What is your 1st half 2018 Game of the Year?

Detroit: Become Human
God of War

I really enjoyed Yakuza 6 up until a certain story moment. Every choice Haruka makes in this game just bums me the hell out. After that point I rushed through the rest of the game hoping for something else to happen..
Yakuza has always been the story of Kiryu and Haruka to me and knowing where it ends up makes not want to play the older games again either. Except for 0 I guess.

I have completed 5 games from this year so far. They were all quite good. All in the 4 out of 5 stars range. But if I put them in order from best to worst it would be this:

Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire

Vampyr

Frostpunk

God of War

Into the Breach

Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire

I still need to play:

Into the Breach
Vampyr

Battletech might be the only game I've played that released this year. It is a great game though.

2017 was amazing. I guess it's hard to have two killer years like that in a row.

Celeste

I've played two 2018 games so far.
MotoGP 18 - 3 hours
Slipstream - 15 minutes

... So MotoGP 18 i guess...

God of War is the correct answer.

God of War is the only thing from this year that I've played. My old game of the first half of the year wold be Hollow Knight though. Picked it up on Switch when it was released and have put 14 hours into it so far and am loving it.

Honestly, when you're trying to follow up a year that was as much of a nonstop barrage of quality as 2017, anything is going to look weak by comparison...

...is the thing that I would've said before comparing my list of games played this year to last year's. It turns out I've been playing a lot more backlog stuff in 2018, which suits me fine, but maybe suggests that I haven't felt as much desire to keep up. I'm also going to admit that there aren't a ton of upcoming games in the second half of the year that are on my radar. That could certainly change, but other than Valkyria Chronicles 4, Underworld Ascendant, and Smash Bros nothing immediately comes to mind.

This all said, of the games I have played this year, Monster Hunter World, Vermintide 2, God of War, and Pillars of Eternity 2 all stick out in my mind as "things I enjoyed."

Celeste, God of War, and Rocket League.

Still waiting to play Into The Breach on Switch and I wanna check out Kingdom Come/Overload if that ever gets a great discount.

1. Strange Journey Redux

2. Mario Tennis Aces

3. Dragon Ball FighterZ

Celeste, but Dragon Ball FighterZ has a special place in my heart

Kingdom Come: Deliverance

Um... Conan Exiles? ...That one Destiny 2 expansion?

...Would the Steam version of Senran Kagura Peach Beach Slash count as a current year release?

Oh. Wait. Steam version of Final Fantasy XV, but I haven[t played it much, so...

...Eh. Fuck it. I got nothing.

Hm … one of:

• Detroit: Become Human
• Ni no Kuni II: Revenant Kingdom
• Yakuza 6: The Song of Life
• Yoku's Island Express
• Forgotton Anne
• Gravel

… probably Yoku's Island Express, this game is just timeless fun in my opinion. I also can't think of anything to improve with it, unlike most of the other games I've listed.

Other contenders: Monster Hunter World, Lost Sphear, Jurassic World Evolution, Horizon Chase Turbo, Little Witch Academia: Chamber of Time, The Swords of Ditto, MXGP Pro, Timothy vs the Aliens.

God of War was OK. The narrative, storyline and characters were great. The game looked fantastic. However, I did not enjoy the combat, it wasn't that fun: the older games were much more enjoyable to play.

Top 3

Monster hunter world

State of decay 2

Dark Souls Remastered

I played like five games that came out this year:

1. Celeste, read my review here
2. For the King (Technically it's still in early access)
3. Captain Spirit (I guess. It really surprised me)
4. Octopath Traveler demo (I love the combat and the art)
5. Monster Hunter World (Fell off it hard)
6. MGSurvive (I guess. What a waste of money)

@boonsong: Octahedron is awesome, a really cool game. I bought it a couple of days ago. I like the music as well.

1. Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire

2. Subnautica

3. God of War

I'm very confident that my top 2 games of 2018 are going to be Yakuza 6 & Yakuza Kiwami 2. I'm so glad GBE introduced me to the sheer madness of Kiryu and friends.

Other that that, Frostpunk, Vampyr, but the other big surprise for me was Nantucket. Which no one else seems to talk about but I fucking love that whaling game.

Yakuza 6 of this year releases that i have played and liked.

As of right now, God of War is the frontrunner and it seems like it would be difficult for anything to top it. Into The Breach is a very close runner-up though.

Those are honestly the only games I've spent significant time with so far. I also have Monster Hunter World, Dark Souls Remastered, Shadow of the Colossus Remastered and Mario Tennis Aces that I bought from this year and played some, but I've barely scratched the surface of MHW and I've already put hundreds of hours into Dark Souls on PC, so I kinda know what I'm getting into there.

Into the Breach is probably my favorite game that I've played thus far in 2018. I'm in the process of playing Yoku's Island Express right now, and it will definitely also be in the running for my personal GotY.

Frostpunk, I guess?

Really hasn't been much peaking my interest yet. I am really looking forward to Monster Hunter World getting its PC release though.

Mine would probably be Iconoclasts followed very closely by Celeste and Card Quest.

Celeste, though I still need to pick up and play GoW. 2nd is probably Into The Breach right now. 3rd Slay the Spire. It has been a great year for Indies.

Into the Breach was a big surprise and probably my favorite thing that came out this year. But I also played Witcher 3 Blood and Wine and am wrapping that up and I don't think anything coming out this year will come close to that.

I've not liked most games this year. That said i put hella time in Monster Hunter World. I can't even think of a second (no, i didn't like GoW)

I wish i picked up Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire on the summer sale. I do wish that used a better engine. It isn't a good looking game. (They should look at divinity original sin 2...)

Really subnautica? hrmm.. i bought it to try in VR but never started it up... hrmm… really?

