Usually there's a bunch of topics for best games of the year, for each genre, but perhaps not this year, so hence this topic
Close it, if I'm just too early with this
My personal favorites are:
1- Return of the Obra Dinn: truly memorable game, unlike anything I've ever played (or seen) before. It's a rare thing that a game today can still give you the same feelings of wonder as back in the old days. The moment you climb the ship for the first time and experience the unique look & feel for yourself, or the first time you see the *things* (not trying to spoil) in the flashbacks. I will surely remember this one for years. And the feeling of accomplishment it gives is very rewarding.
2- Subnautica: beautiful and perfectly balanced survival game, that doesn't outstay its welcome (ie, not too grindy for a survival game).
3- AssCreed Odyssey: was doubting to have this in my top list, but 75 hrs played says enough. It's not very different than AC: Origins, but it does everything a tad better. Probably the best AC game since AC2.
Honorable mentions:
- Ghost of a Tale: great game, but way too short
- Hitman 2: haven't played it enough, or it would have in the top list. Having to be online to unlock half the game's features is a big no for me, however.
- Frostpunk: fun, but too linear, and little replay value
- Kingdom Come: Deliverance: just too many bugs when I played it. Also a unique game, but the buggy experience wasn't that great compared to Obra Dinn.
- Two Point Hospital: really fun, although repetitive
- Atom RPG: came in right in the end. Not a very original Fallout clone, but very additictive.
One of the worst gaming years for me. Only played old stuff. Finally finished TW3+DLCs and Dishonored 1&2 plus expansions and just now finished Deponia Doomsday. Truly nothing I can add to the list this year.
"Enlightenment is man's emergence from his self-imposed nonage. Nonage is the inability to use one's own understanding without another's guidance. This nonage is self-imposed if its cause lies not in lack of understanding but in indecision and lack of courage to use one's own mind without another's guidance. Dare to know! (Sapere aude.) "Have the courage to use your own understanding," is therefore the motto of the enlightenment."
More about working on the backlog than picking up new releases for once although I did finish a couple of titles but the GOTY title would go to Yakuza 0 though it was merely ported to PC this year and from searches it actually came out in 2015 originally.
Shadow of the Tomb Raider? Well removing the combat removed the fun from the game focusing on linear "hub-lite" areas and minimal puzzles and platforming and the fewer combat segments mainly focus around stealth though with all the tools and weapons you do get there's little difficulty or challenge to any of these.
Ys VIII? PC port issues via NISA aside Falcom seems to be slipping up a bit with their recent titles compared to the older games, they've and to an extension JRPG's in general have always followed tropes and such though but I much preferred the old installments particularly Oath and Origins.
Labyrinth of Refrain? Hmm not the worst dungeon delve JRPG I've played though the game tries it's best to be a visual novel although I did like that the game foregoes the usual E or T rating and instead pushes for M and sometimes even above that during some moments although the overall story isn't the greatest and the dungeon mechanics are pretty simple although for a recent take on the genre or formula it's also not completely simplified either.
Assassin's Creed Odyssey? The enhancements to Origins are pretty clear but so are the regressions and the large size of the game world and trio of different story branches just gets dragged out and feels a bit disconnected especially since you can wrap them up in any order yet the endings feel like they would follow a single linear progression though Ubisoft is following their open world design and letting players do just about anything.
(See that "?" you can get yet more random junk there ha ha. Well someone probably 100%'d the entire thing.)
Just Cause 4? Well it's either Avalanche New York being where they send their less accomplished developers or Square just fucking hates their western acquisition and studios giving them ridiculous budgets, deadlines and sales expectations because this is probably one of the worst titles of the year doubling down on what wasn't fun in Just Cause 3 with even more technical problems. (Just Cause 3 was the title suffering from executive meddling, this should have improved over that. Didn't happen.)
Rage 2 looks fun and Mad Max was fun so Avalanche Sweden might still be on track but eh the Betashed launcher isn't too attractive and well Win10 Store pfft no that needs a lot more work still.
(Eventually I expect Failed-out 76, Doom Eternal and Rage 2 to hit Steam just from the user base and potential sales but probably half a year to a year exclusivity before it happens.)
