Fuck me, was that only a year? A terrible twelve months but with some glimpses of hope at the end with a vaccine slowly rolling out across the UK. There were two ways I could write this end of year round up, with or without the virus. Looking online a few people are opting for the latter, wisely surmising that everyone does not want another reminder of how shit life has been. Sadly though it’s had such an impact, changing pretty much everything that I have to round up the year through the prism of Coronavirus.
Everyone has found it tough and tried to cope in their own way. As the year has dragged on I have found myself gaming less and barely writing at all. Neither can be blamed on a lack of new games or running out of ideas. It’s the social interactions that spur me on, particularly in person whether at the office or the pub. Hearing someone's enthusiasm for a new game or a challenge they have seen online always pushes me on. It’s never really the same via Whatsapp, though watching my friends Twitch streams is drawing me into the Soulslike world.
Just getting through the weeks (which have absolutely raced by) has been enough. The year’s end is good for taking stock and though I don’t do resolutions it's a good time to try and set some achievable aims for the coming year.
With that in mind let’s take the plunge and start with the worst first.
Pandemic
Ugh. Fuck you COVID. For all the deaths, suffering and job losses. It’s one of the biggest events to hit humanity ever and I don't want to come across as flippant in this article. We hear the new case numbers, lockdown changes, company closures every day. It’s hard having that relentless (but necessary) information all the time. Here I just want to look a little bit at the games industry has coped.
Making an office environment safe (particularly high rise skyscrapers) is an absolute nightmare with an airborne virus. The move to working from home was just as hard with huge amounts of equipment to be sent out and organising new ways of communicating effectively. Working from your home broadband instead of being on the company network will bring far more security issues and probably led to the increase in major leaks we saw this year.
Even once people were set up it takes far longer to actually make games. No longer could you just walk to another person's desk for their opinion or to query something. It was all online whenever they were about to see and respond to you. Most companies were very adverse to home working and so used more meetings to keep an eye on their employees. There are tonnes of digital monitoring tools as well though we have not heard nearly as much about those.
Homelife is hard for people, whether its trying to homeschool your kids, looking after a sick relative or just trying to figure out what the fuck our government was saying. Add those together along with working 8 hours a day and it’s a marvel how we all kept going. Games were delayed, a shit load of Nintendo Switches were sold. With shops closed in Lockdown 1 there was a huge increase in digital sales, Steam concurrent usage broke records. For all the problems caused, more people than ever were gaming.
Games Somehow Came Out
For all the disruption and longer wait times for things to happen we actually saw new stuff come out. Well in Nintendo’s case old stuff on a new console but it was mostly new to me! Working in the tech industry I have been one of the lucky ones with being able to work from the comfort of my home. It’s not easy mind, crappy internet speeds, tiny desk, semi decent laptop. Tonnes of technology littering my living room. I’m not complaining, just a far cry from the full blown office set up I was used to. Things take longer to do.
So it’s no surprise a bunch of games didn’t make their intended deadline of 2020 release. The biggest is probably Halo Infinite; though whether this was due to the push back from fans or whether it really couldn't ship in its current state is a moot point. Microsoft made the right call and years more work will probably do it the world of good.
Something that can also be said for Cyberpunk 2077, a game that was delayed several times and definitely should have been delayed again. Particularly for last gen. Having the Xbox Series X has meant that I have seen numerous bugs, though it’s still playable and enjoyable enough for me. It fucking sucks that they were not honest about the state of old gen and hopefully a few months down the line patches will make it playable.
I still cannot decide if 2020 was a classic year for gaming. Some of the games were huge. The Last of Us Part II, Doom Eternal, Final Fantasy VII remake, Resident Evil 3, Ghost of Tsushima. It was very much skewed towards Sony’s output particularly on next gen (more later). We got a new Microsoft Flight Simulator much to fans’ delight. VR was conquered by Half Life Alyx. There were delayed but decent sports titles in FIFA 21 and Football Manager 21. All signs of life recapturing some normality.
Nintendo broke the world by releasing the great (but not for me) Animal Crossing New Horizons just as people had to stay home. In fact when we look back at this year I think AC is the game that will stand out. Offering pure escapism, an idyllic safe island where you could see friends and family. A place you wanted to be. Even that title had been delayed to allay pressure on the people working on it, a decision that seems to have be paid off multiple times over. Over 20 million sales is incredible!
As always it was about the indies for me, with the bonkers Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout blowing up the internet closely followed by the whodunit Among Us. Spiritfarer was a gorgeous title, having you transport the souls of the soon to be gone on a big boat that you upgraded and farmed on. Of course I say these titles but miss out on my favourite Hades. The hack and slash roguelike was utterly charming, funny and brilliant. I’ve got a review coming but if you have a decent PC or a Nintendo Switch this is well worth picking up.
In fact it’s brilliant that teams were still able to pull together and put out a decent product (in most cases). Shiny and new is not always the best thing, why go for the big expensive new game when you can buy a stone cold classic like the Witcher 3 for dirt cheap? Having new stuff come out gives us something to look forward to, we need these small milestones to get us through the days, weeks and months. This winter is looking the bleakest time of this pandemic so far, not just in Britain but across the world. Knowing games like Sports Story, Breath of the Wild 2, Halo Infinite are coming gives me hope, which is in such short supply.
