Best Games of 2019

2019 was the year that I truly indulged myself in playing video games and didn’t even have to feel guilty about it because I can *technically* count it as doing ‘research’ now (and I’m pretty sure playing more video games was one of my 2020 goals)! I’ve been able to play so many games that have completely captivated me and reminded me of why I love video games so much, some of which I have been sharing with you all throughout the year in the form of more video game oriented blog posts. At the beginning of last year, I posted up a ‘Games I want to play in 2019‘ list which I thought would be cool to briefly revisit to see how many, if any, of those games I played before moving on to my best games of 2019.

Planet Zoo | First Impressions + Gaming Diary

Released just a few days ago on the 5th November by Frontier Developments, Planet Zoo is a game that has been on everyone’s lips and, as I was lucky enough to be able to buy it on launch day and already log 17 hours of playtime, I thought I’d share with you some of my initial thoughts of the game, some of the adventures that I’ve been on with my zoos, and some tips and tricks that I’ve picked up.

Like a lot of other gamers, I loved Zoo Tycoon but hadn’t played it in years due to the outdated graphics and simplified game story. When I saw Planet Zoo trailer drop at E3 earlier in the year I was over the moon. The graphics and amount of detail put into the game looked incredible, the creative possibilities for building elaborate zoo enclosures and zoo park’s seemed endless, and the focus on animal welfare and conservation made me super happy. From the moment I finished watching the trailer at E3 to release day on November 5th, I have kept up with Planet Zoo developments and eagerly marked off the days in the lead up to release day. Although there was an opportunity to play Planet Zoo a month or two in advance for customers who had pre-ordered the game on Steam, I preferred to wait until the full game was released before playing. So, how does the game match up to my expectations going in?

Upcoming Video Game Releases 2019 that are here to take all my money

Throughout the year I’ve been keeping a close eye on 2019 video game releases because there have been a tonne of great releases so far this year. But, the year is not over yet and there are several games due for release in this month along that I am super hyped for. As November is the month when most of these games are being released and I’ve been giving a lot of thought about which ones I can attempt to justify buying, I thought it would be good to do a post sharing my gaming purchase dilemmas with you all. If you want to add me on Steam then you can find me here or drop me a message for my Switch friend code!

E3 2019 | Highlights & Final Thoughts

I had been intending to do a write-up for each of the E3 conferences this year. However, in the end, I didn’t feel that there was enough content to do a write-up for each conference individually and also it was a lot of work for each post! This year’s E3 was incredibly disappointing and a lot of the games that were featured were ones that had already been premiered last year or even the year before. Whilst it was good to get updates on the games in development and some 2019/2020 release dates for those games, it meant that there was little to get excited about in terms of new games.

This year I watched the presentations/live-streams for EA Play, Microsoft, Bethesda, Ubisoft, the PC Gaming Show, and Nintendo. I did a presentation write-up for EA Play and Microsoft, but the other presentations (with the exception of Nintendo) didn’t leave me with much to talk about. So, instead, I’ll be sharing with you all my game highlights of E3 2019 in this post featuring the games that I’m most looking forward to playing in 2019/2020.

E3 2019 | Microsoft Highlights

Yesterday I shared my highlights of the EA Play live-stream from E3 2019. Today I’m catching up on yesterday’s presentations; Microsoft and Bethesda. Usually, I give no cares about the Microsoft presentation. I don’t own an Xbox and usually find the Microsoft presentations hilariously over the top with their obsessive focus on cars, sports and first-person shooters. However, as Playstation isn’t in attendance this year I thought I’d give the Microsoft presentation another go and actually kind of enjoyed it? Don’t get me wrong, there was still A LOT of shooting games (mostly of the undead variety) but there was definitely a lot less reliance on pew-pew vroom-vroom games (as I like to call them).

As always, Microsoft likes to bring a lot to the table and, as someone who doesn’t have an Xbox, not all of it was very relevant and/or exciting for me. They announced a lot of stuff that would probably be exciting for Xbox players (Project Scarlett announcements, Xbox Elite Wireless Controller with more customizable features, and Xbox Game Pass news) that I won’t go into, I’ll just give you a quick snap shot into some of the games that piqued my interest.