This years Ragey's will be a tad different because honestly this was a short year for games, and with the X+Y thing I didn't get as many written as I would have liked to. Still though, this year had its series of ups and downs and while all of them might not have gotten site reviews, I still played an awful lot of games. Hopefully I'll have a slew of games to review in January, but until then, please enjoy.....
The 2015 Ragey's
Maybe I can get Clover Valley to sponsor me, At least they have a 100% happy guarantee
Maybe I can get Clover Valley to sponsor me, At least they have a 100% happy guarantee
10: The "Professional Esports Becoming a Thing 15 Years Too Late" award for "Game I wish I got to play" goes to....
Silent Hills (PS4)
After a long grieving period, I have come to accept that probably the game that would reinvent the horror genre probably isn't going to ever happen.... But that doesn't mean I don't want it to... I don't know what the hell Konami is thinking by trying to burn everything they built to ash, but if there is any sign that the series that I love is truly dead for good, this would be that sign (well, that and the new Silent Hill game was a pachinko machine).
Rest in piece Silent Hills. You had the potential to be something truly special, and now it seems we will never know.
9: The "Konami 2015 Business Strategy" garbage award for "Biggest Disappointment" goes to.....
Dead Rising 3 (PC)
During the big releases of the two major consoles, it became apparent that exclusive titles wear going to be a big selling point, and as you all could tell my lot stood with sony. But Microsoft did have one game I really wanted to play, and that was Capcom's zombie filled ho-down Dead Rising. When I saw that a 3rd installment of the game was going to be released on PC, I excitedly jumped at my chance to download it. And with my shiny wired 360 controller I finally got to sit down to play it.
And then after that first hour, I put it down and never picked it back up again. Maybe I don't give a shit about the new character, or how washed out brown and boring the color scheme is, or maybe the series didn't do enough new to keep my interest. But if I shill for a game I have very excited about and then put it down almost immediately and not go back to it? That wins biggest disappointment.
8. The "Holly Holm Embarrassingly Knocking Out Rhonda Rousey" award for "Biggest Surprise" goes to.....
Child of Light (3DS)
On the other end of the spectrum, Child of Light was a game I thought was good in the demo, but not enough to buy the game immediately. Two years I waited because I didn't think I wanted to pay 15$ for it. So when I get it for like 3 bucks on steam and realize that I should have paid the 15 for it, that is an incredibly positive sign.
Aside from bad prose in limerick form, this game had an incredibly fun combat system, and absolutely beautiful soundtrack, fun characters, stylish art design, and a reasonably short play time to make this an incredibly worthwhile experience. I didn't think that I would have liked it as much as I did, and the soundtrack of this game is part of my regular work playlist. This game wins my biggest surprise.
7. The "Virtual Reality Movement in Games" award for "Most Overhyped game" this year goes to.....
Metal Gear Solid 5
So ok, probably not going to have the most credible opinion on this one. But because this is the 3rd point in this list where I'm referencing the Konami debacle, I felt the game deserves mention. I liked Metal Gear Solid, Solid 2, and Solid 4. I never got around to 3, and at one point was looking forward to playing 5.But with each article I read, each story about how Konami was being a dick to Kojima, each post about fans putting stickers with Kojima's name on copies of the game, each parody video about the situation, each restriction the Konami lawyers enforced, I became exhausted. After a while, my interest started to fade. Downloaded that prequel demo chapter thing, and bought the game used instead of new after the holiday. And both of them have just been sitting there.
It's probably the first time I ever have gotten so tired of hearing about a game I wanted to play, that I ended up not wanting to play it anymore. I have it now, but who knows when I'm going to get to it. Hype has never killed my interest before, so I felt that merits my most Overhyped award. Sorry MGSV, I'm sure you're great and I'll get to you sometime.
6. The "Smart-Watch Fad" award for "Flash in the Pan" game of the year.
Dragon Age: Inquisition
Always can appreciate when someone learns from their mistakes, and in the case of Dragon Age: Inquisition, they certainly learned theirs. Taking a step back and re-evaluating the cash grab they made with Dragon Age 2, they rebuilt and remolded DA: Inquisition from the ground up and produced a much more enjoyable experience because of it. Hearing people complain that they were boxed in a small number of maps, DA: Inquisition blows the up the world to an massive scale, with people literally playing the first section so long that it knocked the steam out of them to keep playing. That is a total 180 of philosophy.
While it didn't seem to really connect to the Dragon Age canon that was set before it (although it did bring back Morrigan *swoon*), it weaved a tale with some seriously difficult moral choices for me to make as it unfolded. With lots of different character building potential it gave me lots of ways to play the game, and this time produced a very interesting and fun set of characters which blow the last game out of the water.
I just wish the character creation wasn't ass.
5. The "Full Price Early Access Alpha Build" award for "Worst Value" goes to....
Persona 4: Dancing All Night (Vita)
But when the game is only out for a month and has over 70 fucking dollars of DLC, that shit is completely unacceptable in my book. Even to something I love as much as Persona 4. It's just another case of a company withholding completed content to charge me a little more for it later. Go to hell Atlus, I thought you would above this money grabbing bullshit. I've never felt so betrayed. I want to play all the extra content, but you won't get an extra cent from me for that shit. Fuck you.
