The RPS Advent Calendar 2015 Guessing Game

[Aerothorn]

It’s that time again!* On December 1st, Horace will emerge from his den and reveal to us one of the greatest PC games of 2015. He will do this for 24 days, on the final day revealing the Bestest Best game of the year.

Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to submit your predictions of which twenty-four games they will choose. The winner will receive $20 towards the purchase of games (on Steam, GOG, or Humble Store) and be enshrined in our hall of fame.

Here are the rules:

1. List the 24 games you think will appear on the Bestest Best list. You do not need to list categories (see the FAQ below) - just the games!

**2. **You get a point every time a game on your list gets a Bestest Best award. That mean if a game gets two awards (as Endless Legend did, winning both Best Strategy Game and Bestest Best Game) you get two points. This also means you get one “free miss” if they only pick 23 games, since I don’t want to assume that is going to happen again (and there will be only 23 games) until it’s established itself as a pattern.

**3. **Correctly picking the Bestest Best Game of 2015 game is the tiebreaker.

**4. **You can edit your post to change your picks any time before December.

We’ll be tracking your picks in this google spreadsheet, so no need to manually count your wins.

This is the third year running and a number of questions popped up during the last go-around, so I’ve posted a handy FAQ below!

*Actually, it’s not, really - I was at least going to wait till November - but I’m procrastinating on schoolwork.

[Aerothorn]

What games are eligible to receive awards?

Whatever the Hivemind wants. Given that RPS starts handing out awards on December 1st, the “last year” comprises December 1st, 2014-November 30th, 2015. However, the restrictions are not so technical, as Founder-in-Exile Jim once noted:

What games are eligible for the Advent Calendar?

Well basically any game that we’ve said “this is the year of this game”. So if a game came out last year, but we didn’t get excited about it until this year, then it’s eligible. We’re nothing if not consistently inconsistent in our logic.

What we do know is that a number of early access games received awards last year, so don’t assume that just because a game isn’t “done” or otherwise in a final state, it isn’t eligible.

What is the selection process?

We don’t know exactly, but we do know each active staff member makes a list, and those lists somehow get combined into the top 25.

Why aren’t we predicting the winners of each category?

Because the selection process doesn’t work that way. The Hivemind picks their collective Top 25 Games, then assigns them award titles so that the developers have something more substantial to stick on their Steam page than “One Of The 24 Best Games of 2014.” As a result, we don’t even know what the categories will be! Feel free to predict them, but it isn’t worth any points.
**
Who picks the games?**

I’ll let Graham answer that one:

Differences between staff and freelancers?

Game of the Month and Games Of The Year are full-time staff voting, so John, Alec, Adam, Pip, Alice and me. Last year Jim was involved with GOTY also. And last year we did a separate article for the Contributor’s Picks for GOTY:http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2014/12/27/best-pc-games-2014-contributors-picks/

There’s a debate to be had about whether we should include folks like Tim Stone, Richard Cobbett, etc. in the end-of-year game selection. It’d arguably result in a more diverse list, but also it’d lose the opportunity to get to know the core team better. We’re trying to walk that line of Doing More and Covering More, because PC gaming is bigger than ever and there’s always more we want to write about and cast attention upon, while still maintaining that sense of 2 Ladies And 4 Guys Have A Blog.

What are the previous records?

Aerothorn, in 2013, with 16 out of 24 games (66.7% correct)

spoken_starfish, in 2014, with 15 out of 23 games (65% correct), albeit with the caveat that no “double points” were awarded that year since I didn’t anticipate games being picked twice

What’s the relation between Game of the Month and Bestest Best Games? Will every Game of the Month win an award?

We have no idea, because this is the first year Game of the Month has been a thing! Predict at your own peril.

[alms]

Without further ado, I’m honored to present you the complete, fully clicky enabled, list of every Bestest Best ever (or Advent Calendar) thus far.

