Additionally I can't say enough good things about how great PREY is, one of the few games that actually propelled me to beat it.
Another stellar game from the same studio that came out this year: Dishonored: Death of the Outsider This year seemed to be quite the year for archery in games....
Nioh Horizon Shadow of War Breath of the Wild Assassin's Creed: Origins art sources, prey, botw
Horizon Zero Dawn (Guerrilla Games / Sony Interactive Entertainment) Persona 5 (Atlus) PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds (PUBG Corp.) Super Mario Odyssey (Nintendo EPD / Nintendo) The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild(Nintendo EPD / Nintendo)
Best Game Direction
Horizon Zero Dawn (Guerrilla Games) Resident Evil 7: Biohazard(Capcom) Super Mario Odyssey (Nintendo EPD) The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (Nintendo EPD) Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus (MachineGames / Bethesda)
Best Narrative
Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice (Tameem Antoniades, Elizabeth Ashman-Rowe / Ninja Theory) Horizon Zero Dawn(John Gonzalez / Ninja Theory) NieR: Automata (Yoko Taro, Hana Kikuchi, Yoshiho Akabane / Platinum Games) What Remains of Edith Finch(Ian Dallas / Giant Sparrow) Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus (Jen Matthies, Tommy Tordsson Bjork / MachineGames)
Best Art Direction
Cuphead(Studio MDHR Entertainment) Destiny 2 (Bungie / Activision) Horizon Zero Dawn (Guerrilla Games / Sony Interactive Entertainment) Persona 5 (Atlus) The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (Nintendo EPD / Nintendo)
Best Score / Music
Cuphead (Kristofer Maddigan) Destiny 2(Mike Salvatori, Skye Lewin, C Paul Johnson) NieR: Automata (Keiichi Okabe, Keigo Hoashi) Persona 5(Shoji Meguro) Super Mario Odyssey (Naoto Kubo, Shiho Fujii, Koji Kondo) The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (Manaka Kataoka, Yasuaki Iwata)
Even tho I'm going with Zelda, special mention to this track that I love from Destiny 2:
Best Audio Design
Destiny 2(Bungie) Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice (Ninja Theory) Resident Evil 7: Biohazard (Capcom) Super Mario Odyssey (Nintendo EPD / Nintendo) The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild(Nintendo EPD / Nintendo)
Best Performance
Ashly Burch, Horizon: Zero Dawn (As Aloy) Brian Bloom, Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus (as BJ Blazkowicz) Claudia Black, Uncharted: The Lost Legacy (as Chloe Frazer) Laura Bailey, Uncharted: The Lost Legacy (as Nadine Ross) Melina Juergens, Hellblade (as Senua)
Cuphead (Studio MDHR Entertainment) Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice (Ninja Theory) Night in the Woods (Infinite Fall) Pyre(Supergiant Games) What Remains of Edith Finch (Giant Sparrow / Annapurna Interactive)
Best Handheld Game
Ever Oasis (Grezzo / Nintendo) Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia(Intelligent Systems / Nintendo) Metroid: Samus Returns (MercurySteam / Nintendo) Monster Hunter Stories(Marvelous / Capcom / Nintendo) Poochy and Yoshi’s Woolly World(Good-Feel / Nintendo)
Best Action Game
Cuphead(Studio MDHR Entertainment) Destiny 2 (Bungie / Activision) Nioh (Team Ninja / Sony Interactive Entertainment) Prey (Arkane Studios / Bethesda) Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus (MachineGames / Bethesda)
Best Action/Adventure Game
Assassin’s Creed: Origins (Ubisoft Montreal / Ubisoft) Horizon Zero Dawn (Guerrilla Games / Sony Interactive Entertainment) Super Mario Odyssey (Nintendo EPD / Nintendo) The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (Nintendo EPD / Nintendo) Uncharted: The Lost Legacy (Naughty Dog / Sony Interactive Entertainment)
Best Role-Playing Game
Divinity: Original Sin II (Larian Studios) Final Fantasy XV (Square Enix Business Division 2 / Square Enix) NieR: Automata (Platinum Games / Square Enix) Persona 5(Atlus) South Park: The Fractured But Whole (Ubisoft San Francisco / Ubisoft)
Mario Kart 8 Deluxe (Nintendo EAD / Nintendo) Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle (Ubisoft Paris + Milan / Ubisoft) Sonic Mania (PagodaWest Games, Headcannon / Sega) Splatoon 2 (Nintendo EPD / Nintendo) Super Mario Odyssey (Nintendo EAD / Nintendo)
Best Strategy Game
Halo Wars 2 (Creative Assembly, 343 Industries / Microsoft Studios) Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle (Ubisoft Paris + Milan / Ubisoft) Total War: Warhammer II (Creative Assembly / Sega) Tooth and Tail (Pocketwatch Games) XCOM 2: War of the Chosen (Firaxis Games / 2K)
Best Multiplayer
Call of Duty: WWII(Sledgehammer Games / Activision) Destiny 2 (Bungie / Activision) Fortnite (Epic Games) Mario Kart 8 Deluxe (Nintendo EAD / Nintendo) PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds (PUBG Corp.) Splatoon 2 (Nintendo EPD / Nintendo)
Most Anticipated Game
God of War (Santa Monica Studio / Sony Interactive Entertainment) Marvel’s Spider-Man (Insomniac Games / Sony Interactive Entertainment) Monster Hunter World (Capcom) Red Dead Redemption II (Rockstar Games) The Last of Us Part II (Naughty Dog / Sony Interactive Entertainment)
Best Debut Indie Game
Cuphead(Studio MDHR Entertainment) Golf Story (Sidebar Games) Hollow Knight (Team Cherry) Mr. Shifty (Team Shifty) Slime Rancher(Monomi Park)
The first Game Of The Year contender arrived yesterday and it's called Nioh. The whole release schedule for games for the first 5 months of this year is INSANE:
I really got into Mr Robot this year and this is kinda Mr Robot the game BUT it's the countless hours I've spent having fun in the seamless Co-Op and PVP modes that really got me. I even made it to Master in the leaderboards for Hacking Invasions which are so satisfying when pulled off. This was the "whatever I'll try this game...whoa its great....damn i'm obsessed" of the year for me.
