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extintor

don't let the little fuckers generation gap you

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All games played in 2015 - with thoughts on each (and scores out of 5)

Aside from playing FIFA 2015 and Don Bradman 2014 on and off throughout the year, this is everything else I played in 2015 and what I thought of it.

January

2014 Shadowrun Dragonfall (Directors Cut). COMPLETED. 5/5

2013 GTA 5. COMPLETED. 5/5

2014 Destiny. REVISITING. 2/5

2014 Lords of the Fallen. COMPLETED. 3/5

February

2015 Resident Evil HD. COMPLETED. 4/5

2014 Far Cry 4. COMPLETED. 3/5

2015 Evolve. ABANDONDED. 1/5

2014 The Maker's Eden. Ep 1. COMPLETED 2/5

2015 Life is Strange Ep1. COMPLETED 4/5

2014 Dead State. ABANDONED. 2/5

March

2015 Dying Light COMPLETED 4/5

2013 Walking Dead Season 2. Ep 1. COMPLETED 5/5

2013 Walking Dead Season 2. Ep 2. COMPLETED 4/5

2014 Murdered. Soul Suspect COMPLETED 2/5

2013 Walking Dead Season 2. Ep 3 COMPLETED 4/5

2013 Walking Dead Season 2. Ep 4. COMPLETED 3/5

2014 Walking Dead Season 2. Ep 5. COMPLETED 5/5

2014 Metal Gear Solid V. Ground Zeroes. COMPLETED 3/5

April

2015 Pillars of Eternity. COMPLETED 5/5

2015 Forza Horizon: Too Fast Too Furious. COMPLETED 2/5

2011 The Witcher 2. COMPLETED (REVISITING ahead of Witcher 3) 4/5

2015 NeoScavenger 2/5 COMPLETED

May

2014 Falling Skies: The game ABANDONED

2014 Dark Souls 2 (DLC) 5/5

2015 Dex 4/5 COMPLETED

2015 Invisible Inc 4/5 COMPLETED

June

2014 Diablo - Ultimate Evil edition 4/5 ONGOING

July

2015 The Witcher 3: The Wild Hunt 5/5 COMPLETED

2015 Technobabylon 3/5 COMPLETED

2012 The Silent Age 3/5 COMPLETED

2015 Grey Goo 4/5 COMPLETED

2015 Contradiction 4/5 COMPLETED

2014 J.U.L.I.A. among the stars 3/5 ABANDONED

August

2015 Cradle 4/5 COMPLETED

2011 Bulletstorm 3/5 COMPLETED

2011 Deus Ex. Human Revolution 5/5 COMPLETED

2015 Fallout Shelter 3/5 ABANDONED

2015 Shadowrun: Hong Kong 4/5 COMPLETED

September

2015 Zombi 4/5 COMPLETED

2015 Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain 4/5 COMPLETED

2015 Stasis 2/5 ABANDONED

October

2015 Mad Max 4/5 COMPLETED

2006 Star Wars: Empire at War

2015 Read Only Memories 5/5 COMPLETED

2014 Elite Dangerous 4/5 NOT FINISH-ABLE

2015 Assassin's Creed: Syndicate STARTED (provisional 4/5)

November

2015 Halo 5/5 COMPLETED

December

2015 Rise of the Tomb Raider - 5/5 COMPLETED

2015 Hard West (provisional 3/5)

2015 Fallout 4 5/5 COMPLETED

2015 Underrail

---

Games released in 2015: Ongoing top 10 (min criteria = 3/5. Last updated 02 Dec)

01. Fallout 4 5/5

02. The Witcher 3: The Wild Hunt 5/5

03. Pillars of Eternity 5/5

04. Halo 5 5/5

05. Rise of the Tomb Raider 5/5

06. Read Only Memories 5/5

07. Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain 4/5

08. Shadowrun: Hong Kong 4/5

09. Dying Light 4/5

10. Assassin's Creed: Syndicate (provisional score) 4/5

---

other good games scoring 4/5 from 2015 that don't quite make it (in no particular order)

Cradle

Zombi

Mad Max

Contradiction

Grey Goo

Dex

Invisible Inc

Resident Evil HD

Life is Strange Ep1

List items

  • COMPLETED (in 2014)

    Release Year: 2014

    5/5 . Revisiting last year's GOTY to roll a new character. This is an exceptional game and rightly won RPG gamer's 2014 GOTY award.

