Stardew Valley
Ever since Stardew Valley released back in February, we haven’t been able to stop tending to our crops and farm animals, or courting that special someone in the village, and building the biggest and best farm there ever was. What is essentially a rip-off of Harvest Moon, albeit with a number of cool additions, was exactly what many players had been wanting from Natsume instead of their hot takes on the series.
Whether it was simply focusing on growing our crops, or whether we explored the depths of the cave in town, there was always something interesting and exciting to do in Stardew Valley. Its relaxing aesthetic combined with its calming gameplay was the perfect thing to turn on and immerse yourself in after a long day at the office… or of the more violent gameplay of other titles.
XCOM 2
What’s more satisfying than perfectly crushing a bunch of aliens that are controlling Earth solely because of your strategic prowess? Very little, that’s what. And when you fail, well you’re just going to have to keep replaying the mission over and over again, creating new characters to replace your friends that you led to death, until you finally succeed! XCOM 2 continued to deliver the turn-based strategy gameplay of its predecessor and brought with it a number of new improvements to help keep it fresh.
While the main bulk of the fun is heading choosing your missions, completing the unique challenges, and taking on the diverse enemies that await you, there’s always the ability to jump into the multiplayer and take on your friends in a battle for Earth. Custom mods also allow the community to create some incredible missions, enemies, classes, and features, ensuring there’s always some fresh new content to keep on playing free of charge.
Overwatch
If there was a game that blew many people’s expectations out of the water and then some this year, it was Overwatch. While the class-based shooter may not have a huge variety of different game modes for players to try out, it’s this and many other features that have players constantly coming back for more. Yes, there may only be a small number of game modes, but it means the servers are always full of players so you’re never waiting too long to jump into a game.
Overwatch also managed to completely nail a roster of character who are not only interesting to play as and learn more about, but all feel balanced and equally as useful on the battlefield. With constant patches coming to tweak heroes’ stats, special events such as the recent Halloween patch, and an absolute ton of collectible customization options to unlock, Overwatch is the multiplayer game that keeps giving you reasons to play… Not that you needed ’em anyway.
The Witness
The Witness is a special kind of game and one that we seldom see in today’s landscape of titles. While many games offer us an action-packed 10-hour campaign, The Witness provided something else: a world teeming with puzzles and absolutely no guidance on how to solve them other than what you’d learned from completing previous puzzles. What you’re left with is a game that will have you pulling your hair out, scrawling complex notes and mathematical equations, and staring at your screen for hours, all to finally say you cracked it.
Even at times when you think that you’ll never get the solution, you’ll continue to analyze each and every pixel until it finally pops. And when it does, all of those hours, notes, and tears feel so worth it. You continue to explore the island until you find the next puzzle… in the 200 or so left you have to solve. It’s one hell of a long voyage to reach the end, but if you’re the kind of person who loves a good puzzle, you’ll never be able to step away from The Witness for too long.
Pokemon GO
Something odd happened in July. Pokemon came back bigger and bolder than it ever has since the days of Pokemania back in the 90s. Businessmen in major cities could be seen frantically scrubbing their phones as they caught that elusive Growlithe, people who never normally played games went out in search of Pokemon with friends, and what feels like just about everyone in the gaming community joined them. Pokemon GO was all the rage and hit just in time for everyone to enjoy the summer sun as they attempted to catch ’em all and conquer their local gyms.
Combining the lovable Pokemon with the ease and accessibility of the smartphone platform meant that you always had a compelling experience with you. Even though the craze has definitely begun to subside, there are still those dedicated trainers still committed to catching ’em all and being the very best. Oh, and you can bet your bottom dollar it’ll start all over again when the second generation of Pokemon make their way into the real world.
Published: Oct 13, 2016 09:00 am