Favorite games/series/whatever from the year

[Dragonker]

What did you like enough this year to actually remember? Be it series, games, WADs, movies, music albums, etc.

 

(It doesn't matter when it was released, just that YOU experienced it this year.)

 

Series:

1. The Loud House. The first three seasons are gold. Don't like the spinoff
2. Helluva Boss/Hazbin Hotel. How can something indie be so good? Great character development. Awaiting S1 finale
3. Arcane. Everything was top notch, a masterclass on how to make TV
4. JoJo's Bizzare Adventure. Watched season 4, 5, and currently on Stone Ocean

Manga:

1. Steel Ball Run & JoJolion. Great, but very contrasting parts. Steel Ball Run is more epic but the main duo always win thanks to asspulls. JoJolion's setting is more normal but the fights are fierce and much better explained (until the very end)

Games:

1. Persona 3 PSP. Incredible. Have to play the FeMC route
2. Your Turn to Die (Kimi ga Shine). Same thing as above, this indie Danganropa-like game is a gem
3. Cataclysm DDA. A terminal roguelike about surviving the zombie apocalypse and focused on crafting. Had fun but it's very very time consuming
4. DE: Ancient Gods I. Was okay and had good art

WADS:

1. Heartland. Played many but this's the top

Edited December 4, 2021 by Dragonker

[omx32x]

shin megami tensei (especially 4) and shadowrun dragonfall were some of the highlights of what i played this year

 

for shows i watched the whole avatar the last air bender and half of the legend of korra

 

i didnt interact with too much new stuff this year since i was broke for pretty much the entire year

 

Spoiler

i HAD to do it lol

 

[Dragonker]

10 minutes ago, omalefico32x said:

shin megami tensei (especially 4) and shadowrun dragonfall were some of the highlights of what i played this year

I played a little of Strange Journey (got to the second world) but am too casual haha

[omx32x]

Just now, Dragonker said:

I played a little of Strange Journey (got to the second world) but am too casual haha

honestly strange journey might be the hardest dungeon crowler jrpg out there and its definitively the hardest shin megami tensei

 

i recommend you give a try to smt 4 or 3

 

4 has the hardest start of all of the games but after the the 3rd boss it gets kinda easy

 

3 is very easy in the beggining... untill you meat the infamous matador as the 3rd boss that guy will break your legs if you ignore the buff mechanics

[Hawk of The Crystals]

For shows, I re-watched Berserk 97'. It's pretty great for only covering the first part of black swordsman and golden age.

 

Not a big manga fan unless it's re-reading berserk or fist of the north star, so nothing really in that department.

 

For games, I've been playing a lot of left 4 dead 2. It's pretty fun; in other news for games, I have also been on a Mega Man X binge, I've completed X1 through 4 currently, and I'm completely dreading X5 to X8, mainly since I think every game after X4 is kinda shit. In terms of games, that's all for this year.

 

Also played metroid dread, which was pretty ballin'.

 

No wads, was too lazy to find any new ones lmao.

Edited December 4, 2021 by Crystal-Hawk_D00M

[Mayomancer]

I've consumed very very few stuff that came out this year, but the ones i did and enjoyed were

Games: Nier: Replicant, RE Village

Manga: Even a Cat's paw can be useful, cheating a bit since this is from last year but Sousou no Frieren (this will make a great anime, mark my words)

Movies, Series, anime: -

 

Edited December 4, 2021 by Mayomancer

[Wavy]

I haven't played too many games that came out this year, but I'll still mention them:

• Quake EX:
  • An absolutely perfect remaster. The new/exclusive episode Dimension of the Machine stole the show for me, as it contained some of the best Quake maps ever designed.
• Doom Eternal: The Ancient Gods Part 1:
  • This DLC really kicked my ass. It's quite tough, but still really fun to chew through. Shout out to Andrew Hulshult for the awesome soundtrack.
• Super Mario 3D World + Bowsers Fury:
  • The Bowsers Fury campaign here was awesome. Nintendo should really use this a a template for the next mainline Mario game.

As for Doom WADs:

• Atmospheric Extinction:
  • I don't typically play much Doom WADs, but this one in particular caught my attention. If you havent played it, you really should.

[VoanHead]

1.Enter The Gungeon- After 27 consecutive failed runs, I managed to beat it again with the Marine (a few subtle DOOM references here and there in the game, surprised it's not listed on the doom wiki). On one of my failed runs, I also managed to unlock the Robot in the Forge. It's a neat little bullet hell rogue-like, keeps you on your toes.

