Games Beaten 2026

[Ack]

It's 2026, which means...NEW THREAD!

[Ack]

1. Doom 3: Resurrection of Evil (FPS)(PC)

I finished last year by beating one expansion for Doom 3 on Nightmare, so I started this year by beating the other expansion for Doom 3 on Nightmare.

Resurrection of Evil is the original expansion, and it behaves as a continuation of the base game's plot. Evil antagonist Dr. Betruger is now an evil...well, demon tongue, apparently. He's after a weird demon heart weapon that can open one-way portals from Hell. You, as yet another nameless marine, happen to be in his way. He wants to kill you. Too bad for him.

Resurrection of Evil added a few new elements to the Doom 3 formula to try and build on the times. The first is the demon heart artifact, which builds in power as you defeat bosses and enables a bullet-time mode that you're eventually invincible during and have quad-damage. You use human souls as ammo, which sucks for your dead comrades, but papa's gotta defeat demons. The other is the Grabber, a knock-off of Half-Life 2's gravity gun that feels way worse to use. Not saying it isn't useful, but I find it best used to snag Lost Souls and other small demons out of the air for a quick kill and then never pulling out otherwise. Also, don't try to use it when said small demons are attacking, because the physics is weird, and their leaping and flying attacks will still smack into you despite you holding onto them. On Nightmare, this pretty much means instant death, so don't do that.

Yes, Nightmare difficulty in RoE still does the 25 health cap, only this time you lack the Soul Cube for a quick kill and life drain. You are completely reliant on health stations, since medkits are removed in Nightmare difficulty. Also, any enemy sneezing in your direction will probably kill you, even with full armor. Yes, the game does feature a similar flow in gathering up gear, with early on your arsenal limiting your combat options and forcing certain fights to be a lot harder than later iterations. Later on, though...oh, no, the game just throws more annoying enemies at you for the sake of "balance".

One can argue that the Lost Mission expansion is a little under-balanced in favor of the player, since you get the Soul Cube for healing, the expansion is overall shorter, and there are considerably fewer boss fights. But this fails to acknowledge the big problem with RoE's design philosophy: throw the most annoying enemy at the player as much as possible. By the time you're halfway through the game, the devs have decided you need more Revenants in your life. If you don't know what a Revenant is, think a skeleton in boxer shorts with a missile-launching backpack. Oh, and the missile seeks. They fire two at a time, but one is sufficient to kill you in Nightmare. Did I mention they seek? Would you prefer your Revenants come in singles, doubles, or six packs at times? Because RoE wants you to have to deal with that.

And with that, the Revenant spam becomes the single greatest threat of the entire expansion for a Nightmare run. Sure, there are tough spots, but the really problematic rooms ALWAYS include a Revenant or four to really drive in that the devs hate you for playing on Nightmare. It's glorious. All I could do was rip and tear until it was done.

But it's done now. I've beaten both Doom 3 expansions on Nightmare.

But not Doom 3.

Not yet.

[RobertAugustdeMeijer]

01: Ninja Five-0 / Ninja Cop
It's that expensive Game Boy Advance game, but it was only special during a drought of good 2D games anno 2003. It's basically Rolling Thunder / Shinobi with a grappling hook. Said "upgrade" is speedy and arching, which doesn't gel at all with the horizontal and cautious combat. Neither with the blocky level design. Everything else is rather cliche, if not forgettable design. Perhaps a breath of fresh air when most other games where trying to be like interactive movies, in 2026 there are hundreds of better options for old-school 2D action.
4/10

[TheSSNintendo]

Started off 2026 with Deja Vu: MacVenture Series.

[PartridgeSenpai]

Partridge Senpai's 2026 Beaten Games:
Previously: 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024 2025
* indicates a repeat

1. Final Fantasy XII (PS2)

I played through a LOT of mainline FF games I'd been meaning to either play or replay, and FFXII was the next one on the list. It's one I've always heard positive-ish things about but never anything super incredible. Even still, though I may be more interested in just how odd the FFXIII games seem, I couldn't get to them in good conscience without playing this first, so here we are X3. While this certainly didn't end up being a new favorite RPG of mine, I still had a pretty good time, and I'm glad I played it. It ultimately took me around 57 hours to beat the original Japanese version of the game.

