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Naughty Dog release list of their 12 favorite games of the year

LakeOf9

Member
Naughty Dog have put out the end of the year list of their favorite games of the year. I’m just providing the list below, but there are full awesome write ups by individual studio members I think you should read here. Some awesome takes from the perspective of developers.

The list is arranged alphabetically, and there is no overall GOTY:

  • Alan Wake II
  • Baldur’s Gate III
  • Bramble: The Mountain King
  • Chants of Shennar
  • Cocoon
  • Dredge
  • Lies of P
  • Marvel’s Spider-Man 2
  • Stray Gods: The Roleplaying Musical
  • Street Fighter VI
  • Super Mario Bros. Wonder
  • The Legend of Zelda: Tears Of the Kingdom
 

CashPrizes

Member
Where is RE4 remake Or Dead Space Remake or Hogwarts or FFXVI or Octopath 2...but to be fair, it was a fucking packed year
They are probably making a conscious effort to not list remakes, original games only, because that is a decent standard to have and probably also because they don't want people thinking about their string of remakes/remasters.

Studio is obviously too inundated with culture warriors to ever put Hogwarts in a list like this. I doubt Octopath 2 makes even 1% of the industry top 10 lists, so acting like it was excluded is weird.

FF16 is a decent exclusion to note. I mean they couldn't keep it to 10, had to go to 12, why not go to 13 and list it?

I think it is a good list tho. I would cut Lies of P, am just super over Soulslike games unless they are like completely amazing.
 
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Vick

Member
the fuck is re4 neil
The OG RE4 is one of Neil's and Straley's favorite games, the whole concept behind TLOU was literally and verbatim "RE4 meets The Road".
They probably didn't like many of the changes, and cringed at most of the game feeling ancient/clunky compared to things they developed 10 years ago. Lot of RE4R is bootleg TLOU in a more fun oriented game structure, main reason why it doesn't hold a candle to the OG to me (which had a monumental impact on the medium while still being the most fun third person over the shoulder game ever imo).

Why is Dead Space not there is the real question. That's a game ND could learn a few things from (well, in a least boring "ultra realism" setting), deeper flexible combat systems, ultimate engaging survival game structure, perfect balance of narrative-gameplay for replayability sake.

Speaking of which, please buy Dead Space Remake folks.
 

Vick

Member
What a terrible take.
Facts pass as "terrible takes" all the time. I'm sure it is for many who weren't around playing TLOU in 2013, or that never touched a ND game in their lives and think they make movies or shit like that.

But it literally is, controls, combat, exploration, encounters, companion, enemies AI, the whole damn thing. However I'd rather punch myself in the nuts than start an argument about this, especially one that should only feel obvious, so I'll just state I found almost every single element shared between the two games either feeling better in TLOU and most of the time not by a small margin, or not as impressive as it should be in the slightest when compared to what was achieved a decade ago, and the entirety of it much better executed in terms of directing, cinematography, sound, acting, whatever..





















The Last of Us was born as an evolution of Resident Evil 4 already, an alternative to Resident Evil 5. In a way, it already was a Remake of it, ten years ago.

And I speak as a fan of Capcom, collector of Resident Evil stuff since the 90's, and hater of what ND has become.
 
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rofif

Can’t Git Gud
Facts pass as "terrible takes" all the time. I'm sure it is for many who weren't around playing TLOU in 2013, or that never touched a ND game in their lives and think they make movies or shit like that.

But it literally is, controls, combat, exploration, encounters, companion, enemies AI, the whole damn thing. However I'd rather punch myself in the nuts than start an argument about this, especially one that should only feel obvious only, so I'll just state I found almost every single element shared between the two games feeling better in TLOU and most of the time not by a small margin, and the entirety of it much better executed in terms of directing, cinematography, sound, acting, whatever..





















The Last of Us was born as an evolution of Resident Evil 4 already, an alternative to Resident Evil 5. In a way, it already was a Remake of it, ten years ago.

And I speak as a fan of Capcom, collector of Resident Evil stuff since the 90's, and hater of what ND has become.

But hey it’s just a MoViEeee game from Sony!!!
What 30 hours of best gameplay ever? Who cares!!!
 

NeoIkaruGAF

Gold Member
Why is there always a laugh emoji. Seriously, every first post on this forum has a laugh emoji.

Whoever did it, please elaborate what is so hilarious about this list.
It’s the safest, most curated, most by-committee list of the year.
Even the TGA nominees were more daring.
And the complete lack of Hogwarts in any list from relevant outlets speaks volumes. Not even ONE mention for the biggest game ever made with an IP 90% of today’s devs are guaranteed to have grown up with? Come on.
 
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Soodanim

Gold Member
Facts pass as "terrible takes" all the time. I'm sure it is for many who weren't around playing TLOU in 2013, or that never touched a ND game in their lives and think they make movies or shit like that.

