Tatty's 2017 Game of the Year Awards. Of the year!

Good afternoon, my little nug chundlers! It's that time of the year again - The time of the year where I attempt to offset buyers remorse by ranking some of the video games I've played in the past 12 months.



There's a slightly different format this year, with the old countdown being mothballed in favour of a number of categories (like in one of those real awards ceremonies), with a winner and a runner-up being chosen. The final category will be my game of the year and will feature the five games I got the most out of in 2017.

I'm taking the winners from a pool of 30 games I either finished or played enough of to have a printable opinion. Everything, apart from the winner and runner-up of one category, was released in 2017.

Onwards!

__________________
"Critics are like eunuchs in a harem; they know how the Tatty 100 is done, they've seen it done every day, but they're unable to do it themselves." - Brendan Behan

Best Character

Runner Up: Daisaku Kuze, from Yakuza 0

Kuze is a Yakuza lieutenant, a thorn in the side of your protagonist for the entire game and the owner of the greatest voice in video games, perhaps the greatest voice ever ... erm ... voiced in general.

He's not a complicated man, but he's got an arc. It's not a complicated arc, but Kuze (played by, and using the likeness of Hitoshi Owaza) does the heavy lifting for every antagonist in what is an extremely story-rich game.

He's relatable, and he don't give a ****.



Winner: Mom, from Hidden My Game By Mom

Oh, Mom!



Imagine (as I'm sure a lot of you already do) that you're a small Japanese boy, desperate to play his generic handheld games device. You have a mom (pronounced 'mum' in the civilised world).

Instead of allowing you to spend your free time as you wish, mom has made it her lot in life to stop you playing your console. She comes up with ever more fiendish methods of hiding it and you, dear reader, must thwart her dastardly schemes.



Hidden My Game By Mom (and its sequel, the provocatively titled Hidden My Game By Mom 2) is a fantastic mobile game, coming soon to 3DS and Switch, and its titular character was so far ahead in my character of the year deliberations, it was kinda unfair.

Try it out and see why. It's free.

Best Sound

Runner-up: PLAYERUNKNOWN's Battlegrounds

2017's premier cowering in a bathroom simulator marked a first for me. It was the first time I actively sought to wear headphones when playing a game.

I live in a detached house so never have to worry about the volume of what I'm watching, listening to or playing but I was told to headphone-up in PUBG pretty early on. I got so much out of it that I bought a 5.1 headset in a matter of days.

Gunfire, grenades, vehicles, doors opening - Knowing how far these things are and when direction they're coming from is paramount when there are 99 players out to kill you. It's stealth done right and is totally environmental, with no vision cones or 'stealth' meters.

And the footsteps. Oh, the footsteps. The footsteps keep me awake at night...



Winner: Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice

Another game where surround headphones or speakers add a great deal to the experience. I've got problems with Hellblade as an overall package but the sound design is the best I've heard in years.

Mental illness in games has long been spectacularly heavy-handed in its approach, but not here. Senua's inner demons are incessant, oppressive and most of all, fitting. It's pretty special, to listen to if not to play.

Best Sports/Racing Game

Runner-up: Wipeout Omega Collection

Ok, this is a slight cheat (the game is a remaster of the PS3 and Vita Wipeout titles) but I don't play many sports games and it's been a poor year for racers.

Hot take: This is the best Wipeout game since 2097/XL.

Full 4k (downsampled on a 1080p screen, too, which is the best form of anti-aliasing), new textures, 60fps everywhere, online multiplayer and that wonderful soundtrack. It's fast, smooth, looks gorgeous and plays just like you'd expect from a Wipeout.



In other news, the people behind the new Formula 1 branding cite Wipeout as one of their inspirations. This makes me happy.

Winner: Everybody's Golf

Everybody's Golf snuck up on me to become not only the best sports game, but also one of the finest games of an already top heavy 2017.

You may well have played one of the previous iterations (the franchise was known as Hot Shots Golf outside of Japan and Europe) and started out as a Sony-funded take on Mario Golf on the PS1. I'd not played any of the intervening games but had heard good reports and spied the game with a healthy discount on PSN a month or two after release.

I was immediately transported back, not to the original Everybody's Golf, but even further to drunken nights playing local multiplayer on the original PGA Golf (Mega Drive, SNES) in the early 90s. For all its bright, cute packaging and almost endless opportunities to customise your golfist, Everybody's Golf plays an extremely solid game - You have the full compliment of golf bats at your disposal, from driving wood wedge to potter. There are undulations on the pitch to thwart your strikes and wind gusting around enough to catch out an unwary pitcher.

When you factor in a progression system which rewards good play with permanent upgrades you've got a game which can satisfy the simulation and arcade crowds at the same time.

Golf! Fuzzy Zoeller!

My aunt use to date Fuzzy Zoeller. Pretty sure he used the term golf bats as well.

Eurybody's Golf has surprised me as well. CoD guy, playing EG. Souls guy, plays EG. Madden bro, plays EG.

Once I get done wearing out Project Precipitation, this could be a nice change of pace.

I jest, of course, when referring to the tools that golfists use as bats. They're sticks.

Re: "sticks." Reminds me of Robin Williams' famous bit on golf (note: language, but good-natured):


Great stuff, Dave. Really enjoying this, and I expect to make a purchase or two based on it. Keep it comin'!

Best Game I Still Need to Finish

Runner-up: Pyre

Pyre is well written, looks gorgeous and comes lavished with critical praise. I spent about an hour with the game before setting it down and forgetting all about it.

I did the same thing with Supergiant's previous (and only) two games, Bastion and Transistor. I so want to love them but the gameplay doesn't excite me, even though it's vastly different in each game's case.

I suspect a part of Pyre's problem is the central conceit of the game - a futuresport called the Rites - is worryingly similar, to my weird brain anyway, to Final Fantasy X's Blitzball.

Blitzball can take a long walk of a short pier.



Winner: Assassin's Creed: Origins

AC Oranges deserves a lot of time spent on it, and it's time that I intend to set aside later in the week.

I'm of the opinion that the franchise has been circling the creative drain since Brotherhood in 1983, so the news that Ubisoft were taking an extra 12 months on the new game came as a welcome relief. What has shocked me most in the 4 or so hours I've played is how un-Assassin's Creed-y it is, by which I mean how much like a modern third person action game the game plays. It's like The Witcher 3 developers finally decided to heed me and patch in Dark Souls style combat to the game - Ultimately I don't think it'll end up being as memorable as the two games mentioned but it's a lot of fun nonetheless.

It's decently written, with probably the best AC protagonist since Ezio and great to look at.

Did I mention that you own a camel?

I was trying to think of the name of Lord of the Rings basketball the other day.

Yeah, I did the same thing with Pyre. I did not find that game fun: it feels deeply counterintuitive, like QWOP or some game specifically designed to be challenging because it asks your brain to work a way it doesn't want to. That alone made me stop, even though everything else about it looks gorgeous, and the lore is interesting, and I'd probably love it if only that part of it were better.

I like that idea for a category, too. My only question is: how'd you manage to narrow it down? Have to imagine there were a dozen candidates, given the glut of quality games most of us end up with after a few summer sales.

Heh, I very nearly came up with an additional category - Best game you bought but haven't even started yet and probably won't until well into 2018.

Runner up: Axiom Verge
Winner: Wolfenstein 2

EDIT - And, according to my Steam library, Hollow Knight. Gah!

I'm gonna be getting PUBG next week when it comes out on Xbox. Really hope I don't suck at it!

Best Nintendo Switch Game

I decided on this category because the Switch is a completely different kind of system to the established consoles and PC. I own 8 games on it and have not played Golf Story, though would love to. Some day.

Runner-up: Super Mario Odyssey

If it weren't for the motion controls and the 3D Platformer-iness of it, Mario might have won. It's utterly charming.



Winner: Stardew Valley

Stardew Valley fits the Switch like it was a first party launch title and I'm sure a lot of this is down to one of its inspirations being the Harvest Moon games. Another reason why it fits the system so well is that the game's 'play an in-game day then autosave' style is perfectly suited to handheld consoles.