FFXII is a big, political epic centered around the desert kingdom of Dalmaca. One of a couple of smaller kingdoms sandwiched between the two massive empires of Rozarria and Archadia, their peaceful neutrality between the two is shattered when Archadia suddenly invades. Dalmasca doesn't stand a chance, and as their new prince is killed, the king is also struck down by a traitorous general of the Dalmascans themselves. So goes the fall of Dalmasca, and we hop forward two years. Our story more directly follows a young war orphan, Vaan. With large feelings of revenge against the occupying empire that took everything from him as well as dreams of growing up to be a sky pirate, he quickly finds himself embroiled in a large plot and conspiracy to take down the Archadians, free Dalmasca, and save Ivalice. It shares a main writer with Final Fantasy Tactics, and as such is a big political epic with lots of cutaways to the machinations of the Archadians' politics, but it just never really comes together in the end.

The game is like halfway to being a well put together story for me. There are some aspects that do work really well! This game is more of an ensemble cast than it is a character study on Vaan himself, and of our main six party members, Vaan is more on the support crew than the start of the show. Even still, he (along with Panelo and Fran) provide a lot of important parallels and foils for the larger, more plot-related character arcs of Ashe, Balthier, and Basch. In particular, I really love how they parallel Vaan's struggle to move past the death of his brother with Ashe's struggle to move past her quest for revenge as well. While it's not as tightly woven a character story as it could be, I think they pull it off well enough that I found it satisfying. That said, they end up undercutting the actual emotional climax to those three characters by pivoting the action climax to this (thematically) totally unrelated Star Wars-esque climax that the actual last hour of gameplay is.

Throughout the whole game, we're constantly seeing these cutaways to what Vayne, the ambitious wannabee dictator of Archadia, is up to and how he's throwing the empire into turmoil to fulfill those ambitions. On a literal level, it's plot fuel for what our ultimate final boss will be, but to our main characters, their personal stakes in Vayne's success or lack thereof felt remarkably shallow compared to the penultimate conflict (where that aforementioned emotional climax happens). It would've been fairly easy to shift the story events to make the main antagonists who actually have personal ties to our main cast flow more seamlessly into Vayne's ambitions and actions (making them foils to Ashe who, unlike her, cannot fathom someone letting go of revenge/grudges for the sake of the common good). But that was not the choice the FFXII writers went with. Instead, they chose to just have our bad guys be the biggest plotting masters ever, predicting every choice our heroes could make, all for the sake of our shallow action climax. This stuff on top of how the authors don't really seem to appreciate how the empire are racist, fascist occupiers (aspects which are ultimately totally ignored after their initial introduction), and we have a story that feels as unfinished as it does simply at odds with itself. I quite liked the character stories that the game manages to bring to their conclusions, but even outside of just how underwhelming the final conflict and climax are, it's a story I found very unsatisfying with just how much it meticulously sets up but then never comes close to paying off. It's definitely on the better end of the more thematically weak PS1/PS2 FF stories for me, but that's not exactly a strong point to recommend playing it by when there are no shortage of better written (politically-minded or otherwise) RPGs to choose from <w>

The gameplay is also a really weird point to try and recommend in this day and age too. I'd long heard FFXII discussed as a sort of "single-player MMO" experience not unlike one of the early Xenoblade games, and that is definitely the kind of vibes it gives off. By and large, it's turned the Active Time Battle formula an auto-battler that feels far more like a mechanical successor to something like Trials of Mana than it does with any mainline Final Fantasy title. You have a party of 3 characters, and while you *can* assign them actions individually, that's so monstrously inefficient that you'd get incredibly bored with it very quickly. To solve this, we have the gambit system by which you can assign your characters protocol on how to react to certain situations using simple "If X then Y" statements. You slowly unlock more specific X and Y objects as you progress through the game, but the combat is ultimately so simple that you'll likely rarely need to mess with it beyond simple "attack the same character leader is attacking" or "heal when someone is hurt" instructions.

