Has 2021 Been An Overall Weak Year For Video Games?

[Mysterymask]

Oh, is this the yearly "has this year been bad?"?
People say that about basically EVERY year, despite none of them having been "bad", just that individual people didn't have much that interested them (and then also, mainly in the AAA space)

I kinda feel years get better remembered later. I remember a thread saying man the 80s were fantastic for movies cause x y and z and we have nothing but crap...not realizeing all the crap between x y and z

[Shakzor]

I kinda feel years get better remembered later. I remember a thread saying man the 80s were fantastic for movies cause x y and z and we have nothing but crap...not realizeing all the crap between x y and z

Well, WoW on this very forum is already a prime example of this. Whenever an expansion is current, it's the worst thing that happened since the inception of the universe, but when it's over it was the greatest expansion ever because the current one is the worst thing that has ever happaned since the inception of the universe

[deenman]

This year was pretty big for people that enjoy JRPG's,we had the longest Tales game break until 2021 came out with Tales of Arise,and it finnaly broke the fastest sales record,it was actualy high budget,and improved on so much,for the first time in decades im actualy enjoying figthing and exploring and not just playing the game like a visual novel lol

[Strawberry]

Can't say I've done much gaming this year. I looked at Steam sales, both Winter sale and Black Friday sale and bought nothing.
The two games I've played quite a bit since April (when I quit WoW) is Guild Wars 2 and Rocket League. And both rather casually.
I even got Playstation 5 in October or something. Bought a bunch of games but apart from occasional fighting game and couch-coop, I barely touched it. Waste of money. But it looks good in my apartment

[Kumorii]

probably, start of 2022 is gonna be good though.

Biggest this year for me were FF7 remake for PC. I had no issues whatsoever with technical difficulties though... hear a lot about it but can't relate. Worked flawlessly for me.

[Soulwind]

There have been plenty of excellent games this year, but they didn't come from huge studios or massive franchises (FC6 and RE8 were alright).

It Takes Two
Psychonauts 2
Death's Door
Deltarune Chapter 2
Inscryption
Humankind
Chorus

[Mojo03]

It’s wasn’t that bad.

Returnal
Ratchet & Clank
Hades (technically last year, but Xbox this year when I played it)
Age of Empires 4
Halo Infinite
Endwalker
Kena
Forza horizon 5

Off the top of my head

But ya, there was a lack of heavy hitters and some that came out (Vanguard, BF) were underwhelming.

[reemi]

Forza Horizon 5, FF7 remake on Ps5, Guardian of the galaxy, New World, Deathloop, Back 4 Blood, Diablo 2 remastered

and of course... played WoW Shadowlands.

AND WoW Season of mastery... !!

and dont even had the time to play ENDWALKER...

For me this year was fine.

[Tekko]

Yes, and it's becoming a trend.

[DeltrusDisc]

2021 introduced Dyson Sphere Program and the Endwalker expansion for FF 14.

In short: no.

[Zenfoldor]

Dang, no love or appreciation for Halo Infinite here...

Halo is a solid and very good game.

https://www.metacritic.com/game/xbox.../halo-infinite

However, IMO, it is not the innovation or genre needed to single highhandedly raise an entire years worth of releases. It is a better version of the same thing, not something new.

If it helps, without Halo Infinite this year would have been worse.

Hades was a game that was so good that it raised the whole year. It Takes Two was very close to that mark this year. Divinity Original Sin 2 was such a game. They are very rare. Rarely will a genre sequel, even a highly anticipated one, reach that level, because too many random variables have to come together, really. Only great expense, talent, and a little bit of luck can create that type of lighting in a bottle. Halo is great, and much better than even I anticipated, but just not GotY, and certainly not GoaT, imho.

[Poppincaps]

I think there have been fewer big AAA releases that have absolutely taken over the industry this year, but there have been some truly amazing games to release this year. This has been a really great year for JRPGs with SMT V having one of the best turn based RPG combat systems of all time, Tales of Arise feeling like the Tales series is finally getting it's moment in the sun and Final Fantasy 14: Endwalker capping off what I consider to be the best story in the entire Final Fantasy series and in MMOs.

I think this was the year of the hidden gem. Games that would've flown under the radar but are nonetheless superb games. Next year seems to be insane though with a ton of heavy hitting AAA games coming out next year.

[diller]

I don't think good games are even made anymore, 2021 was no different than the many years before.

The only game I still play is Guild Wars 2, nothing else really appeals to me - I used to play WoW and PoE but they have gotten stale to me.

[antily]

For my tastes? Yeah, this is the worst I can remember. Still, it gave me plenty of time to play some old games I've never played and replay some classics. And I'm now almost at 100% completion on EDF 5 multiplayer, which is awesome and sad.

In contrast, I have 18 games scheduled to come out next year that I am extremely excited for. If they all actually come out as scheduled there's no way I'll be able to stay on top of it all.

[dlld]

Looking at my steam purchase history this year, there's only 2 that standout in my memory as thoroughly enjoyable experiences, endwalker and pathfinder wotr, outriders was alright too.

[Calfredd]

I dont think so

You advertise gambling, who cares what you think?

[infinitemeridian]

I think the problem is more that 2022 is looking pretty stacked.

[Glosef]

I can't say was it a good year or a bad year. I think it was okay.

[Zenfoldor]

I know this was bumped, but from 2022 after Elden Ring came out, looking back on 2021, 2021 wasn't that great, lol. Or maybe Elden Ring is just the goat, I don't know, but yeah.

[casseillikoke4615]

Basically every year some interesting game comes out. I can't even say that in any year bad games came out that I haven't played at all. There are just games that we wait for and games that we miss.