I actually didn't play Elden Ring, or God of War or any big AAA action games. I bought ds3 last year and was kinda into it but I got bored, so I didn't look too much into Elden Ring

Far and away, my game of the year was Pokemon Violet. It is definitely flawed, it's buggy as hell, the graphics are underwhelming, the world design is unimaginative and there's no voice acting. But this game is the most fun I've had with any video game in years. I was literally counting down the days to it's release and bought it day one, which I haven't done since I was a teenager. I love being able to run around the world on my dragon bike and look at my little pokemon having a picnic. I unironically think the little slice of life things are one of the best things about the game, like making sandwiches and taking pictures with your pokemon. Pokemon is supposed to be about making friends and connecting with pokemon, and it helps so much when you can see them outside of a menu, sleeping or playing with a ball. It just made me so happy to watch them. There's obviously other good things, I love nearly all of the new Pokemon designs (clodsire is the perfect lifeform), the soundtrack is banging and it has the coolest finale setpiece of any Pokemon game. The story ranges from meh (Starfall street) to heartbreaking (all the shit that Arven goes through). The open world lacks structures or secrets, but it's still fun to explore because the main thing to find is new Pokemon. It's not like breath of the wild where there's something unique around every corner, and I wish the world had a bit more to it, but it's still really fun to discover a new Pokemon in a new habitat.

Pokemon Violet was the only game I bought this year, but I started emulating other pokemon games on my computer. I played through most of Black 2, which was fun but I wish I played black 1 first because it seems like I've spoiled most of the good plot beats for myself (also I haven't finished it because I can't find victory road lol). I also started a nuzlocke of Renegade Platinum, which makes Platinum a lot harder and a lot more fun. I'm about halfway through, but that's been on the back burner because of how much planning it takes. Also I've put countless hours into casually playing on Pokemon showdown. I'm still not great at competitive but it's a lot of fun. So yeah, 2022 was definitely the year pokemon brainworms got to me. I never played the games as a kid so I've been going into the franchise with completely fresh eyes, and I guess it's just exactly what I've needed this year.

I also returned to some older games this year. I resumed my terraria playthrough from like a year ago and remembered why it's my favorite game, I messed around with modded Skyrim and Fallout 4, I played Minecraft and phasmophobia with my friends. Although I have Doom Eternal and Dark Souls 3 to finish, for some reason this summer I decided to replay Dying Light again. It's still a lot of fun, the combat and parkour are really good for a first person game, especially after playing so much Bethesda games. It does kinda lose the fun when you get the grappling hook at the end of the game, which is a fun gimmick but makes the game way too easy.

I haven't played any bad games this year, but I've spent too long getting frustrated with ds3 to say that I enjoyed it overall. I think my main problem is how obscure everything you need to know is, there's five seconds of tutorialisation and then you have to figure out the rest for yourself. I don't really enjoy watching other people play games anymore so learning from let's plays isn't gonna happen, which is how I used to learn about games. Trawling through the wiki doesn't seem like much fun either, because I like going into games blind the first time I play them.

So yeah, overall, I had a good year getting infected by Pokemon brainworms. Look at this guy -> :quagsire-pog: