“After a VERY shaky start it’s slowly becoming the game they promised,” says benchambers. “Feels like a true war with 128 players.." “Obviously a lot of criticism for this game came out, most of it warranted, but after a few key patches, me and my friends are back having the best time in the sandbox multiplayer that is Battlefield,” says engelzman. “Driving hovercrafts up skyscrapers, clearing and taking objectives together, mowing down the enemies in helicopters together, Battlefield is simply the best game I’ve played with friends all year, and even some of its glitches are what makes it fun.” Played this one first on PS4, but it was buggy and didn’t grab my attention," says Aivoke. Then the game came to PC. “Installed, started the game and focused giving it a new chance. I was so happy that I did! Loved the story and setting. This really is a lost gem and everybody should give it a second chance.” “Such an underrated gem!” says Mkreku. “A blast from the past. I haven’t played a visual novel style game in a long…” says Cristoflanga. Maybe he’ll come back next year and say “…time”, and an excellent joke will be complete. Lets give this to PixelCloth. “It had some bugs, but I was sucked in by the atmosphere and excellent soundtrack.” “Diablo 3. Only with guns,” says Davet010. Couldn’t find any comments on this one. But maybe that was a Jedi mind trick? Gonna let Dysisa run long on this one. “Hard to even begin to describe how amazingly satisfying it was to see the conclusion to this story that’s been going for nearly 10 years now. So many callbacks and nods to all sorts of things from the past, all building to this very wonderful ending. Add onto this that they’ve somehow once again outdone themselves with the music and the dungeons. “Best way to put it I suppose would be that it made me really and truly feel like the nearly 3000 hours I’ve put into the game at this point were all entirely worth it.” “There’s been many excellent sequels to long running Japanese series this year: MonHun, NEO-TWEWY, Ace Attorney,” says Meho. “But Persona 5 getting a proper sequel is not something I ever expected. This is not a mere Musou game.” “It’s Far Cry, doing what Far Cry does. Not the best in the series, but it keeps me playing into the small hours,” says TheRelic, which is hopefully a reference to the cracking Lincoln Preston Pendergast novel. Simon893 loved it. “The best Far Cry has been for a long time. Dani was a great character and a welcome move away from the silent protagonists of recent games in the series.” “My love of video games really only began with Quake,” says MARATXXX, which is a lovely thing to read.. Rhodos: “Not exactly a stellar year was it. The only game on the list I’ve played is Quake.” Play Toem, Rhodos. It rules! “You might finish it. But I doubt it,” says Davet010. “Enjoyable romp,” says DarkBytes. You Pathfinder fans keep it brief! Lin has opinions. “A perfect survival game, a perfect crafting game, a perfect open world and a perfect story, Subnautica is an endless source of wonder, and the game we all keep saying we want.” Time to bring out Dave. “When we set a scale from 0 to -10 where 0 is 10, then Subnautica is 0 and Subnautica: Below Zero is somewhere ehm… below 0. So not as good as Subnautica. But still better than all those other games.” Dave had a PowerPoint deck too, but we couldn’t paste it in here. “One of the deepest games ever written, I could play this for the next decade without getting bored.” Testify, BellyFullOfHell! “Still playing this every night even though I kinda hate it,” adds Flippyfloop, enigmatically. These comments were actually left over from last year’s game number 40 - but what was it?! Torhal was won over: “I haven’t played the original release, however, found myself enjoying FF7R tremendously. I am curious to see where the story will take us in episode 2.” “I was blown away by the original, but at 60hz on PS5, maaan,” says Willowside9.” “Great return for the OG RTS,” says Mrsyms. “Even RTS fans have found quality arriving their way,” says Art3m15, who, with that name, is probably a protocol droid of some kind? “Despite some technical hic-ups at launch this game had respectfully honoured earlier titles in the series and brought their style of gameplay to the fore. Respectful yes, but married to an updated engine that delivers one of the finest strategy titles you can buy.” Sounds excellent! This game is properly fantastic, and RealStyli has it down perfectly: “I never played the original mod for Skyrim but I’ve always loved timeloop games, especially ones with mysteries to unravel. The Forgotten City was a delight from beginning to end and I was genuinely invested in the story and the characters.” “I will not forget,” says Bumeggs. And I will not forget we have a reader called Bumeggs. “It doesn’t do anything new but it does what it does really well,” says Paul_ynwa. “One of the better games for playing with complete strangers and