2024-11-19 YouTube Retrospective Year 4

First thing I had published for this blog was a big retrospective on everything I had played on my YouTube channel up until that point. I decided from then on I would be doing a yearly look back so there was less ground to cover. So here goes Retrospective 2, Year 4. (Some fun Final Fantasy SNES naming schemes we could have there.) Let's get into it.

And another year bites the dust. I know this is coming a bit early, it's not remotely December. But I pretty well know what I've got going on for the rest of this year and also I've got plans for what I want to do next year that I'm excited to talk about.

Games covered:

Any time I look back on what all I've played throughout the year, it surprises me. I think "No, that was forever ago, that couldn't have been this year." But there, indeed it is. Looking back, I think this year's theme was Indie with a sprinkling of Survival Horror. Oh and Fallout. Lots and lots of Fallout. Let's cover each of those groups.

Lots of indie this year. I think it's good to have a steady diet of indie games, personally. I start feeling sick if all I play is big AAA behemoths. They can be great, don't get me wrong. But there are certain inalienable aspects that come with having that much money behind them. I feel you frequently lose the singular creative vision that smaller games have the freedom to express. Night in the Woods, Hypnospace, Arcadia, Scarlet Hollow, Golden Idol, Pale, Mundaun, Norco. They all had very clear visions. Not always the best execution, mind you. But creativity in spades. And I was introduced to several studios that I intend on watching, which is always a good feeling. Like discovering a new director whose films you enjoy.

Next, let's talk Fallout. Whoo. I knew I was getting into something with it. But wow, I wasn't expecting it to last as long as it has. I've been having a fine time with it, but I do find myself wishing things were a bit more condensed. I think of the halcyon days of New Vegas. We get in, we have a good time, we get out. Do games need to be 1000 hours long? I really don't think so. I think a powerful exercise in restraint is the editorializing process. You see it in movies a lot more often. You've got an idea, you put a bunch into it. Then you look at the runtime and think "Oh jeezus we can't have a 4 hour movie. Get the scissors, get the scissors!" Gamers seem particularly allergic to things getting cut. Think of the many many cut content videos out there. And I really wish they weren't allergic because the question "Does this need to be in here?" is a powerful one. It lets you cut through an incredible amount of bullshit. I understand that Bethesda wanted to make a forever game. I get that that is their intent. Nearly every facet of the game supports and informs that position. My point is should it have been their intent? Is being a forever game objectively better than not? I don't think so and I believe that a leaner game would have allowed for a greater focus and a better experience overall. Sim Settlements 2 is a life-changing mod though. Has single-handedly raised my opinion of the game overall and the settlement system in particular. I will continue to be very judicious with doing super long series. Even when I enjoy it, as I've been enjoying Fallout, it just takes up so damn much of my time. There's so many things that I want to play and I just do not have the time when enormous behemoths keep clogging the drain. It ends up making me resent the game a bit and that's never ideal.

Finally, let's talk about the survival horror. Earlier in the year I played Tormented Souls off a recommendation from Watch Out for Fireballs!. As the year went on, I ended up wanting to go back in time a bit and see one of the original survival horrors, Silent Hill. I knew Tormented Souls and Signalis both had Silent Hill as one of their inspirations. That and, you know, every horror game ever released since 1999.... Great decision, I really enjoyed both the Silents Hill. That's when an idea came to me. There's a lot of landmark games that I'm familiar with to various degrees (such as Silent Hill or Resident Evil), but have never experienced myself. Why don't I make a whole thing of it?

That's when I got the idea of a theme for games I can play. Which is best/most influential of all time. We've got the technology to play just about any game out there. Why not do some exploring. Unless something came out that I desperately wanted to play, I think for the next year of 2025 I'm gonna stick with the most classic and influential games that I can think of. I want to broaden my gaming palate in much the same way I've done for movies with the AFI Top 100 List. In particular, I want to focus on older best games of all time. No hate against best games that are more recent. But I'm so much more familiar with the recent ones I don't think there's as much to gain by playing them. I think to pick an arbitrary point, I'll likely be focusing on games released anywhere before 2009. Also there's a number of entries past that point that make me roll my eyes. Whereas prior to that, I can generally make an argument for the majority of entries even if it's something that I know I personally wouldn't care for playing. (For clarity on what I'm talking about, I'm using this list as a starting point for putting together a list for the year) Another stipulation, of course, being games that have actually held up. There's plenty that are considered the best, but just haven't held up from the march of time. We don't have to play those. Absolutely no one is forcing me to. I'm also open to remasters. A fresh coat of paint can really help.

But that's my general plan for 2025 when it comes to YouTube stuff. We're going retro and we're gonna be looking at the cream of the crop. I'm excited! To give a couple examples of games I'm talking about and a little look ahead, these are the sorts of things I'm intending on playing.