What's good with our time is that every year seems to be getting closer to the abyss, as we surf the crest line of a tsunami, like a buttony teen who would cut his veins at each recreation or sung bleach to cure his acne. This propensity to self-destroy collectively and to root in crises is all the more fascinating as man knows (nearly forgotten) to show prodigious inventiveness when he produces something other than war weapons. This is the case with video games, a sector that is increasingly evolving technically, while increasingly asserting its artistic identity beyond its only industrial dimension. The team of MaG offers you a porte sans fad du monde du JV, our disappointments, year's favorites and projections.
Contents
KillerS7ven balance sheet
WHAT IS YOUR RESENT FOR THE YEAR 2022 IN THE IMPITOYABLE WORLD OF JV?
2022 ends up as a new bleeding in the world of video game or rather as a bleeding. After the increasingly marked disappearance of the video game physical signs, the press, too, continues to follow the deuils. While there has been a long history of difficulties in a sector supported with stupidity by public subsidies that are not very much devoted to cultural protection and often largely taken over by the national daily newspapers of great fortunes rather than independent media, the video game press remains the naughty little duck in the sector.
2022 will therefore be the year flanked by the epitaph of the site Gamekult, which after many peregrinations about its economic model, did not have sufficient guarantees of independence and this despite a hybrid formula increasingly paying off. Purchased by thediocious group Reworld, known for its weaponry by replacing writings with interns and sponsored content, the historical team of Gamekult has a common worn out momentum from its profession-specific transfer clause to stowage the vessel. We will therefore have an emotional thought for journalists who have carried and sprouted a whole generation of enthusiasts. Congratulations to the artists for having dreamed (and dreamed) for more than twenty years with a rare authenticity in a widely traded media.
We want magazines like Duck PC, also in the torment, can keep the course in 2023. And for us, remains a pride to continue our modest adventure as long as we can afford to invest so much time in the development of the site. It's also the advantage of being financed by North Korea.
WHAT IS YOUR YEAR'S DECEPTION?
As for the video game itself, this year was not the most folichonne to my taste. We couldn't do it. Callisto Protocol Because the editor is dead so we can get a PC code. Is there any connection with the execrable technical tricks of the Master Race version? In any case, the returns hurt compared to what we saw at Gamescom. Sadness to release a game in such a state... And no desire to finance a studio that dares to treat its fans as well.
Aside from that, we feel that the new generation is struggling to start and break free from the old technically. God of War was my disappointment of the year, checking almost every possible brainless box for a triple A game that has to teleguide our every move. A few weeks after I finished the adventure, I finally thought that I wouldn't remember anything from the game that will end with the oblivion very quickly. Too bad, however, there was something to show so much more daring while Kratos' character remains a writing model. A missed opportunity for Santa Monica who could yet have afforded almost anything seen the popularity of her franchise.
The opportunity to recall that in the term video game, there is normally the word game and that I become more and more hermetic to this bulimic logorrhea so finally leave no room for pure and authentic emotion. So yes, I didn't. Elden Ring, but this year remains somewhat in restraint for large calibers, even though the indie scene and AA games are still a breath of fresh air.
I also fell naked in front of Somerville that even though it is no longer realized by the thinking heads of Playdead did not integrate anything that made the salt dInside and Limbo. Unwelcome collusions, riddles without tail or head, 3D trap, Somerville is a ersatz without great flavor of master stallions of the genre. Not necessarily a purge, but a playful failure has minimal. If you haven't played playdead games yet, prefer it instead Limbo, its spiritual continuation Inside or Little Nightmares. Or even the surprising White Shadows We'll talk about here.
WHAT GAMES ARE YOUR RETIANS THIS YEAR?
If, like every year, I didn't manage to play as much as I wanted, the fault of a life probably a little too cavalier, between festivals and wild escapees on a trip, I can still advise a few nuggets that would gain to be played, since I mechanically dedicated my precious playing time to a majority of titles off the beaten track. 2023 will also be entitled to his catch-up sessions for Cult of The Lamb, Return and Sifu.
The title proves by the richness of its artistic direction that it is more than just a tribute. Behind the flesh alive is a filiation assumed to a whole part of the history of art up to biomechanical. Far from the plagiarism that could have been feared, Scorn is another way to travel in the universe of Giger and a new reference body horrator. It's very simple: no game looks like him. Scorn will remain as Inside a step game for the maturity of a media still too often reduced to Call of and Co by the non-initiated.
> The critique of Outliner
> Our podcast of the best survival horrator
> The artistic influences of Scorn
Like the child - and hero despite him- Limbo, the bird's eye cries out, like a lantern in the dark night. We move forward, sometimes surprised by large bright halos and proto-fascist advertising screens, which associate the evil bird with the black plague.
Dizziness is omnipresent in White Shadows which seems to have perfectly integrated the labyrinthic construction and the rhythm setInside. Here, an elevator activated by a pig in a metal wheel, makes us discover the vastness of the city and its generous panoramas. In the distance, bells ring to announce the next programme of the sinister metropolis of « Funworld », all this under the ride of the Valkyries of Wagner.
