Gaming best # of 2015

[WotanAnubis]

On my Best Game list, stuff like Xenoblade Chronicles X, Splatoon, Tales from the Borderlands, Episodes 1-4 of Life is Strange and Pillars of Eternity would have some prominent places. But for now, I'd like to introduce

 

Best Game You May Not Have Heard From As Much, But That I Greatly Enjoyed

 

And I'm going to give this most prestigious of gaming awards to not one, but two games.

 

80 Days, after the well-known Jules Vernes novel. You play as Passepartout, the recently hired valet of Phileas Fogg and your master has just made a bet that he can travel around in the world in just 80 days. So get to it. It's a very story-driven game about catching the next ride to your next destination with a steampunk coat of paint. It's also very relaxed when you're just starting out and incredibly nerve-wracking when it's already Day 50 and you've only just reached the Americas.

 

Renowned Explorers: International Society, a pleasant, cartoony 'roguelite' about looting priceless artifacts. Put together your little team of people, each with different abilities and personalities, and go explore semi-random maps in search of fame, money and treasure. Battles don't just consist of beating people up, but also of insulting your enemies so much that they break down crying or impressing them with how awesome you are. Between every expedition there's a little preparation phase which allows you spend all the science, gold and status you collected during your travels to be able to better face whatever comes next, which is a nice breather and a very tangible way of seeing how well or badly you did on your last expedition.

[Keyrock]

With all the great games out this year, I forgot about Wasteland 2.  That was a gem.

Maybe because it came out in 2014?  Though I suppose it's new to folks on console this year.

 

Renowned Explorers: International Society, a pleasant, cartoony 'roguelite' about looting priceless artifacts. Put together your little team of people, each with different abilities and personalities, and go explore semi-random maps in search of fame, money and treasure. Battles don't just consist of beating people up, but also of insulting your enemies so much that they break down crying or impressing them with how awesome you are. Between every expedition there's a little preparation phase which allows you spend all the science, gold and status you collected during your travels to be able to better face whatever comes next, which is a nice breather and a very tangible way of seeing how well or badly you did on your last expedition.

Fun game, I had a good time with it.  The rock paper scissors system of attitudes and moods and the different abilities that put status effects on your party or the enemies was surprisingly deep.  All the different "attacks", whether aggressive, friendly, or devious, all boiled down to different ways to take a health bar down, but it was still an interesting way to do it and the funny animations helped make it enjoyable.

Edited December 30, 2015 by Keyrock

[Lexx]

I would love to say wit her 3, but the simple truth is, I have yet to get myself to play through it. The open world thingy is just too off-putting to me. I really, really hate having to ride around all day long to get the interesting quest and dialogue bits I am carving for so much.

 

On the other hand, I think MGSV is the game I've been really addicted to this year (until I finished chapter 1... Then I just pushed through to close the file). This game made so many things right, but also did some really annoying things. Yet for 3 full weeks I did nothing else but eating, sleeping, going to work and then playing MGSV for the remaining day hours.

[Fenixp]

The open world thingy is just too off-putting to me. I really, really hate having to ride around all day long to get the interesting quest and dialogue bits I am carving for so much.

Well you can just fast travel a lot :-P But yeah, the open world epidemic needs to stop, just... Please. You can see the design concessions Witcher 3 has made to support open world: Artificially leveled enemies, level restrictions on gear, that kind of stuff. I would have preferred a bunch of small and carefully crafted locations like White Orchard at the beginning to what we got.

[GhostofAnakin]

I would love to say wit her 3, but the simple truth is, I have yet to get myself to play through it. The open world thingy is just too off-putting to me. I really, really hate having to ride around all day long to get the interesting quest and dialogue bits I am carving for so much.

 

 

You can fast travel.  That's what I did if I had to go between two points on the map that would have taken like 10 minutes, real time, to travel on horse.

 

The open world didn't seem like a chore exactly for that reason. 

[GhostofAnakin]

 

With all the great games out this year, I forgot about Wasteland 2.  That was a gem.

Maybe because it came out in 2014?  Though I suppose it's new to folks on console this year.

 

Us console gamers have feelings too!

[Fenixp]

The open world didn't seem like a chore exactly for that reason.

Personally, I consider open world games that force fast travel to be enjoyable to quite simply be not that well designed. It usually means there's not all that much interesting populating the world, and that the open world doesn't really give you a reason to travel trough it repeatedly like randomized events or dynamic evolution of the world - it just makes the entire concept of open world a bit wasted IMO. If you need a perfect example of how to do an open world, look no further than Arkham Knight or Arkham City - dynamic events keep happening around the place, traversing the world is fast and painless and listening in on random snippets of conversations will give you information on quests organically, without the use of markers. Extremely well done and thoroughly enjoyable, these games don't really need fast travel in any respect. And yes, I do realize this implementation would quite simply not translate to Witcher - but, well, that's why we have game designers, to be creative with game design :-P

 

Us console gamers have feelings too!

I strongly disagree.

[GhostofAnakin]

Well, my general point was that fast travel allows gamers who find traveling across the map a chore, an easy way to enjoy the game without having to deal with the one aspect that may spoil their enjoyment.

 

I just think that the Witcher 3 is a brilliant game that shouldn't turn someone off because of a feature (wide open world that's too big to traverse in real time) that can be negated by fast travel.

[redneckdevil]

Of the year....

Best shooter-killing floor 2

Best rpg-pillars of eternity

Best zombie game-Dying Light

Best turn base rpg-SR Hong Kong

Best open world rpg-Witcher 3

 

 

 

I think that's it for me

Edited December 30, 2015 by redneckdevil

[Lexx]

 

I would love to say wit her 3, but the simple truth is, I have yet to get myself to play through it. The open world thingy is just too off-putting to me. I really, really hate having to ride around all day long to get the interesting quest and dialogue bits I am carving for so much.

 

 

You can fast travel.  That's what I did if I had to go between two points on the map that would have taken like 10 minutes, real time, to travel on horse.

 

The open world didn't seem like a chore exactly for that reason. 

 

 

First you have to get to the fast travel points. It's still annoying as hell. Also giving me extra menus to click through.

[WDeranged]

 

 

I would love to say wit her 3, but the simple truth is, I have yet to get myself to play through it. The open world thingy is just too off-putting to me. I really, really hate having to ride around all day long to get the interesting quest and dialogue bits I am carving for so much.

 

 

You can fast travel.  That's what I did if I had to go between two points on the map that would have taken like 10 minutes, real time, to travel on horse.

 

The open world didn't seem like a chore exactly for that reason. 

 

 

First you have to get to the fast travel points. It's still annoying as hell. Also giving me extra menus to click through.

 

 

You can get a mod which lets you fast travel from anywhere but you'll still have to manually discover the locations.

[Maedhros]

Witcher 3 (along with its DLC) easily GOTY for me, but my "surprise of the year" was Life is Strange. I usually don't like "click and point" types of adventure games, but this one was something special.