Amph Best videogames of 2017

There is a Games forum but it's full of people who think Battlefront is the pinnacle of life, so we shan't go there.

Let's talk about good games.

The only rules are;

1) Must be a new game in 2017 (or released in Dec 2016) and not just a port to Switch or mobile, of an old classic, and
2) Cannot say Battlefront II was good.

The new games I played this year are (VERY FEW NEWBIES):

Hitman - although a 2016 title, the full first season was released as a complete package in January 2017 (including the bonus missions for Sapieza, Paris, Marrakesh, and Hokkido). I had it on a per episode basis, but really wanted to stress how good this game was. Densely populated sandboxes, multiple ways to complete your objectives, and a real reward for patience and planning.

Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon: Wildlands - Although completely tone deaf politically, this tale of an elite US special forces team taking down a drug cartel in Bolivia "5mins into the future" was actually a blast. Not only could you realistically run civillians down and ruin their lives with lazy, entitled driving and indifferent firefights (felt like you really were US armed forces!), you could spend hours in a beautiflly realised environment designed to be a cooperative experience. Having 3 friends fill the rest of the squad rules, and watch your careful plans fall apart as one person did their best Cyril "Suppressing FIRE!" Figgis impression was actually enormous fun. One misguided, GTA/Saints Row-esque expansion (Nitro Road) was instantly forgotten with the Forgotten Ghosts campaign, upping the ante as you went back to Bolivia. Sitting 800m away from a heavily armoured enemy and trying to deal with bullet drop as a mate and I played with sniper rifles is a great memory.

Codemasters Formula 1 2017 - If you own a wheel you have to get racing games otherwise what is the damned point? The latest F1 simcade game offers the ability to do a coop season with a friend, even by passing qualifying for "realistic" grid positions. Great choice.

Project CARS 2 - Forget Forza or Gran Turismo, this is real racing. Every discipline pretty much is represented, and the ranking system for online racing means terribad rammers have to sit in lobbies with other naughty children for all eternity. Not for casual gamers, mostly because it really needs you to invest in getting to know setups and characteristic for each car, track, and weather type to extract the most.

Mass Effect: Andromeda - Christ, and I thought the ending of 3 was a letdown. Honestly, I'm like 3 planets in and I stopped because there was no joy for me here. Just work. Good thing the franchise didn't end on this note... oh...

 

Minecraft.

 

I bought Mass Effect: Andromeda. It is the only new video game I played in 2017, so by default it is also the best.

 

My favorites for the year were:

Divinity: Original Sin II
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
Nioh
Yakuza 0
Torment: Tides of Numenara
Project CARS 2

There are some games that I've wanted to play from this year that I have not yet.

 

You ought to forget Gran Turismo this year regardless, woof.

This year is too hard, so I'm taking the coward's way out and going with Puyo Puyo Tetris, a game I will presumably be playing about as regularly in three years. It is perfect, Tetris and Puyo Puyo are both perfect, and even if you don't like the mashup modes (and incidentally **** you) there are rock-solid versions of both of those classics included. Also there's a story mode for some reason.

 

And second worst, after Battlefront II!

 

My top 3 are:

1. Uncharted: The Lost Legacy
2. Horizon Zero Dawn
3. Assassin’s Creed: Origins

 

I think I only played three games that came out this year: Hollow Knight, Sonic Mania, and Invisigun Heroes. All great but Hollow Knight was especially fantastic.

Cuphead is probably next on the list for me as well as Horizon. And yeah, I need to check out Hitman.

 

i didn't play many new games either. i liked breath of the wild and dead by daylight.

 

Obviously as you get older you get more responsibilities and less time, but I'm also finding it's rarer that a game exists to make me want to be immersed in the joy of playing about in that world as opposed to the joy of being a consumer in their microtransactional supermarket.

 

Star Wars Battlefront 2. Shame Disney got involved and interfered with the micro transaction upgrade system, though.

Also, Telltale's Batman: The Enemy Within.

 

Did I stutter?

 

Is PUBG still in alpha?

 

D O O M

*waits*

 

sweet - you can rate it in 2018 too!

 

I don't think I played a game released this year. :/

 

I think I only played one 2017 release this year, but it was very, very good indeed. It was a Taiwanese "horror" game called Detention. A solid four to five hour game with great atmosphere, a really compelling lead character and a dark, tragic, really emotionally devastating story. It isn't actually a horror game, though it has supernatural elements, creepy atmosphere and one really good scare about an hour into the game; it's a psychological tragedy that uses the trappings of horror. It's point-and-click so it's an easy one for a novice gamer like me. Really highly recommend it. It had a couple of moments where story points revolved around game mechanics in a way that put it up into that next tier of video games as art, ie. this story couldn't be told in this way in any other medium; there's a plot twist about three hours in that comes as a game mechanic and it kind of blew my mind. It's communication of a significant plot point through gameplay - you couldn't have that moment if this was a movie or a TV series or a book. The only way to tell that story that way is with a game. Really great.

I really wanted to get to What Became of Edith Finch before the year was out, but then I wanted to get to a lot of things. I'm thinking Edith Finch will be my next modern game buy. Maybe I'll get to it in January. Sounds really interesting.

 

Resident Evil VII - never been a follower of the series but this one has my attention due to its tension filled atmosphere, much like Alien Isolation.

 

Horizon Zero Dawn is the only new game I recall playing this year (excluding Guild Wars 2 expansion)


HZD was excellent though thankfully

 

Only new releases I have played were Tekken 7 and Destiny 2.

I won't be recommending either.

 

Super Mario Bros. 2

Game of the Year since 1988

 

All that matters is sales of a game. Nobody looks at the hundreds of millions in microtrans revenue. I'm upset you disagree on this, you bully.