The Gaming Year of 2015!

So the time of year has come to look back and reflect on various things that happened over the course of this year. While there isn't enough of us to do a vote like we used to do back on NowGamer, why not try and get some discussion, and talk about your gaming experiences over the last year. Feel free to use your own talking points, but I will start off with a few obvious ones:

Favourite game of the year - Now I thought this would be a pretty good shoo-in this year - The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt for sure! But while it is undeniably brilliant, it hasn't quite grabbed me as much as expected, and I haven't played it for months. No, my game of the year is a more left field choice - Project Cars. It is such a solid and authentic racing experience, I love it! You can customise every little detail of set up for races to make them as easy or as hard as you want, it's got so many tracks I've not even driven on them all yet, and the most perfect car handling. And then online is the most realistic racing experience yet. A surprise for me!

Worst game of the year - Also suprisingly for someone who has played Goat Simulator, that is not my least favourite game of this year. No that actually goes to Resident Evil Revelations 2. It's pretty bad. It's not the worst game ever, but its just so lacklustre. What makes it worse is that Resi Revelations was a back to basics blast, so for this to come out, and just be so bland and unmemorable is terrible. It's a boring game to play. Plus, its not coop, and should have been. Thinking of what I have played this year though, there haven't been that many bad titles. There hasn't been that many games released this year that have interested me, but the ones I did get were mostly great, so Revelations 2 is the worst of this small group of games I've played in 2015.

Biggest Surprise Hit of the year: I'm still in the middle of playing it, but its safe to say that Mad Max is the unexpected hit of the year. It's an addictive, weighty romp. And it seemingly sunk without trace and got hit with that dreaded reviewers average score of 7, destined to be forgotten. But its actually good! Looks lovely, plays well, and has map objectives just screaming to be explored, driven too, and solid combat.

Biggest disappointment of the year: Again, another easy choice - Batman: Arkham Knight. Not a bad game, by any means, as when I play it, I love it, but I was really looking forward to this, and its not met my expectations. I still haven't finished it, and not gone back to it for ages. I want to love it, but its not grabbed me. I play it, and think its great, but I never sit down and choose to play it. I may need to dedicate some time to actually completing this...Also, the Batmobile does suck a bit.

So let's start with those 4 simple and standard topics, but keep adding some more "awards" for us to discuss, and hopefully we can get some people jumping in here, posting a comment, and giving an opinion. Don't forget to add a new topic of your own, so we can keep this moving...

Great thread idea!

Here's mine:

Favourite Game of the Year
I'm surprised I am actually typing this but it has to be Bloodborne for me. I have yet to finish it (I was stuck on the last boss for aaages but now I have the DLC to get side tracked with and prolong the experience). Everything about this game appeals to me. The look and feel. The combat mechanics. The environment design. The creature design and more! The challenge of the game isn't as punishing as the Souls games and I think I just feel more at home in the Dark Victorian/Gothic/Cthulhu wrapping of Bloodborne. Overall though I have just loved exploring every nook and cranny of the world more so than overcoming the games many bosses. Before I got the DLC I was a bit sad that I had run out of places to slowly make my way through. Now though it is back at the forefront of my mind and I explore and fight my way through the new content. 

Worst Game of the Year
Sadly this has to be Halo 5 Guardians. I am near the end of the game's campaign but I just can't be bothered finishing it. I enjoyed it for a time and while the gameplay is enjoyable and overall the game looks good. It is like the heart and soul of it have been ripped out of the Halo franchise.

Biggest Surprise Hit of the Year
The Order: 1886 (yes you just did a https://youtu.be/eW5_ZUFaKEw reading that). I read the previews for The Order and saw all the negative press around it in the run up to launch and then the reviews. Oh my the reviews tore it to shreds. But for me The Order was a very good looking and enjoyable ride with some simple but fun shooting mechanics. I loved the overall setting and mythology the game was trying to build. Also putting the gorgeous graphics to one side I just simply had a lot of fun playing through it and plan to do so again in the future. It was short'n'sweet and didn't out stay its welcome because of that. I believe it is my Max Payne 3 of 2015!

Biggest Disappointment of the Year
My backlog, I haven't updated my backloggery properly for months because I know the results will make me weep. So yeah I am my own biggest disappointment. I've had a weird year and sadly despite my job video games have fallen to the side a bit recently. Still I hoping to get some quality gaming time in before I have a tiny person to concentrate on.

New topics:

Can we give it a rest for a bit please?!
Hey games publishers I know it is the "in thing" at the moment but can you please give open worlds a rest for a bit? Or at least flood the market with less giant games that I will have no time to finish?! 

As I type I still have Fallout 4, The Witcher III, MGS V: The Phantom Pain, the extra bits in Batman: Arkham Knight and countless other huge worlds with 100s of hours worth of content to get through. It is getting to the point where seeing the words Open World in a preview or interview is putting me off upcoming games. I long for Uncharted 4 because I know I can get that and play it over a weekend then sink my teeth into the multiplayer if I want to keep the experience going. I have played in and seen far too many sparsely populated world maps filled with icons for pointless time wasting or length padding tasks in the past year. 


