Showing 1-10 of 10 items
XCOM isn't a terribly ambitious game. It's actually very simple when you break it down, but that didn't stop it from being the most fun I've had in a game this year. Technically, it's a very flawed game - it's riddled with bugs and little omissions that make it feel a bit rushed. But the fact that I was willing to forgive those problems and invest countless hours into the game is a testament to how much damn fun XCOM is.
Sleeping Dogs is deadly serious, yet I laughed at this game more than any other this year. At its best, you are in a skintight yellow jumpsuit, driving a scooter, dropkicking civilians. The fact that the game facilitates such insanity while telling an emotional and engaging story is a remarkable feat. The fabric tying all of that together is an intense and violent combat system that never gets dull, even towards the end.
Guild Wars 2 is the last hurrah of this generation's style of MMOs. Just about every aspect of the genre that was getting dull has been replaced with something fresh and different. The things about MMOs that I know and love are still there, and everything I was tired of is gone. It's probably the game I sunk the most time into this year, and I fully intend to put in some more.
Binary Domain is incredibly stupid, fun, and thoughtful all at the same time. The characters are great in a silly way, and the shooting is excellent. Towards the end the story goes in an interesting direction, and asks a few questions you wouldn't expect from a game like this. It all comes together to make a terrific and memorable experience. Really though, the reason this is on my list is because I really love that damn French robot.
Persona 4 Arena is both the best visual novel and fighting game I've played this year. On the fighting side of things, it finds a great balance between accessibility and complexity - not something I would have expected from a Arc System Works game. The story and writing is also top-notch, and the new character, Labrys, is one of my favorites of this year. I never was any good at the fighting, but the story mode was enough to keep me hooked.
Sadly, I never finished Xenoblade Chronicles, but due to no fault of the game. I enjoyed the action-RPG bits, but mostly I fell in love with the story and characters. It's a very long game, and so I dropped it at some point so I could move on to something else. I intend to go back and finish it in the near future.
Sine Mora probably stuck with me more than any other game this year. Honestly, I'm not completely sure why. I don't normally get along with bullethell shooters, but I enjoyed this one right to the end. The beautiful visuals and kickass music was great, but I think it was the setting that really won me over. I normally don't enjoy dark and depressing stories - which is why I didn't care for The Walking Dead - but there was something uniquely hopeless and believable about the world of Sine Mora that stuck with me long after I played it. I only wish it wasn't so short.
The reason this is on my list is because it was my introduction to Magic: The Gathering. Like the previous games, I'd imagine, it invites complicated strategies and unorthodox thinking. It's a wonderful game and one that I'll continue to play going forward.
The shooting bits aren't very good. That should be a damning thing to say about a shooting game, but what Spec Ops: The Line does with story is enough to redeem it. No matter how you look at it, it's a very important game, and one that I appreciated largely for that reason.
With Future Soldier, Ubisoft did to Ghost Recon what they did last year to Splinter Cell. It's more accessible and action-focused, and squad tactics are deemphasized. Thankfully, the new direction works well, and I found myself playing through it multiple times.