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What is Your 2019 ____ of the Year? I'm Interested.


PhantomFear94

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GOTY

1. Code Vein

2. Remnant From The Ashes

3. Death End Re;Quest

 

Indie Of The Year

1. Crystar

2. The Liar Princess and Blind Prince (only on here because it's one of the few new indie games I've played)

 

Surprise Of The Year

1. Chocobo Mystery Dungeon

2. Metal Wolf Chaos 

 

Disappointment Of The Year

1. Resident Evil 2

2. Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice

3. World War Z

Edited by LucianaRosethorn
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While I managed to keep up with major AAA releases, I haven't checked much indies. Still catching up on some older releases.

 

Game of the Year: Days Gone. The game has its flaws, but Bend Studio really put their effort here. They patched things (played on Pro, so I haven't felt that many performance bugs), added tons of free DLC and new game modes. I found it a very complete game, with long story, engaging gameplay and a couple of fun side content. People found the side missions a bit repetitive, but I thought they were very coherent with the world lore. And I gotta praise the challenge mode. When the first three Horde, Bike and Stealth were released, I thought the other 9 would be essentially the same, but they managed to keep it creative, with different strategies across it. I remember getting Gold on a Horde, and then jump to another Horde thinking "ok, just do the same stuff you did there...", and got completely obliterated. So yeah, GOTY + amazing studio support.

 

Honorable Mentions: Sekiro, Control

 

Indie of the Year: Concrete Genie. Can it be considered an indie? I think I haven't checked any true 2019 indies, so I'll put Concrete Genie here. The game is just gorgeous, and gameplay is different and fun. A real family delight, my grandma loved it.

 

Surprise of the Year: Death Stranding. Ok, this isn't a surprise, but still, a new game genre! I knew the story would be awesome, but I wasn't expecting the gameplay to be so addictive. Currently working on my Platinum. 

 

Fail of the Year: Concerning the 2019 releases, I'm not disappointed with anything I've played so far!

 

Can't wait to check on A Plague Tale on 2020. Just gotta get through the holidays and finish those damn deliveries!

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GOTY

Death Stranding ?

A plague tale: Innocence 

Control

Days Gone 

Metro Exodus 

 

Indie

A plague tale: Innocence ?

 

Surprise

Remnant: From the Ashes ?

 

Disappointment 

-

 

Still have to get KH3, BL3, SW: JFO, Gris, Afterparty and a couple others so the list could change a bit. Great year tho. 

Edited by Fr_0zt
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While I have 2019 games, I almost entirely prioritized older releases from the backlog this year, so there truly won't be much here. And... some of these will/have been said again in that awards topic.

 

Game of the Year

Team Sonic Racing 

 

Indie of the Year

N/A (Ideally, it have been Indivisible if I choose to play it this year.)

 

 

Surprise of the Year

N/A (Ideally, Code Vein.)

 

 

Disappointment of the Year 

Crash Team Racing: Nitro Fueled

 

 

Looking forward to playing a lot of 2019 games in 2020.

 

Edited by EcoShifter
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I bought a lot of games released in 2019 but haven't actually played them yet. I've only played 5 games from 2019 actually.

 

 

Best game: Trails of Cold Steel 3. One of the best in the entire 9 game series and has me waiting excitedly for Cold Steel 4

 

Disappointment: KH3 i guess, it could have been so much better than what it was, it just felt rushed. Hopefully this new dlc fixes most of the issues i have with the game but i don't consider it as good as either kh1 or 2 really

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Games I've Played Released in 2019

Kingdom Hearts III

Jump Force 

Return of the Obra Dinn 

 

Game of the Year

Return of the Obra Dinn 

 

Indie of the Year

Return of the Obra Dinn

 

 

Surprise of the Year

Return of the Obra Dinn

 

 

Disappointment of the Year 

Kingdom Hearts III

 

Looks like a sweep for Indi Darling Return of the Obra Dinn, though to be fair the competition wasn't exactly stiff. That being said I think that if I included all of the games that I've played this year, I would still go for Return of the Obra Dinn as game of the year. It's great.  Lucas Pope just has this talent for making ostensibly boring premises into engaging gameplay.  Who would have thought that my best experience from the year would be from playing as an insurance adjuster. 

