I have a LOT so this year each entry only gets 1-2 sentences. Let’s turn and burn.
23. RESIDENT EVIL 4 (remake)
A remake of one of my favorite games of all time. I spent half the year loudly telling people I wasn’t interested in it, and the other half playing the hell out of it because it’s amazing.
22. THANKSGIVING
I have hated every Eli Roth movie ever made until this one, which I begrudgingly admit is (finally) gross in the right way, and a ton of fun.
21. DEAD SPACE (remake)
A gorgeous, meticulously crafted update that turns a great game into a classic. So pretty I want to drink it with a straw.
20. LIES OF P
Somebody other than FROM Software has finally made a classic Soulsborne game. I’ll be damned.
19. SYSTEM SHOCK (remake)
It’s been a damned good year for horror remakes. I technically preferred RE4 and Dead Space, but System Shock was a much harder assignment and they still nailed it.
18. AMNESIA: THE BUNKER
A game so scary I’m still working up the nerve to finish it.
17. EXTRACTION 2
Recently we saw “Die Hard 2” at the New Beverly and afterwards Leah was like, “Why don’t they make fun action flicks like that anymore?” They do.
16. WONKA
I was dragged to see this against my will because I hate musicals and detest whimsy. Can you imagine how good this movie had to be to get on this list? I didn’t love the villains. But who cares.
15. POKER FACE
A few episodes whiffed, but the good stuff was more than worth it. Rian Johnson deserves the Nobel Prize for staking his career on reviving the murder mystery genre.
14. DREDGE
An indie Lovecraftian fishing simulator. I love video games so much.
13. REMNANT II
There is more creativity in a single level of this game than in all of “Diablo IV.” Any other live service game should be embarrassed to compete with this one.
12. HIJACK
For some reason, Apple TV originals smoke everybody else right now for quality.
11. EVIL DEAD RISE
A brilliant reinvention of the series. The best entry since “Evil Dead 2.”
10. LOVE AND DEATH
Riveting true crime series anchored by an unreal Elizabeth Olsen performance.
9, FERRARI
I didn’t know how much I’d missed Michael Mann until he came back. The “Our Terrible Joy” speech should go down in cinema history.
8. BEEF
A simple road-rage encounter spirals into a nightmare and a probing character study. Masterful.
7. BARBENHEIMER (BARBIE and OPPENHEIMER)
I can’t decide which I loved more, but I’m profoundly grateful that both exist. They are proof that people will come to the movies if you give them something interesting to see.
6. GODZILLA MINUS ONE
Probably the best monster movie I’ve ever seen. But I’m no closer to understanding the title.
5. THE TRAITORS
An absolutely delicious little treat and the best reality show I’ve seen in years.
4. THE LEGEND OF ZELDA: TEARS OF THE KINGDOM
I did not like “Breath of the Wild,” but I could never quite articulate why. It turns out the problem was simple: it wasn’t “Tears of the Kingdom.” From an engineering and world design standpoint, ToTK is probably the most genius thing I’ve ever played.
3. TALK TO ME
Scary, smart and devastating. A good, old-fashioned piece of craftsmanship.
2. ANATOMY OF A FALL
Maybe the best legal/courtroom thriller I’ve ever seen. Two and half hours long, and yet not a second–not even a frame–of fat or indulgence. A lean, mean masterpiece.
1. CYBERPUNK 2077: PHANTOM LIBERTY (expansion)
I beat everything in this game long ago, but I keep booting it up, just to be in this world, this Babylonian fever dream. It was always a good game, then once they got it working properly it became great. Now, with this final update, it’s a generational masterpiece.
MY CORNER OF RAGE
ASTEROID CITY
Wes Anderson is fascinating: sometimes he’s a genius; other times he’s a hack. You never know which one you’re gonna get. “Asteroid City” was the second one.
KILLERS OF THE FLOWER MOON
WAY too long and focused on the wrong character. I’ll never understand how Scorsese looked at this story full of fascinating, complex people, and chose to focus his narrative on an idiot who never makes an interesting choice.
ALAN WAKE 2
I absolutely loved this game, but I also did not like it at all. Does that make sense? It’s full of amazing artist bravery, it’s gorgeous to look at, and totally unique. I am so glad it exists, and that there is still space to go crazy and try something new.
It’s also bogged down with clunky gameplay mechanics that are totally broken. You spend hours learning systems that might as well be cutscenes for all the agency they give you. The story makes no sense in the wrong way. The ending is tacked on. There’s no reason for two protagonists. The boss fights are a mess. Sam Lake casting himself in his own game continues to be cringe. Just because you have a musical number doesn’t suddenly mean your game works.
I don’t like “Alan Wake 2” at all but I still love it.
STARFIELD
Some games are bad, and some games are more than bad; they are malicious. “Starfield” is such a game. It is aggressively wrong, in ways that qualified professionals should have seen years ago and done something about. You can’t release a game in this state in good faith. It’s not buggy, mind you, it might actually be Bethesda’s most stable game. “Starfield” is something worse than buggy: it’s a con. I don’t blame the development team, who I’m sure did their level best. I blame whoever put them in a position to fail.
When you sell someone a game about flying around the galaxy in their own spaceship, you know damn well that they do not expect to experience 5-7 loading screens/unskippable cutscenes (which are also loading screens, just hidden) per trip. You know your audience doesn’t think there will be a loading screen to get in your ship, then a loading screen to get to the cockpit, then an unskippable cutscene where you sit down, then a loading screen when you take off, then a cut-scene when you pick a destination, then a cut-scene when you arrive at the destination, then a loading screen where you land.
A lot of games are bad, because making games is hard. But usually, I can forgive and see the effort; I understand what the developers hoped would happen even when it doesn’t. With “Starfield,” I think the game they hoped to make died years ago. What they released is a lemon, plain and simple, and I think they know it. Large parts of this game feel designed to technically meet the parameters of a marketing promise. “You can’t say we didn’t deliver a thousand planets!”
This is what makes their recent practice of getting into arguments in the comments section of Steam so galling. When people tell them their game doesn’t run right, Bethesda gaslights them about their GPU. When people say the planets are dull and lifeless, Bethesda says real space is like that. This is an insane thing for a AAA studio to do, and I sense a little touch of “Pay No Attention to the Man Behind the Curtain!” behind it all. Common sense observations about the basic features of their game are so threatening to them that they must rush out into the forum to holler at their own customers.
Meanwhile, “Cyberpunk 2077” is just sitting there, waiting for you.