If you wish to watch our winners in video form, check out the below video. Other than that, here are the write-ups!

Best Mechanic: Self Mutilation in The Missing

Runners-up: Web-Swinging in Spider-Man, District Health in Vampyr

While seemingly a hard sell for most people, the way The Missing handles the use of self mutilation to solve puzzles is brilliantly executed. Dismemberment, immolation, and many other brutal forms of self mutilation act as J.J.’s means to progress through the world and learn to rebuild herself. These mechanics serve to act as a metaphor for the struggles and the pain that many trans people go through in everyday life in order to survive in the world. J.J. breaks herself down to build herself together again. After all, this is a regeneration story.

Worst Mechanic: Red Dead Redemption 2’s Morality Meter

Runners-up: Detroit: Become Human’s Trust System, SNK Heroines’ Items

Red Dead Redemption 2 is full of all sorts of thoughtless and actively fun-hampering mechanics, but the morality meter easily takes the cake. Even the concept of a meter to measure some sort of arbitrarily considered moral code feels outdated in 2018, where so much of the industry has either thoughtfully omitted such mechanics or adapted them into more nuanced and subtle presentation. Drifting your morality meter in either direction requires barely any thought, and provides little to no bearing on anything that happens throughout your experience. Being a Cowboy Angel won’t stop Arthur from beating up disabled men for three dollars in the story, nor will being Satan’s lil’ Cowpoke affect the titular and forced redemption arc later in the game. It’s a meaningless system that feels integrated largely because its predecessor had it, but also because as a AAA video game such features are required. This is all saying nothing of the fact that in Red Dead Redemption 2’s online component, players can pay to reset their morality meter with a microtransaction currency, which is just, man that really just is everything wrong with AAA gaming wrapped up nicely, huh?

Worst Game: The Quiet Man

Runners-up: Detroit: Become Human, SNK Heroines: Tag Team Frenzy

Oh, what to say? Square Enix has had a real strange year, but nothing has quite reached the heights of sheer bafflement that the company achieved with The Quiet Man. What feels like both a fake game from a movie and an Arrowverse rip-off, The Quiet Man is a disaster on every conceivable level. From FMV sequences that look and feel like a rejected pilot for a show on The CW, to gameplay sequences that feel like they were cobbled together in a couple weeks (by Human Head, a legit developer, no less), The Quiet Man is an embarrassment on a scale rarely seen for major publishers. Sure, Square Enix has taken risks on smaller-to-medium sized games in the past couple years, with games like Tokyo Dark and Nier: Automata both being successful, but it’s impossible to understand just what exactly the company was thinking with The Quiet Man.

The post Game of the Year Awards 2018: Day Four appeared first on Gamesline.

As always, we’ve got both full write-ups and a handy video guide to today’s awards!

Best Surprise: Deltarune

Runners-up: THE MISSING: J.J. MACFIELD & THE ISLAND OF MEMORIES, Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon

Released out of nowhere for free on Halloween, Deltarune immediately proved itself to be a captivating experience. From its intro sequence until the final moments of what’s only the first chapter, the entire experience is as gripping as it is clever, playing on every expectation an Undertale fan may have. Not only has the combat system been revamped to accommodate multiple party members with various roles in the group, but even familiar characters and story beats have changed in unpredictable and unusual ways. Despite being a vastly shorter experience overall, there’s a lot about Deltarune to discuss and unpack, even as we go into 2019. With Toby Fox hitting on all fronts again, it’s no surprise that Deltarune manages to be 2018’s best surprise.

Most Disappointing: Red Dead Redemption 2

Runners-up: Ni No Kuni 2: Revenant Kingdom, Yakuza 6: The Song of Life

It’s no secret that the hype-cycle for Triple A game development has been out of control for years now, but it’s phenomenally difficult to think of an example of a game failing to hit the mark of expectations quite like Red Dead Redemption 2 did. Rockstar games have occupied a weird space for a while now where they’ve been held up as immersive and bold for decisions that other games have been repeatedly derided for, and seeing the trend continue in the wake of Red Dead 2’s release has been pretty baffling. An overblown, bloated mess of a product that sacrifices fun for “realism” and “immersion”, except for when it doesn’t, Red Dead feels like an example of a game that wants to have its cake and eat it too. Useless and unnecessary systems pile on top of useless and unnecessary systems to create an experience that’s less a video game and more of a chore. That bloat, combined with stiff, awkward gunplay, a story that could easily have had at least ten hours of fat trimmed from its hide, and an inconsistently written protagonist who flits between the honorable cowboy and a complete sociopath with such regularity that it sometimes happens multiple times in the same mission, only serves to make Red Dead 2018’s biggest disappointment.

Best Writing: THE MISSING: J.J. MACFIELD & THE ISLAND OF MEMORIES

Runners-up: Heaven Will Be Mine, Deltarune

Swery has always been known for entertaining writing, even if that writing wasn’t always the best, but THE MISSING feels like an entirely different format for him. While there are still moments of those classic Twin Peaks-esque non-sequiturs explaining some sort of specific concept or thing, the story focuses a lot more on text-based and realistic interactions. Since most of the game is told through a series of text messages gradually unlocked on J.J.’s phone, we get to see a different form of character writing, which is actually accomplished quite well. While plenty of games like Persona 5 or Spider-Man have integrated instant message style conversations into their game, they’ve never been the entire crux of their story. Being able to see the different ways that J.J. interacts with others demonstrated through word choice and honesty without hardly a hint of the stereotypical writing a lot of outsider writers tend to lean towards with queer narratives shows exactly how much research and discussion must have been done with real and actual people. THE MISSING makes me excited for the prospects of more modern methods of storytelling in the future, where a story doesn’t have to be told strictly through disembodied and one-sided audio logs, but through a different and less vocal form of conversation.

