This year’s list of video games I enjoyed in reverse numerical order

I played a few games this year, here’s a list of the best.

6. Batman: Arkham Knight

Despite its reported woeful performance, I played this on PC and did not run into issues. It is a gorgeous finale to Rocksteady’s once-innovative series, marred by over-repetitive sections to take down bosses and complete side missions. This pads out the game time, but seeing the same canned cutscene 3+ times per mission makes it decidedly unspecial. It also undermines the tight narrative of previous entries. I’ve played the previous Rocksteady Batman games about 3 times each, but this one feels a bit too big for me to re-visit. It may be the “worst” of the trilogy, but it’s still a fantastic game.

What performance issues? — **No seriously, what performance issues?**

5. Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain

There are few games I’ve been beyond hyped to play, but I can say 3 of them are Metal Gear Solid games. The craft and care Hideo Kojima put into his 26-year-old series is awe-inspiring. But he decided to go a less cinematic route this time and focus more on stealthing around in an open world. Gameplay-wise, it lives up to the polished promise of the trailers. Story-wise, it trades verbosity for body language and vague hints at character conflict. It just doesn’t work for me, and doesn’t fit previous examples of the world he’s created. Still fun, but this isn’t the Metal Gear I was looking for.

Who's a good stealth assassin? You are! — Who’s a good stealth assassin? You are!

4. Axiom Verge

I played this when it was released based on Jeff Gerstmann’s recommendation. It started off as a fairly standard-looking Metroid clone, but evolved into a clever amalgam of Metroidvania concepts and branches out to do its own thing by the end. The soundtrack is other-worldly and gives a good sense of atmosphere like any good Metroid game. Its inventive puzzles had me 100% it, and I’ll probably play it again when it’s part of a Steam sale.

3. Shovel Knight

I started playing this at the tail end of 2014 after so many people’s positive impressions, and they most definitely weren’t wrong. It’s another game combining old-school concepts into something greater than a mere nostalgia grab. The soundtrack conveyed actual emotion and pressed me to keep going to the end, even when the levels became much more challenging. I can’t recommend it enough.

2. Witcher 3: Wild Hunt

CD Project Red’s obsession with bringing the world of the Witcher novels into video game form comes to a close with this ambitious finale. I tried and failed to play the first one many years ago, but it just didn’t click. I passed on the second, but when I heard what they were doing, or at least attempting to do with their penultimate entry, I gave it a go. The main story gets into several ruts where it feels like it’s not moving fast enough, and the gameplay is relatively simple, but can become marred by the open world bugs. The draw for me though, and what kept me playing, were the characters, the world, and the side stories taking place around the main one. They put so much work into their writing, acting and world-building that they certainly deserve all the game of the year awards they’re going to get, because no one did storytelling better.

But it does seem inefficient — Surely something is lost in translation.

1. Rocket League

It’s just plain fun. I’ve spent a stupid amount of time (100+ hours) with this game and I’m still not that good. It doesn’t matter though because that “just one more” mindset will kick in whether I win or lose. The team at Psyonix continue to support it with free content, DLC, and new modes (new hockey is incredible), but this is one of the few games I’ve been happy to pay full price and purchase additional DLC for. It’s also really fun to watch.

http://gfycat.com/ConfusedImportantGrunion

Honorable Mention: Kerbal Space Program

After seeing The Martian, I had an appetite for space, more specifically how to get there and back. Kerbal delivers that and more. It requires tutorials, hours of prototyping / experimentation, and frustration, but when you safely land your Kerbals back on the earth-like Kerbin after they’ve touched the void, it’s incredibly rewarding. There’s a whole solar system to explore, but just getting out of atmosphere feels like an accomplishment right now. I have not played enough of this to know where it ranks with the rest of this year’s crop, but it has certainly piqued my spacial interest and I intend to go back to it soon.

This was a good year.