2007 GOTY

This was the first year I got a game magazine subscription and paid attention the industry at large. It marked the point where I went from only noticing Nintendo games, borrowing from friends, or getting stuff because I liked it in a demo kiosk to truly becoming more knowledgeable about the gaming world. As such, it's as far back as I want to go when making lists like this since it's the first year I started viewing gaming this way. I'm also trying to balance this between what I love now and what I loved then. I didn't discover STALKER until years later, but now I love it so I want it on the list retroactively (and bumped it down a few spaces to focus on what I loved the most back then). Conversely, I was current with the Rock Band craze when that was new, but I started with Rock Band 2 and have the best memories with 2, so I'm putting 2 on my 2008 list even though 1 is good enough to qualify for 2007. This thinking does crop up elsewhere on my lists, like including Demon's Souls and Dark Souls in 2009 and 2011, even though Bloodborne was my first Soulsborne game in 2015.