2018 Gaming Analysis

2018 was a year of new beginnings. I didn't have a home until sometime in February and since then, it's been a struggle to find some stability in my life, both physically and emotionally. As of today, my new Game Room still doesn't feel complete. How I have forgotten the length of time it really takes for one to truly settle down and feel... content. I really miss that feeling. Now I haven't done this year in review thing for 3 years. Thus, there will be some changes in the format but I just want to look back and to find and celebrate the little sparks that happened last year in terms of my gaming life. Note: Most of the time, it takes a while before I get to the games that I inducted to my library so a game doesn't have to be released in 2018 for them to be considered memorable for the year.

TOTAL INDUCTIONS: 883

14.4% of Game Library total as of 02/06/2019

Okay, even I was shocked when I pulled up that number. That's a lot of freaking games. I could have sworn it would be less than a quarter of that but then I remember getting plenty of game series and huge bundles during the Steam sales so it makes a lot of sense: for example the Nancy Drew bundle that I got in December contained 20 titles! I can't help it, the cheaper games on Steam deserve some love too and I normally gravitate towards them when the bigger titles fail to deliver more than 60% discounts... Sometimes, I surprised people on Steam whenever I splurged but if you look closely at the games I selected, you can see the ridiculously cheap price tags attached to the majority of them.

FAVORITE GAME OF THE YEAR:

Assassin's Creed: Odyssey

Developer: Ubisoft

Induction Date: 12/24/2018

Platform: Personal Computer

For a continuation of a long running game series, Assassin's Creed: Odyssey is nothing short of a miracle. They keep releasing a seemingly never ending amount of new entries, one after another, in short periods of time mind you and instead of delivering the same old thing, they surprisingly managed to actually create the ultimate AC experience with Odyssey. Everything about this game just works, from the main characters, to the Greek setting, to the open world setup. The more I play the game, the more it opens up and soon, I found myself buried in quests - there are just too many things for one person to do! I played it so much one day that I actually got sick of it because I had too much goodness! Yes, I had to pace myself with this one because there is always a goal, always an adventure just waiting for me every time I jump into the game. It's amazing to run around the huge game world and if you are like me, soak it all in without using the fast travel option! No, I haven't completed the game yet but 50+ hours of beauty and wonderment on top of the tight action and stealth sequences made this the most prominent, most satisfying game I played in 2018.

SURPRISE OF THE YEAR:

The Nintendo Switch

Nintendo disappointed me when they abandoned the Wii U so very quickly. I will never ever forgive them for that. I was certainly unimpressed by their new Switch. It's obviously made to cater those who want to game away from home? But then I noticed that they released a lot of Psikyo shoot-'em-ups for the system so I caved in. I love the Psikyo ports but my opinion about the system is still the same. It's a disappointing console/handheld hybrid. It worked great when I went for a little getaway vacation to Lake Tahoe but everything else about the system is mediocre. The Joy-Cons, despite the name, brought not an ounce of joy. And Nintendo wants to charge us more money to buy the proper Pro controller for the system? I just opted for a USB adapter and play the system using a DualShock 4... Couple with Nintendo's new pay to play online policy, I think they are heading down a very dark path. Just port more shmups alright?

LOWEST POINT OF THE YEAR:

God of War

Developer: Santa Monica Studio

Induction Date: 08/16/2018

Platform: PlayStation 4

Every single God of War game that came before it started with absolutely epic beginning stages, like the hydra attack in the first game or the battle with the Colossus of Rhodes in the second game. This one? Well, you row down a river with your son to get the funeral of your wife going. Cory Barlog, the game director who was responsible for the first two games has apparently lost his marbles. I always thought that the awfulness of God of War III can be blamed on him leaving the project. Now, I am not even sure about that anymore. This game is an example of over-parenthood ruining things. There are appropriate games where you can interject your love for your offspring but in a God of War game? And how did a game about Greek mythology turn into a Nordic fantasy? Was it because he married a Swede? It makes you think, does it not? I tried to keep playing the game but I am here to kick some arse, not to guide some brat. This could have been a glorious return, God of War: Ascension style. Instead, we get another misguided, wholly unnecessary reinvention, like those new Tomb Raider games. This isn't God of War... It's God of Waa-waa-waa!

