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GAF Games of the Year 2016 - Voting Thread [Voting closed]

boinx

Member
1. Uncharted 4: A Thief's End ; Probably the most complete package out of all the games I've played this year. Fantastic and meaty singleplayer, good versus multiplayer and now the added co-op just keeps making UC4 a better deal.
2. XCOM 2 ; Best XCOM to date and tough as nails, probably the hardest game on my list.
3. DOOM ; This one really got me into Doom, after I finished this one, I went back to finish the first two games too. The game design is just timeless.
4. Dark Souls III ;
5. Civilization IV ;
6. Darkest Dungeon ;
7. Inside ;
8. Odin Sphere Leifthrasir ;
9. Let it Die ;
10. Shadow Warrior 2 ;
 

Wedzi

Banned
1. Overwatch ; Out of all the FPS shooters I've played Overwatch stands out for two main reasons for me. The first being the incredibly crafted gameplay mechanics. Every hero feels important and effective at their role. Whether I'm healing, dealing or absorbing damage I feel as though I'm an important part of the team. Getting rid of team death match in favor of only objective based modes and ditching the kill death ratio score sheet are genius moves that further enforces the main focus of teamwork. The second being the characters. From the character banter, to the maps, and the variety of items you can collect the story is everywhere. Every character feels interesting and connected to the world. At it's heart Overwatch is a game about diversity. A diverse cast of heroes with unique and contrasting abilities come together to do good. A common theme yes (perhaps not common enough these days) but few games manage to takes it's theme and infuse it with it's gameplay so seamlessly and never shy away from it. Overwatch will be played for a long time and remembered even longer.
2. The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt - Blood and Wine ; Perhaps I'm cheating because this is an expansion but it's on the list! The Witcher 3 is one of my favorite games every and Blood and Wine might be one of the best parts. The beautiful landscape of Toussaint is truly a sight to take in. The quests and story are fun and well written, as are most things in the Witcher. I enjoyed the main storyline and it kept me on the edge of my seat until the end. I won't go further so I don't divulge into spoilers but what and end to an incredible game. Enjoy retirement Geralt!
3. Clash Royale ; Really debated putting this one up so far but it might be the greatest mobile game I've ever played. Quick strategic maps kept me going for a lot longer than I probably should have let it. Thank god I didn't put any money into this or I could be in trouble.
4. Titanfall 2 ; Respawn hits it's stride with an amazingly designed campaign while building on the already stellar multiplayer. I wish I had more time to sink into this game but time has become harder to come by.
5. Forza Horizon 3 ; I haven't really played a racing game in some time and boy did I pick the right one to jump back into the genre with. Lots of great environments and music. Hundreds of cars that are fun to drive as they are varied. A genre that isn't nearly as popular as it used to be still has a lot left in Horizon 3 is any indication.
6. Doom ; I've played a lot of shooters in my time but Doom managed to keep me on my toes. Very fast, very violent, Doom encapsulates what made the original games so good while modernizing it in all the right places. Multiplayer was OK but the campaign is something very cool.
7. Gears of War 4 ; I had zero hype for Gears of War 4 but after playing through the campaign, a few rounds of multiplayer and diving into Horde mode I can clearly say that without a doubt The Coalition is the right studio for this franchise. Love that splitscreen is still a large part of this game. Can't wait to play more.
8. Dark Souls 3 ; Expertly crafted combat, excellent enemy design, and enough rage to shatter your controller in a million pieces. Sounds like a FromSoftware game to me! Dark Souls 3 manages to take what was good about Dark Souls and sprinkle a little Bloodborne in it for good measure. But after three straight years of new Souls games I think I need a break.
9. Battlefield 1 ; The campaign left more to be desired but the multiplayer shines through. Great squad combat and the sound design is amazing. Also might be one of the best looking games I've ever seen. Still in my multiplayer rotation months after being released.
 

Uraizen

Banned
1. Guilty Gear Xrd: Revelator ; This was undoubtedly my GOTY. It has a great single player, tons of content, amusing multiplayer, great soundtrack, great graphics, etc. It is the epitome of a GOTY for me.
2. BlazBlue: Central Fiction ; This one is an extremely close second, but Revelator just barely beat it because I feel the balance in Revelator is better and I prefer the anime story mode of Revelator.
3. Melty Blood Actress Again Current Code ; I never thought I would get to put this on a GOTY list. It made it here solely for the gameplay. It is extremely addictive and easy to get into.
4. Nitroplus Blasterz: Heroines Infinite Duel ; This game is what I would consider the anime version of Marvel. It is insane, graphically appealing, and very fun. The single player is barebones and the netcode needs some work, though.
5. ICEY ; A recommendation by lashman that I ended up loving. It is like the Stanley Parable mixed with a fantastic stylish action game.
6. Resident Evil 4 ; C'mon, you knew this would be here. One of the greatest games of all time needs a spot somewhere in this top 10.
7. Dark Souls III ; An improvement on the Dark Souls series in every way. Plenty of bosses, great areas, a plethora of weapons, and a satisfying end to Dark Souls. Please not I never touched the multiplayer.
8. Deus Ex: Mankind Divided ; Human Revolution was my first Deus Ex and I enjoyed it a lot. I enjoyed this just as much. It would be higher if it weren't for the ending and the microtransactions.
9. Forza Horizon 3 ; One of the best racing games I've played since the Burnout games. The PC version still needs some work as it took a Titan XP to get it to a solid 60 and it still dips in the city. The added microtransactions bumped it down, too.
10. Hatsune Miku: Project DIVA Colorful Sound and Future Tone ; Like rhythm games? Well that's all you get with this version. None of the mini-game stuff or fluff of the project x games. Just the core of it all.
 
1. Dark Souls III ; Worthy follow-up to Bloodborne that finds a good medium between it and Dark Souls I/II in terms of game feel.
2. Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE ; Criminally overlooked game with a fantastic turn-based combat system, striking visual style, and endearing characters.
3. Fire Emblem Fates ; Takes much of Fire Emblem Awakening's best aspects, but does them far better.
4. Odin Sphere: Leifthrasir ; Great remake of a game I never got to play. Great visual treat with fluid 2D combat.
5. Shin Megami Tensei IV: Apocalypse ; More SMT IV, which was a game I absolutely loved in 2013, which is great. It's got a bit of shonen syndrome in terms of characters, but it's still a fantastic game.
6. Pokémon Sun/Moon ; Did just enough to shake up the formula while keeping the familiarity of the previous games.



Will update if I get to Final Fantasy XV and/or Deus Ex: Mankind Divided before GOTY discussions are over.

Also, as a note: I would have put Nioh's alpha/beta in the top spot but apparently Paragon's beta was ineligible, which would make Nioh ineligible too, unfortunately.
 

cyba89

Member
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1. The Witness ; A puzzle game masterpiece. This game didn't let me go for a week and the scribbles I laid out in my room probably made me look like a mad-man. Also one of my favorite endgame contents ever in a videogame. Oh, and it's extremely gorgeous. GOTY
2. Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney - Spirit of Justice ; The second best Ace Attorney title. Case quality was very consitent and it got the right balance between silly and extremely emotional moments. First AA game that made me really care about Apollo.
3. Inside ; Just a great and polished package of a game. A masterpiece on every level with a great endgame surprise.
4. Dark Souls III ; Worthy ending of the Dark Souls saga with the best gameplay in the series. Level and boss design is on par with DS1.
5. The Last Guardian ; While I had my frustrating moments with controls and camera the creature Trico is an amazing accomplishment for the medium. Very emotional game with great level design.
6. Firewatch ; Best written game of the year with an amazing art direction. Just a joy the play through.
7. Picross 3D: Round 2 ; It's like the already perfect first Picross 3D but even better.
8. Uncharted 4: A Thief's End ; I got what I expected from the franchise. Incredible graphics, great writing, great set pieces and locales and a fun adventure story that also is a good ending to the Nathan Drake saga.
9. Paper Mario: Color Splash ; By far the biggest surprise of the year. While the gameplay was only marginally improved from it's mediocre predecessor the writing and humor was through-the-roof. Funniest game I played in a long time.
10. Dishonored 2 ; Just as amazing as the first game with some very creative level design and an insane attention to detail.

Honorable Mentions
x. Batman: The Telltale Series ; Best Batman game since Arkham Oranges.
x. Owlboy ; Deserves a honorable mention for the soundtrack alone. Story and characters where also great, but gameplay and level design a bit lacking.
x. Fire Emblem Fates ; Worthy continuation from what made Awakening so great with loads of content if you want to go through all three campaigns.
x. Stephen's Sausage Roll ; Great puzzler with ugly look.
x. SuperHOT ; The most innovative shooter I played in years.
 

