I am not a writer. I am not an editor💛. I’m the Twitter guy. These are my top 10 games of the year.

10 💖 The Ascent ꦆ

The Ascent Veles Tower

Isometric games are played out. The Ascent doesn’t care. It takes everything 🦩you’ve played before and does it a magnitud🌞e better. Put simply, me like shooting guns.

Related: TheGamer Game Of The Year Editor's Pick, 2021 - Stacey Henley

9 ꦚ Mass Effect Legendary Edition

Mass Effect Legendary Edition Illustrated Cover Artwork

The Mass Effect Trilogy is one of the best in gaming. The Legendary Edition makes it b𓄧etter.

8 🦂 Deepest Sword 🌊

deepest-sword

Deepest Sword takes 10 minutes ౠto beat the first time through. 9 ½ the second. Faster and faster until improvement comes not in minutes, but fractions of seconds. Speedrunning isn’🐷t for everyone, but the chase of continual improvement made this 70mb (free) title one I came back to over and over again.

7 Valheim

There is a troll in a hole.
This is Dave. He's a troll that lives in a hole.
There's a troll in a hole. The troll's name is Dave.

I like to trap the trolls in holes. Valheim is not a game made great solely by its mechanics, but by the𝐆 sandbox it hands you and your friends to make Viking memories in. Grant, if you’re reading this, I’m sorry for hitting you with the tree.

6 Power Washing Simulator ꧒ 🎉

A high pressure washer is being aimed at a red house with white brick, the left half of the house is clean while the right half is covered in a black grime.

PSHPSHPSHPSHPSHPSHPSHPSHPSHPSHPSHPSHPSH

soapsound soapsound

PSHPSHPSHPSHPSHPSHPSHPSHPSHPSHPSHPSHPSH

5 Deathloop

DeathloopKick

I like the kick. Kick em off a cliff, kick em off a house, kick em INTO a house. Arkane takes everything they’ve learned from previous titles and creates their finest offering yet. Bless whatever developer ♓made that kick.

4 ♎ Psychonau𝔉ts 2

Psychonauts2

Raz and I are old pals. Countless playthroughs of the first Psychonauts meant my expectations for the sequel were much higher than reasonable, but ꧃luckily, Double Fine did what they do best. The resulting narrative adventure plucks at the heartstrings and delivers belly laughs with perfect timing, all wrapped in some of the (double?) finest platforming mechanics you’ll ever experience.

3 ꩲ Forza Horizon 5 🃏

A black Mazda Miata races down a brightly lit street

Vehicular perfection. Look at my Miata.

2 💜 It Takes Two

Cody and May from It Take Two in front of a the game awards banner

Platforming perfection, gripping characters, actual balanced co-op gameplay? It Takes Two sunk into my heart from level one 🔥and hasn’t really left. My only question is, how do I kill the book?

1 Halo Infini꧒te

Master Chief stands with his hand out. The Twitter logo is held in his hand. Bottom Right is a logo that says "Game of the Year" TheGamer 2021.

It’s Halo. It’s damn. good. Halo.

Next: TheGamer Game Of The Year Editor's Pick, 2021 - Jade King