by winsol
As is tradition (expect 2014), here is my end of the year list for 2016. I've not gotten to play as many different games as i would have liked this year. I've pretty much sank most of my time into games that i can pass the time with, to take my mind off of things, this year. There's still a list of at least a half dozen games I'd like to have gotten to but never got the chance. I'm also only doing video games on this list, if it was including physical games then i'd have Magic: the Gathering in there pretty high up, with Kaladesh easily being the best Magic expansion I've played so far. Anyway here is the list, for posterity sake at least.
Just as an FYI, Final Fantasy XV will not be on the list as I've not had enough time with it, since it came out at the end of the year. As such i'll not have it on this years list, but will consider it for next year. here are the other games i got to play this year and a few short thoughts about them.
Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes: I only played this briefly at a friends house, but it's a party game that has a surprising amount of depth to it. It seems a lot easier to play when you're watching it and you are rolling your eyes at the people playing. That is, until it's your go and you realise how tense and frantic playing it is.
Pokémon Go: It was pretty fun to watch Pokemon take over the world again. There's not a lot of content in the game to be fair, but there is something undeniably engrossing about capturing Pokemon as you walk around town.
XCOM 2: The squeal to my 2012 Game of the Year just never grabbed me like the original. The problems it had at launch did hurt it, and I left it to get fixed before picking it back up again, but never did. Which was annoying because it was definitely a solid game and felt like Xcom.
Enter the Gungeon: I'll be honest, I've never gotten over Spelunky. Since i played that game I've been looking for something like it to take it's place. This is absolutely a solid enough game, but i can't help but feel like i'm not making the progress i should have with it.
Darkest Dungeon: JESUSFUCKINGCHRISTTHISGAMEISAFUCKINGNIGHTMAREANDILOVEITFORTHATREASONBUTHOLYFUCKWHYISITSOFUCKINGHARD! That'll do i think.
Destiny: Rise of Iron: So after the Taken King shocked me with how good it was, this shocked me with how average it felt. This felt like one of the bad expansions for Destiny that it was suppose to have gotten away from. There just wasn't enough to do to keep me interested. From the reports that have come out it feels like this was just a stop gap for Destiny 2 next year and it shows. I'm still interested to see what they do with Destiny 2, but if they just make another expansion then i think i'm good for now.
Battleborn: I tried this out, but it left me very underwhelmed. The characters seem fine, i just thought that the gameplay was lacking. I wanted it to be better, i really did. But nothing grabbed me about it, and judging by the number of players on steam i think i'm not the only one.
Fifa 17: More Fifa, about all i need to say.
NBA 2k17: More 2k, about all i need to say.
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Back in the day, about 10 years ago. I felt myself moving away from First Person Shooters. This was especially true of online shooters. it moved away from having dumb fun and enjoying yourself to twitch gaming and perma death during the round. I tried to enjoy those games for as long as i could but i just lost interest after a while. Overwatch made me remember why i loved FPS games. It made me remember the appeal of objective based teamplay, rather than just killing the other team. It made me remember what it is that makes me want to keep playing these type of games. Not only that, but the game came out when i just needed something fun to play and take my mind off things, and for that i'll always be grateful in some small way. Everything about the game is just fun, bright and vibrant. There is a style at work here that is both perfectly unique, and completely Blizzard at the same time. The characters are all likeable in their own way. They're all archetypes of classes from different games but given their own flavour, and backstory that just oozes from them all. From their interactions with each other before the match, to their emote and intros and taunts and everything else that's been packed into the game. The gameplay is like a perfect hits of the greatest FPS games of the past, with modern design spread on top of it to make it all feel new. There are elements of Tribes, Quake, Unreal and Call of Duty to name a few. Throughout the game is a strong moba influence that is just strong enough to bring all the best parts of that genre into it, without going too overboard as to spoil the formula that the game has. It was honestly close between this and Doom, but in the end i just felt like Overwatch just did that little bit more to earn this. Now the only thing that could make it better, is if everyone could GET ON THE FUCKING POINT!
