It's time for the 2017 Quarterlies! Vote for Quarter to Three's Best Game of 2017

  1. Prey

A game out of time, with a design philosophy that seems from 15 years ago. It really is System Shock 3. Ok, not that great, but still, I felt it as much more proper inmersive sim than any of the two new Deus Ex. Yeah, on the final stretch there are a bit too much backtracking and it needed a few more enemy types, but still a great game.

  1. A hat in time

Super charming, cute-as-heck platformer that controls deliciously. I can only imagine they worked on the controls and the feeling for years. Additionally it’s also pretty varied, and the collecthaton is fun to do.

  1. What Remains of Edith Finch

The walking sim of 2017! The anthology format really works great here, giving great doses of imagination and magical realism to the game, really using what the genre allows.

  1. Dominions 5

Tom made a good point on his best of the year list, in that Dominions 5 is a great game, but it doesn’t really feel like a new entry in the year of 2017. Dominions is really a single game, and each entry is just a new major upgrade, to 4.0, 5.0, etc. Still, it deserved a position in my Top5.

  1. Cryptark

A surprising 2d roguelike with good action, a distinctive visual look, tight game design and original ideas that make brain and brawn mesh perfectly.

What other games I loved this year?
I loved TW Warhammer 1 and FH3 but are from 2016!

What other games I liked, with some reservations?

XCOM 2: War of the Chosen
Nex Machina
Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice
Destiny 2
Oxenfree
Dirt 4
Quake Champions
Dishonored 2: Death of the Outsider

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What other games I played, which were disappointing, overrated or were just not-for-me?

Sniper Elite 4. I liked SE3 but this was too much more of the same, and in the middle of the campaign I lost interest.

Agents of Mayhem. It has some good ideas and maybe it bombed comercially in an unfair way, but it also is undercooked in important ways.

Elex. Great exploration and decent faction and quests… terrible combat, animations, AI, main story, etc.

Pyre. Look, I don’t like VN as main conceit to tell the narrative, I didn’t like how the story handled your own character nor the little agency it offered, and I don’t like sport games, so what did you expect.

Little nightmares. I got stuck super soon in this game, so not-for-me.

Wolfenstein 2. Mediocre action, repetitive gameplay, and they fell into the trap of making the second part taking the memorable scenes of the first game and then “turning it up to eleven!!”

Cuphead. Great visuals! But high difficulty and simplistic, unfullfilling gameplay.

Middle Earth: Shadow of War. After playing 10 hours I really felt as I was replaying the first game with an expansion. I just discovered I had satiated my thirst for killing orc in the same ways with the first game.

I guess time is kinda running out so I need to get my $.02 in this thing. I’ve been sitting around at two separate PCs with a notepad list of the games of 2017 that I could put on this list and while the top two were set almost immediately upon playing them, the 3, 4 and 5 slots were harder to figure out. I went with time played since that seems like the best gauge of my engagement…

  1. Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild - This is the game that completely rekindled my love for videogames when I needed it most. I own it on two systems, mainly because I was afraid that one or the other version (Wii U and Switch) would be better than the other or more scarce over time and it just seemed like such a big deal. My expectations were high and they were met and then the game went well beyond that. I love that it’s a massive sandbox where there is no right way to play. It’s totally up to you, and yet the systems you have at your disposal are so natural feeling that they require zero explanation. So many things in this game just plain work like you expect. There is so little gameyness to how you interact in this world and yet the puzzles in the Shrines especially are so completely in tune with what makes The Legend of Zelda as a series what it was and is and will be. This is a game that uses the elements (wind, fire, water, ice) in ways you always thought they should work in games but absolutely never did until now. Nintendo’s developers have talked about how they built a “chemistry engine” for the game and well, that is one of many things that separates this game from everything else. Brilliant.

  2. Super Mario Odyssey - It’s been a very long time since Nintendo produced main series Zelda and Mario games in the same year. That both of them turned out this good is completely bonkers and it speaks to the breadth of talent that’s sitting in their studios in Japan right now. Remember, both these games came from more junior designers. These are not Miyamoto’s babies anymore. He oversees them and flips the tea table from time to time, but others are making these games. Odyssey is almost as good as Breath of the Wild and the only reason it doesn’t quite reach those heights is because it’s not quite the reinvention of Mario’s world as Link’s. It’s damn close though and Cappy is why it’s right there. I want to stack Goombas to the moon and smash through more side scrolling levels with 8-bit Mario in a Caveman suit. Even if all you do is finish the story, you’ve seen an amazing piece of work. But if you continue from there, the wonders are amazing and they become so much more challenging. The last thing you capture in the game is so obvious and yet so brilliantly done that I was as surprised and giddy as could be. It’s 3D Mario for anyone and everyone, as it should be.

