Your year in gaming

The Game Room
21

Favorite game this year was Undertale. It has a great soundtrack, memorable characters, genuinely funny humor, and it plays with the concept of the game being a game without being pretentious about breaking the 4th wall. At first glance it was just a retro-JRPG parody, and I wasn’t impressed immediately. As I got further in I realized it was much more than that, and the game surprised me more than any I’ve played before. To me it deserves all the praise it’s been getting, but it’s fine if not everyone likes it.

Honourable mentions to Life is Strange, Tales from the Borderlands and Shovel Knight: The Plague of Shadows.

The game I played the most was Diablo 3. I make a new hardcore character or two for every season, and play until I get bored or die. Hearthstone would be a close second.

Biggest regret was buying a PS4. I’m mainly a PC gamer, but bought a PS4 for Bloodborne and some other games I was interested in. I started getting major hand pain from using the controller for more than an hour at a time, so it’s been gathering dust. It’s possible that I’m just not gripping it right, but I’d rather not risk my health. I’ve never had similar pains from anything else.

It’s not very old, but I re-discovered Witcher 2 this year after hearing so much about Witcher 3. I originally abandoned the game as I got frustrated with some crappy game mechanics. The game still has some terrible issues, like not being able to jump up or down a 20cm ledge, and the stealth sections are some of the worst I’ve ever seen. As I got deeper into the game, the good made the bad worth tolerating.

22

Now that I have kids, my gaming has gone from being fairly hardcore to being decidedly recreational.

I did go to PAX South early in the year- had a great time, and was pretty excited about gaming for a short while.

This year, I played a LOT of Battlefield 4 multiplayer, mostly because it’s a game that I can drop into, play a round or two, and get out of, without any need to solve puzzles, remember anything or really grind.

I also got Wasteland 2- played that until I dug myself into a hole story-wise, and haven’t ever felt the need to go back in my save-games and play forward from prior to the hole. Plus, the game felt too dark- it didn’t seem to have any of the humor or oddness of the original- it’s just grim for the most part.

In the latter quarter of the year, I played a lot of older games I found on Steam for cheap- Dawn of War II: Retribution, Hearts of Iron III, Left 4 Dead and Left 4 Dead 2, for the same reasons that I played Battlefield 4 so much- I’d already played them, was reasonably good at them, and didn’t have to keep up with a game/ feel like I have to finish it.

Now I’m somewhere trading off between Helldivers and the L4D games… I imagine as my boys get older and start sleeping more, I’ll start gaming more, especially once they can do it with me.

23

fallen earth > fallout > wow > max payne > hitman > gta > skullgirls

24

I will join you in the non-electronic category. My top 10 for the year are Pandemic (which I often play solo), One Night Ultimate Werewolf (since it is so short you wind up playing it several times), Pandemic: The Cure, Dominion (my favorite), No Thanks!, Five Tribes, Pandemic Legacy, Mafia De Cuba, Loopin’ Chewie (with the kid), and Risk Legacy. Codenames was 11th despite not having it until Christmas.

25

In the electronic category, my most played is probably Crusader Kings II. I’ve stepped away from it for a while, but I’ll dive back in next year, probably in Russia or Asia.

I played through Soma and recommend it. There’s not much combat and I feel that the monsters actually got in the way of the pacing a few times, but it’s good sci-fi horror where the horror comes as much from elements that aren’t the monsters as the monsters themselves.

This is the year my computer finally couldn’t keep up. I tried ARK, but it was so stuttering that I couldn’t enjoy it. I met the specs, but toward the low end. It may be time to bump up my graphics card, but the system is over five years old as a whole, so maybe it’s time for a complete rebuild. (It seems that I’m not playing a lot of current generation graphics intensive games anymore and sticking with strategy and less intensive games. This wall used to come up after only a year or two.)

Tabletop, my most played is either Avalon (due to short playtime) or Marvel Legendary (which my wife will play with me). Further down the list in play count but competitive in play time is Dead of Winter.

I discovered a lot of mid-weight euros this year that feel like they play very quickly. Euphoria may have been the most fun, but I also enjoyed Five Tribes, Abyss, Hansa Teutonica, and several others that are escaping me right now. (Yes, I’m pretty liberal with the term “mid-weight euro.”)

26

Story of my gaming year:

Mainlining a Football Manager 13 game until my computer fried.

Bought a new computer and played more FM13 and Diablo 3.

Got excited about Fallout 4 coming out and replayed FO3 and Skyrim to prepare.

Got FO4 and was really disappointed.

Got FM16 and hooked it up to my veins again.

27

Played a lot of Skyrim early in the year.

Played several seasons’ worth of NCAA Football '11 as Kent State.

Bought and played through GTA5 in about two weeks. Haven’t really picked it up since.

Now I’m constantly playing Super Mario Bros. 3.

28

Because that was the closest thing the game had to “hard mode,” or because “go Flashes?” :smiley:

29

Because Go Flashes!

30

Old games I played through in 2015: Saints Row III, South Park Stick of Truth, Civ V.

Disappointing purchases: Saints Row IV, Sheltered, Witcher 3, Call of Juarez Gunslinger (although I really liked the early game for Sheltered & W3 and CoJG I mostly quit due to sucking).

Played Township, 2048, and Sword Coast Adventures most on mobile. Windows phone, so no Fallout Shelter.

Played Terraria, Scribblenauts, Township, and Clicker Heroes most with the kids.

My sole memorable tabletop game beyond Snakes & Ladders, Hungry Hippos and Tumblin’ Chimps was an evening of Werewolf.

I don’t recall playing many browser games other than the NW tie-in Sword Coast Adventures. I tried several Facebook games, and they were uniformly bad, including Family Guy: Quest for Stuff. I did like one game in which you simulated an RPG by clicking boxes, building your attack and defence, and obtaining keys, called Parameters. I played at least a bit of CivClicker, which I see has a sequel now.

Best purchases: GTA V, Darkest Dungeon, Wolfenstein: NWO, Dungeons of the Endless.

Played most: Neverwinter. First MMO, probably not my last. My wife still plays. I’d like us to get another decent PC so we can both play as her laptop lags out of the game too much. I’d prefer other than NW, though. Maybe sometime in 2016.

31

Lessee…

My PS3 and XBox 360 are still there, although I haven’t used either regularly in a long time. I’m pretty sure I played Project Diva F2 a bit. And…mmm…Street Fighter 4? That’s another.

Got Goat Simulator for PC; largely not impressed. Got motion sickness in the first ten minutes. Maybe get back to it if I’m ever up to it.

Oh, and this was the year I got my first ever mobile device. Favorite game? Subway Surf. Not even close. I must say that it’s ingenious how that one can keep you going and going just getting the upgrades and all the other cool stuff. Beat Bop’s also a good one. Used to play Temple run 2 to death; now I’m just trying to get the last achievements. Sudoku World is nice, my favorite Sudoku app so far. Gotta remember to get back to Rail Rush sometime, that one’s good. Oh, and jigsaw puzzles, always nice. My favorite so far is Jigsaw Puzzles epic. Rounding out the “regulars” are Piano Tiles 2 and Pac Man 256 (amazing sleeper; I’m amazed how much I’m into this one).

I’ve barely scratched the surface of the mobile games, so I’m definitely thinking of expanding my library this year, if only I can tear myself away from Subway Surf long enough. Also thinking of maybe, maybe getting a PS4, mainly because the next Project Diva is going to be on it and I’ve heard good things about Assassin’s Creed Syndicate. Best Buy has a package with all three Uncharted games, so that might be worth going for.