I mean, I really, really like Control. Despite playing it on console, where its role as a technology (and specifically ray tracing) demonstrator isn't accessible. Because I'm not paying hundreds of dollars for better lighting and worse framerates (also, I probably couldn't even if I wanted to). But I like Control because it reminds me a lot of Quantum Break but instead of a Remedy-dumb miniseries there's Remedy-dumb SPOOKY-ness. It is a Remedy-ass Remedy game.
I don't know if it's game of the year though. But I'm a terrible judge of this. I haven't even finished Control.
I haven't played Death Stranding. I'm still giggling at the Monster energy drink and pee mechanic.
I recorded a podcast last night and I think it would be safe to say that I spent about half of it defending Control from my co-hosts, who insist it's a 6/10 at best. All the little problems a Remedy game is heir to - a wacky, poorly-told story, a studio not entirely comfortable with Metroidvania/open-world design - just obliterated any enjoyment they could've had, but I'm very much on board with the notion that it is definitely one of the best games to drop in 2019. I loved it, for my part.
But I also think Days Gone is one of the best games to come out in 2019. And I think Sekiro is the most enjoyable game of the year, but the most interesting, original, ambitious, successful, well-executed game is... Death Stranding. Haters be damned.
Like Control, it has all the stupid problems a Hideo Kojima game is heir to - cringey treatment of female characters, a spectacularly high-concept story told very, very poorly by an artist whose ambitions as a filmmaker do not reflect their ability (see: David Cage) - and all the delights Kojima can provide. A very weird game. Profoundly original. Takes something so simple (move from A to and spins it out with infinite complexities and a level of refinement so obscene that it's like someone took Rick Sanchez's Perfect Level and applied its craftsmanship to game design and controls.
Step out of Death Stranding into any other game this year and suddenly you're not level. The world is tilted. Lambs to the cosmic slaughter.
Chance on
'Chance, you are the best kind of whore.' -Henroid
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jungleroomxIt's never too many graves, it's always not enough shovelsRegistered Userregular
I think Outer Wilds and Sekiro deserve it more than Death Stranding.
I spent 4 hours in that game and never enjoyed my time.
I think Outer Wilds and Sekiro deserve it more than Death Stranding.
I spent 4 hours in that game and never enjoyed my time.
Yeah, honestly, I think I'd rather give it to Outer Wilds than Control (and I couldn't fairly weigh Monster Energy Drink Stranding myself).
And I say this as someone who thinks the final leg of the gameplay experience in Dark Bramble--you know the one--is bullshit and should've been modified to be more in sync with the rest of the game's whimsical atmosphere (and, you know, fun). And that a lot of the clues->quest->goal aspects are too vague for their own good. But if I look at the game as a whole, considering it's modest scale and backing, its origins as an academic project, it really impresses me in a way that Control doesn't necessary. Death Stranding actually has quite a few clever tricks to hide the fact that it wasn't quite the bottomless money pit that you might expect for a Kojima Production (even if the landscape gets very same-y sooner or later), and I appreciate that too.
The fact that I 1000/1000 Outer Wilds, despite the tedium of some of those purely optional achievements (and the one non-optional achievement) is a ringing endorsement in of itself. "Indie" games seldom do that for me.
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jungleroomxIt's never too many graves, it's always not enough shovelsRegistered Userregular
I think Outer Wilds and Sekiro deserve it more than Death Stranding.
I spent 4 hours in that game and never enjoyed my time.
Yeah, honestly, I think I'd rather give it to Outer Wilds than Control (and I couldn't fairly weigh Monster Energy Drink Stranding myself).
And I say this as someone who thinks the final leg of the gameplay experience in Dark Bramble--you know the one--is bullshit and should've been modified to be more in sync with the rest of the game's whimsical atmosphere (and, you know, fun). And that a lot of the clues->quest->goal aspects are too vague for their own good. But if I look at the game as a whole, considering it's modest scale and backing, its origins as an academic project, it really impresses me in a way that Control doesn't necessary. Death Stranding actually has quite a few clever tricks to hide the fact that it wasn't quite the bottomless money pit that you might expect for a Kojima Production (even if the landscape gets very same-y sooner or later), and I appreciate that too.
The fact that I 1000/1000 Outer Wilds, despite the tedium of some of those purely optional achievements (and the one non-optional achievement) is a ringing endorsement in of itself. "Indie" games seldom do that for me.
Sekiro was an amazing experience for me. Yes it was difficult, but nailing a sequence of parries and dodges was by far my most satisfying experience behind a controller.
