Izzy's 2019 Gaming Year in Review

[isthatallyougot]

I feel that you were a little hard on the game (despite giving it a 4/5) since everything else about it was so masterfully crafted IMO, but different strokes for different folks.

Yeah, it was a difficult review for me, and it was a bit schizophrenic, for sure. On the one hand, taken in isolation it was a really fun and good-looking action adventure. It had some problems for me, but it was surely good fun. I did enjoy it.

On the other hand, it exists as a reboot of a franchise that I really love, and I had to approach things in that context. And with that framing, the game was a crushing disappointment for me.

[argyle]

I feel that you were a little hard on the game (despite giving it a 4/5) since everything else about it was so masterfully crafted IMO, but different strokes for different folks.

Yeah, it was a difficult review for me, and it was a bit schizophrenic, for sure. On the one hand, taken in isolation it was a really fun and good-looking action adventure. It had some problems for me, but it was surely good fun. I did enjoy it.

On the other hand, it exists as a reboot of a franchise that I really love, and I had to approach things in that context. And with that framing, the game was a crushing disappointment for me.

First, I just finished reading your entire year-end rundown. I had been waiting to read everyone's best-of lists until I had mine in the books. I know there's not a TON of overlap in what we all play these days, but there is a little and I didn't want to be influenced one way or the other when making my list. That all said, I thoroughly enjoyed reading your reviews, as usual, and still marvel at the time it must have taken to write it all out. How do you approach that, anyway? Do you write up reviews of the things you play throughout the year and then just edit / order them at year end? I'll admit that it makes me want to do some kind of review/listing of the games I played last year that didn't make my top 10.

You had a lot of older titles that I have played or was at least familiar with this time, and I agreed with you on most of those from what I remembered of having played them. We disagree on some of the newer ones (most drastically in Lost Legacy, but then again I think I've just about decided that as a gamer I'm just exhausted of the extremely linear & cinematic games) but that's what makes our group interesting.

With God of War I'm of two minds. On the one hand, I *loved* the game and have very little bad to say about it at all. But at the same time, I would be a complete hypocrite if I didn't say that I know where you're coming from and from your viewpoint 100% agree with you. It's an interesting discussion, trying to determine how much is too much when developers go to revitalize an old franchise. At what point do you lose the soul of the original series? At what point is it better to just call it something new or at the very least, a spin-off? We've probably all heard the story of how Devil May Cry originally started out as a Resident Evil title until they realized it was just too far removed from that series. Definitely a good call, DMC is amazing but there would have been major backlash from RE fans who were expecting something in line with those games.

I never could get into Metroid Prime, and I believe a big part of that is because it just didn't *feel* like Metroid to me. I had other issues with it - the controls were very awkward IMO, although the Wii port did a lot to remedy that and the emphasis on scanning everything in the environment really hurt the pacing and made exploring feel tedious. Still, I'll never know how I would have felt about the game if it just hadn't been branded Metroid. Maybe I would have been more patient with my issues & given it more of a chance?

So I'll say that in the end, nothing would have been lost from the new God of War if they had made the main character someone other than Kratos, and just began a new story about someone else.

But I also have to say that Christopher Judge is an amazing actor and he knocked the role out of the park.

[isthatallyougot]

How do you approach that, anyway? Do you write up reviews of the things you play throughout the year and then just edit / order them at year end? I'll admit that it makes me want to do some kind of review/listing of the games I played last year that didn't make my top 10.

I tend to make little notes as I'm playing something. (Not literally while playing, but in that time frame.) I keep little bullet points - pluses and minuses to remind me of things. I tend to be overly organized in the first place, and I use a note taking program that I call my digital brain to organize everything from serious life stuff to games and everything in between. I use Cherrytree on Linux, but it's on Windows too. It's like OneNote or Evernote. Here's a pic as a reference:



Sometimes I make tons of points, and sometimes not too much. It just depends on what strikes me as I'm playing something. I do it so that it makes gathering my thoughts into some sort of coherent blurb/review a bit easier because I don't always make time to review things immediately.

I've been doing it for so long, and it's fun for me to have a record as a sort of convenient reference where I can go back and see what I've played and enjoyed over the years. I keep reviews and pics and all sorts of info about various games within the file. Kind of a hobby within the hobby for me, I guess. I'm in too deep.

You had a lot of older titles that I have played or was at least familiar with this time, and I agreed with you on most of those from what I remembered of having played them. We disagree on some of the newer ones (most drastically in Lost Legacy, but then again I think I've just about decided that as a gamer I'm just exhausted of the extremely linear & cinematic games) but that's what makes our group interesting.

I would also be burned out on the AAA cinematic game if I didn't mix things up so much. I very consciously make an effort to keep what I play varied so that I don't feel that fatigue. There's so much to play that, for me anyway, it's easy to keep a nice variety going so that I don't get burned out on any single flavor of gaming.

With God of War I'm of two minds. On the one hand, I *loved* the game and have very little bad to say about it at all. But at the same time, I would be a complete hypocrite if I didn't say that I know where you're coming from and from your viewpoint 100% agree with you. It's an interesting discussion, trying to determine how much is too much when developers go to revitalize an old franchise. At what point do you lose the soul of the original series? At what point is it better to just call it something new or at the very least, a spin-off? We've probably all heard the story of how Devil May Cry originally started out as a Resident Evil title until they realized it was just too far removed from that series. Definitely a good call, DMC is amazing but there would have been major backlash from RE fans who were expecting something in line with those games.

I never could get into Metroid Prime, and I believe a big part of that is because it just didn't *feel* like Metroid to me. I had other issues with it - the controls were very awkward IMO, although the Wii port did a lot to remedy that and the emphasis on scanning everything in the environment really hurt the pacing and made exploring feel tedious. Still, I'll never know how I would have felt about the game if it just hadn't been branded Metroid. Maybe I would have been more patient with my issues & given it more of a chance?

So I'll say that in the end, nothing would have been lost from the new God of War if they had made the main character someone other than Kratos, and just began a new story about someone else.

But I also have to say that Christopher Judge is an amazing actor and he knocked the role out of the park.

I would have been far more tolerant/lenient on GOW reboot had it been a new universe/character, for sure.