henke on 18/12/2022 at 14:08
Ok it's time to give up on waiting for Sports Story to come out and just DO THIS DANG LIST. Sports Story, ya fucked up! Better luck next year.
Henke's Top 10 of '221. Elden RingAs much as I'd like to name my #2 or #3 GOTY, I just spent the last week playing more of Elden Ring and dammit, it's undeniable, isn't it? Elden Ring is the game of the year.
2. Hardspace: ShipbreakerThe best game about sorting garbage in zero gravity exited Early Access this year. Some people didn't think much of the story. I liked it. I love this game. It's just great, y'know?
3. TeardownTeardown is on the same level as Portal in how it marries groundbreaking tech with innovative gameplay to create something really unique and wonderful.
4. BloodbornePSXWe got ANOTHER great souls game this year. My favourite thing about BloodbornePSX is how COMPLETE and UNCOMPROMISING it is in sticking to the "Bloodborne but on PS1" premise. Not just a low-rez filter slapped on a modern game, but extending to things like inventory management and controls. I played it on keyboard. NOT keyboard AND mouse, NOPE, that'd be too modern! Just keyboard, like the MS-DOS port of a PS1 game would've played, and it really felt like discovering some forgotten gem of mid-90's PC gaming. What's even more incredible is that the game plays just fine, with this more limited control scheme, and doesn't feel like a compromise. BloodbornePSX made me nostaligic for a game that never existed, and sets a high bar for all demakes going forward.
5. SignalisA really good survival horror game.
6. Dakar Desert RallyDriving rally cars and dirtbikes and big trucks through the desert. This sort of thing is my bag, baby!
7. StrayI was not very hyped about the cat game, but since it was free in PS Plus I gave it a go and y'know what, the cat game turned out to be pretty dang delightful. It's a good time! Some of my picks are very niche, but this is a game I'd recommend to just about anyone.
8. EndoparasiticThe first thing that happens in Endoparasitic is monsters ripping off both your legs and your left arm. You then spend the rest of the game dragging yourself along the ground AND fighting monsters using just your right arm. Overall, Signalis is a better game, but this was certainly the most fresh and innovative survival horror gameplay of the year.
9. A Plague Tale: RequiemThe sequel to Plague Tale is tighter, mechanically, and more visually spectactular, tho the story didn't quite grip me as much.
10. You Suck At ParkingDelightful lil arcade driving game, with very fun multiplayer.
Free game of the year that you should play right now:(
https://b0tster.itch.io/bbpsx) BloodbornePSX of course! Oh but also (
https://selkieharbour.itch.io/sunset-shift) Sunset Shift, which is a lovely little game about driving a garbage truck on a tropical island.
Honorable mentions:The Adventures of Poppe
Whatever
Weird West
Robotry
Cleaning the System
Dying Light 2
FAR: Changing Tides
Winter Ember
2022 was overall a pretty good year for games, better than last year imo. What did you think?
Our previous Best Games Of The Year lists(
https://www.ttlg.com/forums/showthread.php?t=151583) 2021 | (
https://www.ttlg.com/forums/showthread.php?t=150997) 2020 | (
https://www.ttlg.com/forums/showthread.php?t=150275) 2019 | (
https://www.ttlg.com/forums/showthread.php?t=149432) 2018 | (
https://www.ttlg.com/forums/showthread.php?t=148501) 2017 | (
http://www.ttlg.com/forums/showthread.php?t=147367) 2016 | (
http://www.ttlg.com/forums/showthread.php?t=146083) 2015 | (
http://www.ttlg.com/forums/showthread.php?t=144820) 2014 | (
http://www.ttlg.com/forums/showthread.php?t=142865) 2013 | (
http://www.ttlg.com/forums/showthread.php?t=140656) 2012 | (
http://www.ttlg.com/forums/showthread.php?t=137856) 2011 | (
http://www.ttlg.com/forums/showthread.php?t=134184) 2010
demagogue on 18/12/2022 at 15:29
I'll give my ranking.
I won't deny Elden Ring is the most acclaimed game this year, but I haven't played it and still haven't gotten too much into the Souls games.
