It’s become tradition over the last few years for modders to import Carl Johnson from Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas into different video games. And with FromSoftware’s latest game, Armored Core VI, it didn’t take long for someone to add CJ. In fact, it happened in less than 24 hours.
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Released on Friday, Armored Core VI is the first entry in FromSoftware’s mech franchise in over a decade. And it’s a very good game. In Kotaku’s review, Ethan Gach called it a “sometimes messy” but also “exhilarating and exhausting” game that is unlike anything he’s played in a long time, rewarding players who like to tinker and experiment with bombastic action and intense boss fights. In a lot of ways, it’s a perfect Armored Core sequel. But there’s always room for improvement. For example, Armored Core VI doesn’t normally include CJ from Rockstar’s hit open-world game, Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. Let’s fix this glaring oversight.
Thanks to the fast work of FromSoftware modder and YouTuber Dropoff, Grove Street’s very own Carl Johnson is playable in Armored Core VI. Though, uh…be warned that CJ flying around as a giant mech-like warrior was never intended by God and the end results are disturbing. Impressive and fast work, sure, but you might have some nightmares afterward.
Now for the bad news. At the moment, the CJ mod for Armored Core VI isn’t available to download anywhere, including Dropoff’s Nexus mods page. So while Dropoff (with the help of modder TKPG) was able to add CJ to FromSoftware’s latest game in less than 24 hours, you can only watch for now.
Hopefully, soon enough, you’ll be able to take to the skies and die 30 times to a giant tank robot as San Andreas star CJ.
Elden Ring may be a tough open-world RPG that requires precise timing and ongoing dedication, but the enemies don’t scale in difficulty with you. So if your progress ever hits a wall, it’s technically possible to take the easy way out and simply grind your character into having better stats than whatever challenge is at hand. And one enemy above all others is excruciatingly perfect for the task of being XP fodder.
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I speak, of course, of the Albinauric, those alien-like creatures that live a pitiful existence in the Lands Between. Seriously, their lore is pretty sad. Created by humans, Albinaurics were treated as disposable by their makers due to their synthetic nature and feeble physical attributes. Half the time you encounter Albinaurics, the context is terrible: You’ll see them imprisoned and tortured, sick with a dangerous illness, moaning, or going mad. Every so often, though, you’ll come across a group of Albinaurics who can gang up on you if you’re not careful.
If you visit Mohgwyn Palace, however, you’ll come across a large cliff that’s littered with Albinaurics. My read is that they’re there to be sacrificed for their blood, allowing Mohgwyn to remain powerful. What’s curious about this set of Albs, though, isn’t their potential implications for the story. Rather, you come to find out very quickly that these gray cavemen are horrifyingly useful.
I don’t have the exact number in front of me, because it’s impacted by things like your gear and what you consume, but it’s possible to roll through this area, kill them all, and rack up millions of runes with enough patience. Part of what makes it so easy is that they’re extremely slow to react, and you can reload right near the start of the cliff once you do a rotation.
I am not free of sin. I’ve spent hours on this cliff, killing Albinaurics over and over again, all while vaguely wondering if this act of barbarism made me any better than, say, noted asshole Godrick the Grafted.
And apparently I’m not alone in this. According to new stats released by FromSoftware, the most-murdered enemy in the entire game is the club-wielding Albinauric, clocking in at 9.4 billion deaths. As if that weren’t enough, the fourth most-murked enemy is the species’ curved sword variant, who’s suffered some 3.4 billion deaths. Damn. I’m feeling guilty all over again.
Graphic: FromSoftware
The stats come as a part of a larger infographic, which include cool tidbits like that players have asked Renala for a rebirth 38.6 million times. Notably, despite the billions of murders, players have apparently only asked for atonement 526,843 times as of this writing.
May Marika be gentle on our silver-stained souls.
You can see the full infographic here. Oh, and if you’re looking to be a better person after all is said and done: You really shouldn’t be wearing a Golden Scarab talisman or popping a gold pickled fowl foot when you’re in Mohgwyn Palace for that extra rune boost.
As the recent Reddit commercials have made clear, there’s a community for everything. Nihilist horror, Game of Thrones’ Hodor, avocado food porn (because why not)…you can always find your people. Case in point, there’s a subreddit dedicated to atrocious user interfaces, which is now seeing members attempting to best each other by creating the worst UI designs possible.
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The term is self-explanatory: A user interface is what allows you to interact with technology, from computers to McDonald’s kiosks to exercise equipment to, of course, video games. Some, like Elden Ring’s, are good. Most just get the job done. However, when you come across a bad UI, it’s like a painful hair in your eye and a sour taste in your mouth. Ubisoft games such as Assassin’s Creed Valhalla and Bungie’s Destiny have been derided for their cluttered and clunky interfaces, respectively. But the nightmares being dreamt up on Reddit definitely, albeit intentionally, take the rotten UI cake.
Thanks, these UIs make me hate it here
As spotted by Twitter user Aleksandr Volodarsky, engineers on the badUIbattles subreddit are scraping the bottom of the barrel to build the most annoying user interfaces ever. A forum for folks “[creating] bad UIs just for the sake of them being bad,” redditors are designing UIs that, if they were ever implemented IRL, would make you never want to interact with technology again. Take this one designed by redditor Lamamour last April, in which you have to funnel digits into a moving row of blocks to enter your phone number.
This “enter your phone number” concept has been iterated, tweaked, and worsened since Lamamour uploaded their initial atrocity. The latest entry by user NotYourBoii confronts you with a disordered drop-down menu that makes entering a phone number (twice, I might add) pure pain.
But what if you wanted to unsubscribe from a newsletter, YouTube channel, or some other subscription service? Well, you wouldn’t be able to with redditor OrangePrototype’s unsubscribe button, as a fan blows your cursor away.
There are so many aggravating user interfaces on that subreddit, with Volodarsky tweeting out some of the worst he’s found. For your viewing frustration—I mean, pleasure—here’s a little roundup of Volodarsky’s incredibly annoying findings.
