Games of 2016

[Prpl_Mage]

2009
http://www.charas-project.net/forum/index.php?topic=26386.0

2010
http://www.charas-project.net/forum/index.php?topic=27305.0

2011
http://www.charas-project.net/forum/index.php?topic=28056.0

2012
http://www.charas-project.net/forum/index.php?topic=28583.0

2013
http://www.charas-project.net/forum/index.php?topic=28914.0

2014
http://www.charas-project.net/forum/index.php?topic=29125.0

2015:
http://www.charas-project.net/forum/index.php?topic=29379.0

A bit later than usual but let's talk about the games you spent the year on!

PC

Dawn of war 2: retribution
Finally got around of buying the game, went directly for retribution which is a stand alone. Played through the campaign, played skrimishes against the computer and lost to my friend. All in the spirit of the RTS tradition. However, this game differs a lot from the previous game and some other RTS games. The campaign is one thing and multiplayer is entirely different. All story missions are about your captain and 3 squads(units) trying to achieve some objectve (usually killing everything). Then you have barrack type buildings along the way you can capture which acts like checkpoints and deployment. The thing is that this game removed builders completely, and therefor buildings as well. The HQ acts as base and barrack, all upgrades are still done on the units and not for a sort of unit. So you are on the run all the time, no more time spent on bulding and research like in Star craft 2 where cpm is golden. so the campaign is pretty linnear when it comes to the missions.
Skrimishes however gives you a base and some towers as well as one of our 3 commander units and a basic squad of units. Then you need to capture "victory stations" to reduce your enemy's "victory points".If you have more stations than your opponents, his points decrease by 1 each second of something, you can set the cap at 500-5000 or something. On the map there are also resource points and energy points to capture, and energy points can be upgraded with generators to gain more energy. But that's about it. You can no longer upgrade the resource points with a building that shoots on people like in Dow1 and neither can you build a lot of turrets. Why not? Because turrets also uses up your population. The population is limited in this game so you don't reach the massive armies anymore, you might have about 10 or so squads of units present at the same time. It's different, but it also feels kinda odd to control a few units and trying to counter the enemy units and all that instead of building an army. Still fun, but it gets kinda messy. Also, infiltrate (stealth) is still really annoyinig, especially now when losing a squad is a big deal.


Knights of the old Republic
Mass effect, or well, Bioware but in the olde days. You can tell that Mass Effect was inspired by Kotor but to be honest, mass effect improved pretty much everything. "it's an old game" yes I know, but still. So you awake in a ship, you choose one of 6 models for your character, you choose your name and you have amnesia. Luckily, the game explains why you have amnesia later on at least. Still, the sith are attacking your republic ship and you got to leave, followed by trying to track down a missing jedi. After finding the Jedi you set out to find 4 star maps that will show the way to a secret location called the star forge. Story missions and sidequests usually offers conversation choices and multiple ways of solving (if you put your points into the right skills) and they reward you with light side points or dark side points. It is really easy to get dark side points though, and hard to get light side points once you start losing them. Still, lots of space fun and some non-human party members including star wars favorite Wookie, maintanence bot, mandalorian bounty hunter and so on.


Lego worlds
So short and simple, this game is a mess. But that's expected of an early access game these days. The world is a big sandbox, by finding things in the sandox you can buy the model for in game money so you can place infinate of them. Like dragons or Drillex. Besides that, there's no real point to this game. There are a bunch of NPCs walking around looking for certain items, like guns, excalibur and so on so you need to find one and bring it to them to unlock something or get money. There is no survival involved, you don't need to collect food or water to survive or build shelter or anything. Everything  you build is for fun. What I did was to use the building tools to flatten a piece of land and use it to build a fort brick by brick, it got pretty cool and I could climb it and all that. Then I copied my fort and pasted it in a square and drew walls between them and made a little village inside. It's just that the NPCs are all outside the walls. But yeah, that's the game.


Overlord: Raising hell
Ah, simply put. I love this game. Controlling an evil overlord and ordering your minions around is such a treat. The world is comical and the script is spot on. The exploring is a bit lacking but the game makes up to it by expanding the available areas as you find objects and minions. There is something satisfying about being allowed to take the path past the river so you can unlock the gate from the other side and get quicker access in the future. I actually played Overlord 2 before this one so it's kind of a strange order. However, I feel like I get why some people were dissapointed with the second one, this is one great game. Even better with the expansion.


Ark Survial evolved
An early access survival game with dinosaurs that manages to make something different about the survival part. Basically you are human and surrounded by tons of dinosaurs. Luckily most of them are docile and won't attack you unless you give them a reason. However this also mean that most dinos will just run away when you attack them and not fight back. This is rather strange at first because your life isn't in danger all that often by combat. Instead you need to take care of your body, food, water and weather can be really tricky. As in all these games it is suggested that you build a shelter and place a campfire and all that. However, you need to spend "Engram points" upon leveling up to unlock the recipes for the different tools, gear and building parts that you need. Unlike games like minecraft, 7 days to die and such - you can't really do whatever you want with the world. The landscape itself is static and will not budge, rock formations spawn in the world that you can break with tools, but you can't break or mine the mountain itself. So the verty foundation of the world cannot be altered, instead you need to use actual buildings to make your base and form it after the nature, not the other way around. Anyway, I said that you don't die alot from combat, this is true as long as you stay out of the way of the real predators, Raptors are super fast, T Rex is well it's a T rex and the creatures of the sea are all a challenge. To take care of these you are suggested to use ranged weapons obviously, but the best way is actually to tame another predator using tranq arrows, narcotics and their prefered food. Either mount them or just bring them to help you out in the fight and nothing can stop you. It's just kinda sad when you lose your dinos because of some fringe accident. But having alot of tamed dinos around gives you another problem, they need to survive as well. So you need to make sure that they have the food they need and all that.