**2014 Bestest Best…
**Racing: Qvadriga
FPS: Wolfenstein: The New Order
Tactics: Doorkickers
Puzzles: Hexcells Infinite
Word: MGR: Revengeance
Combat: Neo Scavenger
Landscape: Mountain
4X: Endless Legend
Exploration: Salt
Adventure: The Wolf Among Us
Co-op: Far-Cry 4
Kickstarter: Divinity: Original Sin
Worldbuilding: Dark Souls 2
Strategy: Distant Worlds: Universe
Words: Sunless Sea
Action: Shadow of Mordor
Horror: Alien: Isolation
Gosh What? A New eSport? Good: Smite
Being Pleasantly Lost: Bernband
Something: Legend of Grimrock 2
WHAT: Secret Habitat
RPG: Dragon Age: Inquisition
CCG: Hearthstone
Best: Endless Legend

The Contributors Picks:
Tim Stone - Combat Mission: Red Thunder
Cara Ellison - Kentucky Route Zero Act III
Ben Barrett - World of Warcraft: Warlords of Draenor
Brendan Caldwell - Elite: Dangerous
Konstantinos Dimopoulos - The Talos Principle
Rob Sherman - With Those We Love Alive
Cassandra Khaw - This War of Mine
Rich Stanton - Eve Online
Marsh Davies - Dark Souls 2

2013: Don’t Starve, Hexcells, Desktop Dungeons, Papers, Please, Card Hunter, Brothers: A Tale Of Two Sons, The Swapper, Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag, Amnesia: A Machine For Pigs, Dishonored DLC, Eurotruck Simulator 2, Rogue Legacy, XCOM: Enemy Within, Call Of Juarez: Gunslinger, Proteus, Monaco, Spelunky, Knock, Knock, Europa Universalis IV, The Stanley Parable, Saints Row IV, Teleglitch, Gone Home - GOTY: Kentucky Route Zero

2012: FTL, Borderlands 2, Waking Mars, The Walking Dead, Stacking, Thirty Flights Of Loving, Guild Wars 2, Legend Of Grimrock, Lone Survivor, Dark Souls, Dear Esther, Thomas Was Alone, Mark Of The Ninja, The Secret World, Torchlight II, Mass Effect 3, Tribes: Ascend, Planetside 2, Day Z, Crusader Kings II, Dishonored, Hotline Miami, XCOM: Enemy Unknown - GOTY: Far Cry 3

2011: Total War: Shogun, don’t take it personally etc, Serious Sam 3, The Witcher 2, The Dream Machine, Orcs Must Die, Cthulhu Saves the World, Battlefield 3, Saint Row The Third, Portal 2, Fate of the World, Terraria, Batman: Air Conditioning, Dead Island, Realm of the Mad God, Isaac, Rage, LEGO Star Wars III The Clone Wars, To the Moon, Dredmor, Bastion, Spacechem, DX: Human Resources - GOTY: Skyrim

Honorable mentions: Frozen Synapse, Bulletstorm, MoW Assault Squad, Limbo, Dead Space 2, Magicka, Brink, Driver: SF, AC: Brotherhood, Trine 2, DoWII Retribution, Bloodline Champions, Atom Zombie Smasher, Alice: Madness Returns

2010: Battlefield: Bad Company 2, Just Cause 2, S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Call of Pripyat, Space Funeral, Neptune’s Pride, Dead Rising 2, VVVVVV, Digital: A Love Story, Bioshock 2, Recettear: An Item Shop’s Tale, Plain Sight, Dragon Age: Awakening, Alien Swarm, Metro 2033, Warhammer 40,000 Dawn Of War 2: Chaos Rising, Sleep Is Death, Desktop Dungeons, Lara Croft & The Guardian of Light, R.U.S.E., Super Meat Boy, Starcraft II: Wings Of Liberty, Amnesia: The Dark Descent, Mass Effect 2 - GOTY: Minecraft.

2009: Zeno Clash, Canabalt, Dawn of War II, Machinarium, Burnout Paradise, Arkham Asylum, ArmA II, RF: Gorilla, Time Gentlemen, Please, Men of War, The Sims 3, Blood Bowl, Aaa - Gravity, Saints Row 2, Risen, Spelunky (the free one), L4D2, AI War, Empire: Total War, Torchlight, Borderlands, PvZ, Solium Infernum - GOTY: Dragon Age

2008: GRID, Mass Effect, Trials 2, Sins of a Solar Empire, Audiosurf, Far Cry 2, Spore, You Have to Burn the Rope, Wrath of the Lich King, King’s Bounty, Left 4 Dead - GOTY: World of Goo

2007: Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, Sumotori Dreams, Company of Heroes: Opposing Fronts, Penumbra Overture, Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars, Enemy Territory: Quake Wars, Nelly Cootalot: Spoonbeaks Ahoy!, Minerva Metastasis, Bookworm Adventures, Team Fortress 2, Gears of War, Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords, DEATH WORM, Tabula Rasa, Knytt Stories, Half-life 2: Episode 2, STALKER: Shadow of Chernobyl, World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade, Armageddon Empires, World In Conflict, Crysis, Peggle Deluxe, Bioshock - GOTY: Portal

"This is a site full of ancient nerds who grew up playing games
written by teenage enthusiasts with no budget."

