The Top 5 are 10/10 games for me and realistically could go in any order, while the rest were definite stand-out experiences for one reason or another. I know number 10 seems like a stretch, and i guess it is, but read the thing. I have my reasons, tenuous as they are.
I don't have a 3DS or WiiU or any next-gen thing so there are probably other games that would've earned a spot on this list had I played them. Fire Emblem seems really cool. So does Super Mario 3D World.
I do not think exists a better world builder in the realm of video games than Irrational Games. In Bioshock Infinite's Colombia they crafted a world so filled simultaneously with soaring grandeur and insidious darkness that at several times in playing it i felt moved by the visuals alone. I think Bioshock was just as well crafted, but as an American the seeing a world built out of the imagery of American Exceptionalism as well as the xenophobia and hate that have at times defined my country (and still define it today) had such a strong impact on me. The religious aspect of Colombia was also very striking. I was raised christian and though I am no longer religious, the powerful imagery and music of Christianity will always hold some sort of sway in my heart, no matter how much I distance myself from the church. I get the feeling that this is also the case for many of the designers of the game, and maybe even some of the characters in it as well.
At first I was a little hesitant at the idea of Bioshock having a speaking main character, but I think Booker is an excellent character, who goes through real change as a result of his trip to Colombia and meeting Elizabeth. The Story of Elizabeth, Booker, and Comstock was hands-down my favorite one this year. The revelations of how those three people were connected, as well at the secret behind the omniscient Lutece Twins were an absolute joy to uncover. I loved the implications of the events of this game on the Bioshock universe, and I loved all the Time-travel intricacies that the story revolves around. All of the Characters were all superbly acted. This is a great year for Troy Baker. The game is full of awesome moments between Troy Baker and Courtnee Draper, one standout being a time where they sing a song for a scared child about halfway through the game. All the secondary characters are similarly well realized, and each get their moment to shine.
Bioshock Infinite by the very nature of its environment allows significantly more bombast than Bioshock's opressive claustrophobia. Airships and parts of the city flying around you in the heat of battle really enhance the expansive feel of Columbia. The Sky-Line and the faster, more responsive shooting makes combat fun and frantic. I'm a big fan of damage numbers flying around, so that addition made me pretty happy. The Melee executions are pretty horrific, and are accompanied by a discordant musical hit that makes them extra unsettling, especially the first time you use one at the state fair in the beginning of the game. The Vigors for the most part scratch the same itches as the Plasmids in Bioshock, lending themselves nicely to the more offensively focused combat. The weapon variety was nice, but I usually stuck to the Hand Cannon and a shotgun.
Bioshock Infinite is the complete package. Every part of it holds up under scrutiny, and compliments every other part. The gameplay reinforces the characters, who provide the backbone of the story, which informs the visual design of the the world. Irrational Games are at the height of their craft, and are without a doubt one of the studios at the top of the industry. In Bioshock Infinite, they have created the new yard stick by which I will be measuring all games moving forward. It's my new gold standard, and its my Game of the Year.
EDIT: this take has not aged well at all. yikes. reading back on this it seems like a lot of the racial politics sorta went in one ear and out the other when i played through it. i still really love the art of Bioshock Infinite, though. if i was to do this list now in 2017, i think i would maybe put this right after brothers, and make sure to be more critical about its politics to balance out the gushing.
Gone Home is a scary game. It's initial premise is that you are a girl arriving home after a year abroad in Europe only to find a vacant house and a vague note from your younger sister. Immediately i was filled with dread. "Who Died?", I thought. Was it the sister? could it be me? am I just a ghost, haunting my own family?
What does begin to reveal itself as the true story of the game surely could have a very grim ending, and that possibility never really left my mind as i sifted through the remnants of my family's year without me. My sister Samantha had just started in her new school. She was haunted, in a way by the house we live in and the reputation of its previous resident. She was isolated by this, but found a friend in Lonnie DeSoto. The game takes me on this journey with Samantha via her journal pages that shes left scattered around the house.
