Bon soir mes amis, and welcome to the fourth part of My End of 2017 Awards, my personal answer to the Game of the Year-oriented questions that Giant Bomb and other gaming communities find themselves asking at this time of year. If you're boarding this awards train halfway through the journey, or looking back from the lofty heights of 2018 and want to peruse any other part of this monstrous ceremony, then I'll be updating the table below with links to every section as it progresses:

Today brings seven more individual awards to the table, acknowledging the best and worst aspects of the games that I played this year and taking us beyond the halfway point of this whole endeavour. We're going to hit some real highs along the way, but we're beginning today's journey on a slight downer, with:

Flammable Award for Hottest Mess

Spyro: Enter the Dragonfly

Enter the Dragonfly has so many issues that I don’t know where to begin listing them. There’s the shockingly bad frame rate, which chugs and sputters at almost every movement of the player or the camera. There’s the terrible clipping and collision detection which makes every single jump or enemy encounter fraught with uncertainty. There’s the audio glitch that makes distant enemies and collectibles sound deceptively close. There’s the fact that sometimes objects in the game, from gems to mission-critical enemies, can simply disappear or refuse to spawn, making full completion impossible without a hard reset. And there’s the complete dearth of levels and features that renders the experience repetitive and (mercifully) short. I pray I never have to experience a game as irredeemably broken as Enter the Dragonfly ever again.

21 Guns Award for Best Arsenal Of Weaponry

Ratchet & Clank 3

The third instalment in the Ratchet & Clank series is subtitled ‘Up Your Arsenal’ in America, a moniker that’s undoubtedly earned given the variety of weird and wonderful weaponry on offer for players to experiment with. Alongside standard fare like the N60 Storm blaster and shotgun-like Shock Blaster, Ratchet can also wield weapons with more unique effects, like the mind-altering Infector that causes enemies to attack each other, or the Rift Inducer which generates miniature black holes that suck opponents into another dimension. While the story and mission structure of Ratchet & Clank 3 might be the weakest in the original PlayStation 2 trilogy, the sheer number of combat options ensure there’s rarely a dull moment on the battlefield.

Not What You Wanted Award for Biggest Departure From A Series’ Roots

Ratchet: Gladiator

The Ratchet & Clank series has always been as much about exploration as it has about combat. Part of the thrill of playing one of these games is hopping from world to world, hunting for secrets and collectibles scattered across varied maps with multiple branching paths. Ratchet: Gladiator (subtitled ‘Deadlocked’ in the US) almost completely does away with this aspect of the series’ gameplay, forcing the player through a series of combat-focused challenges on barren maps clearly designed with multiplayer in mind. What content there is in Ratchet: Gladiator is fun and well constructed, but the lack of exploration and true platforming leaves it feeling repetitive and unfinished – more like half a game than a full one.

Ten Years Gone Award for Game I Should Have Played A Decade Ago

Beyond Good & Evil HD

Beyond Good & Evil has been on my radar for a very long time. I originally acquired the PlayStation 2 version way back in 2010, after years of recommendations from like-minded gamers on sites like Giant Bomb. Last year I substituted that with the remastered Xbox LIVE Arcade version given away free as part of the Games with Gold initiative. And this year, I finally bit the bullet and played through this cult classic. Having played it for myself, it’s certainly a very unique experience, marrying a core action-adventure premise with an open overworld, light puzzle solving, and even a photography mechanic. I appreciated its story too, using its fantasy setting to dip into some heavy allegorical themes like oppression and conservation in a way that reminded me of the Oddworld franchise. Beyond Good & Evil is definitely deserving of its reputation, and I’m glad to have finally given it my time and attention after all these years.

New Coat Of Paint Award for Best Remasters

Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy

I’m a Crash Kid. I was born in 1990, and consequently, my formative gaming years were spent playing the first three Crash Bandicoot games on the original PlayStation. Therefore, as a part of its target audience, I feel qualified to say that N. Sane Trilogy is one of the best examples of a remaster done right that I’ve ever seen. It’s not just the incredible visuals that make it special, either – it’s the wealth of quality-of-life improvements that Vicarious Visions have brought to the table, like replacing the draconian save system in the first game, or retrofitting Warped’s time trial Relics into its older brothers. I spent two months across these three games, squeezing every drop of content from them and earning three Platinum Trophies in the process. If that’s not a strong enough endorsement from this Crash Kid, then I don’t know what is.

The Eve Of The War Award for Game Most Evocative Of H. G. Wells

Resistance: Fall of Man

I love The War of the Worlds. Ever since I read the book for the first time in 2010, I’ve been fascinated by how ahead of its time it was, and particularly by its juxtaposition of futuristic alien technology with its comparatively primitive setting of Victorian-era London. This is where Resistance: Fall of Man succeeds most in my view – it paints a stunning recreation of 1940s England, with its village greens and red-brick buildings, and offsets it against the angular, metallic architecture of the invading Chimeran forces. It’s the closest any visual medium has ever come to replicating the images that my mind’s eye conjures up when reading H. G. Wells’ sci-fi classic, and that was such a special feeling to me that I was able to overlook its shortcomings and see the whole story through.

B Movie Saga Award for Worst Voice Acting

Resident Evil: Director’s Cut

I enjoyed playing through the Director's Cut version of the original Resident Evil on PS1 a lot more than I thought I would. Navigating the game’s mansion environment and avoiding its zombified inhabitants was a tense experience, with the rug constantly being pulled from underneath me as my expectations were subverted with every new enemy placement or discovered shortcut. What I will remember more than anything else, though, is the ‘so-bad-it’s-great’ voice acting that drives the plot forward. There’s a reason this game has spawned memes like “Jill Sandwich”, “Master of Unlocking”, and “I hope this is not Chris’ blood” - the overacted delivery really sells a low-budget B-movie feel. Whether that was the intention, I honestly can’t say. Oh, and if you want to know my favourite line, it’s gotta be Chris Redfield’s pained “No! Don’t go!!” from the intro cinematic.

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We're over halfway through now folks. Twenty-eight awards have been bestowed upon their respective games, meaning there's just fourteen more of these to go before the reveal of my top ten gaming experiences of 2017. I'll be back tomorrow with the penultimate septet of individual gongs, including the game with the best quest design, the game with the best art style, and the game with the most rage-inducing difficulty spike. Until then, thanks very much as always for reading. Take care, and I'll see you around.

Daniel

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Currently playing - Pokémon Ultra Sun (3DS)