Propagandas, counter-propagandas fight for a single story, bathed in this theatre of cruelty where one is sometimes victimized, sometimes accomplice, if not executioner. White Shadows is an original modern rereading of the animal farm of Orwell. Undoubtedly my slam from last winter, Monokel is a studio game to follow in the years to come. Is Playdead's replacement German?
Super Nintendo's wild role play, Live Live Live is a JRPG that takes us through eight epochs from the dawn of humanity to the future by embodying heroes with a well tempered character. Marked by a generosity of all time, this timeless classic has finally come out of Japan where it was (too) long confined. A pitfall caught up almost thirty years later with this colorful remake. After Octopath Traveler and Triangle StrategySquare Enix signs a new oath of allegiance to Nintendo with this exclusive weight for retro JRPG fans. Cherry on the cake, the OST is absolutely splendid!
Another choice card signed Square Enix, the new license Triangle Strategy is the dark fantasy JRPG we expected. If the gameplay mechanics are not necessary finauds, it is by its system of script branching that the game illustrates and stands out with brilliance from the competition. All these cornelian dilemmas to decide with unfortunate companions who will surprise you with their decisions with sometimes very harsh consequences.
To summarize without ambiguity, Triangle Strategy is the Game of Thrones JRPG. Cruel, beautiful to die and generous, playing there is the guarantee of an exciting adventure thanks to his careful writing magnified by a dubbing and a very serious translation into English. Japanese voices in tune as well. Triangle Strategy Never so well illustrated the saying "choosing is giving up".
Prodeus is the perfect representative of the doomlike old school. Visually, expect a nice bouillie of pixels and typical stop motion animations that contrast with the fluidity of a gameplay as striking as incisive. Prodeus offers a nervous playability, where it jumps like a shelter to surf in rhythm between the waves of monsters. Anyway, a nice amusing mouth while waiting for the next ID Software! Who follows us from the beginning knows how much I love the franchise Doom. Then such an aperitif does not refuse, especially at such a sweet price.
As I'm still waiting forID Software to present us its next game which will probably be one of the new standards of fast FPS, I partly satisfied my thirst for adrenaline with the friendly Shadow Warrior 3. Short but dense, it's another proposition in the world of the Doom lily with an DA completely barred in this barriole universe where everything that moves is de-zingued. Past the pataud introduction, Shadow Warrior 3 is pleasant to play even if he cannot dethrone his master, fault to a otherwise less substantial budget.
« Evil never sleeps but it bleeds » This is the mantra that could very well apply to Evil West. Take the franchise Gears of War, inject a dose of vampires to correct, a world of baroque western, a few hectolitres of hemoglobin and you will get Evil West Hey! Edited by Focus and developed by Flying Wild Hog, this Polish title is an action game that intends to take its place in the GST gore saloon. Simple, efficient, Evil West is a condensed fun which performs a score of course classic but which had not been seen as well played since beautiful lurette. A very good blowout both solo and in coop.
There are games where we know immediately what sauce we are going to eat. GTFO is of this calibre, of the kind to dump us in the middle of the Earth with four loaders to the belt, three comrades and a ticket to the exit, for as long as we manage to repel hordes of blind but reckless mutants. Blood and tears: that's the whole program you deserve.
As with the landing of Klendathus, Starship Troopers, don't you dare to play fanfares. Otherwise, GTFO will gladly leave you a napalm taste for your Sunday forfantry. Cooperation has rarely been so essential in this FPS where communication is the ransom for success. Lose your nerves and in a handful of seconds, it's the insured death. GTFO, Get The Fuck Out for Shakespeare's language lovers, has never been so well named!
You'll get out of it exhausted, eroded and probably sometimes a little frowned when you lose. Perhaps you will even wake up at night to think about a new strategy following the failure of the previous day, but one thing is certain, you will only have one desire: to get your feet back in Hell and to tear Life away one last time!
Yes, you thirty-year-old player who sometimes sings the generic Ninja Turtles In the shower, this game is dedicated. Perfect for an evening between buddies and a pretext for eating pizza, the last born of Tribute Games shows again the talent of the Montreal studio and Dotemu's love for retro games. Resolutely focused on fun and despite too much technique, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles remains a very good appetizer to share with friends.
We would certainly have liked more content and challenge, but in the image of Streets of Rage 4 When it comes out, let's cross our fingers so that future modes will soon be proposed to extend the short life of the title. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, it's kind of like a pizza four cheeses supplement cheese, you eat it too fast and whatever happens, even if it's not very balanced! A guilty pleasure that you can't resist.
> My review of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
> My review of Streets of Rage 4
But who's got the idea of having wanted to couple a feeling Tony Hawk With guns? The answer is to find at Roll7 and Private decision that have achieved a resolutely fun game. What a delight to aim at the S classification and chain combos. Another simple and effective gameplay concept, even if the game would have gained a little more variety than these few tables. Well, no matter what, we take a crazy pleasure to grill our best scores on the razor.
WHAT ARE YOUR ATTENTS FOR 2023?
In terms of hardware, it is more than high time the Switch passed the weapon to the left. If the possibility of an output of a new Nintendo console remains even more improbable in 2023, given the pharaonic sales of the Switch, I really find it hard to see how many games come out in a deplorable state. Like the feeling of making the big gap with my RTX 3080 on PC and games that sometimes make up 20 fps like a respiratory patient. The case Pokémon, in addition to a likely spin of dev teams, is edifying.
