Year in Review: 2022

 

Since part of the point of a Year in Review is to look back at the games that were not only played in 2022, but the games that were released in 2022, let us jump into list mode because I can promise you, this is going to be a short list.  

BRING ON THE LISTS!!

And to be clear, this first list is just a list of the games that were released in 2022 that I actually played.

• Dobo's Heroes - Switch (January 17)
• Diablo Immortal - Android (June 2)
• Fall Guys - Switch (June 21)
• Please, Touch the Artwork - Switch (September 3)
• Bayonetta 3 - Switch (October 28)
• This Way Madness Lies - Steam (November 11)

And then there were games released in 2022 that I purchased/received but have not yet played:

• Triangle Strategy - Switch (March 4)
• Evil Dead: The Game - Epic Game Store (May 13) [received this game free]
• Live A Live - Switch (July 22)
• Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Cowabunga Collection (August 30)

And then there are the games that were released in 2022 that I have not purchased or played:

• Horizon Forbidden West - Steam (February 18)
• Elden Ring - Steam (February 24)
• Tunic - Steam/Switch (March 16)
• Citizen Sleeper - Steam (May 5)
• The Quarry - Steam (June 9)
• Neon White - Switch/Steam (June 16)
• Tiny Tina's Wonderlands - Steam (June 23)
• Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder's Revenge - Switch/Steam (July 16)
• Stray - Steam (July 19)
• Cult of the Lamb - Steam/Switch (August 11)
• Rollerdrome - Steam (August 16)
• Immortality - Steam (August 30)
• Metal: Hellsinger - Steam (September 15)
• God of War Ragnarok - PS4/5 (November 9)
• Pentiment - Steam (November 14)
• The Callisto Protocol - Steam (December 1)

If that does not tell you why we are 1) Not doing a Game of the Year section or 2) Proclaiming the Best Game of 2022, then I do not have anything else for you.

I think if I were to break down how I played games this year, it would probably look something like 35% Switch, 20% Steam Deck, 15% PC Games (Steam, GOG), 12% DS/3DS, 12% Oculus Quest 2/Meta Quest 2, 3% Wii U, 2% Android (App and browser games), and 1% PSP.  The Steam Deck has really invigorated me back into PC/Steam games and I have to keep telling myself that just because I have a Steam Deck does not mean that I need to buy more games off of Steam because my existing backlog is already quite large.  But there is Elden Ring and all of the games that were released last year that I want to play, but also a handful of games, that I am aware of, that are going to be released this year too, here's looking at you Dead Space.  And all of this is before I figure out how to upload games that I already have on GOG, and the Epic Game Store, not to mention other system emulators that the Steam Deck seems primed for.  I know it is possible as there are dozens of articles of varying difficulties discussing how to do it all.

I think the most unexpected game that I played this year was probably American Truck Simulator, which I have talked about in person but I do not think I have mentioned it a lot here, outside of brief mentions in Monthly Update articles.  It is just driving this honking-big truck and trying to navigate it to another city some hundred miles away.  It would be like if you tried to play GTA and observe all of the rules of the road.  Even after driving over 1,000 real-world miles in a car, I still am able to find a kind of zen driving a hog along Highway 84 along the Columbia River.  I only wish that there were more states available as DLC so that I could talk about how Highway 77 between Charolette and Columbia is the absolute worst.  I know I could get other DLC states (Oklahoma and Texas I think were the two new DLC states released in 2022), but knowing the locations is part of the draw, otherwise, it would be like I was driving in any other fictional location.  I should really just write a First Impressions article already; maybe the 23rd?

This year I also read a lot of Dungeons & Dragons books, starting back with The Legend of Drizzt series, and have branched out into the original Faerun novels Moonshae trilogy, the Starlight and Shadows trilogy, and The Sage of Shadowdale (aka Elminster).  Granted I haven't read everything in either of those series yet (currently on Book VIII in the Drizzt series, Book III in Moonshae, Book II in Starlight, and Book IV in Elminster).  And then on top of that, there are the 1-5E modules that have built upon the lore in the early novels that I have somewhat resigned to myself that I may never actually play.  I have also thought about finding ways to acquire the 2nd Edition and 3rd Edition campaign settings for even more information because in Elminster in Hell, which takes place in 1372 DR, 15 years (and 214 novels and short stories) between that and where I last left off with Drizzt in Starless Night in 1358 DR.  No, I am not going to be reading all of those books because that is a lot of books and I am pretty sure that I do not nearly enough time.

