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[CSX]

1. Shin Megami Tensei IV: Apocalypse ; Much like Fire Emblem Awakening to Fire Emblem Fates, Apocalypse refines the combat from SMTIV with a few changes such as making Smirk a bigger part of both your party’s strategy and bosses. These changes along with fantastic boss battles makes this one of the best SMTs yet. The core SMT concept of fast turn based combat with quick animations and everyone dying in 2-4 hits along with focus on buff/debuff skills never gets old for me and demon fusion is still an awesome feature that allows you to customize and strengthen your party in cool ways. The soundtrack is still rocking and the new demon designs are fantastic. The final dungeon was a pain in the ass with rooms that are just massive areas of complete emptiness but then leads to one of the best final bosses I have ever experienced in a SMT game. In a way, I’m happy that Persona 5 got pushed to 2017. Otherwise, I wouldn’t give this game the time and attention it deserved to become my GOTY.

2. Forza Horizon 3 ; The Forza Horizon series is the greatest racing game this generation. This series got me racing cars for hours on end like I’m back in middle school playing Ridge Racer on the PSP. Horizon 2 was the game that literally stopped me from selling my XB1. Driving these cars in the series’ beautiful open worlds with top tier soundtracks makes this Microsoft’s best IP by a long mile. From Horizon 2 to 3, the biggest improvement was making off road racing just as enjoyable and thrilling as the standard races. I was really hoping that Horizon 3 would introduce the ability to make your own racetracks by adding checkpoints on the world map. Hopefully, Playground Games can add that to Horizon 4 while maintaining the customizable rules. Once that happens, we are talking about a racing game that can genuinely win GOTY.

3. Uncharted 4: A Thief's End ; I can’t count the amount of times I stopped moving Nathan and panned the camera around to appreciate how amazing the game looks. The setpieces are the best in the series and the story provides closure to a great cast of characters we got to know over the past decade. This is one of the few games I can wish I forget I ever played it just so I can experience it for the first time again.

4. Fire Emblem Fates ; This game is Awakening 2.0. The improvements and changes to the combat balanced out the new cool yet flawed mechanics that Awakening brought to the series. A whole new set of weapons and classes provides enough changes to longtime fans that might be starting to feel a bit tired of the series. Best of all, this entry in the series is a whole lot of Fire Emblem with about 80 chapters in total! It’s a little sad that we might not get the last bit of DLC that’s currently Japan only but Fire Emblem’s excellent mix of fast yet simple SRPG formula will continue to make the series the only Nintendo franchise that will convince me to buy any Nintendo hardware. I hope for a better story in the next title because my god! How can you hype up about getting a “famous” long time storywriter for this game and somehow ended up with a story and characters worst than Awakening which is already such a low bar?!

5. The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel II ; I spent last summer getting on the LoH train and played through all the Trails games. When I finished Cold Steel I a month before II came out, I immediately preordered. The first game did a great job on introducing the main cast and the world which leads to II being a story of major conflicts and “soul searching”. Falcom has done a fantastic job in creating the world and characters of the Trails series and Cold Steel II is no exception. It was truly sad to see the story of Class VII come to an end...till Cold Steel III got announced.

6. Hitman ; A $30 sale finally got me to try out the Hitman series for the first time! The way you improvise your way on the first playthrough of every level is absolutely thrilling and satisfying once you get the kill(s). One of my playthroughs was so great that I immediately shared it on GAF in detail. The only reason why this game wasn’t higher on my list is that it pushes players to replay levels over and over for the sake of higher scores and finding different ways to assassinate your targets, something I have zero interest in doing and wished the game was designed more towards having lots of levels and only completing them 1-2 times.

7. Dishonored 2 ; I almost didn’t play this game till it got on sale for $20 over the holidays. It basically felt like Dishonored but with more powers which isn’t a bad thing since I loved the first game back when it came out. However in the back of my mind, I kept thinking that the first game’s level designs were better. I loved this game enough to put it in my Top 10 but I’m not interested in doing a 2nd playthrough anytime soon even if I can play with a whole new set of powers.

8. Titanfall 2 ; It’s been many years since I declared myself to be shooter fatigued. Though I still played them occasionally, I really don’t go online unless I got friends convincing me to join them in their sessions. Titanfall 2 is the first shooter in a long while that got me playing and loving online matches by myself again. From the movement to controls, everything just feels so right.

9. Superhot ; One of the coolest ideas I have ever seen in a game in a long time. This became one of the few games that got me excited to show off to guests with its first person puzzle shooter with slow-mo mechanics. Whenever you finish a level and get to see the replay running in “real-time”, you can’t help but think you became Neo himself.

10. Ratchet & Clank ; After loving the PS2 entries many years ago, I found it difficult to play any of the PS3 games though I decided to buy them all in a flash sale awhile back. This reboot with Pixar like graphics and fun yet simple combat and platforming reeled me back into the franchise. Using scenes from the movie as a few cutscenes was a bit weird to see but it wasn’t the only game this year that did something like that. Insomniac Games three year break from the franchise has paid off with a great entry that revitalized fans both old and new and has got me waiting for a potential Ratchet 2 reboot/sequel in the future.

If there's any formatting issues, feel free to tell me

 

[RevolverRoden]

1. Final Fantasy 15 ; Number one thing that made this game great for me was the characters. Tabata said the game would have a "brothers on a road trip" theme and they absolutely NAILED it. Just typing this up makes me want to replay it.
2. Dark Souls 3 ; While it wasn't as fresh as DS1 or Bloodborne were, the game is awesome. Best-playing souls game. A lot of options in regards to weapons, armor, etc. Really enjoying the PVP too.
3. King of Fighters XIV ; Best 2016 fighter. Fun. Deep. Big roster. The fact that SNK is actively trying to improve it too (like the recent free graphical update) makes it even better.
4. Uncharted 4 ; Awesome sendoff to the series. Great storytelling as usual. Controls and gameplay are really smooth. Graphics are incredible. MP was pretty fun too.

 

[Struct09]

1. DOOM ; Easily the best single player FPS campaign I've played since Half Life 2. The gameplay is sublime, the levels are tightly designed for both combat and exploration, every weapon has a purpose, the progression and pacing are near perfect, and the music is smartly integrated with the gameplay. Id Software nailed everything that I look for in a game.

2. The Witness ; A beautifully designed puzzle game that became my obsession for multiple months. It's amazing how much variety is squeezed out of one central mechanic along with the sense of accomplishment that can be delivered by solving puzzles that appear so similar on the surface. The world itself is well designed on multiple dimensions and justifies setting a puzzle game in an open world. I am proud to have the platinum trophy for this game.

3. Hitman ; A series that I've never really been able to get into finally has an entry that I really enjoy. The newest Hitman game provides the nudges that I needed to have fun - it helpfully identifies when an opportunity is revealing itself, provides a list of challenges for every level, and clearly communicates to the player when things are about to go wrong. The amount of things to do in the game is staggering and I can't wait for the next season to get started.

4. Titanfall 2 ; I'm a big fan of the first Titanfall and this sequel is a marked improvement. The multiplayer feels different but refined, and the single player campaign is a wonderful surprise. Quite possibly the best feeling FPS game there is in terms of controls.

5. Dark Souls 3 ; This feels like a greatest hits of the Souls games which is a double-edged sword. While I feel it struggles to find its own identity I definitely feel it's the best Souls game (not counting Bloodborne) in terms of gameplay, multiplayer, level design, and boss fights.

6. Overwatch ; Blizzard created a game that's not only a blast to play but does a great job of focusing on what goes right in a match. The variety in the characters is impressive and the game also has a beautiful and timeless look to it.

7. Picross 3D2 ; I'm taken back by how HAL managed to improve upon the original Picross 3D in multiple different ways. The color mechanic really adds some welcome depth. This game melted away my daily commute, and even though I've exhausted all the content it offers I'm sure that I'll start a new save some day.

8. Uncharted 4 ; A fitting end to the Nathan Drake series. Naughty Dog continues to prove that they are the best at delivering video game narrative.

9. Gears of War 4 ; A really enjoyable game that is unmistakably a Gears of War game despite being in new hands. It feels great to play and has some great set pieces.

10. The Last Guardian ; A wonderful use of the medium that tells a beautiful story. The way the relationship between the boy and Trico is conveyed is masterful and unforgettable. Unfortunately it's blemished by a terrible camera and spotty controls which really hampered my enjoyment, otherwise it would have definitely ranked higher on my list.

x. Dishonored 2 ; Wonderful level design and the expanded tool set of powers makes this game fun to play. I encountered a number of frustrating technical issues that hurt my overall enjoyment, including two game-breaking scripting bugs that forced me to replay sections of the game, which is why I can't include it in my top 10.

x. Overcooked ; An awesome little co-op game. I had a great time yelling at my friends to chop vegetables.

 

[Crayolan]

1. Pokemon Sun and Moon ; Gamefreak proves they've still got it. I have my fair share of problems with SM, but even with those it's still far above anything from gen 6. Expectations are high for whatever's next.

2. Hyper Light Drifter ; Really solid combat with difficult but satisfying bosses. Also probably my favorite-looking game of the year; the pixel art is gorgeous.

3. New Super Hook Girl ; Like Umihara Kawase but much more fast paced and less punishing (still plenty difficult though). The game is controlled entirely by mouse which is great for the hook controls, but can making precise aerial movement in the later stages a bit difficult. Grappling hooks in games are so good.

4. OneShot ; Expanded version of a 2014 adventure game where the player is a character involved in the story, separate from the character they control. Loved the fourth-wall breaking puzzles, the more fleshed-out areas, and the new world-building details added to the game.

5. Rhythm Heaven Megamix ; Probably the worst RH game--the story stuff just got in the way and the first third of the game felt really dumbed down--but it's still rhythm heaven so it's still pretty good. Pretty much every new game was great and cross-game remixes is something I've wanted for a while so it was awesome to see them here.

 

[NinjaCoachZ]

2016 was an incredible year for gaming. Scanning over the list, it's unreal just how many games there are that I didn't get around to, but would absolutely love to play. I haven't felt this way about so many games in a single year in forever. Just plain unreal. I almost feel like I shouldn't even make this list until I've played all of them.

Anyway, I digress. Here's mine.

1. Pokémon Sun/Moon ; The best in the series by far. An amazingly enjoyable experience from beginning to end. Nostalgic without feeling too pandery like X and Y, creative Alolan forms that mixed things up in a really fresh way, and the best, most charmingly lovable characters in the whole series. The perfect culmination of 20 years of one of my most beloved series.

2. Overwatch ; The IP that might just define this generation. Solid, satisfying gameplay that's super easy to pick up and play, colourful, creative graphics and settings that are packed with love and care. And man, what is there to say about its incredible characters that hasn't already been said? For someone who doesn't care that much about shooters, Overwatch stole my heart. Incredible game.

3. Final Fantasy XV ; Though the execution of its story left a lot to be desired in places, the actual game aspect was so engrossing to me. I absolutely loved exploring the world, driving around and relaxing to FF music, and getting to know the four main party members. I had some concerns, but overall, Square Enix delivered with a great game.

4. ABZU ; A relaxing, almost transcendant experience unlike any other. This is the kind of game that almost captures what it would be like to be dreaming. A genuine sense of wonder from exploring the ocean and interacting with the creatures, and a story that's minimalist but nonetheless carries you on a very nice ride. I'm a massive fan of the surreal and all things aesthetic, so the profound, striking simplicity of this game resonated really, REALLY well with me.

5. World of Final Fantasy ; A love letter to one of my favourite series, packed to the brim with the whimsy, charm, and adventure that defined the golden age of SNES and PS1 RPGs. This is the kind of RPG that we need more of nowadays. Great humour, wonderful music and graphics, and a vast scale without being super overbudget.

6. Sega 3D Classics Collection ; I know I've been using this term a lot, but WOW. This game was a complete labour of love. 8 fantastic Sega games in the best format they have ever been in. An excellent version of Sonic 1, a childhood favourite of mine, allowing me to appreciate it in a way I never have, and I had a fantastic time discovering games I'd never played before like Puyo Puyo Tsu, Fantasy Zone W, and Power Drift. One of the best pick-up-and-play games on any system, like having your own arcade right there on the 3DS. I cannot give enough rounds of applause to M2 for their incredibly faithful devotion to making the best possible versions of these classic games.

7. The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess HD ; Twilight Princess has aged marvelously thanks to Tantalus's incredible work in polishing it with a modern coat of paint. While a straighter port than Wind Waker HD, Twilight Princess HD is nonetheless a fantastic end product and the definitive version of an already-great game. It was excellent to be able to revisit Twilight Princess for the first time in years the way I remembered it looking.

8. Uncharted 4: A Thief's End ; Not quite the revolution it could've been, but nonetheless, a very high note to end the series on. Fantastic to have one more round with Nate, Elena, Sully, and the rest. The somewhat somber yet hopeful tone of the game was perfect for the series at that point in time, and the actors crushed it in their roles. It was another Uncharted rollercoaster, and just behind 2 as the best in the series. Can't say no to that.

9. Kirby: Planet Robobot ; The robot stuff manages to make things feel fresh, but even as a set of extra levels for Kirby Triple Deluxe, the game delivered with some very clever level design, wonderful colours, and humourous powerups. Kirby is always one of the Nintendo series that oddly feels like it doesn't get a lot of credit, but every single game in the series never fails to put a smile on my face, and this game was no exception. Props to the game's bonus modes, including a pretty fun 3D boss rush and a great Meta Knightmare runthrough. Plenty of content made this game a great experience to binge through, and some of the bonus stars were legitimately challenging. A solid effort for the 3DS's final full year.

10. Loud on Planet X ; As a sucker for alternative and local Torontonian music, and rhythm games in general, this game ticked a lot of boxes for me. It's pretty simple, but the artistic direction behind it struck some great chords and it was awesome getting to hear not only some of my favourite artists I already knew about, but being introduced to brand-new musicians. The game is challenging enough that it puts the noodle to use, but also straightforward enough that I can completely zone out and just let the music flow through me. One of the most unique games I've played, as a lover of both games and music it was a real winner for me.

 

[Dance Inferno]

2016 turned out to be one of my more experimental gaming years as I upended a lot of my habits and discovered some interesting things about myself. For one, I finally got back into multiplayer shooters after I abandoned them years ago for good (or so I thought). Of all the years for FPS games, 2016 really is one of the best in recent memory. Second, I gave up my longstanding conviction that I should never buy games at launch and instead wait for a sale. Given that you can find most digital PC games for ~$45 at launch if you shop around a little, I figured waiting 6-12 months for the game to drop to $20 wasn’t worth the added hassle and mental energy required. Just buy the game and play it and move on with your life; $20 is not worth forgoing a game you really want to play and spending the next 12 months scouring Reddit for a deal.

Last but certainly not least I decided to give up online gaming forums, including NeoGAF. It struck me halfway through the year that I spent no less than 1-2 hours a day on GAF (on light days) just browsing threads about every last news piece, rumor, controversy, PR announcement, bomba, and tweet announcing a countdown timer for a teaser of a mobile spin off. I was getting invested in heated debates around whether some game’s DLC strategy was “ethical,” why Infinite Warfare’s trailer was so much worse than Battlefield 1’s trailer, whether or not Blizzard was justified in removing one of their character’s poses from Overwatch, or how game X that just came out is the best thing ever and every serious gamer ought to-- nay, owes it to themself to play it. The amount of headspace all this “news” and discussion was occupying was not insignificant, and it was completely at odds with how unimportant these issues were to me and my life as a whole. So I gave up gaming news and forums for the most part and, lo and behold, I am just as happy and fulfilled as I was before. If anything I have more mental energy to game and enjoy myself since I don’t have to contextualize my fun in terms of what is currently in vogue within the global gaming community. I can pre-order (gasp!) a game that I want, play it for a few weeks, and thoroughly enjoy it. The fact that there may or may not be a controversy swirling online about the developer’s DLC plans or a lack of cross-platform parity doesn’t impact my enjoyment of the game, and I’m better for it.

All of this to say that my 2016 list is unusual in that it's a list of two halves. The games from the first half of the year I played because everyone on GAF was raving about them and I felt an obligation to experience them, whereas the games from the second half of the year were mostly impulse purchases based on a random YouTube video or a conversation with a friend. It’s interesting to reflect on how these disparate approaches to game selection end up placing on my list.

Best 2015 Game: Batman: Arkham Knight (Rocksteady, PC)
One of the first games I played in my new “blissfully ignorant” phase was Batman: Arkham Knight, a game that I was very familiar with due to the barrage of negative press and criticism it received last year for its shoddy PC port. Old me would have avoided this game completely to make a statement to WB, but new me saw a $10 Steam sale and a bunch of Steam reviews saying that the performance issues were fixed and decided to take the plunge. Boy am I glad I did, because as a mega fan of Arkham City I thought Knight bettered it in every way imaginable. The plot is surprisingly dark and takes Batman to some harrowing places psychologically, which really threw me for a loop. It reminded me a lot of The Dark Knight in its tone and subject matter. The gameplay is really great too, with all the combat and exploration mechanics benefitting from a layer of refinement and polish. The addition of the Batmobile was also really successful in my book, as I enjoyed all the combat and traversal mechanics that it adds to the game. The side quests were on the repetitive side but had an excellent payoff, both through a final showdown with each villain as well as their addition to the holding cells at GCPD. I enjoyed the game so much that I bought its season pass and enjoyed the additional vignettes with Ra’s, Freeze, Harley Quinn, and others.

