I knew going into this that choosing only four titles from all the games in my lifetime that best ‘defined’ me was going to be hellish. In some way, shape or form, each game I’ve played has left some sort of mark on me for better or worse. This is why I tend to avoid these Twitter hashtags that require personal picks; I get so conflicted and meander between choices that I end up giving myself an existential crisis on a regular basis. In no particular order (since I’ve thought about this long enough) here are my four:

1. Mother 3

JRPGs are known for having a lot of story to tell across its span along while hitting multiple emotional peaks along the way. Mother 3 is no exception, however it’s one of the only JRPGs that I’ve actually sat down to play that has gotten me in the heart more times than I’d care to admit. Death, separation and corruption has no right to be in such a bright, colorful game (on the Game Boy Advance no less), and while these themes feel like a brick in the face when they come, the investment I found my emotions making was worth it in spades. Earthbound went from a goofy adventure to deathly serious in its final fight; Mother 3 does so more frequently but with wonderful efficiency to avoid keeping your heart crushed for too long. I make no exaggeration when I say the game brought me to tears multiple times, nevermind my open weeping at the finale that left me exhausted come roll of the credits. Perhaps it’s the themes of trying to retain one's family, world and brotherhood that got to me on a deeply personal level ‘thanks’ to my past experiences, but Mother 3 is now my gold standard when it comes to JRPGs combining both good story and good gameplay.

2. Mystical Ninja Starring Goemon

I know there aren’t many takeaways one can have from a Nintendo 64 title, but it was the influence that Mystical Ninja had on me as a young player that put it on this list. I can’t remember if I had played the granddaddies of 3D adventure (Ocarina of Time, Super Mario 64, etc) before or after, but Mystical Ninja was enlightening in terms of games that can be not only grand adventures, but be ones that’re whimsical, comedic and, though loosely based on Japanese folklore, bonkers. When I gush about games that deliver such adventures (Okami, Final Fantasy 15), Mystical Ninja planted that seed in my young mind that had me excited to travel around in-game worlds to see, find and uncover whatever I could - All with giddy delight. The fact you get to summon a giant robot complete with its own radical as hell theme song helped as well.

3. Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate

I know my opinions and views on my games are cynical, snarky and incredibly critical, but if MH3U didn’t exist I’d pretty much be a clone of certain gaming personalities with much larger soapboxes than me (read: everything sucks and nothing is great). After hearing people hyping up Monster Hunter for a time, I bucked up, bought into it and initially despised damn near everything about it. Why are attack animations so slow? Why does my character have to pose like a dingus when healing? Why are armor pieces so trivial in their contribution to my stats? Eventually I gave up, writing it all off as crappy Japanese game design - Until a late night did I find myself reading up on Monster Hunter on a sleep-deprived whim that I was educated. Turns out that Monster Hunter has these design aspects for proper reasons: Weaponry dictates your playstyle. Animations have lengths so your healing/sharpening can be punished by counterattacks if you’re careless. Armor shouldn’t be worn as random pieces but as full sets for bonuses. I had gone from a hater of the series to becoming a great enjoyer of it, so far in that I’m hungrily awaiting the PC release of Monster Hunter World. This change of view has bled over to my analysis for other games where if a mechanic or component confounds me, I stop to ask myself its purpose and why it exists from the stance of the developer. The experience also taught me other ways of analyzing games that if listed could be a small book in its own right, but MH3U is credited with improving my techniques as a critic and reviewer.

4. Lisa

If you know me, you saw this coming from a mile away. What looked to be an indie game about violent comedy led to something that resonated with me on such a deep, personal level that it’d take one hell of a knock to my head to make me forget about it. While Mother 3 brought me to tears due to the desire for reclaiming one's world, Lisa shook my entire existence with what happened in my upbringing to who I am today - Or what I might become. Themes of abuse, victimization and thinking you’re doing the right thing shows up throughout the plot in between bouts of ludicrous comedy, and while the gameplay itself is that of an ok RPG at best, the story is so potent and well paced that it hardly hampers the campaign. For a little indie game to Trojan horse its way into my emotions and psyche is one hell of a feat, and I’ve come to learn not to write off a game due to its size or budget.

