PS5 2022 Games - Highlights and Lowlights?

[PotrikBerger]

As we coming towards end of year and most of the remaining ‘big’ games came out this week, I thought I’d post what my highs and lows were with the numerous ps5 releases I’ve played this year and interested to see what others have thought about 2022 ps5 games also.

 

Highs

Its a toss up between Elden Ring and Ragnarok for me in terms of the most fun I’ve had with a game this year. If you had to pin me down for one, I’d probably say Elden Ring. Other games I’ve really enjoyed this year are

Paradise Killer

Arcade Paradise

The Ascent

Steel Rising

Horizon - Forbidden West

 

Lows

The biggest let downs for me personally have been Evil West, Sonic Frontiers, Gotham Knights, Plague Tale Requiem and Stray. Before people come at me for stray, all I’d ask is just take a moment to consider forgetting the fact you are looking at a cute cat when playing the game....for me at least it just boiled down to pressing x button when prompted for 5 hours. I couldn’t help thinking while playing it that if they even just removed the prompt to press x and allowed you to find your own way, then exploring would have at least been more interesting. As it is, you just look for the x prompt and then press it. I felt let down by that.

 

Biggest enjoyment surprise was playing ‘I was a teenage exocolonist’ - really enjoyable narrative adventure with card battle mechanics. Surprised me how good it was.

 

Finally, all I’d caveat this with is the fact that although I’ve got both Callisto protocol and midnight suns, I’m yet to play them at time of writing. 

 

What were your PS5 highs and Lows this year?

 

[fbdbh]

I think this year was uninteresting and mediocre. But I enjoyed gaming on the PS5.

 

Highs

• Elden Ring - Well. Not the best FromSoftware, and ridiculously, the PS4 version ran better than the PS5 version, but you know, it's MORE FromSoftware, and MUCH MORE. I'll take it.
• Stray - I played with my daughter, and it was a perfect bonding experience. I also think it's a very well made little experience you can just zone out to, just vibe with the entire thing.
• RE2/RE3/RE7 free upgrades - Well done, Capcom. Couldn't resist the autopops, but couldn't resist to do a quick run either.
• PlayStation Plus Extra - I actually think this catalogue is absolutely worth the price of admission, even though it could be cheaper.

 

Lows

• PlayStation Plus Premium - This is terrible, unacceptable. We started off with the promise of a handful of PS1/PSP titles every month, some with trophies, but like, this is nothing. It's less than nothing, it's an insulting retro catalogue. At least Hungary finally got the streaming option, it was LONG OVERDUE - but it still doesn't work on the PC app. Sony disappoints again.
• Still not feeling the "Next-Gen" - Not in a sense that games don't look good, but I'm still waiting for something revolutionary like Demon's Souls on the PS3 or whatever - new genres, new ways to play. Yet again indie developers lead where AAA lag behind and just regurgitate formulas from two generations ago. Horizon / God of War Ragnarok / GT7 feel like games that have bigger budgets, not games that have bigger ambitions to be better / more interesting to play. We hit some good notes with Ratchet and Astro, and then downhill since.
• Shovelware all time high - Don't get me started.
• Mediocre third party line up - Stranger of Paradise, Saints Row, Gotham Knights, Sonic Frontiers, Ghostwire Tokyo - the amount of boring, uninteresting, bloated or staight up unfinished middleware is really terrifying.

 

[here4headshots]

On 12/2/2022 at 7:13 AM, fbdbh said:

 

• Mediocre third party line up - Stranger of Paradise, Saints Row, Gotham Knights, Sonic Frontiers, Ghostwire Tokyo - the amount of boring, uninteresting, bloated or staight up unfinished middleware is really terrifying.

 

 

I'm actually pretty concerned about this as well. In the years leading up to this console generation, we've been hearing about how developer tools and software advancements would improve the quality of games, and open up new possibilities, and how the new hardware would enable devs to really take advantage of said advancements. We've seen evidence of this in many first party games, but other games have been shipped in objectively unacceptable states and with disappointing visual and/or performance targets. For me, this takes some wind out of "next gen" gaming hype and excitement. 

 

Don't get me wrong, I'm enjoying the hell out of games, but if the future of "next gen" is some of the crap that has dropped 2 years into the lifecycle of PS5/Xbox Series X, then I'm a little worried. 