    Last year's personal GOTY has been further improved and I am pretty excited that Shadowrun Hong Kong will now follow suit.

  • COMPLETED (in 2013)

    Release Year: 2013

    5/5. Looks absolutely incredible on Xbox One and plays beautifully. The new content isn't anything particularly engaging but the core game is still one of the best to have come out over the last few years.

  • COMPLETED (in 2014)

    Release Year: 2014

    2/5 . Inexplicably I am still fooling around with this nonsense on a very casual basis. To what end, I have no idea.

  • COMPLETED

    Release Year: 2014

    3/5 19/01. Like starting to eat what looks like it is going to be a delicious three course meal and then being turfed out of the restaurant after taking a couple of bites of the starter course.

    A Dark Souls clone with enough going for it combat-wise to be due of a certain degree of praise, Lords of the Fallen is neither large enough, nor are the systems deep enough to compete properly with any of the From Software souls games.

  • COMPLETED

    Release Year: 2015

    4/5 . A fun half dozen hours of nostalgia and actual entertainment. This holds up well, not least because the re-made visuals are half-decent (if not exactly up to modern standards). The re-worked controls are the biggest plus point with this re-release. Tank controls added to the tension alright but they also brought too much frustration (which is why they mostly don't exist as an option any more).

  • COMPLETED

    Release Year: 2014

    3/5. enjoyable but not exceptional. After getting 2/3 of the way through this game the lustre starts fading pretty fast. It is clearly a very well made product but it really is super-similar to Farcry 3... and I got really bored of Farcry 3 to the point of putting it down and never coming back to it.

    The antagonist is interesting, and the ending moments in conversation with him are engaging. All other characters in the game are weak and the 'power-struggle' between your Golden Path allies, Amita and Sabal is unimaginative and does not add to the overall experience.

    Hunting and wildlife systems are nicely done, world traversal is great, side-missions and activities aren't bad and the encounter design is generally pretty good.

    All in all though I couldn't recommend the game while at the same time find it hard to outright condemn it so it has to be a 3/5 score.

  • CONTINUOUS PLAY (Not completable)

    Release Year: 2014

    5/5. Still playing this thing. It is the best cricket sim ever released and there's something to be said for that if you love the sport.

  • COMPLETED

    Release Year: 2015

    EPISODE 1 4/5. A really well crafted adventure game experience with excellent premise, exposition, characters, and writing.

  • ABANDONED (after 7hrs)

    Release Year: 2014

    2/5. Nice first impressions. I like the notion that you don't get XP for combat and are instead rewarded for task completion. It makes more sense in the context of a survivalist setting for this to be the case.

    I'm not impressed by the visuals however. There's quite a bit of 'clunk' in the interface also... worth more of my time... but at the moment I don't think it'll be too much more.

    EDIT. There isn't enough here to keep my interest. A nice premise that is ultimately under-delivered upon.

  • COMPLETED (in 2014)

    Release Year: 2014

    RETURN PLAY . 5/5. Broken multi-player aside the value proposition is still excellent.

  • COMPLETED

    Release Year: 2014

    Episode 1. 2/5. A very brief (1hr) narrative-focused experience that skirts the edge of 'is this even a video game?' territory. I couldn't recommend this to anyone but that isn't to say it is devoid of value. There's something faintly intriguing here that might be successfully built on in later episodes which is why this gets 2/5 rather than 1/5/

  • ABANDONED (after 3 hrs)

    Release Year: 2015

    1/5. I gave this game 3 hours of play time to make an impression on me. It didn't so I returned it.

  • COMPLETED (in 2010)

    Release Year:2010

    5/5. Re-playing. Even after multiple playthroughs over the last few years, this remains one of my favorite open world experiences.The multiple overlapping systems and how they all tie into player progression are expertly conceived. My reverence for the title also comes from the excellent world design that allows for the clever introduction of factions, characters, and progression of story while never feeling linear. This time I'm re-playing to see if I can stretch the tree of player decisions and story progression... i.e. break the game. So far I'm really impressed by how flexible it is. I really hope that we see more games of this scope and depth in the current generation that has, so far at least, been very thin on the ground on that front.

