Only halfway though Bayonetta 2, but it's that. Easily.
1. Bayo 2
2. Wolfenstein: TNO
3. Donkey Kong Tropical Fruit Punch
After that there's Mario Kart 8, maybe Shadow of Mordor depending on how I feel about it in 2 months, The Evil Within's somewhere in there too. I've missed a few smaller titles, and there are some that can shift the list around if they hit this year (Hotline Miami 2, Galak-Z if it delivers on the AI battles) and Smash Bros will likely end up high as long as the online play isn't Melee tier garbage, but my top 3 feels pretty locked down.
I think your opinion on Wolfenstein is pretty much the same as mine for Evil Within. They're not perfect, but they're the games we've been waiting years for. They scratch the proverbial itch.
Smash 3DS online is great for me - I'd say 80%+ of my matches almost feel like local play. I trust Namco not to bork the Wii U version. Please be excited
to feel the wrath of my bottom tier Ganon
Forgot about Hotline Miami 2. When the fuck is that coming out? Platinum'd the first game on PSN...it's so damn good.
I think your opinion on Wolfenstein is pretty much the same as mine for Evil Within. They're not perfect, but they're the games we've been waiting years for. They scratch the proverbial itch.
Smash 3DS online is great for me - I'd say 80%+ of my matches almost feel like local play. I trust Namco not to bork the Wii U version. Please be excited
to feel the wrath of my bottom tier Ganon
Forgot about Hotline Miami 2. When the fuck is that coming out? Platinum'd the first game on PSN...it's so damn good.
The Evil Within had a chance to be what Wolfenstein is for me as well, but mechanic issues (or presentation issues that impact mechanics) are the ultimate sin. If I can't lose myself in the mechanics of a game, it's brought down a few notches immediately. That's why I've been going back to "polish" time and time again in my criticism of the game. Still, there's greatness tucked away in some of these chapters, and I won't act like I didn't have fun with 80% of it.
And I have no idea when HM2 is coming. All I know is Q4.
How can I compare Destiny to other games if I can't even properly define it? It has shooting but it's not a shooter. It has leveling up but it's not an RPG. It has social features but it isn't an MMO. It has vehicles but it isn't a racing game.
What is Destiny? Bungie sure has done a poor job of communicating this.
I do like TEW a lot even if I can see the issues it has, so it'll be on my list somewhere, but I dunno what that's looking like right now. And there's still a decent chunk of games coming out anyway.
How can I compare Destiny to other games if I can't even properly define it? It has shooting but it's not a shooter. It has leveling up but it's not an RPG. It has social features but it isn't an MMO. It has vehicles but it isn't a racing game.
What is Destiny? Bungie sure has done a poor job of communicating this.
ever stop respawning? Can you just max out the upgrades there? xD if not what happens if you don't go to the next area and keep killing it until it's over?
ever stop respawning? Can you just max out the upgrades there? xD if not what happens if you don't go to the next area and keep killing it until it's over?
ever stop respawning? Can you just max out the upgrades there? xD if not what happens if you don't go to the next area and keep killing it until it's over?
I don't know
I've just finished that chapter yesterday and
I've decide to run for my life. I "killed" him just twice, the mandatory ones, and I've avoided him and run away from him to "complete" the level with very few fights.
This game is definitely in my top GOTY list. NG+ is so, so good. Love the machinegun, it jsut feels so punchy. Also thats naother thing, i love how for whatever reason, all the weapons and fashions look like something out of the 1940's. It just gives the game an odd uniqueness. The Revolver, Sniper Rifle, Shotgun and the SMG are all straight out of the 40's. Its a weird touch i love.
Anyway, my own GOTY list id have to go with
Wolf TNO
Evil Within
Alien Isolation
Abyss Odyssey
I'm having a hard time with that. The ones that stood out for me this year though were:
The Evil Within
Dark Souls II
Sunset Overdrive
inFamous: Second Son
I don't think I can really choose one. I mean I haven't finished Dark Souls II. I think inFamous came out shortly after and I took a break from Dark Souls II and haven't returned yet. But I liked what I played.
The Evil Within was pretty amazing the whole way. Though it sort of has that after effect where the second time through isn't as magical. lol. Like I played TLoU remaster and it was pretty and stuff, but knowing every single thing that was gonna happen kinda ruined the 2nd playthrough. There's no surprise and moments that leave you in awe anymore. That's how The Evil Within feels like afterwards. I was so afraid of the normal enemies and stuff. But now I'm like I know what to expect and I got my ammo stocked up and ready to roll.
