1. Halo Infinite - Heroic Run - 6 Hours - 10/10 - Xbox Series X

Straight to the top of Halo Campaigns for me, giving you both the intense indoor firefights but now a huge version of the second mission from CE, Halo. The Halo Combat Loop/30 seconds over and over never gets old, add in the awesome grapple combat features, just makes Halo combat its finest ever. You can say the ring isn’t hugely populated with a myriad of things but what’s there makes sense and more than makes it worth discovering, and if you don’t want to you can just go from one level to the next and have your normal Halo campaign mixed in with a tiny bit of travel from each starting point.

The weapons, vehicles, enemies are probably the best mix yet and whilst the AI doesn’t make that jump you’d always wish it would in a Halo game it’s the same as you see anywhere these days and it looks like there’s gonna have to be something out of the blue that drives it forward. Feels like there’s been no significant jump since the time of C.E or Fear.

Personally I loved the story, it’ll help I read all the books and love the universe but I didn’t think it was tough to follow or too weak to care about which I’ve heard a lot of.

The extra ‘RPG’ mechanics are a nice addition but really can again be ignored depending on how you wanna play it. I upgraded everything but only really used two of the additions, and now going through it on legendary maybe others will become invaluable but I’m not so sure. I like the additions though, searching for them and finding other secrets and bits and pieces scattered over the ring was aces too.

I loved the FOB’s, HVT’s and extra missions as they just opened the world too, offered some great weapon customisations which I then used exclusively and they added a little more narrative too.

Co-op would have been nice but considering it’ll be played for years there’ll always be reasons fo go back. Forge I’m not interested in anyway. And a level select in an open world? Is there many of those? I can understand peoples disappointment but maybe I’m lucky that I’m not that bothered, especially when the rest is that good.

Loved it. Absolutely loved it. My game of the year.

This was my second run to grab all the level collectibles. Still a 10.

2. The Gunk - 5 Hours - 6.5/10 - Xbox Series X

Very much enjoyed that. Nice simple and straightforward ‘chill’ kind of game. Very little to it but that’s why being so short and sweet works for it. Loved the beautiful green environment and the opposite Matrix machine City look, and it was all very pretty.

Characters were charming and their relationship and dialogue added a little to the game also. Decent little play.

3. RE-Make- 10 Hours - 9/10 - Xbox Series X

After watching the new movie felt like going through a few of the Resi’s again, so where else would you start. Played it a million times but still such a great game. Got it’s little issues that time makes even worse, but it’s more then forgivable.

4. RE2 REmake- 10 Hours - 9/10 - Xbox Series X

Continuing the series play through (of the ones I want to play) it still blows my mind how I got to play such a perfect reimagining of one of the best games ever. It’s pacing is perfect, just non stop action with no drop off AND it keeps giving you more and more to play with as you go through it.

Onto number 3…

5. RE3 REmake- 4 Hours - 10/10 - Xbox Series X

Continuing the series play through (of the ones I want to play). Best Resi currently. Just so f’ing good. Little short but as it’s non-stop mental action that’s fine with me. Tons of weapons, awesome Nemesis, batshit Resi story, perfect.

Onto number 4…

Hello.

1. Ketsui Deathtiny (PS4) - 3/1 - 8hrs so far
A true masterpiece of the genre, Ketsui is a GoaT shmup. A delicate balance to scoring well without being too complicated and ramps up the difficulty nicely and uniformly through its 5 stages. A tad difficult for me on arcade, but I’m just rubbish despite enjoying shmups so much.
M2 have once again created a great overall package as they did with Battle Garegga, with a perfect arcade port as well as 3 other versions, including the titular Deathtiny mode which plays quite differently. That, and also a training mode for practising sticking points. Rounding it all up is the attention to detail with all the information available on the sides of the screen, highlighting the nuances of the system.
One of the best.
[9]

2. Esp RA.DE. Psi (PS4) - 23/1 - 13hrs so far
Not quite Ketsui-level of greatness, but great nonetheless. Took a little longer to warm to it, but it’s a great shmup with a decent scoring system. Usual care by M2 with the overall package and UI and data/info.
Dangun Feveron next!
[9]

3. It Takes Two (PS5) - 24/1 - 14hrs
Thoroughly enjoyable co-op game with some good platforming and co-oping and also a little competitive in places. Main characters were mostly annoying though and it felt a little long, but overall I recommend it to anyone looking for some easygoing fun co-op action.  
[8]

I'll keep track of things.

