Your GotYs for every year since 2005 (start of last gen).

The 360 came out in 2005, which begun the last generation. I'm curious to see what everyone's GotYs were from then on.

For me:

2005: Shadow of the Colossus

2006: Okami

2007: Retroactively Persona 3.

2008: MGS4 (Retroactively Persona 4)

2009: Uncharted 2

2010: Red Dead Redemption

2011: Ghost Trick - Phantom Detective

2012: Sleeping Dogs

2013: A Link Between Worlds

I didn't really start thinking about my favorite games of the year until 2011, and I didn't actually write anything down until 2012. I just didn't buy enough games released that year to know which ones I thought were the best.

I was drawing a blank on 2007, which was why I ended up picking something I played later.

I definitely don't feel like I played a ton of games during a lot of these years, but that doesn't mean I can't pick a favourite.

I can go from 2007 only, since that's when I got into last gens' games: Portal, MGS4, Assassin's Creed II, Red Dead Redemption, The Binding of Isaac, Hotline Miami, The Last of Us.

You don't have to have last gen games as your fave. Look at my list. First last gen game appears at 2008.

this is all very off the top of my head, 2012 and 2013 especially i was blanking on pretty hard

2005: Metal Gear Solid 3/Resident Evil 4 (sorry i really can't choose)

2006: not sure, probably Gears of War

2007: Halo 3

2008: MGS4 (apologies to Mirrors Edge)

2009: Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2

2010: Mass Effect 2

2011: Portal 2 (apologies to dark souls)

2012: The Walking Dead

2013: The Last Of Us

No retroactive games, just games I played during that year.

I can only go from 2007. I was always listing the games I liked, but I was playing so few a year and often past the release that I don't really remember. I'm sure Shadow of the Colossus would be somewhere here.

2007. Call of Duty 4 was everything that year, but I'd most definitely say Okami now (Europe release.) I very clearly remember playing Okami while waiting for a red ringed console to be fixed.

2008. Street Fighter IV was like air that year (Metal Gear Solid 4 is almost a tie for this year)

2009 Bayonetta (import) or Ratchet & Clank: A Crack in Time. I cannot choose. (I know the blog I wrote that year lists these games in very different places to how I feel about them now)

2010. Red Dead Redemption

2011. Super Mario 3D Land.

2012. Kid Icarus: Uprising.

2013. Rayman Legends.

Actually messed this up... sfiv was 2009. Oh well, lists, blah, whatever.

Most of these early ones are going to be retroactive, and I'm probably going to forget something (I'm just using wikipedia's 200x in video gaming list)

2005: Knights of the Old Republic 2

2006: Mother 3 (FFXII is a close second)

2007: Europa Universalis 3

2008: Persona 4

2009: Silent Hill: Shattered Memories (or SMT: Devil Survivor I can't choose)

2010 (and game of the generation): Nier

2011: Witcher 2

2012: Crusader Kings 2

2013: Europa Universalis 4 (though retroactively Saints Row 4 comes close)

2005: Guild Wars

2006: Wii Sports (if I could put Guild Wars again, I would, because most of my video game time was spent playing the expansions for that game)

2007: Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare

2008: Grand Theft Auto IV

2009: Uncharted 2

2010: Mass effect 2

2011: The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

2012: The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings (first released in 2011, but I played it in 2012)

2013: The Last of Us

2005: Tekken 5, just seeing Kazyua kick was enough for me to go out and buy a PS2.

2006: Okami, got it around the same time as Zelda Twilight Princess and went "HEY WAIT A MINUTE!"

2007: Team Fortress 2, blah blah blah orange box, bla blah blah, here's a fun game that plays like Quake and it's ridiculous community that is out there trying to break it. Man the hats didn't come out till 2009, there was a load out change around in the middle of 2008 which didn't even really change the game that much, but it was a good lesson in how community works. (special consideration to Odin Sphere)

2008: Castlevania Order of Ecclesia, the massive change the series needed. Combat was more complex, the art style didn't feel like a saturday morning anime that gets redubbed, and it's all a reference to Simon's Quest.

2009: Batman Arkham Asylum. This never felt like the Chris Nolan batman series, where I'm tolerating it for maybe one or two good scenes. This felt like everything batman right down to adam west fighting.

2010: Metal Gear Solid Peace Walker, VIC VOSS!

2011: Bastion, the best game of a generation

2012: Hotline Miami, it's like a relic from another time.

2013: Guacamelee.

I like this!

2005: Resident Evil 4

2006: Gears of War

2007: Bioshock

2008: Fable II

2009: Uncharted 2

2010: Mass Effect 2

2011: Saints Row: The Third

2012: The Walking Dead (Persona 4: Golden is actually probably higher. But with it technically being a PS2 game from 2008, even though it was my first time playing it I can't bring myself to officially say it was the best game of 2012.

