2021…. What a year. Our second year in a global pandemic and another year of ups and downs in life. I found myself playing a lot of comfort food games again (No Man’s Sky, Forza Horizon 4, Two Point Hospital) and I also found myself changing my gaming habits again. In the past 5 years I had fully embraced console gaming as I had missed out on a lot. But this year saw me gravitating (gyrating???) back towards PC gaming for the majority of my game playing. But the most important thing of all that is, we made it through, we played some games, and we had some fun.
So lets get on with my picks for my favorite games this year. As always remember these aren’t necessarily games that came out this year, just games that I played this year. So without further adieu here is my list of top 5 games I played this year.
Number 5
Death Stranding (PS4)
Death Stranding is Hideo Kojima’s first game from his studio after parting ways with Konami. It was released to polarizing reviews, but in the end players embraced this crazy endeavor. So when I try to describe Death Stranding to people I tell them you are a delivery person in this post apocalyptic world, vehicles are a scarce commodity due to a lack of resources, and you have a psychic baby strapped to your chest that helps detect ghost demons in this world. At this point people are usually wide eyed and asking if I am pulling their leg, and I gleefully tell them nope. Honestly thou Death Stranding felt like it was a game developed with me in mind, it has complicated sci fi ideas, a sprawling fantasy landscape, and tons of goofy off the wall humor. Honestly thou it was the game play loop that pulled me in the most, and that was being a delivery guy. The first 2/3’s of the game you do most of your delivering on foot with packages piled comically high on your back and you just wander this fantastical landscape between cities and outposts delivering their packages. There are lots of story elements in your interactions with all the people you do deliveries for and also some action in avoiding the main bad guys (BT’s) the ghosts that your psychic baby help you detect or the ravagers who are the humans whos only goal is to steal your cargo.
You play Death Stranding as Sam Porter Bridges (Norman Reedus) who as child had an experience with BT’s and now has a strange connection to their world which helps make him the best cargo carrier in all the land. Norman Reedus is just one of the many celebrities that Kojima was able to wrangle into his game, including Guillermo Del Toro, Lindsay Wagner, Mads Mikkelsen to name a few of the bigger stars. You do spend a lot of time going “Is that…??? no…??? wow!!!!”
I wanted to also mention how gorgeous this game is, the sprawling landscapes are detailed and unique and the motion capture of all the people in this game is top notch. Quite often I would find myself just stopping and moving the camera around to take in all the gorgeous surroundings.
Lastly I wanted to mention the goofy on the nose humor of the game, I know some people found it jarring and it took them out of the experience, I ate it up. From wacky names (Die-Hardman, Heartman, Deadman) to the social media interactions (get all those likes!!!) to the out there weapons (you use Pee and Poo grenades as some of your main weapons) I thought it was all a blast.
I know Death Stranding is not for everyone, so if I recommend it to people I ask them to keep an open mind and just have fun with it. I recently picked up the directors cut which is the expansion DLC and upgraded graphics and controls for PS5, which if I have as much fun with that as I did with the original game you may see this on my 2022 list.
Number 4
Hades (Switch)
Hades is a roguelike action dungeon crawler developed and published by Supergiant Games. Supergiant games is known for other games Bastion, Transistor, Pyre and now Hades. It really seems like they took everything they learned in these previous titles boiled it down and made one of the best roguelike games I have ever played. In the game you play Zagreus, the son of Hades, as he attempts to escape from the Underworld to reach Mount Olympus. Hades has great writing (the first video game to win a Hugo Award), top notch voice acting (literally every character in this game is fully voice acted), and tight smooth controls. I really don’t know what else I can say about this game to make you want to try it, every person I have recommended it to has enjoyed it, even if roguelikes are not their jam. If you are looking for a new game to try take a chance on Hades, you won’t be disappointed.
