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[aly]

Finally got to making this and it was harder than I thought.

1.Bloodborne ; Another amazing game created by From Software. Bloodborne is brutal, beautiful, and fun. Everything from the lore to the combat is amazing.Some changes can divisive among fans of the series, but it did the right things to make it my favorite game this year.

2.Soma ; I don't think a played anything with a story as tense and intersting as Soma. The questions it asks about what makes us human or alive kept me thinking about it long after the game was finished.

3.Rocket League ; Just pure fun

4.Super Mario Maker ; Its hard not to have a good time making and playing Mario levels. Just fun all around

5.Until Dawn ; Not number one, but probably the biggest surprise hit of the year for me. Seriously, it came out of nowhere and managed to be fun with interesting characters and surprisingly coherent story from horror cliches.

6.Life is strange ; I had difficulty placing this before or after Until Dawn. The first episode seems like a boring cliche of teen drama, before becoming one of the most heartfelt and interesting games of the year. I only wish they could've stuck the ending a little better.

7.Metal Gear Solid 5 ; I'm still not sure how I felt about MGS V. I still hate the story, and the second half fell flat. But there was so much good hidden in there with excellent gameplay. I just wish and know that it could've been better.

8.Her story ; I had no idea what to expect going into this, but I'm glad I took the plunge and got it done in the last minute before finishing this list. Interesting story and premise.

9. Batman Arkham Knight ; This another one that I felt strange about. It's not a bad game, but there is just so much more that could've been done. I love the city, most of the story, characters and the gameplay. Even the batmobile was cool at first. But it and the tanks overstayed their welcome. The lack of boss fights was also a serious disappointment. But still, it's a great Batman game with some obvious flaws.

10. The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt ; I love the story and the world. It's unfortunate that the gameplay is the weakest part for me. It feels clunky most of the time. However, everything else is just sooo good.

Honorable mentions

x. Fallout 4 ; Another game that isn't quite as good as the previous ones, but still a lot of fun. 4 is a step foward in combat and a few steps back in so many other things. However, making settlements, traveling with companions, and exploring gave me hours of fun.

x.Splatoon ; I was only able to play a little of this, but what I played was super fun.

x. Mortal Kombat X ; Not better than anything on the list, but still alot of fun to be had with that cheesy story mode.

x. Star Wars Battlefront ; Limited, but still fun and casual multiplayer

x. Resident Evil Revelations 2 ; So much better than the first one. It's too bad it came out so early in the year.

 

[Skikkiks]

Here it goes, before the deadline baybeeeeeeeeeeeeee.

1. Ori and the Blind Forest ; When this was first announced at the Microsoft presser way back when I was immediately intrigued. I have a thing for platformers and the art looked real good so it was on my radar. I immediately purchased it when it went up on Steam and started to play and found myself really enjoying it. I initially didn't expect the level of difficulty they went for but I appreciated it and the game was better for it. Due to a lull in my gaming habit I ended up not playing it for a bit until November or so and instantly fell for the game again. A masterclass in platforming, with one of the best, most flexible mechanic to design a game around. As an aside, the Ginzo Tree escape is the best part of the game. Don't believe the sawfts.

2. Life is Strange ; Bought this one on a whim when the first episode came out and thoroughly enjoyed it, and enjoyed it throughout the year episodically. Truth be told, I didn't connect to the characters too much nor did I care about Chloe that much, but I had fun with it through different ways. Like doing all the sub choices that aren't the main story choices and at the end seeing what percentage of people did what. Truly my greatest moment was (Episode 4 spoilers)

Spoiler

after a long hiatus between me playing the first three episodes as they came out I decided to double feature episodes 4 and 5. Of course, the first choice the game gives you in episode 4 is fucking euthanasia of all things, so I did what any responsible adult would do. Got my phone and blasted a horrible distorted mix of Enya's Only Time, struck the Randy Orton pose and watched Max euthanize Chloe while her father is literally right outside her room.

Truly my greatest achievement.

3. Just Cause 3 ; This game is one of those games where I play it, go on the internet to see what people are saying about it and agree with absolutely none of it. Vehicles suck? I five geared all the vehicle challenges and didn't have many problems so long as I wasn't tripping on random polygons and flipping and doing 450's and shit. Challenges are repetitive and boring? I'm two gears away from full 100% completion, at worst they're generally easy (tether challenge) or cheesable (using better vehicles in vehicle challenges) at best they make you better at the game (wingsuit) or can be very open in how you complete them (destruction challenges). I tried playing Just Cause 2 and enjoyed it for a bit, but got bored of the forced chaos structure when settlements are hard to come by and sometimes hard to complete, but Just Cause 3 allieviates these issues with settlements clearly landmarked on the map, seperating the game world into 3 smaller islands versus one big fuck one and having chaos objects appear on the map when you are closer to 100% a settlement.

4. Chroma Squad ; This is a fun tactical RPG with a great gimmick. The story of the game is that five actors get bored of the direction their show is going and decide to make their own show after finding a mysterious lizard head statue in an abandoned studio. Every level you play is a different episode of the show, complete with multiple season premieres and finales. As you play through the level, you gain an audience which when the level is completed, turns into money and fans that are used to upgrade your character and get new marketing gigs. While map variety is sparse, generally its the same 7 or so flat areas, the gameplay is made interesting by team acrobatics and attacks, using your friends to either deal more damage or have better movement, and Director's Instructions, various demands that when completed give you a huge audience boost. One of the good parts of the game is the way you can customize everything, from your cast of characters to the name of the studio or even the name of your ultimate attack. Complete with branching paths and a generally decent story, I had a lot of fun with this game.

5. Contradiction: Spot the Liar! ; This is a good FMV game. It plays out like the investigation part of an Ace Attorney game, running around to various places in this little English village, collecting and showing random evidence to all the townsfolk as you try to get to the bottom of the murder your investigating. The performances are fun in a campy way, the Ryans and Jenks are the standouts of the whole thing. Besides never throwing away useless evidence making for inventory clutter and the whole game feeling like the first episode of an episodic series it was a pleasant surprise and a game deserving of more love.

6. Mad Max ; I don't play many open world games, and as long as the gameplay is fun I can stand the Ubisoft grinds or design or whatever that everyone complains about nowadays so I guess that contributed to how much I enjoyed this one. I love a big fuck desert and Mad Max has a great beautiful big fuck desert to drive around in. Driving and combat are enjoyable, and the story isn't bad. Some of the game gets too easy if you're actively upgrading yourself to the point where the mediocre final "boss" does 10% damage to you while you kill it in 2 hits, beyond that it's a fun ride.

7. Tearaway Unfolded ; I had this game for the Vita before getting sidetracked by other things halfway through and never going back to it, so I was willing to give the game a second try with this PS4 remake and ended up completing it this time. It's a cute little game that makes good use of the Dualshock 4 as it did with the PSVita before. Decent enough platformer made better though its charm and well done gimmick.

8. Tembo the Badass Elephant ; It's a game where you barrel through the Enemy Faction as Elephant Rambo not giving much of a shit about anything. That's about it. Plays super well as most of the game's mechanics put emphasis on speed. Varied enemy types and varied ways to attack enemies keeps combat... varied and a lot of fun. Good Game.

9. Jotun ; I said a lot about this game in the 52 games thread but it is Good and I enjoyed it a lot.

10. MonsterBag ; Weird ass puzzle/point and click-esque game that came out of nowhere on the Vita straight on PS+. The story of the game is that you are a little monster... thing that lives in a small girl's bag. One day she leaves without you and you can't be having that so you gotta get to her and Restore the Natural Order. Then

Spoiler

the alien invasion happens midway through the game and getting to the girl for whatever reason causes a lot of random deaths that causes a rather large tonal shift, making it memorable in its own way and probably why this gets my #10 spot.

Here come the honorable mentions WHOAH

x. Undertale ; it's this game. You shmucks know about it. I get the gimmick of the game and everything but the gameplay and visuals don't make me care to play it another 8 times so I can get meme'd on by comedy skeletal

x. Ben and Ed ; Way way back when the Deadpool game was coming out a dev was talking about how they wanted, at the time, to implement a limb removal mechanic where Deadpool could lose his limbs but still continue to do things. Sadly, this never made it into the game but I really wanted it to happen. Thankfully, this random ass game came out on Steam and it's a 3D platformer with that gimmick. It's janky as fuck and generally lacks polish but it fully realizes a mechanic I wanted for a long while. Well, so long as all your limbs and torso are chopped off, if you lose your limbs but not your torso Ed goes fuckin nuts.

x. Nuclear Throne ; I hate roguelikes. I hate the lack of progression. I hate procedually generated levels. I hate it. Hate Hate H8 M8. But Nuclear Throne is so good it makes up for it. Sure, the farthest I got on Vita is 4-1 and unlocking the best character involves hitting an exploding thing with a melee weapon but it plays so well and can become addicting in short bursts that it overcomes it's shittier aspects. Now it needs cross save because what the fuck is the point otherwise.

And here's the Top 3 games I played that werent released this year YEAH

x. Infamous Second Son ; Didn't get the hate for this one. I only played the first Infamous and this didn't feel any more "soulless" or whatever than that one. I liked the different powerups and liked the differences in gameplay compared to the first. I enjoyed getting the platnium trophy for it.

x. Parappa the Rapper 2 ; Underrated sequel to the cult classic, the gameplay is the same as the PS1 games but with new songs (songs like Toasty Buns and BIG being standout) and a new multiplayer rap battle mode. Seriously, it's SO GOOD.

x. Super Mario Galaxy 2 ; I got the first game for Christmas the year it came out and enjoyed it but never got around to playing the sequel until it went up on Wii U VC. Playing through it I thought it was very good. Despite my personal problems like not saving lives in 2011 (pls), precision platforming isn't that great (the jumping on things for points star was a blowup), and personally getting long in the tooth by the time the green stars show up, it is a great platformer that I was happy to play.

 

[Cyrano]

3. Shadowrun: Hong Kong ;
A great iteration on the formula established by Dragonfall. And I still love the setting -- I could do with one of these every year.

I had completely forgotten about Shadowrun Hong Kong and now I want to include it. =/

Really enjoyed the characterization, of both the world and characters. Gobbet's great.

 

[maxcriden]

Careful, the comments have to begin on the same line as the game name.

Fixed, I think. Thank you!!

 

[opticalmace]

Fixed, I think. Thank you!!

Yup, should be good. Loving those cat pictures.

 

[eksy]

1. The Witcher III: Wild Hunt ; The best game of 2015, undoubtedly. An absolutely engrossing journey coupled with an amazing soundtrack. I found myself actually grinning in joy of playing the game a few times. Add in an amazing cast of characters, well-written dialogue, and everything else -- there is not a game that can top the entire experience this year. Once in a generation-type game. Been playing games for over 20 years.

 

[Incendiary]

Just did a last minute edit to my ballot. I ended up including Just Cause 3 in my final top 10, the game amazed me enough with my time with it that I think it's worth an entry over Rock Band. I'm really wanting to put Divinity Original Sin Enhanced Edition on there too, but I can't justify moving anything else out so I guess it'll stay off the list.

This was a great year for games.

 

[maxcriden]

Yup, should be good. Loving those cat pictures.

Thank you for the help! And thanks for saying that, he'll be so flattered!!

 

[Lostconfused]

This clearly a stronger year compared to 2014, but I would not dare to say it was a good one. This is largely my fault however. This years big "AAA" games have been way too damn long with far too little to justify their tediousness with content or quality of experience. Not too many surprises to be among those titles, while the smaller indies sound far more exciting this year and I wish I gave them more time.

