I don’t complete many games so in 2023 it is a grand total of 2…

Inside, it was very eerie and I had fun. I even went back for the alternative ending.

Jusant, a relatively new game and I found it very enjoyable. Definitely made my top 10 games list and I still want to go back and find all the collectables.

Huh, I don’t really track this, but Steam kinda does, so I’ll reconstruct it. I’ll give my ratings on a 5 star scale, with 3 being “fun but not special” and 5 being “highlight of the year.”

January:

• Golf Club Wasteland - 3 - apparently renamed to Golf Club Nostalgia; pretty cool golfing game

March:

• Ori and the Blind Forest - 4 - fun Metroidvanias

April:

• Deponia trilogy - 4 - I love point+click adventure games (nostalgia), and this was better than expected

May:

• Relicta - 3.5 - the puzzles were all quite good, except a couple at the end
• Nuts - 4.5 - very interesting gameplay
• A Juggler’s Tale - 4 - I’m a sucker for these kinds of games
• Nier: Replicant - 5 - fanatic story, got me pumped to play Automata, which I’m currently playing

July:

• Blue Fire - 4 - fun action game, with Metroidvania elements
• Yakuza Kiwami 2 - 3.5 - not as good as either Yakuza 0 or Yakuza Kiwami, but still lots of fun
• Raven’s Hike - 3 - fun platformer
• Klocki - 4 - fun, short puzzle game
• Zelda: Breath of the Wild - 3.5 - pretty fun, but a big disappointment vs other Zelda games

August:

• Perspective - 4 - really cool free tech demo, unfortunately, I don’t think the mechanics would work well as a full game
• The Bridge - 5 - really cool non-Euclidean puzzle game, very Escher-esque (M.C. Escher is my favorite artist, so I’m a bit biased here)
• Ittle Dew - 5 - really fun Zelda-like, with lots of great commentary/satire about those kinds of games

September:

• Darkside Detective - 4.5 - again, I love point and click games, and this was really funny too
• Hexlogic - 5 - great puzzle game with an innovative sudoku-esque feel
• Grand Mountain Adventure - 2.5 - fun, but getting around could be pretty tedious, and I wasn’t a fan of the top down view

October:

• Human Resource Machine - 4.5 - fantastic programming puzzle game, would be 5 if the last few puzzles didn’t completely suck to finish (so tedious)
• Return of the Obra Dinn - 5 - fantastic detective/puzzle game
• Darkside Detective: A Fumble in the Dark - 4 - great follow-up to the first; nothing new, just more great point+click goodness
• Zelda: Skyward Sword - 5 - fantastic dungeons, decent story and side content; I bought this and Link’s Awakening instead of Tears of the Kingdom

November:

• Instant Farmer - 3.5 - good puzzle game
• Manifold Garden - 5 - innovative puzzle game
• Cats in Time - 2 - kids liked it, but it was a finicky hidden object/escape room game

December:

• Mirrorama - 3.5 - puzzles were pretty good, but the story was really odd
• Rob Riches - 3 - fun puzzle game, not too challenging (though getting minimum moves was occasionally tricky)
• Little Nightmares - 4.5 - great game, weird story, scratched several itches; I didn’t like the DLC flashlight “fighting” sequence, and some puzzles were a little obtuse

And some bonus in-progress games I hope to finish soon:

• Nier: Automata - 3.5 so far, but likely going to be 4-4.5 later, I’m still pretty early into it (just finished first major boss fight)
• Inscryption - 5 - I’m almost done, I’m in Act 3 with two known bosses left
• Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky - 3.5 - I haven’t touched it since earlier this year, but I really enjoyed it at the time, I just haven’t been motivated to dig back in; got about halfway through I think, maybe a little more
• CrossCode - 3.5 - enjoying it so far, just haven’t played for a couple weeks; will probably play a bunch over Christmas break; score will probably go up
• Bendy and the Ink Machine - 3.5 - weird horror game, I think I’m close to finishing, but I’m not sure
• Red Dead Redemption 2 - 3 - started, but didn’t get far enough for it to grip me; the original was a 5, so I expect good things
• Ys: Oath of Felghana - 3.5 - pretty fun, but I dropped it because other games seemed more fun; will probably finish soon (about 10-15 hours in)
• Hollow Knight - 4 - just started (finished first major boss, recently unlocked fast travel), so it may get a better score as I get further

Mine list is quite short:

Mass effect: Legendary edition - As it’s three games under one name it took me probably two months to complete. Coming from ESO Skyrim and Withcer 3 at first I wasn’t sure will it catch my attention beacuse it wasn’t as open as previous games, but by the end of first game I found myself really invested in story.

