orthodoxy1095
Banned
Last year, I made a thread posing this same question, because year after year there are always people complaining about AAA games dominating GOTY voting:
And yet like clockwork, when Time's Top 10 of 2016 came out this year, there were dozens of posts saying "I've never heard of X," or "No DOOM disqualifies the list!" and a number of claims that the list was picking a bunch of "unknown" indies for clickbait purposes. So once again, we see the unfortunate place that list-makers are put in where if they include too many AAA games, they're derided for being too mainstream and if they put too many “artsy” indie games they're mocked for pretension (albeit by different crowds).
Of course the problem is that most of us can’t play every remotely "good" game that comes out in a year. So, given how year after year people inevitably whine about their favorite game being overlooked, and to prepare us for waves of GOTY lists with "controversial" omissions/inclusions, I wanted to ask what games you each think we should play before award season kicks it into higher gear. Give us a game (or two) that you think we really should play that might otherwise slip under the radar and help us cut down on the waves of whining about "hipster lists," and "clickbait"and "pretentiousness" and "never heard of X," etc!
Just like last year, please do not just driveby and dump the name of a game in the thread. We don't have a whole lot of time left in the year, and time is valuable for all of us. Tell us about the game that you're a fan of. Why might it be overlooked? Did it come out too early in the year or did the mainstream just not pick up on it? Did reviewers "misunderstand" it? What makes it so great? Is it your GOTY or just in your top 10? Why we should invest our precious time into the game you picked? Is it for a certain audience? Does it have some kind of special impact, say in terms of social messages?
This is your chance to make your case to the rest of us.
Take it it!
(Some of the year's less "Blockbuster-ish" releases that we might want to consider:
Salt and Sanctuary, Hearts of Iron IV, Planet Coaster, Kirby: Planet Robobot,
Stellaris, Dragon Quest Builders, Enter the Gungeon, Grim Dawn,
Tokyo Mirage Sessions, Tumblestone, Pocket Card Jockey, Odin Sphere Leifthrasir,
Pony Island, Starbound, Darkest Dungeon, Severed,
Abzu, BoxBoxBoy!, Crashlands, Tyranny,
That Dragon, Cancer, Unraveled, Steins;Gate 0, Stephen's Sausage Roll
1979 Revolution: Black Friday, This War of Mine: The Little Ones, Owlboy, Picross 3D Round 2
Offworld Trading Company, The Banner Saga 2, Homeworld: Deserts of Kharak, Pac-Man Championship Edition 2
Alienation, Shiren the Wanderer: The Tower of Fortune and the Dice of Fate, Shadow Warrior 2, Reigns,
I Am Setsuna, Yomawari: Night Alone, Assault Android Cactus, Clustertruck,
Killing Floor 2, Silence, American Truck Simulator, Samorost 3
Motorsport Manager, Quadrilateral Cowboy, Icey, SHENZHEN I/O)
And yet like clockwork, when Time's Top 10 of 2016 came out this year, there were dozens of posts saying "I've never heard of X," or "No DOOM disqualifies the list!" and a number of claims that the list was picking a bunch of "unknown" indies for clickbait purposes. So once again, we see the unfortunate place that list-makers are put in where if they include too many AAA games, they're derided for being too mainstream and if they put too many “artsy” indie games they're mocked for pretension (albeit by different crowds).
Of course the problem is that most of us can’t play every remotely "good" game that comes out in a year. So, given how year after year people inevitably whine about their favorite game being overlooked, and to prepare us for waves of GOTY lists with "controversial" omissions/inclusions, I wanted to ask what games you each think we should play before award season kicks it into higher gear. Give us a game (or two) that you think we really should play that might otherwise slip under the radar and help us cut down on the waves of whining about "hipster lists," and "clickbait"and "pretentiousness" and "never heard of X," etc!
Just like last year, please do not just driveby and dump the name of a game in the thread. We don't have a whole lot of time left in the year, and time is valuable for all of us. Tell us about the game that you're a fan of. Why might it be overlooked? Did it come out too early in the year or did the mainstream just not pick up on it? Did reviewers "misunderstand" it? What makes it so great? Is it your GOTY or just in your top 10? Why we should invest our precious time into the game you picked? Is it for a certain audience? Does it have some kind of special impact, say in terms of social messages?
This is your chance to make your case to the rest of us.
Take it it!
(Some of the year's less "Blockbuster-ish" releases that we might want to consider:
Salt and Sanctuary, Hearts of Iron IV, Planet Coaster, Kirby: Planet Robobot,
Stellaris, Dragon Quest Builders, Enter the Gungeon, Grim Dawn,
Tokyo Mirage Sessions, Tumblestone, Pocket Card Jockey, Odin Sphere Leifthrasir,
Pony Island, Starbound, Darkest Dungeon, Severed,
Abzu, BoxBoxBoy!, Crashlands, Tyranny,
That Dragon, Cancer, Unraveled, Steins;Gate 0, Stephen's Sausage Roll
1979 Revolution: Black Friday, This War of Mine: The Little Ones, Owlboy, Picross 3D Round 2
Offworld Trading Company, The Banner Saga 2, Homeworld: Deserts of Kharak, Pac-Man Championship Edition 2
Alienation, Shiren the Wanderer: The Tower of Fortune and the Dice of Fate, Shadow Warrior 2, Reigns,
I Am Setsuna, Yomawari: Night Alone, Assault Android Cactus, Clustertruck,
Killing Floor 2, Silence, American Truck Simulator, Samorost 3
Motorsport Manager, Quadrilateral Cowboy, Icey, SHENZHEN I/O)
)
