2017 Game of the Year

– GAME OF THE YEAR –

 


– SHOOTER OF THE YEAR –

 


– SPORTS GAME OF THE YEAR –


 

  1. HORIZON: ZERO DAWN – 39 VOTES

Horizon Zero Dawn, IS a completely original PlayStation exclusive that pits the female antagonist, Aloy, against biomechanical dinosaurs/beasts in a post-apocalyptic tribal society. On the other hand, you have the tried and true story of Link in the Legend of Zelda. What came as a wildly unexpected coincidence is the similarities the two games had. Zelda, too, featured biomechanical beasts in a post-apocalyptic future dystopian society. Both games are open world, sandbox style concepts with huge maps that can be explored freely, for the most part.

But Horizon is essentially like a more detailed, mature version of Zelda in many ways. It has a far more advanced improvement scale that made you want to keep playing to see what a full skill tree meant for your playing experience. The storyline is superior to Zelda with a deep concept. It’s as mysterious as it is adventurous, and that’s why it is considered on par with its established competitor. However, this is what makes Horizon stand out and our game of the year.  First, it’s original and story we have never seen before.  While it may be similar to the Zelda game, the rich mythology built into the story is what gamers truly seek in RPG’s. Just like when we were first introduced to the Elder Scrolls or Assassins Creed Horizon is new and exciting where as Zelda is essentially another sequel or reboot for a new Nintendo System.

Second,  the play and mechanics of the game are original, especially with being able to override and control the robotic dinosaurs.  While some of the features of the game can be found in other RPG’s most of the features are original and original gameplay wins every time.

Overall, Horizon Dawn is just a superior game to other RPG’s this year…rich in story and mythology,  fantastic gameplay, and completely original  while not being a sequel. This  why it’s our Game of the Year.

 

  1. LEGEND OF ZELDA: BREATH OF THE WILD – 33 VOTES 

What put Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild in the number 2 spot was the ‘game changing’ new concepts that have never been seen before and will surely be featured in future games. The ability to go absolutely anywhere and you see on screen is industry-leading. The way stamina is implemented to increase access to parts of the map is genius and cooking is somewhat effortless and fruitful. The game remains fresh throughout the entire journey and feels like different a different series while maintaining the timelessness fans have known for three decades. It can easily be a Game of the Year and if didn’t have to compete with Horizon Zero Dawn, probably would be,  but it’s easily our number 2 Game of the Year.

 

 

  1. WOLFENSTEIN 2 – 24 VOTES 

Wolfenstein 2 is a great improvement over the first game. While the first one is a fantastic story set in a alternate reality with Superior technology by the Nazi the sequel jumps ahead to the beginning of the 1960’s where we have to reclaim America the nazi and very much a Man in the High Castle type of story. As far as sequels go this is better than the original much like Assassin’s Creed 2 was a great Improvement upon its predecessor. And what makes this are shooter of the year is the Fantastic gameplay of not only taking down all sorts of Nazis and super soldiers and robots,  but the story itself, where you basically start off having to liberate a U-Boat that will become the resistances new home. Good first person shooters are only good because of their story. And the story in Wolfenstein 2 is superior to the first game. Not only do you travel to big cities like New York Roswell or New Orleans, but you also get a backstory of BJ Blazkowics. We definitely had some good first person shooters this year from  Call of Duty World War II or Destiny 2, Wolfenstein 2 beats them all out because of its story and all of the Nazi super soldier types you get the kill. And who doesn’t like an alternate reality, especially in a video game

 

  1. DESTINY 2 – 18 VOTES 

Destiny 2 probably got the most hours from all of us this year with the highly anticipated entry coming just as the original edition was starting to fade from the picture. Fans of the series had mixed reviews as some felt it could have just as well been another expansion to the original. While it did feel like a polished version that featured many of the same features and storylines, Destiny 2 kept a lot of the good and did away with a lot of the bad and gave us a more exciting entry from Bungie. And as much as we liked the first game,  of course we were going to like this.  Fun, Style, with lots of side adventures, Destiney deserves to be in our Top 10 List.

