… Well to be specific, you can’t really ‘finish’ an MMO since they’re generally a never-ending game but you know what I’m getting at. Let me preface this by stating that I don’t think FF14 is bad or is a game of poor quality; I actually recommend it in terms of an MMORPG when something like World of Warcraft has overstayed its welcome and refuses to get with the times. FF14 gives players the freedom to play any class with a few mere button presses, to gain experience in a variety of ways and be an enjoyable game to return to. However I won’t be returning to FF14, and to that I ‘blame’ the recent expansion Heavensward and the narrative that you’re forced to go through.

In other MMORPGs, you’re typically given a main storyline that is the crux of what story the game has to tell, but you’re more or less allowed to wander off that main path and do what you please and you’d end up accessing later content. FF14’s main storyline is what unlocks future content in ways of dungeons and gameplay mechanics, so you have to stick with it in order to access what the game has to offer. The storyline quests often culminate into major events/boss battles that can be dispatched relatively easily, then the quests return to diversions until another major story event pops up. You’re free to wander off at any time of course to do sidequests or whatever else, but that main story won’t be going anywhere until you finish it, and finishing one chapter unlocks the next big angle that your character has to tackle, with new chapters being added by Square-Enix to both add content and lore. The kicker is that buying Heavensward doesn’t mean you can immediately access its content even if you’re at the original level cap of fifty - You have to finish the story quests up to Heavenswards release to access its content, and these story quest chapters go on for a long time with a lot of needless filler between boss battles in order to pad out game time. Even in World of Warcraft all you need to access expansion content is to be at the needed level and maybe have twenty to thirty minutes of quests to do, not hours of fetch and kill quests. Worst of all, I could not give any less of a damn about the storyline in FF14, especially when quests important to the story are ridiculous chores for the so-called legendary hero that your character is. At one point you have to fetch a group of kids who are playing hide-and-seek so a convoy can leave for another town. Really.

Really. #wherearetheparents

Credit where due, there IS a story in FF14 that takes you around the world and has impact involving a wide cast of characters, not just being a string of quests that takes you zone to zone with limited narrative. There has been mention of future expansions not needing to have story completion in order to access the stuff you’ve paid for, but Heavensward hasn’t been mentioned in terms of being opened up yet. I’m certain there are people who enjoy the story, but I picked up FF14 for the positive sides of its gameplay, not to chase around a scam artist adventurer who is withholding information regarding a big bad boss who could -destroy half of the freakin’ world- and I can’t just break his ankles to make him squeal. I had been looking forward to Heavenswards for the new jobs like a card slinger mage or a mechanical maestro, but with each completed chapter in the story another one takes its place, and I seem to have multiple hours ahead of me still before I can even go to the floating zone and hang out with dragon buddies. FF14 is still a great MMO amidst the sea of poorly created cash-grabs, but if it wants to keep me from reaching content I had put money down for, then I’m turning in my lalafel’s little boots for good.

10. Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain: Whether or not this is the final entry in the Metal Gear Solid franchise, it doesn’t change the fact that while this is an excellent action-stealth game, it makes for an awful Metal Gear Solid game. Despite its numerous flaws (that shouldn’t have raised their heads in such a highly anticipated game by such a well renowned studio), I played the hot hell out of Phantom Pain, Fulton extracting anything that moved or had value for my Mother Base. This could’ve been my pick for game of the year, but too many annoyances kept me from tooting its horn on the mountain tops.

9. Undertale: Undertale has proven to be an absolute smash, and it has all the parts to justify its success; an interesting gimmick, a colorful cast (excluding the protagonist who is as useful as Big Boss was in the story, and by that I mean not at all), comedy paired with good writing and of course that fantastic soundtrack. In the end however, Undertale shirks its responsibilities as an RPG, leaving battles to be a contextual button press - That is, if you intend on actually fighting. The game leaves you at the mercy of random encounters which, at first, are fun and interesting, however, once you learn the trick to enemies and their jokes become exhausted, these random bouts turn into time wasters that delay you from reaching the next boss. Undertale is by no means a bad game, but it simply wore out my patience by artificially extending the game time.

8. Kerbal Space Program: Rocket science is actually really, -really- difficult. Who would’ve thought? Even though there’s an incredible amount of science, data, and math to crunch when building rockets to launch into the inky darkness of space, Kerbal Space Program handles most of the numbers, leaving the construction of rockets and piloting them up to you. The game’s simulation can still suffer from wild errors in physics out of nowhere, but it certainly has been both smoothed and fleshed out during its lengthy time in Early Access. The inclusion of a career mode makes Kerbal Space Program enjoyable as a proper game, even if your first few dozen ships will hardly even come close to the Mun. You’ll fail, learn from it and improve that little bit more on your next launch making success, big or small, taste oh so delicious.

7. The Beginner’s Guide: While I felt that the narrator’s dialogue felt far too practiced and rehearsed for such an emotional and personal story, this uncomfortable look into a depressed game developer’s thought process by a third party was certainly something to think about and enjoy. The ‘game’ has little staying power after the initial playthrough, but the morality and nature of the relationship between a developer and their player base was certainly an eye opener, and I was left stewing on it for some time after the credits had rolled.