If resolution is one thing, fluidity faults or worse framerate yo-yo are no longer acceptable today. I've been hoping since the GameCube era that Nintendo will invest again in efficient hardware. The Nintendo label is more necessarily associated with quality equipment or technical games to the point, proof that the "little craftsman" has adopted the same low-cost methods as others. With the most sincere objectivity, I wish the Switch's death and that it passes the torch with dignity. Zelda In a baroud of honor, it would be going head up.
Ummagumma review
WHAT IS YOUR RESENT FOR THE YEAR 2022 IN THE IMPITOYABLE WORLD OF JV?
What to remember from 2022? The first thing that comes to mind is the fairly high number of games that slipped in the year 2023. Just among the titles I'm waiting for, I think about Trepang, Sons of the Forest, Stalker 2 or Metal Slug Tactics To name but a few. We feel that the VOCID went through this and that its ugly brake trace remained printed on the development of many games. All right, that, and especially the war in Ukraine with regard to Stalker 2, of which part of the development team is at the front. Patience and length of time are better than strength or rage, as Claude Guéant repeats every day from the bottom of his cell.
In 2022, I also remember the end of Gamekult, which was very abrupt. Editorial support. For the native of the site that I was, it was extremely brutal. I still have not digested that Reworld acted in this way and that they prevented GK's writing from leaving by saying goodbye to their community. Since the start of the editorial on December 7, I have no longer given a click to the site and it will not change: Reworld may well go to die open mouths.
Retro Dash, above all, I will miss a lot... I was forced to change my habits, which allowed me to find new ways to satisfy my thirst for knowledge JV. I'm reading for example right now. The history of point n by (God) Patrick Hellio and I found exciting English podcasts that deal with video game and literature, or even the narration in the video game. I also subscribed to Canard PC and resubscribed to JV the mag. Anyway, I fell on my feet.
What a nerve and visionary spirit in any case from Reworld, to want to make GK a putaclic entertainment site, able to compete with JV.com and its news with titles all more shameful than each other. Destroy a monument to compete with poop. Shit, you had to think about it.
The year 2022 also appeared quite indecent for one thing: the poor technical quality of the AAA sold full pot on PC. This excellent video Digital Foundry paints a deplorable picture of the situation. So yes, VOCID, hunger in the world blah blah blah, but frankly, the Callisto Protocol, Sackboy, A Plague Tale, Elden Ring, I'm thinking of you who get out completely knuckled and knuckled from stuttering to the bone. Going out on PC in such a state of play that has benefited from such a development budget is in my view pure and simple dishonesty.
One would never imagine buying a new book with illegible or missing pages, or watching a film with blurred or inaudible scenes. The video game is thus sadly an exception. The solution? Do not buy these games out, and never pay them full pot. In any case, players are rarely or never rewarded when they buy an AAA game « Day 1 »Unless you want to pay full price to discover all the bugs in preview. It's usually best to wait a few months before you let yourself be tempted, so all the bugs are fixed.
Otherwise, my year JV 2022 was excellent, but mostly because I played games released in previous years. But we're talking about it again!
WHAT IS YOUR YEAR'S DECEPTION?
My disappointment of the year was also my biggest expectation of 2022, a game developed by my favorite studio, From Software. You will understand that I am talking aboutElden Ring. I will not dwell here on the reason for this immense disappointment, which I explain in detail in this segment of our podcast, but clearly, Elden Ring I'm disappointed.
Between the presence of a map that undermines the feeling of exploration, the recycling of mini-bosses and an open world that impoverishes the level design of madness to which we were accustomed, there is no doubt that I will not stack up for a future. No, instead, I'll do it again. Sekiro to get the best end. The game recently called me, I hear it in my dreams or when I stick my ear to the sink drain hole. Yes.
[one-week temporal ellipse]
All right, I'll resume writing this article and I'm done. Sekiro with the real ending. It was a happiness all the time. Such a condensed concentration, level design, rage, tears and beauty. So, yes, Sekiro sometimes makes you want to tighten up some redfish in your fists by whispering insults in Latin, but once you pass our unwelcome impulses (I love animals more than humans tell no one), it is the serenity that invades us when SHINOBI VINCU displays on the screen and our hero rips the jugular in a sheath of blood of the most beautiful effect.
Wait, they tell me in the earpiece that I'm in the section. « Deception of year » of the MaG 2022 balance sheet and that everyone cares about my opinion as a masochist on Sekiro. I'll be right there!
WHAT GAMES ARE YOUR RETIANS THIS YEAR?
Then there's a lot of it! Ah, games of 2022 or games OF 2022? It's not the same, my good lady, words make sense! Games played in 2022 AND released in 2022? There's a few of them I've got. The games cited are without ranking any...
... but I still want to mention first the two best games of 2022 that are The Case of the Golden Idol, which I speak with passion in our podcast, and Norco. I keep Norco A very intimate memory. Rarely had I felt that much to get to know developers through their work.
NorcoIt was both moving and very funny. It spoke so much of old subjects like the world (family conflicts, ill-being, regrets, feeling of never being anywhere in its place, nostalgia of time passing, mourning) and more modern subjects (the destruction of our places of life by polluting, deadly and untouchable companies, sects, the control of technology on our daily lives); list in parentheses not exhaustive. A little gem that must be played by any player a little bit curious.
