The DeanBeat: My favorite games of 2017

We had another wonderful year of creativity and smash hits in the $116 billion game business in 2017. My favorite games of the year reflect that games are still my favorite entertainment medium, one that I spend more time with than any other. This list isn’t full of Oscar-like narratives, as if games really want to be like movies. They are a mix of game types: shooters, multiplayer melee fests, grand adventures, platformers, and strategy games.

My experience with Cuphead, where the internet blasted me for failing to play it properly, is a good reminder that I should spend as much time playing games as writing about them, as the expertise comes from both writing and playing. My list still focuses on the games that I enjoy, as opposed to the games that other people think I should play. I’ve completed campaigns for all of these except Cuphead and The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild.