This one was a surprise - I'm pretty out of the loop on my Marvel movies, but I like the Guardians franchise. Still, Marvel games are rarely appealing to me, and I tried this one only on the recommendation of a friend (and it was on Game Pass).
It turned out to be a lot of fun. The humor is good (even if it gets a little old over the course of the game) and the story is interesting. The graphics are excellent. It's one of those games that I bought as it left Game Pass and had no regrets.
Tunic
I wrote up a longer review for Tunic, but I liked this one a lot. The way the game makes you play it as sort of a retro experience, where you are learning more about it as you play and referencing the (in-game) manual is a cool mechanic that did bring back a lot of memories of looking at strategy guides as a kid.
Thankfully, the game has some accessibility options that let you enable invincibility and other helpers, because about 75% of the way through, it gets brutally hard - and it doesn't give you many options, save for grinding potions, to make things easier.
It's really shocking how the game went from a challenge to an absolute impossibility for me. Were it not for the invincibility options, I couldn't recommend it.
Stacklands
I read about Stacklands in a Polygon article, and thought it sounded fun. And it was!
It's a little on the basic side, in that the exploration you take on feels a little meandering but on a linear path, but it's still fun to try out things and watch your small community grow and conquer growing dangers.
Psychonauts in the Rhombus of Ruin
My wife got me an Oculus Quest 2 for my birthday in 2022, and I was pleased to be able to finally play Rhombus of Ruin, a game that I'd watched other play somewhat enviously since seeing it demoed at PlayStation Experience, back when we were trying to hype people for Divide. I finished it in two epic sessions and loved every minute of it.
Seeing the behind-the-scenes stuff from the development of Rhombus of Ruin in the recently released PsychOdyssey documentary has been really cool as well.
Trover Saves the Universe
I played through a good bit of Trover on my Xbox in 2020 but stopped playing it at some point and just sort of forgot about it. When I finally got a VR headset, I knew I had to try the game again, and so in 2022 I picked it up once more and have really loved the immersive humor.
First Steps for Quest 2
Last, but not least, my first game experience in the Quest 2 was a fun one - and it's just a demo designed to get you familiar with the headset and controllers. Still, the different game modes are fun to play around with and the physics and gizmos you can mess with feel great. It really exemplifies the idea that VR doesn't have to be complicated to be fun.
And that's about it for my favorite games of 2022. Whew, what a list!
I might have to get started on the 2023 edition early with this lateness on my record! 😅
This is part 2 of my favorite games of 2022. This one is all about games to chill out to - and I played a lot of those, because I like to have something relaxing to do at the end of the day. You can read part 1 here.
Opus: Echo of Starsong
I started playing Opus: Echo of Starsong in 2022, but didn't complete the story until 2023. But I enjoyed my time with it enough that I felt like it deserved to be on my 2022 list.
OEoS is a game where you explore an embattled star system, in an attempt to restore the honor of the protagonist and make some new friends along the way. The graphics are sort of a low-poly evolution of older games like Another World, in service to the story, which is deep with a lot of interesting lore.
The user reviews that I read for it compared it to Mass Effect, but that's not quite right; there's no combat, and only a handful of places where things can go so wrong that you have to backtrack a bit - but the game does a good job of keeping the story moving along without too many bumps. Although it was developed by a smaller team, a lot of care went into this game, so I'd recommend it if you need something to wind down with at the end of the day (and you don't mind a little bit of reading, since the voicework is Japanese-only).
Immortality
There's been a mini-renaissance of FMV games in the last few years, and I've been low-key enjoying it. Immortality continues that trend.
In this game, you sort through the "lost" footage of four different movies which all star Marissa Marcel, an actor who mysteriously disappeared. Your goal is to figure out what happened to her, along with a handful of other recurring characters. I won't spoil the game, but as you do so, you uncover the truth in a very interesting way that, I felt, really pushes the boundaries of the FMV genre.
As Dusk Falls
When As Dusk Falls was showcased at one of the Xbox events leading up to its release, I didn't give it much thought. The still images that make up the majority of the game were great to look at, but nothing else really grabbed my attention. When it released on Game Pass, I tried it in earnest, and was immediately hooked.
It's very much like playing through a Life is Strange game, just with a different graphic style. The voicework is excellent, and before long you forget that you're just looking at (basically) comic-strip panels. The story is also surprisingly dynamic, and when you finish a chapter, the game shows you a tree of all the branching choices you could make along with what outcome(s) they lead to.
