Pointless Venture's Games of the Year

Despite the continuation of the pandemic, 2021 was a great year for games. It was a perfect year to catch up on some great titles of the recent past (Red Dead Redemption 2; Shadow of the Tomb Raider; Hades) as well as enjoying a few excellent new releases (Forza Horizon 5; Resident Evil Village). Before I give my picks, I'm going to list every single title I played this year.

What I played (An asterisk signifies to completion)

Amid Evil*

Shadow of the Tomb Raider*

Resident Evil 3 Remake*

Doom Eternal Ancient Gods Part 2*

Red Dead Redemption 2*

Control*

Crysis Remastered*

Resident Evil Village*

Hades

Assassin's Creed Odyssey

Iron Fury

Quake Remastered

Deathloop*

Master Chief Collection

Halo 4*

Forza Horizon 5

Halo Infinite*

That's seventeen titles, and probably a record for me, with only six titles not played to completion. Of those six games I didn't beat, I spent almost twenty hours or more on each of them with the exceptions of Quake and Iron Fury, so it's not like I just launched them for fifteen minutes and then never played them again. So yeah, my 2021 was spent playing a lot of video games, for what it's worth. Anyway, here are my top titles.

Game of the Year: Red Dead Redemption 2

A gorgeous, ninety-hour epic Western, Red Dead 2 is unlike any game I've ever played. I'm glad that I waited until I had a decent enough system to play it in its full glory. Probably the best single player game I've ever played, as far as atmosphere and story go, as it dethroned the Witcher 3 in my personal ranking. Definitely give it a shot if you're into Westerns or simulated third-person action adventures.

Best shooter: Halo Infinite

Halo's campaign isn't the strongest in the series, but it's a return to form after Halo 4 (and 5, apparently, though I still haven't played it). 343 finally nailed the sandbox combat that forms Halo's gameplay loop, and the grappling hook and open world are excellent additions. However, the end of the game suffers from repeating Forerunner sections, as though 343 were referencing Halo CE. The multiplayer is the most fun I've had in years. An arena shooter with a diverse array of guns and gametypes (although fewer than previous Halos), there's nothing like dominating in a game of tactical Slayer. The only game on this list I'll undoubtedly still be playing next year.

Best Atmosphere: Resident Evil Village

An incredibly spooky tour de force of the genre's classic milieu, Resident Evil Village has a story that descends into incomprehensibility for anyone not heavily invested in the long running series. That didn't keep me from enjoying the hell out of its mishmash of high-brow artistry and low-brow horror schlock. Also worth mentioning that this is an amazing looking game that runs excellently.

Best Game I didn't Finish: Tie between Hades and Forza Horizon 5

I got to Hades himself, but by that time I had tired of the repetitive format of the rougelite genre. Still, I boot Hades up from time to time, still somewhat committed to finishing off the king of hell. As for Forza, I plan on returning to it after running through Halo Infinite on Legendary difficulty. It's such a huge game that I'll probably take a while.

So that's it for 2021. As for 2022, Elden Ring is the only thing on my radar at the moment, so we'll see that next year brings.

 

 

Halo Infinite Review

 

Infinite is a beautiful game. Unfortunately, that beauty comes at a cost.

