Operation Backlog Completion 2026

Celebrating All Things Spooky 2020: Top 5 Upcoming Horror Games

 Video games  3 Responses »  Tagged with: ,
Oct 072020
 

This month we’ll be talking about lots of horror games that are already out, but what about those that haven’t been released yet? Here are the five upcoming horror games I’m looking forward to the most.

5. Abstraction

All we really have for Abstraction so far is a tiny teaser trailer and a Steam page, but it’s enough for me to keep my eye on it. Abstraction is an old-school survival horror game with retro graphics, fixed camera angles, and puzzles. It follows a young woman named Vi who wakes up in an abandoned house with no memory of what happened.

It’s specifically inspired by the classic Silent Hill and Resident Evil games, which is the main thing that caught my attention. I love those games, so I hope this one comes along nicely as development continues.

4. Resident Evil Village

We have to talk about Resident Evil Village, aka Resident Evil 8. What is a huge title like Resident Evil doing so low on this list? Well, I still have some misgivings about it. After how much I loved the Resident Evil 2 remake, I want to believe Resident Evil Village will be another true survival horror game, but they did say there will be more action than there was in Resident Evil 7.

Of course, I’ll have more to say about that once I actually play Resident Evil 7 to catch up… which should be very, very soon.

(Resident Evil 7 was actually supposed to be the first horror game I played this October, but then I ran into hard drive troubles.)

3.The Medium

Bloober Team’s games have been somewhat hit-or-miss for me, but I really like the look of their next game, The Medium. It has a really creepy and unsettling vibe that leaves me hopeful it will fill some of the void left by Silent Hill.

Over the summer, I interviewed Bloober Team about the game, and everything they’ve shown since then has increased my interest. The Medium is about a medium with the power to see the spirit realm, which will come into play for puzzle-solving as well as using psychic abilities for combat.

Somehow I got it into my head that The Medium was due out in October, but it actually has a “holiday 2020” release window, so it looks like I’ll be waiting a little longer…

2. Amnesia: Rebirth

You know what is coming out this month, though? Amnesia: Rebirth!

I was thrilled by the announcement of Amnesia: Rebirth, especially since it should be a return to the unsettling horror of Amnesia: The Dark Descent since Frictional Games is handling it directly again.

You play as a woman named Tasi, who wakes up in the desert of Algeria and must retrace her journey and survive the horror facing her. Amnesia: Rebirth is due out on October 20, and I can’t wait to play it.

(However, I still need to play Soma and the Penumbra games… perhaps this month?)

1. Forgotten Memories (Switch version)

Once upon a time, I heard about an upcoming survival horror game called Forgotten Memories. It was about a woman named Rose searching for a missing girl in an abandoned asylum, and it notably included Silent Hill voice actors in its cast. Forgotten Memories was planned for mobile devices as well as PC and consoles, but unfortunately the latter versions were cancelled.

This year I finally decided that mobile or not, I was going to play Forgotten Memories – only to discover that my tablet is too old. On a whim, I sent the developers an email asking if it will ever come to other platforms… and they responded to say the Switch version is in development right now!

The official Facebook page has some screenshots of the Switch version, although it’s unclear when it will be ready. Nevertheless, I can’t wait, and I’m looking forward to finally playing Forgotten Memories.

Conclusion

These five upcoming horror games have my attention. Which are you looking forward to the most?

My Top 5 Most-Anticipated Games of 2020

 Video games  7 Responses »  Tagged with:
Jan 012020
 

2020 is here! Yesterday I talked about the best games I played last year, and now I’m ready to look ahead to the new games coming in the year ahead!

Honorable Mention

We don’t often get an honorable mention here, but Kingdom Hearts III’s Re:Mind DLC is due out on January 23, and I can’t wait. DLC doesn’t count as a game release, though, so it doesn’t officially belong on this list.

With that out of the way, then, let’s move on to the five games I’m most looking forward to in 2020!

