Before we get down to the Very Serious Business of revealing GAMINGbible's own top 40 video games of 2020 - no spoilers, so don't even ask - we wanted to poll you lot for your favourite games of the past 12 months. And you voted in your thousands. So thanks for that.
We used Twitter polls to determine our winner - starting with eight groups of four games, moving eight winners through to two semi-final groups of four, and then pitching the two winners of those groups into a head-to-head final. A simple system, for simple times. Let's take a look at how that went, shall we?
---
Advert
THE FIRST ROUND
Group 1
Hades: 17.4%
Final Fantasy VII Remake: 29.4%
Paper Mario: The Origami King: 10.1%
DOOM Eternal: 43.1%
Group 2
Animal Crossing: New Horizons: 24.5%
Yakuza: Like a Dragon: 9.3%
Ghost of Tsushima: 62.5%
Bugsnax: 3.7%
Advert
Group 3
Assassin's Creed Valhalla: 60.4%
Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout: 21.7%
Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 1 + 2: 13.6%
Streets of Rage 4: 4.2%
Group 4
The Last of Us Part II: 71.2%
Astro's Playroom: 17%
13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim: 5.2%
Tell Me Why: 6.6%
Group 5
Ori and the Will of the Wisps: 28.2%
Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot: 18.9%
Resident Evil 3: 45.1%
Little Hope: 7.9%
Group 6
Call of Duty: Warzone: 48.3%
Demon's Souls: 21.9%
Mafia: Definitive Edition: 12.2%
Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War: 17.6%
Advert
Group 7
Half-Life: Alyx: 40.7%
Persona 5 Royal: 23.5%
Valorant: 28.6%
The Pathless: 7.2%
Group 8
Marvel's Spider-Man: Miles Morales: 48.5%
Paradise Killer: 8.6%
Cyberpunk 2077: 41.4%
Necrobarista: 1.4%
No major surprises in the first round. The bigger the game, the better it did, generally speaking. The Spider-Man: Miles Morales versus Cyberpunk 2077 battle was a close one for a while there, before the PlayStation exclusive pulled away. Pitting CoD against CoD was the only way we could really determine which of these FPS juggernauts was your favourite (because no way were we dividing it so they could face off in the final).
It was half a surprise to see Half-Life: Alyx do so well given it's a VR title, but perhaps the draw favoured it. That said, Persona 5 Royal was the first 10/10 ever awarded on these pages; and the second, Hades, also falls in the first round. Smaller titles with small shares of the vote, fear not: we'll be seeing you again in the GAMINGbible GOTY list. Likewise those 10/10s, I suspect.
Advert
---
THE SEMI FINALS
Semi-Final 1
DOOM Eternal: 10.7%
Ghost of Tsushima: 27.6%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla: 28.1%
The Last of Us Part II: 33.6%
Advert
Semi-Final 2
Resident Evil 3: 11.2%
Call of Duty: Warzone: 41.7%
Half-Life: Alyx: 7.7%
Marvel's Spider-Man: Miles Morales: 39.5%
In semi two, Valve's VR masterpiece Alyx couldn't stand the heat of Warzone and the chill of Spider-Man's New York setting, and rather crumbled into fourth place, while Resi 3 just stumbled about the place like one of its own undead nasties. In the end, Call of Duty just snuck ahead of Marvel's magical adventure.
In semi one, things were closer still with three of the four games running each other close, and DOOM Eternal burning out and bringing up the rear by a fair margin. Perhaps the choice of two open-world games of great beauty split the vote somewhat, enabling the more linear The Last of Us Part II to slip into first place. Or, maybe, its victory is down to it being one of the biggest-selling games of 2020. Either, or, I guess. Onto the final, then...
---
THE FINAL
The Last of Us Part II: 54.6%
Call of Duty: Warzone: 45.4%
Well, there it is. Your number one game of 2020, dear readers, is the PlayStation 4-exclusive The Last of Us Part II. Congratulations to developers Naughty Dog - no doubt this accolade will go right up there on their metaphorical mantlepiece beside all those Game Awards they nabbed, the other night. Seven awards, this game walked away with. Seems a bit much, doesn't it. Anyway, here's our 7/10-scored review of the game from earlier in 2020, or you can watch our video review below, and we'll keep you in suspense as to where The Last of Us Part II will place on our own, staff-voted (and then considerably argued over) GOTY list. Merry gaming!
Topics: Xbox, list, Nintendo, PlayStation, PC, Call of Duty, The Last of Us Part 2, Best of 2020