Games That I Own and Know I’ll Love, but Didn’t Make Time for in 2020

5) Maneater

It’s a damn shame that I haven’t gotten around to Maneater yet. Everything about it sounds up my alley. Goofy premise that sounds totally original from anything else I’ve played? Check. Ubisoft open-world design that I’ve dug in countless games before? Check. A comical tone to match its hilarious premise? Check. Plus, seeing that the developer, Tripwire Games, is also located around Atlanta, I feel obligated to support fellow ATLiens. But I just played too many other games this year. But, thanks to PlayStation Plus, I’ll finally give it a shot on PS5. Now I just have to figure out what to do with the PS4 copy that I picked up from Best Buy on Black Friday.

4) Hades

I’ve played a few hours of Hades, actually. I was pressured into picking it up by the entire internet, so I did so on the Epic Store. Then I realized I wasn’t very likely to play it on a big screen, so I later picked it up on Switch. There, I finally played enough of it to see the first substantial story beat. But then I fell off, probably because some other game came out that I was more excited about. It’s a shame though since the combat in the game played just as well as Baston, one of my favorite games, and Supergiant’s first title well before Hades. The story seems intriguing, but it is more than a little frustrating how it’s trickled out over several runs. I love roguelikes like Risk of Rain 2, but for as fun as the gameplay is, the pacing of the main narrative is dependent entirely on how much progress I make in the roguelike. And, as with many games in this genre, I die way too often for that pacing to feel satisfying. But hopefully, I’ll come back later and get better with some of the weapons, and now that I can transfer that Switch save to PC, maybe I’ll come back to the prettier version sometime in the future.

3) Bugsnax

I’ve mentioned way back in 2018 how much I loved Octodad: Dadliest Catch. I think the slapstick, cartoonish comedy blended so well with its surprisingly sincere narrative, and it’s still one of my favorite Vita games. So I was excited about Bugsnax when I first heard that damn song during the PS5 reveal, and even more so when I heard Young Horses was also behind the title. Instead of relying on physics to supply the humor for the game, which admittedly isn’t as novel now, they seem to rely more on the writing of the characters to bring the funny. And the variety of adorably personified edible products adds that endearing charm I loved so much from Octodad. The only reason I haven’t played it yet is that I only got a PS5 with 5 days left in 2020. I claimed it from PlayStation Plus weeks earlier, but since it wasn’t a cross-buy title if you claimed it for free, I had to wait until I finally acquired a system. So I will be getting around to it very soon, there are just plenty of other PS5 titles I’ve prioritized first. But I will get around to it soon, I have to see what that mysterious ending is all about.

2) Tell Me Why

Tell Me Why is an embarrassing addition to this list, especially considering both my love for the original Life is Strange and the other VGU Staff’s love of this game. I could have downloaded it through Game Pass at any time since release, but thanks to some questionable discourse around the game from queer and trans creators I follow, I decided to wait on it. But as time has gone one, the praise for this game has seemed to become more universal. I will be playing it this year, if not for my own love of DONTNOD, at least to see why my cohorts love it so much. I’ve gone out of my way to not learn too much about it, as my ignorance of Life is Strange helped my enjoyment of it greatly. And I’m sure by this time next year, I’ll be kicking myself for not playing it sooner.

1) Ghost of Tsushima

This is the most glaring omission from my Games of the Year list, and there are a number of reasons for its absence. Sucker Punch is one of my favorite developers, and one of my favorite franchises of all time is the inFAMOUS series. But while I love talking raccoons and electrically charged message couriers, I’ve never really cared about Samari fiction. I can’t list reasons why, but films from Akira Kurosawa have never interested me, nor have games like Onimusha. So, when my long drought of superpowered action games was met with a game about samurais, I was incredibly disappointed.

But I’ve spent the latter half of 2020 hearing how Ghost of Tsushima would probably tickle my fancy. I’ve heard how it pretty much perfects the Ubisoft-style open-world formula, a formula I’ve come to love in games like Assassin’s Creed Origins. I’ve heard how it’s one of the most beautiful games of the generation, and likely looks even better at 60FPS on my PS5. And I’ve heard how the gear grind in the Legends mode is just deep enough without asking for too many hours out of your life, which solves my issues with grinds in games like Destiny 2. So, I owe it to myself to play Ghosts of Tsushima. If I can get over my bitterness due to a lack of new inFAMOUS games, I think I’ll be in for a treat. But for now, I just need a little more time to heal my hardened heart.