OK, let's choose our GOTY and our biggest disappointment of 2015

[RedDeadFred]

Witcher 3 takes my GOTY by a landslide.
-Even the smallest quest made me feel like I was having a significant impact on someone's life. It's hard for me to play other open world games now because they don't come even remotely close to making me feel as invested in the random citizens as the Witcher 3.
-Many of the quest lines had better stories and were more fun than entire other games. The Bloody Baron questline is my second favourite in all of gaming. The only thing it loses to is Hearts of Stone, an expansion for this game!
-The open world raises the bar for what I will now expect from my games. It's gorgeous, there's lots to do, and it's well polished (for an open world game). There has never been another game that has made me stop and just take in the scenery like this one.
-The first expansion is incredible. The 3 new main characters are easily right up there with the Bloody Baron for me. The villain in particular is one of the best I've seen in a long time.
-The music in this game (and even more so in the expansion IMO) is also fantastic. It's somber depth fits the tone of the game perfectly.
-The combat, while not particularly amazing, is good enough that I am constantly having fun.

Biggest disappointment -the Witcher 3 has actually made games that I've previously loved, less enjoyable (not to the point of ruining them mind you, just putting them in a different perspective).
-I didn't buy any games that disappointed me. I rarely do.

 

[Hero of Lime]

My GOTY? Splatoon, no question. This game made me love playing online multiplayer in a way that I've never enjoyed it before. The game itself has mechanics no other shooter has. Everything from the writing to the characters in it are so charming. The most important thing is that it is just fun all around. Fun to play, fun to watch, fun to talk about.

The best part is that Nintendo has proven they are capable of making a new franchise and characters that are immediately memorable. On top of that, the game was spearheaded by younger developers at Nintendo. So it's good to know they have great talent waiting when the likes of Miyamoto finally retire.

A lot of love went into this project, and it shows. I recommend it to anyone with a Wii U, even if you don't like online shooters. If you want Nintendo to keep making more risks, support this game.

As for my big disappointment, I gotta go with Tri Force Heroes. My least favorite 2015 game would be Codename STEAM on 3DS, but I has fairly low expectations going in. I mainly got it to support Intelligent Systems, the Nintendo developer behind Fire Emblem.

Tri Force Heroes on the other hand, is not a bad game, but it definitely does not live up to the lofty expectations I have for Zelda games. There are some simple design choices that could have been made to make it a lot better. It's a filler game, and I suppose it never strove to be anything more than that. It's just sad when a new Zelda game isn't at least in my top 3 games of the year.

 

[Ihateregistering1]

GOTY: I know it sounds like an echo in here, but Witcher 3. I'm hard pressed to think of a single thing I didn't like about this game. The writing and dialogue were superb, the characters were amazing, the world was incredibly immersive, the developers clearly listened to the fans and continued to implement small changes to the game as it went, and it looked utterly phenomenal. I'm genuinely looking forward to the 2nd DLC coming out so I can play through the game again, it's very rare I ever say that about anything.

Biggest disappointment: Easy one for me, Batman: Arkham Knight. The game was still fun (not too difficult to do with the Arkham games), but considering this was supposed to be the magnum opus of such a great series (I consider Arkham City one of my favorite games of all time) I was hugely disappointed in Knight. The Batmobile was basically subtraction by addition and felt totally out of place, the story was all over the place and had huge plot holes, I guessed who the Arkham Knight was within about 3 hours, they basically completely gave up on trying to have boss battles after having largely excellent boss battles in City, and it also contained the single most disappointing game moment in history (for me):

Spoiler

The Deathstroke boss battle, if you can call it that

Like I said, the game was still fun, but I honestly thought the much maligned Arkham: Origins was an overall better game.

 

[GundamSentinel]

My favorites:
- Cities Skylines
- Tales of Zestiria
- The Beginner's Guide

Disappointments:
Basically everything else. Iterations of franchises I loved I didn't want to buy and new IPs that interested were very scarce. If I had to pick one, I think I'd go with Total War: Atilla. After Rome II, I sooo wanted the next one to be good and interesting. Alas.

 

[Blood Brain Barrier]

Game of the year: Life Is Strange

Disappointments: Everything else. I see no point in picking one. They were all about the same.

Yup and yup.

I'm not saying everything else was crap, Anno 2250 and Talos Principle: Road To Gehenna were good and I'm still yet to play Undertale and Anna's Quest.

GOTY:
Witcher 3. A game that made me see how far gaming has gone, and how inferior it still is to literature. A cold but beautiful shower.

Dissapointed:
Fallout 4- Bethesda can not code for shit and their fans still defend the incompetence. Insulting really.

isnt that a bit harsh? far as i can tell fallout 4 has no more bugs than witcher 3 had at launch. hell witcher 3 still has quests i cant complete.

Nope. It is me being nice to Fallout 4.
The game is released in an alpha stage.

This is Bethesda?s fourth time.

Fourth time at what?