New Consoles
2020. The year of next gen! Or is that current gen now? It took so fucking long to find out the two important details we needed. The price and release date. It was a year ago Microsoft announced it’s Series X console for it to be later leaked about the lower cost Series S coming as well. There was a brinkmanship about who was going to jump the gun and announce first. In the end the top models achieved price parity and released within a fortnight of each other.
It all felt pretty pointless delaying and waiting but both announcements were pretty good. Reviews for both were stellar which was a good sign for the industry. Getting my hands on a Series X was great and I have played the hell out of it since. An upgrade in every way over last gen. I was one of the lucky few as, sadly, console numbers were very low. It’s to be expected on launch especially in a COVID year but many people were disappointed as it was basically sold out until the end of the year and even now is scarce.
In fact the pre-order debacle can only be described as a shit show. Just trying to find any of the consoles was hard enough with huge queues online. Scalpers exacerbated the issue, particularly with huge mark-ups on eBay right after. Absolute bastards. Cancelled orders, customers receiving bags of rice instead of a console, it seemed like every company was fucking up and blowing all the goodwill we had. You would hope they will learn lessons from all this.
Even once we got the consoles there was confusion over features. Which games were backwards compatible, quick resume being a bit flaky, PlayStation installing the wrong version of the game. Mistakes are always going to be made but it felt a far rockier launch than it needed to be.
And of course barely any games. At least Sony offered Spiderman Miles Morales and Demon Souls. An extended DLC and a remake. Microsoft had (the rather good) Gears Tactics which had been out on PC for months. In fairness there were enough older games to go back and play on far more powerful hardware to soften the blow. It’s easy with hindsight but maybe both companies should have waited until Spring 2021 to iron out the kinks, get more games ready and have decent hardware numbers at the ready.
Saying that it almost feels like normal times, which is a strange thing to say. Two major launches for next gen in the space of two weeks, before Christmas? I am amazed they managed it.
Comfort In Classics
Much like everyone in the UK I was absolutely blindsided by the Tier 4 rules, upending my travel plans and forcing a rewrite of my now usual Christmas. It was a huge blow and I have seemed to have made it through most of the stages of grief. After 3 months of tonnes of new releases none have helped me as much as slipping back into old classics. It’s felt like we needed an escape all year but even more so now.
Of course I picked up the new Football Manager 21 but it’s in FM19 and starting with the majorly fucked Sunderland that I have really begun to relax. I am barely holding the team together but going through the motions is far more comforting than the jarring learning curve of new functionality. Getting them to the Championship (though the expectation) felt amazing to achieve, particularly the comfort of that UI and tactics feels great! I will eventually bite the bullet and move on but it got me through!
Mario Galaxy has been getting another run out, those delightful planetoid levels bringing back so many memories from a Christmas past. The Pokémon Sword & Shield DLC has so many shiny Legendaries for me to hunt down (Lunala you look amazing). The mechanical march of Satisfactory called to me as well, those last tiers (and new updates) were a must over the Christmas period.
There is nothing like a new update to try out and explore on a classic game you have spent dozens of hours in. Stardew Valley got itself a timely update on PC, with the huge 1.5 patch to bring all sorts of lovely endgame fun. Nothing like losing an evening to the video game version of crack! Hell there’s even a new Beach farm for those crazy people who don’t like sprinklers.
Though the glut of winter has presented a lot of us with far too many new games a lot of people have been going back to what they know and love. Hell even the big companies actively encouraged this with backwards compatibility on the new hardware. We have a long couple of months ahead so finding solace in Animal Crossing or another Dark Souls playthrough is a wise plan.
Everyone has their own way of coping with things, whether it's a classic book or just taking many long walks but old games managed to help me. The pressure some of us feel to do more, to learn and push on especially with more time on our hands is rubbish. We should delve into whatever keeps us going in the dark moments and strive for more during the good.
I’ve missed off a million things but thankfully like 2020 I have to end somewhere. As we get through hopefully the worst of things we can turn to something called hope. Hope for new exciting games! Breath of the Wild 2, Far Cry 6, Halo Infinite, Deathloop, Diablo 4... 2021 could turn out to the best year ever when it comes to new releases in a calendar year.
As I've said I'm really not one for resolutions and I know people like reflecting on their lives this time of year. Usually I think its bollocks but with the unrelenting sameness of COVID I better use this break to fix what's not working. Top of the list is playing more games, mainly to make use of my ridiculous library and find new stories that I love. I can't keep playing the same old shit forever. Very easy to fall into a rut (damn you Football Manager 19 and Pokémon Shield).
So I will be starting a plan to play a new game a week, building in new releases in the coming months of lockdown. Monster Hunter Rise being the prime candidate. From this emphasis on new experiences I hope to be more inspired on the writing front. Moving to publishing every two weeks should give me some space to actually crack on during the good days. Any gentle external pressure would be appreciated!
I'm well set up and have plenty of things to look forward to. The big excitement for me is the Analogue Pocket, a modern Game Boy / Game Boy Advanced player that hooks up to the TV. Expect me to be gushing over that around April time! And Halo, new Pokémon, Zelda Etc are going to be brilliant.
Stay safe and let's hope for a better year.
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