It's all really well done, and the story drew me back in all the way to the end.
A Short Hike
A Short Hike was released in 2019, came to Xbox in 2021, and I didn't play it until 2022!
The premise of the game is simple: you play as Claire, an anthropomorphic bird, who has set out to hike up Hawk Peak, a small local mountain surrounded by hiking trails. Along the way, you encounter a number of animals that you can talk to and help, and you can collect items and use simple tools.
A Short Hike is probably the most Nintendo game that wasn't made by Nintendo. It's cheerful, funny, and charming. The cartoony graphics are bright and colorful and are easy to read - the characters wouldn't feel out of place in Animal Crossing. The music is excellent and contains accordion riffs a la Mario. And the whole thing is just plain fun.
Citizen Sleeper
Citizen Sleeper was another Game Pass game that I tried after reading positive reviews - and spent a week or so playing through at night, exploring all parts of the adventure.
The gameplay all takes place in a view over the Eye, a space station on the edge of the galaxy that you have traveled to as a "Sleeper", a digital copy of your real brain housed in a deteriorating synthetic body. Your goal is to figure out how to keep your body alive, and eventually escape, as you explore the station and meet its inhabitants.
Like a good sci-fi book, the lore of Citizen Sleeper is revealed slowly as you play, and it all gels together nicely with the low-poly graphics and great soundtrack. Decisions you make have long-term consequences, and a few play-throughs will result in wildly different endings.
Alba: A Wildlife Adventure
This game was probably made for a younger person than me, but I still enjoyed my time with it, and like the other games on part 2 of my list, it was a relaxing, stress-free experience.
In Alba: A Wildlife Adventure, you play as Alba, a young girl who has come to a small island to visit her grandparents for a week. While there, Alba discovers that a developer has made a clandestine deal with the mayor to tear down the local nature preserve and build a luxury hotel/resort. She decides to spend her vacation helping to restore the island by cleaning up garbage, making repairs, and cataloging the wildlife.
This is another low-poly game, but it's still great to look at. The island is colorful and full of creatures to photograph, and even though getting around is a little slow, I always enjoyed watching Alba change to a skip as she ran. There are sequences where you have to answer yes or no to a question, and you can waggle the joystick to move Alba's head to answer (frantically, if you want) - my son thought that was hilarious.
I really like the idea of a game like A:AWA to help teach people about nature conservation and to give them a safe place to explore the concept. This is another one of those games that makes pleasantness a core part of the experience, and I am here for it.
That's all I have for part 2 of my favorite games of 2022. The list is getting smaller, but I still have more favorites, so I guess I'll be back for part 3 soon. Thanks for reading!
Since you’re here at my website you probably already know this: I play lots of games. As with previous years, I spent my time playing a mix of games, old and new. This is part one of my favorite games that I played in 2022!
Tinykin
Tinykin is a game where you play as a tiny human who controls even tinier creatures (the titular “Tinykin”), each with their own unique ability. The more you collect, the greater those abilities become. As you play, you explore giant-sized rooms of an abandoned house, and uncover the mystery of the home’s owner – a figure revered by the local insects as a god. It sounds insane, but it’s good fun.
The art and music are really neat, and I loved that the little noises the Tinykin made synced up with the music in each level. The game controls well, and though it’s not as challenging as older 3D platform greats like Banko-Kazooie (there’s no combat in Tinykin), it scratches the same collect-a-thon itch.
I squeaked this one in late in December, after it’d been on my list for a while – and I’m so glad I finally got around to playing it. It was a really enjoyable time.
A Memoir Blue
I started A Memoir Blue in April, and didn’t finish it until December. Not because it’s a long game, or that it wasn’t good; I just forgot to finish it as work and other things took my attention. When I finally got back to it, I discovered that I had left just one scene away from finishing the story!
I played it through once more to complete all the achievements, and ended up really appreciating the story, which is about the loss of connection between a mother and daughter. The game is mostly a visual novel, but each chapter has a puzzle or two that aren’t super challenging, but still fun to complete.
The story is told in a cool way, with cartoon versions of the past mother and child appearing occasionally, and the art and music are captivating. It’s just the kind of emotional experience I’ve come to expect from publisher Annapurna Interactive.
