Here are my games of the year. It was a weird year, because despite having nothing but time at home, I didn’t really play that many games. I just played the same few games a lot. Here is my top 10. And many of them didn’t come out this year.
This has been the game. All of my friends play it. It’s the first game in years that I can log in to and see at least two buddies playing it at all times. Great game to shoot the shit with the squad over and chat and catch up while running around. The map is intricate, and it feels like I discover more each time I play. The guns feel great to shoot. It balances the anticipation of the fight with action in a way that feels both measured and exciting. And when I finally got my first win a month or so ago, I absolutely lost it. Great game, the best BR on the market right now. Bone Zone all the way, baby.
I remember as I drove from home back to school right when lockdown was announced, I picked this up on the drive. Really defined the beginning of the pandemic for me and gave me a source of relaxation during it all. When my school was still off, I’d wake up at 10, do some meaningless chores for a few hours and it was amazing. I’m not a big collector, so I didn’t really stick with it (I probably played around 40 hours), but that’s not really what I wanted from this game. What I did play, I really enjoyed.
This game is old, and ugly…. But it really captures the magic of Lord of the Rings. This summer they did a promotion to get all of the quest packs for like $7USD, which I got in on…. There is so much here to like if you want to mindlessly kill stuff in Middle Earth while you watch sports or something. The game is dated, certainly, but it feels familiar if you have ever played WoW. This all said, without the promotion, the monetization in this game is absolutely incomprehensible, and it’s segmented in a way that makes it either extremely hard or extremely expensive to get the content you want.
I went back to this game during the summer after I built a new PC. What a great RPG. Great narrative, great visuals, good voice acting, and combat that doesn’t totally suck. A lot here to love, and while I can’t usually bring myself to finish massive RPGs, this was the exception to the rule.
This is the first CoD I’ve played for years, and I really am enjoying it. The campaign was stupid as hell but surprised me in it’s variety and range. The set piece moments were fun, and the visuals were great on my Series S. The multiplayer maps are a mixed bag, but I think that the highs are high. Excited to play more this year.
I wrote about this game earlier this year. While I didn’t love playing Dishonored 2, the atmosphere is second to none, and I really think they nailed the aesthetic and feel of a grimy, shitty steampunk world.
This is the first game I played on my new Series S. It was a great case for the new d pad on the Xbox controller. During quarantine me and my 2 roommates played the hell out of multiplayer, and we had a blast.
I just got into watching F1, so I picked up this game. It’s hard, but it feels super rewarding to learn a track and run a super fast lap. A good game, especially for F1 fans.
I hate the direction Magic has taken. I know people make ridiculous comments about corporate greed ruining games, but in the case of Wizards of the Coast, this is 100% true. In response to negative feedback about the price of products, the director of the game says “well, this game isn’t for everyone”. When someone says that about a children’s card game, something has gone wrong. That said, if Arena had come out 5 years ago, it would be my top game of all time. A fun, intuitive interface and nice art make this the best digital version of Magic by far. It was a nice game to play as I had my morning coffee, or during boring meetings. But I think I am done with magic until the fix it.
I couldn’t even get through this game it was so terrifying. I also didn’t love the puzzles. It’s on this list because when quarantine started, I played it as my girlfriend watched, and she loved it. So that was cool.
