1. Bloodborne ; The souls formula improved plus lovecraft. I will play this game every year.
2. Undertale ; It is made of love, so many surprises and so charming. I love the way it breaks the fourth wall.
3. The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky Second Chapter ; The best world building I've seen on a jrpg
4. Destiny: The Taken King ; A game I can always go back to for a few hours and have a blast.
5. Rocket League ; It's perfect for guests
6. Yakuza 5 ; A miracle
7. SteinsGate ; Best VN ever
8. Dragon Quest Heroes ; It's like playing Trinity: Souls of Zill O'll with a decent budget
9. Final Fantasy Type 0 HD ; I waited years to play this
10. Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII ; She musn't be forgotten

1. Lovers in a Dangerous Spacetime ; It's reminiscent of old-school arcade, with a vivid neon art style, and branching paths of customizable weapons that are all satisfying to use, allowing for varied tactics and styles of play.
2. The Order: 1886 ; Obviously a technical masterpiece. While it gets a lot of hate, I enjoyed every second and loved the bold choices with pacing and presentation. Loved the world, the inclusion of Telsa, and the characters. I really hope we get more from the franchise.
3. Tearaway Unfolded ; Loved the Vita release. While there is some repetition, it stands on its own as a artistic platformer that both exudes and promotes creativity.
4. Ink ; Minimal indie platformer with a fun paint splatter mechanic in a world devoid of color. Loved the initial release on itch.io, and the expanded release on Steam.
5. Ori and the Blind Forest ; Amazing visuals, lovely art, and a heartfelt story.
6. Fallout 4 ; More great Fallout with plenty of new bells and whistles. (Could have done without the settlement stuff though.)
7. Super Time Force Ultra ; I'm not generally a fan of pixel art, but it was a free PS+ game that really impressed. Awesome character cameos - especially since I loved The Order so much - and a fun rewind mechanic. The platinum was a nice challenge too.
8. Rise of the Tomb Raider ; Reminds me a lot of of Uncharted 2 which is a gift and a curse. A lot of the time is stands on its own to impress, but sometimes it feels as if it's hollowly trying to mirror the Naughty Dog behemoth.

It's been a bloody good year, and there are several games not on this list that would have found a place in years gone by. However, there was only one game that shook me by the shoulders and expanded my horizons for what the medium can do, and that gets the number one spot.

1. Undertale ; Some games are immediately brilliant, announcing their greatness from the very first moment that you start up the game. Undertale isn't like that; it takes its time, and slowly builds. It's never anything less than a really good game, peopled by interesting and compelling characters and the finest soundtrack to grace a game in an age, but it's very easy to see why some just dip in and come away without understanding why the hardcore rave about it. However, give Undertale your time and dedication, and you'll tease a genuinely transcendent experience out of it, and one that has occupied my thoughts for much of the past few months. Fittingly enough, considering your best friend in the game, Undertale has roots- the implications that the various endings have, and the consequences of your own actions, stick with the player, both mentally and literally. This all culminates with the true ending, legitimately one of the most moving and stirring things I've ever witnessed in a game. It's very rare for me to be so taken by a narrative experience in video games, and it is worth noting that the game systems hybridise various different genres in a compelling and uniquely character-driven way, but Undertale deserves it. Other games might have had a more consistent level of quality this year, but for me no other game has even come close to matching the impact of Undertale's finest moments, and the cumulative effect of it all leaves me with nothing I'd rather give Game of the Year to.
2. Splatoon ; Ah, there's one of the immediately-excellent games I was just talking about! For Splatoon, fresh is not just a buzzword- it's an ethos that ruins through the game like the words on a stick of rock. Nintendo games can have a tendency towards staid fussiness and conservatism, but not so here- the sheer newness of the game is palpable from the second you turn it on, and get notifications about the online mode. In a Nintendo game. Strange times, ladies and gentlemen. Look beyond the excellent soundtrack and quirky characters, though, and you discover the truth- Splatoon is chock-full of Nintendo's customary shine and polish. The ink system is surely the year's most revolutionary mechanic, turning the entire genre on its head and switching the focus from shooting to kill to something a little more inclusive, in an extremely Nintendo-ish fashion. It's versatile, too, adapting just as well to a Super Mario Galaxy-style single player obstacle course as to the froth and fury of a high-end Ranked Battle. The potential that Splatoon leaves in its wake is staggering- if Nintendo takes its strategy of bold new ideas headed up by fresh new talent as an ongoing concern, we could be looking at a new golden age of unique and genre-defining games from the company. If not, then at least we'll always have Splatoon, and that's a worthwhile end in and of itself,
3. Bloodborne ;
4. Xenoblade Chronicles X ;
5. Just Cause 3 ;
6. The Witcher III: Wild Hunt ;
7. Super Mario Maker ;
8. Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes ;
9. Fallout 4 ;
10. Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker ;

1. metal gear solid v ; this game's game play is so good, i can't stop playing it.
2. ori and the blind forest ;
3. project cars ;
4. dirt rally ;
5. life is strange ;
6. crypt of the necrodancer ;
7.
8.
9.
10.

1. Witcher 3; the game has things that drive me crazy, but trying to find a perfect game is like trying to find the perfect woman. I thought Fallout 4 would be a better game in the end. It wasn't.

2. Batman Arkham Knight; I like the tank combat sections and I thought the story was ok minus the Arkham Knight. I was burnt out on Batman and didn't even want to play this game. Glad I did, but the DLC & need to do all the Riddler puzzles was bullshit

3. Dying Light; the free running makes this game. Truly the best zombie game since left 4 dead

4. Fallout 4; not that big of a step up but it was all I could think about for a month

5. Bloodborne; the music, the enemy design, the combat. Best souls game IMO

6. Transformers: Devastation; I've been wanting Bayonetta witch time in another game and I finally got it. But what makes Devastation great is the design mixed with platinum's combat. Great combination

7. MGS V; the detail in this game amazes me still. I was obsessed with fultoning people

8. Tales from the Borderlands; if it ain't better than TWD season 1, it's the closest one

9. Axiom Verge; wanted a new metroid, got a new metroid. I'm a sucks for game music and this games music is dope.

10. Rise of the Tomb Raider; disappointed in the game, but that doesn't take away from how good it is.

1. Rance 03 Fall of Leazas ;
2. Dead or Alive 5 Last Round ; All I do is get my ass kicked by bots, yet I still find myself turning it on all the time. I'm not much into fighters, but I really enjoy this game. Looking forward to DOAX3 and eventually DOA6
3. 3rd Super Robot Wars Z Tengokuhen ; The conclusion to the Z series. While not as good as Z2, still a very good game in my opinion with a decent amount of content. Little too easy to break the game though.
4. Xenoblade Chronicles X ; The first time you get a mech and are able to fly around is probably one of my favourite gaming moments this year. The gameplay is fun, the world looks amazing, the music is great, just an all around good game. Only spot it's really lacking in is the story department.
5. The Witcher 3 ; Great writing, very well created world, strong character in Geralt. Not many western RPGs have so well defined protagonists. Gameplay is rather poor, and I wasn't a fan of the plot or the pacing, and the performance was disappointing.
6. Splatoon ; Really unique game with great music, fun gameplay, and exciting visuals. Somewhat shallow on content at launch, and the lack of a competent control scheme for the analogue sticks is disappointing. They've done a great job supporting the game with content after launch though and I'm happy to see it do so well.
7. Bloodborne ; Not quite as good as Dark Souls II or I, but still a good game. Had fun playing this in co-op with friends. The chromatic aberration is very annoying. Haven't had a chance to play the DLC yet.
8. Atelier Sophie ; Solid Atelier game. A bit lacking in challenge with the removal of some systems compared to older Atelier games. The new crafting system is pretty fun. Lack of multiple endings is disappointing.
9. Fire Emblem If ; I played through all 3 routes so I must've enjoyed it. The gameplay itself is fun, but the story and characters are weak. I really wish there was more character interaction and plot outside of the affinity stuff.
10. Persona 4 Dancing All Night ; A lot better than I was expecting. Felt more Persona 4 somehow than P4A or PQ did. Only disappointment would be somewhat of a lack of content. Though maybe it is a normal amount of content for rhythm games.

ViewtifulJC said:

Bloodborne this year is like the Last of Us from 2013. The creative leads(Druckmann/Straely & Miyazaki) create a new IP(BB/TLOU) after a disappointing follow-up by the "b-team"(UC3/DS2) to one of the GOTG contenders(UC2/Dark Souls). That passion came back full force and it just spreads into every thread like "wait the last of us didn't win????" vs this year's "Bloodborne was robbed" meme making them all terrible.

and now the "A-team" leads are coming back to the old franchise for their first current gen sequel, marketed as the final game in the series, clearly influenced by the popular spin-off in Uncharted 4 and Dark Souls 3

Click to expand...

