Games of the Year 2017 (Updated)

An important update to this list has occurred. Details at the end :O

My list this year is, with permission, using the categories from over at discourse.zone. I'm bad at preamble so let's just get into it!

Where applicable, I'll list one or two runners-up for each category. Because it was a hell of a year for games.

Favourite Big Developer Game

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild

There isn't much to say here that hasn't already been said. This game is incredible and- having had time to think about it and sit with it- I'm pretty confident saying it's one of the best games ever made. I completed the main story and all 120 shrines twice this year, and still intend to go back for the expansion content that's been added.

We talk a lot about how, as kids and teens, we'd play a single game for weeks and get completely absorbed, and how that goes away as we get older. My fondest memories of games from those days are with the early 3D Zelda games: Ocarina of Time and Majora's Mask. It's been 17 years since those games hit, and Breath of the Wild took me back to that time more effectively than anything ever has. It's extraordinary.

Runner-Up: Playerunknown's Battlegrounds

Here's a thing that is true about me: I don't really like multiplayer games. Here's another thing that is true about me: I spent around 180 hours playing PUBG this year, a multiplayer-only game about air dropping onto an island with 99 other humans and trying to be the last one standing. I've won a match exactly one time.

I will continue to play it for the foreseeable future. In a year without Zelda it would easily have been my favourite.

Favourite Small Developer Game

Getting Over It with Bennett Foddy

This is a tiny game by one person about climbing a ridiculous mountain as a man who lives in a cauldron and moves with a sledgehammer.

While you play as this hammer cauldron man, creator Bennett Foddy talks about why he made the game, encourages you when you make a mistake, and is just generally lovely.

You can play this game for an hour and then lose 100% of your progress because you swung the hammer wrong and fell all the way back to the beginning. It's great.

Runner-Up: Battlestar Galactica: Deadlock

The re-imagined Battlestar Galactica series ended nine years ago. It always bummed me out that there was never a good video game adaptation, but clearly I just wasn't patient enough, because here it is! Deadlock is a brilliant turn-based naval strategy game that also nails the aesthetic of the modern BSG show. The sound design is dead on, the music isn't Bear McCreary but it's a passable imitation, and the game even generates replays of every battle that mimic the show's unique shaky-cam style. It's a great strategy game on its own, and a real treat for a long-time fan of BSG.

Favourite Narrative

Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus

There's some bias here, because 2017 was 2017 and this is a game about shooting a lot of Nazis. But much like its predecessor The New Order I think it backs up the premise with a compelling narrative full of memorable characters.

The New Colossus very much feels like the middle of a trilogy, but this is the story I was most excited to see the next chapter of, and it didn't disappoint.

Favourite Moment

Winning a match in Playerunknown's Battlegrounds

If you're not familiar with PUBG, the premise is pretty simple: 100 players air drop onto a huge island filled with buildings, guns, and equipment to scavenge. The play area slowly shrinks, and the winner is the last person standing.

It's tense, brutal, and quiet until it isn't. I played regularly for months before I actually won a game, and I haven't won one since, but I still play. After 40 minutes of increasing tension and sweat, that victory had me jumping out of my seat. I'll never stop chasing a second one!

Runner-Up: New Donk City Festival in Super Mario Odyssey

Super Mario Odyssey is a killer Mario game in every respect- but I can't forget this particular moment that hearkens back to the 2D games with a stunning 3D backdrop and the game's absurd theme music. The whole game is a delight, but there's nothing quite like this sequence before or after. It's impossible to hit this part without a big goofy smile on your face.

Favourite Game Music

Persona 5

This is a heck of a category for me to pick a winner in, because there was a lot of great music in games this year. But there's only one soundtrack I keep going back to and listening to outside the game, and that's Persona 5. It's lucky too, because I kind of actively dislike this game and there's no other category I'd nominate it for*. Damn if it isn't a great soundtrack though. We'll always have that.

Runners-Up:

Destiny 2

The music of Bungie's Halo series has always been some of my favourite, thanks in large part to their composer Marty O'Donnell- who left the company after Destiny. So I wasn't sure if I'd like the music of Destiny 2, as the first Bungie game in years to have a soundtrack that didn't involve O'Donnell. But without belabouring the point, I think they nailed it. It might even be better than their past soundtracks in some spots.

Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus

The New Colossus is honestly disqualified from winning this category because the song that plays over its end credits is spectacularly, hilariously bad. But gosh this main menu theme is a jam.

Favourite Characters

Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus

A game about saving the world from Nazis doesn't need to do much heavy lifting to make you root for its heroes- "They aren't Nazis" is kind of enough. But The New Colossus sees fit to go the extra mile anyway.

The Kreisau Circle is a ragtag band of lovable, diverse, surprising characters brought together by a mutual drive to kill as many Nazis as possible. The cast of The New Colossus is even more memorable than they were in the previous game, and newcomers like Grace Walker and Sigrun Engel are high points of the series so far.

Favourite Aesthetic

Persona 5

*that was a lie.

Alright look, I know I said I don't like this game, and that's true. I don't like playing it, I don't like any of the characters, I think its politics are somewhere from iffy to actively bad.

But the music is great, and style/animation are rad as hell. Credit where it's due. Look at that fuckin' menu animation. Just fuckin' look at it. It's not my fault ok? It's great.

My Top 10 Games of 2017

And now, the ordered list of my 10 Games of the Year. All of these games are great and you should play all of them, even if I don't have much more to say about them. See you next year!

10. Battlestar Galactica: Deadlock

9. Yakuza 0

8. Universal Paperclips

7. Steamworld Dig 2

6. Super Mario Odyssey

5. Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice

4. Getting Over It with Bennett Foddy

3. Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus

2. Playerunknown's Battlegrounds

1. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild

Update Jan 4 2018

I finally played through to ending E of NieR:Automata. As a result, I regret to inform the other nominees that they are all disqualified and NieR is now the winner of all categories. The list will remain in its original form for purely archival purposes and can be found in the library of congress.

9S is my beautiful idiot son and I. will. protect him.

(ok really though NieR:A is a hell of a thing. I think it probably squeezes into 2nd place ahead of PUBG, slightly behind Zelda. But I'm not going to modify the list due to a combination of recency bias and I-don't-feel-like-it.)