But it literally is, controls, combat, exploration, encounters, companion, enemies AI, the whole damn thing. However I'd rather punch myself in the nuts than start an argument about this, especially one that should only feel obvious, so I'll just state I found almost every single element shared between the two games either feeling better in TLOU and most of the time not by a small margin, or not as impressive as it should be in the slightest when compared to what was achieved a decade ago, and the entirety of it much better executed in terms of directing, cinematography, sound, acting, whatever..





















The Last of Us was born as an evolution of Resident Evil 4 already, an alternative to Resident Evil 5. In a way, it already was a Remake of it, ten years ago.

And I speak as a fan of Capcom, collector of Resident Evil stuff since the 90's, and hater of what ND has become.

I disagree. I see little to no reason to think one is like the other.

You make it seem like you think 4R went straight in and jacked TLOU2's everything, when really it's been doing its own thing for years.

4R is a customised and expanded 2R/3R (with elements of 4), which itself is a third person evolution of 7. If anything I think 4R relies too heavily on 2R's gameplay, which is part of why 4R isn't better than 4.

The only addition to 4R that may well be lifted/inspired is the crouching/stealth, with it being a new addition to the remakes.
 

Disco Dave

Member
It’s the safest, most curated, most by-committee list of the year.
Even the TGA nominees were more daring.
And the complete lack of Hogwarts in any list from relevant outlets speaks volumes. Not even ONE mention for the biggest made ever made with an IP 90% of today’s devs are guaranteed to have grown up with? Come on.
Any developer who mentions Hogwarts will become instant ban/boycott meat on Resetera, the moral hub for the "gaming community".

I expected no less from Neil Cuckman and the "award shows".
 

Three

Member
I disagree. I see little to no reason to think one is like the other.

You make it seem like you think 4R went straight in and jacked TLOU2's everything, when really it's been doing its own thing for years.

4R is a customised and expanded 2R/3R (with elements of 4), which itself is a third person evolution of 7. If anything I think 4R relies too heavily on 2R's gameplay, which is part of why 4R isn't better than 4.

The only addition to 4R that may well be lifted/inspired is the crouching/stealth, with it being a new addition to the remakes.
I don't think the intention was to say that they straight jacked everything from TLOU2. In fact he's saying that TLOU was verbatim jacked/inspired from OG RE4 and The Road. They are very similar games. The point was that he felt TLOU2 surpassed the OG RE4. In controls, combat, gameplay, exploration or whatever, and while RE4R added some TLOU2 gameplay elements like crouching/stealth it still felt ancient/clunky in comparison. To the point where it felt like the bootleg/lesser version of TLOU2 in a fun orientated game structure. I would say that's not far from the truth and RE4R was still a great game. It would just explain why ND may not have felt it made any advancements in some way and wasn't included on the list of favourite games. Nothing else about plagiarism.
 

Vick

Member
I disagree. I see little to no reason to think one is like the other.

You make it seem like you think 4R went straight in and jacked TLOU2's everything, when really it's been doing its own thing for years.

4R is a customised and expanded 2R/3R (with elements of 4), which itself is a third person evolution of 7. If anything I think 4R relies too heavily on 2R's gameplay, which is part of why 4R isn't better than 4.

The only addition to 4R that may well be lifted/inspired is the crouching/stealth, with it being a new addition to the remakes.
Look friend, you're free to believe whatever you want.
Or ignore there's ND influence in every Capcom RE remakes (and before that, starting with Revelations 2 which could have been almost sued for plagiarism indeed, T Three ) and it's not even subtle or limited, to the point one could wonder how is even possible to pretend there isn't.
Saying RE2R (one of my favorite survival ever, a wet dream kinda game when it comes to game loop for me) was just RE7 in third person is, well, just not something I can agree with.

And there's nothing outlandish about it, Naughty Dog was heavily inspired by what Capcom did, and Capcom certainly couldn't ignore one of the most successful and better reviewed games ever (in a time they were struggling with the series and their games perception in general), inspired by what they did first while presenting many successfully delevoped elements.

And that's not my personal feeling only or something..


It came straight from Capcom, if you remember the leaks which did the rounds because of "woke elements":




I just wish Capcom inspiration was limited to certain gameplay elements, atmosphere and production values however.. and not an inch more. Some think differently:


I'm sorry merely acknowledging this pisses off to no ends a huge percentage of this place, but I'm deluded into thinking present gaming history as it happens uncaring of what some people feel about "exclusive games" should be the proper course of action for a supposed "enthusiast" gaming Forum.
 
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Hohenheim

Member
Why is there always a laugh emoji. Seriously, every first post on this forum has a laugh emoji.