Blacktail - It was great weekend game. I had hard time separating myself from it.

Sipder Man: Miles Morales - really liked all interweaving of stories, fighting minions became kind of repetative toward the end, also I really liked chasing (by web swinging) missions.

LEGO: Batman - It was alright as I mainly plaed it for brain rest. Plus LEGO: batman 2 is much better in playability (and stablility).

Finally completed Little Inferno plus the DLC that apparently dropped last year(???!!!). I think it hit me harder than when I first played it years ago.

Too many 100 hidden [object] or Cats Hidden in [City] type games to count. None cost a whole lot, and I feel like I got my money’s worth.

I’m trying to go through my growing digital libraries and complete what I can. (But we all know the winter sale is coming soon…)

I’m usually better about patient gaming, but I sunk a lot of hours into a certain very popular new release this year. The older releases I did finish:

JRPGs

• Atelier Rorona. Very chill game, enjoyed it once I got into a groove. I wrote up a more detailed community post on it earlier.
• Atelier Totori. Simultaneously more funny than Atelier Rorona and more dramatic. Went some places I didn’t think it was going to go. The UI/UX in this was rough, which makes me think I’ve yet to play my favorite in this series.
• Shin Megami Tensei IV. I really had to fight to get through the first few hours of this one. I may not have if it wasn’t my Discord server’s game of the month. Had a good time with it otherwise, aside from the occasional unwinnable random encounter. Excellent soundtrack.
• Triangle Strategy. Solid gameplay, though it had fewer RPG elements than I’d like (equipment options in particular). There being a branching story was interesting, as that’s not a common thing in this genre. Not easy on the ears: atrocious English voice acting, forgettable soundtrack.
• Xenoblade Chronicles 2. If I said I found the gameplay uninteresting, the quest design dated and that I was annoyed by the overall look of the game, one would think I hated it. However, I sunk right into the story and got very attached to Pyra for an overall (surprisingly) positive experience.
• Xenogears (replay). Still one of my favorite stories in gaming. Desperately needs a re-release with an English script revision.

The Rest

• 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim. What you get when you pair a visual novel with exceptional, detailed sprite art. The combat sections are meh and I ran into more than a couple annoying chapters early, but the story has really grown on me since I finished it.
• ⭐ Hardspace: Shipbreaker. My favorite in this post. Relaxing gameplay and great unconventional storytelling. If the game had a way to import my own music, I might still be playing it.
• Metroid Dread. Super annoyed by the first couple hours, loved almost all of the rest. I also had a writeup on this one.
• Night in the Woods. Cute design and dialogue. On the other hand, I’m very uncomfortable with how plausible the story is.
• Phoenix Wright: Dual Destinies. Not the best Phoenix Wright. This one took me a few years to get through.
• Unpacking. Surprisingly moving. It’s an interesting way to tell a story, and I did enjoy the game, but I don’t think I’ll be jumping at playing any copycats this might spawn.

Oh hey, I was debating one of these…

January

• Spark the Electric Jester - Surprisingly good classic Sonic clone with a soundtrack that punches well above its weight. Doesn’t run as well as a game of its type should, however.

  B (Would have been an A if not for performance issues)

• ittle Dew - Short puzzle game set up in the 2D Zelda style. Puzzles are clever enough to be engaging without the difficulty getting so hard that its frustrating. Had seen some of the characters in other games that the group produced, so it was fun to see ground zero.

