With 2022 wrapping up, it\u2019s about time to take a look back at some of the best games of the year. This was, all told, a very solid year for gaming; there were some truly excellent titles, and while the year also saw its fair share of mediocre offerings, it\u2019s hard to argue that gamers weren\u2019t spoiled for choice. Whatever platform you like to game on, there\u2019s plenty from the year 2022 that should keep you entertained. Here are the best games of 2022, in no particular order.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Elden Ring<\/em><\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

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From Software\u2019s traditional exploration-heavy action RPGs made the leap to open-world gameplay in Elden Ring<\/em>, and it paid off in spades. The game offered a world full of exciting exploration, a landscape where a mysterious spire in the distance would almost always offer something interesting or useful for your current playthrough (and more often than not, an incredibly difficult combat encounter guarding that thing). It could occasionally be a touch overstuffed, but it\u2019s hard to argue Elden Ring <\/em>doesn\u2019t represent an exciting new direction for Soulslikes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Neon White<\/em><\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

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With an incredible core gameplay loop supported by a surprisingly effective character-driven visual novel story, Neon White <\/em>proved that it\u2019s still possible to get more life and excitement out of the first-person shooter genre. In essence, the game is a speedrun simulator; you must complete each stage in as fast a time as possible, necessitating efficient manipulation of the weapons and enemies in the environment. Watching actual speedrun videos of this game is absolute insanity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pokemon Scarlet and Violet<\/em><\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

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They may not have been quite as much of a hit with fans as previous Pokemon <\/em>games, and their performance might be unforgivably bad, but there\u2019s something immensely compelling about Pokemon Scarlet and Violet <\/em>nonetheless. Whether it\u2019s the surprisingly evocative and affecting storytelling (yes, really) or the massive open world that lets you wander at your leisure, Scarlet and Violet <\/em>represent an exciting new direction for the series. Long may it continue (although hopefully with better technicals next time around)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Signalis<\/em><\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

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Survival horror isn\u2019t dead, it turns out, largely thanks to indie horror Signalis<\/em>. The plot could be a touch pretentious and \u201cdifficult\u201d at times, but Signalis<\/em>\u2019 nervy resource-based gameplay and emphasis on exploration made it a joy to play through nonetheless. In a world that seems to have forgotten subtlety and pacing in horror (looking at you, Callisto Protocol<\/em>), Signalis <\/em>showed that the old Resident Evil <\/em>and Silent Hill <\/em>models still hold weight in the modern era.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mario and Rabbids: Sparks of Hope<\/em><\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

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Absolutely nobody expected Mario and Rabbids: Kingdom Battle <\/em>to be as great as it was. Still fewer people expected Sparks of Hope <\/em>to surpass its predecessor in every way, offering a really rather excellent tactical RPG with great characters and fun environments to explore. Ubisoft\u2019s game also contains some exciting evolutions of the strategy genre; the free movement, which allows you to position your characters wherever you like as long as you haven\u2019t acted yet, is a stroke of genius.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tunic<\/em><\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

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Remember instruction manuals for video games? Tunic <\/em>very much hopes you do, because it contains an entire instruction manual. No, really; at the outset, Tunic <\/em>doesn\u2019t tell you anything about its huge, isometric world, so you\u2019ll need to find pages of a virtual instruction manual in order to learn what anything does or means. What follows is a rich, tactile adventure that takes inspiration principally from the original Legend of Zelda<\/em>, and one whose central premise is a gift that just keeps on giving.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Final Fantasy XIV: Endwalker<\/em><\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

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Final Fantasy XIV <\/em>continues to be the antidote to cynical modern MMORPG design. While its story can be a touch linear, this is one of the best narratives in the entire Final Fantasy <\/em>series. Bear in mind that you really can\u2019t get started with Endwalker<\/em>; you\u2019ll have to experience the entire saga up to that point, but it really is worth it to get to know some of Final Fantasy<\/em>\u2019s best characters and settings to date. The new dungeons, raids, and locations Endwalker <\/em>offers make it a fitting sendoff for the series.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Live A Live<\/em><\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

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Live A Live <\/em>probably doesn\u2019t really hold up to modern JRPGs from a gameplay standpoint. Its grid-based tactical RPG combat is a little strange, and if you\u2019re used to games with more efficient design, this one might grate at the beginning. Give it some time, though, because as it progresses, Live A Live <\/em>unfolds one of the most creative and fascinating RPG stories in history. This Switch remake applies Octopath Traveler<\/em>\u2019s beautiful HD-2D style to the 1994 original, making it the definitive way to experience this oddball classic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kirby and the Forgotten Land<\/em><\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

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Forgotten Land<\/em> reminds you (ironically) just how great Nintendo and its partners are when they\u2019re at the top of their game. A beautiful, colourful odyssey stuffed to the gills with varied challenges and great level design, Kirby and the Forgotten Land <\/em>is a wonderful return to form for the little pink blob. If you\u2019re a completionist, you\u2019ll find plenty to keep you busy in this massive collectathon; it\u2019s almost always worth revisiting levels multiple times to find all the things you missed the first time around.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Prodeus<\/em><\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

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It\u2019s spent a fair while in Early Access, but Prodeus <\/em>finally got a full release this year, and it\u2019s phenomenal. This is very much Doom <\/em>with the training wheels turned off; it\u2019s an intensely brutal journey through dimly-lit space bases and alien planets, a paean to violence in its purest and most expressive form. If you don\u2019t enter some kind of battle trance while you\u2019re blasting your way through Prodeus<\/em>\u2019 expertly-crafted levels, you\u2019re doing it wrong.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

With 2022 wrapping up, it\u2019s about time to take a look back at some of the best games of the year. This was, all told, a very solid year for gaming; there were some truly excellent titles, and while the year also saw its fair share of mediocre offerings, it\u2019s hard to argue that gamers … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9164,"comment_status":"close","ping_status":"close","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[222,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9161","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-videogames"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nerdleaks.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9161"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nerdleaks.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nerdleaks.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nerdleaks.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nerdleaks.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9161"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/nerdleaks.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9161\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9166,"href":"https:\/\/nerdleaks.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9161\/revisions\/9166"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nerdleaks.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9164"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nerdleaks.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9161"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nerdleaks.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9161"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nerdleaks.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9161"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}