Alien Isolation. It almost completely took the control of your safety out of your hands for large parts of the game. I think it was a bit of a game changer in this respect.
I haven't tried that many new games as I've just replaced my GPU after being without for a year and can't fit that many games on my SSD but I really enjoyed South Park: stick of truth and I'm enjoying far cry 4, as did far cry 4.
Southpark for me, havent had that much fun in a long time! The metro redux games were also immense but i'm guessing they don't count. Binding of Isaac: Rebirth has me gripped at the moment and it's a definite improvement on the original. Haven't played a huge number of games that were released this year still trying to work through the steam backlog..... (not another steam sale!!)
Mario Kart 8 - a cherished game. I own Bayonetta 1 & 2 and Super Smash Bros for Wii U, but not spent any real time on them yet due to Mario Kart 8. My pc hasn't had a look in. Nintendo pulled it out of the bag in 2014, and 2015 is shaping up nicely too.
First game I have bought in a long time is Shadow of Mordor. It's the easiest game I've ever played but so fun. The subtext being the time for serious gaming is at an all time low
Mario Kart 8 or perhaps the new Smash Bros. I've not bought any new, notable PC games this year at all; they've been pretty expensive for me. I'll play the hell out of Super Smash Bros. for years until the next one comes out; i'm pretty biased though, since i've been playing it since the original in 1999. I was 9.
I lived in Guildford for a while and my friend ran music gigs at the Star Inn. One of the things we did one time was get a projector and do a Super Smash Brothers tournament on the N64. It was awesome.
I used to enter tournaments, legit ones that Nintendo used to endorse. They don't really do them much nowadays with online play etc. but it was really fun. Have you heard of Project M? It's a mod for the wii version - Brawl, that makes it more like Melee, the gamecube version. Mewtwo included; it 'un-nerfs' all of the characters to make them more balanced. People used to and still do hold tournaments for it. I used to enter those as well. Really good fun, people used to have contests for the 'best controller' as well, since people mod their gamecube controllers with lights and such.
Monster Hunter Portable 3rd HD Ver. (Translated into English) (On PPSSPP: PSP Emulator) (With fully working online)
Indeed. The Wii U has delivered with some new IPs and they're really picking up now. I'm still a PC man, but I don't feel like i've 'wasted' money on Nintendo now. My problem is that they're still Sell-outs. They've done this Amiibo thing to pick up some extra profits, with it adding almost nothing to the gameplay experience. But on the plus, a lot of their new games are great. Hyrule Warriors is a definitely a winner for me as well. Yeah, it's just a rehash of 'Chinese Genocide Simulator' but it has Zelda lore soaking into every part of the game; they've taken a really successful gamble (for once).
Best game I've played this year is definitely The last of us. Its been a long time since I played a game where the story has been that good. As a fan of the walking dead series it really brought it home as you can feel the desperation in the atmosphere of the game and it was better than most movies in the genre. It left me feeling pretty emotional by the end of it!
I thought it was incredibly overrated. The story is pretty deep....but that's it. The graphics are nothing special for the system although they do a good job with lights and shadows to make it moody and atmospheric, the gameplay (which is the most important part) was pretty mediocre and does nothing better than any other platformer for the last 3 or 4 years. Kudos to it for the story though, there are so few games nowadays that have a deep, thought and emotion invoking plot. But you can't rate a game purely by story.
I thought the gameplay of The Last of Us was quite unique and refreshing, actually. As somebody noted of Alien: Isolation earlier, not many games have the balls to disempower the player. I found it tense and rewarding and more engaging than most games in its genre. It reminded me of Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow. That was the last time before The Last of Us that I can remember being that careful when playing a game.
Elite. Despite it's current flaws, I've put more time into that than anything else this year. By quite a margin.
