The first 1,000 people to use this link will get a 1 month free trial of Skillshare: skl.sh/writingongames12211 If you enjoy the videos and would like to directly help make their production more sustainable, consider heading to patreon.com/writingongames and pledging only what you're comfortable with. Doing so gets you access to things like early, completely ad-free video uploads as well as new patron-exclusive Q&As and commentaries on older videos! Your support is what allows me to keep doing this and I'll never be able to thank you enough for that. Hope you're all doing alright and staying safe this New Year!

Absolutely relate to the intro of this video, my god.

@JuanAMatos-zx4ub

2 жыл бұрын

For sure. Cool to see you game as well!

@WritingOnGames

2 жыл бұрын

Oh hey! Cool to see you here as I've watched a whole bunch of your videos-they've made me want to get back into physical synths and drum machines and the like again. Could also really relate to something you mentioned in a video a few months back or so where you said that the OP-1 stuff you were doing was limiting your creativity to one style of music that you weren't interested in making. I used to make a new electronic track for every new video I worked on, and after so many years I found that I was just kinda going into autopilot with structures and melodies and the like. Even though it wasn't the focus of the channel or anything, it was still a fairly destabilising feeling to come up against. For what it's worth I'm actually way more interested in what you're doing now than the OP-1 stuff (which was itself very cool, don't get me wrong), so I hope you keep trying to find what works for you because you're really good at it. Sorry for the ramble, it's just that while it's certainly sad and wrong that so many creators feel the same kinds of burnout and identity crises brought on by the platform itself, it's at least somewhat comforting to know that it's not just you alone and that we're kinda all in this together if that makes sense. There's a shared struggle there that runs counter to the feelings of isolation that the platform drills into you. Anyway, thanks for watching and commenting!

@Artersa

2 жыл бұрын

I love both of these channels, how neat!

@kevintighe4898

2 жыл бұрын

stfu and do another OP-1 video! /s

I’m truly grateful for your candid and heartfelt exposition. You inspire me to do something with my writing.

Glad to see Hitman 3 getting so much love. It was really nice to get my GOTY in January for once.

so happy you have kept the channel going through everything and extremely proud to be a patron 😤

@WritingOnGames

2 жыл бұрын

MY FUCKIN GUY

im honestly SHOCKED that Inscryption wasn't on this list but hey, every list is different. thank you for everything you do man, i hope 2022 is more kind to you

@WritingOnGames

2 жыл бұрын

Inscryption was definitely one of the games I was referring to at the start that I bounced off *hard*, unfortunately. Thanks very much for watching and the kind words though!

@bnjkf9u3

2 жыл бұрын

:O

Personally I'm excited for what IO has for Hitman 3 in 2022

@BilCaesar

2 жыл бұрын

I’m more looking forward to seeing what they do with James Bond. Never been a big Bond fan in movies or games but I expect it to make me a bond fan. 🤣

@mythicbrwl9424

Жыл бұрын

Bad start but good end

As someone who doesn't particularly have much of an opinion about racing games, it's your top 5 list and you can and should put whatever you damn well want on it. Not sure why some people get butthurt over someone else's list.

Forza Horizons 5 is the most fun I've had in gaming in a long time. I'm not normally into driving games and it eased me into it in the best ways. The monetization was fine, I had too many cars and too much money.

Man, I really need to finish Nier Replicant. I absolutely loved Automata, easily an all-time favorite for me. But playing Replicant, I couldn't help but feel like everything it does, Automata did better. I assume you have to do multiple playthroughs to complete the game as in Automata, but I didn't even manage to make it through the first one because there were *so many* WoW style fetch quests, or like, go run here and talk to this guy, then run here and talk to this guy, or breed these flowers to get this ultra-rare flower. It's maybe my fault for feeling obligated to complete every single side quest I could at each point in the story before moving on, but I did the same in Automata and it was never a drag in the same way. In Automata, all the side quests were interesting or thematically relevant to the game as a whole, whereas in Replicant, not only are there far far more side quests, but most are tedious busywork. All that said, I do really want to push through it at some point because I hear it gets better, I just got really burnt out on all the busywork.