 

2.Quake- I got to play Sinister 625, a map pack that's actually pretty alright all things considered. It's neat to see some mappers limit themselves and use the best that they can w/ their abilities.

 

3.Don't toy with me, Miss Nagatoro- Yes ik, anime... ew cringe. But in all seriousness, this was a rather unexpected anime that I liked that came out this year. I came in expecting to see a train wreck for the first 3 episodes, it's actually not that bad. People overhyped the "bullying". It's really just a girl who's bad at expressing her feelings to her crush. Glad to hear it's getting a season 2, b/c after watching I picked up on reading the manga. The two mc's of the anime get along better as time goes on, both have a healthy character development, and are slowly inching closer to being a couple, feels really natural, it's adorable.

 

4.Combined_Arms V2.0- A neat Doom mod that spices things up a bit. It's insanely fun and I recommend everyone to give it a try.

 

5.Kirby:Star Allies- I bought a Switch during Cyber-monday, everything arrived just yesterday. Played it for a good bit w/ my lil sis after work since I'm put in charge of looking after her, had fun even if it was a tad bit easy.

[TenenteZashu]

Games:

1- The Ancient Gods Pt. 2

2- Warhammer 40.000 BattleSector

3- Back 4 Blood

 

Since I don't watch series, anime nor I read manga I'll change it to music albums:

1- The Thirteen Years of Nero by Ex Deo, absolutely one of my favorite albums, especially for it's subject matter

2- Mark of Cain by UltraNightmare

3- Call of the Wild by Powerwolf

 

Wad:

Going Down (I know it's not from this year but still)

Edited December 4, 2021 by TenenteZashu

[Dragonker]

7 hours ago, VoanHead said:

3.Don't toy with me, Miss Nagatoro- Yes ik, anime... ew cringe. But in all seriousness, this was a rather unexpected anime that I liked that came out this year. I came in expecting to see a train wreck for the first 3 episodes, it's actually not that bad. People overhyped the "bullying". It's really just a girl who's bad at expressing her feelings to her crush. Glad to hear it's getting a season 2, b/c after watching I picked up on reading the manga. The two mc's of the anime get along better as time goes on, both have a healthy character development, and are slowly inching closer to being a couple, feels really natural, it's adorable.

Yeah, I read it too, and it's very good. When the manga first came out its tone was unexpected for me because, you see, Nagatoro first incarnation was back around 2011 or something (fakku hadn't sell its soul to the devil then) and it was an NSFW image set (no sex or anything like that however) about Nagatoro straight up punching and kicking her senpai (who didn't have a face yet) in a very violent manner.

5 hours ago, TenenteZashu said:

Since I don't watch series, anime nor I read manga I'll change it to music albums:

Nice idea, will add it to the main post.

Edited December 4, 2021 by Dragonker

[mrthejoshmon]

I have recently played Severed Steel on Steam and despite the fact I am shit at it I think it is one of the best games out this year.

 

It's basically all the joy of F.E.A.R's theatrical combat but with all of the effects and Kung-Fu notched up to 11, instead of dropkicking a dude you now do a flip over him, rob him of his sidearm and THEN dropkick him, all this happens in realtime but you also get slowmo to assist and make it look way cooler.

 

The great thing is that if you suck at it like me, there is a lot of accessibility options such as auto-slowmo and the like to make it easier on my monkey brain.

 

Hard recommend, under rated and under appreciated I reckon, oh and I really like the soundtrack.

 

-

 

Another one I dug into is the early access game Dread Templar, it's a very fun shooter that takes a lot of inspiration from your classics yada yada...

 

Dread Templar feels absolutely great to play, the fact you can find upgrades in secrets then spec your character to be widely different and unique (like, you want to spec for a fast long range shotgun or you want a murderous double barrel shotgun that gets more damage as you're surrounded? You want a bullet hose SMG or super accurate pistols?) makes exploration worth it. The enemies are distinct and memorable, you see one and you know exactly what it can do and how best to kill it. The rare platforming isn't a chore at all due to the great movement and most importantly the soundtrack absolutely kicks arse.

 

The only issue I have is that it isn't finished yet and I wanted more, voted for that shit as Indie Game Of the Year without second guessing myself.

 

-

 

As for games not released this year, I have found a couple I missed that were excellent:

 

Now I don't like Shmups, however I like ZeroRanger, ZeroRanger is an absolute blast to play and the soundtrack accompanying it is what actually got me to buy the game in the first place. A solid game that truly deserves more attention, keep in mind I never play shmups so this is high praise from me.

 

And for my last entry, I picked this up earlier this year and...

