The title of this post made me think about the best and worst I’ve played this year.
The best:
- The Case of the Golden Idol. Short and sweet mystery game in the vein of Return of the Obra Dinn. Not quite as good IMO but I still liked it quite a bit.
- Marvel’s Midnight Suns. Don’t let the IP fool you, this is a really solid turn based strategy game, occasionally with really solid writing. The “dating sim”/downtime parts were surprisingly fun at best and dragged down the pacing at worst.
- Death’s Door. Really cool, minimalistic, take on a Zelda-like game. Similar to Tunic in a lot of ways. Funny, cute and probably the best game about death I’ve ever played.
- Moving Out. I don’t think I’ve ever laughed as much while playing a game as I did with Moving Out. It will always hold a special place in my heart for allowing me to connect and laugh with people I love but don’t get to see very often.
Generally I mostly play games a while after release and based on recommendations I trust. As such there aren’t many real stinkers I can think of (plenty of games that I found overrated though). With that said, here are my worst:
- Doki Doki Literature Club. With the way this game is set up it’s all about the twist. The problem is that the game it pretends to be until then is incredibly boring. Maybe it would have helped if I wasn’t somewhat aware of what is really is but generally I found this game to be a slog.
- Turnip Boy Commits Tax Evasion. Games that rely heavily on humor are always hit or miss. Unfortunately this one wasn’t for me in and the actual gameplay was incredibly bare bones.
Thanks for reading! What is your list?
Cocoon - short with no dialog but really enjoyed the puzzles
The Talos Principle 2 - great puzzles and well done story. Really enjoyed it.
Far - Lone Sales - the start wasn’t super intuitive but didn’t take long. Short, no dialog. Ok puzzles. Fair enough especially on sale
Dave the Diver - Really good. Didn’t finish since I played it enough that it didn’t drive me anymore. That’s not the games fault since I tend to do that and rarely play longer games much with my schedule.
I expect you to die 2 - short and alright. Loved the first one, second wasn’t as good but not bad either
Stray - I really enjoyed this one. Fantastic world setting and ambiance even though it’s too short for some people’s taste I found it to be really good.
Gorogoa - Really weird and really good. I love deeper narratives revealed over time and this one hit me like Rime
Best: path of exile Worst : path of exile Shout out to kingdoms of amular rereckoning and stray.
Best:
Tears of the Kingdom: what else is there to say about this game that hasn’t already been said? It improves on Breath of the Wild in just about every conceivable way. The only real downside to me is that it raises the bar so high for the next new Zelda title that it may not be possible for it to reach that height.
I can’t really think of a game I played that would be considered “bad” this year so I don’t really have a Worst, but just making a post acknowledging that TotK was hands down the best.
That said, I didn’t really play too many new games this year in general, so here is what I did play: Fire Emblem Engage, Persona 5 Royal, Pokemon Ultra Sun, Fire Emblem Echoes, Lunistice, Symphony of War, Super Mario RPG Remake.
If I had to give out a Worst among that list it would probably be Symphony of War because it doesn’t really have the polish of the others, it’s an inexpensive indie title and it shows, but I can’t definitively declare it the Worst because just about all the other games it’s compared to above are from big studios and that’s not fair to it, pretty much an apples-to-oranges comparison.
I’ve played many games this year. The highlighting are:
- Fallout 3 - I forgot how fun this game is. Especially the exploration;
- Witcher 2: Assassin of Kings - good game as well;
- Dead Rising - a truly hard game, that is also fun. Zombies!
- Dead Space (2008) - still an awesome game!
- Star Wars: The Force Unleashed - the game is fun with the graphics and Force powers. Even though most boss fights are lame;
- Silent Hill 2 - still awesome!
- The Callisto Protocol - pretty good game! Surprised me how good it is;
- Star Wars: The Force Unleashed 2 - what a garbage game. Bad boss fights just to pad the game out.
I played the balls out of the Dead Rising series through the third game. Definitely check out 2 if you like the first one. Off the Record is a fun retread of the second game if you take a break before playing it. 3 was a bit poorer received at launch, but on an SSD, it’s still a damn fun game.
Never got around to the 4th game. It sounded pretty soulless from the reviews
Best: System Shock: turns out the 90s darling gal can still run with the best of them in 2023 thanks to Nightdive’s excellent remake. Citadel Station was a real blast to explore. It almost made me disappointed to see how little gaming has advanced since that time, I’d have expected to view the remake as a relic of a simpler time. Instead I played something way more fun than the typical hand-holdy shooters of today.
Cyberpunk 2077: Update 2.0 made this a real videogame. I absolutely hated playing Cyberpunk 2077 when it released, so much that I refunded it. The combat felt awful and floaty, the RPG systems felt stupid and poorly thought out, and don’t even get me started on the bugs. 2.0 is the reason to buy the game again, and with modding support already available I have a feeling this game is going to grow the kinda legs of Witcher 3 and Skyrim. CD-Projekt Red managed a real miracle. Oh, and the DLC is pretty rad too.
Warframe: There’s been a lotta new content added to Warframe this year, and it’s all been pretty good! I was a little worried about the game considering the change in leadership, but Rebecca Ford knows what the players want and seems really skilled at walking the fine line that makes a grind enjoyable. If you’ve never played, and have always wanted to play a mass murderer in space with magic powers, I’d recommend hopping in.
Worst:
Elden Ring: Miyazaki please where is the DLC. It’s been two years, I just want to play through a new poison swamp.
I pre ordered cyberpunk, was so excited and never finished it. Should I give it another go? Can I use my Xbox controller on PC?
Definitely should give it another try if you still have it. The writing and creativity of the quests is still top tier, but now the combat is incredibly fun. You probably can use that controller, Steam is pretty good about third party controllers these days, but I wouldn’t know much. It’ll definitely play well on a controller though, though you might want to grab the keyboard if you’re going to do any advanced inventory fiddlin.
