2017 Community Game of the Year - Results on the front page!!

Y'all are making me want to get Elex.

Vector wrote:

1) Mass Effect: Andromeda

IMAGE(https://i.imgur.com/2NIeKlq.jpg)

**ME:A fist bump**

Agathos wrote:

Sorry Clock

No worries, I've got you.

ClockworkHouse wrote:
MrDeVil909 wrote:

Yeah, is it me or is there a LOT of rules lawyering this year?

Less than usual, honestly, but Eleima's done a much better job than I did of moderating the discussion.

Awww, thanks! Doesn't feel like I'm doing anything all that special, to be honest. Besides, all these chuckleheads know they best fall in line, lest I name ME:A the 2017 GOTY.

Thank you very much to EverythingsTentative, Agathos, RolandofGilead, mrtomaytohead and Vector for your lists!! Vector, kudos on going on so extensively on your choices, the wherfore and why of them, I just love that. You pretty much hit the nail on the head for ME:A in my book: it had flaws, for sure, but I can't shake the feeling that it wouldn't have gotten so much criticism if it hadn't had "Mass Effect" attached to it. I don't know. I'm biased, I'll admit it.
Mulder, no worries, I've got your updated list. Very interesting to see you bump off Odyssey off the list.

So we're now at 101 goodjers and 352 games. Sweet!
BE ADVISED: The top ten keeps changing as I tally the votes, so be sure to post your list and have your voice heard! Yes, every single vote counts!!! I currently have no less than three games tied at 77 points!

Eleima wrote:

BE ADVISED: The top ten keeps changing as I tally the votes, so be sure to post your list and have your voice heard! Yes, every single vote counts!!! I currently have no less than three games tied at 77 points!

The real GOTY is the friends we made along the way.

TheHarpoMarxist wrote:
Eleima wrote:

BE ADVISED: The top ten keeps changing as I tally the votes, so be sure to post your list and have your voice heard! Yes, every single vote counts!!! I currently have no less than three games tied at 77 points!

The real GOTY is the friends we made along the way.

I just don't see what's so special about friends.

Vector wrote:

4) ELEX

IMAGE(http://cdn.akamai.steamstatic.com/steam/apps/411300/header.jpg?t=1513848793)
Time Played: 74 hours

I have a lot to say about ELEX but won’t. This is a very “Vector” game. I loved Risen and it’s first sequel made by the same developers. ELEX is Risen, and apparently Gothic, set in a true post-apocalyptic world. It’s harsh, unforgiving, confusing, poor-written and acted, fascinating, heavy in lore, and awkward. The world of Magalan is huge and dangerous. It is extremely fun to explore and gives the feeling that you’re scratching for every centimetre until you finally get a foothold. They don’t tell you anything and while this is frustrating it is also satisfying. This makes your early skill choices incredibly important and shape how you go about solving problems (quests, situations, and exploration).

The downside is that, at a certain point, you become so overpowered that skills and abilities are useless. The end of the game feels superfluous and the leveling curve is irrelevant. I was left with a bunch of quests that offered no challenge and the presentation of the story just isn’t strong enough to make up for it. I was able to cheese the game by getting a particular gun that can perma-stun and stagger the strongest enemies in the game. While this was rewarding in that I worked very hard to get there (about 40 hours worth) it made the next 34 hours trivial. A big negative is that there are absolutely no people of colour in the game and women are just not as important as men. It’s a common problem I see in these style RPGs and is making me less and less willing to play the quirky European games. From a pure gameplay experience perspective, nothing offered what ELEX did in 2017.

You misspelled "The Best Part."

Vector wrote:

Vector’s 2017 GOTY List

...

1) Mass Effect: Andromeda

ONE OF US!!! ONE OF US!!!

At least one more coming (although not a number one vote, I'm afraid). I just have a lot of screenshots to take before I post my list.

So good to catch up on the lists! I finally have some down time till the end of the week to try and finish a couple more games and finish my list. I wonder what will end up being my favorite...

