surprisingly entertaining games you played this year

[Sarah Kerrigan]

Transistor mostly because of how fun and heart breaking/warming it was. The characters was amazing, the combat was deep...I just was super into it.

Also I'll say Wolfenstein the New Order for how little my expectations were when I went in and it was amazing.

 

[veloper]

Redshirt.

I cannot really recommend the game to just anyone, but the humor and cynical outlook of the game works for me. The game also hides a surprising amount of depth underneath it's simple interface and controls.

The premise is that you create a new (Star Trek) federation redshirt for your player character and then you have to climb the professional and social ladder in a parody of Star Trek and Facebook.

Redshirts are expendable minor characters with lame unimportant jobs, whose main purpose is to die on away missions, so the main cast won't have to. The goal is to escape this fate and your main tool is a social network called Spacebook.

Having many friends on Spacebook may be a bigger curse than a blessing.

 

[Evonisia]

Tomb Raider (2013). I expected some kind of generic Uncharted rip-off, instead it was something that bested Uncharted in nearly every way. So glad I bought that (then the Xbox One version came out a week later, but my copy was only £15 so yay).

 

[Ratty]

- Doom: i bought the classic doom collection during the quakecon sale mostly for... should i say academic reasons? i hadnt played the game before despite the fact im an FPS fan, so after struggling to get this dinosaur working properly i found out the game has aged reasonably well, certainly not to the same degree a something like say, X-COM, but its still very fun to play, and it really shows its one of the first FPS ever made, the game feels much more like an action title than an FPS as we have come to expect

Struggled to get it working? Just use a source port, don't bother with the DOSbox setup steam has. It'll literally run 100x better. http://zdoom.org/Download Just download this or another source port, they're all free. It'll automatically detect your steam download of the Doom Iwads, launch the source port, select which game you want to play and you're done. Comes with support for a wide range of resolutions, rebindable keys, optional mouselook and other options.


Hmm, I enjoyed the Ys games on steam more than I was expecting. Wonderful games. Same goes for the nice little randomized Metroidvania/dig'em up hybrid "Steam World Dig".

 

[NuclearKangaroo]

- Doom: i bought the classic doom collection during the quakecon sale mostly for... should i say academic reasons? i hadnt played the game before despite the fact im an FPS fan, so after struggling to get this dinosaur working properly i found out the game has aged reasonably well, certainly not to the same degree a something like say, X-COM, but its still very fun to play, and it really shows its one of the first FPS ever made, the game feels much more like an action title than an FPS as we have come to expect

Struggled to get it working? Just use a source port, don't bother with the DOSbox setup steam has. It'll literally run 100x better. http://zdoom.org/Download Just download this or another source port, they're all free. It'll automatically detect your steam download of the Doom Iwads, launch the source port, select which game you want to play and you're done. Comes with support for a wide range of resolutions, rebindable keys, optional mouselook and other options.


Hmm, I enjoyed the Ys games on steam more than I was expecting. Wonderful games. Same goes for the nice little randomized Metroidvania/dig'em up hybrid "Steam World Dig".

i tried that but i didnt like it, shots dont have infinite height, so you have to enable the Y axis, but then it stops being Doom doesnt it?

 

[Ratty]

- Doom: i bought the classic doom collection during the quakecon sale mostly for... should i say academic reasons? i hadnt played the game before despite the fact im an FPS fan, so after struggling to get this dinosaur working properly i found out the game has aged reasonably well, certainly not to the same degree a something like say, X-COM, but its still very fun to play, and it really shows its one of the first FPS ever made, the game feels much more like an action title than an FPS as we have come to expect

Struggled to get it working? Just use a source port, don't bother with the DOSbox setup steam has. It'll literally run 100x better. http://zdoom.org/Download Just download this or another source port, they're all free. It'll automatically detect your steam download of the Doom Iwads, launch the source port, select which game you want to play and you're done. Comes with support for a wide range of resolutions, rebindable keys, optional mouselook and other options.


Hmm, I enjoyed the Ys games on steam more than I was expecting. Wonderful games. Same goes for the nice little randomized Metroidvania/dig'em up hybrid "Steam World Dig".

i tried that but i didnt like it, shots dont have infinite height, so you have to enable the Y axis, but then it stops being Doom doesnt it?

The bullets home in on the targets to a degree to compensate for the lack of up/down movement, both in the original executable and in the source ports. Of course you could always turn off that smart tracking and add in the Y axis and crosshair. Some of the more modern WADs even expect you to do this.

But one could spend years going through all the great WADs that have fans have made and not get close to done. http://www.doomworld.com/cacowards/

 

[NuclearKangaroo]

- Doom: i bought the classic doom collection during the quakecon sale mostly for... should i say academic reasons? i hadnt played the game before despite the fact im an FPS fan, so after struggling to get this dinosaur working properly i found out the game has aged reasonably well, certainly not to the same degree a something like say, X-COM, but its still very fun to play, and it really shows its one of the first FPS ever made, the game feels much more like an action title than an FPS as we have come to expect

Struggled to get it working? Just use a source port, don't bother with the DOSbox setup steam has. It'll literally run 100x better. http://zdoom.org/Download Just download this or another source port, they're all free. It'll automatically detect your steam download of the Doom Iwads, launch the source port, select which game you want to play and you're done. Comes with support for a wide range of resolutions, rebindable keys, optional mouselook and other options.


