Your favorite games & biggest disappointments of the year...

[ncxcstud]

I'm curious to know - what was your favorite (or for those on the other side of the big pond - favourite) game of this past year? Being that this is a XBOX One forum - I'd venture to guess most answers will/should? be XBOX One centered, but I'm not one to judge.

Also - what would you classify as your biggest disappointment this year?

My favorite games this year:

Shadow of Mordor: This was a really good game. I truly enjoyed it. It had all the best parts of some of my favorite games mashed together. The combat of the Batman games and the hunting/stalking of prey of Assassin's Creed. It also implemented a pretty cool 'nemesis' system where your enemies are randomly (but smartly) generated based on the actions you take in the game. They also remember you and your actions against them and some even seek you out. While others continue to come back for more torture. I enjoyed it, but the ending was very, very so-so.

Titanfall: Say what you want about a multiplayer only game with no (real/extensive) campaign (seems to do well for TF2, CS, and others), but Titanfall is fun. Lots of fun. I've had a blast playing it and it is the game I go back to the most out of my collection.

Diablo III: Ultimate Evil Edition: I didn't plan on getting this game, but happened to find it at my local video game store - used - the week it came out - for 45 dollars. I jumped on it and it didn't disappoint me at all. It is fun, rewards you all the time with new loot, and is simple enough to play that my wife even enjoys it!

Assassin's Creed: Unity: I'll probably get flack for this. But, I love the Assassin's Creed universe and series. I've played and beaten every game (except Black Flag... though, I think I'm at the last 'battle') and have enjoyed the (mostly crazy) story. ACU has it's issues for sure, but in my play time with it (clocking at almost 60 hours now) has been - for the most part - bug free. I get the slowdown and such, but it doesn't bother me, and a part from one co-op mission that I needed to restart, I've not experienced that many (if any) game breaking bugs. I'm really hoping that Ubisoft can implement the Batman combat system into Victory (or something like it) because combat - while better this time around - is still one of the lower points in this game. I also LOVED the co-op with friends. Man, this is what I've been waiting for - for a long time in the AC series.

Honorable mentions: Valiant Hearts: The Great War, Fibbage, Super Time Force, Geometry Wars 3: Dimensions
Biggest Disappointments this year

Destiny: Destiny is one of those games that I can't seem to figure out. I enjoy the mechanics of the game. The shooting and traveling are great - lots of fun for me. But the rest of the game is just a chore at times (though sometimes a fun chore with people you know). I had lots of high hopes for Destiny. I even (stupidly) bought the digital version with the season pass. I have yet to play the new content that came out and I know they've fixed a lot with the game, but it still lacks so much. The story is just terrible(I mean come on - You go and meet the 'blue people' for the apparently 'first time' yet you can be a blue person who apparently has never looked in a mirror!), Peter Dinklage's character is not engaging at all, and I'm still miffed that in order to play the raids you need to coordinate with friends only - who are free to play all at the same time - always in the same group - and who are past the level requirement to play it. Bah...

Broken Games: Publishers and developers have at least during this Holiday season have pushed out a number of games that are 'broken' in many ways and not ready to be actually played. I had numerous issues with connecting in Destiny the first month, ACU has had it's fair share of bugs, The Master Chief Collection slowly fixes itself (though for me the campaign works), Driveclub was an utter mess, The Crew likewise seems to be a wreck in many ways... I'm at once disheartened to see games released in such ways compared to games of the past, but then I'm still hopeful that at least we play during a time that developers are able to 'fix' games... Ugh... hopefully in the next few years publishers will be more willing to delay a game until its ready. The Witcher 3, Evolve, and Batman Arkham Knight seem to be taking that route...

Gaming Community: As a pastor who plays games and loves technology I constantly have to defend why I play games. This year made that incredibly more difficult than in years past. The vitriol and hatred that is spewed upon games, developers, and gaming personalities is terrible. Ugh... this was a year that many were waiting for who 'hate' on video games so they could 'prove' how terrible games/gamers are. Hopefully, hopefully - we all as a community can learn from the actions our community takes. Lifting up the positive, not letting those with vitriol and hate have a large audience to speak to, and calling out and pointing out injustice and hurt when we come across it as we game online, talk about games, and interact with our fellow gamers...

So - that's my list... what's y'all's

 

[curseoftheninja]

Favorites:
1. The Master Chief Collection I know this had lots of online issues, but replaying all of the campaigns was so much fun.

