What is your GOTY?... that wasn't released this year?

I played a ton of games that would fit the bill any other year but it has to go to Killer7. Played a few levels back when I got it but didn't stick with it then. Gave it another go from the start this year and my god, it blew my fucking mind. One of my favorites for sure.

F.E.A.R. is my goty. I played it a long time ago, loved it, but then kinda forgot about it. Then I played it again this year, and man that is a fantastic game!

BlazBlue: Central Fiction. Always liked BB but it had been a couple iterations since I've played one. It's a good note to end the series on for now, and it's cemented it's place as one of my favorite fighting game series at this point.

I don't have a PC, so I had to wait until this year to give Stardew Valley a go. It was well worth the wait.

King of Dragon's Pass, every year. I still play that game a ton and there is nothing quite like it.

The combination of RPG, text adventure and clan management is so incredibly unique and appealing.
There are not many games where one has to learn about the fictional universe and it's cultures in order to perform well at the game; and that's a shame.

Doom and TitanFall 2 are some of the best FPS games I've played in a long while so I'll give it to them.

Probably Path of Exile

Final Fantasy XIV, probably (unless you count the fact that it got a new expansion this year as a "2017 release"). That games continues to be a lot of fun.

Also, as is my usual wont, I've sunk hundreds of hours into old arcade games once again this year. Currently playing M2's excellent new port of Mahou Daisakusen (1993) for PS4.

Well, this is a real tough one: this year was the first time that I finished Aria of Sorrow (actually any of the post-Symphony Castlevania games, but Aria's easily the best of the 3 I've played), Metroid: Zero Mission, and The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past. Of those, Zelda is probably the best designed (although Zero Mission is a masterpiece in its own right) and I probably had the most outright fun with Aria. Push comes to shove, it's probably Zelda, but man I've played a lot of great old games this year.

@redhotchilimist I cannot *wait* to play Dragon's Crown! If I'm not mistaken that is out on PS4 now and I'm planning on doing a world of couch co-op this xmas with all the hombres in town.

I have two picks for this thread:

1) Street Fighter V (2016) - I'm still playing it a few times a week, going to locals, and playing the in GB FGC tournies. Countinues to be a pretty significant outlier for me in terms of focus.

2) Parasite Eve II (2000) - played this with the backlog crew, wrapped it up last month, and it's still on my mind, sort of begging for a second play-thru. An interesting game from an era where games of that size were all still odd and unique in funny ways. It's among the later pre-rendered background games iirc, and that's a style that's so easy to miss once you get back into it.

Disgaea 5 Complete technically came out this year, but being a release of a PS4 game I feel it's not really a 2017 game. Regardless I spent more than 200 hours with it this year and I'm not even done yet so it wins my GOTY.

Super Metroid

way overdue to play that, but finally got around to it. Never played a game that has aged as well as that one. Truly a masterpiece

@geraltitude

What's the "backlog crew" you mentioned? Is that some sort of game club?

fwiw I dug PE 2 back in the day, but I totally effed myself by speeding through it and left myself without a means to kill the final boss. Not as good as Pe1 but interesting, it felt so different from the first game.

Really digging Darkest Dungeon. The randomness and the game fucking you over is the best thing about it because it keeps the suspense high and it gives you a great feeling of desperation while you drag your party to the end instead of steamrolling.

It also has a great narrator, music and sound.

Also, I haven't played a single 'top tier' 2017 release this year except Cuphead.

All in all, I’ll say Dark Souls 3. I defeated all the bosses in the main game and did most of the dlc this year, after stopping halfway through on release. It’s a good compromise between slow, methodical pace of the previous games and the faster combat in bloodborne. I wish the weapons with split damage (physical and fire/magic/lightning) were actually worth a damn, or poison was actually viable like in DS2. Still had a lot of fun defeating all the bosses.

I played a lot of Morrowind a couple of weeks ago and it was still good, though I will say it has not aged gracefully. Time of day seem completely irrelevant in that game, because the shops are always open and most NPCs never move. It makes you sort of appreciates the attention they pay to things like that in Skyrim. There is something to be said though, for the ability to jump several miles in one jump, by creating a spell that fortifies acrobatics by 200, speed and jump by 100, though it’s important to remember slowfall(preferably enchanted on boots for immunity to fall damage), so you don’t die from fall damage. Or you can fly, or teleport to the nearest shrine, but I swear jumping is more fun.