Aswitch

Member
1. Overwatch ; An excellent Multiplayer game that's accessible to many people.
2. Monster Hunter Generations ; Hunter Arts really add countless hours and variability to an already deep game.
3. Gears of War 4 ; Adds a lot of great mechanics while not deviating too much from the gears formula.
4. Yakuza: Kiwami ; An excellent remaster of Yakuza 1, Combat is the most enjoyable ever!
5. Dark Souls 3 ; The best souls game that really refines the great conventional gameplay mechanics of Dark Souls.
6. Uncharted 4: A Thief's End ; Enjoyable campaign and excellent 60fps multiplayer.
7. Let It Die ; Personally the best free to play game i've ever played combining Dark Souls+Suda51=Greatness.
8. Titanfall 2 ; Very tight gameplay and netcode on top of a surprisingly good campaign.
9.Street Fighter 5 ; A rough start at the beginning of the year, but is now a very solid fighting game.
10.Quantum Break ; A solid game that i think really did the tv show/game concept pretty well.


Honorable Mentions
x. Dead Rising 4 ; haven't put in enough time to consider, but enjoying it so far and think it's a worthy mention.
x. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare Remastered ; A solid remaster with the conventional nostalgic gameplay.
x. Resident Evil 4 ; Even though this is the umpteenth time this came out, i played it yet again and loved it.
x. Dead Rising 1 ; An awesome port with 60fps
 

Zakalwe

Banned
1. Final Fantasy XV ; A game hasn't pulled me in like this since X. A true flawed gem, more than the sum, incredible that it even exists in a decent state. I have so much to say about XV, too much for this post. Can't wait to see the content they add in the future.
2. Titanfall 2 ; Respawn did everything right. Added SP that surprised many (HL2 vibes all over for me), smart dlc approach, very community driven. MP is devisive, I enjoyed it a lot. Looking forward to revisiting later in the new year once more content has realeased.Only downside for me is the lack of activity in certain modes.
3. Overwatch ; I just don't know how I avoided this for so long. This is my favourite MP FPS in a long, long time.
Incredible cast of wonderfully designed characters, weighty and satisfying feedback on movement and gunplay, and an absurd amount of charm. I'll be playing this for a while.
4. The Last Guardian ; SotC is one of my GOATs. This game is also one of my GOATs.

-

Not sure about the rest, nothing else grabbed me. Not fallen into the Overwatch trap yet. Playing TLG tonight.

EDIT: So TLG makes it in at 3...
 
1. Uncharted 4: A Thief's End ; As the end of Nathan's story, UC4 was an absolute masterpiece. Not just GOTY 2016 but a likely contender for game of the decade.
2. Far Cry Primal ; This game was a complete surprise. It is an amazing fresh take on the Far Cry formula.
3. Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2 ; Another complete surprise. After years of crap we finally get an amazing Dragon Ball game.
4. Axiom Verge ; Played this on Vita this year, completely faithful to old Metroid.
 

18-Volt

Member
1. Fire Emblem Fates ; Hats off to Intelligent systems, they know how to improve an already perfect formula. And with 3 different perspective, the games lasts hours and hours.
2. Final Fantasy XV ; Definitely not what I was expecting, but surely and epic adventure. Non-grindy system + Great cast of characters + amazing visuals = winning formula.
3. Odin Sphere Leifthrasir ; I really hope other studios take some cues from VanillaWare, they have made a simple beat em up but achieved perfection with it. Everyone should play this.
4. Shin Megami Tensei 4: Apocalypse ; This year had pokémon, but for people looking for a more challenging, more rewarding and more lengthy adventure, SMT should be the stop.
5. God Eater 2 Rage Burst ; This year had Monster Hunter, but for people looking for a more fast paced, hunting game with more flesh and bone characters and more satisfying story, God Eater 2 should be the stop.
6. Uncharted 4: A Thief's End ; Definitely behind the predecessors, but it's still Uncharted. You'll never find more amazing nature views anywhere else.
7. Dragon Quest Builders ; Minecraft is not for everyone, But DQ Builders is. Cute characters, more comfortable controls and better visuals. I have spent 85 hours on this cute game.
8. King of Fighters XIV ; Sure, visuals are well below what PS4 can do, but this is true King of Fighters to its smallest code. And it survived 3D transition perfectly.
9. Digimon Story Cyber Sleuth ; Normally Digimon games are not my poison but Wild Arms makers Media.Vision successfully created an epic out of the franchise. For the first time a Digimon game was better than Pokémon for me.
10. Ratchet & Clank ; This would have been number 1 for me if it was a remake of third game instead of 1. Insomniac has created amazing looking game but it's still the hard af platform game that I played 15 years ago.

xx. Monster Hunter Generations ; It's Monster Hunter but same formula is getting pertty stale.
xx. Bravely Second ; Or I call it; Final Fantasy III-4. A job based TBRPG, with awesome visuals and music. But they need to ditch all the fetch quests and prerender backgrounds.
xx. World of Final Fantasy ; Final Fantasy Monsters. Cute little game, perfect for people like me, who can play classic FF games for hours and even for days.
xx. Pokémon Sun & Moon ; Worst pokémon game for me, but it's still Pokémon. Amount of new Pokémon and post game content was like an insult. As a someone who isn't frantically riding bike for hatching one millionth egg, I was done with the game after 20 hours. But it had Golisopod.
 

Head.spawn

Junior Member
1. Inside : I love the atmosphere in this game, it's pretty much perfect from start to finish. One of the best gaming experiences I had this year.
2. Doom : Essentially resurrected the game back to it's oldschool roots and managed to do it in the most badass way possible. Mothafuckin' Mick Gordon.
3. Gears of War 4 : Thoroughly enjoyed this game, the single player was excellent; MP carries that torch handily.
4. Titanfall 2 : Really glad I gave this game a chance; single player experience is top notch.
5. Quantum Break : Underrated game. My only problem with the game was that I wish it had more game to play afterwards. Great release though.
6. Thumper : If you ever need a game to boost your adrenaline to 11, this is the best way to do it..
7. Forza Horizon 3 : Riding around in kangaroo land has never looked so nice on a console.
8. Hyperlight Drifter : Instant classic for the genre. Loved everything about it
9. Mother Russia Bleeds : This game came out of nowhere for me and delivered. Love the artstyle and fucked up atmosphere.
10. Overcooked : Loved this game. Best couch co-op of 2016 IMO.
 
1. Doom ; It really blew away all of my expectaitions. That's how you resurrect a classic. Let's hope they can do better with a sequel now that they have a solid core formula.
2. Battlefield 1 ; It looks great, runs great maybe even better than Doom, but it just feels a bit less complex and polished than 4 (in their current status). Also I don't feel the maps yet. I don't know...it reminds me a bit too much of the new battlefront rather than Battlefield 3 or 4 which are the definitive multiplayer shooter experiences for me after CoD 2. Still great fun, will play it for many more hours.
3. Rise of the Tomb Raider ; (PC) basically that's the 3rd and last game I played this year that released this year. Not particularly fond of what direction the franchise is headed. Especially jarring after I played through Anniversary just before it.
 

schaft0620

Member
1. Ratchet and Clank; I probably favor this game over a lack of real platformers.
2. Overwatch;
3. Uncharted 4;
4. Skyrim Remastered;
5. Doom;
6. The Last Guardian;
7. 100ft Robot Golf; If only people played it.
8. Mother Russia Bleeds;
9. Battlefield 1;
10. Gravity Rush Remastered;

I need to play, Firewatch, Inside, Abzu, Dark Souls 3, Pony Island, Overcooked, The Division, Rainbow 6 Seige.
 

NSESN

Member
1. Pokemon Sun and Moon ; Pokemon is my favourite series, so when you have one of the best pokemon games release i couldn't put this in other place.
2. Monster Hunter Generations ; So much content i had to force myself to stop playing to make room for other games
3. Fire Emblem Fates ; My most played game this year, loved conquest the most
4. Shin Megami Tensei IV Apocalypse ; I liked IV, but i think the sequel is better in almost in any place. Good thing Persona is coming soon
5. Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney: Spirit of Justice ; My favourite game of the "second triology" the last case has one of my favourites twists
6. Street Fighter V ; Played a lot when it launched, perhaps with season 2 i will go back to play this
7. Dragon Quest VIIR ; My first Dragon Quest

Bonus:
LTTP game of the year: Last Of Us Remastered ; Astounding game
 

Loudninja

Member
1. Doom - It really blew away all of my expectaitions. That's how you resurrect a classic. Let's hope they can do better with a sequel now that they have a solid core formula.
2. Battlefield 1 - It looks great, runs great maybe even better than Doom, but it just feels a bit less complex and polished than 4 (in their current status). Also I don't feel the maps yet. I don't know...it reminds me a bit too much of the new battlefront rather than Battlefield 3 or 4 which are the definitive multiplayer shooter experiences for me after CoD 2. Still great fun, will play it for many more hours.
3. Rise of the Tomb Raider (PC) - basically that's the 3rd and last game I played this year that released this year. Not particularly fond of what direction the franchise is headed. Especially jarring after I played through Anniversary just before it.

1-Pokemon Sun and Moon: Pokemon is my favourite series, so when you have one of the bestpokemon games release i couldn't put this in other place.
2-Monster Hunter Generations: So much content i had to force myself to stop playing to make room for other games
3-Shin Megami Tensei IV Apocalypse: I liked IV, but i think the sequel is better in almost in any place. Good thing Persona is coming soon
4-Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney: Spirit of Justice: My favourite game of the "second triology" the last case has one of my favourites twists
5-Street Fighter V: Played a lot when it launched, perhaps with season 2 i will go back to play this
6-Dragon Quest VIIR: My first Dragon Quest

Bonus:
LTTP game of the year: Last Of Us Remastered:Astounding game
You both need to use semicolons.

Also NSESN you format is all wrong.

This post is a a good example
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=227145928&postcount=310

You dont need pics though
 
1. The Last Guardian ; An interactive masterpiece, from the environment to Trico's feathers, the level of detail and care put into the game reached me out. I had moments were I tear up a bit, that was a first one playing video games.

2. DOOM ; Tough year to pick a favorite but I'll give it to DOOM because it was shockingly good, can't remember the last time I felt like this playing a game.

3. Uncharted 4: A Thief's End ; I don't feel too sad with this series ending or at least Nathan's, it was a great ride.

4. The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt - Blood and Wine ; Wow, CDPR did it again. One of the most magical experience I had with the medium.

5. Deus Ex: Mankind Divided ; I'm a sucker for this series, took my sweet time trying to do everything and over 30 hours or so later it was so worth it.

6. Titanfall 2 ; Have you seen Titanfall 2? Probably the tightest gunplay in a while.

7. Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare ; People complained about the direction the series has taken but I would love to see more of it, at least the SP itself could be its own thing in the future. I felt like I was really in the future whenever I played.

8. Alienation ; I just like Housemarque games so much and I had a lot of fun with this one. Can't wait for their new titles this year.

9. Let It Die ; Like everybody else that gave it a try, I found myself surprised with it. I like the dark humor.
 
1. Overwatch ; I never thought I'd find myself liking an objective-based shooter, but Overwatch is the epitome of polish and craft. It's a game I'll be playing for years to come.
2. Hitman ; This game surprised me so much. I love the meticulous nature of making my way through levels and finding the "perfect" hit method.
3. Doom ; It's fucking Doom. They brought it back and did it right. Unbelievable.
4. Titanfall 2 ; I was skeptical about the changes made from the first game, but the fun Valve-esque campaign and multiplayer refinements made this a winner.
5. Superhot ; Incredible concept that delivered an astoundingly tight final product.
6. Hyper Light Drifter ; The world, the atmosphere, the music, and the challenge made this a really stunning debut.
7. Thumper ; I am so bad at rhythm games, but Thumper is so good it makes me want to be better.
8. Enter the Gungeon ; This game did everything for me that Nuclear Throne didn't. Best rogue-like / rogue-lite that I've played since Spelunky.
9. Inside ; It's Limbo, but better.
10. Seraph ; Late addition to the list. Hadn't even heard of it until I saw it on one of Tom Chick's end of the year lists. Great streamlined action game with some really clever progression and periodic challenge mechanics.

Honorable Mentions
x. The Witness ; I only want to mention this game to say that I wish I liked it more than I actually did. The island was beautiful. A handful of puzzles were breathtaking. The style is stunning. The controls are perfect. I just didn't like that there were so many damn line puzzles, many of which felt like filler. That plus the lack of a deeper narrative left me really disappointed. If this were a slightly different game by about 10%, it would be one of my favorite games of all time.
 

FATALITY

Banned
This year was meh for me. I played the first hour of the last guardian and it looks like could be something special. I'll come back later if lives up to my expectations.
 

Lunafreya

Member
1. Final Fantasy XV ; Absolutely intense and fun experience for me, it was worth the wait. I admit it has its fair share of problems, but it ended up being something special to me despite a lot of shortcomings and pacing/story issues,

2. Resident Evil 5 Remastered ; I will never not enjoy this game, no matter what versions it will go through I'm sure it will still continue to impress for years and be just as memorable, easily my favorite out of the action-ey Resident Evil games.

3. Final Fantasy XIV: Heavensward content updates 3.2-3.4 ; I will say again this is the best MMO I've ever played and It continues to deliver why I put it here is because every single patch feels like a whole new game especially when the main scenario questline is so huge and well presented like Heavensward!

4. Overwatch ; I've had absolute blast playing this with many of my friends all year, its a pretty solid MP team shooter and I'd recommend it heavily if you have friends to get frustrated or hyped with you!!

5. Doom ; Hands down the best FPS campaign I've played all year or rather since F.E.A.R. absolutely fantastic soundtrack and visuals I want more DOOM !!

6. World of Final Fantasy ; I did not expect much out of this one, but to my surprise it delivered and felt like a solid heartwarming experience, fun boss battles, thrilling finale, mirages were fun to gather.

7. Titanfall 2 ; I thought the Campaign was very enjoyable and showcases that Respawn knows how to make campaigns still if we count all the devs within who worked on CoD MW1, MW2, then I'll say they still go the touch. The MP is fantastic too!

8. Dark Souls III ; I did not enjoy Dark Souls II that much, but III brought back things that reminded me why I loved the souls franchise and it worked really nicely in Bloodbornes engine, stellar boss fights, fluid combat and the soundtrack felt more memorable.

9. World of Warcraft: Legion ; Huge improvement over the past few expansions, it brought back the feeling that reminded me why I used to play WoW, I call Legion wrath 2.0 and it a nice return for any old fan of Warcraft / WoW

10. Hitman ; I ignored this game till the final episode of the year and to my surprise I felt like I was reliving the best aspects of what made me appreciate Hitman 1,2, Contracts and especially Blood Money.
 
Don't know where to mention this but I see Easy Allies has given the GOTY 2016 to The Last Guardian, thought that was interesting! I have yet to play that game.
 

Phediuk

Member
1. Doom ; pretty much the perfect update to classic Doom. Fast, fun gameplay, highly optimized performance on PC, and a killer soundtrack too.
 

dezzy8

Member
1. Overwatch; The most fun I've had with a game this year. It's fast, fluid and easy to just pick up and play. A campaign fleshing out the backstory would make this game GOTY. No debating.

2. The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt - Blood and Wine; Its amazing how a great game can be made greater through expansions. I bought the complete edition in November and it's hard to put down.

3. Uncharted 4 ; Amazing graphics. Set pieces are great. The story just drags on way too long. When you think you're through, something else bad pops up.

4. Stories: The Path of Destinies ; I bought this when it first came out and anybody with ps plus should not pass on this. Think of it like 999 but whenever you start from the beginning on a different path the character remembers what happened on the last playthrough. Really clever game and the combat is good enough to keep playing for the true ending.

5. Titanfall 2 ; I wish they would've delayed this game. The campaign reminds me of HL2. It's fast paced, exciting and the multiplayer is fun.
 

dumbyugi

Member
1. Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney - Spirit of Justice ; The second best game in the series after AA3. This is high praise from me because AA3 is my favourite game of all time. Outside of a few small framerate issues there is nothing negative I could say about this.
2. Pokemon Moon ; One of the best Pokemon games I've ever played. Made some great changes to the standard formula. Team Skull was great as well.
3. Final Fantasy XV ; My biggest surprise of the year. I didn't think I would enjoy this anywhere near as much as I did. Great gameplay, an amazing OST and a great ending more then make up for a somewhat poorly told story.
4. Kirby: Planet Robobot ; A fantastic Kirby game with a fun robot theme. Not as good as Triple Deluxe but still an amazingly fun game.
5. Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2 ; The first game was the best DBZ game I had ever played. This is the same but with more stuff so of course I love it.
6. Dragon Quest Builders ; Super fun game. Turns out all Minecraft needed for me to get into it was a Dragon Quest version.
7. World of Final Fantasy ; I haven't finished it yet but so far it's been a cute, light hearted RPG with a fun cast of characters that I'm loving so far. I'm very much looking forward to finishing this.
8. Box Box Boy ; Loved the first game and this is just more of the same. Solid puzzle platformer with a decent amount of challenge.
9. Picross e7 ; It's Picross and it came out this year, what more can I say. I haven't played 3D Picross 2 yet so e7 it is.
10. Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Links ; Fun mobile Yu-Gi-Oh! game that plays on my fondness for the original anime. It's super basic but I've been enjoying myself with it quite a bit so it just barely manages to squeeze on to my list.
 

Vlodril

Member
1.Masquerada songs and shadows ; Best game i played this year (and almost no one else did). Fantastic soundtrack, art, interesting world characters good vo, good story just a great isometric rpg all around.

2. tyranny ; another isometric rpg tyranny from obsidian was a step up from pillars of eternity in many ways. especially combat (and spell creation).

3. Uncharted 4 ; The best conclusion i could imagine to drakes journey and a fitting end to one of my favorite series. So far it seems naughty dogs can do no wrong.