After the disappointment of Arkham Origins I’m really glad I gave Knight a shot. I did have a ton of slowdown on PC especially when using the Batmobile, but it was a truly memorable experience that gets me excited for what Rocksteady has in store for us next.

Disappointment of the Year: Overwatch (Blizzard, PC)
I have to apologize for the incoming wall of text because I have a lot of thoughts about Overwatch that I have to get off my chest. I probably have more to say about why Overwatch was a disappointment than about most of my 2016 games of the year. After all, it was my most anticipated game last year. In fact, I was so excited for Overwatch that I made the freaking OT for it (my first ever GAF OT). While I love the underlying mechanics of the game and think it’s an incredibly competent shooter, it’s all the crap that Blizzard put around the core game that brings the experience crashing down for me.

Let’s start with the tip of the iceberg: loot boxes. Back in closed beta there were no levels or XP or loot boxes; you just played games against other players and your reward was the enjoyment of playing Overwatch. Then loot boxes were added and all of a sudden my focus went from simply enjoying the game to, “I wonder what I’m going to get?” It might seem trivial, but the addition of loot boxes takes a fun game and forces you to interact with it through an RNG lens. Every time you play the game you are de facto working towards earning new skins because the only thing you are given after a match is XP, and the only thing XP is used for is getting loot boxes. This effectively forces you to interact with skins and cosmetics every time you play a match. Whereas other games put their paid cosmetics in a separate in-game store for you to access if you wish, Blizzard forces you to interact with its cosmetic roulette wheel every single time you play a game.

If that were the only issue with Overwatch then it would honestly still feature on my GOTY list. It's the unbalanced matchmaking combined with the poorly executed competitive mode that earn it the (dis)honor of Disappointment of the Year. Over 57 hours of play I found Blizzard’s matchmaker to be much more likely to put me in a one-sided landslide than in a balanced tug-of-war between two evenly matched teams. I don’t mind losing if the game is balanced, but more often than not losses are complete steamrolls. Unfortunately, the matchmaker isn’t even capable of maintaining a 50% win rate, so most of my games ended up being highly demoralizing losses that I couldn’t do anything about. I can only use anecdotal data but over ~13 hours of Season 2 my win rate was 35%. To me this indicates a systemic issue in the game’s matchmaking algorithm: if a game can't achieve a 50% win rate over a 13-hour period (especially when the average match lasts 15-20 minutes) then its ability to evenly match players is fundamentally flawed. I know my quick play win rate is also not close to 50%, but Blizzard removed win rate statistics from quick play so I couldn’t even tell you what my ratio is if I wanted to. The last thing I’ll say about its matchmaking, which is something that Jeff from Giant Bomb mentioned in his GOTY discussion, is that whenever I grouped up with IRL friends, which in every other game makes for a really fun experience, resulted in a MISERABLE experience. Overwatch is just shit at balancing groups, which is humorously ironic considering it gives you a 20% XP bonus for grouping up. Every single time I played with my friends we got utterly decimated, game after game after game. I had a guys’ night with a buddy of mine where we literally lost 9 games in a row; we didn’t win a single game for over an hour. It was a horrible experience, and it happens whenever I group up with friends. Like clockwork, every time I stop grouping with my friends I start to win more often, but my god is the group matchmaking in that game busted. It actually makes me anti-social because I’ll resist grouping up with my friends when they’re online, which is a terrible thing for a multiplayer video game to promote.

The matchmaking issues are exacerbated by the design of the competitive mode, which comes with its own slew of puzzling decisions. Leavers in competitive are completely unaddressed, with very lenient punishment that doesn’t deter ragequitting. What’s worse is that the team with a leaver will lose the same amount of rank as if they had lost the game fair and square, resulting in a system that punishes the leaver’s teammates as much as the leaver himself. I had a Control game where a teammate of ours left in the first round after the opposing team capped the point. We ended up having an incredibly close 5v6 match where we actually managed to win a round and lost 3-1. We lost the same amount of rank we would have lost had our teammate not left even though we almost won a 5v6 match. In that scenario I would have expected the 5 people who almost beat a 6-person team to at least get some recognition of their skill via a small change in rank, but the game doesn’t appear to have any perceptible amount of nuance in its ranking system.

Speaking of rank, it is impossible to predict how your rank will change after a game because rank gains/losses appear to be highly random. This is compounded by a streak mechanic that increases your rank gains/losses for every consecutive win or loss. This is illogical to me because streaks occur naturally even in a perfectly random 50% probabilistic universe. Flip a coin 1,000 times and you’ll end up with roughly 500 heads and 500 tails, but there will be tons of streaks along the way; streaks are a perfectly natural occurence. For someone to come along and arbitrarily weight data points within streaks more heavily than other equally valid data points makes no sense to me. If you were to apply Overwatch’s ranking system to coin flipping, you would end up at either a higher or lower rank than where you started even if your flip rate was 50%. I do not see how this is in any way defensible.

When I got Overwatch at launch I knew six other IRL friends who also got the game. This was unprecedented for me as I don’t really have a lot of friends who game. We grouped up and played quite often and we were all into it at the beginning. Fast forward to today and every single one of them has left Overwatch because they weren’t enjoying it anymore. I even made it a point to ask them why they stopped playing and every single one of them mentioned that the game started to grate on their nerves for various reasons. The game is fun at first, but its flaws become unavoidable as you spend more time with it. For example, realizing that 80% of matches aren’t fun because they involve dicking around on either side of a chokepoint until the attackers build up an ult or two that lets them push. Aside from that, one of its most serious issues is its incredibly toxic community that wastes no opportunity in telling you how terrible your hero choice is, how dumb your teammates are, how we’re only losing because of how overpowered X hero is, and my favorite: the genius who decides during hero select that we’re definitely going to lose the game because we didn’t pick 3 tanks and 3 supports and proceeds to ragequit.

I’ve ranted a lot about Overwatch but I’ll grant that its flaws are fixable. Loot boxes can be addressed with changes to the progression system, the matchmaking algorithm is an ever evolving entity that could get better over time, and changes to the design of the competitive mode could alleviate a lot of the issues I have with Ranked mode and the awful community. Alas I’m not optimistic that any of these changes will happen in the near future. I’ve read through most of this voting thread and most people who vote for Overwatch admit that no other game has pissed them off as much as it has. What seems to be a universal fact about this game is that it can be a royal pain in the ass, and when things are going wrong it can unleash some incredible anger and frustration. As I get older I have less and less patience for any game that requires me to oscillate between having fun and yelling at my screen; life is too short and there are too many other things I could be doing in my free time instead of getting furious at a video game. I realize that Overwatch is loved on this forum and it will likely place in the top 5 when all the votes are counted, but I don’t like games that don’t respect my time and Overwatch epitomizes that for me. I’ll continue to come back to it whenever new content is added and during its seasonal events, but until its flaws are fixed I will mostly stay away from it.

Honorable Mention. Rise of the Tomb Raider (Crystal Dynamics, PC)

I played the game on Xbox 360 last year when it was released as I was a huge fan of the Tomb Raider reboot. The entire time I was playing it I wished it was on PC because I could only imagine what the gorgeous settings would look like on a high end gaming rig. I finally got my wish this year and managed to snag the game off the Windows Store for $10 during its pricing fiasco. The game looks amazing and takes you to some incredible locales, but I found its plot and setting less interesting than its prequel. Something about being stranded on a deserted island grabbed me more than this version, which has you hunting a hidden artifact while being chased by a militarized organization hell bent on getting there first. It’s a good game with a lot of content, and the combat is competent, but the world just didn’t grab me as much as I had hoped. Plus, the game had some serious issues with its platforming, which killed me much more often than enemies did. There were numerous puzzles where I knew exactly what I needed to do but the finicky platforming deaths meant it took me 2-3 times as long to complete the section. Overall it’s a disappointment compared to the reboot but still a good game in its own right.

Honorable Mention. Titanfall 2 (Respawn Entertainment, PC)

I didn’t plan to get Titanfall 2 but my brother somehow got a free second key when he bought his, which he gave to me. I gave the game a shot and lo and behold, the campaign was actually fun. It’s very short (5-6 hours) but the encounter design is varied enough to be engaging throughout the entire game and its sci-fi theme makes it feel like the Halo game that PC never got. Many of the levels give you the ability to alter the geography around you as you run and jump and shoot, which makes for a much more dynamic FPS experience than basically every other shooter campaign out there. Being able to slide walls and floors into place while in mid wallrun is exhilarating, especially when everything falls into place to allow you to execute an uninterrupted series of double jumps and wallruns while killing enemies on the way. Of course you are going to end up with lots of falling to your death because the timing is very particular, but the load times are instantaneous and you never have to stare at a death screen when you have a platforming death. That in and of itself is a fantastic little feature that should be in every game with platforming segments. I would have played more of the multiplayer but the game keeps freezing for some weird reason so I haven’t spent too much time with it. Overall a really fun game but doesn’t do anything special to be memorable.

TEN. Resident Evil 0 (Capcom, PC)

One of the only Resident Evil games I hadn’t played, I had to pick this up since REmake is one of my favorite games of all time. The only reason it’s not higher on my list is because I never made much progress in the game. However I really enjoyed the few hours I played, with the first level on the train being a standout. The graphics are significantly improved over the REmaster, with clean visuals and no low-res backgrounds. However the loss of a Type C control system is a bummer, so I had to get acclimated to a new control scheme after having just finished REmake a few days prior. I will try to spend more time with this game in 2017 since RE7 doesn’t really appeal to me, but I fully expect it to live up to the fun I had with REmake.

NINE. Inside (Playdead, PC)

Inside is the video game version of those 4-minute music videos that are filmed in one continuous shot. The game is 4-5 hours of you running to the right, and while that sounds boring it’s punctuated by a series of intelligent puzzles, platforming segments, and chases that keep the experience interesting. I have to applaud the map designers for being able to envision a single, connected map from the very beginning to the very end. I would actually really love to view a zoomed out cross section map of the entire game because it would emphasize how ingenious the continuous level design is. Add in a really dark, brooding aesthetic and some hazy, otherworldy sound design and you have an oddly creepy yet alluring world. Inside is a very pure form of video game, with no words or text giving you any direction on where to go or what to do. You run and run until you die, and then you respawn a few feet back and have to figure out what it is you did wrong. Maybe there was a switch you forgot to flip, or an enemy you need to evade, or a box you have to move. Some of the more devious puzzles later in the game involve underwater exploration, mind control, gravity alteration, and… something that is best left for you to experience. It may not have the most complex game mechanics and is not very difficult, but it’s still a very engrossing experience. It has this incredibly oppressive atmosphere that keeps you constantly on edge as you wonder what hellish puzzle or location or enemy is waiting to kill you around the next corner. I played the game in two sittings, which I think is the best way to experience this game. The surreal, dark aesthetic sucks you in and suffocates you from the first time an NPC runs up to you and snaps your neck to the last moments as the game rolls to a peaceful stop.

EIGHT. Kingdom Rush Frontiers (Ironhide Games, PC)

You might not think so, but it’s actually really hard to find a good tower defense game. There aren’t that many to begin with, and the ones that are good are few and far between. Kingdom Rush Frontiers is a sequel to Kingdom Rush, a free mobile tower defense game, and it has the same simple yet deviously addictive formula. You build towers, you upgrade them with gold from enemies, and you move a hero around the battlefield who provides damage and/or tanking support to your towers. The big change in this version is the level up system, where your hero gains experience as s/he fights through the campaign and can level up various skills at their disposal. There are also all-new environmental hazards that you have to keep an eye out for, such as Alien-esque facehuggers that can turn your soldiers into hulking alien monstrosities, or sand worms that burst through the ground and consume anything in their path.

My favorite thing about the game though are the new tower types. When you upgrade a tower to its max level you have the option of two upgrade paths. Each path alters the behavior of the tower in a way that is more suited to one type of strategy over another. The mage tower, for instance, can be morphed into an Archmage, which has high DPS and can store charged shots when idle that strike for increased damage, or a Necromancer, who has lower damage but can raise skeletons from the corpses of enemies to create an army of weak meat shields that slow the enemy’s progress. Similarly, the archer tower can evolve into a low damage, high speed Crossbow Fort that is good for clearing out swarms of weak enemies, or Tribal Axethrowers that have a slower rate of fire but can chunk down the more powerful enemies.

Unfortunately what ended up happening towards the end of the game is that I found a combination of towers that, once fully upgraded and placed in proximity to each other, became so dominant that it was near impossible to lose. Luckily there are multiple difficulty levels and challenge levels that limit which towers you can build and how many upgrades you can have that ramp up the difficulty and keep things challenging. However there are a few challenge levels that were so unbelievably difficult that I had to look up guides online, which kind of dampened the experience for me. If you want a fun, deep tower defense game and don’t mind looking up guides every now and then when you hit a wall, you could do much worse that diving into the Kingdom Rush series.

SEVEN. The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt - Blood and Wine (CD Projekt Red, PC)

The final piece of DLC for my 2015 GOTY but boy did this one miss a lot of notes. Whereas Hearts of Stone was a tight, well-paced plot with some of the best side quests in the entire game, Blood and Wine feels very grindy with unnecessary padding to increase play time. Whenever I picked up a quest and saw “0/5” show up in my quest tracker my heart sank a little, because I knew I was in for an hour or two of running to 5 different locations on the map and fighting swarms of annoying insects over and over again. I play on Blood & Broken Bones difficulty, so the spiders and mutant plants are some of the most annoying enemies to fight in the entire game. I can handle necrophages, specters, and golems on this difficulty level. They all have strengths and weaknesses and can be defeated with some intelligent positioning and oil/potion usage. The spiders and plants though? They just spam you with AOE damage, ranged CC, and tons of respawning minions. Fighting them is a slog and I’ve resorted to just turning on god mode through the debug console whenever they show up.

Luckily for the game its world is still as engrossing as ever and traveling around Beauclair talking to its inhabitants is as fun as ever. The quests that don’t involve spiders and plants are very enjoyable and remind me why I fell in love with the Witcher 3 last year. The tournament at the beginning of the DLC, the quest that has you tracking a ghoul obsessed with spoons, and some of the main story quests are very well written and do a great job at drawing you into the universe. It’s too bad that they are let down by some repetitive side quests and spammy enemies.

 

[Dance Inferno]

SIX. DOOM (id Software, PC)

There’s not much I can say about DOOM that hasn’t already been said. I started playing this game after the new year and was immediately arrested by the brazen adolescent machismo that DOOM revels in. It’s pure adrenaline distilled into an FPS. It’s hyper aware that it’s a video game and that video games are supposed to be fun, and it does away with a lot of the literary and expository aspects of single player games to focus purely on the heart-pumping combat. It takes an almost Souls approach to plot, as you pick up pieces of lore in your journal while going through the game, but unlike Souls the plot here is never the focus. As a result it feels like these two pieces of the game are a bit disjointed, with the levels and combat designed first and the lore and plot thrown in later. I almost feel like a lack of plot would have been preferable to a bad one. I think I enjoyed playing DOOM more than the next two games on my list, but they do a better job of tying all aspects of the game together that at the end of the day they come out feeling like better experiences. Still, that’s not to take away from what id has accomplished here. I have to say I’m really enjoying this new approach that Bethesda is taking: between Wolfenstein, Dishonored, and DOOM, they’re really coming into their own as the go-to publisher for single player FPS games. I hope they start putting these games out more regularly because few things can compete with their pure, visceral fun factor.

FIVE. Firewatch (Campo Santo, PC)

I did not expect to like this game as much as I did. I’m a fan of walking simulators generally but none of them have ever grabbed me the same way Firewatch did. The gorgeous graphics draw you in at first, settling you into a relaxed mood as you enjoy simply walking around the beautiful forests of Wyoming. The radio banter between your character and your fellow ranger also pulls you in, giving you a sense of a larger wilderness. Just as you start to feel comfortable though you start to notice things. Shadowy figures in the night, signs of entry in locations that were empty just a few minutes ago, fires burning in the distance. More than any other game I’ve played, Firewatch nails the feeling of being paranoid and feeling like you’re being watched. It’s a very uncomfortable experience and it had me in actual dread at points, trying to hightail it out of locations where I felt physically unsafe and uncomfortable.

FOUR. Dark Souls III (FROM Software, PC)

I had one eye on Dark Souls III pre-release but I never planned to get the game since I had played the previous 2 Souls games in the previous 2 years. However the few YouTube videos I saw of the game post release looked really cool so I decided to plonk down $45 immediately rather than wait a year for an additional $20 off. I’m glad I did because this is easily my favorite Souls game, beating out DSII for that honor. I haven’t finished it yet but I’ve found it to be less frustrating than the previous entries in the series, with no areas quite as horrendous as Blighttown or Lost Izalith. In fact, I’ve thoroughly enjoyed most areas I’ve played through so far, with most of them feeling fair and balanced. Smouldering Lake is the exception, which was hell to play through as a pyromancer, but that’s balanced by the fact that magic is much more viable than in the previous entries. In fact, I’d say a large portion of why I’m thoroughly enjoying this game is the ability to utilize both melee and casting damage. The freedom to play the game the way I want, even choosing how many Estus flasks to allot to healing versus mana regeneration, makes for a more forgiving experience than the prequels. The enemies and bosses so far have also been the most imaginative and most fun to fight in the entire series.

