“Cyberpunk is broken”! “It’s unplayable”! “It’s the worst AAA launch in history”! And it’s my game of the year.
My criteria for my top 10 games of 2020 is below.
In order for a game to make my top 10 games of 2020, it has to be released in 2020 and not a remaster. Remakes count because they’re rebuilt from the ground up and are basically a whole new game. I must have completed the game or sunk an incredible amount of time into them. Early access games do not count and will not make my top 10 games list no matter how much I like them. When they release they’ll count towards my top 10 list of that year.
Cyberpunk 2077 has been piled on since it released. As a matter of fact, the piling on began long before release. Idiot “journalist” from Polygon tried their best to slow the momentum of Cyberpunk by calling it racist and transphobic before they even played the game!
How can you as a “journalist” hate something before you play it? I’m getting distracted though. I’m not here to retread old topics on all of the controversies this game has. I’ve done that already and you can find those pieces here and here.
Cyberpunk 2077 is incredible. This is the only game I played last year that when I finished my session I immediately wanted to get back in and play some more. The side quest is absolutely incredible, the story is incredible, the characters are incredible, and it has good gameplay too! Now this game isn’t perfect by any stretch of the imagination, but it’s no dumpster and it’s not the “worst AAA launch of the generation”.
This game is about as buggy as other open-world games are at launch. I’ve played much worse than this and I’ve played better too. In 100 hours I crashed 3 times. That was the worst thing that happened to me. I fell in love with this game almost as soon as I booted it up. I love driving around and completing random missions that pop up. I loved getting to know the new characters that CD Projekt Red created and I loved murdering everyone with different builds.
In my first playthrough, I was a katana-wielding tank and in my second playthrough, I’m a sneaky intelligence build that can murder everyone on the map with a single contagion hack. I love the build diversity in this game. Cyberpunk 2077 isn’t racist. Nor is it transphobic. I already proved the latter was a lie in a piece I wrote after playing the game for 60 hours.
Cyberpunk 2077 was everything I hoped it would be and kept me entertained for 100 hours before I shelved it. Not many games can do that. Especially open-world games. There’s a lot to do here and I never felt as if I was checking off a box. It all felt natural to me. It’s the cool thing to hate on CD Projekt Red and Cyberpunk 2077, but I honestly haven’t met a single person that hated the game yet. All of the hate is on Twitter and from a vocal minority of players (and non-players) that’s sole purpose is to spread hate and misinformation on the game.
When I started making this list I already knew that this game would be number 1. That’s how much I enjoyed it. Last year I struggled with deciding on if Resident Evil 2 Remake or Total War Three Kingdoms should be my game of the year. This year, it was easy because no game came close to the excellence of Cyberpunk 2077 and I’ll keep on defending and calling out the bullshit when I see it because CD Projekt Red did an incredible job with this game.
Want to catch up with the rest of the list? Click on the links below!
Hi,
I’m Omar. I’m the founder of drakulus.com and the new founder of Petescorner.net. I cover every type of game genre there is and I’m using all of the skills I learned over the last 7 years working on Drakulus to make Pete’s Corner the best it can be. My favorite types of games are strategy, RPGs, and Shooters. That doesn’t mean I don’t enjoy other types of genres. Those are just my top 3. You can expect my brutally honest opinion on what I think of games in long reviews, editorial pieces, and game news coverage.
I haven’t finished it yet but I’m loving it so far. It is definitely one of the buggiest games I’ve ever played though. I can’t count the amount of times it’s crashed, yesterday it crashed 4 times. Not to mention the game breaking bugs I’ve experienced. The AI is also pretty abysmal. Other than that, it’s amazing. The story is gripping, as well as the side quests (when a game makes you care about a vending machine, you know it’s brilliant) and the characters are excellent. I don’t think it’s as good as the Witcher 3, but it’s an amazing game nonetheless.
I can say for certain it won’t be my 2020 GOTY, but it will likely be in the top 3. My GOTY has to go to Ori and the Will of the Wisps, that game was a flawless masterpiece. I’m still annoyed it got snubbed in game awards despite it being one of the highest rated games of 2020. It got more praise than other nominees. Have you played it?
I still haven’t completed the first Ori and I’m honestly in no rush to. 2020 was a pretty poor year for video games. Will of the Wisps is beautiful, but not a game I’m in a rush to play when I have so many other games I want to play through first.
Cyberpunk 2077 ran like a dream for me 90% of the time and I can count on one hand how many times I crashed in 100 hours of gameplay. I don’t like Cyberpunk more than Witcher 3, or 2, but I still thought it was a fantastic game that I wouldn’t mind playing through again once the modding tools drop.
I didn’t watch the Game Awards. It’s a super boring show (like E3) that barely shows the awards being given and is filled with advertisements and other bullshit. Miles Morales shouldn’t have been on the list for GOTY. That should’ve gone to Ori or Final Fantasy 7. I totally agree with you there.
Honestly Will of the Wisps will likely go down as one of my favourites of all time. It improves upon the original in every way, which was already brilliant. I highly recommend it. Music, visuals, story, gameplay, I can’t think of a single fault, it was perfect. I’m guessing you played Cyberpunk on PC then, that’s likely why it ran better. If I had to guess how much it has crashed for me on PS5, it would be around the 30-40 mark in around 40 hours of play. Not to mention the many other countless bugs, it doesn’t run well on console.
I thought 2020 has been one of the better years for video games actually. Definitely better than the last few years.
I’m glad you like it that much. I shelved the series for Hollow Knight and never looked back. Hollow Knight is a much better game imo and I doubt I’ll ever get around to Will of the Wisp at this point. I played Cyberpunk with a GTX 1080 and averaged 55-60 fps 90% of the time. I’ve also played it on an Xbox One S and outside of a frame rate drops it ran fine. I’m convinced that people just love piling on this game to the point of making up lies about it. I’m not saying the performance issues are a lie. They’re obviously not, but the other stuff definitely is. The 100 hours I played on Cyberpunk were on my PC because that’s where I game at. My consoles are just for show.
2020 was definitely a bad year for gaming to me. Nothing outside of a few games really gripped me. This is probably the weakest top 10 list I’ve ever done.
I shelved Ori for Hollow Knight and never looked back. It’s the better game and I prefer that visual style over Ori’s. I doubt I’ll ever get around to playing Will of the Wisp, but I’m glad you like it so much. I’m prepping for another run in Bloodstained because I really enjoyed that. I’d rather do that than jump into Ori. Who knows… maybe someday right :-).
Yes, I played Cyberpunk on PC and I loved almost every moment of it. I’m convinced the Internet has a vendetta against Cyberpunk and “journalist” have even resorted to making up lies about the game to get clicks. That’s off-topic though. It’s like the Pokemon “controversy” to me. Completely overblown and only a small minority out of the millions of people that bought the game are complaining about it. I understand wanting a game to perform well, but I’ve personally seen this game in action on a base Xbox One S and outside of the frame issues it ran fine. I haven’t met a single person (outside of that random asshole at Gamestop today) that hated this game or complained about the last-gen ports. It really sucks that your game is giving you so many issues. Especially on new hardware! I remember the Witcher 3 being a dumpster fire at launch too and they eventually fixed that game.
2020 was definitely a disappointing year for video games for me. This has to be the weakest top 10 list I’ve ever done lol.