Favorite Games of 2017

For the first time in my life, I don't have a public presence to state my opinion.  SOUNDS NARCISSISTIC, yeah, it is but isn't that the kingpin of social media?  Blogging?  Tweeting?  Whatever.... anyway, I still have a need and desire to state my opinion and I enjoy making lists of things I like.  Don't we all?

I'm just going to throw games at the wall that come to mind as leaving a positive impression on me in 2017, then I'll whittle that list down.

• The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
• Super Mario Odyssey
• Yakuza 0
• Stardew Valley (Switch)
• Horizon: Zero Dawn
• Million Onion Hotel
• Miracle Merchant
• PinballFX3
• Splatoon 2
• Ironcast
• Golf Story
• The Binding of Isaac: Afterbirth +
• Steamworld Dig 2
• What Remains of Edith Finch
• Telltale Guardians of the Galaxy
• Dead Rising 4
• Superhot
• Pit People
• Titanfall 2
• Prey
• Resident Evil 7
• Steep
• Nex Machina
• Mass Effect: Andromeda
• Gravity Rush
• Nier:Automata
• Everybody's Golf
• Yakuza Kiwami
• Aaero
• GNOG
• Watchdogs 2
• HQ Trivia
• Death Road to Canada
• Game Dev Tycoon
• Reigns: Her Majesty
• Space Frontier

Good enough.  I played a lot more than that, but it's a good start.  Played a ton of Skyrim on Switch and SongPop on iOS AND Lego City Undercover on PS4, but also played a ton of those in previous years.

Alright, now I'll post the list and bold game that 'might' be Top Ten worthy.

• The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
• Super Mario Odyssey
• Yakuza 0
• Stardew Valley (Switch)
• Horizon: Zero Dawn
• Million Onion Hotel
• Miracle Merchant
• PinballFX3
• Splatoon 2
• Ironcast
• Golf Story
• The Binding of Isaac: Afterbirth +
• Steamworld Dig 2
• What Remains of Edith Finch
• Telltale Guardians of the Galaxy
• Dead Rising 4
• Superhot
• Pit People
• Titanfall 2
• Prey
• Resident Evil 7
• Steep
• Nex Machina
• Mass Effect: Andromeda
• Gravity Rush
• Nier:Automata
• Everybody's Golf
• Yakuza Kiwami
• Aaero
• GNOG
• Watchdogs 2
• HQ Trivia
• Death Road to Canada
• Game Dev Tycoon
• Reigns: Her Majesty
• Space Frontier

Ok...Now let's get a look at that list...

• The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
• Super Mario Odyssey
• Yakuza 0
• Stardew Valley (Switch)
• Horizon: Zero Dawn
• Miracle Merchant
• Ironcast (Switch)
• The Binding of Isaac: Afterbirth + (Switch)
• Steamworld Dig 2
• What Remains of Edith Finch
• Dead Rising 4
• Superhot
• Pit People
• Titanfall 2
• Prey
• Resident Evil 7
• Aaero
• HQ Trivia
• Game Dev Tycoon (iOS)

And let's get rid of games that didn't come out in 2017... Which leaves 16 games...

• The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
• Super Mario Odyssey
• Yakuza 0
• Stardew Valley (Switch)
• Horizon: Zero Dawn
• Miracle Merchant
• Ironcast (Switch)
• The Binding of Isaac: Afterbirth + (Switch)
• Steamworld Dig 2
• What Remains of Edith Finch
• Pit People
• Prey
• Resident Evil 7
• Aaero
• HQ Trivia
• Game Dev Tycoon (iOS)

Now, I'm going to cut stuff...

'Prey' can go because I got stuck!  It gets very difficult, even on Easy.  I just can't make it through a section, somewhat late in the game.  I really loved everything about the game once I finally got around to playing it in December 2017.  I played it in a beta form or rental or something around the time it came out and thought it was awful, but liked the story.  I gave it a shot later when it hit $12 and immediately got sucked in.  The developers added a lot of patches over the year, and it looked and played great by the time I got back to it.

'Aaero' is a great rhythm shooter, but it can go because I didn't bother sticking with it/finishing it.

'Pit People' can go for similar reasons.  It is constantly updated, but I haven't revisited it in months.  It's here because I generally hate strategy games, but really enjoyed its engaging gameplay, variety, and humor.

