Blog: Games of 2017

This year, I've played 7 games that were released in 2017 and it's time in the internet's honoured tradition to talk about which ones were good.

This year I played: A Hat in Time, Fire Emblem Heroes, Halcyon 6: Light-Speed Edition, Kingdom and Castles, Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, Rakuen and Seedship.

I don't feel like there's anything missing from my list this year. That being said I've avoided getting a switch until I get my PhD finished so there are a lot of very good looking games that I will hopefully get a chance to play pretty soon.

Unlike last year, I enjoyed all of the games I played so I'm only going to break this set down into: The Okay, The Good and The Great. It's also worth pointing out that I've played widely divergent amounts of these games (I mean Breath of the Wild is in there, so really really widely) and for some, I probably haven't played enough to comment really intelligently. Still, I wanted to capture a snapshot of how I've seen the games of 2017 while it's still 2017.

The Okay

Fire Emblem Heroes

I feel a bit conflicted about almost all of the Fire Emblem games (and honestly all grid-tactics games in general). I really enjoy the gameplay, the world, the characters, and the feel, but I'm really, really bad at them for the most part. Fire Emblem Heroes is great because it takes the basic Fire Emblem concept and breaks it down into bite sized chunks. All the great weapon triangle strategy, none of the ongoing stress and worry.

Beyond that, though, there's not really much more here. It's okay. It's not bad, it's fun and playable but it kinda lacks any depth, so while it's okay to play I'm not going to choose to play it over most other games in most situations.

Halcyon 6: Light-Speed Edition

Halcyon 6: Starbase Command is an interesting game. It's old school RPG combat (parties of three slug it out in a menu), but with spaceships rather than wizards and warriors. It's also a XCOM style base builder and a fleet assignment strategy game. It's also a 2016 game, except that they did a such an extensive "overhaul" that they released the Light-Speed Edition as a totally separate game to "classic". That being said, I feel a little baffled about the changes they made, why and what the new game is compared to the old game.

Last year I wished I'd played more and I guess I'm in the same boat. The gameplay is good and apparently they've increased the tactical depth of the game which was one of my primary complaints. I can't say I've felt compelled to play too much despite enjoying all the game elements, maybe Black Hole Edition will suck me in in 2018 (I'm sorry, this is a bad joke and probably mean to the devs.)

Kingdoms and Castles

In Kingdoms and Castles you can build Kingdoms and Castles. Well medium sized towns and castles anyway. I've actually looked three times to see if this game is in early access, but I don't think it is. The upside of Kingdoms and Castles is that it's pretty fun to build cities and make your little meeples happy, the downside is that there's really not much to the game. Fortunately the devs are continuing work and are adding new stuff to the game. I just hope they're able to expand the game without upsetting the existing fun.

The Good

A Hat in Time

I backed A Hat in Time on KickStarter a very long time ago, and I was pretty sure it was never going to actually come out. Fortunately it did, and it's actually good. As has been pretty widely discussed it's interesting that A Hat in Time finally made it out in a year with so many other 3D platformers, but I think the devs have done a very good job of focusing making a unique game that involves a lot of different elements.

I've played a lot of the first world and some of the second world. I have to confess to feeling a bit frustrated, but 3D platformers have never really been my genre. I think I need to sit down at some point soon and try to take the game as it comes so I can really see the whole thing together.

Seedship

Seedship was a very late in the year pickup for me, but a friend started playing it, and it caught my attention. You play the AI of a a ship containing the last remnants of humanity and you must find them the best place to live. It’s a Twine game and you play by making the best of whatever choice the game gives you. Games usually last for 5 to 30 minutes and end when you find the best option before your ship totally falls apart (or your ship totally falls apart). Then the game tells you how your humans faired after you landed them and then you play again.

What I particularly enjoy is that while the game is really “hard” to win, each game is interesting with new situations and new outcomes. Additionally unlike a lot of rogue-likes the decisions often tilt towards the player, so when you make a choice you have a good chance of getting a good outcome, but in the aggregate your ship always tends towards ruin.

