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Ars Technica’s best games of 2020

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arstechnica.com

Ars Technica’s best games of 2020

These 20 titles helped a quarantined 2020 pass by that much more quickly.
arstechnica.com arstechnica.com
When the world at large looks back at 2020, how much will video games figure into our memories? Frankly, humanity has a pretty massive bullet list of crazy, important, and scary moments that will likely outweigh the importance of, say, knocking out your dailies in an MMO.

But at Ars, we know that you've still been keenly interested in gaming articles this year—whether because you had questions about sold-out consoles and graphics cards, because you happened to be home near your gaming machines more often, or because your social life began revolving less around the local pub and more around a Discord channel. In an increasingly stressed out and homebound year, video games provided equal parts refuge and escape.

Thankfully, development studios quickly figured out the work-from-home thing well enough to finish and launch some incredible video games. (Well, some more than others.) Hence, we've again polled the Ars gaming braintrust to rank the games that provided the most comfort in a year where comfort was in seriously short supply.
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20. Astro's Playroom
19. The Last of Us Part II
18. The Longing
17. Streets of Rage 4
16. Spelunky 2
15. Cyberpunk 2077
14. Final Fantasy VII Remake
13. Demon's Souls
12. Ori and the Will of the Wisps
11. Carrion
10. Microsoft Flight Simulator
9. Spider-Man: Miles Morales
8. Yakuza: Like a Dragon
7. Valorant
6. Doom Eternal
5. Ghost of Tsushima
4. Animal Crossing: New Horizons
3. Fall Guys
2. Half-Life Alyx
1. Hades
 
Thiago

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RowdyReverb said:
Is there a compilation of every outlet's GOTY lists? Curious to see where some of the middling games are averaging
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www.resetera.com

2020 Media Awards Season - Tracking and Discussion Thread

Previous years: 2019 • 2018 It's that wonderful time of the year again. Unfortunately it's 2020 and it has been...a year so far. Thankfully it has been an exceptional year for gaming. We are starting a new decade alongside next gen hardware and we're already being blessed with generation...
www.resetera.com www.resetera.com
 
Damn Silly

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The Longing is one I don't think I've seen so far, sounds intriguing.

Good mix of stuff in the rest of list, too.
 
CloseTalker

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Pretty interesting list. That's an exceptionally high ranking for Fall Guys, the game didn't come even close to connecting with me at that level, but to each their own.

On a personal note, any list that puts Ori over Astro is strong in my book
 
dancingphlower

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Another win for Hades, seems to be the critical darling this year. Also Ghost and Yakuza in the top ten is *chef's kiss*
 
SwampBastard

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Is there a way to try Hades with an option to refund it if I don't like it? I looked at a YouTube video of the gameplay and found the art style and voice acting to be really off-putting. I'd like to try it to see if I enjoy the gameplay enough to make it worth dealing with those aspects.
 
Dr. Mario

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Makes you wonder how The Last of Us actually won the TGA.

Edit: this has become quite a bit of a thread derail, which wasn't my intention. I don't particularly care if The Last of Us wins the GOTY tally, it was more an observation borne out of the assumption that TGA was a jury of mostly large American outlets, which subsequently predominantly voted otherwise (e.g. IGN, GameSpot, Ars Technica etc). I thought that it maybe was a more consistent number 2 or something, or that some might have decided otherwise at print, not that there was some conspiracy. It has since been brought to my attention that the TGA greatly expanded its jury to include a lot of international outlets that voted TLoU or haven't yet made their choice known. That should answer the question, no need to pile on further.
 
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RowdyReverb

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JamFlan said:
Something like this?

GAME OF THE YEAR PICKS BLOG

The Definitive Game of the Year
gotypicks.blogspot.com gotypicks.blogspot.com
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Thiago said:
www.resetera.com

2020 Media Awards Season - Tracking and Discussion Thread

Previous years: 2019 • 2018 It's that wonderful time of the year again. Unfortunately it's 2020 and it has been...a year so far. Thankfully it has been an exceptional year for gaming. We are starting a new decade alongside next gen hardware and we're already being blessed with generation...
www.resetera.com www.resetera.com
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Exactly! Thanks
 
OP
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Dr. Mario said:
Makes you wonder how The Last of Us actually won the TGA.
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the TGA win is decided by a huge jury, and the user vote is factored in also (altho not by much). while hades seems to be winning most of the US-based goty awards, there's a lot of asian/european publications that have given their award to lou2.
thegameawards.com

Voting Jury | The Game Awards

Celebrate the best in video games and see what's next - Live from the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles.
thegameawards.com thegameawards.com
 
misho8723

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People have problems with CP2077 being on this lists? Why? Isn't it almost certainly the PC version?