All of these were purposely designed to be as irritating as possible, and thankfully, I can’t imagine any game developers taking inspiration from user interfaces meant to get on your nerves (unless it was intended as part of the gameplay experience, as in Getting Over It with Bennett Foddy or QWOP). That said, it’s hilarious seeing redditors doing their best to make the worst UI ever.
KANSAS CITY, MO—Allowing for a brief, relaxing respite from an otherwise grueling schedule, Friday’s release of The Legend Of Zelda: Tears Of The Kingdom reportedly offered local man Nick Powell a much-needed escape from the monotonous grind of playing other video games. “When you spend eight or nine hours a day with a controller in your hand, slogging away at all these video games, it’s nice to relax and unwind with a different video game,” said Nick Powell, adding that he was looking forward to enjoying the new Zelda after a long, arduous week filled with nothing but Overwatch 2, Elden Ring, and Red Dead Redemption. “Day in, day out, I’m occupied with completing all my deliveries in Death Stranding and running an entire town in Animal Crossing. It gets pretty exhausting, so it’s important that I set aside time to reconnect, recharge, and just be myself—or Link, at least—while saving the land of Hyrule from the forces that seek to destroy it.” Twenty minutes into the game, Powell acknowledged that while he was grateful for the opportunity to escape into a virtual world that was separate from the other virtual worlds he spends time in, he was starting to get bored.
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Elden Ring legend Let Me Solo Her might want to watch his back, as another Tarnished is out here making a name for themselves by killing Malenia, Blade of Miquella in record time. Sure, Let Me Solo Her might have beaten her over 1,000 times, but this guy has killed Malenia in roughly 15 seconds. It’s one of the quickest times I’ve seen yet.
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Scarlet Rot Queen Malenia is an optional boss in FromSoftware’s most popular Souls game yet. Encountered in Elphael, Brace of the Haligtree, a legacy dungeon located in the northernmost part of The Lands Between, Malenia is notorious for her difficulty and one-hit kill potential. In stats FromSoft dropped earlier this month, it was revealed that Malenia was attempted some 329 million times. While that number doesn’t reflect player deaths, I’ve no doubt Malenia’s body count is in the millions at this point—though struggling Tarnished could always call up Let Me Solo Her via his summon sign to get a little help with the two-phased fight.
Or they could just watch redditor RS_Lionheart for useful tips, who absolutely murked the Goddess of Rot in 15 seconds on, get this, New Game+7, the highest difficulty Elden Ring has to offer after you’ve beaten it eight times over. That’s a lot of journeys through The Lands Between.
Beating Malenia the fast way
In an April 20 YouTube video, RS_Lionheart showed off exactly how he bodied Malenia. He starts the clip with a dizzying array of buffs and consumables ranging from the Golden Vow (an incantation that increases attack and defense) and the Frenzyflame Stone (a consumable that continuously restores your HP), among others. After almost 50 seconds of getting swole via performance-enhancing goodies and rotting steroids in front of Malenia’s fog gate, RS_Lionheart walks into the depths of the Haligtree to begin the fight. He skips the intro cutscene and finishes the first phase of the battle in seven seconds, using the cross jumping slash attack of two Bandit’s Curved Swords.
RS_Lionheart
Once her famed second phase begins, RS_Lionheart throws a Freezing Pot consumable to ground Malenia, then proceeds to jump-attack the winged queen to death. The total time it took? Just a little over 15 seconds.
A console staple Because the Xbox Series S is $30 off, you can put that $30 towards storage, an extra controller, or the Xbox Game Pass Ultimate.
The Elden Ring build for beating Malenia’s ass
In Reddit messages with Kotaku, RS_Lionheart, who has 15 different characters across two accounts and nearly 2,100 hours in Elden Ring, explained that he stacked a few different buffs onto the character he mained in order to beat the brakes off Malenia so quickly.
“Before the start of the video, I used Seppuku twice to bring down my health and sorted my inventory by recent acquisition,” RS_Lionheart said. “Then, I used a Frenzyflame Stone to start the buildup of madness, followed by Golden Vow. After that, I drink a Cerulean Flask and used the Ash of War: Cragblade on my left-handed Bandit’s Curved Sword. I then switched my Dragon Communion Seal to an Antspur Rapier and used Bloodboil Aromatic. After this, madness should be inflicted, so I swapped the Black Dumpling Helm to the Mushroom Crown and drank another Cerulean Flask, followed by my Physick (Thorny Cracked Tear and Stonebarb Cracked Tear). Then, I inflicted poison on myself with two Roped Fetid Pots, swapped the Mushroom Crown to the White Mask, and inflicted blood loss using Seppuku again with the Antspur Rapier. Once blood loss was inflicted, I swapped the Kindred of Rot’s Exultation and the Lord of Blood’s Exultation to the Red-Feathered Branchsword and Claw Talisman. After that, I switched the Antspur Rapier to my other Bandit’s Curved Sword and applied Cragblade again before heading through the fog gate. Also, it’s important to note that the other talismans I used were Millicent’s Prosthesis and Rotten Winged Sword Insignia to boost successive attack damage. I also wore the Raptor’s Black Feathers to increase my jump attack damage.”
According to RS_Lionheart, he’s helped a good number of other players struggling against Malenia either by placing his summon sign near her gate or offering advice on his YouTube channel. She already has a massive health pool, but in New Game+7, her HP is increased by nearly 40 percent, making her all the more challenging. While he couldn’t recall exactly how many players he’s lent his dizzying buff-based strategy to, it’s not something RS_Lionheart is particularly fond of doing for one simple reason: Lag.
“I have a more simplified version I’ve used at a lower level (around 150) which has higher survivability (considering co-op can be unpredictable at times with lag and latency),” RS_Lionheart explained.
Lag aside, co-op is difficult for another reason: enemy scaling due to the number of additional players. Bosses take less damage, have more health, and hit way harder when playing Elden Ring with a friend or two. That’s part of why RS_Lionheart would prefer not to embark on such a challenge in multiplayer—and understands why many players may not want to attempt besting Malenia at all.
“The reason I enjoy a challenge like this so much is because it’s a thrill to try to do something that hasn’t been done before,” RS_Lionheart said. “That’s all the motivation I need when I’m doing research on a boss to figure out exactly how much damage I need to do before I do it. It’s very fun to me and in my opinion, takes a very full and complete knowledge of Elden Ring to attempt in full.”
