Share your 2016 GOTY lists.
Just finished my list. I also write a haiku review for each entry.
Best of 2016
 | 1. Stardew Valley Hey, Get Up and Farm Must Always Do One More day Here is Peace of Mind |
 | 2. Dishonored 2 Emily Has Grown Brilliant Murder Sandbox Plot Does Disappoint |
 | 3. Dark Souls III Praise The Sun Again Now We Are The Unkindled A Worthy Goodbye |
 | 4. The Banner Saga 2 Journey of Despair Alette Holds the Banner On To Arerrang |
 | 5. The Last Guardian Call Out For Your Friend Wonder is Stronger Than Rage The Magic is Real |
 | 6. Firewatch Me and My Tower Voices and Isolation A Story that Sticks |
 | 7. Hitman Haiku Review: Killer in Plain Sight The Deaths of Helmut Kruger Episodic Bliss |
 | 8. Tyranny What if Evil Won Answer Your Dread Master's Call I Murdered a Babe |
 | 9. Uncharted 4: A Thief's End A Nice Way to End Now Let the Sleeping Drake Lie Finally Liked One |
 | 10. Titanfall 2 Big Robot Buddy Please Keep Your Boots On the Wall Glorious Shooting |
Game of the Year 2016
 | 1. Overwatch As of this writing I currently have 1279 hours on playtime in Team Fortress 2. It was a game I loved so much that I help run a server, created a community around that server and made some unforgettable friends and memories. Unfortunately TF2 started to fade. People were getting tired of 24 hour 2-Fort and the heavy amount of scrap metal, tickets and other junk shoved into the game. My friends and I wanted to the recapture those moments again with a new game but we just couldn't find anything even close to that. Then came Overwatch. I am almost certain 10 years from now I'll still be playing Overwatch. It has the best elements of MOBAs with interesting abilities and character strategies where you don't just stick with one character. It has multiplayer maps so good and well designed I would almost call them perfect. A microtransaction system that is extremely fair. I could gush on forever about how just amazing Overwatch but instead all I can do is give it a personal recommendation from me and my personal Game of the Year. |
 | 2. World of Warcraft: Legion Two years ago I placed World of Warcraft: Warlords of Draenor as my personal Game of the Year for 2014. That came out in mid November and by the time Game of the Year came around it had only been out for about a month still somewhat fresh. Two months later I dropped it due to lack of interesting content since the only part of Warlords that was good was the leveling progression which was all I had played till that point. World of Warcraft: Legion has been out twice as long and I'm still enjoying the hell out of it. A leveling progression that allows you to tackle the content when you what however you want, class specific artifacts that give every character their own personal story and dungeons and raids so good I've gotten back into hardcore raiding for the first time since Burning Crusade. Legion is on par with the very peak of World of Warcraft and well worth my subscription. |
| 3. Hitman There is a perfection description for Hitman and it's 'stupid fun'. It's just stupidly fun. It improves on every concept that the previous games tried and failed on whether it's the insanely large and detailed levels with near infinite replay value, the variety of weapons from giant axes to exploding golf balls and the deadpan tone of the game's humor via the great writing and voice acting of numerous NPCs. I just love this game with all my murderous heart. |
 | 4. Forza Horizon 3 This was my first pure driving game I've played probably since Project Gotham Racing 3 nearly 10 years ago and boy have I missed out. Forza Horizon 3 was an interesting game for me because not only does it take place in my home country but it takes place literally outside my house on the Gold Coast. The car handling is absolutely excellent, the environments are varied and all fun to drive though and the online interaction makes sure you've always got something to do. I mean, whatever other game allows you to drive a Hatsune Miku car though an Australian desert? |
 | 5. The Witness I have a very love/hate relationship with The Witness. When you're literally stuck in an area you cannot get out of unless you solve this seemingly impossible puzzle you want to break the TV screen but when the solution you've been looking for finally hit you it makes you want to cry. The best puzzle game since the original Portal it's a game you'll be digging though for hours trying to wrap your brain around both the puzzle and the world itself. |
 | 6. Inside Inside was one of those rare games where I played entirely though from start to finish in one night and had to sit down and think about it well after it was completed. It surprises you at every possible turn adding new mechanics at just the right time, it gives you the tiniest hint of story for those who go looking and it has the visuals of a melancholic adventure despite the graphic often disturbing violence. I would recommend this to almost anyone. |
