1. Zelda Breath of the Wild
2. Yakuza 0
3. Super Mario Odyssey
4. Metroid Samus Returns
5. Puyo Puyo Tetris
6. Fire Emblem Shadows of Valentia
7. Steamworld Dig 2
8. PES 2018
9. Super Bomberman R
"Sometimes it's better to light a flamethrower than curse the darkness." ― Terry Pratchett
1. Zelda.
2. Blackwood Crossing. (So very close to 1)
3. Last Days of June.
4. Resi 7.
5. Mario
6. What Remains of Edith Finch
7. Hide and Seek
8. Kiss Chase
9. Off ground tig.
10. Hide the sausage.
Still to plays include Wolfenstein 2. Nier. Hellblade. Horizon Zero Dawn (hahahaha yeah, probably never gonna go back). Prey (thanks Secret Santa). Arms. Finish off Hob.
1. Zelda: BOTW. Open world perfection.
2. Xenoblade Chronicles 2. Juicy & meaty JRPG Epic.
3. Nier Automata. Jack of all trades, master of the swan song.
4. Mario Odyssey. Platformer grade crack.
5. A.R.M.S. Cagey fightman freshness.
See tempy for better words. But this is just great. Big, challenging, moody. Great use of simple mechanics and ideas into something grand. (The constraints on charms are brilliantly done.)
2 Pako 2 PC
Have been playing it in Alpha etc all year. Out in full late in the year. Super simple concept. Crazy taxi/driver with guns and power ups, with a micro machines camera angle, basically. Progression for unlocks is a little strangely balanced at the start, but it’s vintage one more turn stuff.
3 Pyre PC
Not perfect, not my usual style of game, but actually really great. Outside of Hollow Knight, which is a clear number one, the rest of my list is sorted through a judgement call around it’s aftertaste. Pako 2 was moorish. Pyre grew on me slowly and felt more than the sum of it’s parts.
The battle mechanics are really clever. The aesthetics, story and lore are really really well done. And somehow, even though I skipped through large chunks of it, and it was text heavy, I still gave some sort of shit about the characters. And the story did give you decisions to make around party members, that ended up being kinda hard.
4 Destiny 2 Bone/PC
Started at 1 by default earlier in the year, and it’s just dropped and dropped. There’s still lots I like about it. But the aftertaste is very very bitter. Won’t bore you with a further take on it.
5 Echo PC
Gets in because it’s trying something. Aftertaste is fair to middling. I suspect if I could be arsed playing with the mechanics a bit more I’d like it more, but I also suspect a lot of folks will just want to get through the game without replaying. Really liked the dialogue, for the most part. Well acted, seriously.
Hob PC
(Call it an honourable mention. If it wasn’t so patchy in performance in a few spots, and if it did just a bit more with it’s combat it might have made it much much higher. Still well worth a bash if you get it cheap.)
I enjoyed it a lot too, played a good deal of it but as soon as I'd beaten the raid the desire to play dropped off a cliff. Then they gated everything behind DLC that I didn't buy. Shortly afterwards the people I played with mostly tired of it, and the server channel went quiet. Really enjoyed the first few weeks though, don't regret my purchase at all.
Easily my most disappointing of the year. My brother is getting Edith Finch I think so I’ll cast my votes after that, not gonna get a chance to play NieR until later in the year.
Nice to see Nier and Yakuza getting the love. They’re not gonna win GotY in a year like this, with Zelda and Mario both being super popular, but they’re both fantastic nonetheless.
The only ones I've played enough of to actually form an opinion on. Not finished Zelda or Mario and had my fill of It Yakuza by about a third of the way in. Liked that third, mind.
Despite my best efforts, couldn't get into Nier. The moment to moment want good enough. I'm sure it's brilliant overall though.
Uncharted I seem to have given up on. More of the same and had plenty of that already.
Horizon: stopped after 2 hours also. After Zelda or felt rather run of the mill. Do intend to return to it someday.
Can't really think of anything else I've played...?