Rules:
- No two games from the same base franchise (spin-off franchises count separately)
- No games which will be impossible to play after a server shutdown occurs. Heavily-online games which still have offline components and games with local multiplayer are okay
- No board game video games, I do love board games but I’m too inexperienced with the wider spectrum of board games to have a good widespread grasp on them
Honourable mentions that, in some cases, break the above rules
A Short Hike
Antichamber
Apex Legends
Baldurs Gate III
Beat Saber
Blood on the Clocktower
Board Game Arena (all of it)
Botany Manor
Cyberpunk 2077
Golf With Your Friends
Jackbox Party Pack 6
Mashed: Fully Loaded
PlayStation Home
PowerWash Simulator
Sonic Frontiers
Superliminal
Ticket to Ride
Tsuro
Worms W.M.D.
The List
50. little kitty, big city (* NEW ENTRY)
49. Jak 3 (- 48)
48. The Elder Scrolls v: Skyrim (- 38)
47. Mirror’s Edge: Catalyst (= 47)
46. shakedown hawaii (= 46 retro city rampage)
45. Gravity Rush (= 45)
44. Portal 2 (= 44)
43. Tetris Effect (= 43)
42. Street Fighter 6 (* new entry)
41. Yonder: The Cloud Catcher Chronicles (= 41)
40. Unreal Tournament: GOTY Edition (= 40)
39. Psychonauts (= 39)
38. Crazy Taxi (- 37)
37: Spider-Man: miles Morales (- 36)
36: Gitaroo Man (- 35)
35: Super Smash Bros. Ultimate (- 33)
34. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (- 31)
33. LittleBigPlanet (- 17)
32. Animal Crossing: New Horizons (- 28)
31. Crash Team Racing: Nitro Fuelled (- 29)
30. Skate 3 (= 30)
Shares its spot with Skate 2, I play both a lot. I don’t hold out a world of hope for the upcoming new Skate game, but I’m open minded and will give it a damn good try.
29. Hogs of War (- 27)
RIP Rik Mayall. Crossing my everything that the remaster: a) comes out, and b) does the original justice. I just need it to be playable, online, and still with Mayall’s commentary.
28. Deus Ex: Mankind Divided (- 24)
Still stings that Mankind Divided is such an abrupt end to the series for how much I adore it.
27. Crash Bandicoot: The N-Sane Trilogy (- 26)
Since my 2022 list, I’ve completed Crash Bandicoot 1 and 2 in the N-Sane Trilogy for the first time ever. It’s been 25 years. Christ alive.
26. Grand Theft Auto V (- 25)
Bring on GTAVI.
25. rock band 4 (- 23 frequency)
Screw it, my list, my rules. I’m officially lumping the Rock Band franchise in with Frequency and Amplitude, Harmonix’s earlier rhythm outings, for how similar their gameplay is in spite of their wildly different input devices are. And Rock Band 4’s the one I drag a massive plastic controller and an entire original Xbox One stuffed with DLC for. So ner.
24. Uncharted 4 (- 20)
I’ve been eyeing up getting the PC ports of Uncharted 4 and Lost Legacy, but they still feel too fresh in my mind from my 2022 playthroughs of both on PS5. One day, at the right price, after a little more time, I’ll bite. Would love the original trilogy to make it to PC one day too.
23. Spyro: Reignited Trilogy (- 22)
A trilogy as good as ever. Currently doing occasional sessions of the first game in it, slowly whittling away those 120/100/117%s on the PC version.
22. Ape Escape 3 (- 19)
Ape Escape 3 is an amazing game, and it makes me sad that the series has been treated by Sony in reverse order - the original has a native PS5 port with a platinum trophy and everything, Ape Escape 2 a more bare-bones PS2 edition for PS4, while the phenomenal third entry is just stuck on PS2. It deserves so much more. (Ape Escape 2 doesn’t even work properly on PS5, it flickers wildly - I found that out this year while trying to get back to having Monkey Football access on the newer console.)
21. Bully (- 18)
Rockstar, remaster this game. It needs it. It deserves it.
