2022 has been a busy year. With three days left to it, we’ve decided to share our GOTY 2022 list. And we know, a lot of you are waiting for our Top 10 Optimized PC Games list. This will come out, most likely, on December 31st. Until then, you can find below the games that Nick, Spencer and John enjoyed the most.
Nick McCaskey – Elden Ring
We talk about a ‘once in a generation’ game, but Elden Ring legitimately earns such a title. The world is so incredibly expansive. There is great depth to character builds and gameplay approaches. The game is also geographically deep. I remember stumbling into one of the underground areas and realizing there was another world to explore beneath the surface. Whether above or below, the sheer quality of it all is what sets Elden Ring apart. Nearly all locations feel hand-crafted, and I can almost feel the delight of the developers as I find the many secrets they painstakingly placed within their world. The narrative is fun to piece together, and New Game Plus means you can play for ages. Even with the minor PC stutter issues, Elden Ring is easily the greatest game of 2022.
PS: What’s also amazing is FromSoftware’s journey to Elden Ring. They’ve created 50+ games since their first release in 1994. In their first two decades, they rarely had a well-reviewed game. Then they hit on their winning Souls formula with 2009’s Demon’s Souls. Now, a dozen years later, Elden Ring has conquered the world. Massive respect to FromSoftware for putting in the hard work year after year and not selling out to the devils of ‘live-service’ and ‘monetization.’ Therefore, FromSoftware wins my Developer of the Year award as well.
Honorable Mention: God of War PC. It’s a great linear, narrative-heavy experience. But it’s no Elden Ring.
Spencer – Sonic Frontiers
Writing honestly on the topic of Game of the Year, I didn’t play many new games this year. I spent a lot of my gaming time this year on my Steam Deck pondering whether I should swap my desktop OS from Windows to Linux (I’m leaning towards yes, eventually). Accordingly I spent a lot of time playing older games that had been in my backlog for years, they felt so good on the Deck. Games like Ryse, Katamari Damacy: Reroll, Gurumin, Metal Gear Rising and many more. On my desktop I’ve recently been binging Dawn of War II which I never actually got around to beating back in the day when it was still a franchise under the THQ umbrella. My Steam Replay shows Deck occupied well over half of my playtime this year. 43% of my games played this year were released 8+ years ago, vs. 19% for the average gamer on Steam.
With that out of the way my game of the year based on what I have played, is Sonic Frontiers. Longtime readers know I am very partial to platformers, I picked Psychonauts 2 in last year’s GOTY. What makes Sonic Frontiers special is it finally feels like Sonic Team has a formula for the 3D entries in the franchise, which has historically struggled with the most basic requirements (not being buggy, being at least somewhat controllable). The game has very obvious flaws and it may sound like I am setting the bar low but it’s also a meaty, fun, enjoyable 3D platformer. While it doesn’t achieve the heights of Psychonauts 2, or Super Mario Odyssey I put 20+ hours in and enjoyed the vast majority of my time with the game.
John Papadopoulos – UNCHARTED: Legacy of Thieves Collection
To be honest, I struggled with my GOTY. Although I’m a big Yakuza fan, Judgment and Lost Judgment were not as polished as I had hoped. On the other hand, A Plague Tale: Requiem had a great story but felt more like a cinematic experience than an actual game. Marvel’s Spider-Man games were also great, but were nowhere close to what I’d describe as a “GOTY” gaming experience. Contrary to a lot, I enjoyed the second half of The Callisto Protocol (when you find the exosuit and increase your inventory space) way more than its first half. And as for Elden Ring, while I did like it, I was never a fan of the Dark Souls formula.
To be honest, it came down to Shadow Warrior 3, Prodeus, Evil West and UNCHARTED: Legacy of Thieves Collection. These were the four games that I enjoyed the most in 2022. However, I believe that UNCHARTED: Legacy of Thieves Collection offers the best package. The game offers great cinematics/cut-scenes, some cool puzzles, incredible set-pieces, big environments to explore, and a compelling story. Hell, it even offers you the ability to be stealthy or guns-blazing.