Dragon Quest XI wasn't bad either as a JRPG fan and it's a more classic experience too though with a modern engine and some updates although the choice of music could be much better and even with the mod the new tracks aren't that inspiring.
(End-of-game spoilers.)
Spoiler:
I can understand going for a full happy ending but the third act undoing the second act sucked although it had some things going for it but ultimately it should have ended with act 2 though perhaps with some parts of the third act, hard to say.
Indie? Well it's one of the most neglected categories for this year. I did wrap up Hollow Knight but it wasn't released in 2018 as I recall and similarly some of the other titles wrapped up were released earlier.
EDIT: I did find out about this some weeks ago too, Korean RPG? Could be interesting although tracking it down might be harder now that Nintendo is waging war on emulation sites and ROM's following the NES and SNES classics being super popular.
(Intro seemed interesting although who whips off hair and then well the soundtrack with it's lovely art...err I mean the artistic inclusion of somewhat more metallic themes. )
Then again the fan translation wrapping up in 2018 doesn't really quality and the game is from the early 2000's itself.
Though yeah the changes both West and East whether mobile or online or "GAAS"(!!!) and service model being the norm doesn't bode too well for launch-day releases and their quality plus publisher and executive demands and meddling and well onward to 2019 then and more weird and strange social-political and corporate fun things I suppose ha ha.
Last edited by JBeckman on Sun, 30th Dec 2018 12:42; edited 4 times in total
The way I see it, every life is a pile of good things and bad things. The good things don’t always soften the bad things, but vice versa, the bad things don’t always spoil the good things and make them unimportant.
super bad year, didnt even buy anything i think. game played most was world of warships latests versions lol, easy to grind xp and just fun to run amok in my stealthy destroyer
For me this was a great year, and the very first time in my life, where the great games were on console.
I hate consoles.
Yet I played these games on PS4 PRO: HZD (best of the bunch, but last year's), Detroit, GoW, Spider-Man and RDR2. All of them good or goodish.
My GOTY goes to RDR2 without a doubt. I hate consoles, I hate westerns, I hate slow games, I hate games with poor combat. RDR2 is all of those, and is still by far the best game to come out this year. I was moved by the characters, story and delivery. I lived the very well crafted world, too - a rare feat. A true tragedy this game, but the protagonist's arc (if played high honor) finishes on a high note!
Last edited by Radicalus on Sun, 30th Dec 2018 14:49; edited 1 time in total
This was a great gear. The best game by far was absolute garbage, but it was a great year!
Unsurprisingly, there was nothing worth mentioning from the AAA console garbage dump besides Monster Hunter World I guess. Some ~AA(?) games were good meaning KCD and Pathfinder.
Honestly, I'm not sure I can even name 10 games that came out this year. Yakuza 0 obviously didn't exist before it was released on PC, so I guess that counts which makes it the GOTY.
There we have it: GOTY of 2018 is a game from 2015.
Edit: Oh right, Dragon Quest was released this year. 2 games in a 12 month period isn't bad for the AAA industry.
Was also mostly busy with older games this year. Think the newest I played was F1 2018 and while I enjoyed it, I wouldn't consider it GOTY material.
I was planning to get into Elite Dangerous next week, bought it at the beginning of the Steam sales but... the flightstick was already packed up so it will have to wait when we're in the new house.
1. Bully: Scholarship Edition 2008
2. Lost Planet: Extreme Condition 2007
3. Assassin's Creed 2007
4. SturmFront - The Mutant War 2017
5. Super Hydorah 2017
6. Anomaly Defenders 2014
7. Flying Red Barrel 2009
8. Star Trek Virtual Enterprise - No t a game
almost forgot: apart from mediocrity , to me it was the year of the biggest disappointments/overhyped games...
picked up a PS4 and was psyched for GOW and RDR2 , only to discover that i'd enjoy the PS4 backlog (uncharted4, persona5, ninokuni2, horizon ZD) a LOT more than the titles that had me buying the system in the first place
This 2018 was quite the flabby year indeed for PC gaming. Lots of sad trombones, plain disappointments (both expected and unexpected), sneaky [Early Access]es in disguise and the usual dose of shallow triple-A popamole franchises, and yet...in the end it still managed to grant me a good time with quite a few titles.
