General Gaming What game(s) have defined your pandemic?

[Chris-]

We've all likely been playing more given everything going on for the past 10 months...What game(s) have taken up the most time in your life and/or provided the most memorable experience?

 

Thanks to the Switch and sheltering-in-place with my girlfriend/ultimately moving in together, my pandemic has been defined by a whole bunch of couch co-op. We've put 120+ hours into Diablo III, taking two different characters to 70 and working up to Paragon Level 300 (GR 47, Torment XI). We've also put 85+ hours into Mario Kart 8, and as of late online sessions have been a near-daily occurrence (I think our ranking is around ~3100). Overcooked 2 and Moving Out have both been incredibly fun, and we even bought copies for friends of ours in order to play with others. Outside of co-op, Animal Crossing New Horizons and Stardew Valley both caught our attention for hundreds of hours, especially since one of us can go into handheld mode if the other wants to watch/play something else on the TV. I've really grown to appreciate the core concept of the Switch, and how I was unwittingly prepared to have a second controller by dint of buying a Pro Controller.

[BloodyHell]

It hasn't been one game, its been the sheer amount of games I had time to play. I knocked out large amounts of my backlog, and played some amazing new games.

 

FF7R is probably my most memorable gaming experience of the pandemic though. Not that it was last years best game, but because of the deep nostalgia I have for the game and my history with it. Also, the soundtrack. I loved it.

[BloodyHell]

Great topic, btw. 

 

Fall Guys is another game I had a lot of fun with for a short time. Also, Astro's Playroom showed me innovation in something as standard as a modern controller can enhance a game in so many ways. I really hope more devs use it well. Games were the high point of 2020. 

[Amazatron]

Definitely Animal Crossing, it helped me get through the early stages of the pandemic by being exactly what I needed, a complete joyous escape. I haven’t touched it in months, but I will always remember it as that.

[Stickey]

Population one really helped the struggle for a few months. 

[Bacon]

I played a bunch a FFXIV and finally made it to the max level and all that. I even went to a Halloween party in game where met up with people who I talk to online but don't generally play with in game. I went as Link.

[Remarkableriots]

None because I have a "essential" job.

 

[TheLeon]

Various hand issues, which really kicked in about a year ago, unfortunately made it hard for me to hold a controller or mouse long enough to do any real gaming for half of the year. There was a lot of poking at my iPad though, so entirely far too much Hearthstone has been played. I did have a few good months there in the summer, where all I played was TLOU2, Tony Hawk 1+2, and COD Warzone. 

 

But anyway, since I stayed fully employed the whole time (and not working from home), I didn't necessarily have a ton of extra gaming time.

[skillzdadirecta]

More than one game to be honest, I played and beat a decent amount of my backlog but the game that really defined the pandemic for me, especially the early months was Sekiro. I started the game over right when the pandemic started and after some perseverence finally beat it. One of the proudest gaming achievements of my life.

[Keyser_Soze]

Probably just Animal Crossing and simple dotes. Games I play every day or nearly every day.

[CastlevaniaNut18]

Animal Crossing, no doubt. But really, I've read more books and gamed less overall during the past year.

[gamer.tv]

Death Stranding. I played it during the opening months of the first UK lockdown and it was just everything right. 

[BloodyHell]

9 hours ago, skillzdadirecta said:

More than one game to be honest, I played and beat a decent amount of my backlog but the game that really defined the pandemic for me, especially the early months was Sekiro. I started the game over right when the pandemic started and after some perseverence finally beat it. One of the proudest gaming achievements of my life.

Every time I beat a new boss in Sekiro, it was the proudest gaming achievement of my life 😆

 

I swear, I fought the Gorilla 100 times.. the first time I got him to where I thought he was dead, im checking my phone, and all of a sudden he gets up, picks up his own head and destroys me....

 

The Drunkard is another boss I found way too hard. Game is fun as hell though. Took me at least six months to beat the game, boss by boss, taking my time. 

[ShreddieMercury]

My pandemic has been primarily spent revisiting old games, which has been wonderful.  I've gravitated towards nostalgic experiences that feel comfortable and remind me of less disruptive and intense periods of my life.  At the same time, playing lots of older games is really illuminating and has helped me understand why so many new games leave me cold.  Playing Mario Galaxy in HD was an absolutely magical experience, pure gameplay and moment-after-moment of creative genius.  After getting a Series X, I've spent all my time guffawing at the upscaling and HDR applied to games like Ninja Gaiden, Panzer Dragoon Orta, and SSX3.  And then other stuff that isn't enhanced but that looks mind blowing with HDR, like Jet Set Radio and Geometry Wars.  So I don't have a specific game that's defined my pandemic, but my preference for games has definitely been altered by it.

[GameDadGrant]

Animal Crossing: New Horizons and Super Smash Bros. ULTIMATE for me.

[Ominous]

Nothing has really changed due to covid. I think I played rdr 2 a bit, but the lock downs haven't really altered what I would normally do.

[best3444]

Red Dead Redemption 2. I played the best game this generation when the pandemic was at it's height with no vaccine in sight.

