If you have not already listened to the podcast of this category, this is the final results, so this will spoil the course of the discussion on that podcast! Be warned!
We do our monthly patron-voted streams every… month, I guess that’s obvious. But those aren’t the only streams we do, and in 2021 we felt the urge to do more of it than ever before. We’re still far from veterans, but we’re figuring out what we’re good at, and what games compliment our style. Here are the games we had the best time streaming in 2021.
The Winner
Lifeline
Man, Lifeline is so cool. And infuriating, and stupid, and bullshit. It makes me so angry. It makes me laugh with despair. The idea of a survival horror game where you aren’t in direct control, and can only offer guidance through often misunderstood voice commands, is so genius. Lifeline as a game is not genius. It’s kind of a disaster. But it’s NEVER boring. Even when it’s falling flat on its face, it’s a comedic pratfall. I love this game, even when I hate it.
The Runners-Up
Firefighter F.D.18
The difference between a game like Firefighter F.D.18 and a more modern Simulator game is as wide as an ocean. Modern Simulator games (generally) try to take a real world experience and make it a soothingly grindy realistic game. But back on the PS2, this style of game was turned into a ridiculous illogical epic with an unnecessary story, Boss Fight Fires, terrible voice acting, and a charm you can’t put into words. During the course of this stream I bought this game off Ebay. That’s the kind of game it is.
Hardspace: Shipbreaker
I don’t know if I could handle Jen streaming this game again. On my own time, I love this game: it’s soothing, methodical, and striking. In Jen’s hands it becomes a surreal thriller of wondering how she’ll sabotage herself today. Sometimes it’s intentional! When she fired a laser at that fuel tank she knew EXACTLY what she was doing. But when she ripped open a shuttle’s hull without depressurizing it, when she sprayed her cutter randomly in the vicinity of a nuclear reactor, when she nearly crushed herself with a chair… those were real moments. Really great, and really miserable. Love it.
I have no idea what streaming is going to be like for us in 2022. If I’m being honest, the beginning of the year for me is just figuring out the Gimmick Awards, and they’re so much work they’re impossible to see past =P I want to do more. I want to finish Lifeline, I want to copilot for Nick on Drakengard 2, I want to do more fighting game first to 20s. But we’ll have to see- that’s all in the future.
That’s it for today’s Gimmick Awards, but come back for three more awards for the next four days, a total of twelve more categories! Plenty to look forward to.
A big thank you to daanboii (@daanboii on Twitter) for our Game of the Year art!
