The Advent Calendar Guessing Game, 2019 Edition

[Aerothorn]

Skimming over the Bestest Best games, I’m surprised to see that many of them come from John Walker, who won’t be part of the vote (presumably), and also Sin Vega.

This was an issue even when John was here - he was the reviews editor and did a disproportionate number of reviews, but still just had the one vote. And over the last few years they’ve been relying more and more on freelancers to do reviews, who don’t get votes!

So yeah, in the early years my strategy was “look at reviews and news articles and make a list,” which is clearly not good enough anymore. We very much put the Guessing in Guessing Game.

I look forward to us all getting very mad when they give a Bestest Best award to a game they didn’t even cover

[Sarfrin]

Thats why I think its good to dip into the what are we playing posts

I reckon the ‘Can’t Stop Playing’ feature has got to be a good source.

[alms]

[MiniMatt]

Just noticed that of the four lists posted so far I’ve not actually played a single game on any one of them

[Cyrano]

I thought this might be a fun thing to have a go at between bits of work on a Thursday morning. “I won’t think too hard about it”, I assured myself. I’ll just pop down some games, join in with the gang. Now here I am, having obsessively combed the website, with a shortlist of 50-odd games to slim down. Damn.

[Cyrano]

OK. I’m pinning my colours to the mast. Looking forward to scoring the maximum failure of 0/24

Noita
Disco Elysium
Wilmot’s Warehouse
Baba is You
Outer Wilds
Untitled Goose Game
Slay the Spire
Void Bastards
Ritual of the Moon
Streets of Rogue
It’s Winter
DOTA Underlords
A Short Hike
Control
Apex Legends
Dicey Dungeons
Ape Out
Oxygen Not Included
Hypnospace Outlaw
The Things We Lost In The Flood
Heaven’s Vault
Destiny: Shadowkeep
Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice
Planet Zoo

Epic Tiebreak: 6

Good luck and godspeed. Christmas is coming.

[Aerothorn]

You are welcome to for the rest of the month, if need be

It’s…a hard year. I am also having a lot of trouble turning my longlist into a shortlist.

[sergiocornaga]

Here’s my list.

A Plague Tale: Innocence
Ape Out
Apex Legends
Blasphemous
Control
Disco Elysium
Eliza
Heaven’s Vault
Hypnospace Outlaw
Imperator: Rome
Katana Zero
Knights And Bikes
Mordhau
Mutazione
Noita
Outer Wilds
Planet Zoo
Red Dead Redemption 2
Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice
Six Ages: Ride Like The Wind
Streets of Rogue
They Are Billions
Untitled Goose Game
Wilmot’s Warehouse

I predict 5 games from the list will be on the Epic Games Store. Thanks for running this!

[The_Random_One]

You’ve got two Controls, and I thought I’d check if you meant to include Outer Wilds or The Outer Worlds.

It’s better to have to Controls than to be out of Control.

[DeekyFun]

Here’s my list:

Outer Wilds
The Outer Worlds
Wilmots Warehouse
Control
Dicey Dungeons
Noita
Untitled Goose Game
Streets Of Rogue
Planet Zoo
Baba Is You
Hypnospace Outlaw
What We Lost In The Flood
Disco Elysium
Red Dead Redemption 2
Heaven’s Vault
Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice
Pikuniku
Void Bastards
Apex Legends
Eliza
Knights & Bikes
A Short Hike
Supraland
Forager

With 6 games for the tiebreaker.

[BillButNotBen]

I have no idea, but I’m gonna go for it anyway.

Outer Wilds Though I probably should pick something else as everyone is going for that.
Disco Elysium
Untitled Goose Game
Baba is you
Apex Legends
Sekiro
Dicey Dungeons
Mordhau
Ape Out
Slay the Spire (is that this year?) Apparently not.
Fallen Jedi
Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night
Totally Accurate Battle Simulator. (not actually sure when this was released. stupid early access)
Magic: The Gathering Arena
Life is Strange 2
The Blackout Club
SteamWorld Quest: The Hand of Gilgamech
Resident Evil 2
Wargroove
Far Cry New Dawn Hold on, that one wasn’t the one I thought it was. I think not.
Hades
I’d say a Yakuza game but I don’t want to
Unity of Command 2
Death Stranding
Teamfight Tactics
Telling Lies
Arsenal Demon
Phoenix Point - Risky guess.

I’ll add more later.

3 On epic store.

Brendan has left, right? That makes it trickier.

[BlankedyBlank]

Whelp, here goes nothing again. One day someone will depose Aerothorn and spoken_starfish.

Streets of Rogue - bestest best (but really I want it to be Disco Elysium)
Disco Elysium
Outer Wilds
Red Dead Redemption
Untitled Goose Game
Noita
Kenshi (risky Dec 2018 pick)
Eliza
Heaven’s Vault
Hypnospace Outlaw
Metro Exodus
Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice
Ape Out
Apelegs (“Apex Legends” for any word searches)
Mordhau
A Plague Tale: Innocence
Wilmot’s Warehouse
Baba Is You
Planet Zoo
Control
Afterparty
Trine 4
Little Misfortune
Astrologaster

Was tempted by Mutant Year Zero in the risky Dec 2018 slot, but I think the current staff are more likely to play Kenshi than a TBS… maybe… I don’t know any more, but I’m going to hit submit and not think about it any more.

