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Soundoffs 108 News Articles 27 Band Edits + Tags 34 Album Edits 166
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| AA's 2018
I've had a pretty good year, but my media consumption has been rather scattered. I haven't kept on top of music as much as I usually do because I've also been dedicating a lot of time to games. This list is my top music and games this year. Not back on the site, just wanted a place to catalogue my thoughts. | 20 | | Necros Christos Domedon Doxomedon | 19 | | Voivod The Wake | 18 | | Malthusian Across Deaths | 17 | | The Mountain Goats Hex of Infinite Binding | 16 | | Thou Inconsolable | 15 | | Sophie Oil of Every Pearl's Un-Insides | 14 | | Vomitor Pestilent Death | 13 | | Jon Hopkins Singularity | 12 | | Hopesfall Arbiter | 11 | | Ataraxy Where All Hope Fades | 10 | | Iglooghost Steel Mogu
and the other one | 9 | | Mount Eerie Now Only | 8 | | Oneohtrix Point Never Age Of
Not as good as GoD, but still a winner. / Game: God of War. Uhhh, I don't really like this game much, but I didn't play that many new releases other than ports this year, and just replaying old favourites like the entirety of the Metal Gear series again. This game was a nice one-time "experience", but the poorly optimised combat and identity crisis made it difficult to stomach at times. Really needs some major improvements for the sequel. | 7 | | Tim Hecker Konoyo
I love hearing him adjust his sound with each new release. / Game: Bayonetta 1 and 2 for Switch. Two of the greatest character action games of all time in handheld glory. Bayonetta 3 can't come soon enough. | 6 | | Thou Magus
Classic. / Game: Pillars of Eternity 2. I don't enjoy it nearly as much as Pillars 1, but any Obsidian RPG is worth countless hours and I was lost in this game for a long time. | 5 | | Cultes des Ghoules Sinister
Kills. / Game: Bloodborne. I'm cheating because I played this for the first time this year, because I finally bought a PS4. It would be #1 but I don't want to be too cheap. Wonderful game, but has some grating design choices that feel like a step back from Dark Souls and Demon's Souls. | 4 | | Mark Kozelek Mark Kozelek
Might be my favourite Kozelek album rn. / Game: Red Dead Redemption 2. I hated this at first due to the horrible missions, but once I just played it as a relaxing hunting simulator and fashion outlet, it became a very engrossing experience. Still has terrible controls and the forced combat encounters are some of the worst in an action game ever. | 3 | | Toby Driver They Are the Shield
One of his best. / Game: Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. I haven't played a Smash Bros game since the original way back when, so getting a new one with such a massive roster to play and master for the first time in almost twenty years has been a wonderful experience for me. | 2 | | Tropical Fuck Storm A Laughing Death in Meatspace
Listened to almost as much as Hop Along this year. / Game: Dark Souls Remastered. Pretty average year for games, so a lot of my favourites are just re-releases and ports from other years. Playing Dark Souls again with some minor quality of life improvements on my Switch has been a lot of fun, and it remains one of my favourite games of all times. | 1 | | Hop Along Bark Your Head Off, Dog
AOTY. I listened to it more than anything else and I still listen to it consistently, at least once a week these days. / Game: Hollow Knight on Nintendo Switch. Bought this on PC when it was released and never played it. Bought it on Switch when it came out this year and was sucked in for fifty hours. Everything I want out of a Metroid-style game with an incredible soundtrack. | |
Astral Abortis
12.29.18 | average year for (new) games, really great year for music
some other games i played but didn't really have major praise for:
the messenger
death's gambit
fallout 76 (awful)
monster hunter world (generations port was better)
Still need to play:
Pathfinder kingmaker
Phantom doctrine
Jurassic park evolution
| budgie
12.29.18 | i really liked pillars 1 but man do i wish it had multiplayer | Astral Abortis
12.29.18 | Dunno how multiplayer would work in a iso rpg | Gyromania
12.29.18 | rly good list. i think you missed out on some great games this year, but your picks still rule - especially hollow knight. best metroidvania i've ever played. | Gyromania
12.29.18 | i think you'd dig celeste, and curse of the moon | Astral Abortis
12.29.18 | I bought curse of the moon but havent played it yet | Gyromania
12.29.18 | funnily enough, the games i played the most of this year was witcher 3 and xcom 2 | Astral Abortis
12.29.18 | Bloodborne and MGSV both stole about 200 hours each from me this year | Gyromania
12.29.18 | still have yet to play mgsv. i hear it's one of those games like breath of the wild where if you can dream it, you can do it.