The Great

Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild

I don’t think it should be too much of a surprise that I like Breath of the Wild. I’ve play ed211 hours of it by this point and it has all been really enjoyable. I think most of the things I wrote about when I summed up the game almost fifty hours ago stand and I think since then I’ve really gained an appreciation for the finesse and detail in their design. I’ve also gotten significantly better at the combat which has furthered my appreciation of the game.

I still miss larger dungeons and some of the story elements of older entries in the series, but Breath of the Wild is beautiful and stands on its own as an outstanding game. I think the level of trust it shows in its players is outstanding, and I think it demonstrates how passionate and skilled its creators are.

Rakuen

As I said in my write up on it, I’m biased, but I loved Rakuen. It feels like a SNES journey I took as a child, but dealing with grown up issues. The art is beautiful, the music is wonderful and the story is engaging. The game play is maybe a little thin on the ground but this game is focused elsewhere and that’s ok.

More diversity in games is good for games and for the people who play them. The more of the world we see and the more eyes we see the world through the richer we are. I’m thankful Laura Shigihara created Rakuen, spending four years on it and I feel richer for having played it.

Blog: Best Game of 2016

I've played 8 games that were released in 2016. In this post I'm going to talk about those 8 games, which ones I liked and which ones I didn't.

So, what were the 8 games I played this year? They were Bushido Bear (a mobile game from Spry Fox), Civilization VI, Halycon 6: Starbase Commander, Pokemon GO!, Rimworld, Starfox 0, Stardew Valley and XCOM 2. The one game that I missed in 2016, that I wanted to play, was Dishonored 2, but hopefully I'll catch up to that some time soon.

Its an interesting set of games and for the most part they were good games. Roughly I'd sort the  games I played into The Bad, The Okay, The Good and The Great. I'll talk about each of those now.

The Bad

Star Fox Zero

Star Fox Zero is the worst game I played this year (not just out of games made in 2016). Now I think I need to say first that if the control scheme clicks for me, I might take that back, but until then there wasn't much to redeem Star Fox Zero at all.

The controls are abysmal and unintuitive and sadly I don't think there's a good reason for them to be as difficult as they are. Nintendo gets into their gimmicks some times and I think that they let the gimmick override the game play. There's no reason for the single player to be this difficult to control especially when there are a lot of other good uses the game pad could have been put to. Sadly the game it self does nothing to support this, the missions (that I got to) are boring and repetitions of Starfox 64 (which they easily could have just done an HD version of). The characters and story are bland and boring and while you don't really look to Nintendo for the best story if nothing else is drawing you into a game then there's not much else.

On the positive I can only say that it's pretty, but Nintendo really got off in the wrong direction on this one.

Bushido Bear

Bushido Bear, from Spry Fox who is one of my favourite mobile/web developers is uninspired for the most part. I played it both on iPad and Android phone and just wasn't hooked. The mechanic of swipe to send your sword bear around isn't that compelling and none of the progression rewards seemed worth it. Tied with a limited energy monetization system, I just never felt like it was worth playing.

The Okay

Rimworld

Rimworld is a graphical Dwarf Fortress in beta. It's okay. The game is okay and the game is Dwarf Fortress. It's "fun". Sadly it lacks the charm of Dwarf Fortress while keeping the ick factor and its interface is rough. Maybe when it's released for real the interface will at least be cleaned up, but at the moment it wasn't compelling and didn't really scratch the Dwarf Fortress itch for me either.

The Good

Pokemon GO

I like Pokemon GO. It's fun, it encourages you to go out for a walk and for that little while it was awesome to see so many people out together playing the same game. The game is a little simple, but its satisfying (and compared to Bushido Bear it's a much more satisfying screen scribbler, if I may coin a genre), and the walking to find pokemon and pokestops is good and a good thing to do.

I've found myself hesitant to play quite a few times over the course of the year. This stems largely from the technical problems they've struggled with, although they do seem to have worked out how to make the game work now (and for a team as small as Niantic, I'm very impressed). That being said I would like it if the game could load faster (there's a pikachu, someone shouts and then I get to stare at the Niantic splash and the loading screen for the next five minutes. The other thing is that it would be nice if the game had some mechanic that didn't rely on your location, I may not always have the time (or inclination) to take a walk and it would be nice to have a reason to pick up the game.

