There were A LOT of really wonderful video games released this year, making getting this list together more difficult than normal. I had to make cuts that I didn't like and more so than in previous years, I have a rather sizeable list of games I haven't had a chance to start, let alone finish.

So here are the best 10 games that were released in 2016:

10. Enter the Gungeon

I’m going to be upfront and honest with everyone, I haven’t actually beaten Enter the Gungeon. I got to the last boss. Once. In co-op. This rogue-like twin stick shooter is hard. It’s also a lot of fun, with tight controls, good weapons, and great art design. Runs can take 30-45 minutes but it still has that “one more run” draw that games like this need.

9. Forza Horizon 3

Forza Horizon 3 looks like just another Horizon game, and in some regards it is, but it’s also the best the series has ever been. Playground Game’s condensed version of Australia (it’s not as condensed as The Crew’s gloriously messed up US but I’m sure natives notice) is stunning in HDR and the miles of open road and open countryside are a blast to tear across. The game also gets credit for actually making me want to listen to electronica.

8. Hitman

The new Hitman is the true sequel to Blood Money that I’ve been waiting for since 2006. The maps are so packed full of ways to cleverly eliminate targets that I’m sure I still haven’t seen everything that the even first level has to offer. Once, I poisoned a guy’s hookah, followed him into a bathroom, and drowned him in the toilet he was vomiting into. Another time I dropped one target’s body out of a window onto the second target. The game’s release structure worked to its advantage, something that can’t be said for any other episodic game I can think of, letting the intricacy and brilliance of the level design really sink in.

7. Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE

A Persona game in everything but name, TMS#FE managed to pull me in and stick around in a way that no JRPG has done since, well the last Persona. The game has an amazing soundtrack with a bunch of original songs, a very well localized script, fun characters, and style for days.

6. Final Fantasy XV

The plot makes very little sense for the first half of the game and not that much more once you hit the second half. Most quests amount to little more than fetching various items for NPCs. The game doesn’t run particularly well. On the surface it seems like FFXV should be a total mess of a game but there’s something almost indescribable in its allure. The combat seems thin at first but experimenting with the different weapon types slowly reveals a combo-system that lends to exciting and stunningly animated encounters. The game makes you care about Noctis and his three best friends in a way that can’t be said for a single character in FFXIII and its two sequels. After finishing the game all I wanted to do was spend a few more days with Gladiolus, Prompto, and Ignis.

5. The Witness

The Witness is unforgiving in a way that very few games are. There are no tutorials, only puzzles that teach you exactly what you need to know. You either learn the rules of each type of puzzle in the game or you hit a wall. I have a small notebook that was key to making my way across the island of The Witness. It looks like the scribblings of a madman but trust me, if you’ve played the game, if you’ve conquered the island, it all makes sense.

4. Picross 3D: Round 2

A complete 180 from The Witness, Picross 3D: Round 2 gives you very explicit instructions and has a small number of simple rules. There’s a purity to the process of deducing the correct blocks to destroy and the correct blocks to keep that lets you get lost in the 350+ puzzles on offer. After completing everything the game has to offer I would instantly buy any new puzzles Nintendo put on the eShop, if only they would wise up and do it.

3. Overwatch

It takes a lot of work to make a Team Fortress 2-style, class based FPS, and instead of balancing, say 5 classes, going and making over 20 characters. Blizzard then went a step forward and infused each and every hero with a unique personality and look. Overwatch oozes personality on top of being a first rate shooter that’s fun both casually and competitively. There’s a good reason the game has built an intense following this year. Blizzard also deserves credit for recently outing Tracer, the game’s cover character and the closest thing it has to a mascot, as lesbian. LGBTQ representation matters and it’s awesome to see that manifest in an already awesome game.

2. DOOM

I have spent a large portion of 2016 preaching the gospel of DOOM. It looked like Bethesda was sending the game out to die. It had been in development for what seem like an eternity, the multiplayer beta wasn’t very good, and they weren’t sending out review copies. After all of the signs pointed towards a total disaster it turns out that DOOM is better than anyone could have imagined. The Glory Kill system, which looked liked boring QTEs before release, turned out to be a brilliant design decision. In concert with a swath of satisfying weapons, the perk system lets you approached the game’s open and complex combat encounters just how you want to. My personal favorite has to be the ability to have infinite ammo when you have sufficient armor combined with another perk that gives you armor for every Glory Kill. The game pays winking homage to its predecessors, recognizing what made them great while successfully evolving the series. Somehow, 23 years after it launched first-person shooters into the forefront of gaming, DOOM is at the top of the genre again.

1. Titanfall 2

After finishing the World Factory mission of Titanfall 2’s campaign I told a friend that it would go down as one of the best levels in modern FPS history. By the time I finished the full game that level was the THIRD best in the game. Nothing else released this year feels as good as moving in Titanfall 2. The ease of transferring from sprint to wallrun to slide and back to sprinting is seamless and when you get a good movement chain going it feels like flying. Much like DOOM, the campaign feels like an absurd power-fantasy but while DOOM does one thing extremely well, Titanfall 2 continuously introduces new ideas and twists to its gameplay. Moment after moment left me grinning like an idiot or laughing at what a blast I was having. Outside of the amazing campaign Respawn has refined and tweaked multiplayer in smart ways that have made an already great game better. The combination of campaign and killer multiplayer is what really moves Titanfall past DOOM and makes it the best game of 2016.