6. Crypt of the Necrodancer: I was expecting Crypt of the Necrodancer to be a janky, buggy mess of an experience since the combination of rhythm game and roguelike sounded about as likely to work as mixing as oil and water. It turns out that Necrodancer does an absolutely fantastic job in bringing a challenging roguelike experience while fueling it with enjoyable music. Yes, there is the luck that comes with roguelikes which results in ‘the run’, but getting a batch of powerful items means nothing if you can’t dance around the enemies’ unfaltering moves.

5. Rocket League: Cars playing soccer with rockets - Really that’s all you need to know, and Rocket League just does it so right, even if controlling your car and keeping up awareness of the playing field will take some practice to pull off. Your enjoyment of the game will depend on your skill and whether or not your teammates try to score on themselves every chance they get, but I’ll bet that upon your first goal you’ll understand why many think so fondly of this ridiculous, but great digital sporting event.

4. Super Mario Maker: While there are still some odd omissions in the currently available tool set (which are being addressed with each new update), Super Mario Maker has proven to be a pleasant surprise in how easy it is to create and share your own levels, be they easy and fun or difficult and hair-pulling. The creation process is wonderfully simple and, despite the lack of quality control, you’ll have hundreds of levels made by players around the world to dabble with and enjoy.

3. Cities: Skylines: SimCity(4) was solid in its city management gameplay, though it was plenty bogged down with limitations and multiplayer components that players didn’t really engage in. Skylines may not have the same flavour and character as it's EA counterpart, but it certainly makes up for it with a bigger, better scale. To go from your initial plot of land only to expand further and further out and around can be overwhelming, but the lack of a fail state means you can play at your pace with your rules, making it a great game not only to flex your simulation muscles in, but to also relax with.

2. Fallout 4: While we could sit here and argue whether more of the same is a bad thing, Fallout 4 has brought enough new to the table in terms of mechanics and changes to the formula that it makes for a worthwhile next-gen entry for Bethesda’s open world games. While combat feels imbalanced regardless of your armour and weaponry, the modifications to perks, weapon customization, and how you build a home base makes up for a lot of buggy frustration that comes from a Bethesda joint.

1. Heroes of the Storm: I had been resigned to the idea that MOBAs would involve nothing but gold scavenging, meta shattering item builds, stupid bickering over ward placement and people eyeballing the in game clock so zealously that a lost second would result in the world ending - Not to mention companies seeming to go out of their way to make sure that players fought one another, and not the opposing team. Blizzard seems capable of turning pretty much any genre into gold, and while the beta days to Heroes of the Storm had been rocky, HotS has been able to shake off its ‘baby's first MOBA’ title and can now hold its own. While balance issues are still prevalent they are on a much smaller scale, and steps have been taken to ensure that teammates are fighting together, not against one another - Clowns and trolls will always exist after all. No item builds and scrounging for gold means there’s more focus on the character’s skills and better use of them is required, rather than relying on a sword that gives 40% critical chance to allow for ridiculous steamrolling. As I’ve written in the past, HotS may just be my e-sports fix after all.

Honourable Mentions

Lisa the Joyful: Alright, so I’m cheating a bit. Joyful is actually DLC for Lisa (the Painful), but I’d be betraying myself if I didn’t include Austin Jorgensen’s work on this list somewhere. While I was disappointed and found myself wanting after completing the DLC, that isn’t to say that I wasn’t happy to play more in this brutal, horrifying and tragic universe - Incredibly dark comedy included.

Splatoon: I had high hopes for Nintendo’s attempt in getting into the competitive shooter scene and at first, I was in positive spirits. Eventually however, I began to notice that the few problems the game has ends up bringing the whole thing tumbling down for me. No anti-idling means that players can just never leave home spawn and still be credited, the matchmaking creating imbalanced teams in both player count and levels, the first Splatfest not even working properly despite being a major event in the game, and the end fact that the player base still seems unsure of how to play the game properly. Splatoon is certainly still good and a silly joy to play, but the juvenile design flaws results in grinding my teeth instead of having a fun time.

Dishonorable Mentions

Dark Souls 2 Scholar of the First Sin: So nice they released it twice. I can’t really add much to what’s already been said, save for the fact that the latency in player versus player continues to range from passable to the stuff of nightmares and that playing with/against friends is needlessly complicated. The defense that these are somehow ‘features’ of the game to bolster its hardcore state isn’t really acceptable for me anymore, doubly so when hackers continue to make an absolute joke of the ‘legendary’ PvP.

Dying Light: While I downright hate Dying Light for its story, characters and finale that culminates to a series of flaccid button presses, it certainly was an incredible improvement over the Dead Island games which merits credit on its own. However, even with the high level parkour providing a lot of very fluid fun to the game, a weak story with weak arcs and the infuriating trope of an ‘intellectual’ villain made me despise the game as I continued to play it.

Hotline Miami 2: The first Hotline Miami was bloody, violent, confusing and an absolute trip; the sequel wanted to do the same thing but more, and it ended up face-planting because of it. Trying to flesh out the storyline only made me further scratch my head, and the larger maps turned the frantic risky gameplay into a trepidous assault, sucking away most of the speedy joy and replacing it with the fear of having to restart a lengthy sequence fraught with assailants. It did bring more Hotline which is grand news for some, but for my money, it tried to do too much.

