Tag: Best Games

The 10 Best Games of 2023

Published on by Chris ScullionLeave a comment

This article is available in both written and video format. The video shows the games in action in full 4K and 60 frames per second while I read the article as a voiceover, so if you watch the video you won’t need to read the written article that follows since it’s the same ‘script’. The video can be viewed here:

Another year has passed, and it’s fair to say it’s been one of the best in terms of game releases (even if it’s been one of the worst for the business itself). Not that I necessarily got much exposure to a lot of this year’s AAA releases, mind you: mainly because of various plate-spinning antics at the start of the year, and the small matter of the Game Boy Encyclopedia proving much more complicated than expected, yer man missed out on a lot of 2023‘s best games.

What this does mean, at least, is that my Best Games of 2023 list should be a little more unusual than the others you’ll have seen to date, because the number of AAA games featured is relatively low. Hopefully, then, my downfall will have its benefits here, as you might stumble upon something you may be less familiar with.

Because of a household illness which started on Boxing Day and is only just beginning to let up now, this video comes a little later than usual. However, now that I can string a sentence together without sounding like John Hurt playing the Elephant Man, I finally present my 10 favourite games of 2023.

As with every year’s list, there are a few caveats to bear in mind before we get started:

• This is in alphabetical order, not best to worst. I can’t be arsed deciding whether a game was my 7th or 8th favourite of the year. They’re all great: get them all.

• Before you even think about writing a comment saying this, I didn’t “forget” anything. As I’ve already explained, the reason my list looks very different from most of the others you’ve seen so far isn’t an attempt to be quirky or pretentious, it’s just because I reviewed very few of this year’s AAA games, and because this is my personal list I can only pick from what I’ve played. So no, I didn’t forget Tears of the Kingdom, Spider-Man 2, Alan Wake 2 or Baldur’s Gate 3: they’re just all on my backlog and I haven’t gotten round to playing them yet.

That said, let’s get cracking! Continue reading “The 10 Best Games of 2023” →

The 10 Best Games of 2022

Published on by Chris ScullionLeave a comment

This article is available in both written and video format. The video shows the games in action in full 4K and 60 frames per second while I read the article as a voiceover, so if you watch the video you won’t need to read the written article that follows since it’s the same ‘script’. The video can be viewed here:

The general consensus seems to be that 2022 wasn’t a very good year for video games.

With many of the big titles planned for this past year hit with delays, it’s clear that 2023 is going to have a much larger number of high-profile releases.

That said, I’ve never been a fan of doom and gloom, and there have still been a healthy number of high quality titles released this year, regardless of which systems you own.

Here, then, are yer man Scullion’s 10 favourite games of the year.

As ever, there are a few caveats to bear in mind before we get started.

• It’s in alphabetical order, not best-to-worst. I can’t be arsed deciding whether a game was my 6th or 7th favourite of the year. They’re all great: get them all.

• Before you even think about writing a comment saying this, I didn’t “forget” anything. I haven’t played every game released this year, and this is my personal list. In particular, I missed out on a lot of Triple-A titles this year. So no, I didn’t forget Elden Ring or God of War Ragnarok or Xenoblade Chronicles 3, I just haven’t played them yet. Continue reading “The 10 Best Games of 2022” →

The 10 best games of 2020

Published on by Chris ScullionLeave a comment

This article is available in both written and video format. The video shows the games in action in full 4K and 60 frames per second while I read the article as a voiceover, so if you watch the video you won’t need to read the written article that follows since it’s the same ‘script’.

Look, let’s not go there. Every single article these days starts with a reference to the pandemic so let’s just focus on the fact that 2020 has been a pretty bloody interesting year for video games. After all, with two new consoles launched, the continued growth of Xbox Game Pass and whatever the hell Cyberpunk was, it’s fair to say there’s been a lot going on.

Despite the small matter of writing my Mega Drive Encyclopedia this year, I did manage to dabble with more than my fair share of new releases, partly thanks to my continued freelance review work. With that in mind, here’s yer man Scullion’s 10 favourite games of 2020.

As with last year’s list, there are a few caveats to bear in mind before we get started:

• it’s in alphabetical order, not best-to-worst. I can’t be arsed deciding whether a game was my 6th or 7th favourite of the year. They’re all great: get them all.

