Valhalla

I looked at all the RPGs I’ve played this year, trying to pick the one of them all that would be the best of the year. Several stood out, but I couldn’t pick just one. I guess if there were a game that I felt worth spending hours of my life playing, that proved its quality, maybe? Outer Wilds (PS4; finished January 26) This indie game about a hapless astronaut who is trying to stop their sun from exploding in (looks at watch) 24 minutes made a huge splash when it came out last year for all the right reasons. The clockwork solar system our astronaut lives in is full of puzzles everywhere you look. The lore is amazing. The physics are on point. And every 24 minutes, the sun explodes and you start from the beginning again, but you still have retained all you learned. ...

One really nice thing about playing a long, involved game like Assassins Creed Valhalla is that I don’t have to think about what game I want to play when I’m done work and chores in the evening. For the past month, it’s been off to Valhalla for a few hours. It’s the same feeling I get when I’m seriously into an MMO and logging in and saying hello to the guild is just a great start to an evening. ...

I came into this series cold: I haven’t played more than a couple hours of any Assassin’s Creed game. One, I played a portion of the tutorial of when I was seeing if PlayStation Now, Sony’s game streaming service, would work with my connection (no). The other, Black Flag, I played until they went back to the “real world” for the first time – also another game I got free somehow. So, I can’t compare this to other Assassin’s Creed games. ...