I already had my game and soundtrack of the year figured out for this year so might as well post this early this year. So what did you guys think was your game and soundtrack of the year for 2016? For it to qualify, it has to be played or heard this year and not any other. So without further ado...

Both my game and soundtrack of the year went to Shovel Knight. The soundtrack was done by the mastermind behind the legendary Ducktales Remastered soundtrack and the game itself was very fun as well compared to others, even Hatsune Miku: Project Diva X. Nothing like top-notch 8-Bit music to win it this year.

How about you guys?

As far as games go, I'd nominate "Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm 4" as GOTY, it's clearly a love letter to fans of the franchise and it's a pleasure to watch and play (on console, at least). Plus, it can become fun to play rather fast even for those who are not Naruto fans, nice game, overall, but the netcode could use a bit of work.

I don't have anything for soundtracks, didn't really like what I heard in 2016.

....

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Soundtrack-wise; it's a such a very close tie between ABZ�, No Man's Sky, and Civilization VI, but I think I'll go with Civilization VI. It's one of the best recent video game orchestral scores I've heard in years, and it's now among my favorites...

Game-wise; I couldn't tell ya for certain. I might say No Man's Sky (I really don't give a shit how controversial it is), but I haven't had the best potential experience I can with that game, on the count of the FPS... count. :p Once I can have it updated with the patches that address some of the performance issues, or come the time when I actually purchase it, I can make a proper assessment. Had I an opportunity to play Battlefield 1? That'd be a definite choice. From what I could play of the beta, the game was quite exceptional. I only imagine how the final product is.

My Pick for GOTY 2016 definitively goes to Enter the Gungeon,
112 Hours of Playtime and i wasn't bored a single Second,
what can i say, i am a Sucker for Roguelikes and this one delivers in Spades...

As for best OST of 2k16, it's a Cointoss between Scntfc - Oxenfree Original Soundtrack - Epiphany Fields (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P1xqCQU82HY)
and Stuart Chatwood - Darkest Dungeon Original Soundtrack - A Brief Respite (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xSWOsfv9hJc), both of them creeped
their Way into my Alltime Fav's with Ease...

Man, i can't wait for 2017, lots of good Stuff coming up, like Gravity Daze 2 and Bleed 2... :)

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Almost at the end of the year. Still time left.

I know this isn't sticking to the topic by the strict letter, but since this is the first year in seemingly centuries where I played and enjoyed enough games to make a Top 10 list, I might as well do that. So...

10) Mother Russia Bleeds.
Saw a lot of disapproving frowns from reviewers over this game's sex, drugs and violence. What a bunch of wet blankets... If they bothered to play the game, they'd see it very much doesn't encourage using drugs, and the sex and violence is all good trashy fun. And more importantly, its a revival of the 'Walk down the street brawler' which was always one of my true gaming loves.

9) Final Fantasy 15.
Speaking of shallow... This is a game I thought I would really hate. The emo 'I'm too cool to be interested in anything or anyone' main hero, the bizarre boy band road trip, the mindless button bashing combat, the side quests with no substance. On paper, its a nightmare of bad decisions, in practice it often feels exactly as bad as that. And yet... it has a strange charm to it, which I can best explain as 'Its mobile phone millennial shallowness is exactly as suicide inducingly depressing as modern society now is - but at least there kids can blow off some steam by buying swords at the local gas station and killing monsters - for money'.

8) Zero Escape Dilemma.
I hadn't played the previous 2 Zero Escape games, so I spent most of this game trying to work out what the hell was going on. To be honest, the story was so crazy that I'm not sure that would have helped. But it sure was awesome to experience it all, and somehow reach a happy ending despite people being hacked into pieces, dissolved in acid, having theirs hearts ripped from their still living chests etc. It still wasn't quite as deranged as Killer7, and the dialogue was functional rather than amazing, but still, it was one heck of a good story.

7) Salt and Sanctuary.
Wasn't sure about this at first, because it was apparently just 2D Dark Souls and Dark Souls 3 had left me cold by seeming too much of a 'by the numbers' effort. But I enjoyed this very much. It had a good mix of intensity and oddly jovial questing - just like Souls at its best, where despite the grim nature of life, people find comfort in the Quest, as a reason to live. It got a little repetitive at times, and was a little too easy down to lots of weapons and builds being quite broken. But I had a good time with this, I can't deny.

6) Fire Emblem Fates Conquest.
I was resistant to buying this at first. I'd played Fates Birthright and didn't think too much of it, and Conquest seemed lore wise like such a narratively unlikely scenario I was put off. And yet I did eventually play it (after some prodding from Revan), and it was a good recommendation, because this is a great game. The narrative premise is silly, but the execution is very good and makes for a far more interesting story than Birthright, with better characters too. Gameplaywise this is millions of times better than Birthright's 'Kill all Enemy' missions, with proper objectives and kicking away the crutch of skirmishes to overlevel, forcing you to play the game seriously.


(I'll do my top 5 later. Bit tired now actually).

5) Alien Isolation.
(I know, I know - this didn't come out this year, but I only got round to playing it this year. If you can't accept that, then just bump everything before now up one place and put Dark Souls 3 at Number 10. My review of DS3 - 'It was sort of okay, I suppose'.)

