This year was an amalgamation of ol' reliable (Hades, Deeprock, Apex), working on my single player backlog (Doom Eternal, Prey), and hopping around some niches like anime murder mystery and slightly elevated flash games.
The following list is the order of games that I enjoyed and played this year with a short blurb about my time with the game.
Hail to the king, one of the few if only games I've ever gone back to after getting all the achievements. Playing with different combinations and pushing higher heats kept me going. I tapped out around 20 heat with my favorite weapons: Bow, Fists; and had a wonderful time.
Truly one of the best cooperative multiplayer experiences still. Been playing this one for a while now after being hesitant to jump in and boy I regret it taking as long as it did. Rock and Stone
This is not as good of a game as many other by it in this list but I did not laugh at anything else near as much. Living my best cannibal life and chasing my friends around yelling "OMNOMNOM" while chowing down on arms and legs was hilarious and so much fun.
A really inventive idle game with a great art style and just enough complexity to really want to dive in. Loop hero really was a fun experience this year and I really enjoyed my time with it.
Coming back to the DLC/achievement hunt, this game is as good as I remember. Arkane truly made some special sandboxes to play around in with really fun tools to get through the game. I did my first high chaos runs which really helped with the stress of some of my pacifist ghost runs.
I tried to push myself this year and with the help of some really extensive guides by WoolieGaming I finished my first monsoon runs and became way more consistent in the game. Excited for the expansion coming soon and it truly was a great game.
Wow. I cannot believe how long it took me to play this game but with the sequel coming out and my friends speaking really highly of the game I'm glad I finally did. The writing is so funny and good it was absolutely worth struggling through some of the more aged parts of this classic.
I came into this game after the final cut and wow the voice acting in this game is INCREDIBLE. I've been meaning to come back to the game but this is a hard one to replay but is a very special experience the first time. Not many games give you in depth conversations with your tie.
The DLC for this game was more outer wilds and building a self contained expansion into their physics sandbox is a feat. While it didn't grab me the same as the original game (literally one of my favorite gaming experiences of ALL TIME) it was still incredibly special and I'm glad I went through the strangers halls.
What a game and with continued development this is a really special game and I haven't played much else like it. As a huge weenie I can only play so much but WE GOT GHOSTIES TO HUNT.
Turns out this game from last year is pretty fun. I did get a few characters that I think really helped with my enjoyment with the game. Currently using this to wait for monster hunter rise next month.
(How many Bethesda published games are on this list) YEAH so I didn't enjoy this game as much as Doom 2016, there were many interesting and cool aspects that ID software pushed in the sequel. I still need to go through the DLC but their unrelenting difficulty really pushed me out from part 1.
Arkane represent. While not as good as dishonored I really enjoyed the weirder aspects of this game. I still need to play with some of the more alien powers and the Mooncrasher DLC; I had a really fun time with the game. Arkane truly makes some special environments to play around in.
Gave this game another go this year, and I did look up a few things in order to push further into this truly bizarre game. The play and art style are really unique and I definitely got sucked into this strange narrative thread.
God I am so bad at this game. Like Terraria and Minecraft before it my brain has not got this game yet but I know there's more to learn.
A streamlined factorio, I had a much better time with relatively less playtime. Again, better with friends to carry you but definitely was a fun romp while it lasted.
A true vibing experience, a city planner game for people bad at city planners (me) with a timeless cell shading art style and enough complexity this makes for a great few hours of gameplay.
After finishing Danganronpa, I went on a bit of an anime murder mystery kick. Of those games I played Paradise Killer was my favorite. I think the strange world and art style was incredibly interesting and I had a great time unwinding the many mysteries of the world.
Disclaimer: I've only played the multiplayer but Grav hammering a ghost in the first few games truly brought me back to playing halo 2 multiplayer in my bedroom way back when.
HEY ITS LEFT FOR DEAD 3. While I was fairly early into the development of this game (thanks gamepass!) Excited to see where it goes and how it develops in the next few years.
While my time on this game waned, its a truly special game. I really enjoyed the pirates of the Caribbean crossover and the constant updates are always fun.
NO IDEA where this one came out of but made for some really fun rpg experiences. With some help from others better at the game I got through the base scenario and really enjoyed it. While fun with friends it definitely makes it much harder to coordinate
Respawns battle royale is still good. Where's the new titanfall?
This has an asterisk in the fact that I'm still waiting to go back with a new computer and play this but from what I HAVE done (very little) its been absolutely wild how far you can travel between places. Excited to find more depth in the game and with constant updates there will always be more to find.
TO BE CONTINUED. Man I'm bad at video games. While my time with this game was short, I really enjoyed the time I spent on it. The environments and music are incredible and I hope to really dedicate the time to this game that it deserves at somepoint.
Like echoes of the eye, more subnautica was good. I think I enjoyed my original experience better I'm still glad I got to this in 2021. The music is incredible and pushing a more narrative experience was interesting. I wonder where they'll go next.
In second place for anime murder mystery standings this one (at least compared to the zero escape games) I appreciated the relatively less amount of dialogue and it had just enough replayability without dragging on.
A fun quick self contained adventure I really enjoyed this one. Had good puzzles and an interesting enough story to warrant a playthrough.
After playing the browser game this made for a few fun romps. Pretty basic game I got for free and had some fun with it.
The final of the anime murder mysteries, this series was very fun but the heavy emphasis on replaying the same things over and constant dialogue really weighed down my experience.
I want to like this game. The puzzles are incredible but I cannot stand the gameplay. The story gets good enough 7 chapters in but the gameplay is a slog. I never felt like I was progressing in a meaningful way and was just so underpowered all the time that I did not enjoy/finish this game despite trying to force myself to do so. It might have been that I was misunderstanding something about the combat but after 30 hours and completing 8/10 chapters I couldn't do it anymore.
