Has this been the best year for games this decade?

It's bee ight

Probably not, but I don't know. I'm too lazy to research that shit.

I'd be willing to say 2014 was better with Bayonetta 2 and Dark Souls 2 being my highlights, but having a lot of other games I really loved.

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>>388070118
Honestly, yes. It's truly phenomenal. In a time where games have been getting somewhat stale and formulaic, this year has been full of unique and fresh experiences. Nier Automata is a super unique and unconventional game in almost every way. BOTW is a fresh new take on the open world genre, even though it's really fully realized imo. Persona 5 is a modernized JRPG done pretty much perfectly.

Just those 3 alone would make this year incredible, but there's also RE7, Yakuza 0 and Kiwami, Gravity Rush 2, Berseria, Horizon, Prey, Nioh.

Strangely enough, for all the fantastic games out there, most of them are from Japan. For the most part, the west has really been stagnating. Destiny 2 looks like shit, AC: Origins looks like shit, COD WWII looks like shit, Battlefront 2 doesn't look very interesting, Wildlands was shit, For Honor was shit, Agents of Mayhem was mediocre, Mass Effect Andromeda was somehow worse than even my lowest, most pessimistic expectations, Shadow of War has microtransactions, Crackdown 3 looks lackluster. It's looking kind of bleak in the Western AAA games industry.

>>388071304
Injustice 2 and FE Echoes are really good games too.

Nah, 2013 is the year things really started going downhill.
Definitely the best it's been since then, though.

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Yes, but only because I can't remember what even came out the past few years.

>>388071570
I haven't gotten around to playing Echoes yet, and I'm absolute trash at fighting games, but I've heard good things about them.

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Wouldn't say it's anything worth breaking the books for, but there's due respect for what managed this year as well as future endeavors that are coming up (though with some pause; there's definitely elements needing caution for later on as well as many more).
It's nothing I'll fondly remember when going on in my time, since most of the games really never stuck me out as impressionable or otherwise revolutionary, but I can still pay respects for them trying and other such to where I'll at least account for them later on - both with the good and the bad that they had.

The big thing for me is how these games themselves will affect the industry for later or anything of that sort - Breath of the Wild probably being a huge example for how much people are willingly taking it as an example of "breath-taking" design when in actuality, it's far from perfect. Really, most of that can apply to the games many list in that sort of positivity: Nier, Persona 5 are the big ones, but there's plenty of other fish that really have that sort of affect (Nioh being one other such example, though it was necessary considering how the Souls games was getting retarded over time and Nioh needed to put it in its place albeit with some missteps of its own). Consider that pessimistic, but I think there's plenty more to develop than following the leader, though following the leader is a good idea if you've got a good mind on how better to make it.

That's just what I think, however. TL;DR: it was really nice, but nothing close to the evangelized idea that people are holding it to.

>>388071304
>In a time where games have been getting somewhat stale and formulaic
Yeah. I don't play all that much video games anymore. I played so much it all starts to look the same.
They don't take many risks. They play it safe. I would have hoped that with those very advanced game engines becoming free or open source lately and crowd sourcing there would have been more innovation. But a lot of it has been homages or sequels to older games. Which is great. There's a place for that. But a lot of them weren't very original. I guess there would have to be large repositories of free assets too for it to become possible to make games cheaply. But then they'd start to all look the same.
>Nier Automata is a super unique and unconventional game in almost every way.
I fucking love it for that. It's weird and beautiful. Honestly the fans might go a bit overboard praising it sometimes. But holy shit it really does stand out.
They must have spent so much time making the visuals, the music and the story match up to reinforce the emotions they're trying to convey. I'm surprised they let them do that. You'd think some money bag executive would have intervened at some point going "WTF are you even doing?! This isn't gonna make more money. OMG it looks depressing you're fired.".
Also I'm not a weeb but damn I understand why they have waifus now kek.

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>>388071304
>even though it's really fully realized imo
Even thought it's NOT fully realized is what I meant to say. I'm too tired.

Yep, it's been the best overall year for vidya in a while IMO.

>>388070118
October isn't even here yet.

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I got it 2 days ago, I had to restart the game 7 times because of a stupid glitch, other than that it was ok. Also doubling the speed of the game made it more fun and challenging

>>388072682
You might wanna pull in the reigns of romanticizing gaming a bit.

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I didn't enjoy a single game released this year.