I did! I can't remember when, but I did end up finally doing it! I had to start over on a lower difficulty and then once I beat it and was back in practice, I went back to my original save which was at the final boss and beat it.

I didn't play as much this year because of two chunkers, Tears of the Kingdom and Elden Ring.

How was your year in gaming??

So without further ado, the top 10 games I finished in 2021 (not necessarily released in 2021 otherwise it would be an extremely small list):

1) Hades
2) Halo Infinite
3) Alan Wake Remaster
4) Resident Evil Village
5) Star Wars Fallen Order
6) Cuphead
7) Unpacking
8) Observation
9) Life is Strange 2 + Captain Spirit
10) Night in the Woods

Hon. mentions to Bowser's Fury and Doom 2016.

How did your year end up shaking out? Any old year's resolutions?

Congrats! I agree, up to this point the games are extremely lacking on next gen systems but the load times on the older games is downright incredible. It's a shame I already put 100 hours into the Witcher 3 because the constant loading in that game was so irritating and I'm sure playing XSX/PS5 would be amazing. I think I talked about this to you already but I played the Control DLC on XSX and that game also suffered from some seriously long load times that were massively improved with the new hardware. If games didn't take any visual leaps forward for the next few years but were able to deliver instant loading with a focus on cool, interacting levels, I'd be down with that. I see videos of Last of Us 2 and think...yeah, games look basically as good as they need to. Any incremental improvements in modelling is just going to be really expensive and lean into Uncanny Valleyness. That AC glitch is odd, and the video you showed would make the game unplayable to me. It's like working in an office with a florescent bulb that's at the end of its life. You're right that it's likely software related, as Assassin's Creed has a pretty sketchy history performance wise. Was it Unity that launched with the terrifying faces?

I'm definitely okay with Skyward Sword! It's the only mainline (console) Zelda game that I never went back and replayed, or even finished getting all the heart pieces and things for 100%. I have really positive overall memories from the game but at the same time it was a bit of a chore to play. It felt like a lot of tedious tasks, combined with how annoying it was to actually travel from place to place, the constant irritation from Fi, and the fact that each time you played the game it felt the need to tell you what a green rupee is. I'll pick up SS almost guaranteed but the package you mentioned, a combo of WW, TP, MM and OoT was my real dream. Even if they split them into WW/TP and OoT/MM and sold them separately I'd still pay $60 each. And I know I'm not alone in that so it seems like Nintendo is just missing out on a chance to print some money. The 3DS is dead, not sure what they're holding out for.

It's funny, now that you mention it I do seem to vaguely recall you playing Skyward Sword for an eternity. It came out in 2011 so that would be close to when we first started Backlogging.

You caved, but more importantly you somehow got one! I hear it's been tough. Have you played anything on it yet? And how much of a difference does that faster loading make? It's been such a huge improvement. Loading times really make some games feel tedious, especially games where it's easy to die or you have to go back and forth between menus and areas constantly. Speaking of, I think I got my first official taste of next gen exclusive content when I played the Medium. Honestly didn't hear much about it before launch and it turned out to be legitimately good. One of the best horror games I've played in the last few years. Very light on action, but a very well crafted story and super good atmosphere. Some of the environments were just spectacular.

Danganronpa actually sounds pretty cool how you've described it. I assume it's gotta be a new group of teenagers every time? Sort of like an American Horror Story thing.

I didn't get anything gaming wise for Christmas, but in the month since I've bought Mario Kart for Switch and have kept going with Animal Crossing. I also replayed TP on WiiU just for kicks. I bought it one release and never opened it so I pulled it out just in time for them to announce a Switch version in a few weeks. It was both better and worse than I remember.

Yeah, I'll definitely give Nier a try. I mean, it's on GamePass. There's no reason not to! Well ..."robot orgy or naked anime man giving birth to another naked anime man through a stab wound in his chest"... so there are some reasons not to. But probably not good ones.

That truly sucks about work. It's tough to feel so undervalued and still have the motivation to do a good job. Especially when you don't just FEEL undervalued, you look around at people with the same job and qualifications and aren't getting the same level of compensation and realize you're literally being undervalued. Hopefully the end of 2020 brings some positive changes in that regard!

Resident Evil 7 is a great choice for a spooky game. There are moments in that game that scared the shit out of me, where I would just cower in a dark corner and wait for a few moments to regain my composure. Plus with Luigi's Mansion 3 you get a nice balance between fun scary and actual scary. For October this year I actually have gone through quite a few games. I started and finished Walking Dead: Michonne, Carrion, A Plague Tale, and Blair Witch. I'm working through Man of Medan and I'm hoping to also squeeze in Pathologic 2 before the end of the month. It feels like I've had a productive gaming month, but most of these games are pretty short which definitely helps.

I actually have no idea what Danganronpa is, in terms of content or gameplay. How was it?