Music

Decker

I've had my eye on Stardew Valley. Since it's on both systems, I'm just waiting for the first time it goes on sale at either digital store. Just like I did with your upcoming #1 game....


And thanks for remembering R&C. I had played it so long ago and so quickly finished that I sort of forgot about it. It was a strong game though I wish it was longer and not tied to movie cutscenes.

I was initially dazzled by The Witness and how gorgeous it is, but soon it began to feel too much like when I'm trying to help my daughter with her Algebra 2 homework. Now I'm worried that I can't get back into it since the puzzles have dramatically escalated in difficulty.
I would also put that game in the "Walking Simulator" category (albeit with plenty of puzzles), wouldn't you?

The Questyen

I generally only use the term Walking Simulator for games where the main focus of the game is walking around and the story with little to no actual gameplay or puzzles. Dear Esther, Virginia, Gone Home for example. Otherwise every classic adventure or puzzle game is a "walking simulator". The Witness's main focus is puzzles.

Decker

Fair enough.

BTW : I picked World of Final Fantasy thanks to your recommendation of it in CAG thread when it was a DotD. I still need to play it though...

The Questyen

1. Inside (XB1)



Limbo is one of my favorite games of all time so I had high hopes for Inside and it exceeded all of them and is an even greater game than Limbo is. Playdead excels at creating worlds that you want to know more about even though they only give you the barest of info about them. The art design, music, puzzles, and "holy shit" moments are some of the best I've encountered in a video game. It excels at moving between beautiful and terrifying and is an experience that everyone who appreciates games should play.

davidh777

Nice! My kid just started playing Inside!

Decker

Yeah, I was over 99.9% certain that was going to be your GotY before you even started your list.

I bought it but never played it. I need to try it now.
BTW it's half off at $9.99 for PS4 at the PSN store until Tuesday.

Q: Did you play No Man's Sky? What did you think of it?
How about Quantum Break? Those are two flawed games that still might make my list (if I cared enough to compile one).

The Questyen

Quantum Break before it released I was pretty sure I was going to love. I'm a big fan of the Alan Wake games and it looked fantastic. It ended up being pretty mediocre. The plot and characters something they usually excel at are lackluster and I didn't find the gameplay that engaging. I didn't hate it or anything but halfway through I was ready for it to be over.

No Man's Sky didn't look at all like anything I would like but I ended up checking it out for a weekend and I had 5-6 hours of fun out of it. The lack of any sort of story structure and the endless repeating of things to do on the planet kept it from being the type of game I would continue with but I don't regret the few hours I spent with it.

The Questyen

Some Honorable Mentions:
Aviary Attorney (PC), The Walking Dead: Michonne (PS4), Adr1ft (PS4), Lara Croft GO (PS4), and I didn't include it but I played through all the story content Fallout 4 dlc this year and it was great.

astrochimp

I picked up Inside during the PSN Christmas sale. Just getting started with it, but liking it so far. It's not my normal type of game, which is nice for a change. Hopefully I'll actually be able to finish it.

kefrank

Good call on Inside. Amazing game!

Dan

I just played this one, and yeah, totally strange but absolutely worth the $5. solid recommendation!

The Questyen

Glad to hear!

bryce0lynch

My only commonalities are Doom & The Witness.

I returned Doom because I wasn't looking for solo-play Unreal Tournament. The slower & more open Far Cry style is more to my tastes.

I returned The Witness because of its one-note nature and pretentious indie stink on it.


I'm becoming quite disillusioned with Indie's. "Stark Art Style" is nice. "New Mechanic" is nice also. But you need to combine them with "fun & engaging gameplay", and far too many these days are relying on only one or both of the Art/Mechanic axis. You need all three.

The Questyen

I guess we'll have to disagree then. I don't play games that I don't find fun and engaging so obviously all the games on my list I had fun with. And based on your pretentious indie game stink comment these type of games probably aren't for you. Thankfully for you there are tons of safe big budget AAA games that look to be right up your alley.

Dan

My only problem with The Witness was that, at some point, I stopped playing. Going back to it, I had forgotten what some of the newer "rules" were, so it made it damn near impossible to pick up right from where I left off. Backtracking in the game is not as helpful for some reason. So I gave up on it. I loved it when I was playing it, and I have no other complaints really.

mattysemo247

Do you think this would be a good game to play on the Vita? It's currently only $20 at Amazon.

The Questyen

I'm probably a bad judge for that since I hate playing on portable systems and I've never touched a Vita. It's quite a beautiful game so I would think it could be appreciated more on a TV but I'm sure it's fine on a Vita.

RichC2

The Witness needs a journalling system. Great game though.