4. Stellaris ; A great mix of 4x and grand strategy. Great sci-fi and some of the stories that evolve organically while you play this were great. Good co-op with a friend. Would be happier but for some choices (the events and the tech try dry out mid game and afterwards and the baffling 10 year wait before declaring war makes no sense for this game).

5. Deus ex mankind divided ; A very good roleplaying game i felt it was a step down from Human Revolution mainly because it seemed rushed and the characters in the game were lacking compared to the first game. Still fantastic level design and one of my favorite worlds to visit (i liked prague too).

6. Darkest Dungeon ; One of the best strategy games / roguelikes i have played. I am not a huge fan of roguelikes but the aesthetic , the narrator combined with the gameplay not getting stale even after 80 hours makes this one amazing game.

7.Final Fantasy xv ; Not sure about this one since i haven't finished it yet but so far i am enjoying it quite a bit and it has managed to get the bad taste XIII left.

8. The Division ; A beautiful game which would be boring if i played it alone but playing it with a friend was a memorable experience.

9. Shadow Warrior 2 ; Gameplay wise a huge step up from the previous game. Pretty , wang still rocks and the addition to co-op made the game worth playing. This is the second game for me that made it worth to play due to co-op (not sure if the experience would hold in single player i felt the story and the pacing was better in the previous game).

10. Xcom 2 ; Kinda saddens me to close with xcom. This is probably one of my favorite series and this is the first xcom i did not finish. Loved the storyline from what i saw loved the base did NOT love the timers everywhere. screw timers in my turn based games :)
 

Interfectum

Member
1. Hitman ; Best stealth game I've played since Blood Money. IO proved the episodic formula could work great with the franchise.
2. Overwatch
3. Uncharted 4
4. Clash Royale
5. Gears of War 4

Didn't play much this year, had a kid. :eek:
 
1. Doom; the perfect fast paced shooter that uses all elements to make a video game stand out. It has amazing gameplay, music that enhances the game, and a plot that is aware exactly what the player wants.
2 FF15; a game that shows the amount of time it took to make in everyway. Interesting gameplay and a beautiful world.
3. Gravity Rush Remastered; such a fun enjoyable game that brought an original gameplay idea that makes the game enjoyable and memorable.
4.Titanfall 2; another great fps to come out this year that is amazing when it comes to single player and multiplayer.
5. Virginia; short game that made a lasting impression that is the game to have if you enjoy x-files and twin peaks.
6.Dark souls 3; the sequel to dark souls that actually felt like a part of it and its own thing at the same time. Music that made most fights even more intense.
7. Gears of war 4; my favorite gears game that was enjoyable to play campaign and
8.battlefield 1; while not a amazing game the mode operations in multiplayer made up for all of its shortcomings and brought hours of intense fun that made it different from other games.
9.Gigantic; the MOBA hybrid I wanted. Fun interesting characters and a gameplay structure that made every close match as interesting as the last. (While betas have been out for a while I did not start playing it until this year)
10. Hyper light drifter; fun gameplay with music that fits nicely to make it an impressionable game

Honorable mentions
Overwatch; a fun game that sums up the year of 2016 for me. So it is a game of the year just not one that will have a lasting impression on me other than some interesting characters.
 

eFKac

Member
1. Uncharted 4 A Thief's End ; fantastic, emotional finish for the franchise, great evolution of gameplay
2. The Last Guardian ; incredible emotional story, characters and relationships, that elevate the game above the sometimes frustrating gameplay
3. Battlefield 1 ; the multiplayer that hooked me the most this year apart from Uncharted 4, great setting that hopefully sparks a WW2 shooters comeback
4. Final Fantasy XV
5. Ratchet and Clank
6. Titanfall 2
7. Owlboy
8. Firewatch
9. Bound
10. Call of Duty Infinite Warfare
 

Mooreberg

is sharpening a shovel and digging a ditch
1. Deus Ex Mankind Divided ; The plot is strangely small scale and unambitious. The inventory system is too limited and can screw you up on planning for NG+. But just about everything else about this game is amazing. The campaign is excellent. The side missions are the best I have played in a game since Fallout New Vegas. The game world is fleshed out and free form, like somebody combined City 17 with a smaller GTA map that gives indoor locations equal priority. Everything in the mainline missions works as a product of how you observe and interact with the game world, rather than relying on smoke and mirrors or clown cars and monster closets. The last part of the game in particular is mind blowing when you consider the level of thought and design that had to go into how things could play out based on what was or was not noticed by the player. I’m already finishing up a second playthrough on higher difficulty after already having gone through initially using non-lethal tactics. Might even attempt the “die and you’re done” mode in the coming months. Just an awesome game that flew under the radar due to publisher stupidity.

2. Doom ; Best linear shooter campaign of the decade so far. A flawless combat system and core gameplay loop that rewards aggression and offense after years of shooters where you squat and hide for a health bar to recharge. Awesome enemy designs that require different tactics, level design far superior to most contempory shooters, and the rune system lets you prioritize which aspects of your combat abilities you want to improve. I liked Rage more than most people, but I really didn’t care for Doom 3, so this one of the few games that gets filed under “shockingly excellent” for me.

3. Uncharted 4 A Thief’s End ; Great story. Amazing environments, maybe topping BioShock as my favorite as a linear game. Incredible set pieces and combat sequence variety. The sections dedicated to adventure and puzzles were very well done, though they will inevitablity be lacking in the replayability department. If not for some aspects of the game being underutilized (building + underwater areas in the flooded ruins was one of my favorite sequences in the whole series, and they used it just ONCE) and the survival mode arriving way, way later than it should have, this would have been my number two. Narrative wise, a perfect ending to the Captain Halftuck saga.

4. Hitman ; Episodic has rarely, barely (ever?) worked outside of recent adventure games, but this one benefits from it tremendously. Ditch any pretense of various murder missions worldwide having much of a coherent narrative, and you’re left with an awesome planning, execution, and hilarity sandbox. Everything being self contained and open to improvisation gives it a lot more replay value than standard campaign would have provided. It gets hard to tell which aspects of the game were funny on purpose or by accident (especially the ambient VO) but I always laugh my ass off when I play this.

5. Overwatch ; Pretty much the shooter I have been waiting for, as somebody who loved the objective shooters back in the day but never got into TF2 and was beyond disappointed with stuff like Brink. Not hot on the items being tied to whaling loot boxes rather than in game feats, but it beats fracturing the player base with map packs. Looking forward to what gets added and adjusted in the years to come.

6. Deus Ex GO
7. Street Fighter V
8. Let it Die
9. Dark Souls III
10. Farcry Primal

FFXV or The Last Guardian might end up being my "2016 GOTY of 2017" or however you phrase that. They came out too late in the year for me to play as much as I would have been able to otherwise.
 

Withnail

Member
1. Uncharted 4 A Thief's End
2. The Last Guardian
3. Battlefield 1
4. Final Fantasy XV
5. Ratchet and Clank
6. Titanfall 2
7. Owlboy
8. Firewatch
9. Bound
10. Call of Duty Infinite Warfare

You need to follow the instructions in the OP if you want your votes to be counted.
 
1. DOOM ; Yeah, no one knew it was gonna be any good. In fact everyone thought it'll be bad. The story has been told hundreds of times now but the arc of Call of DOOM being scrapped, Bethesda barely showing any singleplayer deciding to focus on pimping the multiplayer and then starting to slowly hear how amazing the DOOM campaign is mere days before launch was quite something. And now, 7 months later, I can say with certainty that the magic of DOOM 2016 wasn't merely in the surprise of the game being good. It absolutely is a classic which will be looked back at with reverence years from now. To keep me gripped through an entire 15 hour FPS campaign, unrelenting to drop the difficulty down from Ultraviolence despite facing plenty of difficulties, is something I don't remember happening before. If you asked me what's my favourite FPS campaign then this is my answer.

2. Devil Daggers ; We need more games that seemingly come from out of nowhere and blow us away. This might as well could have been a demon fighter recruitment program or something. You're in hell, this is your last stand - kill skulls, more evil skulls, evil spiders and even more evil centipedes until one of them inevitably touches you and you drop dead. It controls perfectly, looks like 1996 in the best ways possible, is infinitely replayable, gets going super fast and just won't let you go. With online leaderboards featuring replays, a wicked main menu animation and theme song it is possibly the most complete, polished to perfection game I've seen. And it's $5.

3. Let It Die ; Much like DOOM, no one was expecting this to be any good. Pretty much everyone abandoned all hope when the game was renamed from Lily Bergamo to Let It Die of all things. A free to play roguelike sounded like a recipe for disaster with a disastrous wealth of microtransactions and annoyances. What we got is a game with tons of personality, a more diverse huge dungeon than many randomly generated dungeon crawlers can offer, solid gameplay and perhaps most surprisingly an insanely ambitious soundtrack. Akira Yamaoka made 100 Japanese bands create original songs for the game in addition of his own atmospheric soundtrack. As the Tower of Barbs grows I hope they also expand on the soundtrack making it a platform for cool artists to gain visibility.

