My 2021 in gaming

The year 2021 was a rather disappointing year in gaming for me. I did not play as many games (either old or new) nor did I not put as much effort into my YouTube channel (only really doing my Daily LongPlay streams). I also went for at least 2 full months without putting out content of any kind. There were a number of games I was looking forward to that were delayed into 2022 or later. I am hoping for a much better year in 2022, but while it is still in my mind let me take another look back at My 2021 Year in Gaming and touch on the new and old games I did play through as well as the new pieces of hardware I bought.  

New Games

I managed to play through (for the most part) 5 new games in 2021. I am including Scarlet Nexus in this list as a bonus game as I did not finish it last year nor have I finished it as of this posting. 

1. Halo Infinite 

After a year long delay from being an Xbox Series X launch title I finally got to play Halo Infinite's campaign and it is a good one at that. This Halo is placed in a kind of Open-World setting similar in feel to the second mission from the first Halo back on the original Xbox. It environment is nowhere near as large as what you will find in the likes of Zelda: Breath of the Wild but it is quite large and offers many of the usual open world tropes and collectables. Halo Infinite may be my favorite in the series since that OG Xbox launch title. It does not feature Ground breaking graphics or that interesting of a story but it does look good and has interesting characters and plenty of amusing dialogue (especially the grunts). It did take me a lot longer to get through the story mode of this Halo than the previous games but it is well worth it. If you have Game Pass this game is the reason you have this service. If you do not have Game pass then get it or just buy this game, you will not regret it.  

2. The Ascent 

I have been able to give plenty of games a try that I would otherwise not have even considered before because of my Game Pass subscription. One such game is The Ascent, a top down twin joystick style action RPG set in a Dystopian Cyberpunk future. The Ascent is very much a looter shooter as there are always new guns, armor and augments to pick up as you go everywhere guns blazing.  The Ascent is also one really good looking game with a great setting and atmosphere. The story is nothing worth writing home about but it does feature a few memorable characters with some good dialogue, much of it fully voiced. The game is a bit tough in the beginning but it is a good looking fun to play game that I highly recommended.   

3. Octopath Traveler 

One of the games I was considering buying a Nintendo Switch for Octopath Traveler was released last year for the Xbox and was added to Game Pass, thus allowing me to play it without the need for additional hardware. Octopath Traveler is a Retro 16 bit style JRPG that has you picking from a cast of 8 characters and going through 4 chapters with each of them. You can beat the game and see end credits by just completing the 4 for your main character but it is much easier if you do the others as well, otherwise you will spend too much time grinding. It did take me a long time to play though the game this way though. After a while the chapters do get a bit formulaic and predictable. There are optional side quest as well that I did not do for the most part because they were too high level and I felt like I got plenty of game from the 8 main quests. Octopath Traveler is one good looking game, it looks like they took a 16 bit style RPG and layered a lot of modern effects over them to great effect. If you have played a lot of games like this in recent years, Octopath Traveler probably won't impress much but as someone who has not I found it quite enjoyable and I would recommend giving it a try. 

4. Persona 5 Strikers

After a long play through (130 hours roughly) of Persona 5 Royal back in late 2020 one might think I was "Persona-ed" out. I was as it turns out, ready for more as I picked up and played through Persona 5 Strikers when that game came out early last year. A couple of quick notes, P5S is a sequel to Persona 5, not P5R and as such non of the characters or story introduced in that game are featured in it. The game also does not take any of your choices or relationships into account from Persona 5. P5S is a Action RPG set directly after the events of P5 and features a real time combat system that is inspired by those of the Dynasty Warriors series. Overall I would say is about 80% a Persona game as the story, character interactions, over world design and most of the gameplay systems are straight form a standard Persona game. That is rather to the game's detriment in the case of the combat system as the elemental aspects have not been toned down to a more manageable level for an action game (there is still 8 different elements, just like in P5). It becomes too much if all you really want is more Persona story and thankfully that story is good and well told. Persona 5 Strikers is a good game overall but I would recommend dropping the difficulty to its lowest level for maximum enjoyment. 

5. Control Ultimate Edition 

My favorite game from 2019 received an updated release in 2021 in the form of Control Ultimate edition that was enhanced for the Xbox Series X. This edition came with the DLC and supported either a 60 FPS mode or added Ray-Tracing (which is what I used) at 30 FPS. The next gen version of Control was not quite the visual upgrade from what I played in 2019 on the Xbox One X. The resolution was still 1440p and the frame rate was still 30 FPS in Ray Tracing mode. RTX support and more consistent frame rate seemed to be the only improvements from being played on the Series X that I noticed. The DLC was good for the most part, (I liked the Alan Wake stuff) but it was not as good as the base game content. It did feature a really annoying boss fight at the end of one of them. The big take away I had was my second play through of the main content was not as enjoyable as the first time. I guess that means that Control is not a good game for repeated play throughs. If you have not played Control before I would suggest getting this version if you have one of the new systems (but don't have a better PC) Control is still an awesome game on its own merit. 

Bonus Scarlet Nexus (In Progress)

A game I tried in Demo form earlier in the year and was not that interested in back then Came to Game Pass and I gave it another go, for which I am glad I did. That game is Scarlet Nexus and it is basically a cross between a Devil May Cry action game with Persona style Story Telling. To put it another way, this game feels like a better approach to what Persona 5 Strikers tried to do. While the story and characters are not as good as in P5S, the Combat is much better as it is more streamlined and rewarding.  Scarlet Nexus has a striking aesthetic that is like a mix between dystopian Cyberpunk, the Limbo sections of D.M.C. 2013, and Phantasy Star Online. The enemies are quite bizarre looking and varied as are many of the environments. Scarlet Nexus features two separate stories with different protagonist that run concurrently that you must play through both of to get the full story. As of this posting I am still playing this game but so far I would recommend it, especially if you have Game Pass.

Old Games

Halo MCC and Halo 5 Guardians

In preparation for the release of Halo Infinite I decided to play through all of the Halo Master Chief Collection and Halo 5 Guardians to re-acquaint myself with what is perhaps my all time favorite Video Game Series. This was a project that started in 2020 but took place mostly in 2021 and was something I did in between larger games that I streamed as a sort of pallet cleanser. The only game in the collection I had not finished before was Halo 3: ODST which while was a rather different experience that yet sill pretty much felt like Halo to me. For me, all of the games were good but Halo 1 and 4 stood out the most in my memory. Halo 4 held up much better than I remembered and being a late Xbox 360 game it almost looked like a launch tile Xbox One game, which it probably should have been. Halo 1 is still the best in the series and is likely one of the greatest games ever made. I enjoyed my "Year of Halo" and I am glad I was able to be ready for the release of Halo Infinite. 

Cross Code/ A New Home DLC

I rang in the year 2021 by playing through and awesome 2D Zelda meets a twin joystick shooter game called Cross code and I was able to play the DLC "A New Home" this past summer as well. I had to purchase the game in order to do so as it had left Game Pass at that point. I was okay with this as I felt like I was supporting the game studio that made this Awesome game. While there are quite annoying difficulty spikes in the combat and some really hard puzzles in the Temples, I strongly recommend Cross Code and its DLC for anyone who like the 2D Legend of Zelda games or Retro games in general. If I had finished Cross Code in 2020 it would have been 2nd on my games of the year list. 

Hardware

New Desktop PC

My plans to upgrade my Desktop that I built in 2016 with on of the shiny new RTX 3000 series GPUs never became a realistic option in 2021 and with the now aged Core I7-6700k I was rocking I decided I would be better off getting a whole new PC. I ordered a prebuilt system with a new Core I7-1200K with and RTX 3060ti, 32 GB of RAM, a 1TB M2 SSD and a 6 TB HDD. Sadly there were no options to include an internal optical disc drive despite how massive the case is. I know the 3060ti is not really meant for 4K but it would have been an extra $300 to upgrade to a 3070 so I decided I would upgrade the GPU on this machine in the future when hopefully they are more available (and maybe the RTX 4000 series will be out by then). I had difficulty with Windows 11 not liking my capture card so I swapped the M2 drive that the PC came with with the better 2TB drive I added to my old computer , bringing along the more stable Windows 10 and all of my programs and settings as well. This new Rig will hopefully make it possible for me to stream some 4K Emulation with Cemu and others as well as maybe some VR stuff as the old GTX 1060 could not handle that one time I tried to stream Moss on Easter Sunday. 

