of games to eventually get! I figured it was unlikely that it would be a 'must play' game for me, but I was also hoping that it was a relatively solid game - which your review has confirmed. I also had no idea that it incorporated a rhythm element, which is really neat! While it's a bummer to hear that there isn't a ton of deviation in plot for subsequent playthroughs, I've come to anticipate that for smaller-budget games at this point, and it just means that I should probably try to pace out my playthroughs over the course of 2-3 weeks instead of back-to-back.

 

I'm only part-way through the Alan Wake Remaster, but I am so hyped for when I get my hands on Alan Wake II - as I've heard that it is a true gaming experience with some of its set pieces or how it integrates narrative with gameplay. That immediately sold me on the game several weeks ago, and I've avoided reading too much more about the game. Thus, after the first few paragraphs of your review confirmed that I'll enjoy this game, I skipped past most of the remainder.

 

I did manage to catch a reference to Ms. Bloodmoney, so I read about how she enjoyed it so much as a 'backseat gamer' that she even wanted to be present for the busy work, which is truly incredible! Alas, if only my computer-gaming husband was willing to experience a Horror Survival game with me... 😂 I saw the italicized Twin Peaks and Twilight Zone, and I cannot express how excited I am to hear that this game leans even further into those elements (which was another instant-sell for me upon glancing at initial coverage of the game). I was also surprised to see that apparently Control's lore is integrated to some or great extent in this game - I keep forgetting that Remedy had put little references to Alan Wake inside of that game. 

 

Question for you: I have Control in my backlog, and it's probably going to be some time before I have the money to acquire Alan Wake II. Then again, Christmas is around the corner and there's always a small chance I get Alan Wake II as a gift, which would make me want to jump straight into it. I didn't read much of what you wrote in regards to Control - I'm sure you would have only detailed its connections in a vague way, but Alan Wake II seems to be a game where some of the joy comes from "aha!" moments when things come together. (And if I'm wrong, then it just means I was overly cautious in how much I've avoided reading about the game, haha!) Anyways, do you think it's important to play Control before Alan Wake II? As in, are the lore implications from Control significant enough to really enhance the story/understanding of Alan Wake II, or are they more neat little easter eggs? Apologies if you've already thoroughly addressed this question!

 

So, I would say that playing Control before Alan Wake II isn't essential - there are some folks who are swearing up and down that you NEED to play it - and for sure, there is quite a bit of the connective tissue between the original Alan Wake and Alan Wake II that is fleshed out in Control (in the AWE DLC specifically, which may as well be called "AWII - The Prequel"...

... but I'm relatively convinced, (specifically because MsBloodmoney hadn't seen Control previously,) that Alan Wake II can be enjoyed just fine without it.

Having played Control before will enhance Alan Wake II, but it not playing Control won't harm it.

 

Having said that though - and this is the bigger point - if you are planning on playing Control at some point, I do think that playing Alan Wake II before it will lessen the impact of Control.

 

The thing is, a lot of the general concepts of Control are assumed knowledge in Alan Wake II - that's not really an issue for Alan Wake II, as they just explain it all quickly - but it will likely mean that the first 3-4 hours of Control, where that stuff is the central mystery, do suffer, because they are literally just saying "this is what this is", about what was a big mystery in that game.

 

So basically, I'd recommend that someone who wanted to play Alan Wake II, and hadn't played Control, they'd have no problem jumping into Alan Wake II...

...but if someone is planning on playing both, they should probably play in the right order, because going out of order won't particularly harm the Alan Wake experience, but will harm the Control experience, if that makes sense?

[freddie1989]

Just wanted to say how much I enjoy reading your reviews and while I think the idea that Hitman 3 is top of the list with the obscenely good games ranked below it I do think it is an amazing outlook on how we all view what we play differently. 

[pelagia14]

19 minutes ago, DrBloodmoney said:

 

So, I would say that playing Control before Alan Wake II isn't essential - there are some folks who are swearing up and down that you NEED to play it - and for sure, there is quite a bit of the connective tissue between the original Alan Wake and Alan Wake II that is fleshed out in Control (in the AWE DLC specifically, which may as well be called "AWII - The Prequel"...

... but I'm relatively convinced, (specifically because MsBloodmoney hadn't seen Control previously,) that Alan Wake II can be enjoyed just fine without it.

Having played Control before will enhance Alan Wake II, but it not playing Control won't harm it.

 

Having said that though - and this is the bigger point - if you are planning on playing Control at some point, I do think that playing Alan Wake II before it will lessen the impact of Control.

 

The thing is, a lot of the general concepts of Control are assumed knowledge in Alan Wake II - that's not really an issue for Alan Wake II, as they just explain it all quickly - but it will likely mean that the first 3-4 hours of Control, where that stuff is the central mystery, do suffer, because they are literally just saying "this is what this is", about what was a big mystery in that game.

 

So basically, I'd recommend that someone who wanted to play Alan Wake II, and hadn't played Control, they'd have no problem jumping into Alan Wake II...

...but if someone is planning on playing both, they should probably play in the right order, because going out of order won't particularly harm the Alan Wake experience, but will harm the Control experience, if that makes sense?

 

I didn't even think about that other half of the coin, so thank you for the answer! 🥰

[DrBloodmoney]

2 hours ago, freddie1989 said:

Just wanted to say how much I enjoy reading your reviews and while I think the idea that Hitman 3 is top of the list with the obscenely good games ranked below it I do think it is an amazing outlook on how we all view what we play differently. 

Ah, but you are forgetting the very important, scientific reason why Hitman is at the top, above all those other games…

 

…it’s better than them.

 

 

 

 

 

[DrBloodmoney]

On 11/28/2023 at 1:08 PM, grayhammmer said:

While we're on the topic, is there any chance that you'll analyze any of the games that you can't complete, just with a note alongside them that they can't be 100%ed?

 

Sorry, just noticed this!

 

I'd never say never, but the way I see it, I've still go so many outstanding games to review that do qualify, that I'm in no great hurry to add all the ones that don't...

 

...but maybe if I ever do actually catch up (sometime in like 2035 probably!) 😂

[DrBloodmoney]

☢️☢️(SEMI)-SCIENTIFIC ANNOUNCEMENT☢️☢️

 

 

Oh, how time flies.... it feels like we were only just celebrating the Super Scientific Awards for 2022...

 

...and already, the award season for 2023 is approaching!

 

Once again, I will be removing my Lab Coat, donning my Tuxedo, and having a little look back at games that I have played, and having a celebration awards ceremony!

 

 

It's less than a month until the celebration, so, in preparation for the end of the year 2023, I’m kicking off the "Awards Season" by announcing the categories.

 

 

 

 

I'm sticking with the categories I used last year - I disliked the "Nope" award from 2021, so that's remaining in the dustbin of history, and I'll be staying with the rather more positive "Best Moment" award, which I think will remain in perpetuity now.

 

 

 

In order to qualify, a game simply has to have been S-Ranked in the calendar year 2023, so whether I started and finished it that year, or all I did was mop up one last trophy, if the S-Rank happened in 2023, it's fair game! 

 

 

As was done last year, the awards will be posted on (or around, depending on my whereabouts!) the 20th of December, and games from the 21st of December 2022 up until that point will qualify!

 

 

Look out your best dresses / kilts / tuxedos / moomoos / Bjork-style-swans, and I'll chill the champagne!

 

Laters! 

Edited December 4, 2023 by DrBloodmoney

[grayhammmer]

10 hours ago, DrBloodmoney said:

In order to qualify, a game simply has to have been S-Ranked in the calendar year 2023, so whether I started and finished it that year, or all I did was mop up one last trophy, if the S-Rank happened in 2023, it's fair game! 

Was this put in place just so Hitman 3 doesn't sweep the categories even though you played it a lot this year?

[DrBloodmoney]

9 minutes ago, grayhammmer said:

Was this put in place just so Hitman 3 doesn't sweep the categories even though you played it a lot this year?

It’s been the rule since I started…

 

…but it is definitely helping the other games not to get rail-roaded by Hitman Freelancer 🤣

[DrBloodmoney]

 

⚠️SCIIIIIIIIIIIIEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEENCE!⚠️

 

 

Welcome, my Scientific Chums, to the third annual Super Scientific Game Awards!

Please check your lab coats at the front desk, don your Tuxedos/Kilts/Ball-gowns, grab a drink at the bar, and take your seats!

You all did this last year, we all know the score - this thing can run long, so get comfortable, get relaxed, and if possible, get high/drunk, and let's celebrate some of the winners, and deride some of the stinkers, of the past Scientific gaming year!

All seated?
Drinks in hand?
Fans and cooling water at the ready incase of hot-takes / burns?
Outraged-response-typing-fingers at the ready?

 

Then let us begin!

 

 

 

PREAMBLE

With the Super-Scientific Games Calendar for 2023 running from December 21st of 2022, to December 20th 2023, (and no more entries likely before that deadline,) that means:

There were 62 trophy lists I earned at least a single trophy from during the 2023 period, of which, 58 were S-Ranked!

Of these 58, I have weeded out the ineligible few, to form an eligible pool of 52 games in contention for these illustrious 2023 Awards!

Note -  I'm sticking with the idea that if a game is a replay / remaster of a game ALREADY ELIGIBLE IN A PREVIOUS YEAR, then it IS still out of the running. 
However, if it is a replay of a game originally played PRIOR to the existence of these awards, I think it is only fair to allow it a chance to scientifically shine!

 

As such, I invite you to gaze in wonderment and splendour upon...

 

 

 

GAMES NOT IN CONTENTION:

 

The 10 games that were played, but are considered ineligible, were for the following reasons:

 

3 games - Trine 5, Sifu and Final Fantasy VI - remain incomplete, and will be eligible in the future, if/when they are S-Ranked.

 

3 games - Cities Skylines Remastered, The Outer Worlds: Spacer's Choice Edition and Tetris Effect Remastered - were stacks of games already eligible this year, and they can't win twice!

 

4 games - Superliminal, Weird West, Dead Cells & God of War Ragnarok - were games where either a replay of a new version or DLC was played, but those games were already included in the Awards last year, and so have already had their chance to shine!

 

 

As such, I direct your attention in the direction of:

 

 

 

 

Anyways, that's quite enough foreplay!
 We came here for Awards, dammit!

Without further ado, let's begin with a bang:

 

 

 

An easy, statistical one to start with (But the biggest in grandeur, of course!) - this award is based on placement on the current rankings - essentially the top 4 games on the list, in order, if only this years played games are considered.
There is, after all, a reason these games ranked so highly - and here, we celebrate it!

⚠️SPECIAL GOTY ALERT⚠️

 

Now - most of the time, my rule is that a game's trophy list must have been completed in a year for it to qualify for these awards, but here, in 2023, there is a rather specific anomaly that needs to be addressed... 

...and that is the fact that one of the games I spent the most time with, (my No.2 according to Sony's Wrap Up,) and that would have - if it had it's own trophy list - run away with this award...
...is technically a trophy-free DLC!

 

I don't want to replace any well-deserving games in this category with this one - it will not feature in the running for any of the other Awards, as it's parent game already featured in (and Won!) my GOTY in a previous year - but it feels ridiculous not to make mention of it here, given its stature.

 

As such, I'm adding a special category for it, alongside the other usual winning slots...
...because it's my awards, and I can do what I want, Goddammit!

 

(Reviewed in MINI-REVIEW UPDATE)
 

Hitman Freelancer is the single best game mode add-on ever added to any game...

...and because it benefits from the absurd, relatively unprecedented situation where it takes full advantage of 3 separate full game's worth of content, by using the maps from all entries of the Hitman: World of Assassination Trilogy...
...the result is that it is, while technically a DLC, bigger, grander, more content-rich, and more complete and varied than the majority of full game releases could ever hope to be!

It's also an absolutely astoundingly good game in its own right. 

 

Even after playing the original games that make up the Hitman Trilogy for upwards of 400 hours, I still sank another 200 into Freelancer this year, trophies-be-damned...
...and it has done the almost impossible feat of making playing the base game variant of Hitman - the "normal" maps, where saving is possible, and there isn't a rogue-like element - feel almost quaint by comparison.

To be clear, that is me saying that this DLC mode is so good, and improves on the mechanics of what I already consider to be the best games of the generation so much, that it actually feels odd going back to that original game now!

 

It's a game mode that breathes new life into a game that didn't need it but benefits immeasurably from it, and is able to combine elements of home-building, stealth, action, rogue-like, comedy and puzzle game...
...and does it in a way that simple never gets old, or wears out its welcome.

The game pulled me - someone who loves earning trophies - away from other games that have them completely, and has such a wealth of special, in-game challenges and rewards that I never felt the lack of them at all.

 

The unique situation afforded by the sheer wealth of content it draws from means a rogue-like of a size and scope that will likely NEVER be replicated by any single game...
...and does it using game mechanics that were already sublime, ridiculous, responsive, smart, fun and awesome.

It IS my 2023 Game of the Year...
...it just happens to not be technically it's own "game"!

 

 

WINNER: The Last of Us: Part II
CURRENT OVERALL RANKING: No.7
(Reviewed in BATCH 60)

In terms of games that I actually earned trophies in for my hard work, there's a pretty resounding and clear winner this year!

 

Currently ranked at a smoking-hot No.7 on the all time rankings, The Last of Us: Part II finally gets its time in the Award-sun.

 

A running joke on this checklist since there was a checklist - given my inability to rank it due to my own S-Rank rules...
...but as much as those rules were the excuse, the real reason was simply that The Last of Us: Part II is a game about which I had a lot to say, and I knew writing that review would be an exhausting one!

 

It's a game takes the "Narrative Character Action" genre that tends to permeate the AAA space - sometimes to the point of exhaustion - but elevates it to its peak, with memorable characters, a bleak, complicated and beautifully realised world, a surprising, un-pandering story...
...and does it with gameplay that never stops being exciting, fun and engaging.

 

The world is dour and oppressive and the story bleak and haunting, but it's to Naughty Dog's credit that the gameplay is able to maintain on top of that, and keep the player wanting to keep on going, even as the characters descend into horror, madness and abject despair.

 

A hell of a game from start to finish, and the best game I earned a trophy in this year!

 

 

 

1ST RUNNER UP: Tetris Effect
CURRENT OVERALL RANKING: No.18
(Reviewed in BATCH 57)
 

Finally qualifying for placement in these awards, Tetris Effect has been on the "Picket Fence of Ineligibility" for the past two years, due to a couple of outrageously tough trophies...
...but finally this year I managed to push through that Tetris Sprint Barrier, and shove it into qualification!

It takes a heck of a game to keep me playing, relatively steadily, for years, particularly when - as was the case here - I had no real expectation of ever getting that coveted platinum trophy...
...but it takes an even better game to keep me playing just the same amount afterwards!

 

Despite having finished every trophy in both versions of the game, I currently have over 160 hours clocked "post-platinum" - and that is a testament to just how good Tetris Effect is, and what a smorgasbord of gameplay it has to offer.

It's the quintessential version of the quintessential game - the best version of a perennial classic - and goes so far above and beyond most other Tetris releases (of which there are, quite literally hundreds,) that it leaves them lying in the dirt.

