On my list, at the very top right now is Totalwar Warhammer II and Danganronpa V3 at the same time and spot, the second place is for Nier Automata, followed by XCOM 2: War of the Chosen in third. Below there is a couple of games, but I am not sure their positions yet, so with no order in particular here they are (yeah some of the aren´t from 2017, but it was this year I got them or that when they got released on steam): Blue Reflection, Lost Dimension, Operation Abyss: New Tokyo Legacy, Atelier Sophie, Zero Escape the Nonary Games, Romance of the Three Kingdoms 13 Power up Kit, Muv-Lov
Breath of the Wild and Heat Signature are my top two.
DOOM was last year right?
NieR: Automata is at the top of my list, nothing has made as much of a lasting impression on me as that game this year but there are so many choices that a whole top 10 might basically be interchangeable. The thing that sticks out to me this year is that while it’s been a great year for small games too, it’s been an unbelievable one for big games. There’ve been years where I perhaps bought one full price big box game but this year there’s enough to fill a top ten all on their own:
These others all have some place on a top 10:
PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
Mario + Rabbids: Kingdom Battle
Yakuza 0
Persona 5
Super Mario Odyssey
Steamworld Dig 2
Here are some games which I liked quite a lot but I’m not sure where they ‘rank’ for me yet:
Pyre
Night in the Woods
Loot Rascals
Destiny 2
Here are some things I didn’t get to yet and maybe will but I heard were neat:
Tacoma
Resident Evil 7
Horizon Zero Dawn
Nidhogg 2
Hob
West of Loathing
Assassin’s Creed Origin
Wolfenstein 2
Here are some things that might appear to be conspicuously missing from that list and it’s because I just didn’t really like them as much as most people and so fell off them in the end:
Prey
Sonic Mania
Gravity Rush 2
I’m certain I’ve missed a bunch, too.
But what an incredible list. I feel like almost any one of those could top someone else’s list and not even raise any eyebrows.
(Also I’ve really been enjoying some games I’ve missed from previous years. It’s just been non stop this year.)
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I’m not really the sort to keep up with new game releases or play large numbers of different titles, so I don’t really have GotY type opinions, but I did want to say that it’s rather confusing for Pyre and Prey to have both come out in the same year, especially in this era of typographical error :P
I LOVE me some Heat Signature, but that game is way too long. I wish the galaxy was about half the size it is. For people who want to keep going you can always reroll a new galaxy no problem, but I want to 100% that game and I’m at the point where I can carve through ships like a knife through butter and I’m barely 2/3 of the way through the systems.
Oh dang aye. GOTY lists never make much sense for me since I’m either playing games I bought a few years back or games I got on sale
Only one you didn’t mention was Yakuza 0, probably my favorite this year.
Looking forward to the Giantbomb deliberations. I predict Brad lobbying hard for Destiny 2.
One of the best things about seeing GOTY lists is what games I may have missed that is on everyone else’s list.
To be fair, I also played DOOM this year because I finally built a PC that could run them. That and Hitman would make my list if I went by what games I personally played this year.
I wonder if you have to finish the games in order to consider them? There are some I’m not sure I’ll have time to complete, but I’ve already enjoyed significantly. And there’s just the games that live in my head based off of the systems-driven stories that I hear on podcasts like Waypoint and Crate & Crowbar. For example, I don’t have a switch, but part of me feels like I’ve already played a portion of Zelda just by all the stories.
I love game of the year time because it reminds me how few games I play
This isn’t meant as some kind of elitist comment, I just… don’t play new games much? Until a few weeks ago my computer was four years old (and showing it), the newest console I own is a Wii. My top five games of 2017? That’s easy, it’s the five games I played that came out this year. (And honestly off the top of my head I’m only coming up with four?)