 

[Casual Shinji]

I know a ton of people will probably cry foul about me not listing witcher 3 and fallout 4. Well first off, its my list not yours. Second off I played (forced myself to play would be more accurate) all the way through witcher 1 and 2 and I just do not enjoy that world, setting, or Gerald. I dont think that series is for me so it didnt make my list because I never bought and played witcher 3.

You'd be amazed how this third game could surprise you though. It certainly did for me and I HATED The Witcher 2.

OT: I'm a bit split on my game of the year, which is a rarity. On the one hand, The Witcher 3 is definately the best game this year. It's a visual marvel, and blows every other open-world out of the water. It actually makes Geralt a somewhat charming individual, and has some of the best side quests I've ever seen. It's just magnificant.

On the other... Until Dawn was such a fucking riot from beginning to end that, as packages go, this one gave me the most enjoyment out of any game this year, including The Witcher 3.

Biggest disappointment: Metal Gear Solid 5

Mechanically sound, but making it "open-world" was clearly a mistake. Barely, if any, Boss fights. The story is always loony, but now it's not even enjoyable anymore. The characters are bland as fuck -- Remember Ocelot always being the life of the party? The first half is you waiting for the game to finally begin, and the second half is you realizing the first half was the game. *sigh*

 

[pookie101]

my game of the year is life is strange followed closely by fallout 4

my disappointment of the year is also fallout 4 and letting me get 30+ hours in to it without issues and then cracking the shits and giving me CTD's every 2 minutes.

MGS5 would come in as my second disappointment. my first game in the series and i didnt know anything of the history i enjoyed the open world, etc and eventually came to realise the world is static and nothing changes, the same outposts just respawn the same sort of troops, etc and you end up being the minion of your slutty sniper superhero who just mops up the unconscious people at the next base she has cleared

 

[JagermanXcell]

Best:
-Bloodborne. Fromsoft taking the stray away from dark fantasy to victorian horror special guest starring E.T.s manages to be a refreshing take not only aesthetically but mechanically. Combat just feels fluid and fast paced that I can honestly say that it's a PVE experience that I can always revisit much like RE4. Only imagine RE4 with DLC because thats a treat being delivered very soon.

-Undertale. Even with the popularity of this game surpassing the length of the moon, it still managed to be one of the most well written, fun, and unforgettable experiences i've had this year. Plus the concept of simple RPG x Bullet Hell is a match surprisingly made in heaven.

-Splatoon. Upon release it was pretty shallow. A few months later, it's the most competent time killer that CoD only wishes it can be on a casual level. It's just a solid package that deserves a play.

Disappointment:

-MGSV The Phantom Pain: For what it was gameplay wise, it was fun... it controlled well. Then you realize how lifeless it all was. The boss fights lack their bang that Kojima is known for, the story is missing, the game itself is literally missing! Overall it's something that, if I knew Konami neutered it ahead of time, I would have cancelled the damn thing to save the series from ending so... flaccidly. It's a damn shame really.

 

[PurplePonyArcade]

GOTY: Tekken 7. Still only out in arcades but my time with it really left me me happy and impressed about how well its stayed fresh. Crypt of The Necro-Dancer: Fantastic indie rhythm game! Splatoon. This game is just awesome for kids, squids, and everyone.
Biggest Disappointment: Hatred, Mortal Kombat X. Speaking as someone who does not like Mortal Kombat and was not looking forward to this game it still leave me bitter and angry.

 

[Sigmund Av Volsung]

So many games haven't come out yet, and we should choose a GOTY just because we're still in week 1 hype mode for Fallout 4? Seems a bit silly to me >_>

Ah fuck it.

GOTY: Witcher 3, hands down. Really fucking good story, stellar writing, balanced gameplay(on higher difficulties) that encounraged a variation of approaches that had you actually hunt monsters, excellent quest design, and a fantastic precedent for future games development from Eastern Europe.

Biggest Disappointment: Metal Gear Solid 5, with some qualifiers. It's quite disappointing if you were expecting a story heavy MGS game, because *this* is not that. A lot of the characters are watered down, especially my favourite across the series, Ocelot. The ending kind of ruins the game for me in how it unravels, but then again, there are some hints that Kojima didn't even get to properly finish this game, as evidenced by the omitted Chapter III.

In which case, it's not entirely his or his team's fault, but Konami's. Though I don't know to what extent it's true since the game practically gave away the story from the initial trailers, and what we saw was pretty much what we got in terms of cutscenes.

 

[mysecondlife]

Game of the Year goes to Witcher 3. Whatever expectation I had (which neutral), this game exceeded it and blew me away. Heck, I'm ready to call this game RPG of the decade once year 2020 comes.

My jaw dropping moment of the game below. Can you hear it hit the floor?


I haven't bought many game that came out in 2015. So my greatest disappointment goes to Witcher 2.
I bought it years ago although I didn't have a suitable PC at the time because I hear it is a good game and I wanted to throw money at CD Projekt Red for being them. Decided to play it before Witcher 3 and I came out disappointed.