The incredible atmosphere of the house and the outstanding music and voice talent fully enveloped me as i followed this story toward what i assumed was a heartbreaking end. there is no shortage of sadness in Gone Home. You find that this family is broken, and that no one else is happy besides you, off living it up in Europe. You find evidence of deep emotional trauma sifting through your father's things, and unhappiness and longing in your mothers heart.
The game keeps the tension high, using vague language to make you assume the worst. More than once, i absolutely dreaded what i would find on the other side of one of the house's many closed doors. There is one moment where you figure out that everything is going to be okay, and that's when i could start to relax. I was going to be okay, too. The game ends on a beautiful, life optimistic note. You don't have to let yourself be controlled by the things that have happened to you. You can make a change if you try. You can exorcize your ghosts, set yourself free and move on.
Gone Home is a beautiful game. I was moved to tears by the time the credits rolled, a feat only previously accomplished in gaming by The Walking Dead. Where the Walking Dead did this through Tragedy and loss, Gone Home is a revelatory, joyous experience by the end. It's darker elements only serve to highlight the life affirming notions at its heart.
I recommend this experience to anyone willing to let themselves have it, because i believe its a new high point in the art of video games, and 110% worth the price of admission.
I never really liked Crash Bandicoot or Jak & Daxter so Naughty Dog was first really introduced to me through the Uncharted series. As a huge Indiana Jones fan, I immediately was on board with all of the swashbuckling and globetrotting being presented. The Last of Us is without a doubt the child of Uncharted. Spend more than five minutes in the drop-dead gorgeous, intricately crafted world of post-infection America and the pedigree is obvious. What's also obvious is that despite this game being the logical next iteration for Naughty Dog in terms of technology, the storytelling in The Last of us is an enormous leap forward.
The Last of Us is, in the grand tradition tradition of The Blues Brothers or Planes, Trains, and Automobiles, a road trip story. Joel and Ellie are thrust together by circumstances out of their control and set out together on a harrowing year on the road across post-apocalyptic America. The relationship between Joel and Ellie is the real centerpiece of the game. Joel and Ellie start the game as whole characters, whose pasts inform all their interactions with each other and with other survivors they meet. Joel's life before the outbreak and how hes been living since become apparent very early in the game, while Ellie reveals more about herself as the bond between them grows throughout the game. It's a very real relationship, and it's supported by an awesome cast in a year with some of the best performances in the history of games. Troy Baker and Ashley Johnson's performances as Joel and Ellie respectively were excellent, and I think Baker's work in this game manages to top his other leading role this year in Bioshock Infinite. Voice-acting juggernaut and 4-time Northie winner Nolan North also does a great job voicing David, whom Ellie meets on a hunting trip about halfway through the game.
The one place where the game's heritage is most apparent is in the gameplay itself. It inherited it's animation-heavy movement and traversal from the Uncharted games. The combat also feels like Uncharted, but much heavier. The guns buck and sway, and the melee is weighty and brutal. The sound design makes every gunshot and steel pipe-on-skull collision appropriately horrific. Even the stealth takedowns are loud and messy. The game scatters crafting materials throughout the environment that Joel can use to create weapons and health kits. The crafting menu doesn't pause the game, so whipping up a new molotov cocktail in the middle of combat is appropriately harrowing. I played on normal, so ammo wasn't totally scarce, but hard enough to find that i found myself forced to get creative and use something besides the handgun and shotgun on several occasions. Character animation is superb. Characters emote with their faces and bodies just as much as with their voices. It almost feels like all the work they did on Uncharted was just practice for The Last of Us.
Even though the general aesthetic of The Last of Us has been well documented in games that came before it like Fallout, S.T.A.L.K.E.R, and Tokyo Jungle, The Last of Us is hands-down the most beautiful Post-Apocalypse ever crafted. The level, art, and lighting design made the game feel oppressive and claustrophobic while traversing through the urban wreckage of Boston and Pittsburgh, and expansive and wild while trekking through the forests and rural areas. The enemy AI always kept me on my toes and never let me really fall into a set rhythm when fighting. The combat is weighty and brutal, but forgiving enough so that I don't feel compelled to restart every encounter once plan A goes to shit. In fact, when plan A goes to shit, that's actually where I think the combat really shines. The Plot is well paced and constantly engaging. I only really felt like it was dragging in one or two places. I also really liked how it was split up into seasons.
