2022 The Backloggening

[vladgd]

20. XCOM 2: War of the Chosen



So...Ahoy made this video on xcom. Ahoy always makes good stuff, and XCOM is great. Several days later, xcom 2 was 90% off on steam. I had already beaten it on ps4 (despite the worst load times I have ever experienced in a videogame), but I have not beaten the dlc. Having a new hunger to play XCOM again...



Not gonna lie I no lifed this thing until I seen the credits. Also, I kinda hate the game.

The first...~70% of this game is straight dumb. XCOM is hard, but like...this game + dlc, it just feels U N F A I R. The "war of the chosen" aspect is thrown at you very early, to what amounts to...a lot of things, but more specifically 3 named characters that want nothing more to do than make your life hell. Baseline xcom 2 you deal with a doomsday "game over if it fills up" clock, and every month you have 3 bad things that will happen to you, you can counter them later, but only one! So ontop of this, you have 3 fuckers who add more bad things you have to deal with...ontop of showing up randomly in missions to screw you over. So they screw you in mission, and out of mission, from the start of the game.

ONTOP OF THIS, there's another dlc (it was under $14 for EVERYTHING, so I got everything) that added "alien rulers", so, a super version of an archon, viper, and berserker. How xcom works is you go, the aliens go, you go, the aliens go. How the alien rulers work is inbetween every action you take...so you simply "move one soldier", then they go, you fire your gun after moving...they go again...also every time they make an action, they tend to straight up take one of your soldiers out of action. Plus they show up in random missions after a certain point, seeing one at a bad time just feel like you lose? It's not hard in a fun way, this game would be more fun without this dlc...

...is what I would say if the armor you got from the archon didn't exist...and if you wanna cheese like I do, the weapon mod that adds a %chance to instant kill an enemy...works on these guys. I only found this out when I got to the third guy, so, a few of my casualties could have been prevented. But that armor gives you a once per mission ability to jetpack anywhere on the map you can see. On a ranger, it's fantastic, made the final encounter feel a lot more manageable than I remember it being.

AND AND AND, the new "will" mechanic. The will stat is like a fatigue gauge now. I don't know how you would run a regular squad in this game because after 2 missions, they need like 3-8 days rest because they are "tired". If you use em while they're tired...they'll get a condition called "shaken" which acts almost like being critically wounded and takes em out of action for almost an entire month. So you have a game where getting killed is bad, taking a lot of damage means you can't use that soldier for a long time, taking a little damage...still wounded, time off. Now you can be perfect, not take any damage, but they're TIRED. I can't say I like this, make a hard game even harder and less forgiving. Should have been added to higher difficulties instead of normal, but iunno. Made me keep a roster of ~20-30 soldiers on hand, but I do suppose that is how you are "supposed" to play xcom.

So basically this game is horrible, I hate it, it makes me mad, but...so fun I couldn't stop playing it till the credits were rolling. This game + dlc is in my opinion significantly harder than enemy unknown/within...and even the old games which are another level of challenge, but not at the very start of the game like this one. However classic reverse difficulty curve, this game goes from unfair to...not "easy" but...you have the tools to make a lot of aliens die in a very short amount of time.

I'm counting this for my list because I have beaten xcom 2 on ps4, I have not beaten war of the chosen, and now I have. It's a dlc, but a dlc that requires you to play the whole game. For what it is, it does add enough to feel quite different from what I remember the game being.

Honestly as much as I enjoyed the game, it might be my least favorite xcom experience. Probably rate all the ones I beat...

Terror from the Deep > Enemy Unknown > Enemy Within > UFO Defense > XCOM 2 > War of the Chosen.

TFTD IS BY FAR the most unfair/dumb, but I enjoyed my time with it a lot so I can't explain myself. I obviously can't say war of the chosen is bad, but sometimes more simpler = more better. War of the Chosen adds a lot of stuff you have to manage/deal with, which I get for a sequel + dlc, but hopefully they trim some of the fat with xcom 3 and try doing something new without adding just "more"

Still...game 20. I'm not gonna try to break this because first half of the year I wasn't working, and currently I'm only working 30 hour weeks. When I get back to normal, this ain't happening again. 

BACKLOG BE DAMNED!

[vladgd]

21. Pokemon Scarlet



So these just hit, and I think I finally reached the point where I believe I "beat" the game. There's 18 badges in this game...8 gym badges, 5 team star bases, and 5 titans. Each of those are their own story arc, finish all 3 to enter the crater, finish that and you get the credits. However after that, you re challenge all 8 gym leaders again, and do a tournament. Finish all of that and you do a bunch of random raid battles, do enough of those after having done all of the previous stuff to unlock the 6* raids which up to now are the highest tier. I got VERY lucky and got a good group on my first 6* (mind you, I fail more 5* than I care to) and destroyed it in 2-3 turns.

