On the other end of the spectrum,
Child of Light was a game I thought was good in the demo, but not enough to buy the game immediately. Two years I waited because I didnt think I wanted to pay 15$ for it. So when I get it for like 3 bucks on steam and realize that I should have paid the 15 for it, that is an incredibly positive sign.
Aside from bad prose in limerick form, this game had an incredibly fun combat system, and absolutely beautiful soundtrack, fun characters, stylish art design, and a reasonably short play time to make this an incredibly worthwhile experience. I didnt think that I would have liked it as much as I did, and the soundtrack of this game is part of my regular work playlist. This game wins my biggest surprise.
7. The
"Virtual Reality Movement in Games" award for "Most Overhyped game" this year goes to.....
So ok, probably not going to have the most credible opinion on this one. But because this is the 3rd point in this list where Im referencing the Konami debacle, I felt the game deserves mention. I liked
Metal Gear Solid, Solid 2, and
Solid 4. I never got around to 3, and at one point was looking forward to playing 5.
But with each article I read, each story about how Konami was being a dick to Kojima, each post about fans putting stickers with Kojimas name on copies of the game, each parody video about the situation, each restriction the Konami lawyers enforced, I became exhausted. After a while, my interest started to fade. Downloaded that prequel demo chapter thing, and bought the game used instead of new after the holiday. And both of them have just been sitting there.
Its probably the first time I ever have gotten so tired of hearing about a game I wanted to play, that I ended up not wanting to play it anymore. I have it now, but who knows when Im going to get to it. Hype has never killed my interest before, so I felt that merits my most Overhyped award. Sorry
MGSV, Im sure youre great and Ill get to you sometime.
6. The
"Smart-Watch Fad" award for "Flash in the Pan" game of the year.
Dragon Age: Inquisition
Always can appreciate when someone learns from their mistakes, and in the case of Dragon Age: Inquisition, they certainly learned theirs. Taking a step back and re-evaluating the cash grab they made with Dragon Age 2, they rebuilt and remolded DA: Inquisition from the ground up and produced a much more enjoyable experience because of it. Hearing people complain that they were boxed in a small number of maps, DA: Inquisition blows the up the world to an massive scale, with people literally playing the first section so long that it knocked the steam out of them to keep playing. That is a total 180 of philosophy.
While it didnt seem to really connect to the Dragon Age canon that was set before it (although it did bring back Morrigan *swoon*), it weaved a tale with some seriously difficult moral choices for me to make as it unfolded. With lots of different character building potential it gave me lots of ways to play the game, and this time produced a very interesting and fun set of characters which blow the last game out of the water.
I just wish the character creation wasnt ass.
5. The "Full Price Early Access Alpha Build" award for "Worst Value" goes to....
Persona 4: Dancing All Night (Vita)
I hate putting a game I liked in a negative category, but I have to call a spade a spade here.
Persona 4: Dancing All Night is a fantastic game. It continues the
Persona 4 canon which I love, lets me revisit some of my favorite characters, and despite having a goofy dancing theme to the game the story still somehow managed to be awesome, harrowing, and interesting. My love for
Persona 4 is unshaken here, that much is obvious.
But when the game is only out for a month and has over 70 fucking dollars of DLC, that shit is completely unacceptable in my book. Even to something I love as much as
Persona 4. Its just another case of a company withholding completed content to charge me a little more for it later.
Go to hell Atlus, I thought you would above this money grabbing bullshit. Ive never felt so betrayed. I want to play all the extra content, but you wont get an extra cent from me for that shit. Fuck you.
4. The
"McDonalds Dollar Mozzarella Sticks" award for "Best Value" goes to....
Bloodborne (PS4)
Is anyone really surprised that Bloodborne is my game of the ye... wait.. Its not? How is that possible?! Yes, for the first time since Ive started doing this charade, the current "From Software" game is not my game of the year. Believe me, I wanted it to be.
Bloodborne shook up the regular "souls game" rigmarole by picking up the tempo of the fights and removing your ability to block. The game rewarded aggressive gameplay, and managed to continue to punish me for hesitation. The Gothic scene fit in quite nicely and had some excellent monster design. The only problem was the game was kind watered down with skills and equipment which only really allowed for like 2 or 3 build types.
But the recently released "Old Hunters" added a meaty chunk of locations, bosses, items, weapons and armor to an already lengthy experience. It provided more variables and different ways to build the character, and since Ive rolled through it with 3 different characters at like 70 hours a piece, That wins best value.... Actually, there is one other that is a better value but well get to that in a little.
3. The
"Boom: Butterfly Effect" Honorable mention goes to....
Until Dawn (PS4)
I love that the games landscape is awash with new horror IP, but this one had me worried. The more I saw gameplay and trailers, I was very worried that this would just be another Heavy Rain or Beyond: Two Souls. On one hand, it was. But on the other, it totally wasnt.
Yes it followed the cinematic story style of play Ive gotten bored with in the past. But in this one it forced you to make split second decisions often, and many of them had the potential to hurt or kill your characters. The cheesy horror movie story helped this, but rung to me as one of the first proper implementations of this gameplay style. This was fun, playing a sad Ellen Paige getting harassed at a party was not.
While Id say you wont get much replay value more than 2 plays by yourself, I will say this is a great game to have some friends over and let them make the decisions. Knowing whats gonna happen and seeing what choices your friends make made this an incredibly social game for me. Ended up being the one of the most multiplayer games Ive played in a while. Until Dawn was absolutely worth the purchase to me.
2. The "EVO Grand Finals Controller Malfunction" award for "Worst Game of the Year" goes to.....
Resident Evil: Revelations 2 (PS4)
Capcom, I think it might be time to put this series to bed. It had a great run, but the magic just isnt there anymore. Even getting to finally play again as my favorite character in this series again, Claire, didnt motivate me enough to get through your episodic installment of this game.
Each installment of this story becomes more watered down and less interesting to me. There is no new mainstay baddie that feels like a credible threat to the growing cast of protagonists. Forcing me to control 2 characters who are pretty much useless didnt endear me to the system. Moira and whoever the fuck the little girl was could have been NPCs for as useful as they were. After 2 or 3 chapters I became disenchanted enough to not care how the story turned out, put it down, and never went back.
Im glad I waited for for this to come down in price, because even the discounted amount wasnt even worth it to me. While we are saying our final goodbyes to Silent Hill, we should move a plot over and say ours to Resident Evil as well. Even the idea of a remake of Resident Evil 2 doesnt have me excited anymore.
1. The "Woshige Premature Celebration" Award for "Best game of the year" goes to...
Smite (PC/Xbox One)
I wanted to give this best value so
Bloodborne could be my game of the year, but I have to call this like it is. For a guy who has been pretty lukewarm to the MOBA genre as a whole, no game has held my attention this year longer than
Smite has.
Some games I play like 3 times through, some games I have a 400+ hour save. Smite has somehow gotten me to play a strictly online multiplayer game, going against all convictions I have, nearly every night for at least two or three hours since I installed it. Its caused me to host my first all day lan party (of which only 2 other people attended but it was good enough for me). And despite not being good at the game, not knowing the difference between an ADC or a Mid Support pusher, and multiple nights of rage fueled profanity, I somehow keep coming back for more.
Cant believe Im still writing on this thing considering how little traction it gets. Heres to the next year of it.