2016 has been a tough, tough year. Beloved celebrities dropped around us left and right, the polar ice caps are melting faster than anyone anticipated, and the US elected a cheeto-dusted misogynist scam artist as their new president.

The one silver lining? 2016 has been an AMAZING year for games.

Whether your into big-time AAA military shooters or weird little indie darling projects, 2016 had something for nearly every kind of gamer. As usual, my list is a mix of new releases from this year and games from previous years I only just got around to now. Also they're mostly PC games, because any need for me to buy a new console dried up when I moved across the street from my best friends who happen to own a PS4 (thanks Fatima!).

Without further ado, here's the Top 10:

12. Far Cry 4

Early 2016 was a dark time for me. I didn't like where I was living, I was going through my first set of law school finals and SAD was setting in big time. Fortunately, I found salvation among some very good friends, and said friends owned a copy of Far Cry 4.

Far Cry 4 is so good at what it does, and what it does is mostly repeat the success of Far Cry 3's open world violent sandbox and hone it to perfection. It even had a decent storyline, correcting its predecessor's most glaring flaw.

11. The Witness

I will never finish The Witness, and that's ok. Something about my brain just does not jive with designer Jonathan Blow's particular of spatial puzzling. Still, I recognize good world design when I see it, and The Witness' lonely, mysterious island is a space I really enjoyed being in even when I was bashing my head against a wall of unsolvable conundrums.

10. Darkest Dungeon

Speaking of games I will never finish, Darkest Dungeon is a game I've put 15 hours in and there seems to be no end in sight. The gameplay has degenerated into a grindy, endless slog, and I have no intention of returning.

So how did this make my top games list? Styyyyyyyle. Loads of it. Everything from the art, to the unrelenting difficulty, to the game's impeccable narrator created an oppressive atmosphere that even the original Dark Souls couldn't beat. I wallowed in it for many hours and I continue to think about the game to this day, and so I consider it $15 well spent.

9. World of Warcraft: Warlords of Draenor

At the beginning of this summer I was jobless and aimless, finding ways to spend my days while waiting for some opportunities to fall into place. Separated from my gaming PC and finding a lot of time on my hands, there was no better time for another free 15 day free trial to fall into my inbox from Blizzard. So I played WoW for a few months, and I had a good time with it.

The Garrisons were really neat and running my team of followers made me feel more like a general with a real place in the world rather than random adventurer #1,287,598. Plus seeing all the little gameplay and UI improvements after several years of being away from the game was very interesting. WoW is something that will probably always be a part of my gaming hobby, even if I spend more time observing it from a distance than actually playing.

8. The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt

A really late entry to this list, and a game that actually came out last year. I wish I hadn't slept on this title for so long. It has genuinely some of the best writing I've ever seen in a game, and the combat and crafting systems, while annoying, have been improved upon from Witcher 2 so much that they no longer feel like a slog to get through.

And thats about it. To talk more about the game would be getting into spoiler territory, so just check it out yourself if you have the opportunity. You won't be disappointed.

7. The Banner Saga 2

If you're unfamiliar with The Banner Saga; imagine the world of Game of Thrones except the White Walkers have already made it over The Wall. Also, the army of the dead was fleeing another, even WORSE apocalypse that is slowly engulfing the world. Also, the sun has stopped in the sky. Also, its permanently winter.

So yeah, its pretty grim. I don't think its as good as the first Banner Saga. The story loses its way a bit in the third act, especially as the game seems to be racing to an unsatisfying ending and characters begin to vanish and reappear without much explanation. Still, I'm looking forward to see what they come up with as the game wraps up in Banner Saga 3.

6. Batman: Arkham Knight

Its more Batman, except with a fully realized Gotham City and the goddamn Batmobile reimagined as a sweet hovertank. NEXT!

5. DOOM

DOOM is the single player FPS perfected. DOOM is how you reboot a franchise. DOOM is pure fun distilled down to its purest form. DOOM is fucking ART. From the moment the DOOM marine punches his way out of a stone sarcophagus to the frantic final encounter, DOOM never stops moving.

There are no quiet moments, only carnage. The music is pitch-perfect. The story is there, mostly buried in audio and chat logs, and just self-aware enough without being corny and without taking itself to seriously. Its goddamn perfect, and one of the best surprises of the year.

4. XCOM 2

I didn't think Firaxis games could top 2012's strategic opus XCOM: Enemy Unknown, but somehow they managed to do it. XCOM 2 is almost everything you want in a sequel. It fixes problems from the previous game without losing its focus.

Taking the canonical "bad ending" in which humanity lost the war in the first game and recasting XCOM as a scrappy resistance movement rather than a globe-spanning military organization was a stroke of genius, and allowed the developers to shake up the gameplay and craft a much more believable campaign. Its just too bad the game is pretty technically busted, or I'd probably still be playing it.

3. Quiplash (and Quiplash 2)

Never in my wildest dreams did I think Quiplash would become a "thing" when I first showed it to my friends back in September. From the brilliant, terrible minds that brought us drawful and the other Jackbox games comes a mashup of Cards against Humanity and Balderdash that is beautiful in its simplicity and playable by anyone. Quiplash gave me some of my best gaming memories this year, and I didn't even shoot anyone.

