2019 sure was a year. It sure had some video games come out too. Some of them were bad, but lots of them weren't!

BEST OLD GAMES

I got around to some old games (either again or for the first time) and I feel like they should be shared and played if you haven't.

Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines

With the announcement of a sequel (wait what?!) I went back to this. Honestly I cannot tell you much about the base game because upon downloading this again, the first thing I did was install a bunch of mods. There are a ton of them, and I honestly don't know which ones are good and bad. I used the Camarilla Edition Mod mainly and had a very good time with the game. It's dated of course, but there's still not a lot of stuff like it around. I sincerely hope V:TM-B2 keeps the spirit alive.

Planescape: Torment (Enhanced Edition)

(Un?)surprisingly this game still holds up for me as well. This is a game that had a lot of parallels drawn to Disco Elysium so I decided to go back and play it again. I get where the comparisons are drawn but I wouldn't really say so myself. Still love this game, haven't beaten the playthrough yet but I've been playing it on the Switch and while it doesn't bring back the same nostalgia as playing on the PC, I adore being able to lay in bed and play for an hour or two before I fall asleep.

Fire Emblem: Warriors

This is my bucket of shame. I loved the Dynasty Warriors games as a kid, I haven't played one in forever really. I love the Fire Emblem games, but I don't necessarily have any affinity for the characters themselves. That said, this is by far the best Musou game I've ever played. Part of me wishes the wrapper were your typical Dynasty Warriors characters, but I still enjoy this game a whole lot. I'm through the story-ish and unlocking the weapons for people in the alternate stories or whatever they are called.

Minit

I haven't played enough of this yet, but what I have has been charming. Each run lasts a minute (surprise!) so I feel stupid every time I play. Doubly so because I forget where I was going between last time and the current. Also why I haven't progressed enough in it. I do like the little I have played.

Dota 2

I hate myself. That being said, all the changes have brought me back in a big way. I'm awful (only Archon 1) but it's fun and the changes are pretty fun.

Games of 2019 I Want to Play (That Deserve to be Named but I Haven't Touched)

Outer Wilds

Cadence of Hyrule

Sayonara Wild Hearts

Untitled Goose Game

Game of the Year List

Here's the main event - One of my regrets (as with the games above that I simply haven't touched yet) is that the last few games on this list I haven't spent enough time with yet.

10 - Oxygen Not Included

So when I put my lists together in the past with friends, I never included early access games. Oxygen Not Included being out now means that it belongs here, even if I haven't played since. I was eagerly awaiting 1.0, but then it got pushed back and I never got around to it since the official release. That will be rectified.

9 - Slay the Spire

A deck builder! Everyone loves a deckbuilder! I am surprised that I like the game as much as I do, because every run leaves me wanting another. I also need to play this game more.

8 - Baba Is You

Brain Is Broken. Like has been said elsewhere, I don't know if a game has made me feel the highs of "Holy shit! I AM SO GODDAMN SMART!" to the lows of "I'm in pre-school eating crayons again." from level to level. Opus Magnum did a little bit, but not to the levels of Baba.

7 - Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice

I had a controller issue, so the way I played this was with mouse and keyboard. There's a reason I didn't play too much of this, only beating a few bosses before tapping out. The controller is fixed, and so will be the fact that I haven't beaten this game. It would probably be higher if I spent more time with it, but I just haven't.

6 - Pokemon Sword/Shield

There are many issues around this game. I've been a big fan since I was 10 playing Red and Blue on the big fat OG GameBoy. They could have absolutely done better. The framerate drops that plagued the later 3DS games is still around here, there are muddy textures, many of my favorite Pokemon got cut. Want to know what's not bad? The actual game itself. The Pokemon formula is still extremely fun - almost like there is a reason it's the biggest franchise out there. Also I think it's the best music in a Pokemon game ever. Thank you, GameFreak. Do better, GameFreak.

5 - Control

I have slightly uneven feelings about this game. I'm a huge fan of the aesthetic and atmosphere they absolutely nailed. There were great moments in the game. Yet somehow I didn't feel as pulled in as I should be by everything in and around this game. I can't quite put my finger on why, but I just felt that some of the in-between moments were a bit of a letdown. Also (keep in mind this isn't necessarily a positive or a negative) the map was pretty hard to use. That was offset by the fact that there was no real need to use it, once you trained your brain to not play this like a regular video game. It was much easier to navigate the environment using the in-world directions around the building than it was to use the map.

4 - Final Fantasy XIV: Shadowbringers

Shadowbringers is (personally) far and away the best MMO story. IT HAS A NIER RAID AND MUSIC NOW. Dancer and Gunbreaker were pretty dope. I've fallen off playing FFXIV (for now, I always go back) but this game consumed me for months after launch. It's not my preferred style of MMO (I grew up an EverQuest kiddo and would rather play slow, group-focused games like that but outside of EQ there aren't any worth playing right now) but it's far and away the best one. World of Warcraft is still the rightful "Amount of Content" king, but FFXIV is tops of the class in themepark MMOs. I play these games and normally end up min-maxing off the bat, but Shadowbringers brought so much around that I made a new character to go through the entire story again. Parts of it are a slog (hello end of ARR/prior to Heavensward) but I thoroughly enjoyed the refresher and playing through Shadowbringers a second time to enjoy the stuff I have forgotten and to see how those played with each other.

3B - Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night

I love this beautifully broken game. There is so much just... batshit insane broken stuff in this game that I was to get and max out every shard. I've always appreciated Castlevania from a distance but never played many of them myself. I feel like every point I want to write about this game has the addition of "THERE IS JUST SO MUCH HERE" at the end of the sentence, but that's the only way to explain this. Do you want to invert the level and run around on the ceilings (which seems like it can just break some boss fights)? Go ahead. Want to beat a Ninja in a footrace and then be able to move at superhuman speeds? Go for it. Shoutout to the Heretical Grinder.

3A - Hades

This is still in early access, so it's maybe not an official part of the list but here we are. Hades is created by Supergiant Games. Prior to this they've made Bastion, Transistor and Pyre. All of those were good games. Hades is their best game yet, which is saying something. This games release on Steam means I made an impulse purchase of it - and promptly dropped like 15 hours in a week in a half. That's a lot for me in single player games, as most of my time feels like it's spent either playing something with friends or hating myself in Dota 2.

2 - Fire Emblem: Three Houses

This is just a Persona game hidden in a Fire Emblem wrapper. That's the best. I've done 2 full playthroughs of this game and am on my third. None of the specifics stand out to me (It's a weird convoluted JRPG, of course) but the formula is right up my alley.

1 - Disco Elysium

I might be a sorry cop, but at least I remember my name now.