【Exploring The Jungle Between My Wife’s Crotch】

We’re at the halfway point of 2017,Exploring The Jungle Between My Wife’s Crotch so all this week Mashable entertainment will be rolling out our 8.5 (Get it, half of ’17?) picks for the best of the year – so far! – in movies, TV, music, and more. It’s our eight best picks for you, along with a bonus choice that, while not strictly one of the greats, deserves a guilty pleasure mention. Enjoy.

1. Resident Evil 7, Jan. 24th

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It's still not clear how Resident Evil VIIturned out so well. The sixth numbered game in the series was a bloated mess. Early looks at this sequel's VR support were rife with anecdotal accounts of crippling nausea. The wholesale shift to a first-person perspective seemed like a tough sell for a game whose horror has traditionally hinged upon strong virtual camera work.

And yet. Forget the horror: Resident Evil VIIis a sensational video game, period. It leans in on series lore just enough to satisfy fans while delivering a refreshingly different setting and vibe. The game's backwoods horror falls short of Rob Zombie-esque torture porn, but it embraces similar visual sensibilities. The result is a constantly unsettling near-masterpiece of video game horror.

2. Nier: Automata, Feb. 23

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Nier: Automata, an obscure Japanese sequel to an even more obscure game, came out of nowhere in late winter and spread like wildfire through passionate word of mouth. This science-fiction action-RPG has a heaping amount of existentialist angst, intense battle sequences, and purposefully mysterious game mechanics. You are an android 300 years into the future, cleaning up Earth from rebellious robots so the humans stationed on the moon can return. But there is, oh, so much more.

Coming from Platinum Games, Nier: Automatamarries much of what the studio does best into an exceptional package. It has the hack and slashing of Bayonetta(though simpler), the bullet storm of Vanquishand the bombastic storytelling that players have come to expect from the developer. It isn’t perfect; the side missions are boring, the story is a bit too long, and the action can be too easy at times. Still, this one's great to play if you want a compelling story with super fun gameplay.

3. Horizon Zero Dawn, Feb. 28

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Horizon: Zero Dawnand The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wildfeel like two sides of the same coin. Both are open world adventures and both place a premium on giving players the tools to craft their own stories. But where Zeldagoes for a sprawling physics simulation, Horizoninstead delivers a thought-provoking sci-fi concept wrapped around a world inhabited by a scary-smart ecosystem of robot dinosaurs.

Those dinosaurs are everything. Some of them are harmless, others are walking death fountains. You can ride them, you can befriend them, you can hack them to bits -- and then collect all the pieces so you can craft more dino-hunting gear. Strip away everything else that's good about Horizon and you're still left with a stunning world that's always hard to leave.

4. Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, March 3

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The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wildis the ultimate expression of Zelda, capturing the sense of adventure and blind exploration that the series originally brought to the NES in 1986 but ramping it up with one of the most colorful and compelling open worlds ever created.

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Every piece of Breath of the Wild’s immense map has something waiting to be discovered, whether it’s a group of bokoblins guarding a treasure chest, a horse ranch with a smattering of quests to embark on, or a run-down colosseum stocked with challenging enemies and hard-earned treasures. Paired with the omnipresent drive to fight back the evils that have ravaged and grabbed ahold of Hyrule, the inventive Divine Beast dungeons, the colorful characters of Hyrule, and the sheer diversity of experiences packed within, it’s an easy game to sink 100 hours into without feeling like it drags on.

5. Persona 5, Sept. 15

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Don't mistake Persona 5's slow pace as a shortcoming. There's a big story here, driven largely by the relationships you foster with an ever-growing cast of colorful characters. During the 100 hours or more it takes to complete this game, you form real emotional attachments to the people around you. And thanks to some clever RPG systems, you actively seek out those attachments because they also help empower your game.

Alongside all that is some of the most striking art design we've ever seen in a video game. Most JRPGs jumble a bunch of very different systems together and Persona 5 is no exception. But it's all tied together so artfully -- and with such a strong acid-jazzy soundtrack providing the backbeat -- that you're always edging forward in your seat to see what happens next.

6. Prey, May 5

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Prey, a first-person shooter set on a space station, is a super difficult game. In fact, for the first 10 hours, you'll be crouching in the space station's corners, hiding as best as you can from the shadowy alien creature things that are as tough as they are creepy.

And while Arkane Studios' game doesn't deliver on all the promises it makes throughout your journey, it's a worthwhile experience to watch and listen to the story as it unfolds. You'll pick up audio recordings and read emails that reveal the mysteries of what the hell happened aboard the Talos I space station. And you'll eventually get powerful enough to take on the shadow beasties.

7. Everspace, May 25

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Everspaceis going to come out of nowhere for a lot of people. It mashes together the sensibilities of a "roguelike" -- randomly generated play spaces in which you die frequently -- with the moment-to-moment play of a space combat sim.

Basically: if you'd like to see what the unholy child of FTLand Wing Commanderwould look like, it's this. In Everspace, you explore a series of increasingly dangerous star systems as you search for sweet loot and useful resources while blasting enemy fighters into space dust. And all of that plays out in expansive outer space locations that are brimming with beautifully rendered detail.

8. Arms, June 16

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Armstakes the fighting game genre in an entirely new direction with a weirdly charming Nintendo spin. Instead of the fast-paced fights of Super Smash Bros. or the combo-laden brawls of Street Fighter, Armsslows down the combat with the characters’ springy, extendable arms (the game’s namesake) that launch semi-slowly across arenas. It’s a really nice change of pace for the fighting game genre.

With tons of different arms to choose from -- each with their own characteristics and abilities -- and a handful of colorful, fun, and downright bizarre fighters to play with (read: Helix), Armshas just enough depth to keep things interesting despite its relatively simplistic combat system. Both the motion controls and traditional button controls add an additional layer of satisfaction that comes with landing punches and grabbing opponents. It’s a fun take on boxing that’s even better with someone else playing on the couch with you -- whether you’re fighting alongside them or trying to beat them into submission with your weird, springy appendages.

8.5. Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, April 28

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Mario Kart 8 Deluxeis one of the best Mario Kartgames yet, mostly because it’s just an improved version of the already-amazing Mario Kart 8that released on the Wii U just three years prior.

It deserves a spot on this list (as our half-point) because it took everything that made Mario Kart 8great and added even more good content to it for no extra cost: more racers, even more races and racers from MK8'sDLC packages, and a revamped battle mode. MK8 Deluxeditched the terrible battle mode of its predecessor and introduced new and classic battle arenas, a much-needed improvement for competitive multiplayer. Plus, people who never bought a Wii U (a.k.a. most people) now have a chance to play it on Switch with on-the-go multiplayer.

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