1. Life is Strange ; It’s kind of hard to convey for me what’s so enjoyable about the game, hell it might not even apply to anyone else. It’s an adventure, with a game mechanic that’s part of the narrative somewhat. This interconnection definitely improves the experience. Outside of that it’s still just an episodic adventure game with a narrative. The entire point is that it’s the journey and not the destination that matters, where you end up is the sum total of your experiences, blah blah blah so and so forth. Trite nonsense but it applies to this game. The entertainment is going through the narrative, making the choices that you do, owning them and reaching the conclusion. I had a wonderful experience with this game and that’s why it’s my game of the year. It’s really just that simple.

2. 3rd Super Robot Wars Z Rengoku-Hen ; I don’t care if this creates more trouble for Cheesemister, or he ignores and just counts it towards SRW Z3, or just invalidates my ballot. Originally I planned to vote for the main game but forget it. This standalone piece of pre-order bonus for the main game is excellent. It cuts a lot of the excess and fat that you can find in an SRW game, it streamlines the plot, the stages, the characters. It’s a breath of fresh air and shows how much better these games can be. Obviously it doesn’t have the same highs as a licensed game would, but its a more fun game experience. This is probably exactly the reason why people sometimes enjoy the OG games more.

3. Guilty Gear Xrd -SIGN- ; PC word, woo! This might still be the honeymoon period talking but I’ve spend a lot of time with this game over the weeks that past after it came out. I’ve even had some fun with it. It took a year but I’ve finally warmed up to it just a bit. Honestly this game is not for everyone, it’s a fighting game so that should go without saying but it’s really pretty. It looks incredibly impressive on PC when running at high settings. The art style and animation are some of the best execution of the cell shading done yet.

4. Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain ; The final Hideo Kojima MGS game and ultimately his greatest disappointment. It pretty much lacks any of the real distinguishing features of his previous works, clever twists on game mechanics and presentation to mess with the player. The game is too long, the mission design is too repetitive and boring, the story practically non existent and unfulfilling. The only reason you would even continue playing the game is because of the excellent core mechanics present in the game, the shooting and the movement and various gadgets you have available to you to attack and distract the guards.

5. Bloodborne ; Fun combat and exploration. Follows pretty much the same standard formula like all the other games in this style from bloodborne. Probably the most exciting and engaging gameplay and mechanics of any big budget game out this year. The visuals and aesthetics are not bad too. Unfortunately it’s still massively flawed, the addition of chalice dungeons is horrible stain on the game and overall subtracted from the experience. It is a lesser game because of them and it’s a shame. Would be higher on the list but sometimes people forget that less is more.

6. Brandish: The Dark Revenant ; localization of a PSP remake of an old ass computer roguelike RPG. The old school early 80s/90s aesthetic of high fantasy is very refreshing. The gameplay is rather simple but it’s impressive how much freedom you have given your characters limited moveset. The game is surprisingly long but it never gets stale since it’s become more and more challenging all the way until the end. There are even post game challenge mode if that wasn’t enough. I think this is the game that made me love rouge likes/lites and old school dungeon crawling games this year. The only negative I can think of is that there is a rather poor puzzle with a solution that is made more difficult to figure out because of the new translation.

7. Shadowrun: Hong Kong ; It’s another one of these games, an equivalent of a simple home made meal. It’s cheap, it’s simple, and more or less fulfilling. There are some minor gameplay improvement and changes, the story is ok, the difficulty is easily overcome by minor min maxing. This is the perfect low impact, no commitment, RPG experience.

8. Witcher 3: The Wild Hunt ; A game that feels incredibly dense. Not just filled with worthless garbage and random consumable items or resources that you need to collect hundreds of. It feels like it’s filled with people and stories, by the end of it it feels like you’ve had your own adventure that could fill a novel. Unfortunately the core game mechanics are kind of mediocre and the game’s pacing can break down depending on how and when you chose to engage with the side quests. Overall it’s a pretty dense RPG but could be definitely refined in a lot of areas. Definitely needs better combat, what is their now servers only to make the game worse.

9. Call of Duty: Black Ops 3 ; This is only based on Multiplayer Beta, and Release MP experience. Somehow I’ve become one of those people that doesn’t even play the singleplayer portion of CoD. This mainly applies to the PC version, as I played the open beta on PS4 and was actually somewhat bored. The ability to aim with a mouse makes this game a much faster and more twitch experience. It at the same time makes the new mobility options worthless and more useful. Stuff like wallrun is too slow and adds too much sway to your hud ensuring that you will lose most fire fights. On the other hand being able to surprise other players with new angles of attack means that the fractions of a second of advantage you have might mean that they don’t even have a chance to retaliate because of how quickly you can aimt at your target and engage. Oh and the map design is a lot better compared to advanced warfare. It’s still not as good as Titanfall in some areas, but it is definitely a fun game.

10. Fallout 4 ; It’s a Bethesda game. If your post apocalypse fantasy involves walking into every abandoned building, looting everything you can, and shooting every living thing you see then you might enjoy this game.


Honorable Mentions
x. Batman Arkham Knight ; Gets an (dis)honorable mention for being a shit port
x. Xenoblade Chronicles X ; Get its for being the biggest, most annoying, worthless piece of shit I played this year, likely this decade, possibly this century/millennium.
x. Dungeon Travelers 2 ; Its pretty much a basic first person dungeon crawling game with cute animu waifus for party members and cute animu girls to slaughter for XP. It seems perfectly fine for what it is, it could just as easily take the spot of Fallout in my list. Both games are pretty average and bland, either one is a fine time waster as long as the superficial trappings appeal to you.

 

[Dio]

1. Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel ; If you had told me a couple years ago that I'd get to play two Legend of Heroes titles in the same year, released within months of each other, I'd laugh at you. This was the big surprise for me - not only was this game even better than I thought it was going to be, the sequel's supposedly even better than it. I cannot wait for Trails of Cold Steel II to hit the West this year, in 2016. Not only did the large cast end up being surprisingly great on most fronts, despite 'eh' first impressions, the story was good old intense Trails world-building with political machinations and conflict that was not affected by the use of a military academy's class as the central protagonists. It also had one of the biggest 'that got real' endings of any game I've played, making me that much more excited for a sequel. The soundtrack was stellar as usual from Falcom's sound team, and the combat was far faster and improved from the earlier entries.

2. Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky SC ; I've been waiting four years to play this game, after a heart-wrenching cliffhanger that made me wonder if the sequel would ever actually be localized. Just like I expected, this game was top-tier. The soundtrack was amazing, the story really reached some high points, and this particular title gave me a really nice feeling of closure, despite one particular ending sequence making me want to play the third game - which may or may not come over. Just an overall fantastic JRPG.

3. Yakuza 5 ; I had my doubts about this ever coming over. This title is not only one of the best Yakuza titles but also has a wealth of new side-stuff to do. From drifting in street races to taxi driving to dance battles to hunting to baseball, I was never bored. The story was also a fun trip from start to finish - even the idol segment with Haruka was fun, and didn't shy away from showing the seedier side of that industry at least a little bit. What a strong entry. I'm really glad I got to enjoy this one on PS3.

4. Disgaea 5 ; This game was one of the best Disgaeas, to my surprise. Not only did this have one of the strongest casts in series history (in my opinion, better than 3 and 4's casts) with character development for most of them and a story with some really nice moments even if a bit 'standard shonen,' it had heart. It also has the smoothest and quickest gameplay of any of them, as well as a slick and convenient UI. The entire game seems engineered around squeezing as much fun as possible out of the type of game this is, so you spend as little time as possible messing with settings, menus and things that you aren't enjoying. On the whole, I was really happy with this entry. It felt almost like a swan song in a few ways, where they compiled everything they've learned into one title and polished it to hell.

5. Shadowrun: Hong Kong ; A top-tier CRPG that gripped me from start to finish. I loved this game - not only did I greatly enjoy all the characters that accompanied me, the story was also interesting all the way through. The mechanics were even more improved from the previous title, Dragonfall - and although in a few ways I preferred Dragonfall, Hong Kong was still a fantastic title. I can only hope that the next Shadowrun expansion is as good as Dragonfall and Hong Kong, because they've got a really good track record going here.

6. Guilty Gear Xrd -SIGN- ; As the first installment of a 'complete refresh' of a fighting game series, they did a really good job here. It's got a lot of room to improve, sure, but it wasn't nearly as bad as, say, SF4 was in its vanilla state. My biggest adoration goes to the art for this game, though - I was leery of the change from sprites to 3D, but Chris Motomura's fantastic experience in game art as well as an extremely talented team of programmers and artists was able to create one of the best-looking 3D-masquerading-as-2D games in the history of the industry, using tricks such as squashing/stretching for perspective, bone scaling, and even modelling individual 3D models for each frame of the dust cloud animation for characters moving around a stage. Not only is it a great fighting game, it's a technical marvel that inspired many game artists across the industry.

7. Bloodborne ; I absolutely love playing Souls titles. Although there were a few minor missteps, Bloodborne is a triumph that stands right up with the best. I adored the faster-paced combat, and the environment design was one of the best I'd seen all year from an artistic perspective. With awesome bosses, a distinct Lovecraftian tinge, and quick, brutal combat, Bloodborne was a masterpiece. It had flaws, however - Chalice Dungeons were not great, and PVP is still quite broken - what with the Regain mechanic trivializing damage in a swordfight and certain weapons killing people in one hit. Either way, on the whole, the game's fantastic and led me to play through it several times to get the platinum.

8. Brandish: The Dark Revenant ; A THIRD Falcom title in the same year? I must be dreaming. This game's fantastic - the biggest complaint from the original Brandish was the nauseating camera from 'turning' the dungeon to navigate the character. With The Dark Revenant, this problem is fixed. Not only does this game also have an amazing re-arranged soundtrack, but it's also a tough but fair dungeon crawler that ramps up in difficulty the further you get. That being said, there are ways to mitigate the difficulty for certain players - it keeps track of how many times you've 'rested' in a dungeon as a mark on your menu, so if you wish for a harder challenge, you just don't use the rest mechanic. There are other integrated difficulty mechanics, but on the whole the only thing you really must have to beat this game is to stay determined. No immense skill is required of you, just patience and staying the course no matter what situation you end up in.

 

[Stumpokapow]

1. TIS-100 ; TIS-100 is sold as a simulation of a lost 1980s computer where you write assembly language code to solve puzzles, but in fact I think it has more in common with mathematics and geometry than it does with programming. The computer in question has extremely limited memory and an unusual design that involves passing messages between processing nodes located in a grid. The programming you're asked to do is not notably difficulty (at least until you try to optimize your code to tie Durante or Gotchaye's high schools), it's mostly a matter of figuring out how to pass the right messages in the right shape with the right timing. I really think this is a game that far from requiring you to know how to program, would be a good game to introduce people who enjoy puzzle games and puzzle toys to programming. If you've played SpaceChem (same developer) and enjoyed how it made you think geometrically, I think you'd enjoy this. The game consists of around 50 puzzles which range from fairly trivial to diabolically difficult. The other thing that really puts this game on top of my list is that after mrklaw generously gifted the game to me, it kinda caught on with a number of my GAF moderator friends including Aeana, Cyan, Gotchaye, besada, charlequin, and then a little later with a number of other GAFfers. Now there's quite the little community and there's a real joy from seeing how far people have progressed and marvelling at some of the high scores. I don't normally play a lot of multiplayer games, and of course this isn't a multiplayer game, but the sense of playing it "with" people is something I haven't felt since Super Meat Boy and really enhanced my enjoyment.