[PotrikBerger]

29 minutes ago, here4headshots said:

 

I'm actually pretty concerned about this as well. In the years leading up to this console generation, we've been hearing about how developer tools and software advancements would improve the quality of games, and open up new possibilities, and how the new hardware would enable devs to really take advantage of said advancements. We've seen evidence of this in many first party games, but other games have been shipped in objectively unacceptable states and with disappointing visual and/or performance targets. For me, this takes some wind out of "next gen" gaming hype and excitement. 

 

Don't get me wrong, I'm enjoying the hell out of games, but if the future of "next gen" is some of the crap that has dropped 2 years into the lifecycle of PS5/Xbox Series X, then I'm a little worried. 

 

I find it hard to disagree.

 

I haven’t played stranger or saints row, but played the others and I do feel they’ve made me more moany about games than I’ve ever been before. It’s next gen prices for stuff that would have had no problem performing on the ps3. Sonic especially is a disgrace I think. I’m wary about going after it too hard because I think there may be an aspect of me just ‘not getting’ the sonic games. But when I loaded that up and got into the world for the first time it literally felt like I had bought a test version of a game that wasn’t finished. The world is ridiculously empty, just looked awfully basic and had one enemy every 500m or so. Next gen gaming? Who you kidding?

 

As I’ve said in other posts, its the independent publishers and devs that I’m finding tend to make the most interesting games (generally) since the ps5 launched. I can probably count on one hand the amount of times I’ve felt like ‘woah’ this is truly next gen gaming since I got ps5 at launch. 

 

Just to add, I’m playing midnight suns at the moment and as you say above, it’s not that I’m not enjoying some of the games that are coming out - I am really enjoying this one - but I take your point above, it’s not next gen in anyway, and again, could no doubt easily run on the ps3

Edited December 8, 2022 by PotrikBerger

[craig_obviously]

This year...hmmmm of those up for game of the year I played HFW, Stray, Elden Ring and GOW Ragnarok... and personally it's Elden Ring..it was leap years ahead of the rest for me...

 

Other high points for me this year...finally got around to finishing Alien Isolation which was a fantastic experience, Infamous Second Son and First Light, Mortal Shell and the DLC I loved...but the main game boss was some of the worst bullshittery ever.

 

Lows... Bioshock 1 and 2... don't see what all the love was about, I couldn't wait to be done, even skipped the DLC

[EDGES]

for me

the high was God Of War Ragnarok

the low was Gotham Knights

[here4headshots]

On 12/8/2022 at 9:27 PM, The Investigator said:

for me

the high was God Of War Ragnarok

the low was Gotham Knights

 

With Gotham Knights came the realization that devs may still put out visually unimpressive games that run terrible and feel bad to play. 

[MikeOrator]

On 12/12/2022 at 1:15 PM, here4headshots said:

 

With Gotham Knights came the realization that devs may still put out visually unimpressive games that run terrible and feel bad to play. 

 

I considered Gotham Knights until it came out at 30 FPS with frame drops.

[PostGameBlues]

Elden Ring is definitely my highlight of 2022. Such an amazing game, hopefully From is smart enough to recognize that a DLC will sell like crazy and not abandon Elden Ring like they did to Sekiro (still puzzles me to this day that Sekiro got no story DLC, could have easily had one about Lady Tomoe). 

 

Stray is another highlight for me this year. Loved playing through it. Being a cat owner is a big reason why I like it but even if the game is quite simple, I found it to be quite endearing. The art direction for this game is chef's kiss.

 

The lowest point of 2022 in gaming for me is probably The Callisto Protocol. It's not a horrible game, but I definitely expected more despite having fun with it. It's got it's issues which prevent me from looking back on it with fond memories.

[Geridian]

Lows (--> Should stop buying and playing overrated/overhyped sequels):

- God of War Ragnarök - Sitting with 5 of 36 trophies as started game in my profile. Think I am 3 or so hours in, but game does not attract me to play more of it. Like the 2018 GoW it is just no "real" GoW, it is an adventure game with the GoW protagonist. Has nice graphics, but that is all. 
- Horizon Forbidden West - Horizon Zero Dawn I enjoyed more then this game. Whole parcour mechanic of FW feels badly programmed. Not able to count how many times Aloy was stuck on a rock she normally should be able to jump across. Too many items/equipment + upgrade mechanic is imo just too much. Only parts of the game I liked:

Spoiler

Everything about Las Vegas and the "wtf moment" when Aloy encounters the survivors, which where returning with the Odyssey and you are introduced to Beta.