MMOs come in two overarching flavors; paid subscription and free to play (F2P). The latter is notorious for being shovelware trash in some instances, while others have poor business models with mountains of premium content that requires real cash after the initial download, and often enhances your character over other players’, which ruins the experience if you aren’t willing to shell out the coin to power up. Paid subscriptions are more closely scrutinized however since they require you to make an initial investment and then recurring payments to be allowed further play time, and burning that money away on a product that ends up being poor or unenjoyable has an even harsher sting to it than just burning away your free time. World of Warcraft may be the reigning champion of paid subscription MMOs, but it still to this day refuses to let go of many of its ancient tropes and get on the same pace as its competitors - The thousands of subscribers they’ve lost over the last year or so must be a testament to that. I’ve dipped my toe into a fair number of F2P MMOs, but I’ve been downright suspicious of games that require paid subscriptions, mostly since player opinions range from the extremely supportive to the extremely dismissive, with only a handful of those being somewhere in the middle. When Final Fantasy 14 (FF14) was introduced to me, I recalled my brief time playing Final Fantasy 11 and how I hated it so much that I felt criminally cheated - My hesitation was likely understandable. However, a free week was on offer, and so with little else on my docket did I take the plunge, figuring that losing a few hours and dismissing the game wouldn’t be that much of a waste. Was I ever surprised.

Never will I say that FF14 is the greatest MMO to date, because like many others it does many things right while doing plenty of things wrong. However the things that FF14 does right are incredible leaps in quality and enjoyment that gives me hope that this genre of games won’t just be trying to emulate WoW or push out awful Korean produced money-printers one after the other. To preface, I am fully aware that the combat in the early levels has very little variance and is borderline carbon copy for many encounters that don’t involve dungeon or trial bosses, but MMOs and mindlessness have gone hand in hand to certain extents (arguably defining one another). What we would call grinding and boring repetition would be known as progress and maximizing effectiveness to a longtime player - Different strokes for different folks, etc. Whether anything has been taken from FF11 to 14 mechanically or gameplay wise is far beyond my knowledge, but much like the single player games, you don’t need to have a knowledge of the series in order to enjoy your stay in Eorzea, though it will help in recognizing certain references and cameos. My initial bit of time in the game involved me asking questions from those in the chat while I streamed my experience, often alt-tabbing to look up details so I wasn’t spamming the server chat with an array of greenhorn queries. As I plugged along and gained levels while proceeding with the overarching main story, I wasn’t exactly sold in FF14 being a grand entrant to the MMO stage until a trio of game features convinced me that this game was something special indeed.

1: Dungeons and mini-dungeons can be repeated at any time and at any level (providing you have it unlocked), though if you are over-levelled the game will scale back your level to keep things balanced and allow you to gain experience.

The mini-dungeons I speak of refer to ‘guildhests’, instances that have your party running through a gauntlet or challenge that generally takes less than fifteen minutes to complete. They start off easy enough but ramp up in challenge before long, acting as skill checks for your class to see if you’ve actually been learning how to play as your class, not to mention preparing you for later, greater challenges. Dungeons are self-explanatory, but in other games once you went over the maximum level you would no longer be able to roll a group for it, only able to return for the sake of nostalgia or farming materials. Being over the level restriction simply has your level scaled back so you can roll it so long as you have access to the dungeon, and this all applies to guildhests as well. In both cases your stats and equipment are also scaled back so you’re not horrifically overpowered, just being set to the best possible stats you could have at the time. Completing a hest or a dungeon for the first time or with players new to the instance nets the group a bonus, though in an amazing display of tact does the game also reward you for rolling a roulette (a randomly chosen instance) as a needed class. If the ‘duty finder’ is asking for a tank, switching to a tanking class and completing that instance will net you a bonus for taking the initiative (sing along if you’ve been stuck in DPS waiting hell). There is also a daily bonus for completing a roulette, giving you incentive to roll a group at some point after logging on. My seething hatred for ninja looting has also been all but abolished thanks to the loot rules when in instances. If your class cannot equip a dropped piece of gear, you may not roll need for it, only greed. This means that if a magic enhancing bandanna is dropped, a tank may not attempt to grab it for himself if the healer and/or DPS caster roll need for it. Gear drops incredibly rarely off of mobs, but there is a chance of getting a drop off of static treasure chests placed in dungeons, and gear is guaranteed to drop after boss encounters. This means that if something for your class is found, you will have a fair chance of getting it - and if you already have that piece of gear in your inventory, you can’t even roll for it! This has kept a vast majority of my instance groups happy and cooperative, save for cases where someone makes a mistake or isn’t playing their class to maximum effectiveness and people get angry and yadda yadda tempers flaring.

2: Should questing get tiresome, there are other ways of leveling your character or making a profit to avoid boredom.