The initial release of Stardew was high on my GOTY list last year and buying it on another platform has only reinforced my love for the game. It's world is as charming as Mario's and equally ingenious in its own way - You can dive as deep as you want into the story aspect, there are no time limits for tasks and character progression is just as open ended.

The line between major label releases and 'indies' is becoming blurrier by the day, but Stardew Valley is probably my favourite small (in terms of budget) game since Papers Please, also made by just one very talented guy.



I just wish that the Switch's touchscreen was utilised in undocked mode for the game, although I can see why it wasn't.

Can't agree enough that Stardew Valley is a perfect fit for the switch. I can't believe it's only $15 too.

All the more satisfying seeing as most of the indie games on that system are grossly overpriced.

Best Music

Runner-up: Persona 5

I've got a feeling that Persona 5 will get overlooked in most GOTY discussions this year because it came out early and, well, it's nowhere near as good as Persona 4.

Cracking choons, tho!





Winner: NieR: Automata

I don't regularly listen to game OSTs all the way through, but Nier's is an exception. I even bought it.







Japan: Bringin' it!

p5 was great for me until the dungeon crawling. Then again, I'm an uncultured nub.

Oh yea, music. The options menu melodies were really strong.

Best Graphics

Runner-up: Destiny 2

Just like Digital Foundry, I have slavishly compiled a couple of videos which show Destiny 2 in all her 4k glory. It's a stunning looking game with lush, detailed environments and jaw-dropping particle effects.





Winner: Horizon: Zero Dawn

When I first played Horizon, I figured that it was a great looking game. Then I bought a PS4 Pro and spat coffee all over my knees when I saw the difference.

I'm still amazed that a machine which is really just a reasonably overclocked PS4 (unlike the behemoth powerhouse, the XboxXxX OneX Ex) can produce an open world game so detailed. The lighting effects clinch the deal. Screenshots downscaled from 4k so people don't exceed their monthly bandwidth caps.

In-game screenshots, too, not cutscenes.







That's all very well, you might say, but where's the artistry? The style?

Fear not, gentle reader, for I have another category devoted entirely to that!

Most Disappointing Game

Runner-up: The End is Nigh

Ed McMillan has made Super Meat Boy and Binding of Isaac, two recognised classics, so his new game was on many people's radars. The End is Nigh turned out to be a rather underwhelming platformer with none of Super Meat Boy's immediacy.

The flagellatory story matter worked so well in BoI but here? I think Ed might have returned to that well one too many times.



Winner: Middle Earth: Shadow of War

Where to begin?

For me, Shadow of Mordor worked despite its wrote Tolkinian (Tolkienesque? Tolkien-a-gogo?) setting and dull, instantly forgettable storyline and characters. In fact, I'd probably have liked it even more if it had taken place in a generic fantasy world without the contractually obliged orcs and Gollums (Golli? Gosh).

Shadow of War is a sprawling, linear mess of a thing with loot boxes out the wazoo and a story which is somehow even blander than the previous game's. They took Mordor's USP - the Nemesis system which leads to lots of unique, memorable foes - and expanded cleverly on it, but the rest of the game is so clunky that I soon didn't care about exploring it any further.

A distilled version of this game may well be great but as it stands, Shadow of War is not a terrible experience, but it's one which demands tens of hours from the player with little or no promise of a tangible reward.

Best Styyyyyyyyyyyle

Runner-up: Cuphead

I've seen a few complaints from the chai latte drinking community that Cuphead's loving tribute to 30s cartoon art is, basically, morally ikky because of how the artists of the time would depict non-white races. Cuphead could have righted this (legitimate, no one's arguing against the racism in a lot of cartoons of the period) wrong by having some black and Asian characters depicted naturally.

Yes, really. Shoehorn them into a game which depicts OTT fantasy characters...

Anyway, Cuphead got styyyyyyyle.



Winner: Persona 5

Persona 5 got more styyyyyyyyyyle.

The animation style of Cuphead is beautifully done, but it's something I hated with a passion when I was a kid. Early cartoons made me feel uneasy and thus there's a barrier to me fully embracing what the Moldenhauer brothers have created.

Persona 5 has a style all its own, unlike Cuphead's homage, from the character models to the music to even the way menus animate. It's bewitching, and super cool.