TrashiDawa wrote:

Great list and write ups Vector! I especially liked the denouement.

Thanks! It was the final thing I wrote but have been thinking about it for pretty much a year.

ClockworkHouse wrote:

Y'all are making me want to get Elex.

I'm conflicted on what you'll get out of it. The troublesome parts will bother the hell out of you but the world exploration is very unique.

Eleima wrote:

Thank you very much to EverythingsTentative, Agathos, RolandofGilead, mrtomaytohead and Vector for your lists!! Vector, kudos on going on so extensively on your choices, the wherfore and why of them, I just love that. You pretty much hit the nail on the head for ME:A in my book: it had flaws, for sure, but I can't shake the feeling that it wouldn't have gotten so much criticism if it hadn't had "Mass Effect" attached to it. I don't know. I'm biased, I'll admit it. ;)

Thanks for noting it. I spend weeks writing this and organizing my thoughts...instead of working. We're predisposition to love Mass Effect. It would take a truly horrendous game that breaks lore in irresponsible ways to get us to dislike an entry in the series.

doubtingthomas396 wrote:

You misspelled "The Best Part."

It was great and then for the last several hours, I was bored. Just wasn't spaced out enough.

1. Breath of the Wild
I confess: I bought Breath of the Wild out of habit. I wasn't much looking forward to it, and I only bought it because I've always bought new Zelda games. The Nintendo-does-Far-Cry sales pitch of the pre-release hype didn't interest me much. Even without delving much into Ubisoft's catalog of interchangeable open worlds, I've had my fill of tidying up all the icons on a big map, running from waypoint to waypoint for that next little kibble of accomplishment. But before I'd even finished the game's starting area on the Grand Plateau, I knew that Breath of the Wild was something unique and different. Imbued with a restless and relentless energy, Breath of the Wild continually pushes---no, shoves---players out of their rhythm, out of their comfort zone, out of their habits and into a new and volatile situation. Every part interacts with every other in a way that's consistent, logical, and as impartial as a marble statue. The choices made here would never have passed muster with a publisher like Ubisoft or Activision, and indeed most of the complaints about this game come back to those choices: why do weapons break so often? Why does rain make me fall? Why don't I get experience or money or anything at all from combat? Why aren't there any of the familiar dungeons that I'm used to? Because those are the rules, the game says, now figure it out. I have never improvised, discovered, explored, run away, or felt high-and-dry as often in a game as I have in Breath of the Wild. After nearly 200 hours with the game on two platforms, it still kicks the chair out from under me regularly, and I still have to scramble to find a way to victory or find a way to get out alive. It has been the purest, most absorbing, most creative, and most fun game I've played this year or any other.

2. Bloodborne: The Old Hunters
I played the central campaign of Bloodborne last year, but this year I finally tackled its difficult, brilliant, and unsettling expansion, The Old Hunters. The Old Hunters includes some of the best locations, characters, bosses, and weapons of the game, and I can't believe I waited so long to play it. It isn't as intricately interconnected as the best parts of Yharnam, but each new area and each new encounter feels like a creepy step downward into something mad and malevolent. I loved every shadowed, pulsating, grotesque little inch of it.

3. Blackguards
and
4. Xenoblade Chronicles 2
I'm going to lump these two games together for one simple reason: I care. I actually, genuinely give a crap about the members of my plucky band of RPG adventurers, their silly banter, and their tragic backstories. But in both games, solid localization work and consistently strong, emotive voice work from the central cast members won me over. Blackguards gets a slight edge over Xenoblade Chronicles 2 for having stronger female characters and for reminding me that I do really like Western-style RPGs, but both are wonderful entries in their respective genres. I haven't finished either, yet, but I'm looking forward to playing more.

