Every year, we select our favorite games of the cycle, with a slightly different twist than most sites: We focus on the games our community loves! These are the winners of this year’s game awards.
Fexy Awards: The Best Games of 2017
Best Storytelling: Nier Automata
Nier: Automatawas the unexpected hit of the year for many, and we absolutelyloved it. We particularly enjoyed the wonderful exploration of existentialism and discovery of “the self” in the post-apocalyptic android world of 2B and 9S. With a complete and very entertaining compilation of 26endings, and following on the footsteps of its predecessor Nier, Automata’s Yoko Taro managed to deliver yet another powerful and emotional narrative that peaked and delivered 100% of expectations during its “secret” “final” ending “E”.
Best Gameplay: Persona 5
Persona 5had the challenge of following up on an incredibly successful previous installment. Puzzling those unfamiliar with the series, the gameplay is best described as “50% Dungeon Crawler and 50% Visual Novel”. This juxtaposition of genres may be off-putting for some, but we found it engaging, entertaining and ultimately well-executed. Delivering a satisfying turn-based experience that merges seemlessly with its narrative and choice-driven plot, Persona 5 has earned this coveted award.
Best Visual & Audio: Uncharted the Lost Legacy & Horizon Zero Dawn
Whilst an award for Best Audio would have gone to Nier Automata hands down, when visual comes into play there’s something more of a required synergy between the elements to create that special “awe” effect. 2017 saw many graphically beautiful releases, but we feel that only two titles ultimately delivered experiences well above the rest:Uncharted The Lost LegacyandHorizon: Zero Dawn. Both games make excellent use of the Playstation Pro’s 4k capabilities, but also combine it with fantastic voice acting, sound effects and OST.
Best Multiplayer: Warframe
Fextralife users have chosen Warframe as their favorite multiplayer game of the year. The free-to-play MMO has grown exponentially the last year, reaching 30 million users, and the in-game experience has only benefited from it. If you love the idea of making your own Tenno ninja and traversing the space with friends, there’s no other title out now that provides such an accessible yet entertaining playground.
Best Value: ESO Morrowind
Elder Scrolls Online: Morrowindis a bundled expansion that released this year, and offers the base game and the expansion in one box. This means that players could buy not just the base game and it’s thousands of hours of content, but obtain the expansion for the accessible price of USD 40 (It was even discounted to USD 19.99 several times). In a world where Skyrim re-re-remasters want USD 60 from you, we think the full offer of the Morrowind Package was a fantastic deal for those jumping into the Elder Scrolls MMO in 2017.
Best FPS: Destiny 2
Overwatchcontinues to be all the rage, butDestiny 2clearly made its mark on the FPS crowd this year. Newcomers and fans alike jumped in to enjoy the variety of raids and encounters that make for the core of the gameplay, and were pleasantly surprised to find a better-crafted story and exposition, as noted in ourDestiny 2 review.
Best DLC: Dark Souls 3 The Ringed City
Dark Souls 3received its final DLC:The Ringed City, that brought the trilogy to an end (allegedly). We were thrilled to explore this location and discover its secrets,weapons,armorsand of courseenemies, alongside obscure hints for lore enthusiasts.
Of particular note on this DLC was the formidableDarkeater Midirboss, that gave us a fantastic final taste of the Souls dragons.
Game of the Year: Divinity Original Sin 2
Larian Studios once told us that they had to go to kickstarter because they had trouble finding a publisher who would believe in their turn-based old-style RPG ideas. Coming into the sequel to the very well-receivedDivinity: Original Sin, we had high expectations for the title and some fears that we might have overhyped.
Turns out,Divinity: Original Sin 2is one of the most entertaining and well-crafted digital tabletop adventures we have ever played, and weabsolutely loved every second of it. Without doing anything complicated or confusing, the game simply delivers what players want in a game: challenge, creativity, freedom and of course the ability to share all that with your BFFs. Therefore, it has won our Game of the Year award even against other favorites such as Nioh, Nier Automata and Persona 5.
2017 Fexy Community Awards
Forum Member: TheGourd
Although there are many, many forum members who have contributed some excellent postings, and created amazing guides and helpful scenarios, this year’s award goes toTheGourd. We absolutely loved seeing aDark Souls Text Adventuretake off and expand to 165 pages, even taking on a life of its own in a separate discord.
Wiki Contributor: Lapdragon
This was a very difficult choice this year, as many members stepped up their editing game and made some amazing contributions to many wikis.Lapdragonhas been the star of the quite completeThe Surge Wiki, including finding, cropping, naming and adding images and DLC information. Special mentions to DKS3 wiki contributorsConjuri12andR3dn3ck3r, who have been adding useful notes and fixing typos consistently all year.
Blog Author: PrimeraEspada91
Community member and chat moderatorPrimeraEspada91has been dedicated in his creation of helpful guides for the community. Ranging from amazingly detailedDigimon Guidesto step-by-stepUncharted The Lost Legacy collectibles, and delving intoDestiny 2 raids, we have all found one moment or another where his insightful articles have saved our butts. Thank you Primera!
It’s been a great year for gamers with lots of varied releases to keep us all entertained. You can check out a summary of ourGame Reviews of 2017and look forward to a list of upcoming games in 2018 that we are excited about!
Thoughts on our picks for this year’s awards? What were your favorite games of 2017? Be sure to let us know in the comments!
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