  B

• Freedom Planet - Decided to continue the Sonic-like train. Had bounced off of this one in the past due to the… acting… however came back after learning there was a no-cutscene mode. Has a lot going for it and an overall enjoyable experience

  B

• Warhammer 40k: Dawn of War - A friend got me watching videos related to Starcraft which got me in an RTS itch. However, Blizzard is on my no-play list due to a number of reasons under the being-bastards umbrella. I thought this would get close enough. It was pretty good! Not quite what I was used to in an RTS, with just a few unit types and upgrades. The campaign was a fun little romp that put in a commendable effort

  B

February

• The Procession to Calvary - Basically a Terry Gilliam animation turned into a game. Completely farcical point and click adventure. Enjoyed it quite a bit, but I can get down with stupid humor.

  B

• Final Fantasy XIV Stormblood - Rather than keep a constant subscription, I’ll buy a month of time for an MMO every couple of months when I get the itch to play. My wife has been excitedly pushing me along as well so that she can talk with me more about the story. This expansion is widely considered to suffer from what I call Dark Souls 2 syndrome. Good in its own right, but sandwiched between more memorable experiences. I don’t know if I fully agree, as I enjoyed my time with this quite a bit. May have been that the location split lead to more varied environments than the ever-present cold of Heavensward. I am excited to move to Shadowbringers after getting through another season of blasted patch content.

  B (Expansion grade only)

March

• Divinity: Original Sin Enhanced Edition - This was my first Larian game. I had heard that 2 was excellent and there were good words about Baldur’s Gate 3 at the time and so gave in to my completionistic nature and started with the first. It was quite good, if not quite what I was expecting. For one the tone was far more comedic than I had thought going in and it was quite different than the typical RPG by having a handful of large maps with a finite number of enemies rather than more numerous small ones that repopulate. I would come to learn that this is Larian’s style.

  A

• ICEY - I had often heard good things about this and had been meaning to get to it for quite a while. I kind of wish that I hadn’t, in the end. The star of the show here is the unreliable narrator throughout. This does lend to a more interesting experience than otherwise, but ultimately doesn’t lead into a bigger theme or narrative. It still could have been a generally positive experience if the combat weren’t so pants. I didn’t hate it, but was still thoroughly let down after hearing so much praise

  C

• Hedon Bloodrite - The first of the two chapters in it at least - On the edge of horny but never crosses the line into embarrassing. A solid Doom clone that favors much larger and more labyrinthine levels than its inspiration. Weapons were varied and all filled a niche rather than overlapping. Had a fun time and am wondering why I haven’t done the second part yet.

  B

April

• The Murder of Sonic the Hedgehog - The title makes it feel like a shitpost, but it was cute enough. Nothing special but did pull out enough chuckles from me that I can’t disparage it too much

  C

• Eternal Senia - A very simple game that I believe is RPG Maker? The graphics have that style, at least, but the combat is a bumper system more like the original Ys than anything turnbased. Again, inoffensive if a touch bland. I have a soft spot, though, for Ragnarok Online and this plays it some homage in the designs.

  C

• A Little to the Left - I agree with my wife here in that the game is fine when its fulfilling its premise of satisfying organization game, however it loses faith in itself too early. That or the devs ran out of ideas for things to organize. Too many stages are spent trying to figure out the pattern that the devs want rather than simply organizing things yourself.

  C

• Doom Eternal - I had a blast with this. I had liked Doom 2016 quite a bit, but this blew me away. The faster pace, more varied levels, and well designed arenas elevated this game to one of my favorite shooters of all time. Enemies are supposed to be obstacles in games, but I found myself excited whenever I knew that a big fight was about to take place just for how fun it was. It’s less that Doom Eternal is awesome, and more that calling something awesome is to say it resembles Doom Eternal.

  S

May

• killer7 - I’d like to think that SUDA51 at least knows what’s going on here. I give this one a lot of bonus points to carry it through the jank, the impenetrable story, and the regular moments of getting lost for just how original it is. I can appreciate when someone tries something really out there because sometimes it leads to a real gem. While I wouldn’t say this is a gem, it is not a failure either. I can definitely understand others adoring this game.

  B

• Warhammer 40k Dawn of War Winter Assault - Did you know that this game is four games? Me either. Around this time in the year, a friend of mine commit an unforgivable sin of getting me into Warhammer. I don’t know if I’m going to make it. With that interest and good feelings of the previous game, I continued through the dubiously labelled expansions. This one was pretty good! I rather liked how it was split over multiple factions rather than just being space marines the whole time. Overall just more of the same, but that’s fine when the starting point is good.