@cuterpooter

2 жыл бұрын

I didn't pick up the reworked Replicant but just going by my experience with the old NieR Gestalt, the gameplay isn't 'great'. The story, however, is 15/10. Like, all these years later I still get emotionally affected by just hearing a bit of a melody -- a few notes of a song-- that plays during some of the heart-rending parts of the game. Just a bit of dialogue can make me remember an area or story arc. So the side quests are pretty good, the moment-to-moment game experience is decent, the soundtrack is exquisite, and the story is one of the most memorable and emotionally powerful ones I've ever gone through. I hope you manage to get through the sometimes brutally abysmal parts and enjoy the story and characters that make you ask yourself *sooooo many deep questions* about life and love and meaning. I don't even own my 360 anymore but there's a KZreadr who stitched together all the cutscenes and a bit of gameplay into 5-6 hour "movie" and I've rewatched that two or three times in the years since I finished NieR. That's how much the story means to me. Good luck, and have fun.

@UnreasonableOpinions

2 жыл бұрын

I think the story is worth the grind, but I can understand if you would rather just watch a cutscene edit of the game. The team learned a lot on the way to making Automata.

@arthurjeannin3357

2 жыл бұрын

@@cuterpooter Most sidequests absolutely suck! And I say that as someone who loves that game to death. Although the writing is great even at its worst, the actual objectives of a majority of these sidequests are terrible and often ask you to simply grind for materials and waste time. Some might argue that it's even a point made by Yoko Taro, and I get it! But they're still pretty bad and I can absolutely see someone getting crushed by the amount and boringness of these.

@SpinningTurtle66

2 жыл бұрын

I had the same thing at the beginning of Automata, but after trudging through the first playthough I finished the whole thing. It was great

@SaberRexZealot

2 жыл бұрын

I didn’t play Replicant, but I did play the original on PS3, and even though the gameplay has nothing on Automata, the story is absolutely, insanely good and even better in my opinion. The core characters having such compelling dynamics combined with the incredible music just rips your heart to shreds in the best of ways. It’s well worth the tedium. As fun as Automata was the story of the original always stuck with me more.

I’ve never played the first game, and I’ve seen Psychonauts 2 on so many “top games of the year” lists and none of them - NONE - have made me want to branch out and take a look at it until your video just now. So thank you, and if it’s still on Game Pass when I get home from work tonight, I’ll go ahead and download it :)

Another solid year of analysis from you~

Keep it up, you’re one of my favorite channels

Listening to you recount your feelings with games, summarizing the borderline universal bitterness of turning your hobby into your job. Hamish, I’ve been watching since you started, and from this side you appear to be doing really well at all of this. Always happy to see the upload.

Always excited to see a new upload from you!

For me 1. It Takes Two 2. Hitman 3 3. Psychonauts 2 4. Deathloop 5. Echoes of the Eye For me one of the best years for games

@joshlyman7059

2 жыл бұрын

@@ayaya173 far from it :) maybe our tastes are just different

@teratoma.

2 жыл бұрын

@@ayaya173 post your top 5

@teratoma.

2 жыл бұрын

@@ayaya173 cringe

yo really happy you’re keeping at it! Your pieces are some of the best on the platform and I feel like, despite the whole autopilot and callusing thing (which, dang yeah I feel you, this year has just zipped) your videos this year have been great. Admitting and exploring critical alienation with some of the year’s hyped games made for interesting videos. And giving serious consideration to weird racing/traversal games others wouldn’t is practically your brand at this point 😂

oh damn you uploaded it pretty much at new year in my time zone, pretty neat imo happy new year 2022 :)

I appreciate your listing. Thanks for looking into NMH 3 as well. I didn't want to look too closely at the game, though I saw it had passing review scores. As one who enjoys the games of people like Suda or Kojima, there's always a worry that my interest in their artistic capabilities can make one overlook their faults. Knowing that you genuinely enjoyed the moment to moment combat as well as the storytelling makes me glad. I think the few stinkers in the past few months have given everyone a bad taste in their mouths, though your honorable mentions helps remind us what came out before then. Who knows, one day I might eventually play Psychonauts.

You just feel so human. Amazing channel!

You really got me hyped of for some of these games Great picks altogether on your top 5 and I hope I find the time to play them all!

1:21 damn did not expect to be hit so hard from a background scene in a video from a game I've never played great vid btw

I understand your anxieties regarding your disagreements with the critical consensus of games like Guardians of the Galaxy, but at the same time, I think it's important for me (as just another random viewer, nothing more) to reinforce, that when I am watching your channel, I am not watching it to hear the "right" opinion. I am watching it to hear yours. Now maybe it's a bit easy for me to say this, since...well I do tend to agree with you quite a lot. I remember watching Skillup's overwhelming praise of Guardian's of Galaxy and thinking: "man this seems like another big budget story driven game, with a bunch of walking sections and shallow combat, I think I'll skip". But here's the thing, I like Skillup too, so him praising a game that I am 99% sure I wouldn't enjoy is no problem for me. All I expect from a reviewer is honesty, transparency and effort when it comes to explaining their overall points. And I think you do that well, so keep it up!

