Game of the Year 2020

 Got here eventually. I seem to think this at the end of every year, but 2020 wasn't a great year in terms of top draw games (nor indeed, the world in general), though the industry did see a boom period for obvious reasons (lockdown), so hopefully with more interest, this will lead to more high quality games, though I fear it will more likely lead to more live service or party games that I do not care about at all.

    Honourable mentions then, and I'll start with the 2 PlayStation sized elephants in the room that sucked up less prestigious awards than this like a Henry. Firstly, The last of us part 2. I really liked the first couple of hours, including Joel's death which lead Ellie to her revenge quest with nice flashbacks to their time together interspersed to fill in the time we missed throughout the game. Almost immediately after Joel's death the revenge plot is de railed though as Ellie and Dina decide to look around an area of downtown Seattle, playing guitars and etc, thus totally killing the blood thirsty revenge missions plot as it all just seems like a bit of a lark, a feeling that went on way past my motivation to avenge Joel's death had passed. Then the game went on forever, both Ellie's section and Abby's, the latter of which didn't need to be in at all, and if it did at best should have lasted an hour. the gameplay was also really outdated, just because the AI is good is not a reason to claim a game plays amazingly (also, the enemies calling out for their friends after they had been slain, as if anyone would care about killing a random NPC). Did love the gore though. 

Then Ghosts of Tsushima, I can't think of an historical setting that I care less about than futile Japan, it just doesn't connect with me, but this game was raising eyebrows, so I figured I must try it, turns out I should've listened to my gut that I wouldn't be interested and I wasn't. Additionally, I've been playing games for 30+ years now, I don't need you to add in wind effects to point me in the direction to go thanks, totally unnecessary .  

Actual honourable mentions now, Crash Bandicoot 4, looked absolutely fantastic and played well although very hard. It was good but for me, too many gimmicks and some levels were far too long. Katana Zero was a great little 2D platformer that had a series of quick, small assassinating levels with a drug crazy storyline, might well have made the final list, but although this game became viable to me in 2020 on Xbox, it actually came out on Switch in 2019, so by my own self imposed rules it doesn't count. Speaking of Platformers, Ori and the Will of the wisps came out, the second game in a great series of beautiful metroid-vanias, it plays and looks great, this is one of just a handful of must play Xbox One games.

And finally Doom Eternal and Resident Evil 3 remake. The sequels to 2 previous winners that are not even final nominees in my list. These games are both good yet not on the same level. Firstly Doom Eternal, I get that it is intentionally more thoughtful and takes planning, and it took me a long time in to the game to understand the game properly before I actually figured how to play it properly and got good, and I enjoyed it then, this seemed completely contrarian to the reason I enjoyed the first rebooted game with it's classic run and gun gameplay that I missed from my early teens. Also, the platforming in Eternal, much like any first person platforming, was absolutely garbage. Resi 3 remake then, another good game of course, but took away the scary setting to a more run around mucking about style, repetitive bosses and a far less interesting story. On the plus side no infuriating Mr. X.

Those are not all the games I enjoyed from the year but I am not going to be making a big list that goes on forever. Now, the main list

STREEETS OF RAGE 4

Ah, Brawlers, my current favourite (Shredders' Revenge looks amazing) and it's a throwback for me too. As a Mega Drive lover (and now owner once again), I spent many a day unleashing rage on the streets, though back then, I didn't appreciate it to the correct level and preferred the likes of Alien Storm and Might Morphin' Power Rangers the movie. Over time though, I have been able to see past sci fi and TV show attachments to appreciate the real classic series. This is a fantastic addition to the series, some 25 years after the previous release, this game looks fantastic and plays fantastic, somewhat reminiscent of Doom 2016 in that it ignores the way the genre has gone over time and plays like a classic brawler, but turned out better than they ever were. 

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MANEATER

When I became aware of this Shark-PG a year or so before it came out, I was excited, sharks are cool everyone knows that. While I was thinking this will be a step up from previous sea creature games like Ecco or Dolphin Olympics, a friend of mine told me about Jaws Unleashed, a PS2 shark game, which left me a little disappointing that this game was not as fresh a subject as I first thought, nevertheless I got it anyway. It may be on the simple side of games, but the collectathon nature of this game really got to me, travelling from one area to the next, fighting bigger animals, killing shark hunters, eating people on a beach, find a pop culture reference, leaping in to the air to collect a number plate, fighting an even bigger animal, turning your shark in to a robotic Megalodon type creature and so on. The open world is nice and varied, considering you're under the water, but most importantly it's just a fun game, with a fun story and fun moments. Edit, I just found out there was an Ecco game somewhat like this on Dreamcast, how interesting (also bought it). 

