December always represents my favorite games blogging pastime: Game of the Year talk!
It’s genuinely safe to assume that no other major releases will sneak in and disrupt your Top Ten, though that’s not always the case. The Last Guardian released on December 6th last year and ended up in my #2 slot. Oops.
This year is different! Nothing releases between now and December 31st that I’m interested in playing, nor do I plan on making any additional purchases.
For now, I’m going to keep chipping away at Prey as my final 2017 completion and begin working on my own Top Ten list. I’ve been asked by a few other sites to contribute to their Game of the Year discussion as well, so we’ll see how that all pans out.
Side-note: If your website is doing a community collaboration for this sort of thing, let me know! I’m happy to contribute!
I’m pretty confident in the ten games that’ll appear on my list, but not in their order of appearance. The further removed I am from certain major releases, the lower their priority becomes. There are a few games that have a complete stranglehold on the top spots, though, but I’m still not sure what my Game of the Year is.
I’ll probably start rolling out my Honorable Mentions post soon and I also plan on doing a separate post discussing some of my favorite games that I played this year that didn’t actually release in 2017. I put a significant dent in my backlog for once (yay!) and there are some key players in there that I’d like to put in the spotlight well after their prime.
Are you confident in your Game of the Year pick right now? Are there any other games you’re trying to squeeze in before making your own list? Do you even partake in GOTY talk on your blog? If no, why not? If so, though, what structure do you use? Separate genre categories? Top 5? 10? Maybe no order in particular?
Sound off in the comments and let’s figure this shit out together. Teamwork and stuff.
Cheap Boss Attack 
AMAP will have a collective top 5 games of the year article coming out soon, but for me the short answer is easy: Resident Evil 7. Ultimate horror experience in VR.
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I’d love to check it out in VR. It was a stellar experience outside of VR and easily the best horror game I’ve played in years.
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Docked RE7 for the delay in the Chris Redfield DLC. Lore, yo. Been twitchin’ for that fix all year, and mini-game DLC was NOT cuttin’ it XD Feelings might change if they keep to the current release date of 12/12 and the lore proves worth the wait.
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Crazy to think that was supposed to come out NINE MONTHS AGO.
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Cuuuuuuuuupheeeeeeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaaaaad. Cuuuuuuuuuuuuupheeeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaaaad. Not to mention the plethora of Nintendo Swtich games, and others I didn’t get to buy. I did get a few new releases this year beyond Cuphead though, Rise & Shine, Double Dragon IV, weren’t the best games ever made, but I still found them enjoyable. Bubsy The Woolies Strike Back was a pleasant surprise. Again not going to make a Top 5 for most folks, due to the incredibly short length. But what is there is fun even if a lot is borrowed from a better game. Mirage was a sad story because it was a really fun game with interesting things, but nowhere near enough people gave it an honest shot. But hey, it did better than For Honor, so I guess that’s something.
This year I simply couldn’t nab a ton of major AAA releases, though with the way the year went I guess that’s for the best. (Star Wars, COD, Need For Speed,) Still, I’m bound to go back, and pick up the good ones eventually. And the year isn’t over, so I may get a couple of them before it ends. I’m really going to clean up on discounts once I have a Switch. Mario, Splatoon, alone would be great, but Namco Museum, Street Fighter II (Don’t judge me folks, I’m a sucker for having a proper SFII that you can take to Starbucks, and challenge the barista to a match with.), Rocket League (Again), the slew of great indie releases, and obscure titles make it a great machine. And that isn’t to knock the great year the other machines had. But it made a familiar device (a tablet) feel unique. I’ve said it before but if the Switch gets a decent browser, and some high profile apps like Netflix, Hulu, YouTube, and Crunchyroll again (Hell, the Wii U got those), it’s curtains for crappy $75-$200 tablets you see in Best Buy, Staples, and Target.
As for next year, I’m really excited to see how upstart New Blood Interactives’ Amid Evil, and Dusk turn out (I cracked, and preordered Dusk. But the Demo I got for doing so is pretty amazing.). New World Interactive should be releasing Insurgency Sandstorm.Which if is half as good as the original, could become a big deal. Especially since its coming to consoles too this time. Also, there’s been rumors of a Soul Calibur 6 coming out next year. But hey, as this year proved, it’s also impossible for me to buy everything new. Which is fine, as it plays into my hands.
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You saw my list already but I’d love to discuss the year with you, and/or others.
I’m peeking into next year but still relishing this year. My plan is to hit Horizon in Game+, which will be another 40+ hours.
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definitely getting a list finalized. Wanted to do a top 10, but I can’t easily come up with 10 games that I can put there, simply because I only finished a handful of them from this year. And one of them only came out today so need to see how far I get before I can consider that being on it. Worst case, I just may make a list of my top however many games that I can truly say were special. Hellblades definately in there
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I had wanted to do a list but have decided not to because I don’t think I have played enough games released this year (and to completion) to make a fair list. I’m looking forward to reading your choices and other peoples lists though as I’m really interested what people think.
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I just realized I didn’t even played 10 games that were released this year, haha. My GoTY is definitely Hellblade, followed by Horizon Zero Dawn. I’ll likely be doing a top 5 list on my New Year’s Day post which will include games that I played but weren’t necessarily released in 2017.
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Too much stuff released this year and gaming is an expensive hobby, so that’s totally understandable. I usually have to rely on Red Box rentals (not sure if you have those in Canada, but they’re disc-rental kiosks that rent movies and games for $1-3 USD per day and have all the new stuff) or buying games, beating them quickly, and selling them on eBay to get most of my money back in order to buy another.
I would definitely hold Hellblade over Horizon, for sure. Hellblade is likely my #2, but I’m still mulling it over.
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I’m not sure if we have anything like Red Box here. I’ll have to take a look, eh!
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Our kiosks are usually inside of Walmart entrances, Mcdonalds, or Rite Aid type pharmacy/convenient store hybrids.
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Posting a GotY article in January to get those few that sneak under the rope in December~ Definitely looking for nominees and contributions; though, I will admit to favoring “Hollow Knight” (http://store.steampowered.com/app/367520/Hollow_Knight/)
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Hollow Knight looks incredible. Just waiting on the Switch version, which was delayed until next year.
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I normally compile a top five games I have reviewed every year. There has been a ton of good stuff in 2017, although I have missed out on many big titles due to lack of time. When I look over the stuff I have played it will be interesting to see which titles make the cut. I expect Persona 5 to top the list.
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I absolutely loved the 50 hours I put into Persona before becoming sidetracked by the trifecta of Mario, Wolfenstein 2, and AC Origins on October 27th. I managed to finish all three of those (surprisingly), but then had to redirect my focus to college finals and term papers. Since I haven’t finished Persona 5 yet, I’m torn on whether or not I should include it in my Top 10 or sink it down to honorable mentions.
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I wasn’t planning on a community collab lol, but it’s a pretty good idea. Hm. Maybe next year I’ll make a hub for Bes categories. It’s s fine idea 🤔
I’m going to work on my favorites/GOTY, too. I think I know what that will be in terms of what I’ve played. Unfortunately I’ll be pulling from a smaller pool since I didn’t play nearly as many as I wanted or people like you! But I do love making lists. 😆
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I do love a good list! They’re so cliche, but SO FUN!
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