Let's Look Back at Gaming in 2021

[Moonface]

Another year over, and although we've started talking about what we're anticipating this year, why don't we take a look back at how 2021 was for gaming? Obviously there can be a lot to cover when you consider all the announcements, releases, news and whatnot, so I'm going to kick this off by offering a few simple questions of our own experience with games in 2021 to make this all more digestible so we aren't trying to talk about so many different things at once.

• Overall, what did you think of 2021 for games?
  
• Were there a lot of new releases you picked up and got into (or maybe found weren't as good as you hoped), or did you spend more time playing older releases instead?
  
• Which game(s) was your favourite/most played last year?
  

If you want to bring up anything outside of this, feel free, since I doubt I covered every possible question that can fall in with those above, and even then maybe you just want to share a thought on something that falls outside of those entirely and don't want to wait for when it comes up later, like a particular news event or what your GotY is, etc.

Additionally, if you want to look back at things outside of 2021, here's links to all of the console generational lookback threads we have:

• Let's Look Back at the 1st-5th Generation of Consoles
  
• Let's Look Back at the 6th Generation of Consoles
  
• Let's Look Back at the 7th Generation of Consoles
  
• Let's Look Back at the 8th Generation of Consoles
  

So for me, I thought 2021 was overall far better than 2020 (in the sense that releases weren't as screwed up and events and such actually happened properly last year), however I myself didn't really play many of the games that came out last year. Most of the games I want to play are exclusively on new consoles, or are cross-gen and I want to wait to play them on the newer consoles, such as Kena, RE8, Ratchet & Clank, etc. so all I really played that was a brand new release last year is Metroid Dread, and the only other new things I played were the Repentance DLC for Binding of Isaac and the Happy Island Designer DLC for Animal Crossing. Other than those two, I think I spent more time playing older releases, such as Minecraft, Dead by Daylight, A Hat in Time, Breath of the Wild, Sekiro, FF7R, etc.

As for my favourite game, it comes down between Phogs and A Hat in Time. I loved both of those games when I played them last year, and I can't decide which one I loved more. I played other games a lot more than those two, but most others I played were just games that came over from 2020 whereas those two were both started and finished last year and were actually fresh experiences.

I doubt I'll have a personal GotY for 2021 that involves 2021 releases since I think the only one I've played is Dread (which I haven't finished yet to judge it properly anyway), and there's so many games I don't have the ability to play yet from 2021 that I can't really go looking up all the games that did come out to just decide which ones were really good from a non-personal standpoint. I'll probably just have to do simple stuff like visuals or soundtracks or something if I want to do any lists of just 2021 games. XD

[Mr EliteL]

Was wondering when the PlayStation Wrap-Up was going to be but last year it was at the start of February so got a little while to wait to see them stats. I just want to know what my second and third most played games will be because I have no idea other than a tiny bit of Tekken 7. Same for Switch, I didn't play much on there but a bit more than whatever second place will be for my PS4. On Switch I know I played Super Smash Bros Ultimate but very little, and some hours on Ender Lilies, which I do plan to play more of at some point, because I haven't gotten far in it yet.

The mammoth that is pretty much the primary game I played on is obviously Genshin Impact. I could not care less about any other game that released in 2021 (other than Ender Lilies), mainly because I started up an F2P account on Genshin alongside my main and not letting myself have time for anything. Speaking of though, every month we got something new to enjoy, so it's been a good ride and much much more to come, so it'll be my main game for 2022 too. There were times when I could've easily played different games but that time was spent watching YouTube/Twitch or listening to music after resting from work. So I have been slacking playing video games, even next to no past games. So it turned out I played a less amount of a variety than even 2020, which wasn't much either. Ah well. I'll kind of aim to play more of a variety in 2022 but can't promise anything.

[ShiraNoMai]

Between Animal Crossing, Halo and I suppose Minecraft, I entered 3 new franchises last year!

Despite all that, my gaming last year was at a serious all-time low; something I wish to correct this year. I spent a lot of focus outside of personal gaming, rather consuming it through other folk (whether it be Moony or Twitch streamers) instead, for my lack of priority to dedicating free time to games has really hindered those efforts.

[Moonface]

Was wondering when the PlayStation Wrap-Up was going to be but last year it was at the start of February so got a little while to wait to see them stats. I just want to know what my second and third most played games will be because I have no idea other than a tiny bit of Tekken 7. Same for Switch, I didn't play much on there but a bit more than whatever second place will be for my PS4. On Switch I know I played Super Smash Bros Ultimate but very little, and some hours on Ender Lilies, which I do plan to play more of at some point, because I haven't gotten far in it yet.

Yeah they start that wrap-up rather late. I expect it's because they need time for the system to gather up everything that was played up until December 31st and maybe they also hold off so that requests aren't being made with PSN accounts during a period right after Christmas when usage will be up and the servers don't need extra requests going through or something.
I forgot I picked up Smash again last year, although it wasn't for long.
I haven't heard of Ender Lilies before now. Where'd you find out about that game?

Between Animal Crossing, Halo and I suppose Minecraft, I entered 3 new franchises last year!


Despite all that, my gaming last year was at a serious all-time low; something I wish to correct this year. I spent a lot of focus outside of personal gaming, rather consuming it through other folk (whether it be Moony or Twitch streamers) instead, for my lack of priority to dedicating free time to games has really hindered those efforts.

Animal Crossing was 2020 so you entered two last year.

And yes, you should correct it because maybe then you'll play more of some of the games I bought for you such as Tony Hawk.