This is...sorta scary lol

ShockingAlberto said:

I don't think there's any year in at least the past half-decade where I have struggled to find ten great games to put on a list. For me, the problem is always which ten to choose.

Click to expand...

My problem for the last couple has been finding enough time to devote to even 5 for me to feel like I can flesh out the reasoning for my choices.

I end up playing less than half of what I'm interested in each year, and of which I do I figure the ones that most wouldn't let me go are my best picks.

Cyan said:

Seriously. Can we just DQ anyone who voted Bloodborne or Witcher in first place.

Click to expand...

I just did a test run doing this. It produced very interesting results.

Cheesemeister said:

I just did a test run doing this. It produced very interesting results.

Click to expand...

Time for Ori and the Blind Forest to shine!

Cyan said:

Well now I'm curious!

Click to expand...

I'd be happy to do a number of "what-if" scenarios after voting ends and results are posted.

Cheesemeister said:

I'd be happy to do a number of "what-if" scenarios after voting ends and results are posted.

Click to expand...

Centurion system test run is a go?

I didn't play enough '2015' games this year, as I was working through my backlog, so I'm only going to nominate a top 5.

1. Dirt Rally; This is easily the most amazing rally game I've played. I was a big fan of Colin McRae 1 and 2 and the dev team gets really close to recapturing that spirit out on the track. A lot of what makes a good rally game is the challenge in the track design, and that's what was so good about CM1 and 2. Despite not having the official licenses back then or now, the design of the tracks make the racing compelling because its a real challenge to do well. The track design is just straight up masterful, more than any other rally game from other devs I've played. Then you combine that with just a beautiful artistic aesthetic for all the tracks. The best ones are of course the straight up rallies Germany, Finland, Sweden, Wales, Greece, Monte Carlo are represented here. There are 12 rallies in each country (normal and reverse) so there are plenty of courses to master. The only thing that keeps this game from a perfect 10 for me is that the career mode is not very engaging at all. You move from championship to championship, starting from the clubman level and going all the way to pro. There are 5 levels, and while I haven't finished it yet, there doesn't seem to be any difference between any of the levels. There's no padding here, the game just moves you straight to the next race. It's not even what I would really call a career mode. More like your typical championship mode in racers past. It would be nice if they have some sort of season and where teams would ask to sign you up depending on performances, or something of that ilk. Nevertheless this is my game of the year and PS4/XONE owners have something to look forward to.

2. The Witcher 3; This is a game of two halves. About halfway through the game, I was completely won over. This was the greatest game of all time for me. I loved the characters and the relationships and it just felt like a really tight experience. Then the seams began to unravel, there were one too many fetch quests in Novigrad, combat started to deteriorate, useless items began to clog up my inventory and skills were a waste of time in normal difficulty. The latter half of the story is nowhere near as interesting as the first. The game feels like it was playtested to Novigrad, and making sure that it was interesting and fun up to here because most casual gamers who post on message boards would go nuts and sell the game for them. In the end, this is still a very good game, but its let down by pacing issues.

3. Yakuza 5; I haven't finished the game, and im only about 8 hours in, but I feel like I need to give Yakuza 5 some love. This is a game despite its rather technological shortcomings like aliasing, flickering, 720p/30fps antiquated feel is full of charm and lots of nice touches all over the place. It's a game that reminds you that games can be engaging and gripping in delivering story and also have a lighter side too. Like the Witcher, it balances these two sides really well. Yakuza is the longest running series I've played and Y5 is well on its way to being my favourite.

4. Pro Evolution Soccer 2016; PES is actually back this year. Aside from one gameplay flaw (the keepers are very bad in this), almost everything else is good. They finally have decent readable menus. The presentation likewise is good. The stripped all the crap from the Master League that was in 2012 (the last time I played this), and kept all the good stuff. The soundtrack is excellent. There's better control over players on the ball. Long balls have a potential to actually work for once. I still can't have a decent game online, though that might be more my horrible internet connection.

5. Super Mario Maker; The creation part of the game is not for everyone. I got it more as something I can spend time with when my kids get a bit older and we can share our designs, but its similar to LBP. It takes a bit of talent to actually design a good stage. Aside from that, this game is great. The tools are fantastic and its the easiest course maker ever made. The rest of the game like the 60 stages included aren't so great and there aren't enough options to flesh out the course maker. I would have liked to have seen the ability to have a map maker, or been able to string a number of stages together so that each download was more substantial.

x; Cities Skylines - I'm always surprised at the cities people can make with this game, however the gameplay aspects are kinda weak. I still think its pretty fun though, but for some reason, the hooks and the economic aspect of the game just isn't there. If you like designing every nook and cranny for your city you'll love this game. If you like the gamey aspect and exploiting the rules to make lots of money from your city, there's not as much here for you.

1. Call of Duty Black Ops 3 ; Really thought the series was going to nosedive after the last two entries but man did they deliver in this one. Great campaign, huge zombies, and most importantly multiplayer that feels super fresh. I did not at all expect this to be my game of the year but Im glad that it is.

2. Rocket League ; Another game I did not expect to enjoy all that much, crazy how a simple concept was so well made. I play it every single time I have friends over.

3. Super Mario Maker ; Blast to play with friends, making fun levels is easy and satisfying and the user content is usually really really good

4. Batman Arkham Knight ; Very good finale to the series, was probably weakest of the three, but thats like saying RotJ is the worst of the OT, still head and shoulder above the rest. The story was pretty good and the exploring was the best.

5. Star Wars Battlefront ; I love love star wars so of course I love this game, too bad its pretty shallow, but man are the graphics and sound legit.

6. Until Dawn ; Played with a group of friends till 3 am most fun I've had with a video game in a party environment in a long while

7. Mortal Kombat X ; Great fighter, I absolutely loved the new characters and the story was the best of any recent fighter I can remember. The different options for each character was also great to master.

8. Halo 5 Guardians ; This game is pretty much what halo 4 should've been, but halo is halo so its still really solid

9. Bloodborne ; My friend and I beat this together, so I probably didn't play it as intended but I'm not really a fan of difficult long games. The action and setting really blew me away though.

10. NBA 2k16 ; The last two entries were major disappointments for me after I spent some time with them. This years is really solid and the online finally works great.

1. Under Night In-birth Exe:Late[st] ; Frenchbread Arcade An anime fighting game, on your top 10? Skipping to the next list! No, I know. There's so many of these nowadays aren't there? What makes one more compelling than the other?

Under Night In-birth is the first major fighting game release from the French Bread studio, and one that for all intents and purposes, I ignored when it was debuted back in 2012 in the arcade. It seemed like yet another generic anime fighter, complete with a kid in a high school uniform using a sword, a black winged demon...thing, and a loli space fairy. Basically it didn't do much for me at first.

Three years later and I’m playing it three times a week and I consider it probably the best fighter out there at the moment. “UNI” as regular players call it, has been steadily updated over the past three years to achieve a pretty solid balance among its characters. Really, the best version of this game is probably the PS3 version (soon to be on Steam) called Exe:Late. It has some balance issues (read: pirate-esque character Gordeau beats everyone), but it is all around a fantastic fighter. Simple enough to play with any of your friends, once you get any deeper in, the gameplay systems are impressively complex. You have the ability to not only hit "supers" but also use your super meter to boost the damage of your combos, and unleash a desperation move with the "Veil Off" system. There's also a "GRD" meter in the middle of the screen that essentially rewards you for either hitting your opponent, or blocking well. These two systems create a fine tension that can lead to incredible comebacks.

The strength of UNI is also in its characters (though not visually IMO). The "puddle" and "floor spike" placements of Carmine for instance make him, for me, one of the more compelling fighting game characters of this gen. Most characters are really fun to try out, although there are a couple I wish didn't exist (like Vatista and Eltnum). That said, there's probably about 4 characters in the game that I would like to play if I had the time, which is more than I can say for most fighters.

So all that info out of the way, Exe:Late[st] is the (latest) arcade version and it was released this year in the arcades. It adds in new whip-based character Phonon, web-based fighter Byakuya, as well as the ability to cancel into the "Veil-Off" state mid-combo for huge damage (CCVO=Cross-Cast Veil-Offs). The result is that you have a game with more merciless combos, and slightly better overall balance than the previous installment. Characters like Chaos, who uses a pet dragon to do his attacking, have been boosted, and previously top tier Gordeau has largely been downgraded.

As a whole, I still prefer the PS3 version, especially since this is an arcade exclusive at the moment and it tends to eat my wallet since I’m not the greatest player. That said, not only in terms of play time but also in terms of watching tournaments, it’s definitely the game I spent the most time on this year, and I really love it.

If you read this far, you owe it to yourself to get this when it hits Steam in Summer 2016. It won’t let you down.



