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Forums - Gaming Discussion - 2019, Game of the Year

 

2019, Game of the Year

Disco Elysium 2 3.08%
 
Devil May Cry 5 0 0%
 
Outer Wilds 2 3.08%
 
Resident Evil 2 (Remake) 20 30.77%
 
Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice 11 16.92%
 
Untitled Goose Game 3 4.62%
 
Astral Chain 6 9.23%
 
Fire Emblem: Three Houses 7 10.77%
 
Luigi's Mansion 3 5 7.69%
 
Other (please specify) 9 13.85%
 
Total:65

Year of great expectations for me, with mixed results.

Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, being made by From Software should've been something I would really like. I didn't. Neither Souls gameplay nor overall brilliance of  of Souls' levels was there  - I know, it is "completely" different game, but ultimately, I couldn't get myself to play it more than few days until I quit.

The Outer Worlds was a no brainer - made by Obsidian, AKA ex Interplay/Black Isle folks, who made original Fallout, and being a sort of "space Fallout", it should've been a game I would love. I didn't. It was fairly enjoyable experience, but not great.

Metro Exodus was OK. It went linear wide approach (linear progression, with mostly big areas to explore at every train stop), and while being pretty fun to play, it lost pretty much all of the survival horror feel of the first Metro game (which was, admittedly, already happening in sequel, Metro: Last Light).

Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order was interesting game. It aspired to be Soulslike, and in the most part it was, except it was made for mainstream audience, and there was difficulty slider, so you pretty much didn't have to play it as one, thus it suffered from a sort of a crisis of identity. Quite entertaining in the end actually, with some pretty good levels (planets).

Outer Wilds was something I didn't think I'd like very much, given that I 'm not a fan of time loop in games, but ended up liking it.

Another game that surprised me, given that I actively avoided anything Last of Us alike, was A Plague Tale: Innocence. But the setting (mid 14-th century France, in the time of bubonic plague, with some additional fantasy things going on) and actual gameplay, which I though was much better than TLoU kept me hooked and I ended up liking it quite a bit (sequel not so much).

Resident Evil 2 was more of a "ok, let's give it a try", not expecting anything. By the RE1 came out, I already, more or less, lost interest in survival horror games, so my record with both RE and SH is very spotty. Needless to say, I was very pleasantly surprised with this remake. I don't remember original, not sure if I even played it or not, so I have no idea how it compares, but remake was very good experience for me.

I enjoyed another remake, The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening, and wish Nintendo hires Grezzo to do more of these 2D remakes.

CRPG/WRPGs had only a solid year - Encased: A Sci-Fi Post-Apocalyptic RPG stands out as CRPG that year (being inspired by games like Fallout and Wasteland), Pathologic 2 as open world horror RPG and Greedfall as first a bit more higher budget entry for Spiders, which, though full of flaws, has its charm and was enjoyable experience.

Oh, did I said only solid? It would only be that, it it wasn't for one game, which is also my vote for GotY - Disco Elysium. This is very unusual and non-traditional RPG, with not only great underlying system, but spectacularly flashed out setting and great writing and characters, backed up by great art. It pretty much doesn't have combat (though there are combat roll skill checks), and is focused instead of investigating and talking with people, giving you plethora of options how to solve the case, depending on what type of character you decided to play, thus having different stats in your 24 skills (6 skills for each of 4 attributes). This is quite TTRPG styled game (no surprises there, given it came out of TTRPG campaign that devs ran for years) and really comes as refreshing and innovative take in VG CRPG sphere, where most games are influenced by D&D system or gameplay loops (unlike TTRPGs, where this type of games are fairly common).

