I am compelled to disagree that Banjo Kazooie holds up better than The Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time for 1998. That's crazy talk.
I am interested in doing this but do not have the time currently. Ill come back to this later.
EDIT: Here is my own list, limited to games I have actually played. I guess this would be my "Game of the Year" list for the following years, again, from games I have played. Although I tried hard to limit it down to just one game.for each year, sime year were more stacked than others (and this really hurt sometimes). If multiple games are listed, they are considered close to equal in the order they are listed, with first being the highest and each subsequent being like half a point below its previous.If its not on this list, either I didn't play it, or I don't consider it to be equal to or better than what I put here:
1981 - Defender
1982 - Q*bert
1983 - Fortress of Narzod
1984 - Knight Lore
1985 - Super Mario Brothers
1986 - The Legend of Zelda
1987 - Dungeon Master
1988 - Snatcher (the later SEGA CD version is objectively better in nearly every way)
1989 - Tetris
1990 - Super Mario World
1991 - The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past
1992 - Desert Strike: Return to the Gulf
1993 - Brandish 2: The Planet Buster
1994 - Super Metroid, Policenauts
1995 - Panzer Dragoon
1996 - Yu-No: A Girl Who Chants Love at the Bound of This World
1997 - GoldenEye 007, Quake II, Mega Man Legends
1998 - The Ledeng of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, Metal Gear Solid, Half-Life, Panzer Dragoon Saga
1999 - Silent Hill, Shenmue, System Shock 2, Age of Empires II, Dino Crisis
2000 - The Operative: No One Lives Forever, Vagrant Story
2001 - Halo Combat Evolved, Silent Hill 2, Shenmue II, Super Smash Brothers Melee
2002 - Metroid Prime, Resident Evil (Gamecube remake), The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind, Steel Battalion, Panzer Dragoon Orta, MechAssault, Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell
2003 - Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, Star Wars: Jedi Knight - Jedi Academy, F-Zero GX, Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2004 (yeah, it released in 2003)
2004 - Halo 2, Metal Gear Solid 3, Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic II, Need for Speed Underground 2
2005 - TimeSplitters: Future Perfect, Peter Jackson's King Kong: The Official Game of the Movie (unironically a peak game in 2005), Star Wars Republic Commando,
2006 - The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, Battlefield 2142, Metroid Prime Hunters
2007 - Halo 3, Metroid Prime 3 Corruption, Project Gotham Racing 4
2008 - Super Smash Brothers Brawl, Rock Band 2, Mirror's Edge
2009 - Demon's Souls
2010 - Halo Reach, NieR (Gestalt), Battlefield Bad Company 2, Metal Gear Solid Peace Walker, Infinity Blade (yes, the mobile game)
2011 - Dark Souls, Minecraft, Portal 2, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, Earth Defense Force Insect Armageddon
2012 - Forza Horizon
2013 - Battlefield 4
2014 - Dark Souls II, Halo 2 Anniversary (Campaign, as part of Master Chief Collection), Destiny, Danganronpa Trigger Happy Havoc, Danganronpa 2 Goodbye Despair,
2015 - Metal Gear Solid V The Phantom Pain, Yakuza 0, Life is Strange
2016 - Dark Souls III, Factorio, Divinity Original Sin II, Stellaris (its very different now, in a better way IMO)
2017 - NieR Automata, Doki Doki Literature Club!, The Coma: Recut,
2018 - Hyrule Warriors: Definitive Edition, Super Smash Brothers Ultimate, Forza Horizon 4, Deep Rock Galactic, Kingdom Come Deliverance
2019 - Risk of Rain 2, Code Vein, Death Stranding
2020 - Cyberpunk 2077, Baldur's Gate III, Record of Lodoss War: Deedlit in Wonder Labyrinth, Genshin Impact (it was fun for a while)
2021 - Valheim
2022 - Elden Ring, Goddess of Victory NIKKE (I am completely serious with this pick)
2023 - Metroid Prime Remastered, System Shock Remake (I actually backed this game on Kickstarter at one of their higher tiers)
2024 - Helldivers 2
2025 - Elden Ring Nightreign
2026 - (I haven't played any games that released this year that were good enough to be in this list)
You know, writing this all out, gaming really does suck these days. The 90s-10s were absolutely STACKED with bangers.
Morrowind. Its older (should easily runnwell on your rig), and its combat mechanics are more similar to table-talk rpgs (an attack might look like it should hit, but the game internally rolls dice to see if it beats enemy armor etc.), but its an immensely better RPG experience compared to Skyrim.
OpenMW is the most recommended way to play since its a reimplementation of the game engine, fixing various bugs and improving compatibility with modern computer systems while adding some modern features like shadows for terrain and more optimized lighting.
Even if Concord was free, it still would have had less players than Highguard. Nobody wanted to play Concord, at least some people wanted to play Highguard.
Meanwhile Marathon's server slam is down by more than 50% from yesterday, dropping from ~150k to ~55k.
"Dont worry, its a Thursday, just wait until the weekend."
Nah bro, it dropped to its lowest concurrent player count on a Friday. That bodes horrendously badly for its future. And I mean, good. Its a skinwalker anyway (though I really love the artstyle, Graphic Brutalism has always been a favorite of mine since it started popping up in the late 2000s, its not a Marathon game, and my love of its art style isnt enough to carry it alone).
So are they going to do the same thing against EA, ActiBlizz, Epic Games, etc etc? Or is this just "Valve has the most money and we want money and dont actually care about this issue" yet again?
I also liked it, but it doesn't replace the original series. Its just an alternate retelling of the story.
To me, its the same as the Super Dimension Fortress Macross tv series, and the Macross Do You Remember Love? movie. Neither is better or replaces the other, they are just alternate retellings of the same story. In the same way that two different war veterans might describe the same battle differently, even though the same major story elements occur in each.
Helldivers 2 would probably be a good fit. It doesn't have a lot to learn for a player to do well, and if one player is a min-maxing nuisance it won't really effect the rest of the player's experience. It's a cooperative third person shooter. Its hard for one player to take over everything, especially at the higher difficulties.
I have edited my comment with my list for your data gathering pleasure.