That said, while the feat is very impressive, just one day later on April 21, a friend of RS_Lionheart smashed his 15-second record kill on Malenia, defeating the notorious Queen of Rot in a little over 10 seconds! Though his friend did not defeat the Queen of Rot on New Game+7, aside from a different weapon choice he went in with the exact same build as RS_Lionheart.
Sax Slave Gael
“He is a very skilled creator who runs the Sax Slave Gael YouTube channel,” RS_Lionheart said of the 10-second-killer. “I’ve learned a lot from him as I’m sure he’s learned from me through the past few months. I think competition like this is great because it pushes the boundaries of what is possible in Elden Ring.”
Elden Ring is already a punishing experience. Being one of the most difficult bosses in the game, Malenia strikes fear in the hearts of many players, myself included. But now that we’ve got a solid buffing strategy for breaking her down, maybe she isn’t so scary anymore?
Back in March, legendary Elden Ring player Let Me Solo Her took on a challenge of unthinkable proportions: finishing a run in which every single enemy was Malenia. We’ve seen him slay this fearsome boss countless times, but surely this would be too much Malenia to overcome, even for him. Oh, who am I kidding? Of course he conquered the challenge. Roughly 24 hours ago, on April 25, Let Me Solo Her wrapped his 10-hour playthrough of the “Everything is Malenia” run, having documented the whole journey on stream for the world to watch.
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Let Me Solo Her, as his name implies, made waves by appearing in other players’ games to take on one of the game’s most grueling bosses, Malenia, Blade of Miquella, on his own. His remarkable feats of Elden Ring mastery even earned him a sword from the game’s publisher, Bandai Namco. Having defeated Malenia so many times, Let Me Solo Her set his sights on beating the game using a mod that replaced every single enemy, from the easily dispatched Godrick Soldiers to the games toughest bosses, with Malenia. And of course he had to do so wearing nothing but the jar helmet and imposing other restrictions on his run, like a refusal to level up Vigor, which affects how much damage your character can take. Let Me Solo Her is now taking another victory lap and by god, he deserves it.
10 hours, many deaths, many crashes, and no vigor
“Took about 10 hours,” Let Me Solo Her says in his victory tweet, “and probably more deaths than I’d like to admit but I finally finished the Everything is Malenia Run!”
While he admits that he died more than he would’ve cared to, and that the whole no leveling vigor thing may have been a bit much, you could tell he had fun doing it from the five-part stream documenting the journey.
The challenge proved tough even for someone as skilled and experienced as Let Me Solo Her, but it was even harder on his PC, which crashed a few times trying to keep up with such a wild and demanding mod. Things got particularly rough in part three of the stream, where Let Me Solo Her said he had to configure the game at “the lowest setting possible” to keep it running. And mind you, as he said when the game first crashed in part one, he’s running an RTX 4080 in his computer—that’s a $1,200 graphics card.
’I’m not sadistic, I just like this one particular boss’
Watching the Malenia-only streams, it’s hard not to think that Let Me Solo Her enjoys being cruel to himself. I mean, you can hear the pain in his voice at the conclusion of stream two as he takes on Draconic Malenia, the mod’s replacement for the Draconic Tree Sentinel.
But Let Me Solo Her assured the chat in the following stream that this wasn’t an act of sadism. That said, he did say that the Malenia-only run was “hard, way harder than I thought it would be.” However, moments later he nonetheless told the chat, “You guys should try this by the way. It’s very, very fun.”
FromSoftware / Let me solo her
In the finale, Let Me Solo Her admitted that he had lost count of how many times he died. In the first stream alone, he said, “I think [I died] at least 20-something [times].”
Persisting through all those deaths, though, Let Me Solo Her finally took down Elden Malenia, the replacement for the game’s final boss: Elden Beast. Thanking all his viewers, he expressed excitement at the upcoming DLC…and we can’t wait to see what feats of stunning heroism he pulls off when that drops.
The player known as Let Me Solo Her has become an icon in the Elden Ring community in the year since FromSoftware’s action RPG launched. It started when he used the game’s online co-op features to help a player fight Malenia, one of the game’s hardest boss battles, wearing nothing but some underwear and a pot on his head. Now, it looks like he’s attempting to play a version of Elden Ring where every enemy is replaced by Malenia, and he’s streaming it starting on, March 17, for your enjoyment.Players modding Elden Ring to replace enemies with Malenia isn’t necessarily new, as mods of that kind were circulating throughout 2022. However, given that Let Me Solo Her’s vendetta against Malenia is an Elden Ring legend, at this point, it’s just the natural next step in this saga. Will Bandai Namco send him more swords commemorating all these kills he’s racking up in nothing but some white underwear and a helmet?
Let me solo her
The stream is ongoing on Let Me Solo Her’s YouTube channel, and the mod already makes early segments of the game terrifying to watch. Where once low-level enemies wandered in the base game, Elden Ring is now entirely populated by one of the most powerful bosses in FromSoftware’s game, who just happens to be able to heal herself.
Screenshot: FromSoftware / Kotaku
So far, he’s mostly running past Malenias that appear in the open world, and only has to face them head on when he reaches a boss fight. Hey, we’ve all done it. But that doesn’t stop each of them from making swings with their giant swords as he sprints past, and it’s easy to imagine a situation where many Malenia make it hard to simply flee. If you, like me, are too scared to take on this challenge yourself, sit back and watch Let Me Solo Her do it, instead. Personally, I’d rather try the mod that turns enemies into Pokémon. That seems less terrifying.
While seeing cool remixes of the original game is fun, most Elden Ring fans are looking for new content for the game, which Bandai Namco and FromSoftware finally announced back in February. Not much is known about the upcoming expansion, but fans are already speculating about what characters might be in it based on what little information and art we have at this point.
Perhaps you feel that 2022 was, generally speaking, kind of a rough year. Fortunately, it was an all-time best year in at least two areas: anime (read that list here) and video games. The pandemic pushed release dates back on a whole legion of titles, and 2022 felt like the year when the floodgates burst open. Between long-awaited sequels and surprising dark horses, 2022 delivered so many incredible games that it was often impossible to keep up. And though that often felt frustrating—especially as a game reporter—when you step back, that’s a pretty great problem to have.
