Topic: What is your 2020 GOTY?

Ghost of Tsushima and Final Fantasy VII Remake are tied for me

My Game of the Year is Moving Out, by default, cuz it's the only game I've played that released this year. Solid hilarity-physics coop game, but I'm sure something could beat it. I downloaded Spiritfarer recently, so we'll see how that goes.

Some of my favorite games I started this year were A Short Hike, Metroid Prime, Ori and the Blind Forest, A Hat in Time, Superliminal, Yooka Laylee and the Impossible Lair, Fe, and Gorogoa. I'd honestly feel really bad picking a favorite out of those, they were all really good. I also picked up Tumbleseed, Baba is You, and Pokemon Pinball (for the gameboy) and beat them this year, even if I bought them a while ago. But all of these are technically pre-2020.

I'm sure you're just being facetious here...but despite being only a portion of a greater narrative, FFVII Remake is as complete as any other game out there, so a definite GOTY contender regardless of how the other parts come out (if they ever do).

Well, no, it isn't, @timleon .... It is part one of the whole game! It's not like a 1st game in what becomes a series, even or anything. We know they're doing more parts for it.

That's exactly what it is. The only reason to call it "part of a game" is that it is based on part of the story from FF7...but this has been expanded on massively to create a whole new series. Everything else about the game is enough to make it a standalone title. Just because the narrative will continue, doesn't mean the game itself isn't whole.

Compare with the Yakuza, Mass Effect, or Trails of series. These all have a number of full, standalone titles with story elements that are largely interdependent.

There's plenty of series in which each game is still a complete game, @timleon .... In this case, they knew before this came out that it would be part ONE. Not like the original Final Fantasy, which is a whole game. Or even Mass Effect, where I'm not sure when they started thinking about a sequel. Here, however, it was ONE game they are remaking & they knew this is only part one
Trails series is unusual for it's approach but I won't see how part one of a several part game is comparable to one game in a series, there's a difference, whether I'm able to explain it well enough or not.

That doesn't actually matter in any worthwhile way. At most it matters to you, but no one cares.

Also you're almost certainly wrong about Mass Effect 1. Both because I'd bet money sequels were thought of while making it and nearly everyone would tell you you need to play it from 1 to 3 instead of just...playing one of the sequels on their own.

Well, I said I don't know when they decided there'd be a Mass Effect 2... Has there ever been a remake of one game that released in parts like FFVII R is doing?
While the idea would be that you could just play any 1 part of the game without doing the others, which I certainly wouldn't plan on doing & I don't think most would
It's a unique situation, tbf

@BruceCM FFVII Remake isn't a game cut up into chunks. It's being treated more like FFXIII and FFX where instead of there being a "part 2" or episodic approach, the next game will just be a standalone sequel to Remake instead

By the time you get to the endgame stuff it will start to make sense as to why SE didn't just cram a shot for shot remake of the whole game onto two Blu ray Discs because that was clearly never going to be their intention. The developers even said that to remake the whole game in one go would require cutting out large chunks of content given the approach they were taking with the change in gameplay, narrative and structure they were taking

@BruceCM I don't want to spoil it for you because you haven't played it yet, but the remake in parts doesn't apply here. It's not technically a remake. Part 2 will not be what you think it is.

DOOM: Eternal.

An outstanding game on any platform but it's just a stunning showcase of the Switch's farthest capabilities.

Edit: And unless I've missed it, it's surprising to not see a mention of it before this - get on it!

But I'm not saying the approach is wrong, @TheFrenchiestFry.... Or that the current part of FFVII R is bad or anything like that at all
Is anyone going to play part 1 with no intention of getting the next one?
This is still the 1st time I know of where one game has been remade & released in parts like this

@BruceCM The only situation similar to this, is Silent Hill Shattered Memories. I really don't want to say anymore. Once you've played it, you'll realise why we consider it a stand alone game.

It's not what you think it is going in.

Well, we do know there are going to be more parts, @Wargoose.... Not come across the game you mentioned, so that doesn't help
As far as I'm aware, they've said very little about part 2, so we don't exactly know what they'll do in that yet

@kkslider5552000 I'm pretty much in the same boat, i played maybe 3 or 4 games actually released in 2020.

Animal Crossing: New Horizons is probably my number 1 but, while I love it, it doesn't have the same impact as some of the previous AC games. Resident Evil 3 remake is probably the other notable one. It's not as well liked as the remake of 2, but I loved it just as much. Super Mario 3D All Stars is great too, I suppose. I skipped Paper Mario: Origami King, Xenoblade Definitive, Pikmin 3 Deluxe, and Hyrule Warriors: A.o.C..

In general my favorite game I played during 2020? Shadow of the Colossus remake on PS4 was phenomenal. It immediately became a favorite and changed what types of games I wanted to play. I ended up playing my PS4 more than my Switch this year, actually.

@BruceCM

Silent Hill Shattered Memories was advertised as a remake of Silent Hill 1, It appeared to be and then at the end it was revealed to be something else.

There are plenty of games designed with sequels in mind(Mass Effect, The Wolf Among Us, Halo 2, The Banner Saga, The Batman Arkham games, Shenmue series, Yakuza series, The Walking Dead series, Kingdom Hearts series, DmC Devil May Cry).

I don't think a game being part 1, 2, 3 or 4 of a story makes them exempt from a person's personal game of the year.

@Wargoose I mean Square themselves have done this before, twice actually with the Final Fantasy XIII trilogy and FFX-2. Hell even XII got a standalone sequel on DS with Revenant Wings

I've only really played Animal Crossing New Horizons, Final Fantasy VII Remake and some of Immortals Fenyx Rising (I just got it on Christmas and am playing casually). All three are strong, which is why I made sure I spent my limited funds on them. But TBH, I think Animal Crossing New Horizons just takes this one.

FF7 Remake easily. It's probably not the pound-for-pound best game of the year. That will be Xenoblade DE, Persona 5 Royal, or Half-life Alyx, or maybe Ghost of Tsushima.

But FF7 deserves the award because of the sheer pressure on them with this game. The expectation behind it, the 15 years or so of people campaigning for it to be remade, the fact that SquareEnix have struggled to produce their best work in recent years, the fact that they've decided to extend it into a multi-part series, the fact that it was announced 5 years ago and we'd heard almost nothing since then.

All of these factors combined to create so much pressure on them to deliver, that it's just incredible how well the game turned out. It really lived up to expectations in most ways. It exceeded expectations in a few (the best characters in the entire series, and the best soundtrack since FF9), and it fell short in a few (the padding and the last-minute story twist).

All in all, a really solid game, and the best thing Square Enix have made for about a decade..... maybe even the best thing since the merger with Enix in 2003.

DOOM Eternal for sure for me (Xbox One X version). I really enjoyed this game. Other honorable mentions: Ghost of Tsushima, Spiderman Remastered (haven't gotten to Miles Morales yet), AC Valhalla, Super Mario 3D All Stars, Ori and The will of the Wisps (Series X version), Xenoblades Chronicles DE. Those are the games I enjoyed the most this year.

Cyberpunk 2077 is a great game, very promising, but given it's current state I asked for a refund after playing a few hours on my Series X, will wait for the proper Next Gen upgrade to make the most of it. Had to request a refund it in order to keep myself for coming back, but really looking forward to getting a proper version.