So here's my games of 2019, I'm not going to do the other categories but thought I'd stick these in:

Game of the Year
1. Control

Really great game all round. The overall unsettling weirdness of what's going on in the building, coupled with it just looking like a standard office space (for the most part) is excellent. The writing, in particular the documents, videos etc you find around the place, is well done and manages to mix the mundane with the weird.

The controls, graphics and sound are all top notch. The drip of powers you get mean you genuinely powerful as time goes on, wreaking havoc, destroying the place as you go.

My only criticism is the ending, which kind of fizzled out for me rather than being particularly satisfying, but it didn't detract from the rest.

2. Apex Legends

Talk about making your mark in competitive gaming. Came out of nowhere and changed everything. The ping system is phenomena, making it genuinely possible for me to play with strangers and not feel like I need to talk to succeed. Had several victories with strangers and they felt great.

Updated throughout as well with good community engagement. Can't help but feel many games will be trying to emulate this for years (fortnite already added ping).

3. The Outer Worlds

Right up my street this. Sci fi Fallout. Great writing, in particular the characters who were well fleshed out and felt genuine - with careful handling of alternative sexualities.

I think it was let down by the similarity of all the missions, where even if you had great writing during still felt a bit dull.

The inevitable sequel should be excellent.

4. Gears 5

Now, I am a Gears fan. I liked 4. This was what I was expecting and more. Graphically it's a powerhouse. Sound design is top notch.

The only issue is how much more gears you want to have. If you're not bothered by gears anymore then this isn't going to change your mind. But for me this was great. The open world-y bits were hit and miss but added enough variation for me.

5. Star Wars : Jedi Fallen Order

Now I haven't finished this yet but it's still one of my favourite games of the year.

I'm not a massive Souls lover, I just didn't get on with the game play but this changes it enough for me, coupled with the Star Wars setting to make me enjoy it that bit more. I think it's just a little bit more forgiving to take the edge off. Little rough in terms of graphics, can't say I've had performance issues but I am playing it on the one X.

Best ongoing game released before 2019 (anything that received further support, a major expansion/update etc. this year)
1. Destiny 2

I've barely played enough 2019 games to do a best of list, let alone different categories. So I'm just doing the best of 2019. 

1. Heave Ho
Barely got into this but haven't had as much fun with another game all year as the first couple of hours with this in MP. I've got an inkling that it might have a touch of the Overcookeds about it, in that I wonder how well it's simple gameplay is going to last before it gets a bit samey or stretches itself too far. But still, it's top. 

2. Mario Maker 2
Good but finding I'm forcing myself to get through it. 

3. Zelda - Link's Awakening 
Great but showing it's age and, frankly, I don't want to play old school RPGs anymore. And this is the game that let me find that out. 

4. Katana Zero 
Flawed but fun. 

5. Ape Out 
Piss. 

2019 Hall of Shame
Untitled Goose Game - Novelty crap. Fun for about 2 hours. Then making a goose honk gets boring and so does the game. 
Wilmot's Warehouse - Some bullshit. 

Best game played this year that didn’t come out this year - Aladdin (Megadrive)

Games of the Decade
Apart from the nailed on top spot, I'm not happy with this order at all. But I wasn't happy with any of the orders I've tried to put them in. I'm pretty sure though that the 10 are right for me. 

1. Mass Effect 2
The king of action RPGs. Better shooting than any of the other cover shooters around at the time. Plus a layer of amazingly fun powers to dismantle enemies with. Plus a load of different builds you can use. Plus you can order your squad about and use their powers and combine them with yours. Amazing dialogue system in a well-told story. Characters you care about. An imaginative and fully-fleshed out sci-fi universe. Events that you can influence that have reverberations throughout the rest of the game. And it's essentially the Star Trek premise, here's a ship, go explore the galaxy and be a hero. Excellent in all departments. 

2. Vanquish
Perfect. 

3. Mark of the Ninja
Also perfect. 

4. Super Mario 3D World
This edges 3D Land and I've never got deep enough into Galaxy 2 to make a fair assessment so here it is. The Mario 2 callbacks were a nice touch. Just one of those Marios to get lost in that Nintendo seem to churn out. 