What the Fuck Award: Fallout 76

Runners-up: Filip Miucin, The Triple-A Industry

From infinitely fast walking speeds to nylon bags to completely doxing their own users, Fallout 76 was truly 2018’s shittiest gift that kept on giving. Originally pitched as everything you’d expect from a Fallout game but online, reality quickly set in as it became painfully clear that this was going to be a paper-thin cash-in. Even players who tempered their expectations were not prepared for the absolute shitstorm surrounding this game. Even now, more and more disappointing news keeps coming out about the future of Fallout 76. The game’s most diehard players and defenders are now upset that the new cosmetic purchasables in the in-game real money store are going for upwards of 20 dollars per costume. Not to mention as found in a recent changelog, the game will soon support the biggest wet fart in the entire game industry: loot boxes. Shine On You Turdy Diamond.

The post Game of the Year Awards 2018: Day Three appeared first on Gamesline.

5. Katamari Damacy REROLL

Despite being just a high-definition remaster of the original, Katamari Damacy REROLL still manages to feel just as fresh and exciting as it did when it first came out. Colorful, fun, and full of bangers, the game has such a unique charm to it that it feels impossible not to love. Even the bizarre controls help give it character and wonder, somewhat dated and frustrating as they are in 2018. It’s a bold move to not update the controls or change some of the levels for the remaster, but even so, my enjoyment of the game hasn’t diminished. Katamari Damacy still feels like a game that could have been made today, and is always welcome to charm me far into the future.

4. Girls’ Frontline

Gacha games are a special type of genre, usually one as overwhelming and flashy as possible to give you some semblance of actual gameplay and (hopefully) .pngs of characters you like in exchange for luck and/or money. And yet, the more time I spend with Girls’ Frontline, the more I can’t help but be charmed by it. It’s precisely because it doesn’t feel as overwhelming or flashy (even if it still is, by nature of being a mobage) that I learned to appreciate it a whole lot. For a game where you collect android gun girls to fight evil robots and other androids, Girls’ Frontline moves at a nice, steady pace. Whether strategizing how to move across a level’s map or engaging in real-time battles, there wasn’t much stress or pressure felt throughout, nor did I even feel remotely pressured to spend money to get better gun girls. I never would have expected to actively look forward to playing more of a gacha game in the coming years, but if there was going to be any of those games to do it, it’d be Girls’ Frontline.

3. The Missing

SWERY has always been a master of creating odd, yet charming games that always defied both expectation and common sense to create unique experiences. The Missing manages to be something else altogether in those areas. Controlling J.J. Macfield and experiencing the surreal traumatizing hell that her camping trip turns into is an emotional rollercoaster in of itself, with even game mechanics doing an incredible job of reinforcing the game’s themes and narrative. The writing is particularly well-crafted and shines as SWERY’s strongest writing yet. The Missing blunders in some key areas at times, but the genuine sincerity and care put into it shows and transforms it into one of the most memorable games I’ve ever played.

2. Deltarune

The spiritual successor to Undertale, Deltarune follows up on much of that game’s unique style and flavor with a lot of its own. Despite being a fraction of the length, it still feels as warm and friendly as ever, with wonderfully-written characters, inspiring music, and a fun take on the combat system of old. For being only the opening chapter of a much larger story, it manages to do a hell of a lot right, finding its footing just as quickly as Undertale did and not letting up until the end. Whatever Deltarune has in store for the future, I’m excited to see how it all plays out.

1. Groove Coaster for Steam

Groove Coaster feels like a sugar rush as a music game. The soundtrack is varied and heart-pounding, which is very fitting for a high-paced game like Groove Coaster tends to be. The visual aspect of playing through each song, as busy and overwhelming as it can be, is very well-crafted and enhances the flavor of the game to truly make it shine. Every track feels like a world of its own, and even the less-interesting or less-fun-to-play songs offer unique experiences that still draw me back to them time and time again. As a strong selection of DLC continues to be offered, I keep digging into Groove Coaster and happily lose my time trying to climb in the leaderboards and learn how to master ridiculous charts. No other game this year caught my attention and held it as much or as strongly as Groove Coaster has.

The post Trixie’s Top Five Games of 2018 appeared first on Gamesline.

5. Final Fantasy XV

I played this game shortly after a really long road trip, traveling from Connecticut, to Louisiana, back to Connecticut, and then all over the eastern US to a bunch of different places like Boston and New York and Washington DC, and then landing finally in my new home in Louisiana. So, naturally, the best decision I made was to play a game simulating the road trip experience. This is a joke!

The drive physically was very grueling, even if the moments where I got to meet up with friends and hang out in entirely new places were some of the best experiences of my life. Spending hours on the road and then seeing these four very precious boys do the exact same thing without the endless hours, listening to podcast after podcast, calling friends just to keep myself occupied because today’s eight hour drive has been especially harsh.

I would occasionally take a break at rest stops, and it made me think about their geography and the daily lives of people who work at a gas station in Mississippi off a highway little to nobody travels through on a regular basis. Up north, rest stops are usually very scenic, nice hang out spots with campgrounds, and the next stop wouldn’t be far away. Down south, they’re more akin to something like the stops in FFXV, small isolated groups of businesses that exist simply for each other and the scant few consumers that roll through.

While FFXV makes them out to be something more like tiny towns, that’s not what these are. This is a McDonald’s and an off brand family owned gas station, maybe a dollar store, with nothing but fields and forests for miles separating the next stops. These people eventually stop working for the night and drive to their homes on distant country roads. The lives of people at stops in FFXV are even more isolated.

A lot of locations in FFXV were simply just a Crow’s Nest (it’s diner equivalent of a McDonalds) with a couple of other essential things like gas. The roads between these stops and the biggest towns are swarming with monsters, especially at night where it’s notably very dangerous to drive. There’s no real explanation why a lot of these tiny towns are so sparse, or how they can subsist with so little resources and accommodations, which left me with only to speculate. Do they sleep in their diners? Are they ok financially? The only explanation for any kind of sustainability in these kinds of settlements I found in game is that they’re all well lit so that scares away monsters from attacking at night. It feels like very little thought was put into these places, and yet they reflect the sparseness of real world rest stops.

