Summer Game Bullshit Top 10 Announcements

Geoff Keighley anointed himself as the new overlord of all the game awards and announcements, so we essentially have 3.5 announcement windows — Summer Game Fest and the follow-up shows as an E3 replacement, gamescom (which also has Keighley as a host), Tokyo Game Show, which is more for the Japanese companies, and in the last couple of years we didn’t get much juice, and The Game Awards (cheers, Geoff). This year’s E3-lite was so bad that even the poll made by Geoff on his Twitter was dominated by the answer that the show was underwhelming. Still, there were games that caught my attention despite everyone’s best efforts. This is a list of those games. I omitted the previously announced titles, this is purely for the new shit.

Life is Strange: Double Exposure

I don’t think anyone expected to see this at the Xbox Showcase, but I’m very glad we did. I very much enjoyed the original Life is Strange up until the last episode, and the fact that Max is coming back as the protagonist makes me very happy. She was amazing in the original — dorky, genuine, kind, determined. Her characterization was very much helped by the fact that we could hear her thoughts, so I hope that’s the case again. She also became so incredibly pretty, like holy.
I do have some reservations as well, though. The fact that she’s back means that one of the endings of the original is officially canon, so I do think it devalues the personal experiences somewhat. I would hope that they have the option to pick the major choices from the original, but I doubt that, as the game is almost 10 years old. Also, fuck that early access bullshit.
Anyway, I can’t wait!

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33

Another big surprise of the Xbox Showcase. At first, it looked like it’d be just another 3rd person action game, but it happened to be a turn-based RPG with some contextual action moments. The setting looks like modern-day France some artsy-fartsy fantasy France, destroyed by some kind of big bad, and now edgy-looking young adults try to fight it. Looks good, hopefully plays well too, and the story isn’t embarrassing.

Nobody Wants to Die

I love cyberpunk as a genre, and what they showed here appeals to my senses very much. A noir, retro-looking future is not what we get every day, and while we have no clue what kind of game this will even be, I’m going to play it regardless simply because of the setting. It also looked very good visually from the small trailer that they showed off.

Perfect Dark

Look, I get it that what they showed exists in one way or the other in numerous games already, and this isn’t quite what the fans of the old Perfect Dark expected. I’m also not sure if this tries to be an imsim, or is it just a shooty-stealthy-parkoury action, but as long as it’s not devoid of something, anything original, as long as the story is not complete degeneracy, and as long as those locations and the setting they showed aren’t just cherry-picked moments and it’s all like that, sign me up.

Sid Meier's Civilization VII

Civilization V was the best strategy game in existence for me. I spent an ungodly amount of hours on it, even before I got the Internet and Steam account. Civ VI was a huge step back for me, as they followed up Civ V’s unstacking of units by now unstacking cities, and it became bloated. The visual style also never appealed to me, and the lack of some basic shit in the release version (as is tradition) was also baffling. Nowadays, it’s mostly a good game that I still can’t get into, so I really, really hope that Civ VII is a revolution, not an evolution.

WUCHANG: Fallen Feathers

I honestly can’t pinpoint any particular element of this game that attracted me. On paper, it looks just like another action rpg that tries to piggyback off of you know which series, one specific entry in particular. But I liked how the protagonist was quite mobile during the fights (this is usually something the player is hugely disadvantaged at in these kinds of games), and the setting looked sufficiently dark and gritty. Anyway, we’ll see what it is in the end.

UFO 50

My first video game console was a NES knockoff called Terminator 2, it played all kinds of pirated NES cartridges, so I kind of grew up with those games. UFO 50 aims to bring that kind of aesthetic with its 50 NES- and SNES-looking games, which, as per the developers, are all feature-complete and highly playable. Let’s hope that’s the case, as the games of old were never known for being too player-oriented.

DOOM: The Dark Age

I’m including Doom in this list simply because I’ve played Doom (2016) and I liked it, but I still have to finish both that and Eternal. I’m not a huge FPS fan, but do enjoy some primal carnage and these are the premiere games at providing that. And while no Mick Gordon on the OST hurts, it still very much felt like Doom. Will get to it eventually.

