2015: Personal Summaries

Jockney

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Not doing a best and worst of-type list cuz I ain't played enough new titles this year, so am creating this thread to talk a little about the games I played in 2015 for the first time.

Grim Fandango Remastered Not yet completed. I like point-and-click adventure games and this has plenty of charm, but not keen on the abstracted puzzle-solving. A lot of random clicking on different objects to find solutions that should be more intuitive.

Hotline Miami Completed. Surreal neon nightmare, plenty atmospheric, frustrating almost to its own detriment but compelling and hypnotic. Not something I'd ever replay in its entirety, but regularly go back and do certain stages again if I don't have anything else to play.

Dark Souls I & II Completed. Environmental storytelling as an artform. Immersive, oppressive (in a good way) and not nearly as difficult as everyone says it is providing you play with patience and a certain amount of forethought. Sequel is disappointingly video-gamey, with environments divvied up into more conventional levels that don't form a cohesive whole.

Bloodborne Completed. Takes a Souls game, sets it in a Victorian Lovecraftian hellscape and speeds up the combat by half. This is how you evolve a franchise.

Metal Gear Solid V: The Fox Engine... I mean, the Phantom Pain. Completed. Looks great, plays great, emergent gameplay at its finest... just a shame about the story, the missions, the side-ops and just about everything else. And no, the inclusion of 'Mission 51' would not have fixed its myriad of problems.

Witcher III: Wild Hunt Completed. Everything that Fallout 4 should have been and more. I have a very low tolerance for medieval-fantasy Western RPGs but all of that stuff is just set-dressing. These sort of games are all about the sidequests, and this game has some of the best-written, diverse examples I've ever played. Every single character in this game is at least somewhat three-dimensional and has the motivations of a real person. My game of the year, easily (tho I ain't played Undertale yet).

Fallout 4 Completed.

 

Leewilson

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I had quite a quiet year for gaming:

Life is Strange: A 10/10 game for me. Absolutely loved it. A fascinating and gut wrenching story. Immense.

Batman: Arkham Asylum: Finally got round to playing this. An excellent game. Very linear but a superb story with excellent dialogue/voice actors throughout. I do need to get round to playing Arkham City at some point.

Uncharted 3: After playing 1 and 2 in 2014, I'd left playing 3 as another game had come out at the time. It wasn't as good as 2 but definitely kept me captivated all the way through. I do always feel like Uncharted games don't actually have much substance to them but they're a very enjoyable easy play regardless.

The Vanishing of Ethan Carter: Dull. One of them story driven games except the story did nothing for me whatsoever.

Outlast:
Excellent horror. A little repetitive at times but this managed to evoke some serious tension at times. Normally I find non weapon games a little boring after the while but this game really made you want to evade rather than stand and fight. Looking forward to number 2 at some point.

Thief: Very underwhelmed. Not a lover of most first person games but liked the sound of the stealth elements but I just found the whole thing very repetitive and dull.


Looking forward to getting Until Dawn and Assassin's Creed Syndicate for Christmas.
 

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Like nearly all the free downloadable games that you get from PS+ I still haven't played Outlast despite having downloaded for a year is it? More? Dunno.
And Grim Fandango is awesome, but being a smelly old bastard who regularly pisses himself, I did it first time round.
 

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New games have been quite interesting for me, started using Boomerang for renting so I have managed to get into a few titles.

Far Cry 4

Far Cry 3.14 - good fun because I love the Far Cry model, but in a way very lazy. The story didn't grip me like 3 did.

Witcher III

The combat mechanics could be bloody frustrating at times. But the game was everything I wanted it to be, the story was beautiful and the side quests were amazing. GOTY.

Fallout 4

Good. Fallout 3, but prettier with a few gimmicks.

Bloodborne

Pretty. Bloody hard, but a very rewarding game if you get it right.

Dying Light

Dead Island but in a city. It is good fun with friends, painful on your own.

 

Cas

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Theatrythm Final Fantasy Curtain Call (3DS)
Minimal gameplay. I'd have been better off just listening to the music on Youtube.