Go here, kill X number of rats then return to the NPC for your reward then speak to the next quest giver and repeat ad nauseum. Standard fare for MMO’s, but FF14 has made efforts in letting you do other things to keep you from getting bored and logging off. Next to rolling for instances, there is also a chance that you will encounter a Fate when out in the field, a timed event that generally requires a few players to complete it, while boss Fates require an impromptu party to clear safely, or a well equipped player to face solo. Fates can range from killing a number of enemies or defending objects from being destroyed, to gathering items to return to an NPC, but again tact is used to make sure people who show up put in at least some kind of effort. Participation is split into three tiers of bronze, silver and gold depending on how much you contribute in clearing the Fate, be it actively fighting or healing the participants. Getting gold isn’t all that difficult if you make an honest effort, and arriving to a Fate late and getting one slap on an enemy will still net you a bronze medal along with experience and money. Seeing a Fate pop into existence on your map means for a few minutes you have something else to do, which is often enough to keep your brain from shutting off, doing so to the game shortly after. Fates also tie in with the challenge log, a weekly resetting list of goals that upon completion merits big caches of experience and money. These range from taking part in a certain number of minigames, or crafting a certain number of items, to completing a certain number of Fates, or defeating a certain number of enemies with your chocobo companion (who can act as a tank, healer or damage dealer when out in the field alone, depending on how you spec your avian buddy). There are also levequests which, in the same vein as guildhests, are quickly and easily completable quests that require you to complete objectives like defeat a certain number of an enemy, gather a certain amount of a material, or deliver a crafted item for a reward, sometimes including gear and venture tokens which can be brought to your retainers, NPCs who act as your storage and gathering butlers. Then there’s the Golden Saucer which has mini-games left and right that net you a unique type of currency that can be traded in for minions (aesthetic pets), clothing, and equipment, just for example. Of course if you’re still bored after all that you could simply change classes. No, you misunderstand me; I said change classes, not characters. This leads me into my third and final point…

3: Provided you have them unlocked, you can switch classes/jobs whenever you please from combat to crafting to gathering.

So, this is kind of a massive thing for me. There’s always the trapping in MMOs that after you make a character and select a class, you’re stuck with that class. Sure you can expand on the class and evolve at certain level caps in some games, but the long and short is that you’re stuck and would have to make another character altogether if you wanted to play something else for a change. FF14 doesn’t bother with this limitation and instead lets you change between classes at the double-click of a button, handled wonderfully by letting you create equipment sets so you can go from a cloth wearing healer to a metal-laden tank in moments. This does mean you’ll be handling a lot of gear, but luckily the developers were kind enough to supply an armory chest that houses your equipment separately from your main inventory. You’ll have to reach a certain level with your originally chosen class before you can take on an entry quest for a new class, but afterwards you’ll just need that class’ weapon and you can change on the fly. This does mean that if you want to try out all the classes you’ll be starting off from level one with each newly acquired class, but there is incentive to level them all by means of ‘borrowing’ abilities from different classes - A lancer with a conjurer’s healing spell for example certainly improves his survivability when out questing, or an archer with arcanist’s debuff spells help keep the squishy ranger from being overwhelmed. Since you more than likely would have a handful of guildhests and dungeons unlocked along with access to simple levequests, leveling your new class wouldn’t be all that time consuming if you had already swept through an area completing all the regular quests (Additionally there’s an armoury bonus which means that if you have a class/job at a higher level, your lower jobs level at a faster rate). This also extends to crafting and gathering classes, meaning you can be entirely self-sufficient if you have the time, patience and resources available. It’s just so great not having to make a whole new character and start from the bare bones minimum if you want to play a different class; to go from healing through a bunch of dungeon runs then being able to switch to a pugilist to go complete some hunting logs just gives the player so much freedom to do whatever they like doing in an MMO, and there’s a lot to do in FF14’s case.

I’d be writing a whole book if I wanted to talk about FF14 and every minor to major aspect of it, but it’s those three points that make the game a winner in my books. Again, I will not call it the best MMO ever, but it certainly has taken my personal top spot when it comes to MMOs, and I find it doubtful that anything will be able to even come close to it. While the combat lacks tactical variety and is generally by the numbers in the majority of enemy encounters, the fact that you can change classes without having to log off alone is an absolute godsend, no longer requiring players to play character Dance Dance Revolution in order to avoid boredom. I have a few hundred hours sunk into it already, and I’m confident when I say I’ll be seeing the endgame content in the future from how much I’ve been enjoying my time so far in Eorzea.

I’m not sure how long it’s going to take before I finish Fallout 4, if ever. I’m hardly even close to finishing the main story, I have a dozen plus quests I haven’t even started, a few I’ve begun but have yet to complete, settlements I’ve yet to start constructing and building upon, and this is all without even touching a single mod or finding all the locations. It’s a huge game with a silly amount of stuff to do, but the debates on whether it’s a better/worse game than the previous Bethesda Fallout’s is even sillier to humor. I would argue that 4 is graphically superior and plays better, but at the same time it has more bugs and glitches than both 3 and New Vegas combined. I’ve yet to encounter anything game-breaking, but the sheer number of goofy hiccups has left me shaking my head in bemusement rather than made me angry. Sure, being pushed up against a wall by an enemy and having my health implode or having my follower burrow underground sideways and therefore become useless in battle is frustrating, but being lifted up an elevator shaft through levitation while leaving the cabin behind, or people shifting through walls when their pathfinding goes bonkers is a stark reminder that yes, this is a Bethesda game and yes, this stuff made its way past QA. In open world games of this scope and size I understand that there is so much code to handle that anomalies are going to occur, but bug after bug fires off one after another so often that it astounds me that I’ve yet to have a hard crash.