Number 3
Mario Golf: Super Rush
Honestly its times like these I am glad I do a video game podcast and I can look back at show notes and see what I played through out the year, because I nearly forgot about Mario Golf: Super Rush. This is the first console entry since Toadstool tour on the GameCube and the next entry after the excellent World Tour on the 3DS. So I do love me a good golf video game (Golf Story is amazing!!!) which is funny because I’ve only golfed like 2 times in real life. There is just something Zen about the game of golf and I definitely love playing it virtually. I think the reason I nearly forgot about this game is I played it so intensely when I got it (sunk 40+ hours in just over 2 weeks) and set it aside in hopes I could play it with some friends that it got forgotten about. Anyways this entry in the Mario Golf series is another winner, it has all the familiar controls and gameplay of most of the golf games along with the newly added feature of the super rush. The super rush is you and the people you are playing with racing between holes when a round is done. There are lots of antics that you can participate in the super rush that help you get ahead in the match, because not only are trying to get the best score, but you are trying to complete the round in the shortest time as well. Some matches even have tight time limits to help add to the frenzy. I thoroughly enjoyed the campaign mode too where I take my Mii character and level him up and buy cool new clubs to help in my matches. If you have enjoyed Mario Golf in the past this one will not disappoint.
Number 2
Valheim (PC)
Valheim is a survival and sandbox video game by the Swedish developer Iron Gate Studio. Valheim got its claws into me early in 2021, and it turned into a game I would play in many bursts throughout 2021. At first look this game might not look impressive with its almost PS2 era looking graphics, but then you are slammed by its amazing lighting and water effects that really add a unique polish to this game. The survival and building aspects of this game aren’t really revolutionary, and can feel a little clunky in the beginning but end up serving there purposes well. The one thing thou that really sets this game apart is its implementation and understanding of multi player games. So you can play a single player no problem, and even after you have been playing in this world for a while you can invite another friend to come play in your world, doesn’t sound special does it? The amazing part of this is the friend who comes over with his character can bring with him whatever he wants from their world to yours and vice versa. Anyone who has played any sort of co-op game knows this is a major rarity, and something I had never experienced before, it may happen in another game but I have never experienced it before. You are usually locked to the game session with that (those) character(s) and this freedom was amazing to experiment with. I had my main character I played and I took him to 2 different friends servers of different level and progression and was able to fill my bags and bring that stuff back to my world with no issue, this was mind blowing and so convenient.
Its worth mention the multi player options are extensive as well. The max number of players in a session right now is 10, but there are ways around that too. You can host a game where you open the session on your computer and people connect to that. you can also download the server software and host a separate server on another computer, there are some mods available that allow you to unlock the 10 player cap on the server software. Again this sort of flexibility is rarely seen in games of this type.
Valheim is currently in early access and the developer is constantly patching and expanding this game, including their huge content patch “Hearth and Home” which tweaked and added to the games already robust building system. So between the excellent gameplay of the single player game and the flexibility of the multiplayer options this game has its hooks in me good and I expect to play if for years to come.
Number 1
Forza Horizon 5
Well my number 1 game of 2021 should really come as no surprise to anyone who follows us here at the Grumpy Old Gamers. On our page and podcast the weeks leading up to the launch of Forza Horizon 5 we all excitedly went on about the game every opportunity we had. I am a fairly late player in the Horizon series, I didn’t get on the train until Horizon 4 launched, but after a couple of hours playing I was hooked. Forza Horizon 4 became one of my all time favorites. The Arcade style racing, the massive open world, and the accessibility to be able to not play the game for a few months and be able to hop back in no issues. I can even say I leaned pretty heavy on Horizon 4 as a comfort food game during the pandemic, and was actively still playing it weeks before Horizon 5 came out. When Forza Horizon 5 launched I have to say I was not disappointed, it was all the things that made FH4 great and more. They somehow made the game feel faster, thou this is probably in large part due to the next gen upgrades. If there was one thing that was a little bothersome about FH4 it was the load times… man starting that game up took forever, that’s all but eliminated now in this generation.
I’m not going to go on more about this game, I think its the only game to show up on all of our lists this year.
If you even like racing games a little bit, there is something for you in this game.
Just play it.
I will be, for months and months to come.
Just play it already 🙂
The Grumpy Old Gamers 
Leave a comment