This game is the pinnacle of technological achievement in it's generation. In a year that includes both a new Bioshock and a new GTA, this new IP proves that a new idea can still be hugely successful. Naughty Dog are Sony's best first-party studio, and with The Last of us, have cemented themselves as one of the best game studios in the world. The Last of Us is a high point for this hardware generation, and serves as an amazing goodbye for the Playstation 3. If something as gorgeous as The Last of Us can be squeezed out of this seven year old console, I can't even imagine what a Naughty Dog game will look like in year 7 of the PS4.
Grand. Theft. Auto. Those three words are perhaps the most powerful three in the video game industry. The release of a new GTA is not only a gaming event, but a cultural one. It's the one of the small handful of video games that everyone knows, no matter what. It's in a lot of ways the flagship video game, for better or for worse. I don't envy Rockstar. They need to constantly compete with themselves to top these Goliaths that they themselves create. it must be daunting. However, like the main characters of their games, they manage to somehow manage to crank out a bigger, better GTA every single time. Grand Theft Auto V is no exception. It's the best GTA game yet.
Rockstar have been known to draw heavily from cinema when building the groundwork for a GTA game. GTAs III and IV are very much inspired by The Godfather, Goodfellas, and any number of other New York crime movies. Vice City is a Scarface and Miami Vice-fueled 80s neon fever dream. San Andreas draws heavily from Menace II Society and Boyz in the Hood. Grand Theft Auto V is Rockstar's between Heat and an action-comedy buddy movie. The myriad criminal escapades of Michael, Trevor, and Franklin read like a lost Tony Scott film. While the type of films the game references were most prominent in the 80s and 90s, GTA V is firmly planted in the present. With things like financial malfeasance, celebrity worship, boredom with wealth, entitlement, identity theft, hillbillies, obsession with technology, juggalos, social networks, and recreational meth cooking popping up throughout the game its clear that Rockstar has a lot to say about whats going on in America in the Facebook era. Los Santos has changed a lot since the 90s, looking a lot more like modern Los Angeles than an Eazy E video these days.
We follow Michael the retired criminal asshole, Franklin the upwardly mobile gang banger, and Trevor the meth head gun runner and Michael's former partner-in-crime. when Michael becomes fed up with his boring life and shitty family, he takes Franklin under his wing and starts causing some ruckus around Los Santos. this brings Trevor back to town, and the three of them spend the rest of the game fucking shit up and being lovably horrible in that classic Grand Theft Auto way we all know and love. The stand-out element of the game for me is the chemistry between the three main characters. All three guys are incredibly well acted. I look forward to scenes when they get together and really play off each others personalities are almost as much as the centerpiece heist missions throughout the game. Each guy also has a handful of other associates who get thrown in the mix from time to time like Trevors adorable meth head juggalo whipping boy Wade or Franklin's fuck up "best friend" Lamar. Michael and Trevor's relationship is the main driving force behind the main storyline of the game, and Trevor is my favorite character of the year. The way they interact is simultaneously extremely antagonistic and full of love. They make the perfect duo for this kind of story. Franklin is sort of the odd man out, with most of his character conflict coming from him trying to better his lot in life, while his connections to his old neighborhood keep coming back to bite him in the ass.