5. The Last Guardian
The Last Guardian is gloriously busted. You can never quite tell if Trico is glitching or just being obstinate, and the camera spends an inordinate amount of time trying to show you his giant anus instead of the platform you're trying (and failing) to jump to. In spite of that, I wouldn't change a thing about it. The camera issues are frustrating at times, as is the communication barrier between you and Trico, but learning to communicate and to navigate his giant body through human-sized spaces is the game, and it's wonderful. I don't know what's next from Fumito Ueda or how long it will take him to create it, but I can't wait.

6. Prey
At times, Arkane Studios feels like a cover band that took to the studio to record original music that nonetheless sounds remarkably like cover material. Even so, as long as they do such amazing covers of the old Looking Glass catalog, I'm not going to complain. Taking a break from making the modern Thief games that Square-Enix couldn't, they tackled here System Shock, and Prey is an amazing successor to that old gem. While not quite as free-form as Dishonored, Prey nevertheless provides players less with a carefully choreographed experience than with a memorable playground and a fun set of tools. Mimics aren't quite the Many, but at least this game doesn't turn into a clumsy platformer where you jump between giant teeth.

7. Mario + Rabbids
I love turn-based tactical games, but more often than not they're plodding, deliberate affairs where you crawl from cover to cover and take only shots that don't seem to be too risky. Mario + Rabbids is a remarkable counterpoint to all that, offering a tactical strategy game that prioritizes movement, coordination, and speed over safety and number crunching. Paring back the fiddly, RPG-inspired mechanics of other games, Mario + Rabbids is simple and elegant take on one of gaming's classic genres.

8. Opus Magnum
This was the year I discovered programming puzzle games, and this was the best one I played. Gifted to me by the sweetheart NSMichael, I spent my autumn giving out copies of this game just so that I could swap puzzle solutions and leaderboard chase with my friends. Logical, intricate, and amazingly visual, Opus Magnum was the year's best puzzle game.

9. Super Mario Odyssey
Super Mario Odyssey might be the best game I played this year that I've already forgotten about. That would normally be damning, but my thirty or so hours with the game felt less like wasted time and more like time that was quietly and delightfully nicked from my wallet. It's a smooth, easy, and pleasant experience tarnished only by the fact that it didn't fundamentally redefine what I expect from a 3D platformer the way that its predecessors have.

10. Ori and the Blind Forest
Decades after the heyday of platformers, it's rare for a platformer to introduce a genuinely new traversal mechanic. From Super Mario to Samus Aran to Scrooge McDuck to Umihara, the vocabulary of the genre has been well-defined and refined over time. There aren't many new verbs. But Ori and the Blind Forest introduces the bash maneuver, a way of harmlessly springing off enemies and hazards while dramatically changing the trajectory of your jump. The game's exploratory map is built around discovering and mastering this new mechanic, and it's extremely satisfying to do so.

Honorable Mention: Horizon Zero Dawn
There was no other game this year I tried so hard to like as Horizon Zero Dawn, and there was no other game I played that seemed to work so hard to obscure everything that was unique and thrilling about it. It takes an interesting and surprisingly deep combat system and then smears it with layer after layer of all the worst trends of modern gaming until it's hard to see that wonderful core. Tedious and uninteresting, most of Horizon Zero Dawn's elements are superfluous and, indeed, ruinous for the great game underneath. You can make the game somewhat better by flipping off the HUD, burying the waypoints, and ignoring every lost soul who has mislaid their most precious pots and pans in a robot velociraptor den, but that will only get you so far. Horizon Zero Dawn was by far the most disappointing release of the year and the biggest missed opportunity not because it was merely okay but because it didn't need to be.

Well, I guess I need to check out Opus Magnum.

Edit: Oh yeah, seeing Last Guardian on that list, Clockwork, made my day. That game easily made it to number one on my list last year. I can't imagine the crisis I would be having if I had to insert that into my favorite list this year, personally.

I love the Blackguards love. The rest of Clocky’s list is having me consider a Switch...

Hey E, if ME:A wins goty I'm calling foul and demanding a recount.

oilypenguin wrote:

Hey E, if ME:A wins goty I'm calling foul and demanding a recount.

Piss on your recount. ME:A has a strong lead in the Electoral College.