2. The Talos Principle ; The Talos Principle is frankly better than Portal or Portal 2. It combines the same sort of first person puzzler mechanics of those games with just a metric assload of content and then forsakes Portal's humour (which was very well done) in favour of cyberpunk AI philosophy of mind. Not only do you have hundreds of puzzles that elegantly build on a few core mechanics, you also have this engrossing story of piecing together scientists experimenting with AI, consciousness, and human nature. Also, unlike Portal, the game culminates in a sort of "final dungeon" that manages to surprise and delight even after all the content you've completed before. But I think the highlight of Talos Principle was the "hidden stars". Hidden stars reward players for essentially breaking the puzzles. Puzzles are self-contained rooms within broader levels, typically 4 - 6 puzzles in a level--but the hidden stars often require you to use items from one puzzle to try to solve another puzzles, a tough feat given that the game prohibits you from moving items between puzzles... unless you manage to get high enough to peer into another puzzle or jump over a wall you aren't supposed to. This kind of extra layer on top of the already challenging and fulfilling puzzles really put a smile on my face.

3. Undertale ; A lot of people like Undertale because its sort of charm, vibe, mood, feeling, character, whatever remind them of Earthbound. Actually I think it does those things better than Earthbound. I also think it has a pretty interesting and varied battle system--who'd have thought that there could be quite so many variations on shoot-em-up bullet dodging and SMT-style conversation battles--and doesn't overstay its welcome. But more than that, Undertale is a game that allows you to be kind. It supports this through its writing and through its mechanics, and that might be the first time a game has tried, let alone succeeded to do that. The cherry on top is that a 23 year old who worked on this for a few years and by all accounts is a nice, quiet kid has been catapulted into success and wealth as a result of making something that made people happy.

4. Her Story ; Her Story is basically a game where you type search keywords to view video clips of a police interrogation out of order and piece together the story. I have no doubt earlier voters in this GOTY have done a better job of explaining it or selling it to you. What I would rather do is share a few personal stories. One of my fondest gaming memories is playing Myst (and later Riven and Zork: Nemesis and other mid-90s 3d point-and-click adventures) with my father when I was young. We took notes in a sort of journal as we were piecing things together. The appeal of doing this is doubly cool, it not only shows that the game succeeded in immersing us but it also was great bonding time. That's not an experience I'll ever be able to replicate, but since then I've enjoyed games that bring me closer to loved ones when we play them together. Telltale's 3d adventures have been great for that because I typically play them with my wife and we argue over making the decisions. A more cynical gamer would say "yeah but the decisions don't matter and the writing is bad". Okay, enjoy not enjoying the game, you're probably right. But in the mean time I don't often get to share this hobby with my wife and so I wouldn't trade anything for the chance to do that, and the mechanism of having to make that choice and watch it unfold really clicks for us. It's one of the same reasons why both Heavy Rain and Beyond: Two Souls made and respectively topped my list. Also games a lot of people didn't like. The human stories and relatively low mechanical difficulty appeal to her, and the decisions elevate the experiences beyond just watching a show or movie together. I mention this because my wife and I played Her Story on my laptop in a single sitting in bed, scribbling down the search terms we had used on paper. When we finished it, we talked about the story, and the next day we both read about what other people thought online and talked some more. So I see this as another game in the long line of games that I was able to share with someone, and that's an experience I always love.

5. Elliot Quest ; Elliot Quest is a love letter to Zelda 2. Absolutely no one has played it, it's got like 5k sales on Steam and didn't attract any attention on Wii U. That's sad because it's a big, huge, wonderful little game that's much better than the game that inspired it. Despite some bugs and a lack of post-release support, Elliot Quest is one of the best little PC indies I've played in years. More people absolutely have to check this out, this is by far the most overlooked game I've played this year. It's hard without being unfair, it's meaty (20 hours for a full playthrough and I didn't beat the secret bosses), and it's just chock full of content. Big thanks to Roboleon who generously gifted this to me resulting in me finding something I otherwise wouldn't have.

6. Ori and the Blind Forest ; This is a choice that frustrates me. It's clearly a stellar game and a labour of love. The game is very beautiful, sweet, just the right amount of content, nails movement, and as a metroidvania also nails the most important thing: interesting powerups that enhance movement and unlock a world I want to explore. It absolutely deserves the reviews and impressions it got. But it's also maddening in the way it frustrated me. I'm a reasonable player of platform games and so I don't feel like when I complain about difficulty it's because I'm weaksauce. Ori isn't particularly hard, but it just involves a lot of ways to die instantly. This coupled with one of the game's interesting mechanics: you choose where to save but have limited energy with which to save, means that you often die and restart quite far away. This is compounded by the game having unskippable plot scenes and scenes that call your attention to something happening on the map. Nothing is more frustrating than dying, respawning, and then having to see the same 10 second bullshit you saw a dozen times before. Ori was the worst game for that that I've seen since Gears of War 1. Why would I spend more time in my vote for a game complaining than praising it? Because the creators of Ori have decided to release a "definitive edition" of the game. Notwithstanding whether or not I feel like it's fair to make people pay again for things that should be fixed, I think they have the opportunity to polish this beauty into really being one of the best metroidvania games ever made.

7. Castle in the Darkness ; Castle in the Darkness isn't quite a metroidvania. You do explore an open connected world with passages that don't unlock until you upgrade your skills, and it is a 2D action platformer, and it does have dozens... and dozens... and dozens of bosses, but it feels closer to something older, something like Castlevania II. That alone made the game super novel to me. It was a very satisfying and well put together game. The developer, one guy whose day job is programming for Nicalis, seems to have a great eye for design. I just wish he had a little more time to support the game post-release with patches or additional content. Either way, I'm ready for more.

8. Final Fantasy: Record Keeper ; Isn't this one of those shitty iOS gambling games? Yes, yes it is. If you pay for in-app purchases you're basically a big dumb dumb. It's not even a good idea in game, because most likely you'll get dick all and if you do get something most likely it'll be antequated in a few months. Watching people online pay $1 every "event" (i.e. once a week--now twice a week) for a "discount" spin at the slot machine is hilarious, because most of them have paid $50 or something already and have nothing to show for it. And the rationalization of "why not support the game you love" is kinda comical because if you're not a whale your support doesn't move the needle. Why not just love the game you love? I've never really been into any of these types of iOS games. What got me hooked on this one is, yes, partially the opportunity to see classic Final Fantasy characters, bosses, and backgrounds re-rendered and updated for today. But what kept me hooked months later was actually the surprising depth to the game. It's basically a series of Final Fantasy fights revolving around a fairly simple battle system, but it's surprising how much strategy goes into getting the resources you need to craft the right skills to equip your party members and take on some of the bosses. As you have only five characters at a time and each can equip only two abilities, trying to choose between buffs, debuffs, elemental vulnerabilties, healing, tanking, etc. can be tough and strategic. The community is great and filled with positive people who are dedicated to taking apart the game's math and working together to develop new strategies. Paradoxically, this might actually be the Final Fantasy game with the most complex, difficult,, and fulfilling battle system, despite being a mobile game with an autobattle function. The funny thing about this game is that it's made me re-evaluate whether I should be checking out other games like this, and for the low low price of free, getting an eye-opening that I could spend a couple hundred hours having this much fun every day is well worth it.

9. Mr. Jump ; This is some dumb iOS auto-platformer that's supposedly hard as nails. I downloaded it because Aeana was complaining it was "bullshit". Then Cyan got it and complained it was too hard. So I downloaded it. I'm only including it my GOTY vote because I found it was easy and I totally got a lot of enjoyment out of trolling the hell out of those two. Please download this and confirm how crazy easy it is. Also the author of the game retweeted Aeana tweeting about how bad the game is, so you gotta love a guy fully aware of and enjoying the suffering he's inflicting on others.

10. Pink Heaven ; When Kero Blaster was released I didn't play it because it was released on Japanese UPlay or whatever, and the publisher said it was a secret mystery why it didn't get released on Steam so I kinda just ignored it to be honest. I still haven't played Kero Blaster because I had other stuff to play and never got around to it even when it did get a Steam release. But I did download this quick "demo"--ish? for Kero Blaster. Basically it's a free standalone 20 minute nugget of gameplay intended to upsell you on Kero Blaster. The reason I'm including it on my list is because it worked. I hadn't replayed Cave Story, the developer's previous game, in a number of years and as soon as I started to play Pink Heaven the positive memories flooded back. A standalone demo that massively increases your interest in the game is a good thing, so cheers to that interesting marketing strategy.

Oh, also, I played 6/10 of these games in November or December. It was not a great year for me in terms of work-life balance, so playing so many great games back to back when I had a break was just awesome. Now to edit in troll images to make my ballot perfect.

 

[TheDarkKnight774]

1. Bloodborne ; I had limited experience with the souls series before this game. I played Demons soul when it first came out but got discouraged when i wasn't sure which avenues i really should take for each world. But I picked this one up and even it is one i would routinely play, get distracted with things, and then come back to it. But every time i came back my love for the game grew and grew. And by the end of the year I not only finished the game, the DLC, but also got the platinum trophy in the game. Something I never strive to get (its my 2nd one i have)

2. Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain ; I'm a huge MGS and Kojima fan. And I can't recall a MGS game I enjoyed more playing. The others I loved for experiencing the game, but mechanically this one is the best of the series. The variety, the sandlot open areas, the adaptive enemy behavior when you focus on one tactic, etc. I wasn't a huge fan of Peace Walker but The Phantom Pain is the Peace Walker game design but enhanced and improved upon in every way. Its got its flaws in the second half of the game, where you see when the game started to get rushed out. But even with its obvious flaws I still loved it and logged over 50 hours

3. Life is Strange ; What a wonderful game. I loved the characters, loved the game mechanic, the music, and the world as a whole. I cared about the people living in this world, and not only the main characters but what happened to even the minor characters and what was going on in their lives.

4. Until Dawn ; Its been said by others but this game was a total surprise. I love adventure games, but I do not like horror. I'll see it on occasion but its probably my least favorite movie genre. So to play an adventure game that bases it around a teen slasher flick didn't seem like something i'd love. But to my surprise it become one of my favorite games of the year. It wins you over with its confidence in what it wants to do, what it is, and how to pull it off.

5. Ori and the Blind Forest ; I thought about waiting for the definitive edition but decided to pick it up during the holiday steam sale and I had no regrets. Beautiful world, music, good metroidvania elements and surprising difficulty. I thought it'd be one of the "experience" games which would have been fine, but it turned out to have some real teeth to it which was a lot of fun

6. Rocket League ; Simple to pick up, hard to master. This is a game where each time I go back to it I wish I was playing it more than I am.

7. Undertale ; This turned out to be a neat little game. I picked it up due to all the buzz but tried to not let that influence my experience of the game. I liked the dialogue battle system and they created some pretty interesting and memorable characters. The humor was hit or miss for me, and the bullet hell dodge mechanic was cool but also frustrating when I was going for the "good ending". But it really excels when you do get to the ending, and then really when you get to the good ending. I'm glad I got to do both as its what left the lasting impression with me

8. Axiom Verge ; This is the best Metroid game I've played in years. Probably since Metroid prime 1. Its influenced by Metroid but unlike a lot of homage games from the indie scene it adds a lot of new stuff on its own. Really great weapons and the true star was the music.

9. Batman: Arkham Knight ; Yes the batmobile overstayed its welcome and boy did Rockstar REALLY want that Batmobile work. And at times I thought it did, and other times nope. Still even with that, the game was a blast to play. Its one of the few open world games where the side missions makes sense to me as to why the character would do it. Its what Batman would do, multi tasking across multiple villains and cases. The main villain was who i thought it was, so that wasn't too interesting but there were other twists I really did enjoy and I loved to finally see more of the bat family in the game. Plus the game is gorgeous.

10. Her Story ; I found this to be a very clever game in non linear story telling. Or at least the appearance of non linear story telling. I still thing it has its hand guiding you along the way due to the search word limitations but digging through the clips and stumbling into reveals for a couple hours was a lot of fun.

 

[TheGreatMightyPoo]

Double post for some reason.

 

[TheGreatMightyPoo]

I wasn't sure if it was going to get a ranking, but it seems it got knocked out of the top ten. I do want to mention Nintendo Badge Arcade regardless though. My wife and I have played this fun little gem of a F2P game nearly every day since its release, in 5-10 minute increments. I want to say we've spent a total of $3 on plays and have relied on skill (my wife's got skills with that practice crane!), luck and generosity resulting in free plays given out otherwise. Baito is a great new Nintendo character and his antics never fail to crack me up. (He, Nabbit and Ravio need to get together for a game. Make Bowser Jr. the villain and you've got a recipe for success.) I'll just say we've gotten a solid 10+ hours of enjoyment out of this game and getting a complete set of launcher badges you want or a particularly adorable Poochy badge really brightens up the longest of days.

Nintendo Badge Arcade would be awesome on a home console(whether it be the Wii U or the NX console).

It's collection addiction all over again like Animal Crossing but the shitty resolution makes the items you collect a bit underwhelming aesthetically.

It's still awesome and fun to pointlessly decorate your home menu though.

 

[TheDancingWatermelon]

1. The Witcher III: Wild Hunt ; My GOTY, and probably one of my favorite games of all time. The story, the characters, the music, the writing, the exploration, I loved it all. Its seamless blending of open world with a character driven narrative is great, its sidequests are so well done they could pass as main quests in other games- it just hooked me and never let go. I’ve been a fan of the series from the first game, and it was great to see how ambitious CDPR was with the final entry. It was a bittersweet feeling at the end, knowing it was the end of Geralt’s story but so great to see them draw it to a satisfying conclusion. 160 hours and I’m sure I’ll spend more someday replaying it.

2. Bloodborne ; Incredible presentation and atmosphere, stunning art design and music, incredibly satisfying combat. There’s not much more to be said about Bloodborne that someone else hasn’t said in this thread. What I’ll remember the most is my initial playthrough, struggling to defeat some of the bosses, that feeling of frustration when failing, and the triumph of success. I’ll remember the second playthrough, when I realized that I had adapted: what was once hard had become only moderately challenging and everything had clicked in an immensely satisfying way. Also clearing all of the Chalice Dungeons with a friend. Watching him step on traps, get blasted by bosses, or just explode in humorous ways was always a hoot. Working together provided a completely different, yet immensely enjoyable experience from the main game.

3. The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky SC ; A master class in world building and dialogue, with a cast of endearing and fun characters. Estelle Bright was a fantastic female lead for the most part, and the party interactions never failed to put a smile on my face. I loved the little touches of NPC’s dialogue changing through the game, or reading the “Liberl News” and finding out insignificant story beats such as who won a mayoral election, its these little things that make the world feel alive. The graphics, while dated, are still charming, and the music is sublime. Its incredibly cliché and full of tropes at times, but its all executed so damn well it never detracted from the experience for me. I played FC and SC back to back, and it was an unforgettable experience that’s left me hungry for more JRPG’s, a genre that until this year I’ve largely ignored.

4. Undertale ; The game that came out of nowhere for me. A surprisingly heartfelt game, from its design to its lovable cast of characters that I grew attached to over the course of my time with it. The way it turns things on its head is masterful, from the writing and dialogue, to the gameplay and mechanics introduced as you go. I love the soundtrack (my favorite of the year honestly), most songs are incredibly catchy, and each track plays where it feels like it needs to in the course of the game. Its fanbase can be a tad overzealous, but its definitely something I’m glad I played and experienced.

5. Life is Strange ; An emotional roller coaster, when I finished all I could think was “What a ride!” The final episode has a few questionable parts, and the ending felt a tad unsatisfying, but everything before that was fantastic. I really enjoyed just walking around talking to the various characters and finding the hidden photo spots. The time travel mechanics added an interesting flair both in the narrative, and in the gameplay and choices. That’s not even counting the way it uses its music, most notably in the climax of episodes. Just a terrific game with some memorable characters, I can’t wait to see what’s next from them.

6. Invisible, Inc. ; An incredibly stylish turn-based stealth game from the developer of Mark of the Ninja, one of my favorite games from a few years ago. I love the sleek cyberpunk art style, and the slick interface sets the tone well. The game really ramps up the tension through a clever “alarm” system, mixing with its randomly generated levels to insure you are never too comfortable sneaking around. I loved the multiple layers of gameplay Klei have put together. There’s the choice of what type of mission to undertake, what characters and items to bring, and how to build said characters. There’s the actual movement and actions of said characters, as you manage their action points, from combat to simply peeking into the next room. On top of that you have Incognita, a hacking program where you must manage how to spend limited resources. Hack into a safe for possible items or credits to spend? Or save Incognita’s power for more pressing concerns, such as cameras or turrets? Everything is woven together brilliantly. I can’t recommend it enough, and I’m sure to keep playing it well into 2016.

7. Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain ; A game I expected to be higher on my list. Metal Gear is one of my favorite franchises of all time and I had high hopes for this one. An inconsistent story, a lacking second act, Konami’s torrent of mismanagement, and an unsatisfying ending brought a lot of my enjoyment down. That being said, the open world sandbox style gameplay is fantastic. The graphics are solid, it performs and controls really well, and it’s incredibly smart in its objective design. I love that it presents a list of simple objectives and from there it’s up to the player on how to tackle everything. Go in guns blazing, taking out a base with a rocket launcher? Carefully sneak through an outpost without being seen? Even that classic Metal Gear silliness shines in the many choices. From infiltrating in a box with an anime idol poster taped to it, to calling in a support helicopter blasting “Weird Science” on its speakers as it rains death on all below, the amount of ways to handle a situation are staggering. One of the biggest disappointments of the year for me for what’s missing, and yet what is there makes it one of the best games of 2015.

8. Until Dawn ; I love horror movies, especially the old cheesy slashers of years past, so I knew regardless of the games quality I was going to at the least have a good time. What was surprising was how well written the game is and how much fun it is to play. It switches gears through the story with ease, building on its tension and atmosphere until shit hits the fan, beginning a downward crescendo towards a climax that brings it all home. The characters, for the most part, are walking cliché’s from a teen horror movie, but in a way that totally works within the confines of the game, almost like a loving wink and nod to what makes the horror genre so great. It’s not an overly long game, and those looking for branching plots beyond minor changes (usually involving whether a character is still breathing) might be disappointed, but it was a fantastic weekend game and one of the best experiences of the year for me.

9. Ori and the Blind Forest ; An incredibly beautiful game for the eyes and ears, with great animation and lush environments, and a great score that suits the games almost surreal, dream-like design. It also plays really well, with tight controls and interesting level’s and puzzles slowly upping the ante in difficulty. I really enjoyed the escape sequences, not only for the visual spectacle, but also as a test or boss fight of sorts to put to use the new abilities I had gained in the area.

10. Tales from the Borderlands ; One of the most surprising games of the year for me, as I’ve never been a big fan of the story or characters from previous games. I guess Telltale does what Gearbox couldn’t, because this was just a joy from start to finish. Great voice acting, endearing characters, and lots of funny and charming story beats. My fiancée had zero experience with the Borderlands franchise and initially thought the game looked dumb, but by episode 3 she was hooked and watched me play through it.

 

[01DragonFly]

1. Halo 5 ; 343 did an amazing job, good multiplayer , decent campain and dlc done right

2. Splatoon

3. Xenoblade Chronicles X

4. Mario Maker

5. Ori and the Blind Forest

6. The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask 3D

7. Rise of the Tomb Raider

8. The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt

9. FAST Racing NEO

10. Fallout 4

 

[Yuterald]

A group of strong-willed &#$@%, now residents of NLA, find themselves on the outskirts of the city in search of any evidence they can find of the &#$@%. After a 10-minute withdraw of Pizza, they decide to turn back. On their way home, one of the &#$@% trips over a sealed container with a strange device inside...

What is clearly an ancient piece of technology, the &#$@% are able to retrieve a single Microsoft Word document. The &#$@% quickly discovered that the word document was corrupted, however. Most of the user's information was damaged during the crash of the &#$@%. Fortunately, NLA had access to some of its archives from the &#$@%. The &#$@%, with their fixation on Earth cartoons and TV shows, cross-referenced the data they could use with Wikipedia and other various Earth-based websites that have been archived...

&#$@%: Hey, hey, these shows are great! Way better than what these stupid humans play.
&#$@%: Yeah, but this is all pretty yah-ish, though.
&#$@%: I like yah-stuff.

1. Xenoblade Chronicles X ; Wings is an American sitcom that ran on NBC from April 19, 1990, to May 21, 1997. Starring Tim Daly and Steven Weber as brothers Joe and Brian Hackett, the show is set at the fictional "Tom Nevers Field" airport, a small two-airline airport in Nantucket, Massachusetts, where the Hackett brothers operate Sandpiper Air. Exteriors of Nantucket Memorial Airport were used for the show. Interior scenes were filmed on Stage 19 at Paramount Studios in Hollywood, California, before a live studio audience.

&#$@%: Hey, Lowell is like Lin!
&#$@%: They both break a lot of stuff, yes.
&#$@%: Those planes are like Skells, too!

2. Yakuza 5 ; The show focuses on the employees of the fictional Sunshine Cab Company, and its principal setting is the company's fleet garage in Manhattan. Among the drivers, only Alex Rieger, who is disillusioned with life, considers cab driving his profession. The others view it as a temporary job. Elaine Nardo is a single mother working as a receptionist at an art gallery. Tony Banta is a boxer with a losing record. Bobby Wheeler is a struggling actor. John Burns (written out of the show after the first season) is working his way through college. All take pity on "Reverend Jim" Ignatowski, an aging hippie minister, who is burnt out from drugs, so they help him become a cabbie. The characters also included Latka Gravas, their innocent, wide-eyed mechanic from an unnamed foreign country, and Louie De Palma, the despotic dispatcher.

&#$@%: Kazuma drives a lot of Taxis, sure.
&#$@%: I like Danny in Always Sunny more.
&#$@%: I haven't seen this game beyond the first chapter...

3. The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky SC ; Ned Dorsey (Church) and Stacey Colbert (Messing) are brought together in a marriage of convenience — Ned needs to be married to get a promotion, while Stacey desperately needs to move out of her parents' house, and Ned has a very good apartment. Ned and Stacey often socialize with Stacey's sister, Amanda (Nadia Dajani) and her husband, Eric (Greg Germann). Other recurring characters include Stacey's parents and Ned's boss. Ned and Stacey's constant bickering slowly evolves into something resembling a romance. However, the show was cancelled before this plot could be developed further.

&#$@%: Joshua and Estelle sure argue a lot, too.
&#$@%: Church should have never left Wings...
&#$@%: "USAM" was the best.

Initiate Project Y: User &#$@% - The objective of this project is to travel forward in time in order to observe what the user subjected himself to during the year 20xx, which may have had an impact on the outcome of the following results.

...

...

...

Spoiler

this is yah-ish

...

...

...

Test Failed.

...

...

...

Corrupted data from the past has been intercepted...

...Dreams Don't Die - Memento - ? - If I had to &#$@% one creator and development team that &#$@% the most recognition this year, it would have to be SWERY (Suehiro Hidetaka) and his buds at Access &#$@%. Not only do I feel like &#$@% is SWERY's best &#$@% date, but it's also the &#$@% project to come out of his studio. While Deadly Premonition wore its inspiration on its sleeves, D4 is all original and as legit as they come. I truly &#$@% the product and culmination of everything SWERY and company has learned from films and &#$@% over the years. SWERY, as a director, has really come a long way &#$@%...

