The Five Games of 2016 You Have to Play

We’re well into our first week of 2017 and we can’t wait to see what lies ahead in this wide magical landscape we call video games. But before we forget the year that is 2016 (celebrity and political issues aside) the year managed to produce some pretty amazing titles. Here are five pics from last year you have to play no matter what.

Final Fantasy XV

After 10 years of waiting, Final Fantasy XV has arrived and delivered. While many argue that it is flawed with missing story set pieces I personally enjoyed this journey of brotherhood and bonding with an ending that left me in tears. Few games have offered me the kind of immersion that XV did with its attention to detail from everything ranging from hair to gigantic cities and of course the beautiful lush landscapes. As a Final Fantasy game it manages to break new ground with an active battle system that sets the foundation for others to follow. Most importantly it brought the franchise back and is till now the best JRPG I played this gen. If you’re looking for an entry into the franchise this should be it.

Uncharted 4

Naughty Dog has constantly raised the bar on its games and Uncharted 4 is no exception. Despite this being a PS4 game it manages to look better than most high-end PC titles (and this is coming from a PC fanboy). Filled with none-stop adventure, Uncharted 4 never has a dull moment. Sure the tacked-on multiplayer is forgettable but its singleplayer is where it truly shines. By far the best game ND has produced, this masterpiece is a must for all PS4 owners.
As a side note: Uncharted 4 and Final Fantasy XV are the only games I’ve given a 10 for which makes them the highest recommended games on this list.

DOOM (4)

There was a moment were I thought DOOM 4’s campaign was going to suck, I mean aside from the stage demo, most of the promo footage I recalled was about the game’s Snap Map and its multiplayer which looked kinda lackluster. Ironically its biggest selling point ended up being its less promoted singleplayer mode with the others feeling tacked on. Everything about it screams personality from its techno metal soundtrack (which brought back memories of Quake 2) to its hyper-demon slaying-violence. And unlike most of today’s shooter where you need to play defensive by hiding to recover health, DOOM flips the table and demands you to be more aggressive to get health packs and drops from enemies to survive. It also manages stay true to its source material while also surprisingly expanding the game’s lore, in short: DOOM is the 90’s shooter brought to modern times done right.

Deus Ex Mankind Divided

Ever since the turn of the century Deus Ex has been that one game that questioned the world I live in. It introduced me to conspiracy theories and how world government operate not to the benefit of society but to shape the world they see fit. Deus Ex Mankind Divided continues that tradition by bridging itself with today’s problems. Escalation in racism and the way it treats biomoded humans as refugees, Mankind Divided manages to be a game that we can all relate to. Added to that is the improved gameplay and traditional freedom to its level design, Deus Ex has never looked or played this good. It’s easily my favorite entry in the franchise and honestly can’t wait to see what happens next.

Inside

Let’s face facts, most of the big pixelated indie games we play tend to bank on nostalgia. Owlboy, Freedom Planet, Axiom Verge while all amazing titles they tend to relay on our history with the games we played and loved. Inside is first indie title in a while that manages to give me a new groundbreaking experience. Everything from its ambient atmosphere to its smart puzzle design helped shape a world without a single piece of dialogue.

Honorable Mentions:

The Last Guardian

The Last Guardian was one of the most frustrating experiences I had this year, but it still managed to warm my heart. If you can look past its issues you’ll find a game that’s certainly worth your while.

Titanfall 2

I was very close to adding this to my list, but decided against it mainly because I found DOOM’s singleplayer to be more memorable. Don’t get me wrong, this is game is a sequel done right with amazing level design that harkins back to the Half-Life days. That being said, I did find its multiplayer feeling stale after a while similar to Titanfall 1.

The Last Guardian is A Modern Relic – Review

The Last Guardian is one of the most frustrating games I played this year. It’s not that it’s essentially broken (though a lot of it is) it’s just that the game manages to do a lot of great things and yet manage to feel like a buggy mess. Yet despite all its issues I’m still glad The Last Guardian came out as it manages to be one of my favorite exclusives on the PS4.

