GOTY 2020

[Chedney Honks]

My favourite game of the year was Final Fantasy 7 Remake, not least because it caused a lot of people to reassess whether it was a good idea to construct their entire adult sense of self around nostalgia. I really enjoyed how the game subverted not only what was expected, but what people actively wanted from it. If it were a simple mean-spirited gotcha, defiling its legacy to mock the rabid fanbase, I would be unimpressed. Instead, it was elevated by its own enormous self-regard and affection for the past, but it used these as a springboard to create something unseen, unpredictable and ultimately something new. Nobody knows what the future of FF7 will now bring, and for a lifelong fan, that's really exciting.

Mechanically, it was somewhat misunderstood but it did a poor job of teaching you how to explore and enjoy its rich combat. Structurally, it was laboriously uneven at times, even disregarding the side quest dumps. While the original game effectively corralled you from one set piece to another, the Remake extended these longueurs with even more corridor action and some ghastly fetch quests. Where the PS1 game was a masterpiece of microcosmic suggestion, using snapshots to evoke a much grander whole, the Remake sometimes faltered in its hyper-literal presentation of a world only previously imagined.

And yet, in the many moments where this ambition was realised, when the past and present converged most symbiotically, it was so uniquely joyous that no other game this year could compare. Similar to Mario Odyssey's spectacular New Donk City finale, it's the weight of a life's experience and love for videogames, and the endless anticipation of what this Remake would bring which makes it resonate even more deeply. It is a game for the original fans. It's a game about the original fans. It's a remake about how it's even possible to remake something you hold so dear. A sprawling, spectacular, rough-edged, stuttering, heartfelt mess. GOTY, easy.

[Bazooka]

The Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time

[Kelvin]

Tough call, tbh, because several of the games I've enjoyed the most, I've also played the most and since burnt out on. Mario 35 and Animal Crossing being the obvious ones that spring to mind. Without checking my Switch for what else I've played, my instinct is to say Animal Crossing, since for the first few months, and especially due to Covid, that game really felt like a moment in time, bringing people together with something so positive and creative. Eight months down the road, though, and after 100's of hours playing it, it does increasingly feel a bit monotonous when I check in - and that's inevitably soured me on the game a bit.

TBH, if it didn't have to be the best game of 2020, I might say Fire Emblem: Three Houses on Switch, as I finally got round to playing that this year, and loved it.       

[Urinal Cake]

FFVII REmake
There was a lot of trepidation about the battle system but really it's one of the best things about the game. I think the story and character building were good. But the world building felt constrained. I feel Chapter II is going to be epic.

But if we're counting New Editions/DLC/Expansions etc. Persona 5: Royal just a really perfect turn-based rpg.

[Lemming]

Has to be Desperados 3. Great way to bring the Commandos/Desperados style of game into the modern day. Railroads the player a little too much in some parts but otherwise it's fantastic. Fun characters, consistently good and occasionally ingenius level design.

Wasteland 3 and Baldur's Gate 3 are runners-up, but Baldur's Gate 3 is an early access nightmare that's not even close to being a complete product yet - though what is there is great - and Wasteland 3 was just a little bit too light on content, which hopefully will be addressed with DLC and what-have-you.

Also enjoyed Crash Bandicoot 4 for the 15 minutes I got to play it during a LOCKDOWN-COMPLIANT trip to my friend's house.

[Timothy]

I think of all the games I played this year I enjoyed Desperados 3 the most. A triumphant return of one of my favorite series. Almost like playing an RTS Hitman.
Great soundtrack and voice-acting as well.

Although it's still early: Cyberpunk hasn't been released yet and I still have to play the new Yakuza. Might take the number one spot.

Edit: Didn't expect anyone else to mention Desperados as their GOTY, not to mention that you posted exactly the same time as me!
Wasteland 3 was great as well but a bit too buggy and laggy on my Xbox One S (a lot of hard crashes) to be considered my GOTY. But really enjoyed it nonetheless.

[Chedney Honks]

Desperados 3 tearing into the lead so far.

[ImmaculateClump]

Yay! Honky Tonks back! :D

Mechanical Star Astra for me. Despite it currently only being a 2 stage demo, it already feels fully realised and just needing more content.
Feels so, so good to play and looks utterly gorgeous!
Makes you sweat and work hard for every point, pushing yourself further up the screen and taking as many risks as you can. Then the game slaps you down, really punishing you with some brutally fast boss patterns.
They really understand what makes a shmup exciting to play. Up there with the daddies already.

Been the year of the indie STG again for me, mostly. Though my number two is a roguelite FPS. Gunfire Reborn nails the combat. It's a little grindy, but not in a bad way.