Overwatch 2
Maybe a controversial take, but I’ve actually been enjoying Overwatch 2. Even in its questionable launch state, the changes to the game made it feel fresh again.
The additions of the battle pass and store are a bit of a downer, because Overwatch's original rewards system was so generous. Online games have changed a lot since the first game though, and it's easy enough to just ignore that stuff.
I just wish I were better at the game.
Return to Monkey Island
The Secret of Monkey Island was one of the first computer games I ever played, and it holds a special place in my heart. I've played every game in the series and loved most of them - so I was super excited when Return to Monkey Island was revealed.
The game's art style, though good in its own right, is polarizing of course. It took a second for me to get used to it, and I sort of longed for the hand-drawn look of The Curse of Monkey Island. But having all the characters voiced by the actors who have had their roles since Curse makes it easy to look past if you don't like it.
The game's puzzles were intuitive and fun to solve, and I thought the overall length was just right. The theme of the game, explained by the game's designers at the end, really hit home as well.
Two Point Campus
Two Point Hospital looked like it was going to be a cheap budget title with no depth, but it was nothing but fun. It took a rather serious proposition - managing a series of hospitals - into something that you wanted to do.
So when two Point Campus rolled onto Game Pass, I knew I was going to spend some time with it. And it's just as fun, silly, and entertaining as Hospital - without all the illness/death!
And that's all for part one. I've got a long list ahead of me, so I'll have part two - and probably three or four - written up soon. Thanks for reading!
I never expect online games to have a smooth launch, but I'm still disappointed when they don't. Especially when they are built on top of an already-function game, as is the case with Overwatch 2.
Yesterday at 11:58 AM, I logged in to try out the newly updated game. It placed me in a queue of people waiting to play, 30,000 long.
The queue moved relatively quickly, and after about 20 minutes, there were less than 1,000 people ahead of me. A few more minutes, and then the opening video played. I'd never sat through it before, so I figured I'd watch.
About 20 seconds into the video, the game kicked me back out to the queue screen - I'd been disconnected and needed to rejoin. Great! I jumped back into the queue, which was now 40,000 people long.
I got to around 20,000th place before I was met with a message telling me my game lost the connection to the server.
Only until around 8:30 PM that night was I able to get in and try a couple of matches. One shit-show where nobody worked together, and then a game that started pretty well - and then I got disconnected.
Frustrated, I closed the game and got back to my Assassin's Creed Valhalla game.
Now, today, I've tried to connect to Overwatch 2 multiple times, and each time I've been disconnected after a few minutes of waiting in the queue. Only just now (with no time to actually play!) is the queue slowly grinding down without a disconnect.
I didn't have super high hopes for Overwatch 2 - and I still don't. But I can't even play the damned thing.
I played through Tunic, which came to Xbox Game Pass recently, and it's a pretty neat game - marred a bit, unfortunately, by its difficulty.
The game is gorgeous, and I had a great time exploring the game's world, discovering secrets, and leveling up my hero. I beat a few bosses, and collected a good deal of the key items. There always seems to be a hidden prize around the next corner or a secret passage nearby. I really like the way you uncover pages of the game's "manual" - which looks something like an old NES game's instruction book mixed a strategy guide - and the cryptic way it helps you get to know the game's world.
But after a few boss fights that started tough, and got tougher as I went on, I got to one that I just couldn't beat. My reflexes aren't great, and I'm not very good at anticipating boss movements in games, but even with a ton of extra items on hand, I just couldn't power through it. I must have tried 30 times.
Tunic has a "no fail" mode that keeps your health from depleting (and still lets you earn achievements), and I reluctantly turned it on to continue. But it felt bad to do this after spending so much time without it, and I just wish the game wasn't so difficult. I turned this feature off again after that fight, but had to use it again later for another boss fight that was just outrageously, impossibly difficult.
Maybe games like this aren't for me, and I appreciate "no fail" mode, but I feel like this game in particular would be so much better if the difficulty were just scaled down a bit. It didn't need to be this brutally difficult.
It's a shame because otherwise I really love this game. It's excellent in so many ways, but it will always be somewhat inaccessible to many players because of its difficulty (and many peoples' reluctance to use helper modes to bypass tough fights).
2021 was a weird year for video games. Lots of games saw their schedules or their quality slip because of complications from coronavirus or working-from-home complications. Some mainstays were still great though, and there were some surprise hits as well.
