Consoles / Gaming / PC / Playstation

Games Played 2019

Izlain

I wrote a post at the tail end of 2018 reviewing the games I played and compiling a list of completed titles from throughout the year. Since I’m trying to get back into the full swing of things on the blog here, I thought it being 2020, I should look back on what I did throughout 2019. According to the last post of this type, I had started a fair binge of backlog titles and was completing them left and right. I know that I played less of single player games over the course of 2019, as Playstation did a yearly wrap up with some cool stats to look back on, and I spent the majority of my gaming hours on that platform playing Apex Legends.

If you click on the link in that post, you can check out your own stats. It was interesting to see how I spent my time, how many trophies were earned and how many games I played. What was a little confusing was seeing the sheer amount of hours played though, which I know can’t be accurate. I think it’s just accumulating time based on when the console is turned on, because my girl would watch a lot of streaming services and that would help to account for over 2000 hours of play time. Anyway, given the fact that I know I didn’t play nearly as many games on my PC throughout the year I think it’s safe to say that I completed less, but let’s go through it and see.

January:

In January I had recently moved back to my home town after a nearly 5 year absence. It wasn’t the ideal situation but it was less money out of our pockets and an opportunity to get closer to where we wanted to be in life. I started back at the casino I worked at years ago, and things settled into a new routine. I was able to spend more time with my best friend whom I had left behind for a few years, and as such time was spent at his house playing games, along with playing together online more often. He had purchased a copy of Soul Calibur VI which is a series that we had enjoyed playing together for many iterations. It’s not exactly the type of game you beat though, so it’s just something we played for a time. I also picked up the Civilization VI expansion Rise & Fall, and played through the campaign once again to see the changes. I had purchased a copy of Call of Duty Black Ops 4 for my son for Christmas the month before, and because he wasn’t playing it very much I decided to give it a whirl. I found it underwhelming, as CoD has been for a number of years, but still spent a little time with it during the month. Lastly, I continued to pick up and play new mobile titles, and the one I spent some time with in January was Looney Tunes: World of Mayhem. It stayed in the rotation for a while but I eventually tired of it.

Feburary:

In February, one of my favorite games of all time released a remade edition: Resident Evil 2. I managed to grab a copy as it released and played through both Leon and Claire’s campaigns rather quickly. That was how I spent the majority of the month, but it was also the month when Apex Legends was released, and I started playing that pretty regularly with my best friend and others. At this point I’ve put a ton of hours into it but again it’s not the kind of game you complete. Recently they unlocked the level cap (previously 100) and I have still yet to reach the original cap but with the battle passes released every few months, regular special game modes and new Legends added there’s always a new reason to continue to play.

March:

March saw the release of the final episode of TellTale’s Walking Dead Final Season. As such, I played through that and crossed another game off of the list. I was happy that Skybound Entertainment picked up the game and finished it off, but it sort of marked the end of TellTale’s legacy and I doubt there will be more games like it anytime soon unless someone else picks up the mantle. Through the rest of the month I was struggling with what to play next, running a poll to see what I should play. I eventually settled on picking Destiny 2 back up, and started working my way towards the Forsaken expansion that has been out for a few months at that point.

April:

April was the month of Destiny 2. I picked up where I had left off in the base game, and then started in on the expansions. I completed The Curse of Osiris shortly thereafter. Next up was running through Warmind, and that done was within a couple of weeks. I really didn’t play much of anything else throughout the month.

May:

World War Z came out of nowhere in May. It was a game that was compared to older titles like Left 4 Dead, so I knew it was the kind of gameplay I would enjoy. It has since seen some big patches adding new difficulties and modes and overall it’s a damn fine game. I moved into the Forsaken expansion during the month as well.

June:

When June rolled around, I had pretty much called it quits with Destiny 2. I like this style of game but I can’t be assed to do all of the end game shit. I picked up another mobile game called Warriors of Waterdeep and though it appealed to me for a while I didn’t play it for that long. Dauntless, a game compared to Monster Hunter was released for PS4 for free, so I checked that out, and just like Monster Hunter I didn’t really care for it. However, a game I had been looking forward to for a while released, and I played Crash Team Racing: Nitro Fueled quite a bit through the summer. It too has had several patches and events and even a battle pass style progression system but all of it was added for free. It’s a great cart racer and ulitmately I feel it’s better than any Mario Kart that’s been released to date.