Gaming Drama/Controversy of the Year
I guess the default answer for this is the ongoing Gamer Gate bollocks that seems to bring out the crazy side of people whenever you utter the words but I am going to have to give it to the MGS V release and Kojima cutting ties with Konami. Well really Konami leaving traditional game development by blowing up everything in their path and burning all the bridges with their core fans. It has been a weird saga to follow and one that I doubt has come to a true end. Any day now I am expecting Konami to announce that Kojima has returned to work from his "holiday" despite forming a new studio and signing a deal with Sony.

I will be contributing to this thread but I'm waiting to play Rise Of The Tomb Raider, I'm getting it for Christmas, so that may or may not figure in some categories.

Ooooo a good thread idea...

Favourite Game of the Year - This may be influenced by the way I played the game but my choice has to be Until Dawn.  Sitting and playing through an entire game with my wife joining in and becoming thoroughly caught up the game was a wonderful experience.  The game itself is an abolute masterclass of horror and narrative gaming.  You can talk about amount of gameplay as a negative all you want, Until Dawn was the most consistently enjoyable and thrilling game of the year for me.  Loved every second and more importantly, managed to get my wife to enjoy gaming for a short while too!

Worst Game of the Year - Controversial choice this but I will go with Bloodborne.  I just didn't get along with it all and found the game mechanisms an artform in frustration and needless difficulty.  I really, really, really wanted to like it but I just think it is awful.  

Biggest Surprise - Mad Max hands down.  No interest prior to release, took a punt and........wow.  What a game.  Car combat is tough but enjoyable, the open world is just right and the normal combat is fantastic.  Combine it with the release of the film (probably my film of the year) and it became a wonderful game to play.  I also have to mention Assassin's Creed Syndicate as that surprised me with how good a game it is.  I thought I was beginning to tire with Assassin's Creed as a series but this is one of the best. Oh bloody hell I forgot Rocket League...

Biggest Disappointment - Batman Arkham Knight is the most depressing game I have played this year.  Don't get me wrong, it is a very well made game but it is seriously missing something.  I think they actually went too open world with it.  There were only three maybe four actual 'dungeons' in the game, with the rest being rubbish open world gameplay mixed with even worse batmobile sections.  Really, really disappointing. 

Can We Give it a Rest - Online only multiplayer games.  New Rainbow Six!!!!!! Online only.  Shit.  Just what a waste of a once amazing series of games with outstanding campaigns alongside a strong online element.  This is just poor game making in my opinion, what would the harm have been in making a campaign?!!

Best Download Only Game - Rocket League! Woo, got it in here instead! A wonderful surprose of a game.  Just pure fun.

The gaming practice that Oli think still needs to be rid of by the industry is microtransactions still. Just a horrible idea. Stick them in free to play titles but leave my expensive £50 game out of it. When I pay that much for a title I expect to be able to be given access to the e tire game. And those that say you can still unlock the content by playing - I say: microtransactions unbalance the game to encourage you to pay rather than slog through the money grind to safe up enough in game cash to buy. Also do you remember the days when cheat codes used to give us cool content...for free? 

Best download game has to be Rocket League. It the only DLC title to take the gaming world by storm this year. It's lacking in single player content but online has been a hoot! I do still intend to play some more of this if there are others on here who still want to join in?

Game Of The Year
The Witcher 3 came close, and the excellent Rise Of The Tomb Raider made a valiant late bid, but my GOTY goes to Bloodborne. Thrilling, scary and totally engrossing, I was glued to this game for a solid month. It has some of the most memorable and toughest bosses I've ever come across, and even the bog standard enemies are challenging and superbly designed. Add in From's trademark genius level design, stunning atmosphere and pitch perfect combat and you've got an amazing game.

Worst Game Of The Year
I went for Dying Light for this one which might be controversial as I know a lot of people loved it. I just couldn't get into it though, I found the first person parkour clumsy, the combat equal parts dull and annoying and mission objectives and map navigation confusing. I only played a few hours then gave up and traded it in, which is unusual for me.

Biggest Surprise
An easy choice, Mad Max. Had absolutely no expectations about this, I didn't even buy it straight away but tried it on the recommendation of a friend and absolutely loved it. It captures the mood of Fury Road perfectly but even without the Mad Max tie in it would be a cracking game in its own right.

Biggest Disappointment
I was thinking of going for Halo 5 but sorry Cal it's got to be The Order I'm afraid. It's not a bad game and is technically great, although I personally hate the bordered widescreen look in games, it's just that the gameplay is so dull. It's just cut scene, shootout, walk for a bit, cut scene, another identikit shootout, walk a bit etc. etc. It's also very short with zero replay value and made even shorter with the abundance of cinematics, some entire levels are nothing but cinematic. The most disappointing thing though is the battles against the lychans, the encounters with these are reduced to a handful of tedious QTE's, including a couple if virtually identical boss fights. I was expecting more from a game that led you to believe it was about fighting supernatural creatures.  It's an easy Platinum though if Trophy collecting is your thing.

Best Download Game
Their can be only one here and it's Ori & The Blind Forest. I'm a sucker for 2D "metroidvania" type games and Ori is the best I've played for years. The sheer attention to detail shows it was a labour of love for Moon Studios and is totally absorbing to play. It looks gorgeous too.