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GAF Games of the Year 2015 - Voting Thread [LAST DAY FOR VOTING]

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Rezae

Member
1. Pillars of Eternity; everything you could ask for in a modern update to a classic formula
2. Bloodborne
3. Rocket League
4. Super Mario Maker
5. Splatoon
6. Xenoblade Chronicles X
7. Ori and the Blind Forest
 
1. Splatoon
2. Undertale
3. Life is Strange
4. Rocket League
5. Super Mario Maker
6. Tales of Zestiria

*Also the only games I have played from this year.
 

komorebi

Member
1. Bloodborne ; Unrivaled masterpiece that puts the bar in low orbit for art design and atmosphere. Best Souls game ever. My personal vote for game of the gen while we're at it.
2. Xenoblade Chronicles X ; One of the most amazing open worlds I've seen in an RPG. Great gameplay and decent enough story. Best OST of 2015 too. One by onnnnne
(by one)
.
3. The Witcher III: Wild Hunt ; Incredible WRPG, fantastic setting, atmosphere, music, graphics, quests, voice acting, and so on. A masterpiece.
4. Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate ; The best MH game yet, nothing else to say.
5. Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain ; Great stealth gameplay and smooth TPS controls. Perfected what Peace Walker set out to do. Plot hasn't mattered in 10 years so no points lost for that.
6. Batman: Arkham Knight ; Batman Simulator 2015.
7. The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask 3D ; Great port of a classic game.
8. Dying Light ; Super fun co-op parkour zombie mayhem.
9. Etrian Odyssey Untold 2: The Fafnir Knight ; Another solid entry in the EO series with much-welcomed improvements.
10. Rocket League ; Its Rocket League.
 
So...games that will probably be at the top:

Bloodborne
The Witcher 3

(giant gap)

Metal Gear Solid V

(another huge gap)

Rocket League
Life is Strange
Fallout 4
Splatoon
Until Dawn
Undertale
Ori and the Blind Forest
Super Mario Maker
Xenoblade Chronicles X
Batman: Arkham Knight

is there something I'm missing?

(possible candidates here: MKX, Dying Light, ???)
 

Fess

Member
1. The Witcher III: Wild Hunt ; One of the best RPGs I've ever played with an insanely big world that feels alive like no other game in the genre.

2. Ori and the Blind Forest ; Pure perfection from beginning to end, the best and tightest platforming controls in decades and very close to be my number 1 this year, the only thing that made it drop one spot for the year is that it's kind of rehashing other similar games successful gameplay mechanics insteaf of making it's own, if that makes any sense.

3. Rise of the Tomb Raider ; After 100-percenting this game I can safely say that this is the best Tomb Raider ever made, yes it's better than TR1. I'll be watching closely how the other versions are updated because this is a game I'll have no problem double- or even triple-dipping on.

4. Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain ; Plays like no other MGS and after 4 games which all are great bit not quite as MGS1 I think this was the right move. Awesome finale to the serie by Kojima.

5. Super Mario Maker ; It went from okay to wow the second I checked what other gamers had made. If gameplay would come first then this would be the best game ever made.
 

Jisgsaw

Member
This thread made me realize I'm not even sure I play 10 games from this year. I'll maybe cheat a bit to get to 10 games (i.e. vote for ports/remakes/EE from which I played the original, but not the version that came out this year).
May have something to do with work constraints (lot of travels) and the couple of huge time sink I played...
Anyway, may play Undertale and/or the age of decadence during the holidays, this may make the list before the deadline.

1. The Witcher III: Wild Hunt ; One of the greatest game, let alone RPG, of all time imo. Great world, great writing, great atmosphere, great soundtrack, great characters, serviceable story and combats. Manages to challenge Rockstar in terms of building a believable and living world.

2. Bloodborne ; I was always put off the Souls series because of the kinda slow combats. Bloodborne fixed that for me, and is a marvel to play. The minimalistic narration and great art direction also helped to make it one of the more memorable games in recent times for me.

3. Cities: Skylines ; Finally a worthy successor to SimCity 4. May be a bit too focused on traffic and a bit too easy in the long run though.

4. Divinity: Original Sin - Enhanced Edition ; Great combats. Cheated a bit to put it on the list, as I played the original release (though still in 2015).

5. Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII ; again kinda cheating, as I played it day one on PS3. Though I'll buy it during the steam sales. Best A-RPG combat, great living world mechanisms. Shitty story though.

