Many voices have discussed the concept of this being an "off" year for games (Jeff and Alex specifically). Now that we're 5+ months in and mere weeks away from E3, does that idea hold true for a lot of people? Also, is this such a bad thing to have a quieter year for huge releases? It's been kind of nice having only 1 or 2 games per month that I'm really interested in. And I just got a Switch last week, so I'll be set with Zelda and Mario for the foreseeable future. I wouldn't mind seeing the torrent of game releases slow down a bit in the second half of the year.

Maybe if you compare it to 2017s overachieving.

Cause like sure there have not been 1-2 potential games of the year every month but quality games have still been coming out.

I've loved it thus far personally. Allows me time to catch up on what has become an insane backlog. I'm only digging into Titanfall 2 for the first time and that thing is 2 years old now. I still think we'll have some massive hitters this year. Red Dead 2 later this year, Spiderman looks great...plus whatever E3 throws our way. However I think the idea that 2017 was a bit of an overachieving year your always due for a little hangover the year after. Especially earlier in the year.

2017 was exceptional year for games; just because 2018 probably won't be as good doesn't mean it's an "off" year. 2017 was an outlier and shouldn't be considered the norm.

Besides, 2018 isn't even halfway done yet; we might find it turns out pretty great.

I’d have to agree, having a slightly fallow game year is great. I am swamped with ‘content’ from TV to books, there was a time up to quite recently I watched every video on GB, now that is nearly impossible. I also personally didn’t think 2017 was that bumper a year for games, but that is entirely my own subjective view.

Bottom line, a little less of everything would be nice!

I absolutely disagree that this is an "off" year or a quieter one. Maybe 2017 was a bit better, but 2018 is still extremely good. Sure, you might not like some of the games that came out or they are not your kind of genre or not on your platform of choice, but objectively we had a pretty good first half with plenty of both big and small releases that had great critical reception and/or sales.

So far from big releases this year we got: God of War, Shadow of The Colossus Remake, Monster Hunter World, Pillars of Eternity 2, Ni No Kuni 2, Yakuza 6, Far Cry 5, DragonBall FighterZ, and from smaller games/indie we got Into The Breach, Iconoclasts, , Minit, A Way Out, , Celeste, among others. Plus, there's still lots of games coming out this year. Detroit, Red Dead 2, Possibly Pokemon Switch, Fire Emblem Switch, Smash Bros Switch, Mario Tennis, Spyro Trilogy Remakes, Shadow of The Tomb Raider, Spiderman, Dragon Quest 11, The Crew 2, Yakuza Kiwami 2, Valkyria Chronicles 4, the regulars CoD and Battlefield, the more notable smaller titles include Vampyr and Banner Saga 3. I'm sure I forgot some titles.

Let's also not ignore the fact that E3 is around the corner so there will be plenty of new games shown and revealed and a lot of them will come out in 2018. The rumoured Watch Dogs 3, New Bethesda Games Studio game (Starfield most likely, very low chances of new Fallout or TES), Prey Standalone Expansion, Crackdown 3, Forza Horizon 4 and many more. 2017 was a great and 2018 is also very good. So, no I don't agree that this is a quiet first half, unless we're speaking purely subjectively. Is a hypothetical quieter year bad? No, I don't think so. It gives you more time to play or finish games that came out in a packed year, and since not every year can be super filled with great games, I'm sure we'll get such a year soon, but it's not 2018.

So far, yes it has been an off year. The big titles that garnered a lot of praise and attention didn't really do much for me either. They were good, but not worthy of me saying 'that's definitely going on my top ten of the year!' I have been wondering, especially on console, what are the must-play games this year so far? The only ones that I haven't played that I can think of are Celeste and maybe Iconoclasts. There are more games to come for sure. That said, there are some important titles that aren't coming this year, like them just pushing Metro Exodus to next year, and now The Last of Us Part II. While disappointing, it allows me to save up some money at least so I am not all too bothered by it. Red Dead Redemption 2 is the game to look forward to for this year so far, and that's all the way at the end. There are a handful of other titles I am curious about but don't have high hopes that they'll be amazing to me. I am currently looking to backlog games or games I hadn't played in the past. Just finished Spec Ops: The Line, and now I've gone back to the Dead Island remaster on PS4.

I already commented this on the last beastcast, but we already had an off-year last year. Outside of Nintendo there was almost nothing of note that came out. If you look at the GOTY it was a bunch of third-party no-name games that were most likely one hit wonders. Even looking at E3 2017 the big announcements were stuff like Spiderman, Anthem and Beyond Good and Evil 2 (none of which came out last year).

If 2018 turns out to be an off-year as well the industry is in a sorry state. We already know RDR2 is coming out this year. We've had major hits like God of War and Monster Hunter already, and we should hopefully see some of the major announcements from last year this fall. And as far as E3 goes we pretty much know Cyberpunk is gonna be shown, and stuff like Bethesda Studios' new game and Borderlands 3 are most likely also gonna show up.

While I'm sure I don't have nearly as good an insight to the back-end as someone like Jeff, I still don't see how where this is coming from. Absolutely everything points towards big exciting games being in the pipeline.

2017 was so ridiculous in the first half that I need this break, honestly. There have been a lot of good games but it's been nice to go a month or two between buying stuff.

Feels like we just finished a mid-generation wave of games that were really well made. Now we're taking a break before the last major wave of games made by people with plenty of experience on this hardware, where these consoles hit their full potential (stuff like God of War II on the PS2, or Last of Us on PS3). Coupled with the benefits of the Pro and X being out awhile and ready to be focused on.

I think E3 will give us the first glimpse of this generation's last hurrah.

