2017 Game of the Year Day 1

by bravobuster1200

Man 2017 sure was a year. Many things happened this year, and many of those things were not great. But video games sure were pretty amazing this year. I would go as far as to call 2017 one of the best years I've ever experienced as someone who plays and occasionally writes about games. Without further ado, let's get to the celebration of one of the best times to be playing video games. To start, here are all the games I played this year. If a game is not nominated for a category, it's because I didn't get around to for a variety of reason. Also, due to an unfortunate PS4 system crash and mandatory reset, I lost all of my personal videos and screenshots. None of the screens or videos used over the course of these lists are mine. :(

SPOILER WARNING: Over the course of the next 5 days, I will be spoiling things without warning (except for this one). If you are sensitive to spoilers then be warned that major things may be ruined for you especially today and on day 4.

List of 2017 games played (alphabetical)

2017's Non-2017 Game of the Year:

This award is for games that I played for the first time this year, games I haven’t played in a long time, recent games that made some major changes, or games that I played this year that feel didn't get their due in the years they came out.

Runners-Up:

Watch Dogs 2- Put simply, Watch Dogs 2 is everything GTA V tried to be. Where GTA very loudly says very little, this game actually has quite a bit to say about the increasing pervasiveness of technology in our society. On top of that, its cast of characters is memorable and it's humor actually lands more often than not. After the trash fire that was the original Watch underscore Dogs, I was blown away by the sequel and can't wait to see where Watch Dogs 3 goes.

Destroy All Humans 2- Destroy All Humans 2 was one of my favorite games growing up, and when it got released on the PlayStation Store earlier this year, I was excited but cautious. Upon playing it I was relieved to find that this game actually holds up rather well. The game still feels good, and most of the humor still lands quite well. I was overjoyed to find that one of my favorite games of all time is still fantastic 11 years later.

Winner:

Superhot- On paper Superhot sounds intriguing enough. A first-person shooter where time only moves when you do. In practice, however, Superhot is such an insane, wonderful thing that I can't even begin describing how damn good it is. Meticulously working your way through a level and then having that entire sequence shown back in real time is one of the most powerful things I've ever experienced in a video game. Just watching Superhot is better than playing most other games. The narrative is also presented in one of the most unique ways I've seen in a while. If I had gotten my hands on this game last year it would have run away with most styyyyyle and easily made the top 3 on my 2016 Game of the Year list.

Best incidental thing:

Aloy’s idle animations- Horizon: Zero Dawn
Balloon room- RE7
Bae Joke- Pyre
Cooking Jingle- Breath of the Wild (cooking has many benefits, but the jingle is the best)
Snow bowling- breath of the wild
Chloe's walk cycle in the junkyard- Life is Strange: Before the Storm
Smash prompt- Life is Strange: Before the Storm
Shot of Chloe in the bathroom after graffiti- Life is Strange: Before the Storm.
Changing facial expressions in Uncharted: The Lost Legacy’s photo mode
Kicking Hitler trophy- Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus
Pressing square to interact with the pig- Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus
Pressing X to eat the enchirito- South Park

Runners-Up:

Getting a trophy for kicking Hitler in Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus-After some of the events of 2017, Wolfenstein 2 is cathartic in a few ways. None more so than blasting der fürher himself directly in the face with a good ole fashion American boot of Justice. Sure, you die almost immediately after doing this, but it was well worth the reload. You even get a trophy for doing it.

Shot of Chloe in the bathroom after graffiti- Life is Strange: Before the Storm- At the beginning of Before the Storm Episode 2, Chloe makes a stop in the ladies room to “freshen up”. After Chloe vandalizes the entire restroom, the camera is positioned behind her as she exits a stall and the following shot is a direct callback Max’s iconic photo from the first game. This was a wonderful reference to the first game that felt organic and was there long enough to notice, but not long enough to draw attention to itself.

Winner:

Cooking Jingle- Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild- The cooking mechanic in Breath of the Wild… exists I guess. I rarely used for it's intended purpose because I discovered overpowered recipes that healed more hearts than I had. I mostly used it because the music that plays while the items are cooking is infectious. By the end of the game, I was just throwing stuff in a pot so I could hear this jingle. There is even a jingle for when cooking fails that might even be better than the successful jingle.