4. The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt – Blood and Wine ; I only finished Witcher 3 and Hearts of Stone two months ago. I'm only 10 hours into Blood and Wine but from what I've seen so far it's beautiful. The new region has incredible art direction. Geralt quickly growing weary of the uptight nobles' customs is priceless and happened just as I was getting tired of their pompous shit as well. All the new contracts, quests, equipment, monsters and mutations makes everything feel completely fresh and like I got a whole new Witcher 3. And just like the vanilla game, I'm in no rush to finish it. After all, we might not get anything like this until Cyberpunk 2077, if ever.

5. Guilty Gear Xrd -Revelator- ; After playing tons of Persona 4 Arena and Ultimax and those games being pretty much dead these days I felt like I might be done with fighting games for a while. Didn't like what I played of SFV at all, Blazblue just isn't for me and like 0,3 people play Melty Blood. Gave Revelator a shot and surprisingly enough I found everything I was looking for. I've settled on playing Johnny and Ramlethal for now..

6. Thumper ; You're a chrome beetle sliding along a chrome highway on your quest to KILL CRACKHEAD. It takes the bare essentials of a rhythm game, slaps them on a psychedelic progressive horror rock soundtrack resulting in something that almost plays like Rhythm Heaven but instead of cheerily tapping along to the music you're getting swallowed by your screen with your body sweating and eyes dilating.

7. VA-11 HALL-A ; I'm only a couple of hours into it but, again, from what I've seen it's got its heart in the right place. The incredible soundtrack helps a lot too. If a cyberpunk bartending visual novel sounds even remotely appealing to you then give it a shot.

8. Gravity Rush Remastered ; The lords of remastering did it again. One of my favorite Vita games brought to PS4 with a bunch of remade assets, 60FPS and sharp image quality. Gravity Rush deserves to be one of Sony's staple franchises and it's sad the public didn't receive Kat the way she deserved. I fear Gravity Rush 2 might be the end for this genuinely joyful franchise.

9. Dark Souls III ; Mechanically, on most levels, this might be the most perfectly executed game in Miyazaki's series. I enjoyed playing through it, there were a couple of areas and bosses I loved. But looking back at it it's a really uninspired package with poor production and a lack of soul. I still do pop it in for some PVP action.
 
1. Final Fantasy XV ; From (some) the characters, to the gameplay, music and the little details in the game, it became one of my instant favorite RPGs of all time. Played over 100 hours. I LOVE exploring the world, I want more and that's a good sign.

2. The Last Guardian ; Beautiful work by a great team. Loved it from beginning to end, it was a great experience.

3. Doom ; Just pure bliss. Amazing production and ridiculously fun gameplay.

4. Uncharted 4 ; While I loved 2 and 3 more, this was still a crazy ride. Some of the levels blew me away and the graphics were extrodinary.

5. Hyper Light Drifter ; My type of game. A great blend. I loved the style and feel of it.

6. Gears of War 4 ; This took me by surprise. Didn't think I'd have as much fun with it as I did. I used to love the Gears games on 360 and thought this would be mediocre but I had a great time with the campaign.

7. Stardew Valley ; Addictive and charming game. Love the look and there is so much to do. Gameplay is simple and great.

8. Dark Souls 3 ; There's nothing quite like it. A mix of action, RPG and strategy, this can take a while to get into but when it clicks, it clicks.

9. Gravity Rush Remastered ; Never got to play the Vita game. Needless to say, a fantastic game through and through. It's beautiful and using the gravity powers is a lot of fun.

10. Overwatch ; Such a great time to have with friends. Matches are short which I love and it's pure fun. It's a great game to play on breaks between other games.
 

ArchAngel

Member
1. The Last Guardian ; Ueda really did it again for me with TLG. I love the game, the world is simply amazing and Toriko is my favorite AI partner of any game ever. I cried manly tears and I hope someday I can say that to another game again.

2. No Man's Sky ; I played it since launch and for over 200h. This game has such a incredible artstyle, soundtrack and universe. I will never understand the hat, I could sink hours and hours in this without any regret. And it will probably get better with new updates.

3. Earth Defense Force 4.1 The Shadow of New Despair ; So much fun in this series and this is a game you can play a LONG time if you play more than one class. EDF! EDF! EDF!

4. Uncharted 4 ; This game is a graphically masterpiece. I love Nate and the humor (which was a little too serious in this game for me) but it has some awesome setpieces. It's just a shame that almost every ledge breaks. You almost expect it to break in this game.

5. REZ Infinite ; It's REZ and I got a huge sourrund system upgrade this year. There was never a better time to appreciate this game than now. Even if they somehow mixed the sound a little too flat for me in Infinite.

6. Resident Evil 4 Remastered ; This game belongs in every GotY list of any generation. I hated my first hour on Gamecube and sold it. Years later I played through it for the first time on the Wii and can't stop loving this game. There is nothing more to say about this old masterpiece.

7. ReCore ; Really enjoyed this game. I'm not done with it yet, but I will play this game again on my christmas holiday. Fun, open und cool game.

8. Rise of the Tomb Raider ; Played through the first one last year and liked it, but I waited for the second one to be released on PS4. Great action game, but I liked UC4 a bit more.

9. Final Fantasy XV ; Bad bad demo, but the full game seems fun enough for me to play a lot longer in the coming weeks. Never was a big Final Fantasy fan except for 12 und 13, but this seems to be great too.

10. Titanfall 2 ; Woah, just played it a couple of days ago and the SP is great! Didn't expect that after the first game. I don't play MP, but got it cheap and love the Campain!
 

Prismo

Neo Member
1. Dark Souls III ; After being so thoroughly disappointed with Dark Souls II and so thoroughly impressed with Bloodborne I was curious if I would just prefer Bloodbornes take on the souls formula going forward. Nope. Dark Souls III is a fantastic greatest hits amalgamation of the souls series.
2. Civilization VI ; Almost failed an assignment due this game, very excited to see where it goes.
3. Dragon's Domga ; Wish it was Dragon's Dogma 2, but I'll take it.
4. Rez Infinite ; It's Rez, I don't have PSVR so I'm sure I haven't had the full experience but even on a screen Area X is impressive and Rez is stil Rez.
5. Stellaris ; This would be a lot higher as I think the early/mid game is fantastic it just falls apart later on.

All the other games that I really enjoyed playing this year didn't come out this year so...

Honorable Mentions
x. Rimworld ; Still in Alpha so not eligible, but what is there so far is really great.
 
1. DOOM ; Doom's 2016 reboot is so good that it has made me retroactively dislike other FPS campaigns. Doom manages to keep exactly what they needed to from the first two games while evolving to fit what a Doom game should be in 2016 in incredibly smart ways.

2. Overwatch ; But for multiplayer shooters Overwatch is king. The 1-2 combo of DOOM's single player and Overwatch's multiplayer reinvigorated my love for shooters this year.

3. Titanfall 2 ; There's also Titanfall 2 which had a good SP and good MP! Like seriously shooters were on fire this year

4. World of WarCraft - Legion ; This game is 12 years old and they just released the best expansion yet. While it has its problems, it has a greater amount of fantastic features and while it does feel like a "BREAK GLASS IN CASE OF EMERGENCY" expansion, maybe the swift kick in the ass will continue to revitalize the game.

5. The Witness ; Eventually Witness becomes a challenge of You vs. John Blow, and you can tell a lot about a man who can beat that fucking mountain finale without looking any solutions up.

6. Inside ; Never played Limbo but the word of mouth around this game made me check it out and I was not disappointed. Absolutely beautiful looking game with some seriously impressive technology and sound design.

7. The Last Guardian ; Hey this game finally came out and it was actually pretty good???? Doesn't look like a simple up-rezzed PS3 game and the tech behind Trico is honestly the most impressive video game A.I. ever. Maybe next Ueda can make a game with good controls and a good camera
sorry not sorry

8. SUPERHOT ; SUPERHOT SUPERHOT SUPERHOT SUPERHOT SUPERHOT SUPERHOT SUPERHOT SUPERHOT

9. Ratchet and Clank ; Enjoyable soft reboot of the original game. Looks beautiful, plays well, but it isn't as charming as it wants to be.