suddenly finding yourself being a team. " Return of Jafar: “While initially looking just like a Left 4 Dead clone there’s a lot to like here in the deck system, adding longevity to the game as you experiment with builds and synergies with your teammates. " “Yakuza games are everything great about video games,” says Moonpatrol, and we will not top that, so let’s move on. Zipparo is on board with this. “An extraordinary opening act that could have been the whole game in my book. A remarkable mergence of ccg and story.” “This one was an equivalent of an earworm. Like that one time I heard Rocketman’s lyrics being sung by Dua Lipa this year and couldn’t get it out of my head, Inscryption continued to burrow its way into my neurons with every successive click I made. What a gem. I’d buy it again on Switch!” That’s FirLocke. (That Dua Lipa song is great too.) WHAT A GAME. Cor. Lots of votes but not many comments for this one. Just play it! mha71 was delighted. “Surprised me with its sheer brilliance - and I’ve never heard a videogame speak French to me before…” Mon dieu! “Is it even fair to have DLC as game of the year?” asks Malek86, bringing the rhetoric. “I guess it doesn’t matter when said DLC is this good. Just like the main game, the less you know about it, the better.” “Simply stunning,” says Big_Game_8369. Zephro has though: “Just continues all the excellent work of CK2, the 3d portraits actually add a remarkable amount of character to the game, though it could do with being made a bit harder. Some of the bloodlines mechanics are very gameable.” Moonpatrol is back! “Captures the feeling of isolation and anticipation that all good dungeon crawlers have, minus the corridors. Tremendously atmospheric and rewarding in equal measure.” Kakoro was equally satisfied: “Great continuation of the series, fantastic gameplay and visuals. Great way to keep turn-base system fresh and enjoyable.” “A great cast, setting and soundtrack make this one of the best entries in the Life is Strange series,” says Ryuke. “Being able to play every episode at launch was a welcome change, and the story built up alongside Alex’s personal developments very well. Yes the ending might have fallen a bit flat, but the journey there was relaxing, enjoyable, emotional, heartwarming, funny, stressful, and everything Life is Strange should be.” “Just a lovely, lovely experience,” says Doctorgonzo. I hope JayG is honest this year. “Have to be honest and say I spent 25 hours randomly pressing a button hoping that something cool would happen. Kind of like a fun version of Dragon Age 2 with decent characters to team up with. Did take 8 hours before I realised I could use a potion.” YOU CAN USE POTIONS?! Logicub was moved. (Pun not intended but duly noted after I typed it.) “Some of the finest storytelling I’ve seen in gaming, I’m still amazed at how attached I became to a character that I never even met.” “I still can’t comprehend this was made by a team of 5 guys,” says Lad_Umboros. “I hope they’re enjoying bathing in all the money they made.” IngBad has cracked it. “In hindsight, it’s annoyingly obvious how popular this would be - Vikings, PS1 style graphics, MMO base building with healthy lashings of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. OF COURSE it was going to be huge, why didn’t I think of it first!
“The perfect pandemic game, everything we could no longer do was here - Eat and drink heartily with friends, get back to nature (by hacking down every tree in sight), travel to distant lands, bash massive monsters into bits. The things Valheim does better than other MMOs are subtle (and mostly stolen from Zelda:BOTW) but it all comes together into this fantastic village building/farming/brewery running/beard growing simulator. All the best people pronounce it VAL-HEEEEM!” “Hideo Kojima is nuts, but man he makes great games!” That feels definitive, mha71. “Beautiful game,” says Robertfulton. Darren also digs it. “Despite some negativity in the build up to this game’s release, it was a real surprise for me and a game that I thoroughly enjoyed from start to finish even if nothing about the game is original or ground-breaking.” “Interesting story,” says JWT. PixelCloth again: “Having already played the first one on Wii u this was a no brainer. Little did I know just awesome Bowser’s fury would turn out to be.” It really is special! Now it’s M_P_FREE’s turn: “The only game on the list I’ve played this year. Is it the best game? Almost certainly not, but it is classic Mario with the breath of fresh air that is Bowser’s Fury.” Play Toem! You’ll really like it! Avaloner - great, now we’ll be humming Bryan Ferry all day - says: “Without a doubt the best Monster Hunter yet. Proof that gameplay trumps graphics every time. Could have done with better post launch content but I’m too busy wearing carcasses to complain.” (Another Ferry reference there?) “Loved the change to RPG for the Yakuza series,” says GTJacket79. Gintoki