For years, I’ve started my “Best Video Games Of [insert year here]” lists by lamenting how it was a terrible year for games, but that there were some bright spots. Not this year. 2022 was easily the best year for games — well, the kind of games I like, anyway — in maybe 10 years.
Here, in the order I played them, are my favorite games of 2022.
At a time when tired anti-Semitic conspiracy theories are being updated and mainstreamed — I’m looking at you, “Jewish space laser” lady — it’s nice to be able to vent my frustrations by shooting virtual Nazis in video games. And few games make this as satisfying as Sniper Elite 5 (Xbox Series X/S, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, PlayStation 4, PC), a third-person, open world, stealth action World War II shooter that’s as deep and compelling as the best WWII gun games.
One of the downsides to both stealth games and sniper games is that constantly having to be slow and cautious can get tiresome.
But while the sneaky sniper game Sniper Elite 4 (Xbox One, PlayStation 4, PC, Switch) avoids this pitfall by letting go all gun blazing when the situation arises, what really makes this such an exciting and addictive action game is where you do all your shooting.