What older games did you play for the first time this year? (2015 Edition!)

It's that time of year again (just like last year): a time of reflection, a time to revisit the past, a time to figure out why you spent so much of the year playing Phantasy Star for the Master System. 2015 was packed to the gills with games, but that doesn’t mean that we didn't have time to discover a classic or two or catch up on a few games that we managed to miss last year. The Talos Principle was one such game for me. It's kind of a bummer I waited so long, because I enjoyed its blend of philosophy and puzzle solving more than anything else I played from 2014. I also caught up on Roundabout and Never Alone, two games I liked more for their live action content than their gameplay.

The beginning of the year was admittedly a little lean and it ended up being a mini-year of games from 2010 that I never got around to playing. There was nothing particularly wrong with Xenoblade Chronicles, but it ended up losing me about half-way though (although I'm enjoying the sequel quite a lot more). Conversely, Yakuza 4 felt like it breathed new life into a franchise that I felt desperately needed it. I got blown away by Super Mario Galaxy 2 in a way that makes me feel like kind of an idiot for putting it down so quickly back when it was new and I liked looking back into Ninja Theory's catalogue by finally playing Enslaved: Odyssey to the West and it's outstanding DLC, Pigsy's Perfect 10. I also played through Alan Wake, and while its no Max Payne 2, I appreciated it's style enough to get me interested in seeing how Quantum Break turns out.

And There's more! I finally finished Resident Evil this year via the HD Remaster (does it count if the rerelease came out this year?) and PS+ gave me the opportunity to see the story mode in Injustice: Gods Among Us. I finally played enough Fire Emblem: Awakening to understand the appeal of the series and I think I discovered a genre of mobile games that I actually want to play with Game Dev Story and Mega Mall Story, both from Kairosoft. Star Wars hype reach new levels of absurdity this year and while many looked forward to the new movie, I looked back to X-Wing Alliance, a game that doesn't quite recapture the magic of Tie Fighter, but is still pretty good anyway and Republic Commando, which made me way more disappointed with Halo 5's squad mechanics than I would have been otherwise (both games were directed by Tim Longo). Finally, yes, I played the entirety of Phantasy Star, albeit via the easy mode included in the PS2 Phantasy Star Complete Collection. Hopefully that will pay dividends if I ever get around to playing the other Phantasy Star games.

So those are the old(er) games that I played this year, how about you? What ancient classics did you unearth? What games from last year did you catch up on? What games released outside of the calendar year of 2015 did you beat or put a significant amount of time into for the first time this year?

I bought Rare Replay about a month ago and since then I've beaten Kameo and am close to finishing Perfect Dark. I also played through a number of 2014 games including Far Cry 4, Metro Redux, Alien: Isolation, Valiant Hearts, Wolfenstein: The New Order, Watch Dogs, and a few others.

I finally got around to Diablo 3 on ps4. That game is a fun laid back experience.

The Talos Principle, The Binding of Isaac, and The Witcher 2. Normally there's more but 2014 was so bad, and 2015 was so good.

Earthbound and Dark Souls. Both were/are fantastic, and helped prime me for some of my favorite 2015 games (i.e. Bloodborne and Undertale).

I didn't play it for the first time, but I finished The Witcher 2 this year for the first time, right before 3 came out.
I played some of Resident Evil HD and... didn't like it too much.
I played a wee bit of Shadow Complex a few weeks ago, when Epic was offering their new shiny PC version for free.
I played some of Alien Isolation for the first time this year, but didn't finish it.
I played a good chunk of FF7 this year, though I did play a few hours of it a few years ago via emulation.
I played the 3DS version of Devil Survivor 2 this year, but I think that might actually be significantly different from the original game and it was a 2015 release so it may or may not count.
I played the full version of Destiny for the first time this year.
I played a good chunk of Super Castlevania IV this year.
I had played Dark Souls before this year, but I played the vast majority of it this year and finally finished it.
I played Shadow of Mordor for the first time this year. I didn't play much of it but wow, from what I played that game is not GOTY material. I plan on giving it another shot, though, so my tune might change later.
I played some of Strider - the most recent one, that is - this year, but not much of it.

I don't recall any old games that I both played for the first time and finished this year. This is weird, because for the past few years, most of what I've finished have actually been old games. I didn't actually finish many games this year, come to think of it.