The most popular complaint I’ve seen so far is that Fallout 4 is too much of the same old thing using the same old engine which results in the same old problems. This is always a difficult argument to tackle because there are some cases where more of the same isn’t always a bad thing, but just as easily can be the exact opposite in other cases - Call of Duty is the perfect example because each new game does introduce new components but just as easily can be called glorified expansion packs. For Fallout, the massive leap from 2 to 3 was certainly welcome and introduced a massive world to waste hours away in. You were no longer point-and-clicking and planning out actions in turn based combat, but now having open freedom in movement and battles. New Vegas might’ve had many echoes of 3, but enough was brought to the table in terms of mechanics and gameplay to happily have players waste even more hours in a new locale. Why 4 is getting so much flak makes me scratch my head, especially with base building, weapon and armor modifications, balances to being a pack rat and how perks work, more personable followers… While my first five or so hours was met with ho-humming and a case of the doldrums, it was upon receiving my first follower and building up my arsenal that the switch finally got flipped and I began to greatly enjoy my time in the Commonwealth. Perhaps I was so used to 3 and New Vegas that I was at first ignorant to all the immediate changes and additions that a new modern Fallout would bring. I was a bit aimless at first, having so many choices on things to do that for the most part I was just spinning my wheels around the starting area; now I’m having the wonderful ‘issue’ of having so many things to do that focusing on only quests or settlement building exclusively means I’m missing out on so much fun out in the world by exploring.

Never minding my disappointment with how squirrelly base building can get, Fallout 4 has so far been what I was hoping for since its announcement, and the modern feel and kick to the combat has helped remove the stiffness that I could not shake from 3 and New Vegas, even if the melee combat in 4 sometimes just refuses to work and is more trouble than it’s worth. Building weapons to fit my needs makes them feel that much more useful, especially when you can kit out a legendary, yet ugly, custom-built pipe gun to have incredible recoil control while raining plasma-laced lead at targets, or beef up a chest piece that already reduces damage from super mutants to offer up even more protection and ward against explosions… But this is all moot when the level scaling is taken into consideration. Even with my near top tier weaponry and armor, I am in a constant state of feeling like I’m made of glass and that my missile launcher is firing duds. While legendary enemies should naturally be an epic encounter, having a pack of mirelurks snap chunks of my health off despite wearing armor that reduces damage from said enemies has me constantly wondering if I’m being duped regarding legendary pieces of equipment. The aforementioned pipe gun, even with its high powered modifications and plasma rounds, continues to be an overwhelming disappointment in killing anything that isn’t a tier one enemy. In Fallout 3 and New Vegas, you would eventually get to the point in level and perks where most encounters only became deadly if you were in a bad position, or up against too many high tier enemies. In 4, even a pack of mole rats can be a sap on your health items. At least these battles are taking place in a more visually appealing world that don’t have an ungodly number of caves that are annoyingly difficult to tell between one another. While some houses and structures are repeated across the Commonwealth, I’ve yet to really notice any tilesets, the carbon copy and paste method of building locations in previous Bethesda games that made it difficult to believe that the new location you were entering was brand new and had different flavor. Entering the same warehouse twice is forgivable when practically every location has been built from the ground up.

I’ve been having a lot of fun (and some frustration) with Fallout 4 so far, but I’ve yet to be really blown away. The improvements and glitches have been par for the course so far, and I can only look forward to what modders and creators will bring to the table once the creations kits become available, and this isn’t including what mods have already been released that add items, enhance or change visual effects and so on. So much has been made for 3 and New Vegas ranging from custom quests, locations, companions, weaponry and even new game mechanics that further increases the value and playtime that come with these games. Forty hours may not be much for open-world games of this size, but I’m certainly going to be playing for many, many more hours to come.

I’ve put off doing a video regarding my top ten choices in video game music for the longest of time, not due to potential poor choices or ones that would be deemed controversial, but because a majority of my picks would be tracks that come from personal places I would not share without a few beers in me and my inhibitions loosened. I often dwell on various games on various levels: technical, musical, enjoyment, etc… But I don’t readily wonder on their emotional or mental impact because I both look and feel really goddamn silly when I do so, despite there being legitimate discussions to be had in those subjects.

Spelunky’s stripped theme is one of those tracks that brings out an emotion I seldom experience and feel uncomfortably strange when it happens; hope. Not the kind of hope one would have when looking forward to a new game being released and hoping that it’s not garbage. Not the hope that a gambler has when they scratch a ticket or pull a slot machine and are hopeful they’ll win the big prize. I’m talking the kind of hope that someone has when a person is without guidance and feels that the future is so utterly bleak. Without going into territory that would make me come off as a whiner, I do not hold much hope in my oncoming future due to experiences in the past and present that have more or less shaped me into what I am today. Now, Spelunky’s normal theme is bombastic, loud and the kind of fanfare that is amusing considering the horrible, painful ends the player character can meet in the game. In between tutorial levels when you first boot the game up, you get a bit of lore from the journal of Yang, the spelunker who will forever repeat the cycle of exploring, collecting treasures, dying and coming back to life at the entrance until he achieves victory at the very end of the ruins. During these intermissions, the stripped theme plays softly as you learn more about the game and its minimal backstory.

It wasn’t until far later that I realized Yang’s existence is practically hell disguised in a waking limbo; he can’t escape until he is victorious, and death is only a setback as he is seemingly resurrected only to start all over again. And again. And again. And he does so with such bravado and courage that every time I listen to the softer, chilled song, I’m unable to help but become filled with such a resolve that it brings a lot of repressed, bitter anger out of me in an emotional display. When that subsides, I’m left with a feeling of greater hope for my future, that even I can achieve some kind of overarching victory in the face of such adversaries. I’m not going to die, lose all my valuables only to be resurrected and start from square one time and time again, but if a hapless spelunker can charge ahead to impending doom and glory, I can at least walk towards my future knowing I may just come out alright.

