I stand by everything I've written in the past months about this game. This is one of the best P&C I've played, probably one of my favourite one ever even over Wadget Eye games, which I love. I just loved everything about it, from the visual pixely style to the humour and the references. Strongly recommend to any scifi P&C lover.

I didn't think I'd ever put a dating simulator in the list of my favourite games, but there it is. Not only this is funny and has a lot of different outcomes, but the devs have been adding several free big updates since the game's released, adding even more content to the base game. I keep going back to it, and have a blast each time. Note that you can play with up to 3 friends, both online, local coop or a mix of both, and I strongly recommend the multiplayer mode. Give it a try even if you think dating sims are not for you.

One of the games I played at the beginning of 2018 and I could already tell it would make the list back then. Really awesome game with great design and good story, as well as solid character writing. Still love this game as much as I did a year ago when I played it, and strongly recommend it.

I sunk so many hours into this in the first part of 2018, then I took a break on it, but it's really addictive. It's a dungeon crawling deckbuilding game, still in EA but updated every week. Writing about it made me wanna replay it, so be aware of the addiction factor. Recommended to any roguelite lovers, except if you're allergic to deckbuilding.

This game was a real surprise to me. It went totally under my radar until I got it from a friend. And it looked cute and all, but I was just expecting your average indie puzzle plateformer from it, and not much more. Not only it surprised me, but now looking back on 2018 it's still one of the most touching story in the games I've played this year.

In 2018 I also realized I love walking simulators. I find them really soothing and love to take my time and explore environments that tell a story without the necessity of having people to interact with. I really enjoyed Tacoma, but What remains of Edith Finch was definitely the most beautiful one I've played. It might not be a genre you enjoy, but if you do, this one is definitely for you.

This game scratched my itch for a Final Fantasy Tactics game. It is not really the same, I'm afraid, as it introduce a mix of cards and dices deckbuilding in the mix, but it still was great and entertaining, and filled a bit of my needs for that particular tactics genre for a while. If I can't have a PC port of FF Tactics, I'd take a sequel to this game, thank you.

Another great surprise of this year that I didn't see coming until I won the game. I've played a few metroidvania this year but that was the most satisfying (and cutest). You can check my review in my last monthly post, but generally just a good metroidvania with quite a bit of content and a pleasant art style.

So I played both The Banner Saga 2 and 3 this year, but I didn't want to use 2 spots in my list for them and if I'm objective I preferred the second one. The gameplay was similar, but all things considered 2 didn't lock me out of content because I was doing too well. Of course, I recommend to play both as the trilogy's story is one big block and you need all 3 games to reach the conclusion of that epic tale. Great tactics games in general, start with the first if you haven't already.

Another cool roguelite dungeon crawler that I played late this year, and that found pretty addictive. I have put 20 hours into it which was enough to finish the story with one class (there is still 2 more of them) and there is also more content after you've dealt with the final boss (different game modes, etc...). Just really fun overall, and has a demo if you wanna give it a try before deciding if you might like it or not.

Another game I played early on last January and I could already tell it would be one of the highlights of 2018. Sure, it's a RPG maker game, and that should almost automatically exclude it from making the list, but it didn't, that's how much this game stayed with me. I was more ready to cut Monster hunter or Prey from the list than I was to consider removing Rakuen, hell in the end, even Senua's sacrifice didn't make the list because I wouldn't give it Rakuen's spot, even though I admit the games are not even close to the same level of polish. And that's because Rakuen has a story that was really touching all wrapped under that cute and simple design, and sometimes that's what I need from a game.

Now, I had great expectations for this game, and as I said in my initial review it managed to beat them. If you like games with a lot to read with a 'choose your own adventure' format, all with a cool art style and strong references to Moby Dick, this is the game for you. One of the strongest ones I've played in that category.

So let's be honest for a moment, I was a bit torn about putting this game on the list or not. Yes I voted for it in every possible GOTY awards and I clearly sank a more than what's reasonable amount of hours into it (I suspect it's partly why my backlog didn't get played as much as in 2017), but I can see its flaws and why it's not a game for everybody. Story wise this game is weak, but if you like the gameplay (and you might not, some people I've talked to about it found it extremely repetitive, and yes it is a bit), then it's really satisfying and addictive. It's also one of the few games I've had most fun with friends this year and for somebody who usually play solo, that says a lot. I can't deny I've loved it and I'll probably put some more hours into it in 2019.

It took me long enough but I finally came around to play Prey, after having replayed Dishonored earlier this year. (Now I only have Dishonored 2 left to enjoy), and it was a great experience. I got everything I expect from an Arkhane game minus the complete no kill run. It was still very good and a nice change of scenery. Good action FPS with a cool story to back it up.

Like I said in my review, yes this game was imperfect, but I still enjoyed it, and it filled my need for a good use of Lovecraft's universe, and for that it does deserve its place in this list.

Let's see how I did with my plan from last year before deciding what to do for 2019.

• Have fun! I definitely had a lot of fun! I might have played less games than in 2017, but most of them were definitely good to great games. Proof is how hard it was for me to narrow it down to only 15 favourites.


• Prioritize SG wins and gifts from friends. (Cf. the progress bars above) I think I did great on that. Of course you can always do better, but out of the 79 games I finished this year, 61 were from one of those two lists. Again, the xmas gifts I got in the last week of the year reduce the progression impact on the other gifts list.


• Try to improve my completion rate. I didn't do too good on that one apparently. I only went from 63% to 65%, so far from the 75% goal I had. That being said, I was at 69% at some point earlier this year, and a lot of the games I played recently have either a long list of cheevos (some behind DLC) or hard cheevos that don't unlock on a normal playthrough, so I guess it screwed up my completion.


• Finish what I started. As last year, mixed on this one. On the plus side, I mostly finished what I started this year, with a few exception, and I revisited some unfinished games from the previous years, but not as many as I wish I had. Still have to work on that.


• Keep the backlog expansion as tamed as possible. I did more or less okay with that. Yes, the backlog made more progress than last year, but only because I didn't finish as many games. I did globally add less games to my backlog this year, and nothing I didn't wanna play. (Well lies, I think one of my friend tricked me with a bad game at some point).

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Progress in 2018

Won on SteamGifts

Jan 1st (140 games) vs Dec 31th 2018 (162 games)

Gifts & Other Wins

Jan 1st (239 games) vs Dec 31th 2018 (324 games)

Keeping most of last year's, but with some tweaks.

• Have fun! Again, most important point.


• Prioritize SG wins and gifts from friends. I'll try to keep improving my completion rate of those two subgroups in priority. I'd like to reach 50% on the gift one as I did with the SG one, but we'll see, it's a very long list.


• Try to improve my completion rate. Currently at 65%. Won't set a goal this year, but just try to improve it when I can. Rule One is still a priority over this.


• Finish what I started. I'll keep this one too, and will try to do better in reducing those unfinished games started a long time ago.


• Keep the backlog expansion as tamed as possible. As before. Not adding anything I don't intend to play to my account.


• Go back to and finish my ABC challenge. I don't know what happened there, but I really got sidetracked, and I haven't progressed on this for months. I really would like to finish it.


• Have 50% completion for games Added in 2019. Rule "borrowed" from Skanda's goals, sounds like a good idea. Might also go back and do a list for 2018 if I have the motivation, and apply it the same rule. (Edit: Done)

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State of the Targets on January 1st 2019 (for tracking purpose)

Won on SteamGifts 162 games

Gifts & Other Wins 324 games

Added in 2018 152 games