At the time of writing this, Overwatch has had two co-operative (PvE) events: The Halloween event which was shallow but a decent diversion, and the Uprising event which reuses a current map but with multiple objectives and constant robot assault (point control, defense, payload and deathmatch). The Halloween event left some murmuring for a better PvE mode, but Uprising has elicited a proper hunger in many, especially since the event is overall quite solid (save for my instances of character models and HUD elements not loading in sometimes). Nevermind that this is a relatively non-stressful way of trying out heroes for multiple situations in one map and getting some more crates, but it’s gone to show that not only would regular PvE events/modes be welcome, but it’s also thematically needed.

Next to the horrible amounts of salt and anger in casual games, my biggest issue I have with Overwatch is that it more or less ignores its own established lore; This anti-terrorist group that just fights amongst themselves constantly. Blizzard’s gone out of their way to establish these characters and backstories, but for them to butt heads instead of going out to beat up baddies feels like all this story crafting is being squandered. That’s why Uprising being a retelling of Overwatch’s historic mission feels right at home - Good guys versus bad guys. I don’t want to read comics about these fleshed out, memorable characters and how they came to be; I want to play through their experiences and missions alongside teammates while stacked against swarms of tough enemies.

In my initial draft of this piece, I was making some rather bold claims in how Battleborn did co-op ‘better’ than Overwatch (comparisons between the two have been frequent). On second thought, I figure that Blizzard didn’t bother with PvE features simply because they had an accessible, competitive game whose PvP they wanted to smooth out and polish before anything else - Excluding Roadhog’s time and space transcending hook that was only recently fixed. Now that things are more or less stable and on solid footing with the competitive content, Blizzard will have to come up with new ways of keeping players around lest the game stagnates, even though there’s no arguing the quality that Overwatch has as a finished product. The arcade modes have been a good start (despite also containing copious amounts of salt and anger) with randomized after-death picks and capture the flag, but with how each member of the cast can synergize and complement one another so well, competing with people and not against feels like the next best step. Going back to my earlier point regarding Overwatch’s story, there’s no doubt an abundance of foes the cast can clash against while reusing already established maps, or they could even go down the route of Team Fortress 2 or Gears of War with some kind of horde mode.

I’m not a competitive person by default. I’m much happier playing with others in cooperative settings than be up against human opponents who, nine times out of ten, are horrendously more skilled than I. For those of you who demand I ‘git gud’ or grow a thicker skin to ignore the negativity in Overwatch PvP, you clearly would rather be competitive and find your joy in that than anything cooperative, and that’s fine… To a point. I bought into the hype and peer pressure of Overwatch initially, and all I’ve gotten out of the PvP is needless stress and frustration from having to deal with players who have egos the size of Jupiter and tempers hotter than the sun.. The PvE events however have been mostly salt-free (save for arm-chair experts voting themselves as team captains and dictating who everyone else should play as) and, most importantly, just fun to romp through.

If Blizzard doesn’t take the hint that a good portion of their audience wants more PvE, then I’ll be quite surprised and disappointed. They have the resources and people capable of delivering experiences similar to Battleborn’s campaign or at worst, have events on a regular basis if they can’t come up with a new game mode altogether. As I said, Overwatch’s quality will keep itself from stagnating for quite some time, but not only would PvE modes be a welcome addition that’ll thematically make sense, it’ll also be an entertaining diversion for PvP players to burn off some steam while still getting experience and crates. I’m all for co-op, and Overwatch can only benefit from more of it.

I’ve had the thought for a while that many gamers, reviewers and journalists these days are frequently cynical, dismissal and seldom share any real surprise or joy in the gaming field unless they’re paid to specifically have such feelings - Barring that, they only have temporary joy in one product before the magic wears off and they’re back to being crabby. I’ll be the first and last to admit that I’m a beacon of constant negativity, but Breath of the Wild (BotW) has delivered something that I feel many gamers are in dire need of that the Legend of Zelda games have succeeded in delivering time and time again - An honest to goodness adventure. Not a campaign found in a shooter or an indie game that’s over in three hours and tries to hamfist a moral lesson down your throat, but a grand adventure that satiates wanderlust and the urge to explore - In every nook and cranny if you’re the completionist type.