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CYBERPUNK 2077

And the award for the most bug filled game I've ever liked goes to... 

I loved the Witcher 3, as well as 2 when I played it years later. This game was of course one of the most hyped games of all time, and much like No mans sky it had no chance of matching it, but if you can ignore that and all the bugs, then there is a really good game here. A futuristic yet gritty RPG, where knife arms run wild. Cyberpunk is a big RPG, with a really interesting setting, great story and great characters with loads to see and do, again full of pop culture references and satire of real life in a way few games outside of Grand theft Auto manage succesfully. The game feels great to play and the story stays interesting throughout. The only gripe I have (other than all the ones listed above) is that with so many side missions to do, they can get samey at times. 

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ASTRO'S PLAYROOM

Nostalgia, is there any better word in the English language (certainly not based on my prebvious goty awards). A journey in to Playstations' past, through robots acting out classic games (with the added 'guess that game' self imposed challenge), collecting classic Playsation items such as multitaps and UMD's all the way through to battling the PS1 tech demo T-rex as the final boss (kind of). There are no game of the year awards given just for this though, not by me. This is one of only 2 games really made to show the power of the PS5 so far and as a result looks absolutely beautiful, sounds fantastic and makes great use of the dual sense in a way that, much like with Uncharted golden abyss on Vita, is unlikely to ever be done to this level again. Gameplay wise, it's a solid 3D platformer, not a pure gameplay powerhouse but as a total package it deserves a bus of it's own. As a bonus, it's a free pack in game, and much like the very first game I ever played (I think), Alex Kidd in  Miracle world on the Master System this sets a great sign of what is to come from this system. PS. both of those games are better than 360 pack in game Hexic HD.

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So, what will join the mighty list of my blogs' games of the year? As mentioned earlier I often say years aren't great for gaming then upon reflection later realise I was wrong (see 2015 when at the time I said it was bad, but was so wrong), and yet right now, this seems like another one, many solid games but likely nothing that will go down in my mind as a possible all time great, though I imagine praise of TLOU2 and Ghosts will go on forever, like Breath of the wild and Mario Odyssey as 2 of the greatest games ever. None of these 4 are anywhere near (that's my opinion anyway (especially Mario Odyssey which I do not think is even a good game)).

And watch out for the winner because here she comes...

2013: The last of us

2014: South Park the stick of truth

2015: Rocket League

2016: Doom

2017: A hat in time

2018: God of war

2019: Resident Evil 2 remake

2020: Maneater

Maneater is just a really fun game with a great hook which I really enjoyed, so much so I even got the platinum trophy which is a rare feat for me outside of games i specifcally buy for £1 to get one.

2021 looks to be a good year (for gaming obviously, the real world is still shit) but everything seems to be piled in to the latter half of the year, so much cool looking new stuff, sequels and retro games, let's see how many of these get delayed.

Game Pass: Yes, your grace

 I have 'officially' given  up on Gears Tactics now, I want to be able to stop playing games when I have lost interest no matter how near the end I am and thus forcing myself through them. Here is what happened. I was on a frequently recurring mission (one of a handful that repeats many times over), where both of your characters cant die or you get a missions fail. So, I failed the mission twice and realised I was no longer enjoying this game, and then stopped. That was it. No need to go back now, I have seen many times over what this game has to offer, and if it were half the length or had more mission variety it would be fantastic, but it isn't. It tries to borrow so much from Xcom but misses 2 of the key fundamentals whereby you have to research new equipment to upgrade your characters, and more importantly, everyone can die. A idea that is both a blessing and a curse as it can be a major blow to lose someone highly skilled, yet human sacrifice is key to success. I'm not saying they had to entirely copy Xcom and re skin it with Gears of War, that would be cheep and lazy, but by fundamentally changing the entire way the gameplay system works with character deaths really has a huge negative impact on this game for me. It's a real shame as there was so much promise but turned out to be a mediocre spin off to try and bring new fans in to a waning series. Oh Well!

