The 2020 Gaming End of Year Thread

[RPS]

Bonjour, EWB

Another year has passed us by. And with the last major video game, Cyberpunk 2077, coming out this week I thought it was time to put up the end of the year thread! Also, the Game Awards are on Thursday! Games are so cool. Throughout the remainder of the year, I will post lists or picks for the top game of the year. Use this thread to debate those lists, talk about what you think was the top game of the year, post your own end year lists and talk about gaming in 2020. What a weird, bizarre time to play games. Feel free to talk about video and board games. 

• Metacritic is a fancy site that collects rankings of video games and tries to figure out which was the most acclaimed of the year. https://www.metacritic.com/browse/games/score/metascore/year/all/filtered. Currently, Persona 5 Royal is the top of game of the year. But that is an old game released with the complete version and some new DLC. The top new game of the year is the Last of Us Part 2 according to Metacritic. 
• The Game Awards are coming up on Thursday. https://thegameawards.com/. They have a variety of categories, but their Game of the Year has nominated Doom Eternal, Final Fantasy VII Remake, Ghosts of Tsushima, Hades, Animal Crossing, and the Last of Us Part 2. The Game Awards, like the Grammys, have a weird calendar so unfortunately Cyberpunk 2077 and other November releases will be considered next year .
• Open Rankings also has a running list of the best review rankings for the year. Hades is topping their list at the moment! What a great game that was.  
• Board Game Geek has an ongoing tally of the best ranked games on their site. https://boardgamegeek.com/browse/boardgame. Currently Gloomhaven: Jaws of the Lion is the best board game released this year, but that is an expansion on the widely popular Gloomhaven franchise. A Game called On Mars appears to be the next highly ranked game of this year on the list. I love me some board games, but am not up to date on them so I hope some of our more enlightened members can share some lists or other outlets best Board Games of the year. 

So there is where we stand at the moment. It will be interesting to see when most major publications start giving their Game of the Year designations. The three favorites are likely Animal Crossing for the Nintendo and kid friendly crowd, Hades for those who love a fantastic indie game and The Last of Us Part 2 for those who love gritty and dark story telling. Also, since this is the wrap-up thread try to keep major spoilers for games released this year in spoilers. 

[ChrisSteeleAteMyHamster]

A few years back, with something of a backlog of games to work through, I started delaying my purchase of new games by 6-12 months. I had to learn to ignore the inner feelings of missing out, but it meant I could pick up RDR2, Death Stranding, Farcry 5 etc for £15 or so.

 

However it also means that my end of year lists are always badly lacking for releases from the year.

Cyberpunk 2077 will be the first time I've dropped over £40 on a game since....Blood and Truth.

 

The game I've played most this year? No Man's Sky VR. Still my favourite game of the generation.

[stokeriño]

35 minutes ago, RPS said:

Currently, Persona 5 Royal is the top of game of the year. But that is an old game released with the complete version and some new DLC.

What's even more ridiculous is that the best game I've played this year is probably the Steam release of Persona 4 Golden...

[Bobfoc]

I always have to wait a few years to catch up before I can confidently say what my favourite game released in a specific calendar year was. However, I've actually experienced more new games this year than usual, thanks in part to Game Pass. I'd put down Gears Tactics, OOTP 21, Microsoft Flight Simulator, Wasteland 3, Tell Me Why and Crusader Kings 3 as some of my favourites that I got day one on that service.

Beyond that, Dreams, The Last of Us Part II and Final Fantasy VII Remake were enjoyable on the PS4, while Animal Crossing on the Switch has given me a lot of pleasure.

The games I'd like to play, but won't be able to yet, include Hades, Crash Bandicoot 4, the Tony Hawk remake, Astro's Playroom and maybe Persona 5 Royal.

[LUKIE]

I jumped back into TF2.

And that's my year.

[Ruki]

For me, my favorite game of the year was Final Fantasy 7 Remake. I never really cared about FF7 over the past 20 years, but the remake just made it click for me. Actually made me go back and play the original on Gamepass (still the best bang for your buck in gaming). The second was Persona 5 Royal... put another 120 hours into that series! So good.

 

For a NOT remake/remaster, Last of Us 2 was top notch! Great acting, great gameplay, great story. Astros Playroom was also a lovely surprise.

I've also pretty much completely dropped League of Legends, but have picked up Legends of Runeterra, their card game.

[RPS]

The best new game of the year is probably Monster Train (shoutout @Azazel). What a fantastic game! If you liked Slay the Spire or the other unusual rouge likes, check it out. 

