The passage of time is a crazy thing. Somehow, this blog has now been humming along for over five years, and I find myself writing my sixth massive year in review recap. While the number of posts I make per year might be dwindling somewhat, the amount of games I am playing sure is not. … Continue reading My Year in Gaming: 2022
Another year is in the books and another set of records have been etched into history for games played (123) and games completed (78). Thanks, never-ending pandemic! Despite several high profile delays, it was actually a fantastic year in gaming filled with award worthy turns by familiar faces (see Halo Infinite, Bowser's Fury, Psychonauts 2, … Continue reading My Year in Gaming: 2021
Well that was indeed another year. When we look back at 2020 from a gaming (and not purely cursed hellfire) perspective, two major things will stand out. First, we'll remember just how important getting lost in a game during this incredibly weird and depressing decade of a year was. From Animal Crossing to Hades, there were plenty of games to help forget the world with. Despite becoming a new parent at the tail end of 2019, I still managed to surpass my previous record for games played in a year with a whopping 90+ games played this year probably due to not really being able to leave the house for 9 months. Aside from that, we'll also remember the release of the next-gen of consoles with the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series S and X and the epic hunts to get them.
One year ago, while writing this post, I thought I had perhaps hit my limit for games played in a year at a mind-boggling 71 (well up from the previous year's 36). Somehow, in the grand lead-up to fatherhood, I managed to surpass 80 games/collections this year between a combination of further exploring the many wonderful ports constantly coming to the Switch and checking out most of the latest AAA titles (sorry, Sekiro, I'll get you next year). Overall, it was another solid year for games even if it didn't feature as many all-timers as the previous two years that this current golden age of gaming had produced. For me, it will always be a year defined by the games that took the biggest, riskiest swings making the most profound impacts. While figuring out my top 3 titles may have been among the easiest decisions I've had to make on this blog in years due to the few titles that truly distinguished themselves, narrowing down the top 10 proved to be one of the hardest thanks to an abundance of strong if not transcendent releases.
So, I umm played a lot of video games this year.... In 2017, I thought I had an unhealthy enough year at 36 games, but this year, thanks mostly to the insane amount of ports/remasters that came to the Switch and my inability to say no to $15 purchases at 11 P.M., I basically doubled that with a ridiculous 71.
Quite a bit even changed with my gaming habits. Sure, I still spent an inordinate amount of time in my single player comfort zone, which dominated my top 10, but I also really explored the world of online gaming and being called a n00b by strange preteens for the first time. Most importantly, though, I even finally kicked a 3 year mobile game habit that was taking up far too much of my daily life.
Ask pretty much anyone who plays games, and they will tell you that 2017 was one of the greatest years in gaming ever (see also 1997 and 2007. Apparently 7 is good each decade.). One of the most enjoyable consoles ever debuted in the Nintendo Switch, Indie games started making their way into the mainstream, and an astonishing number of AAA titles delivered on their incredible promise (sorry Mass Effect: Andromeda). Let’s be honest. We desperately needed games to be this outstanding and distracting this year as the world sort of turned into a giant dumpster fire. But that’s ok, because when this world got terrible, you could always escape to Hyrule, Pelican Town, or the Mushroom Kingdom.
Pwned and Operated 