My earliest memory of playing a game that felt like a grand adventure was with Mystical Ninja Starring Goemon on the Nintendo 64, which had been compared to Super Mario 64 and Ocarina of Time in terms of environments to traverse and puzzles to tackle respectively. It was also my first real experience of Japanese game design that could be wildly colorful and comedic - Nevermind that it was a telling of what was essentially Japanese Robin Hood, but also featured a battle with a mind-controlling robot on the back of a dragon, had you getting giant batteries for your robo-ninja companion, revealing ghosts using a feudal camera and, above all else, being able to summon a giant robot named Impact to battle other giant boss robots, complete with his own theme song that’d make any anime blush. The game was certainly ridiculous but to my young brain, this was the stuff of impossible imagination and sparked a kindling of interest that made me seek out the weird, different and just plain wonderful in gaming - Bonus points abound if there was a world to explore along with it.

This probably sounds like the portfolio to any fedora-wearing games journalist full of starry-eyes and pixie dust, but this ‘magic’ to older action/adventure games has been relatively lost in today's game design - This isn’t me slapping on nostalgia goggles and raising my nose in the air, but there’s been fewer cases these days about games that people can positively rant and rave about without looking like a lunatic or being accused of taking bribes. For everything bad I can say about BotW and criticism I can throw at it, there’s no escaping that a giant, massive adventure full of things to find and stuff to learn is before me - Same for everyone else who’s enjoying it as much as I am. Once you hop off of the starter area in BotW and hit the first region, all bets are off regarding hand holding or hallway-based tutorials; it’s you, a map to fill and dozens of directions to go. I’ve lost track from the number of times I’ve scaled a tall structure and looked across the vista before me, on one hand taking in the sight with splendour but on the other hand wondering how the hell I was going to finish this game before 2020.

You may ask why I haven’t felt the same about other open world games with so much to do, see and experience; Grand Theft Auto? Elder Scrolls? Fallout? I’ll be honest with you, I’ll credit this to a definite bias I had regarding those old games that were so whimsical and bright. Maybe I’d be singing a different tune if these experiences in my youth were credited to JRPGs like Dragon Quest or Final Fantasy, but it’s been a long time since I’ve been able to go on an adventure full of color, good ideas and just stuff to do for hours on end. Nintendo hasn’t reinvented the wheel with BotW by any stretch in terms of open world gaming, but first party Nintendo games have been proven forces to be reckoned with. So for them to tackle the genre, especially with the Legend of Zelda IP, was bound to be a massive success along with copious amounts of sales. For me, for something to be ‘genre defining’ is when a game takes all the good things about the genre and dumps the bad to the curb… BotW mostly gets it right. Maybe not genre defining, but it certainly has set a new bar for future open world games to come.

Despite the joy and praise the game has bestowed and received, I can’t help but feel like the title of ‘masterpiece’ is ill-placed. Campy voice-acting, consistent frame rate issues, hit detection with Stasis puzzles not wanting to play nice, stealth being ruined by enemies having too perfect of timing looking your way at the last second… For my money, a masterpiece must be flawless; by that metric, BotW is no masterpiece. We could sit here and argue to the point of exhaustion whether or not it deserves the slew of perfect scores awarded by reviewers, but the biggest thing to take away from BotW is how we’ve been needing a proper, fulfilling adventure for a mighty long time - At least, one that -I’ve- been needing for a mighty long time. Perhaps you’ve found your source of brain-tickling joy in other games or genres as of late, but I can say with good confidence that BotW brings that ‘magic’ back that I, and likely many others, have been looking for.

The Witness is a smart and interesting kind of game that also demands your problem solving and puzzle skills to levels that I wasn’t initially expecting. It also makes me feel like an absolute stupid idiot from the number times I run into brick walls, have to use brute force to find solutions and generally leaves me stumped and meandering from puzzle to puzzle with little to no progress. I wouldn’t say that the game is too smart for me, but… I guess what I’m saying is that the game is far too smart for me.

I really have only myself to blame for once again stumbling my way around a game world that is designed to challenge parts of my gamer brain that seldom, if ever, get any exercise or work. This is why I would never call The Witness an unfair puzzle game that’s too hard for the wrong reasons; really, all the tools and needed clues are available right away or can be stumbled upon soon enough - It’s up to the player to make sense of it and find the solutions in the end. If a puzzle gimmick can’t be deciphered, chances are the ‘introductory’ version of it can be found elsewhere which will teach you what has to be done. If a puzzle seems like it requires random toying in order to solve, chances are there’s something in the environment nearby that’s a part of the solution. Some would say that the line puzzles become redundant and boring, but I’d argue to the contrary in that this makes the accessible and easy to understand despite the challenge, not to mention how new gimmicks and themes reveal themselves constantly, i.e: You now control two lines, you now must avoid touching this shape, you have to navigate points through a maze, you have to draw around specific shapes and so on. Lines are easy to understand, so when you first walk up to a panel you can generally get a good idea of what has to be done. Then it’s a matter of actually getting said thing done so you can move on.