 

Conversely Kingdom Hearts III was a big disappointment.  I think part of it was from the build up of waiting 11 or 12 years for this thing to get what effectively amounted to a not very satisfying conclusion.  I didn't hate the game, and there were certainly parts of the game where they remembered what was exciting about the game (mainly the combat system), but there was a big disconnect that felt like 2/3s of the game was completely disconnected from the last third.  Just disappointing. 

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1 hour ago, Fr_0zt said:

GOTY

Death Stranding 1f3c6.png

A plague tale: Innocence 

Control

Days Gone 

Metro Exodus 

 

Indie

A plague tale: Innocence 1f3c6.png

 

Surprise

Remnant: From the Ashes 1f3c6.png

 

Disappointment 

-

 

Still have to get KH3, BL3, SW: JFO, Gris, Afterparty and a couple others so the list could change a bit. Great year tho. 

 

Aside from Days Gone the rest of our Top 5 is the same, just in a different order.

 

14 minutes ago, Together_Comic said:

Games I've Played Released in 2019

Kingdom Hearts III

Jump Force 

Return of the Obra Dinn 

 

Game of the Year

Return of the Obra Dinn 

 

Indie of the Year

Return of the Obra Dinn

 

 

Surprise of the Year

Return of the Obra Dinn

 

 

Disappointment of the Year 

Kingdom Hearts III

 

Looks like a sweep for Indi Darling Return of the Obra Dinn, though to be fair the competition wasn't exactly stiff. That being said I think that if I included all of the games that I've played this year, I would still go for Return of the Obra Dinn as game of the year. It's great.  Lucas Pope just has this talent for making ostensibly boring premises into engaging gameplay.  Who would have thought that my best experience from the year would be from playing as an insurance adjuster. 

 

Conversely Kingdom Hearts III was a big disappointment.  I think part of it was from the build up of waiting 11 or 12 years for this thing to get what effectively amounted to a not very satisfying conclusion.  I didn't hate the game, and there were certainly parts of the game where they remembered what was exciting about the game (mainly the combat system), but there was a big disconnect that felt like 2/3s of the game was completely disconnected from the last third.  Just disappointing. 

 

Obra Dinn was a 2018 game (October). It would have entered the Top 5 for me too if it was Dec 2018 onwards. 

Edited by PhantomFear94
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Not played a tonne of new releases this year but I'll give it a go.

Game of the Year: Thronebreaker - The Witcher Tales

Much like The Witcher 3 it's incredibly well written, great cast of characters, does an excellent job of sucking you into the games world. It has a beautiful art style too which I'm a sucker for. Nailed everything the game strives to achieve.

Honorable mention: Apex Legends

Best gameplay of any Battle Royale out there, had a lot of great accessibility features that made it really easy to play with others, even without a microphone (many of which were immediately copied by the games competitors). Shame about some of the technical issues, also had some miss-steps with events and micro-transactions that prevent me giving it top honours. In addition it had stingy progression at launch, as well as having a pretty lacklustre selection of skins - although glad to see these have improved a lot over the course of the year.

Indie: N/A

I'll get around to Gris eventually. Hoping for Hades to come to PS4 in the new year too.

Surprise of the Year: Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order

I wasn't expecting too much from this after a weak showing at E3 and some mediocre trailers. The previous EA Star Wars games didn't help matters either. Ended it up being my favourite game of the year. For Respawn's first take at a non-FPS game I thought it was very well done, really enjoyed the metroidvania style level design too. Some technical issues and frustration with the blocking/parrying system stop it from being the best game of the year for me.

Disappointment of the Year: Anthem

Didn't buy the full release, but after playing the the beta and seeing the mess that followed I wasn't going to. Such a shame cause I really enjoy a good looter, maybe Bioware can turn it around in time.

Edited by SorryWeAre0_o
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OK so I don't know if switch games so I'm kinda choosing two games for my GOTY just in case 

 

Game Of The Year- Fire Emblem Three Houses (if counting switch games), or Judgment (if not counting switch games)- FE 3H introduced to one of my new favorite franchises and now I just look up to it and a really good game. Judgment is out of my love for yakuza and it is a very nice spinoff 

 

Indie Game Of The Year- N/A I have personally not played many very indie games myself need to. 

 

Suprise Of The Year- Persona 5 and 3 dancing games (they came out in America last December so I guess it counts), Not a really big rhythm fan myself but these were fun games to play and plat while I am a really big fan of all the music. 

