@austin_walker I feel like I'm partially (largely) responsible for that God awful saiyan name thanks to that streamfriends stream and I'm NOT SORRY.

This is an amazing list from an amazing dude and I'm psyched to see Invisible Inc. get some much deserved love!

Austin is my favourite GB duder. Jussayin'.

Everyone either LOVES it or super hates Undertale.

I think it's pretty funny, I like the music, and I think the idea of an RPG where you don't have to kill anything is neat, but am sorta lukewarm on it other than that. Sorry.

Not at all. It's another in a long line of meh jrpgs with a lot of references to straight up BAD jrpgs. I don't hate it, I just didn't enjoy my time with it all that much and I have zero interest in ever touching it again.

I guess I'm just too dumb to appreciate how clever the unfunny jokes were. Typography, lol.

Very nice list, just bought Invisible Inc + expansion and installing it now. I'm anticipating XCOM combat with Transistor visuals which sounds incredible.

Just added Invisible Inc. to my WIshlist on Steam. Will definitely be checking this out in the future.

Invisible Inc!! Solid choice Austin

The top of my Steam wishlist is cool sci-fi shit that I learned about thanks to Austin/GBeast. His writing is some of the best out there right now, and I can hardly wait to see what he's got in store for 2016.

Damn Austin, great list and reasoning for your choices. You continue to be a great fucking addition to the Giant Bomb team and one of my favorite people to follow on the internet.

@austin_walker I bought Invisible, Inc because of your recommendation, and I'm really loving it so far. Reminds me of xcom meets deus ex

Intellectual and interesting as always! Hadn't heard of wheels of aurelia or cebilia. I would love for you to write the ideas about undertale. Also surprised that life is strange didn't make the list. Would be interested on when the list was made and if it was before or after the most recent life is strange videos.

I would personally flip Undertale and Invisible Inc and then my list would look a lot like Austin's, minus the games I haven't played Cibele, Her Story, Wheels of Aurelia. While I've always appreciated the insights of the rest of the staff during GOTY in years past, there really has never been a member before that had tastes so similar to mine. So it's a bit of a different experience having my personal favorites of a year being defended so well instead of just thinking to myself how I would have defended it and leaving them at that bit of fantasy. Glad to have you on the site, looking forward to seeing if our tastes align so well again next year!

All I know about Invisible, Inc. is that I put the Quick Look on as background noise once and nothing about it drew my attention. I suppose I should give it a shot.

Don't Starve is the one Klei game I don't give a damn about, so I'm looking forward to Invisible Inc.

Elite is finally getting a hook into me, but it's obvious compared to so many other space games that it is trading largely on nostalgia and simulation scope, and Frontier wasn't particularly focused in moving the genre forward as a video game. The PVE and PVP mechanics feel antiquated like EVE Online circa 2004. And I'm fine with that, if that's what's presented on the box. Planet landings seem like the perfect marriage of Star Control 2 and Mass Effect 1, both decidedly antiquated no matter how well they established that gameplay.

If you want to do the 2 or 3 things that ED superbly excels at, it's golden. Add in VR and it's no doubt entrancing. The idea of hundreds of players teaming up to chart a quadrant of the galaxy, flying 4 months out and 4 months back.. well that is Noby Noby levels of commitment and camaraderie and you just kinda wish you were there to see. :)

I really enjoyed this list, both for the composition of games and the detail Austin goes into about each entry. He sold me on Invisible Inc., which is one of those games I think I might actually own but never installed, but it seems like it would be right up my alley. I haven't finished listening to the Day 5 GOTY podcast so I'm very interested to see how those deliberations go down. I have to say though listening to Austin so far throughout the week has been a treat, I am very appreciative of the thoughtful discourse and passion he brings to his arguments and feel his voice is a much-needed counterpoint. Looking forward to 2016 now that the BeastCoast team is fully assembled!

A nice read and a very different list for Giant Bomb. Definitely feel the need to give Invisible Inc. a shot after reading this.

Awesome list, Austin! I need to see if I can run Invisible, Inc. (I only have a six year old macbook pro that stutters half the indie stuff I try to play on it).

Great List, I really like the variety Austin brings to GB overall. Really detailed reasoning behind the choices made and I agree Invisible, Inc. is a great game.

Credit to Austin for getting this game in the GB 2015 Top 10 as noted you came prepared.