10. Street Fighter V ; An enjoyable game, but its hard to separate it from the clusterfuck of everything around it.
 
1. Uncharted 4: A Theif's End; The best combination of gameplay and story this year, and an amazing conclusion to one of my favorite gaming characters. This is pretty much everything I want a game to be.
2. DOOM; The most pure fun game I played all year. My first foray into the series and man did I pick the perfect starting point. Gameplay was fast and hectic and gory kills were a blast. I loved every second of it.
3. The Last Guardian; The 7 year wait was worth it, and while not without its faults, there were so many amazing things about it that its flaws became easy to overlook. The relationship between the player character and Trico was extraordinary, the ending damn near made me cry. As someone who has played games for almost 20 years it is rare that a game feels truly unique and unlike anything I've ever played. The Last Guardian was one of those rare games.
4. The Witcher III: Blood and Wine; The Witcher III is my personal game of the generation so far, but this isn't my number 1 since it's just more of a game from 2015. The new world was awesome, I liked the story, and it actually added some new gameplay elements.
5. Life is Strange; Probably the most emotionally powerful game I've ever played. I just feel in love with the characters. Only game I got in 2016 that I've played through twice.
6. Dark Souls III; Ok sure, it was pretty much just more of the same, but when that same is this good that's not such a bad thing. More of the challenging yet surpurb combat, incredible world and enemy design that we all know and love.
7. Dishonored 2; Returning to one of my favorite game worlds was one of my most anticipated things of 2016, and it didn't disappoint. I loved the city of Karnaca, playing as Emily was a ton of fun (domino was awesome!), and the clockwork mansion level was probably my favorite section of a game all year.
8. Deus Ex: Mankind Divided; The narrative disappointed, but the excellent gameplay, level design, and side missions more than made up for the narrative misstep.
9. Ratchet & Clank; This game went beyond being a simple remake and carved an identity of its own, and felt like a new game to me despite being a fan of the series since the original. Game was a total blast to play.
10. Final Fantasy XV; By far the most flawed game on this list, and the most imperfect. This is far from the best of the series, but I can't deny the amount of fun I had playing it. I really loved the characters.
 
1. Overwatch ; My favorite shooter of all time, and it's not even close - I love it even more than I loved Counterstrike 1.5 back in the day, and I didnt think that was even possible. These are words I thought I'd never type, as games with no single player component are usually the the complete opposite of what I go for (as evidenced by the rest of my list).

2. The Witness ; I always felt that Jonathan Blow was a pretentious, overrated hack. And then, of course, I played this game. I am now deeply sorry for my words and deeds, and will revisit Braid in short order. Kotaku said it best: it's a Metroidvania, but the "abilities" you need to progress are all in your mind.

3. Rise of the Tomb Raider; As a huge fan of Tomb Raider 2013, I was incredibly stoked to finally play this (on PC), and it completely satisified my expectations. The best mechanics of any third person shooter this generation.

4. The King of Fighters XIV; Amazing work by the reborn SNK. A large selection of characters, tight old school gameplay, plenty of content to get through, and superb post launch support (it's rare that you see a patch actually improve graphics rather than just performance). The antithesis of Street Fighter V, which while still very fun, was a resounding disappointment.

5. Doom; The intensity of this game is unparalelled - the lightning fast framerate and gorgeous visuals combine with super frantic John Romero-style free-for-all battles to leave you physically tired after they conclude.

6. Enter The Gungeon; I love roguelikes and I love 2D shooters - this game somehow combined the best bits of both to create my favorite indie game of 2016. (Yes, I no longer consider The Witness an indie game. Respect, Blow.)

7. Stardew Valley; Essentially, the ultimate version of one of my favorite franchises of all time (Harvest Moon)... and made by a non-Japanese person. Natsume needs to step their game up, badly.

8. Uncharted 4: A Thief's End; An amazing experience end-to-end, and the capstone the series deserved. Best visuals this year, hands down - Naughty Dog has the greatest artists in the industry. Pacing issues hurt this a bit, with an overabundance of climbing... but even though this is the first Uncharted game I wasn't motivated to immediately replay upon completion, that first run was a doozy. (Bonus: Best playable epilogue ever.)

9. Ratchet & Clank; I was beginning to lose faith... but with R&C 2016, Insomniac Games proved they still had it. This is how remakes are done, fellas.

10. Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney - Spirit of Justice; This post made me realize how few games I played/beat this year were actually from 2016, as AA6 is a middle of the road series entry at best (albeit with a fantastic final case).

Omitted because they weren't Top 10 worthy: Street Fighter V, Quantum Break, Deus Ex: Mankind Divided, Fire Emblem Fates
Omitted because I have yet to play them (even if I own them already, in most cases), but probably could have made the list if I did: The Last Guardian, Final Fantasy XV, World of Final Fantasy, Battlefield 1, Titanfall 2, Watch Dogs 2, Firewatch, Dragon Quest Builders, Thumper

Jesus, that last list is quite something. (o_O) I have to at least play Thumper before the new year..
 

Koh

Member
1. Alienation ; I'm sad this was largely forgotten, but this game was phenomenal. It scratched my loot game itch where Destiny and Diablo 3 failed. Absolute masterclass developer putting on a show on how twin stick shooters gameplay can be so diverse and enjoyable.

2. Uncharted 4: A Thief's End ; After the misfire that was Uncharted 3, naughty dog proved they are the best in the biz. This game was amazing. I loved the Madagascar in particular. Wide linear is definitely my type of adventure game. While others had issues with pacing, I found this to be a perfect balance of story, stealth and guns blazing action. All together, this is the best send off to the series I could have wanted.

3. Ratchet & Clank ; I've never played a ratchet game prior to this. It was refreshing and reminded me of my childhood playing 3D platforms. My only gripe with this game is the narration point of view. It probably made sense if you watched the movie or played the older games, but the past tense interruptions were weird. The game itself was beautiful, exciting and fun!

4. No Man's Sky ; If you didnt get caught up in the hype this was actually one of the best games of the year in my opinion. Exploration was all I wanted, and I got enough for a lifetime. Even hundreds of hours in, I still encounter dramatically different and new lifeforms and planets. The points of interest could have been more varied and the whole seeing other players fails were disappointing, but not enough to ruin my fun.

5. Pokemon Go ; if you had told me at the beginning of the year that a mobile game would be on my game of the year ballot, I'd assume you or the future me had brain damage. While pokemon go does not do much to break free from the reputation of basic gameplay loops and coin operation ploys which come to mind when mentioning mobile, the GPS and territorial aspects and the pokemon license have taken my interest hostage. I've staked a claim of 4 gyms nearby and defend them ferociously, even in the wee hours of darkness. I have developed a hostile rivalry with a crazy obsessed 3 person yellow team who owns pretty much my entire neighborhood save my 4 gyms. Why do I care so much about these gyms? I ask myself this often, but there I go, to take back what's mine.

6. The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt – Blood and Wine
; the way expansion packs should be. Nothing more needs to be said here.
 

Van Bur3n

Member
1. Dark Souls 3 ; A love letter to the first Dark Souls that popularized the series, and what a beautiful letter it is. Dark Souls 3 is the ultimate culmination for those with the tenacity to endure and are willing to learn a series of games that do not hold your hand but implore one make their own discoveries and learn from their own mistakes. Dark Souls 3 is the perfect conclusion to this formula further bettered by brilliant boss design, amazing art direction, and a memorable soundtrack.

2. DOOM ; A pleasant surprise and return to form for a legendary shooter. DOOM brings back the intensity and fast-pace action packed with all kinds of ways to play with the variety of weapons, use of the always entertaining glory kills, and enhancing runes.

3. Titanfall 2 ; A welcomed change from the series first attempt at being multiplayer only, now bringing a whole new campaign into the mix that delivers what should have been the first game because the campaign is surprisingly good, if not great. The wall-running, titan-clashing gameplay of the first game now getting some proper level design and story thrown into it just what this series needed. I only hope it proved successful enough to deliver a third game that this series, and especially its developer, deserve after all of their effort.
 

Tigress

Member
My list is going to be really short as I haven't played many ones that came out this year and be games/DLC a lot of people disagree with (I realize all of these are unpopular picks here).

1. No Man's Sky ; It actually was what I thought it would be when it came out though needing some polish and rebalancing. The foundation patch made it as fun as I expected it to be. So, yeah, not really disappointed with the game.
2. Fallout 4 Far Harbor ; Bringing RPG aspects back to Fallout!
3. Fallout 4 Nuka World ; This was a lot more fun than I expected. The world of Nuka World was fun to explore, too bad I'm terrified of one of the amusement parks as it is heavily radiated and nothing is worse than radiation in survival mode.
4. Fallout 4 Automatron ; Once again, a lot better than I thought it would be (I didn't think it was my thing).
 

Blobbers

Member
1. Dark Souls III ; Dark Souls 3 gets so much right. A fast-paced combat system that feels incredibly satisfying, lots of viable weapons which incentivize multiple playthroughs, great boss designs and my second favorite soundtrack in the series. Through and through it is a Souls game, with uncompromising difficulty and levels that are a joy to explore

2. Final Fantasy XV ; As with Dark Souls 3 and Bloodborne last year, Final Fantasy XV gets a high spot on the list in great part thanks to its combat system. The combat down to it's simplest gameplay loop of press Triangle to Warp Strike and then keep smashing Circle is so fun that it was almost single-handedly the reason I put in extra 40 hours into the game after finishing the story at the 40-hour mark. There are a lot of aspects that I wish were more fleshed out, but the combat, the dungeons and the secret platforming level along with the hunts, the monster design, the music and the interaction with the bros are enough for me to declare it one of my favorite games of this generation.

