My (and your) games of the year. (Gaming)

by cheapLEY , Sunday, December 27, 2015, 16:41 (3254 days ago)
edited by cheapLEY, Sunday, December 27, 2015, 16:46

Another year has passed, and it's been a great one as far as gaming is concerned. So let's talk about it! What did everyone play this year? What did you like? What did you not? What did you miss?

I'm not going to go too in-depth or cover everything, but I'll pick a few highlights for me this year. There will be a few that came out before this year, just because this is the year I finally played it.

In no particular order:

The Taken King is an obvious pick considering where we're at; there's no need to really talk about it. It's an overall fantastic release with a lot of good experiences.

Halo 5, likewise, has been discussed quite a bit here, and I think everyone knows where I stand (I know Korny certainly does! :P ). I think it's great, and the multiplayer is the most fun I've had with online Halo since Halo 3, despite not actually having played it that much.

The Witcher III is another obvious pick. It's winning GotY awards all over the place, and it's well deserved in my opinion. I still haven't finished the game, but even so, it's probably my overall favorite release this year. It's just amazing.

Rise of the Tomb Raider. Basically just more of the same following the 2013 reboot, which isn't a bad thing. The prettiest game on Xbox One by a wide margin. The combat gets a bit frustrating towards the end (that stupid helicopter segment), but the movement and exploration and platforming are fun. Overall a really enjoyable experience, and I really appreciated the way it balanced freedom and exploration with providing a focused experience. It hit a really nice middle ground for me that allowed me to explore and find and complete the Challenge Tombs, then move on through the story. I played for a little less than 30 hours at the finish of the story, and I haven't touched it since. It's nice to have a game that doesn't expect you to put a hundred hours in to finish.

Starbound is my jam right now. Picked this up in the Steam sale a few days ago and haven't played anything else since. I hated Minecraft and never played Terraria, so I don't have much experience with a game like this. Fallout 4's settlements we interesting, though, and made me look into that sort of exploration/crafting type game, and Starbound looked the most interesting with its addition of space travel and ship upgrading. I've found myself putting hours into it with my Disocver Weekly Spotify playlist in the background, and it's the most relaxing game experience I've had it quite a long time.

Undertale is another I haven't finished yet, but the soundtrack alone is enough to make me love it. The game itself is interesting and pretty fun in its own way (even though I suck at the bullet hell combat stuff, and it's started to prove sort of frustrating).

Tales from the Borderlands is the only game I might enjoy more than The Witcher 3. It only loses because it's not actually much of a game (and in fact, I wish it were LESS of a game. I'd love a version of this game without the parts where I actually have to DO stuff. Take out the small walking around parts, ditch the QTEs, and just let me make the dialogue choices and it'd be perfect for me). They really nailed the Borderlands style and humor. I'm only up to Episode 4.

Life is Strange is a stronger game to me than Tales from the Borderlands. I like Tales more, but the actual gameplay and exploration works for me in Life is Strange in a way that it definitely just gets in the way for me in Tales. I hated the ending, but the rest of the experience was so strong that it doesn't really detract from my love of the game as a whole.

Games that I missed out on altogether, but want to play:

Bloodborne. I loved the Souls games, but I don't have a PS4. When I (hopefully) get one this year, Bloodborne will be at the top of my list of games to buy for it.

Rocket League. Again, no PS4. I've played it at a friend's and loved it, and I can't wait for the Xbox One release!

Sunset Overdrive. I know this is a 2014 game, but I missed it then, and I intended to pick up this year, but missed it again. It just sort of fell by the wayside. Maybe I'll get around to it next year.

Biggest disappointments:

Only two real standouts in this category for me:

Battlefront III. It's fun, but after about five hours the experience is pretty thin. It's gorgeous and sounds amazing and feels more like Star Wars than any game I've ever played; there's just not enough there. And even if there was, I've lately been moving away from competitive online games. The days where I want to sit down for hours and play online against people are long gone. Despite how good it is, I can only play a few matches in Halo 5 before I start to get a bit bored, so Battlefront doesn't even have a chance.

Fallout 4 may be a surprising choice for disappointments, but it certainly was for me. I enjoyed the game, but for some reason, it didn't grab me in the way that every other Bethesda game has. It's an enjoyable game, but just ultimately proved too shallow for me at the end of the day. Every quest is just kill everything to clear the building. It has perhaps the best world-building and story through environment that Bethesda has ever done . . . there are just not enough compelling gameplay experiences to make me want to continue exploring. I put well over 200 hours into every other Bethesda game; I put Fallout 4 away after less than 50. I'm sure I'll revisit it when mods hit the Xbox One, if only just to see what they're like.

Alright, this turned into a longer post than I intended, but there it is. Now let's hear what you've got!