Games

Personally for me :

Xbox: Hi-Fi Rush , I love rhythm games and hack and slashes and this was the perfect combo. A lot of heart was poured into this game with the devs and I wish it had a bit more recognition .

PS5: GoW Ragnarok, great follow up to my favorite game last generation with a very satisfying conclusion. Was a close one between this and Spiderman 2 where both games were more of a refinement of the original but this had way more content.

PC: Spec Ops: The Line - Great story, decent mechanics for a fairly old game and the performance was wonderful playing on max settings at 144 fps on my handheld.

BG3 for me. It's been a while since a game has captured me so much.

Outer Wilds + DLC. Not just one of the best games I've played this year, but one of the best games I have ever played.

Honorable mentions:

• Cruelty Squad
• Life is Strange: True Colors (really wish it were longer)
• Budget Cuts 1 and 2 (VR only)

Dishonored. I've had it for ages and only ever played the very escape mission. It actually got me to buy Dishonored 2 and start that.

Let's hope for BioShock in 2024.

Well the best overall for me has to be Disco Elysium. Game is just astounding. Tears at my heart. Pentiment is a close second. But my god was that one a bit more miserable. Recommend for anyone that enjoys a good story.

From purely a fun standpoint, Rollerdrome and Hi-Fi Rush were absolutely killer. Incredibly tight gameplay. Super satisfying to "get good" at. Rollerdrome was the first game I was motivated enough to 100%, it was that fun.

It's kind of crazy looking back at how many games I got through in a year. Could've sworn I had played these years ago. What is time, even? 🫠

RDR2. Yeah I'm late to the party. Still great IMHO.

Cyberpunk has gotten so good I can't put it down. This might be the only game I rarely even think about modding.

Tunic, such a great combination of classic Zelda with puzzles and mechanics that keep evolving in crazy ways, felt similar to FEZ by the end for the true ending. The manual mechanic is one of my favorite ones in a long time.

Finally decided to play Outer Wilds.

Wonderful game! Changed my view of the world and outlook on the purpose of life for the better

Super Mario Wonder is the best 2D Mario since Super Mario World. There is so much attention to detail and the polish on every aspect from the gameplay to the way enemies act and react.

Super Mario RPG is the ultimate remake. It kept absolutely everything about the original while adding a few minor gameplay enhancements. Best of all, the graphics look like the original CG readers from the 90s but with perfect modern sharpness.

Deathbulge Battle of the Bands was an unexpected favourite. It's a light-hearted turned based RPG with Earthbound and Undertale vibes, an amazing soundtrack and interesting and humorous characters.

Tears of the Kingdom

It's not perfect, but still excellent

Inscryption!

Talos Principle 1 + Gehenna (Had it for years in my library collecting dust), finished it to 100% and am currently playing Talos Principle 2. These games are absolute gems and not even expensive for what you get, too. The people at Croteam are genuine masters of their craft.

Going to go with highly modded Fallout 4. I’ve got bunch of immersive mods like darker nights, better flashlights, and minimal HUD. Mods that make the game world scarier like radiative storms, working gasmasks, more ghouls, and more enemies in general. Rebalanced damage, added a lot of weapons, quests, and expanded existing locations. Settlements feel much more important as places of security, and are ringed in concrete walls and patrolled by uniformed Minutemen.

Going out into the world actually feels scary and harrowing. The settlements feel like actual breathers from a truly strange and dangerous world.

While I have a lot to say about the faults of Fallout 4, no other game provides such an amazing foundation for an open world experience, and the modding community is top notch.

Metro Exodus (PC Enhanced Edition).

Final Fantasy XVI. I'm just happy that the quality was up to par after the train wreck of XV.

I'm surprised I don't see Alan Wake 2 as its own entry in the list so far.

I don't like horror games, and I didn't care that much for the first game, or even necessarily Control, but Alan Wake 2 was really impressive. Showcased the power of the format of video games for cinematic narrative in a way that raised the bar even higher than it'd been before, similar to how BG3 and TotK raised the bar in player choice and open ended game design.

And just such a visually striking game too.

My most played game this year is definitely my favorite, loved it from start to end.

Dead space. The remake was just as good as the original but with updated graphics and mechanics.

Dyson Sphere Program Cities Skylines 2

Both because I like systems and I like to build.

Team Fortress 2. It's partially because of the amazing gameplay and partially because of the community.

Finally beat BOTW, so I'll say that

Age of Empires IV. It's an RTS, so you need to multitask. I find it more difficult to play than souls-likes or other timing games, but I enjoy the struggle. I've only played 3 out of 16 factions available but I'm hyped that there's probably more content to come. Especially since their newly released expansion was said to be the bestselling expansion for all their AOE games.

How is noone screaming about Lethal Company? I have never had more fun that playing that game last few weeks. True its "short" even with mods but sooo worth it.

BG3 was for me (in 2023). I did 3 full runs. There's never been a game where I completed it and immediately started another campaign. There's been games I've considered it and pondered it but never did it.

Phoenix Wright.

I recently bought a ds lite in a second hand store and found that game to be one of the most fun ones. Scribblenauts is also quite fun.

Sekiro. It ruined other souls like for me. Even DS. Combat felt like dancing, QoL are very good, even better than Lies of P that people kept praising about QoL.

Dwarf fortress with DFhack. Now with graphics!

Quake I, now remastered. I reinstall it frequently and it was one of the first games I tried on Linux, and it works flawlessly even though it came from a Microsoft-owned Bethesda-published Id. There's something hypnotyzing in how responsive it feels so I don't get bored nor with originar, nor with pretty new levels. Even boomer shooters don't scratch it just like this game does.

Days Gone, since it just released on gog and I wanted to give a triple a title another shot. It turned out to be pretty good, fun driving and gameplay, and the hordes were terrifying.

Also I was amazed how well this game was running, 4k 144hz butter smooth on a 4070. Kudos to the developers!

Final Fantasy 5 and 6 are fantastic 16 bit JRPGs.

FF6 (Final Fantasy 3 in the US) gets a ton of acclaim, but I highly recommend finding a translated ROM of FF5.

I usually get bored when RPGs require too much level grinding, but they are paced nicely.

Gartic phone has been the most consistently entertaining game i played this year, but that is probably because i only ever played it 3 times(3 gamemodes) yesterday.

I also played Celeste this year, which was really fun

Chants of Sennaar. Thought it would fun, turned out to be probably my favourite thing I played this year.

BG3, TOTK, and Vampire Survivors are all very up there as well. Really great year for games.

Hard to pick. I would say my favorite new game is Slay the Princess. My favorite game I've returned to, and I returned to a lot this year, is Deep Rock Galactic. Rock and stone, brother.