Hey there, me again. I'm still playing video games and still MMORPG clean and sort of MOBA clean. Well, maybe just a little MOBA muddy instead. It's been over an entire year since I stopped playing Final Fantasy XIV though I can still remember a guildmate (amicably) threatening my life if I didn't return (sorry!). Sometimes I still think about playing it, maybe a little more casually, especially since some footage of the expansion class Red Mage was recently featured. I'm still off of the League of Legends boat though it was pretty fun watching Worlds this year.
I think most notably for me and gaming was how I got much more into the Giant Bomb community. Last years 2015 Game of the Year podcasts really hooked me in and I started following all their content much more. Even grabbed a subscription membership on sale so I could support writers and content creators I like. Wound up joining the Discord community and being a decent enough human to be considered a moderator there, which in turn is my way of trying to make an even better community. I've made a ton of gaming buddies and people I probably talk to too often now. At the very least its a great way to see perspectives from a well versed community about gaming.
Starting with my Favorite Mobile Games that I played this year
- Marvel Puzzle Quest - Still the very best
- Clash of Clans - I stopped playing this year but when I was on it, it was the first and last thing I did every day
- Clash Royale
- Pokemon Go - I really love the concept of this game. Which it was better executed and also good god stop pausing my music when I open your app PLEASE
- Marvel Contest of Champions - Still a very good mobile grindy fighting game. I reached a point where I was participating in Alliance activities every day and apparently wasn't contributing enough. Ultimately I was removed from my Alliance but the perks of being in a one that active were so high that I just lost most of my drive to play after being left on the proverbial super hero curb.
- Puzzles and Dragons - I finally actually got into this one and the puzzling in it is actually very solid. There are times though I feel players are held back by not having enough work into their monsters to be able to defeat certain boss monsters. In a different type of game you might just level up or get better gear, PAD will require you to grind many more monsters to feed to your monsters to level up -- oh and good luck trying to find that material monster once a week to evolve it.
- Marvel Future Fight - I was actually off of this game for a while but towards the end of the year I was just itching for a her collection type of game and this is a pretty good one of those.
- Tap Titans 2
Games I Wish I Played In 2016
- The Witness
- Dishonored 2
- Uncharted 4: A Thief's End
- Battlefield 1
- The Witness
- Firewatch
- Final Fantasy XV
- Deus Ex: Mankind Divided
- Abzu
- Mafia III
- Watch_Dogs 2
- Overcooked
- Ratchet and Clank (2016)
- Superhot
- Oxenfree
- Owlboy
- Shadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun
- House of the Dying Sun
- Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare
- Everspace
- Event[0]
- Recore
- Fire Emblem Fates
Games I'm Looking Forward to in 2017
- Mass Effect Andromeda
- Nier: Automata
- Red Dead Redemption 2
- Horizon Zero Dawn
- Halo Wars 2
- Gravity Rush 2
- Persona 5
- Pyre
- For Honor
- Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War III
- Tacoma
- Injustice 2
- State of Decay 2
- Prey?
My most played game this year is easily Warframe. I guess in a way Warframe has probably filled the void in my gaming regimen that MMORPGs do. This game is pure grind, but the grind is laced into the very being of the game which already feels fantastic. It's a game that listens to the idea "What if we put a thruster engine on the back of a giant two handed hammer?" and gives that weapon to the player. Warframe is a game of infinite carrots on infinite sticks. There are seemingly an infinite number of toys to play with and as long as Digital Extremes, the developers are supported they toys will flow.
Some footage of the completely ridiculous holiday event.