And the Guardian Ape and Sword Saint fights will live with my memories forever. Simply exquisite design and execution on those.
I think Outer Wilds and Sekiro deserve it more than Death Stranding.
I spent 4 hours in that game and never enjoyed my time.
Yeah, honestly, I think I'd rather give it to Outer Wilds than Control (and I couldn't fairly weigh Monster Energy Drink Stranding myself).
And I say this as someone who thinks the final leg of the gameplay experience in Dark Bramble--you know the one--is bullshit and should've been modified to be more in sync with the rest of the game's whimsical atmosphere (and, you know, fun). And that a lot of the clues->quest->goal aspects are too vague for their own good. But if I look at the game as a whole, considering it's modest scale and backing, its origins as an academic project, it really impresses me in a way that Control doesn't necessary. Death Stranding actually has quite a few clever tricks to hide the fact that it wasn't quite the bottomless money pit that you might expect for a Kojima Production (even if the landscape gets very same-y sooner or later), and I appreciate that too.
The fact that I 1000/1000 Outer Wilds, despite the tedium of some of those purely optional achievements (and the one non-optional achievement) is a ringing endorsement in of itself. "Indie" games seldom do that for me.
Sekiro was an amazing experience for me. Yes it was difficult, but nailing a sequence of parries and dodges was by far my most satisfying experience behind a controller.
And the Guardian Ape and Sword Saint fights will live with my memories forever. Simply exquisite design and execution on those.
I tried hard to like Sekiro. But then I realized I just really, really don't like the Dark Souls formula the way I like the Ninja Gaiden and Devil May Cry formula. Also, I took the "death failure" thing a little too personally due to a lack of information on the consequences.
It's definitely one of those "Try it again when it comes to Game Pass" games.
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jungleroomxIt's never too many graves, it's always not enough shovelsRegistered Userregular
I think Outer Wilds and Sekiro deserve it more than Death Stranding.
I spent 4 hours in that game and never enjoyed my time.
Yeah, honestly, I think I'd rather give it to Outer Wilds than Control (and I couldn't fairly weigh Monster Energy Drink Stranding myself).
And I say this as someone who thinks the final leg of the gameplay experience in Dark Bramble--you know the one--is bullshit and should've been modified to be more in sync with the rest of the game's whimsical atmosphere (and, you know, fun). And that a lot of the clues->quest->goal aspects are too vague for their own good. But if I look at the game as a whole, considering it's modest scale and backing, its origins as an academic project, it really impresses me in a way that Control doesn't necessary. Death Stranding actually has quite a few clever tricks to hide the fact that it wasn't quite the bottomless money pit that you might expect for a Kojima Production (even if the landscape gets very same-y sooner or later), and I appreciate that too.
The fact that I 1000/1000 Outer Wilds, despite the tedium of some of those purely optional achievements (and the one non-optional achievement) is a ringing endorsement in of itself. "Indie" games seldom do that for me.
Sekiro was an amazing experience for me. Yes it was difficult, but nailing a sequence of parries and dodges was by far my most satisfying experience behind a controller.
And the Guardian Ape and Sword Saint fights will live with my memories forever. Simply exquisite design and execution on those.
I tried hard to like Sekiro. But then I realized I just really, really don't like the Dark Souls formula the way I like the Ninja Gaiden and Devil May Cry formula. Also, I took the "death failure" thing a little too personally due to a lack of information on the consequences.
It's definitely one of those "Try it again when it comes to Game Pass" games.
Sekiro isn't a for-everyone thing, most definitely. Some people don't like punishing difficulty.
I will admit I came really close to hanging it up entirely when I got to Lady Butterfly and the fire bull.
But I pushed through and man, the game just clicked right then and I was a fucking terror. And I felt like a fucking terror.
Most years there's a Can-Reccomend-To-Anyone strong GotY contender. Insomniac's Spider-Man.
This year, all the best games are really quite niche, and you can't wholeheartedly thrust them towards anyone with confidence that they'll love it. Sekiro remains rock hard, Outer Worlds is slow-paced, meditative and perhaps a touch too short for a full-priced game. Control has design problems thanks to the growing pains of Remedy tackling a very ambitious new genre.
There is no Far Cry 3 in 2019, but there are a wealth of X-Com: Enemy Unknowns; excellent games whose reccomendations come with all kindsa' disclaimers and caveats. "Sekiro is the best combat you'll ever experience buuuuuut..."