2. The Evil Within I loved Resident Evil 1, and this felt like a return to survival horror. If you like horror games, pick it up!

3. Sunset Overdrive Open-world, GTA style games usually lose me. This game's irreverence and fun traversal keeps me playing.

4. Tomb Raider: Definitive Edition I didn't play it last-gen. I really enjoy the direction Crystal Dynamics is going.

Disappointments:

1. Destiny I love Bungee. I was really excited for this game. The shooting mechanics are awesome, but the story is non-existent. Also, the grinding to get to high levels was not fun at all. I have no desire to keep playing, and I won't pick up Destiny 2 unless it gets a really high review score.

2. Watch Dogs I was hoping this would be great. I wasn't terrible: it was just average.

 

[ncxcstud]

I've enjoyed TMCC as well. I'm currently playing through all the campaigns (just started Halo 2). I can't believe how much of Halo 2 I forgot about... In fact, I don't know whether or not I actually beat that game... Hmm.. oh well.

I have noticed that the degree of difficulty between Halo:CE and Halo 2 is incredible. Halo:CE is tough. Really tough. Unforgiving in many places. Halo 2 is a lot easier. Mostly because they did away with health packs and (introduced?) the wait and refill life meter that pretty much every FPS uses now. Enjoying it and the CGI videos for Halo 2 are incredible. I love how you can switch back and forth between them and the original cinematic parts of Halo 2...

 

[ML10]

My list is short:

Likes:

Watch Dogs: It's awesome. It flows nicely. The parkour and stealth really makes it seem like assassins creed of the modem world. The hacking is cool, but isn't overused in the game, leaving space for necessary action. The campaign was intriguing, unlike the GTA 5 campaign.

Dislikes:

FIFA 15- This might cause some controversy. I came straight from FIFA 13, and honestly, the difference is not vast enough. I expected the commentators to be more advanced, player movements more coordinated. It wasn't horrible, I just expected more out of it.

 

[Keith Wallace]

Hmm, tough call. I was mostly OK with everything I played on my One, but here goes...

Good

Sunset Overdrive: Purely on a gameplay level, this was probably my favorite. The traversal elements were great, though some of the comedy was of the overly cheesy/forced nature. It still had a good, entertaining group of characters, but it was rather short.
Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor: I really liked most of this game. Combat was fluid, the world was big, and even though the environments were bland, they never felt boring to run back and forth across. It seemed to have a good amount of content. The problems I had were an extremely disappointing finale, a total lack of challenging gameplay, and an uneven leveling system (maxed out my character's abilities about 60% through the game).

OK

Watch Dogs: The game basically served its purpose, but wasn't great. The world was a bit small and boring, and most of the tech-related things that were supposed to set it apart were overly simple and pointless. The story was decent, but somewhat clich?d at times. There just needed to be more going on.
Forza Horizon 2: The game drives really well, and the map looks amazing. The problem is that the environment's a bit too tame, weird as that might sound. It's a condensed version of a very consistent landscape. I'd rather Turn 10 (admittedly my least-favorite development team in the universe) put the driving physics in a Need for Speed-style world, with more color and variety. At least they didn't try some disgusting campaign like The Crew did, I guess.