There is still more to do, filling the pokedex, there's 4 legendaries which have their own task to do to unlock those, getting better pokes for raids specifically, and upcoming events. But I think where I am at right now the game is more or less "completed" as far as I am concerned.

Starting with the good this time because, I haven't turned my pc on since I started putting time into this game, which means I haven't stopped playing it in my free time.

This game has some hefty issues, but those issues weren't enough to prevent me from having a good time. That said, within the first milliseconds of me controlling my character I knew the framerate was fucked up. It's just bad, no way around it. The online can be jank eating your inputs and having random delays, joining a raid battle is nothing short of atrocious. You try to join, and it locks you out of doing anything for 20-30 seconds before it tells you failed to connect, or there's an issue with a pokemon in your party (which makes no sense because I have successfully joined the same raid making no changes to my team, after that error popped up). It's god awful, it works nearly every time if you join a random raid, but after the beginning part of the game, you want to be doing the highest star rating you are equipped for, so that feature useless. No join random X star game, no backing out once you've tried to join and know it'll fail, it's bad. In a raid it seems like there's no turns all your  team mates and the enemy can just kinda go, I've had turns where I...get no turn, and the enemy gets 3, the speed is random and feels all over the place, it's pretty sloppy. And you want to do these because you get exp candy, and end game mats. It can be fun when the stars align and everybody is on the same page, but with no actual way to communicate outside of getting people together in a discord server or something, it's impossible to coordinate.

Could go into graphics, but one it's not super important to me, and two, it's kinda everywhere. I thought Arceus looked kinda good till I read the internet was shitting on the game specifically because it didn't look good. So what do I know about looks.

Speaking of Arceus, I think that game as a whole was a superior gameplay/visual experience. Even the controls feel a lot better in Arceus, you can quickly change pokemon on the fly, the sneaking mechanic is actually something I use unlike in Scarlet. However that game is a spinoff, and playing Scarlet you can clearly see, despite the open world nature of the game, it is very much a mainline pokemon experience. Comparison to Arceus is pretty unfair outside of performance/visual issues.

To wrap this up, I think they took a step in the right direction with these titles, however due to budget/timeline they ended up releasing the game undercooked. Maybe another 6 months in the oven would be enough to fix the performance issues? Either way, the 38 hours I put into the game in...not many days, tells me that I still had, and will continue to have fun with this game for a good while longer.

I can recommend this game, unless the caveats are too much to overlook.

*edit*

There is more nitpicks/negative stuff that I didn't feel like bloating my post with. However, that said, with all the games flaws...



This is the ONLY pokemon game in which I have completed the pokedex. Flawed it may be, I still can't stop playing it.

[vladgd]

22. Front Mission 1st



I have been looking forward to this since whenever the nintendo direct that announced it. Months later they said it'll release in the summer...then october...then november...then an actual date! So after I had fully completed pokemon I needed to jump on this.

This is a "remaster", not a "remake". Trying to understand the difference between these two terms. This game is a snes game that never came out over here in the states. They did port the game to the ds in english, but I never for whatever reason tried that port. So to my understanding this is more or less the snes game with a shiny coat of paint, and in english.

I think they did a good job on the mechs and maps, game looks very "snes" like in how the tiles look, almost like the maps are dioramas.

The music is pretty good. There's a few nice tracks, nothing that sticks out too much, but certainly above average.

A few cons...

Menus were not streamlined at all. Say you are in the shop, and you want to take off a weapon to save on weight. Well you have to exit the shop completely, go to the setup menu, vehicles, and then remove it. Making sure each mech is stocked up on items takes way too many button presses as well. You use a repair in one mission, you'll have to make note of which character used an item and manually replace it.

Crashes. Had two crashes, one in an arena fight just after I saved. No biggie. One on the last hit...of the final boss on the final mission. This is when I discovered you can save mid mission, because I had to play the final mission all over again and I was saving every turn at that point.

That said, I had a good time. My only Front Mission prior to this was 4, and this game feels a lot different than 4 in terms of gameplay. That game had a repair backpack, so you had a unit that functioned like a healer. This game does not, and fundimentally changes how you play. There's a truck you get a few missions in that will repair broken parts, but at near no hp, so you'll have to spend additional turn to repair via items.