I’m certain this was never the intention when Yang’s character was created or the stripped theme was composed, but goddamn if the realization didn’t hit and stick with me. This all probably sounds so silly as you read it, but certainly you or someone you know has a connection(s) with a game on an unexpected level, beyond liking or disliking it? If not, then you probably understand why I won’t be doing such a top ten list until I manage confessing such an embarrassing reason behind this choice of track. But like me, maybe such a video would come out alright too. No sense in me looking to the future in a fog forever.

‘Cause there’s spelunkin’ to do, son.

The MOBA genre and community are about as easy to penetrate as a high security prison, and it almost feels like these games don't want casual players or curious experimenters to put in the time and effort, putting up barriers in the form of high learning curves and meta-gaming so deep and varied that you'd need to sink in hours upon hours before even the slightest grasp would be obtainable. Nevermind learning the characters, there's also learning the maps, item builds, timing, team compositions, tactical decision making... Failing in any of these aspects in a public game (nevermind ranked) is a great way to garner heroic levels of hatred from complete strangers, as evident by videos online showcasing utterly childish behavior from the littlest of triggers, ranging from choosing a certain character in middle lane to an accidental failed execution of a takedown. Then there's the players who go out of their way to ruin the fun for everyone else regardless, but that's another ball game all in its own.

All this in mind, it's very easy to call Heroes of the Storm (HotS) an assortment of degrading terms, like 'baby's first MOBA' or 'Heroes of the Scrub' since it's a very scaled back game; no items, less focus on base rushing and more attention placed on map objectives, no masteries for min-maxing a few percentage points... It seems like HotS got a bad rap since, like any other MOBAs that have come out, it's not League of Legends or DOTA 2 and therefore is the dirty foreigner in a lucrative and competitive field. While making an attempt to call which MOBA the best is a great way to be sent virus-ridden emails, I personally find HotS to be my preferred game out of the genre because of the scaled back aspects, as there is far more focus on playing the match rather than staring at your gold reserve and the clock to figure out when you should return to home base in order to buy boots. No one player can snowball out of control from monster camp buffs or buying all critical chance items since the whole team has a shared experience pool, making the team level at the same time. This erases the ridiculous 'money game' arms race and instead puts more focus on which team is clearing more creep waves, who is playing objectives and of course, who's claiming heads for big experience gains, as a higher level team is obviously stronger but most importantly, no one player exceeds another. Of course player skill and character styles will differentiate which team member is doing a better job or is succeeding at their current role, but if a lone wolf-style player runs off to be a rogue commando, like it or not, they'll still be contributing to the team with sweet sweet experience points, not just hogging all the glory and levels for their own selfish needs. This mostly eliminates the bloodlusting kill stealer issue since it won't matter whether the support or tank gets the takedown; it benefits the whole team. It does mean they don't get a higher place on the scoreboard, but if they're fretting over that then they're silly people who can't be taken seriously.

Talents replace items in HotS, and I'll argue that talents give far more strategic choices and customization options than upgradeable items any day of the week, since generally items would enhance stats or give some active effect without really changing the owner. HotS's talents however enhance the abilities of that character and can even modify their play style. For example, in other MOBAs when you select a character they generally were made and designed for that one role specifically; Soraka from League of Legends is a support character with some offensive capabilities, but even if you built items towards enhancing her magic power, she would be hard pressed to match wits with someone like Ryze who is a caster for taking down opponents. In HotS, a character like Li Li who is a support can choose talents that enhance her healing and supportive abilities, or she can instead get talents that improve her offensive prowess while still retaining her support role. Sgt. Hammer can choose talents that make her siege mode more deadly and reach farther, or she can take talents that make her sturdier when in the middle of action. Logically it seems beneficial to invest in talents that improve upon a character's base role, but you get a selection to choose from every few levels, and arguments could be made on what a player should choose throughout the course of the game. From game to game however, you may find situations that come up that makes you deviate from your original plan; perhaps the enemy assassin is cutting too sharply through your tank's defenses, so they instead take on better evasive maneuvers to avoid being eaten alive. Maybe your lane partner is good at mitigating the damage they receive, so the support doesn't have to invest in as much healing talents and takes on more damage output. Of course you can always choose talents that compliment how you play your chosen character, and while the roster does emulate the usual variety of archetypes that have been more or less set in stone throughout MOBAs, it is endearing to play as a variety of heroes and villains from the Blizzard franchises.

Map rotations also helps HotS separate itself from the crowd, and while you can use wards to supply extra vision, there is less focus on zealous ward placement; the game pretty much demands that you play the objective, be it gathering doubloons to bribe pirates to fire at the enemy base or controlling capture points to summon a mini-boss for your team. The maps range in size and lane counts, unlike other MOBAs that boast one map for main competitive play (in all fairness they're designed to practical perfection in just about all regards, but it can get tiring seeing the same map with no deviation). Despite these maps having objectives that garner advantages, they don't spell absolute victory when one team succeeds... Mostly. Once a team gets the upper hand they generally keep it unless the opposing side can rally together which, knowing MOBA communities, they're generally screaming at whose fault it is instead of coming together. Ignoring map objectives is a sure fire way to lose matches, and this extends to the mercenary camps that upon defeat will attack the nearest lane and are quite sturdy.

