Clagnaught's Fashionably Late GOTY 2016 List

I started working on my 2016 GOTY blog back in December 2016. Yet here I am, almost in May 2017, looking at a half written, half rambling, still work in progress blog. Enough is enough, says I! Maybe I'll actually write up something when/if I do a 2016 retrospective, but for now I don't want to think about how I never published this dumb thing.

Here's my GOTY 2016 in list form, without the padded out commentary.

But first, some housekeeping:

Honorary Awards:

1. Old Game of the Year / One of the Biggest Reasons I Didn't Play More Games in 2016: Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 4 / Persona 4 Golden
2. Best Game I Wish I Had Other People to Play With, Presented by Helldivers: The Jackbox Party Pack 3
3. Best Game I Never Fully Committed To: Stardew Valley
4. Best Game I Suck At, Presented by Downwell: Devil Daggers
5. Best Game I Played Like Three-Fifteenths Of: Final Fantasy XV
6. Best Game That Makes Me Hate Myself: Egg, Inc.
7. Best Game I'm Not Sure I'll Finish: Uncharted 4: A Thief's End
8. Best Game I Almost Didn't Like: Inside
9. Best Game That's Not In My Top 10 That I Want To Give the Biggest Shoutout To Anyways: VOEZ
10. 2016's Unofficial Eleventh Best Game of the Year: Darkest Dungeon

Best Games I Didn't Play This Year:

1. Sid Meier's Civilization VI
2. The Jackbox Party Pack 3
3. Hyper Light Drifter
4. The Last Guardian
5. Nitroplus Blasterz: Heroines Infinite Duel
6. Odin Sphere Leifthrasir
7. Planet Coaster
8. Steins;Gate 0
9. Tokyo Mirage Sessions ♯FE
10. XCOM 2

The Runners Up (Unranked):

1. Darkest Dungeon
2. Final Fantasy XV
3. Glittermitten Grove
4. Inside
5. Reigns
6. Soft Body
7. Stardew Valley
8. Tomb of the Mask
9. Uncharted 4: A Thief's End
10. VOEZ

Game of the Year 2016 List:

10) That Dragon, Cancer: One of the most empathetic games I've ever played.

9) The Witness: A subtle puzzle game that makes you feel like a genius.

8) Firewatch: A well told, nuanced story starring two exceptionally portrayed characters.

7) Superhot: A game built around an ingenious mechanic, that is supported by creative storytelling and level design.

6) Doom: Although not the greatest campaign, it's incredible flow and gunplay make it one of the best playing games of the year.

5) VA-11 Hall-A: Cyberpunk Bartender Action: Perhaps the best realized world in gaming this year is also rounded out with a cool style, believable characters, funny and touching writing, and 2016's best soundtrack.

4) Titanfall 2: My favorite single player campaign of 2016 also includes one of my favorite first person shooter levels ever, Effect and Cause, a level so good and so innovative, I still can't comprehend how they managed to pull that off.

3) Hitman: Hitman is an exceptionally fun, silly, manic, and methodical game to play, that also turned into one of my favorite games to watch other people play (Thanks Sheikh Zanzibar).

2) Zero Time Dilemma: The final(?) chapter in the Zero Escape series arguably goes too far at times, but this crazy, melodramatic, and dread filled story is still one of the best times I've had with a videogame this year.

1) Overwatch: Overwatch is by far my favorite game from 2016. It's not even close. I would even put it somewhere on my shortlist of favorite games of all-time. I can go on and on about how much fun I've had with this game. The only thing I'll say is 2016 was a pretty rough year for me. So not only is Overwatch a great game in its own right, but it was the palette cleanser that gave me this weird sense of hope right when I needed it.