Backlog: Alien Isolation

The Ripley family just has hell of luck with Weyland-Tutani and aliens. They just seem to be magnetized to each other. 

I started Alien Isolation in 2017. I liked the idea of a slow moving, stealth focused game, rather than a run and gun. 

Creative Assembly nailed the aesthetic of that 1970s retro-future, clean white walls with random buttons and tape drives everywhere. All the computers are that fake DOS/Apple 2 interface. And every... single....door... is automatic. (the absolute height of future technology). 

Backlog: Fire Emblem: Three Houses

Like many Americans, my only exposure to Fire Emblem was the 37 sword characters in Smash Brothers. Fire Emblem just never sounded like a game for me. Maybe part of that was that I constantly got it confused with Dragon Quest. Maybe part of it was that both of those franchises are smashed in my brain as a throwback grinding JRPG. Something I loved in my childhood, but sadly do not have time for anymore. 

Fire Emblem: Three Houses came out when I was traveling a ton and I didn't have any Switch games that were holding my attention. 

Backlog: Silent Hill 3 (HD Collection)

In 2012, Konami put out a HD collection for Silent Hill. Consequently, this was around the time most people realized Konami hated their videogame division. 

I bought the HD collection, around the time my OG backwards compatible PS3 bit the dust, as a way to still play some of my favorite games. And it sat on my shelf, for damn near 8 years, in it's plastic wrap. 

Top Games of 2020

2020 has been a hell of a year. You would think being locked in, unable to go to bars, hockey games,

and on trips, would give me infinite time to play video games, but ultimately apathy took hold. I played some long games, but not a lot of games. 

I tended to favor games with a lot of repetition this year. Instead of wanting snap judgements and strategy, I would  slide into a meditative trance, let the world fade into the background, while I grinded like it was 1998. 

As always, these aren't necessarily games that came out in 2020, but games I played in 2020.