Trace's 2016 List of Shame

Every year, no matter how much fun I have with games, I inevitably miss a few bangers or a few tremendous experiences. These, like everything I do in life, fill me with immense regret. 2016 wasn't so bad in that regard, but for the sake of bringing up my misses, here's my list of shame for this awful year.

If you're wondering what my top games are of 2016, I just threw those out on the TweetZone:

In short, my top games of 2016:
10) Layers of Fear
9) Overwatch
8) Dead End Road
7) Jackbox Party Pack 3
6) Oxenfree
[continued...]

— Trace Evans (@PsEG) December 26, 2016

My top games of 2016, continued:
5) Pac-Man 256
4) The Division
3) Forza Horizon 3
2) Let It Die
1) INSIDE

Boom. Don't @ me.

— Trace Evans (@PsEG) December 26, 2016

List items

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  1. Overcooked!

  I'm a huge fan of co-op games over competitive. At the very least, I prefer games that let me easily team up with a small group of friends if I must play competitively. Overcooked! tears into one of my favorite styles of co-op: Situations engineered to tear a group apart, solved only by good co-ordination in the face of such conflict. I like that, and I wish I could get a few people together to play locally.

• 

  2. Pac-Man 256

  I've played the hell out of Pac-Man 256 on my PC, but there's this co-op mode I want to try desperately, and the opportunity's never presented itself. It's kind of a reflection of my 2016, where I moved to Seattle partly with the hopes of having more friends to hang and play games with outside of the rare PAX-based occasions. I've since learned that changing my locations doesn't matter when most of my friends still aren't local or actually kind of don't care for my existence. I am the burden, the annoyance I always secretly hoped I wasn't. That realization has been a heavily depressing factor this year.

• 

  3. Doom

  I've gotten through the very first level of Doom, but it didn't quite get its hooks in me. Something felt off. I didn't feel the glorious mayhem others spoke so gleefully about from their playthroughs. As a huge fan of the original Doom, I know this deserves more time from me, but that time's been short.

• 

  4. Titanfall 2

  I got through the first level where BT needs to be powered back up, but never continued beyond that. I will get back to it in time, but it's probably too late for the multiplayer for me.

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  5. We Know the Devil

  Yeah, I know, this was a 2015 game, but don't expect me to go to your tiny little indie sites to purchase a title instead of Steam! I've heard too many positive remarks about this game to ignore it.

• 

  6. Gears of War 4

  It has always been a tradition to play through Gears titles in one sitting in co-op. That's my favorite way to experience them. I was isolated from any semblance of friends when Gears 3 came out, so I'm already running sort of a backlog here. I also seriously want to play Horde mode. I loved that in Gears 2.

• 

  7. Firewatch

  Given all the bloody jokes made at its expense, I owe this a proper playthrough. I worry it will resonate a little too much with my own life to some extents (certainly NOT the outdoorsy bit), but I have to know what it's about. I have to know.

• 

  8. Event[0]

  The way people have talked about the AI in Event[0] is far too interesting to pass up. I want to see what this is about, even if it's a few years down the road at a steep discount, but it currently isn't enough to encourage me to set aside my typical games to give it a shot.

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  9. Pony Island

  Pony Island was on my list of games for my Extra Life horror game run, and I've been avoiding spoilers on purpose. I need to find what this game's about on my own time, f'serious.

• 

  10. Watch Dogs 2

  Hell, I'm not even past the first season of Mr. Robot. This is a backlog beyond a backlog right here.

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  11. Ultimate Chicken Horse

  I just received a copy of this from a good friend, and though I played it last year at PAX, I still want to see what the full complete version's like once or twice for myself. It's a lot of devious fun, from what I've seen.

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  12. ClusterTruck

  I'm not sure I'm actually interested in this game itself, but it reminds me a lot of a game I used to fantasize about as a kid while riding in the back of a car. Back then it was more jumping sidewalks at car speed, but a little more imagination and it could have been trucks. Nothing says it couldn't have been trucks.