Im going with Okami. No one likes Okami like you do. 

I let this thread get away from me. Currently reading everybody's replies from the last 30 days. I'll be dumping almost my entire list piece by piece on here tomorrow. That'll be a ton of writing, but it needs to be done. :P I NEVER skip this thread, and I NEVER WILL!

Why the heck haven't I played this? Oh wait, it's not on Switch! Adding to my Steam Wishlist.

S.Peelman said: 32 The Operative: No One Lives Forever Windows PC 2000 Guessed by Bofferbrauer2 The early 2000s was a great era for first person shooter games. Maybe it pales in sales in comparison to today, but in variety in quality it's the other way around. There were so many games with different themes and styles of play, there was something for everyone. Until the brown and drab took over the genre, at which point I abandoned it pretty much completely. No One Lives Forever is no different and is one of these great shooters of the 2000s. It is a story driven game, inspired by James Bond it follows a female special agent in her hunt for a cliche crime lord with even more cliche henchmen and motives. It's all pretty over the top, but that's what's fun. I wouldn't mind a remaster of this game for modern systems, it deserves it, and in a perfect world it could help getting the genre out of this creative slum. Though maybe that's a bit unfair, because it seems to be going in the right direction for the last couple of years regardless.

I too lost interest in almost all shooter franchises post 2010. A few standouts like Doom (2016) exist, but the genre used to be so much more varied and colorful. Anyway, would you say this is a game I would enjoy in 2021? If you made me replay Goldeneye I'd or Perfect Dark, I'd hate you for it. How does this hold up after so many years?

I always loved Ni No Kuni's take on monster collecting. Great pick! It's in my list as well, which I'll be posting tomorrow.

#12

Uncharted 4: A Thief's End (PS4)

Change YOY: =

I've never understood why some people consider linearity an inherently negative thing in video games. Some of the greatest games of all time are entirely linear experiences, and all the better for it. Not every game needs a massive open world and open ended player-driven stories to be great, and the work Naughty Dog has done over the last two console generations is a testament to that. I've been a fan of the Uncharted-games since the first one, and if this does turn out to be the final chapter of Nathan Drake's story, I'm perfectly fine with that.

In the first three games it always felt like we were just getting glimpses into the life's and past history of the various characters, while the action and conflict between the main characters and the villains was what drove the plot forward. Uncharted 4, by contrast, feels like a story driven by the characters and their choices, rather than some external force. That is what in my mind makes this the best game in the series, and one of my favourite games of all time. I enjoy watching these people whose stories I've followed for years reach a satisfying conclusion in their journey, one that feels earned because it has been such a long journey to get there. 

#11

The Last of Us (PS3)

Change YOY: =

Finishing this Naughty Dog section with The Last of Us. A lot has been said about this game and especially its sequel this year, and although I can't talk about Part II since I haven't played it myself, the first game remains one of the most powerful gaming experiences I've ever had. The opening to this game is still one of the most heart wrenching sections in video games, and the rest of the game spent with Joel and Ellie and seeing their relationship evolve and change is amazingly powerful.

The rest of the game is great as well, but it really is the story and the characters of Ellie and Joel that make The Last of Us such a special game to me. I also think the ending to this game was perfect, and encapsulates Joel and the effect his past trauma has had on him, how he's incapable of letting go of Ellie despite it probably being the ultimately better choice for humanity as a whole. For him, Ellie was just more important, and that choice to save her is what makes his character great to me. He's a deeply flawed and in many ways a broken man, but Ellie is seemingly the one thing keeping his humanity intact.

It is on Switch, though not physical. At least here in europe, don't know about other regions.

Child of Light is most definitely on Switch. 

I played the Wii version myself.  Is there something wrong with that version?  I had heard it was better than the PS2 version since the drawing works so well with the Wii remote.  What is your favorite version of the game?

I hear this complaint a lot, and I never know what to say about the controls.  They worked perfectly for me about 99% of the time.  It has been a long time since I played it, but I do remember a quick calibrate button, I think either up or down on the D-pad.  I seem to recall making liberal use of that just to make sure I was always good.  The other thing I read was that light sources around your play area can mess up the calibration.  Most of the controls run from the gyroscope, but it does orient itself to the tv based on the IR light emitted from the sensor bar.  If the Wii remote catches IR light coming from a different direction, it can mess up the calibration.  The sun would be the biggest issue there, but other bright lights in the room could do it as well.