2. Metal Gear Solid V ; KONAMI PS4 An evil company made an absolutely incredible game experience this year. I hate Konami, so I can’t endorse buying it (I got mine for free from a friend) but there’s no denying the sheer artistic mastery in the cinematic ambition here, as well as the completely free-form yet controlled approach to stealth and outpost raids. Clearly one of the games of gen already, Metal Gear Solid V rocked my world with every play. I’ll stop here since there will be people that cover this in much greater detail.



3. World Ends Eclipse ; SEGA iOS This is the mobile game by the ex-Valkyria team lead by Shinji Motoyama (producer of Valkyria Chronicles 3). And it’s definitely the game I played the most outside of UNI this year. Build a team from Shield Knights, Lance Knights, Berzerkers, Archers and Mages. Lead them in two separate “lines” on-screen to destroy your opponent’s crystal. Your characters move forward automatically and all you need to do is hit the “skill” button when necessary to heal, buff or attack harder. It’s sort of like League of Legends on Rails. The game also comes with the (by now) requisite suite of Sim City-esque city to build up, ruins and wastelands to develop, and a steady stream of troops to recruit to your side and power up.

On launch the game was plagued with harsh load times, fatal network drop errors and more, but by now most of those issues are gone and we’re left with a really fun, easy-to-play anywhere mobile game. Easily dumped 100+ hours into this so far.



4. Mahou wa Gothic Otome ; CAVE iOS CAVE’s mobile shooter that mixes the Deathsmiles world with the traditional gacha mechanics of mainline Japanese mobile games: leveling up, merging cards, getting better abilities, stamina, paid gacha cards, free gacha cards, etc. Which all at once sounds like a bit of a headache and kind of is, however it’s all held together by what is at base eastily the best iOS shooter CAVE has put out. The mechanics are simple: zoom in close to enemies to pop them and grab energy orbs. These make you stronger, let help you destroy enemies quicker and keep your combo going. You do eventually reach a limit where enemies get really strong and you need to decide to either invest more time in the non-paid loop of raising your level, or go for paid gacha and get much stronger shots/better abilities.

The latest version of the game also includes a mode where you can take the new Deathsmiles girls: Prumeria, Catyleria, Rosary, Runan and Sufle all out on dates. You set the location and the time in the morning, then come pick them up in the evening, earning Event Points which let you unlock items and crystals.

Maybe I played this one a little too intensively at the end of the year, because I’m feeling a little burned out on it, but I still boot it up every once in awhile to go on a date with my harem and destroy some flying trolls. Really it’s just a great thing that CAVE is still alive and they’ve found a new platform that gives them exposure to audiences beyond the traditional shooter core. That they’ve followed up with “Ichimenbancho” just last month shows that CAVE isn’t dead, they’re still churning out new releases, including games on Steam. They’re right where they need to be and that’s a good thing.



5. Batman: Arkham Knight ; Warner Studios PS4 I’ve never played any of the Batman console games and never really cared to, despite knowing that they were very high quality stuff. A friend lent this to me, swearing that it was awesome, and as soon as I was jumping from high-rises and soaring across Gotham City as Batman, I was hooked. And it was the open-world aspect of the game that kept me going until the end, that feeling of always having something new to explore and investigate and then, while you’re on your way to do that, you find something totally new and wind up in a new adventure you didn’t plan on. Also loved roaring through the streets of Gotham in the Batmobile and enjoyed the “tank” gameplay elements that it brought to the game.

There’s two things that really dampened this game for me and that is: 1. The Riddler Trophies, just too goddamn many of them. They’re dropped literally everywhere around Gotham’s islands, and some of them (at least in the Japanese version I was playing), did not make a whole lot of sense and didn’t seem solvable. Then, there was what seemed to be a pretty epic late-game bug that never went addressed by the developers. This is described here: https://www.reddit.com/r/PS4/comments/3bgtjp/psa_batman_arkham_knight_game_breaking_bug_leave/, but it basically prevented me from seeing the normal ending, and forced me to go back and do all the riddler quests (which I declined to do). I left the game as-is, and didn’t touch any of the DLCs. So Warner missed out on more money from me, and I was left with a sour taste in my mouth for the series in general because frankly, no developer should leave players high and dry like this.

That said, I really enjoyed the bulk of time I spent with Arkham Knight, so there’s no way it wouldn’t make my top 10. Luckily I played it on PS4 and didn’t encounter any of the issues the PC version players faced.



6. Evil Within DLC ; Tango Gameworks PS4 Opinions really vary for some reason about the Evil Within’s DLC offerings but I found all of them to be a lot of fun. “The Assignment” with its strictly stealth-based gameplay was a great counterpart to the full campaign. “The Consequence” gave you more tools to work with, including your guns, and finally lets you put a bullet in ’s head. Finally, the Executioner while being much weaker on story than the two DLC above, featured excellent arcade-style gameplay that lets you throw “the haunted” into spinning blade machines, smash them in place or blow them up with rocket launchers. A fitting “bonanza” end to the Evil Within experience.



7. Blue Revolver ; woof PC A Doujin shooter by a small crew from the US, but definitely approaching the fun factor of a mainline shooter release. Intelligent level design that encourages you to dodge and weave through bullet patterns across the screen, with enemies that are set to be just a little harder to kill than your average bullet hell shooter leads to a fairly white-knuckle experience considering its cartoony looks. While the level design definitely has throwbacks and homages to other shooter (most notably Dodonpachi), Blue Revolver succeeds in providing that feeling of walking into the arcade, turning on a new shooter, not knowing what to expect and going up against the unknown. In a sense, the greatest thing about is just that it’s a new Japanese-style danmaku shooter, but that feeling of getting to the next stage, and trying to get another million points really never gets old.

Just a beautiful little shooter with great music, cool visuals and a fun and simple multiplier system. Wish it were in the arcades, really!



8. Border Break 4.5 ; SEGA Arcade The latest version of SEGA’s mech multiplayer Border Break added in “Squad Battles” (4 on 4 in smaller maps), new multiplayer maps and more mechs. They also dropped the price in the arcade by half, and really that’s all it needed to do to make my top 10 list again. This is one of my favorite arcade games and I’m glad it’s still going strong.



9. IA/VT ; Marvelous Vita A refreshing take on the vocaloid rhythm game format that while falling significantly short in terms of gameplay (the game system rewards sloppy play instead of encouraging precision), has beautiful visuals, great music and snappy UI that’s fun to zip around in. No language barrier to speak of, and definitely worth picking up for your Vita if only for the music and cute 2D anime videos.



2014:
X. Ketsui ; 5pb PS3 Possibly the best shooter ever made, and one of those games you can come back to again and again, and get just a little bit further. CAVE at its best.

Megatron said:

Click to expand...

you think there's a lot of americans and europeans who understand japanese?

I didn't remember The Evil Within DLC was a 2015 release

Cheesemeister said:

I just did a test run doing this. It produced very interesting results.

Click to expand...

Stats wise, I would like to know the average position of The Witcher 3 filtering only the votes of people who voted Bloodborne first, and the average position of Bloodborne filtering to only the votes of people who voted W3 first.

Turin Turambar said:

Stats wise, I would like to know the average position of The Witcher 3 filtering only the votes of people who voted Bloodborne first, and the average position of Bloodborne filtering to only the votes of people who voted W3 first.

Click to expand...

I 2nd this.

1. Life is Strange ; Almost perfect, wonderful voice acting, great story (I even liked the ending). I wish more games would be like this.
2. Bloodborne ; Probably the best horror game I've ever played.
3. Until Dawn ; A sleeper hit that surprised me thoroughly
4. The Vanishing of Ethan Carter ; Great indie
5. Destiny: The Taken King ; Game saver DLC
6. The Order: 1886 ; Absolutely wonderful, although lacked content, but a good foundation for something better
7. Batman: Arkham Knight ; Mixed bag, mostly fun, too much to do
8. Everybody's Gone to the Rapture ; A bit too slow paced for my taste
9. Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain ; Konami fucked it up big time, stopped playing after the horrible PvP into PvE patch
10. King's Quest: Episodes I-II ; Nostalgia trip

I only played 3 new games at length so here they are.

1. Life is Strange ; Amazing characters, amazing plot, amazing soundtrack, amazing decisions to make, amazing style and so on. While the game's endings could have been better, episode 5 really upped the ante on philosophical mumbo-jumbo. One of the greatest games ever.
2. Final Fantasy X/X-2 Remaster ; Having been over 10 years since I entered the world of Spira it was nice to return. The game looks great, the symbology of the plot is entertaining to disect and 10 years the wiser I don't suck at blitzball. I also dodged 200 lighting bolts(never again) and I'm on my way to get my first platinum trophy.
3. Final Fantasy Record Keeper ; I played this game for a good 2-3 months every day. It was exciting to mix the FF realms and very frustrating at the same time dealing with the loot and stamina systems. Those frustrations eventually led me to quit the game.

1. Life is Strange ; I cannot believe this was my favourite game of 2015... but it was. The time manipulation was a perfect mechanic for the genre.
2. Tales from the Borderlands: Episodes 2-5 ; Another game I didn't expect to like(I was much more excited for GoT), but it was funny, and touching.
3. Pillars of Eternity ; While certainly not perfect, I really loved the updated "old school" RPG.
4. The Witcher III: Wild Hunt ; It's difficult for me to choose between this and the next game on my list, but ultimately W3 edged out...
5. Fallout 4 ; 100 hours later, and I'm still finding stuff.
6. King's Quest: Chapters I-II ; I really enjoyed Chapter 1, though Chapter 2 felt short by comparison.
7. Technobabylon ; A great, classic, point and click adventure. Bonus points for being cyberpunk.
8. Shadowrun: Hong Kong ; Such a great series - I love how much combat you can avoid with your skills. If they make another SR game, I hope they fix the updated Matrix... shoehorning a real-time stealth minigame into a turn based RPG just didn't work for me.

1. Bloodborne ; Just a great game all around, especially with the added DLC. Just marvelous.

1. Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain ; My game of the year. A genuine pleasure to play - one that I continuously return to. One that I don't get easily bored with.

2. Splatoon ; Wonderful art design, satisfyingly physical mechanics and a short, sharp addictive structure. One of the best things Nintendo have done in years. I hope its success gives them the confidence to keep trying to expand their portfolio rather than retreat into existing IPs using the frankly weak argument of 'old IPs, new ideas' as justification.

3. Galak-Z: The Dimensional ; Great aesthetic, great to play. So, so hard. Sunk a lot of time into this and barring a few technical issues, found it a wonderful challenge.

4. Journey ; Played it on PS3, but really appreciated the updates on this version. I was surprised how easily I was able to get back into the 'experience' again after having already played it. Timeless (providing there's somebody else online to join the journey).

This thread just made me realise how few releases I've played this year.

Also, is Aviary Attorney valid? don't see it on the list - was only released about a week ago.

1. Bloodborne ; The winner by a large margin. I prefer Demon's and Dark Souls, but this game is still a masterpiece of atmosphere, art direction, level design, creature design, gameplay, etc. I really loved the switch to faster combat with no shields as it promoted a more aggressive play style which I was not used to from previous FROM games. Superb and brutally difficult DLC too - this game is glorious.

2. The Witcher III: Wild Hunt ; I haven't finished it yet - not by a long shot - but it goes on the list because it's simply the best, most realised, beautiful open world I've ever played. Quests, characters and exploration are all a joy.

3. Life is Strange ; The writing is awkward and cheesy, sure, but these are high school kids - what did people expect? Likeable characters, interesting gameplay mechanics and a story that always made the wait between episodes difficult to endure. I wasn't even aware of this game at the start of 2015 - let alone imagine it would be #2.

4. Until Dawn ; Same as Life is Strange - out of nowhere.

5. Undertale ; Never have I had so much fun not killing things in an RPG.

6. Dark Souls II: Scholar of the First Sin ; Re-Played on PC and still great.

7. Aviary Attorney ; Ace Attorney with birds in 19th Century Paris? this is the game you always wanted - you just didn't know it.

8. Hotline Miami 2: Wrong Number ; Not as good as the original, but still a blast and has my favourite soundtrack of the year.

1. Bloodborne ; my favorite souls type game and easily in my top 10 all time. The atmosphere, combat, pacing and transforming weapons are so good that I'm in awe every time I play it.

2. metal gear solid v ; I love stealth games and the stealth action gameplay is unrivaled here. Don't really care about the overall story so it's all the quality of the gameplay.
3. Arkham Knight ;
4. Ori and the blind forest ;
5. Yoshi's Wooly World ;
6. Xenoblade Chronicles X ; a lot of potential, amazing world, but gosh it has some filler in it.
7. Witcher 3 ; need to play more, not finished. Good, but I want some more interesting combat.

Haunted said:

Time for Life is Strange to shine!

Click to expand...

Fixed.

wild wild rice said:

Thank you for exposing me to the worst video game title ever, holy shit.

Click to expand...

Fortunately, French Bread is only the name of one of its developers, though "Under Night In-Birth Exe:Late[st]" is pretty complicated on its own.

Haunted said:

Not calling anyone out here, seeing how it's a fun popularity contest and everything, but I want to pull some of these completely unknown members to me aside and ask wtf they think they're doing. Some of these lists are obviously so fucking limited in what they've looked at this year that I just want to disqualify them based on a lack of perspective.

always the worst part of democracy, everyone's allowed to vote

Click to expand...

I played Ori, Life is Strange and Shovel Knight and I enjoyed them all a lot but they weren't good enough to crack my top 3.

The only games I didn't get a chance to jump into that I imagine I would have loved was Undertale and Rocket League.

I also find it funny that people are acting like Bloodborne is some mainstream title now.

1. Bloodborne ; Easily one of my all-time favorite games. It’s far and away my favorite game of the year.
2. Destiny: The Taken King ; A job well done, Bungie. I had low expectations but you kept the sleezy game design from the first year but this time you somehow tricked me into thinking I was having fun. I suppose I was?
3. Rocket League ; An instant classic. I laughed more playing this game than in anything else. That is, until everyone else got way better than me.
4. Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate ; My first deep dive into a Monster Hunter game. I get the hype.
5. Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain ; Gameplay is flawless, but it has some weird production(?) issues that detract from the experience.
6. Transformers: Devastation ; A Transformer fan’s dream come true. Here’s hoping we get a bigger budget sequel down the road.
7. Yo-kai Watch ; Like all of Level 5’s games, it’s beautiful, fun, charming.
8. Ori and the Blind Forest ; Just about perfect for what it is. Plays great.
9. Until Dawn ; It doesn’t live up to its promise but that first playthrough is a ton of fun.
10. Splatoon ; A wonderful new step for Nintendo. Fun and charming.

x. Grow Home ; I loved this game and am surprised it didn't make the cut. Keep games like these coming, Ubi.
x. Undertale ; A fantastic throwback with a modern tone. It's not in my top ten but I totally see why it gets so much love.
x. Lara Croft GO ; One of the best iOS games I've played. Highly recommended.
x. Soma ; I didn't get to finish this yet so I couldn't include it in my list. It's great so far, though.
x. Invisible, Inc. ; Another standout this year. I'm early on so it can't place on my list.
x. Super Mario Maker ; Fantastic in every way. The only reason it didn't place is because I don't have any friends that are also playing it, which kept me from fully engaging with it.
x. Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes ; A ridiculously fun and tense multiplayer games. It's everything I loved about Spaceteam.
x. Star Wars: Battlefront ; Say what you want about its lack of variety and depth. It's stunningly beautiful and there's a good amount of fun to be had with its simple, arcadey gameplay before you have your fill.

Haunted said:

Not calling anyone out here, seeing how it's a fun popularity contest and everything, but I want to pull some of these completely unknown members to me aside and ask wtf they think they're doing. Some of these lists are obviously so fucking limited in what they've looked at this year that I just want to disqualify them based on a lack of perspective.

always the worst part of democracy, everyone's allowed to vote

Click to expand...

Next year on GAF; receipts required to vote for games!

It's been a really fantastic year for games so I wrote this big post talking about all my favorites this year. Hopefully the formatting's all ok and there aren't too many spelling mistakes!




1. Life Is Strange ; There was a moment in Life is Strange where I, as Max, sat on a swing in the back garden of an old childhood best friend and reminisced. Sweet music played as Max thought back on the carefree time she spent playing with Chloe, and all the little adventures they went on in this small garden. The simple emotions which this evoked in me where unlike anything else I’ve played this year. The game captures the bittersweet feeling of growing up, being inbetween adulthood and childhood, and constantly being reminded of the person you used to be as you try to change who you are. Max is so consistently well written, as are the whole of the cast of Arcadia Bay, it’s hard not to fall in love with them. There’s an unparalleled sense of place, a beautiful atmosphere created through the wonderful soundtrack and simple art style. The brilliance of the games story is tied to its mechanics, which augment the experience and emphasise its themes. Max’s journey of growth is tied to her exploration of the past through time travel, and this time travel power is a perfect subversion of the usual idea of choice in episodic games, making the short term choices meaningless as you can see the ramifications immediately and change them. Instead, you have to think of the long term benefits, much as Max must choose herself how she wants to live her life. The journey she embarks on his one of self-discovery, as she looks at the world with open-hearted honesty and tries repeatedly to be true to herself, all while navigating school conspiracies and sci-fi mishaps. But none of this is what’s most important. I just keep coming back to that moment on the swings, or swam in a swimming pool at midnight with an old friend or when I chatted to the people in the diner about their day. The game gives us a series of small, beautiful moments that make up the larger tapestry of Max Caufields life, and makes us appreciate the little wondrous things that happen everyday that we forget about.