Resident Evil (PS4)

My favourite RE title and the main I bought a Gamecube all those years ago. Still fantastic despite some ropey controls although I don't find them to be too bad. Some of the best atmosphere in any survival horror game. 9.5/10

Resident Evil Revelations 2 (PS4)
A big improvement on Resident Evil 6. Nice to see Barry return and Claire was also a welcome sight. Not particularly scary although a little tense in parts due to invisible enemies and some decent boss battles. I quite like the different pairings of Barry/Natalia and Claire/Moira. 8/10.

The Order 1886
Really interesting setting but nothing else was worth writing home about. Solid mechanics, albeit a little tired, decent enough story and errr, yeah. An alright game which was given far too much hype. 7/10.

Bloodborne
Prefer this to the Souls games due to the setting and the more Victorian and gothic art design. Some fantastic boss battles, some wonderful level design but the only fault I have is that there's not that much weapon variation and I haven't found much in the way of armor. 8.5/10

Devil May Cry 4 SE
One of my favourites from the PS3 generation, back with added characters and some other fancy stuff. Lady is a really piss easy to use character, Trish is fucking hard and Vergil is basically cheating. I still need to finish DMD mode and finish Bloody Palace with trish. Fuck dat backtracking though. 9/10

Witcher 3

Love medieval, love mythology so I fell in love this instantly despite not being keen on the first two titles in the series. One of the few games lately where I've actually wanted to explore every single area of the world. 9.4/10

Until Dawn
Love horror films and this played out exactly like one. Cheesy, cringey but absolutely brilliant. My game of the year. 9.5/10

MGS5: Phantom Pain (PS4)
Loved it for the first half of the game and enjoyed the second half. Too long, too open (omg teh opens is better than dose linear games LOL! fuking corridor sims m8) and the game was way, way too easy. Still liked it, just not as much as some of the other games this year. 9/10.

Dragon Quest Heroes
Dynasty Warriors with monsters and cute Japanese character. Yep. Fun in short doses. 7/10.

Fallout 4

I'm not that keen on you, Fallout 4. Not even getting a score or owt.

Xenoblade Chronicles (Wii U)
breath of fresh air. RPG genre is too full with those lifeless, dull as fuck generic western knockoffs of Skyrim. Beautiful art direction, fantastic music and a solid, but a little different battle system. 9/10

New Super Mario Bros (Wii U)
Deceptively hard. Fuck off Bowser, you c***. 8/10

Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker (Wii U)
Lovely, charming and annoying at the same time. My first Zelda game and I've enjoyed it. Need to finish it though. 8.5/10

Assassins Creed Syndicate (PS4)

Probably my fave of the series and...fuck it, cba writing anymore. 9/10.

Wolfenstein: Old Blood

Samey. Nowt new. 7/10.

WWE 2K16 (PS4)
HIS NAME IS JOHN CENA. 8/10.

Knack (PS4)
Solid, unspectacular. 7/10

The Last of Us Remastered (PS4)
Love it. 10/10

Diablo 3 (PC)
Wooooo loots

Saints Row 4 (PS4)
Pew pew gta but less srs

Sly Cooper Trilogy (PS Vita)
Got cramp now 7/10

Batman Arkham kni
 

Oaf

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Cas played so many games even Cas got fed up with listing them mid way through.

Good thread this, though. I'll make my own contribution at some point, hopefully. Though I seem to make like 1 post a fortnight right now, so who fucking knows when that'll be.
 
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Some time in the next fortnight I'm guessing.
 

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Dragon Age: Inquisition I was looking forward to finally playing this. What I had heard was that they had made a game that could live up to the first one. I was very disappointed.

Everybody's Gone To The Rapture This game is probably the most beautiful game I've ever played. I loved the slow paced unfolding of the storyline and wanted more when it came to an end.

F1 2015 I'm shit at racing games but piked this up for a tenner. I quite like crashing into people but I keep getting penalties for it.

Fallout 4 This game suffers from being brought out after Witcher 3. It's a very good game in it's own right but the standard for open world games has been raised and Fallout 4 didn't quite make it.

Final Fantasy X HD Remaster Currently playing this now. Loved it as a kid and have gone straight back into it without anything feeling alien. For a HD Remaster some of the graphics are pretty poor though.

Game of Thrones My first time playing a telltale game and I loved it. Can't wait for the second season to come and to destroy those bastard Whitehills.