It presents that classic, brilliant, simple gameplay in so many variants, and in such a phantasmagoric symphony of light, sound, particle effects and overall polish, that it really feels impossible than any future Tetris release will top it.

From the VR modes, to the excellent Multiplayer, to the Journey Mode with it's Lumines-style campaign, to its brilliantly curated - and enormous - collection of Tetris variants from over the years, Tetris Effect is a game that feels like a culmination of the classic game.

 

It is the Ur-Tetris - the Tetris for all, for all time...
...and it is as addictive, simple, challenging, varied, gorgeously presented, and lovingly curated as it needs to be to earn that accolade.
 

 

2ND RUNNER UP: This War of Mine: The Final Cut
CURRENT OVERALL RANKING: No.19
(Reviewed in BATCH 14)

This War of Mine: Final Cut is a strategy survival game - not a genre I'm tremendously well versed it - and it's one that has relatively limited tools to tell a narrative story in any traditional sense...
...but holy cow, does it manage to tell unique, tragic, hear-wrenching stories through non-traditional ways!

 

A game where the gameplay is that narrative, and every run of its bleak, harrowing experience of random every-day people trying to outlast a war they have no involvement with nor part to play in presents new, awful scenarios that the player must witness and navigate at every turn.

 

In some ways, it is the "Anti-Sims" - a game where the player has the same rough perspective and control as they do in a game like The Sims, but rather than feeling like a God, they feel the hopeless despair of a parent, trying their hardest to protect these people, making tough choices, seeing the consequences of these choices... and often failing.

It's a game that takes a lot of smart, small touches to humanise the characters, to the extent that the player bond to them grows and grows as time goes on - and in a very real sense, this game, which has no set narrative, and little dialogue or specific plot points - ends up feeling far more narrative heavy and emotionally resonant than games with heavy narrative elements manage!

 

Tough, brutal, unforgiving, emotional, savage, touching, and genuinely player-driven stories that change each time the game is played...
... come together in both one of the best emotional experiences a strategy game can offer, and an experience only the interactivity of a game could offer!

 

 

 

CURRENT OVERALL RANKING: No.21
3RD RUNNER UP: NORCO
(Reviewed in BATCH 56)

NORCO is a game that, on the surface, seems like it should simply shrink into the crowd, as one of many pixel-art, low budget indie Neo-Adventure Games out there...
...but to assume so and pass it by would be folly.
That would deny the player from realising the truth:
That NORCO is not simple a weird game, and an awesome game, and a game that brilliantly combines the odd, the peculiar, the weird and the insane with genuine human trauma, frailty, suffering and loss, and combines them all in a patchwork quilt of some of the most outlandish story ideas possible, all the while containing them in a completely emotionally grounded and gritty plastic reality...
...but it's quite simply one of the best written games out there. 

 

Its narrative and tone feel like the child of Cronenberg, Lynch, Philip K Dick and Carlton Mellick - a mishmash conglomeration of bizarre concepts that should never work together...
...yet completely do, simply because the world the devs have created feels both absurd, yet oddly plausible, and the characters navigating it feel tragically real in their turmoil, confusion and insanity.

 

Add to that some excellent pixel art visuals, a really stellar soundtrack of Bladerunner-esque electro-jazz, memorable and unique characters, well crafted gameplay and a pace and clip that feels tantamount to a high quality TV show, and it all adds up to a game that isn't just one of the best Neo-Adventure Games out there...
...it's one of the best games out there, period!

 

 

 

 

Another statistical one - this award is based on placement on the current rankings - essentially the bottom 4 games on the list, in order, if only this years played games are considered.

Not all these games are without merit, redemption or some good aspects, of course... I try not to play games that are true stinkers!
...but these are the lowest ranked. 

Not necessarily all garbage fires... 
...some didn't quite measure up to their potential, some made some mistakes, and all just didn't measure up to the rest of the games I played this year!

 

 

WINNER: Dante's Inferno
(Reviewed in BATCH 63)
 

What to sat about the game so woeful that it took me 13 years, an impending server shutdown, and a good friend wanting a co-op partner, to even bother to go back and finish that last trophy in?

After 13 years, it couldn't really be that bad, could it?

 

Why, yes. 
Yes it could.

 

In the grand pantheon of games that stick to the long tradition of taking another, better game (in this case, God of War,) and copying it whole-hog, Dante's Inferno twists and contorts itself into a special VIP section - in that not only does it shamelessly rip off another game, but does it so poorly, so foolishly, and with such reckless disregard for quality that it manages to - against all odds - somehow wring every bit of goodness out of the formula.

 

Not satisfied with simply being a pale, un-fun, turgid imitation of a much better game, Dante's Inferno even goes the extra mile...
...in that it isn't just copying a great game and making it dumber, but does it while also adapting a great work of literature...
...and making THAT infinitely dumber too!

 

A shockingly misguided attempt at a game, which not only pisses all over the formula of God of War, but also shits and pisses all over Dante Alighieri's The Divine Comedy, the game is an almost mystically bad product, whose only viable use, is as "Exhibit A" in the argument that every single person in the development team is illiterate.

 

Clunky, glitchy, badly-designed, boring, insipid edge-lord tosh of the lowest order.

Pitiful.
 

 

 

1ST RUNNER UP: Faraday Protocol
(Reviewed in BATCH 55)

When playing lower budget puzzle games, I'm pretty forgiving.
 
Puzzle Games are a genre I love probably more than any other, and that genre is one that has more than its share of lower-budget entries, as a Puzzle Game can - more than most other genre games - stand tall, even despite some of the less polished elements. 

Many of the issues that can be difficult to avoid for smaller teams on tighter budgets - frame rate issues, lower poly textures, pop-in, lower quality voice acting or limited environmental detail, etc - are much less of a detriment to puzzle games - for one obvious reason:
If the puzzles themselves are good, most other issues can be forgiven.

 

Faraday Protocol is, in fact, rather less hampered by these budgetary issues as some other puzzle games.
 It's environments are simple and of limited palates, but aren't actually particularly low res.The game has limited voice work, but I've heard much worse. The narrative is even kind of cool and smart... 
...even if it does rather blow the pacing, and compress all the interesting stuff into a 6 minute tirade at the very end.

 

All those things could be forgiven if the puzzles were good...
...but unfortunately, despite starting relatively strong, the game just seems to literally give up half way through.

 

There are a few good puzzles early on, and these vary and build like all good puzzle games do, but then a curious thing happens.
The game simply stops changing things up - and from around the half way point, virtually EVERY puzzle is of the same type. 
The least interesting type.

As soon as that happens, the player realises that there is nothing else in the game capable of picking up the slack...
...and the whole experience just falls apart in a crumpled heap.

 

 

 

2ND RUNNER UP: Endling
(Reviewed in BATCH 63)

An unfortunate one, as Endling does not feel like a cynically made game, and it is one with some genuinely positive elements - it looks very nice, has a hell of a "cute" factor with the Fox mama and her cubs...
...and even does actually hit most of the emotional beats it aims for. 
It has a few smart, exciting moments - particularly in the intro and the ending - and has some smart wordless storytelling...

...but this is a ruthless list that it finds itself ranked on, and fundamentally, the game simply has too many issues for those good elements to hold it above water.

 

The gameplay loop is dull and rote, and the navigation and design of the game antithetical to the gameplay. 
The game can't decide if it wants the player to hurry or be cautious, if it wants them to be ruthless or cunning, a good parent or a good hunter... and not in a fun "make a choice" sort of way, but rather, in a "we don't know what to do with this game" kind of way. 

 

The game feels nicely polished, but the gameplay feels haphazard, counter-intuitive and slap-dash - as if the fundamentals were created, but then multiple, opposing, incompatible ideas were floated about what kind of game to make from those fundamentals...
...and instead of making a decision, a franken-game was created, to try and make all of them.

 

The result is a franken-game, with none of the ideas fleshed out properly.

Endling is a shame to see in this award, as it is a game where virtually all the elements of it are good, except, unfortunately, the parts where you play it.

And the part where you play it...
...is kinda important in videogames.

 

 

 

3RD RUNNER UP: Far Cry 6
(Reviewed in BATCH 64)
 

Far Cry 6 is not a broken game, or a mechanically terrible game - indeed, it has some things going for it, such as the excellent visuals, nicely designed, lush environment, and solid, functional shooting model. In fact, it isn't even the lowest ranked game in its own franchise - managing, as it did, to marginally out-rank its immediate predecessor...
...however, what it IS, is a game that is, more than virtually any other I can think of, evidence of a franchise hopelessly lost at sea, and utterly creatively bankrupt.

 

Far Cry games work, mechanically. 
They are solid, dumb-shooters with perfectly playable open-world shooting mechanics, but never have I played a game that felt more like a cover-version of a good song, by a mediocre band, who aren't even trying to distinguish their version from previously released ones.

 

The game takes the old Far Cry formula, adds absolutely nothing positive and more than a few negatives, extends it out to an absurd and tedious level, and wraps it all in one of the dullest narratives the franchise has seen, with the dullest characters the franchise has seen, and simply farts it out into the world, without even bothering to try anything new.

 

The game is saturated with nonsense side-content, in an obvious attempt to try and distract from the tedium of the main narrative. It fails to stitch its story together, and is absolutely riddled with moments where the devs straight-up show their own disinterest and lack of investment, by constantly pointing out, via the characters voice-over, how well they understand how boring and stupid the situations they themselves have written actually are.

 

Far Cry 5 managed to avoid mention in this award during its qualifying year (2022) by virtue of there being a few bigger stinkers...

...but 2023 is a stronger year, and as such, the marginally more palatable Far Cry 6 doesn't benefit form the same dubious help!

 

 

 

This Award is fairly self explanatory - the best game I played that is a new entry in a franchise I had played before.

 

 

WINNER: Alan Wake II
(Reviewed in BATCH 67)
 

This Award is not "the Best game, that happened to be a sequel" - if it were, then a simple look at the "Best Game" Award would indicate that The Last of Us: Part II should be the obvious winner - but rather, this Award is more specific. 

 

Rather than simply "The Best Game that was a sequel", this is "Best Sequel" - and as such, the step up from the previous entry plays a significant part also. 
While the Last of Us: Part II is an astoundingly good game - and an excellent sequel...
... the original The Last of Us was already a top-tier game.

The original Alan Wake, on the other hand, was not. 

 

Alan Wake was a good, but deeply flawed game - one where the tone, setting, narrative and style were great, but the gameplay pace, structure and mechanics let it down somewhat. The end result was a game that could be recommended, but with significant caveats. When a sequel was announced, my expectation was for a marginally improved, yet similar game to come along - one that would be decent, yet still a cult-status game, rather than a block-buster.

 

Alan Wake II is something of an anomaly though, as it manages to have the creative and stylistic tendencies of a cult game, but the quality and the finesse of a blockbuster - and that is very rare, and very difficult to balance.

 

The game is a visual powerhouse, and a stylistically interesting and fascinating game, dripping in Remedy's unique hooks and ideas, yet working on the level of a AAA game. 
It is a jump up in quality over the original Alan Wake by an order of magnitude that is shocking, and catapults the franchise as a whole to a level I could never have imagined or expected. 
It's mere existence not only results in a great game, but actually raises the profile of the original game (and other games in the remedy back-catalogue,) and firmly shunts Remedy up a notch, from "interesting cult developer" to one of the most interesting and fascinating developers in the AAA space...

...and to do so with a sequel to a well regarded, if rather flawed cult game like the original Alan Wake is a hell of a thing!

 

It makes for a hell of a sequel, and Alan Wake II is a hell of a sequel!

 

 

WINNER: The Last of Us: Part II
(Reviewed in BATCH 60)
 

While the gulf between something like Alan Wake and Alan Wake II is so enormous as to pip The Last of Us: Part II to the winning slot, that is entirely down to the relative qualities of the original games - The Last of Us was a much better game than Alan Wake was, so the jump Alan Wake II made is greater.

 

However, that is not so gloss over the huge step up that The Last of Us as a franchise made with the release of The Last of Us: Part II - because boy howdy, did it step up!

 

The original The Last of Us is a fantastic game - a classic of the AAA genre, and one of the best examples of "you can tell an old story, and it will still stand out if you tell it better than it's been told before"...
...but The Last of Us: Part II takes all the mechanical elements of the original game, expands them, finesses them, polishes then to an absurd level... 
...but it's the step up in narrative that makes the biggest leap.

 

The Last of Us: Part II doesn't tell a separate story, so much as it examines the original story, and tells a continuing one, looking at all the ramifications that the original story beats had on the world, and on the characters within it. 
It uses elements of the original game, as well as the player experience of playing the original game, and the connection to the characters that afforded, and crafts a much longer, much more complicated and much more involving and interesting tale, looking at how the beats of that story would ripple out and butterfly effect into newer, darker, more complex territory.

 

It does complicated character arcs, dramatic irony, emotional examination of the player, and bait-and-switch better than virtually any narrative game I can recall, and results in a story and a world where everyone is complicated, no one is a hero, no one is a villain... and everyone is interesting.

 

It elevates the already great original game to a whole new level, and never does the easy thing, always erring on the side of complicated and curious, over simple or pandering.

Brilliant!

 

 

 

2ND RUNNER UP: A Plague Tale: Requiem
(Reviewed in BATCH 63)
 

Another entry like Alan Wake II, A Plague Tale: Requiem earns its spot on in this award not simply by being a great game (which it is,) but by being a great game that is an unexpectedly big leap forward form its predecessor!

 

The original game - A Plague Tale: Innocence - was a good, if never astounding game - it had some great world building, a good story, and some very memorable and strong characters, but A Plague Tale: Requiem really builds on that original premise to a much greater level than one might have expected.

 

The story is much longer and more interesting, the world much more lavish and beautiful to look at, the characters complex and nuanced and genuinely well written (and performed,) - and the game also does something quite difficult to do well: has a young companion character who the player feels genuine affection for, who acts like a child, but isn't annoying or insufferable!

The puzzles are better, the story is better, the visuals are better, the audio is better, the characters are more interesting and the narrative is more expansive and enthralling... and it's hard to imagine a better sequel to the original game. 
Playing it not only feels great, but deepens the appreciation for its predecessor!

 

 

 

3RD RUNNER UP: Sea of Stars
(Reviewed in BATCH 65)
 

I played both The Messenger, and its sequel, Sea of Stars, this year, and I'm very glad I did, because Sea of Stars is not only a great sequel to The Messenger - surprising, interesting, genre-defying and curious...

...but it also manages to do that special thing, of being a sequel that can be played entirely independently - indeed, could be appreciated without ever having played The Messenger - but which is deepened and improved by having knowledge of the previous game.

Technically a chronological prequel, taking place thousands of years prior to The Messenger, Sea of Stars abandons the "Ninja Gaiden-esque" genre of The Messenger, in favour of a "Chronotrigger-esque" JRPG format, year manages to retain connection in all the right places - having musical crossovers, location call-backs, enemy call-backs, and a tonal and thematic connection in addition to its clever narrative lore hooks.

It ends up feeling both like a fresh, original take n the JRPG, and a worthy follow up to the excellent The Messenger.

