PC Game of the Year 2021 - A year late and a dollar short.

Well since no one did it for 2021, here you go. My picks:

BEST INDY GAME PLAYED IN 2021

Nominations
Disco Elysium
Blue Estate
Nuclear Throne
The Wastes
Zorbus
Regions of Ruin
American Fugitive
Going Down

This really comes down to Zorbus and Nuclear Throne.

THE WINNER IS:

* Nuclear Throne
Roguelike bullet hell. Really it only won over
Zorbus because I played it a lot more. Why did NT grab me when so many
other bullet hell games don't? It might be the post apocalyptic nature
of it, but no I've played many a post apocalyptic bullet hell games.
It's partially that it's a bit more approchable than most other bullet
hells though it does ramp up in difficulty rather quickly, it's possible
to learn, unlock and get better at a reasonable pace. It's got a bit
of a sense of humor that appeals to me too.

BEST GAME PLAYED IN 2021

Nominations
Borderlands 3
EDF Iron Rain
Warframe
Death Stranding
Dark Souls III
RAD

This is a hard one too, more for qualifying issues and lack of great
games.

DS 3 I'd put up there, but technically I started playing it in
previous years and only came back to it in 2021. I did finally go on
to beat Midir in it which I hadn't done previously, and go on to NG+ though..

Warframe is similar, though it has expansions I played that are new.

Death Stranding - I quit playing it early mainly because I was running
on the lowest video settings possible, though it was still running
fine. I really should go back to play it again with my new video card,
but playing "The Postman" the video game isn't super appealing even though everything else about it was pretty cool.

THE WINNER IS:

Dark Souls III - What more can I say, too bad the server downing and
ruination of the anti-cheat that worked killed it for me last year.

BEST GAME I PLAYED FROM 2021

Sable - Best adventure game I've ever played. (Not that that's
saying much as I usually hate adventure games, or maybe that says
a lot?)

O.k. I'm cheating a bit here, as I didn't play Sable in 2021, I
played it in 2022. It's not the only game from 2021 I played, but
it's the only game worth of even a nomination. The only other
game I played from 2021 I csee on a list of top 100 is
Guardians of the Galaxy, which I didn't finish and gave up on
rather quickly so isn't even worth a nomination, not to mention I also
didn't play it in 2021.

And that's probably why I didn't post this last year, sicne I didn't
play anything in 2021 from 2021.

Do you remember anything that was either game of the year from 2021 or
that you played in 2021 that was the best of the year? My guess is Disco
Elysium is going to be a lot of people's unless they played in in 2019.

- Justisaur

ø-ø
(\_/)\
`-'\ `--.___,
¶¬'\( ,_.-'
\\
^'

Better late than never. :)

Justisaur <justisaur@gmail.com> wrote:
> PC Game of the Year 2021 - A year late and a dollar short.

> Well since no one did it for 2021, here you go. My picks:

> BEST INDY GAME PLAYED IN 2021

> Nominations
> Disco Elysium
> Blue Estate
> Nuclear Throne
> The Wastes
> Zorbus
> Regions of Ruin
> American Fugitive
> Going Down

> This really comes down to Zorbus and Nuclear Throne.

> THE WINNER IS:

> * Nuclear Throne
> Roguelike bullet hell. Really it only won over
> Zorbus because I played it a lot more. Why did NT grab me when so many
> other bullet hell games don't? It might be the post apocalyptic nature
> of it, but no I've played many a post apocalyptic bullet hell games.
> It's partially that it's a bit more approchable than most other bullet
> hells though it does ramp up in difficulty rather quickly, it's possible
> to learn, unlock and get better at a reasonable pace. It's got a bit
> of a sense of humor that appeals to me too.

> BEST GAME PLAYED IN 2021

> Nominations
> Borderlands 3
> EDF Iron Rain
> Warframe
> Death Stranding
> Dark Souls III
> RAD

> This is a hard one too, more for qualifying issues and lack of great
> games.

> DS 3 I'd put up there, but technically I started playing it in
> previous years and only came back to it in 2021. I did finally go on
> to beat Midir in it which I hadn't done previously, and go on to NG+ though.

> Warframe is similar, though it has expansions I played that are new.

> Death Stranding - I quit playing it early mainly because I was running
> on the lowest video settings possible, though it was still running
> fine. I really should go back to play it again with my new video card,
> but playing "The Postman" the video game isn't super appealing even though everything else about it was pretty cool.

> THE WINNER IS:

> Dark Souls III - What more can I say, too bad the server downing and
> ruination of the anti-cheat that worked killed it for me last year.

> BEST GAME I PLAYED FROM 2021

> Sable - Best adventure game I've ever played. (Not that that's
> saying much as I usually hate adventure games, or maybe that says
> a lot?)

> O.k. I'm cheating a bit here, as I didn't play Sable in 2021, I
> played it in 2022. It's not the only game from 2021 I played, but
> it's the only game worth of even a nomination. The only other
> game I played from 2021 I csee on a list of top 100 is
> Guardians of the Galaxy, which I didn't finish and gave up on
> rather quickly so isn't even worth a nomination, not to mention I also
> didn't play it in 2021.