2. The Witcher III: Wild Hunt ; Scale is what’s most impressive about The Witcher 3. I don’t mean the size of the landmass or even the length of the story, I mean the sheer amount of meaningful things that make up the game. The hundreds of hours’ worth of interesting quests with meaningful, well written voiced characters. The dozens of different monsters I’d meet and slay or become friends with along the way. The deep, interesting main quest with nuanced looks at difficult situations. The fantastic fantasy soundtrack. The view of the sunset from any location on in its enormous open world. The Witcher manages to do so much in one game, it’s the sort of thing people dreamed about in the 80’s or 90’s. While it’s by no means perfect, the time I spent in its world always felt worthwhile, and it was the place I most liked to get completely lost in this year.

3. Tales from the Borderlands: Episodes 2-5 ; Tales from the Borderlands is easily my most surprising game this year. I thought I was done with Telltale after several middling games and I’ve actively disliked the Borderlands universe and it’s writing, thinking its sense of humour was lazy and its worldbulding weak. The fact that TFTB is not just good, but so outstandingly brilliant that it’s close to being my favourite game this year is fucking crazy. The game grounds the Borderlands universe by letting us view it through the lens of two white collar workers who think that Pandora is just as weird and stupid as I do, and introduces these guys to two con-artists born and bred on the planet, seeing it as their home. The adventure these people go on is a wild and funny ride, but it’s always held by a foundation in great character work. I became so attached to literally ever semi-important person in the game, and found myself so invested in what would happen to them. TFTB keeps a similar tone to the original games, and steers into the clichés of Telltale games, but through great writing, pacing and voice work manages to produce the best game from Telltale and Borderlands.

4. Rocket League ; Another great surprise this year, Rocket League is a so finely tuned and well balanced it is such a joy to play. Simplicity can often be underrated in games, but Rocket League is a game light on mechanics or rules that manages to have endless depth just through its perfect controls. This was my go-to multiplayer game this year, and I’ve probably put more hours into it then anything else.

5. Destiny: The Taken King ; Vanilla Destiny was so hugely disappointing, it brings me great pleasure to be able to put its expansion on my list this year. I went in with tempered expectations and it far exceeded them. Bungie finally found something to do with its incredible shooting and designed some well made story missions, some great quest-lines and the best raid yet. Whereas before I was just so bummed out trying to play Destiny, this year it was nothing but fun. Here’s hoping Destiny 2 can improve even further, and Bungie can try making a game that rivals their Halo creations.

6. Bloodborne ; Bloodborne’s combat is so satisfying to play that I just kept picking it up and replaying parts of it throughout the year. While it’s my least favourite Souls game, and I have some big issues, I just can’t deny how much fun it is to kill things in Yharnam. It helps that its visual design is so striking, and its soundtrack so haunting that it keeps drawing me back in. Bloodborne didn’t exceed my expectations, but managed to rise just far enough to meet them.

7. Until Dawn ; Another complete surprise this year, the combination of choice based gameplay and a slasher film just seems like the perfect pairing, and its execution is close to perfect. The game manages to keep the pacing and atmosphere of dread that a horror film should have, combining countless clichés from the genre to make up its own unique tale. I beat this game in a marathon 2 day play session, as it got its hooks deep in me and never let go.

8. Her Story ; This game Is the equivalent of a jigsaw, cutting up a larger series of video files and asking the player to scavenge through them and piece the story together. It’s an empowering feeling, as the game leaves everything up to you and your intellect to solve its mysteries. A unique and brilliant game.

9. Grow Home ; It felt like the 3d Platformer was slowly dying but this year with Psychonauts 2 and Uke Lele things are finally looking up. More so then anything though, Grow Home showcased a unique and innovative mechanic that added to the basic 3d platforming, and made it one of the more inventive and fun games I played this year.

10. Broken Age: The Complete Adventure ; I played through the full package of Broken Age this year and fell in love with its beautiful art design and quirky characters. After adoring the documentary, it was a thrill to finally play through another Tim Schafer game and while some of the later puzzles are terrible, it didn’t sour me on all the brilliant aspects throughout.

Honorable Mentions

x. Steins Gate ; Steins Gate technically came out in English on PC last year, so by my standards it is ineligible for my GOTY awards, but boy did I love playing through it on vita this year. It would probably take my top 3 or even number 1 if I counted out. It’s a perfect concoction of brilliantly written sci-fi mixed with great character drama and a touching love story. It starts slow, but looking back on it you can see them setting up the dominos that they’ll later knock down in extraordinary fashion. It’s such a tremendously well written story I think it transcends the “good videogame story” idea and becomes just one of the better told stories across any medium. The anime is so good too, I’ not really into anime but the show is almost just as good as the game. This game made me laugh, it made me tense, and it made me very emotional towards the end, and features one of the greatest character arcs in videogames with the protagonist Okabe Rintaro. El Psy Kongroo.

x. Call of Duty: Black Ops 3 ; Black ops 3 is probably the best multiplayer Call of Duty since the first Black Ops, with its tight controls and phenomenal map design. The new movement options add to the experience, the guns feel better than ever, there are more options than ever before. It’s a pity then that this multiplayer is included with what is probably the worst single player campaign ever in a COD game, and probably the worst thing I’ve played this year. Add to this the over-complicated zombies mode and you have the most uneven game in the franchise. Treyarch messed up big time with this release, but I keep coming back to that multiplayer and I keep loving it.

x. Fallout 4 ; I only got the game over Christmas, so I haven’t put too much time into it but I’m really enjoying it. If I had have had more time, this game would probably be on my list. The combat is good for the first time, and their open world is once again fascinating.

1. The Witcher 3 ; Loved every one of the 145 hours I spent here. A massive, beautiful open world to play in. Certainly one of my favourite games of all time.

2. Bloodborne ; Dabbled in Souls games before, but this one really sucked me in. People were right about the satisfaction gained from improving your own skill over time.

3. Star Wars: Battlefront ; Brought the fun back into online fps for me. Shame about the small number of maps though. They really need to start talking about what's in their first paid DLC pack soon.

4. Rise of the Tomb Raider ; Loved the first game and this was more of the same. Sold the Xbox One version and looking forward to playing through again on PC.

5. Destiny: The Taken King ; Vast improvement over the base game. I got a lot of enjoyment out of this, but eventually hit the "no matchmaking" wall and gave up.

6. Black Ops III ; Definitely the best COD, probably since the first Black Ops. Hopefully the player base remains after the inevitably shit Infinity Ward release.

Mengy said:

I know I haven't, LOL, been playing a lot of games that I already owned. But of the one's that did come out this year:

1. DiRT Rally - it's simply the best rally racing game ever made, I'll be playing this for many years to come
2. Cities Skylines - this is the true Simcity 5. I've even uninstalled Simcity 4 for the first time in over a decade. Best city sim game ever.
3. Kerbal Space Program - I had over 100 hours played while it was still in beta, and I still play it today. Fantastic NASA simulator, lol.
4. Heroes of the Storm - the first MOBA that has really clicked with me, I find it incredibly fun to play.
5. Starcraft II LotV - a new expansion for an old tired game, but I had fun with it

Click to expand...

Liking this list. KSP and DiRT are both going to be in my top 3. KSP is KSP, and DiRT gets better and better every time I fire it up. Such a great surprise to have a sick sim rally game in 2015. I thought that genre was dead.

1. Metal Gear Solid V The Phantom Pain; Kojima's magnum opus. Everything I love about MGS gameplay perfected!
2. Transformers Devastation; Classic Platinum gameplay in my favourite 80's clothing.
3. Pro Evolution Soccer 2016; Return of the king indeed! Simply the best football game in many years.
4. Axiom Verge; Great game, a homage that adds even better ideas than its inspiration.
5. N++; Super tough but super addictive. The best 2D platform game on PS4.
6. Rocket League; You wait years for a truly great football game and two arrive at the same time.
7. Batman Arkham Knight; Really felt like Batman in this. Just wish there were fewer tank battles.
8. Destiny The Taken King; Such a great improvement.Funny and thrilling story too.
9. Galak-Z; One of my favourite new games in years, great combat and controls.
10. Assassin's Creed Syndicate; Real return to form. London during the industrial revolution is such a great setting.

1. Witcher 3: Wild Hunt; Last time I was this hyped for a game was Halo 3 back in 07. I’ve completed every little thing and I can’t remember the last time I actually DIDN’T want a game to end.

2. Bloodborne; this was my gateway game to the soul series and HOLY SHIT! Every boss battle had my heart racing and my pits sweating. There were so many times I thought to give up and just move on but I couldn’t. And now I’m planning my replay.

3. Ori and the Blind Forest; I love platformers and this game did it with all the charm and wit that games seem to have lost. I honestly didn’t find it as difficult as everyone was it is.