[Brian]

Between my 18 month old daughter and the company I work for being sold to an equity firm, it’s been a busy period with not a ton of game time. I guess what I’ll remember most during this time will be the launch of the XSX and PS5. From delays, lack of details, and preordering/bots, it has been a wild ride. It was all worth it when booting up Astrobot on the PS5 and being hit with the nostalgia and novelty of the controller. 

[XxEvil AshxX]

When I look back on the pandemic I will remember the road trips to state parks and weekend camping trips with my wife. I took some of the best landscape photos of my photography career in 2020.

 

I still played a lot of games but mainly just random gaming off and on. I don't think any one game really stuck in my mind.

 

Oh and tons of boredom sex. Gonna remember that.

[Paperclyp]

I have an “essential job” or whatever so I have been very thankful to be able to work not just full time but frankly a ton of overtime (some required) over the pandemic. 
 

However I would say the pandemic has changed my habits due in part to no social time with my friends and just my general head space has been relatively poor this year given all that has been going on politically and with the pandemic. 
 

All that said I tried FF14, really for the first time (had it from several years past but I didn’t stick with it past a few hours). And I look back really fondly on playing that -played it all solo, didn’t really know what I was doing, but there was something about it that was really comforting to play. Also a bit stressful, as I played a tank not really registering how important that role is in group stuff, and I def had some people express some real frustration with me. Overall though I was amazed at how helpful people were. It was a really nice glimpse of the kindness of people in a community during a real shitty time in real life. I have been tempted in the last few weeks to start it up again. 
 

Other than that I’ve played a ton of animal crossing - probably my most played game of the year - despite real misgivings I have with it. 
 

And I’ve made a lot of progress on my backlog and chopped it down in terms of just letting go of some games that I really probably will never play or like, if I haven’t played them yet I probably won’t. 

[TwinIon]

At the beginning of lockdown I caught up on a bunch of games that I'd bought and never finished or never played as well as a few that I picked up really cheap. A lot of single player action/adventure stuff. I played through most of the Assassins' Creed Series, a couple recent Far Cry games, FF7R, Last of Us 2. I played through Black Mesa and replayed Half-Life 2 so I was ready for Alyx. 

 

Then my tour of unfinished games took me back into Destiny 2, which has since eaten up hundreds of hours since. If there was one game that defined my time in quarantine, it would be Destiny. Especially for that first couple hundred hours, there are endless things to chase after. I'd just gotten to a point where I felt like I'd gotten most of what I was after when Beyond Light came out, introducing a whole new set of stuff to chase. I still expect to put time into it going forward, but I don't think it'll be quite the same kind of time sink it was for a while there.

 

There are a bunch of single player games I'm looking to get through. Valhalla, Fenix Rising, Cyberpunk, and I now have a PS5 coming, so Miles Morales is now on the list as well.

[BloodyHell]

9 hours ago, best3444 said:

Red Dead Redemption 2. I played the best game this generation when the pandemic was at it's height with no vaccine in sight.

So which game did you play?

[BloodyHell]

1 hour ago, TwinIon said:

At the beginning of lockdown I caught up on a bunch of games that I'd bought and never finished or never played as well as a few that I picked up really cheap. A lot of single player action/adventure stuff. I played through most of the Assassins' Creed Series, a couple recent Far Cry games, FF7R, Last of Us 2. I played through Black Mesa and replayed Half-Life 2 so I was ready for Alyx. 

 

Then my tour of unfinished games took me back into Destiny 2, which has since eaten up hundreds of hours since. If there was one game that defined my time in quarantine, it would be Destiny. Especially for that first couple hundred hours, there are endless things to chase after. I'd just gotten to a point where I felt like I'd gotten most of what I was after when Beyond Light came out, introducing a whole new set of stuff to chase. I still expect to put time into it going forward, but I don't think it'll be quite the same kind of time sink it was for a while there.

 

There are a bunch of single player games I'm looking to get through. Valhalla, Fenix Rising, Cyberpunk, and I now have a PS5 coming, so Miles Morales is now on the list as well.

I really need to play HL: Alyx. I have it, but I never got around to it.

[Xbob42]

Hmm. I did get around to a lot of FFXIV, but mostly I caught up on the Legend of Heroes series.

I beat the first game a couple years ago, but stopped at the beginning of the second, so in 2020 I beat...

 

The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky 2

The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky 3

The Legend of Heroes: Trails from Zero

The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel 1

The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel 2

The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel 3

 

And I'm working on Cold Steel 4 now, taking it pretty slow as I got a bit burnt out playing all these games so close together. Also waiting patiently for Trails to Azure, which is the sequel to Trails from Zero, both of which were fan-translated as they never got official U.S. releases. The fan translations are amazing, though. Same high quality writing and re-work of a lot of textures into English on top of huge performance fixes that make it run properly, as the PC versions of the two games (originally PSP titles) ran like dog shit. So they go from like janky ass window mode 15 FPS trash to 60+ FPS 4k glory.

 

Once I beat these two, I'm all caught up with the entire series in English! Not too shabby considering they're each like 80-100 hours long. Can't wait for them to change the formula up a bit though. It was really novel and enjoyable the first several games, but at some point even mega fans can get sick of how similar each one is laid out, especially Cold Steel.