  3. Splatoon 2 - I played a lot of Splatoon on the Wii U. That was an excellent game and turned shooters on their head by having you shoot almost everything BUT the other players. I was not expecting Splatoon 2 to be suck me in like it did because it seemed to be as close to a direct sequel as you could get. New maps. Some new weapons. Sure. That’s easy and quick and why not since most people missed Splatoon anyway? The addition of Salmon Run changed all that. It’s one of the best co-operative online modes in gaming. There is so much dynamic interplay among the players and teamwork is paramount! It makes you want to go back for one more round over and over again. I played a lot and if not for a couple other games I’ll mention, I’d still be playing. Writing about it makes me want to go back… especially for another party on Splatfest weekends!

  4. Mario + Rabbids: Kingdom Battle - The kids and I have had a long love affair with Rayman and the Rabbids. My oldest was so into Rayman 2 when I was playing through it that he would often ask me to play more “Co Mo” which was what he called the titular main character. We don’t know how he gave Rayman that name, but man, it makes me a little teary eyed thinking about it. My son is 19 now and the Rabbids are something that I still find inspiring in their insanity. Mashing them up in this wacky Mushroom Kingdom/Rabbids World X-Com-like tactical shooter is just as inspired as their insanity. It’s the first game I haven’t finished on this list, but I played it a whole bunch and I intend to go back and get to the end because it was only my latent writing background that pushed me onto something else. I always feel like I have to “keep up” with new games and not finishing this one makes me upset that I still feel like that sometimes. It easily sits in the top 5.

  5. Nex Machina - It was sour news when Housemarque announced that between this and Matterfall, they are now done making smaller arcade-style videogames for the home. These guys just plain get it when it comes to capturing the skill-based arcade gameplay that keeps you wanting to put just one more quarter in the machine, not even because you want to get to the end, but because you want to be GREAT, get to the end, and relive all that awesome spectacle you get to drink in along the way! Making arcade games is hard. You need to find some gameplay loop that is simple and enduring that you can mate with incredible visuals and deep skill-based goals while still allowing someone to play it that first time and “get it”. I’m hoping that when these guys create a long form $60 product they will find a way to bring this arcade design style to something longer and deeper. One thing’s for sure, whatever they do next ought to look incredible because this game certainly does.

The other games on my notepad were these…
ARMS
Xenoblade Chronicles 2
Dirt 4
Metroid: Samus Returns
Yakuza Kiwami
Horizon: Zero Dawn
Kamiko
Tumbleseed
Okami HD

I didn’t get to play enough of Xenoblade Chronicles 2 to decide where to put it. Based on the first 9 hours, it’s probably right up there. I have really enjoyed it so far. The combat system is a ton of fun and I adore the characters in the game. I’m all for heroes with positivity at their core. We need more optimism in gaming.

Kamiko is an awesome little $6 run through of a game. If you have a Switch, you should try it.

ARMS is the best implementation of motion controls since Wii Sports. It really is that good. If you have young kids, consider it. and make sure you get a second pair of JoyCons so you can both play with them. The world that Nintendo’s designers have built is filled with life and vibrantly illustrated. It’s also a super fun time online with random folks. It’s as deep as you want it to be, too.

Horizon: Zero Dawn is super and another game that I got distracted from when the Switch launched. If not for Zelda, I would’ve finished it within March. I don’t agree with what Tom has said regarding the main character and the world. I thought it was compelling. My kids and I often jokingly toss in an “Alooyyyy!” when we catch a scene from an upcoming movie with a Rost-like dude and a girl. She’s a cool lead in a cool game.

For the rest, Yakuza Kiwami brings the original Yakuza more in line with the modern games. Played about half of it. Loved it. Dirt 4 is not as good as Dirt Rally but I really like that its courses are generated instead of set. Metroid: Samus Returns… loved what I played. Didn’t play it enough yet. Tumbleseed is something I really liked but again, time was not on my side. Finally, Okami is a game my son would want you all to know about. It’s as good as it ever was, so if you never played it, grab it.