My apologies to Clocky. I've tried to demonstrate what I love about HZD and I have failed. For what it's worth, I do not like Ubisoft open worlds. I do not consider HZD's busywork icons as core elements.

ClockworkHouse wrote:
oilypenguin wrote:

Hey E, if ME:A wins goty I'm calling foul and demanding a recount.

Piss on your recount. ME:A has a strong lead in the Electoral College.

If it comes down to one vote difference, I say we just flip a coin. Then declare The Witcher 3 GOTY anyway.

Thank you very much for your list, Clocky. Congratulations, you too are now a data point!

oilypenguin wrote:

Hey E, if ME:A wins goty I'm calling foul and demanding a recount.

As much as I would like that to happen, from what I'm seeing now, it won't. We'd need to have a truckload of folks ranking it number one.

CptDomano wrote:

Then declare The Witcher 3 GOTY anyway.

Yeah, that's not happening either.

Eleima wrote:

Thank you very much for your list, Clocky. Congratulations, you too are now a data point!

Yay! Crunch me!

Enjoyed your list, Clockwork. I like the way you describe BotW. I also played Bloodborne and not the DLC and am not sure why I haven’t since I loved the main game.

tuffalobuffalo wrote:

Well, I guess I need to check out Opus Magnum. :)

It's very much in the vein of Zachtronics' usual output, which is to say that it's some of the best puzzling you can find anywhere set against a neat backdrop. If you're not familiar with their games, they have a couple on sale right now. Infinifactory remains my personal favorite, but everything they made in the programming puzzle genre is great.

nako wrote:
tuffalobuffalo wrote:

Well, I guess I need to check out Opus Magnum. :)

It's very much in the vein of Zachtronics' usual output, which is to say that it's some of the best puzzling you can find anywhere set against a neat backdrop. If you're not familiar with their games, they have a couple on sale right now. Infinifactory remains my personal favorite, but everything they made in the programming puzzle genre is great.

Yeah, I had fun with Spacechem back in the day! I should dive down the rabbit hole.

ClockworkHouse wrote:
Eleima wrote:

Thank you very much for your list, Clocky. Congratulations, you too are now a data point!

Yay! Crunch me!

IMAGE(https://imgur.com/4Eeia.gif)

I just need to get my list posted so that I can enjoy my remaining vacation without being pressured to finish stuff. I'll be trying to finish up Prey, Cuphead, RE7 VR, and maybe a few others, but I doubt I'll finish everything. I know my list order won't change at this point.

Quick list:

Spoiler:

1. NieR: Automata
2. Wolfenstein: The New Colossus
3. SUPERHOT VR
4. Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice
5. Life is Strange: Before the Storm
6. Horizon: Zero Dawn
7. Prey
8. Gravity Rush 2
9. What Remains of Edith Finch
10. Night in the Woods

The list:

#1 NieR: Automata (PS4) – You're probably aware that I'm obsessed with this game. If you want to read all my thoughts, just head over to the NieR: Automata thread. Even though I was beyond excited when the first announcement trailer aired, I never expected this follow-up NieR game to end up being so incredibly good. It's been a joy at the end of the year to read so many glowingly positive opinions on this game.

And of course, my main thing is loving the music. I can play a bunch of the piano arrangements from the first game, so I'm clearly obsessed. After listening to Automata's soundtrack forever, I've decided at the end of the year, this is ultimately the best track:

#2 Wolfenstein: The New Colossus (PC) – This is the game I needed in 2017 when I just can't understand how insanely horrible a huge number of people are including a lot of family. This game calmly takes you by the hand and reassures you that no, you aren't crazy. There aren't grey areas when it comes to some things. In the end, it is just a video game and a video game story that isn't going to change the world or even stand the test of time. It's just a thing I really needed right now.

#3 SUPERHOT VR (PSVR) – No game has ever made me feel like such a badass. You just need to play it in order to fully understand. If a picture is worth a thousand words, a VR experience can be worth a million if done right.