'Chance, you are the best kind of whore.' -Henroid
Is Control really Remedy tackling a new genre though? Then again, I think design problems weren't so severe beyond "Okay, this kind of ran like shit on Playstation until they patched it."
Even with the difficulty I still want Sekiro to sweep this thing. The combat is so damn good, the story actually makes sense without having to read an entire wiki, and it is just an amazing game. I know it stands no chance of doing that but I can hope. I think it might be the only game that came out this year that I played so I might be biased.
Is Control really Remedy tackling a new genre though? Then again, I think design problems weren't so severe beyond "Okay, this kind of ran like shit on Playstation until they patched it."
Well it's taking something they're comfy with - third-person shooting through (mostly) linear levels - and opening it up with literal open-world design, Metroidvania aspects, strong platforming aspects, RPG aspects, loot drops, quest systems (really dropped the ball there, imo) - Control does a bunch of things that Remedy had never attempted in the past, and while I feel it's a great game overall, those growing pains really do hold it back when comparing it to Sekiro and Death Stranding, which are both supremely confident.
Chance on
'Chance, you are the best kind of whore.' -Henroid
Death Stranding has a mediocre metacritic because many people can't stand the gameplay. I didn't see critics slagging the game for looking bad or lacking an interesting story or not having an awesome (if mostly licensed) soundtrack. If you're busting out Metacritic as some kind of metric it can easily still deserve every award other than GotY.
That said its weird to cite Metacritic anyway because Metacritic isn't part of the nomination criteria. We should therefore absolutely expect games to sometime show up with less than impressive Metacritic scores.
Even with the difficulty I still want Sekiro to sweep this thing. The combat is so damn good, the story actually makes sense without having to read an entire wiki, and it is just an amazing game. I know it stands no chance of doing that but I can hope. I think it might be the only game that came out this year that I played so I might be biased.
82 on Metacritic isn't exactly "mediocre". Gears 5 was 85 (on Xbox One anyway), and Spiderman is 87.
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Johnny ChopsockyScootaloo! We have to cook!Grillin' HaysenburgersRegistered Userregular
Control is a wildly imperfect game that is tied for my personal GOTY (with Devil May Cry 5) because while it had lows, for me the highs were space elevators. My reasons are entirely arbitrary and specific to me, but Control feels like a game that was made for my brain.
I'm curious about Death Stranding, especially after hearing Pat from Castle Superbeast (formerly Two Beast Friends Play) talk about it.
At this point I just want Devil May Cry 5 to get some recognition. It's easily the most fun I've had with any game this year, and probably this generation. That game gives you so many fun tools spread between the 3 characters that I feel like I can just keep playing it forever. If it doesn't get action game of the year, especially with the other games in that category, I will be legitimately upset.
As for the actual Game of the Year nominees, I'd be good with pretty much any of the games on that list. Personally I enjoyed Death Stranding the most, for whatever reason I really got into the gameplay loop and found it really fun and satisfying, and I eat up bullshit Kojima dialog and cutscenes. Even though they overstay their welcome just a bit in Death Stranding.
I'm playing through Control right now, and while it's really fun it definitely isn't feeling like a game of the year to me, especially playing it on the base ps4. Lots of framerate dips during fights, and the fps will absolutely go to shit when there's too much happening with the physics and particles effects all at once. It's also probably had some of the most frustrating moments for me in a game this year, with a lot of lame deaths because I accidentally fell off a ledge during a fight or died from some random explosion or projectile that I couldn't even see in all the chaos. But so far the story and setting is super interesting and the special abilities are really, really cool. Game also has a great look.
Sekiro I would actually be kind of upset if it won. That game just can't keep my attention. The setting is one of the least interesting of the souls games, enemies aren't as interesting, combat can be fun but I don't actually enjoy the extreme focus on parrying. I don't know, I keep putting it down for months at a time, coming back and loving it for 10-15 hours and then just putting it down again. It's stealth elements also feel like they're about 3 generations behind. It also doesn't help that I played it after DMC5.
Johnny ChopsockyScootaloo! We have to cook!Grillin' HaysenburgersRegistered Userregular
edited December 2019
DMC5 I think kinda cursed itself by coming it so early in the year. In fact, I had to remind myself that it was a 2019 game because this year has felt simultaneously endless and short.
But it's so goddamn good and the only thing truly holding it back is the lack of character DLC that you just know Capcom is holding for the eventual Special Edition.
I think Control might just be my personal GOTY despite its many technical flaws, because the vibe and feeling it gave me from start to finish and even afterwards is something no other game has managed yet this year. It helps that The Oldest House is my favorite game setting since Rapture.
