Baldur's gate feels a bit different than the others and would deserve accolades on its own merits.

Between Breath of the Wild, Tears of the Kingdom and Elden Ring, I think Breath of the Wild is head and shoulders above the others. It is a complete and focused experience that achieves what it's going for better than any of the others. It's a complete and singular vision done to perfection. The most impressive open world game I've ever played because it pushes the genre further than its ever been before. It still hasn't been surpassed.

I feel like TOTK went a bit backwards on that original vision and Elden Ring is just souls again but in bigger space. I felt like I played Elden Ring several times before by the time it came out.

Right now the game that's coming to my mind is Beyond Good and Evil.

The music stood out to me, but also this specific quote in the context of a game all about propaganda.

"Safe and sound in it's shell, the precious pearl is the slave of the currents"

Breath of the Wild

Celeste

Metroid Dread

Street Fighter 6 may one day get there. Just tone down drive rush, remove throw loops and focus on character variety and it might just be the best fighting game out there. Still a long time until the first balance patch though.

Last game I beat was Super Mario bros. Wonder

I actually don't know if there's a game I want to pick up yet in 2024. Unless something slipped my mind.

I'm a huge Street fighter fan. It's basically what takes up 90% of my gaming time.

However, I have a bit of a love/hate relationship with 6.

Pros: Meter management with the drive bar is a brilliant concept and I love the combo flexibility.

Cons: It's way to aggro and the best aspect of fighting games (Neutral and footsies), is overshadowed with powerful neutral skip mechanics like drive rush and drive impact in addition to the age old jump. Because you cannot split your focus to all of these, it encourages a lot of "just do it" until something sticks and you steam roll into a victory (I can't believe they brought back throw loops). Drive rush is definitely the biggest offender. It is too little risk for too great a reward. I prefer the slow, methodical neutral game of cat and mouse where you have to be diligent and bait your opponent into whiffing a normal and punishing.

It's strange. All the things people hated so much with SFV in the beginning were slowly removed and improved upon throughout its many years until it became a game that most everyone could say is a fantastic fighter. Then they release SF6 and bring a lot of what they spent so long moving away from back to the forefront.

Having said that, this is the first iteration of SF6. The first iteration of any fighting game is usually pretty rocky. I'm sure they'll find ways to stabilize the game in future seasons.

I haven't touched the single player content outside of training mode.

-The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild

-Pikmin

-Street Fighter V

-Celeste

-Donkey Kong Country Returns

Breath of the Wild is head and shoulder above of everything else honestly

Below:

-The Legend of Zelda Tears of the Kingdom: I said a lot on this, but BOTW is my all time favourite game because of its atmosphere, effective story telling, sense of wonder, and immersion. Tears of the kingdom failed at almost every single one of those aspects that made the first so special to me. It lacks that important cycle of build up and pay off that BOTW nailed.

-Street Fighter 6: I honestly should have expected this. The first season of every fighting game is pretty bad. I expect this one to improve over the years but at the moment it's an unstable drive rush fest that promotes thoughtless aggression over thoughtful consideration. Risk reward and gameplay variety are in a bad state at the moment.

Met

-Pikmin 4: I love pikmin and Nintendo really packed this installment full of content. It's a great game, but I'm more fond of Pikmin 1 and 3 with their above ground time management focus.

Super Mario Wonder has been great so far, but its too early to make a judgment.

Breath of the Wild is such a massively transcendent game. It blew an entire genre wide open. Truly a masterclass in game design.

@SolidGame_basic: I wasn't a fan of the direction they took Tears of the kingdom. It felt like several steps backwards in a lot of ways. Breath of the Wild is a far better game in my eyes.

If I were to call one game a masterpiece it would be Breath of the Wild. That game is transcendent. There was nothing like it before and nothing like it since.