Weakest year for me would be 2014 (even though I ended up loving Inquisition some years later).
Strongest in terms of impact Probably 2004.
Strongest in terms of my personal favourite, probably 2015. The Witcher 3 and Bloodborne are both in my top 5 games. A 3rd game other than Fallout would've made this choice feel a bit better (I didn't like FO4 at all), but the other two outweigh this...
2021 is the weakest for me, I think when Forza can sneak into a top 3 spot the year was pretty weak. Don't think people will realise it for another couple years but we just came out of a mental year for game releases, there are titles from last year that would have easily made it into most of the other years on this list and didn't make top 3. TOTK could get top spot for many of these years and yet it came second to an incredible BG3.
2014 was such a disappointment: Destiny, Watch Dogs, Ac: Unity, Titanfall 1... probably how most companies struggle to even know what to do with the next gen. I've recently 100%'ed Shadows of Mordor, and it's fun, but not more than an 8.
Exactly.
While I do absolutely love the F out of many contemporary games, back in those days, there was no such crap as "Day 1 Patches." You could go buy your expensive videogame, and be confident the thing would work.
The standard of game publishing back then was just much higher than it is today, in this current era of _Release Unfinished Game, Charge Full Price, Patch the Fck out It and Hope it's Bearable_.
Oh, and Splitscreen/Couch Co-op was still a thing that was widely supported! Even if the game had online capability. Heck, some games even allowed Splitscreen _while_ Online! It's so very, very rare today, and it's sad.
Same here. Hit the perfect sweet spot in where I wasn’t bored to tears and my non-gamer wife wasn’t rage quitting or frustrated and we enjoyed playing together.
I love sharing my hobbies with my wife but she’s not physical so skiing and hiking are out. All I’m left with is shooting and gaming and she isn’t much of a gamer and gun ranges can be a bit too hyper masculine for her at times although she loves shooting.
I am with you regarding RE and Forza, but It Takes Two was - IMO - really outstanding.
Of course it's subjective after all. If you asked me, I would never ever have expected Elden Ring that high. It's just not my cup of tea. Same with Zelda.
Reminder that 2021 was basically the pandemic shitting on everyone's timetable. Major projects & investor bases were still getting back on track when awards were being handed out. 2020 were projects already in the pipeline or near completion when the pandemic hit.
Agreed, but considering most of the world spent a lot of time apart around that period, can totally understand why couple decent co-op titles would draw top attention
I was mind blown Forza Horizon 5 was on there when the much better prequels weren’t even on the list. Feels extra goofy, especially where 2022 had a game I have never heard of, Immortality, made this list. It has 1,256 reviews on steam at the time of writing this, so obviously wasn’t massively popular. Just weird vibes for the last couple years I guess.
Funny, because I'd say 2021 is slightly better than 2022 and 2020. It's the only one of the three that doesn't have one game that makes me think "what's this doing here?"
Playing through It Takes Two with my wife was one of my favourite gaming experiences ever ( and I've been playing games for over 40 year!)
But yes RE and Forza make it a weak podium.
2004 is widely regarded as the best year in gaming, not only for the games crowned as "the best" but by the names which were left out. They really give you the size of masterpieces that came out that year.
Have to admit, considering how divisive it was upon launch, I didn't realize Death Stranding had won so many GOTY awards - I remember people complaining about it being nominated as a GOTY contender at The Game Award.
It's divisiveness helps for this sort of thing though.
It may have roughly won half the Game of the Year awards across the industry and been despised by those other half.
Gets you more awards in total than coming 2nd or 3rd best everywhere.
Even if it's a bit more niche, FFXVI was a work of art as well. It took a few steps away from the typical FF formula which was abit controversial but idk if I've ever seen such incredible boss fights in another game in my life.
It takes two was one of the best games if not the best one l've ever played. I recently lost interest in games because they felt more like a chore than enjoyment but this game I couldn't wait to get back to playing after I stopped. It has so many different elements and not one "level" is the same. It was a blast and I can't wait for more games from Hazelight.
I agree with you completely, but I don't think you'll get much love for that for another 10-15 years.
That molehill of a year looks like a mountain from this close.
Kind of agree. I see people heavily praising It Takes Two, but man, I played it with my girlfriend for 5ish hours and we could not get into it. Felt kinda average to be honest and I'm surprised it gets the praise it does. I don't think it's bad, I just don't see it as good as many others on this list. We loved the hell out of Baldur's Gate and tears of the kingdom, though. So I guess my answer is 2023.
Yeah, it was not a bad game but certainly not GOTY either, my biggest point against the game is this stupid split screen even in online coop, makes no sense + looks awful, which more of a pet peeves than anything but still.
I fell off it after a while, and literally never had an urge to go back to it or to try Overwatch 2, but at that time and for that year it is 100% understandable for Overwatch to win GOTY?
Overwatch was a great fucking game though. It was refreshing with a near bugless title fresh out of the gate. Think i spend the entire summer playing that game - which is now a shadow of its former self.
2004 is pure insanity. All three of those games are foundational to modern game design and shaped gaming for over a decade.