| 7. Dark Souls III The swan song of probably the most influential game franchise of the last 5 years, Dark Souls 3 brought the best aspects of every game FromSoftware has released since Demon's Souls. Frighteningly memorable bosses, well designed areas that are worth exploring and a perfection on what already is the best third person melee combat today, it gives me confidence that whatever is next for Miyazaki it will be great. |
 | 8. Tom Clancy's The Division There been something missing with today current generation of open world games. Everyone is focusing on scale rather than density. You can have the biggest game world but if it's just a forest with a few trees I'll completely lose interest. The Division is the closest I've seen a AAA developer come to density over scale. You're not exploring a gigantic city but half of one New York borough. It feels lived in and real. This open world also hosts a wonderful mix of MMORPG progression and smooth third person shooter combat. It may have it's flaws but the bright parts outshines the dullness. |
 | 9. Persona 5 Now I know what you're thinking "Persona 5 isn't out until April! Why is it on a 2016 Game of the Year list?' That's because I imported the Japanese version. Now Persona 5's inclusion on this list is solely based on the first major dungeon of the game which clocking in at about 15 hours is still a full game's worth of playtime. Even without including story and characters I can tell you purely from a gameplay perspective this is the best playing RPG I have ever played. If Atlus can play their cards right with the localisation then I can assure you Persona 5 will make it on my 2017 Game of the Year list... just a lot higher. |
 | 10. Tokyo Mirage Sessions ♯FE I'm so glad this game came out in the west. A completely original concept for a JRPG adding idol culture, music and showmanship to the already tried and tested mechanics of a Shin Megami Tensei game. This freshly optimistic game from Atlus could have been a much better game with a few tweaks to the characters, difficult curb and addition of English voice acting but even with those flaws it's still makes Tokyo Mirage Sessions ♯FE an enjoyable game. |
The top 10 list I submitted for Giant Bomb:
I want to give a special mention to the 2 games I played most of this year. Neither of which made it onto the top 10 list.
1. Street Fighter V
I played a solid 650 hours of this game, not including the beta but I could not in good concience put it on my top 10 list. Don't get me wrong. The core aspects of the game are mostly sound to very sound. I know why it launched in such an unfinished state as well but in the end I feel like it was a massive misstep for Capcom. When I look at the polish Street Fighter IV and Marvel vs Capcom 3 had at launch I can't help but be sad about how things have evolved. And let's not forget one of this game's updates basically had a rootkit in it. I don't particularly blame Capcom for malice in this case, just gross incompetence.
2. Overwatch
As someone who sunk a solid 2000 hours into Team Fortress 2 (without idling!) I was very hopeful for this game. I had not really liked any of Blizzard's output since The Lost Vikings so I was a bit apprehensive but I definitely wanted to try the beta to see if Overwatch could fill the hole TF2 left when it died due to Valve basically using it as a testbed for their other video games and letting go of all quality control.
I reconnected with a few of my old TF2 friends and off to the races I went. The beta was promising, maybe not on par with TF2 in its heyday but I felt it had the potential to get there for sure. After all, Blizzard's support for its franchises has historically been very strong and enduring. With that in mind I put down the money for the full release and jumped in.
I ended up playing a whole lot of Overwatch. I'm not sure exactly how many hours since Battle.net doesn't appear to show that information but I reckon it's my second most played game of the year after SFV.
However, as I spent more time with it I started to notice some structural problems. The 6v6 nature of the game actually made it far less forgiving or beginner-friendly than many other competitive multiplayer games. It also made it a terrible game to play by myself (aka solo queue) due to the fact that if you only have 6 players on a team, even having 1 player not pulling their weight can pretty much destroy any chance you have of winning the match (depending on the hero). After trying it a few times I quickly learnt to only ever play it with my dedicated group of friends.
