@axel I love these recaps so, SO much. Seeing Pokemon, Luigi's Mansion 3, Super Mario Maker 2, Untitled Goose Game, and Mortal Kombat 11 all not place is so fascinating. Thanks again for the stats! I love the stories behind how games changed places with each list submitted and enjoy geeking out about these stats.

Also, I would like to be the first to get in to say I nominate this to be moved to the Hall of Fame at the end of weekend (I'm requesting to wait a couple of days as of this this writing, so people have a couple of days to still visit this thread under the "Gaming" section and keep commenting if they so choose. I'm saying the weekend because I'm not sure if it'll stay active after that).

And alas, we've reached another end to another great GOTY countdown! Between the two, it was pretty obvious at the start of the thread, but personally not necessarily the beginning of this year. Both were highly anticipated, and clearly lived up to the hype. Game Awards 2017, seeing the Allies lose their minds over "Shadows Die Twice." E3 2018 during the Sony presser, and everything slowly dawning on everyone. And the yell when Leon revealed himself. Classic stuff.

For the games themselves, I'm not into From games and only because of Huber and Damiani have I experienced Resident Evil in any capacity. VII, 4, 2 Remake, and then 5. I really enjoyed watching the full playthrough stream (and I'm anticipating the RE 3 Remake stream, so I'm choosing to bypass the current Mike and Mike stream to go in completely fresh). Seeing RE 2 Remake in its entirety with someone who is so passionate about the game makes me appreciate it more. I may not have played it but I enjoyed it, and actually have the feeling of rewatching it. Greatly hate Mr. X though.

Now as is custom, here's my full list with some words on the games that didn't place:

1. Kingdom Hearts III
2. Gears 5
3. Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order
4. Observation
5. Crash Team Racing: Nitro-Fueled
6. Metro: Exodus
7. Borderlands 3
8. Creature in the Well
9. Wolfenstein: Youngblood

Wolfenstein Youngblood didn't make an Honorable Mention and if I would've been told that at the beginning of the year, I wouldn't have believed it. Arkane and MachineGames are two of my shortlist of favorite developers. This is one of my favorite franchises. The Blazkowicz twins are the best part of this game. But horrible story pacing, questionable level design, confounding story implementation, and most egregiously the RPG level system was just a fail. Disappointment of the Year and it feels bad.

Creature in the Well is a really interesting concept and the fact most of it was made by two guys is astounding. I met one of them while I watched a good friend of mine play it at PAX East last year and it's one of the highlights of my entire 2019. The game feels more luck than skill based in the final couple of dungeons, but the action-pinball mechanic is one of the most unique things I've enjoyed. What's here is good, but I'm VERY excited, and hope for, a follow up.

Observation piqued my interest when I first saw the trailer during the first State of Play, buy Ian playing the first 20 minutes for Easy Update hooked me. A game to play in about 6-8 hours, playing as a station's A.I. is another fascinating concept I enjoyed. There was a puzzle that was unnecessarily annoying, and the ending landed with a thud for me, but this is still a standout game that messes with your head, and I'm happy I gave it a shot.

As always, massive kudos and thanks to @Axel for always taking the initiative with these threads. I look forward to the next!

@axel It's alright. Speaking as someone who knew my choices weren't going to place high, take solace that what matters is we enjoyed the games we did.

........

But a game not getting a GOTY vote this high is hilarious. X-D

Running the 2019 Desire Index did more for the Outer Worlds to stay in my head than pretty much anything any of the game's marketing did. At the time of its reveal, the trailer didn't do much for me, but as was evident being the curator of that thread, the appeal of Obsidian working on another third person action RPG helmed by the creators of Fallout was apparently too good to pass up.

This game REIGNED throughout the year at number 1 most desired by the sheer number of people who were interested in picking it up. And as is the case, seeing 6 different third place votes and NINE HMs is amazing. This game really stuck with people, but, and please correct me if I'm wrong Axel, is the single highest placing game in any GOTY list we've ever done that did NOT get a SINGLE GOTY vote?! That's amazing.

Still, seeing it taking the bronze is clear evidence that it lived up to the hype for a large portion of the audience, and I'm happy for those who found a fun time with it.

Now the big question we'll get the answer to tomorrow:

What's number 1? Sekiro? or Resident Evil 2 Remake?

(And sidenote, Luigi's Mansion 3 got the snub, not even placing in the top 25. VERY curious to see how close it came to making the cut).

Many games that were lauded this year could have been predicted well before they came out they were going to be great: RE 2 Remake, Sekiro, Control, etc. But Fire Emblem I would argue did better than predicted (and those predictions were quite good). This was THE game of the summer, and caught fire that not many other games did. Practically everyone I know or follow played and LOVED: Three Houses.

I'm not going to belabor the same points why I didn't (and won't) play it, but this is probably the greatest Fire Emblem in a long time, if not ever, and another piece of evidence Nintendo has a STACKED, not only Switch exclusive roster, but just 1st party franchises in general.

