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ResetEra Games of the Year Awards 2020

fanboy

fanboy

Banned
Oct 27, 2017
4,452
Slovakia
13 sentinels WASNT robbed Dest

Also ffs yakuza 7 losing the first place by one point, best yakuza game ever!

And ofc, the best game pf the generation won the goty award so no surprise there :)

Shame we didnt have best indie game category i missed a few titles like Ikenfell. Happy that Pathless made at least some list but I am sad I dont see Desperados 3 anywhere.
 
~Millet~

~Millet~

Member
Jan 21, 2019
1,082
B-Dubs said:
So, when I was putting these posts together, I found the platform top 10 breakdowns really interesting. Since people were able to pick each game on the platform they played it on, you can see a breakdown of where people played certain games. Ori, for example, got played mostly on PC. After that it was Xbox One, then Switch.

Basically, we have a better idea of what platform people used for multiplatform games now.
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Nice observation.
 
fanboy

fanboy

Banned
Oct 27, 2017
4,452
Slovakia
Jeremy said:
Really a wild number of Sony exclusives in the top 10. I guess that shows where the forum is at in terms of console of choice.

Not saying it should have been a different outcome, or anything... just noting.
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You didnt see Bafta's nominations did ya?

Maybe all the award judges are just random Era members then.
 
Ryo Hazuki

Ryo Hazuki

Member
Oct 25, 2017
5,540
A Monster's Expedition deserved more love. Truly genius puzzle game that everyone should play. Loved it.
 
King Dodongo

King Dodongo

Member
Oct 27, 2017
7,180
Dr. Mario said:
I noticed the paltry amount of votes, but what are the roadblocks you are talking about? You always needed to write some comments to be counted and surely the new system took away a lot of ineligible votes due to wrong formatting that we used to have before. I wrote it down to half of Era's most active Gaming users already being permabanned three years in, and the GOTY voting to be later in the year when fewer people are still adamant about shaping the narrative.
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Afaik you only needed to comment on one game only, the rest were optional
Needed to add genre and publishers
Year was anemic in releases (happy about 13 sentinels at least)
Voting came way later than usual

Many users gave way better and many more reasons than mine in that locked thread.
IMO at least, a poll shoud've been better, but thats my take.
 
Fitts

Fitts

You know what that means
Member
Oct 25, 2017
21,468
Oh I forgot to vote. But Astro did well! Easily my top game and not just because it was a weak year — it's pure joy!

I'll definitely be playing Yakuza Like a Dragon at some point.
 
Servbot24

Servbot24

Banned
Oct 25, 2017
43,539
I think Hades and Ghost of Tsushima are overrated while Ori is underrated. I also think there are many games more deserving of the #20 spot over Xenoblade. Otherwise quite a good list IMO. The right game won.
 
PKrockin

PKrockin

Member
Oct 25, 2017
5,260
SirNinja said:
It's crazy to see Factorio — one of the top 10 highest-ever-rated games on Steam, ridiculously well optimized, and an amazingly addictive RTS/builder — almost completely ignored outside of Best Simulation. Guess most people here played it during its long stint in Early Access or something? Still, it officially released in 2020, and its near-omission here is jarring, to say the least. (For those who haven't played it: there's a free demo on Steam and on the official site. Just be prepared to go down one hell of a rabbit hole once you get hooked...)

Good list otherwise, though. Congrats to all the winners!
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Not really crazy. There are certain genres and platforms this forum mostly ignores for whatever reason. Phasmophobia was also a monumental sales success on Steam I and some of my friends had a lot of fun with but it got essentially no discussion here. I don't know if it's a tendency to focus on big releases with lots of marketing or lots of brand recognition or what, but certain massive fanbases and communities have zero presence here.
 
Damn Silly

Damn Silly

Member
Oct 25, 2017
7,266
well I feel slightly better for not voting because the few votes I woulda put in wouldn't have changed diddly shit lol
 
TylerDurden4321

TylerDurden4321

Member
Oct 25, 2017
1,957
Germany
It's a really good list. Only thing I dislike is that new version of person won over Yakuza Like a Dragon... and that we don't know where Half Life Alyx would have ended up had more of the people who voted had a platform to play it on.
 
