The 12 Games of Kryss-mas Series X/S w/bc DLC 2020 Lockin' It DOWN Edition

[kryss]

It's that time of year again (2 days ago, oops). Let us feast our eyes upon our personal Pile of Shame(TM) and pick out twelve games to play between now and Christmas Eve, in anticipation of getting something else to adorn the apex of the pile.

Play something you've bought previously but have put away and forgotten about, or saved for a rainy day.
And then post about it so we can say "hey, I've been meaning to play that too!"

[MartyG]

Some of us have been doing this all year, but I may as well contribute to this year's Kryssmas challenge, starting with ...

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1. Project Cars 3 - PC

I don't know how they managed to get this one so badly wrong.

I'm a big fan of racers and wasn't worried about this being more arcadey as I was more interested in the VR. However, the VR support is absolute garbage, so much so I had to check that I hadn't somehow damaged the Index - I've never see a game run like this in my headset before, it's got some really strange graphical glitching with the image warping and transparency effects doing strange things.

No, this one isn't worth the cash - in its current state I give it 3 flat tyres on rusting rims out of 10.

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2. Cyberpunk 2077 - PC

I'm ambivalent - great look and story, but ultimately an empty world with glitches everywhere to pull you out of the fantasy.

Edit - After finishing the game at 62 hours, I do think this is a very good RPG, but poor sandbox. If you play it as an RPG then it is a rewarding game and on PC, you're probably unlikely to run into game breaking bugs (it most certainly isn't Fallout 76 levels of broken). It could have been even better with another six month's work on the sandbox side, but I think I got my money's worth from it.

Currently I give it 8 brain hacks out of 10

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3. Monster Sanctuary- Xbox One

A nice distraction for a while - think of this as a cross between a metrovania and Pokémon. You're doing a lot of platforming, battling monsters with skills learnt from experience, gaining items that then let you reach other sections you couldn't before (like collecting a monster that can bash through walls). There are some simple puzzles, such as having to weight switches), but nothing too taxing here.

Played it for about 90 minutes and opened up four areas, but I don't have a strong desire to return.

I give this one 6 collected monsters out of 10.

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4. VR Regatta - PC

Pfft, don't know why these fish types think sailing is so hard - got into my boat and skimmed across the water like a pro. Yeah, that's about it. Quite relaxing, but ulimately limited. I give it 5 ahoy hoys out of 10.

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5. Ikenfell - Xbox One

This is an old-school 8-bit style turn-based RPG. By default it's pretty punishing, no heal between turns, low damage unless you do the hit timing on spells (requiring you to hit the button at the right time to increase damage which varies with attack type), similarly taking damage, higher unless you do defence timing. You can turn on auto, which means you always get the highest attack/defence, which I did after a while after finding the battles got a bit long and annoying otherwise.

If you're into this type of RPG, it's not too bad if a bit basic. It does look like there are some secrets hidden about the place, but I doubt I'll go back to this to find out.

I give this one 6 fireballs greatest hits out of 10.

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6. Project Wingman PC VR

Had high hopes for this, but it crashed and burned, man. It works with and without VR, but my purchase was for a VR arcade combat sim. Trouble is there are UI issues, making this a pain to both setup, progress and work with. You also get a lot of trailing on the planes when they move past at high speed, so I don't think this is running at the 120Hz the headset is set to.

I can only give this one 3 Talk to Me Gooses out of 10.

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7. MotoGP 2020 - Xbox One

Being a biker for many years, dipping into motorcycle games is always filled with disappointment - whilst the feel of driving cars has been captured well in gaming, bike games by comparison are well behind and the MotoGP series has been flapping like a herring on the bank for some years now.

However, MotoGP 2020 seems to have had a bit of a revamp on the handling, so much so I had to go and check to see if it was still Milestone developing this game. Whilst still not anywhere close to actually riding a bike, in 2020, the bikes seem to lean and turn far better than they have for the last three or four versions of this title (and the Ride games which they've also had a hand in).

This still isn't a title you can just jump on a bike and win a race from the off tho - it requires a little bit of practice to get used to the handling, but this time it's made me think it's worth giving the game a bit more time.

I give this one 7 stoppies out of 10 (previous years have been more like a 4).

