Certain things blur the boundaries of reality. Like a phone that can only connect to one number. Like the number that phone dials, which is also listed as the phone number on the TripAdvisor page for Echo River in Kentucky's Mammoth Cave National Park. Like the prerecorded message that plays when you dial that number, which says, "If you don't remember dialing this number at all, press 5," before launching into facts that all sound like thinly veiled urban legends. Like a retrospective for an artist who seems to have never existed, or a community television broadcast that seems to end with a ghost in the machine. This web of ephemera, which extends from the world we live in to the one on the other side of the screen, would seem to be the work of a major company, like the alternate reality game that accompanied the release of Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight and sent 11 million people all over the world in search of the Joker.

The ongoing covid-19 pandemic placed a brighter-than-usual spotlight on gaming in 2020, with an isolated population looking for entertainment they could enjoy from the safety of home. How fortunate then that alongside the year's many maladies, 2020 also delivered some of the most memorable games in recent years. From laid-back life simulators to an anticipated sequel that scrutinized cyclical violence, the gaming world was replete with options for anyone who wanted to get their minds off the consistently grim reality around them. The reintroduction and reimagination of the classic "Final Fantasy VII" highlighted the early spring, while the November debut of the PlayStation 5 ushered in a next-generation hero the gaming world both needed and deserved. Even with multiple delays pushing the much-anticipated "Cyberpunk 2077" beyond our Dec. 1 cutoff for Game of The Year consideration, there was no shortage of worthy contenders for that title.

Kentucky Route Zero has won "game of the year" awards multiple times, was dubbed the "best musical of 2014," and has been called "the most important game of the decade"--and all this before it was finished. Over the past seven years, the three-person indie studio Cardboard Computer has released four episodic "acts" of its critically acclaimed game, along with four playable "interludes." Fans have eagerly awaited the fifth and final chapter, the one where maybe, just maybe, you will arrive at your destination. It's finally here, part of a new collected edition from Annapurna Interactive for PC and console. The menu takes the shape of a circle, each act arranged around it like numbers on a clock face.

I've been reading a really great story recently. By which I mean I have been playing a really great video game. Specifically, I've been playing adventure game Kentucky Route Zero, now on its fourth episode (of five). Despite being a video game, it is also one of the best magical-realist stories I've read in years. Kentucky Route Zero's existence is a testament to the steadily improving quality of prose writing in video games.