The Gaming Rs: 2021 Year End Awards

Hello everyone and welcome back to another edition of the Gaming Rs! This week I’ll be doing something a little different and I’ll be giving out my year end awards, with the Right being the games this year that really impressed me, the wRong being the games that really disappointed me and the Ridiculous being the games I wish I hadn’t bothered wasting my time with at all! I’ve been able to play a decent amount of games this year however they’ve almost all been on Xbox so if I’ve left off any Playstation exclusives, I apologise but I’ve focused my play to my Series S!

Without any further delay, let’s get on with the show!

COMMENTS

Last week was a little delayed, but we spoke about a bunch of stuff including a Fallout 4 “inspired” school shooting, a Sony Gamepass competitor and Titanfall closing up for good. We’ll kick things off with Tally Whacker.

I am an Xbox fanboy and will now always be after it was confirmed new Fallouts and Elder Scrolls will only come to Xbox. I mean I assume this was the billion dollar plan but PS guys swore it off til now. I also like the Xbox hardware much better. That said, Fallout 3, New Vegas, 4, Oblivion, and Skyrim are literally my favorite games of the past 15 years and still play them. Favorite franchises ever, psyched for the Amazon Fallout series. Have no clue why it (people) would connect to this school shooting, don’t care to comment.

Just beat Far Cry 3 the first time. Amazing game I skipped forever. Bought 4 and 5, taking a break to play Mad Max which is a blast and one of the most underrated games ever. End Rant.

Farcry 3 was an amazing game. One of the best open world games of all time, in my opinion. Just a shame about 4 and 6. And I’m right there with the Xbox thing too as well as the Fallout/Elder Scrolls assessment and it’s enough for me to swear allegiance to Xbox for good if it means I’ll continue to be able to play these games. As for the TV series….. time will tell but I’ll watch it for sure. I just hope it’s more New Vegas than 76.

Next up is I’m Tired.

Let’s be serious for a moment…Sony stays copying Nintendo and Microsoft. This service will not have day one games like the LOU or GOW. And didn’t Sony say that they are focus on future games and not their old games? I’ve lost hope for them…

Supply and demand may have changed that viewpoint. After all, an on demand service full of PS1 and 2 classics? Think of how well that would do. AG Awesome agrees.

I’m tentatively excited for the Sony Spartacus situation (apologies for the alliteration). They may pull a Microsoft and give a great value for the subscription with a variety of games from all generations and include some of their biggest hits. Or they may pull a Nintendo and have busted versions of old games with a drip drop release schedule every few months. My guess is that it will be somewhere in the middle.

I hope they have many classics with slightly cleaned up graphics and gameplay options with focus on PSX, 2, and 3 era games in particular. Of course copyright and such over the years seem to make this stuff harder and harder to achieve any more.

And finally, D2KVirus shared the ridiculous viewpoint on the Fallout shooting.

Better not mention that “Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds” was also an easter egg in God of War 2, instead, let’s pin the blame on Epic Rap Battles of History, since a twist on the phrase was used in the Thanos vs Oppenheimer battle a couple of years ago

Or, better yet, how about holding the NRA to account just once?

I mean, imagine that? Someone standing up and saying “hey, maybe a 15 year old shouldn’t have access to guns.”

On to the Rs!

THE RIGHT

The Right comes by way of my game of the year awards and while they are in no particular order, it will be a run down of the games I’ve most enjoyed this year. First, I will just throw out that I’m having a blast with Halo Infinite. Where it would fall on a traditional year end list, I really don’t know yet but I think it’s definitely the best Halo Campaign since Reach. It was a great year for shooters as Warhammer’s Necromunda: Hired Gun continued the high octane adrenaline started by the rebooted Doom games, albeit without quite as high a level of polish. Also, I didn’t find it ran too well until I played it on Series S compared to my One X. In good company for shooters again was Back 4 Blood, despite getting mixed reviews online. I found it was a great, natural evolution of the Left 4 Dead formula and has been a great time so far. For a more left field choice, Xuan Yuan Sword 7 is like a blend of Final Fantasy 15 and the Witcher 3. Despite being the 7th game in the series, it’s never reached western shores via normal means and I would say no real backstory is required. Rounding out some Game Pass picks, Artful Escape, Twelve Minutes, the Quake remaster and Psychonauts 2 were all a lot of fun. What’s been your 2021 highlights?

THE WRONG

The wRong is going to be games I just didn’t feel lived up to their potential, whether it was the latest in a bigger franchise or just something that really shouldn’t have been a let down. The biggest culprit for that this year for me has to be Forza Horizon 5. I have somewhere in the region of 400 hours on 4 alone, but I’d given up within around a week of 5 coming out. Mexico feels like a step back in location (the fact you could drive past my old house in 4 not being a factor) and the whole game just felt soulless. The events are still fun but considering the Horizon series have been my favourite racers ever, I’m heartbroken to not like 5. I’m also grouping Farcry 6 with this, and I went into this a little last week. It was Ubisoft by numbers and while the minute to minute felt fun, it was a slog to beat and won’t be one I go back to. Hot Wheels Unleashed also lands itself in this category as it’s a lot of fun minute to minute- but the unlockable content is an absolute grind without paying for them. Given Hot Wheels are a collectible commodity in real life, I feel it should be throwing cars at you so you can marvel in your collection, rather than unlocking a random one every 5 races- or 8 races should you choose to buy an upgrade instead. I’d also put GTA Definitive Edition here, but honestly I could care less about the bugs and flaws, I’m just heavy nostalgic over these games and loving playing them again.

THE RIDICULOUS 

The ridiculous will be the games that just flat out did not do anything for me this year and I’m going to kick it right off with Microsoft Flight Simulator since it had a game of the year release, and the fact it took me until 2021 to source an Xbox Series Any-letter. Technologically it’s gorgeous but damn if it’s not boring. I fully get that it’s a simulator but I didn’t manage to complete a flight to anywhere. It was basically “see my house, see the office, over the hometown, crash into something” and repeat. Thankfully it was on Game Pass but I would have laid down money for what I’m going to call a tech demo. Guardians of the Galaxy was technically better than the Avengers but it’s like arguing which strain of COVID has had the better lockdown (first for sure) as it’s a soulless, handheld trudge with the main positives coming from the soundtrack and that the gameplay rips off Mass Effect. We also saw Knockout City trying hard to be a new E-Sport but not even managing to get many people playing even for free and as I’m typing I’m now not sure it even came out this year but I hate it so much I’m not going to fact check. Gang Beasts was certainly a game I installed this year, I really don’t know what the point was but all I know is that I wish I had limited bandwidth and not bothered. Finally, a dishonourable mention goes to Riders Republic. Why I hoped it would be better than the mess that was Steep is probably my own stupid fault, but it turned into more Ubisoft being Ubisoft. A mess of a game that somehow manages to not do any of the disciplines included right, the fact it’s already slashed in price most places says all you need to know about what a mess it is.

That brings us to the end of my year end awards, I’ll be back next week for something else special I haven’t thought of yet, but it’ll be worth tuning in. Share your own Right, wRong and Ridiculous games of 2021 in the comments and I’ll see you in seven!