Other stops are sort of like small settlements, with non-interactive buildings in the area as well, suggesting that the people who work at this stop live here too. It’s a weird concession that makes total sense within the world, but in a broader sense feels like a damning condemnation of capitalism in America, something that FFXV’s fantasy road trip aesthetic attempts to evoke through its stretching miles of open road and franchises. People are so tied to their work-life that they build settlements out of their homes. There’s only one major farm that I found in the world of FFXV, but they exist as a business.

There are no solitary locations that exist outside of businesses. No self-sustaining settlements that don’t exist to make money. You maintain a franchise because you cannot exist without it. I don’t think Square Enix thought this much about what it meant to have people’s lives tied so closely to towns about the size of a stripmall parking lot acting as tourist stops, the worst of these being one of the actual major towns in a game, Galdin Quay.

Galdin Quay is a fully staffed tiny resort with about two hotel rooms and one camper parked outside the resort also acting as a hotel. There are no beachside houses, no “exotic” huts that are actually very nice and high class on the inside. Instead it’s just a pier that the game treats as a major landmark. When the player isn’t here, how do these people live? This is probably a question you’re not meant to ask, but in the few settlements that seem to have apartment buildings just for the NPCs, someone working on the game decided to ask that question. I wish more people did, to make it feel like a more lived in world.

Aesthetically, Eos does feel like driving through America, granted with more giant stone arches overlooking expansive plains. Driving through scenic vistas, stopping at gas stops to pick up some food, gas up your car, maybe sleep for the night. You’re not meant to think about the lives of those who live there, these tiny parts of your road trip experience.

This is the same way we treat gas station workers, fast food workers, people making barely anything to scrape by in a place totally indifferent to their existence. FFXV is a flawed but beautiful game, an imperfect masterpiece. I enjoyed my time with it deeply. I still haven’t played the DLC, but maybe I’ll jump on them when the final one hits next year. I highly recommend it and I hope other people can find some meaning in it as well.

4. BATTLETECH

The semi-procedural events and missions from BATTLETECH’s single player campaign are engrossing and full of really amazing “I can’t believe this happened” stories that I caught myself telling to people. Like, for example, I picked up a couple of ne’er-do-wells named Peanut Butter and Rat Party because their names are, respectively, Peanut Butter and Rat Party, despite warnings that they may not be the most trustworthy folks. Everyone deserves a shot, especially if you have a great name.

Pretty quickly, they were getting into arguments with other staff members. At one point I caught Peanut Butter stripping out the copper wiring from my ship (really) and then he tried to spin it as there just simply not being enough space in the barracks. He was lying to me, obviously, but I let him off the hook as long as he fixed what he broke.

After that, times were tough. A whole squad of our mechs got totalled during a particularly hard mission, so we needed to wait several months in order to repair them. Thankfully, we completed that mission and made enough money to get our mechs repaired with money to sit on for a while. However, this meant we weren’t able to do any jobs until they were fixed. You do a monthly financial report, similar to XCOM, but instead of getting supplies alloted to you based on the quality of work you’ve done, you file an expense report on how much everyone earns. This meant a couple months of no new work and needing to cut people’s pay to make ends meet.

Morale was low. Peanut Butter, already a compulsive liar at this point, got caught in an argument with Glitch, one of the more well respected members of my crew. They were squabbling over who deserved the last cup of coffee. Peanut Butter said he was there first, but Glitch posited that Peanut Butter was lying and that he’d had several cups already. I made them split the cup, which they both seemed irritatedly content with.

Soon after, when our mechs were ready to roll out and our resources were low, we didn’t have the means to make the best moral choices. When we were short on medical supplies, I instructed my commanding officer to try and save some money by looking for black market goods. We got the supplies we needed in full at a lower price than standard, but we learned pretty quickly from a news report that a humanitarian effort had their medical supplies stolen. The crew’s morale was hit hard by this.

We were having trouble finding contracts for missions from any major factions that weren’t asking for more than we could reasonably do, which is why the pirates, possibly due to Peanut Butter and Rat Party’s influence or because they knew we were purchasing stolen goods, offered us a quick job to take one of a major faction’s smaller bases. We took the job. On paper, it looked like a milk run with the quick money we needed to avoid bankruptcy.

Glitch and Peanut Butter both went out on this one, along with another one of my pilots, Behemoth. The mission was simple. Sneak up to a base, take out its turrets, occupy the base. In and out. As mercenaries who fought against several pirate groups before, this was such a flip of the script of what we were used to. Instead of holding out and defending against an enemy fleet or flying in and saving the day after pirates had taken a base, this time we were the ones doing the taking.

After we took the base, predictably, a squadron of mechs was sent to take us out. I couldn’t help but see our own past experiences reflected on this squad of 4, rushing in with fully repaired but lower grade mechs. They, too, were probably mercenaries, on the other side of a job we’d done before. They needed the money as much as we did. They followed a strategy we did several times before. They rushed down Behemoth and took out her health as quickly as they could. Behemoth was in a bad way. Glitch and Peanut Butter, outnumbered and surrounded, got around Behemoth to give her retreat into the mountainous woods behind the base. From there, all three stood their ground. While the enemy squad’s mechs were out in the open, my team had the high ground, had cover, and most importantly, we were tight knit and could focus down a single enemy better than they could.

Their tiny Jenner ran up to try and flank us, Peanut Butter let out a huge punch and was able to kill it in one hit. A mech we had damaged significantly went for an all or nothing melee attack on Behemoth, who somehow managed to take the hit. Behemoth is tough. She’s got a lot of guts. Now the mech was surrounded, and all 3 on my team took their shots, killing the pilot before their mech hit the ground. The odds were now in our favor. Victory was all but assured.

