More 2016 G'sOTY
By justinhall 0 Comments
You know, like attorneys general.
Games that bounced off of me
Hyper Light Drifter was on my highly anticipated for 2016 list, lookin' all hot like A Link To The Past, soundin' all pretty and with its ghostly tech aesthetic. When I finally ended up grabbing it, I found the controls weren't responsive enough to keep up with what I wanted it to do, and in a game demanding pinpoint accuracy, it wore on me quickly. It's also intentionally obscure in its instruction, hiding narration, story, and tutorial info behind glyphs you end up staring at for like ten minutes and you're still thinking WTF does this mean? So when I accidentally spent a bunch of currency on an upgrade I didn't want, and couldn't go back to an earlier save to roll back the change, I gave up.
Headlander has all the ingredients of an Igavania I should love. It's funny, it's got an 80's throwback graphical style, and it's scifi/spacey. Again, the controls killed it for me. I found it too cumbersome to set up the ricochet shots that were the core of the combat. The embarrassment of riches Double Fine included as witty NPC dialogue turned out to be too much - I wanted to hear it all but also felt pressed to move through the map too quickly to keep stopping; it should have been spread out more. I just didn't ever want to go back to it. I played the PC release of Shadow Complex instead.
Mirror's Edge Catalyst failed to run on my HD7700 card when I first bought it; when I finally upgraded, I found it as bland as I'd sadly heard. The first game was a choice morsel, just a little too short, leaving me wanting more. On paper Catalyst should be dynamite, but as I end up feeling in most open world games, too many choices about what to do and too little shuttling me to the next objective means I am bored, listless, and end up turning it off. I (personally) need more direction.
And like the other three on this list, Quadrilateral Cowboy should have been tops on my list. You're using CLI input to control devices and stealthily break into secure facilities and steal stuff. I work in information security and have spent the last decade as a pentester; it's right up my alley. But the visuals were completely unappealing - perhaps a shallow sentiment but a true one - and the core gameplay was just too clumsy. Hacknet is a great example of how to do this right.
Pile of shame
In 2017 I plan to tackle the following which would have otherwise likely been on my 2016 GOTY list:
Rise Of The Tomb Raider (the PC port)
Most anticipated for 2017
... you know I can't even think of a ton of stuff I know is out next year. Mass Effect Andromeda, I guess?