My Favorite 11 Video Games I Played in 2019

2019 was the first full year I owned a PS4 so there was a lot of catching up to do in that system's massive library.  It also marks the waning days of the 3DS for me; I've just about tapped out the games I want to play through on that epic little portable.  My list this year is reflective of both those trends.  To quote Mario, here we goooo!



11. Cosmic Star Heroine (PS4)
I thought I'd be able to lead this off by noting that I believe Zeboyd Games is the only developer that I've played and completed their entire library, but apparently they just came out with Cthulhu Saves Christmas so nope.  Anyway, these indie devs specialize in churning out slick, old-school style JRPGs but with modern trappings that respect the player's time (including not being 60 hours long).  In Cosmic Star Heroine they break out of the Penny Arcade universe to tell their own spacepunk tale with graphics inspired by the Super Nintendo/Sega CD era and a battle system with hints of Chrono Trigger.  Story is fine (light touches of humor without trying too hard); the game really shines in the tense battles and unique characters and how their skills play off each other.  Top it off with a pretty great soundtrack, including one of the better "standard battle" themes I've heard in a long while: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DD22y2Ibclw.



10. No Man's Sky (PS4)
This game has been on quite a ride since its release in 2016, including major updates that added a lot of new content.  I'm benefiting from coming to it late and seeing all that from the get-go.  This space exploration game is truly impressive, with its near limitless planet, flora and fauna generation and ability to just get in your ship and go.   Once you figure out how to not die it can become quite addicting as you discover new worlds and materials, learn new tech, and upgrade your suit, multitool, base, ship, and vehicles.  This is one of those games you could play forever if you really got into the crafting and building aspects.  That's not the case for me, as it did get fairly repetitive after a while (especially once you grok how all the systems are working under the hood), but it is the perfect game if you just need to relax for a while and explore strange alien frontiers (just watch out for those Sentinels).



9. Rocket League (PS4)
Car soccer, all you need to know.  I'm marginally better at Rocket League than when I first started, but I know I'll never be great.  That's ok, as I am able to at least play a few matches online and, if matched accordingly, not completely embarrass myself.  Even though I've never go pro, I can't deny how fun this super simple game is.  It's presented very well and the varied car customizations are fun.  It'll never be my favorite game, but it'll always be on my PS4 ready to go.



8. DOOM (2016) (PS4)
My experience with classic Doom (actually Doom 2) is inextricably tied with launching the game off of floppies on my Packard Bell 486 before Windows 3.11 started (not enough RAM for both) and playing while listening to No Doubt's Tragic Kingdom as I didn't have a sound card.  That might be the most 90s sentence I've ever written.  Anyway, while I was never great at old school Doom (iddqd FTW) I ended up really enjoying this modern reboot for managing to recapture the classic run and gun action but incorporating modern elements like leveling up your weapons.  The monster-shredding melee and chainsaw kills are also quite satisfying.  And there's even some reworked levels from the classic games to discover!  Doom 2016 won't burn your brain, but it just might melt your face.  Ok sorry about that.



7. Radiant Historia: Perfect Chronology (3DS)
I missed this JRPG when it originally came out on DS so I was glad to have an opportunity to revisit it on 3DS.  The presentation and battle system definitely harken back to the 16 bit era, but this game's major innovation is the introduction of multiple timelines, wherein your character Stocke has to travel back and forth between them in order to solve puzzles or otherwise alter history of the future in order to progress in the overall story - this works surprisingly well.  Some people don't like the battles much but I thought they were quite fun, not very complicated but the ability to push enemies around the field and line them up for killer combos added just enough depth to make the fights enjoyable and not rote.  Overall this is just a great homage to the golden era of JRPGs, even if it doesn't quite reach those same heights.



