The best time of year, in my humble opinion, is the holiday season in December. The reason? Christmas. Ok, technically it’s Christmas and Game of the Year time. Picking the best games of the year is a lot of fun, but it’s also extremely stressful. I don’t want to choose the wrong games and end up looking stupid, but at least I get 10 chances to pick the right games. So, take a gander at my list and let me know what you think.
As a side note, I need to point out that I didn’t include Diablo III: Ultimate Evil or Oddworld: New ‘N’ Tasty because they are technically re-releases. I love both of these games, but I tried to include only new games in my list.
Also, I apparently enjoyed games featuring Troy Baker as a main character.
10. The Wolf Among Us
Telltale Games has a great track record of pumping out adventure games that follow entertaining subjects. Sure, Jurassic Park and Back to the Future weren’t great games, but The Walking Dead was fantastic. Unfortunately, I don’t care about zombies or The Walking Dead, so I was overjoyed to see Telltale release a game focused on the world of Fables. I care more about fairy tale characters in the modern world than I do zombies. Also, it helps that one of the three little pigs is an alcoholic chain-smoker who lives with the Big, Bad Wolf.
Normally, adventure games aren’t my cup of tea, but I get interested when the story is entertaining. The Wolf Among Us was an exceptionally interesting story, and I enjoyed all five of the episodes from season 1. Bigby was an enjoyable character, but I had so much more fun listening to the random dialogue by Bufkin the alcoholic flying monkey. He was the best.
9. Lego Batman 3: Beyond Gotham
I absolutely love the Lego games, but I haven’t been a fan of either Lego Batman releases. The first was underwhelming, and the second Lego Batman ran terribly. So, I wasn’t overjoyed to see the release of Lego Batman 3: Beyond Gotham. However, I was pleasantly surprised by this Lego game that took Batman (Troy Baker) and his friends to the far reaches of space while in pursuit of Brainiac.
As I stated in my review, Lego Batman 3 wasn’t without faults. Some levels would randomly break because of weird glitches, and other characters would simply disappear or forget their objectives. Thankfully, the story more than made up for these issues, as this was the first Lego Batman game that I actually paid attention to. This original story about Brainiac trying to take over the world while flipping personalities was pretty fun. More importantly, Lego Batman 3: Beyond Gotham included a hidden level from the 1966 Batman and Robin TV show, complete with an oversized bomb. It was awesome. Now, I just need to finish tracking down all 150 characters like The Arrow.
8. Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel
Borderlands has been one of my favorite series since its release in 2009. The RPG-like quests and loot drops are addicting, the side characters are entertaining, and the action is handled very well. Of course, I still prefer the first Borderlands because I feel that Gearbox tried too hard to make Borderlands 2 a comedic success with Handsome Jack and Tiny Tina. I despise the character of Handsome Jack and feel that he isn’t funny, so I should hate Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel. Surprisingly, I actually enjoy The Pre-Sequel more than Borderlands 2, even though it revolves almost entirely around Handsome Jack.
Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel was developed by 2k Australia, as evidenced by the mass amount of Australian accents permeating the game. This change in developer is clearly seen by the different gameplay involving oxygen tanks, low gravity, and Claptrap. That’s right, you can play as Claptrap in The Pre-Sequel, which comes in extremely handy when you run out of oxygen. Other character classes require oxygen to navigate around Pandora’s moon, but Claptrap is a robot so he doesn’t have to worry about suffocating.
Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel is a pretty great game. Sure, the final boss battle was one of the worst things ever created in video games, but the dozens of hours of killing/looting before totally made up for it. Plus, Claptrap is awesome to play as.
7. InFamous: Second Son
When I bought my PlayStation 4, I couldn’t wait for those “next-gen” experiences that Watch Dogs and Killzone: Shadow Fall promised. Unfortunately, Watch Dogs was terrible. Killzone was pretty cool though. Luckily, Sucker Punch released another awesome game with InFamous: Second Son. Following up on Cole’s story, Second Son is set seven years after InFamous 2, and it follows Troy Baker (Delsin Rowe) on a quest to get revenge against the Department of Unified Protection. The evil leader of the D.U.P., Brooke Augustine, completely destroyed the reservation where Delsin and his family lived. So, Delsin and his brother Reggie went to Seattle to take her down.