This is a list, in no particular order, of my favorite games that I played in 2021.
Psychonauts 2
I almost always enjoy Double Fine's games, and I had (mostly) fond memories of the original Psychonauts, so I was pretty hyped for the sequel when it finally arrived.
It turned out incredible, with just about everything that made the original a good experience made even better this time - and with all the niceties I've come to expect from modern games thrown on top.
The game has the comedic tone that you'd expect from a Double Fine/Tim Schafer game, but there's also a gentleness and kindness to it that I really appreciated this last year.
Forza Horizon 5
The Forza Horizon series is consistently amazing, and the fifth game continues that tradition. I'm still having a lot of fun with this game, and being able to visit a virtual microcosm of Mexico during a time when, for various reasons, travel like that is all but impossible for me, was a treat.
Halo Infinite
I got into Xbox with the Gears of War franchise, so Halo has never really been my thing. I've mostly kept up with them and played them just out of duty of being an Xbox owner, but only a few of them have really grabbed me for long bits of time.
Halo Infinite has been a blast though. I haven't written about it much here yet, but I played through the campaign and really liked grappling everywhere and exploring the open world. Multiplayer, especially with friends, feels solid and is a lot of fun - even if we're just chilling out chatting while playing in the background.
I'm looking forward to playing the campaign again with co-op, and digging into multiplayer more in 2022.
Life Is Strange: True Colors
I've been a fan of the Life Is Strange games since the original released back in 2015. And though I'm still slowly working my way through the second game, I was taken by the trailer for True Colors and had to play it as soon as it launched.
It's a fantastic game with an interesting story, good writing/characters, and a bump in the underlying tech that helped make the experience even more immersive. It might be my favorite game in the series now - but the remastered original will be out in 2022, so we'll see how that lasts.
Myst
I think I've probably bought at least four or five copies/versions of Myst over the years. It was one of the first games I ever experienced on PC from a CD-ROM, and I have fond memories of spending many hours clicking around trying to solve the various puzzles the game offers. Seeing the game be remastered in Unreal was enough to sell me on buying yet another copy, and this one hit Xbox on Game Pass, so I didn't even have to do that.
I still remember the solutions to a lot of the puzzles, so it was neat that this game included a mode where many of the puzzles are randomized, so you have to tease out the solution regardless of familiarity.
I had a really good time wandering around Myst Island and its library of ages once more. Now I just hope Cyan Worlds can do the same treatment for Riven someday!
The Forgotten City
The Forgotten City surprised me. I knew a little bit about its history - that it started life as a Skyrim mod - and while that told me a lot about what to expect in terms of gameplay, it also made me expect it to be janky in the way only Skyrim could be.
I probably wouldn't even have tried the game out, were it not on Game Pass - but I'm glad that I did! Firing it up for the first time, I was quite impressed with things. This is a time loop game, and after running through a few rounds, I was hooked. The story is interesting and the setting is just big enough to contain things without meandering.
Mass Effect: Legendary Edition
As I get older I have less and less time for giant games, and it takes a lot of mental effort to really get into them. But like visiting an old favorite place, I slid right into Mass Effect with little friction, and managed to play through all three games in the original trilogy in succession.
It was a great time to run through them again, and I learned that my initial thoughts on the second and third games were pretty wrong. I had such a good time playing these games that I ended up (finally) playing through Mass Effect: Andromeda later as well!
Orcs Must Die! 3
A friend of mine, who I had played the original Orcs Must Die! with, clued me into this one, and I picked it up to play with him.
OMD3 is one of those games that you don't expect to be great, but it kinda is. Everything feels very polished (aside from maybe the menus). The music slaps. I just wish there were more!
Disco Elysium: The Final Cut
There are a couple games in my list that are technically not from 2021, but they launched on Xbox in 2021, so that's when I played them. Disco Elysium is one of them, and I thoroughly enjoyed it.
I had picked it up on PC when it launched, but didn't have time to play it then - and I'm glad that I didn't. The Xbox version came with the "Final Cut" improvements that rolled out some time after the initial release, and it includes one massive change to the original: spoken dialogue for the entire game. Disco Elysium is very text-heavy, and so this made it almost into an interactive audiobook of sorts.
That sells the game a little short on its production, since the visuals and music are incredible as well. It was one of my favorite game experiences of 2021, and I can't wait to see what ZA/UM, the studio behind the game, does next.
