Disco Elysium
I know it did not release this yer, but I got to it now, so it is GOTY for me.
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Disco Elysium
I know it did not release this yer, but I got to it now, so it is GOTY for me.
I also finally completed the full story finally this year. I had always gone about 3 days in and started over trying completely different options lol
I got hooked, but I was like "what if I chose this option now?" all the time. So I started completely different character right after I finished. Got couple hours in, but... 1) it's too fresh experience and I should probably give it a bit more time and 2) I wanted the new character to be this fascist, racist, egoist, alcohol and drug abuser, but damn. It's so tough to play against some basic human principles.
Balatro, absolutely. Now that it's on mobile, work will never get 100% out of me again.
Nine Sols. Really underrated metroidvania that flew under the radar for many people.
UFO 50 without a doubt. Most creative bang for your buck that's ever been released imo
Absolutely agree with this. The product could have had fewer games and each game could have been much more shallow and it still would have been "good". But there's honestly a ton of bangers in this collection and the variety and creativity is astounding.
Factorio. And Cities: Skylines 2 if I'm playing it on Windows.
Factorio just makes hours disappear, it's an amazing game! Have you played the expansion?
played? Past tense? You must be joking
Damn, you got me!
Yes, I did.
Tactical Breach Wizards
Deadlock
It brought me a new multi-player experience, something to share with friends, and it is super fun. I also don't get toxicity out of it.
No love for Against the Storm? Technically it released 8th of December last year, but that's not enough time for it to be able to get GotY for 2023, so it's got to fit in here. (also I only played it after new years)
Other than that Balatro has got to be a strong contender for me. PoE2 is looking more and more likely to take it home next year for me.
Star Wars Outlaws.
I had so much fun while playing and Kay is such a sweetie😍
This was a surprisingly awesome game. The Sabacc mini-game alone is worth the price of admission.
Call of duty black ops 3. Most of that time was spent in custom zombies maps, but the third party client that cleans up the cheater problem that plagues every old cod let me enjoy some occasional multiplayer, which despite being apart of the infamous jetpack era, I actually quite enjoy
Custom zombies maps are the beeeeest
Balatro
Its not even a contest. The time I spent playing a rogue like poker is higher than most other games combined.
Send HELP!
Same.
I'd been starting to get into it when the Android release dropped and then I was cooked. Now between Steam/Android I've always got a run going somewhere.
If you realise the RNG is really ridiculous at higher difficulties than you can stop
just a new round buddy, you know you want it.
Twin-stick shooter against various bugs and robots with some ARPG gearing, and the action here is fantastically tight with probably three key factors:
I play a lot of twin-stick and top-down shooters, and this does a great job mixing the arcade twin-stick feel of high intensity fending off a swarm with tactical top-down dungeon crawling elements, and it's just really special feeling to play. The core action feels not just well designed but like it was made just for me, and I'm genuinely glad someone made it (or is making it, since it's early access). Plus, it's extraction style instead of being a roguelite, so you're always right at the best action while still getting procedural levels, so each run is a little different.
More of a visual novel, but I had an amazing time with it. I cried. It was beautiful. I've been learning the piano since I finished it.
Go in completely blind if you do decide to play it!
Sekiro. Played it a few months ago and I still think about it all the time. Amazing.
Helldivers II, baby!
Im a simple man. I see bugs or bots, I spread managed democracy onto them.
Pathfinder: WOTR was pretty epic for first playthrough.
Aliens Dark Descent for most intense 40 hours of gaming, ever. Loved it.
Under Night In-Birth II [Sys:Celes]
UNI finally gets rollback, which means I finally gave the series a shot. The GRD system is a very unique concept that adds an additional layer of trying to win the advantage state, then pressing the advantage when you have it or respecting the opponent's advantage when they do. And Vatista is just a very fun character to play, I'm having a blast with her.
Xdefiant. Loved that game, it will be missed.
It did look like it would be a fun COD alternative. Sad but not surprised to see Ubi gave up on it
A big part of me wants to see someone make a FOSS alternative to it
THE FINALS
Rather advanced gameplay, extremely fast-paced and chaotic, quite heavy to run, even with most of it running on servers.
But damn when it was first released a year ago, I instantly got hooked from the vibes and then stayed for the breath of fresh air in the FPS genre. The description above also happens to match really well with my ADHD tendencies.
There's a reason why it took 47% of my entire play time this year.
Hollow Knight, and it may never be dethroned. Although The Finals gets an honorable mention as it would have taken top seat in any other year.
Animal Well, UFO 50, and Balatro in that order.
According to Steam, I spent most hours this year playing Book of Hours. (The word "Hours" is in the name of the game, so what choice did I have?) It is an amazing game, and I recommend it to anyone who likes cozy games with lots of lore to explore.
However, there is one game that I must confess I had even more fun with, even though it's relatively short: The Pristine Cut of Slay the Princess.
I can't really say much about it other than that it's a horror visual novel with excellent voice acting and incredibly good writing, as almost any detail of the game's story would be a spoiler.
(Edit: I know, both of those games released last year, but the question was about which Steam Replay and which games one had fun with this year - not about games that released this year.)
Helldivers 2. Enjoyed the first one. Although I was skeptical of the third person view they proposed for the second one because the game can be so chaotic, I am enjoying the second one even more.
Non-Steam was Turtle WoW with the hardcore mode.
Steam was Path of Exile 2 and 1.
I think the game I've probably had the most fun with throughout the year and not including games I've recently gotten over the past month or two would have to be a 3 way tie between Balatro, Peglin, and Backpack Heroes. Balatro barely hangs on there, though, do to the boredom of playing it for long enough it's starting to get a little boring.
Age of Mythology: Retold. By far. It only came out in September and already it's my 7th most-played Steam game of all time.
It was never in contention for the goty, by frankly I'm disappointed that it didn't win its own category at least, because it is just so good. It delivers so perfectly on what it promised. It's a remake that feels like how your nostalgia remembers the OG game, adding in excellent modern polish and exciting gameplay while keeping the core of what made the 2002 game so great.
Sea of thieves.
You get to talk to people. It can be a grind if you want. Or PvP if you want. Or just fishing and relaxing if you want. It has matured nicely and is still popular.
Sea of Thieves has definitely interested me but it looks like one of those games that gets better A) if you invest a lot of time into it and B) if you have friends who play it too all the time, and I already have big time sinks in my life and I suck at convincing my friends to play specific games with me
Your character is at full power from day 1, so you only get stronger by learning to play better. The naval combat can take a bit of time to master but it's fun. The only thing you get for playing a long time are cosmetics. If you want to get sweaty with PvP then you can find a group on the SoT discord. Otherwise, for more casual play you can sail solo or join other players using the open crew matchmaking system. I have around 1700 hours in the game and it's just as fun as when I started.
Haven't really found anything particularly interesting from this year, so I've been playing mostly older games: my favorites were probably Trails from Zero/Azure and Chrono Trigger.
Some games I'm mixed on were Final Fantasy XIV and Metaphor ReFantazio. Both of them have parts I really enjoy, but also feel like they never reach the heights they could, both in gameplay and writing.