with 2018 finally gone i'm here trying to make yet another game of the year list.

i would like to know, what was your game of the year 2018?
for this list, it doesn't matter when the game came out, it just needs to be one game you played in the last year that was your best gaming experience.
the platform doesn't matter either.

Wolfenstein: The new order was that game for me. the game was clearly made for consoles first and you can see that in the controls but it felt so good to play a single player campaign with a good story and for the most part encouraged whatever play-style you choose. often goes on sale > 50% i'd say its worth at least one play through

------edit : list of games worth checking out

Wolfenstein: The new order
Detroit Become Human
Kingdom Come Deliverance
Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel II
Ys VIII Lacrimosa of Dana
Tower of Time
Minit
Prey 2017
Witcher III - Hearts of Stone
metal gear solid 4
No Man's Sky
Phantom Doctrine
ELEX
Civilization III
Final Fantasy VI
Shadow Tactics.
Subnautica
Cuphead
Lucius demake
Bud Spencer & Terence Hill - Slaps And Beans

In this case i can't name a single game but here's top 4.

* Kingdom Come Deliverance, only after the last patch and even though the opening hours was rather slow i ended up having a lot of fun.

*Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel II

*Ys VIII Lacrimosa of Dana, damn fun game but only after all fixes.

* Tower of Time, i list this game often but i was pleasantly surprised.

Contenders: The Messenger

https://www.gog.com/game/minit easily

https://store.steampowered.com/app/564050/Bud_Spencer__Terence_Hill__Slaps_And_Beans/ for 2017 tied with https://store.steampowered.com/app/268910/Cuphead/

https://store.steampowered.com/app/364230/Lucius_Demake/ 2016

Hm tough, played quite a few really good ones last year.

if DLC counts then id say my favourite was
Witcher III - Hearts of Stone (after finishing the main game about a year earlier), great story, chars, new music, really amazing I thought.

For full games:
Prey 2017, it certainly had room for improvements in some areas, like enemy variety, but the world building, environments, tools and ways to handle situations, main story and many of the side stories all were really great, enjoyed it a lot.

Runner Ups:
Quern Its like Myst on overdrive, so many (good) puzzles, also a very similar atmosphere and music, really enjoyed it a lot.
Shadow Tactics (Adorable art style, fun characters, decent enough story, great level designs, what not to like? could have been a bit more difficult towards the end maybe
Outlast 2 (slight SPOILERS following: The chase scenes bothered me less than most people it seems and I thought the atmosphere and story were really good. A lot more personal (to the protagonist) than the first part and reminded me a lot of travelling down the river in Apocalypse Now, getting more and more surreal as it progressed).

ive heard good things about it, apparently one of the few games where your choices actually make a difference.

as someone who loves games in general, its kinda sad that there are just some games i may never get to play thanks to exclusivity. a lot of the really great games are console exclusive unfortunately. have been on the fence about this one for a while now. might give it a try this year had actualy never seen this one before. will check it out

gaming in 2018? man, fuck that, the last game of the year was metal gear solid 4, yeah I know, it was pretty much a movie but the whole game was solid. blah blah blah fan service, get the fuck over it. I was the lightning in that storm.

For me, it was No Man's Sky. I'd purchased it back in the summer of 2017 when it was on sale but never played it. After the NEXT update dropped at the end of July 2018, I fired it up, curious to see what it was like (and also because they added third person mode to it). I was between games and thought I'd give NMS a couple hours while I figured out what I wanted to play next, as NMS isn't really the genre I tend to play.

I haven't played anything since, I've logged over 800 hours on it, and I'm still playing it.

not really judging you, but the third person looked cool af when they announced it. don't get me wrong, I knew the game was a farce since the first trailer before release.

that's where my user name comes from. perhaps the best storytelling ive experienced in a video game. from what i heard Sony was a bit responsible for the drama around this game's launch which is a shame, but still good that the Dev made a comeback.

i know people were disappointed in lack of multiplayer back then, but does this game have anything to offer for a mainly offline single player experience?

I've played it only single-player... well since release. And IMO it's a single player game at heart. It's kind of nice when you stumble across stuff which other people "discovered", and uploading your own discoveries, but that's about the only online interaction I need. Could be cool to find another player's base, but so far I haven't...

The game is about exploring/gathering/crafting, either pretty relaxed (Normal mode) or more more stressful (Survival mode), if that's something for you, you might like it. It's pretty endless with its some billion star systems to explore, there's a few stories to follow if you feel like it, but otherwise it's pretty open-ended.

I've been content with the game even in its release state because I didn't follow the hype and just wanted a beautiful looking procedural space game where you can land on and explore planets (I spent countless hours just looking for beautiful planets back in the day in Frontier - Elite 2) and I got what I came for. In a way all the upgrades are almost too much for me... building/expanding a base, missions, fleet management, myriads of crafting options. But nothing keeps me from flying to the next uncharted system and scanning some rocks and plants and hunt for beautiful or bizarre vistas, so...

I'm far too cheap to buy a game the year it's released. I wait until they're steeply discounted before purchasing... so I can give you my game of the year for 2016.

It's the only way I play it. :)

Well I'm breaking your rule of "One Year, One Game"

but most of my time this year was spent in Kingdom Come (slow burn, bit tough at first but really got into the world and lengthy quests - plus it's super fun to move from being a rag covered dirt farmer, to a hired gun pieceing together some chain and maybe a nice chestpiece and ending up as a knight laden down with nasty armor; time for a fight? get the plate and heavy stuff out of your stablebags 'cause it's playtime ;) )

and also Phantom Doctrine. I'd been waiting for this one for a good long while and it certainly didn't disappoint. The campaign did drag a bit long (which is a good thing if you like a nice long game, but I felt it was ready to wrap earlier) which is sort of a shame because the game should be played as all factions. I liked upgrading my little guys and especially in the early going it was fun trying to work the stealth systems.

Did ELEX come out this year? I just started playing it a week back or so and am enjoying it a lot - would probably have been somewhere up here if I had played it earlier.

Game of the Year I haven't even played yet probably goes to Deep Sky Derelicts - I KNOW I'm going to love this one just based on the screenshots - and the reviews are glowing. Own it, been saving it for a "rainy day" - and I can't wait!

Pretty hard to pinpoint.

I played through Final Fantasy VI for the first time this year and the game was pretty good, on par with VII and IX. It easily beats the predecessors in all the categories (world, atmosphere, music (the overworld theme is amazing), characters (although there are two pretty shitty ones (Locke and Celes)). I do think, however, that Kefka is overrated. He just got lucky while the Emperor did all the work.

Civilization III is a title I spent a lot of time with. Played 178 hours and enjoyed all of it. It's one of those games I can always come back to. Additionally, it's also the last title in the series I could really enjoy. What helps, nowadays PCs are good enough, so that you don't have to wait forever for the opponents' turns.