RIGHT[/RIGHT]

Revision history:
05: added 2014, reversed sort order, appended solution.

[Aerothorn]

Hopefully we can also get Fumarole to reuse his Google Sheet

I still think Alice and Alec conspired to pick Secret Habitat purely to foil our guessing game.

[alms]

Post used to be longer then I hit Preview and the 20k characters limit reared its ugly head again -.-

Games of the Month:

April: Cities: Skylines
May: GTA V
June: Invisible, Inc.
July: **Her Story **
August: Rocket League
September: MGS:TPP
October: Undertale
November: Life Is Strange

[vinraith]

I guess I’ll be the first to make the traditional “wait, what came out this year again?” post. As usual, I have absolutely no idea.

[Aerothorn]

This stickied thread is a good place to start, though certainly not exhaustive (because in a world in which every game jam game is eligible for an award, an exhaustive list is impossible).

[GameCat]

Life is Strange is my personal Bestest Best and I hope it will be the RPS Bestest Best as well.

So…

1. Life is Strange
2. Life is Strange
   (…)
3. Life is Strange

[Xzi]

Safe Bets: Witcher 3, Rocket League, MGS V, Fallout 4. I’d certainly hope for Chaos Reborn, Vermintide, Killing Floor 2, and Nuclear Throne.

Invisible, Inc
Pillars of Eternity
Broforce
Satellite Reign
Ori and the Blind Forest
Prison Architect
Shadowrun: Hong Kong
GTA V
Just Cause 3

Beyond that I can only think of slightly more obscure titles. Axiom Verge, Jotun, Grow Home, Undertale, Crypt of the Necrodancer, Darkest Dungeon, and Dungeon Souls.

[mrki]

Winner;

[LIST]
[*]MGS V
[/LIST]

Games I want to be on the list (even though I haven’t actually played them):

[LIST]
[]Just Cause 3
[]Infinifactory
[]Cities Skylines
[]Total War: Atilla
[/LIST]

Games that will certainly be on the list:

[LIST]
[]The Witcher 3
[]Rocket League
[]Fallout 4
[]Invisible Inc
[]Pillars of Eternity
[]GTA V
[]Grow Home
[]Crypt of the Necrodancer
[]Life is Strange
[]Hotline Miami 2
[*]Hand of Fate
[/LIST]

Additional possibilities:

[LIST]
[]Project CARS
[]Undertale
[]Mad Max
[]The Talos Principle
[]Downwell
[]Broforce
[]Her Story
[]else.HeartBreeak
[/LIST]

Games I had to cut due to the 24 game limit:

[LIST]
[]World of Warships
[]Kerbal Space Program
[]Blood Bowl 2
[]SW Battlefront
[]Satellite Reign
[]Ori and the Forest
[*]Might and Magic Heroes 7
[/LIST]

[Sarfrin]

MGS V Overall Bestest Best, Bestest Best Ridiculous Sneaking
Prison Architect Bestest Best Not US Penal System Simulator
80 Days Bestest Best Jules Verne
Witcher 3 Bestest Best Screenshots
Invisible Inc. Bestest Best Tactical Sneaking
Her Story Bestest Best VCR based puzzles
Mushroom 11 Bestest Best New Mechanic
Submerged Bestest Best Walking simulator with no walking.
Keep Talking etc. Bestest Best Bomb Disposal Friendship Ruiner

[TheDreamlord]

Fuck me, the year is almost over? Again???

[Grizzly]

Fuck me, the year is almost over? Again???

Yeah it’s only been a year ago!

