Welcome to the Game of the Year awards. I have decided to break this up into three sections. The games placing 9-10 and honourable mentions, the games placing 5-8 and finally the games that took the top 4 slots. As with most of the content on this site, the list is made up (almost) entirely of games that appeared on Sony’s Playstation 4.
2018 has in my opinion been the best year ever for gaming. So much so that narrowing it down to a top 10 was more difficult than ever before. I have also decided to separate PSVR games into their own list. Not only to make the process easier, but I realise a lot of you haven’t picked up the headset yet and didn’t want the regular list to exclude too many people.
So let’s start with the honourable mentions. Firstly the elephant in the room; God of War. This may be the only game of the year list that doesn’t have Santa Monica’s blockbuster exclusive in their top three, but the game just never fully clicked for me. I got about 10 hours in and just got distracted by other releases. I have enjoyed the previous GOW games for their constant action and moderate length.
The latest game while beautiful and made in one continuous scene just didn’t connect with me like it did seemingly the rest of the gaming world. I didn’t see the development in Kratos as a character and despite the excellent axe mechanic, I didn’t think the gameplay was much better either. I do plan to go back to the game at a later date if we ever get a slight break between amazing releases, but for now it doesn’t make my list. I wanted to make sure and give it a shout out here though as I can’t state enough that I am in the very small minority with this opinion and the chances are that you too will see it as the second coming.
Next on the mentions list is episode one in season two of Life is Strange. A tough inclusion given that only one of the scheduled five episodes has currently been released. Even based on one episode it makes this article though. Developer Dontnod continues to push storytelling boundaries in new and interesting ways.
Overcooked 2 is another game that you absolutely need to check out! A superb sequel that improves upon it’s predecessor and brings with it the option to team up with friends remotely as well as local. Co-op games are more rare these days but this is one you absolutely should not miss. You can check out my full review of the game on this very webite here.
Fire Pro Wrestling World finally arrived on PS4 in August and it was worth the wait! I have been a fan of the franchise since the late 90’s when I first got to sample Fire Pro Wrestling X Premium via a SNES Emulator. The gameplay hasn’t changed much in twenty years, mainly because it didn’t need to! If you are sick of the WWE 2k product and want a viable alternative, this is it! You can check out my full review here.
Lastly in the honourable mentions is admittedly a strange inclusion; Paw Patrol: On A Roll. Now hear me out. If you are over the age of 5 this isn’t a good game. It is as simple as they come and the only reason an adult would even think to put it on is to hoover up the trophies (No platinum 🙄). However, if you have a young child like me and are looking to introduce them to gaming this is a great starting point. The game does a good job of familiarising first time gamers with the controller and basics of platforming.
Now it is time to count down my official Top 10 list. You may notice that these aren’t necessarily the ten games with the highest review scores of the year. This is retrospectively looking back at 10 great, varied experiences that I had and slotting them accordingly.
Vampyr is a game I had been looking forward to since it was first announced. Developer Dontnod had done such a fantastic job with Life is Strange that I was eager to see how they would get on with a larger project. What we got was one of the most interesting games of the year. It certainly had it’s flaws, which I outlined in my review back in June. But in trying something new, Dontnod managed to create a really special experience and one I won’t soon forget.
Out of the Box is a game you are unlikely to see on any other game of the year list. Developed by Nuclear Tales, this Indie game is an alternative take on the Papers Please formula. You play as Warren, an ex-con looking for a job as a bouncer in a Mafia ran club. The addictive compartmentalised gameplay is fun but what I didn’t expect was a pretty engaging story on top of it. You can read my full review here.
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That’s part one of the our game of the year rundown. Stay tuned in the next day or so as I will be back with part two, which will include games 8 – 5. The PSVR list is also coming in hot and is packed full of outstanding virtual reality titles.
In the meantime let me know what you think of my honourable mentions and the first two games on the list. Please direct your God of War related hate mail to Craig@FuckOff.com 😜
-Craig ✌️
Review codes for some of the games listed were provided by the developer. This had no bearing on the placement of any game.