Hades Is Metacritic's Xbox Game Of The Year For 2021

Loved Hades, but was awful at it.

Still haven't found the time to play FH5, but fully intend to do so at some point.

Couldn't understand the fuss over Flight simulator. Yes, graphically it look phenomenal, but man, sitting in the cockpit doing virtually nothing on long flights got very boring very quickly (and I wasn't able to land without crashing anyway!).

Loved It Takes Two. Such an inventive game.

Death's Door was probably my favourite game of the year. Absolutely loved it.

Really enjoying the Halo Infinite campaign on Hardcore. Dreading the time that will be spent on my Legendary run. Some of those end-level bosses are a bugger to beat...

The game of the year is on Game Pass and optimised for Series X/S 😊.

@Fiendish-Beaver "Couldn't understand the fuss over Flight simulator. Yes, graphically it look phenomenal, but man, sitting in the cockpit doing virtually nothing on long flights got very boring very quickly".

A friend at school loved doing exactly that without the realistic graphics so yes, there's something magical about Flight Simulator, for some people at least.

So a multi platform game counts? I don't get these awards and accolades sometimes, atleast just include the actual exclusives/timed exclusives

Especially as hades also scored 93 on playstation 5 and nintendo switch so it's highest scoring for them as well lol

I love Hades, it's it's absolute master piece. I agree, it was the best game released for the xbox followed closely by Forza Horizon 5, after that I'd say Halo Infinite then Psychonauts 2 and finally MS Flight Simulator

It hooked me, way more than I was expecting. I enjoyed it so much I went for the full 1000G. Great game, might never have even tried it if not for Gamepass.

@UltimateOtaku91 metacritic doesn’t distinguish. I think last year it was DQ11s. However FH5 is second this year so we could look at that

@UltimateOtaku91 I think it’s just Metacritic saying “here’s the games that scored the best on this platform.” And since this is an Xbox site, they just listed the Xbox games. If you go to Metacritic you can see each individual system’s highest scoring games as well. I hope that makes sense.

I'm sure Hades is great but I'll never see it because I'm absolutely useless at it. I'm sure I'll beat Meg one day.

Bit premature maybe? I could see Lacuna grabbing top spot by next week.
But joking aside Hades was quality, never did more than one run after beating the final boss but that's about all it offered me as a roguelike.

@Fiendish-Beaver Hey mate. Don’t know how much time you put into Hades but you’re meant to be awful at it at first and you get better yourself and also by upgrading your character. I’ve stuck with it and am still playing well after the credits roll and it’s still adding new stuff and the story is still developing.

Now this is a GOTY list I could get behind. Hades I was new to this year and is definitely my GOTY. Forza and Mass Effect in there too. Still playing it Takes Two and a couple of the others. But I’m going to finish this list off!

I reckon I attempted about 100 runs, @BundyDanger. Sometimes I got pretty far, others not so much. I did get outside once (or maybe twice, cannot quite remember), unlocked everything etc. I got to the point where when I got back to the starting point upon death, most people didn't have anything left to say to me. I think they got bored with me!

I don't doubt, @BlueOcean, it just wasn't for me. Not only was I not particularly good at the game, but once I was airborne, I found it pretty boring, and I only really attempted short runs within the UK. I had wanted to visit places around the world that I had been in real life, but the idea of sitting there doing virtually nothing soon put me off that idea. It just wasn't my thing. I get that some people will find it interesting/enjoyable, but not me...

@Fiendish-Beaver I understand. If you ever want to relax, you can play music and do both things and see if you like that.

@Fiendish-Beaver the real-time weather is pretty amazing. Had fun flying in the hurricane a few months back.

I struggled to keep the plane steady at the calmest of times, on occasion, @Hexamex-Tex, I dread to think how I would have coped in a hurricane....

@Fiendish-Beaver right. I get it. Just was mind blown when I learned the weather was real time.

Wasn't Hades released last year?

@species8472 Not on Xbox.

@Hexamex-Tex It's incredible.

1-4 all available with gamepass Great year!

Yes, Hades plays like a charm, but unlike so many of those review state, it doesn't make me love roguelikes or roguelites. I loathe the lazy game design, I loathe repeating everything again and again - and Hades doesn't change that.

From the PureXbox GOTY poll a few days ago, I see I'm not the only one with this opinion. It's a runner-up at best on this site.

I still truly don't understand the love of Hades the internet gives it. Sure it's pretty, it's well crafted, and it has good action, but it's still just a rogue like every other rogue that's ever come before it. It's either love hate, and mostly the game is literally just repeating the same thing over and over and over again like an old arcade game. It could have been much more amazing not as a rogue. Yes, it's good for what it is, and it's a good rogue, but it's not some trancendental experience, just a rogue with all the infuriating time wasting that goes with it.

If any rogue is transcendental to the rogue experience it's Returnal ,which manages to be interesting enough to make you forget you're repeating yourself as much as you are, though even that may have been better as not a rogue. If only the story weren't high-minded pretentious garbage. But at least the game makes you not care so much because even as a simple arcade shmup like a 3D R-Type, it delivers. Albeit, it shouldn't deliver anything at anywhere near the price it does.

@Pac_Bot Beating Meg is easy. Beating her over and over and over again when you die at the first mook after her however is infuriating and ended all fun I had with the game.

@UltimateOtaku91 I think for Metacritic it's just whatever has the highest aggregate score and is on the platform, it's not like a nominee and vote process like other awards.

Yakuza 6 up there is funny though, I mean, that game is kind of old. It just came to XB, but it's been on PS for like 5 years.... It's like putting Banjo as a Top Switch game because it just arrived on the system....