Game of the Year picks

[Joker]

Thread title says it all. We'll limit it to THREE (3) choices for the time being.

What are your three picks for best game released this year?

So far, Persona V is coming out vastly ahead of anything else I've played, though Horizon is a solid contender for second.

My third pick is probably open to one of the games I've either picked up but haven't/have barely touched, or something I haven't gotten yet. These are Tales of Berseria, Nioh, Fate/Extella, Star Ocean 5, Atelier Sophie, Hitman, Uncharted, Shadow of War, Destiny 2, and Assassin's Creed Origins.

I've specifically excluded remasters, remakes, DLC, and expansions here because they're not "new" per se (with the exception of Uncharted, which I understand to be significantly different enough, and lengthy enough, to warrant inclusion). This means I've specifically left off Stormblood and Zodiac Age - otherwise one of those (probably TZA) would've landed a spot.

 

[Fangu]

Horizon Zero Dawn
Best gaming experience in a long time, I'm even willing to very happily overlook its flaws because the gameplay is just too good.

Oh and Uncharted: The Lost Legacy, although it's too short to qualify as a full game imo

 

[Joe]

Persona 5 really does pull out ahead of almost all the games I've played this year. It did turn-based RPG in such an exciting and stylish way, with a story that lasted up to a hundred hours.

NieR: Automata was also beyond amazing. Like holy shit. The music, the combat, the animations. It's all gorgeous. And the story is just so different and exciting. Honestly I think this might overtake Persona 5 simply for all the fantastic gameplay that was pulled outta nowhere. Yoko Taro is a genius.

Divinity: Original Sin 2 gets special mention. I'm still playing it but holy shit is it the perfection of a genre that was seemingly dead. Fans of Baldur's Gate ought to pick this up immediately.

I don't know why I couldn't get on with Horizon. So much of it seems flawless but after the first three hours the fun was completely gone.

 

[ForceStealer]

I still haven't played many of 2017's opening deluge of releases. But I am being 100% serious when I bring up Sonic Mania. That game is utter perfection, nothing else this year so far has brought me the sheer amount of joy as Sonic Mania did.

 

[Tetsujin]

1: Breath of the Wild, easily. It's been a while since I've been so immersed in an open world game and where I wanted it to keep going even after 120 hours and it didn't feel like doing a checklist of chores like so many others. The open world is one of the most picturesque I've ever seen. Please let the story DLC have new explorable terrains and shrines, Nintendo. I need more BotW.

2: Nier Automata. Good enough to make me interrupt playing BotW for a few days even though I just wanted to play the intro mission. But then I was hooked. Smooth gameplay, fantastic music. 2B has the best butt.

3: Sonic Mania. It's like I'm a kid again. It's classic Sonic baby!

 

[Kermitu Kleric Katie]

I've only played one game released this year, Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia, and even then it's a remake, granted it's a remake of 25 year old famicom game that was only released in Japan, and is such a significant improvement in nearly all areas that I'd probably count it tbh. Not sure if it's GOTY material or not tho, as it's the only game released this year I've played, so I have nothing to compare it to.

 

[Cacti]

First pick: I think my first pick will have to be Persona 5. Oh my god I can't get enough of that soundtrack. I'm listening to it nearly every day ever since the game came out. I'm not addicted, I swear. The changes they made to the main dungeons in the game to not make them completely mundane copy paste mazes was amazing. The stealth stuff? Hnng I loved it. Loved the characters. Just overall one of my favorite games, ever. I need to replay it soon.

Second pick: NieR: Automango - As soon as I saw this game for the first time I knew I needed it in my life and that I shouldn't watch any more of it until I could play it for myself. I mean, it's a Yoko Taro game, it's bound to be nuts. And then Platinum games came into the picture and made his games a blast to play. It had / has it's fair share of issues on PC but after a while I figured out how to run it stably on my rig and whew does it look gorgeous. A bit bleak at times, but still gorgeous. The combat was tons of fun, the crazy game design in places blew my little cactus brain. The music is also another soundtrack I keep replaying. I also beat it on hard, which is something I almost never do in games anymore. It felt really satisfying beating it on a difficulty I usually never pick.

Third pick: I'm gonna have to go with Final Fantasy XIV: Stormblood on this one. Story wise it's by far the most enjoyable story in an MMO I've ever played, but I'd even go as far as to say it's on par with a lot of top single player games too. They finally got rid of mage bards and now we can walk again which is amazing. The new raids are super fun and (some of) the new zones are so beautiful. I've been supporting this game since it's disastrous 1.0 days before it got shut down and I think I'll continue to support it for many more years to come. Fanboy confirmed

 

[Kermitu Kleric Katie]

First pick: I think my first pick will have to be Persona 5. Oh my god I can't get enough of that soundtrack. I'm listening to it nearly every day ever since the game came out. I'm not addicted, I swear. The changes they made to the main dungeons in the game to not make them completely mundane copy paste mazes was amazing. The stealth stuff? Hnng I loved it. Loved the characters. Just overall one of my favorite games, ever. I need to replay it soon.

Second pick: NieR: Automango - As soon as I saw this game for the first time I knew I needed it in my life and that I shouldn't watch any more of it until I could play it for myself. I mean, it's a Yoko Taro game, it's bound to be nuts. And then Platinum games came into the picture and made his games a blast to play. It had / has it's fair share of issues on PC but after a while I figured out how to run it stably on my rig and whew does it look gorgeous. A bit bleak at times, but still gorgeous. The combat was tons of fun, the crazy game design in places blew my little cactus brain. The music is also another soundtrack I keep replaying. I also beat it on hard, which is something I almost never do in games anymore. It felt really satisfying beating it on a difficulty I usually never pick.

