Rather than just put up a list of my top 10 games of 2018, I thought it would be more interesting to come up for a few "Awards" to highlight what was great and sometimes disappointing about the games I played this year. I also made a list of the top 10 Movies I saw in 2018 since I saw the vast majority of releases due to MoviePass/Sinemia (I think in total close to 100 of the 2018 releases, about 20 since Sept and 75+ via MoviePass Jan-Aug). I also watched a lot of brand new 2018 TV shows, so I went ahead and added that in as well, just to touch all the bases.

Video Game Awards

Best Story

Red Dead Redemption 2 -No game's narrative besides RDR2 pushed me past rather lackluster gameplay in 2018 like the story of Arthur Morgan. It didn't hurt that we came into Red Dead 2 knowing an awful lot about the vast majority of the cast outside of Arthur, but RDR2 both expounded on and made me grow to love or hate, or just plain understand all of these characters to such an incredible degree it's hard to explain. I didn't think I could like John Marston more than I already did after the first Red Dead Redemption, but I do now. And boy did Sadie just steal the entire show. The tragic story of Arthur Morgan, at least for me, was a great tale of a misunderstood outlaw turned hero, and it's one I won't soon forget. There is a reason the GB crew had such a tough time nailing down a single sequence to hold above the rest because it's all so well done.

Runners Up - Marvel's Spider-Man, God of War

Best Graphics

God of War -On a standard PS4, God of War stands above the rest of the games in 2018. From small enclosed misty forests to the open lake that changes almost everytime you see it, the game looks incredible from every angle. Now turn on 4k HDR on a PS4 Pro, and this game is an entirely different beast all together. I'd go so far as to say it's not only the best looking Video Game I've seen in 4k HDR in 2018, it's the very best content of any kind I've seen so far in 4k HDR. The way fire pops off the Chaos Blades you almost feel like you are about to be burned and the Leviathan Axe looks just as chilling in comparison. It's truly something to behold and it's the number 1 game I'd recommend you put in if you are trying to test out a new 4k HDR TV. I was just finishing God of War when I finally made the switch to a TCL 6 Series TV with a Pro and what a difference it makes. (I'd highly recommend trying Horizon: Frozen Wilds and Far Cry 5 as well, as those are the next best 4k HDR games I've tried)

Runners Up - Far Cry 5, Ni No Kuni 2: Revenant Kingdom

Best Continued Experience

Destiny 2: Forsaken -I don't even feel right comparing Forsaken to other DLC's, because it's lands as not to far inferior to this year actual full release Game of the Year candidates. It is far a wide the best the Destiny franchise has ever been in so many ways. That's not to say I couldn't write an entire article on the things Destiny is still doing wrong post Forsaken, I could (PvP in particular), but Forsaken specifically marries so much that the franchise has done so well in it's past and that Destiny 2 itself screwed up so royally. With some really inventive new features like a playable End Game space with The Dreaming City, the new Dungeon Activity of Shattered Throne, to the new Gameplay Modes like Gambit, it's really hard to complain much about the missing features like Trials of the Nine when there is already more than enough content in any given week for players to go after than any reasonable person could do. And with now two of the best Activities Destiny has to offer delivering in spectacular fashion in 2018, the Last Wish and Scourge of the Past Raids, it just becomes impossible to compare this DLC that many have put 500+ hours into to any other Continued Experience. Only a few games draw as much attention from players as Destiny post release, and absolutely none of those have this level of post release content support. And while Black Armory's release has drawn much ire from the playerbase it's still hard to even fully judge that content launch thus far since the final pieces of Black Armory won't even launch until tomorrow Jan 8th. See below for both the plans for this next year and some of the stuff they released prior to Forsaken in 2018 like the Whisper Quest which is another reason this wins this category. That Quest was great, Warmind was a good DLC, and Destiny also released another Raid in 2018, Spire of Stars. So the sheer amount of Destiny 2 content released in 2018 in uncomparable to any other game, and it's not even close.

Best Change of Pace

Marvel's Spider-Man -I was enjoying Spider-Man, but I'm not going to lie, it was starting to wear out it's welcome for me until the Prison Break. And boy did that change up the pacing of that game in dramatic fashion and reinvigorate my desire to play it. I went from playing a story Quest on occasion just to push the story forward and mainly knocking out side objectives to furiously trying to see the story to conclusion. This shift dramatically increased my enjoyment from Spider-Man, and kind of shifted my entire outlook of the game from meh to it being one of my top games of 2018.

Runners Up - God of War

Best Gameplay

Monster Hunter World -Let's be honest, the only reason Monster Hunter World ever ended up on anyone's Game of the Year list in 2018 is it's gameplay, and does it ever deliver on that front. As a brand new to the series MonHunt player, I was constantly baffled by the backwards systems the game's industry gave up on at least a decade ago, but somehow, someway, this game continued to draw me in to become one of my most played games of 2018. And that is entirely due to how fantastic it feels to jump on a Monster, slice it to bits, fire arrow combos with a Bow, and try and fail horribly at using a Charge Blade (boy am I bad at that thing). It was a game I loved feeling like I had mastered (at least to my rookie feeble MonHunt abilities) and was able to kill all of the hardest Monsters multiple times Tempered. In my mind, only Odyssey even came close in 2018 for gameplay, and even that started to falter towards the End Game where I was so OP I just demolished everything in my path, something I had zero issues with in Monster Hunter: World.