We chain with Sifu, tested Here, whether I plan to do it again one day or the other to rub myself in the difficult mode. Finished almost a year ago, I remember it as a pretty demanding game (even if at light years from a Sekiro in terms of difficulty), but devilishly gratifying and with a monumental potato that always makes you want to revive « one last part », to untie a final clavicle before going to bed. An excellent action game, fluid and visceral, which is also today doubled in Mandarin, for a reinforced immersion. The game was sold by pallets and it is well deserved. What does the people demand?
In the narrative genre with a beautiful DA, I also really hung on to As Dusk Falls and his story, both dramatic and exciting, despite some misguidedness. Equipped with a superb BO that immediately evokes the South of the United States, its sublime desert landscapes that stretch as far as you can see and its anti-abortion signs along the highway, this narrative adventure has captured my attention, or even moved at times, when I was not simply beat in front of the beauty of the graphics.
Come on, let's stay in the story with Immortality and its Lynchesque staging that questions the boundaries of video game, cinema and reality. I'd like to explain the story to you to pass for someone intelligent, but I finished the game several months ago, I forgot everything, and actually I had trouble grasping all the ins and outs (I warned it was lynchesque). That's why I sniffed too much glue when I was a kid, too much solvent when I was a teenager and too much gas since I was an adult.
[Intermedes to say that I also retain the Ninja Turtles: Shredder in cooperation with my dear brother. I remember above all that this game allows you to spam super attacks like pigs, a peak for turtles, without any consequence, with a victory too easy at the end of the day. Too bad.]
In 2022, I was marked by Portal with RTX, which allowed me, with my 4090, to feel virile, strong, hairy, powerful and better than all those toothless who prefer to use their money for meaningless things like feeding their children, warming up winter or stuffing their mouths at Walygator, at least if we believe the bitter comments on Clubic. Portal with RTX even drags 4090s over there into the levels of the game. That's what we're talking about here about a window game! In any case, for a person like me who had never played the original, it was quite a slap. A puzzle with beautiful graphics and very hilarious dialogues. A cult game.
That's it, that's all for my 2022 landmark games. In bulk, also out in 2022 and I finished, I could talk about the friendly, but too repetitive King Arthur: Knights Tale who occupied 60 hours, or Madison, a horror game dealing with the subject of possession (by a mind, no cannabis in his underwear) that caused me to release little farts from fear between two screams.
I am also thinking of Stray and his little red cat, on which I will not stretch, because he reminds me of my cat that I loved so much who left me this year. I loved him more than all of you, anonymous readers.
As regards The Quarry, game of horror with pluggings, I have had a very good time, despite his damn top 50 music that sometimes came out of nowhere at the end of the chapter, to break the immersion well. Imagine if Nolwenn Leroy started singing every time you take the shuttle in Dead Space, and you will have an idea of the discomfort I felt.
I'll finish on Metroid Prime PC. Yes, PC, you read well! Indeed, people who deserve all my respect as well as yours and your grandmother's have created a mod called PrimeHack, allowing you to play at Metroid Prime (1, 2 and 3) on Dolphin with a mouse keyboard. It has to be said that the FPS gameplay at a stick, before the FPS console standardize the adoption of the left stick/moving and right stick/camera, it really did not age well.
Metroid Prime to the mouse keyboard with reasterized textures, it is the pleasure to find a masterpiece as responsive and beautiful as in our memories, and for having chained 1 and 2, I assure you that the level design did not take a wrinkle and still lies above many current productions, starting with... Metroid Dread. Old age is a wreck.
Oh yes, how to omit GTFO Hey! But KillerS7ven already talks very well so I leave my hand, Julien. The same for Scorn. Play also The Excavation of Hobs Barrow, another excellent n-click point, the best kind of universe.
Finally, impossible to hold me back and not cheat, so here are a few others played in 2022, but not released in 2022, which you should play for as long as you have good taste, i.e. the same tastes as me:
• Pillars of Eternity 1 and 2, two very big CRPGs that will be a date, at least in my memory. I felt a big emptiness when I left the characters.
• Silent Hill 3 upscaled in 4K and partly remasted with mods. It was fantastic to rediscover him like that.
• Football Game, a very short, austere, but devilishly malaising and well-tangled point, thanks to a flicky staging.
• Strangeland and Lamplight City, two other excellent n-click points.
• Return of the Obra Dinn, which upset my perception of the investigative video game, just that.
• Stories Untold, a textual adventure between The Stories of Crypt and X-Files.
• The Complex: Found Footage, which adapts the terrifying Backrooms in video game, while paying for the luxury of instilling fear in a new way, even if « It lacks explosions » According to BennJ.
• Incryption, the card game that made me both love card games and swear that I will never touch a card game again.
WHAT ARE YOUR ATTENTS FOR 2023?
In my 2021 review, I wrote that I wanted to expand my horizons in 2022 and discover new kinds of games that were unfamiliar to me. I kept my resolution. On the other hand, I continued drinking and dropped the gym, but I'm only a man after all.
