- Vampire Survivors - (PC) - Yep.
- Immortality - (PC) - Please, please make more of these.
- Elden Ring - (PS5) - Yep.
- Marvel’s Midnight Suns - (PS5) - This one came out of left field. I love the XCOM games, but the depressing theme and dice rolls made them take a lot of effort to play. Swap in a wild friendship sim and Slay-the-Spire combat and this was a slam dunk.
- Weird West - (PS5) - Unexpectedly, the most memorable game of the year for me. Not that long, and a blast from beginning to end.
Runners Up:
- Kirby and the Forgotten Land - (Switch) - Didn’t play much of this myself, but watched my 6-year-old beat this thing into submission and I think it is probably better designed than anything on my list.
- Gran Turismo 7 - (PS5) - I forgot this came out in 2022, since I got it late in the year, but it is great. It feels like driving feels.
- Citizen Sleeper - (Switch) - Great writing, fascinating RPG mechanical pull.
- Slice ‘n’ Dice - (PC) - No notes. Perfect game, but I need to dig into it more.
- Shovel Knight: Dig - (Switch) - Fast-moving roguelite platformer with great controls, optimized for short runs.
- Tunic (PS5) - Wins Best Outer Wilds of the Year, but the combat felt awful to me and I played most of the game with the infinite health accessibility option on. Which, to be clear, was still amazing.
- Neon White (Switch) - Easily the best-feeling FPS movement and combat I’ve ever played, but the story was grating.
- Netrunner: Borealis Cycle expansion - (Boardgame) - The first complete expansion designed after the release of the community-developed system gateway set has been a blast to explore.
- Arkham Horror Card Game: Scarlet Keys expansion - (Boardgame) - The first “open world” globetrotting campaign for the game is incredibly varied and difficult. Very fun so far, but the increased rules complexity meant that I probably didn’t play a single scenario correctly on the first run.