Rocket League Great bit of fun.

Super Meat Boy! It was finally time to actually play this. I really liked it. Frustrating in parts and one level took me hours to complete.

The Walking Dead Season 1 & 2 After playing Game of Thrones I thought I'd try this. Never seen any of the TV series or read the comics which I worried would affect the game but it didn't. Game of Thrones was good but this, especially the second season, was on an entirely different level.

The Witcher 3 I was waiting for Fallout 4 to buy a PS4 but this brought that forward. The best game I've played this year without doubt. The variety of side quests and the richness of the world have made it difficult for other open world games to compete.

Until Dawn This was another great game. Played like an interactive horror film. Will play it again at some point in the new year.

Watch Dogs Didn't live up to the hype.
 

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Rocket League - Fun innit

Batman: Arkham Knight - My favourite game of the year, didn't really get 90% of the criticism aimed at it. I'm seemingly one of the very few that liked the batmobile combat sections and the presentation of the story was genius.

Game of Thrones (Telltale) - I enjoyed it a lot, can see why non-GoT wouldn't enjoy it as it is a bit like fanfic garbage and the story is fairly weak but it was a great GoT fix and started and ended on high notes.

Tales from the Borderlands - Didn't have much interest in it initially but it's clearly the best Telltale series thus far. Genuinely funny and witty with no real weak points

MLB 15 The Show - Still, for me, the best sports game on the market when you combine presentation and gameplay.

Fifa 16 - Meh, it's FIFA.

Madden 16 - Played it after giving Madden a miss for a couple of years. Evidently improved quite a bit but it's still rather tedious and unenjoyable as Sports games go and despite the aforementioned improvement, it still lags behind FIFA, The Show and NBA 2K...which isn't really acceptable for such a massive series.

WWE 2K16 - Yeah, I played mainly sports games but this is Sports Entertainment. Always hated WWE games since the superb Smackdown! games on PS2 but this is a good game. Career Mode is still stupidly shallow when you consider the material a fucking Wrestling game has to go off, as is Universe Mode. Neither should resemble a Madden Franchise where you just play a succession of matches. The Story mode was as good as usual though and they seem to have nailed the gameplay so moving forwards there's no excuse to provide a richer career mode.

Star Wars Battlefront - It's not great value but I got it on sale for £30 and it's easily the most I've enjoyed a competitive online multiplayer shooter since Modern Warfare 2 - so I reckon you'd be stupid not to give it a go if you're into those. If not, then avoid, the single player offerings are trash. Hopefully they add a 'Taken King' type DLC. I'd happily pay extra (even though I really shouldn't be happy doing so) for some decent single-player story stuff and a few extra multiplayer maps. The core gameplay is more than solid and visually it's stunning.

Technically I played half/finished Far Cry 4 and AC:Unity in 2015 as well. Really liked Far Cry 4 despite it being almost insultingly easy, AC:Unity was pretty bad overall even though I enjoyed the first 5-6 hours or so, gave up halfway through.

Got around to some indie games as well thanks to PS+ - the pick of those were Guacamelee, Valiant Hearts and OlliOlli 2.

Certainly not a great year for gaming in my eyes as Witcher/Fallout/Bloodborne don't really float my boat so I've been a bit unfortunate. But 2016 looks a lot healthier with Uncharted, Tomb Raider, Horizon, Firewatch, The Division, Homefront, Mafia III, Final Fantasy XV, Last Guardian, For Honor and Dishonored 2 all intriguing me. I can't wait for Uncharted.
 
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Oaf

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Here be my own year of gamingness.

To begin with, the games that came out in 2014 but I didn't get around to playing until last year...

Assassins Creed Unity: This is the game I went into the year playing, and it also felt like the straw that broke the series' back for me. I've long found myself growing tired of the series and though Black Flag at least tried something a bit fresh with the piratey stuff, I just feel like I've had enough climbing around and stabbing people now. I guess I will pick up Syndicate at some point, but right now I just can't be arsed.

Dragon Age: Inquisition: Eeeeeeh. I didn't mind it to begin with in truth, but my god, it's got about the dullest combat I've ever seen in a game. In the end I just never found myself wanting to play it because it's so damned repetitive and it just faded away. I sold it last month, meaning it's the first game I've bought and not completed (main story, at least) in about 10 years. Which says a lot about how much I didn't like it.