 

Highs:

- A Plague Tale: Requiem - Played it back to back with Innocence. Great experience. The mechanics of the first part where improved in the sequel. Played it on a 120 Hz display and was okay with the targeted 40 FPS. 

- Stray - Unique experience because of the playable character. Overall graphics design was just nice. Did not expect that I enjoyed this game so much.

- The Last of Us Part I - Was my first time playing TLoU. Interesting story and characters. Hyped for the TLoU TV series.

My personal highlights, not related to PS5 2022 games:

- Finally starting the Uncharted series of games. I like this series of games in general because the series got better with every game in the series. Currently playing the fourth part. 

- Playing some PS3 games and two games on it where everybody is frustrated about: The Lord of the Rings: War in the North (Where I encountered 0 bugs, although I always played in co-op) and Star Trek (Too bad that he next film was canceled).

Edited December 14, 2022 by Geridian
Wording

[MikeOrator]

The best game I played this year was Ghost of Tsushima Directors Cut.  Played the vanilla version in 2020 but got the urge to play again.  So good!

 

As for games that came out this year, I only played a few: Elden Ring, Ghostwire: Tokyo, and Horizon II: Forbidden West, and loved them all for different reasons.

 

Elden Ring was engrossing for me in the same way that Breath of the Wild was.  Explore, Explore, Explore.  I will probably put this back in next year.

 

Horizon FW has such a great world and who doesn't love a convoluted high-concept fantasy sci-fi story with mechanical dinosaurs...so epic.  It did run a little long, was a bit of a grind and the end boss fight was...suspect, but I personally don't mind that as I like to get my money's worth

 

Ghostwire: Tokyo was a lot of fun for me.  Sure it had some issues but it had a creepy atmosphere and some cool character design and the area of Tokyo that you were in was one of the coolest urban environments I have explored.  I think the game may have been pushed over the finish line by executives trying to get the last of Bethesda Playstation timed exclusive games out the door and done. Not a masterpiece but also not the piece of garbage some people say it is.  It will probably do much better when it goes to Xbox game pass.  It's also it's a rare game that has a better user score (8.8) than a critic score (75) on Metacritic.

 

Haven't played God Of War yet as I am getting it for Christmas but I am sure it will be great.  Played the Demo of Need For Speed Unbound and I just may pick that up if its on sale for boxing day.

 

2022 was a pretty good year...looking forward to 2023

 

 

Edited December 14, 2022 by grapetrap

[Z1MZUM]

Highlights - Ghostwire Tokyo (Bought PC version as well) and Playing PS4 games.

 

Lowlights - Like many others the Dual sense is crippling, Can't complain too much as Covid as damaged product availability and in my opinion enthusiasm.

[PotrikBerger]

Revisiting my initial post, now that I’ve played and finished it I’m going to add in midnight suns and take out horizon from my original highlight list above. I’m not sure about making such a sweeping statement as I’m about too, but I think it might be the best marvel game I’ve ever played.

 

Also, interesting from responses so far that Stray is getting a lot of love and Elden Ring perhaps not surprisingly, ranking high for people (it’s so good isn’t it?)

[da-Noob123]

Highs

I found a PS5 on the shelf at Walmart and bought it.

 

I completed Astro's Playroom, auto-popped Hitman 3 while going back to just to do some challenges, and I finally got to play Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart. 

 

Lows

Not having enough time and money to get and play all the games I want. 

[Darling Baphomet]

I don't really play many games at launch, since they're overpriced and typically buggy, but I'll describe some of the more significant new games I played. In order from best to worst:

 

Severed Steel: It's admittedly hard for me to review this game since I haven't actually played that much of it yet, however so far it's shaping up to be the best 2022 game I've played. It's an absolutely batshit mobility shooter where if you're not constantly moving, you're likely dead. The game's a cornucopia of acrobatics, slow motion, solid gunplay, and kicking doors and enemies down. The soundtrack is also incredible and something I would (and will) listen to on its own. Only caveat is the platinum is currently unachievable, but I'm willing to play it now and then wait for it to get patched.