Back in 2001 a game called ICO introduced us to a strange genre, one that focused on puzzles, platforming, and simplicity. Its spiritual sequel, Shadow of the Colossus introduced us to massive beasts with a sense of epic scale never before seen in a video game. The Last Guardian is the merger of those two games, or as Director Fumito Ueda put it “a greatest hits album”. And that’s all true, while playing it there’s no denying that the game borrows heavily from both games though I went tend to lean more towards Ico as its main objective centered on escaping a castle.

The Last Guardian takes place in a mysterious castle or forbidden that’s isolated from the outside world. You play as a boy who was been captured and imprisoned and must escape, but you’re not alone. Accompanying you is a weird creature that’s sort of part dog, part rat, and part eagle (but it’s still cute). Together you will solve obstacles and occasionally fend off weird robots powered by some mysterious green energy. Similar to Ueda’s previous titles, the story is mostly left ambiguous and is left interpreted by the player.

The heart and soul of this game lies in its atmosphere and presentation. From ruins, lighting, and the creatures fur to its sound (huge props to the sound director, seriously) The Last Guardian offers an experience that truly sucks you in. It’s sort of a similar feeling you get when watching a Ghibli movie (Castle in the Sky in particular) where the world is so detailed that it manages to tell as much a story as its characters. Another amazing aspect I have to highlight is the animation. There is so much keyframing and life put into both the boy and Trico that it can easily win an award on that alone.

However…

Gameplay is not nearly as polished as its presentation. There are serious issues here that can be summed up by one word: inconsistency. Throughout the game will need to jump, grab, climb Trico, and give commands to him in order overcome challenges and obstacles. The problem is it doesn’t click all the time. For instance one area I needed to navigate with Trico in a dark cave, I kept giving him orders to go forward but he always went back making me think I reached a dead end. It took me almost an hour to realize that I had to try again and actually move just a bit forward in order to trigger a high jump from Trico to a ledge which I couldn’t see. Generally Trico is kind of a clutz. At best he’s too smart jumping way ahead of you and at worst can’t understand what you want to do. Other puzzles such as throwing barrels to make it reach a higher platform ends in disasters as the barrel would constantly shift thanks to the game’s wonky physics and fall all the way down forcing me to repeat it from the beginning. It doesn’t help that the game suffers from the same sort of movement lag from Ico and SOTC, particularly when jumping. For a plaformer that’s troubling. Other players I’ve read online have got it worse, running into puzzles with pieces that go missing due to a glitch forcing them to restart and waste hours.

You tried your best, Trico… #TLG #PS4sharehttps://t.co/xweKpWbk64 pic.twitter.com/lyAncu2P0r

— Rash (@RashBandicoot) December 11, 2016

 Trico failing to catch me due to a random glitch. Or maybe he just didn’t feel like it…

This is further hampered by the game’s terrible performance. Even on the PS4 Pro the game struggles to keep a steady 30 and at some pointes (particularly during the last area) the FPS drops heavily, sometimes reaching the 15 to 18 gap.

But when things do work, it’s good and ultimately feels rewarding. There is this sense of wonder and grandeur when riding Trico and countless times I would literally yell in amazement as he jumped from one platform to the other. This also includes genuine moments where I felt a sense of bond and connection that made me realize Trico was more than a tool to help me solve puzzles but an actual living creature. Calming him down after a battle or feeding him, I can say that Trico was like a part of me by the end of the journey and that’s something very few games have managed pull off, polished or not.

8/10

Are Base PS4 Owners Getting Screwed Over Already?

Sony’s flashy new PS4 Pro is a great piece of hardware, especially for the price.

Yet despite some worry and speculation about it replacing base models, we were promised that PS4 games will still run fine on the base model. The Last Guardian and Final Fantasy XV have proven otherwise.