How was your gaming experience in 2018?

What would be your choices for the 3 categories above? I'd love to know!

Dead Sharks, Dead Gamer

I have been on the hunt for the ultimate survival game ever since I started playing Conan Exiles on the Personal Computer about a month ago. I was so invested in that game - in single player of course - that when I finally died, I just stopped playing it because I had done so much stuff, a sudden step back felt like a crushing defeat. Yes, I do plan on going back because I thought the game was very engaging and it certainly wet my appetite for the genre. Yesterday, I started playing The Forest, also on PC, and wow, this game is so darn brutal I couldn't even finish building my first bloody tent before I died... twice now!

They were so hungry, they didn't even bother stripping me naked.

I have already played Stranded Deep as you recall, so the starting intro where the plane crashed seemed awfully familiar. Here, you crashed into an island instead of the middle of the ocean. I was disappointed however with the kid character aspect of the game. In the beginning, when you awoke from the crash, you saw one of the uh, hostile locals, kidnapping your kid. This is an immediate immersion breaker because well, I frankly hate kids, I don't want one ever, and developers are known to coddle kids. A note to all developers: please stop adding kids to save/protect just because you recently obtained one and think everyone should share your uh, joy? It made me stopped playing that latest God of War on the PlayStation 4... In a game that's rife with horror and violence, I sure hope that The Forest doesn't hold back when it comes to the kid because it would sharply contradict everything else this game seems to offer. I was able to find other passengers hanging upside down with their bellies sliced open and their intestines hanging out so when I find the kid, I am hoping for a horrific discovery. Thankfully, after the eye roller kid situation, the game saved itself by offering an atmospheric environment of uncertainty, terror, and desperation.

If all lives were equal, how come this brat got priority over everyone else on-board?

The first time around the plane landed close to the beach and I thought that it could be the location where I could set up camp... until I saw three dead sharks near the water. I wasn't even sure they were dead at first so I had to throw rocks at them. These are not your typical sand sharks either, they looked like great whites. Funny because just a few strokes away from the beach, there was a yacht. Surely, the best place to spend the night but there is no way I am jumping into the dark water - especially with these dead sharks littering the beach. Then, I went back into the forest to cut down some logs when I heard what sounded like a woman's cry. Like an idiot, I went looking for the source and found out that it was a hostile, so I brandish my ax to cut her down to pieces until I realized too late that she had her boyfriend with her. They knocked me out and took me to their camp and when I escaped because they were all missing - maybe they were holding some sacrificial ceremony on top of a hill somewhere with the kid as the main attraction, one would hope - I managed to find the same beach again but after collecting a bunch of stones off the sand, I looked up to see that same couple creeping up towards me. I stood between the dead sharks hoping that they would work as some kind of cannibal-repellent but nope. Since I was badly hurt from the previous encounter, it didn't take them long to kill me off.

Dead sharks in cult-like placement. Very promising.

The second go saw an even more pathetic attempt at survival. The plane landed quite far from the beach but because I was so scared to venture through the forest, I found a cliff and followed its edge until I found the same beach. This time, I walked alongside the beach until I found a very secluded area under a rocky cliff that formed a little underpass and started to set up camp there. Because I spent too much time crawling to get to my destination, it started to get dark before I could start chopping some wood. Suddenly, the screen got dark and I started to freeze and the next thing you know, I quit the game. I never quit a game until its over, even when I got thrown into the ocean defenseless in Stranded Deep, but this was too horrific for me. I wasn't ready to start freezing to death and get jumped by hungry cannibals. I surely did not want to accidentally get into the water in a panic to then be attacked by a great white. I love this game, but it's pretty darn scary. The brilliance of The Forest is that seemingly in this early phase, there is no place where you can hide from danger, unlike the other survival games I have played. Subnautica is also quite a traumatic game for me because everything takes place in the open sea but when I got really scared, I could always just hide in my impenetrable little floating pod. Here, I feel exposed at all times. Despite the high fear factor, I have already started my third try and this time, I am forcing myself to build that save spot immediately come hell or high water without being too picky about the location. Thankfully, I found that same bad luck beach close by! The good news? The "close your eyes" method actually worked to keep me calm and collected while I was chopping down trees. But I am not sure how well that's going to help when the hostiles start sneaking up on me mid-chop...