 

Horizon Forbidden West: A fantastic sequel to Zero Dawn which largely improved upon the original, however they did unfortunately butcher the combat, making the game go from too easy to being a stunlock fest - and at launch it was apparently even worse, as you could be stunned while already downed. Add to this Aloy having the upward mobility of the lady from the "I've fallen and I can't get up!" commercial and you have a frustrating (and beyond the beginning of the game, failed) attempt at making the combat harder. However, it's a gorgeous game, the story and quests are excellent, and being able to ride all sorts of new mounts, including flying robots, is exhilarating.

 

Powerslave Exhumed: A solid remaster of a boomer shooter / metroidvania taking place in ancient Egypt. It's admittedly frustrating at times, but the music, retro aesthetic, and batshit mobility more than make up for its failings. One of my biggest regrets about playing almost exclusively on Playstation is the lack of boomer shooters, so it's nice to see them getting more and more ports.

 

What Lies in the Multiverse: A fun little indie platformer which got a bunch of hype before launch and was reviewed very positively, but unfortunately didn't seem to sell so well on PS, at least judging by the PSNP numbers. The universe shifting mechanic is unique and combined with other gimmicks like gravity shifting makes for a puzzle platformer that's more puzzle than platformer, and in a very good way. Overall a charming, gorgeous indie game despite some qualms I had with the story.

 

Destroy All Humans 2! Reprobed: Perhaps it's because I actually played this one at launch, but while the first game was a fantastic remake (admittedly with some cut features), the second was a buggy, frustrating mess. Still manages to be a gorgeous game and a fun, chaotic romp, but suffers from a lot of balance issues (almost every UFO weapon sucks, for instance) and makes me wish I had stuck to my usual policy of waiting 6-12 months before playing a game, even when renting. Probably a solid 8/10 in a few months.

 

Overwatch "2": A shitty update whose most significant change was adding F2P monetization to a game I paid for. Skins that were free now cost 20$, the battle pass is one of the lowest value ones I've seen, and events now have almost all their skins locked behind a paywall, meaning there's no longer any reason to play during events besides mediocre PVE maps that make me wish Battleborn still had its servers active. 5v5 ruins the game's balance for every mode except role queue, ruins the balance of off tanks, and switching to 1 tank did nothing for the queue time issues besides make the tank queue take longer. Yes, arcade is a "just for fun" set of gamemodes, but it was more fun when every game wasn't a race to see which team switched to all tanks first.

 

On 12/2/2022 at 1:38 AM, PotrikBerger said:

Before people come at me for stray, all I’d ask is just take a moment to consider forgetting the fact you are looking at a cute cat when playing the game....for me at least it just boiled down to pressing x button when prompted for 5 hours.

 

Yeah, Stray seems like a meme game to me. I played it a bit, and it was pretty, but it struck me as one of those artsy games without much actual substance as a game. Still need to give it a proper playthrough, though.

[The Alchemist]

Highs: 

 

God of War Ragnarök - Absolutely amazing game that improves upon the previous game in every single way, which is saying something, because the previous game is a masterpiece. My GOTY and one of the best games I've ever played. The highest of high points for me this year.

 

Gran Turismo 7 - My first GT game since GT4, needless to say I was pretty excited for this one, not least of all because of the return of a career mode of sorts. Despite a somewhat rocky start and some questionable decisions by the developer, I ended up loving my time with the game. In my opinion, there has always been a gulf in terms of the gameplay quality between Gran Turismo and every other console racer out there. Despite being away from the series for almost 2 decades, GT7 proved to me that gulf still exists to this day. It's simply a joy to play. 

 

Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart - Not a new game, but I only got around to it in recent weeks. This might be the best looking "next-gen" game yet. It's absolutely jaw-dropping. Of all the potential games, I honestly never expected Ratchet & Clank to be the one to deliver that stunning "next-gen" spectacle, but boy does it. Anyone still harping on about games not looking "next-gen", I would kindly like to direct their attention to this game.

 

Mixed:

 

Horizon Forbidden West - I've talked about this a few times, and it wouldn't be fair to label this game as a low, because I loved so many things about it. It's an improvement over the original game in every way aside from the story, but it's the story that I take issue with. Not even all of the story, mainly the ending. I just didn't like it. And it has me feeling much less optimistic for the inevitable third game in the series. I obviously won't get into it here for spoiler reasons, but I thought it was pretty dumb. It took the series from an outlandish but still somewhat plausible premise to something that's just becoming evermore weird and too unbelievable. I think the story of the original game was so good and it built up so much suspense right up to the big reveal, so much so that anything that came after it was never really going to live up to it, and I think that's what happened here. Don't get me wrong, the story of HFW is still serviceable, but it just didn't have the originality and the suspense of the first game. 