Sunset Overdrive JUST came out today. And so far it's not amazing story-wise or anything. Missions so far haven't been that bad. But they nailed the traversal so well. I can grind on a rail, jump off the rail and onto a car to bounce onto the power lines, grind on those and run along a wall to jump off and connect with something else, all w/o thinking about it much. It already feels second nature and gives me that Jet Set Radio Future feel. That water glide too though. And I like the dialogue. They've already said a lot more than was said in the whole game for TEW. lol.
Right now something like this:
1.Child of light
2.Wolfenstein: The New Order
3.Tales of Xillia 2
4.South Park: The Stick of Truth
5.Drakengard 3
Still need to play Divinity,Alien,TEW,Shadow of Mordor and Bayonetta 2
The Evil Within is a good candidate for the moment,it depends how much like chapter 11-15.
I just recently picked this game up for the PC and started playing it tonight. I can't say I am a fan of the black bars/ aspect ratio so I used some of the tutorials in this thread to remove them and and make some changes to the FOV.
My PC isn't particularly high end, I am running a 2500k OC'd with 16GB of ram and a Geforce 660 with 3GB of GDDR5. Overall, with the black bar hacks the game is running well enough at locked 30FPS at 1440p, there is a little slowdown at this resolution, but nothing game breaking.
Id Tech 5 sure can be rough, but I still like the look of the game. There is some great lighting and particle effects. Textures are much better than I expected them to be and not as blurry, but there is still a little bit of texture pop in. But nothing too bad.
So far I am at chapter 5 and really enjoying the adventure. The game feels like what Resident Evil could be if Capcom let it continue to evolve. I am playing on the second difficulty setting and so far there is a pretty good emphasis in minimalistic weapons. Well, I guess the explosive crossbows nudge things over the edge abit, but they aren't very gracious with the ammo and health drops. Which I like. The story is so-so with some neat twists in it and I like the little mirror hub thing going on.
The enemies can be pretty aggressive though not always the smartest. And god damn at those iinvissible creatures. They have given me a few jump scares when you start seeing furniture get pushed around and you know they are cumming for you and you have little ammo to deal with them.
I'm not sure how many chapters there are, there but I would imagine quite a bit left given how many upgrades I can still get. Overall great work by Tango games. This one definitely gets a thumbs up from me if you are into survival horror. I really like the darker tone this game has and I feel like it goes back to the basics of the original Resident Evil games.
Finally finished the game last night. The last chapters werent as bad I thought theyd be had plenty of ammo left after finishing it. I guess I thought thered be far more and tougher fights, so I was a bit surprised when it ended. Had a bunch of magnum bullets left.
All in all, to me TEW was a mediocre experience at best, bogged down by poor design choices and awful story/writing. Its great that people enjoy it, but it certainly wasnt my cup of tea and I just wanted to finish it as quickly as possible after I had invested a dozen hours or so into it.
The atmosphere is fucking stellar from Chapter 2 forward being this weird mishmash of Resident Evil on the "fuck with you" mentality of Silent Hill, and being genuinely creepy in a way that I'm usually fond of in this genre. Some of the monsters in this game are creepy as fuck, Laura is a looker,
the newer iterations of El Gigante and Garrador are pretty clever upgrades and are some of my favorite segments of the game
.
The encounter designs from Chapter 2-10 were absolutely brilliant in terms of their escalation, pacing, and overall design. A lot of them are tense and the shooting gallery segments are used sparingly to actually let them be effective when they are used for the white knuckle action. Really dig the segments with Joseph where you can game the system
(the El gigante like enemies for instance you don't have to fire a bullet, ditto for the 2nd Dog)
, and from a purely variety standpoint the game is legit.
As far as third per...no fuck that. As far as shooters (all of them) have been concerned there is Resident Evil 4, which pretty much clowns the entire genre (sans maybe Half Life 2) in terms of raw variety of gameplay ideas, and in between that you've had Naughty Dog's 2 best games (Uncharted 2 and The Last of Us) flirt with competing in terms of variety/pacing. Otherwise nothing else I've played in this genre stacks up in that department with The Evil Within, because the game throws ideas, enemies at you, and then never returns to them again in some respects. Game just straight up moves on. Which is legit.