C64 Maxi

I am not really sure why I wanted the C64 Maxi, the full sized replica of the famous Commodore 64 that is basically and emulation machine. When the C64 mini was announced and released I remember thinking that I wish it were bigger with a working keyboard and maybe when that was announced I felt obligated to get one because I said I wanted it. I have no experience with the 8-bit computer that this is emulating and only really know of it thanks to my binging videos from 8-Bit Guy, LGR and Techmoan. Regardless I bough one when they finally became available. The C64 Maxi is a neat system. I feel like I could try to learn BASIC with this and figure out how to write those type in programs that I missed out on because I was not born yet when the original system came out. I also feel like this could have been a waste of money as I only really used it that one stream I did of it last year and had trouble just using the keyboard just to type. I'm not sure I can use this much for my You Tube channel but I do still like it. 

Analogue Pocket (Ordered) 

After missing out on the initial pre-order phase for the Analogue Pocket FPGA based Handheld system I ordered one when the pre-ordering came back on December 14. I was johnny on the spot with placing my order but I still won't receive my unit until Q4 2022. I ordered the black system with the Dock, the Game Gear adapter and the plastic carrying case. I am going to use this as a way of streaming Gameboy, Gameboy Color, Gameboy Advance and Game Gear games in the future instead of trying to get a Game Cube with the GBA adapter. This Analogue Pocket is supposed to have a really nice LCD screen that is 10x the resolution of the original Game Boy. I plan on doing some kind of initial stream of this system when I get it (whenever that is) but in the meantime all I can do is wait. 

Closing

Like I stated at the beginning of this post, 2021 was a pretty disappointing year for me in Gaming. I did not play or stream as many game as I did in previous years nor did I get to man of the games as I wanted to (partially due to so many games being delayed). I scaled back on my streaming and I went for two months without and streaming at all. I am hoping for a better year in gaming for me (and everyone else) in 2022 but I am going to have to put in more work on my part to make it happen. 

Previewing my 2021 in Gaming

Once again I find myself at the start of a new year trying to plan out what I think my year in gaming is going to be like. I have my usual collection of games both new and old that I am interested in playing as well as pieces of hardware that I would like to buy. A number of the games an items are very much up in the air as to when or even if in 2021 that they will come out. In addition there is also the matter of availability to purchase new and interesting hardware in an age where robots and scalpers are buying everything and reselling it at a very high markup. This post is probably more aspirational than practical but with that being said, here is the list. 

New Games

• Control Ultimate Edition (Series X, Feb 2)

Control was my top game on 2019 but I felt shorted in my play through of it due to wanting to rush through so I could play Gears 5 when that game came out. As such I have wanted to revisit Control almost since I beat it. The release of the two DLC expansions as well as the Next Generation update which will include higher resolutions, better framerates and even Ray Tracing provided me with the perfect excuse. I am not a fan of having to buy the "Ultimate Edition" to get said update as it should have been free to the version I already had. With that said I scored said "Ultimate Edition" on a Black Friday Sale for $20 and traded in my physical copy to a local used game store for $16. I do feel pretty good for getting the next gen version and two pieces of DLC contend for basically $5.   

• Persona 5 Strikers (PS4, Feb 21)

I had stated at the end of my play through of Persona 5 Royal that I was not interested in Persona 5 Strikers being a Dynasty Warriors style of game. I  am also put off by the idea of a game that does not feature the Social Linking of a "Real" Persona game and reduces the characters the one note everyone remembers about them (thus making them more one dimensional). Finally there is that this is a sequel to Persona 5, not Persona 5 Royal so it will not feature the new characters  to that version of the game. With all of the stuff being said I am interested in this game because of the preview footage saying it is much closer to a Persona Game that I though it would be and it looks like it could be good as well.  Persona 5 Strikers will also be relativity short (about 40 hours) making me much more willing to give it a chance (not to mention my lack of much else in the new game department for 2021). I am concerned that ATLUS might put streaming restrictions that would prevent me from doing a full playthrough on my You Tube Channel when Persona 5 Strikers comes out  in late February. Regardless, I am now leaning in favor of playing it

• CrossCode DLC (Series X, Early 2021)

I gave CrossCode a try because it was on Game Pass and it looked neat. I did not expect to end up doing a full playthrough of it and I certainty did not plan to buy any story DLC for this Retro-Bit Action RPG. The fact that I am now eagerly awaiting the arrival of said DLC (sometime in early 2021) says a lot of how I feel about CrossCode. I am not sure where this DLC is going to take the game (although I do have an idea) but I am willing to go wherever CrossCode takes me. I just hope it comes out between my playthroughs of other games so I can jump in as soon as possible.    

• Mass Effect Legendary Edition (Series X, June) 

The Mass Effect Trilogy was one of the Xbox 360 series I felt bad about missing completely when they came out. I played a little bit of the first game (I stopped shortly after the first Mako sequence) and never came back to it. I am including this compilation of the 3 main Mass Effect games more as a possibility than a probability due to my concern about stuff like the Mako stuff in the first game not being improved (or removed)  and how long of an endeavor playing through all three of those games would be. At this point my lists for 2021 is so sparse and uncertain that I could go either way. 

• Halo Infinite (Series X, Fall 2021)

Halo Infinite is the one New Game I will play this year (Assuming it does come out in 2021 that is). I have played through Halos 1-5 (both in original release and the Master Chief Collection) and Halo Reach so it was a forgone conclusion I will get and play this game when it comes out. I was unconcerned about the graphics of the game footage when Halo Infinite was shown off because I never came to Halo as a graphics powerhouse but I do hope they make improvements to the visuals because I would like to have something pretty and new to play on my new system (the Xbox Series X). 

• GTA V (Series X, 2021)

I played and enjoyed Grand Theft Auto v "back in the day" when it came out in 2013 on the Xbox 360, where I did finish the story and saw credits roll. I also bought the Xbox One version and played a little of that but never finished it. At the dawn of another console generation we now have another new version of this 8 year old 360 game and it is on my list of possible game pickups for 2021. I know it makes be a bad person that I am even considering buying this game for a third time but with this year being so slim on new games I am interested in, here it is on my list. I  should say in my defense that the Xbox One version never got a patch to support the Xbox One X so I did not get to see it in 4K. I am also hoping for some fancy stuff like Ray Tracing or Mod support. I strangely do want to play through GTA V again as I do have fond memories of the story and gameplay but I am worried about the licensed soundtrack and my ability to stream the game with it without a Copyright strike (an option to disable such songs to make it streaming friendly would be nice, the way quantum Break did). I am uncertain as to how series my interest in a new version of GTA V is, I will have to wait to see where I am in my streaming schedule when this game comes out. 

• Horizon Forbidden West (PS4, 2021)

The first game I did a play through stream with my current format was Horizon: Zero Dawn on the PS4. The first Horizon game was also the first game I got for that system (it came it came with my PS4 Pro). I very much enjoyed playing the first Horizon game even though I can't remember much of the story of it. I am able to play the sequel because it is coming out on the PS4 and while it will not be as good looking as the PS5 version (at least I do have a PS4 Pro). I do want to play Horizon: Forbidding West when it comes out but as there is no firm release date I may not be able to get to it when it comes out pending on my streaming schedule when it does. 

• Cuphead DLC (Series X, 2021)

Cuphead was my favorite game of 2017 and one of my favorites of the generation. Needless to say, I have been hotly anticipating the release of the Delicious Last Course, which is DLC for Cuphead. The Delicious Last Course was supposed to come out in 2020 but has been delayed to this year (for the moment). I rather doubt that the Delicious Last Course is coming out in 2021 but I will play that whenever it does come out as Cuphead is awesome and I want more of it. 

