synchronicity
Gold Member
Last year I posted my gaming year in review. It's something I do for myself, and I thought I'd share in our newer, more intimate community. I thought I'd do this again this year, but I didn't want it to be a thread just about myself and my 2018 year in gaming. So anyone who is interested in telling us about your year with this hobby in 2018, feel free to chime in.
If you want to make a list, if you want to write a paragraph, an essay, post your own reviews, whatever - feel free to express yourself in whatever way suits you. As for myself, I like to share my reviews. It will take me a bit of time to post everything, and I'll probably only post a couple per day, but I'll get through my personal countdown sooner or later. Feel free to pepper in your own joys and disappointments from the year gone by in gaming.
And without further ado,
Ok, I'll finally try and put this thing together. First of all, I played a fair amount of a couple of games that I didn't get around to finishing because of upheaval in my personal life. (My separation from my wife being the largest factor.) I plan to get back to the following two games and finish them sometime in 2019:
Earth Defense Force 2025
Digital Devil Saga
I was having a great time with both of those, but circumstance pulled the plug before I could finish, and I ended up shelving them despite really loving them both. So, hopefully they'll be on my list for this year.
I also re-played 2 games from my past. I don't count those in my yearly rankings because they've already made their mark for me, but sometimes I love a game enough to revisit it and that's what I did on two occasions this year. Here are those 2 to start my 2018 yearly review before my countdown begins.
A final note. I rate my games on a 5 star scale for those who care about the numbers. In this day and age with so many games to play - past and present - you can consider anything rated a 4 or 5 as recommended by me. 3-star games are often enjoyable enough, but they can ultimately be skipped without missing much.
Some games are just thrilling and immediate. There's no plot development, character back-stories, in-depth systems, world-building, etc. They just smack you in the head with simplicity and action, and when the action is as well executed as it is in Rocket League, you forget all about what it isn't, and fully lose yourself in what it is. And what Rocket League is, is simply a blistering good time. The back and forth of both teams looking to nudge things in their favor is spell-binding and constant. Every boost, touch and response dance together in a ballet of pure joy as things play out in frantic and desperate fashion. Tensions build and rise on a seemingly endless basis, and the adrenaline flows freely, resulting in a throbbing orgasm of electricity.
I've played Rocket League in years past, but I spent enough time with it again this year to put it on my list. It's so compelling to me that I considered deleting it so I wouldn't be tempted to pick it up in favor of some other games I wanted to play. It's not that I necessarily love it more than some other games I was trying to get to, but it's just so easy to pick up and play. There's such a low barrier to instant fun, that it often becomes too tempting to bypass in favor of something that's more of a slower burn. Anyway, it's still a 5/5 and almost too much fun.
I bought ICO back on its release date in the US on PS2. (I may have mentioned this before, but that's just something I almost never do.) I was so drawn to the little I was able to absorb from gaming magazines which I loved to read back then, having subscriptions to several. There was something unique and wonderful apparent, even with the minimal exposure afforded via those publications, and I had to have it immediately. Thankfully my sense of things was, for me, correct and ICO became one of my all-time favorite gaming experiences. But it was one of those situations where it was so affecting that I did not want to play it again. I was afraid it would lose its luster and magic with closer inspection, and I definitely didn't want to allow that to happen.
Fast forward 16+ years, and I finally felt enough time had passed to allow for a sense of reasonable freshness that would allow me to enjoy this gem again without a feeling of over-familiarity. Looking at things again through the eyes of the present after so much has happened on the gaming landscape, I was honestly a tiny bit afraid that I would not view things with as positive a disposition. The industry moves forward and we change along with it and with the general passage of time. It would have hurt me to see ICO as anything less than brilliant, so strong is my sense of nostalgia for this one. I would have hated for that warm feeling to go away. But I think playing The Last Guardian last year reminded me with greater clarity of the flavor of ICO, and I really wanted to take that journey again.
My impressions playing this time, so long after the PS2 release, are thankfully as glowing as they were then. I think the first thing that struck me this time was how cohesive the whole game feels. Ueda's philosophy of design by subtraction really serves to accentuate what ultimately does remain. Everything feels like it has purpose. Nothing feels extraneous or wasteful. I was also surprised with how good it looks, given its age. I did play the HD version this time, and it is conceivable that the low res textures would suffer in this enhanced treatment, but the art direction is beautiful and the fact that everything is bathed in a soft glow serves multiple purposes, both adding to the otherworldly sense of place while also masking the technical limitations of the (original) hardware. I was also reminded, in this trip back to the mysterious island castle on the sea, of the sense of scale which was very unusual at the time and on the hardware. Structures felt enormous and imposing and there was often a vertigo-inducing sense of height. I can only imagine the challenges in creating the sense of space here, given the paltry 32 MB of total system RAM. Textures aside, things still look wonderful today, and not entirely due to art design. Everything ultimately comes together to create a believable, if somewhat alien, locale.
