2016 is just about to end within a few hours. It’s been a year that will go down in the history books as the one where a ton of cool people passed. Even until the last few days of the year, industry icons seem to be taken away from us. And while it’s incredibly sad we can always take our minds off of things with video games. This year had some great games. The staff here took the time out of their busy schedule to give you their picks of their favorite games this year.
I’m not going for the obvious this year. 2016 was a year filled with big releases like Overwatch, Doom, Watch Dogs 2, Titanfall 2, Battlefield 1 and a lot more. It would make sense that I pick one of those big releases as my personal Game of the Year but that wouldn’t be fair. There’s only one game this year that kept me captivated from start to finish, the brilliant Indie game Virginia.
There’s something about Virginia that caught me by surprise. When I started playing it, it immediately grabbed my attention and I couldn’t stop playing until I reached the end of the mysterious and complex story. Virginia doesn’t offer a lot of content but what it does offer is an unforgettable story. The graphics and music are perfectly put together to create an atmosphere you can’t find in any other games. If you haven’t played it, be sure to give it a shot, you won’t regret your journey!
Runner-up: Forza Horizon 3
I adore the freedom of Forza Horizon, going where you want, racing whomever you want; it’s a feeling of absolute freedom. Horizon 3 takes you to the gorgeous Australia and puts you in charge of the entire festival. It’s the game I played the most in 2016 and deserves the Runner-up spot.
Overwatch:
Blizzard doesn’t have a reputation regarding shooters. But they didn’t fail to deliver with Overwatch. Beautiful characters, amazing graphics and fluent gameplay are what makes this game complete. Not to mention the lore that Blizzard is making with the animated shorts on YouTube.
Overwatch is not just a shooter. You don’t play a nameless character without a story. But you play in a wide universe where terrible and amazing things have happened and every hero has its own story to tell.
I like games that are fair. You don’t have things like kill-streak rewards in Overwatch where you get amazing guns. You just have to master your main and that is it. Overwatch is pure skill. Like Blizzard said when they first spoke about Overwatch: “easy-to-learn, hard-to-master”. And apart from that, the visuals are nice and the controls really feel well.
(btw Tracer and Junkrat are my mains 😉 )
Runner-ups: Firewatch and FNAF sister location.
Firewatch is an amazingly beautiful game about a married man taking a hiatus in the Firewatch brigade of Yellowstone national park. Here you will meet your colleague Delilah. You will have to make choices in regards to your relation with both of those women and the secret that is hiding in Yellowstone.
Five Nights at Freddy’s sister location is the 5th installation of the FNAF games by Scott Cawthon. Now you are a technician. And again you will discover the horrible things that happened in the restaurant and the animatronics. For the main game Scott really stepped away from the normal point and click mechanic. It’s really different. But now he added custom nights which is basically the same as the other games. Nonetheless, it’s really worth it to check it out because the custom nights tell a completely different story.
Pokémon Sun/Moon:
Personally, I don’t think that 2016 has been a great year for games. Most titles, both AAA and indie, that released this year were fine, but none of them really stood out to me. If I had to pick the game that I couldn’t stop playing this year as my GOTY, then that game would be Final Fantasy XV. However, FFXV is so heavily flawed and has some serious issues that I simply cannot say it’s the best game released this year. That’s why my GOTY is Pokémon Sun/Moon. Like most other Pokémon titles developed by Game Freak, Sun/Moon feels like a finished product and still gives players enough new mechanics and changes in order to distance itself from the previous games. The only issue that I have with it are the frame drops that occur during the Totem battles. But outside of that, there’s nothing bad about it. The story, updated graphics, music, characters, Pokémon designs and everything else are developed with care and Game Freak should be commended for this. If you have a 3DS but still haven’t Pokémon Sun/Moon, then now is the time to try it out.
Runner-up: Final Fantasy XV
After 10 long years, FFXV finally got released this year and I just can’t stop playing it. The game has a lot of issues, especially the second half of the story, but it also does a lot of things right. Deserves every gamer’s attention, especially if you’re a fan of RPGs.