Wanderstop

A game from the creator of the Stanley Parable is all that was needed to sell me on this. They showed off quite a regular life- or farming-sim, and while there’s nothing wrong with just that, it’s a game by the devs of the Stanley Parable, so it won’t be just that. They very much hinted at that in the last moments of the trailer.

Mixtape

I’m not sure why so many devs decided that choppy, low-framerate animations are something cool or appealing, but it is what it is. I’m not sure if Mixtape will be a good game. The Artful Escape wasn’t But I very much hope that another game by the same developer will be a good experience.

My 2022

Anime of the year

If you know me, you probably also know that I’ve almost completely stopped watching anime in the last three years. Still, there are some anime I can’t miss, and the recently released Aria the Benedizione movie was just that. It’s the final entry in the illustrious Aria series, and this fact in and of itself made me almost teary-eyed. I will probably never get back into anime like I used to, but there are still some upcoming titles on my radar that I hope will make my end-of-year results for 2023. Looking at you, Magus Bride!

Game of the year

This year was sort of milquetoast in terms of quality releases. Sure, we had some stand-out games like Elden Ring and God of War Ragnarök, but that’s simply because they’re high-profile AAA titles, they would always stand out. Still, I very much enjoyed Elden Ring for what it gave me, and that’s why I hold it in such high esteem – it’s by far the best Soulslike for me. And GoW, despite all its shortcomings, is a good game. But my GOTY is neither of those titles – it’s Vampire Survivors. A very basic game that activates the very same neurons the slot machines do. It’s incredibly satisfying, surprisingly deep, and costs like $5. None of its copycats managed to replicate the same dopamine-rushing sensations yet.

Movie of the year

Movies, as always, aren’t a big priority for me, but I do like to go out and watch some of them at the cinema several times a year. Didn’t manage to watch that many this year, and even then, my movie of the year was the one they never brought over here. It’s The Banshees of Inisherin. Won’t say a thing about it, because it’s Martin McDonagh and you should watch it blind and watch it now.

TV Series of the year

Ah, TV Series. I tried watching House of the Dragon (deez nuts), but I never got past ep 1. Ring of Rest in Power I dropped halfway through ep 1. Started watching Alice in Borderland season 2, and it’s fine I guess. But my pick is The Boys season 3. They managed to steer the ship in the right direction after the abysmal season 2. Still, I have my problems with it, it’s literally a 6/10 at best.

Manga of the year

Keeping up with Magus Bride's official translation PROBABLY counts, right?

Book of the year

Most of 2022 for me was the Dresden Files rereads, and I’m filled with a newfound appreciation for the series as a whole and Jim Butcher as a writer. Literally can’t wait for the next entry in the series. The stakes are as high as they’ve ever been, but it looks like the next book will be somewhat of a breather? Who knows. That’s good and all, but my book of the year is The Martyr by Anthony Ryan. It’s a sequel to my 2021’s book of the year, The Pariah. It’s a quasi-religious fantasy framed as a historic one, with heroic undertones. Hard to explain, really. But it’s plenty good.

Artist of the year

If you know me, you know I’m an Aimer fan and nothing will ever change this. She had some releases this year, but not enough to warrant the Artist of the year title, as I prefer to give this to someone who actually released a full album. This someone this year was MASS OF THE FERMENTING DREGS. I’ve been waiting for years, and they didn’t disappoint.

Album of the year

Continuing from the previous category, here it is. Awakening:Sleeping by MASS OF THE FERMENTING DREGS. Now, MasuDore is quite divisive, and if you tell the fans of their early works that you enjoy the new stuff, you’ll get many sideways stares. But I don’t care, I very much enjoy both. And while this isn’t their strongest release, they’re still very much and pretty comfortably one of my favorite shoegaze artists.

Song of the year

I’ve posted my year-end results at various places already, where I put Everstrong by Eye of Melian as my song of the year. It’s probably up there. I adore both of Johanna Kurkela’s new projects — Auri and Eye of Melian. Both are very ethereal, very nostalgic. But my actual song of the year is obviously Scream by Masayoshi Soken and AKINO. The reason I forgot it was this year's song is that Endwalker is from 2021, and I kind of forgot the song wasn’t there on release. Soken is a genius, nuff said.

