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#GOTY2020 - Epilogue

Where I discuss my thoughts on choosing my GOTY + other BS about it.

I knew Ghost of Tsushima was going to be my #1 around USA Thanksgiving, once I “mentally eliminated” Assassin’s Creed Valhalla from contention when I was 75% of the way through that game. GoT was in that #1 spot ever since July, when I first played.

The Last of Us Part 2, FF 7 Remake, Animal Crossing: NH, and Hades were not played (either lack of interest or lack of time).

The closest decision was for Honorable Mention/#3. Valhalla, Miles Morales, Ori 2, and Call of the Sea were all “in contention”, but I went for Miles since it was the much more complete and well-rounded package with the least amount of technical issues.

Mafia DE was locked in as my Special Mention nearly as soon as I defined that term to myself. It wasn’t a direct GOTY contender, but it was great enough that it needed to be mentioned. Simple as that.

Ghost becomes the second Playstation exclusive to win GOTY, joining my 2016 #1, Uncharted 4.

Rockstar still holds the record of most GOTYs with 4 (RDR 1 & 2, GTA 4 & 5), and PS Studios-published games now joins Nintendo with 2 GOTYs (Super Mario(s) Galaxy and Odyssey). No Xbox exclusive has been named one of my GOTYs. I don’t think Rockstar’s top spot will ever be topped.

Doom Eternal, if #1, would have done the same with Bethesda-published games (2011′s Skyrim).

Nintendo not having any placement is rare, as usually one game is in the discussion for something every year. I barely touched my Switch this year.

Ori 2′s technical issues dropped it from a likely #2 all the way down to lower contention for Honorable Mention. If I had waited to play it when the bugs were squashed, or on my Series X, it would have had a real shot at #1.

So here’s the updated list of Game of the Years since 2007 (when I started this):

2007 - Super Mario Galaxy

2008 - Grand Theft Auto IV

2009 - Dragon Age: Origins

2010 - Red Dead Redemption

2011 - TES V: Skyrim

2012 - Telltale’s Walking Dead: Season 1

2013 - Grand Theft Auto V

2014 - Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor

2015 - Life is Strange: Season 1

2016 - Uncharted 4

2017 - Super Mario Odyssey

2018 - Red Dead Redemptin 2

2019 - A Plague Tale: Innocence

2020 - Ghost of Tsushima

Some showcased songs from some of my favorite games of 2020. #GOTY2020

#GOTY2020 - #1 !

The big one. Kinda.

Ghost of Tsushima - Played on Playstation 4

If you know me, you saw this one coming. I spent almost all of the summer and fall of this year gushing about this game. I absolutely adored it. Unlike other great games, I found very little to complain about, and what I could complain about were nitpicks. Little tiny ones at that.. mostly story-related.

What GoT did was take the somewhat tired open-world structure that developers like Ubisoft and Rockstar have excelled at in recent years, and adapted it to fit a unique style where everything fell in place like a jigsaw puzzle. IMO it’s the best open-world experience I’ve personally had since 2014′s Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor... and yes I hold SoM up there as a stellar open world. I wanted to see everything and go everywhere.

Almost everything on the map had a reason to exist, and the progression systems were intuitive, yet dynamic enough to tailor your Jin Sakai to how you wanted to portray him in your headcanon and in your playstyle, which I really loved. The combat felt so satisfying to learn and master, and I never felt overpowered until the very end, even on the base difficulty.

Also, the world is GORGEOUS. On a base launch model PS4, it still ran beautifully and had very few performance hiccups. It’s the most optimized game I played in 2020, and that goes a long way this year.

It’s impossible for me to go further without spoilers. Maybe I’ll do a spoiler post in early January (probably won’t), but just play this game. It’s rare that I label a game as absolutely essential, but Tsushima is one of the essentials. I wish I could play it for the first time all over again.

Is it a top tier game of the year? Only time will tell, but in this case, the whole is just as good as the sum of its’ parts.

#GOTY2020 - Runner-Up

The game that almost made it.

Doom Eternal - Played on Xbox One

I would have laughed at you if you told me this was going to be my #2 game of the year. Honestly.

Doom Eternal took a franchise that I didn’t like, in a genre I don’t normally enjoy, and morphed my opinion of both dramatically. So much so, in fact, that on a recent Xbox Live sale I purchased the Slayer’s Collection, which includes Dooms 1-3 and Doom 2016. I haven’t had such a visceral reaction to a franchise after one game wowed me in years... but about the game...