Nocturnowl

Nocturnowl

Member
Oct 25, 2017
26,350
I didn't think I'd have something to actually gripe over because gripin' on these lists is a kinda pointless endeavour...
But man, something about a mostly straight Demon's Souls remake being that high over new experiences is... a bit lame
Then again, it's always been my least enjoyed of the Soulsborne lineage so maybe that's just my slight bias or I'm overlooking how good the improvements are.
Even Xenoblade's polish up hits number 20 on a similar note.

For fun, look at the point disparity in some of the genre awards, certain games just really eat up the lions share of these ranks, I wonder how much high polling vs number of list appearances actually factors into that breakdown.
 
CTRON

CTRON

Member
Jul 16, 2020
648
Happy to see TLOU Part II and FFVII Remake take the top two respective spots. Well deserved! Also glad to see 13 Sentinels and Demon's Souls rank high. Would've liked the list more if Xenoblade Chronicles: DE, Persona 5 Royal, and Half-Life: Alyx had also got a spot in the top 10.
 
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MXG

MXG

Member
Oct 29, 2018
335
This is weird result and list for me. I've been following since 2009ish (gaf) and since then this is the first time I can not resonate with the list. I've almost always found my favorite games in Era (or ex gaf) list easily. But this time, it's totally off the line with me. Hell, the only game I enjoyed was at number 7. Doom eternal and Half life so far below the list? Cyberpunk that I understand with it's fair share of controversy.

Did the audience changed? Or people not voted? Or am I getting older?
 
ClickyCal'

ClickyCal'

Member
Oct 25, 2017
60,509
Nocturnowl said:
I didn't think I'd have something to actually gripe over because gripin' on these lists is a kinda pointless endeavour...
But man, something about a mostly straight Demon's Souls remake being that high over new experiences is... a bit lame
Then again, it's always been my least enjoyed of the Soulsborne lineage so maybe that's just my slight bias or I'm overlooking how good the improvements are.
Even Xenoblade's polish up hits number 20 on a similar note.

For fun, look at the point disparity in some of the genre awards, certain games just really eat up the lions share of these ranks, I wonder how much high polling vs number of list appearances actually factors into that breakdown.
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DS remake is also a brand new game to a lot of people, so you have to factor that in.
 
Bosh

Bosh

Member
Oct 26, 2017
2,229
B-Dubs said:
Information
This year, for the purposes of Genre awards, we have included any Genre with enough entries to provide a Top 10.


Genre Awards
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Best Adventure Games
  1. 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim - 374 points
  2. Spiritfarer - 71 points
  3. Paradise Killer - 58 points
  4. Bugsnax - 56 points
  5. A Short Hike - 29 points
  6. Tell Me Why - 25 points
  7. If Found... - 15 points
  8. Lair of the Clockwork God - 14 points
  9. Journey to the Savage Planet - 12 points
  10. Outer Wilds - 10 points

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Best Action-Adventure Games
  1. The Last of Us Part II - 1062 points
  2. Ghost of Tsushima - 616 points
  3. Spider-Man: Miles Morales - 360 points
  4. Immortals Fenyx Rising - 45 points
  5. The Pathless - 20 points
  6. The Wonderful 101: Remastered - 14 points
  7. Mafia: Definitive Edition - 14 points
  8. Marvel's Avengers - 12 points
  9. Spider-Man: Remastered - 11 points
  10. Yakuza 0 - 10 points

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Best Action RPG
  1. Final Fantasy VII Remake - 720 points
  2. Demon's Souls - 370 points
  3. Cyberpunk 2077 - 186 points
  4. Xenoblade Chronicles: Definitive Edition - 114 points
  5. Nioh 2 - 105 points
  6. Genshin Impact - 96 points
  7. Assassin's Creed Valhalla - 79 points
  8. CrossCode - 42 points
  9. Trials of Mana - 31 points

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Best Action Game
  1. Death Stranding - 21 points
  2. Sakuna: Of Rice and Ruin - 20 points
  3. Ghostrunner - 12 points
  4. Devil May Cry 5: Special Edition - 10 points
  5. Ninjala - 1 point
  6. Predator: Hunting Ground - 1 point
  7. Samurai Jack: Battle Through Time - 1 point
  8. John Wick Hex - 1 point
  9. Frog Factions - 1 point