• before you even think about writing a comment saying this, I didn’t “forget” anything. I haven’t played every game released this year, and this is my personal list. So no, I didn’t forget Miles Morales or The Last of Us Part II. I just haven’t played them yet, and I’m not going to add games I didn’t play in case I end up not liking them.

That said, let’s get cracking! Continue reading “The 10 best games of 2020” →

The 30 best Nintendo 64 games

Published on by Chris Scullion11 Comments

This is the ninth in my ’30 Best’ series of articles in which I discuss my favourite games ever on a system-by-system basis for the first time in my career. In case you missed them, the full list of other ’30 Best’ articles can be found at the bottom of this page.

’30 Best’ will now be a regular series, thanks to my lovely Patreon followers helping me reach a stretch goal. If you want to contribute, please visit my Patreon page.

Few retro games consoles are as fondly remembered as the Nintendo 64.

The history books list it as the system that was thoroughly trounced by the PlayStation, but with over 32 million sold – more than the Sega Mega Drive – its influence was still notable.

Nowhere was this influence clearer than in some of the games exclusive to the system. The N64 marked Nintendo’s first proper foray into polygonal gaming (I know, the Super FX chip, but whatever), and with it came a bunch of new concepts that would go on to shape the games we play today. Continue reading “The 30 best Nintendo 64 games” →

The 30 best Wii U games

Published on by Chris Scullion9 Comments

This is the eighth in my ’30 Best’ series of articles in which I discuss my favourite games ever on a system-by-system basis for the first time in my career. In case you missed them, the full list of other ’30 Best’ articles can be found at the bottom of this page.

’30 Best’ will now be a regular series, thanks to my lovely Patreon followers helping me reach a stretch goal. If you want to contribute and help me reach my next goal (to start a Tired Old Hack podcast), please visit my Patreon page.

wii-uThere’s a saying in gaming when it comes to Nintendo. Well, there isn’t really but I’m making it up now and I’ve decided it should be one.

When Nintendo does well, it does really well. Look at the Wii, the DS, the SNES, the Game Boy Advance.

But when it does badly – the GameCube, the Virtual Boy – it does really badly, finishing a distant last place against its competitors.

Such was the fate of the Wii U, a console that arrived on the heels of the wildly successful Wii and somehow went on to undo all the fine work Nintendo’s motion-sensitive phenomenon had managed. Continue reading “The 30 best Wii U games” →

The 30 best Vita games

Published on by Chris Scullion16 Comments

This is the seventh in my ’30 Best’ series of articles in which I discuss my favourite games ever on a system-by-system basis for the first time in my career. In case you missed them, the full list of other ’30 Best’ articles can be found at the bottom of this page.

’30 Best’ will now be a monthly series, thanks to my lovely Patreon followers helping me reach a stretch goal. If you want to contribute and help me reach my next goal (to start a Tired Old Hack podcast), please visit my Patreon page.

ps_vita_front_side_sony“I didn’t even know it had 30 games!”

This was the predictable reply I got from all manner of clever individuals every time I informed my Twitter followers that my next ’30 Best’ article would be dedicated to the Sony PlayStation Vita.

It’s little wonder, to be fair. Sony abandoned its handheld quicker than David Cameron abandons his children in pubs, which led to the understandable consensus that the Vita was dead before its library had a chance to grow.

In reality, the Vita does have 30 great games. Indeed, it’s got plenty more than that: I’ve added another 15 at the end of this list for good measure, and even then there were some I had to leave out. Continue reading “The 30 best Vita games” →

The 30 best SNES games

Published on by Chris Scullion21 Comments

This is the sixth in my ’30 Best’ series of articles in which I discuss my favourite games ever on a system-by-system basis for the first time in my career. In case you missed them, I’ve already covered the 30 best Wii games, 30 best Amiga games, 30 best DS games, 30 best GameCube games and 30 best Dreamcast games.

’30 Best’ will now be a monthly series, thanks to my lovely Patreon followers helping me reach a stretch goal. If you want to contribute and help me reach my next goal (to start a Tired Old Hack podcast), please visit my Patreon page.

SNES
The European and Japanese SNES, with its lovely coloured buttons

It says a lot about the Super Nintendo Entertainment System that more than a quarter century after it first launched, there are still some who claim it’s the greatest games console that ever existed.