• Cyberpunk 2077 (Series X, 2021)

How does a game that cam out last year show up on my list of new games for 2021 that I am interested in? When that game did not really come out in 2020 and the real version (as in Series X version) is scheduled to come out in 2021. At this point I have no idea if I am going to get Cyberpunk 2077. I don't even know if the next gen patch will even get released as the company (CD Project Red) may go under before then. I don't even know if I want to get this game but it is on this list because I am still interested in this game for some reason. I will be keeping an eye out for when (or if) the Series X patch comes out and if Cyberpunk 2077 gets other improvements and fixes in the meantime. 

Old Games

• Persona 4 Golden (Steam)

I played through the original release of Persona 4 for the PS2 back in 2009 as well as about half of the Vita version of Persona 4 Golden back in 2013. I also recently did a full play through of Persona 5 for the PS4 that took about 140 hours. One would think that I would be a little "persona-ed out at this point but not only do I plan on likely playing Persona 5 Strikers but I also want to do a fully playthrough of Persona 4 Golden that I recently got on sale from steam. I know there there is a decent amount of content added to the Golden version of Persona 4 and I only saw a little bit of it when I played it on the Vita, as such I think that fact with how long it has been is a good reason to give it a go this year. I am concerned about playing a game on the same PC that I am streaming on in terms of performance and stability (not to mention the effects my weird  multi-monitor setup has on it) but I think that a game  as un-taxing as this should also be a good test case for the viability of PC game based streaming in the future for my channel. I just have to make sure I pick a large open time of the year to do such play through because like Persona 5 Royal, Persona 4 Golden is going to be another 100+ game. 

• The Legend of Zelda Windwaker HD (WiiU)

Last year I finally beat my first 3D Legend of Zelda game with Twilight Princess HD on the WiiU. This year I want to keep that beating 3D Zelda game train rolling with the other big HD recent remake The Legend of Zelda Windwaker HD on the WiiU. I played a decent amount of this game on the Dolphin emulator but I got stuck and never went back. This time I plan on getting a Prima style strategy guide to make sure I do not get stuck again but am able to see the end of it. Windwaker was a game I was very dismissive of when it came out because I felt like it was doing a me to with the Cell-Shaded graphics at a time when it seemed like a fad. Now that I am older I know better and what is more I think the visuals of that game look better in HD than they did in SD on those old CRT. My concerns are about getting stuck again (hence the guide I need to track down a physical copy of) and how long of a game it will be considering how many other long games I am looking at this year. 

• Halo MCC and Halo 5 Guardians

I started my play through of the Master Chief Collection last year with the intention of getting caught up with what is likely my all time favorite game series in advance of the next game Halo Infinite coming out. Then said Halo game got delayed a year an my 2020 plan is now my 2021 plan. Regardless I am still going to make my way through the remaining Halo MCC games and Halo 5 Guardians to make sure I am ready for the next game when ever it comes out. I am using these games as sort of a palate cleanser between other bigger games (like between Persona 5 Royal and CrossCode last year).  

• Half-Life Alex

Half-Life (don't call it 3) Alex was a game I wanted to get last year but due to the GPU on my desktop meeting the bare minimum specs I decided to wait until I got one of them fancy RTX 3000 GPUs which turned out to be impossible for me. I still want to get this game and I still want to upgrade my GPU but at this point that may not be possible this year. I include Half-Life Alex on this list as more of a hope (or even a dream) then an actual plan but we will see. 

• Gears Tactics 

I was very into the idea of an X-Com style turned based strategy game set in the Gears of War universe when it was announced at E3 a few years ago. That game is actually out now, on game pass and even on my Xbox but I have not had the motivation to play it nor has Gears Tactics been much in my conscious. Regardless I still want to do a full play through of this newest Gears game I just need to find a good time of this year to do so.  

Hardware

• RTX 3000 GPU or New Desktop Build

I still have money saved up and set aside for an upgrade to my Desktop's GPU that I want to spend on a new RTX 3000 series GPU (ideally a 3080) but I am unwilling to spend above MSRP as I do NOT want to support scalpers. As such I am willing to wait until supply becomes more available. The big thing for me is at this point my I7 6700k is no spring chicken either and in order to upgrade that I need a new mother board and possible a new case to fit all of this stuff. I may just end up building a new Desktop carrying a few of the components (such as the Liquid CPU cooler and the 2TB M2-SSD) and going new on almost everything else. Even if I go down that route I need to have even more patience as CPUs have become rare in this day in age as well. I will also have to save up some more money as my GPU fund will not cover a new PC build. I still have some decisions to make in this regard. 

• Super Switch

I have been interested in getting a Nintendo Switch but I have always wanted to wait for the best version of the system. I understand that the rumors of a "Super Switch" coming out this year are stronger than ever and as such I will once again wait. This upgrade is supposed to have extra hardware in the Dock that allows it to output 4K and it will have better battery life as well. Much like everything else even slightly interesting that is tech related I expect if/when such a system comes out it will be impossible to buy at MSRP. I might get on the ball about ordering it as soon as it is possible (like I did with the Xbox Series X last year) but I am not counting on it. I am willing to wait though as I do not want a Switch mini (no output to TV means no go) and me being a graphics whore with a big fancy  OLED TV I want my 4K. When Nintendo releases such a system upgrade I will make an attempt to purchase it and then I will have plenty of switch exclusives to play and feature on my channel.  

• OSSC Pro

I have been using and Open Source Scan Converter for a few years on my channel now and I recently heard of the existence of the OSSC Pro which is expected to feature support for Composite and S-Video built in as well as some kind of FPGA based system emulation similar to a MiSTer. I have been at least somewhat interested in the MiSTer  but I would much rather have such functionality in a device I would get anyway (limited HDMI inputs on my Receiver and all). I also like the lager foot print with more direct ports removing the need for breakout cables for audio and being a more stable box that I have a bunch of heavy duty cords plugged into. I have no reason to believe that the OSSC Pro is coming out this year but the shortness of this list means I have to include it here. 

Conclusion 

There is an awful lot of TBAs and maybes on list of games and hardware for 2021. I do not really have a big list of new or old games I am interest in for this year but many of them are long ones so they should still take up plenty of my time. I am hoping that the recent hardware shortages can be lessened at some point this year as there is some stuff I do want to get. I should also keep an open mind about the unexpected as far as new games as I never know when I might want to "step out of my comfort zone" and try something new. The bottom line is that  while I hope for a good year in gaming for 2021 at this point it is unrealistic for me to expect one. 

My 2020 in Gaming

With 2020 coming to a close I though it would be a good time to do my year in Gaming, just like I have in previous years. I rarely post to my blog so when I do I try to make it at least somewhat worthwhile. Even though for various reasons (obvious and otherwise) 2020 has been a difficult and bizarre year I still had a decent one for both new and old games and even a few hardware purchases. Come join me as I recap some of the highlights of my 2020 in gaming. 

My Top 5 Games of 2020

I did not play quite as many "New" games in 2020 as I did in 2019 nor did I take as many risks in the ones that I did finish but I did enough to assemble a top 5 list here as well as a bonus game.

5. Ghost of Tsushima

Ghost of Tsushima was not a game that I had planned to play in 2020 but the timing of its release shorty after I completed another game listed further here as well as some decent reviews and previews convinced me to give it a try anyway. While I did enjoy the game overall there were some rather unfortunate forced stealth missions (with one really bad one where for story reasons you can't take out any of the guards). I prefer when stealth is optional and beneficial and I always hate it when stealth is forced. As an open world game Ghost of Tsushima does have a decent variety of missions and side activities.  The controls and combat systems work quite well and allow for a good amount of customization although the number of outfits you have on hand does become to much to keep track of at a point. Most of the main story missions and side story quests were interesting enough to keep me engaged but the content of the story itself very interesting and the ending is quite weak. The visuals of this game are top notch, for the most part. The landscapes always look like something from a painting in an art gallery they are that good. This is not a game I want to go back to but for what its worth I did enjoy my time playing through Ghosts of Tsushima. 

