As we leave the dark years of the pandemic, we found ourselves moved by thoughtful, emotional and gripping video games. These are the best games we played in the year 2022
In the second year of the pandemic, video games continued to haunt and edify us. These are the best games we played in the year 2021.
Fire Emblem: Three Houses is a tactical strategy roleplaying game where the player controls a military academy professor tasked with grooming her young students into ardent commanders on the battlefield. The premise is problematic (though it makes for riveting gameplay), but developer Intelligent Systems gets away with it for one simple reason: it knows this is all terrible. It understands the forces it is playing with - politics and hatred, spun into a real, bloody multi-national war - and it does not shirk from making it feel as awful as it truly is.
(Spoilers for the game’s endings ahead.)
A new year is a time to reflect on the old, and what better way is there than to commemorate our most favorite of video games? But this is not a task to be taken alone. I gathered unto myself a team of six lovely men and women to cast forth our nominees and vote - with great authority - on what was truly the most special of all special games to us last year.
Oh, and this list has almost nothing to do with release dates. Instead, it is a recognition of the actual games that spoke to us - and held us together, sometimes quite literally - in 2020.
Crack open that award envelope, and let’s begin!
Alright, let’s do this.
I have embarked on an endeavor, my dears, to comb through the absolutely massive World of Warcraft in search of the best it has to offer.
Yes, you read that right.
We’re going to find the best World of Warcraft zone.
Welcome back to the Ultimate Quest, where we play through every zone in World of Warcraft to determine, through an exacting and rigorous science, which quest is truly the greatest of them all! This week, we leap out of the Searing Pan and into the Burning Fire, featuring Ian as Claude the dwarf warrior, and myself as Solais the dwarf priest.
Killin’s as easy as breathin’!
Welcome back to the Ultimate Quest, where we play through every zone in World of Warcraft to determine, through an exacting and rigorous science, which quest is truly the greatest of them all! This week, we boil blood sausages over the smoking ruins of local landmarks and critical infrastructure.
Don’t give up, hero! I won’t!
Welcome back to the Ultimate Quest, where we play through every zone in World of Warcraft to determine, through an exacting and rigorous science, which quest is truly the greatest of them all!
This week, we kick our feet up in a gentle winter wonderland - but not before we go on a bloody rampage through it.
For Khaz Modan!
We examine evil’s anonymity as a weapon, and good’s anonymity as a curse, in Fargo Season 3, and discover if the scales can be tipped after all.
This week, we put aside our prejudices to save the world from Armageddon with the lowest body count possible.
Even a box full of pretty paints is only a box if you don't use them right. We explore squandered world-building in World of Warcraft: Cataclysm's Hinterlands.
The true horror of Until Dawn isn't the bloodthirsty monsters. It's the reality of being betrayed by and trapped in one's own mind from trauma and mental illness.
Sometimes dealing with an ecological disaster is more important than fighting a war. But can we tell a story on the back of relief work? Ian Clark and I examine scene-setting in World of Warcraft: Cataclysm's Wetlands.
In hope, we find forgiveness. But it's hard to keep a clear conscience when there is so much blood on our hands. We examine confused messaging in World of Warcraft: Cataclysm's Badlands.
They can't all be winners.
To be an orc is to war. We explore how the greatest war is with one's self in World of Warcraft's Durotar.
Guest-starring Ian, as Ardann the Orcish Shaman!
Welcome back to the Ultimate Quest, where I play through every zone in World of Warcraft to determine, through an exacting and rigorous science, which quest is truly the greatest of them all!
Hot on the heels of Tirisfal Glades, so lacking in satisfying answers, comes Silverpine Forest, which answers even less. What it does do, however, is ask some very interesting questions. This week, we rejoin Professor Ammiel, (undead) gentleman and scholar, as he searches Silverpine Forest for a good skin cream.
We settle into a war-torn land forgotten by the kings who freed it. Is there any glory left for the heroes of the Scourge War?
Guest-starring Ian, as Claude the Warrior Dwarf!
Upon entering the Western Plaguelands from the Hinterlands, as we did, you are immediately struck by its beauty. Although the zone’s quests and villains largely center on the undead (primarily the pure-evil Scourge), the landscape is thriving: greening trees, blooming gardens, and not a single plagued bear/wolf/etc in sight (for now). This initial impression illustrates what will be the zone’s greatest strength as the Western Plaguelands show us a world moving on from war.
The Witcher 2 asks the player to find meaning in the choice, not the outcome.
How far can game mechanics as level design take us?
