Happy belated Christmas (or other relevant holiday linked to winter celebrations) and Happy New Year! I say this since this post has only appeared days after the former and possibly before the latter. After starting this online journal, I have decided to be a little more pretentious this year and list out games I played this year (that came out this year) which I wound up liking a lot. I may even give them fancy titles to voice my opinion of them.
Full disclosure: I will admit I have not played a lot of games this year due to monetary concerns.
Full disclosure: I will admit I have not played a lot of games this year due to monetary concerns.
Best triple-A game of the year:
This year's triple-A games seem to be acting like darts randomly thrown at a board. Either some hits the board or some gets stuck up the backside of the PC gamer sitting nearby (like Arkham Knight). I was not impressed by most of the games that came out this year save for Bloodborne, Metal Gear Solid 5, Just Cause 3, Splatoon and Fallout 4 (the latter reluctantly added here due to a lack of other triple-A titles). With the sad exception of Bloodborne (I lacked the money and time), I was not motivated to purchase any of the listed games at full price which was a shame since most of them gave good impressions judging from gameplay videos, reviews and Let's Plays, except for Fallout 4 which soured my opinion of it further. Only one hyped triple-A game this year prompted an immediate purchase and a purchase of the season pass for the expansions after watching some Let's Plays. If the reader has not guessed it from the cover art, it is indeed The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt.
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| https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/0/0c/Witcher_3_cover_art.jpg |
Aside from having a consumer-friendly free DLC program (that admittedly has its hit-and-misses), Witcher 3 does deliver in terms of its writing for certain characters and quests (the Bloody Baron questline is one of the best I have seen since the writing in Pillars) while having a good soundtrack and some of the best facial animation I have seen in such a large game. The reunion with Geralt and Ciri is one of my favourite moments in gaming this year due to how well the animation, audio and visuals blend together to invoke emotions in me. The gameplay is solid as it plays like an easier version of Dark Souls (which I have not finished to my chagrin) though Death March is rather difficult. Overall, I had a great time with The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt and I am in the middle of New Game+ on Death March.
Best Kickstarter success of this year(that I know of):
I do not have the money to contribute to Kickstarter so I usually keep my eye on projects that interest me. One project that I paid close attention to was a game being made by a company that made one of my favourite games and has an impressive track record. The game I speak of is Pillars of Eternity. (If you are wondering about the other game I spoke of in a previous post, it's here somewhere)
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| https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/c/ca/Pillars_of_Eternity.jpg |
When Pillars of Eternity was first announced officially on Kickstarter and other gaming news websites, it quickly drew my attention and maintained it for a long time, mainly due to the prior work of its creators. When it finally came out, I was probably among the people who bought it on the first week. I proceeded to play it and immediately afterwards, I felt that my full-price purchase was completely justified. While being a throwback to older CRPGs like Baldur's Gate, Planescape: Torment and Neverwinter Nights, it adds more to the formula to avoid being a rehash while having decent writing (with certain characters having intriguing dilemmas to ponder) and immense role-playing value (from the freedom granted to flesh out your player character's background and personality). Some of my favourite moments in the game is when the game allows you to shape the background and personality of a past life and have it reflected in-game. Others were moments where I was able to use my knowledge of the genre to predict potential consequences and actually have that knowledge pay off. The game has two expansions coming out with the last one coming out next year. Maybe once that expansion comes out, I will actually start my next playthrough. There is another game that appears here which was a success on Kickstarter but it lies under another title.
Best surprise of this year:
I am rather picky when it comes to my purchasing of games. Since I need to be stringent with cash, I rarely buy triple-A games or new games to avoid denting my wallet. This personal code of mine was violated on three occasions this year. The first two games I bought at full price are stated above. The third game was Undertale. As an added accolade, Undertale is probably the first game that got me to fork money for its soundtrack.
With top quality writing, relate-able characters, an amazing soundtrack, and a well-executed blend of audio with writing and visuals, Undertale took me by surprise. While I had heard good things about the game, I was skeptical about such claims. After playing it, I can say that most of those claims were justified. The game acts as a homage and deconstruction of RPGs as a whole with enough medium awareness to give it a unique impact on gaming as a whole. The way the game maintains full awareness of the player's actions and works it into character dialogue along with certain plot events made this game intriguing. The other accolade I could give it is the fact that its well-executed blend of writing and soundtrack was enough to make me choke up with emotion. The game is no second coming of Christ but it is something that I believe any open-minded gamer should try to complete.
