Can you believe that 2016 has come to a close? We’ve finally abolished that dreaded six for ten more years, and a cool, clean, sexy seven has taken its place.
2016 has been an incredible year for everything aside from presidential candidates and celebrity deaths, so as always, we wanted to share our favourite games, movies, moments and more of 2016.
We’ve seen Adam’s favorite things, MCDave’s favorite films, and Josh’s favourite games too. Today, it’s Derek’s turn, so read on for his top seven video games of 2016!
Yeah… that’s a weird number.
7. Pokemon GO
This one is on the list less so for the game itself (which I’m still playing on my way to and from work), and more for the incredible way that it came into this world. It was the epitome of phenomenon – before Pokémon GO even officially launched in my country hundreds upon hundreds of people were gathered at “Tri-Lures” nearly 24 hours a day; I witnessed dozens and dozens of full grown men and women run as fast as they could when a rare ‘Mon appeared, and I heard the collective groan of 6000+ eager fans in Comic-Con’s Hall H this past Summer as Niantic’s John Hanke revealed that a legendary bird would not be making an appearance that morning.
The game has (sadly) died down a lot since those first incredible months, though I still see quite a few people at popular Pokéstops at almost all hours of the day. Really, the launch of Pokemon GO was like nothing I’ve ever seen before, and likely unlike anything we’ll ever see again.
While most of the folks I know now play pretty casually, or have stopped playing entirely, the real genius of Pokémon GO has been in its ability to raise or re-kindle interest in the brand. I swear that I hear more people (friends included) talking about or playing some form of Pokémon today than I have in the past 15 years. Thanks for this one, Nintendo and Niantic.
6. Overcooked
Overcooked is probably the most fun I’ve had playing a video game this year.
I’ve been getting way into couch co-op experiences on my Xbox One over the past six months, and while my fiancé and I are still slowly making our way through the Halo and Borderlands games, Overcooked is a title that I’m eager to jump into every time we have friends over (as it feels essentially impossible with less than four players).
The game has all players as chefs cooperating in crazy, constantly changing kitchens so that they can save a bleak, bleak future from certain destruction. Typically, players will be cut off from certain ingredients or cooking apparatus’, and your group needs to have amazing communication to do well in each level. Typically, our group will do poorly in a stage, figure out how each of us could be better used in the particular stage through way too in-depth discussion, and then jump back into the same level to perform substantially better. It’s an absolute blast and there have definitely been multiple instances where I’ve had to pause the game from laughing so, so hard.
It’s cheap, and it’s so much fun. You can even play with four players using just two controllers, which adds further challenge and hilarity to the already gut wrenching title.
5. Stardew Valley
I always loved the idea of games like Harvest Moon or Animal Crossing, but regardless of the iteration that I tried, neither game could ever hold my interest for more than a few hours.
I picked up Stardew Valley on a whim for my still figuring out her gaming niche fiancé, and pretty quickly became as addicted to the game as she is.
Every time I turn the game on, it’s a constant struggle to turn it off in order to do something more productive. “Just one more day.” I’ll tell myself over and over again as the seasons and hours pass, but hours later the game is still on. It’s simple, it’s incredible, the soundtrack is definitely in my Apple Music library, and I bet that I end 2017 having played Stardew Valley more hours than anything that’s set to come out this year.
If this game gets some co-op multiplayer, I think we may both quit our jobs and die of bed (couch) sores. If you’re trying to get your non-gamer partner into a video game, this is a great place to start… though you may need to buy a second console as they’ll be hogging it all the time.
Oxenfree was one of the very first titles that I played in 2016, and as I noted in my review last January, it was “far and away the first standout title of 2016”.
From its unique put-this-on-my wall art style, its incredible soundtrack (that I still listen to regularly), the harrowing what-could-happen-next plot and the themes within, and that angsty teen coming of age dialog that I simply can’t get enough of, Night School Studio crafted an absolute gem that deserves to be played by more gamers.
I could go on, but you can head right here for my review and full thoughts on the title (play it)!
3. The Last Guardian
I can’t believe it’s finally here.
As a YUGE fan of Ico and Shadow of the Colossus, I firmly believed that I’d never have an opportunity to play this game,
Now it’s here, and it’s everything that I’d hoped for from a Team Ico game, and mostly what I expected as well (including its clunky controls).
I haven’t had an opportunity to finish the game just yet, but if Trico dies I know I’ll be bawling my eyes out. The relationship formed here is like nothing I’ve ever seen in a video game before, and it’s likely a bond that I’ll remember for the rest of my life.
While I’m disappointed that you’ll need a PS4 Pro to get decent performance from The Last Guardian, regardless of the model you have this needs to be on your must-play list. Reviews came out divisive, but Team Ico’s latest tells an incredible tale and will be one of the most memorable titles of this generation. You just definitely need to expect a title that doesn’t feel completely modern.
2. The Elder Scrolls Skyrim: Special Edition
2016 marked the first time that I played Skyrim in the launch of its PS4/Xbox One Special Edition, and for the past few months I’ve been wondering: what the hell took me FIVE years to ever give it a shot.
As a huge fan of Bethesda’s Fallout series, a similar game in an incredible fantasy world with insane creatures like massive dragons, mammoths, witches and literal giants (that I still cower in fear from) sounds right up my alley. And it is right up my alley, as it turns out.
Yes, combat has come a long way in the past five years (my character is pretty stealthy and into archery, and it’s still pretty odd when a dude with an arrow sticking out of him decides that there’s nothing to worry about), and a lot of the game’s mechanics feel clunky as hell compared to newer titles like Fallout 4 and even The Elder Scrolls Online (which I’m also playing thanks to Skyrim), but with every quest feeling as varied as it does, and such a vast world so ripe for exploring, I cannot wait to see where my journey as Dragonborn takes me.
If you haven’t played Skyrim, and you like video games even a little bit, you owe it to yourself to pick this one up. Heck, even if you have played it, the ability to mod the game on Xbox One and (to a lesser extent) PS4 is pretty damned cool.
Another incredibly gorgeous indie gem from ex-Telltale Games staffers.
Back in February I noted that “tears were welling in my eyes within the first few moments of Firewatch, and I can’t think of a single other video game in my 25 years that’s had such an affect on me so quickly.”
It’s that damned good.
The game features incredible performances from Mad Men’s Rich Sommer and The Walking Dead (game) Cissy Jones, and aside from (still) being the most gorgeous game that I’ve ever played, it’ll have you on the edge of your seat for nearly every second of its too-short campaign.
Since writing my review back in February, the game has been updated to fix some of the performance issues that plagued its early builds, and has added a neat new mode where you can just wander around the beautiful forest and chillax.
Seriously, every frame of this game looks like the Olly Moss painting that its art style is based on. It doesn’t get better than this. Yep, its ending is pretty divisive, but I fell firmly on the “love it” side of things.
You can read my review of Firewatch here, and listen to Shane and I discuss the game here.
Game That I’m Going To Love But Have Only Put An Hour Into So Far: Overwatch