King's bounty crossworld
I really tried to like this but there is something seriously wrong with the balance. at first glance it looks like a heroes of might and magic game. But it's singleplayer, no "day turns", no castles, no income and no campaign scenarios. Instead the story is about 1 hero, without the strategy elements of finding and spending resources and a world consisting of islands you can travel to by boat. Each island has a couple of garrisons where you can spend gold to buy troops to your army. Your army is 5 slots and 2 two reserves to can change between. The enemy can have up to 8 units however... Still, there is also the problem with the Leadership. Leveling up and getting some map objects inscreases your Leadership, this acts simmilarly to population in that it is not spent but you cannot pass the maximum. This really limits your team though if you play a mage (don't play a mage). Speaking of the garrisons, they don't restock. They usually come with a good amount of units (like 80-500) but when you sometimes lose about 13 each battle it gets rather tough. Because of the Leadership you cannot really steamroll enemies like you sometimes can in Heroes of might and magic, there is a limitation and you gotta stick to it. I really like that concept. However, by the time you reach the second and third island everything is of the difficulty "hard" or "lethal", it might have been because of my team but still. So I ended up buying tons of pirates since they were available, nearly always lost them and had to replenish, buy new ones and so on. By the time I finally got the chart to the next island my army was as good as dead and my money in the drain.


Life is strange
To me an amazing game divided into episodes each telling a part of a story about Max and her life as a typical teenager with everything that it entails and a little more. Max gets the ability to turn back time short bursts which allows her to get past the obstacles in life and the little private investigation she is conducting on the death of a classmate. Most of the game is about speaking to people and making choices throughout the story, at the end of each chapter you are given the statistics showing what other choices people made while playing the game which is a nice touch. So it's kind of a murder mystery with ethical choices and stuff like that. Game gets a bit wierd towards the end but still holds a good quality throughout.


Stronghold HD
A classic remake of an old RTS game that didn't quite compete with the other large RTS of the time. Stronghold is pretty realistic where resources are needed to create just about anything, people need to be fed, people need to pay taxes and all of that. Most multiplayer matches set you as either the defender or attacker of a castle though where you need to manage your resources and men to outshine the enemy. A bit different from age of empires to good in its unique way.


Heroes of might and magic VII
The latest installment of the HoMM series. I really don't know what to say about it. It's pretty much HoMM VI but with some different faction setups, get some, lose some. Most units return from the previous game, even their portraits and models and so on. The maps are kinda limited as well. It's an okay game, can't really question that but it feels like it needs more.


Crawl
A 4 player game where you travel though a retro styled dungeon, rather randomly generated. At the start of the game you are all human but a free for all brawl starts where the last man standing is the only human alive. He control the pace of the game. All other players are turned into ghosts and can enter ritual circles to summon controllable monsters to kill the human player. The player who manages to kill the human becomes human next and so on. The human player gains gold and exp by defeating the monsters while the monster players gain points to upgrade their monsters. At the end of the dungeon is a teleportation circle with a boss inside. When I last played there were 2 different bosses a tentacle monster and a hydra. Each monster player can enter the boss to control it while the human player tries to defeat it. It's a great concept and I really dig the graphics being so simplistic.


Brawlhalla
Basically a smash bros inspired game with microtransactions, online play and flash like graphics. It's actually an enjoyable game although it gets kinda messy from time to time. Each character has 2 different weapons, weapons and other items spawn on the stage and by picking them up you get access to the different skills your character has with that weapon equipped. Different characters are available each day but you can unlock them with ingame gold or real money.


FF XIV realm reborn
A really fun mmorpg to be honest. The world isn't open to be honest and each country only holds a few areas but they are more alive than FFXII ever was. As in Guild Wars 2 there are a lot of events happening in the different areas that rewards you with experience and some other rewards. To participate you usually need to lower your level to fit the event, although you are still prety darn strong compared to the other dweebs. The party finder is pretty good to be honest althogh there is a lack of tanks as in all mmorpgs. Playing as a DPS takes time. There is even an extra reward for playing tank in dungeons. Each week you get a bunch of challenges that are the same, it's about participating in dungeons, the shorter challenges, crafting items, gathering items, visiting the Gold Saucer to play triple triad chocobo racing and the like. To summarize there are a lot of things to do, luckily since it's a mmorpg. But one of the more unique features is that you can change class at will after unlocking it. You don't need to create a new character to access the other classes. The classes are divided into 3 catagories as in Fantasy Life, fighters, crafters and gatherers. They all have exp bars and level up, each can equip gear and weapons of different kinds to add bonuses and the like. The gathering and crafting classes are rather heavily dependent on each other, sometimes in rather odd missmatched fashions. So there is no real point to leveling them up until you reach 20-sh with your your fighter class and can learn all the other ones. The fighter classes can also "upgrade" at a certain point in the game. Arcanist + Conjurer classes at 30 for example unlocks the WHT mage upgrade for conjurer after a questline. Normal game has a level cap at 50, that's where I am now. Taking a break and I'll see if I move on to buy Heavensward to add another 3 classes, more areas and additional dungeons and the like. I've already geared up on the lvl.50 end game gear and raised 3 fighting classes to 50. The one annoying thing is that the story mode can't really be cooped as much as you like some time. There are parts that are limited to you and the event.


Broforce
A game about manliness and explosion. Platform shooter where you control small and adorable bros, mini soldiers, based on characters from famous movies while combating the forces of terror across the globe. If you get hit you die, simple as that unless you have some stocks in which case you will respawn at the closest checkpoint with a new random bro. It allows couch coop and online coop and up to 4 players. It's madness and explosions and everything you ever wanted. There are also side missions that unlocks additional items that can be used. I still haven't beaten satan though.


Expendabros
EXPLOSIONS! EXPENDABLES REFERENCES WITH THE BROFORCE ENGINE! ENGAGE SOLDIER!


Duckgame
A 4 player duck brawler where you pick up weapons and use them to kill the other ducks off. There is no way to kill other ducks without weapons so you need to be quick and choose your weapons well. You can also throw weapons and other items to make the opponent drop their equipped weapon which adds some sort of defense. The maps are chosen on random from a pool and you play about 5 maps of last duck standing before you get to see the current score, then another 5 games or so. Once someone has reached the cap you decided on the game is over, you get to see some highlights and then you recieve a viewer rating on how entertaining it was. Great fun, coop is available both offline and online. Getting the controlls right is kinda wonky though.