Its usage of the MOBA-style Heroes instead of classes or loadouts also didn't really make for a more varied game, it actually made for a more restrictive one, often slavishly adhering to a certain optimal "meta", basically being forced to have certain characters on the team because their abilities are too essential (hello, Lucio!) really drove home just how limited this system actually was.
Then there was the general issue that hurts many modern multiplayer games: A slavish adherence to the matchmaking system and no dedicated servers. This prevents communities from forming around these servers and generally prevents you from really making new online friends to play with. To this day, most of my Steam friends are people I met playing TF2 on a few great servers with awesome communities. Online friendships which have lasted for years and which are basically impossible to build up in many of today's online games.
The far more locked down nature of these types of games (no custom maps, no fun rule or physics changes aside from the ones Blizzard gives the community to experiment with, etc.) also limits the amount of variation you can have within a game which in turn hurts their longevity.
As these issues started to become more apparent my interest in the game started to wane. I think I had reached around level 79 when Blizzard rolled out its competitive mode and I stopped playing cold turkey shortly after that. (I went back one more time a while later because a friend invited me to try Lucioball but that's about it. Lucioball sucked btw.) The game's problems had combined and amplified, resulting in a profound sense of boredom and lack of self-expression. Playing became a chore even when grouping up with friends the lack of variety in maps, strategies and hero combinations turned me off faster I had thought possible when playing the beta.
For the reasons I stated above and a few others, Overwatch is the recipient of my "Most Disappointing Game of the Year" award.
I guess I've finalized my list now, I think this is the year I have the most reservations for the games I list, but I still had a good time with all of them. I'm sure the site will mess up the order as it always does when you insert lists:
Game of the Year 2016
 | 1. Evochron Legacy In some ways, I guess the strict iterative nature of this compared to Evochron Mercenary could be disappointing, but unlike Elite: Dangerous, every single aspect of this is better than in the predecessor, and Evochron Mercenary was already an amazing game. |
 | 7. 1993 Space Machine It's a 1993 Amiga game, and I'm really fond of games of that platform and era. Had it been released back then it would probably have been pretty highly regarded, and I enjoyed it. |
 | 2. 8-Bit Armies The ugly art-style and lack of actual 8-bitness aside, this is a neat RTS very much in the vein of the first Command & Conquer. No convoluted upgrade trees or unit abilities, just easy to grasp fun with music by Frank Klepacki. |
 | 3. Master of Orion I haven't played it since they apparently overhauled the pollution mechanics among plenty of other things. Even though it may have been a bit of a by the numbers space 4X game, it hit all the notes I want these kinds of games to hit. I though the research progression went a little too fast (thought this may have been tweaked in later patches). The atmosphere, voice acting, writing and the species variety were all top notch. |
 | 4. Stellaris I thought this was a little hit an miss. The music was a contender for best of the year, but a lot of the mechanics felt a bit underdeveloped and shallow. I think this could be absolutely amazing in a year or so with a few expansions, and as rough as that political system was, I really hope more games will take and expand on it. |
 | 5. Sid Meier's Civilization VI In the great pantheon of Civilization games I prefer most of the other ones. As a strategy game in its own right, it's a great game. It feels a bit more like a complete package than Civ 5 did at launch, and I hope future expansions will help it get a place in the upper ranks of the series. |
 | 6. Toxikk After its long time in early access and the full release that kinda went under the radar, this is a neat if somewhat by-the-numbers arena shooter that is struggling to find its player base. |
 | 8. Cossacks 3 Was very buggy at launch. I need to return to it and see if it's been patched up. I had a fun time with it when it worked, but had plenty of issues. |
 | 10. 8-Bit Invaders! I don't think either Invaders or Hordes quite capitalized on what Armies did really well, both going a bit much for the Blizzard model adding unnecessarily complicated systems with unit caps and upgrades. Frank Klepacki's music was still fantastic, and both entries was still fun to play. |
 | 9. Meridian: Squad 22 There's a neat RTS single player campaign in here, along with two additional modes - a procedurally generated take on Emperor: Battle For Dune's planetary domination mode and a tactical mode in confined areas with a limited set of units. The voice acting has gotten a little better since the previous Meridian: New World, though it's still a little hit and miss. Would probably be higher on the list if I had gotten around to playing more of it and if I hadn't encountered so many technical problems, for example the cutscenes don't work for me in-game, I have to dig them up in the install folder and watch them in VLC instead, which is a little frustrating. It's also lacking any kind of multiplayer mode, which I personally don't mind that much since I mostly play RTS games in skirmishes against AI anyway, but it's fun to play matches against friends every now and then. |
What a great year for games! There are so many games that I was not able to play, but I plan on playing them within the next 6 months. The WItness, Abzu, The Last Guardian are among those. I should mention that I continue to play Hearthstone on an almost daily basis. It is a really fun game that I can play while watching the game or a TV show.
