I’ll do a preliminary list since I might still be able to squeeze in a game or two before the deadline. I don’t rush playing most things since I have a huge backlog…
Immortality A truly unique experience where the hair on the back of my neck stood up more than once. I was hooked from that moment and I dug through everything in that game. Brilliant!
Pentiment What a brilliant game! The stories, history, characters and mystery had me hooked from the beginning to end. What an incredible game, so unique and detailed and beutiful in many ways. I loved it all.
PowerWash Simulator I never thought a game like this could hook me like this did. I became obsessed with cleaning all the dirt away, everywhere… Perfect podcast game.
Dying Light 2 The game I spent the most time with during the year. It had a decent story, great melee combat in first person, great exploration and so much fun things to do and discover. Great game.
As Dusk Falls Interesting story, told in an interesting way. It felt like choices mattered, and I will definitely dive into this again for a few more playthroughs in the future.
Grounded I have not had the opportunity to play this as much as I’d like to, but it’s a very well done little survival game.
High On Life Incredibly dumb, very silly and a pretty good action shooter platformer! The humour did not always land with me, but it was generally amusing. The Gatlians, villains and some of the side characters were great.
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Best ongoing game:
Battlefield 2042 Yes, I’m serious. Jumped on when Season 3 hit and the game landed on Game Pass. The new stuff is very good and the events over the holidays were really good. Looks like things are going in the right direction for once.
Forza Horizon 5 The Hot Wheels expansion was very good, but outside that I didn’t really play much. I don’t feel it like I did with FH4 which held me a lot longer. Still great support over the year.
Lots of games that I’m enjoying but haven’t beaten yet (like Plague Tale) so may edit this before 2/5.
Yeah I know lol. What can I say. I just really liked Saints Row. Despite its faults it was a game that was just totally on my wavelength and I had a blast playing it.
Grid Legends was actually pretty fun. The 10 hour EA trial is low key one of Gamepass’ coolest never talked about features. Also cool is the 10% EA discount, I’m thinking of getting the new EA golf game if the trial ‘sells me’ on it. And I’m also likely to buy NCAA Football this fall.
I consider this my GOTY. I didn’t have much expectations, I did not play the SNES version and didn’t know too much about the game’s legacy. What I found was a mind-blowingly amazing game that shocked me that it hasn’t really been altered from the original release (besides graphics). I really enjoyed pretty well all of the stories and the 8th story + final chapter were just so damn good. Soundtrack is just downright fantastic. Only negatives I can say are that they kept some of the dated aspects too like random encounters you can’t turn off and very long battle animations you can’t skip. Other than that it’s fantastic.
The Legend of Heroes: Kuro no Kiseki II
I gave a detailed review here:
But to slim it down: Great game, awesome characters, weak story compared to Kuro 1 but had some great moments, soundtrack is great after Kuro 1 had a weak soundtrack, and gameplay is on point as usual for Trails/Kiseki games.
I don’t really know what this voting thing is, but being a game that isn’t available in English (JP only), I have to assume I am the only user here who’s played this.
Elden Ring
What more can be said? This game had pretty much unprecedented hype levels and From Software somehow, completely blew even those expectations away. To me, the best thing about this game is that it’s the first open world game in a long time where exploring the world is actually FUN and not just a time-padder. You always find something very interesting, how many of you had a “jaw-drop” moment when you found that elevator that took you to a whole expansive underground area? I’m sure everyone knows how great this game is so I won’t say too much more. Only annoying thing to me is the amount of boss reuse.
Azure Striker Gunvolt 3
Xbox managing to get this game on day 1 (well day 4) alongside the Switch version, before the game even came to PC and PS was shocking to me. This game was in development for quite a while and the gameplay definitely delivered. New protaganist Kirin is the funnest Gunvolt character to play as, it’s great to see her zip around while basically trying not to touch the floor (longer you’re off the floor, the more points you get). The pixel-art graphics are big step up from GV1 and 2 as well.
