How many stinkers did you play this year?

The only one that really sticks out is Starfield. Most other games I played I knew what I was getting into. For some reason Starfield surprised me, probably because it was on Gamepass (so effectively free) and because I trusted Bethesda. Oh well.
Considering the number of great games this year, that's not too bad.
- Agreed and Starfield wasn’t even that bad. I just don’t have any time to play a mediocre game when BG3 is sitting right there.
- Maybe it's just me getting older, but since Skyrim, Bethesda games have failed to capture that magic for me. They've been leaning on the creation engine for too long, to the point that so many of the features, not the least of which being the goddamn shouts, are all carbon copies of one another, the base building is literally just a fucking resource sink, the gunplay sucks and the enemies are all bullet sponges unless you dip into late game planets and filch a late game gun, the jobs are 90% basic removed fetch quests, and the core gameplay loop of "go place --> grab shit --> sell shit" has not evolved since Morrowind.
  I stop playing games when they start feeling like a second job, and for me that point in Starfield was about three hours in when I was trying to complete survey data for the homesteading program and I was wandering around this deserted planet, looking for samples of flora and fauna, and I scoot back from my desk as I realize, for 20 minutes, I have done absolutely nothing meaningful or engaging. The closest I've come is, I've pointed a scanner at a bunch of procedurally generated animals hoping they don't land a hit on me because they're too spongy for me to kill, so I can fill a meter, so that when I'm done filling meters I can go back to BDG and tell him this place is suitable for people to live. That's not fun. It barely qualifies as gameplay, and it is an aggressive waste of time.
  
  Maybe it’s just me getting older, but since Skyrim, Bethesda games have failed to capture that magic for me.
  It is not you. Standards for the genre have been raised since at least 2015, and Bethesda has not kept up, for all the reasons you stated.

I had a really solid year, all things considered:
⭐ Hi-Fi Rush -- Love it, hands down. This game's like if Jet Set Radio, Scott Pilgrim, and DMC got into a fist fight and then that fist fight had a baby with Jack Black
⭐ Pentiment -- I'm still playing through this one but I can already tell it's a new favorite. Major Return of the Obra Dinn vibes
⭕ Against the Storm -- This game innovates on the citybuilder genre so hard and I can't get enough of it. If you love a challenge and hate the late-game, this is THE ONE
⭕ Psychonauts 2 -- Fun and bursting with creativity... but I had to set it down after a certain point because I stopped enjoying the gameplay loop. Can't put my finger on why...
⭕ Peglin -- Yes, Peglin. The Peggle Roguelite. I like it and you would too if you gave it a chance. It's not a forever roguelite, but I guarantee you'll have a blast with it for 5-10 hours
❌ Deep Rock Galactic -- I bounced off of this one. The game has so much charm... but I just couldn't click with it. I think co-op games just may not be for me
Honorable Mention: TF2 -- Definitely not a "new" game to me, I own TF2, I bought it with money! Even so... this year marked my return after a looong hiatus. Coming back was a total revelation -- I thought I'd grown to hate FPS games -- as it turns out, what I'd actually grown to hate was the modern antisocial MMR grindset. Game developers: I beseech thee... abandon matchmaking and return to 2007. Return the slab or suffer my curse
- I treat Deep Rock the same way I treat roguelies and arcade-style games -- I can just hop on when I'm in the "dwarf mood", play one or two missions and be done with it for the day. It's very good for short sessions like that. Also, you can play solo no problem -- you get a drone instead that can mine and shoot things.
  Also, TF2 community servers FTW
  
  When it comes to Deep Rock/co-op I think my issues are more associated with the underlying gameloop design. I find it hard to perform well when the "tension" ramps up and these games are kind of tailor-made to create high-tension situations. When a round ends I'm left feeling tired/deflated rather than joyful. I had the same issue with Left 4 Dead, but oddly not so for Payday 2.
  In any case, I'm right there with you when it comes to TF2 community servers. I sorely wish that more games emphasized these sorts of digital "3rd places". I have TF2 servers where I can go anytime and just... belong for as long as I please. Games should have more permanent places like that, where play and community come before any imposed win/lose dichotomy. People would be happier.
- Ayy someone else who's been enjoying Against the Storm.
  
