My top 5 games of 2016

This year has been a great year, and as a result maybe I'm a little jumpy on making this list (started outlining things and writing the honorable mentions out on november the 15th). I want to warn people that if The Last Gaurdian or TitanFall 2 slips into my grasp way after, or near the end of this list, and it turns out to be too amazing to keep off... well I guess I'll have to write another article about that, and amend this one. However for now I'm really eager to discuss some of the awesome titles that came out this year, and I'm feeling pretty sure about how I've selected most of these... especially the top 3. So first like always, let's start with the fantastic games that, for some reason or another, failed to make the top usual 5.

Honorable mentions...

Rise of the Tomb Raider

Tomb Raider is a series that means surprisingly a lot to me for something that I could never exactly play right. I've already discussed that before, but now what about this game? Well, it's a pretty awesome sequel to the 2013 game. I really think the newer guys behind Tomb Raider are trying their hardest to do something interesting with the action adventure 3rd person shooter field. Last time they incorporated metroidvania aspects perfectly into a 3rd person Uncharted-ish environment, and had such a map that people like Angry Joe confused this for an open world game. Now they pushed that further with side missions, dotted the game with elements of crafting, and a variety of loot including tiered hunting animals. This is some sort of frankenstein monster of linear action adventure, metroidvania, open world collect-o-thon, and then there's the extra stuff that incorporates everything from walking sim style story telling to score attack arcade play and zombie slayer nonsense. It's all fun in some way or another, and it's all a part of this really great adventure. As long as they don't join the full open world trend and become yet another generic Ubisoft-lite game, I look forward to seeing what happens next in Tomb Raider's new series. I had a blast going through this adventure. However, between the year of it's actual release, and a slight vibe of "well it was just an adventure", I'm not sure it did anything to really put it on the list. TR will be sitting this one out as an honorable mention, in part due to MS's bullshit contract deal, and in part due to just the competition and impressive stuff of this year. Oh and also, there's yet more lies in the marketing (just like the first game) where they pretend this is a globe trotting adventure. Thankfully for the better, 90% of this game is focused in some icey mountains. If a tutorial level in syria counts for "globe trotting" then someone needs to get their head together.

StarFox Zero

This might just be the best example of a sub-set of games that make it on an honorable mentions list. It's an awesome game, make no mistake about it... especially you idiots that blame it's failure on the controls. The controls are fine, and more so the TV/gamepad system is especially fine. That's not just my opinion going and telling you I lived through it, I'm going to tell you what everyone else is neglecting: You can change the entire view instantly with no consequence at the touch of a button! Yeah, so all that moaning you hear of people who can't coordinate between two screens in front of them are neglecting the fact you could play this game basically off the same screen by just the exact same method you'd change the camera view in a racing game. Anyway, the game still isn't the best thing ever though. It's a fantastic arcadey shooter, and has some amazing moments like the final fight with Star Wolf's team, but it just doesn't do enough to make me care in the long run. It's great fun, has some cool stuff, and it's fantastic we got another star fox game, but it's just not worthy of breaking through and doing anything spectacular in my book other than giving me some really awesome ship fights and scenes. ...oh and making me pissed at the internet for being full of whiny incompetent people who can't figure out how to push buttons and play a damn video game. In the end, it's just... well a good shooty game. Screw the haters, go play it, but let's not pretend it's anything close to GOTY.

Garden Warfare 2

Probably more than the others, this game should definitely be on this list. It took a game I already though was great enough to sloppily apply to a previous GOTY list, and improved it in ways nobody should have saw coming. It was a full blown sequel that instantly puts the past entry to shame. Bots, a hub world full of missions, co-op integration, free updates, and of course the obvious sequel stuff like new characters, abilities, maps, and mode functions like the ability to play survival as zombies. The game was far more accessible, fun, interesting, and had an absurd amount of content to fool around in all seamlessly designed together as one big world. However it's a bit of sad irony that I have to say it's still the accessibility that killed it for making this list. While it's more fun and well designed than the game that wins #5, the difference is I can actually jump in and play and have fun in #5 easier, whereas this game I can't. They still tacked on the stupid as hell forced online DRM that leaves me paranoid I won't be able to just sit down and play the game (and once ruined an amazing survival sessions I was playing OUTSIDE OF MULTIPLAYER BY MYSELF), and then you also need to cram every single update onto your harddrive before you play taking a game up a good notch in size even if you just want a quick round with some bots. Between the paranoid online requirements, and other awesome games using up the memory it would take to put this on, I just haven't touched this game since the season I bought it. I've even once considered returning it for a better trade value, but here I remain convinced I'll one day return to it and still love this game. However for now, that time hasn't come back around to remind me that this game is worthy of GOTY. Instead I'd rather reward games I truly kept enjoying throughout the year, or left a lasting impact. GW2 collects dust despite all of its best efforts, because some idiot decided it was still a good idea to limit the player with DRM. Well a sincere fuck you to the people behind that plan, and all those that leap on the sorry excuse that it's somehow necessary for data.

