Earthbound and Dune: Game of the Year 2015

Like my list last year this list is purely what I’ve played this year, i’ve not played every AAA title, some of which I think would have been close to making this list (Dying light) and others I played a bit of but I couldn’t get into (The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt). I’d have love to found a place on this list for Animal Crossing: New Leaf, just to justify the amount of hours i’ve sunk into it, but it also falls short because A. It came out a long time ago and B. I’m not sure its a game.  

Some fantastic games fell short of my list, reissues of Grim Fandango, Resident Evil, The Last of Us and the Unfinished Swan as well as Everyones Gone to the Rapture, Destiny (post patch), Yoshi’s Wooly World, 80 Days, Downwell, Gauntlet and Cities Skylines.

10 Her Story (Steam) Weirdly this was the most memorable thing I played for the weekend I played it, then instantly I forgot it. While I was getting through this mysterious game most of my time not playing it I was thinking of phrases and words to look up to help me unravel it, I’m not sure if the experience could be repeated or copied in other games but it was a remarkable and unique experience.

09 FAST Racing Neo (WiiU) With F Zero forgotten about for the time being this game snuck in and filled all my futuristic racing needs. Beneath the sparse menus lies a deep game with a variety of unique environments to race on. Adding a mechanic that involves changing the colour of your ship to boost at points makes some races feel like a rhythm game, the only downside is the cost of making a mistake can seem fairly harsh, but the speed of the game makes sure that the pack of other racers are always in reach. On top of all this it looks great, has robust online play and is relatively cheap too.    

08 Rocket League (PS4) Playstation Plus has become a great place to find gems like this. Simple in its concept, football with cars, but the delicacy of the controls and physics of the ball add much more depth. A great game online, although failed attempts at clearing the ball or stopping it on the line left me with nowhere to hide on a few occasions (luckily the community is forgiving). Not much more to add about this game, great fun and really addictive.

07 Journey (PS4) The HD reissues of this and The Unfinished Swan gave me a chance to experience two games I'd been interested in for the first time. Journeys relatively short and sombre story of a characters travels through a desert is fairly ambiguous but delves into some deeper concepts toward the end. Gameplay is fantastic, and it's a game which gives you new mechanics quickly then takes them away so nothing really gets repeated or feels overused and awesome moments like gliding down massive sandy dunes are more memorable because they feel unique. Bumping into other players made me feel connected whilst almost more alone on my journey, especially the harrowing moments when they exit your game. Loved it all the way to its emotional conclusion.

06 Splatoon (WiiU) In many ways the antithesis of an online shooter. Short easy to understand bursts of gameplay without voice chat and oozing Nintendo charm. Playing it never feels too overwhelming, and while other players are at a higher level than me (and better at the game) I always feel useful and that winning matches is within my grasp. Add to this the constantly expanding roster of levels and weapons, the surprisingly deep single player campaign and the robust online play (I've never been kicked out of a match or experienced any lag) and Nintendo have made one of the most inventive and addictive shooters i've played.

05 Bloodborne (PS4). I doubt I'll ever finish Bloodborne, and I didn't get much over halfway through the game. The time I spent with it though was unlike anything I'd played before, addictive while unsettling at the same time. Progress is painfully slow, but played at such a rhythm that I wanted to keep coming back, in fact if and when I return to it I'd be tempted to start again as the game relies so much on knowledge of the areas your in and enemy placement. The few bosses I beat took everything I'd learnt in the game to beat, and none of them felt easy while at the same time they all felt beatable, a hard thing to balance. On top of all this it's probably the best looking game of 2015 with some fantastic art direction.

04 Mario Maker (WiiU) As the WiiU began to seemingly wind down its output of games Nintendo shook things up with one of the best titles I can remember them releasing in years. A simple enough idea, give the player the tools to make a Mario game through 4 different styles, is made all the better by the ease of use and fantastic UI. Its only flaw, is a personal one. Beyond creating levels with a theme, my abilities, or patience are limited and I don't get to experience the full extent of the creative tools given to me, instead I play others levels in awe of whats made. On top off all this its got a great integration with Amiibo (and possibly the best) and continues to be supported with updates.

