Released on the 25th of January, Hi-Fi Rush was suprise release to say the least as not only was there not much buzz leading up to the title’s launch, but a rhythmic beat’em up platformer is the last thing you’d expect from the developer-publisher duo of Tango Gameworks and Betheseda Softworks who are best known for their survival-horror outings in the form of The Evil Within. Despite this, the game managed to stick the landing, as evident by its 87 rating on Metacritic, and its vibrant, animated visuals led to 43% of the votes for Art Design of the Year.

Released on the 28th of April, Survivor is the sequel to the beloved 2019 journey of Cal Kestis and his fight against the tyrannous Galactic Empire. While the game and its creative directions has led to it receiving an 85 on Metacritic, it has been criticised for its poorly optimised PC launch and is yet another case of the continuing issue of developers releasing their games before they are “done”. While it wasn’t a technical marvel, its crisp and smooth sound design of blasters, lightsabers and more, and its spectacular OST has led it win 42% of the votes for Audible Design of the Year.

Released on 21st July 2017, amidst the rise of battle royales, Epic Games made a definitive choice that resulted in overwhelming success and a cultural phenomenon. Its switch from a tower-defence to a battle royale has led to not only great financial triumph, but many memorable moments for us, the players. From John Wick, to Spider-Man to now Eminem, its unending cultural expanse is something still that is unseen in any other industry, and with its new game mode alternatives in the form of a survival-based Lego world or rhythm-based Festival presentation, this expansion merely marks the beginning. Other than a 78 on Metacritic and its many other awards, it has also received an overwhelming 86% of the votes for Ongoing Game of the Year.

Released on the 3rd of August, this CRPG was not something I’d expect to win the whole gaming world over. This ‘Dungeons & Dragons’ experience was so good that game developers from other studios had to preemptively warn their fans that their upcoming games would not be as good as what Baldur’s Gate 3 has offered. Praised from its gameplay, to story, to visuals, to audible design, its no wonder that this crushed its competition at the Game Awards and swept as many awards as possible, including a Game of the Year. For now, its 96 on Metacritic (highest video game score on the whole website) and its 63% of the votes has won it the RPG of the Year.

Released on the 26th of September, Phantom Liberty and the 2.0 update that it accompanied had proved to redeem Cyberpunk of all of the technical misdeeds it faced on release. Adding Idris Elba to its cast of characters, the players were relaunched back into the dystopian world of Cyberpunk to engage in its new storyline of rescuing the President of the US. And, as its known with CD Projekt Red’s DLC history, especially with The Witcher 3, this expansion hit big with a 89 on Metacritic while scoring 57% of the votes for DLC of the Year.

Released on the 2nd of June, this year seemed like the return of the big-hitters of the fighting genre with the likes of Street Fighter, Mortal Kombat and Tekken making their respective returns. Other than Tekken 8 being delayed, the other 2 made it to their big releases with Street Fighter 6 standing to be the best of the year. The new colourful, artistic direction that the visuals took, the return of its smooth, controlled gameplay and more marked this title as the redemption that the series needed after Street Fighter 5 launched unfinished. With this, SF6 sits at a 92 on Metacritic and has won Fighting Game of the Year with 50% of the votes.

Released on the 24th of March, it was written in this game’s destiny to turn out this great. The previous remake efforts, the incredible original source material and Resident Evil Village’s success all led this game to turn out to be as good as it could’ve been. Its 93 on Metacritic isn’t just a testament to how great the game is but also to how terrifying it can be. While personally I didn’t have the same horror experience other people had (as explained in my review), 38% of the voters would disagree, marking it as the Horror Game of the Year for its effort of making a well-designed fright.

Originally released on the 18th of May in 2010, Red Dead Redemption stands to be one of the greatest open world games out there and one of the stronger games from Rockstar’s catalogue (which speaks volumes). When its prequel (sequel?) launched in 2018, the desire for a remake of this 2010 classic was in high demand. Instead, we got a remaster that has a lack of visual and frame rate upgrades, absence of a Windows release and removal of its online mode, all for a full £60/$50 asking price. I guess the nostalgia goggles for this were on strong since 40% of voters decided it was the Re-Release of the Year. At least you can play the game on modern consoles now.

Released on the 20th of October, the long-awaited sequel to, what many consider, the best video game Spider-Man experience ever managed to live up (mostly) to the hype it generated. While some consider it indifferent from the original experience and comment on the game’s irregular pacing, its a known fact that this game was fun. Webslinging? Fun. Fighting bad guys? Fun. Crazy story sequences? Fun. The game was a great follow-up to the original and many are hyped for what Insomniac are cooking up next. With a 90 on Metacritic, and 44% of the votes, Spider-Man 2 wins Adventure Game of the Year.