Game that I may never buy:
As I have said before triple-A games this year have been a hit-or-miss. The Witcher 3, Bloodborne, Metal Gear Solid 5, Just Cause 3, Splatoon and arguably Fallout 4 do seem to be the success stories of triple-A gaming this year (at least from playing or watching gameplay courtesy of Youtube). On the other hand, we have disappointing products (to me anyway) from so-called triple-A companies like Metal Gear Solid 5 (arguably), Star Wars EA: Battlefront, Halo 5, The Order 1886, Evolve and others that I did not care for. So what triple-A game of this year was so disappointing for me that it made me feel like my own investment in its own series was wasted? That depends, did the reader notice that I left one particular game out of this list of disappointments?
Yep, it is indeed Batman: Arkham Knight. Having played through Arkham Asylum and Arkham City (while avoiding Arkham Origins to prevent another journey into the Internet from guides to fix the game's bugs and issues), I was hoping that Arkham Knight would be a worthwhile purchase. It turns out that it was... for consoles that is. I primarily use a PC or laptop for gaming since I primarily play RPGs or stealth games. Imagine my disgust upon learning of the state of the PC port and the level of denial fans had towards the game's flaws. The reader has probably heard about Arkham Knight's PC port and if the reader has not, I will say these few words: It was bad. Buggy at high graphic settings, boring in terms of writing (save for a few twists), and repetitive in some aspects of the game-play, Arkham Knight looked like a disappointing entry for me. I would have considered buying it for a console (if I have the time and money) but the way Warner Bros. and Rocksteady re-released the PC port with not enough fixes worsened my opinion of the game. So, in short, I may never buy Arkham Knight in the foreseeable future. Even if the game is heavily discounted during sales, I doubt I will ever see it in my cart or wishlist. It was a poor finale for a series I enjoy which made it hurt all the more.
[P.S: Halo 5 is another game I will never buy with its awful writing, blatantly lying in its promotional campaign and the removal of split-screen (which was always a deciding factor when buying a multiplayer game). Having enjoyed Halo for a long time, 5 was the game that made me say goodbye to the series for good.]
Most disappointing game:
While I expressed my refusal to ever purchase Arkham Knight, it was not the game that disappointed me the most. That particular title goes to another game which is part of a franchise I hold immense adoration for (with its official first, second and fourth instalments being among my favourite games of all time). If the reader is not a regular reader of mine, the game in question is Fallout 4.
If the reader managed to read through my wall of text in the Fallout 4 post (http://subjectivelybiasedrants.blogspot.com/2015/12/fallout-4-and-one-punch-man-episode-9.html), the reader will probably be aware of my love for the Fallout games made by Black Isle Studios and after the former's closure, Obsidian Entertainment. The reader who has seen my Fallout 3 post (http://subjectivelybiasedrants.blogspot.com/2015/06/fallout-3.html) will also be aware of my somewhat positive opinion of Bethesda's attempts in making a Fallout game. Imagine my immense disappointment after forcing myself to finish Fallout 4 after having finished a playthrough of New Vegas a short while ago.
The lack of role-playing, the dull main quest, the messy writing, the horribly implemented dialogue system, the lack of skills for skill-checks, the pointlessness of side activities, the lack of abundant unique side-quests, the companion behavior and their lack of meaningful side-quests (save a few with lackluster conclusions) managed to hurt my experience playing through the game. Even the aspects I liked (such as improved combat gameplay, a fun but pointless settlement building mechanic, gun customization and others listed in my Fallout 4 post) only served to extend my slogging through a shooting game with token RPG elements. I will admit that the game is fun and that people do enjoy open-world sandboxes but when the sandbox's depth pales in comparison to prior games in the series (not counting Fallout: Brotherhood of Steel for obvious reasons), the game ends up looking inferior.
In short, Fallout 4 was my biggest disappointment of the year for removing everything I loved about the Fallout series and leaving a game that showcases wasted potential in its stead. The game is fun but it is not the Fallout game I hoped for after New Vegas. It did not live up to the hype but then again, I am not one who believes in the asinine concept of hype for upcoming games in the first place.
Conclusion:
I did not play a lot of indie games this year and judging by triple-A gaming's rather average performance, I probably should. I have spent most of my time re-playing older games I have finished before or completing my backlog (which includes games like the Thief series (not including the reboot), Wasteland 2 and currently, Xenonauts) as triple-A games do not interest me that much these days. A few games coming next year do seem intriguing like X-COM 2 (I really hope this will be good!), Deus Ex: Mankind Divided, TORMENT: TIDES OF NUMENERA (I pray InXile does a better job here than the decent but somewhat lacking Wasteland 2) and Persona 5 but aside from those games, it will take a lot to get me invested. I hope to be proven wrong in the coming year but until that day comes, I will maintain a cynical outlook when it comes to games since being excessively hyped is a far worse state of existence as a video gamer.