#4 Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice (PC) – Turns out, this game had all the stuff I felt was missing in Breath of the Wild. I got to play as Zelda. The 3D environmental puzzles can be tricky, and unraveling the 3D environments is very satisfying. Lastly, the story is new, refreshing, and makes you think. I think they earned to go where they went. The main villain turned out to be the opposite of how David Cage does villains. (I just mostly copied what I quickly wrote in the Hellblade thread if you've checked that FYI) If you somehow combined those aspects with Breath of the Wild, that combination might have made it to #2 on my list. I'm also really heartened how they managed to limit the scope and budget of this game. I'd like to think this is the future of single player experiences. It took me roughly 8-9 hours to get through. That's a great length for a single-player game with a story.

#5 Life is Strange: Before the Storm (PC) – I just love the characters and story in this so much. Episode 2 out of the 3 was the high point, particularly the play at the end. It really just nailed it there. Glad they actually finished the game in 2017 so that I felt like putting it on my list. I'm stunned that this thing turned out. In many ways, I liked it better than the original Life is Strange.

#6 Horizon: Zero Dawn (PS4) – I was never completely in love with this game, but I enjoyed it quite a bit. The stealth and combat were relatively fun, and the story and world were quite unique.

#7 Prey (PC) – As much as I loved Alien: Isolation, it wasn't ever "fun". Prey lets you explore a cool space station like in Isolation except that you're a super powerful assassin which is a bit more fun and relaxing.

#8 Gravity Rush 2 (PS4) – I love this world! It's got a wonderful style to it. The combat kinda falls apart beyond the conceptual aspects, so you end up fighting the systems versus the enemies which can be frustrating. It's not all that difficult to power though it, though.

#9 What Remains of Edith Finch (PS4) – This game just thoughtfully compressed a couple generations of life into a short game. I dig that kinda thing and find it fascinating. It's nice to see some genuine humanity in 2017.

#10 Night in the Woods (PC) – This game might be higher on the list except that it hits a little too close to home and completely bummed me out. If it's not evident, that's very high praise.

The others that I liked this year were:

Super Mario Odyssey, Uncharted: The Lost Legacy (Probably the best Uncharted game except that I'm kind of done with that gameplay formula), Cuphead (I'm having trouble finishing this and also don't really like how the movement feels), Golf Story, RE7 PSVR, Hollow Knight (Didn't get far into it), Tacoma (PC) – This was a solid exploration game, but ultimately what I wanted out of something like this was Prey, Doki Doki Literature Club (PC) – This was a really fun surprise virtual novel., Gorogoa (Switch) was a very nice puzzle game.

Didn't work for me:

Persona 5 (TOO LONG. This Persona game needed an editor, and they needed to do something new and interesting with the battle mechanics like Tokyo Mirage Sessions did.), Splatoon 2 (not being able to play Salmon Run whenever I wanted completely soured me on it)

The ultimate mixed bag:

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (Switch) – As a lifelong Zelda fan, I had problems with this game! The story is boring, they do nothing interesting with the characters or sidequests (except a little bit with Tarrey Town), and finally, all the shrines are really, really shallow dungeons. Even the four beasts weren't particularly great dungeons. My favorite thing in Zelda games is unravelling the complexity of a dungeon. All that said, there is some extremely good stuff in this game, and I absolutely loved the world and art style.

Well, I'm having trouble writing up blurbs on these, so I'm just going to drop the list. Maybe I'll fill it in later (in a separate post).

