The best games of 2019 (so far)

I like these list threads because it forces me to remember what the hell I played from this year. It’s not much!

  1. DMC 5
  2. Sekiro
  3. One Finger Death Punch 2

There are a few more games coming out this fall. We’ll see how it goes.

Well let’s see - as best I can recall, the only games I’ve played so far that we’re actually released this year are Crackdown 3 and Operencia, so I guess those are the best games of 2019 so far.

But! I recently picked up Observation recently, and I’ll probably grab Obra Dinn and Heaven’s Vault before the steam sale is over. I’m sure they’ll be good.

Oh wait, I played Anthem, was that released this year? If so that’s probably another best of 2019.

Now that I’ve put some thought into it, there really aren’t a lot of 2019 titles that I’ve enjoyed so far.

  1. Slay the Spire - I forgot this was a January release. It felt so complete last year, but I guess it slipped out of early access this year, so it’s officially in.

  2. Apex Legends - My love affair with this game was brief but intense. Eventually, I just couldn’t keep up and called it off. While it lasted, it was sweet and memorable.

  3. Observation - Sometimes clunky and while the writing wasn’t quite as good as it needed to be, the unique premise carried the day. Getting to be HAL was a great concept.

  4. Far Cry New Dawn - More Montana open world shooter shenanigans? But with a post-apocalyptic skin? Yes, please.

  5. Wargroove - It’s an unashamed Advance Wars ripoff. That’s all I wanted.

I played a few other 2019 games, but didn’t much like them.

Anthem
At the Gates
Sunless Skies
Rage 2
Crackdown 3
Trials Rising
Generation Zero
Tropico 6

Special mention goes to Harry Potter Wizards Unite for being hot garbage.

Thanks for this. I was wondering if I should install that on my phone.

For 2019 releases, Sekiro, Slay the Spire, and Judgment have occupied most of my gaming hours so far.

My top release of 2019 thus far is They Are Billions. I know some people have struggled with the campaign and I can understand why, but I have had a great time with it.

I believe that most of my gaming hours this year have been taken by TaB, Battletech and Anno 1800.

You know , I totally forgot about They Are Billions, and that just hit 1.0 a week or two ago. The disappointing campaign took all the wind out of its sails for me.

You’re beating me.

1. Outer Wilds
2. Void Bastards

This part of Tom’s write up:

In the case of World War Z, I couldn’t change the game’s resolution. In the course of troubleshooting the issue, I Googled solutions, edited .ini files, rolled back graphics drivers, and waited on Focus Home Interactive’s non-existent technical support. Eventually, I resorted to the nuclear option: a full uninstall and reinstall. That’s how I discovered the Epic Games Store doesn’t have cloud saves, and furthermore Focus Home Interactive’s online servers can’t be bothered to store a 4kb user_progression.dat file that tracks all your progress, but only exists on your hard drive. Without that file, the server thinks I’ve never even played. I guess Focus Home Interactive expected me to back it up on a 5 1/4 floppy.

@rei was a victim of lack of cloud saves for this game also.

I lost “only” 6 hours and 5 levels but still.

I knew the industry was only scratching the surface of what’s possible in the micro-transaction space.

I’m itching to see where they go from here.

Sorry.

Sorry, that was a typo. Meant “live.”

No, no, no, please don’t apologize. I knew exactly what you meant,but I couldn’t help myself.

I haven’t played too many games that released in 2019. I’d rank them in this order. Pretty sure I didn’t think things though since Dirt Rally 2 is probably the only one in the list that is top ten worthy.

  1. Dirt Rally 2
  2. OOTP Baseball 20
  3. Operencia: The Stolen Sun
  4. Imperator Rome
  5. Production Line

If I was able to open up the list to games I played for the first time in 2019, my list would get much better.

  1. God of War
  2. Dirt Rally 2
  3. Thronebreaker: The Witcher Tales
  4. Sky Force Reloaded
  5. Assassin’s Creed Odyssey
  6. Mutant Year Zero: Road to Eden
  7. Super Mega Baseball 2
  8. Uncharted 4
  9. Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice Launch
  10. OOTP Baseball 20
  • Battletech may crack the top ten but I haven’t played it enough yet.

Accidentally bought “Observer” instead of “Observation”, didn’t get the 2001 comparisons…

So is there a Best of the Decade list based on the winners from these?

I think you mean the Best of the Decade of games that were released in the first half of their year of release.

The games I played this year that actually came out this year.

Conan Unconquered- Really should have been labeled early access. This one feels like it needs 2 more layers of polish to become great.

Anno 1800- Gorgeous supply chain management, historical Factorio without the conveyor belts. They got rid of the silly land combat. Just wish they expanded the naval combat beyond 4 units spread out across only 2 tech levels, with 2 of those units not really worth building. Now fix your production surplus readouts!

Slay the Spire- Amusing for a couple hours. Beat it with the sword guy, didn’t feel any compulsion to try the other guy or really play at all anymore.

One Finger Death Punch 2- They made a lot of visual design changes that throw you off (the mob bosses being the most glaring). I never got the zen feeling I did from the first game.

Devil May Cry 5- It’s better than all the “fake” games (DMC2 and DmC), but isn’t nearly as fun as 3 or even 4. I do not understand their obsession with forcing Nero into the series yet again. It’s almost Suda 51 No More Heroes level of trolling the player.

Wishlist:

Sunless Skies- The slow travel and tight fuel economy killed Sunless Sea for me.

World War Z- Missed the boat on the sale, wary of the Mega Store folding and losing all my games. Is their exclusive ever set to expire?

Chasing the extra Ascension difficulty levels gave Slay the Spire a fair amount of additional play time for me. Before that, it seemed like there wasn’t meaningful depth to the systems.

I’m looking forward to playing Cadence of Hyrule at some point this year. “Later” because the business model for videogames tells me they will all be deeply discounted within a year. I have to really want to support the company to pay full price. It might worth it for Brace Yourself Games.

Since July 1 would mark the second half of the year and Samurai Shodown shipped on June 25, that is definitely among the best games of 2019 for me so far. It is a fighting game that honors its roots while being perfectly suited to modern play. I love it.

Apex Legends is a close second. I’ve taken a couple breaks here and there but it keeps me coming back. I love the three man dynamic and it has been a pleasure playing with random Joes and Jolenes on the Internet. Context sensitive R1 pinging is the best online gameplay invention of the last ten years.

Travis Strikes Again: No More Heroes is easily right behind these. It’s a man’s life work examined in video game narrative. There are so few true auteurs in this medium. Goichi Suda is one and video games are elevated because of it as he uses trashy people, places, and things to examine himself, gamers, and gaming as a whole.

After those three, I haven’t bought a whole lot yet in 2019 that’s not retro, but I have purchased some Sega Ages releases including Out Run and Virtua Racing that I’ve played a bunch as well as Time Pilot from the Arcade Archives series. I expect to play a lot of newer releases through the fall.

Oh! Not a game, but the 8bitdo M30 controller is the best d-pad and buttons controller made in like 30 years. Definitely deserves recognition.