2015: A Year That's Hard To Beat For Gamers

2015 had a few pretty darn good games come out. My top 3 so far have been Witcher 3, Bloodborne, and also Rocket League. Rocket League really came out of nowhere, it's only like $20, it's been in the top sellers in steam for the past month, and in it's short time so far it's already developed into an e-sport. Another couple notable mentions would be GTA 5 and Dark Souls 2 SotFS. Never played the new GTA but it's incredibly popular. DS 2 SotFS is fun and all, but it's really just a remake with a few things changed from the original DS 2.

November will be a huge month. Fallout 4, XCOM 2, Star Wars Battlefront (although I'm a bit concerned about it at this point). Then we also had the announcements at E 3 for Dark Souls 3, Mass Effect 4 (Andromeda), For Honor, and Kingdom Come : Deliverance.

2015 has blown the past couple years out of the water. 2014 and 2013 had their somewhat large share of hacking, hyped games failing, and shady business practices. Hopefully 2015 finishes without too much of that.

ETA - Forgot to mention Total War: Warhammer, No Mans Sky, and Star Citizen. I also think Game of the Year will come down to Witcher 3 vs Fallout 4.

I didn't care for Rocket League. Wee! Chase a ball around with go-karts! PS2 graphics on my next-gen console. No thanks.

Is it to much to ask to get a good space combat game? I swear I haven't seen one in ages. I just want to fly around and shoot alien space fighters!

Witcher 3 ratcheted up RPGs in a way that I think a lot of us were waiting for. Sure, there were some hiccups, but the time that went into the storytelling of side missions alone had me constantly appreciating the work. It also felt like a game that was made for adults (and I'm not just talking about sex scenes). it felt like it was made by someone who can appreciate where storytelling and not-for-kids TV has gone (in a good way) thanks to some well-written shows on HBO, Netflix, etc.

I have high hopes for Fallout 4. I just hope that I'm not left wanting elements of Witcher in it. Oblivian, Skyrim and Fallout 3 (& NV) were, for the most part, cut from the same cloth. And it was amazing, but Fallout 4 needs to push beyond that cookie-cut. And I have to say it was much easier to excel in those games and become overpowered (compared to playing hard setting on Witcher). Fallout 4 also really needs to deliver on storytelling, it's what brings about immersion.

For me, I'd rather that the difficulty of Dark Souls was infused into all of these RPGs and there is no option for difficulty level. All these new games are child's play compared to the difficulty of the games we grew up with. That said, did Alien Isolation take it a bit too far (on hard setting)? Perhaps, but I like that they did.

As for the future, I'd love to see Projekt RED make a space RPG. The Mass Effect series was a bit too hand-holding and linear for my taste. Anyway, just my 2 cents!

a reply to: Dark Ghost

I think it will be a year of improvement in terms of the games that are available on PS4 and Xbox One. As much as I am looking forward to getting a PS4 at Christmas , some games are missing. I played Sim City on my Super super Nintendo . Now in 2015 Sim City or another City building game isn't in the works for the next gen consoles. I could list other titles that I think should make there way to consoles.

Fallout 4, No Mans Sky, and Mad Max really have me excited - particularly No Mans Sky. Ever since way back when, when Molyneux promised us that Fable would be the first truly immersive, non linear sandbox game that would keep tabs on everything you did, I've waited.

And waited...

And waited...

Hell, even just Molyneux has repeated the same lie, over and over, about every other game he's designed since.

Now No Mans Sky seems possibly poised to finally deliver. Highly anticipating it, and hoping.