App Trigger: Eric Halliday’s Top 10 PS5 games of 2022

4) No Man’s Sky

That’s right. A game from 2016 is on my 2022 list. Deal with it.

So why is it on my list? It keeps getting better. Playing No Man’s Sky in 2022 is a completely different game than it was in 2016. It’s so much better looking and there are so many things to discover. I’ve grown my own sentient spaceship, I’ve gone to a galactic hub where I got to meet other players, and I’ve landed on a bizarre planet that had a massive land worm jumping in and out of the ground.

In fact, as Playstation was quick to find out, I spent so much time in 2022 playing this damned game it was actually listed as my number one game of the year which…is wild.

3) Phantasy Star Online 2

Listen. Stop. Okay. I know this has been out forever but it FINALLY came to Playstation this year and I missed it so much. Originally I was on it when it first came out and the American players annoyed the local players so much that they banned US IPs for a long time. Then it became a Microsoft exclusive for god knows what reason.

But finally I could hop back on.

And listen, it’s not the best but I love its flaws. It’s a fun game where you can make a goofy futuristic person, fight with goofy futuristic weapons, and return to a goofy futuristic town.

My primary complaint is that the game has heavily devolved in recent years to embrace microtransactions. Where as in the Gamecube version every player had their own home where a robot you personally raised could run a store there for you, now you don’t get a home unless you pay the equivalent of real-life rent and your robot buddy never really seems to become part of the story in any meaningful way. Also, the outfits they make some of those poor female characters wear now…yeesh.