It has been a long year of reviewing, good folks. There have certainly been some winners and huge losers out there, but a handful of games this year have come out on top to separate themselves from the pack, and we want to tell you about them before 2018 wraps up.
Now, we call this the ‘holiday gift guide’ because we truly believe that every game/accessory you’re about to read is worthy of your hard earned cash. We have put together the best of hte best of the year in an ‘award’-esque listing, as it’s much easier to separate these things by awards, rather than some Toys’R Us type booklet (may it rest in peace). With that gibberish out of the way, let’s get right into it, shall we?
BEST RPG OF THE YEAR
There were quite a few RPGs released in 2018 this year. From Nie: Automata Become as Gods Edition to the Miyazaki inspired Ni No Kuni 2: Revenant Kingdom, it certainly has been a great year to dig in for the long haul with a role-playing experience. One game stood out front the rest in this category and breathed life back into a series that people haven’t seen since ye olden days of the PlayStation 2. The winner for this year’s best RPG goes to…
Title: Dragon Quest XI: Echoes of an Elusive Age
Publisher: Square Enix
Reason: It contains a compelling story, interesting characters, and everything you want out of a traditional RPG, and more.
Honorable mentions: NieR: Automata Become as Gods Edition, Ni No Kuni 2: Revenant Kingdom, Kingdom Come: Deliverance.
BEST STRATEGY TITLE OF THE YEAR
I’ll be honest with you, we didn’t do a helluva lot of strategy games this year. Not that we didn’t want to or that we were purposely trying to avoid them, but we just never got the chance. Thankfully, we found a late bloomer at the end of 2018 that just absolutely knocked our Nintendo Switch socks. It was…
Title: Sid Meier’s Civilization VI
Publisher: 2K
Reason: If you have ever had the pleasure of playing a Civ game, then you know exactly what you’re getting into with it. You build, you advance, you conquer. Civ VI is gigantic and you’re going to spend quite a bit of time with it. The fact that it’s on the Nintendo Switch just makes it unbelievably portable.
Honorable Mentions: None — this is it!
BEST FIRST-PERSON SHOOTER OF THE YEAR
I’m sure this is going to ruffle some feathers from someone. Probably someone who hasn’t played the game we’re going to give the best FPS of the year too. That seems the trend nowadays with the Interwebs. Anyway, first-person shooters are a dime-a-dozen these days and it’s really hard to stand out from the rest. There have been quite a few standouts this year, starting with Destiny 2: Forsaken, which rebooted the Destiny franchise into something closer to the original concept. While it was outstanding, the two big releases toward the end of the year really did their homework before getting pushed to the public. Battlefield V and Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 did some amazing things to their series this year, which is the reason why they were in a dead-heat for this award. But, there can only be one, so the winner is…
Title: Battlefield V
Publisher: EA
Reason: Say what you will, but if you’re not into Battle Royale and you just want to relax in short stints of World War II stories, then Battlefield V is the way to go. Also, a 35-60 minute experience with Grand Operations, more conquest, other PvP action, more content coming this month, probably next month, and an additional Battle Royale later makes it everything you want and more. DICE did a helluva job with this title.
Honorable Mentions: Destiny 2: Forsaken, Call of Duty: Black Ops 4, Firewall Zero Hour, Fortnite
BEST ACTION/ADVENTURE TITLE OF THE YEAR
There was a lot to crow about in 2018 in the action/adventure categories this year. Some old titles went off the beaten path, and some titles from yesteryear reared their head and became everything we thought they would be. The one title that took the cake in this category, though and that should be praised hard for a re-imagining that equaled out to an emotional journey was…
Title: God of War
Publisher: Sony Interactive Entertainment
Reason: Well, I just gave away the reason. It was re-imagined, an emotional journey, and it was a chance that SIE took on a money-making title that was cookie-cutter the last previous four. And those were delicious cookies, folks, but nonetheless, they followed the same gameplay structure. The most recent God of War took away all of the similarity and dove into a very endearing journey about a God and his boy. Throwing norse mythology into the mix didn’t hurt either. Just a top-to-bottom great game.