Anyway, here is a video of how the controls work.  (As an aside, there are some interesting environmental effects shown off I don't remember.  Around 3:08 he uses bees to attack an enemy.  Around 2:20, he shoots a heart with an arrow, pinning it to a wall in the distance.  Seems like the early beginnings of the highly intertwined physics systems in Breath of the Wild.)

Alright, let's start talking about the top 10 now.

#10

Final Fantasy X (PS2)

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The game for which I bought a PS2 back in 2002, Final Fantasy X took a hold on me the moment I heard the first few notes of the music that plays in the game's introduction, the immense sadness and melancholy within them catching my attention instantly. There are very few games that have hooked me so quickly, and the game never let go from that moment on. The music by Nobuo Uematsu, Masashi Hamauzu and Junya Nakano was amazing, the visuals were beyond anything I had ever seen up to that point in time, and the story and characters have since taken place among my absolute favourites in video games.

The battle system remains among the finest in the series' history, and the world of Spira is a wonderful place to lose yourself for countless hours. However, the aspect that is perhaps stronger than in any other game I've ever played, is the game's emotional core and the actually believable love story between Tidus and Yuna. Over the course of the game you get the see them change alongside each other, go from the awkward early steps to where they eventually confess their feelings and embrace them, and then finally to the crushing realization that once they finish their journey they will be torn apart forever.

Of course there's much more to the game than that, from Tidus' realization what reaching the end of the journey means for Yuna, Auron's past as a guardian, Lulu and Wakka's conflicted relationship because of his deceased brother, the constant sense of dread and sadness that seems to permeate the entire world of Spira because of Sin's looming presence, and more. The world of Final Fantasy X is filled with touching moments and stories, and even at its brightest moments something will come along to remind you that as long as Sin lives, there is no peace in store for anyone. This is also what makes the game such a bittersweet experience, as you come to realize that for the world itself to find happiness, Yuna and Tidus will have to sacrifice their own chance at it.

I finished my list.

https://gamrconnect.vgchartz.com/post.php?id=9247454

I'm not going to go through everything.  I did shuffle the games around this year, but nothing is really new.  I limited Mario Kart and Smash Bros to one game each to "save" some room for other games.  Most other franchises are different enough that I don't bother to do that.  Here are a few honorable mentions I've recently played that missed the list.  My backlog is getting bigger by the month, so nothing really "new" here either.  This is not an all-time honorable mention, just a few new-to-me games that missed my list.

Honorable Mentions

Severed - 3DS - 2016
Fun little first person action adventure game.  Makes heavy use of touch screen and stylus for attacking and puzzle solving.  The maze like map had me addicted to it.  I 100% completed it in a little under 12 hours, but it was in only 7 play sessions over 8 days.  Pretty fast for me.  It is also available on the Switch if anyone is interested.

Super Mario 3D Land - 3DS - 2011
Fun game, but the structure makes it seem like it takes some time to really get going.  A whole set of worlds, followed by the same number of harder special worlds makes it kind of tedious.  Wasn't a huge fan of how momentum worked in this game, where your running suddenly gets a boost in speed.  Makes some jumps miss by a lot if you are not fully up to speed, when it seems like you should have jumped further.  Fun, but my least favorite of all the 3D Mario games.  I 100% completed it in just under 23 hours.  Took quite a few months before going back to beat each level with both brothers and get the top of the flagpole on every level.

Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon - 3DS - 2013
Gorgeous game.  The 3D environments shine here.  This game has more of a mission based structure than the first, and multiple mansions instead of just one.  I don't quite like that as much as the original.  Lots of hidden collectables.  I 100% completed this one in about 35 hours.  Quite a bit less to just complete the game.

BOXBOY! - 3DS - 2015
Full little puzzle game.  There are quite a few sequels to this one as well.  I 100% completed this one in about 16 hours, including the little challenge modes.  If you really wanted to, you could get a lot more time out of this by improving your score rankings for each world.  I skipped that.

Swords & Soldiers - Wii U - 2014
Also came out for the Wii in 2009.  Finally got around to picking this one up.  Had a good time with it.  Not a ton of content there for single players.  Finished it up in about 6.5 hours.  Multiplayer I think you could have a few more hours of fun with this one.

Borderlands - PC - 2010
Fun gunplay.  Huge variety in weapons.  Steam says I put 136 hours into this one.  Pretty sure I left my computer on overnight twice, so maybe subtract 48 hours from that.  Will probably give it another go with another character at some point.  The game does have pacing and difficulty issues (there are odd peaks and valleys for both).  Currently playing Borderlands 2 with my brother and another friend online.