(it annoys me that according to the spreadsheet, the official name for voting is "Marvel's Spiderman" instead of "Marvel's Spider-Man."
Respect the hyphen.
Respect the hyphen.
1. God of War – From its stellar combat mechanics, simple yet effective narrative, powerful chemistry between the lead characters, fantastic world design and top of the class audio and visuals, God Of War represents the best of the medium, breathes new life into a stale franchise and gives gaming's mightiest anti-hero a glorious return to form all in one.
2. Red Dead Redemption 2 – In a time where open world games saturate the market, Red Dead Redemption 2 stands tall above all others with unparalleled world design, industry defining audio and visual design, a poignant narrative and extremely likable ensemble cast, delivering an experience that will be remembered and learnt from for many years to come.
3. Monster Hunter World – Like the menagerie of monsters players are pitted against, Monster Hunter World is essentially a bigger and badder form compared to its predecessors with its meticulously crafted and intuitive level design and core gameplay loop miraculously remaining extremely fun and addictive even after 300 hours while also serving as an excellent coop game.
4. Shadow of the Colossus – With just a reworked rendering pipeline and tweaked control schemes, Shadow of the Colossus still shines as among the year's best, proving that Ueda's classic from 2005 stands the test of time in most aspects and in some cases, still exceeds modern game design conventions especially with its physics driven gameplay even to this day.
5. Dragon Quest XI: Echoes of an Elusive Age – Intentionally designed thoroughly like traditional JRPG's of the old days, Dragon Quest XI invokes a powerful feeling of nostalgia by keeping true to its roots yet innovating and incorporating modern mechanics where necessary into the mix to deliver one of the best JRPG's this generation.
6. Marvel's Spiderman – Boasting perhaps the most gratifying traversal system in an open world game, Spiderman also features a mechanically deep combat system that feels and looks as amazing as its comic book depictions imply in addition to a surprisingly well written plot, in which the overall package stands as among the best superhero games of all time.
7. Yakuza 6: The Song of Life – Self-aware yet taking full advantage of its ability to switch between comedy and seriousness in tone, Yakuza 6 is above all very fun to play where even the most mundane tasks are enjoyable while also presenting a powerful narrative elevated by a fantastic cast.
8. Celeste – Beautifully animated with pixel art and brutally challenging, Celeste serves as a nice memento of retro games and a well-executed metaphor for mental illness. Thanks to its silky smooth platforming mechanics, Celeste is simply addicting to go through, especially when the challenge is just right, although it is occasionally let down by uneven difficulty curves.
9. Pokemon: Let's Go, Pikachu! – Although much of the core gameplay mechanics the series is renowned for has been dumbed down for a more casual appeal, Pokemon: Let's Go, Pikachu! nevertheless remains enjoyable, delivers nostalgia every step of the way with classic environments remade in high fidelity and brings in new mechanics that are hopefully integrated going forward.
10. Fortnite: Battle Royale – Perhaps the biggest game on the market today, Fortnite is an engaging game with a skill curve as high as its userbase and a great coop game well worth hours of dedication. Despite its lackluster gunplay and unbalanced weapon sets, there is few more satisfying moments than seeing Victory Royale at the top of the screen.
Honorable Mention
Far Cry 5 – While Far Cry 5 presents a surprisingly decent narrative, breaks away from many conventional AAA open world design choices that served as a template for its predecessors and overall remains a very enjoyable game, it ultimately lacked the drive to go fully into its religious themes and further cements that a fresh take is desperately needed by the franchise.
I see, will do so shortly, thanks
(it annoys me that according to the spreadsheet, the official name for voting is "Marvel's Spiderman" instead of "Marvel's Spider-Man."
Respect the hyphen.
Will votes with a hyphen be thrown out? Spidey would hate that.
Had to cut Monster Hunter World and Astro Bot: Rescue Mission as I wasn't sure Hollow Knight and Shadow of the Colossus would count.
- Red Dead Redemption 2 - Everything I wanted it to be and more. Just a couple of online trophies away from the Platinum.
- God of War - Absolute masterpiece and I can't wait for the sequel.
- Hollow Knight - My favorite metroidvania ever. I adore everything about it, the music, the visuals, the combat all of it.
- Shadow of the Colossus - Playing the remake was my first time with this game and I was stunned with the scale, music and creature designs.
- Marvel's Spider-Man - My favorite Spider-Man story in any medium. Surprised how well Insomniac nailed it.
- Into the Breach - Made me fall in love with strategy games. The almost puzzle-like nature gripped me so hard.
- Hitman 2 - A perfect sequel to one of the best stealth sand boxes ever made.
- Assassin's Creed Odyssey - My new favorite AC.
- Return of the Obra Dinn - Played the whole thing with my brother and haven't had such a unique experience since The Witness and Her Story.
- Celeste - The story didn't impact me me as much as it did to others, but the platforming felt borderline perfect to me.
Are we allowed to add to our lists if we get the notification from votebot??
I just finished moss and want to add it to my list. Will also finish ASTRO bot before the end date.
Hey Lunar, use the ordered list feature and add short comments if you want your vote to count
You might need to bold your number 7 for it to count, I'm not sureOver all it was a great year, though I've found the first half to be lacking in quality games that fit my tastes.
- God of War - It's the GOTY. Nothing comes close to it. They took the old God of War formula, threw it out the window and made something really, really special. Level design, artstyle, combat, soundtrack and characters are all top notch. Don't forget about the camera, it's an amazing achievement. God of war is bombastic, emotional, bloody, surprising and so much more.
- Assassin's Creed Odyssey - My most played singleplayer game this year. I'm at 100 hours and I aint stopping. AC is my favorite gaming series of all time and this is the first time they went all in on the RPG aspects. And it's for the better. It combines the historical richness of past entries with a beautiful, big world and fun gameplay.
- Red Dead Redemption 2 - Arthur is an amazing protagonist. I loved how personal the story was. This game would be at the top if it weren't for its biggest problem: the gameplay. It feels like somthing from a distant past. Still an amazing game with the most beautiful game world this year.
- Hitman 2 - I love it. There's so much content in this package, it's insane. All the levels are so well designed you have to play them multiple times to get the most out of them. Miami is one the greatest gaming achievements in environmental storytelling, level design and gameplay opportunities that I have ever seen.
- Call of Duty: Black Ops IIII - It's CoD, there's not much left to say. I love this series, but found the last few games to be lacking. I also hated the wall jumping a few of them introduced. WW2 was frankly boring. Black Ops 4 is a return to form with fun maps, gadgets and specialists. Oh, and boots on the ground.
- Super Smash Bros. Ultimate - Amazing fun with friends.
- Dark Souls Remastered - First time I played Dark Souls even though I played all the others from From Software. God, why did I never play this?! From Software are the GOAT at level design.
- Marvel's Spiderman - Fun game with a pretty predictable story and a boring game world. The gameplay makes up for it though.
- Shadow of the Tomb Raider - Much better than ROTR. I love the emphasis on stealth and all the opportunities they give you to use that advantage.
- Frostpunk - The best strategy game I played this year. I'll revisit this in the future for sure.
You might need to bold your number 7 for it to count, I'm not sure