Darkest Dungeon
An acquired taste of Art, Style, Lore and Game Play that finally made it to PS4 this year.
I thought my favorite strategy game of the year was going to be XCOM 2 but this one consumed me way way more.
Forza Horizon 3
Best racing game since my second best fave racer Dirt 2. Honorable mention: The best racer ever, Burnout Paradise, is now backwards compatible on Xbox One. Finally!
A week ago I bought Dark Souls 3 on xbox one from the Japanese store and have been in gaming heaven. Alas now after 30ish hours I'm stuck. This version doesn't currently have the servers for the online component available and without help I've hit a wall on the two bosses I currently can fight.
I'm on a Halo 5 kick, playing it daily. On my way to beating Rise of the Tomb Raider. I like that game so much I went ahead and got this DLC:
I don't fucking like The Division and the obscene amount of schilling for it in various gaming sites I was following on twitter made me unfollow them. I'm looking at you VG247. The Street Fighter 5 beta has been pretty good, HYPED for the game's release next month.
I wish I had a kept a gaming journal during all 12 years of this blog's existence but better late than never. I'm going to try it this year. I'm going through a bit of an ADD period with games. I have a huge backlog from the massive amount of releases last fall. And then even older titles than that showing up in the rotation.
Highlights
Playing with my Destiny Waifu Sara using the really neat Refer A Friend feature in Destiny. Shout out to Jafku, the MVP of our Fireteam, who got the Platinum Trophy for the game.
Playing U2 songs in Rock Band 4.
Finally being amazed by Super Mario Maker. Nintedo better wise up and give us a Zelda and Metroid maker in the future.
Check out Sara's awesome Legend of Zelda tattoo:
Lowlights: I tried going back to Dark Souls 2 in anticipation of this year's new one and I was completely fucking lost. I'm a little discouraged.
Gears of War 4 Uncharted 4 The Legend of Zelda.WiiU No Man's Sky Street Fighter 5 Dishonored 2 Mass Effect: Andromeda XCOM 2 Valkyria Chronicles Remaster
And that's what my list would look like if I had to pick 10.
Today is the official start of the deluge of big video game releases for the rest of the year. And it starts with a bang: Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain !! I highly recommend the Prologue.
Of course I am oversimplifying. When I tell you “sense of direction,” I mean what French neuroscientist Alain Berthoz terms egocentric memory which, he writes, is the “vestibular memory of self-motion.” To use Berthoz’s own example, this means intuitively remembering what it feels like to make one full turn in the dark —a movement-memory stored in the inner ear to call up later and translate, by complicated synaptic algorithms, into a pirouette. Negotiating space using landmarks is, conversely, allocentric memory. Most people, in navigating from A to B, are able to combine those cognitive skills. All the Spaces Between Us: Struggling to Connect in a Pixilated World
+ Learning to Praise the Sun: No one would argue that Dark Souls is an easy game, but difficulty is just scratching the surface. In other words, it's time to issue a formal apology to Dark Souls.
Almost everyone I know who loves video games — myself included — is broken in some fundamental way. With their ceaseless activity and risk-reward compulsion loops, games also soothe broken people. This is not a criticism. Fanatical readers tend to be broken people. The type of person who goes to see four movies a week alone is a broken person. + A letter to Niko Bellic about Grand Theft Auto V
I completed the main story mission in Assassin's Creed 4 today and I have to say that it has one of my favorite End Credits scene. Very touching and sweet. Also, the soundtrack is awesome.
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