Games like Double Dragon and River City Ransom took the world by storm and it seemed like as long as games were on a 2D plain, beat-em-ups were going to have a place in the world.
I returned to Final Fight for the first time in probably 20 years at this point, and I got thoughts.
Anyway, Sony's State of Play happened to little fan fair. Yes, the internet talked about it. Reddit was filled with trailers. But this did not carry the same social cachet that the E3 event used to have.
There's something missing from not having the big presentation, the live audience, the sweaty game journalist living on energy drinks and dreams. Not seeing the GiantBomb couch after hours. It's just not as special.
But... enough old man yelling at the clouds... we have some games coming.
Just why?
I'm an Ubisoft apologist. They are check list games nowadays, but sometimes it's nice to just pop on a podcast and play in these sandboxes.
But at what point does the check list start feeling more like a grocery list or a work to do list? I think it's the point we've been at with Ubisoft for a couple years now.
I played a lot of games this year. I'll rank them all. Remember, these are games I played this year, not necessarily games that came out in 2022.
To this day, I still love them. They are some of the few games that don't tell your standard super soldier story. In fact, the weaker and more flawed your character is, the scarier the game tends to be.
After completing Elden Ring and it owning March through August, I wanted to play a few shorter games. Horror games lend themselves to this need because the sweet spot for a good horror game is about 5-15 hours. Anything beyond that and the fear has diminishing returns
2021 was a weird year. Things started off much as 2020 did, locked inside, wondering when you would get out.
But then things started opening up. And I stopped wanting to be inside.
It was still a year that found studios having a difficult time creating games remotely. PS5's and Xbox Series S were still damn near impossible to find.
Despite everyone trying to keep me from playing games, I covered a bunch this year. (Mostly thanks to Gamepass which might be the best thing to ever happen to games.)
So the rules are the same, the games did not need to come out in 2021, I just needed to play them in 2021. So here they are, my top games of 2021.
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).
