What is your 2020 Game of the Year (*Released* in 2020)?

[dsheinem]

As the shit show that was 2020 comes to an end, it is time to reflect on what new games we most enjoyed this year. Share your favorite game(s) that were released this year, and let us know what you think was the best one!

I am still hoping to play a few more games between now and the end of the year, so I will update this post with my final thoughts and blurbs soon. So far, the top contenders are:


Animal Crossing: New Horizons
Assassin's Creed Valhalla
Doom Eternal
Fall Guys
Hyrule Warriors - Age of Calamity
Spider-man: Miles Morales

Here are the old threads:

Games of the Decade (2010-2019)
2018 2017 2016 2015 2014 2013 2012 2011 2010 2009 2008

[noiseredux]

I don't think I played a lot of 2020 games in 2020. But if The Outer World counts (as it wasn't released on a platform I have until this year) then that's EASILY my GOTY right now. If that doesn't count, then... I guess Hades? I have high expectations for Age Of Calamity, but asked Santa for that one, so I haven't played it yet.

I *liked* Animal Crossing, I guess. I had fun for a week, then never had any urge to touch it again. Origami King was really meh. I hated SMB35.

Looking back, it seems like this was a comfort food gaming year for me, and I focused a lot more on older stuff. And Fortnite. I don't know what's wrong with me, but I played a lot of Fortnite.

[ElkinFencer10]

My top five are:

Doom Eternal
Animal Crossing: New Horizons
Gears Tactics
Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity
Spider-Man: Miles Morales

Picking one of those is REALLY hard, but I think I'd have to go with Age of Calamity tbh.

[isiolia]

Most of what I actually completed this year was not from 2020. Or, at least, not entirely. So while I did play through things like God of War (the new one), Control, and Fallen Order...they're excluded.

Actual 2020 releases...I have played an hour or two of DOOM Eternal, Kandagawa Jet Girls, and Cyberpunk 2077, offhand. They seem good, possibly even great (okay, not Jet Girls, it met expectations, but they were low to start).

What I'll name on technicality, however, is Final Fantasy XIV, since I (finally) got back around to playing that after years. I'd played it for a bit when 2.0 came out, but none of the post- A Realm Reborn story much less any of the expansions. As opposed to XI, which I continued to play too much of, XIV's story is more connected - major patches add to it continuously, even between the major arcs that expansions tend to bring. 2020's major patches that I've played (5.2-5.3, haven't done 5.4 yet) wrapped not only some of the expansion content, but longer running plot threads, and proved to be a real high point for the game (which already does story/etc a lot better than most in the genre).
It's a more personal choice, since realistically a LOT more of it was me finally getting over having to use Duty Finder and catching up on years of story, most of which wasn't from 2020...but it did make it a very standout game for me this year.

By contrast, XI's new story content, The Voracious Resurgence is, so far, okay...but very small.

[Lurkei]

I raaaarely play games the year they come out. I think the only high-profile game I played in 2020 that actually released in 2020 was One Step from Eden, which I liked. I've always thought the RPG parts of the Battle Network games completely botched them, so having a game that's solely battles let the combat really shine. Bosses in particular were amazing.

I also played and enjoyed a bunch of smaller games that released this year. Like fangames, hacks, and itch.io kinda stuff. SlimePark was one of my favorites! And honestly, I'm not even entirely sure if it's 2020 or not. It's hard to know for sure.

I *liked* Animal Crossing, I guess. I had fun for a week, then never had any urge to touch it again.

Yeah, that's what happened with me and New Leaf. I got extremely into NL the week I got it, and then once I learned the mechanics and how all the systems worked, the magic disappeared. I skipped Horizons since I figured it would happen again.

[Markies]

I actually played a game that came out in 2020.

Streets of Rage 4 was the best game that came out in 2020!

