For the 10th year in a row (!), I’ve tallied the games I played in the past 12 months and have counted the ones I’ve “finished.” It’s clear that it’s time for some changes.
I started this practice in late 2006, a year in which I played 102 games including the likes of The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, Okami, 50 Cent Bulletproof and Steambot Chronicles. That year, I played through Elite Beat Agents, Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter, Suikoden V and 15 others.
I made the list an annual tradition, a way to track what I’d played for fun and as part of having this lucky career that I’ve got writing about video games. From the start, I emphasised the number of games I had finished, because I saw too many people pontificating about games they’d barely played. I wanted to encourage getting to the end of a game, of considering games in full.
For many years I avoided the inherent pitfalls of the type of list I was making. I didn’t have to worry about talking about older games that I’d already finished once and was playing again, because I seldom returned to old games that I’d already finished once. There were too many interesting new games available to play. I didn’t have to worry, at first, about the impossibility of finishing many multiplayer games, because I nearly exclusively played single-player games.
Times have changed, my gaming habits have changed, and this year’s list is therefore full of personal revelations.
This was the year I finally got nostalgic and played some old favourites. In January, I dove back into the first Metroid Prime and played a glorious third of it before getting distracted by new things. In autumn, I played the 3DS port of my favourite game ever, The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask, though I didn’t finish it again, either. In winter, I dove back into some of my favourite Nintendo 64 games via the Xbox One’s Rare Replay and spent a joyful couple of days playing through Blast Corps — now the only game in the past 10 years that I’d already finished and played through again.
This was also the year that I finally got into multiplayer gaming. In past years, I made token efforts with various online shooters, but I didn’t enjoy them. This year, I was hooked for a few weeks on the co-op sci-fi game Helldivers. I fell deep into Destiny, confidently co-opping with friends and strangers alike. At year’s end, I neglected single-player games such as Metal Gear Solid V and The Witcher III so I could play more of Black Ops III‘s co-op Zombies. I still don’t lose my mind over multiplayer gaming. I’m still the guy who was excited to discover that Splatoon has a very good single-player mode. But I now think a list like the one below exaggerates the virtue of finishing single-player games and undersells the pleasure of regularly playing an unfinishable multiplayer game.
Times are changing in general, making my old logic for these lists less workable. I’ve classified “finishing” a game as reaching the final credits, which I did with Assassin’s Creed Rogue in 2014. I played 20 more hours of the game in 2015, yet I’d already started and “finished” it in 2014, so it doesn’t make the list. And what if a new game actually contains 30 older games, some of them emulated or remade versions of games I had played before? That was the conundrum of counting Rare Replay in 2015. Had I only played the first RC Pro-Am back in the 90s, or had I played the second one? Did an emulated version of the Xbox 360’s Perfect Dark count? And so on.
This year’s list tells me a lot of things, including that, after a 2014 when I finished three Lego games, I might finally be over the series. In 2015, I bailed on Lego Batman 3 pretty early. I also am embarrassed with how much time I spent playing time-wasting Cookie-Clicker clones on my iPhone in the final weeks of the year, when I could have been playing better stuff on my phone, tablet, 3DS or Vita. This year’s list reminds me of the games — some new, some old and just sitting on my consoles or PC — I still badly want to get to, including: Ziggurat, MGSV, Fallout 4, Undertale, Emily is Away, Until Dawn, Life is Strange, Bedlam, Heroes of the Storm, the Metro games, Elite Dangerous, Bloodborne, Darkest Dungeon, Renowned Explorers and more.
Final throat-clearing notes: My PC gaming plummeted in 2015, because I badly need a new gaming PC. My Vita playing also went to near zero. I played some DS games in 2014, none in 2015. Most significantly, I played zero games on my Xbox 360 and “only” played my PS3 for those 20 more hours of AC Rogue. I am clearly done with the old gen.
That’s that. Another year done. A decade-long project carries on. I’ll keep doing these lists, because I like keeping a record, remembering what I played, and maybe inspiring people to try a game they hadn’t heard much about.
On with the list!
My 2015 Games Played/Finished List
(Games I started listed below. Finished games are bolded. Games not from 2015 are noted as such.)
3DS
(19 games played; 2 finished)
- Animal Crossing: Happy Home Designer
- Boxboy! – FINISHED (My favourite game of the year!)
- Chibi-Robo Photo Finder
- Chibi-Robo Zip Lash – FINISHED
- Code Name S.T.E.A.M.
