Last December I did an end-of-year recap thing that got a lot of fun comments. Thought Iā€™d do it again this year! What games did you complete (or just play a lot of)? What did you think about them? Highlights? Lowlights? Might be a good chance to find some hidden gems while the Steam sale is on too.

I finished a surprisingly large number of games this year. Sorted by date completed, oldest firstā€¦

A Short Hike | 8/10

Cute, short, and fun. Perfect game to start the year.

Inside | 8/10

Limbo was the very last game I completed in '23, and I definitely preferred Inside overall. I liked the atmosphere, visuals, and puzzles more here.

Hook 2 | 7/10

NABOKI | 6/10

Up Left Out | 6/10

I bought these three as part of a bundle. Short and fun puzzle games, nothing super memorable.

Firewatch | 7/10

Definitely an enjoyable time, great voice acting, but the ending was kind of underwhelming.

Cyber Hook | 7/10

I really like this style of 3D platformer, but there arenā€™t a lot of them. The only other one I can think of is Grapple, which was hugely underrated.

Lunistice | 6/10

Cute art style, but I remember the controls feeling a little bit janky.

Slay the Princess | 8/10

Fuckinā€™ weird, I love it.

Unpacking | 6/10

I was disappointed that I didnā€™t vibe with this one very much. Telling the story through the items you own is a super cool idea, but I just couldnā€™t get myself to really care about where to place the items which is the entire gameplay loop.

Hades | 10/10 (Top 3 of the Year)

I donā€™t like roguelikes, so I skipped Hades for a long time, but I finally gave in. I LOVED my time with this. The meta progression was done well enough that I felt like I was still making progress overall so the roguelike-ness never bothered me, and every other aspect of this game is perfection. My highest rated game of the year because I cannot find a reason to take a point away.

Trail Out | 7/10

Something something imitation, something something flattery. This is a Flatout game, but itā€™s honestly a pretty good one. I had a fun time with it, but Iā€™d never take this over Flatout 2.

art of rally | 7/10

Iā€™m not a huge fan of top-down racers but with some tweaks in the camera settings itā€™s bearable. What really hurts this game is the penalty/recovery system, itā€™s so eager to reset your car the moment you go off the track, even if only by a hair, it destroys the flow. Graphics are beautiful though.

Hot Wheels Unleashed | 6/10

Itā€™s fine. Super repetitive, lootbox-esque progression is stupid, but itā€™s mechanically sound. I would only recommend if youā€™re desperate for arcade racers like I am.

Loddlenaut | 7/10

I love how cleaning games have become a genre. This is a short and sweet game about cleaning the ocean, I had a good time with this one on the Steam Deck.

Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit 2 | (the PS2 one) | 9/10

Thereā€™s a decent chance this was the first video game I ever played. If not the first, itā€™s at least among the first couple. Iā€™ve started so many saves but never actually finished the career mode until now. Aside from the career structure being a bit boring, itā€™s still a highlight of the franchise for me. Beautiful tracks, beautiful cars, top tier early '00s soundtrack, great handling, I love this game.

Gear.Club Unlimited 2 | 6/10

Look, Iā€™m really desperate for arcade racers, okay? This one isnā€™t a live service, isnā€™t always online, no lootboxes, no battle passes, Iā€™ll take it.

Toem | 7/10

Cute, but there were several times throughout my playthrough where it felt like what shouldā€™ve been the solution wasnā€™t, and the actual solution made less sense than what I was trying to do, which was a bit frustrating.

Hi-Fi Rush | 9/10

The score went up an entire point when The Prodigy - Invaders Must Die started playing. I really hope this gets a sequel.

Burnout Revenge | 9/10

Another game Iā€™ve started many times and never finished. NFS:HP2 may have been a nostalgia-driven 9/10, but this is a genuine 9/10. Absolutely puts everything from the past 10 years of this genre to shame.

DiRT 4 | 6/10

Painfully dull. DiRT Rally is a way better sim, DiRT 2/3/5 are way better arcade racers, there is no reason to ever touch this. I finished it because I am desperate for racing games.