Far Cry 4: A fine game, a very good game, in fact... but the same game as the one I played the year previous. On the back of playing AC:U and DA:I, and with the similarities to FC3, I just couldn't be fucked with the sheer amount to do on it... and again, I just stopped playing it, and sold it last month... making it the second game in about 10 years I bought and didn't finish.

And now for actual 2015 games...

Evolve: I always jokingly call this game "Titanfall 2", in that it's cool as fuck the first few times you play it, but it runs out of steam fast. Feels like the good basis for a better game, and if they fill it out a bit more I'm sure there's potential for an incredible sequel. At the very least it's a very unique experience that at least kept me entertained for about a month.

Cities Skylines: Probably my favourite city building game in years. Some really good systems in it and you could build some cool looking cities. Showed Sim City how to do Sim City right.

Heroes of the Storm: Probably my most played game of 2015. Played the holy fuck out of it, literally every single day had at least one session for months... and then after not playing it one day, just stopped dead and haven't actually touched it since. I can't go and say it's "the best" MOBA, purely because it's actually the only one I've ever tried out :lol: But I did really get into it. ETC, Valla and Illidan FTW, BTW.

Batman: Arkham Knight: The first big hitter of 2015 and it didn't disappoint for me. Really good ending (? There is talk of Rocksteady making yet another as of late...) to a Batman series that was better than anything I'd ever expected to see in a video game. I didn't even mind the Batmobile stuff... though yeah, the game as always is at its best when stalking foo's and going all Batman on their asses.

Rocket League: Happened to pop onto PS Plus just as I signed up, and not only remains as the only game that's been on there that's actually been worth playing, but is actually a crazy amount of fun as well. Love it.

Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain: I was excited for Batman, sure, but for me this was the first major release of the year. I'm obviously a fucking great MGS fanboy so my HYPEZ were through the roof for this. And it both managed to utterly blow me away and leave me feeling a little hollow at the same time. As far as pure gameplay and all that goes, it's about as good as a game has ever been. That fucking open world stealth. DAYUM. The graphics, sound, every little thing. Plays like something that really feels (cringe) NEXT GEN.
But then there was that story. It's fine. It was even good... great at points. But it just didn't feel like a Metal Gear story to me. It felt too real, too serious, and the tone was just not quite what I want from the series. Plus all that bollocks with parasites. And fucking Codetalker. When he starts talking it's like when Jigglypuff in Pokemon starts to sing, my eyelids become heavy and I just want to sleep. SO. DULL.
Overall, even though I wasn't that into the story, fuck it, probably my GOTY of 2015.

Forza 6: You know what? Honestly, I really do like it. I've long been a fan of the Forza series and really like what I've seen of Forza 6. But... I'm sure I've only ever played it 2 or 3 times. I just don't get around to it, there's always another game to be played. I always feel like I'm going to get back to it one day, and when I do, I know I'll love it again. But damn. It's just gathering dust right now. Coincidentally, it just so happens though that my brother has bought a steering wheel for the XBONE today... I'm sure that's due to breath new life into the game! :lol:

FIFA 16: Pretty fucking shit. Like, I've never really found FIFA to be as TERRIBLE as everybody says, but I just didn't like this shit. Luckily, along came...

PES 2016: The old king of football games returned to it's best just as FIFA hit a new low. Brilliant timing. And my, what a game PES is. After playing PES 2016 for a couple of days, I was hit with a realization... back when PES was king (PES 2-6) I was playing PES every single day purely because of how great a game it was. But for the last few years, I've only been buying and playing FIFA because I want to play a football game... not necessarily because of how great a game FIFA was. But now PES is back, and my word, is it glorious.

