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While i liked the first two Witcher games, Witcher 3 was the first of the series that I loved. This massive open world RPG is set in a dark fantasy world where everything kind of sucks. And its your job as the Witcher to make it suck a little less for people by hunting monsters. Oh and the world is ending so you should probably take care of that too Geralt. The Witcher series has always featured mature storylines (Not just sex but that's certainly one of the perks I guess) that touch on topics that just aren't covered in video games. I don't want to discuss the story too much since it is something best seen yourself. However you have probably heard people discussing the Bloody Barron quest line. This is rightfully praised as its one of the best quality story arcs I have seen. Oh and the gameplay is much improved over previous entries in the series. And there is a lot of game here. It took me over 100 hours to finish the game thanks to all the interesting side activities there are to do. The game is not simple hack and slash as preparation and strategy is required to tackle many of the enemies you will face on your journey. While playing this game to completion is a massive time commitment, I can't recommend this game enough as I feel it is certainly worth it.
I hopped on the Souls train pretty late. My first one was Dark Souls II which opened my eyes to how great these games are. Yes I know a lot of folks out there hate Dark Souls II but the added accessibility made it easier to get into the series. Bloodborne is not a Souls game per se, but any veteran of the Souls series will feel right at home with this game. The main difference of this game from the Souls games is that it focuses at fast paced attacking and evading. As opposed to the Souls games that many players play with heavy armor and shields defensively. Now when you get hit you have a short window when you can regain some of that lost health by immediately dealing damage to your attacker. Instead of shields you are equipped with firearms that are mostly effective as a means to parry and stun your enemies for frenzy attacks that deal massive damage. Learning the proper timing and technique to pull this off is necessary to conquer Bloodborne's more difficult tasks. And don't worry friends, Bloodborne has not gone soft on us. It carries over the punishing but conquerable difficulty from the Souls series. If you die you better learn and adapt from your mistakes or you will almost certainly die again. Take it slow and use your head and you just might survive the hunt yet...or maybe you wont.
Life is Strange is an incredible journey that captured me from the very beginning to the very end. I waited for all the episodes to come out before playing past episode 1 since I knew I wouldn't be able to handle the wait for the next episode. This game manages to capture the monotony of everyday high school life while also contrasting that with the insanity of having superpowers and trying to save the world. Life is Strange does things with its story that almost all games are too afraid to do. Some of these are executed better than others, but nonetheless the failed attempts are still commendable. I don't want to spoil anything but there are multiple moments where it was agonizing to make decisions because it felt like there was no right answer. The time rewinding ability of the protagonist Max is a carry over from the same ability in the mediocre game Remember Me. It also serves as the vessel for all the game's puzzles to be completed. However there is an incredible moment where your powers are taken away from you and are forced to handle a critical situation without it which makes you feel powerless in a incredible way. As great as these major moments are, it is perhaps the incredible smaller moments that have no real consequence that make Life is Strange such a great achievement.
Who knew all it took to make soccer bearable was to replace the always flopping humans with nearly indestructible cars with rocket engines. Apparently the guys at Psyonix did and created probably the most pure fun I have had with a video game this year. If you haven't played Rocket League yet you should definitely stop reading this stupid list and go play it...I'll wait. OK great your back. How cool is that game! While there are other ways to play, I found the standard 3v3 to be the right amount of action without getting too chaotic. Whether you are playing offline by yourself with bots or online with real players, the game is never not a good time. I have maybe never felt better from a video game after scoring an aerial bicycle kick goal or making a jaw dropping game winning save. However I may have never felt like more of failure after terribly missing a save I should have made in my sleep to cost my team the game. Pros and cons I guess.
This is easily the best Telltale game since The Walking Dead Season 1. Where TWD was dark and crushing, Tales is light and humorous. All good stories have good characters and Tales From the Borderlands is no exception. The story is very enjoyable despite not being all that groundbreaking. This was a very pleasant surprise to me since despite being funny, most of the characters and story from the Borderlands games didn't interest me in the slightest. Comedy is extremely difficult to pull off, especially in a video game, and Tales has it in spades. This is easily the funniest game this year and ends on a great note that makes me excited for the second season.