closes: “Love this series, it may be a new protagonist and style of combat, but it is the same beloved insane sense of humor.” RorschachCCCLX weighs in: “Like most people I share this planet with, I lack the funds and lands to own and operate personal fleet of airplanes. Lucky for me, the latest incarnation of Microsoft Flight Simulator does a pretty good job replicating what that would be like.” “Probably the most ambitious bit of software I’ve played in a long time, and not even a game really,” says Merf (and the Magic Tones). “It’s somehow quite moving as you create your own experiences and take in the whole planet.” TC perfectly sums up the brilliant atmosphere: “Where did THIS come from?” “Such a treat. Visuals, music, story and gameplay combine perfectly. On my second play through on Switch. Definitely ESSENTIAL!” GoingCommando there. And that’s still too much information, cheers. I feel almost guilty picking this because so few people will be able to play it,” says marmaduke, “but it really is everything you could want from VR. It’s immersive in a way that nothing else has been; it’s terrifying, it’s frantic, it’s beautiful. It’s even genuinely funny. Nothing else this year has been able to compete with it, and I suspect it’ll be a long time before anything does.” This is from last year’s 14 - Half-Life: Alyx. Leaving it here as a reminder that last year we got a freakin Half-Life game!! Anyway: Ghost. “I played my way through the original GoT on PS4 last year and it became one of my favourite games of the generation. I was adamant I wasn’t going to spend another £25 on a glorified PS5 upgrade as I felt I was done with the game. But after a beer or two and on a whim, I flaked and got it. I’m so glad I did!!! The visuals and the DualSense haptics alone are totally worth the money, and Iki Island is a great expansion to the story. I’m now well on my way to the Platinum and determined to get it.” That’s the Buggs verdict. 2much (2soon!) says: “Hitman 3 comes with the caveat that really this is when you include the maps from all three games, and mechanics that have merely been tweaked over the course of the trilogy, but man, what a wonderful thing that exists. A game so fun I can ignore its often frustrating always online requirement. Aside from the gameplay, the story has a sort of BBC interpol drama aesthetic that you rarely if ever see in games and I found that really refreshing.” Miss you, 2much! “A chance to play through my favorite story of all time again without fighting through endless mods to make it look good? Sign me up!” That’s Sixtoe. And here’s Commander Tiel: “Replaying these games reminded me of what stone-cold classics they were in the first place. " Tiel AGAIN: “Reminded me of the most joyful gaming moments fo my whole life.” “A genuinely charming, beautifully written, stunningly gorgeous co-op game that pretty much ANYONE can pick up and play,” says Cheeky_Caboose. “The gameplay loop feels designed to perfection, with each new setting lasting just enough time to wring every last laugh from the player before moving on before boredom sets in. The levels themselves are genuinely gobsmacking in their intricacy and detail, and you’re never doing the same puzzle twice. Plus it’s a surprisingly long game, lasting beyond the 10-15 hour mark. Hey! It’s Navi! “A genuine surprise to find a beautiful, funny, well crafted single player game like this.” Can you say anything else about Hades these days? Tosdevino can! “A real highlight in the roguelite genre with impeccable gameplay, an addictive loop and a clever use of storytelling.” “It’s Disco Elysium, but now in 60 fps on console and you can listen to the new voice of Cuno and how he still doesn’t f***ing care so what else do you need?” says Solegor. “Definitive. Complete. Unbelievable.” That’s SeveRed007. Art3m15: “A truly incredible achievement in RPGs and I’m not going to reveal anything about that achievement here since I want those of you who haven’t played this title to do exactly that.” Get to it! “A beautifully crafted, tightly edited rollercoaster ride that stays true to Resident Evil whilst making the format feel relevant all over again. Once I’d picked up the joypad I simply couldn’t stop. The game is arguably too short but it keeps you firmly within its grip for the entirety of its play time. Stunning stuff,” says Judo. “A new mainline Resi is the very definition of ’event gaming’ and I’m happy to say the continuation of the story of Ethan Winters did not disappoint. A rollicking gothic horror thrill ride from start to finish - roll on the DLC!” Karlsavage is very happy. Onwards! Douggregg gets right to it: “Really great showcase of the PS5’s capabilities and lots of fun.” Now Robbiejc85: “One thing I didn’t expect to write this year: Ratchet and Clank might teach Tim Schaefer a thing or two about how to pace and write a narrative-driven action platformer. Aside from Insominac’s peerless tech and