Ninja Snarl PMy helmet is my burden.Ninja Snarl: Gone, but not forgotten.Registered Userregular
Having played Death Stranding pretty extensively, pretty much the only thing it should be a contender for is best soundtrack (which is just a bunch of licensed tracks, with very little in the way of original compositions). Even if you don't mind that the gameplay is repetitive and shallow, it has major execution issues. The story is, well, it's pretty well-structured for Kojima writing, and lots of overblown nonsense compared to any decent writing. The pacing also sucks, with like a quarter of the story in the first handful of hours, ten percent for the next forty hours, and the remaining story (which is the bulk of it) dumped on you in an hours-long stretch with extended shitty gameplay bits that you must sit through and cannot skip. This ending also follows an extended gameplay sequence where you can end up with an EXTREMELY shitty time if you don't know what's coming and to build certain items.
It's an interesting experience, if the gameplay doesn't bore you to tears. Not much of a great game, though.
BRIAN BLESSEDMaybe you aren't SPEAKING LOUDLY ENOUGHHHRegistered Userregular
I also remembered there's an Ori and the Will of the Wisps trailer incoming for the show so nothing else matters if it's a sequence trailer like the Ginso Tree from Gamescom
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Johnny ChopsockyScootaloo! We have to cook!Grillin' HaysenburgersRegistered Userregular
My announcement wishlist
Titanfall 3
Alan Wake PS4 port (followed by AVAILABLE NOW)
DMC5 playable Vergil, Lady, and Trish
Persona 5 The Royal on Switch
Yakuza Zero on Switch
immediately followed by Kiryu in Smash trailer
Personally I'm a little annoyed Smash Bros. didn't get a nod in music -- that sucker has over 900 songs with a stupid amount of (excellent) remixes. Just something to recognize the effort.
Posts
The freshest of takes! Too hot to handle, too cold to hold, in fact!
Plus Control is actually a game
I don't know if it's game of the year though. But I'm a terrible judge of this. I haven't even finished Control.
I haven't played Death Stranding. I'm still giggling at the Monster energy drink and pee mechanic.
But I also think Days Gone is one of the best games to come out in 2019. And I think Sekiro is the most enjoyable game of the year, but the most interesting, original, ambitious, successful, well-executed game is... Death Stranding. Haters be damned.
Like Control, it has all the stupid problems a Hideo Kojima game is heir to - cringey treatment of female characters, a spectacularly high-concept story told very, very poorly by an artist whose ambitions as a filmmaker do not reflect their ability (see: David Cage) - and all the delights Kojima can provide. A very weird game. Profoundly original. Takes something so simple (move from A to
Step out of Death Stranding into any other game this year and suddenly you're not level. The world is tilted. Lambs to the cosmic slaughter.
I spent 4 hours in that game and never enjoyed my time.
That sequence alone should get them a ton of awards.
Yeah, honestly, I think I'd rather give it to Outer Wilds than Control (and I couldn't fairly weigh Monster Energy Drink Stranding myself).
And I say this as someone who thinks the final leg of the gameplay experience in Dark Bramble--you know the one--is bullshit and should've been modified to be more in sync with the rest of the game's whimsical atmosphere (and, you know, fun). And that a lot of the clues->quest->goal aspects are too vague for their own good. But if I look at the game as a whole, considering it's modest scale and backing, its origins as an academic project, it really impresses me in a way that Control doesn't necessary. Death Stranding actually has quite a few clever tricks to hide the fact that it wasn't quite the bottomless money pit that you might expect for a Kojima Production (even if the landscape gets very same-y sooner or later), and I appreciate that too.
The fact that I 1000/1000 Outer Wilds, despite the tedium of some of those purely optional achievements (and the one non-optional achievement) is a ringing endorsement in of itself. "Indie" games seldom do that for me.
Sekiro was an amazing experience for me. Yes it was difficult, but nailing a sequence of parries and dodges was by far my most satisfying experience behind a controller.
And the Guardian Ape and Sword Saint fights will live with my memories forever. Simply exquisite design and execution on those.
I tried hard to like Sekiro. But then I realized I just really, really don't like the Dark Souls formula the way I like the Ninja Gaiden and Devil May Cry formula. Also, I took the "death failure" thing a little too personally due to a lack of information on the consequences.
It's definitely one of those "Try it again when it comes to Game Pass" games.
Sekiro isn't a for-everyone thing, most definitely. Some people don't like punishing difficulty.