6. The Last of Us Remastered (PS4)
I originally tried The Last of Us back on PS3 but got discouraged during the early stealth section when soldiers are gunning you down (I hate stealth) so decided it wasn't for me.  When the remastered version was a free monthly game for PS Plus I decided I'd give it another go.  It was October, after all.  Spooky.  This time it clicked, though I'm not ashamed to say I played through it on easy, as this is the type of game I play for the story and experience, not so much for the challenge.  (For what it's worth, I still liked the gameplay on easy, I thought it does a good job of making you feel like a badass survivalist but not completely invincible).  Anyway, it's tempting to write this off as yet another "survive in the zombie apocalypse" tale, but developer Naughty Dog really did a great job of connecting you with the characters and consistently throwing new situations and environments at you (I was surprised by how much of the US this game covers).  I appreciate how character progression is entirely based on exploring which makes thematic sense.  The ending does a great job of wrapping things up but also leaving you with complicated feelings about protagonists Joel and Ellie.  I'm looking forward to seeing how things progress in the The Last of Us Part 2 next year.  Lastly, fuck clickers.



5. Shovel Knight: Treasure Trove (3DS)
It wouldn't actually be possible to release Shovel Knight on the NES.  If it had been, though, it would be remembered as one of the greatest games of all time.  This action platformer takes elements from some of that system's most beloved games - Mega Man, Super Mario Bros 3, Ducktales, even Zelda 2 - and fuses them to create something that feels both new and a love letter to that generation of gaming.  The action is intense but always fair, thanks to infinite lives but a Dark Souls-esque corpse run system of recovering lost money.  Every level throws something new at you but Shovel Knight earns an interesting variety of weapons, armor and skills to meet the challenge.  The Treasure Trove package is also quite the value - now that it's complete it offers the main game, 3 substantial side games, and dozens of short challenges that I suck at.  It's a must-have for anyone that remembers gaming in the 80s fondly or wants to know what all the fuss was about, albeit with fairer challenge.  And just like the classics of old, Shovel Knight throws in the game's best song as the theme of the first level: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wqAYMZSOQao. 



4. Marvel's Spider-Man (PS4)
It's a great time to be Spidey, though maybe the best reason is the Into the Spider-verse movie.  This game, however, does an awesome job of crafting a Marvel-ized New York City for you to swing around in - a great feeling that never really gets old - and fight some crime with a Spider-ized take on the Batman Arkham combat system.  I also really enjoyed the story in this one, grateful that Insomniac Games focused on a slightly older Peter and eschewed his origin story.  Great Stan Lee cameos in both this and Spider-Verse were real gut punches hitting right after he passed away.  The stealth sections with Miles and Mary Jane were a bit of a drag, though not too bad and it should say something about how much I enjoyed the rest of the game that I slogged through them.  It was just an all-around fun time that left me anticipating a sequel with Miles as the star. 



3. Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire (PC)
It's not a stretch to say that Obsidian is probably now my favorite Western game developer (especially with BioWare currently on um, shaky ground).  So it's no surprise that their follow-up to their giant homage/successor to isometric PC RPGs like Baldur's Gate would rate highly on my list.  Deadfire brings something new to the formula - an archipelago setting where you get to play the pirate and/or naval explorer, bringing a touch of open world action to the conventions of the genre.  Also new and optional - turn-based mode!  Finally I could abandon the "real time with pause" style that always held me back in the combat of these games and truly plan out all my character moves.  The story and character interactions are great, and your companions' reactions will really make you think about how you interact with the various factions.  Now that Microsoft owns Obsidian they are probably off to bigger things, but I hope they're still able to return to this genre that they truly brought into modern times.  At least I have The Outer Worlds to play through in 2020.



2. Fallout 4 (PS4)
I feel like Fallout 4 is a game that comes with a lot of caveats.  I loved it despite a rather long list of things.  The jank and bugs (I was never able to fully interact with the Brotherhood of Steel due to a broken quest).  The awkward and clunky base building (fortunately mostly optional).  The general lack of satire that helped put the Fallout series on the map.  And yet I kept coming back.  Exploration, developing my character, finding new gear, headshotting fools, completing quests - it all drove me forward.  Post-nukes Boston was a fun setting, one that I've been to in real life so it was fun to visit familiar locales.  It may not be the most polished, or have the most to say, but it's just a fun world to explore and screw around in.