@austin_walker I bought Invisible, inc. because of your passion for it and two hours in I'm hooked. Fantastic experience; so many stressful situations which I have thus far managed to turn in my advantage in the end.

Klei is doing an amazing job of tackling different genres, obviously Don't Starve is a terrific take on the survival genre but for me when I think of Klei I think of Mark of the Ninja, which is one of the best executed stealth games ever. So when they launched their Invisible Inc. early access I of course jumped in because I loved the idea of them tackling a turn-based tactical stealth game but I only tried enough of the first version to think that it was really cool and smart but I haven't been able to check back since.

Thanks for calling attention to the game Austin, I'm going to definitely dive in deep this year.

wow

Invisible Inc is a game that has everything I love in it; Cyberpunk, Computer Hacking, Stealth, Turn based strategy. But, the more I learn about how it plays and after watching the quick look, I am turned off it. Maybe I'm intimidated by it or something, but I think I'll pass on this game for now.

Austin, I'm really quite surprised to see Elite on your list. Maybe I've just not been paying attention. Suffice to say my eyes widened quite a bit to see you include it among your personal best of the year.

I find it really hard to tell people why I like E: D so much. Taken in the round I completely understand why others are confounded by this game. The modular and ongoing construction of the game has made for, at times, quite a disjointed experience. In general the game can be actively unfriendly to people experiencing it for the first time. Still, I've spent more time playing this game than any other this year and there are plenty of 'moments' during play that still bring a huge smile to my face.

Maybe the biggest stumbling block is people thinking they are going to be playing a space based RPG, or action adventure game. That's just not what E: D is at a pretty fundamental level. Progression can feel rather soulless with you either farming credits or engaging with the PowerPlay faction warfare system which can make it hard to feel like you are having any substantial impact on the galaxy as a lone gun. The mission system also has 'issues'. It's getting better (and I'm sure will continue to do so over the coming year), but lets be honest, this is no Witcher in space pants.

What I will say is that all of E: D's 'bits' are hung on a pretty solid core - the flight model is really (like, really) good and even after all this time it is still incredibly satisfying to slide your ship around in free space, alternating between flight assist on and off and enjoying running circles around your prey. This is a game where better pilots will always win out over lesser but better armed opponents. It's a game that really does reward skill and your investment in learning the flight systems quirks and eccentricities.

I guess that last paragraph sums up my feelings - this is a game that doesn't necessarily do the best job of inviting you into it's world, but it does reward those who persevere. That ethos makes for a game that will not be for a lot of people, but for those for whom it does gel there is nothing else like it.

@neon_knight: On harder difficulties, absolutely. Just abandoning a mission because you suddenly learned that "K&O means armored guards which you can't handle" is totally legitimate. In all the games I've won, I've always abandoned one mission's objective which was just me being unprepared or spending my resources fixing one colossal fuckup. It's always painful to run _right past the vault_ you spent so much time trying to find, only to dash to the exit because your alarm is too high and the guards are about to spot you...

One exception to that is if you do it super early. If you keep not doing missions, even when the security levels are low, then you are setting yourself up to fail. If you take a risk trying to take on a higher security level mission, but end up unable to complete the task without risking your whole team, then it might be worth it to bail.

I have an old Macbook (2010, I think? It does have a discrete graphics card tho) and it functions fine on it. It doesn't seem too taxing, if that's any consolation. Always helps to remember that Steam's refund program is really good for those cases!

@a_cute_squirtle: It runs smoothly on my 5 year old store bought PC so you should be fine?

But yeah great list Austin, I admire you trying to bring some process to GOTY deliberations, and I've acquired Invisible Inc. at your recommendation, I cant believe I just didn't really notice what that game was all this time, maybe I kept seeing a "stealth" game or something, but damn it is this game cool

Thanks!

I've extremely enjoyed your presence on the site, Austin, and am really looking forward to what material you create/forward in the future.

I'm one of the people who bought Invisible, Inc on Austin's recommendation, but I guess I'm not feeling why it is so great. I finished the beginner campaign in a few hours and then the story just ended and felt like something was missing. I guess this isn't a game you play for the story. Do I need to continue with the harder campaigns or am I just repeating the same thing with more restrictions? Do I need to experience the expansion?

@atanos: Yeah, I'd say playing the Beginner difficulty is just a warm-up to get you familiar with the mechanics. Its not until I got to the 3rd difficulty that the game started to really feel like a "roguelike". I haven't played the expansion at all yet.