It is finally time for one of my most anticipated blogs of the year - Playstation Wrap-Up! Checking out Playstation's annual breakdown of my time spent playing video games is always an exciting and largely shameful experience, but it's always one that I look forward to. This year's results provided a few big surprises and shook up my Top 5 in a way that hasn't happened in years. Let's take a look, shall we?
Editor's note: When this blog was originally published on December 28, 2022, it was based on Playstation statistics as of December 22. Playstation later refreshed its data to reflect stats through the end of the year, so an updated version of the blog was made on January 3, 2023, to present the more accurate information.
Total Hours:
I've always been skeptical of the number of hours Playstation says I spent playing - it's a well-documented concern. This year's total hours are just a bit higher than in 2021, so even if the numbers aren't 100 percent verifiable, at least they're consistent.
My console generation scale is leaning slightly toward the PS5, but I can confirm that I spent quite a while cleaning up completion percentages on PS4 games this year, so that seems about right.
Overall, I have no considerable issues with the calculations thus far. Let's move on.
Games Played:
That's a lot of games. I mostly attribute this to my habit of going back and playing old games that I haven't touched in a few years to try to boost my overall completion percentage, even if it means I play it one time for 45 minutes to get a trophy really quickly then never touch it again for the rest of the year.
Top Five Games:
After the folks at WWE 2K took a year off after the absolute abomination that was "WWE 2K20," they actually pumped out a pretty good game this year. The return of "MyGM Mode" was fun (although a very short, one- or two-time experience), but I pumped hours and hours of time into "MyFaction," which is cut from the same cloth as the "MyTeam" or "Diamond Dynasty" modes from the NBA and MLB games that have been Top Five mainstays for years.
Speaking of which, this is the first time ever, I think, that I haven't had a basketball or baseball game in my Top Five for the year. I skipped "NBA 2K" this year and just didn't play as much "MLB The Show" as I have in the past. In fact, I'm considering taking a year off from baseball, too, but we'll see what happens.
Disney Dreamlight Valley was the most pleasant surprise of a video game that I can remember in a long, long time. The game - which will eventually be free-to-play at some point in 2023 - cost $30 for "early access," and I am constantly amazed by the amount of content they've included in the story and side missions. If you're unaware of what DLV is, think "Animal Crossing" but with Disney characters. I blogged about my first week playing the game back in September. It continues to impress, and is a game that even my wife and siblings have gotten into. With the developers' regular updates to improve the game or introduce new features, I imagine that my time spent with "Dreamlight Valley" in 2022 is just the beginning, and I'll probably be seeing it in my Top Five again next year.
Making a late push into the Top Five is Gotham Knights - a game that didn't originally make the cut the first time I looked at my results. By the end of the year, "Gotham Knights" surged its way to a bronze-medal position, which I think is awesome. Despite it taking me a second to come to grips with the fact that "GK" was set in an alternate universe than the "Arkham" video games, I really enjoyed it. I thought all four of the playable characters were compelling, liked a somewhat different spin on Penguin and would love to see additional stories told in that same world. I documented my best usage of Photo Mode while playing "Gotham Knights" in a photo blog; one of my pictures of Red Hood is an all-timer.
I got access to Ghost of Tsushima for free through Playstation Plus, which gave me an easy reason to check out a game that I'd heard tons of good things about from my friends and coworkers. "Ghost" is a samurai slasher with a dense story. Clearly, it took me a decent amount of time to hack my way through it, but it was largely enjoyable and only became a bit tedious when I was trying to wrap up 100% completion, which required me to, literally, complete every single side mission in the entire game. To check out some of my best photos from "Ghost of Tsushima," check out my photo blog by clicking here.
I have no idea how I clocked so many hours of Stardew Valley this year. I fully admit to putting in a lot of "Stardew" time, during the pandemic, especially, but I had no idea that this game was going to crack my Top Five. I guess this just goes to show that I'm still down with the simulation-style games that I enjoyed on the computer growing up. Instead of "Harvest Moon," which I had on a Super Nintendo emulator as a kid, I've got "Stardew Valley." Instead of "Rollercoaster Tycoon," I have "Planet Coaster." Instead of "Sim City," it's "Cities: Skylines." Instead of "Animal Crossing" on the GameCube, there's "Dreamlight Valley" on Playstation. Time is a flat circle, as they say. (I have no idea what that means.)
