Having now read through all the awards, two things bother me. First of all, are there no awards for Platformers any more? It’s a shame that Mario Maker 2 only was nominated for Best Family Game. It really should have won a genre award.

I think I liked Sekiro more than Bloodborne, but I think that’s just my taste. It’s hard to say which is better, but they are both better than every other 3rd-person action game this generation, outside of possibly God of War.

I know I actually nothing to do with the creation of the game, and realistically I have no vested interest whatsoever, but FUCK YEAH SEKIRO FTW BEST GAME OF THE YEAR GO FROMSOFT!!!!!

Fascinating and surprisingly heavy stuff, Joshua. But way to pull no punches when describing the toxicity of gamers! I know you said you considered the toxic reception you might receive when writing this, but I thought you were very clear and forceful in calling out the terrible behavior of some in our community.

There were three endings.

Bioshock 2 is the only game on this list I played, and I had a totally different impression of that game than you did. It struck me as much too similar to, and less interesting than, the first game. Playing as the Big Daddy got old pretty fast, and the story seemed like a simple inversion of the first game’s story,…

As someone who felt Hollow Knight was satisfyingly difficult, and did not feel the end of the game was grindy, I would not put Axiom Verge above HK, fwiw. I would say it’s a pretty easy fourth on that list if you could only choose one game per franchise, but Hollow Knight is in the tier with SotN and Super Metroid,…

I can’t speak to Kingdom Hearts, but if you’re getting a PS4, I highly recommend the Spider-Man game. It’s a PS4 exclusive, and it’s amazingly fun and family-friendly. The web-swinging controls are very intuitive and addicting. Also, you can’t go wrong with Ratchet & Clank for an amazingly fun and family-friendly…

True.  All I really want is NieR on Switch anyway.  I don’t need to play Astral Chain on a different console.

You’re forgetting that the list is framed as a list of games for people who just bought a new Switch to consider.  Just read the beginning of the post.  The list would be a lot less useful for that purpose if the multiplatform games were separated out to another list.

I vote for Astral Chain on PS4 and NieR: Automata on Switch.

Gah I wish Fosse/Verdon were higher, but the only other shows I’ve seen on the list at all are Stranger Things, Documentary Now!, The Good Place, and Russian Doll, and I agree with the order in which all those shows appear here. I might put it above Stranger Things, because it was a new venture, and had a unique style…

Totally agree on the 12/19 update. I now own eleven of these twelve games, and have actually played all the way through whatever single player campaign they all have!

This is an excellent wishlist.  I agree with all of these points completely.  I bet there’s a decent chance that the first four all happen.

I thought that was a great design choice at the time. I loved not having to pause gameplay to read a block of text or watch a cutscene for storytelling. By now it’s a bit of a cliché, and too video gamey for a modern immersive experience, which is why I bet they’ll figure out another storytelling device.

Irrational shutting down always seemed like a result of mismanagement by EA-slash-EA not being terribly interested in AAA single-player games at that time. It wasn’t really about the quality of their work, as most of the other studio closings referenced in this article were, right?

According to the Yacht Club Games twitter account, the Shovel Knight content is all coming to Wii U as well. Obviously not available to purchase, but it will be available to those who own the game on that platform.

I have been gaming since the late 80s, and have owned (or lived in a household that owned) every home console from the current three hardware makers. The Switch is probably my favorite console ever, narrowly edging out the SNES, because of the library and the portability. And it would be even nice to own a new one…

I have been gaming since the late 80s, and have owned (or lived in a household that owned) every home console from…

Except the AAA first-part games are not the only great games on Switch. There are plenty of fantastic smaller/indie games, many of which don’t have physical releases, that are best played on Switch because of the portability.

Except the AAA first-part games are not the only great games on Switch. There are plenty of fantastic smaller/indie…

I am going to play so much effing Dragon Quest XI S this weekend, I’m so excited. I had been playing a little every day for a couple weeks, but I suddenly had a 55-hour work week this week, so I haven’t played it since Sunday. Also more Sega Genesis Classics, including Landstalker, Ristar, Gunstar Heroes, and…