4. Batman Arkham Knight; Despite the shit I had to deal with on the PC, everything about this game worked. I enjoyed the batmobile sections and I don’t think it took away from the game how many claiming it is. Best story!

5. Halo 5: Guardians; this is based solely on the multiplayer. Solid mechanics, perfect performance, flawless connectivity, and no loadouts. The campaign is an embarrassment to the Halo lore.

6. Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain; I wanted to like this game as much as everyone did but I just couldn’t get over the dramatic change from the previous metal gear games. Regardless, what was there work real well and still had the over the top Kojima flare we all love.

7. The Legend of Zelda: Marjoas Mask 3D; Wonderful remaster of a wonderful game. The dual screens makes it better between switching items and masks.

8. Rise of the Tomb Raider; fulfilling my uncharted itch. It looked and played great. I just wish they put a little effort in the writing.

9. Assassins Creed: Syndicate; Man, did I love Black Flag. Man, did I hate Unity. Man, did I not want to play this game. Man, I’m glad I did.

10. Megaman: Legacy Collection; Even though I only got through the first one (fuck yellow devil), I still can’t deny the charm the series has.

1. Undertale ; A unique game that feels comepletely amazing going in completely blind. Tho its a shame that it will be pretty rare now, its definitely worth it to play through it once
2. Devil May Cry 4:Special Edition ; Easily the best combat of any game release to date. Options are everything in its genre of Character Action and its king here. With 3 new playable characters, I will never get tired of this game.
3. Tetris Ultimate(Vita) ; An OK port of the best game. A few but great game modes makes it a worth purchase.
4. Chroma Squad ; Somewhat of a dream game as a child. Power Ranger/Sentai action in an SRPG puts a smile on my face.
5. Life is Strange ; A cool twist on most games like Telltale makes. One of the best games of the genre I've played.
6. Downwell ; Super addicting podcasty game I love.
7. Yatagarasu Attack on Cataclysm ; THE BEST fighting game released this year. The terrible looking menus don't matter when the gameplay is truly amazing.
8. Under Night In-Birth Exe:Late ; French Bread anime fighter. Not as good as Yata, but has that French Bread feel.
9. Hacknet ; Hollywood hacker feel with a somewhat realistic gameplay.
10. Hacker’s Beats ; Pure rhythm game fun with a dumb hacker feel.

1. Xenoblade Chronicles X ; I finished the game yesterday and while I don't think the story is that great, after 90 hours I can safely say that I enjoyed this game enormously. Sure, it won't top the original (which isn't a shame because that game is a modern classic) but I absolutely love exploring Mira. The game is massive and there are so many things to see. And the quests are fun too. They tell more stories about Mira and the current problems of all humanity and Xeno's trying to adjust to this new life. And oh, Skells are awesome. That destruction. I chose Xenoblade X as my number one pick because no other game this year made me think "Man I really can't wait to play more of this game". If that's the case, you truly are my favourite game of the year.

2. Splatoon ; Time to stay fresh GAF! I think as far as releases go Splatoon is one of my big 2015 surprises. I don't play shooters that much (I think the last one was Left 4 Dead 2, with it's 4 vs. 4 mode being my favourite, go figure) but I just enjoy Splatoon in all of its quirkyness. I actually win matches in this game because a lot of folks mostly forget they need to splatter your enviroment with paint. Maybe that's the reason why I like the game, it takes more than just shooting each other in the face. And seriously, how cool is traveling in the paint as a squid? So cool. Plus, I really hope this game wil push the guys at Nintendo to take a good look at all the concepts in their "Garage" for future games. Stay fresh Nintendo. You need more of these.

3. Super Mario Maker ; You make your own Super Mario levels. What's there to explain? Good tools, hours of time lost making a good stage, playing the many levels created by friends and others: one of the intensive time sinks I've played in 2015. Seriously, makes you appreciate how difficult it must be as a designer at Nintendo.

4. The Legend of Zelda Majora's Mask 3D ; It was a pretty sucky year for the 3DS, but luckily I can name one great thing about the handheld in 2015: Majora's Mask 3D. I never finished this game on the Gamecube and I never owned a N64, so I was pretty excited to get another chance of playing this. It might be one of my favourite Zelda titlles now. The weird style, moon crashing down, the mask transformations... it works perfectly well. Time pressure isn't that bad either. Just some good old time management skills and you're good to go. One of my favourite 3DS releases and glad that Nintendo gave it a spit and shine.

5. Steins;Gate ; I love time travel stuff, so Steins;Gate would be played no matter what. And man... it was awesome. During the start the game was pretty neat and it took some time before it really took off. When it does, oh man, hell breaks lose. The multiple endings are great, some are straight up crazy and the ending was so awesome. I can't spoil too much, but if you haven't played this visual novel (and even if you're slightly interested in those) do it now. You won't regret it.

6. Captain Toad Treasure Tracker ; Isn't that 2014? For us Europe folk it was 2015. I liked the little levels in Super Mario 3D World, so when El Capitan Todd finally received his own game by EAD Tokyo... where do I sign up? Game isn't that hard, but the smaller levels are great to play in bite sized chunks and are really charming. It has some great puzzles and I enjoyed my time. Yes Captain, I will always be ready for adventure when you come along.

7. Transformers Devastation ; I think somewhere back in the past, my five year old self is doing a backflip out of sheer joy. Platinum Games creating a Transformers game based on the Generation One Transformers? GOOD LORD TAKE MY MONEY NOW. "Yeah but Legend of Ko-" I DON'T CARE, MY MONEY IS HERE. While it's not up there with the best from the company like Bayonetta (2), Metal Gear Rising or the Wonderful 101, dear lord I had fun. It has Peter Cullen as Optimus. Frank Welker reprising his role as Megatron. Insecticons. Grimlock. Starscream. DEVESTATOR. What could I possibly want more? Well more, but that's beside the point. I love it.

8. Resident Evil Revelations 2 ; Oh Resident Evil, it's hard to lose those connections to the horror genre, right? I don't mind though. While Revelations 2 isn't this big return to greatness, the game does a good job on reminding me what I like about the series. We have Claire and Barry returning which is a fantastic thing. Storywise is what you expect from the series, but the thing that brought me back was the campaign. After the disappointing (and wildly interesting) Resident Evil 6 the campaign from Rev 2 is mucht better and actually feels like it wasn't slapped together. So that's one step. The other steps however like the Invisible Enemy mode and the Time Attack thing make me feel nostalgic and makes the game a fun challenge. Just like the good old Resi in the day. And oh, did you hear about Raid Mode? If not, it's great.

9. Project Zero V Maiden of Black Water ; Series veterans will probably be a bit down on the fifth installment. While I only played the Wii version of 2, I can see why. Maybe I'm used to all ghosty jump scares because PZ V didn't scare me out that much. Still, I want to give this game major props for the setting. What I like about the PZ games is the fantastic atmosphere and the lore it explores. The many videos/premonitions in the game showcasing the horrible deaths of the ghosts are creepy and have a nice way of giving some backstory. The ghosts who attack aren't random baddies; they're tragic victims and their spirits linger on. Combine this with all the notes laying around and the creepy theme of suicide makes PZ V one of the more interesting releases I've played this year.

10. Yoshi's Woolly World ; It's defintely the cutest game of 2015 (ITS SO FLUFFY) but it's on a neat tenth place on my personal list. While not reinventing the platform genre Woolly World is fun and more importantly we need more quality Yoshi games. Not as good as Epic Yarn a few years back, but a great romp all together.

Cheesemeister said:

I just did a test run doing this. It produced very interesting results.

Click to expand...

Wow! THPS5 would be GOTY if every other game was disqualified!

1. The Witcher 3; GOAT
2. Bloodborne; Top hats and scythes
3. The Talos Principle; Croteam? Really?
4. SOMA; Science has gone too far
5. Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate; Capcpom still got it
6. Gears of War Ultimate; 10 years later still 10x better than all the shooters this year siege sucks
7. Warhammer - End Times Vermintide; Thanks Valve
8. Cities Skylines; I am the terrible road champion
9. Destiny The Taken King; Bungie you son of a bitch
10. Dying Light; this actually surprised me

Well, after an hour of writing, here's my list!



1. Bloodborne ; A game so good that I've put almost 200 hours into it over the course of just over 1 month. There's something about the streamlined, fast paced, evasion focused combat of Bloodborne that got me hooked right from the start providing me with instant gratification! You can tell From Software and Miyazaki have put a ton of effort into the world and lore of this game, the inclusion of lovercraftian elements adds a thematic spice to Bloodborne that none of the other games in the series can claim to have. The way areas are designed and manage to loop in on themselves is genius, something which I'd miss greatly since the original Dark Souls and the bosses are some of the most well designed in the series! I haven't played the expansion yet, but the content in the base game alone should be enough to keep most people coming back for multiple playthroughs for months to come. Dark Souls 3 is literally just around the corner and If Bloodborne is any indication of that games level of quality then I can't fucking wait! Well done Miyazaki and company, you got me back into the series again!



