DrTChops Game Reviews

DrTChops Game Reviews

I'm not a very nostalgic person and even big emotional moments kinda get lost after really short amounts of time for me. Included in this is the video games I play through. Even ones I super enjoy and have a huge investment into I just kinda forget I even played a couple months later. It makes making a GOTY pick or retrospective really hecking hard as I can't really remember what games I even played during the year. To remedy this, I'm going to start writing short reviews to hopefully help me remember the good times and the bad, and remember the lessons I learned along the way to help inform and guide me if I ever end up making games of my own.

I'm going to start rating these out of 5 to indicate how much of a recommendation each is:
5 - please play this
4 - very good, you'll probably find this worth playing
3 - decent, worth checking out if you like the genre / style
2 - not great, rough but worthwhile parts if you want to dig
1 - don't bother


DOOM Eternal (July  2020) - 3/5
It's doom. Lots of shooty shooties. I enjoyed this less than 2016 but I think that's mostly because I just can't deal with all the violence and gore with the current state of the world. I just want comfy games these days. I had to take a few breaks to get through this.

Iconoclasts (June 2020) - 3/5
A decent game, very impressive work by a solo dev. It was a lot more linear and story based than I was expected (it looked and felt like a metroidvania at first). It could definitely do with a UX consultant as there's a lot of things and interactions that didn't feel intuitive. Lore was interesting but it does not gracefully immerse you into it in the slightest, just kinda throws new concepts and worldbuilding without actually answering most questions.

Assassin's Creed: Unity (June 2020) - 2/5
I tried this one as I heard that other than the bugs it was a solid entry into the series. Well, it wasn't great. The parkour was as clunky and frustrating as ever. The story was pretty terrible and I had zero reason to care about any of the characters (they kill off the MC's dad like 10min into the game, then kill off his foster dad like 20min later, but I don't CARE about this person). The present day plot ends with literally nothing you did mattering, making the plot entirely superfluous, much like this series. Usually in open world games I shut off my brain and do all or most of the side stuff, but here I did next to none since I just cared so little about this game.

Mewnbase (June 2020) - 2/5
Cute small game from the itch bundle. Kinda simplistic survival game, fun spending an hour to see how the tech tree develops until you get bored.

Open World Game: the Open World Game (May 2020) - 1/5
It's a free parody of open world games. Only it's not particularly funny? It's basically no gameplay and just a big list of tropes and references you collect. You'd have more fun reading a TV Tropes page.

Unavowed (May 2020) - 3/5
Decent little point and click. I like how there were different solutions and dialogue based on your choices and who you had in your party. Story's is pretty good. A few bumps but not bad.

Island Saver (May 2020) - 2/5
This game is an enigma. It's about cleaning up litter, but also it was funded by a bank so it's got a bunch of bank-related mechanics to it? It like, tries to teach you that saving money at the bank is good but the interest you get is so hilariously pitiful that I'm not sure if the devs were secretly making fun of capitalism? I think my playthrough was fueled by confusion

Hypnospace Outlaw (May 2020) - 5/5
I came for the comfy early internet vibes, and boy were those good, but I was really surprised by how compelling the plot was. All around production was fantastic and I loved every bit of the Hypnospace. A wonderful experience.

Anodyne (May 2020) - 3/5
I thought I had played through this ages ago, but I hadn't. This is a weird game, but neat. The writing is interesting but due to (by their own admission) the devs' inexperience it just comes off as confusing. It's funny to see how the went from this to Even the Ocean and did a 180 and made everything as blunt as possible.

Manifold Garden (May 2020) - 3/5
Cool little mind-bending spacial reasoning puzzler where everything is repeated infinitely. Fun experience, but not too deep or difficult.

A Short Hike (May 2020) - 4/5
Cute comfy game where you explore a mountain. Exploration and collecting feathers felt good. Writing was pretty good. Solid short experience for a low price.

Raft (April 2020) - 3/5
Surprisingly comfy coop game. I'm interested in seeing how it ends up after early access.

Forager (April 2020) - 3/5
This was alright, it has a bunch of content to work your way through. Progress curve is a little wonky at times and there's a lot of polish issues but it'll keep you entertained for awhile if you like idle-like experiences.

Underhero (April 2020) - 2/5
I was disappointed by this one. Story seemed interesting and the battle system was unique, but it ended up being such a slog that I didn't want to finish it. Battles just ended up being tedious and full of waiting, there was lots of boring platforming, and a smattering of polish issues.

