The 2016 Game of the Year is Doom.
The runner up is Dark Souls III.
The master thread for all of these contests can be found here.

There needs to be a runoff vote for 2016.  Three games made the cut to the runoff round and they are joined by two new games from write-in votes.  First, here are the three games that made the cut:

Pokémon Go (Mobile)
The annual, amazing Nintendo game for 2016 wasn’t on the Wii U or the 3DS.  Pokémon Go brought Augmented Reality to the mainstream and it also brought millions of people outside to look for Pokémon on their phones.  Nintendo’ stock price jumped by 50% just a few days after the release of the game even though Nintendo only had a 32% share in the Pokémon Company.  By the end of 2020 Pokémon Go had generated over 600 million unique downloads and had generated over $4.1 billion in revenue.

Dark Souls III (PS4/XB1/PC)
Miyazaki returns to direct his first Dark Souls game since the original one in 2011.  He also said that this would be the last Dark Souls game, although other games with the Dark Souls DNA have been released since 2016.  Dark Souls III has sold over 10 million copies.

Persona 5 (PS4/PS3)
Joaquin Pheonix has nothing on this Joker.  Persona 5 initially scored a 93 on Metacritic with the Royal version scoring 95 on PS4.  The game (including Royal version) has sold over 7.2 million copies.

Here are the two new games from write-in votes:

Doom (PS4/XB1/PC)
After a long hiatus, the series that popularized the FPS genre returns in this fourth installment.  Doom (2016) has sold over 10 million copies across all platforms.

Ys VIII: Lacrimosa of Dana (Vita)
Adol Christin has been around since the 80’s, and he just can’t stop having new adventures.  Ys VIII released on the humble Vita platform in 2016, but it has been released on many other platforms since then.

Runoff voting for 2016 Game of the Year will end on Sunday, Dec 17 at 11:59 PM, EST.

Games that didn't make the cut:

Pokémon Sun/Moon (3DS)
Dishonored 2 (PS4/XB1/PC)
Inside (PS4/XB1/PC)
Overwatch (PS4/XB1/PC)
Stardew Valley (PS4/XB1/PC/Mac/Linux)
Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End (PS4)

Here are some other notable games from 2016:

Clash Royale (Mobile)
Gardenscapes (Mobile)
Lineage2: Revolution (Mobile)
Lords Mobile (Mobile)
Honkai Impact 3rd (Mobile)
Super Mario Run (Mobile)
Owlboy (PC)
Pony Island (PC/Mac/Linux)
Shadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun (PC/Mac/Linux)
Stephen's Sausage Roll (PC/Mac/Linux)
Total War: Warhammer (PC/Linux)
Kirby: Planet Robobot (3DS)
Miitopia (3DS)
Yo-kai Watch 3 Sushi/Tempura (3DS)
Digimon World: Next Order (Vita)
Ys VIII: Lacrimosa of Dana (Vita)
Tadpole Treble (Wii U/PC/Mac/Linux)
The Banner Saga 2 (PS4/XB1/PC/Mac/Mobile)
Battlefield 1 (PS4/XB1/PC)
Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare (PS4/XB1/PC)
Darkest Dungeon (PS4/Vita/PC/Mac/Linux)
Deus Ex: Mankind Divided (PS4/XB1/PC/Linux)
Doom (PS4/XB1/PC)
Dragon Quest Builders (PS4/PS3/Vita)
Final Fantasy XV (PS4/XB1)
Forza Horizon 3 (XB1/PC)
Gears of War 4 (XB1/PC)
Hyper Light Drifter (PS4/XB1/PC/Mac/Linux)
Ratchet and Clank (PS4)
Shantae: Half-Genie Hero (PS4/XB1/Wii U/Vita/PC)
Thumper (PS4/PC/VR)
Titanfall 2 (PS4/XB1/PC)
The Witness (PS4/XB1/PC)
X-Com 2 (PS4/XB1/PC/Mac/Linux)
Yakuza 6 (PS4)

Pretty good year. Although for me, nothing topped the triumphant return of id Software with Doom! It was everything I loved about id growing up, but perfectly modernized!

Although I did put a lot of hours in Overwatch, Titanfall 2, Battlefield 1, and Total War: Warhammer. I also really enjoyed Dishonored 2 and Uncharted 4.

Doom

At a time when so much of the genre had become stale, Doom was a fresh of fresh air; it brought back the best of old school shooter sensibilities and enfused them with a modern touch to produce a fearsome hybrid that was pure awesome.

Pretty lackluster year imo. Ill give it to Dark Souls 3 even though that is my least favorite Souls game. It still has some great things in it. Especially some bosses in the last DLC.

EDIT: I did forget about Doom, but its close between that and DS3 anyway.

Stardew Valley. Although, I barely played the original PC version, I spent more time playing it local multiplayer on Switch that came out a few years later (along with Don’t Starve Together, my other favourite indie local multiplayer game on the console).