To my readers, I wish you all the best for the coming year and thank you for giving your attention to this corner of the Internet even for a moment while indulging in this person's opinions. I will try to maintain a decent amount of output but time will tell if I can maintain that level of output with the unpredictable future.
Best surprise of this year:
I am rather picky when it comes to my purchasing of games. Since I need to be stringent with cash, I rarely buy triple-A games or new games to avoid denting my wallet. This personal code of mine was violated on three occasions this year. The first two games I bought at full price are stated above. The third game was Undertale. As an added accolade, Undertale is probably the first game that got me to fork money for its soundtrack.
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| https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5f/Undertale_logo.jpg |
Game that I may never buy:
As I have said before triple-A games this year have been a hit-or-miss. The Witcher 3, Bloodborne, Metal Gear Solid 5, Just Cause 3, Splatoon and arguably Fallout 4 do seem to be the success stories of triple-A gaming this year (at least from playing or watching gameplay courtesy of Youtube). On the other hand, we have disappointing products (to me anyway) from so-called triple-A companies like Metal Gear Solid 5 (arguably), Star Wars EA: Battlefront, Halo 5, The Order 1886, Evolve and others that I did not care for. So what triple-A game of this year was so disappointing for me that it made me feel like my own investment in its own series was wasted? That depends, did the reader notice that I left one particular game out of this list of disappointments?
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| https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/6/6c/Batman_Arkham_Knight_Cover_Art.jpg |
[P.S: Halo 5 is another game I will never buy with its awful writing, blatantly lying in its promotional campaign and the removal of split-screen (which was always a deciding factor when buying a multiplayer game). Having enjoyed Halo for a long time, 5 was the game that made me say goodbye to the series for good.]
Most disappointing game:
While I expressed my refusal to ever purchase Arkham Knight, it was not the game that disappointed me the most. That particular title goes to another game which is part of a franchise I hold immense adoration for (with its official first, second and fourth instalments being among my favourite games of all time). If the reader is not a regular reader of mine, the game in question is Fallout 4.
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| https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/7/70/Fallout_4_cover_art.jpg |
The lack of role-playing, the dull main quest, the messy writing, the horribly implemented dialogue system, the lack of skills for skill-checks, the pointlessness of side activities, the lack of abundant unique side-quests, the companion behavior and their lack of meaningful side-quests (save a few with lackluster conclusions) managed to hurt my experience playing through the game. Even the aspects I liked (such as improved combat gameplay, a fun but pointless settlement building mechanic, gun customization and others listed in my Fallout 4 post) only served to extend my slogging through a shooting game with token RPG elements. I will admit that the game is fun and that people do enjoy open-world sandboxes but when the sandbox's depth pales in comparison to prior games in the series (not counting Fallout: Brotherhood of Steel for obvious reasons), the game ends up looking inferior.
In short, Fallout 4 was my biggest disappointment of the year for removing everything I loved about the Fallout series and leaving a game that showcases wasted potential in its stead. The game is fun but it is not the Fallout game I hoped for after New Vegas. It did not live up to the hype but then again, I am not one who believes in the asinine concept of hype for upcoming games in the first place.
Conclusion:
I did not play a lot of indie games this year and judging by triple-A gaming's rather average performance, I probably should. I have spent most of my time re-playing older games I have finished before or completing my backlog (which includes games like the Thief series (not including the reboot), Wasteland 2 and currently, Xenonauts) as triple-A games do not interest me that much these days. A few games coming next year do seem intriguing like X-COM 2 (I really hope this will be good!), Deus Ex: Mankind Divided, TORMENT: TIDES OF NUMENERA (I pray InXile does a better job here than the decent but somewhat lacking Wasteland 2) and Persona 5 but aside from those games, it will take a lot to get me invested. I hope to be proven wrong in the coming year but until that day comes, I will maintain a cynical outlook when it comes to games since being excessively hyped is a far worse state of existence as a video gamer.
To my readers, I wish you all the best for the coming year and thank you for giving your attention to this corner of the Internet even for a moment while indulging in this person's opinions. I will try to maintain a decent amount of output but time will tell if I can maintain that level of output with the unpredictable future.
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