It’s easy to see their point. The SNES was host to a wide number of technically impressive games, many of which redefined existing genres or created entirely new ones altogether. Continue reading “The 30 best SNES games” →

The 30 best Wii games

Published on by Chris Scullion27 Comments

This is the fifth in my ’30 Best’ series of articles in which I discuss my favourite games ever on a system-by-system basis for the first time. In case you missed them, I’ve already covered the 30 best Amiga games, 30 best DS games, 30 best GameCube games and 30 best Dreamcast games.

As before, because this is my own personal list and not a collaborative effort for a magazine or website, there will be some glaring omissions of games I simply didn’t play or didn’t like. So don’t lose your shit if Trauma Center isn’t on here – it’s just not one of my personal favourites.

If one of your own recommendations isn’t on the list, feel free to give it a shoutout in the comments below (politely though, mind) and tell everyone what it meant to you.

wiiThere are a number of so-called ‘gamers’ who are keen on rewriting history and suggesting the Wii was the console that single-handedly ruined ‘gaming’ for everyone.

In reality, the Wii was the most important console since the original PlayStation, in that it opened up gaming to an entirely new audience. But of course, you don’t need me to tell you that: you’re a lovely smart person.

To some this expansion of the audience was a bad thing: there are those who will tell you the Wii introduced the concept of ‘casual’ gaming which started with party games and eventually led to mobile free-to-play mania.

These people suggest that, one or two games aside, the Wii was swimming in casual titles and was sorely lacking in ‘proper’ games. These people are idiots. Continue reading “The 30 best Wii games” →

Xbox One backwards compatibility – the 20 best XBLA games to play now

Published on by Chris Scullion1 Comment

Xbox-One-backward-compatibilityThe first batch of backwards compatible games launches on Xbox One on Thursday, giving players the chance to play 104 titles from the Xbox 360 catalogue on Microsoft’s current-gen console.

Some of these are retail games: the likes of Assassin’s Creed II, Fallout 3, the entire Gears Of War saga and the first Mass Effect (but not the other two, oddly) are in there.

These are well-known titles so chances are you don’t need a hack like me (tired and old or otherwise) to tell you if they’re any good.

However, the vast majority of games on the list are Xbox Live Arcade (XBLA) games – titles that were only made available to buy digitally through the Xbox 360’s online storefront. Some are relatively new, others stretch all the way back to the Xbox 360’s launch a decade ago.

If you’re a long-time Xbox 360 owner then these titles will be familiar to you, but if Xbox One is your first Microsoft console – or even if you’ve only had a 360 for the last couple of years – there may be a few that don’t ring a bell.

With that in mind, I’ve put together this list of the 20 XBLA games on the backwards compatible list that I personally consider must-owns. In alphabetical order, mind: I can’t be arsed with any “number 17? It should have been 16 you prick” nonsense. Continue reading “Xbox One backwards compatibility – the 20 best XBLA games to play now” →

The 30 best Amiga games

Published on by Chris Scullion30 Comments

This is the fourth in my ’30 Best’ series of articles in which I discuss my favourite games ever on a system-by-system basis for the first time. In case you missed them, I’ve already covered the 30 best DS games, 30 best GameCube games and 30 best Dreamcast games.

As before, because this is my own personal list and not a collaborative effort for a magazine or website, there will be some glaring omissions of games I simply didn’t play or didn’t like. So yes, I know SimCity and Civilization aren’t on there: deal widdit, as the kids say.

If one of your favourites isn’t on the list, feel free to give it a shoutout in the comments below (politely though, mind) and tell everyone what it meant to you.

Xbox One versus PS4? Pffft. Xbox 360 versus PS3? Load of pish. Mega Drive versus SNES? Wouldn’t wipe my balls with it.

The Amiga 500, the first major Amiga model
The Amiga 500, the first major Amiga model

The two biggest wars among gamers – in the UK, at least – were between computer owners, not console owners.

The ’80s saw a brutal three-way battle between the ZX Spectrum (hooray!), the Commodore 64 (yes, well played) and the Amstrad CPC (hahaha, aye, okay mate).

When these systems died out and were replaced by 16-bit computers, the war evolved and two new competitors stepped forward (because nobody counts the Acorn Archimedes).

In the red corner, the Atari ST. In the blue corner, the Commodore Amiga. Continue reading “The 30 best Amiga games” →