Fuck me i NEVER saw this coming. I genuinely cannot believe that, not only has this turn out well, but that it was seriously a ball hair away from being my GOTY. It just feels like Doom should feel. You just walk into each level like; I'm a badass, and i'm here to kill demons. No bullshit, no questions about what they are or where they come from or whether it's right kill them or not. Fuck that noise, their demons, they need to die, shoot them in the face with a shotgun. Not only that, but it feels fast as well. It's one of the things that people forget about the original Doom but you felt you were just powering through levels at times in it. This gives a very familiar feel, but updates it for modern gaming. I can't recommend this enough to anyone who has ever enjoyed a first person shooter. Just talking about it makes me want to play it again, it's that good.
So this isn't that surprising, or it shouldn't be if you know me. I can't really help it. I just enjoy knocking fuck out of people with a 2 handed axe sometimes, and if i have to be green to do that then all the better. Legion corrected a lot of the mistakes that WoD made in it's lack of content and quick gearing progress. The world feels fuller than it did in WoD and it's more enjoyable to do world missions for the little reward you get from them. I'm even enjoying raiding, which I've not done since Wrath of the Lich King. It's fun to have an organised group of players to play through content with. and having a lot of those players being your friends just makes it all the better. PVP's still shite though.
There's two ways to play Hitman that make it the most enjoyable. The first is when you play a level perfectly. You are never caught, you take out the targets in the way you wanted to, and you leave without a trace. You get an adrenaline rush seeing 47 escaping having perfectly murdered some monster people(everyone you kill in Hitman is pretty much the worst). The second way, is when everything goes BAD, and you desperately have to recover from fucking up really badly. This is when you're skills are truly tested and you just start throwing stuff at the wall to see what sticks. Target is locked down? Rush his guards with an axe. Targeting isn't pathing back to you're kill spot? Throw a mine at them and just run away. It's those little things that make it so enjoyable. I am 100% down for season 2 of this.
When i look back at all the games i played this year, this is the game i think that will make me smile the most when i reflect on it. I just want to give the game a hug, i don't know how i'd do that, but i want to. It's just so nice and fun and relaxing and gentle to play through. You can try to power game it and do the maximum amount of things everyday, or you can just take your time and let everything come naturally. That is what i like about it, i can fire it up, play through a day of farming, mining, fighting monsters and talking to Abigail and then go do something else if i want. This game is good for both my heart and my soul, and being a cynical bastard, i need that from time to time.
I think it's safe to say that this was the victim of Square Enix's greed. The game is still amazing to play and fun to interact with the world and characters but you just know there isn't enough. There should be more here. The story never really gets going until the end and then it cuts it off. It's obvious there was suppose to be more here but it got cut in order to make more games in the series. A shame really because it's great fun to play, and the formula still hasn't been done as well by anyone else.
This game kind of had the same fate as Dark Souls III. Which is a shame because it felt like the first 4X game in years that I've been able to invest a lot of time into. Plus its a space game so it's always going to get extra points with me for that. It does suffer in the middle part of the game and you are pretty much surrounded by empires you can't really engage with until you make the breakthrough that lets you start conquering your neighbours in the race to get to 40% of the Galaxy. If time allows i'd like to go back and try to finished my save, the Interstellar Earth Alliance need to fulfil their destiny, it's manifested in the stars themselves!
I do love me some Dark Souls. The creatures are still creepy and interesting to fight. The land is dark and dangerous, full of interesting sights and sounds. The characters are grim and mysterious. It has everything that makes a great souls game. I would have definitely finished this game and perhaps had it higher on the list if it didn't come out when it did. When I wasn't in the mood to play something this depressingly dark. A shame because it's very enjoyable when you aren't shouting at it for being a cunt. Which it is want to do.
This game man, i don't know where to start. I feel like i could write a full post postmortem on this game. What it gets right, it gets so right. But what it gets wrong it gets very very wrong. The developers have done a lot the past 9 months to make it better and better and i always enjoy myself whenever i play it to be fair. I just feel between this and Destiny that this genre might not get the chance to grow into what it could be. Or maybe we're just waiting for a developer to do what WOW did for MMO's and blueprint exactly how to do these games.
Not a lot to really say about this one. It's more Uncharted. If you like them you should play it, if not you shouldn't. The characters are still likeable and feel genuine, the gameplay is still fun to play. Not a lot more to add really.