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Best RPG
  1. Persona 5 Royal - 255 points
  2. Yakuza: Like a Dragon - 254 points
  3. Paper Mario: The Origami King - 101 points
  4. Wasteland 3 - 52 points
  5. The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel IV - 33 points
  6. Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE Encore - 27 points
  7. Moon: Remix RPG Adventure - 27 points
  8. Omori - 26 points
  9. Persona 4 Golden - 21 points
  10. Dragon Quest XI S: Definitive Edition

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Best Platformer
  1. Astro's Playroom - 358 points
  2. Spelunky 12 - 57 points
  3. Sackboy: A Big Adventure - 56 points
  4. Crash Bandicoot 4: It's About Time - 48 points
  5. Super Mario 3D All-Stars - 41 points
  6. Huntdown - 18 points
  7. Noita - 9 points
  8. Super Mario Bros. 35 - 9 points
  9. Bloodstained: Curse of Moon 2 - 6 points
  10. Shante and the Seven Seas - 3 points

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Best Sports Game
  1. Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 1 + 2 - 115 points
  2. Super Mega Baseball 3 - 9 points
  3. MLB The Show 20 - 6 points
  4. Captain Tsubasa: Rise of New Champions - 5 points
  5. FIFA 21 - 5 points
  6. Blaseball - 5 points
  7. Golf with your Friends - 3 points
  8. NBA 2K21 - 3 points
  9. eFootball PES 2021 Update - 3 points
  10. PGA Tour 2K21 - 3 points

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Best Shooter
  1. Doom Eternal - 281 Points
  2. Half-Life: Alyx - 192 Points
  3. Call of Duty: Warzone - 48 Points
  4. Black Mesa - 30 Points
  5. Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War - 24 Points
  6. Deep Rock Galactic - 16 Points
  7. Destiny 2: Beyond Light - 9 Points
  8. Superhot: Mind Control Delete - 7
  9. HORIZON VANGUARD - 7 Points
  10. Valorant - 7 Points

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Best Simulation Game
  1. Animal Crossing: New Horizons - 449 Points
  2. Factorio - 37 Points
  3. Umurangi Generation - 25 Points
  4. Story of Seasons: Friends of Mineral Town - 15 Points
  5. SnowRunner - 12 Points
  6. Cook, Serve, Delicious! 3 - 8 Points
  7. Two Point Hospital - 6 Points
  8. Suzerain - 4 Points
  9. Moving Out - 4 Points
  10. Littlewood - 3 Points

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Best Puzzle Game
  1. Tetris Effect: Connected - 13 Points
  2. Part Time UFO - 9 Points
  3. Grindstone - 9 Points
  4. A Monster's Expedition - 6 Points
  5. Disc Room - 5 Points
  6. Carto - 4 Points
  7. Manifold Garden - 4 Points
  8. Puyo Puyo Tetris 2 - 4 Points
  9. The Room VR: A Dark Matter - 3 Points
  10. Panel de Pon - 3 Points

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Best Racing Game
  1. F1 2020 - 16 Points
  2. WRC 9 - 14 Points
  3. art of rally - 9 Points
  4. Forza Horizon 4 - 8 Points
  5. Dirt 5 - 7 Points
  6. Trackmania - 5 Points
  7. Mario Kart Live: Home Circuit - 4 Points
  8. Assetto Corsa Competizione - 4 Points
  9. iRacing - 4 Points
  10. TT Isle of Man: Ride on the Edge 2 - 3 Points

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Best Visual Novel
  1. Murder by Numbers - 34 Points
  2. Wide Ocean Big Jacket - 12 Points
  3. Coffee Talk - 7 Points
  4. Aokana: Four Rhythm Across the Blue - 4 Points
  5. Necrobarista - 4 Points
  6. Across the Grooves - 3 Points
  7. Summer Pockets - 3 Points
  8. Higurashi When They Cry Hou - Ch.8 Matsuribayashi - 2 Points
  9. A Summer's End - Hong Kong 1986 - 2 Points
  10. Robotics;Notes DaSH - 2 Points
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Is there a top 50 (don't necessarily need point totals). Reason I ask i I keep a sheet of top 50 since '04 of Gaf GOTY to track how many I have played.

Anyways thanks to you and your team for putting this together!
 
ScreamingMadden

ScreamingMadden

Member
May 5, 2018
7,353
Wow I got quoted for Hades. Nice to see Hades take the 3rd place spot. It's my 2nd favorite game of the year so I'll take it.