  I played over 140 hours now! I'm currently trying to climb the difficulty up to P20.
- A fellow Xbox gamepass User IT seems. Pentiment is one of my All Time favorites (probably top3 at least)
  This was after my First playthrough. Now, with George putting out his video, im back in. My god, its marvellous.
  Hifi Rush was great, but felt too formulaic for me, so i abandoned it after the first or second Boss. Too much running arpund, No real banger music between Bosses.
  On a Side Note, its kinda similiar too with Lies of Pi. I can See the great soulslike It is (3/4 in) but my interest vanishes. Too many repetitive encounters. Too linear. I feel Like Elden Ring really innovated the genre through its semi Open world approach.
  
  A fellow Xbox gamepass User IT seems.
  Nope, I'm just someone who waits for sales and has a bit of an indie streak.
  This was after my First playthrough. Now, with George putting out his video, im back in. My god, its marvellous.
  I see we follow similar creators! I only just picked Pentiment up last week -- Jacob Geller's recent 2023 video is what originally put Pentiment on my radar and then George's video gave me that final push into playing it for myself. I'm extremely glad for having done so because Pentiment has quickly become quite special to me. I already look forward to making subsequent playthroughs despite still working on the first.
  Hifi Rush was great, but felt too formulaic for me, so i abandoned it after the first or second Boss. Too much running arpund, No real banger music between Bosses.
  I can see where you're coming from. From a macro perspective, the game's essentially just a series of battle arenas stitched together by corridors and platforming challenges... nothing incredible there. What makes Hi-Fi Rush special for me is the novel fusion of rythm mechanics and spectacle fighter mechanics -- they complement each other extremely well. (Forgive me for explaining at you like this. I just can't help myself when it comes to talking about this game)
  Normally, I can't stand DMC-likes because of the requisite rote memorization. HFR flips this dynamic on its head by making the memorization incidental -- it happens naturally as you practice playing the combo on-rythm. Perhaps even more importantly; just as mastery of a combo string comes within reach, the underlying musical qualities all suddenly spring into focus and turn the sequence into a musical phrase. It clicks together in a very intrinsically satisfying way IMO. Naturally, this all compounds in on itself and gets double-fun once you start improvising your own "melodies" during real combat. You like Jazz? Because it's like Jazz if Jazz killed people.
  Now, obviously this isn't going to hit the same way for everyone (nor should it!)... but if you've not yet buckled down in training mode and truly mastered a string or two for yourself, then I would very emphatically encourage you to give the game a second try. I actually had to do the exact same thing myself before I really "got" the game and my mindset shifted. Hi-Fi Rush truly is the Dark Souls of 3rd-Person Action videogames
- I liked Peglin but after a while it feels like the game is really unbalanced with too few useful builds.
  
  Yup, that about sums it up: fun, but shallow. Nevertheless I think it's worthy of a recommendation because it has a great honeymoon period before falling off.
- I liked Deep Rock. I started playing it during the pandemic with some friends instead of doing in-person board games (and Jackbox and boardgame simulators got old). I definitely ended up playing more single player than multiplayer. Buuut I probably haven't played it in a year? It just got really samey after getting through a lot of leveling up and unlocks.
  
  Same for me, really enjoyable 150 hours, but now with the slow updates I just already seen everything.
  I moved to Darktide, despite its flaw I'm still playing it after the same amount of hours since then.
  
  The deep rock board game is so fun. And I hate board games and inwardly groan when someone suggests a board game, lol.

I gave into peer pressure earlier this year and tried League.
God that shit was boring.
- Every other game Riot releases outside of League is better than League.
  Mageseeker is my top choice by them this year.