Hmm, I enjoyed the Ys games on steam more than I was expecting. Wonderful games. Same goes for the nice little randomized Metroidvania/dig'em up hybrid "Steam World Dig".

i tried that but i didnt like it, shots dont have infinite height, so you have to enable the Y axis, but then it stops being Doom doesnt it?

The bullets home in on the targets to a degree to compensate for the lack of up/down movement, both in the original game and in the source ports. Of course you could always turn off that smart tracking and add in the Y axis and crosshair. Some of the more modern WADs even expect you to do this.

well i couldnt figure out how to do it bro, anyways its more authentic this way, after i finish the game i might try brutal doom

i must say one of my biggest complains about the game, its the lack of weapons, kind of understandable being such an early FPS, but still, atleast the weapons that exist feel real nice

 

[Ratty]

- Doom: i bought the classic doom collection during the quakecon sale mostly for... should i say academic reasons? i hadnt played the game before despite the fact im an FPS fan, so after struggling to get this dinosaur working properly i found out the game has aged reasonably well, certainly not to the same degree a something like say, X-COM, but its still very fun to play, and it really shows its one of the first FPS ever made, the game feels much more like an action title than an FPS as we have come to expect

Struggled to get it working? Just use a source port, don't bother with the DOSbox setup steam has. It'll literally run 100x better. http://zdoom.org/Download Just download this or another source port, they're all free. It'll automatically detect your steam download of the Doom Iwads, launch the source port, select which game you want to play and you're done. Comes with support for a wide range of resolutions, rebindable keys, optional mouselook and other options.


Hmm, I enjoyed the Ys games on steam more than I was expecting. Wonderful games. Same goes for the nice little randomized Metroidvania/dig'em up hybrid "Steam World Dig".

i tried that but i didnt like it, shots dont have infinite height, so you have to enable the Y axis, but then it stops being Doom doesnt it?

The bullets home in on the targets to a degree to compensate for the lack of up/down movement, both in the original game and in the source ports. Of course you could always turn off that smart tracking and add in the Y axis and crosshair. Some of the more modern WADs even expect you to do this.

well i couldnt figure out how to do it bro, anyways its more authentic this way, after i finish the game i might try brutal doom

i must say one of my biggest complains about the game, its the lack of weapons, kind of understandable being such an early FPS, but still, atleast the weapons that exist feel real nice

I dislike Brutal Doom personally, not just because the developer is a cockend, but also because I think it misses the point of what makes Doom great. Here's a video that elaborates on those strengths far better than I could.

 

[NuclearKangaroo]

- Doom: i bought the classic doom collection during the quakecon sale mostly for... should i say academic reasons? i hadnt played the game before despite the fact im an FPS fan, so after struggling to get this dinosaur working properly i found out the game has aged reasonably well, certainly not to the same degree a something like say, X-COM, but its still very fun to play, and it really shows its one of the first FPS ever made, the game feels much more like an action title than an FPS as we have come to expect

Struggled to get it working? Just use a source port, don't bother with the DOSbox setup steam has. It'll literally run 100x better. http://zdoom.org/Download Just download this or another source port, they're all free. It'll automatically detect your steam download of the Doom Iwads, launch the source port, select which game you want to play and you're done. Comes with support for a wide range of resolutions, rebindable keys, optional mouselook and other options.


Hmm, I enjoyed the Ys games on steam more than I was expecting. Wonderful games. Same goes for the nice little randomized Metroidvania/dig'em up hybrid "Steam World Dig".

i tried that but i didnt like it, shots dont have infinite height, so you have to enable the Y axis, but then it stops being Doom doesnt it?

The bullets home in on the targets to a degree to compensate for the lack of up/down movement, both in the original game and in the source ports. Of course you could always turn off that smart tracking and add in the Y axis and crosshair. Some of the more modern WADs even expect you to do this.

well i couldnt figure out how to do it bro, anyways its more authentic this way, after i finish the game i might try brutal doom

i must say one of my biggest complains about the game, its the lack of weapons, kind of understandable being such an early FPS, but still, atleast the weapons that exist feel real nice

I dislike Brutal Doom personally, not just because the developer is a cockend, but also because I think it misses the point of what makes Doom great. Here's a video that elaborates on those strengths far better than I could.

certainly a reasonable argument

 

[Edl01]

Metal Gear Rising.
The game had mediocre reception from Critics, and ProJared who I have followed since his screw attack days gave it a 4/10 after an incredibly negative review. Even a lot of fans seemed to react poorly to the game because of how vastly different it was to the rest of the franchise. And on top of that, honestly, I didn't think Raiden would be able to hold up a game on his own without Snake. But it was on sale on Steam, and I like the other Metal Gear games, so I decided to give it a shot.

