Talos Principle 1 + Gehenna (Had it for years in my library collecting dust), finished it to 100% and am currently playing Talos Principle 2. These games are absolute gems and not even expensive for what you get, too. The people at Croteam are genuine masters of their craft.
Outer Wilds + DLC. Not just one of the best games I’ve played this year, but one of the best games I have ever played.
Honorable mentions:
- Cruelty Squad
- Life is Strange: True Colors (really wish it were longer)
- Budget Cuts 1 and 2 (VR only)
Outer Wilds and its DLC is my absolute favorite game of all time and the best I might have ever played. Full stop. There is just so much to it that one doesn’t expect from the surface. It was an experience I still think back to every now and then.
Currently playing Cruelty Squad and enjoying it quite, too.
Based Cruelty Squad Enjoyer.
Outer wilds is definitely one of my favorites too. I went in blind which was awesome. Completely caught me off guard right after the tutorial. I didn’t expect such intricate mechanics
LOVED Cruelty Squad
Hate LiS Colours—loved the first game.
Need to try budget cuts.
Out of curiosity, why did you dislike True Colors? I really loved 1/BtS, but really disliked 2. True Colors felt like a proper spiritual successor to 1
It was soooooooooooo cheesy. So much more than the first. The second was terrible, definitely worse than True Colors. But True Colors was just cheese after cheese.
Sludge Life. Was such a fun little world with a killer art style. Has some really funny moments in it. I saw there were achievements for different endings so I may go back to it at some point to and try for those. Oh and a cool OST to go along with it
Days Gone, since it just released on gog and I wanted to give a triple a title another shot. It turned out to be pretty good, fun driving and gameplay, and the hordes were terrifying.
Also I was amazed how well this game was running, 4k 144hz butter smooth on a 4070. Kudos to the developers!
Hard to pick. I would say my favorite new game is Slay the Princess. My favorite game I’ve returned to, and I returned to a lot this year, is Deep Rock Galactic. Rock and stone, brother.
Throughout the year I played:
-Secret of Mana (haven’t played in 15 years or so. Game still holds up)
-Xenoblade Chronicles 2 (and the Torna DLC). The main story is fantastic. A bit quantity of quality with all the Blades.
-The Legend of Zelda: TOTK. This game is great. Ultra hand blows this game wide open
-Xenoblade Chronicles 3. Finish this one up now and about to start the DLC. Story IMO is the poorest of the 3 games. But they took the best of the first two game’s battle mechanics and improved that system.
Probably XC2. It was a lot of fun.
For the indie horror genre: Your Spider
Dyson Sphere Program Cities Skylines 2
Both because I like systems and I like to build.
Final Fantasy 5 and 6 are fantastic 16 bit JRPGs.
FF6 (Final Fantasy 3 in the US) gets a ton of acclaim, but I highly recommend finding a translated ROM of FF5.
I usually get bored when RPGs require too much level grinding, but they are paced nicely.
Mechabellum
Vampire Survivors and its horde of clones
It’s close between Baldurs Gate 3 and Nioh 2.
BG3 is just that good, but Nioh 2 is one of my all time favorites, and I finally cleared everything in the game, early 2023.
How is noone screaming about Lethal Company? I have never had more fun that playing that game last few weeks. True its “short” even with mods but sooo worth it.
Just started this one but Afterimage is becoming a big favorite of mine. A really great Metroidvania game.
Older, but also played Frostpunk. It’s a really great twist on a city building game. Highly recommended.
One odd ball I’ll throw out is Last Case of Benedict Fox. It’s a complete mess of a game, but the exploration and puzzles are a lot of fun. I never realized how much I want a metroidvania where you go around just solving puzzles. If LCBF just dropped all combat and focused on puzzle-solving it would have been a lot better.
BG3 for me. It’s been a while since a game has captured me so much.
Yeah I need to start this at some point, have only been hearing good things. I’m just not a huge fan of turn based but this might switch my mind.
I’m just not a huge fan of turn based
Me neither but honestly it fits really well into the game and it’s really enjoyable. The story, characters and gameplay really shine in this game.
Found out my cousin bought it and we both game share our Xbox’s so looks like I have no excuse now!
I did not enjoy the combat in the D:OS Larian games because I was so used to real-time with pause combat from the old Infinity Engine games. Will grab BG3 when it goes on sale in a year or so.
Super Mario Wonder is the best 2D Mario since Super Mario World. There is so much attention to detail and the polish on every aspect from the gameplay to the way enemies act and react.
Super Mario RPG is the ultimate remake. It kept absolutely everything about the original while adding a few minor gameplay enhancements. Best of all, the graphics look like the original CG readers from the 90s but with perfect modern sharpness.
Deathbulge Battle of the Bands was an unexpected favourite. It’s a light-hearted turned based RPG with Earthbound and Undertale vibes, an amazing soundtrack and interesting and humorous characters.
Deathbulge Battle of the Bands
Ah, I see you’re a person of culture as well
