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MormonWarrior

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Best of 2016

2016 is a year that managed to be a massive whirlwind for me, one that left me with even less game-playing time than the past few years. This year I managed (somehow) to finish my Master of Accountancy degree, get married, move to a new apartment, buy and train a puppy, start CPA exam prep, and in general try to keep my head above water. It also seemed to be a year that had way more games that I was interested in checking out than usual, even if I had trouble finding too many obvious standouts.

So, as a result of not having enough time to really dig into that many games, I have created a top ten list of games that I think I liked the most, and then a giant list of honorable mention/hall of shame titles.

Honorable Mentions (games I played a bit and enjoyed but didn’t quite make the cut): Pony Island, Forza Horizon 3, Gears of War 4, Rhythm Heaven Megamix, Odin Sphere: Leifthrasir, Shantae: Half-Genie Hero, Picross 3D: Round 2, Street Fighter V, Doom

Hall of Shame (games I didn’t get around to playing enough to make any kind of consideration): Owlboy, Stardew Valley, Hyper Light Drifter, Overcooked, Zero Escape: Zero Time Dilemma, Final Fantasy XV, Severed, Firewatch, Dragon Quest Builders, Abzû, Fire Emblem Fates, Headlander, Let It Die, Furi, Superhot, AM2R, Alienation, Enter the Gungeon, Kentucky Route Zero, King’s Quest, Oxenfree, Rock Band Rivals, Trackmania Turbo, Worms WWD, The Witness, Rez Infinite, Thumper, The Jackbox Party Pack 3

List items

  • In a year where there was a real premium on my gaming time, a practically perfect, polished 3-hour experience is exactly what the doctor ordered. I loved Limbo back in 2010, and Inside is the exact spiritual successor it needed to be. It’s creepy, it’s foreboding, it has an unforgettable atmosphere and it’s incredibly tightly designed. Inside always manages to surprise up until it’s over. Long story short, the game was exactly what it needed to be and it was extremely effective.

  • I…find myself in a weird predicament with Dark Souls III. If you look at my prior blog entries and lists of favorite games and previous GOTY lists, you’ll see I’m quite the acolyte of the Souls series of games. This game came out about a month and a half before I got married, so I didn’t have as much time to dive into it as previous games. At the same time, I think there are issues with too many areas being wildly frustrating rather than refreshingly challenging. The art design is incredibly tight though, there are numerous great weapons and skills, and lots of the bosses are cool. So it still is up here…even though I am only most of the way through the game still. I will beat it!

  • Uncharted 3 ultimately left a bad taste in my mouth, even if I liked the stuff Naughty Dog had accomplished technically with the series. Uncharted 4 rectified those issues with excellent storytelling, actually earned heart and resolution of character arcs, and even somehow bringing in a major new character (Nathan’s brother Sam) in a believable and honest way. I thoroughly enjoyed this last (?) dip into the Uncharted universe.

  • I’ve only messed with the tutorials so far in Hitman, and they already had me laughing uproariously at the ridiculous antics you can pull off. From what I hear, the major areas are much, much better. If that’s so, I can’t wait to really dive deep into this game in the coming months.

  • I’ve been saying for several years that Konami should seriously just take their 2D Castlevania template and just basically make a Dark Souls game with it. It seems Ska Studios (the makers of The Dishwasher and Charlie Murder) got that memo, and the result is the dour and frightening Salt and Sanctuary. It gets the feel and foreboding obtuseness of the Souls series basically correct, and it’s a game I need to dig into even deeper.

  • I utterly loved the core gameplay of Titanfall in 2014, but the actual game left me wanting. Titanfall 2 delivers exactly what I was looking for – a compelling campaign that has its own flavor and utilizes the fun platforming – and also builds on the strong multiplayer base of the original. I’m a fan!

  • If there’s any game that makes me really wish I had more time to spend with online multiplayer games, it would be Overwatch. It’s so much more accessible than other shooters (I’m terrible at first-person shooters) and it has tons of characters with unique abilities. This just leads to it being the game that I would likely be able to dig into if I just had the time for it.

  • I didn’t love the original Ratchet & Clank back in the day, and the PS3 games started to get to a place where I could really appreciate them. Finally, though, this remake/retelling/reimagining of the original game has it exactly where it needs it: solid action, quality platforming, and really, really clean graphics that run basically perfectly.

  • X/Y and Omega Ruby/Alpha Sapphire didn’t quite pull me all the way back into the Pokemans universe, but Sun/Moon finally get it. Initially I was turned off by _EVERY_ new monster in the game looking like abject garbage, but the game itself has adapted to modernity in a way previous games didn’t. Simple things like quick access to Poké Balls in battle, quick and simple PC usage, seeing weaknesses/resistances in battle, quick and easy trading/battling with local friends, and much, much more make the game seem way more adapted to the way proper modern games even work. It’s refreshing to see updates like this that make it more inviting to someone like me to come back to this series.

  • I’ve really enjoyed Telltale’s series of story-focused, choose-your-own-adventure style of adventure games (especially The Walking Dead and The Wolf Among Us), and I also like Batman quite a bit when it’s nice and gritty. This game surprised me by actually taking a unique perspective on Bruce Wayne/Batman and the world he inhabits, to such a degree that I found that my assumptions about who is good and bad was actually different from previous depictions of the characters in a refreshing way. It certainly falls short in certain areas, but it’s a promising start to what will hopefully be a solid side-series of Batman tales.
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