Animal Crossing was the worldwide communal joy we needed this shitty year at exactly the right time. It’s not the best game of the year but it also deserves every game of the year award it inevitably gets. That’s a weird dichotomy, I know, but it is the truth.
@magnetphonics: I have Paradise Killer installed on my switch but haven’t started it yet. if it’s that good I’ll have to make time for it pretty soon.
I’ve seen KRZ get plenty of love though, just not in GOTY talks apparently. I bounced off it in the middle of chapter 3, the story didn’t grab me for whatever reason.
I haven’t put in enough time with the launch games, namely Demon’s Souls and Yakuza. Ori is the first thing that comes to mind whenever anyone mentions GOTY. That game made a huge impression on me. The Series X enhanced version is so gorgeous that I know I’ll end up playing through it again.
1. Ghost of Tsushima (most pure fun I've had with an open-world game since H:ZD or ever; and my god it's beautiful. I was engrossed for weeks.)
2. HUNTDOWN (too many people are sleeping on this absolute gem of a game; also weird that the GB crew never really looked at it. It's a fantastic couch coop game, too)
3. The Last of Us: Part II (everything about this game has been said, it's not without flaws but one intense ride)
Disappointment of the Year: Doom Eternal (good game, in some ways superior to Doom 2016 but overall I don't like the direction they've gone into with this game both story and gameplay-wise)
Game Everyone Seems to Love Except Me: Hades didn't do it for me. There's something about Supergiant games' games that I just can't bring myself like, no matter how I often I try. Glad that it is successful though.
I feel like so many incredible indies will go ignored this year. Obviously GB can’t be expected to look at everything and they’ve always been more focused on mainstream stuff, which is absolutely fine, but on my side I feel like my top 10 will be mostly if not all indies that didn’t get Hades level of press.
Kentucky Route Zero is an obvious one, I also LOVED Post-Void which is my favourite shooter since DOOM 2016 (eternal is not bad but still a big disappointment to me), Tales from Off Peak City is a surreal walking simulator with amazing level design, Paradise Killer is a great whodunit with a lot of player agency, Röki is a super well made « classic » adventure game, there’s a lot!
Hmm... I don't have a runaway pick at the moment. Haven't thought of it too hard yet.
I spent a ton of time with SnowRunner. Half-Life: Alyx was great and some true next-gen shit. Demon's Souls is excellent, which is to be expected, and I'd love to not be stuck in it at the moment lol. Final Fantasy VII Remake was amazing except for the dumb/weird stuff they decided to bolt onto the story.. and the combat was kinda bad IMO. I got nice and addicted to Satisfactory for awhile but that may or may not have been on an earlier list when I first played it. Those are the upper crust of what I've played.
Ghost of Tsushima was good, but never quite finished it, and it wasn't exactly super absorbing? So probably not that. Been meaning to finish it up with the PS5 to see how it looks/plays.
Still have some games laying here that I haven't got around to. Spider-Man (but also, that was already on a list), Sackboy, Resident Evil 3. Cyberpunk still on the way.
I haven't played most of these games, but from the outside looking in it's sort of amazing how FF VIIR is so widely revered despite being a project that sounded like it could only dissapoint compared to the beloved original.
My GOTY is trying to buy any tech product online this year. The adrenalin rush as the timer ticks down or the instock alert beeps. The feeling of watching the virtual queue grow. The heartbreak of Wario64 tweeting out of stock when you had 1min left in queue. Truly the Dark Souls of capitalism.
But yea idk probably Valorant, Genshin Impact, Hades, Flight Simulator so far im probably forgetting something.
it's cliché to say at this point but that game hasn't left my mind since i completed it this summer. it's a deeply moving character study, the world is rendered masterfully, and sneaking house-to-house in the blown-out suburbs of Hilcrest while hunting WLF and having this blare in the background- that's some of the most intense and memorable gameplay i've experienced in years.
@therealturk: I played sooooo much Nioh 2. Im in the same boat as you with that game for sure. But I feel like come GOTY time the crew is going to snub that game like they did Nioh 1.
@cadilla430: I keep finding myself just wandering off in directions on Valhalla since I'm playing on Pathfinder (I think that's the name for the exploration mode). I think while it's still very much similar to the Ubisoft formula, it's tweaked in a direction I like compared to how they handled Watch Dogs.
I'm hoping Cyberpunk is as good as it looks but it may be a few months before I even get around to it.
I also really, really enjoy the direction they took with Yakuza. I've been a fan of the series for a long time now, and this feels like a really refreshing change. I miss my main man Kiryu but Ichiban is a good hearted goofball.
