jasondaplock

This is a repackaging of the Game of the Year categories. It's a middle ground between listening to a full day of podcasts and reading an article that only mentions three games in each category. I think it's reasonable to broaden the entries documented in print, particularly in a year this good. After all: it’s an honor to be nominated.

Each category has 4 four lines, populated in this order:

1. The category and the winner
2. The 2 uprunners
3. The 3 contenders. These are the 3 last cuts from the category. They cause most of the handwringing on the podcasts and deserve some distinction for that. If the bomb crew cuts several at the same time and field drops to 5 or 4, only 1 or 2 will be listed.
4. The nominees. All the entries in the initial list, excluding immediate disqualifications. It’s an honor to be nominated.

The ideal version of this would have some text to augment each entry, but it took long enough to get just this codified I'll have to be okay settling here for now. It also takes some editorializing to name the contenders and nominees (pulling data from mostly fluid conversations) so I wouldn't expect everyone to read the chatter the exact same way I do, but if something is obviously off please mention it and I’ll correct it later.

Day 1

2017’s Old Game of the Year - Mario Kart 8

Uprunners - Windjammers & Skyrim

Contenders - XCOM: Enemy Unknown, Wolfenstein: The New Order, Overwatch

Nominees - Destiny, Bruce Lee, Psychic Detective, Tender Loving Care, Shadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun (doubt anyone played this except for me: Rorie), Hitman, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare Remastered, Contra, Soul Calibur, Titanfall 2, Dota 2, Marvel Heroes Omega, Metroid 2

Best Shopkeeper - Emil (NieR: Automata)

Uprunners - Porkrind (Cuphead) & Falcon Ron (Pyre)

Contenders - Iwai (Persona 5), Crusty Sean (Splatoon 2), Strange Resistance Woman (NieR)

Nominees - Kilton (Zelda), Tae (Persona 5), That kid from (AC:O) Reba?, Gregg (NITW), Car mechanic pigeons (Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp), Louie and Luis (Battle Chef Brigade)

Most Disappointing Game - Mass Effect: Andromeda

Uprunners - Need for Speed: Payback & Star Wars Battlefront II

Contenders - Friday the 13th

Nominees - NBA 2K18, Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp, Call of Duty: WWII, Forza Motorsport 7, Friday the 13th, Agents of Mayhem, Marvel vs Capcom Infinite, Super Bomberman R, Night Trap 25th Anniversary, Ruiner, Yooka-Laylee, Double Dragon IV, Danger Zone, ARMS, Berserk and the Band of the Hawk, Mario Party: The Top 100, 1-2 Switch, NBA Playgrounds

Best Looking Game - Cuphead

Uprunners - Horizon Zero Dawn & Destiny 2

Contenders - Pyre, Super Mario Odyssey, Uncharted: The Lost Legacy

Nominees - Star Wars Battlefront II, Cuphead, Horizon, Tekken 7, AC:O, Pyre, Edith Finch, Hellblade, Wolf 2, Resident Evil 7, The Evil Within 2, Absolver, Night in the Woods, Rabbids, Destiny 2, Hollow Knight, Injustice 2, Zelda, Dream Daddy, Guilty Gear Xrd Rev 2, Sundered

Day 2

Best Multiplayer - PLAYERUNKNOWNS BATTLEGROUNDS

Uprunners - Destiny 2 & Tekken 7

Contenders - Nidhogg 2, Gang Beasts, Splatoon 2

Nominees - Destiny 2, Tekken 7, Injustice 2, Windjammers, Guilty Gear Xrd Rev 2, For Honor, Cuphead, Super Mario Odyssey, Nidhogg 2, Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon: Wildlands, Knack 2

Hottest Mess - Star Wars Battlefront II

Uprunners - Visceral Games shutdown & Mass Effect: Andromeda launch

Contenders - Atlus threatening Persona 5 streamers, Destiny 2 XP thing, Shadow of War

Nominees - Switch online app, PUBG hacks, EA in general?, Lawbreakers, Marvel Heroes Omega

