Paste Magazine: The 30 Best Videogames of 2018 (pretty unusual picks)

benzopil · Dec 5, 2018

30. Vampyr
29. A Case of Distrust
28. Where the Water Tastes Like Wine
27. Fire Pro Wrestling World: Fighting Road
26. God of War
25. Assassin's Creed Odyssey
24. Pokémon: Let's Go Pikachu and Eevee
23. Just Shapes & Beats
22. Battletech
21. Monster Hunter: World
20. Astro Bot Rescue Mission
19. Dragon Ball FighterZ
18. Hitman 2
17. Wandersong
16. Life is Strange 2 Episode 1
15. Yakuza 6
14. Donut County
13. Tetris Effect
12. Graveyard Keeper
11. Ni no Kuni II: Revenant Kingdom
10. Deltarune
9. Dead Cells
8. Dandara
7. Spider-Man
6. Celeste
5. Minit
4. Into the Breach
3. Gris
2. Return of the Obra Dinn
1. Florence

https://www.pastemagazine.com/articles/2018/11/goty-2018.html?p=3

Dennis8K · Dec 5, 2018

There is still a month left of the year.

Toriko · Dec 5, 2018

Spiderman and Ni no kuni over Astrobot.. Yeah no. More ppl need to play VR games... No effing way is NNK 2 better than Astrobot. I refuse to believe such ppl exist : (

Treasure Silvergun · Dec 5, 2018

Putting Pokémon immediately above Assassin's Creed and God of War?

C'mon, who of you did this?
At least be subtle, LOL.

Phendrift · Dec 5, 2018

God damn, Red Dead completely snubbed

shotopunx · Dec 5, 2018

NNK 2, but no DQXI? Okay....

Deleted member 9857 · Dec 5, 2018

is Spider-Man the only AAA game to crack the top 15? also surprised at the lack of RDR2 (Pokemon Let's Go made it over Red Dead? really?)

Moms_Spaghetti · Dec 5, 2018

This list feels like clickbait. Respect the Obra dinn pick but Florence #1?? its 45 minute cutscene. Interesting, but barely a game. Also this is the same website that said red dead 2's portrayal of Charles was "redface" and racist so of course it couldn't make their list. Good luck with that, paste...

kenta · Dec 5, 2018

Wow, I hereby bequeath 5,000 Street Creds to whoever came up with this list. You must truly be: Cool

Vulcano's Assistant · Dec 5, 2018

Does not apprear that unusual other than the lack of RDR2.

Overall seems similar to other publications that got a thread about their picks.

Saucycarpdog · Dec 5, 2018

I expect reasonable and sane discussion about this list.

EDIT: too late

texhnolyze · Dec 5, 2018

No Dragon Quest? Boooo.. Well, at least they picked Battletech.

Outside of some exception, this is basically the "indies and under the radar games" list, which makes it interesting.

Deleted member 3017 · Dec 5, 2018

This list rocks. So many great games. Super happy to see DEAD CELLS, Just Shapes and Beats, and Dandara receive some love. And with Gris on the list, I'm even more excited to play it when it launches on the 13th.

platypo · Dec 5, 2018

Really cool list, did not know about Gris and it looks amazing. The Fire Pro Wrestling game mention is an particularly good pick as well.

I really dislike Best of Year lists that only compile traditional video games. The beauty of the medium is in the structural freedom developers have to express their story. It's really great to see so much experimentation being done by smaller devs.

Philly Cheesesteak · Dec 5, 2018

Dennis8K said:
There is still a month left of the year.

When will people realize that not all publications and website follow a calendar year? It's obvious people want Game of the Year awards to wait until Super Smash Bros. releases, but in a year where God of War, RDR2, Celeste, etc. released, Smash is not guaranteed an automatic win. Blame Nintendo for waiting to release so late in the year. It'll be eligible for 2019's GotY awards in some places. As for the list at hand, I'm kinda surprised none of the big AAA titles made too 5. Plenty of indie games though.

signal · Dec 5, 2018

Is Gris even released yet? This seems like a forced 'non-mainstream' list. Anyway at least Into the Breach is high. Possibly the best indie of the year.

e: nm barely even looked at the list, my post is dumb. also lists are just opinions so the critique was dumb anyway

Nephilim · Dec 5, 2018

No Red Dead 2 and God of War behind Spiderman.
Disagree with this list.

Don Fluffles · Dec 5, 2018

Niiiice.

EarthPainting · Dec 5, 2018

Pretty refreshing to see a list like this. I'm used to publications singing the praises of the biggest, most expensive blockbusters, which I typically don't care for. A list like this makes it much easier to find games I'd probably like, but missed.

The only real omission I can spot from it, is The MISSING: J.J. Macfield and the Island of Memories. I wonder if they're missed it, or didn't like it.

Deleted member 35509 · Dec 5, 2018

Feels like a list David Jaffe made, especially the top few choices.

gcwy · Dec 5, 2018

Never heard of this website before. Very contrarian list.

Redcrayon · Dec 5, 2018

Happy to see Into the Breach near the top, that's likely to be my game of the year.

RestEerie · Dec 5, 2018

haven't heard anything regarding top 5. maybe i need to branch out more.

*Looks at backlog*

NOPE!

ItWasMeantToBe19 · Dec 5, 2018

Florence is nowhere close to this all-time game people want it to be.

Florence tries to communicate "figuring out what to say to your boyfriend can be a puzzle at times" by having the conversations be said by putting literal puzzle pieces together.

The gameplay mechanics are just too shallow and about as subtle as a brick to the face.