July:

A new style of game started to bust onto the scene last summer. The Auto Chess or Auto Battler genre came into popularity (or at least hit my radar) with DOTA Underlords. I tried it out but due to the fact that I didn’t have any attachment to the characters, it was a lot of Greek to me. One of the Playstation Plus games for July was Detroit: Become Human, which also included a copy of the company’s earlier game, Heavy Rain. I honestly wasn’t even interested, but once I started playing it, I binged it to completion in just a couple of days. I picked up a couple of other console games on sale that month, and though I didn’t play much of the Castlevania Collection, I’m happy to have it. I also grabbed Dragon’s Crown Pro, which was a slightly upgraded version of the PS3 game that I had completed a few years back. I played through it again and still enjoyed it. Lastly, another mobile title from Nintendo hit the Google Play Store, and I checked out Dr. Mario World. It didn’t hold my attention though, as most mobile games tend to do.

August:

The blogging challenge Blaugust popped back up this year, and I once again participated. It seems I spend more time writing opinion pieces and about MTG rather than gaming, but there were some tidbits in there to share. Riot Games decided to get in on the Auto Chess genre and because I am more familiar with/fond of League of Legends, I thought it might actually appeal to me. It turns out that I’m just not into the thought of setting up some options and then watching a game play itself for me, but I will say that I preferred Teamfight Tactics to the DOTA version. Another game I had been looking forward to, Wolfenstein: Youngblood released and I got a copy. I played it for a few hours but never finished it. Unfortunately it wasn’t so much like the prior Wolfenstein games, and ultimately fell short. I think if I had a dedicated co-op partner for the game it would have been more enjoyable, but it is what it is. Lastly, we knew that Borderlands 3 would be releasing in the next month, and a new DLC was released for Borderlands 2. Commander Lilith and the Fight for Sanctuary ended up being a short and sweet romp that filled in some of the story gaps between where BL2 ended and where BL3 would pick up.

September:

My will to blog started to trail off come September. Blaugust was a slog last year, and though I was successful in posting all 31 days of August, I was burnt out at the end. The only game I wrote about during the month was Heavy Rain, and I did manage to complete it. I enjoyed it nearly as much as Detroit: Become Human, but it was obviously an older game so there were some quirks that were not as enjoyable.

October:

I discovered that another game made by the same company as Detroit: Become Human and Heavy Rain (which was released between the two) was in my library (given away with Playstation Plus at another time). I tried out Beyond: Two Souls but found that I didn’t enjoy it at all in comparison to the other games from Quantic Dream. Apex Legends proceeded into Season 3, and that would turn out to be what I would play the most of for the rest of the year. Also, I picked up my copy of Borderlands 3 and also convinced my best friend to get it. We started playing it pretty regularly through the month but have yet to complete the main campaign. We’ll get around to it eventually.

November:

In November I didn’t post about gaming at all. I spent the month celebrating my birthday and I’m pretty sure I was only playing Apex Legends. My gaming started to taper off and as a result so did my blogging. I wrote about football, and then eventually disappeared for a while.

December:

I officially announced my hiatus but it had already been a pretty slow month. I was busy trying to get a new place for my family and ended up doing so. I officially came back from hiatus a few days ago, so I now have more to talk about. I did play Jedi: Fallen Order through the month but I ended up not completing it until January, so that will have to be counted on next year’s list.

Games Completed 2019:

Resident Evil 2
The Walking Dead: Final Season
Destiny 2 base game
Curse of Osiris Expansion
Warmind Expansion
Detroit: Become Human
Commander Lilith and the Fight for Sanctuary Expansion
Heavy Rain

As I suspected, my count for games completed is down quite a bit from years prior. Most of this is just DLC expansions that I’m counting as completed. However, it was still a pretty good year for gaming and 2020 has already started off well. We now know that the Final Fantasy VII remake is coming in March, as is the next DOOM title. A Resident Evil 3 remake is also coming, and that’s the only game in the series I haven’t finished so I’m looking forward to that. We’ll check back in come the end of the year and see if I did better.