Board 8 > SHINE's Top 10 Games, Top 5 Unplayed Games and Top 5 Old Games of 2017

(+) Yeah! (+)

ninkendo posted...

The number 9 game is the one I forgot about that ended up bumping Metroid out of the top 10. What could it be?

PUBG
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Samus Returns, Breath of the Wild, and The Evil Within 2 might be the only 2017 games I played.
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TOP 10 GAMES OF THE YEAR

9. Cuphead

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LzxP5u6JUfk

As a long time veteren of Mega Man games, I knew Cuphead was going to be for me from the moment it was announced. This sidescrolling shooting platformer uses a strong 1930s animation style that I don't think anyone has ever done in a video game before and marries it with Mega Man X style controls along with Contra/Gunstar Heroes style shooting mechanics. Often times while playing it your forget its even a video game as the animation is so good you think you're just watching a cartoon. The controls feel good and you can customize your weapons and skills to adapt to each boss fight.

The game is composed of 4 worlds filled with 6 side scrolling stages and 19 boss fights. You have to complete all the boss fights to continue to the next world. I ended up playing through the whole game in an afternoon over the span of 6 hours although for many people not versed in this style of game it can take much longer as the bosses demand multiple retries and memorizing their attack patterns to survive. Bosses also have 2-3 different forms that they change into as the fights progress so you have to be able to memorize the patterns of all these forms to defeat them. You get graded on your time, how much damage you took and how well your parried in the fight so if you're like me you're always replaying fights trying to get that A rank (or S-Rank after you unlock Hard mode).

I found the whole experience very satisfying and it reminded a lot of the NES days where you would just sit down and play through a game in a day and it was challenging enough to keep you engaged the entire time. If you're a fan of 2D Mega Man or Contra games I would definitely recommend checking it out.
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Top 10
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9. Cuphead
10. Horizon: Zero Dawn

Top 5 Unplayed Games
1. Ys VIII: Lacrimosa of DANA (PS4)
2. Yakuza 0 (PS4)
3. Nioh (PS4)
4. Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus (PS4)
5. Tales of Berseria (PS4)

Top 5 Old Games
1. Windjammers (PS4)
2. Final Fantasy XII: The Zodiac Age (PS4)
3. Ys Origin (PS4)
4. The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky the 3rd (PC)
5. Ys Seven (PC)
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Hoping it's slow enough at work that I can knock out a write-up or two but flu season is crazy
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the answer was nope way too busy
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Tag

That Cuphead game looks pretty neat. Well, here's hoping for Super Mario Odyssey > Breath of the Wild. Even though my BotW play time more than triples the hours I put into Odyssey, the latter had so much goddamn heart and is my personal game of the year.
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TOP 10 GAMES OF THE YEAR

8. Sonic Mania

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iNJLX15aEn4

Much like Cuphead here's another game I played through in essentially a single afternoon. We got 2 big Sonic games this year. The less good one Sonic Forces was more of a disappointment than anything. It had all the makings to be just as good as Sonic Generations if not better and instead we got a game that felt rushed with very bad level design. Luckily the core gameplay was still enjoyable enough that I still liked it. Sonic Mania though is a completely different story! Developed by Christian Whitehead, along with Headcannon and PagodaWest Games, this game had very little from Sega themselves and was more of a fan game that had their full support and marketing.

Sonic Mania is a direct sequel to Sonic 3 & Knuckles and was designed as if 2D Sonic had continued into the Saturn era. It contains 13 zones, 8 of which are remixes of old zones (but with new twists on them) and 5 zones that are brand new. It follows the same formula of just making it through the stages and collecting the 7 chaos emeralds. There were also 32 gold medals to unlock by playing the popular Blue Sphere game from Sonic 3. These unlocked bonus modes like a debug mode, a sound test or KNUCKLES & KNUCKLES mode where you can play as 2 Knuckles.

I thought the entire game was well designed and perfectly captured what 2D Sonic is all about. Even returning stages I didn't like in past games like Oil Ocean seemed fresh enough that they were still fun to play through. Music is cheating here because with 8 returning zones there's a lot of classic remixed Sonic music here although the new themes are good too. I especially liked Studiopolosi, Press Garden and Mirage Saloon

This game answers the question of "Was Sonic ever good?" with a resounding yes. Of course the people asking those questions were probably never actual Sonic fans to begin with :|
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Awwww yeah Windjammers

that's my jam
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My friend and gaming rival sent to me his writeup for Tekken 7 so I'll post that after he sends it to me
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Oh he sent me a two-page essay I'll have to chop this up when I get home
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@Punnyz

A Case for Tekken 7

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=09FYnUOffM4

Its hard, in the context of these end of the year talks, to describe precisely why some types games are worth talking about. Some games cater to more of a niche audience and are not as widely appreciated or understood as something like a Mario or Zelda game. Fighting games definitely fall into that category, and Tekken 7 is a really good fighting game.

