- Death Stranding - Maybe not ever have I seen a titles ability to marry its themes to it's core gameplay loop so strongly. Death Stranging is a game about planning for everything, adapting on the fly, and forming connections. The addictive gameplay and interesting multiplayer mechanics are also bolstered by a stunning soundtrack and fantastic art direction. Another high mark is the voice acting and mo-cap performances, Kojima does a great job highlighting some fantastic acting on the parts of nearly every character in the game. While I won't go into spoilers, the game builds its odd and over the top narrative in a surprisingly simple way, and weighs a lot of that on the connections and trust Sam forms with the people he meets, his trusty BB, and eventually himself. While its gameplay might not tickle everyones fancy, I clocked in 80 hours and found it a pleasurable, fascinating, and heartfelt time. Death Stranding is something special.
- Sayonara Wild Hearts - Much like Tetris Effect before it, Sayonara Wild Hearts is wave after wave of stimulation. The game constantly shifts in different directions and different game genres, going from autorunner to bullet-hell shooter to rhythem game to even more, acting almost like a love letter to various other games, being driven by its killer soundtrack and sheer brazenness. A game that manages to explode with confidence and yet still feel deeply personal, a game that tells a very relatable story with few words, Sayonara Wild Hearts is a thrill ride I would happily take over and over again.
- Hypnospace Outlaw - Not just a love letter/hilarious examination of the early internet, Hypnospace Outlaw is a mirror reflecting a twisted version of our own past back towards us. Almost at times feeling like a surrealist nightmare of Anglefire crossed with Fark.com, it's a strange and wonderful examination of both people, personalities, and the early roots of social media. Wonderful as both parody and condemnation of the internet as a whole.
- Resident Evil 2 - ReMake 2 is a great mixture of elements from nearly all of Capcoms RE mainstays, but mostly; Resident Evil 7, Revelations 2, and Resident Evil 2 original. Polished to a mirror sheen, Resident Evil 2 is a revisit on one of the most beloved games in Capcom's library, and while I don't think it's a perfect transition from old to new, I still adore it and replay it even to this day. Locations lovingly recreated, updated mechanics, and new ways to crank up the tension make this an essential for any fan of the RE series.
- Judgment - An original story in the Yakuza universe, Judgment is slightly clichéd and majorly impressive. Set once again in the streets of Kamurocho, you take the role of a lawyer turned private eye, set on solving not only mysteries in the present, but ones that also haunt him from the past. Filled to the brim with fantastic writing and memorable characters, the breath of content crammed into such a thoroughly explored setting is astounding.
- Control - Surreal and beautiful, Control nails a very specific aesthetic, one of impossible space and censored writings, that of SCP and The Twilight Zone. It's a space you want to explore because it's one you know you're not supposed to be able to. Control is a near perfect distillation of everything Remedy is, from mixed-media to intense third-person shootouts.
- Tetris 99 - Tetris is almost always good, and Tetris 99 is good. Somehow finding a way to turn up the tension of a game of Tetris up even more, battling it out against 98 other players in a bid to be the best tetromino stacker is fun, fast, and exhilarating.
- Baba is You - (Baba is You)[is](clever). (Baba is You)[is](challenging). (Baba is You)[is](creative)[and](astounding). (Fat4all)[is](dumb)[and](win).
- Tangle Tower - The third game in the Detective Grimoire series, Tangle Tower is a fun, straight forward murder mystery game with great twists and turns, and beautiful artstyle and characters, and some wonderful writing and voice acting. Every line is voiced, and you'll want to hear it too. Lots to uncover and find out, while the game is a touch short it packs a lot of fun whodunit goodness into the time it has.
- Days Gone - Bend Studios first big push onto the PS4 has a few rough edges, but in my eyes resulted in a unique and interesting open world game that's both fun to explore as well as interesting to just watch shift around you. Days Gone puts a lot of weight on its more subtle moments, and to that effect I feel it works well, keeping a lot of the characters main motivations in the back of your mind as you make your way around the beautifully detailed state of Oregon.
Left on the cutting room floor: Ring Fit Adventure, Sekiro, Grindstone, Untitled Goose Game, Crash Team Racing, Observation, DMCV, Remnant: From the Ashes.
the 10 spot was a fight between days gone and sekiro, and my heart had to... Bend.
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