crunchy, accessible action, it’s the heart, writing and the memorable new faces that elevate Ratchet and Clank beyond the Double Fine’s - often unfocussed - opus, for my money.” Thomasdavidowen has this one: “Even though it is told through first-person, Deathloop felt as though it was doing something new. Yes there are elements of many other games, but the unique world and storytelling helped it stand out and indeed above its contemporaries.” “I would’ve played Deathloop to death if I had gotten my hands on a PS5. Since I didn’t want to hold that against the next Arkane game, I’ve chosen it as one of my favourite yet to play games of this year.” Now that’s being a fan, Dave. And, as jonbwfc adds: “Tom Nook can do one though.” (This is from last year’s number 6 but it feels timeless.) “There’s few games that made me feel so unwelcome as Returnal, yet it plays so well that I couldn’t keep stop coming back. I also enjoyed how Housemarque transformed their trademark bullet hell gameplay into a more intimate and frightening experience. " That’s Indy, who belongs in a museum. “Housemarque are the masters of arcade gameplay and this is their masterpiece,” says Kangoo. “The controls are so perfect and precise, no game has ever played as well as this. Throw in the best sound design as well and this is something special. This will probably never get the recognition it deserves but for me, this isn’t just goty but easily top 10 of all time. “Everything that the (excellent) original did slightly not great, Psychonauts 2 fixes. This is an amazing sequel to an already fantastic game, plus you can pet a goat WITH YOUR MIND!” That’s the verdict from Ankles, who is now tied with MrFlay for my favourite username. What’s that about goats now? “A tall order to follow up a classic after such a long time but one that didn’t disappoint,” says VandalHandle, which is another strong name! “Halo is back baby!” says Superiorcale. “Master Chief, the banished, arena battles, open-world Halo, Banshees and Warthogs and brutes. What more could you ask for! Oh yeah, FTP multiplayer, grappling hooks - this game retains all the classic Halo gameplay we love and shakes it up just enough to keep it fresh.” Soylent_Teal had fun: “343 outdid themselves. Traditionally I’m not the biggest Halo fan but this is the game that won me over. The combat is excellent and the AI is challenging. Open world done right, Ubisoft take notes!” “I had held off from voting till I had played Halo. Only done about 10 hours, but this is genuinely the most fun I have had in Halo since CE. It’s taken of my fav levels in the Silent Cartographer and turned it into a game and I’m all here for it. The high values targets are great additions and require different tactics to take down.” That’s from thesnowman. Do stay away from the Xbox vents when playing, m8. “I’ve never really gelled with 2D Metroid games before,” says Sheikah. “I know, it’s almost sacrilege to say that, but something about this game clicked with me; the game felt a joy to play. If I had to put my finger on it I think the increased speed of progression, particularly by being able to counter to storm through levels, made this much more enjoyable to play through. E.M.M.I.s were also a really great addition, I thought. Is there anything more satisfying than blasting the face off one of those belligerent E.M.M.I.s?” “Distilled, taught, propulsive,” says MrZappa. “A pure shot of particularly Nintendo magic. Rogersanbr: “An intense game very well crafted. The gameplay is precise and the level of difficulty was perfect to me. The story was surprising and the art direction really cool.” Let’s let Specialgamer sum it up. “Somehow manages to be as exciting as an action movie, scary as a horror movie and intricately designed as a recent Christopher Nolan movie.” You had us up until the last bit there. “The latest and greatest iteration of a series that is never less than spectacular, fast paced fun, Forza 5 uses Mexico to great effect in creating a playground that is all too easy to lose many, many hours living out your personal petrol-head fantasies in - joyous.” That’s SomethingOriginal’s take. “Playground Games have really mastered their craft.,” declares Richyroo. McPhisto74: “The reason I decided to get back into the Xbox ecosystem and buy a series S after I sold my 360 8 years ago (the other being wanting to play the Gears series again). Everything I read and saw about FH5 made me wanna play it. The scale of the world, the graphical fidelity, the sheer sense of speed… Loved every minute of it so far. " Xentar brings us home: “We have waited longer than for previous games in the series and it was worth it. Even with online problems and some achievements unattainable, this is the best game of the year due to its fun attitude, accessibility and great game world. No other game got that many hours of my time.” Wonderful stuff! All done! Happy new year everyone! May it bring you all the very best!