Best Emergent Moment(s)

Getting your leg cut off then reattaching it - Resident Evil 7
Making two thunderjaws fight- Horizon: Zero Dawn
Solving a shrine puzzle in a unique way- Breath of the Wild
Accidentally clipping through a wall to solve shrine- Breath of the Wild
Mastering the reload cancel- Destiny 2
Guard throwing himself down a flight of stairs and dying- Death of the Outsider
The hook mine escape- death of the outsider
Seeing firsthand the true insanity of the 50 vs 50 battle royale mode- Fortnite

Runners-Up:

Seeing firsthand the true insanity of the 50 vs 50 battle royale mode- Fortnite- One of the most unfortunate casualties of my PS4 reset is the loss of this video. Near the end of a 50 vs 50 game of Fortnite Battle Royale, the 25 or so people on each team started building. By the time the teams were directly engaged with one another, both sides had built up absurdly large structures and were peppering the other team’s structure with rockets and bullets. Until the storm closed in and forced the remnants of my team to abandon their massive construction. The last 15 or so members of my team rushed the remaining 8 enemies in their fortified structure and were able to pull off the victory. Even though I died about 10 minutes before any of this happened, I stayed to watch this insane nonsense and was having a blast the entire time.

Solving a shrine puzzle in a unique way- Breath of the Wild- One of the most incredible things about Breath of the Wild is how all of the systems work in cohesion to allow for some common sense things that other games simply don't. One of the many examples of finding a creative way to solve a shrine is by laying a bunch of metal swords and shields on the floor to carry an electric charge across a room. It just goes to show that there is always more than one “right” way to solve a shrine.

Winner:

Accidentally clipping through a wall to solve shrine- Breath of the Wild- While there may be many right ways to solve the shrines, I certainly found a wrong way. I was messing around with the bombs to see if I could find a way past the current puzzle, or at least spark some ideas. I was standing a little too close to the bomb when I detonated it and it sent me flying back. Somehow, I managed to clip through a wall and skip the entire shrine. Breath of the Wild is a game full of incredible emergent moments, but nothing beats accidentally breaking the game to finish one of the game’s many shrines.

Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus presents Best Moment or sequence in Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus

Intro
Nuking a Nazi Base in Roswell
Farm flashbacks
B.J. confronting his father
Spech’s death
Post-Courtroom sequence cutscene
Being beheaded/B.J.’s head being saved and put on new body
Horton’s introduction
The entire movie casting sequence
Kicking Hitler
Birthday party
Ending
B.J. Proposing to Anya

Honorable Mention:

Kicking Hitler- As I mentioned earlier, kicking dear old Adolf in the face is satisfying, but Wolfenstein has many moments that surpass kicking the mustache off Hitler’s face.

Runners-Up:

B.J. Proposing to Anya- After blowing up the Nazi base in Roswell, B.J. takes some time to visit his childhood home. While there he relives some memories from his childhood and also finds the ring his mother gave him, that he would then give to a special woman later on. This ring eventually even becomes a plot point when it is taken by Engel. After a whole lot of insanity, explosions, and Nazi-killin’, B.J. takes his ring back from Engel's corpse and proposes to Anya. This emotionally resonant scene pays off one of the game's major plot elements (B.J.'s relationship with his mother) in an incredible way.

The entire movie casting sequence- Dear lord where to begin with this sequence. The setup: The Nazis are making a propaganda film about Terror Billy and they are holding auditions for the lead role. The intro: B.J. kidnaps one of the actors auditioning, steals his identity, and heads to GODDAMNED VENUS for the audition. The Audition: During this scene, you find out the producer is Hitler himself. The Auditon 2: B.J. then pretends to be himself, and the line reads in the part are some of the most hysterical moments in any game this year. The Audition finale: B.J. murders the ABSOLUTE FUCK out of a Nazi soldier and is given the honor of playing himself in the movie, then shoots up the entire Nazi base on Venus. If all of that sounds ridiculous, you haven't played Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus.

Winner:

Being beheaded/B.J.’s head being saved and put on a new body- The reason this sequence wins is because of how many times in a 5 minute period the game plays with your expectations. First, B.J. gets captured and is beheaded on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, all in the first person. Then the game cuts to a scene of his crew enacting an absurd plan to save his head. They save his head in a jar, Futurama style, and then put his head on a super body stolen from the Nazis. The single most insane thing about this moment is that it is foreshadowed the entire time with the doctor's weird cat, dog hybrid thing. This moment is completely insane on its own, but the fact that it was foreshadowed, and the writers put in the work to earn this absurd twist makes it the cherry on top of the insanity that is Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus.