Halo 5: Guardians: Changed Halo a lot... for both better and worse, as far as I'm concerned. It feels very unique in the series with it's franticly fast, almost COD-esque pace. But I'm just not sure that I'm entirely happy with that. I liked Halo's slower, more deliberate pace. It always felt more to me about using your brain than just rushing around jumping like a nutter.
I guess it's sort of similar to MGS V for me, where I can see it's a great game, it's just not the great Halo game I want, really. But nah, that sounds harsh. I mean, I still love it. The focus on back to basics team play, getting rid of the perk like Armour abilities, the maps are superb (as always with the series, to be fair) and the balance (again, as always) feels spot on. Even when they're shaking things up it's still hard to get Halo wrong, and they did make yet another great addition to the series. For me at least. I know, "Halo sucks". YOU suck, good sir.

YOU suck.

Fallout 4: I'd say I was addicted to this back when it came out in November, but in truth I still am addicted. I just never seem to get around to playing the fucker. Absolutely love it, more of the same (which in some peoples eyes is somehow a bad thing?) and I can't get enough. Barely touched the story as well.

And for the stuff I got for Xmas:

Guitar Hero Live: First GH in a while, and it really does bring a fresh experience to a once overdone genre with the 6 frets deal it's got going on. I always loved the series and this one is no different in that sense... although I must say, the on disk set list is about the worst I've ever seen on one of these sorts of games. And I played fucking Lego Rock Band. Forgettable shit that all sounds the same. Thankfully, the online content is much better and the brilliant GHTV mode lets you play it all on a constantly streaming 2 channel service that keeps you playing for fucking hours at a time if it can.

WWE 2K16: I've always liked these WWE games, but I actually feel like this is the first one in a long, long time that I've actually fucking loved. They got it good last year gameplay-wise (but let it down with the roster after the year previous, as well as other strange ommisions) but a few more extra touched like the brilliant new reversal system and the actual wrestling gameplay is far and away the best it's been in a game, in my view. It's surprisingly tactical on a lot of different levels, with the winner not just being the one who times the reversals the best as before, but now whoever manages to juggle many tactical elements such as stamina, momentum and the reversal meter better. And the roster is about the best it's ever been as well. Throw in a decent career mode (which to be honest I haven't touched yet) and do something to Universe mode so that it's actually worth fucking playing and this could have been something special... or at least, 2K17 has no excuse not to be.

Cod: BLOPS eye eye eye: I felt like AW was the most significant COD since MW, and though BLOPS 3 isn't quite as large a leap, it's still a step in the right direction for me. I mean, it's hard to get COD wrong at it's core level, but I'm having a lot of fun with this.

I also have Rise of the Tomb Raider, but am yet to play it... I sort of want Fallout 4 to die down a little for me first, but I can't see when that'll be. So fuck it, I'll probably try playing RotTR at the same time as everything else in the end.

The official OAF top 10 goes:
1) MGS V
2) Fallout 4
3) Halo 5
4) PES 2016
5) WWE 2K16
6) Heroes of the Storm
7) Arkham Knight
8) BLOPS EYE EYE EYE
9) Cities: Skylines
10) GH: Live

Which I actually think is a decent enough top 10 to say that this year wasn't too bad for me. Three huge games that I thought were great at the top, two very much improved sports games that have me excited for the future in 4th and 5h and the other games are either Batman, which was superb, or all things I either played a lot of or intend to in the coming months. Bravo, 2015. Bring on 2016.
 

Jockney

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This is my two cents: Fallout 4 is not more of the same, it's less of the same. It's a shallow, vanilla iteration that fails to build on the foundation of 3 in any meaningful way. They "fixed" the combat mechanics, but I don't know anyone who played Fallout 4 for the shooting. I'm really hopeful that they'll farm out development for a spin-off to a smaller dev, a la Obsidian's New Vegas, but I don't see that happening, unfortunately.

If this year has taught me anything, it's that the brand value of my favourite franchises has finally plummeted. MGS is semi-officially dead. Fallout has parted from its table-top RPG tradition and is unlikely ever to ever again resemble the games I fell in love with. Square Enix will squeeze every last penny out of fanboy nostalgia in the hopes that we won't notice that their corporate strategy has essentially destroyed the Final Fantasy franchise.

And I feel liberated, honestly. My two favourite games of the year were titles I had no prior interest in; that sold me not on brand recognition or industry-influenced consumer reviews but the strength of their design and their consumer-friendly marketing. Rich, organic characters and worlds, appropriate and immersive art design, deep mechanics, meaningful DLC, substantive and free content updates: that is the good shit, right there. And it's profitable, too.
 
