Hi, Tap-Repeatedly. It’s that time again! So… Here’s somewhere between five and ten games I liked in 2019. Below the jump!!
Game of the Year for Me Personally
Devil May Cry 5
Hm, well, I’m only a casual fan of this series, but the new entry looks pretty rad. Think maybe I’ll check it out.
…Disregard that; I am now a drooling fangirl. Wait what is that above my desk and how did it get there.
Also I want to inform you I look amazing in the jacket.
Meme of the Year
Untitled Goose Game
Indie Puzzle Game of the Year by a narrow margin is Untitled Goose Game. Mostly because this game had the biggest impact on internet pop culture of any other game this year. Peace was never an option.
Runner-Up For Indie Puzzler
Baba is You
OK for my pick this was the best actual indie puzzle game this year. It’s mind-bendingly hard and clever and I haven’t entirely finished it. But it’s so, so adorable.
Maybe Baba and Goose can be friends.
Single-Player RPG of the Year
Disco Elysium
I hope you like words. This game is in the tradition of the old Fallout games, but with even denser dialog, more politics, and no combat. It was a wild ride and I definitely enjoyed it. I’ll probably play it again! I would like to try doing a Dumb Run.
I have a ton of screenshots of this game when I wasn’t busy with the best bingo app I’ve found in a while, but literally all of them are just of the text in the game. It’s that kind of fun.
I wish I could write Fire Emblem Three Houses here because it’s also awesome and terrific… but I feel bad about doing that because I haven’t played very much of it at all. Watch this site later for a full review of Fire Emblem: Three Houses, a game I’m loving but also dragging ass on.
MMO of the Year that Didn’t Technically Come Out This Year
Final Fantasy XIV
No yeah, for real, I like it a lot. It really picks up into Heavensward as people told me. But mostly I like being a slutty stabby rabbit.
The Shadowbringers expansion came out this year and made this game mega-popular, and is the reason I started playing it, so this is still technically a “game of the year.”
Sort of a review here, but only for the early game, not the new expansion.
Runner-Up: A classic MMO also released a classic version this year which activated nostalgia for many players….
That’s right, I mean City of Heroes, which now has private servers using the old code base. It’s my favorite MMO of all time and for a while we had a nostalgia BLAST re-navigating all those old spaces and even, for some reason, doing Dr. Quaterfield’s Task Force again.
WHY NOT … ?
Control?
I didn’t like it. Sorry. Weird I know. My main issue I think was buying it on the Epic store, never really getting controller support to work on my PC, and then just flaming out on the combat as it spawned wave after waves of dudes.
Resident Evil 2 Remake?
Still haven’t played it yet, oops sorry!
The Outer Worlds?
Maannnnn I really wanted to love this one. I mean, it’s Fallout: New Vegas, in space! But like it was just… okay? It felt a little unfinished. I think this is the price that had to be paid to get it out in time, but it simply not as rich as New Vegas was. Not to shit on anyone who totally loved it. There were some really good moments in this game. For example, the spontaneous interactions of my companions, in a Mass Effect way, truly filled me with delight. It just wasn’t quite as much as I hoped it would be.
Typically in this space at the end of the year I talk about gaming trends that I have seen.
This year I just have the one.
Why is Nintendo So Horny Now?
Holy shit you guys–
I got Pokémon Shield for Christmas. As a game, it’s not in my top list. But I wanted it just because of all the crazy horny gym leader designs, and in that vein I was not disappointed. More than half of the people above are hot AF (and: yes to the old man. The old lady is not my type, but you do love to see it). And that Fire Emblem! My god. The people out here are calling it Horny Hogwarts.
I feel like this happened gradually… but now it’s in every single Nintendo game. Breath of the Wild was so full of hot people. Xenoblade Chronicles 2 was… an obsession, for me. And now we’re in the age of Peak Horny Nintendo, where even innocent kids’ games like Pokémon are full of tons of hot people of a variety of legally-bangable ages. Please help; I’m drowning. This was a horribly horny year for video games as it is but it’s surprising to see Nintendo leading the pack on this new age of debauchery. I’m into it.
Wait, I have somehow made a mistake and now the entire year is happening at the same time. I don’t know how to fix it. I’m trying to fix it
Email the author of this post at aj@Tap-Repeatedly.com.
