Ultimately, we recommend all of these games.
And who could forget whatever the hell Untitled Goose Game is? This was a year in which it was possible, if not exactly easy, for strange, exciting new ideas to make an outsized dent in the zeitgeist.ĭon’t worry too much about the ranking. There was Kind Words, which was always there for you if the news became a little overwhelming. There was a Star Wars game that could be mistaken for a Tomb Raider game. Outer Wilds mixes the expected influence of the past few years into something completely new, while The Outer Worlds brought familiar design into a brand-new galaxy that served as a pointed critique of capitalism. While next year will have new consoles and likely many new entries in huge, tentpole franchises, this was a year with many experiments and unexpected surprises. 2019 was a very strange year for games, and that sense of adventure is clear in our list of the top 50 games of the past 12 months.