2013: Bioshock: Infinite Probably the hardest choice here. Torn between Mario, Last of Us and Bioshock. Very close race.

2005: SWAT motherfucking 4

2006: Gears of War I guess

2007: Halo 3

2008: Grand Theft Auto IV

2009: Borderlands

2010: Mount and Blade: Warband

2011: Portal 2

2012: The Walking Dead

2013: Dota 2

2005: Resident Evil 4

2006: Final Fantasy XII

2007: Call of Duty 4

2008: Wrath of the Lich King

2009: Uncharted 2

2010: Mass Effect 2

2011: Portal 2

2012: Dark Souls (PC)

2013: The Last of Us

Well, all right. I'll try, but this is hardly definite

2005 - FEAR

2006 - I don't know. Persona 3 came out in Japan in 2006, so that! Or maybe Oblivion. Depends on the day. Final Fantasy XII also came out this year. Wow, that's a good year for RPG's with debatable mechanics.

2007 - Halo 3

2008 - Persona 4

2009 - I really don't know. The Metroid Prime Trilogy came out this year, so that!

2010 - A tie between Just Cause 2 and Mass Effect 2. Mass Effect 2 probably wins.

2011 - Skyrim. No doubt about that one. Actually, this marks the point where I started buying games the same year they came out. Rage, Skyrim, Deus Ex HR, and Resistance 3 all popped into my head.

2012 - Sleeping Dogs. I wrote about this. I

2013 - My favorite game that came out in 2013 was Etrian Odyssey IV, but in my GOTY list I just talked about games that I played a lot of in 2013 - I started going back to play older games again.

And these days I'm playing mostly PS2 and handheld games.

Everything prior to 2010 (including New Vegas in 2010) is retroactive, as I did not really start buying games the year they came out until 2010. Also, Fallout 3 is there by default in '08, as I kind of don't like it all that much, particularly when compared with the other Bethesda games in that vein, but nothing else came out that year that really stuck with me.

2005: Guild Wars

2006: The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion

2007: Mass Effect

2008: Fallout 3

2009: Batman Arkham Asylum

2010: Red Dead Redemption/Fallout New Vegas

2011: The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

2012: Spec Ops: The Line

2013: The Stanley Parable

I accept your challenge to try and remember, good sir:

2005: Resident Evil 4

2006: The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion (Okami was fantastic but Oblivion is one of my all time favorites)

2007: Portal

2008: Fallout 3

2009: Arkham Asylum / Borderlands / Demon's Souls (don't make me choose)

2010: Mass Effect 2

2011: The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (With Dark Souls as the close second)

2012: The Walking Dead (Pretty much a tie with XCOM)

2013: Bioshock Infinite (Zelda: A Link Between Worlds would easily be the retroactive winner)

Looking back, 2009 and 2011 for me were the strongest years of the generation. Fuck picking a favorite from 2009!!!!

2005: GT4 or retroactively Kotor 2 E: Actually no MGS3 came in it on 05 here so that.

2006: Hitman Blood Money

2007: Retroactively Europa Universalis 3

2008: MGS4

2009: Dragon Age: Origins

2010: Victoria 2

2011: Witcher 2

2012: Wargame: European Escalation

2013: Dota 2 (probably)

My favorites of the games released each year regardless of when I actually got around to playing them list shakes out a little something like:

I just finished Fire Emblem Awakening earlier today, so it's hard to say for sure if it'll stay up there. I also haven't played very many games released in 2013, but I'm pretty comfortable putting it ahead of Bioshock Infinite and Antichamber. I put Depression Quest at number one on my GotY blog, but that's a different sort of list. That game had some real impact on my life and I wanted to acknowledge that, but Fire Emblem is a great game and for this I'll pick the game I think is a great game.

I'm pretty confident that the rest are holding firm at the top of their respective years, though in a couple of cases I list the game that made a bigger first impression on me and the game I kept going back to over the years.

I don't remember when I played what so this is going to have some retroactive choices. Oh well.

Persona 4 Golden would be on here instead of the Walking Dead, but I would've felt kinda weird essentially putting the same game twice.

My favourite games from each year since 2005 would probably be:

All information based off of Wikipedias "xxxx in video gaming" articles and I only count the games original release for any given year regardless when or where I played it for the sake of simplicity.

2005 gets the award for being an awesome fucking year for games and 2006 gets the exact opposite.

I didn't start really taking note of this until a few years ago, but...

2005: Burnout Revenge

2006: Okami

2007: Super Mario Galaxy

2008: de Blob

2009: Bit.Trip Void

2010: Pac-Man Championship Edition DX

2011: Bastion

2012: Journey

2013: Rayman Legends

2005: NONE

2006: The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion

2007: Mass Effect

2008: Fallout 3

2009: Assassin's Creed II

2010: Red Dead Redemption

2011: The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

2012: XCOM: Enemy Unknown

2013: The Last of Us

Yeah, lots of AAA games on this list. I mean, a large chunk of this list is from an era when indies/downloadables/smaller games weren't really competitors with the big dogs. But since I've started making lists and giving thought, truly investing myself in this industry, every year I've had at least one "smaller game" in my top 5. And that warms my heart.

