26 Years, 26 Games

[Moonface]

I think if it wasn't for the domination of the scandals going on with ActiBlizz, OW2 might have garnered more excitement or interest from people. If nothing else it's a sequel to a game that was incredibly successful and could've continued to thrive without a sequel, and the sequel practically murdered all of that through multiple questionable design choices.

[Moonface]

@Maniakkid25: I had a couple of questions for you about this that I figured I'd put here rather than your Ask Me thread:

• In any given year have you seen a game that you immediately thought "This is it, this is the one that will make the list for this year, no contest" only to have another game come out later in the year that unexpectedly topped the game you thought was guaranteed to be the pick?
  
• I doubt this will apply to any game in your list already, but in the event it does were any of the picks a game you expected to actually turn out well initially? Or are they all cases of knowing there's going to be a problem or disappointment to some degree, and just waiting to see how bad it could be?
  

[Maniakkid25]

@Maniakkid25: I had a couple of questions for you about this that I figured I'd put here rather than your Ask Me thread:

• In any given year have you seen a game that you immediately thought "This is it, this is the one that will make the list for this year, no contest" only to have another game come out later in the year that unexpectedly topped the game you thought was guaranteed to be the pick?
  
• I doubt this will apply to any game in your list already, but in the event it does were any of the picks a game you expected to actually turn out well initially? Or are they all cases of knowing there's going to be a problem or disappointment to some degree, and just waiting to see how bad it could be?
  

First question: not that I can think of, but that could have happened with Anthem. I left my prospects open for that year because that one came out in March, but as the year closed in, there really wasn't anything that could steal that crown. I'm willing to bet, however, that 2018 was a year like that, because Fallout 76 came out so late in the year (November, IIRC), and cratered so thoroughly on release that it stole that year outright.

Second question: Even on this list, yes. Bioshock is the obvious answer here. I still remember how hype that game was, but I wasn't as jaded by hype as I was back then, so I thought nothing but good things about it. And don't get me wrong: Bioshock is a GREAT game! But it had the expectation of living up to System Shock 2, which was a GENRE-DEFINING game in '99! It was never going to live up to that mantle. Honestly, it's probably THE game that made me say "I don't care sequel this or spiritual successor that; I' going to judge a game on it's OWN merits!"

[Henrywrites]

The wait is over, and the dishonorable winner of 2022 is...

Overwatch 2!

Give a round of applause for Activizzard, people. We all know they earned it.

I agree that a lot has to be done for the upgrades, but the game was not entirely bad at all or are we talking about a different game?

[Maniakkid25]

This is not NECESSARILY about bad games. Like I keep saying, Bioshock and Fable are good games, and games like FFXIV got better after it initially dropped. I went with Overwatch 2 for the same reason I went with Balan Wonderworld instead of Dark Alliance for 2021: the press. I do try to keep myself somewhat consistent in my lists (which is why I don't like talking about "good" and "bad" games; that's too wild a barometer), but I will be the first to admit that it was a coin flip. It was this or Pokemon SV. Take your pick; both of them deserve to be on this list.