So many brilliant games were released this year that any top 10 list will inevitably leave out some truly remarkable titles. Any other year, and these games would’ve been shoo-ins. As it is, an “honorable mentions” section is absolutely required. So shout out to: Neon White, Triangle Strategy, Norco, Citizen Sleeper, Splatoon 3, Mario + Rabbids: Sparks Of Hope, Pentiment, Tunic, Marvel Snap, and probably 259 more incredible games.
10. God Of War: Ragnarök
(Santa Monica Studios)
Look, this is blindingly uncool in a gaming list such as this, but I’ll make a confession: I haven’t played God Of War: Ragnarök. I am one person, with one person’s limited amounts of time and money. If a certain studio is seeing this article and would like to help me change this, please be my guest. But that’s why it’s low on the list.
However, enough friends and colleagues whom I deeply respect have gushed about the merits of this game that having a list without it feels downright negligent. Whether it surpasses God Of War (2018), which is deemed by many as one of the best games ever made, is more of an object of contention. Still, if you can make a sequel under such pressure that delivers an emotional story and fun combat while holding its own against such a hallowed predecessor, that seems like a hell of an accomplishment to me.
9. Trombone Champ
(Holy Wow)
When poking around other Best of 2022 articles, I did not see a single list which graced itself with Trombone Champ, and I think that’s a goddamn shame. Trombone Champ is as fun to play as it is to watch videos of. In fact, it’s a rare moment when something made by one person gives the internet so much joy. Trombone Champ accomplished this feat. The game simply oozes humor and charm. Never has failing in a rhythm game been this much fun, or this funny. Plus, the game has updated itself to allow you to make and share custom songs, which is a stroke of genius. I never knew seeing the “Sephiroth” theme played on MIDI trombone would make me this happy. It makes the cut because of the joy it has brought to all of us.
8. Vampire Survivors
(Poncle)
I can’t name another game like Vampire Survivors, where so much happens while you, the player, physically do so little. It has all the growth-and-grind aspects of a roguelike (think Hades) while having all the chill “sit back and see what happens” vibes of a wind-up toy you just watch go across your floor—but for half an hour. And it does all this while being addictive as hell. To know someone who’s into Vampire Survivors is to know someone who sat down on their couch for one round and didn’t get up again for another three to five hours. What I’m trying to say is, it’s innovative as hell.
7. Cuphead: The Delicious Last Course
(Studio MDHR)
Five years after the notoriously difficult platformer’s original release, Cuphead fans had a hell of a year. For one, we got the premiere of The Cuphead Show! on Netflix, which is actually pretty good! But more preciously, we finally got the release of Cuphead‘s long-awaited DLC, The Delicious Last Course (get it?). Turns out, Cuphead is still really hard! The Delicious Last Course thrives because it delivers everything we loved about the original game, just more of it, and with enough freshness (MISS CHALICE!) to keep it feeling exciting and new.
6. Xenoblade Chronicles 3
(Monolith Soft)
The Xenoblade Chronicles series continues to feel like this somewhat-hidden gem, continually obscured in large-scale gaming discussions by the God Of Wars and Elden Rings and even the Persona 5s of the world. But a gem it remains. If you want to explore a beautiful, sprawling, well-thought-out world under a glorious digital sun, all while digging into a story whose darkness will break your heart, Xenoblade Chronicles 3 is for you. The combat is interesting, as well—it strikes a middle ground between a turn-based RPG and a hands-on action game. Don’t worry about playing 1 and 2. While there are details and characters that players of previous installments will recognize and enjoy, 3 can be enjoyed in its own right.
If you are of a certain age, or close enough to a certain age that you have osmosis’d pop culture loves from your friends, you likely have a soft spot for Turtles in Time. Turtles in Time was an NES and regular-ol’ arcade game from the early ’90s, and the cabinets remained hallowed ground at any arcade throughout the decade. You picked your favorite Ninja Turtle and battled through beat ’em up levels to stop Shredder’s evil plans. It was a joy. It was a staple. It was something I never thought I would experience a fresh version of—until Shredder’s Revenge released.
Shredder’s Revenge packs in all the nostalgic points while still feeling fresh. You don’t have to have ever set eyes on Turtles in Time, or even know anything about TMNT, in order to understand the delights of Shredder’s Revenge. It’s the best possible version of a ’90s-callback beat ’em up. You can team up with so many friends. You can make the combat as simple or as intricate and combo-heavy as you’d like. You can play as April. Cowabunga, indeed.
4. The Case of the Golden Idol
(Color Gray Games)
To intrigue those who might not otherwise play The Case of the Golden Idol, it’s often compared to another indie mystery-solving darling, The Curse of the Obra Dinn. I greedily devoured The Case of the Golden Idol in two sittings, and I will tell you it’s one of the most unique and striking gaming experiences I’ve ever had. You’re given a freeze frame (more or less) of a moment in time and asked to piece together what happened. The mysteries get steadily harder and more complicated, with even some code work involved. Butcracking each puzzle makes you feel like a genius, and watching the threads of the story slowly weave together is incredibly satisfying. If you like a puzzle game and/or a mystery, you should absolutely play this game.
Hot tip: this is a fun game to play co-op with one other person. I think three would devolve into “too many cooks” territory, but having someone to bounce theories off of in the real world is a delight.
3. Pokémon Legends: Arceus
(Game Freak)
As someone who has been a Pokémon fan more-or-less since Gen 1 (I took a break as a “Cool Teenager”), I was part of an ever-growing chorus which was begging Game Freak to change up the tried-and-true formula a bit. Legends: Arceus was the first time in 25 years where Game Freak really shook things up, and the result is one of the best Pokémon games ever made.