The gamebit system is ultimately a very clever solution to make the game's combat flow swiftly, but it ultimately takes so much agency away from the player (in regards to the moment-to-moment action) that I'd never blame anyone for finding FFXII's combat really repetitive and boring, especially in this original version. The reason this original version is so much worse is the other main mechanic, the license board. Killing enemies gets you EXP, but all normal level ups do is raise your max HP and MP. Your stats are affected as well, but compared to what gear you're wearing, the gains from leveling up are very slight and overall easily ignored. However, the only way to use that gear is to have the right license from the license board. Killing enemies also gets you License Points, and using this LP to unlock new squares on the license board will allow you to use the spells, weapons, passives, skills, or spells associated with that tile as long as you already own that thing as well (just because you've got a driver's license doesn't mean you've got the car to use it with, ya know?).

It's a weird way to gate equipment, especially given that a license hardly matters in an RPG if you already need to deal with the whole literal aspects of "you can't use what you don't physically own" that every other RPG has, especially when all 6 characters have identical license boards. Later Zodiac versions of this game introduce a job system that reworks the license board to be much more simple, and with how exclusive the sub-board powers of jobs are, it forces you to specialize characters and think much harder about how you'll be playing the game. With everyone having access to everything in this original version, though, it's fairly trivial to only use the same 3 characters the whole game and never specialize anyone beyond what you feel like dabbling in. The combat is ultimately simple enough and the main story's combat challenges easy enough that you never particularly feel compelled to experiment or diversify, and the lack of any meaningful opportunity cost with your license board picks means there's rarely any great penalty for that either. Most combats, even bosses, just devolve into waiting for the enemy to die to your automated gambit instructions and intervening manually only occasionally if any dangerous circumstances warrant it. Even only a couple hours into the game, I very acutely understood why people so unanimously recommend playing the most recent Zodiac Age remaster over this original version.

I will admit that there's a pleasantness to the monotony of combat that makes this a great game to throw on a podcast while you play it, but I never felt any compulsion to go for more than I had to in regards to harder boss fights. Much like my issues with something like Trials of Mana, the combat is so simple that you rarely feel like you have much agency, and that lack of meaningful choices means combat has a troubled relationship with "difficulty". While a few boss fights do end up being interesting puzzles to crack with exactly how you're meant to tackle them (especially among harder optional fights, a couple of which I poked at), most fights end up being pitifully easy waiting games or utter BS you never had a snowball's chance of surviving because you're just not powerful enough. Especially for mandatory story fights, the main path to victory is just grinding up more max HP with higher levels or grinding out more and more cash to buy the best weapons and armor you can (as this is a remarkably money-poor game, so you're going to be grinding for cash *a lot* especially if you're trying to equip all 6 characters rather than just your main party of 3). I ultimately didn't hate the combat in this game, and the concept of being forced to specialize in the Zodiac versions make me curious enough that I may pick up one of those versions someday, but at the very least, this original version's utilization of the license board is so poor that I couldn't possibly recommend grabbing this version over a later one (especially when later versions have speed up options for both running across the overworld as well as combat itself).

The presentation of the game is very impressive, especially for a PS2 game. While it sucks that this original Japanese version lacks a 16:9 resolution feature, this is still easily one of the best looking PS2 games anyone ever made. Facial and bodily animations on characters and monsters look great. There isn't a super crazy variety in monster types, but they do a good job in making the variants feel meaningfully different enough that you don't' feel like you're fighting endless armies of palette swaps. The Mediterranean-inspired designs for Ivalice and its inhabitants is really cool, and it makes for a very novel as well as beautiful kind of world design to explore. I'm unfamiliar with the game's English voice track, but the Japanese voice acting is excellent. Balthier in particular has utterly delightful delivery, and it brings the whole extended cast to life in a way that makes them very endearing even if they're written more shallowly than I would've preferred.