Deiland (April 2020) - 2/5
Another farming+friends sim thing but pretty shallow and very lacking in polish. Story just kinda ends abruptly. For the price of free it was fine.

Animal Crossing: New Horizons (March 2020) - 3/5
Honestly kind of disappointing. There's a lot of good comfy stuff here but there's also a pile of ugly UX issues that drag the whole experience down. Breakable tools suck, the MP experience is AWFUL, and the controls kinda suck. I wish this was better.

Ori and the Will of the Wisps (March 2020) - 4/5
I started out not really feeling this, but ended up getting more into it by the end. This game feels more Hollow Knight inspired than Ori 1, and that suits me better because I like that game more. Overall a better game than Ori 1, but I couldn't help but feel this game tried to do too much and suffered for it.

Dragon Quest Builders 2 (March 2020) - 5/5
I did not expect to get as pulled into this game as I did. It's very slow paced and has _way_ too much chatter, but goddamn is it just a real nice minecraft-like experience. I ended up playing for over 100 hours just happily building away. This is the perfect game when you need to relax.

Journey to the Savage Planet (February 2020) - 3/5
This was a nice little Metroid Prime-esque adventure with Outer Worlds style humour. Short, and does a few things annoyingly, but a fun little experience.

Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order (January 2020) - 3/5
This game was fine. I was hoping for it to be more fun since it was made by Respawn, but all the movement is the annoying fixed tomb raider / uncharted style cinematic stuff that gets real old real fast. Gameplay was meh, story was bad, but the game was entertaining enough.

Graveyard Keeper (January 2020) - 2/5
This is basically a much less polished, deep, or interesting Stardew. The slow grind in this game is insane, it takes forever to make any progress. I didn't mind it too much when playing since I wanted something comfy but by the end I was so sick of it and got real mad at the complete lack of payoff in the ending.

The Talos Principle (December 2019) - 4/5
Started this one near the end of the year since other people were talking about it. I did like how the puzzles in this were balanced. The mechanics were all pretty simple and easy to figure out without being walked through everything. Nothing was frustratingly hard and everything needed at least some thought. I did get annoyed by the time based ending section and I found the stars too tedious to collect, but otherwise a good puzzle game.

Okami HD (December 2019) - 3/5
This game was odd in that there were a million things that frustrated me (I REALLY wanna know why they decided to have 2 separate fast travel systems) yet I really enjoyed my time with it and kept wanting to go back. I did get pretty tired of it near the end and I wish the whole last act had been cut, but I still very much recommend the game. The brush mechanics were actually a lot of fun!

Kittens Game (Forever) - 4/5
I love this game. It moves at a monumentally slow pace and very few people will have the patience for it. But give it time and it will just keep delighting and surprising you for literally months. It's the perfect thing to have open in the background while working.

Idle Wizard (December 2019) - 2/5
This game seemed pretty dull at first, but it gradually opens up and has a lot of interesting stuff. A pretty boring main loop for an idle game but lots of stuff to dig into.

Idle Champions of the Forgotten Realms (December 2019) - 3/5
I played the non-D&D branded precursor to this game and it felt pretty meh. I'm not sure if it's all the polish they've done to this version or just the familiarity of D&D but this game feels a lot nicer. The formation mechanics are very interesting and make this game worth playing despite it being pretty shallow otherwise for an idle game.

Elder Scrolls Online (November 2019) - 3/5
I'm not really finished with this but I never will be, so I'm writing something here.

Rage 2 (November 2019) - 2/5
Much like its predecessor, this is pretty mediocre. The combat is very fun but everything else in the game (open world stuff and story especially) is very boring. I wish they had gone more linear like Rage 1, it would've been greatly appreciated with the improved gunplay and abilities.

The Outer Worlds (November 2019) - 4/5
Fantastic. It doesn't do anything particularly new or inventive, but it's a very solid and well put together sci-fi FPS RPG. The story peters out a little near the end and I wish some of the characters were a bit more fleshed out but otherwise it's just a joy to play through start to finish. The writing and character interactions especially are incredibly good.

Tacoma (October 2019) - 5/5
I really enjoyed this story. All the characters felt like real people going through a crisis and figuring out what they went through was very satisfying. This is a nice and short self-contained experience that's very much worth your time.

The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening [2019] (October 2019) - 2/5
I think I would've hated this had I not played the original when I was a kid. The graphics updates are very pretty and there's a couple of nice QoL updates but the game design is still very outdated and frustrating, especially when it comes to figuring out where to go and actually getting there. I think all the future handheld Zeldas improved on this one a ton. I don't think this is worth it unless you're really craving more Zelda.