I really hope you go back and give *Returnal* another shot. **EVERYONE** is meant to feel “I’ll never beat this f***ing game; it’s impossible” and especially early on, that feels like it’s true. But you’re always unlocking artifacts, parasites, consumables, new weapons, new weapon traits, new alt-fires, upgrades to weapons, weapon traits, and alt-fires, as well as the most important thing: knowledge. You’re learning about the enemies and their attack patterns, when they’re about to fire, when you need to dodge, when they’re about to leap, etc. You’re learning about the map (even though it reconfigures every time you die), you’ll still come to know the modules that make up the world to the point where you’ll instantly go “oh it’s this room” and know where it’s safe to hide or dash, or where to look for a hidden wall or a secret room. The best piece of advice I have is first, to remap your controller. What worked for me was moving jump to L1, melee to R1, and dash to R3. This means you can instantly dash in any direction you’re facing just by pushing in the right thumbstick. And not having to reach for the face buttons to dash or melee means you ALWAYS have fingers on both analog sticks, both shoulder bumpers, and both triggers, at ALL times. The milliseconds you save not reaching for X will save your life (especially since you can’t turn the camera at the same time as using your right thumb to push a button). And secondly, save a video of your fight. Especially boss fights. Go back and watch afterwards, and look for things like “oh he raises his hands just before he’s about to do this”, or “oh you can tell on the floor where he’s about to move to”. The things you were too busy to notice while playing will become things that you can look for the next time you go back and play. You’re **INVULNERABLE** when dashing, as well as grappling, so you essentially have an “I choose to not take damage” button at your disposal. Once you unlock grappling, use it to move across the room, fire off a few shots, then grapple back to the other side and do it again. The enemies will be so busy trying to reposition and you’ll be completely safe from them. ALWAYS dash **THROUGH** projectiles (it won’t hurt you). Better to dash *TOWARDS* an enemy and then melee them than it is to dash backwards and then have to jump over those same projectiles again. Melee is OP, and can one-shot kill almost everything and will stunlock everything else, especially once upgraded. You can even melee flying enemies. It’s often better to dash towards and then chain melee everything to death than it is to be at range and trying to dodge all the projectiles they’re firing. Go into settings and turn on “always run”. This means that even just when strafing left to right or circle strafing, you’re *running*. You can beat pretty much every boss just by strafing left to right and back, as they shoot where you were, instead of where you ARE. Keep moving. Crank up the “auto assist” to the max setting; it’s a game where not getting hit is more valuable than doing the hitting. When you’re at full health, all silphum (health) pickups turn into resin. When you collect 3 resin, your health bar gets bigger. So play it safe early on and try not to get hit, with the intention of getting a larger health bar (biome 1 is fairly easy once you get the hang of it). There are artifacts that lower the number of resin needed to upgrade your health bar from 3 to 2, as well as lowering the number of kills you need to up your adrenaline meter by one, or allow you to get hit one more time before losing it, etc. Resinous Shield is amazing (it gives you a shield that takes one hit just for picking up a resin). This means that you can safely pick up any Spoiled Resin (they normally have a chance to either do damage or count towards your health bar upgrade, but because you have a shield from Resinous Shield, it will absorb dmg if you take it, and give you a new shield because you picked up a Resin, and then still count towards a health upgrade). ---------- The first upgrade you should buy at the store is the 25% suit integrity (health bar) upgrade. Until you unlock better things, a larger health bar will always be more useful. The astronaut figurine as well, bc it’s a +1up. Also, change your mentality from “I have to beat this game” to “I want to beat this one boss/biome” or better yet, “I just want to unlock a few weapon traits and alt-fire modes to 100%”. A lot of times, the first things that come on them aren’t the best and you might dismiss a gun that will eventually become your favorite with a different trait or alt-fire on it. For the second biome, a Hollowseeker with Serrated Rounds is **AMAZING** for those kamikaze drones, as it does damage over time while you can fire them off and then hide around a wall/column/corner/door. Anything that does homing projectiles helps quite a lot too (there’s also a trait for Hollowseeker that lets you fire THROUGH WALLS). Always bring in the Large Medkit to a boss fight. Finally, sometimes it’s ok if you’re not doing great and have taken some early hits to just go to the store, trade 300 Obolites for 5 Ether, and restart. That Ether carries over and can cleanse malignancy and remove the risk from health pickups, or let you get a checkpoint at the Reconstructor (so when you die, you return there with all your stuff instead of starting over). Best yet, there’s a machine right outside your ship after you beat the first boss that will give you new artifacts/parasites/weapons/consumables in exchange for Ether. Dump Ether into it until it stops giving you new things. Unlocking all these cool new items for your loot pool will give you so much better of a chance to survive and succeed. Do some Ether runs (the max is 30) and your future self will be glad you did. YOU CAN BEAT THIS. If I can do it, with arthritic fingers and a joint mobility disorder, in my mid40s and as someone who has never beaten a Soulsborne game, doesn’t play anything above the default difficulty, etc. then I think most people can. You’re meant to feel it’s impossible at the start, but the game eventually gets to the point where it straight up gives you guns that fire themselves with perfect accuracy (like the Hollowseeker’s Portal Beam and Portal Turret). All I had to do was jump in biomes 5 and 6 and the gun killed everything FOR me, lol. I hope this helps you @Writing On Games, or anyone else that reads it. Returnal is my GOTY and while I swore I would never beat it countless times, the satisfaction in finally doing so was one of my favorite gaming memories in all of my many decades of playing games. It’s a fantastically constructed game with a ton of replayability, excellent music and atmosphere, with a fair but tough combat loop. You’ll never be weaker than you are at the start of a loop, but by the end of it, you’re almost OP and just mowing through enemies. Sometimes you just need a break, so hopefully if you go back to it, you’ll find that you’re capable of more than you thought. Good luck!!