2005: Jade Empire (XBox)

2006: Bully (PS2)

2007: Mass Effect (XBox 360)

2008: Metal Gear Solid 4 (PS3)

2009: Uncharted 2 (PS3)

2010: Mass Effect 2 (XBox 360)

2011: TES V - Skyrim (XBox 360)

2012: XCom Enemy Unknown (XBox 360)

2013: The Last of Us (PS3)

Really wish I could have been cooler and picked more indie titles, but those big budget RPGs and action games still can have a profound effect on me.

Please note that I consider this list incomplete. Games can be removed and added at will once I play more of them. Still, I'm fairly proud of the list I've compiled here so far. Lots of genres represented: action games, platformers, shooters (third and first person), racing games, rhythm games, RPGs, fighting games, a couple of MOBAs and MMOs, even a sports game in Skate 3.

• 2005: Shadow of the Colossus (didn't have next gen out of the gates)
• 2006: Final Fantasy XII (still didn't have next gen at this point)
• 2007: Mass Effect (I bought a 360 for this game, finally bringing me into the next gen)
• 2008: Fallout 3
• 2009: Demon's Souls
• 2010: Mass Effect 2/Red Dead Redemption (only year I have ever considered a tie, and fuck you for not liking it)
• 2011: Dark Souls
• 2012: Dragons Dogma
• 2013: Ni No Kuni (TLOU is a pretender)

• 2005: Resident Evil 4
• 2006: Elite Beat Agents
• 2007: Super Mario Galaxy
• 2008: The World Ends With You
• 2009: Batman: Arkham Asylum
• 2010: Mass Effect 2
• 2011: Dark Souls
• 2012: XCOM: Enemy Unknown
• 2013: The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds

2005: Resident Evil 4*

2006: Dead Rising*

2007: Crackdown

2008: Saints Row 2

2009: Batman Arkham Asylum*

2010: Deadly Premonition

2011: Deus Ex: Human Revolution

2012: Sleeping Dogs

2013: Spelunky

*I didn't play it that year, but looking back it was the best game I played to come out of that year.

• 2005:Shadow of the Colossus
• 2006: Kingdom Hearts 2
• 2007: Call of Duty 4
• 2008 : Fallout 3
• 2009: Dragon Age: Origins/Dawn of War 2
• 2010: Mass Effect 2
• 2011: Skyrim
• 2012:Xcom: Enemy Unknown
• 2013: Last Of Us(Kind of wins by default the only new game I played in 2013)

• 2005: Resident Evil 4
• 2006: The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion
• 2007: Super Mario Galaxy
• 2008: Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots
• 2009: Dragon Age: Origins
• 2010: God of War III
• 2011: The Witcher II: Assassins of Kings, Dark Souls (retroactively)
• 2012: Sleeping Dogs
• 2013: The Last of Us, Spelunky PC (retroactively)

Retroactive games marked with what games I think were my favorites originally. I'm probably contradicting myself with the best 25 games ever I made early this morning, but whatever! Also, normally I would keep original releases as the year it came out, but I specified for Spelunky this year because it had the Daily Challenge, and that is critical to my enjoyment of the game. This list was made looking at Wikipedia games by year lists, so I probably forgot something, but it was fun to look at past years. 2006 and 2010 were particularly weak.

Starting from 2000, with no retroactive picks, my GOTY list is:

2005: Resident Evil 4

2006: Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion

2007: BioShock

2008: Grand Theft Auto IV

2009: Dragon Age: Origins

2010: Mass Effect 2

2011: Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

2012: The Walking Dead

2013: The Last of Us

Might be different if I really went through and examined what came out each year but from just looking over Wikipedia, this what I came up with.

• 2005: Resident Evil 4
• 2006: Okami
• 2007: Super Mario Galaxy
• 2008: Metal Gear Solid 4
• 2009: Uncharted 2
• 2010: Bayonetta
• 2011: Portal 2
• 2012: Persona 4 Arena
• 2013: The Wonderful 101

I don't retroactively change my GotY so games I played later on or if my opinions on the games change over time, I don't count it. I see the GotYs as like time capsules of that year, what was I most into with video games in that year.

I started gaming super seriously in 2008 but I wasn't buying tons of games so I'll start with 2007 because I got my PS3 on January 2008 and my first game was a 2007 game.