...Blaster - Memento - a &#$@% of office supply paper - I'm incredibly &#$@% of someone who can not only program and design his/her own game, but also compose the music &#$@% art assets at the same time. Daisuke Amaya ("Pixel") is definitely one talented dude. Kero Blaster was one of the most no-nonsense &#$@% I loved it for that. Instead of creating yet another "Metroidvania" &#$@%, Pixel opted for a more straight forward, traditional action/platform shooter. It's hard to describe, but Kero &#$@% feels even more genuine &#$@% at times. I guess one could say, Kero Blaster does so much by saying so little. Stages are dense and &#$@% they most certainly do not overstay their welcome. While the &#$@% may be basic, &#$@% and satisfying to take down. The simple currency/upgrade system at your disposal provided just enough of a hook to keeps things slightly more &#$@% your traditional run n' gun, Contra-like too. &#$@% to see more...

4. Dariusburst: Chronicle Saviours ; ...ancient archive footage. Replacement protocol...

&#$@%: This works...
&#$@%: I wonder what year we're in now.
&#$@%: I like the music.

5. Bloodborne ; Franks tells his friends, That for a night like this he has the perfect story. Betty Ann points out that there is a full moon that night. Frank says that there is indeed a full moon, and eerie things happen when the moon is full. People always act a little different, a little strange. To anybody who's ever told a tale of terror there's one special thing that always happens when the full moon rises, and that is what his story is about. Frank submit his approval for The Midnight Society, calling his story "The Tale of the Full Moon" and begins his story.

&#$@%: This will do, I think...
&#$@%: I like this better.
&#$@%: King's Field V, please.

6. Yoshi's Woolly World ; ...ancient archive footage. Replacement protocol...

&#$@%: These guys are funny.
&#$@%: Best reviewers I've ever seen from Earth.
&#$@%: I wonder if they made it to the Ark on time...

7. Splatoon ; ...ancient archive footage. Replacement protocol...

&#$@%: So, this is what stupid Earth-children play.
&#$@%: I don't think I could play this all day...
&#$@%: I wish there was more stuff to do as a single user.

8. Rare Replay ; ...ancient archive footage. Replacement protocol...

&#$@%: Where's this "DK64" game?
&#$@%: I don't understand why it's not included.
&#$@%: This makes a lot of sense to me, actually.

9. Rise of the Tomb Raider ; ...ancient archive footage. Replacement protocol...

&#$@%: ...
&#$@%: ...
&#$@%: ...

10. Devil's Third ; Fuck you.

I heard my cousin Beavo plays this game competitively.

 

[Pranay]

1. Bloodborne ; Best Soul till date. Amazing atmosphere, well written lore and a refreshing style of combat
2. Until Dawn ; underrated game of this year. The game is beautiful at times, extremely fun, interesting and entertaining.
3. Metal Gear Solid V ;

 

[pariah164]

... Do all voting posts in this thread devolve into weirdness at the end?

 

[Steel]

...Something...

I... Wha?

Spoiler

Yeah, I still read the whole thing.

 

[TheGreatMightyPoo]

... Do all voting posts in this thread devolve into weirdness at the end?

I think everyone is drunk now.

 

[ohlawd]

... Do all voting posts in this thread devolve into weirdness at the end?

I... Wha?

Spoiler

Yeah, I still read the whole thing.

time for you guys to play Xenoblade X

 

[pariah164]

I... Wha?

Spoiler

Yeah, I still read the whole thing.

Pretty much my reaction. Seriously, the fuck did I just read.

I think everyone is drunk now.

That makes sense.

 

[btkadams]

1. The Beginner's Guide ; I never expected a game to move me like this. I've played games where friends sitting next to me have been brought to tears, but I've never had "my" moment until now. This really resonated with me. I've spent years working on music in my spare time, and nothing I've read, heard, seen, or played has captured the frustrations involved with the creative process quite like this. I'll remember this experience for years to come.
2. Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain
3. Rocket League
4. Grow Home
5. Destiny: The Taken King
6. Star Wars Battlefront
7. Until Dawn
8. Bloodborne
9. Persona 4: Dancing All Night
10. Starcraft 2: Legacy of the Void

 

[Nameless]

1.Bloodborne; As beautiful and immaculately designed as it is challenging and satisfying. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Blood Meridian, Mad Men, these are some of the things I regard as masterpieces of my lifetime and Bloodborne evoked similar feelings of experiencing all-time greatness real-time. Every facet of this game is exceptional and I honestly can't gush over it any more. Each time I pick it up my fondness for it grows.

2. Metal Gear Solid V; If GOTY was only given for achievements in gameplay this would be my winner. The core mechanics here are about as close to perfection as you're going to find. I was constantly astounded, not just by the bonkers attention to detail, but the depth of the systems, the degree to which they coalesce, and just how flexible Kojima's sandbox was in organically reacting to whatever I could imagine to throw at it. Unpredictable moments happen on the fly in MGSV that are every bit as grand as choreographed set pieces in most games. Even ignoring the story there was still 80 some-odd hours of pure gaming bliss here.

3.The Witcher 3; A decade from now this may very well be considered the most important games of 2015 and who knows, maybe even this generation, as it signifies an undeniable leap for gaming in terms of writing and world building. It's astonishing, you'll stumble upon quest lines in Bumfuck Village X that will feature a level of narrative craftsmanship and care that you rarely see in story based games, much less sprawling, incredibly detailed open worlds.

4. The Talos Principle; Who knew puzzlers games could be this fun and engaging? Solving problems feels like play rather than work. The music, the philosophical musings, the slowly unraveling conflict you find yourself in the middle of, the steady sense of progression through thoughtfully designed puzzles. This game is absolutely sublime and gives me a weird euphoric feeling every time I play it.

5.Life is Strange; This has stayed on my mind long after I beat it. Beautiful art direction, like a pastel painting come to life, , memorable well-performed characters. and clever & surprising uses of the time travel mechanic that added immeasurably to the story. Having the ability to see and change and tinker with all the available paths almost always made choices so much more agonizing. Honestly I was ill-prepared for just how fiercely & deeply parts of this game grabbed me.

6. Fallout 4; Sure it has a lot of problems but the Bethesda formula is tried and true. Existing in their worlds is still one of my favorite things in gaming. Nothing else is like it.

7. SOMA; A good ole fashioned hard Sci-fi adventure that absolutely oozes atmosphere and offers some truly crushing moral and existential conundrums.

8. Galak-Z; Deep combat in a cool nostalgic package that feels way more epic than a game of this scale has any right to.

9. Until Dawn; A very beautiful game about the most terrible of nights. As someone who's a fan of choice mechanics in games I was thoroughly impressed by range of the 'The Butterfly Effect' System'...turns out it was more than just pithy PR.

10. Destiny The Taken King; A quality game finally sprung up around the best shooter on consoles.

 

[Lys Skygge]

1. Bloodborne ; I purchased Bloodborne on hype alone. I didn’t know anything about it other than people were excited. Even my girlfriend was excited and she doesn’t even play video games (she saw a trailer and loved the aesthetic). As the hype increased and my girlfriend kept showing me screenshots from Tumblr, I caved, and reserved Bloodborne.

Release day came. I picked up Bloodborne, installed it onto my PS4, booted it up, created my character, and my first taste of ‘Souls’ began. I slowly made my way through the clinic, I encountered my first enemy, a werewolf. I fought, I died. This would become normal throughout the entire game. Central Yarnham alone took me 12 hours to complete. I was reminded of the movie ‘Edge of Tomorrow’ in that I’d make it a few steps further than my last attempt before meeting my fate once again. And again. And again. Eventually I would learn enemy attack patterns, and my fighting/dodging skills would improve. I was impressed with myself once I learned how to effectively parry an attack! As I progressed my skills continually improved. Enemy after enemy fell to my feet; boss after boss, slaughtered by my hand. After 70+ hours, I beat Bloodborne. Then I beat it again, and again. I was hooked. I eventually acquired the platinum trophy. It’s the trophy I’m most proud of.

Bloodborne is not only my Game of The Year, it’s my #1 game of all time. It was an incredible experience; I have GAF and my girlfriend to thank for convincing me to play a masterpiece.

2. Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain ; I LOVE the Metal Gear Solid series; and The Phantom Pain is no exception. The gameplay is beautifully realized. The open world, while a bit unnecessary, was a welcome addition. Too many open world games promise a world where you can approach a mission in any way you want, but The Phantom Pain was the first to deliver on that promise. Wanna play classically and use stealth? You can do that. Want to carpet bomb a base then take out any survivors? You can do that too. Want to defeat a boss by requesting supplies to be dropped on their head? You can fucking do that! You can approach any mission from any angle, using any tactic. Get caught while sneaking? You can change your strategy from silently killing an enemy before raising the alarm, to calling in air support, to evacuating the area by fultoning a storage box and jumping on top.

While I was initially extremely disappointed in the story, after some thought, I’m only slightly disappointed. I thought Kiefer Sutherland was great as Big Boss, the cutscenes were well directed, the signature Metal Gear dialog was great, and the characters were mostly top notch (I was a bit disappointed in Ocelot). I just wish there was more actual story and less filler. While the gameplay is beyond anything I could have hoped for, I play Metal Gear for its story. There were some interesting story threads that never really went anywhere. I felt there wasn’t really a satisfying climax.

Other than my disappointment in the story, overall I’d say Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain is one of the greatest games I’ve ever played. I’d say it’s near the top along with The Last of Us and Bloodborne as my GOAT game.

3. The Witcher III: Wild Hunt ; The Witcher III set a new bar for RPGs. The world truly feels alive, and your actions have actual consequences. I had just played Dragonage: Inquisition prior to playing The Witcher III. I was expecting another, enjoyable RPG. Little did I know, The Witcher III would make Dragonage feel dated. It made most RPGs feel dated. It made Fallout 4 look dated before Fallout 4 even released. While the main quest is great, it’s the sidequests that actually stood out to me. I’m used to sidequests feeling like filler. The Witcher III gave sidequests actual depth. Sidequests can affect the main story, the main character, and the world around you.

The Witcher III: Wild Hunt is the best Fantasy RPG I’ve played. The Story is mature, the world feels alive, and your actions affect the characters and world around you. Future RPGs have a lot of live up to.

4. Uncharted: The Nathan Drake Collection ; I hadn’t played an Uncharted game in a few years. I haven’t play Among Thieves since the first week of release, and I haven’t played Drake's Fortune since sometime before that. I had forgotten how amazing these games are. Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune is a great introduction to the main Uncharted cast. Nathan, Sully, and Elena have some of the best character chemistry in the gaming world. Uncharted 2 & 3 made that chemistry even better.

Some people think the Uncharted gameplay is feeling outdated. I think they’re wrong. As I played through the Nathan Drake Collection I was reminded of a simpler time when you had to keep moving to stay alive. Most shooters have you hide behind cover and pop out for a few shots when it’s safe. In Uncharted, enemies will flank and smoke you out of from cover. You’re never safe for long when behind cover.

Uncharted was a breath of fresh air after playing other, newer shooters over the past few years, and I was reminded why it’s still king. Uncharted 4 looks to improve even more on an already great formula. April cannot come soon enough.

5. Tearaway Unfolded ; I never owned a Vita, and this is a game I’ve always wanted to play. I was ecstatic Tearaway was announced for PS4. I got it from my parents for Christmas, and what I played was an incredible experience. I platinumed it in 2 weeks! The world of tearaway is charming, beautiful, and fun. I wish it got more the recognition it deserves. I’d love to see a sequel in the future.

6. Dark Souls II: Scholar of The First Sin ; After playing Bloodborne, I had to try the other Souls games. DS2 released on the PS4 shortly after Bloodborne, so it was a great opportunity to jump in. I was initially surprised how different DS2 was from Bloodborne. You move much slower, enemies aren’t as aggressive, and the game overall felt a bit easier than Bloodborne. Over time though I started to feel the similarities. The story required effort to follow, and the combat required patience and precision; both of which are things I loved about Bloodborne.