1. Assassin's Creed Origins (PS4 + PC — 263+ hours - finished, platinum, 100%, still playing, best AC game by far)
2. Titanfall 2 (PS4 — played campaign (wow!) twice: once on easy and once on hard, loved co-op. Would have been my first PS4 platinum if not for the 2 gauntlet trophies which would have frustrated me to tears.)
3. inFAMOUS Second Son (PS4 — First game I finished on PS4, and perfect first game for PS4)
4. Forza Horizon 3 (PC — 330+ hours, probably more than I've spent in any racing game)
5. Need for Speed Rivals (PS4 — 100+ hours. Liked racer side of game more than cop side.)
6. Endless Space 2 (PC — Currently my second favorite space 4X behind Stellaris)
7. Destiny 2 (PS4 — 88 hours and done. Burned out fast on endgame stuff.)
10. Mass Effect Andromeda (PS4 + PC — 749 hours altogether. Did not finish a single Ryder. So disappointed, almost did not put it on this list, but, well, 749 hours. Most of that time is multiplayer, which I loved.)

Honorable Mention:
Far Cry Primal (PS4 — 10h. The gameplay is great, but it didn't hold my interest after a while.)
Fortnite (PS4 — 20-ish hours. I love love love the design and gameplay of the base game, and I hate hate hate Battle Royale.)

Dishonorable Mention:
Logistical (1h) (PC — Can not for the life of me fathom what anyone sees in this game, let alone all the raves. Not for me.)
Bloodborne (3h) (PS4 — I tried. I really tried. I didn't hate it.)

ClockworkHouse wrote:
TheHarpoMarxist wrote:
Eleima wrote:

BE ADVISED: The top ten keeps changing as I tally the votes, so be sure to post your list and have your voice heard! Yes, every single vote counts!!! I currently have no less than three games tied at 77 points!

The real GOTY is the friends we made along the way.

I just don't see what's so special about friends.

I hear the DLC is killer.

tuffalobuffalo wrote:
nako wrote:
tuffalobuffalo wrote:

Well, I guess I need to check out Opus Magnum. :)

It's very much in the vein of Zachtronics' usual output, which is to say that it's some of the best puzzling you can find anywhere set against a neat backdrop. If you're not familiar with their games, they have a couple on sale right now. Infinifactory remains my personal favorite, but everything they made in the programming puzzle genre is great.

Yeah, I had fun with Spacechem back in the day! I should dive down the rabbit hole.

I've played most of the Zachtonics games, and Opus Magnum is the most accessible by a long shot. Fining a solution is a solvable problem, but optimizing it in three different ways is where the true challenge lies. Personally, I'm having fun just solving the puzzle once and seeing where the story goes. Opus Magnum is the Mario Odyssey of programming puzzle games.

ClockworkHouse wrote:
oilypenguin wrote:

Hey E, if ME:A wins goty I'm calling foul and demanding a recount.

Piss on your recount. ME:A has a strong lead in the Electoral College.

You’re right. And the remarkable thing is that it’s rigged against ME:A. Everyone knows this.

oilypenguin wrote:
ClockworkHouse wrote:
oilypenguin wrote:

Hey E, if ME:A wins goty I'm calling foul and demanding a recount.

Piss on your recount. ME:A has a strong lead in the Electoral College.

You’re right. And the remarkable thing is that it’s rigged against ME:A. Everyone knows this.

Yeah, but look at this map. There's a lot more red, let me tell you.

IMAGE(http://s3.vidimg.popscreen.com/original/15/M0pXU0JiTy1FYzgx_o_mass-effect-3-destroy-ending---shepard-lives.jpg)

I admit I sometimes wonder what I would have thought about HZD if I had played any Ubisoft game since, I'm pretty sure, the first Far Cry. I just haven't built up any allergy to "the map what looks like a JIRA dashboard." Also it helps that I love skipping side quests.

ClockworkHouse wrote:
oilypenguin wrote:
ClockworkHouse wrote:
oilypenguin wrote:

Hey E, if ME:A wins goty I'm calling foul and demanding a recount.

Piss on your recount. ME:A has a strong lead in the Electoral College.

You’re right. And the remarkable thing is that it’s rigged against ME:A. Everyone knows this.

Yeah, but look at this map. There's a lot more red, let me tell you.

IMAGE(http://s3.vidimg.popscreen.com/original/15/M0pXU0JiTy1FYzgx_o_mass-effect-3-destroy-ending---shepard-lives.jpg)

That's not even the right galaxy.