10. Final Fantasy XV

This game is a departure from what Final Fantasy has been in the past, while trying to adopt some modern conventions it doesn't quite nail it, but the world, characters, and gameplay it does deliver made for a unique experience. Pacing and story issues aside, I can't deny I had a good time.

9. Dragon Quest Builders

If you give me a free-form building game I usually run out of ideas early on and get bored. This game gave me just the right amount of direction I needed while still giving plenty of room for creativity. By the end of each world I was pretty happy with the little base town I had built.

8. Batman: Arkham Knight

Say what you will about this being so similar to the previous games, I enjoyed those ones as well. This one in particular might be my favorite, as the generational jump led to a big improvement city size and scope, without sacrificing the personality and style that drew me into its world.

7. Stardew Valley

I didn't spend as much time on this as I'd like so far, but I can tell it's something special that belongs on this list. Any time I had tried to get into a Harvest Moon game in the past, I'd run into design/control/ui annoyances that added up made me put it down. This feels like it's addressed those, added a ton more things to do, as well as having a memorable cast of characters.

6. Ratchet & Clank

While this game probably ranks higher on my list due to nostalgia for the original PS2 game, it still does an excellent job of splitting the difference between being faithful to that game, yet tightening up in areas that benefit the overall pacing, and incorporating the newer gameplay elements of the series that weren't present the first time. Also it look amazingly CG movie-like and I say that unironically.

5. Inside

This has some clever puzzles, great atmosphere, memorable moments and set pieces, and doesn't overstay its welcome. It also looks great and has an incredible amount of detail packed into every area and animation.

4. Doom

This came out of nowhere as a game that had no right to be good, but modernized the franchise in just the right ways while taking itself as seriously as it should (not at all) and made for big, loud, dumb fun. It looked and ran great as well.

3. Final Fantasy XIV: Heavensward

While this is a release I played last year as well, it felt inaccurate to not include it again considering the continued content patches coupled with the amount of time and fun I've had with it this year. Taking a break to try to go back to the other MMO I used to play's new expansion made me appreciate what this one has to offer even more.

2. The Witness

I had been looking forward to this game for years and it did not disappoint. It does such a great job of introducing you to it's own puzzle vocabulary and gating your progress only by your knowledge as a player. The game world is beautiful and handcrafted in such a deliberate way and everything has meaning.

1. The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt

While I had no background in previous Witcher games, I quickly came to enjoy the world and cast of characters. In a game with player choice, you run the risk of making your protagonist too much of a boring blank slate or your choices feeling either meaningless or unintentionally comical on some scale of moral absolutes. Somehow this game pulled off interesting choice while managing to tell a great cohesive story, and Geralt has a strong personality while still leaving some room to play him your own way. Even though I spent over 200 hours between the main game and the expansions, felt like very little of that time wasn't meaningful or interesting in some way. Very few side quests felt like filler. Even hidden treasure locations usually had an accompanying letter or journal entry. Also I had a great time playing Gwent, and I'm not even a card game person. This is the game I hope everyone that works on games plays and can take away some lesson or insight from. And when the time is right, I look forward to jumping back in to new game plus and seeing how things play out differently.