It's been a fun ride, both as part of Giant Bomb's chat when the Community stages were being made and Patrick's Twitch chat when almost all of them were eventually toppled. I was only able to beat the Klepocalypse myself, so I admire your dedication to uploading those monsters and Patrick's for beating them. Congrats to you two and the many donors who helped turned an AGDQ stage - that would eventually be known as "The Kleptastrophe" - into a honorary one of these, even if it was a tad on the easy side compared to these virtual torture chambers.
Looking forward to more "nicer" levels like If The Boo Fits..., now that I know you're capable of mercy.
I appreciate the amount of work you've put into these Dan. It can be a little draining to write so much over so few days. Looks like you caught up with some real bangers this year: I hope to do the same next year, picking up all the great 2015 games people keep telling me about. Keep us posted on what you get up to in 2016, and a belated Happy New Year.
Close to my own list, close to my heart and very close to my given name. Alex, I think your list is my second favorite from the staffers this year. Vinny put The Book of Unwritten Tales 2 on his though and... well, you know how it is. It's all politics.
Vinny, we may have been the only two GBers to put TheBUTT on our GOTY lists this year. I'm right there with you: that game's amazing. If you promise to play the rest of Technobabylon (if you haven't already), I'll try to fit in Cradle sometime this year.
Great list, Austin. I suspect moving forward that, like yours this year and last, everyone's GOTY lists will be half big names you'd expect and half little games that everyone forgot about or never knew existed in the first place, but meant a lot to the person highlighting them. I was sort of forced to stick mostly with the latter largely due to monetary reasons (I have none) but even so I squeezed out a list I was happy with not only because were they all great, but because they were all games that I felt like I was introducing or reintroducing to people and getting their name out there, albeit with a comparatively quieter voice. Hearing about those tiny personal games is what I'm loving most from your list and others.
And don't worry about the XenoVerse thing: I rolled up a cat mage in Skyrim called Wiz Khajiita. When doves cry, duder.
Man, I should do one of these. At least two thirds of the games I played this year came out in 2014 or earlier. But, eh, I sorta pack my regular GOTY Awards with enough yesteryear acknowledgements. No stealing themes from other bloggers this year, then. (2016, though...)
I'd go through some of these, but you know my feelings on mad stackz and I haven't played the rest besides God of War (of which you've already succinctly summarized anything of note) and FFXIII-2. I'd agree that FFXIII-2 is absolutely fine compared to FFXIII. I might like it more, even, in spite of being weirder and making very little sense from its core premise down to how convoluted the paradoxes make everything. Then again, I thought Lightning Returns was even better still and I recognize a losing fight when I see one.
I told Zoop that he should play XIII-2 before XIII for maximum confused agitation, but I suspect he won't humor me. Whatever, the mod team managed to buy him almost every single FF game on Steam this past week (including the soon-to-be-axed MMO FFXI) so he'll see it eventually.
Thanks for the shout-out. Super Mario 64 is definitely King of the "throw it all against the wall and see what sticks" game design camp, but it also says something that they were confident enough about their ideas to put Mario in the lead and make it the launch game for their new console. Then again, it was probably necessary to justify what was assuredly an expensive project to R&D.
I won't lie, I was this close to doing the same thing and focusing on all the older games I'd played this year when it came time to writing up GOTY stuff. It's fortunate that I was able to find some great last-minute 2015 Indie games earlier this month, thanks in part to the Steam sales. Still, I love that a few bloggers like yourself are focusing on more than just 2015 releases: it means I'm not constantly reading about how great The Witcher 3, MGSV and Bloodborne are when I'm sitting here being all too eager to play them myself.
Good stuff, you put a lot more work into your illustrations than I did :P
I'm going to give Tearaway: Unfolded a shot. If you're someone who recommends it and also acknowledges that the LittleBigPlanet games kinda play like garbage, that's some reassurance. It's dirt cheap too though, as you say, so it's no biggie if I decide I'm not that into it.
Have fun with Super Mario Maker. That game took over the last few months for me. Be sure to experience Jeff's downward spiral into malevolence in real-time by playing his courses in chronological order.
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