6. Tales of Zestiria ; Best tales of since Vesperia.

7. Xenoblade Chronicles X ; Still playing, will have to take a break for ~ a month, as I won't have access to my WiiU. It would definitevely be in the top 3 if the story was better, and if companions actually had lines during normal quests (that coupled with mute MC and no voice over during normal quests kinda killed otherwise nice quests).

8. Fallout 4 ; It's a Bethesda game, I think that says it all. A shame the writing and dialogue are so bad (compared to other RPGs).

9. Kerbal Space Program ; Again a little cheating, I played it as early access last year. Though now that it is out of EA, I'll start again I guess, and it already was a great game last year, can't imagine it got worse.

10. The Talos Principle ; I like puzzles. I did not expect Serious Sam developers to do too, but apparently they are good at making puzzle games.
 

SOME-MIST

Member
1. Mushihimesama ; had it on j360 but bought it again on PC and sunk even more time into it. one of the best shmups currently available on pc.

2. Armikrog ; claymation has always held a special place in my heart, and neverhood is part of the reason too. although many found this title disappointing, I enjoyed every minute of it.

3. Rocket League ; the first time I played it I had a session among friends from 9 pm until 7 am the following day. still can't believe how fun it is to play soccer with rocket cars.

4. Dark Dreams Don't Die

5. Broken Age

6. Majoras Mask 3D
 

Fitts

Member
Sorry I don't really have a list proper. All I know for certain is my top pick.

1. Bloodborne ; This game forced me out of my Souls sword-and-board comfort zone and I loved it! Untouchable atmosphere and the best damn environmental storytelling I've ever seen in a game. An easy choice for GOTY.
 

Majestad

Banned
Looking at how things are so far, Witcher 3 fans gonna be like that at the end of the year

maxresdefault.jpg
 

Majestad

Banned
Guys, how would Undertale perform on a Lenovo laptop ($750, not necessarily high end)? I keep seeing it mentioned, and I would like to give it a shot before writing my GOTY list.
 

Scotch

Member
1. Bloodborne ; After trying and failing to get into Demon's Souls and Dark Souls, it was Bloodborne that finally got me hooked.
2. Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain ;
3. Rocket League ;
4. Helldivers ;
5. Cities: Skylines ;
6. Her Story ; Great little FMV experience, thanks to the fantastic acting performance. Not much of a game, but it kept me intrigued throughout.
7. Starcraft II: Legacy of the Void ; I have to give Blizzard some credit for at least finishing the story after all these years, and the gameplay is still great, although I was fairly disappointed with the campaign overall.
 
1. Super Mario Maker ; Quite simply the most fun I've had all year with a game, 2D Mario has been a cherished part of my life as long as I can remember so giving me the tools to make my own levels and share them with others was a dream project for me. I really love it!
2. Dark Souls II: Scholar of the First Sin ; This was my first experience with the DLC levels and wow, it is a great example of how to make an already amazing game packed with amazing content have even more amazing content! Seriously, this game offers a ridiculously huge amount of hours of fun. I never understood the DS2 hate, I loved it and a better version with everything combined together in one sweet package now is again one of my most fav games of the year!
3. Final Fantasy XI: Rhapsodies of Vana'diel ; The final chapter in one of my most favorite games of all time. Since 2003 I've been playing this wonderful game, often being horrendously addicted (for better or worse). It goes to show the quality of the thing when I can come back from awhile away and slot straight back into the flow of things and be loving it all over again! The story itself is a fun culmination of all the stories from over the years, really enjoyed playing it and seeing everyone again! I've spent thousands of hours on this game, it has allowed me a close connection to my brother (we play it a lot together), it is just a really special game to me and a huge part of my life - so I loved having a final story to play through. Thank you FFXI!
4. Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain ; Yes the second half of the game sucked, yes the story sucked, I was expecting so much more and was left HUGELY disappointed with it.... But it goes to show how amazing the game is to actually PLAY that it can be all those things and still one of my most fav games of the year. I really really love playing MGS5! Just a shame about all the other shit.
5. Bloodborne ; Not as good as the 'pure Souls' games IMO but not many things are. Still an amazingly fun game, beautiful to look at and a blast to play.
6. Castle In The Darkness ; Apparently this game came out in 2015! I thought it was last year, an amazingly fun retro platformer on Steam that is challenging but rewarding. The soundtrack is out of this world, the graphics are perfect, and it is really cheap too! I wish more people knew about this game.
7. Xenoblade Chronicles X ; The scope of this game is amazing! Every time I turn it on I'm wow'ed, I just love exploring every part of the world. How they deigned it all I have no idea but Monolith Soft did an unbelievable job.
8. Splatoon ; Like PVZ:GW last year this was the surprise of the year for me. Really fun to play, supported all year with updates and easily the coolest art of the year. The game just oozes style, seriously love it! I'm really happy it has been so successful because it deserves it.
9. The Binding of Isaac: Afterbirth ; How do you improve on one of the best games in years? Add a whole pile more stuff! Not as balanced as Rebirth was I feel and that is why it isn't higher on the list, just didn't enjoy it as much as I was hoping. But anything Isaac is good with me. Give me more!
10. Call of Duty: Black Ops III ; Was hyped as anything for Treyarch's new CoD, needed them to wipe away the sour taste of the previous 2 games. While it is easily the best one since Black Ops 2 and I've still spent hours and hours on it... Just not feeling it as much as I use to, maybe its because I have trouble finding games of Demolition these days and thats what I was most excited about, the return of my fav mode but no one plays it on Xbox One (in my region?). :(


