Gyromania
User

Reviews 57
Approval 79%

Soundoffs 145
News Articles 4
Band Edits + Tags 6
Album Edits 45

Album Ratings 495
Objectivity 76%

Last Active 07-02-22 4:52 am
Joined 03-25-09

Review Comments 37,021

 Lists
11.01.23 Alan Wake 2 Game of the YEAH!09.08.23 BG3 GOTY
03.24.23 RE4 Remake: Better Than The Original?02.14.23 Hogwarts Legacy
01.13.23 Gyro's 2022 ♦08.20.22 Gyro’s 2022 Gaming Hub
07.29.22 Rec me good TV07.11.22 top tier albums with black and white co
03.11.22 Pls rec me 2022 stuff!02.05.22 Bloodborne Demake
02.02.22 Elden Ring Hype! ♦01.04.22 Covid is fucking scary
12.07.21 Seth Rogen is Cringe10.03.21 Squid Game
08.24.21 You Guys Ever Try Psilocybin Mushrooms?06.02.21 Top 5 Anberlin
05.11.21 RE Village Boss and Locations Ranking03.16.21 Im gonna make a swans list tectactoe st
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Gyro’s 2022 Gaming Hub

It’s been a banner year for gaming, and there’s still more on the horizon to look forward to. List is the games I’ve played as well as ones I mean to play soon. I’ll continue to update this throughout the remainder of the year. Shoutout to Neek for giving me the idea after seeing their movie lists. Please drop a comment with any possible recs and tell me what you think of some of these games.
1Yuka Kitamura
Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice (Soundtrack)

Elden Ring

We’ve all had a good period of time to reflect on FromSoft’s juggernaut title Elden Ring. Marrying all of the best (and some of the worst) elements of their past titles, they sought to make an open-world game and succeeded with flying colours. Right from the moment I booted it up to the moment I finished it, I was completely engrossed in the world, characters and bosses. Probably the single greatest first playthrough I’ve had in a From game, clocking in a staggering 180 hours. I played sometimes for 10-12 hours a day, which isn’t something I can normally stomach. However, one concern I had while playing was whether or not the game would hold up on repeat plays. Sadly, this is the biggest drawback of From’s huge open world. The longevity just isn’t there in the same way it is for their more linear experiences, and I find myself enjoying their trademark dungeon-style level design far more than the open world on subsequent playthroughs. [...]
2Yuka Kitamura
Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice (Soundtrack)

[...] This is somewhat negligible when you consider that 180 hours for one playthrough is probably akin to like 10+ playthroughs of their previous titles, but I think Elden Ring will benefit greatly from DLC - especially hoping we get a boss rush mode like we did in Sekiro, which (for me at least) extended my playtime by several hours. For now, Elden Ring sits very comfortably at 9.3/10, just narrowly edged out by Sekiro and Bloodborne.
3Wu-Tang Clan
Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers)

Sifu:

Sifu is a beat ‘em up action adventure fighting game. It’s a game I originally picked up to tide me over until Elden Ring dropped. I knew I’d like it, but I didn’t expect to sink so many hours into it. It’s one of those easy to learn but very hard to master types, and mastering it is the whole point. There’s this creative aging mechanic that essentially gives you extra lives, but the catch is when you die and come back, you come back a bit older and to the same moment you were just in, until you reach an old enough age where you will die for good. This carries over through the game’s 5 main levels, which incentivizes players to return to earlier points to see if they can make it further without dying. And the more you play, the easier it’ll become to clear out levels relatively unscathed. Its combat shares some similarities with Sekiro, which was a very pleasant surprise. [...]
4Wu-Tang Clan
Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers)

[...] It has that same kind of rhythm-based gameplay, and once you learn how to respond to enemy and boss attacks, the flow of parrying, dodging, and pulling off big combos becomes immensely satisfying. I can see players giving up on it, but if you invest the time, you’re gonna end up flying through levels and wanting to do it over and over again. Easy 9/10
5Dead Kennedys
Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables

OlliOlli World:

This can be an infuriating game at times… depending on how you play it. OlliOlli world is the third entry in the beloved 2D skateboarding platformer series, and it’s a game that’s pretty accessible to general audiences. If you just play through the game with the sole objective of making it to the end, you’re gonna come up against some firm resistance in the last couple levels, but it’s doable, and for a while you’ll be sailing through the game. But if you’re like me and feel compelled to unlock all the secret levels and go for high scores, it’s going to piss you off at times. There’s so much depth and complexity to the game’s trick systems and developing the muscle memory to make arguably frame-perfect inputs is stupidly hard and time consuming. [...]
6Dead Kennedys
Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables

[...]It can be demoralizing practicing a stage for over an hour, just to get near the end on a perfect run and fuck something up. But those times when everything just comes together make it worth the grind (ha). And it has to be said, the art style in this game is just incredible, pure eye-candy. 8/10
7Underoath
Define the Great Line

Neon White:

This has been a blockbuster year for indie titles, and there’s still a handful of incredible ones yet to come. Neon White is yet another extremely polished, fun to play game that’s a speedrunner’s wet dream. It’s simple by design, but like Sifu there’s great incentive to replay levels to go for better times, larger combo chains, and some hidden items. It’s a first-person action platformer where you have a card-based system for your guns, which you can discard for speedy traversal options. Each gun has some kind of unique property to it that encourages new ways to get around levels. It’s fast-paced and one of the more intense and demanding games I’ve played in 2022, which makes it all the more impressive just how much visual clarity the player has, no matter how hectic situations become. It’s also worth noting that the artstyle is phenomenal. They doubled down on the game’s aesthetic and it just works… The dialogue is fucking abysmal, but it's w.e. 8.8/10
8Chelsea Wolfe
Apokalypsis