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Yeah, it's not that people aren't happpy with "more of the same" from Fallout, it's that they've gone backwards and dumbed it down on so many levels. The only things that have improved are the visuals and combat. That's it, everything else has been stripped down and simplified. People are unhappy about it lacking what made Fallout great. It's blatantly an unfinished, rushed for release game aimed at a wider casual audience, hence the complete lack of depth in quests, factions, karma, dialogue etc. And it's far, far too easy for a game based on surviving in a nuclear wasteland. After level 20 you're constantly walking around with 100+ simpaks/bobbypins and enough healing food to sustain a small country. At level 30 you're a fucking GOD that can roam around killing anything in the game in 1 or 2 shots. I'm still playing it a fair bit and it is a good game but it sure as hell isn't a good Fallout game. Hopefully GECK and modders can fix that somewhat but, again, they shouldn't have to do Bethesdas job for them. It's Skyrim all over again, but with less depth.
 
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Yeah, it's not that people aren't happpy with "more of the same" from Fallout, it's that they've gone backwards and dumbed it down on so many levels. The only things that have improved are the visuals and combat. That's it, everything else has been stripped down and simplified. People are unhappy about it lacking what made Fallout great. It's blatantly an unfinished, rushed for release game aimed at a wider casual audience, hence the complete lack of depth in quests, factions, karma, dialogue etc. And it's far, far too easy for a game based on surviving in a nuclear waseland. After level 20 you're constantly walking around with 100+ simpaks/bobbypins and enough healing food to sustain a small country. At level 30 you're a fucking GOD that can roam around killing anything in the game in 1 or 2 shots. I'm still playing it a fair bit and it is a good game but it sure as hell isn't a good Fallout game. Hopefully GECK and modders can fix that somewhat but, again, they shouldn't have to do Bethesdas job for them. It's Skyrim all over again, but with less depth.

MrBTongue did a pretty good analysis of the previous three Elder Scrolls games where he touched upon the unsettling ways that mainstream games media plays into and helps support those sort of shallow design trends by presuming to talk on behalf of regular gamers. It's impossible to say this without being incredibly condescending, but I don't think enough people in the larger gaming community (particularly industry and media folk) possess the critical disposition to talk about video games in any meaningful way. The concerns of regular gamers has been homogenised into a shallow discussions of the superficial (graphical fidelity, player freedom, etc) and a binary metric of whether the game is 'fun' or 'not fun'. Not that these concerns aren't important, but they are smaller discussions that deserve to be discussed within the context of a much bigger whole: they are not important in and of themselves. I really don't care that Fallout 4 will let me customise my weapons, what I care about is whether that weapon customisation will help prepare me for new challenges well past 50 hours of gameplay. Map size and n x amount of 'content' has never particularly interested me, what does interest me is whether deviating from the beaten path will yield an artefact, a location, a side quest that deepens my immersion into the world the developer has created. These are concerns that were never, and almost are never, brought up by the people who claim to represent us, so why are we surprised when the industry consistently fails to challenge itself?
 
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That video (and your posts) is spot on. It's infuriating.
 

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And it's far, far too easy for a game based on surviving in a nuclear wasteland. After level 20 you're constantly walking around with 100+ simpaks/bobbypins and enough healing food to sustain a small country. At level 30 you're a fucking GOD that can roam around killing anything in the game in 1 or 2 shots.

This is a fair comment that I never really considered. I am now level 32, I wouldn't say I am half way through the story - but I have 125 Stimpaks, 99+ bobbypins etc My gun the Deliverer will kill most things in one shot.
 

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I'm level 17 and I have 8 stimpaks and literally everything kills me. But I'm one charismatic bastard.
 

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I'm struggling to remember exactly what I played this year, but here goes.

