You’ve found yourself at Esquire’s list of the year’s best video games so far. To be honest with you all? We really didn’t feel like putting it together this time around. Not because your friends at the Esquire Gamer Zone don’t love you. We do. Pinky promise. It’s because we’re still playing Elden Ring, and we’d really rather not do anything that takes away from our pursuits in the Lands Between. If you ask us how many hours we’ve poured into the game, we’ll revoke your Gamer Zone membership. We have those powers.
In all seriousness, we’re about to get fired for spamming our work slack with heady Elden Ring discussion for a solid two months. But we have played titles other than Elden Ring this year, even if we didn’t always want to. So gather round, ye Tarnished. From Pokémon Legends: Arceus to Nintendo Switch Sports,here are the best video games of 2022 so far.
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Platform: Nintendo Switch
The spirit of Wii Sports has made its glorious return. While some reviews have been mixed—possibly due to rose-colored glasses, or a general yearn for youth—Switch Sports is a phenomenally fun and accessible game, which is all it ever needed to be. (But please, stop kicking my ass in Pro League Bowling. You all are hacking and I still haven’t figured out how you’re doing it. Sure, it’s a testament to how deep the controls actually are, but for now it’s just pissing me off.) Read our review here.
Platforms: PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, PC
Here’s the formula for the great Tiny Tina’s Wonderland: Dungeons and Dragons + Borderlands = a sweet looter and shooter. The new character creation system is fantastic, and I hope they keep it beyond this Borderlands spinoff. Tiny Tina’s Wonderland is a blast, it’s funny, and it makes for a wonderfully different high fantasy experience. Read our review here.
I gush over Sea of Thieves constantly, because well, there’s nothing else that comes close to the experience. After a massive Pirates of the Caribbean update, Sea of Thieves fine-tuned features fans have been talking about for years. (See: Buying storage crates, playing new story modes, burying booty to create your own treasure maps, in case some prick is sinking you.) If you haven’t played Sea of Thieves, now’s a perfect time to get in. The seas have never been kinder, or more exciting.
Platforms: Nintendo Switch, PC
OlliOlli World is lively, energetic, and fun on every single level. It’s the perfect skateboarding experience for Tony Hawk Pro Skater die-hards who want to shuffle things up with new gameplay and a truly magnificent art style. The highly explorable landscape of OlliOlli World will have you grinning from ear to ear. Fans of skateboarding games, art, and Adventure Time (!) should all rally around this genuinely ingenious game.
Platform: PC
I love a good MMORPG. As it stands, Lost Ark is a great one. MMORPGs were huge for me growing up, with the likes of Runescape and World of Warcraft monopolizing my time, but it’s been years since the genre sunk its addictive MMO claws into me like Lost Ark has. It has some of the best class design and addictive action-RPG gameplay I’ve ever seen.
Platforms: Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, PlayStation 5, PC
I’ve nabbed more Victory Royales in the last two months than in my entire Fortnite career. OK, I’m hyperbolizing and straight-up lying, really, my win ratio has gone through the roof. Maybe it’s that the leaked Obi-Wan skin getting my nerd neurons all fired up, but it’s more likely because you nerds cant build anymore. Now, you don’t stand a chance against my hip-firing strategy. Just wait until I get my hands on that Obi-Wan Skin.
Platforms: PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, PlayStation 5, PC
My best guess? The game of the year came out in February, which sucks for every game coming out after Elden Ring. Sorry, I know we should hold out hope—there’s still Nintendo Switch Sports, a new Kirby adventure, Tiny Tina’s Wonderland, and Breath of the Wild 2, of course. Considering I’m standing by Elden Ring as my favorite game of the last decade, let alone this year, I don’t see this king being toppled.
Once you play Elden Ring, you won’t stop. Take it from Gamer-in-Chief Brady Langmann, who’s a Soulsborne virgin. He’s enthralled. (Ed note: I am, in fact, enthralled.). Play it now. Then? Read our review. Or vice versa.
Platform: Nintendo Switch
Pokémon is on a roll. With the release of Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl last year, to Arceus, and now the newly-announced Scarlet and Violet coming later this year, there’s a colossal amount of pocket monsters to catch in the year of our lord, 2022. Arceus is some of, if not the most fun I’ve had catching Pokémon. Maybe even ever. It’s the first truly new-feeling Pokémon game in years, and I want—no, I need more. Read our review here.
Platforms: PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5
Horizon Forbidden West is the long-awaited sequel to Horizon Zero Dawn, one of all-time standout PlayStation exclusives, alongside God of War, Uncharted, and Ghost of Tsushima. Forbidden West might just be the best-looking console game out there, with remarkable graphics, phenomenal boss fights, and a touching story. It’s a damn shame that the masochists at Sony released this game right before Elden Ring, years after they released Zero Dawn just behind Breath of the Wild. It’s a testament to how much of a splash these magnificent titles still make.
Platforms: PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, PC
I am convinced we never had a kung fu game before Sifu. I thought we did, then I played Sifu. It’s like you took the combat of Batman: Arkham, or Insomniac’s Spider Man, and expanded it so far that every move feels intentional and intense. Sifu is hard, but its gameplay feels unparalleled when you get the hang of the controls. Add a remarkably interesting progression system, along with some of the best art design we’ve seen, and you have an absolute masterpiece.
Platforms: Xbox Series X/S, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, PC
2022 is the year of perfecting systems. Truthfully, in my time writing about video games, there’s never been more bangers of titles this early in our best of the year roundup. Dying Light perfected several games mechanics, including an absolutely massive choice system, with so many routes and endings—along with a perfect parkour system mixed with addictive combat. Dying Light 2 is a total blast. You’re going to be playing a gaming backlog all year with all the brilliant offerings debuting in the coming months.
Platforms: PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, PC
This is an expansion, for sure, but it qualifies. Witch Queen adds so much new content, story, and mechanics to Destiny 2—which, if you haven’t checked in on the Halo-veteran-turned-Sony-bad-boy Bungie’s golden child in a few years, it’s more than due time to make your way back. With a free PlayStation 5 upgrade, some of the best and most addictive first-person shooter combat out there, and a wild and immersive world, it’s high time you come back and take on the Witch Queen Guardian.
I’ve gotta be honest: I didn’t know what Wordle was for a while. I thought it was a weird cult thing, where everyone was communicating through colored boxes. It was the first time I truly felt old in the grand age of the Internet. I didn’t care to speak with this robot! Then, I found out it was a word puzzle game. And I love word puzzle games, even though I cannot spell nor read. I killed at Wordle. I didn’t share it, but I killed. It was for me. It was intimate. I loved it. Then the damn New York Times took over and it is no longer for people like me. It’s for people who read The New York Times, or just can read in general. I’ll miss you Wordle, but they can ever take away what we had.
Platforms: PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5
As the great Lightning McQueen once said, “Gotta go fast.” There may not be a game on this planet that goes faster than Gran Turismo 7, which delivers the blend of top-notch graphics, brilliant sound design, and racing excitement that made every one of its predecessors a must-play title. I’ll give a hearty kachow! to that. —Brady Langmann
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