Favorite and Not Favorite Video Games of 2016 Sort Of

I totally wanted to do this for 2015 as well but I suddenly needed to move to another city in December which cut down on the time I had for writing.  So...each category, where applicable, I have included a 2015 version for shits and giggles.  

Ground rules: I must have played the game....that's it.  Here are the best, and a little bit of the worst, games of 2016.  

Game of 2016 That Came Out in 2016...

Overwatch

Review here.
Competetive Season One Thoughts here.
A super inaccurate beta impressions here.  (Don't read that).

Like it was going to be something else?  I typically shy away from multiplayer only games but this was too good to ignore.  The gameplay is really good even if the balance is still a little off (poor useless Bastion).  They added a much needed arcade mode for more casual stuff as well as making Quick Play more of a practice mode for Comp even though the entire rule set isn't the same yet.

The characters really sell it though, from inspiring to...lets say, thirsty.  For such a shitty 2016 for minorities and women, Overwatch has a ton of representation.  While three women follow typical sexy game models (Tracer, Mercy, and Widowmaker...though I guess she represents the blueish-purple skinned people), others don't.  Pharah is old school Samus from Metroid in full armor and that's just to start.  Ana is a grandmother, Mei is short and chunky (also, bae), and Zarya is a hero to beefcake women who might be Trans according to every fan theory.  Also, recently released Sombra has been welcomed with a ton of applause from the Hispanic community because holy shit.  What other Hispanic women characters can you name in video games?  Not a whole lot out there.

The dudes are all over the place too.  Roadhog looks like he weighs 1000 lbs, Junkrat is a scraggly fucker, Reinhardt is ancient, and some of them....are robots.  Lucio might be a BIT of a stereotype as a black DJ but how many also roller blade?  Yeah.  Exactly.

The only thing that might kill this game is the community.  Don't get me wrong, it's still mostly fine.  It's not toxic.  It's also popular enough that toxicity tends to be sort of rare.  But, that liiiiiittle bit always annoys me.  I work in service jobs.  My tolerance for asshats during my gaming time isn't that high and a big reason I stick to singleplayer games most of the time.  In the right mood, I can either laugh them off or talk shit right back IF they are directing their angst to me.  Other times, even when it's not directly at me but just the whole team, which is the most common, sometimes I'm just like nah.  Quit the game and open Civilization VI instead.  Wish that wasn't the case but what are you gonna do?

2015 version:  Life is Strange.

Review here
Criticism review here.

Still love this game.  Season 2 is gonna be weird with all new characters but hey, I'm down.

Almost every critical review of this game has a, "but I can't help but kind of love it" vibe.  Yeah.  I get ya.  It's rare to see a game revolve around a relationship, specifically between two teenage girls friendship/potentially romantic relationship depending on how you played it.  That...sounds like a dumb porn but trust me it's not.  It's sweet, and touching, and heartbreaking, and all those emotions David Cage wishes he could do in his games.  There is a layer of authenticity here in its characterization that is SUPER rare in video games and something I cherish.

Runner Up Game of 2016 That Came out in 2016...

Deus Ex:Mankind Divided.

Review here.
Story review here.
Microtransaction bullshit here.  Also, one of my least read things.  I make good arguments against this practice yo.

Despite all my bitching, I do really like this game.  I'm currently playing through it a second time to try a perfect stealth, no kill run (except for some scripted moments where you have to be seen).  It's going well but I'm not at the hard parts yet.

Most of my complaining was about this games pretty good story just hitting the wrong marks.  WELL...that was before heir Trump got elected so now....I'M NOT SO SURE.  I'm (sort of) kidding here as its themes don't really match its real world references but hey, they mostly don't match BECAUSE the previous game is one of my all time favorites.  On its own, it kind of works in a sick way.

2015 version:  Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain

Review here.
Quiet controversy here.
Spoiler filled hate fest here.

