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NOT MY GAMES OF THE YEAR LIST by Mr Biffo

3/12/2015

25 Comments

 
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It's almost the end of the year, and traditionally around this time two things happen: a wyvern eats a tarp, and the games sites start listing their games of the year.

I was intending to the do same (a list, not eat a tarp), but when I sat down to consider my own list I drew a blank (weird turn of phrase: surely 'drawing a blank' is choosing not to draw on a blank sheet of paper?).

There are games this year that I've enjoyed more than others of course - some of them revealed their fruity charms over time, and entertained me in unexpected ways - but when it came to games that I loved, I struggled to put any of this year's games on a par with games that I've really loved from previous years. 

What's more, I started writing a 'Which Games Machine Should I Get?' guide, but couldn't muster enough enthusiasm to pen a bunch of waffle which concluded: it doesn't matter, because the Xbox One, PS4, the Wii U... they're all the same, unless you desperately want to play Bloodborne, Halo 5, or Mario Maker. 

​In short: I think 2015 has been one of the most boring years for gaming in living memory. Yeah, I know - it's yet another tirade of optimism, hope and positivity!

THE PAINS
It pains my sacrum to write off this year, as I think we're spoiled in many ways.

Pick almost any game from the last 12 months, and slide it up against the games of 10, 15, 20 years ago and we're living in charmed times. Games are bigger, better looking, more polished, and generally more accessible than they've ever been. What's more, there's greater choice than ever.


If you don't like Rise of the Tomb Raider, there's always 80 Days. If you don't want to play The Witcher 3 you could always pick up Splatoon. If you have no time for Rainbow Six Siege then you can console yourself with The Talos Principle or Bloodborne.

​But somehow I'm left feeling so very, very bored.

That might be unavoidable in some respects - I've been playing games for more than 30 years, writing about them for 23 (barring a few recent years off), and I know I'm harder to please than I was. I do feel guilty that I'm unable to get more excited about the hard work, the blood, the sweat, and other bodily fluids that have pumped into today's games.


But I can't. I can't manufacture it, or pretend. I feel what I feel. And what I feel when I play most of today's games - particularly the big ones - is detachment and tedium. The last time I really, really loved a game was Assassin's Creed Black Flag. So, y'know, cheers UbiSoft for continuing to propel that franchise backwards into ever more predictable corners. 
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OH!
There's a terrible complacency settling in with game design. It seems to happen every decade or so that everyone wants to staple their colours to the latest fad.

​The games industry always chases trends - be it Pong clones, platform games, Doom clones, Street Fighter II clones, or whatever - and right now everybody seems to be trying to become the next big open world hit.

Unfortunately, all these games are set in achingly similar locales, and the more of them there are the less room there is for one of them to break out. It's innovation which drives this industry, and currently everyone is just wandering around in circles, looking over their shoulders to check they're doing it right.


Take Just Cause 3. Admittedly, they've tried to give it a distinct aesthetic of its own - specifically a Mediterranean one, with its flamenco guitar, fields of sunflowers, and whitewashed buildings - but it's still set on an island with pockets of civilisation surrounded by mountains, and bodies of water. Liberate settlements, take over bases, raises flags, find the things, blow up the things, do the things.

You know: like we've seen in all the Far Cry games, The Witcher 3, Grand Theft Auto V, Rise of the Tomb Raider, and too many more to list. Even The Phantom Pain - with all its idiosyncrasies - somehow became increasingly formulaic and dull the more I played it.

The structure of all these games is virtually identical - story missions broken up with optional side missions, and hidden boxes to tick off. I'm quite honestly at the limit of how many more times I can go through it. It's getting like water torture.

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AVERAGE GAMER
I get that I'm not the average gamer. I'm playing more games than I ordinarily would - buying them from our Digi Patreon fund - for the purposes of review (the size of these games presenting its own challenge in playing them enough to be able to give a reasonable judgement).

Nevertheless, I'm still not sure what I'd find to be excited about.

I'm desperate to be entertained, but I've seen all the tricks before. The court jester capers and frolics at my feet, and all I can muster is the strength to flick chicken bones at him.


NO WHINGES
I know. I whinge a lot. So I'll try and leave this article on an optimistic note: amid the ennui of 2015 I've experienced several of my favourite gaming moments ever. 

