Completed Games 2026

[Mera'din 311]

New year, new games beaten. My list from last year:

 

Spoiler

 

1.)  Indiana Jones and the Great Circle

2.)  Vampire Therapist

3.)  Copycat

4.)  Pocket Mirror ~ GoldenerTraum

5.)  Little Orpheus

6.)  Tales of Kenzara: Zau

7.) (PSVR2)  Behind Your Eyes

8.)  Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain

9.)  South of Midnight

10.)  Hunter: The Reckoning - The Beast of Glenkildove

11.)  Split/Fiction

12.)  Clair Obscur: Expedition 33

13.)   Dead Take

14.)  Death Stranding 2

15.)  Senua's Saga: Hellblade 2

16.)  Echoes of the End

17.)  Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines 2

18.)  A Plague Tale: Innocence

19.)  Hades 2

20.)  A Plague Tale: Requiem 

 

 

Definitely a much better showing than 2024. Far happier with what I played last year overall.

 

I have a couple already for this year as well.

 

1.)  The Roottrees are Dead

This is one that really took me by surprise. I was reading a list of "Best Indie Games of 2025" type of thing from a game journalist I like/trust the opinion of an noticed this one among a few other titles that seemed interesting and decided to grab it while it was on sale. At face value it's a very simple investigation type of game. A plane crash takes the life of a family tied to a prominent candy company, including the current President of the company. You are hired to investigate the family's genealogy and build out a family tree starting from the founder of the company using internet, magazine, and library searches.
What I thought would be a fun little puzzle game to play on the side while I played other stuff ended up consuming ALL my free time as I got sucked into the narrative and digging into the intrigues of this family. I don't know what it is, but it really scratched an itch I didn't know I had when it comes to investigation style games. And even better, once the family tree is finished, there's an extra bit where you dig up a major family secret and you think you're done AND THEN THE OTHER HALF OF THE GAME BEGINS. It takes the training wheels off, and you REALLY have to pay attention to what you're doing as you start digging into affairs of prominent family members and attempt to find "missing" branches of the family tree. It was an incredibly satisfying experience for something so straight forward.

 

2.)  Immortals of Aveum

In contrast, this game was a bit of a hot mess. I wanted to like it, and it had some honestly impressive world building and background info and a story that was just good enough not to shut it off, but the gameplay was pretty repetitive and a bit annoying and it's like the dialogue was written by someone who had done nothing but watch MCU movies their entire life to the point that it felt almost nothing but strung together sarcastic attempts at witty quips nonstop. Despite that, I actually liked a few of the characters, but the narrative itself was painfully predictable and there were some story moments that were just plain irritating and I may have actually yelled at the TV a couple times in frustration at the choices being made by some of the characters. There was a solid foundation, and there could have been a good game in there somewhere with the right execution, but it definitely fell short in the long run. At least it didn't feel like a total waste of time thanks to the aforementioned enjoyable characters.

[MT 921]

Last year's defeated games

 

 

1.  DOOM: The Dark Ages
2. 📱 Balatro
3.  Diablo IV
4.  Diablo IV: Vessel of Hatred
5.  Donkey Kong Bananza
6.  Control
7.  Ninja Gaiden: Ragebound
8. (Famicom Disk System) The Legend of Zelda
9.  Hades 2 (first time)
10. (Famicom Disk System) Zelda II: The Adventure of Link
11. (Famicom Disk System) Metroid
12.  Dispatch
13.  Metroid Prime 4
14.  Metroid Prime 1: Remastered
15.  Hades 2

 

 

1.  Hades 2 (credits + epilogue)

 

Beat this on the 1st, so it counts!

[Vic Boss 612]

Did'em last year but whatevs

 

0) Metroid Prime 4 Beyond (100%ed)

 

It was fine for what it was but undercooked. The free-roam map needed more in it. Another area or two would've felt "full." I wasn't a big fan of the supporting characters, pretty bland tropes, but kinda recognize that Prime has the modern-gaming problem that you need to deliver a story somehow because people don't read the scans (Heck, people didn't read the scans back when Prime 1 was new). The psychic powers were cool, the Akira bike was cool, combat and exploration were still solid.

 

I think the Prime series in general also has this problem where people only remember Prime 1 and forget that Prime 2 was kinda clunky with the light/dark mechanics and Prime 3 had similar "modern shooter" things held against it and think all of them were great. Prime 4 is another good but sorta-flawed sequel to a game none of them can live up to anyways.

 

0) NASCAR 25 (Platinum)

 

Hell yeah, buddy. The new series pared back how complex shit was getting in the previous games and just gave you the ability to drive casually and easily if you wanted to. If I had more time I'd play it more regularly.

 

0) Terminator 2D No Fate (Platinum)

 

2D Contra + Terminator = good time. Wouldn't have platinumed if not for the cheat codes though. Also kinda funny how little Arnold is in it (they got everyone else's likeness but his so the T-800 has very limited screentime). The future levels were the funnest but some of the other levels were pretty creative.