Back in July, I took a look at some of the games on my work-in-progress GOTY list, and it seemed that I would miss the chance to write about them. Staring down both a loaded October and a swollen backlog of games released this calendar year, it seemed like a good time to make a sequel. It's possible a couple of the games end up being honorable mentions, especially the last one on the list. So let's pay tribute to some more good-but-not-great games that probably won't get their due in the final stretch:

MLB The Show 23

Ever since these games started appearing on Game Pass in 2021, I’ve taken a whack at them. Mostly because my Orioles are usually terrible and I want to rig a victorious season for them, but it’s also just relaxing to play as many baseball games as I care to. This season, they added a Negro Leagues mode that has a really cool presentation, much like the documentary-style clips in Age of Empires IV. I particularly enjoyed the Satchel Paige storyline, the high point of which was rendering the position players gathering around the mound for Satchel’s infamous “Bring ‘Em All In” stunt. The goodwill from this mode was upended in a later scenario, when the presentation made a big deal about Carl Yastrzemski facing off against Satchel, and then Yaz was nowhere in the lineup when I actually played (probably due to likeness rights issues). It was a reminder that at its best, this is still an annual sports game, with all the flaws and limitations of its peers.

But hey, how ‘bout them O’s??? Please for the love of god win multiple playoff series.

Planet of Lana

Of all the Limbo-likes, this sure is one of them. I did enjoy my time with this game (which I did not finish) more than I did with Somerville, but most of that had to do with the former’s commitment to staying in two dimensions. It was nice to have a little catlike pet but terrible to watch it get horrifically consumed occasionally. I think I wanted something a lot more chill, or perhaps more explicitly spooky, so maybe my ambivalence towards this game is indicative of my current tastes far more than any statement on the game itself. The central problem is that this game just doesn’t stand out from anything like it, and by this time next year I may have forgotten I played it altogether. I think the next time one of this micro-genre appears, I’m just going to skip it, because it’s clearly not what I want from a game anymore.

Inkbound [Early Access]

I love Monster Train, and I really love Hades. So when I heard the developer behind Monster Train was making their own Hades-like, I jumped at the chance to play it. There is definitely a good core to this game, where there’s a much more strategic turn-based twist on the roguelike room crawler gameplay, but it feels very incomplete. Hades has a strong sense of progression even on (and sometimes especially on) failed runs, and Inkbound didn’t give me that impression in the time I’ve spent with it thus far. I think there could be something really special here, and I can’t wait until it hits 1.0. But right now, I think it’s a skippable experience, particularly if you have Ember Knights available or want to start yet another new run of Hades.

Remnant II

I’m very much of the Tam School of Thought when it comes to Soulslikes: I like the Souls games, and the homages / imitators tend to miss a lot for me. The first Remnant game was a rare exception, one I found engaging in its own peculiar ways. Remnant II certainly offers vastly improved gunplay and an interesting array of skills, but it keeps the facet of the first game I found most frustrating: the boring palette. Your first world is randomly generated, and I was taken to a space station and/or planet next to a black hole, which was a cool idea for a setting. Unfortunately, it was very dark and unremarkable, like a budget take on Scorn. Once I beat the area boss, I figured the next world might have more variety. Naturally I found myself in a gray landscape of geometric shapes, and I sort of just fell off the game midway through this area. The Quick Look had a town that also looked pretty monochrome, so I think I’ve seen all I really need to see. Perhaps it would be easier to ignore if I had more time to play with friends, but I have two young kids who shouldn’t be watching this type of game. It’s a good game, but it’s just not GOTY material.

Diablo IV

It brings me absolutely no pleasure to include Diablo IV on this kind of list. The campaign mode is engaging in a way Diablo hasn’t really been before, and the cutscenes are incredible. The darker tone worked well for me, and the environments looked incredible despite a dark color palette (see my complaints in Remnant II above). The abilities were fun to use and synergize very well with each other. But in terms of having fun, this game was sadly a downgrade from Diablo III. I ended up feeling constantly underpowered, and it was very easy to get to the final phase of a boss after a long battle and die suddenly. The first major patch made me feel even weaker, reducing my desire to come back to the game. The first season was likewise a bit of a stinker, which I dabbled in but felt no desire to get much further. A lot of the game, including its side quests, end up feeling quite inessential in a way that even the radiant Adventure Mode quests from III didn’t. Perhaps one day, Diablo IV will reach the heights of its predecessor and give me more reason to come back for new characters. But for now, I’ll probably only play it to check out the occasional new season or for some couch co-op.

There are a number of games that feel like they belong in this kind of list that I won't get around to playing: Aquatico, Age of Wonders 4, Deliver Us Mars, Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty, The Last Case of Benedict Fox, Under The Waves, and The Lamplighter's League. If any of these are actually hidden gems, let me know!