Control is a case where it didn't get much attention at the time of release, and is a personal surprise to was received so well because not only did I hear pre-release coverage be somewhat ho-hum, I had a friend get to try the game pre-release himself and he told me it was rough.

Good thing those last few months were put in, because it apparently paid off.

Like I said above for Death Stranding, this one is a little too out there for me. However, it's gameplay is more appealing, so I wasn't as turned off, nor as immediately, as DS. I remember this getting announced at Sony's last... well... anything if you don't count State of Plays, and how it was one of the real mood pieces of the night.

On the whole, when people got their hands on post-launch, all I heard was mild negativity: The map is frustrating, there's no design language on where to go, certain skills/gameplay feel unneccesary, and so-on. Thankfully, it appears this is a minority, as it clearly shows here, it made a tremendous impact, and Remedy has yet another hit on their hands. With Alan Wake, Quantum Break, and now Control under the belts, I'm curious what the next IP will be, though I have a strong feeling it'll be a third person action adventure dealing with the supernatural in some sense.

Ever since the Konami fallout, I had been fascinated for four straight years about what Kojima would do next. I've never played a Metal Gear game, so I can't claim to be a fan of either the franchise or Kojima himself. That E3 moment at Sony's show back in 2016 still holds up, and I watched each new trailer, becoming more and more flummoxed as to just what on earth this game is.

Up until about the next to last trailer before launch was enough for me to say, "you know what, this is too weird and obtuse for me." And listening to reviews reiterated I made the right decision for me to pass on it. But Death Stranding will always be unique, both the game itself and its development, and while I didn't predict it to be as critically divisive as it turned out to be, at least plenty of people enjoyed it, and not only Kojima, but his studio, found success.

I saw a synopsis of the story, and while I am positive so much must be experienced instead of recapped, this is a game that I would need to be blindly in on from the start to appreciate. And to be honest, I have other interests I'll invest my time into.

With the final five, I'm predicting the following: Outer Worlds, Control, Fire Emblem, Sekiro, and Resident Evil 2 Remake in that order. That said, I could a shock snub of one three games: Outer Worlds, Control, and Luigi's Mansion 3.

While I was hoping to see Fallen Order get into the top 5, I'm just happy it makes the top 10. I can confidently say that, for me, this is the best Star Wars game since KOTOR.

I loved quite a lot, especially the level design and characters. Yes, I do have qualms with there being no fast travel system once you complete a planet's story, and yes, Cal isn't the most charismatic protagonist out there, but exploring Zeffo and the final planet, and always being accompanied by BD-1 never got old. I enjoyed many of the secrets, especially an entire area which is the best spot of the whole game (despite the fact many of the secrets were just cosmetic items or world lore).

I enjoyed the story quite a lot, and really appreciated it was something different from the Skywalker tree of everyone knowing and being connected by everyone. I also loved being able to customize my saber and learning the combat mechanics. I'm not a fan of the souls combat formula, but after playing this, I understand why it's so appealing.

My biggest problems are only really two things: 1. Spiders. #^$& Kashyyyk. 2.) Tech problems. There were times when the game would freeze as it tried to load the next part of the word, there would be an odd-clip through, or encounters wouldn't end because an enemy just wasn't there. Only once did my game hard crash, and it was during a linear story moment so I only had to replay about 15 minutes once.

Despite that, I LOVED this game, and I hope Respawn follows Sony Santa Monica and implements a new game plus, because going through fully powered up would be too tantalizing to not go through it again.

This is my sixth game placing on our Top 25, and now I'm confident I will no longer have any further games showing. Really happy I played many good to great games. Also, I find it pretty funny this is the first game in about seven spots that did not receive a GOTY vote. Goes to show how a lot of people thought it was really good though.

Speaking of said people, massive props and recognition to @iboshow, @paulmci27, @Ksomic-Wolf, @Sentinel-Beach, @Kristen-Rogers, @Lotias, @Shoulderguy, @Inustar, @DemonSwordsman, @BullToad, @Capnbobamous, @kevboard, @Axel, and @Scotty!

Seeing Astral Chain this high has me feeling many things all in the span of about four seconds:

Really? It feels a bit niche.
Didn't it sell crazy though?
But who talked about it all that much?
Gotta remember this is a Platinum game.
OH. Duh. Remember this is the forums. And the Desire Index thread. Stupid dummy.

So yes, while seeing in the top is a near instant surprise over some other games, it actually isn't a shock once I took a moment to think about it. Granted, Platinum games are not my deal, so I don't play them, and for Astral Chain specifically, all I'll ever remember is Ben Moore losing all his in-game money in the pursuit of a non-existent task.

This makes me curious about how Babylon's Fall will be received whenever we hear more/it gets released. Because as it shows above: Those played Astral Chain LOVED it.

DMC has been a franchise that I've appreciated from afar, but not one that's interested me in trying. The best things I can say about DMC 5 without having played it are two fold: 1.) I will always enjoy going back and see the Allies lose their minds when it was announced at Xbox's E3 2018 show. Plus, ya know, seeing the developers onstage having a good time was wonderful. and 2.) Devil Trigger is a good song. When it isn't being memed to all hell that is.