5. Resident Evil 3 (2020)

I debated for quite a while if I should put the Resident Evil 3 remake on the list or not. I loved RE2make, and it left me with high hopes for RE3make… but I can’t entirely shake my skepticism over Capcom mentioning in interviews that Resident Evil 3 will have more action than Resident Evil 2.

Still, though, they’re right. The original Resident Evil 3 did have more action than the original Resident Evil 2. Jill was able to dodge attacks, for example. So I’m willing to give Capcom the benefit of the doubt here and say the Resident Evil 3 remake will be a good survival horror game like its predecessor.

They didn’t let us down with Resident Evil 2, so I’m cautiously hopeful for Resident Evil 3.

4. Tales of Arise

With how little we’ve seen of Tales of Arise, it’s strange to think it’s coming out this year. There have been a lot of questions surrounding Arise, with fans jumping to conclusions about just how different it might be from previous games in the series.

I’m looking forward to seeing more from Tales of Arise and then playing it when it comes out. I enjoyed Tales of Berseria quite a bit, so here’s hoping this is another great entry.

In the meantime, there are plenty of Tales games I still need to play while I wait (including Tales of Vesperia, which I had on last year’s list).

3. Yakuza Remastered Collection

Does this count? Of course it does! Last year, the remastered versions of Yakuza 3, 4, and 5 were announced for the west as the Yakuza Remastered Collection. It’s already available digitally, with Yakuza 3 and Yakuza 4 already available and Yakuza 5 coming in February.

And when Yakuza 5 becomes available, so will the physical copy of the Yakuza Remastered Collection, which I pre-ordered pretty much the minute it appeared on Amazon.

Right now, I’m playing through Yakuza Kiwami 2, so there’s a good chance I’ll be all ready to dive into Yakzua 3 when my physical Yakuza Remastered Collection arrives.

2. Psychonauts 2

I can hardly believe I can actually put this on the list, but Psychonauts 2 is actually coming out this year!

Psychonauts is one of my favorite games. When Psychonauts 2 was finally announced, I was thrilled. I backed it on Fig right away. After a while, I started to get nervous about whether or not it could really live up to the first game, but the new trailer and gameplay shown at E3 got me excited again.

So far, it looks like everything I wanted from a Psychonauts sequel, and I have high hopes for it.

Speaking of games where I’ve gone back and forth in terms of excitement before settling on yes, I’m extremely excited for this game…

1. Final Fantasy VII Remake

Everyone probably saw this coming: my most-anticipated game of 2020 is the Final Fantasy VII Remake. Yes, I was initially hoping it would be turn-based, but I like the compromises they made with the pause system and Classic Mode. Yes, Midgar was my least favorite part of the original, but I’m interested to see how they’ll flesh out the city to turn this section into a full game.

(Let’s face it, I’m hoping for Yakuza Midgar , but even if it’s not quite that, it still has the potential to be pretty interesting.)

Everything I’ve seen from the Final Fantasy VII Remake since E3 has only made me want it more, and it’s hard to believe it’s only a little over two months away. Now if they’d just release that leaked demo already…

Conclusion

We already have a lot of great games slated for 2020, and these are the five at the top of my list: the Final Fantasy VII Remake and Psychonauts 2 first and foremost, then the Yakuza Remastered Collection, Tales of Arise, and the Resident Evil 3 remake, plus Kingdom Hearts III’s DLC as an honorable mention.

And with Re:Mind coming out on January 23, Yakuza on February 11, Final Fantasy VII on March 3, and Resident Evil 3 on April 3, the early part of the year is already packed!

What games are you looking forward to the most in 2020?

Top 5 Games I Played in 2019

 Video games  5 Responses »  Tagged with:
Dec 312019
 

2019 is coming to a close, and I played a lot of excellent games this year.

Things turned out pretty great for my most-anticipated games of the year, too, without a repeat of last year’s disasters.

So it’s time to talk about the best games I played in 2019.