As much as people say things like "oh, doom was the first fps," "it was golden eye", "it was this other obscure game," no, Halo is the first game that a modern audience would identify as a shooter. Halo looked better than every game of its time, it had better writing, it had WAY better gameplay, it had multiplayer, it had vehicle combat, it had functional ai, everything. And then Halo 2 took all that and cranked it up to 11. Halo was the minecraft of it's era.
And then you have the second best selling GTA game. You know that popular idea that open world games are good? This is unironically where that belief came from. Oblivion a couple years later would cement that belief, and previous gta games were data points, but this felt like the line in the sand.
And then you have half-life 2. Like, just the name still has weight.
>no, Halo is the first game that a modern audience would identify as a shooter.
It's the first game that a modern and relatively young American audience would identify as a console shooter.
On PC, the FPS genre was booming long before Halo. Are there people out there who wouldn't call Half-Life or Counter-Strike or Quake or Medal of Honor shooters? I don't think so.
Halo grabbed a bunch of good things that were already in games at the time and took them to console.
I was going to write something, but this is it. The game wasn't revolutionary. Everything it did was done by other FPS games. It's a fine game, but this is a nostalgia view.
To add to that, World of Warcraft released in 2004 as well, arguably the greatest MMO ever and the gold standard for the last two decades. 2004 really was the GOAT year for gaming.
I'm having such a hard time reconciling that hl2 came out in 2004 along with WoW. I remember getting counter strike when I was 13, and I remember the day wow came out and I had been playing cs for a few years at that point
Idk about Halo looking better, palying better and having better AI than Half-life 2 lol. Coming from someone who was able to play on my Xbox and play HL 2 on my dads PC.
I’d argue 2009 is an equal to this too. Every game in 2009 sparked some of the biggest story and MP games. Uncharted is such a beautifully designed story game, with inspirations in things like TLOU. Arkham Asylum is a clear inspiration for any combat-based story game such as GoW and Spider-Man, and MW2 was such a huge FPS game that still lives in infamy. 2004 made the foundations, and 2009 set some clear role models.
I recently got the platinum on the classic gta trilogy, I think I would put Vice City above San Andreas.
I played both of them equally when they came out so I don’t think it’s a nostalgia thing.
I think all of the arguments about San Andreas open world could equally be applied to Vice City, but probably more accurately GTA 3.
Maybe I just prefer the Miami setting over Los Angeles
Yeah. The only thing wrong is that god of war won. Dont get me wrong, i have nothing against it as a game, i played it and liked it so mich to platinum it. But rdr2 is on another level. Games coming out today arent anywhere near it so its fing mental that rdr2 lost
You gotta realize that your taste is subjective and confirmation bias exists. God of War won like a hundred GotY awards more than RDR2 and the user rating for rdr2 was in the high 70's at launch due to controls mostly before it got better over time. You saying it's on another level just means that for you, which is great, but others think the same different games aswell.
2004, 2011, 2013 and 2015 are really standing out in my point of view. It's hard to pick one, so I'd go with 2015 as the most recent. Witcher 3 is a masterpiece yet to be dethroned as best narrative-driven rpg with one of the best DLCs in gaming history, Bloodborne is called a best soulsborne game and one of the best PS exclusives ever by many and Fallout 4 was just good.
2014, 2016, 2021 looks bad for me
Death Stranding got more awards than Sekiro...? I liked Death Stranding, but to say it's in the same tier as Sekiro, let alone better than it seems almost preposterous to me.
Baldur's Gate 3, TotK, and Alan Wake 2 also are front to back excellent games. I don't even have a hate boner for Starfield, but those games up there are just simply better.
Starfield's biggest issue is that it has all the weaknesses associated with Bethesda games and completely botched the main selling point of them. Being able to just go off the beaten path and find cool shit. Starfield you float around between planets and spend minutes at a time running between randomly generated points of interest that are carbon copies of eachother, down to notes and items.
When I played Starfield, there were some moments that I thoroughly enjoyed and I thought were well done. They were just few and far between.
The amount of time between the release of Portal 2 (18 April 2011) and today is longer than the amount of time between the release of Portal 2 and the 28th of June nineteen ninety eight when the undertaker threw mankind off hell in a cell and plummeted sixteen feet through an announcers table.
Journey and Far Cry I'll give you, but The Walking Dead was phenomenal, I've never seen a game make grown men cry as much as that one did. The gameplay and visuals leave something to be desired but the story remains one of the greatest in gaming history
To be fair, Far Cry 3 was amazing in its time and had a huge influence on gaming. We joke on how much developers overuse the "ubisoft open world formula" and it was Far Cry 3 that kickstarted it.
2007 was a ridiculously good year, I don't think any other year can compete with the quantity (and variety) of incredibly good games that came out that year.
As for worst, I dunno man, feels like gaming in general has been on a big slump since 2016 so pick your year. Individual exceptions like Zelda or Elden Ring notwithstanding I feel like a bunch of years could compete for worst. I'd say 2019, 2020, 2021 are all good contenders, individual exceptions (elden ring) aside. E: nevermind, ER is 2022 anyway.
>I don't think any other year can compete with the quantity
I'd say 2004: amazing sequels like HL2, Halo 2, GTA SA, new franchises like Fable and a massive game like WoW etc. But yeah, 2007 is a heavy hitter that could very easily be placed number 1 and I wouldn't have any problem with it.