20. Burnout paradise (- 16 Burnout revenge)
Burnout Revenge and Burnout Paradise remain interchangeable for me, the former being the zenith of the series’ linear combat racing and the latter a fantastic explorable world ripe for hours of enjoyment. I swapped Paradise back in after playing both again since the last ranking, and Paradise slightly edging Revenge - I’m just a sucker for an open world collect-a-thon. I don’t even do the races.
19. Far Cry 6 (- 15)
Still my favourite Far Cry. An expansive world to explore with standard Ubisoft clean-up gameplay that I honestly just vibe with.
18. bomb rush cyberfunk (* new entry)
I finally got something I secretly always wanted: a game which made Jet Set Radio playable and accessible to me. Just a rad game overall this one - killer style, incredible soundtrack, and a trickset that was so satisfying to master.
17. Tony Hawk’s Underground 2 (+ 21)
I’ve replayed several of the Tony Hawk franchise again thanks to strong PS2 emulation on Steam Deck and can attest to how much they hold up. THPS4 is a little wobblier than I remember, but Underground (save for a few dud missions) is brilliant with a compelling story, Underground 2 is a fabulous all-rounder with Jackass nostalgia, American Wasteland is great if short and easy entry, and THPS3 is a tight classic entry. It’s heart-breaking that Activision have thrown Vicarious Visions into the depressing Warzone fire and killed off any chance of a 3+4 remaster.
16. Hitman World of assassination (- 11 hitman iii)
I can now formally replace III, with the caveat that it includes the levels of Hitmans 2016 and 2018, with World of Assassination, the new name for the trilogy in one package. Still a phenomenal franchise; I’d love for them to make and sell more full-scale levels; any taste of a new area I haven’t scoured top to bottom is a great one.
15. Gorogoa (+ 42)
Gorogoa takes my lucky spot for now having been replayed 3 times, and I’m thrilled to learn that, if anything, my knowledge of most of the puzzle solutions only improves my time with it. It’s now become something I play start to finish in an hour or so to fall in love again with its gorgeous art and animation.
14. Paradise Killer (+ 49)
4 years since I first played Paradise Killer. Still desperately trying to erase it from memory so I can fully re-experience it fresh: I’ve forgotten quite a lot of the main story beats though, and I am lady love dying to replay it.
13. Tearaway Unfolded (- 9)
Still one of the best 3D platformers of all time.
12. Professor Layton and the azran legacy (+ 13 MIRAcle mask)
Swapped one amazing Professor Layton for another, as why not? Cannot wait for New World of Steam, it looks beautiful.
11. Viewfinder (* New entry)
Viewfinder replaces The Witness, for being a similar kind of game - smoothed-graphics in a 3D puzzle game with a simple but clever concept that is executed to perfection. It’s a replacement, as I’ve played out The Witness now, and the increasing questionability of its developer really mars it. Viewfinder is just gorgeous. A special shout out at this point to two other games that also fit well with Viewfinder’s style, which I would also recommend: Superliminal and Botany Manor.
10. A Hat in Time (= 10)
I can’t believe I skipped over this in my 2021 list. A Hat in Time is a stunning 3D platformer, and with co-op multiplayer and some excellent additional levels via DLC, it only goes from strength to strength.
9. BioShock Infinite (= 9)
I’ve wiped away the debt twice and I’ll do it again, dammit.
8. Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart (- 5)
I’ve spent the last two years attempting a PC playthrough of Rift Apart; it loses places, sadly, because I still remember the game so well from 2021, and it isn’t necessarily very replayable - half of the joy was reaching a new world and discovering everything fresh. Still a game I’d heartily recommend to anybody once.
7. Fallout 4 (- 3)
Swaps its placement with The Outer Worlds for reasons I’ll get into more in that game’s entry lower down, Fallout 4 still remains a game I adore, but I’ve overplayed it at this point, and do find it a little difficult to commit to a new full playthrough now. Some new settlements to build in would probably be all it took to spark back the magic I always saw in this game - that was my favourite feature.
I was expecting Starfield to park itself around here, but I just couldn’t get into that game - the somewhat mandatory ship flying, the lack of incentive to explore full areas outside of the microcosms of built-up areas, and just the fact I kept losing core mechanics to the perplexing knot of planets to choose from, meant I never really spent long sessions in Starfield. Not a bad game by any stretch, just inaccessible to me longer term.