Third pick: I'm gonna have to go with Final Fantasy XIV: Stormblood on this one. Story wise it's by far the most enjoyable story in an MMO I've ever played, but I'd even go as far as to say it's on par with a lot of top single player games too. They finally got rid of mage bards and now we can walk again which is amazing. The new raids are super fun and (some of) the new zones are so beautiful. I've been supporting this game since it's disastrous 1.0 days before it got shut down and I think I'll continue to support it for many more years to come. Fanboy confirmed

He said expansions don't count in the OP. If they did, I've also played The Sims 4: Vampires, The Sims 4: Parenthood, The Sims 4: Bowling Night Stuff, The Sims 4: Fitness Stuff, and The Sims 4: Toddler Stuff in addition to Fire Emblem Echoes, though now that I think on it, I have played another game released this year, Fire Emblem Heroes, a free gacha game for mobile devices, which is pretty decent as far as mobile games go, doing a good job of adapting FE's gameplay to mobile devices, though I'm not a fan of the whole "gacha game" concept, as it feels to close to gambling IMO, though I will admit the game is quite generous with its premium currency - orbs. That said, as a spendthrift with an addictive nature, I almost certainly would have paid money for orbs were it not for the fact that my mom doesn't trust me with credit/debit cards, and rightly so, despite me never playing the game enough to get to a state where I can't earn more orbs, because paying for 'em directly is easier than earning them, and getting enough for a full summon session can take a while.

 

[Roger]

Horizon: Zero Dawn closely followed by Breath of the Wild.

 

[Flintlock]

The only 2017 releases I've played are Crash Bandicoot N.Sane Trilogy, Pyre and Pathfinder Adventures. I have mixed feelings about all three. If expansions count, then Stormblood is my nomination.

 

[Octo]

Breath of the Wild.

That is all.

 

[Cthulhu]

I need to get my hands on that shit.

Actually I gathered emulators work pretty well with it, I've seen a friend play it.

 

[Flare]

I've not gotten any games released this year besides Andromeda, and I wouldn't really nominate that for a 'best game', so

But I am seeing continued confirmations in some games I need to buy. Persona 5, NieR: Automata, Horizon Zero Dawn, and Breath of the Wild (which I won't get for a while til I get the console for it, which will likely be years from now). Also want that Divinity game Joe mentioned.

 

[Geostigma]

I need to get my hands on that shit.

Actually I gathered emulators work pretty well with it, I've seen a friend play it.

Yep the progress CEMU has made in emulation is incredible. The WiiU version of BotW is very playable on PC and given how good CEMU is it's going to look good, likely better than the switch version of the game.





WoW-Legion. I think there is something to be said about coming out hot off the heels of literally the worst expansion they have ever made, one that nearly killed the game , only to release what is basically the best expansion since the last best expansion (WoTLK). The expansion is incredible in nearly every feature.

Professions were reinvigorated and not just "Gather 20k cloth and grind to 100" anymore. The majority of them have real economic value in the game and are worth while to pursue.

Some are very unique, like Herbalism you can drop "seeds" while gathering and if you replant it you ofcourse get another flower. How ever up to 10 other people can also gather the flower you plant. So it makes for a system where other herbalists team up and all plant seeds as a group and share the wealth. I'm still part of quite a few "seed party" discords for instance.

The dungeon grind is legitimately fun and a viable alternate method to getting geared out over Raiding. They made a Mythic+ system where the dungeons gaining scaling difficulty and random events can occur in them, if you clear the dungeon fast enough your "key" to the next one can grow in strength from +1, 2 and 3. So I.e. you can have a Maw of Souls +6 and if you do it fast enough your next key can be a *next dungeon here* +9.

at Stages 3 , 6 and 9 the dungeons introduce new events and eventually total up to 3 per run after 9+. Here is a list of them
Some weeks are downright tough as nails and even harder then some raid encounters.

As a Demon Hunter who was Melee, who already could easily accidentally take agro off the Tank weeks with Skittish, were almost always a death sentence.

Over all it was a very fun system that gives you scaling worth while content that is easy to get into and difficult to accomplish. As every affix not only makes the dungeon more difficult but also changes how you even play each encounter. For instance Bolstering meant you had to kill as many adds as possible at the same time, other wise the last one up would literally be just as hard as a boss. The best I ever did was a +19 before quitting.

The raids were all excellent as well. I was a Mythic Progression Raider for EN, ToV and NH and I gotta say it was actually exciting to get in there with my guild every Tuesday , Thursday and Sunday night for 5 hours to try and beat this content. The fights were varied and had lots of tough, yet fair, mechanics. Plus the personality the bosses had were pretty cool and interesting , some borderline absurd.

Trilliax comes to mind

Or this ridiculously bad Pun Master Tree Boss (Seriously watch this one)

Lore wise... It's fucking absurd lol. The implications for some of the actions our favorite edge lord Illidan, makes are game changing. Spoilers but worth posting

The story also takes us all over the place, it takes place on Azeroth in the broken isles primarily but we also get to spend some time on the planet of Marduum and even go to the Demons stronghold planet of Argus (which is fucking huge lore wise). And with the events that were datamined at the end of the next upcoming raid things are about to get even more ridiculous.


Over all Blizzard basically cranked everything to 11 for this expansion. Every facet of the game is exceptional right now and they really did a good job off the back of every one saying the game was dead.