here's a chronological list of everything i played in 2022. GOTYs after the break.
as far as picking a GOTY, it simply has to be elden ring. i am largely a hater of melee combat in games, and not even a souls guy, but elden ring showed me the light. it really is that bitch. it's not even that it's perfect or anywhere near it, but it was a clear iteration and balance on fromsoft's formula with their fresh take on open world design. i play and enjoy a lot of open world games, even the bad ones, and it felt like genuine exploration instead of trying to parse a million-icon map that assumes you're a 6 year old with zero attention span.
death stranding is an honorary GOTY. came out in 2019 but played it late. it's got some pretty bad kojima bullshit (negative), but the kojima bullshit (positive) was phenomenal and has me thinking about the game regularly. it also has a super unique game loop with planning, routing, and executing deliveries that i don't think i've seen in any other game. super slow start (i almost dropped it!) but when it finally hit, it flicked a switch in my brain.
last honorary GOTY would be tales of destiny: director's cut, which is a 2008 japan-only PS2 game that's an updated release of a 2006 japan-only PS2 game that's a full-blown remake of a 1997 english-and-japanese PS1 game. a fan translation project finally reached a near-completion point and they've done a fantastic job. it's a beautifully rendered mix of 3D environments and 2D sprites with some of the absolute best voice acting i've heard in a game. will likely end up doing a whole post about it. (youtube vid of comparison between PS1 & PS2 versions)