 

Ghostwire: Tokyo - I left my thoughts on this in another thread, but overall I enjoyed my time with the game. I loved the atmosphere, the world of the game, and learning about Japanese customs and culture from the in-game descriptions of items. I also thought the ray tracing in particular was among the best I've seen in a game yet. But the game also had its share of issues, mostly revolving around some of the usual issues that open-world games tend to suffer from, particularly repetition. Overall a fun game, though. 

 

The new PS Plus - I was subbed to PS Now prior to the relaunch, so I automatically got put into the premium tier which is what I've had ever since, and it's been a mixed bag for me. I think extra is amazing value and it proves its worth month after month, but premium really offers nothing of value to convince me to stay with it long-term. When we first started getting the classic games with new features like rewind and instant saves and even trophies for some of the titles, I thought it was pretty great, but since then the titles have slowed down considerably with some months not having any new games added at all. Trophies are also a no-show for the most part now, so whatever incentive was there for me to revisit these games no longer exists. Premium has been a mediocre disappointment, but at least extra is still amazing. 

 

I don't really have any lows, or none that come to mind at least. It's been another very solid year overall in my opinion. Some mixed things as I mentioned above, but nothing that I would class as overly negative. Here's to 2023 and hopefully another solid year of good games. 

 

[Vault-TecPhantom]

On 02/12/2022 at 11:38 AM, PotrikBerger said:

As we coming towards end of year and most of the remaining ‘big’ games came out this week, I thought I’d post what my highs and lows were with the numerous ps5 releases I’ve played this year and interested to see what others have thought about 2022 ps5 games also.

 

Highs

Its a toss up between Elden Ring and Ragnarok for me in terms of the most fun I’ve had with a game this year. If you had to pin me down for one, I’d probably say Elden Ring. Other games I’ve really enjoyed this year are

Paradise Killer

Arcade Paradise

The Ascent

Steel Rising

Horizon - Forbidden West

 

Lows

The biggest let downs for me personally have been Evil West, Sonic Frontiers, Gotham Knights, Plague Tale Requiem and Stray. Before people come at me for stray, all I’d ask is just take a moment to consider forgetting the fact you are looking at a cute cat when playing the game....for me at least it just boiled down to pressing x button when prompted for 5 hours. I couldn’t help thinking while playing it that if they even just removed the prompt to press x and allowed you to find your own way, then exploring would have at least been more interesting. As it is, you just look for the x prompt and then press it. I felt let down by that.

 

Biggest enjoyment surprise was playing ‘I was a teenage exocolonist’ - really enjoyable narrative adventure with card battle mechanics. Surprised me how good it was.

 

Finally, all I’d caveat this with is the fact that although I’ve got both Callisto protocol and midnight suns, I’m yet to play them at time of writing. 

 

What were your PS5 highs and Lows this year?

 

 

Out of curiosity, why were you not keen on Plague Tale Requiem? 

[PotrikBerger]

3 hours ago, Vault-TecPhantom said:

 

Out of curiosity, why were you not keen on Plague Tale Requiem? 

 

My biggest issue was pace and speed. I found this one way too slow. For the majority of the game you are locked into walking pace and it was driving me nuts. It started as a minor irritation, but quickly became the only real consistent thought I was having throughout the playthrough. Before long it became the only thing I was focused on. ‘Why can’t I run here?’, ‘Will you shut up talking so I can run!’, ‘just f....ing run Amicia!’ And it was dominating almost every thought to the point I lost all interest in story and just became focused on the amount of times you either are forced to listen to Hugo whittle on, or forced to move slower than a tortoise walking backwards through peanut butter. By the time you have to start replaying the game to clean up the skill tree related trophy, I’d had enough. Was painful having to walk through the same dialogue all of again....almost real life pain.

 

i became pre-occupied with the pace and speed and ended up just not being able to look past that. No doubt there is a great story there and a fantastic looking game, but honestly it got to the point where I just didn’t notice those things anymore. My overall feeling and summary of this game can be caught in one word. Tiresome.

