by orbi
Yo here's a list of games I enjoyed.
Honorable mention since it's hard to rank and only on itch.io so I dunno if it qualifies for Giant Bomb's wiki: Joy Exhibition by STRANGETHINK. I spent so much time just chilling out making some weird ass paintings.
Here's one of my personal favourites:
Showing 1-10 of 29 items
Undertale is a game that I'm amazed one person made yet paradoxically is a game that only a single person could have made. It's such a cohesive game, blending a supremely well realised story and world with inventive gameplay mechanics and some real surprises that do things I've never seen before in games. Undertale's soundtrack has been stuck in my head for months now, as has almost every aspect of the game.
The Witcher 3 is so insanely well-crafted in almost every aspect it puts every other modern RPG to date to shame. Every little nook and cranny has some lovingly crafted aspect (only noticed a single repeated cave system in the world). The storyline is among the strongest and most affecting in video games with the choices you're presented with feeling both realistic and dramatic, especially to Witcher veterans. Wild Hunt's one of the few games where I've stopped what I was doing and just looked around for minutes at a time because it's such an audiovisual colossus, untouchable by many other games. Every little character is animated to an extent that feels very believable and authentic. It's surprisingly free of open-world jank too, with NPCs only occasionally telling me about how having two swords is blowing their mind multiple times while vibrating. The combat is great but doesn't have enough depth to last the 50-100+ hours of game. That said, you eventually become all but walking god so it's no big deal.
Flywrench is a sublime experience. Everything about it feels so good and completely natural. Everything about this game speaks to me on a base level in such a way that I just can't help but be enamored. From the soundtrack to the game's dope as hell aesthetic to even the gameplay loop is satisfying in a way many games aren't.
MGSV is like Far Cry 2/Crysis was made by an insane person. It has many shortcomings, but how perfectly its gameplay is executed is unlike many other games. It has both a breadth and depth to its gameplay options that sustains it for its insanely long playtime.
A multiplayer masterclass. This game essentially came out of nowhere, boosted by its launch with PlayStation Plus and captured the world by storm for a few weeks. Rocket League has a purity to it that lets it be understood easily, even with some crazy deep mechanics. The fact that it's fun even if you're terrible at it is always a good sign.
An absolutely fantastic Metroidvania. Every aspect of it is sublime from the beautiful art and soundtrack to the precision platforming and modern progression. Add in some supremely fun abilities and it's just a joy to play.
Downwell's design is nothing new, but it's how it weaves its influences together that makes it special. Nothing is extraneous, and the game is extremely well balanced in its difficulty that lets you improve on your own merits and develop your own playstyle. It's reminiscent of Spelunky in a variety of ways, but Moppin truly understands and distills what made that game great. The result is some of the most intense fun I've had this year.
Grow Home seems like a small crew took to breaking down a 3D platformer and trying to figure out how they can apply the framework of the games they enjoyed as kids into a modern context. And it's largely succesful! The game is weirdly beautiful, the procedural animation is wonky in the best possible way and it's just plain fun to traverse the world with your silly robot.
The most fun I've had with Call of Duty in years. The campaign is so incredibly weird I can't help but enjoy it. The changes to mobility and the addition of characters with abilities make the multiplayer much more dynamic. It's still the same base game but even the meta-progression and cosmetic unlocks feel rewarding in a way that Call of Duty hasn't in quite a while.
As far as art-installations-as-games go, Panoramical might be one of the best ever. The combination of effects synthesizer and interactive visualiser is so compelling, it almost induces a meditative state as you slowly move each of the nine XY pads around, seeing what you can come up with. I really wish there was more content, because what's there currently is just superb in every aspect.