I feel downright guilty in how poorly I perform in The Witness, and I’d feel even worse if I just cheated and looked up guides to get through the game. Those with lazy arguments would simply claim I’m a schmuck with a low IQ, but intelligence has little to do with it - Some puzzles types I breeze through quickly while others shut me down immediately. Puzzle games were never really my thing, as most of my gamer years were spent on action and adventure games that required constant reactionary input, not sitting there and trying to solve some devious puzzle that blocked my progress. I get rather impatient and frustrated if my multiple attempts at a puzzle fail, which is a rather comically moot waste of energy since apparently a lot of the puzzles in The Witness don’t do anything; no door to unlock or trigger to activate elsewhere - They’re just there to be solved for the sake of achievement.

I think The Witness is good and downright zen-like in its calming pace, especially with how you can just wander around at your leisure if one set of puzzles has you firmly stumped. The sheer rush of excited genius I get when I find a hidden puzzle within the literal environment/world is certainly something I’d like to feel more of, but that’d require me to bypass barriers that I cannot solve and can’t bring myself to cheat my way through. If puzzles are your jam, then The Witness is a fine purchase. For anyone else, be prepared to aimlessly wander around panel purgatory and see glowing lines in your nightmares.

I’ve never been one to actively pursue playing, experiencing or consuming horror games or other such spooky media. Those with lazy arguments would atypically refer to me as a wimp, coward, or in my favorite instances, label me a ‘pussy’ since somehow not wishing to experience fear on my own accord makes me a lesser man. The difference between cowardice and not wanting to subject oneself to a certain type of feeling is so great that my hands would ache if I tried to type out the very list of differences. While I have subjected myself to frightening scenes, tense situations and horrifying sights in games previously in my life, never did I enjoy the sensation of having my heart rate increase, my hairs stand on end or have natural chemicals be released into my bloodstream should I panic and throw my controller out the window. For some players when a horror game loses the fear-inducing effects and they become numb to the scares, they would criticize that the game wasn’t designed well enough to keep them constantly sweating bullets and jumping at shadows. For myself, I don’t find that I’ve become numb to the fear, but that I’ve dominated it (we’ll get to this point later).

The scene has to be set regarding why I dislike purposely having the bejesus scared out of me, and that was in my childhood. I understand this is a cliche occurrence and I should not hold myself a ‘special’ case because of it, but abuse, intimidation and fear were at the forefront of my youth; dishes served with cold, unflinching brutality by my dad. The formula for him was simple: If he wasn’t in absolute, one-hundred percent control of everyone's respect, his face would turn red as a cherry, his voice would rattle the windows as he screamed, and his hands would tighten into fists to strike blows without a second thought. It goes without saying but my childhood was as far from happy as one could get, with myself in such frequent worry for my well-being that I would try to make myself as insignificant and tiny to avoid garnering his ire, the likes of which he would then direct at other members of my household lest he erupt. Years upon years of this abuse and physical harm has left me holding such a grudge, such a dark lump of coal on my soul that anything that even remotely reminds me of what I went through is enough to make me painfully anxious, put strain on my heart and have rage bubble in my stomach to the point that I feel like I’m having an ulcer.

To suggest ‘getting over it’ is once again a lazy argument since it’s always easy to make assumptions about someone else’s experiences or mental well-being when you have no context or basic understanding of what they’ve gone through - In short, you’re a blithering, ignorant asshole for such a shallow argument. If you haven’t gathered by now, feeling fear brings up these past scars that I’ve never been able to mend, and the struggle that my body and mind go through is simply not worth it just to go through some garbage Unity-made jumpscare simulator (insert relevant jump about the Five Night’s at Freddy series here). This is, supposedly, an unacceptable stance to take since I am a man, and ergo I must tackle horror games, movies and other media with gungho gusto and the bravery of a hundred lions, even if I’m making myself feel physically ill and have a streak of violent tendencies welling up within me. For those that know me know that I find this opinion to be utter bullshit, even if those with this opinion idolize Youtubers who play these games while screaming and cursing like banshees, hamming up and faking their reactions - They are somehow greater men than I for playing these games in the first place, despite not doing so with an iron-will.

