It's that time of year again! We're seeking to crown a Pure Xbox Game of the Year for 2021, and in order to do that, we're going to need your votes for the best Xbox games of the past 12 months — only the top ten will make the final cut!
We'll publish the full top ten here at Pure Xbox on Christmas Day, but we'll need some time to put it together — so we're asking if you can submit your votes by Friday, December 17th. If the game you want to vote for isn't in the poll below, choose the 'Other' section and write it in the comments instead. Don't worry, it'll still be counted!
Get those votes going, everyone — may the best game win!
What Is Your Xbox Game Of The Year 2021? (Select Up To 5 Games) (5,328 votes)
Would be interesting to see a poll of games exclusive to the Xbox eco-system too, @FraserG. Granted, Halo will win, but removing cross-platform games would give an unfiltered view of the most popular Xbox games, rather than those that can be played anywhere...
Hades, Halo, Forza, Psychonauts in no particular order + Sable! The audio bugs and framerate problems on Series X were annoying, but even still, the exploration and writing were so great, I really didn't want this game to end. For being a Breath-of-thd-Wild-like game, I felt more invested in the narrative, characters, and ending than I ever did in Zelda.
As much as I enjoy these goty votes they are pretty silly on the basis I only played a handful of that list but am influencing the final result. To be fair I probably played what will be the top 10. My order being: 1. Hades 2. It Takes 2 3. Halo Infinite 4. Psychonauts 2 5. Back 4 Blood
I usually use these lists to influence what games I need to play that I may have missed through the year
Haven't played many Xbox games this year, only got my Series S a month ago. But Forza 5 and Halo Infinite are on my list. Also really enjoyed The Artful Escape. Its not heavy on actual gameplay but it's a great experience. Especially with headphones.
Hades for me. It's such a polished, fun and challenging game that does some really interesting things with its story and has a solid sense of progression to it.
I enjoyed Forza Horizon 5 a lot and I am enjoying Grim Dawn so they would be my runner ups.
I imagine Halo Infinite will win by a large margin but personally as someone with no history or attachments with the franchise I personally find it to be a pretty average shooter. Granted a very polished and well presented one but it just felt ... well a little dull to me.
Absolutely agree, @Ihavenomouthandimust. To be clear, I'm not advocating not having this one in the future, but seeing what games exclusive to the platform have proved popular. For example, many will have voted for Mass Effect and Resident Evil (myself included), but if you couldn't vote for those, and we were solely talking exclusive to the Xbox platform, the results could be pretty interesting...
For me, although not all have been played on series x my list would be:
1 psychonauts 2
2 Hades
3 Forza horizon 5
4 control ultimate edition
5 halo infinite (only just reached the open world though so may go up, on here for its mp).
In a supposedly quiet game for years, i've also played metroid dread and still have to play hitman 3, returnal whilst also finishing ratchet and clank and incryption before taking into account games I don't even own yet, like death door, resi 8 or deathloop. It's just an amazing time to be a gamer
1.Halo Infinite
2. Forza H5
3. Hades
4. Back4Blood
5. RE Village
I loved Psychonaughts 2 also but the movement tech sucks. I know that's not the goal with the game but after A Hat In Time and Mario Odyssey, I get bored with slower placed 3D platformers.
From no.1 to 5 for me; Little nightmares 2 Halo Infinite Psychonauts 2 Deaths door Resident evil village If I include other platforms; Little nightmares 2 Halo Infinite Metroid Dread Skyward sword hd Psychonauts 2
The Medium for me as far as exclusives go (I loved every second of it). I enjoy Forza Horizon 5, but not as much as 4. As for Halo, I'm not a fan of the franchise (ditto for Gear of War) so I can't comment on that.
1. The Artful Escape (glad y'all included it) 2. Nier Replicant (don't really think a remake deserves goty but a very excellent game nonetheless) 3. Psychonauts 2 4. Outriders (I know it had lots of issues but the gameplay loop was so goddamn satisfying) 5. It Takes Two (only reason it isn't higher is because I haven't completed it yet)
2. Resident Evil Village (still need to do my Village of Shadows run).
3. Halo Infinite campaign (not played (and may not play) the multiplayer). I would possibly rate this still higher, but haven't yet finished my Hardcore run (some of those mini-bosses are a beast to defeat. Dread to think what they'll be like on Legendary!).
