Dante Douglas is a writer & designer who does secret lore things at Riot Games. He is online as @videodante.
Hello Giant Bomb Community. I’m Dante. It’s been a minute. I’m going to talk about video games. I would usually preface this with some words about the year in general. I don’t have those words this year. I’m sorry.
I feel like I’ve been yelling online about everything for the past eight months, so apologies for not being as eloquent now. Here is a link to a document I prepared earlier this year of national bail and mutual aid funds for bailing out protesters and supporting communities in their fights for justice. Consider donating to one, or one in your area, if you can.
Here is my list of good games from this year, some might even say the goodest games of this year. This year was very bad, so hopefully this is a change of pace.
10. Persona 5 Royal
Last year when I did this list I put Persona 5 (Not Royal) in the tenth slot because it didn’t actually come out that year. This made sense because, you know, Games of the Year list, but since (spoilers) I have a LOT of non-2020 games in this year’s list, P5R is back here for another reason. And that reason is simple: It’s very dumb that this version of this game got a full release.
Don’t get me wrong! It’s a great game! I really love it! It is, without a doubt, the definitive way to play Persona 5, which as I think should be clear from last year, I think is the best Persona game by a country mile. But it’s absolutely ridiculous that this was a full release and not like, a free DLC upgrade for people who already owned Non-Royal Persona 5. It is a level of blatant misleading that feels almost like a scam.
Anyway, this game is good. It’s Persona 5 But More. Mementos is actually worth going to now. There’s three new months of game content. All that stuff kicks ass. The fact you can get suckered into buying a markedly worse version of this game that’s being sold for less money, that does not kick as much ass.
So it’s being "punished" with slot 10. Sorry Persona 5: Royal. I did cry at the end though.
9. Assassin’s Creed Origins
Did you know this game has, like, a really good main character? Bayek kicks ass. I don’t play many Big Modern AAA games anymore, so picking up this one was basically a choice made on a whim (I have a fair amount of affection for the previous Assassin’s Creedses, so I figured why not), but wow I was really blown away by the care and writing given to Bayek and Aya. Really lovely adventure of a game.
Too long, though! It’s still a AAA game. Coulda been a tight 30, Bayek. Coulda been a tight 30.
8. The Halo Franchise Up To But Not Including Halo 4
I fell down a very, very big rabbit hole early in this year after I picked up Doom Eternal and found it a major disappointment (more about that later). One of the series that I decided to get WAY too into after that was Bungie’s stretch of Halo games.
These games kick ass. Halos 1, 2, 3, ODST, and Reach (now conveniently all available through the Master Chief Collection) are masterworks of modern FPS design. I felt legitimately emotionally invested in a guy called “The Master Chief” and his quest to save the universe and also his blue robot wife. He does this with truly epic action movie shit and shotguns. 10/10 games.
7. Quiplash 3
I thought about putting the entire Jackbox series here, but honestly? Honestly?? It’s just Quiplash. Like, yes, there are other games in Jackbox, even some legitimately decent ones, but the alpha and the omega is Quiplash 3.
It’s basically identical to Quiplash 2, except that the one part of Quiplash 2 that sucked (the final round) has been replaced with a final round that doesn’t suck. I don’t even know what I would do to this game to make it any better (other than scrap a few unfunny prompts). Quiplash is the party game, as far as I’m concerned. Picture related.