Merry Christmas!! :)

Happy Holidays Ernesttico!

I've had quite a few games that surprised me this year (The Pale Beyond, Little Misfortune, The Bookwalker <- actually just finished this a few hours ago), but the biggest one was without a doubt Where the Water Tastes Like Wine. I actually won a giveaway not on SG for that game like a month after its release (almost 8 years ago at this point) and I only got around to playing it a few months back.

I've pretty much constantly heard only negative things about it so needless to say my expectations were below minimum - yet to my pleasant surprise, I was really intrigued by all the mini-stories and how they evolve through rumors and so on. The sluggish walking speed was barely an issue too, as the soundtrack more than made up for it in the slow journey across the states.

Anyway, happy holidays :)

Happy Holidays, Ernesttico!

The game which surprised me the most was probably Demonic Mahjong. I did not know about it at all until it showed up in a humble bundle. I played if for 20+ hours. I played Hades II this year, but it did not surprise me. I knew i would love it before ;)

Expedition 33 since i had no plans of getting it before it launched, especialy due to the turned based mechanics but a freind convinced me a day before release so i went with it and oh boy do i love it

Happy Holidays! :)

Star Wars Battlefront 2 was one that's been out for a bit, but I didn't get it til this year. After being out for 3 years and only having a like around 1k to 2k players for years it had a massive increase and set a record for itself this year in June with almost 36k players. I wish I had gotten it years sooner.

I really enjoyed Call of the Sea (gorgeous scenery for a lovecraftian tale with a twist) and The Invincible (adaptation of Lew's novel, surprisingly well made, incredible atmosphere)
But I think the best surprise for me has been Delta Particles, a free Half-Life mod: here's my review ;)

..almost forgot:
Happy Holidays! ^_^

Definitely Blue Prince for me! Was on the fence about it until an old friend described it as being more like Myst than he'd anticipated, and I had to check it out after that. Was pleasantly surprised by just how accurate that description is!

I usually play older games, but Where Winds Meet was a surprise. I didn’t expect a solid Chinese action rpg/soulslike to be that good.

Happy Holidays♪(*'ﾉΘ')ﾉ　…

📋️
How many times have I gotten my ass kicked in the final few meters of the “Man-breaker”...
Also, the Man-breaker is famous, but I find it weird that I've never seen a streamer fall into that particular hole or escape it...There's a hole that claims if Jim falls in, he won't be able to get out, ...It seems surprisingly few young people these days take detours without consulting a map.

This year the game that I played the most is surprisingly Baldur's Gate 3 again. I didn't even feel like I played a lot, but Steam replay said otherwise. Happy Holidays, Ernesttico!

I enjoyed quite a few of the bigger titlles this year. But if we are talking indie gems the standouts for me are Encased: A Sci-Fi Post-Apocalyptic RPG, Don't Escape: 4 Days to Survive and Lacuna.
Special mention: The Wolf Among Us. Knew nothing about it beforehand and boy did I miss out all these years it has been rotting in my library. Such a good game.

Öoo

Levelhead. Seriously solid Mario Maker game for PC.

I did not play that many games this year (Only 11 games) and stop playing since July. But of all the games I played, I quite enjoyed Warframe. So many quests and modes to complete for a free game. There is quite a lot of grinding to get the good stuff, but if you are playing it casually and want to focus on the story, Warframe is actually quite nice (although some quest can be hard to complete with free tier weapons and warframe)

I think the game that surprised me the most this year was Dredge. I was expecting a chill little cozy fishing game and oh boy was I wrong! 🤣
I really enjoyed what the game actually was though. It was dark and deep and layered.

I didn't play much that was memorable but I had a great time with Europa. Probably the one game I completed this year that I will replay next year.

I've played several good games this year but in most cases I already had an idea of what they were so it was more that they lived up to the expectations, so for one that really surprised me in just how good it was I'll go with Submachine: Legacy because I really though it was just going to be a fine point and click adventure and it ended up going above and beyond, it simply had the exact vibes for me to resonate with it.
And an honorable mention goes to Fibrillation because I had played the original version of it many years ago (probably on Desura back when that still existed) and sorta assumed that the Steam release was going to be roughly the same so I kept postponing it for a long time after getting it and it turns out that it is a quite different and much better experience, it fits pretty neatly alongside other legendarily good slightly surreal brutalist first person exploration games from the 2010's like NaissanceE, Kairo, and Fugue in Void.

hmm. if very short:
Mouthwashing — for being deeper than it looks on surface
Nine Sols — I was surprised at myself; I spent 8.5 hours on the true form of the last boss. (I don't usually play soulslike)
American Arcadia — I liked all the switching from 2d to 3d, and a good story itself. high-tier indie
Poco — superb quality for a free game
Penko Park — pretty unusual mechanics, also cute
Roadwarden — was surprised how atmospheric it was
Type Help (on itch) — that one is on par with Obra Dinn, Golden Idol and Roottrees

Don't Escape: 4 Days to Survive - I had this for a long time from a Monthly, but it took way too much time to realize that this is a "sequel" to the awesome Don't Survive flash game series from Scriptwelder. It ended up to be a really cool survival game with no overbearing mechanics or complexity.
Children of Morta: while I like roguelikes as concepts, they usually don't have the narrative staying power for me - CoM was awesoms in the story, looks, and gameplay look department as well.

Outer Wilds, it's insanely good

Crown Gambit it's my goty 2025, 34h 100% it following a guide to help me with the last secrets.
It's a choices matter game, where choices really matter. Dark but extremely well written story, highly replayable.
Turn-based battles exceeded all my expectations. Challenging and interesting. Heroes can use a super-version of every card but slowly lose their sanity, with consequences on the plot.

Other gems discovered this year :

• Patapon, as i never had the occasion to play it before, it's just super funny
• Lumines Arise, it's a sensorial journey
• Melatonin, released some years ago but really surprising, it's a short rythm game about daily life

And actually, i started to play a really interesting climbing game New heights
It's genius. It plays a bit like surgeon sim, but instead of moving fingers you move every hand and foot one by one to move a sort of latex character.

Thanks for the chance and happy holidays!

Didn't play many games this year (even if Steam Replay says 52?!? How?!?!?) due to feeding myself to Forza Horizon 4 after it was in a sunsetting sale last December.

FAR: Lone Sails surprised me, quite a lot because of the combination of dynamic soundtrack and relatively novel musical style + wordless gameplay. Also surprised that it was a hit because it's not an action adventure RPG 🙃

Got it cheap in a bundle with the sequel but am going to wait a while to play FAR: Changing Tides after completing Lone Sails three times in a row for the achievement (and as good as the game was, that was my only reason for playing more than once, so...)

I finally got a chance to play Steins;Gate. I've heard good things about it long ago, but it still was a very positive surprise. It's a visual novel so basically no gameplay, but the story, characters and atmosphere - all great. One of the highlights this year for me.

Although Gnosia is an old game(2019), it was adapted into an anime this year, so I played it again.