Game of the Year 2018

[Mister Jack]

Well the year is pretty much up now and everything worth mentioning has released, which means it's time to determine the picks for the 2018 game of the year.  I expect to see a lot of cowboys on here, but maybe I'll be surprised.  Now here's my picks to start.

 

GAME OF THE YEAR

This was a really good year for games, especially on the PS4, so I really had to think about what my personal favorite was.  Monster Hunter World might not be as ambitious as Red Dead Redemption 2 or as polished as God of War, but dollar for dollar no other game this year gave me more hours of entertainment than this one.  I've sunk 500+ hours into Monster Hunter World at this point, and hunting with friends is some of the best multiplayer fun I've had in years.  I can't wait for the expansion to drop.

 

RUNNER UP

If I picked my game of the year based on what title had the best show of quality, it would be God of War hands down.  I debated between this and Spider-Man, but Spider-Man did have a few dumb side missions and stealth sections that brought it down slightly, despite being excellent otherwise.  God of War was engaging throughout.  Kratos' development as a character is fascinating to witness if you're familiar with the older games, and the combat is nice and heavy without also feeling clunky or cumbersome.  That's not even getting into how beautiful everything looks or how the whole game is polished to a shine. 

 

If you're wondering why Red Dead Redemption 2 isn't here, it's because that game felt a little too ambitious for its own good.  It's a truly wonderful game, don't get me wrong, but for every two or three things it does right, there's one blatant flaw that brings it down, and said flaws are things that continue to bedevil you the entire time you play the game, making them impossible to ignore.  I love the story and the characters and being an outlaw is a ton of fun but oh my god why do I have to slowly pick all these herbs and why does the fast travel suck so much and god damn it the bounty system is so frustrating and these horse rides take forever and why does a game so devoted to realism arbitrarily prevent me from buying new guns. I would still recommend RDR2 to anyone, but I'd also tell them to brace themselves for a bit of a slog.

Edited December 27, 2018 by Mister Jack

[MetalCaveman]

I didn't play many games released this year, mostly been going through some of my backlog.  Still, out of the ones I did play here's my GOTY:

 

 

If you are not a fan of VC already, this one won't do much to sway you, that being said, if you do enjoy the series then there's some cool stuff here. The grenadier class specially brings some interesting possibilities with them, also there's some new orders, including some that you get after reaching a certain part of the story that are really fun to use.

 

The command feature is pretty cool too, allowing one of your units to "command" up to two others moving together on the field, this is great for when you want to set up support fire or escort weaker units to their target.

 

Tanks using only one CP this time around is great, the Cactus APC is cool, though kinda weak, and seeing how if it gets taken out all units inside will also be retired, it's kind of a gamble to use it, that being said, it was super helpful in a couple of missions.

 

Scout rushing is considerably less prominent, grenadiers being everywhere and being able to slow down any soldiers they hit means you're less likely to succeed if you just attempt to rush everything, it is still possible in certain missions, but much less OP than before.  

 

Story wise, it's been pretty much like VC1 in terms of tone, though I haven't made it far enough to fully comment on it and how it compares to previous entries in the series, so far it's been a pretty cool experience, outside of that one annoying character that doesn't seem to learn their lesson.  

Spoiler

Though at this point I'm pretty sure they will end up dead, no way you can go around bragging about being invincible/unkillable/the best at every chance you get and still make it out alive in the end.  

 

[Mal]

This song is not in the game (what's there is actually inferior) but makes total sense after everything is over in EDF 5. While the battle song is subpar, EDF 5 improves on practically everything from 4.1.

 

Taking place in what I assume is an alternative timeline, we actually fight aliens this time. These aliens, the frogs (I DEMAND ALIENS RIGHTS) and actual grey aliens, replace the classic EDF enemy: Hectors. While it saddens me that there are no Hectors but the aliens brings A LOT to the table. The frogs are the nearly 1:1 replacements to the Hectors with a twist: you can shoot off limbs for a much needed, if gory, layer of tactical crowd control. Of course they can regrow limbs but you can just one-hit kill them with a strong enough shot to the head. Easy enough. The grey aliens though, they wear armor. At minimum they take two well placed shots to kill. If not, prepare to stunlock them with excessive firepower. Oh yeah, these aliens know to flank you too... These two aliens poses a threat that the Hectors never were.

 

On the player's end, there is too many to even mention them all. My top three would be 1) the improved loot system where weapon crates means something (for weapon upgrades) and what is picked up can apply for all classes; 2) while still very powerful, the wing diver received a much needed check on how her weapons work so she's not completely OP; and 3) no more double stacking on weapons during loadout which in MP really changes things. Like there's many more improvements like how the fencer isn't stuck a with needing an dash cancel loadout now but yeah... I love a lot of the changes done with EDF 5.

 

A lot of craziness abound. Last mission spoiler:

Spoiler

You literally fight and kill Alien God.

 

I LOVE THIS SERIES SO MUCH

[TheMightyEthan]

 

I agree with everything @Mister Jack said about it, but somehow RDR2 manages to be much more than the sum of its parts.

 

Spider-Man is my runner-up. It's just so much fun, and really captures the feeling of being Spider-Man in the same way the Arkham games did for Batman.

[jayc4life]

I've on;y played a small handful of "2018 games" this year.

 

But after 278 hours of it since it came out on PC, Monster Hunter World is my Game Of The Year.

 

I have been dumping a lot of time into Assassin's Creed Odyssey though, since I got accepted into the Project Stream beta.

[danielpholt]

2018 was a weird one for me. I actually played more 2018 games than I thought I would, and there was some really good ones. However unlike previous years nothing really stole my attention. There was no Destiny, Rocket League, Overwatch or PUBG. Quality was high, but maybe its more to do with my own personal life, but for one reason or another I never fell in love with a game. As such: I'll present a top 5 games rather than an overall GOTY.

 

Red Dead II

Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker

Florence

Pokemon Lets Go

Marvels Spider-man

 

Again. I had a great time with all of these games, I'm just not sure any deserve the moniker of 'Game of the Year'

[TheMightyEthan]

What is Florence?

[danielpholt]

7 hours ago, TheMightyEthan said:

What is Florence?

 

It's a tiny mobile game about a relationship. The highs, lows and what happens after.

 

It's cute and for one reason or another really stuck with me. Looks great too.

[TheMightyEthan]

Hmm, I'll have to look into it 

[Mr. GOH!]

1. God of War.

2. RDR 2

3. The Return of the Obra Dinn

4. Into the Breach

5. Spider-Man

[danielpholt]

4 hours ago, Mr. GOH! said:

1. God of War.

2. RDR 2

3. The Return of the Obra Dinn

4. Into the Breach

5. Spider-Man

 

I didn't give Into The Breach a fair shake in 2018 but I've taken a look since the turn of the year and yeah, I think its got me. It's basically taken over from Rocket League as 'the game I play when I've got twenty minutes to kill'; and it's absolutely perfect at that.