    Also played Autumn Leaves mod. Not bad.

  • COMPLETED (EP 1) 2/5

    Release Year: 2015 Not bad, but very little about this distinguishes it from RE 6. Worth the money. Don't know if I will play later episodes or not yet. Definitely a wait and see how the reviews shake out kind of situation.

  • COMPLETED

    Release Year:2015

    4/5 Impression after first few hours is that there's something pretty decent here and well worth my attention.

    edit (after 10 hrs) there's a lot going on in this game a lot of it is fun.

    edit (after completing the game). This is a legitimately good game and a lot of thought has been put into the arc of the experience to keep it intriguing throughout. That isn't to say that the story is especially fresh or interesting, rather that the method for framing the narrative and the progression of that narrative is satisfying. The same can be said for the gameplay really where everything works very well and the systems are well balanced.

    The genre is getting very, very tired and Dying light's appeal suffers a little bit from that fact. If you've played Dead Island then you've played a very similar game before. Dying Light is undeniably better in all respects but there is still a feeling of deja vu.

  • ABANDONED (2hrs)

    Release Year: 2005

    Impression after first few missions is that this plays like a quake-style game that has been loosely based around the mythos of deus ex. Not compelling enough to stick with.

  • ABANDONED (3hrs)

    Release Year: 2013

    2/5 This has the makings of being a really interesting experience and I played through the first half a dozen hours and completed the first segment.

    Unfortunately there's not enough variety or intelligence in the level design. The character development is uninteresting and ultimately nothing sustains motivation to continue.

  • COMPLETED

    Release Year: 2013

    5/5 This game is incredibly bleak.

    Episode 1 really captures Clementine's desperation but also shows her fortitude.

    Ep 2 Characters develop. Things keep things building pretty well.

    Ep 3 has another 'Westbury' style story-line where the fragility of violence and threat-enforced social order is explored. Pretty interesting. Good new characters too.

    Ep 4 keeps things ticking along to set up a finale. Some absolutely brutal developments in terms of NPC deaths, the last one of which leaves the whole thing blown open in terms of a cliffhanger for the final episode.

    Ep 5. Really excellent storytelling and a genuinely emotionally draining end to the season. It would be fair to say that season 2 has not quite reached the heights of season 1 but it still a very good game.

    Season score 5/5

  • COMPLETED

    Release Year: 2014.

    3/5. March. Well I put my two hours in and I completed it once. I like it. Its given me an idea of what to expect later this year with the Phantom pain and I'm sure I'll replay it a couple of times before the successor comes out in Sept.

  • COMPLETED

    Release Year: 2014

    2/5. March. By no means is this either a ground-breaking nor is it a stand-out experience. I paid £10 for this, which is the maximum anyone should really pay, and I think that if I had paid full price at release then I would have been furious at how thin the experience is.

    The best things that can be said about Murdered: Soul Suspect, are that the characterization of the lead characters is decent enough, and that the core premise of investigating your own murder is faintly intriguing. The game clocks in at 6-8hrs and perhaps 25% of that time is padded by map-searching for flavor text and other mundane collectibles. Perhaps another quarter of that time is spent on absolutely inconsequential sidequests. In actuality then, the core of this game is only about 4hrs long.

    While Soul Suspect does have a smidge of a premise and a tiny bit of promise, there's no getting away from the fact that it is a poor game... perhaps it fair to say that it is a bad game as there's almost no game play and no real 'detective' work to do, despite the early implication that this will be core to the experience.

    In short then, there is nothing recommendable about this game and I score it 2/5 rather than a 1/5 only because the experience is just on the bad side of mediocre... but not out and out awful.

  • COMPLETED

    Release Year: 2015.

    5/5

    Initial impressions after 20 hrs of play.

    1. This game is enormous and very reminiscent of Baldur's Gate. The party characters are interesting and the overall story has some promise.

    2.So far feels better than Divinity Original Sin which is the closest relative to this game thematically in the modern era.

    Post-completion thoughts.

    Probably the best game of its type and as such is a lock for 5 stars and a position on my GOTY 2015.

