henke on 16/12/2018 at 19:16

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Look, we all played a bunch of new games this year. But which ones were THE BEST ONES, and IN WHAT ORDER? This is important stuff and we need to figure it out. Time to write some LISTS!

[video=youtube;UOCbE1XljLM]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UOCbE1XljLM[/video]
(and make videos, if you're an overdoer like me)

My Top 10:

10. FAR: Lone Sails (PC)
A journey across a wasteland in a big unweildy piece of machinery. Very much my kinda thing.

9. Wreckfest (PC)
The finest rammin' and slammin' of the year!

8. Into The Breach (PC)
Subset Games' latest is a very innovative slice of turn based gaming, but somehow it feels more impressive than enjoyable.

7. Forza Horizon 4 (PC)
This is simply a joy to play, whadaya want me to say? It was designed to be Car Heaven, and it is.

6. Sprint Vector (PC, VR)
It's been a good year for racing games but Survios' first person on-foot kart racer took the cake. The innovative movement system that means even a nausea-prone weakling like myself could run and jump at blistering speeds without a worry is remarkable on it's own, but on top of that it's a very fun and surprisingly deep racing game.

5. Far Cry 5 (PC)
If it weren't for RDR2, this would be my open world action game of the year. FC5 built on the previous entries and borrowed elements from other series as well. The buddy system may have spawned in FC2 but the one here reminds me more of MGS5. Driving around with my army buddies and taking over enemy camps was a blast. The story may be a load of nonsense, but the gameplay is pure bliss, and Dan Romer provided the best soundtrack of the year.

4. Valkyria Chronicles 4 (Switch)
What the Valkyria games do better than any other turn based strategy series is weaving the story very tightly into the missions. You always have a keen understanding of just what each battle means, both for the individual soldiers and for the bigger war effort.

3. Celeste (Switch)
I went in expecting a tough and satisfying platformer. What I did not expect was the wonderful narrative that came with it. Highly recommended to all platforming fans out there!

2. Red Dead Redemption 2 (PS4)
RDR2 delighted me with it's surpisingly deep Cowboy Simulator systems, even though it annoyed me with it's frustratingly linear story missions. But the wealth of content here means you can bury yourself in just the stuff you enjoy. Despite starting it on release day, I'm still only halfway through. It's a big damn game, and one I'll be enjoying for months to come.

1. Beat Saber (PC, VR)
At the start of the year I was hyped for a lot of games. Red Dead Redemption 2, Into The Breach, Far Cry 5. I was certainly not expecting my Game Of The Year to be a VR rhythm game where you slice cubes with a couple lightsabers, yet here we are. All those others are just great games, but Beat Saber is something truly fresh. Like Guitar Hero showed, rhythm games are best when there's a physical component to them. Something about hitting notes to the beat of the music coupled with the physical exertion results in endorphins flooding into your brain. This is a program designed to make you feel good, so it's fitting that it has a name that could win the 2018 award for "title that sounds the most like a euphemism for jacking off".


Honorable mentions:
Florence (iPad)
Picross S1+S2 (Switch)
Frozen Synapse 2 (PC)
Distance (PC)
Moss (PC, VR)
Minit (PC)
Steel Rats (PC)
In Death (PC, VR)
Headliner: Novinews (PC)
Red Matter (PC, VR)

Dishonorable mentions:
Jalopy - too finicky.
Flotilla 2 - too buggy.
The Fall 2 - too boring.
Budget Cuts - too wonky.
Creed: Rise To Glory - too not-any-fun.

Dishonored® mentions:
I played through both Dishonored® 2 AND Dishonored® 2: Death of the Outsider this year!

Still to play:
Spider-Man, Iconoclasts, Prey: Mooncrash, God Of War, Mutant Year Zero

Our previous Best Games Of The Year lists
(https://www.ttlg.com/forums/showthread.php?t=148501) 2017 | (http://www.ttlg.com/forums/showthread.php?t=147367) 2016 | (http://www.ttlg.com/forums/showthread.php?t=146083) 2015 | (http://www.ttlg.com/forums/showthread.php?t=144820) 2014 | (http://www.ttlg.com/forums/showthread.php?t=142865) 2013 | (http://www.ttlg.com/forums/showthread.php?t=140656) 2012 | (http://www.ttlg.com/forums/showthread.php?t=137856) 2011 | (http://www.ttlg.com/forums/showthread.php?t=134184) 2010

Ok, now go ahead tell me how wrong my list is because it doesn't have Dead Cells on it.

zajazd on 16/12/2018 at 19:50

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Thief fan missions and Fallout: New California :p

Tomi on 16/12/2018 at 20:52

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Top work with your favourite games video, as usual, henke! I don't usually care about lists like these, but yours are always a joy to watch. :D
If I played more than one or two new games a year, I might make some sort of a list too, but I guess there's no point now. Well let's see:

1. Kingdom Come: Deliverance (PC)
I've only played this for a couple of days, but so far I've been extremely impressed. I knew that Kingdom Come would be a special one, but it's still not at all what I expected it to be - this seems to be a fairly slow-paced RPG where you don't have quest markers floating around every other NPC's head and hidden treasures lying all over the map. I love it how they've clearly spent a lot of effort on all the little details and realism. It's so refreshing to see a game like this without magic and dragons and elves and other fantasy cliches! So far in the game the atmosphere has been gloomy and depressing, but in the best possible way. Life in the Middle Ages wasn't always that rosy, and Kingdom Come really doesn't try to hide the unpleasant sides of it. It's almost distressing at times. But the game world is breathtakingly beautiful and looks so real. I just love wandering around exploring places, even though there's usually not much to be found. I still haven't figured out the melee system and many other game mechanics, but I really like learning it all a little by little. I'm excited to find out how this game turns out!

<s>2. Underworld Ascendant</s>
I think this is the only other new game that I've played this year, but at the moment it's such a terrible mess that it doesn't deserve a place in my top 2.

icemann on 17/12/2018 at 01:58

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1. Dead Cells - This game had me COMPLETELY hooked for a long time. Very unique style, with it's combination of the 2D Castlevania's and Dark Souls. Love this game.

2. Ni No Kuni 2 - Still playing this, but nearing the end. Not too many JRPGs combine together a JRPG with town building, army fighting and traditional JRPG gameplay (dungeon crawling, questing etc), but this one does. The first game was excellent but lacked side content. This one on the other hand is packed to the brim with HEAPS of side content. Hell it's practically on "Skyrim" levels, as I spent 90% of my time with the game doing the side stuff.

3. Pillars of Eternity 2 - Excellent game. Plenty of content. One of the success stories for Kickstarter. Must return to this one at some point due to all the DLC and free content that's been added since my last visit. Played this one on release (which I don't usually do) and the game did not disappoint.

4. Timespinner - Excellent little Metroidvania style game. Just like with SOTN just when you think it's over. Nope that's the bad ending, keep playing. Going for the ultimate ending requires double the time investment.

If Observer had been a 2018 release I'd have included that as well.

Twist on 17/12/2018 at 02:36

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henke, despite the sin of no Obra Dinn in your list or video (https://i.somethingawful.com/forumsystem/emoticons/emot-colbert.gif), you're getting really, really good at editing these year-end videos together. Your off-game music selection, timing and rhythm is remarkable. Great work!

(I chuckled when the RDR2 snow scene synced with the lyric from the Far Cry 5 song.)