With 2020 coming to a close, the video game industry has trekked along with AAA and indie game releases to varying levels of success. This includes the breakout hit Among Us or the anticipated release of Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War coinciding with the next-generation consoles.
A recent blog post from the PlayStation Blog reveals some of the PlayStation developers' favorite video games released in 2020. The listed video games include familiar titles such as Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout, Call of Duty: Warzone, Ghost of Tsushima, Demon's Souls, and more. The PlayStation developers hail from various video game studios, some that players will recognize.
The first pick is Call of Duty: Warzone by Ryan Payton, the director from Camouflaj, and Ramone Russell, the Product Development Communication and Brand Strategist for San Diego Studios. Payton and Russell selected Warzone because of how it seamlessly blended Call of Duty's gameplay mechanics with the battle royale genre. It also provided a nice escapism for them and their respective co-workers during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Next is Demon's Souls, chosen by Jason Connell who worked on Ghost of Tsushima, Ned Waterhouse from Sackboy: A Big Adventure, and Henri Markus working on Returnal. Connell fell in love playing the Demon's Souls remake for the first time, Waterhouse had a blast with the challenging difficulty, and Markus enjoyed playing the remake of one of his favorite games again.
The third game is Doom Eternal, selected by Louis Studdert, producer at Toys for Bob that developed Crash Bandicoot 4: It's About Time. Studdert commented that he loved the previous Doom game describing it as a "breath of fresh air" with the high-octane combat. He enjoyed how the sequel expanded on the core gameplay even further; specifically, how it forces players to think as they move and gun enemies down.
Studdert congratulates the team at id Software for their achievement with Doom Eternal. After that is Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout, which was chosen by directors Hideaki Itsuno from Capcom and Naoki Hamaguchi from Square Enix. Both directors were drawn into the game's wild and fun gameplay, with Itsuno noting the balance of luck, action, and strategy as a fun combination with the focus on interacting with other players.
Ghost of Tsushima was chosen by 5 people who worked on major game releases, including God of War, Godfall, Yakuza: Like a Dragon, Nioh 2, and The Last of Us Part II. Most of their comments praised the game's visceral combat, the technical makeup, the overall world design, the characters, and the music.
The rest of the list included the game Ikenfell, Marvel's Spider-Man: Miles Morales, No Man's Sky, Resident Evil 3, The Last of Us Part II, Tony Hawk Pro Skater 1 & 2, Persona 5 Royal, and Streets of Rage 4. The post concluded with praise for Final Fantasy VII Remake, a second choice for The Last of Us Part II, and two more selections for Ghost of Tsushima. Despite everything that happened in 2020, game developers were able to find joy in the games released this year.
Source: PlayStation Blog