2016 has been an exceptional year for the FPS genre. One of the best single player campaigns came out this year with Doom and if multiplayer is your thing you could get the incredibly stellar Overwatch. Or perhaps you want both? Well, in that case, Titanfall 2 has you covered. But which one is my pick? See, I just can’t stop playing Overwatch which is quite a feat since I kind of move on from game to game once I finish it or played a few hours of the online. Overwatch is a game that nails just about everything it sets out to do and does it with charm and style(with the exception of the lootbox system). Already we see a ton of games being compared to overwatch whether the game actively copies the formula or not. And with a ton of future support for the game with characters, modes and maps for free I bet I’m going to be playing a lot of Overwatch in the future.
Runner-ups: Digimon Story Cyber Sleuth, Kirby Planet Robobot
Digimon Story is just so solid as a monster catching RPG and it just looks and sounds so freaking fantastic. I had fun with the game from beginning to end and just thinking about the game makes me want to play it again.
So I’ve been scratching my head for some time now. Kirby Planet Robobot or Titanfall 2? Which one. Both have cool-ass mechas and both excel at their respective genre but as you can see above I picked Kirby Planet Robobot. While Titanfall 2 has one of the best prompts in any game ever (Press RB to time travel) it does not pay homage to Gurren Lagann in the coolest way possible. Obviously, I would not pick Kirby over Titanfall 2 for such a shallow reason, I just thought Kirby’s adventure was crafted just a tad bit better than Titanfall 2’s crazy adventure.
XCOM 2:
XCOM 2 is definitely my game of the year as I quickly stated this in my review back in February. The game was just an awesome mix of stressful and even more amazing moments. The game was definitely a step up from last XCOM and the developers added a lot more depth to the series by adding extra features like base development and a couple of noticeable RPG elements. It’s one of those games that kept me on the edge of my seat, recovering from my previous mission and preparing for the next one. The game is all about taking important decisions on and off the field. Decisions that can clearly shape the way of your future progress. The only thing that bothered me a couple of times was the “luck”- factor. Most of the time, this “luck”- factor was a pain in the butt but in the end, people started to exploit it as well by reloading and replaying moments of the same mission, hoping to get a critical hit that could drastically alter the survivability rating of your squad. Another thing that made me stay to play, was the “bonding” with your squad members, each time a squad member died, a piece of my sanity died along with them. It was a game I restarted quite a bit, just to see if I could speed up my progress a bit. The game had some issues (technically and graphically) but the developers were very quick on the draw by rolling out some small game fixes as quickly as they could. It’s definitely a game worth checking out.
I don’t have any runner-ups.
2016 was a very special year for Pokemon. It was the 20th anniversary, Pokemon became mainstream again through Pokemon Go, the classic Pokemon game was reinvented with Pokemon Sun and Moon. But the biggest release was Pokken Tournament. A Pokemon Fighting game created by the people behind the Tekken games. As a 90’s kid who grew up with Pokemon this is a lifelong dream that came true: fighting with Pokemon. And oh boy this game is good. It got the feel of a fighting game with excellent mechanics and awesome gameplay but still keeps true to the Pokemon spirit. This game is amazing and it’s a shame we had to wait 20 years for this to come. I just hope adding more DLC characters to Pokken tournament is part of Pokemon’ New Years resolution.
Runner-up: Pokemon Sun/Moon
Pokemon Sun and Moon was a pretty great game that pleased new fans or veterans of the game.
Can we all agree that 2016 wasn’t the best year we’ve had so far? Almost everybody died this year , so I think Dark Souls 3 is the game of 2016 , you can feel like your favorite celebrities all over again. No, but seriously Dark Souls is yet again a beautiful piece of work and while we all know you don’t play DS3 for its landscapes it is still one of the best-looking games ever. That said DS3 is the typical try hard game for the hardcore gamer who HAS to beat that boss or he won’t go to sleep, well get ready for some sleepless nights then because just like the previous Dark Soul games (and Bloodborne) it’s pretty hard, but we like it that way ’cause there is nothing more satisfying than finally reaping the soul of an ugly , mutilated beast … only to die to a skeleton just meters away from a bonfire. This game has a love-hate relationship with me but that’s the reason I played it the most this year!
Runner-up: Overwatch
Yeah, nothing much to say here. I think everybody knows Overwatch and I do think it’s the best multiplayer-focussed game in 2016. But that’s all really, you need to gather a group of friends to really bring out the best of Overwatch but once you do, you and your friends will laugh, cry, win, lose, uninstall and re-install Overwatch for months to come!