The thing I love most about the game though are the art and the graphics. As the best looking game in the series it looks gorgeous in a dying beauty kind of way. You can tell from looking at the environments that these areas used to look phenomenal in their heyday, but as the world starts imploding all the beauty is going with it. Whereas DSI just looked ugly and DSII looked too pristine, DSIII nails the balance between beauty and death. You get the feeling that you’re visiting this world at the last moment before its beauty completely collapses. Trees are dying and buildings are crumbling but flowers still litter the forests and the distant architecture is still jaw dropping. The vista you see after beating the first boss will be seared in my memory for a long time to come; you push open these massive doors and see an entire kingdom, maybe multiple kingdoms, sprawled out in the distance before you as far as the horizon extends. In no other game did the phrase, “if you see it you can go there” hit me as hard as at that moment. For the first time in a Souls game it’s the art that truly motivates me to push on and endure its challenge. Thankfully the gameplay is solid and fully realizes the fantasy and despair that the art attempts to convey. If you can only play one Souls game, this is the one.

THREE. Battlefield 1 (DICE, PC)

Battlefield 1 is the first multiplayer FPS that I thoroughly enjoy even when I’m losing. It’s also the first FPS where I haven’t touched the campaign due to the strength of the multiplayer.

Another impulse purchase, I picked up Battlefield 1 at release because I was a few glasses of wine into dinner with friends when a buddy texts me and tells me he’s going to buy Battlefield 1. I had been watching a bunch of Twitch streams and the game seemed really refreshing so I bought the game as soon as I got home without much thought. To my great pleasure I realized that everything that Overwatch did wrong, Battlefield 1 does right. With 20 or 32 players to a team, the matchmaking is highly balanced because each individual player has a much smaller impact on the outcome of the match, meaning the matchmaker has more leeway in putting together two balanced teams. Whereas Overwatch makes you grind for loot boxes, Battlefield 1 gives them to you randomly after matches. Plus, the weapon skins are almost impossible to see in-game due to how hectic the matches are that cosmetics never really become a focus. Finally, whereas Overwatch matches devolve into teams dicking around until ultimates allow for a push, Battlefield is constantly thrilling and the action never lets up.

Operations is really what Battlefield 1 is all about. Each Operation is a collection of 2 or 3 maps that have 4-5 sectors each. Attackers need to capture 2-3 flags in a sector in order to “capture” the sector, at which point the defenders fall back to the next sector and the attackers rush forward to attack it. This creates a flow to the battle that makes it feel like a real war: the geography changes as you move from sector to sector and the battle lines shift. Strategies that work on one sector don’t work on another, and after each 45-60 minute mission you feel like you’ve been through a substantive battle. I’ve never really put much stock in the term “Battlefield moments,” but this game made me a believer. In one match I was playing with a friend of mine and we were defending an underground bunker with about 10 other teammates. There were two doors into the bunker and we were split between the two doors, shooting furiously at attackers who attempted to enter. We would toss grenades through the doors whenever the attackers started to amass for an attack, and we would run frantically whenever they tossed grenades at us. Gas grenades would get thrown in, resulting in everyone scurrying to get their gas masks on. Fire grenades would get thrown in, resulting in everyone going prone to reduce the burn damage. Teammates kept dying left and right, and medics would run around the room reviving them. Teammates kept running out of ammo, and support troops would run around the room resupplying them. We held that room for a harrowing 5 minutes with bullets flying, grenades exploding, and people dying all around us, during which we killed no less than 50 attackers. It was tense and furious and exhilarating, and after we lost the bunker my friend took a breath and said to me, “It’s horrifying that real soldiers went through something like this during the war.” That’s the other thing about this game: underpinning every match is the knowledge that this is based on a true war that cost countless lives. The game never forgets this and treats the war with the deference it deserves, making the combat experiences you have all the more poignant.

Battlefield 1 is the definition of spectacle. When you’re defending a position and a zeppelin is raining down death, it’s larger than life. When you’re sprinting through a field with 10 teammates at your back, tanks rumbling on your flanks, and bomber jets flying above, it’s larger than life. When an objective is ping ponging between your team and the opposition, with bullets flying and artillery raining down and uncontrolled chaos just materializing all around you, it’s larger than life. Battlefield 1 is fun because it’s impossible to fully convey the spectacle of the game without seeing it for yourself. I have fun whether I win or lose because each match is an experience, a series of self-contained Battlefield moments wrapped in an emergent storyline that unfolds based on the actions of your teammates and your enemies. I can lose a match of Battlefield 1 and still feel like I had an engaging and thrilling experience. I never thought I could enjoy a multiplayer game to this extent, but I’m glad Battlefield 1 proved me wrong. In keeping with my devil may care attitude regarding game purchases, this is the first time I’ve bought a season pass for a multiplayer game and it wasn’t even a hard decision given how much fun I’ve been having. I expect to be spending a lot of time with Battlefield 1 in 2017.

TWO. Civilization VI (Firaxis, PC)

October 21, 2016. Who would have thought that my #2 and #3 games this year would have been impulse purchases of games that launched on the same day?

I played a decent amount of Civilization V but it was never a game that I was crazy about. I beat the game a handful of times but most times I ended up losing interest after a few hours. As a result I was never planning to get Civilization VI, but I saw a Polygon preview pop up in my RSS feed where the author was allowed to play the game for 35 hours and I really liked everything I read. So I took a leap and pre-ordered the physical Deluxe Edition, which is something I rarely do. However as I mentioned earlier, I’ve come around to the idea that all the mental energy spent waiting for a deal is a waste, so I bought the Deluxe Edition without much thought and sold the packed-in extras on eBay to make back a bit of cash.

Lucky for me this game is the real deal. The changes it makes to Civilization V are more of the “evolution” rather than the “revolution” variety, but they add up to create a much more engaging campaign. The big change is the addition of districts, which are specialized neighborhoods that are required to build certain improvements. For example, an Industrial Zone is required for building factories and other production boosting buildings, whereas a Campus is required for universities and research facilities and all science-related buildings. Districts occupy their own hex outside the city center, which means you can no longer just build every building in every city like you could in Civilization V and you instead have to choose which districts to build in each city. In addition to that, districts require certain geographical features in order to be built, and some of them get bonuses from adjacencies (e.g., a Holy District generates extra Faith from being built next to a natural wonder). As if that wasn’t enough, some of the late-game improvements broadcast their benefits to all cities within 6 hexes, which means you could build a single power plant in one city that spreads its effect to multiple nearby cities. What this all means is that geography is significantly more important in Civ VI, and I find myself planning out where to build my next cities 50-100 turns ahead of time. For instance, one city in a cluster could be my “production city” where I build all the production boosting buildings, whereas another one might be my “happiness city” with the zoos and parks and all the happiness boosting improvements. Since some of these benefits extend to nearby cities, where I place each city and which districts I build in each becomes a lot more important. This makes each campaign unique and varied, as the geography of my continent combined with the victory condition I’m targeting will dictate how I plan the growth of my empire. A science victory will require a huge amount of industrial zones and campuses, whereas a cultural victory calls for theater squares and seaside resorts.

This theme of your strategy being dictated by the world around you extends to some of the other changes made in Civ VI, such as leader AI. The leaders in this game all have two “agendas,” one of which is constant and one of which is randomly selected. Cleopatra, for instance, always likes civilizations with large armies, but her random agenda could be that she likes to explore the map and dislikes civilizations that have explored more of the map than she has. This is an ingenious way to hide the AI’s limitations while also adding unpredictably into the mix. This creates interesting situations where you are planning a cultural victory but then 30 turns into your game you realize Cleopatra is your neighbor. Now you have to decide whether to invest in producing a military in order to get on Cleopatra’s good side, or neglect your military and risk a war with Cleopatra due to having a sub-standard military force. In fact, this is exactly what happened to me in my first game, and it caused me to switch from my goal of a cultural victory to focusing on a military victory because I didn’t want Egypt to wipe me off the map within the first 100 turns.

That, in a nutshell, is what’s so great about Civilization VI. Far from being able to dictate the terms of your strategy, the game forces you to adapt to the world around you, which is much more true to life when you think about the arc of human history. More importantly, it makes for much more interesting gameplay where you don’t know how your game is going to unfold until you’re halfway through. In my latest game I was bordered by Gandhi to the south, who doesn’t start wars with other civilizations, while Kongo was to my west. Kongo had the biggest military in my game but they can’t start their own religion and like civilizations that spread their religion within Kongo’s borders. In order to avoid getting steamrolled I pumped a ton of effort into my religious units and spread my religion to most of Kongo’s cities. This ensured that Kongo was always friendly to me, and with Gandhi to my south I basically never had to worry about building any military units. This strategy allowed me to focus on pumping out the cultural units and achieving a cultural victory without any fear of military confrontation. Civilization VI is my favorite strategy game from the past several years and I have it to thank for getting me back into the 4X/TBS genre. If Gods & Kings and Brave New World are anything to go by, I’ll be playing “one more turn” for years to come.

ONE. Dishonored 2 (Arkane, PC)

Do you know that feeling when you’re playing a game a certain way and after completing a particularly cool objective or making it through a really tough situation you suddenly get the urge to play it a different way? But you don’t want to switch approaches because that would be incongruous with the way you’ve been playing so far? So you file a mental note to replay that mission after you finish the game? I’ve been getting that feeling every 15 minutes with Dishonored 2. Not only do you have the ability to play the game lethally or non-lethally, but you also have two characters with completely separate sets of abilities: Corvo and Emily. You then add New Game +, which actually changes the game up quite a bit by giving you access to all the character’s abilities from the get-go. And as if that wasn’t enough, you finally have the Flesh and Steel mode, which strips you of all powers, and challenges you to beat the game with no supernatural assistance. This is the second game I started playing right after the new year and I can already tell that my Steam play counter is easily going to sail past 100 hours. Just thinking about all the possible replays makes my head spin.

The opportunities to play the game differently wouldn’t mean much if the gameplay wasn’t good, but thankfully Dishonored 2 is one of the most playable games this year. I’m generally not the type of person who elevates gameplay above plot since I need a well-written story to keep me engaged with a game, but Dishonored 2 is the damn exception. While I’m thoroughly enjoying its plot so far, I would be just as high on this game if the plot was non-existent because the moment-to-moment gameplay is so damn fun. I spent 5 hours just in the second mission alone, which doesn’t have any assassination targets or plot exposition and is simply a location that you have to traverse in order to reach your target in the next level. These transitory levels were my least favorite part of the first Dishonored because they just felt like padding: here is an entire area full of enemies just to slow you down and increase your play time before you get to the actual location you’re supposed to infiltrate. Cut to Dishonored 2 and I spent 5 hours just hunting down runes and bonecharms, clearing out bloodfly infested buildings, reading letters and books for all the interesting lore, and murdering every two-faced Karnacan guard I could get my hands on in this game’s first transitory level. There isn’t a second where any of this feels like busywork, which is usually the case in collectathon situations (see Rise of the Tomb Raider or any Ubisoft game), because the levels are so expertly designed and the art so brilliantly inviting. The sun-drenched Karnacan streets, the towering gothic buildings, the dark granite hallways, every nook and cranny is begging to be explored. There’s a rush of serotonin to be had every time you spend several minutes picking your way carefully up a wall or through a hallway while enemies are patrolling all around because it feels like you’ve just solved an exceedingly complex moving puzzle. As a result, the prospect of replaying that level in a different manner becomes a lot of fun because you’re using a different set of tools to solve the same puzzle that you had fun with the first time around.

The unsung hero of this game, and its prequel in fact, is the music. There’s something about a plucky harpsichord while you’re hiding in the shadows or the minimalistic piano and strings that permeate every mission that makes you actually feel like you’re a supernatural assassin stalking the rooftops of a Dystopian steampunk city. The voice acting is superb, with a surprisingly star-studded cast: Robin Taylor, Rosario Dawson, Vincent D’Onofrio, Sam Rockwell, and motherfucking Pedro Pascal. I don’t want to give short shrift to Stephen Russell and Erica Luttrell though, who embody Corvo and Emily to the bone and do a lot to carry the game’s emotional core with their monologues and commentary about the world around them. Sound cues are also brilliantly designed to allow you to sense the enemies around you without having to resort to Detective Vision, which is something that I’ve come to hate in stealth games. That alone deserves high praise because one of my biggest complaints about the first Dishonored was that Far Sight was almost too valuable and I almost always had it on. In Dishonored 2 I’m able to fully take in all the sights and sounds of the world around me without having an ugly wallhack visual layer ruining everything about the game’s aesthetics. It also reinforces the genius of the level design, where the player has all the information he needs to get where he needs to go without resorting to seeing through walls.

One thing I haven’t talked about a lot is the plot. Honestly that’s mainly because I haven’t finished the game yet so I want to withhold judgment until I see how everything plays out. However given how engaging I’ve found the story so far, how many pieces of interesting lore are laying around the world if you’re willing to look, and how much I enjoyed the first game’s plot, I’m pretty confident that this will turn out well. A lot of people have criticized the game’s setup as lazy and similar to the first game, but I found the intro to be well done and it really put me in “revenge” mode as the wrongfully accused Emily. I don’t know when, I don’t know how, but I’m coming for you Delilah, and it’s not going to be quick. And then, when you’re lying at my feet bleeding out, I’m going to start a new game and come for you again. And again, and again, and again. As a massive fan of stealth games that give you the freedom to play however you want, Dishonored 2 is the game that keeps on giving.

----------------------------

Past lists:
2015 (GOTY: The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt)
2013 (GOTY: Splinter Cell: Blacklist)
2012 (GOTY: Borderlands 2)

For the parser:

1. Dishonored 2 ; The art design is as luscious as ever and the levels are a joy to explore. Lost multiple hours just hunting down runes and side missions. Would have been very happy if the entire game was just that, but the main missions are the cherry on top
2. Civilization VI ; The new district system and leader changes make you react to the world around you, which is a fantastic change to the Civilization formula
3. Battlefield 1 ; The most cinematic multiplayer FPS, making for matches that always fun, win or lose
4. Dark Souls III ; The most hauntingly beautiful game of the year, with the gameplay to match
5. Firewatch ; Gorgeous and contemplative, a great Sunday afternoon romp
6. DOOM ; Fun FPS combat but the exploration and plot are sub-par
7. The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt - Blood and Wine ; Not as good as the base game or Hearts of Stone, but still better than most RPGs
8. Kingdom Rush Frontiers ; One of the best tower defense games out there, but too difficult for its own good
9. Inside ; Haunting and surreal, a perfectly tuned platformer with some devious puzzles
10. Resident Evil 0 ; Revisiting the old school RE formula is always a blast, especially in HD
x. Titanfall 2 ; Fun campaign, good sci-fi theme, let down by some technical issues in multiplayer
x. Rise of the Tomb Raider ; Amazing graphics and gorgeous environments, but fiddly platforming and camera hurt the experience

 

[Stumpokapow]

1. Obduction ; PC/Steam, $30. The reason I got into gaming is that when I was a young kid, my father bought an NES for himself... which I hijacked. Then he would bring home his "work computer", mainly so we could play games on that. So many formative gaming memories playing classics like Commander Keen, Doom, and King's Quest. But the game that sticks out most powerfully to me came a little later: Myst. Dad and I played it. He had this little faux leather notebook. We would make notes of everything we found. Text we read, diagrams we found, our own little map of the island. Myst was a puzzle box, every screen a loose thread to be tugged at until we unraveled the tapestry. The pre-rendered graphics, the amazing score, the Full-Motion Video, everything was such an impressive presentation. And the environments felt real. Myst's theme is that a writer, Atrus, has an ancient power where the worlds he writes spring into existence. You find a book which teleports you into the Starry Expense... you tumble to earth, arriving at one of his worlds, Myst Island, only to find that there are no people at all. What happened here? How does this work? What is the purpose of everything you see? Was this a hint, just some flavour text, or a misleading red herring?

One by one we unlocked the other worlds of Myst. The hardest for us was the Selentic Age, which opens when you can repeat a little piano ditty perfectly by setting a series of knobs in a puzzle just right. This requires remarkable tonal precision, which if you're tone deaf like my entire family is quite an endeavour. But in the end we mapped out everything, got through everything, and beat the game. I wanted more, so I bought the novels (video game novels, really?!)

A few years later we got Riven, the sequel to Myst, a game on 5 CDs (5 CDs!!!) Riven is an incredibly difficult adventure game, almost every puzzle in the game is harder than the hardest puzzle in Myst. Many people never make it out of the starting area, even. Riven culminates in two incredibly long puzzles that span across the entire game world, and the final puzzle, The Fire Marbles, is maybe the most difficult puzzle committed to a game disk. We never did beat the Fire Marbles, at least not when I was younger, but I have so many memories of going from area to area, switching disks, finding clues, learning to count, and experiencing that with him.

My Dad was sick for a long time and eventually died in 2015 and I don't think you really get over that kind of thing. I think if you're like me and you lose a parent as an adult, one of the ways you cope is you think about the things you shared together and you try to explore those things to feel a sense of attachment to the person you lost. I'm in my thirties now, I have a wife, I live very far from home, and Dad was sick for so long that I didn't have a lot of great memories with him in my twenties. So I find myself being drawn to the things that meant a lot when I was younger. People, places, music, stories, and yes--games. I have so many memories of playing games with my Dad, but Myst and Riven were among the best. And besides Dad, as I've gotten older I've generally gotten more and more attracted to games that prioritize building a world I want to spend time in. I know many people love frenetic and frantic action games, high skill ceiling shooters. At this point, I just want to adventure.