Missiles are very very useful in this game unlike in 4. Every single unit I field has at least one missile launcher, and my ranged specialists have 2. The supply truck will give you missile refils at the expense of needing to start your turn next to it, and blow that turn doing the "resupply" command, so it is free, but at a cost of a wasted turn.

There's no link system, skills are very simple, the game is pretty simple compared to 4...which being the first one on the snes makes sense.

I did notice certain missions favoring certain leg types. Like flat terrain is great for treads, but treads are horrible on mountains. Hover is really good, can cross water, but also struggles on mountains. Standard legs are good for vertical maps, but have issues with water and don't move as fast on flat terrain. So you have those to deal with as well as customizing your mech, I had a setup where I was using treads in unfavorable terrain because they cost less power, and let me fit heavier weapons, so you definitely have some say in how you like to play the game.

Difficulty is moderate, to hard ~1/3 through, to moderate, to easy, to very easy. Enough to make you think about your moves through a majority of the game, but nearing the last third of the game knowing optimal mech layouts and who to field, game ends on an easy note. There are like a million difficulty settings, I think requiring up to 4 ng+ playthroughs, so if that's your jam, it's there for you.

While I did beat the game, there is a NG+ option for people who are into that. Also there's a second campaign that has you play the opposing faction that I believe was added in the DS port. Reading about it a little bit, being as it came out after Front Mission 5, there are cameos and references from characters in 2, 3, 4, and 5 in that campaign.

Another reference I noticed was a character called Fredrick Lancaster, he's a playable character in this game, and I remember him as a side character in Front Mission 4. Pretty neat seeing a character in that game being a playable character in this game.

But I do think I should stop before I end up writing an entire novel. This game ain't for everyone, but if you like a turn based strategy RPG, but with mechs and shit...there really ain't much besides Front Mission and uhh...Battletech? They "plan" on releasing Front Mission 2 in the future, as well as announcing they are working on Front Mission 3, so...hoping at least 2-3 more people buy this game so those projects don't get shut down. Front Mission 2 was never released in english, so if anything, I hope that game at least hits the market. Fingers crossed.

ramble ramble, good game, ramble ramble.  may play the other campaign some time in the future.

[vladgd]

23. CRISIS CORE –FINAL FANTASY VII– REUNION



So...this is a videogame. I remember it being pretty good on psp, it's...a'right I guess. It's a neat prequel to 7, but also, it's still a psp game. Literally 90% of this game is cut/paste side missions meant for the "on the go" nature of the psp. Jump in, do a few missions, get off your bus or whatever you were doing. I put ~20 hours into this game doing ~60% of the missions before tapping out and finishing the game.

Story wise...really really really cringe. I have beaten the original on psp years ago, so I am more ok to just SKIP A LOT OF CUTSCENES BECAUSE NO! I literally skipped all of the cutscenes from the "final boss point of no return", I could handle it no more. Horrible writing aside, it has a lot of plot info to get a bit less confused on obtuse parts of ff7. And uhh the ending is the same as the psp ending...which...with ff7r intergrade...NOT GONNA SPOIL ANYTHING, but there's some big fat contradictions going on, and I am very confused.

Gameplay is fun for the most part. Where I got fed up was there's 300 side missions in this game, which is a lot. 9999 hp ain't much hp when harder missions can chunk you for over 14k. I think the secret megaboss thing can hit you for 70,000 off a BLOCKED attack. Also a lot of enemies later on eat 9999 damage for breakfast...and then some eat 99999, like yknow they have 10,000,000 hp or something. It gets a bit much for me to want to deal with personally. Could be for some people, but not needed to finish the game. The optional min maxing get all the stats up gameplay is there if you want it, but I got what I wanted out of it before checking into the credits.

Music...kind of a mixed bag. The og ff7 stuff is always welcome, one of my favorite ost's across gaming. The newer crisis core tracks, especially the battle theme, not "bad" but I'm not a fan.

Graphics look pretty good. Really good actually, just, having came off ff7r...it is a downgrade. Mind you if ff7r did not exist, I would be praising this game for it's visuals, because they are very very good. However I did play ff7r on ps5, and that game is only comparable by games I can count on one hand. Unfair? maybe, but once you've seen something, you can't unsee it.

Think that covers it. Solid gameplay, mixed music, good fluff, really really really bad story, great graphics. Good game to play for ff7 fans, good game to play to understand some of the stuff less explained in ff7 like clouds origin. Actually the biggest reason to play is to understand clouds origin better in my opinion. That said, if you aren't in a rush to play the game, I'd wait for a sale or something. It's a good game but one that hasn't exactly aged the best.

