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Best of 2015!

2015 is over! While I enjoyed quite a few games, there weren't a whole lot that I loved. The indie love-fest continues unabated, and once again I don't understand the affection for games like Her Story, Undertale, and Life Is Strange. The big "AAA" titles of the year also were disappointing in their own ways. The Witcher 3 just didn't stick with me and I found myself relieved when I had finished it. Fallout 4 is a lot of fun, but it seems that fun came at the expense of the story and character-driven decisions. I wish there was a game that was as revelatory to me as Oblivion was in 2006, Fallout: New Vegas was in 2010, or Mass Effect in 2008. Unfortunately for me, 2015 was much like 2014. It was a down year with a handful of good release, but lacking one truly great game.

List items

  • Fallout 4 gets my top spot by default. I'm a sucker for open-world games and I love the Fallout aesthetic. Fallout 4 is a good game with detailed, dense, fun map to explore. It has the best companions of any Bethesda game, and it does a great job of making you feel like you're missing something when they're not around. The gameplay has also received an enormous overhaul. It feels like a real shooter. You don't have to touch VATS if you don't want to, and I almost never did. Alas, there are plenty of negatives as well. The main story is a mess. The various factions you can join are all only surface deep and rarely explain their motives. The shallowness of the story is only made more evident by the lack of meaningful side-quests. While Fallout 4 is a huge game, it manages to feel smaller less populated than Skyrim, Fallout 3 or Oblivion. Fallout 4 is a good game, but ultimately it's shallowness drags it down.

  • The Phantom Pain was a game to surprised me. I really enjoyed it. The open-world design and the stealth gameplay sold this game in a way that the previous Metal Gear games never did. I methodically planned my approach to every checkpoint, inching my way forward and tagging each enemy, only to blow it at the last minute and end up shooting everyone in the face. The story was insane, but I enjoyed every minute of The Phantom Pain. The only thing that kept this from the top spot was the lack meaningful side activities. There was only so many times I could fulton soldiers for missions without it getting old. It's too bad Metal Gear Solid V was probably the last real Metal Gear. I suppose if it had to end, at least it ended on a high note.

  • The Witcher 3 was a huge disappointment for me. It had been built up and built up over the course of 2 years to be an amazing achievement. What I played was merely a good RPG. As someone who wasn't invested in The Witcher lore, I found myself confused at the world and setting more than once. The switching between Geralt and Ciri was jarring and worse, detrimental to the narrative flow of the game. I found the combat clunky and even the general movement cumbersome. I really didn't enjoy playing The Wild Hunt. All that said, the story was fantastic and the side quests were as fleshed out and well-produced and the main story. I was amazed by the decisions The Witcher 3 asks you to make, and I was even more astonished by the outcomes. I may not have enjoyed playing The Witcher 3, but I enjoyed watching it. It deserves to be on every top ten list of the year.

  • After Assassin's Creed Unity, I didn't think I'd ever put another Assassin's Creed game on a "Best of" list. Assassin's Creed Syndicate proved me wrong. The gameplay has been tweaked just enough to feel fresh and the technical issues that plagued Unity are gone. While the story is so-so, the city of London looks fantastic. The atmosphere alone makes the time with Assassin's Creed Syndicate worthwhile. The twin protagonists are a great step forward for the series, and I hope they're the new standard. Ubisoft has a good game here, and you'd be doing yourself a disservice by dismissing it.

  • Who would've though a game about managing a prison would be this fun? When I first started playing Prison Architect I had no idea how much time it was going to suck out of my life. It's a wonderfully addictive game that keeps surprising. Now that it's finally out of Early Access, I wholeheartedly recommend it.

  • I caught the Disney Infinity bug. Since its release in August, I've purchased over twenty Disney Infinity figures. The toybox mode is fun, and is made more fun every time you unlock a new reward. The real fun is the playsets. From the Diablo-like Toybox Takeover, to the official Star Wars and Inside Out playsets, each and every one of them is worth playing. The lighter gameplay makes this version a great game to play casually or with family and friends. I've put in over 100 hours, and I can't wait to play more.

  • While technically a 2013 game, the PC port of Grand Theft Auto V deserves it's own mention. Graphically improved, this version of the game is the version to buy. It may be the same game as last year, and the year before, but the enhanced fidelity makes it feel like a new game.

  • Dark Souls II was a very flawed game, and while Scholar of the First Sin doesn't fix every issue, it does mitigate quite a few. The new enemy placement helps you get used to difficult future encounters and encourages you to mix up your playstyle, even if the new placement doesn't make any sense in terms of story. The included DLC's are all a lot of fun and are more challenging than nearly all of the base game. If you haven't tried Dark Souls II, this is the version to get.

  • When SimCity crashed and burned I didn't know if the city-building genre would ever recover. Fortunately Colossal Order was there to pick up the pieces and make a game that is not just good, but leaps and bounds better than SimCity. The tools make building cities a fun and rewarding experience. While the deeper systems are still difficult to grasp, Cities: Skylines eases you in and helps you realize how important they can be to your city. It's a game that you can play for years and still enjoy.

  • Full disclosure, I don't enjoy the isometric perspective of the old Baldur's Gate games in the slightest. I don't enjoy the clunkiness of the combat or hold any nostalgia for the presentation. That being said, Pillars of Eternity is on this list solely for it's story and writing. The world of Eora has only been present for this one game and it already has more lore and backstory and development than many games that are on their second or third installment. The setting and story gripped me more than the gameplay ever could. I forced myself through Pillars, for the story alone.
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