2. Total War: Warhammer

Ever since I was a wee PC gamer, I've been a strategy guy. One of the first games I ever played on my own was Warcraft II on my Dad's old powerPC lollipop iMac. Since that time I've always been chasing the medieval general fantasy: taking huge armies of sword and bow wielding soldiers and smashing them together in epic pitched battles.

Now, nearly 20 years later, Creative Assembly has delivered on that fantasy. Taking the formula that they have honed over the Total War franchise and placing it in the bold setting of Warhammer, CA has created perhaps their greatest and most accessible game to date. Great art, tons of personality, and a new magic system that manages to be fun and balanced, Total War: Warhammer is something really special, and I expect to be playing it for years to come.

1b: Hearthstone and Heroes of the Storm

Both these games made my list last year, so I can't in good conscience have them taking up space on my top games list again. Still, I feel the need to mention them because collectively I've put more hours into these games than anything else on this list. Except...

1. Overwatch

Yep. Call me a Blizzard fanboy, but these guys are still the best in the business. Blizzard took a new IP and a genre they've never tackled before and blew away all the competition. Call of Duty? Pshaww. Titanfall 2? Over it. Battlefield 1? Nope. None of these games matter because Overwatch is THE multiplayer shooter of the year as far as I'm concerned.

I don't even own this game and yet I've probably put over 50 hours in. I go to my friend's house and play match after match, either switching off with the controller or going in marathon sessions. I get no external reward out of it. No levelling, no unlocks, no artificial RPG mechanics driving me forward. Its just pure fun, and in this day and age that's a rare thing.

Special Awards:

Best Hearthstone Expansion - Whispers of the Old Gods

Best Hearthstone meme - Flamewreathed Faceless aka "4 mana 7/7"

Overwatch Hero 2016 Deserves - Roadhog

But the one we need right now - Tracer

Warhammer's Legendariest Lord - Grimgor Ironhide (Da Biggest Boss around!)

Weirdest... Game? - The Beginner's Guide

Biggest Gaming Regret - Still haven't played Bloodborne

Best Party Game - Quiplash 2

Most anticipated 2017 game - Pyre

Most Feels - Cibele

Best Surprise - DOOM

Biggest Disappointment - When the CEO of Oculus Rift was caught funding online white supremacy (seriously: http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2016/09/22/palmer-luckey-the-facebook-billionaire-secretly-funding-trump-s-meme-machine.html).

This was a fantastic gear for games after a very disappointing 2014. The new consoles have finally hit their stride with high quality exclusives and a flood of self-published indie games. The PC continues to be the platform of choice for those who want to play anything. Nintendo’s WiiU, a non-starter at launch, has also had a banner year with Splatoon and Mario Maker, proving once again that when Nintendo first party is on point, they often cannot be touched.

While the usual suspects in the AAA space were of a consistently high quality (putting aside the Batman: Arkham Knight PC fiasco) most of the years best moments came out of the growing indie space. Rocket League, Undertale and Kerbal Space Program are just a few examples of games that came out of nowhere and took the internet by storm without the need for flashy expensive graphics or a multimedia marketing campaign.

This list has a few of those games but is mostly older stuff that I found occupying most of my time this year.

THE TOP 10:

10. Starcraft II: Legacy of the Void

Starcraft is over. Just like that, the fabled RTS series ended itself in the most dramatic way possible not with a bang, but with a whimper. Legacy of the Void's story was a cliche'd mess with a terrible ending, but still managed to be one of the most fun campaigns I've played in a while. The co-op multiplayer missions are a great addition, and the competitive multiplayer changes seem smart and allow for a faster, more dynamic game. Also, John de Lancie is in it, which is probably the only reason this game managed to sneak onto my top 10 this year.

9. Heroes of the Storm

This game represents the cyclical nature of game genres in the most literal way possible. To sum up the history of HOTS: Blizzard creates Warcraft 3, modders create DOTA from Warcraft editing tools, DOTA becomes wildly popular and spawns a whole new genre of games, Blizzard creates a new free to play game with all the trappings of that genre they themselves inadvertently created.

And yet HOTS does everything it can to not feel derivative. Its actually one of the most inventive and accessible "DOTA-likes" (or MOBAs if you're into that) I've ever played. They made team experience shared, simplified the game mechanics and created a large pool of playable maps where typically there is just one. Its quite an achievement, and managed to hook me for a large part of this year.

8. Invisible Inc

I wish I like Invisible Inc a lot more. I like it a whole bunch, which is why its one this list. I just cant seem to complete a game after that initial run many months ago. Its a turn based strategy game styled after XCOM that focuses on stealth rather than combat, which completely changes how you think about strategy and tactics in these games. Rather than kill everyone, your mission is to go in, grab the thing you need, and get out as fast as you can. Take too long, or get caught in a straight up fight with the bad guys, and you will fucking lose fast. The novelty of this idea is a great hook on its own, and Klei created a great, deep game with a ton of style around it.