This is a very fun FPS with bangin’ music, great level design, smart progression, and a difficulty curve that is challenging, yet fair. It’s the best pure gameplay experience I had in 2020, and one that I can’t wait to revisit when I get to the Slayer’s Collection in 2021.

The only reason why it’s not #1? I thought that a couple of the levels were meh, and Marauders (the enemy in the above gif) can bugger off. Poor enemy design, IMO.

#GOTY2020 - Honorable Mention

Essentially my 3rd favorite game of the year, this is the slot where I highlight a game that, while not necessarily close to this year’s top 2, is worth... mentioning.

Spider-Man: Miles Morales - Played on Playstation 4

Another shorter open-world experience, SM: MM tells a great, albeit predictable, Spider-Man story that’s filled the brim with fan service. Side activities have purpose, and the music is fantastic. There were definitely some hiccups with the frame-rate (I did play on older hardware), but it didn’t hamper my enjoyment. If you loved, or even just liked, Spider-Man 2018, you should play this ASAP. I kinda just wanted... more? ... but I was fine with what I got.

#GOTY2020 - Special Mention

This is the game that I felt deserved mention at the end of the year, regardless of the year it was released. (I must have played it in 2020, though).

Mafia: Definitive Edition - Played on Xbox One

A short, yet deeply compelling, narrative is only just a part of what makes the game shine, IMO. Great writing and art direction are really only hampered by some technical hiccups and one or two kinda meh missions that keep it from higher placement. In a landscape of games with open-world bloat, Mafia DE avoids all that with grace. Don’t overlook this game.

Last-Minute #GOTY2020 UPDATE - Date Change/Burnout

I mentioned this on Twitter earlier in the weekend, but I am dealing with immense gamer burnout at the moment. I finished up several games last week over my vacation, which ends after tomorrow, and I went to start up another massive game, Immortals: Fenyx Rising, to try to fit that in before the end of the year, and well... big mistake.

My brain just can’t compute another open world game so soon, and one that... honestly... wasn’t holding my attention. I put a good 11 hours in over 2 days (including menu time), and I just couldn’t stick with it. I will come back to it ASAP, but only when I can mentally feel ready for it. It’s not going to sit on my backlog for too long, but I need to put big games like that to the side, at least for now.

WITH THAT IN MIND, I will be moving up my Game of the Year 2020 list/posts/whatever up to December 23rd and December 24th, 2020. This is one whole week earlier, which will allow me to, without guilt, write up my GOTY posts now. I can go back to a healthier gaming pattern as soon as I write them, especially now that my long vacation is at its’ tail end. Will that “healthier pattern” just be jumping around in Game Pass games/easy gamerscore/endless dreaming of my next Mass Effect runs? Yes. Is it healthier? Yes.

See y’all on 12/23.

#GOTY2020 Schedule!

So. It’s time. Soon.

Another game has to join my club of favorite games from each year (that I’ve been doing to 13(!) years now), and 2020 has been a helluva year for more ways than one outside of gaming, but I won’t hit on that here. This is about the games I’ve played.

The schedule is shortened this year to TWO days. One “Special Mention” and one “Honorable Mention” on the first day (12/30), then #2 and #1 on the second (12/31). I need every single day this month to play these games, waiting until 12/29 to do the cut-off is just right for me this year.

Special Mention - A game that doesn’t necessarily have to have been released in 2020, but for some reason it resonated with me, but doesn’t feel like Game of the Year for me.

Honorable Mention - Essentially the #3, but HM sounds better.

forever-memes

Vibration therapy vibes

Way too early?

Hey, a new appearance means this Tumblr isn’t dead, right?

Just a few notes here for myself, as I enter this fall’s gaming season.

Lots to play this fall. It’s going to be a busy 3 months. I don’t quite know how many games I’ll play, but I’m aiming high. Some highlights include Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, Cyberpunk 2077, and Spider-Man: Miles Morales. Those are the 3 I am absolutely playing no matter what, but this list also includes Mafia: Definitive Edition, Doom Eternal, and Immortals: Fenyx Rising (still a dumb name). Throw in indies to fill the gaps, and we’ve got too much to play. Some concessions will be made (as they were earlier in the year).

I failed at both PS5, and most importantly for me, Xbox Series X pre-orders, so I am going to 100% try to get my hands on the next-gen console ASAP. That’s how I want to play a lot of the new releases this fall.

With so many games, I need time to play them. So, it’s way too early, but my early plan is for Game of the Year (#GOTY) 2020 to be set for December 31st, 2020.