The enemy still plucked away at us, trying to find a way into our position, but they were outgunned. One of them got Behemoth good, running behind her and unleashing a full salvo on her backside. You don’t ever wanna get hit from behind, your armor just isn’t as strong as the front. She was on her last legs, but she was still standing, somehow. Glitch and Rat Party focused down fire on a different enemy mech, barely managing to kill him. Behemoth, however, had different plans.

All her guns were destroyed save for a single short range laser which wasn’t gonna do any good. She had one weapon left, her fist. She got into a fist fight with the mech that was antagonizing her, and was close to being knocked on her ass until Peanut Butter, out of nowhere, jetpacked in over the mountain straight on top of the enemy pilot’s mech, killing him on impact.

The mission was completed, and Behemoth would be out for several weeks having her injuries tended to. After that, however, I didn’t hear Peanut Butter getting into any petty arguments or telling any ridiculous lies. He was in it with us shoulder to shoulder, struggling to get by just as badly as we were. We’ve got a big score coming up. If all goes well, I’m giving my crew a bonus.

3. Deltarune

This game is a joy. Through all the weird memes and toxic fandom that disintegrated the collective consciousness of Undertale over the last few years, it’s nice to be reminded of everything I loved about it. Deltarune cleverly toys with the RPG genre, expanding on concepts originally explored by Undertale in new and exciting ways.

Pacifism is not only a viable way to play through these games, but the recommended way to play. Having multiple characters pop in and out of your party to mix up the formula of the game on fundamental levels is exciting. For example, Susie, the party’s big axe lady, will never not attack, so in order to prevent people from dying, you have to figure out how to work with your opponents to avoid them being killed. It’s delightful.

What Deltarune and Undertale both similarly understand is how a good sense of humor can endear players to characters and worlds. While games have shifted from a striving-to-be Monty Python style of observational humor to more of the snappier style of writing inspired by modern prestige TV and movies, designed very homogeneously to let the best focus tested punchline land at the exact correct time, Deltarune chooses to walk a different path.

It’s an onslaught of jokes, both subtle and overstated, all delivered with an escalating cleverness and no bit overstaying its welcome. Very few series are so sublimely aware of every aspect of their medium as to set up and pay off in every single thinkable comedic scenario. As one critic pointed out in an essay on Undertale, there’s really nothing quite like the comedic timing of “Just a regular old bucket

of snails.”

What makes Deltarune so uniquely capable of being on this list, however, is it’s desire to not simply be Undertale 2. With a massive fanbase that all have their own fancanon, alternative universes, original characters and the sheer amount lore speculation happening, leaving the world behind was just not in the cards for Toby Fox. However, it also chooses not to be a part of the established world of Undertale. Described by Fox as an “alternate universe prequel” which in itself, to any other audience, would sound like a massive slap in the face, Deltarune chooses to be a best of both worlds of fanservice and unique storytelling.

It gives players who loved Undertale a chance to be with those characters again, while also not inherently invalidating anyone’s experience with Undertale. As such, there is no canon route in Undertale, paradoxically invalidating and justifying however you chose to play the game. Deltarune allows you to play lethally, but does not have alternate paths for a lethal or non-lethal playthrough, as it’s one singular contained story. Also as part of it’s cursory nature in relation to Undertale, it thus justifies all other instances of separate universes in Undertale. It’s the ultimate in validation. Everyone’s fan universe is VALID.

Kickstarter? Not canon. Tweets? Not canon.

Weird bootleg nursery rhyme video with my characters?

Hmm…

I haven't decided yet. pic.twitter.com/SwIWzKHlKm

— tobyfox (@tobyfox) November 25, 2016

Deltarune, essentially, creates its own world while also remixing the aspects of the Undertale world people are familiar with, which is so unique when compared to a lot of other series’ of games. The many entries in the Soulsborne series in it’s various iterations make direct reference to each other while keeping their worlds unique to one another, but Deltarune feels like that isn’t enough. It knows it isn’t enough for players just to have a character that has Jimmy’s sword. Maybe you liked Jimmy when you played the last game. Maybe you’re just excited to see him again. Deltarune lets you do that while still maintaining its own identity. It must simultaneously live up to and has no interest in being Undertale 2. It’s not Undertale 2. It’s the perfect Undertale 2.

2. The MISSING: J.J. Macfield and the Island of Memories

The MISSING is excellent. The MISSING is a meditation on bodies and self, the story of a person who doesn’t yet understand who she is deconstructing and rebuilding herself over and over until she finds what makes her whole. J.J. Macfield is an incredible character, and while I love this game to death, I’d prefer to stay more in my own lane and not be too long winded about it. Instead, if you’re interested in learning more about the game, I’d highly recommend the review from our very own contributor Rose as well Nadia M’s reflections on the game. If you only play one thing from this year for some reason, I’d highly recommend giving The MISSING a shot.

1. Shadow of the Colossus

The malaise and excited trepidation I experienced playing the stunningly beautiful remake of Shadow of the Colossus this year was partially due to anticipating that huge road trip, completely uprooting my entire life and traveling cross-country for a totally fresh start. There was certainly a sense of comfort in experiencing SotC again, but its themes of uncertainty, anxiety, and being dead set on your beliefs while knowing they can have disastrous consequences, resonated deeply with me at such a vulnerable point in my life. Traveling through the world, touring the lonely countrysides and deviating from my path, feeling like I was seeing a world nobody else had ever seen, left me as lonely as I felt on the several eight hour car rides on my own. Nobody to talk to. Nobody to share my anxieties with.