The Quarry:

Straight off the bat, this either is or isn’t your thing. People familiar with the kind of QTE-dominated, choice-based adventure games, like other Supermassive titles (Until Dawn, House of Ash), or Quantic Dream (Detroit, Heavy Rain) will know what to expect here. You play as a group of camp counselors who had to spend an extra night at camp and were instructed to stay indoors and go nowhere (spoiler! Nobody listens because they’re a bunch of dumbass teenagers). It becomes your job to try to make sure everyone survives the night, or directly sabotage them for the lols. The story won’t win any awards, but there is more replayability in this title than in some others in the genre. However, claims of hundreds of different outcomes is, as always, exaggerated af. It’s absolutely worth playing twice or even thrice though, and is a more than worthy challenger to Until Dawn. Hopefully these games continue to evolve and offer more freedom of choice and divergent paths 7.6/10
9Stray Cats
Stray Cats

Stray:

I don’t have much to write about this one tbh. You play as a cat in what essentially ends up being a walking simulator - but one with style. The novelty is neat and the game looks gorgeous, but these kinds of experiences are very much a one-and-done thing for me. If you like cats and soft-platforming, check it out. There are enough set pieces and neat little things to hold your interest for the short duration of the game. 6.5/10
10Kristofer Maddigan
Cuphead: The Delicious Last Course

Cuphead DLC:

Everyone already knows what Cuphead is. If you played and loved the original game, get this. I can’t even imagine how much work these bosses took, most of them consist of way more frames of animation than anything in the core game, and the challenge is nice but not total bullshit (I was worried they might be obnoxiously difficult). When I make a year-end best bosses list, one or two of these are sure to feature. The one thing - and this was always going to be a problem based on how delayed this dlc was - is that for avid fans of the game who have played it multiple times and gotten every achievement, they’re going to blow through this dlc in a couple of hours tops. Still, it’s the highest of high quality. Solid 8.5/10.
11Primus
Frizzle Fry

Rollerdrome:

Holy shit this game is incredible. It’s like if Max Payne and Tony Hawk Pro Skater had a kid, and then had an affair with Jet Set Radio. You play in a bloodsport where your character skates around arenas on rollerblades with guns, and in order to reload your weapons you have to pull off grab tricks/grinds/whatever you can chain together. The presentation is maybe slightly lacking (although I’m a sucker for minimalist cell shading), but the gameplay is just about as good as it gets. Everything feels buttery smooth and is hyper responsive. You might be upside-down in the air in the middle of a slow-motion shot when you notice you’re about to take a sniper bullet to the face, in which case you can just dodge, if your reaction time is good enough.[...]
12Primus
Frizzle Fry

[...] When you press a button, the action is carried out, no matter what you were doing prior to. These are the same devs that brought us OlliOlli World this year, out with a game that’s arguably just as good if not better. They understand the value of character movement in their games, which is something I think a lot of devs struggle with. You can have the greatest production and most stunning cutting-edge graphics, but your game is nothing if it doesn’t feel fun, and this is front-to-back fun. 9/10
13Ben Frost
By the Throat

Inscryption:

I’m kind of cheating putting this here, since this game came out towards the end of last year, but it wasn’t until this year that it was ported to consoles, so I’m including it anyway. Inscryption deserves all the hype it gets. It’s a roguelike deck-building, puzzle-room, horror adventure weird af indie masterpiece. At the time of writing this I have not beaten the game, but I’ve played it close enough to the end to confirm its quality. It would have to make a massive misstep to be anything other than a solid 9/10 for me.
14Jun Senoue
Sonic Adventure 2: Multi-Dimensional Soundtrack

Sonic and the Fallen Star:

This is a huge middle finger to Sega. An entire fan-made free-to-play sonic project. This is a full fledged game, just as long as any other Sonic title, done in classic 2D style. The pixel art and level design are incredible, with a solid soundtrack to boot. It doesn’t feel like it’s quite on the level of Sonic Mania but it’s damn close. To any fans of Sonic (except Potsy since he hates good sonic games) you should absolutely check this out. I promise your PC can run it and I’ve provided a link here: https://stardropsmh.github.io/sonic-and-the-fallen-star/ Solid 8.3/10
15Nujabes
Metaphorical Music

Mario Kart 8 DLC waves 1+2:

Maybe it’s a bit premature to be talking about the MK8 dlc courses, but so far the quality has been incredibly high. A bit of a stutter with the first 8 released tracks, but some gold among them (Shroom Ridge, Paris Promenade, Ninja Hideaway, Coconut Mall), but the second wave brought the heat (Waluligi Pinball, Kalimari Desert, Sydney Sprint, Mushroom Gorge, Snow Land). It’s such a treat to be getting more MK8 content. Nintendo seems poised to make MK8 into MK8 Ultimate, giving it the same treatment Smash got, and I’m all for it. There are still so many courses to come, I just hope they bring in some karts and characters from Tour. ATM an easy 8.9/10
16Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
Coming Out Of Their Shells

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Shredder’s Revenge:

Have not played yet.
17The Haxan Cloak
Midsommar (Original Score)

Cult of the Lamb:

Have not played yet. (High on my list).
18Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra
Kirby 25th Anniversary Orchestra Concert

Kirby & the Forgotten Lands:

Have not played yet.
19The Caretaker
Everywhere at the End of Time

The Stanley Parable Ultimate Deluxe:

Have not played yet.
20Evildead
Annihilation of Civilization

Evil Dead the Game:

Have not played yet. Doubt it’s gonna be a DBD killer, but I’ve heard great things.
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