So yeah, UNCHARTED: Legacy of Thieves Collection is definitely my GOTY!
John is the founder and Editor in Chief at DSOGaming. He is a PC gaming fan and highly supports the modding and indie communities. Before creating DSOGaming, John worked on numerous gaming websites. While he is a die-hard PC gamer, his gaming roots can be found on consoles. John loved – and still does – the 16-bit consoles, and considers SNES to be one of the best consoles. Still, the PC platform won him over consoles. That was mainly due to 3DFX and its iconic dedicated 3D accelerator graphics card, Voodoo 2. John has also written a higher degree thesis on the “The Evolution of PC graphics cards.”
Contact: Email
“To be honest, it came down to Shadow Warrior 3, Prodeus, Evil West and UNCHARTED: Legacy of Thieves Collection. ”
You enjoyed evil west? You sure you are not confusing it with weird west? Or hard west 2? Or hell even blood west is better than that game and its on early acces. Speaking of which turbo overkill is goty for me even its not finished.
Turbo kill and Elex 2 for me
Looking at your GoTYs of 2020 and 2021, the choice of this PS4 generic shooter looks way too weird.
Lost your Judgment, John?
Looking at your GoTYs of 2020 and 2021, the choice of this PS4 generic shooter looks way too weird.
Lost your Judgment, John?
I really should have finished reading the first paragraph instead of scrolling ahead to see the list. It took me way too long to realize that three different people had picked their own “Game Of The Year”….
Nick for the win. Elden Ring is by far the best game of the last two years, and this is coming from me, who doesn’t like souls games that much…
Elden Ring has some of the worst textures I’ve ever seen in 2022. A GOTY is supposed to excel in all categories.
Lol. Play the game and stop looking the walls from 1cm.
I hate these games with a passion. What’s different about this one?
New setting and open world. But if you hate these games why are you even looking for a difference?
Because I liked sekiro
Then don’t bother with this one, you can sneak up on enemies but that’s it. The souls fandom is bad enough as it is, they don’t need another embarassement on their ranks.
My games of the year.
-A Plague Tale: Requiem
-Horizon Forbidden West
-Stray
-Strange horticulture
Uncharted 4 was released back in 2016. That was about 6-7 years ago.
Let me play devil’s advocate.
Would a great developer need to rely on addiction to sell games?
Dark Souls and Elden ring are single player MMORPG. Leveling up your character, defeating a boss after X tries, getting rare loot, etc. Down to the glowing warm color for achievements to increase addiction. It’s a series with all the dopamine mechanics of an MMORPG, but single player because in Japan people don’t play on PC.
Is a developer who relies on these cheap casino mechanics really to be respected.
John’s gotta be trolling! The dreary Uncharted LoTC was another rinse and repeat iteration from a very tired franchise that peaked all the way back in 2009.
LOL ..yeah what a disaster..I played em all and ps4 pro – was my last POS console!
The games are okey, but really tired after a while – same sh*t all over and the damn over mumbling whatever he does!
How the hell could John go so low. Nothing more then a generic action platformer!
Sounds to me he really is a damn console bOi in disguise ??
John seems to be a console gamer in disguise. 6 year old Uncharted on the best graphics list (lol) and the best game, next to Shadow Warrior 3 ? Is this a parody list and the actual one is actually coming later ?
PC gamer yes, but also a weeb with a soft spot for everything japan and nude characters
Yep I said the same – console bOi in disguise!
Come out here saying that same all over generic POS game(s) they are all the same for f*ks sake!
I know as I have played em all. Really tired some trash and nothing else!
It’s been a sad year in gaming if the best people can come up with is that Sonic game where he runs around in an empty world.
Sonic Frontiers has a 71% Review score on metacritic. I think if the character was anyone else but sonic, this would be getting 50%-59%.
