The Hyper-Prestigious Winners of the Certified Phat Baby GOTY Award
Move over Game Awards. Get outta here Golden Joysticks. There's only one award in this industry that means anything and it's the hyper-prestigious certified Phat Baby GOTY award. Internally, game studios only dream of claiming such a lofty title and here you can see every game that's ever claimed it (starting from 2010 when I wasn't a dumbass child that played licensed games and thought Mario was a dork). So, without further ado, here's the only Hall of Fame that matters...
14 Games
2010 is where my gaming memory becomes a little hazy, mainly because it was the year I started embracing things that weren’t licensed tie-ins or junk I could knab for a quid at a car boot sale. I have three VERY honourable mentions here, as Mass Effect 2, Halo: Reach and Fallout: New Vegas are some of my absolute favourite games of all time. But, goddamn, Red Dead Redemption is just an impeccable work of art. Rockstar really nailed this one. The atmosphere, the gunplay, the beautiful open world. This is the ultimate cowboy fantasy and, better yet, its story is still one of the best ever told in the gaming space. From the beginning of John Marston’s futile adventure to its bold and bloody conclusion, this is Rockstar’s writing as its very best. Not just a stunning video game, but an exceptional western in its own right.
Honestly, what on Earth was in the water in 2011? Dark Souls, Batman: Arkham City, Minecraft, Portal 2, Human Revolution and Saints Row: The Third in one fucking year? That might be the most stacked gaming calendar in recent memory. Much like in 2013 though, the big daddy of the pack is the one that had the most impact on me. Skyrim is landmark RPG and for damn good reason. You can pick holes in it or find gripes, but few other titles offer a sprawling open world so densely populated with things to do. I fell head over heels for Skyrim when I got it back in 2011 and the memories of discovering its various locations, questlines and secrets are permanently lodged in my brain. Booting up Skyrim feels like entering a living, breathing world. Granted, a living, breathing world where people fling every item in their house across the room to tell you about a dragon they saw yesterday, but a living, breathing world all the same.
Honestly, 2012 was the closest toss-up for me. Dishonored vs XCOM Enemy Unknown. Both great games, but I think the former just outclasses the latter. Enemy Unknown is a top-notch strategy experience, but Dishonored was really the moment Arkane stepped out of the shadows and became one of the world’s most underrated studios. It’s slick, it’s stylish and it welcomes players to experiment with the variety of tools it offers to become their own unique brand of supernatural assassin. It’s also home to some of the best world-building since BioShock, creating a universe that, even in subsequent playthroughs, is filled with new things to discover. Dishonored is an exceptional game and one that’s a step above the titles that released alongside it.
Back in 2013, I would’ve sworn to you that Grand Theft Auto 5 was going to be my game of the year. I waited forever for that game. Spent years praying for it. Yet, back then, I don’t think I was prepared for how much I was going to love The Last of Us. Yes, it’s a normie choice, and I’ll admit that Papers Please came very close to unseating it in my ranking, but this game had a pretty profound impact on me when I first played it. It showed me how much narrative potential there was in video games; How much emotion and thematic subtext the medium could convey. It’s not perfect by any means, but it’s a defining experience for games and, in many ways, for me personally. Also, Grand Theft Auto 5 didn’t land with me on a deeper level anyway, so 2013 Callum needed The Last of Us to rock his shit…
2014 was, unfortunately, the dreaded transition period between generations, but that's not to say there wasn't fun to be had. Wolfenstein: The New Order was a superb shooter that I sunk HOURS into, while Shadow of Mordor, Dragon Age Inquisition, Alien Isolation, Titanfall and Infamous: Second Son were a load of fun too. But it was Mario Kart 8 that really took the spotlight. Yes, it’s more Mario Kart, but the eighth mainline iteration of the franchise is the most complete take on the series to date. Incredible tracks, souped-up graphics and refined gameplay make this the quintessential Mario Kart experience and perhaps the best party game ever made.