I also bought Arkham knight on PC with all dlc and it works more or less as advertised. I played through it on PS4 at launch, so I planned on digging into the dlc, but I got caught up in the story missions again. I probably should play through Dishonored 2, which has been on my stack since last year, but I never quite motivate myself.

I've spent most of 2017 playing old games rather than new ones, so this topic is fresh in my mind...

Dragons Dogma: Dark Arisen, The Mass Effect Trilogy (ME2 If have to pick), and Dragon Age Origins are all personal contenders for me.

I've also been sinking time into Street Fighter V and Overwatch on and off throughout the year.

II thought I heard it was gonna come out early next year. I think they've said January for Japan at least, I'm not sure about everywhere else. I'd love to do some online co-op with you when it comes out, though! Absolutely planning on getting it on PS4, too.

Crusader Kings II. I've played it off and on for several years, but it really sunk its claws in me at the end of last year and has continued to be a regular presence in my gaming rotation. Such a brilliant, weird and crazy game that still surprises me 130 hours later. I think it is one of the greatest video games ever made and could have a serious claim to greatest, period, if it wasn't quite so rough around the UI and technical edges.

Honorable mention for Wind Waker HD. Perhaps my favorite video game aesthetic ever.

Blood Borne 2. ;P

Trauma Center on Wii

Still playing Paragon daily. It's really cut into my video game playing time.

Earth Defense Force 4.1: The Shadow of New Despair (PC version) still stands as my all-time favorite game and would be my Game of the not-this-Year game. I haven't played it recently due to wanting to get through newer games, but it will always be just fucking incredible.

I am extremely looking forward to both Earth Defense Force 5 and Earth Defense Force: Iron Rain.

"Does this mean that the progress of the giant insects exceeds human wisdom? Progress faster than science is impossible!" - Best, Smartest Research Scientist Ever, Ohara.

EDF 4.1: The Shadow of New Despair is so good, duders.

The Witcher 3. So damn good.

Overwatch. I literally still play that game for a few hours each day and I still totally enjoy my time with it.

Pokemon Silver

gaaaah you're right, just looked it up... *huge sigh* definitely imagined this was coming out earlier. Couldn't find an NA date but Japan is January 25. I will be super down for some co-op!

sorry for the double post I am ashamed..

Hit you up with one of them "pms" as they say ;) about the backlog crew

I can see *exactly* what you mean about the end boss. It's... some bullshit. You have some, very limited ability to backtrack and level up, but it's not a very rough setup. Having played PE1 & PE2 in the last two years, I'm not sure anymore which one I like most. Before replaying them, PE1 stood tall in my mind. Thinking about it now, there's a lot of the setup of the first I like more (feels more procedural / cop story, it's "spookier" and has a more mysterious atmosphere) but the 2nd one is a funner game to play I think, though both are generally far too easy to make use of their own systems.

Fallout 4 for me too, basically all I've been playing the whole year.

Stephen's Sausage Roll 100%. Game has blown me away and is one of the smartest and most well designed games I've ever played.

The original Legend of Zelda. As it turns out, still the best Legend of Zelda : x

cool thanks man.

Yeah that's the kinda game that's messed me up for life basically with how I play games. Stuff like make me paranoid about checking guides periodically to make sure I didn't miss things I need to win the game and I tend to make tons of saves. I hate realizing that I need to replay several hours of content, because I didn't spec right or get the right weapon stuff like that.

I don't mind that I couldn't finish it, I just mind that my skill wasn't the reason that I couldn't. I cruised through PE2 on a single save and it cost me.

I could see Pe2 holding up better, lot of the early ps1 stuff is pretty rough to go back to since it's so rudimentary. Plus I think devs especially back then before public betas and such, really seemed to make good mechanical refinements in sequels of new IPs.

I'm gonna keep my personal meme going and say that Senran Kagura Estival Versus is my game of the year. It counts for the current year because of the world wide Steam release back in March, and it counts for 2016 and 2015 because of the Japanese, US and European releases on PS4 and Vita respectively. And with how disappointing most other recent games have been from Nier Automata's technical issues and Mass Effect Andromeda being Mass Effect Andromeda, next to Witcher 3, Estival Versus is probably one of the best games out right now.

Most definitely The Witcher 3. I played through the full game AND THEN the DLC and oh my god it's better than the full fucking game. My favorite RPG of all time.

For whatever reason I felt the urge and bought COD4 remaster last week.

Ohh boy that game is a masterpiece, so many memorable moments, characters, the narrative is a 10.