Obduction is the newest game from Cyan Games, the makers of Myst, and both the primary director of Myst (he's also the main actor) and his brother, the composer, worked on it. Like Myst, Obduction has you arriving at a beautiful, mysterious, dead world and trying to figure out what happened by solving puzzles, reading documents, and exploring. Like Myst, Obduction features many parallel worlds that you can travel to. Like Myst, when you do run into a human, you cannot be sure whether they should be trusted. Like Riven, Obduction has you learn a whole new counting system. I'm a programmer and I live for this stuff anyway. So when I won Obduction in a raffle here on GAF on release day it felt kinda cosmic to me. I took a few days off and ran through the game quickly. I didn't want the game to end, but I did want to keep going and seeing more and soaking in this world.

Hunrath is so beautiful, so purple, and so fun to walk around. By mid-way through the game you know all the snaking paths, you've assembled a mental map, and Hunrath feels like home. This feeling of home is so great when you get it in a game--whether it's C.J.'s cul-de-sac in San Andreas or the cities in Actraiser or the main area in Bastion or your house in Legend or Mana or the school in Bully. The best games provoke feelings, and some of the strongest feelings I get in life are having those little favourite places in the world, and exploring.

Obduction is an incredible adventure game that tells a great story in a wonderful world. I wish there was more: I know resource constraints cut it shorter than they had intended. I have no idea if Cyan will ever make another great adventure game. I hope they do. In a year with The Witness, Firewatch, Oxenfree, Haven Moon, Astroneer, Subnatuica, We Happy Few, The Long Dark, No Man's Sku, Abzu, and countless other games built around exploration, Obduction still captured something that only Cyan can.

I've gotten the opportunity to meet a lot of people in the gaming industry, including people who have made games that meant a lot to me, but I've never met Rand Miller. I hope one day I'm able to tell him that his games meant a lot to me, and those memories growing up stayed with me. I hope I get to share Myst, and Riven, and Obduction with my kids some day.​

2. Life is Strange ; Mac release 2016/Steam, $20. I wasn't a real fan of DONTNOD's previous game, Remember Me, although there was obvious potential in places. And I came late to Life is Strange, obviously. I found out about it when I was home while my Dad was dying. My sister was playing it. I have a good, friendly relationship with my sister but the age gap is such that we've never been what I would consider involved in each other's daily lives. The first thing that caught my attention was how all the license plates in Life is Strange refer to other science fiction works. Like Deadly Premonition, the influences are worn on Life is Strange's sleeves--Donny Darko, Twin Peaks, The Butterfly Effect, many more. Life is Strange succeeds because it builds believable, interesting, and annoying characters, imbues them with very believable dialogue (yes, dumb teen girls say "hella" all the time) and puts them through experiences we can all relate to. Being able to text my sister every time I beat an episode and discuss how I felt added a lot to my already strong connection to the game. Rewinding time isn't just literal, it's allegorical for how we all have those moments we wish we could change, and those other moments we wish we could relive forever.

3. Firewatch ; PC/Steam and consoles, $20. Firewatch is an adventure game that you've probably heard about. What you may not have heard about is this: In Firewatch, you find a disposable camera. When you pick it up, several pictures have already been taken. You can do whatever you want with it. You have maybe 20 pictures left. Once you've taken them, the camera is used up. The game is breathtaking thanks to Olly Moss' visual design, so you'll find no shortage of moments you want to remember. After you complete the game and watch the credits, an option appears on the main menu. You can view all of your photos online... and you can pay $15 to have them developed and shipped to you. I did this. A week or two later I received one of those old photo developing envelopes, complete with the checklist on the back and the seal to open it. I opened it only to find MY photos, and the photos left by the previous owner on the camera--something that's plot relevant to the game. The attention to detail is stellar. Panic! and Campo Santo went the extra mile, and it shows in so many more ways than just this.​

4. The Sea Will Claim Everything ; PC/Steam enhanced release in 2016, $10. Jonas Kyratzes, best known as the writer of The Talos Principle, released this as the fifth or so game in his long-running point-and-click series, The Lands of Dream. The games combine the sort of foolish fantasy and fantastic worlds of something like Terry Pratchett or Douglas Adams, cheeky dialogue, impeccable attention to detail, and at their core a story about humanity. The Sea Will Claim Everything examines corruption, power, austerity, and abuse under autocracy. It is a story about people banding together, hope, and freedom. Beyond the well-written, literate, and deeply knowledgeable dialogue, this is a world where every object has a name and a story, every rock, every book, everything can be clicked.

5. The Turing Test ; PC/Steam and consoles, $20. The Turing Test is a puzzle adventure game in the same genre as Talos Principle, Portal, QUBE, The Ball, and many others. It is set up as a series of puzzle rooms, during which you hear a conversation between your character, Ava Turing, an astronaut investigating radio silence on a base on Europa, and Tom, an AI helper. The puzzles are on the easy side but the main mechanic is intuitive and enjoyable. Where the game shines is the periodic breaks to go through living quarters, science labs, and command centers, learning about the personalities of the other astronauts and what happened. Although Turing Test is never willing to fully engage with its key questions--about the nature of humanity and free will, as you might guess from the title--the surface level conversations we get here are still intriguing and thought provoking. I hope the developer can build on The Turing Test and explore more of this territory in the future.​

6. The Jackbox Party Pack 3 ; PC/Steam and consoles, $25. I remember when the first cyber-cafe opened in my hometown in 1995 or 1996. The game I remember most playing there was You Don't Know Jack, a sort of insane version of Jeopardy! where half of the challenge was figuring out the dense, multi-layered questions, not just answering. I was hooked and I've been a huge fan of the series since then. The 2011 reboot was so great, and a frequent fixation at houseparties. Online multiplayer is fun, but there is still an unmatched raw energy of playing with friends in the same room, and that's where Jack excelled. With the Jackbox Party Pack series, Jackbox games have focused on the emergence of Streaming fun and extending that living room feeling to the world of online multiplayer. Although I occasionally catch a streaming game, I generally still play with non-gamer friends coming over. Jackbox Party Pack 3 features among others, an excellent Pictionary clone; a murder/horror themed trivia game; and a game called Fakin' It where every player except one is given a real-world instruction (touch your nose, hold up fingers that match the number of Dave Matthews Band albums you, make the face you'd make in traffic) and the remaining player must blend in without any sense of context. You learn a lot about your friends when they are trying to lie to you.

7. Codenames ; Cardboard, $13 ("Pictures" version released in 2016). It turns out there's nothing in the rules here that prohibits you from voting for board games. It's content, it was released in 2016. We've allowed visual novels and this has more gameplay. We've allowed games not on traditional platforms. Look, what's the point in doing this if you're not going to have fun abusing a technicality? Codenames is a game where you form two teams, each of which has one hint-giver and one or more guessers. A grid of 25 cards containing words or pictures is laid out. The two guessers see a secret, Battleship-like set of placements that tell them which cards are theirs and which are their opponent's. The hint-givers must say exactly one word and one number, and the guessers must guess which cards are on their team. Guess an opponent's, and you help them. The game is strategic, intelligent, and tense. How do you link "grass" and "comic"? Cheech. How do you link "plaid", "mower", "model", and "moose"? Deere (like John Deere). The feeling of someone picking up on your non-linear connection is thrilling; the feeling of someone missing the obvious is heartbreaking. Oh man, this is so not going to get counted.​

8. The Witness ; PC/Steam and consoles, $40. The Witness was actually mostly complete several years before release, at which point Jonathan Blow and his team began revising the architecture, design, lighting, foliage, and iterating on the weakest puzzles. The resulting world is polished to a sheen and it shows. Ten or twelve core mechanics blend together into an incredibly cohesive adventure world. The landmark mountain in the middle is a beacon that calls you. The Witness shines in two player, with one observer shouting out hints as the player tries. Because the puzzles reward exploration--only by solving puzzles can you even figure out what the puzzles were--the game is very inviting.

9. Abzu ; PC/Steam and consoles, contains Denuvo DRM on PC, $20. This short two hour adventure is I think a better execution of what Journey aimed for. You are small, in a big and beautiful world, traveling towards some unknown goal, soaking in the sights, relaxing, meditating, reflecting on what you see. Some scenes, like swimming along the enormous blue whales, were overwhelming. With so many exploration adventure games these days, I'd love to see even more iterating in this very specific space. We've done sand, we've done water, perhaps space can be next?

10. Pokemon Go ; Mobile, free. The negative reaction to Pokemon Go's apparent shallowness in some gaming circles makes it clear to me I am not in any sense a gamer. Pokemon Go worked because it connected people, it got them talking, it got them exploring the world around them, it got them interacting. The electricity of being involved in something that suddenly takes the world by storm is wonderful. The day it launched, my wife and I went for a walk at midnight, and in the middle of a park, a dude jumps out of his car and yells "Yo, Mystic, You Team Mystic?". Days later we drove to an abandoned, condemned building, again at midnight, with maybe 50 or 75 people in the parking lot, all on their phones. How cool is it to see so many so different people all excited by the same thing. Focusing on the original 150 Pokemon, not worrying too much about combat, stripping away all the cruft the series built up, and just having a very enjoyable core experience worked. My wife works with children and many of them have used Pokemon Go as their first real gaming obsession. They want to go outside and play just to catch more Pokemon. Reading stories about people flying to other countries to get the last few elusive Pokemon? Hearing confused late-night comedians and completely out of touch presidential candidates reference it? Cool to see gaming be a force for uniting.​

Past ballots: 2015, 2013, 2012, 2011, 2010.

 

[Dance Inferno]

Nice list stump. Obduction and Turing Test look right up my alley, I'll keep an eye out for them in the next sale. Sorry about your dad, but I'm glad you found a game that brings back good memories of him.

 

[Magic Mushroom]

1. SQUAD - Technically cam out 12/15/2015… but the game was not what it is today until the v8 content patch that added vehicles (OCT 2016). This game is GOD LIKE! The best firefights I have ever experienced in a game. EVERY SINGLE match is a unique experience. If anyone likes tactical FPS games you MUST check out Squad. Until you experience these combat engagements yourself you will never understand how immersive this game can be.

2. Grow Up - Took the surprise hit Grow Home and made it a more worthwhile experience. It takes many of the great elements of the first and expands.

3. LOZ: TP HD - Was a great HD port of a fantastic game. It was so nice to play this game w/o the waggle (I played Wii 1st time). Really displayed how good the games original art style was and how phenomenal it 'would have' looked like had the Wii been more in line with the 360/PS3.

4. Uncharted 4 - Just a tour de force on what AAA production can be on the PS4. The who game is just impressive in every facet. Just wreaks of quality throughout. Great story, fun game play and brilliant visuals.

5. TBD… looking back I think I played mostly 2015 releases in 2016.... not sure what that says....

Replace - with ; if you want your vote to count.

 

[Imp the Dimp]

1. Dragon's Dogma; Best open world combat I've ever played. Gameplay is king.
2. Dark Souls III
3. Final Fantasy XV
4. Firewatch
5. The Last Guardian
6. Doom
7. Overwatch
8. Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE
9. Tyranny
10. World of Final Fantasy

 

[TheGreatLugia]

1. Pokémon Sun/Moon ; Pokemon Sun is close to exactly what I hoped the series would become. It's one of the best looking 3DS games with improved battle visuals and a much-needed overhaul for the overworld. The island trials are a nice shakeup from the gym pattern and a few of the Totem Pokemon boss fights were surprisingly challenging. The soundtrack is fantastic and fits the game's tropical setting perfectly. Everything from the graphical leap, to the art style, to the soundtrack, to the menu design forms an incredibly cohesive experience that really makes you feel like you're on a relaxing island adventure. On top of that, the game is full of endearing characters with solid development and some surprisingly funny moments, with the narrative having some nice payoff moments as well. This is easily my game of the year.

2. Dark Souls III ; What happens when you combine the general atmosphere of Demon's Souls, the setting of Dark Souls, and a faster paced combat system reminiscent of Bloodborne? You make my favorite game in the Dark Souls trilogy. Dark Souls III combines some of my favorite elements of From Software's recent works and mixes them all together in a tight package. It has a great combat system, memorable and consistent level design, climactic boss fights, and a wonderful soundtrack. If this really is the last Dark Souls game, the series went out on a high note.

3. Final Fantasy XV ; Examining Final Fantasy XV on its own without comparing it to what was shown of the game before 2014, the game has a lot of ambition and a lot of heart, but also a lot of slips and falls. I really enjoy the combat despite its simplicity, the general moment-to-moment gameplay, the interactions between the party members, and the soundtrack. However, a number of story bosses were disappointing to me, the later chapters felt incredibly rushed, the game has a lot of glitches, most of the characters felt like wasted potential, and the storytelling was mostly payoff without proper setup leaving the narrative in an incredibly messy state. Why is the game this high on my list, then? I just enjoy it that much. It's one of those games that I have dozens of issues with but manages to feel great most of the time when I'm actually playing it instead of writing about it. Final Fantasy XV is a game I remain conflicted upon, but it's definitely a journey I'm glad I took.

4. Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE ; I've never touched a mainline Shin Megami Tensei game, never finished a Persona game, never finished a Fire Emblem game, and didn't care for the game's entertainment industry setup. So why did I play this? Well, I heard the gameplay was really good and was looking for something reminiscent of Cyber Sleuth after finishing that game. I wasn't sure what I'd think going into this but I decided to give it a shot. And I'm glad I did, because this game has one of my favorite turn-based combat systems in a long time. Add some nice dungeon designs and some enjoyable if simple characters, and this stands out as a great game. I wouldn't really call this an ambitious title, but it's easily one of the most polished and fun games I've played this year.

5. Digimon Story: Cyber Sleuth ; This is a solid RPG where everything felt solid but not much stuck out to me as amazing. The gameplay is solid, the characters are okay, and the music is nice, but the only aspect that really stuck with me would be the evolution mechanic. I might have been more impressed if I played it on a Vita instead of a PS4, but regardless I definitely had a fun time.

6. Dragon Quest VII: Fragments of the Forgotten Past ; I didn't get too far in this one but I really enjoyed what I played and want to get back to it eventually so I figured it was worth a mention here. If I finished this game, it might have been higher on the list but since I'm still so early on, I didn't think I should rank it above anything else here.

 

[brainslug]

1. Dark Souls III ; Awesome sequel and conclusion to the Dark Souls trilogy. It's not Bloodborne, but still very atmospheric and immersive, with some of the best areas and boss fights of the series.

2. Final Fantasy XV ; There are a lot of shortcomings but I still loved the journey. The battle system is a mess, the story is a mess (kind of), but I liked the characters and the overall feel of the game. I can't quite explain it – I love and hate the game at the same time. And it's on the second place of my GOTY list. It's a prime example of a game where ultimately the good outweighs the bad.

3. Ratchet & Clank ; The first R&C game I've ever played, and I enjoyed it very much. The game is just beautiful, colourful and fun to play platformer/shooter with charming characters.

4. Inside ; Just like Limbo, a very haunting and atmospheric game with great sound design and art direction. The game will stay with your mind a long, long time.

5. Doom ; This might be the most fun I've had with a first person shooter since Halo 3. Great level design, super fast, super violent. Maybe the most positive surprise of the year.

6. Zero Escape: Zero Time Dilemma ; While it is the worst entry of the ZE trilogy, ZTD was still a decent conclusion to the story. Some of the character motivations and plot twists were kind of bad or weird, but overall I still enjoyed the the game. And it hooked me on my Vita like only a few games have done before.

7. Uncharted 4: A Thief's End ; Never been a huge fan of the franchise, but I still enjoyed my time with Uncharted 4 and I think it's the best game in the series. However, I do think the story's pacing could have been better, and the game felt a little too long for me. But overall I liked it, and it's a huge technical achievement from Naughty Dog.


That's pretty much it. Now, there are some games that could've very well been in my GOTY list, like Dishonored 2, Deus Ex Mankid Divided and Ace Attorney Spirit of Justice – if I had played them. Sadly, there just isn't the time to play everything.

 

[SomTervo]

You can have multiple paragraphs, but your comments must start on the same line as the title as you have them now.

Thanks Cheese.

You know, looking at my Top 10... it's gonna change a lot, I know, over the next couple years. Overwatch? Haven't played. Dark Souls III? Haven't played. Final Fantasy XV? Haven't played. Inside? Haven't played. And as someone without a 3DS, no Pokemon Sun or Moon or Phoenix Wright: Spirit of Justice.

Same. Exactly the same actually, except I've played Inside (and it featured on my list).

1. Obduction ; PC/Steam, $30. The reason I got into gaming is that when I was a young kid, my father bought an NES for himself... which I hijacked. Then he would bring home his "work computer", mainly so we could play games on that. So many formative gaming memories playing classics like Commander Keen, Doom, and King's Quest. But the game that sticks out most powerfully to me came a little later: Myst. Dad and I played it. He had this little faux leather notebook. We would make notes of everything we found. Text we read, diagrams we found, our own little map of the island. Myst was a puzzle box, every screen a loose thread to be tugged at until we unraveled the poster. The pre-rendered graphics, the amazing score, the Full-Motion Video, everything was such an impressive presentation. And the environments felt real. Myst's theme is that a writer, Atrus, has an ancient power where the worlds he writes spring into existence. You find a book which teleports you into the Starry Expense... you tumble to earth, arriving at one of his worlds, Myst Island, only to find that there are no people at all. What happened here? How does this work? What is the purpose of everything you see? Was this a hint, just some flavour text, or a misleading red herring?