 

[Major_Tom]

Kerbal Space Program 1.0 came out this year, right? That's an automatic GOTY.
Biggest disapointment? State of Decay YOSE. $30 for a small update? Fuck you, Microsoft.

 

[Kingjackl]

GOTY: Really hard to choose between this and Undertale, but I have to give it to Bloodborne. An exceptional take on the already fantastic Souls formula, to the point where I actually prefer it's gameplay style and setting more than Dark Souls. I love the environments, the atmosphere, the combat, the bosses, everything about it.

Biggest disappointment: Didn't play enough to have one this year, but I'd probably have to say Dragonball Xenoverse. It started off so well with the cool character creation, customization and neat story mode, but that eventually gives way to grinding, repetitive combat and blatant fake difficulty.

 

[Bat Vader]

I see GOTY as a tie between The Witcher 3 and Batman: Arkham Knight. Played AK on PS4 and I absoutely loved it and played Witcher 3 on PC and absolutely loved it.

Biggest disappointment for me was MGSV: It's a good game but it just doesn't draw me in like the rest did.

 

[SmallHatLogan]

Definitely Life is Strange for GOTY. I did just start playing Fallout 4 and Persona 4 Dancing All Night but I doubt either of them will top it. Life is Strange sucked me in, made me love it, then left me a broken mess. Not many games can do that.

Biggest disappointment? Maybe Dr Mario Miracle Cure. Not because it's a bad game but because it's revealed to me just how bad I am at Dr Mario and that makes me sad. Or Bloodborne, because it's a PS4 exclusive.

 

[stroopwafel]

Bloodborne is my absolute dream game so 'game of the decade' maybe? So yeah Bloodborne closely followed by MGS5, Arkham Knight, Witcher 3 and Fallout 4. All those games were(are) amazingly fun to me. Honorable mention goes to Soma as the story really captivated my imagination.

Biggest let-down is probably The Order 1886. Not expecting anything amazing but atleast a decent third person shooter that looked gorgeous. Well OK the game looked gorgeous but was nothing more than a short, boring slog through mediocre gameplay with 80% cutscenes. Like Until Yawn but probably even worse.

 

[Barbas]

isnt that a bit harsh? far as i can tell fallout 4 has no more bugs than witcher 3 had at launch. hell witcher 3 still has quests i cant complete.

No, for someone who holds the company in contempt, it seems just about right. He's already posted his fury over the game in several Fallout 4 threads, so now you're probably in for an earful as well. Maybe he pre-ordered the Pip-Boy Edition at GAME...?

Most of the complaints I've heard about the game contradicted themselves and/or were little more than angry rants, some of them based on zero first-hand playtime. The series has changed too much from Fallout, yet at the same time it hasn't changed enough. Somebody even claimed the game was raped and called me an enabler for enjoying it. That is just a sad lack of perspective.

My guess is that the angry backlash and usual vitriol has been exacerbated by the marketing campaign and hype. I hope Bethesda doesn't listen to it, frankly, because a lot of it is just depressing bile. I did see some interesting comments about the FPS cap on another site, though. Maybe it's time to build an entirely new engine if this is stuff that's a concrete limitation of the current one; it's a lot of money to start over like that but I daresay they can afford the time and money now.

 

[Fimbulvetr3822]

GOTY - Fallout 4 by far. Perk system is an improvement on FO3 and FONV, at least for me. 23 hours of playing the PC version and no frame rate drops, bugs beyond ragdoll errors or broken quests/text.

Not played anything that has been aggressively bad this year, but then I have been playing games less than in other years.

 

[Joccaren]

GOTY: Gotta go to Witcher 3. Was it new, innovative, something never done before?
Absolutely not. Take Skyrim and bash it into Dragon Age Inquisition, and you've got a damn similar game - just the combat needs changing, throw in some Arkham City.
It set a stupidly high bar for the execution of such premises though that could only be exceeded by the Cyberpunk game they've said will be bigger and better, or Star Citizen if it actually delivers on every promise it has made, and delivers well.
Near flawless as a game. Played on PC. Haven't finished it yet as I've been quite busy since it came out, and I am trying to 100% everything - which I normally skip doing because its all just repetitive nonsense normally.
Its set the bar for open world games of any kind. Everywhere is beautiful. Everywhere has content. Almost all of the content is actually interesting [Almost all, there are plenty of just generic smugglers stashes and such that you can swim around and pick up, but they're barely part of the game TBH.
The game, whilst not necessarily the game I've enjoyed playing the most this year, is one of the best made games to come out ever, and its honestly going to be a challenge to top it.

Most Disappointing: None. I've become a lot more stringent with my buying habits, and this year I've bought no games that have disappointed me. Plenty of games that could have been candidates, but I just didn't buy them in the first place so I've actually had a pretty good year for games this year.