Untitled Goose Game (September 2019) - 4/5
This is a perfect example of a game that knows exactly the experience it wants to convey and controls its scope very well. It's not gunna change the world but it's an extremely enjoyable couple hours. HONK

Please, Don't Touch Anything (September 2019) - 2/5
Cute, but I hate puzzle games where you have a million clues and the puzzle is just figuring out which clues goes with which puzzle. Following a guide was an alright way to spend 20min.

Control (September 2019) - 4/5
Really neat. Gameplay wasn't too deep but it was satisfying enough to carry you through. The story and world-building really shine here.

Guacamelee! 2 (September 2019) - 2/5
I actually stopped right before the end boss, it was just a copypaste of the first game and I was pretty over it.

Puzzle Agent 1+2 (September 2019) - 2/5
Interesting story, but uninteresting puzzles. The first game on its own is a 1/5 because it just kinda ends in the middle of the story, these really should've been called episode 1/2 instead of just 1/2.

Timespinner (August 2019) - 3/5
Decent SotN ripoff, I wish it did more with the time stuff instead of just kinda forgetting about it and doing the standard metroidvania upgrades.

My Time at Portia (August 2019) - 3/5
Not as good as stardew but still comfy.

Far Cry 5 (August 2019) - 2/5
came back and finished it. whatever, ending was bad

Outer Wilds (July 2019) - 4/5
Cool concept, I really enjoyed the progression by learning stuff. Not the best execution, got a bit tedious after awhile.

Super Win The Game (July 2019) - 3/5
This was a basic exploringy platformer that was like $1. It was decently fun, not too hard. The writing was a bit too edgy but not terrible.

Cadence of Hyrule (June 2019) - 4/5
I was afraid this would just be CotND but with Zelda but I was pleasantly surprised this felt like its own game. A nice little Zelda-esque adventure with some CotND gameplay. Very enjoyable if short experience.

Moonlighter (June 2019) - 2/5
Fun at first but super repetitive and shallow.

Yakuza Kiwami 2 (June 2019) - 5/5
Much better than Kiwami 1.

Nuclear Throne (April 2019) - 1/5
This game is locked at 30fps, which makes it unplayable. You can mod it to fix that, but this is a review for the game, not the mod. Made me kind of motion sick trying to play it.

Return of the Obra Dinn (April 2019) - 4/5
This game was really cool! Neat little time travel murder mystery game where you need to use logic to deduce what happened to everyone on the ship. It was a lot of fun to figure it all out, but it did have some problems. Occasionally there's less deducing and more "well these names match somehow to these faces, I'm just gunna try all combinations until it says it's right." There's also this annoying smoke thing that it forces you to watch that leads you to a thing you were literally just looking at which gets really annoying. Overall very good but not the amazing 10/10 game people were making it out to be.

Subnautica (April 2019) - 5/5
This was a joy. The progression of your survival capabilities and technology was super well done and it was so much fun exploring the world. Definitely going to pick up Below Zero when it comes out of EA.

Crackdown 3 (April 2019) - 2/5
Literally just a worse Saints Row 4.

Supraland (April 2019) - 3/5
Decent little adventure game, make sure to ini edit off the depth of field. The puzzles were fun but the combat I could do without.

Sniper Elite V2 (April 2019) - 2/5
It's fine? The slowmo xray kills are cool a couple of times but they get pretty old fast. They get really annoying later in tense firefights because they're constantly pulling you out of the action and disorienting you.

Risk of Rain 2 (April 2019) - 3/5
When I originally saw a preview for this I was worried the gameplay wouldn't really work in 3D. Then suddenly it was out and it turns out it's even more fun than the original! It's a nice fun shooter both alone and with friends. It's in early access still and I'm worried about the lack of content or originality (it's literally just a port of RoR1 to 3D) but I faith the devs will build up on it well, as so far patches have been directly addressing feedback.

Hexcells (March 2019) - 4/5
Comfy puzzle game. Infinite > 1 > Plus.

Shovel Knight: Shovel of Hope (March 2019) - 2/5
Don't really understand why this game is so popular. I mean, it's alright, the art and music are great, but the gameplay's just not that fun. In particular, fuck instant death pits and spikes. What the fuck is the point of having a health bar when 90% of the stuff in the game will kill you in one hit? It makes for incredibly unfun level design and removes any of the satisfaction from getting through them.

