Top Games of 2021

2021 was a weird year. Things started off much as 2020 did, locked inside, wondering when you would get out. 

But then things started opening up. And I stopped wanting to be inside. 

It was still a year that found studios having a difficult time creating games remotely. PS5's and Xbox Series S were still damn near impossible to find. 

Despite everyone trying to keep me from playing games, I covered a bunch this year. (Mostly thanks to Gamepass which might be the best thing to ever happen to games.)

So the rules are the same, the games did not need to come out in 2021, I just needed to play them in 2021. So here they are, my top games of 2021. 

Backlog: Alien Isolation

The Ripley family just has hell of luck with Weyland-Tutani and aliens. They just seem to be magnetized to each other. 

I started Alien Isolation in 2017. I liked the idea of a slow moving, stealth focused game, rather than a run and gun. 

Creative Assembly nailed the aesthetic of that 1970s retro-future, clean white walls with random buttons and tape drives everywhere. All the computers are that fake DOS/Apple 2 interface. And every... single....door... is automatic. (the absolute height of future technology). 

Backlog: Fire Emblem: Three Houses

Like many Americans, my only exposure to Fire Emblem was the 37 sword characters in Smash Brothers. Fire Emblem just never sounded like a game for me. Maybe part of that was that I constantly got it confused with Dragon Quest. Maybe part of it was that both of those franchises are smashed in my brain as a throwback grinding JRPG. Something I loved in my childhood, but sadly do not have time for anymore. 

Fire Emblem: Three Houses came out when I was traveling a ton and I didn't have any Switch games that were holding my attention. 

Backlog: Silent Hill 3 (HD Collection)

In 2012, Konami put out a HD collection for Silent Hill. Consequently, this was around the time most people realized Konami hated their videogame division. 

I bought the HD collection, around the time my OG backwards compatible PS3 bit the dust, as a way to still play some of my favorite games. And it sat on my shelf, for damn near 8 years, in it's plastic wrap. 

Top Games of 2020

2020 has been a hell of a year. You would think being locked in, unable to go to bars, hockey games,

and on trips, would give me infinite time to play video games, but ultimately apathy took hold. I played some long games, but not a lot of games. 

I tended to favor games with a lot of repetition this year. Instead of wanting snap judgements and strategy, I would  slide into a meditative trance, let the world fade into the background, while I grinded like it was 1998. 

As always, these aren't necessarily games that came out in 2020, but games I played in 2020. 

Resident Evil 3

There's something to say about brevity. A game that knows how long it should stick around. Resident Evil 3 does that perfectly. You can beat the game in 6 hours if you sort of tool around or 2 hours if you try to do a speedrun. 

I was very excited when the Resident Evil 3 remake was announced. Capcom did us well with the Resident Evil 2 remake, so I had every expectation that running through the streets of Racoon City with new controls and updated graphics, would be a satisfying experience.

Top 200 Games of All Time: By the Numbers

Top Years

Years with the most entries on the list

1. 22 games: 1998
2. 12 games: 1996
3. 10 games: 1994
4. 11 games: 1999
5. 9 games: 1993, 1997, 2000, 2008, 2010

And the years with just a single entry: 1983, 1985, 2020. 

I don't think this is surprising. I think many people consider 1998 to be one of the greatest years in gaming. 

It also happened to be the year I was getting paid decent money watching my brothers and I had unlimited time to play games.