- Dr. Mario: Miracle Cure
- The Legend of Zelda Majora’s Mask 3D
- The Legend of Zelda: Tri-Force Heroes
- Mario Vs Donkey Kong: Tipping Stars
- Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate
- Nintendo Badge Arcade
- Pokémon Picross
- Pokémon Rumble World
- Pokémon Shuffle
- Puzzles & Dragons + Super Mario Bros. Edition
- SteamWorld Dig
- SteamWorld Heist
- Stretchmo
- Yo-Kai Watch
iOS
(23 games played; 2 finished)
- 10000000
- Adventure Capitalist (I’m going to delete this right now.)
- Bullet Boy
- Clicker Heroes (I’m deleting this one, too.)
- David
- Digit & Dash
- Downwell
- Dungeon of the Endless (I had played this on PC the year before but played a lot more of it on iPad in 2015.)
- The Ensign
- Fallout Shelter
- Fruit Fusion
- Her Story
- Land Sliders
- Lara Croft GO – FINISHED (I just started the free expansion. It’s good!)
- Pac-Man 256
- Prune
- Puzzle Craft 2
- The Room 3 (I finished this on 2 January 2016, so I can’t count it for 2015.)
- Sage Solitaire
- Sonic Runners
- Star Wars Uprising
- The Walking Dead Road To Survival
- You Must Build A Boat – FINISHED
PC
(7 or so games played; 0 finished)
- Grapple
- Human Resource Machine
- Interloper
- Mushroom Men: Truffle Trouble
- Oblitus
- Reassembly
- Rebuild 3
PS4
(42 games played; 17 finished)
- Apotheon – FINISHED
- Assassin’s Creed Chronicles: China – FINISHED
- Assassin’s Creed: Syndicate – FINISHED
- Assassin’s Creed Syndicate: Jack the Ripper – FINISHED (I’m counting meaty expansions like this that could work as standalone games this year.)
- Axiom Verge
- Batman Arkham Knight – FINISHED (Exhibit B of why the “finishing” label just isn’t worth it going forward; I have heaps of DLC to still play.)
- Battlefield: Hardline (I bailed on this game halfway through. The arrest mechanic is great, but they didn’t design the game for stealth.)
- Call of Duty: Black Ops III (I mostly play co-op Zombies, haven’t finished the campaign.)
- Child of Light – FINISHED
- Dead Star (It’s early access and a lot of fun when you can find a match.)
- Destiny – FINISHED
- Destiny: The Taken King – FINISHED (Doing King’s Fall on normal counts as finishing, right? I didn’t do all the collection quests in the Dreadnaught. Whatever.)
- Dying Light – FINISHED
- Entwined
- Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture
- Far Cry 4 – FINISHED (I had barely played this game in 2014, played it mostly in 2015.)
- Far Cry 4: Valley of the Yetis – FINISHED
- Fat Princess Adventures
- Galak-Z: The Dimensional
- Grow Home
- Guns Up!
- Hand of Fate
- Helldivers
- Hohokum
- Infamous: First Light – FINISHED (Didn’t come out in 2015, but I finally played it in 2015.)
- Infinifactory
- Jamestown+
- Mad Max – FINISHED
- OlliOlli2: Welcome to Olliwood
- Rainbow Six Siege
- Rocket League
- Rogue Legacy
- Stick It To The Man (played it before?)
- Super Stardust Ultra
- Tembo The Badass Elephant
- Transistor – FINISHED (Another non-2015 game that I finished in 2015.)
- Volume
- Watch Dogs – FINISHED (I finally got into this game and liked it more than I thought I would. Those little QR code side missions were great!)
- White Night – FINISHED
- The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt (About a dozen hours in… I will play this to the end… someday.)
- Wolfenstein: The New Order – FINISHED
- Wolfenstein: The Old Blood
Vita
(1 games played; 0 finished)
- Flame Over
Wii U
(8 games played; 1 finished)
- Affordable Space Adventures
- Kirby and the Rainbow Curse – FINISHED
- Metroid Prime Trilogy (I’d never played the trilogy compilation on Wii and therefore never played Metroid Prime 1, which I finished on GameCube, with Wii controls. So… I’m counting it!)
- Splatoon
- Swords & Soldiers II
- Typoman
- Xenoblade Chronicles X (I thought I was bailing, but I got sucked back in, 25 hours and counting.)