I’m sure I’m forgetting some things but those are the games I played the most. The backlog of 2017 games is long. Best games of the year can’t wait for me to catch up.

@porousnapkin maybe try again, as sites like EG are now reporting a New Years Sale (which includes some rare 1st party discounts! I note ARMS was added to our offers list here overnight).

…if not before? Hehehe

Nope. If I hadn’t enjoyed them, you’d know it.

Great, now you all have made me buy Mass Effect Andromeda…

My list:

  1. Monster Slayers - Simple but satisfying game for short playing sessions (which is all I can afford, usually).
  2. Horizon Zero Dawn- Loved the world, the graphics and the bow-fighting and while the story wasn’t brilliant, it did not bother me either. Haven’t finished it yet though, for some reason.
  3. Super Mario Oddysey- After getting the Switch in December, this is the game that gets played most, both by my daughters and by me. I think the cap-throwing/possessing thing is wonderful.
  4. Zelda, Breath of the Wild. Will probably get higher on the list once I get around to playing it more, but like I said at 3., Mario is favourite now and while I love the Switch so far, chances cartridges all the time is a pain…

And that is all the 2017 games I played. None of those would have come close to the absolute favourite thing I (finally) did play last year, which was The Last of Us, but even the DLC isn’t from 2017 is it? Too bad…

Great, looks what you guys did. It was all fun and games to pretend like Andromeda was great, and now someone had to spend $3.77 to pick this up from the bargain bin. Give the guy a break!

I don’t even want to know what she’s supposed to be doing in that clip. Ugh.

I think I saw the rest of that clip the other day but my browse was in Incognito Mode so I can’t go back and check.

It’s a shame they patched that stuff out. It would have been interesting to replay the game as default female Ryder just to see a comedic take on the game.

I must admit I was a little bummed I never got to experience the “doot doot” animations. And I played day one!

image

Well, I bought it for Ps4, so it’s a bit more. But it’s the time I worry about, not the money :-)

Before I forget:

  1. Out of the Park Baseball 18 – Normally, I would feel weird about putting an annual title like this on one of these lists (although I’ve never made a ‘best video games of the year’ list before), but 18 added so much stuff to the game I feel it justified. International tournaments to replicate the World Baseball Classic, negro leagues and historical minor leagues to add more realism for those wanting to replay baseball history (or to sim what-if scenarios like Josh Gibson, Satchel Paige, and Cool Papa Bell playing in the Majors in their prime), and promotion-and-relegation options for fictional leagues or for those wanting to play with the European baseball leagues that use it.
  2. Super Mario Odyssey – I was disappointed with the previous Mario game I played (3D Land), but this one does the trick for me. The theme of travel is utilized so well—the map looking like a travel guide and the silly souvenirs for sale—and the locations likewise seem more diverse to me than other Mario titles I’ve played. I thought I would miss the old powerups, but they never let me take control of a tank or a tyrannosaurus like Cappy does.
  3. Night in the Woods – Narrative game starring a college-dropout kitty with a troubled past who returns to her dying mining town. It does a great job replicating that transitional feeling you get in young adulthood of moving from child to grownup where you start realizing that you have responsibilities and people expecting things of you when really all you want to do is play bass at band practice with your fox and crocodile friends like you did in high school. It also has decent writing and a charming visual style.
  4. Golf Story – Classic three-click golf gameplay wrapped inside an RPG. It’s probably my third favorite golf game now after Links and Desert Golfing.
  5. The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel – This was a tough one. I do not normally like JRPGs, but I found myself spending the better part of a week’s free time with this one anyway. It’s not grindy and it doesn’t have angsty protagonists or an overwrought, incoherent story. I’ve read that the other Trails games are better, but I doubt I’ll ever get around to them. I kind of doubt I’ll ever return to finish this one either, but it gave me 20-30 hours of enjoyable gameplay which is more than any of the other games that it beats out for my #5 spot can say.