6. Super Mario odyssey (= 6)
Remains one of Nintendo’s crown jewels. While Mario has never been my absolute favourite series - in spite of my first game ever being Super Mario World - it now has a trio of stone cold classics on Switch in Odyssey, Bowser’s Fury, and Wonder. Odyssey is the representative for being the most “for me”, where Bowser’s Fury is phenomenal but short, and Wonder is breath-taking but 2D.
5. ASTRO BOT (* NEW ENTRY)
Stunner. Absolute stunner. My second favourite PS5 game besides Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart was Astro’s Playroom, a borderline tech demo masquerading as a handful of hours of exquisite 3D platforming and a wide celebration of all things PlayStation hardware - a game directed straight at me, someone who cherished her childhood PS1, her teenage PS2, and her early adulthood PS3 before access to disposable income allowed full gaming diversification. Astro Bot is just Playroom, multiplied in size, and broadened in scope, with a machine-gun approach to bullets of nostalgia that took my breath away.
It’s also the closest it feels like we’ll ever get to more Ape Escape. Please, Sony. Even just a PS5 port of Ape Escape 3.
4. Pokémon LEGENDS ARCEUS (= Pokémon SCARLET & VIOLET)
Hot-swapping Scarlet & Violet with Legends Arceus this year, purely because I think PLA is the one I’d most likely go to for a second playthrough - I’ve been clamouring for some more Pokémon to play, and I really love the open world direct-capturing both provide. Been holding off purely so I can go into Legends Z-A next year hungry.
3. The Outer Worlds (+ 7)
The Outer Worlds directly swaps places with Fallout 4, for the simplest reasons: it’s a very similar game on gameplay, with very similar mechanics, but the more colourful landscapes, more consumable game length, and the extra freedoms in things like speech choices lifted straight from Fallout New Vegas, really work for me. It also helps that The Outer Worlds’ DLC levels directly, and massively, added to the game in a positive way, something that cannot really be said for Fallout 4’s dark, grumpy Far Harbour and fun but story-flawed Nuka World.
2. Tombi (- 1)
Tombi was remastered in 2024, something I am eternally grateful for: it makes me so happy that more people than ever can now easily access a game that was previously stranded on emulation platforms, PS3, and an ever-growing price for an old physical copy (mine remains the crown jewel of my physical collection). My 100% replay of the game, my first Tombi replay in a number of years, reaffirmed how much I still love it - while also just ever so slightly making me adjust its placement in my top games of all time. While it remains an absolutely exquisite adventure unlike anything I’ve ever played outside of its own sequel (which I also love, just slightly less), there are a few daffy missions, a few parts that require total guesswork, and a couple of mission areas that really feel unfinished - the water pump area is seen for all of a 20 second fetch quest, and the village towards the end is bizarrely empty. There is also a missable mission that I remembered this time, but that will probably catch out anyone on their first 100% game run.
I still cherish Tombi, and it’s still a game I unequivocally recommend to everybody, but I am hereby declaring my favourite game of all time to now be:
1. Watch Dogs 2 (+ 2)
Yeah. I played through Watch Dogs 2 a SIXTH time this year, and I’m starting to believe it’ll just be a yearly comfort playthrough at this point. It’s the gameplay loop - it’s irresistable. Watch Dogs 2’s specific tool set, mainly the RC vehicles and the gang hits/APBs, make for a method of completing missions that I absolutely adore - a patient, passive, chaotic approach - and that isn’t quite emulated in any similar game. Watch Dogs Legion took out the gang hits, replaced the jumper with the similar spiders that are more necessary but less powerful, and drones can no longer so easily be called upon, requiring you find an expert in them or hacking street drones.
Mixed with a colourful world to explore, a good balance of the lacklustre profiling in WD1 and the superior stuff in WDL, and a mission set that never really gets in the way of the freeform gameplay style (hello random awful WDL boss fight), I think I could play Watch Dogs 2 yearly for the rest of my life and never truly tire of it.
Watch Dogs 2 is my favourite game of all time.