2017 Blue Gartr Game of the Year Discussion Thread: May Cause PUBG Meltdowns

[Andalusian girls]

NieR to be real, which surprised me. don't go much for the world of weeb and never touched the franchise before, but been a while since a game moved me like that.

Zelda or Divinity: Original Sin II would have run away with it in a normal year as, respectively, the greatest open world game ever (along with the Witcher 3) and one of the greatest ever CRPGS. What Remains of Edith Finch maybe could have snuck in with the indie feel feelings vote and even the X-Com II expansion would have merited love as perfecting one of the great modern strategy games. but Yoko Taro's masterpiece is just that, one of the medium's defining achievements in storytelling.

[Xno Kappa]

The game truly is a masterpiece. The narrative is wonderfully constructed from all angles and the play-style switching from classic platinum to bullet hell was always seamlessly done. The game had so many moments that just completely dropped feel bombs on me. Even most of the sidequests in Nier played a part in telling the story. Not enough good things can be said about the soundtrack. Never played any of the Drakengard/Nier games before either, so I almost feel slighted on a complete experience from those who could appreciate the subtle nods to it's predecessors.

Still playing through Xenoblade 2 so unable to give it an accurate judgement. Persona 5 I felt was just more of the same in a better package. And there's no secret on BG that I felt BotW was vastly overrated.

[Andalusian girls]

oh God the soundtrack

[Xno Kappa]

The amusement park theme still gives me fucking chills bro! So befitting for that area.

[darkepyon]

#1 Persona 5, despite not being much of a MegaTen/Persona fan. I loved the overall presentation of this game from the art style to the soundtrack. You could tell the devs put a great deal of care into the overall experience.

#2 Nier Automata. I had never played a Nier game (or even a Yoko Taro game for that matter) up until this one. I really liked the music, plus how it showed the events of the story from different characters' viewpoints.

#3 Super Mario Odyssey. This game is a straight up love letter to Mario fans young and old! I loved all the homages to previous games, plus the 2d platforming sections.

[Eragon]

Horizon Zero Dawn

[Fiye]

Voted for Nier Automata but tbh nothing really hit my game of the year. As a piece of Media Nier is the best hands down but the actual game component (The combat) left me wanting for something deeper.

Still tho I enjoyed the hours sank in more than any other game and on top of that I completed it so there's that.

Games on the list I played.

Breath of the Wild: Amazing first couple of the hours. Did the Zora divine beast first and the combat on the road to get to the Zora city was perhaps the peak of the game. Everything afterwards was downhill and felt more like an ubisoft game.
Nier Automata: See above
Persona 5: Its an RPG that does Persona 4 but with more style. Though the soundtrack is good it isn't listen in the car good (Aside from Rivers in the Desert)
Sonic Mania: Best sonic but still a sanic. Was a fun romp though.
Xenoblade Chronicles 2: Meh RPG. Haven't found a sweet spot for it yet. Also fuck the VA.

Not mentioned.

Resident Evil 7: Really enjoyed the shit out of the game until the salt mine where I had more explosive than I knew what to do with. Really lackluster ending to a really good game. Should've ended at the pier.
FFXIV Stormblood: Really fun story but a lot of the same beats from Heavensward. Enjoyed the two new classes but didn't do anything to really improve on the stale formula.
Splatoon 2: More splatoon honestly. Horde mode is a fun addition but god damnit nintendo get your multiplayer the fuck together.
PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds: Best multiplayer this year.
Destiny 2: Eeeeeeh. Destiny 1 with a few unfun changes. The music, sound design, and locales are fucking awesome though.

Games I should've really fucking played.

Horizon Zero Dawn: I just bought this too.
Super Mario Odyssey
Cuphead
Wolfenstein 2: Waiting for a price cut tbh

[Robertfb]

Only played Zelda and Nier this year (RE7 and Horizon Zero Dawn is saved for Christmas) and Nier blew me away with its incredible music and story, the depths of emotion is remarkable in this game.

[Zetanio]

Where is PUBG

[Zeb]

I'll go for P5, but if I went by hours played it would be PoE by far. Think I've done over 1k hours this year.

[Lucavi]

Cuphead! Amazing concept, amazing soundtrack, amazing game!

[Seravi Edalborez]

Of what's here I've only played Nier, P5, and Xenoblade 2, but all 3 are easily some of my favorite games of the past decade.

Nier Automata is one hell of a unique experience and Yoko Taro is some insane visionary of an acid trip. There's not enough that can be said about it; really solid soundtrack, tight controls, varied gameplay, and even if the plot is predictable in some places (and in others in a "Yoko Taro staples" way), it's quite the journey.

P5 as mentioned just exudes style, and boasts an aesthetic all its own. Another soundtrack full of winners, combat with room enough to spread your creative wings, and the tried and true school-life-and-dungeon-crawling formula that has worked since P3.

Not far enough into Xenoblade Chronicles 2 to be able to call it game of the year, though I'm very tempted at this point. Once more, soundtrack is orgasmic. I never say I like a whole soundtrack. It's usually 5-10 tracks and then the rest is whatever. XC2 I LIKE THE SOUNDTRACK. It's a very different and slightly more methodical and tactical approach than a lot of JRPGs, and tickles my FFXI/XIV-trained optimization sensibilities to boot.

Arbitrarily I voted Automata but I'd just as soon pick all 3 of them for basically every reason.

Honorable shoutout to Mass Effect Andromeda for being my $60 waste of the year and the reason I'm probably never pre-ordering again if I'm not 100% sure I'll love it.

[carlweathers]

Where is PUBG

early access doesnt count

[IceSylph]

Nier. Game has made it into my top 3 or 4 games of all time.

[Zetanio]

early access doesnt count

Game releases next week.

[Azull]

Going with P5 over Horizon but a very small margin. DOS2 was also very good but I just haven't played it enough to vote for it.

To me Zelda, while not bad, was not great either. Nintendo spent the last few years setting the bar so low it looks good by comparison. Its an 8 in a sea of 4's.

[Koyangi]

NieR Automata by a longshot.

[Gryffes]

PUBG has sold more copies on pc than everything else on this list combined has on all platforms.

24million for an early access pc title.
Xbox version is out in 5 days.

[Kaslo]

PUBG has sold more copies on pc than everything else on this list combined has on all platforms.

24million for an early access pc title.
Xbox version is out in 5 days.

by that logic Destiny 2 should be on this list. #justsaying

[Zetanio]

It should be on the list. It won't win but it should be on there.