I decided against Switch titles that are re-releases of earlier games, but I’ll take the time to shout them out down here. Mario Kart 8 Deluxe is the best in the series, adding a few things without really changing the essentially perfect core gameplay. Also, I finally get to play as Boo, my old go-to for Mario Tennis on the N64. Playing this with family members over the holidays was the most fun I’ve had playing a video game all year. Disgaea 5 Complete was the game I used to scratch my tactical itch on the platform. Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle would have been my first choice, but I had just finished a game of XCOM 2 and was looking for something different. Enter Disgaea 5, which is certainly different if nothing else. I was skeptical of it at first, but I watched Tom’s YouTube video of it and was convinced to give it try. I’m glad I did because it basically took over my life during the holiday season. Could honestly do without all the half-naked anime girls though.

A few other 2017 (I think) stuff I remember playing and being generally okay with:

  • Crowtel Renovations – Simple platformer about an overworked hotel manager (who is a crow, hence the title) trying to clean up the place before it gets shutdown by nefarious health inspectors, who are cats because why not?
  • Mass Effect: Andromeda – I like that this is one of the forum’s favorite games this year. I bounced off it after 15 hours or so but appreciate that a game like it exists—though I guess not anymore. I prefer the concept of Andromeda to the original trilogy (space explorer is far more interesting to me than badass soldier person), but there was always some annoyance I kept running into that kept me from loving it.
  • Monster’s Den: Godfall – Solid dungeon-crawler RPG.
  • Star Traders: Frontiers – Early access, but I played quite a bit of it, so I’ll put it here anyway.

How am i supposed to choose here? So many great games, so little time to play them! Games i’d like to play like Night in the Woods and Tacoma i haven’t yet and might have have made the list. I like my top four games just about equally and being forced to rank them isn’t an accurate reflection of my feelings about them.

  1. Life is Strange: Before the Storm
    This year’s winner of the @divedivedive award for best game in the Stressed Out Pacific Northwest Teen Girls category, Before the Storm was my most anticipated game of 2017 and probably my favorite overall. As self-appointed advocate-in-residence of all things Life is Strange, nothing could be better than seeing the girls of Arcadia Bay one more time. And it’s definitely the girls you’re playing this for, because Before the Storm’s narrower focus on the relationship between its two female protagonists touches only briefly on the town and its many characters new and old during its three too-short and under-priced episodes (can’t we double the price and get more content!? It would have been worth it.) Like LiS 1, it’s well written and literarily written, full of allusions, foreshadowing and symbolism, and with some of the blushingly intimate and creative vignettes of any game in 2017. A bit of Show Me Love, a bit like a prequel to Twin Peaks, a bit of fan fiction, a heavy dose of its own more contemporary and Americanized spin. To discover at the end it’s really a walking simulator in a choice-based games’ clothing makes me question if its narrative arc is actually coherent and successful, and the final episode’s hasty and off-putting second half grates, but i still can’t help but give it the nod for number 1.

  2. What Remains of Edith Finch
    This year’s runner up in the beloved Stressed Out Pacific Northwest Teen Girls category, WROEF is a stroll through a Twin Peaks adjacent, Pacific Northwest walking simulator. Part Memento Mori, part Life of Pi, part MEOW WOLF and part millennial ambivalence at the extinction of the traditional American middle class family, WROEF adds several increasingly interesting interactive sections beyond standard walking simulators that, while not entirely subverting the genre, keeps you off-kilter enough from knowing entirely what’s going on. The ambience of comfortable middle class domesticity abandoned is the existential horror for this new generation of writers and creators, and Edith Finch is nothing if not about existential horror. A completely successful game at what it sets out to do, you may be left wondering what, at the end, that goal actually was. But to be sure, you’ll wonder, as this game will stick with you.

  3. Tooth and Tail
    RTS distilled to a one-button controller and is the best game discovery Tom Chick made in 2017 (imo). The most innovative RTS game in years. While Total Warhammer 2 will have more of my play time, Tooth and Tail has my respect. Its only weakness is the amazingly randomly generated single player scripted maps can, by fate and fortune, swing wildly and frustratingly in difficulty. An invented slavic-ish language, Bolshevik rats that give their arms to be eaten for the cause, in a zero-sum Animal Farm world of famished predators where you’re either sitting at the dinner table or being served as food on it, Tooth and Tails’ wonderfully smart and self-aware setting possesses an allegorical quality that almost transcends the game itself.

