What I like so much about December is all the snow. I’m of course kidding because come on, who likes trudging around in the snow? Let’s be realistic and say that December is all about those roundups for the best games of the year. This time around I deliberately ign🧸ored the big releases and focused instead on the smaller games, many of which wound up having a significant impact on the medium, at least in my opinion. While I know that some of the best games of the year were in fact big releases, my thinking was that while most of these will be gett🦋ing the recognition they deserve, a lot of games from independent developers might not. So without any further ado, these are my top ten games of the year.
10. Sifu
I can’t think of too many truly great martial arts games. There have been plenty of beat ‘em ups and fighting games, but I could only name a couple that clearly understand what martial arts are all about, notably in terms of their form. I should really give you a full disclosure, I’ve studied a lot of martial arts over the years, particularly Ju Jutsu, something in which I currently hold a black belt. In other words, I know a thing or two about realism and Sifu gets my full endorsement on this particular pౠoint. Sifu is prob🧔ably the best martial arts game in years.
9. Pentiment
168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Pentiment is a fant🐬astic murder mystery, but what I like most about the game is the aesthetic. I mean, as an archaeologist, I’m strangely interested in historical imagery, but most of the time there’s a disconnect between what appears on screen and what you can see on the tapestries. When it comes to Pentiment on the other hand, you can just tell the artists understood the source material, something which makes for a completely unique and interesting experience. There’s a lot more to like about this game, but as far as I’m concerned, that’s what I’ll be remember🀅ing in the years to come.
8. Card Shark
There’s a great movie directed by Stanley Kubrick about a𓂃 professional swindler in the eighteenth century called Barry Lyndon. I really love this movie. ꦍWhen I heard about Card Shark, the first thing that jumped into my mind was Barry Lyndon because the game perfectly captures the risk and romance of the tale told by Kubrick. Plus you get to learn all sorts of card tricks which to the best of my knowledge is a feat that few other games have even attempted let alone actually managed to pull off, especially with such elegance in terms of their design.
7. Citizen Sleeper
I started college right after the recession got into full swing and over the course of the following decade, I’ve had to struggle for stable employment in the face of nearly constant challenges, most recently the global pandemic. 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Citizen Sleeper not only does a perfect job of capturing the contradictions of capitalism, but manages ℱto accurately depict the feelings of desperation that so many people have been experiencing in our current economy.
6. Hardspace: Shipbreaker
Sometimes I just want to break things and 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Hardspace: Shipbreaker scratches that itch, but if this were all the game had going, I probably wouldn’t have ranked the title among my favorite games of the year. What I really like about Hardspace: Shipbreaker is everything that you learn about the meaning and importance of unions. With so many people even just in the games industry finally taking action within their workplaces to achieve unionization, I can’t even describe how 🌌refreshing it feels to find something like Hardspace: Shipbreaker, a product that clearly grasps what lies at stake in this wꩲhole conversation.
5. Neon White
While the aesthetic and story are definitely memorable, what stands out for me about 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Neon White are the mechanics. The fairly straightforward time based gameplay mechanics might seem simple on the surface, but when you really stop to think about them, there’s a certain amount of eleg🍎ance to them which turns Neon White into something of a classic. I would almost compare Neon White to one of my all time favorite genres - racing games. I just love the feeling that you can shave a few fractions of a second off your total time by trying this, that, or the🦩 other thing. Because yes, you can always go faster.
4. Metal: Hellsinger
I’ve never said this before about a game, but 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Metal: Hellsinger is a really great romp. The concept of cou𓄧pling a shooter to a rhythm game was pretty smart already, but the addition of a heavy metal soundtrack was pure genius, I’m forced to admit. This of course ramps up 🧔as you pull off the perfect punches, meaning that you start feeling like some sort of badass after a while.
3. Stray
I can’t think of too many games that offer you a radically different change of perspective the way Stray does. You not only get to experience what life would be like as an animal, but you get to see what the world would be like without humans. As an archaeologist, I can say that all of the decay and destruction is fairly consistent with everything that would happen if people suddenly disappeared from the planet, but without going off onto something of a tangent, I’ll just say that seein🍌g things through feline eyes makes for a pretty pleasant experience.
2. Norco
I love games that take you places. I mean interesting locales, but also actual places. There is in fact a difference. When it comes to games that create a strong sense of place, I can’t think of too many that have managed to pull me into their world better than Norco, at least this year. This one is all about the painfulness of poverty and the meaning of desperation, a bleak reality for hundreds of thousands if not millions of people, even right here ༒in the richest country in the world, America.
1. Cult of the Lamb
What makes 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Cult of the Lamb so smart is how much the game understands r🐽eligion. Plenty of games have taken on the topic, but few have managed to break down this important aspect of society quite so successfully in terms of systems. The game takes a close look at how religion is all about manipulating people for profit, a means of extracting value through money and labor. The player is of course placed into the primary role of this entire process, creating a strong sense of unease and discomfort.