I wouldn't say it's been off, just that it hasn't been as crazy as 2017.

Which doesn't bother me.

@ares42: I wouldn't worry about the industries future because I think you may be the only person in all of creation who would say 2017 was an off year.

@efesell: Make a list of the big games (again outside of Nintendo) that came out and you'll see. Sure, there was a lot of surprise darling hits, but as far as major projects backed by big publishers it was pretty damn scarce. You had Destiny 2 and Horizon and then... Shadow of War and AC Origins and .... ?

More like an average year, last year just had an abundance of quality games coming out that this year (or many years for that matter) can keep up.

And since reviewers said god of war is the game of the generation all humans should play, maybe its the greatest year of all time? J/k

Fortunately we don't just measure the quality of games by how many huge franchises released sequels.

@efesell: But the point is, if there wasn't many big projects last year, they should be lined up this and next year, right ?

The whole idea behind an off year is that all the big developers happened to line up developing years. Surprise hits come and go, and you can have good and bad years, but it's the steady flow of games from major studios that represents the big bulk of the spotlight in industry.

@ares42: But the major studios were hardly asleep last year, we just had so many more of the darlings to bolster what may have been a normal release year otherwise. We had Horizon, RE7, Mass Effect, Battlefront, Wolfenstein, Assassin's Creed, Uncharted, Destiny, Mordor, Forza, COD, and then add in all of Nintendo.

Sure some of those were stinkers but nobody was really holdin' back.

@efesell: I'd still be highly surprised if this year ends up being a disappointment compared to last year as far as major releases goes. Will it beat the phenomenon of Pubg and Fortnite last year ? Ofc not, but that's sort of a completely different thing.

@ares42: Maybe.. but I don't think we're gonna get E3 surprises from major publishers that are also then coming out this year. I expect a lot of Get Hyped for next years E3 when we are closer to release dates.

I've been so deep in Monster Hunter, my backlog, or replaying some old favorites that I hardly noticed if I'm being honest. Looking at what has been released and what's still to come out though, this year seems perfectly fine. Probably not as good as 2017 in the eyes of many, but I don't know if I'd call it an off year.

The only reason people think this year is "off" is because the last two years were filled with so many notable games. If you look at the games released so far this year as well the stuff we know is getting released latter this year you might be surprised. It's just that most of the notable titles released so far have been easy to miss if your not already a fan of their genre.

I mean, when the GOTY came out in January it's pretty hard for the rest of the year to compete.

As others have said, 2017 is one of the most insane years for games that I can remember, so it's not surprising this year feels lesser in comparison.

I know 2017 was a good year, but it’ll never FEEL like a good year to me.

1) The high of a new Mass Effect turned into the low of Andromeda

2) The high of a new Destiny turned into the death of my most played series

3) As much as I enjoyed Wolfenstein 2, it’s no where near as good as The New Order.

I wouldn't say it's been a down year between Monster Hunter, Celeste, and God of War, and smaller stuff like Dragonball Fighterz, Yakuza 6, Into the Breach, Minit, but year there has been pretty quiet stretches already and not a lot of notable releases between now and September. Pretty quiet on the Nintendo front after blowing their load last year. Still fall looks packed and there's going to be stuff there we don't know yet either.

TLDR: Can't really say yet.

I would say it's not an off year, but an average year. It just feels off because 2017 was so amazing and packed with exceptional games. This year has great games too; they're just more spread out. Personally, I've really enjoyed Celeste (current GOTY), Dragon Ball FighterZ, Monster Hunter World, and God of War. Coming up, I'm really looking forward to the Spyro Reignited Trilogy, Kingdom Hearts III, and Code Vein.

I don't see how or why 2017 is considered so great... outside of Horizon and PUBG the rest were largely forgettable. God of War alone easily beats anything I saw or played in 2017 and there's still Red Dead, Spider-Man, Tomb Raider, TLAU 2 (maybe?), Battlefield (with battle royale?), and others. As someone else mentioned there were some notable bad things in 2017 too... Mass Effect died, Destiny got shot in head, and for me personally, Assassins Creed is dead if they're going to keep the combat and movement system like that.

So far this year is way better than 2017 and its not even halftime yet.

It feels like there are more quiet stretches than last year so far and honestly it's great. After my 220ish hour addiction to Monster Hunter World I've been able to play a good bit of other slightly older games. For instance, I just picked up DBXenoverse 2 off of Humble's spring sale a week or so ago and it's great. Only downside is State of Decay 2 is hitting now and I need to decide how to split my free time with those two games.

That all said, I am pumped for E3. I'm thinking everything, everything, is now Battle Royale. Steep 2? Shoot dudes while snowboarding towards a zone. [insert racing game series]? Add rockets and a zone. Halo? 100 spartans parachute onto an island.

Oh god please don't let there be a dozen BR games.

It must be nice to be able to keep up with the flow of releases, don't know how you guys do it.

I might be an outlier, but the 2010s have been the best decade of gaming in my lifetime, easily. The NES and SNES's output can't match what's gone on in the indies and the advances in AAA gaming.

By that standard, where Mass Effect 2, LIMBO, Witcher 3, and the Dark Souls series are some of my favorite games ever made, 2018 has been an "off" year in that I've played great but not absolutely top-tier things. Celeste and God of War 4 have been the best I've played yet, and I'd put them well below last year's Hollow Knight, Breath of the Wild, and Original Sin 2.

But that off-ness barely matters, because Celeste and God of War 4 are both great. As it is, I'm still hungry for the free time necessary to get to Subnautica, Frostpunk, and State of Decay 2. Dead Cells can't leave Early Access soon enough. This might be a year with fewer all-time memorable titles, but it still has steadily produced things I've enjoyed.