Ron Funches is a comedian, actor, and periodic Giant Beastcast guest. You can follow him on Twitter.
What a year. I got married, I had my own TV show for Quibi, we all got to experience a terrifying life experience together. I want to thank the entire medium of video games for helping me stay sane and stay connected to friends at a time where it has been easy to feel isolated. These are my favorite games of the year at the time I needed them the most.
Please follow me on twitch https://www.twitch.tv/ron_funches and check out my TV show TSV Thursday 10:30/9:30c on Tru TV.
10. Gears 5
I found a lot of solace in returning to the familiar this year. I loved the Gears of War franchise on the 360 before eventually falling off due to the overly dude bro aesthetic and gray background fatigue. Thanks to Game Pass I was able to give this a shot and see how much Gears has changed for the better while maintaining its classic run for cover gameplay. It’s the most beautiful game I’ve played on Series X, with an amazing amount of color and the story was a simple and fun blast. The best thing I can say about this game is that I am now interested in the entire Gears series again for the first time in years. Try it!
9. Final Fantasy VII Remake
Another game I loved as a child getting me through a terrifying year as an adult. The Final Fantasy Remake is beautiful and a wonderful love letter to fans of the original--or at least fans of part of the first disc of the original. I will always have issues with the portrayal of Barret, and wish his voice acting didn’t sound like he was an extra in Dolemite, but I can get over that when a game can make me fall in love with Aerith all over again while locked in my house.
8. Astro’s Playroom
A pack-in game! In 2020! Astro’s Playroom might be easy to skip over when you open your new PS5, but you would be doing yourself a tremendous disservice. Astro’s Playroom is the best possible introduction to what the PS5 is capable of--playing off the capabilities of the DualSense controller with fantastic 4K graphics and the SSD making it so load times are almost nonexistent--and when it all works together it brings a kind of magic that can only be matched by the best Nintendo games. This was the game that put my son and I on the couch together the most this year. Astro is a star!
7. The Last of Us Part II
I love Naughty Dog. They have been one of my favorite developers since Crash Bandicoot. This game is a beautiful piece of art with a truly adult story, when most games these days think being adult means throwing a bunch of dildos around. This game tells a story of loss and the power and effects of anger. It also came out at the absolute worst possible time, meaning I just couldn’t finish it. If I had, it would probably be higher on my list. However, the fact that a game could affect my mental state that much means it deserved a spot.