Tekken's first problem is that the series exists as this sort of amalgamous entity that is generally understood to be a perfectly fine fighting series if you're into that kind of thing. Like the sport of Cricket, it exists in this alternate timeline -- overshadowed by almost every other sport to all but the select few who play it.

To further complicate things, Tekken's greatest strength has historically been its greatest weakness. Its developers don't try to reinvent it with each installment. Instead they to refine the game around its edges, leaving most of the core systems intact. The result has been an increasingly dense web of mechanics that is incredibly deep and satisfying to manipulate once you've learned how they all work together. Tekken's problem has always been that there's just so many damn mechanics, sometimes built upon other mechanics, some of which were derived from decisions made a decade or more ago. The logic behind how to best approach learning and playing the game is less than obvious, and Tekken has long held a reputation for being a very difficult series. Tekken 7 also doesn't do itself any favors by offering virtually no in game tutorial tools for new players.

However what Tekken 7 does do well is implement some clever yet subtle changes to its formula that succeed in making the game more accessible to both new players and spectators alike. The new Rage System provides both a mild comeback mechanic as well as the visual pop of animated super moves. Interestingly, this mechanic doesn't include a meter or on screen counter, which is how pretty much every other fighting game handles similar moves. Instead, when your character has access to rage moves they gain a fiery red aura. This simple solution is incredibly effective in practice and seamlessly integrates this new mechanic in a way that is intuitive for Tekken veterans and newcomers to fighting games alike.

The other big change that Tekken 7 brings to the table is the inclusion of guest characters like Akuma (from Street Fighter), Geese Howard (from King of Fighters) as well as newcomer Eliza. All three of these characters control more akin to characters from a 2D fighting game, like Street Fighter. They have moves such as fireballs and dive-kicks, which while not normally seen in 3d fighters are implemented in a way that is familiar to use for anyone coming from a 2d fighting background. These characters also have higher jump arcs with more hang time, allowing jumping attacks very similar to those seen in 2d fighting games. In addition to providing roster diversity and new play-styles, these characters offer an entry point into Tekken for players who have some amount of experience with 2d fighting games. Meanwhile, the rest of of Tekken 7's cast preserves the legacy of 3d game-play that the series has been building on for decades. This is a fascinating compromise; new players are not required to learn every aspect of playing a 3d fighter in order to play the game, but that depth is still there for the players who want it.
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The rage mechanic is not the only addition to Tekken 7 designed to help make the game more spectator friendly. When both characters are low on health and simultaneously attack each other, the actual game-play switches to slow-motion providing an element of tension to the end of matches that was missing from previous entries in the series.

Namco-Bandai, much like other fighting game developers, have hedged their bets on the idea that viewers would rather watch offensive play over defensive play. Offensive oriented characters are generally now stronger than ever. Meanwhile, more defensive characters have been given aggressive new tools to allow them to compete. Tekken 7 also includes a higher volume of smaller, walled off stages to encourage close quarter combat. While I don't necessarily agree with all of these changes (I would personally like to see a wider variety of stage types), the changes are overall more additive than subtractive. Defensive approaches are still viable, it's just that characters have new options allowing them to be more aggressive. Tekken's classic sprawling un-walled stages are still in the game, there just aren't as many as there used to be.

There are other reasons Tekken 7 is just a really good game. For one, tts one of the most balanced competitive fighting games ever made. Every single one of Tekken 7's dozens of characters are viable from the beginner level all the way up to the highest level of competitive play. This degree of balance is practically unheard of in a fighting game.

Good netcode in a fighting game should be the industry norm, but it sadly somehow isn't. Therefore, it's also worth noting that the netcode for online play is more than serviceable. I've only experienced noticeable lag in one out of every hundred or so online matches playing on the PC version, although I have heard that the PS4 version is not quite as solid in terms of online stability.

The game also just looks and feels really good. It runs at a solid 60FPS and is visually impressive for a current generation game. On an original PS4, there is good amount of noticeable aliasing, but even then the game maintains a high budget look and feel. Perhaps more importantly, Namco-Bandai has leveraged their decades of experience at animating 3d fighting game characters. Movement in general looks fluid and organic. Hits look solid and feel impactful, especially with the way the game slows down and zooms in in certain instances. This stuff matters in a fighting game. The genre has recently suffered from lower budgets, reused assets, and questionably simple animations. Thus Tekken 7 nailing its visual elements, even with some warts in the console versions, is a commendable thing.
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Namco-Bandai has also made it clear that they are listening to their fans. When casual players bemoaned a lack of single player content, the development team added Tekken's classic bowling mode. The developers similarly addressed competitive players concerns about input lag on the PS4 tournament standard version. These might seem like basic quality of life improvements, but you don't need to look far to find developers who just don't do this sort of thing.

