The year started off a bit slow for me gaming wise. I think I was a bit burned out by it and mainly watched Netflix series, I rewatched Friends if I remember well. Then in Febuary the Civ VI expansion Gathering Storm came out. After watching a few marbozir videos, I decided to get it and it made me finally ejoy Civ VI. I had tried a few runs before, but never really grabbed me, it didn’t seem like a complete game. In my opinion Gathering Storm made it complete.
In may Total War: Three Kingdoms came out, it was nice, but I found the campaigns / games dragging on a little too long. Also sometimes you got into a stallmate of some kind and the game didn’t really go anywhere. It was cool to see a strategy game in the top 10 most played games for a few days or weeks though. And it is a very good game regardless of my gripes.
Anno 1800
Around the same time, by the end of April, one of my favourites for this year came out, the citybuilder / logistics game Anno 1800 by Ubisoft. I had a lot of fun with this game. The campaign was relatively short, though the story was decent. The sandbox mode is where it’s at. I usually disable the pirates too, since I don’t think the combat aspect is very good. It was more annoying than anything else to find your ships in ruins, because you overlooked a pirate attack.
The DLCs that came after the release, were nice as well, especially the first one Sunken Treasures. It gives you a very large new island in a new region to build on, and a vessel with a diving bell you can use to search for treasure. The second dlc, Botanica was a little underwhelming, bit short of content. The third one, the passage, was pretty big with a new region and a new story. Though I have to admit I haven’t played it much since I have the feeling I have pretty much seen and done most that the game has to offer. I have about 70hrs into it now. The first part of the game is the most fun part to me. Once you have eletricity and people that need it, you need to redesign your cities in order to be able to use the trains and move the oil to your power plant, which is pretty much a pain. All in all a great game and one of the best of the year for me.
Oxygen Not Included
The next game that really grabbed me came out in early access in August : Oxygen Not Included. I have a few hundred hours in the game now, and am still playing it as I write this (in early 2020). It’s just so much fun to see your little people (they’re called dupe, from duplicates in this game) go about their business and do their thing. The game is pretty hard to get into, much harder than the cartoony graphics suggest and has an amazing depth. Furthermore there are various meteors you can start on, creating different circumstances, and different challenges, giving it a very high re-playability. Definitely my most played game and my favourite game of the year.
What else
Other things I have played: The usual suspects, bit of Factorio, Eurotruck Sim 2 & now also American Truck sim, which is very enjoyable now as well, with more DLCs / states in the game. Dicey Dungeons, a card deck builder game that was released this year is quite entertaining as well, albeit for short bursts of time.
I started playing Warcraft again after a hiatus, around September. Which is still enjoyable, even though I do not like the latest expansion very much. Transport Fever 2 that came out in December is very nice. I have been playing that a lot since it came out. Of course I had some extra time to play around the holidays which was nice.
Disappointment
Planet Zoo was the biggest disappointment to be honest. Released way too early, really suffering from annoying bugs (my animals would randomly disappear or be packages up for no apparent reason, amongst others). And I had the feeling I was fighting the UI more than I was playing a game. It is a shame since it looks very nice and the setting is cool too.
Still to play
Total War: Warhammer 2 and all it’s DLCs. I still want to get into this game and the extra downloadable content it has to offer. I think I actually already own most of it. I haven’t bought Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order yet, but I might do that at some point when its on sale. It did look fun when I watched people stream the game. Outer Wilds (not to be confused with the RPG game The Outer Worlds) also seems very innovative and original. Definitely want to check that out either on PC or console.
Consoles
My PS4 seems to be collecting dust this past year. I did play a little PES2020, a football game and . I briefly considered playing Death Stranding but I am glad I let that pass.
The switch however I still use now and then, though not as much as I should. One game I put quite a few hours in, Dragonquest Builders II. Very fun, well made game, though by the third island (if you have played the game you probably know what I mean) I got a bit tired of it and quit playing. I might get back to it at some point and finish it. Octopath Traveler I also played for a bit, though I only made some progress with one character so far (there are eight, as you might have understood from the game’s name). And there were a few indie games I played and installed on the switch. It’s a very nice device to just relax with on the couch ;).
Conclusion
All in all a decent year for gaming without any really big blockbuster releases. Especially a good year for strategy / builder enthusiasts like me, quite a few good games in that respect to be enjoyed. I don’t really have anything big I am looking forward to in 2020 (no, not particularly interested in Cyberpunk), but I still have plenty to play and to keep me busy in 2020 !
