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GOTY 2017 Lists: Ryan King

by Chris White on December 23, 2017

Our second GOTY 2017 list comes from the wonderfully talented Ryan King, a former editor at Imagine Publishing and freelancer, now a member of the dark side at Lick PR. Here, Ryan lets you all know what his favourite games of the year are. Enjoy!

5) Yooka-Laylee

I don’t even know if I like Yooka-Laylee or not really. I have literally no idea. I remember when the Kickstarter was announced and like everyone else I went GEE WHIZZ ISN’T IT GREAT WE’RE GETTING A GAME JUST LIKE THE OLD BANJO ONES. then it came out and I wasn’t sure if I liked it or not because it was just like the old Banjo ones.

The problem is me. I’m not a young sprightly thing anymore, powered by optimism and hope, determined to pry jealously-guarded secrets from the corner of each challenging level. Nowadays I’m fat and I’m old and I’m dumb and I hate it when games fight back because why is everything in life so fucking difficult.

Yooka-Laylee is full of stupid dancing clouds and talking vending machines, taunting me because I don’t have the Climbing Gloves Of Doom or whatever it is I need to get the 9,000,000th feather I need just to get to the second level.

But I suppose it’s okay. Because deep down, it’s exactly what I wanted.

4) Injustice 2

I wanted to put a fighting game on this list and it was a toss-up between Tekken 7 and Injustice 2. The pros of each game go like this.

Tekken 7: The graphics are brilliant, the story is good fun, Normal People Who Don’t Like Games recognize it and can have a fair go at playing it.

Injustice 2: I’m better at it.

So Injustice 2 makes the list. Onwards!

3) Overwatch

Yes, yes, I know what you’re thinking. “Overwatch didn’t even come out this year. It came out in 2016!” Shut up. God. I hate the internet. Why are people such babies. This is literally just a list. A list of games I played this year that I liked. Why do you care so much about what the third best game an old balding man played this year is.

Get over it. God.

I hate the internet.

2) Slime Rancher

You collect slimes and throw them in pens. That’s pretty much it. It sounds terrible and I’m not even sure there’s a better way of describing it. You build a farm, you explore a small area, you… collect slimes and throw them in pens. That really is it. That’s the entire game. Exploring, collecting, throwing.

But it’s so relaxing! You meander about, you poke and prod at the slimes trying to figure out how they work – what happens when they merge, which ones don’t like each other – and you explore with no time limits and no constraints. You fall into a strangely hypnotic rhythm playing Slime Rancher and it’s blissfully chilled out.

I play this every now and then when I come home from a night out and I think that’s the best way to experience this. Drunk, confused and alone, cleaning up your slime.

Wait.

What.