Released on the 24th of August, Armoured Core made a valiant return after the series was expected to be dead in the water. With FromSoftware’s unprecedented popularity, success and quality with their Souls-likes, it was thought they would continue until the end of the studio’s lifespan and that 2012 would be the last time we would see the mecha-battling series. With its announcement, it was mistakenly compared to FromSoftware’s Souls-like outings, however, all of that got cleared up with its release, landing a 86 on Metacritic, and its intense combat convinced 39% of the voters that it deserved Action Game of the Year.

Released on the 30th of October, this port of the fantastic 2021 survival horror is that of a technical marvel. Having a AAA-quality game to look as good as it does on consoles on a mobile device is fantastic. The core elements of the game as well are incredible given that it won Game of the Year in 2021. While yes, your phone or tablet or whatever you’re playing on will overheat, the fact that the game can even be ran on such a device is shocking, to the point that its iOS port has garnered a 78 on Metacritic (only 6 away from its console counterparts) and 60% votes as the Mobile Game of the Year.

Oh yeah, this game exists. As tradition continues, I award/shit on the worst game of this year that is downright embarrassing for anyone that associates with it. To add to growing collection of awful games is this October 17th launch that somehow beat Gollum at its own game (that game being how bad of a video game you can be). Filled with bugs, janky animation, awful level design, miserable gameplay and so much more, Rise of Kong stands to be THE atrocity of the year as 67% voted for it. It’s not fully the developers, IguanaBee, fault as they were forced to crunch hours on this game and had less than a year to make it from scratch with little direction from the publisher. So as funny as it is to trash on a trash game, it does show also show just how shitty game development can get.

Launching for early access on Windows in Q2 2024, Hades 2 reveal at the 2023 Game Awards was delectable to everyone who saw it. With the original Hades being a roguelike masterpiece in its own right, the sequel plans on expanding the roots it established with the original’s protagonist’s sister taking fate into her own hands and going after Cronos, the Titan of Time. Realistically, if they just make it a reskin of the first game, it’ll still end up as a nominee for next year’s GOTY award, and 29% of the voters have this listed as their Most Anticipated Release of the Year.

Whether its because this game truly reigns supreme over 2013, or its the recency bias of the GTA 6 trailer finally being unveiled, I don’t think anybody will object to GTA V winning yet another award. Being Rockstar’s prized cash pony for 10 years now, GTA V brings too many memories for too many people. Whether it was going on random, stupid ventures on Online with your friends, watching YouTubers do (in hindsight) slightly cringey, but also funny roleplay or just playing the perfectly Rockstar-curated narrative, the massive map of Los Santos provided shelter for many gamers and it will stand in the Hall of Fame as one of the better games of anyone’s generation. 97 on Metacritic, 72% of the votes.

Ok but how. Baldur’s Gate 3 literally got robbed here, I don’t understand. Don’t get me wrong, Spider-Man 2 is still a phenomenal game and deserves all the praise it gets, but there just are a couple too many issues with it to win, and Baldur’s Gate 3 is known for being so good that Spider-Man taking its spot feels like a daylight robbery. Its pacing is problematic, not giving enough time for the symbiote story to develop, or its plotholes like the disconnection between Miles and Venom being unsuitable, or how too OP the web wings are. Now, I haven’t played Baldur’s Gate 3 yet, but even I know its better. 38% of you are ignorant.

Having just trashed on Spider-Man 2, I have to say its my Personal Game of the Year. While I still think its not good enough to win objectively, its still the best thing I’ve experienced subjectively. The reason I haven’t reviewed this is because of my ‘No Spider-Man reviews’ rule given how much of biased fan I am towards the webhead. Seeing the reimagined Venom with Tony Todd voicing him, the satisfying mix between webslinging, parrying and switching between Peter and Miles, the epic sequences with Lizard, or Kraven, or Sandman; all of these elements fuelled the perfect weekend for me as I did nothing but munch on Squashies and play the game. So as it stands, Spider-Man 2 is my Personal Game of the Year (Baldur’s Gate 3 should’ve won Game of the Year though).

