Hi Friends! 2018 was a year that just got better and better. Except for the PAX Prime food poisoning. That was bad. Let’s review the year real quick:
January 1st - February 28th: I was working at a horrible game studio and was incredibly depressed.
March 1st - December 31st: I started working at Finji, doing work that actually matters and I am very happy
Okay now that we’ve got that out of the way, let’s talk about video games! I’ve heard a lot of folks say that 2018 was an “eh” year for games and I just don’t agree with that. Due to the sheer number of great games I’ve played this year, I had a hard time picking out and organizing my top 10. Reviewing my notes, I played a total of 26 of this year’s releases. Here are my favorites.
I’m very happy this game made it onto the list. All things considered, Sea of Thieves brought me great joy this year. My friend Devon put it best, describing the game as sitting around a campfire with friends as you chat and drink beer. Sure, every once in a while you’ve got to get serious and address a giant megalodon or another ship full of players, but for the most part you’re just mindless dinking around a gorgeous seascape with your mates, goofing and gaffing from island to island.
Spiderman 2 on the Gamecube was one of my favorite games growing up, so when Insomniac finally made another good Spiderman game nearly FIFTEEN YEARS LATER, you know I’d be there for it. I’m not much for superhero stories, but the swinging around the city is the funnest traversal I’ve ever experienced in an open world game. But like, it’s 2018. Peter Parker is a big enough shithead to dab. There wasn’t one dab in the game. What gives.
BOY.
There’s a spoiler moment when I was streaming Return of the Obra Dinn that made me alt tab and put it on this list. That’s all I’m going to say. It’s a fantastic piratey Ghost Trick and you should spend $20 on it you penny-pinching buttlicker.
This might be the most beautiful game I’ve ever played. The final sequence of journey mode had me, slack-jawed on my couch, being both the most relaxed and focused I’ve ever been in my life. My neighbors probably hate how loud I cranked this game on my surround sound system, but fuck ‘em. Tetris Effect regularly caused me to stop thinking, which for a guy with anxiety, is kinda a big deal. I hope Enhance never stops making video games. I will buy every single one of them.
One of the best just got better. There’s not much to be said about Hitman 2, only that it improves in pretty much every way possible on the original. The new locations are complex as they are beautiful, the new stealth mechanics and alert notifications make you feel like you’re pulling off badass maneuvers in a way that the original never did, and for once I cared a little bit about the story? The modern Hitmans (Hitmen?) are games that I greatly admire and want to see more and more of. Buy this game.
This is one of the tightest Party Packs in years. The return of You Don’t Know Jack, the social manipulation of Split the Room, the 2nd time playing Mad Verse City where you’re all on your toes, and most importantly, Patently Stupid. I think Patently Stupid is up there with Quiplash and TeeK.O. as some of Jackbox’s finest work. No other game has my friends rolling on the ground laughing as I’m pitching them the concept of a PISTOL to SHOOT CLOWNS. Gah. So good. Also, you’ll notice I didn’t mention Zeeple Dome. That’s because I never got around to it. Sorry.
This is one of like… 3 VR games that I think are cool. Would I ever recommend someone buy a VR headset? Hell no. Would I recommend someone play Beat Saber? Hell yeah. This thing is going to be my ticket to fitness next year. Oh, and they added 2018’s bop of the year, POP//STARS.
This is pretty shocking. I picked up Ultimate seemingly on a whim, and proceeded unlocking all the characters while on a trip to Vancouver. Sitting next to Gabe and Felix, we drank beers, swore at each other, and had a grand ol’ time. And this is all coming from someone who has never been a big Smash guy. The first one I bought was Brawl on the Wii, and it was mostly due to the fact that it was the easiest way to exploit the console at the time (sshh..). With my Smash come-up taking place on that version, I mained Snake - and when I found he wasn’t in the WiiU iteration of the game, coupled with the fact that my roommate unlocked all of the characters while I was on vacation, I fell back out of the series. Ultimate brought back Snake, made hits feel a lot harder, and fits in my backpack.
Dead Cells is the most video-gamey-ass-video-game I played all year. Many games have attempted run-based, souls-like combat in RNG dungeons before, but Dead Cells is the first one to really nail it. I spent many hours on this game, and I only ever unlocked one of the many traversal upgrades, only about half of the weapons, and only ever made it to the final boss once, but damn did I have fun the entire time. There was seldom a death where I felt cheated, a feeling I believe to be common (and biggest detriment) of the roguelike genre. Every year I try to get my Souls fix. This year, it was Dead Cells.
Thanks for reading! I’ve got a few honorable mentions too, but that’s probably a separate article. Anyway, here’s to 2019!