Hey folks, Dan Kempster here, back with another batch of shiny ceremonial trinkets to hand out in this, the second part of My End of 2015 Awards. If you missed yesterday's inaugural entry, which outlines the premise of these awards before handing out the first eight individual acknowledgements, you can find it by following this link. To the rest of you, let's get cracking with the next batch of honours, beginning with...

'B-Movie Saga' Award for Worst Acting

Far Cry

The original Far Cry was a bit of a slow burn for me. Years after playing through and adoring Far Cry 2, faults and all, it took four attempts and a change of platform to finally make it all the way through its predecessor. While I appreciated the open environments and the emergent feel they award to the gunfights (something that I assume is a series hallmark from my experience with the sequel), I'll probably remember Far Cry more for its 'distinctive' voice-work. Its entire cast, from protagonist Jack Carver to villainous mastermind Krieger, deliver their over-acted lines with so much ham that it distracts from the game's story beats, reducing the already B-movie-esque plot into something that verges on laughable. Even now, eight months after beating the game, I'm not entirely sure if the terrible dialogue and delivery were intentional à la Just Cause 2, or an unfortunate by-product of Crytek throwing all their budget at the graphics division and leaving peanuts to pay for VO. Whatever the reason, it'll be those not-so-dulcet tones that I think of when remembering Far Cry in years to come.

'Come Back Around' Award for Being Better the Second Time Through

Final Fantasy XIII

I decided to replay Final Fantasy XIII and XIII-2 to recap the story in preparation to play through Lightning Returns. While I didn't make it onto either of the sequels this year, I did have a surprising amount of fun revisiting what may well be the most divisive game in the core Final Fantasy series. My first playthrough of FFXIII was characterised by frequent and lengthy visits to the in-game datalog to bust its confusing jargon and make better sense of the combat system's many nuances. Going in the second time, with all of that knowledge already established, meant I could enjoy the game at a quicker pace, with far fewer interruptions. While the characters and melodramatic tone of the story still didn't resonate much with me, playing the game at around the time of the General Election here in the UK meant the allegorical anti-immigration and racism came through a lot stronger, and the actual beats of the story still proved to be interesting even if their delivery left a little to be desired. Perhaps the most telling piece of evidence that I enjoyed FFXIII more the second time around was the amount of time I ended up sinking into its side quests and additional content, something I still plan to revisit and wrap up in early 2016.

'Green Buckets' Award for Most Recycled Assets

Kingdom Hearts Re:Chain of Memories

Let's get one thing straight before I elaborate on this award – I didn't go into Re:Chain of Memories expecting to see a ton of brand new stuff. It would be unfair to expect a game which is ostensibly all about re-treading old ground not to re-hash a ton of existing art assets from its predecessor. I think the problem I had with Re:Chain of Memories is two-fold, and in fairness, not entirely its own fault. First and foremost, I went into the game hot off two extensive playthroughs of the original Kingdom Hearts. I'd already spent almost a hundred hours exploring these worlds and meeting these characters, and seeing them all again in what are mostly re-tellings of their stories from the previous game threatened to burn me out even further. Second (and I can only blame the game itself for this), Re:Chain of Memories not only recycles assets and content from the original Kingdom Hearts, but also recycles its own assets and content through its second half! Taking place in the same castle, and through the same worlds as Sora's story, Riku's 'Reverse/Rebirth' mode ended up being the icing on a cake that I'd already eaten far too much of by that point, and almost burned me out on the Kingdom Hearts franchise completely.

'Into the Great Wide Open' Award for Unnecessary Open-World-ification

Batman: Arkham City

Batman: Arkham Asylum was one of my own personal sleeper hits when I played through it all the way back in 2012. As someone with no investment in the Batman universe, I went in reluctantly and emerged pleasantly surprised. The fantastic combat mechanics, tense stealth sequences and gadget-focused exploration all made Arkham Asylum a winner for me, and probably would have done even without the Batman trappings. More than anything, though, it was the incredibly tight focus and brilliant pace of Asylum that made an indelible mark on me. The game's world is brilliantly designed, encouraging exploration within a linearly-driven narrative by gating player progression through the acquisition of new gadgets in a Metroidvania style. While Arkham City retains a lot of these design ethics, and improves upon several of them in the process, their transposition into an open game-world didn't sit right with me. Exploring the city felt aimless rather than purposeful, and the game lost a little bit of its impact and focus as a result. That's why, even though most of Arkham City's iterative improvements to its mechanics result in a better gameplay experience, I can't in good conscience rank it above its progenitor.

