The Games Brian Shea Finished In 2017

by Brian Shea on Dec 31, 2017 at 10:00 AM

Each year I relish the opportunity to play through as many games as possible before the calendar turns. I don't look at this solely as a challenge as a gamer, but also a way for me to get as full a picture as possible so that I can make educated statements about the year as a whole in my professional life. I know it's always going to be impossible to keep up with all the big and noteworthy releases each year, but that was especially true in 2017.

Last year, when I did this list for 2016, I reflected back on how amazing games were during that year, but I don't think I could have ever prepared myself for what 2017 would bring. I played plenty of new and exciting experiences, but I also found myself relying on old favorites from last year. Despite my fervor dying down a bit, I still poured over 100 additional hours into Overwatch, my favorite game of last year, and Pokémon Go, a title that continues to deliver a markedly different experience from any game I've ever played. However, I tried to limit my time most nights so that I could experience the goldmine of new releases that 2017 offered.

I'm a huge Zelda and Mario fan, so the fact that I poured hours upon hours into Breath of the Wild and Odyssey came as no surprise. Also Shadow of Mordor was my favorite game of 2014, and Horizon Zero Dawn is so up my alley it isn't funny. Those games didn't catch me off guard. What did shock me, however, is how much I loved Persona 5.

I've tried a few times to get into Persona 4 Golden, but each attempt, I get turned off by the hours of slow-burn dialogue the intro brings. With no idea of how much I'd like the gameplay, I always quit before I even got started in P4G. Persona 5 remedies Persona 4's problems by delivering a more action-packed intro and style oozing out of every last cutscene and menu. Persona 5 also ended up taking the crown of the longest game I've ever beaten. When it was all said and done, my save file clocked in at 124 hours. I loved the experience from start to finish, but I think I'm alright not playing another Persona game for a while after how long this one was. When you look at my list of games I finished in 2017, you'll notice that I went a long time in the middle of the year without beating anything new. That's the Persona 5 effect.

Of course, with so many awesome games hitting this year, I missed out on a ton of quality titles (I'm going to partially blame time-sinks like Persona 5, Yakuza 0, and Breath of the Wild for that). I started Resident Evil 7: Biohazard and Assassin's Creed Origins, but didn't have the time to finish them. The same goes for Hellblade Senua's Sacrifice, Rime, and Nier: Automata. I really hope I have the time to revisit these titles in 2018.

In addition to new games, I also found myself wrapped up in games from yesteryear. I finally got all the way to the end of one of the greatest games of all time, The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, and played titles like Metroid; Zero Mission and Mega Man 2 for the first time (I know, I know. I wasn't a Metroid or Mega Man player growing up). I also finally played a Gen 2 Pokémon game by completing SoulSilver. I attribute my sudden interest in that to Pokémon Go's inclusion of Gen 2 monsters, so with the recent addition of Gen 3 creatures in Niantic's mobile game, I could see myself finally playing Omega Ruby very soon.

I also wrapped up some hanging games from more recent years, like Telltale's first season of Batman and Hyrule Warriors. I'm sure I'll have a few more of those as I look ahead to 2018. I'd like to play the aforementioned Omega Ruby, but I'd also like to try to finally play Zelda: The Minish Cap and Majora's Mask 3D. Also, I would really like to play through games like Nier: Automata, as I know so many people rave about it. I'd also like to come at Mass Effect: Andromeda long after release, now that many of the bugs are fixed, plus I've been waiting for the character-focused expansions of Final Fantasy XV to wrap up so I could dive back in and play those.

For this list, there are no weird restrictions for what counts; as long as I completed them between January 1, 2017 and December 31, 2017, I counted them. I also included single-player or story modes from games you can't traditionally beat, like Madden NFL 18 and Words with Friends 2. Check out my full list below and let me know what you completed in 2017!