 

Aside from that, I've been hitting up my backlog quite a bit, but not diving too deep into any one game, so I don't know if any of them defined my pandemic. Nothing outside of the Trails games has really hooked me like I was hoping. I'm having a lot of trouble just picking a game to start up recently. I really enjoy things like the game version of Book Clubs where everyone plays the same game and there's a big thread about it, helps keep me focused on a single title.

[Phaseknox]

14 hours ago, Ominous said:

Nothing has really changed due to covid. I think I played rdr 2 a bit, but the lock downs haven't really altered what I would normally do.

Yeah, due to illness I was already living like a hermit/shut-in before the pandemic so nothing has really changed for me.

 

14 hours ago, best3444 said:

Red Dead Redemption 2. I played the best game this generation when the pandemic was at it's height with no vaccine in sight.

Did you just call Red Dead Redemption II the best game this generation? 

[Phaseknox]

7 hours ago, BlueAngel said:

I'd have to agree with him, best game.

Of course it’s a matter of opinion, it just failed to really click with me and I’m a big fan of the first game and open world games in general. It’s definitely a quality game and I enjoyed it for the most part primarily for its story and characters, however it’s far from being the best game of the generation for me personally. But different strokes for different folks. 

[best3444]

4 hours ago, Phaseknox said:

Yeah, due to illness I was already living like a hermit/shut-in before the pandemic so nothing has really changed for me.

 

Did you just call Red Dead Redemption II the best game this generation? 

 

Yup. I've played all the greats from last gen, too. Last gen being ps4 etc.

[Phaseknox]

2 hours ago, best3444 said:

Yup. I've played all the greats from last gen, too. Last gen being ps4 etc.

I know that you really like it, I was just being snarky. 

[Chris-]

22 hours ago, Xbob42 said:

Hmm. I did get around to a lot of FFXIV, but mostly I caught up on the Legend of Heroes series.

I beat the first game a couple years ago, but stopped at the beginning of the second, so in 2020 I beat...

 

The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky 2

The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky 3

The Legend of Heroes: Trails from Zero

The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel 1

The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel 2

The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel 3

 

And I'm working on Cold Steel 4 now, taking it pretty slow as I got a bit burnt out playing all these games so close together. Also waiting patiently for Trails to Azure, which is the sequel to Trails from Zero, both of which were fan-translated as they never got official U.S. releases. The fan translations are amazing, though. Same high quality writing and re-work of a lot of textures into English on top of huge performance fixes that make it run properly, as the PC versions of the two games (originally PSP titles) ran like dog shit. So they go from like janky ass window mode 15 FPS trash to 60+ FPS 4k glory.

 

Once I beat these two, I'm all caught up with the entire series in English! Not too shabby considering they're each like 80-100 hours long. Can't wait for them to change the formula up a bit though. It was really novel and enjoyable the first several games, but at some point even mega fans can get sick of how similar each one is laid out, especially Cold Steel.

 

What the fuck is wrong with you?

[Xbob42]

37 minutes ago, Chris- said:

 

What the fuck is wrong with you?

In a thread where someone claims RDR2 is the best game of the generation, you're gonna ask what's wrong with me?

[Chris-]

1 minute ago, Xbob42 said:

In a thread where someone claims RDR2 is the best game of the generation, you're gonna ask what's wrong with me?

I expect best to have bad taste, I don’t expect you to put hundreds of hours into a body pillow property disguised as a game series. 

[Xbob42]

4 minutes ago, Chris- said:

I expect best to have bad taste, I don’t expect you to put hundreds of hours into a body pillow property disguised as a game series. 

Ehhh, I wouldn't really classic this series like that, it's more like a way-too-fucking-long series of novels in JRPG form. There's your typical amount of skimpy anime girls here and there but by and large it's basically political drama and war.

[Ominous]

22 hours ago, Phaseknox said:

Yeah, due to illness I was already living like a hermit/shut-in before the pandemic so nothing has really changed for me.

 

Did you just call Red Dead Redemption II the best game this generation? 

 

I mean I work, I run, and I buy games on steam that ill never play. 

[Keyser_Soze]

1 hour ago, Xbob42 said:

Ehhh, I wouldn't really classic this series like that, it's more like a way-too-fucking-long series of novels in JRPG form. There's your typical amount of skimpy anime girls here and there but by and large it's basically political drama and war.

 

I would say Trails of the Sky looks a lot "cleaner" than something like Fire Emblem which Chris seemed to enjoy a lot.

[Phaseknox]

4 hours ago, Xbob42 said:

Ehhh, I wouldn't really classic this series like that, it's more like a way-too-fucking-long series of novels in JRPG form. There's your typical amount of skimpy anime girls here and there but by and large it's basically political drama and war.

I’ve heard good things about The Legend of Heroes series, and I plan on getting Trails of Cold Steel 1-4 when they’re on sale.

 

By the way, you might want to check out Tokyo Xanadu eX+ and Ys VIII: Lacrimosa of Dana if you haven’t already as they’re a couple of good JRPGs made by the same developer (Nihon Falcom).