SotC came at a weird time, just after I had replayed Legend of Zelda: Breath Of The Wild on master mode. The two felt diametrically opposed and yet inextricably linked. While BotW emphasizes exploration and creativity, SotC could not encourage you less to explore. You, as a player, can only explore when you break down the mental barrier that encourages you to head towards your next objective. The world is massive and full of possibility, which seemingly countless multiple paths leading in and out of each other to newer and more beautiful places. However it knowingly doesn’t capitalize on it’s exploration as BotW does. In BotW, you can crest over a hill in order to discover a new secret, a new weapon to add to your inventory or another shrine to do some more puzzles. In SotC, you’re greeted with a few grip or stamina upgrades or a collectible or two, sure, but what’s more rewarding are the scenic vistas, the impossibly massive and yet lonely landscapes, the broken ruins of an empty land.

SotC would not only not exist without the Legend Of Zelda series, but is also deeply critical of it in many ways. It frames its narrative as a typical hero’s journey, a young boy sets off to save a princess. In this instance, he toys with dark forces he doesn’t yet understand in order to bring her back to life. Many Legend of Zelda games are about traveling the world and discovering greater truths, learning how to defeat the evil force to save the world, and while you would certainly expect SotC to follow that same formula from it’s initial framing at the start of the game, it becomes clear how little it cares for heroes and the paths they have to walk down.

Legend of Zelda usually has a running theme of the player getting stronger to overcome adversity. Here, in SotC, it twists that fantasy. Yes, there is some mechanical progression in collecting fruits and lizard tails for stat upgrades, but Wander arrives in the Forbidden Land with every tool he needs. He already has his blade, he has his bow, he has his horse. He is already complete. He is already equipped to handle any adversity he might run up against. It’s safe to assume that he is a character who knows what he wants. This right here is the key criticism SotC makes of fantasy games, or any kind of game that encourages an empowerment fantasy. It gives Wander agency.

In Legend of Zelda, you, the player, and Link, the character, each share a singular objective: defeat the evil forces of the world to bring peace to the land, often saving a princess in the meanwhile. SotC understands this framing and utilizes it to lull the player into a sense of false security. While it makes it pretty clear the Dormin is a dark force not to be taken lightly, it also sets the rules pretty plainly. You defeat these colossi, I bring the girl back to life. What it obfuscates until the game is willing to show it’s hand a little more is that the deal Wander and Dormin have made comes at a much greater peril than any darkness that might threaten the world in the Forbidden Land of the colossi.

Wander enters this pact willingly, and while it’s implied that Dormin has tricked Wander into it against his will, Wander has already gone against the will of his people. Dormin explicitly states that the price of this resurrection would be heavy, but it does not deter him. Wander has already sought out this fate knowing that it could possibly have a dark end. His will is to bring back Mono, the woman he is trying to resurrect, through any means necessary. While the implication is one of romance, of a young man who doesn’t know better acting out of love, we don’t hear Mono’s side. We don’t know her will. All we know is that she was sacrificed due to a “cursed fate” which can have many interpretations.

What’s important is that it is not Mono’s will to be resurrected. Wander made this choice implicitly, against the will of those around him, damning the consequences. It was his will that set the story in motion, and by his hand were Dormin’s machinations made manifest. There’s a reason why, at the very end of the game, you become the large monster, almost a colossi yourself, attacking your kin. A hulking, monstrous, muscular form. A hyper idealized embodiment of masculine form shrouded in total darkness. Wander achieves his goal, he brings Mono back to life. In order to do it, he has gone from stomping on the will of others to pursue his goals and irrationally endangering all of those around him. He goes from metaphorically stepping on others to quite literally stepping on others.

Shadow of the Colossus is a cautionary tale of unchecked toxic masculinity. This revelation didn’t come to a lot of people in 2005 when analytical critique of games wasn’t nearly as prevalent, or at least as mainstream as it is now. But I stand by this reading of it. The game all but confirms it by having Dormin, a character portrayed as dual-gender played by both a masculine and feminine voice actor in tandem, dropping their feminine voice and simply using the masculine one when all of the Colossi are defeated and Dormin is finally unbound to the Forbidden Land, free to run rampant on the world again. People who strive for every single thing to make mechanical and canonical sense craft weird theories like how the feminine side of Dormin went into Mono’s body so she can be resurrected as dark queen. But in a game about a man going against the will of those around him and conspiring with dark forces to serve selfish needs, doesn’t that make more sense?

The post Scott’s Top 5 Games Of 2018 appeared first on Gamesline.

You can check out our full write-ups right here, but as always, we’ve got a handy-dandy video to run down today’s awards!

Best Moment: The Ending (THE MISSING)

Runners-up: Walking through town (Deltarune), The Last Climb (Celeste)

The ending to THE MISSING isn’t just impressive because of its elaborate presentation, though that certainly helps it. This final sequence, where both the true nature of the game, as well as an insistence to push back against an all too common tragic and surrealist end are revealed, is exactly what we should be looking for in video game narratives. From the dramatic scripted scenes, to a final optimistic chase and victory over a now understandable enemy, THE MISSING’s ending takes advantage of being a piece of interactive media, and provides a path of emotional resonance through the whole experience. By exploring largely ignored and important territory, THE MISSING was able to take what would have been a novel experience in its own right, and push it above into the type of representation we should be accepting as the bare minimum. Also it made me cry for like three hours.

Hella Brokenest: Fallout 76

Runners-up: Vampyr, The Quiet Man

Even before its release date, nearly every comment online about Fallout 76 was one of deep frustration and consistent ineptitude. Bethesda’s games are rightfully infamous for how shoddily they’re held together, but their latest release heaps another spoonful of worry on top of an already wobbly foundation with online functionality. With the standard crashes, bugs, and game-breaking errors now paired with an unstable connectivity requirement, Fallout 76 is going to need a lot more than some fan mods to be anywhere near something worth the money Bethesda’s asking for it. Let’s not forget that they’re using the same twenty-year-old engine they’ve been using since Morrowind, and plan to continue to use it into the next generation.

Best Character: Susie (Deltarune)

Runners-up: Madeline (Celeste), Nia (Xenoblade Chronicles 2)

The power of mean girls shines within you.