5. Skyrim
Old news now and probably surpassed as a game on every level. Unwieldy and buggy with boring NPCs, I only found one build (sneak thief) that was fun for the length of time it takes to max out the skill tree.
But it still gives an unparalleled breadth and freedom. Freedom that inspired a million game devs through the rest of the decade. You get out of that first cave and it's wide open. Do what you like and the game will more or less let you and have already accounted for it. I'd never played anything like it at the time. I sunk about 200 hours into this, and I can never go back to it now. But amazing when I was in there. And caught my attention and sucked me in better than anything since. 

6. Rocket League
A simple idea perfectly executed. One of those games that is fun immediately but with an almost infinite skill ceiling. Put some people in a room together with this and they will enjoy it. 

7. The Last Guardian
The gameplay isn't up to much but the story and the setting, the way it tells it's tale, the twists and turns. All wonderful. Even something as basic as pressing right to shuffle along a ledge is elevated to be a terrifying tightrope walk as baddies turn up right when you don't need them to, the game constantly flinging you into new situations, as you and catdogbird constantly save each other, all balanced on a precipice at the top of the world, scraping heaven. An incredible experience. Such economy on the story telling as well. 

8. Hollow Knight
Better than I gave it credit for when I first played it. But I appreciate it more now, having digested it a bit. And I deal with a lot of cravings when I see it in my switch library, to go back in to that maze and find more stuff. I think I wanted to plough through a game that was more about careful and meticulous exploration. For my tastes, it's a bit too wedded to it's environmental intricacy, narrow meandering channels, and meagre upgrade paths. But when it comes alive, there's little better. 

9. Celeste
Strange to put this in during the decade that Meat Boy was released in but I just prefer it. Tough but beatable with precise platforming, in bite-sized manageable chunks and a story with something to say.

10. Beat Sneak Bandit 
The battered and bloody winner of a three-way fight I had in my head, against Cut the Rope and World of Goo, battling it out for the title of Bestest iOS game. Fun from start to finish.  

Special Mentions: 

Day of the Tentacle Remastered 
Still the daddy but not a game from the 2010s. 

Zelda: Breath of the Wild 
The shrines were mostly tedious but what an overworld. An incredible laboratory / playset to have an adventure in. Nintendo will obviously iterate on this and with one of those, they'll nail it for me and it will be the best game of all time. Not quite there for me with this one though. First thing on their list of fixes is the bloody cooking.  

Nier Automata - I'm still not completely finished with this. Despite really turning it on sometimes with some incredible sequences there's a lot of tedious JRPG stuff here that I could have done without. A real bait and switch of a game compared to the demo they put out. Which remains the greatest demo I've ever played. Best game music of the decade. 

What the fuck why no X-Com, Civs etc. - I haven't been able to get into these properly. Time sinks coinciding with parenthood. If I was still in my twenties, I suspect my list would be full of them. But they're all on my PC with their surfaces barely scratched. Maybe this decade.

I’ve been seeing a whole bunch of mass effect 2 content. I sort of wish I played that more with a mind set that didn’t try and get a perfect ending in that.

Game of the Year
1. Ace Combat 7
2. Crackdown 3
3.
4.
5.
 
Best sound Design
1. Ace Combat 7
2. Crackdown 3
3.

Best visual Design
1. Ace Combat 7
2. Crackdown 3
3.

Best writing/story
1. Ace Combat 7
2. Crackdown 3
3.

Best character
1. Ace Combat 7
2. Crackdown 3
3.

Best ongoing game released before 2019 (anything that received further support, a major expansion/update etc. this year)
1. Total War: Warhammer II
 
Best game you played this year that didn't come out this year
1. Kingdom Come: Deliverance

Worst/most disappointing game
1.
2.
3.