 

Wish I found it sooner is all I'm saying.

[Chopkinsca]

I'm old and I don't do new things. The only thing from this year that I experienced was Gojira's Fortitude album. I'm not complaining.

[BaileyTW]

Played a lot of stuff, relatively a lot I usually don't play a lot of stuff, that's new to me this year.

 

Got Morrowind. Pretty good, played it like nonstop for a few weeks when I got it. The setting is neat and I always liked the elder scrolls games i played, and Morrowind has been my favorite all around, jank and all.

 

Got Caves of Qud. An RPG (one might say roguelike since it has permadeath) in a weird setting. Sorta setting where the sci-fi future's apocalypse that set things to the stone age is ancient by the time of the game and you deal with things ancienter still. You can start as mutant growing more limbs which to put axes in as you level and cut an enemy's face off to wear on top of one of your many faces and this makes you better at giving people aneurysms by way of mental mutations but watch out cause being good at giving people aneurysms or melting people with your mind attracts people who do that just as good as you and don't like the competition. Or you can start a cyberized person with mechanical augmentations such as larger hands which to hold things. Good game, weird setting, turn off permadeath if that sort of thing stresses you out.

 

Been playing Cataclysm: Dark Days Ahead, in fact am playing it right now. A pretty in depth apocalypse survival game (again, is it a roguelike if it's just an rpg with permadeath, well this one's default is ASCII so yes). Mostly zombie, but you got some aliens and various abominations here and there. Gotta manage what you would expect out of the type of game, food, water, shelter, warmth, and the looting and crafting of that stuff while not getting deaded. Pretty funny how in depth dietary stuff is, with you being able to have vitamin deficiencies if you don't vary your diet but I think it helps with making sure you don't just eat the same stuff. Pretty early on you're crafting clubs from wood you beat out of furniture, or better stuff you might find in some basement. Later on you're installing bionics into yourself or mutating yourself to better slice into a car sized zombie with a greatsword you made yourself, or ramming your mobile fortress of a vehicle into them. Pretty fun, and its free.

 

Got into Doom this year around april. I mean played the Iwads before that the months prior but really got into it in april, and it's been my favorite game since. Think my favorite 3 wads have been Speed of Doom, Valient, and Scythe.

 

Other than games, haven't really seen much. Unless its been with friends, I just don't have the patience to get into series these days anymore.

[robocaco]

Games:

Elder Scrolls Oblivion

Quake

Ninja Five-O

What Remains of Edith Finch 

 

TV:

What We Do in the Shadows

 

Films:

Final Destination series

Suspiria

LA Confidential

Battle Royale

Cube

Edited December 8, 2021 by kin0agent

[Cruduxy Pegg]

My favorite games this year would probably annoy a lot of people lol. Same with the most disliked ones especially since a lot of them are in similar genres. Tried to avoid timeless games I will always like/hate.. Whatever here goes:

 

Favorites:

Pokemon Sword

Watchdogs Legion

Ion Maiden

Divinity Original Sin 2 / Coop entire campaign

Doom Eternal

Rimworld

Diablo 3 Ethereals season was hilarious

Warhammer 40k Dawn of War

AMID Evil

 

Lukewarm:

Deep Rock Galactic

Fable Anniversary

Space Hulk - Deathwing

Door Kickers

Necromunda Hired Gun

Eador Masters of the broken world

Project Zomboid although waiting the sound system remake before giving a serious try

Shadow Warrior remake

Surviving Mars

Valheim

Kingdom 1/2

 

Disliked:

AC Origin

Pathfinder both games

Quake 2 RTX - Finally finished this game for once, probably never touching again

Grim Dawn - got bored before getting to the expansion packs yet again

Prison Architect

Galactic Civs

Crusader Kings 2

Castle Crashers

[snapshot]

resident evil village, take re7, mix it with re4 and replace zombies/ganados/majini with vampires and werewolves in a snowy setting and less resource starvation and better shooting and you get village, lady d appears like only in the 1st quarter of the game and works sorta like the nemesis from 3 but she only appears in like the castle section and you get rid of her shortly afterwards.

 

deathloop, prey mooncrash meets dishonored in a 60s setting, with a time loop mechanic that resets the whole map on death and a lot more freedom than your typical arkane game, infinite power recharges, less emphasis on stealth and resource management and funny dialogues xd

 

necromunda hired gun, good mindless fun eurojank shooter with near useless parkour mechanics and rpg elements, entirely skippable story and forgettable characters, that lets you execute most of the enemies by just walking up to them and pressing E, great soundtrack, also fun to re-visit levels you've already completed to do side missions with different objectives.

