game of the year awards |

2017 Game of the Year Awards Round-Up

Posted by BinaryMessiah on 02/24/2018

Posted in: 2017, Game of the Year Awards. Tagged: 2017, awards, game of the year awards, goty. Leave a comment

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild

Awarded

Game of the Year
Best Switch Exclusive

Nominated

Best Graphics, Artistic
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Horizon: Zero Dawn

Awarded

Best PlayStation 4 Exclusive
Best Story

Nominated

Game of the Year
Best Atmosphere
Best Sound Design
Best Graphics, Technical
Best Voice Acting
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Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus

Awarded

Best Shooter
Best Voice Acting

Nominated

Game of the Year
Best Multiplatform
Best Atmosphere
Best Story
Best Sound Design
Best Graphics, Technical
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Call of Duty: WWII

Awarded

Best Sound Design

Nominated

Game of the Year
Best Shooter
Best Atmosphere
Best Graphics, Technical
Best Multiplayer
Best Voice Acting
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Destiny 2

Awarded

Best Multiplayer

Nominated

Best Shooter
Best Sound Design
Best Multi-platform
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Metroid: Samus Returns

Awarded

Best 3DS Exclusive
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Total War: Warhammer II

Awarded

Best Strategy
Best PC Exclusive
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Forza Motorsport 7

Awarded

Best Xbox One Exclusive
Best Driving
Best Graphics, Technical

Nominated

Best Sound Design
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Old Man’s Journey

Awarded

Best Mobile Exclusive
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Nier: Automata

Awarded

Best Multi-Platform
Best Action

Nominated

Game of the Year
Best Graphics, Artistic
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Crash Bandicoot N.Sane Trilogy

Awarded

Best Reissue

Nominated

Best Platformer
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Puyo Puyo Tetris

Awarded

Best Puzzler
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Observer

Awarded

Best Atmosphere

Nominated

Best Indie
Best Graphics, Artistic
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Cuphead

Awarded

Best Indie Game
Best Graphics, Artistic

Nominated

Best Xbox One Exclusive
Best Platformer
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Star Wars Battlefront II

Awarded

Most Disappointing Game

Nominated

Best Multiplayer
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Persona 5

Awarded

Best RPG

Nominated

Game of the Year
Best PlayStation 4 Exclusive
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Super Mario Odyssey

Awarded

Best Platformer

Nominated

Game of the Year
Best Switch Exclusive
Best Graphics, Artistic
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This is always the hardest category for me to pick and I always spend weeks thinking about it. What makes a game better than all the others? Does it have to be revolutionary? One of a kind? Bigger than any other game? Not necessarily. GotY is usually for a game that exceeds expectations and feels solid, structured, fun, and memorable, and just stands out as a whole over any other game. This was a hard year to pick from as there were so many fantastic games that fell under these criteria.

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild

I’m just as shocked as you are about this. I was on the bandwagon that BotW was overrated, hyped-up nonsense, but after getting a Switch during the holidays and really playing it I started to see just how wrong I was, and how blind all the naysayers are. Nintendo always gets a bad rap for their hardware and using the same franchises for 3 decades, and I get that. However, BotW is something different, something unique and revolutionary for Nintendo themselves. They stepped out of their comfort zone and looked at other popular games that helped influence BotW. BotW has so much going for it, gorgeous visuals, unique puzzle-solving, a vast open world, and so many secrets and things to discover and explore. 30 years of Zelda has all accumulated and is playable in one game. I can’t think of another game that was this ambitious and this well done this year.

Runner-Ups

Horizon: Zero Dawn

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Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus

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Call of Duty: WWII

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Resident Evil 7 Biohazard

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Persona 5

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Forza Motorsport 7

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Nier: Automata

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Super Mario Odyssey

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2017 Game of the Year Awards — Achievement Awards — Best Atmosphere

Posted by BinaryMessiah on 12/30/2017

Posted in: 2017, Game of the Year Awards. Tagged: atmosphere, biohazard, call of duty, game of the year awards, goty, horizon, observer, resident evil vii, the new colossus, wolfenstein, wwii, zero dawn. Leave a comment

The atmosphere in a game can be just as memorable as the story or be a character itself. Fallout 3 proved this as the Capital Wasteland was a character all on its own. A great atmosphere is something that can draw you in and make you feel a part of the world.

Observer

Just like Soma, Obverser delivered an unrelenting atmosphere that is chilling to the bone, disturbing, and outright immersive. Not a single game this year touched Observer in terms of atmosphere. It was a let down storywise towards the end, but the entire play area of Observer tells its own interesting story.

Runner-Ups

Resident Evil 7 Biohazard

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Horizon: Zero Dawn

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Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus

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Call of Duty: WWII

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2017 Game of the Year Awards — Achievement Awards — Best Story

Posted by BinaryMessiah on 12/29/2017

Posted in: 2017, Game of the Year Awards. Tagged: andromeda, game of the year awards, goty, horizon, mass effect, story, tacoma, the new colossus, what remains of edith finch, wolfenstein ii, zero dawn. Leave a comment

The story is probably the second most important aspect of a game next to the gameplay. A good story can be memorable, impactful, controversial, enlightening, frightening, and any other emotion humans can feel. We didn’t have many games with memorable stories this year, but there were some out there that stood out.

Horizon: Zero Dawn

Horizon told a story of humanity years after we destroyed ourselves and the aftermath we would suffer. The story was focused globally and internally with the main characters trying to discover who they are making something of themselves. Horizon’s story was memorable, kept you drawn in, and multi-leveled in many ways.

