Natalie's Top Ten Games of the Disaster Year(or, 2020)

Courtesy: MiHoYo

If you're reading this, congratulations, you did it! You were socially distant and washed your hands. You got out and voted for someone who will disappoint us marginally less than the one who came before. You protested the, frankly, innumerable human rights violations that disproportionally affected black people. And for your efforts, you've been rewarded with an entire year's worth of killer video games! Here's to you, kid(or adult, more likely); here are the best experiences that I personally played this year. This is my list and these are the games I liked the most, and if you don't like it, I don't care! Go complain to someone else. 

In Defense of Seraphine, The Champion That Saved League of Legends For Me

Image: Riot Games

To be honest, I didn't realize how much I loved her until I talked it out with someone else I love.

This One Obvious Trick Made Me Better In Valorant

Look, let me explain. There is a reason for this title, I promise.

Grounded's Arachnophobia Slider Should Be The Standard

 

Grounded, the most recent game from Obsidian Entertainment, has a lot going for it as a survival game in The Time of the Battle Royale. Rather than surviving on an island or forest, Grounded takes place in your own backyard, and instead of dinosaurs and zombies, you're now face-to-face with many of the bugs hidden under the tall grass. As someone who is no longer bothered by giant dinosaurs and shambling corpses, but is terrified of spiders, this is scarier than both the formers combined.
Not only are the spiders naturally terrifying(Google 'spider faces' and tell me how well you sleep tonight), they are also huge. Most of the bugs in Grounded(especially the ants!) are cute and adorable by comparison, but the spiders are enormous, with high damage and sticky webbing. On their own, they're fearsome enemies, but to an arachnophobe, they become a wall that stops play altogether.

I Hate That I Can't Love Destiny 2

      
    
Destiny 2, once you strip away, well, everything that constantly goes wrong with it, is a fun game. I always try to remind myself of that whenever I'm disappointed. The fumes of optimism are what usually keep me trying the game over and over again, because I truly, truly want to find something to love. I think it's been long enough though, and that I've had enough. Across six years and two games, I can firmly say, I don't enjoy Destiny 2 as much as I should, and the blame for that lies firmly with the decisions made that keep holding it back, time and time again.

It's Shark Week in Valorant

Valorant has finally launched after a month of people wringing their hands and salivating at the thought of a beta key. Now you and your friends can get thoroughly embarrassed by the CS:GO sharks with 20,000 hours. Because Riot's premiere new FPS launched without a ranked mode, there is a pretty clear skill imbalance of new players who are eager to try out another game from Riot against the aforementioned sharks and the results are...not pretty.

I Think I'm A Yu-Gi-Oh Fangirl Again

If you had told me that, in order to combat quarantine boredom, I would be playing Yu-Gi-Oh, a game I have not played since I was thirteen, I probably would have laughed. But, here I am. I've spent the past few days playing Yu-Gi-Oh, and having the time of my life. The reason? I think I'm in love with the Harpie Sisters.

Play What Makes You Happy, Now More Than Ever

This is an interesting time to live through, isn't it?

Wastelanders Is A Fine Time To Try Fallout 76

Before we begin, I think I should make sure we're on the same page. If you're of the opinion that Fallout 76 is a terrible mess of a game, you spit on Bethesda's grave, or anything similar, then this article isn't for you. Your opinion isn't wrong, but this won't be the Bethesda vitriol piece you want it to be. Not to say there is not ample to criticize them for, but that's not what I want to talk about here. I want to talk about what Wastelanders does to the original flawed Fallout 76 experience. And the answer is a lot, but sometimes not enough.

Nioh 2 Is The Best Kind of Hard Game | Review

I'm not going to mince words with you, I really love Nioh 2.

Resistance is the Best Resident Evil Multiplayer Experience

Capcom's attempts at adding a multiplayer experience to Resident Evil have been mixed at best. I loved the co-operative play in five and six, but was less keen on the competitive multiplayer and Umbrella Corps never hit any of the right notes for me. Resistance, however, may be Capcom's best attempt at bringing the tension of Resident Evil online.

What Keeps Drawing Me Back To The Sims?

Twenty years ago, a quirky game about life called the Sims released on PC, and suddenly all of our real lives were that much more boring.

That Girl Is Poison: Capcom's Accidental Trans Icon

There's something about Poison that both worries me and excites me.

Super Crush KO is Short, Sweet, and Satisfying

I feel like I ask a lot of my video games sometimes. I like extensively detailed stories, orchestral music, and hard questions about the measure of human nature. Super Crush KO has none of those things, and that is okay, because it doesn't need any of them to be fun.

Bury Me, My Love Opened My Eyes To The Other Side of The World

When I say 'Syria', what does that mean to you?

The Intersection of Gaming, Art, and Identity

"It's just a game."

My first test of faith when it comes to discussing video games came last year.