Episodes
Saturday Jan 09, 2016
Anthony's Top 10 Games of the Year - 2015 Edition
Saturday Jan 09, 2016
Saturday Jan 09, 2016
Twitter - @Killroycantkill
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10) Cibele
Cibele is something that wasn’t even on my radar until it was released; just the idea of a semi-live-action story about online romance was enough to hook me into a purchase. But what I got was so much more, it was a real, no, dare I say, the realist story. It’s about real people, and the weirdness of online “relationships”. It’s a story a felt a little voyeuristic at times, but the fact that Cibele is so unapologetically raw made me love playing it even more. It’s a little game, with a lot of heart that is deserving of a spot on any top 10 list.
9) Earth Defence Force 4.1: The Shadow of New Despair
(Fire Ants are actually the least of this soldiers problems)
EDF! EDF! EDF! Sometimes I catch myself chanting along with the NPC’s of this game after taking down a hoard of giant enemy ants, or an electric lizard that’s as big as a skyscraper. The Earth Defence Force series has always been the B-Movie of the videogame world, and 4.1 is no exception. But EDF manages to capture my heart because of just how dumb it is. Huge insects and alien spaceships getting demolished by your run of the mill soldier, or an all-female jetpack squad with laser pigtails; oh man this game is so fun. And that right there is the reason EDF 4.1 is on this list, EDF is just a FUN videogame. Period. Full stop.
8) Galak-Z: The Dimensional
(God, this pause screen is just the best)
To be completely honest I haven’t even beat
Galak-Z yet, that game is god damn difficult! But the time I spent playing it
was some of the most fun I’ve ever had with a rogue-like style game. The people
over at 17-Bit have captured everything I love about old mecha anime and let me
play it. Everything from flying around in space, transforming into a robot, and
even the smoke tread on your missiles to give it that Robotech style, look
amazing.
Oh and you can’t forget that pause screen, oh god that VHS pause screen looks so good!
7) Rise of the Tomb Raider
Rise of the Tomb Raider is a refined version of the last Tomb Raider game, but oh boy did they refine the f&*%$^g s@%t out of it! Tombs, tombs and more tombs are what this game offers and somehow they don’t get boring. Every single time you step into an unexplored cave you just have to urge to explore the whole thing. And it doesn’t matter if you’ve been up for 3 hours longer than you’re supposed to and you should probably go to bed.
Oh yeah, and on top of those sick tombs there’s also some super tight controls and a really interesting story. It’s what you’d expect out of big budget title like this, and Rise of the Tomb Raider delivers in spades.
6) Bloodborne
Just because the title doesn’t have the word “Souls” in it, don’t be fooled, this is a “Souls” game through and through. But the faster pace of Bloodborne over its predecessors changes up many aspects of gameplay, especially if, in the older games, you’re a great sword and giant shield user like me. The game forces you to be on toes, and go for those high risk situations. And when it pays off, of man do you feel like a badass. Who knew taking away a shield could impact gameplay so much.
But the thing that got me the most about Bloodborne is that I feel From Software has finally made a truly unsettling world. It’s not outright scary, but it’s a world where you always feel something is wrong, someone did something they shouldn’t have and everything got kind of messed up. There are certain area’s that I dreaded going into just because of atmosphere alone, and that’s saying a lot when you have to face messed up creatures like the Brain Trust…. *shudder*
5) Xenoblade Chronicles X
I’ve been having a lot of conversations with friends lately about how they think “games nowadays barely have any content. I remember back when….” Now when this conversation happens again I know I should just smack them in the face with a copy of this game. Xenoblade Chronicles X has SO MUCH STUFF TO DO it’s kind of mind boggling. From your average JRPG quest to micromanaging your team’s robot suits this game has it all and then some.
I’ve also spent hours just exploring a world that has such a huge scale. And the game also messes with your sense of scale not once, by giving you a giant mech to pilot, but twice when you get a flying modification for your giant mech. Each time making you, the player, feel like they have barely scratched the surface of the game even though you’re 40 hours deep. It’s a game that keeps on giving.
4) Splatoon
Every single time I boot up Splatoon it reminds me of Jet Set Radio, and that’s a good thing, a very good thing. Splatoon just oozes style from those fresh kicks I can buy for my squid homie, to the arena of battle after a good inking. It’s also the only game that has got me to play an online shooter with some sort of regularity since Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. The decision to not make ones K/D ratio the main reason for winning a match is smart because it allows people who have varying skill sets to contribute to a teams win, even those Call of Duty headshot fiends.
Splatoon has also been supported so well that whenever I think I’ve been freed from its clutches a new batch of free content is released and I get dragged right back in again. This game is my favourite on the Wii U this year, and it should be yours too.
3) Disgaea 5: Alliance of Vengeance
(Red Magnus is just The Rock in anime form. If you don't get joy from that you're dead inside.)
Disgaea games have always been known for being impenetrable, hardcore grind fests; and while the latter is still true, Disgaea 5 somehow makes the whole experience friendlier by putting in MORE systems. Wait... What?! They have the addition of the Cheat Shop which, well, allows you to cheat by changing game values, like how much experience you gain. They’ve also made almost every single important post-story mechanic easy enough for any player to get into if they wanted to.
Disgaea 5 also has the best story in a Disgaea game since 3, with characters I actually want to root for and a story that kept me engaged the whole time. Instead of like in 4 where I just couldn’t wait to finish the story and make my characters unstoppable farming machines. I really enjoyed my time with the characters of Disgaea 5, and that actually made me want to play more even after the main story way finished… To then make my characters unstoppable grinding machines.
2) Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate
Oh Monster Hunter. I feel if I sing your praises any more people will start to think and I am being paid off by Capcom. But in the same vain as Disgaea, MH4U has made a game where it almost tricks you into learning all the deep and intricate systems that the game has to offer. It’s fun from the word go, and if you have 3 equally as addicted friends, you too will probably put hundreds of hours collecting the best gear, and finding the optimal strategies to defeat your foes.
Not to
mention that all year the game has been giving out free DLC that adds not only
new challenges to the game, but also new monsters that weren’t in the initial
release. All of this combined with a surprisingly great story filled loveable
characters really makes this the… Monster Hunter 4 U.
.
.
.
OK I’ll see myself out.
1) Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain
(D-Dog, you're my homeboy until the bitter end!)
Kojima, you’re a god damn mad man and I hope you never change. Here it is, the closing chapter in the Metal Gear Solid timeline, the one that is filling in the gaps between Peace Walker and Metal Gear for the MSX. And boy howdy does is close in the most Kojima way possible, and by that I mean it’s confusing as f*&k. And it’s still the most tame a story has been in a Metal Gear Solid game to my memory (is that a good thing or a bad thing?) It’s also a game that light on story in comparison to older entries, but surprisingly the story isn’t the reason this game is my number one.
Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain is on the top of this game of the year list because it is hands down the best open world game I have ever played. Emphasis on played, because the gameplay is astounding. MGSV offers so much in the way of choice that when they say you can take on bases in any way you want, they mean it. The combination of buddies, your choice of weapons, and being able to infiltrate an area any way you want made every mission a different experience even if it was at the same base.
This is a game that doesn’t get made anymore. It’s a game that brings back memories of when games just went for the most grandiose ideas and the packed it full of fun Easter eggs. There’s so much to do even after the game end thanks to a great online mode. It might not be my favourite Metal Gear Solid game, but it is far and away the best game to come out in 2015.
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