After that it's all shmups, except for Approaching Infinity, a daft, relaxing roguelike space game that I totally fell for.

Loads of great shooty games this year and more to come before the years out, I think. Nowt that'll topple MSA though, I wouldn't have thought.

You need to get CosmoDreamer on your twatty little pc thingy when your hand is better. It's a belter! It's like touhou but good in the same way that Exceed 3rd managed. Lots of difficulty modes, everyone will find a porridge that's just right. Really bright and cheerful.

[evilcommiedictator]

I've got a podcast where we're going to talk about this, and it's a bit rude to talk about GOTY when it hasn't been released yet.
It's been a dire year for games, with FF7 remake being marginally shorter than the original, Wasteland 3's writing and console-focus being a bit on the shit side, Doom eternally-asleep being the other big one.

Should we give to to HL: Alyx? Do you remember that HL game came out this year?

Persona 5 also came out, and there was a Flight Simulator game that got a certain part of the population rather wet in the nether regions. Same goes for the Kingdom Hearts remaster

[Bazooka]

Other than Zelda OOT, I'm going to go with The Last Of Us Part Deux . Yes I didn't want or need to see Abby get rodgered by her fuck buddy, or see her doing mad banter with ther mates, but the scale, attention to detail,gameplay and graphics made up for all that. It's pacing is much better than the first, which I still think is too long, despite this being probably longer?

And for all the complaints about the story, and probably unnecessary last 20 minutes, it did more with story than most games have done.

Good violence, would eat there again.

[bgmnts]

I think of all the games I played this year I enjoyed Desperados 3 the most. A triumphant return of one of my favorite series. Almost like playing an RTS Hitman.
Great soundtrack and voice-acting as well.

Although it's still early: Cyberpunk hasn't been released yet and I still have to play the new Yakuza. Might take the number one spot.

Edit: Didn't expect anyone else to mention Desperados as their GOTY, not to mention that you posted exactly the same time as me!
Wasteland 3 was great as well but a bit too buggy and laggy on my Xbox One S (a lot of hard crashes) to be considered my GOTY. But really enjoyed it nonetheless.

Glad to hear this. I loved Shadow Tactics, even if it was really hard, just going to wait til it comes on sale.

And yeah Wasteland 2 was buggy as well.


Although probably going to wait until December 31st to decide my game of the year.

[Garam]

Animal Crossing, no contest

[Mister Six]

My favourite game of the year was Final Fantasy 7 Remake, not least because it caused a lot of people to reassess whether it was a good idea to construct their entire adult sense of self around nostalgia. I really enjoyed how the game subverted not only what was expected, but what people actively wanted from it. If it were a simple mean-spirited gotcha, defiling its legacy to mock the rabid fanbase, I would be unimpressed. Instead, it was elevated by its own enormous self-regard and affection for the past, but it used these as a springboard to create something unseen, unpredictable and ultimately something new.

Does it diverge from the original story at all?

Also, that talk of corridor-plodding makes it sound a bit like FF13, which gives me the shivers. Hated that. Please tell me FF7 Remake isn't a thinly spread series of corridors and cutscenes masquerading as a game.

As for actual games released this year, I think I've only played Animal Crossing, which is all right but a bit too simple and repetitive for my tastes. Mrs Six loves it though - she and her pals enjoy dicking about visiting each others' islands and so on.

Other than that, I've just finished the intro mission of Wasteland 3, so I guess that wins by default. It is scratching that RPG itch for me, though talk of poor writing and lack of content is a concern. We'll see. If it's just a daft sci-fi romp with a really good combat system like Wasteland 2 was, I'll be happy.

So let's fuck off the time limitations - my actual Game of the Year (as in a game I played for the first time in 2020) is Horizon: Zero Dawn, which has the most perfectly fine-tuned combat of anything I've played in... possibly ever. It's fluid, fast and - most importantly - fair. You're given a wide range of tactics and weapons, and when you die it's almost always because you fucked up, not because you were struggling against crap controls or awkward limitations.

The story is pretty great too, with some fun wrong-footing early on (

Spoiler alert

like introducing a shitty bully character and sassy best friend only to kill them off almost immediately because this isn't a game about teamwork and staying in your weird little mountain community

[close]

) and some grand sci-fi ideas.

The only complaints are minor - the parkour stuff is tedious and linear and the graphics, while technically very good, are artless and bland. Oh, and the DLC is more of the same, but in this case that's no bad thing.