And now for the main list, starting with...

5) Enter the Gungeon

In retrospect, this is usually where I feel I goof up on marking my list out. I quickly search for a game that meets my odd standards of having to first release this year, AND any game that also provided some weird eye-opening fun I came back to at some point in time, but yet I quit playing in all general fairness. Stuff like Risk of Rain, or Garden Warfare 1, and honestly I have to wonder if that's really the best (Bioshock Infinite > RoR). Maybe in retrospect this will be another one of those games, and I should just break my rules and slap Tomb Raider on here instead. But right now all I can think is... well, Gungeon was really still just plain amazing for what it is. What it is isn't some massive true redefining game that'll have me remembering 2016 for years to come, but that's more for #1 anyway and this is still a fantastic game

Gungeon is a rogue-like that actually managed to keep me hooked even beyond Ratchet & Clank and Stories (an indie I was super hyped about). That alone is pretty amazing. It wasn't a long-lasting feat, after about two weeks I left the game alone for a while, and mostly just come back for single innings. Still unlike Garden Warfare 2, I actually do still come back, and could easily see myself just casually booting up the game and enjoying a run with some podcast on the background. The colorful characters, the excellent pacing and combat momentum, the crazy and yet somehow consistent lore and puns, and then the fact that you actually have a say and skill level to triumph over the rampant tone of chance all made this an amazing rogue-lite/like/whatever. This game just oozes an energy of fun and charm, and just did a lot of things right that made me surprisingly confident in it's ability to always entertain. That's not something that can be said for the majority of its genre, and I hope people learn lessons from it like the teleporters allowing fast travel across room floors.

4) Rachet & Clank (remake)

Is good, good enough? Yeah, I sure think it is. R&C was the most hyped thing for this year at one point, but some other much better things happened this year as things went on, and Ratchet & Clank itself... well, it didn't break any record, and had some hit and miss aspects about this year's running. However it was still fantastic as just a really fun general game. The characters were very humorous, the locations and remade aspects went well, it's a huge step over the original that it imitates, there were a few subtle cool changes that I'd love to see continue in the series, and... well, it's more Ratchet and Clank, one of the best franchises out there. It was a good dose of cartoon action + 3D platforming, and I was bent on 100% the majority of aspects within it, so I think it did it's job of creating a fantastic and memorable experience. The story telling kinda sucks at an all time low for the series, but aside from that blunder, I can confidently say this is one of the best games of this year and I'm so happy for it's success.

3) Dark Souls 3

If you include last year's unfinished list (with Bloodborne on it), the souls franchise has made it consistently on my GOTY list ever since I started playing them. However even with that being said, there might be something extra special about Dark Souls 3. For starters, it's the first game in the franchise I actually beat. Even though I knew this would be listed, it was only just now as I was thinking about what to say that memories start flooding back about what an adventure it all was. Dark Souls 3 more than the rest was a true adventure. It had just that perfect level design and confusion to leave me wandering and wondering, being confused on where to go next, being turned around in awkward spots, having me decide "screw it, now I'm charging in and it's time to just see what happens" and actually turn up successful at some of those moments. It's got moments where I gritted my death and slew a boss on my first try out of sheer tenacity and in-sync reading of his character and being into my own relations, and yet was stomped on by the tutorial boss over until I crushed him... going double swords in and shieldless and literally rolling with the punches. I pushed through the swamps in the early game, taking all of its punishment and beating the odds, only to realize I was lost and had missed my turn and was in some higher level area. As I went back and took the right path, and a grueling hard journey into the cathedral, it turned out to be a dead-end with the story telling me "Our goal is past the swamp now!" and I just collapsed in hysterical laughter. I was lost in a dungeon for hours, slowly calculating and puzzling out it's many labyrinthian directions (with this fittingly eerie song stuck in my head), halls, cracked passages, and where the most feared enemies were and how to skirt around them, until I met sweet relief by figuring out where I was supposed to really go to progress. I stopped at various parts to just gaze at the sky, and wonder about the lore, the place I was in, or just enjoy it all for what it was right in front of me. All of these things collectively come together as the true hassle, fun, irony, and determination come together to point at the master workings of a game that can replicate an experience worth taking. A true mark of time well spent, an experience achieved, and yet I probably sound like a nerd because we're really still talking about a video game.... but it speaks truly more to the medium itself and what it can do.

Now add that all on top of the common praises you should know about the souls franchise by now. If you don't, it's about damn time you go grab a game and experience it, and I won't mind recommending this as that game. This is the sort of Journey-like experience I can't redo, but I don't need to redo it so much as just embrace the amazing mechanics, and common praises Dark Soul still gets and deserves, because even without that amazing list of events and adventuring, I could still put this game on this list and say it's incredibly well built, fun, and everyone should play it.