1. The Witcher 3: The Wild Hunt (PS4)
I'm not sure why The Witcher 2 didn't show up on my top ten list when I played it a few years ago.  I liked it but just fell short.  Maybe I should go back and reevaluate it sometime (yeah, right).  Anyway, The Witcher 3 was undoubtedly the best time I had a video game in 2019.  Geralt's story comes to an epic and satisfying conclusion, but it's all the little things you do along the way that make it worthwhile.  Drinking with buddies, hunting monsters, tracking a serial killer/vampire, interacting with a bloody baron, romancing the ladies (my Geralt ended up with Triss) - all of it worthwhile.  An amazingly detailed world - the best medieval-style cities I've ever seen in a video game - filled with all sorts of nooks and crannies (and question marks that I'll never get to all of - come on, Skellige, really?).  The combat is fairly simple but streamlined and improved from its predecessors to the point I was actually fairly good at it - could play on Normal with little difficulty and barely even needed to prep for fights.  It's overall quite an accomplishment and I haven't even played the massive expansions yet - perhaps a playthrough alongside watching Netflix's Witcher series is in the cards.  Bring it on, 2020.

My Top 15 Small Box Board and Card Games

I’ve been contemplating writing this list for years but couldn’t decide how to organize it or what to call it.  Suddenly I just decided to call it “Small Box Games” and generally include tabletop games in smaller boxes that play in an hour or less – card games, party games, and smaller scale strategy games all qualify.  Perfect for travel, pulling out when you don’t have time for the big stuff, or affordable gifts.  So without further ado, away we go!

Honorable Mentions: 6 Nimmt!, No Thanks, For Sale, Coup, Mr. Jack Pocket, Hanamikoji

15. Incan Gold

This is a great push-your-luck game with scales well from 2-8 players.  Everyone chooses whether they will go further into a temple or leave.  Then a card is flipped which will either reveal a trap or a certain number of gems.  Players in the temple split the gems which they get to keep if they leave.  Anyone still in the temple when the second trap of a certain kind is revealed runs in terror and loses everything.  You get five runs into the temple and whoever manages to cumulatively escape with the most gems is the winner.  Very simple, with only one decision (stay or leave?) so very accessible but fun to see just how far you can push it.

14. Archer: Once You Go Blackmail…

This simple card game is a retheme of the popular game Love Letter, which has a few new rules and a Hidden Identity card to guess.  Very easy gameplay in which you draw a card and play a card, with the goal being to either to drive all others out of the round or end the round with the highest card.  Lots of fun tricks to play on others and even some bluffing possibilities.  Very easy to pick up – good with non-gamers – and you don’t need to be familiar with or care for the cartoon to enjoy this one.

13.  Sleuth

A classic deduction game from American master Sid Sackson (designer of Acquire), Sleuth can best be described as “Clue without the roll and move BS.”  One gem card is hidden and players must deduce three characteristics of it – type, shape, and number.  They do this by using question cards to grill others about the gem cards they have in their hand and gradually reduce the possibilities of the hidden card until someone guesses it right (or everyone guesses it wrong).  A real brain-burner but perfect if you’re in the mood for some hardcore deduction.

12. Codenames

Another deduction game but lighter, with more of a party game bent.  Players are divided into two teams, with one person on each team being the clue giver and the others the guessers.  An array of word cards is laid out on the table and the clue givers are able to see a card that identifies which words belong to each team.  The clue givers must give one-word clues to the guessers who must guess their team’s words, with the complication being that the clue givers can offer words that (hopefully) link more than one word – but the guessers may accidentally guess the other team’s words or, worse, the deadly assassin card that makes them lose immediately.  Requires some thinking outside the box but lots of fun with the right crowd.

11. Machi Koro

This almost breaks the "small box" rule, but it's just a bunch of cards, coin tokens and a couple dice so I think it counts.  This is the perfect entry-level engine building game, where you roll a die Catan-style and the number can activate cards for both you and your opponents.  Then you use your money to buy more cards that will trigger more effects, to build up more money, to buy victory point cards.  A simple and satisfying loop that necessitates some on-the-fly strategy shifts.

