1.
Until Dawn ; Until Dawn is like a combination of my two favourite games of 2010 Heavy Rain and Silent Hill: Shattered Memories. It combines the formers interactive movie aesthetic and perma-death feature with the latters horror-led, snow-ravaged backdrop and first-person therapy sessions. It starts off as pure B-movie schlock, but through some classic misdirection, and a whole lot of tension generated through its lack of a game over screen, morphs into something much more noteworthy. Its cast of teenage dweebs and dolts begin as mere stereotypes, but via a connection to these characters that can only be established through an interactive medium, become a likeable bunch that you genuinely want to save through the whole ordeal. Its frequently hilarious, the highly-detailed and borderline pre-rendered graphics paired with the fixed-camera angles make for some stunningly picturesque imagery, and Emily is video gamings definitive bitch out of hell. I loved every minute of it.
#TeamEmily
2.
Yakuza 5 ; Its a mini-miracle that Yakuza 5 eventually managed to find its way to the West, and I feel blessed to be playing it. Truth be told, the fifth installment doesnt make any great strides in differentiating itself from the previous entries, but it doesnt feel like it has to. Yazuka is its own beast, and theres little out there to compare it to still. It continues to operate as a slice of virtual tourism for anyone not living in Japan, and its bizarre mix of hard-boiled drama and exaggerated theatrics shouldnt work, but remains as endearing now as ever before. Outside of the tried-and-tested brawling, Yakuza 5 offers more authentic locations to explore, Harukas chapter is a welcome change of pace from all the male posturing and bravado, and the story is quite possibly the best since 2 (I wouldnt know I havent completed it yet!). Yep, Yakuza 5 is like seeing an old friend again after a long-term absence, and it warms the cockles to have Kazuma and company back again.
3.
Batman: Arkham Knight ; Already widely perceived as the black sheep of the Rocksteady trilogy, I honestly thought this was the best entry of the lot. The major point of contention is the much-maligned Batmobile, but not once during Batmans exploits did I roll my eyes when the situation called for him to hop in the car again. Racing around Gotham at high speed proved to be a constant joy, and I even had a blast weaving in and out of the line of enemy fire in combat mode as well. Otherwise, the streamlined open world was a welcome change compared to other 2015 games that pride themselves on how many square miles of land they have to roam about in, regardless of whether the content is there to justify the size. Graphically Arkham Knight is a stunner, with Gotham City really popping off the screen in all its neon-lit glory, the acting performances are all above the board, once again harking back to golden days of The Animated Series, but most of all I appreciate how the game manages to keep so many different plates spinning at once with the wide range of gameplay styles it incorporates. Switching between combat, stealth and driving sections is seamless, and the host of mechanical tweaks and improvements added on top is icing on the cake. And then there are the all-killer-no-filler side-quests that have the good sense to know that optional content should be optimal content. Yeah, I dont get the hate.
4.
Bloodborne ; Bloodborne is punishing, stress-inducing, often obtuse and just downright disturbing a lot of the time. But its exhilarating. Its boss battles are some of the most thrilling and tense Ive ever encountered, and there are few things in this hobby that can compare to the sense of well-earned victory felt from toppling another Lovecraftian abomination that just whupped your ass twenty times prior. Im no Souls fanatic by any means. Ive only played Demons Souls prior to Bloodborne, and thats because it was a PS+ offering at some point. I dont identify as a hardcore gamer in the slightest and I honestly prefer an easy game to a challenging one. But Bloodborne transcends all that. It presents a deep, well-oiled, honed-to-perfection combat system, and then wills you to overcome the many hurdles of its nightmarish world by demanding you play in a sensible fashion, by exerting both extreme caution but also taking the occasional risk and going on the offensive. If I wasnt such a dirty casual, itd probably be at the top of this list.
The Chalice dungeons though? More filler than a Cadburys Creme Egg. Less of those in the future please.
5.
NekoBuro CatsBlock ; If the true measure of a video game is how long it keeps you planted on the toilet seat after youve pooped, then NekoBuro CatsBlock stands among the giants. I went into this expecting nothing but a momentary diversion, lured in by the attractive art style and a cheap asking price, but what I got was a fiendishly addictive match-three puzzler complete with an adorable charm all of its own. My trophy hunting days are long over, but NekoBuro had me so hooked that I willingly exhausted all the possible challenges it had to offer, just because it was that much fun. The story of a group of box-shaped alien mogs taking over the homestead of a Japanese girl is incomprehensible, and the piss-poor Engrish translation even more so, but in pure gameplay stakes, this is a satisfying little time killer with a perfect learning curve thats ideal for short bursts. For the asking price of three sterling pounds, you cant go wrong.
6.
