2016: GOTY, Runner Up, Biggest Let Down, and Most Anticipated 2017 Game

Yep, it's that time again. Another year has gone by and now we look at the year in review.

What is your GOTY of 2016, Runner Up of 2016, Biggest Disappointment of 2016, and your Most Anticipated Game for 2017?

Overall, nowhere as good as 2015 IMO. There were some good games that came out this year, but there were a lot of massive disappointments (Street Fighter V, No Man's Sky, etc.) that really bog the year down. One of my biggest complaints this year was, again, just like in 2015 AND 2014, everything getting delayed into the next year. This seems to be a huge issue this generation, there are games that were supposed to come out in 2014 that STILL haven't been released yet. This is fucking ridiculous and it needs to stop. Companies need to stop announcing games so early when its clear that they have many more years of development left. There are still some games I want to play from this year, but I have played quite a few to form a good view on things (much better financial situation than last year).

But hey, it seems that we are getting an even better year than 2016 looked to be to start this year next year. Next year looks like a gaming buffet with a whole bunch of much anticipated titles coming out next year (unless they all get delayed for the fourth time). Q1 is stacked for me and there are three games that I think could be in the running for the GOAT. This is looking like it could be another 1994, 1998, or 2001 in terms of being a legendary year for gaming if everything turns out ok and doesn't get fucking delayed into the next year (which will probably happen).

Anyways, let's get to the actual meat of the topic: Our picks!



My Game of the Year of 2016: DOOM
Damn, I was not expecting this game to be THIS good.

No really, this is the first great FPS game I've played since Half-Life 2 (and before that, Perfect Dark). I had mixed views about this game after its reveal at E3 2015, but when I finally got my hands on it, I was amazed. Graphics are amazing, music is some fucking hardcore shit, it was a very faithful adaption to the original Doom games (moreso than Doom 3), and the gameplay was just something else. I'm finally happy to see an FPS game move away from what COD or Halo tries to do such as a linear pathway to walk on or only carrying two weapons at a time because its realistic or some BS like that. No, DOOM makes you explore areas to find card keys, it allows you to carry a whole arsenal of weapons, and killing enemies feel so good and satisfying like it should be. Incredible level design, really nice gunplay, and caring about the single player campaign (something which has been SORELY lacking for a long time in FPS games) makes this the best Doom game I've played since the second one and my personal favorite of the year. Sure, the multiplayer and level creator could've been a lot better, but the amazing single player makes overshadows those problems. I can't wait for Bethesda's next Doom game!


My Runner-up of 2016: Final Fantasy XV
Now here is another game from 2016 that I was not expecting to be good at all but ends up surprising me. Usually, development hell games NEVER turn out to be any good at all, but this is the sole exception to that rule so far.

Now sure, this game is still very flawed. The game feels rushed and the last half of the game obviously has some cuts, and the story in this game was beyond crap (you should never EVER make players watch a movie and tv series outside of the game to understand the story. If you do that, your story is already FUBAR'd), and I know I'm going to be in the extreme minority of this opinion, the music was the worst in the mainline FF series. However, the gameplay and the continent of Lucis has so many things to do that it makes up for a crappy story. I still wish we could've gotten the battle system that Tetsuya Nomura originally visualized, but this is still acceptable and we are probably going to get that system in FFVIIR anyways, so no big loss. Surprisingly, the characters weren't as punchable as I thought they would be and were some of the better ones in the series. While some things could've been a lot better, this game was a massive step in the right direction for one of my favorite series that has been in the dumps for a long time.

My Favorite Video Game Song of 2016: "Stand by Me" by Florence + The Machine (originally by Ben E. King) from Final Fantasy XV



I know I just took a dump on FFXV's OST above, but there were some great songs and it did have the best song of the year in it's OST. What an awesome arrangement on an already good song. Makes me want to rewatch Stand By Me again.


My Biggest Let Down of 2016: Pokemon GO!
Well, this game could've been great. This was a pretty cool idea that engages you to keep playing and search for Pokemon and brought me back to my days of playing Pokemon when I was little with my friends. However, problems with this game quickly surfaced when some of the best Pokemon only appear in specific places like New York City. I'm not traveling 11 hours to a city to pick up one fucking Pokemon! And when I finally realized I had to go to a specific place to fight against other trainers and couldn't do it with my friends, I finally decided the game was retarded and dropped it. Some of the most squandered potential I have ever seen.


My Most Anticipated Games for 2017: Final Fantasy VII Remake (I would like to think that Square Enix would be able to release the first part in time for it's 20th anniversary. If it can't even make the European 20th Anniversary release in November, then that's pretty shitty), The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, Shenmue III, Resident Evil 7: biohazard, and ToeJam & Earl: Back in the Groove
I'm going to say that 75% of these are not going to come out next year because delaying games is the cool thing this generation. >_>

But yeah, if things does work out, then next year should be a fantastic year for games. My wallet should be taking a beating.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

I liked it, it was okay! Witcher 3 GOTY and Darksiders Warmastered was the best i got out of it!

Happy 2017, everyone, merry gaming and good modding!

This year was personally an utter disappointment !
I was expecting a lot from my most favorite series (Soul Calibur, Resident Evil, Sonic, Ace Attorney on top of the list)  and the only one that actually satisfied me this year is Ace Attorney.
It's part my fault too because I did miss out on some of the biggest releases of this year like Uncharted 4 (I have to beat the trilogy first ^^’), Pokemon Sun & Moon and Final Fantasy XV (because too many games already to catch up with :O).
I do believe however that people who got any of these games have had a much more satisfactory year.

