Alex's Top 10 Games of 2019

Well, here we are again. Another year passed, insert your "I feel so old" anecdote here. It's been an interesting year in gaming for me. The previous couple of years had so many quality titles, I've spent quite a lot of my time catching up on gems I didn't get round to in the year of their release - however, as you'll see in the list below, I didn't spend 2019 living completely in the past.

Speaking of which, this is of course also the conclusion of a decade - I'll have some retrospective thoughts on that in a separate update quite soon (that's right - two blog posts in the same year).

Alex's Top 10 Games of 2018

Here we are again. Another year has passed and, unsurprisingly, I have at least ten games to talk about. Let the (discussion of said) games begin!

Alex's Top 10 Games of 2017

The year 2017 has come and gone, and as has become tradition, I will ramble here for a little while on my personal top 10 video games that I played in the calendar year.

Elite Dangerous: Long and Winding Road

It's been over two years since my last blog post about Elite: Dangerous. Hundreds of hours and thousands of faster-than-light jumps later, I have done some things, and had some thoughts. If you wish to know some of those things and thoughts, continue reading!

A Quick Musical Easter Egg

In a fit of Mario Odyssey hype during E3 this year, I found myself watching the trailer repeatedly. I also came across this musical throwback. 

Alex's Top 10 Games of 2016

As with my post last year, I will be taking the wild and crazy decision to rank my 10 favourite games played in 2016. For those not aware of the rules, this list will include games released before 01/01/16 - trust me, it'll be more interesting this way. This is based simply on my own sense of appreciation for a game, regardless of how in particular it impressed me - perhaps it was the writing, maybe it has great music, maybe it just played and felt spectacular. What matters is that I think all of these games are worth your time and certainly deserve plenty of accolades.

This was not an easy list to make. My initial shortlist of games in with a shout numbered no fewer than twenty-six! When we get to the end I will throw out a number of honourable mentions for the games it caused me genuine pain to cut from the list. Let's get on with it!

Ys II - "What's All Ys, Then?"

Japanese role-playing games - or JRPGs to their friends - are perhaps one of the most inaccessible genres to the uninitiated. The most common crime they commit is enforced grinding, as players have to circle a patch of tall grass or forest or "world map", fighting the same creatures over and over until characters in their party are sufficiently levelled up to take on a boss. Then there's the minute-to-minute tedium of the gameplay, which even in the more complex JRPGs often boils down to selecting "attack" from a menu every time. And of course there's the time investment, which can stretch to 50, 100, even 200 hours or more - this becomes a more crucial metric the more your age and the size of your Steam library goes up.

Behind these off-putting elements - some of which it could be argued are central to the experience of playing a JRPG - there can be a lot of value, depending on the quality of the game in question. Persona 4 Golden is my personal Best Game Ever, and I could ramble on for quite some time about a fair few Final Fantasy's. It makes me feel a bit sad that the above issues could (very reasonably) put someone off ever delving into the genre.

If there was ever an entry-point, a catalyst for more interest in games that many find so impenetrable, I believe it is Ys Chronicles. This Steam bundle contains the first two games of a long-running series that has seen endless rereleases, remakes and enhanced reimaginings. I finished them in a total of 18 hours. There are no random encounters. The combat is real-time and could not be played while sleeping. Grinding is almost entirely unnecessary. What's more, Ys and Ys II are exceptional games and they do far more than just stand the test of time. They're easily some of the best 2D games I've ever played, and I want to let you know why you should check them out.