10. Star Realms

Deck-building games burst onto the scene with 2008’s Dominion, with the idea of incorporating the deck-building meta aspect of a game like Magic: The Gathering into the actual flow of gameplay.  Despite their rabid popularity over the following few years, I never got really into them, perhaps because of the frequent shuffling required.  However, Star Realms got past my barrier.  It’s a 2-player deck building space combat game, where you build a deck of various spaceships and bases and then use them to try to wipe out your opponent before you they do the same to you.  The large deck of potential cards means you’ll never see the exact same cards from one game to another so you’ll have to adapt your strategies accordingly.  Quick and fun head-to-head action.

9. Great Heartland Hauling Co.

I admire this one for packing a lot of game in a small box.  This is an easy-to-grasp pick-up-and-deliver game where players are truckers across the heartland, transporting cargo such as pigs, cows or wheat and earning points for delivering goods to where they are demanded the most.  Gameplay is card-driven by drawing cards Ticket to Ride style and playing them to determine how far you can move on your turn and which goods you can load or unload.  The game also comes with a couple mini-expansions, so you get a lot of bang for your buck.

8. Bohnanza

Uwe Rosenberg’s bean trading game is a true classic, and had the courage to keep its German pun in its English production (bohn = bean).  The game features a mechanism that I, strangely, have never seen utilized in any other game – players cannot rearrange the order of the cards in their hand.  Playing from the front, they have to plant bean cards, draw and trade with other players with the hopes of collecting sets of planted beans (more of the same type = more points when harvested) and clearing out your hand through trading such that you only have to play the cards you actually want to.  One of the easiest, best trading games ever conceived, which keeps all players involved throughout.

7. Roll Through the Ages

There has been a small explosion of “roll and write” games lately, dice games that take the basic concept of Yahtzee but apply new rules to devise something different.  Roll Through the Ages, though, was one of the first roll and write spinoffs and, in my opinion, is still the best, as it’s also the world’s quickest civilization-building game.  Players roll dice that have as faces food, workers, goods, coins, or the dreaded disasters, and have three rolls to decide what dice they want to keep.  Then they use their dice results to buy improvements, build monuments, sells goods, and feed their people.  Great components including large wooden dice and solid pegboards to keep track of goods.  Few other games let you build a civ in half an hour.  Just watch out for the plague.

6. Wizard

Many card game designers have tried to put a spin on traditional trick-taking games like hearts, spades or pitch.  Wizard was the first of these games I played and remains my favorite.  The deck is similar to standard 52 card deck, but divided by color and number instead of suits and with 4 extra colorless cards – 4 wizards and 4 jesters.  Wizards beat everything else, and jesters lose to everything else.  Like many similar games, each round has a randomly selected trump color that beats others.  Before each round, each player must guess how many tricks they think they will win that round based on the cards in their hand.  Points are only scored if the player gets it exactly right – 20 points for b eing right plus 10 points for each trick won.  As in many trick-taking games, then, much of the strategy is in the betting/bidding – play it safe with a fairly low number, or go for broke and try to outpunch your hand’s weight?  However, coming out just right often requires some clever maneuvering mid-hand, and it’s always enjoyable trying to finagle things smoothly.

5. The Resistance

Of the spate of social deduction games that have flooded the hobby game market in recent years, The Resistance was one of the first (besides Werewolf) and I think remains the best (besides perhaps its successor, Resistance: Avalon, but I’ve never played it).  Players are divided into two teams, the resistance and spies.  The spies know each other are but the resistance doesn’t know who the spies are.  Players take turns selecting mission teams – team members can vote whether each mission succeeds or fails – if you’re loyal you have to vote success, but if you’re a spy you can vote either way (these vote cards are shuffled so you don’t know who voted for what).  Through this process, the resistance members attempt to figure out who the spies are, while the spies seek to remain incognito and sow discord and suspicion among the resistance.  The resistance has to succeed in 3 of 5 mission to win, which is tougher than it sounds.  This always ends up being a great time, though it’s maybe not for you if you can’t handle being wrongfully accused, which will almost assuredly happen.