- I loved every other Diablo and went hard on 4. Then one day I just put the controller down and never picked it back up. I might play more later, but I'm so tired of games that are just nakedly obvious about being nothing but a grind and a job. I wasted so much money getting PSPlus for just this game. All told I spent about $150 on this and the only thing of value I got was a few hours playing with some old friends who also stopped playing and made me realize I wasn't getting anything else out of it.
  I've played a hell of a lot of BG3 and it feels completely the opposite. There is so much content that motivates me to do it for roleplay reasons. It doesn't feel nearly as grindy. Some of the dialogs are a bit much to slog through after seeing them a few too many times, but they were all great the first time through, and it motivates me to try different options to get different dialog. But everyone knows BG3 is good.
  Guess I'll round out my list.
  I really enjoyed Jedi: Outcast. Like BG3, the story is as good as the action, but there's really only one storyline and if I recall you can get pretty much everything on a single playthrough so there aren't really even mechanical decisions to make other than how to approach a combat.
  Horizon: Forbidden West was pretty fun. I put it down for other games and haven't gotten back to it but I will. Seems to share a lot with Jedi. Similar gameplay, similar linear storyline. It feels like mechanical choices are more meaningful and maybe you can't do everything on a single playthrough but again I haven't finished it.
  Hogwarts Legacy: my wife wanted this because Harry Potter, but then it made her motion sick. So I felt obligated to play it to get our money's worth and I didn't make it very far at all before putting it down. Maybe there is more there further into the game but it didn't grab me enough to find out.
  
  Jedi outcast, as in the original from like 20 years ago?
  Or Jedi survivor that came out last year?

One: Starfield.
Not much I can say about it that hasn't already been said, it was just so bland.

Not really a "stinker" but I was disappointed with Tears of the Kingdom and have dropped it after 100 hours.
I don't think it helps that I've been playing this whilst sat next to my fiancee playing the Witcher 3 on our Steam Deck. The difference between the two games is like night and day, despite the Witcher 3 being almost a decade older.
Tears of the Kingdom is just okay, in my opinion. I enjoyed it enough to get 100 hours out of it. I dropped Breath of the Wild after a similar amount of time too. They're just not for me I guess, they don't immerse me like other RPGs do.
- 100h is not a stinker game playtime but I see what you mean :))

I have PlayStation Plus. Most of what I play are stinkers.

Intraveneous. Game got a lot of love and as a huge stealth fan I was really into the idea. Got it and hated every second of it. It's tedious and punishing even by stealth game standards and the story wasn't great either. Mechanics were poorly explained and it felt like the keymapping was made by a person who had never played a keyboard game before. ugh. I was really disappointed too because it was marketed as a stealth game that didn't punish you for failing stealth which is true but the issue is that it's so damn easy to fail stealth that you might as well just go in guns blazing anyway. It wasn't like MGSV where both options make sense depending on the circumstance. It was more like "stealth is nigh impossible so we made guns-blazing a fail safe for people who aren't nuts at this game"
Atomic Heart. Yes I bought this game and I am ashamed of it. No it wasn't for the robot porn. I thought it looked like an interesting Bioshock / Wolfenstein mashup and both of those are my favorites. Game was just... slow. Combat, stealth, everything felt like you were moving through syrup. The character's english voice acting is also horrifically cringe. Like, just awful in every sense. Made me hate the MC more than the villains.
Dying Light 2. I loved the first so I was seriously disappointed by this. Main issue was really with the movement. Gave me motion sickness dozens of times with how the camera is set up, and I was expecting something like Mirror's Edge (Catalyst) but it felt just awfully floaty. The game also did... fuck all... in terms of explaining what you... do? so I just was super confused. Uninstalled after like 10 hours in frustration.
Ghostrunner. Played this in December of 2022 but I wanted to add it in as a hot take. Overall great but the boss fights are pretty terribly designed after the first one and pretty much ruined the game for me. Plus there's useless parkour sections that added nothing. Surprisingly little time spent being a ninja badass for a cyberpunk ninja badass game.

I can't actually think of anything off the top of my head. After I stopped buying AAA titles from the obvious scummy companies, pretty much everything has been at least as good as expected.

Starfield was pretty much it for me.
I wanted to like it, but there is just nothing to like about it aside from the gun design and the spaceship builder.
- It's weird that as I continue to want to play more of it, I'm annoyed by just about every design decision they made along the way. I want to get into the gun design thing even, but the perk tree system puts a roadblock in my way.
  