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8. Dirt 5 - PC

I've played quite a few driving games this year, but Dirt 5 clears the chequered flag by a country mile. It's immediately approacable, puts you straight in fast cars on weather filled tracks with mud and water splashing all over the place (and no need to visit a car wash).

Performance is great, Codies have concentrated on framerate (not that it still doesn't look great) and handling - whilst the sim folks would baulk and go back to Dirt Rally 2.0 (or more likely 1), the immediacy of grabbing a controller and drifting round corners on muddy tracks effortlessly is just petrol filled fun, even on the ice and snow tracks I usually hate.

Fun is something that's often forgotten in racing games, but sometimes you don't want to work through the Fiat Unos like a learner driver and this is what makes the Dirt series work so well (perhaps not 4 so much).

Dirt 5 is well worth picking up, so I give it 9 SEGA Rallies out of 10.

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9. A Total War Saga: Troy - PC

I used to be a big fan of the Total War series, I played Rome: Total War to death (which was a huge upgrade over the original Shogun: Total War). Somewhere along the line I lost my enthusiasm for the games, not sure whether that was over-saturation from so many of them or whether the later titles simply weren't as good as the first couple of games I'm not sure.

I still have Total War Warhammer 1 & 2 unplayed in my library, but I needed something a little more lightweight to ease back in to how these games work. Troy is Total War light, with less emphasis in the management & resource gathering and more concentration on the battles. You still need to take care of these things, but it's a bit more condensed and is happy to embrace the majestical of the Ancient Greece methology over out-and-out realism.

The thing with the Total War games, especially the later entries, is there's a lot of micro-management accompanied by obscure icons - you have to learn the systems and that takes a lot of work. If you prefer more action, then Troy might be of more interest. It's still not easy to get into and I had to dip back into the tutorials to refresh myself, otherwise you're going to get slaughtered on the battlefield.

Troy does give the feeling of being a general controlling the battlefield, but it's not immediately enthralling - it is more approacable than the full fat games, but you'll need your a-game if you want to get the most out of this.

If you have the patience for this type of game, there's definitely enough here to justify a purchase, but I think this series is always going to struggle to recapture the magic of Rome: Total War (but I really should give the Warhammer titles a go).

I give this one 7 minotaurs out of 10.

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10. Pistol Whip - PC VR

Turns out this one is another must have VR title. It's another rhythm action game, but this time you are in a John Woo film, shooting your foes in time to the beat of the music. More points if you shoot them on the beat.

Plenty of music tracks, a campaign mode and modifiers to make things easier or more difficult, but it's another title that you need to have a bit of fitness to play on the higher difficulties.

One to buy if you own a VR headset, so I give this one 10 The Killers out of 10.

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11. Griftlands - PC

What a fantastic little indie gem this is. It's still in early access, but it's pretty far into development so I've not run into bugs or anything stopping progress (at least so far).

At it's core, it's a more interesting Darkest Dungeons (of which I'm a big fan), giving you more choices of where to go and what to do. Ultimately it's about the RNG turn-based battles based on a deck of cards you add to as you go.

It also adds in quite a bit of dialogue and negotiation mechanics, along with factions that will be impacted by your choices.

If you like this type of game, I'd urge you to buy this (it's a good price) and support the development further - I give this one 9 party members out of 10.

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12. X - Rebirth - PC VR

It's the same old X series, but this time in VR - as with Elite Dangerous, it gives a whole new perspective to things and you realise just how large the ships and structures are, something you simply do not get on a standard screen.

X is a difficult game to recommend unless you're prepared to put a lot of time into it - it's a slow burn and often one requiring spreadsheets, as this is ultimately about controlling your space empire. I think Elite Dangerous is the better game, it's more polished, but there is a certain charm to X

I give it 7 corporate decisions out of 10.
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[kryss]

I've not had a minute to play anything new except a shockingly realistic Nappy Changing Simulator.

[nonny]

I've not had a minute to play anything new except a shockingly realistic Nappy Changing Simulator.

If it helps console you I've been playing that game daily for the past 6 years... mainly due to the constant stream of download content.

On topic... Doom Eternal for me. I've also got to finish the previous Doom as well which I'm about 2/3rds of the way through.

[kryss]

Double Whammy:

Game 1: Box Boy and Box Girl - 4th game in the series, now moved to the Switch with the first three on the 3DS. The mechanics remain the same, and the gameplay is consistently entertaining.