Game of the Decade
1. Kingdom Come: Deliverance
2. NaissanceE
3. Total War: Warhammer II
4. Inside
5. Ace Combat 7
6. Obduction
7. Neo Scavenger
8. Civilization V
9. Totally Accurate Battle Simulator
10. Portal 2

So, a quick skim through and this is who's voted and where:

Page 1
hylian_elf
Moot_Geeza

Page 2
Facewon 

Page 3
RedDave2 - really tiny text though - can you sort that out?
Djornson
Trippy

Page 4
superflyninja

Page 5
regmcfly
Dogfingers
AndCallMeCharlie

Page 6
Andy
Vela
gamerluke

Page 7
Dark Soldier

Page 8
Armitage_Shankburn

Page 9
JonB

Page 10
-

Page 11
MattyJ
monkey
GurtTractor

I've tried to count everyone who's done a list that fits the format. If I've missed you, let me know.
When it comes to counting I'll be taking the info from your post on that page, so make sure it's up to date.


I'm hoping we can still get more votes, so I'll leave it open over the weekend as well and start counting up on Monday.

Too fuckin' busy to play shit the latter half of this year. Don't have a lot of time to write stuff today either.

Game of the Year
1. Sekiro
It's the samurai fantasy game I wanted. From goes faster than Bloorborne, and far leaner. Combat is a dream, parrying is as satisfying if not more so than it is in Revengeance. Stick enough time into it and it becomes second nature, and you get to cut through wonderfully rendered folklore monsters in a hazy, dreamlike rendition of Japan on the cusp of upheaval.

2. The Outer Wilds
A beautiful cosmic puzzle box. A solar system trapped in amber, tasking you as the scientists to unpick its mysteries through hypothesis and trial. As incredibly inventive as it is evocative, and exactly as frustrating as it needs to be to give it enough friction. 

3. Resident Evil 2
A really worth remake of a game I never played, but read about obsessively as a kid. It's gorgeous, Mr. X is a great mechanic, and zombies are actually scary again.

4. DMCV
Where Sekiro goes for purity and refinement, DMCV goes for excess. By All three characters have great combat systems but Nero and Dante clearly take the crown. Nero is all about bluster and last minute manipulation of risky gauntlets, whereas Dante is about dancing your fingers across the pad like a beatmania pro, stitching together the most ludicrous combination of sword slashes, gun shots, and deliciously perfect royal guard parries.

5. Control
House of Leaves comes to life as a Sam Lake shooter with a heavy dose of SCP and a light smattering of Twin Peaks. Physics flexing combat and inspired minimalist environments come together to make something that feels as familiar as it is unique. Only issue is it doesn't last quite as long as it could.
 
Best sound Design
1. Resident Evil 2
2. Control
3. The Outer Wilds

Best visual Design
1. Control
2. Total Warhammer: Three Kingdoms
3. Sekiro

Best writing/story
1. The Outer Wilds
2. Sekiro
3. 

Best character
1. Leon Kennedy - Resi 2
2. Wolf - Sekiro
3. Goldball - What the Golf

Best ongoing game released before 2019 (anything that received further support, a major expansion/update etc. this year)
1. Slay the Spire
 
Best game you played this year that didn't come out this year
1. Total War: Warhammer II

Worst/most disappointing game
1. Gears 5 - bloated and boring
2. Sayonara Wild Hearts - lot of hype here and there, didn't click on iPhone at all
3. Apex Legends - great game, but the slow roll of weapons and maps lost my group early on

Game of the Decade
1. Total War: Warhammer II
2. Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate
3. Bloodborne
4. Slay the Spire
5. Splatoon 2
6. Thumper
7. Rainbow 6: Siege
8. Portal 2
9. FTL
10. Sekiro


Stuff I wanted to play this year - Astral Chain, FE: Three Houses, Wilmot's Warehouse, Disco Elysium.

Terrible memory too, so I doubt I remember a lot of good stuff

I am frustrated I couldn't get around to it.

Yeah I just chose 10 I like

'Kay, think I'm done.


Game of the Year 
1.  Apex Legends - 500+ hours sunk on this so far and I'd be very surprised if I don't sink another 500 this year. Apex fixed so many of the issues I had with BR in general, and a good few others I didn't realise I had 'til they pointed 'em out. The quirky cast are fantastic and their unique abilities are almost perfectly balanced with the gunplay. Speaking of which, that gunplay is sublime, as is the movement. My only real issue is that I don't much care for the current map, but that's not because it's bad or anything, it just doesn't suit my playstyle. Anyhoo, Apex is my favourite BR by far, and the most fun I've had with a new game this year. Just bring back King's Canyon for good, okay Respawn?

