What's the GOTY so Far?

Hades is easily in my top 5. The other 4 are kinda up in the air. Lotta good stuff this year but Hades is incredible.

It’s still pending for me because I haven’t played Hades or Cyberpunk yet, but here it is:

5.) Animal Crossing New Horizons- I definitely would recommend this to people who have busy schedules. You can play this game for 30min-1hr and still get enjoyment.

4.) Ghosts of Tsushima- Nothing special in the design of this game, a open world with different lists of things you do, but it executes it very well. The story is good, and the four stance system I think works well.

3.) Streets of Rage 4- I thought I grew out of beat em ups, clearly I learned I wasn’t last year with River City Girls. I was for sure that game would be unique, but lo and behold, Streets of Rage 4 came out and that game is pure heart and all fun. I never got tired of beating goons down with Cherry. A great return to form.

2.) FFR7- This game is flawed in some ways. It does feel a bit padded at certain points, side quests are bit of a chore. I don’t have a PS4Pro, so the game can look a little rough with pop up rendering. And yes, being stuck in Midgar is a bit of a letdown, but holy crap the combat is bliss. The materia system is awesome, and the boss fights are the best I have seen since the Souls games. I liked the revised story, I like the new mysteries, and I loved this game. I cannot wait to see part 2, and FF16. I think this game pivoted in the right direction for the franchise.

1.) Coffee Talk- Its seems every year I have a game that completely takes me by surprise, and this was it. I got it on Xbox Gold earlier in the year, and while I don’t think it will be everyone’s cup of tea (or coffee), it really sunk its claws into me. The juxtaposition of high fantasy elements mixed with real modern world aesthetics is a very interesting premise. The game is very subtle and low key. Even though the game is a text based, dialogue heavy game, it captures the magic of Ace Attorney in a similar way. Even though the animations are minimal, you can get a sense of the tone and weight each character carries by their body language alone. The entire time you are witnessing their lives play out, and these strangers who you meet on a individual basis meet each other at points and affect each other in very interesting ways. Out of everything I have played, a text heavy game about orcs,elves, and werewolf’s getting coffee in Seattle was something that resonated with me the most. 2020 has been weird.

I think Hades wins because its the critics' darling this year...

But for me it is hands down Ghost of Tsushima. Best game by far in my opinion. To me, everything else has serious flaws (not that GoT is perfect, because it has issues).

@colinstros55:

I agree, Ghosts if Tsushima is both uniquely innovative and archaic at the same time. It very much has the same tired open world tropes in design, but it’s still very fun and interesting. It was a comfy game for me and I liked it.

@wmoyer83: My main gripe with this and most other open world games is that mission structure is pretty poor. Ride to a place, talk to a person, ride somewhere else, kill some baddies, ride back, and repeat. Juxtaposed agains the hand-crafted nature of non-open world games, this sort of design (to me) is disappointing.

Clubhouse Games or FF7 Remake. I'd say Persona 5 Royal (which rebalanced plenty more than I thought it would) but that's kind of cheating.

Hades
Deep Rock Galactic