3. Uncharted 4: A Thief's End ; Doesn't quite surpass Uncharted 2's writing and pacing, but has the best gameplay in the series and a story that kept growing on me the more time passed

4. Shin Megami Tensei IV: Apocalypse ; Apocalypse had the luxury of building upon the already very solid foundation laid out by SMT IV. Still, it manages to carve out its own identity thanks to the new protagonists and a brand new class of gods that have new, lofty plans for Tokyo. I appreciated a lot of tweaks they made to the skill system and the press turn, like the element affinities and the "smirk" balancing, as well as the higher difficulty. The final 2 bosses were incredibly challenging even at max level.

5. The Last Guardian ; ICO on steroids. A really powerful experience and the only game to move me to tears this year

6. Digimon Story: Cyber Sleuth ; great rpg with an SMT-inspired gameplay structure and an addictive digiraising/digivolving system

7. World of Final Fantasy ; WoFF won me over with it's inventive battle system and cutesy artstyle, along with the surprisingly great voice acting

8. Pokémon Sun and Moon ; my favorite of the last few Pokemon games. did a lot of cool new things that made the series feel fresh again

9. Ratchet & Clank ; as fun to play as it is beautiful

10. Deus Ex: Mankind Divided ; I just love the fact that they let you explore so much of the main hub before even touching the main story. The city of Prague isn't as huge as most open world games, but it is absolutely filled with content. It feels like not one square foot is wasted. The story and Golem City feel a bit undercooked, the latter especially compared to the expert level design of the main hub, but I mostly blame the lack of content here on Square and their idea that most their games should now be in some sort of episodic format.

Honorable mentions:

x. Gravity Rush Remastered ;
x. Enter the Gungeon ;
x. Doom ;
x. Dragon Quest VII: Fragments of the Forgotten Past ;
 
1. Overwatch ; An addictively fun shooter that puts character and accessability at the forefront and makes it approachable for everyone.
2. Life Is Strange ; An emotionally charged journey that shows how investing games can really be.
3. Fire Emblem Fates: Conquest ; A devilishly hard sequel to one of the 3DS' best games.
4. Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE ; Better that it has any right to be with lush visuals and a very fun battle system.
5. Pony Island ; The best pony themed game of a generation.
6. Pokemon Sun/Moon ; A great sequel to the Pokemon series though it's lack of a National Dex and older features makes it a bit frustrating.
7. Broforce ; Indiana Brones teams up with a host of other bros to save humanity from aliens, bro.
8. Disney Magical World 2 ; Adds an insane amount of content for a sequel and improves on its predessesor in nearly every possible way.
 

McNum

Member
2016 has been a year for big games for me. Like, literally games i can spend a long time with. It's been a great year for strategy games, and an okay year for shooters. Mainly Doom. With the introduction out of the way, I proudly present...

McNum's Game of the Year 2016 list!

1. Fire Emblem Fates ; That is a LOT of Fire Emblem. Between the three campaigns, Birthright, Conquest, and Revelation, there's easily enough game to hit a three digit amount of hours played without repeating a story chapter. (Side chapters are shared.) Add to that a refined version of the gameplay Awakening introduced, with making the pair up system weaker but more versatile, as well as reducing the ability to cheese you character strengths, and you have what is quite possibly the most mechanically solid Fire Emblem game release, at least internationally. So there's a lot of it and it's all solid gameplay. But even though it's my game of the year, I do feel the need to mention the story. It's... passable at best, annoying most of the time, and awful at worst. The split into three campaigns from a single prologue hurts the storytelling. The idea of choosing side is interesting, though slightly undermined by Revelation's "No, I choose my own side! YOU can join ME!" option. Not much of a dilemma when there's a third better option.

Overall, though, I cannot have any other game as number one here. There's too much Fire Emblem goodness, no matter if you want the Awakening styled Birthright, the classic styled Conquest, or the mixed style of Revelation. Personally, I think I prefer Birthright, but Conquest has the better characters.

2. Doom ; Rip and tear! Doom is a shining example of how to do a revival of an old-school FPS based on movement and momentum right. It has a lot of the trappings of modern shooters, but it kept the speed based combat of the original Doom, as well as exploring for secrets. Each enemy is also still easy to identify, has optimal tactics to counter, and with the glory kill mechanic, you're encouraged to go up close and personal to rip and tear heath pickups out of your foes. Or cuts them in half with a chainsaw to make them explode into ammunition. Does that even make sense? Hell no, but it works perfectly as a game mechanic. Overall it just feels like Doom. It does help that despite only being a pair of arms, and sometimes a torso, the Doom Marine is a surprisingly effective silent protagonist. This game gets more out of a scripted camera pan and a shotgun pump than many games do in a long cutscene. But he is a simple guy. There are demons. He hates demons with a fiery passion. Everything else stems from there, especially the glory kills.

As an aside, thank you Doom for having a colorblind mode, especially having three different colorblind modes. That's much appreciated and pretty unexpected. I mean... it's Doom. It didn't need one. But it is a main reason Doom sits in the high end of this list.

3. XCOM 2 ; You lost. Now what are you going to do about that? The aliens have taken over the world and are close to finishing their sinister plot against humanity, and only a rag-tag bunch of soldiers in their flying headquarters can stand against them. They are XCOM and thank heavens you're here to lead them again, Commander. XCOM 2 is... well it's more XCOM. The interplay of the strategic and tactical layers is still there, and both have seen some changes since Enemy Unknown. Being the aggressor, you start many missions in concealment and can make big aggressive moves with vastly reduced risk which you'll need to since many mission have harsh turn limits. Same with the strategic layer, there's a big red bar ticking down to your doom, and you can only delay it, not stop it. That's a theme of the game, timers, and turn limits to force your hand. And that is a matter of taste. I don't mind as much, but others do.

4. Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney - Spirit of Justice ; Or more accurately, Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney - Spirit of Justice. Because this is Apollo's game, and thank Capcom for that. It's the sequel to Dual Destinies and that's pretty much exactly what you should expect. The gameplay is the familiar old Ace Attorney, with a new minigame added in the Seance sequences where you see the last moments of a victim's life and get into an argument about what that actually means. It has a fantastic cast of characters, as usual, a pretty amazing soundtrack, and has perfected the dramatic reveals to an artform. Especially in the fifth episode. If there's one thing Ace Attorney games know how to do, it's the final episodes and Spirit of Justice does not disappoint.

5. Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2 ; Self insert Dragon Ball fanfiction, the sequel! The Time Patrol is hiring! Create your new character (and import your original Xenoverse one for story reasons) and play through a story mode where a genric doomsday villain is threatening time itself, with movie villains this time! Face off against Lord Slug, Turles, Cooler, Janemba, and everyone's favorite rageaholic, Broly as they intrude on the Dragon Ball history in the worst possible times. The game is a fairly improved sequel overall, the fighting system has been streamlined, and the AI has stopped cheating, it just fights really well instead. Good luck with Story Mode Cooler. You will need it. The multiplayer side has added more co-op missions and raids, as well as a sprawling hub world that you can fly around in... when you get your flying license after beating Cooler.

6. Stellaris ; Paradox style grand strategy in space! On the surface this seems like a somewhat basic space 4X game, but thanks to its Grand Strategy influences it allows for much more in the ways of diplomacy and is tilted less towards all out galactic warfare, and more towards roleplaying your empire. It IS possible to win the game, but it's not really about that. Try something out, see if it works, then go do it all over again. While I just got started on it, I can already tell this game is going to be a time robber. It also has a fairly impressive update schedule, the game as it now is different than at launch and will probably be different in six months.

7. Day of the Tentacle: Remastered Edition ; A classic now in HD with redrawn art, remastered sound and a commentary track. It's a very competent remaster and it is still very much the Day of the Tentacle that baffled us all back then. It has some ridiculous leaps of logic, all in the name of comedy. Like when you see a black cat and carry around some white paint, but need a skunk, you had better be up on your old cartoon knowledge. Also a shout out to the achievements in this one, some of those are for the most obscure things, with excellent comedic timing. Like pointing out just how many items you've technically stolen, or point out that it's only alligators, not hamsters you can flush down the toilet. Hamsters go in the microwave. In short, this is an adventure game classic that everyone should try.

8. No Man's Sky ; You could write a lot about No Man's Sky. Unfulfilled promises, a small team taking on a project too big for them, generic rage and accusations... And a lot HAS been written. But I'm writing something else, I had fun with it. Sure it's a bit barebones and a lot of the criticisms are true... but I liked the gameplay loop of going to new planets and mining stuff to go to other new planets. If you like a lot of exploration in games, No Man's Sky still delivers on that. But probably only that, though the base building and freighters upgrade was pretty neat.