For as much crap as they pulled this year, Konami putting Suikoden 1 and 2 on PSN was a joy for me. I had never had the chance to play either before and boy do they hold up.

Also played a mishmash of things like I always do, main other notables would be the

• older Arkham titles outside of Asylum (City, Origins, Blackgate),
• some titles of the Mario & Luigi (Partners in Time, Bowser's Inside Story) series,
• Radiant Historia,
• Dragon Quest V: The Hand of the Heavenly Bride,
• Shadowrun: Dragonfall.
• Diablo 3, Sc2: heart or the Swarm
• Witcher 2: Assasins of Kings
• A slew of Adventure games, half a dozen or so of various ages

And some Mega man II like I do every year.

I usually play 60% older games or so. Mostly fairly recent-ish ones

I purposefully focused on filling the huge JRPG shaped void in my gaming history. Began this about 18 months ago.

Played and finished FF10, FF6, Xenogears. Loved these games!

Just started FF7 on PS4 and I am enjoying the heck out of it.

Played several of the Ys games.

Nice side effect of this endeavor is I am actually using my Vita!

I just so happen to have a(n in-progress) list that answers that very question! Probably the big one this year for me was the first God of War, which I enjoyed more than I thought I would.

Bulk Slash on the Sega Saturn!

Also, Elevator Action Returns on some Taito collection on the PS2. That is a game with stylllllleeeee.

The most notable old games this year would be the Witcher 1 and 2 that I marathoned this summer. Unfortunately I became burned out on Witcher and haven't even touched Witcher 3 because of it. I enjoyed the games.

Although I've touched this game in the past, I haven't played through the whole of it until recently. 2 days ago I finished Psychonauts in 4 days. Man that game is even better than I remember it! So great!

I also finally played Journey and Transistor and both were amazing!

For me it's Journey, Uncharted 1-3, Last of Us: Left Behind, Persona 4 Golden, Motorstorm:Apocalypse, Trash Panic, God Hand, Parappa The Rapper 2, Kirby's Epic Yarn, Injustice: Gods Among Us, TxK, WipeOut HD, Infamous:First Light, Sunset Overdrive, Forza Horizon 2 and Never Alone

many of which i admittedly did not finish yet because there were also many good new releases...lets say it was a good gaming year for me ^^

Mega Man Legends for the PS1 via PS3 PSN release. Charming and clunky.

I'm starting Bastion now on PSVita after loving Transistor. It's pretty good, but I liked Transistor's gameplay and style a bit more.

The Evil Within because it was on a huge Steam sale. Since release they let you natively remove the awful letterboxing and stabilized the framerate a bunch (I played the demo around release and it was rough on my system anyway).

Came the closest I ever have to finishing Bully. I doubt I'll ever pick it back up again. It's fine. I appreciate the ideas more than the execution. A lot of it is really flat, low bar parody. I would like to see Rockstar go in that direction again, or at least something as different from their normal fare.

Valkyria Chronicles. I bought it on release but never got around to it. Had to hook up my Ps3 and everything. Im trying to prove to myself that I'll get around to every game in my back catalogue, regardless of age :p

@slag: ughhh but how many heads do we have to smash to get konami to put suikoden ii on PS4?? I'm DYING to play that game.

in other news, KOTOR 2 was the oldest game I played this year. and it's absolutely fucking glorious with its ridiculously deep conversation trees and skill checks every 2 steps. absolutely love that game, and I'm so glad someone stepped up to port it to Mac this summer.

@hatking: man, as you say the humor falls a bit flat in bully, I gotta wonder if it's just not aged well. I remember that game hitting home on so many levels and rarely going for the easy targets and lowest hanging fruit.

Xenoblade Chronicles 3D and LoZ Majoras Mask for 3DS. Freakin' great games and will definitely be in my goty list.

Alundra (PS1), Hotline Miami, Super meat boy and MGS3 Snake Eater on Vita. MGS3 is in the goty list too.

PS4...Shadow of Mordor and Journey. Nemesis system is so good and would work with heaps of other games but I hope it doesn't become a standard. Journey was as good as I thought it would be and that is something considering it was #1 on the goty list I made when it came out before I'd even played it. I just know what I like haha.

Oh jeez, still on my pile of shame where I'm at the last dungeon and I'm completely lost. Getting back into that is gonna be so so hard...

Yakuza 3. I had played and absolutely enjoyed 4 the year before and wanted to bridge the time until 5. I think this might already be one of my all time favorite game series. They are just great fun to play and I like the endless dialogues and cutscenes and the overblown drama. Not big into japanese games at all, but these just struck a nerve with me.

Other than that, I was on kind of a late 2000s adventure game streak, playing through the whole secret-files and the memento mori series for the first time.

I really don't remember whether it was NFS or CS 1.6. o.O However, the game that I've been playing since 6 months+ is counter strike 1.6 on public servers... it's so much fun !!

Indigo Prophecy I rented it on ps2 back in the day and never finished it. It was rereleased on steam this year a HD version. I finally beat it it's a alright game but the QTE'S are downright ridiculous at times the game has great atmosphere though especially the first half of the game.Also played Resident Evil HD didn't care for the gameplay but again great atmosphere. Also I played Arkham Asylum for the time it was good but it felt really dated especially since city was the first one I ever played.

Conker's Bad Fur Day via Rare Replay

This War of Mine - which was from last year, so it's 'older' but not 'old'

Played Suikoden 2 for the first time, and that game is really good. Little on the easy side, but the main story is very good (Like, surprisingly so), and it has loads of colourful characters. Also an iron chef minigame.

I tried playing System Shock 2 for the second time, didn't last too long... ended up deleting the game after a couple of hours.

I am playing Transistor on the PC, love the game, beautiful art and interesting story.

Also playing Door Kickers, and that is mad fun. Great mix of strategy, puzzle, action, rpg.

Demon's Souls was my main one. After loving Bloodborne and it being my first From Software game I picked up Demon's Souls on sale and had a fantastic time. The combat notably wasn't as good as Bloodborne but the world building and art was still fantastic to look at and explore. It's weird that Dark Souls gets so much credit when Demon's came before and kinda started this 'genre' for From. Though I still haven't played Dark Souls 1 or 2 so maybe they're even better than Demon's and Bloodborne which are both incredible to me.

It's probably because Demon's Souls was not supposed to be released outside of Japan, and only did so regardless after the game got hyped as a hidden gem among some websites and importers.

Dark Souls had a multiplatform release, pre-release hype from Demon's Souls word-of-mouth and a publisher who actually made PR for the game in the West

I started and beat a bunch of older games.

• Max Payne 3 - Really like everything but the gameplay. Gameplay mostly felt like a slightly tighter Red Dead or GTA5 and you can tell they were using the same engine. Other than that though, the production value was off the hook. Love the soundtrack in particular, listen to it outside my time with Max Payne 3 and enjoyed it still. It's a very pretty game and the story is appropriately grim. One thing that felt lame was there obsession with flashing some of the lines on screen as if they were anymore meaningful than w/e else the characters were spilling.
• Tomb Raider (reboot) - This was a ton of fun. Story sucks and characters suck but even that I was able to derive some enjoyment out of 'cause it dealt with ancient Japan. I really think people just came down on it based on the PR mess one or two developers created before release. What a shame though. It's such a solid game especially in the mainstream tripe A space.
• Jak and Daxter: The Precursor Legacy - Holy shit this game is amazing! Where the fuck was I? Ignoring Jak & Daxter I guess...I remember seeing commercials while watching Toonami back in the day and seeing glowing reviews on the internet but just never played it. I think I was a platformer snob. Anything other than Mario was a 2nd rate rip-off and anyone that liked it was on the take I thought...lol...anyway, it's really fun except for the camera which was infuriating. Platinumed it.
• South Park: The Stick of Truth - To me, South Park has to exist in the now. Otherwise it's like Family Guy, crude and mean. It can't be in the now 'cause it's a video game and it takes too fucking long to make so the game has to get by on it's brand of humor without the satire. In truth, I've never been a fan of the show as much as I wanted to be so I couldn't really get much out of this simple JRPG. Platinumed it for some reason...
• GTA: Chinatown Wars - Another game I ignored despite the glowing reviews. Picked it up during at PSN sell for $5 sometime ago and finally got to it. Critics got it right man. This game is fun as hell. Writing is funny and being Asian, I think I got a little more kick out of it being a Chinese oriented GTA. The story starts slow and gradual but kinda wraps too fast and out of no where which was the disappointment. Great game none the less.
• Castlevania: Symphony of the Night - I liked it quite a bit but maybe it's such a seminal game other developers built on 'cause it just didn't knock my socks off. First Castlevania game I've played and beat though!
• The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker - My first Zelda game. This game is dope as hell. Played the OG Cube version and it looks a lot different from the Wii U one from comparison videos but still looks awesome. Really enjoyed it. Got sucked into the world and spent many many hours. I didn't really know Zelda puzzle logic so I got stuck a few times but other than that, it was a blast. LOVE the music.
• Killer is Dead - Meh. It's ok.
• Beyond: Two Souls (PS3) - Another meh. Heavy Rain is better I think. The structure sucks ass and can't hide the poor storytelling and script. I hated all the open spaces that were corridor of all corridors. Absolutely suffocating. For the most part, the graphics were amazing which was one positive thing I can say about this disapointment.