As someone who has recently discovered a tendency towards sensory overload, especially when stressed (thanks 2020/2021), the PSY King’s levels were really relatable. I had to play them in small chunks over the course of three sessions to get through them without being overloaded myself. The aesop about the dangers of meddling in another’s mind was unexpected, but welcome. And the understanding received from the director over the matter (cannot, for the life of me, remember her name) was a really interesting development of her character, moving her from ‘stern disciplinarian’ to ‘genuinely trying to help you avoid making the same mistakes she did’ in a way a harsher response from her, even paired with the same revelation, wouldn’t have managed. And the creeping revelation through the barber shop level that you are re-enacting history but from the POV of the /bad guy/ was genuinely one of, if not the, biggest highlights of my play through. I think the only real issue I had with it was that several times I felt like I had jumped ahead in the story progression because I wanted to explore a level before triggering the story. It almost felt like I started in the middle of a sentence and was trying to piece together the rest based solely on context clues. Also, though this might just be me, I feel like the Krueger levels would have benefited from being more linear. Or at least would have benefited from more ‘this is the order they are intended to be done in’ clues. There is definitely a beginning, middle and end to that story and major revelations from one are talked about casually in another so taking them out of order can make those reveals flop a bit.

I played Hitman III all in one sitting before the end of last year and it was amazing.

Damn, Forgotten City looks super nice

@WritingOnGames

2 жыл бұрын

Yeah, it absolutely rules.

The train level was supposed to be a homage to 007. It still should have been better

Man I haven‘t had Psychonauts on my Radar at all. Looking forward to experiencing it! Happy 2022 🥳

@josephbrown9685

2 жыл бұрын

I am several hours into playing Psychonauts 2 on Xbox Game Pass, and if you are even remotely interested in platformers, I highly recommend it. The design creativity is astounding, and it has been a joy to play. There really is no other game quite like it.

@sveeny

2 жыл бұрын

@@josephbrown9685 Oh yes I like platformers. I played about a 1000 hours of Celeste in the last 2 years, haha (if you haven't checked this out, it's one of the best games ever). I'll definitely have a look at Psychonauts! Thanks!

I played Hitman 3 for the first month and made it as far as the third map, but I was waiting for some big fixes to go back. Looking forward to it now.

Thanks for the vid

Came from ACG and I am not disappointed! You know your stuff and how to present it. Did not know some of these so you can bet they are on my list now! Cheers and keep on grinding, kinda feel the same with my blog and how Instagram constantly shoves stats and promotions in my face and I am focused more on quality rather than quantity. Anyhow, will explore your channel in the coming days.

Great video, glad ACG suggested your channel

@WritingOnGames

2 жыл бұрын

Thanks a lot! That's really nice of Karak to do as well, what a great guy.

My top 3 would be: - 1st NieR: Replicant ver. 12247... - 2nd The Medium - 3rd Deathloop

@Exel3nce

2 жыл бұрын

the medium....? weird, buddy

As if people are annoyed at you for including games of your own choice in your own top 5 list! All the best to you in 2022 thank you for all of your content I really enjoy your take on the games you've played.