Edited December 8, 2021 by sluggard

[Rudolph]

Masters of the Universe: Revelations was a pleasant surprise. Aside from She-Ra 2018, which I liked for the most part, I did not know much about the Masters of the Universe franchise and I was surprised by how accessible it was to a newcomer like me. It is doubly surprising that its showrunner is Kevin Smith, a man whose body of work I generally do not care much for. All in all, it was a solid show, with a tighter pace, more threatening villains and better action scenes than She-Ra 2018 - even though it lacked the unapologetically queer representation of the latter. I guess you cannot win them all...

 

Cobra Kai's Season Four was also quite good, although I am worried about the showrunners' intent to keep the show going for at least three more seasons. The third and final season of The Kominsky Method, however, was not so good. I mean, it is watchable, but it is not the same without Alan Arkin, Joel Haley Osment's character ended up going absolutely nowhere and the cheesy happy ending felt too forced. So disappointing. :(

 

As for video games, I have been on a Serious Sam binge: Bogus Detour is great, The Random Encounter had potential but was unfortunately half-baked and now I am fighting my way through Serious Sam 1, which can be really rough at times because of its design and engine quirks.

Edited February 3, 2022 by Rudolph

[scalliano]

TAG2

Metroid Dread

Returnal

R-Type Final 2

and not much else.

[hybridial]

In 2021, okay, let me see. Forgive me if I get something wrong in terms of when I may have experienced it, seriously the weeks and months have blurred so much for me and I'm not good at remembering such details at the best of times.

 

Movies:

 

Seven Samurai

The Lost Boys

Dr Sleep

The Psychic (7 Notes in Black)

Batman: The Long Halloween parts 1 and 2

 

Games:

 

Severed Steel

Hedon (I just finished Bloodrite yesterday but I did start playing in 2021)

Shin Megami Tensei V (I got a Switch for it)

Huntdown

Chicken Police (I know what it looks like but I had fun with it)

Resident Evil 8

Carrion

 

Albums:

 

Arbrynth -  A Place of Buried Light

Be'lakor - Coherence

Swallow the Sun - Moonflowers

Omnium Gatherum - Origin

In Mourning - The Bleeding Veil

Khemmis - Deceiver 

 

 

Edited February 3, 2022 by hybridial

[Rei is now real]

Movies: 

- Akira

- Blade Runner

- StrayDog: Kerberos Panzer Cops

 

Games:

- Payday 2

- Doom Eternal

- Megaman Zero/ZX Legacy collection

 

TV Shows:

- Neon Genesis Evangelion

- Cowboy Bebop

- Breaking Bad

 

WADs:

- AUGER;ZENITH

- Heartland

- Hellbound

[Scorpius]

Oh boy, where do I even start? I am assuming this thread is talking about 2021 and not the last two months so here goes!

 

Movies: 

Hercules - I finally saw this Disney film with my brother and it's genuinely one of the funniest Disney films.

The Last Samurai - Probably not that great of a film but it's definitely the most memorable film I saw last year.

Weathering With You - I loved Your Name and this was a no brainer. Definitely my favourite film last year.

 

Games: 
Life is Strange: Before the Storm - I haven't finished this game yet but it's already left a big impact on me.

The Last of Us Part II - controversial opinion but I think this game is great even though it took me over a year to beat. :/

Ghost of Tsushima - hands down the best game I played last year. No other game except Ori came close to exciting me.

 

Music:

Daughter - I discovered them thanks to Life is Strange and I can't stop listening to their music... just wow.

TK from Ling tosite sigure - I love his songs in Tokyo Ghoul (unravel and katharsis) as well as many others.

slen - kinda reminds me of Corpse Husband with the "hardcore" tracks, I listen to this music on a daily basis.

 

TV Shows: 

She-Ra and the Princesses of Power - awesome Netflix show akin to Avatar: the Last Airbender I think.

Castlevania - I think the series is great overall but each season finale is incredible (the last two episodes are godlike).

 

Manga:

Tokyo Ghoul - I LOVE this manga series and will always stay in my mind, hence the profile icon. :)

Tokyo Ghoul:re - I really enjoyed this sequel but I don't think this is not as good as the original imo.

 

I think that covers everything but I'll update if I can think of anything else. I didn't play any WADs last year... not sure why.

[esselfortium]

Anime:

Revue Starlight Movie - Everything I liked about the series, turned up to 20. Gloriously surrealist, beautiful to look at, and full of passion and catharsis.