With all of that said, here is my list!
| 1. Uncharted 4: A Thief's End Sic Parvis Magna. It’s a phrase that has been with the Uncharted franchise since Drake’s Fortune and it still rings true. This game is a tour de force. It is unbelievable how far ahead of the pack Naughty Dog is. It looks amazing, it runs great and the writing is second to none. Uncharted 2 was my favorite game of the last generation and this game blows it out of the water. Everything is ratcheted up including career high performances from Nolan North, Troy Baker, Richard Mcongagle and Emily Rose. This game not only shows how far Uncharted has come the 1st game, but how far Naughty Dog has come from its days working on the Playsation 1. Uncharted 4 is the culmination of all of Naughty Dog’s work and it is unforgettable. It’s not only my game of the year. It’s one of the best games I have ever played. |
 | 2. Doom DOOM has one of the best single player campaigns I have played in years. There are so many things that DOOM gets right. It looks at modern first person shooters and spits in their faces by having an attitude, no reloading and a kick ass soundtrack. The opening sequence is fantastic, all of the weapons feel great, the movement is on point and it runs very well. DOOM constantly keeps giving you great weapons and as you gain weapons, it starts hurling more challenging fights at you. The ramp up in difficulty is nearly perfect. Towards the end of the game, you will get to a point of zen. You’ll be constantly moving and shooting while fighting for your life. While you’re fighting for your life, the soundtrack will be blasting and all I could say to myself was “Man, this is fucking awesome”! DOOM kicks so much ass. |
| 3. Inside Inside is the closest thing I have played to a perfect game this year. That is all you should know about this game. Now go and play it. |
| 4. Titanfall 2 I am one of the couple thousand people who played Titanfall 1 for two years after release. I hit the level cap and kept on playing. It was my game of the year in 2014 and with that I had high expectations for Titanfall 2. This game managed to somehow surpass them. The campaign is super creative. It is one of the most unique campaigns I have played. The multiplayer is still ridiculously fast paced and has a break neck pace that is unmatched. It's too bad no one bought this game because it is the best shooter package this year. |
| 5. Hitman I love stealth games. Hitman is a really dumb game that knows it's dumb. They let you dress up as almost anything and most of the levels are designed so well that the player assassinate the targets in a multitude of ways. Each level is replayable and I learn something new about it every time through. I can't wait to see what they cook up for season 2 because the elusive targets will keep me busy for a while. |
| 6. Dishonored 2 Dishonored 1 was an awesome game, so I was sold on this game when it was announced. With that said, I was blown away by the level design. There are so many different ways to get through each level and the powers between Emily and Corvo are really fun to use. I will go back to work on my ghost playthrough soon. |
 | 7. Battlefield 1 The best Battlefield multiplayer since Bad Company 2. There is an epic sense of scale that Battlefield 4 was not able to get to. The game looks great and the World War I setting really makes this game stand out. Oh, and the campaign is really cool too. |
 | 8. Batman: The Telltale Series I'm a huge Batman fan and was pleasantly surprised by how Telltale was able to apply their own spin on the Batman. The twists are actually really cool and I like their Batman costume design. The elephant in the room is that Telltale's engine is awful. I got lucky and didn't run into any problems, unlike Tales from the Borderlands last year. I hope they're able to do a second season, but more importantly, fix their damn engine. |
| 9. Tom Clancy's The Division I played a shit load of The Division. The world looks cool, the guns are fun to shoot and the coop is really fun. Unfortunately I fell off of the game after the developer admitted that they were going back to fix the game. I haven't gone back since, but I may jump back in if the season pass goes on sale again. |
 | 10. Virginia Much like Life is Strange in 2015, this game was very high on my list 2/3 through the game. Unfortunately the game falls off a cliff after that, just like Life is Strange. The soundtrack is amazing and animations look great. This game is able to tell a story without saying a single word until it goes off of the rails and it is mostly successful. A really short and cool game. |
This seems to be displaying in a really weird order, but ah well.. fitting, given that it was just a weird year all around.