2) Dishonored 2

So this should be expected, despite being kind of quiet on it after playing. Dishonored 2 is a fantastic follow-up to one of the best games to release across the last few year... or dare I say, even one of the best among the decade. It's practically everything I could ask out of stealth gaming. The tools, spyring, theiving, mystery, and then added elements of steampunk and mysticism, it's all there. Now Dishonored 2 follows up the events with two characters to choose from, new powers, new levels, improvements to combat and abilities, and things are only getting better through patches. Dishonored 2 has been a lot of fun, and will continue to provide a lot of fun for a good while longer as it begs for replays. I especially love how this game has given you more direct combat options for non-lethal runs. 

If I were to complain about the game in any particular ways, it's that it lacks a slight bit of the heart and charm that certain parts of the original did. Its not that 2 did anything wrong, but just there are certain things from 1 it didn't bother to compete with. There's no place quiet like the elegant party level, no massive hub world full of interesting/eccentric characters (you get a tiny boat hub with essentially two grumpy people, and depending on your actions a quiet guest that comes and goes), the world feels more careless in how it responds to the player's actions, and the targets feel a slight bit more binary in how you deal with them. Again there's no real wrong or complaint for the game itself, it's just that in comparison it's lacking a certain undescribable essence of the first. But yet with commitment to patch in a freakin' new game plus mode, and to have made the entire game playable with two different now fully voiced characters, there's clearly still effort and care. I guess its just a matter of... well, you can't just cram everything into a new story.

...and in case you haven't noticed, there's a funny coincidence going on where Dark Souls 3 got spot #3, and Dishonored 2, but I'm not exactly going to fulfill this entirely with spot #1. It may not have a number to its name, but it's not an original, but rather the 4th entry in its name...

Game of the year: Doom

I still remember the early announcement of Doom. It sounded like a glorious return to form with classic FPS mechanics, fast paced action, and brutal doom type glory kills. I was excited, but I was excited for a classic FPS. I just wanted another really damn good shooter that realized itself as a shooter and was fun for that reason. The actual video reveal was a little weird, and I didn't quite understand everything, but was still excited. My excitement held through the new trailers, the glory kills looked excellent, and I was amped up to play a fun shooter with a timesplitters style map maker implemented. ....and that excitement for just another great shooter, was blasted to mars itself, because Doom exceeded my expectations by a long ways. It was not just a great shooter, it is probably the best shooter. The real kick is, I didn't even need to beat the game before I was having that sort of revelation. I was playing the Argent tower level (about level 4). It was at the stage where I beat that first mancubus fight after a few failed tries, after a great battle, and then climbing up some beams and finding that there was a great tower to climb. As the energy pulsed, the battle fresh in mind, I pulled out a plasma rifle for reassurance, and climbed up with Samuel Hayden's awesome cheesy dialogue talking about hell energy and other technobabble, and I felt almost dizzy with all the excitement and a slight deja vu feeling... the feeling that so many fun bits are here, but in a new unexperienced and better form. All I could really say for certain though, was this game was amazing, and I was so looking forward to the rest of what lied ahead. ...and it was awesome! With the right kind of FPS being my favorite sort of genre, where else do you expect me to put the best game of its kind in YEARS! Of course its #1 on the damn list, it might also be #1 on games of the last decade. 

However I suppose I have to explain this further. Doom has an incredible multi-layered soundtrack that works with the flow of the gameplay to burst intense distorted metal in heightened combat sequences. Doom has health and ammo tied towards its very movement and enemy systems, encouraging your types of kills, ammo, and rewards to benefit based on how hard you slaughter demons and plays into the core loop of an FPS in a way no other FPS has actually done. Doom has also gracefully refined said combat system to work between a Serious Sam style wave shooter, and that of a classic linear scope level with complicated and well thought map and inventory design. Doom has secrets, hidden extended lore, fun easter eggs, and and upgrades. Doom has 60FPS on every platform, amazing visual ques that extend beyond whether or not you think the game looks nice, but it also does look fantastic with hellish and industrial details rendered wonderfully in an art style that can only be called DOOM. Doom has a map maker on all platforms that allows you to create everything from awesome campaign levels, to a freakin' harvest moon clone where you build a farm so you can buy upgrades to kill demons. Doom has a fun frantic multiplayer that balances between then MP of now, and that of the UT era when multiplayer was actually fun and taxed your map memory and movement skills in addition to gunplay and reflex. Doom has a cheesy saturday morning cartoon style story about hell energy, demon bios from an alien planet we describe as hell, and self-aware humor that taunts the notion of even telling a story. Doom also has free updates that have given you an even faster-paced arcade mode you score points off of, and has finally given us bots. The only thing Doom doesn't do is cure any problems, and solve poverty, which is a problem because that means impoverished individuals aren't out there playing this game and that needs to change because everyone should have Doom! Unless you've had your eyes and ears ripped off by demons you weren't killing, you should have known by now that Doom is a game worth having, so go grab some caffein, grab a copy of Doom, and enjoy one of the best games to come out in years... never the less this very year. Doom is my Game of the Year, and one of its only problems, is that it doesn't properly title itself to stand out from the lesser Dooms of the past.