The first spot for me goes to Subnautica, one of the rare cases where rewarding exploration, gripping atmosphere and storytelling go perfectly hand in hand. Peaceful and yet deeply (literally ) unsettling, with measured pacing, the right amount of mystery and surprisingly interesting lore inside a very well-crafted and unique world.
Honorable mentions, in random order:
• The Bard's Tale IV: not the Tale that we deserved, but probably the one that we needed. Rough as hell, consolish and with baffling design decisions, but also a more than decent voyage of turn-based combatsauce and puzzles.
• The Forest: another prime (rare) example of early access done right. Similar to Subnautica in many ways, especially when it comes to the explorative mysteries and downright horrorish moments. Naked cannibals have never been so fascinating.
• Ghost of a Tale: truly one of the most charming games out there, a gracious adventure set inside a beautiful rural setting. Fetch quests are part of the job too, you're a rodent after all!
• HITMAN 2016 S02: Agent 47's new mission as a reboo-ed assassin is a more of the gimped same, though with considerably more consistent level design and a lot of style. Turns the aids off and pepper your fiber wire.
• Thronebreaker - The Witcher Tales: came for the Gwent (which sadly ended up being a poor imitation of the real deal), stayed for the fantastic story. The CDmen know their craft.
• QUBE 2: a sequel that improves upon the original in many ways, with the signature puzzles, a pinch of story and nice ambiance surrounding it.
• Yoku's Island Express: combining platforming, exploration, and pinball in a seamless manner? The perfect job for a dung beetle.
• GRIS: the very definition of style over substance, but it's damned impossible to ignore its beauty.
• Death's Gambit: lite Pixelsouls that's not devoid of soul despite the many concessions. Difficult to put down, it does what it has to do without losing its focus.
• Wreckfest: its development path was rougher than the game's roads, but despite the selective gimping it still manages to provide proper physics wrapped in healthy chaos.
• Frostpunk: a strategy game that brings some uniqueness to the stale genre. Limited in its own frosty way, though dealing with the extreme cold has its charm, the 'Damned if you do, damned if you don't' Simulator.
The list is definitely not complete as there's still saucy stuff sitting in the backlog. I'm currently in the middle of Kingdom Come Deliverance (couldn't resist anymore) and ATOM RPG, both remarkable in their own way, especially the former which I suspect it might end up near the top spot. Haven't touched Pathfinder Kingmaker, Battletech, Deadfire etc. yet either (still waiting for the patching®); hopefully I'll have more quality gaming hours ahead.
The clear GOTY for me isn't even on PC (thanks Rockstar). God of War and Spiderman's PS4 journey are the things I didn't even touch yet, but considering Kingdom Hearts 3 is coming out end of January, the PS4 is a safe buy.
But if I had to pick:
Subnautica (self-explanatory)
Forza Horizon 4 (car fix, but I simply loved roaming around in these beauties)
Far Cry 5 (which felt fresh for the series, the first couple hours I was pretty surprised)
Hitman 2 (short, but lots of opportunities, one or two more levels besides the DLC could've done wonders)
Most disappointing titles:
Just Cause 4 (again, held a lot of promise and was underwhelming, first Just Cause I returned asap)
Assassin's Creed Odyssey (unpopular opinion, but the movement controls absolutely killed the game for me, there was no weight to Kassandra or Alexios, everything felt too speedy, I was ready to experience an Origins clone, but Bayek still came out ahead, also didn't help it came out for "free")
The best experience I had playing games this year was picking up smaller and older titles again like The Forest, also things like Raft and Trailmakers.
PC was a bit of a letdown this year, but my nominees are
Vampyr ( although clunky at times, setting and story made it interesting )
Darksiders 3 ( not finished yet but by far is the most entertaining game I've played on PC so far this year )
GRIS ( stunning visuals, warming music, get in for the atmosphere )
I dont know... I bouth Crash bandicoout trilogy, f1 2018 and BFV this year, I mean this year games... and I bought bfv drunked tonight, because its my nameday
edit:
Spoiler:
but I think the best game is life itself
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