1. Ori & the Will of the Wisps
Fires on every single cylinder. Great platforming action, absolutely stunning visuals, great sound and music, great world and characters. I went in with high expectations and it still exceeded them. Could not put it down. Oh, and it was on Game Pass too, what a bonus. Underappreciated game of the year, got snubbed to hell in other awards. |
2. Doom Eternal
Tight, tight tight tight. Fun, challenging, takes what made 2016 so good and expands on basically every part of it. Slightly weird difficulty curve at first, but once I got the knack of it, I couldn't stop playing until it was done. |
3. Cyberpunk
A beautiful disaster. Buggy, unfinished, and overall not the gaming revolution some were expecting - but when it hits, it really hits. The world and character building is absolutely top-notch, the gunplay was surprisingly tight, and damn does everything look super crunchy. That being said, I have a beefy PC and all my bugs were small visual ones generally, this game should not be anywhere near some people's top ten lists and frankly it shouldn't have even been released. But it was, and I dumped 50 hours into it without blinking. |
4. Demon's Souls
What remakes should aspire to be, frankly Bluepoint's work has transformed and elevated this game beyond the original to the point where it's now one of my favourite Souls games. Played it twice back-to-back, and I haven't done that in a long time. Gorgeous, amazing sound, tight controls, though ultimately loses out on higher spots for still being a one-to-one remake. |
5. Hades
Tight as hell, nice looking, and a surprisingly interesting theme upon which they built a roguelike. I had no idea about this going in other than Supergiant made it, and I really like mythology settings, so this hit pretty well. Only disappointment to me was that after I beat the game I didn't especially feel like doing it again like I did with other modern roguelikes. |
6. Ghost of Tsushima
Really happy this turned out well, I don't think it does anything in particular exceptionally, it's just a really solid samurai open world. I loved totally completing the first two islands, but I burned myself out and didn't fully complete the third. Really great narrative and fun to godmode through once you get a few skillups. |
7. Immortals: Fenyx Rising
Biggest surprise of the year. I had no idea I needed a BOTW clone, but boy did I. This really scratched several itches for me, once I got into a session I couldn't stop playing. Actually really enjoyed the setting and mythology ties despite some of the script and characters (and animations) being kinda wonky. Look beyond the fact that it looks like a mobile game, this is a great timesink. |
8. Crash Bandicoot 4
One of my favourite series ever, and I'm really glad they did Crash justice. However, I still feel like this should have been shorter overall, cheaper, and with way less post-game fluff for 100% completion. Crash games are fun to 100%, this one I didn't even entertain the idea with some of the obscene and often dull shit you have to do, which is the reason it's lower on this list and that I'll probably never replay it. A shame. |
9. Tony Hawk 1 & 2
Not much to say - it's THPS and they didn't fuck it up. I 100%'d both games in one sitting each and then deleted it until I feel the urge to do it again. It's a fantastic remake, and we need THPS3 DLC pronto. |
10. Spider-Man: Miles Morales
Great, fun little half-game in between the first and second full ones. I think think calling it DLC is harsh, but I would feel pretty burned if I bought this thing digitally. Took me 16 hours for a casual playthrough, 100% mop-up and a second campaign speedrun for the platinum. Not even half the time I spent in the original. But, it does everything just as well. |