Tormentum - Dark Sorrow (March 2019) - 2/5
Really cool looking point and click, but the puzzles and logic are all very simple and straightforwards. Lots of very contrived and dumb moral dilemmas that are silly. Good atmosphere, not very good writing.

The Slater (March 2019) - 2/5
eh.

La-Mulana (March 2019) - ???/5
Terrible but I couldn't stop.

Axiom Verge (Febuary 2019) - 3/5
It's ok.

The Sexy Brutal (January 2019) - 4/5
Really neat but shallow. I just wanted more of the game because I was enjoying it so much.

Thief [2014] (January 2019) - 3/5
Not that bad.

Murdered: Soul Suspect (January 2019) - 3/5
Unpolished but charming.

Regions of Ruin (January 2019) - 3/5
Comfy but repetitive.

Ghost of a Tale (January 2019) - 4/5
Cute mouse game.

Seven: The Days Long Gone (December 2018) - 3/5
Unique stealth game.

Yakuza Kiwami (December 2018) - 4/5
Silly japanese game. Definitely not as good as 0 but still fun.

Slime Rancher (December 2018) - 4/5
Comfy farm game.

Immortal Redneck (December 2018) - 3/5
Neat shooty game.

Assassin's Creed Odyssey (December 2018) - 3/5
Decent sandbox game.

Prey: Mooncrash (November 2018) - 4/5
Better than the main game game.

Hob (November 2018)
Neat indie game.

Bound By Flame (November 2018) - 2/5
I needed a short action RPG to scratch an itch so I tried this one and man is it extremely mediocre. The story is uninteresting and very predictable, the combat is boring and repetitive, and it feels like 1/3 of an actual game. Oh yeah and all the endings are complete garbage.

Willy-Nilly Knight (November 2018) - 2/5
Crappy cheap Divinity OS knockoff. Writing was hilariously bad. I should've streamed it, that would've been fun. Otherwise it was pretty boring.

Fortune-499 (November 2018)
Strange little game where you play rock paper scissors except you can influence it to make it less random. Game was just average but it had a bunch of themes about office politics and work/life balance that were way too relatable right at the time I was playing it and it kinda hit me hard mentally. It doesn't have much going for it really, I just happened to play it at the perfect time for myself personally.

Deltarune (November 2018) - 4/5
I played this shortly after it came out so I didn't have to worry about spoilers. This is a very nice upgrade over Undertale (seriously go back and play it, it feels so damn janky now). It was a nice length for a demo and the writing and art were very good throughout. I'm very interested in seeing the rest of the game but who knows if that'll ever actually come out. Also the secret boss is complete shit and unfun.

Yakuza 0 (November 2018) - 5/5
I went into this game expecting to not like it very much and ho boy was I wrong. I've never seen a game that manages to balance serious and silly tones as well as this one. I absolutely loved the storyline and all the extra substories in this. The minigames were a mix, while they were all at least entertaining the first time, some became a big chore after a couple plays. I didn't really care for the combat too much as I expected, it was pretty repetitive and not very difficult since you could pause and heal at any time, it just loved wasting your time with enemies blocking forever or stun locking you. Still, despite that, it's one of my favourite games I've played recently.

Sunless Sea (October 2018) - 2/5
This game's atmosphere and writing is very good but holy shit is it a slog. Doing anything just takes so fucking long and when you die you have start over almost from scratch. I wanted to play more to dive into more of the lore but when playing it I spent more time staring at my phone than at the game and that's just not a good look.

Dex (October 2018)
I liked this game but the combat was definitely a chore. The whole cyberpunk world and story was neat so it was enough to push me through it all. The ending was ripped directly out of Deus Ex though and that was just kind of annoying.

Cat Quest (October 2018)
Game is cute but I wish it had more going for it. It's just not very deep and makes up for it with fetch quests and copy paste dungeons. Also the story just kinda ends and nothing gets resolved. Also there's an island where the devs put themselves on it and it's meta jerkoff bullshit and I hate it. Not bad for a day playthrough though.

Stories: The Path of Destinies (October 2018)
This has an interesting concept where you play through the same storyline multiple times to make different choices and see all the outcomes. Unfortunately you're going through the same 6ish areas and fighting the same enemies over and over again, and you're unable to skip any of the cutscenes for any repeated choices. It becomes way too much of a slog to see everything. I bailed after doing just enough to see the "true" ending and that was enough for me.