Released on 9th September, The Artful Escape was developed by Beethoven & Dinosaur with Johnny Galvatron behind the wheel of design. After Galvatron and his band went on hiatus, he used this time to pursue other creative efforts like writing a book, creating a short film and eventually game development. The game's interstellar, celestial design earned it an 80 on Metacritic, an average of 7.25/10 from the major publications and 29% of the votes for Art Design of the Year.

Released on 21st July 2017, amidst the rise of battle royales, Epic Games made a definitive choice that resulted in overwhelming success and a cultural phenomenon. Having done various collaborations that added many loveable fictional characters and world-renowned celebrities such as Spider-Man and Travis Scott, it has managed to stay strong as a battle royale, reaching the first season of their newest 3rd Chapter. As a result, it earned itself an 81 on Metacritic and an immense 47% of the votes for Ongoing Game of the Year.

Released on 17th September, Toby Fox once again delivered a fun and enjoyable experience, as expected from the mastermind of Undertale. The unique pixelated design, the wonderful music and the enticing story have left players wanting more and awaiting the next chapter. It has also earned itself a 90 on Metacritic and 31% of the votes for RPG of the Year.

Released on 5th October, Ludosity's and Fair Play Labs' Smash Bros challenger was intended as a joke within this poll, but oh well. The game's nostalgic roster and enjoyable combat earned it a 65 on Metacritic, an average of 7/10 from the major publications and 55% of the votes, while Demon Slayer received not a single vote.

Released on 25th November, this wacky and bizarre experience left many players, myself included, in joyous states of laughter as we managed to explore, shoot and take in the wildness Gibier Games have developed. The game's creative turns made a 2-hour journey that, unfortunately, earned a 60 on Metacritic but a staggering 71% of the votes for Mini-experience of the Year.

Announced back in June 2020 and released less than a year later, this title in the Resident Evil franchise has been the most anticipated release of all year. With Resident Evil 4 and its village concepts being a heavy influencer on the game, the development team did not shy away from the possibility of something new. Producer Tsuyoshi Kanda spoke about horror as a whole and stated that...

“One of the lessons we took away is that this isn't something that is black and white, it's always going to have some variation or modification.”

This resulted in a balanced horror and action experience but also various new forms of threats and dangers. With a classic gothic horror theme and a more open-world design to levels, the game has rightfully earned an 83 on Metacritic, an average of 8.3/10 from major publications, 60% of the votes and an Ultimate Game of the Year award from the Golden Joystick Awards.

Released on 11th June, Rift Apart not only stands as one of the better exclusives for PS5, as it utilises the SSD for dimensional-hopping, but it also marks the return of Ratchet and Clank since their 2016 reboot. Citing 'It's a Wonderful Life' as inspiration, the development team used the mobility they learned from Sunset Overdrive and Spider-Man (2018) to their large advantage. This and many more collaborative efforts scored the game an 88 on Metacritic, an average of a fantastic 9.4/10 from the major publications and a huge chunk of the poll's votes - 50% to be exact.

Released as its free multiplayer on the 15th of November, and the exhilarating campaign on the 8th of December, this title would either crash and burn to the critics or strike a landing pose against Sony's line-up of exclusives - it did the latter. Despite the overwhelming weight it had carried from the disappointing reveal in 2020, it has shaped itself to be a pretty good game despite its shortcomings. This grapple-hook funfair has received an 84 on Metacritic, an average of 9/10 from major publications, a “GOOD” from my review of the game, 36% of the votes and the Player's Voice award from The Game Awards.

This game is just high levels of bad. Conceptually, it's intriguing, in terms of execution, it's horrid. Being the laggiest, buggiest and most unentertaining aspect of my gaming in 2021, others have come close; Balan Wonderland and its crappy attempt at being a Mario clone, Werewolf: The Apocalypse - Earthblood and its diminishing controls and rough animations earn it a 42 on Metacritic, GTA: The Trilogy remaster and its nostalgia-bait scam that should put Rockstar to shame, are some of the disasters of this year that have come close to receive this award.

Scheduled for release on the 24th of February in 2022, Hidetaka Miyazaki and his team over at FromSoftware have hyped this game up to be the "best game to date" but also much more than just an open-world Soulsborne. From the large amounts that we've seen in trailers and the released demo, we can suspect that that's just the tip of the monumental iceberg we've been promised.

I've already said what I wanted to say about this fantastic game according to the players when it won the Horror Game of the Year.

While Resident Evil Village captured the heart of the majority of the readers, It Takes Two has captured both mine and The Game Awards. This sprawling puzzle-platformer has made for one of the best co-op experiences of my life and I further critique and compliment the game in my review of it.