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GozerOnline

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2016: Games I've Played

Well, it's almost the end of the year.

Like last year, this year has been weird. A big move to another city, buying and moving into a new house, starting a new job. I'm not surprised this is a smaller list than I would have liked. I also bet that quite a few 2016 games will show up on my 2017 list at some point!

My still-in-draft top 5 list is as follows (disclaimer: I might change this depending on if I get more of a chance to play over the next few weeks):

  1. Titanfall 2
  2. The Witcher 3: Blood and Wine
  3. Pokemon Sun
  4. Firewatch
  5. Gears of War 4
  6. Inside

And of course, a special thanks to Elite Dangerous which is my go-to-game when I need to just zone out for a bit.

The biggest surprise? Fallout is not on my top 5 list.

---

When I started this list, it was early December. Here are a list of outstanding games I still want to get to... if they're reflected in the lists above, that means I've played them. :D

  • Titanfall 2
  • Uncharted 4
  • Doom
  • Metal Gear Solid 5
  • Planet Coaster
  • Rise of the Tomb Raider
  • Just Cause 3
  • Batman Arkham Knight
  • Shadow of Mordor (I can never seem to get into that game!)
  • XCOM 2
  • Civ 6

List items

  • Considering I had an aweful first runthrough last New Year's Eve, I gave this one more chance and did significantly better. :D

  • Just a bit of a disclaimer: I started playing Fallout 4 late last year, but with everything going on personally, I needed to set it aside for a bit. I've picked it up over the last week and finished the main campaign, siding with the Railroad.

    Oh Fallout 4. What do I do with you? I want to like you. I really do. I can deal with the jank and ugly graphics, maybe even the piss-poor user interface. But I can't stand by your poor story, characters and factions. The factions... I can't believe I didn't really care for a single ONE of them. They're all devoid of life, and with a year where I played an open-world game with the best stories in recent history (The Witcher 3), it's just sad that you really haven't added anything since FO3 came out years ago.

    Honestly, stop with the New Vegas ambiguous multiple factions crap. I know there is a vocal minority that loved that game, but I could not stand it. Give me a lovingly handcrafted main story again, and add in meaningful side content. You can do it.

    The story and writing is by far the worst portion of this game and simply just feel rushed.

    Sigh. With that said, I inadvertently spent ALOT of time playing Fallout 4, so there must be some of that old magic in there still!

    UPDATE Feb 11: I've played ALOT more Fallout 4 over the past bit, wrapping up sidelines and exploring new places. It can be a beautiful game to explore. The world really _is_ varied, with lots to see. I just wish there was more to do other than just killing everything in sight. The stories and missions are still all over the place, sometimes requiring massive jumps in logic.

  • Getting Alzheimer's is a personal fear of mine. My great grandmother had it. When I was very young, I remember going over to see her in the nursing centre by my grandparents. I only ever remember being scared, just seeing a shell of a person sitting there.

    That was when I was a kid though. Things change.

    I can't imagine watching my significant other go through it. The premise of her not being able to remember the last 20 years we have spent together hits home that much hard. In fact, it scares me shitless. I can't imagine her looking at me and not knowing who I am.

    We spend almost every summer, no matter how busy we are up in the Canadian Rockies. If I needed to get away to evaluate my life, that's where I would go.

    That's why Firewatch hits so home to me. I went back and played it twice. I wanted to know what I missed.

    I don't want, or need to, write any spoilers about the game. I can see the criticism on why people felt the ending of Firewatch didn't fit the tone of the game. On a surface level, it doesn't.. but maybe that's the point.

    You realize that the beautiful scenery you've spent 'days' is hazy, it will no longer exist. You have pictures, but they are all that is left. It's very fitting considering the premise of your significant other's condition.

    But ultimately, the ending is... life. There are no big revelations. You go to work, little things that come up seem like such a big deal -- only to find that, in the end, they are not.

    You end up living each day, and enjoy every little thing you have until it's gone.

  • DLC: Hearts of Stone

    It was great to see a different side of Geralt. It's a fun romp in a known world, where we finally get a chance to see our favorite Witcher have some fun, even if it's not a conscious choice. :D

  • DLC: Blood and Wine

    And whereas Hearts of Stone was set in a familiar land, Blood and Wine is a whole different -- and bright -- fairy-tell world of castles and monsters and princesses and elite and fictional characters. Easily a standalone game itself, this deserves to rank among some of the best games this year, and is a fitting end for Geralt and the Witcher series.

  • DLC: Automatron

    Sure, more Fallout. A terrible storyline in an ugly looking world. I hope Bethesda pulls better narratives out of their asses for the next romp in the Fallout (or Elder Scrolls...) worlds.

  • So, just a disclaimer -- I played the PC version through the entirety of the Atlus path, clocking about the 30h mark. Truly, by that time, you've seen everything worth seeing, at least up until the game gets patched. That's not to say that No Man's Sky is terrible -- it's just an indie procedural exploration game.

    I should have known that it wasn't my cup of tea when the exploration aspects were described as Minecraftian. Regardless, the most disappointing thing for me was the space flight... because it almost doesn't exist. It's too rudimentary.

    Oh well, back to Elite Dangerous.

  • Great game. I don't think it's as amazing as some of the hype I heard before I started playing, but the story is beautifully disturbing. I dig it.

  • Gears of War 4... what a beautiful, shallow game. If only some one cared about your story as much as much as the beautiful graphics and set pieces, this would have been an actual AAA title on my list this year. Instead, it feels more like a B title. Still, the single player was a fun romp.

  • It's been a long time since I played a Pokemon game. The last game in the series I played in full was my first - Pokemon Yellow. I've played a bit of Pokemon Diamond, but it seems like my wife always takes my Gameboy/DS/3DS over before I get a chance to play!

    In comparison to the hot mess that was Pokemon Go, Pokemon Sun is amazingly accessible, but offers so much depth if the player wants to go down that rabbit hole. I've clocked over 40h now, and I still haven't caught them all.

    Great game.

  • Oh Elite Dangerous, I can't quit you. <3 I just wish I had more of a chance to play.

  • Titanfall 2 you glorious bastard... they don't make games like you anymore do they? What an amazing campaign, filled with a tonne of variety and set pieces.

    As a pilot, you're nimble, can wall run, and have devastating melee attacks. The weapons are all futuristic but have an amazing punch. But it's not all about fighting; the traversal itself, leaping from wall to wall, is so much fun. You feel like a superhero.

    But then you jump into a titan, and you're a devastating tank. With different loadouts, there should be something for everyone's play style.

    And just once you think you get familiar with both of these, even more elements open up. I won't wreck it for you, but wow... what a campaign.

    Although relatively short -- Origin says 7 hours, but I had to step away a couple of times -- it doesn't overstay its welcome, and I literally just couldn't stop playing it. I read someone else's review stating if this game came out in the late 90s/early 2000s, we'd be celebrating this with greats like Half-Life 2. I wholeheartedly agree. It is a tragedy that it hasn't sold well.

    I'm so happy I played it this year.
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