Trophies Earned:
For the second straight year, my total number of trophies has decreased, but I can take great pride in the fact that I earned a personal best 18 platinum trophies in a single calendar year. Here is a list of the games that I beat to 100 percent completion during 2022:
- Hot Wheels Unleashed - January 9
- Sackboy: A Big Adventure - January 23
- Batman: Arkham Knight - January 23
- Horizon Zero Dawn - January 24
- Uncharted 4: A Thief's End - February 6
- Assassin's Creed Origins - March 31
- Road 96 - April 18
- Mass Effect 1 - May 1
- PGA Tour 2K21 - May 12
- MLB The Show 22 - June 1
- Marvel's Avengers - June 16
- Ghost of Tsushima - July 17
- Monster Energy Supercross - August 5
- LEGO Batman 3: Beyond Gotham - August 21
- Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor - October 4
- Assassin's Creed Odyssey - October 25
- inFamous: First Light - October 30
- Gotham Knights - December 18
After quickly looking over that list, a couple things come to mind:
- Three of those games - "Hot Wheels Unleashed," "Sackboy: A Big Adventure" and "Road 96" - were games that I mostly played with my wife, so that was a lot of fun. My two-year-old son really liked playing "Hot Wheels" (not that he was good at it or anything, but it was a game where he could hold the controller and make the cars go, which was cute).
- I completed three different Batman games and two "Assassin's Creed" games, so that's somewhat noteworthy.
- I got three platinum trophies in the span of 24 and a half hours, between January 23 and 24, which is a feat that will almost certainly never happen again, as long as I live.
One major highlight for me, trophy-wise, this year was that I boosted my average completion percentage above 60 percent, according to PSNprofiles.com. When I first started using that website to track my trophy hunting, I think I was somewhere in the upper 30s, so I've come a long way.
Just because a game didn't crack my Top Five or hit 100 percent completion doesn't mean it wasn't fun. Here is a list of some other Playstation games that I enjoyed during 2022:
- Marvel's Midnight Suns (started too late in the year to make a noticeable dent but definitely a game I'm going to spend a lot of time with)
- Two Point Campus (a silly college simulation game, and one of my final games played in 2022)
- Evil Genius 2 (a silly world domination simulation game)
- LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga (a fun game but - like most LEGO games - one that's going to take a ton of effort to get that platinum)
- NHL 22 (...which got bumped out of my Top Five by "Gotham Knights")
- NHL 23 (...and I made the jump to PS5 after playing the previous installment on PS4)
- MultiVersus (which I didn't play for very long but was decently fun for a free-to-play button masher and definitely contributed to "Fighting" being my top genre of the year)
- Moving Out (a wacky co-op game that my wife and I will probably re-visit, at some point)
- EA Sports UFC 4 (free for Playstation Plus users back at the beginning of the year and a ton of fun for a couple weeks)
- Fallout Shelter (spent a ton of time trying to clean up trophies on this old dog - made it all the way up to 79 percent before bailing on the three most time consuming tasks)
Analysis and Conclusion:
I am actually pretty ok with this year's results. I still put in hours that make lesser men blush but I think I'm being more efficient with the time spent with a controller in my hand. Less hours played, more platinums earned - that's good, right?
I sort-of re-read last year's Playstation Wrap-Up post and I can happily say that I made two predictions a reality - I finished off the "Avengers" game and did end up with a record-setting number of platinum trophies. Hooray. Go, me. I also can confirm that, as I indicated in the last Wrap-Up blog, I did finish several games in 2022 with my wife, which was fun and removes some of the guilt and shame associated with these blogs in the first place.
All in all, I'd say that it's a pretty good time to be a gamer. Playstation may still, unconceivably, be having trouble getting store shelves stocked with PS5 consoles, but at least now they're putting out games that justify taking the plunge.
*****
There we go. Another year in the books. What games did you play most this year? Did any of the games in this recap pique your interest? Do you you have any recommendations for what to play next? Let us know in the comments section, let me know on Facebook or hit us up on Twitter (here and here).
Until next time.
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