Feel free to speak about your favorites, recommend games to other users and anything else you can think of. My rationale for my favorites is the following (I am not a very good writer so bear with me):
Planescape Torment: Interesting setting which I feel is drug-fueled to an extent, great gritty atmosphere, the writing is very good and the narrative is extremely interesting and well done. Go blind and you won't regret it.
Terraria: The game has a lot of flaws (and I prefer the exploration focus before hardmode more than the boss rush), but I have played it a ton of times alone, or with my gf, or with friends so it is my comfort game and I can always relax when playing it. Also, he Thorium mod is a pretty good content mod that stays true to the spirit of the game.
FFXIV: Shadowbringers: It's the climax of the whole story of FFXIV, where almost all of the mysteries are resolved, the plotlines converge and the main antagonists are confronted and explored. I love the setting, the enemies and the lore of the First as a whole, and the story if full of emotion and more thematically rich than one would expect, with a part of the game being a direct parallel of the first world during climate change, and it involves positively if naively portrayed class struggle.
ZeroRanger: Besides the amazing aesthetic, soundtrack and the good gameplay (two of the bosses are some of my favorite of all time), the game blends the story with every aspect of the gameplay seamlessly and it perfectly executes the Buddhism theme in ways I cannot explain without spoiling you. It also has its fair share of emotional moments, and is the perfect mecha anime-like game imo. OFF: Fucked up surreal RPG maker game with a unique aesthetic and disturbing atmosphere and soundtrack. The story has many interpretations and it makes great use of the gaming medium in a meta way to make you feel things. It's probably the most artistic game I have ever played.
Trails in the Sky trilogy: I used the 3rd for my 3x3 since it is the one that impacted me the most emotionally due to the amazing character writing and the emotional journey of the protagonist, but the whole trilogy is the peak of JRPGs for me, with a very fun combat system, amazing music, characters and an interesting setting with great worldbuilding. Some dislike it due to being slower plot-wise than games like Final Fantasy, but that just gives the characters and the setting time to be fleshed out, making you much more invested when shit actually goes down. The portrayal of the nationalist antagonists and the politics as a whole are lib, but in the face of everything else that makes the games good I can easily ignore it.
Hollow Knight: This is pretty much the perfect platformer in all aspects except the music which is very good but not exactly my style. The aesthetic, exploration and bosses are all amazing and I thoroughly enjoyed my time with it.
Katamari Damacy: Has a very unique style of gameplay and humor which accompanied with the great Shibuya-kei soundtrack makes for a great stress reliever game. The final level is something to behold as well (I won't spoil you).
These games have become part of me (sorry for the cheesiness), and if you haven't played them you are doing yourself a disservice.
Updated from last year, I've only played two of these games recently lol:
Disco Elysium: The best written game of all time and it's not even close. The unique painted artstyle stands out, and the soundtrack is phenomenal. The haunting music of the horns that plays whenever you leave the Whirling in the morning somehow manages to make me feel nostalgia for a place that doesn't exist
Outer Wilds: A fantastically realized time-loop puzzle game set in a simulated solar system where each planet holds the keys to solving the overarching secrets. The DLC is harder (and spookier) but also very good.
Witcher 3: Wild Hunt: Prior to Disco Elysium, this would've been my candidate for best written game (specifically, the Hearts of Stone DLC). A sprawling open world with too much to do and gameplay that's fine but not spectacular, I still have fond memories. The game is at its best when you're given a moral dilemma and there's no clear right or wrong answer, and you're often missing key details. It's at its worse when you're trailing poop tracks through the forest to fight a random monster. Also, the soundtrack is great, and the combat theme with the choral backing is burned into my skull.
Dark Souls: My favorite of the souls genre, second place goes to Sekiro and third to Elden Ring. Something about the slower pace of combat (and viability of heavy armor) really appeals to me.
Monster Hunter World: A game about stabbing dinosaurs in the ankles with swords, where each of the 12 weapons has a full moveset that will take dozens of hours to master, World is the best of the Monster Hunters I've played (Sunbreak gets second, Iceborne third purely due to the addition of the clutch claw, and Rise last). I don't know if I'll ever be able to enjoy another game in the series in the same way, because nothing beats the feeling of exploration as you slowly piece together the game's systems and learn how best to use your preferred weapon. I don't think my PC can even run Wilds lmao.
Victoria 3: Communism simulator is a fun game to play, though the combat is still pretty jank and will likely never be fixed (imo they have to remove RNG general traits or else you have to just cycle fire them which is boring and cheesy). I'd say it's a placeholder for all the other paradox and total war games that I also enjoy but haven't played much recently.
Mass Effect: Okay yes it's about being a space CIA agent but of the sixth-generation western RPGs it's my favorite. The setting is extremely well-realized, and I prefer the unorthodox gameplay with things like the cone of fire and unlimited ammo to the sequels' more conventional FPS fare. The biggest flaw in the game is probably the fact that the morality system is so mechanically reinforced, because it means you're rewarded for not really thinking about conflict because you just always select the good guy/bad guy option to get the right type of morality points.
Timesplitters: Future Perfect: The only real nostalgia pull here, I think this is the best of the games descended from Goldeneye. A frankly stupid amount of weapons and characters, I spent way too many hours playing this in college. I do not imagine it holds up today lol.
Vampire Survivors: The main genre I played this year is VS clones. It's the perfect podcast game: keeps your hands busy, but doesn't require much conscious thought to play so you can entirely focus on trying to remember all the characters from Blowback S5. I think that the unlock system in Vampire Survivors is also the best, because everything is hidden behind a clear goal, and there's no huge grind. My Survivors-clone tierlist:
This is true, but I still liked the morality system even with an extremely simple choice because it made being renegade that much more satisfying. Renegade femshep is one of the best voice acted parts in videogames ever, there are some really funny moments.
Fucking Love Vampire Survivors and the gerne it spawned - a perfect example of a gerne where gameplay trumps all. (plus most of the games are rather cheap and indie which is cool)