One by one we unlocked the other worlds of Myst. The hardest for us was the Selentic Age, which opens when you can repeat a little piano ditty perfectly by setting a series of knobs in a puzzle just right. This requires remarkable tonal precision, which if you're tone deaf like my entire family is quite an endeavour. But in the end we mapped out everything, got through everything, and beat the game. I wanted more, so I bought the novels (video game novels, really?!)

A few years later we got Riven, the sequel to Myst, a game on 5 CDs (5 CDs!!!) Riven is an incredibly difficult adventure game, almost every puzzle in the game is harder than the hardest puzzle in Myst. Many people never make it out of the starting area, even. Riven culminates in two incredibly long puzzles that span across the entire game world, and the final puzzle, The Fire Marbles, is maybe the most difficult puzzle committed to a game disk. We never did beat the Fire Marbles, at least not when I was younger, but I have so many memories of going from area to area, switching disks, finding clues, learning to count, and experiencing that with him.

My Dad was sick for a long time and eventually died in 2015 and I don't think you really get over that kind of thing. I think if you're like me and you lose a parent as an adult, one of the ways you cope is you think about the things you shared together and you try to explore those things to feel a sense of attachment to the person you lost. I'm in my thirties now, I have a wife, I live very far from home, and Dad was sick for so long that I didn't have a lot of great memories with him in my twenties. So I find myself being drawn to the things that meant a lot when I was younger. People, places, music, stories, and yes--games. I have so many memories of playing games with my Dad, but Myst and Riven were among the best. And besides Dad, as I've gotten older I've generally gotten more and more attracted to games that prioritize building a world I want to spend time in. I know many people love frenetic and frantic action games, high skill ceiling shooters. At this point, I just want to adventure.

Obduction is the newest game from Cyan Games, the makers of Myst, and both the primary director of Myst and his brother, the main actor and composer, worked on it. Like Myst, Obduction has you arriving at a beautiful, mysterious, dead world and trying to figure out what happened by solving puzzles, reading documents, and exploring. Like Myst, Obduction features many parallel worlds that you can travel to. Like Myst, when you do run into a human, you cannot be sure whether they should be trusted. Like Riven, Obduction has you learn a whole new counting system. I'm a programmer and I live for this stuff anyway. So when I won Obduction in a raffle here on GAF on release day it felt kinda cosmic to me. I took a few days off and ran through the game quickly. I didn't want the game to end, but I did want to keep going and seeing more and soaking in this world.​

Thanks for sharing Stump. Great post and story. Sorry to hear about your dad.

Always special when a game (and its heritage) intertwines closely with personal experience.​

 

[Alessandro]

1. Total War: Warhammer ; After the letdown that Rome 2 and expansion were, TW series needed something to bring back the magic. They did it with Warhammer. 40k next?

2. Battlefield 1 ; It's all about Operations. 40+ hrs in, just Operations. Operations is the only thing you'll ever need. Operations. You write it like Opera but then you add -tions. And shotguns.

3. Tyranny ; Interesting setting that makes you a commander-like figure in the army of THE bad guy. Pacing was a little bit off between acts and the ending came in abruptly. I'd like to see more, pretty please.

4. Tom Clancy's The Division ; People managed to find bug exploits that ruined the Dark Zone and end-game gearing at launch but seems like Massive managed to address some of them with patches. You can shoot through glass and game has pretty graphics.

5. Uncharted 4: A Thief's End ; There are lots of nuances to old entries. If you've played the others, play this one too.

6. Dark Souls III ; I've played a bunch of hours and it seems a nice blend between the series and Bloodborne.

7. Final Fantasy XV ; Loading times are long. MMO-like design can cause overleveling. Summons are crazy.

8. Bravely Second: End Layer ; Loses some charm that first one had. Not a bad sequel overall with a cool ending.

 

[tenderbrew]

1. Fire Emblem Fates ; Really three games, with Conquest being one of the best campaigns of all-time.
2. Civilization VI ; Will only get better with DLC / expansions, but released in a great state to where I already dedicated nearly 100 hours.
3. Pokémon Sun/Moon ; Great campaign and great new systems / monsters, ate up tens of hours over a glorious week.
4. Overwatch ; As Call of Duty trailed off for me recently post-BO2, this game came to pick me back up into the FPS genre with nightly friend groups.
5. Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE ; My XCX of this year - a total surprise at how great this was and totally tugged at my Fire Emblem fanboyishness.
6. Dark Souls 3 ; First full Dark Souls game I've played through and man I loved every minute of it - worth the hype.
7. Salt and Sanctuary ; Souls in 2D and very well done, sunk time into New Game + as well because I couldn't stay away.
8. Rhythm Heaven Megamix ; New stuff + all the best stuff, a huge great campaign with tons of secrets and a continuation of one Nintendo's best franchises (even though I have zero rhythm.)
9. Pokkén Tournament ; Great fighting system, great variety of characters, great single player campaign - not enough good things can be said from a game I expected zero from.
10. Monster Hunter Generations ; MH re-mixed and done well, the new styles added a lot to the game and I wish I had more time to sink into it and get back.

 

[Enstikto]

I haven't played a lot of games of 2016 since i used most of my time on my backlog. But from what I played here are my choices.

1. The Last Guardian ; People talk about the technical problems of the game but you can't ignore that this is a one of a kind special game. A beautiful story and a roller-coaster of emotions. My GOTY.
2. Uncharted 4: A Thief's End ; A technological masterpiece. Best graphics in ps4 by far. A good more mature story. Good characters. Great gameplay. Great experience overall.
3. The Witcher III: Wild Hunt - Blood and Wine ; An expansion that is bigger than most main games. Fantastic story, great quests and a new environment that you can't get enough of. Can't wait for the next cd project game.
4. Dishonored 2 ; The level design in this game is exceptional. Very nice powers and two different sets for 2 different characters. If the story was a bit better (or more interesting) this game would be higher on the list.
5. Life is Strange ; Very engaging story that makes you care about the characters. Some interesting choices too! The ending(s) kind of sucked though.
6. Ratchet & Clank ; I don't usually play games like this but this one was really good. Very original weapons, good gameplay and excellent graphics. I also enjoyed getting all the trophies in this.

 

[Katana_Strikes]

Much stronger year than 2015. Last year I was feeling like I was just getting bored with gaming but actually it was just the games. Open world fatigue was definitely starting to set in and this year the final nail in the coffin was FFXV. I just don't have time for these games, nor do they hold my interest with their boring dull worlds filled with nothing. So thankfully this year there was some real stand out titles and hopefully this year also looks strong (maybe even stronger, but we'll see).

1. Uncharted 4: A Thief's End ; A great return to form after a disappointing 3rd entry. It might not have been so heavy on the gun play but I don't think that really hurt the title in any real way. The locations were varied, the graphics spectacular and the story and characters were always a pleasure. But on the whole just a really good game with locations that were so awe-inspiring you had to stop and take screen captures. Marvelous.

2. Ratchet & Clank ; Again another return to form for the franchise and a close runner up second to GOTY. Lovely gameplay and fantastic graphics made this a pleasure to play. Hopefully we see more R&C games from Insomniac after this great game.

3. World of Final Fantasy ; Great old school gameplay with a nice trick in capturing FF monsters to your side and being able to strategise play through mixing the combinations up. Lovely cute graphics style with traditional turn based mechanics and some nice extras after game to complete. Nothing terribly taxing but just a fun, fan serving game. And after the atrocity that ended up being FFXV, this was an even bigger delight in hindsight.

4. Dragon Quest Builders ; Another nice surprise this year. DQB takes the mining of Minecraft and the RPG style of well, DQ and combines the 2 to become a really cool and fun mix of gameplay that just works brilliantly. It wasn't without a few gameplay niggles but the rest of the game more than made up. With a bit of polish the sequel could be amazing.

5. I Am Setsuna ; SE really was on fire this year (but they burnt the forest with FFXV) and this was another delight. It might have not been ambitious and certainly had a budget it stuck to, but the gameplay was wonderful, graphic style and battle system ripped right out of your childhood memories. Beautiful little game.

6. Rise of the Tomb Raider ; Finally got to play this and... well it probably wasn't worth the wait but it was an enjoyable game. Graphical nice and game was rather decent. Held back by a few niggles and that awful gameplay lag that was present at launch kinda ruined it slightly but overall a good game.

7. The Last Guardian ; Finally, a game most thought we'd never play, but here it is. Trico is the star of the show. He's also probably one of the worst parts of the game too. Game wise it felt it still needed time in the oven. A few niggles and quite a few frustrations at times held this back from being a classic. But when it worked, it was beautiful and Trico can be so lovable and you really connect with the character. Lovely but sad ending too.

8. Firewatch ; Great artstyle, nice gameplay, story and character work which builds nicely as you progress and discover the world around you. Had a great time with this. Really felt you were out there in the wilderness and was fun to play.

9. Abzu ; A later entry after picking it up in the sale but had to go in to my top 10 because it's a wonderful experience. Much like Flower and Journey before it, Abzu is a great, relaxing adventure in the deep. It plays well, it looks great and takes you on a lovely ride under the sea. There isn't much to it, an underlying story and a short game in itself but what you get is something unique and fantastic you just have to play and enjoy the delights.

10. Nom Nom Galaxy ; A PS+ game from earlier in the year. It takes a little getting in to but when your in, I became addicted to the gameplay. Quite tough at times to get your factory working amongst the many challenges, but that was part of the fun. Quirky, fun game.

 

[ElBoxyBrown]

1. Watch Dogs 2 ; I always liked the concept behind Watch Dogs but there was too many roadblocks that prevented it from being truly great. They took what was an interesting concept from the first game, added a likable protagonist, characters, and a plot, expanded on the hacking, and moved to San Francisco. Oh, and they didn't forget Raymond Kenney. Ubisoft made playing an open world game feel fun again. It's smart, it's edgy, it's comical, it's got heart, and it now has a soul. Watch Dogs 2 is my Game of the Year for 2016.

2. Titanfall 2 ; This is the best multiplayer game of 2016 and the best robot buddy game of 2016. Level design is some of best in a shooter. Each level is unique and it's almost like your playing a different game. BT is a true robot bro to the end. But the multiplayer is the cake that you want to eat 10 times over. So many customization that give you different ways to move around the battlefield. So many mechs that have personality and combat strengths and weaknesses. It all creates this beautiful chaos on the battlefield that is hectic but controllable if you know what your doing. Futuristic shooters are not dead people. Titanfall 2 just gave it a huge shot of adrenaline. Watch out for my Ronin, son.

3. Dark Souls 3 ; This was my first Souls game. I didn't think I could actually beat a Souls game but I actually did. It felt like a Best Of game all rolled up into one to deliver me the best experience a Souls game has to offer. It eased me into combat and taught me patience. The music during boss fights is some of the best orchestral work I have heard in a game. The final boss music almost brought a tear to my eye. After playing this I feel compelled to try out past games. This game helped me understand what a Souls game is all about.

4. Furi ; Wicked art style by the Afro Samurai artist, Takashi Okazaki. An Amazing heart pounding synthwave soundtrack. Bosses that put you over the edge like classic Mega Man bosses. Furi is a beast. Listen to this. I think I've said enough.

5. Gears of War 4 ; Gears never gets old even when you think you had enough. Even when you think you played a third-person shooter like Gears you play Gears 4 and you realize that nothing plays like Gears. Weapons feel good to shoot, taking cover feels more important, and the Gnasher's sheer presence reminds you why it's one of the best shotgun in any video game. And just when you think you couldn't care about a Gears story, the story in 4 reminds you that you do care for Marcus and friends and you do appreciate the world building lore that the past games set. It's third-person shooter perfection.

6. Doom ; From Mick Gordon's blood pumping soundtrack to the fast pace combat, Doom is just a blast from the past needed in the FPS genre and to revive a franchise that many thought had no relevancy in today's world.

7. Inside ; A depressing world that catches your attention and encourages you to figure out it's mystery. Just like Limbo, it doesn't say much and it doesn't need to. It's all about the puzzles and the strive to push forward till you finally reach that conclusion that might shock you.

8. Battleborn ; This is the best MOBA game on console. I'm serious. You might not get it but after playing a little over 70 hours, you get it. I haven't had this much fun with a brand new multiplayer IP since Monday Night Combat. I like the art style and wild character designs. I think they go beyond the typical Gearbox writing that unfortunately a lot of people just ignored. I'm glad I gave this game a chance.

9. Overwatch ; When everything comes together this game works as a team-based shooter beautifully. Zenyatta is probably the most complex characters to play as in any multiplayer game.

10. Firewatch ; A story about real human beings caught in some normal and weird shit. It's a game that puts you in a peaceful state of mind.

Honorable Mentions

x. One Piece: Burning Blood ; Hey, we got a pretty decent One Piece game that's not a Musou. The retelling of Paramount War was spot on. I wish it included other story arcs.

x. Hyper Light Drifter ; I didn't want to play too much of this game until the 60fps patch dropped on console. What little I did play is a pretty solid top-down action game. For once I backed a Kickstarter game that fulfilled it's promise.

x. Pokemon Go ; Those first couple of months was like an interesting experiment I was glad to take part in.

 

[CerebralTiger]

1. The Last Guardian ; One hell of an emotional ride from start to end. Trico is by far the most believable and lifelike AI companion ever. Couple that with some brilliant level design, and you have yet another masterpiece from Ueda.

2. Overwatch ; The most refreshing and engaging first-person multiplayer game in years.

3. Forza Horizon 3 ; The most ambitious racing game ever, and also the most welcoming to those who aren't the biggest fans of the genre.

4. Dishonored 2 ; First-person stealth/action at its finest, with some excellent encounter design and a staggering number of options at your disposal. Moreover, Karnaca is made believable with some fantastic world-building and an intriguing storyline.

5. Firewatch ; A serene experience with some great dialogue and storytelling, marred only by a somewhat anti-climatic ending.

6. Inside ; Trial-and-error annoyances aside, Inside is an intuitive and well-designed puzzle game that delivers a dark and atmospheric experience quite unlike any other 2016 game.

7. Uncharted 4: A Thief's End ; Poorly paced game with unnecessary down time that undermines its great combat mechanics. Yet, the multiplayer shines as a result of these great mechanics and remains the reason why I keep going back to it.

8. Final Fantasy XV ; Disappointing storyline and side quests put a blemish on an otherwise well-designed game. Combat is an integral part of any RPG, and I'm glad that FFXV does a great job on that front. Also, it's by the most visually stunning open world game thus far.

9. King of Fighters XIV ; The deepest and most enjoyable fighting game of 2016. It does nearly everything right that Street Fighter V does wrong.

10. Ratchet & Clank ; A lesson on how to remake a classic.

 

[opticalmace]

1. The Witness ; I loved the puzzles and loved the aesthetic. I particularly enjoyed the fact that you had to deduce the rules for each set of puzzles. It made me come back and question what I thought I knew several times. Also, the special puzzles blew my mind.
2. Ratchet & Clank
3. Hitman
4. Rez Infinite
5. Thumper
6. Dirt Rally
7. Inside
8. Dark Souls III
9. Abzu
10. Firewatch

 

[CISphil]

1. The Last Guardian ; My favorite of Team Ico's games, TLG was truly something special. There's some serious issues with some design decisions (forcing camera focus when you're really trying to get a look around, the amazingly animated movement that can often times screw up something you're trying to do) and technical issues (the framerate on standard PS4's is atrocious), but the game will stick with me for a long time.

2. Doom ; As the latest in my personal favorite FPS series, and being as excellent as it is, this would normally quite easily be number 1 on my list, where it not for how much I adored TLG. If anything, this being second is more a testament to TLG than Doom.

3. SteinsGate 0 ; I'm not a fan of VNs, but I was introduced to Steins;Gate through the anime. I played through without particularly high expectations due to my bias against VNs and because I think the original was perfect as is. What I got was a fantastic extrapolation of the time travel idea that I can't really discuss more without spoilers. I'll just say this top 3 was probably one of the hardest I've ever decided on because of how much I enjoyed all 3.

4. Inside ; Another game it's hard to talk about without spoilers. Instead I'll say go play this shit, it's like 2 hours long. This should easily be on more people's lists imo.

5. Total War Warhammer ; Solid recovery after Rome 2/ Attila. I'm still bitter they botched Attila, but they did good with Warhammer.

6. Dirt Rally ; Most fun I've had in a racing game in years.

7. Battlefield 1 ; This only earns its place on my list because of operations. The game is pretty good, but the first time I played operations was so intense I had to put it on my list.

There's plenty more games I played and really enjoyed but won't add onto the list due to their shortfalls and issues that brought them down.

 

[bigboss370]

1. The Last Guardian ; It really speaks to the strengths of this game that my GOTY for 2016 had no guns or direct combat. It's not a shooter or RPG, but a platforming/puzzle game. It's gorgeous, the world design is intricate and compelling, and the story is both memorable and emotional. Trico animates and behaves like nothing i've seen before. This game truly pushes the medium forward, and I hope there's more from Ueda in the future.
2. Final Fantasy XV ; I absolutely loved the gameplay, the story, and the spectacle. I was on a sort of media blackout for this game, and it also happened to be the first final fantasy game I ever played. I really enjoyed the moments you use the summons, the crazy boss battles, and the world itself. Somehow this game encapsulates the feeling of adventure, and it's created a world which I want to go back to, even though I finished the campaign.
3. Uncharted 4 ; This might be the third game on my list but that's more a testament to how insane this year was for good games, rather than this game's quality. Because this game's quality is master class. The visuals, animations, gameplay mechanics, and story all come together so well. I just wish there were more bombastic set pieces, but nothing dropped my jaw more than the stunning opening. Oh, and the last 3rd made up for it beautifully.
4. XCOM 2 ; I wish more people played this. The mechanics and systems in this game allow for some truly special moments, all emerging from your gameplay choices. Combined with the cool customisation and upgrade options. this game is a keeper. Easily one of my most played of 2016.
5. Battlefield 1 ; A good campaign with a stunning multplayer.