Ghostrunner II | 7/10

This one didnā€™t vibe with me as much as the first, and Iā€™m not really sure why. The bike levels were a bit janky but were still fun for variety, and I still liked the game overall, but Iā€™m more likely to replay the first than this.

SPRAWL | 9/10 (Top 3 of the Year)

If SPRAWL didnā€™t have a soundtrack, it would be an 8/10, good time, recommend. However, I have had this goddamn soundtrack on repeat since playing it. This is my favorite video game OST and itā€™s not even remotely close. This is a neurofunk album with a video game tie-in.

Blur 8/10

The fact that when I first played this I instantly got a message from a friend I hadnā€™t talked to in years asking ā€œHOW DID YOU GET A STEAM KEYā€ says so much about the legacy of this game. It existed for such as short period of time and was horribly underrated. (I wish I owned this game on Steam, but it was a non-Steam copy.)

Webbed | 7/10

Cute platformer, donā€™t really much about it at the moment besides skateboarding spiders.

Bastion | 8/10

Played after putting many more hours into Hades to see where Supergiant came from. I was impressed by how well it holds up, fun to see earlier concepts that Hades would perfect.

Old School Rally | ?/10

Technically an early access game, but I finished all the available career events. Very promising PS1-style rally game.

Stories: The Path Of Destinies | 8/10

You ever have one (or hundreds) of those games you got in a Humble Bundle 5 years ago and just never touched? This was one of those, I randomly decided to play it, and it was great! Fantastic voice acting, fun story, fun combat, I wish I played it sooner.

Exo One | ?/10

I donā€™t know whatā€™s going on and at this point Iā€™m too afraid to ask. I think I launched a marble at Jupiter?

Hardspace: Shipbreaker | 8/10

This was my podcast game for a while. Not very deep, but itā€™s fun to gradually tear ships apart. Definitely recommend playing on the lower difficulty, having to worry about O2 and stuff kills the vibe.

To the Moon | 5/10

Explaining why I donā€™t like this game involves major spoilers. To keep it vague, I really donā€™t like how they handled one of the characters in the story. If youā€™ve played the game, you either understand or think Iā€™m insane because apparently this is a masterpiece.

ExoCross | 6/10

Very basic offroad racer. Used to be named ā€œDRAGā€ but then the developers were bought by iRacing. The game seems like it was frantically rushed out of early access after that. The native Linux port is excellent though.

RUINER | 7/10

10/10 vibes, 5/10 gameplay.

Furi | 8/10

ā€œThat final boss sure was easyā€¦ oh? oh! OH FUCK!ā€ followed by many deaths until I finally won.

Pseudoregalia | 8/10

10/10 movement/controls, but the environments felt a little bland. Thereā€™s an accessibility option to put pants on your character.

Guacamelee!: Super Turbo Championship Edition | 6/10

Itā€™s fine, but nothing especially noteworthy compared to other metroidvanias Iā€™ve played.

Redout II | 9/10 (Top 3 of the Year)

(I played with the assists off because I am a stubborn bastard, I have no idea how the assists change the gameplay.)

Redout II will repeatedly punch you in the face until your brain wraps itself around controlling these 2700km/h deathtraps. But trust me, once you get good, itā€™s euphoric. One of my favorite gaming experiences this year was missing out on a gold medal in a time trial by several seconds and thinking ā€œhow the fuck is this possibleā€? And then I tried again. And again. Going faster, and faster, until I had beaten the gold time by several seconds. Every time you think you canā€™t go any faster, youā€™re wrong, just be better.

Crayon Physics Deluxe | 5/10

Great idea for a puzzle game, but the janky physics made it more frustrating than fun.

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim | 7/10

Itā€™s fine, but doesnā€™t really feel like it lives up to the hype surrounding it.

Mini Motor Racing X | 6/10

Painfully dull career mode, but Iā€™m desperate for arcade racers.

Parking Garage Rally Circuit | 7/10

Short but fun.

Minecraft | ?/10

I havenā€™t beaten Minecraft in probably 10 years, so I started and new save and beat the game again for the hell of it. Iā€™m not sure how to rate Minecraft out of 10 at this point.

Jusant | 9/10

Super beautiful and chill, I recommend avoiding spoilers and just playing it.