XCOM 2

XCOM 2 is a lot of fun. It's the game I played the most this year. It's also really hard. The difficulty, especially the expanded added by the DLC, really holds the game back from being something that you just pick up and play (again I'm talking about a game I played for 88 hours this year). I think it's a great improvement over its predecessor and confidently divides the modern XCOM games from the originals (and the remakes) into a new style of gameplay (within a grid based tactics game).

It would be nice if the difficulty was a little more balanced, even while you're supposed to be underpowered, better alternate mechanics for stealth or hit-and-run might have made the story blend better with the mechanics. It's definitely good, but lacking a little bit to be great.

Halcyon 6: Starbase Command

I haven't played as much Halcyon 6 as I might have and I've liked what I played. It has an interesting mix of game play elements, jrpg style combat, XCOM style base building and adventure style decision making. It does seem to lack a little bit of depth or at least diversity in tactics but generally its been enjoyable and has been worth playing.

The Great

Civilization VI

As I mentioned in my Games of November post, Civ VI is the most nostalgic and best Civ game in a very long time. If games are a series of interesting decisions, they've increased the size of the series and the interestingness of the decisions. The game looks great, feels great (if a little slow) and rewards your time. I think it has some room to grow and get polished, but its the most fun I've had with a Civ game in a very very long time and I look forward to playing it for a long time to come.

Stardew Valley

Stardew Valley is my favourite game released in 2016. I've always loved Harvest Moon and Stardew Valley cleans up so many of the rough points in that series and improves on the genre beautifully. The chance to build your own farm and engage with a small town at your own pace is incredibly peaceful but still engaging and fun. The writing in the game is good and it doesn't shy away from difficult topics while not losing its own light-hearted tone.

The only complaint I have about Stardew Valley is that there isn't more of it. It feels almost as if it could be extended by programmatic event creation, but the strength of the game is just how well all of the interactions and events of the game are written. It would be sad to lose any of that, so instead I play it as slowly as I can an enjoy every minute of it (while I keep hoping for a new update from ConcernedApe). If you haven't played and you'd like a game that lets you farm at your own pace then I really recommend picking up Stardew Valley.

Blog: Video Games of September 2016

I started by second teaching gig in September and decided to try to be more organized in how I spend my time and more intentional in what I play. I also replayed Illusion of Gaia which is a game that still leaves me feeling a bit uncomfortable so it was a good time to be conscious about what I was doing while I played.

My top five games (by play time) for September were:

1. Illusion of Gaia - This is one of the games that I really remember from being a kid. First off because was easy to play and thematically it's a really really striking game. It's also terrifying, but I'm working on a separate post about that. Either way it was fun to get back to and a good game to sit down and play when I had time in the evenings.





2. Stardew Valley - I continued my slow playing of Stardew Valley and I really enjoy how fulfilling it is to play. I may yet hit the point where it starts to feel rote, but so far it still feel's pretty dynamic and fun.





3. Halcyon 6: Starbase Command - This is an interesting game. Part turn-based combat part management game / clicker. The game play is pretty good, although I haven't returned to it much since September and I think it has a bit of an imbalance in the difficulty. It feels like the enemies are either too difficult or too easy. The game may also just have too many moving parts, and I felt a little unsure what I was supposed to be doing. I'm sure if I played a little more I'd get a better feeling, but I just haven't felt compelled. Still I think if you haven't played it it's worth a look.





4. Cursed Treasure 2 - I really like tower defense games and this is a really good one. It was also a game that was easy to play at lunch time. I like the way the game is arranged in terms of the composition of the types of critters that come to attack you and I like that you get a chance to react when one of the critters makes it past your defenses. The ability tree system is also fun and every new ability you get lets you feel like you're sticking it to the bad guys ... er, good guys. Interesting to see that IriySoft has started work on Cursed Treasure 3 recently.





5. Civilization 5 - Have I mentioned that I'm really looking forward to Civ VI? (PS: I've played it now and it's excellent.)
   
   
   

   
   

Here's my total play time chart for September:

And here's my total number of times played:

And here's a chart of how much I've played over the month: