Society Game of the Year 2018

Curious how this will go. I think a few years ago we could all pretty much guarantee we'd been playing more or less the same stuff - these days it feels like we all have our own little niches and are on different platforms so we might end up with totally different lists. But I think this could throw up some interesting recommendations, so LET'S DO IT.

Looking for nominations in the following categories:

Game of the Year 2018 - a game that was released for the first time in 2018 - do a top three if you like
Best Game Not From 2018 - something you discovered in 2018 that you should have played earlier - again a top three if you feel inclined
Disappointment of the Year 2018 and why

Make up your own awards if you want, I don't care.

I'll post mine in a bit.

I need to wait til' I play Kingdom Hearts 3 before I decide on GOTY. But it will probably end up being Monster Hunter Ultimate Generations for me. I can see World being the more popular vote and I wouldn't argue with anyone saying that, but….MHGU is like three times as much Monster Hunter than World currently is. However MHGU is not being updated and World still gets amazing updates for free every so often, is getting a new expansion soon and G Rank so it will surely surpass MHGU eventually.

Also, neither game is a role playing game. :)

Best Game Not From 2018 - Warframe, I recently learned that this was my actual first PS4 game when I got the console at launch, the state it's in now makes the state it was in then look like early access. It can be a bit newcomer unfriendly towards the end but nothing too inpenetrable.

And it's free.

Disappointment of the Year 2018 - Was gonna' throw some shade at Red Dead 2 but honestly, I thin I'm going to point to the online system of Smash Bros Ultimate.Which is weird because Smash 4 did it way better. Unlike that games system of separatingthe item users and non-item users, you get matched with people using similar preferences, they updated it to make it more likely you won' get matched with someone with all Pokeballs switched on but afaik the chance is still there. also, it's been really laggy for me, which is why I've played more of the excellent single player.

Also, Switch online is fucking garbage, why can't I message the friend I made on MHGU or Smash Ultimate? Whats the point of the Switch friends list at all?

Game of the Year 2018

Top spot probably has to go to Hitman 2, which will surprise nobody; however, honorable mentions for Sea of Thieves, Overcooked! 2, Spider-Man, and Return of the Obra Dinn.

Disappointment of the Year 2018

Don't know if I have one of these; I buy so few games that I tend to go mainly for stuff that's pretty much a dead cert for my tastes.

Weapon of the Year

The exploding pen in Hitman 2, rewarded for merely attempting to kill Sean Bean, is the platonic ideal of overkill given tiny, pointy, explosive form. A lethal throwable weapon, it kills the target on impact, then explodes a half-second later for good measure.

Game of the Year 2018

For my money, this has to be Sea of Thieves. It had a rough start, to be sure, but launched with a solid foundation and has only gotten better as they've added more variety to the enemies, the missions, and the world generally. The Shrouded Spoils update ties stuff together and brings back older activities in a way that makes it much less predictable (or "boring" if you're feeling uncharitable), but hasn't affected the sheer joy of simply sailing around.

I've been playing a bunch of stuff online, which has led to more 2am bedtimes than I'd like to admit, and with a mostly-coordinated crew this it's tremendous fun. In the last few weeks I've taken on megalodons, skelton galleons, and other players, mostly coming out on top. I've earned and spent more gold than I ever have before; my hard drive is filling up with screenshots of sunsets.

The only downside is that both Sea of Thieves and Elite: Dangerous require serious time investment to get anything done, so that hasn't left anywhere near enough time to look into anything else - I need to spend more time with Hitman, or I'll never get out of Paris.

Disappointment of the Year 2018

I think this might be the Switch, which feels like a weird thing to even type out. The system itself is great, don't get me wrong - but I've just not fully clicked with anything on it yet. I've definitely not finished anything on there so far. I think I need to embrace the portable mode more, maybe.

Looking back it's been an incredible year of gaming for me. I've not played as many games as in previous years, but I've got really stuck into a small number of really superb titles.

Game of the year for me is Hitman 2 - which I initially thought was possibly a bit of a cheat as it's really just an expansion pack for the two-year-old original but in fact the H2 levels are definitely more ambitious in scope and quite honestly I love it so much I don't think I could put anything else. I've genuinely never played anything like it, I'm a complete sucker for real world locations in videogames anyway and the sheer depth and intricacy of the whole package is just totally absorbing.

