Iga_Bobovic said:So why don't you finish all the games before you pick your GoTY awards? Is there a law that says you have to pick them now?
Are you kidding? Who else even plays as many games? This list wouldn't be complete for another 20 years if it was me.
Iga this will be an ongoing thread so I do plan on finishing some of the games in that second column. The third column forget it, I missed out don't have time for them now. But like Robio said some games you can have a great idea after some play time. That's all that really needed for this, I can tell where a game is going to rank with me usually rather quickly.
Best FPS
One category where I have played everything I plan to play is FPS. Let's get the big one out of the way, I am not a big multiplayer shooter fan so Overwatch really has no chance for me. I played the beta, obviously not enough for a real review but it didn't hook me. It was fun, I could see why so many are enamored with it but I just couldn't find that hook to keep me playing. So overwatch is out.
I played the Rainbow Six Siege free weekend which allowed me to get through all the single player missions. This game had some fantastic gunplay and controls. The fully destructible environments are impressive. Team tactics is key but it's also my issue as every match is just a siege. So while it's intense it gets repetitive. The horde mode against AI is pretty great but I didn't have friends so playing with randoms is not enticing to me. Good game still not something I would pay for.
Next we have the games with full story campaigns of which Battlefield 1 is the worst. Battlefield and I just don't click so while this is clearly the best BAttlefield in years it's not competing for the top spot. CoD IW is in a similar situation expect this one I really enjoyed the campaign. The multiplayer was fine but basically BO3 over again.
This category for me comes down to Titanfall 2 versus Doom 4. TF2 is the total package, an excellent campaign with super addictive fun multiplayer. That said single player holds the most weight for me and Doom 4 had the most awesome, twitch based shooter I have played in years. Both are great choices but my pick is:
DOOM 4 - BEST FPS
This game had tons of skepticism with it and in a shock to all it passed all expectations. This was DOOM, the doom we all loved. The absolutely crazy action, it's not about slowly aiming at things hiding behind cover, yawn. No this is giant things flying at your at all sides you running non stop killing everything. The action is the best the FPS genre has had in years.
The best part is how the levels where not giant long corridors, it was an actual open map with keys and secrets to find. This game had an excellent upgrade system that made finding secrets a worthy activity and lead to great rewards as the gun upgrades are a must at higher difficulties.
Once you beat the huge game you can mess around with the multiplayer which isn't great but at least it's different and more old school. It has a full on user creation and share system so it's like LBP for Doom with thousands of levels to play. And now they added in arcade mode which turns every level into a high score attack.
Doom is a return to the glory days of the FPS when it was about the campaign and not a multiplayer mode. When it was about running and gunning; about facing overwhelming odds, about movement not hiding. Doom 4 is the best FPS of this generation.
Best FPS of the gen. Sure? But only by default lol.
Doom is the next already released game that I want to get.
Foolz said:Best FPS of the gen. Sure? But only by default lol.
Lol well yeah.
Archangel3371 said:Doom is the next already released game that I want to get.
You ain't not got it yet?!?
I'd agree....DOOM and Titanfall 2 were the kings of the fps this year.
aspro said:Archangel3371 said:Doom is the next already released game that I want to get.
You ain't not got it yet?!?
Nope. I dun didn't not gots it yet.
Best Graphics
I don't have to beat certain games for this category so let's do it. There were some lookers this year. You had jaw dropping Uncharted 4. You have Battlefield 4 running perfect with crazy life like visuals. You have the beauty of The Last Guardian. I absolutely loved the art style and color of the witness. The animation and look of Inside is another one of those best art style nominees. Ratchet and Clank does look like a Pixar movie. And then there is FFXV which is very uneven but you can't deny how gorgeous it is at times.
In the end I say this is a two game race between Uncharted 4 and Battlefield 1. Depending on what you want more out of your graphics (like 60FPS) it could sway you towards Battlefield. Personally though realism isn't the only thing I am after, I like my games to have a visual style to them. The environments and character models are second to none. Every action sequence was mindblowing, we are reaching the point where this could be put on a movie screen unaltered and it's acceptable. I spent so many hours just taking pictures of this gorgeous game, it made all the boring walking parts a bit more acceptable.
Best Graphics - Uncharted 4
Honestly greatest looking game of all time.