GotY 2016
| 12. Hitman A stealth sandbox with a sinister sense of humor, the only reason Hitman isn't higher on my list is that I only technically played the first episode. Agent 47's antics were still fun to watch in various GiantBomb videos, though. |
 | 3. Enter the Gungeon Enter the Gungeon was as close to 'perfect' as any game came this year, with razor sharp analog aiming, whimsical humor and a deep, challenging world packed to the gills with secrets. |
| 1. Overwatch In a year where I was completely over most AAA multiplayer shooters, Overwatch managed to pull me in one more time with personable characters, tons of positive feedback, and fun seasonal events. |
| 11. Uncharted 4: A Thief's End Uncharted 4 marks a high point for story in the series, but its over-reliance on stealth scenarios coupled with a lack of any stealth mechanics to speak of crippled large parts of the game. |
 | 2. Pokémon Go Flawed though it may be, Pokemon GO delivered a feeling that I hadn't experienced since Red and Blue Versions came out on the GameBoy; the feeling that the world is a big, magical place filled with incredible sights and wonderful chance encounters. |
| 8. Tokyo Mirage Sessions ♯FE I didn't get to play much of Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE, but what's here is clearly a colorful and complex spin-off of classic SMT/Persona mechanics in the context of a fun story. It uses the Wii U GamePad in some really neat ways, too. |
 | 13. Ratchet & Clank A fun and gorgeous reminder of the gung-ho enthusiasm that many AAA developers seem to have lost over the last decade, filled with varied events and colorful locales. |
| 10. Forza Horizon 3 I've always loved Forza Horizon, but the formula started to show its age with the third iteration. Luckily, the recent Blizzard Mountain breathed new energy into the series with accurate snow physics and 50 nail-biting new events. |
 | 5. Gears of War 4 Gears of War 4 hearkens back to what made the series so cool in the first place: a small, atmospheric campaign that pits close friends against overwhelming odds. The stop-and-pop gameplay borders on repetitive sometimes, but the action setpieces are fantastic and feel classical (in a very good way) in how they vary the game's pacing. |
| 9. Titanfall 2 As I mentioned earlier, I have little patience left for online shooters. Titanfall 2's campaign, however, never outstayed its welcome and kept throwing out fun new ideas. It's not revolutionary, but it was a fun night and a half of game time. |
 | 4. Pokémon Sun/Moon Pokemon Sun/Moon was just the sun-soaked vacation I needed this Autumn. It's colorful and filled with Good Feels, and shakes up the traditional Gyms and Types systems just enough to make Pokemon a compelling play yet again. |
| 6. Dishonored 2 Arkane has crafted one of the year's most dense and compelling game worlds, but its dark corridors and treacherous politics weren't always my first choice for unwinding after a long day. Still, I found myself compelled to find every last secret in a game where exploration is often its own reward. |
 | 7. Final Fantasy XV In its weird idiosyncrasies, Final Fantasy XV presents perhaps the most convincing game world I've inhabited. Its often-inane fetch quests and sterile towns can't hold a candle to The Witcher 3, but when Prompto snaps an impromptu photo, Ignis makes small talk while you drive, and Gladio cooks dinner while the others play cards, it's hard not to feel that this is a living world filled with authentic characters. |
Here's mine! 2016 was a surprisingly solid year for games!
 | 1. Hyper Light Drifter |
| 2. Dark Souls III |
| 3. Doom |
 | 4. Deus Ex: Mankind Divided |
 | 5. Shantae: 1/2 Genie Hero |
 | 6. Furi |
 | 7. Superhot |
| 8. Hitman |
| 9. Overwatch |
 | 10. Salt and Sanctuary |
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