That's last year now. Imagine that. Now, I struggle to find 10 games worth recognising. Review codes don't tend to provide me with that many bangers so I have a magnificent ... six.

6 - eFootball 2022

If Giant Bomb can rep Fortnite, I can have this at number six. Live services rarely launch well but Konami's free-to-play football sim was broken beyond all recognition. Six months later, whoever still works at Konami polished up the graphics, improved the performance and, most importantly, gave players something to do. Since the updates in June, this has been my regular timewaster as the football is solid. The teambuilding aspect works fine enough and it's not like-for-like with FIFA's Ultimate Team. I don't have to manage player contracts and re-up them every dozen games. Players are yours for a whole year which means YOU WILL NEVER RUN OUT OF PLAYERS.

It also helps that freebies are given out regularly, really putting emphasis on the free-to-play model. Sure, there's chance deals that leave the players you want behind a random number generator but I've had no compulsion to put my hand in my pocket. It's a football fantasy but unlike Ultimate Team, it's married to a match engine I actually enjoy engaging with. It doesn't play like Pro Evolution Soccer. I find the tactics screen to be a mess and way too simplified. As a thing to kill an hour a day on, it provides. Good job, Konami. Now patch in an edit mode and Master League.

5. Gran Turismo 7

The peak of the series has long passed but that polish that Polyphony Digital are known for has not gone away. The driving feels precise and the cars have an individuality to them that means I can distinguish them by engine note. The track list is great and the ability to tinker with time of day/weather in a very granular way is impressive. Ultimately, it's not higher because I'm not a fan of the structure. The café menus are a good way to ease you into car collecting but I don't feel greatly rewarded by completing them.

It's another game that unnecessarily throws roulette wheels at you. Wheels with horrendous odds and cars you're better off just buying at Brand Central or the Used Car shop. The economy's been tinkered to make the prestige cars more attainable but I've long since finished the main campaign. Still, the driving feels exemplary and racing against AI seems to have more between the ears.

4 - Two Point Campus

Yeah, gimme that Bullfrog charm. It translates to academia surprisingly well and you can tell they had a lot of fun thinking about potential studies. Predictably, there's a lot to manage but it's handled at a fairly relaxed pace. I have a tendency to overspend and it's a pity when students ask for items that are locked behind a secondary currency. Still, I enjoyed this and it proves that these type of quirky management sims can exist without feeling like a novelty. I just wish the progression was a little more free-form. Going through three institutions to unlock the sandbox mode feels a little restrictive. Especially when you're already trained in the mechanics by the end of the first one.

3 - Elden Ring

I could've placed the top three in any order. Elden Ring is a fantastic open-world addition to the souls formula. It's teeming with discovery and the open nature does allow stuck players to find something else they're more comfortable in tackling. Some of the old issues remain with boss attack patterns being very spasmodic and flaily. I also find the reuse of boss designs or enemies to take the shine off things. For better and worse, this feels like a larger Dark Souls 2. The environments are expertly crafted and there are moments of spectacle. I really wish it was as compact as the other games, though. There's always superfluous stuff in these games (stuff you don't want for your build, NPC quests not worth the rewards, etc) but they're not usually this stretched out.

The map is fantastic. I hints at the stuff you'd care about. Caves point towards catacombs or mines for upgrade materials, churches stand out, as do the milestones where you find map fragments. It's the kind of map that got me back into The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and they share a lot in common. Souls games are often about small victories and Elden Ring has many of them scattered in several directions.

2 - Vampire Survivors

I better write this quick before I change my mind. It's rare that something so small can give me so much. That's how it was when a friend threw this game my way. I played through the available levels and thought, "Man, this clicks with me in a way I never expected." Vampire Survivors is not a clicker. It is not a musou. You move, you might even pick a direction to shoot in but the decisions don't stop there. The countless weapons, the evolutions, the stage events, the characters make Vampire Survivors feel packed with activity.

I can't think of a more satisfying experience than reaching the peak of your powers. That epileptic fever dream of knowing nothing will touch you because they were dead before you even knew they were there. What a cool thing and I'm excited to see what else is in store.

1. SIFU

I played this game to the point of obsession last month. It's another game that's been updated over time but the core combat is stellar. Beat 'em ups have had a good resurgence but Sifu feels like something more akin to God Hand. Serious in tone, sure but the same ideas of managing a crowd apply. I really do feel like the most dangerous person in any room but the penalty for failure has some genuine weight to it.

The ageing mechanic can really compound your mistakes and I applaud Sloclap for going in that direction. It's a tough game but that counter had to be finely tuned, each encounter feels meticulously designed. I went back to Absolver recently and it's amazing to see how tight Sifu feels in comparison. The focus on environmental combat gives each fight a chance to turn. Oh, I can get bounced off walls for structure damage? So can the enemy. I could grab this bat here or leave one of the enemies to pick it up. That'll get them out of this fight for a few seconds.

Those decisions cross my mind all the time during a playthrough of Sifu. The repetition did wear me down in spots but each encounter can feel unpredictable. Go in with a plan and a backup. Since release more comprehensive training rooms have been added, as well as a fairly comfy Student difficulty. As a way to get your foot in the door, these work well, although the ageing mechanic is made somewhat redundant. It's worth picking up, although the five stages can go by quite quickly.

Dissapointment of the Year - Saints Row

I didn't have high expectations for Volition but I was keen to see what a reset for the series would look like. I was not expecting this. Across the board, Saints Row feels like a game without passion, without a real vision. It's messy, rushed and lacks a real sense of character. Say what you will about the series as a whole, they found themselves a niche and escalated within it. Saints Row wants to evoke that but only in the most shallow ways.

The ground has long since been covered but I'll just echo the sentiments regardless: This new cast feel like friends you wait around with whilst your real friends to pick you up. I don't know these people. I have nothing in common with them but one look at them tells you all you need to know about them. Kevin is a shirtless DJ, Eli is the business guy because he wears business clothes. Nina is the car woman because she has a car.

These characters aren't designed. They're placeholders. That neutered approach extends to the story which barely evolves beyond a premise. This feels like a game where years went by without any progress and then they battened down the hatches just to get it out the door. At least we have our answer:

How do you follow Saints Row IV? With great difficulty.

The Worst Things I've Played This Year - Arsonist Heaven / Way Down

Way Down is a game made on Gamemaker based around 2021 movie The Vault. I haven't seen the movie but the premise is a bank job. Some art guy is also involved because erm ... I dunno, crime heist. Get a load of these stock assets. Get a load of these English characters speaking through Spanish voice actors. Get a load of the spy hijinks that involves going through the same pain-in-the-arse laser hallway twice. GAZE UPON IT.

Arsonist Heaven is a much more traditional brand of bad. One of those trophy hunt games that my time reviewing was littered with. Mechanically, you play a guy with a flamethrower. Set all the alien enemies on fire and then move on to the next level. Enemies have a mobility that completely outmatches you so you need to make your spurts of flame count. Sometimes they don't. When you die you go back to the start of a level which means dealing with the dozen or so enemies again. Each level is effectively a puzzle but the shooting never felt reliable and the enemies felt unpredictable.

Anyway, we're done here. Not been a bad year, has it?