Oh my God I love this game. It is so ridiculous and over the top in all of the right ways, the gameplay is a lot of fun when you get used to it, the bosses are insane, and Platinum managed to make Raiden into a fairly likeable character. Personally I feel a lot of the hate comes from the fact the game is nothing like other games in the franchise, since a lot of reviews criticise the poor stealth system and such even though the game is designed less for stealth and more for watching Raiden cut Metal Gears in two.
In fact the game convinced me to go out and buy Bayonetta, which I recently completed and loved, although that obvously didn't suprise me.

 

[Catfood220]

South Park: The Stick of Truth. I really wasn't expecting very much from this game considering its troubled development. But I was genuinely surprised by how much I ended up enjoying this game. Yeah, ok its short, the combat becomes tiresome by the end and the stupid censoring (especially when a special attack has Mr Slave sticking children up his arse) but this game is funny and fun.

Because there is sweet fuck all coming out with it being a between generations period, I have been on a "bad games" kick, buying games that got bad or meh reviews cheap and seeing if I can get any enjoyment out of them. I started playing Star Wars: Force Unleashed 2 on Saturday, by Sunday was most of the way through. So very short game, also quite padded out for such a sort game and the story sucks. But, it is actually quite good fun to play.

Next up, Aliens: Colonial Marines. Wish me luck

 

[SKBPinkie]

Infamous: Second Son.

I thought the first Infamous game was boring as all hell, but this one had some pretty sweet powers, great controls (a few flaws here and there), decent story, great collectible system, and I could go on and on...


Assassin's Creed IV

Never played III, so this was the first time I experienced the whole "ship combat" thing, and it frickin blew my mind. That, combined with the whole pirate theme was fantastic. Hell, the actual Assassin Creed-ish parts of that game were boring, but exploring and conquering new areas in your ship was so damn good.

For me, the best part of that game had to be the four legendary ship battles. It had that perfect blend of skill and strategy that very few games can pull off well.

 

[ThatDarnCoyote]

Guacamelee. Hadn't even heard of this game, until it became a freebie on Games With Gold for XBox One. It's a colorful, fun game with clever combat and puzzle platform elements, and a neat luchador aesthetic. Some of the platforming is fiendishly, hair-tearingly difficult, but the designers cannily put the hardest stuff in the bonus and optional sections, so the main story remains accessible.

Gotham City Impostors. Another Games With Gold title I got for free. I had actually played the demo for this when it came out, at the encouragement of a friend who had it. It wasn't bad, but it was a little rough around the edges, I had a lot of other things to play, and as a small-scale multiplayer-only title, I foresaw deserted servers within a few months.

Still, the concept was clever (you're basically playing as the goofball hockey-pad vigilantes from The Dark Knight, with a similar faction for the Joker), so when it became a free title, I thought, "Why not?" And now I regret not picking it up earlier - it's a fast-paced CoD clone with loads of humor and surprisingly deep gameplay elements. The gadgets are wacky fun, the level of customization is great, and it's one of the few competitive FPS titles I can play badly at and not tilt out, because it's just so engagingly silly. And while the servers aren't exactly full to bursting, there are still matches to be had.

 

[LaoJim]

addiction, god how i missed kart racing games, one of the few genres that has been almost completely absent from PC, i had played this game before during a free weekend and i really liked, this last steam summer sale i bought and i simply love it, the speed, the colorful graphics, the great soundtrack, they even added a few free DLC characters and you can play as TF2 characters, how cool is that? i have enjoyed this game much much MUCH more than i thought i would, pure unadultered fun

Good call, I was enjoying this earlier this year as well. Maybe my favourite kart racers since Diddy Kong. I'm addicted to the Afterburner lever with it's strange mix of "America f-year spunkgargleweewee" on one hand and cute anthropomorphic animals on the other.

Final Fantasy XIII-2: I tried the demo, really didn't like it. The little love I had for the Final Fantasy XIII characters has dried up. Only heard fairly bad things about the game. But for some reason earlier this year I said screw it and picked it up, and I really enjoyed it. It's not perfect. But I had a lot of fun with it that I thought would not happen.

Trying to get back into this after playing the first few hours more than two years ago. I actually quite enjoyed XIII-1 despite all its obvious flaws. There is something compellingly bad about the story in XIII-2 (more than in 1), it's like I want to keep playing just to see what WTF plot non-sequetor or vacant platitude comes next. It's just mind-boggling to me that anyone could write this stuff and that in itself deserves further study. Plus I quite like the combat system.

I started playing Star Wars: Force Unleashed 2 on Saturday, by Sunday was most of the way through.

Funnily enough, I bought the first one on Monday cheaply second hand. Even if the rest of the game sucks, I've already got my money's worth in the Prologue: Vader slaughting Wookie after Wookie.

Next up, Aliens: Colonial Marines. Wish me luck

Spoiler