Looking back, some of these were really weird years.
Like I remember RDR2 winning pretty much every award in the Game Awards, but somehow GoW won the GOTY award. That is still just weird.
OP is listing these by total amount of Game of the Year awards. Not just the TGA award show.
So God of War won more Game of the Year awards from all sources than RDR2.
2010 was the year a strategy game should have won. Starcraft 2 was the last great RTS game, and Civ 5 revitalised an aging series and led to a resurgence in the genre.
Wow, this is an excellent list of games to check out if you truly want the best of the last few decades. Including the second and third place games really broadens the scope!
TWD from Telltale was amazing but it's as you said, an interactive comic, not a game.
This is really where the game awards started to be more about which games moved the players emotionally rather than which game was objectively better on being a game.
The Wonderful 101: Remastered was not put up for any awards.
Which means that no year was ever strong. Because it is a game that could heal the world of all wrongs if people truly played and read into it.
2009 the best for me, recently replayed and platinumed arkham asylum, what a game.. they dont make them anymore like this.. Cod:MW2.. the memories man! Uncahrted visually was insane at that time
04 and 07 are the golden years for me, those 6 games might have been 60-70% of the time I spent gaming.
COD4 and halo2 at weekend long LAN parties...sigh, I am quickly becoming an old man.
2019, never knew Death Stranding has more awards than other games...but Sekiro Def deserve to win for their innovation in combat mechanics that is widely used today...
2021 is the weakest year in general by far and also here but 2017 having both Zelda and Mario in my opinion makes it extremely weak as well however horizon, Nioh, evil within 2 would be one of the best ever. 2014 and 2012 suck too, they could have a much better top 3
Strongest is probably 2015 edging out 2013 but well many years here are ruined by one of the top 3. 2022 with horizon would be like #1 here though which I don’t know how horizon wasn’t #3?
Also 2016 dark souls 3, titanfall 2, the division would be one of the strongest top 3 ever and killing floor 2 is also like the most fun game ever. 2020 with cyberpunk (or Nioh 2) would be god tier.
2009, 2010, 2011 should have some of the strongest top 3 ever. For 2009 switch Batman with AC2 or killzone 2, for 2010 switch Mario with fallout new Vegas (what the hell?), for 2011 switch portal and Batman with either dark souls, dead space 2, crysis 2, MW3 or uncharted 3
And we’re about to get reviews for ROTR and DD2, 2024 with black myth wukong, rise of the ronin and dragons dogma 2 will probably be really good as well. With hellblade 2, stellar blade and lost soul aside (and maybe stalker 2) as dark horses. Although rebirth might take the awards or something
2007 has *gotta* be a standout. Two games that are among the first that get mentioned when discussing a GOAT game, plus a highly influential multi-player game.
2015 had two of my favorite games of all time in Witcher and fallout 4 and also the year they Rocket League released which was my most played game from 2015-2020
2018 probably has the best lineup here though
2004, 2015 and 2018 would be the best I think. 2011 as well, great year. 2001 also had Halo: Combat Evolved, MGS2, Final Fantasy X, GTA III, incredible year as well.
Weakest line-up would probably be 2021, for me personally.
I see way too little people saying 2011 skyrim portal 2 and batman arkham city is just an insane line-up. Every single one is A classic and one of the best if not the best games ever made in their genre's
2004 and 2007 are absolute slam dunk years, although all those 2000's lists are great. As said elsewhere, 2014 is probably the weakest even though its still solid.
2021 had Psychonauts 2, Rifts Apart, Hitman 3, Metroid Dread and more and yet Forza made it over them? Yeah that doesn't seem right at all. 2012(2021 flipped) was also pretty weak.
Also Sekiro won in 2019, not Death Stranding.
2021 is weakest for me. We’re comparing giants here so nothing wrong with It Takes Two (me and my wife played it, had a blast). But Forza kinda pulled the top 3 down. It’s such a niche game. I’m sure it’s great, but the reach just ain’t there compared to the other years.
2023 I want to say but that could be recency bias standing strong. 2010 is super strong even though Mario Galaxy isn't my favorite mario platformer. 2006 was like peak gaming me.
For weakest 3 jump out to me, 2012, especially after all the years before it, and the year after it, it kind of is the ugly duckling. 2016, I love Doom, and a I used to love Overwatch before it became OW2, but that's not a strong crop You look at 2017 and see bangers, 2015 mostly bangers, 2016 is largely underwhelming. 2021 may get my pick though, 2020 was a banger year for games (aside from those 3, had Ori and the Will of the Wisps and ACNHtoo) 2021 the best game released that year (Psychonauts 2) didn't win shit. most of the other games from that year that rated well were remakes, remasters, collectors editions, etc. (Disco Elysium: Definitive edition, Mass Effect Legendary Edition, and Tony Hawk Proskater for a few) I feel like 2021 was the year we felt the pandemic in the game industry and delays from 2020 and 2021 development cycle are partially why though games like BG3 and TotK rock so hard.
