This year has been a big one for games. Game releases seem to cluster into funky clumps, leading to a sort of ice age followed by thaw situation. Last year, we were drowning in Gamergate douchebaggery, Ubisoft’s claim that it was too hard to put women in an Assassins Creed game despite having done just that already, and a general lack of the big titles people had been waiting for.

But this year’s been different, with a veritable avalanche of high-quality releases ensuring that for millions of people, the sun is a sad and distant memory. Maybe time management and a generally healthy lifestyle have ensured that you, dear reader, have been too busy to look into what the finest cuts of gaming steak have been in 2015. So here, without further needless ado, are the top seven games of 2015. This was a brutal list to make.

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7. Dr. Langeskov, The Tiger, And The Terribly Cursed Emerald: A Whirlwind Heist

You’re trapped behind the walls of a video game — a heist game, to be exact — and you’re being talked to, incessantly, by acerbic British comedian Simon Amstell. There is a tiger. William Pugh, co-creator of the sublime The Stanley Parable, has launched this fifteen-minute long game for free on Steam under the banner of his new studio, Crows Crows Crows. I had to jettison several superb games from this spot, and had something sitting here comfortably until one night very recently, when I booted the game up, put on headphones, cranked the volume and burned through it. It’s… it’s really great, guys. Certainly not for everyone, but it truly floated my boat. It also features some voice work from Justin Roiland (Rick AND Morty from Rick and Morty). And it’s free. In fact, the vagueness I’m slapping you with should go some way to convincing you NOT to watch the trailer, because going in cold just makes the whole thing so much more endearing. That said, here’s the trailer. Pros: Repeated playthroughs offering weird results.

Cons: Really, really weird.

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6. Fallout 4

Fallout 4 is incredibly fun, and very addictive. Why isn’t it up the top of the list? Well, it has flaws — it’s less a role-playing game than it should be, eschewing the smart dialogue and ‘approach a situation how you want’ vibe of the series in favor of a ‘Mad Max: Downtown Boston Edition’ playstyle. On the other hand, it’s a sprawling, deadly, hugely polished (and simultaneously buggy) open world experience set in BAHSTAHN. WICKED HAAAD.

For those of you who aren’t familiar with the series, it’s ostensibly what you’d get if you fused the nineties romcom Brendan Fraser vehicle Blast from the Past with George Miller’s Mad Max saga. This time around, we have a dash of Blade Runner thrown in for good measure. Don’t get me wrong: Fallout 4 is fantastic. It’s just not perfect, and it doesn’t seem to resonate as much as New Vegas did with me, or, hell, even Skyrim (the fantasy game from the same developers which ate 400 hours of my goddamned life).

Pros: Classical music on the in-game radio, paired with Iron Man armor that you build yourself.

Cons: Lynda Carter (i.e., the original Wonder Woman) performing some of the worst in-game faux crooning lounge music tunes I’ve ever heard.

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5. Bloodborne

Bloodborne is the gaming equivalent of being kicked in the dick by a man in a funny hat, before eventually growing to like said kicking. It’s from the diabolical bastard who created Dark Souls, and dumps you in a Van Helsing-esque city which is drenched in almost impenetrable lore. The genius of Souls games is that you only really get better by dying over and over again; you’re effectively tested and forged in the fires of rage-quitting. I once saw my housemate fleetingly attempt the game, before throwing his controller at a wall so hard you could read the word “Sony” in the plaster.

So no, Bloodborne isn’t for everyone, but it is dark, and beautiful, and special. As you progress further, you unlock shortcuts, opening the labyrinthine game-world up like a kind of torturous puzzle-box. The combat is lightning-fast and unforgiving, the atmosphere is deeply disturbing, and the endings are all utterly baffling. If David Lynch gnawed on an adrenal gland for an hour and designed a game, he’d design Bloodborne.

Pros: The Kirkhammer, a huge Thor-style hammer, which you slam onto your back, before pulling out the handle. Which is a sword. It’s a swordhammer. Come on, people.

Cons: My wall is ruined.

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