@WritingOnGames

2 жыл бұрын

Thanks a lot! And yeah, you'd be surprised.

fantastic video

Was just reminded that I’m not yet a patron of this channel, so I’m rectifying that right now!

@WritingOnGames

2 жыл бұрын

Thanks so much!

17:22 my heart started beating fast af lol

The Forgotten City is on Game Pass? Right then! *Fires up the Series X.*

I'm glad racing games are finally getting their due this year, and hopefully next year as well. I've been a fan of the genre for a long time, and the past couple of years have been especially painful, with the exception of Forza. I'm not sure what 5 did specifically. Was it the setting? The roster? Did 4 act as a hypeman? Or was it just in the right place at the right time? I don't know. But seeing 10 million players on its first week, glowing reviews, big awards and the likes of Noah Gervais covering it gave me hope for the genre. Like, we're going back to the days of 2005, where the image of an M3GTR or Ford GT was burned into screens across the land. And I must admit, it was funny seeing the "cinematic" crowd eat crow, bewildered as to why a racing game would beat out yet another violent third person action game about angry dads or something.

I basically missed the entire PS4/XBOne generation and everything PlayStation 3, and I got a PS4 at the start of The Event. Honestly, playing nothing but the greatest hits of a generation and then the ones I was truly interested in on the side really helped me enjoy the whole thing, as I was beginning to realise that Rocket League alone was no longer interesting or fun, but more routine. I think I'm done with wanting to play the latest releases. I quite like this waiting for the scene to settle thing, not having to sort through the derivative, the boring and the broken on the off chance of finding gold soon after release. Count me out of the release cycles, I'll watch these annual and generational roundups from critics and knowledgeable people who are a good match to my taste or who's opinions I greatly respect, like yours, and build up a proper To Play list over the course of years. Saves having to buy a new system during the price peak or shortages...

Although Psychonauts 2 also got the #1 spot for me in 2021, you should definitely check out It Takes Two if you haven't. Just played it before finishing P2 and was happy to see they share their best qualities, mainly their levels densely packed with creativity in mechanics and art styles. Just the best couch co-op experience I've had in years.

@WritingOnGames

2 жыл бұрын

Couldn't disagree more honestly. Guess it's personal opinion at the end of the day but I loathed It Takes Two. Admittedly I've enjoyed precisely none of that studio's games so it wasn't really a surprise that this did less than nothing for me either, but I didn't find the experiences of this and Psychonauts 2 comparable in any way except they're both kind of cartoony 3D platformers.

My favorites this year: Disco Elysium: Final Cut Deltarune Chapter 2 Chicory: A Colorful Tale Life Is Strange: True Colors Psychonauts 2

Hitman 3! Hitman 3! Hitman 3! Such a wonderful game (assuming you have all the levels and content unlocked). I bought them all on a discount, so it was easily one of the best gaming purchases I’ve ever made.

Hitman is so underrated, nobody even mentioned it on the game awards...

*that last Hitman 3 map couldve been a beautiful sprawling snowy forest map with BEARS and a bunch of wild stuff happening all over the place, what a huge missed opportunity. for me, it was Lost Judgment and Life Is Strange True Crime with Hitman 3 last.*

Hitman 3 should’ve ended where it began. Taking you back to the Ort-Meyer facility, all those years later. It could’ve been the Shadow Moses return of Hitman. A frozen over facility with the Constants men guarding your original room.

Hitman 3 was the only game that came out this year that I purchased, but I did play a ton of older games this year so instead my top 5 games that I started playing this year are 5. Hitman Contracts, I played through the Hitman anthology this year, BM and Contracts still hold up imo and even though BM has better level design there's something about contracts story that I really like, to me the final level felt really intense and even though it isn't very hitman it's such an original idea I wish we could see done again in the new games 4. Half Life-2, yes I only played the half life series this year, even though I grew up when half life 3 hype was at its peak I never played it for some reason, its only number 4 because it isn't super replayable other than the achievements. 3. Portal, again I only played it this year, its higher than HL2 because of the challenges (eg beating test chambers with minimal steps, portals or time) 2. The Long Dark, I got this game when it was free on epic games in 2020 and thought it was boring, I came back to play the story when I was bored this year, learnt the mechanics and a bit, tried survival mode and now i've sunk hundreds of hours into this game, would highly recommend 1. Hitman 3, I've literally sunk 1/9th of this year into this fucking game

Did you play outer wilds DLC at all. Definitely made the game my game of the year again

Have you played It Takes Two? I feel a lot of the compliments you have for Psychonaut 2 (the varied level design, the super inventive gameplay) apply as well for It Takes Two. This game blew my mind this year, it was so generous with gameplay ideas, you feel you are playing a different game every 20 minutes while remaining coherent.