4. Doom Eternal

Bigger, Longer, Louder, and Harder are words that can describe Doom Eternal in comparing in to the previous game a.k.a. Doom 2016. Doom eternal takes that last game and adds stuff life much more elaborate platforming sequences and amps up the difficulty by a lot. If you had trouble with Doom 2016 you will struggle mightily with Doom Eternal. For my part there were many battles (especially near the end) where I had to repeat battles many times. I did find that struggle rewarding though (for the most part) and by the end even though I was struggling I always felt like I could figure it out and get through it. The Story of Doom Eternal for me never really existed and I am okay with that as this is not the game to come for to get story from. Doom Eternal is one big combat puzzle that is always throwing new enemies that often get introduced as boss but then turn to more regular enemies that you some times have to fight more than one of at a time. Doom Eternal is a hard but rewarding game. If you like Doom 2016 you will most probably like this one as well. 

3. The Last of Us Part 2

I very much enjoyed playing through the first Last of Us back in the day but I had a very difficult time in that first area (Boston). I struggled so much so that I had to stop playing for a while and force myself to go back and finish it. I am glad I did go back and I can say that the second game The Last of Us part 2 is a much easier and more approachable game than the first one, even in the stealthy parts. I was able to make my way through most if the game without much difficulty (I was playing on Normal for the record) and only struggled with one really annoying boss that was a big bullet/damage sponge. Looking back the big thing I remember about the story is that Elie (the main protagonist) is kind of a jerk (understandably so) and she just winds up making things worse for everyone at the end of the day. There are some cool moments in the game (including flash back scenes) and an interesting use of the PS4's very underused touchpad. The Last of Us part 2 is also an impressive looking game, despite lacking in color (understandable in the post apocalypses) and portrays a world that looks quite destroyed. One of my favorite scenes involve a scripted walk/ drive through an abandoned NFL stadium in Seattle that has been turned into a survivors camp that had a lot of neat detail that I really enjoyed. I am glad a played through the Last of Us part 2 and if you have played the first one you owe it to yourself to play this one as well. 

2. Persona 5 Royal

I watched the Giant Bomb Endurance Run of Persona 4 for the PS2 back in 2009 and was so inspired by it that I bought a copy of the game and played it on an emulator (I did not have a PS2) to completion (over taking Giant Bomb) while continuing to watch the said play through. Needles to say that game had a big impact on me in the year 2009. When Persona 5 came out I was uninterested in it due to that lack of the characters I had found memories of from Persona 4. When Persona 5 Royal was announced as an updated version I started to consider getting it, which lead to me actually getting it and doing a fully 140 hour play through of this game that only a couple of years ago I was steadfast in my refusal to get. Persona 5 Royal is a better game than Persona 4 from almost every possible perspective with better graphics, a more slick and usable menu system, more meaningful story content, more characters and more customization of everything. With that being said I spent the entire time comparing characters and moments to stuff from Persona 4 and I feel like I could never appreciate the game on its own terms. I also came to the thought that although better that Persona 4, Persona 5 Royal was so polished and streamlined that it felt a little hollow in comparison. There was no down time and no room for the lighter moments (such as the camping trip or the water melon party). I can't really put my thoughts about this into words that well but it felt like the main story stuff was on all the time and that the lighter stuff was missing when compared to Persona 4. With that said there is a reason this game is so high on my list and that is because it is awesome. J.R.P.G.s are not my kind of game but the Persona series is one of the few (if only) exceptions to that general dislike. As of the writing of this blog posts I am still under the influence of this big long game and thinking about the further adventures of my character. Persona 5 Royal is a game I can recommend to anyone with 140 hours to spend on a game.  

1. Ori and the Will of the Wisps 

It is no surprise to me that my most anticipated game of 2020 is also my favorite. Ori and the Will of the Wisps is the sequel to one of my favorite games of the generation and it bests it in every possible way. The world is bigger, the characters more numerous and more well written, the story more touching, the graphics more beautiful, the platforming more tight and the combat more meaningful. Ori and the Will of the Wisps is (in my opinion) without question the Game of the Year for 2020. The fact that this game is out on every current platform means that there is no excuse for anyone to not play it. I guarantee that if you like any kind of video game you will love Ori and the Will of the Wisps.  

Bonus: CrossCode (in progress as of end of 2020) 

Just like last year I have to include a game that came out in 2020 that I started playing that year but did not finish in time. Last year that game was Sekiro and this year it is CrossCode (which came out on console and Game Pass in 2020) a Action RPG that is a cross (get it?) between Secret of Mana, the Legend of Zelda, and Phantasy Star. This is a game I tried on a whim simply because it was on Game Pass and I like it. When I got the Series X I saw that CrossCode was enhanced for it so I played it again and I liked it even more, so much so that I started a fully play through it on my YouTube Channel as a Daily LongPlay series. This game has a lot of Persona style Character moments and some very challenging puzzle based dungeons and a very Super Nintendo graphical look. This is a game that makes me very thankful that I signed up for Game Pass as I would not have tried it otherwise. 

Older Games I also Beat

2020 was not just about new Games for me. I also completed a decent number of older games this year for the first time. The following is an unordered lists of the highlights of older games I have beat this year. 

Sekiro Shadows Die Twice

The the last game I started in 2019 is also first game I finished in 2020 and that is Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice. This is the first and only game made by From Software that I had any interest in playing and for the purposes of my channel and my Daily LongPlay series the biggest risk I have ever taken in picking a game to play through given the reputation of the Souls series. I took this chance because I could tell that Sekiro was different from those games and that it looked much more like a Ninja Gaiden / Devil May Cry style game that I could get into. Sekiro ended up being more like a cross between those styles. I banged my head against almost every main and sub boss in that game over and over again and I never "got good" at the combat but at no point did I ever regret starting my play through or want to stop playing. With how hard that game was for me that I kept playing and enjoying it says something ( good about the game or bad about me, I'm not sure). Regardless I am very much looking forward to the next Sekiro game even as I have no interest in any other From Software game. 

Red Dead Redemption 1 

It took me too long to get around to playing Red Dead Redemption, even after I bought a dirt cheap used copy of it but I did that this past year. I could tell while playing that this is an older style of GTA game (that it clearly predates GTA5) and is very fetch quest heavy and rather barren landscapes. With that being said I did enjoy my time playing it for the most part. The story did not stick with me much as I can only remember the revenge part of it. I did enjoy riding around the vast game area on that hores much more than I expect. I played Red Dead Redemption on the Xbox One X via backwards compatibility and much of the game's graphics hold up pretty well at a higher resolution (4K in my case) after 10 years. I am really glad I played it when I did though thanks to the next game on this list.

Red Dead Redemption 2

I once again sing the praises of Xbox Game Pass with Red Dead Redemption 2 which was added to that awesome service shortly after I completed the first game. Red Dead Redemption 2 is a much more modern game than the first one in every possible way (other than the setting, being a prequel) and while it did have a very noticeable amount of input lag and some confusing controls with too much being piled on the controller I found the story and characters far more engaging than the first game. I think it might of been better to play this game first than Red Dead Redemption 1 as I would have been able to understand and appreciate the meaning of the events in the first game if I played the second one before hand. As it was I was able to get a better grasp of it after finishing Red Dead Redemption 2. I should also say that this is one good looking game that really make me excited for what the next gen systems can do natively (once we get past the cross generation era we are in that is) and if they do make a Red Dead Redemption 3 (if that is even possible) I am in on day one.  

The Legend of Zelda Twilight Princess HD 

I have a confession to make, until 2020 I have never beaten a 3D Legend of Zelda game. I beat the original NES game and a Link to the Past and I have spent time playing many of the 3D games in the series. I beat The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess HD on the WiiU this year, thus ending that disturbing truth. This might not be the first of these games that I should have beaten first but I am glad it was as it was likely the shortest and easiest of those games to beat and based on the popularity (or lack therefore of) when I go on to other games in the 3D Zelda series I have no where to go but up. While there were a few annoying section (that one wagon escort mission) and this game was clearly inspired by Okami (itself a Zelda Cone) in many ways I did enjoy playing it and I look forward to playing my next 3D Legend of Zelda if they really are all better than this game, which I think is a good game in its own right.  