 

There aren't a huge number of sequels that wholly reinvent the franchise, and work in an entirely different genre - and it can be dangerous crap-shoot, as it doesn't work as often as it does (JAK II ANYONE??) - but when it does work, that makes for a really exciting, interesting take on sequelisation, that should be applauded...

...and when the game is as good as Sea of Stars, it deserves double applause!

 

 

 

 

 

This one isn't really about a game being a "new franchise" in a global sense, as much as it is about it being "new" to me. 

It doesn't necessarily require a game to have multiple entries in its respective franchise either - but potential sequelisation does play some part... even if a sequel is relatively unlikely.

Really, what this award is, is...
... "How likely am I to play the sequel, or how fast would I hit the purchase button if I heard there WAS a sequel!"

 

 

WINNER: Control
(Reviewed in BATCH 38)
 

Deciding in which category Control should be recognised was not the simplest thing in the world - it's a game that I technically replayed this year, having originally played it pre-Scientific Awards... 
....and further complicated by the release of Alan Wake II, which firmly established Control as part of the "Remedy Connected Universe", and therefore muddied the waters a little in terms of whether Control is technically a new franchise, or part of an existing one...

...but regardless, in terms of pure commercial interest, Control is a new IP, and therefore I'm comfortable treating it as a new franchise - which is good, because it deserves to be awarded somewhere!

 

Control is a hell of a game - fast paced action and frenetic and loose combat using supernatural powers is a slice of gaming that has largely been subsumed by the Marvel and DC machines these days - mostly gone are the days of Prototype or inFamous, where game-first, new IP "superhero" games are a viable commercial product for most developers...
...but Remedy are not "most developers"!

 

Control takes that loose, fun, breezy combat model, finesses it nicely, but wraps it in a curious and interesting and silly tale of the FBC - the Federal Bureau of Control - a government agency dedicated to finding and exploring dangerous paranormal artefacts.

The game takes cues from media like The X Files, Warehouse 13, The Lost Room etc, but riffs on them enough to feel unique and fresh, and has plenty of Remedy's signature oddness thrown on top to really craft an exceptional, unusual, fun and even occasionally irreverent take on hard-boiled sci-fi!

 

The characters are great, the story is fun, the story-telling is excellent, and the art direction is unique and super cool...
... it's a great game all round, and a great "new" IP!

 

 

 

1ST RUNNER UP: NORCO
(Reviewed in BATCH 56)
 

Best New IP is a slightly strange award, because the potential for sequelisation plays a part, and truth be told, I'm not sure NORCO will ever get a sequel...
... nor do I think it needs one, or am confident that lightning would strike the same place twice, and that a sequel would manage to capture the same level of awesome...
...but I can confidently say this: 
If a sequel WERE announced, I'd have it pre-ordered before the announcement was even finished rolling!

 

NORCO is a hell of a game - weird, peculiar, unusual, clever, smart, absurdly well written, and totally unlike any other game I can recall. It is a game that is not only shocking in how outlandish it gets without ever feeling "absurd", but is shocking in how well it makes that work throughout its entirety, from the first scene, to the last!

 

Adventure Games are not quite as dead in the zeitgeist as they once were - there are plenty of good, smaller, indie Adventure Games coming out at a relatively steady clip now - certainly as compared to 10 years ago - but that only serves to highlight just how far above the pack NORCO stands, as even in a much more diverse field, it is the best Adventure Game I have played this year...
...and quite possibly the most engaging narrative in an Adventure Game I have played, period!

 

A Hell of a game - it loses to Control only because while Control could easily support sequels (and one is, in fact, already in the works,) NORCO is likely a one-and-done...
...but holy hell is it an amazing experience while it lasts!

 

 

 

2ND RUNNER UP: The Outer Worlds
(Reviewed in BATCH 62)
 

Another game where the definition of "new-to-me" is a little stretched, since I had played some of The Outer Worlds many years ago, and only finished it this year...
...but on the other hand, after finishing the PS4 version this year, I went pretty much straight into the PS5 version and finished that too, which is a fairly ringing endorsement!

I'm always happy to replay a new version of a game I loved, but it's genuinely rare for me to play the new version in the same year. 
The Outer Worlds was good enough that even after getting the platinum twice, I still wanted more!

Taking the "Bethesda Model" of gameplay - the style made famous on console by The Elder Scrolls and Fallout, but reducing the scope to a point where the jank is gone, the game runs perfectly, and each of the (far fewer) missions and encounters and conversations can be much deeper and more fleshed out is admirable already - essentially doing what The Forgotten City did, by turning the game design model 90 degrees, and being "deeper" rather than "wider" - but doing it while crafting a hilarious, silly, irreverent broken-future world where characters are genuinely funny, and where the nonsense silliness of Bethesda-style gameplay actually feels apropos to the environment, rather than running counter to it, is even better!

 

The game feels like a Skyrim or Fallout-style one, but on steroids and speed - where levelling takes an hour, rather than a day, and where the player can play away, doing whatever they choose to, safe in the knowledge that the game isn't going to fly apart at the seams, of catch on fire at any point. 

 

The Outer Worlds is, in fact, exactly what that kind of game should be in 2023, smaller, but more crafted. Smarter, not bigger. Funny on purpose, not funny by accident.

It's a great game - one that takes only 30 hours to finish, rather than 100...
...but where the choices and methods of play are so varied, that replaying it for 100 hours is perfectly possible - and will have about 100 fewer crashes and corruptions of saves while doing it!

 

3RD RUNNER UP: The Messenger
(Reviewed in BATCH 65)
 

Eagle-eyed readers might notice that I've removed the caveat from previous years, that a single franchise cannot place in both the "New IP" and "Best Sequel" category in the same year - and the justification for that is simple: This franchise!

 

I played The Messenger and Sea of Stars both this year, but when looking at what games deserved the awards, it simply didn't make sense to restrict The Messenger and Sea of Stars in that way, because the two games, while of a single franchise, feel so distinct - and because even though Sea of Stars is one of the best sequels I played... that doesn't change the fact that The Messenger was also one of the best new IPs!

 

An indie, pixel-art game that hits with a confidence and aplomb usually reserved for much bigger budget games from much longer established developers, The Messenger is an absurdly addictive and awesome new IP - and one that certainly makes sense in a category in which potential sequelisation matters... 
...since we already know it has one!

 

A game that works as a nostalgia throw-back and a bait-and-switch modern game, it uses its art, sound, narrative and gameplay to continually expand and compound its experience, with the player continually getting more and more elements added to the mix...
...all the while still remaining a good, silly, fun narrative, with a lot of personality, a lot of heart, a lot of laughs, and plenty of great platforming fun!

 

 

 

 

 

This is the award for good writing and narrative - games with outstanding stories, great dialogue, or - ideally - both!

 

SPECIAL SCIENTIFIC NOTE: The main "Best Game" category tends to favour the whole package, with 'gameplay' being the biggest factor, but some games which don't rank in the top spots there, still have great writing for your brain to chew on, and so this is where we celebrate those!

 

 

 

WINNER: NORCO
(Reviewed in BATCH 56)
 

NORCO is a game that looks great and plays pretty well, but many of it's positive aspects, when recommending, would generally come with some caveats "...for a lower budget game", "...for a pixel-art game", "...for an adventure game," etc.

 

When it comes to narrative though, there's no caveat required - it isn't one of the best written games "for a lower budget game" or "for an indie game," or "for an adventure game"...
...it's one of the best written games, period.

 

The world of NORCO is fascinating on a level that many prestigious sci-fi novels fail to even match - the patchwork quilt of bizzarity somehow comes together into a fully realised and coherent world - one where the player never knows what to expect, but completely buys into it when it comes along - and the specific characters and narrative threads that weaves throughout that world are both incredibly well written, and incredibly compulsive and engaging.

 

It's a game that, if one were to list events that happen with cold detachment, might sound funny or ridiculous, but actually playing it never really feels that way - the strong characterisation and genuine emotional hooks are serious, sad, tragic, hopeful, wistful, maudlin, strange, mysterious.... uplifting at times, down-beat at others, but always brilliantly well handled.

 

Making a big, splashy, AAA game with a story that is engaging on this level is hard enough, but making a lower budget indie pixel-art game with a story even stronger is something very special indeed - and it makes NORCO something really outlandishly good...

...and the only possible winner of the Brain Candy Award this year!

 

 

1ST RUNNER UP: Alan Wake II
(Reviewed in BATCH 67)
 

Alan Wake II isn't just a great game in terms of gameplay, and it isn't just a great game in terms of visuals and audio - hell, it isn't just a great game in terms of it's own narrative, but it manages the near absurd task of pulling together a previous game's cliffhanger, a pseudo-sequel, two post-game sequels, a DLC preamble that formed part of another game, and a previously unrelated franchise all together into a single connected universe...
...and does it so elegantly, that people who don't know those other works are none the wiser, yet people who know all of them simply smile, rather than rolling their eyes!

 

The narrative of Alan Wake II works as an independent story - part dreamscape Lynchian nightmare, part Southern-Gothic, Hardboiled Detective Noir - but adds up to much more, stringing together every loose strand of Remedy theatre, and tying them together in a story that is confident, audacious, mysterious, alluring and complicated, while never getting convoluted.

 

It's not so much the story itself - which is good already - but the way that story is told that earns it a spot here - the game uses parallel narratives, plastic realities bleeding into one another, fourth-wall-breaking, meta-narratives and all manner of other "gimmicky" devices, but does them all with such a scope and such a level of confidence, that they just work - adding to the story, without overpowering it.

 

That's a tricky thing to do, but Alan Wake II makes it look easy...
...and that's more than enough justification for it taking this spot in this award!

 

 

2ND RUNNER UP: The Last of Us: Part II
(Reviewed in BATCH 60)
 

I've said much about the narrative of The Last of Us: Part II already - it's one of the longer reviews on this checklist, and the majority of that review is discussing the narrative, so a quick paragraph like this will never justice to the story elements...
...but suffice to say, that while I admired the grown-up, mature way in which a relatively simple story was handled in the original The Last of Us, I double appreciated the complex, more difficult and much more emotionally challenging and intellectually sticky story of The Last of Us: Part II.

 

It's a game I have compared many times to The Godfather: Part II - the continuing story, challenging the viewers own motivations in their love for the original, and forcing them to reflect on whom they placed their loyalties during that initial outing mirrors that films way of deepening it's own predecessor - and is just as successful!

 

It's a game that challenges the player to really question if they were right in "siding" with who they sided with in the previous game, and asked "What does a hero look like from the point of view of their "villain"?

The characters are excellently drawn, the world built on and fleshed out, the motivations sticky and complex and the narrative tense and unnerving...
...and that makes for a damned fine slice of brain candy!

 

 

3RD RUNNER UP: A Plague Tale: Requiem
(Reviewed in BATCH 63)
 

Another returning game, A Plague Tale: Requiem is a game that could have easily gone sideways. 

 

The narrative of the original game felt somewhat buttoned up - a sequel could easily have felt like either treading water, or simple going too tangential, and feeling "tacked on"...
...but A Plague Tale: Requiem walks the line extremely well - creating a continuing story that feels different enough than the first, yet feels absolutely feasible in the world, and for the characters, to sit alongside it, and to heighten the significance of it.

 

The characters themselves - in particular Amicia and Hugo - are very well written - they feel older and a little wiser, but not so different that it feels incongruous - and the side characters all operate from places of clear, understandable and realistic emotions and motivations. 

 

Dialogue feels adult and smart, and Hugo - a child - is written very well - allowing step layer to feel the "big-sisterly" bond with him that Amicia feels, without him descending into either an annoying distraction or a personality-free mcguffin.

 

It's a game that feels rounded and mature, and a story that not only works well, but elevates the stature of the game that preceded it...
...that's not something that happens often, and deserves a spot in this award!

 

 

 

 

 

This is the award for a game looking great!

SPECIAL SCIENTIFIC NOTE: The main "Best Game" category tends to favour the whole package, with 'gameplay' being the biggest factor, but some games that don't rank in the top spots there, are still a feast for the eyes, and so this is where we celebrate those!

This is a category that can be a little tricky to judge, as there are two distinct elements to visuals - "art and design," and "technical graphics." 
While I've certainly considered doing two awards, one for "Best Graphics: Technical" and "Best Graphics: Artistic", I've shied away from that - for two reasons.

 

Firstly, because that inevitably leads to a "two-tier" system, where the former is exclusively populated by big, "AAA" games, whose budgets allow for the kind of technical prowess Indie and lower-budget games can't, and tends to give over-emphasis to "AAA" games that are technically powerful, but actually pretty dull artistically...

...but secondly, because I actually don't think it matters. 

Good looking is good looking - and whether that is achieved through technical prowess or art-style, is immaterial when it comes to going...
..."damn, dis game look Goooooooood!" 

 

 

WINNER: Alan Wake II
(Reviewed in BATCH 67)
 

 

Most of the time in thinking about this award, I am stuck trying to balance the merits between "technical" visuals and "artistic" visuals - caught in a strange limbo of trying to decide if the technical excellence and graphical flair of a massive Triple A game is better or worse than the artistic flourishes of a less technically sound, but more artistically creative game.
It can often be a difficult task...
...so imagine my delight when an obvious winner emerged, that is both technically impressive, and artistically creative in equal measure!

 

Alan Wake II's visuals are remarkable in a whole host of ways. The technical graphical prowess is nothing to be sniffed at - Remedy's proprietary Northhlight Engine is no slouch, and the ability to render realistic character models and moody, evocative environments is on a level that can give Capcom's incredible RE Engine a run for it's money...
...but Remedy's own brand of FMV blending, overlaying, trippy mixing of real-actors and CG elements, and the good old fashioned excellence in artistic-directorial style elevates the visuals of the game to a point that is really quite incredible, and dances past those RE Remakes with ease.

 

Alan Wake II not only looks great, it looks uniquely great - it is using a toolbox of ideas and techniques that are not well tapped... and when they have been used before, by lesser studios, they tend to work against the game.

Remedy, however, turn them into a plus - and are the sole developer genuinely making the case for true innovation in visual design, and in FMV / CG blending.

The result is a game that looks like no other...
...and easily takes the win as the best looking game I played this year!

 

 

1ST RUNNER UP: Cuphead
(Reviewed in BATCH 3)
 

 

A game I platinumed quite a while ago, but came back for DLC wrap up this year, but it's impossible to talk about great visuals in a game without mentioning Cuphead!

 

Another game that doesn't just look great, but looks unique and great - the way the developer has managed to capture the look and feel of retro cartoons is really mesmerising.

 

From the pitch-perfect designs on characters, each of which could easily slot into an old 1930's WB cartoon without a single sliver of dissonance - to the way everything moves as if on a bouncing, dancing meter, to the way the developer even specifically alters the frequency of the 60fps gameplay, to perfectly ape the 24fps animations of early-era cartoons...
...every part of the presentation of Cuphead is perfectly on point, and therefore wholly unique in the gaming space.

 

Each boss fight in the largely boss-rush game is beautifully designed, every attack and phase and expression and effect absolutely perfect for capturing a highly specific, wildly under-used, and completely mesmerising artistic style - Cuphead is a game that excels in more than just it's visuals... mechanically, it is a beautifully designed game too - but the visuals are easily the highlight of the game, it's unique selling point, and impossible to ignore once seen.