    There's an awful lot of great writing, characterization, and mechanisms for meaningful character and party development. It is a long, long game (perhaps fractionally too long?) and requires a very significant time investment in order to get the best return. People who run out of patience with the game before Act 1 is done (10-15 hrs in) will be missing out but then perhaps this kind of game isn't for everyone.

  • COMPLETED

    Release Year: 2015.

    As a free game that works as duel advertising for the purchase of Forza Horizon and the Fast & Furious franchise, this really wasn't bad at all.

    The game takes 3-4hrs to finish and isn't anything overwhelming to play but hey, it was free... and for that price it was just about worth my time.

  • ABANDONED (after several hours)

    Release Year: 2015.

    2 hrs in - don't see yet why this game received good reviews? I'll try again at some point in the future.

    3 hours in... still not getting why this caused a minor stir. It's boring so far. Might abandon.

    ABANDONED. Perhaps my heart is made of stone or something but this did absolutely nothing for me.

  • COMPLETED

    Release Year: 2011

    4/5 (2nd completion. First time was in 2011). I played this ahead of the Witcher 3 coming out this year and this time made some different decisions to those I had made when playing the game first time around. The entire second act of the game was different to my first playthrough and my new choices meant that dialogue trees and cutscenes were also altered.

    The combat has some jank even though there are high points. The potions and signs systems are cool but the actual swordplay isn't as tight or varied as say, Dark Souls.

    I'd also add that in places the art style is truly excellent, most notably act 1 surpasses all subsequent areas and Act 3 feels thin and underdeveloped.

    In general this is and was a very good game but it definitely has shortcomings; ranging from an awkward interface, an unhelpful map, to inconsistent pacing exacerbated by underdeveloped npcs. None of which were dreadful, but collectively end up being negative enough to make the game feel like the epitome of 4 stars.

    I hope the sequel is an improvement (and am fairly confident that it will be!)

  • Playing through Spartan Ops

    Multiplayer now functional and pretty damned awesome (albeit months after release date...)

  • ABANDONED (several hours)

    Release Year: 2014

    Astonishingly similar in gameplay terms to XCOM Enemy Unknown. It would be borderline appropriate to call the game a clone.

    That said, I loved Enemy Unknown (and Enemy Within) and am not hostile to the idea of more content being available, albeit under the banner of a totally different franchise IP.

    After 5 hours of play, it becomes clear that this isn't as good as the games it has copied and the sense of disappointment sours the experience.

  • COMPLETED

    Release Year: 2014.

    5/5.Playing through the various DLC after having completed the main game last year.

  • COMPLETED

    Release Year: 2015.

    4/5. stylish and very Neuromancer-esque in terms of cyberpunk world design... i.e. there are body mods, street drugs, oriental references, AIs, mega-corporations... shadowrun basically. That isn't to detract though.

    Essentially this is a 3/5 game elevated by 1 star to 4/5 game just because I'm enthusiastic about the cyberpunk genre.

  • COMPLETED

    Release Year: 2015.

    2/5. Played through a few times. There's something worthwhile here. I have to say that I enjoyed the premise a lot and the way things play out feels brutally fair at all times. The gameplay didn't really enthuse me though and I lost interest after a few playthroughs (total time with game ~3hrs)

  • COMPLETED

    Release Year: 2015.

    4/5. I like this a lot. I think I need to play through it several more times (each playthrough is intended to be 6-8hrs) to say more about it but after my time with the game so far I've felt tension and a sense of achievement from learning the game's systems... and that's just from playing on 'beginner'.

  • COMPLETED

    Release Year: 2015

    5/5. 35 hours in so far. This game feels chock-to-bursting full of possibility in the same way that Morrowind and Skyrim did. Perhaps even more so. Nailed on for 5 stars and GOTY at this point.

    EDIT (after 50 hours). The world scope and quest design are pretty much unparalleled in my experience.

    EDIT (after 60 hours). I love how this game has pulled me through it using quest and character devices, and now I know enough about the world and the systems as a consequence to be really interested in developing my character and his skills. This game is outstanding.

    EDIT. After 100 Hours. Well I've still got a lot to do here but I think I might start saving most of it for a second playthrough in the future. Time to wrap this game up. It's been a genuine pleasure.