Oddly, the games I've enjoyed the most this year have been on my phone, and as basic as you can get. I've been utterly hooked on a very, very simple on-screen basketball game called Ball King, and recently on an equally simple 3D endless runner thing called Twist. 

Fallout 4 is a game I like despite it doing its best to make the experience as frustrating as possible. Yet within that frustration I've had some truly exceptional gaming moments - the sort that have left me breathless, where I've come out the other end, had to put down the joypad, and just pace around the room with a grin on my face.

Similarly, Star Wars Battlefront is deeply flawed - albeit through its lack of lasting value than anything else - but there have been a couple of times playing the Supremacy mode where I've laughed aloud at the madness of it.

One particular battle, which lasted for much of the length of the entire game, saw the entirety of my Rebel allies and I defending a bunker, while being attacked by what must've been the entirety of our Imperial opposition. The chaos of it was hysterical, but everything about it was why I love games.

​So, those moments are there. There's gold amid the grey. And I hope that this particular bandwagon has finally reached the peak of Mount Me-Too. Let it stay there.

​There are other mountains to climb, and other views to absorb in 2016.

FROM THE ARCHIVE:
VIDEO GAMES: A REFLECTION OF TERROR by Mr Biffo
LARA CROFT: THE FRAIL PSYCHOPATH by Mr Biffo
DIGITISER2000: STATE OF THE UNION by Mr Biffo
25 Comments
Da5e
3/12/2015 11:32:11 am

It means 'to draw a blank card,' doesn't it?

Also, STOP SAYING 'FRANCHISE'

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Mr Biffo
3/12/2015 11:48:03 am

FRANCHISE FRANCHISE FRANCHISE FRANCHISE FRANCHISE FRANCHISE FRANCHISE FRANCHISE.

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MarcusJ
3/12/2015 12:46:16 pm

Joke:

Q. What did Disney accountant, Mickey Mouse, say when he saw all the money accrued by Star Wars?

A. "I can't believe my franchise!" (Eyes)

Carl
3/12/2015 12:40:35 pm

Mr Biffo why not go indie? You can play something a bit less identikit like FTL and Advanced lawnmower simulator 2015 gold crest ultra edition featuring shovel knight.

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Mr Biffo
3/12/2015 12:42:20 pm

I have quite a lot actually. And I'm going to cover more Indie stuff next year. My biggest issue is... I'm a Mac boy, so a lot of the decent Steam stuff isn't available to me. Trying to work out whether to get myself a quality gaming laptop.

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Chris
3/12/2015 04:04:01 pm

+1 for more indie/less mainstream games coverage.
(and I mean "less mainstream games" not less "mainstream games", actually I'm not sure if that clarifies my point)
The smaller titles tend to have more originality, rather than being yet another map-mopper.

Carl Harrison
3/12/2015 08:35:08 pm

I have a Mac and I find myself replaying a lot of the Infinity engine games these days on it. There are also a few new ones that are worth playing: Satellite Reign, Xenonauts, Stasis, Wasteland 2 and Pillars of Eternity to name a few. Most of them are based on what we've already seen but they make a refreshing change from all of the broken AAA games we've getting recently. I think there seems to be a need to play the next big thing which people associate with big name games.

Favus
3/12/2015 08:39:18 pm

Carl! I wrote Advanced Lawnmower sim 2015, i am really touched you gave it a mention, fills me with joys! Thanks and merry Christmas, also mr Biffo.. Get a bloody pc

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mittens
3/12/2015 03:38:14 pm

So have you played Undertale yet?

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colincidence link
3/12/2015 04:41:13 pm

Isn't Mount Me-Too where Chart Cat goes hiking?

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Terry Speedluge
3/12/2015 05:04:59 pm

I agree on all points except lumping Splatoon in with the rest of the dull dreck that constituted 2015's contribution to the gaming canon. Splatoon was my favourite game this year; fresh, both as a daisy, and as it keeps telling you.

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All you need to do...
3/12/2015 05:39:29 pm

... is play Undertale!

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Mr Biffo
3/12/2015 07:22:53 pm

Nag nag nag. NAG NAG NAG. Yes, yes - I'll play it.

