2023: Gomit's Bleepblooper Highlights

Apparently in 2023 I have played 119 Games. That's something. Lots of em were peak so good on me ๐Ÿ˜Œ
Here's a narrowed down list of gaming highlights for me to just slam some words on tha WorldWideWeb. (spoiler-free and in no particular order)

I'll probably try next year to write thoughts for every game ongoing throughout the year.

Anyway onto another gaming year.

On a personal note (yall can skip this I am just rambling now here):
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While my gaming has been peak I gotta say, yesteryear has been pretty bad for me. A lot of it has to be my own doing (I am my worst enemy) and thus, has put me in kind of a mental hole so to speak. Feeling so disconnected with myself and my identity and my purpose in everything left me stranded and depressed. With no things to hyper-focus on anymore I feel very head empty and, frankly speaking, suicidal. A sense of loneliness permeating throughout the entire year and I felt like there was no one I was able to relate to and or reach out to, filling that hole with mindless consumerism. Again, my fault - could have reached out and attempted to be, yknow, approachable but it's been hard this year my own brain is putting me into a headlock it and it sucks. Also gonna apologize for any situation I have made hella weird - I am afraid of silence and I do love me some self sabotaging, yet I assure everyone I am always attempting to be more normaler :). It have been trying to better myself in that regards these last weeks. I am better at interacting and reaching out from time to time, but in turn the whiplash and return to my hole gets stronger and stronger, so yeah its still hard. Why the fuck am I writing this weirdly personal stuff here onto boyslove.com? I dunno. Perhaps to close off a chapter, to leave this flop year behind. Hope next year ain't gonna break my knee caps or smth.


So yeah happy gaming everyone, stay slayin' and always strive to be a gamer - the non-derogatory kind.

Biggest Soul
Made my heart melt and opened my eyes on how many other games try but fail to replicate the essence of the game. Seriously, I felt like my entire perception of ABZU shatter after I played this.

Going "teehee" and kicking my feet in the air whenever I see another soul wander the sand dunes, as we lock eyes and throw bleeps and bloops at each other until our path organically diverge. wow.๐Ÿฅน
Favorite Fantasy Football League
Love betting on the best team of the league๐Ÿ˜Ž (the rules are bent for them to be the best and else the entire league doesn't work)

Supergiants Magnum Opus. Probably, I haven't played Hades yet, but I will go out on a whim and call it now. Jen Zee's (TIL (now) her name sounds like Gen Z (slay)) arting her soul out and my GAWD LAWD you can tell. The purgatory dwellers, the world they inhabit and the different narrative curve balls it throws every so often made every hour so engaging and worthwhile. The Nightwings, my beloved, my babies, I still miss yall.
Most Player-centric
It's kinda ugly, it's hella jank, but it's goated. The surrealistic concrete-walled eastern bloc city dwarfing and beckoning you to stand on it's tallest point is awesome! Playfully aware of it being a game too, it's tools so game-breaking its wonderful. Eerie, yet weirdly welcoming.
Most Slay Pizazz
Every description of what makes Ghost Trick so fantastic always just namedrops Shu Takumi and calls it a day, BUT NOT ME. Imma tell ya why this game is so goated
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it's because Shu Takumi is, tha GOAT
Coolest VN
Dark and visceral, like slowly enveloping into an open carcass as the buzzing of insects remain the last sound you hear - it's wonderful! And short! And made by the excellent (and good friend) Roxy! Play it if you havent!
Cool Bug World, Meh Gameplay I
No coherent or quippy thought can be made of this game so I will just ramble on a bit if y'all dont mind:
A game set on trying to delay the enjoyment of the game as late as humanly possible by locking moves and punishing you by the weirdest ass backwards ways possible. Game design going against the focus of Exploration by actively making it annoying/punishing if you fuck up while exploring or orientation (whyyy do I need to wear a charm to see myself in the map). A visually beautiful and dense game that sadly lacks clarity in that I cannot tell where the fuck I am. "I mean you are in an insect empire so I guess it makes sense?" Thoughts akin to these always hover over my head during every baffling decision, seeing and understanding the rationality of it, but also having to come to the terms that while interesting, they are not good executed! An insanely bloated game that keeps introducing x currency, y ability and z side boss when I just want to normally progress.
But besides all of these major issues, I cannot say that this game doesn't have soul dammit! The little critters with all their cute masks, a girliepop called Hornet beating ya ass DMC style, that "ahh, bapa nada" everytime you enter the shop, the last stag being your cutesy diegetic quick travel, enemy counter are well telegraphed and just fun! And that OST, ooo so good.
Through my 37 hour playthrough, I probably did not enjoy most it, but dammit it still think about the game from time to time.
Cool Bug World, Meh Gameplay II
And if I had a nickle for every time I played a game about bugs that I really had mixed feelings about, I would have two nickles. Which isn't a lot but it's weird that it happened twice.
Not much to say about Cocoon however. Absolutely gorgeous, almost surreal exploring these environments of strong colors, contours and shapes. Was genuinely taken aback by how... formulaic and cut-dry it was? Like it's just a puzzle platformer with very flowcharty solutions. It keeps this very sober and safe to it's detriment, making the majority of the gameplay feel repetitive and derivative - keeping it's unique matryoshka gimmick, well, just a cute gimmick and not explored and challenged.
Also bosses? really?
Most Evil Benches
A daily reminder of how capitalism and the government hates the poor.
It also has an interactive website version which is hella awesome so check it.
Best Game I suck ass at
I played Moai Doo-Wop 2 during a very depressive episode and I thought I was about to end it all.
Best Shader House
The tiny sparkler that reaps oo's and aah's with ease and confidence. Big fan of tha shader wizard @ompuco and they ain't afraid to flex their muscles. What a short, emotional beauty.
Most grunchy snapshot
Past it's filthy odor, it's quite disgusting misogyny and cheesy quips and one-liners, lies at it's core a noided up, hyper condense slice of a "reaching the keedz"-market research verdict of a bygone era. I do adore it lol, how fun! Now, PansyDragoonSaga's review already captures the nucleus and vibes of the game so perfectly that regurgitating it here is useless so I'll mostly leave it at that.
Absolutely fruitless to compare it to the Mainline Capcoms, as DMC is just a pent-up, angsty teen that tries to act cooler and better than it's role model and you know what, aye yes Edgy Dante go be a bitch girlie
Biggest Time-Sink
Haha I will grind and steal Maradona's PB and it will be so funny. Will only take an hour or so ๐Ÿค”(<----me, a clueless baffoon)