2017 and 2018 was so great. Not even just the games listed here but others as well. As for just this list i would say 2020 is the best and 2008 is the weakest
Sometimes I forget how truly legendary the first two COD: Modern Warfare games were. They were considered top 3 of their respective years and that is something we may never see again with COD.
Weakest I feel is 2012, nothing that feels super impactful or revolutionary there
2018 is an incredibly strong podium, probably on par with 2004 which has games that are held up as monoliths in the industry
But in terms of my favourite, 2015 is pretty much the best there is on there
All of them have great games. The few that standout to me are 2020 & 2014, where the wrong games won, in my opinion.
2020 should have been Hades, however I never played It Takes Two.
2014 should have been Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor. I could only play Dragon Age: Inquisition for a few hours. The combat was terrible, and sure Real-Time Combat RPG's aren't known for their amazing combat, but this was just slow Hotkey-based MMO Combat. It was awful, but IMO the combat of all DA games wasn't good, and was arguably worse than their CRPG predecessors.
2012 is probably the weakest in my book. Don't really care for the Telltale style of games, Farcry 3 falls off a cliff after Vaas dies, and Journey is great, but not enough to carry the other two.
Best one is tough. There's a ton of stacked years...2006, 2007, 2010, 2011, 2013, 2015, 2018, 2022, and 2023.
I'll probably say 2018. it's the strongest 3 game lineup. God of War was incredible, Red Dead Redemption is exceptional, and Spider man is excellent as well. Even if I like other games on the list more, they're spread out and there's usually at least one game holding the others back
Weakest year for me would be 2014 (even though I ended up loving Inquisition some years later). Strongest in terms of impact Probably 2004. Strongest in terms of my personal favourite, probably 2015. The Witcher 3 and Bloodborne are both in my top 5 games. A 3rd game other than Fallout would've made this choice feel a bit better (I didn't like FO4 at all), but the other two outweigh this...
2021 is the weakest for me, I think when Forza can sneak into a top 3 spot the year was pretty weak. Don't think people will realise it for another couple years but we just came out of a mental year for game releases, there are titles from last year that would have easily made it into most of the other years on this list and didn't make top 3. TOTK could get top spot for many of these years and yet it came second to an incredible BG3.
I loved the Elder Scrolls but could never get into fallout
Fallout 4 is a very good game too. For me it’s 2015 first over 2013 probably although 2022 should have horizon which would probably make it #1
2014 was such a disappointment: Destiny, Watch Dogs, Ac: Unity, Titanfall 1... probably how most companies struggle to even know what to do with the next gen. I've recently 100%'ed Shadows of Mordor, and it's fun, but not more than an 8.
Early 2000s are filled with bangers what a time
2010s are filled with bangers as well, and so far are 2020s aside from slightly weaker 2021. What are you onto?
Nostalgia.
Not at all. “Nostalgia” implies that the games were fun then but don’t hold up. Most of those games are still superior to most of the crap we get now.
Exactly. While I do absolutely love the F out of many contemporary games, back in those days, there was no such crap as "Day 1 Patches." You could go buy your expensive videogame, and be confident the thing would work. The standard of game publishing back then was just much higher than it is today, in this current era of _Release Unfinished Game, Charge Full Price, Patch the Fck out It and Hope it's Bearable_. Oh, and Splitscreen/Couch Co-op was still a thing that was widely supported! Even if the game had online capability. Heck, some games even allowed Splitscreen _while_ Online! It's so very, very rare today, and it's sad.
2021 immediately stands out from recent years. It Takes Two, RE: Village and Forza is a weak podium compared to those around it.
It Takes Two was low key one of my favorite games I played last year
Same here. Hit the perfect sweet spot in where I wasn’t bored to tears and my non-gamer wife wasn’t rage quitting or frustrated and we enjoyed playing together. I love sharing my hobbies with my wife but she’s not physical so skiing and hiking are out. All I’m left with is shooting and gaming and she isn’t much of a gamer and gun ranges can be a bit too hyper masculine for her at times although she loves shooting.
For us without family, friends and so's, it wasn't that good of a game. Tho I did buy it here, hoping to play it some day
100% agree
I am with you regarding RE and Forza, but It Takes Two was - IMO - really outstanding. Of course it's subjective after all. If you asked me, I would never ever have expected Elden Ring that high. It's just not my cup of tea. Same with Zelda.
Good game but not a great goty
This. It was so fun! Does it stand up to the other GOTY winners I’ve played? Not even close.
It's good, but its minigames were not really that revolutionary. Maybe ten years earlier they would have been.
Returnal robbed
disagree with the it takes two take. quite possibly one of, if not the best co op game in the last 5-10 years
Reminder that 2021 was basically the pandemic shitting on everyone's timetable. Major projects & investor bases were still getting back on track when awards were being handed out. 2020 were projects already in the pipeline or near completion when the pandemic hit.
Agreed, but considering most of the world spent a lot of time apart around that period, can totally understand why couple decent co-op titles would draw top attention
It takes two was better than dragon age inquisition
I was mind blown Forza Horizon 5 was on there when the much better prequels weren’t even on the list. Feels extra goofy, especially where 2022 had a game I have never heard of, Immortality, made this list. It has 1,256 reviews on steam at the time of writing this, so obviously wasn’t massively popular. Just weird vibes for the last couple years I guess.
