My favourite games I played for the first time this year (no guarantee of when the game actually released), in alphabetical order
Animal Crossing: New Horizons
Not just because it's 2020. I've been on tenterhooks for a new Animal Crossing since mid-2018, to the point that I was about to restart New Leaf when the teaser announcement for New Horizons was made. In most areas, this game feels improved over New Leaf, but in the first month or so of play there's a weirdly gamified linear pseudo-narrative that doesn't quite gel with the relaxed atmosphere of the series as a whole, or the rest of this entry, for me. Despite this, it was a calming game for me in the almost daily sessions I've had of it over the year, making this a relatively small issue in the grand scheme of things.
DiscRoom
This is a delightful indie about dodging circular saws and fulfilling requirements to open up new rooms. While there are a wide variety of circular saws are present, it would have been nice to see more variety in objectives to open up doors. Interestingly it uses the circular saws you're dodging as a collectable - dying to each enemy gives you fun lore tidbits.
Dragon Quest Builders 2
The mix of JRPG linear quest structure and progression around sandbox voxel building on display is very compelling. This is only helped by the way it improves on the original in almost every way. The combat's still the weakest part, but it isn't as much a focus of any of the chapters as it got by Chapter 3 and especially 4 in the original. Combine that with a charming presentation, enjoyable characters, and an art style that absolutely delights, all culminates with a game that I've had a hard time putting down since getting it.
Manifold Garden
This is a beautiful exploration game set around various Escher-esque environments. Pacing is broken up by switching between stock gravity shifting puzzles, simple water redirection puzzles, and the large scale navigation challenges where the game shines. This is the sort of game that feels like it was made purely to cater to my tastes.
Two Point Hospital
An absolutely superb spiritual successor to Theme Hospital, with much of the same sense of humour, while somehow managing to get the controls of that style of management sim to feel smooth on a console. While some issues during prolonged sessions occurred when I was playing, they were easy enough to workaround. Overall, this game just provides a good time all around.