It’s that time of year again when we start talking Respawning’s official Game Of The Year! Here’s a quick rundown of how it works this year..
Each content creator here at Respawning will list their Top 10 games of the year across all platforms. Each place gets awarded an amount of points depending on where they come. So for example the 10th place game gets 1 point, 9th place gets 2 points all the way up to 1st place which gets awarded 10 points, you get the idea!
Then come the end of the week we’ll add up all the scores to confirm Respawning’s official overall Top 10 and our Game Of The Year in a special video over on our YouTube channel! Next up, it’s Luke!
WOOOOO! Video games! Whilst the entire year has been an absolute shitstorm of depression, death and dissonance there has been a little bit of joy to be had from it all and that’s VIDEO GAMES! 2020 has been one of the best years in recent memory when it comes to gaming so I am here on Respawning’s GOTY week to list all my favourite games of 2020!
This is the big surprise of 2020 for me! I don’t like football and I haven’t played a football game since World Cup 98 back in… Well… 1998. It’s an absolute shocker to me then that Fifa 21 has been one of my favourite games of the whole year.
I don’t OVERLY think the game is much special but it firmly takes its place in this list simply due to the experiences it has allowed me in 2020. Despite having a wife and child, I have spent much of 2020 feeling quite lonely and isolated from my friends and family, it has been the introduction of Fifa 21 into my life then that has allowed me to once again reconnect with some of the friends and have a few lads nights online in 2020 that’s helped me keep sane.
The Last of Us Part 2, in my honest opinion, deserves it’s place on this list but it does not by any means deserve a place at the top.
The Last of us Part 2 is one of the best video game stories that I have ever played but this is hampered by fairly boring combat and an empty apocalyptic world that I felt like I have played a few too many times at this stage.
I do think everything they have done on a narrative scope and as a storytelling medium it is the best thing on this list but when I finished with it I didn’t find myself wanting to get back into it as the combat was soso… Speaking of combat though….
Doom Eternal gets onto this list by being the one thing that The Last of Us Part 2 tries very hard not to be: Fun.
Nothing has fit better in 2020 than rampaging across the planet and tearing demons and people who wear their masks under their nose in twain with a huge array of weaponry that is unrivalled on this list.
There isn’t a great deal to say about Doom Eternal other than it’s one of the most fun experiences I have had with my PS4.
Resident Evil 3 doesn’t boast the same praise from me as the pevious years Resident Evil 2 but it still happily sits on this list as my 7th favourite game I have played this year.
I am a proper sucker for the old style Resident Evil games and the return of Nemesis instilled the same fear in me at 29 as it did when I was 9 and I had such a blast with it.
There was a free multiplayer game in there apparently but after spending a few hours with it, I don’t remember it.
This one caught me off guard! I didn’t expect to love Squadrons as much as I do and I keep playing it nigh on every night since I got into it.
I don’t really like flight sim games so Squadrons sitting so high on this list is as surprising to me as it is to you. It embodies the entire essence of what I want from a Star Wars dogfighting game and improves on everything that has come before it.
Squadrons is quite possibly my favourite Star Wars game ever made.
I was a naysayer of the FF7 remake and I didn’t like the episodic formula (I still don’t so I dropped it one place), nor did I like the story changes they were planning… on paper.
But when it came to the execution and how FF7 isn’t really a remake, it’s more an alternate timeline spinoff game in 2020 – this allowed me to fall in love with the game and easily become the best JRPG I have played all year.
This was my number 1 pick for a while, the writing and character design is second to none and Hades epitomises everything I want from a 2D RogueLite. I had such a great time fanboying over Hades throughout my ongoing playthroughs of the game.
I only recently completed this game but it is still my most played Switch game of 2020 by a country mile.
Nioh 2 took the original title and allowed you to become a YoKai whilst still keeping the balls to the wall combat and hard as nails difficulty.
The story took a bit of a hit by being a nameless protagonist but ultimately the sheer sense of achievement I got from the game upon completion has been unrivalled this year… until…
Oh Jesus christ. Nioh 2 would have easily been number 2 on this list had BluePoint not done such a perfect job with the Demons Souls remake that they did.
Everything I remember loving is still there with Demons Souls easily being the prettiest looking game of 2020 that I have played. The sheer achievement I feel from overcoming the games various bosses is unmatched and cements Demons Souls as my favourite game of 2020… or it would have been if not for my one obsession:
Oh Spidey. Whether you are Peter Parker, Miles Morales or Ben Reilly I will love you. Just allowing me to swing around the city is enough to put you as my favourite game of 2020. Couple this with your narrative that is second to none and vastly improved combat: Miles Morales is one of the best games I have played in the past 10 years and I love it so much.
Within the first week I had beaten Miles Morales 3 times and I am currently in the middle of a 4th playthrough because Insomniac, the mad bastards, have added a 60fps mode that still has ray tracing.
Oh boy is it pretty.
So there we have it, my favourite games of 2020! Valhalla was in this list at some point but I have started to grow tired of it and after spending about 20 hours of my 80 hour playthrough plagued with bugs it’s just left a bit of a bad taste in my mouth.
What are your favourite games of 2020? Let me know in the comments below!