9. Gal*Gun: Double Peace ; This year's "Game that had no right to be anywhere near a GOTY list" winner is Gal*Gun: Double Peace. It's stupid, it's lewd, and it's self-admittedly a creepazoid game, but... It is also a surprisingly mechanically solid rail-shooter. You have skill shots, challenging enemy patterns, and sub-objectives for each level. It does fall apart a bit with a mouse, but Inti Creates put way, way more effort into this game than it deserved. And that's kind of cute, in a way. The €80 DLC that gives you X-ray vision is a little suspect, though.

10. Street Fighter V ; Street Fighter V is the most self-contradictory game of 2016. It launched with what is likely one of the most wellmade and balanced iterations of the Street Fighter style of fighting game system, polished to a most excellent shine... and then everything else was awful. Inconsistent netcode, no real content other than online VS mode, no tutorial other than the extreme basics, and a lot of promising that the game will be better, honest! It did get a decent enough story mode, but it's still missing several basic features, like Arcade Mode. To be frank, the only reason this game is here is because the fighting engine is just THAT good, despite everything else being... not. An extra special mention to Capcom for the PC Rootkit they installed in September. Bad form, Capcom.

And the honorable mentions go to...
x. Super Mario Run ; Credit where it's due. This is a proper Super Mario platformer where you only have one input. It works pretty well, but didn't catch my interest enough to upgrade to the full version. Neat in concept, though.
x. Picross Touch ; It's a basic picross game on Steam. But I liked it enough to give it an honorable mention. A decent example of doing one thing well and nothing else.
x. Star Fox Zero ; A lot of the game has that "It's Star Fox, but..." feel to it. Like it's really close to what you'd want... but not, in large part thanks to the controls. when they work it's great... but when not it's awful. At least the anime short launch trailer was pretty good.

And that's my list! I wonder if anyone else has their Fail of the Year vote on their Game of the Year list, too? Street Fighter V, how I love and hate you at the same time. So good, so awful.

Updated to add Day of the Tentacle at the cost of Star Fox Zero.
 

sam777

Member
1. Overwatch ; Simply put this has to be the most fun I have had with one game over a long period of time, It just never gets boring. It is also very refreshing to have a shooter that is different from the norm.

2. Forza Horizon 3 ; The most relaxing and chilled out game ever, just sitback and enjoy the view. The actual driving itself ain't to bad either :)

3. Dark Souls 3 ;

4. Battlefield 1 ; After years of getting futuristic shooters it was great to finally play during WWI again. The addition of Operations is fantastic and takes the game to a whole new level and adds a sense of immersion that I have not seen previously in any war game.

5. Hitman ; This is what a Hitman game should be like. The variety of ways of taking on each area is amazing and is a true return to form for the series.

6. Doom ; The fast paced gameplay was like nothing I had played before and it was so refreshing to experience something totally different and unique.

7. Gears 4 ;

8. Quatum Break ;

9. The Division ;

10. Batman: The Telltale Series ;
 
1. Overwatch ; I've got a strange relationship with first person shooters, if you had to ask me if I liked the genre I'd probably say no - yet the genre has some of my most played games ever (TimeSplitters, Shadowrun, Gotham City Imposters). It has to be colourful, it has to have unique character designs, movement must be snappy, you should never have difficulty seeing or knowing where the enemy is, unlockables should never be more than cosmetic and there should always be some way for you to win the fight via brains rather than just your aim. Overwatch fits every criteria - it's a super stylish, hyper polished team shooter which encourages you to think and to work with your team. It doesn't punish or shame you for losing, yet it amply rewards you for winning with the iconic POTG system and the end of match card system that give credit not just to the flashy 360 no-scope multi-kill, but the healer at the back who worked tirelessly to keep his team alive. Nothing else I've played in years has grabbed me this much, when I have a little spare time now my thoughts drift to "oh, I could squeeze in a round or two of Overwatch", and on days off I think "cool, tons of time to play Overwatch", it's a drug that I think I'll be hooked on for years.

2. VA-11 Hall-A ; A cyberpunk bartending visual novel that gives you a look into the lives of a strange cast of "everyday" customers, such as a young sex robot, a rich catgirl with a robotic eye and a talking dog might sound like some kind of purposefully dumb, trippy indie game - but in reality it's one of the finest VNs in years. Despite the strange setting and cast they all feel real, the conversations are engaging and impactful, there is no grand story to drag everything down - you're simply seeing a small slice of everyday life in their world. And of course the presentation is incredible, from the soundtrack to the PC-98 style visuals.

3. Shantae: Half-Genie Hero ; Much more of a platformer than the previous entry, there are noticeable faults (such as the short length and lack of an overarching story that likely stems from it's nature as a Kickstarter game that couldn't guarantee which goals would be hit) but the beautiful visuals, top notch soundtrack and tight platforming keep me entertained to the very end.

4. Hatsune Miku Future Tone ; Over 200 Vocaloid songs in one package, bringing together practically every song from the first 4/5 Project Diva games already makes this great value for money, but the streamlined and massively improved gameplay mechanics make this the definitive Project Diva game.

5. Megadimension Neptunia VII ; What happens when you give the Neptunia series more than a Happy Meal budget? An RPG which punches well above its weight.

That's all I can manage this year, other titles that I've played like Fire Emblem Fates, Root Letter and Zero Time Dilemma deserve to be on a "most disappointing game of the year" list instead, and then titles that really should be here (like Hitman and Planet Coaster) aren't because I've only watched them and haven't been able to play them myself (due to an ancient PC).
 

Atilac

Member
1. Doom ; The best mashup of old with new since wolfenstein. The only game I platinumed this year.
2. Dark Souls III ; Not the best souls but still better than most other games this year.
3. Battlefield 1 ; The online is immersive and the setting is a nice change of pace, even if the weapons aren't super accurate.
4. Darkest Dungeon ; Every single part of it fits perfectly and it is an absolute joy to play.
5. Grim Dawn ; The Best ARPG since torchlight 2.
6. Hearts of Iron IV ;
7. Total War: Warhammer ;
8. Killing Floor 2 ;
9. Tyranny ;
10. Enter the Gungeon ;
 
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1. Overwatch ; A sort of antithesis to the rank/unlock system of current FPS multiplayer titles, Overwatch’s design lets players feel not just powerful, or skilled, but helpful as well. Matches can end with a clutch performance or your team gets absolutely dominated. A diverse set of heroes and play styles add to the appeal. I’ve put in way too many hours, but moments like these are worth it.


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2. Hitman ; Environment design, game design, more often than not impressive AI makes this the best Hitman game in a decade. This is the Hitman game for me. This isn’t even taking into account the episodic title’s consistent updates and “elusive contracts” mechanic.

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3. The Witcher 3: Blood & Wine ; As if I needed another excuse to jump back into the world of The Witcher 3. Thanks to modern pop culture's depictions of vampires I always go into these stories weary but even the second expansion manages some rather compelling characters with some interesting twists along the way. The world of B&W, for its dark storytelling, somehow seems even more beautiful than the base Wild Hunt game.

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4. Inside ; Admittedly I didn’t take to Limbo, but Inside kept me in suspense the entire way. The puzzles are clever, with some tight platforming. You don’t necessarily get the full picture narrative-wise, but the game excels in its dreary, Orwellian-esque atmosphere.


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5. Titanfall 2 ; Fantastic campaign combining intuitive combat mechanics and fun, solid platforming and just plain fun riding around in those Titans. Also has perhaps one of the more innovative moments in an action game.

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6. Doom ; Doom digs for what made the original game so legendary and adds a modern flavor to it to exciting, hardcore results. Add to that a fun mechanic in the Glory Kill and a great, fitting metal soundtrack and you get one hell of a love letter.

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7. Mini Metro ; iOS version played. Discovered this after an Austin Walker tweet referencing it. Fun idea for a puzzle game with minimal but aesthetically pleasing visuals. As someone who frequents one of the largest subway networks in the world it’s also quite appealing.

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8. Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End ; Naughty Dog just knows how to create atmosphere and experiences and compelling characters and Uncharted 4 succeeds in all those phases.

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9. Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare ; It is easy to snicker at the thought of Call of Duty IN SPACE but nearly every set piece in the campaign is phenomenal. On top of that it tries to shake things up a bit with side objectives, space combat, and space and aerial dogfighting, a first for the series. One of the most fun experiences this year.

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10. Hyper Light Drifter ; I’m a sucker for Zelda-style exploration but the aesthetic won me over immensely. I’m typically blasé about certain pixel art styles nowadays but I love the ‘80s PC game look. Some tough combat, too.

x. Deus Ex: Mankind Divided ; Stealthily exploring nooks and crannies in a Deus Ex title always leads to fun surprises and who doesn't like unlocking superpowers? For a "stoic badass" archetype there's something intriguing and human about Adam Jensen. Not ranked because for as topical as the narrative is I felt it just didn't go far enough to feel meaningful and quite a few plot points are ass-pulled or forgotten about.
 
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