7. Game of Thrones: A Telltale Games Series

I fell off of Game of Thrones, the HBO series pretty hard this year. The plot for most of the major storylines either went absolutely nowhere or straight up started going backwards this season. The charm of my favourite characters were gone, and the show clearly became less interested in pushing the boundaries of what you can show on television in any sort of interesting way and started just going for shock value.

That’s why Game of Thrones: A Telltale Games Series was such a breath of fresh air. Taking place during the most dynamic and chaotic period around the events of the red and purple weddings, GoT manages to introduce us to interesting new characters whose actions are cleverly weaved into the events of the TV show without feeling forced or contrived. Yes a couple of the storylines drag a bit and some of your choices feel pretty meaningless, but this is probably one of the most well acted Telltale game to date.

6. Undertale

People have been telling me to play Undertale since it came out, and to my detriment I ignored them. Its impossible to describe whats so damn special about Undertale until you actually get your hands on it. You can say its funny, its got great music, its got weird characters. All of these are true. But its when the whole thing comes together in the second act that Undertale truly shines. Its weird, its wonderful. You need to play it. The first hour is straight up bad though. Someday a developer will learn how to parody terrible tutorials without just making a terrible tutorial.

5. Tales from the Borderlands

This came out of nowhere for me. When Tales was initially announced back in 2014 I couldn't be less interested. Borderlands was a fun shooter, but I don't instantly think of "story" when listing off its virtues. Tales is one of the best adventure games I've ever played, and might even be one of the best Telltale games ever made, coming in just under The Walking Dead season 1. It plays surprisingly well on the iPad, which makes it a great travel game. There were moments that genuinely made me laugh, and moments that were heart wrenching. Yet the tone felt consistent, with great performances out of both the main characters and the supporting cast. Tales is best played with some knowledge of the Borderlands universe, but it also stands on its own if you just want a fun adventure game.

4. Lara Croft: Go

While everyone was drooling over the next generation Rise of the Tomb Raider, Lara Croft: Go quietly slipped under the radar as one of the iPad’s finest original puzzle games. Created by Square Enix Montreal (makers of the similarly under appreciated Hitman: Go), Go seamlessly takes the core gameplay of running, climbing, switch hitting and monster killing of the classic Tomb Raider series and presents it as a quick and clever turn-based puzzle game. The levels are small and self-contained, with frequent checkpoints and plenty of hidden collectables that encourage repeat play throughs. At only $5, Go recently upped its value even more with some free dlc that added 11 new levels and a unique new mechanic that totally changes how you play the game. Whether you like puzzle games, Tomb Radar, or are going on a trip soon and would like a game to play while travelling, you really can’t go wrong with Lara Croft: Go.

3. Borderlands 2

Yes, this was a 2012 game, but I still haven’t really taken a deep dive on the Borderlands series until this year. As of this writing, I have 87 hours played in this game and I don’t plan on stopping anytime soon. Now complete with 6 classes, 61 levels of character advancement, 4 add-on campaigns and over a bazillion guns to collect and shoot, you really can’t beat the value found in this game. I even noticed some more subtle things about the game during my second play through. The diversity of the cast of characters, the quality of the writing, and the depth of the character customization. Borderlands 2 is up there with my top games of the year, and may actually be one of my favourite games of all time.

2. Total War: Shogun 2

Why is Shogun 2 still the best Total War game in the series? I could literally write pages about this, and I’m sure all two of you other Total War fans out there would be happy to read about it. But really, it boils down to a balance of complexity, interface and simplicity. I’ve played a lot of Total War games this year, from the original Rome: Total War all the way up to Atilla. Out of all them, Shogun 2 stands alone as an example of how to bring an old school grand strategy game into a new era. It has a well designed interface, simplified economics, and a deep meaningful diplomacy system. Plus it still looks great. Can’t wait for Total War: Warhammer though. Feudal Japan is cool and all, but this game would have been seriously improved by adding a few Orks.

1. Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft

Yep, this game is still number 1. Hearthstone continues to hold the honour of the only free-to-play game I have ever spent money on, and I play it on a nearly daily basis. Whether I'm killing time at home on my desktop, on a laptop while travelling or holding a tablet while cuddled up with my partner late at night, Hearthstone is there for me anywhere, anytime. This year was full of content, including two single player adventures and a full on expansion. Not everything hit, and there was some drama around some bad trends in the meta game that sent the community into hysterics about "the death of Hearthstone." But they managed to pull it out at the last minute. The League of Explorers expansion ended the year on a high note and cemented Blizzard once again as one of the best developers in the business.

Special Awards:

Studio of the Year: Klei Entertainment (Invisible Inc, Don't Starve)

Best Hearthstone Expansion: League of Explorers

Best Borderlands Expansion: Tiny Tina’s Assault on Dragon Keep

Most Anticipated: XCOM 2

Best Game for Couples: Tales from the Borderlands

Best MOBA (if you don't like MOBAs): Heroes of the Storm

Best Character: Loader Bot (Tales from the Borderlands)

Best Boss Fights: Undertale

Tabletop / Board Game of the Year: No Thanks

Dungeons and Dragons 5th Edition: Yes