Megabyte punch
A megaman inspired robot game where you can change your body parts to alter appearance and stats. The combat is not megaman inspired though, it is more of a fighter such as Smash bros with a damage percentage that allows you to launch enemies.  The story mode plays out over 7 levels with 4 stages each. Some blocks can be destroyed and others not. There are a bunch of secrets hidden throughout the stages and also enemies carrying certain parts. The VS is okay, not great but okay. You kinda expect it to be like smash bros but in the end it isn't since it lacks a lot of things that is needed for a fun multiplayer experience. Sound and music is one of those things, also there aren't any items spawning in or events happening on the stages that removes the element of surprise. You customize your own fighter but only one player can do it at a time, this also allows the game to be kinda unbalanced. And for people who haven't played the game they are simply too confused from all the skill icons and such that each part is marked with.


Starbound
To be honest it has more content than Terraria but fewer bosses. Starbound has been in development for a long time so in the end the studio decided to listen to the players and release a stable version of the game and declare it done. Some weeks before christmas they released a content patch that added procedually generated dungeons with bosses and rewards as well. So the game isn't dead as some people like to claim. If you've played terraria or minecraft you know how this goes. You start off with nothing and then slowly gather stuff, create stuff and upgrade stuff until you mow down planets like it's a tower of cards. There are a lot of different biomes, both above and below ground. Each planet type has a chnce on different biomes and most biomes are shared between different planet types. For example a steampunky underground can be found both on a desert planet, a swamp planet and an ice planet. They look pretty simmilar and have unique chests with steampunk loot. This is true for many other minibiomes as well. Unlike Terraria you can travel between different planets and establish bases there. But in truth you will store just about everything on your ship instead, it's not all that fast to travel down to different planets to retrieve materials. Of course you can place flags as waypoints and teleport from the ship teleporter but still. You can also buy colony deeds to spawn in random npcs, different furniture in the housing affects what type of NPC it is. Lots of different weapon types as well and all that. In all an enjoyable experience, and it also has workshop compatability on steam so you can add more things as people make them.


Grim dawn
A diablo/Path of exile like game. You choose between a bunch of classes and then you get your character. There is some story going on, wotrld sucks and there is evil or something of the kind. But then you go out, slay monsters left and right, get experince points to level up and put your points into unlocking and improving skills. There are also constilations that you can put points into in order to get additional effects, mostly damage type bonuses. But you only get constilation points from specific map objectives. Besides that you can unlock the skill tree for another class as well to dual class the game, still haven't found it that useful since most classes specializes in different types of gear but oh well. So in the end this is a classic top down hack and slash rpg where you murder to get gear. Fun to play with friends for a while before you either complete it or get bored.


Bioshock HD
The bashed remake of BS. I got the HD remake for free since I had Bioshock in my library on steam, this is probably true for a lot of people. The game has some issues that makes it impossible for some people to play it, it crashes and freezes some. But to be honest I didn't have much better tries when playing the original PC version. Either way the steam discussion board is all about how broken the game is that they should get a refund for their free game. But I managed to play it from start to finish and enjoy it. It's the first game in the series and puts you in the shoes of a silent protagonist in a FPS game. There world is mostly told by finding recordings of people in the past that lead up to the events where you are right now (dystopia), this is what borderlands does as well. Present story through the characters contacting you on the radio, past or additional info from finding recordings. You can also find and buy several passive upgrades and actice skills which in turn can be upgraded further. A big thing in the game is hacking which is kind of a mini game where you lead a liquid from one point to another by uncovering pipes that you reorder. This can be done with cameras, sentries, safes, vendors, healing stations and so on. Overall the game stands the test of time as the original on which the other two games were built. It also have beautiful environments and great ambience.


Anima gate of memories
An indie game based on the Anima universe (really expensive RPG) with amazing art. The game is some sort of hack and slash with level ups and skills to assign to your limited skill slots. Luckily you have 2 characters in total that you can swap between at any time, even mid combo which gives more variety. The game itself is kinda confusing but straight forward. You have a book, within the book is a sealed evil (who also happens to be the second character), something happens that traps you into a huge tower called Arcana where other great entities have been trapped. So in order to escape the tower and save the world you need to enter the different wings of the tower and defeat them. Each wing is a world following a different theme connected to the entity within. They are rather varied although they are similar. The first level of the tower offers 3 wings, the first is a haunted mansion where you need to find clues to answer word puzzles, the second is a cathedral where you do a lot of jumping puzzles, the third one is a great plain where you roam around in a rather open area and some connected ones. In each wing there are 5 "memories", these are used to unlock the boss battle, you need only 3 in total but something cool probably happens if you gather all 5.



3ds:

Final Fantasy Explorers
Simply put, final fantasy culture meets monster hunter's mission based gameplay. Although they are very different in every other aspect that one is sure to put people off. Why? because that usually means that you need to find people to play with to complete the harder quests.
The game has a stable batch of classical FF monsters that wanders the world, an island divided into several different areas. Besides the different areas there are also a few 5 leveled dungeons that usually ends in a big room where a boss spanws. Unlike some previous games the bosses are the classical eidolons / summons from the ff universe. By defeating them you get some materials that can be used to craft new gear and such. You probably know the concept. But the big thing is that you choose a class and then a weapon type. Some skills are locked to a specific weapon type and others are not. You can of course mix between skills because of this but the AP cost increases for all "alien skills" that you equip. The skills can be upgraded though which adds a neat dimension to the game. But using skills or spells you have a chance to activate a "mode" where certain abilities and stats are enchanted, this also gives a chance for your skills and spells to "mutate" with something like Fire dmg, or Blind, or anything else that adds an additional effect. Each time you do it increases the cost of the spell when you buy it. The game has a lot of end game content with equipment tweaking, skill mutations and the like and also really difficult fights. So in the end it's a fun game to play but you most likely need someone to play with. You can bring normal monsters as party members otherwise but they are kinda bad.


Bravely second
The sequel to Bravely Default that added even more classes to an already flooded game. Of course a few classes were removed, most were reworked but in the end the balance is really good! What else can be said? They skipped the whole "repeat the story 4 times before you can progress" section from last game which was a good idea. Instead they went with another direction that I enjoyed more. When playing the game you come across a lof of sidequests that allows you to choose between two classes as the reward. Luckily there is a new game + where you can do the quests again but choose the other one so you don't miss out. The game difficulty is still good with random rage moments, you still grind a lot to get JP, BP and the like but it's all in the spirit of old school RPGs. This is as close as I have been to a classic FF game since... forever.


