Alex Hajdasz lists a personal best video game for each year since 1994. The only rule is that he must have played an entry in the same year it was released.

Elden Ring …For 2022

Played on: PC

Elden Ring box art showing a knight kneeling under a bright symbol in the night sky

Elden Ring

And now for the game which inspired this blog series in the first place!

There could only ever be one game of the year for 2022, and it’s the title that saw FromSoftware achieve a new level of mainstream success. Indeed, I couldn’t get my girlfriend to enjoy either Demon’s Souls or Dark Souls III, but Elden Ring’s epic mix of gruelling combat, horseback exploration, and weirdly, jumping, proved to be the magic mix for my special lady. (She’s already on her second campaign.)

After completing three campaigns myself (as well as mapping out some more in my head), Elden Ring not only became a defining pillar of the soulslike genre, it also shot straight onto my recent top 10 best games list. In short, this is a very good video game.

I predicted in my review that Elden Ring would become a franchise, and whilst the subsequent release of Shadow of the Erdtree and Elden Ring Nightreign suggest that’s already happened, FromSoftware are still creating new properties, with their next big project being a multiplayer-first Nintendo exclusive called The Duskbloods.

As for Elden Ring, it too is coming to Nintendo Switch 2 in a special “Tarnished Edition” including the aforementioned Shadow of the Erdtree expansion and some new character customisation options which will hopefully make their way to other formats, too. But there’s currently no ETA on this since the Nintendo Switch 2 edition was delayed following performance concerns in the preview build.

Hopefully FromSoftware can fix those problems in time to deliver the brilliant experience players would expect from 2022’s ultimate smash hit.

 

Baldur’s Gate III …For 2023

Played on: PC

Adventurers pose on the Baldur's Gate 3 box art.

Baldur’s Gate III

This long-awaited sequel to a cherished RPG series collected every award going in 2023, and they’re honours well-deserved considering the breadth and quality of its campaign story and characters.

Baldur’s Gate III demonstrates just how good Larian Studios has become at crafting huge RPGs that play just as well solo as they do with a full party of cooperating players. And while its designers have now moved on from the D&D license to pursue other projects, their final updates introducing official mod support alongside a whole slew of bug fixes and other quality of life tweaks have cemented Baldur’s Gate III as one of 2023’s biggest success stories.

While I’ve only once managed to reach the end of its winding campaign mode, there’s always potential for me to play this again to see the things I missed. Not least of these are the companion character quests which I avoided in my 2-player run to give me something juicy to look forward to if I ever did go back.

 

Balatro …For 2024

Played on: PC

Balatro box art.

Balatro

Such is the compulsive quality of Balatro with its delightful combo of poker and roguelike deckbuilding, I had to uninstall the game in May 2024 just because it was taking over my life!

However, when its developer recently announced a delay to a big update promising an overhaul to various joker cards and gameplay systems, I decided the time was right to reinstall it for another round of score-attacking goodness using a range of starter decks I hadn’t played with much before.

Of course I was then finding all my free time vanishing once again, so expect me to make yet another uninstall announcement very soon.

Truly, the mark of a genuine classic!

 

Elden Ring Nightreign …For 2025

Played on: PC

A sword-carrying knight stands before a purple moon on the Elden Ring Nightreign box art

Elden Ring Nightreign

Anyone reading a game of the year retrospective for 2025 will likely expect to see the critically acclaimed darling, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 mentioned somewhere, and I did indeed try it last year. But I didn’t really enjoy the first 10 hours enough to keep at it. (I haven’t even felt like writing about it either, sadly.)

So the opportunity was instead there for Absolum, Sid Meier’s Civilization VII, and Lost Records: Bloom and Rage — another game I’ve yet to write about — to take my spot for this year. Ultimately though, I’m giving Elden Ring Nightreign the honour based on the many hours I’ve spent enjoying its breakneck multiplayer modes with my two brothers.

FromSoftware aided their cause with frequent updates bringing new challenges, balance tweaks, and a 2-player mode exactly as they promised. This is clearly a game many people believed in — a clear fact when you consider how much its unit sales overshot everyone’s expectations.

Elden Ring Nightreign was subsequently elevated by the release of The Forsaken Hollows — a premium DLC pack featuring new playable characters, new boss fights, and an intriguing new map that was somewhat spoiled by its slightly weird implementation and total lack of new weapons. But even if the journey wasn’t always a smooth one, I still get excited to read the latest updates for Elden Ring Nightreign, and it’s that frequent excitement which helped make it both a surprise hit, and my personal game of the year for 2025. Excelsior!

And that brings me to the planned end of this blog series, unless I decide to resurrect it again in another four years. Until next time!