WingedKagouti on 1/1/2017 at 23:32
Now that I've played and completed Stories: The Path of Destinies (or at least enough to see the true ending, still 19 more endings to see) I can definitely recommend it in addition to the other 2016 titles I've played. I would definitely place it above WWE 2k16, but the rest of the games each have something to make them feel better than the others in one or more areas, so I can't really place Stories above or below any of them.
The basic gameplay loop is decent, but nothing that puts it above any of the others. In fact several of the other games have noticably better combat and loot. But where Stories shines above them is in the way the story is told and the various branches you can get to. Also hunting for information or new paths behind the various gates in each level is fun. The story itself is not spectacular, the way it's told is what makes it truly work. If you liked Bastion you're very likely to like Stories: The Path of Destinies as well. A replay is about an hour or so, but with each choice giving a different twist on the story. You will most likely have to play through the game 5 times to get the true ending, so a tolerance for repetition is needed, though you're probably going to see some new parts of the levels you go through on each visit.
This one gets as high a recommendation as the rest of the 2016 games I've played.
Slasher on 2/1/2017 at 00:29
Rise of the Tomb Raider - I felt this kind of took the good and the bad of the 2013 reboot and cranked them up a notch. Lara still hasn't adopted the attitude of a badass tomb-raiding world-saving heroine and you'll kill even more people in an even bigger variety of ways. But the scope of the level design was also a big step up from the previous game and they actually wove some of the story into the optional side tombs, so there were some reasons beyond the legendary bow upgrade to actually go exploring.
Deus Ex: Mankind Divided - I'm think I'm still pretty early in the game, but so far the variety of weapons, augments, and tools is pretty awesome. There's definitely an abundance of conveniently sized waist-high cover in the game, just like in DE:HR, but it doesn't feel quite as constrained as "shooty/sneaky path here, OR air duct over here" and it's more like "shooty/sneaky path here, hacking path with air duct over here, vanilla air duct over here." I was worried that against a more open world like GTA5, DE:MD's Prague would seem claustrophobic and static in comparison, but it's provided a decent playground sans sandbox so far.
Napoleon: Total War - Wasn't released this year, or the year before, or even the year before that or the year before that or the year before that or the year before that, but it sucked in more hours than the above two combined. I originally bought it just to play on the skirmish maps and only tried the campaign recently, and that's when I found Civilization doesn't have a monopoly on 1-more-turn syndrome! It's pretty light on historical accuracy as far as late 18th/early 19th century warfare goes, but if you can ignore that and are interested in the era I definitely recommend it.
Honorable/Honourable Mention: SAVING - Not the kind with compound interest, silly! The quick and manual type! Serious shout-out to Deus Ex and Dishonored 2 for allowing quick saves and manual saves. For someone who very rarely goes back to play a game from start to finish a second time, saving helps me investigate those parallel "what-if" dimensions without having to jump through every hoop to just to get back to the decision point again. Plus, it just plain cuts down on frustration. Both games appear to have auto-saves too so if you're sometimes forgetful or stupid like me, the developers got your back!
henke on 4/1/2017 at 16:16
I wasn’t gonna do this. I said I wasn’t gonna do this. But it turns out I can not not do this. I made a video.
This year I stepped my game up and soundtracked it entirely with videogame music from this year, instead of just random pop songs. But I also stepped my game down, by not using only my own footage, instead relying heavily on trailers.
Anyway, enough of my blabbering. Here.
[video=youtube;LzbAk2ES0YI]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LzbAk2ES0YI&feature=youtu.be[/video]
Malf on 4/1/2017 at 16:39
Thanks henke, you reminded me that Gravity Rush is now on PS4 too. I got it on the Vita free with PS+, but found the controls too fiddly even though it was made for Vita. Bonus, it's on sale on the Playstation Store at the mo!
TannisRoot on 4/1/2017 at 18:25
Quote Posted by Malleus
Dark Souls 3In a nutshell: abandoned tons of mechanical improvements DS2 made, unnecessarily fast paced, blatant fanservice everywhere, coop is worse than in previous games and PvP is just crap. The core gameplay still carries it, and it's far from being a bad game, but it's definitely the disappointment of the year.
What mechanics other than power stancing did it abandon? Just curious. I played and enjoyed both DS2 and DS3. I did feel like DS3 was weaker mainly because it's more linear with fewer branching paths and that made the world feel smaller and less interesting to explore overall.
Malleus on 4/1/2017 at 19:45
Quote Posted by TannisRoot
What mechanics other than power stancing did it abandon? Just curious.
Dual wielding (full moveset for weapons in left hand), bonfire ascetics, small white soapstone, allowing multiplayer after the boss is dead, new animations and weapon movesets (they were better in DS2 IMO), twinblades, extra stuff on NG+, backstep i-frames, poise was better, streamlined weapon scaling and stats (like, in DS2 Attunement improved casting time, in DS3 it's Dex like in DS1, which is nonsense), in DS3 split damage is bad again, infused weapons cannot be buffed, builds are imbalanced as fast weapons are straight up better than anything else... and lots of small things like that.
The linearity didn't really bother me though, the level design made up for it for the most part - some areas were really good and felt nice to explore (Cathedral of the Deep, Archives). I wouldn't say I didn't enjoy DS3, I did like seven playthroughs and lots of co-op, but it was still disappointing.