[vladgd]

I'm working on the first + highly doubt I'll sneak another game in so I suppose I'll end this thread a few days early.

Looking at the beginning of last year compared to this year feels like an eternity ago, my how the time do fly.

1. The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion
2. Pokémon Legends: Arceus
3. Bayonetta 2
4. Trials of Mana
5. Gran Turismo 7
6. Star Wars Episode I: Racer
7. Astro's Playroom
8. Final Fantasy VII Remake
9. Shantae
10. Shantae: Risky's Revenge
11. Shantae and the Pirates Curse
12. Shantae Half Genie Hero
13. Shantae and the Seven Sirens
14. Soul Hackers 2
15. Shin Megami Tensei: Digital Devil Saga 2
16. We <3 Katamari
17. Merchant of the Skies
18. The DioField Chronicle
19. Baldur's Gate Enhanced Edition
20. XCOM 2: War of the Chosen
21. Pokemon Scarlet
22. Front Mission 1st
23. CRISIS CORE –FINAL FANTASY VII– REUNION

Things I've been playing throughout the year but didn't count on the list for various reasons.

Mass Effect (Legendary Edition)(insanity difficulty)
Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic
Death Stranding
Monster Hunter Rise Sunbreak
No Man's Sky
Even more Skyrim
Guilty Gear Strive
DNF Duel
Mount and Blade 2 Bannerlord

It has been a year of me taking it easy...obviously. Quit the 50hr/week grind last year, took ~5.5 months off work, and now I'm working roughly 3x 10 hour shifts a week till I find something better to do. Much free time to piddle away at whatever this year. I had a few more "categories" I wanted to add, but knowing me I forgot what they are, so I guess I'll give this a whirl and start by whatever I did last year.

Most rewarding game to complete

The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion

Out of all 23 games I managed to complete this year I am the most happy I will never even have the thought of having to play this stupid game again. It has been a thorn in my side for over a decade now, and it is finally done. I don't hate on the people who do enjoy this game, but I do not at all like Oblivion.

Most rewarding part in a game to complete

star wars episode 1 racer

54 second hotlap on Abyss. Crushing the track that gave me nightmares as a kid.

Biggest Surprise

Gran Turismo 7

Me play a racing game? Me play a sim (at least more sim than most racers people play) racing game? Me invest...over 120 hours into said racing game? Anything can happen, variety is the spice of life. Really enjoyed my time with this title, despite it's flaws.

Least Favorite Game

Dragon Age Inquisition

This game to me is like Nier Automata, which makes it hard to say nice things about. They are both similar in that I read mostly positive things about them, and anybody I know IRL who has played them has nothing but mostly good things to say about them. Ontop  of that, I really like one thing or another about them, and I WANT to enjoy my time with the game...then I play them. I can't even say anything good about either title. I just can't derive any fun from these games, and I don't even think they're mediocre, I think both games are outright BAD. Like Dragon Age 2 is a bad game, it really is, but it's still...kinda fun, I don't get any entertainment from Inquisition at all.

Runner up Favorite

uhh...this one is just impossible this year. Pokemon Arceus, Pokemon Scarlet, FF7r, digital devil saga 2, several of the shantae games...I played a lot of damn good stuff this year and it really is hard to elevate one over another. Did I enjoy arceus over scarlet? Yeah I did, but I played scarlet twice as much as Arceus. ff7r finally blew my socks off, but the combat was still meh...but digital devil saga 2 has some of my favorite jrpg combat systems...just not feasible to pick one, or two...or three this year.

Special Mention

This is where "stuff not on the list that I played this year" comes in.

Had a blast playing 100+ hours in monster hunter sunbreak on pc. Runs very smooth, no real technical issues. The expansion  is loaded with content and nice features for most weapons. If capcom does one thing right it's monster hunter.

No Man's Sky keeps getting updated, so I sunk ~50 hours getting stuck in on the pc version.

DNF Duel I only played for ~17 hours, but in that time I probably sunk in more ranked matches than any other fighting game I've played. Very easy to get into, very good netcode when I played it, very fun.

Guilty Gear strive took up more time from me when they announced Bridget at EVO this year. Really fun character, not gonna replace Nagoriyuki for me but I'll play both. Then there was a hot topic in the fighting game scene about hitboxes, and I was hype from all the good matches...so I made a hitbox. They're a lot harder to use than I expected, but it's a fun thing to mess around with.



