Marvin's Totally Cool GOTY

I actually played games this year! 2016 was an insanely busy year for me. Between finishing grad school and becoming a father, there was very little time to play games. During this time I often wondered if I’d ever have time to play games ever again. I’ve slowly realized that games really aren’t the most important thing,but you can still fit them in your life. Shout out to my amazing wife for getting our baby to sleep.Learning to sleep less has also opened up a whole new world of game time. With this new found time I actually played the most current games from this year for the first time in awhile.

My Hot Take Game Of The Year: Horizon Zero Dawn

I had sworn off open world games, their size and length of time. 1000+ hours of gameplay was not a selling point to me; it was a signal of a game I wouldn’t be able to complete. I was into Fallout 3 until the game opened up. As soon as the game opened up, I fell into a deep state of analysis paralysis. The ‘You Can do Anything’ selling proposition led me to quit altogether. I have none of these reservations of the past. Want me to do a hunting challenge? Sure! Need me to murder a camp full of bandits? OK! There’s always an activity and they rarely feel like filler. The combat mechanics are so fun, I don’t mind doing side quests. Plus this game has robot dinosaurs!

Hey IOS has some Cool Stuff Too: Iron Marines

I fell hard for Ironhide's Kingdom Rush series of tower defense games. The series felt like it was perfectly designed for the IOS. When I heard that they were making an RTS, I was on board. Iron Marines is a Real Time Strategy game that is very reminiscent of Starcraft. The game streamlines the base building components, but still gives the player a full tech tree in which to upgrade your units. Matches can be completed in under 20-30 minutes which makes it the perfect commute game. This is a great game in an era where it’s hard to find an RTS on ANY platform, let alone the IOS.

Game I want to Love that Hates Me: Cuphead

I really want to like this game. I love the concept of a boss rush. I’m a big fan of games like Metal Slug and Contra. The art style is very unique and I’ve been listening to the soundtrack on repeat. It’s not just hard, Cuphead will chew you up and spit you out. Cuphead brutally punishes impatience, but I can pick up what it’s putting down. I plan on revisiting this game in 2018.

Best RTS Based on Animal Farm:Tooth and Tail

Tooth and Tail is a real time strategy game on the Playstation 4. Tooth and Tail is (stop me if you heard this one) about four different factions of animals fighting for the right to eat other. Oh also the game is steeped in communist themes? Oh and also the animals are mostly herbivores who decided that meat was awesome. The game is perfectly built for consoles. The player controls a hero unit that also acts as the cursor. You command units with the shoulder buttons. Resources and construction are automated as well. The levels are procedurally generated, which means that you never play the same map twice. This occasionally leads to some screwed up missions. Overall Tooth and Tail fulfills the promise of an RTS on a console. I’d love it if this trend catches on(It won’t)

Best 10 Year Old Game: Company of Heroes

This game reminds me of playing army men in the dirt when I was 33, 7. I love the presentation of war in this game. I can’t believe that it took me 10 years to try this. I put a significant number of time into this game in 2017. Every mission feels like an episode of Band of Brothers. There are so many different unit types that part of the fun is just seeing what they do. I really liked building infantry and picking up field weapons. It felt very satisfying to take out a tank with a howitzer before it takes out your squad of mortar men. There are so many expansions that this may just be my forever game.

2015, 2017 GOTY: Metal Gear Solid V

I got MGSV as a Christmas gift in 2015. I love the Metal Gear series, but something seemed off. This game was less about story, and more about the gameplay. On top of that, it was an open world game. I have shied away from these games because of their time commitment. At some point in 2017, something just clicked; I realized that you could play it however you want. I stopped worrying about trying to be stealthy, and just went loud as soon as I was discovered. Watching people play through breath of the wild made me want to experiment with the systems in MGSV. This game is a game mechanic playground. The back half of the story is OK. I went from almost not finishing the game to this game becoming one of my all time favorites.