Tekken 7, like it's predecessors, more or less leaves the core game-play of the series intact, preferring to offer minor tweaks around the game's edges. In this instance, however, Tekken 7's tweaks to the classic formula are thoughtful enough to be substantial, while offering some compelling solutions to some of the series' longest standing problems. These solutions may not be perfect at their core, but Tekken 7 manages to do what every other fighting series has been trying to do for years make itself easier for new players to get into, make itself more friendly to spectators and stream views, and preserve the depth that made its dedicated fan base fall in love with it in the first place. Competitive games are always changing and evolving, and Tekken 7 is a really solid evolutionary step for the series.

Fighting games in 2017 have to walk the impossible tightrope of being more accessible to new players while still maintaining enough depth to attract competitive high level players. While not perfect, Tekken 7 manages to walk that tightrope and simultaneously deliver a really good fighting game that players of all skill levels can enjoy. This is an achievement that shouldn't be understated. I don't know where a game like Tekken 7 fits in terms of the variousgame of the year categories and lists that go around this time of the year. It should, however, at least be in the conversation when we talk about video game developers most meaningful accomplishments this year.
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Cool write-up by your friend, even though I never played a Tekken game. Pretty sure I wouldn't be able to stop myself from writing essay-length write-ups if I were making a topic like this either.

Though I would have at least spelled the very first word right!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SP_9zH9Q44o
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I was going to proof read it but I didn't
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TOP 10 GAMES OF THE YEAR

7. Resident Evil VII: biohazard

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6XJ5j0kq5og

Man what a way to kick off 2017.

After RE6 seemingly killed the franchise (although I still enjoyed it playing co-op) I was surprised to see RE7 not only announced, but that it was also in first person. I had my fears going in, but they were quickly relieved when I discovered they had gone back to the formula of RE1-3 of exploring a large house and the surrounding area and solving puzzles while combating the monsters you come across and that it worked perfectly in first person. This game is scary as hell and lives up to the legendary name of this series.

Set after the events of RE6, things start fresh with new protagonist and a new setting. You barely would even know it's part of the same franchise, but as the game progresses you quickly realize it is part of the same canon and the world of Resident Evil is definitely happening around you and eventually comes and pays you a visit.

The graphics are great and the sound design nails it at setting the creepy mood. The close attention to detail makes for some truly gruesome death scenes. I think this game had the most unique deaths since RE4? If you have the chance I would recommend checking the game in VR. I felt this was the first real game that made me a believer that you can have full AAA games in that format and have it be an amazing experience. I could feel the fear in my stomach when playing in VR and I would break out into a cold sweat when playing. I truly feel this game is VR's Mario 64.

It also introduced Jack Baker (seen in the video above of the garage boss fight) who is easily my favoriite new character of 2017. For the first third of the game he's a Nemesis type figure that follows you around the house and you face him in multiple boss fights throughout the story. His dialogue hilarious and he's an intimidating figure with his ability to regenerate his body after you thought you had killed him. Shame he's only limited to this game though.

We did get more Jack in the DLC though! For the most part the DLC was hit and miss, usually the one's that added to the story I found more interesting than the ones that were just minigames. It was also annoying because in past RE games all these extra modes would have just been unlockables, but now we have to pay extra for them.

Overall though RE7 was a blast and I felt was a nice return to survival horror after it had lost its way in RE5 and RE6 going more into the action route. Seems like this game was successful so I'm hoping we get more first person games in the series. They seem to do them in sets of 3's so maybe RE8 and RE9 will be right around the corner in the same style. Here's to hoping!
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Top 10
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7. Resident Evil VII: biohazard
8. Sonic Mania
9. Cuphead
10. Horizon: Zero Dawn

Top 5 Unplayed Games
1. Ys VIII: Lacrimosa of DANA (PS4)
2. Yakuza 0 (PS4)
3. Nioh (PS4)
4. Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus (PS4)
5. Tales of Berseria (PS4)

Top 5 Old Games
1. Windjammers (PS4)
2. Final Fantasy XII: The Zodiac Age (PS4)
3. Ys Origin (PS4)
4. The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky the 3rd (PC)
5. Ys Seven (PC)
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3 is Nier
2 is BotW
1 is Mario
Let's do this
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I wonder!
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TOP 10 GAMES OF THE YEAR