Susie from Deltarune is our favorite character in a game this year. Her character arc, from schoolyard bully, to reluctant party member, to two-bit villain, to genuine friend was, in true Toby Fox style, equal parts touching and hilarious. Susie is in many ways a perfect response to the sometimes simplistic pacifist outlook of Undertale. As she moves from lashing out with violence out of fear, to using violence as a way to defend those she cares about, Susie encapsulates the complicated questions Deltarune seeks to ask. She adds an edge to the game (no pun intended), and always reminds us that these characters are just tweens doing their best in a scary situation. Susie’s scenes with Lancer are among the funniest in Deltarune, and she brings serious heart to the game, making me care about the fate and feelings of these dumb kids. To give Susie the best compliment I can: she is unbanned from free ham sandwich day.

Worst Character: Markus (Detroit: Become Human)

Runners-up: Arthur Morgan (Red Dead Redemption 2), Lara Croft (Shadow of the Tomb Raider)

David Cage is a man who divides opinion among the masses at the best of times, but with Detroit: Become Human, the master of gaming misery has hit new lows in the character department with the game’s lead, Markus. Cage has, of course, always been about as subtle as a nuclear bomb, but his clumsy attempts to roll Jesus Christ, Martin Luther King, Che Guevara, Jason Bourne and Mahatma Gandhi into one with Markus are unbelievably horrible. As Detroit fumbles around with its dead-on-the-nose Biblical references and Markus’ literal freeing of the android slaves, it’s hard to believe that you’re watching a sincere effort at storytelling unfold before you; so laughably ham-fisted are Cage’s attempts to make Markus a relatable, sympathetic leader that the game’s entire thesis statement looks like it’s being drawn into parody. Under Markus, a game that should’ve been an easy thematic slam-dunk stumbles and falls in mystifying order, and only serves to highlight that of all people in the industry, David Cage is certainly not the one with the chops to tackle difficult social concepts.

The post Game of the Year Awards 2018: Day Two appeared first on Gamesline.

This was a year that saw the release of two “titans” of AAA gaming with Red Dead Redemption 2 and God of War, and both cultivated a toxic and depressing culture around them. God of War was a game that forced the classic prestige redemption story onto one of the worst written characters of all time, and tried to play it without any sort of real introspection, leading to all sorts of great things like a meme about how Kratos dehumanizes his son. Fun. Red Dead Redemption 2’s critical reception painted a grim picture of not only the game industry, but how much more gaming journalism still has to grow with most outlets basically handing Rockstar a card that says “abusing your workers is worth it.”

Both of those were real bummers, and with plenty of other problems like loot boxes continuing their rampage, DLC practices getting worse and worse, and so many other issues with companies like Sony or Valve, you couldn’t be faulted for getting all nihilistic about the game industry. For all that horror though, a lot of works have become smarter and smarter. Games have started to explore more realistic depictions of trauma in games even not wholly about them. We’re starting to see less and less judgemental games, with things like non-binary gender options in stuff like Battletech becoming closer to the norm, less token narratives about queer characters, and more and more repressed creators getting their chance to shine.

2018 sucked, but there’s still plenty to be proud of *amazing godly segue voice* like these games right here!

10. Spider-Man

I used to play the hell out of all of the licensed Spider-Man games. Web of Shadows, Spider-Man 3, Spider-Man for the PS1, I loved them all, especially if they let me be the cool edgy Spider-Man. I never liked Spider-Man 2 though! Maybe my brain is just wired to dislike a lot of open-world style games, but I never really enjoyed the full sandbox style experience. When Insomniac came out and said they were making a game like Spider-Man 2, and showed things that made it look like a heavily scripted Arkham-like, I wasn’t exactly enthusiastic.

Damn though, Insomniac really went out there and made probably the best damn Spider-Man game that has ever existed. Spidey is a little too coppy, and the side activities are a little under-developed, but if you want to play a game that makes you feel like Spider-Man, this is it. From the on-point web slinging, to the fluid and fast combat, or even just the goddamn way Spidey himself immaturely jeers at the supervillains, it’s sublime. I’m hesitant to go begging for every superhero game to try and follow suit, considering the last time something like that was widely considered we ended up with endless Marvel cinematic hell, but if more licensed games could be treated with the same amount of care and thought, that’d own.

9. Heaven Will Be Mine

I wasn’t really a super diehard fan of We Know The Devil. Chalk it up to my lack of an interest or experience with catholic power structures in a lot of America. You know what I do like though? Surrealist art and gay shit, which Heaven Will Be Mine brings in absolute spades. The music is entrancing, the art is mesmerising, and the stories about trauma being written from an immensely relatable and realistic queer perspectives continually impress. Also this game has a ton of polyamorous representation which, hell I never get any of that, y’all.

8. Splatoon 2: Octo Expansion

Splatoon owns, I don’t need to tell you that. With every month that passes, the series grows more and more fresh and stylish, and the Octo Expansion is no exception. Operating completely outside of the game’s multiplayer and original single player, the Octo Expansion adds a whole new layer of 80’s pizzazz to an already colorful and vibrant world. Instead of opting to retread the pretty rough and largely uninspired story component of the base game, this expansion plays out like a gauntlet of dozens of quick and unique challenges. Add onto that a bunch of new bangers and a whole slew of funny and engaging dialogue, and you’ve got a slam dunk. Also, Octolings rule.

7. Destiny 2: Forsaken

The original launch of Destiny 2 kinda sucked ass. With a combination of too much streamlining and not enough content, most players fell off the proverbial space gun horse. Forsaken followed the same exact format the original Destiny did with the Taken King expansion, which kind of blows because it absolutely fixes the game, but why did it have to wait? I didn’t really care about the stupid fucking robot, nor was I impassioned by the incredibly trite liberal revenge plot. But damn, I love to throw knives in space. The PvP is mostly better too, and while I’ll never play the raid, they put in a giant evil dragon, so that’s cool. If Activision repeats the same broken-then-fixed formula with Destiny 3, I will throw rocks at the sun.