For me, part of the reason Scarlet and Violet was a disappointment at launch (other than the glitches) was that it did not build on the best innovations Legends: Arceus crafted. We were finally allowed to catch a Pokémon by simply sneaking up and throwing a Poké Ball at it. We were introduced to a reinvented perspective of Pokémon Trainer-dom which made the average player actually want to catch multiples of the same species and made poking around feel less tedious. And for the first time ever, there was the possibility for wild Pokémon to hurt you, because they are wild freaking animals. This latter innovation was a brilliant extension upon Legends: Arceus‘s notably darker tone, which had a stink of intentionally uncomfortable colonialism to it. Hell, this game even has a robust ecosystem of fun side-quests.
No, Legends: Arceus isn’t technically a true open world game like Scarlet and Violet are, but that didn’t keep me from feeling a greater sense of adventure than I have felt in a Pokémon game since maybe Gen 2 or 3. Compared with Scarlet and Violet, I now wonder if “survey games” are going to be my most anticipated Pokémon releases from now on, should they choose to continue this route. And I hope they do. Just … add a Hard Mode, please.
2. Stray
(Annapurna Interactive)
Even before Stray released, it was already an internet phenomenon. “CAT GAME!” we all screamed. “IT’S CAT GAME! CAT GAME BRINGS JOY.”
Indie developer BlueTwelve Studio had the brilliant idea of creating an entire game around a cat strolling around dystopian underground cyber-cities—ones that often reminded me of Final Fantasy VII. As an excellent flourish, these cities would be inhabited by cute, quirky robots with faces like old, old Macintoshes. But as with all brilliant ideas, this one would be hard to pull off. What makes Stray so special is that it pulls it off. Beautifully.
Yes, Stray has a dedicated “meow” button, and that is incredibly joyful and important. But what makes it so impressive is that you’re wandering around these landscapes doing normal cat shit—scratching walls, leaping into boxes, knocking everything over—and that progresses you through the game. There’s a suspension of disbelief needed for whether a cat would do these things in such a calculated manner, but Stray managed to truly capture the feeling of embodying a cat. And they proceeded to build an emotional, engaging game around that cat. That is a feat.
1. Elden Ring
(Bandai Namco)
I know it’s entirely unoriginal to say Elden Ring is the best game of the year. But the reason everyone and their cool grandmas are putting Elden Ring at the top of their lists is because, quite simply, it’s one of the greatest games ever made. Even I, someone who got 150 hours in and threw in the towel (for now), have to admit that.
FromSoft found a way to make their notoriously hard games work for everyone: by giving you a world big enough so that when you hit a wall, there’s always something else to do. This works brilliantly because the sense of wonder this game gives you is only rivaled by Breath of the Wild, in my opinion. Everywhere you go is distinct and wondrous. You want to poke around everywhere. Though I’d argue, perhaps to a chorus of boos from the internet, that Elden Ring is maybe too big.
There’s a whole laundry list of brilliant touches that make Elden Ring work like a goddamn miracle. Counterbalancing a very dark, grim world and ambient storytelling with the likes of giant Turtle Popes and warrior jars is the kind of absurdism I love unendingly. Allowing players to build a sense of community through in-game messages was genius enough, but then we also got memorable moments like Let Me Solo Her, which united us all.
I miss my Tarnished and her Wolverine claws. Elden Ring‘s gravity is impossible to deny.
I was warned of how heated Kotaku’s GOTY arguments traditionally get when I first started here in November, so I was a little nervous when I was put in charge of organizing and tabulating our list of the best games of the year.
Would everyone vote? Would they get mad at me for ranking Destiny 2: The Witch Queen too high? Would Ethan Gach actually do what he was threatening and “hobgoblin” the voting process by adding negative points to the equation?
Turns out, however, that even though organizing this entire process was a pain in the ass, the team at Kotaku is exactly as opinionated, intelligent, and professional as you might expect, offering great insight and honest takes on the top games of 2022. Though we voted on over 20 titles (including ones that narrowly missed this list like Rollerdrome and Sifu) we narrowed it down to a top 10, and have ranked them in order below.
How does Kotaku’s top 10 games of 2022 stack up with your personal GOTY lists?
10. Xenoblade Chronicles 3
Image: Monolith Soft / Nintendo
Reductively, Xenoblade Chronicles 3’s story is an amalgamation of Japanese RPGs whose emotional climax rests on the age-old theme of “war is bad.” Nevertheless, the fact that the trope has become a well-trodden cliché doesn’t dismiss how well developer Monolith Soft executes its anti-war theme throughout Xenoblade Chronicles 3’s 150 hours of playtime.
In Xenoblade Chronicles 3, you play as a troupe of child soldiers from warring nations locked in an endless battle where their limited lifespans fuel a giant mechanical clock once they meet their untimely demise. The kids are not alright. But despite the painful emotional journey its child soldiers must go on, which is portrayed with the emotional maturity and complexity it deserves, the game is not without some great moments of levity as well, courtesy of some lighthearted and silly sidequests. Meanwhile, Xenoblade’s more serious sidequests drip-feed players with rich character studies that flesh out each member of the party, along with the game’s expansive world and its deep cast of supporting characters.
Although Xenoblade Chronicles 3 was snubbed for the best roleplaying game and best soundtrack at Geoff Keighley’s Game Awards, it did give us an impassioned flutist performance from Pedro “Flute Guy” Eustache. This shows that even if Xenoblade loses at gaming’s glorified popularity contest, it still provides some of the best moments in gaming this year.
Isaiah Colbert, Staff Writer
9. Signalis
Image: rose-engine
Much like how I use Devil May Cry 5 as the measuring stick for how good a hack-and-slash game is, whenever I brave playing a survivor horror game I do so with the hope that its story measures up to Silent Hill 2. Big shoes to fill, I know. Signalis not only manages to fill those shoes, it damn near tore the seams off of them joints with how bloody good it was. I’d even argue that it’s better than Silent Hill 2.
Signalis has all the bells and whistles that make for a good sci-fi survival horror game. It’s got a brutal-but-fair limited inventory system, brain-teasing puzzles, and breadcrumb storytelling conveyed through codex entries scattered about its levels. However, where Signalis sings is with its gripping story about two lesbian androids desperately trying to find each other in a space hellscape.