2005 - God of War

2006 - Gears of War

2007 - Bioshock

2008 - Metal Gear Solid IV

2009 - Uncharted 2: Among Thieves

2010 - Mass Effect 2

2011 - Portal 2

2012 - Journey

2013 - The Last of Us

• 2005 - Shadow of the Colossus
• 2006 - Oblivion
• 2007 - Mass Effect
• 2008 - Grand Theft Auto IV
• 2009 - Dragon Age: Origins
• 2010 - Mass Effect 2
• 2011 - Skyrim/Dark Souls (so hard for me to choose)
• 2012 - XCOM: Enemy Unknown
• 2013 - The Last of Us

I'll go back all the way to the year 2000 because I'm bored. I should note that none of these are retroactive except Spelunky. I played and enjoyed a whole lot of Spelunky in 2012, but I did not foresee the legs that this game would have. If that doesn't count, I'd probably go with the Walking Dead.

2000 - The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask

2001 - Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3

2002 - Star Wars Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast

2003 - Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic

2004 - Katamari Damacy

2005 - Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved

2006 - Bully

2007 - Portal (This is a huge toss-up between several games, Super Mario Galaxy, Call of Duty 4, Mass Effect, Bioshock, Rock Band, and Team Fortress 2 could all easily be in this spot)

2008 - Persona 4

2009 - 999: 9 Hours, 9 Persons, 9 Doors

2010 - Mass Effect 2

2011 - The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

2012 - Spelunky

2013 - The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds

Let me do this without look at anyone else's lists.

2005: Resident Evil 4

2006: Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion

2007: Call of Duty 4

2008: Gears of War 2

2009: Forza 3

2010: NBA 2k11

2011: Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim

2012: Far Cry 3

2013: The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds

2005: Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory

2006: Dreamfall: The Longest Journey

2007: Bioshock

2008: Valkyria Chronicles

2009: Demon's Souls

2010: Red Dead Redemption

2011: Dark Souls

2012: Xcom: Enemy Unknown

2013: The Last of Us

• 2005: World of Warcraft (reigned supreme)
• 2006: World of Warcraft (reigned supreme)
• 2007: World of Warcraft (reigned supreme)
• 2008: Battlefield: Bad Company (GTA IV)
• 2009: Battlefield: Bad Company (Demon's Souls)
• 2010: Battelfield: Bad Company 2 (Mass Effect 2)
• 2011: Battlefield: Bad Company 2: Vietnam (Dark Souls)
• 2012: Guild Wars 2 (XCOM: Enemy Unknown)
• 2013: Battlefield 4 (GTA V)

That's what I played the most, and also loved the most. I guess if I excluded MMOs and Battlefield, you'd get my regular GotY list. Though I can't exclude WoW from 2005 to 2007, for despite having played other games, I was totally absorbed by it. Trying to remember other games from that time fondly? Impossible. It has been Battlefield: Bad Company which managed to break the spell of World of Warcraft, and return me to regular non-monoculture gaming, because it was pushing interactivity in ways I really wanted. Everything blows up real nice, in the context of online multiplayer!

2005: SWAT 4

2006: Hitman: Blood Money

2007: COD 4

2008: Mirrors Edge

2009: The Saboteur

2010: Red Dead Redemption (this is by far the toughest year, both Alan Wake and Alpha Protocol are all time favorites, just like Mount and Blade: Warband which I only discovered last year, then there's also Dead Rising 2 ...)

2011: Cities in Motion

2012: Zero Escape: Virtues Last Reward

2013: Tomb Raider

Some video games that were quite good

• 2005: Resident Evil 4
• 2006: Gears of War
• 2007: Halo 3
• 2008: Fallout 3
• 2009: Borderlands
• 2010: Demon's Souls
• 2011: The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
• 2012: Journey
• 2013: Journey

2005 Psychonauts

2006 Nothing, what a shitty year for videogames

2007 World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade

2008 World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King

2009 Assassin's Creed 2

2010 Mass Effect 2

2011 Portal 2

2012 Sleeping Dogs

2013 DmC

• 2005: Resident Evil 4
• 2006: Bully
• 2007: Rock Band *
• 2008: Fallout 3
• 2009: Batman: Arkham Asylum
• 2010: Red Dead Redemption
• 2011: The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim / Dark Souls **
• 2012: XCOM: Enemy Unknown
• 2013: Rogue Legacy

* Didn't actually come out here until summer 2008, so if it doesn't count place Call of Duty 4 in this spot instead.
** Don't make me choose. Just don't.

Hey, the game I'm most likely to call my all-time favourite came out that year. It might not have been a particularly strong year, but it did have some gems.

• 2005 - Resident Evil 4
• 2006 - The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion
• 2007 - Uncharted
• 2008 - Dead Space
• 2009 - Dragon Age: Origins
• 2010 - Mass Effect 2
• 2011 - Bastion
• 2012 - Persona 4 Arena
• 2013 - Grand Theft Auto 5