  • COMPLETED

    Release Year: 2015

    3/5. This is a really well written and engaging sci-fi adventure game. There are some neat touches and the characters and story were pretty well developed.

  • STARTED

    Release Year: 2012

    3/5 This is an interesting phone game and the only one I've spent money on ever (£4 to download the second episode of it). I imagine I'll finish it at some point because the premise and gameplay is interesting enough to hold attention. Finding time where playing a phone game makes sense is the limiting factor though.

  • STARTED

    Release Year: 2014

    (after 3 hrs). This isn't especially fun to play but the premise is sort of interesting. I might revisit it at some point but I can say for certain I will.

  • STARTED

    Release Year: 2014.

    Playing through with girlfriend every Sunday evening. This is the perfect co-op game for this sort of thing.

  • COMPLETED.

    Release Year: 2015

    4/5. Interview people, take notes, interview other people, take notes. Look for contradictions in what people say and then call them on it. Find the murderer.

    The concept is simple and the execution of it is fun. There needed to have been a little more (especially in terms of the finale) for this to have been considered as a 5 star game. As it is, I fully recommend this to anyone.

  • COMPLETED

    Release Year: 2015

    4/5 This is a very solid RTS with good differentiation between factions and high production values across the board (including some beautiful cutscenes).

    RTS games haven't been my thing for a long time but this is the best one I've played in years

  • ABANDONED

    Release Year 2014.

    This is well written point and click sci-fi detective adventure game. 3/5 The gameplay is decent for an adventure game without having the elegance of a wadjeteye game. Some minor puzzle elements add challenge and there is a satisfying exploration structure to the various planets and locales that you visit. I have put several hours into this so I'll hopefully see it through but at best it feels like a 3/5 game so who knows...

    05/08/15 - abandoned - I got fairly far into this but it just failed to keep me intrigued enough to churn through some of the more boring gameplay elements.

  • STARTED

    Release Year: 2014

    Recent coverage of the DLC being pretty good made me want to play this game, even if the main game reviews were average.

    (after 3 hrs) turns out that this isn't anything special. It follows a somewhat wrote silent hill-style, both in looks and game play but as of yet has failed to create an especially eerie setting or any relate-able characters. I'll come back to it some other time.

    (after 5 hrs) hmm... this is still mediocre but at least the game world is opening up a little bit.

  • COMPLETED.

    Release year 2011

    3/5 (after 3 hours. I'm having some dumb fun with this. I couldn't say that its great but I'll probably stick with it through to the end.

    (after 5hrs). Still kind of enjoying this. It's a competent shooter with some fun gameplay variations and a mechanic that rewards seeking out those variations.

    All in all this is gaming fast food. I'll finish it but I'm pretty sure it isn't going to feel completely satisfying once I've done so.

    (after 7hrs) Finished the game. It is dumb and entertaining. There's nothing distinctive about it other than the scoring system which is fun but not hugely innovative really.

  • COMPLETED.

    Release year 2015.

    4/5

    (after 3 hrs) This is an enchanting game and a truly masterfully built world to explore. I will finish this.

    (after 6hrs) Well there are one or two (skip-able) block puzzles that are a little naff but otherwise this is a dreamlike experience that stands out as being thoroughly interesting and different. I'm going to be thinking about the narrative and the world of Cradle for a long time.

    Falls short of a 5 star score because the ending is too abrupt and there are ways that the game-play part of the game could have been improved.

  • STARTED

    Release Year 2009.

    (after 1 hr) This seems interesting and stylish. The voice over work is APPALLING though. 50:50 on whether I come back to it in the future.

  • COMPLETED

    Release year 2015

    3/5 This is the second phone game I've played this year (which might be a record in terms of phone games played in a given year).

    Fallout Shelter is a sim game that borrows from the tropes and lore of the Fallout titles and the art of the pip-boy and bobble heads. It focuses on base building, resource management and preparation to repel attacks. It isn't a bad game but it isn't great either. For the cost of 'free' I have nothing to complain about. I wouldn't play it again though.

  • COMPLETED

    Release Year 2011.

    5/5

    Re-playing ahead of Mankind Divided. Going for the Foxiest of the Hounds achievement.