But let’s go back to what I said about dominating my fears at the start instead of becoming numb to it, and I’ll be using my two strongest experiences with horror games in the forms of Resident Evil 4 and Dead Space. Both games feature great amounts of tension and dread, but the former relies on creeping eeriness while the latter relies on horrifying imagery and making the player jump at the slightest noise and sight. For whatever reason, despite the hesitation I felt about playing these highly rated games, I tackled both of them with clenched buttocks and a creaking hold on my controller. I cursed, I shouted, I ‘NOPE’d multiple times in panicked shutdowns of the console, had to pause to take frequent breaks and generally took me longer than the average player to get through even a quarter of their campaigns. Something however eventually clicked in my brain and it filled me with empowerment which caused my aim to sharpen, my heart rate to lower and to reply with a snarl at the scares that tried to get me: I could fight back - The very thing I was never able to do as a child lest I be thrashed to oblivion. I still feel the dread, anger and pain that I went through years ago when I fire these games back up, but the massive difference now is that I have such a mastery over the game, its controls and obstacles that I can fight back and make it look like an absolute joke in comparison to my abilities - That I can give a colossal middle-finger to the scenes of horror that once made me shudder like a lamb.

Perhaps that’s the deciding factor when it comes to horror games: Am I able to strike back and slaughter the very things trying to slaughter me? For most ‘indie developed’ games, the answer is no; you’re about as helpless as a declawed kitten with its mouth sewn shut. If I’m going to be assaulted by some otherworldly screaming monster and I can’t put up my dukes and punch it in its idiot face, then I have no time or patience to put myself in a terrible physical and mental state. If covering horror games is the supposed ‘only way’ I can ever gain a view count above fifty on Youtube while putting myself through utter hell, then quite frankly those viewers can get stuffed.

Despite still being respectable entries that rightfully earned their salt in the lists of others, I simply have gotten more time or entertainment out of other games this year. Still, here are a few games that just missed making the cut.

Honorable Mentions - ‘Puzzles that confound, fun that remains bound and shadow zombies aboard trains; zounds!’

The Witness

Jonathan Blow went and did good again, but unfortunately I’m too stupid to find out just how good The Witness could be. I found myself frequently running face first into puzzles that I simply could not parse or figure out, and looking up solutions would only make me feel like a cheater and ruin the splendor of trouncing a real head-scratcher. I never was one much for puzzlers to begin with, but I can certainly appreciate what The Witness tried to do and applaud its cleverness.

Overwatch

Overwatch is a good game that I wish I could refund. Nevermind that it’s a team-based shooter that somehow doesn’t even have a blessed capture the flag mode, but Blizzards’ eagerness to leap into the competitive foray has seemingly bred an incredible amount of salt, ill-will and zealous assault of players with poor skill. It still has a great variety of characters and play styles to pick from that feel grand when in symbiotic harmony, but even in quick play - A mode that should only breed friendly competition - the community is just far too quick to be dismissive and toxic towards anyone who makes even the slightest (arguable) error in judgement when making their hero pick or whiff on an ultimate.

The Final Station

Perhaps the game needed more time in order to produce a better script or iron out translation issues, but The Final Station could’ve been something above subpar in terms of a 2D ‘action’ game. The Final Station goes to some interesting places and can be legitimately creepy, eerie and make you question events, but the incredible weight of the storyline is muted due to how dutiful and robotic your protagonist is. Maybe more choices of ethics would have bogged the game down or may’ve made it better, but it was certainly different and told enough of an interesting story to garner my approval.

2016 hasn’t been the best year in a lot of regards… And then there were these games that stood out in all the wrong ways.

Dishonorable Mentions - 'Deceit in space, a story by a basket case and a game that delights in eating your face.’

No Man’s Sky

Whatever I say about the game would simply be parroting what has already been said by everyone and their mother - No Man’s Sky has been a master class on hype-trains, poor management, accountability (or the lack thereof) and buyer beware mentality, but despite the deceit and false promises, there’s still something resembling a good product here somewhere. To go around star systems, gather materials and better both my spaceship and myself tickles that certain part of my brain, and the recent Foundation update has been a step in the right direction for HelloGames to right their wrongs. They have a mountain to climb in order to atone for Sean Murray’s colossally big mouth, but if they pull off the impossible, we’ll certainly have a winner.

