What criteria do you use when determining your Game of the Year? Is it the game you played the most? The game with the best story? The game you spent hundreds of hours mastering every nuance of? For me, many factors are at play, including those just mentioned. But the one defining thread between all of them is the sense of lingering impact they gave me in the moment and beyond. In many cases, those games still have an active presence in my mind and heart and aren’t going away.

Mass Effect 2 might have had to share the spotlight with Super Street Fighter IV in 2010 when I used semantics to try and give both the nod in their own way, but I still remember the former fondly as being one of the single greatest adventures I ever embarked on in a game, while the latter was a phenomenal fighter that served as a turning point for my fighting game career. Skyrim was the consensus pick in 2011, but I don’t regret honouring Catherine instead. The latter still holds a special place in my heart for its novel gameplay and a mature story about infidelity; a subject almost never covered in games. Overwatch is a fantastic shooter that has made a resurgence in my life in recent months, but in 2016, Pokemon Go was the easy Game of the Year choice for me based on how much the game shifted my in-game and real life. I don’t write about the game much now, but I still play Pokemon Go every day with a fervour to catch ’em all.

In 2018, there were a number of games that excelled in many different ways. But when I think about this one particular title, it ultimately stood above the pack for the profound impression it left on me. Long after playing it, I still think about the joy I felt in the moment, as well as the message it conveyed through its experience. My Game of the Year in 2018 is…

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