Meanwhile my GOTY Cook, Serve, Delicious 3 takes number 6 for best Sim. Welp, happy to see CSD3 somewhere on that list!
 

Deleted member 5086

User requested account closure
Banned
Oct 25, 2017
4,571
Yay, my quote got picked for Animal Crossing!

This is a damn fine list, good job community. And thank you to everyone who worked hard on making this vote happen.
 
Mechaplum

Mechaplum

Enlightened
Member
Oct 26, 2017
19,128
JP
Glad 13 sentinels made it. I wasn't able to vote for it as I'm still halfway through but definitely deserved.

Great list and thank you for all the work.

Edit: Kinda sad that Nioh 2 is so low though...absolute fun.
 
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score01

score01

Member
Oct 27, 2017
3,739
Great to see TLOU2 top the list. Well deserved. In general it shows how strong a year Sony had with 7 in the top 10. It's still mind blowing that they gave remake away on ps plus this month.
 
medyej

medyej

Member
Oct 26, 2017
6,607
Unsurprising results. Alyx won't get it's due on this site unless it's eventually ported to consoles. I imagine we'll see CP2077 pop up too once the true next-gen versions allow people to play it.
 
Transistor

Transistor

The Walnut King
Administrator
Oct 25, 2017
37,538
Washington, D.C.
grandmedjey said:
Unsurprising results. Alyx won't get it's due on this site unless it's eventually ported to consoles. I imagine we'll see CP2077 pop up too once the true next-gen versions allow people to play it.
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I don't think it's necessarily just consoles. It's just that VR is still a high cost barrier of entry for many people, doubly so on PC. That's just the way it is at the moment, unfortunately.
 
Clive

Clive

Member
Oct 25, 2017
5,162
It was a really awesome year for games. TLoU2, FF7R, Doom Eternal and Ori 2 are at the absolute top of their respective genres in my book. A fantastic final year for last gen.
 
CJCW?

CJCW?

Member
Oct 27, 2017
1,013
Honestly a bit of a weak year for me, and it's reflected in the list. My most anticipated games came up short, and a lot of the other acclaimed ones I just wasn't interested in. I'll never get how people liked TLOU2 so much, or Animal Crossing, or whatever, but at least most people seemed happy with last year's games. Also nice to be quoted for Ori, it really should be higher.
 

Deleted member 68874

Account closed at user request
Banned
May 10, 2020
10,441
This site failed Monster Train.

Pretty disappointing to see one of the only roleplaying game with the actual ability to role play finished 4th in voting.
 
NANA

NANA

Member
Oct 26, 2017
2,846
Damn Silly said:
well I feel slightly better for not voting because the few votes I woulda put in wouldn't have changed diddly shit lol
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Exactly why I didn't bother with voting. Only two out of this list are in my personal top 10, and they're ranked #18 and #10, lol.

It's not Era honestly, I've never felt so disconnected from what the mainstream find appealing in recent years, e.g. I've played and finished TLOU2, liked some of it, but thought it was nowhere near what the original TLOU was to me in 2013. Same thing with GOW3 and the newest GOW etc.

In the end everyone likes different things and that's ok!
 
OP
OP
B-Dubs

B-Dubs

That's some catch, that catch-22
General Manager
Oct 25, 2017
33,553
Transistor said:
I don't think it's necessarily just consoles. It's just that VR is still a high cost barrier of entry for many people, doubly so on PC. That's just the way it is at the moment, unfortunately.
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This is basically it. Alyx has a high cost of entry. From what I've heard it's easily the best game released this year, it just never had a shot at winning because no one played it.

Bosh said:
Is there a top 50 (don't necessarily need point totals). Reason I ask i I keep a sheet of top 50 since '04 of Gaf GOTY to track how many I have played.

Anyways thanks to you and your team for putting this together!
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So, we had to do a couple of different tallies in order to get the results. The top 20 is made by just counting votes by game, so if you voted for Ori for PC, Switch, or Xbox it got those points. Then we also had the category results, which required another vote but were a bit more complicated to put together due to people writing in games that were already in the system and giving them their own categories. So there's a handful of people that marked FFVIIR as an RPG and not an Action RPG or wrote it in with a "7" instead of a "VII" even though we told people not to do that since it makes our jobs harder.

