My favorite gaming year of all time at this point. I don't think there's any other year with such a stack of games that I really connected with. Almost every single game I played has been a treasure.
A Top 5 is tough, and this might even be subject to change in the future, but...
1. Resident Evil VII: Biohazard. RE7 is to VR what Super Mario 64 is to 3D console games. What Doom is to FPS. What Pac-Man is to arcade games. A stunning, fully-realized manifesto of what makes VR such a breathtaking experience. In the context of Resident Evil as a franchise, it also returns to the survival horror roots and presents a meticulously designed, focused journey through a madhouse. One of my all-time favorite gaming experiences, and a landmark release in my opinion. This is the future, especially for horror.
2. What Remains of Edith Finch. My favorite indie game of all time. Stunningly crafted, aggressively creative, and achingly evocative. What a powerful game, and one that knows exactly what makes video games special, and takes advantage of those strengths flawlessly.
3. NieR: Automata. A brilliant, beautiful mess of a game, but its highs are truly some of the most powerful moments I've seen in gaming. A codification of everything Yoko Taro stands for, built on a rock-solid, polished framework supplied by the gameplay maestros themselves, PlatinumGames. Okabe returns for another GOAT-tier soundtrack without skipping a beat. While the game is too uneven for me to put it at the absolute top of my 2017 list, it's the game I connected with the most on a personal level, and is my current game of the generation.
4. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. It takes maybe a brief hour or two to realize that you are playing a modern classic. An atom bomb of a game, obliterating the venerable Zelda formula in one fell swoop. A masterpiece of modernism, sweeping away the expected conventions of its franchise and offering instead a stunning world of utter freedom, beautiful vistas, and subtle but effective music. Not only the best game in the Zelda series, but a striking artistic statement and perhaps the most important game Nintendo has released thus far in the 21st-century.
5. Prey. Arkane at the height of their powers. A carefully, ingeniously crafted throwback to System Shock, nailing the perfect balance between modern accessibility and retro progression and world design. There is a sort of mathematical, obsessive precision to the level design in Prey, and as you explore the space station and uncover more of the narrative, you also begin to see how the world as a whole comes together in a realistic and logical way. Absolutely one of the highlights of the year, and it should be mentioned in the same breath as all of the other heavyweights.
In another year, any of these games would be a shoe-in for GOTY. And that's not even considering the rest of the games I played this year! 2017 delivered in a way I never expected, and with Evil Within 2 and potentially Super Mario Odyssey, it will close out my favorite gaming year of all time.