6. Xenoblade Chronicles 2

https://youtu.be/OSoLypBhJ4E?t=1h29m35s

The only game on this list I haven't finished yet so it could get higher or lower by the time I finish it, but I played through the first 3 chapters so far so I have pretty much the full battle system unlocked so I have a decent idea of what to expect to hear on out. This game came out in the beginning of December, but I was really busy this month and also dealing with strained eye muscles early in the month so my playtime was limited :(

The first Xenoblade was a revelation for me. Using Final Fantasy XII as a prototype, that game took the best parts of JRPGs (story/music/characters) and combined it with the open world gameplay, quest structure and combat of WRPGs to achieve what was basically my ideal RPG. It was easily the most fun I had playing an RPG since the days of Earthbound, Final Fantasy VI and Chrono Trigger on SNES. I cared about the characters and what happened to them in the story (which is rare for me in a video game story), the music was brilliant and was used perfectly in story cutscenes, the world designed motivated me to check every look nook and cranny to uncover its secrets and provided a battle system that had systems on top of systems on top of system to keep you engaged during the fight. I ended up playing that game for a good 144 hours doing everything it had to offer from sidequests to post-game superbosses

Xenoblade 2 continues this trend this time going for a more straight up anime art style instead of barely passing passing for a PS2 game. There's still massive areas to explore with tons of secrets in them and filled with monsters much stronger with you to keep you coming back when your characters are strong enough (like a level 90 dinosaur just walking around in the first area like it's nobody's business). There's still super anime cutscenes with musical scores to match (check the video I provided for the end of chapter 2 boss fight and the cutscene after to see what I mean) and there's even more systems to add to the combat that were already introduced in the first game.

The only real downer with game is that it features a gacha type system of drawing rare blades which are the basis of all the skills you can use in the game both in and out of battle. You pull them at random and they have 1-5 star ratings. As far as I can tell the 5 star ones are really the only ones you want in your party while the rest collect dust until you unlock the ability to send them on mercenary missions to level up their skills. I would have preferred if all rare blades are just findable in game via the story and sidequests, but at least it seems like you can still progress even if you have lesser blades. One of the rare blades is KOS-MOS though from the Xenosaga games which is rad. Seems like people have trouble obtaining her though so I assume she's very rare to pull randomly. The scottish/welsh voice acting is also spotty at times (moreso than the first game) but they offer the japanese voice track as a free download so I would recommend going with that if you can't take the english voices for a little while.

Planning on playing this game pretty much exclusively the last week of the year so hoping it has a lot more surprises in store for me.
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Top 10
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6. Xenoblade Chronicles 2 (Switch)
7. Resident Evil VII: biohazard (PS4)
8. Sonic Mania (PS4)
9. Cuphead (PC)
10. Horizon: Zero Dawn (PS4)

Top 5 Unplayed Games
1. Ys VIII: Lacrimosa of DANA (PS4)
2. Yakuza 0 (PS4)
3. Nioh (PS4)
4. Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus (PS4)
5. Tales of Berseria (PS4)

Top 5 Old Games
1. Windjammers (PS4)
2. Final Fantasy XII: The Zodiac Age (PS4)
3. Ys Origin (PS4)
4. The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky the 3rd (PC)
5. Ys Seven (PC)
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TOP 10 GAMES OF THE YEAR

5. Persona 5

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g3JkO-82YQ8

2017 saw a huge resurgence in japanese video games and leading the RPG front was Persona 5. Atlus' stylish spinoff of the Shin Megami Tensei series finally found mainstream appeal in the West with Persona 4 so the hype and expectations around 5 were massive. I think a lot of people ended up disappointed because it wasn't more Persona 4, it tried to do its own thing and the quicker people accepted that the quicker it was easy to like it.

The game actually starts about 3/4th through the story with one of your heists to change a person's hearts had gone wrong. You spend most of the game in an interrogation room answering questions on what happened the past 6 or so months leading up to that point and playing through those segments. After going through all that and reaching the present the plot twists start to hit you fast and hard all the way to the end including some of my favorite plot twists in the franchise. The game builds an intriguing cast and world, and manages to dangle just enough carrots in front of you to keep you guessing for what comes next, while giving you enough hints to keep you trying to guess the upcoming plot twists.

The game mainly has you doing the same things you did in Persona 3 and Persona 4. You have to balance having a social life and going to school during the day (which improves your stats and abilities) and going into dungeons at night to fight demons and level up and fusing new persona so that you can all prepare yourself to take on the boss before the month is over. There were a lot of quality of life improvements this time around like fast travel checkpoints in dungeons and more control over abilities when you fuse your persona.