In 2023, after spending the last three months of 2022 playing games that made the difference to reflection, I feel the need to start the year with a violent game, which will allow me to transform human bodies into sieves by hundreds or even thousands. Trepang, which I have been waiting as the messiah for years (already 20 hours of play on the demo alone), will be this elected.
Play TrepangThis is the promise to be the actor of shootings at the F.E.A.R. that leave the part beautiful to the dismemberments in slow motion. The feeling of play is ultra lively, the blood flows, and our unfortunate victims are exhilarating loud screams like this fateful day when I jumped with too much brain on the saddle of my bike. I think this will be my game of the year.
I'm waiting too. Sons of The Forest, after the excellent The Forest, who had obsessed me for a long week. I was playing until late to find cave entrances hidden in the bushes, I was building rafts, I regularly failed to drown, the local population wanted to devour me. It was really a great vacation. Really the next one! We see white sharks in the trailer and I'll even try to survive by playing vegetarian, it promises.
I am also curious to see what will be given Amnesia: The Bunker, which for the moment has offered us only an enigmatic trailer on the background of World War I.
To stay on the subject of the Great War, I also wait Conscript, which looks very promising.
I am also thinking of Resident Evil 4 which I hope will be excellent and less lazy than the recent remake of Resident Evil 3. Will Leon be able to look under the skirt of Ashley and be treated as perverts ? Only the future will tell us. If so, it's GOTY.
With regard to the n-click points, I will be present at the exit of Death of The Reprobate, Old Skies and Rosewater.
In the kind of metroidvania, I wait The Last Faith and obviously Hollow Knight 2.
Finally, in bulk, I am also thinking of Small Saga, Stalker 2 (it will depend on Western aid to Ukraine), Silent Hill 2 (even if it will never reach the ankle of the original), Star Wars Jedi Survivor and Suikoden 1 and 2 Remaster, to discover the series.
Outliner review
WHAT IS YOUR RESENT FOR THE YEAR 2022 IN THE IMPITOYABLE WORLD OF JV?
2022 is in my view and in many ways a year of transition. At the very least, I wonder whether it is an objective finding or the manifestation of a wish. In an ever-expanding sector, which continues to splinter in the absence of a more assertive maturity, the video game is affected by changes in the consumption habits of players as well as by its own immobilism.
Some would say that what I attribute to video games applies equally to other media such as music or cinema, which have also been shaken by streaming platforms and ways of consuming their respective audiences. Moreover, all these industries are fighting today to get the sacrosanct « available brain time », substantially influencing the works they propose.
Thus, the video game tries to adapt by simmering into a real balancing exercise, wanting to satisfy an over-consumption addict and more than ever to weariness. As a result, players are bombarded with games with varying budgets and ambitions and move from one game to the other without shame and to the slightest frustration. Frustration which also materializes by lifting shields massively relayed on social networks and leaving not only no respite to developers, but also to the media.
A year of contrasting and revealing trends
In fact, at the beginning of the year 2023, the time has come to take stock of a year 2022 which has confirmed in me a desire for independence which only germinated until then. First, independence in terms of opinion. Indeed, between the influencers, the so-called specialized press and the authority argument currently represented by Metacritic and the Game Awards, it is becoming more and more complicated to build a truly personal opinion without any form of influence. The public needs consensus, whether it is positive or negative, so that it is legitimate to ask the question of the impartiality of those who are given the titles of judges and executioners, coming to sanction or praise titles designed for years of hard work.
Out of impartiality, I do not mean objectivity, well aware that it cannot really exist in the context of appreciation of a work. I hear more about the impartiality towards oneself and the personal feeling that one has of a work. Therefore, some titles obtain such consensus in terms of dithyrambic criticism that it becomes difficult to propose a nuanced verdict without attracting the lightnings of one or more communities. So, by reviewing the games I played, the ones that marked me the most and those that left me marble or those that disappointed me, I don't always find myself in this culture of the plebiscite and the outrageous bashing. Hitting mainly the big productions and/or the most expected games, especially when it comes to exclusivity, one of these games is either an absolute masterpiece or a huge disappointment. Moreover, starting with disappointments, I will start my retrospective of this year.
WHAT IS YOUR YEAR'S DECEPTION?
Narrative solo games, where standardization of narrative experience
My major disappointment this year comes from what should be the heart of my player experience, the so-called narrative solo experience. Not being an avid fan of multiplayer games, I like to want to explore universes, to find the magic of discovering a world with its own history, its own rules. The very nature of video game is to become an actor, theavatar must be our incarnation in a virtual world, as it had done very well Quantic Dream in 1999 The Nomad Soul.
Until then, very different solo experiences were offered to players, narratives and very distinct codes, even in large-budgeted proposals for the general public. Modes and trends have always existed, but in 2022 I felt a form of fatigue in the sphere of triple A. It's quite simple, like playwrights, I've struggled to marvel at three of the five games named at GOTY. By exit order, Horizon: Forbidden West, In Plague Tale: Requiem and God Of War: Ragnarok are the embodiment of this uniformity, which is available in two formats, that of the open world and that of linearity.
