5: Sekiro - One of the best modern works of gothic horror in any medium (yes better than Bloodborne and Souls). A tight central narrative tied into a much deeper lore than is apparent at first glance. Also informed by Buddhist morality, which is pretty cool.
4: Ark - You can shoot a rocket launcher at robots from the back of a Giganotosaurus. What's not to love?
3: Spec Ops: The Line - A controversial game, but one of the only shooters in existence to actually critique the bloody imperialist power fantasy that all modern shooter games inherently are. It spat on Call of Duty and gave the finger to every ooh-rah Marine dipshit who thought they were buying another game to fellate themselves with.
2: Disco Elysium - self explanatory
1: Journey - Less a game and more an interactive therapy tool. Helped bring me out of a major depressive spiral way back when. Play it on mescaline and it becomes a spiritual experience. Also a playable deconstruction of The Hero's Journey story framework, which I just enjoyed aesthetically.
No particular order
Monster Hunter World/Iceborne - I always loved the MH gameplay and formula of hunting, make better weapons and armor from the hunt, and use that to hunt bigger monsters. I feel like the streamlining of some of the old jank makes this one the funnest to play out of all the monster hunters (i haven't played rise yet though). Also it looks amazing but thats mostly a bonus not a determining factor for favorite game.
Celeste - Probably the best platformer I ever played. Great difficulty curve, great game play, and a great story too.
Dark Souls 2 - This is not a jerk, this is not meant to be a hot take, this is not me being contrarian, I just like this one the best out of all the soulsborne games. It has it's issues but I find it the most fun to replay through and I think the DLC is some of the best levels of any soulsborne game. It might help that this was my first fromsoft game so I had no expectations either way
Borderlands 2- I think Krieg is the funest fps character I ever played, whenever I go back and try to do a playthrough with another vault hunter I just end up picking Krieg with no regrets.
Metal Gear Rising - I finally played it this year but it honestly has been one of my favorite games for years due to how ridiculous it is. Pure shlock but nothing beats the anime awesomeness of suplexing a mech to numetal only for the senator piloting the mech to come out and start kicking your ass
No it's pretty good for sure. I just like the narrative and asetheitc of Sekiro better. Feels tighter, more focused.