The best games of 2017

It had just turned April when we declared that 2017 was a great year for video games. The post-holiday quarter is usually fairly quiet for new releases, but in 2017 it brought us legitimate contenders for game of the year in The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, Horizon Zero Dawn and Persona 5 -- and that's not to mention Resident Evil 7's return to form. Now the year is almost over, and we've had a stunning Mario game, another great Wolfenstein title and even an Assassin's Creed game that exceeded all expectations. Getting an entire editorial team to agree on just one game is tough, and ultimately not that fun, so we didn't try. Instead, we each picked the one game that stood out to us the most -- avoiding duplicates -- and then named the title we're most looking forward to for 2018. I never expected that an Assassin's Creed game would end up being one of my favorite games this year. But yes, Origins really is that good. I didn't think I'd have patience for yet another massive open-world game, let alone one in a franchise that's embodied the worst elements of big-budget game development.