 

Gorgeous!

 

 

 

2ND RUNNER UP: The Quarry
(Reviewed in BATCH 58)
 

 

Technical graphics may not be the only thing that this award recognises... I always strive to ensure artistic visuals are judged on an equal basis, and occasionally, I will admit, my personal proclivities and penchant for indie games can mean that "artistic" visuals can often be favoured over "technical" graphical prowess...
...but that only serves to show just how good the technical visuals are, when a game that relies on them primarily makes it into this category!

 

Supermassive's latest "big" game - The Quarry - is one such game. 
A modern Choose-Your-Own-Adventure game in the vein of Supermassive's usual far, or Quantic Dream's output, The Quarry is a game that is striving to get as close to a filmic experience as possible...
...and for the first time since it released, I think Quantic Dream's Detroit: Become Human has been dethroned as the graphical pinnacle of that genre!

 

Using real actors, motion-captured to such a level that the models are fully recognisable, and visually indistinct form their real-world actors, The Quarry manages to be the first game of it's kind to really cross the rubicon in terms of bleeding "game" into "film". 
Gone are the moments of dissonance, where extra dialogue or clunky expositional lines are required to convey the complexities of character feelings or emotions to aid the narrative - in The Quarry, Supermassive demonstrate that their motion-capture technology is now so good, that the full spectrum of human facial expressions can be captured in CG characters - to such a degree, that simply seeing the scenes play out, and the actors act, is enough to fully convey the breath of their characters.

 

The game looks great on top of that - it's directed well, capturing the look and feel of "schlocky 80's teen-horror" perfectly, complete with visual flourishes, dutch angles, film grain effects etc... and the comedically horrific tone is captured very well - and allowed to really breath, primarily because the right actors are cast, and the technology at a level where nothing of their skills are lost in the translation.

 

It's a great looking game...
...and an easy winner this year!

 

 

 

3RD RUNNER UP: Treasures of the Aegean
(Reviewed in BATCH 55)
 

 

Visuals that ape comic books are not hugely original in videogame - ever since Comic Zone on the Genesis/ Megadrive, videogames have dabbled in the idea of aping comic book panes - however, very few games have specifically gone for the more unusual, less well trodden area of European comic books.

 

Even the two most famous IPs in that genre - Tintin, and Asterix and Obelix - despite having many games released over the years associated with each IP, have never really attempted, at any point, to capture the look and feel of their comic-book origins, generally opting instead for either pixel-art 2D platformer, or a more generic, 3D CGI look.

 

Treasures of the Aegean, therefore, stands out, because it is doing exactly that - presenting a really smart, mechanically fluid and wildly fun puzzling, rogue-like good time...
...and doing it with an art-style that is specifically and very astutely capturing the look and feel of those Euro-comics.

 

The game looks beautiful, both in still frames - using comic-book panes and captions to tell it's cut-scene stories - and in motion, with the bright, crisp, comic-book visual style lending itself perfectly to the wonderfully fluid, 2D parkour of the main exploration elements, and it really serves as the best possible argument that the next Tintin or Asterix and Obelix game should really stop trying to go 3D...
...and instead, embrace their visual roots, because my goodness, can that visual style look exceptional!

 

 

 

 

 

This is the award for a game sounding great. That might be due to great music, or great voice work, or excellent foley work, or some combination, but these games just sound the business!

SPECIAL SCIENTIFIC NOTE: The main "Best Game" category tends to favour the whole package, with 'gameplay' being the biggest factor, but some games which don't rank in the top spots there, are still a majestic symphony for the ears, and so this is where we celebrate those!

 

 

WINNER: Hardspace: Shipbreaker
(Reviewed in BATCH 58)
 

Hardspace: Shipbreaker is a game that works largely as a sort of hybrid between puzzle game and zen-mundanity simulator in the vein of the many "simulator" games out there, and both those genres are ones where the mood and feel of the game is set as much by the ambient soundtrack as anything else. 

 

The gameplay is contingent on the player losing themselves in the task at hand, and so having some awesome tunes playing to set that mood it tantamount...
...and holy hell does Hardspace: Shipbreaker bring it on the music front!

 

The whole soundtrack is a southern-gothic, country-twanged rock medley, and it sets that "lonesome cowboy in space" feel up to a tee.

The soundtrack is not simply audio decoration either - in addition to being absolutely excellent - both in game, and as a stand-alone album - it also feeds into, and from, the gameplay in smart ways. 

Each session of play in Hardspace: Shipbreaker works on a 15-minute "shift", wherein the player needs to finish (or at least, create a "stopping point") before the shift ends, and every track in the soundtrack has multiple versions to follow that. 
Each track has both a "regular" version, and a "tension" version, with the regular one being replaced - seamlessly - with the equivalent "tension" version, when the time limit gets close, or where the player is doing some particularly dangerous or tricky task (removing an atomic core, for example, which might be liable to explode in their face if done wrong or too slowly!)...
...and in literally every case, both the regular version and the "tension" version of the track is excellent - and the player can never discern the moment of "switchover".

 

It's an absolutely blindingly good soundtrack - one that never gets old during the entire platinum journey, and has been a regular feature of my Spotify playlists ever since...
...and definitely the winner, even in this year, which is easily the strongest line-up this Award has seen!

 

SAMPLE: "Crow's Feet"

 

 

1ST RUNNER UP: Fights in Tight Spaces
(Reviewed in BATCH 63)
 

Fights in Tight Spaces has a lot of great things going for it - it's an unusual genre mash up that works incredibly well, its art-style is on point and awesome, its gameplay smooth and clever and satisfying...
...but possibly the single most impactful and immediate point of awesomeness that hits the player upon starting to play is the phenomenal soundtrack by nervous_testpilot!

 

The whole game is scored in a style that is very reminiscent of The Crystal Method - grimy, addictive electronica with bassy tones and gritty, crunchy drops - Fights in Tight Spaces is a game whose actual gameplay is slow and careful, but it emulating quick, dirty, second-by-second, frenetic fights - and the soundtrack, more than anything, is what makes that dissonance between gameplay pace and stylistic pace work!

 

The fact that the player is methodically and carefully making their choices somehow still feels fast and dirty, because the music itself feels thumping and fast paced and break-neck...
...and in much the same way that Hotline Miami's amazing soundtrack really sets the tone of the violence, Fights in Tight Spaces really feels tonally complete because of the tracks that are playing.

 

In fact, it's worth noting that, due to a PS5 replay this year, Hotline Miami - the game arguably most famous for that kind of intense soundtrack - is in qualification in this years awards, and given just how good that soundtrack is...
...the mere fact that Fights in Tight Spaces - which is playing in somewhat the same general ballpark - is beating it out to the 1st Runner Up spot, should speak volumes for how good it is!

 

SAMPLE: "Technical"

 

 

 

 

2ND RUNNER UP: Hotline Miami
(Reviewed in BATCH 5)
 

Speaking of Hotline Miami - it is a game that (much like Cuphead, in the Eye Candy Award) caused something of a conundrum for me, in that much has already been said about it, and it has had many accolades already, being an older game...
...but the fact is, this is the first "Award Year" in which it qualifies, and regardless of whether I might like to err towards newer experiences, it would simply make a mockery of this award if I did not include it here, because...
...well...
...it's simply too damned good not to!

 

The soundtrack for Hotline Miami is a medley of grimy, drug-fuelled 80's nostalgia and filthy dark-synth electro-beats that both set the nasty, violent, hazy tone of the game perfectly, and come together to make for one of the most jumping and awesome synth-pop collections out there!

 

From MOON to Perturbator to Jasper Byrne to Carpenter Brut, the soundtrack pulls together titans of the dark-synth genre, and jumps between them, cleverly selecting each track to fit the tone of each level, and - crucially - having the track continue uninterrupted, through the (many!) restarts and false-starts and deaths, so each quick-fire combat-puzzle fandango of blood, gore, violence and viscera feels like a single, unique, drug-fulled nightmare!

 

It's a brilliant soundtrack - one that has been in my Spotify rotation for years now, to the point that Hotline Miami feels as much an album as a game at this point - and the mere fact that that music has so transcended the game via which I originally heard it, yet still feels absolutely apropos upon replaying - means it simply can't not feature in this list of winners...
... even stacked up against the cavalcade-murderers-row of amazing soundtracks I played this year!

SAMPLE: "Miami Disco"

 

 

 

 

 

3RD RUNNER UP: Goodbye Volcano High
(Reviewed in BATCH 67)
 

Goodbye Volcano High is a game where music is a major feature - not simply as trappings, but as diagetic narrative element, and gameplay feature. 

The game is part visual novel, and part lite-rhythm game, but whether the player is actually tapping along to the songs, or simply hearing them in the background or listening to them as part of the narrative, the fact is, a story about a singer and her band is inexorably tied to music...
...and would fall apart if that music was not good.

 

Luckily, that music is very good!

 

The music in Goodbye Volcano High - almost all by Dabu and Bridgette Naggar - is all in the sort of "art-pop" genre that houses such favourite artists of mine as Lovers, Lanterns on the Lake, Daughter, Big Thief, I Break Horses etc... and it really works.

 

Even in a game where 7 or 8 playthroughs are required for the platinum, and some of the story elements to begin to lose their lustre a little over the course of so many repetitions, the music never got old - and the rhythm game sections, when playing along with that music remained a perennial highlight!

SAMPLE: "Reunion"

 

 

 

 

 

 

Some games are great, some are bad, and some, (like myself,) are just... fucking weird!

 

This is the category where we celebrate oddness in any form - if a game has a weird mechanic, or design, or tone, or just something that makes you go "Well... that's peculiar..." then this is the category to celebrate it!

 

 

 

WINNER: Humanity
(Reviewed in BATCH 61)
 

A puzzle game that mashes up elements of 3D Lemmings, Kurushi and Cuboid, and adds in boss fights, elements of tower-defence, collectibles and platforming is probably oddball enough to earn a spot on in this award anyways...
...but when you add on top Humanity's bat-shit crazy "end-times-god-machines" narrative, the fact that the player is playing as a spirit canine intent on restoring the humanity to... well... humanity...
...then throw on top a truly bizarre aesthetic, a genuinely avant-garde and strange soundtrack, and one of the strangest conceptual menus systems and hub area designs, it makes for a truly bizarre product.

 

The fact that it's also a really cool, fun, approachable game is just icing on the cake!

Humanity is a game that should, by rights, fail... and fail hard. 

It's genre mash up is unusual and strange, its strange look and sounds can feel almost off-putting at first...
...and yet, the peculiarity of it, and the oddly satisfying way in which it moves and teaches the player simply works... and the player ends up being rather enamoured of the strange thing they find themselves progressing through!

 

It's a very odd game - one that on paper seems the work of an unhinged mind - but it works, and it all comes together in a very satisfying way...
...and so it wins the Oddball Award this year!

 

 

1ST RUNNER UP: To Hell with the Ugly
(Reviewed in BATCH 65)
 

Strange little neo-adventure games are not rare commodities these day - there are plenty of them out there, to cover virtually all proclivities and tastes - but that makes the fact that To Hell with the Ugly managed to sell itself to me with a few screenshots of its really unusual, strange art-style all the more remarkable...

...and had I known that that strange look would be only one facet of its oddness, I would have hit that purchase button even sooner!

 

The narrative- based on a post-modern french jazz-noire novel - is as outlandish and strange as any I've seen, and the way it pulls together elements of different genres - from turn-based RPG combat, to stealth, to rhythm game, to quick-time-event, to choose-your-own-adventure, to detective mystery... while they don't always work perfectly, is still admirable - and odd!

 

The visual style is super strange - somewhere between New Yorker cover, and Samurai Jack cartoon - the jazz-noire tale of clones, class, murder, kidnap, corruption, nudity, prostitution and fake-healthy-hamburgers, is decidedly peculiar, in the most endearing way.

the game is not without its issues - it's not one gracing the top end of the rankings by a long stretch...
...but it is charmingly bizarre, and that's what this award is all about!

 

 

2ND RUNNER UP: Killer Frequency
(Reviewed in BATCH 62)
 

A very strange mash up of puzzle game, audio-book, podcast, mystery visual novel and detective gameplay, Killer Frequency takes one of the silliest premises I've seen - a small town radio host forced to both man the 9-1-1 emergence line, and conduct an entertainment call-in/ music radio show at the same time - during a night when a mysterious, local-legend killer is apparently risen from the grave and on the rampage...
...but through a combination of whimsy, comedy, good vocal work, daft characters, fun music, good visuals, and a very endearing and charming secondary character in Peggy the Producer, it manages to hold it all together, to create a memorable, endearing and fun little game, that draws the player in, and actually lets them buy into that absurd premise pretty well!

 

A huge amount of the game is essentially non-visual, with the player simply fidgeting around with things n their radio booth desk while the real action is over the phone, or audio-only, which is very unusual, and the game does smart things like including nn-gameplay required elements like a mini basketball hoop (complete with a stack of paper to ball), giving the player things to do with their thumbs while listening...
...but the primary reason it works is simply that the game itself buys its own premise exactly the right amount - fully invested, but with a slightly knowing wink.

It ends up making for a game that is fun, goofy, silly, sometimes exciting, sometimes funny...
... but always odd and peculiar!

 

 

 

3RD RUNNER UP: Dicey Dungeons
(NOT YET REVIEWED)

A recent play, and not yet subjected to the rigours of scientific ranking, Dicey Dungeons has not been featured in any of these awards so far...
...but if there is one thing that can be stated easily - without any requirement for a deep-dive into it - it is this:
It's a weird damned game!

A combo of lite-deck-builder and RNG dice-rolling gambling, the game takes at the deck-building genre - one that generally takes a simple enough rule set, but applies myriad complexities via the specific deck the player creates - and flips it on its head.

It essentially creates multiple short-form deck builders, where the decks themselves, and the "cards" that form them are not complicated...
...but the rule set (or in this case, many, many rules sets,) are.

 

Essentially, each character, and each situation (run) changes the rules of the game quite substantially, meaning that rather than the player learning the basics early, but adding significant complexity as they master the game (as is the case with something like Slay the Spire,) each new run the player must learn a whole new rule set, but the actual deck they build within that is relatively simple. 

It's a cool concept - it isn't quite as consistent as a standard deck-builder, of course, as it does mean that some rule-sets are more fun than others - however, it is certainly unusual, and that's what matters most here!

 

All of that is only added to by the strange visual style, the odd, bouncy soundtrack, and the really strange "game-show-in-hell" narrative, which sees contestants magically converted into dice, trapped in a never-ending, always-losing game against a corrupt game-show-host...

...and it makes for a very, very strange little game...
...and an easy winner in this category!

 

 

 

 

 

 

This award is not about the "Best Trophy List" necessarily, but about the effect the trophy list had on the game experience. 

 

If the trophy list really added to the game, either with clever, additional meta-challenges, or by complimenting the experience without detracting from it, and if I could easily see the game experience being lesser if the trophy list wasn't as good, then it's a good candidate for placement in this Award!

