2015. It hasn’t been the greatest year for video games. Yet.
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But there are still a handful of great games that you’re gonna want to be playing. Particularly if you’ve just spent the big bucks on a brand new TV and have a new console to match.
Here are some this year’s finest so far…
Bloodborne (PS4)
“Bloodborne. Bloodborne. Bloodborne.”
This is what I do. I wander around the city at night dressed as a monk chanting Bloodborne over and over again. Then I go home and I play Bloodborne. My child is starving. My wife… I have no idea where my wife is. By the time you’re reading this I might not even have a wife. My house is covered in moss. I have a beard. I smell really, really bad.
But guys. Bloodborne is a really good video game.
Really good video game is probably understating it a bit. This is the only game. The only game I expect to be playing for the next month at least.
Bloodborne is the latest game by Hidetaka Miyazaki of Demon’s Souls and Dark Souls fame. Miyazaki’s games are not for everyone, but they should be. Because they are phenomenal. They are punishing, uncaring, brutal, beautiful, original, strange, otherworldly, impenetrable. Bloodborne is no exception.
If you like challenge, if you like video games that cast a compelling spell over your senses to the point where you stop caring about everything else in your life including – especially – personal hygiene? Bloodborne is the game for you. It’s special. It’s very special indeed. It’s genius actually.
Ori and the Blind Forest (Xbox One/PC)
Are you a fan of things that are objectively good like Super Metroid?
Of course you are.
You are going to like Ori and the Blind Forest.
Ori and the Blind Forest is a gorgeous, accessible 2D platformer with simple RPG elements. It has more than a whiff of Ghibli about it and – most importantly – there’s a rudimentary joy in simply running and jumpng around its gloriously rendered environments.
You get the sense that Ori and the Blind Forest is a little too much in love with its own universe – it verges on the self-indulgent with its cut-scenes at times – but it’s as good a game as I’ve played this year (outside of Bloodborne). It puts a modern twist on old tropes and is tactile and rewarding on a minute to minute basis. Ori and the Blind Forest simply feels good to play on a minute-to-minute basis. A must play.
Grow Home (PC)
Grow Home is like when Beyonce was just like, ‘hey everyone, here’s an album I didn’t promote or announce or discuss’ and just sort of dropped on iTunes like a glorious surprise.
In a universe where video games are announced, then hyped, then previewed, the slowly drip-fed over a period of years Grow Home is completely the opposite. Major publisher Ubisoft just sort of threw it into the wild unannounced and it ended up being one of their best video games in a good long while.
Grow Home essentially a cool little experiment gone right. It’s a game about climbing and moving upwards and it’s unlike anything you are likely to have played before. Give it a shot!
Dying Light (Xbox One/PS4/PC)
Dying Light is about killing zombies, which is video game land is about as generic as Nazis, aliens, or Nazi-Alien-Zombies when it comes to enemies. But that doesn’t mean you should dismiss Dying Light: there’s a lot to love.
There’s a sprawling, gorgeous environment to traverse, using all that beautifully executed parkour. There’s incredible heights to be climbed, there are numerous objectives to pursue. Dying Light is without doubt a ‘video game’ in the most modern sense of the word. In a sense it feels like its high concepts were designed in a board room by marketers, but the execution is near-flawless.
It’s also a helluva good game to test out a brand new TV on. Looks good.
OlliOlli 2: Welcome To Olliwood (PS4/PS Vita)
OlliOlli 2 is kinda the perfect video game for a certain type of person. If you like retro aesthetics, Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater and the need to beat your friends high scores in video games, you’re going to love OlliOlli 2: Welcome To Olliwood.
It ticks all those boxes and more.
OlliOlli 2 is one of those compelling ‘one-more-go’ games. It also works well as a ‘pass-the-controller’ game. It’s fun, frustrating, fair, quirky, unique but also familiar. You’ll know how to play OlliOlli 2 within seconds, but you’ll spend hours trying to master it.
OlliOlli 2 does what video games are supposed to do.
Comments
21 responses to “Our Favourite Games Of 2015 (So Far)”
Captain Toad and Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate
Type-0!
Where is Chicken Little: HD Remaster?
It fell.
You misspelled “Cities: Skylines”
I came in here expecting to see Cities Skylines at the top of the list…
And I came to the comments section to see people complaining about it being missing.
And I came to the comments section to see people complaining about people complaining about it being missing.
Pillars of Eternity!
FFXV Episode Duscae. Better than most games I’ve played this year
Haha yes – indeed it’s very promising.
Personally I have found 2015 full of promises in new gameplay but getting old bugs that should have died a decade ago are crawling back in (bad camera mechanics, glitching through walls, etc), but I am also finding a trend of quantity over quality. I believe that was bound to happen when everyone (Steam and Sony in particular) opened the doors for indie developers its not necessarily a bad thing and has resulted in some awesome smaller games but it’s just something I’ve noticed within the industry as a whole.
If I had more time I would most certainly be enjoying the mass of games I have obtained in between Blizzards game line up, PS4 and Playstation plus ( i haven’t even touched my PS3 this year and I have sooo many unplayed games), Steam, Humble Bundles and not even mentioning all the games I have on handhelds – its a bit overwhelming and yet after all of this I still find myself just simply playing some hearthstone when I get home from work…
Ascent: The Space Game
I think I’ve perhaps played one game from 2015.
I’ve mostly been playing old games. When playing games at all.
So… Uh… I guess that makes it MH4U.
Have I loved anything new out this year yet? I don’t think so, but I also have not played a lot. I think. Bummer :/
Pretty much the only stuff I’ve played this year are Spelunky and Dota 2. I should really make an effort to play more games.
I’ve played CounterSpy and a shit tonne of Threes on my iPhone, andddd… I know there has to be something else, surely? Nothing’s really caught my eye this year, so far.
CounterSpy is so good! Perfectly game to play in short bursts.
I am really not making any sort of dint in my PS Plus free games this year. I partly blame apathy to consoles at the moment and the occasional board game with other people.
All I’ve played since January is Supreme Commander, Unreal Tournament and AFL Live 2.
The only new game I’ve really enjoyed so far is Helldivers.
Ori looks interesting though
Come on, Bleed 2. Release already!
Bloodborne, Majora’s Mask 3D and Captain Toad.
I’ve found Mario Party 10 to have surpassed my expectations for ragequitworthiness, so surely it’s worth a mention.