In each of these titles, we find the same recipes based on ubiquitous narration and materialized both by numerous cinematic scenes but also by chattering protagonists who have an aversion to silence. It wouldn't be so problematic if it didn't translate so much into the game-design of the game, alternating combat, exploration, slow play phases to let characters and kinematics talk. Less digested, this propensity to « backseating » which at no point leaves room for discovery, for experimentation where the resolution of puzzles is in my opinion ever more obstacles to immersion. One of the first puzzles of In Plague Tale: Requiem is particularly revealing of this phenomenon, where Lucas gives us the solution of a riddle as soon as we enter the room.
To top it all off, the player's frustration is so little tested that it has become impossible to get lost, with signs everywhere and all the time, to make the center of Nantes pale. It's quite simple, it's simply impossible not to know what to do and when to do it in these games, where the only requirement lies in fighting and provided that the higher modes of difficulty have been selected. If I understand that it is necessary to propose experiments accessible to all, I regret the lack of customisation of these many aids, most being not deactivated and proposed by default, including in difficult mode.
On the other hand, it must be noted that in some of these titles, this constant assistanat is also synonymous with game-design laziness, as deactivation of the game would make certain titles less playable as the loopholes in terms of consistency in the structure of the game would jump in the eye. For example, remove the highlight of climbing catches in Horizon: Forbidden West and you will never know when you can climb or not to the extent that some of the same catches allow climbing and others not.
Finally, these games also represent a final problem, that of ever more. Always more beautiful, always longer, always bigger. While the visual auction has always been part of the video game, these three major industrial titles are in my opinion far too long and artificially filled for their own good. Of course, it may be frustrating to be limited in its pleasure by titles that end in just a few hours, but this frustration is sometimes revealing an effective rhythm, and a desire to start the game again. Where the titles cited above are games so loaded with content that one feels more frustration than having the strength to go to the end, as they fall into the bulimia.
Add to this risk-free, packed and worn mechanics with a common specifications based on craft, skill trees, auxiliary quests, combat zones with or without infiltration and you will feel a feeling of already-played before even starting an adventure that will take you for tens of hours. Feeling obviously materialized by God Of War: Ragnarok which does not emancipate enough from the precedent to show its own identity and shared elsewhere by other games released this year such as Dying Light 2 and Ghostwire: Tokyo. The gameplay of these titles may be strong for the most part, but they are not always at the heart of the gaming experience and are often not strong enough to keep us in breath for an ever longer duration. Fortunately, in front of the plethora of games released this year, many titles have managed to generate a certain interest in me.
WHAT GAMES ARE YOUR RETIANS THIS YEAR?
Independence has good, solid gameplay too
In view of this, what are the games that I was able to remember this year? I'm not going to be original to start the ball, since in the big games released this year, I'll start by quoting Elden Ring. Yes, the game is a « Souls », yes, he too is very long, even too long. Yes, it recycles many elements of other games « FromSoft ». But why such a plebiscite? Because it imposes itself above all as a game in the world open to the antipodes of current trends. Many compare it with Zelda: Breath of the Wild in its ability to trust players, and one can only give them reason.
Yet its success also reminds me of another title that was the culmination of the formula proposed by its developers: Skyrim. Although a new license, Elden Ring represents also the quintessence of « Souls » than its most popular side. Like a Skyrim who after four episodes of The Elder Scrolls managed to reach the same audience by making its title more accessible without distorting its substance. This tour de force inevitably explains the success of these two titles that managed to reconcile old and new players and in fact were elected GOTY respectively.
The strength ofElden Ring does not rest, unlike Skryim and BOTW the systemic nature of its world and its interaction with it. Yet he shares with them something so powerful: the desire to discover the world. Thanks to a brilliant world-building, his fascinating universe, his ricket information, he trusts the players and they are then grateful to choose how to live their adventure. It's very simple, three games gave me this feeling in my life as a player, Morrowind in 2003, BOTW in 2017 and Elden Ring in 2022. Moreover, her story deserves to be in the sense that it is once again for the players to be interested in what she has to tell and in the order he wishes. That's why this game is important and essential to show that solo games are not just a ready-made formula, whether in terms of game-design or narrative. When the budget is allocated to make it an experience as generous as it is brilliant in its structure, one can only greet it and hope that it will emulate.
In a whole other genre, my biggest slam in terms of scenario and narrative, it's the relatively unknown Martha Is Dead, an indie game of Italian developers LKA. Beautiful in his artistic direction, his technique is not left behind and except for a few stutterings on PC, I went through this story from one end to the other by being fascinated by his atmosphere and the cruelty of his speech. This dark and initiatory journey with Martha m Spec Ops: The Line where Alice: Madness Return. Although having no point in common with these two titles in terms of structure and gameplay, Martha Is Dead sharing with them strong themes, a relationship to uncompromising violence that will mark me for a long time to come.
The gameplay is in the absolute that of a Walking Simulator with some interesting mechanics related to photography and some bike rides that bring a little variety. With a lifetime of seven hours, the length of the title is consistent with the proposal of the game that does not suffer from any rhythm problems. Be careful, however, the game is not within everyone's reach, as the graphic violence of the title can be unsustainable, taking the part of making us perpetrators of certain atrocities. This is at least the case in the PC and Xbox version of the game, as the PS4/PS5 version of the title does not allow us to take control of these sequences considered shocking. An unforgettable experience reserved for an informed audience.
Another independent game but with much greater reputation, Stray who had the merit of being named to the games of the year. This game that I expected out of curiosity for its four-legged protagonist but also for its cyberpunk frame, was surprised positively and where I did not expect it.