 

WINNER: Viewfinder
(Reviewed in BATCH 63)
 

Viewfinder is a great game, and one that features a mechanic that is pretty much unique, and therefore affords the player significant freedom in their approach - both to solving the puzzles, and to simply exploring what they are able to do.

 

The trophy list for the game is clearly designed with this in mind!

 

It has a great collection of trophies - some tied to actual progress, and some to finding specific collectibles - but those are actually relatively few and far between. The majority of the list, is actually much more geared towards both rewarding the layer for trying different things, and to operating as a little "hint-system", using the trophy requirements as a way to hint to the player what they can do.

It's a great way to approach trophies for a game like Viewfinder - virtually every new scenario presents some new, cool idea for some way to try manipulating the environments with the "take-a-photo/ place-a-photo" mechanic...
...and when simply toying around in the strange world, almost every little thing I tried not only worked... but came with a satisfying "ding" as a new trophy popped, demonstrating that the developers clearly thought of it, and wanted to let me know they had the same neat idea!

 

It's a brilliant trophy list - fun to discover, fun to complete, and genuinely elevates the game in just the way trophy lists should...
...and easily wins the "Way to Improve It" Award, because, well...
...it really does improve an already excellent game substantially!

BEST TROPHY: "Michelangelo"

 

REASON: 
A very clever use of trophy data in a meta way - because it is actually also a secret hint as to one of the less obvious methods of using the game mechanics - it hints to the layer that simply placing a photo is a defacto way to "slice" objects in the environment.
That sets them on the path to realising the solution to one of the more fiendish later levels - which is exactly the kind of smart use of trophies that games in general - and puzzle games specifically - can benefit from!

 

 

1ST RUNNER UP: Tetris Effect
(Reviewed in BATCH 57)
 

Tetris games with trophy lists often fall short - they either are stupefyingly difficult, and available only to the absolute Tetris Masters (Tetris Ultimate), or they are too simple, and barely require the mechanics of the game to be learned, let alone mastered (Arcade Archives Tetris Releases / Puyo Puyo Tetris games etc.)

Striking a good balance, where the player is drawn in and encouraged to get better, but which also reward them for different styles of play, and have a steady gradient of trophy rewards as they progress and improve is relatively rare in the Tetris field...
...but Tetris Effect does it perfectly!

 

There are the usual trophies for simply progressing, for time spent, for ranking up, and for completing different aspects of the game. 
There are meta-trophies, for example the one for gaining 100 "avatars" (the in-game rewards gained by doing virtually every aspect of the game, allowing players to earn them in whatever is their most preferred modes,) there are clever ones tied to meta-challenges, such as the "Combo Van Gogh" for getting a 15-strong combo, or the one for getting the "backwards" Tetris variant to spawn in the strange "Mystery Mode"...

...but the biggest boon to the game is also the "Platinum Breaker" for most folks - the trophy, for getting a set high-score in each of the massive list of specialty modes!

BEST TROPHY: "Seriously? Seriously."

 

REASON: 
The trophy simply requires a specific score in each of the "Challenge Modes" - enough to achieve the coveted "SS" rank...
...but some of these are no joke!
Each one requires a different style of play - some are easy, some very difficult, but this single trophy is really the source of Tetris Effect's enduring appeal.
It turns what could be a game that the player simply toys with, and never really digs down deep and tries to master, into a long process of genuine improvement within the game. Each mode teaches different elements of Tetris play, and each new one SS-Rank mastered is a big personal victory...
...and having one final trophy for completing the long journey is exactly what any Tetris fan needs to encourage them to improve their game across all elements!

 

 

2ND RUNNER UP: Dicey Dungeons
(NOT YET REVIEWED)

 

Dicey Dungeons is an odd game, and unlike most of the "big-boy" Deck Builders from which it takes much of its inspiration, it can actually be completed without the player really deep-diving into the mechanics, and learning clever ways to combine aspects or create synergies to beat absurd challenges...

...but a lot of that lack of game-required meta-gaming is actually alleviated by the trophy list, which adds some specific, non-game-required challenges to be completed, which often require out-of-the-box thinking beyond what the game itself asks, to complete!

 

A full run of the game to beat the final boss already requires quite a lot of runs, with the variety of rule-sets the game offers, however, simply doing so without an eye on trophies will likely leave a stack of specific challenges incomplete. Doing those often requires smart thinking of which rule set or character would even make them possible - and specific builds or tactics to fulfil them.

For example...
 

BEST TROPHY: "Furry Dice"

 

REASON: 
One trophy that initially seems strange, but turns out to not only require smart thinking, a specific character, a specific enemy, and a specific tactic... and actually demonstrates a whole game mechanic the player was probably unaware of previously!

 

One specific enemy has the ability to - if they are lucky - transform into a bear... and one player character has - if they are lucky - the ability to steal an enemy attack...
...and if the stars (and dice) can be aligned correctly, the player can steam that ability, and transform themselves...
...into a whole new character, with a new, different set of mechanics, that are only available that way, and persist for the entire run!

 

It's a great easter-egg mechanic, and one that 99% of players would likely never discover without the carrot of a trophy... but that trophy works well, providing a hint, but still leaving the puzzle there for the player to solve as to HOW to actually do it!

 

 

3RD RUNNER UP: The Outer Worlds
(Reviewed in BATCH 62)
 

The Outer Worlds uses its trophy list in much the way an Elder Scrolls or a Fallout game does - mostly keeping out of the way of the player, avoiding requiring specific choices, and generally just encouraging progression in whatever method they fancy, while encouraging them to see as much of the world as possible. 
 

The Outer Worlds does that very well - keeping clear of forcing the player down specific paths, but always rewarding them for going farther in some direction...

...but there are a few trophies that really benefit the game experience, by simply encouraging the player to see things they might not otherwise have even known they could see.

 

For example...

BEST TROPHY: "Sunburn"

 

REASON: 
The best of these types of trophies that encourage the player to see something they might not naturally make available, "Sunburn" is a trophy for seeing the comical "dumb" ending - one that can pretty much only be achieved by specifically choosing to make the player character's "intelligence" stat quite low at the beginning of the game.

Under normal circumstances, few players would deliberately make their character a fool...
...but thank goodness for this trophy, as what they will quickly discover, is that by making that "dumb guy" character, they get access to a whole separate set of responses and dialogue choices... the "Dumb Guy" responses... and these are genuinely a highlight of the game!

 

Virtually every dialogue conversations - of which there are hundreds - have additional comedy inserted in in response to the players "Dumb Guy" comments, and the game is super fun to play in this style...
...and half the reason anyone is even likely to see that whole side of the game, is this specific trophy!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This award is not about the "Worst Trophy List" necessarily, but about the effect it had on the overall game experience. 

 

If a game had an awful list, but was also an awful game anyways, it isn't as likely to make it in this category - or at least, the list has to be significantly worse to warrant it.
If, however, the trophy list dragged down the game, and I could easily see the game experience being better if the trophy list was different, then it's a good candidate for placement in this Award!

 

 

 

WINNER: Golf Club Wasteland
(Reviewed in BATCH 58)
 

One of those rare trophy lists, that despite being largely fine if generally forgettable, manages to secure a place in this award, by virtue of a single, truly bone-headed trophy, that sours the whole experience.

 

Golf Club Wasteland is a decent enough game - it actually has a lot of things going for it. 
It has a fun premise, has cool, simple mechanics, some great audio and tunes, and a nice look to it - the whole game feels like a casual, mobile-esque experience... in the BEST way. 
The fun of the game is in the soothing and zen feeling of it - of feeling alone in the broken world, and playing an absurd, yet satisfying round go golf, at ones own pace, in the ruins of a destroyed planet...
...and all of that zen feeling and good stuff hooks to the right, and flies right out the broken remains of what once was a window, when the player has to play the game in Iron Man mode. 

 

Essentially, the whole fun part of the game is in working out the tricky little shots to avoid the huge number of hazards in the game, and to manage to keep under par...
...fun that simply becomes a frustrating exercise in patience testing when the entire game must be done, on par, and without falling into a single hazard.

Some of the shots in the game require a precision that the controls simply don't allow for, and while that's all fun and fine when mulligans are free, having to start over from the beginning after slightly under-shooting or over-shooting the tine platform one must aim for on hole 27 is simply not ever going to be a fun time. 

WORST TROPHY: "Iron Will"

 

REASON: 
This one is obvious - it's the trophy for Iron Man Mode, and is awarded for completing a challenge so antithetical to the feel and fun of the rest of the game, that it defies belief that the developer thought it was a good idea to include.
It simply encourages the player to save-scum, as having to repeat dozens of easy levels, simply to get back to the same few very tricky ones is no-ones idea of a good time - the platinum experience could have been immeasurably improved by simply leaving this one trophy out...
...so it's a shoe-in for this dubious Award!

 

 

1ST RUNNER UP: Airoheart
(Reviewed in BATCH 59)
 

Airoheart is a strange example in this award, as it's trophy list is actually - on paper - very good. 
What causes it to lose esteem is not the trophy requirements...
..it is the fact that there is a fundamental and rather egregious game design flaw that plagues them!

 

I almost never consider actual trophy bugs in these awards - I consider them generally bad luck or simply early errors that get fixed eventually, and so I don't think they are fair to judge a game by...
...but I do know that Airoheart's issues are not fixed at this time, and don't appear to be going to be, and so are a genuine flaw in the game design, that needs to be addressed...
...and it's one I fell prey to!

WORST TROPHY: "Guardian of Engard"

 

REASON:  

So...
...Airoheart does the thing many games do, of having in-game "achievements" that mirror the trophies - they unlock, and in doing so, pop the associated trophy. 

That's never generally a bad thing - it gives a nice way to view trophy progress, without going outside the game environment, and is something I quite like.

 

However, due to a bug in the design of Airoheart, if more than two in-game achievements unlock simultaneously, the game fails to pop all the trophies associated with them... 
...and since popping  the platinum will always happen simultaneously with another trophy, and since there is a "complete the story", a game spanning "complete the game without killing any of X" trophy, and the platinum, all of which would unlock at the same time...
...it results in all the in-game achievements popping, but multiple actual trophies remaining stubbornly un-popped.

 

The result - in my case, was a full new playthrough on a completely fresh save, require to unlock an achievement that the game itself acknowledged I had already done the last time...
...which is rather a bummer to happen at the end of a platinum journey, when it should have been a nice end to a decent game!

 

 

 

2ND RUNNER UP: Cities Skylines
(Reviewed in BATCH 35)
 

Cities Skylines is a hell of a great game - indeed, it only missed out on being in the "Best Game" Award this year by two spots, and is ranked No.35 of all time on the main Scientific Ranking, out of more than 450!

 

It is easily the best City Builder Sim on the market (aside, possibly, from its own sequel, which I've yet to sample,) and is an amazing good time that I thoroughly recommend to anyone - so much so, in fact, that I've S-Ranked both versions of it...

...but that cannot distract from the simple fact that, with a single DLC trophy, it managed to not only deny itself a spot in the "Way to Improve it" Award (which it would have been very much in contention for, given that the rest of the trophy list is excellent,) but actually secure itself a place on this Award. 

 

THAT'S how misguided it is!

 

I give you...

 

WORST TROPHY: "What the?"

 

REASON: 
"What The?" is an RNG trophy of the worst kind - one who's dice roll is so outlandishly rare, that the odds of it happening naturally are absurdly tiny, even across the hundreds of hours of natural play anyone would do in pursuit of the rest of the game's list.

 

It requires a special "disaster" to happen to a city - one that only begins to have a chance to spawn after a city has already seen a whopping 200 other disasters... and even than, only has around a 0.5% chance (yes, about 1 in 200) chance of happening.

That is absurd.

I have played Cities Skylines for around 600 hours across two platforms, with disasters on...  and have never seen the special disaster happen naturally during play. Literally the only way to game the system, is to manually spawn 200 other disasters in a poor, unsuspecting city - while keeping it functional - and then leave the game running for hundreds of hours AFK, hoping against hope.

 

It's a VERY silly addition to an otherwise good list...
...and one that, as much as it pains me to include Cities Skylines in a "negative" Award, has to make the cut here.

 

 

 

3RD RUNNER UP: Goodbye Volcano High
(Reviewed in BATCH 35)
 

Another case of a single bad trophy choice in an otherwise good list, the mere fact that Goodbye Volcano High is a genuinely good game, seeing mention in positive Awards here, correctly indicates that I think very highly of it...
...but that doesn't change the fact that the platinum journey is one that is made demonstrably worse by the inclusion of one single trophy.

 

That trophy being...

WORST TROPHY: "Different Kind of Album"

 

REASON: 
I have long complained that narrative, choice-based games in general - and emotionally-investing ones in particular - should steer away from trophies that ask the player to make SPECIFIC choices. They should, ideally, simply let the player play as they want, and tie the trophies to other things, like general progression, or collectibles or mini games etc.

 

Goodbye Volcano High actually does that for a lot of its list - and what specific, choice-based trophies there are are generally fine, and not of the "overly prescriptive" or "game-forcing" type...

...but then comes this one trophy. It requires a complete "photo album" to be compiled - essentially, a set of cross-playthrough unlockables, each of which is tied to doing some specific actions in a playthrough, some of which are so specific that they can require a full playthrough of very specific choices, simply to unlock that one photo.

 

This trophy is the reason the game requires 8-9 playthroughs, as opposed to 2-3, and for a game that is very good, but relies on emotional investment, and where many of the choices are subtle, or only make marginal differences overall, that tends to lessen the impact - by the time the player is actually finished with the platinum journey, the game has largely been reduced in esteem.

 

It goes from a great, emotional story with great music...
... to a mechanical process of check-boxing.

With great music.

 

 

 

 

 

This Award isn't necessarily about the best games, but about the games that I simply don't understand how I never got to playing earlier!

 

Whether that's because it is so good that I should have tried it before, or that it's so much my kind of jam that I should have heard about it earlier, or simply that I owned it for so long, but never got around to actually playing, here I celebrate finally ending procrastination... 
...and being rewarded for it with gaming goodness!

 

 

WINNER: The Cave
(Reviewed in BATCH 64)
 

The runaway winner of this award this year, not only is The Cave a game I've owned since July 2013 when it was given away on PS+, and a game I had been recommended plenty of times - specifically by my own sister - and a game made by perennial favourite DoubleFine, directed by other perennial favourite Ron Gilbert...
...but it's also a game so long in the tooth at this point, that it is literally not even available for purchase anymore!

There is literally no conceivable reason that could explain how this one passed me by - and when I finally decided to right the wrong, and thought there would be no way for me to play it, I was genuinely disappointed - then pretty elated when it was pointed out to me that I most likely (and, as it turns out, quite correctly,) already had access to it, due to PS+ inclusion all those years ago!

The Cave is exactly the kind of game I love - a strange time-capsule of a specific era (in this case, the post-Adventure-Game, pre-Neo-Adventure-Game time,) a whimsical, irreverent adventure, a puzzle game that actually works, and a comedy game that's actually funny...
...and just a great, fun time all round!