Monster hunter generations
The latest monster hunter game, so 4.5 I suppose. It reworked a few things from monster hunter 4 ultimate, balanced a few other things and then added a whole lot of things. First of all you can now decide to swap to play as your palicos. It's pretty much it's own weapon disicpline although not very varied, but it makes a valid support class for people and also great for kids and the younger players to be honest. Palico armro doesn't have armor skills and only 2 pieces instead of Hunter's 5. So it's easier to craft cool armor and weapons for them. Also, you have some set passive and actice skills to use during fights. There are different types of palicos that decides how they raise an action gauge that allows them to use said actice skills. Warriors get it from attacking, healers from doing nothing, supports from range attacks, gatherers from gathering and so on. But overall it's a neat addition.
Another new thing is Hunter arts, like the palico's action gauge you can now charge an art's gauge byt attacking the monster. There are a few general arts for all weapons but then some unique for a specific weapon type. The important addition however are the weapon classes' new styles. Besides the classic "Guild style" allowing 2 arts there is an Aerial style that allows classes to be more mobile, adds some new moves, removes some moves. It makes it easier to Topple monsters which is a new thing they added in 4. Adept style allows you to get a longer and further evasion dodge when timed right. This is usually followed by allowing the player to charge something automatically. I used the Bow this time around, so when doing the Adept style dodge the bow instantly charges to max which allows you to keep out of harm's way but not waste damage. Most classes loses a few cool things in adept style though since it's pretty damn good.  Striker style is the last one that allows you to equip and use more hunter arts but you generally loses more moves than the other styles.
When it comes to the monsters present in the game I was a bit dissapointed. The new Great maccao and Malfestio are well done and adds some diversity to the fights, but besides those 2 there are Astalos, Gammoth, Glavenus and Mitzuzune followed by High rank's Narkarkos. So in total there are 7 new monsters. But they also added Deviant monsters, who although simmilar to subspecies work a bit differently. Like the Guild quests from MH4 these level up and become more difficult, which in turn rewards you with higher materials that can be used to upgrade your weapons further. Also, lots of free DLC quest with collaboration with anime and other game franchises.


Excave
An E shop game for the 3ds, it's a basic top view dungeon crawler where you are expected to use items to survive and win battles. Weapons have durability that wears down and when you die you lose your progress. There is no rpg leveling up, instead you can get better weapons and such by reaching the harder parts of the dungeon. The dungeon is static however, which is a good thing in most cases since enemies tend to deal a lot of damage. One annoying part though is status problems and monster spawners. Unless you bring remedies you most likely die when afflicted with status prolems like poison or paralyzis, and sometimes you are unlucky and get hit by it a lot. Monster spawners also poop up monsters so fast that unless you act you get overwheled easily or lose too much durability. It was fun, a bit tedious,  there are 2 more but I haven't tried them.


WII U

Pokken tournament
It's a well done game with a roster of pretty interesting characters. Although it is a mystery to me how you manage to make a pokemon fighting game without adding Hitmonchan or Hitmontop... Anyway. In an expansive universe of 700+ pokemon it feels like they could've added some more pokémon, apparently the Arcade version is getting more but the Wii U version isn't.
The game is all battle like any other tekken game out there. There is the tournament mode where you fight a set number ot battles, it doesn't matter if you win or not, you go on to the next fight. In the end you get points for how many times you win which increases you rank. When your rank is high enough you can face of against set opponents in a bracket tournement and once you win that you can challenge the "leader. You repeat this 4 times in the "story mode" after which you unlock Shadow mewtwo and additional difficult cups. One thing that is kinda boring though is that the pokemon have a level, and increasing the level increases the stats of the pokémon. But because of this you can't just decide to switch character as you play. By the time I stopped playing my gengar was 70-something while few others had passed from 1. So what about the main part of the game? The battles? The battles are divided into two parts, Chase and Duel. You have different movesets for chase and Duel for starters, although some skills are the same. In Chase it's a bit like 3rd person while duel is more like classic fighters. Several skills will allow you to "Phase shift" between the two and in return give hp back to the player who did it. So you deal some damage in chase and then move in to initate duel, beat on them or get beaten on, cancel duel mode with a throw or something and go back to chase. The winner with 2 rounds win the battle. But besides the phases there are also assist pokémon that varis between attacks and buffs as well as Synergy mode, which is basically mega evolutions. In gengar's case he gets crazy and incredibly powerful, and you can use a synergy burst to cancel the synergy mode of your pokémon but deal tons of damage (like 2/3rds of the health bar). VS mode is done well with one player using the gamepad which is needed for the Chase phase while the other one uses the tv. One thing I'm missing is the ability to customize the pokémon, there aren't even hats. You can customize the trainer and the tutorial person but not the active fighter... In the end it's a fun game but battles gets kinda bland because you end up using the same pokémon over and over and following a set routine, chase and duel is a nice addition, kinda like FF Dissida did.


Wii U party
It's a party type of game that uses the wii u pad a lot. Some of the games are really fun to play but most of them are simply too casual. So this is exactly what it is supposed to be, for parties with people who aren't into games that much. But it takes advantage of the gyro functions, the duality of the gamepad and all of that. But I still enjoy nintendoland more to be honest.

PS3

Wipeout HD
HD remake of Wipeout. Wipeout is kinda like F zero but without the anime racers, with weapons and an electro soundtrack instead of rock. Never played wipeout before but it's fun. There is some lack of contents though if you ask me with 12 different ships and 8 courses and then the courses in reverse - but overall it was enjoyable to unlock things. There are no classic cups instead the single player mode has afew different challenges, mostly lap or race time trials, going for a long time without dying, winning a race or several races in a row. Multiplayer is just 2 players as far as I know which is a shame. But you kinda need the screen to play this since it goes so fast, especially on the higher difficulties.


