Top 5 2019 GOTY contenders At The Half-Way Point?

[PhantomFear94]

I know we are technically closer to 2/3 through the year now, but I would be interested to hear some takes on what your current GOTY contenders are.

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Some notes before I give you mine:

- I personally never include annual sports titles, even though I actively enjoy sports games (particularly Madden) I feel weird about putting annual sports titles in GOTY conversations as they normally serve a specific purpose and make incremental additions to previous games year on year.

- I nearly always exclude remasters or remakes from my GOTY lists, as apart from visual changes and some extras aren't intrinsically new. I will be making an exception with Resident Evil 2 this year (for now).  I feel that Resident Evil 2 has enough significant variances from the original that it is practically a new game, compared to something like SotC last year. I'm still a bit on the fence in the sense that the remake is based directly off the content of a pre-existing game, but for now, I'll leave it in. Do you agree/disagree on this?

- Game needs to have debuted on its original system(s) in 2019.

- Within this generation, my GOTY's are as follows: 2014 - Wolfenstein: The New Order; 2015 - Fallout 4; 2016 - DOOM; 2017 - Resident Evil 2; 2018 - God of War.

 

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My Top 5 Games From The First Half of 2019

5) Mortal Kombat 11

I am terrible at fighting games, but the one series I've always gone out my way to play since being made aware of it by my fiancee is Mortal Kombat. The character design, gameplay, and range of accessibility is so well packaged that there is very little I can really criticize without nit-picking. The game has a variety of modes that made my 40-50 hours with the game a pleasure; Towers of Time is a very welcome addition to the game that naturally gives the game more replay value and variety without feeling like filler content; I also liked the move away from X-Ray moves in favour of Fatal Blows. And those fatalities...yeh, they were fun to watch. 

 

4) Outer Wilds

Currently, this game isn't on PS4, although it isn't financed or supported by Microsoft in any way to my knowledge so I'd be surprised if this didn't change. Outer Wilds isn't a big game. You start on a small planet, and have the opportunity to take a tiny rocket to space to explore 4 - 5 slightly bigger planets within a single solar system. However, this game has a very unique twist; after 20 - 25 minutes, the game resets you back to your original planet in a ground-hog day style loop. To circumvent this, you break up your exploration into smaller chunks, and have to plan out your journey within each loop carefully to accomplish what you want to accomplish. What the game lacks in size, it makes up for in quality; the game has more depth and character than No Man's Sky did in its quintillion+ planets (I don't say that as a random shade throw; I'm of the opinion that in its current state No Man's Sky is actually a semi-decent game, and as critical as people rightfully were on launch, they have more than made amends with their support of the game). It is a nice, unique indie game that I am very glad exists

 

3) A Plague Tale: Innocence

From here it gets extremely tough to order my top 3. A Plague Tale: Innocence reminds me very much of Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice; a uniquely motivated game with some very good ideas and a wonderful story that puts most comparative AAA releases to shame with 10 times the resource. In my opinion, it is criminally underrated, even with a Metacritic score of 81%. The game's major flaw is its linearity; I usually enjoy linear games as much (if not more) than other games, but this game is so linear that it can interrupt the experience. For example, you can complete the right task, but if you haven't prompted to do it yet the game won't recognize the effort and will make you fail the section.

 

Despite this, the game does so much well for such a small studio. It has a very similar feeling to God of War insofar that it is focused on the relationship of two family members (in this case brother and sister), and you see the characters evolve over time. Their story is a wonderful one, and it does a good job at sticking to a rather bleak aesthetic without feeling overly melancholy all the time. Even though the game is narrative > gameplay, its gameplay nicely evolves at a consistent pace over the course of the game. By the end, the game feels quite different to play than it did hours before, which is a plus in games like this (i.e. as much as I loved Hellblade, very little about the game change).  It's the main game this year that I'm tempted to purchase again on PS4 just to do the platinum again, and I highly recommend it.

 

2) Resident Evil 2

This is probably the best game as a whole package I've played this year (I'll explain why its not #1 shortly). I adored Resident Evil 7 to the point where its probably my Game of the Generation so far, and Resident Evil 2 was on a similar level of quality (although not quite as good). It looks utterly stunning, has solid game-play, good story, wonderful characters, thrilling weapons, and is a brilliant re-imagining of RCPD. I also think that for an achievement/trophy hunter it was the perfect balance of difficulty, reward, and fun in a game (the Ghost Survivors DLC wasn't good, but that doesn't factor into my considerations here).

 

There are 2 main reasons this isn't #1 for me; i) I think they massively missed an opportunity with their A and B runs. I didn't play the original, but after speaking to fans of the original games virtually all of them were extremely disappointed that compared to their differences, the 2019 remake effectively just re-orders the exact same content and sticks a different end-boss at the conclusion. From research, I totally agree, and was something I noticed even without this prior context; ii) the boss fights in the game were a huge let-down. I won't spoil it for people who haven't played it yet, but I personally thought the variety of bosses was an absolute joke. Only 2 of the 6 formal boss fights were any fun whatsoever (2nd and 3rd in all playthroughs).

 

1)  Metro: Exodus

I find that Metro is a series you either get, or you don't. It has more flaws the my #2 choice, and that is something I recognize as almost factual rather than an opinion. Aside from an environmental design that is mind-numbingy beautiful, its character and object models are somewhat outdated. The voice acting in English isn't great (pro-tip; play in Russian with England subs). It has some not insubstantial performance issues (although less-so on PS4, so I am told).