[MrPopo]

At this moment in time I am disqualifying Cyberpunk for contention because I haven't beat it, so it's not fair to rank it against everything else. Here's my top ten in reverse chronological order (was gonna do a top five, but too many good games this year):

Ghostrunner - Taking the Mirror's Edge formula and crossing it with some of the recent trends in challenge platforming and you get a unique game that is challenging without being overly difficult that greatly rewards you when you get it and clocks in at a perfect length. When everything is going just right you feel like a complete badass and they've optimized things such that your failures are minor setbacks.

Star Wars: Squadrons - A love letter to Star Wars fans, especially those who played the X-Wing series back in the day. The concessions to modern players is mostly in the learnings that come from twenty years of game development; this does not "dumb down" things from the originals in any meaningful way. Most impressively they managed to balance things out between the ships much better than has been done in the past; the ships are still quite differentiated from each other but it never feels like a given ship is leagues better than its counterpart on the other side.

13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim - This was the most surprising game to me for this year. It is a combination VN and defense strategy game with Vanillaware's trademark gorgeous art and an extremely well told non-linear story that amazingly ends up being perfectly paced in terms of its reveals. I always wanted to know what came next and the ending was great.

The Last of Us Part 2 - Given how good the first one it would have taken a supreme effort for Naughty Dog to fuck this one up. And I think it ends up being even better than the first. It's a deep examination of the nature of revenge and, like the first game, uses the zombie setting to bring society to the right level so that it doesn't get in the way of the story but still has enough structure that it isn't total anarchy. It's a triumph of the writing that people come out with different opinions on the characters that are equally valid depending on your own personal morality.

Maneater - Maneater takes a simple concept, executes it well, adds the right level of humor to serve as a palette cleanser, and provides a genuinely fun experience. It is not a game that asks the player to consider deep philosophy; it just asks the player to enjoy being a deadly shark. Maneater reminds us that games don't need to be these gargantuan undertakings.

Trials of Mana - Trials of Mana serves as an excellent upgrade of the original that is completely faithful while filing off the rough edges and updating to 3D graphics. I compare it with other "let's make this 3D" updates like the Lufia 2 and the Final Fantasy IV remakes and both of those ended up undermining what made the originals fun in favor of "but it needs to have enough changes to justify"; this game justifies itself by acknowledging the original was fun and got a lot right, so let's see that again with minor playability tweaks.

Final Fantasy VII Remake - On the other end of the remake spectrum we have the FFVII remake. Set entirely during the Midgar portion of the game it expands on the stories in ways that feel like they were always there, we just filled in those blanks when we played the original as kids. It goes in knowing that the original game is legendary in people's minds and serves to serve as a way to compliment, not replace, the original.

Resident Evil 3 - And here is the middle ground. Resident Evil 3's remake acknowledges that the original RE3's design was on the contrived side of things that was mostly due to the engine and the dev times available. The remake keeps the narrative feeling of the original and adjusts the gameplay to match the narrative.

Doom Eternal - Building on the success of Doom 2016, Eternal cranks things up to 11. It embraces the gameplay and goes "how can we be more?" and delivers it. It's intense and never lets up.

Ori and the Will of the Wisps - An absolutely gorgeous Metroidvania, Will of the Wisps fixes a lot of the complaints I had of the original to tighten up the experience. Combat is now fun, they pulled back on some of the nastier challenge platforming parts, and it tells yet another sweet story.

[alienjesus]

I had a look through what I played this year and I've only played 3 games that actually released this year - and one of those was Super Mario 3D All Stars which probably doesn't count.

So I guess that leaves Animal Crossing: New Horizons and Streets of Rage 4 as the de facto winners.
'

[PartridgeSenpai]

The Super Mario 3D All Stars thing was the only 2020 game I played, so I guess that wins by default

I guess it WAS really nice to play Mario Galaxy with a controller that isn't a Wii remote

[Gunstar Green]

Doom Eternal was the only 2020 release I played so congratulations to Doom Eternal.