2020 Year in Review

This covers my backlog strategy & 2020 stats, my PC gaming rig, highlights from what I beat, and what I’m most eager to play next.

Backlog Strategy

I’m thinking less blatantly about a strategy than last year, but generally speaking I’m going to play whatever sounds fun across various genres. Because some genres can be too intense to play for more than an hour or so in one sitting or some games might better fit a certain mood I’m in, I may start to playthrough more than one game around the same time. Secondarily, I occasionally look for games that I know will be quick wins, easier 100% completions, or games with an active online player base that I should play before the player count dwindles.

My PC Rig

I got a new monitor (ASUS TUF 1440p/165Hz) earlier in the year, followed by a new CPU (AMD 5600X) on its launch near winter, then new GPU (RTX 3080) from waiting at a Microcenter before it opened, new SSD (1 TB Samsung Evo 860 Plus NVME), and a new PSU (Corsair RMx 850W) because the 3080 was causing coil whine for my older 750W PSU.
If you want to see pics or details, the new rig is here on PC Part Picker, and my old rig is here.

Backlog Progress

I feel more focused on what’s fun while not leaving tons of loose ends on games. I’m happy with how I’ve kept pace with my % of beaten + completed games not declining against my growing list of unfinished games.

• Looks like I’ve been slowing down how many games I buy, only 200 this past year instead of 200 in my first 6 months here. Maybe that’ll be less than 100 this year?

• The vast majority of my purchases were through bundles (my guess is activating 3-5 games per bundle, versus up to 10 per bundle a few years ago), with some SG wins and trades, and a handful of rare Steam sale purchases.

• I’m beating or completing an average of 1 game every other week.

• Being more realistic about what I don’t think I will actually play keeps my Never Played and Unfinished game lists in check.

Keep in mind my 2019 stats only include half the year because that’s when I joined BLAEO.

2020 Priorities Progress

At the beginning of the year, I came up with a list of games from my backlog that interested me the most. I am pretty happy with the progress I made on that list:

See my 2019 year in review post for the list of my 2020 priority games, as it would make this post way too big.

The bottom of this post will have my 2021 priorities list. Most games I didn’t start or complete from it will roll into 2021’s list, with exceptions like games that I’d prefer to have DLC for before playing.

Historical charts

2020

2019

June 2019 (when I joined)

Year over year changes in % and game count

2020 game highlights:

• FPS: Superhot: MCD - A fun, addicting construction and deconstruction of First Person Shooter that builds on the original.
• Open World: Fallout 4 - The post apocalyptic world has a lot of detail that tells a story more than the main storyline itself, resulting it becoming my most played single player game on Steam. As one of the few open world games I played, its RPG elements are decent and its FPS mechanics are pretty good with not enough bugs to get me to quit.
• RPG: Divinity: Original Sin 2 - The quintessential modern co-op RPG is something I started playing with a friend of mine this year, and there isn’t a more intricate RPG I’ve played given its deep attributes, voiced dialog, and more.
• FMV, mystery: Her Story - A superb, unique, non-linear open ended FMV where you are investigating a suspect of a murder by searching a database of interrogation videos via seaching for words transcribed from interrogation.
  Honorable Mention is Late Shift for its high production value and branching story with multiple relatively unique endings.
  Franchise, roguelite, card game: Hand of Fate 2 - My favorite roguelite in how deck building, stories, encounters, battles, and psuedo-chance mini games come together.
• Hybrid: Rock of Ages - Tower/castle defense combined with knocking down the enemy’s castle door with a rolling rock is entertaining and comedic.
• Puzzle: Letter Quest - A great typing/Scrabble hybrid where point values from words are used to attack enemies, with all kinds of modifiers and power ups.
• Building: Bridge Constructor Portal - An excellent challenging twist on bridge building that officially licensed Valve’s Portal IP, including GLADoS voice work.
  Honorable mention for Mad Tower Tycoon with how it respectfully pays tribute decades later to Sim Tower in 2.5D.
• Racing: GRIP - Futuristic arcade racing at its finest with seemingly gravity defying tracks at every turn and plenty of different modes. Racing at mid tiers and using items have a slight learning curve, but its satisfying and rewarding.
  Honourable mention is Sonic & All Stars Racing Transformed as its the best cart racing game I’ve played on PC - Frantic and fun with air and water racing mixed in.
• AI: event[0] - Linear story led by interactions with a chat bot that is decently intuitive.
  Most creative game from some other genre: Divekick - A great amusing deconstruction of fighting games where core moves are to dive or kick. Brief stories from each character provide replayability if you are a fan of fighting games.
• I got stuck on: MOTHERGUNSHIP - Bullet hell gun building FPS is lots of fun and has coop, but I got stuck midway through the singleplayer campaign.
• Revisited game: Tower Unite - The addition of the Arcade, Accelerate (arcade kart racing), and nightclub this year were huge. I got the most fun & gameplay out of Arcade, as I love ticket games but without the IRL cost, and I hope to see more Arcade games soon that they have visual previews of.
  Honorable mention to Unrailed, the coop train track building experience. Upon release out of Early Access they added a tutorial, a single player mode, and much more.
• I don’t plan on playing again: Rocket League - I think I’ve reached my personal skill ceiling even after trying controller instead of KB+M, and the new car toppers or cars aren’t enticing as I’ve been happy with what I’ve acquired since launch - Whether unlocked or the couple of DLC I’ve bought. I’d also rather not sign up for an Epic Games account, even if it supposedly is indirectly linking my Steam account. I have plenty else to play, including some online games as well.