What you can't see can lead to a fallen tree!

FIRST IMPRESSION: 5 out of 5

When Stranded Deep, Just Close Your Eyes

I have deathly fear of open water. Shadow of the Colossus on the PlayStation 2 had moments that nearly killed me, and though I endured about 7 hours of suffocating aquatic hell in Subnautica on the Personal Computer, an encounter with a deep sea creature had scarred me so much in that game that I had to quit playing - it's a great game though if you can stomach it. Now, we can add Stranded Deep, a game that is still in Early Access on Steam for... 3 years - oh lord - into my list of scariest experiences of my gaming life.

Basically, Stranded Deep is a survival game that places you in an open world where you have to survive its harsh environments by building stuff and keeping yourself fed. Where Stranded Deep is unique is the fact that the game takes place on an ocean map scattered with small islands and yes, there is more ocean that there are lands. What I am dreadful to learn is that the game slowly forces you to venture into the open sea to travel between these islands because there is never enough resources in each of them and if you are brave enough, dive deep into the sea surrounding these islands to scavenge rarer materials from old forgotten wreckage and debris. Apparently, there were plenty of air and water disasters that have occurred at this location.

Things are so peaceful on land.

So I was in the middle of building a small wooden raft because the emergency raft that the game gave me to start with drifted into the seas when I left it in the shallow water in the middle of a rainstorm. The game is not smart enough to allow me to complete building the raft unless I place it on water so I did just that in an attempt to attach the rudder. So guess what? The raft started drifting into the middle of the ocean and since it didn't have a sail built on it yet, I was not able to control its direction. I should have just jumped into the water while I was closer to the island but I was frozen in fear because I saw a large shark swimming near the surface close to the raft as I was drifting away. Then, something seemed to be bumping onto the raft. I was like, oh fuck. I was pretty certain that the game wouldn't dare give the sharks the ability to attack you on the raft because wouldn't that be too much? Since the weather seemed rather rough at the moment, I concluded that the sea was just playing tricks on me. I could have quit the game but I wanted to see if I could end up on one of these islands by luck no matter how long it would take. I angled the camera up so that my character couldn't see the open water around me. Then, in a blink of an eye, the flimsy raft got capsized...

Island hopping nightmare.

I was engulfed in fear. My body tensed up and I couldn't move. At that moment, the line between reality and video gaming blurred. It was such an awful, dreadful feeling. I knew that I was going to die. So what did I do? Well, I closed my eyes while clutching tightly on to the controller in my hands. I didn't want to the see the shark. I didn't want to see the dark depths of the ocean. I mustered up what was left of my courage and sneaked a peek and saw that I was fully submerged so I forced myself to dive deeper into the ocean and then I closed my eyes again. I just want it to be over, no matter how cruel the solution because the unpleasant, horrific situation I was in. It took seemingly forever but my character eventually died from drowning. I think I was attacked by a shark too while I was drowning judging from the noises. Moral of the story? Well, I should never, ever allow myself to be that close to the ocean because if something happened to me in that environment, I would just give up...

FIRST IMPRESSION: 4 out of 5

Gamer Dream: The Eye Specialist

What do gamers dream about in their sleep? In this series, we will explore some of these weird dreams that I have been having of late. For the most part, all that I (not) see when I go to sleep is empty darkness, a sort of peacefulness that you can't feel, sort of like our non-existence before the interruption of life. So why have I been dreaming a lot lately? What the heck do they all mean?

Dreamed 01/24/2019: I found myself with an optometrist. I was getting my eyes checked and he was telling me that I need to see an eye specialist because he didn't know the reason I was having vision troubles. Then I found myself at a mall. I looked at the mall map and saw that the office of the eye specialist just happened to be at opposite end of the mall. I had to wade through a very crowded mall to get to this specialist. The term "eye specialist" kept repeating in my mind on my way there. When I finally made it to my destination, the dream suddenly ended.