Technically, the game is seriously impressive. I haven't been to LA myself, but anyone can tell the attention to detail that went into their surrogate city. Every neighborhood feels unique. The world also feels more alive, with police chases and gunfights happening without you once and a while and a decent variety of side activities for you to waste some time in. The character switching mechanic and the way it opened up the storytelling was completely revolutionary. I hope that it gets ripped off in other games in the future. It was the one thing that made the the most nervous about this game, and it ended up being one of my favorite parts. The shooting mechanic is vastly improved in GTA V. The shooting has never been this series' best feature, but i think they've finally nailed it. A lot of the shooting and cover stuff feels very similar to Red Dead Redemption, which is a good thing because the combat in that game was excellent. The Driving is also a lot tighter, thankfully. I know most people hated the way the cars handled in the last game, but i kind of dug how sloppy it was. It made everything feel like a big messy 70s style car chase. Customizing your dudes clothes is better as well, as you have a lot more variety than you did for Niko or CJ in their games. When seeing other people's guys, they never look the same as mine which is pretty cool.
I think this game is amazing, but there's still one little thing that bugs me about it. I think that the humor in the dialog is so much stronger than the humor that goes into things like the names of businesses and radio stations. I could never really put my finger on it until heard it brought up on a podcast. It almost feels like Rockstar isn't confident in letting GTA evolve past that stuff for some reason. Every other facet of the game is dripping in cool, down to things like the trailers and marketing that the sophomoric humor in the tertiary elements of the game is more of a distraction than anything else at this point.
Rockstar with this release have tapped into the things that resonate most with me when it comes to American action movies, threw them in a blender and poured out a bloody milkshake that impressed me with its nuanced flavor and smooth consistency. Okay, that milkshake analogy got gross, but you get what I'm saying. As if you had any doubt in your mind, Rockstar cranked out another near-perfect GTA game. If you're like me, and you love a good bit of good old-fashioned capital C Crime, This is the best video game from which to get your fix. It's the most well-rounded open-world crime game yet, and on top of that its got some of the best characters in action comedy history, video game or otherwise.
When the first Saints Row game came out, i still didn't have an Xbox 360, but I did see it at a friends house and was totally into it. I jumped on the series in earnest with Saints Row 2, which had this strange blend of humor and legitimately cool action that was very endearing. After that, Saints Row: The Third fucking blew the doors off the series, finally fully establishing itself outside of Grand Theft Auto's shadow. All of the crude yet inclusive humor, super endearing characters, and gleeful disregard for reality that the Saints Row franchise now provides are turned up to 11 in Saints Row IV. Saints Row IV, in the hands of a less capable developer could have been one of those stopgap sequels that amounts to the previous game, just repackaged with a few new environments and a new gimmicky mechanic thrown on top. The difference is that Saints Row IV takes something like a completely re-used city and new gimmicky mechanic and applies it with such a deft hand that it makes the last game seem bare bones in comparison. Could you imagine going back to a non-superpowered Saints Row? I can't.
Saints Row IV, while I'm sure is still an awesome ride for those new to the series, is really a love letter to those of us who have been on board the whole time. It's so built around prior knowledge of the series that I can't imagine what the game must be like for a newcomer. The rapport between the Boss and his friends is so strong, it reminds me of the chemistry you see in a great sitcom like Seinfeld, Friends or Community. My "The Boss" is middle aged British man with slicked back hair and a penchant for silk shirts. Regardless of what he or she looks or sounds like, they and their merry band of psychopaths are the best ensemble in gaming right now. As of right now, I haven't finished the game, but I'm sure that the end will see these guys with their backs against the wall, possibly naked, covered in the blood of their foes, but most importantly, together. the way it should be.
This is a game that seems to say "yes" to every idea that in any other open-world series would be too outrageous and risky to try. What if we just make the player the President of the United States? Yes. What if we have aliens suddenly invade? Yes. What if we just blew the whole planet up, set the rest of the game in cyberspace, and gave the player game-breaking superpowers. HELL FUCKING YES. This game delivers every line of dialog, every absurd plot point, every outlandish new bit of gameplay, every pop culture joke, every seemingly out-of-place yet totally earned heartfelt moment with such aplomb that you literally cannot help but love it. Saints Row IV is a gamer's game. It loves everything you love, and with the enthusiasm to match your own. It's the game we dreamed up with our friends while eating candy and watching Saturday morning cartoons. It's the game that The Simpsons would have Bart ask for for Christmas and I fucking love it.