SteinsGate ; My gateway into the standard visual novel genre. The lack of interactivity compared to something like Danganronpa or Virtues Last Reward is a bit of a damper, and there are a couple of agonizingly slow chapters to suffer through at the beginning, but endure the setup and theres a captivating sci-fi story to be found that goes to some unexpectedly dark places. You can literally pinpoint the exact moment Steins;Gate elevates itself to something special, where everything is flipped on its head, the stakes are suddenly raised, a protagonist who was previously an obnoxious bore is forced into a more heroic role and the narrative forms a vice-like grip, refusing to let go until the end. Its regarded as a genre classic and I see why.
7.
The Witcher III: Wild Hunt ; For the first 40 or so hours, this was undoubtedly my game of the year. Considering its vast scope, The Witcher III is one hell of a graphical marvel, the writing is second-to-none, and a hefty sum of the side content extends beyond dreaded fetch quest monotony. However, I have to judge the overall product from its beginning to completion, and I wont lie, tedium set in in a big way as the hours drew on, until by the end I was seeing markers on a map like a checklist that needed to be ticked off more than anything else. The overarching plot is poorly-paced and takes far too long to start chugging along at a steady rate, the game peaks early with the Bloody Baron quest, it doesnt feature enough diverse and visually-stimulating environments to justify its HUGE open world and the horse-riding controls like red hot ass. Itd be at #10 were it not for Gwent - the finest mini-game to ever grace an RPG since Final Fantasy VIIIs Triple Triad brought out the worst of my OCD tendencies. Definitely a title that wouldve benefited from being more compact, but still an impressive achievement all the same. What can I say, open-world fatigue is truly starting to take its hold on me.
8.
Fallout 4 ; Now this was a pleasant surprise. Ive grown accustomed to feeling nothing but disillusionment with Bethesdas open-world games in recent times, and what with this new installment being criticized inside and out, I didnt have high hopes. Maybe it was because my expectations were low, but the fact that Fallout 4 was mercifully free of performance hiccups and glitches (at least in my experience), wasnt the technical abomination that Skyrim was on the PS3, and avoided being a constant eyesore like Fallout 3 was helped a lot in winning me over. This time I got a post-apocalyptic setting with some colour in its cheeks, gunplay so significantly improved that I could now play the game like a shooter without having to always rely on the V.A.T.S. system and a lot less copying-and-pasting of locations to pad out the environment. A really gratifying level up system didnt hurt either. Sure, the quest structure has been simplified and the character models look laughably bad, but overall Fallout 4 scored Bethesda some brownie points with me in 2015.
9.
Dragon Quest Heroes ; Both my first Dragon Quest and musou game, and one which I liked enough that it already feels like a warm-up for the upcoming XI. The breezy, peppy tone is a breath of fresh air compared to your typical JRPG, and theres a lot of fun had in mindlessly slashing away at swarms of monsters while at the same time adopting some strategic thinking when protecting a certain object from enemy attacks. Its lite, its relatively simple and its not remotely ambitious, but Im having a good time with the game and thats enough.
10.
Superbeat: Xonic ; I doff my cap to any entertainment product that can take a musical genre as bereft of artistic integrity and substance as K-pop and make it sound pleasurable to listen to. Its been a long time since I played a rhythm game, and this assault on the senses serves as a fine reintroduction to a genre Ive abandoned for the past couple of generations. And boy do I know it, because Superbeat gets brutally difficult real fast. Id give up were it not for both the overwhelming urge to git gud due to excellent mechanics and the eclectic selection of tunes that really do sound good in the context of playing the game. K-pop still sucks though.
x. Grim Fandango Remastered ; Still one of the great adventure games of all time, and it was a pleasure to be given the opportunity to play it again, since I had a horrible time trying to get the original to run for the past few years. The only reason it isnt sitting at the #1 spot is because its a re-release.
x. Tearaway Unfolded ; Something got lost in translation when this was ported to the PS4. I dont know what it is exactly, but it feels like something of an afterthought whereas the original was tailored for the Vita and a joy from start to finish. There were segments in Unfolded that felt like a chore to get through, and those segments were usually built from scratch for the PS4 version. Definite pacing issues. Still enjoyable, but a wholly unnecessary port.
x. Life is Strange ; Worked far better as a thriller than a slice-of-life portrayal of teenage life. The final episode was a real let down, and Chloes an insufferable asshole through and through.
x. Tales From the Borderlands ; Intermittently funny. Held back by a creaky engine that started showing its age a couple of years ago. Not enough interactivity for my liking either.
x. The Order: 1886 ; Heaps of potential not properly realised in a development span that obviously devoted more time to the engine than to the actual game. I liked the world, the cast and lore it presented, it just didnt do enough with it. Too linear, too short, too many walking sections and an abrupt ending to top it all off. Needs a damn good sequel so that RaD can redeem themselves.
x. OlliOlli 2 ; Kept removing the rubber of the analogue stick pulling tricks, so I stopped playing it.