Throughout the game, you play as an android named Elster who’s stranded on an alien planet rife with horrific monsters and derelict spaceships. Elster’s sole mission is to reunite with Anne, a fellow android unit she both literally and figuratively can’t live without. Signalis sticks its landing with the emotional climax of Elster’s perilous journey, regardless of which of the game’s multiple endings you arrive at. This feat is even more impressive considering Signalis is the first video game made by its two-person development team, rose-engine. Ay yo, 2023, can we get some more of those sapphic survivor horror vidya games, plz?
Isaiah Colbert, Staff Writer
8. Norco
Image: Raw Fury
Norco emerged this year and joined Kentucky Route Zero and a few others on the shortlist of games that speak deeply to the experience of living under late-stage capitalism in America at this precise moment in time. Like Cardboard Computer’s masterpiece, Norco also takes its cues from point-and-click adventures, using stunning pixel art to pull us into its industrialized Louisiana landscapes. And where KR0 lent its midwestern road trip a heaping helping of magical realism, Norco uses near-future sci-fi elements to cast the forces its poor, marginalized characters face in sharper relief.
But don’t let my easy comparison make you think Norco is a pale imitator of another game. It’s very much its own remarkable experience, one with its own visual identity, its own poetic voice, and its own noir-ish mystery. Everything about Norco rings painfully true, from its observant little environmental details like the electrified hum of a street light, to the much larger way that religion, cryptocurrency, and the oil industry all become woven together in the haunting texture of your character’s search for her missing brother. Norco, Louisiana is a real place. The Norco of this game is not quite that place, but it’s nevertheless one that feels very real in its own way, and that will leave you reeling from the piercing gaze it levels at the world we’ve made for ourselves.
Carolyn Petit, Managing Editor
7. Horizon Forbidden West
Image: Sony
Poor Aloy. Twice now, her adventures have been somewhat overshadowed at the time of release by other games that more dramatically captured the world’s attention. Her first outing, Horizon Zero Dawn, launched just a few days before Breath of the Wild. This year, her second quest was followed a week later by Elden Ring.
But despite repeatedly serving as the opening act for games that go on to sweep the GOTYs of a hundred gaming sites, Guerrilla Games and Aloy can be proud of what they’ve accomplished. Arguably the most visually stunning game of the year, Guerrilla’s latest takes Aloy into the ruined American west for more of the thrilling, spectacular battles with hulking metallic beasts that helped make the first game an original in a sea of samey open-world blockbusters. And although the larger narrative may fly a bit off the rails in this outing, Forbidden West wisely stays focused on Aloy’s personal journey as someone who feels the weight of the world on her shoulders and doesn’t know how to let her guard down and allow her friends to carry that burden with her. It complicates her character and trusts us as players not to turn on her the moment she behaves in ways that are arrogant, cruel, or misguided. Oh, and you get a really sweet new travel option near the end of the game, too.
Yes, when all is said and done, Aloy and her escapades can stand tall alongside the Links and the myriad Tarnished of the world.
Carolyn Petit, Managing Editor
6. Neon White
Image: Annapurna Interactive
It was about 3 in the morning. I had plans the next day. I really needed to go to bed. Yet, here I was hunched over my computer focused on shaving just one more second off a level in Neon White so I could beat a friend on my leaderboard. That’s the power of fast-paced, FPS platformer Neon White. It’s the kind of game that feels so good that you just can’t stop playing it. Once you get skilled enough to start finding shortcuts in levels, it’s over–the game has you at that point. You’ll end up going back to old levels you thought you mastered to shave off more time. And if you enjoy anime nonsense, angels, demons, and sick-ass music, too, then Neon White will dig its angelic claws deeply into you and never let go. “One more run…and then I’ll go to bed.” I didn’t get to sleep that night until nearly 4:30 am.
Zack Zwiezen, Staff Writer
5. Citizen Sleeper
Image: Jump Over The Age
The profane and sacred mingle with delicate grace in Jump Over The Age’s minimalist cyberpunk RPG about trying to earn your humanity from a world that can’t pay its debts. Every detail from the writing and art to the branching choices and tabletop-inspired dice rolls connect, overlap, and reinforce each other with precision and care so that no piece is weaker than the rest and no rough edge is left exposed. Few games manage to evoke universal feelings or personal truths, but Citizen Sleeper does both at the same time. The future never felt so hopeless and yet so comforting.
Ethan Gach, Senior Reporter
4. Marvel Snap
Image: Second Dinner / Kotaku
Going into 2022, I don’t know how many people expected a free-to-play Marvel card game designed for phones to end up being one of the best and most popular games of the year, yet, here we are. Second Dinner’s fantastic bite-sized card battler, Marvel Snap, really is one of the best digital card games out there right now thanks to its small decks, fast rounds, and random nature. Matches always feel different and even a loss doesn’t sting too bad because it’s over so fast. Sure, it’s still a free-to-play mobile game, so you can expect stuff like iffy over-priced bundles and having to grind for currency. But luckily Marvel Snap is so fun to play that it’s pretty easy to overlook those bits and enjoy one of 2022’s best games.
Zack Zwiezen, Staff Writer
3. Vampire Survivors
Image: poncle
One more run. A sentence I’ve repeated countless times in 2022 either in my head or quietly aloud to justify playing Vampire Survivors for just a little while longer. The gothic roguelike shoot ‘em up became a surprise smash hit while spawning worthy spiritual siblings like 20 Minutes Till Dawn.
Since Valve started releasing the data in August, Vampire Survivors has been tops in total hours played on Steam Deckmonth in and month out. This is the same Steam Deck that can run frickin’ Elden Ring! But people want to play Vampire Survivors instead!
All those players are onto something, Vampire Survivors has a simple yet satisfying gameplay loop: your character (I’m partial to Peppino) must survive an ever-growing horde of ghoulies while choosing between randomly generated weapons. If you make it to 30 minutes, the reaper will come calling, which lets you spend coins on power-ups for future runs. You can be strategic in choosing weapons that complement each other or you can just try shit out! These elements of discovery, relentless isometric top down action, and Vampire’s lax attitude towards player death (it has zero impact) remind me a lot of Hades, another regular on that Steam Deck most-played list, and another GOTY contender from years past.