In.

Just replays.

I'll try, not gone too swimmingly last year or two.

Haha, this is the dilemma.

Full reviews list:
1. F1: ROC (SNES) - 7/10
2. Road Rash 64 (N64) - 7/10
3. Tiny Toon Adventures: Buster Bursts Loose! (SNES) - 6/10
4. Power Blade II (NES) - 8/10

2021's results/reviews
2020's results/reviews

Maybe I can actually play some games this year....

1. Just Shapes & Beats - Switch (3hrs)

Absolutely magnificent electro chiptune avoid 'em up.  Think pacifist achievement Asteroids meets Hyper Dot in a crystal castle, then add a huge injection of genuinely world class indie charm.  The dust hasn't quite settled on my playthrough of the story mode but if I'm right - and I usually am - this rubs shoulders with the S tier.  If Shovel Knight hosted a soirée and invited Meat Boy, Gomez, Madeline, Edith Finch, Isaac and the rest of the worldies (you do yours!), everyone would cheer if this unexpectedly arrived at 11pm with a half a bottle of WKD.    

I'd heard it was good (Metacritic 83 taken from a fair few sources), but the same can be said about multiple dozens of games per year these days.  I definitely wasn't expecting one of the most pleasant surprises on Switch.  Almost everything about it is pure class.  The way each stage felt like distilled imagination run wild ensured the story mode maintained an ultra high average throughout.  There's one section that didn't feel right in the entire game, and it only lasted a few minutes (plus I may have been brain farting at the time, will have to revisit).  Standard stages are punctuated by checkpoints and bosses must be defeated with a single life.  Replaying a four minute level can be annoying (the good kind of annoying), but the guardians are purposefully not pushovers and learning patterns won't take long on standard difficulty.

Party play has the potential to push this even further into extra special territory, will confirm when I successfully rope Mrs & Mini Moot into an mp session. It definitely feels like it'd be a perfect fit for extra players.  Then there's the challenge mode and hardcore difficulty options.  It even has online multiplayer.  It's not cheap cheap, but there's a ton of value here.

Indie goodness of the very highest caibre, easily one of the best games of 2018/2019. [9]

But it's over a tenner on psn/steam

Will I play more games this year than last or will I just log into FFXIV with any free time I have...

We shall see! Definitely have some known bangers in my recent sales purchase history so that should help get me going.

I literally bought disc room two days ago so go me

1. Unpacking (PC) aka Putting Socks Away: The Game
I'm not made to play things like this. Pretty good at what it does but what it does is pretty tedious. There's some nice touches of subtle, mature storytelling (eg the cramped boyfriend's apartment where no room has been made for your stuff inevitably leading into the next level). From that point on I knew exactly where the rest of it was heading. Probably intended as a zen-like, light puzzler and I'm not entirely immune to what it's doing but the grind of the gameplay pulls me out of any that. The big splash this made last year convinces me there's a community of gamers out there that will play any old shite if it's twee enough. 

My problems are not liking intentional design choices the devs have made, rather than any faults as such. So just putting this down to a mismatch between the sort of game this is and the sort of games I like (good ones). Actually there were a few items that I couldn't identify so got into a trial-and-error loop of sticking a few things anywhere the game didn't complain about. Could do with a hint thing telling you the name of the object if you're stuck. I spent ten minutes arranging a magnetic white board in an office thinking it was a graphics tablet. 
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