Disappointments

Only a few significant gaming disappointments encroached on how much of a haven gaming was in a year that was otherwise uncertain and sometimes insane.

• Most disappointing beaten game: Kentucky Route Zero - Lack of engagement and narrative significance to me could not be overcome by some of the more unique mechanics and any meaning that could be derived from the game. The beginning acts almost anyone can appreciate as an introduction to the initial characters and the game world as I did. These and at least interludes between some episodes are available on the game’s website or elsewhere as video. The middle acts will test the amount you are engaged in the characters and surrealism, which I failed. The final act will be the biggest test of how much wonder or significance you can squeeze out of this game, which I could no longer. This game was not for me, despite it supposedly being an allegory to the 2009 global financial crisis, during which I was without a job for months, yet the story did not resonate with me.
• Most disappointing game I won’t finish: Beholder 2 - The first one was a great tenant management sim that nailed the dystopian vibe and story, and the Beta of the 2.5D sequel gave me moderate hope for the sequel. After advancing past the ground floor of the government building, the side stories didn’t add much to the game regardless of whether the sorid parts were turnoffs and the core activities got grindy even after selling out to other people to mitigate grinding your main job.
  Genre disappointments:
• Traditional turn based RPGs - Ones with fixed character positioning (e.g. JRPGs) or fixed attact targets except for AoE attacks (like For The King) are much less appealing than back in my console days.
• Puzzle games - There are very few puzzle games that I’ve ever been really into, and it turns out if I have to revisit a puzzle more than a couple times or feel so stuck that I have to look up several solutions online then I’d just as soon move on to a different game. For some reason I seem more patient and tolerant of retrying other games from other genres with challenging elements.

2021 Priorities

Not only do my new priorities include games out of sheer interest, but also more recent or AAA-like games that may make best use of my new PC hardware.

• West of Loathing
  

  7 hours playtime

  1 of 28 achievements

• GRIP: Combat Racing
  

  13 hours playtime

  15 of 35 achievements

• Tomb Raider
  

  19 hours playtime

  11 of 50 achievements

• Deus Ex: Mankind Divided™
  

  5 hours playtime

  0 of 81 achievements

• Reventure
  

  9 minutes playtime

  3 of 101 achievements

• Save Your Nuts
  

  0 minutes playtime

  0 of 27 achievements

• Titanfall® 2
  

  0 minutes playtime

  0 of 50 achievements

• Eliza
  

  0 minutes playtime

  0 of 1 achievements

• Kingsway
  

  0 minutes playtime

  0 of 21 achievements

• XCOM: Enemy Unknown
  

  6 hours playtime

  0 of 85 achievements

• Sunless Skies
  

  0 minutes playtime

  0 of 31 achievements

• Another Brick in The Mall
  

  5 hours playtime

  0 of 52 achievements

• Rock of Ages 2
  

  5 hours playtime

  0 of 21 achievements

• RaidersSphere4th
  

  5 hours playtime

  no achievements

• Automachef
  

  0 minutes playtime

  0 of 11 achievements

• EXAPUNKS
  

  0 minutes playtime

  0 of 16 achievements

• Bottom of the 9th
  

  6 hours playtime

  0 of 17 achievements

• Shadow of the Tomb Raider
  

  5 hours playtime

  0 of 99 achievements

• Yooka-Laylee
  

  5 hours playtime

  0 of 35 achievements

• Phantom Doctrine
  

  7 hours playtime

  0 of 47 achievements

• Trine 4: The Nightmare Prince
  

  3 hours playtime

  0 of 39 achievements

• Middle-earth™: Shadow of War™
  

  10 hours playtime

  0 of 72 achievements

• LEGO® Jurassic World
  

  0 minutes playtime

  0 of 49 achievements

• Kingdom Come: Deliverance
  

  3 hours playtime

  0 of 82 achievements

• The LEGO® Movie - Videogame
  

  0 minutes playtime

  0 of 48 achievements

• Radio Commander
  

  0 minutes playtime

  0 of 49 achievements

• Red Faction Guerrilla Re-Mars-tered
  

  3 hours playtime

  0 of 57 achievements

• Resort Boss: Golf
  

  4 hours playtime

  0 of 38 achievements

• Just Cause 3
  

  6 hours playtime

  0 of 66 achievements

• F1 2019
  

  39 minutes playtime

  0 of 50 achievements

• Batman: Arkham Origins
  

  5 hours playtime

  0 of 60 achievements

• Planet Coaster
  

  4 hours playtime

  0 of 32 achievements

• Hand of Fate 2
  

  49 hours playtime

  28 of 99 achievements

• BadLands RoadTrip
  

  0 hours playtime

  0 of 10 achievements

• Oxygen Not Included
  

  0 minutes playtime

  0 of 35 achievements