You wouldn't like to see the awards lists from Central and Eastern Europe countries then, where most people play on PCs and game has great ratings there from players and reviewers
 
Dr. Mario

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mazi said:
the TGA win is decided by a huge jury, and the user vote is factored in also (altho not by much). while hades seems to be winning most of the US-based goty awards, there's a lot of asian/european publications that have given their award to lou2.
thegameawards.com

Voting Jury | The Game Awards

Celebrate the best in video games and see what's next - Live from the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles.
thegameawards.com thegameawards.com
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Yeah but it's mostly the bigger well-known outlets, which now seem to be voting for different games. The gotypicks website has TLoU conversely win all the smaller outlets. However I didn't know the jury was so international, that probably partly explains it.
 
Stat

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Look I think there is semblance of a good game underneath CP2077 -- but even without the numerous bugs/crashes, it doesn't deserve to be there (Certainly not above TLOUII)
 
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Dr. Mario said:
Yeah but it's mostly the bigger well-known outlets, which now seem to be voting for different games. The gotypicks website has TLoU conversely win all the smaller outlets. However I didn't know the jury was so international, that probably partly explains it.
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i think that's normal that those publications would be considered the bigger-known ones around here, since they're in english (so US/UK centric), just like era. there's a lot of non-english gaming sites/publications that aren't well-known in majority english-speaking communities.
 
misho8723

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Niks said:
Is this list 2020 PC game of the year?
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And what makes the difference? Many games than were winning awards or getting on this kinda lists had terrible PC ports, that still didn't stopped them to appearing on them
I mean, Ubisoft games have terrible perfomances on PCs - way worse than CP2077 for example - and bugs, Valhalla is still winning awards despite of those facts
 
laikalot

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snacknuts said:
Is there a way to try Hades with an option to refund it if I don't like it? I looked at a YouTube video of the gameplay and found the art style and voice acting to be really off-putting. I'd like to try it to see if I enjoy the gameplay enough to make it worth dealing with those aspects.
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You can do that on Steam, just stay under two hours of playtime and within 14 days of purchase.

Also, to each their own, but to specfically cite two of the game's most praised aspects as the reasons you're not sure about it intriguing to me.
 
Deepwater

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Cyberpunk could be completely bug free and I still dont think the merits of the game deserve any GOTY nods.
 
Dr. Mario

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mazi said:
i think that's normal that those publications would be considered the bigger-known ones around here, since they're in english (so US/UK centric), just like era. there's a lot of non-english gaming sites/publications that aren't well-known in majority english-speaking communities.
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Yeah like I said I thought the TGA was much more US centric. Used to be the case at least. Good on them to widen the jury though.
 
Budi

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Super happy to see Hades continue picking up awards.
TheWorthyEdge said:
Man. How can anyone put Cyberpunk on a GOTY list?
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By liking the game I assume, I think that's how these things usually happen. I'm certain when TheWorthyEdge releases their GOTY list, it includes games they liked this year, rather than games others liked.
 
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J_ToSaveTheDay

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I'm just glad to consistently see Streets of Rage 4 getting a shoutout on lists. It's not on every single one and it's not always ranking high, I'm just glad it's getting acknowledged. Makes me really hopeful that Sega will cooperate with more devs in kinda doing retro-revival titles like it and Sonic Mania, having been weened onto gaming via Sega Genesis myself. Love it.
 

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Cyberpunk is a genuinely good game if experienced on the XSX or a PC. There is definitely something to be said about the state of the game on last gen but people seem to be confusing that and the actual quality of the content.
 
samred

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CobaltBlu said:
If you play Cyberpunk 2077 on a pc you're playing a pretty good game.
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Yep, and the blurb in our list says as much:

Yes, the version of the game that launched on last-generation consoles is, by all accounts, a bug-filled mess. Even the PC version we played for our review, with considerably more apparent polish, has its share of reality-bending glitches that take you out of the moment. And the game's combat, layered with the promise of endless invention through hacking and weaponry choices, can quickly descend into button-mashing drudgery if you stumble across a powerful enough sword to cut through often braindead antagonists. But none of those problems (some of which will no doubt be fixed with coming patches) can fully diminish the sheer achievement that is Cyberpunk 2077's Night City.
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