[Z1MZUM]

On 12/18/2022 at 8:04 AM, Darling Baphomet said:

Powerslave Exhumed: A solid remaster of a boomer shooter / metroidvania taking place in ancient Egypt. It's admittedly frustrating at times, but the music, retro aesthetic, and batshit mobility more than make up for its failings. One of my biggest regrets about playing almost exclusively on Playstation is the lack of boomer shooters, so it's nice to see them getting more and more ports.

 

The greatest fps ever made, and this is the Saturn port.

[Vault-TecPhantom]

20 hours ago, PotrikBerger said:

 

My biggest issue was pace and speed. I found this one way too slow. For the majority of the game you are locked into walking pace and it was driving me nuts. It started as a minor irritation, but quickly became the only real consistent thought I was having throughout the playthrough. Before long it became the only thing I was focused on. ‘Why can’t I run here?’, ‘Will you shut up talking so I can run!’, ‘just f....ing run Amicia!’ And it was dominating almost every thought to the point I lost all interest in story and just became focused on the amount of times you either are forced to listen to Hugo whittle on, or forced to move slower than a tortoise walking backwards through peanut butter. By the time you have to start replaying the game to clean up the skill tree related trophy, I’d had enough. Was painful having to walk through the same dialogue all of again....almost real life pain.

 

i became pre-occupied with the pace and speed and ended up just not being able to look past that. No doubt there is a great story there and a fantastic looking game, but honestly it got to the point where I just didn’t notice those things anymore. My overall feeling and summary of this game can be caught in one word. Tiresome.

 

ah, the old "walking as an unskippable cut scene" dev trick. Must have been really annoying to ruin the entire game for you!

I don't plan on playing Requiem until Asobo release a 60 fps patch, but thanks for the heads up.

[PotrikBerger]

1 hour ago, Vault-TecPhantom said:

 

ah, the old "walking as an unskippable cut scene" dev trick. Must have been really annoying to ruin the entire game for you!

I don't plan on playing Requiem until Asobo release a 60 fps patch, but thanks for the heads up.

 

It may well be something particular to me and how I played/wanted to play this game, so I don’t want to put you off all together. Others may play this and not even think about the pace etc. So it may well depend on the mindset you start the game with. But yeah, it really did get under my skin.

 

Anyway, if you do start it post patch I hope you enjoy matey ? 

[Sn1per666999]

Highlights:

 

Elden Ring (Best game ever imo)

Horizon Forbidden West (Better than the first one and it's incredibly beautiful)

The Quarry (Every bit as good as Until Dawn but wished it was more scary)

New Tales from the Borderlands (As funny as the first one and I think it's underrated)

Dying Light 2 (Better than I expected)

 

Disappointments:

 

Gran Turismo 7 (Worst GT game. Terrible career mode. Nothing but a repetitive grind fest)

Grid Legends (This game was just meh. I'm perfectly happy with them never making another one)

Saint's Row (Worst Saint's Row game and the side activities are so repetitive and pointless it should be criminal)

Tiny Tina's Wonderlands (Humor fell flat most of the time. I didn't like the level design, Enemy variety is lacking. End game is tedious)

[PotrikBerger]

On 23/12/2022 at 4:54 AM, Sn1per666999 said:

 

 

Disappointments:

 

Gran Turismo 7 (Worst GT game. Terrible career mode. Nothing but a repetitive grind fest)

 

 

Interesting....I have never played a gran Turismo and was thinking about this in the new year. However, I can’t stand grinding. It’s my most hated aspect of gaming, so I must know What is the grind fest you warn of? Is it grinding xp levels, or cash etc? How extensive is thengrimd? Does it dominate the game?

[DrBloodmoney]

If we’re only looking at stuff I played on PS5, I’d say Highlights for me were:

 

Elden Ring 

Inscryption

Tunic

Chicory

The Forgotten City

Kena: Bridge of Spirits

The Artful Escape

Manifold Garden

The Entropy Centre

Unpacking

Doki Doki Literature Club+

God of War: Ragnarok

Rollerdrome

Stray

Backbone 

 

…All being awesome in their own ways!

 

 

…plus:

 

The new version of The Stanley Parable having so much ace new content

 

Guardians of the Galaxy being actually pretty decent

 

Shatter Remastered Deluxe being cheap, and still great!