2. Super Mario Maker ; I have to admit, I was skeptical about Super Mario Maker when I first caught wind of it's existence. Creating your own Mario levels is something that quite a lot of Nintendo fans have probably wanted to do for years, but a game like this could've either lived or died on how extensive it's creative tools are as well as how easy it'd be to get into creating your own content. I have to admit Nintendo have done a stellar job with Super Mario Maker, it's gamepad and stylus focused interface makes grabbing various assets and piecing them all together a total cakewalk, and after a few hours of toying around with all the tools you'll be constructing levels like it's second nature. There's nothing more satisfying than creating your own level, handing the controller to your friends when they come over, and watching and gauging their reactions as they play through it. Something that I'd never felt before as somebody who isn't knowledgable enough to code or design something from scratch. It's something games likes Little Big Planet could never do for me. Outstanding job Nintendo!



3. The Witcher III: Wild Hunt ; As somebody who was never really keen on previous entries , The Witcher III finally got me interested in the story and lore of the Witcher universe. Everything about this game reeks of loving attention to detail and polish. Hell, even the side-quests have more thought and attention put into their story-archs than most developers do with their main quests! In a year full of open world games this game feels like one of the few that got it right! It doesn't feel like a chore exploring the vast expanses of land the game is split up into, and there's always something interesting to come across while riding around. CDProjeckt's continued support of this game, with free DLC, and a couple of fairly priced paid expansions shows that they know how to treat their customers on top of crafting a fine game. Even after completing the main game I still find myself diving back in to finish side-quests and explore some more. Something which not many open world games can do. Totally deserving of the accolades it's been getting as of late.



4. Undertale ; A lot of people I know seem to dismiss Undertale based purely on it's aesthetic, and the rabid fanbase and meme culture the game's gathered in the short amount of time it's been out. Fortunately I managed to stumble across the game a few hours after release not ever having heard much about it outside of it's kickstarter origins and I'm glad I took the gamble and bought this blindly because it's easily the best RPG I've played in years. With a cast of genuinely interesting, amusing, and likable characters, a plot that has it's fair share of funny and heartfelt moments, and two polarising ways to play through the game's story that feel completely different from each other and intriguing in their own way (something which most RPG's that boast gameplay and story variety never manage to accomplish) Toby Fox has done a fantastic job with Undertale, it's easily the best thing to come out of crowdfunding in my opinion. Well worth the meager price he's selling it for!



5. Transformers Devastation ; What a total shift in quality from Legend of Korra. Platinum's second attempt at creating a licensed character action game is a vastly better game than the former! While it's not a long game, it's a hell of a ride while it lasts! Everything that Platinum's spent the last few years building it's reputation on is in this game, an easy to learn, but hard to master combat system, the same heavy focus on set-pieces and rapid fire boss battles that made previous games like Bayonetta a joy to play through, and much like Korra, a loving attention to detail, accurately mimicing the style of the source material the game is based on. For a game that was probably developed in a short time frame and a slim budget, Platinum cranked out a real winner here! Here's hoping the TNMT game they're working on turns out just as good as this! It's going to be interesting to see if Platinum can works it's magic in the RPG market with Scalebound and Nier Automata due out for next year as well.



6. Splatoon ; A lot of people criticised Splatoon at launch for it's meager selection of maps and rightly so, myself being one of those people. But as the months went on and more and more maps and weapons came out for free with each update Splatoon really came into it's own. It's a wonderful twist on the multiplayer shooter genre and the primary focus on the games territory control mechanic of spraying Ink around really appeals to me more than the more kill-orientated gameplay of most other shooters. It's great to see a brand new IP from Nintendo, and this game proves that Nintendo still has that creative spark when it comes to pushing new ideas!.Probably my favourite multiplayer game of the year, it oozes charm, and it's a game you could easily play for just a few minutes, or even hours at a time. Wouldn't hesitate recommending this to anyone looking to buy a Wii U, or to anyone who already owns one.



7. Rock Band 4 ; Harmonix has gotten a ton of criticism over the last few months over Rock Band 4. A missing practice mode, lack of online play, and customisation options being cut are all valid complaints which I agree with. But their dedication to allowing users to carry over the vast majority of official DLC, use their old Rock Band hardware and even old Guitar Hero hardware is commendable. The last couple of patches which has added a few extra options and other tweaks shows that they're dedicated to improving the game, and the base gameplay is as solid and enjoyable as ever. Whilst the mixed on-disk setlist is often maligned, I absolutely love it, the mix of lesser known hits from bigger artists, and some obscure songs from lesser known indies really clicked with me for the most part. And the DLC variety this year has been fantastic. Looking forward to what this game offers next year as it's updated. So glad traditional rhythm games are still a thing.



8. The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask 3D ; I have to admit, the original N64 version of Majora's Mask is one of my favourite games of all time, a bloody amazing game, unique in it's own way and a total shift in style and gameplay from anything else in the Zelda series. After years of having not played it, I went into the 3DS remake worrying that the game may have aged badly and that I may have had a rose-tinted view of the game from all those years ago. I'm happy to say that it still holds up today, the dark and alien atmosphere of the game still feels totally unique, and the games structure, groundhog day-esque gameplay mechanics, dungeon design and side-quests are all still outstanding. Grezzo also did a masterful job porting this game, redesigning a bunch of stuff, making it easier to track your progress during your adventure, and upgrading the game visually. Easily my favourite remaster this year.



9. Yoshi's Woolly World ; Much like Kirby and the Rainbow Curse, Woolly World makes fantastic use of a unqiue visual gimmick and style that makes an otherwise polished platformer even more fun to play through. It's nice to get back to the stylings of Yoshi's Island, and whilst this may not be of the same quality and pedigree of that game it's still great fun and never really got stale for me from start to finish. There's always something new to see and experience in almost every level, plenty of secrets and collectables to satiate 100% completion fanatics, and a whole load of charming references towards previous games! This and Kirby filled a niche for me this year, they're both just so charming and relaxing to play, I can't help but love both of them! This game in particular seems criminally overlooked.



10. Kirby and the Rainbow Curse ; I hold a soft spot in my heart for this series and the DS predecessor was a refreshing reimagining of the core Kirby gameplay, and to this day it still stands as one of my favourite Kirby games in the entire series. I'm glad Nintendo chose to revisit this style of gameplay, the touchpad is a perfect fit for this kind of game, and it's undeniably unique and appealing visual charm and style really looks fantastic on the big screen....when you get a chance to look away from the gamepad screen and look at it that is! It's not a difficult game, but the games control method, using only the stylus and it's lax approach to how you tackle all of the games individual courses and challenges easily earns it a spot on my top 10. Lovely game.

1. Ori and the Blind Forest ;

2. Everybody's Gone to the Rapture ; I was blown away by this game. Superb music and outstanding voice acting, beautiful visuals and an intriguing setting and story. I really liked the fact that characters were face-less which meant that, just like in books, a lot of the conversations needed to be filled in by the player's imagination.

3. The Talos Principle ; A very good puzzle game.

4. Life Is Strange ; Dontnod did a lot of things right with Life is Strange. Pity that it all went downwards after the big plot reveal in episode 4. I didn't care at all for the last episode and was glad when it was over. A shame because i had been enjoying this game quite a lot until then. Still, a very promising first episodic game by Dontnod. Now work on that dialogue and we'll have an even better game next time.

5. Kick & Fennick ; This year's big surprise. I went in without expectations but discovered a surprisingly fun and nicely presented platform game with solid game mechanics.

6. Tearaway Unfolded ;

7. Broken Age: The Complete Adventure ; I was not a backer and i started the game without any big expectations (due to the lukewarm reception) but i enjoyed my time with Broken Age a lot. Outstanding voice acting, great soundtrack, good console UI, original and nice visuals and a generally fun adventure game. Definately one of the better adventure games in recent years.

8. N++ ;

9. The Vanishing of Ethan Carter ;

Honorable Mentions

x. King's Quest: Chapters I-II ; I didn't include it in my top 10 because the game isn't finished yet (still 3 episodes to go) but i was impressed with chapter 1 and to a lesser extent chapter 2. One of the better adventures i've played in recent years. I hope the developers manage to maintain the same quality for the rest of the episodes (although chapter 2 already showed signs of rushing to get the game done...)

x. OlliOlli2: Welcome to Olliwood ;

x. Tembo the Badass Elephant ;

x. Uncharted: The Nathan Drake Collection ;

1. Bloodborne ; My first foray into From's Souls series, I got the game on a whim and was into it totally blind. It was pretty daunting at first, but has become one of my favorite games ever and my GOTY easily. The fast-paced, evasion-focused combat is incredibly fun and satisfying, the art direction is amazing, the story is intriguing... I could go on. I've barely put it down since I got it in April, and for a game that is predominately single player, that rarely happens for me.