Character of the year

This is weird for me, as I usually have a plethora of waifus characters to pick from. Not this year. I mean, I very much enjoyed some of them — Odin was incredible in GoW, and I loved the entire cast of the Banshees of Inisherin. But the most profound character for me was Evadine Courlain from The Martyr. She’s an open mystery, a character denied truth, but who’s carving her own truth for herself despite it all.

Event of the year

I’ve been watching football since 1998. The first game I ever watched was Barca vs Osasuna, where Rivaldo scored. While I instantly became a fan, I didn’t watch much of Barca in the coming years, as our TV channels mostly showed Serie A. And let me tell you, it had a truckload of Argentines. That’s how I became I fan of their national team. Later in 2004 Messi debuted, and the rest is fucking history. He’s been the GOAT for me for over a decade, but a final stamp that he put on this claim is welcome nonetheless. Messi finally won his World Cup, and I cried.

Person of the year

There’s a proverb, “Do what you love and you will never have to work a day in your life.” I disagree with it. I have a job that I love, but it still very much requires effort, sometimes it tires me out, stresses me out, it’s inevitable. But what I will say, is that if you choose a job you love, you will find fulfillment. Every single success we have as a team at DashFight makes me so incredibly happy. In January of last year, I became the head of the team, and while I really can’t judge how good of a leader I am, I see the results the team shows and I can’t be more proud. I hope, everyone is fine with me leading them in 2023 as well. My person of the year is the entire DashFight team.

Purchase of the year

This year, I’ve been blessed with the ability to fulfill many of my long-standing wishes. I do not take this for granted, but I’m happy nonetheless. In terms of purchases, it’s probably between the PlayStation 5 and 4K TV combo, and the RTX 3070 GPU. Or maybe a new phone. Probably PS5.

Surprise of the year

I am cool, and I can do cool things. That’s it.

Disappointment of the year

Too many to say.

Website of the year

I’m very proud of what we achieved in 2022, so my website of the year is dashfight.com.

Streamer of the year

I didn’t have much time to watch streams this year, but I still managed to watch some. The streamer I watched the most is Northernlion. He’s simply too good, and anything he does or plays is peak content. He has an incredibly sharp wit, also he’s bald? Another good shout is his fellow Canadian, Pawnce. He’s a streamer that used to do League stuff, but got disillusioned with it and now does variety. His channel is much smaller, sadly. He deserves a much higher viewer count. Another great streamer is Josh Strife Hayes. He’s a well-dressed, double-barreled MMO content creator who does the most insane streams. He’s very much quality of quantity, and his “Asmongold react incident” stream was the best and most insane 3.5 hours I spent on Twitch.

Object of the year

Me like reading. Kindle help me reading. Kindle good.

Tradition of the year

Point above.

Best day of the year

December 18th was the day I felt the happiest during the year.

Some Stupid Blog or Something or Other

Hahahahahaha!

 

For the umpteenth time, I'm pursuing this fruitless endeavor – running a personal blog. I usually abandon it quite quickly, but hey, this time around, I bought a domain! Look up – it says lightfellow.net quite beautifully in the address bar. Me paying for it makes it all that more likely for me not to abandon it, but that's not a guarantee. I don’t usually call anything I do stupid – I don’t have a habit of bringing myself down with my words or my deeds – but as Vaas Montenegro once remarked, it’s not wise to do the same thing over and over again and expect a different outcome. And this is my what? second.. thir..fif… a SIXTH attempt at running a blog. There was LiveJournal, and then there was WordPress, then Tumblr, then Blogger, then WordPress again, and now this thing.

Why do I even need this? I have a Twitter I barely post on, I have other social media I almost never use. But I want this to be where I sort of catalog my thoughts about random things. It will be mostly centered around things I do and experience rather than who I am, and I don’t know how to console you if you’re looking forward to reading it. But yeah, it is what it is. Expect a year-end post and plans for the next year soon. Ta-ta.