I finally bit the bullet and spent some decent money on the game, but only because I got a 75% off currency coupon as a log in reward. (Which is a brilliant way to print money out of a player who may not otherwise buy in) So of course I go for the $200 option for $50 and have been able to buy more Warframe slots which I've mostly held off on doing during my time with the game previously. It's very liberating to no longer (at least for now) worry about limited slots for Warframes and weapons. I've been able to build (and farm and farm and farm) many more of the Prime Warframes and the game has just been so much more enjoyable. At the rate they add content it feels like a living growing game, in some cases better than something like Destiny. While story is something that is still lacking, there have been few story quests that really got on the road of fleshing out the mythos of that game. As of writing this I've just broken 900 hours played in steam and I'll still be playing into 2017. Here's to hoping the devs keep Warframe thriving like it did in 2016.
Red Dead Redemption (2010) came out on Xbox One backwards compatibility which meant it was definitely time for me to play it. For a game that game that came out 6 years ago it surely held up. I'm extremely happy and impressed that I was able to witness the ending of Red Dead without actually being spoiled. I can understand the sentiment that people laud this as Game of the Generation and has one of the best endings in video games. John Marston was a great character with a dark and complicated past. He was grounded and at times cynical about the world he lived in and held views more in line with our modern outlooks regarding racism in contrast to every character around him
Red Dead on backwards compatibility came at a great time for me since I was engrossed in Westworld at the same time. As someone who primarily really enjoys Sci-Fi, and Fantasy second, RDR was a reminder and how well Westerns could be done and I'm planning to explore that further.
Another title I probably wouldn't have played without Xbox 360 to One backwards compatibility, but I'm glad I did, Forza Horizon (2012). FH was a stand out to me because of how well it puts cars into a fully open world styled game. When you open up your map you see a huge flood of icons and events you immediately have the urge to clear up. There are signs you have to smash as collectibles that give you discounts at the shop and garage, there are all types of race events (though they're all the same in that you just want to beat everyone and place first anyways). The Showcase Events feel like the most notable events though as they sort of progress the "story" each time you LEVEL UP your wristband to unlock more events and areas around the map. They showcase you, the no name turned star driver racing against absurd opponents, featuring bi-planes and helicopters in return for ludicrously fast cars as rewards. The soundtrack is from 2012 and it absolutely gives me serious flashbacks to walking a Zumiez or Pacsun at the mall in 2012. Obligatory Two Door Cinema Club, Miike Snow, Passion Pit, NERO, and so much more. It was a nice nostalgia trip and I even though there are only 65 total tracks, during my time with the game I didn't feel sick of the tracks on the radio stations. And while I feel like it's weird to state this everytime a game is 4 or more years old, Forza Horizon 1 still holds up.
Nuclear Throne (2015) feels like it was and will be one of those games I keep smashing my head into until I can beat. Of 7 total overworlds to reach the Nuclear Throne itself I've only been able to get to the Frozen City the 5th. A run based towndown twinstick aggressive shooter where you clear floors, collect rads to evolve your mutated character with more ability perks. The goal is to defeat all the floor bosses, hop in a dark workhole to the next floor until at long last you royally sit on and claim the Nuclear Throne for yourself. My 8 hours or so spent with Nuclear throne was a lot of dying. I spent a lot of time figuring out which character gelled with my playstyle, which weapons I was attracted to (as you can only carry 2 at a time, JUST LIKE MASTER CHIEF), and then dying some more as I had no idea how new enemies and bosses reacted. Nuke Throne also had a surprising bit of secrets in it, most I haven't discovered yet (see also: looked up). You can carry a screwdriver as a weapon to a mid game stage, attack (repair) a specific car and that transports you to a secret world to unlock another character to play on future runs.
The birth of this game is also an interesting story as it came out of Mojangs 48 hour MOJAM by VAMBLEER and right into a Humblebundle of all the games. When it was sold in the Humblebundle Giantbomb played it on a UPF feature and already considered it good enough to go on Steam. A few years later and a name change from Wasteland Kings to Nuclear Throne we get to roll as fish and shoot some guns at mutants bandits and yetis in hopes on becoming Wasteland Royalty.
Even though I did not get to sit my stupid fish butt on that throne in 2016, you can be damn sure I'll be giving it many tries in 2017.
