Game of the Year? Who cares?

The end of the year is nearly upon us and you know what this means?  Every single piece of shit website in the world putting up their lists of "best games of 2015!"  Well who fucking cares?  It's not like anyone can agree on what the best game was anyway.

Now, me moaning about this shit doesn't mean that I think 2015 was a bad year for gaming, quite the opposite really, 2015s actually been pretty damn good.  The reason I'm taking time out of my day to moan about GotY articles is because they are so fucking pointless and predictable that without even looking I can guess what some of the winners or nominees are going to be.  Let's just list off a few that will probably get awarded something

Witcher 3
MGS5
Fallout 4
Bloodborne
Batman
Xenoblade X
Mario Maker

just to name a few.  But what do all these games have in common?  Well it's the fact that you already fucking know they are really good.  People have gone to great lengths to talk about these games BECAUSE they are so good, so why the fuck do you need some twat on IGN who couldn't tell a controller from a horse dildo to re-tell you that these games are great?

These articles have exactly one purpose, and that's so fucking kids can brag about how daddy got them GotY for Christmas or whatever?

"Uhh what did you get for Christmas?"
"I got Mario Maker"
"Well that game sucks because my mummy gave me Fallout 4 and THAT was Gamespot's GotY 2015 don't ya know" *smug smug smug*

No one over the age of fucking 15 gives a shit what the game of the year is.  Are people so insecure about their own fucking opinions on games that they need to have them validated by twats writing for big news sites?

But wait, here's the best part!  I promise you, beyond a shadow of a doubt that most of these writers voting on and deciding the best games of 2015 haven't even begin to dig through the thousands of titles that were released in the year.  All these fucking websites are probably happily skipping over a ton of games that got buried under AAA hype or shit that didn't ever get an English release.  Sure, you can name Dancing All Night as 2015s best rhythm game but have ANY of these writers played Chunithm?  Musica?  RevX Beat? the latest versions of IIDX or any other long standing Konami arcade rhythm game?  No of course they fucking haven't.  I imagine that the pool of games that they have enough knowledge about in order to vote on is actually pretty small and that's what really makes these lists a complete waste of time.

Share your favorites with your friends, that's a great idea because maybe your buddy played something that you missed but don't waste your time with these stupid fucking IGN, Gamespot, Polygon fucking stupid lists.  You already know what's on them and you've probably already played them or heard them talked about to death.  Why not go dig through the steam listings or your local game store to see if you can find a hidden 2015 gem?  Seems like a better use of your time then being told that the good thing was good.

Not Hyped For E3

E3 used to be such a wonderful time for me.  I'd get all excited for the upcoming press conferences and game play trailers.  Me and my buddies would try to make guesses at what all the big companies would be announcing and we'd talk about the titles that we would hope to see during the show.  However, that's all changed and now whenever anyone asks me about if I'm hyped for E3 or not, the only answer I can seem to muster is "meh"

The last couple of years have been a bit disappointing.  Last year I missed most of the pressers live due to work and then found myself not giving much of a shit when I fired up the recordings.  This year especially, I already know a lot of the upcoming stuff I'm interested in so the best I can hope for is an extra trailer or two.  I'm sure there will be some good games announced but I can't help but feel that some of the magic is gone from E3.

I'm hoping this year will go and prove me wrong and some of that E3 magic that I enjoyed so much a few years ago will return full force.  I'm hoping that almost every press conference will have something mind blowingly cool and I'll be able to come away from the stream with a big grin on my face like a child at Christmas.

It's not likely, but I'm sure as fuck going to get myself ready for the streams, cross my fingers and hope for the best.

Tau's Top 5 Games of 2014

God damn!  It's finally 2015 and I think we have an exciting year ahead for us.  It's been really hard to put out any content recently since New Year is an extremely busy time.  However, I should have a significant increase to my free time in the 2015 so now is a good time to get started on producing all sorts of stuff! 

So let's kick things off with my top 5 games of 2014!  To clarify, I'm only picking off games featured on the list on the right hand side of the page.  There were a ton of great games this year and I'm aware that there are a lot of fantastic titles I didn't get to play due to restraints of time and money so don't freak out if YOUR favorite game isn't on the list.