Honorable Mentions
x. Rugby World Cup 2015 ; No one here will ever come close to mentioning this game cept me! Even the most diehard rugby fan would find it hard to say good things about it... But dammit if I didn't manage to still have fun with it. I love rugby and sadly there aren't many (any?) options for good games but I've still managed to get a lot of fun single and multiplayer out of this simply because of what it is based on. Go All Blacks! :D
x. Final Fantasy Type-0 HD ; A game I warmed up to the more I played it, it is really held back by it's PSP roots and SE did a bit of a lazy job 'remastering' it considering the time it took, but the battle system is solid and some of the characters are really cool regardless. Great OST too. <3 Rem!
x. HuniePop ; Seriously, I really enjoyed this game. :p Thankfully on GAF you'll always find other like-minded people to discuss things with regardless of what game it is.
x. Rare Replay ; Packed full of some of my fav games from the past, really fun playing those NES-N64 era Rare games again!
x. The Legend of Zelda: Tri Force Heroes ; Still playing through it as I can only play when my brother and Dad are here (we're all playing it together), while it will never be a real notable Zelda fav to me and I'd much prefer just a 'proper' 1 player Zelda sequel to LBW (one of my fav Zelda games ever) - I'd never leave a new Zelda game out completely, its still fun enough to get a honorable mention.
 

_Clash_

Member
Kind of expect as the vote stays open longer Witcher 3 will draw more and more votes.

Bloodborne fans are zealot types, would have GAF on constant refresh.

Lol.
 
1. Splatoon ; This games never get boring and the content keeps coming.

2. Super Mario Maker ; A level builder that's actually easy/fun to use. Way more robust than anticipated.

3. Yoshi's Woolly World ; The DKTF of 2015? Maybe not quite as spectacular, but a great platformer none the less.

I've played several other games released in 2015, but don't feel they deserve GOTY contention. Sadly, I don't have time to play through Undertale, Rocket League, or Xenosaga before voting ends.
 
So...games that will probably be at the top:

Bloodborne
The Witcher 3

(giant gap)

Metal Gear Solid V

(another huge gap)

Rocket League
Life is Strange
Fallout 4
Splatoon
Until Dawn
Undertale
Ori and the Blind Forest
Super Mario Maker
Xenoblade Chronicles X
Batman: Arkham Knight

is there something I'm missing?

(possible candidates here: MKX, Dying Light, ???)

Totally agree with the top 3.
It'll be a fierce fight between Rocket League and Life is Strange.
 
Guys, how would Undertale perform on a Lenovo laptop ($750, not necessarily high end)? I keep seeing it mentioned, and I would like to give it a shot before writing my GOTY list.

I'll probably give it a shot on a similar laptop. Hoping I can figure out how to link a console controller. This will be my first PC game since Cave Stoty.
 

Gotchaye

Member
1. TIS-100 ; This is basically Spacechem (it's by the same people) but it's no longer pretending to be something other than Programming: The Game. You write pseudo- assembly code for a fictional computer to do things like multiply two numbers together or find the minimum and maximum values of a sequence. Like Spacechem it's one of the only puzzle games I've played where I feel like I've actually done something clever when I figure out a solution. A bunch of the mods got this over Thanksgiving and we had a lot of fun competing and comparing solutions.