@WritingOnGames

2 жыл бұрын

A few people in these comments have said they compare Psychonauts 2 to It Takes Two and honestly, my experience of both games couldn't be further from that, aside from the loose premise that they're two somewhat cartoony 3D platformers. I've never liked a game that studio has put out, but my girlfriend and I (who usually have a lot of fun playing multiplayer games together) checked out It Takes Two and were absolutely bored out of our minds. Personal preference I guess, but every mechanic in It Takes Two felt like it lacked polish and was ultimately throwaway. Plus the characters are so unbelievably god awful, and for a game/studio whose identity is formed around trying to tie mechanics to story (however I might feel about those individual games), that doesn't make for a particularly pleasant experience in my eyes.

I don't think there's anything that captures the fascinating qualities of No More Heroes III more than how much I simultaneously agree and disagree with your assessment. On the one hand, it's absolutely fascinating to once again see the series encompass the "antiviolence through violence" lens after a failed attempt at subverting it in No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle. The characters are fascinating, the aesthetics are incredible, the soundtrack has the best individual song in a game that doesn't have "Guilty Gear" in the name for the entire year, the list goes on. But on the other hand, I can't tell if the game is making a bunch of smart decisions as commentary about the present, past, and future of the medium, or if it's people throwing stuff at the wall and seeing what sticks (Suda is a co-director and co-producer on this one rather than taking up the mantle all by himself, and I know from interviews this was meant to be the "for the fans" title). Is Travis's relative unwillingness to go into fights compared to his glee when doing chores purposeful? Is the turret mini-game meant to feel like the most monotonous thing in the series despite its ridiculous premise? How many waves of enemies is "too many"? It feels like genius, but I just don't know where the satire begins and ends with this title in particular. On a completely unrelated note: I think you'd like Chicory: A Colorful Tale. It does a lot of what you enjoyed about Psychonauts 2, but with a more Legend of Zelda approach to its core gameplay. (If you already played/touched on it in either the podcast or a Patreon video, apologies for my redundancy.)

@chrisossu2070

2 жыл бұрын

It is kind of a bit of column A and column B regarding 3. Some of it is likely actual commentary, but a portion of it is likely a result of trying to patch over what the team couldn't implement due to time and hardware constraints. SPOILERS Suda actually wanted all of the Galactic Superheroes to be fightable but couldn't come up with fights that fit all of them by the time the deadline hit.

Killer7 is my favorite game. I couldn't get through NMH3. Maybe I'll give it another try with the mindset you provided. Thank you.

@Artersa

2 жыл бұрын

Killer7 gang here as well

I want to start off by saying I love racing video games, they are like games for speedrunners in the sense that you are doing everything you can just to lower your time by a few milliseconds. But the problem I have with FH5 is that many events have stupid scripted and rubberbanded AI. There was too many times where you could be miles ahead of everyone else and the AI could magically catch back up to you, and also seemed like they always have more grip and more power out of turns letting them take some pretty ridiculous lines. One of the events that gave me the most fustration was the monster truck one, where no matter how perfect you took every corner, the monster trucks would always get ahead of you, even if you were playing on lower difficulties. I only managed to barely win by only beinbg a few milliseconds ahead. The trucks also seems to be some kind of immovable forces of nature and will push you out of the way if you happen to be in front of them. The other thing is right after the race with the trucks you have to drive one of them and it controls like complete ass. Also if you are going for 100% completion you have to do a bunch of these objectives but they never give you enough time to complete them all so that means having to race the fucking trucks again. Oh, and don't even get me started on the voice acting. They'll throw in random spanish words every few seconds and it goes from being annoying to down right insulting, and I'm not even Mexican.

Nice video, thanks. What’s the game at 2:51?

i don’t really have anything to say but I’m commenting to feed the algorithm

Surprised It Takes Two did not make your list, considering how you reviewed Pyschonaughts 2. They both are dense, creative games, and ITT has a lot of shifts in its art design and is constantly reinventing itself with challenging, curious asymetric gameplay. I wouldn't say the story is front and center, but it also deals with 'serious' ideas around mental health, love, and emotional support. ITT also has levels that are incredibly distinct but has a cohesive whole and you go through the worlds.

@WritingOnGames

2 жыл бұрын

Gotta be honest-I absolutely loathed It Takes Two on pretty much every level. Definitely one of those games I hinted at towards the start where I was wondering if I was playing the same game everyone else was (although I've very much thought that about the studio's previous games as well). My experience with that and Psychonauts 2 could not have been more different.

