Back on the other website, there used to be a sub called r/12in12 where people would try to beat 12, 24, 36+ games per year. I never really set myself any specific target like that, but the end of year reviews were always fun to read/write. Considering that I don't think a single game I beat came out this year, I think this is the right community to ask this.
What games did you beat this year? What did you think of them?
For me:
January:
Nothing!
February:
Spider-Man: Miles Morales 7/10
When I first played Spider-Man on a PS4, I didn't like it. The 30fps cap made the swinging feel clunky and nothing about the rest of the game made up for it. The PC release finally comes around and at last I get the hype, the web swinging is so good. The combat is very Arkham and it's fine, the story is fine, but the web swinging is just so good. Spider-Man Miles Morales is just more of that.
The Zachtronics Solitaire Collection ?/10
This game is responsible for Steam thinking that Solitaire is one of my favorite genres of games. There are multiple versions of the game here, most of them are fine but Fortune's Foundation is probably my new favorite version of Solitaire. I don't know what I'd rate this out of 10, but I got 90 hours of entertainment for my $10.
March:
Split / Second 8/10
The PC port sucks, you have to use a fan patch to remove the 30fps cap, the controller support is terrible, but there's nothing else like it. It's a fantastic arcade racer with a super unique premise. The rest of the industry seeing this and Blur bombing financially is probably why racing games are so goddamn anemic now which is such a shame.
April:
Rakuen 7/10
I've never really gotten into any RPG Maker games like this, but it had great reviews and I needed something battery-friendly to play on my Steam Deck. Rakuen was pretty darn good, the characters are well written and the environments outside of the hospital are pretty. The story is a little predictable, but I think that's fine what it wanted to tell.
May:
Hotshot Racing 6/10
What's here is fun, but there's almost nothing here. I beat the entire campaign in about an hour. The AI rubber-banding was a bit annoying at times. Also re-reading the Steam page, apparently it has always-online DRM? The fuck?
June:
Universal Paperclips ?/10
I was in the mood for a clicker game. I tried Cookie Clicker first but the pacing is just so slow. Universal Paperclips is a clicker game that can be completed in a reasonable amount of time, and it scratched the itch I was looking for.
July:
Wilmot's Warehouse 8/10
https://i.ytimg.com/vi/Ai4NZnjOdUE/maxresdefault.jpg
Super Meat Boy 5/10
I've forced myself to start this game so many times over the years, I finally completed it and I just don't like it. Way too janky/buggy for a simple 2D platformer. I beat the final level 3 times and couldn't figure out what to do at the end, only for it to turn out that the final cutscene wasn't activating because my frame rate was too high. Ugh. It just made me want to play N++ again.
Ape Out 9/10
Ahhh it's so good. The soundtrack and sound effects and visuals, it's just perfect. A little on the short side (only took 1:40 to beat), but it's pretty replayable.
Neodash 7/10
It's basically Distance but worse. Distance is one of my favorite games of all time and is firmly a 10/10, so that's not necessarily a bad thing. Any levels that rely on the mid-air controls bring down the experience a bit, but luckily there aren't a ton of those.
August:
CrossCode 10/10
A top-down RPG with a ~50-hour story? I should hate this, but everything clicked into just the right place. The puzzles are fun (maybe a little too long), the combat is great, the characters are great, the story is great, I did not expect to love this game as much as I did.
Sayonara Wild Hearts 6/10
It's basically a 1-hour music video. It's very pretty and the songs are good, but the gameplay just kind of... exists.
Mad Max 6/10
It's a beautiful looking game and the vehicle combat is fun, but everything else is pure mid-2010s generic open world game, complete with Arkham combat.
Riptide GP2 6/10
It's fine, but there's absolutely no reason to play this over Riptide GP Renegade unless you're really board and looking for a grindy podcast game like I was. Renegade is just this but better in every way. It is a bummer that there are so few boat (or boat-adjacent) racing games coming out these days.
WRC Powerslide 4/10
It's insanely repetitive and the driving physics are really floaty. The power-ups are awful but luckily they can be turned off in settings. The damage model is actually really good though, which is bizarre for a top-down racer. This got delisted from Steam years ago, if I didn't already own it, I would not go out of my way to play it.
The Vanishing of Ethan Carter 7/10
It's a fun little walking simulator mystery game, I don't remember much of the actual story right now lol. I played the remastered version which was very pretty though.
Quantum Conundrum 7/10
It's a 6/10 puzzle game brought up by a full point because of John de Lancie's character.
September:
Hotline Miami 8/10
I know it's technically kind of a mess, but like everyone else I really loved it anyway. The soundtrack is excellent and clearing rooms is super satisfying. Raycevick's video really makes me want to play OXTO next.
PowerWash Simulator 8/10
The perfect podcast game.
October:
Cassette Beasts 8/10
The Pokemon games have always sounded interesting to me, but I've just never been able to get into any of them as an adult. Cassette Beasts finally scratched that itch for me, and this works way better as a concept than the Pokemon games do for me. As a bonus, the story is surprisingly good as well. Also it's made in Godot!
Sonic Generations 5/10
I don't like the Sonic games, but I've always heard this is one of the good ones so I decided to play it. A couple of the levels were fun, but most were just frustrating and/or buggy. For a character who's entire thing is going fast, the levels sure like constantly slowing you down with obstacles that cannot be seen coming.
The Witness 6/10
90% of the levels in this game are good and clever, where finding the solution is fun and satisfying. The remaining 10% includes puzzles where the entire screen is flashing to make it hard to look at, puzzles where the answer still makes no sense even after googling it, and puzzles that cannot be solved unless you solve a different puzzle first with no indication of where that's the case. The story is also nonsense but luckily it's easily ignored. This video was so cathartic after finishing the game.
Doom Eternal (& The Ancient Gods) 8/10
November:
Superliminal 8/10
My primary complaint is that it isn't longer. It took a little over an hour and a half to reach the end, but what's here is fantastic.
December:
Nothing again, lol
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.