PS4


Final Fantasy Type 0
A psp game ported to modern consoles based on an old phone game in japan? Something like that. Either way I haven't seen such a drawn out and confusing intro in a while. It starts with a history lesson like in Ocarina of time, the 4 crystals created the world. Moving on, 4 countries exist, oh no mechanical empire is invading magic kingdom, magic jammer. Then we get to follow some soldier running along a street, some cuts to different characters posing and doing things. And when it's finally over you get an objective to complete. Confusing is the word, just like at the start of FFXIII was confusing because some of the basic concept and terms aren't explained. L'cies exists in this universe as well and isn't really explained until later. All people are apparently forgotten upon death meaning that none can remember that the person even existed. Oh well. You have 14 characters at your disposal, each have some sort of gimmick that tells them apart. 2 of them are outsiders and can't use magic in certain missions though. Anyway, the game plays out from the capital of your kingdom, each chapter of the game is divided into a set number of days. Speaking to people with something interesting to say drains 2 hours from the day, leaving the city drains 6 hours and so on. Once the number of days are used up or you are bored a mission will appear for you after a cutscene. So you battle your way through it with the action rpg combat and then move on to the next days or chapter. It's rather different from the other FF games but that's true for most FF games lately.


Dead or alive 5 last fight
The latest version of dead or alive 5 with 12 additional characters, some stages and the like. And also a lot of "costumes" that were either unlockable or DLC for the previous versions of the game. And that's pretty much the only difference except being on the latest gen of consoles. The new characters are interesting although 2 are pedo bait, they are still solid fighters in every way but it's still kinda disturbing. There are also 2 more characters released as DLC from other games that I got as well as tons of collaboration with anime studios and game studios. They made an Attack of Titans stage for example and game all the characters a themed outfit from it. There is just so much DLC for this game, mostly costumes as mentioned, some of them are pretty cool but most are lewd and some are outright wtf I made some calculations and buying all of it would cost me 460 €. Anyway the game is balanced and enjoyable to play, but it also confirms a lot of stereotypes about japanese games and attitudes.


Mortal kombat X(XL)
The latest mortal kombat game with all the downloadable pretty much. This game decided to revamp a lot of things, mostly the rooster, they kept working on the X gauge addition which allows you to do powered up versions of special attacks, the X ray special once per fight and also combo breakers. Since the latest mortal kombat had pretty much all characters from the previous games this one shaved it down, a lot of new characters are added, some are the kids of previous characters, a lot of moves based on those characters removed. There are also several gimmicks to a lot of characters that you need to look up to understand, such as Kotal Kahn's sun light and Kun Jin's bow. But the game itself is of course playable without such knowledge. They also added Predator and Alien which is kinda cool, Jason and Leatherface as well. The game itself is solid, the story mode is okay but at least it is varied. The arcade mode offers a solid challenge and then we have the Towers. Towers are different kinds of challenges, these also vary every few days or so. One issue I have though is that most towers have some sort of extra effect to them such as vampirism or rocket rain. It's fun to have some variety but most of the time it gets kinda frustratiing. Still a very solid game, especially for VS play.

[Archem]

In keeping with tradition, I've tracked the games I've beaten this year, and will list them in the order of completion.

January

Shantae - GBC
Shantae: Risky's Revenge 100% - 3DS
Shantae and the Pirate's Curse 100% - 3DS
Steamworld Dig - 3DS

March

Shadow of the Colossus - PS2
Super Hot - PC
Super Mario World (96 Exits) - SNES

May
*Mutant Mudds Deluxe 100% - 3DS
Mutant Mudds Super Challenge 100% - 3DS

June

Doom (2016) 100% - PC
Wolfenstein: The New Order - PC
Wolfenstein: The Old Blood - PC
Return to Castle Wolfenstein - PC

July

Turok: Dinosaur Hunter - PC
*Quake 2 - PC
Quake 2: The Reckoning - PC
Steamworld Heist - PS Vita
Ape Escape: On The Loose - PSP

August

Guacamelee! 100% - PS Vita
AM2R - PC
Ratchet and Clank (2002) - PS2
Ratchet and Clank (2016) - PS4
Ratchet and Clank: Going Commando - PS2
Ratchet and Clank: Up Your Arsenal - PS2

September

Uncharted 4 - PS4
*The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past - SNES
Super Metroid - SNES

October

Ratchet and Clank Future: Tools of Destruction
Ratchet and Clank Future: Quest for Booty
Blasting Agent 100% - 3DS

December

Earthbound - SNES
Sonic the Hedgehog - Sega Genesis
Ratchet and Clank Future: A Crack in Time

*^{Previously completed}

Now that the list is up, let me talk about some of these games. New to this list is the inclusion of games that I've previously beaten. The only game of note is ALttP, which I've replayed countless times over the years, due to the fact that I've finally 100% it. Whenever I'd play, I'd always forget a couple of heart pieces. Not this time. Anyway, on to the games I've never finished before.

Shantae, the first one, looks absolutely amazing for GBC, and it plays quite well. It's pretty tough, and sometimes has some questionable design decisions, but it was worthwhile. It definitely feels like somebody wanted to do Zelda II the right way. The sequels only improve on the formula, though the difficulty kind of drops off. Still, incredibly charming, wonderful art, great humor, and cute/sexy character designs. Great Metroidvania games, really looking forward to putting Half-Genie Hero on the 2017 games list.

Shadow of the Colossus Really didn't live up to expectations. Maybe it's because it's been over-hyped through the years. Maybe it's because what made it so impressive at the time doesn't convey well anymore. Maybe I just didn't get it. Whatever the reason, it was a pretty big disappointment. The huge, empty world felt very empty, and though I know that was the intent, it also felt devoid of anything to do. The ride to each colossus was just a boring and sometimes tedious trip that did nothing to add to the game. The on-foot environments before each fight were sometimes cool, and the fights occasionally had some great ideas. What killed it for me were the bad controls, some fights were frustrating for all the wrong reasons, and the story was so absent that I never really felt any motivation to continue (I abandoned the game several months prior to completion for this reason after only two or three colossi). This game is a legend in the industry, but I hated so much of it. Ico and The Last Guardian were previously games I wanted to play, but after this game, I'm not so sure.