4. Mass Effect Legendary Edition. Loved having an excuse to go back through the games again.
5. Guardians of the Galaxy. Really enjoyed my time with the game.
Honourable mention:
Hades. May have featured on my actual list had I been capable of completing it. I only got outside once or twice, and must have made around 100 attempts to do so. In the end, I just couldn't muster the enthusiasm to try anymore. Great game that properly kicked my arse like no other...
Project Zero Maiden of Black Water because it represents the resurrection of a cult series that had fallen into a coma although it keeps getting ignored by Pure Xbox.
@BlueOcean I promise it's not something we're ignoring (we reviewed it last month), there's just only so much room on the list and there's not much else to really say about it right now.
Disco Elysium and Control Ultimate Edition were my top picks this year.
My biggest letdown was Forza Horizon 5. It just didn't meet my (possibly too high) expectations. Halo Infinite similarly failed to impress, but it's undoubtedly a good game nonetheless.
This list just shows me I haven't really played any new games this year.
Played a bit of Psychonauts 2 as part of Game Pass Club, but didn't really like it so abandoned it pretty quickly and another 6 or 7 I've loaded up just to get reward points. Got a few in the backlog, some on the Wishlist and more on my Game Pass play later list, but likely be sometime in 2025 that I'll be able to tell anyone what my game of 2021 is 😂
Psychonauts 2 Forza Horizon 5 Halo Infinite The Ascent Hades
As much as I love Forza and Infinite, Psychonauts was a sequel that was long overdue and did not disappoint in any way. The Ascent was an awesome mix of RPG and twin stick shooter and looked absolutely incredible. I was upset when it was over because there wasn't really any replayability. Hades was awesome but we all knew that for a year before release.
@FraserG Thank you for your reply. The game has been ignored in most articles and polls and was reviewed by someone that didn't really appreciate it (any mediocre indie game has been rated higher). Of course, not everybody has to like the game and it's not the best in the series but I think that the way it has been ignored and reviewed is discouraging because it's going to be difficult to get more entries remastered with the poor support it received from most sites. At the end of the day, it's a cult series that has returned to Xbox after 17 years and there's nothing like it. Every other horror game tends to be gory except Silent Hill that is also missing.
It's hard to fully 100% support one game to be the best, as I think all of them have some meh-things about them. Forza has too many online connectivity problems, and as satisfying as Halo Infinite plays, it misses a bit of creativity. So my top 5 would be:
1. It Takes Two 2. Halo Infinite 3. Forza Horizon 5 4. Psychonauts 2 5. Twelve Minutes
Seeing that I only bought a Series S last week to round out my PS5 and Switch, I gotta say Halo Infinite, Forza Horizon 5, and Death's Door (which I actually started on Switch but bought it on SX to support Acid Nerve.
I needed a lot more than 5 to pick but if I had to narrow it down, it's FH5, Halo, Psychonauts2, and then added Lost Judgement even though I haven't played it yet since I know the Yakuza format and know it's a guaranteed pick, and Arise, because, same for the Tale series. But there's half a dozen other games I could have picked, too.
If anything this highlights the importance of services like Game Pass, and other similar services. Just this list alone, which is only a small sampling of the tons of games out this year, and this was a REALLY thin year for games compared to most, is more than anyone could ever afford to buy reasonably, let alone actually play through all of them. If they industry wants to keep offering enormous amounts of games more than anyone could realistically play or buy, we really need models like Game Pass to offer a way to reasonably pay a price an experience broad swaths of what the industry has to offer that we otherwise would simply ignore.
Comments 48
Lawnmower Sim!!! 100%!!!
MASS EFFECT trilogy remastered trilogy utter class from days gone by.
1. Hades
2. Forza Horizon 5
3. Psychonauts 2
4. MS Flight Simulator
5. Halo Infinite
1. Halo Infinite
2. Mass Effect Legendary Edition
3. Scarlet Nexus
Would be interesting to see a poll of games exclusive to the Xbox eco-system too, @FraserG. Granted, Halo will win, but removing cross-platform games would give an unfiltered view of the most popular Xbox games, rather than those that can be played anywhere...
Hades, Halo, Forza, Psychonauts in no particular order
+
Sable! The audio bugs and framerate problems on Series X were annoying, but even still, the exploration and writing were so great, I really didn't want this game to end. For being a Breath-of-thd-Wild-like game, I felt more invested in the narrative, characters, and ending than I ever did in Zelda.
As much as I enjoy these goty votes they are pretty silly on the basis I only played a handful of that list but am influencing the final result. To be fair I probably played what will be the top 10.
