I'm completely fine with the process, point system, et. al., but I just wanted to be explicitly clear: The ONLY games that are eligible are the ones that made the GOTY threads right? As in, we can't just pick our own personal games that didn't make any of those lists? If that is the case it limits my choices and I just want to know what I'm able to work with. If there is an applicable master file of all eligible games, that would also be of great help.

The most common discussion about Super Mario Galaxy 2 I've heard is that it's for all intents and purposes an add-on to the original, as from what I've been told, it doesn't do too much new. However, when played immediately after Super Mario Galaxy 1, the combined experience lends to one all-encompassing game. There is absolutely nothing wrong with that, just pointing out for people like me who haven't played either Galaxy games, they both look the same, and I couldn't for the life of me tell you which feature/galaxy/story beat is in which game.

Still, they look fun as "traditional" 3D Mario platformers do, and the most interesting thing I've heard about 2 specifically came from what would be (sadly) the last Game Sleuth EZA will ever do.

While I prefer Ghost of Sparta in 2010 than God of War III, the fact there were TWO high quality games in the franchise coming in the same calendar year shows simultaneously the peak and the beginning of the downturn (see: Fatigue) for the franchise. Plus seeng a God of War game place top 5 in any year just feels good. God of War III had the most set-pieces of them all with tons of memorable moments for good and ill:

• Poseidon opening the game
• Killing Hades, unleashing the underworld
• Climbing and killing Kronos from the inside out
• The manual decapitation of Helios
• The story focus on Pandora and the return of her box
• The pestilence unleashed for chopping up Hermes
• The maze focusing on perspectives
• Bashing in Hercules's face
• Ending your longtime narrator Gaia through the heart
• Until God of War 2018, the bizarre and mixed ending.
• And of course the climax in killing Zeus, only stopping when you stop

I thought this game did a great job in returning you to places after not visiting them for a long time, but the box maze is probably the worst part in this game. Also, I'm not too into the art style, as I prefer every other game's look over this (with maybe Ascension being the exception).
It's a good game, but I just like others both in the franchise and in 2010 in general (though it did place #5, so it is my top honorable mention).

As always, high fives to everyone enjoyed this game to give it a valuable vote! @JDINCINERATOR, @Crepe, @naltmank, @Nimbat1003, @robert7lee, @Sentinel-Beach, @DIPSET, @Scotty, and @El-Shmiablo!

Now this is a legitimate surprise and I don't think I've had one of those in these threads for a while. I guess that shows how out of touch I am on Strategy games and Civ as a whole. The lone thing I know is the Ghandi glitch, which is admittedly extremely funny. Seeing Civ so high really shows it must be stellar in both genre and series. Plus, it's actually a little surprising also Civ V is almost 10 years old because there's only been one Civ since.

I was part of a friend's podcast several months ago and this duo of games were a part of it. When I had to give my written thoughts, this is what I said,

• "Pokemon is one of the first franchises I knew as a kid, but at Gen 4, I dropped off for multiple reasons: I hated the transition into the blocky 3D models, the balancing is MASSIVELY off, I didn’t like many of the new Pokemon, and there are certain gameplay mechanics and features that are unnecessary. Plus, as someone who DOES like the first three generations, I find it quite perverse to see later generation Pokemon in a previous gen’s region."

To expand upon this, while I hold the first gen in higher regard for my interests, gen two is really good, and despite the fact many people rave that HeartGold and SoulSilver are the best Pokemon games ever made, as time has gone on and the Pokemon franchise has kept going, to me, it just continues to lose any wonder and excitement. Call me a purist, but after a certain point, Pokemon just isn't what it use to be and not really as fun.

I've never played the Donkey Kong platformers, and I think this now gets outshined with how much Tropical Freeze gets talked about. Still, I believe it's a credit to Donkey Kong being synonymous with high quality in its genre.

It's a massive struggle for me to deal with anything concerning spiders, so this is an insta-pass for me. While I find the concept of the game fascinating, I can't deal with that thing. That said, after playing Inside a few years ago, I don't really think Playdead games are for me just in general.

WOW that's a lot of Honorable Mentions.

I've always stayed away from Heavy Rain for many reasons. Gameplay (which I did play Detroit: Become Human, and that wasn't too bad in this sense but I'm not too over the moon about it), the central mystery (Which I know the twist, so it's kind of lost any real meaning to visit for me), and it also doesn't look all that good in retrospect. Character models aren't the best, plus... ya know... press X to... you get it.

All that said, it definitely made its mark, for good and ill.

I kind of alluded to this during our 2012 thread when discussing Assassin's Creed III, but when I played the first game of the franchise, I didn't really enjoy it all that much. As such I let the franchise go by with next to no interest, so I can't speak on Brotherhood. I think this was the first was the first to introduce multiplayer to the franchise, but knowing this was part of the Ezio trilogy when I didn't play AC II or Revelations had me skip it.

@dmcmaster In short, I don't.

The last half dozen hours have left me, for lack of a more proper and accurate term, upset because the decisions that get made by the characters makes me feel like the outcome could have been avoided.

That said, what happens, happened. There really isn't any redemption from here.