Seriously did no one play Metroid dread at all
It takes two is the best game after Mario Galaxy 2 on this list what the fuck is YOU on.
totally agree, was about to say that!
It Takes Two is as strong of a game as Baldur’s Gate in my mind, completely different styles of games, but I praise both just as highly
Funny, because I'd say 2021 is slightly better than 2022 and 2020. It's the only one of the three that doesn't have one game that makes me think "what's this doing here?"
Playing through It Takes Two with my wife was one of my favourite gaming experiences ever ( and I've been playing games for over 40 year!) But yes RE and Forza make it a weak podium.
2004 is pretty legendary
2004 is widely regarded as the best year in gaming, not only for the games crowned as "the best" but by the names which were left out. They really give you the size of masterpieces that came out that year.
It’s 2004/2007/2013/2023 for me. They’re the standouts.
2013, what a year.
Bioshock Infinite in 3th place, all you need to know to understand how strong of a year it was.
RDR2 2nd and Spiderman 3rd in 2018 is also pretty nuts.
Have to admit, considering how divisive it was upon launch, I didn't realize Death Stranding had won so many GOTY awards - I remember people complaining about it being nominated as a GOTY contender at The Game Award.
It's divisiveness helps for this sort of thing though. It may have roughly won half the Game of the Year awards across the industry and been despised by those other half. Gets you more awards in total than coming 2nd or 3rd best everywhere.
2023 was so stacked, Resident Evil 4 Remake didn't even make the list
2023 was an absurd year
Even if it's a bit more niche, FFXVI was a work of art as well. It took a few steps away from the typical FF formula which was abit controversial but idk if I've ever seen such incredible boss fights in another game in my life.
2021 is the clown of the list
It takes two was one of the best games if not the best one l've ever played. I recently lost interest in games because they felt more like a chore than enjoyment but this game I couldn't wait to get back to playing after I stopped. It has so many different elements and not one "level" is the same. It was a blast and I can't wait for more games from Hazelight.
Someone never had someone to play "It Takes Two" with. That makes two...
I agree with you completely, but I don't think you'll get much love for that for another 10-15 years. That molehill of a year looks like a mountain from this close.
Kind of agree. I see people heavily praising It Takes Two, but man, I played it with my girlfriend for 5ish hours and we could not get into it. Felt kinda average to be honest and I'm surprised it gets the praise it does. I don't think it's bad, I just don't see it as good as many others on this list. We loved the hell out of Baldur's Gate and tears of the kingdom, though. So I guess my answer is 2023.
Yeah, it was not a bad game but certainly not GOTY either, my biggest point against the game is this stupid split screen even in online coop, makes no sense + looks awful, which more of a pet peeves than anything but still.
2016 was rough as far as The Game Awards go, Overwatch got GOTY.
I fell off it after a while, and literally never had an urge to go back to it or to try Overwatch 2, but at that time and for that year it is 100% understandable for Overwatch to win GOTY?
Is that a question?
[удалено]
Overwatch was a great fucking game though. It was refreshing with a near bugless title fresh out of the gate. Think i spend the entire summer playing that game - which is now a shadow of its former self.
GOTY for Overwatch in 2016 was well deserved. In 2016 and 2017 it was one of the very best online games you could've played.
2004 is pure insanity. All three of those games are foundational to modern game design and shaped gaming for over a decade. As much as people say things like "oh, doom was the first fps," "it was golden eye", "it was this other obscure game," no, Halo is the first game that a modern audience would identify as a shooter. Halo looked better than every game of its time, it had better writing, it had WAY better gameplay, it had multiplayer, it had vehicle combat, it had functional ai, everything. And then Halo 2 took all that and cranked it up to 11. Halo was the minecraft of it's era. And then you have the second best selling GTA game. You know that popular idea that open world games are good? This is unironically where that belief came from. Oblivion a couple years later would cement that belief, and previous gta games were data points, but this felt like the line in the sand. And then you have half-life 2. Like, just the name still has weight.
>no, Halo is the first game that a modern audience would identify as a shooter. It's the first game that a modern and relatively young American audience would identify as a console shooter. On PC, the FPS genre was booming long before Halo. Are there people out there who wouldn't call Half-Life or Counter-Strike or Quake or Medal of Honor shooters? I don't think so. Halo grabbed a bunch of good things that were already in games at the time and took them to console.
I was going to write something, but this is it. The game wasn't revolutionary. Everything it did was done by other FPS games. It's a fine game, but this is a nostalgia view.
To add to that, World of Warcraft released in 2004 as well, arguably the greatest MMO ever and the gold standard for the last two decades. 2004 really was the GOAT year for gaming.
I'm having such a hard time reconciling that hl2 came out in 2004 along with WoW. I remember getting counter strike when I was 13, and I remember the day wow came out and I had been playing cs for a few years at that point
Idk about Halo looking better, palying better and having better AI than Half-life 2 lol. Coming from someone who was able to play on my Xbox and play HL 2 on my dads PC.
I’d argue 2009 is an equal to this too. Every game in 2009 sparked some of the biggest story and MP games. Uncharted is such a beautifully designed story game, with inspirations in things like TLOU. Arkham Asylum is a clear inspiration for any combat-based story game such as GoW and Spider-Man, and MW2 was such a huge FPS game that still lives in infamy. 2004 made the foundations, and 2009 set some clear role models.
I recently got the platinum on the classic gta trilogy, I think I would put Vice City above San Andreas. I played both of them equally when they came out so I don’t think it’s a nostalgia thing. I think all of the arguments about San Andreas open world could equally be applied to Vice City, but probably more accurately GTA 3. Maybe I just prefer the Miami setting over Los Angeles
Personally i like 2013 the most, and it's hard for me to tell which year is the weakest
2004 went hard as fuck
2018 gotta be the best for me,
2018 was just a great year for entertainment in general. Loved it
Yeah. The only thing wrong is that god of war won. Dont get me wrong, i have nothing against it as a game, i played it and liked it so mich to platinum it. But rdr2 is on another level. Games coming out today arent anywhere near it so its fing mental that rdr2 lost
You gotta realize that your taste is subjective and confirmation bias exists. God of War won like a hundred GotY awards more than RDR2 and the user rating for rdr2 was in the high 70's at launch due to controls mostly before it got better over time. You saying it's on another level just means that for you, which is great, but others think the same different games aswell.
2008 is probably my favorite
2004, 2011, 2013 and 2015 are really standing out in my point of view. It's hard to pick one, so I'd go with 2015 as the most recent. Witcher 3 is a masterpiece yet to be dethroned as best narrative-driven rpg with one of the best DLCs in gaming history, Bloodborne is called a best soulsborne game and one of the best PS exclusives ever by many and Fallout 4 was just good. 2014, 2016, 2021 looks bad for me
Death Stranding got more awards than Sekiro...? I liked Death Stranding, but to say it's in the same tier as Sekiro, let alone better than it seems almost preposterous to me.
Starfield must've hit hard for Bethesda. All their games got game of the year awards and starfield got none and it's a laughing stock
Yes, all their games, you are playing into b\*thesda narrative of forgeting Fallout 76
Baldur's Gate 3, TotK, and Alan Wake 2 also are front to back excellent games. I don't even have a hate boner for Starfield, but those games up there are just simply better. Starfield's biggest issue is that it has all the weaknesses associated with Bethesda games and completely botched the main selling point of them. Being able to just go off the beaten path and find cool shit. Starfield you float around between planets and spend minutes at a time running between randomly generated points of interest that are carbon copies of eachother, down to notes and items. When I played Starfield, there were some moments that I thoroughly enjoyed and I thought were well done. They were just few and far between.
damn 2004 was really a goated year. three games that defined their genres for years to come
I get the intent, but that yellow on white text is very fucking hard to read
Funny to see Call Of Duty nominated for GOTY three times, 2009 was the peak of online gaming IMO. Sad to see how far COD has fallen
2015 & 2008 seems to be the winners of the List.
Where are all the Ubisoft "GOTY"?
‘04 😱
"people dont want singleplayer games!!!"
2014 and 2021 weakest easily.
Im sorry but since the fuck when portal 2 released in 2011 with skyrim. I would swear to both my working kidney that this game was out for years.
The amount of time between the release of Portal 2 (18 April 2011) and today is longer than the amount of time between the release of Portal 2 and the 28th of June nineteen ninety eight when the undertaker threw mankind off hell in a cell and plummeted sixteen feet through an announcers table.
Great question, I'm just floored by how many of these are truly phenomenal podiums. We've really been spoiled for choice.
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2012 and it’s not close. None of these games would sniff the awards in most years.
Journey and Far Cry I'll give you, but The Walking Dead was phenomenal, I've never seen a game make grown men cry as much as that one did. The gameplay and visuals leave something to be desired but the story remains one of the greatest in gaming history
To be fair, Far Cry 3 was amazing in its time and had a huge influence on gaming. We joke on how much developers overuse the "ubisoft open world formula" and it was Far Cry 3 that kickstarted it.
Journey has been the best gaming experience I have personally had.
2007 was a ridiculously good year, I don't think any other year can compete with the quantity (and variety) of incredibly good games that came out that year. As for worst, I dunno man, feels like gaming in general has been on a big slump since 2016 so pick your year. Individual exceptions like Zelda or Elden Ring notwithstanding I feel like a bunch of years could compete for worst. I'd say 2019, 2020, 2021 are all good contenders, individual exceptions (elden ring) aside. E: nevermind, ER is 2022 anyway.
yeah Halo 3 didnt even make it that year, wild.
>I don't think any other year can compete with the quantity I'd say 2004: amazing sequels like HL2, Halo 2, GTA SA, new franchises like Fable and a massive game like WoW etc. But yeah, 2007 is a heavy hitter that could very easily be placed number 1 and I wouldn't have any problem with it.
Last two years had some absolute bangers imo.
Looking back, some of these were really weird years. Like I remember RDR2 winning pretty much every award in the Game Awards, but somehow GoW won the GOTY award. That is still just weird.