Uma Musume Season 2 - Manages to turn its preposterously silly premise into one of the better sports dramas I've seen.

Odd Taxi - Great mystery story with tons of personality. The main character is a walrus.

Irina: The Vampire Cosmonaut - Irina and Lev were adorable together and it was enjoyable to root for them against the hardships they faced.

Yuru Camp Season 2 - I love comfy camping.

 

Manga:

The Demon Girl Next Door - The post-Madoka work no one is talking about, and the only one that took something other than "wow, cool suffering!" from its predecessor. Hoping that season 2 of the anime will find its audience.

 

Robert Pollard albums:

Boston Spaceships - Zero to 99 (2009) - The last remaining Boston Spaceships album that I hadn't heard yet, and it might be my new favorite of them. Best track: "A Good Circuitry Soldier"

Guided By Voices - It's Not Them. It Couldn't Be Them. It Is Them! (2021) - Lots of really strong peaks, only let down by a couple of weak tracks. Still great. Catchiest track: "My (Limited) Engagement"

Guided By Voices - Earth Man Blues (2021) - Pollard's formerly unused scraps are better than most other songwriters' hits. Best track: "How Can A Plumb Be Perfected?"

Cub Scout Bowling Pins - Heaven Beats Iowa (2021) - Music written after-the-fact over completely unaccompanied vocal tracks shouldn't work this well, but it does. Weirdest track: "Moon Camera"

[Rudolph]

1 hour ago, esselfortium said:

Guided By Voices

That name sounded familiar, so I googled it. So that is where Back to Saturn X's level names came from. I learned something new today! :D

[Remilia Scarlet]

Hmm... I was busy enough with WMC and other stuff that I don't think I discovered much new stuff this past year.  Or maybe it's just my failing memory ^_^;  But here's some stuff that was new (or new to me) that I really liked:

 

Series:

• Helluva Boss
• This documentary on Heaven's Gate
• Mindhunter
• A Youtube channel called Plainly Difficult

Music:

• Heathen Apostles
• Mechanical Soul by Front Line Assembly
• Revisited by Laibach
• The soundtrack for Valkyrie Densetsu

Movies:

• Furie (holy shit this movie was badass)
• Illang: The Wolf Brigade
• Godzilla vs Kong

Wads:

• Thatcher's Techbase
• gawrgura.wad

[The BMFG]

Movies And Series :

stanley kubricks full metal jacket was awesome and hilarious

detective nigbone. an series of gmod and sfm animations which sadly ended back in 2016. after the creator retired. if you like crude humor its an must watch

Games :

mortal kombat armageddon (which i have been playing on an ps2 emulator. trying to set up an actual ps2 rn buts its been very hard). smoke is extremely fun to play. hes my favorite fighter in the game

Maximum action which is an extremely fun indie game. its like over the top 80s action movies turned into a video game. a blast to play through.

saints row 2 which has been extremely fun to play through and fuck around in. one time i flipped a guy off and he started beating the shit out of me with an sledgehammer

[7Mahonin]

Despite the terrible way they sold and marketed the game, Hitman 3 is my choice. With H1 and H2 added it is a pretty large game. I had to turn off a lot of features to get it to how I like it, though. Damn do they handhold players way more here than they ever did in previous titles of this series, but overall it is a great game with a lot of varied locations. I still wish they had foreign voice actors in their native languages in the maps though. That was one neat thing about the older titles was they would speak the actual languages of the location you’re in. 
 

For movies I’d say Godzilla vs Kong. I loved how they did this film. 

Edited February 4, 2022 by 7Mahonin

[Sena]

WADs:

Auger Zenith, The Egg of Human Endeavour, Assembly Line, Zone 400, Killing Demons on Adrenaline.

 

Films/TV:
The Gentlemen, The Big O, John Adams.

 

Game:
Postal, didn't play any other new games last year, not that I really wanted to.

[DJVCardMaster]

I think is safe to say 2021 was the worst year for videogames in modern history. Resident Evil 8 and Metroid Dread were one of the only good games launched.

Edited February 4, 2022 by DJVCardMaster

[Rudolph]

16 hours ago, DJVCardMaster said:

I think is safe to say 2021 was the worst year for videogames in modern history.

I strongly doubt it is the case, but even if it really were the case, I do not think you can do much worse than 1983! :P

 

The only 2021 game I have played is The Long Dark's Episode Four and it was pretty good.

 

Edited February 4, 2022 by Rudolph

[hybridial]

A good Shin Megami Tensei game came out in 2021, that alone puts it above a lot of years for me.