Virginia

It’s a shame that an interesting art style and quality soundtrack are lost on the most laughably and infuriatingly worst piece of writing and storytelling I’ve seen in ages - Just because you can get weird, bizarre and ‘totally out there’ doesn’t mean you should, and it takes a legitimately intriguing tale on thrills, disappearances and trust and just dumps it all right into the bin because somehow aliens and time-traveling body-swapping is involved. An absolute train-wreck of ‘art’ this is.

Darkest Dungeon

There’s a line between being difficult and oppressive to the player for them to overcome and triumph over hardship, and then there’s downright cheating in order to make the player lose. Nevermind the challenge in simply getting a healthy start to a new game, but the dice rolls and RNG (at least from my experience) seem to be heavily tilted against you - To have a fully lit torch and be ambushed three times in a row in quick succession? Nah. If a game wants to try its damndest to make sure I fail, then it can take its challenge and get stuffed.

And now, the list!

10. Shadow Warrior 2

I wasn’t expecting anymore wang, nevermind a page being taken out of Diablo’s books with loot by the truck load. While I have yet to try out the cooperative play, more exploding gun-bang action never goes astray in my books, even if the menus are hair ripping-ly poor for trying to compare weapon-enhancing gems to find out which has the best benefits. While the open, sandbox-like nature of the levels may irk some ‘purists’, Shadow Warrior 2 is still explosive fun.

9. Thumper

I’m really bad at Thumper and can only get As or Bs in level rankings, but it certainly is something when compared to other rhythm games I’ve played in the past. With visual pollution and downright mean obstacle placement being my biggest issues, the dark, metallic soundtrack and visceral pleasure from nailing notes and wall grinds makes Thumper a game that’ll tax your concentration, reflexes and memory.

8. Superhot

Ignoring the pretentious story that had little impact or value, Superhot ended up being a very interesting and challenging take on mixing first person shooters and puzzle elements. To pull Matrix-style dodges and room-clearing maneuvers in slow motion only to watch it all play out in real time upon success was never not satisfying. While I was burned out on the game after I finished its main campaign, Superhot delivers good value with other game modes and challenges to keep you busy.

7. Devil Daggers

Such a devious, inexpensive little game; controls that’ve been honed to Quake-like perfection, sounds design that makes your skin crawl in the best way possible, and record-breaking runs that can be cut down by one wayward skull taking a bite out of your shoulder. It’s criminal how much Devil Daggers just works as a creepy time attack shooter, especially considering how cheap it is.

6. Firewatch

I came for a story on personal discovery, and what I got was a thriller rudely forcing its way in. Firewatch suffered from having two very different stories getting in the way of one another, but when the focus is set on Delilah and Henry’s interactions, the game is at its best. The thriller aspects of the story may have served as an ‘interesting’ or ‘exciting’ way of keeping the plot from becoming stale, but it only gave Firewatch an identity crisis and dragged the enjoyment out of it.

5. Killing Floor 2

After the amount of time I sank into the first Killing Floor, it was a given that I bought into the sequel the very instant Early Access went live for the game. It plays smoother, faster and of course bloodier, but there’s still not as much new content that I was hoping for in terms of a sequel, even upon full release. Future support has been promised to bring more weapons and play style options in the future, but for anyone who even had brief fun with the first game, its sequel is definitely worth getting… If on sale.

4. Pac-Man Championship Edition 2

I’m a sucker for Pac-Man’s neon arcade action after the first game, so of course I got the sequel day one and went to town trying to get those high scoring S ranks. The game plays at a faster, better flowing speed than the original thanks to the new rule sets, and damned if the soundtrack doesn’t pull its weight to dial you in and concentrate while making you groove and bounce in your seat.

3. Civilization 6

Unsurprisingly for a 4X fan as myself, Civilization 6 was a must-buy for me and continues to prove itself as a must-buy for strategy fans. I wasn’t nearly as irked by the gameplay changes and art style as some, but I still grind my teeth when it comes to how picky and swift to temperament the AI can be with little to no reason for their ire to be raised. Regardless, Civilization 6 is still a strategy game that makes an entire day go by with turn after turn passing with brief downtime.

2. Stardew Valley

I’m pretty sure a majority of Stardew Valley players were surprised at how much charm, heart and relaxed fun was to be found in this Harvest Moon-like, but I would argue that it has done plenty to separate itself from its mainstream comparison. While there’s never enough time in a day to maximize your efficiency, the chill nature of the games makes it effortlessly easy to relax while working on your farm, foraging for materials or getting your friendship on with the locals… Did I mention it’s under twenty bucks, too?