I hope we see a Dark Souls 1 and Demon's Souls remastered for the PS4 in the future. But for now, I’m looking forward to Dark Souls 3 in the very near future.

7. Until Dawn ; I’m usually not the biggest fan of games like Until Dawn. I was never interested in David Cage or Telltale games. But after hearing so much praise for Until Dawn, I decided to rent it. Until Dawn exceeded my expectations. The plot grabbed me, and the QTEs were well done, but what I loved most were the characters. Every character felt unique and interesting. My first impression of them was “I can’t wait to kill them off!” But as the game progressed, and I got to know everyone, I suddenly felt the need to protect everyone. I was devastated when I thought I lost Emily; a character I initially despised, only to find out she survived, it brought me a smile of relief. Chris was my first actual loss; all I wanted to do was go back to a previous save...I didn’t. I killed Chris, and I had to live with the consequences.

I lost only 3 people, all of whom were male (I got the trophy for saving all the females). Overall, Until Dawn is a great experience. I can see myself playing it with friends for years to come.

8. Rocket League ; What can I say? It’s a blast to play! Local multiplayer is a rarity these days, and it’s nice to have something fun to play when I have friends and family over. Cross-platform with PC is also great! I wish more games would allow this.

9. Grow Home ; An enjoyable game with fun mechanics. I was addicted to Grow Home for a weekend and ended getting 100% on it. I would love to see a sequel in the future.

10. Destiny: The Taken King ; I actually enjoyed destiny last year, and The Taken King made it even better. It’s what vanilla Destiny should have been.

 

[I speel my dreenk]

Content

Yeah... yeah, that's the stuff.

 

[JobenNC]

1. Bloodborne ; You bastards won't shut up about it. You shouldn't. It's perfect.

2. BoxBoy! ; The most hooked I've been by a puzzle game in a long time. Super pumped about the sequel!

3. Super Mario Maker ; Absolutely wonderful times had with friends and family passing around the gamepad. Should have been a launch game.

4. Rocket League ; The other major party game for me this year. Got it with PS plus, but it brought more value than some games I bought for $60.

5. Xenoblade Chronicles X ; What. a. world.

 

[Mass Effect]

1. Bloodborne ; This game was perfect for me. I like the Dark Souls games, but I always felt like I needed to play a certain way; shield, armor, take hits and then strike back. But with Bloodborne, the combat system allows for a quicker style of play, which I strongly prefer. And the game is oozing (no pun intended) with style.

2. Rocket League ; Or better known as the best multiplayer game of the year. Seriously, the game came out of nowhere, and damn is it so much fun.

3. Star Wars Battlefront ; As one of my friends constantly likes to say, "Star Wars fantasy fulfillment." No, it's not as in-depth as Battlefield and no, it doesn't have as much content as Battlefront 2, but it's still fun.

4. Splatoon

5. Tearaway Unfolded

6. Ultra Street Fighter IV

Yeah, I didn't play a lot of 2015 games last year. I meant to pick up quite a few, but I just didn't ever get around to it. I'll still get them soon enough.

 

[abrack08]

1. Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain ; The greatest gameplay in one of my favorite series of all time, and one of the most fun to play games of all time. I'm usually a story-over-gameplay person, and there are many flaws to be found here but... the game is just so damn fun. It's simultaneously a disappointing game and easily my favorite game of the year.

2. Rocket League ; Another game that's 100% pure fun. This kinda came out of nowhere for me, saw a couple videos during E3 and that was it. It's been my go-to game when I'm feeling bored for the past 6 months at least.

3. Life is Strange ; Haven't felt this emotionally invested in characters in a while. The last episode was BIT of a let-down (but still solid) but the rest were fantastic. The ends of Episodes 3 and 4 are some of my favorite moments in games this year.

4. The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky Second Chapter ; I haven't completed this monster-of-a-JRPG yet but I'm a solid ways in and I loved the first one. It obviously feels very similar but I can't get enough.

5. Final Fantasy XIV: Heavensward ; Never really played an MMO before, but I've been playing FF XIV like a single player RPG and having a blast. Obviously you have to work with others in dungeons, and that's fun, but you can spend 90% of the game feeling like you're playing a good, modern, single player FF. With an MMO-type battle system and tons of side quests, of course.

6. Shovel Knight ; I was surprised seeing the game on the eligible list, I thought it was 2014 on all consoles. I played it this year on my PS4, just thought I was more LTTP. Absolutely fantastic platformer.

7. Batman: Arkham Knight ; The true ending is lame and the tank battles are excessive... but everything else about this game is really good. Loved the main story and especially all the

Spoiler

Joker

stuff.

8. The Witcher III: Wild Hunt ; Honestly, this game SHOULD be higher. It's a very high-quality game, obviously, and I did put 30 or so hours into it. It just honestly feels too big. I did almost everything I could in Velen and just felt... satisfied and put it down. I want to go back to it eventually. But it's obviously a fantastic game, it's just not higher on the list because it didn't hold my interest as long as the other games. Also, while I don't hate it, high fantasy isn't really my favorite setting.

9. Assassin's Creed Syndicate ; A great return to form, after I only put a couple hours into Unity before dumping it. I find it hard to describe how it's actually improved, other than the relative lack of bugs and more interesting main characters. It controls mostly the same, you still do most of the same "Assassin's Creed" stuff... It just feels so much better than Unity for some reason. I was going to pass this game up completely until I saw GAF reactions from fans of previous AC games, and I'm really glad I didn't.

10. Danganronpa Another Episode: Ultra Despair Girls ; My list is bookened with games that are simultaneously pleasant surprises and disappointments. Looking at the pre-release trailers and Japanese gameplay footage, I honestly thought this game looked terrible. The shooting mechanics look awful, why would you want to play a TPS version of a visual novel? But I love the series and care about the story so I dove in and... it's fun! The shooting is still not very good... but the game itself is fun. I loved the puzzle solving Monokuma-Man rooms or whatever. The story is decent, but not up to Danganronpa-snuff, which isn't really that surprising since it's an action game. Really dug Komaru and Toko, but I wasn't feeling the villains at all.



Honorable Mentions
x. Xenoblade Chronicles X ; I really really want to like you... I like exploring. I'm not a huge fan of the battle system. I used to think I just hated all MMO-style games (since I also didn't like what I played of FF12 back in the day and quit the first Xenoblade after 12 or so hours), but as I said above I'm really enjoying FFXIV, battle system included. Not sure what my problem with it is exactly. I also, so far, don't care for the story or characters, which are pretty important in a JRPG for me. My drive to explore only takes me so far, especially when I'm spending a quarter of my time dodging aggressive monsters way over my level. Don't want to sound like I hate the game, it's on my honorable mentions after all. Just have some problems with it.
x. The Jackbox Party Pack ; Loads of fun with friends playing Drawful and Scribbage, great party games. Lie-Swatter and Word Spud are pretty lame though.


Games I didn't play that still interest me (and might have made my list in another universe where I had even more free time):
Emily is Away
Tales from the Borderlands
Until Dawn
Trails of Cold Steel
Her Story
Talos Principle
Majora's Mask 3D (One of the few Zelda's I've never finished, I always stopped around the Zora/Water temple on the 64, haven't cracked open my 3DS version yet)
SteinsGate (I've played a few hours, not enough to form a definite opinion. So far so good though)
Transformers Devastation
Three Fourths Home
Bloodborne

Spoiler

JK I don't like the Souls games and don't really have any interest in Bloodborne

 

[Allan Holdsworth]

Haven't played enough games this year to make a proper list, so this will have to do. Trying to not list remakes/remasters in the top 10. Top 3 could be in any order, really.

1. Elliot Quest ; a mix between Zelda 2 (mostly the overworld), Metroid and Kid Icarus. A game where you're never told your destination, you must find it yourself. 3 endings depending on your actions/choices provide it with considerable replay potential. Totally went under the radar but this up there with the best games of the genre in the last years.

2. The Legend of Zelda: Tri Force Heroes ; unfairly lumped in with the likes of that AC amiibo game and another barebones Mario Tennis lies the spiritual sequel to the Four Swords games, finally with online. The big minus is it's single player mode, which seems to have been designed to be as cumbersome as possible to push people to multiplayer. The proper way to play this would be with friends, as randoms can be sketchy, and playing with people who have not experienced the levels (and thus, not knowing the solutions to some of the clever puzzles spread about) makes for the best time. Some of the costumes seem to make portions of levels totally trivial, or too overpowered at least for the earlier levels. But still, when you get a good group going, either friends or randoms, this game can be very, very fun.

3. Axiom Verge ; finally, a Metroid-like that is not Metroid. This is not a Metroidvania. You're not told where to go, and what's preventing you from advancing are often not colored coded doors (or its equivalent) which makes it more rewarding when you do finally figure out where you're supposed to advance. I still prefer Metroid over it, but it's clear the developer understoo its essence and made a very competent facsimile with its own quirks.

4. Ori and the Blind Forest ; its strong suit is the platforming more so than the exploration. Locking you out of areas wasn't a wise choice. It wasn't as good as everyone hyped it up to be, but it's still a strong platformer nonetheless.

5. BoxBoy! ; puzzle-platformer where you make boxes. It feels like a tutorial for the first 13 worlds or so, and that is certainly a big issue, but Marathon mode (where you are ranked for boxes used, time and retries for a whole world) redeemed it for me.

6. Shantae and the Pirate's Curse ; another Shantae, and while it doesn't break any new ground, it still remains a fun Metroidvania.

7. Sayonara Umihara Kawase ; I'm sure if I were better at this, it would rank much higher. However, some of the jumps needed to get to some of the secondary doors require too much precision for my fingers.

8. Tembo The Badass Elephant ; it has been described as a mix of Sonic and Donkey Kong Country and I can see why. It's not much like those games but it shares the speed and heavy feeling of those franchises.

9. Gunman Clive 2 ; sometimes you just want to play a to-the point, reasonably difficult platformer and this game delivers just that. Not having to worry about exploring levels is nice sometimes. The speedrun and no damage medals add more challenge to the package. And you got 4 characters, each with their own intricancies, so by no means this is a game that wears out fast despite its low pricepoint.

10. Odallus: The Dark Call ; a game clearly inspired by Demon's Crest. Has a few inconsistencies in its difficulty curve; one armor you get late in the game makes the bosses too easy, for instance. There is a patch that adds a new hardcore mode but it sounds like it goes way too much in the other direction.

x. Shadow Complex Remastered ; a good mix of metroidvania and shooter. First time playing this game, and it feels very close to Strider which I played last year. The challenge rooms were a nice bonus. And all for free. I tried to re-play it in the hardest difficulty but I got stuck in the first turret sections, which reminds me that I'm horrible at shooters.

x. Shovel Knight: Plague of Shadows ; an awesome expansion to an awesome game. Getting all those achievements again was very fun. Looking forward to the next campaign.

x. Chibi-Robo! Zip Lash ; a slow-paced, exploration based platformer, that could have benefited from shaking it up more. Aside from the jet-ski/skateboard levels, and a few sections of the normal levels it feels like it's going in slow motion. The fact that you need the amiibo to unlock the final (bonus) world brings it down a few notches in my consideration too.

x. The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask 3D ; own it but haven't played it yet, but it's Majora's Mask.

x. Pokemon Picross ; not a big fan of the Pokemon powers, but it's Picross.

x. Pokémon Shuffle ; this match 3 game has more depth than I originally thought, but it's too grindy due to its F2P nature. I still play it a few times a day but I doubt I'll ever catch 'em all.

x. Pokémon Rumble World ; fun to play for 10 to 15 minutes a day, any more than that and it gets too repetitive.

