PSNP 2022 Year End Awards

[MarcusPunisher]

Piece of Cake Award

Star Wars Episode I: Racer

This was my second platinum of 2022, and it was so easy, it took less than three hours to platinum the entire thing and when you know how the games mechanics work, it's a complete cake walk. A fun little game from the past that I would actually recommend. Other games that I would like to put in honorable mentions are Sea of Solitude and Astro's Playroom.

It's Like Dark Souls

Lords of the Fallen

Other games I would like to nominate for this price are Night in the Woods, mainly for that stressful rhythm game and Sifu if you decided to play it in the vanilla form without any cheats.

But Lords of the Fallen IS pretty much like Dark Souls. It may have started the whole trend with Souls Like genre, but don't quote me on that, because I am not 100% sure. The game was actually not that difficult on itself, except for the cheap final boss that's just broken on subsequent playthroughs, but if you know the mechanics pretty well, you can almost break the game with your character build. Yes, the game has so many issues and even bugs that haven't been fixed, but the game holds a special place in my heart for reasons I already explained when I finished the game and in a weird way, I would still recommend it. Who knows, maybe it will surprise you. The music to this is what I think everyone can agree on is amazing.

 

Bad ass Award

Friday the 13th: The Game - A Ph.D. in Murder

The trophy description reads as "Perform every kill in the game at least once" and there total of 57 unique kills done by Jason. The more time you spend on doing it, the cooler animations you see of campers being slaughtered by Jason while you are controlling and you that until you get to the final one and you unlock the trophy. Needless to say, if this is not a bad ass moment feel when you play as Jason in this game, I don't know what is, so this easily belongs here. ?

 

Grind of the Year

Injustice 2

Ohhhh, there was so much to pick from this year, since I have two consoles now and I can do so much self-boosting for other. There were so many grindy games like Dragon Ball FighterZ, with its endless coin grind, Friday the 13th: The Game, which felt like forever with its 1000 Jason and Counseller match requirements, Evil Dead: The Game that had such a long grind to level 50, or LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga, which that games grind took way longer than it should.

At the end, it's actually Injustice 2. The reason being because my 2022 wrap showed me that this was my most played game of that year, so I guess getting Catwoman's special ability for the infamous Cat Fight trophy took way longer than I imagined. Make no mistake, it is a painful grind to either hope you get that ability in one of the loot boxes or do all the requirements to get the ability tower for her and even then, there is more stuff for you to grind. Thank God for my other console, cause I cannot imagine doing this with another player over and over again. It's still a fun fighting game, probably modern NRS's best, but the grind will suck your soul out.

Finally Done Award

Assassin's Creed IV Black Flag

7 years and 8 months total sitting in my backlog and it was finally done as my first platinum of 2022. I put the game off for a long time, but with Ubisoft's inconsistent handling of the online servers, I figured that it was finally time to do it. The single player portion has a lot of stuff that will keep you occupied for a while, but the biggest turn away is the multiplayer section. Thankfully, I was able to get into a group of some serious mad lads who helped me with all the online trophies, including DLC. I overall liked Black Flag, mainly for its story, but the thing that holds it back for me is the terrible level design that includes ton of "follow and listen to the target" type of missions that are just not fun and I wasn't all that blown away with the boat missions as well. Thankfully, they improved that in Unity, which I also finished in 2022 and I now consider it as one of the more underrated games in the series. If only the story was on the same quality as Black Flag, then it would be one of the best Assassins' games to date.

 

King of the Internet

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare

This one honestly shocked me as these days I usually associate Call of Duty games with terrible online experiences, but it just goes to show that if you are in the right group, it can all turn out to be a lot of fun. I was fortunate enough to get in a group with some awesome people for the Liberation trophy and that experience turned out to be so much fun that I did not expect in this game. Getting through the last mission at the brink of our death and still pushing forward was one of the highlights for that year and it was so exciting that I nearly wanted to play more of Warzone. I am unfortunately not a massive Call of Duty guy, but if there was any other online requirement from these games that I would play, I wanted to be with this group again.

 

Worst Online Experience

Evil Dead: The Game

Talking about a complete opposite experience of Modern Warfare when you get into a group that is just full of frustration and almost being annoyed with each other. The game had some bugged trophies at the beginning and unlocking some of them caused series of trials and errors that took way too long and made everyone going through it so miserable. That included to group that I was with, which was not the worst I have been, but it was pretty close. It's a shame as I still very much enjoyed this game as a big Evil Dead fan, but the early impressions and online experience caused me to get a little sour on it. I am waiting for more updates and characters to be included before I go back to play it again.