Sadly, we did not do much in the way of board games this year.  I did pick up the Ravenloft board game back in March and have played that a handful of times (lost every game, but it was still a lot of fun), but it is still a lot of time management with what time I do have to sit and play anything.  My days being as full as they are, especially weekdays, that unless I can lay in bed and play it, there is less of a chance that I will play said thing, which is probably why close to 85% of the video games I play are all handheld systems.

In health-related news, both Conklederp and I contracted some kind of non-COVID-related cold back in July; we both tested negative for multiple consecutive days, so we've managed to dodge that bullet yet again.  I also had cold-like symptoms brought on by undiagnosed asthma for a couple of months afterward until I decided to see a Dr. and now I have a couple of inhalers, but now at least I don't have a wheeziness when taking deep breaths or shortness of breaths from doing simple things like bouldering.  But this was also the year of Mpox and a resurgence of RSV cases in young babies (typically less than a year old). Again, thankfully The Squire is not in the range of ages for us to be overly concerned, still concerned mind you, just fortunate that it is likely that we would not need to rush to the ER.

I know that I could probably be more vocal about other social injustices such as the US Supreme Court's rolling back of women's healthcare rights and the continued attacks on People of Color by some angry manchild with an assault rifle.  Or having to worry about a foreign country claiming that my country doesn't actually exist and needs to be saved from a make-believe threat with bombardments from missiles, bombs, and frustrated soldiers' libidos.  And again, I come from a position of privilege where these are not things that I am assaulted with on a daily basis.  I wake up, I help take care of The Squire, I go to work, and I come home, there is more to it than just that, but you get the idea.

Let us end this Year in Review though on a similar note on how we came in, with two bits of generated data from both Nintendo and Steam about my tastes in video game genres:

This pretty much makes sense as I did play a lot of Final Fantasy X, Fortnite (only in the first quarter of this year), Skyward Sword, Kingdoms of Amalur: Re-Reckoning, and Bayonetta 3.

Steam's analysis surprised me a bit.  I did spend a lot of time playing Dark Souls II in the end of this year (although some of that was offline so that apparently was not factored into any of this data), but I also spent 83.5 hours playing Borderlands 2 and 19.9 hours playing F.E.A.R., although I guess Borderlands counts as Loot here?  I know that This Way Madness Lies was the primary JRPG I played, although I did start up Cthulhu Saves the World back in January 2022 and played <1% of my total time playing through Steam, but I am surprised that Steam gives that my largest point on the spider graph.

To say nothing about my breakdown for games that I played on the 3DS and the Meta Quest 2.  I am actually pretty surprised that Meta did not come out with a personalized Year in Gaming analysis like Nintendo or Steam (as I am sure that Microsoft and Sony did the same with their respective consoles).  Maybe next year for Meta (if the company has not imploded by then?)

I was also very happy to kick off my multi-month series by looking at all 51 games packaged in Atari Greatest Hits Volume 1, released on the Nintendo DS back in 2010; not to be confused with Atari 50: The Anniversary Collection.  This was a fun albeit at times stressful series to put together, although I am not against doing something similar for the SNK 40th Anniversary Collection and would love to do it for Intellivision Lives! collection on the DS, but that game might be more difficult to track down, and significantly more expensive than I am willing to pay.

Looking ahead at 2023, I think I already know that a lot of my Steam Deck time will be taken up by Alan Wake and the standalone American Nightmare, followed by jumping back into Dark Souls III (after taking a Dark Souls break), then getting into Elden Ring.  But then Dead Space comes out in a few weeks and I am eagerly waiting to see how well that runs on the Steam Deck; oh, and The Callisto Protocol which has had a rocky first month that I am sure will be ironed out in time for Steam's Summer Sale.  And I am also thinking about buying/starting The Last of Us Pt 1 which will see a release outside of the PlayStation in March (likely to coincide with the HBO series), but I think I might only consider it if it is guaranteed that Pt. 2 will also be released.  On the Switch, I plan on finishing Bayonetta 3, then either getting back into Kingdoms of Amalur or taking a little break for action-oriented games and starting Live A Live, or Bravely Default II.  But then there are the 3DS and Wii U eShop closures happening in March and I am still waiting to see if any of the games I have on my respective wishlist go on sale so I do not end up spending upwards of $500.00 by paying full price for digital games that have been out for 10+ years.

It really just boils down to needing more time to play video games, but also more time to spend with Conklederp and The Squire.  I think it is really that work just gets in the way.  There is a solution: less work and more time to spend doing everything else without having to worry about finances.

Maybe I should buy a Lotto ticket. . .

~JWfW/JDub/The Faceplantman/Jaconian
To the Best Time of Your Life