2. Sunless Sea ; It's... not really a fun game. Some people in the OT for it were talking about modding it to so that your ship would go faster, but I feel like that defeats the point. Sunless Sea is about exploring a bizarre and sometimes creepy world an inch at a time. It's about learning how to do well at the same time as you learn more about the world the game takes place in. Also I guess the writing is decent.

3. Xenoblade Chronicles X ;

4. Castle in the Darkness ; This was my Shovel Knight. Just a really solid old-fashioned action/exploration kind of game.

5. The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky ;

6. Ori and the Blind Forest ; I love the way this controls. Also the projectile-jump mechanic is such a good idea that it made me wonder why I hadn't seen it in every other action platformer I've played.

7. Heroes of the Storm ; I played LoL for a few years and then went a year or two without a go-to competitive multiplayer game. HotS filled that gap nicely. I appreciate the ways it changes up the dota formula, and I hope they keep adding in novel sorts of heroes like Cho'Gall (where one hero is controlled by two players). The business model is notably generous for a f2p game.

8. Ys: The Ark of Napishtim ; This feels a lot clunkier than Oath and is clearly worse than Origin but it scratches that itch well enough.

9. Rocket League ;

Honorable Mentions
x. Valdis Story ; This was my GotY last year. Fantastic metroidvania kind of thing - one of the best I've ever played. This year it got two new characters and some new bosses that had me going back and completing it on the hardest difficulty for each character.
 

Majestad

Banned
Kind of expect as the vote stays open longer Witcher 3 will draw more and more votes.

Bloodborne fans are zealot types, would have GAF on constant refresh.

Lol.

CDProject Red only has to release some new Blood and Wine screenshots and it will remind people who haven't voted yet of what a fucking incredible game Witcher 3 is.
 
1. TIS-100 ; This is basically Spacechem (it's by the same people) but it's no longer pretending to be something other than Programming: The Game. You write pseudo- assembly code for a fictional computer to do things like multiply two numbers together or find the minimum and maximum values of a sequence. Like Spacechem it's one of the only puzzle games I've played where I feel like I've actually done something clever when I figure out a solution. A bunch of the mods got this over Thanksgiving and we had a lot of fun competing and comparing solutions.
I've never heard of this before, but you got me interested. Does it require any sort of familiarity with assembly, or just general programming knowledge?
 

Xaero Gravity

NEXT LEVEL lame™
The Witcher III: Wild Hunt ; When we first met, I said you were the greatest open world RPG I had ever played. I initially I thought it was just me going through the honeymoon phase, but here I am at the end of 2015, and I love you today just as much as I did then, yesterday, tomorrow, and until the day I die.

Will you marry me?
 

Gotchaye

Member
I've never heard of this before, but you got me interested. Does it require any sort of familiarity with assembly, or just general programming knowledge?

I don't have any experience with assembly so I can't actually tell you if that would have helped, but it wasn't necessary. Programming concepts are useful here but like I said it's basically Spacechem - it's useful to be used to thinking about conditionals and loops and parallelism, but familiarity with any particular language isn't going to matter. The manual gives you a pretty limited set of instructions you can use and then you're off. One of the other mods (who's done pretty well on our leaderboards) has very little programming experience.
 
1. Bloodborne ; Easily the best game on PS4 by far and one of the best games of the generation so far. Amazing world building and visuals, the evolution of the souls combat into a more offensive style comes together incredibly well.

2. Nuclear Throne ; Tight twin stick shooter, tonnes of guns, great time killer just load it up and within a few seconds your blow up screens of crap.

3. Metal Gear Solid V ; Addictive gameplay where you can pretty much try anything you want and have it strangely work. Story is a total mess though which is a shame.

4. Life is Strange ; Great story and characters.

5. The Talos Principle ; Great thinking puzzle game which utlizes some smart puzzle designs. However I wish they'd remove those tetris piece puzzles, they seemed really lazy compared to everything else.

6. Until Dawn ; A weird one, playing through this the first time the writing felt so terrible. Watching it played through the second time you could tell the devs were totally leaning into the campyness of it. Now that all the tech is in place the sequel should be even better.

7. Ori and the Blind Forest ; Great Metroidvania.

8. Nom Nom Galaxy ; Fun 2D base building farming game. Build factories that exploit a planets natural resources to turn into soup. Setting up production chains where ingredients are harvested, transported, processed and shipped automatically is fun.