Syndicate (2012) was such a product of its time, filled with Skrillex dubstep litered with explosions in its marketing. However Syndicate totally nails the cyberpunk athstetic and the first tutorial stage where I escape capture in an abandoned city building feels so much like something ripped out of Blade Runner. Every glance outside of a dilapidated broken window reveals a rain slicked, bright and neon slathered city meanwhile you're running from a mess of faceless corporate soldiers gunning you down for yet unknown reasons. I really enjoyed playing through Syndicate and just seeing a modern rendition of the classic isometric tactical games. The world is filled with clean glossy corporate interiors inside of buildings protected from the filthy under-cities sprawled with neon Asian character signs. You're a corporate agent and pretty much a super soldier with your DART chip. That chip was forged from your very own corporations scientist and you're sent to murder a rival corporations counterpart. Once you confront and ultimately dispatch the rival scientist, you notoriously rip the chip (CHIP RIP) out of his head and analyze his memory and data. That becomes a revelation of betrayal and the plot is really kicked into gear.
The game play was mostly standard for a 2012 FPS. Aim down sights, alt fires for some weapons including lock on and shoot around cover, but the neatest feature it had was the activation of your agents DART chip abilities. You could hack weapons to backfire and stun soldiers, hack grenades as they were thrown at you to pick them up and use as your own, or activate a sort of heat vision and using a marksman rifle fire through cover at unsuspecting soldiers. At the very last this campaign was a visual treat for me to playthrough. It featured so many cool futuristic UI elements both on your screen and attached to environmental elements like your gun or just floating next to objects. There was also a multiplayer co-op aspect but as you might guess the community is entirely dead now.
The Dynasty Warriors series are a bit of a guilty pleasure. They are the fatty salty and sugar loaded treat of video games. Warriors Orochi 3 Ultimate (2011) ranked pretty high on my PlayWhileListeningToPodcasts list this year because the story was kind of ridiculous and discardable and you mostly spent time performing amazing yet simple attack combos through combinations of the X and Y buttons. It was pretty enjoyable unlocking a new character of the massive 120 roster and adding them to their team to see their obscenely large weapon and terrifically flashy musou combos. Orochi 3 also included a lot of special characters like Ayane from Dead or Alive, Ryu Hayabusa from Ninja Gaiden, and because it includes time travel... Achilles and Joan of Arc. According to Xbox I've played One day and 7 hours of Warriors Orochi 3 Ultimate and I'm totally looking forward to Dynasty Warriors 8.
Enter the Gungeon was my big contender with Nuclear Throne. Both run based top down shooters with bullet hell elements, but Gungeon leans way way into the bullet hell aspect and gives you a very necessary dodge roll with any character you pick.
reminds me of how people would learn encounter patterns of enemies and bosses in Dark Souls. In the same way I guess this is my version of Dark Souls that I really enjoy. There was also some really really good music. Much like Nuclear Throne I totally plan on playing this into 2017 in attempt of reaching the end.
Red Dead Redemption (2010) came out on Xbox One backwards compatibility which meant it was definitely time for me to play it. For a game that game that came out 6 years ago it surely held up. I'm extremely happy and impressed that I was able to witness the ending of Red Dead without actually being spoiled. I can understand the sentiment that people laud this as Game of the Generation and has one of the best endings in video games. John Marston was a great character with a dark and complicated past. He was grounded and at times cynical about the world he lived in and held views more in line with our modern outlooks regarding racism in contrast to every character around him
Red Dead on backwards compatibility came at a great time for me since I was engrossed in Westworld at the same time. As someone who primarily really enjoys Sci-Fi, and Fantasy second, RDR was a reminder and how well Westerns could be done and I'm planning to explore that further.
