Once again I find myself in December, bewildered and in denial that the year is already over. As is customary, we wanted to highlight some of our favorite media from the last 12 months in what we'll call our "Geekly Greats". Let's take a look back on 2018 and spotlight the titles that really took our breath away!
NOTE: Anime of the Year will be announced in early January to allow the Fall season to properly conclude.
Board Game of the Year
Gloomhaven - Gather up your friends and saddle up for a vast board-game adventure with Gloomhaven! A truly epic experience, Gloomhaven offers a structured, D&D-like experience including various classes, skills, strategy elements, and 150+ hours of unique encounters and storytelling. With superb build quality, exhaustive replay value, and accessible mechanics, if you can overcome the larger price tag (it retails for $140), you will not be disappointed. (Mithrandiel)
Honorable Mention
Brass: Birmingham - With a fantastic setting, and solid build quality, Brass: Birmingham continues the solid strategy gameplay first introduced by Brass: Lancanshire. Taking the role of an ambitious entrepreneur during the Industrial Revolution, your job is to develop coal mines, ironworks, and other industries in an attempt to build a vast empire of wealth and influence. Your various properties can also be linked by boat or by rail, giving you access to additional resources and providing a market where you can sell your goods. The learning curve can be a bit steep, but once you've waded into the waters, you'll be eager to dive back in again and again as you perfect your strategy. A great add for any board game fan!
Comic of the Year
Thanos Wins - In Thanos Wins, Thanos is ripped from his timeline by a mysterious entity to help solve a problem. And, because he’s Thanos, he finds a solution alright: a brutal, brilliant, remorseless solution. To quote the first few pages of the book: “In the known universe, with all of its endless wonder and power, there exist a select few who are widely agreed upon – by those who calculate such things – to be the mightiest beings in all existence. I am very sure you know who they are. However, there is something inside of these champions that you do not know. A secret truth that each of them carries in the darkest and most hidden parts of their soul. The fear… the certainty… that they will lose. That someday, despite their strength and their courage… everyone… and everything… will die. And if you were to ask these gods, these avengers and destroyers, how they believe this marvelous universe of ours will arrive at that bloody and inevitable end? With a trembling voice, and a heavy and honest heart… they would all tell you the exact same thing. Thanos wins.” It only gets more metal from there! (Lowfat)
Honorable Mention
The Unbelievable Gwenpool - In The Unbelievable Gwenpool, a young girl named Gwen Poole leaves the real world and finds herself stuck in the Marvel Universe. She has no powers and no money, but she knows all the strengths, weaknesses, and secret identities of every character in the Marvel Universe. And she knows she’s in a comic book. Her comic book. The story easily bounces from philosophy to action as it explores a world in which the boundaries are literally thin, black lines that can be erased. What would you do if, when faced with danger, you could simply skip to the next page and into an entirely new scene? Gwenpool is colorful and charming, and it’s a pleasure to watch her team-ups and adventures go awry as she learns every lesson the hard way. Don’t miss any of the five volumes! (Lowfat)
Video Game of the Year
God of War - This year we were certainly treated to a handful of highly anticipated titles, including Rockstar's Red Dead Redemption 2 and the spectacular arrival of Insomniac Studio's Spider-Man. However, one game managed to tower over the others, telling an epic and gorgeous story while transforming one of the most recognizable figures in gaming. God of War is a bona fide masterpiece, with superb storytelling, breathtaking graphics (with no loading screens!) and a crisp combat system that will keep you coming back to battle valkyries, draugrs, and gods.
The exclusivity of this release sparked a wave of new PS4 purchases, particularly the PS4 pro, and captured the attention of the gaming community for weeks. It's a must-have for any PS4 owner. (Mithrandiel)
Return of the Obra Dinn - Amidst the deluge of triple A titles featuring their gorgeous graphics, expansive open worlds, emergent gameplay, and spoon-fed stories, one game stood out to me as the height of innovation in gameplay and storytelling - Return of the Obra Dinn. This game featured some of the best puzzle solving mechanics and an engaging story told through a series of still frames given to you out of order and with little context that still manages to give you a full sense of the events that occurred. It's not the prettiest game, it's not the longest game, and it's not the biggest game, but it did everything so perfectly that it deserves the title of Game of the Year for me. (TheJewphin)
Honorable mentions
Celeste - I am a sucker for platformers - especially ones that continuously teach you mechanics and then force mastery of them. Celeste gains the spot of Honorable Mention for me by being a great precision platformer with tight controls, excellent mechanics progression, and a wonderful music and art direction. And that's not even considering the beautifully told narrative of a girl climbing a mountain in order to regain some semblance of confidence in herself while battling her inner demons. (TheJewphin)
Dead Cells - Just when you thought a metroidvania game couldn't surprise you, Dead Cells comes through and helps to reinvigorate the genre. With a perfect balance of encouraging speed and exploration, fantastic controls, and ridiculous replay value due to its stunningly large armory of weapons and skills to choose from, Dead Cells has won over thousands of gamers - especially since its arrival on the Switch a few months ago. If you haven't had a chance to play it yet, you definitely should pick it up! (Mithrandiel)
That's it! make sure to share your own picks and thoughts either in the comments below or on our Discord server!
