It's been a busy year for me. I've done a lot of moving and dealt with a bit too much personal tragedy. Surprisingly, this hasn't made me run towards video games as much as I expected.
I think this year's video games have had more contained experiences which have caused some to argue about what a game is and others to just enjoy the experience. I like to choose the latter.
Yes, they reused a bunch of assets from the previous game. Who cares when you can have this much fun? One example, games have different types of ride summons but usually if you're on a higher platform your ride will normally appear below you where the ride can legitimately arrive. However, while I was platforming all the way up in the sky, I was able to summon a car to just appear on the platform. Which got me thinking. So, I jumped off the platform and attempted to summon a plane while in the air and found myself flying the plane immediately. That's just awesome.
It's a modern Oregon Trail with a deeper message. The sound work and art is just amazing and when the title drops you should already know what this game is going to be like. The worst thing about this game was probably realizing how similar this was to what I normally do for a job.
Dark Souls + Castlevania? Sold!
"Stanley put this game as the number one game of the year. I SAID: STANLEY PUT THIS AS NUMBER ONE." A meta game on games. Play the demo. Watch the trailers. This game is for experimenting and laughing.
It doesn't give the same feel as Bioshock but I don't think it was ever intended to and the combat is improved but not as good as other current games. The experience was still well worth it.
A trenchcoated PI with some hacking skills and jumping boots. So much fun that I wish the actual game wasn't so short and that the hacking was better explained.
Amazing emotional beats with solid stealth if not the best combat. I don't think I have to say much about this when so many others have.
I was a person who feared the worst at the end but I've had my own personal difficulties to deal with this year so that might have colored it. An excellent story that is not seen in games with a more interactive style than most visual novels.
A great coop game with nice individual abilities. I haven't tried it with the new patch but I imagine it's even better. However the art style needed more ways to distinguish yourself from everything else.
The only reason that this isn't higher is that it has no great single player mode and no online play. Sorry but I don't get together with my friends often enough to just play video games. But the style and gameplay is fantastic.