- Yoshi’s Woolly World
Xbox One
(38 games played; 2 finished)
- The Crew
- The Escapists
- Halo 5: Guardians – FINISHED (Exhibit H for leaving this “finished” concept behind for future lists. I finished the underwhelming campaign. Big deal. I enjoyed the unfinishable Warzone mode more.)
- Need for Speed
- Nova-111
- Lego Batman 3: Beyond Gotham
- Lovers in a Dangerous Spacetime
- Ori and the Blind Forest
- Rare Replay: Atic Atac
- Rare Replay: Banjo-Kazooie (I played through this game and the next one a dozen times on my N64, but I think these Xbox 360 ports count as fresh releases. Maybe not. Who’s counting?)
- Rare Replay: Banjo-Tooie
- Rare Replay: Battletoads
- Rare Replay: Battletoads Arcade
- Rare Replay: Cobra Triangle
- Rare Replay: Digger T. Rock (This is a little lame having all these Rare Replay games in here, like I went and played a huge amount. But such is the nature of these lists. I played most of the pre-N64 Rare Replay games for just a few minutes, enough to remember how much I detest super-difficult old-school games.)
- Rare Replay: Grabbed By The Ghoulies
- Rare Replay: Gunfright
- Rare Replay: Jetpac Refueled
- Rare Replay: Kameo Elements of Power (I was surprised how much I liked this and plan to go back to play it through.)
- Rare Replay: Killer Instinct
- Rare Replay: Knight Lore
- Rare Replay: Lunar Jetman
- Rare Replay: Perfect Dark
- Rare Replay: Perfect Dark Zero
- Rare Replay: RC Pro-Am II
- Rare Replay: Sabre Wulf
- Rare Replay: Slalom
- Rare Replay: Snake Rattle N Roll
- Rare Replay: Solar Jetman
- Rare Replay: Underwurlde
- Roundabout
- ScreamRide
- Star Wars Battlefront (Another multiplayer game I played more than a lot of other games on the list.)
- State of Decay: Year-One Edition
- Sunset Overdrive – FINISHED (I finally finished this excellent game and its DLC in 2015.)
- Toto Temple Deluxe
- Toy Soldiers: War Chest
- Transformers Devastation
The final 2015 tally is: 138 games played; 24 finished
That compares to:
2010… 195 played; 52 finished
2009… 165 played; 48 finished
2008… 135 played; 37 finished
2007… 118 played; 35 finished
2006… 102 played; 21 finished
Comments
13 responses to “I Started These 138 Video Games In 2015, ‘Finished’ 24”
Here’s 2015 for me:
(Just the games I finished.)
Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker
The Swapper
Grim Fandango Remastered
Tomb Raider: Definitive Edition
The Order: 1886
CounterSpy
New ‘n’ Tasty: Abe’s Oddysee
Cities: Skylines
Pillars of Eternity
Broken Age
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
Batman: Arkham Knight
Anna’s Quest
Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture
Lara Croft and the Temple of Osiris
Broken Sword 5
Until Dawn
Mad Max
Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune Remastered
Uncharted 2: Among Thieves Remastered
Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception Remastered
Life is Strange
Tales from the Borderlands
Fallout 4
Good job! You got through some pretty big games last year. I kept a list as well. X indicates completed.
Xbone:
[X] The Walking Dead s1
[X] The Walking Dead s2
[X] Dragon Age: Inquisition (+Jaws of Hakkon)
[X] The Wolf Among Us
[X] Farcry 4
[X] Limbo
[X] Murdered: Soul Suspect
[X] Dying Light
[X] Fantasia: Music Evolved
Neverwinter Online
[X] The Evil Within
Halo ODST
Elder Scrolls Online
[X] Magic 2015
[X] Diablo 3: Reaper of Souls
[X] Child of Light
[X] Magic Origins
[X] Never Alone
Super Time Force
[X] Life is strange
[X] Halo 5
[X] Guitar Hero Live
Star wars: Battlefront
[X] Lego Batman 3
Xbox 360:
[X] Tomb Raider
[X] Bioshock Infinite (+Burial at Sea)
[X] Batman Arkham Origins
[X] Farcry: Blood Dragon
WiiU:
Mario Kart 8
[X] New Mario Brothers
[X] New Luigi Brothers
[X] Donkey Kong Tropical Freeze
Super Nintendo:
[X] Donkey Kong Country
PC:
[X] A Bird Story
Age of Empires HD
Civilization 5
PS4:
Until Dawn
Also impressive list. Well done! You didn’t finish Until Dawn?
