1. Metroid Prime 2: Echoes
Starting the year off with a banger. Metroid Prime 2 improved on a lot of things compared to the first one. I liked the feature of travelling the parallel universe planet and finding solutions with portals located in both worlds. That was a nice spin to the otherwise very streamlined Metroidvania genre.
I loved the music and the atmosphere. This is where Metroid has always shined and in Echoes it´s no different.
The game doesnt come without some nitpicks though. Backtracking and exploring was tedious sometimes. Needing to go from Point A to B quickly becomes going to Point A then to elevator B then to portal C so you can go to portal D from which you need to go to Point F because the route over Point E is now closed after you defeated that boss... It becomes quite tedious remembering all paths and just moving in general since walking is very slow and you cant speed Samus up by any means whatsoever.
Enemies also tend to be spongy a lot like in he first game. When a random bug in the first area takes 30 hits to kill (yes, i counted) i´m just not going to fight them.
Same applies to bosses. Which also take way to much dmg and often have very small weakspots that are frustrating to hit. The game has so many just tedious and boring bosses that i can probably list all the ones i had fun fighting on one hand. And 4 of those are just variations of the same boss... (and Chykka Adult. That fight slapped)

2. AM2R (Anoher Metroid 2 Remake)
This was the first time i played Metroid 2 and im happy i picked AM2R. It's honestly amazing. It takes the gameplay of Fusion and Super and mixes it with responsive and fluid movement. The game takes good mechanics from all the series titles, including prime, to make an overall just very enjoyable experience. The map is great, the atmosphere is amazing, the music is made of subtle remixes from the original game and fit in perfectly. Everything just works. Especially the bosses, which for me were always somewhat of a nitpick in the Metroid games for being mechanically boring, tedious and frustrating to fight, were great in this game. They actually felt like a challenge where you had to use every tool to your disposal. It contains probably my all-time-favourite Metroid bossfight ever and i think that says a lot about the quality of this fan game.
I had a blast and can easily see myself coming back to this title in a few years.

3. Alan Wake
What a great game. It implemented every mechanic so well that you can easily play the game without a hud. Everything gives you a cue, how much life you have, if your battery is empty and when it has charge again, when the enemies are fully li up and so on.
Everything works so well within the rules of the universe that you can lose yourself in the story which was also very well written. Every end of a chapter leaves you gripping for more, the last game that i remember doing this so well was Telltales TWD back then.

4. Pumpkin Jack
It's kinda weird placing this game so high on this ranking compared to some other games here. But it was just the right game for the right time for me. I played it in october right before halloween when I just wanted to play something easy. Pumpkin Jack hit just the right spot. It's funny, it has a nice visual style and it's generally just so much fun to play. I can recommend it to everyone who wants to play something easy and lighthearted in the spooky season. I can see myself coming back to it some day, just how I came back to collect every collectible in the game after I saw the credits.

5. Warhammer 40K: Space Marine
Bought it years ago and didnt vibe with it. Picked it up again and had a blast. It's a good oldschool action game. Played through it in a couple of days.

6. Dishonored: Death of the Outsider
It's fun. Did a full non-lethal, more or less stealthy run because I thought it'd fit the character more. Was fun playing more strategically and slowly because in typical Dishonored fashion, the game becomes very short and very easy when you're going high chaos. It was nice to see more bonecharms and abilities/tools focus more on a non-lethal approach. Impersonating characters was a really cool ability.

7. Celeste
I liked it. The gameplay is responsive, the artstyle and the soundtrack are great and the narrative + characters are great. I liked the game and beat the mountain after I had stopped playing the game for a while.

8. Milk inside a bag of milk inside a bag of milk ...
For a game that takes 30 minutes to beat, it really leaves an impression.
You're playing as the thoughts of a person struggling with a plethora of very real mental illnesses and try your best to help the character do a basic thing as buying a bag of milk from the store.
I'm not talented enough to put in words how the game makes you feel, so i just recommend to experience it for yourself. It may hit hard though.

