This content was originally posted in early 2020 on my Twitter account, @Capshot18, and may have been edited slightly to better fit this site's formatting.
I understand I’m well over a week late with this but I still wanted to share what my favorite things I watched/played in 2019 were. (I'll be adding to this thread over the next day or two, probably.)
Here’s what I wrote last year, for reference.
I'm not sure about this order, but I think these were my favorite 2019 films.
10. Apollo 11
9. Once Upon a Time in Hollywood
8. John Wick: Chapter 3 - Parabellum
7. Parasite
6. Joker
5. Little Women
4. Knives Out
3. They Shall Not Grow Old
2. Avengers: Endgame
1. Climax
This is a bit later than I planned on but now, for the main course, I thought I’d go into a bit more detail about what my favorite games from last year were.
10. Super Mario Maker 2
I was a huge fan of LittleBigPlanet back in the day so it was great to have another excuse to try my hand at level design and, more importantly, to have a surplus of user-created content (made by OTHER people) available again.
9. Control
The shooting mechanics in this are familiar and the checkpointing can be really frustrating at times, but all of the narrative and aesthetic elements in play are fascinating and I was hooked from start to finish.
8. Far Cry: New Dawn
Even though Far Cry 5 had an absolutely terrible story, revisiting those locations in this was surprisingly enjoyable. It’s pretty similar to that game in a lot of ways but it also introduces a tiered loot/health system that’s surprisingly simple and intuitive.
7. Pokemon Sword
It’s Pokémon. It’s the first new legitimate Pokémon game (excluding what I played of Let’s Go! last year) that I’ve played in about a decade and I forgot just how good Pokémon could be. It’s another one of those. It’s good. What more is there to say?
6. Life is Strange 2
While it shares some themes and imagery with the first game, this is a radically different story that manages to feel like a worthwhile standalone follow up without feeling like an unnecessary “sequel” to any specific characters or plots.
5. Slay the Spire
I’ve never really been one for deck-building games but the roguelike elements of this manage to make that genre suddenly make sense to me. Getting a good combination of items and cards in a run is an incredible feeling.
4. AI Dungeon
To put it simply, this is a text-adventure where you take prompts from an AI. It doesn’t always react predictably and it often spits out non-sequiturs and gibberish but, man, when it works it feels like magic.
3. Dangerous Driving
Now it may not be “magic” but it IS effectively Burnout, and Burnout just might be better than magic. It’s rough around the edges and the rubberbanding is extremely frustrating at times, but, well, it’s basically a new Burnout made by the people that made the old Burnouts.
2. Telltale's The Walking Dead: The Definitive Series
This might not seem fair given that it’s not really a “new” game, but Telltale’s The Walking Dead is one of my favorite video game stories out there and, given that the last episode came out this year, this collection is an incredible way to experience the whole story.
1. Outer Wilds
It’s probably too recent for me to make this call, but this MAY be one of my favorite games I’ve ever played. Having said that, I don’t think it’s a game I can play again. Uncovering the mysteries of this universe for the first time can not be recommended highly enough.
Again, I don't know why I waited so long for this, but given that I tend to play a lot of older things too I thought I'd list my ten favorite things I played that weren't from 2019.
10. Battlefield V
I’ve never been particularly competent at it, but I’ve liked the large scale chaos of Battlefield for a while now and this definitely has a lot of that. It’s fun.
9. Gemini: Heroes Reborn
It may seem surprising that I played a game that was based on the short-lived attempt at a “Heroes” follow up they tried a few years ago, but I did and, even more surprisingly, that game’s actually really good.
8. Destiny 2 (but also Destiny 1)
I know I have a picture of the second one here, but this slot really goes to both of them as they kind of blended together to me. Regardless, Bungie sure knows how to make a good loot treadmill for you to climb when you’re not shooting aliens in the face.
7. Saints Row 2
I loved the later Saints Row games but had never played this one and I was surprised by how enjoyable this one was. It’s very different to the Saints Row that I know, but it’s still good, just a different kind of good.
6. Agents of MAYHEM
I heard some pretty negative things about this when it came out but it’s actually a lot of fun. I think the plot’s a bit cliche, but it’s surprisingly mechanically interesting and I hope they don’t COMPLETELY ignore what worked in this if/when they get back to Saints Row.
5. Sniper Elite 4
I can’t quite put my finger on it, but something about this game just feels really good. Its open-ended level design reminds me somewhat of HITMAN or MGSV, but it meshes those ideas with a really enjoyable action game as well.
4. Assassin's Creed: Odyssey
This definitely still fits the formula that Ubisoft games have fallen into over the past few years but it supplements that (still enjoyable) formula with some progression and RPG mechanics and also kinda feels like a Greek myth. All in all, it’s pretty cool.
3. Red Dead Online
I don't know exactly why, but I've played a LOT of this. I think I like that it lets me focus on the mundane busywork of RDR2 without the added pressure of feeling like I need to focus on getting to the end of a sad cowboy story. Also, I like playing old-timey dress up.
2. Return of the Obra Dinn
In this, you play as an insurance investigator aboard a ship and are tasked with discovering the cause of each passenger’s untimely death. Rami Ismail called it a "60-by-60 sudoku puzzle about DEATH” and I have a hard time coming up with a better description.
1. EARTH DEFENSE FORCE 5
Shooting giant ants until they explode, dismembering even larger frog men with rockets, sniping UFOs out of the sky, this game has it all. It’s one of the most video-gamey video games I’ve played in a while and it is just so much dang fun. tl;dr: EDF! EDF! EDF!
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