[MiniMatt]

Oooh, ok. In no particular order apart from the first and bestest of the best:

The Witcher 3
Kerbal Space Program
Rocket League
GTA V
Cities: Skylines
Prison Architect
Fallout 4
Ark: Survival Evolved
Metal Gear Solid 5
Vicera Cleanup Detail
Tabletop Simulator
Life is Strange
World of Warships
Grow Home
Tales from the Borderlands
Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture
Starwars Battlefront
Undertale
Invisible Inc
Broforce
Warhammer: Vermintide/Vermintude/Vermintrude
Pillars of Eternity
80 Days
Binding of Isaac: Rebirth

Might need some tinkering for late entrants. Clearly some of those haven’t been released yet, and Stellaris even being released before Christmas is a bit of wishful thinking.

EDIT: Ooops, forgot the GOTY was one of the 24, rather than it being 24+1. Have regrettably nuked Stellaris from my selection.

EDIT DEUX: Numbers removed for ease of Fumarole’s google doodads

EDIT TROIS: Broforce added, Rebel Galaxy (reluctantly) removed.

[Zephro]

I guess I’ll be the first to make the traditional “wait, what came out this year again?” post. As usual, I have absolutely no idea.

Ditto. Here is my list of games wot I played this year that I think probably came out this year, probably. There aren’t 50 of them so even naff ones get into my top 50.

Pillars of Eternity - actually good
Hotline Miami 2 - good but got bored and gave up during the military mission in the jungle
Cities Skylines - Good
Witcher 3 - Good, though no linux release yet so grumpy face.
Rocket League - Ace and still awaiting a linux release.
Various Crusader Kings 2 and EU4 expansion packs. I’ll put them on the list as well as I probably spent the most time on them.

Does Kerbal even count? Otherwise I mostly got around to playing things that came out in previous years or replayed some classics. Mostly it was a Paradox year.

[neema_t]

I bet a copy of whatever is cheap when the answer comes that despite all the coverage and how blindingly obvious it is that it was the best game of all time let alone the best game that came out this year, MGS V won’t be at the top of the list. Obvious choices don’t get pageviews, after all!

[Wenz]

Undertale and mgs5 go for best animes of the season I guess?
skylines, pillars, 80 days, Isaac for proper games.
Kerbal for fun game. I want to mention hm2 with all the issues but the only real one was the throwing action.
Haven’t played life is strange and grow home though.

[Pertusaria]

Things I’ve played that stand a good chance of being on the list (no particular order):

1 Crypt of the Necrodancer
2 Grow Home
3 80 Days

Things I haven’t played that are likely to be on the list:

4 Rocket League
5 Witcher 3
6 MGS V
7 Life is Strange
8 The Beginner’s Guide
9 Undertale
10 Fran Bow (possible - Adam really liked it but I don’t know if anyone else has played beyond the demo)

My completely unscientific impression is that it’s been a busy year, but one that will be more noted for big games like Witcher 3 and MGS than for short, interesting things. Then, as the list above indicates, I’ve played very little, so I’m not the best one to say.

I wouldn’t be surprised if Witcher won in the end; I think MGS may be one of those games that everyone spends a lot of time on, only to feel later that only some of it was fun/worthwhile, a la Far Cry 3 (although from everything I’ve read I think it’s a better game), and I think some of the shine may have worn off by late November. Again, I haven’t played it, and I’m not dissing it, it’s just a feeling.

[Aerothorn]

I bet a copy of whatever is cheap when the answer comes that despite all the coverage and how blindingly obvious it is that it was the best game of all time let alone the best game that came out this year, MGS V won’t be at the top of the list. Obvious choices don’t get pageviews, after all!

They’ve named Minecraft, Skyrim, and Far Cry 3 GOTY. RPS has never been afraid to choose the Most Mainstream Thing if they also thought it was the best thing.

[Prolar_Bear]

Hmm. I’m thinking MGSV will be near the top, but not the winner. It’s absolutely great but it has two huge flaws (it’s kinda unfinished, Quiet).

My guess, in no particular order:

The Witcher 3, **GOTY **(maybe)
Metal Gear Solid V
Undertale
80 Days
Pillars of Eternity
Hotline Miami 2
ARK
The Beginner’s Guide
Life is Strange
Rocket League
Cities Skylines
GTA V
Invisible Inc.
Her Story
Else Heart.Break
The Talos Principle: Gehenna
STASIS
Mushroom 11