I still have the WR :D
Coolest Techwiz
Utterly gobsmacked, completely blew away my perception of what is possible in a WAD. A deliciously creepy experience that keeps on giving the deeper it goes.
Best Half-Life Experience
Felt the least gimmicky (minus that fuck-ass strider attack level at the end hoooly) of all Half Lifes and the one with the least case of a mushy-middle, so it's by default the best lmao.

Strong setpieces, the best set of enviroments (a strong contrast of City 17's decrepit repeating hallways and pavement roads of Episode 1) and the introduction of the new enemy-type is embedded so well into the gameplay, it's wonderful!

Sure, it still shares a lot of issues with HL2 in general (weak gunplay, weird messiah plot in particular) that definitely turn more sour if you compare it to Half Life 1. But why would you compare it to Half Life 1, honestly. They're in the same franchise only by name and recurring characters, seriously.
Coolest Brain Tinkerer
Finishing the main game is like climbing a steep mountain and upon reaching the supposed mountain top, the mist slowly dissipates and reveals an even taller, more demanding mountain-top. (A tear rolled down my cheek once I realized that I basically just finished a glorified tutorial).
A devilishly smart, 100%-giving, almost fatiguing puzzler that keeps on exercising and expanding the possibilities of it's logic-word-block mechanics to it's absolute limits. While the more meta and matryoshka-esque puzzles at the ladder half left me spinning my head and forfeiting, this is just so damn cool nontheless.

๐—•๐—ฎ๐—ฏ๐—ฎ ๐—ถ๐˜€ ๐—ฐ๐—ผ๐—ผ๐—น
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๐—›๐—ฎ๐—ฟ๐—ฑ
My other Ball to my Chain
CSGO was a game that I was completely engulfed by during the heights of the COVID Pandemic. During that lockdown and online schooling - my life primarily involved just this game. A dark period mentally and identity-wise and marked a personal turning-point in my life that I solidified by never opening that game ever again.
Years have passed and Valve pooped out a stripped-out pwetty Source 2 Version of Counter Strike and, the hell, why not? It's technically not CSGO, but CS2, lol, let's play it again.
That boot up into the first comp, I could feel the cogs and machinery laid dormant inside my brain slowly tick and heat back to life and just like that it all came flooding back: The lineups, the callouts and strategies, the aim... the community. A blink and you miss it moment. And whoops, it is now my highest played game of the year according to Steam Recap. Had some strong peaks with such a large friend-group to play together with, but came crushing back down with the slow mental drain it put on me, as it felt like I was regressing to a self that I did not want to identity myself anymore. Didn't really help that I am not doing well mentally in general, but whateva.