9. Buckshot Roulette
Great short horror game.

10. Ratuz
Good short game that you can finish in one sitting. Lots of funny references.

11. Alan Wake's American Nightmare
A standalone game that takes place in the Alan Wake Universe. Its relatively short, I played it in one sitting. It improved on some things like gameplay. It felt smoother and better to control. In pretty much everything else it was somewhat worse than its predecesor. The atmosphere wasnt as good. The dialogue and voice acting was very corny. The story wasnt as captivating. The gameloop consisted of doing things multiple times over with every timeloop, which wore down the gameplay quality. The HUD was so deeply integrated into its core gamedesign, that you couldnt play without it, which was a bummer since it was something i praised highly in the first game. I always hate looking at minimaps half of my playtime.
In its own, yeah, you can play it, its alright. But as a game that came after the original Alan Wake its not that great.

12. Call of Duty: WWII
Typical CoD campaign. I think it was alright. Had some cool setpiece moments.

Replayed 2024:
1. Frostpunk
Still an amazing game. This time i went full authoritarianism.

1. Signalis
Amazing survival horror game. Amazing soundtrack, atmosphere and story. Its just great. Definitely my Game of the Year 2023 and an instant recommendation to any survival horror fans or newcomers to the genre. I cant praise the game enough.

2. Assassins Creed 2: Brotherhood
Honestly. Its a great game. A lot of side objectives. But they fit perfectly in and make sense in the story. The story is great. One of the best AC games i've played, if not the best.

3. Metroid Prime Remastered (Switch)
Really good game with a great atmosphere. The different places look beautiful and its fun to go out and explore. Solving puzzles is fun and all the different weapons and visors are very well implemented + fun to use.
Only criticism would be that backtracking feels slow and fights tend to drag (a lot). Especially bosses.

4. Titanfall 2


5. Zombi(U)
Great horror, good atmosphere, great sound design (except for the soundbugs)
The survival horror was too easy and some desing choices didnt matter but its still good. Would be a great pick for a newcommer to the genre.

6. Nightmare of Decay
Great little survival horror game that pays homage to its genre.

7. Nier: Automata
Cool game, but didnt want to replay the game 3 times to get the full story. Character dialoge felt cheesy sometimes. Main antagonists just scream Square Enix.

8. The Complex: Found Footage
Great ambient horror game. And its free.

9. Carrion
For what it wanted to achieve it did a great job. I had a lot of fun

10. System Shock remake
Good game good vibe. Got lost too many times.
Around 10% of my entire playtime i was me being lost and frustrated, but i wouldnt say it's a bad game for that. It taught me how to play immersive sims. And that i dont like them.

11. Deadbolt
Started the game when i was still a smoll man but never finished back then. Picked it back up and started the story again. Yeah its great

12. Assassins Creed 4: Black Flag
Cool game, was fun. But in typical Ubisoft fashion way too filled with unecessary features and side objectives. It kinda overstayed it's welcome and i wanted it to end at some point, i just couldnt care anymore.

13. Assassins Creed 4: Freedom Cry
Was alright. Too many side objectives that dont matter and dont change anything again. Music was good. Given that i played it right after Black Flag i was already pretty burned out of the Assassins Creed formula, but if it wasnt for that, id say it isnt a bad DLC. Just too overpacked with unecessary stuff. If side quests respawn 5 minutes after you did them at the same spot every time, it kinda brings you out of the game.

14. Metroid (NES)
The first Metroid. It was released in 1987 and it shows. The game has quite a lot of outdated and frustrating mechanics that you wouldnt find in modern games. So it definitely isnt for everyone. But if you're a fan of the series and play the game how it was intended i think you can have some fun. That being, using only the handbook, drawing a map by hand and trying to figure out its secrets. (And using safestates. No way i'm going to grind back my full health for 10 minutes every time i die)

15. Postal Redux
crazy man go brrr.


Co-Op List 2023:

1. The past within
Nice little puzzle game to play with a friend. Has some cool ideas that it implements well.

2. Sacred Citadel
I havent played a lot of beat em ups, so i dont know how it fares, but it wasnt bad. But definitely better with a friend.

3. Streets of Rage 4
Good with a friend. Combos feel very simple and the game has a dire need of a block button. Unlocked characters bring nothing interesting to the table and feel more like fanservice for fans of the series, which im not