Fortunately there were allot of good AAA big-name releases as well as smaller indie titles this year so despite all the controversy about games like Battlefront and Hatred, how disappointing The Order 1886 was or how shit the new Alone in the Dark game was, there are more than enough games to pick for this list. I decided to limit this list to a top 5 to avoid any rambling but I really do think that despite all the controversies and big disappointments, this was a great year for gaming overall particularly for small releases.
So without all ado, I hope you lot had as much fun gaming this year as I did and have an absolutely stellar 2016! SO! LETS PARTAY!
Number 5 - Super Mario Maker (released September 10th)
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OK so out of all the games on this list that brought something new to the table in their respective series I'd have to say that the absolute winner on this account would be Nintendo's Super Mario Maker. Out of the three major companies in gaming of Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo, Nintendo are probably the ones with the biggest monopoly on their intellectual properties and gaming series. This arguably has sometimes resulted in a loss of third-party oversight and outside advice and influence which some say has damaged Nintendo's longevity particularly in the hardware department. Not so much with the software and games of course and definitely less so during the silver age of gaming (1991-2005) when Nintendo released some stellar games like the Banjo & Kazooie games (1998-2008), 007 Goldeneye (1997) or the Metroid Prime series (2002-2009). Therefore, it seems a very admirable and refreshing move from Nintendo to create a game around one of their three biggest series the main aspect of which is user-created content. A game made for gamers who can then make the Mario game they themselves specifically wanted.
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This is arguably a lazy thing to do on the part of a big-name gaming company like Nintendo but out of themselves, Sony and Microsoft, Nintendo have really had the most community interaction into their video games with their customer call ins and letters throughout the late 1980s and 1990s being a cornerstone of the kind of gaming culture that Nintendo promoted. With the ceasing of production of the legendary magazine Nintendo Power a few years ago (1988-2012) this is probably the best move Nintendo have made in the better part of half a decade in order to move themselves closer to their fans in order to create a stronger commercial link and potentially drive their revenue to untold levels. Even if all that rambling isn't true though, Super Mario Maker is an excellent little building tool that allows players to create and upload their dream Super Mario levels and potentially teach them something useful about game design that they may not have known about before. If you like building, are trying to get into game design or simply like making absolute batshit insane bollocks in video games then I strongly suggest this little gem.
Number 4 - Rocket League (Released July 7)
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Originally I wasn't actually going to get Rocket League because despite the well-founded popularity of this one I thought that the price, even during sales, was a bit high for how much content and modes there are in this mental rocket-powered car take on football. Despite all that, when one of my closest friends got the PC version of this for me over Steam I was pleasantly surprised as I frantically drove and blasted my way through a smaller-scale but more high-intensity take on the formula that FIFA and Pro Evolution Soccer have been trying to perfect for years now. Admittedly there is a bit more gamer involvement in this one than in either of those aforementioned games and while the content is a bit limited and the physics a bit of a piss-take sometimes this is arguably one of the most benefiting aspects of Rocket League.
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The developers of this game seem to have made it subversively clear that their main aim was to make a game with refined gameplay rather than an abundance of content which I can respect to a degree. I do prefer my games to have some nice extra content and extra modes to extend the replayability but with its floaty yet comprehensible physics and remarkably simple gameplay as well as extensive aesthetic customisation on your car, the simplicity of this game can easily become its greatest factor towards its longevity. Maybe some might criticise the game for how much limited content there is on offer here but regardless, this doesn't really matter too much when you fly 100 meters through the air in a bone-white and blood-red SUV in order to make a game-winning goal in the last 10 seconds of a match. Maybe the developers could lower the price by about five quid but I'd still say this one's a gem, even more so if they actually lower the price at some point.
Number 3 - Fallout 4 (Released November 10)
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I'll be perfectly honest, aside from a few parts of Fallout: New Vegas (2010) I never really liked the Fallout series (1997-present) all that much. I never felt like the user interface was at all user-friendly or that there was much point to exploring the universe of the game that I was in to a major degree. Perhaps this is someone who has had a far greater affinity for The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind (2002) and The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (2011) in terms of Bethesda RPG's and the fact that there was simply just more wonder and batshit insanity on offer in the Elder Scrolls series (1994-present). This in turn makes me feel a bit weird when I say that Fallout 4 is my favourite Bethesda RPG so far considering that it has less batshit insanity than most Bethesda games to come before it.