It's worth the $3, it's got some interesting ideas, there will be great games like this made in the future, but it's too shallow and too non-subtle to be great.

iiicon · Dec 5, 2018

Very cool list. I've played exactly half of the games on it and the top 3 are at the top of my to play list so there's a lot of overlap, and even in instances where I disagree (Graveyard Keeper), Holly Green has written enough on Paste and elsewhere that I can understand where she's coming from. Props to giving Florence the top spot as well.

Elven_Star · Dec 5, 2018

Nothing wrong with putting some lesser known games into the spotlight. Picking Ni no Kuni II, though...

Joffy · Dec 5, 2018

shotopunx said:
NNK 2, but no DQXI? Okay....

My thoughts exactly. Saw nnk2 high and immediately scanned for DQXI but nowhere to be seen. I guess it's just a case of not every publication can play everything

Spenny · Dec 5, 2018

I don't mind this list. A lot of good games on there.

ClayModel · Dec 5, 2018

Currently playing Dandara, it's awesome to see it there, didn't expect it to pop up.

Barn · Dec 5, 2018

I'm not into this "best of the year" list in December thing (can you not wait to get your hits in January?), and sure this one has some head-scratchers, but I reckon this'll be one of the most interesting award season lists I'll read. Comparing it to something like the Game Awards nominees (no disrespect, I'll be watching), I find about a dozen more accolade-worthy games on the Paste list. Granted, it skews more to my tastes, but it's nice to see a diversity of opinion in the industry come awards time.

Oddish1 · Dec 5, 2018

Philly Cheesesteak said:
When will people realize that not all publications and website follow a calendar year? It's obvious people want Game of the Year awards to wait until Super Smash Bros. releases, but in a year where God of War, RDR2, Celeste, etc. released, Smash is not guaranteed an automatic win. Blame Nintendo for waiting to release so late in the year. It'll be eligible for 2019's GotY awards in some places. As for the list at hand, I'm kinda surprised none of the big AAA titles made too 5. Plenty of indie games though.

I can't say I'm too invested in this debate, but if it's supposed to be a list of "Best 2018 Games" then excluding games that released in December 2018 seems to go against that idea. Releasing this list at the end of December or even in January would make more sense to me and I'm not sure why it has to be written now as opposed to then.

That said, I do like this list. There's an emphasis on games that are trying and succeeding to do something interesting which I really appreciate.

Deleted member 2254 · Dec 5, 2018

Interesting list, refreshing to see a list that isn't basically Metacritic: The Chart once in a while.

ZiggyPalffyLA · Dec 5, 2018

Any list that doesn't include RDR2 is a good list.

kiguel182 · Dec 5, 2018

Florence is a great pick. Loved that game despite having some grips with the narrative itself.

I should play more of Into the Breach! But I'm bad at it lol

Edit: anyway, great list with some great games! It has been a good year overall.

King_Moc · Dec 5, 2018

I've not heard of Florence, and the 2006 open world game 'Spiderman' looks odd that high up. Other than that, good list.

kiguel182 · Dec 5, 2018

I also still have to grab Minit. It's supposed to be pretty short so I need to not put it off anymore.

1upsuper · Dec 5, 2018

Into the Breach in Top 5 is correct, though the list is missing La-Mulana 2, ZeroRanger, and Dragon Quest XI.

Kinthey · Dec 5, 2018

signal said:
Is Gris even released yet? This seems like a forced 'non-mainstream' list. Anyway at least Into the Breach is high. Possibly the best indie of the year.

Releases on the 13th, lol. I guess they have a review copy

Deleted member 1781 · Dec 5, 2018

Nice and interesting list. Just shows how good 2018 has been so far regarding games. There are a lot of games that I still want to play.

patapon · Dec 5, 2018

Fantastic to see Spidey, GoW, Tetris Effect and Astro Bot in the list. What an year it has been for PlayStation. Keep it up Sony.

HellofaMouse · Dec 5, 2018

Some of these are just mediocre games *cough* asscreed *cough*

Unicorn · Dec 5, 2018

Seriously Obra Dinn is so fucking good y'all

TheFireman · Dec 5, 2018

Forza Horizon 4 should be on more GOTY lists tbh.

I also assume Guacamelee 2 will deserve a spot when I play it.

aiswyda · Dec 5, 2018

This list actually made me go and download Florence. It was a nice little phone game, I'm glad I had that experience.

I do appreciate the variety of games covered here--lots of games I think won't get any recognition this year so it's nice to see some recognized here.

Sloane · Dec 5, 2018

Some good choices on there. Obra Dinn, Into the Breach, and Celeste definitely belong in this year's top 10, Dead Cells probably, too. Minit isn't bad either.

Missing Spy Party though!

bitSS · Dec 5, 2018

HellofaMouse said:
Some of these are just mediocre games *cough* asscreed *cough*

I mean, Odyssey is #25. Still funny it's above God of War.

Saint-14 · Dec 5, 2018

That sure is a list of games released this year.

Magic Mushroom · Dec 5, 2018

It's a good list and Hitman 2 is on there, so it's all good.

Dr. Mario · Dec 5, 2018

Fantastic list. Putting innovation above production values. Respect it a lot more than the average "here's a ranking of game budgets in descending order which we call goty".

Wonder how they already played Gris.

Dr. Mario · Dec 5, 2018

Oddish1 said:
I can't say I'm too invested in this debate, but if it's supposed to be a list of "Best 2018 Games" then excluding games that released in December 2018 seems to go against that idea. Releasing this list at the end of December or even in January would make more sense to me and I'm not sure why it has to be written now as opposed to then.

The average customer looks at these lists to get an idea for what to buy for Christmas.

Paste Magazine: The 30 Best Videogames of 2018 (pretty unusual picks)

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