Not So Serious Nick
@notsoseriousnick
27. Half-Italian, half-Romanian, full dumbass. He/Him. My backlog wants me dead.
also there was this call they apparently didn't show on F1TV and it's tragically funny for some reason.
45) Soldier of Fortune. Made the mistake of trusting the easiness of the first mission to bump up the difficulty, which sadly only led to frustration more than anything. Even then, while the dismembering is impressive for its time, everything else is serviceable at best. A products of its time.
44) Overlord. An old childhood want of mine was getting to play this game. After sitting on my backlog for years, I have finally finished it and it was...fine. The sequel (which I played first) is marginally worse imo but the premise does a lot of the heavy lifting to what is an okay game otherwise
43) Thief Gold. One of the best games ever made, until like, the last 3-to-4 missions. Shame, as until that point Thief manages to be incredible in just about every way, from atmosphere to level design, to voice acting to storytelling. Also one of the scariest horror games ever!
2. MK1 I actually really like what they did with Reptile, Ashrah and (partially) Baraka. They were given way more character than they've had before. Naturally the whole "a race of people is now a disease" is peak MK shit writing but I take what I can get.
Somebody already said Control who might just be the de-facto winner so I will say the *other* Remedy-verse game that also maanged to not sacrifice style (though not to the same exaggerated extent) in Alan Wake 2, especially the Dark Place sections.
42) Shovel Knight: Shovel of Hope. An indie game corner piece, and for good reason. A wonderfully tight and lovingly-made tribute to the 8-bit Megaman games (with more than a dash of NES Ducktales), it's a damned fun time if you can stomach some difficulty spikes. Not sure I wanna try the DLCs tho
I had completely forgotten that I had partook in this. 1. Silksong. Despite my (many) issues with this game, one thing I cannot nag about is the art direction. It's still as good as HK's, if not better in some areas.
41) Esoteric Ebb. There it is. The 2026 game to potentially rival BB's status at the top of this list I was waiting for. Disco Elysium by way of DnD, it manages to be its own wonderful beast. 's got fantastic music, characters and writing. I got pretty emotional by the end, too. Wonderul work.
40) The House of the Dead 2. An arcade classic. Naturally playing this via emulation on PC can only do this game so much justice, but the setting and the campiness truly still hold up to this day. It's very simple overall, but it doesn't need to be anything else. It's fun all the way.
39) Pragmata. I really wanted to like this more than I actually ended up doing. The pacing is pretty fast and yet the gameplay loop winds up outstaying its welcome a bit, despite of how unique it is at its core. Hugh and Diana are really likeable though, and they kinda carry the game by the end.
38) XGRA: Extreme G Racing Association. An okay grav-bike racer. Didn't require much in the way of skill sadly, never felt like I had to press the brake button at all and the lack of stages really made it a bit too repetitive. Still, worth a race or two.
37) Blasphemous II. An improvement over the first game in almost every single way. A fantastic metroidvania through and through. Fantastic boss battles (for the most part), incredible OST, improved combat, fantastic level design...everything you'd want outta a game in the genre is here.
36) Bridagor: Up-Armored Edition. A challenging, visually incredible isometric cyberpunk tactical tank game. Some of the best sprite-work I've seen in a hot minute with fantastic world building (and destruction). Hard as a motherfucker at times but super fun all the same.
35) Castlevania: Symphony of the Night. A long time coming, this one. An absolute classic in practially every way a game can be, gets a bit too easy by the end but the gameplay, atmosphere, artstyle and OST are legendary. A masterpiece release in a year filled with them. A must play.
"Listen up, Mac, this guy's real good in close quarters, but step into his blind spot and he won't be able to snake his way out of a whoping! Now go there and show this dude who's Boss!"
34) Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream. A game that fully manages to capture the feeling of playing with dolls from completely different brands and somehow still making it work. One of the most chaotic, funny and addicting titles I've played this year I need to stop playing it lest my backlog fester
I just wanna make it clear this might just be the greatest game of all time