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In actuality, I was a little disappointed about how there seemed to be somewhat less variation in the mission objectives here as compared to the previous Fallout games and I would be stupid to be reticent to mention the botched dialogue system in this game. While it certainly isn't the worst ever, the humour that can come from it is a bit clunky sometimes and the streamlined nature of the dialogue wheel in Fallout 4 seems a little too much like a bastardised version of the same system used in the Mass Effect series (2008-present). Not only this but I also felt that the graphics were very spotty in some areas but considering that each Bethesda RPG is a massive build for whichever era of games that they're made in, I never really consider this to be a massive criticism of these Bethesda RPG's as they're all usually big undertakings with years upon years of design, scaling and programming. Regardless, this does seem to be a diamond in the rough as the voice acting and gameplay are second to none with the voice acting being possibly the best of any game released this year while the multiple storylines that you can follow all have truly magnificent faction-specific storylines. On top of this, the sheer number of repeating sub-quests and minor storylines are staggering so there is a definite positive to exploration here especially given the presence of secret caches of weapons and power armour all over the place.
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Ultimately, this is far more of a multi-person, adventure-based shooter than a regular Bethesda RPG but perhaps that's why I've stayed up until the early hours of the morning playing this on a housemate's PS4. I wasn't able to get a PC version for myself but judging by screenshots, the graphics do seem to be best on that format. Maybe this might not be the most well-balanced or varied game Bethesda have ever made but out of the ones they have done so far its easily my favourite. Oh and if you're like me, you'll waste hours of your life constructing buildings and modding weapons and armour, mark my words.
Number 2 - Undertale (Released September 15)
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When I said in the intro to this list that this was a great year for indie games I was thinking in particular mind of the absolute gem of a multi-genre indie title Undertale by game developer Toby Fox. Mr Fox apparently made this entire game about 90% by himself and you while he did do so, you certainly wouldn't think that just judging by how much variation, design, humour, care and attention has gone into this little game that has blown up into a full on internet phenomenon. Much like Portal (2007), Undertale came into the video game market under an unassuming guise but with enough controlled confidence and disciplined yet unique design aspects it has ended up becoming one of the most popular digital downloads of the entire year.
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With the game's varied gameplay and seemingly limitless humour this isn't really hard to see why. Some certain lines from different moral paths in the game yielding varying versions of cold, sweaty dread or warm-hearted laughter. Speaking of which, when a morality system is implemented in a game I usually find it a bit tacked on as games are removed from reality so morality can arguably play no part in the gameplay. Through a simple act of killing or sparing your enemies after you've beaten them, you can greatly alter the route that the game takes and what the final boss might be and in this department there is a crazy amount of variation. On top of this I must say that the gameplay is a bit hard to pin down because at times its a Zelda-style adventure game while at others its like a bullet hell shooter. At times its kind of like a traditional pen & paper RPG while at others it seems more like a game like Papers Please (2013) that is designed more than anything to challenge your reactions and code of ethics.
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Whether you like intensity or are simply some sort of meta-thinker who likes looking at moral situations from a distant disposition then I would recommend this one strongly either way as each playthrough is only about 6 hours max and is pretty cheap so I'd definitely give this a thumbs up.
Number 1 - World of Warships (Released September 17)
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Considering that many of the videos on my YouTube channel are centred around shooting games, World of Tanks (2010) in particular, It may seem unsurprising, especially to my close friends that I call World of Warships the best game of the year. To be honest though, I almost put Fallout 4 or Undertale at number 1 considering that I've comparatively played them both longer and how much fun I had with them but when, at the end of the day, the deciding factor is simply how much fun I have with a game, I have to give the award to World of Warships. Coming from a labour of love between Wargaming and Lesta Studio, World of Warships largely uses the same interface and design as World of Tanks albeit with a game designed around naval rather than armoured ground combat from the Second World War and early Cold War eras. Many argued that the biggest new battle-arena MMO of the year would be Obsidian Entertainment's Armoured Warfare and while that game is certainly well designed, it really just seems to be more of the same as was seen with World of Tanks but set in a modern combat zone and removed from the clunky charm that makes World of Tanks one of my top three favourite games of all time.
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Does World of Warships surpass it's landlubber cousin? It may do for allot of people but not for me. This is still easily the best game of the year for me through and is probably in my top fifteen or ten favourite games of all time now and I'm sure that standing will only go up as Wargaming add in more ships and navies. However, the tutorials are a bit shit here and the user interface isn't exactly the friendliest and I'm quite annoyed that they haven't added in the Royal Navy yet not to mention the RN's main representative at this point in the game is the admittedly brutal Tier VII ship the HMS Warspite.
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Like I said, this isn't the most new-player-freindly game released this year but its more than capable of delivering what you want from a MMO battle-arena game and will surely give you a bit of more insight into Wargaming's other titles and perhaps even MMO-battle-arenas if you've never played one before. All in all, while I said before that this was a rough gaming year I do hope that these games on this list will bring joy and happiness to gamers around the world for years to come. Certainly not the grammar in the community chat of World of Warships though because its fucking diabolical.
Hope you had an amazing 2015 and see you all in 2016, take care!
My YouTube channel; https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCHmq7KX4Qc46VGhYzWqQfOg
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