Super Hot SUPERHOT IS THE MOST INNOVATIVE SHOOTER I’VE PLAYED IN YEARS! Seriously though, it's a wonderful game. It's ostensibly a first-person shooter, but since Time Only Moves When You Do™, it plays out much more like a puzzle game. The story is very short, and the $25 price point is pretty high (currently on sale for the more reasonable ~$16), but the gameplay is great, and the infinite modes can keep you entertained for quite some time after you've finished the story. While I do agree with most people that the price for play time ratio is terribly off, if you want something really great, this game is for you.

Mutant Mudds Super Challenge really lives up to its name. The first game was pretty simple, even with the deluxe version bonus levels. This game, on the other hand, really kicks the difficulty up. Like, a lot. I had a great time with it, though, and I even replayed the first game just to see if there were any bonuses that carry over between the two (spoiler: no). Check it out if you like 2D platformers with a lot of challenge.

DOOM HOLY FUCKING SHIT THIS GAME IS AMAZING! I, like most other intelligent people, had low expectations for this game. A new Doom, a lackluster multiplayer beta, almost none of the original staff... How can this game possibly be any good? But, like the recent Wolfenstein, it managed to not only be a smart, fast, well-designed shooter that remembers what made the old games fun, but it did so well enough to become one of the best games in franchise history. Doom is just so damn good. The levels are usually fairly linear, but the combat areas are big and open enough to make fights feel like they're happening across a huge level instead of just a series of corridors. The Glory Kill system, which I thought would make the game too easy or just become boring, was a great highlight of the game. The way it pays off with health drops encourages the player to stay in the middle of the chaos instead of hiding at the periphery and waiting for your health to regen (looking at you, CoD). The kill animations are amazing as well, and never really get old. Everything is so fast, too. It's refreshing to have this kind of mobility in a 2016 shooter. Secrets are everywhere, and they actually have a payoff other than just collecting trinkets. You can find health, armor, upgrades, and all sorts of cool loot. I played through on the hardest available difficulty at first, and it was brutal. Once you get the hang of things, it really feels like the way Doom was meant to be played. Dodging attacks, constantly moving, swapping between all your guns and using them strategically makes you feel like the ultimate badass. It really is the perfect power trip.

Wolfenstein: The New Order, like Doom, is a smart approach to a classic shooter that does what it does so well that there's not much you can complain about. The story is genuinely good, and your decisions actually affect how you play. The action is intense (it's Wolfenstein, remember?), but it remembers the series' roots as a stealth game, so you can sneak and stab all you want. The levels offer a lot of freedom in how you approach fights, and the enemy designs are appropriately over-the-top. Doom is still the better of these recent id titles, but not by so much that I would say you can skip this game. Check out the standalone expansion, The Old Blood, for more of this great game. It's sort of an abridged retelling of the story from Return to Castle Wolfenstein, but with a number of plot changes to help it fit in with the new game.

AM2R, or "Another Metroid 2 Remake" was finally released after an eternity in development, and it's spectacular. It's pretty faithful to Metroid II, but it goes all Zero Mission on us by adding features from later games in the series, new areas, new bosses, and a new coat of paint to make it look and feel the best it can. It also introduces some new optimizations that make it feel like the best controlling 2D Metroid game. Now, it's had some issues with Nintendo (of course), but if you can get your hands on it, do so. You owe me one.

Ratchet and Clank is a series I never got to play as a kid because, as previously established, I didn't have a PS2 when I was younger. Well, I spent a good part of this year rectifying that. The series is pretty wonderful, mixing third-person shooting and platforming quite well. The original trilogy was pretty flawed, though. The characters were annoying, the stories were meh, the controls were riddled with problems (I didn't even bother with the weapons for most of the first game because of how bad the combat felt), checkpoints are spaced too far apart, and so many other things. Still, each entry found new ways to improve. Going Commando introduced lock-strafe, an imperfect solution to making gun combat feel tolerable. It also increased your health pool to something more realistic. The third game made all the weapons finally feel viable, compared to the previous games where only about half of them seemed good enough for regular use. The Future series really cleaned thing up a lot, and almost all of my problems were finally gone (weird jumping issues persisted). Finally, Ratchet and Clank 2016, which I played right after finishing the first game, is the clear pinnacle of the series. It's a great mix of new and old, offering faithful remakes of classic levels with lots of tweaks, new areas, and improved combat to make it just about perfect. I loved every second of this latest game, and it was the first game in the series that I thought was too short instead of too long (but it was still fairly long). I might go replay that one in 2017. Oh, and the movie was a lot of fun, too.

Uncharted 4 is really good, but there's a fight at the end of the game that's total bullshit and should be cut from the game. I actually had to turn on aim assist to get through it, and that hurts my pride. The last boss is all quick-time events, which are always the worst part of any video game. Basically, the last two chapters almost killed an otherwise spectacular game. Play it, but maybe watch the ending on YouTube.

Super Metroid Hey, I didn't own a copy as a kid. Sue me. _{Please don't sue me.}

Earthbound is a game I've struggled to care about for years, but I'd promised my brother that I'd try to get through it. Well, I did, and I can say that it was fun, had lots of unique and memorable moments, and the music (which I initially hated) is pretty great. The difficulty curve is a bit terrible, though, as the end-game enemies are just the worst. Looking forward to trying the other two Mother games.

Sonic the Hedgehog is a stupid game for stupid people, but I've always wanted to say I beat it so that my opinions can seem more valid. For a game where speed is such a big deal, the game has constant roadblocks and punishments for going at anything more than a crawl. The levels are confusing messes, Sonic has way too much momentum in his movements and controls like a boulder, some enemies are just bullshit, and it's a shining example of how great art design can keep a bad series afloat. Working on Sonic 2 for 2017.

Anyway, my Game of the Year is a tie between Doom (2016) and Ratchet and Clank (2016). Go play those games.