My order being:
1. Hades
2. It Takes 2
3. Halo Infinite
4. Psychonauts 2
5. Back 4 Blood
I usually use these lists to influence what games I need to play that I may have missed through the year
Only voted for 4 as my fifth one wasn't in the list.
My top 5 in order were
1. Tales of Arise
2. Resident Evil Village
3. Ratchet and clank Rift Apart
4. Forza Horizon 5
5. It takes two
@Fiendish-Beaver I think it's a good way to see how well the Xbox exclusives stand out to other third party games. Also I'm full Halo infinite lol
@UltimateOtaku91 im going to play ratchet and clank when it comes to xbox lol
Haven't played many Xbox games this year, only got my Series S a month ago. But Forza 5 and Halo Infinite are on my list. Also really enjoyed The Artful Escape. Its not heavy on actual gameplay but it's a great experience. Especially with headphones.
@Ihavenomouthandimust lol I know it shouldn't be in that list but honestly nothing else in that list I really liked apart from the 4 I mentioned
Hades for me. It's such a polished, fun and challenging game that does some really interesting things with its story and has a solid sense of progression to it.
I enjoyed Forza Horizon 5 a lot and I am enjoying Grim Dawn so they would be my runner ups.
I imagine Halo Infinite will win by a large margin but personally as someone with no history or attachments with the franchise I personally find it to be a pretty average shooter. Granted a very polished and well presented one but it just felt ... well a little dull to me.
Absolutely agree, @Ihavenomouthandimust. To be clear, I'm not advocating not having this one in the future, but seeing what games exclusive to the platform have proved popular. For example, many will have voted for Mass Effect and Resident Evil (myself included), but if you couldn't vote for those, and we were solely talking exclusive to the Xbox platform, the results could be pretty interesting...
For me, although not all have been played on series x my list would be:
1 psychonauts 2
2 Hades
3 Forza horizon 5
4 control ultimate edition
5 halo infinite (only just reached the open world though so may go up, on here for its mp).
In a supposedly quiet game for years, i've also played metroid dread and still have to play hitman 3, returnal whilst also finishing ratchet and clank and incryption before taking into account games I don't even own yet, like death door, resi 8 or deathloop. It's just an amazing time to be a gamer
1.Halo Infinite
2. Forza H5
3. Hades
4. Back4Blood
5. RE Village
I loved Psychonaughts 2 also but the movement tech sucks. I know that's not the goal with the game but after A Hat In Time and Mario Odyssey, I get bored with slower placed 3D platformers.
From no.1 to 5 for me;
Little nightmares 2
Halo Infinite
Psychonauts 2
Deaths door
Resident evil village
If I include other platforms;
Little nightmares 2
Halo Infinite
Metroid Dread
Skyward sword hd
Psychonauts 2
The Medium for me as far as exclusives go (I loved every second of it). I enjoy Forza Horizon 5, but not as much as 4. As for Halo, I'm not a fan of the franchise (ditto for Gear of War) so I can't comment on that.
In order :
Forza
Halo
Psychonauts
The ascent
Cod vanguard
Spligate foe me
1. Halo
2. Forza
3. Quake
4. Psyconauts 2
5. Flight Sim
1. The Artful Escape (glad y'all included it)
2. Nier Replicant (don't really think a remake deserves goty but a very excellent game nonetheless)
3. Psychonauts 2
4. Outriders (I know it had lots of issues but the gameplay loop was so goddamn satisfying)
5. It Takes Two (only reason it isn't higher is because I haven't completed it yet)
Haven't played enough to have a good take on this as I've replayed far too many FPS boost titles.
But it's been a great year of gaming on Xbox.
FH5, everything else is a distant second
I went with:
1. Death Door. Lovely game. Highly recommended.
2. Resident Evil Village (still need to do my Village of Shadows run).
3. Halo Infinite campaign (not played (and may not play) the multiplayer). I would possibly rate this still higher, but haven't yet finished my Hardcore run (some of those mini-bosses are a beast to defeat. Dread to think what they'll be like on Legendary!).
4. Mass Effect Legendary Edition. Loved having an excuse to go back through the games again.
5. Guardians of the Galaxy. Really enjoyed my time with the game.
Honourable mention:
Hades. May have featured on my actual list had I been capable of completing it. I only got outside once or twice, and must have made around 100 attempts to do so. In the end, I just couldn't muster the enthusiasm to try anymore. Great game that properly kicked my arse like no other...
@UltimateOtaku91 for real though I can't wait to play ratchet and clank when I get a ps5
Project Zero Maiden of Black Water because it represents the resurrection of a cult series that had fallen into a coma although it keeps getting ignored by Pure Xbox.