Honorable Mentions: Marvel’s Spider-Man, Shadow of the Tomb Raider, Hitman 2
BEST UP AND COMING TITLE OF THE YEAR
Despite the Internet’s pushback on us, and it was a fun pushback, we still believe there is a lot of life to be had with Fallout 76. Sure there are bugs in it, it wouldn’t be a Bethesda game without them, but having the ability to partner up in the West Virginia wasteland with friends, build giant complexes together, collect crap that you can FINALLY use in a Fallout game, and explore the WV area while looking out for PvP moments, who wouldn’t enjoy this? It’s a shame that people gave up on it so easily because it’s worth the price of admission, especially when you have people to play it with, which might be the crux of the problem for most.
Title: Fallout 76
Publisher: Bethesda Studios
Reason: Because we truly believe it is going to be better. We know that isn’t a popular opinion, but we can see it. If you don’t agree with our assessment? That’s okay too. Just know that we haven’t been paid off, we didn’t go to a review event for this, we didn’t sell ads for it, we’re generally good people.
Honorable Mentions: SCUM (what a weird game)
BEST SPORTS TITLE OF THE YEAR
Ah, sports. Every year it’s interesting to see what developers are going to do to try and separate themselves from the previous year’s sports title. It’s a tough gig for most, and, if you follow sports titles long enough, you can see that it rides in peaks/valleys when it comes to creativity. I think that this year we are on an upswing, though, as most of what we’re getting this year is a more improved version of what we got last year. For example, if you bought Madden last year, then you will see the continuing saga of their Longshot story (a good story to shake things up in Madden). Anyway, there have been some great sports titles this year, but the one that stood out is…
Title: NBA 2K19
Publisher: 2K
Reason: This is one of the deeper NBA 2Ks out there. Taking a note, not a big one, from its EA Sports rivals, NBA 2K19 makes you earn your success in a character created story mode that shows you how hard it is to make it in the NBA. There is a reason why NBA 2K is king right now, and it isn’t because you can get a technical for cussing. It has story, it has great gameplay, and it feels like the 2K folks are striving to improve the experience beyond just new skins/stats.
Honorable Mentions: Madden NFL 19, WWE 2K19, NBA Live 19 (they are getting there slowly), MLB The Show 19, NHL 19, FIFA 19
BEST ACCESSORIES OF THE YEAR
We dabbled in some accessories this year and, to be quite honest, we didn’t necessarily pick just one accessory for ‘Best Accessory of the Year’, thus why it is plural. The best accessories this year that we got our hands on are quite different from each other, but nonetheless equally deserving of the moniker. Without further delay, here we go:
Title: Turtle Beach Atlas Elite
Manufacturer: Turtle Beach
July 25, 2018 – Turtle Beach gaming shoot with Kovel Fuller in Dallas, Texas
Reason: Comfortable, stylish, PC/Console ready, and they make great earmuffs that play music when it’s cold outside (had to do that the other day). They are one great headset that proves why Turtle Beach is constantly the best headset manufacturer for gaming. The 3D virtual surround sound in BFV and the game Hellblade are exponentially better because of this headset.
Title: Gamecube and Switch Controllers
Manufacturer: PowerA
Reason: They were a very late entry into our Holiday Gift Guide this year but made it in before the lock. PowerA has made a sizable wave with the Switch this year with their Gamecube controller series, and just in time for the next Super Smash Bros. coming out this month. While I’m not particularly crazy the controllers take batteries, the wireless functionality and their ability to not feel cheap makes them a top controller for what is sure to be one of the better fighting games of the year. PowerA does a solid job with accessories, at least they did in the past, so I expect nothing less.
Honorable Mentions: None — this is it.
BEST GAME OF THE YEAR
Here we go, folks. The game of the year for Digitalchumps in 2018 (outside of Eric Layman’s list — that should be coming before New Year’s). This is a big one because we have seen quite a few titles out there that certainly could be called the game of the year. The winner for ‘Game of the Year’ is…
Title: Red Dead Redemption 2
Publisher: Rockstar Games
Reason: It’s a perfect gaming experience. It has a great story attached to it that feels like a film from beginning to end. You can wander the dying Wild West in search of adventure, action, and random instances that are sometimes unpredictable (do NOT approach a guy in a swamp that says he wants to feed you). It has everything you thought it might and more. Rockstar did a helluva job with this title and it separated itself from the pack. With the online version of it that opened this past week, the game has gotten even more interesting. It is definitely deserving of this award.
With that said, we will see you yahoos next year with more reviews, more gaming, more videos, and more of what makes us chumps in the industry. Until then, have a great holiday, folks.