Paige FTW: Paige’s Games Of The Year
So despite my status as resident games columnist for StreetPulse, I tend to be chronically behind on all the new releases — as in, I didn’t finish any games that actually came out … this year. I have no thoughts on Red Dead Redemption 2 or Spider-Man, though I do plan to play those games … next year. Yikes.
But games are eternal, so here are the three best things I finished in 2018, which may or may not have all come out in 2017.
- The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
I won’t lie. This game took me a very long time to get into, so accustomed I was to traditional Zelda, where my weapons don’t shatter constantly at inopportune times. I still hate that part, but otherwise I have grown to deeply appreciate the scope and ambition of this game, which took the open-world formula and turned it on its head, just a bit, even as it reinvented the series. I have no idea where Zelda is going next, and that is … intriguing.
- Horizon: Zero Dawn
This beautiful game sadly got overshadowed by the storm of March-April 2017 game releases, which is why I only got around to it this year. While the gameplay does veer toward repetitive, bumping it down on the list, the story is thoughtful and surprisingly heartfelt — I won’t deny sobbing through the game’s final scene. A sequel is supposedly in the works, and I look forward to returning to Aloy’s world.
- Assassin’s Creed: Origins
Before diving into the overly vast world of Odyssey, I thought it would be prudent to jump into its predecessor. While Origins does suffer from most of the usual side quest bloat that plagues the series, its exploration of grief in its early parts is poignant and nice. And it was good to play when I was stressed and wanted to just mindlessly clear points of interest off a map.
Honorable mentions: Super Mario Odyssey, a lovingly, wonderfully crafted game that I just was not particularly good at … Fire Emblem: Shadows of Valentia, a serviceable port of an older series title that whets my appetite for next year’s big release …