The two games I probably played the most this year were Arma3's Antistasi (open procedural & persistent war mod. Edit: nice timing too. v3.0 just dropped today, a pretty epic update) and DCS, probably the F16, which was greatly updated this year, that and Sable, my #1 game from last year (edit: which is also free on Epic Games today in another weird coincidence).
My ranking:
1. Stray. Aside from being a little too railroaded and genre-switching, it gives me good Mirror's Edge vibes. It's the game I've gotten into this most this year.
2. Teardown. Perfect example of taking a procedural concept and making a great game around it.
3. Session. It's open world first person skateboarding, and that's what I've done.
4. Not for Broadcast. One of those British comedy commentary games where you play a broadcast censor as things get progressively darker. Definitely came at the right time.
5. Dakar Desert Rally. Having a rally in back countryside roads hits the right spot once you get the orienteering down. It'll be perfect when it adds the open driving mode.
6. A Plague Tale: Requiem. Still the best series for the movie-game.
7. Norco. Magical realist adventure game with great art. Tries to do for the Mississippi delta industrial swamplands what Kentucky Route Zero does for the Midwest.
8. Dorf Romantic. The game that sounds like punching ham. It takes the Carcassone formula and makes a proper singleplayer game of it. It was my go-to casual game this year.
9. Hardspace Shipbreaker. There's a nice zen to breaking up ships in this game, and it has a wry kind of story to it.
10. Stacklands. One of my unreal projects is a cardgame, so I played this to take notes. It boils the whole genre down to its absolute core, and I like really dig this kind of pared down style. (The phone game Antiyoy and its 100s of fan levels also does that for the 4X genre, and I played a lot of that this year too.)
WingedKagouti on 18/12/2022 at 15:59
Quote Posted by demagogue
8. Dorf Romantic. The game that sounds like punching ham. It takes the Carcassone formula and makes a proper singleplayer game of it. It was my go-to casual game this year.
It's a 2021 game, so unfortunately not eligible for a spot among the best 2022 titles.
Otherwise I'd put it on my list as well.
Jason Moyer on 18/12/2022 at 18:01
I'm really disappointed that that game apparently has nothing to do with Tim Conway.
demagogue on 18/12/2022 at 20:07
Quote Posted by WingedKagouti
It's a 2021 game, so unfortunately not eligible for a spot among the best 2022 titles. Otherwise I'd put it on my list as well.
I'm just going by the dates listed on Steam, where it's release date is listed as 28 April 2022. Session has also been out before this year, but evidently in early access, and it was only officially released this year.
But since there are multiple dates one could pick for any game, I think it's fair to consider the Steam-listed date as official as any other.
Quote Posted by Jason Moyer
I'm really disappointed that that game apparently has nothing to do with Tim Conway.
I think you or somebody cracked that same joke the first time we talked about that game. And for good reason!
WingedKagouti on 18/12/2022 at 20:15
Quote Posted by demagogue
I'm just going by the dates listed on Steam, where it's release date is listed as 28 April 2022. Session has also been out before this year, but evidently in early access, and it was only officially released this year.
But since there are multiple dates one could pick for any game, I think it's fair to consider the Steam-listed date as official as any other.
I'm going by the 25th of March 2021 date on GOG.
Nameless Voice on 18/12/2022 at 21:11
Well, I played two 2022 games this year.
1. Elden Ring
It's Dark Souls only bigger. Same level of polish and detail, same dying repeatedly to a simple boss because I'm not gud enough.
2. Darktide
It's Vermintide in the 41st Millenium (technically, 42nd now). I imagine I'll play a lot of this game in the future, as it is a new take on Vermintide's awesome combat, this time with more focus on ranged, with great attention to detail and respect for its setting - but right now the game is still a little rough around the edges.
Nowhere near bad enough to deserve the review-bombing it's getting, but it definitely needs a few months of patches and content drops before it's great.
Honourable mention to Gloomwood, but I'm not going to include that as a 2022 game as it was only a short part of the game in Early Access so far.
