My first real list. I can see why the GB crew do what they do. It is rewarding thinking about what you really liked about each of the games you played, and trying to describe it in a way that will make others feel like they need to play it (or avoid it).
My first real dive in to the Fable series. I ended up breaking the end game by having too much gold, but even if I hadn't it seemed a little too black and white for my taste.
The combat was OK, but once you found a strategy you stuck with it.
I don't really remember any stand out characters or sequences from the game, but it does stand alone as the only non Bethesda/Bioware RPG I have played in some time, so its novelty made it worth playing.
That and the dog. I bought a DLC pack so I could change the dog to be a boxer like my dog. I am the problem.
Glory to Arstotzka.
A really great game that you can kind of play as long as you like, both in terms of sit down sessions and in general.
I got two endings and decided to end my story there, but there looked to be about 16 or so, so you could get some milage out of this.
Highlight was definitely the guy who kept making at home passports and would get slightly better each time he came up.
Wei, Jackie, Big Smile Lee.
This game surprised me. I didn't expect it to be anywhere near as good as it was. Its a GTA clone no doubt, but one that goes against the trend of a lot of GTA clones and rather than trying to go bigger than GTA, brings the story in and makes it more intimate.
The game looks amazing, but the city seemed a little too similar, which I suppose is a trade off when basing it off a real place.
Highlights include the action movie like melee combat and the shootout at the funeral.
It's Splinter Cell, you either like it or you don't. I really do. This one didn't blow me away with either its story or its set pieces, but the moment to moment play still scratches an itch like (almost) no other game.
Highlight for me was seeing the plane get taken over by the virus and the first 'side op' set in an Afghan Poppie farm.
I had wanted to play this since playing the demo on XBLA ages ago but never got around to buying it.
It was a game with gold so I finally dived in.
I enjoyed the hell out of this. I played this while listening to Hardcore History and having recently been to Germany so I was ready for a WWII game (I know the podcast was WWI but same frame of mind).
I still remember making the final shot in the game, missing twice before getting him on the third shot, one of the best moments of the year.
Another game with gold. A game I'm glad I didn't buy as it was something I forced myself to finish. Not that it was bad, it just didn't grab me, as I believe it hid too much story behind the collectibles.
Highlight would be the lair of the rat man.
Man I don't remember much about this game at all. It might have been too long between playing 2 and this but I couldn't get into the Gears story at all.
Highlight would be...when Marcus took his bandana off. Again, really didn't grab me.
i started playing this in 2014 and put it down for quite some time.
I went back determined to beat it, but kept making very little progress.
I read online and was apparently over leveled for the end but couldn't get anywhere near it.
I ended up getting a good trait, which allowed me to beat the boss easily.
I didn't love it as much as others but found it a nice break from the heavy other games I played.
I started playing the MGS games for the first time a little before Drew did, after deciding that they were a hole in my video game knowledge and wanting to branch out and try something new.
The first two have not aged well in terms of gameplay, they were a struggle.
This game you start to see what they want to do with the controls, but I was just here for the story.
Hands down the best of the first 3, although the camo was tiring.
My game of the year. Hands down.
I've played 1,2,Brotherhood & 3 but this one really stood above all others for me.
I liked the characters and love stories that deal with the 'end of an era'. I thought it was genuinely sad to see almost all of Kenways friends sitting around the table at the end.
I want to spend more time in this world, but am even happier that the world has moved on and its not possible.
Highpoint was fighting two ships when I sailed past a fort, so I start attacking that as well, when a storm whipped up. The funnels destroyed the other ships while I took down the fort, Yarrgghhh!
Vaas might be my character of the year.
It's such a shame he was taken out halfway through.
I echo Jeff's sentiment, this game should have gone a different way, other than the 'American guy power trip'.
High point would have to be letting animals free in the middle of bases and watching them go.
Another step forward in terms of actually playing a metal gear game. This one felt for the first time like Snake wasn't moving on a grid.
Thats the end of the good points.
I watched this game, and feel it wasted a lot of the potential of the series, using nanomachines as a get out of jail free card for everything. They are barely mentioned up until this point, then in this game they are mentioned in every second sentence. Also the love story included might be the worst most unconvincing love story I've ever seen. At no point did any of it make sense.
The highpoint was the Rex Vs Ray fight, which was very cool, and seeing Big Boss as the end, although again, I feel they left some interesting stories on the table by killing him off again minutes later.
This doesn't even seem like it's in the same series as the other games. You are no longer fighting Snake to do anything, he moves the way you want him too. Enemies have a more recognisable line of sight. Light plays a much bigger role in stealth. In short, this is what I wanted the MGS games to play like since the beginning. Just a shame it's so short.
Highlight I think was just moving snake around for the first half hour. Spotting enemies, sprinting, ducking, holding up guards and having it all feel great.
I loved Halo 1, 3 & Reach. Love them. Halo 3 was the perfect end to the trilogy. Halo 4 did not make me a believer that they should have started a new one and Halo 5 ... turned me back around.
The story of Cortana being your antagonist this time around really works for me, again probably because the original trilogy worked on me.
I would like explore more of the post flood, civil war universe, but am happy their sticking with Chief.
I can't think of a single game play highlight, which is dissapointing, as ones easily come to mind for Halo 3 or Reach, but overall each section is fun. I'll pick a cut scene, the final one with Cortana and the Guardian chasing the Infinity*.
*The worst thing, FAR AND AWAY, the worst thing about the new Halo trilogy is that the main ship is called Infinity. How did we go from
"Forward unto Dawn", "In Amber Clad", and "Pillar of Autumn" to "Infinity", bland and uninspired, you can do better 343.
I don't even know how to describe this game.
It was fun, it was funny, at one point you are a cat, another point had a giant mammoth appear in an ice cube on a beach and to end I turned the chiefs (not that one) head into an Alligators and was eaten.
Play this game.
The highlights are all mentioned above.
Full disclosure, I didn't actually finish this game, but only because the very last level is BS.
Other than that it was a lot of fun and the perfect length, it gave you just enough, but was mindful that it would quickly become repetitive.
I sometimes felt like I was finishing a puzzle, but doing it in a fairly simple way, but as long as it works I suppose.
My highlight would be watching a villager with the repel water charm racing towards a newly created village and trying to move enough water to help him get there.