2. Ori and the Blind Forest ; Amazing art and soundtrack, and I love Metroidvania gameplay. Very memorable game.

3. Axiom Verge ;

4. Batman: Arkham Knight ;

5. Super Mario Maker ;

6. Yoshi's Woolly World ; Cutest game of the year, and the first great Yoshi game since 1995.

7. Star Wars Battlefront ;

8. Pokémon Super Mystery Dungeon ;

1. Tearaway Unfolded ; I don't own a Vita, so I never got to play the original, so I was absolutely delighted when this game was announced for PS4. 3D platformer/adventure games might be my favorite genre, and we seldom get one's with a decent budget behind them, so when we do I really relish them. This game oozes charm at every turn. The characters and the world are interesting. Meticulously crafted out of paper, the game is absolutely beautiful. The music and sound design is lovely and hit me in the feels on several occasions. The story is one of my favorites in any video game ever. And while the overall mechanics and design have been done better in the genre before, I was never not having fun while playing.

2. Yoshi's Woolly World ; I now consider Good-Feel up there with Retro and EAD Tokyo as a God-tier platformer developer. You can even see in some of the levels the inspirations they took from those two developers. I was excited about this game ever since it's announcement almost three years ago. It's a shame it took so long, but It was well worth the wait. This is the first Yoshi game I played since the original Yoshi's Island. It exceeded my expectations, and I consider it the best Yoshi game to date. Of course, in a 2D platfomer, you need three things... Great level design, mechanics, and music. Yoshi's Woolly World has all of these, and as an added bonus, looks absolutely stunning. Much like Tropical Freeze and 3D World, each level is a brand new experience, delighting you at every turn. As with Tearaway Unfolded, there was never a moment where I wasn't having fun.

3. SOMA ; I enjoyed The Dark Descent, but it did not scare me the way it did others. Horror is a very subjective thing, and I've always found something very disturbing about sci-fi horror. SOMA is a truly twisted game in it's story and atmosphere. Unlike most, I enjoyed the monster encounters a lot, and actually thought there were too FEW of them. The puzzle solving and movement left something to be desired, but like with most horror games, the most important aspect is the atmosphere and scenario, which SOMA nails. The ending is perfect, and the game has stayed with me long after I finished.

4. Code Name: S.T.E.A.M. ; This is the first grid style turn based strategy game I played, and I loved it. The steam mechanic was cool, and the craploads of different characters you acquire, each with their different abilities, kept the game interesting. It was fun after getting my ass kicked in a level, analyzing the level and the situation and then forming a new team that is better suited to complete the objective. The soundtrack is one of the best of the year and the scenario absolutely ridiculous in the best way possible. The game got a lot of criticism for it's look, but I didn't mind it and quite enjoyed the overall vibe and atmosphere. It's a shame there will never be a sequel.

5. Bloodborne ; If it weren't for the final act being so underwhelming, this might have been number one. Where Dark Souls 2 kept building and building till the very end, Bloodborne fizzled out with the Nightmare Frontier and Nightmare Mensis being two of the most boring locations in the whole series. Enough of the bad though, the first 80% of this game is incredible. Visually, it's probably the most consistent and stunning Souls game to date (again, until the final act). Even after three games, when I walked into the streets of Yharnam for the first time I was left in awe. It's not a horror game, but the atmosphere is as thick as the fog in Silent Hill. Perhaps my favorite moment was when I was kidnapped and taken to Yahar'gul, and waking up in the cell and that music started playing... Chills everywhere. I loved the areas outside Yharnam as well. Hemwick Charnel Lane and the Forbidden Forest are two of my favorite areas in the series. The art, mechanics, and level design are as good as ever here, and thinking back on the game only makes me more excited for Dark Souls III.

6. Splatoon ; This game would probably be much higher on the list had I been able to invest a good amount of time in the multiplayer. Splatoon is definitely a breath of fresh air for the industry. The single player was an absolute delight. All of Nintendo's trademarks are here... A unique concept, great level design, mechanics, music/sound, and a cool artstyle and overall vibe. I hope the online community stays strong well into next year because I know I'm gonna have a ton of fun with this.

7. Resident Evil: Revelations 2 ; Even though I long for Resident Evil to return to it's horror roots, I still do enjoy the newer games. It sure was nice to play as Claire again, and finally have a playable Barry. The horror still plays second fiddle to the action here, but I feel that it's still a pretty good overall package. Again, in contrast to many, I feel that the enemy design has been pretty good in modern RE, outside of the first Revelations. The encounter design is pretty strong to, though of course not to the degree of Resident Evil 4. Here's to hoping Resident Evil 7 is the best one since 4. Please no more Chris, Leon, or Jill.

8. Kirby and the Rainbow Curse ; I never played Canvas Curse, so this was my introduction to that style of Kirby game. The Pink Puff continues to be one of Nintendo's most versatile series. It's interesting how Kirby's most interesting games are the spinoffs, while the traditional games seem to play it very safe. There are a lot of cool ideas here all born from one simple concept of moving kirby along his little rainbow rope. It's crazy how many cool ideas they came up with, such as using the rope to block off certain obstacles from hitting you, or having to angle the rope so that your shots will bounce off it and into enemies and obstacles, or having to guide two Kirby's simultaneously through a level. HAL's been doing it for a long time though, so it shouldn't really be a surprise. I hope they get out of their comfort zone a little and give us a 3D Kirby for the NX!

9. Axiom Verge ; I'm starved for Metroid, and this scratched the itch a bit. No, it doesn't have the incredible world design, level design, controls, or boss battles that a Metroid game does, but it does do a great job of paying homage to it. And the fact that it was developed by a single man is very impressive. The final couple areas and final boss were pretty awful, but everything before that was a lot of fun. The music is stellar and the glitch mechanic was a very cool idea. In a world with no Metroid, Axiom Verge helps to ease the pain a bit.

10. Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain ; This gets a spot on the list for it's mechanics alone. The amount of options you have here is staggering. And it all controls to perfection. DD is fucking awesome. It speaks to how incredible the mechanics are, because nearly everything else about the game was disappointing, from the world, mission, and level design, to the art direction, to the story and characters.

-tetsuo- said:

1. The Witcher 3
2. Bloodborne
3. The Talos Principle
4. SOMA
5. Cities Skylines
6. Dying Light
7. Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate
8. Gears of War Ultimate Edition
9. Destiny The Taken King
10. Shadowrun Hong Kong

Click to expand...

Read OP. Your votes won't count.

1. Bloodborne ; Grotesquely gorgeous, perfectly balanced and oh so rewarding. This is the best game I've played in the last few years.



2. Tales from the Borderlands ; Great story and cast. Was not expecting this game to be this good.



3. Rocket League ; Lots of fun, a great pickup and play game. Wish I was better at it though.



4. Helldivers ; The most fun I've had with friends all year. I wish there was some sort of single player to this game however.



5. Teslagrad ; PS4 release was this year and I really enjoyed this hidden gem. It definitely had faults but the charm made up for it in droves.

1. Bloodborne ; The best story/lore, art design, and combat I've ever experienced. A true masterpiece.

2. The Witcher III: Wild Hunt ; The deepest and most charming open-world game that I've had the pleasure to play. Awe inspiring is an understatement!

3. Undertale ; Bursting at the seams with charm, wonder, and surprises.

4. Life is Strange ; I became Max Caulfield and I loved it. Play this game!

5. SOMA ; The smartest sci-fi game that I've played.

6. Rocket League ; The best soccer game ever made.

7. Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain ; I have a ton of problems with this game, but I really enjoyed this game before those problems reared their ugly head.

8. Cities: Skylines ; Just a super fun and immersive city building game.

9. Until Dawn ; Classic 80s/90s B-horror movie in game form.

10. Yakuza 5 ; I haven't played this game very much, but it needs to be listed on principle.

1. Bloodborne ; Best game since The Last of Us, if you fancy gameplay in a 3rd person singleplayer action game with a well designed world, this is the absolute best.
2. Yakuza 5
3. Until Dawn
4. Tearaway Unfolded

1. The Witcher III: Wild Hunt ; Best characters, Best graphics, Best music, Best story, Best world/setting, what else can be said? It's the best Jerry, The Best!
2. The Witcher III: Hearts of Stone ;
3. Guild Wars 2: Heart of Thorns ;
4. Rise of the Tomb Raider ;
5. Yoshi's Woolly World ;
6. Mortal Kombat X ;
7. Resident Evil: Revelations 2 ;
8. Mario Kart 8: DLC Pack 2 ;
9. Resident Evil HD Remaster ;
10. Mario Party 10 ;