4. Battle Line

One of the great Reiner Kinizia’s purest and best designs, this has some similarities with Lost Cities but in my opinion is the superior game due to slightly higher complexity and the agonizing decisions that result.  In this 2 player showdown, players take turns drawing and playing cards on either side of a line of pawns they are seeking to capture.  The goal is to place the best possible three-card formation on your side of each pawn – formations roughly correspond to three-card poker hands.  You capture a pawn if you can prove, through all cards that have been played, that what you played can’t be beaten by what the other player could play.  You win either by capturing 5 of the 9 pawns or 3 in a row.  Because you must play a card on every turn, you will often be forced to make suboptimal moves, so you’re always trying to make the best of a crappy situation to come out on top.  One of the best.

3. Asante

This 2-player game used to be known as Jambo, but for some reason changed its name in the more recent edition.  This is a tightly competitive game of card play and buy low, sell high.  You play cards to acquire goods, sell goods, manipulate your actions, and mess with your opponent.  Simply be the first player to reach 60 gold from the starting point of 20 to win.  Sounds easy, but it’s made more complex by the multitude of cards that come up and by the fact that you can only stock 6 goods at a time.  Not quite a fully fleshed out economic game, but it gives you a good feel of that in a tight, relatively quick package.

2. 7 Wonders: Duel

I played the original 7 Wonders several times and enjoyed it but it didn’t enthrall me.  I think this 2-player version is superior.  Players take turns drafting cards one at a time from a tableau and use them in various ways – to acquire resources, build buildings, acquire science, build up a military force, and, of course build wonders.  There are two ways in which a game can end immediately – either by winning the tug-of-war military struggle or acquiring one of each of the 6 types of science cards.  Failing that, the player who scores the most points through various scoring opportunities after 3 rounds wins.  Thus the game is usually a struggle to prevent the other person from achieving a sudden victory while building up your final point total.  I don’t quite consider this a civ-building game since there’s really no upkeep like feeding your people, but ti’s still quite rewarding to build a few wonders and come out on top.

1. Tichu

Hail to the king, baby.  I did have to think about it, but ultimately there’s no question that this partnership card game is still my favorite game in a small box.  A hybrid of trick taking, ladder climbing, and poker, you want to be the first player to go out of cards by playing combinations of cards that are successively higher than the last.  Best case scenario is if you and your partner go out first, but there are also points to score from certain cards and the ever-tempting “Tichu” bet that’s a bonus 100 points if you the first to go out and minus 100 if you’re not  Only 4 special cards distinguish the deck from a regular poker deck, but the dragon, phoenix, dog, and bird make all the difference in the world.  Although I don’t get to play it that often nowadays, I can’t deny how much fun I’ve had playing endless rounds of Tichu over the years, and it’ll always be the best.

The Top Eleven Video Games I Played in 2018

Always one with the times, in 2018 I wrapped up most of the major titles I was interested in from the PS3/X360 era, though of course there’s still several I intend to get to eventually.  So late in the year I took the plunge and added a PS4 to my armory, so I expect that system will dominate my lists for the next few years.  However, my 3DS is still going strong, as evidenced by this list, and should be for quite a while.  I love that little guy.

10. Mario & Luigi: Dream Team (3DS)

The Mario and Luigi handheld RPGs have been mostly good, though none have topped Bowser’s Inside Story on the DS and I was a little disappointed with the newest entry, Paper Jam.  Curious, this year I went back and played Dream Team, the first 3DS entry.  I remember this game being criticized for Nintendo’s recent trend of overly tutorializing everything.  That’s certainly present here, but I actually didn’t mind it too much.  Diving into Luigi’s dreams for some 2D puzzle platforming was preferable to other kinds of puzzle solving in other games (let alone the Toad pixel hunts in Paper Jam, groan), the active-time battles were engaging (highlight: fighting Dr. Mario virii that you can kill by lining up three of the same color), and I appreciated the return of giant-size battles with giant Luigi subbing in for Bowser.  Nothing mind blowing, but almost always enjoyable.