The Forgotten City is an amazing game ! I love it that you love it too ! and exo one !

In defense of IOI And hitman 3 Final level several of the developers have stated that they are not fans of that final decision at the end but the had to settle for that due to Time constraints, not sure if I believe that but that’s what they say least . Hopefully they can do what they want with the new stuff coming soon

What game is in the clip at 1:03? Looks beautiful

A world on Forza Horizon 5 yes in many ways it is more of the same, but it is a polished game, which many simply enjoy. I’m also in this group. FH3 wad the first in the series I played and it was great, the next in series lack the wow effect but are still very good games I spent a lot of time playing and I will be coming back to fh5 throughout its life cycle.

Absolute Chad putting a racing game in the top five.

My immense confusion when I thought this channel was "Writing in games" and I see Hitman and Forza... Good video know I know it's "On"

@WritingOnGames

2 жыл бұрын

I mean, unironically Hitman has better writing in its NPC and target interactions than like 90% of big cinematic games that get praised for having great writing. In a year where Guardians of the Galaxy of all games wins *Best Narrative* at the Game Awards I think that is especially true.

@yoyosaur

2 жыл бұрын

​@@WritingOnGames I think a part of the struggle this year was a lot of the best written games weren't otherwise good. Deathloop had oustanding dialogue, but level design was meh. Before your eyes is just blinking. Destiny 2 is finally well written, but it's still Destiny 2 warts and all. The other games with good writing and are also good didn't have a huge variety of writing, such as Returnal. Or good writing in expansions like Outer Wilds and Iki Island. Disco Elysium Final Cut counted for me but it's inital release was 2019, so it didn't count for most. Anyway love that I found your videos and will be watching more. Cheers!

commenting for the engagement :)))

Disappointed that Returnal wasn't higher, but I beat it. The story gets soooo good. It has Dark Souls level of depths to the lore and mind fuck of it all.

If i may ask, what was your problem with Deathloop? I thought it was magnificent.

@WritingOnGames

2 жыл бұрын

I just thought that, for an Arkane game, so many of its systems were woefully undercooked. Not just stuff like its AI (which was bad, but I can... somewhat understand why the alternative might be more frustrating or whatever), but the actual design and balancing of its fundamentals. The potential of the multiplayer was absolutely squandered and rendered utterly tedious as a result, with encounters often turning into disappointing potshots across the map; the linear nature of the game both let down what could have been some cool detective-like systems that really let you feel like you were having a lasting impact on the environment, and also led to one of the worst endings I've seen in a game in some time; the tension of losing your equipment each go around was completely undone by the lack of variation in guns, how braindead the AI was and also the complete abundance of currency with which to lock your weapons in, meaning that I found a loadout incredibly early on that carried me through the entire game, without losing any of it once. Also, only allowing access to two powers at a time, combined with that AI, turned it into a decidedly basic shooter when compared to other Arkane releases. Like what you like, of course, but I just could not relate to those talking about how revolutionary the game was. It was like Diet Diet Diet Arkane Super Lite to me.

Just got to the Pychonauts bit and I haven't played it yet. Is it spoilery at all?

@fathouse8451

2 жыл бұрын

Not really

I really to miss the customary shout-out to game reviewers you do at the end of the best of the year videos.

@WritingOnGames

2 жыл бұрын

Honestly I didn't end up watching a whole lot of new creators last year that I hadn't already shouted out in prior year end lists. I may do something like that in a video on its own soon though.

):51 what game is that ?

I absolutely love hitman III

What is the name of that space marble game in honorable mentions?

@WritingOnGames

2 жыл бұрын

Exo One.

@Allgoodnames

2 жыл бұрын

Thanks! I was looking for this

Hang on, I played forgotten city all the way through, what do you mean there was a moment where it turns it back on you for assuming you live in the most important time period?

Sable didn't make the cut? I haven't played it yet, but I saw it in some of the clips earlier in the video so I expected to see it in the list.

@WritingOnGames

2 жыл бұрын

There's plenty of footage of games early in the video that didn't make the list.

@humanrich

2 жыл бұрын

@@WritingOnGames true true. Sorry, didn’t mean to sound like I’m criticising your list. It’s a good’un! :)

no echoes of the eye :O forgotten city was fantastic but still nothing to something like eote :)

@WritingOnGames

2 жыл бұрын

I dunno, I didn't beat it but for whatever reason EotE just wasn't doing it for me in the same way that the original game did.

