I considered most of these for my own list. You really can't go wrong with any random handful of these games.

One of the great things about indie gaming is that the games are typically less than half the price of a AAA, so it's relatively easy to catch up on stuff you may have missed. But as far as crash-course material, I would recommend:

I dropped about $100 of Christmas money on Steam, and got the following:

How does she keep up with the news like that??

I think The Witness was clearly the best game of the year, and recently I found myself comparing it to my 2015 GOTY, which was Undertale. At one level, they couldn't be more different: Undertale felt like a breakthrough for the medium in terms of empathy and emotional resonance, while The Witness is about as cerebral…

I didn't really enjoy Diablo when I played it as a teenager. I'm not sure if I'd feel differently about it today, but my recollection is that it was too simple in areas where I wanted complexity, and too complicated in areas where I wanted simplicity. But I think this article is onto something regarding its lasting…

I've come to appreciate the character of Leia more and more over the years. Out of all the main Rebels, she's the true freedom fighter. Luke gets drawn into the Rebellion by forces beyond his control. Han, Chewie, and (eventually) Lando seem more motivated by personal loyalty than politics. But Leia is just an…

Star Wars: the story of some redneck kid who would go to any lengths to get some power converters

Conversely, you could take out all the dialogue and just keep the music, and you would still understand the entire story.

"I think it was called The Fascist Coup That Couldn't Slow Down."

Can't wait to hear what you think of Inside…it's like Limbo was the proof of concept demo and Inside is the real game.

LOVE this game, very underrated in my opinion.

LOVE this game, very underrated in my opinion.

I beat Dark Souls 3 yesterday! Finished off the boss of the DLC, then headed straight over and dealt with the final boss—neither of which were very tough after having beaten the Nameless King last week, but at this point in the game I'm not looking to spend twenty tries on one fight. I really enjoyed the DLC, but I…

I'd put Dark Souls and Hotline Miami ahead of it, but that might be it from this decade.

The Ubisofts and Rockstars of the world could learn a valuable lesson from quaint little Stardew Valley about how to fill a game with optional activities and have it feel balanced and inviting rather than bloated and overwhelming. The basic activities of Stardew Valley—farming, foraging, fishing, mining, and…

10. Darkest Dungeon (Best Gameplay Loop)

I didn't hate it, but I thought it felt pretty slight. I honestly can't remember what it was even about. I did like the idea of a less grandiose Marvel movie, though.

A lot of people were backing me up the other day when I said I thought The Witness was game of the year…I'm surprised it didn't crack the top 10. But about half of that list does overlap with my own.

That's President-Elect Alpha Cuck to you.