Vampire Survivors’ developer Luca Galante/poncle has regularly been updating the game since it left early access, adding modes, quality of life improvements, and settings to tweak for extra replayability. What’s more, the game recently got its first full-fledged DLC the other week with Legacy of the Moonspell. With the base game retailing at five dollars ($4 under the current Steam sale), Vampire Survivors makes for one of the better bang-for-your-buck propositions in gaming. Go ahead and treat yourself to some floor chicken.
Eric Schulkin, Video Lead
2. God of War Ragnarök
Image: Sony
Sony Santa Monica’s God of War Ragnarök is more of everything. More abilities and weapons. More enemies and locations. More characters and plot details. Hell, even more loot. Though you could interpret this as a knock against the game, especially since more isn’t always better, Ragnarök takes the “more” and deftly applies it in tasteful ways while making room for a compelling narrative and gameplay experience that’s enjoyable and immersive. Combat is crunchy, exploration is intriguing, dialogue is captivating, and the themes are deep and engaging. But what stands out as the glisten on the diamond is the character development between daddy Kratos and adolescent Atreus, an element that sees the co-protagonists finding common understanding in the face of the end of the world. Sometimes, it takes things falling apart for empathy to be reached, and God of War Ragnarök is a glowing example of just that. It’s good shit.
Levi Winslow, Staff Writer
1. Elden Ring
Screenshot: FromSoftware / Kotaku
Are you surprised? Elden Ring easily and inevitably took the top spot during our voting process, further proving that 2022 was the year of Elden Ring. Many Kotaku staff members ranked it as their number one game of the year, and for good reason. FromSoftware’s open-world epic feels like a giant leap forward for the Souls-like franchise, offering us a beautifully deformed and dangerous Lands Between to explore, rife with opportunities to discover oddities, collect goodies, and die over and over again.
Elden Ring opened up Hidetaka Miyazaki ’s sick, twisted world for the normies who haven’t enjoyed FromSoft games before it, while also making sure to still cater to the hardened vets looking to prove their worth in incredibly tough battles. It found a perfect balance between that punishing gameplay so many long for in a game from this studio and a newfound sense of agency, of a chance toget gud without having to run into the same noxious swamp over and over again.
Elden Ring is technically impressive, visually stunning, and satisfyingly challenging. It has humor, it has sadness, it has turtle popes. It dashes your hopes up against a jagged rock only to hand you hope back bit-by-bit as you strengthen your character and your resolve. It is everything that we hope for in a video game, and then some.
2022 was truly the year of Elden Ring, with FromSoftware’s latest game exploding into the mainstream unlike anything it had previously created. As such, a lot of people played and finished Elden Ring. In fact, according to one set of data, Elden Ring was the most completed game of 2022. But funnily enough, the same source also pegs it as the game players were most likely to abandon before reaching the end.
If you’ve read Kotaku (or any other gaming website) in 2022, you are likely already familiar with Elden Ring, the latest game from Dark Souls creators FromSoftware. And like Dark Souls and Bloodborne, Elden Ring is a tough-as-nails action-RPG with a heavy focus on mystery, world-building, and boss fights. However, this time around FromSoftware added a true open world to its popular “Soulslike” formula. The end result? One of 2022’s most acclaimed, best-selling games. The open world in particular helped sway many to try Elden Ring for the first time, letting players avoid harder areas until later and ostensibly making it easier to finish than past FromSoftware adventures. And it seems that design choice paid off.
According to data on HowLongToBeat.com, Elden Ring is 2022’s most completed game, with nearly 6,000 users of the site reporting they have played and finished the massive open-world RPG. That’s an impressive number when you look at the runner-up games on the list. Stray, that adorable futuristic cat game, was completed by nearly 4,000 users. Meanwhile, in third with 2,500 completions, was Game Freak and Nintendo’s Switch hit, Pokemon Legends: Arceus. To see such a big and difficult game top the list is both a sign that Elden Ring is very good and also a hint at the kind of audience that is primarily using HowLongToBeat.com.
Screenshot: Howlongtobeat.com / Kotaku
But perhaps more interesting is that Elden Ring is also the most “retired” game. When users “retire” from a game on Howlongtobeat.com it means they have given up on it, either permanently or temporarily. Now, even though only 261 players officially retired from Elden Ring on the site, that’s still more than double any other game in 2022. Even if the dataset is a bit small and weird (how many people are logging into this site to admit defeat?) it’s still an interesting data point.
This all makes sense to me. Elden Ring was the most talked-about game of 2022, and with that many people playing, it makes sense that a good chunk of them might give up on it. Other data seems to suggest around half the people playing Elden Ring never reached the end. So I buy that Elden Ring could be the most completed game of 2022 while also being the game more people gave up on than anything else.
Some other interesting 2022 data from the site: Turns out Elden Ring is also on the most backlogs, has the most reviews, and is the longest game of 2022. However, Naughty Dog’s The Last Of Us Part 1 is the most positively reviewed game, and Diablo Immortal is the worst-reviewed.
After over a decade of FromSoftware games holding court as the quintessential ‘git gud’ franchise, locking those of us without a masochist bent out of the discourse, Elden Ring’s open world opened up the gates for an entirely new player base. As such, it catapulted the work of Hidetaka Miyezaki to entirely new heights: Elden Ring is by far the best-selling FromSoftware title, it’s snatching up GOTY awards like Rowa Fruit, and it’s still generating passionate conversations 10 months after its release.
By subtly divesting from the tried and true FromSoftware formula and giving us a game unshackled by a single, punishing, linear path, EldenRing offered up the Lands Between on a beautifully ornate (but slightly Tarnished) silver platter. And we gobbled that shit up.
Feeding The Difficulty Discourse Machine
These guys are called Abductor Virgins, and they suck. Image: FromSoftware
The Souls game discourse has almost solely revolved around difficulty. Before Elden Ring was released, FromSoftware’s Yasuhiro Kitao told Eurogamer that the game was “made for all sorts of players,” not just “hardened veterans.” This sent the fanboys into a tailspin, but it piqued the interest of those who have never been able to enjoy the punishing gameplay of FromSoft’s oeuvre.