Let me play devil’s advocate.
Why does FromSoftware need to rely on addiction mechanics to sell games.
Dark Souls and Elden ring are single player MMORPG. Leveling up your character, defeating a boss after X tries, getting rare loot, never-ending upgrades, etc. Down to the glowing warm color for achievements to increase addiction. It’s a series with all the dopamine mechanics of an MMORPG, but single player because in Japan people don’t play on PC.
Is a developer that relies on these cheap casino mechanics really to be respected.
werent they bought by tencent or something?
No, Kadokawa, a multi media Japanese company.
Don’t remember a lot of games from this year that i played. Elden Ring and Norco which is a casual adventure game, so for me it is Elden Ring by a mile.
really John? uncharted 4 even when i played back then when it released on ps4 it felt less impactful than uncharted 2 and 3
What’s so special about Elden Ring. It’s a stupid mob grind fest with PS4 graphics.
There is nothing like it. Everything is top.
What’s so special about Elden Ring. It’s a stupid mob grind fest with PS4 graphics.
You can’t pass the first boss, can’t you?
Sonic Frontiers GOTY???!! (yeah i read your text)
And John’s games… let’s not talk about that.
Dude this has to be some of the weakest GOTY articles of any media. Not even mad, just saying.
I cried playing stray so there it is my goty.
Runner ups are God of War, PT Requiem, Cuphead.
Except Elden Ring that is a phenomenal game the rest are just no.
I haven’t played Elden Ring or Sonic Frontiers so I can’t really comment on those. I played through Uncharted 4 back when it launched on the PS4 and I was disappointed with it, especially since I liked Uncharted 1, 2 and 3. Bad pacing thanks to long stretches of boring exploration followed by drawn out enemy encounters, mediocre gunplay, downgraded melee, moments of cringe-inducing overacting, bad new characters (espeically nadine, ugh) and the overall narrative shift to be more about Drake’s past than about treasure hunting just didn’t make for a good game IMO. Lost Legacy was a little bit better since it did have some freedom of exploration at least. If only Amy Hennig wasn’t given the boot and was still working on the franchise…
Based on the games I’ve played this year, my personal GoTY would have to be Kirby and the Forgotten Land. Good wholesome co-op fun. Reminds me of the days when games were made for the sake of having fun, and not being made to shove some sort of messaging into your face and/or give you a “cinematic” experience.
This is a PC site picking PC GOTY to be clear. Kirby looked good though!
I’m very well aware that DSOG is a PC specific website.
Also, there are ways to play Kirby and other switch games without a switch if you catch my drift. ;]
Ha ha I have a feeling they’re just trolling to trigger us.
Then again, very very few good games came out in 2022.
Personally, I think that Gothic 2 – The Chronicles Of Myrtana – Archolos is much better than these three, if we can consider it a 2022 game…
Edit : Wait, didn’t Songs of Conquest come out in 2022? (still early access) In that case, it was the best game by far in my book.
“What makes Sonic Frontiers special is it finally feels like Sonic Team has a formula for the 3D entries in the franchise”
what was sonic adventure 2 and more or less sa1? lol, every sonic 3d game sucked after those sure. frontiers just feels like a fan game if sonic never went 3d in the dreamcast(best console and last imho)…. frontiers is fine but it feels like a fan game with a decent budget. not even a large or “AAA” one. its a fan game. theres no new lore that will be canon,no new characters we will see again in 5-15 years. a side story in a big empty word. sure it feels good sometimes but 90% reminds you if it isnt dont in a sonic adventure style its bad. you cant do a sonic elden ring. you can do a sonic adventure 3 though.
No new characters is a strength imo but to each their own I suppose. SA 1/2 you should probably replay, they’ve not aged the greatest. Were good back in the day though and simply put, there’s not been a good 3D game since then until Frontiers.
UNCHARTED: Legacy of Thieves Collection GOTY? wtf?