one of my biggest problems with red dead 2 was its lack of player freedom in missions. every time i had a cool idea for how to complete a mission, like getting a vantage point on a target i had to take down and sniping them from a mile away, the game would give me the 'you failed' screen, because i was supposed to confront them and then shoot them instead. rockstar has such a linear approach to their games, they don't afford the player any creativity, you have to do it exactly how they want you to every step of the way and that drives me nuts. | Astral Abortis
12.29.18 | Yeah red dead really fuck up mission design which is annoying considering how free and open their worlds are. I want to love it more than i do, but its issues are too big to look past.
MGSV is a really brilliant sandbox of self imposed challenge runs and its impossibly fun, as long as you ignore its shortcomings in a wider view of the series. Its still not quite as crazy as MGS3 in terms of crazy shit you can do, but its pretty wacky regardless and controls like a dream | Gyromania
12.29.18 | i have mgsv on my ps4 courtesy of ps+, i should dl it. i've heard people complain about the story, but that kind of thing doesn't bother me so much as long as the gameplay is fun and offers a good amount of freedom. everyone raves over how many different ways you can approach missions, which more game developers should aspire to do. i was blown away by all the cool physics-related shit you can do in breath of the wild. | Astral Abortis
12.29.18 | I highly recommend it. Story will make no sense to you unless you're very intimately familiar with the MGS series anuway. Thankfully apart from the long intro setpiece, the rest of the game is relatively light on story and cutscenes so it's easy to ignore.
A lot of people say it gets repetitive but that's only bc they use the easy strats to cheese the game. If you want a lot of fun with the systems, I highly encourage developing all possible equipment and trying as many weird and fun strategies as possible. Replaying just one single mission a dozen times can yield so many different approaches. | Gyromania
12.29.18 | i really enjoyed snake eater back in the day (that's the one where you fight The End, right?) is there some recap vid or something you'd recommend i check out before playing the game? | Gyromania
12.29.18 | "Replaying just one single mission a dozen times can yield so many different approaches." this is what has me so interested in it. too many games these days have little to no replay value
btw, you should include movies in this list too. might as well, since you added games | Astral Abortis
12.29.18 | Yeah, Snake Eater is the one with The End. That's my fave MGS game, it's brilliant.
I don't know any individual vids for a recap, but there are quite a few on Youtube that I've seem while scrolling. I even think the game itself has a written story recap in the menu but don't quote me on that.
Idk when you'll play so just write this down somewhere, when you get in game, turn OFF 'reflex mode'. It's a bad gameplay crutch that kills fun. | Astral Abortis
12.29.18 | I was gonna add books, but i couldnt be bothered remembering what ive read. I dont watch many movies sadly | Gyromania
12.29.18 | cool, thanks for the tip. and yeah, snake eater was so good. i loved that you could change the date settings on your console and reload the game to find the final boss dead. i thought that was hilarious. i didn't opt for that route at first, but it was crazy that the game had so many solutions to win that fight | Astral Abortis
12.29.18 | I almost exclusively only watch 70s and 80s horror flicks | budgie
12.29.18 | "Dunno how multiplayer would work in a iso rpg"
never heard of baldur's gate or icewind dale? | JohnnyoftheWell
12.29.18 | The Automobile Association sure had a 2018 | Astral Abortis
12.30.18 | I have budg, and played them both extensively, but never played them multiplayer or looked into it | Astral Abortis
12.30.18 | Ohhhh right its just like regular gameplay but you all play together. I would go back and try that if i had any friends who played those games | rage11111ro
01.29.21 | 16,6and 5 rule |
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