Oh Fallout. How nice it is to see you once again after all these years. You...uh...you haven't changed at all Fallout. No, no, no I mean that's fine i just thought you would have...um....you know...matured a bit by now. But hey your still great just the way you are I am just happy to see you again. Fallout 3 is probably my favorite game of all time. And while New Vegas didn't exactly do much except improve on what Fallout 3 was, I was hoping with all the time off from the series that we would see some drastic improvements to the next visit to the Wasteland. And while Fallout 4 brings Fallout back better than ever, it is still just the same old Fallout. Boston and the surrounding suburbs make for a great setting for the next entry in the post apocalyptic series. I also really enjoyed the base building aspect of the various settlements you can clear out and take control of. This gives a value to all items you encounter in the world, including the junk you would just skip over in previous Fallout games. These greatly increased the enjoyment of scavenging the Commonwealth for valuable materials to make a dope ass basketball court like Austin. Mine is fenced in as an homage to Rucker Park in Harlem. Unfortunately all the technical problems and just general jankiness you have come to expect from Bethesda games are present in Fallout 4. I encountered a bug that prevented me from fast traveling ever. This turned out to be a game breaker since fast travel is required to enter certain essential areas in the story. With this situation that now makes 3 straight Bethesda games (NV, Skyrim, F4) that I haven't been able to complete the story due to game breaking bugs. And yet I keep eagerly anticipating the next Bethesda game.
Well this is a strange one for me. I consider Metal Gear Solid to be one of my favorite game series and yet the game sits at only number 7 on my list. While MGSV is exponentially superior than its predessors when it comes to gameplay, the story or lack thereof was a major let down for me. However, that gameplay is exceptional. The controls feel great and pulling off an infiltration without being detected feels better than ever. The shooting is also much improved from previous titles in the series and has a more modern TPS feel. And finding cassette tapes throughout the world is an unexpected highlight for me. One of my favorite memories of this game is placing my rescue target in the helicopter but going back because I heard "Rebel Yell" in the distance and needed that tape. The reason this great playing game doesn't sit higher on my list is because despite absolutely loving the gameplay I couldn't help but be disappointed with the story. Venom Snake is practically a silent protagonist in this game unlike the snakes of previous titles in the series. Also you go long stretches of main missions without getting any substantial story beats. While perhaps being the best game in the series, The Phantom Pain is not the Metal Gear game I was hoping for in Hideo Kojima's last hurrah with the franchise.
Her Story is without a doubt the most unique game I played this year. With nothing but an old computer logged into a police database full of videos at your disposal, you set forth to discover the truth behind the mystery of the murder of a man named Simon. All the videos are simply clips from multiple interrogations with the same female suspect. The gameplay of the game involves the player typing in keywords to the search engine of the game to pull up to 5 video clips at a time. You uncover and follow up on leads by watching the videos. This cycle of gameplay was extremely rewarding for me. I felt like Sherlock Holmes when I found and investigated the lead that "solved" the case. Its not a moment I will soon forget. While the actual gameplay is extremely engaging and rewarding, the real standout of Her Story is the performance of Viva Seifert. All this game features is one single actor who is responsible for providing the player with all the story and emotion that this game attempts to deliver. It is a tall task but fortunately for us, the performance delivers brilliantly. It is easily the best performance of the year for any video game.
Take the branching, anybody can die storytelling of a game like Heavy Rain and add in a B-tier horror movie setting, story, and cast of characters and you have one of the surprise hits of the year. In fact it is such a good combination that I find myself wondering how nobody thought of it before. The story and characters may cover all the cliches you come to expect from a teen horror film, but that just makes this game all the more appealing to me. The aspect of anybody being able to survive or die gives this game a level of replayability that most single player story driven games just don't offer. The fact that this game has been in development for so long, with it originally being a move game before being moved to PS4, makes this game all the more surprising. If you don't like this style of interactive narrative game then Until Dawn may not be for you. However if you have any affinity for horror films or those types of games you should definitely give Until Dawn a try.
YOU CAN DANCE AS NANAKO TO THE JUNES THEME SONG! What that isn't enough for you? Fine. Take the great soundtrack and my personal favorite group of characters in any game and put them in a extremely fun and addicting rhythm game and you have an awesome gameplay experience. While the story is not as strong as you might hope for given the series pedigree, the interaction between the cast of characters makes it worth playing through the story mode. However if you have no interest in the characters or story of Persona 4 because you are a horrible monster, you can simply just dance all night in Free Dance mode. While there are far too many remixes included in the track list in my opinion, there is enough fun to be had in this package to be included in this list.