I will admit I came really close to hanging it up entirely when I got to Lady Butterfly and the fire bull.
But I pushed through and man, the game just clicked right then and I was a fucking terror. And I felt like a fucking terror.
This year, all the best games are really quite niche, and you can't wholeheartedly thrust them towards anyone with confidence that they'll love it. Sekiro remains rock hard, Outer Worlds is slow-paced, meditative and perhaps a touch too short for a full-priced game. Control has design problems thanks to the growing pains of Remedy tackling a very ambitious new genre.
There is no Far Cry 3 in 2019, but there are a wealth of X-Com: Enemy Unknowns; excellent games whose reccomendations come with all kindsa' disclaimers and caveats. "Sekiro is the best combat you'll ever experience buuuuuut..."
I see you bobby browning this, I SEE YOU!
pleasepaypreacher.net
Steam: TheArcadeBear
Redundant
PSN:Furlion
Well it's taking something they're comfy with - third-person shooting through (mostly) linear levels - and opening it up with literal open-world design, Metroidvania aspects, strong platforming aspects, RPG aspects, loot drops, quest systems (really dropped the ball there, imo) - Control does a bunch of things that Remedy had never attempted in the past, and while I feel it's a great game overall, those growing pains really do hold it back when comparing it to Sekiro and Death Stranding, which are both supremely confident.
That said its weird to cite Metacritic anyway because Metacritic isn't part of the nomination criteria. We should therefore absolutely expect games to sometime show up with less than impressive Metacritic scores.
Hear hear. Sekiro MVP.
Twitch: KoopahTroopah - Steam: Koopah
I'm curious about Death Stranding, especially after hearing Pat from Castle Superbeast (formerly Two Beast Friends Play) talk about it.
Steam ID XBL: JohnnyChopsocky PSN:Stud_Beefpile WiiU:JohnnyChopsocky
Switch - SW-7373-3669-3011
Fuck Joe Manchin
Eh, I bet there's no new Halo trailer.
I wouldn't be surprised if there was a 'Coming Soon' for the next available release in the Master Chief Collection.
Twitch: KoopahTroopah - Steam: Koopah
But the Ghostbusters AREN'T in Control!
As for the actual Game of the Year nominees, I'd be good with pretty much any of the games on that list. Personally I enjoyed Death Stranding the most, for whatever reason I really got into the gameplay loop and found it really fun and satisfying, and I eat up bullshit Kojima dialog and cutscenes. Even though they overstay their welcome just a bit in Death Stranding.
I'm playing through Control right now, and while it's really fun it definitely isn't feeling like a game of the year to me, especially playing it on the base ps4. Lots of framerate dips during fights, and the fps will absolutely go to shit when there's too much happening with the physics and particles effects all at once. It's also probably had some of the most frustrating moments for me in a game this year, with a lot of lame deaths because I accidentally fell off a ledge during a fight or died from some random explosion or projectile that I couldn't even see in all the chaos. But so far the story and setting is super interesting and the special abilities are really, really cool. Game also has a great look.
Sekiro I would actually be kind of upset if it won. That game just can't keep my attention. The setting is one of the least interesting of the souls games, enemies aren't as interesting, combat can be fun but I don't actually enjoy the extreme focus on parrying. I don't know, I keep putting it down for months at a time, coming back and loving it for 10-15 hours and then just putting it down again. It's stealth elements also feel like they're about 3 generations behind. It also doesn't help that I played it after DMC5.
But it's so goddamn good and the only thing truly holding it back is the lack of character DLC that you just know Capcom is holding for the eventual Special Edition.
I think Control might just be my personal GOTY despite its many technical flaws, because the vibe and feeling it gave me from start to finish and even afterwards is something no other game has managed yet this year. It helps that The Oldest House is my favorite game setting since Rapture.
Steam ID XBL: JohnnyChopsocky PSN:Stud_Beefpile WiiU:JohnnyChopsocky
It's an interesting experience, if the gameplay doesn't bore you to tears. Not much of a great game, though.
This will be here until I receive an apology or Weedlordvegeta get any consequences for being a bully
~12 hours from now.
Titanfall 3
Alan Wake PS4 port (followed by AVAILABLE NOW)
DMC5 playable Vergil, Lady, and Trish
Persona 5 The Royal on Switch
Yakuza Zero on Switch
immediately followed by Kiryu in Smash trailer
Also I hope they have a look at Control's DLC.
Steam ID XBL: JohnnyChopsocky PSN:Stud_Beefpile WiiU:JohnnyChopsocky