PigLick on 19/12/2022 at 05:53
I've only got 2 from 22 also :
1 - Elden Ring, for all the above reasons, I have never been into Souls games, but this hit the sweet spot for me. I still sucked at it, but exploring the huge detailed world on horseback was so much fun, and then of course dying to some giant cat.
2 - Xenoblade 3, I didnt technically play this, just watching my son play through, but it was awesome and weird, with some stunning visuals, especially for the Switch.
nicked on 19/12/2022 at 08:15
I think Dorfromantik came out of early access this year (1.0 release), which might be where the date confusion arises from.
I've not played many new games this year, mostly retro shooters.
Cultic - one of the most refined, polished and well-designed retro shooters yet.
Kingdom of the Dead - nice art style, but otherwise forgettable shooter.
Forgive me Father - yet another retro shooter. Also has a nice art style, and has good, if unexceptional, gameplay. Outstays its welcome a little, but you get plenty of content for your money.
Iron Lung - short horror game from the maker of Dusk; it's got such a wild premise that it sticks in the memory - you're in a submarine exploring an ocean of blood after all the stars have winked out.
Teardown - great premise, solid execution, cool technology. The only problem is the sheer investment of time needed to complete even some of the easier levels. Kinda reminded me of the Hitman games in that regard - lots of planning and trial and error, to the point where the game feels a bit too hardcore for me and I bounced off it in the end.
I think everything else I've played this year came out earlier, like Sable, Cyberpunk and It Takes Two.
Malf on 19/12/2022 at 10:37
I played a lot this year, but not over many titles, especially not ones exclusive to 2022. And the Steam Deck has also shaped a lot of what I've played.
Of those that I did in no particular order:
Vampire Survivors
Best £1.50 I've ever spent on a game (even Rebel Star back in the 80s cost £1.99!)
Moreish autoshooting that has continued to add things as I played, with a maximum session length of 30 minutes, so perfect for the morning commute.
Rogue Legacy 2
Rogue-lite Metroidvania sequel with a lot more interesting progression and some fantastic ideas for classes, like the Chef (who can reflect projectiles with their frying pan) and Minstrel (who fires out musical notes that they can then jump up and down on to create a tune while at the same time doing an AoE attack).
Weird West
Arkane gameplay transposed to a top-down isometric view with lots of opportunity for reactivity along with great Max Payne style shooting, consisting of cool slo-mo sideways dives.
And I turned a witch in to a werewolf.
Dwarf Fortress (Steam Edition)
No, this is not cheating. It's different enough to deserve a spot on this list as a 2022 game, while still retaining the core gameplay that makes DF so compelling.
It's still the best sandbox "Management" game out there, and the new graphics and interface are very cool, while the streamlined labour system means managing large populations requires a lot less micromanagement.
The interface is a bit laggy, but on the flipside, I have a fortress that currently has over 200 dwarves, and it's still very playable. And that's playing through Proton (Linux support will arrive some time next year).
And those are really the only ones that actually stand out for me.
A lot of others I've started, but not finished, which to me, says all it needs to.
These unfinished games include:
Pentiment - Charming, but too much back and forth at a snail's pace.
WH40K: Chaos Gate Daemonhunters - I really wanted to like this, but the difficulty is tuned to be far to punishing. This may have changed by now, but one too many ambushes by a stupid amount of enemies has left a bad taste in my mouth.
Stray - Very cute, but not enough actual gameplay for my liking, and as I was playing it on Deck, other, better things would command my attention (like the aforementioned Vampire Survivors, Rogue Legacy 2 or my beloved Streets of Rogue which I would vote for Game of the Year every year if I could.)
Elden Ring - Due to over-playing Demon's Souls on the PS3, I still find it very hard to enjoy From Software games these days, especially when they are all so similar. Yes, the open world is interesting, but the gameplay is still basically the same, and has worn out its welcome with me. I may get back to it at some point, if I can be arsed. I know there are people out there who have completed this game blind with a Dance, Dance, Revolution controller, but I hate that the game for me always eventually devolves in to having to repeatedly kill the same enemies over and over again in order to grind enough souls to level up and continue.