Runner-up would be Assassin's Creed Odyssey - which I've sunk nearly 100 hours into and am not bored of yet, which is good because new content continues to come out for this on nearly a weekly basis. It's the best game in the series by miles, although eventually its mechanics do become slightly repetitive.

Third place is Monster Hunter: World, and at the halfway point of the year I was sure nothing would topple it. Its only real problem is eventually you do run out of things to do - the end-game consists of progressively harder versions of the same monsters which does get a bit dry - and although there's an expansion coming out it's not due until halfway through 2019 which seems like a long, long gap. (I thought Monster Hunter Generations Ultimate would give me what I wanted here, but while that game sure does offer a whole lot of content, the QOL improvements and vastly improved multiplayer in World are very sorely missed, and I do think World is by far the better game).

Best game I played this year that didn't come out in 2018 (if you don't count Hitman) is Yakuza Zero which I found enthralling from start to finish, as well as absolutely hilarious in all the right ways. PC owners might put this as a new-for-2018 game but the PS4 version's been out for a couple of years. I'm looking forward, now I've had a break, to continuing with the rest of the saga.

I'd also put in a shout out for Splatoon 2 which my son is completely obsessed with - I've not played it nearly as much as him (online multiplayer's not really my bag) but I've seen enough to recognise just how damn good it is. A shame that support (in terms of new content) has just ended. They could keep this one running for years.

Also, Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes is a game we've only played once but it was the most enjoyable evening of gaming we've had in years and as soon as we reassemble the same team of players it's going to go straight back on.

Disappointment of the Year is harder (unless you can count Brexit, or UK politics in general). Maybe Overcooked 2? It's still fun, but we adored the first one and this somehow hasn't grabbed us in the same way. It's all a bit too familiar, and the levels are too reliant on gimmicks to really be replayable. The core of this is absolutely perfect but I feel they haven't quite worked out how to fully realise its potential.

I've only played two 2018 releases that I know of: Dead Cells and Monster Hunter World and I'd say Gar has it spot on but if say that I reached that stage of getting tired of grinding the same things (or same style of Monsters as there wasn't enough variety imo) started before the endgame (which I never reached). I'd be more than happy if they released a second game in this style though!

Best game I've played this year that wasn't from 2018? Has to be Persona 5 which is rather unpredictable :lol: the music and presentation were just too notch, I loved having to persuade Persona to join my ranks as apposed to just getting them from tarot cards (and liked that it was a nod to older SMT titles from before Persona became its own thing) and they added some puzzle elements to the dungeoning. Didn't like Mementos though, the colour palette and music there just made it horrible to explore and I'd often end up doing that via my Vita with the sound fairly low.

Game of the Year 2018 – God of War. Surprised no-one else has mentioned this! In addition to being beautiful and sounding amazing and having chunky, satisfying combat, they somehow made the biggest arsehole in gaming – the posterboy for toxic masculinity – sympathetic in 2018. Honourable mentions go to AstroBot (a VERY close second), Spiderman, Forza Horizon 4 and other things I've forgotten.

Best game not from 2018 – Hitman. This is a very recent one, and I've only played the first two levels, but it's getting the prize anyway. It's thoughtful, ingenious and joyfully funny. Honourable mentions go to Yakuza, Hellblade, FF14 and a few others I've probably forgotten.

Disappointment of the year 2018 – Bit of a cliche at this point, but it'll have to be Red Dead 2. They've replicated outlaw life in turn-of-the-century America as closely as modern technology allows. The problem is, outlaw life in turn-of-the-century America wasn't that much fun.

Game of the year 2018 - I literally haven't played anything that came out this year. Not even a boardgame or RPG.

Game of another year 2018 - Without a doubt, it has to be Zelda: Breath of the Wild. Massive, gorgeous, endlessly surprising and entertaining and so polished with it.

Disappointment of the year 2018 - Nothing really. Nothing game related anyway.

GOTY 2018 - Yakuza 0 on the PC. It's great.