I wrote about Kitao’s quotes back when I was at GamesRadar, suggesting that what would make Elden Ring great would be its approachability, and that that approachability was made possible by its open world. It’s a helluva lot easier to avoid difficult areas if you can run around them on horseback, but previous Souls games forced you to choose between the difficult path and the bang-your-head-against-the-wall-because-it’s-impossible path. The promise of ample choice made me think that maybe, just maybe, Elden Ring could be a game I’d enjoy.
Image: FromSoftware / Kotaku
Conversely, Forbes published a response to my piece, one that hoped Elden Ring’s open world wouldn’t ruin the FromSoftware vibes by focusing too much on “making these games approachable rather than tough and gritty.” This was months before the release date, but the discourse machine turned and turned and turned, smoke spewing from every inch, its cogs grinding and grating with each new take chucked into its gaping maw.
Until February came, and brought with it the Lands Between, wide open for exploration like a darker, deadlier Breath of the Wild. Players quickly learned that most of them were accidentally skipping the combat tutorial, and a bit more slowly learned that the first boss (that fucking Tree Sentinel) was avoidable. Many of us who could never latch onto a FromSoft game willingly clung to Elden Ring’s teat, as we learned we could, in fact, get on a horse and fuck off away from some horrifying eldritch beast.
As we collectively made our way through Elden Ring, we were given the gift that comes only with truly open-world games: seemingly endless discoveries by ourselves, our friends, and other players on the internet.
Braving Brutal Battles For A Glimpse Of Beauty
Need a hand?Image: FromSoftware
The beauty of Elden Ring lies in its world that teems, bubbles, and spews with both friendly and deadly life, that tantalizes and terrifies with its landscapes, that beckons and shuns you in a single breath. I find this beauty in so many moments during my time with the game, like when I accidentally descend down to the Siofra River, not too long into my playthrough.
In Limgrave, I step on a platform and am whisked down, down, down, until I emerge into an astounding space: a fully realized night sky in a variety of bruise colors, littered with pinholes of light. Crumbling classical architecture obfuscates my view of this impossible galaxy and tombstones line the path leading away from the platform, which glowed a bizarre green during my descent but now lies dormant.
I am, as the kids say, gagged, and stumble aimlessly away from the platform, paying little attention to what enemies may lie in my path for the first time since booting up Elden Ring. This is a mistake I quickly pay for, as I walk directly into a horde of Claymen. They move slowly, but they hurt, and I am severely underleveled for this area. One of the weaponless magic conjurers takes me out in seconds with his weird bubbles, sending me back to the Site of Grace right next to the platform that brought me here. When I go back to fetch my several hundred runes, the same guy takes me out again.
“Fuck that,” I mumble before stepping on the stone circle at the center of the lift. “I’ll come back later.”
And I do, just much, much later. After I’ve discovered I’m a battle mage with an affinity for gravity magic and summons, and long after I fell the Tree Sentinel with a single Rock Sling, I return to the Siofra River from a completely different direction, and lay waste to its inhabitants. Then, after I’ve collected every last item dropped by a fallen NPC and picked all the Ghost Glovewort my eyes can see, I allow myself a second to breathe. I glance up at that still-impossible night sky, and exhale. I earned this. Elden Ring, unlike other FromSoftware games, gave me ample chances to amass the tools and experience I’d need to earn a brief respite.
Elden Ring Eternal
I’m an Aries.Screenshot: FromSoftware / Kotaku
But Elden Ring isn’t just somber and serious, it’s not just hours of grueling gameplay with brief, meditative breaks. It’s goofy as hell, like all FromSoftware games inherently are. There are stupid, dirty messages littered all over the ground, dozens upon dozens of ways to die that will make you chuckle in disbelief, and the ever-popular but always somewhat broken online play that encourages players to fuck with one another.
It’s this combination of punishing play, engaging story (thanks, George R.R. Martin), and asinine antics that make FromSoftware games, especially this one, so special. Elden Ring gives you enemies like Starscourge Radahn, who will in one moment beat the brakes off of you with gigantic meteors flung from a blood-red sky and in another send you into a fit of hysterics when you realize that he is, in fact, sitting on top of a very tiny horse. Elden Ring plays with you, offering up prophecies and moral quandaries that will have you scratching your head, but undercutting it with both accidental and purposeful absurdism.
Screenshot: FromSoftware
Elden Ring gives you a gigantic turtle wearing a pope hat. It gives you strange, unsettling storylines about grapes that are actually eyeballs. It tucks a giant bat grandma away amongst a rocky outcropping and gives her a haunting song to sing ad infinitum—or until you slash at her leathery, gray skin. It deflates your hope in humankind at one juncture just to build it back up again at the next.
It lets you explore this incredibly fucked-up world for hours upon hours, fall in love with some of its characters and revile the rest, taxing you physically and mentally with enemies plucked from the deepest depths of game design hell, and at the end, it presents you with a few options that don’t really fucking matter. It does all of this while making itself playable for us FromSoft plebeians, which therefore (brilliantly) means more of us will be talking about it than any game that came before.
When we inevitably look back at Elden Ring a decade from now, it will be difficult for us to remember exactly how much it defined the zeitgeist, just how far it permeated popular culture outside of gaming, and just how much we couldn’t stop talking about it. But now, ten months after its release, it’s hard to imagine we ever existed in a world without it.
Image: Warner Bros. / Devolver Digital / Bandai Namco / Innersloth / Kotaku / Mia Stendal / Bibadash (Shutterstock)
On an average day, my friends might ask me how my job is going. I’ll smile, tell them “It’s going great,” and then launch into a story about one of the most fucked up things they’ve ever heard of. And now I get to give the recap to you.
Spooky season is upon us, but the chronically online gamers at Kotaku know that terrifying shit is happening in our space all the time. It’s not just the games that are occasionally horrifying—it’s also how the industry grinds humans into dust, how giant corporations are increasingly looking to put the screws to the average consumer, and how abuse of power comes as no surprise.
Some of the spookiest gaming news stories this year are sad. Some of them are funny. Others will make you want to pull your hair out over the general state of the world. But hey, me too! Let’s be scared and [some other unidentifiable emotion] together!
