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Some years, figuring out what goes in this slot is kind of a foregone conclusion. Of all the games on this list, AC:NH is the only one I've touched damn near every day (Hades' Star excluded). It's not just a game that I played but also something I did with friends, it's something that deepened and enriched my relationship with my partner.
It was a stabilizing influence during a year that was absolutely vacant of those kinds of things.
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I feel weird putting this so high on my list when I kind of hit pause on it after beating Hell House. I never played the original Final Fantasy VII, but goddamn if I didn't find the first ~30ish hours of this game the most compelling time I've spent with a video game in years.
The Hell House fight was the first/only moment in this game where I felt like they were clearly trying to recapture some real "this is utter bullshit" moment from the original game? It absolutely killed any forward momentum I had and was such a waste of all the goodwill I had accrued for the game up until this point.
However, it's a testament to this game's character work and design that I still think of it so fondly and it led me down a path of exploring a range of other Final Fantasy games.
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In the same way that I touched ACNH nearly every day, Blaseball is something that I cannot overlook. Even though I wasn't able to muster the time to follow every story beat or every twist and turn, it's hard to dismiss how much joy I derived from Blaseball over the year.
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Even in early access with some real clear rough edges, Phasmophobia delivered such a compelling experience that it consumed my friend group for weeks on end. I've long since given up on waiting for a game to come out of early access to give it its due in these kinds of situations. As it stands, Phasmophobia has the same kind of impact on me that Left 4 Dead did: if someone randomly asked me if I wanted to play a few rounds, I'd already be putting my headphones on and connecting my mic.
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Speaking of early access, I still think of CK3 as an early access title even though it delivered on many of the aspects of CK2 that I found so compelling. This game burned bright and hot for me for a month and then I decided to take a break.
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Speaking of games that burned bright and hot for me before I switched to something else, Hades was one of those. I still haven't put together a proper win yet. I don't think I've had a more compelling roguelike experience since Haque came out. The way Hades blends narrative and roguelike elements is so seamless and pure and it's such a testament to Supergiant's skill that they've turned out a game that reminds me of one of the best roguelikes to come out in recent memory.
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God I was so excited for Spelunky 2 to come out and even though I feel like I haven't given this iteration its due, I'm definitely sympathetic to the complaints that, in attempting to make the opening areas more interesting to experienced players, it made that starting area such a profound challenge to newcomers (or folks that are a little rusty). Derek Yu is capable of creating games with real legs, though, so I don't see myself uninstalling Spelunky 2 any time soon yet.
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At the end of 2019, I picked up the full version of this game for PS4. Burned through the main campaign as well as the Seed of Evil DLC and thoroughly loved every minute.
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2021
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