[Prpl_Mage]

Shadow of the Colossus Really didn't live up to expectations. Maybe it's because it's been over-hyped through the years. Maybe it's because what made it so impressive at the time doesn't convey well anymore. Maybe I just didn't get it. Whatever the reason, it was a pretty big disappointment. The huge, empty world felt very empty, and though I know that was the intent, it also felt devoid of anything to do. The ride to each colossus was just a boring and sometimes tedious trip that did nothing to add to the game. The on-foot environments before each fight were sometimes cool, and the fights occasionally had some great ideas. what killed it for me were the bad controls, some fights were frustrating for all the wrong reasons, and the story was so absent that I never really felt any motivation to continue (I abandoned the game several months prior to completion for this reason after only two or three colossi). This game is a legend in the industry, but I hated so much of it. Ico and The Last Guardian were previously games I wanted to play, but after this game, I'm not so sure.

I can only agree with this, played the HD remake 4 years ago and the game ust good. I found the boss fights really bland, predictable and repetitive. Also, don't bother with ICO, so frustrating. Everything wrong with an escort game.

[Donut]

Yeah if you didn't like SoTC, there's no point to try ICO, which is worse on so many levels.

As for myself, 21 games this year!

Pokemon Moon  (3DS)
The first Pokémon I play since Red/Blue, mainly because I felt like the series wasn't evolving. Moon actually made me hyped and it was really worth it. The trials, the pokeride made it so much better despite a really cliché story full of love and friendship b*******.

Heroes of Ruin  (3DS)
A really basic H&S, but with not enough enemies to actually get that name, weird and unnatural controls. It was fun tho for the little 9h it provided. Not great, and not needed at all, but yeah why not. I've seen worse

Dragon Quest VII  (3DS)
DQ7 never lived up to comparison qith the 8th episode, at least, in the PS1 version. The 3DS version is way better, but endless useless travels and a plot that takes way too long to start doesn't help it getting better than the 8th, and remains closely behind instead of far behind like the PS1 version. A really good traditionnal JRPG tho!

The Moon  (NDS)
I wasn't expecting much from this little FPS. It turned out pretty good. Not much surprises, but it does the job.

Another Code - Mémoire Double  (NDS)
I was told it was one of the best P&C adventure game of its time. It's clearly not. Graphics, musics, and puzzles are cheap, and the really stupid music doesn't help. Hotel Dusk and Cape West were both way better than this crap.

VeXx  (PS2)
I have been waiting for almost 15 years to finish that game, because I suck so hard at platformers. I really enjoyed it, and VexX is a really well made alternative to 3D-Mario games. I think every platformer fans should play it. It's not too easy, not too hard, except maybe if you suck like I do.

Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles - Echoes of Time  (NDS)
Well... After playing Rings Of Fate, Echoes of Time looks like a RoF, but cheap. Lame scenario (multiplayer obliged), lame dungeons, one of the worst bad guys visually, with Nene from Blue Dragon... RoF was a nice little surprise, EoT you should totally forget about it.

Ghost Trick - Phantom Detective  (NDS)
I can safely say that THIS is the best game of the NDS. That's all. It's the 4th time I finish it and I can't stop being amazed on how well everything is done.

Prince of Persia - The Sands of Time  (PS2)
Got this game cheap (Ł5) with the two other PS2 ones. It's ok. Not great. But I didn't expect much from a Ubisoft game.

Rythm and Thief  (3DS)
Forget this game. Quick

Magical Starsign  (NDS)
Despite an horrible charadesign (Hello Brownie Brown) and stupid names, this game was actually fun. It's a classical JRPG with a classical story so not much is to say about it other than it's pretty, it's revolving around magic and it's worth the length.

Phoenix Wright vs Professeur Layton  (3DS)
This felt more Layton than Phoenix Wright. In fact, the pasages with trials could have been removed and the game would nearly have been the exact same. So basically if you're not fed up with Layton games unlike me then this game is for you. If you expect cool stuff from the Phoenix Wright games, forget about it.

Shining Soul  (GBA)
Basic D-RPG.

Odin Sphere  (PS2)
A great game despite a buggy ending (impossible to get the good ending personnaly, it happens with some people apparently), and a lack of environment. I've ben angry at this game for quite a long time before I finally finished it, because some characters start at Titania, whichi is nearly IMPOSSIBLE to play at a beginning of a character story.

The Hobbit  (GBA)
Definitely not worth mentioning.


Baldur's Gate - Dark Alliance  (GBA)
An ok D-RPG with an annoying ending and a stupid last boss.

Final Fantasy VI  (PS)
Still the best FF with the 9th. If you haven't played it still, you need to burn in hell.

Drakengard  (PS2)
Drakengard is really not worth your money. I fail to see how this game got such an incredible esteem success: it's laggy, it's ugly, the characters are uninteresting despite their mental state which is anyway hardly deepened in the game, the controls are worse than anything else I played on PS2, and the endings are a mix between bad taste and bad trip. I refuse to relate such a terrible game to the awesomeness of NieR

Diablo III - Reapers of Soul - Ultimate Evil Edition  (360)
I love Diablo, and the third installment felt a bit down. The game is way too easy unless you reach RoS which adds a bit of challenge, the plot is filled with holes, the classical Blizzard bugs are everywhere. It's a good game, but it needed a bit more polish IMO.


Away - Shuffle Dungeon  (NDS)
The initial idea is fun, shuffling dungeon. It stops being fun after the 3rd dungeon, and there's another 10 after that. The plot turns out to be completely stupid, and the graphics are not for everyone.

Sacred 3  (360)
A good H&S if you look at gameplay alone. Otherwise, the story is boring, and more importantly, the writing is one of the worst I've seen in the last years. They need to burn the man/woman who wrote the dialogs and his/her family to the bone.

A lot of disappointments this year, but some good surprises. I've started 2017 with Ocarina Of Time 3D, hopefully the rest of the year will be better than 2016!

[Apex]

I've played a lot of games this year, so I'll add them slowly over time. I'll start with the really good ones:

Final Fantasy XV: I didn't have high expectations for this one, and at the very beginning I wasn't sure what exactly to think about it. Boy was I blown away by the end of it though, I haven't had such a fun and engrossing experience with an RPG in ages, Witcher 3 included. The gameplay was fun, the story was interesting, the characters were likable, the side-quests were good, and the challenge was pretty spot-on for the most part. It was a little buggy, but for the size and scope of the game, I'm not shocked or turned off, the game never crashed or anything like that. I'm really excited for the DLC expansions in 2017. It's one of two games I got the platinum trophy without explicitly going for it. I loved the game so much the platinum happened naturally.