So, then what next (if you read the title I'm sure you can guess) as I wasn't sure. I tried many, Fe, a 3D platformer that interested me when it came out a few years ago, but turns out I'm glad I passed at the time as it is pretty dull. I tried Spiritfarer which is some kind of people/ ship building game that is very well respected and seemed interesting, until I found out it was about 30 hours long, and couldn't be bothered with that. Then Xenocrisis, a game from last year that also came new to the Mega drive (among other classic consoles) that I nearly bought for $40 or for it, but it was on Game pass, so sod it, anyway, it's a top down shooter and it was okay, glad I didn't spend that much on it. Then on to Rush: a Disney Pixar adventure but that became apparent within seconds it was very much a game for small children. Then Tetrix Effect, another well respected game, then I remember I'm terrible at Tetris (give me Hexic any day (No, I'm not joking)), so finally I tried Yes, Your grace.

It's a simple strategy game where you are the king of a medieval settlement where you control your budget, the welfare of your townsfolk, happiness of your family, relationships with other kingdoms and prepare for war. It's not combat strategy like a Gears Tactics or a Command and Conquer, nor a world builder like a Tropico. but much more simple, based heavily on story and the consequences of your decisions. In many ways it's more like a Telltale game. A lot of choices turn out to be unpredictable, what may seem right can turn out to be a huge error, meanwhile you might spend gold trying to solve a problem but it turns out to be a waste of time (see the excessive 50 gold wedding dress, if you play this game, do not but that).

Balancing these tasks is challenging and in fact come the final battle I had to reload the save several times over to succeed, which turned out to be frustrating as I had to repeatedly perform a time consuming magic ritual many times over before returning to the battle. this frustration aside, the interactions with your family, despite only taking place via text are fantastic and would pull at the heart strings, if I had one. The game looks great in a 16 bit style, with great, simple character design for the major characters and varying sounds for their voices, with the king himself the very tired sound of a aging man under so much pressure.

This is another Game Pass, as I realize now they all be due to me unlikely to continue playing a game for too long that I'm not enjoying with so many to choose from. A great story with tough decisions and a fine story.

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On to River city girls now, and it's yet another great brawler. Time might be coming up on Game Pass for me now, despite having the best part of 2 months left of my cheap subscription, but now there are finally some good looking new games coming out that are drawing my attention back to PS5. Bio Mutant finally has a release date, and it's not long away at all, whilst Blue Fire, that has just comes out, looks great and the comparisons I'm hearing to my 2017 game of the year 'A Hat in Time' are getting me excited. Anyway, after River City girls I plan to do my Game of the Year, but who knows if that will actually happen.

Game Pass: Hypderdot

Dot dot. Still grinding through Gears Tactics, and it is beginning to be a slog now unfortunately, I do enjoy the gameplay but there are only a few mission types and it is beginning to get old now, if I was nearing the end I could accept it, but I'm still early chapter 3, so there's still a third of the game to go, which means I'll damn well finish it now no matter how tired I'm getting of it. Not really any games of note that seem particularly interesting to me coming out for a while, picked up the re release of Scott Pilgrim and to be honest it doesn't stack up to modern competition. Obviously I have been speaking about the brawler genre a lot recently, and compared to the likes of the aforementioned Streets of Rage 4 and Mother Russia Bleeds it does not hold a candle. I'm sure I told myself back 10 years ago that I really enjoyed it when I really wanted to support indie gaming, which I still do, now though, with a modern lens, I cannot recommence it.

A game I can recommend is Hyper dot. Talk about making an old idea new again. From Asteroids to passive mode in geometry wars 2, this game takes these concepts and perfects them. A simple idea, you are a tiny dot in a circular arena set out to avoid all the enemies. It's not the most exciting concept, or at least not to most, but I was immediately interested just from watching the trailer. I loved Geometry Wars 2 and spent a long time competing with my friends for the highest scores, and my area of expertise was Passive mode. The lead would constantly change, but sadly one person kept playing after the group had retired from the chase and now he holds all the high scores. Bastard.

This take on the genre happens in levels (although there is a survival mode, amongst others), always throwing in new challenges, from different arena and dot sizes, a mix of enemies, dark arenas, icy arenas, collection based levels, levels where the enemies move along with you like Super Hot, the variety available far surpassed my expectations going in. Needless to say with a game of this nature it starts to get very difficult towards the end, but there is not a story that might have forced me to keep playing beyond my wishes. With the time I spent with it, it turned out to be a fun challenge which you can play with some music or a podcast going on, whatever's your poison. 