03 Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain (PS4) I had so much fun with this game, a large sandbox with dozens of bases to approach in countless ways, and it allowed a lot of leeway for my appalling stealth ability. The game gets a lot better story-wise in the second act, with the final revelation being fantastic (although predictable). I had a couple of issues with the game, it went beyond frustrating with a couple of missions (including the fantastic climax to Quiets story) and the character Quiet was way over sexualized, which is such a shame as she was a great character with an interesting story to tell, its hard to take any of that seriously when she's parading about almost naked for little reason. These issues were minors blips though in a great game. 

02 Undertale (Steam) Charming, witty and dark at the same time. Amongst a small group of games which have made me laugh aloud (intentionally) and I found it hard not to adore its twisted cast. Along with this it keeps messing with traditional turn based combat, turning most encounters into fun, skill based mini-games (think Warioware with a story). I thought it looked great, simple graphics but well done, especially at points when it played with weather and light. The ending I got was a brutal fight with a boss, but leading up to that there was a touching message from the game which made the 6 hours or so I spent with it worthwhile. Despite being wrapped in an RPG shell, probably the most accessible game on this list, and the one I'd recommend the most. 

01 Fallout 4 (PS4). Since Fallout 3 I've grown to love the world the games exist in. Whereas a lot of RPG worlds feel created or false, Fallouts world feels beaten up and lived in. Rifling through long dead peoples belongings can be tragic or funny while useful at the same time. The step up to the new generation of consoles has made the world seem less grey, small settlements are now filled with neon and storms of a bright green rage from time to time. It's still a buggy game in places, and some mechanics are either still a bit fiddly or are added and a whole new type of contrived (base building for example). Beyond that though its a fantastic experience, features added like a more streamlined weapon customisation, power armour which runs on fuel and the aforementioned base building fit into the game seamlessly and makes the hoarding through junk meaningful. Storylines unravel throughout the map as you wander about and can be funny, unsettling or sad. There was a weight to the choice of what faction I choose to join, or at least support, and instead of going with the most powerful group I actually toyed with the morality of my choice. Its a game I'll keep coming back to and is everything I'd have hoped for.

Earthbound and Dune 07.12.15

I adored Super Amazing Wagon Adventure (Xbox Live) it was silly but a load of fun. Currently its not available for mac (and I don’t see that changing soon) so i’m left with little choice but to go and play a game that heavily influenced it, and i’d never played before. Oregon Trail (DOS) on the surface its an educational game, so I felt that the only way forward with it was to name my party on this trail, Cock, Knob, Balls, Shaft and Bell. I set out with food, ox, bullets and spare parts (assuming we were already clothed) in the month of March, foolishly assuming that i’d make it to the warmer summer months. My next decision was to ration my party heavily, this wasn’t going to be a jolly. The going was easy for the first few days, and even got to a town where someone was willing to trade food for a wagon wheel, but supplies were in enough supply because of my heavily rationing that I declined. I got to a river, given the option I decided to float my wagon across, which at first seemed like the easiest option until…

just outside of my first main settlement Knob got ill. I wasn’t too concerned though, as I hoped to find supplies in the town, the very next day though (and 20 miles down the road)...

These were hard times, I decided that in the town i’d stock up on supplies, up the rations to cheer my crew up. Sadly the only thing people wanted to trade in this town were wagon parts for more wagon parts. I spent a load of cash on food anyway.

I was starting to regret crossing that river, my companions health was not getting better and we were a long way from any sign of civilisation. Things continued to get worse.

This was just a day later, we had a lot of food, so much that I was wondering if even at my more carefree rationing, we’d get much further. Bandits saw there opportunity at this point to steal all our bullets as we were sleeping. It all got too much for Shaft, who I don’t think ever got over Knobs death.