Visuals aside, the possible themes explored within ICO are as resonant as ever. Touching on ideas of exploitation, discrimination, oppression, slavery, class warfare, friendship, loyalty, and revolution; so much is said with an absolute minimum of waste. There is such a beautiful restraint in Ueda's works, and it absolutely stands in stark contrast to almost everything else in the industry. His ability to deliver a powerful tale in a subtle and thoughtful manner is absolutely unique, and reason enough to imbibe his works. His creations are proper compost to a fertile imagination, leaving enormous room to play with possibilities. Who is the Queen and what is her relationship to Yorda and the horned boys? Why does she speak the language of both? Who were the people that brought ICO to the castle and where did they come from? Why do they sacrifice horned boys? Why are horned boys occasionally born to begin with? I could go on and on with questions generated that really spark my curiosity. By refraining from filling in all gaps, the potential for engagement is magnified. You want to know more than you are ever told, and this fosters such a beautiful sense of mystery and leaves a permanent mark on the mind.
As with anything, you could plumb the depths looking for flaws if you want to polish your spectacles and really lean in to scrutinize. The controls, firstly, could be tighter. They are serviceable, but certainly lacking finesse. The jaded and leathery gamer may view Yorda as nothing more than a glorified skeleton key as you drag her from lock to lock. And the game is brief, especially if you know what you are doing. However, all flaws are dwarfed by the magnificence of this creation and only observable with undue inspection. At the heart of things, there is an absolutely wonderful bond created between Ico and Yorda - a bond forged in silent commiseration of a shared state. Ico is apparently intended for sacrifice/imprisonment until death. Yorda frail, slow and at the mercy of a powerful Queen, is as much a victim to forces beyond her control as the horned boy. Together they presumably share the same desire for freedom and rescue, despite the long odds against them. They take their journey together in the hopes of upsetting the status quo and preserving their own lives, and what a spellbinding journey it is. After re-experiencing this beautiful tale, I'm pleased to report that it is just as wonderful as it ever was. For me, replaying ICO just cemented its status as a timeless classic and one of the absolute best from the PS2, or any era for that matter. An ageless 5/5.
If you want to make a list, if you want to write a paragraph, an essay, post your own reviews, whatever - feel free to express yourself in whatever way suits you. As for myself, I like to share my reviews. It will take me a bit of time to post everything, and I'll probably only post a couple per day, but I'll get through my personal countdown sooner or later. Feel free to pepper in your own joys and disappointments from the year gone by in gaming.
And without further ado,
Ok, I'll finally try and put this thing together. First of all, I played a fair amount of a couple of games that I didn't get around to finishing because of upheaval in my personal life. (My separation from my wife being the largest factor.) I plan to get back to the following two games and finish them sometime in 2019:
Earth Defense Force 2025
Digital Devil Saga
I was having a great time with both of those, but circumstance pulled the plug before I could finish, and I ended up shelving them despite really loving them both. So, hopefully they'll be on my list for this year.
I also re-played 2 games from my past. I don't count those in my yearly rankings because they've already made their mark for me, but sometimes I love a game enough to revisit it and that's what I did on two occasions this year. Here are those 2 to start my 2018 yearly review before my countdown begins.
A final note. I rate my games on a 5 star scale for those who care about the numbers. In this day and age with so many games to play - past and present - you can consider anything rated a 4 or 5 as recommended by me. 3-star games are often enjoyable enough, but they can ultimately be skipped without missing much.
Some games are just thrilling and immediate. There's no plot development, character back-stories, in-depth systems, world-building, etc. They just smack you in the head with simplicity and action, and when the action is as well executed as it is in Rocket League, you forget all about what it isn't, and fully lose yourself in what it is. And what Rocket League is, is simply a blistering good time. The back and forth of both teams looking to nudge things in their favor is spell-binding and constant. Every boost, touch and response dance together in a ballet of pure joy as things play out in frantic and desperate fashion. Tensions build and rise on a seemingly endless basis, and the adrenaline flows freely, resulting in a throbbing orgasm of electricity.