2.  Disco Elysium - Good enough that I bought a proper copy to play after already playing through once with a somewhat dodgy copy. Just wanna drown in this world. 

3.  A Short Hike - A brief and gently explore 'em up that is effortlessly charming and surprisingly affecting.
  
4. Ape Out - Looks amazing, sounds amazing. Played every single session sporting a huge grin. 

5.  Control - Was debating putting this on here tbh, but I'm sure the issues I was having throughout my broken-up playthrough were my issues, not the game's. When I was feeling it, damn, it felt (and looked) good. 


Best sound Design 
1.  Ape Out
 

Best visual Design 
1.  Ape Out


Best writing/story 
1.  Disco Elysium 


Best character 
1.  Your character (Disco Elysium) - Don't wanna call him by his name(s) for those still to play it, but damn this guy's mind is something else. 


Best ongoing game released before 2019
1.  Destiny 2 - The amount and quality of content Bungie released for D2 in 2019 was crazy; from the seasons and their various PvE modes, to the raids and dungeon, the annual expansion, and the wealth of new weapons, armour, and cosmetic shit that came with it all.  And then there's Zero Hour, a secret exotic quest I'd play again over most full games released last year.  Bungie may slip up now and then, but when they get it right they really get it right. 

Honourable mentions - Rainbow 6: Siege, Warframe, Don't Starve Together, Minecraft, Overwatch, Armello, Fortnite. 


Best game you played this year that didn't come out this year 
1. Stardew Valley - I'd tried to get into this a couple of times with no success, then along came co-op and three friends to play it with and yeah, I get it.  Better late than never, eh?


Worst/most disappointing game 
1.  Borderlands 3 - Most disappointing game of the year. Not gonna say the worst as I don't think it's a bad game at all, it's just not a patch on Blands 2, and not at all what I was hoping for. 


Game of the Decade 
1.  Destiny 2 - Coming back to this after the Forsaken expansion launched was one of the best gaming decisions I've made. The world building, the art direction, the music, the gunplay, the quality and quantity of content - all are of the highest tier. Here's to another 5 years.

2.  Mass Effect 2 - An epic and wondrous creation. BioWare really were master storytellers. RIP. 

3.  Overwatch - I was out, I'd all but given up on gaming in general, then Blizz go and launch this insanely fun and inventive multiplayer hero shooter and I had to come back. Whatever my opinions of various stages of the game, the fun I had and the friends I made over my thousands of hours spent in this guarantees it a place in any list.  

4.  Titanfall 2 - The only FPS campaign to rival the Bungie Halo's for me, and as good an example of inventive gameplay mechanics harmoniously blended into a stunning whole as anything out there. Oh, and that multiplayer.

5.  Portal 2 - As funny as it was creative, and a joy to play.   

6.  Hotline Miami - Y'all know. 

7.  Armello - The boardgame I wished for as a kid made reality as a videogame. So good it actually hurts. Play with friends in voice chat and with Discord DM's for next level shenanigans.  

8.  Don't Starve Together - A charming, deadly, adorable, gut wrenching survival game so finely crafted I care not a jot for any other survival game.

9.  Halo: Reach - Contrary to many on here I've never clicked with Bungie PvP, but I am all about their campaigns and general PvE content. When this came out nothing else got a look in. I played the campaign on an endless loop both solo and in co-op for months on end, and loved every minute of it. 

10. Borderlands 2 -  A genuine titan of a game with crazy replayability. That it still has such a strong and dedicated playerbase today speaks volumes.


That's that then. I still have Outer Wilds to play but I'm not gonna get through that anytime soon, and the only other game from last year I really, really, wanna play properly is Cadence of Hyrule. But hey, no Switch.

Game of the year:

1. Resident Evil 2
2. Luigi's Mansion
3. Mario Maker 2 
4. Mortal Kombat 11
5. Link's Awakening

Game of the Decade:

1. Red Dead Redemption II
2. Bioshock Infinite
3. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
4. Super Mario Galaxy 2
5. Mortal Kombat (9)
6. Firewatch
7. The Evil Within
8. Uncharted 3
9. Red Dead Redemption
10. What Remains of Edith Finch

Yeah, that's fine.