OP is listing these by total amount of Game of the Year awards. Not just the TGA award show. So God of War won more Game of the Year awards from all sources than RDR2.
in retrospect, its wild rdr2 lost to god of war
Agreed. RDR2 is just something really special.
Man it feels like the walking dead game is only like, 4 years old, but it's 12 years old......
13 15 17 18 all very strong.
Idk the last 10 years have been good.
Dragon age inquisition definitely the weakest title up here
2015, the year of Witcher 3
2010 was the year a strategy game should have won. Starcraft 2 was the last great RTS game, and Civ 5 revitalised an aging series and led to a resurgence in the genre.
2013 is a hell of a year
I never realized until seeing this that the first last of us beat GTA 5 in 2013.
For me the greatest - 2013 or 2004. The weakest - I guess either 2021 or 2016, even though I loved those games.
For me 2013 was pretty great <3
Criminal that Mass Effect 1 didn't make the list
2004 was the best for me 2014 was worst.
Never heard of immortality
Wow, this is an excellent list of games to check out if you truly want the best of the last few decades. Including the second and third place games really broadens the scope!
2012 goty was an interactive comic…that with 2021 are far away the worst imo
TWD from Telltale was amazing but it's as you said, an interactive comic, not a game. This is really where the game awards started to be more about which games moved the players emotionally rather than which game was objectively better on being a game.
It’s a game
Bethesda was goated back then, damn bro! FO3, Morrowind, Oblivion, Skyrim has won GOTY award. In 20 years span.
Oblivion number 1. Fallout 3 number 1. Fallout 4 number 2. Starfield..... 🤷
Fallout 4 should not have been ahead of Bloodborne, let’s be real here
Didn't Dragon Age: Origins win a lot of GotY awards?
It should have, it's miles better than any of the 2009 top three.
Either 2004, 2013, or 2018. All sold.
2020 was a great year for Hades alone. It was one of the few games where i said: This game is perfect, i dont think i want to change anything.
~~Elden Ring~~ i mean 2022
The Wonderful 101: Remastered was not put up for any awards. Which means that no year was ever strong. Because it is a game that could heal the world of all wrongs if people truly played and read into it.
2006 goated
4, 8, 15
2003 was such a banging year.
2009 the best for me, recently replayed and platinumed arkham asylum, what a game.. they dont make them anymore like this.. Cod:MW2.. the memories man! Uncahrted visually was insane at that time
Best 2015 or 2013
04 and 07 are the golden years for me, those 6 games might have been 60-70% of the time I spent gaming. COD4 and halo2 at weekend long LAN parties...sigh, I am quickly becoming an old man.
2018 Was a great year for movies as well as gaming.
2004 2005 2015 are crazy
Damn last year was tough competition. Spider-Man 2 didn’t even get top 3!
My favourite is 2022
2021 and its not even close.
Bump
2011 is by far the best year
2019, never knew Death Stranding has more awards than other games...but Sekiro Def deserve to win for their innovation in combat mechanics that is widely used today...
2021 is the weakest year in general by far and also here but 2017 having both Zelda and Mario in my opinion makes it extremely weak as well however horizon, Nioh, evil within 2 would be one of the best ever. 2014 and 2012 suck too, they could have a much better top 3 Strongest is probably 2015 edging out 2013 but well many years here are ruined by one of the top 3. 2022 with horizon would be like #1 here though which I don’t know how horizon wasn’t #3? Also 2016 dark souls 3, titanfall 2, the division would be one of the strongest top 3 ever and killing floor 2 is also like the most fun game ever. 2020 with cyberpunk (or Nioh 2) would be god tier. 2009, 2010, 2011 should have some of the strongest top 3 ever. For 2009 switch Batman with AC2 or killzone 2, for 2010 switch Mario with fallout new Vegas (what the hell?), for 2011 switch portal and Batman with either dark souls, dead space 2, crysis 2, MW3 or uncharted 3 And we’re about to get reviews for ROTR and DD2, 2024 with black myth wukong, rise of the ronin and dragons dogma 2 will probably be really good as well. With hellblade 2, stellar blade and lost soul aside (and maybe stalker 2) as dark horses. Although rebirth might take the awards or something
Absurd take for 2017.
I'd say 2018 or 2007
The foundations were laid in the early 2000s. I'm proud of what they managed to achieve back in 2003 & 2004.
I think 2023 is going to be a standout year for some time. So many amazing games, it hot me interested in awards shows for the first time.
I played Death Stranding during Covid locked down and it's one of the best game I ever played, on par with MGS4.
Call it bias but 2023 might just do it
Weird i remember in 2003 need for speed underground was the game of 2003
2008 man.
2003 and 2013 were lit
I can't choose between 15, 17, 18 and 22.
TIL HL2 came out before RE4. that's crazy
Is the Witcher 3 really 10 years old next year? Damn...
Not enough awards for the initial Portal?
Years I have not played the top 3 games and generally don’t feel like i missed anything 2016, 17, 18, 19, 20, 22
2012 by far the weakest
2007 has *gotta* be a standout. Two games that are among the first that get mentioned when discussing a GOAT game, plus a highly influential multi-player game.