And none of the pictures work... This I will have to fix later.
Such bad particle effects, though.
Archangel3371 said:aspro said:Archangel3371 said:Doom is the next already released game that I want to get.
You ain't not got it yet?!?
Nope. I dun didn't not gots it yet.
damgummit boy get that sheet sorted.
Ok lets just get this done.
So far my awards have been:
Best Graphics - Uncharted 4
Best FPS - Doom 4
Best Wii U game - Star Fox Guard
Next up we have
Best VR Game:
This was the year of VR, sadly it didn't turn out as magical as I would have hoped. When it works it is incredible, transporting you into another world. The immersive elements are unmatched. And when you add motion controls to it so that your actions are the games actions its a wow kind of experience. But those experiences are short lived because the games are so rough. They are short, they don't have great controls for movement because no one really knows how to make good controls in VR yet. They mostly feel like tech demos rather than full titles.
The best VR games I played were Superhot VR, Chronos, Blaze Rush and Unspoken. There were other really great games that were interesting but not that well made like Vanishing Realms the VR take on a hack and slash action adventure, the zelda like game that really is nothing like zelda. That game is fun but combat is so basic with a lot of just waggling and shooting bows while moving in your tiny space in your room.
There is H3 which is a gun porn game. This simulates a gun range and shooting really well. Its fun to mess around but there isnt much game here. There are a few arcade like modes but nothing substantial. We also had VR sports which is a pack in for the touch where you play sports mini games. Its fun but this is no wii sports. Dead and Buried is an online wild west shooter where you physically have to duck and cover behind virtual objects, no thank you. Lucky's Tale was a by the book platformer, good but nothing special. Damaged Core has a cool mechanic but I have to play more to really have an opinion on it.
So of the four best VR games we have Superhot and Unspoken which are Touch games. Superhot is by a mile the best use of VR and motion controls, its the killer app. Its also one hour long with no replay value. Sorry but thats barely a game. Unspoken is an online competitive magic game where you hurl fireballs, or levitate objects magneto style. The battles are fun and really unlike anything out there. Blaze Rush is available without VR but its really neat to float over an RC track like god. The game is like RC pro am reborn, its a blast.
But my VR game of the year hardly makes any use of VR at all, its just a great game, Chronos. Take Dark Souls like combat, add zeldaish puzzles and have it presented with RE style fixed camera angles and you got this really great action adventure game that can stand up to any game on any platform. The VR immerses you, thats about it, the strength of the game lies in its great design and tough combat. Its big game at around 10-12 hours, this should be on outside platforms so more people could enjoy.
Winner Best VR Game: Chronos
Best Story:
Not a lot of great stories from what I played this year. Really this comes down to Uncharted 4 and The Last Guardian. FFXV is too messy to really be in consideration, it feels like entire pieces of the story were cut out. I didnt play the witcher expansion which I am sure is good. I bet there is some indie game that has a good story I missed out on. Deus Ex was just the same stuff over again.
So its between two Sony games whos presentations are unmatched. The Last Guardian is minimalistic in its storytelling with very little dialogue, most of the story is just told from the play and your interactions with Trico. There are cutscenes the further you get in which does flesh out what exactly is going on, the revelations are shocking. The finale is an absolute triumph full of emotion and excitement. It is a very memorable game.
That said my choice has to be Uncharted 4. At this point we are playing movies, it is near indistinguishable the acting in this and real actors in a movie. Yes they look like CG models but they have every facial feature that a real actor does, you can SEE the performance as well as hear it. This game got a bit heavy handed, not the jolly romp for treasure like past games. The result maybe the best story ever told in a shooter. It deals with relationships, with what you want to do with your life after a certain age, with trust and betrayal. Its just a very well told story with a fantastic end to the series.
Winner Best Story: Uncharted 4
Best Voice Acting:
Lets cut to the chase in this one, its one of the actors in Uncharted 4. Their performances are amazing. They all do great but its Emily Rose's Elena who steals the show. You can hear and feel her heart break when she finds out Drake was lying to her. The quiet moments between the two are so well done and feel like you are watching a love story with two people who have been together through a whole lot of crazy stuff. She is the emotional rock of the story, great acting performance.
