It would be completely insincere of us to produce a normal GOTY article, especially since none of us have played all the big titles this year, so we will give you our most played game. Good games get played and then get put away, but great games are those that force you to keep coming back. Thus, our most played titles will be championed as our games of the year.
Joey – Overwatch (Obviously) – 124 hours
It should come as no surprise, especially if you listen to our podcast (Dual Pixels Radio), that my 124 hours with Overwatch easily trounces any other title I’ve played this year. I honestly don’t believe that I have even played another title for a quarter of the amount of time in which I spent playing Overwatch.
Overwatch is an interesting game for the fact that it is my first real experience with a more competitive multiplayer title outside of CoD and BF, and to be fair, I wouldn’t say I was even decent at those. Overwatch has this way of pulling you in and actively encouraging you to try out new heroes. I spent little time in the beta and thought that I would be one of “those people†that mained a character. Of course, that lasted a mere couple matches as the flow of each and every match dictated my choice and forced my hand in choosing new characters. Now, I will generally choose a character in quick play that I said I would never be good at and, to my surprise, get pretty decent with them. That’s why I keep coming back.
Blizzard has, thus far, done a great job of providing high quality maps and supplementing those with new characters that are released in a steady drip. The special events are also a welcome addition to the newish arcade modes as well and provide the carrot to chase after in the form of event-exclusive skins, emotes and sprays. While there is the argument that is oft made about the predatory practices of loot boxes, I feel it is a tad misguided, especially since you earn them at a decent clip (especially early on). They implemented loot boxes after three wins (up to three times, resetting after five days) in arcade mode to further quell that notion. Overwatch may not be the perfect game for everyone. But, it has me coming back day after day, and I don’t see that changing in the foreseeable future.
Jose – Â Street Fighter V – too many hours to count
My GOTY is definitely going to have to be Street Fighter V. While getting criticized a lot from myself included, the game play in SFV just makes you want to come back for more. With the simplicity and depth enough for all players to enjoy, it really makes all the issues the game had at launch non-existent. With Capcom slowly adding in new features every month, it sets itself apart as the ever evolving fighting game. One of the better things added are the daily challenges as they are nice side missions to gain some fight money faster. While the challenges are simple for now, I could only expect things to ramp up.  As the ever evolving fighting game maybe it can become my GOTY this year again.
Another title that has to be mentioned is Pokemon Sun/Moon, which kept me entertained for hours coming from Pokemon X as that was my first foray back into the Pokemon Franchise. Pokemon Sun/Moon made me feel nostalgic, while still providing a new game experience.
Rob – Dark Souls III – 46 Hours
From the beginning, I never expected to like the Dark Souls games. I wasn’t into “hard games for the sake of it,” I said attempting to strengthen my baseless stance. It wasn’t until I saw a YouTuber play Bloodborne that I decided to give it a shot. Well, that and a sale. Needless to say, I was addicted. Seeing that the battle speed seemed on par with Bloodborne, I figured I’d jump in. Let me say, there are very few games that grab me the way Dark Souls III did. I would find myself staying up after work playing for four-to-five hours telling myself, “Just one more area.” I was figuratively lost in the game.
What IÂ expected from Dark Souls III was a game that had “cheap” deaths and an overly obtuse inventory system; what I got was a game filled that was utterly engaging. Â Sure finding out what certain weapons did and how to get certain things was hard to know, but looking it up online and asking various online communities really added to the experience. The game was no longer just a “me” affair; it was a water cooler type of game. It was the type of game where you excitedly tell people how you narrowly avoided death, how you took down that hard boss, or even how an enemy surprised you around a corner that made you fall to your doom.
I’m really happy I made the plunge to become an Ashen one. While this game isn’t what I would consider my true GOTY (that honor goes to DOOM), it is easily the game I played the most last year. Its converted me to a Souls fan for sure, and any game from Miyazaki and From Software is something I want to be a part of from the beginning. The only downside is it’s going to be harder to go back and play through Dark Souls 1 and 2 since DS3 looks and performs wonderfully on my computer. I guess I’m a little bit spoiled.