9. Rocket League ; Fun multiplayer sports game.

10. Rock Band 4 ; Ion Support on PS4 means this makes the list. The core game is still incredibly fun, but the barebones nature of the game keeps it from being higher.

x. Super Mario Maker ; Don't own a WiiU so I haven't personally played it, but watching the guys play it on Giant Bomb was some of their best content for the year. Those Super Mario World nostalgia hits are real hard to resist.

x. Splatoon ; Looks like a really fun take on an area control third person shooter with some great post-release support.

x. Not a Hero ; Fun 2D platform shooter. Lots of character variety but needed more level variety to keep it from getting kind of stale.

x. Homeworld Remastered Collection ; Gearbox did a great job remastering these PC classics.
 
4. Castle in the Darkness ; This was my Shovel Knight. Just a really solid old-fashioned action/exploration kind of game.

u3VU0BI.gif


Yes! I really wish the game would get ported to consoles so more people would learn of its existence. Game is just begging to be on a Nintendo console, would only be right.
 
1. The Witcher 3:Wild Hunt ; I normally do not play this genre but I was hooked by this game. The story is great and there is a tonne of content worth hundreds of hours. This is truly one of the few games that after completion I can truly say that I got my money`s worth.
the_witcher_3_ciri.jpg


2. Grand Theft Auto V ; Not much to say here as we all know GTA. I salute Rockstar for their great work on optimising this game, this game runs well on PC and It is definitely the best optimised game on PC this year.

original.jpg


3. Life is Strange ; Great game with good characters, it really surprised me.
532406.jpg



4. Tales from the borderlands ; This is by far the best telltale game since TWD Season 1. This game is full of silly humor and it is great.

maxresdefault.jpg



5. Fallout 4 ; This is my first fallout game and I thought it was decent. Story could have been better but I am enjoining home base building and mods.
Fallout-43.jpg
 

UberTag

Member
1. The Witcher III: Wild Hunt ; This feels like the full realization of what so many open world RPGs in the past have strived towards only to fall short due to an over-reliance on some kind of crutch (be it fetch quests, DLC, multi-player or some other AAA contrivance). The rare GAF #1 anticipated game to fully realize its potential.
2. Undertale
3. Life Is Strange
4. The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky Second Chapter
5. Until Dawn
6. Xenoblade Chronicles X
7. Tales from the Borderlands
8. Bloodborne
9. Rocket League
10. Dying Light
x. The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth
x. Corpse Party: Blood Drive
x. The Talos Principle
x. Tearaway Unfolded
x. Ori and the Blind Forest
 

Cheech

Member
1. The Witcher III: Wild Hunt ; This game consumed my summer. Out of the hundreds of RPGs I've played, this is one of the very best. Top 5, easily, and this was hard to come to grips with as the Bethesda RPGs tend to be my favorite.
2. Fallout 4 ; Any other year this would have been my top game. The strength of writing in the Witcher just put it over the top, though.
 
1. The Witcher III: Wild Hunt ; This game consumed my summer. Out of the hundreds of RPGs I've played, this is one of the very best. Top 5, easily, and this was hard to come to grips with as the Bethesda RPGs tend to be my favorite.
4. Fallout 4 ; Any other year this would have been my top game. The strength of writing in the Witcher just put it over the top, though.

Your entire ballot will be invalidated if ranks are not consecutive.
 

silva1991

Member
I had to edit my post and add Undertale somewhere on my list. I also bought Life Is Strange because of this thread and other GOTY threads. I hope it will be a good experience and pleasant surprise like Undertale.
 

Danny-Boy

Member
1. Bloodborne ; Absolute masterpiece. Pure bliss gameplay. Quite possibly a perfect game. Ranks in my top 3 games along side MGS3 and Ocarina of Time.

2. Batman Arkham Knight ; It would have easily been my number one if not for Bloodborne. I loved everything about the city including driving the batmobile.

3. Assassin's Creed Syndicate ; Tried this because I got bored of fallout after 20 hours and loved it. AC is back to it's best.

4. Metal Gear Solid 5 ; Solid game but not really Metal Gear and got a bit boring
.
5. Fallout 4 ; Same as Metal Gear, solid game but extremely boring.
 

TP17

Member
1. Rocket League ; With the amount of time I've spent playing this game I should be much better than I am. Fantastic game.
2. Hearthstone ; I'm addicted.
3. Mortal Kombat X ; Button mashing fun times. Fighting games aren't my thing but had a good time with the story.
4. Heroes of the Storm ; Enjoyed my time playing this earlier in the year but stopped playing when the friends I played with all stopped. Will have to revisit at some point.
 
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