 

Disappointment Of The Year- Cathrine Full Body- I mainly just don't like the gameplay of this game but its story is interesting enough and it makes me want to go for the endings but its gameplay is what disappointment me (thank god for safety mode).

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I have played about 10 new releases this year, I'm not one to usually buy games at full price when they first come out, so I feel like if we did this type of list/ recognition next year, with a year delay to catch up, it would prove more accurate. But here is what I have so far:

 

Personal GOTY - Death Stranding

Runners Up - Resident Evil 2, Blasphemous, Layers of Fear 2

 

The choice here was easy to make for me. Like Red Dead Redemption 2 of last year, Death Stranding was the one game that stood way out ahead of the pack and delivered in almost ever aspect (pun not intended). It has everything going for it, and.... I could make my case here, but I already wrote a long review for the game on my brand new blog, when I say brand new, I ,mean I just launched it earlier this week. So it needs some major touching up, as well as adding content. This isn't necessarily a plug because I wanted to wait until I fix it up better, but everything I would want to say about Death Stranding I have already said right here: https://themadnessofdionysus.wordpress.com/2019/12/17/death-stranding-2019/

 

Personal Indie of the Year - Blasphemous

 

This is also an easy choice because I have been anticipating this game for a while now. I discovered it a little too late in order to have been a backer on their Kickstarter which is regrettable because some of those perks looked awesome. I really like these type of metroidvania style games, and the lore and gothic tone made this one very special and unique. It was like religious perversion horror, and the designs in the game were amazingly nightmarish. Gameplay wise, it owes a lot of influence to Hollow Knight for specific mechanics.

 

Personal Surprise of the Year -  Layers of Fear 2

 

Honestly, this wasn't much of a surprise, but nothing really surprised me too much this year, at least positively (had my fair share of disappointments though). I liked the original Layers of Fear but always felt it could be drastically improved upon. This one does that and its a much more polished version and I really dig the artistic horror vibe that both games featured. A sort of delving into the mad genius of artists, and using the ever changing landscape of the game to represent their psyches.

 

Personal Disappointment of the Year - Rage 2

Runners up - A Plague Tale: Innocence, Days Gone, Metro Exodus

 

Like I mentioned, I have had a fair amount of disappointments this year. Now, just to note, to be disappointed in a game does not necessarily make it a bad game, just that it did not meet personal expectations. With that also said, Rage 2 is unequivocally a bad game, my runners up, not so much, especially Metro Exodus which was a good game, just not on par with its predecessors. Rage 2 was so damn uninspired, not a single unique aspect to it, just a mash up of so many other more successful post apocalyptic games. The story was shit, the action/game play was okay (fairly standard for FPS), the RPG elements were kind of terrible and pointless (not like you could make unique builds or something). As far as colorful apocalypses go, I could have sworn this would win compared to what should have amounted to a DLC in Far Cary New Dawn, but alas, even that was better.

 

I also wanted to include the games that I want to play that I have not yet done so that were released this year:

 

Devil May Cry 5

Man of Medan

Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night

Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order

Gris

Blair Witch

The Outer Worlds

Borderlands 3

Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice

Control (My most anticipated of what is left to play)

Medieval

Concrete Genie

Remnant: From the Ashes

Life is Strange 2

 

Probably a few others, but these were the most notable that stuck out in mind

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GOTY

Days Gone

 

Indie of the Year

Ori & the Blind Forest (Switch release) - This is an old game now but it launched on Switch this year so I'm counting it. This is the first time I've played it as I've never owned a Microsoft system.

 

Surprise of the Year

Far Cry New Dawn - it wasn't even that good I just ended up enjoying it a lot more than I thought I would.

 

Disappointment of the Year

BORDERLANDS 3 - Holy crap what a disappointment. The game plays fine but the world, environments, characters, enemies, story (especially story) are just so DULL. I had high hopes for this game as a big fan of the franchise and it just didn't do it for me.

Runner up: Wolfenstein Youngblood.

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I haven't been able to play a lot of games from this year but from what I've played/seen I'll say this

GOTY: Resident Evil 2

 

Indie of the year: Untitled Goose Game (haven't play much of any indie games so I'll go with this one because I'll probably get it soon)

 

Surprise of the year: Jedi Fallen Order

I've never been a fan of star wars and I knew EA has been trash recently, but I played this at a friend's house and thoroughly enjoyed it and may be willing to get it in the future.

