10 – Everything
Game that is really good to play alone or with kids. Ultimately it does something I have not seen in this way before. Using gameplay to delve deeper and drive the point of Alan Watts philosophy deeper than you otherwise could. Given the time you are given in this world, the philosophy starts to mean more than just what you get from the words. For me I started seeing the world in a different light…. I also just had fun flying spears and fences around.
9 – What Remains of Edith Finch
Like Tacoma, it tried out some new things for the “walking simulator” playing with different styles and light gameplay mechanics to spice things up a bit. This game is absolutely beautiful, sad, interesting and touching.
8 – Tacoma
The long awaited second installment from fullbright, makers of gone home. I really liked the system shock vibe it had, as well new way of displaying “audio logs” in an interactive way. Its take on corporate future and normal life within in it was fascinating
7 – Bayonetta
The PC Port of bayonetta launched in 2017 and was my first experience with the series. Ridiculously over the top action/adventure hack and slash game with a latex wearing protagonist. I thought the combat was satisfying, the surprisingly insane cutscenes and combat arenas, and creative special moves, while being a bit uncomfortable about how sexualized the main character is. The camera does go for a lot of ass shots in some cutscenes but generally the protagonist is a forger of her own destiny and the game never takes itself too seriously.
6 – Legend of Zelda: Breath of the wild
My first Zelda since the second Zelda, goes deep into mixing authored content with heavily systems driven game-play. Does so masterfully. However the story and quests are very light and feel quite old and used compared to modern games. This is no witcher but makes exploration and climing up towers really fun, Ubisoft and others can definetly learn a thing or two from this one.
5 – Nier Automata
It took me a while to even figure out what this game was, it plays aggressively with different camera angles and controls to look and feel like different genres. It also does really interesting things with story telling, and of course is simply really fun on a second to second and minute to minute basis, along with exploring a lot of common sci-fi tropes and philosophies.
4 – Oxygen not included
This is one of the games I love coming back to regularly since they are really good at adding stuff to it. It was really fun and addictive from the first release, and has only gotten more interesting with more updates. This game takes over my life for a few days at a time, until I move to something else, and do it all over again after a few updates.
3 – Player Unknowns battlegrounds
This one was close for the second, as it offered a completely new multiplayer experience for me. Mix of fear, surprise, stragegy, tactics, and actual shooting skills. Great but very different in squad or solo. Managed to replace rocket league as the multiplayer game for me. Its effect on the gaming scene already started in 2017 but will be felt for years to come. This one, or someone like it is here to stay
2 – Prey
This game, aka System shock 3 Is everything I love about the immersive sim, and sci-fi. A lot of meaningful choices. A lot of close examination of spaces with tons of immersive storytelling in them. Mimics alone deserve a place in video game history as the most interesting enemies, especially in the immersive sim genre. So is this a cup or a facehugger!. The story was really good, kept surprising you. No further spoilers, buy and play this game please.
1 – Wolfenstein New colossus
This was the right game for me in 2017. It got me thinking real hard, how much the non-targeted majorities or minorities would fight for the oppressed, when faced with death or lifetime imprisonment for opposition. It both contained inspiring moments and portrayed the feeling of being crushingly overwhelmed by fascists. Aside from all of that it is an excellent shooter, which contains the perfect mix of stealth and combat, and very smooth transitions between. It is well written, contains interesting characters, and avoids many of the pitfalls of the earlier game.