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Rebel Galaxy Outlaw - Confession: I didn’t play enough RGO to know if it deserves this spot. But I’m hoping it does! I’m just really grateful that someone made another Privateer! Yay! I will play it in the summer of 2020, and get to see if it really deserves this spot or not.
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DiRT Rally 2.0 - I know it seems really retro in 2019 to be impressed by physics and racing games, but if you’re in the right car, and you’re in the zone, there’s just nothing that beats this game for pure driving pleasure. I’ll probably never do this in real life, but man, it is such a pleasure to drive past your own limit in this game, or more accurately, where you think your limit is. And as you get better, that limit keeps increasing further and further. The game pits you against better and better AI times, and somehow you keep overcoming them. You are one with the machine. The gravel and dirt and asphalt provide infinite ways to lose control, but as you get better, you cling to that control with a desperate mixture of zen and despair.
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Resident Evil 2 Remake - I’m still only in the demo area, but I can already tell the amount of care and detail that went into crafting this experience. Unlike the original Resident Evil games, in the remake I’m not always thinking about the controls, which always took me out of feeling any immersion in the game world. Here the controls are fluid and intuitive, so when a zombie lunges, I actually lean back in my seat trying to get out of the way. When I have my flashlight out, I’m actually trying to lean in and make out what’s coming down the hallway. I have a feeling this is what the Resident Evil games were meant to be all along, not frustration generators that made you wonder who designed the controls.
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Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order - My first Star Wars game as a Star Wars fan! It’s not perfect. Besides the bugs and the performance problems and the load times (most of which was all fixed in patches as I got further into the game), it never quite hits any emotional highs the way something like Prince of Persia 2008 or The Last of Us does. Nevertheless, this was a really nice game that I enjoyed a lot. It’s tough, but never Dark Souls tough, it’s fun to explore the environment in it, and the puzzles are never too frustrating. Overall I miss playing well crafted single player adventures like this and I wish we had more of them.
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Lonely Mountain: Downhill - Another physics based game! This time about riding a bike down a mountain. I love that I don’t have to be in the mood for something easy or hard or whatever. No matter what mood I’m in, I can fire this up and start playing and go down the mountain while I listen to a podcast or some music in the background. Depending on my mood, I can play it safe or really push it. I can go exploring for shortcuts, or I can try to go really fast on the paths. It’s a simple pleasure, but a great one.
Runner Up: Grim Dawn: Forgotten Gods - Another year, another great expansion from the best ARPG of all time. My only real problem with Grim Dawn is that whenever it gives me a reason to go back, I have to try to disentangle myself from its allure eventually. After all, I’ve got other games to play, movies and tv shows to watch, and books to read. I can’t let the pleasure of theory-crafting characters and the visceral pleasure of destroying hordes of enemies entice me into a single piece of entertainment all the time!
Honorable Mentions: The Outer Worlds, Ape Out, Yooka-Laylee and the Impossible Lair, Gears 5, Forza Horizon 4 Lego Speed Champions, RAGE 2, Crackdown 3.