{"id":3608,"date":"2020-12-09T21:36:29","date_gmt":"2020-12-09T21:36:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/slateman.net\/blog\/?p=3608"},"modified":"2020-12-09T22:09:27","modified_gmt":"2020-12-09T22:09:27","slug":"gaming-in-2020","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/slateman.net\/blog\/archives\/3608","title":{"rendered":"Gaming In 2020"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Another year down and another year in which I missed out on more of the biggest titles than I played.  Before hitting upon what I <i>have<\/i> experienced, I figured I&#8217;d look at what I didn&#8217;t get a chance to dive into.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><b>Final Fantasy VII Remake<\/b>\n<li><b>Ghost Of Tsushima<\/b>\n<li><b>Hades<\/b>\n<li><b>Immortals: Fenyx Rising<\/b>\n<li><b>Last Of Us &#8211; Part II, The<\/b>\n<li><b>Ori And The Will Of The Wisps<\/b>\n<li><b>Sackboy: A Big Adventure<\/b>\n<\/ul>\n<p>I&#8217;ve skipped out on <b>Cyberpunk 2077<\/b> and some others.  Of those games, my interest is genuinely piqued by <b>Tsushima<\/b> and <b>Hades<\/b>.  The former will eventually be in my collection, the latter will have to wait for a Sony port.  I&#8217;ve no interest in playing that on the Switch.<\/p>\n<p>OK, now to the older games I&#8217;ve experienced.  Titles with an asterisk are ones I&#8217;d played before.  <u>Underlined<\/u> are ones I beat.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><b>Death Stranding<\/b>\n<li><b>Dark Souls: Remastered<\/b>\n<li><b>Days Gone<\/b>\n<li><b>Detroit: Become Human<\/b>\n<li><b>Doom<\/b>\n<li><b><u>Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, The (*)<\/u><\/b>\n<li><b><u>Far Cry 5<\/u><\/b>\n<li><b>Fighting EX Layer<\/b>\n<li><b>Ketsui<\/b>\n<li><b>Minecraft Dungeons<\/b>\n<li><b>Modern Warfare 2: Remastered (*)<\/b>\n<li><b><u>Shadow Of The Colossus<\/u><\/b>\n<li><b><u>Uncharted 2: Among Thieves Remastered<\/u> (*)<\/b>\n<li><b>Ys VIII<\/b>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Not forgetting <b>Skyrim<\/b> is a remaster, that&#8217;s a lot of updated old games there.  I spent most of quarantine lockdown replaying <b>Skyrim<\/b> and actually progressing farther than I had during my initial playthrough back in 2012.  I beat <b>Shadow Of The Colossus<\/b> for the first time, after bailing on both the PS2 <i>and<\/i> PS3 versions in years past.  Another <b>Uncharted 2<\/b> run was a reminder of how that game is still top-10 ever.  (I&#8217;ll eventually get around to posting my list).  Others were things I dipped my toes into but came far from completing.  <\/p>\n<p><b>Far Cry 5<\/b> was the expected, entertaining romp and I do endeavor to get back to <b>Days Gone<\/b> and <b>Detroit<\/b>.  Most of these games were good; few were great.  Next up: 2020 games, finally!<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><b>Assassin&#8217;s Creed: Valhalla<\/b>\n<li><b>Astro&#8217;s Playroom<\/b>\n<li><b>Borderlands 3<\/b>\n<li><b>Bugsnax<\/b>\n<li><b>Demon&#8217;s Souls<\/b>\n<li><b>Resident Evil 3<\/b>\n<li><b>Spelunky 2<\/b>\n<li><b>Tony Hawk&#8217;s Pro Skater 1 + 2<\/b>\n<\/ul>\n<p>So, obviously, I beat <b>THPS<\/b>, writing an entire chapter on it in the <a href=\"https:\/\/tonyhawksgamingdomination.com\/\">revised edition of Tony Hawk&#8217;s Gaming Domination<\/a>.  Just as quickly, I dropped off of that one.  <\/p>\n<p><b>Spelunky 2<\/b> was a frustratingly-difficult but enjoyable journey.  Each run was different and my kids and I laughed our asses off far too frequently.  It&#8217;s about the same as the first, but pretty fantastic and there&#8217;s zero chance I&#8217;ll ever actually complete it.  Speaking of kids, they played the crap out of <b>Bugsnax<\/b>, just finishing it today.  I haven&#8217;t completed <b>Demon&#8217;s Souls<\/b> and suspect that&#8217;s a long journey ahead.  <\/p>\n<p><b>Resident Evil 3<\/b> was a short affair, but one I never traipsed through on the PS1 original.  I enjoyed it, beating it a few times.  That&#8217;s the good, but I don&#8217;t envision diving back in, despite my enjoyment.<\/p>\n<p>And then we get to the year&#8217;s best.  <b>Astro&#8217;s Playroom<\/b> won&#8217;t win any awards, but damn, that was fun.  It was a spectacular history lesson, peeking at Sony&#8217;s legacy as well as being a showcase of the new console and its features.  <\/p>\n<p>So, as of the second week of December, I am so enamored with <b>Valhalla<\/b> and its beauty, that I must declare it my tentative <a href=\"https:\/\/slateman.net\/blog\/?page_id=2466\">2020 Game Of The Year<\/a>.  It&#8217;s the most vibrant and diverse world I&#8217;ve ever played in.  The gameplay loop is enjoyable enough and the sound design is top notch.  It&#8217;s possibly the best-looking game I&#8217;ever witnessed and the 60fps\/often-4k visual upgrade has just left me speechless on numerous occasions.  The dynamic lighting is superb, dialogues and story are wonderful and the scope is simply remarkable.  <\/p>\n<p>I suspect this opinion could change&#8230;but as of today, this is it.  This could be the first <b>Assassin&#8217;s Creed<\/b> game I actually complete, much like <a href=\"https:\/\/slateman.net\/blog\/?p=2877\">GTA V in 2018<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Another year down and another year in which I missed out on more of the biggest titles than I played. Before hitting upon what I have experienced, I figured I&#8217;d look at what I didn&#8217;t get a chance to dive into. Final Fantasy VII Remake Ghost Of Tsushima Hades Immortals: Fenyx Rising Last Of Us [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,15,4,83,3,101],"tags":[152],"class_list":["post-3608","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-best-worst","category-blog","category-games","category-resident-evil","category-skyrim","category-tony-hawk-series","tag-annual-game-review"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/slateman.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3608","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/slateman.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/slateman.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/slateman.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/slateman.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3608"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/slateman.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3608\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3610,"href":"https:\/\/slateman.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3608\/revisions\/3610"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/slateman.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3608"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/slateman.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3608"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/slateman.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3608"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}