I find almost all of the boss fights to be mostly a lot of fun and satisfying, and did not find them "cheap", in fact I find that argument hilarious still, by the end of the game as you have one too many tools at your disposal that breaks that game wide open for the player (especially on the 2 difficulties available, probably infuriating on hard, but you can't play that first time through). Freeze bolt/shock bolts stop the boss in their tracks, and allows you to unload with all your heavy shit. Grenades, explosive bolts, upgradeable shotguns/rifles, and when in doubt the Harpoon Bolt.
Them being one hit is like who cares? That's not much of an issue when their patterns are deliberate for starters, and you are meant to play keep away. I can see the "trial and error" argument being based on the game is "figure it out" in terms of design, but I didn't find that infuriating. I also would argue to hell and back it isn't cheap, that's on you as a player.
Frankly this is the direction Resident Evil 5 should have went with going forward (read that correctly I didn't say 6, I said 5), and at the least the things Dead Space should have been doing if it wanted to stay an action-horror game like Resident Evil.
Now the not so flattering stuff
-Black bars are shit, universally, its a fucking video game not a movie.
-Mechanically its way too awkward from a controls standpoint in the early going. The pistol gets fixed with the acc boost, but it doesn't negate the early stretch of that game where you have to adjust to an awkward feeling game. RE4 that can fly as that's a deliberate movement based game with enemies built around deliberate movements. The Evil Within? not so much, this is meant to be about more moving and shooting, and the enemies are built that way. So the controls could and should have been better overall.
-Its retreading ground Mikami has done before in Resident Evil 4: Again the variety part is impressive, it just comes with an asterisk that homeboy cheated. He basically took scenarios from his last attempt at this genre, and took out the funny one liners, made it more serious and grim from an aesthetic standpoint (naturally a creepier atmosphere), but also rarely does things that are out right original. In some cases Mikami does actually improve on sequences he had in RE4
(the sniper segment for instance in chapter 6 is a ton of fun), but other times its like "eh RE4's gondola segment was better, RE4's two Garrador segments was hype as fuck compared to this"
and all that jazz.
-Some of the zombies get guns, including crossbows with explosive bolts. They aren't fun to fight, they don't really work as well with the mechanics in the game, and they suck. Fuck them.
-I do not like the stealth at all, what so ever. Part of it is that mechanically its janky given the controls (oh my god is it annoying on a mouse and keyboard), and in general its too procedural during mandatory segments. By that I mean is that better stealth games are perfectly fine when the player gets spotted, as you can escape sequences better and fight your way through things if you need to. A lot of times in this I felt like that wasn't the case.
-The game is a little bloated. Part of it is because of scenarios the game could straight up cut (Chapter 12, zombies with guns, the stealth), and partially because it recycles things that I didn't think necessarily made it better. Like the Keeper shows up for multiple gameplay segments, and I felt at least the second one while not poorly done, is easily the least interesting of the scenarios you deal with The Keeper.
-The bosses are too easy: hence why I laugh at the cheap notion, with the exception of Laura, the other fights come down to using flash/shock/freeze bolts in your favor to stop the enemy in their tracks, and then unload on them. And usually the environment plays a role in the fight (like The Keeper and Laura for instance). It doesn't inherently make them poor fights or anything, but the fact that the same essential strategy ends up being the most effective takes away some of the punch from the fights. It takes away from them as individual scenarios a little bit to me.
-The story is stupid, because video game story. But the other thing is the game takes itself so seriously Sebastian and company aren't very interesting or fun to be in a game with. I kind of liked the camp and cheese that surrounds the RE characters, Leon's one liners in RE4 are God like, but Sebas? meh. The story ultimately ends up serving the gameplay in the sense that it gives them an excuse to have whatever environment they want, and that's awesome, because it'll probably be a cold day in hell when I give that much of a shit about a video game story, but it doesn't take away from the fact that sebass is a brick. Characters I'm usually at least some what into, God Hand was fun because of how wacky it was (and mildly offensive, but fuck it). Sam Gideon was plenty endearing in his dude broness, even if he was generic. Sebass is straight man and boring at it. Further proof that Hell on Wheels is garbage.
-The game doesn't look that good. Atmospheric and fantastic art direction? Yes. But the environment designs themselves from a texture standpoint and all that jazz? nah.