  • COMPLETED

    Release year 2015

    4/5 (after 35hrs). I've played both previous Harebrained Shadowrun titles and this feels comparatively very familiar. As usual, the writing quality is high and the party characters are well designed, with compelling backstories and complex motivations. The mission design is multi-path multi-solution and there are some branching narratives that appear to provide genuine choice and consequence moments in the game.

    On the negative side, the story starts off slowly. In fact, the first few hours aren't the game's strong point in terms of story, graphical prowess or gameplay.

    Stick with it though and there's quite a lot to enjoy here. It's fair to say that this is another great Shadowrun game. Dragonfall had better characters (although Gobbett and Rachter are pretty good here) and it had a better story. All in all a very solid 4/5 game.

  • COMPLETED

    Release year 2015

    4/5

    (after 5 hours) Decent. Interesting. Atmospheric.

    (after 10 hours) Still interesting but there isn't as much dread in the environment as it first seems. The story/mystery element is intriguing more than it is compelling. Good though... I'll play through to the end at some point.

    (after 20hrs) rounding in on the end of this and I have to say that I've really warmed on the game. The game structure and the setting are excellent and in spite of a few re-used environments and a strange propensity for rooms that have no purpose; have only one point of entry; and are made into corridors by unexplained human-sized holes in yard-thick brick walls.... an odd observation you might think but it is weird how often the game uses this environmental configuration to traverse between otherwise distinct areas.

    There are problems with game structure that emerge toward the end of the game. For instance, there is what feels like a test or a demo level that has been worked into the story as an arena combat segment. It doesn't really work too well and is incongruous with the 'hunt for the cure' tension that the game attempts to go for.

    Setting and pacing in general takes this game a long way and there is a lot of stuff that feels cool about it... at the end of the day though, not all of the systems are worthwhile (upgrades are pointless, weapon proficiency levelling doesn't seem to translate to actual gameplay alterations etc.)

    A big negative is the absence of other non-zombie NPCs in the gameworld that exist outside of cutscenes. This is a big omission which could have made this game really resonate emotionally on a greater level. In short, Zombi falls short of greatness to the point where it should certainly be called a good game... but no more than that.

  • FINISHED* 4/5

    Release year 2015

    (after 50 hours). What a great game this is. All the systems mesh together so nicely and the gameplay and gameworld are built so well. The story and characters aren't really that interesting unless you are a die hard Metal Gear story fan (and I'm sure that those people will find something to enjoy in the story but would still agree that it isn't the strength of this game).

    So far, I'm having an a load of fun playing this game so I'd definitely recommend it. I think it drops short of genius, except in its celebration of its own absurdity and in the way gameplay has consequence (not in terms of story but in terms of how encounters play out). Haven't finished it yet but for me this is hovering between a 4/5 and a 5/5 experience.

    Edit (60hrs) well I've finished the game. That's to say that I reached the first ending. I decided to call it a day even though I could have played on for a bit.

    I'm going to say that I really liked the Phantom Pain but it was a gameplay masterpiece and a narrative absurdity. On balance, it was a metal gear game. I quite like Metal Gear games but I'm not a fanatic. Therefore the best score I can give it for achieving true Metal Gear is 4/5.

  • COMPLETED

    Release year 2015

    3/5

    I really liked this, super smart 2-hour thing/game. Neat idea and well executed. The kind of thing you want to talk with others about afterward.

  • ABANDONED.

    Release year 2015

    I saw good things about this game and I loved the look of it from seeing some trailers. That said, when I actually started playing it, I was really disappointed. It felt a bit, well... dull.

    I've only played 3 hours so perhaps I'll come back to it one day? I would say the chances of that are less than 50:50 though.

    EDIT. Nah... I'm going to let this one drop. There's too many other good titles to play. Abandoned

  • COMPLETED

    Release year 2015

    4/5

    (after 2 hrs) First impression is middling. I'm willing to give a little more time to it before I decide how I feel about it.

    (after 3hrs) I'm beginning to warm on the game and can see the basics of the structure emerging.

    (after 20 hours) this is a pretty good game. Better than the average review score for it of 7/10. How much better I'm not sure and won't know until I've completed it.

