For the 11th year in a row, I’ve tallied a list of all the games I started and/or finished in the previous year. This is a list of games I started in 2016. Some I played for mere minutes, some for hours and some until the credits rolled. Some were good. Some, not so much.

In 2016, Kotaku readers liked reading about Pokémon. And... Pokémon. And Pokémon. As is annual tradition, here were our most popular 100 stories of 2016, sorted not by quality but by traffic (on Google Analytics), brought to you by our wonderful data team.

First, we spent a year playing video games. Then we spent a couple weeks debating which ones were best. Here, in alphabetical order, are Kotaku’s top 12 games of 2016.

Taken on their own, individual Steam reviews don’t offer a whole lot of value. But taken together, they spin a yarn about a game that’s equal parts fascinating, weird, and occasionally funny.

2016 was a year of dazzling heights and dismal lows in the realm of snackology. A year of fast food crossovers, foul cookie combinations, depression day doughnuts and election night tequila. Also we ate a thing that looked a lot like nightmare poop.

The people who play video games have an impact on what we play and the gaming culture at large. Since 2012, that premise has informed our annual listing of the Gamers of the Year.

As you may have noticed from being on the internet or talking to other human beings, 2016 has been a bit of a shitshow. But if there’s one piece of solace to be found in the flaming wreckage of this orbital rotation, it’s been the quality of its video games. Strategy ones in particular.

2016 was a great year for video games, and an even better year for video game music. It was also a diverse year, with a mix of Norse folk music, spy movie histrionics, ambient soundscapes and extremely heavy metal.

If 2016 taught us anything at all, it was that sometimes, things don’t go your way. For every lovely surprise, there is a major disappointment around the corner.

Just when you think you’ve seen it all, the world of video games will surprise you in the best possible way. This year had even more great surprises than usual.

In 2016, esports experienced even more highs and lows than the previous year. That’s what it means to be growing. But while the industry surrounding competitive gaming continues to expand on the backs of enthusiastic investors and hype-men, it’s important not to forget why anyone actually watches it in the first…

“Pa,” said the girl, “famine took everything from us, and disease the rest. Also the other day a pack of wolves plain stole old man Edwards, and they didn’t even ‘splain what they was plannin’ to use him fer.” The father studied his daughter, gaunt but strong, face hollowed by months of uncertainty. “The video games,…

2016 was a fine year for gaming at launch, but over the course of the past 12 months various updates and bug fixes have made it even better. Here are some of the year’s finest patch notes. Can you tell which games they are from?

When I’m not eating snacks or playing with toys, I like to relax with some video games. Through a careful selection process that mainly involved me staring at at a large list, shaking my head and swearing, I’ve managed to narrow the games I played in 2016 to ten favorites.

Stop me if you’ve heard this one: A farmer, a hitman, and a little boy all walk into a bar. Everything’s moving in slow motion, so the bartender’s like, “Dishonored? I hardly even know ‘er!”

My 2016 was a year of surprises. There were so many games I didn’t expect would capture me the way they did, featuring genres and mechanics I usually don’t like but that nevertheless thrilled me. I tried a lot of new kinds of games this year, and I found a lot of new favorites. Here’s my top 10.

Paintings in video games are like toilets: they don’t do much, but you notice if they aren’t there. They make a space seem lived in and real. They’re often unintentionally hilarious, and they’re one of my favorite things in games.

From puzzlers to JRPGs to, uh, more puzzlers, this was a good year for video games. And my top 10 list will probably not surprise any of you.