Shout out to Pokémon Go for being the first Pokémon game that numerous people around my age got into - which is slightly older than the age group that the original game targeted (I was already in my mid teens when that one came out, and not many people my age were interested).

At the time I supported Overwatch for Game of the Year, but seeing some of the changes that came to it later, I'm not so sure I can still call it GOTY for 2016. Out of the poll options I have played other than Overwatch, Dishonored 2 was the best with Uncharted 4 right behind and then Pokemon Sun/Moon. Going into adding non-poll options, I would rate 2016 like this currently:

1. Dishonored 2
2. Forza Horizon 3
3. Uncharted 4
4. Overwatch
5. Deus Ex Mankind Divided
6. Pokemon Sun/Moon

For me personally, Grim Dawn. At nearly 400 hours played, it's my third-most-played game on Steam, and for a good reason. I don't love the setting (especially compared to Titan Quest, which... I guess you could call a very close relative), but other than that, what the game does, it does really well.

I don't generally like to badmouth games in these votes, but Doom will have to be an exception. On the surface, it has a lot of what the old Doom games had. In practice, I don't think it feels anything like the old games, and I don't like what it does. I especially don't like the glory kills, which really try to be cool but are annoying as a game mechanic and annoying to watch over and over again. I haven't played Brutal Doom, but judging by what I've seen, the 2016 Doom is a descendant of Brutal Doom instead of the vanilla Doom games from the 90s. Anyway, enough of that, just venting (some of) my frustration with the game - really disappointed with what was done with the franchise, and probably wouldn't mind the game if it was called something else.

For impact, Pokemon Go would have to get my vote, but Grim Dawn is so much better that I can't really vote for Pokemon Go this year. In case it was still somehow unclear, Grim Dawn gets my vote.

By the way, here is how 2016 GOTY worked out at the time according to a GOTY tracker, based on total number of awards won by each game, for all games that got at least 2 GOTY awards:

Uncharted 4: A Thief's End - 165

• The Critics' Picks - 89
• The Readers' Picks - 76

Overwatch - 102

• The Critics' Picks - 90
• The Readers' Picks - 12

DOOM - 29

• The Critics' Picks - 26
• The Readers' Picks - 3

Battlefield 1 - 16

• The Critics' Picks - 6
• The Readers' Picks - 10

The Last Guardian - 15

• The Critics' Picks - 15

INSIDE - 12

• The Critics' Picks - 12

Dark Souls III - 12

• The Critics' Picks - 9
  
• The Readers' Picks - 3

Final Fantasy XV - 9

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt - Blood and Wine - 9

Dishonored 2 - 8

The Witness - 7

Titanfall 2 - 5

Hitman - 3

Pokémon GO - 3

XCOM 2 - 3

SUPERHOT - 2

Another slow year of iterations until October came around.

We did finally get to play the long awaited The Last Guardian. Love it, but it ranks below Ico and SotC which are both in my top 10, currently TLG sits at #21 in my top 50. I was playing through it again on PS5 without the fps drops but got distracted, still played through it twice on PS4 pro.



The VR teaser was great as well. I wish they would have continued and make the full game for VR.


Uncharted 4 was also great. I still find Uncharted 2 the best of the bunch, however Uncharted 4 had plenty highs as well and not really any lows. Well I might change my mind yet, looking through my screenshots I wouldn't mind replaying U4 again. Definitely stands above the 3rd and 1st one.

From lots of fun with the jeep


To roaming around a crowded village


Epic storm


And some actual chemistry on screen, these 2 deserve another outing imo


Shout out to No Man's Sky. I already enjoyed it for what it was at release and it only kept on building on top of it. Looks great on PSVR2 as well after they added  eye tracked foveated rendering. Sure the galaxy wasn't as interesting to explore as in Elite Dangerous and felt too samey after a while. But it did have good variety in worlds and interesting story lines to uncover.

Fire Watch also came out in 2016, I only played that a few years ago. Great game!

Superhot was also very cool, even better in VR though! But that came in 2017.

Yes from October on I was completely hooked on PSVR, bought the ps4 pro a month later as well to get the most out of it.
Rez Infinite blew my mind, it's perfect in VR. The boss battle with the 'running man' is a highlight I enjoy replaying any time. And then there's Area X

Playing that again on PSVR2 had my jaw hit the floor again. The now crystal clear HDR graphics still make it stand out as one of the most impressive experiences in VR. It's a 20 minute level or so at most, but pure awesomeness.

My vote goes to other "Rez Infinite".

If that doesn't count (since Rez released in 2001) my vote goes to Thumper, incredible rhythm game.


PSVR renewed my interest in gaming and made me feel like I was back in '98 again. So many new experimental games.
Back to RE4 on PSVR2 now :)