Shadow of the Tomb Raider (October 2018) - 2/5
It really feels like the quality has tanked with this series. There's just nothing creative or interesting being added now and the climbing feels significantly worse? There were multiple times where a popup tells you exactly which buttons to press to proceed and I press them and it doesn't work and you fall to your death and have to redo a bunch of climbing. Perhaps fortunately it felt a lot shorter than previous installments too.

Spider-Man (September 2018) - 3/5
Everyone seemed to absolutely love this game and I don't get it? Like, it's fine, it was a solid generic 6.5/10 open world game, but there's a million of those. Combat was bad and the movement was fun if you were going in a straight line down a street, but horrible if you wanted to maneuver at all. Writing was pretty ok but there's just not much that puts this above the million other open world games these days.

Celeste (September 2018)
I don't particularly like 2D platformers so this is an interesting one for me. It is clearly extremely polished and plays very well. The art and music is fantastic and the writing is absolutely exceptional. Definitely almost made me cry on my flights to and from Iceland. But like, I just didn't really have fun playing it. I wish it wasn't illegal for and indie game to be something other than a 2D platformer.

Middle-earth: Shadow of War (August 2018)
I honestly didn't get all that far in this. It just doesn't seem to do much to build on the first game and I had enough of that after the 20ish hours the first time. The orc captain dudes are just way too frequent and they keep interrupting whatever you're doing and there's no way to skip their intro shit talk and it's just too frustrating. I might come back and play through this in a year or two maybe.

Battle Chasers: Nightwar (August 2018)
This game is super generic and I forgot I had even been playing it. Like, it wasn't bad or anything, just very unspecial and meh. I might go back and finish this some time maybe?

Slay the Spire (July 2018) - 4/5
Holy crap an early access game that actually feels like a complete polished experience and is a good game!!! I was afraid of getting into this because I knew so many others had been sucked in and with good reason. All the deckbuilding fun without any of those annoying other people the muck up the experience. I dumped a good bit of time into this before getting burned out and I'll probably get back into it when it properly releases.

Yono and the Celestial Elephants (July 2018)
Cute game. A little annoying in places and I have no reason to ever touch it again but it was nice for the couple hours it took me to play through.

Yooka-Laylee (July 2018) - 1/5
This has got to be the most phoned-in game I've ever played. It feels like there wasn't a single original thought during all of development. It was just "hey what if we made banjo kazooie again?" and then that was literally it. Even the writing calls out how unoriginal it is. An immensely uninteresting game.

Vampyr (June 2018) - 3/5
A decently enjoyable game. The concept of there being only a small number of fleshed out NPCs that you can talk to or kill is pretty neat. The combat's not too great though, and the difficulty spikes oddly (2ndish last boss was real hard but last one is a cakewalk). It overstays its welcome a bit with a dumb fetch quest near the end too. Also not a fan of the good ending being tied to difficulty.

Hyrule Warriors (May 2018) - 3/5
I went into this knowing it was just a mindless warriors game and that's exactly what it is. Ok way to pass time but got too tedious long before the end.

A Way Out (May 2018) - 4/5
Played this with my gf. Ended up being a lot more cutscene and story than I expected. Gameplay sections were decently fun and the story was pretty solid. Good for a playthrough with someone.

Snipperclips (May 2018) - 5/5
Played through this with my gf and I don't think I've ever laughed so much. Easily the most fun I've had on the switch. The only problem with this game is how short it is.

Minit (April 2018)
Cute short indie game where your life only has a 60 second counter. More of a puzzle adventure than action. Never gets old starting over every minute since you're always making progress. Good solid game to play through.

Far Cry 4 (April 2018)
This is extremely Ubisoft open world game. It has all the elements, including the villain being the only interesting character. Very generic shooty shoots. Play if you just wanna waste some time.

Kingdom Come: Deliverance (March 2018) - 2/5
I really wanted to like this game. It clearly had a lot of heart poured into it. It's just... too damn janky. I played for awhile, dealing with all the bugs and stupid combat because it was a nice game with an interesting story and open world. But it just kept getting worse with each patch as they broke more things and made stuff worse. I'm pretty disappointed in this one.

Homefront (March 2018)
No but seriously how do people actually enjoy this masturbatory MURICA fucking dogshit it's appalling the culture difference in that hellhole. Also game was generic and boring.

Tales from Candlekeep: Tomb of Annihilation (March 2018)
An adaptation of a board game, it just made me wish I was playing that with some friends instead. Oh well, not a terrible way to spend a couple hours, it was kind of fun.