 

Best Music
Night in the Woods

I feel like this category gets difficult each year to pick a personal winner for it. I don't know if it's because the music in most games is really good or I just happen to encounter the great ones, but there is always so much to pick from. I once again need to mention some honorable mentions like Star Wars: Republic Commando, Dragon Ball FighterZ, South Park: The Stick of Truth, Deus Ex: Mankind Divided, Lords of the Fallen, Control, and A Plague Tale Requiem. 

In the end, I had to go with Night in the Woods. The music just strikes a perfect mood on where the game is set and it's instantly memorable. I listen to it on my free and I always set it up when Fall season began. It is a great piece of music creation that I think anyone can listen to and be put right in the mood. Especially the end song is so uplifting and grants you that feel of accomplishing something big. I can't compliment this score enough and it's a shame that there won't be any greater music from this composer in the future, but his one piece for this game is enough to be remembered.

 

Sleeper Hit of the Year

Sifu

This was an easy decision for me when I played through it, but I still want to give a shout out to Tormented Souls and Destroy All Human 2! Reprobed for being close runner ups in this category. Ever since I saw the trailer, I knew that I would be hooked. I love fighting games, old Chinese Martial Arts movies with Jackie Chan, and this game looked to be in my alley with its own unique art style. The game did not disappoint and if you play it on the intended difficulty, it's a challenging game that requires to learn and adapt to the various mechanics. It is as close to a Dark Souls fighting game as you can get and the pushes you to repeat certain challenges. It is also thanks to the developers for keeping up with updates that changes the core game, whenever you want to make it easier or harder. It is a very rewarding game that requires patience, just like real life martial arts and it is something that many people who want to challenge themselves should not miss. It has been my black horse for 2022 and it's still a lot of fun.

 

Biggest Bomb of the Year

Ghostwire: Tokyo

Sadly, 2022 was a year for some disappointing title that I was looking forward to playing, not just from that year. Some included Sea of Solitude, Evil Dead: The Game, Biomutant, and LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga, which almost made it here if it wasn't for this game. Last year, I played Evil Within 2 and I felt that it was a major improvement over its predecessor. When the same team started on a new IP that was focused on Japanese folklore tales that was set in an open world where you play as a dead guy with magical powers that solves cases, I thought that this would be amazing. The trailers seemed really good and being it mainly on the next gen hardware had a lot of potential. Sadly, this turned out to be a very barebones and shallow open world with one of the most convoluted story and paper-thin characters. I have no idea what happened here, since these people already did a great job on an open world in Evil Within 2 that provided various fun tools in the players disposal but roaming around Tokyo was really boring and there was not much to do. The combat was almost a joke, given that the three abilities felt just like a basic shotgun, machine gun, and bazooka. The one saving graves was some of the fun stuff with the Japanese folklore and then vendors missions, plus them being cats lol. Sadly, this turned out to be the biggest let down of 2022 and I can hope that they either improve a ton of stuff in the sequel or they start working on Evil Within 3.

 

Best Trophy Image

Psychonauts 2

You can pick majority of the trophy images from the game, but I found this one to be the cutest.

 

Worst Trophy Image

Mortal Kombat 11

This one is called Thank you for being a Fan, so I would expect something that had more work put in than this. But that's kinda NRS in a nutshell these days.

 

Best Female Character

Amicia - A Plague Tale: Requiem

This and the next category are my favorite categories to talk about. Once again, I played many games with a lot of memorable female characters in games so here is an honorable shout out to all of them like Mae (Night in the Woods), Kara (Injustice 2), Jesse Faden (Control), and Chloe (Uncharted Legacy of Thieves Collection).

Requiem was one of my favorite games of 2022, big due to the story and characters, mainly the main protagonist herself. Amicia already had a very good showcase in the previous game as an innocent little grew who was forced to grew up faster in an unusual cruel world of the Black Plague. I was little worried in the sequel that they might botch it like Naughty Dog did with Ellie in their sequel, but thankfully the writers excelled with writing Amicia so convincingly, logically, and relatable that she truly stands out as one of the better characters in the game media. It is a perfect example of writing believable characters that don't have fall into boring category or tap into the Mary Sue category. Her determination to protect her little brother is a great starting point to add more layers to her in subtle moments and there are some really excellent ones in Requiem. There were some moments of course that were head scratching or felt like they tried to push her to hard, but it never took from the positive qualities that she brough in the story. I think her and Clementine from Telltale's Walking Dead are now my favorite examples on how to effectively write a good female protagonist that is not only strong, but believable. Easily my pick for this category.