Technically very solid, Stray does not owe its success only to the cute character of its « Hero ». All cute aside, the game is technically very solid, the animation of the matou is incredibly realized and the artistic direction magnificent. The simple gameplay based on contextual actions is effective and the exploration of different environments is very pleasant. I was particularly touched by this story and the relationship our red and hairy hero has with his robot companion, the narration is sober and dosed properly. A beautiful experience that is far from being timed, having finished in just over 6 hours of play.
I will now talk about a title that, is a full experience and has confirmed why some blockbusters this year have disappointed in their proposals and why Elden Ring got out of the lot: Scorn. What does that have to do with it? Scorn is simply a breath of fresh air in the sense that in the image of the title of From Software, he trusts the player's intelligence. It is also an artistic work, in every sense of the word.
Its stunning artistic direction coupled with an impeccable realization leaves no voice. Its progression based on puzzles and discovery of a world that turns out to be the materialization of a real nightmare has the merit of never guiding the player who then body with the protagonist and will have to understand how to get to the end of this painful journey. Fans of H.R. Giger and powerful and visceral experiences where reflection is in the spotlight should not miss this nugget. He will be forgiven for his basic fights and some checkpoint problems and we will return with pleasure to try to understand a story whose interpretation will be as personal as it will sting the brave player who will go to the end.
Other thorny cases (without bad wordplay) with Sonic Frontier which remains an excellent surprise. Far from shining from the saga Sonic Adventure, the adventures of the famous blue hedgehog have all been more blond than the others in their 3D dies, where the school but nevertheless very good Sonic Mania could give reason to purists swearing only by 2D episodes. While some feedbacks and presentations raise fears of an umpteenth failure, the reactions of the players and mine were totally against those conveyed by the press and some influencers.
Yes, Sonic Frontier is imperfect in its technique, the pop-in of textures is for example scandalous in a game betting much on speed, yes its universe is singular and can look like a amusement park barely hidden. But what a gameplay and atmosphere! The surprisingly solid camera, the feeling of the greying hero, the successful boss fights, the remarkable soundtrack and the sorry atmosphere of the title give an unexpected maturity to Sonic Frontiers. Moreover, it is nice to play a game that assumes itself and puts gameplay at the centre of the experience. One of the best surprises of the year and especially the best episode of the blue hedgehog since Sonic Adventure 2.
Finally, I will share some honourable mentions of games that I was able to try and that left me with a good impression:
High On Life : FPS lousy and armoured reference, this title by Squanch Games and Justin Roiland, the creator of Rick and Morty, is a nugget of humor provided that one is sensitive to it. At the crossing between Conker Bad Fur Day and Oddword: Foreign fury, the gameplay reconnects in a simple and efficient way with the old-fashioned FPS of the 2000s while modernizing the formula. However, it should be noted that the game is only in VOST (FR) and since it is quite verbose, it will sometimes have to hang. However, it is a breath of fresh air that does good in a videoludic landscape sometimes taking too seriously.
Blacktail : This game independent of the developers of The Parasight S.A. came out the same day as High On Life and turns out to be an excellent surprise. The artistic direction is superb and the idea of evolving in this open world which is a true fairy tale horrific drawing its inspirations from Slavic folklore will displace the player. This FPS based on choices that influence the rest of the adventure also has a very solid realization and deserves to be retarded, the title also enjoying excellent returns.
Feeling : Real UFO videoludic by Josh Sawyer and developed by Obsidian, we find there the quality of writing of developers of Fallout: New Vegas and an adventure in the line of modern Point & Click. Its artistic direction based on medieval illuminations and its respect for history make it an essential work of the year.
WHAT ARE YOUR ATTENTS FOR 2023?
While the year 2022 was half-tinted, I am much more eager to discover the year that will follow. On the part of the manufacturers, I expect particularly at the turning Nintendo and its Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom so Breath of the Wild marked the history of licensing and video game in general at a level that was no longer expected by the Japanese manufacturer. His gameplay emerges, the intelligence of his world-building and his extraordinary physics in addition to other qualities he erected as an absolute reference and model to follow.
In an ideal world, I would expect Tears of the Kingdom whether it is equivalent to Majoras Mask in relation to Ocarina of Time, a game that takes risks and against the expectations of the players. By being more realistic, I would like this suite to erase the flaws of its predecessor by adding more dungeons of the level of the castle of Ganon, new mechanics that completely change the approach to the game and an even more incredible world than the previous one in order to avoid repetition. That would be pretty good, and we'll add a more stable framerate to the list of expectations in all areas of the game.
In the register of games that will not be released in 2023 and whose waiting is endless, Metroid Prime 4 gets too long. The Last Episode of the Wise « Premium » date from 2007 and the last game of Retro Studio dates back to 2014 with the excellent Donkey Kong: Tropical Freeze.
In any case, between changes of teams, a reboot of the title and the silence of Nintendo since its announcement via a logo, one can wonder whether the Kyoto firm knows where it goes with this project. Between an aging hardware switch, a younger community that knows more Samus via Smash Bros and Metroid DreadIt is not indecent to think that Metroid Prime 4 It will probably happen a little too late in the present state of affairs, unless it is the lance of a potential « Super Nintendo Switch ».