  4. Endless Space 2
    Tickling my growing Gallic sensibilities ES2 distills the interminable 4X genre into an aesthetic and UI triumph that non-aspie humans can enjoy without spending a 100 hours a game doing it. Gorgeous and dramatic ES2 tackles head-on the barrenness of a genre with an emphasis on cinematic wizardry in real time battles with an AI ‘cinematographer’ that pans around the battlefield. I especially like some of the imaginative and different factions play styles and musical themes, and they sell the hammy setting setting itself - a post-singularity universe of semi-sentient nanoparticles (Dust), genetically engineered species, haphazardly terraformed planets and the dying embers of the precursors that made them. AI weaknesses (almost the default for any 4X game at this point), questionable balance and upgrade paths, and perhaps too many scripted events that dead end or seem not well thought out, accrete on to an otherwise amazing game to the point many genre-heads will find the game boring. Even with all the many complaints and legitimate problems that others will surely point out, it’s still my favorite traditional strategy game of 2017.

  5. Wonder Boy 3: The Dragon’s Trap
    Wonder Boy 3 is like discovering that the most famous kid from your elementary school class photo was the unassuming one everyone ignored. A rescued and remastered relic from the Sega Master System that even at the time wasn’t especially beloved, Wonder Boy 3 is a labor of love lost in a storm of Cuphead adoration by childhood fans that wanted future generations to reevaluate and remember this game as an unappreciated gem. Truly old school in a literal sense, the 1:1 gameplay recreation can actually switch on the fly between the old pixel graphics and chip tune sounds, so that even 30 year old walkthroughs are 100% accurate guides to levels and bosses. What a smiling ride through dusty and long-filed away memories. Of course by modern standards it’s not much of a game, and the difficulty is almost entirely because of momentum in combat. I’m still glad it exists.

I don’t generally play games when they come out, but there were a few I played in the same release year and were worthy of being counted:

  1. Xcom 2: war of the chosen
  2. Nioh
  3. Final Fantasy XII: The Zodiac Age
  4. Assassin’s Creed Origins
  5. Guild Wars 2: Path of Fire

War of the Chosen was a mixed bag for me. I mostly disliked the goofy Nemesis system handwave, but the changes to the core game were awesome. And no other game has hooked me like the XCOM reboot. Turned me from a casual gamer to semi-hardcore just for this game.

Nioh is so full of content, it’s impossible not to get your money’s worth. The idea of a Souls game married to an ARPG looter seemed like the dream. Unfortunately, it didn’t eclipse the perfection of Souls. Instead, it’s a classic now in its own lane.

FFXII. The gambit system is the shiz. A FF for adults? Please and thank you.

Ass Creed. I’ve bounced off of EVERY AC game to date. Although Origins isn’t pure genius, the combination of how relaxing it is to play with the incredible world sucked me in. My go to “just before sleep” game.

GW2: PoF. Mounts done better than any other game ever.

I will have to revise my list and put Battle Brothers on it.

  1. XCOM 2: War of the Chosen - I loved XCOM 2 and this made it even better.
  2. Horizon Zero Dawn - I’m not done with this, but really enjoy it so far. I think I have the advantage of playing very few games of this type, so I’m not as tired of the formula as some. It’s also my first 4k HDR console game, and that definitely has a bit of a wow to it.
  3. Rimworld - The beta came out this year and I started playing there, so this feels like a 2017 release to me. I enjoy this far more than I ever enjoyed Dwarf Fortress.
  4. Divinity Original Sin 2 - I didn’t finish, but I wasn’t expecting to. Like the first one, I got really into this until I ran out of steam. Even better than the first, which was pretty good.
  5. Torment: Tides of Numenera - I liked this, even though I’m not normally a big fan of Numenera. It makes me more excited for the tabletop Numenera game we’re planning on playing later in 2018.

I didn’t play that many other 2017 releases - Injustice 2, a handful of hours of Destiny 2, Tacoma, Jackbox 4, a little bit of one game of Endless Space 2. They were all ok to good, and could fill out a top 8, but I don’t think I could get to a top 10. I may start Prey or Agents of Mayhem before this thread is over, and that could change things around.

The Crusader Kings 2 Monks and Mystics DLC pulled me back in to CK2 for a while, but there’s no way to claim CK2 as a 2017 game.

A lot of my game time was full of the 2016 games I was behind on - I just wrapped up Dishonored 2, for example.