I'm seriously sick of talking about this game but 3 real quick points.  1.  The gameplay is phenomenal and I still stand by my position that this is the best stealth gameplay of all time.  2.  The story is bizarre while also being so unlike any other Metal Gear Solid story it will infuriate long time fans.  3.  Fuck Konami.

Best Game Of The Last Two Years Because I Played It In 2016 Despite Coming Out In 2015 And Yes, Better Than Overwatch...

Baddest ass picture ever

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt

Review Here......That is all I said about this fantastic game?!?!

I can not rave about this game enough.  I want to do a 11-20 favorite game post even though it gets kinda fuzzy after 15 and this one is seriously climbing the more I think about it.  First open world game I've loved.  Even in my review, my criticisms were pretty nitpicky which...I HAD TO DO because the game is that good.  One of the two non-nitpick complaints was about the oppressive number of random bullshit to do on the map but I remembered, "hey! I don't actually have to do all that if I don't want too"...so I didn't.  The other was about the absurd amount of running around needed for the crafting to work right but that's only if you want to get the best gear.  The main quests and secondary quests (which were given as much care as the main quests) were more than enough to still push this game over 60 hours on that stuff alone.  All the rest puts this game into marathon territory (I played 120 hours and still didn't do everything).

I want to talk about 3 things I didn't mention in the review.

1.  I have complained about the villain deficit in fiction a lot but the villains in this game are great.  Top to bottom!  Raid a bandit camp and afterward you will find a letter the bandit never got to send (because you murdered everyone) to his wife and kids.  It will say something about how this last robbery will let them be able to buy bread for a few weeks.  Augh...my heart breaks.  Why are you humanizing this game's version of Goombas game?  And at the top, even the main villains, the Wild Hunt, are sympathetic as fuck.  I still don't want to spoil it but trust me.  You kind of feel bad for them.

This game takes the M rating for real.  Instead of just for violence and bewbs (okay lets be fair, just bewbs) it actually deals with adult themes that younger players wouldn't notice or understand.  This game takes the phrase, "Nobody sees themselves as the villain", and makes it a trope.  It's great.  Granted, many of the monsters in the game are just fodder, but like I said in the review, even some of them are sympathetic and some question the idea of if they should even be considered monsters.  But, this is a choice orientated game.  You can choose to slay them, or not.  It's so fucking good.

2.  For a story with as much misery as this story has, this game is smart in taking time off and doing............borderline comic relief moments.  WAIT, wait, hear me out.  For being an emotionless Witcher, Geralt sure does have some sick one liners at times.  They even make fun of the ridiculous trailer to this game that seems out of character and WOW did they rush that scene out.  Also, there is a point in the game were Geralt decides to get drunk with his Witcher buddies.  Protip:  Go all the way.  Trust me.  Fun times happen.  Since this is a choice orientated game, there are times when you can quit drinking and you might think you should because the wife will get mad but I don't even care if this is a spoiler....it doesn't matter.  It won't effect anything.  Just go for it.

3.  There are a couple battle themes but Steel for Humans is fantastic battle music.

I don't have a 2015 version of this.  I just wanted to say Witcher 3 is the best game of 2015 and 2016!  It is that damn good.  I just happened to play it the year after release.  

Worst Game of 2016...

No Man's Sky

Review here.

I was skeptical of this game being like Spore in its promises but didn't want to be right and damnit...I was right.  (Yes, I will gloat about that).  But what is TRULY weird is that the game ended up being like Spore in design too.  The procedurally generated animals in the game do sort of look like Spore animals.  It's fucking bizarre.  I mean, sure, they are less penis shaped, but they are still a weird amalgamation of things....

....OH.  EXCEPT FOR SONIC.  LOVE HIM. * Best thing to come out of this game.  He just wants to go fast.....ahem, anyway.

*Why can't I embed your video bro?