One of the things I loved about Second Son is the addition of multiple powers. Cole had electric powers mixed with fire and ice, but Delsin had smoke, neon, video, and concrete powers. All of these powers mixed together to make beating up bad guys a lot of fun. It also helped that Sucker Punch set Second Son in an actual recreation of Seattle, complete with a 12th man jean jacket. There isn’t much better than jumping off of the Space Needle and flying around for minutes at a time before slamming into the ground and throwing objects in the air.
6. Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare
Lately, Call of Duty has been suffering from a whole lot of rehashed ideas and diminishing results. The last Call of Duty I enjoyed was Black Ops. Thankfully, Sledgehammer Games got their first crack at the series with Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare, and the result was awesome. Advanced Warfare is set in a future where Kevin Spacey runs a super-advanced mercenary group. You play as Troy Baker, but you have an exo-suit that aids with jumping long distances, shoving cars out of the way, and being awesome. Plus, you can use this exo-suit to double jump out of harm’s way during multiplayer matches.
Honestly, Advanced Warfare is the first Call of Duty game in a long time that I actually cared about. The story was very interesting, and Kevin Spacey gave a hell of a performance. Even better, Advanced Warfare was really fun to play with unique levels and actual quiet moments. The stealth mission at Kevin Spacey’s mansion was the best level in the game. I used to love Call of Duty with all my heart, so it was exciting to play another well-made game. I also need to point out that Advanced Warfare is freaking gorgeous. Just look at the screenshot I took. LOOK AT IT!
5. Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor
I swear, this is the last game on the list that features Troy Baker. At least, I think so.
Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor combines a lot of my favorite video game elements to create an entertaining game that I can’t stop playing. This game has the combat from Batman: Arkham Asylum, the traversal from Assassins Creed, Troy Baker, and a setting I love in Lord of the Rings. Most importantly, Shadow of Mordor is really violent, so you can behead about 48/50 Orcs during an average fight. Their blood is black, and it flies everywhere.
I will be honest and admit that I don’t actually know what the story of Shadow of Mordor is. I haven’t technically paid any attention because I prefer running around and killing Orc captains. The story missions are decent enough, but they just distract from the important stuff like defeating a specific captain after 5 separate confrontations. Of course, Shadow of Mordor doesn’t let you simply run in and murder every Orc during a simple fight. No, you have to figure out the captains’ identities and weaknesses through interrogation and plan out your attacks. Some captains can only be killed with fire, stealth, large animals, or other specific attacks. This extra aspect of Orc murder makes Shadow of Mordor a lot more entertaining because it became more of a very violent strategy game.
4. Far Cry 4
Ok, I was wrong. Far Cry 4 is the last game on the list that features Troy Baker.
Far Cry 3 was a fantastic surprise in 2012, and I couldn’t get enough of that game (or Blood Dragon). Unfortunately, I beat Far Cry 3 much too quickly, so you can only imagine my excitement when Far Cry 4 was announced. Finally, another chance to explore a random world, meet a lovable psychopath, and murder every animal with 20 square miles. You know, for science…and a bigger wallet.
It is simply too much fun exploring the wide open world that Ubisoft created for Far Cry 4 because I honestly have no idea what will happen. Sure, I may be sneaking up to an enemy camp (like a ninja) ready to stealthily strike, but a wild animal could attack me at a moment’s notice. I can’t even count the times that I have been interrupted in some objective because a water buffalo or honey badger decided that I was evil and attacked me. These attacks were almost irritating, but I found some entertainment in attaching sticky C4 to the animals and making my own fireworks.
Like Shadow of Mordor, Far Cry 4 does have a story mode that I didn’t pay much attention to. I kept trying to go complete story missions, but radio towers and enemy outposts always got in the way. By the time I finished taking over the enemy outposts, I had completely forgotten what was happening in the story. I didn’t really care because Far Cry 4 was that much fun.
