Factorio
People who have played Factorio already know; this game will take over your life. In a good way.
An incredible gaming experience that the whole family enjoyed. Planning factories with my wife and kid was so fun. This is a game where even when I wasn’t playing it I was thinking about it constantly.
Played: With wife and kiddo
Completed: No. We didn’t launch the rocket, but we did get the Spidertron.
Stars: 5/5
Doom Eternal
I was super let down by this. I loved the original Doom (2016) and was really looking forward to playing this one… but it got repetitive really quickly. Music is great, but I can listen to that on YouTube.
Played: Alone
Completed: No
Stars: 1/5
Stray
Passable cat simulation game. Mostly doesn’t take advantage of the cool graphics and interesting premise.
Played: With kiddo
Completed: Yes
Stars: 2/5
Red Dead Redemption 2
Didn’t last long with this one. Traveling by horse isn’t super fun.
Played: Alone
Completed: No
Stars: 2/5
Metroid Prime Remastered
I’m a huge Metroid fan, and have very fond memories of the Prime series in particular. This remake was a blast, and it was really nice getting to share it with my son.
Played: With kiddo
Completed: Yes
Stars: 4/5
Cult of the Lamb
This was a great way to introduce my eight year old to dangerous religious terms like “cult” and “sacrifice” and “sermon”. Super fun gameplay loop. Stopped playing right before the final boss encounter - I definitely need to go back and finish this one off.
Played: With wife and kiddo
Completed: Almost!
Stars: 3/5
Tears of the Kingdom
Game of the Year for me. A towering achievement for video games. Insanely fun, and somehow manages to improve on Breath of the Wild in every way. Wow.
Played: With kiddo
Completed: Yes
Stars: 5/5
Torchlight 3
Not my jam but Connor is liking this one a lot. Which means he’s primed to really enjoy better dungeon crawler games in the future. Which makes me happy.
Played: With kiddo
Completed: No
Stars: 2/5
FZero 99
This shit is so my jam. 2 minute races against 98 other online players. Classic retro gameplay. Addictive as hell.
Played: Mostly alone
Completed: n/a
Stars: 4/5
Cocoon
Beautiful and mind bending. Pretty easy, but some of the puzzles require a little bit of outside the box thinking.
Played: With kiddo and brother
Completed: Yes
Stars: 3/5
Super Mario Bros Wonder
Played through the coop mode with my son, beat the game, and then never had any interest in going back and collecting all the things. Incredibly inventive, but it felt like no level idea was truly used to its full potential. Needed to be more difficult.
Played: With kiddo
Completed: Yes
Stars: 3/5
Dave the Diver
Super cool idea but I fell off hard. Would love to go back to this one some day and give it its due.
Played: With kiddo
Completed: No
Stars: 2/5
Suika Game
Maybe the best $2 I spent all year. For a week of my life all I wanted to do was combine fruits into watermelons.
Played: With wife and kiddo
Completed: n/a
Stars: 4/5
Super Mario RPG Remake
Another blast from my past, it was incredibly special getting to play this one with my son. The core gameplay and story are so fun, and the quality of life additions they made are super nice.
Played: With kiddo
Completed: Yes
Stars: 4/5
No Man’s Sky
I’ve just barely made it out of the tutorial. More than anything it really just makes me want to play Minecraft.
Played: With kiddo
Completed: No
Stars: 2/5
Pikmin 4
I’m playing this one with Connor and he doesn’t like that his role in the game is just shooting pebbles at things. Really wish the campaign let two people play as characters that can control Pikmins like Pikmin 3.
Played: With kiddo
Completed: No
Stars: 3/5
Dicey Dungeons
Not bad, but absolutely did not capture my attention. I “made it through” the dungeon with my first character, and then learned that the game wants me to do the same thing with different characters which didn’t sound appealing.
Played: With kiddo
Completed: No
Stars: 1/5
Outer Wilds
Still playing this one, and it’s absolutely incredible. No Man’s Sky generates new galaxies for you which is an amazing technical feat but is pretty boring in practice. Outer Wilds has a bespoke crafted and designed solar system to explore where every inch of it is perfect. So many mysteries to figure out.
Played: With kiddo
Completed: Not yet
Stars: 4/5
God of War Ragnarok
God of War might be my favorite game series of all time. I saw this was on sale for 50% off and snatched it right up. I’m just getting started, but I’m really excited to give this more time.
Played: Alone
Completed: Not yet
Stars: 3/5
It Takes Two
It Takes Two features a completely unhinged story where a husband and wife are going to get divorced before getting transformed into dolls and are taken on an adventure by a well-meaning but abusive book. Every stage introduces a new gameplay element that gets discarded as soon as the next stage starts. Requires two players. I can’t believe that a game like this even exists.
Played: With kiddo
Completed: Yes
Stars: 3/5