-The optimization: if I wanted to have a lesser experience and play the PS4/Xbox One version of the game, I would have bought one of those versions. I bought the PC version, because I want to play the better version of games when I can, thus I do not like the fact that this game does not look good enough to justify being at 30 frames per second on my i7 with a 660, because the dev team struggled that much with id-tech 5. It is poopy. I don't care if "the real studio didn't make the port", because that is irrelevant to the fact that the PC version is essentially a console game. Fucking gross.
So yeah overall I really like the game, when it was clicking, it was one of the more tense and satisfying action games I've played. In a weird way I find the game refreshing in the sense that its more figure it out and learn from your mistakes, as opposed to guiding you by the finger the way third person shooters generally are.
Is it great? nah,
How does it stack up against the rest of Mikami's games? RE4>Remake>Godhand>The Evil With=Vanquish>PN03
As horror game? Don't really find it scary, beyond a jump scare moment here and there. Creepy yes, scary no. But as an overall unsettling, uneasy, tense experience, it's good, exceptional at times, but still a bigger fan of things Silent Hill did, Fatal Frame, and more recent games from Frictional Games like Amnesia and Penumbra are more impressive to me.
Plus if we're really going down that path of being scared, Shadow of Chernobyl's X18 Labs is probably the most terrifying thing in a video game, like ever.
Other wise good times, people can easily suck less at it, hope there is a sequel to move this series forward and tighten the game up a bit, and on to finishing up Alien.
ever stop respawning? Can you just max out the upgrades there? xD if not what happens if you don't go to the next area and keep killing it until it's over?
I just finished it at a little over 14 hours with 18 deaths on survival. Really, really fun game. Gave me RE4 vibes all over. There were a couple tedious bits, but they didn't last long and didn't bring down the game at all. Serious GOTY contender for me, right next to Alien Isolation. I loved it.
I just finished it at a little over 14 hours with 18 deaths on survival. Really, really fun game. Gave me RE4 vibes all over. There were a couple tedious bits, but they didn't last long and didn't bring down the game at all. Serious GOTY contender for me, right next to Alien Isolation. I loved it.
1. Bayonetta 2
2. Tropical Freeze
3. Mario Kart 8
4. Wolfenstein: TNO
5. The Evil Within
The other five will surely be
Smash Bros U, Captain Toad, Tomb Raider(get it on Xbone papercuts I aint paying for XBL AND PS+ plus), Ori and the Blind Forest, and Halo 2 Anniversary(which is mainly an excuse for me to vote for Halo 2 multiplayer)
I'm not sure how many chapters there are, there but I would imagine quite a bit left given how many upgrades I can still get. Overall great work by Tango games. This one definitely gets a thumbs up from me if you are into survival horror. I really like the darker tone this game has and I feel like it goes back to the basics of the original Resident Evil games.
to answer your question, you're less than a third of the way through the game. And you haven't gotten to the most of the parts that a lot of people have issues with, so it's a bit hasty to say "overall..." at this point.
got to chapter 13 last night.... I thought 9 was cool but had an annoying aspect, but 10 was far worse... then 11 was far worse than 10. Then 12 was worse than 11 (though short, thankfully). Game's quality has taken a nosedive and I hope 13-15 redeem it.
My GOTY list is going to have like 4-5 games this year
I knew this year was going to be bad for me because of work, but it's been really horrible. I play games maybe an hour a night on average now. Usually just too tired.
This will actually end up on there I'm pretty sure, which I would not have expected after the initial previews. It gets several things wrong, but what it gets right are most of the things that matter to me. It's this year's surprise for me so far, like SMTIV (another flawed gem) was for me last year, just there's not much chance anything is going to top Bayo 2 for me this year.
Seeing all these votes for Donkey Kong Hawiian Punch makes me guess I'd better rent it again. I ended up prioritizing other stuff and barely touched it.
Runner up right now is The Evil Within. It's far more flawed than other games that are high on my list (Dark Souls 2, Mario Kart 8, Shovel Knight, Wolfenstein), but it just came together really well to create a more memorable experience. This is me being really subjective.
I'll be playing Bayonetta 2 pretty soon. Just finished the first and had some problems with it (super tight core gameplay but gets in its own way a bit too often). I'm hearing that the sequel is much better in those respects. Really excited to see how they tweak the formula.
GotY for me is Danganronpa 2, followed by Wolfenstein.