I know a base building update recently came out which is super bizarre since the size of the universe makes back tracking nearly impossible.  You leave the planet you built that base on, gooooood fucking luck ever finding it again.  Also, why does so much of this game seem to rip off Subnautica, yet Subnautica still looks way better?

This game desperately needs a purpose.  It's an existential nightmare.  I think the reason so many of these survival crafting games never make it out of "Steam early access" is because they fail at, you know, THE POINT.  Why am I doing any of this?  I can play around with mechanics in a setting for a while but without a reason to do so, I get bored.  And for such a huge game world, this is one of the loneliest I've ever seen.  Why do the AI aliens suck so hard?  How was that part of the game fucked up so bad?  They're like 1990's (hell, maybe 80's) era PC adventure game NPCs.  They were not good then.  I just remember thinking, "Man, I can't wait for technology to advance to the point where these NPCs can walk around and be active and act like they exist".

I shouldn't dog pile so much on an indie developer that bit off more than it can chew but come on.  They bought into their own hype and over sold their product to an insane degree.  I'd love it if a indie game could compete with AAA games and....wait.  I forgot.  One already did.  It's called Minecraft.


Other Noteworthy Video Game Things:

Shockingly good soundtrack:  VA-11 HALL-A

I gotta course correct here.  In my review I linked to the soundtrack and picked the song that LEAST represents that game.  If anything, take one of my favorites, Every Day is Night.  Yeah it's poppy (no singing though if you are scared) but I dare your head not to start bopping.  I love the transition at 1:40.

I also really like Skyline, which has a slow start but it builds, and You've Got Me which I think is a re-work of the same song.  It sounds like an 80's love ballad.  It's great.

A Horror Game That Was Actually Scary:  Anatomy

While not nightmare inducing, I did distract myself with non-scary Youtube videos before going to bed.  I'm super bummed my stream of it kept quitting and also didn't record but I fixed the recording part at least.  It also made my wife wonder what the hell I was buying when I bought something from someone named "Kitty Horrorshow" on my checking account.

A Game I've Played A Lot But Can't Write a Review On:  Civilization VI

It's like any other Civ ever.  It's the same good game with minor adjustments here and there.  Don't fix what is not broken.  That said..

Probably Best Game I Didn't Play:  Firewatch

It's pretty up my alley.  It just didn't happen and I've seen so much of it I may not actually get around to it for a long time.  Also, 2015 version: Undertale

Two games inexplicably missing...

Back in January, I wrote about 5 games I looked forward to in 2016.*  I've played one of them, Deus Ex.  Two of them got delayed to 2017 (Mass Effect and Persona 5, both of which coming out near each other goddamnit) but what about the other two?

*"Year of Jason"....dude.  I think I've handled 2016 with a fuck ton of grace considering.

Mirrors Edge:Catalyst is still on the back burner and it might be there for a long while.  I got turned off from the constant "combat improvement" talk which I can't see without serious compromises to the parkour controls.  I also hate that it is a prequel since there was so much more to explore in the original game's universe.

Dishonored 2, despite being my Twitter header, is just too similar to Deus Ex (it's steampunk Deus Ex) and I'm not ready to play another stealth game.  Also, the PC launch was super rough so patches are nice.

Finally.

Oxenfree has been sitting on my hard drive for over a month now.  Part of me wants to stream it but my internet will probably make that impossible without constant interruptions.  Also, it's a story driven game so it's questionable how entertaining that would be for people.  I dunno.  I'll likely just play it on my own.

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Other best/worsts of 2016 coming soon.

No Man's Sky Review

Played on PC.

I'm not a huge fan of procedurally generated survival games in the first place, but this one seemed to be too good to be true.  I didn't fully buy into the hype, buuuut I wanted at least SOME of it to be true.  I routinely made the "didn't Spore make promises it couldn't possibly fulfill?" observations with the caveat that I wanted this game to be good.  I didn't want to smugly say this is Spore 2 after release but goddamnit this is Spore 2.  