[Godwhacker]

Oh lord, is there a list of PC games released this year?

Making a start with these just to get on the list:

Noita
Wilmott’s Warehouse
Baba Is You
Heaven’s Vault
Mordhau
Apelegs / Apex Legends
Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice
Star: Wars: Jedi: Fallen: Order
The Outer Wilds
Disco Elysium
Streets of Rogue
Resident Evil 2
Red Dead Redemption 2
Hypnospace Outlaw
Planet Zoo
Metro Exodus
Katana Zero
A Plague Tale: Innocence
Void Bastards
Ape Out
Control
Foundation
Eliza
Untitled Goose Game

Games on the Epic Store: 7

Going to have to go back through the review history later. I have no doubt that I will be mostly wrong. The real question is whether Nate is going to nominate Garfield Kart.

Things I have so far removed that will come back to haunt me:

• Slay The Spire (was on last year’s calendar)
• Total War: Three Kingdoms (Nate has revealed he hasn’t played it)
• Final Fantasy VIII Remastered
• The Outer Worlds
• Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night
• Yakuza Kiwami
• Garfield Kart Furious Racing

I’m tempted to take Sekiro off the list as Brendan was the only one talking about playing it, but it really does deserve to be there. Is Brendan definitely not voting?

[Godwhacker]

Some observations:

• Sin reviews a lot of odd things, but it’s not clear whether she enjoys them
• Graham has been playing a lot of short games
• Katherine really likes JRPGs
• Matt likes shooting people in the face or stabbing them
• Ollie and Dave seem to have a higher tolerance for pop trash than the rest
• Nate likes organising things
• I haven’t watched enough of the videos to work out what Matthew, Alice L and Astrid are all about

[BillButNotBen]

Yeah, I wanted to put a few JRPGs on there because of Katherine, but I know nothing about JRPGs and so I couldn’t name one from this year.

Crap. I forgot Sin was an official writer now. That changes EVERYTHING.

To be honest, with all the staff changes I have basically no idea what anyone likes now, except for the JRPGs thing.
In previous years I could have relied on John for a few puzzle and adventure games at least.
I haven’t watched a single RPS video and so I have no idea what 1/3rd of the team like. In fact, I’d forgotten they existed and had a vote, so that might tempt me to stick in some game that’s good for streaming or multiplayer… if I knew any of them.
I don’t read any of the guides, so that’s another 20% i don’t know.

I also am torn between putting games that I think will be chosen, and putting games that I think are / will be good. I think there’s a high chance of a Yakuza game, but I find them a bit icky and so don’t really want them to be on the list. Same goes for a couple of other obvious picks.
Plus, just picking all the Bestest Bests would be dull.

On the plus side, the Advent Calendar has made me look back through all the reviews and caused me to spot half a dozen that I’d missed, and several of them have gone on the wishlist.

[Aerothorn]

I think there’s a high chance of a Yakuza game, but I find them a bit icky and so don’t really want them to be on the list.

I am guessing there WON’T be, since Brendan is no longer a writer and I think Alice is the only fan, and I’m not sure she’s going to bump anything for Kiwami 1/2, which are basically “more of the same” of Yakuza 0.

And that’s the final “insight” I’ll give Gotta finish working on my own list. This year is impossible. Good luck all.

[Aerothorn]

Slay the Spire (is that this year?)

Slay the Spire was in last year’s calendar as an early access title, so won’t be in this year.

Totally Accurate Battle Simulator. (not actually sure when this was released. stupid early access)

That released in April 2019, so totally legal for inclusion!

[BillButNotBen]

Slay the Spire was in last year’s calendar as an early access title, so won’t be in this year.

Nuts. Back to the drawing board.

I am guessing there WON’T be, since Brendan is no longer a writer and I think Alice is the only fan

Yeah, Brendan leaving has made things unclear… I was half thinking it might count as a JRPG or Streaming person’s choice though.

By the way, it sounds a bit like Sin is planning an Unknown Pleasures Annual Finals… do you think that means Unknown Pleasures games won’t be nominated for the Advent Calendar? Or games will appear on both?

This year is impossible. Good luck all.

Really? I feel like the problem with this year is that, given we don’t know a lot of the writer’s tastes, there’s a whole load of obvious ones like RDR2, Sekiro, Outer W*s that mean everyone is kinda picking the same ones. So I’m being awkward and refusing to pick RDR2 and Katana Zero just because.

[Aitrus]

Always lurk on these, this year I’ll finally throw my hat in.

Ape Out
Apex: Legends
A Plague Tale: Innocence
A Short Hike
Baba Is You
Control
Disco Elysium
Eastshade
Eliza
Gears 5
Heaven’s Vault
Hypnospace Outlaw
It’s Winter
Metro: Exodus
Mordhau
Noita
Outer Wilds
Planet Zoo
Six Ages: Ride Like The Wind
Streets of Rouge
They Are Billions
The Things We Lost in the Flood
Untitled Goose Game
Wilmot’s Warehouse

I don’t know which of these are Epic releases so I’ll just say 4 for the tiebreaker. Good luck to everyone.

[Vandelay]

I keep forgetting to do this! Will try to have a good old think the next couple of days.

Someone asked further up if there was a list of all the PC games released. That was my first port of call a couple of weeks ago, but the one I found on Wikipedia (actually covered all platforms) had massive exclusions, so was no good.