Life gets busy when you're an adult, so I don't have the same amount of free time that I had when I was a kid. Back then, I'd play a game multiple times without batting an eye, but now I have to mind my playtime, and consider all of the other great games I could be playing once I'm finished with a game. If anything brings me back, it's probably a huge, game-changing piece of DLC, like The Witcher 3's Hearts of Stone and Blood and Wine.

When I transitioned from consoles to PC about 6 years ago, it opened my eyes to a lot of magic that I had been blind to. Indie games were still burgeoning at the time, but most of all, were nearly non-existent on consoles. When I got a proper gaming PC and loaded up Steam for the first time, I discovered a whole world of games that I didn't know existed. To this day, I have yet to play even half of the games I own on Steam, but I have encountered literally hundreds of stellar PC-only games that I never would have experienced had I never given PC gaming a shot. Instead of drudging through the AAA wasteland of recent years, I've always had a game worth playing if I needed it. In short, the PC fire won't die as long as you still play games.

*Conclude inspirational speech*

The Valkyria Chronicles series ended at the first game for me. Everything after has been subpar, and in the case with Revolution, a blatant cash grab. Revolution is especially heinous because it isn't even a turn-based game anymore. If you read some reviews about it, you'll see that it was only made to make money off of the name and it was designed to pander to the largest audience possible. It's like the Dead Space 3 of the Valkyria series.

1. Night in the Woods is pretty terrific. I ended up playing it twice just to see everything, which I almost never do. Very endearing game.
2. Nier: Automata is pretty mainstream I guess, but it currently holds the crown in my opinion for storytelling this year.
3. What Remains of Edith Finch is a real treat with some deftly-handled storytelling. Melancholy, hopeful, and whimsical all at once.
4. VA-11 Hall-A: Cyberpunk Bartender Action is the game I'm currently working my way through. The writing is super sharp, and the characters are believable and interesting.
5. Undertale ended up getting pretty popular, but it's a close second with Nier for top notch storytelling. There's a reason the fanbase is so obsessed over it; it has a seriously good story.

In no particular order:

Hollow Knight

Nier: Automata

Horizon: Zero Dawn

What Remains of Edith Finch

Resident Evil 7

Indeed, it's been a stellar year for games so far. I've reviewed the first two if you'd like more to go on as well, and have linked them in their titles.

PC Gamer finally reviewed it, and gave it a pretty high score. After spending a wonderful 23 hours with this gem, I was surprised it didn't absolutely explode with popularity. Even after all of that time, I still found my jaw on the floor and consciously surprised that there were still more, substantial surprises in store for me. The game is a Game of the Year contender, no question.

@secondlyduck: It never jumped out at me if there was bad language, and as for violence, nothing overt. The ESRB rating says there's blood in it, but it's just fish blood from the scene at the cannery. It's a really tame game overall, and any darker themes it handles it tries to keep light or ambiguous. It's really close to an E-rated game, but the story is very mature and kids probably wouldn't appreciate it. Any references to mature things like drugs affects the rating as well, as one of the Finches is a hippie-type who has a bong in his room, but you don't ever actually see anyone smoking weed.

@FelipeInside: It helps to do a bit of light reading about XCOM 1, just so you have a cursory knowledge going into XCOM 2, but it's not a huge deal. The story in XCOM 1 didn't really get very interesting until the end anyway, it was mostly discovering things about the aliens that kept you engaged. I guess you would call that good lore as opposed to a good story.

@demi0227_basic: Especially considering CD Projekt RED gave us the excellent and huge Blood and Wine expansion for $20.

Holy hell this game is hard............I was very proud of myself.