  The skill tree stuff makes me feel like Bethesda finally listened to all those players who removeded about it being too easy to become "overpowered" and blamed it on how easy it was to level up and not the poor balancing with how level scaling works. So now, all the actually good, fun and useful shit is all the way at the top (or rather the bottom) of the tree, with a bunch of "milestones" you have to hit in addition to simply being the right level and/or having the previous skills in the tree.

If you're talking video (not board) games, I think most the games I played were kind of a mix of good and bad. I mean they usually start out pretty well but then end up being repetitive and boring. If I ever have to play another farm sim where I'm required to craft things in some convoluted way that makes no sense, I'll chuck my game system out the nearest window. Why does "Stardew Valley" get it totally right, and the rest not get it right at all? OK yes I play mostly casual games, but the real "gems" are few and far between. Still waiting for another good sim that isn't more work than it is fun.
- OK yes I play mostly casual games...
  You say that like it's something to be ashamed of. "Casual" is an underrated genre, because sometimes, it's nice to just take your time and enjoy the experience. Life has enough complexities that escaping to a world of simplicity and calm can be truly rewarding.
  
  Well to be truthful, it feels like people DO put casual gaming in sort of a "not really serious" category. And that's somewhat true; I don't like overly complicated games that have tons of drop down menus you can't even read onscreen (tiny fonts). I've always been more into puzzle or even sim games because there is no platforming usually (I SUCK SO MUCH AT PLATFORMING!). I love casual games because they usually are easy going, I can play for 20 minutes or an hour, it's up to me.
- Why does “Stardew Valley” get it totally right, and the rest not get it right at all?
  I think it's because Stardew has a lot of RPG elements. Developing relationships with the townspeople (romantic and friendship), figuring out the lore, etc. Lots of games that try to replicate Stardew do the farming / labor stuff and call it quits. I know there are probably some people that go into that game only doing farming, but most people I've met who are fans of it like the lore stuff.
  
  That's one thing Stardew does right. But also, it gets the "labor mechanics" right; there aren't a ton of drop down menus to navigate through, your tools are right there on the bottom tab. And also, amazingly - and astonishingly - it GIVES you the basic farm tools you need right off the bat! You can start a farm without much explanation and zero aggravation. If you need upgrades, you just pay for them and yes, there's some material gathering to make buildings, but someone else does the actual construction. To me that's great because then I can go fight blobs in the mines or fish or visit the other residents.
- If you don't want gaming to feel like work, maybe stop playing labor simulators. Like, isn't the point of those games to make you feel like your working whatever job they're "simulating"?
  
  Clearly there are some games that do it better.
  
  Oh sure go and be all logical about it. :/ You're right though, and I do try to stay away from labor simulators (which is a better name for them than gaming simulators, since there's not much fun in them if you ask me). Even Stardew Valley and Animal Crossing get very tedious doing the same chores every day all day long - maybe it's just my adult ADHD acting up.
- this is such a mood. i’m still waiting for the next stardew valley.
  
  Me too! And why after all this time, isn't there a Stardew 2? I know he's busy with Haunted Chocolatier, which makes me salivate for many reasons - but I dunno if I'll ever live long enough to see it come out for realsies.
- Why does “Stardew Valley” get it totally right, and the rest not get it right at all?
  I am not an expert on SDV, but my wife plays basically every HM-like out there, and her take is that Barone focused so heavily on the 'economy' balance in SDV that all of the activities feel like they're worth doing, so it doesn't become "only farming", or "only adventuring", etc, like many others do. Even just picking up wild plants feels worth it when you drop them in the sale bin in the evening.
  
  I think that's true and one reason I like SDV so much. There isn't a lot of time spent on material gathering, and you don't have to craft your own tools or make your own buildings. I think those things COULD be fun if they weren't so complicated in so many sim games - I could not make heads or tails out of the crafting mechanics in "My Time at Portia," for example. I think if you're goingg to task the gamer with those things, they should be very easy to do, because most people don't want to waste time on mundane chores and drawn out searches for rare materials or who knows what the game requires (in many cases I simply have no idea what the game is wanting from me!).