6. Fate Grand Order: Camelot

Fate GO’s writing was pretty bog-standard mobile game slop for a good while. Then Camelot came out and I was like “damn, they really did it”. Bringing back the original Fate author Kinoko Nasu, the story was really great and had an amazing selection of twinks. This chapter also featured a great example of how developers can integrate difficulty into a narrative in an engaging and successful way. Gawain’s fight was a hell of a thing, but it was cool to see a fight in the game actually require some minute thought, and battles like that made the harsh atmosphere actually feel thematically appropriate. I love the round table, I love skeleton grandpa, and I love stupid Ozymandias and his stupid DIO voice. Fate GO is good now.

5. Monster Hunter World

When it was first shown off, there were a lot of leaks going around that made it sound like Monster Hunter World was going to be a steaming pile of garbage. With a proposed focus on approachability, many feared the series would go the path of games like Paper Mario, with its soul torn out in the name of profit. Luckily, that was not the case, and Monster Hunter World is probably the best blend of complexity and ease of access that I’ve ever seen from a long-running series. Getting rid of annoying mechanics like paintballs and speeding up all sorts of animations and busywork, World is a fuckin’ blast. Though I have some issues with its focus on monthly schedules and limited events, they still let me dress up like Dante (but a hot girl), and that makes it GOTY material if not GOAT material. They need to put hotter dragons in, though.

4. Deltarune

Undertale owns. Anyone who says Undertale doesn’t own is still valid but I beg you to reconsider. I didn’t expect Deltarune to exist, but it does, and it’s amazing. I’ve spent a good part of the years following Undertale’s release almost buying in to the idea that it’s not as good as I thought, but Deltarune showed up, and made me go, “oh nah though.” The music is fire, the gameplay is as original as ever, and the writing constantly left me smiling and laughing. Rare is the game that has me finishing it in a single sitting, but I played Deltarune on Halloween and I could not stop. I’m excited to see what this episodic format means for the game’s future, but for now, I am satisfied with the knowledge that Jevil can do anything.

3. Celeste

In the prelude to this list, I mentioned how games were becoming more and more mature by examining difficult subject matter. Celeste’s examination of mental illness isn’t anything groundbreaking or wild, but that doesn’t stop it from being absolutely necessary. By putting a narrative as serious and thoughtful as this into what could be considered a pretty standard game concept, Celeste helps normalize that it’s okay to talk about your problems. One of my favorite things that a game can do is have its mechanics intermingle with a metaphor or deeper concept. Celeste being able to translate the experience of living with depression or other mental illness into an enjoyable video game™ is a fantastic feat, and I can only hope more games follow suit.

As someone who isn’t particularly good at 2D platformers, I didn’t expect to enjoy playing Celeste as much as I did, but the mechanics are simple and getting back into the action is just so fast that I just kept wanting to try and try again. I love the concept of a mountain representing day-to-day life, as well as the feeling of accomplishment being able to mean so many different things. I also loved the entire soundtrack and how the harder versions of each level had a remixed version of the original songs to keep things perpetually fresh. Also, as someone with dissociative identity disorder, being able to relate to a narrative that wasn’t specifically intended to be about me still is wonderful to see.

2. Xenoblade Chronicles 2

Xenoblade Chronicles 2 is probably the best JRPG I’ve played in a good five years. It’s got it all; cool gay swords, beautiful environments, bitchin’ tunes, and one of the most lovable casts I’ve ever seen in a video game. Xenoblade Chronicles 2 is sort of a chimerical beast of so many different systems and ideas, but none of them feel particularly overbearing and at worst, can just be ignored. Compare that to Red Dead Redemption 2, which forces you to do a whole bunch of bullshit in the name of “epic cowboy realism” and I’d rather play the game with the boob swords, thanks.

To be real though, I’ve always liked the Xenoblade series because of their inventive take on the open world format. It feels fun to explore, and around every corner there’s almost always something beautiful. At times, Xenoblade feels old fashioned with its very video-gamey style of world design – where every new place matches a specific element or concept – but that’s what I love about it. I would rather go to a whole new continent and have it feel fantastical with things like fluorescent lights or Cool Mecha Protrusions than “oh wow, the trees are a little smaller here.”

I think Xenoblade Chronicles 2 also makes a great case for how you can have your cake and eat it too. The game simultaneously blends serious and engaging plot points with doofy and largely inoffensive humor, in a way the just comes off as endearing instead of dissonant. I loved learning about Nia’s traumatic past just as much as I loved seeing Zeke do some chuuni bullshit. The story might do some pretty tropey JRPG shit, but guess what: it’s still fucking fun. I would rather play seven Xenoblade Chronicle 2s than half a Horizon Zero Dawn or a single minute of a God of War. Thanks.

1. THE MISSING: J.J. Macfield and the Island of Memories

I don’t really know what else could be said about THE MISSING that I haven’t already said numerous times across so many different forms of media. It’s a game that truly surprised me and made me hopeful for the future of storytelling in games when it comes to minority groups. The fact that THE MISSING came from a straight and cis man, but managed to take into consideration the realities that people unlike him might experience feels like a breath of fresh air in an industry where games like Mass Effect have trans characters who introduce themselves with their deadname. Seeing Swery grow from someone who made one of my all time favorite games that always required a warning about its treatment of sensitive issues, into someone pushing thoughtful and learned reparations is fantastic, and makes me even more disappointed in how badly the rest of the industry handles social issues. A game that I thought I’d just be into because of its macabre mechanics instead made me weep and became one of my all time favorites. Hopefully the game industry takes a hint from this one.

The post Rose’s Games of the Year 2018 appeared first on Gamesline.

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Support us on Patreon! Follow us on twitter @VGChooChoo, @john_michonski, @horngal, @decibellemusic, and @daikaijew, and don’t forget to rate & review the show on iTunes, as well as tell a friend! You can also send questions, comments, and concerns to podcast@videogamechoochoo.com or find us on Tumblr! You can also join our Discord channel at thegamezone.zone!