Plus best multiplayer maps in the series bar none.

Is super cheesy to say, but: that game changed (videogame) history

Final Fantasy Tactics is always my GOTY. I replay that and Persona 4 Golden (my forever GOTY runner-up) at least once a year. I also replayed Dragon's Dogma this year. All of those three would top my actually-released-in-2017-GOTY, Persona 5.

Watch Dogs 2. I've never played or had any interest in the original, the gloomy nature and self seriousness did nothing for me. After hearing of the tonal change for this one, I picked it up cheap this year and checked it out. Its goofy & all of the characters are cheesy as hell... and thats why I love it. Nice change of pace game that has me hoping for WD3.

Coming in 2nd: Stardew Valley. Put 80 hours in it on PC last year & did it again on Xbox this year.

@redhotchilimist said:

Dark Souls 3 got some DLC early in the year that I quite enjoyed, and Street Fighter V has managed to make me play it week after week, month after month. In terms of pure hours, I bet SFV is the game I've played the most in a good long while, but there's no way to see that on the Playstation 4.

But the games I've enjoyed the most this year that are not from this year are Bloodborneand Dragon's Crown.Bloodborne is one of those exclusives I bought a PS4 for in the first place, and early this year I finally got around to beating it. It's amazing and exciting and my favorite of the Souls games bar the first one, a breath of fresh air than honed in on the elements of those games that I enjoy while ditching the ones I don't.

Dragon's Crown is the best beat 'em up I've played, a game that improves the genre with all of its RPG mechanics, beautiful art and precise controls. There are few games out there I enjoy playing as much as this one. I've beaten it many times before, and I did it again this year, even participating in online CO-OP with randos and one of the twitch streamers I follow. If we're counting the best time I've had with games this year overall even, new games included, Dragon's Crown might be it. So it's definitely my Old Game Of The Year.

Glad you enjoyed your time with Dragon's Crown. Sunk many hour into it myself (If I recall correctly I put in upwards of 100 hours.). Extremely addicting and above all else... fun.

-2D BEAT 'EM UP NINJA APPROVED-

@blastr85: lol yeah the DLC is really good isn't it? Probably the best example of DLC done well.

My game of the year is Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past Randomizer http://vt.alttp.run/ great refreshing take on a classic game and produced some great races on https://go.twitch.tv/speedgaming.

Toss up between Hearthstone and The Elder Scrolls Online for me.

Hearthstone is on my GOTY ,ist every year. It has been since it was in beta. I play a ton, but am not a ranked legend chaser. I like to play to level 20, earn my card back, and do my daily quests so I can spend gold on more cards. I play around with my own deck ideas, crib netdecks, and use it to kill time between meetings or when I want to keep my hands busy with my iPad. Since they update it multiple times a year with expansions, it changes enough to keep me interested.

This wasn't the first year I tired ESO, but it was the first year I "got it" and it stuck. I played regularly for a few months, have fallen off, but still plan to go back someday to keep up my quest to be the best damn all-purpose artisan in all of Tamriel. And maybe do some quest bullshit for some ghost dude? Whatever, I need more cloth and leather and if I kill some people who were inconveniencing him to get it, fine.

Planet Coaster. A lot of ui fixes and consistent content updates since release. Also Stardew on switch.

I played persona 3, 4, and 5 this year and really enjoyed 4. so that one.

Doom 2016 and playing through Salt and Sanctuary right now which I'm really enjoying.

Thanks to Paradox DLC model, thats bascially every year Europa Universalis IV or Stellaris, as well as Elite: Dangerous. 2016 was really the 2017 of strategy games.

I played Shadow of the Colossus for the 1st time this year, unfortunately before the remake was announced. It's not my favorite thing I played this year, but I am still thinking about it and can't wait for the remake in February.

Silent Hill Shattered Memories.

Didn't read the entire post. But some games I beat this year that I really enjoyed were Shovel Knight: Treasure Trove, Hitman: Absolution, Batman: Arkham Asylum, The Witcher, Rainbow Six: Raven Shield, Fallout 4, Red Faction: Guerilla and Half-Life: Source.

Most of the time I don't play current games anyway, because I find them too expensive. I didn't even buy Fallout 4 when it was new, even though that's one of my favorite series of games. Sometimes I buy new indie games at a lower price, but only if I feel they're worth it.

FFXV!!!

Couldn't get to it last year. Had an incredible time this year. Such an amazing game (albeit quirky).

Lots of feels. Good feels