Not "bad" but disappointing: No Man's Sky. There's a lot to be liked here but as someone who has played Elite Dangerous everything is just so incredibly dumbed down.
Fighting is trivially easy, just hold S, shoot and grab a snack while doing it.
There's absolutely no consequences for anything. It doesn't matter how much fuel I have because I can just find new fuel anywhere or teleport somewhere completely different. Doesn't matter where I log out because the game will just throw me to the same system as my coop partner anyway.
Doesn't matter if the authorities want me, just fly into a station and all is forgotten. Got contraband? Just tell them to get lost and fly away casually. No bounty on my head, no nothing.
Don't get me wrong, Elite is definitely way too hardcore for casual play but at the same time the only thing No Man's Sky has done is make me want to play Elite again.
- Same here -- I've been doing exploration exclusively in Elite, and it got kinda samey and boring. Yet, somehow playing Elite was so mentally taxing, it quite often felt like having a second job. So, I decided to try out NMS, after hearing about its redemption so much.
  The story of NMS was kinda neat, even though it was presented in a very dry way. The visuals were also not bad. Looking at planetary landscapes sometimes felt like stepping into the world of The Sand Sea and the Plateaux of Mirrors, which is a very good thing imo.
  The actual gameplay just wasn't engaging enough, though, and super janky (making gas/mineral farms sucks). Like, it's very hard to find meaning in whatever you're doing in that game. In contrast, doing exploration in Outer Wilds was very fun, because it felt like you were exploring an actual living world. In NMS, you get the same prefab randomly generated building and a sliver of lore. No environmental storytelling, no anything. So, it's very difficult to connect to NMS's world.
- I wanted to like "No Man's Sky," when it was finally available on the Switch (my PS4 had just died when it came out) I was elated to play it. After a couple hours of playing, I wanted those two hours of my life back. An ugly game with very little color, and absolutely no direction as to what you're supposed to be doing, I wasted those two hours trying to figure out what the hell was going on. I absolutely hated it - the only game I ever asked for a refund on.
  
  I've often described NMS as Minecraft in Space. The "story", such as it is, is completely pointless and superfluous. You just fly around, mine minerals, build stuff, and that's about it. And it wears thin really quickly.
- Elite dangerous is so fucking good.

I played a lot of great games this year, but also many that didn't click with me.
There's a huge spikes of games that I played this year, because I decided to start tackling my backlog by streaming them, these include games I've bought on sale, and those that are on PS+ Extre.

I don't think I played any truly bad games, but I do have a list of games that I bounced off of for one reason or another. Maybe I ran out of steam to play them, maybe life got in the way and I couldn't come back to it, or I just didn't want to "git gud" with the limited time I have. I basically deemed them not worth my time when I did manage to sink a ton of hours into Spider-Man, Cyberpunk, and Talos Principle.
So that abandoned graveyard consists of...
Tunic - I hit a wall at one of the bosses and just couldn't progress. Ran out of juice unfortunately.
Mr. Sun's Hatbox - Such a weird quirky game. Didn't get close to beating it but I got enough out of it and called it quits.
Hunt: Showdown - This one was a bummer. It's been on my "need to try" list. I tried it, solo, and died right away. I could tell it was one of those games that needed a time investment to make it work and I just don't have it in me.
Cult of the Lamb - Something about the roguelike aspect of it didn't mesh with me, which is weird because I feel like that's really become a genre I like.
Overwatch 2 - I played poorly as Lifeweaver, was griefed in chat, and quit :)
- To jump in on Hunt Showdown, the initial learning curve of the game does require a little time to get used to compared to other shooters. However the biggest call out I would have is to not try playing the game solo. Hunt is very much a game that is made or broken by the company you keep while you play it and it takes a very special kind of player (a masochist) to enjoy playing it solo. Either way, definitely understandable to bounce off it, it's a great game but not for everyone.
  