Verdict: Hesitantly Recommended. While I had no shortage of pretty significant issues with how this game's story and mechanics play out, I can't deny that I did overall enjoy it well enough. I'd have a pretty hard time recommending anything but a newer version due to the mechanical improvements I mentioned earlier, but if you're a fan of games like Xenoblade or the concept of a single-player MMO sounds enticing, then this might be just up your alley. However, if you prefer a more active role in your RPG combat (be it more meaningful turn-based systems or outright technique-focused action games) and/or you expect more from the narrative of a game you'll need to put 50+ hours into, then this is probably a game you're better off avoiding regardless of version.

[REPO Man]

My 1st game of 2026 beaten is Marvel's Spider-Man 2 for PS5. I was playing this as midnight struck on the New Year, so it's also the last game I played in 2025 AND the first game I played in 2026.

[MrPopo]

Previous Years: 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024 2025

1. Dead Space (2023) - PC

Playing the RE4 remake and Dead Space Extraction had me in the mood for some survival horror, and I figured since the series was on deep discount to pick up the Dead Space trilogy, though the original has been delisted on Steam in favor of the remake. From my reading, this doesn't appear to be a problem, as the first game is missing some stuff that would show up in later games and the plot got retconned a bit, with the remake fitting into the retcons well.

Dead Space is the story of a ship's engineer who is sent as part of a team to answer the distress call of a mining ship. However, things go bad fast; the mining ship is in far worse shape than initially thought, and that's before you count the infestation of monsters that mutate out of corpses. The whole game takes a lot of cues from Aliens, in terms of the space claustrophobia and enemies that are threatening but killable, but there's always more.

The main story of the game has you running from one disaster on the ship to another. The small shuttle you came in on gets wrecked early, so every existential disaster on the mining ship needs to be dealt with to keep yourself alive. As you patch things up you start to learn about why the ship is infested with monsters, and it becomes the focus of the events of the end game. Some of this is told through optional sidequests; while you will get enough context to understand the story just following the critical path, doing the side stuff will add some texture to things.

The game's combat is notable for its dismemberment system. Enemies don't really notice body shots, and head shots don't take them out either. Instead, you're going to need to remove multiple limbs to take out enemies. Blowing off a leg will force them to crawl, making it far easier to avoid or line up shots, while blowing off an arm will halve their ability to attack you, as well as creating blind spots (again, making it easier to dodge). You get a variety of weapons, most of them repurposed power tools, and finding the ones that work best for you is important. The game has a smart ammo system for enemy drops; you only get ammo for weapons you're currently equipped, so it can be worthwhile to not keep a full set of four weapons. There are vending machines throughout the ship that sell unlimited amounts of health and ammo, so you aren't scrimping to the same extent as a Resident Evil game. You still have to manage your ammo properly, though, as cash is limited.

When comparing this to a game like RE4, this game has more environmental puzzles (you have the ability to physics grab objects) but the combat is less frenetic. RE4 has larger hordes that take longer to put down if you aren't using heavy artillery, whereas here you can kneecap everything pretty quickly and then clean them up. Some later fights will toss more at you, but at that point you have good crowd control weapons with lots of ammo, so things are just less of a threat. There are fewer bosses, and they are far easier than the RE4 bosses (not counting the ones you cheese with the RPG).

Overall, Dead Space is a good space horror game that is never too punishing on the player. It utilizes its environment well, and has some memorable set pieces. Definitely worth a play.

[TheSSNintendo]

Deja Vu II: MacVenture Series

[REPO Man]

I've already beat Viewfinder twice, but I just want to mention how I got my second Platinum trophy today. Crazy how I've been earning PSN trophies since getting a Vita a decade ago this summer.