Brothers is a puzzle platforming game that uses a dual analog controller in a new and exciting way that I've never seen before. That alone is enough for me to consider it for this list. Each stick and trigger controls one of the brothers, and when playing this game I found myself thinking and problem solving in a way I was not used to in video games. The only thing I can really compare it to is playing guitar, where each hand is doing something different, while working together to accomplish a goal.
Doing that for 2 hours would still make for a great puzzle platformer, but Brothers also has one of the most unique game worlds this year, rivaled only by Bioshock Infinite, as far as I'm concerned. It's a unique fantasy setting that manages the feat of feeling vibrant, alive, mysterious, dangerous, and expansive all within the very short run time of the game. You find yourself trekking through places that feel hugely significant for no other reason than the fantastic art and level design. There is a standout scene about 2/3 of the way through where the titular Brothers find themselves at the sight of a battle that really impressed me.
The story itself is pretty basic, the two brothers are on a quest to retrieve a magical potion to save their ailing father. This game however uses this structure, and an un-subtitled fictional language to display some very strong character development of the Brothers, as well as tell the story of some other side characters you meet along the way. This game really lives up the the praise it gets.
Payday 2 is a lesson in chaos. It is at it's core a 4 player co-operative "horde mode" shooter, but with a Michael Mann coat of paint. The guys at Overkill took the no-brainer concept of "Heat the Game" that they introduced in 2011's Payday: The Heist and improved it in every single way.
Payday 2 has you participating in a variety of criminal undertakings ranging from a simple smash and grab to the trashing of a shopping mall as a means of extortion, to complicated capers involving multiple locations, political intrigue and double crosses spanning the course of several days. What these usually all boil down to is filling bags with loot, murdering hundreds and hundreds of law enforcement officers, and waiting for the getaway van. Payday 2 breaks up what could be very monotonous gameplay with several possible configurations for each mission, including different locations for key items and people, different locations for the getaway van, and varied police tactics.
While there are ways to complete most of the missions fairly quickly and quietly, I think the game really shines when the plan goes to shit. One of the best parts of the game is that the police come in waves, and the start of each wave is announced by the background music swelling to a crescendo and then letting the beat fucking drop in such a way as to indicate that it is FUCKING GO TIME. This never gets old. Once the police put the pressure on, the game becomes this tense firefight where you find yourself throwing bags of money around, providing covering fire, running out of ammo, yelling at people, co-coordinating dramatic rescues, and all the other elements that make a good heist movie action scene. The shooting in this game is a lot looser than something like Call of Duty, which I think really enhances the drama of the game. Emptying a whole magazine off into a crowd of cops and only killing two or three guys is a lot more radical than wimpy shit like "controlled bursts" or "military precision" or "head shots".
The game has its issues. The fact that gun accessories, mask accessories, and even new masks themselves can only be unlocked lottery style is irritating, and even once you get them, they still cost money to actually unlock. It totally sucks. Also the lack of a real server browser or any kind of meaningful matchmaking filters made it tough to do the actual heist you wanted to, but despite all that i think Payday 2 is a really great co-op experience at its core.
I think Overkill have finally cracked the code on this and with a bit more polish, Payday 3 (if that ever happens) has the potential to place itself in the pantheon of co-op shooters alongside games like Left 4 Dead and Borderlands. All the elements are there, they just need to figure out how to get it all together more coherently.
I feel like a minority in the world in that i think WWE is really good right now. The Usos, AJ Lee, Daniel Bryan, Antonio Cesaro, fucking Goldust, and even more established guys like CM Punk and John Cena have been doing excellent work this year. I hear Jeff talk about how shitty it is on the Power Bombcast and I really wonder if were watching the same TV show.
