2022 was an absolutely wild year for gaming. To be sure, some of the best games ever made and some of the worst games ever made were released this year. From Game of the Year winner Elden Ring to absolute piece-of-shit Postal 4: No Regerts, which not only stole the Postal franchise but also the title from a line in Modern Family, the variety of gaming on offer in 2022 was massive and it is only set to grow in 2023. Let’s take a look at some of the bigger stories from gaming this past year and a look ahead in this Year in Review column.
Elden Ring and God of War: Ragnarok led the way on major consoles this year, with Xenoblade Chronicles 3 cleaning up house on the Switch. All three games were highly anticipated properties, with Elden Ring generally being described as an open-world Soulslike given it is not only from the same developer but uses similar mechanics. In that sense, you could call all three games sequels but that wouldn’t really be the case for two of them. Ragnarok was really just the second half of one story and Elden Ring is definitely a new world with new characters, wholly separate from Demon’s Souls and Bloodborne.
While the PS5 grabbed most of the headlines in 2022, the Nintendo Switch and Steam Deck were arguably the consoles of the year. If nothing else, Switch and Steam Deck solidified that there is an enormous market for gaming on the go using something much better than a phone with a touch screen. Most people have the ability to carry around a device like a Switch or Steam Deck and the prospect of having your favorite titles within your grasp on the go is simply too enticing a prospect for gamers to pass up. I know I had a hell of a time deciding on whether or not to buy a Steam Deck or a PSVR2 going forward — I chose the PSVR2 only because I read a much-improved version of the Steam Deck with better components and battery life was just around the corner.
As they do every year right around Christmas, Activision stole the end-of-year headlines with the release of the highly anticipated sequel to the rebooted Modern Warfare franchise and the second version of Warzone, complete with an Escape from Tarkov style mode called Warzone DMZ. This extraction shooter is a great way for people who don’t like PvP to experience Warzone by giving them the opportunity to work with as many as five different operators to form a squad of six for looting and completing missions.
Modern Warfare 2 (2022) brought the return of Ghost and Soap to Task Force 141 while introducing new operators Alejandro and Rudolfo along with a fantastic new “villain” called El Sin Nombre, who turns out to be a former soldier in the same unit as Alejandro named Valeria. Valeria was so popular with the fans that they began calling her Cartel Mommy/Mami. Actress Maria Elise Carmago, who plays Valeria (El Sin Nombre) absolutely embraced the sadism and dressed up as a dominatrix to surprise fans for Halloween. ‘Dommy Mommy,’ she called it.. Yes, she absolutely could step on my neck.
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2022 also saw the (maybe) largest acquisition in gaming history. The aforementioned CoD franchise’s developer, Activision-Blizzard, agreed to a sale to Microsoft on the heels of an extensive report on the sexual harassment and abuse culture within the company being released. Currently, the Federal Trade Comimissionis trying to prevent this deal from going through and has created its own crazy saga with it. Whether or not it happens will surely be one of the biggest stories of 2023, as well.
With games like Hogwarts Legacy, Spider-Man 2, Starfield, Street Fighter 6, and Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom set to be released in 2023, there will be no shortage of GoTY contenders for next year. With games now costing $70 at the minimum, fans will be expecting them to be finished and ready for launch when they do. Whether or not this happens will also dominate headlines in 2023. As good as this year was, next year is slated to be even better and I cannot wait.