Doom: FUN. It's the other game where the platinum trophy happened naturally from playing it. Get this game, it's cathartic and exciting, and constantly thrilling.

Dark Souls 3: It's tried and true to the franchise, if you didn't like the other ones, you probably wont like this one either. I however love these games, and this one, while I think it's the weakest of the series, is absolutely fantastic and a pleasure to play. (Yes, I think Dark Souls 2 Scholars of the First Sin is better.)

Street Fighter V: A fantastic multiplayer fighter. I've got countless hours of joy out of this one. The DLC system is a bit odd, but I can appreciate the fact you don't need to spend any actual money to unlock levels and characters. I've only unlocked a few characters, but each one feels well earned.

Star Ocean V: Well... It's a fun to play game, the battle system, and the skill system are well implemented, but the difficulty is out of control easy in some parts, and absurdly hard in others. The main campaign is short, and confined. However, there is a bit of bonus content that if you fight through to the series trademark super bosses, it lasts about 70 hours. This game had absolutely no budget, and it's apparent. It's a shame, this is one of my favorite series and I hate to think this'll probably be the last, and it's completely on Square for the blame, not Tri-Ace. If you like the series, I can full-heartedly recommend it, but if you're weary, then it's probably not for you.

Tales of Berseria: It tries to be more mature, but the world is too colorful, and the characters are too anime to let it be. The gameplay is fun! There are no obnoxious characters, they're all likable. The story is pretty bleh. I recommend it on the gameplay alone.

Life is Strange: Purp summed it up well. It's a fun and engrossing experience!

Mortal Kombat XL: Also what Purp said! This game is a love letter to fighting game players. I wish I had more people to play this with to be honest.

[zuhane]

Three words:

Shovel Knight

[Prpl_Mage]

Heroes of Ruin  (3DS)
A really basic H&S, but with not enough enemies to actually get that name, weird and unnatural controls. It was fun tho for the little 9h it provided. Not great, and not needed at all, but yeah why not. I've seen worse

Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles - Echoes of Time  (NDS)
Well... After playing Rings Of Fate, Echoes of Time looks like a RoF, but cheap. Lame scenario (multiplayer obliged), lame dungeons, one of the worst bad guys visually, with Nene from Blue Dragon... RoF was a nice little surprise, EoT you should totally forget about it.

Sacred 3  (360)
A good H&S if you look at gameplay alone. Otherwise, the story is boring, and more importantly, the writing is one of the worst I've seen in the last years. They need to burn the man/woman who wrote the dialogs and his/her family to the bone.

I agree with 1 and 3, I got bored really fast with HoR and Sacred 3 has some of the worst writing and voice acting in history. But disagree with 2 since I felt the game was more thought through than the previous one.

[Archem]

Three words:

Shovel Knight

Good choice. I own it on every platform that has had a physical release, and I don't regret any of it. One of my favorite games of all time.

[Prpl_Mage]

Good choice. I own it on every platform that has had a physical release, and I don't regret any of it. One of my favorite games of all time.

Which version did you like the most? Since you own all of them

[Archem]

They're all pretty identical, but I like the Wii U version most for the co-op mode. Playing this game alone is a treat, but being able to share the fun with family or friends is something magical. You need the Shovel Knight Amiibo, but I wanted one of those anyway, so no problem. The best bonus for a solo player is probably the Xbox One version because it has an entire bonus level based on Battletoads. The "worst" version (as though there were a bad version) is the Amazon Fire TV version because it offers no bonuses, and because it's not on a widespread gaming platform. Otherwise, it's the PC version, as there's also no real bonuses. I may as well keep this going, so next (my opinion, after all) is the 3DS version because it's all StreetPass-related and requires an Amiibo. Next up might be the Wii U version (my personal favorite), which has the bonus co-op mode. After that is the PS3/PS4/Vita version (effectively identical, even has cross-save and cross-buy), which offers a secret boss fight against Kratos from God of War. Lastly is the Xbox One version (the "best" version).

So the PS3, Fire TV, PC, and Xbox One versions don't have a physical release, which makes me sad. I want to have a full shelf collection, but there aren't plans for physical releases of those versions (though I can pass on the Fire TV version). Then again, there weren't plans for the Vita version's physical release, but it happened, so I guess there's still hope.

I hear there's a European retail release of the PC version, if any of you European Charasians are looking. Boy, sure would love to see one of those surface in my mailbox some day...

Did I mention that I fucking love this game?

Oh shit! I forgot about the cool-as-heck Japan port! Check out the changes here! Honestly, I want to try and get a copy just to say I have it.

[zuhane]

Yes, Archem! I had no idea you were such a shovel savvy! I was considering getting a Wii U purely for Mario Maker, but this seems like a good reason in itself.

I think my favourite thing about Shovel Knight is how unbelievably difficult it was on the first run, and how on your second run you seem to just blaze through the
entire thing like an absolute pro and feel like you've mastered the mechanics like a true shovel pro.

My only small nit-picky critique is how stupid OP the propeller dagger is. You can kill any boss in second with that ****, but I choose not to because I'm a decent human being.

[Archem]

You know, I hear people call the game difficult a lot, but I found it to be about average difficulty. Not easy, sure, but not really hard (with a few exceptions). The perfect difficulty.

Or maybe it's just a genre that I'm super-familiar with, and I just have enough experience with this kind of game to beat it without much trouble. That seems a bit egotistical, so it seems like a less-likely answer.

[Zerlina]

This thread makes me realize I didn't beat nearly as many games as I'd wanted to. I'm old and I work/sleep a lot.

Professor Layton and the Azran Legacy
It was good. Not as strong as Unwound Future but better than Last Spectre.

Smash Bros 3DS
It was ok.

Majora's Mask 3DS
Frustrating mechanics and didn't age well, but parts of it were still really fun.

[zuhane]

I thought Shovel Knight was the perfect difficulty, as whenever I died I could address my own failings and never felt short-changed.

...

...

them boss challenges though...

[Moosetroop11]

I loved Shovel Knight... But the Plague Knight expansion was truly glorious.