'New Coat of Paint' Award for Best Remaster

Final Fantasy IV

Before this year, the only version of Final Fantasy IV I'd played was the PlayStation port of the original Super Nintendo version, released in the UK as part of the Final Fantasy Anthology collection. While the game was playable, it was hindered in some frustrating ways, including painfully long initial load times and a lack of clarity in the names of inventory items. The PSP remaster of Final Fantasy IV, included in the Complete Collection package, fixes both of these quibbles thanks to its data install feature and completely rewritten translation, negating load times completely and bringing some much needed lucidity to the item screen. On top of that, it gives the whole game a fresh lick of paint by way of its completely redrawn sprite art and orchestral arrangements of the original soundtrack, both of which really serve to enhance the experience of playing through this classic Japanese RPG. If you only ever play one version of Final Fantasy IV, I'd advise you to make it this one.

'Too Much Blood' Award for Most Gratuitous Use of Violence and Gore

God of War III

I'm not averse to a bit of bloodshed in my video games. I've been a follower of the God of War series since the original game was released back in 2005, and my favourite thing about the franchise is its epic, brutal interpretation of the Greek mythology that it's rooted in. The first two games, somewhat limited by the power of the PlayStation 2, were nonetheless incredibly grand spectacles at the time, marrying terrifying monster design with a visceral, bloody combat engine to create some truly memorable and gory encounters. God of War III, which I played for the first time ever this year, ramps up both the scale and the body count, using the PS3's extra horsepower to sometimes shocking effect in sequences that might best be described as verging on the 'torture porn' end of the violence spectrum. Disembowelling Centaurs, tearing off the head of a god with his bare hands and smashing a rival warrior's face into an unrecognisable bloody pulp are just some of Kratos' most memorable displays of violence in this final chapter of his story. The Ghost of Sparta's body even becomes noticeably drenched in the red stuff in the thick of battle, a telling reminder of all the blood he's spilled. God of War III was still a great action game, but I felt like its obsession with violence overshadowed that fact a little at times.

'(Only) Halfway to Everywhere' Award for Unfinished Business

The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Seasons

I've spent a lot of time in recent years trying to fill the gaps in my history with the Legend of Zelda franchise. Last year I made it through Link's Awakening, and the year before that I tackled both The Minish Cap and A Link Between Worlds. This year it was the turn of Oracle of Seasons, one of two twinned 2D Zelda adventures released for the Game Boy Color in 2001. I opted for Seasons first on the advice of a friend, who said that it made sense to tackle the easier game before the harder one, Ages being the more difficult of the two. It's a great self-contained little Zelda adventure, with some cool new inventory items and a handful of truly memorable boss encounters. But even though it runs for the full eight-dungeon series standard, Seasons still doesn't feel like a complete Zelda game, even after defeating the powerful Onox in his dragon form and watching the credits roll. The cliffhanger ending featuring Koume and Kotake and the completion code at the game's end all point to a continuation (and true conclusion) of the story taking place in Ages. I plan to find out exactly how that goes, and how the whole saga finally ends, when I play through Ages in 2016.

'Love, Hate, Love' Award for Most Difficult Time with a Game

GRID

My relationship with most racing games would perhaps best be described as 'abusive'. It always starts out well, but before too long I start to see their true colours, typically as an overly-repetitive gameplay loop due to a dearth of tracks or mode options, and decide to bail out. Every time I tell myself I've learned my lesson, and yet I keep coming back time and again, thinking things will be different while knowing in my heart of hearts that I'm doomed to the same fate. Such was the story of my time with Codemasters' GRID, a game I decided to give a second chance following a rare positive experience with Colin McRae: DiRT a few years ago. I quickly fell in love with its fast, loose driving model and fresh, season-structured take on career progression. The cracks soon started to show though, through the usual lack of unique race locations and some truly God-awful attempts to appeal to the Fast & Furious crowd with Drift and Touge events that just didn't excite me. It was an on-off relationship that lasted about three months, and eventually saw me reach the top tier of career events before I admitted to myself that I just couldn't do this any more. I'm sorry GRID, but it was never going to work out between us.

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It's here that I must bring today's proceedings to an end. We've reached the halfway point of the individual awards, with sixteen given and sixteen still to present. Join me tomorrow in the third part of My End of 2015 Awards, when I'll be handing out another eight gongs to games I beat this year. Thanks very much for reading guys, take care and I'll see you around.

Dan

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Currently playing – Pokémon Omega Ruby (3DS)