Shadow of the Colossus Remake

I played the original PS2 release of Shadow of the Colossus back in the day but I only beat a handful of the colossi before I stopped playing for what ever reason. When I bough my PS4 Pro I knew this was going to be one of the games I was going to buy and play. I had a lot of trouble with the last few Colossi (especially that last one with me getting very stuck on it). I don't really have much to say about this game other than I am glad I played this version which ran and looked way better than the PS2 original. This game has a vast and empty world that feature only you, your horse, your loved one and the Colossi you have to kill as living things to interact with. For as much as that was likely a limitation of the PS2 hardware for which this game was designed for but it does work now a days (even with way better hardware that could justify adding more stuff). Shadow of the Colossus is one those games I bought a Playstation 4 Professional model in order to play on. 

 New Devices I Acquired 

• RGB Deblur Mod for N64

In 2019 I purchase from a good will store a Nintendo 64 for about $13 (with the RAM expansion cart but without a controller) which was for me one of those situations I always hear about from youtubers who do that kind of deal shopping regularly that I assumed would never happen to me. I bought a cheap 3rd party controller and a cheap game and the system worked. I decided the best thing to do with this $13 N64 was to  upgrade it with a $150 RGB deblur mod (I am smart with money). Once I got this mod done and I got a good RGB SCART cable I set about building a small N64 game library with some notable classics such as Perfect Dark (my first game) Star Fox 64, Mario 64, Ocarina of Time and Golden Eye. I must say that the system looks much better on my 20 inch consumer grade CRT I got back in 2002 than on the big screen. I can see that the Nintendo 64 may not be the best retro system for this kind of setup as even with the RGB, the deblur and the OSSC it still does not look great. I am glad I got this done though as now I have access to some great game from the early 3D era that I can stream on my channel. I would not recommend that others do what I did though. 

• Old Dell Desktop (Retro PC) 

After spending way too much time watching YouTube channels like LGR and 8-bit Guy I decided I wanted a Retro Computer of my own so I bought an old Dell Desktop from a thrift store and I later went on Ebay to get a matching Dell CRT Monitor, Keyboard, Mouse, Set of Desktop Speakers, as well as some RAM and a Graphics Card. I spent too much money on this project and the result is that I was sent the Wrong Ram (I did get a refund from) the speakers did not come with the AC Adapter (on me for not carefully reading the listing) and when I bought a separate plug the speakers still did not work, and a Graphics card that also did not work plus the HDD on the desktop is way too loud and finally the Monitor does not rest flat on its stand. I have after months finally started to address some of these problems but this is going to be a more long term project over the course of 2021 that may include downgrading from Windows XP to 98 for better MS-DOS support. I don't regret starting this project but I do wish I had been smarter about what stuff I got and from where. 

• Razer Kishi Phone Controller 

I am a Game Pass Ultimate (I may have mentioned that already) and as such I have access to X-Cloud, the gaming streaming service for phones and such and I also had to buy a new phone this past year that has USB-C so I went a nd bought a Razer Kishi Phone Controller to give game streaming a try. It is a pretty good controller for the most part and it was $80 (I did not get the one with the Xbox One button color coding as that would have been extra). This is a wired controller that goes on the sides of the phone Joy-con style and has 4 face buttons, 4 shoulder buttons, two analogue sticks, start and select buttons and a D-pad. It snaps on to the phone pretty easily and other than some flex it feels pretty secure.  I am not sure how much use it will get but if I ever switch to a phone service with unlimited data (or 5G) I might end up using it a lot. 

• Xbox Series X

I wanted to get an RTX 3080 this year but I was dashed. I also wanted to get the Analogue Pocket FPGA based handheld but I missed out on the pre-order. The one thing I was able to get is the Xbox Series X. I do not yet have any Next Gen exclusive games for it but I am sure they will come. I will be getting Halo Infinite (Game Pass) and perhaps Cyberpunk 2077 (when the patch is available) but for the moment I am just enjoying paying my "old"  games on this new hardware with faster load times, better frame rates and higher resolutions.  I like the look of the system even though I had to rearrange my entertainment setup to accommodate the better looking vertical orientation. I like the new controller as well with its better D-pad. I can't wait to try out some games with ray tracing on it ( I bought the Control Ultimate edition and eagerly await the next gen patch) and I also still have plenty of backwards compatible stuff to look at as well. 

Conclusion 

I did not play as many new games this year for many reasons such as Halo being delayed, not getting a better GPU for Half-Life Alex, and my time getting taken up by some long games, both old and new (looking at you Persona). I also did not take as many risks in the games that I choose as last year. I did enjoy every game I finished though. I was unable to get as much hardware this year as I wanted (I did try but I'm not paying scalpers). I was also disappointed by the lack of the Cuphead DLC, Tunic, the state of Cyberpunk 2077 (and its lack of true next gen support) and the lack of the Super Switch that I am waiting to get (maybe 2021?). Overall this was not as good of a year in gaming for me in 2020 but it wasn't bad either. I do hope for better things from gaming though in 2021. 

I Ripped and I Teared, and now It is done: My Doom Eternal Review

I Ripped and I Teared, and now It is done. Doom Eternal is pretty much what a sequel should be, more of the first game. I am of course referring to the game titled Doom from 2016 as the "first game" which while not correct at all is much easier to talk and write about as such so therefore I am declaring it okay. This game is more Doom. There are more weapons, more enemies, more levels that are also bigger, more upgrades, more systems/mechanics to juggle, and more story. More is not always better as Doom Eternal can be bogged down with its own nonsense at times but for the most part more in this case is pretty good.
Full disclosure: I did not play much original Doom or Doom 2 and while I did play through Doom 2016 I was not as struck by that games reverence to the original games as many people and as such I mostly ignored/ did not care about the story in this game. While many people have criticized the tone and story of Doom Eternal I will not because I did not find that stuff important in this game or the last one. With that being said, on to my review.   

My Play through of Doom Eternal on Xbox One.

The Combat Loop
When you start playing the combat loop of Doom Eternal seems mostly the same as the last game. You start out with the shotgun (there is no pistol, so good by unlimited ammo option) and you quickly re-acquire the chainsaw and your first weapon mod. As the game progresses it becomes clear that there is a lot more going on here than the first game. You start running into much bigger foes that have weak spots that must be dealt with first or they will rip you apart. This factor changes your focus as you try to deal with the bigger stuff while also managing you health (via glory kills) your ammo (with the saw) and now your armor with a new flame belch that set demons on fire and causes them to spit out armor shards. As with the first game, the main thing is to stay on the move (always oscar mike). The difficulty I played on (the second lowest) allowed me to get away with getting up in the face of many of the larger demons and blast them apart with the Super Shotgun (I could not have finished the game with out that crutch). Later in the game you start seeing boss demons mixed in with the regular ones. These bosses are introduced as they sound, seemingly as one off encounters that you get past and are glad you never have to see again. Doom Eternal takes these bosses and brings them back time and time again in the second half of the game ( I fought one really tough boss 8 times) and even mixes them together. My trick for managing these encounters was to stay alive by using the smaller demons for health and ammo while building up enough of both to do some damage to the boss, rinse and repeat until it was gone.
The game does feature plenty of new stuff to deal with the masses of demons, so much so that the controller feels overwhelmed with stuff mapped to it. You have two different grenade types, different weapon mods for each weapon, flame belch and chainsaw, a unique super weapon which I won't spoil, a loaded weapon wheel, jumping and dashing that all require their own dedicated buttons. The fast frantic paced nature of the combat in Doom Eternal makes it very difficult to reliability do the thing you want to do when you want to do it. With all that being said and despite the many really bad difficulty spikes, if you really liked the combat from the last Doom game, you will really like this one as well. Unless you are savage (or playing on PC with mouse and keyboard) I strongly recommend lowering the difficulty at the outset.