Halo Infinite is this year's Doom Eternal. It's an unexpected revival of a great gaming series, and like last year's Doom, Master Chief is powered by a litany of specialized weapons and a grappling hook. Infinite's big idea is an open world Halo; thankfully, 343 didn't copy Ubisoft and litter the map with collectables and trivial fights. There are marines to rescue and bases to capture, but they're scattered amongst your main objectives. The main inspiration seems to be the Silent Cartographer level from Halo CE. You'll spend this game trudging through mountain forests and Forerunner Dungeons, although I can say the level design is better than CE, thankfully. Since I didn't play Halo 5, I'm only vaguely aware of the plot, but apparently a lot went on in-between games. Spoiler: Cortana is dead, and the Chief's new companion is called the Weapon, who's basically Cortana, but naive and optimistic. I did appreciate the new dynamic between Chief and the Weapon, which is more father-daughter than whatever the hell was going on in between him and Cortana in Halo 4. Anyway, new bad guys the Banished are basically just the Covenant. They are composed of the same grunts, jackals, elites, and brutes, and they're just as fun to fight as in previous games. New to the series are multiple boss fights, and although many of these guys are bullet sponges, I had a good time hunting them down in the open world. Master Chief's abilities are well-implemented, and I ended up using the grapple and shield wall frequently. The arsenal is pretty awesome; my favorites were the shock rifle, which stuns enemies and can arc electricity between nearby foes, and the Skewer, a brute version of the Spartan Laser that impales your foes. All told, the campaign is good fun, and one of the longer Halo games. My only complaint comes from the technical side of things. The engine that powers Infinite doesn't seem particularly scalable; on my 3700x and 5700 xt powered system, which happens to be the recommended rig, I frequently encountered stutters and frame drops, especially in the open world. Messing with settings, I was able to keep my framerate around 60 fps at 1440p by keeping most settings at High but dropping Geometry, Shadows, and Effects to Medium. Running the game on the  Series S, I noticed some pretty bad resolution scaling, as the game struggled to hit 60 at 1080p. Turning on resolution scaling is more noticeable on PC, in my opinion, so I'd recommend not playing with it on, especially since it's bugged and only works when you lock the frame rate to your refresh rate and use the in game vysnc. I can't play without Freesync; anything else just feels stuttery. So anyways, if you're a fan of FPS games, subscribe to Gamepass and give Infinite a try. It's my game of the year.

New Music: Sell Me A Dream

 

I wrote this song a couple of years back. It's a jaunty, almost swing-like piano piece with a crooning vocal, and it has always reminded me of a show-tune, but now that I've recorded it, I don't know what to make of it. Definitely not a typical TPM song, which is why it's special. As for the arrangement, it is composed of a drum loop, piano, mellow keys, and an upright bass, all done in Reason Essentials. Easily one of the best pieces of software I've ever purchased, and if I did more electronic music, I'd splurge for the full product.

Forza Horizon 5: Halo Infinite Multiplayer

I've never been a car guy. For a decade, I drove a PT Cruiser for chrissakes. However, that doesn't mean that I'm immune to that particularly American fantasy, that of wide open roads meant to be traveled by gleaming hot rods capable of blistering speed. Forza Horizon 5 brings that fantasy to life, albeit through an idealized recreation of Mexico. You'll amass cars by random chance (earn enough accolade points and you literally spin a wheel to win some dream machine nobody anywhere close to my income bracket could ever hope to drive), barn finds, and prizes earned by winning races. There's a whole mini-game featuring car tweaking which I haven't touched, not being a gear head, but the sim aspects are light enough that you can literally just drive and have a good time. The game looks phenomenal, other than a few low res textures, and it really is the best low-stress time you can have with a game pad. I don't have a whole lot to say about Forza Horizon 5 other than just play it and have a good time.

Halo Infinite's free to play multiplayer is the most fun I've had with a multiplayer game since, well, Halo 3. 343 have brought back the feeling of classic Bungie Halo, and I've had a hell of a time reacquainting myself with the Needler, Battle Rifle, and Ghost. There aren't a lot of maps yet, but they are well-designed, with Live Fire and Behemoth being my favorites so far. It also runs like a dream at 1440p and High settings. The whole Battlepass controversy doesn't matter much to me; I don't really care about customizing my Spartan beyond changing the color of my armor. That being said, the choice to launch without a way of picking your gametype is pretty lame. Oddball is fun every so often, but I want to play Slayer, damn it! Crazy to think way back in 1999 I could boot up Unreal Tournament or Quake and not only pick my gametype, but also chose my map and the server. This post-matchmaking world we live in isn't too friendly to gamer choice. All the same, I'm loving the multiplayer and can't wait for the campaign to drop this week.