 

[benny_a]

1. The Last Guardian ; A game as expected: Not without flaws in the technical areas but it is unlike anything else.
2. Uncharted 4 ; I said I was done with Uncharted but the best story and gameplay in the series says okay one last time. But now outside the Chloe DLC it has to be the end.
3. Inside ; 3 hours of highly polished 2D puzzle platforming.
4. The Witcher 3: Blood & Wine ; It's more The Witcher 3
5. Ratchet & Clank ; First time playing one of the older Ratchet & Clanks and I'm super impressed!
6. Hitman ; Usually I want to get a mission right the first time without being spoiled on what happens, but this game is the antithesis of that. It still works for me though.
7. Batman VR ; Quite the VR experience.
8. SteamWorld Heist ; I like turn based strategy games quite a lot and this one is pretty neat.
9. Invisible Inc. ; I like turn based strategy games quite a lot and this one is pretty neat also.

 

[Godcannon]

1. Doom ; 2016 was a really disappointing year for me, but I will always have Doom to be thankful for. Everything else I felt didn't interest me(more than classics), and the ones that did either turned out to be a train wreck (See: No Mans Sky) or underwhelming (See: Uncharted 4, still was good though, but forgettable imo). I really wish Xenoblade Chronicles X was released in january 16 instead so that I could include it, because it was hands down the best game I played in 2016.

wooo there's my terribly awesome vote.

 

[Albo]

1. Dark Souls 3 ; Despite the feeling of franchise fatigue, the souls formula still holds up strong and is more refined with DS3.
2. DOOM ; Fresh, fast and frantic, it was so satisfying to play an old school modern fps. The game is greater than the sum of it's parts as every element of the game gels together really well.
3. Deus Ex Mankind Divided ; One oo the most dense, intricately designed atmospheric worlds, filled with worthwhile memorable side quests . The level design and its vertically really complement new abilities which give you the freedom, flow and choice in gameplay that HR didn't. The game had me invested in it's world building and web of narrative threads.
4. Furi ; Combining satisfying quick action with ranged combat, and varied unique boss fights that feel so rewarding to defeat after a long fought battle. The soundtrack is bliss. Replaying it on a second harder play through made it even more enjoyable with changes to bosses and a new perspective that enhanced the story.
5. Inside ; Better limbo in every way, with cleverer puzzles, haunting visuals and a dark intriguing narrative told in an interesting way.
6. Ratchet and Clank ; My first R&C game was a joy to play from the action platforming , OTT weapons, high production values and stunning visuals.
7. Assault Android Cactus ; One of the best twin stick shooters I've played in years. Its a tight, polished, frenetic game that becomes addictive in its replayability when going for max ranks. It has a charming style and good soundtrack too.
8. Titanfall 2 ; The parkour and traversal mechanics feel really good. It's fast, smooth and tactile which accommodates the well designed maps and get get chaotic once titans enter the battle. I haven't even played the highly praised campaign yet.
9. Uncharted 4 ; I enjoyed this more than other uncharted games. The production values are so high, and its probably the most graphically impressive game I've ever played, so much that I found myself wandering around constantly stopping to take screenshots throughout the game.
10. Battlefield 1 ; As my first game in the series, this game really made me feel immersed in a chaotic battlefield. Multplayer is really enjoyable , and with 64 players and all the things happening on screen it's still looks amazing graphically.

Honourable Mentions
x. Deadly tower of monsters; I love the classic movie style of this game from the aesthetic, soundtrack, dialogue and design. The best thing about it is the huge metroidvania structured tower you progress through that you can freely traverse using freefall and instant teleport.


Games I haven't played yet that could've made my list : Hitman, The last guardian, Dishonoured 2, Xcom2, The Witness, Hyper light drifter, Darkest dungeon

 

[MHWilliams]

From here:

1. Overwatch ; I don't even have the energy to praise Overwatch anymore. I have talked up this game on USgamer from the day it launched until now. It's great, y'all.

2. Forza Horizon 3 ; With that out of the way, I can move on to the rest of my list. Forza Horizon 3 is the best damn racing game of the year, with Playground Games offering a ton of exotic cars to tear across the Australian landscape.

3. Titanfall 2 ; Respawn Entertainment also surprised with Titanfall 2, making up for the complete lack of single-player in the first game, with an impressive single-player campaign. Full of great mechanics, a solid story about the relationship between a Pilot and his Titan, and best of all, it doesn't overstay its welcome.

4. Stardew Valley ; Stardew Valley is a loving homage to the Harvest Moon series. One man put years of his life into making the game, which ends up having more depth and charm than recent Harvest Moon titles.

5. Fire Emblem Fates ; Fire Emblem Fates, is a bit rougher than Awakening was due to the odd split between Birthright and Conquest, but it's still an amazing strategy RPG that lets me matchmake my entire squad.

6. Hitman ; Hitman ended up surprising me, because I expected the episodic nature of the game would ruin it. Instead, it focused you on each level, forcing players to really explore and find new ways to kill your targets.

7. Dying Light The Following ; Dying Light The Following was a great update and expansion, adding vehicles to the great parkour and excellent tension of the base game. Techland outperformed my previous estimation of them with Dying Light and The Following brings the title closer to something like classic Far Cry.

8. Tokyo Mirage Sessions ; Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE probably deserved to be on another platform to reach a wider audience, but at least Wii U owners got a Persona game a year before Persona 5 was scheduled to touch down. Even Persona junior is better than a lot of games released in one year.

9. Dishonored 2 ; I have small nitpicks here and there, but that's all they are. Dishonored 2 is an amazing continuation of everything the first game started. With the first game, Arkane Studios took the crown of heir apparent from Thief. With the sequel, the studio has defined its rule.

10. Civilization VI ; Firaxis has crafted solid ground to build upon, marking what I feel is the best vanilla version in the franchise's history. I'm looking forward to seeing what the team will add to the game in the future, but for now, you can uninstall Civilization V and buy VI with confidence.

 

[Nocturnowl]

Codenames
Cardboard, $13. It turns out there's nothing in the rules here that prohibits you from voting for board games. It's content, it was released in 2016. We've allowed visual novels and this has more gameplay. We've allowed games not on traditional platforms. Look, what's the point in doing this if you're not going to have fun abusing a technicality? Codenames is a game where you form two teams, each of which has one hint-giver and one or more guessers. A grid of 25 cards containing words or pictures is laid out. The two guessers see a secret, Battleship-like set of placements that tell them which cards are theirs and which are their opponent's. The hint-givers must say exactly one word and one number, and the guessers must guess which cards are on their team. Guess an opponent's, and you help them. The game is strategic, intelligent, and tense. How do you link "grass" and "comic"? Cheech. How do you link "plaid", "mower", "model", and "moose"? Deere (like John Deere). The feeling of someone picking up on your non-linear connection is thrilling; the feeling of someone missing the obvious is heartbreaking. Oh man, this is so not going to get counted.

Codenames is so good, when your teammates successfully understand your internal logic behind chosen words in a situation where it could go awry there's such a victorious feeling.
Then the opposite occurs a turn later when it all goes wrong.

Last time I played it came down to the wire and my opponents just about managed to connect their last two together after a long period of thought (Using Emperor to connect China and Penguin) and as the hint dealer on the other team who knew what they were going for I'm just sitting there like "please screw up, please screw up".

 

[jimboton]

1. The Witness ; Months after finishing this masterpiece you will wonder why it seemed so important at the time that it consisted only of ‘line puzzles’ when all you remember is having this incredible time full of exploration and discovery. It’s to Metroid Prime what FEZ or Toki Tori 2+ were to Super Metroid where instead of earning abilities you earn knowledge in one corner of the map and then carry it to the far side of the island to open up further mysteries. It’s also, like, really pretty.

2. Candle ; Beautiful andean flavoured adventure that’s rooted in the best of Sierra and Lucasarts’ tradition with a pinch of Flashback thrown in. What’s more amazing than the lush watercolor hand drawn (in 1920*1080) graphics or the fact that it’s a Unity game that runs 100% without stuttering at any refresh rate you throw at it is the way puzzles, while decently challenging, are all about observation, deduction and sensible experimentation without ever devolving into blind ‘try everything with everything’ like many adventures (even some of the classics) sometimes do. This having gone practically unnoticed is fucking tragic. If you’re into adventure games please do yourself a favour and get it.

3. Dark Souls 3 ; It’s more Dark Souls.

4. Hyper Light Drifter ; This is a ridiculously good action and exploration game and all the hype was deserved. It is no longer advisable to use the term ‘stylish action’ to refer to japanese character action games seeing as The Drifter is orders of magnitude more stylish than any of them.

5. Obduction ; I never played Myst but this spiritual successor is a masterfully crafted adventure full of wonder and great UE4 graphics. Would have been even better had there been more of it but what’s here is very satisfying. Another sleeper non-hit sadly.

6. Salt and Sanctuary ; 2d Dark Souls, works exactly as advertised. Some people dislike the art, I don’t love it myself but the combat mechanics and general gameplay are excellent, music is good, and the game world is huge and interesting.

7. The Way ; A sci-fi action adventure in the spirit of Lucasart’s The Dig, with gameplay closest to Flashback or Another World but with better puzzles than either. Really good.

8. Xanadu Next ; The long lost child of forbidden love between the Ys series of jrpgs and the Diablo lineage of western computer arpgs has come to Steam at last to delight fans of both genres. Or perhaps not, seeing as it has sold about 3000 copies. Which is a shame since it’s a great arpg with a nice interconnected world and an addictive combat system, if a little on the short side.

9. XCOM 2 ; XCOM as thrilling and engaging as ever, maybe more thanks to the smart addition of limits on the number of turns of most missions.

10. The Eyes of Ara ; Another Myst-like this one is a relentless onslaught of puzzles compared to the more measured pace of Obduction. It keeps getting better and better as you go, a rarity with adventure games.


x. Enter the Gungeon ; Great challenging rogue-em-up. Has a thing for guns.
x. Ittle Dew 2 ; People utterly ignored this rather good 2d Zelda-like while the 23rd thread about how no one is making 2d Zelda-likes anymore was going on in the first page of a certain gaming forum. True story.
x. Titanfall 2 ; I didn’t know they still made linear FPS campaigns this good.
x. Doom ; I didn’t know they still made non linear FPS campaigns at all.
x. Maldita Castilla EX ; For my money this may be better than Ghosts’n Goblins.
x. Overwatch ; Immensely playable multi FPS but I don’t think it’s as satisfying as something like Destiny or even Titanfall 2 on a basic level.
x. Pan-Pan ; Cool isometric adventure, so pretty and well made, but infuriatingly short. I wanted it to go full Little Big Adventure on me.
x. Destiny: Rise of Iron ; Stingy as only Bungie can be, this expansion was still worth it for the good times beating the Wrath of the Machine raid.
x. The Solus Project ; A big disappointment coming from the The Ball devs, The Solus Project still manages moments of fascinating alien planet exploration, but puzzles are a bit simplistic when you come down to it and there are some progress breaking bugs unaddressed to this day.

 

[peakish]

2. Candle ; Beautiful andean flavoured adventure that’s rooted in the best of Sierra and Lucasarts’ tradition with a pinch of Flashback thrown in. What’s more amazing than the lush watercolor hand drawn (in 1920*1080) graphics or the fact that it’s a Unity game that runs 100% without stuttering at any refresh rate you throw at it is the way puzzles, while decently challenging, are all about observation, deduction and sensible experimentation without ever devolving into blind ‘try everything with everything’ like many adventures (even some of the classics) sometimes do. This having gone practically unnoticed is fucking tragic. If you’re into adventure games please do yourself a favour and get it.

Wow, this looks really neat. Bookmarked for sure.

 

[Chris R]

1. The Witness ; I didn't know what to expect going into this game at all. I thought it was very expensive for a simple line puzzle game. Boy, how wrong I was. If you enjoy puzzle games and have not yet played The Witness, buy it now and don't spoil anything in the game for yourself.

2. World of Warcraft: Legion ; I did not enjoy WoW's last expansion at all. I'm actually having a ton of fun with Legion, and I haven't even really touched the dungeons or raids at all. Everything just feels good as bland as that sounds. The zones are unique but still flow together decently enough. The artifact quests are also a ton of fun having done them on four different classes so far. Lots of revisiting pockets of the world that otherwise might have been forgotten by older players. If you ever enjoyed playing WoW at some point and haven’t grabbed Legion and a few months of sub time, treat yourself.

3. Hitman ; This game is just enjoyable. I will say that this game only ranks as high as it does for me because of the enjoyment I got from watching Giant Bomb play through the game. Their videos are the reason I bought it, having had middling experiences with previous Hitman games. It's a ton of fun, and replay-ability is through the roof.

4. Uncharted 4: A Thief's End ; A polished adventure with Drake for one last game. I enjoyed the story and how it tweaked the series conventions at the end and thought the rope was a nice addition. I would have preferred getting the piton at an earlier point in the game though, as it made the climbing options a little more varied. I would have enjoyed more stealthy options as the gunplay is always my least favorite part of the series.

5. Titanfall 2 ; A terrific single player campaign. The only real downside for me was how short it was. Not going to comment on the multiplayer because I only played a single match of it on my PS4 but it looks like it could be serviceable as well.

6. Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare ; Another great shooter. Some of the main story missions weren't as fun as the filler missions they included though. The dogfighting was fun and perfectly hit the itch I'd been feeling since watching Rogue One. I'd love to see a follow up with just space dogfighting missions.

7. Zero Escape: Time Dilemma ; I haven't finished this yet, so this is almost a placeholder spot as it were. If I end up liking the games ending it would move up, but for now I can't say that I'm sold on it all the way. It's the least fun game I've played so far in the series but like I said, maybe I just haven't gotten to the really good point yet. It's not bad, but coming off 999 and VLR it just doesn't hold up as well as it should.

8. The Last Guardian ; The only real gripe I had with this game were the controls/AI, but I was fine with them being less than ideal, because it made Trico really feel alive. I never thought that trying to get a puppy to do exactly what you want it to do with words and pointing could be so much fun.

9. Forza Horizon 3 ; My favorite racing game of the year. I wish this game could be ranked higher, but the issues with performance on PC and being tied to the Microsoft Store drop it down to here.

10. Trackmania Turbo ; Another fun racing game that released this year. Haven't beaten the game yet, but I did enjoy what I've played of it so far.

x. Final Fantasy XV ; My most disappointing game of 2016. I shouldn't have bought it after having a bad time with the demos that came out leading up to the release, but somehow I kept telling myself the game would be better when it actually released. Well, it's not. The combat is bland and boring, the complete opposite of what I expect from an RPG. There just isn't any depth to it. I'm 15 hours into the game and all I do is hold circle until everything is dead, then run far away so I don't get another dropship disgorging another group of twenty soldiers on top of the party. The story might be good, I just haven't experienced enough of it to say one way or the other just yet. And who knows maybe in another 15 hours I might turn around on this game and rank it among my favorite mainline FFs. But for now, it's stuck at the bottom, just barely above FF II and III. If I could give this game negative points, I totally would, but I'll still force myself to play it to completion.

 

[Stumpokapow]

Codenames is so good, when your teammates successfully understand your internal logic behind chosen words in a situation where it could go awry there's such a victorious feeling.
Then the opposite occurs a turn later when it all goes wrong.

Last time I played it came down to the wire and my opponents just about managed to connect their last two together after a long period of thought (Using Emperor to connect China and Penguin) and as the hint dealer on the other team who knew what they were going for I'm just sitting there like "please screw up, please screw up".

Do y'all play with a timer or not? We've decided not to, but just badger someone who is taking too long.

 

[sleepydeer]

1. N++ ; PC. Sublime movement, fantastic level design and tons of it, just total satisfaction to play. As a long-term fan this completely met my gameplay expectations. What surprised me is the phenomenal soundtrack, I'm not sure why more games don't use this style of music.
2. Doom ; PC. The combat feedback is so far ahead of everything else that just walking up to an enemy and pushing F feels more satisfing than a tricky headshot in many other games, and every weapon besides the pistol feels brutally powerful. This makes me feel more like Hotline Miami than classic Doom sometimes. Classic Doom is about rising above and controlling the carnage, this is about leaning into the aggression and leaving a path of gore.
3. Devil Daggers ; PC. Best run about 3 minutes, playtime over 4 hours. Absolutely nailed arcade FPS.
4. Dead Rising ; PC. My first time playing this. Even though it's improved-on by DR2 in many ways this is a classic and you can see why it inspired a franchise. The structure and (inconsistent) tone are inspired.
5. Total War: Warhammer ; PC. Arise, my undead hordes! Total War with magic and dragons works so well. Will be spending many more hours on this no doubt.
6. Grow Up ; PC. Another great world to relax and mess around in. I made a garden on the moon.
7. SuperHot ; PC. I played the hell out of this, did everything apart from managing a no-death run and I gave that plenty of tries. Very simple but compelling. Slicing bullets out of the air is great.
8. Shenzen I/O ; PC. Not as successful as TIS-100 for me, the more mundane scenario makes the gameplay limits feel contrived (why are the microchips you're working with so lacking?) and it feels too close to real work. It inspired doing some actual hobby programming instead which does make it a pretty valuable game and worthy of a vote.