1. Doom

I had many reservations about the newest Doom upon its announcement, i.e it being modernized to the point of incredible mediocrity, but thankfully the people behind this iteration of Doom knew full well what kind of game they were making. It’s loud, intense, brutal, satisfying and everything I could ever hope for after the ho-hum nature of Doom 3. While its multiplayer and online components are merely passable at best, Doom delivers one of the best single player campaigns I’ve had the pleasure of stomping through in a long, long time.

As much as I complain about Bloodborne not having a PC port, I always fail to remember that even if it did, I likely would give up about 6-7 hours in after getting my head handed to me for the umpteenth time. I want to go through the Lovecraftian gothic horror and be a badass hunter, but would going through all that hardship just to walk into a picturesque valley, take in the sight and get ganked by an invader be worth it?

No, not really.

The easy solution would be to watch a Let's Play or long play video on Youtube, but it's the challenge itself that is the main draw of any Souls-Borne game in the first place - The satisfaction of overcoming an asshole boss. That's more or less the definition of a quest: It's not the destination, it's the journey getting there, complete with its victories and downfalls. These games have flawed but finely crafted lore, characters you're unsure of almost constantly and environments that make you frequently pause just to take it all in, but at the same time, immediately rounding a corner only to have your head mashed in by a hammer doesn't feel like a decent trade.

The other argument is to 'git gud' which already is dismissive, petty and garbage way out of the discussion, but these games are hard for both many right and many wrong reasons. Sure, player skill can be developed and can be executed to make the game more or less effortless for skilled players, but at that point isn't the 'magic' of the challenge gone? How gratifying can your third, fourth or twentieth time through the game still capture that feeling of going on a taxing quest, even with self-imposed limitations or gimmick runs?

I have never finished any of the Souls games and I don't own a console to play Bloodborne, but as much as I would windmill slam a day 1 purchase of Bloodborne on PC, I know full well that the fun, magic and splendor of the game would wear off far too soon after seeing a death message grinning in my face for the fiftieth time.

This could lead into the argument if Souls-Borne games should have difficulty options, but that's a mountainous can of worms.

Along with the shtick of nearly begging viewers on Youtube for likes, comments and subscriptions, another means of disgusting popularity bait is dictating a question or query to the viewer for them to answer or respond to, since the video host is supposedly wondering what their viewers have to say in turn. The catch is that more often than not, the host couldn’t give any less of a toss about what you have to say and is merely fishing for comments to merely add to their statistics. Sure, this is a tactic in order to gain said statistics and all’s fair in love, war and e-fame, but to purposely ignore people after seeking their input just makes me wish rain clouds on your wedding.

I contribute it partially to streamers who get donations and subscriptions popping up on a regular basis, yet they’re so jaded to their conquest that they can’t even address that monetary contribution even after setting up the means of accepting said contributions. Sure, going through hundreds of comments and keeping track of things can be difficult, but when money is involved either from partnerships, ad revenue or from viewers keeping your lights on, your complaints of it being ‘too hard’ or 'too time consuming’ are moot since you can certainly afford a phone to take with you to the bloody toilet in order to respond for at least five minutes. The popular or prominent whose interactions with their followers are limited to referring to them as 'hey guys’ and taking their money certainly doesn’t help when it comes to 'gaming personalities’ being referred to as shills merely in it for the fame or bucks.

Don’t bring these criticisms against aforementioned people however lest their 'acknowledged’ fanbases tear your inboxes asunder. I’m tempted to punch up an entire essay about that, but I don’t have any overly caffeinated professors to send it to when I’m done.

Virtual reality has been the source of jokes, parody and big dreamers for a long time in comedy, science fiction and science fantasy; being able to strap on a headset and be whisked away to other worlds within the comfort of your own home. Now that the technology has been released to the public market and so long as you have a lot of space around your computer desk to avoid strangling yourself with the cables and have a computer powerful enough to run Crysis five times over, you too can experience THE FUTURE - Oh, and be able to shell out six hundred or so dollars. Can’t forget the price tag in experiencing THE FUTURE.