Runner-Ups

Tacoma

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Mass Effect: Andromeda

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Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus

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What Remains of Edith Finch

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2017 Game of the Year Awards — Achievement Awards — Best Sound Design

Posted by BinaryMessiah on 12/28/2017

Posted in: 2017, Game of the Year Awards. Tagged: call of duty, destiny 2, forza motorsport 7, game of the year awards, goty, horizon, sound design, the new colossus, wolfenstein ii, wwii, zero dawn. Leave a comment

Sound design isn’t something we normally think of every day, but without great sound design we wouldn’t be as immersed in games, it’s something that’s on the back burner and never gets enough credit.

Call of Duty: WWII

Call of Duty may get a lot of backlashes, but WWII impressed on sound design. I felt like I was actually in the war thanks to the fantastic explosions, realistic gun sounds, tinging of shells off the ground, people screaming, doors creaking, and snow crunching. WWII went above and beyond…the Call of Duty in sound design.

Runner-Ups

Horizon: Zero Dawn

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Forza Motorsport 7

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Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus

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Destiny 2

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2017 Game of the Year Awards — Achievement Awards — Best Indie Game

Posted by BinaryMessiah on 12/26/2017

Posted in: 2017, Game of the Year Awards. Tagged: cuphead, game of the year awards, goty, indie, night in the woods, observer, rebirth, tacoma, the binding of isaac. Leave a comment

Indie games are no longer becoming cute little distractions between AAA releases, they are now becoming the AAA releases as major companies have lost their imagination and ability to create new and unique experiences. Every year this just builds up more and never falters, with many of my most memorable games being indie, you should not overlook this category.

Cuphead

Cuphead is passion incarnate. I have yet to play an indie game that strives to be this original or stunningly beautiful. While the game is brutal, there’s no denying that the attention given is something we stopped seeing in major companies years ago.

Runner-Ups

Night in the Woods

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The Binding of Isaac Rebirth+

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Observer

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Tacoma

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2017 Game of the Year Awards — Achievement Awards — Best Voice Acting

Posted by BinaryMessiah on 12/26/2017

Posted in: 2017, Game of the Year Awards. Tagged: andromeda, call of duty, game of the year awards, goty, horizon, mass effect, the lost legacy, the new colossus, uncharted, voice acting, wolfenstein ii, wwii, zero dawn. Leave a comment

The best voice acting in games aren’t just the best delivery, but how it fits into the game. Is the character tortured, insane, or psychotic? Delivering the characters the way we would see them in person is how a game delivers the best voice acting.

Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus

Wolfenstein doesn’t just have good actors, but each voice type fits the actor, and you feel the personality of the characters bleed off the screen. From BJ to various resistance members, I felt sucked in and became attached to the characters more thanks to the amazing voice acting.

Runner-Ups

Call of Duty: WWII

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Horizon: Zero Dawn

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Mass Effect: Andromeda

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Uncharted: The Lost Legacy

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2017 Game of the Year Awards — Achievement Awards — Best Graphics, Artistic

Posted by BinaryMessiah on 12/24/2017

Posted in: 2017, Game of the Year Awards. Tagged: artistic, automata, breath of the wild, cuphead, game of the year awards, goty, graphics, nier, observer, odyssey, super mario, the legend of zelda. Leave a comment

Artistic graphics don’t necessarily mean the most impressive technically. They probably won’t push your system to its limits, but instead, provide a fantastic visual experience that you won’t forget.

Cuphead

Cuphead is one of the most visually pleasing games I have ever seen, using early 1900 Disney style visuals with inspiration from cartoons like Steam Boat Willy, Cuphead just looks and sounds like a piece of moving art. This isn’t just the most artistically impressive game this year but in gaming history. No other game out there looks and sounds like Cuphead.

Runner-Ups

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild

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Super Mario Odyssey

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Nier: Automata

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Observer

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2017 Game of the Year Awards — Achievement Awards — Most Disappointing Game

Posted by BinaryMessiah on 12/22/2017

Posted in: 2017, Game of the Year Awards. Tagged: battlefront ii, disappointing, epic fail, game of the year awards, goty, mario party, most disappointing, need for speed, payback, star wars, syberia 3, the top 100, valkyria revolution. Leave a comment

This is one award you do not want. Many games can be disappointing due to development hell, or just a lack of inspiration. Many AAA titles and beloved franchises have fallen to disappointing depths for many a reason. While many people may agree there were other disappointing games this year, to me they weren’t depression worthy of how utterly horrid they were.

Star Wars Battlefront II

Out of all the sickeningly disappointing games this year, this one takes the cake. The game plays well, looks amazing, and is everything we wanted in the sequel, but EA decided to lock away new characters and introduce criminal worthy progression systems to unlock these characters with hours of unnecessary grinding. While these have been patched out, releasing a game thinking this is OK at all is a shame and not what gaming is about.

Runner-Ups

Mario Party: The Top 100

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Valkyria Revolution

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Need for Speed: Payback

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Syberia 3

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2017 Game of the Year Awards — Achievement Awards — Best Graphics, Technical

Posted by BinaryMessiah on 12/22/2017

Posted in: 2017, Game of the Year Awards. Tagged: call of duty, forza motorsport 7, game of the year awards, goty, graphics, horizon, project cars 2, technical, the new colossus, wolfenstein ii, wwii, zero dawn. Leave a comment

Best technical graphics is all about games that push their system to the limits. Shaders, ambient occlusion, shadow maps, tesselation, anti-aliasing, deferred lighting, and every other piece of tech that makes games look as good as real life.

Forza Motorsport 7

Forza 7 isn’t just passionate about how its cars drive, but how they look. From rain, effects wiping off the windshield, to hydroplaning in puddles, and every button on the dash, Forza 7 looks eye-watering amazing, especially on PC. My own car is in this game and it looks piece by piece identical, I love it.