12 Lists of Christmas: Games

Oh what a year it’s been for games. We started strong with things like Darkest Dungeon and led into XCOM 2 and the like. Then we were met with utter disappointment in the face of Sean Murray and No Man’s Lie. But no! We thought “Battlefield 1 will save us!” and we were totally wrong because that turned out to be a hot mess of tanks and awful single player.

But in spite of all that, let’s count down our top 10 games of 2016.

Check it out.

Pokémon Go – How could we not mention this? This little app had people going mad in summer, with more than 70 million downloads within the first few weeks. I can’t comment on the game in its current form; however I do remember the literal days I spent wandering around looking for the little blighters. There have been a few updates and the second generation of Pokémon should be coming soonish, so maybe give it a try?

Superhot – Man, this game was fun. Its core mechanic is the fact that the entire game runs at a fraction of real time when standing still. However, when moving, the game plays out in real time. It’s less about charging in and more about strategic placement of bullets, and which way you’re facing. Endless modes are good for killing time too.

Hyper Light Drifter – A retro-esque dungeon crawler with tight combat mechanics, zero dialogue and a harrowing intriguing world. You play as an unnamed adventurer, and slash, hack, shoot and drift through swathes of enemies, in the hope of unravelling the mystery of the weird flashbacks you keep having.

Darkest Dungeon – I still haven’t beaten this. It was a fantastic experience. I mean about as fantastic as being thrashed around by eldritch monsters and maniacs can be. Part resource management, part tactics, you’ll have to use all of your wit, skill and cunning to cut through the mounds of monsters that stand between you and the final dungeon. Or be destroyed by an awful dice roll, and be critically hit by one of the weakest enemies in the game. Yaaay.

X COM 2 – I might have only spent a few hours playing this, but it was a brilliant advance from the first game. The fact you fought guerrilla-style and had to be sneaky to be good at the game was fantastic. It was both difficult and rewarding, letting you take control of what you want to tackle.

Outlast 2 Demo – It might have only been a demo, but this scared the crap out of me and my partner playing it. It looked amazing, and gave me the same occult feeling that I got in the first game a bit. It raised so many questions. Where are we? What is this town we’re in? This is probably the most anticipated horror game of 2016, and rightly so!

Dark Souls III – It was my favourite of the three and was really fun actually. The game featured its signature look – the architecture, the weapons, everything is so tightly executed. It was Dark Souls down to a T. Online capabilities are working well now, but poise is still broken. The bosses were cool, and went back to the weird and gross stuff that was in the first game. Definitely worth the price.

Overwatch – A children’s shooter, but a good one at that. This team-based objective game has swallowed my life whole, and each hero has contributed to nibbling on it. The characters are rich with backstory, and the free updates really motivate one to keep playing.

Arkham Knight – It’s a fairly new entry in the list, and came out in 2015, but as of this year it’s just playable on PC. We see the Dark Knight go through mental and physical strain for one last time, and he kicks ass while doing it. The Batmobile is awesome, and I actually really love the segments where you have to use it. Apart from the Deathstroke fight. That should have been a fist fight.

And last but certainly not least, we have the B**p game of the year!

DOOM – Yep, my favourite game of the year. It revitalised what was basically a dead genre for me (single player shooters). The gun-play, the soundtrack, the upgrades: everything was so good. The campaign is a masterpiece of shooting, traversing and mauling demons with your bare hands. Gorgeous game, and an absolute joy to play. A shame Bethesda took a turn for the anti-consumer.

And there we have it! Stay tuned for more game reviews and be sure to click all the hyperlinks!