Some words on why I chose what I did:

Game of the year:

1. Resident Evil 2: A beautiful melding of the great combat of 4,5 and 6 with the pacing and puzzles of the original games. Gorgeous to look at, really very scary and so damn satisfying. My only gripe would be it's a *little* bit too hard for me, which has stopped me doing a second or third playthrough. I am positive though that it is my game of 2019.

2. Luigi's Mansion: A joyous, absolutely adorable and cute bit of work. Animation nearly on the level of Pixar, and exactly what I and my brother would talk about when we wondered over a game on our Amstrad if games would ever look as good as cartoons. This would have been attacked for being satanic back in the early 90s, so advanced are its visuals. The story is a lot of fun and there are good times around every corner. 

3. Mario Maker 2: One of the most inventive games I've ever played or seen. The only downside is that it soaks up so much time, but I sure do love it. 

4. Mortal Kombat 11: Although 10 was still good, it was a little let down from the sheer incredible joy of 9. 11 got right back on track, with some great tweaks to the fighting and a hell of a story - for a fighting game it must be said - and as always superb mythology and characters. Oh and it doesn't hurt that the violence is perfection. 

5. Link's Awakening: Obviously seems quite regressive when compared to Breath of the Wild, but a very cute and enjoyable game. 

Game of the Decade:

1. Red Dead Redemption II: I've talked about why this is so special to me a good bit here and in articles I've shared, so let me just say that I have never had a game that did so many things for me at the same time. The story is so incredibly good and for this Western fanatic, the best Western of all time. It also has acted as a form of meditation for me, when my paranoia, anxiety and depression hit. The only open world game to rival this is Breath of the Wild. Secrets and rewards in every corner of the map. Rockstar's greatest work, no doubt in my mind. 

2. Bioshock Infinite: It is very hard putting this at 2 as it quite literally stopped me from killing myself after I had my breakdown. It's a world that I always love to go back to, and I adore the story. It may have negatives to it, but I am so in love with it, I don't give any shits. When a game can mean this much to a person, I think it should be spoken of with more respect.

3. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild: Easily the best Zelda game I've played, and probably the best work that Nintendo have ever done. Like Red Dead II, the world rewards the player at every turn in their exploration. My only gripe would be that the story isn't up to the standards of Wind Waker/Link to the Past, but that hardly matters when the rest of the game is so incredibly good. 

4. Super Mario Galaxy 2: My favourite Mario game, and I've played them all. Endlessly imaginative, incredibly fun and just a big time celebration of life. Nintendo are missing a big trick in not giving this and 1 an HD remastering! 

5. Mortal Kombat (9): I got this game for my brother back in 2011 and we played so much of it. Probably not advanced enough for competitive players, but we didn't care, a super satisfying, gloriously gory bit of game. 

6. Firewatch: My favourite Walking Sim/Story driven Indie game of the last decade, no doubt. I am very jealous that I didn't write this, as it is as close to something that I would be interested in doing if I had the talent. Story is tops, beautiful to look at and a good sense of exploration even with a limited map.

7. The Evil Within: I still hold to the opinion that this is a better Horror game, beat for beat, than Resident Evil 4. Not a better game  in gameplay, but I loved the Horror stuff so much - the top tier design and concepts of the enemies, the incredible gore and general fucking terrifying atmosphere - that I didn't care. Frustrating difficulty spikes at times, but unusually for me, it didn't make me give up, so enjoyable was I finding the game. 

8. Uncharted 3: The first Uncharted game I played and I have never forgotten the joy that I got out of playing it, without any preconceptions. I think that the big set-pieces are easily as good as 2 - the burning mansion in particular being superb - and the story wraps you up pretty well. Not the best, but my favourite for how it made me feel that first time.

9. Red Dead Redemption: The game that showed that Rockstar had the capacity to make games that were sincere and not sneering and nihilistic. Though you could behave like a GTA style maniac I never wanted to, so powerful did the story work on me. Also started my love of the Western in general and I can thank this for setting the scene for my all time favourite game. 

10. What Remains of Edith Finch: I was torn between this and Gone Home, but I picked this for its more adventurous nature. Powerful, unusual and quite beautiful.

DriveClub lol

o/

SUPER HEXAGON REPRESENT