Where Persona 5 truly excels is its bold and rebellious style that permeates every facet of the game. The menus, the music, the battle system you can't escape it. Persona 5 knows exactly what it wants to be and reminds you of it at all times. Lyn Inaizumi's vocals and the accompanying acid jazz soundtrack are match the game perfectly and I continue to listen to a lot of those songs long after finishing the game. The battle system is smooth and brings back the One More mechanic where you exploit enemy weakness to earn extra attacks to keep a combo going on an enemy to defeat them quickly without taking damage yourself. The new Baton Pass adds to the system by allowing a character to pass on their turn to another available character of choice, so that they can continue their streak with a small boost. Its simple, but it allows for so much more clever-feeling freedom in combat.

Persona oozes its main theme, rebellion. Its rare that every part of a single game feels geared towards a single word, but Persona 5 manages it while still being too cool to break a sweat.
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TOP 10 GAMES OF THE YEAR


4. NieR: Automata

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t0-ZpG48aaA

THIS. CANNOT. CONTINUE. THIS. CANNOT. CONTINUE. THIS. CANNOT. CONTINUE. THIS. CANNOT. CONTINUE. THIS. CANNOT. CONTINUE. THIS. CANNOT. CONTINUE. THIS. CANNOT. CONTINUE. THIS. CANNOT. CONTINUE. THIS. CANNOT. CONTINUE. THIS. CANNOT. CONTINUE. THIS. CANNOT. CONTINUE. THIS. CANNOT. CONTINUE. THIS. CANNOT. CONTINUE. THIS. CANNOT. CONTINUE. THIS. CANNOT. CONTINUE. THIS. CANNOT. CONTINUE. THIS. CANNOT. CONTINUE. THIS. CANNOT. CONTINUE. THIS. CANNOT. CONTINUE. THIS. CANNOT. CONTINUE. THIS. CANNOT. CONTINUE. THIS. CANNOT. CONTINUE. THIS. CANNOT. CONTINUE. THIS. CANNOT. CONTINUE. THIS. CANNOT. CONTINUE. THIS. CANNOT. CONTINUE. THIS. CANNOT. CONTINUE. THIS. CANNOT. CONTINUE. THIS. CANNOT. CONTINUE. THIS. CANNOT. CONTINUE. THIS. CANNOT. CONTINUE. THIS. CANNOT. CONTINUE. THIS. CANNOT. CONTINUE. THIS. CANNOT. CONTINUE. THIS. CANNOT. CONTINUE. THIS. CANNOT. CONTINUE. THIS. CANNOT. CONTINUE. THIS. CANNOT. CONTINUE. THIS. CANNOT. CONTINUE. THIS. CANNOT. CONTINUE. THIS. CANNOT. CONTINUE. THIS. CANNOT. CONTINUE. THIS. CANNOT. CONTINUE. THIS. CANNOT. CONTINUE. THIS. CANNOT. CONTINUE. THIS. CANNOT. CONTINUE. THIS. CANNOT. CONTINUE. THIS. CANNOT. CONTINUE. THIS. CANNOT. CONTINUE. THIS. CANNOT. CONTINUE. THIS. CANNOT. CONTINUE. THIS. CANNOT. CONTINUE. THIS. CANNOT. CONTINUE. THIS. CANNOT. CONTINUE. THIS. CANNOT. CONTINUE. THIS. CANNOT. CONTINUE. THIS. CANNOT. CONTINUE. THIS. CANNOT. CONTINUE. THIS. CANNOT. CONTINUE. THIS. CANNOT. CONTINUE. THIS. CANNOT. CONTINUE. THIS. CANNOT. CONTINUE. THIS. CANNOT. CONTINUE. THIS. CANNOT. CONTINUE. THIS. CANNOT. CONTINUE. THIS. CANNOT. CONTINUE. THIS. CANNOT. CONTINUE. THIS. CANNOT. CONTINUE. THIS. CANNOT. CONTINUE. THIS. CANNOT. CONTINUE. THIS. CANNOT. CONTINUE. THIS. CANNOT. CONTINUE. THIS. CANNOT. CONTINUE. THIS. CANNOT. CONTINUE. THIS. CANNOT. CONTINUE. THIS. CANNOT. CONTINUE. THIS. CANNOT. CONTINUE. THIS. CANNOT. CONTINUE. THIS. CANNOT. CONTINUE. THIS. CANNOT. CONTINUE. THIS. CANNOT. CONTINUE. THIS. CANNOT. CONTINUE. THIS. CANNOT. CONTINUE. THIS. CANNOT. CONTINUE. THIS. CANNOT. CONTINUE. THIS. CANNOT. CONTINUE. THIS. CANNOT. CONTINUE. THIS. CANNOT. CONTINUE. THIS. CANNOT. CONTINUE. THIS. CANNOT. CONTINUE. THIS. CANNOT. CONTINUE. THIS. CANNOT. CONTINUE. THIS. CANNOT. CONTINUE. THIS. CANNOT. CONTINUE. THIS. CANNOT. CONTINUE. THIS. CANNOT. CONTINUE. THIS. CANNOT. CONTINUE. THIS. CANNOT. CONTINUE. THIS. CANNOT. CONTINUE. THIS. CANNOT. CONTINUE. THIS. CANNOT. CONTINUE. THIS. CANNOT. CONTINUE. THIS. CANNOT. CONTINUE. THIS. CANNOT. CONTINUE. THIS. CANNOT. CONTINUE. THIS. CANNOT. CONTINUE. THIS. CANNOT. CONTINUE. THIS. CANNOT. CONTINUE. THIS. CANNOT. CONTINUE. THIS. CANNOT. CONTINUE. THIS. CANNOT. CONTINUE. THIS. CANNOT. CONTINUE. THIS. CANNOT. CONTINUE. THIS. CANNOT. CONTINUE. THIS. CANNOT. CONTINUE. THIS. CANNOT. CONTINUE. THIS. CANNOT. CONTINUE. THIS. CANNOT. CONTINUE. THIS. CANNOT. CONTINUE. THIS. CANNOT. CONTINUE. THIS. CANNOT. CONTINUE. THIS. CANNOT. CONTINUE. THIS. CANNOT. CONTINUE. THIS. CANNOT. CONTINUE. THIS. CANNOT. CONTINUE. THIS. CANNOT. CONTINUE. THIS. CANNOT. CONTINUE. THIS. CANNOT. CONTINUE. THIS. CANNOT. CONTINUE. THIS. CANNOT. CONTINUE. THIS. CANNOT. CONTINUE. THIS. CANNOT. CONTINUE. THIS. CANNOT. CONTINUE. THIS. CANNOT. CONTINUE. THIS. CANNOT. CONTINUE. THIS. CANNOT. CONTINUE. THIS. CANNOT. CONTINUE. THIS. CANNOT. CONTINUE. THIS. CANNOT. CONTINUE. THIS. CANNOT. CONTINUE. THIS. CANNOT. CONTINUE. THIS. CANNOT. CONTINUE. THIS. CANNOT. CONTINUE. THIS. CANNOT. CONTINUE. THIS. CANNOT. CONTINUE. THIS. CANNOT. CONTINUE. THIS. CANNOT. CONTINUE. THIS. CANNOT. CONTINUE. THIS. CANNOT. CONTINUE. THIS. CANNOT. CONTINUE. THIS. CANNOT. CONTINUE. THIS. CANNOT. CONTINUE. THIS. CANNOT. CONTINUE. THIS. CANNOT. CONTINUE. THIS. CANNOT. CONTINUE. THIS. CANNOT. CONTINUE. THIS. CANNOT. CONTINUE. THIS. CANNOT. CONTINUE. THIS. CANNOT. CONTINUE. THIS. CANNOT. CONTINUE. THIS. CANNOT. CONTINUE. THIS. CANNOT. CONTINUE. THIS. CANNOT. CONTINUE. THIS. CANNOT. CONTINUE.
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bad list
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The Mana Sword posted...

