by jjweatherman
That's right, these are the ones.
Honorable mentions are listed below number 10, and mostly consists of games I just didn't have enough dang time to play as much as I wanted to.
Showing 1-10 of 25 items
When I think about Infinite Wealth as well as the lead-in, Yakuza 7, I just can't help but smile to myself and honestly want to jump back in and explore more of it. And that's after spending tons of hours completing many side quests already! These games are such a perfect blend of crazy storytelling, emotional moments, and combat that legitimately punches up there with any other top turn-based RPG. I was also inspired to name my cat Ichiban... Definitely gets my top spot this year, and I look forward to where the series goes from here.
Neva falls into that category of games that're just an "experience." It actually lead me to pickup and finish Gris afterwards as well since it's the same studio, and I liked Neva that much. There's just enough combat to keep things challenging and engaging, and the art is on another level. Super enjoyed this one, as well as Gris, and happy to have discovered this developer this year. A great experience on Steam Deck, playing this in bed, I will say.
Minishoot falls into a very similar category for me this year as Tinykin a couple years ago. Just a smaller, super cozy game that you can play without overthinking, and just fills a void in your soul. I really enjoyed the exploration in Minishoot, even if it was a little ambiguous at times as to exactly where I needed to be going. Once I let go of that being a negative and embraced the adventure, I fell in love with everything this wonderful game had to offer.
This game surprised me! I'm definitively not an Indiana Jones fan, as I've never seen any of the movies, but I'd be lying if I said this game didn't immediately capture my imagination and kinda make me want to go and watch some of the films. Machine Games are killers in the game dev world, and I fully appreciate what they've been able to craft in this first-person melee action based adventure. The hooks get you quick, and the pacing pulls you through as long as you don't allow yourself to get bogged down in the many side activities around the handful of open world maps. I haven't finished this one yet, but it's made a fantastic impression, and has done enough already to make it higher up on this list. Color me impressed.
I'm in agreement with lot of folks it seems that Astro Bot is basically the embodiment of pleasant, satisfying gaming. It brings back an era of platforming in games we haven't seen since maybe Mario Galaxy. Great game, loved the controller features (seems like the only game to use that controller effectively, even still!). This game just made me happy to spend time constructing my PS5-ship, and it was a great time finding all the nostalgic characters. I wasn't as affected by the ending, but regardless, great experience.
Yep, I fell into the Balatro hole too. For me this was a super fun time as I was discovering jokers and experimenting with new strategies. It was a quick burn for me, and I did move along fairly quickly, but what a good burn it was! A burn not dissimilar to winning with a single hand and having your cards catch fire... What a great feeling.
This is another one that I haven't finished yet, but I definitely love everything I've experienced so far. The photo map pin mechanic is talked about for good reason. The combat and world exploration of the game is what's hitting me the hardest. What a cool thing from a series with a long history. Prince of Persia 2008 is another of my favorite games in this series, and I feel like the art direction on these specifically is just top-tier, and really goes a long way. I will be finishing this one soon!
Echos of Wisdom is one of those games that had infinite potential it seemed pre-release, but did end up falling just a little bit short on execution. That said, it still ranks up there as one of the best I've played this year. Even a lower-tier Zelda is still an excellent experience, and I had a ton of fun with this one. Summoning any echo you want at any time was great. The couple times that echos are taken away and you need to solve puzzles without the tools you've come to rely upon was also clever. Nintendo, please make more games that allow us to play as Zelda. This could be the start of a cool direction and hopefully a long line of Zelda-focused Zelda games.
Okay, I need to defend this one. There is a lot of negativity going around about this game, and I'm here to say: I don't really get that! This is essentially Mass Effect 2 meets Jedi Fallen Order/Survivor. The main character, Kay, is not mind-blowing, but pretty great and decently interesting. The story revolves around a failed heist, and then traveling the galaxy to build a team to pull the heist again and redeem yourself. That's right, building a team! Recruiting all the key players to pull off the job. There's always something satisfying about that. I don't know man, I feel like this game gets such a bad rap, and I think it's a lot of fun. It's lower on my list, but partially because I started this late in the year and still need to experience the entirety of the story. So far so good though. The combat and action is exciting too. It is a stealth game a decent amount of the time, but I find those sections enjoyable for the most part as well--just works well with the character and story. Anyway, go play this if you have interest in the Star Wars universe and want to role-play a space scoundrel building a heist crew.
Brief history of my experience with Call of Duty: I played CoD4: Modern Warfare and loved it for obvious reasons. It was transformative. Following that, I haven't played more than snippets of any CoD game. Never played a Black Ops of any kind. Well, Gamepass and positive word of mouth got me into this one, and dang if it didn't just pull me through the entire campaign with its variety in mission structure and provocative story. I was impressed! This isn't at the top of my list or anything, but I was definitely impressed, and appreciated being able to play this as part of my existing Gamepass subscription. The feeling of the game is as tight as I remembered it being. I only played a handful of multiplayer matches, but that felt well-built and seems to have all the progression anyone could want. The campaign was what I was there for though and it surprised me multiple times. Very cool game.