The Upgrades and Stuff
After beating the first level you are whisked away to your castle in space (you read that right) where you find your home base. This is where you find the portal to the next level as well as various places to find unlocks and secret (man of which require energy cells to access). You also find a neat room where Doom guy spends his free time (I think it's neat anyway) with plenty of Easter eggs to find. There is also a training room at the bottom where you a free to fight all of the demon types you have faced with all of the weapons you have without fear of death or resource usage. It is a neat setting for a home base but it is a little too easy (for me anyway) to get lost in it.
The upgrades in Doom Eternal are numerous. There are upgrades for health/ammo/armor limits, each weapon mod has upgrades as does your suit. You upgrade you weapon modes by collecting combat points, your suit with praetor suit tokens and you stats with sentinel crystals most of which are found in levels. You open up access to some of these with sentinel batteries that you use in your space castle (the batteries are also found in missions). You also have collectibles in the form of plastic miniatures of the various demons, vinyl records and floppy discs that when all 14 are collected open access to original Doom I did not find all of these). There is also a giant gun that is locked behind 6 force fields that you need to complete special locked combat arenas to access to (I did not get this either). It is pretty clear that the developers put a lot of effort into the collectibles in Doom Eternal but I think the upgrade systems could have been streamlined and reduced as many of  them don't seem that impact-full and I sat on many  of these points for too long because I found nothing worthwhile to spend them on. I think that having fewer more useful upgrades would have went a long way to smoothing out the difficulty spikes in this game.

The Difficulty
I have already mentioned the difficulty but I bring it up again here because this game is much harder than the last one. Doom Eternal is unforgiving and it has many insane difficulty spikes that it took me way too many attempts to get past. There were cases where I barely got past a combat encounter only to find a boss demon appear that I would have to deal with before I got my precious check point. Most of the game I was able to deal with but in several occasions I had to replay the sequence over and over again with frustration setting in making it more difficult. I played this game on the second lowest difficulty and yet it felt as hard (or harder) than Halo on its highest (which I have beaten that way). If I had known it was going to be this bad I would have started it on its lowest setting. I dare not even try the harder settings with what I had to deal with.

Conclusion
I have complained  quite a bit about this game but I still like it. It is a hard but fun and fast paced shooter that rewards skill and makes you feel like you are good, until those difficulty spikes when you fell powerless. I again strongly recommend playing this at a lower difficulty setting as it would have been more fun for me if I had done so. Even still I am glad I got and finished Doom Eternal and a wait and wonder if (or when) there will be a third one.

My Ori and the Will of the Wisps Review

It has been 5 years since I had the privilege to play Ori and the Blind Forrest on the Xbox One. Ori was a simple seeming 2D Metroidvania style plat-former with lush and gorgeous visuals, a rich sound track and some of the tightest and best controls of a modern console game. Ori and the Blind Forrest ended up being one of my 2 favorite games of this generation (along with Cuphead) and when its sequel was announced a few years ago I was understandably excited and thrilled. Like the first game, Ori and the Will of the Wisps was subject to a few delays and came out a year after its projected launch time frame of 2019. I was able to play this very anticipated sequel thanks to Game Pass and I might still end up buying a physical copy of it as well. I have just finished playing through the story of Ori and the Will of the Wisps and I would like to put into words my opinion of this game in the form of a review of sorts and as such, here it is.

Playlist of my Play through of Ori and the Will of the Wisps on the Xbox One

The Look of the game
Ori and the Blind Forest was one of the best looking games I had seen this generation. The hand crafted world drew a great contrast to the procedurally generated games that were becoming more common at the time. Ori was a game that I showed to my friends as a visual statement of the Xbox One. Ori and the Will of the Wisps is a game seems to take that look and amplify it in every way. This game incorporates the Xbox One X enhancements with support for both 4K and HDR. Ori 2 seems to jam a larger map with an even higher density of detail that makes every scene look like a painting that one could easily justify hanging on a wall. The visuals are more than just surface level. There is an impressive amount of back drop flourish and parallax scrolling as well, giving the game a rich 3 dimensional look. Background scenery often becomes destinations the deeper you go in exploring the world. As with the first game there is a large variety of location each with its own drastically different aesthetic. These locals range from wind swept deserts to ice covered mountains and from dark murky swamps to tropical lagoons. Like in the first game, Ori (being small in size) can sometimes be easily lost in the heavily detailed back ground when the action gets frantic but it usually is not a problem. Overall, Ori and the Will of the Wisps is just a joy to behold. The sound track is equally effective at being somber, haunting and even joyful at time depending on the level or the beat of the story. If there was a Vinyl of the sound track I might actually get it. 

The Feel of the game
For the most part, Ori and the will of the Wisps maintains the tight fluid controls of the first game. There are only a few instances in which the demands of the game overly taxed my ability to do the things I needed to do (look out for a certain escape sequence that seems overly difficult). Ori 2 features a more involved combat system that uses 3 of the 4 face buttons to map a variety of assignable attacks and abilities. These buttons can be mapped quickly with holding down left trigger and hitting X, Y, or B. The combat is less button mashy and automated and more timing based requiring observing the enemies and hitting them at the accordingly. There is a light and heavy melee attack as well as different energy using ranged attacks that also double as puzzle solving and plat-forming abilities. It does not take long to get the double jump (there is also a triple) and you steadily acquire more exploration based abilities as you go through the story. As with the first game, Ori 2 is at its best when exploring a new area as you on the fly try to reach higher, lower or more out of reach places with your new abilities. Simply navigating the world in a active way is the point of this game. Platforming in Ori 2 is an engaging experience and that is when the tightness of the controls really shine. This game just feels really good to play, for the most part. There are some technically and performance issues that can rear their head in at unfortunate times. I am not sensitive to slow downs but there were times that that the game hitched for a couple of seconds that seemed somewhat irregular. I also had the game crash to the point where the Xbox Shut off completely when booting the game up. This was a problem for me with the first game as well (on my launch model Xbox One, now I am using a Xbox One X). I never found the technical issues to be much of a problem but then again I am not sensitive to most such issues.

The Mechanics of the game 
The biggest change to Ori and the Will of the Wisps is in the mechanics where the first game played like a very basic Metroidvania this is a much more expanded game with more story, more characters and more mission variety. As you explore you run into a number of NPCs that either give side quest or act as merchants to buy and upgrade abilities. You can enhance you abilities and add new ones by purchasing (or finding) shards that can be further upgrade. You start off with only being able to equip 3 such shards but you can increase that number by completing combat shrines. As in the first game mission critical moves can be found as glowing orbs in the trunks of trees that are closely associated with the regions they are located in (in a very Zelda dungeon item like way) You can also buy new combat moves that can be mapped to the face buttons and those too can be upgraded. You can buy maps from another vendor that fill in areas you have yet to explore fully. There are also a couple of characters who can change the state of the world when enough material is collected and that can open up new side quests as well as give access to more areas. You still collect blue and green orbs to increase you health and energy (in the form of fragments) and you still collect yellow orbs but this time it is used as currency for vendors instead of XP for upgrading. Ori 2 also replaces the hard manual save system form the first game with a fairly generous auto save system. 

Conclusion 
Ori and the Will of the Wisps is worth buying and playing. If you have an Xbox One or a PC you should get this game. If you have Game Pass there is no excuse not to play it. Ori 2 takes one of the best 2D Plat-formers of this generation and makes it better in almost every way. I strongly urge everyone to give this awesome game a go.

Previewing My 2020 in Gaming

With the month of March starting I figure this would be the perfect time to write a preview of my upcoming 2020 year in gaming. I have a decent list of games I either will be getting or at least am interested in. I also have a number of older back log games to get to as well as some systems and equipment to get and I am just going to go over this stuff in this here blog of mine.

New Games I'm interested in getting (in order of release date)

• Ori and the Will of the Wisps (March 11, Xbox)

Ori and the Blind Forrest was one of my favorite game of this generations so naturally the second game in this series is going to by my most anticipated. I feel like that is all of the justification I need for this. 

• Doom Eternal (March 20, Xbox)

I was finally able to play through Doom 2016 last year so I could get ready for Doom Eternal's release last Fall, then it got delayed. Now I get to hurry through Ori 2 so I can get to this game. Regardless I know I will thoroughly enjoy ripping and tearing once again.

• Half-Life: Alyx (March 23, PC)

With my still owning (and sometimes using) an Oculus Rift this makes me want to get this Half-Life 2 Prequel quite a bit. I may not get it at release as my GTX 1060 barely meats the minimum spec requirements for this game. Nevertheless I will be getting it at some point as I will be upgrading my graphics card to the Nvidia 3000 series when that comes out. 