Picross S (Febuary 2018)
Comfy puzzle game, used to do these a lot as a kid. I break it out every now and then whenever I want to feel stupid.

Until Dawn (Febuary 2018)
I played this at a friend's house while drunk and it was a wonderful time. I would've completely hated this if I was sober and alone. I don't understand why these CHOICES MATTERRRRR games are so focused on showing off how _deep_ and _intelligent_ they are by showing you exactly which choices actually do anything and what the result was. It destroys any sense of immersion and actually makes you feel like you're just following predetermined paths instead of actually making your own story. But anyway while drunk with friends it was hella fun to purposely fail QTEs and get everyone killed.

Mother 3 (Febuary 2018) - 2/5
Earthbound was a very good game that meant a lot to me as a kid. This game, however, is a pretty bad game. The art and music are good, and some of the writing is good, but it seems like most of the game is just HEY WASN'T EARTHBOUND WACKY??? LOOK HOW WACKY EVERYTHING IS!!!! The plot kinda meanders along for awhile until it literally dumps all over you halfway through. And the gameplay, good god the gameplay. All the RPG mechanics seemed very poorly designed and not balanced even slightly. There's a ton of incredibly stupid things in the game that do nothing except annoy the player (FUCK feeling feverish). Most of my enjoyment from this game was naming characters after speedfriends and streaming it. The game itself was Not Good.

Valley (Febuary 2018)
This was a nice little game that was decently fun and didn't overstay its welcome. The music was really good and it was pretty fun to casually go fast in. Definitely worth it on sale, and it goes on sale a lot.

The Bureau: XCOM Declassified (January 2018) - 2/5
I just wanted a dumb mindless shooty game to distract me for a couple days and that's what I got. I played on easy and blew through everything which I'm sure was a very good idea because the gameplay was pretty repetitive and boring. The writing was completely awful but the voice acting was pretty decent. It had some of the worst facial animations I've seen, which was fun. Honestly not the worst game I've played through.

OneShot (January 2018)
This was an interesting little game that tries to play around with the player's relationship with the characters. It has some gimicky outside of game gameplay elements that are kinda hit and miss. I didn't think too well of the game after I "finished" it, but then found out there's a secondary playthrough. That playthrough did a much better job exploring the ideas and building the emotions it wanted. An interesting experience to go through, even if it's not the most compelling actual game.

Minecraft: Story Mode (January 2018)
So after I played Harvester for last new years, I needed something equally as horrifying to follow it up, and I decided to play this. It was... quite an experience. The writing is fucking horrible, the QTEs don't actually do anything 90% of the time, the pacing is stupid, the choices are pointless, there's an entire episode dedicated to youtube lets players jerking themselves off. I fuckin loved playing through it, made for such a fun goddamn couple streams.

Night in the Woods (December 2017) - 5/5
I snuck this one in right at the end of 2017 and I'm very glad I did. There's not much gameplay going on here but the writing is absolutely fantastic. Some of the most real and relatable characters I've seen in gaming. I actually kinda feel like the whole mystery thing in the last half kind of took away from the game and I wish they kept it centered around normal people's lives, but they still got a lot of value out of it. Definitely a must play if you have any emotions at all.

Getting Over It with Bennett Foddy (December 2017) - 1/5
So this is a game that is meant to be frustrating. You're supposed to feel the pain of starting over, over and over again, in order to make the triumph of succeeding mean so much more. Or something. It thinks so highly of itself, but really it's just a bad game with poor controls and annoying level design. You should never make your game difficult by making the player have to fight against the controls to make it do what they want. That doesn't make the game challenging, it makes it _bad_.

Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice (December 2017) - 4/5
This was an incredibly interesting experience. It handled its representation of psychosis really well and gives it a super cool manifestation in game form. But it's also just... not a very good game. The combat is extremely tedious and uninteresting and there is FAR too much of it. The puzzles are neat at first but too simple and straight forward. You end up spending far more time just waiting for the character to run between things than actually solving the puzzle. I really liked what this game did well but I just... wish it tried to be less of a game, tbh. Less combat and deeper puzzles would've made it a lot more enjoyable.

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (November 2017) - 5/5
This was mostly the game I wanted a switch for, and goddamn was it worth it. This game is absolutely not without its flaws, but the core gameplay and sense of exploration by far made up for those. It didn't really have huge standout moments or anything, but it was consistently fun and interesting to fuck around in the world throughout. It was also actually fresh and interesting for a Zelda game, something that was sorely lacking in Odyssey. I like, was actually interested in the characters and wished they had done more with them! Though the boss fights were still extremely boring, I wish they had moved on from those too.