 

 

 

  1. ASSASSINS CREED: ORIGINS – 17 VOTES 

It’s easy not to really consider anything from Assassin’s Creed anymore because we’ve had so many sequels, but Assassin’s Creed Origins which is technically a prequel is the best Assassin’s Creed game since the second one. Set in ancient Egypt and giving you the backstory of how the Creed got started everything you love about Assassin’s Creed is played out in an open world of ancient Egypt with less refined weapons. This makes for a fun game play because yourself skills have to be better compared to other sequels. It’s also the largest open-world, Assassin’s Creed game which is pretty much their version of Skyrim. To have a game take us to the world of ancient Egypt with assassins, its original, rich in story, and it’s a game that you won’t complete quickly, giving you many hours of gaming pleasure. This is a far superior entry into the Assassin’s Creed world than many of its predecessors and that makes this game and an easy pick for our top 10.

 

 

  1. FOR HONOR – 10 VOTES  

For Honor was one of those games that we had been waiting for for the past few years, ever since the first trailer at E3. One of the bloodiest fighting games ever created, it was a hell of a lot of fun to play and to be able to be a Knight, Viking, or Samurai just made this game one of the best games of the year. It very much reminds me a lot of RYSE:Son of Rome, which came out a few years ago for the Xbox. It wasn’t a perfect game and there are definitely some things that need to be improved upon for the sequel such as the blocking mechanics, but when it comes to a great hack and slash game,  you just get a sword or battle ax, and kill things this was the best of the year. Plus, it has one of the best replay values. The worst part of the game is the dueling aspects would seriously need to be improved on, but the story and multiplayer modes make up for it. Easily one of our favorite games of the year.

 

 

  1. SUPER MARIO: ODYSSEY – 10 VOTES 

Anytime you have a new Mario Brothers game, especially for a new Nintendo system you automatically have to stand up and take notice. While the Nintendo switch may not be as popular with gamers, Super Mario Odyssey is the perfect complement to this new system. And best of all it’s a 3D platform adventure with a beloved character and we Gamers have grown up with. If you played on the original Nintendo we all pretty much admit that Super Mario 3 was the best even though the original Super Mario Brothers will always hold a special place in our heart because it’s the first one. Super Mario Odyssey is just as game-changing as Super Mario Brothers 3 on the original Nintendo. And let’s face it probably is the best Super Mario game and we’ve ever seen. What’s the first sandbox style Super Mario game that gives us a great role-playing feature that we’ve ever seen with Mario but most importantly, it’s style and gameplay is far superior compared to anything that we’ve ever experienced with Mario. Just like Legend of Zelda Breath of the Wild changes the game forever when it comes to the Zelda series, Super Mario Odyssey does the same for the Mario Brothers. It’s hard to know where the idea came from…just to make another Super Mario that’s an improvement or they had to make the Switch as a capable gaming system to play such a fantastic game. Either way it’s a job well done by Nintendo. And why we can’t make a Super Mario Odyssey game of the year, it absolutely belongs in our top 10 list because, well, it’s f****** Super Mario Brothers.

 

  1. PERSONA 5 – 9 VOTES 

Persona 5 is the sixth installment of the Persona series, which is a larger part of the Megami Tensei franchise. For fans of this series, Persona 5 the match made in heaven. One of the best games of the series and one of the richest storylines. It’s stylish and fun and a large game that requires lots and lots of hours to play. Well, this series never gets enough love when it comes to other RPG games, it’s definitely worthy of a spot in our top 10 games of the year. It may have been overshadowed by games like Horizon Zero Dawn or Legend of Zelda breath of the Wild or prey or even Resident Evil 7, it’s certainly right up there with these great games and worth the retail price. There are a lot of good games this year, but for the gamers that have never really played a Persona game this is the game to get and get introduced to the series. It’s a shame that it does get overshadowed because it is a fantastic game and one of the best games to have played in 2017.