'The Binding of Isaac' is in a similar boat.  I do play it every month or so, and 2017 is the first time I finally 'got' what Isaac was all about.  It showed me that a game can be so much more than what you see at face value.  I thought it was a confusing, difficult, twin stick shooter.  It is all of those things, but the hook is in how vastly different each playthrough can be, and showed me a joy of discovery and experimentation/strategy in a 'plain Jane' wrapping.

'Ironcast' can possibly go for similar reasons.  It's not an attractive game, but it took the old 'match 3' genre and turned it into a roguelike!  Compelling, addictive gameplay, with a 'one more try' gameplay loop made me stick to it on PS4, and buy it again on Switch so I could have a portable version.  It hit PC in 2015 though.

'Resident Evil 7' came out of nowhere, in my case.  I haven't finished an RE game since RE2 in 1998.  I played the beta for RE7, and it felt like a totally different game than I expected from the RE franchise.  It was creepy and frightening, but also played really well, looked AMAZING and made me want to keep playing even beyond the beta or demo.  I've always shotgunned games, playing 10 minutes of this and 10 minutes of that, rarely diving deep into a game.  Resident Evil 7 Gold Edition was posted as a price mistake of $24, so I preordered it.  Late in the year, we were pinching pennies a bit and I cancelled all of my preorders except RE7 because it had been revealed to actually be a $50 game.  I also used a $10 reward card when I preordered it, so for $15 I figured I might as well stick with it and I could sell it for $20 of more if I didn't want it.  I popped it in and loved it.  Finished it and immediately started playing the DLC, which is also very rare for me to do.

So let's see what we can do with the list now...

1. The Legend Of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
2. Super Mario Odyssey
3. Horizon: Zero Dawn
4. Yakuza 0
5. Stardew Valley (Switch)
6. Miracle Merchant
7. HQ Trivia
8. Game Dev Tycoon
9. SteamWorld Dig 2
10. What Remains of Edith Finch

Yeah, yeah, everyone (that matters) loves Zelda.  It has it's faults, but the reason it's at number one is because it changed the way I play games, and what I expect from them.  I went from 'finishing' Zelda around 50 hours in, to immediately playing Horizon: Zero Dawn, a similar 'open world' adventure game.  Coming off BotW, I was used to jumping off the top of cliffs and gliding down.  I was used to climbing any surface I wanted, to reach any peak I could see.  I was used to physically moving my controller to fine tune aiming controls when using my bow.  Similar to cruise control in Saint's Row vs. open world driving games, after having those options in a game, it didn't make sense for other games to NOT include them. (PS. A decade later, games still don't have cruise control as a standard feature...)

The story in BotW is pretty standard fare.  The graphics and music are excellent, but not mind-blowing and not on the same level as Resident Evil 7 or Horizon: Zero Dawn, etc.  The inventory system is AWFUL; incredibly cumbersome to navigate, awkward and tedious.  But the sense of exploration the game provides is unmatched.  You're never walking long before stumbling across a pleasant surprise. Maybe a NPC engagement, maybe a strange sight in the distance, beckoning you to check it out, perhaps a hidden shrine, or doku nut, or half-buried treasure chest, enemy camp, or ruins to explore.  You can finish the whole game and not see giant areas of the map, filled with new adventures.  You might come across an island that strips you of your inventory and forces you to survive amidst a  new gameplay type.  Or maybe you'll find an entire forest, completely void of light causing you to mix up your routine to explore and make it out.  Or someone building a village from scratch in the middle of nowhere (and also in the middle of a crater).  Find a morbid, oddball body parts salesman in the bottom of a pit.  Find yourself at the entrance to an enormous labyrinth.  The game is constantly throwing surprises at you; something that led me to play the game another 50 hours after 'finishing' it.  And I've barely touched on the DLC which throws even more new content your way.

I could go on at length about each of the games on the list, but I feel like everyone else already has over the past month.  2017 was an amazing year for gaming, and it was a nice necessity to escape the awful reality of the year, for me and many others.  2018 is stacked with release dates already...we'll see if it matches last year in output or maybe gives us time to enjoy some of the 2017 games we didn't have time for.