Runner-up is The Evil Within, a fantastic wodge of very silly horror from the guy who made Resident Evil 1 and 4. Very camp and over the top, but still tense and with some wonderfully well-balanced gameplay. It was just about to wear out its welcome when it ended, though, whereas I think I could have played Zero Dawn forever.

[Claude the Racecar Driving Rockstar Super Sleuth]

I only bought two games released this year. Doom Eternal was too difficult for its own good a lot of the time, but at least it wasn't boring like Star Wars Squadrons.

[The Culture Bunker]

I've yet to play any game that was released in 2020. Nothing has really come out that I wanted to spend north of £30 on, so haven't bothered.

[Consignia]

Does it diverge from the original story at all?

Yeah, quite significantly at points. The framework of the story is pretty much the same until the end, but with differing how the actual events unfold. It's actually a plot point, since

Spoiler alert

it's actually a sequel

[close]

.

[Chedney Honks]

It's subversive in the way that the second part of Don Quixote is, albeit slightly more clumsy.

[Mister Six]

Yeah, quite significantly at points. The framework of the story is pretty much the same until the end, but with differing how the actual events unfold. It's actually a plot point, since

Spoiler alert

it's actually a sequel

[close]

.

Ooh, okay, I'm substantially more interested in this now, although I'll probably still wait until it's been fully released.

[Chedney Honks]

See you in 2035.

[Thursday]

Haven't played it yet but it's got to be Yakuza: Like a Dragon for me.

[Replies From View]

GOP OF THE YOPS

[bgmnts]

Shame about Wasteland 3. It's a great sequel to Wasteland 2 but fuck me it crashes ALL the time. Once every hour or so. Big bummer.

[Chedney Honks]

Think I'm gonna have to say

Pantsu Hunter: Back to the 90s.

Visual novel where you steal girls' knickers and in doing so learn more about their personalities so you can kind of manipulate your way into their affection with a view to presumably seeing their actual cunts.

[The Culture Bunker]

Think I'm gonna have to say

Pantsu Hunter: Back to the 90s.

Visual novel where you steal girls' knickers and in doing so learn more about their personalities so you can kind of manipulate your way into their affection with a view to presumably seeing their actual cunts.

I did buy that for the giggles went it was going for a fiver on PS Store, but I think it was released in 2019. Thought the soundtrack was pretty good.

It was being a PS4 game, the amount of actual proper pervy stuff was zero.

[Mobius]

Shame about Wasteland 3. It's a great sequel to Wasteland 2 but fuck me it crashes ALL the time. Once every hour or so. Big bummer.

Yeah I got a refund. So many crashes, and the loading screens were appalling.

My favourite game probably Persona 5 Royal. Not the sort of thing I'd usually play but just loved it.

[peanutbutter]

As always, I'll just pick the best game I've played for the first time.

A Short Hike
Exactly what you'd want it to be from a cursory glance and has the sense to not overstay its welcome. Leaves enough bonus bits and pieces that you can have a nice little revisit later on too.

Beat Saber
Instant mental boost from 20-30 minutes of playing this. Can see myself playing it in small bursts for years tbh.

Pocket Card Jockey
Horse-racing/solitaire combo thing I got totally hooked on back in lockdown 1 and haven't touched since. For an eShop game that's plenty.



probs have more to add here later in the year. Might even have a game from 2020!

[Timothy]

Yeah I got a refund. So many crashes, and the loading screens were appalling.

My favourite game probably Persona 5 Royal. Not the sort of thing I'd usually play but just loved it.

I finished the game on Game Pass. My only hard crashes were in the first area. Mainly the base. It gets better in the second area.

[Mister Six]

As always, I'll just pick the best game I've played for the first time.

A Short Hike
Exactly what you'd want it to be from a cursory glance and has the sense to not overstay its welcome. Leaves enough bonus bits and pieces that you can have a nice little revisit later on too.

Ooh yeah! Good call. I loved this.

[Poirots BigGarlickyCorpse]

I'm all about Hades, a dungeon-crawler/rogue-like set in Greek mythology times. You play as Zagreus, son of Hades, and you're trying to battle your way out of the Underworld in order to find your mother Persephone who left for Mysterious Reasons. You're aided in your quest by your uncles and cousins on Mount Olympus who think you want to come visit them. You die a ton but who cares because every time you end up back in the House of Hades you can pet Cerberus. And there's plenty of side quests and other people to help, the characters are likeable, the storyline is engaging, and it's one of those games where I don't want the main story to end because I'm enjoying it so much.

[Zetetic]

It's definitely been a ideal game for late-lockdown. Gameplay is a lovely refinement of Supergiant's style (Bastion, Transistor), or so it feels to me. (Edit: Maybe I should take a look at Pyre.)