FFX (PSVita)
Finally got round to finishing this game and so glad I made the effort, one of my fave 1FF's and fave games in general.
9/10

FarCry4
Solid game, with an interesting villain, but was a bit of a slog towards the end. Makes me want to go to Nepal though...
8/10

Pokemon Alpha Sapphire
The usual Pokemon experience, get badges and compile a collection of time bending, weather changing, life creating Pokemon all as a 15 year old boy. Also breed and discard genetically inferior Pokemon for fun. Good game though.
8/10
MGSV
Was looking forward to this one, and it didn't disappoint, at first at least. The gameplay is excellent but the story and big empty maps left a lot to be desired. I haven't even finished it (still on Act 2) because the story or lack of kind of took the wind out my sails a bit, especially since non of it seems to be going anywhere, even the 'climactic showdown' with Skullface ended with an awkward prolonged cutscene. To me it felt like half the game it was meant to be, but a very good half.
8/10

Bloodborne
Really enjoyed this, I liked the changes made from the Souls series, great atmosphere ect. Never finished it though as I got a bit burned out and another game came out which consumed my life. Got renewed interest recently after seeing some of the DLC gameplay, and what I did lay of it was truly excellent, although this method of story telling seems to go way over my head half the time, so I'm not entirely sure what I'm trying to achieve other than 'kill stuff before it kills me'.
9/10

Witcher 3
I could go on about this game forever but I'll try to be brief. I fucking love this game, probably my fave game ever. Played through it and the DLC 3 times pretty much and if I had the time I'd do it again. I'm sure everyones aware of how good the story and characters are ect but they really are that good, the last act of the story really hit you in 'the feels'. The world itself is excellent, with each area having a special feel to it. I really enjoyed how you had to learn how to fight different monsters, learn when to dodge ect, as opposed to just wailing on them like in Skyrim. All the witcher potions and decoctions you could try to get by on higher difficulties. Also the physical copy came with the disc (obvs, 2 booklets, a map, stickers and the entire soundtrack. CDProjectRed really put in the effort and it shows (including continued DLC and patch support). My GOTY and currently of all time.
10/10

Still need to get back to Bayonetta 2
 

Megaclyde

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And I feel liberated, honestly. My two favourite games of the year were titles I had no prior interest in; that sold me not on brand recognition or industry-influenced consumer reviews but the strength of their design and their consumer-friendly marketing. Rich, organic characters and worlds, appropriate and immersive art design, deep mechanics, meaningful DLC, substantive and free content updates: that is the good shit, right there. And it's profitable, too.

Very good point, thinking about it Id say I feel the same. Witcher 3 was the first witcher I'd played and first time with the franchise and it completly blew me away and has set a standard for me. I used too buy so many games and never finish them because something new came ot, but now the only thing I'm looking forward to this year is new Witcher DLC, Smash Bros DLC and maybe Dark Souls 3.
 
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MGS V - Not played much, but so far I'm thoroughly unimpressed, open world MGS is just wrong, I bought this hoping it wouldn't be like Ground Zeroes, unfortunately it seems to be that way, I thought Ground Zeroes was shite. Hope I'm proven wrong throughout my playthrough, I don't hold much hope though. 4/10 (so far)

Fallout 4 - I think this has been covered, it's basically fallout 3.01 - the simplified version. 5/10

Fifa 16 - Not impressed with this one at all, impossible to defend unless you press everyone onto one player, awful game in the fifa series imo, think I will be investing in Pro Evo once I have some spare cash. 2/10

Dragonball Xenoverse - Best DBZ game since Tenkaichi 3 (still doesn't top it mind you), good game, but the Create A Character mode is a little broken, it's way too open to abuse. I look forward to Xenoverse 2 though, lots of improvements to be made, but definitely on the rigt track towards being a damned good game. 7.5/10

Halo: Master chief Collection - Meh. It's Halo, but a bit prettier. 7/10

Supreme Ruler 2020 - Great game, not overly complicated, but not too simple for an RTS, only complaint is that war can start over nothing at times, for example, I'm currently N. Korea, Russia fired on one of my ships, so the game's absolutely fantastic response was to declare war on Russia for me. Luckily I allied with China so now it's China + N. Korea Vs Russia, however if S. Korea declare on me, I'm fucked. :lol: 8.5/10

Undertale - If you haven't played it. Play it. If you haven't heard of it. Play it. If you don't want to play it. PLAY. IT. 10/10
 

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Yeah, I've slowly been making my way through that Undertale. Lots of charm and a great sense of humour. Seems that some people have their heads a bit too far up the games ass from what I've seen so far ("you can resolve fights by PETTING THEM?! ER MER GAWD, BEST GAME EVER!") but who knows, maybe it just gets a whole lot better.
 
