It’s time for our #3 games of 2018, which means that I only have a couple more days of pre-made content that I can just cut/paste while smoking big cigars [Dave doesn’t smoke -ed.] and sipping scotch [Dave doesn’t drink -ed.]. Then it’s back to the hard work that is running these digs [Dave definitely doesn’t work -ed.]. Anyway, that’s next weeks problem [Dave does have a lot of problems -ed.], so let’s get to today’s batch of goodies.

The hardest part of putting together these end of year articles isn’t searching down links or trying to find a good trailer, it’s writing these damn introductions. Therefore, this year, I’ve decided that I’m going to do the absolute bare minimum and leave these intros as short as possible so you can bite right into the chewy middle. [In other words, you’re too lazy to put together a couple hundred words and are going to make it look like you’re doing us a favor by sitting on your ass and doing nothing? Normally, I’d say this is utter crap, but considering the way you write, I have to agree that less is more. -ed.]

When we kindled Stately Play from the smoldering ashes of things that were, we did so with a few things in mind. Firstly, we weren’t going to try and replicate the magic from days gone by. The previous eleven months had demonstrated it wasn’t possible without Owen in the driver’s seat. Secondly, while games would always be front and center, SP was going to be an open and free place where we could talk about whatever the hell we wanted to. I’m not sure anyone encapsulates that as much as Alex and Tof who, in our Friday scrying articles, will often highlight games that are either 20 years old or so indie that most other sites don’t even know they exist. Most of all, we wanted SP to be a place where a bunch of friends–who’ve never actually met in person–could get together every day, share, learn, or just talk about the stuff that interests them. So far, I think we’ve done okay. We don’t get the clicks we used to pull at that old site, but I think we’re all a hell of a lot happier and I’m too old to care about much more than that. Why am I talking about this today, when I should be introducing our End of the Year shenanigans? Going over the writers’ lists, it dawned on me that they’re pretty perfect from a Stately Play point of view. I think other sites would be terrified to have a 3 year-old game appear on their Best Of list, but if we liked it and can justify its inclusion, who the hell am I to stop it [you’re the editor, dumbass. Oh..I mean, I’m the editor. You’re the owner? Wait, who the hell are you? -ed.] So, here goes nothing. Today we’ll cover games that we wished we could have included in our top 5’s, but didn’t quite make the cut. Tomorrow we’ll get into the lists, proper.