Cripes, has it already been that long?!

[PartridgeSenpai]

Partridge Senpai's 2026 Beaten Games:
Previously: 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024 2025
* indicates a repeat

1. Final Fantasy XII (PS2)

2. We Were Here (Steam)

After enjoying the third game in this series, We Were Here Together, with my partner so much last week, we decided to pick up the other four games in the series asap so we could play through those too~. This is the very first game in the We Were Here series, and it's also free as well~. We figured it wouldn't be as good as the first entry we played, but we were willing to give them all a chance if they were possibly even just a bit as fun as that first one. Fitting well for a free game, this game is pretty darn short, and we managed to clear it in about 70 minutes without looking up any puzzles.

Much like all the games in this series, it stars you (two Antarctic explorers) and a castle that you're lost in. You get separated from the other two explorers in your group, and make your way to this castle. However, someone (or some *thing*) knocks you out, and you find yourselves in separate rooms with only walkie-talkies to communicate with. It'll be all down to your teamwork to see if you can escape this place in tact, whatever this place is! Compared to later games in the series, the story is SUPER light here. That's all good, as a puzzle game doesn't exactly *need* some grand story, but it's definitely hard not to compare it to how wild and engrossing the stories of the later games in the series that we've played were.

The story may be more simple, but other than the short length, this is pretty straightforwardly more We Were Here, no doubt. It's a first-person cooperative puzzle game, where the two of you use your walkie-talkies to communicate information back and forth so you can help fill in the gaps in one another's information enough to solve each puzzle. It's almost like Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes, but both of you have a bomb to disarm as well as instructions to feed the other player X3. The overall presentation and execution of the puzzles is definitely less refined in this first entry, though. Rather than later entries which have the two of you swapping back and forth between information-giver and puzzle-solver (or which have you both doing some of both), this game actually has one dedicated puzzle-solver and one dedicated information-giver (with me being the puzzle-solver of our pair). It still works well enough, and they're some pretty good puzzles, but they're definitely on the more simple and less engaging end than later entries provide.

However, while the puzzles may be simple, they're still not bad, and that was more than enough to have a good bit of fun with this for us (especially for a free game). The only real *fault* I can say about this first entry is the walkie-talkies themselves. Like the later games in the series, they function like real walkie-talkies in that you can't hear incoming audio if you're pressing down the button to talk to the other person. However, *unlike* later entries in the series, there's no indicator light on the walkie-talkie to indicate the other person is trying to speak. We had to be very diligent about saying "over" at the end of our phrases so the other person actually knew when we were done talking and not just pausing for whatever reason XD. It adds an interesting layer of realism, I suppose, but it definitely makes this a much weaker and more irritating game mechanic than it really needs to be. Of course, if you're playing on PC, you can just use Discord or whatever voice client you want (hell, you could even just call each other on the telephone if you wanted), so this is hardly some fatal fault despite its poor implementation, but it's still quite the oversight nonetheless.

The presentation isn't *bad*, but it definitely gives the vibes of a proof of concept free game that they slapped together in Unity. Animations as well as environments are more simple than later games have. Compared to We Were Here Together, there's much less character in the aesthetic too. Part of that is down to having less story to bring that character to life with, sure, but the big, dark castle you're trapped in just feels far more generic than later games have, and the music and (very limited) VA is really nothing special either.

Verdict: Hesitantly Recommended. This is certainly not a bad game, but it's definitely meaningfully weaker enough in the series that I'd hesitate about recommending it, especially as someone's *first* game in this series. Especially if you already got We Were Here Together for free on EGS like we did, it's far more worth playing a later game in the series first before this one, because they are much better sales pitches for the appeal of this series than this game is. I think this game works a lot better as something to go back and explore if you really want more We Were Here after really enjoying the later games. However, if you don't have any later ones and just want something to spend an afternoon with for free with a buddy (and are in the mood to test your communication skills as well as puzzle solving ability), then this is something well worth looking at regardless~.