bad list

For The Glory of Mankind
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Top 10
1.
2.
3.
4. NieR: Automata (PS4)
5. Persona 5 (PS4)
6. Xenoblade Chronicles 2 (Switch)
7. Resident Evil VII: biohazard (PS4)
8. Sonic Mania (PS4)
9. Cuphead (PC)
10. Horizon: Zero Dawn (PS4)

Top 5 Unplayed Games
1. Ys VIII: Lacrimosa of DANA (PS4)
2. Yakuza 0 (PS4)
3. Nioh (PS4)
4. Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus (PS4)
5. Tales of Berseria (PS4)

Top 5 Old Games
1. Windjammers (PS4)
2. Final Fantasy XII: The Zodiac Age (PS4)
3. Ys Origin (PS4)
4. The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky the 3rd (PC)
5. Ys Seven (PC)
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OK Pun enough time has passed give the real writeup
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Nanis23 posted...

3 is Nier
2 is BotW
1 is Mario
Let's do this

So Nier is 4
What the hell is 3
What am I forgetting
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PUBG obv
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Or a surprise Mario Rabbids
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Nanis23 posted...

OK Pun enough time has passed give the real writeup

I'm not @Punnyz

also I don't want to spoil a single thing on Automata so people just need to play it themselves if they haven't yet

The only thing I'll say it's the only game of this year to force my eyes to tear up slightly
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huh what?
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ninkendo posted...

I'm not @Punnyz

I have a slight mental problem forgive me
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Good list so far.
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Fantastic discussion on Tekken. I like how you framed everything about that game - noticing its positives but still giving a good reason on why its hard to place it relative to all the other games you enjoyed this year.