I consoled myself with the knowledge that Cock and Balls were okay, and measles didn’t seem as bad as the other illnesses being handed out on my wagon.

The weather wasn’t letting up and now Balls was on his way out. It was all getting too much.

The landmark that had been on my horizon for the past 250miles or so turned out to be just a tree stump. I hadn’t the heart to tell Bell and Balls that there wasn’t a doctor in sight, and food wasn’t the issue. At least it was warm, perhaps my plan of travelling into the summer months was paying off.

Turns out I knew very little about weather, or illnesses.

So that was it, I didn’t get very far or do very well. I didn’t have as much fun as I’d have had with Super Wagon Adventure, but its a more interesting game, especially in the context of when it was made and how many games its influenced, games which I love, like 80 Days and Fallout. It relied heavily on my imagination, and even being as basic as I was it made me smile for the hour or so I played it, and for something that I was having a go at just to play a bit of history thats great.

Earthbound and Dune 01.12.15

Not played much new stuff this week, may be because I'm now trying to assemble a top 10 of sorts for what i've played this year and don't want anything else sneaking on. Basically I've played a good few hours of Fallout 4 (PS4) I struggle with balancing this game between running through the main story (which seems quite direct) and then taking up other quests on the side. It could be because of the seeming urgency of my main objective, which admittedly is made a little less urgent by a early(ish) revelation. I got as far as taking out an early antagonist and the subsequent journey to the small town of Goodneighbor and had a feeling that I was rushing through the story too quickly. So I set about helping the Brotherhood of Steel with a few of they're tasks (generally fetching bits of technology for them) but after a few hours of this I started to get the feeling that I wasn't that keen on them as a bunch of people, and that perhaps I was aligning myself with the wrong group. The people of Goodneighbor seemed a lot more interesting, and they're was a couple of lines of dialogue in that town that suggested that if I continue to cosy up with the Brotherhood of Steel then I'd not be as welcome in the town. This balancing act is what stands this game apart for me, the weaponry and monetary rewards I'm getting from working with the kind've religious military side of the fallout world are great and it may just be the way I'm playing but the missions they send me on seem fairly easy in comparison to what i'm getting. My next steps in the game will be to try out missions for a few more factions though as the Brotherhood are quite an ernest crowd. It's great how the world gives you snippets of what went on before the bombs fell all the time too. I stumbled across a lavish bar in the top floor of a building, where all the guests where skeletons slumped in they're chairs, the left overs to collect were slim pickings, just bottles of poisoned wine. After rooting about for a bit I left with not much else but the question of where they killed or did they kill themselves or was it something else entirely. I might just be overthinking it all! 

Mechanically I've finally got to grips with the more convoluted levelling up system, where you assign points to perks rather than being given them at set points. Once I got my head round it its a much more easy path to follow. I put points into intelligence so I could get the gun nut perk, allowing me to customise my weapons (although so far weapons i'm finding in the wasteland seem more useful than anything I'm making). I then aimed for the auqaboy perk (which gives more resistance to radiation when swimming) which meant putting more into endurance. Seeing the steps you need to take to get certain things is more logical, it just meant I had to go high on luck early on to get the mysterious stranger perk. 

Thanksgiving came to Pipswich in Animal Crossing: New Leaf (3DS) or at least the Animal Crossing version of it. This involved chasing down ingredients for a turkey with a cooking pot in the middle of my town, all simple stuff. Carp, mushrooms and an apple. Then the realisation that apples don't grow on the trees in my town, so spent time gathering ingredients for the other residents of my town, still easy things, a dace for Leonardo and a horse mackerel for Roscoe, but time consuming. They'd often then trade for things i've got an abundance of, cherries. Or things that were useless to me, vinegar. Everyone in the village had the same tip too, if you need honey then use a bees nest, punishing me for building an oil drilling operation in the centre of town. Finally Graham, the ever dependable nerd hamster, traded a tall mushroom for an apple, which I took to the turkey and he swapped me all my ingredients for a fruit basket. All l can say is that they all better put more effort in for christmas.