I mean, by time played MLB The Show has been the default pick for three years running now...but I loved the hell out of God of War and wish I had been any good at the final Valkyrie and Lava World challenges so I could have taken a decent crack at 100%ing it. Only game that's been able to pull me away from The Show's Diamond Dynasty since it shipped in late March, sadly.

If I could name a game I thought about more than any other this year it'd be Bloodborne though. I bought it on a sale months ago and decided Waypoint's playthrough and the PS+ release, along with some people comparing God of War to From Soft games in roundabout ways, was enough of a nudge to let me give the game a fair and honest shake. I'm not sure I'll ever beat it (I only have Mergo, One Reborn, Micolash and That Guy left on the docket of story bosses, plus DLC, but I fell off it so hard after The Show released I just feel painfully awkward whenever I try to come back to the game) but I've watched all of Vaati's videos, several of (I think his name is) DeMocracy's ranking of levels/weapons/bosses videos and now am working my way through Aegon's Let's Talk Lore playthrough. I love that world so fucking much and adore the systems they focused on for that game; it was my first Souls game and it took me nearly a year for it to actually click with me - and when it did, that was only after literally seven hours of "grinding" Central Yharnam only to realize I wasn't making any progress until I stumbled across a boss (and quit sucking total butt at each and every enemy encounter).

I can't remember the last time I felt so drawn to a game, and this is definitely a first for me in terms of pushing myself beyond reasonable means to fall into its rhythm and enjoy it for what it is, followed by not finishing it but continuing to watch people on Youtube play it. Giant Bomb has always been as close as I get to Youtuber/streamer culture, but the lack of Brad/Dan/Vinny/Jeff footage with this game has had me desperately reaching out into the cosmos for more, more, more in 2018.

XCOM 2 and WotC expansion is by far the best game I played for the first time this year.

As a game from this year? God of War I guess? Maybe? 2018 is a bad year for me.

Into the Breach just ahead of God of War for me.

I absolutely loved the basic loop of FTL but always came away from it with negative feelings due to the massive difficult spike of the final boss requiring you to have one of a handful of viable builds to have any chance of beating it. Into the Breach completely solved this problem with a much fairer feeling endgame while maintaining a really fun gameplay loop in the build up to it.

Ni No Kuni II and Wreckfest (technically).

Monster Hunter: World for sure.

@spatta04: Blazblue

Its weird that a ton of people like me seemed to have deemed this the catch up/backlog year. It's been a lot of games from not-2018. I'll say my favorite game from this year so far is either Iconoclasts or Monster Hunter.

If release dates get pushed back on some of the games coming out in the back 1/3 of the year, it might be the first year where I don't actually have 10 games on my list. I've certainly played more games than just God of War and Monster Hunter World, but besides those none of them really feel like they belong on a list. Vampyr is okay, but it has so much wrong with it outside the soundtrack and world.

2017 was a real load blower of a year. Too many bangers crammed into that year, now the releases feel spent. Maybe when Spider-Man and RDR2 come out I'll feel better about it.

Into the Breach. It's going to be really hard for anything to top it for the rest of the year. Turn based strategy is my favorite genre, and IttB is the most innovative one I've seen in years. I love how the mechanics and overarching time-travel story fit together. The different mechs feel so different, and keeps me engaged with "just one more run". The UI is clean and intuitive, and the mechanics somehow makes turn based combat feel more "mech"-like than most action games.

Runner-ups (in order):

Yakuza Kiwami 2. I imported this, and loved it. My personal ranking is 0 > K2 >> 6 >>>>>> K1. The added Majima chapter is kind of uneven, wobbling between mindlessly boring, to quite a few "cool guy" moments. I'd highly recommend people with investment in 0's story to finish K2 as well (for the most part, 0, K1, K2 wraps up a trilogy). Also, best strong female main character in the series.

Monster Hunter World

Yoku's Island Express

Sea of Thieves

Ni no Kuni II and Iconoclasts are my top two with Celeste and Moonlighter close behind.

1. God of War
2. Monster Hunter: World
3. Subnautica

This year's been pretty light on must-play titles. A perfect chance to take a chunk out of my backlog. I've finished FFXV, Yakuza 0, Halo 5, Red Dead Redemption, and am currently working my way through GTA V(always stopped half way through). Next up: Uncharted: Lost Legacy and Persona 5.

I've played a number of games but maybe half of them I've really enjoyed. Current state and the only things I am sure will make the list:

1. BattleTech (170 hours according to Steam)
2. Monster Hunter: World (I think I had 230 hours on character last time I played)
3. God of War (Platinum'd)
4. Monster Energy Supercross (Platinum'd)

Older titles I'm revisiting:

Project Cars 2, GT Sport, Sims 4, Metro Redux.

Ni No Kuni 2 is definitely my "Biggest Disappointment of 2018" so far. Man that game was a stinker.

MXGP Pro should be getting delivered tomorrow and, seeing how much I enjoyed the Supercross game, this one might also make the list. Which would be kinda crazy. Go from not playing a motocross game in 10+ years to having two on one GOTY list.

Dragon Ball FighterZ

God of was was one of the games that’s hooked me in the universe that I can remember in quite some time.

Also I haven’t played many games this year.

Monster Hunter World. Still trying to platinum it but the crown trophies are the woooorst.

nod nod. Those are the only 2 i'm missing (well.. i have about 20 more areas to do... but we'll worry about that when the goldens are done.)

I hope to knock them at during the summer event (starting on the 12th) when all "events" are up. It is much easier to get them on the gold crown quests (shocker.. ugh? :) ) That said, knowing the PC version is only a few weeks away... maybe the xbox one x will join its friend the ps4 pro collecting dust....