The Questyen

I own all three systems (and the PC), I play a good mix of AAA and indie games so I figured my list is probably a little more eclectic then the average gamer and might be of interest to some of you. I ended up playing through somewhere between 60-70 games this year and I thought it was a fantastic year so here goes:

20. Hatoful Boyfriend (PS4) **side note I'm listing the system I played it on



This is one of the most batshit awesome games I've ever played. I don't play a lot of PC games (unless something looks really interesting) so I don't have a lot of knowledge about dating sims but the buzz around this one made me check it out and I'm glad I did. The basic premise is you are a teenage girl who transfers to an all bird high school. That there was weird enough for me to be interested but the back story takes it to another level. You live in a society where humanity was pretty much wiped out by the bird flu. Humans unleashed a virus to kill all the birds and counter bird flu which backfired and the birds that survived have increased intelligence and are now the dominant species.

That's all told to you pretty early on but it's goes in all these bizarre places from there which I won't spoil. The gameplay revolves around you going to school, choosing classes and making dialogue choices about which one of the many bird suitors in the game you're interested in. This game has 14 different endings (I unlocked all of them although needed the Internets help for the last few) and it is definitely worth going back and choosing different choices to unlock whole new parts of the story. To make you motivated to do this when playing again you can skip through sections you've already played and get straight to the point where you can make a different choice (which I've found out is a staple of dating sims) which is a great feature.

This definitely isn't going to be for everyone but if you're looking for something different check it out. The sequel comes out on the PS4 next week so maybe the original will be on sale sometime soon.

The Questyen

19. Wolfenstein: The Old Blood (PS4)



The Old Blood is a standalone expansion/prequel to last years Wolfenstein: The New Order and while a lot of the complaints I've read were that it was just more of the same as the original game I still had a lot of fun with it. I enjoy a good story driven FPS and the world they've created in the original game and this prequel is interesting and it's backed by shooting and gameplay that just feels right. The story and characters are a step down from the original and the plot is a little disjointed (they originally planned on releasing this as two separate add ons and then ended up releasing it as one expansion) but they didn't hurt it enough for me to regret the 8-10 hours I spent playing through it.

Solid Snake

We can make specific threads for listing our favorite things?

foxdvd

I kind of wish you posted all 20 at once...going to start calling you IGNSTYEN

Decker

Dammit, every time somebody bumps this thread, I think we're getting #18.

Michael Corvin

fumanstan

I don't see the big deal since he's obviously putting the time and effort in to each game. But yeah, bring on the rest!

The Questyen

I won't drag it out too long. I plan on posting all of them by Monday.

Solid Snake

18 posts or one big ass motherfucking post?

The Questyen

Which one is going to annoy you more?

The Questyen

18. Rock Band 4 (XB1)



I'll start with the bad. The song import process is garbage, the character creation is as bare bones as this series has ever had, the unlocks of outfits/instruments is lacking compared to the rest of the series, and all the talk from the creators before hand was that the story mode was going to be a Rock Band RPG which had me hyped and all it ended up coming down to was a few times during the story they gave you a choice between selling out or not.

But even with all that it's still Rock Band and it had been long enough since the last one that I missed the core gameplay and even a couple months since it's been out I still play it every couple days. I'm one of those weirdos who likes playing songs even if he doesn't like the actual song so even though 95% of the music on my 400+ list I would never listen to in any other context I'll still play through them in quickplay and enjoy them.

The Questyen

17. Lifeless Planet (XB1)



I had heard nothing about this game until I read some read random person's rave review of it on Cheap Ass Gamer's forums and it seemed like something I'd enjoy. I checked the consensus online and it didn't have great reviews but I went for it and it's definitely my type of game. You're an astronaut on a desolate planet trying not to lose his mind and the majority of storytelling is told with journal entries that you find and audio logs. The core gameplay is platforming with some light puzzle solving and it does that decently but the real pull of the game is the atmosphere with it's barren planet and Soviet Union space program plot.

Michael Corvin

Never heard of Lifeless Planet, but it sounds interesting. Thread justified.

fumanstan

I've never heard of it either. Interesting!

Music

I bought it on Steam a while ago, decent game. Picked it up when it was on sale recently for the One.

The Questyen

16. Until Dawn (PS4)



I was always planning on picking this up after the first preview I saw and it had a Heavy Rain/Beyond Two Souls vibe (two games I really liked) so I'm glad it also turned out to be a really fun game. The story is typical cheesy horror stuff but it's got some great motion capture and performances and trying to figure out what choice to make to keep the most people alive was quite fun. Also neat that they treated this almost like a movie with all the unlockable bonus interviews with director/actors. I only played through it the one time and then traded it in for more then I paid with GCU because I had a backlog but I plan on picking it up again in the future to try and save everyone.

Decker

^ Too low. That game is awesome.

Raul3

Planning to start Until Dawn this holiday break. Hopefully tonight.

The Questyen

It is a great game that's why it's on my list!

The Questyen

15. Tales from the Borderlands (PS4)



I love the Borderlands franchise and I really like the modern Telltale stuff so I was excited when they announced this although skeptical of the combination and it turned out really well. They managed to combine the humor and oddball characters that the Borderlands universe is known for and mix it into the Telltale formula which to be honest at this point needs some freshening up. It was actually with this game that I realized I enjoyed playing these more when I waited until all the episodes are out before starting since I was forgetting important stuff between episodes. Like most Telltale games the voice acting is fantastic and this game looks and runs better then their previous stuff. I like how they focused on new characters and they fit right into the Borderlands world. I hope they end up bringing some of them in to a Borderlands 3 whenever that materializes.

So at this point I think you know if you like these Telltale point and click games or not and if you do this is one of the better ones.

Decker

I initially thought it was some serious hubris to put out a thread like this about your personal favorite games of the year, but I'm really enjoying it so far. Thanks for putting so much thought and effort into it. I look forward to the rest.

mhg83

I just read OP list of finished games on the report card sticky. Very impressive how many games you've completed. How do you find the time?

Adam Tyner

By the time the year's out, I'll have played through right at forty games, and gaming isn't a daily or even weekly thing for me. For someone who does pick up a controller most every night (even if it's just for an hour), I have no trouble picturing 60-70 games.

Michael Corvin

It also depends on whether or not you're a completionist. I.e. One can finish Tomb Raider in about 12 hours but spend another 10 going for 100%. Just focusing on the story portion of a game speeds up the playlist significantly.

The Questyen

I'm married but don't have kids (me and my wife don't want them). Up until a few years ago my main hobby was movies and I was watching around 200 a year. In the last two years I've pretty much stopped watching movies all together and have focused on videogames so that equals a lot of time.