I've played Rocket League in years past, but I spent enough time with it again this year to put it on my list. It's so compelling to me that I considered deleting it so I wouldn't be tempted to pick it up in favor of some other games I wanted to play. It's not that I necessarily love it more than some other games I was trying to get to, but it's just so easy to pick up and play. There's such a low barrier to instant fun, that it often becomes too tempting to bypass in favor of something that's more of a slower burn. Anyway, it's still a 5/5 and almost too much fun.
I bought ICO back on its release date in the US on PS2. (I may have mentioned this before, but that's just something I almost never do.) I was so drawn to the little I was able to absorb from gaming magazines which I loved to read back then, having subscriptions to several. There was something unique and wonderful apparent, even with the minimal exposure afforded via those publications, and I had to have it immediately. Thankfully my sense of things was, for me, correct and ICO became one of my all-time favorite gaming experiences. But it was one of those situations where it was so affecting that I did not want to play it again. I was afraid it would lose its luster and magic with closer inspection, and I definitely didn't want to allow that to happen.
Fast forward 16+ years, and I finally felt enough time had passed to allow for a sense of reasonable freshness that would allow me to enjoy this gem again without a feeling of over-familiarity. Looking at things again through the eyes of the present after so much has happened on the gaming landscape, I was honestly a tiny bit afraid that I would not view things with as positive a disposition. The industry moves forward and we change along with it and with the general passage of time. It would have hurt me to see ICO as anything less than brilliant, so strong is my sense of nostalgia for this one. I would have hated for that warm feeling to go away. But I think playing The Last Guardian last year reminded me with greater clarity of the flavor of ICO, and I really wanted to take that journey again.
My impressions playing this time, so long after the PS2 release, are thankfully as glowing as they were then. I think the first thing that struck me this time was how cohesive the whole game feels. Ueda's philosophy of design by subtraction really serves to accentuate what ultimately does remain. Everything feels like it has purpose. Nothing feels extraneous or wasteful. I was also surprised with how good it looks, given its age. I did play the HD version this time, and it is conceivable that the low res textures would suffer in this enhanced treatment, but the art direction is beautiful and the fact that everything is bathed in a soft glow serves multiple purposes, both adding to the otherworldly sense of place while also masking the technical limitations of the (original) hardware. I was also reminded, in this trip back to the mysterious island castle on the sea, of the sense of scale which was very unusual at the time and on the hardware. Structures felt enormous and imposing and there was often a vertigo-inducing sense of height. I can only imagine the challenges in creating the sense of space here, given the paltry 32 MB of total system RAM. Textures aside, things still look wonderful today, and not entirely due to art design. Everything ultimately comes together to create a believable, if somewhat alien, locale.
Visuals aside, the possible themes explored within ICO are as resonant as ever. Touching on ideas of exploitation, discrimination, oppression, slavery, class warfare, friendship, loyalty, and revolution; so much is said with an absolute minimum of waste. There is such a beautiful restraint in Ueda's works, and it absolutely stands in stark contrast to almost everything else in the industry. His ability to deliver a powerful tale in a subtle and thoughtful manner is absolutely unique, and reason enough to imbibe his works. His creations are proper compost to a fertile imagination, leaving enormous room to play with possibilities. Who is the Queen and what is her relationship to Yorda and the horned boys? Why does she speak the language of both? Who were the people that brought ICO to the castle and where did they come from? Why do they sacrifice horned boys? Why are horned boys occasionally born to begin with? I could go on and on with questions generated that really spark my curiosity. By refraining from filling in all gaps, the potential for engagement is magnified. You want to know more than you are ever told, and this fosters such a beautiful sense of mystery and leaves a permanent mark on the mind.
As with anything, you could plumb the depths looking for flaws if you want to polish your spectacles and really lean in to scrutinize. The controls, firstly, could be tighter. They are serviceable, but certainly lacking finesse. The jaded and leathery gamer may view Yorda as nothing more than a glorified skeleton key as you drag her from lock to lock. And the game is brief, especially if you know what you are doing. However, all flaws are dwarfed by the magnificence of this creation and only observable with undue inspection. At the heart of things, there is an absolutely wonderful bond created between Ico and Yorda - a bond forged in silent commiseration of a shared state. Ico is apparently intended for sacrifice/imprisonment until death. Yorda frail, slow and at the mercy of a powerful Queen, is as much a victim to forces beyond her control as the horned boy. Together they presumably share the same desire for freedom and rescue, despite the long odds against them. They take their journey together in the hopes of upsetting the status quo and preserving their own lives, and what a spellbinding journey it is. After re-experiencing this beautiful tale, I'm pleased to report that it is just as wonderful as it ever was. For me, replaying ICO just cemented its status as a timeless classic and one of the absolute best from the PS2, or any era for that matter. An ageless 5/5.