Game of another year - Hexcels. Across all 3 of the hexcels games I own I probably have about 200 hours all told. They're the perfect 'five minutes at lunch' puzzle game type things.

Disappointment of the year - Fallout 76. What a bag of shit.

Game of the Year 2018 – God of War. Surprised no-one else has mentioned this!

I haven't played it yet!

Game of the year - Dead Cells

It's an all-timer for me. I'm a big fan of the roguelike/roguelite genres, as well as 2D platformers, and had been looking forward to this getting out of Early Access and onto my PS4 for months. It didn't disappoint. It's tight, focused, hard but fair, has a great visual style and soundtrack, and I just generally love it.

Honorable mentions go to Celeste (which is just brilliant), Tetris Effect (which I adore, but don't go back to as often as I expected), Spider-Man (the best non-Arkham superhero game ever), Into The Breach (which I didn't play anywhere near enough) and Red Dead Redemption 2 (which is a very, very good game that I am more frequently impressed and engaged by than actually enjoy).

Game of next year (because it's still in Early Access) - Slay the Spire

I barely ever game on PC/Mac, so it's says something that I've already logged more than 40 hours on this roguelite deck builder. It's potentially a tough sell to a lot of people, but it's under a tenner in the Steam sale, and I can't recommend it enough if you think there's even a chance you'd enjoy it.

Game of another other year - on the basis that it's a remaster, I'd probably have to say Mark of the Ninja, but I did also really like Horizon Zero Dawn (my favourite part of which was the story/world-building, surprisingly) and Dragon Age Inquisition.

Disappointment of the year - probably that I bounced so quickly off of Monster Hunter World (though I am intending to give it another go). Besides that it's my continued failure to progress through the pile of shame quicker than it grows, especially in regard to certain games, the presence of which gnaw at me, as I'm sure I'd love them if I ever actually got around to them…

Game of the year is God of War. If you've not nominated it, you haven't played it yet.
Spider-Man a close second, but only close because, well it's Spider-Man.

I think I've only played two 2018 games this year. One was Dead Cells which I think has taken the place of Spelunky in it being quick to understand with a long tail in terms of mastery but wouldn't say it's my game of the year.

That would be Celeste which I think I'd stand by as my game of the year in most circumstances because it refreshed my understanding of what I want from video games at this point in my life. I loved my time playing this game and it resulted in me going back into the PS4 library and picking up games like Teslagrad, Wonderboy and Volgarr the Viking and having a thoroughly good time with them rather than worrying about how I'll ever have enough time to get to the end of The Witcher 3. That was my main take away from it which is not to say anything of the visuals, the excellent soundtrack and the tight platforming action. I could kind of take or leave the story beyond getting to the top of the mountain, it was very well done but it didn't have the emotional impact on me that some reviewers commented on. I am dead inside though so that's probably the issue there.

I haven't played any games that came out in 2018. Furthermore, I think I've only seen two films released this year, and heard one album. I have been left behind by popular culture. I'm still catching up with about 2015, I think.

I'm not sure I've played enough of them - but Dead Cells and Into the Breach (Switch release was 2018) are certainly in the conversation. I have a similar issue with them both, that they are perhaps not quite tight enough to be true classics - with extended gameplay loops. Rogue Legacy, in contrast, is significantly snappier than Dead Cells, even if it isn't quite as pretty or well put together. Into the Breach is also a bit of an odd fish, a mix of FTL and Advance Wars, but immensely satisfying to play. My only issue is the amount of time to complete a game cycle. Apart from that the games I've enjoyed have pretty much all been re-releases on the Switch which I think takes my 2018 award generally for essentially making me enjoy gaming again. I also think Starlink deserves a small mention for possibly being the biggest "I can't believe this isn't a turd" award of 2018.

Less impressed by Astrobot, Horizon 4 and possibly Sea of Thieves (though I need to try it properly).

For physical games I think we've enjoyed Brass: Birmingham the most of 2018's releases.

I've made a point of playing a few 2018 games this week, and I think my game of the year is Holedown.

Another hole-related game, Donut County, is pretty good, and Florence is nice but slightly unfulfilling.

So tempted to change my GOTY to Smash Ultimate after tonight….