 

It's an embarrassment that it passed me by for so long, and I' very happy to have it played now - and if my post-The-Cave reviews are anything to go by, I think it made quite an impact, as comparisons to The Cave (for better, and often for worse,) seem to come up with surprising regularity!

 

 

1ST RUNNER UP: The Messenger
(Reviewed in BATCH 65)
 

Not a game as old as something like The Cave, The Messenger did only come out as relatively recently as 2019...
...but it still seems odd that it passed me by for so long, specifically because of what it is: a very highly rated, well loved, often recommended pixel-art indie. Let's not beat about the bush - that description has DrBloodmoney written all over it!

In truth, I'm not quite sure how it managed to elude me for so long... (I suspect that a part of the reason is that a certain Radio-themed, 90's obsessed, now-banned, rambling-rant-inclined misogynist had stated he loved it, and I may have dismissed it as a result)...
...but when the sequel - the also excellent Sea of Stars began to make some serious waves, I was finally forced to reckon with my failure, fire The Messenger up...
...and I'm sorely glad I did!

 

An excellent, surprising, clever and satisfying game, with killer visuals, good mechanics and a bitchin' soundtrack, The Messenger is the whole package - and one I should have been singing the praises of years ago!

 

 

2ND RUNNER UP: Costume Quest
(Reviewed in BATCH 66)
 

Another DoubleFine overlook corrected this year - for some reason, a few of the catalogue of great output that DoubleFine put out in the past decade made it to my gaming platter - the likes of Stacking and Broken Age - and a whole lot of them managed to slip my grip!

 

I corrected some of those in the past few years (both RAD and Headlander tied, to feature in this category in the 2021 Awards), but a few of the earlier ones were still outstanding - The above-mentioned The Cave, and both games in the delightful Costume Quest series!

 

Again, no real excuse as to how these ones passed me by at the time - indeed, both of the games were featured on PS+, though only one I had actually remembered to claim...
...but after making the decision to finally correct this error, (and navigating the horror of the PS3 store, to buy the remaining one, and the DLC,) I was very glad I did!

 

Two excellent short-form RPGs, filled with ideas, funny gags, silliness and whimsy, and filling in gap in my knowledge, as there is clear, unashamed lineage from these games to the great South Park RPGs, which took a lot of these ideas and ran with them, both Costume Quest games are a great play - and ones that made me ask...
... "Why DIDN'T I play these before??"

 

 

3RD RUNNER UP: Sam & Max Save the World
(Reviewed in BATCH 67)
 

A strange thing happened back in 2011...
...apparently, I was drawn into the Sam & Max universe with the Episodic Sam & Max: The Devil's Playhouse, despite not being hugely familiar with the source material, and - crucially - without having the knowledge or familiarity one really should have, of the two games that preceded it!

 

I remember actually liking the game quite a bit - after all, being abjectly confused and going "Okay, fuck it, I'll roll with it!" is pretty much a required attitude for Sam & Max games, even WITH the previous game's plots under ones belt...
... but now, having finally gone back and played the earlier Telltale entires in the franchise, I realise that I clearly should have been made to play them first, as not only are they really good fun, but they are absolutely in my personal wheelhouse!

 

Old school Adventure Games, in an era that had passed that genre by, but they still prove the creative viability of it (if not the commercial viability,) both Sam & Max Save the World and Sam & Max: Beyond Space and Time are cool games...
... but it's Sam & Max Save the World - the first of the Telltale entries - that became my clear favourite of the three, and I really cannot fathom why it took me so long to get around to playing it!

 

 

 

 

 

This Award is a little nebulous. It isn't purely "Games with the least owners", nor it is purely about the quality of the game overall, but about a rather indefinable X-factor that lies somewhere in between!

It's really about the disparity between owners and quality. If a game seems to have wildly fewer players than it should, given its quality, then it's a good fit here!

 

SPECIAL SCIENTIFIC NOTE: For very new games, I do consider the player-count to mean a little less if they have been out for such a short time that the low player-count may be less as a result of it being overlooked, and more to do with people just not having gotten around to it yet. 
As such, very new games are pretty much excluded from this category... or at least, need to be a little more absurdly underplayed to qualify!

 

 

WINNER: Fights in Tight Spaces
(Reviewed in BATCH 63)

CURRENT ABSURDLY LOW OWNER COUNT: 78

The obvious winner of this category by an absolute mile - it is genuinely ridiculous to me that a game like Slay the Spire could come out, and, with the help of PS+, catapult to a (well deserved) site owner count above the 50,000 mark...
...yet some equally good (or even better) deck builders with the same levels of awesomeness like Griftlands struggles to make it to a four digit number...
...and Fights in Tight Spaces doesn't even make it to three digits!

 

It is arguably a game more accessible than Slay the Spire, given that it replaces wizards and towers with spies and espionage, replaces swords and wands with fists and guns, and replaces magic and sorcery with violence and some of the sickest synth beats money can buy!

 

An absurdly good combo of tactical battles, deck building and rogue-like, with awesome visuals, sick music, and a tone that combines James Bond with Jason Bourne, John Wick and Hard Boiled, it's a game I struggle to imagine any fan of Slay the Spire not loving, while also being a clear "foot-in-the-door" as any gamer's first taste of deck-building...

 

...so for the love of all that is holy, let's get that player count above 100, people!!!

 

 

1ST RUNNER UP: NORCO
(Reviewed in BATCH 56)

CURRENT ABSURDLY LOW OWNER COUNT: 610 (across 3 versions)

NORCO is a game that I can sort of understand how it might pass people by - there are a lot of other, lesser games working in the indie, pixel-art, neo-adventure scene, and it's a game that kind of has to be played to see what makes it special, and better than all of those lesser ones...
...but even allowing for that, it does seem slightly absurd just how low that player count is, considering the game got significant buzz after the fact, and virtually everyone I have encountered who has played it sings its praises to everyone they know!

It's a brilliantly written, mysterious, silly, strange, sad, uplifting, downbeat, bizarre, crazy concoction of the abnormal and peculiar, but one that works completely, and sticks with you long after. 

Hell, I played it so long ago that it only just missed the cut off for these awards last year, and I still didn't have a single other game in mind when it came to asking the question "What was the best written game I played this year?"

The reason was - NORCO might very well win that category, even in an "ALL TIME" Awards!

 

Get it played y'all - it won't take you long, but I guarantee you'll not regret it!

 

 

2ND RUNNER UP: Treasures of the Aegean
(Reviewed in BATCH 55)

CURRENT ABSURDLY LOW OWNER COUNT: 270 (across 8(!) versions)

Its ridiculous that any game with 8 different versions would have a cross-version player count as low as 270...
...but far, FAR more ridiculous that a game as fucking good as Treasures of the Aegean does!

 

A hybrid puzzle-game and 2D parkour platformer, with crisp, gorgeous Euro-comic-book visuals, a neat concept, good narrative, nice audio, and one that is mechanically sound, and flows with the kind of fluid, fast-paced motion that puts some Triple A games to shame, there is literally nothing about Treasures of the Aegean that I don't think would have mass appeal!

 

It's a game most folks will play and enjoy for 15-25 hours, isn't overtly difficult, and is fun from start to finish, never outstaying its welcome.

It's just a stonking good game...

...and one y'all need to get played!

 

3RD RUNNER UP: Hardspace: Shipbreaker
(Reviewed in BATCH 58)

CURRENT ABSURDLY LOW OWNER COUNT: 1,314

Hardspace: Shipbreaker might have a slightly higher player count than some of the other winners in this category, managing, as it does, to at least scrape into the 4-digit player count...
...but that number remains absurd for a number of reasons.

 

Firstly, the game is mad-awesome - but that's not even the only reason. It's been out for over a year, has some really excellent high scores and reviews, and despite the game largely belonging to a genre considered relatively niche...
...games like Car Mechanic Simulator, Power-wash Simulator, House Flipper and other "mundanity Sims" routinely pull in player counts ten or twenty times that high. 

 

The fact that Hardspace: Shipbreaker - one of the first games to take the good elements of those kind of games, and add a more accessible, more gamified, and more visually spectacular, more mechanically clever, more auditorially stimulating, and more narratively fulfilling package, while still retaining the zen good-feeling of a routine task well done - is, frankly, ludicrous! 

 

Whether you are into "Mundanity Simulation" games or not, it is largely irrelevant to the recommendation - the game works perfectly as one of those, but also as a first-toe dip into the genre without going "full weird"...
...and with a soundtrack that awesome, the mechanics that sound, and the narrative that well done, it works perfectly for the puzzle enthusiast, the space-geek, the narrative gamer...
...or really any gamer with a pulse!

 

Get it played, y'all!

 

 

 

 

 

 

This Award is not about the quality in a vacuum, but about quality vs. expectation - which game was I really amazed by how much better it was that I initially expected, or was a very different (positive) experience than what I though it would be going into it?

 

WINNER: Alan Wake II
(Reviewed in BATCH 67)
 

Sometimes this Award is honouring how surprising the quality of a game is, sometimes it's honouring how surprising the style of a game is, and sometimes it's honouring how surprising the specific narrative or twists and turns of a game is.

With Alan Wake II, it's all three - and it's difficult to work out which is the most surprising!

 

The original Alan Wake was a good but flawed game - one showing a lot of promise, but not quite mechanically getting it right. 
Even with expectations raised by the simple knowledge that technology has moved on, and is better prepared to deal with the particular brand of oddity Alan Wake was always going for, and raised even higher by the existence of Control - Remedy's much more mechanically finessed and confident game...
...the sheer audacity, confidence, quality and balls-to-the-wall, pedal-to-the-metal insanity of Alan Wake II was still a shock to the system!

 

It is doing things visually that are surprising, things auditorially that are surprising, narratively, genre-wise, and in terms of blending styles and idea - it's a game that grabs the player by the testicles, and says "You're coming for a ride, and we'll be driving!"

 

The game is consistently surprising in all the best ways, seeming never to do the obvious or easy thing, but rather, doing the most outlandish, difficult thing, and simply making it look easy.

It's surprising to imagine that a game I had some pretty high expectations for (indeed, it is the only game this year I had pre-ordered,) still outclass those expectations to such a degree, that it's literally impossible for any other game to win this award - in a year where quite a few games surprised me!

 

 

 

1ST RUNNER UP: Viewfinder
(Reviewed in BATCH 63)
 

Viewfinder is a game that surprised me twice - and that's before the game actually started surprising me on purpose!

 

The first time, was when the reveal trailer dropped, and the game looked like a brand new mechanical idea for a 3D puzzle game - something that is difficult to come up with these days. Indeed, probably the last one to really do something genuinely unique or original was Superliminal, in 2020.

 

The second time was upon playing it for the first time... when I realised that not only had the developer managed to pull off the absurd promise of that reveal trailer (no small feat, as I had somewhat expected it so be smoke and mirrors, and for the freedom to be largely curtailed in order to pull off what they seemed to be suggesting,) but that they had managed to pull it of to a level that went beyond what my wildest imaginations of what might be possible in such a game!

 

That's all before I even got into the meat of the puzzles, wherein the game consistently surprised me, with the breadth, scope, scale and variety of clever puzzles, or the ways the game would play with those mechanics!

It's a surprising game on every front - from the mere fact it exists, to how well it works, to how smartly and astutely put together it is, or how much freedom it offers...
...and as such, earns its spot in this Award handily!

 

2ND RUNNER UP: Fights in Tight Spaces
(Reviewed in BATCH 63)
 

Fights in Tight Spaces is a game that sold itself to me based simply on one aspect - it was a deck builder, and I seem to really dig those - but despite that, my expectations were relatively tempered. 
That purchasing decision had run hot and cold in the past - Griftlands was a win, but Monster Slayers was a loss...
...so I had learned to keep my expectations in check - particularly for extremely low player-count games. 

 

Imagine my surprise, then, when this little game that, at the time I played it, has under 30 owners, and no platinum achievers, turned out not only to be a great deck-builder, but to have an art style that was amazing, a soundtrack that slapped so hard people next to me felt the sting, and layered in a tactical element that worked so well, and worked so flawlessly, that it became my 3rd most played game this year, beaten only by Hitman and Tetris Effect!

The level of quality, in terms of presentation, mechanics, audio and really everything is excellent, and the game is so powerfully addictive and deceptively deep that I have never been able to remove it from my system, even after the absurdly long platinum journey...
...and now, with the new DLC mode released a few weeks ago, I'm right back in it, and happy to be so!

 

For a game that I bought on the strength of nothing much, and paid under £20 for, that is a remarkable achievement...
...and a really surprising one!

 

 

3RD RUNNER UP: A Plague Tale: Requiem
(Reviewed in BATCH 63)
 

Another one like Alan Wake II, A Plague Tale: Requiem is a sequel to a game I enjoyed plenty, but nothing about the expectations for a sequel could prepare me for just how much of a step up from the previous game I was letting myself in for!

 

A Plague Tale: Requiem is a much longer, bigger game than it's predecessor, yet somehow manages to also be tighter, smarter, better written, better performed, more mechanically finessed, more varied, much much better looking...
...the list goes on and on.

 

Sequels have to do quite a lot to make it into this Award category - the surprise of a new IP, where expectations are lower naturally, and not affected by a quality previous game are naturally more likely to shine here - and so the mere fact that A Plague Tale: Requiem managed to leap so far above its predecessor, that the delta between my already reasonably high expectations were confounded more than in a brand new game is saying something...

...and A Plague Tale: Requiem is really something!

 

A heck of a surprise, and a damned good game all round!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The flip-side of the "Most Surprising" Award, this Award is, again, not about the quality of a game in a vacuum, but about the quality vs. expectation - which game was I really disappointed by how much worse it was that I initially expected, or was a very different (negative) experience than what I though it would be going in?

 

 

 

WINNER: Far Cry 6
(Reviewed in BATCH 64)
 

It's exceptionally difficult for a game to make it onto both the "Most Disappointing" and the "Worst Game" Award boards - since "Most Disappointing" is about expectations, and really bad games generally have somewhat tempered expectations.
Its even more difficult for a franchise game that is coming off a poor previous entry to win the "Most Disappointing" category. 

I mean, expectations have to be lower already, right?

 

Well, with Far Cry, the expectations were lowered by the messy fifth entry - but Far Cry 6 managed to miss that already low bar, and then some, by virtue of a whole approach to the series: 
lack of trying!

 

Say what you want about Far Cry 5 - and I said plenty - but it was doing some things. 
It had some ideas, and some unique selling points. 
Granted, they were mostly not good things - miss-fires and negatives, and the new elements it introduced to the franchise largely failed - but they were at least original concepts for the series.

 

Far Cry 6 was an entry in a once very good franchise, coming off an entry that fumbled its ideas, but the lesson the developers seemed to take away from that was radical in its own way, I suppose.

"Forget new ideas... 
...this time we'll try NO ideas!"

 

Far Cry 6 feels like a poor cover version of a once great song. It's been absurdly well produced and polished - it looks and sounds great, and is technically proficient...
...but it has no soul, no heart, no brain, no animus. 

It is just going through the motions of what a Far Cry game is, all the while having nothing to say, except near constant snarky reminders of how little it has to say.