Best Moment/sequence

Happy birthday tape- RE7
Introduction to molded- RE7
The Proving- Horizon: Zero Dawn
Reveal of the Zero Dawn/GAIA Project: Horizon: Zero Dawn
The Mountain That Fell/ Gaia prime- Horizon: Zero Dawn
Fighting a thunderjaw for the first time- Horizon Zero Dawn
Ending- Horizon: Zero Dawn
Divine Beast Vah Ruta- breath of the Wild
Barbara Finch Comic book Flashback- What Remains of Edith Finch
Cannery flashback- What remains of Edith Finch
Playing as the other Ryder- Mass Effect Andromeda
Master Kohga boss fight/ending- Breath of the Wild
First space walk- Prey
Intro- prey
Winning first liberation rite- pyre
Tabletop RPG- Life is Strange: Before the Storm
Junkyard scene- Life is Strange: Before the Storm
Intro- Nier
Theme Park- Nier
Playing as a robot- Nier
The Tempest- Before the Storm
Post-Tempest scene- Before The Storm
Riding the Elephant- Uncharted: The Lost Legacy
Credits cutscene- Uncharted: The Lost Legacy
Ending- Dishonored: Death of the Outsider
Lapdance scene- South Park
Bootay boss fight- South Park
Unlocking the glitch ability-South Park
Anytime you fight Kyle’s cousin Kyle- South Park
Sober Towlie boss fight-south park
Musical at old folks home- South Park
Final Choice- Life is Strange: Before the Storm

Dis-Honorable Mention (things that stand out for the wrong reasons):

Operation blind justice-South Park: The Fractured but Whole- Operation Blind Justice is South Park’s attempt at addressing racism in police departments. Unfortunately, the game handles this about as poorly as it possibly could have by having you be the one who beats up innocent black people so the police can arrest them. There are many ways this issue could have been addressed, but this moment is handled in such a poor and heavy-handed way, that it undercuts any of the actual commentary (which is already as shallow as possible, to begin with).

Honorable Mention:

Tabletop RPG- Life is Strange: Before the Storm- In episode 1, Chloe has the option to play a tabletop RPG with great new characters, Steph and Mikey. It's a straightforward RPG, but the presentation of it and how Chloe can interact with the game make it an amazingly entertaining sequence.

Runners-Up: Junkyard scene- Life is Strange: Before the Storm- On the flip side, this less enjoyable moment sees Chloe dump her heart to Rachel Amber before getting smashy. Finally, she stumbles upon the wreckage of the vehicle in which her father was killed. This entire sequence packs an emotional punch on par with most of the events of the first game. On top of that, new Chloe, Rihanna Devries, delivers a memorable performance that drives home this emotional sequence.

Reveal of Project Zero Dawn- Horizon: Zero Dawn- This moment is a pivot point for the entire story of Horizon: Zero Dawn. All the build-up to this moment presents Project Zero Dawn as a way to save humanity from the army of corrupted Faro robots that are devouring everything in their path. This reveal is one of the few times this year a moment dropped my jaw. The reveal is that humanity is completely doomed, and Project Zero Dawn is essentially the attempt to create a set of AI programs that will rebuild the entire world from scratch after all organic life has been eradicated. This moment is such a turn on what I expected going into it, and the way it recontextualizes every aspect of the game is phenomenal (more on how the game builds on this reveal later on). It even provides the reason for the existence of robot dinosaurs. There aren't many moments that singlehandedly elevate an entire narrative, but this absolutely is one of them.

Winner: Cannery flashback- What Remains of Edith Finch- This moment is one of the most brutally poignant moments I've ever seen in a game. This scene is a flashback to the death of Lewis Finch, who worked a repetitive job at a cannery. The game starts this sequence out by having you perform the job of grabbing a fish, moving it to the guillotine, and chopping its head off. As you keep doing the job, Lewis starts fantasizing and creating his own world which eventually takes over the screen. It's hard to describe this moment in words, but it's easy to describe the feeling. There have been many times where I worked a repetitive job and let my mind wander. I would brainstorm ideas for wrestling or fantasize about being on podcasts, or daydream about hanging out with cool people I follow on social media. These fantasies became a way to escape the mind-numbing, soul-crushing job I was doing. The fact that a game was able to capture this at all was amazing, but this game has you doing Lewis' job and exploring his fantasy world at the same time perfectly captures this feeling that I have had at every job I've ever done. It was a strangely relatable moment that uses the medium of gaming to explore a feeling that I'm sure I am not alone in having. This Super Bunnyhop video breaks it down in a more eloquent way than I am currently capable of doing.

And that does it for day 1. There are still many more categories to go and on day 2 I will be taking a look at the games with the most graphics and styyyyyyyle, the games with the best music, what games were the most fun to watch, and I will either settle or ignite the debate over which game has the best battle royale mode. See you tomorrow and thanks for reading.

You can follow me on Twitter @_CJ_Pricefield