Best game of 2021 so far?

Psychonauts 2.

In no particular order:

* Inscryption

* Hitman 3

* Griftlands

* Against the Storm (early access)

looking at new Full releases i've played and beaten this yr ( which is how i judge my goty usually) i've only played loop hero , R&C: rift apart , lost judgement , and i've started on kena so i'll probably beat that in the next week or so. thats aside from that i've only touched a few early access games from this yr like valheim ( was playing co-op with my fiancee before a drunken night at a our buddy's let to him spraining his thumb .. we haven't touched it since ) , dorfromantik ( i consider it beat even tho its still in early acess just due to the nature of it), and going medieval. medieval dynasty i played a good month of last yr and i think that just had its full release in the past month or so so what i played of it last yr was good so i should probably check in on that?.. there isn't much left i'm looking forward to this yr , AoE4 is next week so that'll be something but i almost never actually let myself get into those types of games anymore for some reason even tho i enjoy them. i can't think off the top of my head tho what else is coming out thats for me this year so overall its been a lightr yr for me as well. .........thats not to say i haven't played n liked older games this yr so ehh is what it is. i might be leaning loop hero for goty oddly enough since i lloved every min of it , while i liked lost judgement i didn't love it like mainline yakuza entries the styles combat has never done it for me nor most of the other brawler protaganists they've had in the series apart from a couple so .. is what it is in that front. and while the story and side stuff was good i can't call it goty worthy for myself so .... thats been my yr

Three way tie for me: Pychonauts 2, Subnautica 2 and Hitman 3.

Close second two way tie for Loop Hero and Incryption (they scratch a similar itch for me)

If Darkest Dungeon 2 hits me like the first one did, then I could see it rising above all these.

Hitman 3, Monster Hunter Rise, and Resident Evil Village are in the discussion for me.

And here's another one that I don't think anyone else has mentioned: Rogue Legacy 2. It's still in early access on Steam, but it's been getting regular large updates and I think the next major update will probably be 1.0. I liked the original Rogue Legacy quite a bit, but the sequel is already so much better. I'm really looking forward to playing the finished game, which I think they're aiming to get out by the end of the year.

Off the top of my head at 2 AM:

Tales of Arise

Chicory

It Takes Two

Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart

Psychonauts 2

Here's my current yearly open document that gets changed around until the end of the year -

TOP GAMES OF 2021

1. Deathloop
2. Returnal
3. Death’s Door
4. Back 4 Blood
5. Super Mario 3D World + Bowser’s Fury
6. Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart

GAMES TO FINISH

• Scarlet Nexus
• Sable
• Subnautica: Below Zero
• The Ascent

GAMES STILL TO PLAY

• RE Village
• Kena: Bridge of Spirits
• Death Stranding: Director’s Cut
• Nier: Replicant
• Toem

For me, I'd personally say F1 2021.

Probably Psychonauts 2 for me. I had the biggest grin on my face the entire time I was playing it. I loved everything about it and have never been more excited to see what a developer does next. That's a great sign.

Others to note:

• Deathloop - I enjoyed this game quite a bit as well, but the ending sort of falls flat and took away a lot of my excitement over that game.
• Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart - good game, but I think I overhyped myself too much for it. It just felt like another good Ratchet game to me (which is great, but nothing that really caught me off guard and wowed me either).
• Hitman 3 - I liked some of the levels in this one, and loathed others. This one didn't quite do it for me, and I still feel like I'm chasing that 'Helmut Kruger Paris' high after all these years. It's still Hitman at the end of the day though, so it deserves a shout-out.
• Guardians of the Galaxy - I'm surprised how much I'm enjoying this, but it's not quite GotY material. Just a good, fun, linear, single-player experience which is something I've been desperately missing. I'm sick of these icon-vomit map-fests that have taken over the industry in the last couple of years.
• Metroid Dread - I've never loved a game I hated playing so much. I really like some parts of this game, but also really hate the map-flow and sign-posting (or lack thereof).
• Halo Infinite and Forza Horizon 5 look very promising but I'll reserve judgment until they're actually out.

Persona 5 Strikers for me. I haven't played very many other new games from this year for whatever reason.

Six months later, and it's till the Steam version of Nioh 2 as far as 2021 releases go. But I also summarize what I played this year with Cyberpunk, replaying Senran Kagura Peach Beach Splash, and the Evangelion event for Honkai Impact 3rd.

Hitman 3, although I've not played any other big hitters.

Psychonauts 2 & Inscryption probably.

Subnautica: Below Zero, Resident Evil 8, and Metroid Dread are the three 2021 releases I've played so far. I'm 100% certain I'll play SMT V and Halo Infinite when they come out. Gee, that's a nice genre spread...

