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Henke

GOTFHOTY 2018

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Half of 2018 has almost gone by, so you know what that means, it's time to pick your Games Of The First Half Of The Year!

 

 

Mine are:

 

1. Beat Saber (PC, VR, Early Access)

 

No one expected Star Wars Kinect: Galactic Dance Off to ever be dethroned as "the game that makes you feel the most like a Rhythm Jedi", and I certainly didn't expect said game to be my favourite game of a year(or even half-year), but here we are. I've played this a lot since it came out 2 months ago. I'd play it even more if it did leave me soaking in sweat after 30 minutes, so most days I just play it as my morning workout. I'm usually not big on rhythm games unless there's a physical component to them, like Guitar Hero or Audioshield. Having that physical exertion to it I think means endorphins get released into your body and it's a rush in ways regular video games can't match.

 

 

2. Far Cry 5 (PC)

 

Despite everything, FC5 was still my favourite open world game in a while. It's one of those worlds you can really loose yourself in, just riding around and liberating outposts with yer warbuddies. It's a good time.

 

3. Celeste (Switch)

 

I just finished this today. I was expecting a solid platformer, but I was not expecting such enchanting characters as well. The story had me hooked until the end.

 

4. Sprint Vector (PC, VR)

 

Before Beat Saber, this was my VR morning workout routine. It's basically Mario Kart. Y'know, blasting enemies with powerups as you race down colorful tracks with jumps and traps. Except instead of sitting in a car you're frantically waving your arms to run and jump.

 

5. Into The Breach (PC)

 

The gameplay in Subset Games' latest is perhaps more impressive than fun. It hasn't put a spell on me the way FTL did. I beat it on Normal, and I haven't gone back since.

 

6. Wreckfest (PC)

 

The vehicle handling is heavy and robust. Closer to sim than arcade. More Flatout 1 than Flatout 2. I'm enjoying it a lot, and I'm enjoying the career progression of constantly buying and upgrading newer and faster cars.

 

7. FAR: Lone Sails (PC)

 

I love games about maneuvering large, cumbersome machinery, and I love Limbo-likes, and this is both of those things.

 

8. Minit (PC)

 

Well this was unique and delightful. I haven't played the NG+ yet so it's entirely possible I've only scratched the surface of this one.


9. Get Hoisted

 

Hands down the best taxi repair sim I have EVER PLAYED.

 

10. häx_processer

 

You may THINK you know a thing or two about processing häxes, but you don't know for sure until you've passed the ultimate test... of häx_processer.

 

 

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So, folks, what are your GOTFHOTYs? What great games have come out so far this year that I've somehow missed?

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1.  Surviving Mars:  Fixes a lot of the issues I have with city builders, there is a constant pressure to keep resources balanced, and to keep expanding before mines run out, a really fun game that I should get back to some day.

 

2. BATTLETECH Great game I liked how much more in depth the systems are than an XCOM. Enjoyed the campaign a lot, wish there was more mission variety for the randomly generated missions tho.

 

3. Into The Breach Great little strategy game, I hope someone iterates on this and makes a bigger deeper game

 

I have mostly been playing older games this year I guess.

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I haven't played anything that made me go "Wow, that's a GOTY contender right there!", but Celeste was very good, and I'm quite enjoying Vampyr right now.

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Death Road to Canada - Easily the most fun I have had with a new(to consoles) game this year. I wrote a review for it up on gamecritics.

 

Yoku's Island Express - Have not finsihed the review, but one of the most relaxing metroid style games I have ever played. All the mechanics are based around pinball and works really well, art, music and mood are all very nice too.

 

State of Decay 2 - I don't care what reviews are saying, the game is still great (even if they have removed some of the stress that I miss from the first game) and the base and resource management is perfect.

 

Other than that I have just found myself gravitating back to Forza Horizon 3...

 

 

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On 6/17/2018 at 7:31 PM, Cordeos said:

2. BATTLETECH Great game I liked how much more in depth the systems are than an XCOM. Enjoyed the campaign a lot, wish there was more mission variety for the randomly generated missions tho.

 

I'm on the fence with this one. I do like the idea of some turn based mech action, and I've enjoyed(though never finished) some of Harebrained Schemes previous games(SR Returns & Dragonfall). But I hear this is also pretty heavy on rage-inducing RNG, which is what eventually drove me away from XCOM 1 & 2.

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Played FAR: Lone Sails and Minit last week, so I added those to my list. Also picked up The Fall pt. 2 in the sale, and I got a feeling that might end up going on the list as well.

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I know Hollow Knight has been out on PC since early last year, but the Switch version is easily my GOTFHOTY, easily.

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I haven't played any games this year (well, maybe an hour of Assassin's Creed Origins) but I just want to say that thanks for making this thread. I might peruse it for finding at least one interesting game... although I still have a huge backlog so maybe not.

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I was looking at metacritic's top-rated games by the critics so far this year, and atop the chart sits God Of War (PS4). Anyone here play that one yet?

 

I'm wondering if it's something I'd enjoy. I've never been into spectacle fighters, so I've steered clear of the previous GoW games, but from what I've seen of this one the combat does seem more grounded than the earlier games. Looks kinda similar to the combat in Hellblade actually, which I enjoyed despite it's simplicity.

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The only game I've played that actually game out this year is Celeste. Extremely good mechanically. And yeah, like Henke said, the writing was surprisingly strong too, which was totally unexpected.

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17 hours ago, Henke said:

I was looking at metacritic's top-rated games by the critics so far this year, and atop the chart sits God Of War (PS4). Anyone here play that one yet?

 

I'm wondering if it's something I'd enjoy. I've never been into spectacle fighters, so I've steered clear of the previous GoW games, but from what I've seen of this one the combat does seem more grounded than the earlier games. Looks kinda similar to the combat in Hellblade actually, which I enjoyed despite it's simplicity.

I hated the look and feel of the previous God of War games, and this one really hooked me.

 

Thread here:

https://www.idlethumbs.net/forums/topic/12011-god-of-war-and-a-little-bit-about-subjectivity-in-reviews/

 

There's still plenty of unexamined bullshit in there on reflection, and as always women get the short end of the stick narratively. But if you can overlook that, it's one of the most well-executed games I've played recently. Sometimes it's nice to just play something super-polished that oozes money. The acting performances are really impressive as well at times.

 

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Iconoclasts is my GOTFHOTY beyond any shadow of a doubt, and probably ultimately will be my GOTY too. Pillars of Eternity 2 and Celeste were both pretty good, but I think everything else has been largely disappointing or not interesting in the first place.

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On 2018-07-12 at 10:49 AM, osmosisch said:

There's still plenty of unexamined bullshit in there on reflection, and as always women get the short end of the stick narratively. But if you can overlook that, it's one of the most well-executed games I've played recently. Sometimes it's nice to just play something super-polished that oozes money. The acting performances are really impressive as well at times.

 

Ah yes, thanks for the thoughts. I think I might pick it up when it pops up in a sale next time.

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