Since this seems to be the most controversial game of 2016 (at least so far), it's likely you've seen other reviews and I don't want to rehash the same points in detail here.  So, here's a few notes before I go on to the meat of what I want to talk about.

1. The PC port, as of launch, is poorly optimized.  Frame rate drops are frequent though it seems to stabilize after you play for a bit.  Also, if you Alt-Tab out of the game, you can't get back in.  The game continues to run, but it won't re-open.  
2. Texture pop-in is wonky on both PC and what I've seen on PS4 as well.  Not a huge gripe with me as most of it is when you are entering a planets atmosphere but it sometimes happens on the ground too, which is less forgivable.  
3. The game is oppressively survival.  I know fans say "this game is about the exploration and its chill atmosphere.  Just take your time and enjoy the pretty nature."  Yeah, hard to chill out to this game when you are constantly bombarded with "Life Support Systems Low", "Radiation Protection Low", "Life Support Systems Critical", "Life Support Systems recharged.", "JOURNEY MILESTONE ACHIEVED".  Why are the achievements so bombastic?  
4. The UI is horrendous.  Why do I need an empty inventory slot to craft something?  Why can't I stack items other than raw ingredients?  Why do upgrades take an inventory slot when it's an upgrade to something already taking an inventory slot?  Why do I have to open the inventory to restore my shields in the middle of combat?
5. Combat is dull.  Nothing on the ground seems like much of a threat.  Shoot, jetpack around to dodge fire while you reload, shoot, repeat forever.  In space, it's the opposite.  It's really hard to track ships (why can't I look around the cockpit?), it seems impossible to get behind anybody, and it's hard to tell who is shooting me.  Most dogfights turn into a war of attrition as the enemy ship turns right at me, I turn right at it kamikaze style, and we shoot at each other while hoping in vain I don't have to open the inventory to restore my shields.  
6. The good stuff includes the soundtrack, which is really good, and for a while the planets are really pretty and interesting.  Unfortunately, the planets start to seem very "samey" after a while like every planet is Moab, Utah.  The scale of the game is outstanding but is a prime example of how quality over quantity is better.   
7. Finally, there is a litany of features advertised that didn't make it into the game despite early demos showing some of them (many of you may have already seen this comprehensive list on Reddit of everything missing).  That means, these features were removed for whatever reason, or they were fabricated for the demos.  Neither looks good on the part of the developer.  

All of these notes drag the game down for me, but one thing I haven't seen other reviews talk about in detail is.....the lore.

The fuck is this stone?

This game is an existential crisis right from the start.  Who am I?  I get that I'm a human (...I think?!?) who crash landed on a planet, apparently in another galaxy, for reasons that I'm sure are never explained, but why am I here?  Was I sent on some suicidal, lone wolf, explorer mission?  Why was I sent toward this galaxy in the first place?*

*I know a lot of people don't give a shit about this. I barely give a shit about it myself.  But, it is the beginning of this games atrocious "story".

There are 3 alien factions in the game, along with an AI race called Sentinels, and generic "space pirates".  The alien factions are a warrior one, a mercantile one, and a scientific one, ALL OF WHICH have no other defining characteristic.  I don't even care about they're names.  Let's see....one is the Gek*, one is the T'for'reals, and the other is Daft Punk.  They all have colonial outposts, abandoned buildings, factories, and some fucking how, actual ruins on every, and I mean EVERY, planet.  Fucking how do they have "colonial outposts"...you know, as in those temporary structures all sci-fi uses to colonize a new planet, AND have ruins...you know, as in a permanent structure on an already established colony, on the same fucking planet?

Thrift store Daft Punk.

*The Gek?  Really?  Who named these aliens?  Nickelodeon?

All NPC interaction is done in an old school adventure game style because they are all static.  They have a little animation when you greet them but they don't walk anywhere.  If animals can walk around, why can't the aliens walk to and from their ships landing at posts, space stations, etc.?  How in the hell does a game with this many spaceships moving around (unless it's a giant one which just sits there) feel this underpopulated and lonely?  