My cynicism against the current library of games for VR (virtual reality) aside, the technology has gone from a pipe dream to a proof of concept to a tangible thing we can handle and bring into our homes. So far it’s been proven that the technology works and can work well when programming care has gone into a game, however we’re left with a lot more glorified tech demos and mini-game collections than full fledged games. Investing in a new console typically comes down to what the library has to offer in terms of gaming taste from person to person, and if the current selection of VR titles in any indication, I’m likely to not invest in a headset anytime soon if ever. Nothing so far seems to really merit strapping the headset on and sitting down for three plus hours like someone would do at a PC or console, as once the glamor of VR wears off the games end up being decent at best - And from what I’ve seen that glam-value wears off fast.

The biggest takeaway for me so far is that despite the development kits being out for so long, developers still have a lot to learn with this fledgling technology. Use of perspective for puzzle or sandbox-building games are a good enough start, however a lot of it has just been ‘look around this object to find what you need’, nevermind the gun or archery games (that have been released in droves) that exploit the one to one movement and little else. Most of what’s been released has been developers asking the question of what they can do with the technology without committing to a risky developmental venture. Now that VR has been released and is being covered, the question of what can be done has been answered; now it’s a matter of throwing caution to the wind and seeing what the creative developer minds have in store for the consumers. We need to move away from tech demos and coffee break-length games, otherwise VR headsets will make for an interesting talking piece on your mantle instead of being a viable piece of gaming hardware.

As much as it sounds like I’m harping against the less than ideal selection current selection of VR games (including ports), I’m really quite glad that this technology has become available and soon to be accessible from store shelves. I’m most looking forward to what will come of RPGs that better allow players to immerse themselves in the roleplaying aspect, to what multiplayer will do for human to human interactions (like Hover Junkers where you can shoot someone and then wave at them which is delightfully silly), or even what VR will do for therapeutic purposes like for social disabilities or training for public speaking. Until VR goes from being an expensive luxury to something that can be taken seriously as a candidate when debating what the best gaming platform is, I’ll be saving my excitement (and money).

Virtual reality has been the source of jokes, parody and big dreamers for a long time in comedy, science fiction and science fantasy; being able to strap on a headset and be whisked away to other worlds within the comfort of your own home. Now that the technology has been released to the public market and so long as you have a lot of space around your computer desk to avoid strangling yourself with the cables and have a computer powerful enough to run Crysis five times over, you too can experience THE FUTURE - Oh, and be able to shell out six hundred or so dollars. Can’t forget the price tag in experiencing THE FUTURE.

My cynicism against the current library of games for VR (virtual reality) aside, the technology has gone from a pipe dream to a proof of concept to a tangible thing we can handle and bring into our homes. So far it’s been proven that the technology works and can work well when programming care has gone into a game, however we’re left with a lot more glorified tech demos and mini-game collections than full fledged games. Investing in a new console typically comes down to what the library has to offer in terms of gaming taste from person to person, and if the current selection of VR titles in any indication, I’m likely to not invest in a headset anytime soon if ever. Nothing so far seems to really merit strapping the headset on and sitting down for three plus hours like someone would do at a PC or console, as once the glamor of VR wears off the games end up being decent at best - And from what I’ve seen that glam-value wears off fast.

The biggest takeaway for me so far is that despite the development kits being out for so long, developers still have a lot to learn with this fledgling technology. Use of perspective for puzzle or sandbox-building games are a good enough start, however a lot of it has just been ‘look around this object to find what you need’, nevermind the gun or archery games (that have been released in droves) that exploit the one to one movement and little else. Most of what’s been released has been developers asking the question of what they can do with the technology without committing to a risky developmental venture. Now that VR has been released and is being covered, the question of what can be done has been answered; now it’s a matter of throwing caution to the wind and seeing what the creative developer minds have in store for the consumers. We need to move away from tech demos and coffee break-length games, otherwise VR headsets will make for an interesting talking piece on your mantle instead of being a viable piece of gaming hardware.

As much as it sounds like I’m harping against the less than ideal selection current selection of VR games (including ports), I’m really quite glad that this technology has become available and soon to be accessible from store shelves. I’m most looking forward to what will come of RPGs that better allow players to immerse themselves in the roleplaying aspect, to what multiplayer will do for human to human interactions (like Hover Junkers where you can shoot someone and then wave at them which is delightfully silly), or even what VR will do for therapeutic purposes like for social disabilities or training for public speaking. Until VR goes from being an expensive luxury to something that can be taken seriously as a candidate when debating what the best gaming platform is, I’ll be saving my excitement (and money).