Microsoft has everything to prove. Despite a year 2022 saved in extremis by quality projects like Feeling, the final version of Grounded and excellent partnerships on the Game Pass like among others Powerwash Simulator, Scorn, High On LifeXbox console and PC players were able to find their happiness there, even though third-party publishers were once again essential.
The year 2023 is the time to end this long shortage in terms of exclusivity « First Party » and we will find among those who are interested Starfield and Redfall. It is also where Microsoft had a hollow nose, the acquisition of Bethesda coming to the aid of a manufacturer having difficulty letting down the horses. Saying I'm waiting Starfield is an understatement. If Skyrim and Fallout 4 have made choices, respectively, that have left me puzzled in relation to some of Bethesda Games Studio's past productions, it is clear that they are the only ones to offer games to the coherent, systemic universes with an unparalleled freedom of action.
Moreover, given the ability of the studio to decline its concepts in other worlds, I expect nothing less in Starfield the outcome of the Fallout/TES in space opera version. Among the specific expectations I have on the title, I would like animations to the third person finally at the level, the suppression of loading times between big cities, interiors and the outside world and not the impression that the engine of the game is once again a modernized version of Morrowind. Finally, a role-play value more complete and consistent than that of Skyrim where one could be the leader of two enemy factions without anyone seeing the worry and finally a technical score better finished at the exit than that of the other games of the studio.
In addition, still on the MS/Bethesda side, I expect a lot of Redfall. Because we're talking about Arkane Studios and Harvey Smith, quite simply. It's very simple, I loved every game made by these developers, the last defenders of immersive sims, kind of game, how precious in my eyes. And what about Harvey Smith, the great gentleman behind the Deus Ex originals (with Warren Spector) and the Dishonored (with the equally good Raphaël Colantonio).
Although the game may look generic and look like an umpteenth clone of Left 4 Dead/Borderland/Bloodline, I fully trust the team to offer us a great immersive vampirical sim which if not a great commercial success will bluff me like Prey and Deathloop I had done it before him.
Moving on to Atomic Heart Who's going out day-one on the Game Pass. This game has been intriguing a lot since its announcement. Take Half-Life 2, BioShock, Singularity and NieR Automata, shake them all in a shaker and you will get Atomic Heart. To tell you the truth, while I have little information about the game of the Russian developers of Mundfish, the view of the latest trailers only confirms all the potential I see in him.
At the risk of being awkward in my transition, I will now evoke one of my greatest expectations with S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl. True Arlesian as it was the first episode in its time, the Ukrainian game GSC Gameworld will also be released day-one on the Game Pass and will be as exceptional as the first episode. His solid graphics, his A-Life system that gave autonomy and a life to each PNJ as well as his singular atmosphere made the first episode a cult game for most Pcists since its release in 2007.
The second opus takes up all these elements and promises just as promising, despite a development disrupted by the war that confronts the two countries from which the developers of the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl and Atomic HeartWe wish the teams with tragic losses with courage.
At the level of other expectations at Microsoft, I expect news from Perfect Dark, which we would have liked to see in 2023 to echo the original opus taking place the same year. Obviously, 2023 will not be synonymous with flying cars, Skedars, Mayans, or third episode of the franchise, and we hope to get news as soon as possible.
Far less futuristic but just as far away, wait for the new Fable is unbearable for me, so much I liked (although to different degrees) each of the episodes of the series. If I do not pay attention to the rumours surrounding the management of these two projects and wish Microsoft and the developers to take their time to make it the best possible game, I think it would be time to show a little more.
On the PlayStation side, I have no great expectations for this year if this is the porting of Return on PC, game that merrigues and I haven't been able to try yet. This kind of proposal is missing in the video game and I look forward to getting hold of it in an improved version.
With regard to third party publishers, I look forward to Jedi: Survivor, the continuation of the very friendly Jedi: Fallen Order which was very pleasantly surprised by the quality of its gameplay, its Metroidvania side and its very successful level design. Despite one side « More of the same », Jedi: Survivor check all the boxes of a suite that looks solid, even though I hope that the game will reserve some good surprises that will revive the experience.
Unsurprisingly, I expect much remake of Resident Evil 4, which will not be entitled to error. The original game is a monument and if I enjoyed each remake of the episodes of the series (including that of Resident Evil 3), they will have much to do to succeed in respecting the singular identity of this title while improving an adventure dense in content and rich in epic moments. However, the formula Resident Evil Therefore, I am never objective towards this saga.
Another announced third-party game of which I am not sure of the exit window, I wait with excitement Alan Wake 2So much I loved the first opus. Find Alan and get new answers about his complex world at the David Lynch and the Bright Falls village sublimated by the power of today's machines already gives me thrills.
To conclude this long list of waits, I make a call to Embracer Group which bought from Square-Enix its almost entire Western catalogue. I want a new one. Deus Ex Hey! Whether it is the conclusion of the Jensen trilogy for the moment aborted or a new opus dealing with the Denton brothers' genesis, please let Eidos Montreal announce something.
And if 2023 was also the year of the announcement of a reboot of the saga Legacy of Kain ? If it's always possible to dream a little, let's hope that we'll get the answer to my prayers...
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