by lxm
2016 was a hell of a year for video games. I had been keeping a running list of notable games I had been playing this year and it just kept getting longer and longer. For the purposes of this list I left off games that are still unreleased or in Early Access.
Whittling it down to 10 was no easy feat..so with that said, here are a few that didn't quite make the list.
Close but not quite:
Here's the ones that did make the list:
Showing 1-10 of 10 items
Ok, so this kinda breaks my own rule about stuff on this list releasing in 2016 because Siege came out in December 2015. However, I didn't play it until 2016 and frankly, 2016 is when this game really came into its own. I'm not sure exactly what it was that prompted me to want to try Siege because the games press was generally pretty down on it around release. Whatever it was, I'm glad I tried it because it has become one of my favourite shooters (hell, one of my favourite games) of all time. The gameplay is both slow and considerate, while also incredibly fast. You could spend most of a round in silence in a corner listening for the slightest hint of a sound to give you an idea of where your enemy is and then in 5 seconds the walls have been blown in and three of your teammates are dead. The destruction and different operators give such an amazing amount of options and strategies to the combat that keep each round fresh and different from the last. Defeats are crushing, and victories are exhilerating. The post-release support has also been great, and I'm so glad that Ubisoft has realized the gem they have and are giving it the attention it deserves.
It's already been said by pretty much everyone in the games press, but what an incredible game DOOM turned out to be. Despite growing up with and loving the original DOOM 1 and 2 as a kid, I don't necessarily hold the reverence for them that some people do. Regardless, the new DOOM absolutely blew me away with how fast, violent, gorgeous, and most importantly, fun it was. I would finish fights and just stop and say 'holy shit, that was awesome'. With a lot of singleplayer games, if my interest wanes or something else comes along I have a habit of jumping ship, but that never happened with DOOM, it was pretty much straight through from the start and I still have an urge to go back and play it again.
I wasn't entirely sure what to expect from The Witness. I never played Myst or Riven (my dad did but I couldn't get into them) and I didn't find Braid (Jonathan Blow's previous game) particularly enjoyable. The Witness, however, really grabbed me despite basically just being an elaborate puzzle game. The world it's set in is incredible in how well designed and how packed with secrets it is. No other game this year had the same 'I have to tell someone about this...without giving anything away!' quality to it that The Witness did.
Battlefield 1, despite jumping back in time to World War 1, is, at its core, still a Battlefield game. You're still gonna spawn, run for a minute and then get shot by a guy you didn't see. You're still gonna have some asshole drive off in the last jeep when you're inches away from getting in. You're still gonna have half a team of snipers sitting in the back doing nothing as 4 of you desperately try to cap a point the entire enemy team is converging on. But you're also still going to have those amazing 'Battlefield Moments' where shit just goes crazy, everything is exploding, guys are falling out of planes and tanks are falling off cliffs. It's all that awesome, stupid stuff that makes Battlefield fun. It also doesn't hurt that this Battlefield looks unbelievable and runs just as well.
The first Titanfall was a great game, but it was hamstrung by a lack of content and a meaningful progression system. Titanfall 2 irons out some of the kinks, gets some polish and reworks some systems in smart ways, along with doing a much better job giving you things to work towards. The fact that the singleplayer campaign was actually really awesome was the cherry on top (BT from Titanfall 2 and Ethan from CoD:Infinite Warfare go head to head as best robot buddies of 2016). I also have to commend Respawn for doing DLC right with cosmetics for purchase and all gameplay (weapons/maps/etc) given to everyone for free. That said, I STILL don't think they've nailed the progression as well as Call of Duty has, there's still definitely room for improvement here.
One of the best racing games in a long time (probably since Burnout Paradise). Forza Horizon 3 finds a great balance between the fun arcade racing of Need for Speed or Burnout and more simulation focused car-porn games like Gran Turismo or Forza Motorsport. The huge open world, jammed with events and things to do, spread across a multitude of terrains, is just amazing. My only problem was the PC port was (is) just a mess. With seemingly random performance drops and spikes, it's disappointing that it takes my mind off of driving around in this beautiful world and puts it on what my framerate is doing.
The original Dark Souls remains one of my favourite games of all time. Dark Souls 2 was great but didn't quite live up to the standard of the first. Dark Souls 3 sits comfortably in the middle, with refined gameplay, beautiful designs and visuals, and some very familiar characters and locations. My biggest issue was, with Dark Souls 2 and Bloodborne just released the previous two years, my energy for this time of game wasn't what it used to be. Souls games require a lot of commitment (in time and mental well-being) and having so many similar games so close together was a bit too much. I wish they'd taken a bit more of a break to keep things fresh.
I'll admit, Uncharted 4 didn't quite live up to what I was hoping it would be. I found it really suffered from pacing in the gameplay department. In Uncharted 3, by the end of the game I was fed up with gunfights and just wanted to get through to see the story. In Uncharted 4 I was almost dying for a gunfight to break up the endless climbing sections. Regardless though, the story and characters is why I come to Uncharted, and in those ways it delivered. Along with crazy set-pieces and unbelievable visuals, it was an enjoyable, satisfying end (hah yea sure) to one of Playstation's best franchises.
This one came out of nowhere. I had noticed it on the Steam top sellers list, with almost unanimously positive word of mouth and decided to check it out. What I discovered was a game that was just packed with personality and charm. I had never played any of the Harvest Moon games (of which this was heavily inspired) but I instantly fell in love with the cycle of building my farm, maintaining my crops, making friends with the townspeople and exploring the mines. Almost every time I played I discovered some new thing I hadn't known about before. Stardew Valley is one of those games that just makes you feel good.
On the opposite side of the spectrum from Stardew Valley, Darkest Dungeon is one of those games that just stresses you the fuck out. But it does so with such style and quality that you can't help but be impressed. The art is probably my favourite aspect of Darkest Dungeon, along with the oppressive and verbose narration as you lead your adventurers through crypts and swamps (and dungeons). Completing quests with everyone in-tact and of sane mind is always a great victory, but then immediately comes the anxiety of the next adventure into the depths.
