Steam Replay is out, so what game did you have the most fun experiencing this year?
Helldivers 2. Enjoyed the first one. Although I was skeptical of the third person view they proposed for the second one because the game can be so chaotic, I am enjoying the second one even more.
According to Steam, I spent most hours this year playing Book of Hours. (The word “Hours” is in the name of the game, so what choice did I have?) It is an amazing game, and I recommend it to anyone who likes cozy games with lots of lore to explore.
However, there is one game that I must confess I had even more fun with, even though it’s relatively short: The Pristine Cut of Slay the Princess.
I can’t really say much about it other than that it’s a horror visual novel with excellent voice acting and incredibly good writing, as almost any detail of the game’s story would be a spoiler.(Edit: I know, both of those games released last year, but the question was about which Steam Replay and which games one had fun with this year - not about games that released this year.)
No love for Against the Storm? Technically it released 8th of December last year, but that’s not enough time for it to be able to get GotY for 2023, so it’s got to fit in here. (also I only played it after new years)
Other than that Balatro has got to be a strong contender for me. PoE2 is looking more and more likely to take it home next year for me.
Xdefiant. Loved that game, it will be missed.
It did look like it would be a fun COD alternative. Sad but not surprised to see Ubi gave up on it
A big part of me wants to see someone make a FOSS alternative to it
Star Wars Outlaws.
I had so much fun while playing and Kay is such a sweetie😍This was a surprisingly awesome game. The Sabacc mini-game alone is worth the price of admission.
Call of duty black ops 3. Most of that time was spent in custom zombies maps, but the third party client that cleans up the cheater problem that plagues every old cod let me enjoy some occasional multiplayer, which despite being apart of the infamous jetpack era, I actually quite enjoy
Custom zombies maps are the beeeeest
Nine Sols. Really underrated metroidvania that flew under the radar for many people.
I saw it was classified as a souls-like. Did you find the combat to be hard?
It’s a fairly difficult game, yeah. The combat is more akin to Sekiro where you need to time your blocks.
Non-Steam was Turtle WoW with the hardcore mode.
Steam was Path of Exile 2 and 1.
Balatro, absolutely. Now that it’s on mobile, work will never get 100% out of me again.
Tactical Breach Wizards
Twin-stick shooter against various bugs and robots with some ARPG gearing, and the action here is fantastically tight with probably three key factors:
- Enemies target you but hit each other, so you manage their attacks to help your fighting instead of just staying out of trouble.
- “Frenzy” orb pickups, which act a bit like combo meter fuel except instead of chaining hits you make frequent choices about whether an orb drop is worth chasing, keeping you close to danger.
- Instant gun switching with overheating instead of reloading, so you fight hard and switch constantly between your three guns to keep any one from overheating while getting the best out of their specific properties.
I play a lot of twin-stick and top-down shooters, and this does a great job mixing the arcade twin-stick feel of high intensity fending off a swarm with tactical top-down dungeon crawling elements, and it’s just really special feeling to play. The core action feels not just well designed but like it was made just for me, and I’m genuinely glad someone made it (or is making it, since it’s early access). Plus, it’s extraction style instead of being a roguelite, so you’re always right at the best action while still getting procedural levels, so each run is a little different.
That sounds really cool. Thanks for sharing; I hadn’t heard about this one previously.
Deadlock
It brought me a new multi-player experience, something to share with friends, and it is super fun. I also don’t get toxicity out of it.
Deadlock is nice, but the toxicity is the same as in every moba like teamgame, therefore I stopped playing it because I felt the time I spent playing were not enjoyable to me. Its sad because the game is so promising and delivers Valve typical polish which rivals triple AAA garbage.
I think that the fact I keep voice audio muted helps me not to get to much toxicity D:
But then your coordination will be lacking.
I tried it when I first got an invite to it. Invited as many friends as I could. I think we ran with it for a few days and just couldnt stick with it. I personally couldnt tell what I was supposed to be doing, or if I was even helping or just being a weight to my team?
I had to watch a few videos to understand what I was suppose to do. Really didn’t get it at the start. But I think they also improved the interface and such.
Under Night In-Birth II [Sys:Celes]
UNI finally gets rollback, which means I finally gave the series a shot. The GRD system is a very unique concept that adds an additional layer of trying to win the advantage state, then pressing the advantage when you have it or respecting the opponent’s advantage when they do. And Vatista is just a very fun character to play, I’m having a blast with her.
Sea of thieves.
You get to talk to people. It can be a grind if you want. Or PvP if you want. Or just fishing and relaxing if you want. It has matured nicely and is still popular.
Sea of Thieves has definitely interested me but it looks like one of those games that gets better A) if you invest a lot of time into it and B) if you have friends who play it too all the time, and I already have big time sinks in my life and I suck at convincing my friends to play specific games with me
Your character is at full power from day 1, so you only get stronger by learning to play better. The naval combat can take a bit of time to master but it’s fun. The only thing you get for playing a long time are cosmetics. If you want to get sweaty with PvP then you can find a group on the SoT discord. Otherwise, for more casual play you can sail solo or join other players using the open crew matchmaking system. I have around 1700 hours in the game and it’s just as fun as when I started.
No hits for me this year 😒
Nothing fun at all? Not even games released in previous years? Not even games that you’ve already been playing for years?
I have a love hate relationship with CoD Black Ops Cold War. It stops me enjoying other games. I need something the break the addiction !
Over the last 10 year I’ve only played a few games that I would say were awesome and they are all pretty obvious.
GTA 5, stardew vallley, god of war, subnautica, dirt rally, cod Cold War, AC Odyssey.
I have a backlog, but I think the dopamine hit of a good CoD round prevents me picking them up.
