Guessed by @UnderwaterFunktown

I really need to replay this.

Hopefully next year I'll get me a better GPU and do just that. If I already loved Cyberpunk 2077 back when it first came out, I can only imagine how good it is now. Keep hearing about how they fixed this and that, how it's so much better now, and how great the DLC is... I wanna get around to that soon. This was one of the most immersively awesome game worlds I've ever been in - sure it was glitchy back then, but I don't know, that stuff never truly broke the immersion for me.

In the years that have passed, we've had a few truly groundbreaking games that came out and set the standard for what we should expect from the best games, but... Cyberpunk didn't feel like the standard of gaming when it came out, it felt like the future. And in that way, I'm not sure when, if ever, a game will feel that way again. It kinda feels to me like this was the last truly big leap, and since then, our medium is only maturing.

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Guessed by @drbunnig

I don't know what exactly it is about Samus' second adventure that is so compelling to me. Metroid 2 has had three major versions: the original, the fan-remake, and the official remake in Samus Returns. I've played all three, and... all of them are flawed in their own ways, none of them is what I'd consider a masterpiece like so many other Metroid games. Yet, I've played all three and enjoyed them all. Samus Returns is my favourite, yes, despite its many issues on how it changes the original content - and yet, it so crucially replicates the feeling of being on a hunt, on a murder mission, Samus' most morally dubious mission. It just feels like a classic, even if only to me.

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Guessed by @UnderwaterFunktown

Despite playing it since way back when it was in beta, Minecraft had never made my list until it broke into it last year - because, for the first time, I played in a multiplayer world that actually worked, where things remained fun and the people remained nice for a significantly long time. That world has since died out a bit, but that group of friends wants to start over this month, so I'm looking forward to that. Minecraft is a fun game but rather lonely and repetitive on your own. With the right friend group though, it becomes something truly special.

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Guessed by @drbunnig

Ah, Splatoon... I have the third one listed here, but it's really standing in for all three games. This franchise is weird in that it can feel very personal to me whilst also being really not my kind of thing. I played each of its entries for somewhere around 300 hours, and had many nights of game after game after game just... getting angry, heh. These games can be really frustrating! But they're also, crucially, absurdly fun.

I just hope the next one has better netcode. That the Switch 2 has an Ethernet port built into it bodes well. Splatoon 3 was a truly fantastic game seriously held back by the hardware it was on, and now that it's been a few years, I've begun to miss these silly little squids and their love of ink.

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Guessed by @Bofferbrauer2

I may have escaped this addictive nightmare last year, but it was inevitable that I'd fall into its clutches.

Yeah, Balatro. You got me. Just another victim.

Seriously though, game is fun. It's gotten me through some bad times this year, because well, having something - anything - to do when you feel down, can really help. I've gotten pretty much full completion on it, except for the Joker stickers, and yet I still find myself booting it up regularly to do a run that always ends up turning into two, or three, or four runs... I don't even know if this is enjoyable or just addictive, but I have had good times with it, so I suppose it is both.

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Guessed by @Bofferbrauer2

I remember playing through this over and over in the early 2010s, to the point where I knew every puzzle and could finish it in just over an hour. Life was simpler back then.

I don't have much to say about Portal. It's a classic.

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Guessed by @drbunnig

That image is not particularly significant to why I like this game, but hey, it's hard to find good screenshots of DS games.

I think Black & White 2 are one of the first games that come to mind when I think about "mainstays" I wish I could push outside of this Top 50 ranking. Ultimately though, I haven't played enough great games to be able to do that. Sure, I managed to give Twilight Princess a silent death this time, but I can't do the same for this because, well... it's a really good game, and I enjoyed it a lot. It's definitely one of the best ever Pokémon games. Story-wise it doesn't live up to the level of its predecessor, but it's a worthy enough sequel and I respect it for trying to genuinely continue the story instead of being another rehashed "third version". Back then, it really felt like Pokémon was at the peak of its powers - we didn't know how close the decline was...

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Guessed by @UnderwaterFunktown

Just under a year ago, I was going through maybe the very worst of my depression. I felt confused, aimless, and alone. I didn't know what to do in life. One night I just decided I needed to do something fun, something mindless. Marvel Rivals had just come out a few days earlier. It was free to play. I thought it couldn't hurt to download it and just be a little space raccoon for a bit.

A year later, this has become one of my most played games ever. Sure, my mental state has not gotten much better I'll admit, but Marvel Rivals was genuinely an escape during those tough times and it still is during these tough times.

I could've never expected this game to hook me like it did.

Admittedly, I had an interest in Overwatch back when that was a big craze, but the price tag always kept me from really giving it a go. I don't play many shooters after all, I wasn't sure I'd enjoy it. But when you make a new hero shooter with Marvel characters, including my beloved Rocket, give it such a striking artistic direction, and make it free to play? Yeah, maybe I should've expected this addiction.

This was my first (and hopefully only) super-popular competitive game, and my god, does its community stink. Never have I seen so many people be so consistently toxic, everyone treats everyone else like shit all the time, you can't ever make a single mistake or else your teammates are jumping at your throat - or, more often, they do that even when you've made no mistakes. Never mind when bigots throw out random racist remarks... it happens rather often. In that sense, Marvel Rivals has shown me the worst of humanity.

And yet, I continue to play because, well, it's just so damn fun. And that such a big-budget, big-IP game developed in China continues to deliver so much artistically, with beautiful maps, awesome skins (as long as you ignore the gooner ones), new voice lines every patch, and loads of beautiful artwork everywhere and even lore for those who bother reading it (I don't!), in an age where just about every other big company turns to regurgitative AI, well... maybe that shows me the best of humanity.

People can make really cool shit when they want to.

Happy one-year anniversary, Marvel Rivals. May you long continue to be the backdrop of my late nights - and who knows, maybe climb higher in this ranking over the years, despite its tendency to favour single-player experiences. This has definitely been one of the most significant multiplayer experiences in my life, and I cherish it deeply for that.

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Guessed by @drbunnig

This would still be the latest mainline Metroid Prime game had I made these posts at the right time, but since I'm late to the party, Prime 4 has already come out. It's gotten a somewhat mixed reception, but I have a feeling I'm gonna love it. I loved Prime 3 and, let's be real, it would've received a somewhat mixed reception too had it come out 18 years after the prior entry. This game had a lot to be critical about: linear non-interconnected areas, trying to tell a story with several characters and voice acting, motion controls... and yet, it was still such a great game, because it retained the best thing about the Metroid Prime games: amazing visuals, amazing worldbuilding, amazing soundtrack, amazing atmosphere.

The sense of immersion and isolation was not lost just because the story tried to be a bit more engaged. If anything, this was in many ways an artistic peak for the Prime series - one I'm confident has been surpassed by the newest one. The earlier entries are surely the series' peak in terms of gameplay and level design, and while I wish Retro Studios could've retained more of that essential "Metroidvania" feeling, I'm glad to see this series continuing to evolve artistically.

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Guessed by @UnderwaterFunktown

No Man's Sky got a really cool update this year. Customizable ships?! You can walk inside them?!! That's so cool!!!

I... haven't gotten around to it yet. I got myself a nice 1440p monitor earlier in the year, it looks great, but the downside of it is I can't run games as well as I used to. No Man's Sky is one of those that have suffered from me not having a better GPU yet - I want this to look beautiful when next I play it. Am I gonna continue my old save or start a new one, I don't know. But this will always be one of my personal cozy games.

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