I still think the game is good, no other game has quite mastered the visceral player feedback in shooting and getting a kill or a headshot quite like Counter Strike and playing comp with premates still feels so effortlessly satisfying and perfect game-design wise that it's hard to have to put this game away cuz I cannot look at it without it looking back at me.
Best "Absolutely seething yet again I have not played any Katamari when I was younger this would have rocked my world" Experience
More Katamari is always welcomed. Never reaches the heights of Katamari Damacy and the game knows - it being so self-aware of Katamari Damacy and of itself being a sequel and thereby self-indulgently injecting just a bajillion collectibles and levels with quirks and kicks just for the sake of appeasing the mantra of "You Gotta Do Something!" is just mwah. very delicious, very gewd.
Best Energizer
Hi-Fi Rush's genuine excitement over every facet of itself coupled with its electrifying energy, vibes and its sparkly visuals is so enthralling to experience, it's hard not to like it. Every beat echoing through it's enemies and enviroments to its UI, isso gewd. A sparkling comet surprise that blessed us with a rad USP (rhythmic character action gameplay) that, more suprisingly, works well and is just hella fun! Luv it!
Favorite Mutant Creator
I really enjoyed the story mode's janky mishmash of PlayStation Home-like vibes tied together under a fighting game mistletoe and using my Baki-esque abomination to beat up some cops.
Goated game
Favorite Spectating Experience
Playing it over the course of 1-2 nights at my place with 3 friends, huddled together on the couch, invested and contemplating over every decision by committee, was so engaging and fun! Essentially just a group horror watch-along, but more interactive! Kind of impressive that it took Supermassive that long to basically just do Until Dawn 2 and, to the surprise of no one, worked out wonderfully! Isn't quite the perfect full package as Until Dawn (the ending is rushed and flat), but it's visuals and character setups were so good and just much better realized than in their Dark Pictures Anthology stash. Really hope they don't default to Dark Pictures after this.

Addendum: I just realized that they got their hands full with Little Nightmares III (weird) and that Dead by Deadlight tie-in game (smart business-wise, dunno how it'll be quality wise), so I suppose they got their hands full, not really happy with what :(.
Most varied Platformer
I don't know if segmenting a level into 2 segments (pre-flower, in flower) and always keeping you in your feet with altering twists, quirks and adjustments is either
A: A direct response of a post-Tiktok, attention-span sapped generation where the game is pretty much just jingling their car keys in front of you to keep you playing or
B: A push to add spice into the hyper formulaic pillars of a 2D Mario.
Whatever the case may be, the diversity allows me to see more cool visuals on the screen and the visuals are fantastic so yeah. issa good Mario game!
Biggest Guilty Pleasure
I know it has no sauce. But I love it. It's got that addicting sense of speed, inoffensive gameplay and enough shit on screen to keep me occupied for my podcasts to do their thing. My very own personal tiktok gameplay backdrop and I will defend this game for everything it got. It will be sad to see this get shut down in a year for a lack of player count, but until then I will enjoy my shitty greasy burger with a smile.
Smartest Game of 2023
Big Shoutout to StuffedWombat for making a system-driven, accessible and non-committal game that I can play for my weekly immersive sim fix. My, it's just so elegant: A sandbox with a randomized toolset, where everything goes and is expected to be used, since issa game yknow? Love that kind of shit. So good.
Biggest Surprise of 2023
Made me strongly contemplate my cultural spot in life and my relationship with my family, almost to the point of rekindling the latter until I remember all the terrible shit they did.
Fortnite - A brisk rewind
Chapter 4 S1
Lumen Sluts rise up!!! What a strong start with a goated battlepass and some really memorable mechanics and POIs. I 'member just cruising around with the bike for hours on end.
Chapter 4 S2
Fun, but MEGA City? More like... แตแต‰แตแตƒ แตƒหขหข. Why cluster every new POI into one corner?
Chapter 4 S3
Peak. My mud-covered ass killing you by sliding towards you from half the map at 150km/h.
Chapter 4 S4
Heist? the only thing Fortnite is robbing is my UX (please give me my Menu UI back I promise I will behave)
OG Season
Beginning of the Season felt like I got a game called "Fortnite.exe" from a long and forgotten friend which said "DO NOT OPEN". By the end of the season it was manic, varied and just so fun.
Chapter 5 S1
Oh this is just Warzone's more whimsical cousin (I kill someone in 0.8 nanoseconds) - I love it. I just got Peter Griffin :)
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Thanky Fortnite for being here this shitty year and being my personal mind blender in life. Now onto the next year with your wonky, corp-hell Fortnite-verse. I still would do anything for a Hatsune Miku Collab.

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