Tis the Christmas season (or Advent to be theologically accurate), and in the spirit of the season, the lovely blogger over at Later Levels has decided to celebrate the 12 Days of Christmas a few days earlier with 12 gaming related questions for all of us good, little gaming elves out there. These are my responses.
🎉 01 January 2018: You wake up the following morning, hungover but happy – you have an entire day of gaming ahead of you. You start thinking back over the video games you played during 2017; what was your game of the year?
Ah you’re making me post this before I even have a chance to do my Top 10 list! This is a bit of a complicated question for me since I both play and watch games, so have to consider both for the Game of the Year. I wish I’d played the Game of the Year (Breath of the Wild) before it was announced, but since I trust my friends, I believe it was a laud well earned. I wish I’d played more of Assassin’s Creed: Origins before this question too, so I could factor it into my assessment.
Played: Super Mario Odyssey
As if there could be any doubt. This is the best game I’ve played all year by a wide margin. It’s just so much fun and so forgiving for a 3D platforming noob like me (though I am having some trouble defeating the Lord of Lightning o.O), making it a game anyone can play and enjoy. From the long time gamers to the newest generation of players, SMO’s ubiquity, ease of access, and just all around fun easily earns it the coveted title of TSN’s favorite played game.
“I’m going on an adventure!” -The Hobbit
Watched: SOMA
This is the reason I need that Top 10 or at least Top 5 list. I watched so many wonderful games this year, and in all honesty there are games that either are tied or are so close to SOMA, but what really puts this title over the edge is how much and for how long it fucked me up. I studied psychology in college, so the subject is near and dear to my heart (brain?), and the main question SOMA asks, “What is consciousness?” is not so much answered as explored to its darkest depths. This is not a game I could ever play since I spent much of the Let’s Play covering my face, because I hate chase scenes, but those aren’t really what make SOMA scary; it’s the horror behind the monsters that’s the most disturbing of all.
“Where only the most listless of creatures swim…” -Dear Esther
What’s your game of the year? Did you have to categorize them? Have you made a Top # list? Are you planning to? Let’s talk about our 2017 gaming favorites in the comments!
The Shameful Narcissist Speaks 
Odyssey was a great game. Though I would pick BOTW over it since there was more to offer. It’s hard to choose though. Nintendo, especially for the Switch, had a great year. Happy New Year!
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I wish I’d played BOTW, but I just got it for Christmas! I can’t wait to do a compare/contrast. Odyssey is really, really short, but there’s a tremendous after game to go through.
Happy New Year to you, too!
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Odyssey is my game of the year hands down. I don’t generally watch let’s plays so, I stick to what I’ve played for my game of the year. If I watched as much as you do, I’d probably go your route. I did in fact make a top 10 list, or a top 50 if you want to read the 4 posts before it. 🙂
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Oh goodness; I wish I’d played 50 games this year! That would’ve been boss. Yeah, I figured LPs were the way I’d experienced most of the games, so I figured that would be my best bet. I still need to post all this noise though hehe.
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Even though I never finished it, I would definitely pick Horizon for my game of the year.
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I wish I’d had the chance to play that. I’d probably agree!
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Odyssey is a great GOTY pick! I’m just blown away that 2017 was such a strong year for new games. Hopefully 2018 can keep up!
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I hope so, too! From what I’m seeing in the upcomings, I think we’re in for a treat.
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Thank you so much for joining in, it was great to have you with us! I hope 2018 holds plenty of video games and lovely surprises for you. 😀
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Omg thank you so much for including me on this! It was loads of fun and I look forward to more collaborations. I followed quite a few more bloggers because of this, and the answers were so creative and eclectic 😀
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That’s so good to hear – it’s reasons like that which make holding collaborations so worthwhile!
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Pingback: Creative Christmas: game of the year – Later Levels
Breath of the Wild was my biggest disappointment of the year, but I’ll give it another chance in 2018. I hope I beat SMO sometime this year too, haha. My GoTY was Hellblade. The most disturbingly beautiful game I have ever played.
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Really? I’m curious what was disappointing about it for you. I remember you had a hard time getting into Odyssey. I know I’ve been there before; the first time I try something, I don’t always like it, but then I’ll go back and enjoy it later. I remember the show Arrested Development being like that for me lol. I HATED the main character’s family, but then I realized I was kind of supposed to, and it has a more subtle, dry humor, which I wound up enjoying.
I’m so immersed in this Etrian Odyssey V game that I can’t concentrate on Mario’s :p I want to play Hellblade so badly. It’s going on my “What Should I Buy with my GCs” list…if I can get around to doing that. Ugh. I have Best of Games and Best of Books still to do. We have a holiday next (not this) Monday, so I’m hoping I can get them done by then.
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I don’t like the focus on stealth, weapons are always breaking, weak story, and I’m not a fan of the huge & empty feeling open world with no classic dungeons (just a directionless series of little shrine things to find). I tried really hard to force myself to love it, but I’ll be honest now and admit it wasn’t for me (HZD won for my game time). I will give it another chance this year since it is a freaking Zelda game, haha.
Good luck with all that 🙂
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I can totally see how that would be annoying. I’m not a fan of stealth myself, and the only reason I really was interested in this is one, it’s a Zelda game, and two, everyone is raving about it. It’s touch when something doesn’t live up to the hype for you. I’ve had that with movies. Not lately, but I never understood what was so great about Meet the Parents or the Scary Movie series. The latter was a parody of Scream, which was ALREADY a parody. My brother was going to lend me his copy, but wound up getting one for me OR he just gave me his copy and I didn’t notice, which is very clever and a good move :p
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I’ll just consider my usual wrong opinion on stuff, haha. I seen one of the Scary Movies, I think. I don’t remember liking or hating it. Hm…
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Nah, your opinion is totally valid! It’s informed because you’ve played it, and you have gaming experience, so it’s not like you’re just spouting nonsense. People like Ebert shouldn’t be commenting on games. While he might have been a great film critic, he failed to recognize the value and potential in the newest visual media. It’s funny how you can be an expert on one thing, but completely miss the boat with your point of view with something else. Yet again why I don’t give my opinion on FPS games…at least not until I play one and unless I find ones I like so I can compare the with the ones I didn’t. I think there’s value in recognizing that your preference isn’t everyone else’s, but it doesn’t make yours wrong.
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Nah. I’ve accepted I’m wrong about everything, but thanks. 🙂
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