    (after 45 hours) I've completed the game and I can both understand why it reviewed as it did while also feeling some frustration that the best narrative parts of this game exist toward the end of the second act and at the beginning of the third (approximately 35 hours into the game)... and even then, they are sparse and brutal (which is thematically consistent with the Mad Max character and universe, but won't be to everyone's enjoyment.

    This is a really strange game in some ways and that makes it difficult to properly appraise. I can see why so many of the reviews focus in on functional critiques (comparatively easy to assess) vs the experience as a whole, which has ups and downs and gets some things very right and others a bit wrong. I'll give this 4/5 but the caveat there is that most won't know if they are going to have a 4/5 experience with this game until they've invested an awful lot of time, and the first 20 hours of the wasteland experience are 80% tutorial and 20% developing the narrative. Some people won't make it through that and of those that do, I expect the bleak story beats and the unsympathetic anti-heroes that drive the nucleus of the narrative forward will sour the experience for some.

  • COMPLETED

    Released 2015 (PC version)

    5/5

    (after 2 hours) I do like this. It is reminiscent of Snatcher and other games of that era (Policenauts) and the writing is great. I've seen that the game takes ten hours to complete so I'll probably stick with this one just to see where the story goes.

    (after 5hrs) This game is turning out to be a genuine joy to play and is so very well written with an excellent narrative and nicely developed characters. After picking this one up on a whim just because Jason Oestriker mentioned it on the bombcast, it might end up being one of my favorite things this year.

    (after 8 hours) This was pretty damned great. A super stylish game, with a fresh and positive story that at no stage bludgeons the player with its politics, but instead tells a cool cyberpunk story in a world that is also inhabited by gay couples, lesbian cops, trans-gender hackers, trans-species lawyers, badass fat lady wrestlers, bear (gay) bartenders, bear (actual) doormen, people who have rewired the inside of their brain, cyborgs, and a whole bunch of other stereotype-defying queered characters who absolutely exist in this world naturally and normally and are present to forward the plot, and not to fill a token quota. I loved the writing in this game, but the gameplay itself was never exactly what you might call challenging. This doesn't take away from the freshness of the experience though.

  • STARTED

    Release year 2006

  • STARTED

    Release year 2015

    (after 3 hours) This game makes a good first impression. I'm playing this with my mate with the lights off as we go through it. So far so good.

  • STARTED: (Can't be finished) 4/5

    Release Year 2014

    This isn't a game that can be 'finished'. I'm enjoying pootling around in it in a very meditative kind of way. There's a lot that's positive about the universe design and getting around etc. There could perhaps be more game somehow... more characters...? maybe an accessible narrative? Or perhaps not... Perhaps that'd make this not an Elite game?

  • STARTED

    Release year 2015

    (after 2 hours). I had a very average initial experience with this game and I'm almost at the point of not wanting to continue playing... which is odd because the game is crazy-stylish and reasonably polished. I think that there's something lacking in the motivation for actions... perhaps the story, or the means of delivering narrative are a bit undercooked... or perhaps the narrative itself is a bit weak and devoid of interesting characters?

    In a word, there's a problem and that problem is 'motivation'. Why am I here? What am I supposed to be doing? Why do I care? etc. It isn't clear yet.

  • STARTED

    Release year 2015

    (after 2 hours) Middling first impression but not yet in the main London map

    (after 18 hours) Once you arrive in London (after 3 hours), this game opens up and becomes genuinely fun to play. Victorian London is wonderfully realised in immense detail. The gameplay is solid, with the various activities on offer contributing to a larger system of taking back areas from the antagonist group. The story segments are interesting and the history fiction is fun and well characterised. In short this is a decent game and has a moderate degree of 'stickyness' that I wasn't necessarily expecting. I'll likely finish this at some point in the future, but not ahead of other games releasing in the next month or two.

    Provisionally I'd give this game 4 stars and I think I'm just about at the halfway mark.

  • COMPLETED

    Release year 2015

    4/5

    Very, very enjoyable and solid campaign co-op.

    Story is borderline hocum but I think it might be one of those deals where you have to play it multiple times and collect all intel for it all to come together. If so, that's not the best way to tell a story.

    I will no doubt be putting a LOT of hours into the multiplayer which is super tight also and the word is that it is the best halo multiplayer yet.