• Persona 5 Royal (March 31, PS4)

 I got very into watching the Giant Bomb Persona 4 Endurance Run back in the day so much so that I picked up a copy of Persona 4 for the PS2 and beat it on a emulator before Jeff and Vinny did. I was only ever kind of interested in the long awaited sequel Personal 5. I am still only kind of interested in the enhanced Persona 5 Royal but if I can find a good chunk of time to play it in this busy year I might just do that. (unless Atlus decides to prohibit streaming of it again, that is).

• Gears Tactics (April, Xbox)

I very much enjoyed the Gears of War series over the years and I also enjoyed playing the 2012
X-COM game so combining the two sure does seems like a winner to me.

• The Last of Us 2 (May 29, PS4)

Despite haveing a very tough start I wound up really enjoying the first Last of Us game on the PS3. I am not sure if I will be getting the second one but it is worth including on this list as I am very much interested in learning more about it. I am just always concerned about the game's direction whenever I see the tough looking stealth sequences that just repel me a bit.

• Cyberpunk 2077 (September 17, Xbox)

Whether it is the keanu reeves effect taking hold of me I am interested in this Cyber Punk based game called Cyberpunk 2077 . I am not sure why other than the desire to step a little more out of my wheel house in games this year. This game sure does seem like a looker though and it should work on the next Xbox out of the box too.

• Halo Infinite (Fall, Xbox)

You better believe I will be picking up this game on launch as I am committed to getting the system it is launching with on launch as well. The latest sequel to what might be my all time favorite game (Halo) demands that I get it. Also it looks like there might be much larger environments in this one.

• Phantasy Star Online 2 (TBA, Xbox)

I spent way too much time tying up the phone line by playing the original PSO on the Dreamcast back in the day. Even though Phantasy Star Online 2 is an old game at this point, I was still very excited about the announcement this it is finally being translated to English properly and brought to the good old US of A for me to play on my Xbox. Because this is a free to play game I will have no trouble giving it a go.I can't wait to feed my Mag.

• Cuphead in the Delicious Last Course (TBA, Xbox) 

This is more DLC than a game but it is more content for one of my two favorite games this generation. Cuphead in the Delicious Last Course will add more levels, more bosses and a third playable character. As of this writing there is no release date other than this year and I won't be surprised of it gets delayed out of it at that. I will still get this regardless of when it comes out.

Older and Back Log Games I want to play

• The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess HD

The subjet of my current daily LongPlay I am playing the HD version one of the least popular Zelda games because I bought it recently and it was cheaper than usual. I do intend to play through the other Zelda games at some point but this will be the first 3D Zelda game I will finish.

• Ninja Gaiden Black

After playing and finishing Sekiro I feel the desire to play the game that in my mind is most similar to it with Ninja Gaiden Black which I will play via backwards compatibility on the Xbox One X. I played the first Xbox release of this game back in the day and got pretty far but lost interest for some reason. I very much want to prove myself with this game and finish it.

• God of War (PS4)

God of War for the PS4 has been on my backlog of games for too long now and even though I have only played a small amount of the first game in the series back in the day this game seems much more appealing to me. I doubt that finishing this game will make me want to go back to the older games to play through all of them but I would like to check this game off of my list.

• Red Dead Redemption

This game is over ten years old and its sequel came out over a year ago. So naturally this year is the one to try and play Red Dead Redemption. With Twilight Princess and Shadow of the Colossus could be my ear of the horse. I'm not sure if this will get me to play the second game (or go back to Red Dead Revolver) but I would like to get this one off of my list to.

• Halo MCC, Halo 5 Guardians

With Halo Infinite coming out I want to get caught up this beloved series of mine. I have played through all of the games in the Master Chief Collection but ODST in years past but I would like to relive the memories to get ready for the new game (and also beat ODST). I will finish it up by going through Halo 5 Guardians.


Game Systems and Equipment I want to get

• RGB Deblur mod for my Nintendo 64

After picking up a cheap Nintendo 64 from a thrift store (about $13 cheap) I am going to spend a bundle to get it modded to support RGB Scart and have the Deblurr to incorporate it into my O.S.S.C. based streaming setup. There are only a few games for the system that I would like to play through (pretty much the obvious ones) but there are others that might be good suited to sample on my Retro Monday stream. In any case this will be my first big project this year.

• GTX 3000 Series Graphics Card

When I built my PC in late 2016 I did so with a 1080P plasma TV as my main monitor. My current GTX 1060 series seemed more than enough to handle anything I could throw at it. I then got an Oculus Rift VR headset and upgraded to a LG 4K OLED TV. Now my 1060 is looking less than up to the tesk of the things I want to do. I was going to upgrade to a 2070 Super but I caught wind that the 3 series was not only going to be much better but cheaper as well. I had the money saved up and set aside but I decided to wait for the new series and get the best one that my saved up amount can afford. I hope to use it to get a better VR headset (ideally a Valve Index) and to start uploading 4K footage of games running on Dolphin and Cemu. I would also like to give this fancy Ray Tracing thing a try. In any case it is time for an upgrade this year.

• Nintendo Switch

I have been interested in getting a Nintendo Switch since it came out simply because Super Mario Odyssey looks really good. I decided not to get one when it came out simply because I could not justify the purchase. I am glad I did that as a better version of the main system has come out and now there are plenty of exclusives for it that interest me. I will wait until after E3 before I get one as I am still hoping for a Switch Pro (or a Super Switch) that could run games better and have at lease a little higher resolution. I hope such a system would be a console only version that came with a Pro Controller. If not, I will get the updated base version as the mini can not out put to a TV thus making it useless for someone me (a weirdo) who likes to stream his gaming on the Youtube. 

• Xbox Series X

I bought the Xbox One at a midnight launch event (the first time I did that for a system) and a ordered and Xbox One X on Amazon when it came out (again, first time) so I will very much be picking up the New Xbox day one. I can't wait to see what Halo Infinite is going to be like as well as the offerings from Microsoft's new studios. I would also like to see the effect the system has on some badly performing games from this generation (like Sekiro for example). I don't know if I am going to go the Amazon route or a midnight Launch but either way I can not wait for it.


Conclusion 
This is going to be a big year for gaming for me. I have new System(s) and plenty of awesome new games to pick up as well as a big stack of old (but good) stuff to get through. E3 is going to be big and this year and I fell the kind of excitement that I have not had for at least a few years now. I sure hope that it all somehow lives up to my expectations. Only time will tell.

My 2019 Top 5 Games of the Year List

Thanks to my new Daily LongPlay stream format I have been able to play through quite a few more games this year than I normally would. A large number of these games were releases from previous years such as Horizon: Zero Dawn, Doom 2016, Marvel's Spider-Man, Dark Siders 3, and even Super Mario Galaxy. I was also able to play through 7 games that actually came out this year (2019) and I have decided to make a list of my top 5 games of the year for 2019 with a couple of honorable mentions. I am also listing separately a handful of game released this year that I started but have as yet to finish. Overall this has been a pretty good year for games. I feel like I had a better time playing games this year than I have had for many a years. I will be doing a separate post talking about my 2019 year in gaming in a more general manner, including equipment and systems I have purchased as well as some of the new experiences I have had in gaming. Now on to my 2019 Top 5 games of the year list.

2019 Top 5 Games of the Year List

1. Control 

It should be no surprise that the latest from one of my favorite developers (Remedy) finds its way to my top 5 list but in this case I was surprised by how good Control is. To put it bluntly, it is as if Remedy took all of the best lessons and ideas from their previous games and out put them into this one with some additional wackiness and some light Metroidvanina elements and made what is probably their best game ever.

At the game's most basic (and reductive) level it is a more open and better playing version of Remedy's previous game Quantum Break. Control is a 3rd person shooter (like all of Remedy's previous games) and it stars Jessie Haydon as she explore the strange out of 1960 government style Federal Bureau of Control in what is called the Oldest House. Here Jessie seeks to uncover her past and her missing brother as well as try to find answers to what is going on here in this Federal Agency of the Paranormal. Control has tight shooting, a story with plenty of characters and character and a whole lot of style, flavor and dry humor. This is a game where you want to read the flavor text and watch every video (done by a certain Darling character) and the more weird it gets, the more you want to dive deeper. Control is a well made game that I would whole heartily recommend to everyone.