Outside of Monster Train, I would say Hades was the best major game I played that I thought was GOTY worthy. Animal Crossing was cute fun. I watched my partner play the Last of Us 2 and thought the story was a snooze. Gears Tactics was great, but not GOTY worthy. I played a bunch of indie games via Game Pass that were fine. 

The game I played the most of this year was the game I have played the most of every year since it came out - Overwatch. I boot it up every few months, play it obsessively for a few weeks and stop. Overwatch is my definition of a perfect game. 

One of the most fun gaming experiences I had this year was playing Mario Galaxy again with the 3D All Star Collection. What a fantastic game. 

 

[Azazel]

I currently have 242 hours into Monster Train and have done every possible thing in the game, so ya, I would put that as my #1

[MalaCloudy Black]

Monster Train is a pretty good shout. So is Hades. 

[Josh]

I spent most of the year either playing a couple of elite old puzzle games (The Witness and The Talos Principle) with my wife or going back to RDR2 to truly do a completionist run, which I did finish. Haven't played RDR2 since. Truly great puzzle games are just few and far-between.

The only new game for this year I've gotten into is Fall Guys, which has been really refreshing. It's easy to pick up arcade play, simple but elegant platforming, and a fun-Nintendo-esque aesthetic.

Oh! And the new Jackbox Party Pack 7 is really fun. Blather 'Round was a really welcome addition.

And surely Among Us counts as well, right? It's a fun little mobile game and a cultural phenomenon.

I imagine Fall Guys, Among Us, Jackbox, and Talos Principle (we're on the DLC now) will be all we play through the end of the year, plus perhaps a new (to us) puzzle game.

For our wedding, we were gifted two different Switch games (Animal Crossing and Untitled Goose Game) that I'd love to play, but, uh. No one got us a Switch and we can't really afford one just yet.

[Liam]

2 hours ago, How The Cloud Stole Christ said:

Monster Train is a pretty good shout. So is Hades. 

I was wondering how far I would have to go to see Hades on the list. An excellent game.

[King Ellis]

My game of the year was Animal Crossing, if only by default. I went into a little more depth about it at the time in the Nintendo thread but it kinda ran out of steam with me as it's very much once of those 'make your own fun' kinda games past a certain points which I don't really get on with. Call me Mr Lack of Imagination I guess.

[Ruki]

10 minutes ago, YuKing CornEllis said:

My game of the year was Animal Crossing, if only by default. I went into a little more depth about it at the time in the Nintendo thread but it kinda ran out of steam with me as it's very much once of those 'make your own fun' kinda games past a certain points which I don't really get on with. Call me Mr Lack of Imagination I guess.

I'm the same way, honestly. One of the reasons I could never get into Minecraft.

[OctoberRaven]

Death Stranding was the best game I've played in the last 365 days, with the only thing that may knock it off is the one I intend on playing after work tomorrow. Deadly Premonition, Divinity: Original Sin 1, Vampyr, Yakuza Kiwami and Mankind Divided were also highlights of my gaming year.

[Ruki]

1 hour ago, BayOROnetta said:

Death Stranding was the best game I've played in the last 365 days, with the only thing that may knock it off is the one I intend on playing after work tomorrow. Deadly Premonition, Divinity: Original Sin 1, Vampyr, Yakuza Kiwami and Mankind Divided were also highlights of my gaming year.

Death Stranding certainly was something.

[Bobfoc]

The Game Awards are tonight (well, midnight tomorrow for GMT folks). I don't really care about the awards themselves, but there will be around a dozen game announcements. Microsoft will have a couple, but have asked fans to keep their expectations low, while Nintendo will be announcing the next Smash Bros. DLC character.

[RPS]

I would be shocked if The Last Of Us 2 did not win the big one. But I am more excited for the reveals! 

[Ruki]

1 hour ago, RPS said:

I would be shocked if The Last Of Us 2 did not win the big one. But I am more excited for the reveals! 

Same. On both fronts.

Also gonna be a Dragon Age announcement. 

[Bobfoc]

One of the presenters is going to be the Swedish Chef from The Muppets. After interviewing ALF and Miss Piggy over the summer, I think we can say that Geoff Keighley has some strange friends. Hideo Kojima is the strangest, of course.

[Your Mom]

So is this where we talk about the VGAs? All I need is that Dragon Age reveal!  Oh and on topic I hated Death Stranding and am still bitter I paid $60 for that thing. Kojima has used up the last of my childhood goodwill for him