Games that would have made it if I had played them: Kirby Rainbow Curse, Yoshi Woolly World, Super Mario Maker, maybe Splatoon, maybe Castle in the Darkness

Other games I played this year: Stealth Inc 2: A Game of Clones (got it for free on Humble, but it seems way too much trial and error -- may go back into it in the future though)

 

[Fhtagn]

1. Bloodborne ; I purchased Bloodborne on hype alone. I didn’t know anything about it other than people were excited. Even my girlfriend was excited and she doesn’t even play video games (she saw a trailer and loved the aesthetic). As the hype increased and my girlfriend kept showing me screenshots from Tumblr, I caved, and reserved Bloodborne.

Release day came. I picked up Bloodborne, installed it onto my PS4, booted it up, created my character, and my first taste of ‘Souls’ began. I slowly made my way through the clinic, I encountered my first enemy, a werewolf. I fought, I died. This would become normal throughout the entire game. Central Yarnham alone took me 12 hours to complete. I was reminded of the movie ‘Edge of Tomorrow’ in that I’d make it a few steps further than my last attempt before meeting my fate once again. And again. And again. Eventually I would learn enemy attack patterns, and my fighting/dodging skills would improve. I was impressed with myself once I learned how to effectively parry an attack! As I progressed my skills continually improved. Enemy after enemy fell to my feet; boss after boss, slaughtered by my hand. After 70+ hours, I beat Bloodborne. Then I beat it again, and again. I was hooked. I eventually acquired the platinum trophy. It’s the trophy I’m most proud of.

Bloodborne is not only my Game of The Year, it’s my #1 game of all time. It was an incredible experience; I have GAF and my girlfriend to thank for convincing me to play a masterpiece.

Whenever I read a story like this, my heart fills with warmth as I'm glad someone else got as much out of getting into Bloodborne as I did when I first played Dark Souls. \(*o*)_

Also, good Edge of Tomorrow reference, that really fits!

 

[Sarek]

I did most of my gaming on older games this year so I'm not even going to name full 10 games.

1. Pillars of Eternity ; I'm huge fan of the games this game was inspired by, and it didn't disappoint. It wasn't perfect but close enough, and Obsidian has done great job supporting the game with new content and patches.
2. Divinity: Original Sin - Enhanced Edition ; Wasn't fan of the art style, but other than that this game really impressed me. Especially the combat.
3. Cities: Skylines ; Goes back to the basics of what makes a good city building simulator
4. Dark Souls II: Scholar of the First Sin ; Owned this game on both PS3 and 4. I guess that tells you how much I enjoyed playing it.
5. Grim Fandango Remastered ; Felt kinda trippy to play this game on console, but I'm very happy that it is now easily available for new players.
6. Underrail ;
7. Shadowrun: Hong Kong ;
8. Wasteland 2: Director's Cut ;

 

[Benzychenz]

I was initially surprised how different DS2 was from Bloodborne. You move much slower, enemies aren’t as aggressive, and the game overall felt a bit easier than Bloodborne.

I find this really interesting, and it may be a case that everyone thinks their first Souls type game is the hardest

I thought Bloodborne was by far the easiest, and having just started Scholar, I think the enemy placement (of the early areas at least) makes it by far the hardest.

 

[Azalean]

1. Uncharted: The Nathan Drake Collection ; I never played the original games as I didn't have a PS3 last generation but of course was aware of the overwhelmingly positive reception of the games. So when it was announced that the trilogy would be remastered in 1080p 60 FPS, I was ready day 1. After completing all three games, I see why the games were received the way they were. The writing is top notch, each character is developed and you are invested in them and their motives and personality. Level design is fantastic. There are so many different ways to tackle enemy encounters. Uncharted 2 is certainly the strongest of the three but all games are fantastic in their own right.

2. Bloodborne ; Never played the previous Souls games but was aware of their notorious difficulty. At first, BB wasn't even on my radar. Had no interest in getting but got caught up in the hype. Man I'm glad I did. It was one of the hardest games I've played in a long time. I died many a time, but never wanted to give up. There were many times where I thought I just couldn't beat a certain boss, but kept trying and pushed through to complete the game and it became one of my favorite games of the generation.

3. Halo 5 ; Halo is back and better than ever. Gunplay feels better than any other Halo game. Map design is on point. Campaign was so-so though.

4. Rocket League ; Like many people, I got this game free on PS Plus. I mean it's free, why not at least give it a try? Well the game ended up being one of my most played games of the year. The game is simple in theory. Soccer with cars. But there is a lot of depth in trying to hit the ball at the perfect angle to get a goal or positioning your vehicle to block shots. The game is a lot more fun and addictive than it has any right to be.

 

[KraytarJ]

2015 turned out to be one hell of a year in retrospect, in fact its one of the first times I can remember that I can actually fill out a top 10 list without including anything I wouldn't want on my top 10 list. Anyways on with the picks:

1. Life is Strange ; Its a little tough to write about all the ways that Life is Strange is important or special to me, not only because I'm not really accustomed to doing this type of stuff but also because many of the reasons are so personal. First off lets start with the characters: the pair of Max and Chloe are two of the most relatable characters in any game I've every played, despite the fact I am not nor will I ever be a teenage girl. Staring with Max, she was exactly the type of person that I was when I was 18, an awkward, unconfident hipster but then there's Chloe and the ways I relate to Chloe were less apparent to me and only became apparent after looking back on the game as a whole, and here is where one of those personal attachments comes in, I lost my brother when I was 12. We had the same dad and different moms and thus he was 14 years older than me, resulting in him being something of a role model or even idol to me (coincidentally I also lost my brother like Chloe lost her father in a car accident). Then shortly after my best friend started distancing himself from me, which was the result of him going to high school and not wanting to be friends with someone still in Junior High which while for different reasons than Max and Chloe it still sucked at the time.
So how does a game that reminds me of all of that still earn the top spot on my list? Well that is because of the relationship told between Max and Chloe, which coincidentally was somewhat like a relationship I had at that point in my life just without the whole lost connection prior. On top of that was the gripping and suspenseful story that had me hooked through all five chapters which caused many reactions that no other game has ever evoked from me (namely the ends of episodes 2,3,4,and 5). Then there is also Arcadia Bay which was my favourite world in any game I played last year and after the game was over I just wanted to go back there though I was satisfied with what the game had given me and how it ended. Putting it all together and I ended up being so engrossed and attached to this game like so few before, which was why the game reminded me of the original Xenoblade Chronicles so much even though the two games are so very different.

2. Undertale ; If I had to succinctly describe Undertale to someone it would be: the gamer's game or perhaps even the RPG player's game. The reasons behind that are that I haven't seen many games that really understand what it means to be a game, what it means to tell a story that can't be told in any other medium and how to do it well. The cast of characters present in Undertale are nearly unmatched in any game I've played in recent years and that fact alone is what makes the idea of doing a genocide run in Undertale so daunting to me. That brings me to another reason as to why I love Undertale so much: you don't have to kill anyone. The reason that Undetale succeeds from giving passivity a chance is that because you don't have to kill anyone if you just choose to kill everything like in any other RPG you become the bad guy and the forces you fight against, and with in the passive run, become the good guys trying to protect themselves and their home from a murderous intruder.

3. Tales from the Borderlands ; One of the best-written and funniest games I've every played, and playing it after Life is Strange has really convinced me to play more adventure games and more episodic games. The dynamic between all of the main characters was great and I loved being able to shape the relationship between the two main characters, which of course meant I had to make them be sarcastic assholes to each other at every chance. On the whole I'd describe Tales as the game that was incredible that really had no right to be and I think the game was really hurt by that.

4. Splatoon ; So Nintendo's first big, new, in-house IP since Pikmin and hot damn was it awesome. Part of why I loved Splatoon so much from the get-go was because this was the only big Nintendo IP I had ever been in on the ground floor with outside of Pokemon. However, thats not the only reason because of course the game stands on its own as such an incredible and inventive shooter with some of the most satisfying traversal in any game I've ever played and once you get the handle of them the game just becomes so satisfying and wonderful to play. I should also note its one of only two online shooters I've ever put a whole lot of time into, the other being TF2, so I think it deserves credit for that alone.

5. Xenoblade Chronicles X ; The follow-up to my second favourite game of all time releasing after almost three full years of hype, so my expectations may have been a little high. So did XCX meet those lofty expectations? Eh, not really. Two of the things I loved so much about the original Xenoblade were its world and cast of characters and XCX regressed in both of those areas for me. While Mira may be the most beautiful and believable natural world in any game I've played I would hold it makes for a horrendous video game world as enemies are seemingly placed at random that only serve to frustrate and annoy with many of these enemies being all too eager to one-shot you and your whole team when you're just trying to get to an objective or fight a monster for a quest. Then there are the characters, where the original had seven well-developed and like-able characters for you to use XCX goes the Fire Emblem route and gives you a small army to command (18 characters to be exact) and as a result most of your possible party members play almost no role whatsoever in the main story, meaning if you don't grind up affinity to complete their affinity missions you won't remember or feel any attachment to them. On the more positive side of things was the battle system of XCX which I feel safe to say is a great iteration on the battle system of the original, although the improvements of secondary cool downs and soul voices are poorly explained in game. Still with all these complaints I still played almost 90 hours and while I don't really know where that time went I still enjoyed it on the whole.

6. Everybody's Gone to the Rapture ; The first so-called walking simulator I've ever played and after Rapture I'd be open to play more of them in the future. What Rapture succeeds in is creating a beautiful world, I would even say Rapture was the most beautiful game I played last year with the Audio and Visual directions being so sublime, with an interesting mystery set in front of you to unfold however you please.

7. Fallout 4 ; A regression from New Vegas in a few too many ways for my tastes. Saddled with a worse world, characters, faction system, progression mechanics FO4 just didn't click with me like NV did (although to be fair no game ever has). Overall FO4 feels like a game made in a vacuum, a game that Bethesda made without really considering how RPGs and open world games had evolved since they made 3. However, this is not to say I didn't like Fallout 4 because I certainly did (after all I played nearly 120 hours of it and just wandering around the wasteland and playing a Bethesda game for the first time in years reminded me of why I like their creation so much, even if they aren't perfect.

8. Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain ; This game is not finished and it never will be. That fact is one of the most tragic things to come out of gaming in 2015 as far as I'm concerned. After building up the hype for this game with Ground Zeroes and setting up an epic end to the Metal Gear saga with Skull Face and XOF being the mysteries we all wanted answers to. In the end we got the most polished half-finished game in existence. Everything about TPP feels great, movement, shooting, sneaking its all better than its ever been in Metal Gear and its just a shame that the game never got to be all that it could have been thanks to the conflict of Kojima and Konami (and after everything most of the blame would appear to be on Konami here). In short TPP is quite possibly the finest stealth game I have ever played, it is just also quite possibly the worst Metal Gear I have ever played.

9. Steven Universe: Attack the Light ; A Paper Mario inspired RPG set in the Steven Universe... universe built from the ground up to be played on mobile and what do you get? The best damn mobile game of 2015 that's what.I'm not really sure how much there is here for people that aren't fans of the show but for those that are there are far worse ways to spend your time and money.

10. Affordable Space Adventures ; Perhaps the best use of the Wii U's gamepad to date, certainly the best put forth outside of Nintendo themselves. ASA uses the gamepad as your so-called "Heads Down Display" where you control your little ship and all of its functions as you try to sneak past alien artifacts (that are totally harmless we swear) in an effort to finish each level and find out what happened to U-explore and yourself.

 

[Groupthink]

1. The Witcher III ; With its expansive world, its cinematic presentation throughout, and its interesting characters and absorbing quests, no other game in 2015 had me as engaged as this one.