So, it's another Game Pass rank. Another really good game available on Game Pass. Maybe I should sell my PS5 and just play on my Xbone... Actually, no. 

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Anyway, now I'm pretty much done with this, or I better be before all my hair is pulled out, I need to find another game to break up the monotony of playing Gears Tactics other than playing Rocket league over and over again, I could do that in reality, I do love it so, but I don't feel like I'm really achieving anything (yes, including achievement points/ gamescore) or indeed experiencing anything new, so a new game must be found fast whilst I force myself though 1 repetitive tactical battle a day.

Game Pass: Power Ranger Battle for the Grid

 Whoops, it's Game Pass, not Games Pass, oh well. The next game I picked up lead me down a rabbit hole of researching Power Rangers Comics, watching a Youtube documentary and the 2017 Power Rangers (not enough Green Ranger), so, that was a thing for a couple of days and indeed, another reason to delay starting Gears Tactics, though I'm getting deep in to that now, at least until I get distracted again, HyperDot is calling out to me right now (edit, it's awesome).

After going on a rant in my last post about brawlers, I failed to mention a game (well, a few really, but only one is relevant here), that being Mighty Morphin Power Rangers Mega Battle, an acceptable brawler from a few years ago, and a fine sequel (in my mind) to the two Mega drive Power Rangers brawlers, The movie one being of particular interest to me at the time, as it had both the original and what I will refer to as the 'Rocky cast' (remember how bad of an actor that guy was, I was 7 and could tell he was crap) as well as multiple different Megazords, of course, being a child, having a game based on a franchise I liked at the time made it seem better to me, and though I haven't touched this game in probably 25 years, most franchise games from that era tend to be terrible retrospectively, so maybe it was, but I don't want to know. Point is, the game that came out a few years ago was heavy on presentation and nostalgic references, and pretty light on it actually being that good of a game, so i went in here expecting essentially the same thing, but in a fighting game instead.

But what a pleasant surprise, it was pretty good. Certainly no Street Fighter 2 (the 30 year old untoppleable (is that a word) pinnacle of the genre) but still fun. a 3 on 3 team fighting game, with just a few buttons, simple to use combos to learn, special moves, Zord attacks and some extremely over powered characters. Jason should be the best one anyway, he is the leader after all and if I lost him in a shopping center, I would be frantically calling after him too.

Aside from just versus mode and classic arcade mode, there is a story mode in here, which seems to be the normal now in fighting games after I first encountered it in Injustice, and just like Injustice, the story was lifted straight from Comic books. As mentioned earlier, I did some research on the modern comics, because that's where the story for this comes from (apparently they're really good, but a couple of times in my life I tried to get in to comics, but can't (books are better anyways (not that I can be bothered to read them either))), with a transdimentional Tommy Oliver, having teamed up with Rita rather than performing his classic Mighty Morphin face turn, then killed her, took her armies and conquered the universe and now he's come for the rest of 'em. It's a decent enough story in the game, but as with every other fighting game story, there's only so many characters and possible match ups that the lack of variety gets a bit tiresome. There doesn't even need to be though, even though there is a season pass you have to buy to unlock many of the characters and skins ((which is pretty shitty) though not as egregious as street fighter 5), it allows you to play as some of these charters in the story mode, but nowhere near all of them. Then, when I finished the story (which came with no achievements!!!!) I assumed something would be unlocked, Kimberley was heavily involved in the story for instance, but no. Gotta spend that cash I guess (hope there's enough left over to pay off my tab at the Juice bar).

Once that was all done with, it was morphin to online play-time (too much of a stretch?), and after 10 successive wins, knocking off considerably higher rated players than myself I knew I could go pro. Obviously after I met my first loss I gave up and never played again, thus keeping a fantastic win to loss record in the only way I know how to get one. As Farkas Bulkmeier once told me 'quit while you're ahead', then he beat me up and took my lunch money (that's a thing in America, right?).

This game gets the rating of Game Pass, another that's passed my test of a game (whatever that is). An enjoyable fighting game that doesn't require great skills to succeed, so grab your Dragon Dagger and make your excitement grow for this very good fighter.

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Still slugging through Gears Tactics, it's good but really could've done without some of the side missions. PS. I can't believe the words 'Morphin', 'Megazord' or 'Megadrive' aren't in the dictionary on this site, they're on the one in my head.