I re-play old games all the time when I'm between new stuff, but a couple that I played through for the first time recently are Steamworld Dig (now I really wanna play Heist!) and The Walking Dead Season 2.

MGS2,MGS3,MGS Peacewalker, MGS4. Wanted to catch up before 5 as I had never actually played through any of these games. Drew's playthrough just made me want to play them more.

@rebel_scum: I leaned heavily on strategy guides to get through that game in a reasonable amount of time. The dungeons are absolutely monstrous once they introduce pitfalls and the encounter rate is absurdly high even reduced by easy mode.

Xcom: enemy unkown

Murdered soul suspect

Just cause 2

Metal gear Rising (well first time i really got into it, played the demo years ago)

Started Shadow Run :dragon fall, decided to skip Returns since people say it's the weakest and none of the story stuff ties in. Also bought Hong Kong but i think that came out this year?

The first Knights of The Old Republic.

The beginning is super slow.

I put about two hours into Men At War: Assault Squad the other day, with plans to put many more into it this week.

It's overwhelming, throws you right into it, and kinda rad. Also fuck AT guns. And AT soldiers. And other tanks. "I finally got a tank! *WHAM* And now it has no treads."

I also played through A Link Between Worlds, which was super fun.

Oh right, Starcraft II! Both Wings of Liberty and Heart of the Swarm in preparation for Legacy of the Void. It's also a rad game.

Assassin's Creed II, Borderlands 2, Bulletstorm, Darksiders, Dead Island, Diablo 3, DmC, Dragon Age Origins, Front Mission Evolved, Just Cause 2, Kingdoms of Amalur, Killer is Dead, Magika, Mass Effect 2, MK9, NFS Most Wanted 2012, Sleeping Dogs, Splinter Cell Blacklist, Tomb Raider 2013, and The Witcher 2.

I finally went back to and beat Baldur's Gate 2: Throne of Bhaal. Previously I had only beaten vanilla BG2 and the first game. The computer we had when ToB came out really hated the Saradush sections and the game slowed to a crawl, which was a major bummer for me. Since I had a lot of free time on my hands I decided it was time to finish that evil playthrough I'd been wanting to do for years.

And speaking of old CRPGs I've owned for more than a decade, but didn't finish until this year: Fallout 2! I've never been as fond of it as the other games and my opinion remains pretty much unchanged. It's a good game with some of the best moments in the series, but it's very uneven.

I picked up Shadowrun: Dragonfall, which is just excellent. It's such a marked improvement over the underwhelming Shadowrun Returns. Loved it.

Shim Megami Tensei: Nocturne for like the 5th time. Persona 3 for like the 5th time. FF7 for the first time in around 10 years. FFVI for like the 5th time. Lots of Guilty Gear Xrd. Xenoblade Chronicles to refresh before X. Danganronpa 2. I just picked up Yakuza 3 after the Yakuza 5 QL made me want to go back to that amazing series. Kingdom Hearts 2 and BBS. All the MGS games before V came out. KotOR2 because all the Star Wars hype made me want to play the best thing to come out of Star Wars and it still is even after Episode 7. Wind Waker HD and Super Mario 3D World because I got a Wii U finally and I'll probably get around to playing Wonderful 101 and replaying Bayo2. Beyond Two Souls because I hate myself, but I actually kind of liked it weirdly. NieR after the sequel was announced and Drakengard 3 after it both of which I really enjoyed with Nier maybe in my top 10 gamed of all time. Probably a ton of other stuff because old games are fun

My first foray into the Etrian Odyssey series with Untold on the 3ds.