9. Puzzle and Dragons: Super Mario Bros Edition (3DS)

I tried P&D on my phone before but never really got into it, thanks to the “gacha” style cash grab and that I never got how it was different than Bejeweled.  Since this version eliminates the nastiness of in-app purchases, though, I decided to give it a try.  I mean, can’t resist getting all your favorite Mario characters and enemies on your team.  And lo and behold, after some practice, it totally clicked.  As in other match 3 games, you line up colored blocks and then those matched colors trigger attacks by characters of the same color.  The trick is learning how to move one block around for several seconds to line up as many matches as possible to rack up the combos – and it feels great when you get it.  Fun character progression, which is needed cuz this game gets hard in later levels – I wish you could just forfeit if you enter a stage with just one life but oh well.  Bonus – while most of the music comes from the “New” line of Mario games, I really appreciated the appearance of a few jazzy tracks from Super Mario 3D World (the best Mario game since Mario 64, don’t @ me).

8. Shin Megami Tensei IV: Apocalypse (3DS)

It wouldn’t be my list if it didn’t have one SMT-related game on it.  I played base SMT IV in 2017 and enjoyed it a lot but it came up just short of my top 10.  Apocalypse is the direct sequel that wraps up the story of (what else) dealing with demon- and angel-infested Tokyo in the post-apocalypse.  This entry is an essence an homage to both games, though this one improves the map and adds a fun helper system so it’s not just you and your demons all the time.  It’s just a great all-around JRPG with modern conveniences.  My one complaint is that the final dungeon is absurdly too long and convoluted, and even takes away your ability to recruit new demons, which is half the reason you’re fighting in the first place.  Some JRPGs just don’t know when to end.

7. 9 Persons, 9 Hours, 9 Doors (DS) and Virtue’s Last Reward (3DS)

Although VLR is the superior game on a technical level, I’m awarding this slot to both of the first two titles in the Zero Escape series as they are pretty similar and VLR continues the story.  These games are part visual novel (get ready to read) and part escape-room puzzle game (to their credit, this series started before escape rooms conquered every empty mall space near you).  Honestly the escape room bits are very clever but my least favorite part of the games – I ended up looking up a lot of answers just to get to the next part of the story.  And let me tell you, the story goes places.  Conspiracy theories, the multiverse, telepathy, the apocalypse, it’s all here.  You get to make a lot of decisions that will lead to people dying, including you, but then you go back and make other decisions to eventually find the “true” ending.  This is a chore in 999, but VLR thankfully adds a node network that lets you zip to any decision point and take the other route.  Better yet, the main decisions in VLR involve playing the Prisoner’s Dilemma, very appreciated by a game theory nerd like me.  I look forward to wrapping iup the story in Zero Time Dilemma soon.

6. Infamous 2 (PS3)

I played through the first Infamous in 2017 when I needed a break from Breath of the Wild, and had a good time.  I feel like the second one really improved on the formula for this electric-fueled open world action game.  You play as Cole, an ordinary messenger guy who got some electric super powers and then has to decide to be good or evil (mow down pedestrians) with them.  The sequel improves the traversal/parkour, combat, and open world exploration with a fun setting (a take on New Orleans) and less getting shot at everywhere you go.  The story is fun and pulpy, told through motion comics and your hapless bud Zeke.  There’s not too much more to say, just a fun open world game where you get to zap the shit out of bad guys and monsters, very satisfying.

5. The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel (PS3)

My top rated JRPG of the year, this entry in the Legend of Heroes series continues its tradition of establishing a really fleshed-out world.  It does this through lots of dialogue and cut scenes, so be prepared, but if you give it time you really come to appreciate all the details and minutiae the game bothers to establish about its world to make it believable.  Taking a page from the Persona games, you play as a class in a military academy going on various field excursions and of course getting into all sorts of trouble.  I really came to like almost all the characters, even if they’re fairly tropey, but the localization and constant attention to detail make them memorable and likable.  The combat is fine, just enough variety to keep you pushing forward, and the climactic scenes where shit really hits the fan leaves you anticipating playing through Trails of Cold Steel II, which I plan to in 2019.