Golf Story (November 2017)
U N B O U N D. This was another game I was really interested in getting a switch for since it seemed along the same comfy lines as Stardew Valley. While it turned out to not quite reach that extremely high bar, it was still a really comfy enjoyable game. The biggest problem with it is golf just isn't that fun, and it doesn't really get any more fun or interesting as the game goes on. The writing and presentation carried this game really hard. I do still need to finish this off, though.

SteamWorld Dig 2 (November 2017)
SteamWorld Dig was a comfy short simple enjoyable game, and 2 follows that while improving on mechanics very well. The map and upgrades are more interesting and it's just good fun for a few hours to go through. Definitely recommended for a short cheap game to play.

Super Mario Odyssey (October 2017) - 2/5
I ended up getting a switch when this game out so I could play this and the above two games. Amazon sent me two copies of this instead of one of this and one of zelda so I had to play this one first and it was... ok. It was a perfectly acceptable video game that I played through. It just... didn't do anything special, and most of the things (moons) in the game were kinda boring and not rewarding. I don't really understand why people said this was a masterpiece because it doesn't do anything particularly interesting ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Metroid: Samus Returns (October 2017)
I've never played the original Metroid 2, but I did play AM2R. That game felt mostly nice but did have a lot of really annoying archaic parts to it (boss' weak point is slightly higher than the straight line you can aim in haha get 0wned), but Samus Returns did a significantly better job of modernizing and cleaning up all the jagged edges of the game. Features like stick aiming, parrying, autosaves before bosses, and the scanner pulse made it a pretty straightforward but enjoyable metroidvania. I'm hoping Metroid Prime 4 will also be good.

West of Loathing (October 2017)
This game is kind of pure nostalgia fuel from my time playing Kingdom of Loathing literally 10 years ago. It ended up being a pretty solid enjoyable weekend or two, but didn't leave all that much of an impression on me (I originally forgot to add it to this pastebin). Pretty funny, simple gameplay, good way to spend time.

Divinity: Original Sin 2 (September 2017) - 5/5
DOS was one of my favourite games ever made and this one is more of that, with a bunch of nice QoL improvements. Its combination of slick tactical RPG and co-op gameplay is pretty unique and I'd love to have more games like it. It's pretty much as close to D&D as you can get in gaming and I HECKING LOVE D&D. Absolutely recommended 10/10. I want to try out the GM mode, I should plan to do some of that next year :eyes:

Dishonored: Death of the Outsider (September 2017)
Dishonored 2 was a pretty big let down for me. I went into this game with pretty low expectations, and it turned out ok. Other than the last mission which was shit, the levels were fairly interesting and fun to play through. The story was fine, the lack of a chaos system was preferred honestly. I probably enjoyed playing through this more than 2 just because it was shorter and didn't perform like complete ass.

El Matador (August 2017) - 3/5
Honestly this was a lot more enjoyable than I expected. Super cheesy cutscenes and decent gunplay, doesn't outstay its welcome.

Aragami (July 2017)
This is a pretty Dishonored-ish type game and I was mostly enjoying it, but then I got stuck in collision and lost a bunch of progress and rage quit. I'll come back to this at some point.

Tiny and Big: Grandpa's Leftovers (June 2017)
This was a pretty neat blind race I did with Boyks and momo. Fun little game, enjoyable and short. Also I won.

Prey [2017] (May 2017) - 3/5
Considering this was an FPSRPG made by Arkane and styled after System Shock 2, you'd think this would be my fuckin JAM. Turns out this was the most overwhelmingly ok video game ever made. It did some things right, did some things wrong, was enjoyable enough to play through, but didn't really evoke much of a response at all really? That seemed to be by far the most common opinion on this game, it was just "ok". Good enough way to spend time but otherwise eh.

Hollow Knight (April 2017) - 4/5
The little indie game that could. No, not cuphead, fuck that game. Hollow Knight did so many things well. It also did a ton of things very badly, but I still think it's a very good game, so you know the things it did well it did super well. The setting, atmosphere, and art direction are excellent, and the gameplay is very well done. It satisfied the metroidvania shaped hole in my heart that Ori left, and it even had bosses that I enjoyed, which is very rare. Easily my indie game of the year.