Yea it is probably a little bloated. I’m not done either, and I’ve played 10-12 hours or so? But I’m still having a blast, and I feel empowered to continuously attempt the ‘Audacious’ missions because it’s so fun even when I fail.
am i ready
objectively, no. But I’m gonna make a list anyway and Wolfenstein & Night In The Woods will be on it. Some other games too probably, but it’s already November and I haven’t played Nier yet which feels like a tragedy in the making.
I know the waypoint crew aren’t particularly fans of VR, but will any of those games be in consideration? Lone Echo (ready at dawn) and Robo Recall (epic games) are two pretty big ones that released this year. They are full fledged games rather than “experiments” like most games in this category.
My list is going to probably look like a lot of others…Zelda, Mario Odyssey, Horizon, Destiny 2.
One game that I hope gets highlighted was Steamworld Dig 2. Before Mario, no game this year filled me with so much unabashed joy. SWD2 improved on the original in so many ways and played so so well. Even thinking about it right now makes me wish my Switch was in arm’s length so that I could fire that game up.
Before the end of the year I really want to make sure I play through Wolfenstein 2, if for no other reason than to see these moments that I’ve seen people dying to talk about.
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I’m excited because I’ve actually played a lot of games this year, and the list just keeps getting bigger! I think my frontrunner is Thimbleweed Park so far, but last year I didn’t end up starting the game that I considered my best of the year until mid-December. I don’t normally share my GOTY list with anyone but I might this year because it’s so much bigger than last year’s was (I only played or could afford around five games that I actually liked last year, and I’m well past twenty this year)
As of right now my top 4 are Nier Automata, Wolfenstein 2, Zelda BotW, and Prey. I can’t really place a 5th game yet. I haven’t yet played Horizon, Night in the Woods, Hollow Knight, or Yakuza 0, all of which I think could land a spot on my list. I’m hoping to get to all of them in the next 6 weeks. That might be a tough undertaking right now, as I’m fully back in on Dragon’s Dogma with the PS4 rerelease.
I could see Prey maybe getting knocked off my top 5 if I do get a few more games in this year, The first 3/4 of that game would be my #2 if it didn’t have the last 1/4 dragging it down.
Nier automata is the game of the fucking millenium. It’s not even remotely close.
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I don’t really play many games that get released during the year, so whenever I write a year end retrospective, I just go by my gaming year in question, not the gaming year.
As for my favorites so far this year…
Owlboy - Beautiful handcrafted sprites and a story about living with a handicap that nearly made me cry
Alpha Protocol - I replayed this game four times within two weeks non-stop. Yeah. The political commentary still rings strong to this day
The Beginner’s Guide - I’d say this was the most emotionally draining thing I experienced all year, but I also played LISA and Little Red Lie, but damn if this didn’t leave my jaw on the floor
The Silver Case - Probably the most coherent thing SUDA 51 ever wrote until his post-NMH1 phase, but with far less sexism (kinda). What’s great about this game is that it has SUDA’s ol’ trademark of mixing metaphor and literal, and it pays off in SPADES once you reach the Lifecut chapter and the game is suddenly like “okay here’s about seven climaxes there’s still four chapters after this”
Shadowrun: Dragonfall/Hong Kong - This was the year I found out about Shadowrun and where was this all my life. Dragonfall broke my heart, but Hong Kong had some of the best villains I’ve seen in years
LISA (Painful & Joyful) -
Little Red Lie - See LISA
Alan Wake - It’s literally spooky Homestuck of course I love it
Stories Untold - I played the first episode of this game right when Hurricane Harvey was just hitting landfall (I live in SE Texas). That was a mistake. I don’t think a game has genuinely freaked me out so much before outside Silent Hill 2 and Nanashi no Game
Deponia Doomsday - Apparently this game beat Danganronpa to the punch of telling the entire fandom to fuck off and somehow turning that into a meaningful, heartwrenching message. I’d argue that makes Deponia Doomsday more impressive because the Deponia series is the game version of the Simpsons yogurt joke and this game was the one that actually made me cry (that and Owlboy).
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