Top ten games of 2016

Definitely the game of the year for my wife and adult daughter. They both have a gazillion hours in it. They love it.

Or maybe bad games make for good streams?

I guess it’s a good thing I stuck mostly with card and board games this year.

I must say, I am intrigued by Quadrilateral Cowboy though. I’ll probably give that one a try.

Pfft. Gravity was cooked up by the liberal lefty ecomentalists!

I’m curious why My Horse Prince didn’t make Tom’s top ten list.

Stardew Valley is great, and not only was it great the developer was very nice, interacted with the community and even fixed corrupt games one at a time until patches were given.

Game of the year is another entry.

I have a pretty high tolerance for fiction and fantasy… this completely weirds me out.

Then pop on over to Slack to have certain member live update their progress.

It’s… surreal.

So it’s a game about Catherine the Great? (rim shot).

I’m really glad you mentioned this, because I have a problem with it as well, but not from the perspective that you’re talking about. I don’t mind so much the generic locations that you’re talking about, but the whole “driving a big spaceship around and gathering resistance fighters” is a miss for me. One of the great things about X-Com and XCOM was the feeling of staving off an invasion. That’s a fundamental concept in the games! And unfortunately, it’s entirely gone from XCOM 2. :(

Oh yeah? Well, your favorite band sucks!

Do it! I was concerned Insomniac had lost that special R&C magic, but it’s in full effect for this game. It’s like this is the game they’ve been building towards all along.

-Tom

I’ve never played a Rachet & Clank game and had my Mom get my son Future Tools of Destruction (PS3) for Christmas. Was that a good choice? I figured if he likes it we can get the next one in the series. He is 9.5 years old and not the greatest at video games but has improved over the last year. He liked playing Rayman Origins and Legend with me coop. We’re now playing Action Henk (A surprisingly fun game - think budget version of Bit Trip Runner 2…) and he can occasionally medal the level before I do. Is Rachet & Clank going to be too difficult for him?

Tools of Destruction is okay. Nothing special. But I don’t remember it being particularly difficulty. It reminded me a lot of the first original Ratchet & Clank. Decent weapons for shooting robots, decent game. I think your son should enjoy it, and it shouldn’t be too hard.

If your son does dig it, you can then get one of the best games of all time: R&C Future: A Crack In Time. I’ve played through it 3 full times and a couple of times partially. It’s so good. I love that game. I love the story. I love the platforming. I love the space sim portions. I love that the emphasis is a little bit less on weapons than all the other R&C games. I love the time puzzles so much. The only thing I don’t love about that game is that there’s an arcade game you can play on one of the planets. And that arcade game is terrible, and completely optional. But if you want the platinum trophy, you have to get a pretty high score in that arcade game. So I tortured myself for about an hour or so, trying to get that high score. But then I remembered that this is Playstation, not Xbox. And that I care about achievements, not trophies. :P

Well, the Ratchet & Clank series has always been combat action more than platforming. But it’s also super friendly and accessible. I have a feeling you’ll have a new R&C convert in your family.

-Tom

Well, XCOM 2 is probably my #2 game of the year, but then again, I haven’t played any of the other games on Tom’s list. My Horse Prince is obviously #1 – and I’m offended that Tom left it off his list. I will never come here again. ;)

These lists just kind of confirm to me that I have mostly fallen off the wave of games being released. Many of the games, outside the indie group, I am picking up a year or two after release. Awesome or disappointing, I haven’t played most.

Well, we might have 2 Rachet and Clank fans in the family!

I just picked up a Phineas and Ferb PS3 game too since he is loving the show now - I actually like watching it with him.

Awesome list Tom - giving me a few new games to try, plus an urge to give Offworld Trading Company another shot. OTC I got in Early Access, played a bit, decided to wait for the full release, and never picked it up again. I hate early access but couldn’t help myself.

Quadrilateral Cowboy never can get enough praise.
It is the idealistic interactive movie AAA game companies have been pursuing forever - and missing forever by aiming at the wrong target, the blockbusters. I replay it to experience both the mechanics of the gameplay and the emotions provided by its author’s work. It is the best thing I experienced this year in front of a computer.

But Offworld Trading Company still is the better game!

The two other games I have really liked that have been released this year (and are not in early access) are Neon Chrome - a cute dualstick shooter- and Gremlins, Inc - a cute sadomasochistic game -. This is the sort of listing that makes me notice, like quite a lot of other people around here it seems, I am lagging one or two years behind most of the time!

XCOM 2 runs like trash on PC. Checkmate.