Pokémon Sun and Moon have almost answered everything we could’ve wished for. Grown up visuals, getting rid of the Megas and introducing a much more interesting mechanic for the Meta: Z-moves! The series has come a long way from its buggy roots and delivers a strong narrative top with some groundbreaking changes within the series itself; no more gyms. Gyms were kind of predictive and with the Kahuna Island Trials it felt new, fresh and more surprising. We believe a third installment is needed to wrap up some loose ends like Necrozma etc. (post game felt a teensy bit rushed). But With the addition of Pokémon Bank support this month we can fully experience the game’s meta and rediscover our old mons we traded through earlier games. Just by looking at the sheer number of sold copies it justifies its place among our 2016 GOTY.
I have no runner-ups.
My pick for Game of the Year 2016 was an easy choice, since there is no other game more deserving of the title than Civilization IV. Firaxis has the Civilization franchise but shows with Civilization VI that it knows their gameplay has to change and evolve to keep it interesting. Instead of releasing the same gameplay over and over again, they have added a whole new layer of strategy thanks to the districts. It really is a game that I will continue to play for the next year. If only their DLC program was like that of the Witcher 3.
Runner-ups: Planet Coaster, The Witcher 3: Blood And Wine.
Planet Coaster! A roller coaster building game where freedom isn’t just a sell point, but a philosophy. The stuff you can make, the freedom you have while building, it shows how advanced the game industry has come, if you have a capable development team! And with the recent patches, I do believe Frontier will be able to remove the minor complaints about their pearl of a game.
Since it isn’t a full game, but “only” DLC, the “Blood And Wine” DLC of the Witcher 3 is by far the best game experience I have had in a whole year. This DLC has the size, complexity and workmanship of a full-size game. And I have spent too many hours just looking around, taking in the glory of Toussaint! Or wandering around, ignoring the quests and just collecting herbs. And it is not that the quests are bad. I find them even better than the main storyline of the original game, and that says something…
The line that I heard the most when gaming this last year was the following: “Welcome back, commander”. Sometimes, I was happy to hear it. Other times, it was greeted with sheer desperation or anger from my part. But it always meant the same thing: another play-through, another chance to amend for my strategical sins (I’m sorry Tuuli Karas, I sent you towards a painful death, again!), a new opportunity to kick alien ass and actually win the campaign for once!XCOM 2 is a turn-based strategy game that succeeds where other similar games have failed: when you play the campaign, you start to care about your soldiers. You develop a bond, you want to keep them from harm, and you want to bring them to their fullest potential: alien murder machines, preferably with a badass tattoo or two.
XCOM 2 is a turn-based strategy game that succeeds where other similar games have failed: when you play the campaign, you start to care about your soldiers. You develop a bond, you want to keep them from harm, and you want to bring them to their fullest potential: alien murder machines, preferably with a badass tattoo or two.The commander in me is proud of his troops. They have become a digital family to me. I’d hate to see them go, so once in a
The commander in me is proud of his troops. They have become a digital family to me. I’d hate to see them go, so once in a while, I have a play-through to see how they are doing. So far, they haven’t disappointed me.This game, in my opinion, has everything it takes to be the Game of the Year. No wonder one of our reviewers gave it a 9/10! An interesting campaign,
This game, in my opinion, has everything it takes to be the Game of the Year. No wonder one of our reviewers gave it a 9/10! An interesting campaign, adjustable difficulty for both the base building and combat aspects of the game (pheew!), plenty of new aliens, cool weaponry, interesting skills and tactics, subtle and not so subtle customization options, updated (slick-looking) graphics, a very strong mod community, and plenty more!
And there you have it. it seems like there is a tie between Blizzard’s Overwatch and Nintendo’s Pokemon Sun/Moon. For the sake of declaring a winner I’m gonna say Overwatch gets our Game Of Year Award. While it’s a tie I feel Overwatch more than deserves it. A new IP that’s not even a year old and already cemented itself as a juggernaut.
So I know a lot of games are missing but these are our choices and that’s that. 2017 is looking crazy too and I can’t wait to see what that year has in store for us. As long as it’s not more death. Happy New Year and we will see you next year for more game news, reviews and videos.
