GOTY 2022 — Lee's top 3 best PS5, PS4 games

2022 on PS4 and PS5 has been massive, with games coming out that have hit an extraordinarily high bar. So, the writers have put together a list of three games from 2022, honourable mentions, and some bits from years past.

2022 had some massive games and PlayStation exclusives, but as the saying goes — all is nought before Sonic the Hedgehog. In the face of such undeniable quality, the TT staff have made a list of their favourite best games of 2022. While you can expect to see maybe one of the best PS5 games or one of the best PS4 games on this list, sometimes to really appreciate a year in video games you must embrace tastelessness.

TrueTrophies Staff Writer Lee showcases his favourite games of 2022!

So, here's to 2022! To ring it in, Staff Writer Lee has rangled his top three games of the year, keeping in mind the notion that your top games need not necessarily qualify for any best games lists. First and foremost — some honourable mentions.

Honourable mentions

I've never been particularly good at keeping up with games as they come out, so let's keep this section brief and save up all that reading juice for when I talk about older games I've played. I reviewed The Last of Us Part 1 this year and could've cheated by putting it in the Top 3, but I think of it more as an experiment to self-induce an audio-visual Mandela Effect over my memories of 2013. I also wrote an F1 22 review, which I nearly completely forgot about, but hey; that was a good time too.

I dipped my toe into Gran Turismo 7 and found it luxurious and goofy — my favourite blend. While it broke my heart a number of times this year, by its second season I had warmed to Overwatch 2. It's not the competitive powerhouse it once was, but it's still the only place to go if you want to mess people up as a hamster in a giant ball-shaped mech. However, a real competitive powerhouse is Windjammers 2 — one of the best local competitive multiplayer games on PlayStation. Why didn't it make the Top 3? Let's pretend it's not because I forgot that it came out in 2022 until after writing this article and instead say it's because all-timers don't need to be on year-end lists.

Unlike many, I likely won't be picking up that Elden Ring platinum trophy..

Elden Ring — PS5

Having tried umpteen times to "git gud" enough at Bloodborne to start liking it, and perpetually finding myself drained by the metroidvania lull prevalent in Hollow Knight, I had begun to feel rather jaded about this whole Soulsborne movement. I certainly liked what I saw, but when it came to playing the games themselves, I just kept missing the vibe. Then, in 2020, after seeing some enticing screenshots of the later sections of the game, I finally played and beat and loved the original Dark Souls.

It turns out all of these flavours of Soulsbornes and Soulslikes had simply been variations on the raw brilliance of Dark Souls and that I was, somewhat reluctantly, a born Dark Souls purist. However, the castles and parry mechanics of Elden Ring looked fit to bring me back into the fold. Sure, at a glance it might just be "Dark Souls but bigger," but Elden Ring also has a thousand little moments that feel just as brilliant as its progenitor. Playing Elden Ring, I naturally couldn't help but reflect on all the ways it reminded me of Dark Souls. Elden RIng's real strength will show, however, when I reflect on all of my time in The Lands Between while revisiting Dark Souls.

Crisis Core: the perfect Christmas gift.

Crisis Core Final Fantasy VII Reunion — PS5

I've never really landed on how I feel about review scores. Obviously, they're utterly useless indicators of value — particularly in the games industry, where usually a seven is a five and a five is basically a one. That said, growing up with gaming magazines, there's definitely something charming about how trashy they are — you just have to know how to use them. What I'm trying to say is: just because I gave Crisis Core Final Fantasy VII Reunion a 7/10 in my Crisis Core review, that doesn't mean it wasn't one of my favourite games this year.

For me, a seven is a seven — a firm favourite, a charming adventure, a memory maker; Crisis Core is all of these. This year, I beat Final Fantasy VII for the first time, and beating Final Fantasy VII Remake shortly after landed it just short of my top ten favourite games of all time. To bookend the year with a review of Crisis Core was as serendipitous as it was genuinely fun, and yes maybe I should have just put this in the review and saved us all a lot of eye strain.

Sonic Frontiers was on the embarrassingly small list of games I actually platinumed this year.

Sonic Frontiers — PS5

Sonic Frontiers was an absolute rollercoaster of an experience. At points, I was genuinely having a blast — especially early on when I was just thrilled to see Sonic Team abandon everything they had unlearned in Sonic Forces. At later points, I was merely chugging along, grinding the game like any other open-world drek.

At certain jarringly emotional moments, I couldn't help but laugh uproariously. The first time we see a Koco's soul leave its body, watching as its empty husk falls to the ground, I howled with laughter. I simply found the shock of it too funny. Later, while watching a very late scene in which the cartoon villain Dr. Eggman wistfully stares out at an empty sky looking for someone who isn't there, I genuinely shed a tear.

At its very heart, Frontiers is a game that exploits and exposes every single flaw in the identity crisis that is the Sonic series. At the same time, it also takes bold steps in good creative directions, and for once doesn't feel like an utter mess to play. It's as critically mixed a project as can be imagined, and I have no immediate desire to play it again. That said, if I enjoyed a rollercoaster, I probably wouldn't ride it a second time either — that wouldn't stop it from being one of my favourite experiences from that year.

It's not too showy, but this is my favourite PhotoShop of the year.

Other gaming delights from years past

Outside of 2022 releases, this year was a wild one for me. With only Persona and Pokémon titles in my pocket, I promised myself that I would finally beat a classic JRPG this year, and ended up beating two: Final Fantasy VII and Earthbound. 2022 was also the year I caught up with Kingdom Hearts — all of it. I almost fell short by one, but thanks to PS Plus Extra adding Kingdom Hearts to its catalogue, I was able to handily finish Kingdom Hearts Melody of Memories and stop taking gaming recommendations from ether-soaked rags.

Speaking of PS Plus, my retro games rush was enabled considerably by the PS Plus Premium revamp this year. Some of my new all-time favourites — Ape Escape and Jumping Flash! — I got to check out for the first time thanks to Sony's subscription service (I even reviewed the experience of gathering PS1 trophies in Ape Escape). Like Kes, I also checked out Ratchet and Clank Rift Apart this year, and it was fiinnneeee verging on gooooood?

Lastly, some oddball entries. I beat Doom for the first time — no excuses on that one. A few PS1 deep-pulls with Vib-Ribbon (which I beat) and Parappa the Rapper (which, despite believing, I simply could not beat). My Powerwash Simulator PS5 article was inspired by the good times I had over on Xbox in 2022. And, as 2023 looms, I'm deep into The Last of Us Part II, The Witcher 3 Wild Hunt, and Final Fantasy VI on the Vita — and who knows, maybe I'll also have time to play something that comes out in 2023 as well.

The future looks bright.

Final thoughts

As a year in gaming, 2022 really covered all of the bases. While personally I'm not too sold on whether this year had a real all-timer in it (maybe Sifu? I haven't played it), what it did have was remarkably consistent bangers from top-to-bottom on PlayStation — maybe for the first time ever. Meanwhile, 2023 has a new Spider-Man and two new Final Fantasy games, so I'm sold on the year ahead, and I hope you will be too!

How did 2022 shape up for you? What were some of the highlights you experienced from the gaming world? Are there any PlayStation exclusives that blew you away? Let us know all the details down below!

Written by Lee Brady

Staff Writer Lee loves writing about the game design of classic PS Plus Premium games and upcoming PS5 games like Marvel's Spider-Man 2 and Final Fantasy XVI. He's a big proponent of video games as an evolving artistic medium, though he's also a fan of Sonic the Hedgehog games, so the medium might want to keep looking for a better spokesperson.