Perspective: I do have vision issues so I can see the reason behind this theme. It's a condition that I have to pretty much live with but apparently I may not be satisfied with this situation at a subconscious level. The mall setting is an interesting addition to this. I haven't been to a mall in 10+ years. I hate the mall. Is going to the mall even a thing in this digital age? Its inclusion here seems to be of fear and discomfort, a location of probable danger and uncertainty. I am not a fan of public places, especially these days. Then the repetition of "eye specialist" - the only thing I can think of is my frequent selection of the "Ranged Specialist" character Nazeebo in Heroes of the Storm. He's my go to character whenever I play the game. If not for the daily quests requiring me to play a different character class, specialist Nazeebo is always my number one choice. It's Nazeebo, Nazeebo, Nazeebo! and I play HotS a lot, so that's a lot of Nazeebo. The "Ranged Specialist" description under his name has branded itself into my mind without me knowing it. As a matter of fact, I never noticed that description being placed under the character name during the character selection screen until I took the screenshot below. The "Eye Specialist" then can be decoded as "I (am the) Specialist" as a sort of self-affirmation message. So nothing too deep in this particular dream, just a mishmash of my daily reality. The whole specialist thing is perhaps the most prevalent aspect of this experience so we can categorize this one as definitely gaming related.

Nazeebo in my mind. Is this a good thing?

A Beautiful Odyssey

If you are familiar with the way I game, you know that I skip around a lot. Everything is mood based, it doesn't matter when a title first materialized in my Game Library, if I am in the mood for a particular experience, I normally would drop anything that I was supposed to continue playing - you know these days, games are mostly designed as a long single playthrough event - and move on to the next thing. These past couple of years, it's been hard to pull me away from Heroes of the Storm, but a game finally managed to do that and it's Ubisoft's Assassin's Creed: Odyssey. There have been major controversies surrounding this game with the whole XP boost situation - though 40+ hours in, I have not experienced any hindrance from not accessing this tacked-on feature - and the unfortunate spoiler I overheard about relationship decision with the latest downloadable content. Still, Odyssey is such a blast to play, there is always something for me to do, and the way they manage level scaling is very effective where you are free to pursue whatever quest chains you desire at any time.

Head over heels for Odyssey.

Now it helps that the main character in this game is hawt and yes, I picked Alexios, the guy. Based on the short amount of time I dabbled into Assassin's Creed: Origins, I understand that both games feature the same open world do anything, see everything philosophy as well as the graphics engine but you know it always helps to have attractive looking main characters, I mean, I try to make one every time I am given the opportunity to in a game's character creation screen. I personally think Origins looks a tad better environment wise, for some reason I favor the Egyptian theme more even though it's mostly over-represented in video games and other media than Greek culture. So yes, Alexios made me committed to check out what he's up to, something that Origin's Bayek failed to do, before I was completely hooked by the game itself.

You know who else is enjoying this game? The bloody in-game sharks...

As you can probably gather, I am pretty much sold on this game. I just love playing it and then I encountered something I found absolutely beautiful: two manly Greek guys kissing. Well, I found this extraordinary because even though gay themes have been making it into video games for a while now, they sometimes tend to showcase the "safer" representation of a gay couple. For example, you would normally get an elf partner because you know, male elves apparently are generally considered fair and pretty and then sometimes the other guy would almost, always be flamboyant. I know that sexuality is a spectrum: sure, there are plenty of gay couples comprised of two effeminate guys - usually the way it's represented in popular media, ahem Modern Family - because I think for some reason the responsible entities always try to drastically distinguish gay men from straight men and there is something wrong with that. So when two roid-rage types, a Spartan and a rough mercenary, are just pawing all over each other in a video game, well, that's always a cause for celebration. Yes, Odyssey has been very, very good to me.

Surprisingly, I managed to get my finger to hit that screenshot key while this was happening.