Octopath Traveler
This is the second technically-not-from-2021 game on my list, but it also launched on Xbox in 2021, so here it stays.
Octopath Traveler is also another game that I knew would take many, many hours to finish, and so I was very reluctant to even buy it. I had it on my wishlist at the Nintendo Switch eShop since it was announced, but never pulled the trigger on it.
Then it suddenly appeared on Xbox, and on Game Pass, and I had to try it. It turned out to be a good game to take small bites out of, and I ended up completing a leg or two of each of the eight travelers' journeys every time I played.
I believe I stopped playing it at over 100 hours, but I still have a lot of grinding to do before I can even think about completing the really tough after-end-game stuff. I'll probably end up buying it if it leaves Game Pass in the meantime, just so I can keep it in my back pocket for a rainy day.
Mafia: Definitive Edition
Alright, now we're really out of bounds for 2021, I know. But this is a list of games I enjoyed in 2021, and I can't not mention a few.
I loved the original Mafia, even though it was a deeply flawed game. It came out twenty years ago, and I can still hum the music from it. One of my college roommates has nightmares about it.
It was a cool game, though, and I bought the remastered trilogy in 2020, but never got started on it until the following year. I'm glad I did though, because the Definitive Edition of Mafia is incredible.
It's honestly more of a re-imagining than a definitive edition. It loosely follows the story of the original game, and crosses many of the same paths, but all of the art, music, and voicework was entirely re-done. I did miss the old actors a bit, and the new music wasn't nearly as memorable. But better controls, a better save system, and all the other modern touches make the tradeoff worth it.
Monster Train
I really enjoyed Slay The Spire a few years ago, but I only managed to get to the Heart at the end a few times, and I always felt like the game was a bit too difficult for me. A friend of mine recommended Monster Train, and I ended up really liking it. It's a very similar game to Slay The Spire, but each run takes way less time and the game just generally moves quicker. Plus, I feel like I actually recognize a lot of the synergy between cards in this game, and so it's one of my go-to casual games whenever I need a little palette cleanser.
Mass Effect: Andromeda
I wrote a lot about this game during the year, but I had to mention it here again because I am so impressed by it.
Mass Effect: Andromeda was a game that I started right when it launched, got bored with it and distracted by some of the flaws, and ended up abandoning. The thought of trying it again someday lingered, but I knew I had to after finishing the Mass Effect: Legendary Edition trilogy.
I gave it another earnest try, and I'm glad I did - even though it feels much different from the other games, it's actually a really interesting experience and - especially now that many of the rough edges have been patched over the years - it's definitely worth playing for anyone looking for a good science fiction action RPG.
I've put in a handful of rounds in the Halo Infinite's Big Team Battle mode now, and all I can say is that it's chaotic fun.
The maps are just the right size that you don't need to run very far to get back into the battle, and there's just enough anonymity in the amount of players that you can't really blame any one person for a bad match.
I had a blast riding machine-gunner on a Warthog as my teammate tried to run down enemy players.
I'm looking forward to more maps in the future, and (hopefully) just plain getting better at this!
Xbox held a short online event today for its 20th anniversary. During the show, they released the first part of Halo Infinite, the multiplayer bit. The campaign for the game launches in December.
After work, I spent some time playing around with it - and it's a lot of fun. It reminds me of playing Unreal Tournament 2003 with my roommates, back in college. I think it has a lot of potential to be fun.
I'm more of a campaign guy myself, but I like having a casual game to have fun with my friends with in the evenings. We'll see if this turns into that, but in my opinion, so far, so good.
It's funny how each iteration of Forza Horizon is only an incremental change over the last, but it's always so fun to just drive around and explore the new map and complete challenges as you go.
These games are great. And coupled with Flight Simulator, which released last year for PC and this year for Xbox, provides some amazing escapism and pseudo-travel for those of us who don't yet feel comfortable resuming our old ways of being.
I've been picking my way through Psychonauts 2 ever since it came out, and aside from gathering all the game's collectibles, I'm finally nearing the end of the game. It's been a fun ride so far, and I feel like the premise of the game - going into people's minds to help them sort out hang-ups - has aged extremely well.
I really like this game. The story is fun, the levels are diverse and interesting, the art and music are top-notch, and the heart of the game is just genuinely sweet. This game is a triumph for Double Fine!