List time, aw yeah!
I hear a lot of good things about the updated FFXIV but… I’ll never have the time to put into it, really. It’s been a long time since I played a Final Fantasy, the last being… FFIX. God.
Baba Is You and Untitled Goose Game I really wanted to pick up at launch but I just couldn’t fit them in! I definitely want to check them out though. Disco Elysium sounds amazing and is on my list too.
I dabbled with the Resident Evil 2 demo and was impressed with what I played. Not sure it’s something I’ll return to. Control I’m curious about but not in any rush to play either. I don’t think I’ve any experience with Remedy’s games actually.
Literally everyone I know who’s played The Outer Worlds has been underwhelmed/meh/okay with it. Even friends who loved the Fallout and/or Bioshock games. It seems tailor made for those people so if it’s bouncing off them then… who is it appealing to?
I’ve not much to say on horny Nintendo but I laughed a lot reading your comments, and the final pic!
Disco Elysium is gonna scratch your Fallout itch a lot harder than The Outer Worlds did. The Outer Worlds STARTS out strong with a GREAT first area, and then the next two/three areas relatively are not as fleshed out, or as hard-hitting politically, as the starting zone. I think this is just a matter of the development perhaps being a bit on an accelerated timeline, but that’s just a guess.
Play the first planet of The Outer Worlds and do Parvati’s loyalty mission. Then just imagine that all the planets and loyalty missions feel equally finished.
Great list AJ!
The Outer Worlds is “good.” I can’t come up with any truly sticky complaints about it, but it’s not memorable in any particular way (other than maybe showing that Obsidian’s graphics are perfectly lovely when they’re not shackled to Bethesda’s Precambrian engines). It has the classic Avellone-ian zaniness of writing, and a good message, and I appreciate that it’s more compact than some of its overwhelming brethren. But it’s not a “great” game, though I couldn’t tell you why.
Like Gregg I’ve been meaning to get Untitled Goose Game. It looks delightful. But with so much on my pile, I’ll wait until I really feel the need to be part of a fowl avian kleptocracy.
Hahahah, screenshots of dialogue! You and me both. I’ve been gathering Pathologic 2 screens for an article and I just looked, it’s like 95% people saying weird stuff. You could do a funny YouTube that’s nothing but dramatic readings of game dialogue taken out of context. The Pathologic 2/Disco Elysium mashup would be surreal.
Loved this, AJ. It was a horny year, wasn’t it? What’s going on…
Everything I’ve heard about the “reboot” of Final Fantasy XIV is that it’s the best MMO ever. Good for whoever makes that for sticking with it. Final Fantasy is weird to me but this one seems to be doing it for a lot of people!
As someone who loves to complain about game titles, I think Untitled Goose Game is a step too cheeky. It’s the same problem I have with bands who write “Untitled” as a track name on an album. Well, it’s not untitled then, now is it? I guess they figured “Goose Game” wasn’t a good enough title. The game looks really funny, but it also looks like 15 minutes is enough.
I forgot that Baba Is You came out in 2019 but that game looked really creative and clever.
I also heard a ton of good things late in the year about Disco Elysium, though I wasn’t sure I wanted anything to do with the actual game parts. I’m still not sure, though you saying it shares similarities with old Fallout definitely got my attention. Hmmmm…
The Outer Worlds…yeah, ditto. Sadly. But I DO dig the hell out of Parvati. Even if large parts of her character are a carbon copy of Firefly’s Kaylee, I have no problem with that. I wish I could just copy and paste her over into, say, Mass Effect 2. Vicar Max seems kinda alright too.
And Control! See this is what’s funny about PC gaming. It’s the choice you pick to have the pretty graphics and the performance and whatnot, right? But it seems like both you and Steerpike– both playing it on PC– have had issues. Myself meanwhile, I’ve been playing it on my delicious Xbox One X and have had almost no major issues; just occasional hiccups. I feel good about my choice to abandon PC gaming long ago.
Thanks for your thoughts on the year that was 2019, AJ!
Delighted to see Baba is You getting a mention – a fantastic game in a category/league of its own with hours of brain-training lateral thinking entertainment.
Don’t just say you’ve heard about it or saw a trailer and thought it looked god/promising/clever, immerse yourself forthwith!