4. The "McDonalds Dollar Mozzarella Sticks" award for "Best Value" goes to....
Bloodborne (PS4)
Is anyone really surprised that Bloodborne is my game of the ye... wait.. It's not? How is that possible?! Yes, for the first time since I've started doing this charade, the current "From Software" game is not my game of the year. Believe me, I wanted it to be.
Bloodborne shook up the regular "souls game" rigmarole by picking up the tempo of the fights and removing your ability to block. The game rewarded aggressive gameplay, and managed to continue to punish me for hesitation. The Gothic scene fit in quite nicely and had some excellent monster design. The only problem was the game was kind watered down with skills and equipment which only really allowed for like 2 or 3 build types.
But the recently released "Old Hunters" added a meaty chunk of locations, bosses, items, weapons and armor to an already lengthy experience. It provided more variables and different ways to build the character, and since I've rolled through it with 3 different characters at like 70 hours a piece, That wins best value.... Actually, there is one other that is a better value but we'll get to that in a little.
3. The "Boom: Butterfly Effect" Honorable mention goes to....
Until Dawn (PS4)
I love that the games landscape is awash with new horror IP, but this one had me worried. The more I saw gameplay and trailers, I was very worried that this would just be another Heavy Rain or Beyond: Two Souls. On one hand, it was. But on the other, it totally wasn't.
Yes it followed the cinematic story style of play I've gotten bored with in the past. But in this one it forced you to make split second decisions often, and many of them had the potential to hurt or kill your characters. The cheesy horror movie story helped this, but rung to me as one of the first proper implementations of this gameplay style. This was fun, playing a sad Ellen Paige getting harassed at a party was not.
While I'd say you won't get much replay value more than 2 plays by yourself, I will say this is a great game to have some friends over and let them make the decisions. Knowing whats gonna happen and seeing what choices your friends make made this an incredibly social game for me. Ended up being the one of the most multiplayer games I've played in a while. Until Dawn was absolutely worth the purchase to me.
2. The "EVO Grand Finals Controller Malfunction" award for "Worst Game of the Year" goes to.....
Resident Evil: Revelations 2 (PS4)
Capcom, I think it might be time to put this series to bed. It had a great run, but the magic just isn't there anymore. Even getting to finally play again as my favorite character in this series again, Claire, didn't motivate me enough to get through your episodic installment of this game.
Each installment of this story becomes more watered down and less interesting to me. There is no new mainstay baddie that feels like a credible threat to the growing cast of protagonists. Forcing me to control 2 characters who are pretty much useless didn't endear me to the system. Moira and whoever the fuck the little girl was could have been NPCs for as useful as they were. After 2 or 3 chapters I became disenchanted enough to not care how the story turned out, put it down, and never went back.
I'm glad I waited for for this to come down in price, because even the discounted amount wasn't even worth it to me. While we are saying our final goodbyes to Silent Hill, we should move a plot over and say ours to Resident Evil as well. Even the idea of a remake of Resident Evil 2 doesn't have me excited anymore.
Each installment of this story becomes more watered down and less interesting to me. There is no new mainstay baddie that feels like a credible threat to the growing cast of protagonists. Forcing me to control 2 characters who are pretty much useless didn't endear me to the system. Moira and whoever the fuck the little girl was could have been NPCs for as useful as they were. After 2 or 3 chapters I became disenchanted enough to not care how the story turned out, put it down, and never went back.
I'm glad I waited for for this to come down in price, because even the discounted amount wasn't even worth it to me. While we are saying our final goodbyes to Silent Hill, we should move a plot over and say ours to Resident Evil as well. Even the idea of a remake of Resident Evil 2 doesn't have me excited anymore.
1. The "Woshige Premature Celebration" Award for "Best game of the year" goes to...
Smite (PC/Xbox One)
I wanted to give this best value so Bloodborne could be my game of the year, but I have to call this like it is. For a guy who has been pretty lukewarm to the MOBA genre as a whole, no game has held my attention this year longer than Smite has.
Some games I play like 3 times through, some games I have a 400+ hour save. Smite has somehow gotten me to play a strictly online multiplayer game, going against all convictions I have, nearly every night for at least two or three hours since I installed it. It's caused me to host my first all day lan party (of which only 2 other people attended but it was good enough for me). And despite not being good at the game, not knowing the difference between an ADC or a Mid Support pusher, and multiple nights of rage fueled profanity, I somehow keep coming back for more.
Switching from overhead map view to 3rd person makes Smite feel much faster paced and more skillful, the gods from actual religious pantheons scratch my love of mythology nicely, and although it was free play I had no problem plunking down the 30 bucks for all of the characters to be unlocked. I might put down the other games after a while, but I see no signs of me putting down Smite any time soon. Rage Quitter Game of the Year, hands down.
Can't believe I'm still writing on this thing considering how little traction it gets. Here's to the next year of it.
