For the 12th straight year I’ve made a list of the video games I’ve played in the past 12 months. I’ve tweaked the way I’ve made this list as my gaming habits have changed, but the biggest impact I expected to see this year was from becoming a father. I was right, but 2017 threw a second big surprise at me, too.
Most years, I find whittling a best-of list down to just 10 entries a tortuous process. Not so in 2017, because in December 2016 I became a mother, and that brought with it a complete change in my video gaming habits. This year, I rediscovered how people play games when it’s not part of their job.
Games seem to get bigger and more complex every year: more levels to explore, more enemies to fight, and more stuff to collect. And as 2017 showed, there’s now more stuff to buy than ever before as well.
2017 has been a wild ride for me personally, but it was also a year that reminded me why I love games so much. From being transported to the ruins of Hyrule to being in another set of ruins fighting to be the last one standing, this year was an onslaught of great games. There really was something for everyone this…
Games love to pummel you with lists of things to collect, places to get to, and enemies to beat. Sometimes you just need to take a moment to pause, catch your breath, and look up at the beauty above.
People who play video games don’t just sit in the audience and watch, clap or boo. They interact and sometimes even help shape the trajectory of an artform. They do this as pro players and amateur critics, as speedrunners and community organizers, and more. Each year we highlight those who have made an impact that was…
I played a lot of very good video games in 2017.
Another year, another crop of video game paintings doing their best to class up the place.
Not every toy in 2017 was a fidget spinner or a tiny piece of collectible plastic in an unmarked box. Beyond the whirling kid distractors and blind box collectibles there were some outstanding things to play with this year. Just ask Roarin’ Tyler.
The video games of 2017 were’t just fun to play; they were fun to listen to.
It’s absolutely insane to think that 2017 was so good to me that The Legend Of Zelda: Breath Of The Wild, a game made in close consultation with my wildest fantasies, was somehow still not my favourite game for the year.
In fandom, the rules of fiction don’t matter, or at least matter a lot less. This is what allows shipping to exist, where fans write fanfiction, draw fanart, and get enthusiastic by a couple that may never happen in the game’s canon. Fandoms for video games this year were enthusiastic and loud, and sometimes cropped…
This year, some things were unexpectedly good. But a lot of things sucked, too. Let’s put all those sucky things into a big list.
Before you say I have a type, five of my top ten games of 2017 do not contain androids, virtual pop stars or cat girls. No wait, four. Still a large percentage.
This year, a lot of things sucked. But a lot of things were also unexpectedly good! Let’s celebrate those latter things with a big list.
I’ve played approximately two billion video games this year. Narrowing that list down to 10 was a painful and bloody process, but I finally managed to choose my favorite games from one of the most exciting years in recent memory.
While The Witcher 3 was obviously the game I played the most this year, did you know there were other games too? It was a great year for stealth games, immersive sims, and survival games—three of my favorite things! Here are my 1o favorite games that came out in 2017.
This year was a pretty damn good one for new video games. It was also great for old ones!
Patches are one of the best parts of gaming; you get to play Calvinball in real time, over the span of years. When developers announce their patches, though, they can sound ridiculous whether they’re describing what’s being fixed or introduced.
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