2022 was the year that Elden Ring came out, and probably other things as well. What video games did you play this year? What new releases did you like, and which ones sucked the life and joy out of you? What old gems did you revisit? What was your game of the year?
My time with video games in 2022
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:
I also did my first playthrough this year, genuinely my favorite game now
I just started it last week. I'm hoping it ends up my favorite of the year.
Cyberpunk was fun and not the broken shit that my friends played when it came out.
And Dwarf Fortress is good.
Cyberpunk was fun on release, but it is still broken. Currently watching a friend play through it and it literally looks indistinguishable from my launch day playthrough. Feels like they've changed nothing. Everything is buggy, the few things that aren't buggy are still jank and unfinished.
Edit: Wait, they have fixed one thing that's noticeable. On launch phone calls would constantly interrupt ongoing conversations / cutscenes, leading to V talking over themselves constantly, and fielding 2-3 conversations at the same time all the time. They've definitely fixed that. That's the only one I've noticed specifically though.
I have the exact opposite Cyberpunk experience, lol. I cannot get a legit copy to launch, while I played through the whole game on a pirated copy mostly bug-free at lauch.
I played Cyberpunk on Xbox one the month it came out and enjoyed it. I played it again on a nice PC a few months ago and it was real good.
Pokemon Legends: Arceus
It came out in January, so at least I totally forgot it came out this year until I looked it up. Arceus is the first game in the series to really make me feel like I'm learning about Pokemon by interacting with them, shaking up the formula to such a degree that the Pokemon battles take a backseat to exploration. My understanding is that it was developed parallel to S/V, and while I also liked those games fine I really want to see the series advance in the direction that this one trailblazed.
Kirby and the Forgotten Land
Forgotten Land is the best Kirby has ever been. Great environments, great enemies, a high pace adventure that just dips its toes into more satisfying gameplay than most of the series has to offer, but doesn't compromise on the comfiness. Love upgrading copy abilities, love mixing long "main" levels with a large number of super short challenges, simple as.
The Stanley Parable Ultra Deluxe
I didn't know a joke that was funny like ten years ago would suddenly be funny all over again, but it is.
Final Fantasy Origin: Stranger of Paradise
God damn this game is so fucking good it HURTS. I know everyone immediately wrote it off based on the trailer, but even if you're not like me and absolutely love over the top edgelords the fact is that SE has been killing it in the gameplay department lately. SOP is the latest refinement in SE's new era of "AAA Action JRPGs", a genre which started with FF15 and in which I believe they are the only developer, and is fast and flashy from start to finish.
Dwarf Fortress
I haven't actually played Steam Edition yet, but I have a few hundred hours in DF and I know I love this game lmao. It's on the level of the GOTY from any of the many years that its been in development.
I loved PLA so much. I’ve been enjoying Violet, but Arceus was probably my favorite Pokémon game since Platinum.
Video Games I played that came out in 2022;
Elden Ring
Victoria 3
That's it lol. Elden Ring rocks and my laptop is too old to run Vicky effectively
Video games I played for the first time in 2022:
Persona 5 (not royal version)
Persona 5 Strikers
Mass Effect 1
I had a lot of fun with P5 and P5S, despite the fact I had never played a JRPG before nor watch any anime. I'm a weirdo I guess because I liked the dungeon crawling and combat more than life sim stuff in contrast to the consensus i see online that most people prefer vice versa. There were some stuff I really didn't like story wise (like poor widdle Akechi he's just a misunderstood mass murder 😢😢) and some characters annoyed me (Futaba).
Strikers is mostly a sanded down version of the original but the combat and soundtrack were very good. It was a little eyebrow raising that the final boss/main villain was just a beat for beat reskin from P5
Mass Effect 1 didn't really grab me until the final 3 story missions but I thought the endgame was really good. It obviously suffers from "being a game from 2007" cant wait to play the rest of of trilogy (I'm unplugging for the rest of the year)
Games I replayed in 2022
Disco Elysium
Dark Souls 3
Hollow Knight
Fallout 4
Outer Worlds
Command and Conquer: Generals
XCOM 2 War of the Chosen
Disco Elysium obviously rocks, easily one of the best games ever made. I replayed DS3 to prepare for Elden Ring and it's still a lot of fun, probably the most fun of the Dark Souls trilogy. Hollow Knight is unbelievably good and one of the best games of the last decade.
I've attained the rank of Colonel in the Fallout 4 Defense Forces, i have always maintained its a good game despite everything and that opinion has survived many playthroughs at this point, although im sure Bethesda has learned all the wrong lessons from it for their next games. The Outer Worlds is a good game, I see it get a lot of hate but I think its great fun and the characters are some of my favorite in games (Vicar Max is my father)
Old Command and Conquers still rocks, shame eternal on EA for murdering it, and XCOM 2 is a fun time despite how frustrating it could be
Fallout 4 and the Outer Worlds are both good, but to me it feels like they're two halves of one great game. Fallout 4 has amazing world design, decent combat and movement, but the writing is fucking awful. The Outer Worlds has really engaging characters and a lot of intriguing stories, but the gameplay is a slog. Combine them and you get the best version of the modern open world RPG
My game of the year was 100% Pokémon Legends Arceus. I’ve enjoyed Violet but not nearly as much as Arceus, which I 100%ed. I just fucking love running around catching a ton of Pokémon to fill the Pokédex.
Elden Ring was good. I haven’t finished it. Got stuck on godskin duo and I’ve gone back every few weeks but can’t get it.
Honorable mentions because they didn’t come out this year but I’ve been playing them a lot: Cities Skylines (again), Civ 6 (duh), and Hades. If you haven’t played Hades fucking do it.
My second playthrough of disco elysium when the director's cut got released. That game has made me cry more than any other, I think. Other than that, Vicky 3, Roadwarden, Cult of the Lamb, Shadows over Loathing, and Pentiment were very cool
I intensely played elden ring for a few weeks but never completed it. Also I kind of bounced off of Warhammer III and Norco was disappointing imo
I still want to play signalis, vampire survivors, the new Stanley parable, I was a teenage exocolonist, and the case of the golden idol
I've been having a lot of fun watching :stonks-up: and doing communism in Vicky 3
Elden Ring-I had played a bit of Sekiro and Dark Souls prior to Elden Ring being released and I didn't get all that far into either. Ended up playing Elden Ring anyway and I really liked it. Sunk close to 190 hours, which is about as much as I've ever put into any role playing game.
Stray- Loved it. Enjoyed the simplicity of the game play and the setting/story of the game. Loved all the side characters/NPCs. Can't forget about the cutest little protag:meow-hug:
Va-11 Hall-a- I played it right after Elden Ring and it was a nice change of pace. Music was pretty good, characters were likable.
Yakuza Kiwami - I played Yakuza 0 during the pandemic after putting it off forever. I took a long break before playing Kiwami and it was fun. Enjoyed getting back into the same playstyle as 0. I'm currently playing Kiwami 2 and while its grown on me I don't love it as much as I do 1 and 0.
Victoria 3-First time getting into a Victoria game and it was a bit of a love/hate thing, but once I got a hang of it I really liked it.
Deathloop- I had played Dishonored previously and was hoping this would be a similar experience. Liked it, didn't love it. Plot was kind of meh, music and setting were great though.
Other games I started playing this year, but didn't finish: Cuphead, Red Dead Redemption 2, Persona 5 Royal
For 2022 games, I'd say Kirby and the Forgotten Land deserves a lot more than it got. It's not anything revolutionary, but it's a fantastic Kirby game and 3D platformer, a genre we sadly don't see that many amazing games for.
Elden Ring is certainly amazing as well, but I will forever prefer Bloodborne and Sekiro. I do love the Ashes system at least, that's fun to play with.
God of War Ragnarok is a fantastic game in many ways, ruined by terrible combat. And it's not even that the combat is bad, it's the camera being so zoomed in that you can't see the enemies well and you constantly get hit from behind.
As for games outside of this, I've been having a lot of fun with Deep Rock Galactic, and Metroid Dread. DRG might be the least toxic multiplayer game to exist, it's crazy and a very relaxing game. I haven't gone into Hazard 5 yet so maybe they get toxic there but still. Metroid Dread was really really fun, although the difficulty I think was highly overrated. I just wish backtracking was more readily available, almost every path is blocked off once you go through it.
Faves I played in 2022 are Victoria 3 and Dwarf Fortress (not the only one who likes them it seems). Besides those 2 I really enjoyed Vampire Survivors. My GOTY would be Total Warhammer 3 just insane amounts of content with Immortal Empires.
Elden Ring good, Elden Ring Seamless Coop Mod better.
Vampire Survivors was fun for a bit but I stopped having fun before I unlocked everything. The new DLC is okay, not great, and performance is very bad.
Victoria 3 has many problems, but it has a very realistic portrayal of the petite bourgeosie: the only thing they want is more racism.
Looking back I played remarkably few new games this year. I enjoyed Stray and that new Ninja Turtles game though.
I played some "older" games though and really enjoyed Spiritfarer and Sable.
