J's Top 9 Games Of 2019

[jfissel]

Couldn't quite get to 10 games this year and I beat the 9th game on the last day of the year.

9. LEGO Jurassic World
I hadn't played a LEGO game in about 5 years, so I thought I'd check out Jurassic World. These are fun games for all ages and it certainly entertained while I played it. It just wasn't anything special, relegating it to last place for 2019.

8. InFamous: First Light
I'm not sure why I waited so long to play the PS4 InFamous titles because I've enjoyed everything in the series. While I enjoyed the main game more (coming later in this write-up), I thought this DLC was really well done. Fetch is an interesting character and so is her backstory. Her powers are varied, useful, and pretty cool in a few circumstances (the fast movement that leaves neon trails is eye candy). I still have some things to clean up in First Light, which gives me some incentive to come back to this one.

7. South Park: The Fractured But Whole
The first South Park game was absolutely hilarious and the sequel also delivered on that front. I love the tv show and still watch it regularly. They switched things up a bit with the battle system in this game with a grid system you move around in and abilities that affect certain patterns on the grid - e.g. a spin attack that hits all enemies in adjacent spaces or an attack that does damage to everyone in the same row. There was also quite a bit of customization with character types and skills, making your team build very important for certain fights. It doesn't rank higher because I just had a better time with the other 6 games, though I would recommend this to anyone who likes the show or the first game.

6. Dragon Quest Builders 2
I love me some Dragon Quest, that's nothing new to anyone on this board. I decided to check this one out because it was new, Dragon Quest, and I hadn't played a Minecraft-type game yet. The story was fine, the building was enjoyable, and the gameplay was about what I expected. You could spend hours building whatever you want in this game, and people definitely have because I've seen examples of absolutely crazy stuff that must've taken forever to plan and piece together. It does take a while to unlock better materials and such, so this game can be a huge time sink. But I played it for quite a bit and unlocked 81% of items/blueprints/rooms/etc, and that was enough to get my DQ fix and check out a new game type.

5. Untitled Goose Game
The last game I beat in 2019. It just came out a few weeks ago for PS4 after being on the Switch for a few months. This is the type of quirky game that I love playing because it's something new and different. You play as a goose who has goals of causing mischief in several areas of town - you steal things from people, scare them by honking, give them items, etc. There's a dedicated honk button! It's pretty short as I've completed all of the goals minus the speedruns in all areas in about 4-5 hours, but I had a lot of fun and I will try my best to get those last couple of trophies.

4. InFamous: Second Son
As I said in the First Light section, I'm glad I finally decided to play this game. I loved most of the powers as well as traversing around Seattle (climbing to the top of the Space Needle the first time was a heck of a lot of fun). The story was good and I liked the characters, probably not a popular opinion though as it seems to be a common stance to hate on Delsin and some others. I hope they make another game in this series, but it may be a while since they've transitioned to Ghost of Tsushima. I got the platinum trophy and don't regret the time spent doing so one bit.

3. Judgment
With Kazuma Kiryu's story now complete, the Yakuza series has to go in other directions. And I think the studio has found ways to do that successfully - by focusing on and developing new characters and continuing to incorporate new gameplay elements for a mostly fresh experience. The seedy world of Kamurocho will always have plenty of crazy stories to explore! As with all Yakuza games, there are a ton of side quests and minigames to tackle and they never cease to have some hilarious quotes and characters. This one had a thief who steals and sniffs women's underwear, lol. I took a bunch of screenshots of the dialogue from that mission and it makes me laugh just thinking about it. Anyone who likes the Yakuza series should check this out!

2. Assassin's Creed: Origins
I started off the year with Origins, needing to catch up for the new release coming in 2020 (I was a few games behind). Ancient Egypt is a great setting and I felt like they created a fantastic world - from basic general life back then to historical characters to mythology, it all worked well together. This was the beginning of the inclusion of loot and RPG-ish elements, and I mostly enjoyed the changes and updates. Putting a lot of time into this game is easy to do and I'm pretty sure I spent over 100 hours doing everything, including the DLC which was also lengthy.

1. Assassin's Creed: Odyssey
And then I basically ended the year with Odyssey. I played this game for over 3 months and ended up with 170 hours invested by the time the last DLC trophy popped. While it took up 1/4 of the gaming calendar, it's an amazingly massive game that has something for everyone. As a completionist, I did pretty much everything...but I could see someone enjoying just the story missions and having that be enough. I don't know how they'll beat this with their next game, so we'll have to see what they come up with.

2019 was a decent year in gaming for me, but I didn't play many new titles. 2020 has some heavy hitters on the horizon and I can't wait to get to some of those long-awaited games - The Last of Us Part II, Ghost of Tsushima, Yakuza: Like a Dragon, and Psychonauts 2 are at the top of my list.

[Phaseknox]

Nice list, j. I didn't expect Untitled Goose Game to make your top 5. I'll check it out when I can get it for dirt cheap.

2020 has some heavy hitters on the horizon and I can't wait to get to some of those long-awaited games - The Last of Us Part II, Ghost of Tsushima, Yakuza: Like a Dragon, and Psychonauts 2 are at the top of my list.

What about Cyberpunk 2077?

[isthatallyougot]

Nice reviews j, I enjoyed reading your 2019 recap. Of what you played, I'm most looking forward to the 2nd South Park game. I also need to play the last Infamous and I'm curious about Dragon Quest Builders too.

Edit: I'll never catch up with Yakuza, lol.

[jfissel]

Nice list, j. I didn't expect Untitled Goose Game to make your top 5. I'll check it out when I can get it for dirt cheap.

2020 has some heavy hitters on the horizon and I can't wait to get to some of those long-awaited games - The Last of Us Part II, Ghost of Tsushima, Yakuza: Like a Dragon, and Psychonauts 2 are at the top of my list.

What about Cyberpunk 2077?

Yeah, Untitled Goose Game is a fun time and I'm sure you'll be able to pick it up for $10 or less in 3 months during a flash sale. Or like $5 by the end of the year...or maybe sooner, who knows.

Cyberpunk 2077 is on my radar, but I need to see more since I'm not entirely sold - it does look cool though. People are excited because of the developer, but I haven't played any of their games (The Witcher 3 is in my backlog).

Nice reviews j, I enjoyed reading your 2019 recap. Of what you played, I'm most looking forward to the 2nd South Park game. I also need to play the last Infamous and I'm curious about Dragon Quest Builders too.

Edit: I'll never catch up with Yakuza, lol.

That's a lot to play, but also you completed a ton of games last year so it's definitely possible. Remember that Yakuza 3, 4, and 5 are coming out for the PS4 in February!

[Phaseknox]

Cyberpunk 2077 is on my radar, but I need to see more since I'm not entirely sold - it does look cool though. People are excited because of the developer, but I haven't played any of their games (The Witcher 3 is in my backlog).

I'm not excited about it because of the developer since I found The Witcher II to be overrated, and I haven't played The Witcher III yet. I'm excited about it because its genre (open world action RPG) is one of my favorites, and I'm a big cyberpunk fan. Also, I know that its content is going to be really adult (dark subject matter, nudity, sex) which has gotten rarer in games lately.

[argyle]

Great list J - I'm happy to see you've been enjoying the newer AC games as much as I have. Supposedly the new one they're working on is set around Vikings, so that should be interesting.