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Yeah, I've slowly been making my way through that Undertale. Lots of charm and a great sense of humour. Seems that some people have their heads a bit too far up the games ass from what I've seen so far ("you can resolve fights by PETTING THEM?! ER MER GAWD, BEST GAME EVER!") but who knows, maybe it just gets a whole lot better.

It's the story mate, that's what wins it, gameplay is alright, but the story is fantastic.
 

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I finally got round to playing Undertale. People will be talking and writing about that game for years to come, I think. It did something more than just provide a mechanically, narratively, aesthetically fresh experience. It feels like a cultural milestone, I dunno, time will tell.
 

Megaclyde

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MGS V - Not played much, but so far I'm thoroughly unimpressed, open world MGS is just wrong, I bought this hoping it wouldn't be like Ground Zeroes, unfortunately it seems to be that way, I thought Ground Zeroes was shite. Hope I'm proven wrong throughout my playthrough, I don't hold much hope though. 4/10 (so far)

C'mon man, Ground Zeroes was literally a taster for MGS5. I actually likes Ground Zeroes better than MGS5 tbh, as you say open world MGS doesn't quite feel right. At least in GZ the base itself 'felt' like MGS
 
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I understand that, but there was hope there for my favourite game series. You can't blame me for that, surely? :lol:
 

Megaclyde

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I can and will, although they did fit nearly every story scene into the trailers so it was hard not to get on the hype train regardless of GZ
 

Jonny12

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Fifa 16: One step forward one step back. I'll still play the shit out of it, but man do they fuck parts of that game up. Even as a player who has won Division 1, sometimes I absolutely despise playing the game, and sometimes I love it.

Rainbow Six Siege: By far my game of the year, adore it. If you are in to tactical shooters it is a must have, so addicting and soooo good.

Life is Strange: I feel like LiS is like a mini Mass Effect series for me in that I couldn't get enough of it up until the ending which ended up slightly putting me of the whole thing. I recommend playing it if you enjoy this type of game, story driven point and click esque.

Tales from the Borderlands: My very close runner up for GOTY, by far and away by favourite Telltale game. Hilarious all the way through and was a thoroughly enjoyable experience from the get go. Best story driven game i've played since DA:O and very easily the funniest game i've ever played. Play this fucking game!

Halo 5: Three steps forward one and half back. The gameplay itself is the crispest, most fluid feeling, balanced shooter experience I have ever played. I adore the gameplay, easily the best of the franchise, it's a joy to play in the buttery smooth 60 FPS. Forge is outstanding, a GIANT leap forwards, and the monthly content drops are a wonderful reason to keep coming back. However the campaign was the worst of the series, as expected when you have a comic book writer be the lead writer. Furthermore they have waited far too long to release gametypes for the custom games, this has really annoyed me as customs could have been so good, yet they stalled on them and customs will take a hit because of it. This was a HUGE oversight by 343, and those gametypes better come soon.

Squad: Early access game that provides a unique and immense realistic shooter experience. It's in early access, and has been on Steam for 2 months, yet I already have 33 hours. Watching the game grow will be fascinating and I will be honoured to be a part of it.

Black Ops 3: Multiplayer is alright, a step in the right direction. But every CoD I buy just makes me crave CoD 4 more and more. Remake it Activision.

Football Manager 16: It's just more FM, addicting as shit hence the over 300 hours.

Fallout 4: I liked it, enjoyed playing through it. Gameplay was a big step forward but the story was just bland and underwhelming. Bethesda just don't make RPG's like Obsidian do, I really beg that they make a new Fallout.

Witcher 3: 3rd in by GOTY list solely because I played it like 9 months ago. My favourite RPG since DA:O. Got me interested in the franchise as a whole as well as making me a fan of CD Projekt Red, I look forward to their next game.

Metal Gear Solid 5: My first Metal Gear game, I played about an hour and a half a few months ago and haven't touched it since. Don't think it was fully MG's fault but the game didn't entice me to keep playing. I think single player stealth oriented games don't really interest me as much as they once did.
 
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