So in Alien Isolation, we had a game that I was deeply sceptical about, mostly because of the talk of there only being 1 Alien and that it was invincible therefore forcing you to sneak about. Now, I'm not much of a sneaking, stealth games type (though you wouldn't think it to look at my Top 5). I'm more of a 'meet problems head on' kind of guy, so I didn't think this game would have much for me. And at first that seemed true - hiding in lockers and under tables was fun for a while, but I tired of always having to cower away. Then I found the Molotov cocktail and how it makes the Alien flee. And thus the game truly began, as I now devoted myself to crafting molotovs and chasing the Alien around the station exacting payback, switching it up with the Flamethrower later on. I had a great time, and was very impressed that the game's flexibility allowed me to play my way, so long as I was sensible about it, and used my resources wisely as a good survival horror game should encourage you to do. The attention to detail, recreating the authentic Alien atmosphere was also excellent.

4) Deus Ex Mankind Divided.
So a lot of chat about this game suggested it wasn't as good as Human Revolution (a game I initially thought was alright, and later came to appreciate more). The story in MD wasn't reckoned to be as good, and the ending quite abrupt. After playing it, I'm not sure I agree with that. The main story missions of Human Revolution were never my favorite part of the game, with the hubs and side quests being much better IMO. This game only has 1 hub, but its a very good one and the side quests were uniformly absorbing and engaging - a model for how side quests should be in all games, where they have proper substance and lots of different ways to resolve them. The main story meanwhile was I felt stronger than that of Human Revolution, because I liked the whole 'murky espionage, who can you trust, hidden sides to everyone and every organization good and bad' etc feel. Plus its much more directly focused on the Illuminati now. Its true that the game could have stood to have been longer and fleshed out the factions like Juggernaut Collective, ARC etc more, but it was a testament to how much I already cared and was invested that I wanted more. A very strong sequel IMO.

3) Dishonored 2.
Well look at that - its another strong sequel! The original Dishonored was an unusual beast for me in that it successfully convinced me to adopt a stealthing approach for most of the game and really try to get into the spirit of that, rather than just do it under protest. I really took to the charms of the world of Dishonored and though the main story of this game was noticeably less impressive than the first game's, it had enough new features and enjoyable levels to enchant me all over again. The Clockwork Mansion of Kirin Jindosh and the time hopping hi-jinks in Aramis Stilton's manor were particular highlights, and it felt like the game always had something new to show me, some way to change things up. Plus I genuinely liked the new setting of Serkonas, and appreciated the choice between 2 quite different protagonists. All around, this was a great effort and a reminder that a sequel that gives more of the same, can be perfectly acceptable if its done well enough and with enough love.

2) Trails of Cold Steel 1 and 2.
Although the JRPG has always been one of my gaming loves, its been a hard time over the last generation or so, keeping the flame lit when the genre seemed in terminal decline in the West. But then a game (or games) like this come along and rekindle that spark. Eschewing the irritatingly vacuous modern 'everything must happen at once, and the game must last about 5 seconds or be open world and repeat the same stuff forever', this was thoroughly old school 'take or leave it' JRPGing at its best. It told its story slowly but with care, had tons of stuff to find and do, and more than simply being long, was a game that demanded your attention the whole while. Not because the combat was particularly demanding, but because the lore and characters were so detailed and ever evolving, that you had to stay on top of everything. The sequel falls into some of the more overly familiar JRPG trends, with some of the more fantastical events seeming less interesting than the political world building of the first game. But it was still a set of games I loved with all my heart, for restoring my faith in the genre, and if the sequel wasn't quite as good as the first game, it was only a case of 'Its really great' instead of 'Its truly amazing'.

1) X Com 2.
I wasn't sure I really needed more X-com, right now. Enemy Unknown was a fantastic game, but I felt like I'd had that nostalgic itch scratched, and that if a sequel came along, it should be a remake of Terror from the Deep. So the news that XC2 was a sort of 'What if...' affair where your forces failed in the first game, was not instantly appealing to me. It took me quite a lot of effort to get over my predjudice against this idea, but I'm glad I did, because this was just as intense, and exciting an experience as Enemy Unknown. With a myriad of small but welcome refinements, the game really only manages to be about as good as you remember the first one being, but when its a game as engaging as X-Com, that it no bad thing at all. With a host of new and interesting enemies, forcing you to treat their abilities with respect, and a greater freedom to build your team into a customised unit that has all the tools you need to play the game your way, even in the face of timed missions and such, this game had it all.

Perhaps its a game that wouldn't top many people's lists, simply by dint of being more of the same, or harkening back to video game history instead of giving something new. But I feel like the industry has lost it way in recent times, so I take great games where I can find them. I admit it feels odd to praise a game that in many ways is only giving the same experience I had in 2012, and in the 90's before that. But with so many franchises having yearly updates, I hardly think this game can be accused of over saturation. The fact is that I really loved playing it, and in a year where I put over 200 hours into JRPGs like Trails of Cold Steel, this was still my fondest gaming memory of 2016.

If it's a game you played this year and not any other game regardless of when it came out, it qualifies. Such is the case of the Alien Isolation, dood.

Well, that's all right then :D