  B

June

• Warhammer 40k Space Marine Anniversary Edition - Continuing what I’m sure is just a temporary kick and not something that will haunt me for years, I played Space Marine. This reminded me of the mid level PS2 game of the past that I think that the industry needs more focus on. It offered a fun action experience without requiring every coin in a sultan’s coffers to put yet more polygons on the screen. Just a jolly time killing Orcs and Chaos Marines. I sure do hope the sequel doesn’t suck

  B

• Street Fighter V Story Mode - While SF4 is technically my first Street Fighter, I started right on the ass end of it. Further, I didn’t have any real kick of the game until well into 5. I’m not one to do much competitive play, both a coward and generally bad at the game, but still enjoy myself well enough with fighters. I had gone through each fighter’s personal story the year before (easier than it sounds) and wanted to clear out at least the story mode before 6 came out. Both the story and the art style gave off every impression of a kid playing with action figures, which sometimes is all you need. Given that many fighting games have recently foregone single player campaigns completely, I can appreciate even a competent one.

  B

The only substantial one I remember beating this year was Outer Wilds +DLC. Beautiful game that’s like nothing else I’ve played before, though I’ve got leads on other games in the same vein. Otherwise, my young kids have been getting big into co-op games, so we’re playing those alot. We never really make much progress though, so we just have alot of hours in party games.

The game if chess. Several times too!

It’s actually a crazily cool game IMO. You heard of the hyper accelerated dragon? Of the blind swine check mate (even a blind swine can do it) others are from the 13 century and so on…

French, Danish, the London System.

There is something for everyone, even the loser (you’ll eventually lose half your games in a good matchmaking anyways) ; humility.

Here goes mine roughly ordered by date of completion:

God of War (PC): Excellent action game all around. You can see where all that AAA budget goes.

Doors: Paradox (PC): Charming indie puzzle game, easy and chill.

Uncharted: Legacy of Thieves collection (PC): Finally an Uncharted game playable with mouse and keyboard.

The Dungeon Of Naheulbeuk: The Amulet Of Chaos - Back to the Futon DLC (PC): Expansion-sized DLC, more of the same and brings the story to a close.

The Division 2 & Warlords of New York (PC): Full 3 player co-op campaign and expansion playthrough. Not a huge fan, but enjoyable with friends.

Half-Life: Alyx (PC, Valve Index): My second full playthrough. Still amazing, still the very best PC VR has to offer.

Kena: Bridge of Spirits (PC): Beautiful and bittersweet. Not too hard but some optional challenges are.

The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom (Switch): Went in without much hype, and spent 200h over 2 months going at it. A strange case where the expansion is bigger and better than the base game 😉

Risk of Rain 2 (PC): Managed a couple successful runs in co-op then stopped. Roguelikes are not my thing, but co-op games are.

Planet of Lana (Xbox): Short and sweet puzzle platformer. Not high fidelity visuals but quite nice nonetheless.

Ratchet and Clank 2016 (PS4): Played this anticipating to play Rift Apart later on. Very good for a newcomer to the franchise like me.

Remnant 2 (PC): Excellent sci-fi Souls-like with very good replayability. Great both in solo and co-op (did ~2.5 playthroughs).

Guild Wars 2 Secrets of the Obscure (PC): Fourth expansion for this 11-year old MMORPG. Best in the genre as far as I am concerned.

Cyberpunk 2077 (PC): Been waiting for years until I heard the game was finally “finished”. Still encountered some jankiness but a compelling and memorable experience nonetheless.

Marvel’s Spider-man Remastered (PC): Had it on PS4 already for the kids for a couple of years, bought it again on PC on sale to get the best experience.

Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart (PC): Gorgeous and bombastic fun, strongly recommend. Surprisingly it’s a sequel of the main series, not of the 2016 reboot.

Jusant (Xbox/PC): Kind of a vertical walking simulator. Eerie and original, does not overstay its welcome.

