Wrapping up the Best of posts for this year, let's talk about this year's best video games (at least in my opinion). Most of us during the pandemic have either sought out watching lots of TV or playing lots of video games old and new during this time (sometimes even both in my case). This year's video game offerings have been a mixed bag. A few new releases, some remakes, some remasters and so much more. Now due to how things are with me at the moment, I haven't really played many new video games this year. But the ones I have played that came out everywhere this year and so far only this year regardless of platform, have been alright on the whole. These are games I think are worth playing with most being on all platforms and a few being console specific (well at least for the time being for some such as PlayStation and Xbox). Hopefully more of you have been able to get your hands on the latest consoles which I hope is in a much better situation than this time last year. Anyway, let's get to it:
Unlike some years, I will include some remasters if I feel there is anything significant in them that makes them unique compared to their original counterparts. Also, DLC will only be included if it's standalone and not part of the base game.
Guardians of the Galaxy
The latest game in Square Enix's line of Marvel games, has them tackle those space heroes that have shown the world what it means to be cool and have kick-a** music as the soundtrack. Unlike
The Avengers which was a poor attempt at trying to mimick the look and feel of the films, this game does its own thing with the team being the one that people are most familiar with. Of course its not the first game to feature this team of misfits, but it is the first to be of more triple A quality. On my machine (at the time of writing this), it struggles but I am able to play it reasonably well. It is a lot of fun with a few challenges here and there and plenty of reason to button mash and have some fun. Plus plenty of nostalgia to boot which is always nice when it isn't forced.
Mass Effect: Legendary Edition
While primarily a remaster of the original trilogy, this game feels new in a way, as each game has had some improvements. The first game for example, has had a major upgrade to be more in line with its two superior sequel games in terms of controls, difficulty, visuals and gameplay. It's also much easier to build your paragon and renegade bars, which makes some locked dialogue options much easier to unlock. The second and third games have had the least amount of changes with the main changes being more consistent character models and various improvements to compensate for the lack of some DLC and multiplayer things. Yes despite this being a remaster, it is not the trilogy in its complete form, but that's actually ok. Much of the Pinnacle Station's content is updated and used as part of the Citadel DLC whereas the assets you would have gained from multiplayer is instead, claimed in a more easier way. Plus there's a photo mode to capture your best moments from the trilogy. So overall its a solid remaster that has a few misfires here and there, but otherwise captures the joy and sorrow that made the trilogy among the best games ever made.
Hitman 3
While following the same system and format of the last two games, the third and final game in this Hitman trilogy continues the series' tradition of giving us the freedom to do these kills any way we want and be rewarded for the way it's handled. Lots of new and well-designed areas to explore, more items to find, new intel to investigate and more reasons to have 47 do things in bizarre and crazy ways. All for the sake of saving the world from total corruption (which may be what's happening in the world right now if you think about it). May not be all that innovative, but nice to know that with each new game, IO just wants to keep using the system that works rather than change it. As the saying goes, "if it ain't broke, don't fix it".
Mario Party Superstars
The second Mario Party game to be a remake of what came before, is a lot of fun. Primarily a remake of the Nintendo 64 games with minigames coming from all the home console games in the series up to the Wii U, it's a lot of fun. It doesn't have as many characters to play as compared to
Super Mario Party, but all the characters you got to play in the Nintendo 64 era plus some new ones, are all pretty good to have. It's traditional Mario Party with a new look and feel and plenty of fun to be had. That is unless you're the sort that likes to ruin friendships in these games.
And with that, that is it for gaming this year. Like I said, I haven't played many new ones this year, but these games are worth playing if you have the time and money. Now we say goodbye to some people who worked in gaming, but died this year:
Robert Altman - Zenimax co-founder who was for a long time, the corporate parent of Bethesda and ID Software
Chris Ayres - voice actor who did voices in various Dragon Ball games as well as Smite and The Gunstringer
Kelly Flock - former president for Sony Online Entertainment
Brian Goldner - former chairman and CEO of Hasbro who supported work on the Transformers video games
Ashif Hakik - music composer for various games in the Crash Bandicoot and Sly Cooper franchises
Troy Horton - producer for some of the earlier Tomb Raider games in the 90s
David Lawson - creator of the hit 80s UK game Arcadia
Biz Markie - A rapper whose music has appeared in some of the Saints Row and GTA video games
Hiroshi Ono - visual designer for Namco video games such as Pac-Man, Dig Dug and Galaga
Henry Orenstein - creator of the Transformers franchise and original toys
Mikael Rudberg - team leader on various video games in the Battlefield, Mass Effect and Need for Speed franchises
Sir Clive Sinclair - inventor of the ZX Spectrum and basically launched the UK PC and games industry
Mark Taylor - creator of the Masters of the Universe toys and franchise
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