> And that's probably why I didn't post this last year, sicne I didn't
> play anything in 2021 from 2021.

> Do you remember anything that was either game of the year from 2021 or
> that you played in 2021 that was the best of the year? My guess is Disco
> Elysium is going to be a lot of people's unless they played in in 2019.

> - Justisaur

> ø-ø
> (\_/)\
> `-'\ `--.___,
> ¶¬'\( ,_.-'
> \\
> ^'

--
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On Tue, 3 Jan 2023 14:25:09 -0800 (PST), Justisaur
<justisaur@gmail.com> wrote:

>PC Game of the Year 2021

We really doing this? Well, okay...

Doing a 'Best Games I Played In 2021' is tough, 'cause it wasn't
really a year filled with lots of exciting gameplay. The usual
stand-bys (Truck Simulator, Hunter: Call of the Wild) appeared, of
course, but they're hardly worth mentioning. Lots of replays too; not
very many 'first-time played' games either, which makes it hard to
select the most memorable. But after some effort, I came up with the
following:

-----------------------------------

* Top of the List: MECHWARRIOR 5 MERCENARIES
Mostly because it was one of the few "new to 2021" games I played that
year, and it has giant stomping robots. Who doesn't like giant
stomping robots? MW5:M wasn't the best game I've ever played - not
even the best Mechwarrior game - but it definitely delivered on the
giant stompy robots bit, and it was new. So it gets top-pick for those
reasons.

* Most Fun: STAR WARS JEDI: FALLEN ORDER
Another title that wasn't spectacular, wasn't novel, but was
nonetheless satisfyingly fun... enough so that my 2021 play was a
second run through the game. It was a good action/platformer/brawler
and used the Star Wars license well.

* Most Surprising: PC BUILDING SIMULATOR
It's really not much of a game, but slotting together various bits and
bobs to make a perfect PC will probably always appeal to me...
especially if I can do so /without/ spending thousands for the
privilege. Still, that this shallow game managed to entertain me as
long as it did is surprising and deserves some notice.

* Most Disappointing: UNDERWORLD ASCENDANT
Oh Ultima, what have they done to you?!?

* Most "Still Holds Up": GRAND THEFT AUTO IV
Well, with a little help from modders, anyway. A modded GTA4 can be
awfully gorgeous (in fact, a screenshot of the game initially fooled
me as being 'real life' - at least for a few seconds - when it showed
up as a desktop wallpaper). The gameplay is still pretty good too, and
its characters are fun and - for all their broad stereotypes - feel
pretty human.

* Most 'Not As Bad As They Said': MASS EFFECT ANDROMEDA
As disappointing a follow-up to the original trilogy it may have been,
seen as a stand-alone game it wasn't too bad. Mostly its flaws stemed
from the industry's unfortunate desire to shoe-horn a huge open world
into every game. But mechanically, the minute-to-minute gameplay was
fairly solid and the story and characters weren't terrible either.
"Andromeda" isn't great, but it wasn't as terrible as some fans made
out either.

* Most 'Why Is This Game On This List?': STRONGHOLD (1993)
No, not the 2001 castle-building RTS; this is the much-older
strategy/RPG game that utilized the D&D license and ran on DOS. It had
a clunky - but intriguing - first-person viewpoint and a very off-hand
management style (similar to the later "Majesty" games, you didn't
control units directly, but instead constructed buildings that
attracted soldiers to your cause who would autofight on your behalf).
Not really all that fun to play, but novel enough to make me remember
it fondly and play it every now and again.

-----------------------------------

And a special bonus (and a follow-up to a comment I made in another
post)

* Best Game I Played In August 2010: METRO 2033
Just in case anyone doesn't believe me when I say I keep track of
pointless stuff like that. ;-)

On Tuesday, January 3, 2023 at 4:43:59 PM UTC-8, Spalls Hurgenson wrote:
> On Tue, 3 Jan 2023 14:25:09 -0800 (PST), Justisaur
> <just...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> >PC Game of the Year 2021
> We really doing this? Well, okay...

I could do one for 2020 too. I'm not going back further than that though, as
I covered all the years 2010-2019 in the game of the decade thread for that.

Going back further I don't think I was participating in the games of the
month so figuring out what I actually played each year would be likely
difficult or impossible, but I did make posts back to 2003 in CSIPGR, so
I might be able to figure out something, though they'd likely all be RPGs.

I guess I could pick my favorite game that was released each year before
that if we really want to get the nostalgia going.

- Justisaur

On 03/01/2023 22:25, Justisaur wrote:
> Do you remember anything that was either game of the year from 2021 or
> that you played in 2021 that was the best of the year? My guess is Disco
> Elysium is going to be a lot of people's unless they played in in 2019.

That was 2019 for me but carried over into 2020 so it was GOTY twice!

Hopefully now the kerfuffle at ZA/UM seems to have possibly been
resolved we will see a sequel although I have a feeling that the
internal rifts will just be to great.