Dead Space 2023 (PC): Had bounced off the original pretty quickly back in the day. This remake got me hooked all the way to the end.

Endless Dungeon (PC): Odd mix of action rpg, tower defense and roguelike. Not that great, but its co-op support picks up the slack.

Marvel’s Spider-man: Miles Morales (PC): Not as good as the original in my opinion, but tighter and shorter.

Operation Tango (PC): Co-op only short and unusual first-person puzzler.

Also, I will likely be done with Resident Evil 2 2019 and Cocoon before the year is over.

Axiom Verge

Technically Eldenring sorta. I’m sorry I’m not fighting that sorry excuse for an end boss to finish an already weak story.

The best part of playing the witness was it helped me discover Joseph Anderson. I don’t really care for his video essays (a tad on the pretentious side for me) but his live play throughs are gold.

I think I competed Tomb Raider, Super Hot,

I also played endless games: Team Fortress 2, War Thunder, Factorio, Planetside 2

Gosh, I’ve realized I don’t finish games lol. I’ve put many hours in Forza Horizon, Factorio, Pokemon, Cities Skylines, and incremental games but here are the ones I actually beat in 2023 so far, although I’m about to beat Pokemon Scarlet so I’ll include that too.

1. Pokemon Sun (cartridge). (4/10). Why am I rating this so low? It’s my least favorite Pokemon game I’ve played. I finished it this year, but started it in 2018. The game leans way too heavy on the story and not in the gameplay. The game felt like a huge downgrade from OR/AS. It also plays incredibly slow. Not touching Gen 7 again. The battles were nice and intense with enough difficulty to excite me though.

2. Chip Defense (8/10). You can find it on F-droid, and it’s free. It’s a little tower defense game with a theme on CPUs and instructions. It took me a few hours to beat all the levels and it hooked me.

3. Pokemon White (emulator), limited pokemon center challenge. (9.3/10). I absolutely love Gen 5 and I did a challenge a lot like a Nuzlocke but more interesting and far less stressful. You can only catch the first pokemon on each route, and any non-forced heal would cost 5000*2^(number of prior heals done) poke dollars. That way, I could have a pokemon faint and not have it be the end of my 40 hour playthrough. I actually (unintentionally) lost to Ghetsis at the end but I planned for that and had enough money for one more heal, and then beat him the 2nd time.

4. Factorio Bob’s/Angel’s (hardcore Factorio mod). (9.5/10). Do you like Factorio but want 10x more complicated recipes that include lots of byproducts to deal with? Then this mod is for you! It took me 123 hours to launch a rocket, and apparently that’s pretty quick. The base is one huge pile of spaghetti with a 90 lane bus split into three.

5. Pokémon Scarlet (cartridge). (8/10). I haven’t quite gotten to the credits yet but I’ve beaten the Top Champion so I’m very close. This game is one of the most fun pokemon games imo despite being extremely flawed. The open world is a huge breath of fresh air after the last 4 gens being 4 big lines. The frame drops are not the really annoying thing about this game, it’s the cutscenes and long battle animations. (Gen 7 was even worse with this). The exploration isn’t groundbreaking but I love how random encounters were ditched for overworld pokemon (even with the lamentable draw distance), that you could run into and instantly fight without a 10s cutscene playing. Trainers are finally all optional. I don’t play for the story but it’s one of the better ones for pokemon games. Having multiple arcs at the same time keeps things interesting for me. The game isn’t the most difficult (probably average+ for pokemon standards) but I made it satisfyingly hard on myself when forcing myself to comply with set mode, no items in battle, and trying to win while underleveled. Also the music is a masterpiece, bravo Giacomo.

I may be missing a few, but this is most of them I think. I don’t usually have a whole ton of time to sink into a game, so I usually only finish games if I really like them, hence all the scores being quite high. Next year I want to try and expand what I play a bit, and try finishing games that might not hook me immediately. When I used to have more free time, the games that took me a while to get into would become some of my favourites, so hopefully I can find some of those next year, but it’s hard when I’ve only got a couple hours a week at the most (though I’ve had a lot more time the last couple weeks thankfully). Anyway, here’s everything I saw end credits for this year:

Elden Ring - 9.5/10 - my only souls experience before this was Dark Souls III several years ago, which I had remembered thoroughly enjoying. ER surpassed my expectations and completely blew me away. I became completely obsessed for months. Not much else got played for a while. Dec 2022 - Feb 2023 was all just ER. Very excited for the DLC, whenever that comes out.