 

 

  1. PREY – 9 VOTES 

Prey was one of our favorite games of the year. A mixture of role-playing and a horror game I took us to a retro type World on an abandoned space station by mimicking aliens.  It’s hard to classify whether a truly is a horror game for role-playing game, but there were a lot of things about this game that was scary. Styled beautifully with a fantastic Adventure it was one of the funnest games we played this year and that’s why I made it into our top 10 list. While it is not as huge of a game like Assassin’s Creed Origins for Horizon or even Legend of Zelda breath of the Wild, the hours spent playing this game are not wasted hours and it was a lot of fun.

 

 

 

  1. RESIDENT EVIL 7: BIOHAZARD – 8 VOTES

Resident Evil 7 was one of the best entries in the series. A truly horrifying game that kept us playing for hours and made us want to go back to it again and again. Very much a retro-style game and something we weren’t used to in the Resident Evil series. It was fresh and original best of all, scary. Plus the VR experience just absolutely terrified, the kind of game that can give you nightmares. While it’s not the best game of the year. It makes it into our top 10 list because of its replay value and how original it is within the Resident Evil series.

 

 

 

HONORABLE MENTIONS 

Nier: Automata7 Votes

Nioh – 6 Votes

Call of Duty WW2- 6 Votes

Uncharted: The Lost Legacy – 5 Votes

Star Wars: BattleFront 2 – 4 Votes

Middle Earth Shadows of War – 4 Votes

PlayerUnknown Battlegrounds – 4 Votes

Mass Effect Andromeda –  2 Votes

Madden18 – 2 Votes

NBA 2K17 – 1 Vote

Mario Kart 8: Deluxe – 1 Vote

 


Voted on by our Gaming Staff…

Marcus Blake,  Alex Moore,  Brendan Smith, Alex Thomas, and John Winfrey

Votes are calculated by finding where we placed the game in our Top 10 List and subtracting that number from 10 to come up with the total number of spots it is from the bottom and that is the number of votes you gave the game

Example: If Horizon Zero Dawn is in # 1 Spot then by subtracting it 10 its’ 9 Spots from the bottom giving it 9 votes  Or If Nioh is in # 5 Spot then by subtracting it 10 its’ 5  Spots from the bottom giving it 5 votes

Then we calculate the number of votes we gave our games and then add them for a total.  If your game is # 10 then it doesn’t get a vote just as if someone is the only one to include a game in their top 10 list it will still get votes just Like Shadow of War got 4 Votes from Marcus Blake

OUR INDIVIDUAL TOP 10 LIST OF GAMES FOR 2017 

Marcus Blake

1.    Horizon: Zero Dawn

2.    Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild

3.    Wolfenstein 2

4.    Assassins Creed: Origins

5.    Nioh

6.    Middle Earth Shadows of War

7.    Call of Duty: WWII

8.    Prey

9.    Madden 18

10. Battlefront 2

Brendan Smith

 1) Horizon: Zero Dawn

2) Destiny 2

3) Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild

4) Assassin’s Creed: Origins

5) For Honor

6) Nier: Automata

7) Wolfenstein 2: The New Colossus

8) Persona 5

9 )  Nioh

10) South Park: The Fractured But Whole

John Winfrey

1. Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild

2. Horizon Zero Dawn

3. Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus

4. PlayerUnknown Battlegrounds

5. Assassin’s Creed Origins

6. Destiny 2

7. Call of Duty WWII

8. Super Mario Odyssey

9. Persona 5

10. Cuphead

Alex Moore

1) Horizon Zero Dawn

2) Resident Evil 7

3) Prey

4) The Evil Within 2

5) For Honor

6) Battlefront 2

7) Uncharted: The Lost Legacy

8) Mass Effect Andromeda

9) Destiny 2

10) NBA 2K17

Alex Thomas

1) Legend of Zelda BOTW
2)  Super Mario Odyssey
3) Wolfenstein 2
4)  Persona 5
5)  Destiny 2
6) Horizon Zero Dawn
7) Nier: Automata

8) Uncharted: The Lost Legacy
9) Mario Kart 8: Deluxe
10) Resident Evil 7: Biohazard

 

 

 

 

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