Welcome, one and all, to the Weekly Video Games Thread – the last one I’ll be writing for the year! Yes, we’re nearing the end of 2022, and I for one had a pretty memorable year of playing. I explored (and, if not consistently, enjoyed) the entirety of the Kingdom Hearts franchise. I figured out how to capture screenshots on the PS4, something that came in handy for something I published not one hour ago. I worked my way through Return of the Obra Dinn.

But alongside those, there were the new games, and boy did I find a series of delights. I got to creep through the Hisuian plains of Pokémon Legends: Arceus. I barreled through Elden Ring to find my absolute favorite FromSoftware game. Kirby and the Forgotten Land was a delightful game and a better bonding experience for my family. With Xenoblade Chronicles 3 I found a world that seemed unending and always full of surprises. For all its faults, Pokémon Violet managed to give me truly wonderful Pocket Monsters and the best difficulty curve I’ve gotten out of this series. And oh, was God of War: Ragnarök a rollocking bit of fun. I admittedly only got a bit out of Neon White and Tunic, the latter of which I do intend to give another chance, but still. This was a really fun year that just snuck up on me.

But this really fun year is ending, and so we must look to the future – and I don’t just Round 2 of the Peely’s. 2023 is shaping up to be a hopefully banner year. Fire Emblem Engage! The hopefully good Dead Space and Resident Evil 4 remakes! Street Fighter 6, the first traditional fighting game to excite me in forever! Tears of the fucking Kingdom! And this batch will theoretically also include Hollow Knight: Silksong, Alan Wake 2, and Starfield. I want to know about the games that are making you cautiously optimistic.

Of course, a new year can’t just be new games; it has to be old ones as well. It’s not creatively good for a normal person to only play what’s just coming out, whether as a player or critic or creator. And honestly, sometimes the best time to get into a new game is a year after it came out. For me, there are plenty of those, like Stray or Lil Gator Game, but the one that speaks the loudest is Pentiment. As an Xbox exclusive it’s currently unreachable, but maybe I’ll grab a Series S or X next year, at least if I can handle getting that and the looming “Super Switch?” Alongside the upcoming projects, what if any 2022 games are you planning on trying in 2023?

And as always, while I eagerly await for all of you to regale us with your Christmas break of playing, I’d also love to hear your plans and hopes for this year’s, and next year’s, games. Happy rest of the year, everybody!