  Totally could see that being the case. I think it was a combination of seeing the difficulty curve and not having a consistent group to play with that probably did me in. I’m happy to lose and learn, but not maybe as much as it seemed like I would playing solo!
  Given more time, definitely something I’d want to get into more.

Zero. The only new games I purchased this year were BG3 and Lethal Company, both of which are goated for completely different reasons.
Beyond that I've just been sticking to games I've been playing for years. No stinkers there, probably.

For me it'd be Starfield and Diablo 4. I do have faith that Blizzard will turn the ship around and reel me back in to D4 later down the line. I have zero hope for Starfield ever being good, though. It is a fundamentally broken game I have no hope Bethesda will be able to fix, ever.

We finally got around to playing Gotham Knights this year since it was a few bucks on sale for a coop adventure. Certified stinker for sure.
- Oh yeah, I forgot about this one. Good call, definite stinker. Shame, would have loved an Arkham spiritual successor.

I personally really disliked the latest Far cry. Graphics where nice, story was ok-ish but the outlandish aspects of the gameplay (supremo's.. pets..) made it a snoozefest without any challenge. Setting the enemies to bulletsponge made it even more unbearable. I'll be waiting for the bargain bin for the next installment.
- How is it compared to 3 - 5? 3 - 5 are some of my faves and I was looking forward to 6 but I heard similar things from other people. If it's a similar game experience then I might consider giving it a try.
  
  I enjoyed 3 to 5, probably 3 and 5 more than 4. I did not enjoy 6 at all.

The only game that was kinda a bummer was Tears of the kingdom. The sky world was just copy/pastes with nothing but some robots. I wanted the hot bird people up there or something.
The underground was dead and had a few POIs but was basically just those same annoying ninjas from the first game who disguise themselves as civilians. I liked the story and characters in botw2 better. The map was largely unchanged from the first game. Some of the missions were better. Gannon actually getting a plot was cool. The enemies were better this go around. The gmod bits were cool, but caused the game to run like shit. The game also ran at like, 22 fps the entire time anyways. The shrines were as meh as the first game, which were already so dull I'd look up guides just to get more hearts/stamina.
...it should have been a $25 DLC instead of a $70 game.
It was a solid 4.5/10 for me, mostly just on the amount of rehashed stuff for a $70 game, which should have blown my balls off for waiting six years and $70 later. I hope the next Zelda game is more like Twilight Princess.
- I was going to contest, but I actually emulated the game and didn't have the framerate issues. Everything else held up for me though. In terms of the civiskyzation, it has been thousands of years. They all dead. I don't disagree with the underground being empty, but it is an unknown underground. It made sense for the POI's to mostly match up with the overworld elements.
  I think these are fair lore reasons when it's like this because of the hardware the game runs on. Maybe there could have been more underground but it affected the performance.
  Disagree on the DLC though. It was a pretty fully fledged game. I also agree that it shouldn't have been $70, though lol.
  
  I think had they released it on PC, it would have been a bit better, since the vehicles could be built larger and have a further despawn distance without big frame drop penalties. (And frame drops in certain environments). I'm glad for the enemy variation and liked the bosses better in totk. But next game, I hope the gameplay is wildly different and they take some risks with the story. I'd love to see parts where you play as Zelda or something.

Starfield, Diablo 4, and Tears of the Kingdom for me.
Starfield was a hard pass at 30FPS on my Series X. But also, the gameplay and story just didn’t interest me at all.
Diablo 4 was monotonous. Grinding for hours to get a percentage of a percentage increase on gear was not fun. I’ve played every other Diablo game along with numerous other action RPGs of that style, but D4 is a snorefest. It’s frustrating being chain stunned by all the crowd control, it’s frustrating that a lot of enemies have a lot of health for no reason, and it’s bland when you face the same few bosses over and over again. It wasn’t so bad in the other Diablo games because you could just nuke the bosses, but in D4 each one is a straight up chore to kill.
Tears of the Kingdom… it’s a fun action adventure game, but if it has The Legend of Zelda on it, it needs to be held to The Legend of Zelda standards. And it, just like Breath of the Wild, is an awful Zelda game. If it didn’t have LoZ on it, I’d probably rate it much higher.

