Another year gone by and this one is one to be remembered for a long time and mostly for not the best of reasons. Luckily gaming has been there to help make it a bit less terrible. One common theme for me in gaming this year are the delays. Several of the games I wanted to play this year were delayed into 2017 which made this year a lot weaker than I first expected it to be. That said, 2016 is once again a step in the right direction and leaving a few weaker years behind it.

The Anticipated

The games that I looked forward to this year that got released this year:

1. Dishonored 2

2. XCOM 2

3. Dark Souls 3

4. Hearts Of Iron 4

5. Overwatch

What game lived up the anticipation the best?

What we have here is less a title that lived up to the anticipation the best as much as it completely overshadowed what anticipation I had at the time. Overwatch is the game I've spent the most hours playing this year and without checking also with a fairly large margin. Game is still so much fun even after several hundreds of hours into it. It got interesting lore, great animations and art. A solid OST and most importantly, some absolutely amazing gameplay that through patches, updates and new heroes continues to change and evolve yet remain at incredibly high quality.

The largest disappointment

The Walking Dead: Michonne - I did not have a true candidate for this catergory this year but after somethinking I went with The Walking Dead Michonne as the winner of this award that once had several contestants. I knew this game would not be up to the level I expect from the The Walking Dead or TellTale so that it was lacking in every way was something I expected going in. That I was correct and that it at times even lacked more than I expected it to makes it probably the best candidate I got and a reminder that disappointing games can be found everywhere, even from developers that have won my GOTY more than once

Place 10-8

10. Hearts of Iron 4 - I'm always going to be happy it got released since it was the entry that allowed me to enjoy and experience this era of the Paradox titles. I did try HoI 3 and never got into it. Just too complicated to figure out despite me knowing what awaited once I did. HoI 4 was easier to understand and once I got past the basic stage of learning the game got more complicated and the enjoyment of the title increased as such

9. Stellaris - Paradox with another title on the list! I looked forward to this title for a while and the version that came at launch was fun enough but I got bored before ever coming close to completing my first playthrough. It was 6+ months later when I returned that I came to like the game so much. Gone were almost all of the things that bothered me and instead were tries to make a fun experience. It didn't nail all the aspects but it was a much better experience and a game that I will play more in 2017!

8. Deus Ex: Mankind Divided - At first I didn't plan to play the game before a sale but due to unexpected amount of free time around release I picked it up and quite enjoyed it. This is however a game that pales to the games before it and that's a shame since if not for them it might've been appreciated a lot more. That said it was fun to be back dealing with hard topics and a not too unlikely future if things go so wrong for us. All parts of the game were decent and with room to improve I hope that future titles can learn from this game

The Unexpected

Stardew Valley - Me.. playing a farming sim? In previous years that would just not happen but this year was the best time for Stardew Valley to be released and all of March was dedicated to this game alone. Coming from nowhere and saving me from the spring exams makes this game well loved by me and I look forward to returning to it one day when updates have been released and maybe when the co-op once talked about has come out. Would love to play it with dear friends!

Place 7-5

7. Civilization 6 - Civ 5 is one of my most played games on steam so following it up was always to be a tricky task and it managed. This is the best version of any Civ game at release and that is incredibly promising since Civ 5 went from chaos to awesome with extra development and if Civ 6 start of good, then the question is how great can it become? I look forward to finding out and until then I will be there playing and getting better at it. Had so much fun playing at release and friends got to experience what fun stories I could tell from just meeting Gorgo!

6. Stardew Valley - Already mentioned a bit about the game above so will instead talk about how fun it was to be part of a tiny village with colorful characters. Trying to get the best crop, making sure I always had enough gifts for my friends and my lover in the game. It made going into caves something fun and that's absolutely an aspect that often is less than fun in games.

5. Rise of the Tomb Raider - It's part of this list soly because this year was the earliest it reached a platform possible for me to play on and such I deem it a 2016 title. I like this game a lot and it is an improvement on the first game and what it delivered was an engaging story with good characters, fun combat and lovely visuals. I look forward to what comes next since the Lara they've created through the 2 games now is really awesome

Best Soundtrack

Dark Souls 3 - The soundtrack of this game got almost everything. Calm tracks, hectic tracks, tracks that make you feel like zero, tracks that makes you feel like hero. The OST might not be the greatest ever made but it got single tracks that are some of the best I've heard in a long time. The track when fighting the last boss, or the princes are both utterly amazing and tracks I keep listening to every now and then.

Most Impressive Aesthetic

Firewatch - This game provided the best visual moments of this year for me. Walking through valleys, forests, fires and finding some really dark stuff were all made that much better through the hard and talented work of some great artists and the aesthetics alone are continously making me want to play through the game one more time.. and one more time. There's not much greater praise I can hand out to a game. Making me want to re-visit it just to see what I've seen before is terrific

Places 4-2

4. XCOM 2 - I adore this game. It through some story but mostly gameplay and the player is able to create some of the most amazing moments of the year. Naming soldiers after friends, family or whatever and then putting them in the line of fire and trying to always make sure they get home safely makes every fight that much more awesome and that much more tense. The last fight in the game I still remember in excellent detail, the final shot with 23% chance of hitting saving the day and the life of the squad since we were on the ropes with none yet dead but everyone in dire situations

3. Dishonored 2 - Is this game very similar to the first one? Yes. Maybe too much for many? Yes. Do I love it? Yes! I love playing as Emily, I love sneaking, I love not killing and through hard work manage to achieve my goals. If not for a bugged achievement I'd gone the entire game without a single kill and that's an experience I wont soon forget. It's the gameplay and Emily that elevate this game so high for me. If neither of the two had been so good the game might not even have made it into the top 10 list but luckily they are both so good that it manages to even get into the top 3.

2. Dark Souls 3 - A worthy winner in every year since I started doing this thing. Story, characters, visuals, OST and gameplay are all of the incredibly high caliber one now come to expect to have by the developers FROMsoftware. It was the first title I played in the Dark Souls series after having finished Bloodborne and it made me want to play the others and I did. All of May got dedicated to the first two games and while they were not close to being as fun. I will re-visit this game once all the DLC has been released and once again kick the serious butt I did the first time around. This game cemented my style and I look forward to improving on that and gather more great kills and this time take the extra time to read more, listen more and watch more of what the game offers. There are secrets yet to be uncovered

Character of the Year

Mei - A winner where the story of the character is yet to come out in full force. What I know about her I love deeply. Her personality is just a-mei-zing through and through. This loving, friendly woman got a kickass attitude. She stands up to bullies, she wants to save the enviroment and by extention the world. She want the world to be a better place and yet the community deem here worty of the title "Satan" since she terrify them. That Blizzard the developer has taken that into account and given her a few lines that make her sound scary just further increase my love for her and she will always be my number 1 in Overwatch no matter who gets released. We are just too much meant for each other.

Game of the year

Overwatch - Comments are not required but I will still provide some. I love this game. I love the gameplay, the story, the moments I've had alone and with friends. I love the moments I will have and the experiences that will come in the future as the game gets better from the development by the great guys at Blizzard. This is the game that took 2016 and made it stand above 2012, 2014, 2015. It made this year worth remembering as a year of good games. It was able to stay above Dark Souls 3. This game provided the best enjoyment in hours, in the cost for the game and the best enjoyment I've had in a game with friends in it since I quit hardcore raiding in Wow so many years ago. This game made me want to play multiplayer again without feeling like it would be a complete waste of time. This game is fun!

And with all of that this blog is done and over. 2017 looks promising even if the world may be ending. Hope we are all around next time around this time of the year when the next blog is coming out. Until then, baaaai