Winner best voice acting: Emily Rose for Elena
Best action/adventure game:
This category was a little bit lacking this year, I am just going to go ahead and give it to Uncharted 4. Yeah you walk and do nothing for chunks at a time but when you do do something oh man its amazing. Some of the best gunplay ever. The game takes you to so many amazing locations, has some mindblowing setpieces and a great online mode. It was the best action/adventure game of the year, normally this category wins my GOTY but not this year.
Winner best action adventure game: Uncharted 4
And that concludes the Uncharted 4 section of our awards.
Biggest Disappointment:
This is becoming the category with the best games, last year MGSV my GOTY won this and this year Uncharted 4 is for sure on this list. With our new amazing graphics and better gameplay mechanics than ever before something is happening to level design and pacing where its just falling short of what came before. Uncharted 4's story absolutely gets in the way of what could have been an all time great game. Instead for huge chunks at a time you do nothing but walk around and listen to people talk. The action feels like break from the story at times when it should be the other way around. That's a shame because the action is better than ever but it falls well short of Uncharted 2's incredible adventure.
But lucky for Uncharted 4 this year has far far bigger duds. FFXV in a way is a success just because it released and isnt horrible, but its a frankenstein of a game and one of the lesser FF games. VR in general has been a disappointment simply for not having that one game you can point to and say "there that is why VR is the future".
Still this year only one game deserves this award, maybe the biggest deserving winner of this award ever. No Man's Sky promised us an entire universe to explore... and do nothing in. The entire media run was filled with lies, the finished product was missing loads of features shown previously in previews. The game was glitchy, it was a total disaster. Worse still is how Hello Games went into a dead silence after release. The whole thing stunk.
Winner Biggest Disappointment : No Man's Sky
Best Publisher:
Normally the nintendo award but they have been awful the last two years so once again, they are not a winner. This year its between two maybe three companies. We have Sony, Square and Bethesda. Bethesda mostly because of Doom and Dishonored 2, but thats not enough so they are out.
So we have Sony versus Square. Square has FFXV, Hitman and Deus Ex MD on top of a ton of other RPGs and smaller projects. By volume they were the best this year. But they go against Sony who had Uncharted 4, The Last Guardian and Ratchet and Clank, on top of the other stuff they published. The top three games for Sony beats the ones for Square, so Sony wins.
Winner Best Publisher - Sony
This year I want this to be a discussion as well as showcase my picks. I will share my thoughts on each category but I want to welcome discussion. If you have a different pick explain why. If you don’t like my pick bring a counter argument. I want to hear not just your favorites but why.
I will start by posting the games I have beaten and played from 2016 and then start to break them down category by category. This could be a long process as I am still in the middle of a few big games. So this will be an ongoing thread till the end of Jan most likely. That said I already know my GOTY but I will get to that later.
Here are the games from 2016 I beat:
So those are the ones I finished here is a list of games I played but not finished or are games that cant be finished:
And last is a list of games that will miss out in these awards that I wish I had the time or ability to play.
The first discussion should be about these games I will miss out on. The big one on the list is Dishonored 2 which is a sequel to a game a very much enjoyed in a genre I very much love. I just was not that in love with Dishonored to go out and get this game day one. This is one I think could have jumped into the discussion of best action adventure game.
The MS games all seem like great fun but none of them would really crack my top ten I feel. I am going by history of franchises and developers here, I didn’t see any of these games do anything so different as to warrant a purchase.
There are two large scale VR games that I want to play but are priced too high. I don’t expect them to be an actual GOTY contender but they could be VR game of the year contenders.
The witcher 3 expansion got tons of praise but so did witcher 3 so I doubt I will love it as much as others. Fire Emblem would have been my second strategy game of the year so at least it could have given Xcom 2 some competition. Then there is hyperlight drifter which is an indie Zeldaish game many rave about that I skipped. I feel this will be on plus one day, I’ll just wait. I saw videos, I doubt it would crack my top ten.
oh almost forgot Paper Mario Color Splash which is like the only noteworthy thing On Wii U this year. Everyone says it’s a huge return to form and as good as the first two paper mario games. This would could absolutely be in my top 10 and would probably have a great shot to win best RPG of the year for me. Shame I missed out, no time to play it now, will have to get to it down the line.
So anything else I missed? Games I should have absolutely played that makes my GOTY list incomplete? How about your lists, any games you wish you got around too?