Here we go: Three quarters of the way through the list, it’s really starting to feel like the grind continues. There are a bunch of good games coming up – yeah, we’ve saved enough of them – and there’s a lot of what’s filler to me, the shoot ’em ups and such that I’ve never really been into. Still, there’s few just bad games, and it makes it all start to blur together a bit.
Then again, I’m struggling, at this point, what was in the past fifty and what I played three years ago, so it’s always nice to see what came in recently and is eligible for these entries so, in a way, these are surprises for me too.
Best Game I Had Not Previously Played
There have been a bunch of large games in this batch of fifty, all of which would appeal to me. Dawn of War had its issues, but I still remember it fondly and I am looking forward to playing its sequel. At the same time, Bioshock 2 for me improved on its predecessor a lot for me, and I still want to go back to the world of Rapture.
Best, though, was Diablo 2. Not just because it was an action RPG, a genre I’m fond of, but more so because it was a game that worked well in multiplayer and we’ve had a lot of fun playing through the game together.
Worst Game
There’s some games I marked as the worst that are partially there because of how old they are – although I’d argue that Jet Set Willy has flaws that contemporary games did better and that Karate Champ just created a confusing system.
At the same time, it’s hard to apply that argument to Elasto Mania. It just didn’t really connect as a full game. There is something good about the user generated work and there’s something interesting about the physics simulation, but other games seem to handle it so much better that it didn’t work here.
Most Surprising Game
I have to say that the other side of the grind is that game really can surprise you, for better or worse. You form these preconceptions and while games sometimes disappoint (see the below heading for more), others do well.
One such preconception was with Eye of the Beholder. While it isn’t flawless, I expected a game that would take a while to get into. Instead, it felt a lot more accessible and easier to play. I got through part of the game and it really showed me how appealing the genre could be.
Muramasa: Demon Blade felt like a bit of an unknown – I wasn’t sure what to expect. The platforming, action and RPG elements work out to create a great area to explore and I was happy to dive in more deeply – more so than the action game I expected.
Biggest Disappointment
So to cover some of the disappointments as quickly as I can – Retro Game Challenge has a great concept to work from, but botched it by forcing you to complete too much of the first game to progress. Operation Flashpoint was such a mediocre implementation of the genre that it feels like it should be a footnote. Need for Speed: Most Wanted sets up a great promise, but seems incredibly reluctant to actually let you play it.
But then there’s the most personal disappointment. The Neverhood looks good and starts off nicely and I was hoping to finish it, but it gets so incredibly tedious that it just isn’t worth it at the end.
Best Blast From The Past
Game replays are often easy wins for me – I know what they’re about, so can play and writen them up a bit faster. It means that I might have been playing them more often and this category becomes more difficult to fill.
Still, this fifty there was SimCity 2000, the well known city builder and the version I started with. It’s dated, sure, and I struggled in comparison with the current Cities Skylines, but it still had a fun core to play with – the genre is just that good and the design still that appealing.
Games We Kept Playing
This category was even more difficult – nothing stuck as much as I normally wanted. Still, there’s one – Dragon Quest got some extra attention afterwards, as I had it on a tablet and it made sense to grind some more while travelling. Maybe not as much as other games, but it worked here.