Weak characters, limp missions, dull writing and obtrusive over-burdening of mechanics plague this tired entry in a tired franchise, and not once does it ever manage to lean into the positive elements - namely its bad guy actor, or it's lush, nicely made environment.

 

After Far Cry 5, I really expected something to right the ship - it's a tentpole franchise for the developer after all...
...but what I got was nothing at all.

 

Hugely disappointing...
...the biggest disappointment of the year, in fact!

 

 

1ST RUNNER UP: Twelve Minutes
(Reviewed in BATCH 56)
 

There's the bones of a really good game in Twelve Minutes - it's got a hell of a premise, it's got a smart visual hook, it's got some top notch voice actors and a reasonably good writer...
...but what it needed, badly, was for someone to playtest it, and ask the question: "does this actually WORK?"

The game seems to be designed with all the freedom that a time-loop game can offer, and no handrails or signposts to tell the player not to enjoy that freedom...
...but the entire time they are having fun and trying to wrk out its mysteries, they are unaware that the there is actually an incredibly inflexible and rigid path they were supposed to be on, and are drifting further and further away with each passing moment.

 

By the time the actually begin to crash onto the rocks, it's far too late, and they are virtually unable, without the use of a detailed, joy-killing, excruciatingly specific step-by-step guide, to ever drift their way back to the only path that actually leads to the ending. The fun of playing the game ends up simply thrashing itself to death as it limply struggles to remain above water.

 

It's a genuine shame, as the concept of Twelve Minutes, and its unusual look and cast were all wildly promising, and raised up the expectations. I was looking forward to it, and very much wanted to like it...
...but the game just does its absolute darnedest to make sure the player is punished for every bit of fun they have, and to tell them "No! Bad Player! Stop it!" at every opportunity.

 

A miss-fire, and a dang shame...
...and a big disappointment.

 

 

2ND RUNNER UP: Metal: Hellsinger
(Reviewed in BATCH 61)
 

There's good fun to be had in Metal: Hellsinger for sure - even at its lowest moments, it's hard not to take some glee in its brash, unrelenting Metal music and balls-to-the-wall action...
...but despite the excellent premise and genuinely cool designs of some of the enemies and environments, the game never quite reaches the peak of what it might have been...
...for several reasons.

 

Firstly, it's too small and invariable - while the designs are cool, there are far too few of them, and far to much repetition for the game to ever feel like anything more than the same arenas remixed over and over. The bosses are essentially all the same model, and the environments feel cookie-cutter, and only a marginal step up from what might have been made using one of the better "snap-map" style custom creators of the PS2 era shooters. 

 

The gameplay is relatively simplistic and un-varied too - actually, the special, smaller, side-content "challenges" are much more interesting and fun than the primary campaign, because they actually offer some variety.

 

That is all a little disappointing - probably not quite enough to earn a spot in this award though.

 

What cements that position, is that the primary mechanic - the "shoot to the beat of the music" is all tied to a configuration tool - the one that configures the players specific set-up to account for lag and offset...
...which simply DOES NOT WORK.

 

The setup was completely borked at the time I played - unable to even finish its own process, let alone get it finished correctly - and the result was a painstaking manual set-up process that took a very long time, followed by playing a game which constantly felt just a little bit off at all times, by a player constantly adjusting and correcting the feel, as they never had the confidence in the set-up to really relax and enjoy what the game had to offer.

 

A shame, but still...
...a big disappointment!

 

 

 

3RD RUNNER UP: Season: A Letter to the Future
(Reviewed in BATCH 60)
 

Season: A Letter to the Future isn't a terrible game - it's certainly one that ends up on this list primarily by not living up to the promise that was indicated by the really unique visual style and tone that the initial game reveal hinted at - but that still makes for disappointment.

 

The issue is, while the trailer hints at a mysterious land and a game about exploring it, finding your own path through it, documenting what you want to document, and piecing a loose narrative together yourself via the "scrap-booking" mechanic...
...the game is far smaller, more linear - and crucially - more prescriptive and "set-path" than that trailer and that gameplay style would indicate. 

 

The narrative is actually pretty set, and happens at a relatively controlled clip...
...and despite the interesting nature of the world, the game is far too desperate to tell the player "This is what you should care about, and THIS is what it means"...
...which negates a lot of the potential mystery and player-driven choice or interpretation. 

 

In the end, it's a game that wants to be about the player deciding what is important and worthy of documenting...
...but then spends the whole game shaking shiny car keys to get them to pay attention to what it thinks they should think is important - and explaining why, in minute detail.

 

It's a pity, because the game as is is actually pretty neat, and has some great elements - the visuals and audio are good, and the world is cool, the cycling mechanic is satisfying...
...but conceptually, the game is at odds with itself, and never seems confident enough in its player-base to let their hands off the wheel and ever let them drive.

Not terrible - still worth a play, and actually, better than a fair few games in this year's Awards...
...but still disappointing, based on the expectations it built up, then failed to meet.

 

 

 

 

 

 

This Award recognises some of those points in games where I set the controller down, and either burst out laughing, pumped my fist in the air, wept a tear of joy or sadness... or just went "Oh DAAAAAAAAAAMN!"

 

Basically, recognising that some game have some specific cadences of emotion, or surprise, or catharsis, or just wild WTF, that needs to be celebrated!

!!DOUBLE IMPORTANT NOTE!!

 

These Awards have spoilers!!

I'm not using Spoiler Tags, since they tend to break under strain on this site, and this post will be too long to let me fix them if they do.

Spoilers will be relatively minimal, but if you are worried, then cast a quick glance at the game image, and proceed with caution on anything that really feels dangerous!

 

 

WINNER: Alan Wake II
(Reviewed in BATCH 67)

MOMENT: "We Sing"

 

There was only one possible winner this year: and it's Alan Wake II coming in once again, bringing a gun to a knife fight!

 

"We Sing" is a chapter of Alan Wake II that SHOULD NOT WORK.

 

It is a ridiculous, brash, bizarre and insane musical rock-opera inserted into the middle of a relatively serious game. It breaks the flow completely - deliberately - and is so outlandish in concept and execution that it SHOULD unbalance and destroy all sense of horror and dread that the game has built up...

...but because it is done so well, so confidently, with such gusto and audacity, it simply works - as both a mid-game catharsis, and a wink to the player-base, that this developer is not going to be doing things the "normal" way.

 

It's a ridiculous, silly, brilliant section of a game, that - over the course of 10 minutes, had my jaw drop, and plastered a stupid smile on my face multiple times - and it just keeps on building and building. 
Every time you think it can possibly get any more over-the-top, it does...
..in the best way possible.

 

It's an absurdly enjoyable, and absurdly absurd moment in an already great game...
...and is the clear "Best Moment" in a game I played this year!

 

 

 

1ST RUNNER UP: Viewfinder
(Reviewed in BATCH 63)

MOMENT: "Different Picture / Different Realities"

 

Puzzle games have a hard time creating "big moments".

The sedate nature of the gameplay and the general focus on mechanics over narrative means that they are largely unable to create big "narrative crescendos", outside of the very rare cases where a puzzle game has a genuinely cinematic narrative...
...but let's face it, that is a pretty small pool. 
(Portal 2, and... um... did I mention Portal 2...?)

 

What puzzle games can do better than most games though, is have mechanical "eureka" moments - ones where either the solution to a tricky puzzle suddenly comes clear, or where a new way to use the mechanics suddenly makes itself known...
...or, as in Viewfinder's case, when the sheer freedom of those mechanics, and the way they work is revealed, and is more outlandish than the player could have imagined.

 

Viewfinder has several of these moments - the first time the player uses the "take a photo / place a photo" mechanic is a big moment in and of itself, as is the first time they realise they can photograph a photograph, and create duplicate items, or when they realise they can use photo's of nothingness to "cut" solid objects to create paths...

...but the biggest true "moment" in the game comes in a relatively early puzzle, where the notion of different "art styles" makes itself known. 

 

The player has, at that point, come to grips with the basic concepts, but then a puzzle comes along where the photo available to them is not a polaroid, but a sketchpad, charcoal drawing. 
Placing it, allows them to step into a charcoal world... in which they find a painting. 
When they place that, and step in, they are suddenly in a brush-stroke world like within a Van Gough painting... 
...and they find a picture of an early polygonal videogame castle. 
Place that, and they are in what looks like a Castle Wolfenstein-style fort...
...and at this point, the breadth of what is available within the game in terms of art-styles dawns on them.

 

It's a great moment - player driven, not forced, but allows for a genuine feeling of discovery, while still forcing the player to see what the devs have to offer - it works absurdly well, and elevates itself, even within a game that is already very impressive in myriad ways...

...and easily deserves a spot in the "Best Moments of the Year" category!

 

 

 

2ND RUNNER UP: The Last of Us: Part II
(Reviewed in BATCH 60)

MOMENT: "I Have to Finish It..."

 

The Last of Us: Part II is, obviously, a heavily narrative-driven game, and a very good one - there are quite a few "big" moments that work, and are very impactful, so there were plenty of options to choose from...
...but thinking about the pure impact of each, the one that really stood out to me was this one.

 

A late game moment of crushing tragedy, when Ellie - broken by her desire for vengeance, and the horror she has both witnessed and inflicted on others, is finally offered - against all odds - some facsimile of a normal life, and some happiness...
...but is unable to let go and accept it, and tells Dina that she is going to continue on her destructive path.

 

It's a moment played to perfection by the motion captured actors - indeed, Shannon Woodward as Dina sells the horror of the moment with her expression alone - and one that even in a game filled with narratively poignant moments, stands out, because not only does it have narrative impact, but pulls the player in directly too.

It's not just Dina who is tired, and wants Ellie to accept her chance for happiness - we do too. 
We are tired. 
The game has run a long time. The Farmhouse section we just played feels like an ending - like an epilogue. 
As much as we might enjoy the gameplay mechanics, the game's tone is crushing and bleak, and we feel like we have done what we needed to do, and should be able to rest.

Ellie breaking Dina's heart is also breaking ours - we know finally that she has fully descended beyond repair - as even when given the chance for some peace, she denies it, as her guilt and thirst for vengeance has overpowered her completely...
...and after two games following her, seeing the culmination of her transformation from naive child, to loving daughter, to vengeful monster, to broken, tragic character is painful.

 

It's a hell of a moment...
...probably THE most emotional one I played this year...
...and easily one of the best of the year as a result!

 

 

 

3RD RUNNER UP: Hardspace: Shipbreaker
(Reviewed in BATCH 58)

MOMENT: "Industrial Action"

 

Hardspace: Shipbreaker works primarily as a "task" and "shift" based game - it's one where the mechanics and the zen feeling take the drivers seat, and the narrative (while excellent, and far better than it needed to be, or has any right to be) is the passenger for the most part...
...but the game does a smart thing with it's narrative, in that while not the main focus, it is always there, always keeping the game ticking over...
...and as the player progresses, becomes more and more a focus.

 

That narrative - told entirely in voice-over and audio, in conversations between the unseen other characters on the players "work squad", and latterly the uncaring, vindictive company man sent by "corporate" to oversee them - deals in serious issues of work practices, exploitation of labour, unionisation and union-busting, corporate HR issues and indentured servitude...
...but it is only in a relatively late-game section where that narrative actually takes the reins, and starts driving the game mechanics, when the entire squad takes industrial action.

 

At that point, counter to the entire rest of the game, the player can choose whether to continue playing the game as they always have been, continuing to work off their crushing dept to the company and working towards their freedom, or deliberately sabotaging their work - standing with the squad, and "working" for the greater good, potentially sabotaging the efforts they have gone to for 40-50 hours up to that point.

It's a great moment - giving the player choice (though anyone who refuses to help is a monster!) - and letting them have some catharsis - both narratively, in hearing the corporate company man go nuts as he yells at you for doing the work incorrectly, and mechanically, as you get to let loose, blowing up the very things you have been painstakingly protecting and carefully dis-assembling the entire rest of the game - and the music, voice acting and writing makes that moment glorious!

A really cool late-game flipping of mechanics, selling a really good narrative culmination - it's a case of a game telling a story beat in a way only an interactive media can - using it's mechanics in conjunction with its narrative, to give the player agency in the catharsis they get to enjoy.

 

A great moment...
...and one of the best I played this year!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This final award is not for games, but for people!

 

This one is a little unscientific, in the sense that I am relying partly on memory - I don't always keep perfect track of who really cements a game as being something I need to check out, and often it is as much about the person who recommends it initially, as it is the pile-on of agreement after the fact!

 

I do try to always keep track so I can thank (or curse!) the person who encouraged me to try a game, but with the amount of great games and great takes flying around, I'm 100% certain there are some games I just forgot about, or forgot who was the initial instigator!

SPECIAL SCIENTIFIC NOTE: 
I know that some folks might be thinking - "Hey! I totally recommended this other one to you Doc!"... 
...well...
...that might be the case, but I've tried to be ruthless here, and only award games that I'm pretty sure would not have ended up on my list (or would have remained in the infinite void of my backlog) if not for the specific recommendations of these fine winners. 

If a game was one I was already very likely to play, and someone just cemented that decision, that's great and I love it, (keep 'em coming!) but this Award has to be just games people fired at me, and stuck entirely because of it!

 

 

 

 

 

WINNER: @grayhammmer- 2 Games (1 played, 1 Wish-listed)

Dicey Dungeons / Chants of Sennaar

The recommendations were a little thinner this year - the days of having 10-12 recommendations in these awards are gone...(no doubt because so many of the games on everyone I trust's back catalogues are already recommended to me previously!)... but coming in hot with the win this year is the dude who has been probably the most stable contributor to this Scientific Checklist since its inception: Grayhammmer!

 

When he's not adding games to the "Priority List", he's recommending games I might dig... and is often right on the money...

...and this year, had two recommendations added to my "to-do" list - one of which I've played already, and one of which is stuck on the wish-list for the future!

 

Nice Job, Grayhammmer!

 

 

1ST RUNNER UP: @Beyondthegrave07 - 1 Game (1 Played)

A Monster's Expedition Through Puzzling Exhibitions

 

Recommendations can come form anywhere - not necessarily within this checklist itself - and with just one recommendation, but one that I've seen, got interested in, bought, downloaded AND played, it's our resident mod Beyondthegrave07!

 

Knowing my penchant for puzzle games of all varieties, he brought the fantastically titled A Monster's Expedition Through Puzzling Exhibitions to my attention... and I thank him for it, is it was a good one!

 

Much obliged Beyondthegrave07 - and keep them coming in 2024!

 

 

 

2ND RUNNER UP: @Platinum_Vice - 1 Game (1 Played)

Killer Frequency

Another entry with one one recommendation for 2023, but another one that I went the full hog already, by buying, downloading and playing, its our resident editor of the fantastic long-form magazine "Vice".... Platinum_Vice!

Recommending Killer Frequency - the unusual, good looking, and comedically barmy puzzle-horror-comedy game...
...he knows what I like, and didn't disappoint!

 

Cheers Platinum_Vice!

 

 

 

3RD RUNNER UP: @Copanele - 1 Game (1 bought-not-played-yet)

 

Ghost of a Tale

 

Our final winner is one with a single recommendation, for a game I haven't got to yet.