The major fault of this game is the story, which is basically a reboot with only minor connections to GV1 and 2, which would have been -okay-, but GV2 actually has a bit of a cliffhanger ending, so that was just thrown away. The story in this one was also just all around weaker than in the last two games. Story plays a pretty good factor in why I like this franchise so much, so this hurt a little. Still, gameplay is the most important part, and this by far has the best gameplay of any GV game.
Monster Hunter Rise Sunbreak
The major DLC for MH Rise. I already liked Rise more than World, and then this DLC improved things I didn’t like about Rise even more. For one, it got rid of annoying Rampage quests, thank god. The story here is also quite a bit better than in the base game (it’s still an MH story though lol). The best part about this DLC is that it tickles my MH4 nostalgia! The return of Gore Magala and Shagaru Magala was awesome and that Shagaru soundtrack, remastered… . It also adds two new maps to explore, and some offline quests that actually let you take AI partners with you!
Little Noah: Scion of Paradise
I talked about this here.
In short, surprisingly addictive, though it doesn’t last for too long (You’ll be done in 8-12 hours). The game is so cheap though that it’s fine. Has me excited for future Cygames console games.
Splatoon 3
I love the Splatoon games and this is definitely the best one yet. Great singleplayer that borrowed a bit from the Splatoon 2 DLC, and the boss fights are fun and goofy as usual. Online/Salmon Run are pretty much just improved from Splatoon 2. I just wish the game included more new modes for online and that the updates came in faster, they did for S2 and even S1. I put about 50 hours into this and nowadays it doesn’t retain me much (faster updates would), but again, my time with it was great.
Kirby and the Forgotten Land
Kirby games are always good fun, and the transition to 3D went very well! As always, I love exploring the levels and finding collectables, and solving the little puzzles you encounter. Fun and well presented boss fights too (and as usual for Kirby, the final boss fight is a real spectacle lol). I 100%ed the game fairly quickly, but it’s also good it doesn’t overstay it’s welcome.
Xenoblade Chronicles 3
I wrote about it here:
In short, best exploration and gameplay in the series, story is -pretty good- but ultimately is my least favorite of the trilogy.
Gunvolt Chronicles: Luminous Avenger iX 2
It’s probably my least favorite Gunvolt game, but I’d still say it’s a great game. To get the negatives out of the way, just like GV3, the story here was a letdown after Gunvolt Chronicles 1 had an awesome plot twist. They also negatively changed some gameplay elements (and even worse, locked the improvements that make it play like the first game behind paid boss DLC, which THANKFULLY they moved away from as every GV3 update was free).
But still, it’s still Gunvolt, great pixel art, great 2D action and boss fights, and great art. Good soundtrack too, I really like the final boss theme, especially if you realize what it’s a remix of.
I don’t really play “ongoing games” but I’ll at least list some
Forza Horizon 5
MH Rise Sunbreak (The DLC is still regularly updated, though I am probably done playing it on Switch now that it’s on Xbox)
And that’s it for me. Thankfully for myself I already wrote my thoughts on many of these games . It seems like “weaker story” is a bit of a running theme in my list . Ultimately gameplay is what matters and while some of these games had letdown stories the gameplay in all of these titles very much delivered.
I feel bad not getting deep into chained echoes because I feel it would’ve easily made my top 10, but not fair to put it in since I didn’t sink enough hours
I don’t know if that counts as cheating but I’ll do a little edit because I finished Signalis and this game deserves a spot on my top 10! @SuikerBrood don’t cancel my vote!
I edited my list after finishing two more games; As Dusk Falls and Pentiment which both made the list. As Dusk Falls was a good game for sure, but Pentiment… It almost took the number one spot. Such a damn good game, right up my alley in many ways. Excellent.
I don’t think I’ll finish any more, so that’ll be my final votes @SuikerBrood .