What I'm trying to say is, I'll try and track down the spreadsheet for the game vote but we had to do a bit of tweaking here and there due to write-ins messing stuff up so expect that.
 
BrickArts295

BrickArts295

GOTY Tracking Thread Master
Member
Oct 26, 2017
14,110
Comparing my list
  1. The Last of Us Part II (#1) 🐐 I mean come on.
  2. Hades (#3) 😲Woah what happened here?
  3. Ghost of Tsushima (#4) 👍
  4. Final Fantasy VII Remake (#2) A surprise to be sure but a welcome one.
  5. Spider-Man: Miles Morales (#8) 👍
  6. Astro's Playroom (#9) 🥳
  7. Yes, Your Grace (#?) Not surprised.
  8. Crash Bandicoot 4: It's About Time (#?) 😐At least #4 in platformers.
  9. Dreams (#?) 😒
  10. Cyberpunk 2077 (#15) ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

So that's 6/10. Not bad Era, I got to play 13 Sentinels and finish Demon's Souls.

Some observations:
-ND has won the old site/era GOTY 4 times (U2, TLOU, U4 & TLOU2):

Previous Overall Media Game of the Year Award Winners (Old Site/ResetERA Winner):

2020 - The Last of Us Part II
2019 - Death Stranding (Resident Evil 2 Remake)
2018 - God of War (2018)
2017 - The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
2016 - Uncharted 4: A Thief's End
2015 - The Witcher 3 Wild Hunt (Bloodborne)
2014 - Dragon Age Inquisition (Bayonetta 2)
2013 - The Last of Us
2012 - The Walking Dead: A Telltale Series (Journey)
2011 - The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (Portal 2)
2010 - Red Dead Redemption (Mass Effect 2)
2009 - Uncharted 2: Among Thieves
2008 - Fallout 3 (Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots)
2007 - Bioshock (Super Mario Galaxy)
2006 - The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion (The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess)
2005 - Resident Evil 4
2004 - Half-Life 2 (Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater)

Old site/Era most awarded devs :
Naughty Dog: 4
Nintendo: 3
Kojima Productions: 2
Capcom: 2
Bioware: 1
FromSoftware: 1
Santa Monica: 1
thatgamecompany: 1
Platinum: 1
Valve: 1

vs

Media awarded devs:
Naughty Dog: 4
Bethesda Game Studios: 3
Bioware: 1
Capcom: 1
CDPR: 1
Irrational Games: 1
Kojima Productions: 1
Telltale: 1
Rockstar: 1
Valve: 1

-Surprised to see Doom Eternal so low, the game did every better from what I can see (critically and sales wise), so what happened? (personally I haven't finished it yet, thats why it didnt make my list).
-Very surprised to Alyx miss the top 10, its a PCVR exclusive but I thought Era was a bit more engaged in that department, guess PSVR is not so bad considering Astro Bot made the top 10 last time 😏. Here's hoping Sony pays Valve for a PSVR2 Port to give the game a 2nd chance.
- Despite all the criticism RE3 Remakes makes the top 20 but not Dreams 😑
 
Xtortion

Xtortion

One Winged Slayer
Member
Oct 25, 2017
6,732
United States
Nocturnowl said:
I didn't think I'd have something to actually gripe over because gripin' on these lists is a kinda pointless endeavour...
But man, something about a mostly straight Demon's Souls remake being that high over new experiences is... a bit lame
Then again, it's always been my least enjoyed of the Soulsborne lineage so maybe that's just my slight bias or I'm overlooking how good the improvements are.
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Demon's does a lot imo. Possibly the best looking game I've ever seen, running at basically a perfect framerate, with some of the very best audio design of the year, tons of meaty new combat animations, and a great showcase of the PS5 with its haptics and load times (or lack thereof). I wouldn't be miffed it it was a bit lower in the rankings, but it shows that Bluepoint's remakes are in a class of their own.
 
VZ_Blade

VZ_Blade

One Winged Slayer
Avenger
Oct 27, 2017
1,340
Pretty good list. I am honestly surprised to see 13 Sentinels in the top 10. Was expecting around #15, but I guess talent comes through in this case!
 
SatelliteOfLove

SatelliteOfLove

Member
Oct 26, 2017
8,040
South Carolina
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