    To extract no enjoyment out of titles like this might be a sign that you've begun to journey up your own lower intestine. This is big, bold, fun, and dumb. Multiplayer is a blast. Solid 4 star experience.

    (after 20 more games of multiplayer). Wait... hold up. This game's multiplayer is the clear best since Halo 2 in terms of the overall flow of the experience. Jump boosts are better implemented than last year's call of duty game and combat feels super fun overall. The boost card mechanic is borderline meaningless and hasn't limited my experience so far even though I do agree with people who have said a killstreak system would be more elegant.

    In general though, after putting more and more time with the multiplayer, my 4 star rating is starting to creep upward and might end up feeling like a 5 star experience with a bit more time. I'll leave it as 4 stars for now though.

  • COMPLETED

    Release year 2015

    Playing on Xbox One - (after 2 hours). This has all the early signs of being another extremely satisfying bethesda open world game.

    (after 25 hours) there are elements of this game that are a bit broken. This doesn't detract from the experience as I've experienced it so far. This game is exceptional.

    (after 50 hours) This game is continuing on an upward trajectory for me in terms of how I feel about the depth of the experience. The more I allow this game space and time to tell its stories and to play out its situations, the stronger the positive experience I'm having with it. I'm 50 hours in and even though I might be, I don't even feel halfway through my game right now.

    (after 80 hours) the depth of this game is mind boggling. I am still only perhaps half way through the main story and I certainly haven't uncovered all the factions. Large portions of the map remain unexplored.

    I am starting to think this will be my GOTY, over and above the The Witcher 3 and Pillars.

    (after 150 hours) I've 'beaten' this game but it still continues to reward further play and exploration. Probable GOTY

    (after 200 hours) by default this has to my GOTY over TW3 simply because I'm still enjoying playing it well after completing the story and I'm now at 200 hours and can still see more stuff to do and places to explore... although I'm going to draw a line under it and move on as it might be more fun at this point to simply return to this in the future and re-start the game with another character.

  • COMPLETED

    Release year 2015

    Super-well polished.

    A better quasi-open world game than anything Ubisoft has released for years.

    Very fun to play and very well polished. If I were to level one criticism it would be the faint one that there's nothing exceptionally new here and there's still a greater emphasis on the Nathan Drake-esque murder-rampage game play than was the case with the original Tombraider games. I think I'd like to see Tomb Raider go in a completely different direction in the future where the game becomes ALL about survival and exploration and not about combat. Maybe I wouldn't like what I think I want but hey.

    Anyway, this game still shines as an excellent semi-open world experience, it is richer in terms of gameplay than the Uncharted series (to date at least) but it is extremely similar to it.

  • STARTED

    Release year 2015

    (after 4 hours). This is very similar mechanically to XCOM with several differences. 1. It is set in a supernatural version of the wild west. 2. There is a 'luck' system that influences the gun battles. 3. There is no base building but there is a broader outside of combat section to the gameplay that involves making resource choices and travelling around the wild west.

    This game is based on a very solid set of mechanics and has a intriguing premise that so far, has teased at being an interesting mixture of western, paranormal, and even sci-fi genres more than it has actually delivered on that premise. We'll see. I'll stick with it.

  • Intend to play

  • Intend to play

    I'm pretty sure I won't get to it this year but this looks fascinating

  • Intend To play

  • Intend To play

    --- or maybe just read the short story - as per Humanity's suggestion

2 Comments

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Humanity

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Humanity

Great list, it reminded me to put Her Story on a GOTY list of my own!

Also I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream is a hellish nightmare of an adventure game. IF you abandoned Stasis, be warned, even by the early 90's standards this was a clunky, esoteric mess.

I would recommend simply finding the short story and reading that instead.

All that said, it does feature some really cool visuals that you simply don't get in modern games anymore.

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extintor

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extintor

@humanity: I'll take your advice on I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream and will seek the short story over the game. Or perhaps I'll see if there's a youtube playthrough I can watch while commuting or something?

I really wanted to like Stasis but the first few hours of it failed to snag me. I think that maybe I'll come back to it one day and give it another chance but it probably won't be this year as there won't be time with everything else coming out.