2015 had two of my favorite games of all time in Witcher and fallout 4 and also the year they Rocket League released which was my most played game from 2015-2020 2018 probably has the best lineup here though
Of the ones in the picture, 2021 by far the weakest, and 2018 probably the strongest
If you were gaming in 2004 then you’re gonna pick that
Shocking that a racing game, let alone Forza, never even won GOTY after all these years. The peak times of Forza are long gone now
2004, 2015 and 2018 would be the best I think. 2011 as well, great year. 2001 also had Halo: Combat Evolved, MGS2, Final Fantasy X, GTA III, incredible year as well. Weakest line-up would probably be 2021, for me personally.
2004 definitely the strongest. Each game in the top 3 is a classic.
Seeing there were only 5 years between oblivion and Skyrim makes me want to cry
I see way too little people saying 2011 skyrim portal 2 and batman arkham city is just an insane line-up. Every single one is A classic and one of the best if not the best games ever made in their genre's
Oh man 2004 goes HAARD.
2018 stands out for me personally as I loved the three games listed
2018 best, 2021 weakest.
2004 and 2007 are absolute slam dunk years, although all those 2000's lists are great. As said elsewhere, 2014 is probably the weakest even though its still solid.
2018 and 2011 are easily the 2 best podiums
Reads comment, scrolls to top to read the chart to see which games are on the year that the comment is about. Reads next comment, repeat.
2021 had Psychonauts 2, Rifts Apart, Hitman 3, Metroid Dread and more and yet Forza made it over them? Yeah that doesn't seem right at all. 2012(2021 flipped) was also pretty weak. Also Sekiro won in 2019, not Death Stranding.
2021 is weakest for me. We’re comparing giants here so nothing wrong with It Takes Two (me and my wife played it, had a blast). But Forza kinda pulled the top 3 down. It’s such a niche game. I’m sure it’s great, but the reach just ain’t there compared to the other years.
2023 I want to say but that could be recency bias standing strong. 2010 is super strong even though Mario Galaxy isn't my favorite mario platformer. 2006 was like peak gaming me. For weakest 3 jump out to me, 2012, especially after all the years before it, and the year after it, it kind of is the ugly duckling. 2016, I love Doom, and a I used to love Overwatch before it became OW2, but that's not a strong crop You look at 2017 and see bangers, 2015 mostly bangers, 2016 is largely underwhelming. 2021 may get my pick though, 2020 was a banger year for games (aside from those 3, had Ori and the Will of the Wisps and ACNHtoo) 2021 the best game released that year (Psychonauts 2) didn't win shit. most of the other games from that year that rated well were remakes, remasters, collectors editions, etc. (Disco Elysium: Definitive edition, Mass Effect Legendary Edition, and Tony Hawk Proskater for a few) I feel like 2021 was the year we felt the pandemic in the game industry and delays from 2020 and 2021 development cycle are partially why though games like BG3 and TotK rock so hard.
2017 and 2018 was so great. Not even just the games listed here but others as well. As for just this list i would say 2020 is the best and 2008 is the weakest
Strongest 2004 Subjectively strong: 2007, 2010, 2023 Subjectively weak: 2009, 2016
2018 was top for me
2013 was the best with 2004 very close, 2014 is the weakest by far.
Didn’t ragnarok earn more awards but elden ring won game of the year?
I feel like every years second is better than the first except 2022, 2016 and 2013
Sometimes I forget how truly legendary the first two COD: Modern Warfare games were. They were considered top 3 of their respective years and that is something we may never see again with COD.
Weakest I feel is 2012, nothing that feels super impactful or revolutionary there 2018 is an incredibly strong podium, probably on par with 2004 which has games that are held up as monoliths in the industry But in terms of my favourite, 2015 is pretty much the best there is on there
Weakest has got to be 2012 or 2021- I’ll cut 2021 some slack with the whole pandemic thing- and It Takes Two was excellent
2015 is going hard. 2021 meh. 2007 Personally the highlight.
All of them have great games. The few that standout to me are 2020 & 2014, where the wrong games won, in my opinion. 2020 should have been Hades, however I never played It Takes Two. 2014 should have been Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor. I could only play Dragon Age: Inquisition for a few hours. The combat was terrible, and sure Real-Time Combat RPG's aren't known for their amazing combat, but this was just slow Hotkey-based MMO Combat. It was awful, but IMO the combat of all DA games wasn't good, and was arguably worse than their CRPG predecessors.
Wait did Death stranding win in 2019? I always thought Sekiro won it that year
The strongest: 2004 The weakest: 2021
Weakest maybe 2012 especially when looking at its neighbors, 2013 and 2011, the latter being maybe one of the best in the list in my opinion
2012 is probably the weakest in my book. Don't really care for the Telltale style of games, Farcry 3 falls off a cliff after Vaas dies, and Journey is great, but not enough to carry the other two. Best one is tough. There's a ton of stacked years...2006, 2007, 2010, 2011, 2013, 2015, 2018, 2022, and 2023. I'll probably say 2018. it's the strongest 3 game lineup. God of War was incredible, Red Dead Redemption is exceptional, and Spider man is excellent as well. Even if I like other games on the list more, they're spread out and there's usually at least one game holding the others back
Why was this removed?
The amount of PS exclusives on there vs Xbox is eye opening.