Game 2: Double Dragon IV - A first lockdown purchase for 100yen that hasn't had enough love. Tough, but playable.

[kryss]

Game 3: Semispheres - Interesting twin-stick puzzler with a story section unlocking after every group of levels.

Game 4: Moto Rush GP - I don't remember when I bought this but fair play, it's very simplistic but actually fun. Drive your motorcycle through traffic without crashing.

Game 5: Virtual Racing - Sad to say I'd not played this ever until today. I guess if you played it back in the day you would be more nostalgic about it. Seems okay.

[kryss]

Game 6: Horizon Chase Turbo [PS4]
Had a run through some tracks, not sure if I like the handling mechanism.

Game 7: LA Noire [Switch]
I'd bought this for the PS3 and gave it to a friend instead of playing it and he loved it. I've had the Switch version on the shelf since release and finally gave it a go today. And it was better than I imagined! I may well be playing this to completion next year.

[kryss]

Game 8: Robonauts - hard mode wasn't a great choice, defense seems a little slap-dash.

Game 9: Pocket Mini Golf - it's golf.

Game 9: Wrecking Ball Adventure - not a fan of the controls or gameplay.

Game 10: Trancelation - I thought this was something else, turns out it's a language vocab game. Meh.

[kryss]

And Failed. For the first year ever.

[MartyG]

Post Christmas Bonus Games

13. Devolver Bootleg - PC

I bought this for £2, but sometimes cheap budgets games can have a bit of legs to them. This really doesn't. It's supposed to be a bit of a joke sending up Devolver Digital published titles, but out of the eight mini games, I only really liked Luftrousers 3. It doesn't go fullscreen and they seem deliberately wonky control wise, designed to make you die, fast.

I'd give this one 3 MEMEs out of 10.

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14. Galimulator - PC

Potentially this could be a good game, but the UI is so obtuse it makes it unplayable. It's like the devs never heard of tooltip text.

It's supposed to be a mini-4X galaxy empire simulator, but after 5 minutes of faffing about, I'd had enough - life is too short for crap UIs.

I give this on 2 black holes out of 10.

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15. Death Stranding - PC

I'm fairly certain that Kojima is overrated - a legend of his own ego. His games are certainly different and cinematic no doubt, but I do question whether they have any actual substance to them, or made to feel worse than they are through obscurity for no good reason.

An hour into this game and I've actually done something with the controller for ten minutes and understood what was going on for even less. Cutscenes so long the controller turned itself off.

It doesn't really make me want to continue, it hasn't really granbbed my interest. On first impressions I'd give it 6 undelivered packages out of 10.

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16. DRAGON QUEST® XI: Echoes of an Elusive Age - PC

It's Dragon Quest, so you know what to expect, lots of grinds and an antiquated system that takes 4 or 5 clicks to save your game.

If you're prepared to put the effort in, there's a decent enough RPG in there, but like many JRPGs, there is a linear path until the world opens up - an adventure or a chore, depending on your point-of-view, it retains the DQ charms.

I give this one 8 slimes out of 10.

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17. Manifest 99 - PCVR

Not really a game as such, more an interactive story where people die horribly in a train crash whilst you see a snapshot of their lives. All very nicely stylized and animated, but you probably wouldn't want to pay for it - it's a 12 minute ride worth experiencing if you can find it for free.

I give it 7 derailments out of 10.

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18. Fall Guys - PC

It's basically It's a Knockout in videogame form. From Revolver Digital, so you know what to expect, you compete against 59 other players in either a race to the finish, scoring points for your team or by avoiding certain death.

Equally fun and frustrating and definitely a game anyone can pick up and play - it's almost brilliant if it wasn't for people beating you

It is, of course, filled with outfits to purchase, but there's no real need to buy them.

I give this one 9 microtransaction outfits out of 10, definitely worth a look.

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19. Droid Assault - PC

Do you remember paradroid on the Commodore 64? It's a bit like that crossed with a twin stick shooter. A cheap little indie game with old school graphics. Unfortunately it refuses to scale properly on my 4K screen and will not recognise the Xbox One pad, instead forcing you to use WASD and mouse to play, which is far from optimal for this type of game.

If it was a little more compelling, I'd look into trying to get it working properly, but as it is there are similar games that work out of the box, so this gets a merely average 5 diodes out of 10.