Robert's Games of the Year - 2017

Game of the Year

Horizon: Zero Dawn captured me right from the get-go; adorable yet powerful heroine? Check. Stunning open-world gameplay? Yup. GIANT ROBO-DINOSAURS!? Uh-huh. Seriously; every bit of Horizon: Zero Dawn is designed to lure gamers in and hold them there and it works. Aloy’s journey from outcast to Seeker to something more is gripping and its handling of side quests is nearly as good as The Witcher 3: The Wild Hunt. Every stunning vista and adrenaline-filled stampede is put together so well, so cleanly, that there are few, if any aspects of Horizon that need be tweaked. I can only hope to see more of this new, yet old, world…

Platform: Sony PlayStation 4	Genre(s): Action, Adventure
Developer(s): Guerrilla Games	Mode(s): Single Player
Publisher(s): Sony Interactive Entertainment	Other Platform(s): None

1st runner up

I loved Nioh. Simply put. Loved it. While it may be a bit more straightforward than From Software’s “Soulsbourne” games, Nioh is no less exciting. Set in feudal Japan, don your dou and arm yourself with your favorite weapon of the time period and take on hordes of demons. Interesting characters, stunning design, fantastic maps, and a neat buddy-system that scales down to the lowest level all wrap up into a fantastic package that is nearly as complete as any of the first Souls games. Here’s to another year slaying yokai and finding kodama!

PY’s Alpha, Beta, Last Chance Trial and PS4 Review
Robert’s Review – PC

Platform: Sony PlayStation 4	Genre(s): Action
Developer(s): Team Ninja	Mode(s): Single Player “Limited Coop”
Publisher(s): Sony – Console Koei Tecmo – PC	Other Platform(s): PC

2nd runner up

The Forza titles have been a long-standing favorite of mine; from the goofy, arcade-style Horizon titles to the uber-serious simulator that are the Motorsports editions, Forza is a standing title for excellence. 2017 saw the release of the most technologically advanced version of Forza Motorsports with its 7th major release and goodness is it a stunner. As you build up speed your mirror shakes or various items on the dash become harder to see; the sense of speed is amazing! Add to that the sheer number of vehicles that you can choose from and you’ll be racing for days on end.

Robert’s Review

Platform: Microsoft Xbox One	Genre(s): Racing
Developer(s): Turn 10	Mode(s): Single Player Multiplayer
Publisher(s): Microsoft Game Studios	Other Platform(s): PC

Biggest Dissapointment

Late 2016 and all of 2017 has been a bizarre year for Nintendo. Sure, the Switch is selling like hotcakes, which I don’t get because mine was a pile of garbage that needed to be sent into Nintendo to get fixed (which costed money, BTW …), and yeah Mario Odyssey is a pretty swell game, but Nintendo’s utter disdain for bringing on new fans is mind-boggling. With their hateful treatment of people that wanted, and are still looking for, the NES Classic they promised to do a little better with the recently released SNES Classic … which they didn’t. Their initial response has been pretty much “Tough s&*t” and that they don’t want your money; they just want you to want to give them their money. For a company that has been in business for well over a hundred years, Nintendo really doesn’t seem to know the difference between its head and an asshole, stand back average Joe, Fanboys only are allowed in the Nintendo club these days. The WHOLE Company  

Guilty Pleasure

Few games held my co-op attention the way that Wildands did. My brother, brother-in-law, and I would hop into a Little Bird with me as the pilot and my brothers on the pylons, we’d cruise through the forests of Bolivia smiting drug dealers all the while I yell out random lines from 1987’s Predator movie. Oddly a bit of foreshadowing there, as Ubisoft just released news that they will be bringing Predator to the Wildlands and boy am I ready for that! If only Ubisoft would marry The Division’s story and locale with Wildland’s play style and open-world feeling, then they would have a Game of the Year candidate in the bag…

Platforms: Sony PlayStation 4 Microsoft Xbox One PC	Genre(s): Shooter
Developer(s): Ubisoft Paris	Mode(s): Single and Multiplayer
Publisher(s): Ubisoft

Article by: Robert

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