[Mr EliteL]

I haven't heard of Ender Lilies before now. Where'd you find out about that game?

I believe I was just scrolling through the shop on the Switch and just happened to find it, felt intrigued and watched the trailer there and decided to give it a shot.

[ShiraNoMai]

Oh yeah, I forgot Ender Lilies came out. Took me a minute to look it up and remember what it looked like. I recall a few streamers giving it a go cuz it was very much in the vein of Hollow Knight and other Metroidvania games. Looked very cool from what I saw.

2021 was definitely a year of "hey, games are coming out for this console you don't have!" in a time where consoles are insanely hard to come by. Hoping 2022 is a year where people can actually buy them again

[Moonface]

The PlayStation 2021 wrap-up is live. I tried accessing it but they want me to answer 20 questions about mice and cheese just to login, which I'm not sitting through because that's excessive security, especially when I did it once already and then found I entered the wrong password so now I can do it all again. Oh and if you get one wrong it tells you at the end too. So yeah, one year when I get in I might do my wrap-up.

[Mr EliteL]

What the heck, was that when it was down or something because I just got in with signing in only my PSN account and I'm right there. So try it now, perhaps.

My PlayStation Wrap-Up

Total Hours Played - 1,189
Hours Played Locally - 1,189
Hours Played Online - 0
Total Days Played - 332
Games Played - 5 (what?)

1. Genshin Impact 1,167 hours
2. BlazBlue: Cross Tag Battle - 12 hours
3. Dying Light: The Following - 7 hours
4. Tekken 7 - 3 hours
5. Brawhalla - 0 hours

Total Trophies Earned - 48
Platinum - 0
Gold - 4
Silver - 12
Bronze - 32

I'll add my comments in a bit...

EDIT: Well it was obvious it was Genshin and wow, that's a lot of hours. Somehow I thought it would be more but I might be mistaking that time for time I spent on my PC account instead, but would be even higher if I never started on that. Genuinely forgot about CTB and Brawlhalla, did remember Dying Light after seeing it on my PS4 but Code Vein was next after that and CTB was after Code Vein and CTR:NF when they're usually in line of last played games. Although I do now remember sitting on there trying out characters at some point within the year, but just don't get why the other two games are ahead of it, unless I happened open them for a very short amount of time. Brawlhalla I did download and try that out, but have since removed the game from my PS4 as I realised I didn't want to invest time into it unfortunately.

[Moonface]

Okay, so I finally got in. If I ever see a mouse and cheese captcha puzzle again it'll be too soon.

PlayStation Wrap-Up 2021
Total Hours Played: 332 (260 Local, 72 Online)
Total Games Played: 11
Top 5 Games Played:

1. The Last of Us Remastered (72 hours)
   
2. A Hat in Time (46 hours)
   
3. Watch Dogs: Legion (38 hours)
   
4. Final Fantasy VII Remake (38 hours)
   
5. Dying Light (37 hours)
   

Total Trophies Earned: 125

• Platinum: 1
  
• Gold: 15
  
• Silver: 20
  
• Bronze: 89
  

It's crazy to me that A Hat in Time is one of the last games I picked up last year yet sits as my most played for everything that isn't multiplayer. Most of the other games that are in my top five I don't think I've touched since at least the summer or earlier of last year.

[Dragon Lord]

I still can't get into it. I thought maybe it was a thing with Opera, so I went on my laptop on Chrome, went through the 20+ mouse and cheese bullshit twice, only to get met with the same "Uh-oh! Something went wrong!" screen I'm getting on Opera.

So yeah, guess I gotta wait for Sony to get their shit together and fix their website.

[Moonface]

I still can't get into it. I thought maybe it was a thing with Opera, so I went on my laptop on Chrome, went through the 20+ mouse and cheese bullshit twice, only to get met with the same "Uh-oh! Something went wrong!" screen I'm getting on Opera.

So yeah, guess I gotta wait for Sony to get their shit together and fix their website.

Clearly you spent so much time in Genshin that the server can't fathom the sheer number and just decides to kill itself instead.

[Mr EliteL]

 Could also be traffic so that security bullcrap is there to try and slow activity down, and we happened to click in when they were letting people on. Either way it should just come up with a screen of come back later or something instead of sitting through the puzzle rubbish pointlessly. Hope others can get on there soon.

I've gotta try and aim to play a bit more games like I said before, seeing how my second place game was at only 12 hours, oof. I do still want to go back and play games I left behind/put on hold, so maybe I'll find the time for them this year, this time even if a little bit but more than 12 hours!

[Moonface]

I've gotta try and aim to play a bit more games like I said before, seeing how my second place game was at only 12 hours, oof. I do still want to go back and play games I left behind/put on hold, so maybe I'll find the time for them this year, this time even if a little bit but more than 12 hours!

Seeing it on there, if you want to pick up Dying Light again and do some co-op sessions let me know!

[Dragon Lord]

So... still broken for me. Man, I just want to see how many hours I put into Genshin. Is that too much to ask, Sony? Fix yo shit.

Also is Dying Light fun? You mention co-op, so now I'm intrigued

[Moonface]

Any luck with it yet @Dragon Lord? I've seen a lot of people saying they were having trouble too but maybe it's better by now?

As for Dying Light, I'd say it's good fun for screwing about. To boil it down, open world + zombies + parkour + Dead Rising style weapons and combo's. I'm quite fond of being able to dropkick zombies and such or seeing how many zombies will chase me at night when they get incredibly dangerous.
I just checked the PS Store and right now it's on sale for $12.