Honourable mentions:

x. Battlefield 1 ; PC/PS4. I played quite a lot of this on a friend's PS4 as well as the beta on PC. Operations mode is a good addition to the formula and the setting turned out well but it ultimately felt quite same-again and modern Battlefield still has the tendency to leave me feeling annoyed instead of challenged.
x. Overwatch ; PC. Really enjoyed the free demo, it's a lot of fun and the level of polish is outstanding. Didn't buy it because, like MOBAs, it felt like something I'd end up spending hundreds of hours on just to get all the subtleties and ultimately I'll feel more fulfilled playing 10 shorter games instead.


Also mentions:

Rocket League on Xbox One was easily the best new release game I played this year, especially when you factor in the Hoops mode which is new on all platforms, but I voted it GOTY last year.
I think the NES Mini deserves a 2016 GOTY mention as it sits between being hardware and software. The hardware is so flawed but it doesn't stop SMB3 standing out as a classic and better than plenty of modern games.
Evolve: Stage 2 - got it for free, had some good fun with the bot matches, didn't engage with the F2P elements at all, and stopped playing it. A success from my point of view but I can see why the publisher wouldn't be pleased. Wish I had got to play some LAN parties with it as it seems like it would have been great for that. Didn't make it out of beta so not eligible for a vote, would have been my #9.
The only other 2016 release I've played is Pony Island, and I wasn't at all excited by it. The core game modes just aren't interesting no matter what presentational sugar is on top.

I never buy that many new releases but I only bought about half as many games at all this year as normal – hitting 600 steam games is definitely a factor. Not only that but I have got very cautious with my purchases, everything on here is something I was already a fan of in some way (besides Devil Daggers, which is still pretty clearly a love-letter to Quake, and Pony Island which was $1).
I still spend a lot of my free time playing games; don't feel as much need for new ones but reading this thread there are a lot I hope I get to in the future.

 

[Goldboy]

1. Dark Souls 3 ; Not my favorite game in the series but still an excellent title and a great send off to the series. Full of amazing bosses, areas, and enemies, with some of the best level design of the series to boot.

2. Pokemon Sun/Moon ; Growing up in Hawaii, a Pokemon game in a Hawaii-based region was my dream game as a child. A long while later and that game became a reality. Not only that, but the story was better than any Pokemon games except maybe Black/White, and they nailed the atmosphere. The only reason this isn't my GOTY is because I was very disappointed by the low number of new Pokemon.

3. Overwatch ; Was surprised by how fun this game is. I've put in over 100 hours and counting. The continued developer support and communication with the fanbase has also been nice and keeps the game fresh.

4. Final Fantasy XV ; There's no denying that Final Fantasy XV has some glaring issues, but it was without a doubt one of the most ambitious games I've played in a long time and offered some of gaming's best moments in 2016.

5. DOOM ; Another game this year that surprised me with how good it was. You know a game has great combat when you beat the final boss and immediately want to jump back in just to shoot some demons in the face.

6. Titanfall 2 ; The first Titanfall game was a good game, just a little undercooked. Titanfall 2 improves on its predecessor in just about every way. The campaign throws new and fun ideas at you nonstop--with "Effect and Cause" in particular being something really special.

7. Battlefield 1 ; A FPS set in World War 1 is a very interesting concept, and the game mostly delivered but fell short in a couple key areas, especially in regards to the campaign. The multiplayer is a blast sometimes, but between this, Titanfall 2, and Overwatch, I was quicker to drop this in favor of other FPS games this year.

8. Uncharted 4 ; While Uncharted 4 was a great game, it just didn't leave the lasting impression on me that Uncharted 2 did. That said, it's still an excellent game and is better than Uncharted 1 or 3.

9. Ratchet & Clank ; A graphically amazing game with riveting and frenetic gameplay, with a lot of charm to go with it. The writing is hit-or-miss (mostly miss honestly), but any fan of the original Ratchet & Clank will thoroughly enjoy this re-imagining.

10. Va-11 Hall-A ; A cool little visual novel with stellar art direction and lovable characters.

 

[randomkid]

Stump, I love that you have a post in these threads again, and I love that you have the right attitude, which is don't worry about whether your ballot will count or not and just write about what you feel like writing about.

The Sea Will Claim Everything always looked interesting to me so I'll make sure to add it to the pile. Candle on this page also looks very cool.

 

[Nocturnowl]

Do y'all play with a timer or not? We've decided not to, but just badger someone who is taking too long.

No timer so far, we do the same thing where we give people time but start increasing our glare rate when it starts going on too long.

 

[zeexlash]

I haven't played nearly as many new games as I would have liked to this year but I'll contribute anyway with what I did - plus, I've enjoyed reading these GOTY threads as a lurker for many years..

1. Pokémon Sun / Moon ; If you haven’t played a Pokémon game in a while, or for some reason never at all, Sun and Moon are a great place to start. Modest changes to the traditional formula get rid of some of its more cumbersome aspects and just help it flow better – you no longer have to use up a slot in your six-‘mon team for a monster with transport abilities; Pokémon can be healed of status afflictions by petting them in between battles; and gym leaders are replaced with trials, which are more frequent and frankly more interesting. The game also fully embraces 3D, depicting a lush and vibrant tropical island setting packed with likeable characters – a familiar but cute storyline unfolds, but the underlying story is as always about survival of the fittest as you collect, train and battle your way to the top of the mountain.

2. Quantum Break ; Time powers-powered third person shooter with some incredible special effects, particularly during the 'time stutter' set-pieces, where huge collapsing structures are partly frozen in place around you as you try and navigate your way to safety. As a shooter, it improves on the groundwork laid down by Alan Wake, Remedy's previous, and the whole thing is spliced with a sci-fi TV series which plays out in accordance with your in-game choices. That's pretty fucking cool.

 

[Tain]

Do y'all play with a timer or not? We've decided not to, but just badger someone who is taking too long.

I think the rulebook says that the timer should be flipped when the other team is "taking too long". We say we go by that rule but don't really ever use it.

 

[swarley64]

1. Hitman ; The best Hitman has ever been, the best episodic gaming has ever been. With most games I'll play them heavily for a short period then move on. But Hitman has been something that I come back to periodically throughout the year, and that's made me appreciate it in a very different way.

2. Titanfall 2 ; The single-player campaign was one fantastic set-piece after another. And its the best multiplayer shooter I've played since Halo 3. Absurdly addictive.

3. The Witness ; I don't think I've ever felt so intensely about a puzzle game like this before.

4. Doom ; RIP! AND! TEAR!

5. Inside ;

6. Hyper Light Drifter ;

7. Super Hot ; The most innovative shooter I've played in years!

8. Death Road to Canada ; This is a rogue-like game that's getting lost in the endless sea of Steam indies, but I really enjoy it. Its got a great Earthbound-esque sense of humor and I love the music. It seems like every run I'll encounter something unique and/or hilarious that I hadn't seen before.

9. The Count Lucanor ; A short (4-hour-ish) horror-adventure game on Steam. I really like the atmosphere and the look of it and the story struck a chord with me.

10. Oxenfree ;

x. Unbox

x. Diaries of a Spaceport Janitor

x. VA-11 HALL-A Cyberpunk Bartender Action

x. Pony Island

 

[branny]

1. Odin Sphere: Leifthrasir ; Leifthrasir is an incredible remake of a rough gem that benefits so much from being polished. Despite some shortcomings, the original Odin Sphere was one of the most enchanting RPGs I've ever played. Everything from the artwork and soundtrack to storytelling and mechanics left a huge mark on me. Sadly, its ambition was often too much for the PS2 to handle, and some structural choices made the game feel overly repetitive. Leifthrasir is the second chance I always wanted Odin Sphere to get. Vanillaware made no compromises with this remaster, addressing many weaknesses with new approaches. This is what a proper rerelease should be, one that smooths out technical blemishes, brings presentation up to snuff for a modern audience, and provides some noteworthy new way to revisit the game (in this case, a completely retuned experience). That it also offers the classic, unaltered vision within the same package is amazing. If you play one Vanillaware game, make it this.

2. DOOM ; DOOM is every bit as good as people say it is—each element of its design works well in tandem with one another, and it's just a blast to play. It's surprising that this of all games is the one to reminds me most of the love I've felt in the past with older titles and my most recent FPS favorite, Bulletstorm. Though its overall aesthetic is a bit too metal for me, everything else is just plain satisfying. Movement speed, map design, upgrades, weapons, enemies, and all the mechanics gluing the experience together make for a really fun time. You don't even have to worry about missables—in fact, there are actually mission replay incentives to encourage revisiting areas. I can't think of anything I'd change. Multiplayer shooters don’t really do it for me (Overwatch), and I find experiences bogged down with unnecessary junk (Rise of the Tomb Raider) a total waste of time. Worse are games that often tend to forget they’re games (Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End) or the ones with completely vanilla campaigns (Gears of War 4), so it shouldn’t be surprising that DOOM ended up being my favorite shooter in recent memory. No matter what you prefer, it’s safe to say 2016 was a great year for the genre.

3. The Last Guardian ; TLG is a cinematic puzzle platformer about the relationship between a boy and a beast. It’s a wonderful experience that sadly may not be for everyone, fitting right in with ICO and SotC, yet somehow bearing relatively few scars of its troubled development. While there are some technical hiccups, I think the game accomplishes exactly what it needs to—Trico's a beautiful creature, one portrayed so convincingly that it's hard not to get attached. As an animal lover, it's almost too much to handle at times! Though TLG benefits from being a slower-paced game, finicky controls, a wonky camera, and spotty physics sometimes demand extra patience from players. INSIDE and The Witness have been mentioned as superior alternatives to TLG by some, but they’re nearly the complete opposite to me; cold, detached experiences I really wouldn’t want to revisit after all is said and done. Meanwhile games like Firewatch and Oxenfree have their fans, too, but I’d argue that TLG is in another league altogether. The connection between players and Trico is carefully cultivated through gameplay itself, naturally evolving over time without needing to rely on line after line of dialog to tell a compelling story.

4. DARK SOULS III ; Fans will be right at home with DkS3—it's basically a Souls game megamix meant to cap off the series. Sadly, it feels a bit too familiar at times. DkS3 is kind of like what you'd get if you stuck Demon's Souls, the previous two Dark Souls games, and Bloodborne into a blender. The influences from each entry are immediately apparent, yet I feel like DkS3 doesn't quite reach the same heights as the rest of the series. It's not as groundbreaking as Demon's Souls, as enrapturing as DkS1, as open-ended as DkS2, or as fresh as Bloodborne—it's just more Souls. There are some memorable boss fights, though, so I guess that’s worth something. I’ve been a longtime supporter of the series, but having so many entries makes it easier for me to pick them apart and prefer some over others. This game actually made me a bigger fan of SotFS! DkS3’s still much better than many other titles, but the fatigue is real: I even passed on Salt & Sanctuary for nitpicky reasons. Thinking back, I was probably just looking for excuses to prevent myself from getting burned out.

5. Dishonored 2 ; I never used to be big on the genre, but I’ve slowly started appreciating good sandbox titles with fun, emergent design. I was really looking forward to both Deus Ex: Mankind Divided and Dishonored 2 this year, especially as sequels to games I felt could’ve benefit from some iterative improvements. Unfortunately, only the latter actually grabbed me. Though I feel like it’s a little less snappy, polished, and memorable compared to the original, Dishonored 2 is still a very worthy follow-up. There are a few mechanical changes I’m not completely fond of, but two totally different characters essentially double the ways you can approach replaying the game. And this is even before considering the excellent post-launch content that includes an awesome NG+ implementation, something I felt the first game was sorely lacking, and the promise of future options to tweak your experience akin to arcade DIP switches.

6. THE KING OF FIGHTERS XIV ; Call me traditional, but I miss when fighting games just came out as brand new experiences with no bullshit. I’m getting tired of so many incremental updates, botched launches with anti-consumer nonsense, and barren rosters. This is my favorite genre, and as much as I appreciate the fact that we have a choice between the likes of BlazBlue: Central Fiction, Guilty Gear Xrd -REVELATOR-, Killer Instinct, Street Fighter V, Pokkén Tournament, and even Nitroplus Blasterz, I’ve got to hand it to The King of Fighters XIV for being exactly what I wanted it to be. In fact, I’m thrilled with how well this entry turned out! Though it may not age as gracefully as its 2D brethren, it's still the same KoF you know and love. The system mechanics are fun, and the game feels great to play. I was originally worried about the roster having so many newcomers, but they ended up being awesome in their own ways. Seeing some old favorites pop up in story mode endings or unlockable artwork is also a nice bonus. 3D KoF isn't much of a shock to me considering my time with the Maximum Impact games, but KoFXIV thankfully leans much closer to its 2D counterparts. And, best of all, it feels complete, no strings attached.

7. Enter the Gungeon ; It would’ve been nice if I were able to delve deeper into the smaller 2D action games I’ve had my eye on this year (Azure Striker GUNVOLT 2, Noitu Love: Devolution, WILD GUNS Reloaded, Blue Revolver, etc.), but there always seemed to be some random or completely unrelated obstacle discouraging me from giving things a fair shot at the time. And don’t even get me started on my disappointment with Mighty No. 9! Anyway, that brings me to Enter the Gungeon, a bullet-dodging roguelite that emphasizes player skill more than lucky drops or broken synergy—it’s the one I was simply the most excited to push through and keep playing. While I enjoy The Binding of Isaac as much as the next person, I think Gungeon’s more my style. From its aesthetic to its focus on more intense action overall, I feel like it was made for shmuppers like me. Aside from a few critical things the game’s tutorial fails to mention (like dropping stuff), everything else is pretty snazzy. It just feels good to play, and that's the most important thing to get right. Though Isaac is incredibly comprehensive in comparison, especially after multiple expansions, Gungeon is off to a great start. It offers its own brand of bullet-hell spelunking well worth the price of addiction and its slightly steep difficulty curve. You can tell the developers really love guns, too. Like, a lot.

8. Kirby: Planet Robobot ; Most of the time I spent with my 3DS in 2016 was split between three games. Hyrule Warriors Legends, an enhanced (arguably definitive) port of the Wii U title which was easily one of my favorite musou entries, probably got the most attention from me, but needing to farm all over again for everything really put a damper on the fun. Similarly, my lack of time prevented me from even picking up Monster Hunter Generations, a game that easily would’ve been a shoe-in on my list years ago, but I’ve barely even scratched the surface of Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate as it stands… Instead, 90% of the grinding I did was devoted to the third game, Fire Emblem Fates: Conquest. But sometimes you don’t have to invest that much into a game in order to get something worthwhile out of it, which brings me to Kirby. It barely put a dent in my free time, but I still had a blast. Similar to Triple Deluxe's improvements over Return to Dream Land, Planet Robobot refines the formula even more. Mech suits finally make Kirby fun to control. They’re dramatically better than Hypernova, giving Kirby a power surge without slowing down the action. I'm still not a fan of recent Kirby games forcing particular abilities for puzzle solving and collectibles, but PR is the best modern effort yet. Though the ESP moveset and ability roster overall underwhelm me a bit, other stuff has been fleshed out in welcome ways. Unfortunately, the entire experience is kinda mellow until the last area—I guess I’d prefer harder levels and faster music.

9. Momodora: Reverie Under the Moonlight ; I know I mentioned passing on Salt & Sanctuary (probably a mistake in hindsight—I’ll get around to it eventually!), but I feel like there were other overlooked games this year quite similar to it. Obviously, Shantae: Half-Genie Hero was a big one coming out so late in the year, but with content heavily dictated by stretch goals and fan reception comparing it unfavorably to Pirate’s Curse, I ended up looking elsewhere. Rabi Ribi was recommended to me, but I found myself more partial to Pharaoh Rebirth+ for my bunny spelunking purposes. Unfortunately, a couple questionable design decisions (like unavoidable damage right after a cutscene) and floaty physics prevented me from really getting into Rebirth+. I also wanted to give Xanadu Next a try, however, the lack of proper controller support scared me off. Buzz over Furi made me curious, but I disliked everything besides the boss fights. It seemed like I just couldn’t find what I was looking for in terms of a whole package working together…until I played Momodora. Though somewhat short, this is an extremely solid Metroidvania that leans heavier into action than its RPG elements. Animation interrupting, level shortcuts, and save point item refilling are also quite reminiscent of Souls games. I wasn't sure what to expect, but I ended up beating the whole thing in one sitting! It has everything I like about the genre: satisfying combat, meaningful upgrades, map exploration, tight platforming, items, equipment, and fun boss fights. Secrets are handled very well, too—they're actually pleasant to search for instead of being super annoying. While some things could've been meatier (like having different weapon types or access to more equipment), I'm happy with how compact the game is, and its harder difficulty modes definitely kick up the intensity.