2. Devil May Cry 5

Ever since the game's announcement back at E3 2018, Devil May Cry was my most anticipated game for 2019. Given Capcom's recent history I had no  reason or right to expect another DMC game to come from the company but thankfully I was proven wrong. Deveil May cry is a direct sequel to both DMC 3 and DMC 4 in terms of story as it picks up with Nero as the main character but it feature bot Dante and a new character V as a giant demon tree appears in the middle of the city. The trio take different paths to the center of this threat and they uncover the truth of what is really going on here.  

Devil May Cry 5 has three distinct characters with 3 very different fighting styles with plenty of separate upgrade paths for all three of them. The game feels very different depending on who you are playing as in the moment. One thing DMC 5 has plenty of is style as every cut scene, every fight, and every quip by every character is oozing with style at every opportunity. DMC 5 is also a good looking game as it runs on the same RE engine that powered both of the most recent Resident Evil titles. The reason Devil May Cry 5 is only second place is mainly due to how good my number one pick Control is. This may be a very personal preference to me but the at the end of the day Control being perhaps the best game from perhaps my favorite developer was enough to secure it my top pick for 2019.   

3. The Outer Worlds

My 10 month or so trial of Xbox Game Pass Ultimate for $1 has result in me getting to try quite a few games that I wouldn't normally give the time of day for and I know I am much the better for it. One such game is a little Fall-Out Style Action RPG called The Out Worlds. This game made by Obsidian is set in a solar system far from earth where you are a colonist from an abandoned space ship called the Hope who is rescued from hibernation by a seemingly mad man trying to overthrow the current system of government in this star system called Halcyon. You get a ship and eventually a crew and ytou can choose how or even whether to help this individual in his goals. The Outer Worlds plays in a first person shooter perspective and uses a time slowing mechanic to allow for more precise aiming. The game also features the usual collection of  hacking, lock picking, speech crafting, and stealth options as well as character customization one would expect to see in a Fall-out style RPG. 

What makes the Outer Worlds different (and much more appealing) is its much shorter length. It took me about 25 hours to do a play through from when I created my character to seeing credits role. The Outer Worlds is also much more focused with fewer areas to traverse (a hand full of land-able planets and ships) and fewer factions to have to worry about. This game seems like the perfect introductory course for those who have been interested in Bethesda's Action RPGs but have for what ever reason been to intimidated to give them a try. The Outer Worlds is not without its faults as there are far too many load times that are too long, inconsistencies with what is and is not stealing, and for how streamline the game is it is still far too easy to miss large amounts of content (as I did in my play through). I still very much enjoyed my time with the Outer Worlds even with this not being my normal kind of game. I guess I owe it to Microsoft's Excellent Game Pass Service for giving me the encouragement to give it a go. 

4. Mortal Kombat 11

I have to start by saying that Mortal Kombat 9 (2011) was my favorite fighting game and MK game altogether. I was very disappointed with MK X and had no expectations that Mortal Kombat 11 would be any better. I am glad to say that I was wrong. MK 11 might be the best of the series and my new favorite fighting game. The story actually redeems the problems with the story in MK X (to a least some extent) and it was very entertaining and enjoyable in its own right. The game has a really in depth tutorial mode that actually does a decent job of explaining and showing hard and obscure fighting game concepts like attack and defense frames and the like. I never tried to play this game online or even local split screen as I really only got it for the story mode. The story seems to pull a lot of ideas from Avengers: Endgame as it features time travel and an omnipotent foe trying to alter the universe to their own benefit. If you have ever been interesting in trying a fighting game, I believe this is the one to get. 

5. Gears of War 5

For me, the decision to give Xbox Game Pass was made easier knowing that I was going to get Gears 5 in the process and that alone made the deal worth while. Gears (of War) 5 is a solid 3rd person shooter with a decent enough story and probably the best graphics on this side of the console generation (assuming it is played on a high end PC or Xbox One X). It is not just all greys and browns either as it has plenty of colors as well. Gears 5 features a couple of larger over world areas in the middle that give a different look and game play style that will likely return for the eventual sequel. I was not really looking forward to this game but having finished it I very much want to see what a Gears 6 has to offer. Gears 5 won't do much for new comers to the series but if you have played and enjoyed the other gears game, this one is worth a go. 

Honorable Mentions

Since I only finished 7 games that came out this year I decided to make a top 5 list with a couple of honorable mentions. These two games are ones that did not quite make the cut but were still good, for the most part.

Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night

I did not play Castlevania: symphony of the night (and still have not) but I did play the first Bloodstained this year as a Games with Gold game and when this came out I took a chance and bought it. I enjoyed it as a hack and slash exploring game with plenty of atmosphere and silliness. Bloodstained has good visuals and a strong score that made me want to continue. I think the game would have hit me harder if I had played the game for which it was heavily influenced by but as it stands it did not leave much of a lasting impression on me. It is available on Xbox Game Pass as of this writing so if you have it, you might want to give it a try. 

Yooka-Laylee: and the Impossible Lair 

I bought the first Yooka-Laylee for $8 on a black Friday deal and thought it was okay. It was not a game I was looking forward to and thus was not disappointed in. When I heard that a second game was being made and it was a Donkey Kong Country style 2D Plat-former I knew I was going to get it. On the whole Yooka-Laylee: and the Impossible Lair in every way over the first game. It looks and it  plays better and it even has a better sense of humor. Perhaps this is because I never really got into 3D Plat-formers that I was going to be more drawn to a 2D one. Regardless I really like this game, right until the Impossible Lair itself which is way too hard for a game of this kind. The difficulty of this last level highlighted the problems of the controls being a little too loose and the hit box being to off and inconsistent as both of those need to be dead on for a level like that to be fun and they are not. If the Impossible Lair was an optional thing that was not necessary to finish the game this would be okay but you do not see credits role until to finish it. There is enough enjoyment in this game before the last level is you go through all 40 of the regular ones and as such it was still worth playing but I was more relived to finally beat the Impossible Lair than I was happy. As such, Yooka-Laylee: and the Impossible Lair is on the outside looking in of my top 5 list. 

2019 Games I would like to finish

I wanted to mention a few games that I started but did not finish in 2019 but would like to or that I am actively playing so here is that section.

Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice

My first From Software game is the subject of my current efforts and it is tough. I have played over a dozen hours and I am still in the early area. I am very much enjoying Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice but it is going to take me a good long time to finish it, assuming that I can. Sekiro seems to me like a Ninja Gaiden (on the OG Xbox) with some stealth elements mixed in as well as some of the usual Dark Souls stuff.  I bought this game on a Black Friday deal and I hope to write up something about it when (and if ) I finish it. 

The Outer Wilds

The Outer Wilds is another game that I tried because I have Game Pass. It is almost like a Rouge like first person adventure game where you explore a small had crafted solar system in a spaceship that is basically a wooden crate landing on different planets a learning about some ancient species that lived a long time ago all before the sun goes Super Nova and causes you to die and wake up to do it all over again with only the knowledge you picked up to carry on with you. It has a nice visual style and a good sense of humor as well as a whole lot of mystery to uncover. This is a game I want to go back to and try to finish as at some point and I have to thank Game Pass for introducing me to it. 

Wargroove 

Another game that I got to play because of Game Pass, but this time it was a Game that I knew I wanted to try from when I first heard of it. Wargroove is basically a new Advance Wars in that it is a turn base strategy game that has colorful visuals and is really good. The difference is that Wargroove is in a medieval setting and it has hero characters. It is a really nice looking (with a strong Retro 2D style) fun playing game that I want to find time for next year. Also, thank you Game Pass. 

Summery

This has been an awesome year for me in gaming. I got to play more great games that came out this year than I have for a long time. I feel like I can recommend my all of my top 5 games to everyone (almost) without qualifications. This was also the year of Game Pass for me as I tried this service for dirt cheap and now I feel like I need it, even at full price. That is an outcome that I did not expect. Even setting that aside, this was an awesome year for gaming at 2020 will be hard pressed to follow up to it. I'm not worried because I still have plenty of 2019 stuff waiting just in case.