Best Surprise - PLAYERUNKNOWNS BATTLEGROUNDS

Uprunners - Mummy Demastered & Sonic Mania

Contender - Resident Evil 7

Nominees - Fire Pro Westling World, Golf Story, Sexy Brutale, Hollow Knight, NieR, Metroid: Samus Returns, Monster Hunter Stories, Battle Chef Brigade, Zelda, Star Fox 2, Hellblade, Hey! Pikmin, Brother ate my pudding, Dream Daddy, LOCALHOST, Million Onion Hotel, A Mortician’s Tale

Best Music - NieR: Automata

Uprunners - Cuphead & Persona 5

Contender - Pyre

Nominees - Odyssey, Wolf 2, Rabbids, Zelda, Rivals of Aether, Splatoon 2, Yakuza 0, Sexy Brutale, Hollow Knight, Edith Finch, Destiny 2, Tooth and Tail, SteamWorld Dig 2, ARMS

Day 3

Best World - The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild

Uprunners - Assassin’s Creed: Origins & Observer

Contender - Tacoma, Horizon: Zero Dawn, Night in the Woods

Nominees - Odyssey, Rabbids, NieR, Battle Chef Brigade, Pyre, Yakuza 0, Cuphead, Uncharted, Splatoon 2, PUBG, Wolf 2

PLEASE STOP - Lootboxes/Blindboxes

Uprunners - WWE 2K/Yuke’s!! & Nintendo’s lousy interface design and feature set

Contenders - Physical copies of early access games, In-game ads for purchasable goods, Extended periods where the player character is injured and that slows you down too much

Nominees - Electronic Arts, Games as a service, Call of Duty, DISNEY

Best Wolfenstein II Moment or Sequence - The death and return of BJ Blazkowicz

Uprunners - Going home again and confronting your father & The Hitler Scene

Contenders - Courtroom dream sequence, Meeting Horton Boone in New Orleans, The death of Super Spesh

Nominees - Wheelchair intro, Death of Caroline, Walking Around Amerikkka, Nuking Roswell and guitar kicking in as you ride off on your stupid circle scooter thing, Fraulein Engels boning Bombate in the submarine, , The part where you blow up the robots and your topless blood-covered pregnant wife shoots a bunch of Nazis, Talk show ending

Best Moment or Sequence - Route E (NieR: Automata)

Uprunners - Eating the chicken dinner (PUBG) & Cannery sequence (Edith Finch)

Contenders - New Donk City Festival (Odyssey), Eventide Island (Zelda), The end(?) of Pascal (NieR)

Nominees - End of Tekken 7, Opening of Prey, Thanos steals the Satsui no Hado from Ryu and attacks Death and Jedah with a Gouhadouken, Ryu uppercutting an Elder Dragon from Monster Hunter, Mario returns to Mushroom Kingdom, Mario fights a dragon, Mario becomes Bowser, The first time you go into someone’s mind (Observer), Selmers’ Poetry Slam (NITW), Bury Me, My Love endings, ROMEOS and JULIETS (NieR), BECOME AS GODS (NieR), The end of Tacoma, Entering the Krokodilopolis Gladiator Arena (AC:O), The end of Pyre, Train fight (Uncharted), Eating pizza (Uncharted), The final mission (Destiny 2), Fighting Kuze in the sewer (Yakuza 0), Majima’s debut (Yakuza 0), The final fight (Yakuza 0), Mr. King Dice Boss Fight (Cuphead), Mean Bean Machine Boss (Sonic Mania), 50 dudes in two very tiny rings (Wrestling Revolution 3D), The opera singer boss (Rabbids), Damien 3rd date (Dream Daddy), Nemesis fuckery (Shadow of War), Introduction of Peach (Rabbids)

Day 4

Best Debut - PLAYERUNKNOWNS BATTLEGROUNDS

Uprunners - Cuphead & Night in the Woods

Contenders - Nioh, Pyre, Dream Daddy

Nominees - Hollow Knight, Nioh, Battle Chef Brigade, Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice, Horizon: Zero Dawn, Pyre, Night in the Woods, Absolver, The Sexy Brutale, ARMS, Cuphead, Mario + Rabbids, Rivals of Aether, Snipperclips: Cut It Out, Together!, Kingsway, Bury Me, My Love, Million Onion Hotel

