Game of the Year 2016: Head to Head Awards Special

It’s been a brilliant year for games with the likes of The Division, Uncharted 4 and Forza Horizon 3 taking our gaming pleasure to new heights. Even the unlikely Pokemon Go gets a look in on our top Games list but which should win?

You get to have your say in our Awards section but to help you decide our gaming experts Sam Pinney and Brett Phipps go Head-to-Head and debate which should title should be crowned Game of the Year.

SAM SAYS…

I’ve gone for Doom. It’s a remake of a classic game but they’ve made everything better. It’s scary, it’s terrifying, you’ll die a lot and it’s incredibly slick. You start playing and before you know it it’s three hours later.

Forza took too long to get to the fun bits, there’s too much in terms of intros and telling me how fun it was going to be without letting me play it but I need to give it a go because it’s such a beautiful game.

The Division is really tough — there are bits of it that are amazing but you spend a lot of the time shooting people who are in the middle of a crisis — nothing is explained, you’re just a soldier who lands and you just start shooting people, so that’s what holds it back.

I probably put 100 hours into Pokemon Go — I’m over it now — but if you compare it to the amount of hours I played any other game, it was good value and I think it’s quite exciting for what it might reveal and also to part of a phenomenon, so it definitely belongs on the list.

BRETT SAYS…

The awards only run from October to October as a lot of the games are tail ended towards the end of the year so it’s difficult but it’s still a very strong list. 

It was between Fozra Horizon 3, Uncharted 4 and Dark Souls 3 in my top three. And I love playing Forza, it’s a game you can play little and often and there’s so much you can do — it’s the most fun you can have in a racing game.

But I’ve gone for Dark Souls. It’s an homage to the entire series — it’s refined and goes back to why it was so great. There’s a lot of strategy and exploration and it’s difficult but there’s no greater sense of accomplishment than when I get past that boss and this is the best they’ve accomplished in the whole series.

As for Uncharted, It was the best they’ve produced by far and it looks unbelievable but it’s the spectacle that always wins the day for Uncharted — I prefer gameplay to be at the core of anything that I play and that’s why Dark Souls is my favourite because I simply play the game without having to wait for cut scenes and things like that.  

You can’t ignore Pokemon Go, when you talk about 2016, you have to acknowledge it because of what it did, it’s just a shame it didn’t evolve.

HAVE YOUR SAY…

So, what do you think? Do you agree with either Sam or Brett or are they both wrong? Don’t forget to have your say by voting for your favourites on the Trusted Awards 2016 page and have a chance of winning a £2,000 arcade games machine.

Thanks for watching and we’ll see you next week for another Head-to-Head Awards special.