The Main feature this year is WrestleMania mode. which was fun, but I felt there were some huge matches that didn't get included (especially from the Ruthless Agression Era), though that was mostly because the competitors are either dead or no longer with the company. Theres also a pair of Undertaker-specific modes called Beat The Streak and Defend the Streak, which are exactly what they sound like. You either play as Taker and crush and endless line of AI wrestlers, or you pick a guy and try to beat Taker on a difficulty level higher than anything available in any other part of the game. It's very difficult.
WWE 2K14 is yet another Yuke's Co. Ltd. joint, so the gameplay is largely the same, with some small tweaks. For example, running grapples aren't as strong this year, thankfully. My favorite part of this game is always the creation systems. The create-a-wrestler part has some shitty menu design that makes it difficult to get super in depth with things like patterns and logos for attire, but otherwise lets me get my guys looking how i want them. I really love create-a-moveset though. I spend hours deciding on every single move my wrestler does, for every single new guy. This year added a lot of cool moves that I have been wanting.
While I think this is the last year they can really get away with putting out a game on this same engine, I do think that it's still essentially a pretty fun game to play. Wrestling has sort of become a big part of my life again in the past few years. I dive into this product with enthusiasm that probably helps to negate a lot of the less than awesome parts of the game. That's fine with me though. I fully admit I'm a total wrestling mark and thats probably the only reason this game is on this list. Well, that and its the only wrestling game we get anymore so its not like I really have a choice in buying it, so why not enjoy it?
Rogue Legacy is a very charming game, despite its somewhat Horrific premise. You play one of three family members, trotting triumphantly into a castle to slay the beasties within and relieve them of their treasures. The dark truth underscoring this fairly simple premise is that each character is a member of a cursed bloodline, that has, for hundreds of years, thrown themselves into certain death to follow in the footsteps of their fallen mother or father.
this tragic ritual manifests itself in gameplay as a 2d action platformer with 8 distinct classes and a fun variety of spells to cast and enemies to fight. Every time you die, however, all the gold you earn stays with you until you re-enter the castle as a new character. Each new character inherits a number of traits from its ancestors. From things that impact gameplay like colorblindness or increased knock back to general character traits like baldness or being gay or I.B.S. That gold you kept is spent upgrading your skills and buying new weapons, armors, and classes. That part is where it gets addicting. I keep slamming my head against it just trying to finally have a run good enough to afford that one more upgrade that I'm convinced will allow me to beat the next boss.
I'm not very good at the game. I've still only beaten one boss, but I've burned through nearly 200 generations of this poor family. but the fact that I still go back to this game is a testament to how much fun it is to jump, slash, and air dash around in the 16-bit inspired world of Rogue Legacy.
Aliens: Colonial Marines is a miserable game. I, like many others wanted to believe that Gearbox was finally going to put out that awesome canonical sequel to aliens we were promised back in 2008. Obviously we were wrong, but me and two friends decided to play it anyway.
What happened then was magical. Me and my two other Aliens-obsessed comrades subjected ourselves to the game entirely in co-op. At first we were pleasantly surprised that even though the graphics were kind of shitty, they nailed the atmosphere of Aliens. The color palette was spot-on, the Pulse Rifles sounded great, the Motion Tracker noise was there, the used-future, military ship design was pretty much all just as good as we were hoping.
Then came the part where we had to play the thing. Every encounter revealed new disappointments. Bad (and often completely broken) scripting, repetitive combat design, horrid AI, poor writing, and more awaited us around every corner. But once we came to grips with what we had just spent a collective 180 American dollars on, we started to really enjoy ourselves. Every bad element of the design or storytelling started to become more and more entertaining. When we came upon a locked door, we would joke about what alien horrors awaited us on the other side only to scream in laughter that it was the scariest thing of all: more Aliens: Colonial Marines.
The Game became something not to be beaten, but to be survived. We egged each other on, and supported each other in times where we considered giving up. We laughed together, we groaned together, and we won. Together. We had been through hell and we didn't let this fucking video game beat us. This is a game that despite being tepid at its very best, brought me closer to my friends, and that's something no other "good" game i played this year could do.
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