 

Disappointment of the year: World War Z

This game was hyped up to be great but it had only a few missions which were all pretty meh, and the pvp was pretty mediocre as well. My friends and I only played it for a bit before getting bored.

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Awesome views guys, keep them coming I'm having a good time reading everyone's opinions. Interestingly enough, I played almost everything I wanted to compared to others.

 

2020 I'm going to have MASSIVE backlog problems; getting married, travelling, finishing my masters and looking for a house ?

37 minutes ago, jboorad124 said:

I haven't been able to play a lot of games from this year but from what I've played/seen I'll say this

GOTY: Resident Evil 2

 

Indie of the year: Untitled Goose Game (haven't play much of any indie games so I'll go with this one because I'll probably get it soon)

 

Surprise of the year: Jedi Fallen Order

I've never been a fan of star wars and I knew EA has been trash recently, but I played this at a friend's house and thoroughly enjoyed it and may be willing to get it in the future.

 

Disappointment of the year: World War Z

This game was hyped up to be great but it had only a few missions which were all pretty meh, and the pvp was pretty mediocre as well. My friends and I only played it for a bit before getting bored.

 

 A lot of my friends really liked Jedi, people who despised other Star Wars games recently. Good to see so many being surprised by it. I'm getting it for Xmas! 

7 hours ago, KiraBobbySan said:

I have played about 10 new releases this year, I'm not one to usually buy games at full price when they first come out, so I feel like if we did this type of list/ recognition next year, with a year delay to catch up, it would prove more accurate. But here is what I have so far:

 

Personal GOTY - Death Stranding

Runners Up - Resident Evil 2, Blasphemous, Layers of Fear 2

 

The choice here was easy to make for me. Like Red Dead Redemption 2 of last year, Death Stranding was the one game that stood way out ahead of the pack and delivered in almost ever aspect (pun not intended). It has everything going for it, and.... I could make my case here, but I already wrote a long review for the game on my brand new blog, when I say brand new, I ,mean I just launched it earlier this week. So it needs some major touching up, as well as adding content. This isn't necessarily a plug because I wanted to wait until I fix it up better, but everything I would want to say about Death Stranding I have already said right here: https://themadnessofdionysus.wordpress.com/2019/12/17/death-stranding-2019/

 

Personal Indie of the Year - Blasphemous

 

This is also an easy choice because I have been anticipating this game for a while now. I discovered it a little too late in order to have been a backer on their Kickstarter which is regrettable because some of those perks looked awesome. I really like these type of metroidvania style games, and the lore and gothic tone made this one very special and unique. It was like religious perversion horror, and the designs in the game were amazingly nightmarish. Gameplay wise, it owes a lot of influence to Hollow Knight for specific mechanics.

 

Personal Surprise of the Year -  Layers of Fear 2

 

Honestly, this wasn't much of a surprise, but nothing really surprised me too much this year, at least positively (had my fair share of disappointments though). I liked the original Layers of Fear but always felt it could be drastically improved upon. This one does that and its a much more polished version and I really dig the artistic horror vibe that both games featured. A sort of delving into the mad genius of artists, and using the ever changing landscape of the game to represent their psyches.

 

Personal Disappointment of the Year - Rage 2

Runners up - A Plague Tale: Innocence, Days Gone, Metro Exodus

 

Like I mentioned, I have had a fair amount of disappointments this year. Now, just to note, to be disappointed in a game does not necessarily make it a bad game, just that it did not meet personal expectations. With that also said, Rage 2 is unequivocally a bad game, my runners up, not so much, especially Metro Exodus which was a good game, just not on par with its predecessors. Rage 2 was so damn uninspired, not a single unique aspect to it, just a mash up of so many other more successful post apocalyptic games. The story was shit, the action/game play was okay (fairly standard for FPS), the RPG elements were kind of terrible and pointless (not like you could make unique builds or something). As far as colorful apocalypses go, I could have sworn this would win compared to what should have amounted to a DLC in Far Cary New Dawn, but alas, even that was better.