HotS seems to be actively trying to avoid in-team fighting before it can start, unlike other games which seem to entice them at every possible step to do something purposely aggravating. Searching for a match to play doesn't take you to a pre-lobby menu to choose characters; you're instead dropped into a queue and once players are found, you're put into a team and then does the game load up. This means no one can make demands or talk poorly of character picks since you don't even know who you're teamed up with when you queue for a match. No items also means there's no pressure to get X and Y by Z time, and while some of your picks for talents may get heat from your comrades, it all comes down to how you play and how well you play that will generally decide if/when bickering starts. Of course, some just want to watch the world burn and will harass a fellow player just for not having a certain skin for a character. Blizzard still doesn't have a reliable way of dealing with toxic players, as logging them out after games and silencing them in chat is simply a nuisance rather than being a deterrent to actually behaving their silly selves, which of course means if someone is feeding up a storm mid-game, you're stuck with them until they leave, you leave, or the match ends.

HotS is another MOBA so regardless of all it does differently, it will be both heralded and hated by players no matter their loyalty. However, Blizzard does not design their games in a half-hearted way (World of Warcraft and Hearthstone however I'm not so sure sometimes), so they will make damn sure that patches and balance updates will be executed properly and correctly if they want to keep up with other MOBAs when they go to massive tournament levels of popularity. HotS is a prime entry level into the MOBA genre while also having the chops to supply a much deeper, rewarding strategic experience once you learn the basics. Now if only they'd add in Leroy Jenkins...

I've made absolutely no secret that I think modern horror games are absolute jokes, mainly when it comes to independent developers. It seems like they cannot decide whether they want to make an action horror, survival horror, jumpscare horror, or just downright bad horror games. Gleam at the 'coverage' (I use that word lightly since that's another can of worms all in its own) of these games over on Youtube, and you'll find that a big majority of these games rely on frightening imagery (specifically horrifying imagery instead of being unsettling or confusing, harming the player's psyche rather than just scaring it by using a demonic face or some such), loud noises (the volume mixing being so poor that the sounds alone can startle the dickens out of you when the stinger is triggered) and having some monster chase the defenseless player character. Finding cases that break these trends is a challenge unlike no other, since wading through all the independently made games can be an exercise in cynical insanity, being taxing on your eardrums, heart rate and most importantly patience. Even big studios aren't exempt from this rule, as taken with the latest Silent Hill games; action horror that plays poorly, have laughably weak and predictable stories, and become utter gauntlets of combat after the level designers ran out of stingers to throw at the player. Silent Hills looked to be the hopeful change, but we all know how that's ended up recently. Even Dead Space one and two which I enjoyed very much end up forsaking its horror and throws all its chips on action in the later acts.

I'm back to harping on the subject all in thanks to Allison Road, one of the latest game-related Kickstarters to appear lately, and you may have noticed me not making any mention of PT - That's because Allison Road seems to be picking up the torch of spiritual succession to PT, despite the developer claiming surprise at his game reaching such a comparison. The developer claims that it will be a 'return to the roots of psychological horror', but the alpha gameplay video already has loud noises and a monster chasing the seemingly defenseless player character. We're not off to a great start. Now, let's be fair; a full version of PT seemed to be the thing hungered after by those who played the demo. It was the haunted house itself that had people downloading the demo and uploading poorly framed and badly lit facecam Let's Play videos in droves, and I would suspect that another Silent Hill game would be met with much less fanfare if it followed the design of the previous entries. It was the haunted house, Lisa's bad teeth and the chatty fetus that had people excited and frightened for Silent Hills. Allison Road so far is set entirely in a fully explorable house, though there will be much more to explore than just a hallway looping unto infinity with a bathroom in the side. The parallels however are a bit too obvious for me to think of Allison Road as its own thing, since it features a house with bizarre hauntings going on and a female antagonist who stalks the place. While she is a 'mortal threat', she also has a direct involvement with the plotline and shares the protagonist's fate and-

NOPE.

You just needed a monster to kill the player and act as scary set pieces. Write her off as a requirement to the gameplay and story all you want, something has to act as a catalyst to raise tension and force a chase of some kind, otherwise it's not a modern horror game, is it? Could Lily (the antagonist) simply be a ghost or apparition that causes crazy stuff to pop off around the house? Can a horror game not have a fail state by means of some horrible creature having the protagonist's face as dinner? And even if it does, does it have be via screamer? I'm being harsh on the game even before launch because it's going to have some mighty big shoes to fill in the wake of PT vanishing into the ether, and I suspect it will carry some big expectations from consumers. The loss of Silent Hills (rumors be damned that say otherwise) has been one of the biggest disappointments in the games industry this year, and that's left quite the void in a lot of players hoping to get a horror game that's in a league of its own. PT was creepy as absolute sin, and if Allison Road cannot replicate or improve upon the player's hair on the back of their neck being perpetually on end, no amount of story or gameplay will be able to salvage it. Now that the comparison has been made between the two games, Allison Road will never be able to escape being a spiritual successor, and many of its alpha components aren't making it a very strong case that it's its own entity. For as much flak as I give tropes in horror games, some of them have a lot of good ideas and creative concepts, just they become difficult to take seriously as both a reviewer and player; Five Nights at Freddie's may be a death march to cheap jumpscares, but being stuck in one room and having it be your first and last line of defense is terrifying. Silent Hill Downpour, despite all the poor controls and weak story angles, Murphy was the most relatable and sympathetic hero of the series so far since he becomes angry, confused and screams in alarm with what takes place. Candles was all about illuminating the player character's home in the blackness of night lest ugly gremlins get the better of them, even though the game was ridiculously dark to the point that monitor gamma had to be jacked through the roof. The mass of free indie games all have their own ideas, stories and even messages to get across regardless of their quality, length or price, but developers don't get their game downloaded if it isn't featured in a video, lest they just become another free game to float about the internet in obscurity. I know I come off as a hypocrite, but at some point the weaker games will be paved over with better, greater games that don't resort to pop-up scares and each become their own, unique gem that ends up scaring the pants off of us or making going to the bathroom at night the most terrifying challenge ever. We need the creativity, but we can drop the Slenderman clones.

