TheGamer News Team's Favorite Games Of 2019

2019 provided gamers with a ton of memorable and fun titles that will likely continue to thrive in the coming years. While we are certainly an eclectic group of writers with different tastes and #1 picks, it was Resident Evil 2 that was mentioned most in our lists, earning the title out TheGamer's Game of the Year for 2

Hardly ever does a lifeline drop her healing drone and while her shield during revives is great in a pinch, it is also a beacon for enemies that are looking to clean up and move. Her greatest asset is the speed she gets when using heals or reviving, so long as she is using it to keep the team going rather than rushing into the fray with a peacekee

Many people will celebrate Valentine’s Day with new loves or longtime partners, while others will lament the fact that they can’t get a date at all. But in my experience, finding a date for Valentine’s Day is a feat far less difficult than finding the perfect duo part

A duo partner also has to be someone with whom you have a compatible play style — and that's a tough thing to find. In order to succeed, both players need to be about the same skill level or, at the very least, have skills that complement one anot

Technically now the "third" version of what is perhaps the perfect game, the Resident Evil 2 remake updates a classic and shows developers that narrative-driven content can succeed without the need for multiplayer and microtransacti

The majority of people complaining about SBMM seem to be in the top echelon of players. Their complaints are valid. But it’s important to look at this as a mathematical challenge. The reality is that without SBMM, even middle-of-the-road casual players have an extremely high chance of being consistently matched with top players against whom they don't stand a cha

The reality is that current SBMM format affects only negatively impacts a minority of players, even if they’re the most active ones. Unfortunately, unbalanced matchmaking will cause less-skilled players to complain the game is "too hard" and play something e

Respawn has done an excellent job of listening to player feedback, and while I don’t know that the changes to SBMM will be instant, I have no doubt that the team there is listening to feedback. Algorithms are extremely tough to master, especially when it comes to a software product that’s still relatively new, like Apex Legends updates Legends . If I’ve had Instagram for seven years and still can’t get it to stop showing me pictures of my friends’ babies, then suffice it to say players may have to be patient while Respawn masters its SBMM mathemat

Fire Emblem had been spinning its wheels for a long time before the release of Three Houses . Who could have guessed that the latest Fire Emblem game would be one of the most absorbing games of the year, with an interesting overarching story and an incredible battle system that is engaging without being watered down or too difficult to grasp. It can be hard to finish a game once, but Fire Emblem: Three Houses can easily convince players to go through it three times to see the whole story. It’s just a shame that you can’t pet the dog

Destiny 2: Shadowkeep may not be the biggest expansion set in Destiny's history, but it has elevated Destiny 2 to a place players always hoped the game would get to. There is so much awesome content to pursue and such an interesting, meaningful grind. Two months later and my raid team is still getting together most nights to play crucible, run the Pit of Heresy dungeon, or raid. Even jaded vanilla Destiny 2 players have come back and found the game they always wanted. Destiny 2: Shadowkeep is the most fun I've had in any game this y

SBMM needs to exist because if the top one percent of players spend more than 300 times as much time in the game than any player in the bottom 10 percent, then in a true random system, the low-tier players will consistently be matched in lobbies with these top one percent players who play the game 300 times as much as the no

The biggest robbery of the 2019 Game Awards? A Plague Tale: Innocence not winning anything. Sure, the game wasn't perfect, but in terms of an original single-player narrative, the game was unmatched in its story and emotional impact. Disturbing enough to make me never want to to play it again, but fun enough to make me consider it, A Plague Tale: Innocence will never get the credit it deserves. Maybe its sequel will finally bring more players aboard, tho

When it comes to squads of three or more, a team can still perform well if one player makes a mistake or simply isn’t as good as the others. Further, teammates can work with one another to diffuse tension when it arises. While teammates aren’t always perfect, the team dynamic does a great service in helping to hide these individual fl

How could it be anything other than Slay The Spire (I say, knowing full well I almost put Tetris 99 in this spot)? After initial frustration, Slay The Spire's various baddies are like old friends now - they're familiar, I've learned their rhythms. The cards and relics aren't mysteries to me anymore. Its delightful weirdness is old hat. And yet I find myself returning to it time and time again because it's just so clever, and it makes me feel clever - when I pay attention to it, when I'm not zoning out and just enjoying the jour