 

There were a few in that category, but the distinguishing factor here, is that while a lot of game made it to the wish-list, without getting played yet, the one recommended by copanele - Ghost of a Tale - has been purchased... just not quite booted up yet!

 

That was enough to make the difference though, so perennial checklist and all round good-egg copanele squeaks onto this award board!

Cheers mate!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Well, that concludes our little Award Festivities for this year!

Our beers are done, our chips dipped, our eyes rolled and our bloods boiled!
We've laughed, we've cried, we've called DrBloodmoney all the terrible names we can muster!

All that remains is to fill our wish-lists with the good stuff, CAP-LOCK the keyboard to yell about the injustices...
... and look forward to an awesome gaming 2024!

 

[Copanele]

Damn that was one diverse year! Assuming that Hitman 3 ain't the ACTUAL winner of this year 😂it was actually fun to see that 2 games that are not even remotely close (TLoU2 and Tetris Effect got the big recognition.

 

All I can say:

• I really need to play Alan Wake I, II and Control, that "We sing" moment that I stumbled across by mistake sells the franchise
• I am so glad that you also liked Treasures of the Aegean  

• 1 hour ago, DrBloodmoney said:

  3RD RUNNER UP: @Copanele - 1 Game (1 bought-not-played-yet)

   

  

  Ghost of a Tale

  I sure hope you will enjoy this one as well 

To honor the tradition, may the year of 2024 bring even more stupid games and even less Dante's Schlong deluxe edition

[grayhammmer]

1 hour ago, DrBloodmoney said:

WINNER: @grayhammmer- 2 Games (1 played, 1 Wish-listed)

Dicey Dungeons / Chants of Sennaar

I'm glad I was able to provide you with a game (and a potential game) that you really seemed to enjoy this year, especially after the last game I recommended (Death's Door) seemed to be a bit of a disappointment for you. I wish I was a better writer so I could give a better thank you speech for this occasion, but either way I'm glad I could be a part of the scientific process.

[Beyondthegrave07]

Funny enough, I was actually reading through your checklist the other day... Thought maybe you caught me snooping! 

 

A Monster's Expedition is probably one of those games I'm going to slowly plat myself by 2025 as I just play it casually here and there to kill time and keep my mind active or feel like I need to relax after a stressful day.

[YaManSmevz]

 

Awesome work, my dude!!

 

AaahhhhhhhhHHH the season has begun!

 

- No wonder I woke up in a good mood, Hitman and Cuphead got some lovin!

 

- Well shit, looks like I need to get cracking on TLOU...

 

- I need to remember Messenger when I impulsively buy Sea of Stars... I made it through the year without buying a new game, so it's on in January🤣

 

- Dude those audio snippets and sprocket holes are stupendous additions, excellent work!

 

- Looks like I need Fights in Tight Spaces in my life. I vaguely recall reading your initial review on that... fuck man, I'm way behind on my Science Journals😥

 

- Not the Jak II shout!!

 

- Bummed out about Metal Slinger, that one had piqued my interest for some time.

 

- It still trips me out that Aegean has remained so obscure. When you pointed out that the number of players you used was across ALL of the game's versions, I was like daaaamn, still??

 

- Dude when I finally get a PS5, between you and Vice alone I'll literally have all the games I need for the first year😂

 

Fantastic work, homie👊

[Platinum_Vice]

A year where you're ranking TLOUII, AWII and Norco? I think I need to go back to the coatroom and find my white labby again - I think I need the PPE over my tuxedo because you're about to cover the room in the splatterings of SCIENCE!

 

And what a runaway success those three games were in the awards... gobbling up those trophies like Hungry, Hungry Hippoes.

 

___

 

FiTS sounds AMAZING, good lord, but Solid Synthwaves, Batman: Perturbator and Carpenter Brut are in Hotline Miami?!?! The backlog is deep enough, mate, what are you doing to me? 

 

 

___

 

10 hours ago, DrBloodmoney said:

WINNER: Humanity
A puzzle game that mashes up elements of 3D Lemmings, Kurushi and Cuboid,

 

I mean, I know that I need to play it before making this comment, but from the trailers I was expecting Pikmin meets Echochrome, and then expecting heightened quality due to the Team17 stamp of approval. This award (plus the review) really does just make me want to play it much more. 

 

___

 

11 hours ago, DrBloodmoney said:

its our resident editor of the fantastic long-form magazine "Vice".... Platinum_Vice!

 

❤️❤️

 

___

 

11 hours ago, DrBloodmoney said:

All that remains is to fill our wish-lists with the good stuff, CAP-LOCK the keyboard to yell about the injustices...

 

Still reeling from the Jak II snub. 

 

___

 

4 hours ago, YaManSmevz said:

- Well shit, looks like I need to get cracking on TLOU...

 

Yes, dude, YES.

 

[Shrooba]

It's always great to see The Outer Worlds get some rep! (I always tend to mix it with Outer Wilds 😂)

It's an interesting juxtaposition comparing the mindset of Obsidian to Bethesda, because prior to Starfield's release, the expectation was that it's sheer size would merit more unique finds and locations, compared to The Outer Worlds, which, by design, is a lot more packed-in and smaller in structure. However, it is this very detail that makes The Outer Worlds the game that appears more lively-- with every nook and cranny having detail in The Outer Worlds, you're bound to find more locales and world-building sights compared to Starfield, which, by consensus I've seen, has the player meander about going from point A to B on planets that simply yield procedural generated buildings with no true emphasis on diegetic world-building (full disclosure, this is based on gameplay I've seen, nothing more!).
Since The Outer Worlds comprised of devs from Fallout: New Vegas, they no doubt took this design philosophy in mind: as the player travels through your world, it would be highly beneficial to create a more compact environment, and as such, players are more likely to stumble across hidden areas in pursuit of the main story-related goals. In this sense, while the overall size of The Outer Worlds is smaller, the player will always end up finding details that contextualize the world. In this regard, The Outer Worlds ends up feeling like the bigger environment! Very cool to see it in action. It's akin to finding random vaults in Fallout, although this time it's those crazed corporate experiments! All tucked away, but with how small it is, it all has purpose.

However, I always tend to meander when writing. 😅 You worded it perfectly, and in a way that sums it up better than what I said: "Smarter, not bigger." THIS is the encapsulation of Obsidian working on The Outer Worlds.

Edited December 18, 2023 by Shrooba

[DrBloodmoney]

SUPER SCIENTIFIC UPDATE

 

Over the festive period, Science shall once again enter....

 

 

Over the next few weeks, I'll be playing games a fair amount no doubt, and will like be on this site plenty... (there's only so many different ways to distract from compulsory family visit times, and using a phone is the primary one! )... but will likely not have the free alone time to do much in the way of reviews.

 

As such, my plan is to just play away, build up a fair few new reviews, then in the new year, I'll do a batch or two to catch up on those, before getting back into the swing of the older reviews!

[ShadyWARcotix]

Late to the party but I loved reading your game awards 2023.
Your variety of different games are always nice to see and because of you I put few games on my wishlist:

- To Hell with Ugly
- Viewfinder
- Fights in Tight Spaces (Looks interesting but I don't know If I would ever play it, at least on my "maybe buy/play" list)
- Goodbye Volcano High (saw the trailer and it reminded me a little bit of Night in the Woods, a game which I can recommend you btw) but I would never do the plat for GVH, it's to much for my taste
- Killer Frequency
- The Outer Worlds

And I'm happy that you liked Alan Wake 2 as I did. My personal Goty 2023. As for Indie games I would say Tinykin (2022), Night in the Woods (2017), Firewatch (2016) were my personal gems for me. Oh yeah and Hell Pie which I showed you in another thread. 

Thanks for your time and scientific ranking of your games

 

Oh and I would like to see a scientific review of Gorogoa. It was a very interesting and unique game. 

Edited January 4 by ShadyWARcotix

[DrBloodmoney]

8 minutes ago, ShadyWARcotix said:

Late to the party but I loved reading your game awards 2023.
Your variety of different games are always nice to see and because of you I put few games on my wishlist:

- To Hell with Ugly
- Viewfinder
- Fights in Tight Spaces (Looks interesting but I don't know If I would ever play it, at least on my "maybe buy/play" list)
- Goodbye Volcano High (saw the trailer and it reminded me a little bit of Night in the Woods, a game which I can recommend you btw) but I would never do the plat for GVH, it's to much for my taste
- Killer Frequency
- The Outer Worlds

And I'm happy that you liked Alan Wake 2 as I did. My personal Goty 2023. As for Indie games I would say Tinykin (2022), Night in the Woods (2017), Firewatch (2016) were my personal gems for me. At least the games you didn't played from my list. Oh yeah and Hell Pie which I showed you in another thread. 

Thanks for your time and scientific ranking of your games

 

Oh and I would like to see a scientific review of Gorogoa. It was a very interesting and unique game. 

 

Cheers Man!

 

Ha, any reason I can get some good games onto someone's radar is good enough for me - and interestingly, two of those ones you mentions (Night in the Woods, and TinyKin) I've been eyeing recently - Night in the Woods I've actually owned for ages, but just never got around to, and TinyKin is on the PS+ Extra catalogue right now, and looks pretty cool to me!

 

I've also added Gorogoa to the Priority List - will be a few catch up batches for the recent stuff before I get back to Priority ones, but I think that's the only one on there right now, so i shouldn't be toooo long!

[DrBloodmoney]

 

Welcome back, Science Chums! Hope y'all had a good holiday!

So, let's get back in the swing of things, shall we?

 

 

Between late-comers last year that were eligible for awards, but didn't get reviewed, and S-Ranks earned over the festive hiatus, there are now 12 outstanding games needing ranking and review - before I can even get back to doing any Legacy ones! 😮

 

 

Thant means we can expect at least 2 full batches of catch up before I can get to any Priority Requests (though I had actually caught up with them before the break, so there is only one new one on there.)

 

 

With that in mind....

 

 

 

 

!!SCIENCE UPDATE!!

 

 

The next (not at all) randomly selected games to be submitted for scientific analysis shall be:

 

 

 

New

 

Dicey Dungeons

Kona

Rise of the Slime

Cocoon

The Suicide of Rachel Foster

 

 

 

[No Priority Assignments this time!]

 

 

 

Can 'Current Most Awesome' game, Hitman 3, continue its glorious reign?

 

Is gaming turdlet Htol#niQ: The Firefly Diaries  going to lose its new crown of 'Least Awesome Game'?

 

 

Let's find out, Science Chums!

 

 

 

Edited January 12 by DrBloodmoney

[serrated-banner9]

On 12/16/2023 at 12:30 PM, DrBloodmoney said:

 

 

 

 

1ST RUNNER UP: Tetris Effect
CURRENT OVERALL RANKING: No.18
(Reviewed in BATCH 57)

2ND RUNNER UP: This War of Mine: The Final Cut
CURRENT OVERALL RANKING: No.19
(Reviewed in BATCH 14)

CURRENT OVERALL RANKING: No.21
3RD RUNNER UP: NORCO
(Reviewed in BATCH 56)

 

 

 

 

 

WINNER: Dante's Inferno
(Reviewed in BATCH 63)

2ND RUNNER UP: Endling
(Reviewed in BATCH 63)
 

 

WINNER: Control
(Reviewed in BATCH 38)

 

1ST RUNNER UP: NORCO
(Reviewed in BATCH 56)

 

 

WINNER: NORCO
(Reviewed in BATCH 56)

 

 

 

 

 

 

WINNER: Humanity
(Reviewed in BATCH 61)

 

 

1ST RUNNER UP: To Hell with the Ugly
(Reviewed in BATCH 65)

2ND RUNNER UP: Killer Frequency
(Reviewed in BATCH 62)

3RD RUNNER UP: Dicey Dungeons
(NOT YET REVIEWED)

1ST RUNNER UP: The Messenger
(Reviewed in BATCH 65)
 

 

 

2ND RUNNER UP: Costume Quest
(Reviewed in BATCH 66)

3RD RUNNER UP: Sam & Max Save the World
(Reviewed in BATCH 67)

 

 

 

WINNER: Fights in Tight Spaces
(Reviewed in BATCH 63)

CURRENT ABSURDLY LOW OWNER COUNT: 78

 

 

 

1ST RUNNER UP: NORCO
(Reviewed in BATCH 56)

CURRENT ABSURDLY LOW OWNER COUNT: 610 (across 3 versions)

 

 

 

2ND RUNNER UP: Treasures of the Aegean
(Reviewed in BATCH 55)

CURRENT ABSURDLY LOW OWNER COUNT: 270 (across 8(!) versions)

 

 

 

WINNER: @grayhammmer- 2 Games (1 played, 1 Wish-listed)

 

 

 

1ST RUNNER UP: @Beyondthegrave07 - 1 Game (1 Played)

 

2ND RUNNER UP: @Platinum_Vice - 1 Game (1 Played)

 

 

 

3RD RUNNER UP: @Copanele - 1 Game (1 bought-not-played-yet)

 

 

 

Not sure how i haven't read your awards until now Doc... because they are damn amazing, here's some thoughts from them

 

• Still playing Hitman 3 i see doc... i guess the real question is now, will anything ever top it?
• Tetris Effect, This war of mine and Norco added to the wishlist of like 200+ games across all platforms
• Alright, how bad was the trails of Saint Lucia DLC?
• Surprised to see Endling as a candidate for worst game, seeing as everyone else prasies it
• Must get to Control and Alan Wake at some point, i must....
• Wow... you really are selling Narco to me, love a deep story that keeps me interested
• All of the oddball award precipitants are now on the wishlist, I'll get to them one day.... hopefully
• The messenger, Sea of stars, costume quest, and Sam and Max are now on the wishlist - I think the wishlist is bigger then the backlog now lol
• Fights in tight spaces only has 78 owners, treasures of the Aegean has only 270 owners across 8 stacks!? Up the priority wishlist they go
• Interesting how basically all of the backlog gremlins were basically all on the same level ranking wise 

Now that the old year of 2023 is finshed, let's look at the new year of 2024 and hope that we play some great bangers this year!

 

Finally, some priority requests and some game recommendations (backlog gremlin award here i come!)

 

For the priority reports can we get inFamous: Second Son and Letter Quest on the priority list please? I have second son on the backlog and want to get to it this year and i want to hear your thoughts on it, and Letter Quest looks both interesting and kind of odd and i wonder if i would like it 

 

Finally here are some recommendations i will give that i think you may like (and totally not to give myself a lead on the backlog gremlin award, no totally not  )

I'm surprised how you haven't gotten around to the Spyro series yet, as they are pretty banger games and some of the best remakes around. Would highly recommend

 

Picto Quest is a odd one, it asks the question of what if we did picross but with monsters and story or picross but rpg, how much you will like it will probably depend on how much you like picross puzzles

 

Save Room is the last game i will recommend for now, basically it takes the inventory system for Resident Evil and turns it into a puzzle game, personally i found it to be a quite joyous game.

 

On 1/12/2024 at 10:15 AM, DrBloodmoney said:

 

New

The Suicide of Rachel Foster

I have the maybe similar Virginia (not sure if it's similar actually, it just feels like a similar vibe without me having played either) in the backlog. Interested in hearing your thoughts on it.