Whoever did it, please elaborate what is so hilarious about this list.
I think people tend to use it to show how much they disagree (in a somewhat passive aggresive way).
(Now watch as this reply gets a smiley by someone very soon)

Great list btw. Alan Wake 2 is top of my list too
 

Punished Miku

Gold Member
Stray Gods was on sale recently and I really went back and forth on whether or not to buy it, but it just didn't look that great so I passed for now. I'm not surprised they picked it though with Troy Baker, Laura Bailey and Ashley Johnson in it.
 
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Raven77

Member
I think people tend to use it to show how much they disagree (in a somewhat passive aggresive way).
(Now watch as this reply gets a smiley by someone very soon)

Great list btw. Alan Wake 2 is top of my list too

Sure, but there will be laugh emojis on the first post of a thread that says "Phil Spencer's middle name is John" or "New Blue and Red PS5 controllers on sale tomorrow"

OMG so hilarious!!!!!!!!!!!

That 70S Show Lol GIF by Laff
 

Alexios

Cores, shaders and BIOS oh my!
When arranging alphabetically you're supposed to skip stuff like "the" and go with the next first letter. LOZ GOT ROBBED!
 

kruis

Exposing the sinister cartel of retailers who allow companies to pay for advertising space.
This "best of" list had a couple of unknown titles (at least for me) that I put on my wish list because of the excellent review/user scores and interesting videos. That makes this list more much more valuable to me than than a list where all the unknown indie gems were removed in favor of popular AAA titles like "Resident Evil 4", "Hogwarts", "Dead Space", "Octopath 2", "Pikmin 4", "Cyberpunk 2077 DLC," etc.

So kudos to Naughty Dog for shining a light on quality indie games that deserve more attention from the AAA obsessed gaming community.
 

Blindy

Member
the fuck is re4 neil
They were probably too busy replaying TLOU2 for the _th time to give any survival action game their time.

Like seeing Bramble: The Mountain King get some love. It's a short game but it's such a good game. It did so much more for me than what Little Nightmares I did for me(I didn't play the sequel).
 
It’s the safest, most curated, most by-committee list of the year.
Even the TGA nominees were more daring.
And the complete lack of Hogwarts in any list from relevant outlets speaks volumes. Not even ONE mention for the biggest made ever made with an IP 90% of today’s devs are guaranteed to have grown up with? Come on.
Its absolutely disgraceful. My respect goes to the hardworking devs who put their sweat and tears into bringing the world of Harry Potter to life only to get labeled as personae non gratae.
 
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SlimySnake

Flashless at the Golden Globes
Naughty Dog have put out the end of the year list of their favorite games of the year. I’m just providing the list below, but there are full awesome write ups by individual studio members I think you should read here. Some awesome takes from the perspective of developers.

The list is arranged alphabetically, and there is no overall GOTY:

  • Alan Wake II
  • Baldur’s Gate III
  • Bramble: The Mountain King
  • Chants of Shennar
  • Cocoon
  • Dredge
  • Lies of P
  • Marvel’s Spider-Man 2
  • Stray Gods: The Roleplaying Musical
  • Street Fighter VI
  • Super Mario Bros. Wonder
  • The Legend of Zelda: Tears Of the Kingdom
No RE4, no star wars.

yoda-fail.gif


FF16 and Starfield i can understand were flawed but what the fuck is wrong with Star wars or RE4? THAT is the kind of metroidvania they should be making as a first person studio. Cant believe they picked some indie games over those masterpieces in game design. GTFO with this bullshit indie worship.
 
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SlimySnake

Flashless at the Golden Globes
Why is there always a laugh emoji. Seriously, every first post on this forum has a laugh emoji.

Whoever did it, please elaborate what is so hilarious about this list.
Its hilarious that they are releasing an end of the year list after being MIA for three straight years. As if anyone gives a shit what they have to say.
Its hilarious that they skipped RE4, one of the best games of the year in favor of some indies.
It's hilarious because ND is hated on this board and anything they say or do will be mocked until they redeem themselves with a goty.

You are only as good as your last game, and their last game was hated by 50% of the people who played it. they are going to be mocked even if they rescued babies from a fire. WHY DONT YOU FUCKING WORK ON A VIDEO GAME INSTEAD OF SAVING BABIES would be the response.
 

Hero_Select

Member
Facts pass as "terrible takes" all the time. I'm sure it is for many who weren't around playing TLOU in 2013, or that never touched a ND game in their lives and think they make movies or shit like that.
I played though the original TLOU when it released and loved it and then replayed the "Remaster" version on the PS4. I bought Part 2 on day one and played through all of the game. RE4R is better than both :messenger_grinning_smiling:
 
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GymWolf

Member
Its hilarious that they are releasing an end of the year list after being MIA for three straight years. As if anyone gives a shit what they have to say.
Its hilarious that they skipped RE4, one of the best games of the year in favor of some indies.
It's hilarious because ND is hated on this board and anything they say or do will be mocked until they redeem themselves with a goty.