10. FINAL FANTASY XV ; For whatever reason, I wasn’t really feeling turn-based combat this year unless it was in a strategy RPG (more on that in a moment), so games like Shin Megami Tensei IV: Apocalypse or Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE won’t be making appearances on my list. Instead, I’d actually like highlight FFXV since it’s also my pick for open-world, a genre I rarely enjoy. It’s a wildly different take on Final Fantasy, even considering recent spinoffs, and as fascinating as it is flawed. FFXV’s literally a mess of mechanics and systems that still somehow comes together just enough for it to not be a complete disaster. On one end you have sloppy storytelling, poor pacing, needlessly chaotic fights, finicky context-sensitive stuff, a lack of basic QoL features (managing bounty hunts is a nightmare!), and bizarre product placement. On the other is a genuinely intriguing plot with tons of potential, quirky charm, and a beautiful world full of addicting content. And that’s what confuses me most: I usually find this kind of structure bland, but I actually want to see what’s out there (like dungeons!), and the combat glue holding everything together, as shallow at it is, must be keeping it from feeling boring for me. The postgame content is great, too! So, much like the Final Fantasy XIII games, this is another (frankly, unfinished) experience I'll continue to love in spite of its problems—there’s some kind of surreal sincerity to it that I admire. Is this Stockholm Syndrome?

x. Fire Emblem Fates: Conquest ; Try as I might, I just can’t seem to get into XCOM, but strategy RPGs are really the only turn-based games I’ll bother with nowadays barring a few exceptions. Luckily for me, a new Fire Emblem came out. And, mechanically, I’d argue that Conquest specifically is one of the best in the series. Refining Awakening's formula while also bringing back some older ideas that I really missed, Conquest actually gives me some hope for the future of the franchise. It’s basically what I originally wanted out of Awakening. A few notable tweaks and stronger map design in general encourage more strategic play, and the removal of weapon durability makes using stuff a lot less stressful. Poorly-handled plot aside, one-dimensional characters are generally more tolerable this time around. Same-sex S-Supports are also quite welcome but would've been better with adoption. Sadly, between multiplayer, multiple versions, and DLC, game balance is still problematic. And, again, make sure to turn your brain off whenever it comes to that hilariously bad story. Matsuno SRPG this is not.

x. Titanfall 2 ; I was bummed when the original Titanfall launched without a single-player mode because I wanted to enjoy its mechanics at my own leisure without having to worry about other people. Thankfully, TF2 has one this time around, and the fact that it turned out better than one would’ve expected is icing on the cake. Having said that, it could've been improved with more elaborate missions, additional boss phases, and a stronger narrative. It also feels like some player capability had to be toned down for multiplayer purposes, which is disappointing since there are even more mechanics (like the grappling hook) only available in MP. I don’t understand why jump doesn’t default to a bumper when that single change makes the game so much better, too. Maybe I’m missing something, but, after all the praise, I’m a little underwhelmed. After playing DOOM, needing to reload constantly, having zero attachment to my weapons, not being able to quickly move sideways while aiming in pilot mode, feeling required to learn how to bunnyhop in order to move around at a decent speed, random collectibles that are just kinda there… Meh. TF2’s an honorable mention on my list because I applaud the fact that the devs wanted to create an interesting and varied campaign with a high skill ceiling, and I certainly prefer this to my time testing out ReCore, but I just wanted more. I see so much potential here.

x. Forza Horizon 3 ; Still no other high-profile racing series does it for me as an arcade racing fan. FH3 edges the franchise closer to the expansive arcade-style racing game I've been wanting ever since Burnout fell off the face of the earth. It's good! FH2 surprised me, and my main complaint about boring scenery has been addressed this time around with the move to Australia. The open world is more enjoyable to explore as a result, just you and your car. The handling of progression is less strict this time around, too, but events are more or less the same as before. FH3 is also rather elevated by its usage of HDR—there are times the game was breathtaking to behold on a capable display. Franchise fatigue is starting to creep in, though… It’ll be a serious problem if FH4 doesn’t shake things up a bit more. Unfortunately, after the one-two punch of Phantom Dust and Scalebound cancellations, I've decided to bow out of the ecosystem for now. I worry that this and Killer Instinct may very well be the last Microsoft exclusives I'll have fond memories of, so thank goodness for their PC ports!






(GotY 2015 List)
(GotY 2014 List)
(GotY 2013 List)
(Favorite Soundtracks of 2013)
(GotY 2012 List)
(GotY 2011 List)

 

[Kiro]

Codename is good but no way it is better than avalon. It's boardGOAT

 

[Morrigan Stark]

Is it OK to list non-eligible games (e.g. the Nioh beta) in our honourable mentions? If they aren't tallied/counted I don't mind, but I don't want to disqualify my ballot lol.

 

[Cheesemeister]

Is it OK to list non-eligible games (e.g. the Nioh beta) in our honourable mentions? If they aren't tallied/counted I don't mind, but I don't want to disqualify my ballot lol.

It won't be disqualified, but intentionally listing ineligible titles makes more work for us.

 

[Salty Catfish]

1. Hitman ; The culmination of the entire franchise. It's a testament to its greatness that it's fun whether you're executing the perfect hit or bungling your way through a bloodbath.
2. Inside ; Stark, haunting, and brilliant. So much more than LIMBO 2.
3. Doom ; Maybe the most fun I had this year in any game. Shame about the multiplayer, but the pure rush of the campaign more than makes up for it.
4. Superhot ; Takes a relatively simple idea and wrings every drop of creativity out of it. I stuck with it for a while, playing the endless modes, sword-only, etc.
5. Overwatch ; The most accessible multiplayer shooter ever made.
6. The Witness ; Striking, frustrating, clever, and occasionally pretentious, but there's never been a puzzle game quite like it.
7. Enter the Gungeon ; Tight controls and an enormous weapon variety made me play this way longer than I expected.
8. Dishonored 2 ; Incredible level design and fun powers turn every area into a stealth playground.
9. XCOM 2 ; Technical problems aside, it's a smart and savvy evolution on the original by injecting a sense of speed and urgency.
10. Furi ; A thumping soundtrack and precise controls help this brutal boss rush stay tough and rewarding without dipping into frustration.

 

[Davide]

A pretty poor year compared to 2015 with a couple standouts. Haven't played The Last Guardian yet though.

1. Uncharted 4: A Thief's End; The series ends on its highest note, on another level from the first few games and surpassing The Last Of Us and. It is a fine piece of entertainment, not just a video game. The writing is fantastic. One of the top 10 games of the decade if not top 5.

2. The Witcher 3: Blood and Wine; My longest gaming experience of 2016 and loved every minute. It was to The Witcher 3 what Assassin's Creed Brotherhood was to Assassin's Creed II. Although a DLC piece it was far better than the vast majority of games in 2016. The writing it is as good as ever.

3. Battlefield 1; The best war campaign I have ever played. Unfortunately it is far too short.

4. DOOM; A technically fantastic shooter, although it did not do much for me. Not my favourite FPS.

 

[Underpants158]

1. I Am Setsuna ; I bet this opinion is a surprise to most even those who liked the game. For some background I have been burnt on jrpgs for years now. I Am Setsuna brought my love for the genre back.

2. Stardew Valley ; I loved Harvest Moon on the ps1 and this game recaptured that love. It is likely the most complete "Harvest Moon" game.

3. Dishonored 2 ; Loved the first one and honestly if the vision of enemies weren't so...realistic... this could have been my game of the year BUT the amount of times I got frustrated from it took it down a few pegs. Third favorite game of the year is still a pretty good spot though

4. Deus Ex: Mankind Divided ; I dabbled with Human Revolution but I played this game all the way through and loved it all. Except for the end. Or should I say "end."

5. Shadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun ; This game really came out of nowhere for me. I didn't hear of it's existence until it came out and I think I bought it that day. This had a similar frustration of realism being difficult BUT the quick save feature made it no problem. I also really got attached to some of the characters.

6. The Banner Saga 2 ; Ohhh The Banner Saga. I love me the world, story, decision making, combat. It's all great.

7. Owlboy ; Beautiful story, characters, pacing, and boss fights. What really holds this game back is boring level design. This could have been a game of the year contender for me.

8. Boxboxboy ; New concepts continuously being introduced throughout the game that offer challenge without ever seeming impossibly daunting. I did play The Witness this year and the reason I prefer Boxboxboy is it is easier. There. I am not ashamed!

9. Aragami ; I love stealth games and you got to love stealth games for this game to make your list. The level design is redundant and there are only two enemy types. That being said I still had a lot of fun and I really liked the ending.The story drags in the middle but oh man that ending.

10. Firewatch ; The amount of tension I felt during parts of this game made me have to put it here.

x. Stellaris ;
x. Civilization Vi ;
x. Oxenfree ;
x. Hyper Light Drifter ;

 

[jj984jj]

1. Dragon Quest Builders ; The biggest surprise of the year for me. I knew it would be good when I learned the game designer behind Trauma Center, Etrian Odyssey, and 7th Dragon among others was behind it. But the town building on top of the missions being filled with that DQ charm really pushed it over the top for me.
2. Pokemon Sun/Moon ; Game Freak has finally changed the progression format of this series and it's a change that should have happened generations ago. Between that, other refinements, and the fully realized 3D.I found this entry so much more enjoyable than X/Y.
3. Dishonored 2 ; This game has such immersive world building and as a fan of the first it delivered everything I wanted out of a sequel.
4. Shin Megami Tensei IV: Apocalypse
5. Fire Emblem Fates
6. Sid Meier's Civilization VI
7. Digimon Story Cyber Sleuth
8. Xanadu Next
9. Oxenfree
10. The Last Guardian

x. Stardew Valley
x. Grand Kingdom
x. Dragon's Dogma: Dark Arisen (PC)
x. Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE
x. Dragon Quest VII
x. Legend of Heroes Trails of Cold Steel 2
x. Life is Strange
x. Pokken Tournament
x. Ratchet & Clank
x. Pokémon Go
x. Odin Sphere: Leifthrasir
x. I Am Setsuna
x. Bravely Second
x. Deus Ex: Mankind Divided
x. Firewatch
x. Abzû
x. Unravel
x. 7th Dragon III Code: VFD

 

[Morrigan Stark]

It won't be disqualified, but intentionally listing ineligible titles makes more work for us.

Okay no prob, I won't list it then.

Btw, Viking Squad is missing from the Excel list. I doubt anyone will nominate it though (even if I enjoyed it).

 

[duckroll]

1. Overwatch ; Some of the remaining titles took a lot of thinking and consideration to determine where I might place them or how I could even compare them because they excelled in different areas, but this one is a no brainer. Not since Counterstrike and Left 4 Dead have I found a multiplayer shooter this fun. Great design, easy to jump in, solid learning curve, tons of character options, a blast to play with friends. The map selection is good, the ongoing community support is outstanding. Overwatch is much more than just a Team Fortress 2 clone, it is the perfect harmony of Blizzard's expertise in creating comic book characters and worlds, and solid objective based squad shooting with really tight design offering tons of player options. It also loads really quick, runs on a toaster, and looks pretty. By far this year's biggest surprise.

2. Doom ; This really took me by surprise too, and would be a strong contender for first place if Overwatch didn't exist. I would never have believed iD wuold be capable of making a game like this. It's a total opposite of Doom 3 in philosophy. It isn't stuck up its own ass trying to be a serious story game, and instead delivers well designed sprawling maps level by level, tons of demons to kill, visceral action with great action feedback, and fast and responsive mobility for the player character. Great weapons, fun encounters, an abundance of unlocks, secrets, and optional content. Really nice bosses towards the end too. Best overall single player shooter experience, but amazingly, not the only great one this year.

3. Titanfall 2 ; I jumped right into this one because I enjoyed Titanfall but was disappointed at it being MP only given how the PC community died off. With a SP campaign I was really hopeful they would leverage the great gameplay to deliver a fun shooter with robots and shit. The campaign surpassed all my expectations by being creative, inventive, and probably the most varied narrative and puzzle driven shooter campaign since Valve's Portal 2. It's a really short campaign though, and there aren't a ton of collectibles and stuff. Good thing the MP is fun too.

4. SaGa Scarlet Grace ; Another big surprise for me. After TGS I was expecting the worst given how the game had no explorable dungeons or towns, longass multiple loading screens in each battle, and honestly looked like a cheap ass 0 budget mobile game. It seemed pretty disgraceful for a new SaGa title on the Vita. But wow what a surprise the game turned out to be. Where it lacks in production values it makes up for in content, where it lacks in polish it makes up for in ambition, and where it lacks in what fans expect in a RPG package it makes up for by what is there being of very high quality. The game plays like a dream once you get into it, part text adventure, part battle simulator, 500% RPG. A really tight and fun battle system filled with tension and satisfaction, a huge selection of party members and weapons, every region packed to the brim with scenarios to discover and immerse in. What could have been a SaGa fan's nightmare turned out to be the sweetest dream. It helps that the art and music really rock too, an they put in a lot of effort in adapting the art into good battle models with nice combat animations. The monsters look great too. Really hope this gets localized.

5. Hitman ; It's nice to see Hitman return to what made the series good but with a huge boost in tech to bring it to modern times. More intuitive UI, much livelier and by consequence more interesting settings, lots of little scenarios in each setting to play around with. Great stuff. I keep getting distracted by other games so I haven't put as much as time I would like into this but other than some quirky AI bugs and the game not always reacting the way I expect, this is a solid effort from IO and is definitely the direction the franchise needs to go from here on out. I embrace our episodic overlords.

6. Dragon Quest VII ; One of the best RPG story anthologies of all time is remade and released on the 3DS. Gotta vote for it!

7. Xanadu Next ; Pretty cool action RPG with a lot of Vagrant Story vibes. Graphics are pretty iffy though, and controls on the PC are a mess because this was made in the stone ages. But it's fun!

8. Shin Megami Tensei IV Apocalypse ; I only played 2 hours of this but if I don't vote for it I fear Mara will eat my future children.

9. Trails of Cold Steel 2 ; This would be much higher on my list if 40% of the game wasn't boring filler shit. There are some super cool moments though. Overall worth it if you're a fan, otherwise zzzz.

10. Romancing SaGa 2 ; Probably the best paid RPG you can buy on a smartphone right now. Until they release Romancing SaGa 3. Too bad the controls are poop. English Vita release when?!


Honorable Mentions

x. Terra Battle ; Still the best mobile game ever made now and forever. Another year has come and gone and Matsuno World still has not graced our presence, but I believe it will come some day. Meanwhile there was a ton of really fun new content over the year and I got lots of cool new characters. Long live Sakaguchi. Long live Mistwalker. Long live Terra Battle!!!

 

[Appollowexx]

1. Uncharted 4: A Thief's End

Uncharted has been a series that I've followed very closely ever since the original game launched on PS3 many years ago. Over the years I grew to love the characters Naughty Dog had created. As a fan of 'cinematic gaming', those games that try to capture the feeling you get when watching a great film or television show, Uncharted always provided me a good way to scratch that itch.
The final game in the series took already well written characters and fleshed them out ten-fold. It blended the signature humour and pulpy OTT nature of the series with a darker, more somber and reflective tone. Best of all, adding to this new, more mature writing style, UC4 managed to overcome its biggest hurdle. It gave its memorable cast a farewell that was respectful, heartfelt and satisfying all at once.
The game may have dialed back on action and set pieces but I really felt that the pacing was perfect. Uncharted 4 played like a great summer blockbuster, with a satisfying ebb and flow that had me hooked from beginning to end.


2. Firewatch

Personally this is one of the most atmospheric, engrossing and touching video game experiences I've ever had. Perfectly written characters that share sometimes hilarious, sometimes heartwarming and sometimes downright sad exchanges... all delivered over radio as they are separated by several miles of forest land. Henry and Delilah are two of the years greatest characters, both as likeable as they are flawed. The game may boil down to a slightly more involved 'walking simulator' (as much as I hate the term), but who really cares when the writing is so good, the visuals and art so striking and the sense of place and atmosphere so well realised. If you enjoy engaging characters, a good story and want something short and sweet, then I urge you to pick up Firewatch.

3. Inside

Playdead return from Limbo *ba-dum-tsss* with another stand out puzzle platformer. Like Limbo, Inside has its roots firmly planted in the horror genre. It has a slightly different look and feel though, with a more 3D art style and even better animations. The sound is incredibly well designed, the puzzles are clever and sometimes tricky but never feel unfair, the length and pace is spot on and that ending...
....let's just say the most grotesque and bizarre piece of gameplay I've experienced all year.

4. The Last Guardian

After so many years (I've lost count), finally Ueda delivered his fans a third game. The Last Guardian was a game I'd lost a good deal of hope for over the years. Previews were hit and miss pre-launch, the game looked to have the usual technical issues and all that combined with the ridiculously long development time, added up to a big question - Is the game actually going to be anywhere near as good as ICO or SOTC? Two of my favourite games.

Well yes it was. TLG had moments of frustration and brilliance in equal measure. For every moment the AI would be non respondent, it would also do something adorable or unexpected that made me smile and realise why I play these kind of games. For every puzzle that ended in frustration due to the games annoying camera, there were ones that came together perfectly and you realise what a genius mind this game came from. The soundtrack was glorious, the visuals stunning and some of the most spectacular set pieces and biggest narrative surprises in gaming all year. Oh and Trico is the most adorable creature ever to grace a video game.


5. Life is Strange

I loved the story, the characters grew on me and the games locations were brought to life in a way I haven't seen done so well since the old point and click adventure games. A lovely soundtrack, the feel of those cool 90s movies, and a real sense of friendship. Life Is Strange was my go to chill game last year. Easy to pick up and play, further the story a little and come back to another time. I only wish my time in Arcadia Bay had been longer.