Another year has come and gone, and with the year's end comes the time for awards. We always have fun thinking back over all of the games we've played over the course of the year, and we hope you do, too.

Our 2016 awards include "year in review" episodes of both our Random Encounter and Retro Encounter podcasts (Rhythm Encounter is saving theirs for our dedicated Music of the Year awards), plus our individual staff picks for the top games we each played, and to finish it off, the Games of the Year category awards. We got more votes than ever for the Readers' Choice awards, and we thank everyone who took the time to vote.

So check them all out as we release them this week — you may come across some hidden gems or a reason to tackle that high-profile game you had been passing on.