Racing game lover here. Cannot understand peoples fawning love for the driving in the forza horizon series. Like, they look good and do play well... but theyre the only racers with a rewind and you NEED to rewind them because nothing behaves right. not enough grip to match an arcadey need for speed or the crew 2. not enough grip to feel hefty like a gran turismo either, and not enough grip to drift like a gran turismo, but sometimes enough grip to spin you out when you just want to hold a drift... they drive me insane. Hot wheeels kinda nailed it though. FH5 is a fun game with a great open world and such a fun diversity of cars and things to do with them but i just w=cannot gel with the horrible way they move.

0:51 what game is that ?

@CoachKyleW

2 жыл бұрын

Road 96

If you swap the words "video games" with "climate changes" your intro described my last 15 years

how is the ball game called ? i heard x o one

@WritingOnGames

2 жыл бұрын

Exo One.

@pliskinn0089

2 жыл бұрын

@@WritingOnGames ty

I've not played much this year. The ps5 launch is without doubt the worst since my commodore 64 days, Up there with 3do and atari jaguar

@TheAmazingSpiderGuy_99

2 жыл бұрын

I found the PS4/XB1 launch period worse personally, wasn’t until 2015 I started to enjoy that generation. Having backwards compatibility this time has really helped.

@Hawkeye19821

2 жыл бұрын

Next year looks really good

@TheAmazingSpiderGuy_99

2 жыл бұрын

@@Hawkeye19821 If everything releases on time it could be one of the better years for gaming in a while.

ACG sent me here

@WritingOnGames

2 жыл бұрын

That rules! Karak is really great.

2021: The year of the indie titles and the beginning of the end for AAA gaming

Anyone who gets offended by your personal choice to put Forza Horizon on your list needs to get a life and stop getting butthurt over something so trivial. I’m not normally a racing game fan, but Forza is among the very few that I’ve enjoyed. Also, I completely agree with you about Psychonaunts 2. It’s easy to become cynical about video games these days, but then a game like this comes along to remind us of the creative possibilities of the medium. The fact that this game (as well as Forgotten City and Forza Horizon 5) is available on Xbox Game Pass makes it even better. I’m pleasantly surprised at the high quality given how much time has passed since the under appreciated original.

My only issue with Forza featuring on so many GOTY lists is that the game is actually pretty broken beyond the surface. Reviewers liked the game on a surface level, but online and AI is utterly broken and it's identical to the previous game. It's great, but not GOTY worthy.

You can't think of any more complaints about Forza Horizon 5? How about the complete and utter lack of any sort of progression or sense of worth? The repetition? Or the multitude of bugs and online problems the game has had? A bad cockpit cam that hasn't been improved since its origin?

@WritingOnGames

2 жыл бұрын

My answer to this should really just be "because it's my list," and have it be left there, but I'll go into it for you. I personally have no more complaints. Progression is fine to me-the attached stories themselves are pish as I mention, but they lead to some really fun challenges that ramp up in spectacle. Genuinely haven't experienced the feeling of repetition in the twenty or so hours I've played because the driving is so good-I still want to go play it this second. Bugs aren't an issue for me because, well, I haven't had any-same with the online issues you speak of. I don't play in cockpit cam so it really doesn't matter to me. But again, I'll sum up by saying that it's my list. You wanna make your own and keep it off there, go ahead!

I think I'm the only person in the world who doesn't like psychonauts 2. It was creative, but not fun in my opinion.

Definitely an odd list of games, especially NMH3 with all it's issues but hey if you had fun who cares.

@WritingOnGames

2 жыл бұрын

I honestly had less issues with NMH3 than a lot of games people were holding up as wildly polished, stunning masterworks this year. Deathloop, Guardians of the Galaxy, It Takes Two come to mind...

@TakaChan569

2 жыл бұрын

@@WritingOnGames To each their own,to me NMH3 had more than just tech issues. But like i said as long as you had fun that the only part that matters =).

i refuse to buy the hitman games anymore unless the season is over and i get a deal. i live them but their release scam errrrm plan is bs

Please put the names of the games written on the screen, can't hear your pronunciation on some of the.

@WritingOnGames

2 жыл бұрын

Subtitles are available.

"A genre usually dominated by" what now?! Lolll great video tho!

Not gonna lie, 2021 was a pretty lousy year for games 🤷‍♂️

RIP TRASHBOX SERIES L No Exclusive All Games on PC day one forever in 3rd place as it should be Irrelevant console confirmed hold that massive L

Worst year of gaming of all time, horrible year of gaming