@BlueOcean I promise it's not something we're ignoring (we reviewed it last month), there's just only so much room on the list and there's not much else to really say about it right now.
@Fiendish-Beaver Yep, I think that'd be interesting too! Might be something we can do at a later date — leave it with me.
I'm a huge Forza fan boy but Horizon 5 is a flop for me. Hugely complicated interface with loads of multi-player flaws
Disco Elysium and Control Ultimate Edition were my top picks this year.
My biggest letdown was Forza Horizon 5. It just didn't meet my (possibly too high) expectations. Halo Infinite similarly failed to impress, but it's undoubtedly a good game nonetheless.
Thank you, @FraserG.
1. Resident Evil Village
2. Forza Horizon 5
3. Halo Infinite
4. Guardians of the Galaxy
5. Psychonauts 2
This list just shows me I haven't really played any new games this year.
Played a bit of Psychonauts 2 as part of Game Pass Club, but didn't really like it so abandoned it pretty quickly and another 6 or 7 I've loaded up just to get reward points. Got a few in the backlog, some on the Wishlist and more on my Game Pass play later list, but likely be sometime in 2025 that I'll be able to tell anyone what my game of 2021 is 😂
My votes were for:
1. Halo Infinite
2. Forza Horizon 5
3. Hades
4. Psychonauts 2
5. Death's Door
Honorable mentions for:
-Life is strange
-WRC 10
-Forza Horizon 5
-Lake
-Art of Rally
1. Forza 5 (by a country mile)
2. It takes two
3. Psychonauts
4. Halo Infinite
5. Ascent
1. Psychonauts 2
2. Halo Infinite
3. FH5
4. Mass Effect
5. Outriders
Psychonauts 2
Forza Horizon 5
Halo Infinite
The Ascent
Hades
As much as I love Forza and Infinite, Psychonauts was a sequel that was long overdue and did not disappoint in any way. The Ascent was an awesome mix of RPG and twin stick shooter and looked absolutely incredible. I was upset when it was over because there wasn't really any replayability. Hades was awesome but we all knew that for a year before release.
Gonna chuck in chernobylite for me, YES it has a few issues but I just love the game.
Forza
Halo
MS Flight Sim
Hades
It Takes 2
Pretty good year on Xbox.
Halo Infinite is an AWESOME game rn. Absolutely love it.
I haven’t actually played that many games released this year, yet. Out of the ones I’ve played my favourite is Far Cry 6, followed by Forza Horizon 5.
@FraserG Thank you for your reply. The game has been ignored in most articles and polls and was reviewed by someone that didn't really appreciate it (any mediocre indie game has been rated higher). Of course, not everybody has to like the game and it's not the best in the series but I think that the way it has been ignored and reviewed is discouraging because it's going to be difficult to get more entries remastered with the poor support it received from most sites. At the end of the day, it's a cult series that has returned to Xbox after 17 years and there's nothing like it. Every other horror game tends to be gory except Silent Hill that is also missing.
Not on the above list is Sable for me. The story, the exploration and so visually stunning. I spent many hours hunting down all the chum eggs.
It's hard to fully 100% support one game to be the best, as I think all of them have some meh-things about them. Forza has too many online connectivity problems, and as satisfying as Halo Infinite plays, it misses a bit of creativity. So my top 5 would be:
1. It Takes Two
2. Halo Infinite
3. Forza Horizon 5
4. Psychonauts 2
5. Twelve Minutes
Seeing that I only bought a Series S last week to round out my PS5 and Switch, I gotta say Halo Infinite, Forza Horizon 5, and Death's Door (which I actually started on Switch but bought it on SX to support Acid Nerve.
I needed a lot more than 5 to pick but if I had to narrow it down, it's FH5, Halo, Psychonauts2, and then added Lost Judgement even though I haven't played it yet since I know the Yakuza format and know it's a guaranteed pick, and Arise, because, same for the Tale series. But there's half a dozen other games I could have picked, too.
If anything this highlights the importance of services like Game Pass, and other similar services. Just this list alone, which is only a small sampling of the tons of games out this year, and this was a REALLY thin year for games compared to most, is more than anyone could ever afford to buy reasonably, let alone actually play through all of them. If they industry wants to keep offering enormous amounts of games more than anyone could realistically play or buy, we really need models like Game Pass to offer a way to reasonably pay a price an experience broad swaths of what the industry has to offer that we otherwise would simply ignore.
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