Animal Crossing: New Horizons (1) used to be my top dog for awhile, followed by Ghost of Tsushima (2), but Yakuza: Like a Dragon seems like it will rocket to the #1 or #2 spot real fast based on how much I'm enjoying the hell out of this game.
Preemptively I had Doom Eternal and The Last of Us 2 on my lists, because how could I not love these titles, but then I played them and just had a miserable time with each. Months later I'm still in disbelief on how hard each company dropped the ball when it came to those two.
After watching Vinny play Fuser, I think this is a dark horse candidate that came out of nowhere. It’s doing something fresh feel so seamless. And like they said in the Quick Look, I do wish the co-op mode lasted longer after the long loading time.
Still a lot of games I want to play, but some of the Top 10 contenders for me so far (presented in the order I played them):
Ori 2
Last of Us II
Journey to the Savage Planet
Samsara Room
Spiritfarer
Moon
The Room VR
Paradise Killer
Astro's Playroom
I have a list of about 15 more 2020 games I want to play, so who knows what my final list will be like. I am assuming Giant Bomb's GOTY will be Hades, though I don't expect it'll be in my own Top 10. I have done like 15 runs and I still can't get to level 4. Insert facepalm emoji here.
@cptbedlam: A game "everyone seem to love except me" is the Last of Us, the 2013 original on PS3. It was the first Naughty Dog game I played and such a disappointment to me it would likeky be the only Naughty Dog game I ever played. To each their own I suppose.
@cptbedlam: A game "everyone seem to love except me" is the Last of Us, the 2013 original on PS3. It was the first Naughty Dog game I played and such a disappointment to me it would likeky be the only Naughty Dog game I ever played. To each their own I suppose.
I'd love to more about what it was you didn't like. For me I went in after the trailer thinking, "Another one of these damn infection/zombie games" and after three times through on PS3 and three more of the updated one on PS4 it's one of my favorite games. I just watched a 100% playthrough of it a few months ago as well. There's just something about the storytelling that really made me look past it's few flaws.
@jarp12: Let's just say that my impression of the game never got past the "another one of these damn infection/zombie game" part. Granted, I am rather low on zombie fiction in general and the Last of Us just felt another piece of that. I found the production value impressive for its time, but I just can't get why people find the writing so special.
Personally, I would pick Last of Us Part 2 or Hades. But I think Animal Crossing should be a strong contender. It’s impact this year cannot be understated.
I think mine might be Warzone it picked up where Apex for me fell off. The old game that I play this year GOY is the best Zelda Game which is Minish Cap, and I should know I play OOT this year as well.
@infantpipoc: A lot of it, for me, is the interaction between gameplay, character and plot. There is a moment during the game that a lot of people have referenced over the years involving giraffes, and the reason that moment resonated so strongly with so many people is that it happens in the middle of a gameplay loop you've performed half a dozen times by then, but the characters are in a place emotionally that is causing that interaction to feel as dull and hopeless for them as it is for the player and one character breaks from tradition in a sudden way that leaves the other character and the player worried what you'll find on the other side. And that's just one small example across a game full of them.
I suppose I'm being vague just in case you ever do convince yourself to play it, but...
If you've got two hours, I'd always recommend anyone who doesn't want to play the game but wonders exactly what it is people got out of it to watch Tim Rogers' deconstruction of how The Last of Us uses gameplay to tell story as its both a generally incredible piece of video game criticism and righteously funny at times. You can even probably pare it down to a tight hour and twenty minutes if you're not interested in the self-indulgent intro, though if you're a true dude I'd recommend letting it wash over you cruelly and lovingly.
Doom, Hades and Last of Us are at the top of my list. Getting pulled deep into Ghosts of Tsushima too. If the momentum holds it may finish near the top.
@nodima: You did not have to be vague. I played through the Last of Us not once but twice. After that first time, I liked it enough. During New Game+ was when the seams broke for me.
Autmn, Winter and Spring are what I consider the better parts of it. But Summer, especially the Pittsburg bit just drags. Guess the reason why I didn't find it dragging the first time around is that waiting for Left Behind to complete download was occupying part of my mind. And don't get me start on the Fridging in the opening moments.
As for the giraffes in Spring time, well, the moment was undermined by what follows, a firefight against machine gun wielding armored soldiers in a underlit hospital. It's a tense action scene and I just don't find Naughty Dog to be good action game developer.
In the end, I don't like the Last of Us enough to play its 2020 sequel. You can share your counter points and I can see merits in those. But you cannot change what I think of the game.
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