Another title I probably wouldn't have played without Xbox 360 to One backwards compatibility, but I'm glad I did, Forza Horizon (2012). FH was a stand out to me because of how well it puts cars into a fully open world styled game. When you open up your map you see a huge flood of icons and events you immediately have the urge to clear up. There are signs you have to smash as collectibles that give you discounts at the shop and garage, there are all types of race events (though they're all the same in that you just want to beat everyone and place first anyways). The Showcase Events feel like the most notable events though as they sort of progress the "story" each time you LEVEL UP your wristband to unlock more events and areas around the map. They showcase you, the no name turned star driver racing against absurd opponents, featuring bi-planes and helicopters in return for ludicrously fast cars as rewards. The soundtrack is from 2012 and it absolutely gives me serious flashbacks to walking a Zumiez or Pacsun at the mall in 2012. Obligatory Two Door Cinema Club, Miike Snow, Passion Pit, NERO, and so much more. It was a nice nostalgia trip and I even though there are only 65 total tracks, during my time with the game I didn't feel sick of the tracks on the radio stations. And while I feel like it's weird to state this everytime a game is 4 or more years old, Forza Horizon 1 still holds up.
Nuclear Throne (2015) feels like it was and will be one of those games I keep smashing my head into until I can beat. Of 7 total overworlds to reach the Nuclear Throne itself I've only been able to get to the Frozen City the 5th. A run based towndown twinstick aggressive shooter where you clear floors, collect rads to evolve your mutated character with more ability perks. The goal is to defeat all the floor bosses, hop in a dark workhole to the next floor until at long last you royally sit on and claim the Nuclear Throne for yourself. My 8 hours or so spent with Nuclear throne was a lot of dying. I spent a lot of time figuring out which character gelled with my playstyle, which weapons I was attracted to (as you can only carry 2 at a time, JUST LIKE MASTER CHIEF), and then dying some more as I had no idea how new enemies and bosses reacted. Nuke Throne also had a surprising bit of secrets in it, most I haven't discovered yet (see also: looked up). You can carry a screwdriver as a weapon to a mid game stage, attack (repair) a specific car and that transports you to a secret world to unlock another character to play on future runs.
The birth of this game is also an interesting story as it came out of Mojangs 48 hour MOJAM by VAMBLEER and right into a Humblebundle of all the games. When it was sold in the Humblebundle Giantbomb played it on a UPF feature and already considered it good enough to go on Steam. A few years later and a name change from Wasteland Kings to Nuclear Throne we get to roll as fish and shoot some guns at mutants bandits and yetis in hopes on becoming Wasteland Royalty.
Even though I did not get to sit my stupid fish butt on that throne in 2016, you can be damn sure I'll be giving it many tries in 2017.
Syndicate (2012) was such a product of its time, filled with Skrillex dubstep litered with explosions in its marketing. However Syndicate totally nails the cyberpunk athstetic and the first tutorial stage where I escape capture in an abandoned city building feels so much like something ripped out of Blade Runner. Every glance outside of a dilapidated broken window reveals a rain slicked, bright and neon slathered city meanwhile you're running from a mess of faceless corporate soldiers gunning you down for yet unknown reasons. I really enjoyed playing through Syndicate and just seeing a modern rendition of the classic isometric tactical games. The world is filled with clean glossy corporate interiors inside of buildings protected from the filthy under-cities sprawled with neon Asian character signs. You're a corporate agent and pretty much a super soldier with your DART chip. That chip was forged from your very own corporations scientist and you're sent to murder a rival corporations counterpart. Once you confront and ultimately dispatch the rival scientist, you notoriously rip the chip (CHIP RIP) out of his head and analyze his memory and data. That becomes a revelation of betrayal and the plot is really kicked into gear.The game play was mostly standard for a 2012 FPS. Aim down sights, alt fires for some weapons including lock on and shoot around cover, but the neatest feature it had was the activation of your agents DART chip abilities. You could hack weapons to backfire and stun soldiers, hack grenades as they were thrown at you to pick them up and use as your own, or activate a sort of heat vision and using a marksman rifle fire through cover at unsuspecting soldiers. At the very last this campaign was a visual treat for me to playthrough. It featured so many cool futuristic UI elements both on your screen and attached to environmental elements like your gun or just floating next to objects. There was also a multiplayer co-op aspect but as you might guess the community is entirely dead now.
