Game of the Year 2021
In many ways this was the year where the chickens came home to roost. The delays that started to appear in 2020 were amplified as 2021 progressed and we ended up with tons of anticipated games that seemed to be lifted out of their release windows and punted into the future. There were plenty of great experiences but it just wasn't a year that inspired me to write about them in the moment. Don’t get me wrong-- I’m ready to wax poetic about the games that really grabbed me-- but the list is shorter than it has been in the last few years and I wrote much more of it retrospectively. I don't think it helped that even though I played more new games this year than I ever have, I bounced off of a higher percentage of them.
This glut of new games isn’t actually a bug, it’s a feature. I managed to find an Xbox Series S and subscribe to Gamepass. It’s everything that people say it is—a helluva service—and I was able to try a ton of games that I never would have risked money on. In some cases, especially with indies, I even used Gamepass to demo games I eventually got on the Switch.
It’s been great to avoid the console wars (Vomit. People who take it seriously are still the worst) and approach the positives and negatives of both ecosystems without a habit corporate loyalty. For example, I appreciate that Microsoft has focused so heavily on backwards compatibility even if the main menus and UX on the Xbox are miserable to look at and I think I prefer the Dual Shock 5 as a controller and still prefer the interface of the PS5 (despite the MASSIVE step down that Sony took from 4 to 5). Like I said, both have positives and negatives.
Outside of games my life was brighter than I would have expected considering the state of the world. I spent the year with my new baby. She’s happy and healthy which is (obviously) the only truly important thing to me, but I’m also relieved that I’ve had plenty of time to keep up with the games that help me stay centered and relaxed.
So, this year was a flaming wreck for the world, a bit mixed for games, and an undeniable joy for me personally. If that's the way 2022 continues, I can think of worse things, but I hope they all trend up.
-Aodhhinsai