 

[Thores]

This was kind of an off year for me. I bought a lot of games, but there were only a handful that I played enough to feel like they were deserving of praise. I'm optimistic about 2016, though!

1. Undertale ; I went in thinking that this would be an Earthbound ripoff. My expectations were blown out of the water and it became my GOTY after I got the true ending. I'd highly recommend playing through Undertale with little to no knowledge of the game ahead of time.

2. Splatoon ; Proof that Nintendo is still capable of making excellent new IPs. What a great multiplayer romp this has been! I haven't even gotten to take advantage of a bunch of the free DLC. I'll have to jump back in soon.

3. Mortal Kombat X ; Netherrealm keeps getting better and better at making competitive fighting games. On top of that, they continue to deliver satisfying single player experiences. The really awful DLC pricing plans almost soured me on the game though, and it's why Arkham Knight isn't on my list, despite the fact that I had fun with it. WB Games needs to knock that shit off.

4. Until Dawn ; If it weren't for Undertale, I would be able to say that Until Dawn is the game that made me feel like my choices matter more than in any other game I've played. But even if it no longer has that honor, it certainly did it in a more convincing way than Telltale ever has. The story can be silly and the writing is often a campy mess, but it honestly all ended up being part of the charm.

5. Steven Universe: Attack the Light! ; This mobile Paper Mario clone ended up being a surprisingly fun package, and charming as hell. What impressed me the most is how aware Attack the Light was of its own scale. There were no overambitious features that were disappointingly implemented. They did a fantastic job at making a game that had depth and focus but at the same time felt like it was specifically meant to be played on a mobile device. Bravo.

Honorable Mentions

x. Xenoblade Chronicles X ; I have not played nearly enough of this yet. But it's gorgeous and packed to the brim with features. I have been disappointed with the fact that everything I loved about the first Xenoblade is missing: the focus on the cast and the story, the personality and charm of the NPCs and sidequests, and the flawless soundtrack (as opposed to a soundtrack with some really excellent tracks but also a few stinkers) all seem to be absent in X. That said, I certainly see room for it to be a fantastic RPG in its very own way.

x. Danganronpa Another Episode: Ultra Despair Girls ; I love the Danganronpa series, and the overall story of this spinoff is mostly pretty cool and I like the way that the protagonists had developed by the end, as well as the ways that the first two games ended up being connected. However, certain elements of the game, namely nearly the entire third chapter, were just so icky and disappointing and embarassing to play that I just feel uncomfortable calling this one of the best games of the year.

x. Marvel: Future Fight ; There were multiple days where I planned to write this list and ended up playing Future Fight again, so I figure this at least deserves a nod. In a lot of ways this feels like Ultimate Alliance 3, and it's one of the most generous F2P games ever in terms of how much you get for free before you feel like you have to spend money to progress properly. Unfortunately, it seems like I've finally reached that point, and that sucks, so I'm not going to give it any points.

 

[Flandy]

1. The Witcher III: Wild Hunt ; The most interesting, fleshed out, and enjoyable open world game I've ever had the pleasure of playing. The only negative about the game was its average combat. Everything else from the music, art direction, and quests were all superb
2. Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain ; This is the worst Metal Gear Solid game I've ever played but it's also one of the best playing games I've ever played.
3. Bloodborne ; Would be above MGS if I'd finished it.
4. SteinsGate ; Is quite possibly the best Visual novel out there
5. Yakuza 5 ; Its a shame this too so long to release here
6. Assassin's Creed Syndicate ;
7. Until Dawn ;
8. Super Mario Maker ;

Honorable Mentions
x. Life is Strange ; It was SOOO GOOD. Then the final episode happened
x. Xenoblade Chronicles X ;

 

[Lys Skygge]

I find this really interesting, and it may be a case that everyone thinks their first Souls type game is the hardest

I thought Bloodborne was by far the easiest, and having just started Scholar, I think the enemy placement (of the early areas at least) makes it by far the hardest.

That's not the first time I've heard this. It's probably true haha.

 

[shadowfall]

I find this really interesting, and it may be a case that everyone thinks their first Souls type game is the hardest

I thought Bloodborne was by far the easiest, and having just started Scholar, I think the enemy placement (of the early areas at least) makes it by far the hardest.

I beat DS 2 on PS3 and completed the main campaign on SOTFS. SOTFS is actually easier than DS2. However I am finding the dlc's hard. Playing the Old Iron King DLC at this time. Not hard as in tough enemies. Hard as in poor design with gank squads thrown just to make it tedious.

Bloodborne is harder than DS2 according to me.

 

[Azzanadra]

I find this really interesting, and it may be a case that everyone thinks their first Souls type game is the hardest

I thought Bloodborne was by far the easiest, and having just started Scholar, I think the enemy placement (of the early areas at least) makes it by far the hardest.

As a Souls Veteran, I found early Bloodborne to be absolutely brutal. Like I would say early Bloodborne and and The Old Hunters were the most challenging spots in any Souls games for me, sans some parts of Dark Souls 2 which relied on absolute bullshit encounter and level design.

 

[HomerSimpson-Man]

Man I wish I had more time to play games, but my top 3 titles all took me over 50 hours each, yeesh. Being older I just don't seem to have quite the time anymore.

1. Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain ; the incomplete masterpiece, and an odd contrast to MGS4 in which it was criticized for too much story/cutscenes, as it seems Kojima took that really to heart with this game as it's seriously mostly all gameplay and relative little story/cut-scenes and is still longer than all the other MGS games combined! If someone said a Metal Gear Solid game would take like 50+ hours to beat I would have laugh. But here we are, Hideo Kojima's MGS swan song with such silky smooth gameplay and a ridiculous little details and polish, serious and silly as all the MGS games I've come to love; with it's up and downs (especially) towards the end, it still such an incredible game and I will miss this series...I didn't want to go.

2.Bloodborne ; there is just something about this game, it kicks my ass but I kept playing. The use of Lovecraftian cosmic horror as it's influence with the framework of the "Souls" works so well; there is some straight up horrifying designs in this game. Being a shield and sword user in Dark Souls I was iffy with the more aggressive style of combat, but it works as well as the level design, being all connected and intricate that locating the shortcut is as beneficial as finding a kindle fire in Dark Souls.

3. Batman: Arkham Knight ; I just finished this game yesterday, I loved it. The visuals, the presentation, the gameplay, it just felt awesome being Batman. The voice work with Kevin Conroy as Batman, Mark Hamill as Joker are great throwbacks to the animated series, but John Noble voicing Scarecrow was simply inspired, there is something soothing about his voice I love. Granted I can see the argument for too much Batmobile battles, but the car itself is really great, it's a beast to drive and wreck things in your path. I ended up 100% missions in the game and got the final ending since I didn't want to leave and now I'm said.

4. Until Dawn ; this was a complete surprise for me, wasn't really much on my radar, got it on black Friday and played it over Christmas with my sister, what a fantastic game. We beat it in one setting simply because we wanted to know what happens next, it was like binge watching a show, except your choices got people killed. It sorta of put your money with your mouth is in an horror movie/show and see if you can make it out; I was determined to save everyone! Fantastic visuals and the cheesy charm of slew of horror tropes in one nice gaming package. I'm looking forward to the sequel so much now.

 

[Benzychenz]

As a Souls Veteran, I found early Bloodborne to be absolutely brutal. Like I would say early Bloodborne and and The Old Hunters were the most challenging spots in any Souls games for me, sans some parts of Dark Souls 2 which relied on absolute bullshit encounter and level design.

Yeah, the early game was pretty brutal at times. But once I got past it I didn't have a problem for the rest of the game really. The health regain made the combat really forgiving, and popping a blood vial was super fast. It also had a ton of bosses I beat first try, which hasn't happened in any of the Souls games.

 

[opticalmace]

Man I wish I had more time to play games, but my top 3 titles all took me over 50 hours each, yeesh. Being older I just don't seem to have quite the time anymore.

1. Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain; the incomplete masterpiece, and an odd contrast to MGS4 in which it was criticized for too much story/cutscenes, as it seems Kojima took that really to heart with this game as it's seriously mostly all gameplay and relative little story/cut-scenes and is still longer than all the other MGS games combined! If someone said a Metal Gear Solid game would take like 50+ hours to beat I would have laugh. But here we are, Hideo Kojima's MGS swan song with such silky smooth gameplay and a ridiculous little details and polish, serious and silly as all the MGS games I've come to love; with it's up and downs (especially) towards the end, it still such an incredible game and I will miss this series...I didn't want to go.

2.Bloodbourne; there is just something about this game, it kicks my ass but I kept playing. The use of Lovecraftian cosmic horror as it's influence with the framework of the "Souls" works so well; there is some straight up horrifying designs in this game. Being a shield and sword user in Dark Souls I was iffy with the more aggressive style of combat, but it works as well as the level design, being all connected and intricate that locating the shortcut is as beneficial as finding a kindle fire in Dark Souls.

3. Batman: Arkham Knight; I just finished this game yesterday, I loved it. The visuals, the presentation, the gameplay, it just felt awesome being Batman. The voice work with Kevin Conroy as Batman, Mark Hamill as Joker are great throwbacks to the animated series, but John Noble voicing Scarecrow was simply inspired, there is something soothing about his voice I love. Granted I can see the argument for too much Batmobile battles, but the car itself is really great, it's a beast to drive and wreck things in your path. I ended up 100% missions in the game and got the final ending since I didn't want to leave and now I'm said.

4. Until Dawn; this was a complete surprise for me, wasn't really much on my radar, got it on black Friday and played it over Christmas with my sister, what a fantastic game. We beat it in one setting simply because we wanted to know what happens next, it was like binge watching a show, except your choices got people killed. It sorta of put your money with your mouth is in an horror movie/show and see if you can make it out; I was determined to save everyone! Fantastic visuals and the cheesy charm of slew of horror tropes in one nice gaming package. I'm looking forward to the sequel so much now.

Nice list, but watch out, you misspelled Bloodborne.

 

[Cheesemeister]

There are now 8 hours to go.

 

[Papercuts]

As a Souls Veteran, I found early Bloodborne to be absolutely brutal. Like I would say early Bloodborne and and The Old Hunters were the most challenging spots in any Souls games for me, sans some parts of Dark Souls 2 which relied on absolute bullshit encounter and level design.

Yeah, I'd agree with this. The early going into Father is pretty rough, and a lot of people hit a wall with bloodstarved/amelia. I think the rest of the game is the easiest for a souls game, but I actually died quite a lot at the start.

I think Old Hunters had hard bosses but I've only done it on NG++, levels were fine.

 

[oceanskie]

1. The Witcher III: Wild Hunt ; The hype has been building up ever since its E3 debut and the gif that soon followed. Despite the seemingly unreachable expectations, the game has managed to not only exceed the said expectations but redefine the benchmark for storytelling and open-world design. In a year dubbed as the Year of Dreams, this is the elusive wet dream gamers need and deserve.

2. Grand Theft Auto V ; After five years on the consoles, it's time to go home.

3. Tales from the Borderlands: Episodes 2-5 ; Easily Telltale's best work to date. A superb mixture of humour and insanity distilled into a melodrama that is surprisingly human.

4. The Witcher III: Hearts of Stone ; Seamlessly integrated into the main campaign, the portrayal of Shani is so lovingly crafted that only the most heartless Witcher would not waver in their commitment to Triss/Yennifer.

Honorable Mentions
x. Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain ; Disqualified from the main list for being an unfinished product. No one expected the game's title to be so fitting with regards to its narrative AND the player experience.

 

[Fine Ham Abounds]

Somehow this year brings us back adjacent Yuterald. I don't think we agreed on anything last year, but I can hang with Xeno and Yak up top

 

[HomerSimpson-Man]

Nice list, but watch out, you misspelled Bloodborne.

Ah corrected now, thanks for the heads up!