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The Missing isn’t a game I would’ve expected from the notorious game director SWERY. Responsible for quirky and eccentric games like D4 and Deadly Premonition, the Osaka based developer has never exactly made his reputation on serious topics and ideas. It’s not that The Missing isn’t like those other games- it has surrealism in spades- and it’s not because of any other reasons I could have ever guessed. The Missing is surprising, because it’s a game about me.

On the surface THE MISSING: J.J. Macfield and The Island of Memories seems like a simple puzzle platformer. Similarly to games like Limbo or Inside, the player moves left to right in a continuous stream of environments and situations with little to no interruption. The Missing, however, has the player solving puzzles not just through basic environmental interaction, but through various forms of bodily harm. With the ability to constantly regenerate yourself with the press of a button, the game presents you with dozens of complex puzzles, where the solutions can be anything from dismemberment to self-immolation.

From the outset I was incredibly into the concept of a game about solving puzzles via loss of limbs and other torturous concepts. When I first heard about the game NeverDead back in 2012, I couldn’t get it out of my head how novel of an idea it was (though its implementation left a lot to be desired). Seeing a game actually manage to pull these concepts off inventively and entertainingly is incredibly satisfying, and all the different ways that The Missing is able to create interesting scenarios out of grisly situations in its short playthrough time (about 6 hours) gives it plenty of points for creativity.

Though it seems at first that the game is purely based on the novelty of this core gameplay conceit, The Missing is primarily a story driven game. In the shoes of J.J. Macfield, you’re stuck stranded on an island off the coast of Maine (the titular Island of Memories). Though you came there with your Close Friend™ Emily, you quickly get seperated, and have to navigate through the very lonely and very dangerous island to try and find her.

Most of the story of the game is told through text messages, mostly inspired by the sticker messaging app LINE, where you get to see past conversations between J.J., her mother, Emily, and various other friends. Through these conversations the game gradually shows the sort of life and relationships that J.J. typically has, and you’re able to gradually learn more and more about her. There’s also short sequences with more surrealist tones involving conversations with J.J.’s stuffed animal F.K., and a mysterious deer headed doctor that often appears in pseudo-Lynchian fashion.

Throughout most of the game it seemed to me like The Missing would just be another one of those lesbian subtext games; the type of story where I end up wishing the characters were gay and smooching by the end of it, though the subject matter would never say. I never had expected that the game would slowly show to me the types of situations that I’ve had to experience throughout my life, and in so many of my relationships. I really didn’t think The Missing would transform from a simple eccentric puzzle game, into a metaphorical narrative about what it means to struggle and live as a transgender woman.

As it’s slowly revealed through in-game conversations, J.J. is trans, and closeted at that. As the game continues to explore this, the conversations that you’ve been reading through, and the game as a whole, suddenly take on incredibly different meanings. From the distant way J.J. talks with her friends, to the reluctance in her relationship with Emily, everything suddenly made a lot more sense, in a completely new way.

The game’s conceit of self-harm puzzle solving becomes less of a gimmick and more of a metaphor through this lens. The Missing has J.J. go through extreme physical pain in order to solve every problem she runs into. Though the game displays this through what seems like extreme sacrifices, they can be representative of the small ways that transgender people have to hurt themselves everyday just to get by. Whether it’s dealing with things like being misgendered, having to operate under a dead name, or even just the anxieties of what other people might think, being transgender often involves suffering, and too often it can make us feel like we’re the ones doing it to ourselves.

J.J., however, always bounces back and recovers to keep moving forward, just like anyone has to. Everytime she hurts herself, every time she’s hurt by the world around her, she forces herself to pull everything back together, to get up and continue going on. She does this not just for herself, but because she wants to find Emily, she wants to find the person she cares about the most in this world, even if she can’t parse all of the feelings she has for her. She fights through and past her depressions, she overcomes all the obstacles even if it hurts because it’s for the one person in the world who accepted her as she was.

When I was first coming to terms with being transgender, I went through a lot of the exact same feelings that I saw portrayed in the game. Every action felt like suffering, the people around me quickly abandoned me, rumours were whispered about me, and I felt myself collapse more and more into myself. Throughout that though, I was able to confide in and find respite in my girlfriend, and I kept pushing through day to day because I loved her. I knew that persevering meant that I would get to spend another day loving her, and feeling her warmth made all the conflicted parts of me feel at ease.

Though media has come a long way in the last decade in terms of representation, there have been so few stories about transgender characters, let alone ones done right, that I had never really let myself have high hopes for one. There was a feeling that was incredibly difficult to parse as I played through the game, that I gradually realized is probably natural for so many people, that I really felt wholly for the first time as I played. The Missing is an uplifting game about people like me, it’s a game that operates by all accounts under the same rules and ideas that so many other games have, but this time it’s about an element of my life I never really explore because no media ever really considers it valuable outside of a shock or jeer.

While I would normally feel some trepidation at the way the game almost treats J.J.’s identity as a twist, I think that it’s done in such a respectful and affecting manner that I can hardly take umbrage with it. Throughout The Missing, I cried multiple times as I reflected on the experiences in my own life, and how they were actually being talked about for what felt like the first time ever. To some it might just be another video game with compelling reveals, but to me, The Missing is about me, and that’s not something I could’ve truly said about a game before.

The post THE MISSING: J.J. Macfield and the Island of Memories (Switch) Review appeared first on Gamesline.

Support us on Patreon! Follow us on twitter @VGChooChoo, @john_michonski, @gamergrl69, and @Solonface, and don’t forget to rate & review the show on iTunes, as well as tell a friend! You can also send questions, comments, and concerns to podcast@videogamechoochoo.com or find us on Tumblr! You can also join our Discord channel at thegamezone.zone!

Our theme song is “Crush” by Melt Channel, from the album Magic is Real.

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