2022 was a weird year for gaming. It started very slow but with a few very big releases like Elden Ring but then was relatively calm until late in the year for the holiday season. Also development during the pandemic continued to be a problem as a lot of developers have delayed games into early 2023. The new consoles continued to have somewhat slower sales due to shipping and supply issues, although that appears to have been sorted by the holiday season. The biggest news of the year is the proposed merger of Activision and Microsoft. Time will tell if it's completed by mid-2023 as forecast.

As the bigger studios struggled this year with their releases independent developers helped to fill the void with their own varied releases. Also, a few games worked around this be producing additional DLC packages forgoing new entries. This probably allowed for one of the most varied years in game genres and releases in a while.

List items

• 1. Total War: Warhammer III

  Total War: Warhammer 3 wasn't always my top pick for the year as the original release with the Lost God was fine but very limited (campaign wasn't really free form). But with the release of Immortal Empires by summer which brings in all the content from the previous Total War Warhammer games, it easily reminded me of the insane scope and scale Creative Assembly merging together the previous 2 games in the series along with their associated dlc into one giant campaign package.

• 2. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Revenge

  Shredder's Revenge is an insane callback to the old coop TMNT brawlers of my childhood and does everything right. Tight responsive controls, great animation and music help make this a great tribute game that also holds up as a great brawler on its own.

• 3. God of War Ragnarök

  As one of the big games this year, God of War Ragnarok hit all the right places with great showpieces, graphics and music. The only thing holding the game back was a story that I felt was weaker than the God of War reboot 2018 as the mystery and merging of Kratos being in Norse mythology is gone and there are very few references to Kratos's past as this is mostly a story about Atreus and Ragnarok.

• 4. Vampire Survivors

  Vampire Survivors is the very definition of a game this is easy to learn and difficult to master. What really makes this game stand out are the late game powers fill the screen and really help make it make your character appear as the center of a bullet hell shooter.

• 5. Not For Broadcast

  Not for Broadcast finally completed it's early access releases this year and I'm glad it did. A FMV game about running the control room for a nightly news program, the chaotic nature of running multiple cameras, censors and other random challenges during a live broadcast. The story is also interesting as focusing on certain characters and segments change the public's perception of events along with changes to the program itself (which make sense in context of the game). Definitely one to check out for fans of fmv games.

• 6. The Quarry

  After Until Dawn, I wondered why Supermassive Games did not attempt another large scale horror game. While the Dark Pictures games are nice they lack the scale of the larger games. I'm glad The Quarry finally released allowing for a longer horror experience.

• 7. Trombone Champ

  Trombone Champ is a silly good time.

• 8. Horizon Forbidden West

  Horizon Forbidden West does everything a sequel should. Bigger and more refined than it's predecessor. It could have ranked higher but somehow the game feels too big almost like it's bloated.

• 9. LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga

  LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga was delayed so many times I wondered if it was very going to come out. Luckily it finally released and you can tell the wait was worth it. A semi open world Lego action game and also a loving tribute to the Star Wars saga. The fact Traveller's Tale was able to make this game feel fresh after already doing several Lego Star Wars games is an accomplishment worthy of praise.

• 10. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II

  Modern Warfare 2 is a good successor to the Modern Warfare reboot but I felt it moves in more in the action direction and also is more interested in the newer characters at the expense of some of the others (Gaz in particular).

• 11. Victoria 3

  Victoria 3 is a good management economic management game but somewhat lacking in the nation and military management portions of the game. As it's a Paradox Interactive game I'm sure this will be improved in the coming years (along with loads of DLC).

• 12. Arcade Paradise

  Arcade Paradise is fun, laundromat simulator that also includes an arcade simulator with playable arcade games.

• 13. Teardown

  I didn't play enough Teardown to rank it higher on the list but it definitely has some of the best destruction shown of any game in recent memory.

• 14. Bayonetta 3

  While I did not enjoy it as much as Bayonetta 2, Bayonetta 3 still has the crazy action expected from the series.

• 15. Live A Live

  The HD-2D remake of Live A Live looks and play great.