Mount and Blade 2 finally came out 10 years and 1 month after it was announced...and it's...pretty good. Unfortunately the issues I had with warband with the "end game" where you are trying to take over the map...still the same. It is slightly better, your allies actually tend to help now...but it's far from ideal. Plus the crafting system in this game "NEEDS" mods to be anywhere near enjoyable to engage with, and I don't really like relying on mods to make a game nice to play. It's a good time, but still needs a lot of polish.

Favorite Game/GOTY 2022

Trials of Mana

Got the game on switch few years ago. Booted it up on a whim earlier this year, thought the combat was meh...then beat the game. Immediately went to NG+ and beat it again got all 99 characters best gear, post game done, yadda yadda. I think I made a claim that I quote

Give this game a shot, it's a bonafied classic in my book. I put this in that list of "greatest rpgs I've ever played" Many pros, very few cons.

Then thinking about what my goty would be, and it's the time for sales, I snagged the game on pc...then beat it 3 more times, and...uhh...got all the acheivements in the game. I don't even care much for acheivements, and steam acheivements carry less meaning to me for some reason than xbox/playstation ones. Still, I beat this game 5 times this year, did everything there is to do...and I kinda wanna play it again. Iunno what kinda drugs they put in the code for that game, but beating the game 5 times to me means it ain't a fluke I am putting it as my favorite game out of ALL the damn games I played this year.




1- earthbound
2- monster hunter world
3- smt nocturne
4- smt 4
5- south park fractured but whole
6- xcom terror from the deep
7- persona 5
8- deus ex mankind divided
9- metroid: samus returns
10- dragon quest xi
11- smt 4 apocalypse
12- advance wars 2
13- disgaea 5
14. Front Mission 4
15. Paper Mario TTYD
16. Luigis Mansion
17. Zelda Wind Waker
18. Rebel Galaxy
19. Persona Q
20. Eternal Darkness
21. Dragon Quest
22. Strange Journey Redux
23. Shining Force Sword of Hajya
24. Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night
25. Doom (2016)
26. Metroid Prime
27. Plants vs Zombies
28. Disgaea 1 Complete
29. Links Awakening Remake
30. Pokemon Shield
31. Dragon Quest 2
32. Dragon Quest Builders 2
33. SteamWorld Dig
34. Shin Megami Tensei: Digital Devil Saga
35. Advance Wars Days of Ruin
36. XCOM Chimera Squad
37. Fallout New Vegas
38. Phantasy Star (Sega Ages)
39. Advance Wars Dual Strike
40. Cyberpunk 2077
41. The Outer Worlds
42. Dragon Quest VI
43. Doom Eternal
44. Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order
45. Monster Hunter Rise
46. Death Stranding
47. Captain Toad Treasure Tracker
48. Metroid Dread
49. Castlevania Harmony of Dissonance
50. Castlevania Aria of Sorrow
51. Zelda Breath of the Wild
52. 10000000
53. You Must Build A Boat
54. Shin Megami Tensei V
55. Into the Breach
56. The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion
57. Pokémon Legends: Arceus
58. Bayonetta 2
59. Trials of Mana
60. Gran Turismo 7
61. Star Wars Episode I: Racer
62. Astro's Playroom
63. Final Fantasy VII Remake
64. Shantae
65. Shantae: Risky's Revenge
66. Shantae and the Pirates Curse
67. Shantae Half Genie Hero
68. Shantae and the Seven Sirens
69. Soul Hackers 2
70. Shin Megami Tensei: Digital Devil Saga 2
71. We <3 Katamari
72. Merchant of the Skies
73. The DioField Chronicle
74. Baldur's Gate Enhanced Edition
75. XCOM 2: War of the Chosen
76. Pokemon Scarlet
77. Front Mission 1st
78. CRISIS CORE –FINAL FANTASY VII– REUNION

Every year is uncertainty of what's gonna happen with the next. Think I wanna retool the goal from 10+ games/year, to...anything. This list is getting more and more close to 100, and I don't think I need to be in a rush or put more important things aside to cram more vidya down my gullet. There was a year or two where I felt forced to play stuff due to this self imposed "goal" of mine, but oddly enough not this year. If I get only 6 next year, they still add to this new meta list I have going.

I do think I play games different now that I have started this whole journey. I tend not to even start many games I know I won't finish, and most games I start I do intend to complete. Some cases like Inquisition it's just a waste of time, so ultimately I want to enjoy my time and passing on things is better than slogging through them. I do feel for me anyway, I tend to enjoy games more this way. When I play something, I know I'm going to PLAY the game.

Probably said enough to wrap this up. New thread with no self imposed goal whenever I witness credits in the next game...in 2023!