The Dynasty Warriors series are a bit of a guilty pleasure. They are the fatty salty and sugar loaded treat of video games. Warriors Orochi 3 Ultimate (2011) ranked pretty high on my PlayWhileListeningToPodcasts list this year because the story was kind of ridiculous and discardable and you mostly spent time performing amazing yet simple attack combos through combinations of the X and Y buttons. It was pretty enjoyable unlocking a new character of the massive 120 roster and adding them to their team to see their obscenely large weapon and terrifically flashy musou combos. Orochi 3 also included a lot of special characters like Ayane from Dead or Alive, Ryu Hayabusa from Ninja Gaiden, and because it includes time travel... Achilles and Joan of Arc. According to Xbox I've played One day and 7 hours of Warriors Orochi 3 Ultimate and I'm totally looking forward to Dynasty Warriors 8.
Warhammer 40,000: Spacemarine (2011) was a game that I've been wanting to play for a while as someone that has not yet taken the full plunge into the Warhammer 40K pool. I enjoyed past Dawn of War games and that was about yet, and maybe one day I'll get into the books too because it seems like Dan Abnett is writing up a great storm there. Space marines, or rather just Marines in space are one of my favorite scifi tropes probably since seeing Starship Troopers when I was way too young. Star Wars in a way solidified it with Stormtrooper ranks and Halo of course. Orcs, well ORKS in space is a good dash of typical fantasy into scifi and having religion fueled space marines with armor that's entirely too large to function seems pretty great. Now imagine a game that plays entirely like Gears of War with some weapons and the chainsaw is in a sword instead of a gun. That is this game. Down to the melee finishers and weapon switching on the D-Pad.
2016 Games
I had a short stint with The Division but saw things I really enjoyed in it. It remains one of the more surreal gaming experiences because of its strangely accurate depiction of the lay out of New York City. I was able to go to approximately where I lived when I lived there for school. I was able to point out where stores should've been if it were real, and navigating it felt eerily accurate to real life. The gunplay felt pretty solid for a modern 3rd person shooter and the skill trees never felt that substantial to me. If the season pass was ever on a cheaper sale I might've been able to dive further into this game or if I had friends that were regularly into it.
XCOM 2 was a lot of fun. It was also probably more stress as fending off an alien invasion which has taken over the world is a lot of work as it seems. I bought into XCOM 2 on my old machine and the game ran so poorly. However I was so into the game 20-29 frames per second couldn't stop me from still playing it. It was so poorly optimized for PCs like mine and even loading into the hubworld Avenger ship caused frame drops into the teens. There weren't that many new features from Xcom Enemy Unknown, but it adds more of what you know from the previous entry. And even though it ran like sludge and probably caused many more grey hairs to sprout on my head, it's still a very good strategy game. Also I made me, my friends, and look theres Tracer on my squad.
Gears of War 4 was a bit of a surprise to me because I enjoyed the campaign a whole lot. This new team had interaction I wish we saw more of with Blue team and Osiris from Halo 4. I never really had much reverence for Gears before and only really got into Gears 3 and mostly that horde more with friends. As the first current gen Gears of War title, it looked really great. Cutscenes to gameplay this is a flagship Xbox One title and they surely make it show.
