Hey there everyone, and welcome to the fifth part of My End of 2017 Awards, the Game of the Year-styled awards ceremony that just keeps on giving, even when everyone else has had enough. Every year I pay tribute to what I've played by coming up with some novelty gongs as well as a definitive top ten at the end of it all. If you're new to My End of 2017 Awards, if you've missed any of the previous instalments, or if you're joining us from the future and want to navigate the ceremony out of sequence, you can find links to every single part thus far in the table below:

We're well past the midway point of the individual awards stage of this year's festivities, rounding the final corner before the homeward stretch. I have another seven gongs to bestow upon games that I've played in the past twelve months, acknowledging their best (or in some cases, their worst) aspects to celebrate my time with them. Let's begin today's presentations with:

Comfort In Sound Award for Best Audio Design

Bastion

From some of the industry’s worst voice acting yesterday, we now move on to some of the very best. Bastion reprises this year’s version of the same award it won on my first playthrough five years ago, acknowledging both its phenomenal soundtrack and its pioneering use of gameplay narration. Logan Cunningham gives an inspired performance as Rucks, his Western-style drawl serving as the perfect accompaniment to the player’s actions in any given moment. Darren Korb’s soundtrack couldn’t be a better fit either, combining acoustic and slide guitars with drum loops and other subtle electronic elements to create an astounding sense of place and bring post-Calamity Caelondia to life.

Amazing Journey Award for Best Quest Design

The Witcher: Enhanced Edition

I spent a lot of time absorbed in the world of The Witcher this year, starting my playthrough in the spring and finishing it up in September. A lot of that time was spent getting deeply into its quest system, trying to tie up every loose end and making sure I didn’t miss any of its wealth of content. In my time with the game I ended up performing an autopsy to identify a murderer, attending an elite social gathering to learn more about Vizima’s unstable political situation, and spent a night in a crypt to cure a cursed princess. Even the monster-slaying quests add an extra layer of depth by demanding that the player reads up on their mark to learn its weaknesses before beginning the hunt. In a gaming landscape so oversaturated with the “go to X, kill Y, bring back Z” mission structure, The Witcher’s varied quests stand out as being wholly unique experiences.

Twice As Hard Award for Most Frustrating Difficulty Spikes

Driver

Driver is, by and large, a pretty straightforward game. It doesn’t bog itself down with a mess of mechanics – you simply drive from point A to point B, navigating the surprisingly detailed 3D city environments and avoiding the local police department en route. However, there are some incredibly sharp difficulty spikes on this largely smooth ride that threatened to derail my enjoyment. Most notable are the game’s bookend missions – its opening tutorial which demands you perform a list of manoeuvres against the clock in a cramped car park environment, and the final ‘President’s Run’ mission that throws suicidal FBI cars at you from every angle as you navigate from one end of its map to the other in undrivable, icy conditions. The latter genuinely took me more time to beat than the rest of Driver put together, and was the closest I came to rage-quitting a game this year.

Going Mobile Award for Best Game Played On A Cellphone

Dragon Quest III: The Seeds of Salvation

One of the most pleasant game-related surprises of 2016 was upgrading from my Windows phone to an Android one, and discovering the first six Dragon Quest games on the Google Play store. I promptly downloaded them all and have been slowly working my way through them, playing through the first two games last year and moving on to the third instalment this autumn. Dragon Quest III is a notable progression from everything the first two games achieved, offering a longer adventure with deeper mechanics such as a true class system and a day/night cycle. It didn’t resonate with me as much as the first game (which was very much a ‘right place, right time’ deal), but there’s no doubt it’s the most polished game in the series thus far, and one of the best gaming experiences I’ve ever had on a cellphone.

Beyond Beautiful Award for Best Art Style

Cuphead

Cuphead is a total technical marvel. Its Mega Man-esque boss rush structure and tight controls would be enough to make it a fantastic game, but what really sets it apart from other games like it is its incredible visual direction. Its imitation of 1930s Fleischer and Disney cartoons is striking because of how authentic it is – every frame of animation is beautifully hand-drawn, with a wealth of true-to-the-era post-processing effects that perfectly capture the feel of its inspiration. It’s one thing to see a screenshot, but it’s another thing altogether to witness it in motion, somehow simultaneously stuttering like a classic cartoon while running at a crisp, responsive sixty frames per second. Quite simply, there is nothing else on the market that looks like Cuphead.

Stuck In The Middle With You Award for Most Unnecessary Interquel

Final Fantasy IV -Interlude-

I debated long and hard over whether to include this within this year’s awards list. For those not in the know, Final Fantasy IV -Interlude- isn't so much a game as it is a two-hour vignette included as part of Final Fantasy IV: The Complete Collection on PSP, intended to bridge the gap between the original FFIV and its episodic sequel, The After Years. Using mechanics lifted directly from (and designed around) a thirty-hour JRPG, FFIV -Interlude-’s brevity and static level of challenge mean there’s absolutely no significant character development to speak of. The plot points it does seek to establish are ones that it doesn’t need to make, since the pre-existence of The After Years renders all of its revelations moot. If nothing else, I hope its inclusion on this list manages to steer other curious players away from this pointless connecting chapter in the FFIV saga. If you’re reading this, don’t play FFIV -Interlude-.

I Wanna Get Lost With You Award for Least Player Direction

The Legend of Zelda

In a year when Breath of the Wild came along and completely redefined the Legend of Zelda formula, I found myself going back to the game that started it all, and which no doubt served as a jumping off point for a lot of its latest successor’s design choices. The original Legend of Zelda is characterised by its extensive open overworld and lack of player guidance, something that makes it nigh impossible to play without a guide at hand, but which also serves as one of its biggest strengths. It’s a game that bestows a true sense of adventure upon the player by encouraging and rewarding exploration. Playing it again has got me very excited to check out Breath of the Wild when I get my mitts on a Switch in the new year.

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We're almost there folks. In the last five days, thirty-five awards have been given to forty-one games. Just seven of these individual awards remain, and I'll be presenting these to the final nine games that I beat this year tomorrow, including the best (and worst) licensed soundtrack, the protagonist who straight-up refuses to die, and one of the weirdest games I've ever played. Until then, thanks as always for reading. Take care, and I'll see you around.

Daniel

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Currently playing - Pokémon Ultra Sun (3DS)