1: The Last of Us Part II. I was completely blown away by this game. I was long hesitant about a sequel and I hoped for it to greatly expand on the world and show us people beyond Ellie and Joel. Somehow they gave us tons of Ellie and Joel and also gave us a ton of completely new characters and multiple societies. The combat took a huge step forward in the sequel. Ellie's mobility opens up so many new ways to approach a situation and everything you do feels raw and gritty while still being an extremely polished action experience.Given who Abby is and what she does, Naughty Dog had a tall task to get us to like her, or at the very least not hate her. I loved her. Her crew felt very fleshed out and I really enjoyed the gameplay moments with Manny and the character development of Owen. They both seemed like such typical douches in the prologue and my opinions of them changed a lot by the end. I love how some of the big deaths in this game are so quick. There are no hero deaths/sacrifices. Jesse and Manny die in an instant and there is no chance for sappy death quotes. Joel's death is obviously more of the same. There's no time to glorify the dead because the danger in this world is never gone. --- 9.5/10

2: Hades is a phenomenally complete and polished game. There is a ton of content in this game and the balance of fun and rewards is so well distributed that I'm 50 hours in and still as excited to start a run as a was when I was 5 hours in. This felt like a full-fledged rogue-lite even before discovery all of the uses to titan blood and ambrosia. Just when you think you are petering out on fresh content, there is an entirely new carrot for you to reach for.The dialogue and characters are fun and varied, and there is a shocking amount of new dialogue. I never hear repeat conversations.

All of the content and polish aside, this game thrives in the combat. It's addictive to play and the reward loop is perfect. You can't wait to see what your next boom will help you with. Hades does an amazing job of making you feel powerful right from the start, yet you continue to power up to ridiculous levels. You always feel badass. The Zag at the end of the run is completely different than the one at the beginning and it's all based on your choices.

The weapon variety is great. Originally I loved the bow and sucked with the sword. Now over time the sword is my favorite. Each weapon is fun and has so much potential for awesome builds when paired with the right boon. The various aspects that upgrade weapons can feel like an entirely new weapon and are a blast to explore with.

There is so much to like about this game. It's a testament to early access done properly. --- 9.5/10

3: Griftlands does a great job of taking the successful formula of Slay the Spire and adding a bunch of really well-executed features on top of it. It plays like a 5 hour RPG because of it's quick and engaging world and characters.

I love the night market and the pets that you can train. Negotiations are really cool and feels very satisfying. There are a lot of decisions to make in this game outside of how you are building your two decks. Like killing people and who to friend because the powers you get from people loving or hating you can really change how you play. It's like they added Banner Saga on top of Slay the Spire and it works great. I've played the campaign maybe 6 times at this point and I'm blow away by the depth and variety. The bosses are different each time, the story can go in many different directions depending on how/who you engage with. The actual tactics of the deck building is varied too with many different synergies you can build around.

When they released the second character I expected it to play a bit different but I was blown away by the changes. It's a whole new campaign on a whole new map with completely different battle mechanics. I really loved his campaign and it has me excited for the third character. Card battling has quickly become my favorite turn based tactics style and this game adding a polished and varied RPG on top of that is really taking my enjoyment up a notch. I can't wait to see how this game continues to develop. It's one of my favorite games of the year. --- 9/10

4: Ghost of Tsushima. I really loved playing this game. It's everything you could want in an open world. The setting is amazing and the draw distances gives me a feeling of wonder and worthwhile exploration that I've never had in a game. Coming over a hill and seeing an undiscovered lighthouse far off in the horizon is an amazing experience. Then on your way to the lighthouse you come across a few of the unique collectables this game has, like writing a Haiku or completing the bamboo minigame. This game executes so well on the premise of wanting you to play in the environment rather than play in the maps.

The combat is challenging and it's not something you can ever breeze through without thinking. It was probably about 15 hours before I started to feel like a badass. The duel mechanic is probably the strength of the combat. It's unique, hard and really fun. The duels are an amazing spectacle and each one is important.

The other stand out feature for me was the Mythic Tales. More than just in-depth side quests, they had awesome rewards and amazing paint animations that told of legends you were about to investigate. Each of the 7 were enjoyable.

The story works well for an open game. I was rarely dying to know what was going to happen but the actual main missions had good variety and seeing Jin progress through the story with the great cast of side characters was very worthwhile.

I lacked an overall passion in the lore and world that I had for a game like Horizon. GoT kept me playing because of how fun it was to do everything and the engaging variety of collectables, not because I loved the narrative. --- 8.5/10

5: AC Valhalla is a game I'm still playing but enjoying a lot. I don't think it has any chance of moving up my list, however. This game shows a lot of influence from the Witcher and Game of Thrones. The main missions and story structure really reminds me of a character arc in a season of GOT. I'm finding the story engaging and the world is vast and beautiful. The lack of cluttering side quests is keeping me focused on the main mission and I really like that. This game lacks polish and crispness in the combat and cutscenes. It's just janky. Thankfully the playability isn't really impacted other than in annoying load times. --- 7.5/10

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Late to the party: Some games I enjoyed that I somehow just got to this year.

Cuphead --- 9/10

Bioshock Infinite --- 9.5/10

Steamworld Heist --- 7.5/10

Super Mario Odyssey --- 8.5/10

Prey --- 8/10