Not many. The obligatory 50% of all mobile games that I played for 5 minutes and went "I hate this", obviously. But PC games? Hmmm. Probably "Lost Ember", I guess. What really puzzles me about this is I played "Spirit of the North" and was utterly in love with it, to the point that it's in my top 5, and "Lost Ember" is very similar in many respects. I ought to have loved it, and I cannot put my finger on what I didn't like about it. I just didn't like it.

Dunno if I'd call it a stinker, but my excitement for Starfield waned very quickly as I played. 20 hours in, it was still fun. 30-40 hours, I'm like, eh. Past about 60 hours I was completely disillusioned with it. The perk system is a nightmare, leveling up gets really difficult really quickly. Making money (especially after they hid all the vendor chests), getting materials, etc. is a tedious slog. The UI/UX for ship building and settlement building is painful. Settlement building in general is a pointless waste of time and takes way too long to get the perks enough to make it even remotely worthwhile.
It also doesn't help that there's not a native version for the Xbox One, and Cloud Play is miserable. Constant disconnects, jitters, long load times, long wait times.
SPOILER BITS
The main quest is completely pointless. It has no effect on anything. Outside of Constellation and the other Starborn, no one even knows anything is happening. Your choices don't have any impact on anything. Side with the Hunter? Side with the Emissary? Outside of the number of dupes you fight at the end, it literally doesn't matter. And getting to the end does absolutely nothing. Now you have to start over with a shittier ship you can't upgrade, some armor that's mostly fine, and literally nothing else. Nothing's different. Sure, after enough times through, silly things start happening at Constellation. But what else? It's not worth it.
The faction quests are fun, but then again, have basically no bearing on anything.
The companions are disappointing: ostensibly you have two lovable rogues, a religious zealot, and the most Lawful Good character who will judge you for even the slightest non-Squeaky Clean choices you make, though they all end up being basically the same.
Otherwise, you just keep running the treadmill: get all 10 upgrades to your Space Shouts, ship, and armor? And then what? Just keep going. Do it again. And again. And you still don't have enough perk points.
On second thought, maybe I would call it a stinker. So fucking disappointing. It had so much potential.

I got a lot of games with AMD hardware or other give aways, games I normally would not buy anyway. Imo Forspoken, Starfield, Redfall, Dead Island 2, Callisto protocol, AC Mirage and Harry Potter I did not like.
Glad there have been a lot of games I did enjoy recently, Dave the Diver, my time at Sandrock, Thalos Principle 2, Stray. I did like AAA Jedi Survivor although some technical glitches occurred.

I played a few games that were just really mediocre.
Warhammer 40k: Inquisitor was a super boring ARPG and I couldn't put in more than a few hours. The levels were super short and just corridors.
Pathfinder: Kingmaker started out ok, but was just far too long, terribly paced, and the last third was a complete slog. This was probably the one I'd call a "stinker" the most.
Crisis Core Remake (FF7 spin off) had a boring story and lame characters. The bulk of the "content" were 300 side missions that were usually less than five minutes long in one of like six stages. I picked it up after I enjoyed the FF7 Remake far more than I thought, but this game adds nothing to the overall story. To be fair to the game though, I did complete all 300 side stories, because from time to time I like a mindless grind.
I'm continuing my four-year-old save of Octopath Traveler, where I got a third or so in. I dunno if it's the Steam Deck, but there's just tons of aliasing, shifting sprites and flickering, it just looks bad, and the detailed enemy sprites were the only thing I really liked about the game in the first place. Combat is also a slog at times, so I don't know if I have it in me to finish the game.

I picked up Red Steel on the Wii for £1. It has not aged well.

I'm sure many would consider Redfall a stinker, but I enjoyed it quite a bit. And this was before the updates.

@Lunar Zero.
Against the Storm is amazing.
Phantom Brigade fulfilled my high expectations.
Mechabellum was a cool take on auto battling
Nebulous Fleet Command is cool, but not finished and maybe just not my cup of tea, but definitely very much knows what it wants to be and is very good at that.
And the rest are well known good games not released this year.