Anyway, of those three... I think I probably enjoyed playing Subnautica: Below Zero the most while I was actually playing it, but Resident Evil 8 is the one that stuck with me the most. The first several hours of RE8 are cutscene after cutscene after cutscene, with you doing some bland wandering around and occasionally shooting things early on. It is so painfully, obviously, awfully, extremely linear and scripted that I was tempted to just put it down. I stuck with it, though, and after you finish the first major area the game really opens up in a way that I started enjoying a whole lot. I enjoyed RE7 to some degree, but I mostly felt like it was too cramped and it felt bad to play. RE8 felt much better to play, for some reason, and has some amazing set pieces and moments to go with it. It takes much too long to open up, but once it does it's great.

Subnautica Below Zero was incredible fun, but - just as I guessed after playing the first game - there's no way something else will ever truly capture the magic of that original, first playthrough of the first game. It's great and I loved it and I'll almost certainly play it again someday, but... it ain't quite the same, and never could have been.

I think Metroid Dread is also a great game, but a handful of things bring it down from being a top-tier Metroid game - the EMMI sections are bad and the music is at best boring and almost always buried in the mix, but I enjoyed most other things about the game.

I haven't played too many 2021 releases this year, since I'm working my way through my backlog, but:

Fuga: Melodies of Steel is a fantastic game that's much deeper than it initially seems. There's a strong story, excellent characters, and enough strategic and tactical choices to justify multiple playthroughs. I'm about 3/4 of the way through and have loved every minute of it.

NEO: The World Ends With You. The original remains one of my favorite games of all time, and the sequel so far hasn't disappointed. It retains so much of the style and flash that made the original unique. I'm about halfway through this one, and unless it does something completely awful in the second half it's going to be a top five for me.

@laughingman: What did you play Fuga: Melodies of Steel on? I've been interested since the Quick Look, so it's nice to hear another duder back up the game as being pretty neat.

I wonder if it'll be Jan's 13 Sentinels this year. Is the soul cannon all that it's cracked up to be the way Jan understood it, or is it more like Pyre where it's a mechanic to make you relinquish a party member of your choosing during a set number of scripted story moments?

@bisonhero: I'm playing it on Switch. Performance is great, with quick load times and no frame drops that I can see.

The soul cannon is used once during an early story moment, and I've only ever seen the option during boss fights after that. Once your tank's HP drops below a certain point, it becomes available. Heal your tank above that level and it disappears. It's never been required.

I'd recommend it if anything about it appeals to you: the turn based tactical gameplay; the Persona-like building of relationships between characters during intermissions; carefully managing limited resources while deciding what to upgrade; it's all very well done.

Mass Effect Trilogy and Diablo 2 remaster, playing these games in modern fidelity has been amazing.

I liked Death's Door. Otherwise I have not been much interested in this years games as far as those so called heavy hitters are concerned

I am thinking I will play Psychonauts 2 before this year's end. And perhaps Res. Evil Village, also. I'm waiting for Prodeus to be a real game

But I have had a blast with smaller games in my backlog.

Psychonauts 2 and Hitman 3 are up there. And as of yesterday, Darkest Dungeon 2 entered early access and is now a Rogue-like so that's in the running now too.

Hitman, Ratchet, with Nier, Metroid and Lost Judgment being games I have not finished but am enjoying a lot.

Although I have idiotically gone back to Death Stranding Directors Cut because I didn't finish it on PS4.

Scarlet Nexus for me but Shin Megami Tensei V might take it

Since my last post 6 months ago i've played hundreds of hours of Snowrunner, so that's potentially top of my list, and i fell madly in love with a game called Webbed, which is cute as hell.

Of games that came out in 2021 I'd say Guardians of the Galaxy. They created a band and a concept album just for the game. Its an okay album over-all but there are a few tracks on there that absolutely slay.

There aren't enough linear, story driven games anymore. It allows for some really wonderful set pieces and spectacle. Just looking at all the bizarre alien worlds is a treat in that game.

A close second for me is the Artful Escape. Shout out to gamepass as I never would have checked it out otherwise but I'm glad I did. What a fun experience! Again, fantastic visuals and soundtrack.

Up next for me is Fallout New Vegas and Forgotten City once that comes out on Game Pass.

I'll get around to Psychonauts 2 hopefully too! But I feel like I want to play the first one first.

I played a lot of solid smaller games this year but nothing that really knocked it out of the park.

The most fun I had was probably The Ascent and Psychonauts 2

Honorable mentions go to games from past years that I played this year:

A Plague Tale

Katana Zero

Hollow Knight

Psychonauts 2 is definitely my pick, I absolutely loved it. I also liked Inscryption, Hot Wheels Unleashed, and Metroid Dread

Edit: Honorable mention to Flight Simulator, which came out on PC last year, but the Xbox port this year is really excellent.

I think Wildermyth has taken over the top spot for me away from Hitman 3. I love tactical strategy games and this fantasy XCOM style game where your dialog choices can have profound affects on your character, let alone party composition, is really agreeing with me. The game is not afraid to challenge you and mix up game play when encountering a boss which keeps things fresh. Also, an excellent value for the money at only $25.