There was just a flash of exploring the deeper themes of the a more complicated world that is currently just a plate for blasting robots and monsters while active reloading your way through a war torn world. However we never get more of that world building and it leans back into its roots of roadie running and popping up to blast what are pretty much the Locust Horde again. Speaking of horde, the Horde Mode gets a bit more interesting as you get to pick a class that specializes in different things now. A scout class earns more currency to spend on defenses, an engineer can build more efficiently and carries a repair tool, the sniper gains bonuses on marking and will constantly spam your speaks with a splattering of headshot audio, a soldier with trusty Lancer assault rifles and a heavy with an obligatory Boomshot. Each now have equipable perk cards that enhance different aspects of that class and with cards comes blind boxes and grinding. You can break down cards you don't want for salvage and spend it on specific cards you want (a la Hearthstone dust) or feed your duplicates to enhance the same card. The amount of experience you gain from matches isn't very significant which means you'll have to play a pretty large amount of games if you want to get your class beefed up. This all depends on how much you want to to push the high levels of horde where enemies have 4x health and increased accuracy that feels like laser beams are on you as soon as you think about peaking out of cover.
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| Art by John Cipriani http://www.ciprianiart.com/gungeon |
Enter the Gungeon was my big contender with Nuclear Throne. Both run based top down shooters with bullet hell elements, but Gungeon leans way way into the bullet hell aspect and gives you a very necessary dodge roll with any character you pick.
Also yeah, thats a big bullet sitting on a throne of guns as a king. A lot of the enemies are bullets, shot gun shells, and various projectiles which also depict what type of attack they'll toss at you. You get to pick from 4 classes that all have different starting weapons and positive/negative perks. Like starting with one point of armor, pistol or shotgun, doing more damage after taking damage yourself and much more. The guns in Enter the Gungeon are totally ridiculous too. There is a gun shaped like a lowercase letter R that shoots the letters B U L L E T while saying bullet bullet bullet in case you were unsure that this game was about guns or something. Learning boss and enemy bullet patterns
Pokemon Moon was a game that I was excited for but didn't think I would get it so close to it's launch. I picked it up at the peak of launch hype and was pretty glad I did. I did not play Omega Ruby or Alpha Sapphire so there were some new gameplay systems that were still very fresh for me on top of all the new systems in this generation. Though the starters didn't feel as iconic or likable as earlier generations, I certainly warmed up to Rowlet as it evolved into a very cool (and strange Grass/Ghost typing) Decidueye.
On the Hawaii inspired land of Alola traditional Pokemon gyms were replaced with Island trials which had to perform different tasks which might require you to collect some items in a certain area, decipher a ritual island dance, or find a ghost inside of a store. They mostly play the same as you need to defeat a series of Pokemon that spawn during these tasks and ultimately a Totem Pokemon which are much stronger than the standard wild creature.
Some of the new Alolan forms of Pokemon we've already seen are really strange with new elemental types and some very cool. My personal favorite the newly Ice/Steel Sandslash.
It was a blast playing this while tons of people I knew online were as well. Trading information and reacting to jokes from the characters in game. I'm glad Pokemon is still going as strong as it is and Sun and Moon feel like a good modern interation with much needed quality of life changes.
Forza Horizon 3
(edit in 2018: So I never actually published or even finished this list. I still want to chronicle my year with games so the rest will just be written in with smaller blurbs.)
Hyper Light Drifter ranks extremely high for me in 2016 because it does so many things without saying a word of English. As a player you do not get your hand held at all. You're given abilities and tools to play with and you can choose your path North, East, South or West out of the town you wake up in. The world is brutal yet beautiful and foreign yet relative. Even though we've seen a lot more pixel art style games Hyper Light Drifter does it in a way that feels original and with a incredibly vivid palette.
Overwatch was an absolute titan of a game this year. Even during the beta phases it took the gaming world by storm. I haven't been into a team based objective shooter since the midday of Team Fortress 2 and Overwatch to me fills that place perfectly. It feels faster yet more accessible for every kind of gamer. This is also a game that got me try very hard [almost] every match and I haven't truly felt like that with a shooter since maybe Battlefield 3 and Call of Duty Black Ops 1 days.
It's an amazing feeling killing a Pharah pocket Mercy combo as Zenyatta to cap the point. Glorious.
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