Hard disagree on some of your complaints about Horizon, but I really loved that game and I probably am seeing it through rose-tinted glasses for the time being. Who knows.
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I should probably do #3 sometime today
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3. Metroid
2. Zelda
1. Mario

Yup
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TOP 10 GAMES OF THE YEAR

3. PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7SYaXmAp1uQ

My most played game of 2017 and probably the most fun I've had with a multiplayer shooter ever. To begin with I'm not even that big on multiplayer games, I usually try out a multiplayer mode in a game and only play it for a day or maybe a weekend before I never play it again. The exception to this is fighting games as I have a large network of fighting game friends to play against and sometimes I feel motivated enough to get good at those. The last non-fighting multiplayer mode to hook me was Red Dead Redemption thanks to it still maintaining its open world gameplay and forming gangs with your friends. That kinda sounds like PUBG now that I think about it!

The biggest hook for me with PUBG is the one and done nature of it. In past multiplayer shooters I would always seek the survival modes where you only had 1 life and when you killed a man they were done for the rest of that round without respawning. PUBG takes this to the extreme by dumping 100 people onto a large open world map (think GTA 5 sized) and everyone only has 1 life then they're dead for good and out of the match. You have to collect all your weapons, armor, ammo and attachments on the map yourself and they're randomized each time which results in no 2 games ever being the same experience. You will die and die and die over and over again until you begin to get a feel for the map and how each weapon handles until you're finally able to not only kill a man, but one day claim a chicken dinner to call your own.

The beauty of this game though is there's no one way to play. I usually play better when I'm going solo because I can slowly stalk my opponents or hide and let them come to me at the start of matches, then once I'm sure the area I'm in is cleared out I can either ride the circle as it closes or go straight to the middle and once again let everyone come to me. One time I hid in a bush for like 20 minutes waiting for people to walk by and every minute was tense and enjoyable. My first actual chicken dinner was actually an accidental 0 kill pacifist game as the circle closed in on a house that I was in the 2nd floor of and the 2 remaining people died outside the circle trying to get to me in the house.

Conversely when I play with my friends while I do worse, it's a lot more fun because we get to plan and strategize as a team and execute those plans. They tend to be a lot more run and gun though moving to multiple locations and the pace of play is usually just too fast for me, but they're good at the game that it makes playing with them fun. Even when things go wrong it usually can lead to a lot of ridiculous situations involving flipped vehicles and explosions that provide a good laugh.
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PUBG is a game where all the small details matters. Where should I parachute to on the map? Are there other players following us? What guns do I currently have? How many bullets do you have left? What's shape is your armor or helmet in? Do you even have armor or a helmet? Should I go around this hill or go straight over it? Should I push forward where I know where there's other players or do I have a scope and can try to snipe them from afar without revealing my position? Was this door opened by someone else? Was this car driven by someone else? Its a game that forces you to think critically about each and every situation and come up with the best plan for survival. Its a game of decisions, both big and small, that result in a unique story for each and every match.

I could talk about the games technical issues, but for most of the year it was a game in early access that was constantly improving with every update and continues to improve now even after its 1.0 release. I've been able to look past a lot of server hiccups and graphical glitches because I was having so much fun with the game in spite of them and I knew over time they would improve anyway. If there was any game that could be describe the game as being greater than the sum of its parts it's this one.

To date I've put about 210 hours into this game and I'm sure it will continue to rise as I try to play it 1-2 nights a week. Achieving a chicken dinner is one of the most powerful moments in gaming this year and it continues to feel powerful with each subsequent one. At the end of the day I love PUBG because everything your accomplish in this game is yours. There's no handholding, there's no tutorials, you're dumped in this world and just have to learn to survive. Every kill is yours, every dinner is yours and I wouldn't have it any other way.
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ninkendo posted...

There's no handholding, there's no tutorials, you're dumped in this world and just have to learn to survive. Every kill is yours, every dinner is yours and I wouldn't have it any other way.

Yep
That is a great overlooked aspect
So many people trash the game and I don't know why.
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ps4 version when
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also context for the above video my 2 friends were driving to gas station before the bridge and I was driving in a car behind them. I decided to towards the bridge and my one friend accidentally parked the bike with the side car hitting the gas station.

The game flipped out and made the bike explode and killed them both and one friend immediately rage quit because of it.
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Stupid question:

Has there ever been any attempt at lore for the game? <_<

I like to imagine it like Calypso from Twisted Metal has people actually killing each other for a dinner
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I don't believe there is

I haven't bothered to look but I bet there's PUBG fanfiction
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TOP 10 GAMES OF THE YEAR

2. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=myFuzzCIROk

What a 1-2 punch from Nintendo this year starting with the launch of the Switch and Breath of the Wild. Going into this game I actually had very little hype for it because I was unsure if Nintendo could pull off an open world Zelda game. Thankfully my fears were quickly put to rest as I got a spiritual successor to what Zelda 1 was trying to and a game that redefines what it means to be an open world game.

