This wasn’t a milestone year for gaming, but certainly there were loads of games worth playing. Below are all of the games I spent time with and mostly enjoyed. I’m straight stealing the letter grade in parenthesis from Kottke. Enjoy!
Elden Ring - This was my favorite game of 2022. I never quite got the fervor that surrounds the “souls” series or any of the other FromSoftware games frankly. Not until Elden Ring at least. I was scared of it at first. Of course their fanbase is excited for it, but I’ll go in and be lost, get my teeth kicked in, and uninstall a week later. Then the momentum and hype around it only ever built. Videos and stories of all the cool things going on in my timeline. I sprung for it and they were all right. Probably a top 5 game in the past 10 years for me, but I haven’t thought that far out. (A+)
Resident Evil 8 - A 2021 game that folks loved and I ignored. I’ve been burned by the franchise too many times post RE4 (2005). I didn’t want to believe in the RE7 (2017) hype and then The Besties named RE8 their game of the year. They were right on every front. (A)
V Rising - I need and love a good survive together game. I played V Rising with my kids, friends, and brother and we had a blast. Throw in vampire themes, diablo style gameplay, and interesting boss battles and this was a banger. (B+)
Grounded - Playing survive together games solo can be rewarding too, not nearly as one would hope, but you can do it well. I loved the Honey I Shrunk the Kids vibes, but this game was balanced for playing with friends and it showed. (C+)
Tunic - A little pinch of souls, a heavy dash of Zelda, and so much game guide nostalgia from the 90’s. The amount of mystery baked into this game is exciting and overwhelming in very good ways. If you want to get mega deep and really understand how far they went this spoiler thread from a dev who worked on the language & audio ciphers in the game is excellent. (A-)
Rogue Legacy 2 - Just talked about this on podcast (ep. 198). It is a great follow up to the platforming rogue-like from 2013. I waited to get my Steam Deck to play it, which was 100% worth it. (B)
Stray - Co-op played through this bite sized single player story with my 10 year old and we loved it. The puzzles, story, and world were excellent. I’d take 5 more hours of it, if the gameplay was slightly more compelling. (B)
TMNT: Shredder's Revenge - We bought a third PS5 controller so that my wife, 10 year old, and I could play this together. I could not play through this game on my own, but as a couch coop game it was aces. (B)
Horizon Forbidden West - When I was hiding from my destiny to play and love Elden Ring, I nestled up to the Horizon sequel for warmth. It was fine, but the story got too complicated, there were 10 million things to do, and not many of them all that fun. I gave up on exploring halfway through and powered to the end. (C-)
God of War Ragnarök - My expectations for this game could not have been higher. The original game (4th game) was easily on that imagined list of top 5 games mentioned above. This game continued the story, gameplay, and themes from its predecessor, but did so with a little too much cruft and some pacing issues. Still great, but not capital G. R. E. A. T. (B+)
OlliOlli World - A sequel that got a gigantic visual overhaul to make it evoke major Adventure Time energy. I adored the overworld and the continuation of the hyper precise controls. The true successor to Tony Hawk in my opinion. Play it on the Switch or Steam Deck. (B-)
Cult of the Lamb - Rogue-like + town manager turns out to be a fusion cooking style I can get behind. Balancing those two elements is challenging, but Cult did so almost all the way till the end. (B)
COD: Modern Warfare II - This feels like an abusive relationship at this point. I buy COD every year, I get frustrated with their inconsistent approach to these games, and then I play a ton of them with my friends. This years entry has been extra crashy, sports a sleek new confusing UI, and takes away features they had “figured out” in favor of change for changes sake. I’m still playing it 1-2 times a week (D)
Sifu - This game burned so bright when I clicked with it, but frustrated me to no end when my skill set and hand coordination were not ready to match it’s difficulty. The hallway fight is the perfect example of the inspiration it takes from Kung Fu films, if you don’t play Sifu at least give it a watch. (B+)
Weird West - Lots of the original Fallout in this game, or really any isometric RPG of that era, but Fallout was my one of those. Throw that into a grim fantasy wild west and liked this a lot. The changing characters per chapter was a cool concept, but it is also where I punched out. (C+)
Tinykin - An Xbox Game pass treat, among many this year. Never heard of this until it dropped, but a fun way to spend a rainy/lazy Saturday. Rinse and repeat on the Honey I Shrunk the Kids vibes here, but with an equally tiny and welcome total playtime. (B-)
Somerville - There is some shared DNA with Limbo and Inside, but it is not the same developer. It is short and worth playing, but some clunky gameplay gets in the way of the otherwise fun and expansive story this tells in under 4 hours. (C)
Vampire Survivors - This game is so simple on it’s face that I assumed the hype was just that. Jump to me on my 16th run and two hours in. It also feels built for mobile, which turns out was a surprise announcement last week. (C+)
Teardown - Technically this game came out in early access in 2020, but when it came out in 2022 “officially” I ran at it again. The idea and the presentation are probably better than the execution. The missions can take way too long (30+ minutes) and the return to already explored levels is too frequent. (C)
Nobody Saves the World - Almost forgot this one, but I played a load of it and was surprised how unique and creative it got with every new character you could play. This could have been all consuming start to finish if there was not a mid-late game grind that kicked in. (B)
Steam Deck - What a joy to pick up a new piece of gaming hardware that is so considered and well crafted. The power + user experience + price point mix is near perfect. I think the thing that is easily lost in the comparison to the Switch is how well refined the Steam Store is compared to the Nintendo’s eShop, let alone the power disparity, build quality, etc., etc. (A)