 

However, all of these negatives are monumentally outweighed by its various strengths for me, to a greater extent than any of the other entries in this lsit. Something Metro does that only BioShock and Half-Life have ever done as well (in my opinion) is create an utterly immersive experience. Fans of Metro will know exactly what I mean. Immersion gets thrown about quite a lot, but in Metro, you literally feel a part of that world. Lore and ancillary narrative elements ooze out of every nook and cranny, which is impressive in RPG's let alone a linear FPS. I cared about the fate of virtually every character i met, and I found that the game was well paced. The narrative itself is very good, but the way in which you experience the story is equally as impressive. Both the good and bad ending are satisfying to experience, and the game doesn't burn out in the latter half (if anything, it gets even better). For a non-horror game, enemies are terrifying, and I think that the mix between human and mutant conflict is contextualized to a much greater extent. Finally, the level design is great as a whole (its three semi-open world levels slightly less so), but Dead City is one of the best designed levels of any game I've ever played save for one slightly annoying section in the middle of the level I won't spoil.

 

I could go on, but I'll summarize with this; Metro is not perfect, but it the most invigorating, thoughtful, well-written, and immersive gaming experience I've had this year. You'll need to try it for yourself to see if you agree.

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2019 Games Released to Critical Acclaim I Haven't Played

Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, Devil May Cry 5, Apex Legends, Baba Is You

 

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Upcoming Release With Potential To Enter The Conversation For Me Personally

Death Stranding, DOOM Eternal, Control, Man of Medan, The Outer Worlds

Edited August 6, 2019 by PhantomFear94

[Lava_Yuki]

So far I just like Crash Team Racing, Kingdom hearts 3, Jump Force and Spyro released this year.

 

In the later part of this year, games that will likely enter my list are FF8 Remaster, Code Vein and although not playstation, Harvest moon mineral town remake. 

[Sagaan]

For me so far mk 11, best grafics for a fighting game, and overall a great game. For best fighting game 2019 mk 11 gets for sure the price. I think goty 2019 will be resident evil 2 or monster hunter world.

[ZitMeatloaf]

You guys are soooo far off base. The clear definitive choices are obviously:

• Gravity Duck (Vita) (NA)
• Gravity Duck (Vita) (EU)
• Gravity Duck (PS4) (NA)
• Gravity Duck (PS4) (EU)
• And, of course, Anthem

[Fr_0zt]

A plague tale: innocence ?

Days Gone 

Metro Exodus

 

 

That's all th 2019 games I've played so far.  Waiting for Control, Death Stranding, BL3 and Fallen Order.  Will buy KH3 sometime later on sale and a couple others.

[DaivRules]

So far in 2019 I’ve played:

 

Disgaea 4 Vita

Assassins Creed Revelations (PS3)

Hohokum

Assassins Creed III (PS3)

Sonic the Hedgehog 2

 

I guess that makes those my top 5 contenders for 2019! Can’t wait to see what the rest of 2019 brings!

 

[LucianaRosethorn]

- Death End Re;Quest

- Chocobo Mystery Dungeon 

- Devil May Cry 5

- World War Z

 

And that's it, none of them are my GOTY that's for certain. The only other games I'm interested in this year is Crystar, Code Vein, Outerworld and Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles.

[JavaNext]

I can barely make a top 5, only played 6 games that released this year. Still want to try Resident Evil 2 and Devil May Cry 5 but this is it for now.

 

1 - Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice - I love FromSoftware's games, and this evolved their formula a bit, plus the new combat system is beautiful.

2 - Crash Team Racing: Nitro Fueled - Never played the original CTR but decided to give this a try and Im glad I did, it's just a really fun racer.

3 - Mortal Kombat 11 - One of the few fighting games I play, and while Im not good at it, I still enjoy it. Quite a bit of content and it looks amazing in motion.

4 - Kingdom Hearts 3 - I honestly only played KH2 so I never fully understand whats going on but just seeing the Pixar and Disney worlds like is worth the price of admission.

5 - Days Gone - Barely in front of Metro: Exodus but I liked the Horde mechanic enough to give 5th place, the characters and story are good and Im interested to see where it goes.

[Misshandlad]

My top 5 would be:

 

- Resident Evil 2

- Kingdom Hearts 3

- Sekiro

- Days Gone

- Judgment

 

Not sure about the order tho. Looking forward to the rest of the year, got alot of potential top 5s coming soon.

[shadowhood1111]

SUPER MARIOS BROTHERS 3!!!! GAME OF THE YEAR 8 TIMES IN A ROW!!!!!!

[Datboy1991]

This thread has made me realize: I haven’t played a single AAA game that was released this year. Old games on sale Ftw

Edited August 24, 2019 by DBTrophyGuy

[AllstarAaronski]

Overall I feel this has been a pretty lackluster year for games. There have been a handful of great ones, but I feel in the past at this point in the year I enjoyed much more than i did for 2019. That said here are my top 5 so far:

 

• #1 Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice
• #2 The Division 2
• #3 Days Gone
• #4 Super Mario Maker 2
• #5 Devil May Cry 5

Possible future releases that could bump some of these off the list would be, Gears 5, Death Stranding, Doom Eternal, and Code Vein.

[Aecesaje_]

People are forgetting one thing: Resident Evil 2 can't get nominated for GOTY or any category because it is based on a game that already came out. They only select new original games. 

 

My picks so far are:, Devil May Cry 5, Super Smash Bros Ultimate (last year but will be on this year's TGA), Mortal Kombat 11