Mass Effect: Andromeda (March 2017)
Ok, so, like, I actually really liked this game. Wait no don't leave please hear me out! First of all, the environmental designs in this game were actually super beautiful (not surprising it was the only team that knew wtf they were doing throughout development). Other than that, the game is really entertaining if you treat it like a parody of Mass Effect or just sci-fi in general. The really goofy dialog, the shitty animations, the campy aliens, all of it is just such good fun when you take it lightheartedly. It made me really really really want a proper sci-fi RPG parody, like a Galaxy Quest but with Mass Effect mechanics. That'd be fuckin awsome.

Legend of Kay (Febuary 2017) - 1/5
Played this casually because I wanted to speedrun it. It's a very bad casual game. Don't bother.

husk. (Febuary 2017) - 2/5
Really shitty horror game I got from Humble Monthly that was surprisingly fun to play through on stream. Speedruns soon tm

Harvester (January 2017)
This game is BAD. Extremely bad. But it was also extremely entertaining. Playing through this on stream while drinking was one of the all-time highlights of my stream. Ridiculously campy acting and writing, and the puzzles were super stupid. But it was still hella fun. If you play this, bring a guide, and preferrably bring an audience.

Stardew Valley (2016) - 5/5
Bonus shoutout to the most comfy game I've ever played. Really itching to play it again once the big co-op update drops.

Game of the Years and Honourable Mentions
2019 - The Outer Worlds (HM Subnautica)
2018 - Yakuza 0
2017 - Night in the Woods (HM Divinity: OS 2 and Zelda: BotW)
2016 - Stardew Valley


Quickfire list of (some) games I tried and couldn't get into, I may or may not come back to these maybe:
Alien: Isolation - very much a product of that time in gaming where everything had to have ridiculously long and pointless animations
Ark: Survival Evolved - uninteresting and slow survival game
Baba Is You - I'm REALLY STUPID
Battle Chef Brigade - idk the story was charming but I couldn't really get into the puzzling
Book of Demons - diablo clone without any of the interesting gameplay!
City of Brass - seems like a worse Ziggurat
CrossCode - interesting story but as grindy as a real MMO
Deadfall Adventures - crappy tomb raider knock off but a bit too bland
DUSK - ep 1 was fun I'm not sure why I can't get myself to continue this
Enderal: Forgotten Stories - whoops completely forgot about this
Heat Signature - fun but felt pretty shallow
Holy Potatoes! We're in Space?! - humour wasn't very good and gameplay just didn't hook me
Metrico+ - I was hoping it'd be a more interesting puzzle game than it actually is
Middle Earth: Shadow of War - I think I had enough of this game the first time around, the sequel is just more of it
No Man's Sky - seems promising but the UI is terrible and coop is poorly implemented
Octopath Traveler - I'm having way more fun fucking about with its code than actually playing it lol
Pathfinder: Kingmaker - this was actually pretty cool, I paused to wait for a big patch and just can't get myself to dive back into it now
Project Highrise - cute but I don't see myself putting much time into this where there's so much more to choose from
Pyre - I'm just not that into basketball
Rebel Galaxy - went from boring to tutorial to getting absolutely destroyed with no warning
ReCore - felt a bit too repetitive, way too brown
Red Dead Redepmtion 2 - boring and slow
Road Redemption - I didn't really expect a new Road Rash game to be a roguelite...
Starbound - like Terraria, but worse! also the devs are assholes apparently
SteamWorld Heist - I really liked Dig but I'm just not feeling this one
Strife: Veteran Edition - I accidentally saved over my save and lost progress and therefore interest
Sunset Overdrive - gameplay was surprisingly boring and the writing was dumb
Tales of Zestiria - I can't tell what's bad writing, what's bad translation, and what's intentionally goofy in this
The Shrouded Isle - I think I immediately noped out of this
The Flame in the Flood - was constantly getting owned but none of the decisions I was making could've helped anyway, it was stupid
The Messenger - retro styled games are usually bad and the meta humour in this was REALLY bad
The Witcher 1 - I wanna get into this whole series bad man the combat in this one is godawful
The Witness - I'm STUPID
Thronebreaker: The Witcher Tales - interesting but it's hard for me to invest in something deep like this anymore
Void Bastards - didn't really feel like it'd ever have much depth or get any more interesting
Wandersong - it was cute I guess but I kinda completely forgot this game existed
We Happy Few - story didn't hook me enough to make up for the boring survival stuff
Westerado: Double Barreled - I stopped right before the final boss because the game sucks and I regret nothing
Wizard of Legend - I think I just don't actually enjoy most roguelites


hi, I don't believe that you actually read all this, you just skimmed to the bottom, didn't you?