You are only as good as your last game, and their last game was hated by 50% of the people who played it. they are going to be mocked even if they rescued babies from a fire. WHY DONT YOU FUCKING WORK ON A VIDEO GAME INSTEAD OF SAVING BABIES would be the response.
I love when you get all mad and vulgar :messenger_blowing_kiss:
 

Shin-Ra

Junior Member
HUMANITY woz robbed again.

Usually I prefer the COCOON style of weaving puzzles into a continuous adventure but figuring out most of HUMANITY’s levels I just found much more satisfying.

RE4 was overall GotY though.
 
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SmokedMeat

Gamer™
Waaaah where’s my mainstream Triple A remakes?!

Behind indies with an Overwhelmingly Positive score on Steam, that’s where.

Nice list. I’m so sick of the copy/paste mainstream casual AAA junk.
 

EverydayBeast

thinks Halo Infinite is a new graphical benchmark
If there’s a “game of the year” it’s probably Zelda those games come around rarely. It really comes down to Nintendo taking a big swing with the totk abilities, ulrahand, ascend, and all the characters.
 

Moses85

Member
Naughty Dog have put out the end of the year list of their favorite games of the year. I’m just providing the list below, but there are full awesome write ups by individual studio members I think you should read here. Some awesome takes from the perspective of developers.

The list is arranged alphabetically, and there is no overall GOTY:

  • Alan Wake II
  • Baldur’s Gate III
  • Bramble: The Mountain King
  • Chants of Shennar
  • Cocoon
  • Dredge
  • Lies of P
  • Marvel’s Spider-Man 2
  • Stray Gods: The Roleplaying Musical
  • Street Fighter VI
  • Super Mario Bros. Wonder
  • The Legend of Zelda: Tears Of the Kingdom
Oh Come On GIF

Get back to work and release something new!
 

Represent.

Represent(ative) of bad opinions
Facts pass as "terrible takes" all the time. I'm sure it is for many who weren't around playing TLOU in 2013, or that never touched a ND game in their lives and think they make movies or shit like that.

But it literally is, controls, combat, exploration, encounters, companion, enemies AI, the whole damn thing. However I'd rather punch myself in the nuts than start an argument about this, especially one that should only feel obvious, so I'll just state I found almost every single element shared between the two games either feeling better in TLOU and most of the time not by a small margin, or not as impressive as it should be in the slightest when compared to what was achieved a decade ago, and the entirety of it much better executed in terms of directing, cinematography, sound, acting, whatever..





















The Last of Us was born as an evolution of Resident Evil 4 already, an alternative to Resident Evil 5. In a way, it already was a Remake of it, ten years ago.

And I speak as a fan of Capcom, collector of Resident Evil stuff since the 90's, and hater of what ND has become.

By God,

TLOU 2 completely annihilates RE4 gameplay. Its like 3 gens ahead. As it should be, it came out 3 gens later. Anyone who says otherwise is either a blind capcom fanboy, or should trade tags with me.
 
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yurinka

Member
Naughty Dog have put out the end of the year list of their favorite games of the year. I’m just providing the list below, but there are full awesome write ups by individual studio members I think you should read here. Some awesome takes from the perspective of developers.

The list is arranged alphabetically, and there is no overall GOTY:

  • Alan Wake II
  • Baldur’s Gate III
  • Bramble: The Mountain King
  • Chants of Shennar
  • Cocoon
  • Dredge
  • Lies of P
  • Marvel’s Spider-Man 2
  • Stray Gods: The Roleplaying Musical
  • Street Fighter VI
  • Super Mario Bros. Wonder
  • The Legend of Zelda: Tears Of the Kingdom
First time I heard about Chants of Sennar, its art direction color palette is very cool.
 

yurinka

Member
Its hilarious that they are releasing an end of the year list after being MIA for three straight years
Naughty Dog released something.

In these 3 years they had multiple releases, and nowadays you don't make a new big AAA game in 3 years at all, you need like twice that. And unlike MS, Sony doesn't show their games until close to release.

WHY DONT YOU FUCKING WORK ON A VIDEO GAME INSTEAD OF SAVING BABIES would be the response.
They are working on at least 3 new games -being one of them their biggest project ever- at the same time, a remaster, plus overviewing -at least- a tv shown and a movie adaptation of their IPs.
 
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TGO

Hype Train conductor. Works harder than it steams.
By God,

TLOU 2 completely annihilates RE4 gameplay. Its like 3 gens ahead. As it should be, it came out 3 gens later. Anyone who says otherwise is either a blind capcom fanboy, or should trade tags with me.
But RE4 Remake is still the better game.
And they didn't list it because they know this.
 
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