AKA Ping

This started as a top X video games post, like I used to do when I played video games regularly. I like to do these write-ups regardless of how much I have to say about new releases. It’s tradition at this point, sure, but mainly I find it valuable to organize my thoughts about video games and my evolving relationship to them. Video games used to be my life. This year, according to my Backloggd, the number of games I played eligible for this list barely broke double digits.

In other words, I didn’t put away enough this year to justify ranking them. I’ve been finding it harder and harder to squeeze as much artistic fulfillment from video games as I now get from films. Kirby and the Forgotten Land is a decently enjoyable time waster, but I can’t shake the feeling timewaster is all it is. I’m never going to think about it again.

But I do still think about Outer Wilds regularly. And Sayonara Wild Hearts, and the Persona series, and Death Stranding in its own weird way. It’s not that there’s no artistic gratification in games, it’s that I am failing to find them. (Maybe I should get into the interactive fiction scene. They seem like they’re having a good time.)

So when there is a game, even one game, that completely reinvigorates my interest in interactive storytelling, that alone justifies publishing thist list. Here are the games that have been on my mind the most this year. For all six I explain why they’re worth your time. For five, in case you’re as busy as me, I give you an excuse to skip them.