Hard to pick. I would say my favorite new game is Slay the Princess. My favorite game I've returned to, and I returned to a lot this year, is Deep Rock Galactic. Rock and stone, brother.

Pretty easily Hunt Showdown with honorable mention to Remnant II, Northgard, and Age of Wonders 4

Gartic phone has been the most consistently entertaining game i played this year, but that is probably because i only ever played it 3 times(3 gamemodes) yesterday.

I also played Celeste this year, which was really fun

Throughout the year I played:

-Secret of Mana (haven't played in 15 years or so. Game still holds up)

-Xenoblade Chronicles 2 (and the Torna DLC). The main story is fantastic. A bit quantity of quality with all the Blades.

-The Legend of Zelda: TOTK. This game is great. Ultra hand blows this game wide open

-Xenoblade Chronicles 3. Finish this one up now and about to start the DLC. Story IMO is the poorest of the 3 games. But they took the best of the first two game's battle mechanics and improved that system.

Probably XC2. It was a lot of fun.

The Forest and Sons of the forest. Haven't been happier playing this - unique as hell and gave me similar vibes as Subnautica. :)

It's hard to pick. None really stand out that much from the rest but probably Ghost of Tsushima or Chivalry II.

I finally picked up Exanima after years of being put off by the early access, but damn what a unique and engaging experience. Reminds me of the first time I played Oblivion or Demon's/Dark Souls.

It's a game where your own experience as a player is your greatest asset. I highly recommend it for anyone into slow dungeon crawling and looking for a challenge unlike anything else.

Vampire Survivors completely drew me in this year.

A couple of years ago, I was having dreams of designing train lines in Cities Skylines. A couple of days ago I was having a dream of weapon combos in Vampire Survivors. That's how you spot a good and influential game.

Quake I, now remastered. I reinstall it frequently and it was one of the first games I tried on Linux, and it works flawlessly even though it came from a Microsoft-owned Bethesda-published Id. There's something hypnotyzing in how responsive it feels so I don't get bored nor with originar, nor with pretty new levels. Even boomer shooters don't scratch it just like this game does.

I finally finished Zelda II this year and really enjoyed it.

Chants of Sennaar. Thought it would fun, turned out to be probably my favourite thing I played this year.

BG3, TOTK, and Vampire Survivors are all very up there as well. Really great year for games.

V rising

A Plague Tale: Requiem.

Well Tears of the Kingdom ate up about 4 months of the year for me. Bomb Rush Cyberfunk was a game I had been waiting 20 years to play. So that was really nice. I just wish there was more of it to be honest haha.

Resident evil 4 remake and Bloodborne were my next favorites.

Spider-Man: Miles Morales got its Steam release in November of last year, but I didn’t get to it until after New Years. The Steam Deck handled it really well, which just makes me pissed that Insomniac signed a PlayStation exclusivity agreement for Spider-Man 2.

Perfect Tides.

Xenoblade 3: Future Redeemed

I'm a huge fan of the series and this is one of the best entries, even though it's a DLC campaign.

Kerbal Space Program! Sunk 20 hours into that one over the last two days alone!

There's been a lot of great games this year, but BG3 just barely beats the competition for me. Alan Wake 2, TOTK, Hi-fi Rush, and Lethal Company have all been great experiences as well though.

Really enjoyed valheim. Not sure it was my fave but really enjoyable. A game I can just keep going back to.

Lingo. It tickles my brain in wonderful ways. I'm currently working through the custom level Liduongo, sequel to an earlier map named Duolingo, and I continue to be surprised, delighted, and utterly perplexed.

It's a rules-based puzzler that doesn't tell you the rules buried in a confusing labyrinth. The only downside is that it requires a strong grasp of English, limiting its audience.

Baulders gate 3 for sure. I mean in a few months it's already more than half the hours of my most played game. I love the characters and the way I can effect the outcome of different events, and I love exploring it all again with different character combos.

I put about 300 hours into No Man's Sky this year.

Roadwarden

For the indie horror genre: Your Spider

I really liked Kingdom Two Crowns even though it was a bit short for a base builder.

Resident Evil 4 Remake

BLACKTAIL

It really sucked me in their world

Just started this one but Afterimage is becoming a big favorite of mine. A really great Metroidvania game.

Older, but also played Frostpunk. It's a really great twist on a city building game. Highly recommended.

One odd ball I'll throw out is Last Case of Benedict Fox. It's a complete mess of a game, but the exploration and puzzles are a lot of fun. I never realized how much I want a metroidvania where you go around just solving puzzles. If LCBF just dropped all combat and focused on puzzle-solving it would have been a lot better.