so, after playing a few hours of dishonored and original sin I’m happy to say they both deserve a mention on this list.
dishonored is a bit restrained compared to earlier installments but it has none of the “wow, this is good but they functionally didn’t improve at all on the core mechanics or level design of deus ex or thief after a decade” jank of the first game or the scope-issues-making-the-game-feel-less-than-the-sum-of-its-parts of the second, and on balance it’s easily my favourite of the series so far.
original sin 2 isn’t quite the same “people are actually still capable of making meaty, accessible, party-and-turn-based CRPGs!” revelation, nor is it unequivocally the best thing to come out all year like the original was in 2014, but there’s basically nothing in the first five hours that it doesn’t do as well or better. it’s a bit weirder, a totally deserving sequel, and if it’s not the most exciting thing this year it’s probably still the most generous: https://www.polygon.com/2017/5/9/15589492/divinity-original-sin-2-game-master-mode-gameplay-video-dungeons-and-dragons