Honorable Mentions

There are three honorable mentions I want to discuss this year. First, God of War (2018). I know it was an honorable mention last year too, but since I completed it in the first week of January, it doesn’t feel like I really played it this year. But regardless of when I played it, it was great.

Next, Fire Emblem: Three Houses. I got into the Fire Emblem series for the first time this year, and Three Houses is a fantastic game. It’s also a long game, and although I’ve done one route, I don’t consider my playthrough over yet.

Finally, I had high hopes that Control might make this list, since I was really enjoying it… until I glitched my game so completely, I need to start over from the beginning. Oh. Disheartened by the progress I’d have to repeat, I haven’t done that yet.

Now let’s move on to the top 5 games I played this year.

5. A Hat in Time

Is it possible? Did I actually finally play A Hat in Time after blogging about it incessantly and then leaving it to drown in my backlog? Yes I did!

I finished A Hat in Time today, so you can expect a full review coming sometime next week. I was torn about whether or not it deserved the fifth spot on this list – in fact, I had the entire list written up with Golf Story in this spot before I decided A Hat in Time should be here instead.

When I backed A Hat in Time on Kickstarter, I was hoping for a particular style of 3D platformer, and I got it. Several things changed from those early builds, and I wish we could have seen the dual-timeline story they had planned at one point, but overall I really enjoyed A Hat in Time.

4. Nier

You know what else I didn’t expect to like as much as I did? Nier. That’s partly because I didn’t know much of what to expect at all.

As I explained in my review, while I found Nier to be a sad game, I really liked the cast of characters and it had a lot more humor than I thought it would. I even went for all four endings despite not originally planning to.

The banter between Nier and Weiss is one of the things that pushed it high enough to end up on this list, and I want a grumpy snarky book accompanying me on all of my depressing journeys from now on, thank you.

(I have Automata in progress now, so who knows? It could end up on next year’s list.)

3. Resident Evil 2 (2019)

It’s hard to express how happy I was when I realized the Resident Evil 2 remake was a true survival horror remake of the original just like I’d hoped it would be. Playing the Resident Evil 2 remake filled me with nostalgia, some good (seeing the locked doors in the main hall) and some not-so-good (walking down a hallway where I remembered Lickers killing me repeatedly in the original), and it’s an excellent game in its own right.

(It also left me really excited to see what they do with Resident Evil 3’s remake.)

While it might not be a perfect game, and there are some things I prefer in the original, it’s a fantastic return to survival horror and almost everything I hoped for when the Resident Evil 2 remake was announced.

2. Judgment

I wanted Judgment from the moment it was announced. Now I already want a sequel, even though I’m not sure a sequel’s story could top what they did here. Judgment is phenomenal, and it might have my favorite story of any game I’ve played this year. I loved the characters, the plot, and… well, most of the side content…

Deciding whether Judgment deserved the first or second spot on this list wasn’t easy. I loved it so much, I considered the possibility that it was my favorite game of the year.

But every time I started to lean that way, I remembered the Keihin Gang. Not only was that the worst part of Judgment for me, it’s also probably the one thing keeping it from being my game of the year.

So although Judgment has my favorite game story of the year, I ultimately gave the top spot to the game I enjoyed playing all the way through…

1. Kingdom Hearts III

Of course, it’s Kingdom Hearts III.

Some people found Kingdom Hearts III to be a disappointment, but I didn’t at all. I enjoyed every minute I spent playing it. The story did everything I hoped it would – and even went beyond my wildest hopes in regards to one of my favorite characters – and set up exciting hooks for the next saga, the worlds were huge and fun to explore, and I even had fun with the Gummi Ship for the first time in the series.

More than any other game on this list, even my beloved Judgment, I simply had fun playing Kingdom Hearts III pretty much the entire time from start to finish.

Conclusion

That’s it for 2019. While I played a ton of wonderful games this year, Kingdom Hearts III, Judgment, Resident Evil 2, Nier, and A Hat in Time rose above the rest to be the top games I played in 2019.

What about you? What are the best games you played this year?

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