This would be my favourite game of that year as well...if it was not for another RPG that I liked more - Outward. This is small budget open-world RPG with lot of survival gameplay mechanisms, that are just about the right amount to not make it a survival game, and yet enough to not make survival ever trivial. Small budget does show, and it feels very Euro-janky (although it's made by Canadian studio Nine Dots), you know, that type of games that come from mostly smaller European devs (hence the name) that have a lot of great ideas, but implementation and polish is often not quite up to the task. Yet I found its exploration and gameplay to be so engrossing, with survival mechanisms incorporated superbly in every aspect of the gameplay. Without knowing where you are (although having map, but no marker for your position), you really have to pay attention where are you going and to learn what the world around you looks like. Your back pack will encumber you, so you better drop it to the ground to fight more effectively - just remember where you dropped it, and pay attention your enemy doesn't steal it. You got hurt? Your max health will decrease, not just your current health. Same with stamina. And so on (including cold, heat, disease, fatigue...).

And then on top of that you get to play it in 2 player coop, if you want. And I did, and that made it all the better - just being lost sometimes, and trying to figure out with your co-player where you are, and the night is falling, and you're beaten up, gave me more fun than most 10/10 games. It is far from perfect game. It is far from even a great game. It is very niche game, for fairly specific type of gamers. But foundation is very good and, given that is has solid fan base (some 1M+ copies sold), I'm really hoping for sequel that makes it even better.



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So, to me this is a hard year, there are some good games but prehaps not great games. Yet there is one game officially release this year that does stand out to me and that's todays sponsor, Raid: Shadow Lege....

I kid (apparently main official release of it was 2019).

Of the list me 300 hours in Slay the Spire puts that on top.



Hmm, pie.

We were on a small streak of good years and now we reached a kinda bad one.
I enjoyed Astral Chain, Bloodstained, RE2R and I guess my GOTY would be FE3Houses, Sekiro was fine, but tbh I dont think any game of this year makes my top50. They are fine, I just dont find them that memorable. 



Resident Evil 2 gets my vote, although I still haven't played Astral Chain or Bloodstained, both of which I need to get eventually.



Capcom had a fantastic year. Devil May Cry had an awesome return to form and for my pick of the year, Resident Evil 2! Capcom showing the potential of what a proper remake can accomplish to decades old games.

The sense of claustrophobia made you feel so uneasy and playing with headphones hearing Mr. X’s footsteps getting louder the closer he got to you put me on a terrifying edge lol. Masterpiece!



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A lot of pretty good games this year, especially for action fans: RE2, Sekiro, DMC5, Astral Chain, Bloodstained...



 

 

 

 

 

Had to think about this for a moment, but I think the one I'm going for is Control. Close runner-ups would be A Plague Tale: Innocence, Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night, Kingdom Hearts III, and Luigi's Mansion. Not the best year for me.



A lot of interesting games this year that I want to play, but haven't yet. The Outer Worlds, Outer Wilds, Sekiro, Untitled Goose Game and especially Disco Elyssium. Of the ones I have played, Resident Evil 2 Remake made the biggest impression, pretty much a flawless survival horror game, and probably my favorite in the RE engine, although 7 comes close.
Also really enjoyed Gears 5 and I am currently playing Blasphemous, which getting close to dethroning RE2.
I also played Control, but only for 2-3 hours, few games have irritated me as much as that one, couldn't stand it.



It's gotta be Fire Emblem: Three Houses
After the great but bloated and disappointing Fire Emblem Fates, Three Houses is almost an equal to Awakening. I dug the social stuff, and the battles were better than ever.



Lifetime Sales Predictions 

Switch: 161 million (was 73 million, then 96 million, then 113 million, then 125 million, then 144 million, then 151 million, then 156 million)

PS5: 115 million (was 105 million) Xbox Series S/X: 48 million (was 60 million, then 67 million, then 57 million)

PS4: 120 mil (was 100 then 130 million, then 122 million) Xbox One: 51 mil (was 50 then 55 mil)

3DS: 75.5 mil (was 73, then 77 million)

"Let go your earthly tether, enter the void, empty and become wind." - Guru Laghima

Imma gonna take Three Houses side today. Game kinda turned the heads of a lot of people to the series when they actually decided to take all of it's aspects of writing while having decent enough the gameplay feedback to feed it's social aspects both off and on the field.

The war of these 3 lords is a memory itch into everyone at the time.



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