My Game of the Year of 2016: Mortal Kombat XL
I had hard times choosing my game of the year but I had to concede the huge efforts that NRS put into Mortal Kombat X even a year after the original version release.
If we put aside the fact that NRS made yet again one of the best fighting games of this generation with stunning graphics, a very well thought out gameplay, an outstanding story mode and tons of contents, they actually still added much more with:
• A next-gen remake of the Pit II arena FOR FREE
• New DLC costumes FOR FREE (some of them were true new costumes and not just palettes swaps)
• Redone Online code, now works much better FOR FREE
• New brutalities FOR FREE
• New stage fatalities (they were heavily request) FOR FREE
• Some great DLC characters, 4$ each, which is still below what Capcom ask for his characters DLC.
So sure, the online mode still has region lock on the PS4 version, they actually released the whole package on PC instead of proposing the DLC alone and didn’t put more klassic MK kharacters instead of guests but they still put to shame Street Fighter V and its poor management and hella expensive DLC, especially when you look at how big the original version was to begin with and the tons of free contents they offered.
Hats off NRS, please keep delivering!

My Runner-up of 2016 : Ace Attorney 6
After the amazing return of the series back in 2013 in the all new 3D form, Capcom reiterated with its sixth episode bringing in some old fav back like Maya Fey and Larry Butz at long last (Maya was expected for so long by fans) and putting Apollo and Phoenix in an all new situation that comes with new gameplay gimmicks.
As always, everything from graphics to story and OST is amazing.
My only complaint is that Capcom decided that for some reason, the game had to be 5$ more than AA5 even though the content was of the same size. But I’m already grateful they localized it in the West in the first place and 3 months after the Japanese release, which was a short wait.
2017 marks the 15th anniversary of the series so I hope they have plans for the West because I’m pretty sure Japan is going to be spoiled.

Honorable mentions : Resident Evil 0 HD Remaster, Broforce

Biggest let down of the year : Capcom with Resident Evil 20th anniversary

2016 marked the 20th anniversary of Resident Evil so obviously I was hyped as hell.
Plenty of surprises announced for fans (so they teased) and Capcom delievered a great year for Resident Evil fans in 2015 too with the western release of RE HD, Revelations 2 and the developpement of RE0 HD, RE2 remake and RE: Vendetta.
So while Japan had all the amazing stuff for fans like collaborations, themed parks, themed restaurants, plenty of goodies, here's what they got gamewise for both the West and Japan:

* Amazing HD Remaster of Resident Evil 0..........with the new costumes being paid DLC announced only on release day while Japan got all that stuff marketed months ago......for free. Since when Japan has the luxury of having extra stuff for free while WE in the West have to pay for it, especially it was showed months before release?!!!!  

* Lazy ports of RE4 ,5 ,6 for PS4/XB1. While RE6 still had a good enough port because it's a greatly optimized game in the first place, the ones for RE4 and RE5 were blatantly lazy with the luxury of adding new glitches in!!!! All priced 20$/€ obviously, when it's the 9th port (I believe) for RE4 and they're still not able to recreate the cutscenes for Separate Ways mode in full 1080p.
I'll let you imagine how great 480p cutscenes look on PS4/XB1  

* Resident Evil 7 marks the turn of the series to the FPS genre, because of course we don't have enough FPS games in the industry and especially those cheap horror styled ones you get see nowadays.
Granted, the focus on horror and riddles is there, the direction looks solid enough and the game looks great graphically speaking (I'm pretty sure it's even more amazing on the PS : VR) but it displays literrally no connection to the RE universe and will apparently be its own thing, to the point that it actually feels like a complete reboot.
So yeah, FPS + Reboot = NO WAY!

Capcom claim otherwise but unfortunately, I don't feel appealed for a second and I'm pretty confident Capcom went the FPS way only because there was an opportunity to take with the VR. Some could say they wanted to take a chance with Silent Hills being praised then cancelled but the timing was conveniently way too tight for this to be possible, unless Capcom has got spies in Konami offices  

I understand the game appeals to people looking for an alternative for Silent Hills or full fledged horror games on a VR system but there's no way I'm calling this a Resident Evil, rather an Outlast clone done by Capcom.
Add in the DLC that were announced the same day as the game was revealed and that just adds more to the injury.

Sorry but my true return to roots will (hopefully) be Resident Evil 2 Remake.

* Bakahaza : a cute and funny 8 bits recreation of RE1............exclusive to Japan T_T

Sad to say it's been an appaling RE year to me and 2015 felt much more like RE 20th anniversary.
One of the good things I got from this year was the trailer for RE : Vendetta which features everything classic in a Resident Evil



My Most Anticipated Games for 2017:
2017 might happen to feel like 2011 with the return of great 90's classics on the scene, like ToeJam&Earl Back in the Groove, MonsterBoy (new game in the Wonder Boy series !!!), Crash Bandicoot N'sane trilogy, Sonic Mania (Thanks Stealth&Taxman!!!), Power Rangers Mega Battle, Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild.
Also Shiness, Horizon : Zero Dawn and South Park : The fractured but whole.

There better be news for FFVII Remake, SoulCalibur (goddamit Namco, plenty of teases since 2014 and still NOTHING shown) Last of Us 2 and RE2 remake along the way...

I believe the fanmade versions of Bio Hazard 2 and 3 in HD were better than the official crap released.

Not sure what you're exactly referring to, since we haven't seen a single screen of the official Resident Evil 2 Remake yet

Regarding the few fan projects, all the fangamers did were taking all their assets from Darkside Chronicles (an official game thus), put it into Unity and never go beyond the alpha version.