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Richard Wager
3/12/2015 06:32:11 pm

Just face facts Biffo, your getting on in years 😜

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Mr Biffo
3/12/2015 07:25:04 pm

I've always been an old man.

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Nin
3/12/2015 08:31:33 pm

I have to say I agree. Even the games that I usually rely on haven't delivered. I never thought I'd see the day a Metal Gear Solid game bored me but Phantom Pain is so repetitively dull that I'm not sure I can even be bothered finishing it. Having said that, I havent gotten round to Rapture, Ether One or Talos.
Next year offers a lot more promise of new ideas. No Man's Sky looks intriguing, I've got my eye on Firewatch and Dreams will probably crash and burn when no-one buys it.
On the whole I am more optimistic about gaming then I was 5 years ago. The independents now offer an alternative to the endless AAA sequel's. That rebalancing and not-quite return to the bedroom coders of the 80's can only be a good thing for new ideas.

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Favus
3/12/2015 09:02:34 pm

I am still playing Risk of Rain that cost me £2 and Project Zomboid which was only a tenner, not even finished and I have over 180 hours of game time in it, console games now more than ever are big spectacles with no heart.. And no fun just there to churn money from the people who buy endless versions of a worse and worse version of a 10 year old idea... I am not shocked that you're disheartened by games if that's all you've played, go back to where it all started, indie games scene is the best it's been in years... It reminds me of classic Spectrum days.. Gaming has never been so good, if you know where to look

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Dr Kank
3/12/2015 09:19:44 pm

I enjoyed playing Don't Shit Your Pants, but I couldn't get all of the achievements.

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Jeremy
3/12/2015 10:57:40 pm

If it hadn't been for Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate I think this year might have been the year I gave up on games. Not sure why I tried the full game after disliking the demo but it occupied me for nearly 300 hours of fun and compulsion.

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Fedge
3/12/2015 11:38:50 pm

Party Hard was a fun little game, and thanks to Biffo's recommendation I'm loving Talos Principle... so not 100% dross this year.

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Euphemia
4/12/2015 12:21:05 am

While I do admire you for not being on the usual end-of-year-list-bitch bandwagon like every other publication on the planet, I do feel jipped. I need to know which game comes in at number 7. And number 9. And third. And fifth. And fourth. And sixth, while we're at it. 10, 8, 2 and 1 I can live without. 11 - 25 are, however, ESSENTIAL.

Even a long list of disappointments will suffice.

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Mr Biffo
4/12/2015 09:46:53 pm

You young people... it's all about lists with you.

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Euphemia
4/12/2015 11:34:53 pm

Hogwash! For us young people it's all about:

1. Cars
2. Fancy Telephones
3. Sexual Athletics
4. Lifestyle magazines
5. Cunty beards and twattoos to ward off potential employers
6. Ironic waistcoats
7. Farmyard felc ....

,,,, I take your point.

Mr Scum faced twat
4/12/2015 07:56:44 am

Hello,

Yes I know, I'm a horrid man. I bought a PS4 and an Ex 'Bone' on Black Friday to sell on ebay and make a small profit. Due to a cock-up I have an extra PS4.

I have a decent PC and a Wii U hooked up to a massive shitting TV and I'm pretty happy with that and didn't have any intention to keep any console, but now I have a free one I might do... well, I thought I might, but looking at the metacritic list (best to worst, either console) is just depressing. It goes:

Remaster, better on PC, remake, rerelease, remaster, better-on-WiiU, better-on-PC etc. in fact, you have to go all the way down to number 32. to find a game which isn't one of the above, but coincidentally happens to be out on the previous gen.

The fact that the new generation of consoles has sold so well completely baffles me.

Unless anyone knows of a compelling reason to keep either the Xbox One or the PS4 other that 'because it was free'? I'm all ears!

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Brankles
4/12/2015 11:06:04 pm

I'd love more indie recommendations. I just can't be arsed to get into any "proper" new games these days. But I recently got introduced to Hidden In Plain Sight (only the Death Race mode) and immediately had much chuckling enjoyment, and could've played it for hours, I think.

So, as Favus says, if there's loads of accessible stuff out there with that classic 8/16bit vibe - rather than stuff that makes me feel I need to hire a Project Manager before commencing my new gaming experience - I'd love to hear about it.

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