10 Best Video Games Of 2022

1. Elden Ring

We all knew it. We could feel it the second we stepped out that tutorial area and found a dragon resting on a lake. Accidentally opened a chest and were beamed halfway around the world to a different biome entirely. Descended into what we'd later find was an entire other hidden map, tucked away underneath the existing one.

Elden Ring was HUGE; it redefined the word "epic", and yet it was inviting. It's a Skyrim, a Breath of the Wild, a Red Dead Redemption 2 - something you're glad to witness as a player of video games.

Design-wise, Hidetaka Miyazaki and the team at FromSoftware find ways to be consistently surprising the entire time you play. From set-piece battles against the likes of Starscourge Radahn and the God-Devouring Serpent, Rykard, to stumbling across entire resting areas for families of dragons or triggering time travel to face off against a twin-headed serpent king called Placidusax.

Elden Ring is every game design lesson learned from over a decade of being on top, rolled out across a solid 80-100 hour journey that keeps the needle of surprise and satisfaction pinned the entire time.

A magnificently designed, complex and rewarding RPG we'll pass down through generations and replay over and over ourselves, Elden Ring is immediate gaming royalty, and 2022's most essential game.