4. Metroid: Samus Returns (3DS)

Having finally played through Super Metroid in 2017, I looked forward to playing through this most recent iteration in the series.  And hey guess what, it’s great.  Developer MercurySteam did an admirable job of moving the formula into the present, giving you a huge world to explore and tons of stuff to discover.  Samus has some great new abilities including a melee counter, and the grim atmosphere, especially conveyed through the soundtrack, is top-notch.  Some of the bosses are fairly infuriating – though I was motivated to keep after them – and there is the backtracking inherent to the Metroidvania style, but this is a great adventure that’s not as groundbreaking as Super Metroid but continues in its spirit in a great way.

3. Rise of the Tomb Raider (X360)

It’s fairly weird that in the year of our Lord 2018 I became a Tomb Raider fan, but here we are.  I never played any of the old ones (I think the controls turned me off) but in early 2018 I took a chance on the 2013 remake (I think it was on sale for $3) and enjoyed it quite a bit.  Fun action, cool gadgets and a good story (probably better than Rise, to be honest).  I didn’t like all the quick time events, though, and felt it was pretty linear – you COULD explore a bit, but I hardly did and finished with 68% completion.  It whet my appetite to get the sequel, though, so I tracked it down on the 360 and liked it a whole lot more.  Much more exploration and openness, still great combat, better controls (something about Lara’s movement always felt weird to me in the 2013 game), fun gadgets and traversal.  I’m not burned out (yet) on the crafting and upgrade systems in this game so I found them enjoyable and engaging.  It’s a fun take on the Lara Croft character (although I have no real loyalty to her original incarnation), and I look forward to checking out her continuing adventures in Shadow of the Tomb Raider.

2. Horizon: Zero Dawn (PS4)

The first complete game I played through on the PS4, this one mechanically actually has quite a bit in common with Rise of the Tomb Raider (hunting, crafting, skill upgrades, arrows), but throws in a big open world and rich lore and backstory.  In Earth’s far future, humans are bronze-age tribes, with the notable exception that they salvage materials and equipment from the robotic animals – from those resembling docile buffalo up to insane dinosaurs – that prowl the landscape.  You play as Aloy, a young huntress who sets off into the wilderness to discover the secrets of ancient Earth.  Yes, you are basically The One, but despite this trope the game does a great job gradually dripping more and more story to you as you discover just how everything went to shit and now you’re shooting robot dinosaurs with arrows.  The combat is great, almost Monster Hunter-ish with the bigger beasts, though you’re always using various types of bows, grenades, traps, and – when all else fails – your trusty spear.  It has my favorite voice performance of the year, performed by Lance Reddick, who is of course his usual no-nonsense hard ass self.  What actually put this game above Tomb Raider, though, was the Frozen Wilds DLC.  I had grown a bit tired of the main game because it seemed like I maxed out my cool weapons and armor early on, and only occasionally got a slightly better attachment.  The Frozen Wilds, though, gets you new weapons, armor, and upgrades, told through a good side story (taking place in the former Yellowstone National Park) that also provides a lot of background for the main game.  Here’s hoping we get to experience the continuing adventures of Aloy soon.

1. Hollow Knight (PS4)

I’m not quite done with Hollow Knight, but I’m over 30 hours in and close to finishing the main story so I feel pretty safe in awarding it my game of the year.  It moved up the list in my mind as I played it and in the end I can’t deny it has been my favorite pure gameplay experience.  Hollow Knight is another Metroidvania style game, but bigger in scope even than Samus Returns, and also takes some inspiration from Dark Souls – in that the game is tough but fair, and when you die you lose all your money and you have to track down and kill your “shadow” to get it back.  The dark, gloomy atmosphere of a lost bug kingdom is also top-notch, with my favorite overall soundtrack this year.  There could not be a better game to play at night in the dead of winter, as I am now.  Every upgrade you get, from strengthening your sword to wall jumping to double jumping makes you feel like a total badass.  Also, the world is structured in perhaps the purest Metroidvania sense I’ve seen, in that you almost always have several options of where to go, so if you run into a hard boss just go to another area for a few hours and come back later.  It rewards patience and persistence, but of course also has backtracking and some bosses, while fair, will make you want to scream.  Still, this game came the closest this year to mimicking Breath of the Wild in recapturing pure gaming experiences of my youth.  If you appreciate old-school combat and exploration finely tuned to modern sensibilities, I can’t recommend it enough.