I found this to be a poor gaming year overall. I enjoyed Elden Ring and Horizon: Forbidden West in Q1, but not much else. I haven't bought as few games in one year since my teens, even on Steam. I do have to add that I'm holding out for a PS5 Pro, and I'm looking to build a new rig. Waiting for some more sane prices has left me locked out of a few modern gaming experiences on PC (my main platform), so it's also partially a choice on my part.

Overall though, this has been a boring gaming year. Next year is already looking considerably better.

I think it was good. Elden Ring, GOW Ragnarok and Pokemon Legends Arceus are the stand outs for me this year.

Pretty darn good. Next year will be better

But I was able to enjoy Kirby and Switch Sports in the first half, which wasn’t much but I love both of those. Played a lot of soccer with Sports.

2nd half was just jam packed. Xenoblade, Temtem, Splatoon, Mario Rabbids, No Man’s Sky, Bayonetta, OW2 (aside from the controversy there’s still a fun game in there)

Personal GOTY was Bayo 3. Xenoblade is a close 1st only because I thought the ending was wasted potential. I think a lot of us wanted to see more interactions with certain characters and more intertwining. It was still an amazing game and that one scene in I believe chapter 5 was beautiful.

A lot of people didn’t understand the ending of Bayo 3 and missed the clues, but my gosh what a ride. I am not a fan of viola the character or the VA though… so that’s a bit eh. But otherwise I am going to absolutely drown in amazing games next year and I can’t wait. Starting off strong with Fire Emblem and Hogwarts Legacy.

edit: forgot to add I’ve been playing through The Quarry with a friend and it’s been such a good time. 

The year was good in general but for my very uninteresting. Did not try so many new releases this year and a few I wanted to play *stares intensely at Advance Wars Re:bootcamp* got delayed. The best new experience was either Diablo immortal or It takes two. One game released last year and the other, even if I enjoyed it a lot, turned out to be way to much of a dumpster fire in the late game.
Elden ring, God of War Rangarok and Pokémon Legends Arceus are a few games I enjoyed as a "spectator" since I din not want to play the games myself, but I could determine them great gaming experiences, just not for me.

I think Hogwarts legacy, RE4 remake and hopefully Advance wars can give me a 2023 in gaming that i like to actually participate in playing. Until then, Good is the highest verdict I can give.

Elden Ring was a one of the best gaming experiences I've ever had. Made me feel like a kid all over again. Once-in-a-decade game.

Regarding other stuff, Kirby was great, Strikers was a massive disappointment and didn't care for much of Nintendo's games this year.

I see you're man of culture as well

Those Witch Heart scenes released a feeling inside of me I didn’t know existed. (Summoning Sin Gamorrah)

No major RE & FF releases. Decent year. Next year should be great!

I'd say it was a decent year. In many respect, it was a very good year for me, as I put in a shitload of time having tons of fun on Halo Infinite. However, that's a 2021 release, so I guess I shouldn't count it in my review of the year.

Of the games that released this year that I've played, God of War is probably my favorite, though I'm not done with it yet. Plague Tale was also very good. I haven't played Elden Ring, but I'm confident that it is also great. I don't have a whole lot of names in my second tier of games though. So, I can't call it a great year.  

I basically said it there, but strictly speaking my answer to the bonus question is God of War.

Pretty darn good, dare I say amazing? Elden Ring is an absolute blast to play. Its easily my favorite game of the last 3 years. Also had GOW Ragnarok, Horizon, both of wich are fantastic. And to top it off Xeno Chron 3, Bayo 3, a coupe of really good indies like Stray, the fantastic nostalgic game that is Shredder's revenger. Im yet to play the last Kirby game, but I only hear good things. Pokemon Violet/Scarlet arre apparently terrible, but Arceus was great. So all in all it was vastly better than last year, and an overall very good year.