 

I also wanted to include the games that I want to play that I have not yet done so that were released this year:

 

Devil May Cry 5

Man of Medan

Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night

Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order

Gris

Blair Witch

The Outer Worlds

Borderlands 3

Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice

Control (My most anticipated of what is left to play)

Medieval

Concrete Genie

Remnant: From the Ashes

Life is Strange 2

 

Probably a few others, but these were the most notable that stuck out in mind

 

My opinion entirely, but prioritize Control and GRIS if you can. Both are extremely good and quite original - GRIS taken <5 hours to platinum and is an utter masterpiece IMO. If you're a completionist, Control will be getting 2 pieces of DLC content with trophies in 2020. 

 

You've just reminded me to put LiS2 as a disappointment; compared to 1 it's awful, although it has its moments it's very slow and generally un-entertaining. Quite liked its endings though. 

Edited by PhantomFear94
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Personal Game of the Year:

Winner: Fire Emblem: The Three Houses (Switch)

Runners-up: Lost Ember, Ni no Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch Remastered, Chocobo's Mystery Dungeon: Every Buddy!, Fell Seal: Arbiter's Mark

Notes (Winner): Just a really great Fire Emblem entry again, with several different playthrough options (not just 3 despite the name implying that) and memorable, enjoyable characters.

Notes (R-u): The "losers" (aka runners-up) for this category include two new games (more on those in the Indie and Surprise sections), a remaster of an amazing PS3 JRPG, and a great co-op remake of a Final Fantasy Fables game.

 

Personal Indie of the Year:

Winner: Lost Ember

Runners-up: Fell Seal: Arbiter's Mark, Bee Simulator, Groundhog Day: Like Father Like Son, Stranger Things 3: The Game

Notes (Winner): Lost Ember was a really fun experience for me overall due to the variety of animals, the setting, the story, and the gameplay mechanics. It's also got some stuff you normally wouldn't experience in a video game (like being a buffalo during a stampede, or flopping endlessly on land as a fish). It's not a super fun platinum though (but it does feature a great platinum image + name reference).

Notes (R-u): The three new "losers" in this category include a great, but grindy/buggy bee simulator, another great time-manipulation (VR) game from the makers of The Sexy Brutale & Invisible Hours, and a surprisingly fun co-op beat 'em up game based on the third season of the Stranger Things (it's actually fairly faithful to the season too).

 

Personal Surprise of the Year:

Winner: Fell Seal: Arbiter's Mark

Runners-up: Lost Ember, Stranger Things 3: The Game, Groundhog Day: Like Father Like Son, Irony Curtain: From Matryoshka with Love

Notes (Winner): I had no idea Fell Seal existed or was even coming out, so it was a really great surprise to discover this Final Fantasy Tactics/Tactics Ogre-inspired game on PS4. We need more of these kinds of games (luckily we're at least getting Dark Crystal in February).

Notes (R-u): The newest "loser" on the list is a well-made humorous point-and-click game from Artifex Mundi, who usually just publish hidden object games.

 

Personal Disappointment of the Year:

Winner: Jumanji: The Video Game

Runners-up: Assassin's Creed III Remastered, Assassin's Creed III Liberation Remastered, Deponia Doomsday, Vacation Simulator

Notes (Winner): As I said on the Push2Plat podcast, I was expecting Jumanji to be awful, but I was still looking forward to it and had hoped it would be better than what it ended up being xD It's a low-budget clone of the Strange Brigade (which is excellent), but it has no story, no returning voice actors from the movies (except for Rhys Darby), very repetitive gameplay, and only four short maps (which still feel too long when actually played; see: repetitive gameplay). To make matters worse, it launched without online and said online didn't even launch in November as promised (it launched this month). Having played the online mode, it does make the game more fun (I was getting constant full lobbies and there were lots of matches to choose from), but it's also full of people who don't understand how to deal with the jewel or the obelisks (this in turn makes the matches either last too long or end up causing a loss on Medium/Hard difficulty). Platinum-wise it also has an unnecessarily long grind to level 30 and all experience amounts gained are the same regardless of difficulty and points earned during a match. 

Notes (R-u): All the "losers" are new for this category. The ACs are buggy, glitchy messes that constantly crash and they overall gave me more trouble than the originals (with the exception of pivots not being in this version of AC3), Vacation Simulator is a disappointment (though still a funny game) compared to the original Job Simulator, and Deponia Doomsday has a really annoying jackalope trophy that grinds the game's story to a halt.

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