Disappointing

Halo: The Master Chief Collection: This is pretty obvious. The online STILL isn't fixed entirely. The campaign co-op kicked my friend out repeatedly, and at least once, it kept us from playing all night. The playlists online are a total waste, as intriguing game types from the past (Assault, Regicide, Infected) are missing, while other things are just a mess online. I can enjoy the campaign now, but I don't feel like playing it.
Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare: I guess it's not THAT disappointing. After seeing Modern Warfare 3, I had absolutely no faith in Sledgehammer. It's better than Ghosts, but also a pretty bad online game. The campaign's decent, a typical CoD romp that's neither memorable nor a total travesty, thanks to the fun gadgets. However the game has easily the worst set of maps I've endured, the game is WAY too vertical (cramped maps lead to idiotic death times and easier-than-ever spawn-killing), and the weapons (last I played) were horribly imbalanced.
The Evil Within: Not much to say on the goodness of the game. The A.I. is overly simplified and canned, making the game totally a game of memory. They give you no information on an encounter, so you have to guess at things, die, then repeat until the mechanics are memorized. Death isn't something to fear in the game because it's put there as a necessity. It ruins the concepts of both survival and horror. The plot is aimless and moronic. It took me 5/14 chapters before I just gave up and moved on.
Titanfall: I can't say I expected THAT much out of the game, but I expected more than we got. The free DLC is a nice gesture, but doesn't fix the core failures of the game. The campaign was an unexplained turd, as you knew nothing of why there was a war, nor did you get anything close to conflict resolution. It made the characters uninteresting and faceless when they opted to tell much of the story through in-game play as well, and it ruined any potential for a shred of meaning in the story. The maps were OK, but didn't feel varied because of the ease of movement--everything was played in basically the same way. Gunplay was messy, relying WAY too heavily on aim assist, something that I abhor in a shooter/ The titans were surprisingly nimble and fun to play in, as opposed to a hulking bore like Halo 4's Mantis. Still, little was good, and much disappointed.
Kinect Sports Rivals: A decent bowling game and a barely passable wave racing were all to enjoy, and I use that term loosely. Tennis was OK, but would struggle to track shots, leaving them to be mostly standard lobs. Plus, The A.I. was quite poor in that game. The target shooting plain sucked, and it showed the Kinect's inability to track something steadily--the gun always shook heavily. Rock climbing confused hands frequently, leading to instances where the character would simply let go and fall, usually 3+ times in an event. Lastly, the soccer was a joke. It handled goal tending OK, but that's it. The passing wouldn't track curved or lobbed passes to miss defender. On scoring chances, it wouldn't track headers well or place the ball properly at all, making most games a loss of 0-1 or 0-2 because of horrid tracking.

 

[Tom87]

Ok my favourie game AND biggest dissappointment is: Halo: The Master Cheif Collection.

Let's start with the dissappointment. This was the game that was supposed to reinvigorate the Halo community, spark life back into competitive Halo and allow all the old fans to re-live the glory days in glorous 1080p, 60fps and on dedicated servers. What we got was a nigh-on impossible to use matchmaking system, full of bugs, glitches and missing content (still no ranks for any gametypes but Halo 2: Anniversary). The patch that 343 released at the beginning of March has massively fixed most of the matchmaking issues - making the game enjoyable to play online - however there is still a lot to do...

So why is this my favourite game? Whilst the matchmaking was having its issues, the campaigns to all 4 Halo games were still pretty much working as normal. And that's the point. This is 4 complete Halo titles. On one disc (or one download). And they are spectacular. Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary is a delight to play through and looks even better than the Xbox 360 version. The first Halo game is special for a lot of reasons and being able to re-live the beginning of the story on the Xbox One is great. Halo 3 and Halo 4 are largely the same as their Xbox 360 counterparts, albeit with the upscaled 1080p and 60fps - Halo 3 in particular looks a LOT smoother than on the Xbox 360 here, and both campaigns are a great play through. Halo 3's campaign is my personal favourite so I enjoyed beating this on the Xbox One immensely.

The jewell in the crown of The Master Cheif Collection of course is Halo 2: Anniversary. Halo 2 was MASSIVE when it was released. Massive. Before Call of Duty started ploughing out annual map-packs, Halo was your go-to console FPS game, and Halo 2 was nearly perfect. Halo 2: Anniversary has retouched the entirety of the campaign and the levels look fantastic and help you play the game as you remember it. But better. The cut-scenes are the best I've ever seen in a video game. Blur Studios have done an amazing job here and bring fresh life to the stories of the Master Cheif and the Arbiter. Simply put, they've brough the classic 2004 game right up to present-day specifications and expectations.

To sum up, these are 4 fantastic titles, all put together in one great collection. Yes, 343 rushed this out in time for the holiday and let many of the long-time fans, potential new fans, pro players, and the community in general down, but thankfully they are addressing these issues. Halo 3: ODST and a remake of the Halo 2 map "Relic" are not much compensation for the dissappointment surrounding the release of the MCC, but maybe there will be more on the way...

Now that matchmaking is nearly 100% - it is some of the biggest fun you will have in an FPS online game. I'm looking forward to the MCC to finally be firing on all cyclinders and, with any luck, bring back the population numbers to the game that we all hoped for.

 

[dKp1977]

My favorite games so far:

Dying Light
Even though it had lots of mixed reviews, I enjoyed every single minute so far. Traversing Harran, trying to keep out of reach of larger groups or hordes of zombies is a lot of fun. While the story is anything but unexpected, it's a bliss seeing your character evolve, explore the huge world and simply try and survive.

Destiny
I haven't been playing it much lately, but story missions were fun and I'm really digging the PvP parts of the game. I really wished there was open world PvP though.

I can't say I'm very disappointed with any of the games I purchased.