Turns out these games are every bit as addictive as I've been told. Pulls on similar "one more turn" strings as my favorite strategy games, only "one more run"

Having just gotten a PS4 this year, I spent a fair amount of time catching up on older current gen titles and my PS+ titles.

• Shadow of Mordor: While I remember liking it whenever I played it at a friend's place, coming back to it this year on a fresh save is rough. Especially coming off of something newer like MGSV and Bloodborne. It just wears its Assassin's Creed / Batman heritage on its sleeve and inherits their problems too: movement feels unresponsive, combat feels one note and flat, some orc traits are just overpowered... Of course, you get used to it and can upgrade around the problems, but... Man.
• I can see what Shadow Complex is trying to do and respect its attempts at modernizing Metroid, but that jumping just looks and feels terrible.
• Guilty Gear Xrd looks absolutely amazing in motion and plays surprisingly well on a pad. I just hate that Arc System Works is ignoring the EU release (still waiting for Elphelt and Leo DLC).
• Transistor plays nice and looks great, but... playing it with MGSV, Mordor and Bloodborne staring at me was probably a bad idea.

I played Home Alone & Home Alone 2: Lost in New York on the SNES for the first time last weekend....

I highly suggest no one touches those games EVER!

Wolfenstein: New Order, finally checked out Gone Home, both Zeno Clash games, Transistor, Dishonored, The Banner Saga...there's more but yeah, I played A LOT of games this year.

The oldest of the old I played were the GBA Castlevanias, Aria of Sorrow and Harmony of Dissonance (both excellent).

Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney, Super Mario RPG, Dragon Quest, Dragon Quest II, Dragon Quest III, Final Fantasy III, Phantasy Star II, Startropics, The Witcher 2, Deadly Premonition, Resident Evil, Kingdom Hearts, Fallout, Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, KOTOR, Megami Tensei, Megami Tensei II, Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon and the Blade of the Light, Shining Force, Devil May Cry, probably a bunch more I'm forgetting.

Also lots of stuff that's more arcade-y or the sort of thing you can finish in a day or two.

Syndicate, Crusader kings ii

Somewhat shameful to admit, but I've almost never touched the Super Mario series. This year I played through 1, 2, most of 3 and started World (with plans to finish the latter two).

It's nice to finally understand why that series is so cherished.

I've since bought a Wii U specifically to get my hands on Super Mario Maker (which has soared to #3 on my GOTY list) so the Mario love is real.

Menzoberrazan - It was a great experience at the first moments, for a while even the game early third person view didn´t appeared to aged bad, that is until I hit the first underground areas. Let me explain, the game uses a very early 3D third person view, which unlike, let say a game Grimrock, but allowed a more fluid and free movement. In open spaces, it kind works very well, but soon as you are in underground it does look very bad and confusing due everything have the same texture and walls begin very close.

Dungeon Hack - I do remember finding this game more fun and fast that I find right now...and since you control a single character - playing with a cleric is almost is the easy mode, because of the Create Food spell and the Spiritual Hammer. The other classes are doable, but not very enjoyable.

Cheat Answer:

I don't know. Probably things on the Vita, but that's more a bookshelf of older games I can hardly keep track of.

I did end up re-playing a whole bunch of 360 games because I wasn't interested in most stuff this year. I ended up doing playthroughs of:

• Dead Space
• Dead Space 2
• Mass Effect 2
• Mass Effect 3
• Metal Gear Rising: Revengance
• Tomb Raider: Def. Ed.
• Metro: Last Light
• Halo 2 (M.C.C.)

So yeah. I've played all those before but I couldn't think of anything and I had a fun time with all of these. Makes this gen look :/ imo.

The main one for me was Diablo III: Reaper of Souls.

Also TrackMania 2 Stadium. (Jeff was absolutely right about that game)

The big ones for me this year were Danganronpa 1 and 2. I had bought them a while ago, played through the first trial, and then put it down as the trial gameplay was kind of annoying. The story finally got me back into it this year. That said, the gameplay is still kind of junk. I also finally gave Destiny a real shot this year after the Taken King expansion, and boy did they fix a lot of problems with that game. I had only touched the beta previously.

Lots of GOG games, like Star Trek Starfleet Academy and Elder Scrolls Adventures: Redguard.

Also, Switchblade II on the Atari ST and Technoclash on the Sega Genesis.