Much like 2017, 2015 is one of those years that forever left a mark on the history of gaming. Bloodborne cemented FromSoftware as a must-watch developer in the space (and for damn good reason), MGSV went all-out crazy with the open-world freedom and (although I don’t actually care for it that much) Witcher 3 was pretty much all anyone talked about. However, it was Undertale that sunk its hooks into me. Toby Fox is a fucking genius and it doesn’t take long to realise that as you slowly sink deeper and deeper into his colourful subterranean world. What starts as an endearing tale of music-loving ghosts and quipping skeletons quickly becomes a morally probing and thematically-rich narrative that dissects death, relationships and consequence. Fox is a masterful storyteller and the way he uses the interactive nature of games to tell Undertale’s story makes it a truly unforgettable experience (as well as a bloody enjoyable one).
2016 is one of those deceivingly good years. Yeah, you didn’t get a marquee franchise that immediately was in contention for awards, but you got a line-up of top-tier adventures that have stood the test of time in the years since. Three other games were in contention here. Dishonored 2 is Arkane’s magnum opus, even if no one recognizes it, while Dark Souls 3 is FromSoftware at its very best (which is saying a lot) and Inside is a mesmerizing showcase of the medium’s narrative potential. But XCOM 2 snatches it for me. Firaxis’ return to XCOM was already going great, but XCOM 2 builds on everything that made Enemy Unknown superb and doubles down. To me, it launched Firaxis to GOAT status in terms of strategy games, providing an experience that’s impossible to put down, whether you’re invested in its heavy customization or its outstanding combat. I’ve played it for years since it first launched and I don’t think I’ll be stopping anytime soon.
Man, 2017. What a fucking year. Super Mario Odyssey and Breath of the Wild (two legitimate 5/5 games) drop in the Switch’s DEBUT YEAR. We get Prey. Banger. We get Horizon: Zero Dawn. Banger. We get Cuphead. Mega-super-uber-banger. But Persona 5 just tops the list for me. I know, I know. It technically launched in 2016 in Japan, but this was a 2017 release in the UK and US. Simply put, Persona 5 is astoundingly good. A mishmash of so many different RPG styles but somehow the resulting blend is just magic. Incredible characters, amazing combat and an adventure that honestly feels 100% unique to you. Persona is one of gaming’s most important franchises and Persona 5 will always be a phenomenal culmination of everything Atlus has built over the years.
It speaks volumes that God of War eclipsed everything that released in 2018. Spider-Man was a sensational encapsulation of the wall-crawling superhero, Celeste was a confident and complex platforming masterclass and Smash Ultimate was a stunning culmination of one of the industry’s best fighting franchises. 2018 was a PHENOMENAL year, but Sony Santa Monica and Corey Barlog changed the game with God of War. Stripping back Kratos’ bombastic pantheon killing sprees and focusing on a distinctly human adventure was one of the smartest decisions in modern gaming and it’s etched this outstanding reboot into the history books. God of War is a classic in the making and we'll be talking about it for years to come.
2019 was a packed year for games. Outer Wilds was an outrageously smart and surprisingly emotional sci-fi journey, while Resident Evil 2 was one of the most impactful horror experiences in recent memory. However, FromSoftware’s impeccable Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice was undoubtedly the best game to release that year. From the slick combat to the spectacular boss encounters, this was FromSoftware at its very best, channelling everything it learnt from Dark Souls and Bloodborne to create its most satisfying action-packed odyssey. From its story to its gameplay, Sekiro is simply a masterpiece.
2021 was a fucking weird year, wasn’t it? COVID ravaged the Earth, we all got obsessed with Zoom quizzes and Terry Crews played Danganronpa on Twitch. We also had some saucy video games. There were some serious belters in here: Ghost of Tsushima was a striking samurai adventure, Demon’s Souls was a refined re-imagining of a clunky classic and Crusader Kings 3 was a phenomenal strategy experience. But Last of Us 2 stood out for me as the king of the crop. Just Naughty Dog providing a brave and emotionally compelling adventure that forged a challenging new path for the series. It was far from what we envisioned for a Last of Us sequel and was all the better for it.