Games Pass: BattleToads

 Long time, no type. Game of the year coming up, just one more game to try first to judge its' potential challenge, and that game is Gears Tactics, which is why, despite having a PS5, I dusted off my Xbone to get games pass, which I was fully prepared to pay the full monthly cost for, but in a pleasant twist, got 3 months for £1, I'm not sure if it's £1 total or £1 per month, for three months, but at that cost I'm happy to just pay and not worry about it (until I forget to unsubscribe when the time is up, like I just did with BT (British Telecom) sport and now have to pay for another month).

So there I was, ready to sit down and crack on with Gears Tactics, but then I thought, having just finished Cyberpunk, a long game, that I needed to whet my pallet with a shorter game first, which bought me to the question of what, so I considered the PS plus games I had, or any PS5 game I could buy, until a light flicked on in my head, that I now have games pass for 3 months, and hey, there's bound to be something interesting to play here, it's not just going to be Jump Jet Rex anymore, like when I got game pass the first time around. Turns out, there's quite a few interesting games on there (hence this idea for a series on Game Pass) and the one that stood out at the time was the heavily promoted 2020 remake of Battletoads, so why not give it a whirl, I can't think of anything else bad that came out of 2020.

Firstly, I never plaid any of the Battletoads games when I was a youngster, so have no nostalgic attachment, I might have played a bit of one on Rare Replay, but If I did, I don't remember it (must've been great then). I have, however, after years of neglect, finally come round to really appreciating brawlers, I enjoyed the likes of Streets of rage, Golden axe, Alien storm (the list could go on) in my formative gaming years, but there wasn't a lot around then, and as I grew older, I started to look down on the genre, going back playing these older titles no longer appealed to me, and the likes of Castle Crashers, which took off for a while there in the late 00's (Is that nauhgties now or two thousands, I'm not sure if there is a common consensus yet, and it's been 10 years!), didn't appeal to me. Then, some time late, I played Foul Play (granted, about 5 years after it came out, but that's PS Plus for you). This game reignited my passion for this genre, helped last year by Streets of Rage 4 and Mother Russia Bleeds, which were both fantastic, which lead me to this point, downloading Battletoads and eagerly anticipating it, something I couldn't have imagined just a few years ago.

To my delight, the brawling was pretty good, not a large move set for each character, but an interesting array of enemies that could be arranged in different ways, alongside environmental challenges that made some encounters quite challenging, especially as you got towards the late game where many of the fights turned it to almost as much of a puzzle as it was about the fighting.

So, that was good, but not everything was. There were many different types of game modes involved, from platforming, to a twin stick shooter and a god awful level where you had to fix your ship with via mini games in a certain amount of time when I couldn't even tell what the order was. Asside from that individual nightmare, there was a wide variety of success or failure in the different game play segments, for instance, the platforming was far too easy compared to the rest of the game, adversely, the twin stick space shooter was way harder than anything else in the game. The most notable sections though, are the once infamous speed bike sections from the original games. These were much maligned for being almost impossible back when the original game came out (supposedly), so here they have flipped the view to behind, and play similar to the crash Bandicoot polar bear/ tiger riding sections. As the first of these kicked off, it seemed really exciting, enough of a challenge to not make it too easy, but possible to get in a good rhythm, these sections played really well, the problem is they were way too long, and I sure don't like things that go on way too long (e.g. the last of us part 2 was at least twice as long as it needed to be, if not more). Seemingly never ending sections, that started well but became so stale by the time I was half way through a level that I was hoping for death (In real life, not the game (I would have have to played a large section over again!)).

Seems like many people don't like the art direction or story as it doesn't fit with 'classic' Battletoads, but as a non BT (not British Telecom) fan, I didn't have a problem with it, and let's be honest, there aren't that many people who have a positive affinity for the original ga.mes, so what does it matter what they think anyway. The story was presented as a passable kids cartoon, it helped the story flow in a different way to most games, though the dialogue is hardly Shakespearean

Overall, the game was good, the brawling sections were certainly good, with the others a mixed bag, I don't want to do a score review, So I'll just say wether it would be worth playing if you already have game pass, and for this I would say Yes, it's a Game Pass, it has ticked the box to deserve to be played in this context, I'm not sure it would be worth paying the full price (depending on what it is), but as it's available on a pre-paid subscription then yes.

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What's next? spoiler alert, I already played yet another game before I started Gears Tactics, which I have now started, and so far so good, though honestly, unlikely to challenge for the Prestigious Andy Pearsall Game of the year.