 

Best Male Character

Agent 47 - Hitman III

I was debating in my head on exactly who to award this, but after some going back and forward, I came to a decision. Special shout out once again to the honorable mentions like Raz (Psychonauts I & II), Alan (Alan Wake), Adam Jensen (Deus Ex: Mankind Divided), and Crypto (Destroy All Humans! 2 Reprobed).

This is more of a combined trilogy of Agent 47's journey to this moment. It was fantastic way of rebooting the series without compromising much and let Agent 47 be himself, which works so well. He is not a traditional conventional character with deep emotions, they tried that in Absolution and that failed. He benefits being more of a John Wick type of character, where other characters do the talking for him based on his reputation and how his history ties into other side characters plot, which is what I think they did remarkably well. It also helps that Agent 47 can be pretty loose and funny in certain conversation, especially with his targets and how he describes ordinary situations compare to murder, moving away from making him a stoic character all the time. There is more depth in him than meets the eye and that's why it was so much fun to watch this entire journey with him, thus why I am awarding him this category.

 

Best Platinum of the Year

Deus Ex: Mankind Divided

 

There were so many great platinums I earned that I am proud of. Some were games that I already loved in the past and managed to platinum like South Park: The Stick of Truth and Night in the Woods, others were as a result of a long commitment and their rarity like Dragon Ball FighterZ, Injustice 2, and especially Friday The 13th: The Game, or even some newer games like the ones of Sifu and Tormented Souls.

But the one that stuck out to me the most was Deus Ex: Mankind Divided. It is sort of a cheating as I played all the previous games before to get me ready for it and that even enforced my excitement when I played it. It reignited my interest in the first game that was so much joy to go through and it holds so well to this day. Then playing the other games back and forth was oddly satisfying and it gave me more appreciation towards this game and how far they have come. It made me an instant fan in the series and that's why I put this on the list. It is great and challenging game to earn platinum, minus the damn Breach mini game, the single player makes up for it, especially the story DLC. It's sad that we may never see the conclusion to Adam Jensen's story that would have followed up to the first game, but it's not always the worst, as these things usually turn out to be disappointment. Who know what the future holds for this series, I'm gonna be there eagerly waiting as a fan if anything does. 

 

Worst Platinum of the Year

The Medium

There was no doubt or any surprise as to what I would put here. I rant about this game after I was done with it like I do with most games, and it genuinely pissed me off because how terribly it portrays the issue of trauma and goes out of its way to make you sympathize with a pedophile. I seriously regret having to play this and have it on my trophy list. It wasn't even that clever with its psychology and calling it a survivor horror is a joke to the genre, but the story and subject matter is what pissed me off. Some people even defend this, which they can all go fuck themselves and anyone who thought this was any great, cause now the same irresponsible people are working on Silent Hill 2 remake of all things, which already looks like it will be subtle as a brick to the face. But people will eat it up, cause they are stupid. It goes back to my favorite line of "Don't ask questions. Just consume product and be excited for the next product". Anyway, fuck this game and fuck Konami for allowing their IP be in a hand of a terrible people who make you sympathize with pedophiles and tell you that you should commit sudoku after you suffer a bad trauma, since you are disposable and problematic. 

 

Most Anticipated Platinum of 2023

Resident Evil 4 Remake

If this was about what game I am personally most excited for, it would Street Fighter VI, but I doubt the platinum for that will get anywhere near manageable. Other games in 2023 that I would be excited to platinum are either Wolf Among Us 2 or Alan Wake II, but there is still no clear indication if those games will come out that year. If Wake II is for sure coming out, then that would be my most anticipated platinum. But if I had to choose a game that is for sure coming out, it would be the new Resident Evil 4 Remake. I will be playing the remake no matter what at this point, as I am a diehard fan of the series and I always try to complete as many RE games. As skeptical as I am, I hope for the best and be at least decent. I do want a sort of a different experience since the old still plays so well and at least, now there will be an actual platinum for RE 4. I doubt Capcom can mess this up with the popularity it has, but many things can happen so we will see. Still more excited for Alan Wake II.