Already clocked my first game this year. Finished SOMA. 🙂
Haha good work! Quick start to 2016. I only just started until dawn after Christmas, my partner and I are playing through it together 🙂 it’ll be on the 2016 list haha
No idea what I’ve played in the last year…but at least I’ve “finished” Fallout 4
List does not contain Bloodborne. Games journalist credentials revoked!
Waiit, you didn’t finish Rapture Stephen???? Go finish it!!!!! It’s like 5 hours in total.
Also how good is Transistor. Got it through PS Plus, one of my Top 5 games.
You really found Sunset Overdrive an excellent game? Ahh, I found this as a regrettable purchase. If I could only take it back! Too corny for me, I lost interest in it within a week
I finished all of these games in 2015. I spent most of my time finishing my backlog, of which only 2 games and one DLC remain! (AC3, ACIV: Freedom Cry & Dragon’s Dogma: Dark Arisen)
Xbox:
Unreal Tournament: The Liandri Conflict
Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas
Xbox 360:
Dragon Age: Origins
Call of Duty: Black Ops 2
Call of Duty: World at War
Red Dead Redemption
Fable III
Skyrim
PS3:
Assassins Creed: Brotherhood
PS4:
Assassins Creed IV: Black Flag
Assassins Creed: Unity
Infamous: Last Light
Bloodborne (+DLC)
Dragon Age: Inquisition
Dark Souls 2: SotFS (I had previously finished DS without DLC in 2014)
Rocket League (as much as you can ‘finish’ a game like this)
PC
Assassins Creed: Revelations
The Witcher
The Witcher 2
BioShock 2: Minerva’s Den
BioShock Infinite
Darksiders
Darksiders 2
Sacred Citadel
The Walking Dead season 1
NBA 2K15
Fallout: New Vegas
Borderlands
Saints Row: The Third
Batman: Arkham Asylum
Trine 2
Doom 3 DLC packs
Metro 2033
Serious Sam HD The First Encounter
Serious Sam HD The Second Encounter
Android:
Plants vs Zombies
I know I’d finished a few games last year, but damn I’m jealous of your free time!
I was pretty surprised when I counted 36 games, some I had started previously and pretty much all bar a few were to the credits only, I did hardly any side quests as I was in ‘pile of shame completion’ mode. Examples: F:NV and Skyrim in 15 hours each as I only did the main quests. In fact I just did a very rough calculation on how many hours I spent playing and came up with 557, or on average 90 minutes per day. The longest amount being 70 hours in Bloodborne.
I actually forgot I finished Red Alert 1 and Need for Speed: Underground this year too! 😀
I miss having time to finish a game. I can’t remember the last time I’ve actually finished one, it’s been a few years at least!
61 games for me!
[*]Transistor
[*]Uncharted: Golden Abyss
[*]Kick and Fennick
[*]The Walking Dead Season 1 (PLAT)
[*]Beyond Two Souls (PLAT)
[*]Batman Arkham Origins: Blackgate
[*]The Walking Dead: 400 Days
[*]The Walking Dead Season 2
[*]Tales of the Borderlands 2
[*]Proteus
[*]Game of Thrones #3
[*]Bloodborne (PLAT)
[*]Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney
[*]Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney: Justice For All
[*]Game of Thrones #4
[*]Murdered Soul Suspect
[*]Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney: Trials and Tribulations
[*]Tales of the Borderlands 3
[*]The Force Unleashed
[*]Ace Attorney: Apollo Justice
[*]Anna’s Quest
[*]Wolfenstein: New Order
[*]Life is Strange: Chapters 1-3
[*]Journey
[*]Game of Thrones #5
[*]Life is Strange: Chapter 4
[*]Rocket League (PLAT)
[*]Ace Attorney 5: Dual Destinies
[*]Phoenix Wright: Turnabout Reclaimed
[*]Tales of the Borderlands 4
[*]Metal Gear Solid
[*]Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty
[*]Mad Max
[*]Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater
[*]Counterspy
[*]Persona 4 Golden
[*]Tales From the Borderlands 5
[*]Life is Strange: Chapter 5 (PLAT)
[*]Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots
[*]Uncharted 1 HD
[*]Uncharted 2 HD
[*]Game of Thrones #6 (PLAT)
[*]Uncharted 3 HD
[*]Tomb Raider Definitive Edition
[*]The Vanishing of Ethan Carter
[*]Brothers: Tale of Two Sons
[*]Saints Row IV: Re-Elected
[*]Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker
[*]Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes