Gosh, I’ve realized I don’t finish games lol. I’ve put many hours in Forza Horizon, Factorio, Pokemon, Cities Skylines, and incremental games but here are the ones I actually beat in 2023 so far, although I’m about to beat Pokemon Scarlet so I’ll include that too.

1. Pokemon Sun (cartridge). (4/10). Why am I rating this so low? It’s my least favorite Pokemon game I’ve played. I finished it this year, but started it in 2018. The game leans way too heavy on the story and not in the gameplay. The game felt like a huge downgrade from OR/AS. It also plays incredibly slow. Not touching Gen 7 again. The battles were nice and intense with enough difficulty to excite me though.

2. Chip Defense (8/10). You can find it on F-droid, and it’s free. It’s a little tower defense game with a theme on CPUs and instructions. It took me a few hours to beat all the levels and it hooked me.

3. Pokemon White (emulator), limited pokemon center challenge. (9.3/10). I absolutely love Gen 5 and I did a challenge a lot like a Nuzlocke but more interesting and far less stressful. You can only catch the first pokemon on each route, and any non-forced heal would cost 5000*2^(number of prior heals done) poke dollars. That way, I could have a pokemon faint and not have it be the end of my 40 hour playthrough. I actually (unintentionally) lost to Ghetsis at the end but I planned for that and had enough money for one more heal, and then beat him the 2nd time.

4. Factorio Bob’s/Angel’s (hardcore Factorio mod). (9.5/10). Do you like Factorio but want 10x more complicated recipes that include lots of byproducts to deal with? Then this mod is for you! It took me 123 hours to launch a rocket, and apparently that’s pretty quick. The base is one huge pile of spaghetti with a 90 lane bus split into three.

5. Pokémon Scarlet (cartridge). (8/10). I haven’t quite gotten to the credits yet but I’ve beaten the Top Champion so I’m very close. This game is one of the most fun pokemon games imo despite being extremely flawed. The open world is a huge breath of fresh air after the last 4 gens being 4 big lines. The frame drops are not the really annoying thing about this game, it’s the cutscenes and long battle animations. (Gen 7 was even worse with this). The exploration isn’t groundbreaking but I love how random encounters were ditched for overworld pokemon (even with the lamentable draw distance), that you could run into and instantly fight without a 10s cutscene playing. Trainers are finally all optional. I don’t play for the story but it’s one of the better ones for pokemon games. Having multiple arcs at the same time keeps things interesting for me. The game isn’t the most difficult (probably average+ for pokemon standards) but I made it satisfyingly hard on myself when forcing myself to comply with set mode, no items in battle, and trying to win while underleveled. Also the music is a masterpiece, bravo Giacomo.

I may be missing a few, but this is most of them I think. I don’t usually have a whole ton of time to sink into a game, so I usually only finish games if I really like them, hence all the scores being quite high. Next year I want to try and expand what I play a bit, and try finishing games that might not hook me immediately. When I used to have more free time, the games that took me a while to get into would become some of my favourites, so hopefully I can find some of those next year, but it’s hard when I’ve only got a couple hours a week at the most (though I’ve had a lot more time the last couple weeks thankfully). Anyway, here’s everything I saw end credits for this year:

Elden Ring - 9.5/10 - my only souls experience before this was Dark Souls III several years ago, which I had remembered thoroughly enjoying. ER surpassed my expectations and completely blew me away. I became completely obsessed for months. Not much else got played for a while. Dec 2022 - Feb 2023 was all just ER. Very excited for the DLC, whenever that comes out.

Sekiro - 9.9/10 - the closest to perfect of any game I’ve ever played. The chained ogre and the blazing bull feel out of place, but aside from those two mini bosses, I’d say the game is flawless. Probably my favourite game of all time now. I tried playing it for a little bit before attempting Elden Ring and didn’t like it, but after I saw every last pixel of ER, I decided to give Sekiro a second chance and I’m glad I did. I’ve done everything you could possibly do in that game, probably 4-5 times. And I’ll continue to redo them, probably every year as a tradition, unless they come out with either a sequel or another game with the same combat mechanics.

Dark Souls Remastered - 9.5/10 - continuing with my FromSoft binge, DS1 blew me away about as much as ER did. Probably tied with ER for second favourite game ever. I still haven’t fully 100% completed it yet, but I’ve killed every boss and beaten the game. I do want to get all achievements at some point but haven’t gotten there yet.

Dark Souls III - 9/10 - replayed this one, and loved it even more. Nostalgia definitely helped, but so did competency. I sucked at it my first time around all those years ago, but with multiple FromSoft games under my belt, replaying this was a totally different experience. It felt amazing destroying bosses that I suffered with many years ago. The game itself also happens to be phenomenal. Probably the best collection of bosses in the series, and Midir is still the only boss I haven’t been able to beat from any SoulsBorne game.

Hollow Knight - 9/10 - played this one for the first time this year. I understand the cult-like following it managed to get. It’s awesome. I’m not amazing at it but I’ve gotten decent and I recently started a second playthrough. It’s probably a top 10 game for me.

Dishonored - 9/10 - not my first playthrough, but first in a while and somehow better than I remembered. I’ve held this game on a high pedestal for a long time, and upon replaying it, found it surpassed my memory somehow. Usually it’s the other way around. Definitely a strong recommendation from me.

Celeste - 8/10 - craving a super tough challenge again after putting a pause on souls-likes, I decided to give this one a try after hearing very high reviews. I’m glad I did, it was a blast. I haven’t completed all the optional challenges yet, but the main game and the side stuff I have done have all been exceptionally well made. Clearly a lot of hard work and love was put into it, you can tell immediately. If you just do the main content and ignore all challenges, it’s a pretty short game, but the challenges add a lot of content which I like. I’ll probably replay it in a few months.

Gunpoint - 9/10 - this one really surprised me. I figured I’d like it but damn. The music is exceptional. The gameplay is addictive. Everything about this is great. Short but sweet in the way that it makes you wanting more. I genuinely can’t wait until it’s been long enough for me to forget a lot of it and can replay it. Honestly if it wasn’t so darn short it would be a top 10 game easy, maybe even top 5. It’s just over way too soon, which is the only thing holding it back. Every single person should at least check this game out. Truly fantastic.

Starfield - 8.5/10 - weird for me to play a new game but I gave this one a chance. I know it got a bunch of criticism, but I loved it. Felt like Skyrim in space. I see why people were disappointed, and there are lots of valid criticisms. But for me they just don’t apply, and I had a blast with it. Looking forward to making a new character in the future.

Batman Arkham Asylum - 8.5/10 - probably my third or fourth time completing it, but I really enjoy this one. I think City is my favourite, but this is a close second. It’s just a bit of a shame that I have most of the puzzles memorized by now. But an absolute classic that everyone should play.

Currently playing: since the news of GTA6, I’ve been going back and forth between GTAV and RDR2, which has put a pause on the Hollow Knight replay. I’ve beaten both before, and they’re both high on my favourites list. Probably in the range of 9-9.5/10 for both. Not sure if I’ll complete either one by the end of the year, but my girlfriend apparently loves watching me play GTA which was cool to find out. She asks me every day if I can play it so she can watch. Half the time I just do stupid shit and we laugh our asses off. It’s great. Probably some of my favourite times together recently.

I’m usually better about patient gaming, but I sunk a lot of hours into a certain very popular new release this year. The older releases I did finish:

JRPGs

• Atelier Rorona. Very chill game, enjoyed it once I got into a groove. I wrote up a more detailed community post on it earlier.
• Atelier Totori. Simultaneously more funny than Atelier Rorona and more dramatic. Went some places I didn’t think it was going to go. The UI/UX in this was rough, which makes me think I’ve yet to play my favorite in this series.
• Shin Megami Tensei IV. I really had to fight to get through the first few hours of this one. I may not have if it wasn’t my Discord server’s game of the month. Had a good time with it otherwise, aside from the occasional unwinnable random encounter. Excellent soundtrack.
• Triangle Strategy. Solid gameplay, though it had fewer RPG elements than I’d like (equipment options in particular). There being a branching story was interesting, as that’s not a common thing in this genre. Not easy on the ears: atrocious English voice acting, forgettable soundtrack.
• Xenoblade Chronicles 2. If I said I found the gameplay uninteresting, the quest design dated and that I was annoyed by the overall look of the game, one would think I hated it. However, I sunk right into the story and got very attached to Pyra for an overall (surprisingly) positive experience.
• Xenogears (replay). Still one of my favorite stories in gaming. Desperately needs a re-release with an English script revision.

The Rest

• 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim. What you get when you pair a visual novel with exceptional, detailed sprite art. The combat sections are meh and I ran into more than a couple annoying chapters early, but the story has really grown on me since I finished it.
• ⭐ Hardspace: Shipbreaker. My favorite in this post. Relaxing gameplay and great unconventional storytelling. If the game had a way to import my own music, I might still be playing it.
• Metroid Dread. Super annoyed by the first couple hours, loved almost all of the rest. I also had a writeup on this one.
• Night in the Woods. Cute design and dialogue. On the other hand, I’m very uncomfortable with how plausible the story is.
• Phoenix Wright: Dual Destinies. Not the best Phoenix Wright. This one took me a few years to get through.
• Unpacking. Surprisingly moving. It’s an interesting way to tell a story, and I did enjoy the game, but I don’t think I’ll be jumping at playing any copycats this might spawn.

Finally completed Little Inferno plus the DLC that apparently dropped last year(???!!!). I think it hit me harder than when I first played it years ago.

Too many 100 hidden [object] or Cats Hidden in [City] type games to count. None cost a whole lot, and I feel like I got my money’s worth.

I’m trying to go through my growing digital libraries and complete what I can. (But we all know the winter sale is coming soon…)

Looking back, I’m happy at how much time I had to play games this year. The Steam Deck (SD) has definitely helped since I finished almost all of these on the steam deck. Some games I started last year and finished this year, but I will still add them to the list. A couple I have played multiple times so completing them was fast & easy

1. GTA V 6/10 (SD)

I really enjoyed the characters and writing even if the story was a little weak. Gameplay and humor definitely carried. Had fun going back to it after not playing it for almost 10 years.

2. Mario 64 10/10 (RG351P Emulator)

I can finish this game in a day at this point. I don’t usually get all 120 stars since I skip the ones I find annoying. I’ve been playing it yearly for about 5 years.

3. Katana Zero 8/10 (SD)

Like Mario 64, I can run through this game quite easily at this point. I’ve finished the campaign countless times. Super smooth and responsive gameplay. Great story

4. Furi 8/10 (SD)

This is the last of my replayed games this year (kinda). I can also rush through this game quite easily in a day. Feels like dancing in gaming form lol. Want to finally play my first fromsoftware game next year. Already have Sekiro in my library so I’m ready.

5. Assemble With Care 5/10 (SD)

This game took me less than an hour to complete. Got this game through a bundle and it caught my attention. A cute story game, but not too much going on gameplay wise. As you can probably tell by my other game selections, this didn’t end up being my cup of tea lol.

6. Need for Speed Unbound 7/10 (PC)

It feels like Need for Speed is REALLY close to creating another classic, but they’re missing something. It feels like this game needed another year or two to add more content because this game’s gameplay is pretty polished and satisfying.

7. Risk of Rain 2 9/10 (PC)

Finished it solo and with a friend. Both times were really fun and addictive. Easy to jump into, but hard to put down. Might be my game of the year

8. Wolfenstein New Order 5/10 (SD)

Controls were meh and story was meh. I liked the game, but there are so many better games at this point, that I was kinda sad I spent my time and money on this one.

9. GTA IV 8/10 (SD)

The story was great, and the characters like always were amazing. The start was a little sluggish, but it made the the later parts of the game more satisfying and rewarding. I played this on my PS3 when it first came out, but I don’t think I ever played the campaign.

10. Tomb Raider 7/10 (SD)

It had a lot of charm, and it was just pure fun. It disregarded most logic and reasoning in exchange for fun scenarios.

11. WWE 2K23 8/10 (SD) & (PC)

I played the showcase mode where you play through John Cena’s career highlights, but what I’ve been having the most fun with is getting high, putting on a movie, and playing through the matches I used to come up with as a child. It has been a blast that I can admit has been mostly nostalgia fueled.

12. Tony Hawk Pro Skater 1 + 2 Remaster 9/10 (SD) & (PC)

I also have a lot of childhood memories with these games. Finished the campaign in about a week and I’ve been on a mission to get in the top 1500 on every map on the speedrun mode and it’s been a fun challenge. Multiplayer is also very fun even though I almost never win. What can I say that hasn’t been said in the last couple decades since this game originally came out.

