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2019 was a stressful year, and my gaming activity - a relative decline from 2017 and 2018 - reflects that.

Especialy when considering how many of my 2019 posts were about demos: in 2017, demos accounted for 13% (10/78) of the games I played; in 2018, 8% (5/59); and in 2019, 22% (9/41).

I mean, maybe it's cool that I played more post-worthy demos last year, but less non-demos is a worrying trend.

My replay count was relatively stable, including both remasters and booting up older games.

  • Returning to Breath of the Wild was a blast -- its overall immersion and scope still impressed me, despite its flaws becoming clearer in retrospect.

  • Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Trilogy felt like a long-overdue return to Phoenix's original court stories, and has me hankering for even more high-definition Ace Attorney remasters.

  • Mark of the Ninja: Remastered is still a solid title, but didn't "wow" me like the original did, back in 2012-2013.

  • I hold many fond memories of The Saboteur, but, like Red Faction: Guerrilla, the game itself hasn't aged quite so well.

  • And Chrono Trigger is, ... well. Forget the throwaway gimmick endings, the jarring animated cutscenes, and the meaningless new dungeons; the original SNES game's core story is still precious.

Expansions and DLC were almost a non-issue in 2019:

The platforms I played on in 2019 were mostly unremarkable, with PC - like always - occupying the lion's share of my time. As for the rest:

My historic Xbox One usage has been staggeringly low, since its library overlaps so much with PC; last year's Crackdown 3 is in rare company. The game was overall competent and fun, but not very compelling and definitely not innovative. (With apologies to Terry Crews, who is undoubtedly the game's best new feature.)

My PS4 saw a bit more activity in 2019, but only just, with a disappointing stab at The Last Guardian and a fun-but-samey run through Marvel's Spider-Man. Like, it certainly wasn't bad, but came across too much like a re-skinned attempt to replace the Batman Arkham games.

Of course, I came back to the Switch for Zelda, and for Smash Bros. - which ... maybe I shouldn't have - plus some scattered Mario Party-ing. Again, Breath of the Wild is great, but that's not exactly news.

What's interesting on that chart isn't the sparse wasteland that is my non-PC gaming, but the spontaneous appearance of Netflix. And even though Black Mirror: Bandersnatch wasn't much more than a choose-your-own-adventure story, it was well-implemented! and maybe more importantly, a good story. I would love to see more games from this talent pool. (Can you imagine a Black Mirror episode in the style of an Ace Attorney game?)

Unfortunately, the total number of games that really knocked my socks off in 2019 was pretty low.

Of the year's five "Awesome" games, three were games I'd already played! (Breath of the Wild, the Phoenix Wright trilogy, and Chrono Trigger.)

The other two were ... huh, would you look at that:

I definitely didn't plan that trend. And I'd dispute that hacking/cyberpunk is a guarantee for "Awesome" given my distaste for NITE Team 4. (Nevertheless, Cyberpunk 2077 is a promising contender for the coming year.)

While I didn't play nearly as many "Awesome" games in 2019 as in previous years, there were still plenty of "Good" ones that provided fresh and entertaining experiences:

  • Hacknet, per above, did a great job of making a hacking game fun instead of getting lost in leaky abstractions.

  • Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night shared a few too many flaws with previous Igavanias, but was also a reminder of how much they got right.

  • Battle Chef Brigade used some low-quality ingredients, and its combat was undercooked, but the final dish was a surprisingly-satisfying mixture.

  • Hollow Knight was too hard for me, which is usually a big turn-off... but its aesthetic charm is difficult to resist. (I'll attempt it again in 2020! Promise!)

  • Open World Game: The Open World Game is legitimately one of the best open-world games I've played, in spite of being a joke about the genre.

  • Indivisible had some rough spots that got in its way, but impressed the hell out of me with its unique narrative, memorable environments, challenging platforming, and fun action gameplay.

  • The Sexy Brutale was a really satisfying and engaging mystery game, even if it could have used some more polish and complexity.

It's notable that two of these games (Bloodstained and Indivisible) were from the crop of crowdfunding-backed titles that I've been complaining about for years. Of that original list of eight games, four got released in 2018, and now two more in 2019.

That just leaves A.N.N.E., which plans to release this year -- of course, they've been saying that since 2014; and Factorio, which has also finally set a date, so. I guess we'll see what happens in 2020.

What else might the new year hold? I still don't know what to expect from Final Fantasy VII Remake, nor do I know how long I might have to wait for Cyberpunk 2077 to iron out its release-day bugs.

Meanwhile my backlog just keeps on growing, and I've got plenty to catch up on, even relatively recent hits like Dishonored 2, Red Dead Redemption 2, and ... Wolfenstein II.

So it would be awfully silly of me to drop another 150+ hours into a replay of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt. But I'll be damned if Dandelion Jaskier isn't making me consider it. Toss a coin to your witcher...