Best Styyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyle - Cuphead

Uprunners - Persona 5 & Yakuza 0

Contenders - Kingsway, Observer, Pyre

Nominees - Sexy Brutale, Hollow Knight, ARMS, NieR, Heat Signature, Splatoon 2, Absolver, Ruiner, Tokyo 42, NITW, High Hell, ECHO, Dream Daddy, The Shrouded Isle, Subsurface Circular

Best New Character - Bayek (Assassin’s Creed: Origins)

Uprunners - Pascal (NieR) & Damien (Dream Daddy)

Contenders - Gregg (NITW), Mae's mom (NITW), Ti'zo (Pyre)

Nominees - 2B (NieR), 9S (NieR), A2 (NieR), Father Servo (NieR), Cappy (Mario Odyssey), Mugman (Cuphead), Mr King Dice (Cuphead), Bayek (AC:O), Aya (AC:O), Scott Rogowsky (HQ), Senua (Hellblade), Aloy (Horizon 0D), Dragon (Odyssey), Mr Libido (Yakuza 0), Nugget the Chicken (Yakuza 0), Nishitani (Yakuza 0), Rukey (Pyre), Jodariel (Pyre), Sir Gillman (Pyre), Ti’zo (Pyre), Sandra (Pyre), Thrash (Battle Chef Brigade), Ziggy (Battle Chef Brigade), Bea (NITW), Damien (Dream Daddy), HotWheelzMaster69 (Sonic Forces), Truck birds (Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp), Scientist that’s in love with his oven robot (Zelda), Super Spesh (Wolf 2), Grace (Wolf 2), Sigrun Engel (Wolf 2), Twintelle (ARMS), Helix Man (ARMS)

Best Story - NieR: Automata

Uprunners - Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus & Night in the Woods

Contender - Yakuza 0

Nominees - Pyre, Persona 5, AC:O, Tacoma, Tekken 7, Dream Daddy, Subsurface Circular, Edith Finch, A Mortician’s Tale, Bury Me My Love, The Evil Within 2, Hellblade, Observer

Day 5

Best Super Mario Odyssey Capture - Pokio

Uprunners - Goomba & Meat

Contenders - Cheep-Cheep, Tropical Wiggler, Uproot

Nominees - Chain Chomp, T-Rex, Bullet Bill, Glydon, Boulder, Hammer Bro, Banzai Bill

[They populated the initial list with everything in the wiki, so I’ve editorialized a bit here and only included the entries that survived to the 15 minute mark in the video]

Best Cast of Characters - Night in the Woods

Uprunners - Pyre & Dream Daddy

Contenders - Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus, Yakuza 0, Tacoma

Nominees - NieR, Tacoma, Edith Finch, Battle Chef Brigade, Uncharted, Persona 5, Subsurface Circular, Cuphead, Rabbids, Odyssey, HQ

Worst Game (That We Played) - Mass Effect: Andromeda

Uprunners - Bubsy: The Woolies Return & Drawn to Death

Contender - Sonic Forces, The Last Answer / Bequest, WWE 2K18

Nominees - Agents of Mayhem, Night Trap, 1-2-Switch Friday the 13th, Star Wars Battlefront 2

Best Game

1. PLAYERUNKNOWNS BATTLEGROUNDS

2. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild

3. NieR: Automata

4. Super Mario Odyssey

5. Cuphead

6. Destiny 2

7. Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus

8. Night in the Woods

9. Tekken 7

10. Dream Daddy

11. Uncharted: The Lost Legacy & Yakuza 0

12. SteamWorld Dig 2, Pyre, Assassin’s Creed: Origins

[The 11’s were the last two cuts. The 12’s made it to the vote at 1:05:15 in the video]

Nominees - Resident Evil 7, Horizon: Zero Dawn, Battle Chef Brigade, What Remains of Edith Finch, Assassin’s Creed: Origins, Nioh, Hellblade, Hollow Knight, Sonic Mania, Persona 5, Mario + Rabbids: Kingdom Battle, Splatoon 2, Observer, Picross S, Nidhogg 2, Bury Me My Love, Gang Beasts, Metroid: Samus Returns, Everybody’s Golf, Kingsway, Tacoma