5) Transistor

Made by the same dudes who gave us Bastion, Transistor was one of those games I had a lot of excitement for prior to release.  While I felt it wasn't quite as good as Bastion, Transistor was fun, stylish and rather challenging if you wanted it to be.

The gameplay was smooth, the music was awesome and it was just about the right length.  I had a few issues with it and the story didn't really pull me in all that well but I had a damn good time fighting the Process through Cloudbank.

4) Dark Souls 2

I loved Dark Souls 2, it was fucking fantastic.  It only comes in at number 4 since I didn't feel it was QUITE as good as Dark Souls for various reasons but it had me hooked really hard from start to finish nonetheless.

While Dark Souls 2 was extremely fun some of the changes made to the game play stripped away part of the challenge that I loved so much which soured me to it a little.  Also the world and over arching plot didn't feel as epic to me as the first game did.  That could be just me but I felt that DS1 had a lot more character than the sequel.

However, these are only little problems that I have and don't ruin the fun of a generally superb game.

3)  Hatsune Miku Project Diva F2nd

Yeah yeah, roll your eyes and call me a weaboo or whatever but I don't give a fuck because this game is AWESOME!  A great rhythm game with a really good selection of great Hatsune Miku (and others) songs.

If you aren't into poppy Japanese music then maybe this game isn't for you but if you don't mind it then there's a really fun game here.  It was also made considerably harder than the 1st one but I really enjoyed the fact that I'm not just breezing through all the songs on extreme like I did before.

It's the kind of game that I keep coming back to.  If I have a spare few minutes to kill I can just load it up and play a song or two then put it down again.  Would recommend for any Vita owner.

2) Shovel Knight

Shovel Knight was so fucking cool, it took ideas from a bunch of different games and just smashed them together and the result is magical.  There's not really all that much to say about Shovel Knight other than it's fucking good and you should go play it.  Fun, challenging, looks great and has a awesome soundtrack, it's the kind of game that everyone should at least try.

1)  South Park: The Stick of Truth

So here it is, my game of 2014.  While it was simplistic in its RPG elements, it made up for with it's character and humor.  The game is really fun to play and it's not just a weak excuse to re-run old South Park jokes for 8 to 10 hours.

While there are plenty of little nods to the show and its long history, Stick of Truth has so much to offer on its own.  I've not genuinely been this tickled by a video game in a long LOOONG time and some moments in the game had me hitting the pause button.

Even if you aren't familiar with South Park I still think you could get a lot out of it.  It's a really fun game with a ton of shit to do and if you go for 100% you'll be at it for a pretty fair amount of time.

I got it during a Steam sale but it's one of the only games I've experienced in a long time worthy of it's full asking price.

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So that's my top 5 for the year.  There's a lot of games that I didn't get round to playing that may have made the list like This War of Mine and Grimrock 2 but I'm gonna be catching up with them pretty soon.

So while you're waiting for the 2015 releases to get going, go play these 5 games, you'll be more than entertained.

Hopes For Next Year

With Christmas happening tomorrow and new year right around the corner, I thought I'd express a couple of my hopes for gaming in the year 2015.

1)  Next Gen Gets Interesting

The PS4 and Xbox One have been out for a good while now and I still have very little interest in either.  With Ys8 and Persona 5 along with a couple of others being announced I have some reason to be at least a little bit interested in PS4 but I'm really hoping that there will be more than just big name sequels in the near future.  I'm really looking forward to some new IP and I'm crossing my fingers that something will get released that's going to blow my goddamn mind.

2)  Less Bullshit

This one probably won't happen because bullshit makes money for publishers but I can dream.  Less crappy DLC, less day 1 drama, less glitchy and unfinished bullshit.  I'm hoping that at some point in the next year publishers will have some kind of epiphany and think "oh, maybe we should stop fucking customers up the asshole all the time" and there will be a lot less to be angry about.

3) Less Drama

There was a lot of drama this year.  Gamergate is still ongoing and people can't seem to shut up about misogyny, harassment, doxing and all sorts of other stupid bullshit.  I'm glad something like Gamergate exists to put shitty journalists on the spot but I think everyone would be better off if the drama in general just stopped.
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I'd say that about sums up my top 3 wishes for gaming in 2015.  Let's hope it'll be fun!