Everything has already been discovered by these aliens.  Visiting any colonial outpost, manufacturing site, abandoned site, or monolith just amounts to a crafting blueprint vending machine.  Solve this puzzle, get a blueprint.  At least with the monoliths and other ruins, it FELT like some actual lore was taking place....but it only complicated things.  

Any time you interact with ruins or Atlas (more on that in a second), you have an inner monologue that.....okay.  You know that guy in college who was really, REALLY, into his Intro to Philosophy 101 class?  All that inner monologue stuff was written by that guy.  It's all vague, pseudo-intellectual crap that doesn't actually mean anything but sounds like it could be deep and just over your head man.  It's fucking garbage.

The writer gave up on this one.

While discovering these ruins, I thought I'd get some sort of story of how the aliens (all 3 for some reason) had vast empires across the galaxy that some cataclysm have left in ruins and they are re-colonizing now because it is literally the only thing I can think of WHY ARE THEY COLONIZING PLANETS THEY HAVE RUINS ON? 

The Sentinels destroyed their empires right?  Uh...I...maybe?  

Spoiler section:  The Sentinels work for Atlus and act as a police force of ecosystems.  Though why some are passive and some aggressive, I have no idea.  But then you work for Atlus, but they keep attacking you........uuuuuuugh.  End spoilers.

The endings suck.  I already had them spoiled for me but both reaching the center of the galaxy and the Atlus endings are horrendously dumb.  Spoiler Section:  The prize you get at the center of the galaxy is....getting to go to another galaxy!  Yay?  The Atlus ending basically has god tell you life is meaningless, you are a defeated husk of a human, be depressed and I hope everybody you love dies.  No grand reason behind the Atlus.  It used you and now it wants you to know how much of a piece of shit you are.  End Spoilers.

This giant universe with endless amounts of life feels dead.  How does this happen?  I've complained about open world games filling their worlds with way too many cookie cutter side quests but this is the total opposite.  No Mans Sky mostly left them out, except for the Atlus missions which are everybody's favorite TYPE of side quest....fetch quests.  There's nothing to do except, what, go hiking?  The Sentinels only exist to give this game, something, ANYTHING, resembling an active universe with things happening and those never get a resolution as far as I can see.

Thrilling

Procedurally generated survival games usually have a purpose, that being surviving zombies in the vast majority of them (or defending yourself from the real threat, other people), so why is the purpose in No Mans Sky not here.  You mine resources, to upgrade your gear, which usually need to be powered, so requires more mining, to eventually get gear good enough to do Atlus missions and reach the center of the galaxy for NO REASON.  You are compelled to do these things?  Why?!?!  I wake up next to a crashed spaceship then suddenly want to travel to the center of the galaxy because some kind of demi-god red orb tells me too?  Christ.  When I wake up mid day (I work nights), I don't immediately alter my entire life to do whatever my phone tells me.

This game is a confused mess.  It's story is almost non-existent and what little you do get is utter nonsense.  It's space sections feel underdeveloped and seem to have most of the missing content shown in previous demos.  It's barely a relaxing exploration game with the robot voice constantly telling you what your levels are.  Mining and crafting is boring without any sort of real purpose.  You can't be creative in this game.  You can't be a space pirate.  You can't really be a merchant unless you just want to mess with menus all day.  You can't even be an explorer....because everything has already been explored by the aliens before you.

Sporecraft is a disappointment even without the hype.  Who knows if future DLC will make the universe exciting but I will not care for I am a broken husk of a human.  One, who only experiences the shadows of the true nature of reality, and unto that reality, I am a mere ghost.  But now, I must leave this realm, for the metaphysical beckons.  For honor.  For Love.  For Pizza.  For Mei Bae.  I now bid you, an existential, farewell.  May the force be with you.

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No Mans Sky might be, low key, the most pretentious game I've ever played and I "played" Proteus.