Abbreviations for common games with long names:

• AC:O = Assassin’s Creed: Origins
• NieR = NieR: Automata
• Wolf 2 = Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus
• Horizon = Horizon: Zero Dawn
• Zelda = Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
• Odyssey = Super Mario Odyssey
• NITW = Night in the Woods
• PUBG = PLAYERUNKNOWNS BATTLEGROUNDS VERSION 1.0 BROUGHT TO YOU BY SHASTA
• Rabbids = Mario + Rabbids: Kingdom Battles
• Edith Finch = What Remains of Edith Finch
• Uncharted = Uncharted: Lost Legacy

Santa personifies social goodwill in a way that children can more readily understand. He stands as a (mostly) impartial spectator of everything you do, seeing all your actions whether others see them or not, and his judgment is felt directly through the receipt of presents.

He makes the reward for being a good person less abstract in the hopes that, by the time you stop believing in him, you've developed enough emotionally to find being a good person intrinsically fulfilling.

On Board 3. Only one that's working for me of the four streams from the site. Probably won't last through the race (east coast).

As a Merican, I will defend the imperial unit system in all of its forms. That said, Celsius is totally fine, in no small part the result of it not actually being a "metric" unit (that's Kelvin). The metric system sucks for everyday use; it's designed for labwork. Case in point: syllable count. Just about every standard imperial unit is monosyllabic (except, ironically, "degrees" and "Fahrenheit" but I've already admitted I'd be fine with dropping those). That's not a coincidence. All the longer ones went extinct over time. We got too much shit to do to be wasting breath on this "milli" and "kilo" nonsense.

We still all use base 10 instead of base 12, though. I'd way rather we fix that first.

If you've played KotOR, there's no pressing need to play newer games to acquaint yourself with the systems in the classic CRPGs. You've got as much training as you need. Playing a modern version will just make the mechanics in the old games bother you that much more. By way of example, it's fun to play the earlier Fallout games just to see the roots of the systems in the new games, but I came to them after playing Fallout 3 and New Vegas myself and found 1 and 2 to be a slog because of it.

Torment is very cool and very old school. I'd say it is the strongest cross-section of the things you'd want if you plan on going back in the catalog that far. Play this one first, play carefully, and save often.

If you like the Western RPG format (and are okay with reading dialogue) you will almost certainly enjoy Baldur's Gate 2, and it would be a shame if BG1 soured you enough that you didn't go on to play BG2. If you play BG1 and don't like it, don't let that deter you from trying the next one.

In the single player arena, Wolfenstein, Banner Saga, The Wolf Among Us Season 2 (now fully out), The Stick of Truth, Transistor, Xenonauts, GRID Autosport, Valiant Hearts, Divinity, and Super Time Force are out on PC this year so far.

That's not a ton if single player video games on PC are your primary source of entertainment, and I'm sure a handful of those aren't your cup of tea, but I'm still not sure I'd call it lackluster just yet. We've got a third of the way to go.

Will there be any coverage of the Patrick and Zoe Quinn talk on Giantbomb?

Even if microtransactions are tacked on at the end of beta, where they couldn't possibly influence the balance the game, they still affect ME. There is no way to make them transparent enough to be cost-effective but opaque enough that they don't take me out of the experience. I hate being reminded of money while playing a game; I worry about money the other 95% of my life.

Microtransactions are never acceptable to me in a singleplayer experience unless that experience is just a time-waster (a la tower defense, trials games), where I wouldn't be focused anyway.

Outstanding article, Alex.

Having only glanced at the media side of this issue, I have to say our Achilles' heel is ambassadorship. Whenever CNN or Fox or MSNBC needs an "expert" on games, there is no go-to individual that can cogently argue one-on-one on camera in favor of video games. We don't have a Michio Kaku or a Christopher Hitchens, and we need one to stop this cycle.

Relic + Creative Assembly. There might actually be a Total War game worth buying in a few years.