Dome Keeper | 7/10

Trying to keep the Hades ā€œmaybe I donā€™t hate roguelikesā€ thing going, so I got Dome Keeper. I feel like itā€™s too easy and thereā€™s not enough variety in runs, but I still had some fun with it.

Dead Cells | 8/10

And finally, one more roguelike. Iā€™ve ā€œbeatenā€ the game, as in Iā€™ve reached the credits, but only 0BC. Still playing it, but wonā€™t be chasing 5BC or anything like that. I do wish there was more meta progression with this one, a lot of runs feel like a complete waste of time which is my main problem with roguelikes, but the core gameplay is excellent.

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    18 hours ago

    Hi-Fi Rush | 9/10

    The score went up an entire point when The Prodigy - Invaders Must Die started playing. I really hope this gets a sequel.

    Iā€™m so happy I didnā€™t know that song was in the game. I personally rate it 10/10, a perfect blend of gameplay, story, and soundtrack, with bonus points for managing to toe the line between goofy and sincere. That part at the end (ā€œI am a rockstarā€) had me bracing for someone to point out how cheesy it was, and no one does. I love a piece of media that doesnā€™t make fun of you for getting invested.

    I realize I need to finish more games. The only four I beat this year were

    Baldurā€™s Gate 3 | 8/10

    Iā€™m gonna be real, the replay value is not really there for me. My wizard and my co-playerā€™s paladin are the big damn heroes, and I have trouble getting into another character. Iā€™m not gonna get a better ending than the one I got with _______ and ____, and it feels weird being as into Karlach as I was, and then just pushing her aside and dating someone else

    Outriders | 8/10

    The world needs more games like this. I love that everyone recognizes that the Outrider is essentially a god. The Russian roulette scene alone brings this up from a 7, but the rather unsatisfying ending brings it down from a 9. I donā€™t love that they imply some big war between the altered humans, and then ditch that halfway through. The fact that Moloch is introduced as a BBEG and then you kill him in an optional endgame side mission is disappointing. The DLC though, that kicked assā€¦ Right up until the rather unsatisfying end, again. Itā€™s certainly much better than the main game, which isnā€™t really that bad to begin with. I just want to know what the Outrider learned in that ancient vault.

    Atlas Fallen: Reign of Sand | 7/10

    Donā€™t get me wrong when I say 7/10. Itā€™s one of my favorite games Iā€™ve ever played, and I want more games like it. Itā€™s hard to explain why exactly I like it so much, but I think I can sum it up with: many other games are rather exhausting, either mentally, or emotionally. This game doesnā€™t expect a lot from the player, except for proficiency with the simple combat system. The story is simpleā€”thereā€™s an evil god, you find a magic gauntlet that can maybe kill that god, action ensues. I can count on one hand the number of characters that I feel like the game wanted me to remember or care about.

    Itā€™s a fun game, solid 30 hours to 100%, 7/10 absolutely recommend.

    Hellblade 2: Senuaā€™s Saga | 7/10

    It wasnā€™t as good as the first game. Or maybe itā€™s that it wasnā€™t as better than the first game as it could have been. A large part of why the first game was so engaging to me was the loneliness. It was just me and the furies, and the puzzles we were solving. Senuaā€™s Saga introduces a few primary characters, and villages full of people, which dampens the furiesā€™ affect on me. The game was also much more confusing. In the first game, itā€™s entirely nebulous what was real and what was in Senuaā€™s head. You can interpret it as a literal descent into the underworld to attempt to reclaim her loverā€™s soul, or an entirely figurative descent into her own psyche to overcome the grief of losing him, or somewhere in between. Ironically, this makes it easier for me to parse, because thereā€™s no apparent contradictions. The sequel makes it explicitly clear that Senua is engaging, at least somewhat, in real life. This makes it more confusing, because

    Hellblade 2 spoiler

    the >!giants are also explicitly a result of peopleā€™s negative emotions. So are the giants really giant? Is everything literal? I need to read some analysis.!<

    Let me know if the spoiler tags didnā€™t work in your client. I think combining the ::: and the >!!< should cover all bases