What I'm saying is that I hope Allison Road proves me wrong and it ends up making me look like a colossal idiot, I really do. I hope it shows me that there's hope for horror games beyond Unity-made rushed projects designed solely to be played by a prominent Youtuber so they can get publicity. I hope that it sparks inspiration in other developers to not just jump out and yell boo while showing some horrifying demon face and instead use underlying terror to make the player paranoid as hell and whimper in defeat. I'm not going to back Allison Road on Kickstarter, but I hope it succeeds and proves me wrong.

It’s safe to say that the latest (and perhaps last) Metal Gear Solid is absolutely fantastic in just about all regards (save for Kiefer Sutherland hardly having much to say), but after 40 hours of game time clocked (49 at the time of writing this), the last word that comes to mind when I think of Phantom Pain is ‘masterpiece’.

Yes, Phantom Pain is a very, very good game that should be bought and played by anyone with an interest in stealth or action games or by those with even a fleeting interest in the MGS series. With all the 10/10, 5/5 or 100% reviews its been getting (or damn near close to perfect scores), Kojima’s swansong is going to make so much money that I wouldn’t be surprised if Konami begrudgingly re-hired Kojima and his team back to the company to make a sixth game. But a masterpiece though? So far in Phantom Pain I’ve strapped a balloon to dozens of enemy soldiers, fooled guards by taping a poster of a anime girl on a cardboard box, cleared outposts using stealth in a variety of different success rates, evaded a Metal Gear whose AI routine literally cheated to make things difficult, and escaped mayhem by the skin of my teeth more times than I can count… The partial RPG elements from Peace Walker are a welcome return thanks to my completionist streak, and while no longer having instanced segments or levels may be jarring to some faithful to the previous games, the open-world is a delight to romp around in causing the Soviets all kinds of trouble. But a masterpiece?

There are just a few things too many to keep me from outright calling it a 10/10 game despite being far from completion, and namely that’s Kiefer Sutherland taking over primary voice acting role from David Hayter. One of the many great aspects of the previous MGSs were the various codec calls between the protagonist and their support team or with the villains, which showcased both the fantastic writing and skillful voice work by the cast. In Phantom Pain, Snake is pretty tight-lipped due to Konami apparently not having enough budget to pay Sutherland for more voice lines or whatever the case may be. In cutscenes he hardly has much to say, codec calls are limited to Miller or Ocelot and are one-sided… The worst instance is during a cutscene where Snake is bouncing around inside a helicopter as it’s being attacked by a hostile jet, and he makes nary a peep. Most of the dialogue is brought by other characters or the visuals, but it’s just much too eerie having Snake not be chatty, let alone a new voice altogether. Sutherland seemed to have an easy payday working on Phantom Pain since his vocal effort is quite lacking; he just has to grumble out his best line read from 24 when Snake’s time to speak comes and that was good enough for the director. I know change must be accepted, but I would be far more accepting of such a talented voice actor being dropped for a 'more relevant’ actor if said actor actually had the same amount of work in the previous games. That’s not even considering how playing as a character other than Snake still has NPC’s refer to him/her as 'Big Boss’ in order to break continuity and my nerves.

Event AI that outright cheats also leaves me quite bitter, but that is secluded to major events like the first meeting of the Skulls or a whole friggin’ Metal Gear. The normal AI of soldiers both on patrol or at outposts and the like are excellent in their programming and execution, but when it comes to major story elements, the AI cheats in order to act as a challenge, like moving towards you despite not knowing your position or happening to change their patrol patterns when you move to another area. Set pieces be damned, a game simply cannot invent rules after firmly grounding the current ones, and this is especially agitating when missions have side objectives that require you to avoid detection regardless of this trickery.

I digress. Phantom Pain is polished, excellent fun, but I keep happening upon more and more things that simply detract me from calling it the perfect experience I keep hearing about. I’m certainly going to keep playing it and rip my hair out going for 100% clearance, extracting everything that I can and having far too little patience for a guard to wander past so I can sneak by, but I wonder if I set my personal bar too high considering how this is most likely Hideo Kojima’s last Metal Gear Solid, let alone game working with Konami. I have no regrets buying Phantom Pain in the slightest (I even pre-ordered it to boot), and I wonder if my tune will change once the final credits roll.