Sekiro - 9.9/10 - the closest to perfect of any game I’ve ever played. The chained ogre and the blazing bull feel out of place, but aside from those two mini bosses, I’d say the game is flawless. Probably my favourite game of all time now. I tried playing it for a little bit before attempting Elden Ring and didn’t like it, but after I saw every last pixel of ER, I decided to give Sekiro a second chance and I’m glad I did. I’ve done everything you could possibly do in that game, probably 4-5 times. And I’ll continue to redo them, probably every year as a tradition, unless they come out with either a sequel or another game with the same combat mechanics.

Dark Souls Remastered - 9.5/10 - continuing with my FromSoft binge, DS1 blew me away about as much as ER did. Probably tied with ER for second favourite game ever. I still haven’t fully 100% completed it yet, but I’ve killed every boss and beaten the game. I do want to get all achievements at some point but haven’t gotten there yet.

Dark Souls III - 9/10 - replayed this one, and loved it even more. Nostalgia definitely helped, but so did competency. I sucked at it my first time around all those years ago, but with multiple FromSoft games under my belt, replaying this was a totally different experience. It felt amazing destroying bosses that I suffered with many years ago. The game itself also happens to be phenomenal. Probably the best collection of bosses in the series, and Midir is still the only boss I haven’t been able to beat from any SoulsBorne game.

Hollow Knight - 9/10 - played this one for the first time this year. I understand the cult-like following it managed to get. It’s awesome. I’m not amazing at it but I’ve gotten decent and I recently started a second playthrough. It’s probably a top 10 game for me.

Dishonored - 9/10 - not my first playthrough, but first in a while and somehow better than I remembered. I’ve held this game on a high pedestal for a long time, and upon replaying it, found it surpassed my memory somehow. Usually it’s the other way around. Definitely a strong recommendation from me.

Celeste - 8/10 - craving a super tough challenge again after putting a pause on souls-likes, I decided to give this one a try after hearing very high reviews. I’m glad I did, it was a blast. I haven’t completed all the optional challenges yet, but the main game and the side stuff I have done have all been exceptionally well made. Clearly a lot of hard work and love was put into it, you can tell immediately. If you just do the main content and ignore all challenges, it’s a pretty short game, but the challenges add a lot of content which I like. I’ll probably replay it in a few months.

Gunpoint - 9/10 - this one really surprised me. I figured I’d like it but damn. The music is exceptional. The gameplay is addictive. Everything about this is great. Short but sweet in the way that it makes you wanting more. I genuinely can’t wait until it’s been long enough for me to forget a lot of it and can replay it. Honestly if it wasn’t so darn short it would be a top 10 game easy, maybe even top 5. It’s just over way too soon, which is the only thing holding it back. Every single person should at least check this game out. Truly fantastic.

Starfield - 8.5/10 - weird for me to play a new game but I gave this one a chance. I know it got a bunch of criticism, but I loved it. Felt like Skyrim in space. I see why people were disappointed, and there are lots of valid criticisms. But for me they just don’t apply, and I had a blast with it. Looking forward to making a new character in the future.

Batman Arkham Asylum - 8.5/10 - probably my third or fourth time completing it, but I really enjoy this one. I think City is my favourite, but this is a close second. It’s just a bit of a shame that I have most of the puzzles memorized by now. But an absolute classic that everyone should play.

Currently playing: since the news of GTA6, I’ve been going back and forth between GTAV and RDR2, which has put a pause on the Hollow Knight replay. I’ve beaten both before, and they’re both high on my favourites list. Probably in the range of 9-9.5/10 for both. Not sure if I’ll complete either one by the end of the year, but my girlfriend apparently loves watching me play GTA which was cool to find out. She asks me every day if I can play it so she can watch. Half the time I just do stupid shit and we laugh our asses off. It’s great. Probably some of my favourite times together recently.

I got 100% achievements on Elden Ring.