Runners Up - AC: Odyssey, God of War

Best World/Sidequests

AC: Odyssey -This might be the closest to call category, as RDR2 was absolutely fantastic in this area, but what set's Odyssey apart is, at least in my mind, the sidequests are what made Odyssey one of my favorite games in 2018, and for RDR2 that was the main story. The sheer amount of memorable sidequests and moments you could miss or make a choice that could not give you the type of epic encounter possible just made Odyssey amazing. I specifically remember one Quest on an island where I really grew to care about these 2 side characters. Both of whom you could romance. But I knew they were both in love with each other and a quick shag for me would ruin their relationship, so I chose to push the two together, it just felt right. Little did I know this was a true Greek Tragedy in the making, and I spent the next 30 minutes save scumming to prevent one of my favorite side characters committing suicide off a cliff because I gave her bad advice... oops. Sadly the true love I was pushing for just wasn't meant to be, because just a few seconds later her love was poisoned to death by a man I saved from the gallows an hour earlier... who's son just came up and gave me the sweetest thank you for saving his dad in the entire game. Sorry kid, I had to run a sword back through your daddy, he was kind of a dick it turns out. I'll just leave you with the Quest below and let you judge if I made the right call on best Sidequests though...

Runners Up - Red Dead Redemption II

Best Use of AI Companions

Far Cry 5 -For all the hate Far Cry 5 got, I honestly thought it was a rather mediocre game. But one thing it did rather well, was implement a rather cool companion system. You could scour the entire world for allies to recruit and find if they had abilties that would line up to what you needed from them. I often times found myself looking for mates to fill very specific roles such as Sniper with specific perks. Then later in the game, very specific character models with those traits. Not gonna lie, I had some awesome companions by the end of that game. Add to that a rather robust list of premade companions with very special traits, and I found myself always running 1 special character with 1 found ally to make some rather formidable or fun squads. This was easily the best part of Far Cry 5.

Runners Up - Monster Hunter World, Ni No Kuni 2: Revenant Kingdom

Most Memorable Sequence

Meeting Brasidas (AC: Odyssey) - Nothing in Odyssey got me ready to duke it out with some dudes than when I first met Brasidas out of the blue. You have this sort of connection to Leonidas throughout Odyssey, but this scene made Kassandra (or Alexios, you know if you played Odyssey wrong) feel more Spartan and connected to that origin than anything else in the entire game. I just wanted to go rewatch 300 after this finished.

Runners Up - Aunt May's Death/Funeral (Marvel's Spider-Man), John's Epilogue's (Red Dead Redemption II)

Most Disappointing Sequel

Ni No Kuni 2: Revenant Kingdom -It's hard to explain my disappointment with Ni No Kuni 2 without stating that Ni No Kuni was one of my top 10 games of the entire PS3/360 generation. That game resonated with me more than pretty much any other JRPG ever has. So the expectations, especially for a Ni No Kuni 2 without Studio Ghibli was probably too high to begin with. But that lack of Studio Ghibli in Revenant Kingdom was noticeable almost instantly. Both graphically and storywise, Revenant Kingdom is just lacking in a way that it's almost hard to pinpoint, but you certainly notice. The story from White Witch charming, and never really wore out it's welcome, whereas even from the start, Revenant Kingdom just felt childish and a bit nonsensical. They also removed one of the biggest gameplay draws which was the Familiar system similar to Pokemon where you could level up you companions and instead threw in a tried and true but rather tired generic RPG Companion System. Another big failure was the comedic companion replacement of Drippy, who failed at... being funny. Everything about this game just failed to live up to the original, and it's sad because there were a few cool new inclusions like the Kindom Building aspect, which was really good and well designed, I just wish I had more desire to play the game, rather than let my PS4 run with it on and watch TV for 4 hours...

Runners Up - State of Decay 2, Red Dead Redemption II

Game of the Year

God of War -As someone who honestly hasn't really even like any entry into the God of War saga to date, I was thoroughly surprised with how much I enjoyed God of War. But taking a step back away from the hack and slash gameplay did untold wonders for this series here. From a gameplay perspective every slice of the Leviathan Axe, and swing of the Chaos Blades felt deliberate, and powerful, and that's exactly what I expect from the God of War. It may not have had the absolute best gameplay in 2018, but it was certainly in the running. The same can also be said of it's story. Taking the time to tell a rather small, more deliberate story about the journey of a father and son really helped to develop Kratos as a character unlike ever before. And while it's certainly not without it's faults, like Atreus turning into an ego maniac after finding out he is part God, it certainly ended strong. Again God of War comes out just behind Red Dead Redemption 2 on Story, but it was still at the top of the pile. As you read earlier it was unmatched Graphically in 2018. But I think the biggest compliment I can give God of War, and the reason it won Game of the Year for me, is that everything it did, it did extremely well. While Red Dead faltered on Gameplay and Monster Hunter: World has no conceivable story, God of War did it all, and did it all extremely well.

Runners Up - AC: Odyssey, Marvel's Spider-Man

Top 2018 Video Games

1. God of War
2. AC: Odyssey
3. Marvel's Spider-Man
4. Destiny 2: Forsaken
5. Red Dead Redemption II
6. Far Cry 5
7. Monster Hunter: World
8. Ni No Kuni 2: Revenant Kingdom
9. Shadow of the Tomb Raider
10. State of Decay 2

Top 10 2018 Movies

1. Black Panther
2. Spiderman: Into The Spiderverse
3. I, Tonya (released wide Jan 5)
4. Creed II
5. A Quiet Place
6. Forever My Girl
7. Ready Player One
8. Peppermint
9. Deadpool 2
10. Bumblebee

Top 10 New 2018 TV Shows

1. Yellowstone
2. Altered Carbon
3. New Amsterdam
4. Cobra Kai
5. God Friended Me
6. Legacies
7. Marvel's Cloak & Dagger
8. Jack Ryan
9. Black Lightning
10. Manifest