Beat the game yesterday, was at 16:35 with 53 deaths(at least 7 of these was trying to figure out how to
kill Laura in
Chapter 10. I had fun with the game, but it never really grabbed me. Format wise, it was something I was able to pick up and play for a chapter at a time I guess, but with the story being gibberish and chapters barely connecting together, I never really felt a pull to just sit down with it and marathon it. I greatly enjoyed it, and it definitely scratched that Silent Hill itch I had and didn't realize, but dunno.
The game early had a good pacing to it, but then it just had way too many monster gauntlet areas. In a game that's at it best when you feel strapped for ammo and worrying about what's around that next corner, the rooms where they load you up with stuff and have you go to town, it just felt like too different of a game. The game, to me, was at it's strongest in those moments where there's traps all around you, AND you have to deal with something in the room with you. Or you go into a room that's full of things, but you have an option in how to handle it(stealth vs guns blazin).
Also, I dunno about anyone else, but I literally have to read the GOTY voting list to even remember what was actually released back in January and February most of the time
Seeing all these votes for Donkey Kong Hawiian Punch makes me guess I'd better rent it again. I ended up prioritizing other stuff and barely touched it.
I think there might be a bit of time for me to play Tropical Freeze before the GTA V Remaster drops in a few weeks. But I'm still not done with Bayonetta 2 (or 1, for that matter).
I feel like I need to play that one before I can have an "informed" GOTY list.
1. The Evil Within
2. Stick of Truth
3. Garden Warfare
Dark Souls 2, Styx & Wolfenstein would make up the rest. Haven't played Tropical Freeze and that could very well rank for me (I really need a WiiU, maybe next year), didn't really think much of Bayo 1 so dunno where a sequel would fall. Haven't played Grimrock 2 yet either.
I think there might be a bit of time for me to play Tropical Freeze before the GTA V Remaster drops in a few weeks. But I'm still not done with Bayonetta 2 (or 1, for that matter).
I feel like I need to play that one before I can have an "informed" GOTY list.
There's no way I'll have time for it this year with the way I'm playing games right now. Bayo 2 is gonna take at least 2-3 playthroughs before I'll be taking a break from it.
Honestly most of what I've played this year have been WiiU games from 2013
It's really solid. It feels like a good blend of that sort of helpless horror game that's come about lately; like Amnesia and Outlast, and a little bit of traditional survival horror. You're not completely defenceless against most enemies, but the alien itself is completely unrelenting.
Another huge plus is the attention to detail the developers put in. It all takes a cue from the first film, it's really cohesive and had me fanboying out quite a bit.
It's really solid. It feels like a good blend of that sort of helpless horror game that's come about lately; like Amnesia and Outlast, and a little bit of traditional survival horror. You're not completely defenceless against most enemies, but the alien itself is completely unrelenting.
Another huge plus is the attention to detail the developers put in. It all takes a cue from the first film, it's really cohesive and had me fanboying out quite a bit.
I think about games too differently to say what I think my GOTY contendors are, but I can say as a horror enthusiast, the three indie horror surprises of the year for me have been Silence of the Sleep, Claire, and DreadOut (if Act 2 holds up and provides more content as its a bit short as is).
Both games have excellent pacing, level design, controls, and gameplay. IMO these most important parts of a video game (See: Half-life 2) Absolutely top notch games IMO.
that being said, the only other games I played this year are Shadow of Mordor and Ryse Son of Rome which are both absolute garbage. Note worthy is Alien Isolation but that game is simply far too scary for me to play.
Wolfenstein is definitely my GOTY so far. It has such a well realized, cohesive, and interesting world balanced by a lovely campy tone --yet still takes the story seriously--really memorable characters, and incredibly fun gunplay.
It definitely had plenty of flaws: sound mixing, most enemy types were simple variations that could just take more bullets to kill, and some annoying boss fights. But overall the game was just a pure joy to play through, and I loved how committed it was to telling its story.
Runners up for my GOTY would be Outlast for PS4 (especially when factoring the outstanding Whistleblower DLC), MGSV: Ground Zeroes (It's not a full game though so that definitely holds it out of the GOTY spot, but I thought it was a clever little package that provided a ton of value for what it is, and the gameplay is just so good), and Velocity Ultra 2X (super addicting, clever and well implemented gimmicks, and oozing with style).
I can't wait to finally get Evil Within next month and see how it stacks up.