My favorite thing to do in an open world game is explore and provides this to me in spades. You start out on tutorial plateau that's already as big as the maps of some older 3D Zelda games, but once you finish that and are allowed to leave you have access to a world 100x that size and are given the freedom to do whatever you want. Want to ignore it all and go straight for Ganon in the center of the map? Go ahead and do it! Want to follow the story content and follow waypoints to each of the 4 main cities and dungeons go ahead and do that too! Or do I would did and spend over 100 hours checking out every little nook and cranny of the map activating as many of the 120 shrines and finding as many of the 1000 korok seeds as I could before even touching any of the story content.

The world is so large already just in square miles alone, but the size is pretty much doubled since you can climb on everything. The verticality of this map is immense and uses the rule of triangles to provide unique formations to the land to propel you to always want to continue exploring to see if anything is over that hill or under that rock and the amazing thing was there usually was. You're constantly rewarded for your exploration and that's why I could just not quit.

The story was also fresh for a Zelda game. Every game up to this point was a reincarnated Link and Zelda showing up to take down Ganon whenever he appeared. This time, many thousands of years after past Zelda games, this generation of Link and Zelda were total failures and ended up losing to Ganon (who is now just a malevolent cloud of evil) allowing him to take over Hyrule and shape it into a dark land filled with monsters and robots. Zelda puts a seal around Hyrule Castle to try to contain him and holds it for an entire century while Link (who had been killed) was put in a resurrection chamber to heal up so that he could take another stab at it a century later. A redemption story that matches Nintendo's own redemption story after the failure that was the Wii U.
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This is by far the most challenging Zelda game since the very first. The game will no doubt draw comparisons to games like Dark Souls, where death could be lurking around every corner. Though the comparison may be unfair, death is something youll come to expect. I cant count the number of times I died at the hands of a middling enemy where a single swipe from a sword or stab from a spear whittled my heart store down to zero. As with Souls games though, its tough but fair, and every death was always my fault. However the game immediately takes you back to within a minute of when you died so you're encouraged to experiment and not fear death.

Other aspects that I thought would grow tiresome, like the degrading, breakable weapons werent as tedious as Id feared. Most RPGs have you finding better weapons as you progress, forgetting about or selling the ones that hours ago were your very favourite. Here, all but the most durable weapons shatter after a few encounters, forcing me to regularly switch. Basic weapons are so numerous that it became second nature to use weaker ones to clobber the stuffing out of regular enemies, using the stronger ones for more fearsome enemies. The combat lets you be creative, too and sometimes a stealthy, well placed arrow is a better tactic than going in hog wild.

It all just comes together with such finesse, such grace and aptitude that it wouldnt be crazy to call Breath of the Wild one of the best games thats ever been made. It effortlessly slips from set-piece to sandbox and back again, evoking and instilling wonder like nothing before it. It feels like the perfect culmination of decades of open world game design. It manages to feel nothing like a Zelda while at the same time still undoubtedly being one.

Is it perfect? No. Nothing is. There are a few frame rate issues at points (although much of that has been patched) and some of the voice overs can also be a tad overwrought (especially Zelda herself) but theyre all minor issues that hardly detract from an exemplary gaming experience. By the end of my journey I spent 155 hours in this new Hyrule and still plan to return for whenever I can find time for the DLC that had released a few weeks ago.
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also yes by process of elimination that means Mario is #1. I have to go to work now so no time to do the write up but figured I would at least get the Zelda one out this morning
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are you sure bubsy isnt #1
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Top 10
1. Super Mario Odyssey (Switch)
2. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (Switch)
3. PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds (PC)
4. NieR: Automata (PS4)
5. Persona 5 (PS4)
6. Xenoblade Chronicles 2 (Switch)
7. Resident Evil VII: biohazard (PS4)
8. Sonic Mania (PS4)
9. Cuphead (PC)
10. Horizon: Zero Dawn (PS4)

Top 5 Unplayed Games
1. Ys VIII: Lacrimosa of DANA (PS4)
2. Yakuza 0 (PS4)
3. Nioh (PS4)
4. Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus (PS4)
5. Tales of Berseria (PS4)

Top 5 Old Games
1. Windjammers (PS4)
2. Final Fantasy XII: The Zodiac Age (PS4)
3. Ys Origin (PS4)
4. The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky the 3rd (PC)
5. Ys Seven (PC)
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