 

Treasures of the Aegean being recommended, and turning out to be excellent

 

…and all the nice new versions of games coming for free, such as Gris, What Remains of Edith Finch, Night in the Woods, Superliminal and the RE2 and RE3 Remakes! 

 

Lowlights:

 

Jett: The Far Shore not managing to live up to its outstanding first hour

 

Resident Evil Village not being as good as RE7 was, and back-peddling the advancements it made a bit.

Far Cry 6 being so good looking, but so utterly devoid of narrative or originality

Last Stop sucking so hard, it made me question if Virginia was actually good, or if I just mistook confusion for genius!

 

 

 

 

Overall, though, a hell of a year for games!

My only wish: I hope 2023 can match it for awesome experiences!

?

 

Edited December 28, 2022 by DrBloodmoney

[ScintillaWolf]

Highlights

Stray - Whilst I know it probably owes a lot to being a cat owner and loving cats in general, I found Stray to be extremely charming and endearing. Good length for what it was, brilliant setting, and they absolutely nailed the movements and actions of a cat. Loved it.

Cult of the Lamb - Excellent game. I had so much fun with this one. I would recommend anyone to play this game simply for its art style, premise and how addictively fun it is building a little cult of followers to worship you! (and clean up poop)

Metal: Hellsinger - Similarly to Stray, the reasons I loved this game are personal ones. I love metal music. And this gave me exactly what the trailers and pre-release hype promised me; a fun, headbanging ride killing demons to the beat. Anyone with any interest in metal music, check this one out! 

Evil West - I wasn't sure what I was going to make of Evil West at first, given mixed reviews and a short run time for what I initially expected to be an open world vampire style Red Dead, but at the end of the day, whilst the story is pretty nonsensical and the writing laughably bad, the game is a hoot to play, and ultimately that's what I walked away from it remembering.

Sifu - Okay I straight up sucked at this game and had to wait until the easy update dropped to be able to complete it, so initially it probably wouldn't have made my highlight list, but once that update dropped, I really took to Sifu, as it felt like a fresh concept and different to anything I had played before.

 

Horizon Forbidden West and God of War: Ragnarok were also home runs for me, but I expected them to be brilliant games that engaged me, and neither disappointed. But I won't list them as particular highlights as I never doubted they'd deliver.

 

Disappointments

The Callisto Protocol - It kills me to say it, but this was my biggest disappointment of 2022. I had so much hype for this game as I love the Dead Space franchise, like many others. But it's well documented the problems this game has. The story is paper thin with a plot we've seen done countless times. The combat, whilst I still believe people criticised too quickly because they simply weren't doing it right, is clunky and animation locked, leading to multiple instances of being hit or insta-killed. The setting, whilst gorgeous, is very repetitive for the most part and multiple story beats are often repeated, such as the mini boss fights and the constant walkway collapses. I was still able to enjoy it enough to get through a playthrough, but this game feels like a big missed opportunity.

Dying Light 2: Stay Human - Now admittedly I have yet to play this, but considering this was going to be a day one purchase and I've not yet touched it, probably says everything. Coming out at a time when Horizon and Elden Ring were much of the focus, I don't think Dying Light could afford to come out as the buggy mess that it did. And whilst I know the same can be said for a lot of games now, including the previous one I just listed, it felt especially a bummer for me since I thought the first game was the closest thing to a masterpiece you could get with an open world zombie game. I likely will play it at some point, but given the anticipation I initially had for it, it makes my list.

Playstation Plus Premium - I think we can all agree that this is an absolutely undercooked and poorly supported waste of money at the minute. The initial promise made of more PS1 classics with trophy support after the transition from PS Now had me pretty excited for a lot of old games I envisioned myself revisiting. So far all I've touched is Ape Escape, and streamed a few PS3 games that I had been doing with PS Now anyway. I feel like they've only added the tier system to appear like they can or want to compete with Game Pass, but that ideally they'd rather you just buy their newest games and stick to that. Desperately needs a beefing up of the PS1 catalogue WITH trophy support included as mandatory on all games.

 

All in all, I think 2022 has shown me that indie games often now provide the best surprises and unexpected quality games, amidst a back drop of underwhelming or meh third party open world, bigger titles that feel like they were made for PS4. Sony first party pretty much guarantee home runs, so it would be nice going into 2023 that more of these established third party devs step up.

 

Edited December 28, 2022 by ScintillaWolf