3. Counterspy
I’m a sucker for old spy programs like The Man From U.N.C.L.E. and Get Smart, so I jumped at the opportunity to review Counterspy. Mostly, I was hoping for another game that would remind me of No One Lives Forever 1 and 2. Technically, Counterspy wasn’t that similar to NOLF beyond the humor, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. In fact, I’m quite happy that Counterspy was a unique little game from Dynamighty that stood out from everything else. I mean, the 60’s spy soundtrack alone puts Counterspy in the top 5 games of the year, but the actual gameplay and humor bump it up a couple spots.
Counterspy plays similarly to Shadow Complex in the action and (mostly) 2D view, but it is different once you add in the procedurally generated levels. I loved that I could keep playing levels—provided I didn’t start a nuclear war—and unlock new weapons in entirely new areas. Of course, Counterspy had the added bonus of fancy stealth attacks and hidden pathways. Oh, and did I mention that the art was done by the guy who drew The Incredibles? Why wouldn’t you play Counterspy based on that fact alone?
2. Wolfenstein: The New Order
Wolfenstein: The New Order should have been a terrible game. All of the previews made it seem kind of bad, plus there was a fiasco involving a collector’s edition that didn’t actually include the game. Oh, and yet another developer made Wolfenstein after the license moved to Bethesda. However, Wolfenstein: The New Order was actually a really great game. The story was way more interesting than I expected, the game was gorgeous, and there was a hidden area featuring Wolfenstein 3D. Don’t forget that “Howling Mad” Murdock from the A-Team (Dwight Schultz) was the bad guy.
Wolfenstein: The New Order wasn’t a simple shooter. Sure, you could dual-wield two massive machine guns and murder every person on the planet, but Wolfenstein also offered stealth and a decent amount of choice. Why use a massive gun when you can throw a knife and stick a dude to a wall? Plus, this stealth option made levels a lot easier because no alarms went off. Of course, the big guns were extremely helpful whenever the alarms did happen to go off because you could almost endlessly spray bullets at enemy soldiers.
Honestly, Wolfenstein was a surprise to me with the amount of depth to the game and the cool hub world that you could explore. You could wander around your little home base, and complete side quests for the rebellion soldiers. MachineGames even included a character from Raven’s Wolfenstein as an ally. Most importantly, Wolfenstein featured two levels with vastly different settings. During one level, you infiltrated a Nazi submarine and during another you went to a Nazi space station. ON THE MOON! Killing bad guys in zero gravity was pretty great.
1. South Park: The Stick of Truth
Is it weird that I chose a game from the Xbox 360 generation as my game of the year? Well, it would be if the game hadn’t been so much fun and true to the South Park style. Matt Stone and Trey Parker are slightly crazy, but they managed to create one of the all-time comedic shows with South Park. This popularity has led to many video games based on the show, but they were all terrible. Thankfully, Matt and Trey teamed up with Obsidian and created a uniquely cool RPG based on the show.
The main thing that makes The Stick of Truth a great game is the art style. Obsidian perfectly captured and recreated South Park’s art in a way that makes the game look exactly like an episode. All of the characters walk just like they should, and every location in the game is a perfect recreation of the show. Obsidian also shows more of their dedication to the show when you unleash special attacks that turn Butters into an anime warrior and Kenny into a Japanese princess.
The Stick of Truth also happens to be a perfect love letter to South Park fans. No matter where you go in this world, you will find collectible items that relate to every single episode. I expected some references to big episodes like the World of Warcraft episode, but I didn’t expect the references to super random episodes from season one. Quite frankly, I was blown away by the dedication to little details in The Stick of Truth. Half of the weapons in the game were from super random episodes.
Obviously, this game isn’t for everyone based purely on the offensiveness of the game. Matt and Trey weren’t held back by the FCC or any governing board, so they basically threw in every horribly offensive joke they could create. Sure, some of these jokes were a little much, but they were few and far between. Most of the jokes in The Stick of Truth were really funny. In fact, I played through The Stick of Truth multiple times to test out the different character classes, and I still laughed at most of the jokes, even though I knew they were coming.
South Park: The Stick of Truth won’t rank very high on a lot of lists, but I enjoyed every second I spent with the game. It wasn’t a deep RPG, but there was enough content to keep me engaged. I was just thankful that The Stick of Truth stayed true to the show and incorporated a gameplay style that didn’t feel forced.
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