Huh, I don’t really track this, but Steam kinda does, so I’ll reconstruct it. I’ll give my ratings on a 5 star scale, with 3 being “fun but not special” and 5 being “highlight of the year.”

January:

• Golf Club Wasteland - 3 - apparently renamed to Golf Club Nostalgia; pretty cool golfing game

March:

• Ori and the Blind Forest - 4 - fun Metroidvanias

April:

• Deponia trilogy - 4 - I love point+click adventure games (nostalgia), and this was better than expected

May:

• Relicta - 3.5 - the puzzles were all quite good, except a couple at the end
• Nuts - 4.5 - very interesting gameplay
• A Juggler’s Tale - 4 - I’m a sucker for these kinds of games
• Nier: Replicant - 5 - fanatic story, got me pumped to play Automata, which I’m currently playing

July:

• Blue Fire - 4 - fun action game, with Metroidvania elements
• Yakuza Kiwami 2 - 3.5 - not as good as either Yakuza 0 or Yakuza Kiwami, but still lots of fun
• Raven’s Hike - 3 - fun platformer
• Klocki - 4 - fun, short puzzle game
• Zelda: Breath of the Wild - 3.5 - pretty fun, but a big disappointment vs other Zelda games

August:

• Perspective - 4 - really cool free tech demo, unfortunately, I don’t think the mechanics would work well as a full game
• The Bridge - 5 - really cool non-Euclidean puzzle game, very Escher-esque (M.C. Escher is my favorite artist, so I’m a bit biased here)
• Ittle Dew - 5 - really fun Zelda-like, with lots of great commentary/satire about those kinds of games

September:

• Darkside Detective - 4.5 - again, I love point and click games, and this was really funny too
• Hexlogic - 5 - great puzzle game with an innovative sudoku-esque feel
• Grand Mountain Adventure - 2.5 - fun, but getting around could be pretty tedious, and I wasn’t a fan of the top down view

October:

• Human Resource Machine - 4.5 - fantastic programming puzzle game, would be 5 if the last few puzzles didn’t completely suck to finish (so tedious)
• Return of the Obra Dinn - 5 - fantastic detective/puzzle game
• Darkside Detective: A Fumble in the Dark - 4 - great follow-up to the first; nothing new, just more great point+click goodness
• Zelda: Skyward Sword - 5 - fantastic dungeons, decent story and side content; I bought this and Link’s Awakening instead of Tears of the Kingdom

November:

• Instant Farmer - 3.5 - good puzzle game
• Manifold Garden - 5 - innovative puzzle game
• Cats in Time - 2 - kids liked it, but it was a finicky hidden object/escape room game

December:

• Mirrorama - 3.5 - puzzles were pretty good, but the story was really odd
• Rob Riches - 3 - fun puzzle game, not too challenging (though getting minimum moves was occasionally tricky)
• Little Nightmares - 4.5 - great game, weird story, scratched several itches; I didn’t like the DLC flashlight “fighting” sequence, and some puzzles were a little obtuse

And some bonus in-progress games I hope to finish soon:

• Nier: Automata - 3.5 so far, but likely going to be 4-4.5 later, I’m still pretty early into it (just finished first major boss fight)
• Inscryption - 5 - I’m almost done, I’m in Act 3 with two known bosses left
• Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky - 3.5 - I haven’t touched it since earlier this year, but I really enjoyed it at the time, I just haven’t been motivated to dig back in; got about halfway through I think, maybe a little more
• CrossCode - 3.5 - enjoying it so far, just haven’t played for a couple weeks; will probably play a bunch over Christmas break; score will probably go up
• Bendy and the Ink Machine - 3.5 - weird horror game, I think I’m close to finishing, but I’m not sure
• Red Dead Redemption 2 - 3 - started, but didn’t get far enough for it to grip me; the original was a 5, so I expect good things
• Ys: Oath of Felghana - 3.5 - pretty fun, but I dropped it because other games seemed more fun; will probably finish soon (about 10-15 hours in)
• Hollow Knight - 4 - just started (finished first major boss, recently unlocked fast travel), so it may get a better score as I get further