Not too many games coming out in the month of July, so this might be a good time to reflect for a second on the year so far. We’re halfway through 2015 — how does it stack up in terms of games?
Compared to where we were sitting at the same point of the year in 2014? I think 2015 has been a humdinger. Big retail releases like Evolve, Dying Light plugged the gaps until massive heavy hitters like Bloodborne and The Witcher 3 came out. Batman: Arkham Asylum recently hit shelves and — regardless of where you sit on the Batmobile debate — feels like a ‘next-gen’ experience, if that’s a term you use or care about. And I almost forgot about Splatoon — a game I’m currently obsessed with. I start playing Splatoon and I find it extremely difficult to stop.
I honestly can’t remember a year in recent memory having a stronger start.
There’s been great mobile games — Fallout: Shelter being the example that currently springs to mind. Indie games have been strong, with Her Story coming out and totally shocking me with a new experience I was’t expecting at all. I hadn’t even heard of that game until the week it was released. It’s already one of my favourite experiences of the year.
So yeah, as you may have guessed — I’m a big fan of 2015 so far.
How are you finding this year so far?
Comments
27 responses to “Community Review: First Half Of 2015”
More quality rather than quantity is my feeling so far. There haven’t been a huge number of must-buy games – Bloodborne and The Witcher 3 are the only AAA games I’ve actually bought (I’ll get around to Batman at some point, but right now The Witcher is consuming all my time). Both those games have been awesome, but other than that there’s been very little that’s been screaming out for my money.
Those two have been my games of the first half of this year (GOTFHOTY) so far.
This year is shaping up quite nicely. It has been a great start, and there’s something for just about everybody. I have to agree about Her Story. One of the most unique gaming experiences ever. Less than the cost of a Macca’s meal. Well worth the price.
We’ve also had solid releases like Wither 3, Bloodborne, Sunset Overdrive, Splatoon, and Arkham Knight (Suck it, Master Race). The best thing is that looking forward, there’s also a ton of great stuff to look forward too. Could very well be the best year since 2012 imho.
So you acknowledge that PC players are a “master race” and that one failed port gives the consoles some superiority over them – however briefly? 😀
I’ve never understood this whole PC vs console crap. Personally I just play on the platform that offers the best experience. 99 times out of a 100 it’s the PC in my gaming room with a controller on da big screen, of course this is limited to cross platform releases. Arkham knight, was the first time i’ve bought a console version over a PC one.
It was a gentle dig. I just couldn’t resist. I just wish I had a good enough rig to try new stuff that isn’t indie. It’s all jealousy on my part. 🙂
I’m the same and I started gaming as a kid on PC. I play on both PC and consoles, and just do what you do. Most of my gaming mates don’t own pc’s either, at least not snazzy enough ones to run games, so that tends to influence my decision on which platform I play on.
Great year so far. Some notable releases for me:
– Mortal Kombat X
– Bloodborne
– USF4 PS4 edition
– DmC remastered
– Rocket League, oh gawd YES
– The Witcher 3
– Drangonball Xenoverse
– Dying light
– Helldivers
And then we still have MGS5, SW Battlefront, Fallout 4 etc to look forward to as well as plenty of fantastic looking indies. Compare this to 2014 and it’s spectacular. I’d imagine if I owned an XBone and decent PC rig then it would be a contender for one of the best gaming years of the last decade.
I am loving Rocket League, but its almost unplayable with randoms. Yesterday I had a shot all lined up and was about to tap it in, when some idiot in my team rushes from the other side and knocked the ball in the wrong direction – teamwork (I suppose just like all online games) is lacking
Yet, when I was playing split screen co-op with my cousin and had a third friend on party chat, we were doing really well in online games as you can plan tactics (2 rush at the start, one defends, only two goes for the ball, third gets into a defence/centre position to make a quick move etc)
Oh I know, it’s very hit and miss with online randoms. I got really pissed off last night when playing 3v3 and a member of my team was griefing by attempting to score for the opposition constantly. Made me wish for a vote kick option. When it works though, my god does it work!
Oh hell yes! It just works better with real friends in a party chat 🙂
Things that stick out in my mind:
– Frozen Cortex
– Robot Roller Derby Disco Dodgeball
– Rocket League (it’s so good)
– Witcher 3
– Bloodborne
– Grey Goo
– Helldivers
– Dragonball Xenoverse
– Homeworld Remastered Collection
– Grim Fandango Remastered
– Life is Strange
– Evolve
– Cities: Skylines
– Pillars of Eternity
– Ori and the Blind Forest
– Axiom Verge
– Duck Game
Shit. That’s not a bad half year by any stretch of the imagination. Not everything is a GOTY, knock-out winner, but you can have a tonne of fun.
Project CARS, Splatoon and Galactic Civilizations 3 should be on that list too. Bloody hell.
Did Evolve actually take off? All I saw was a big marketing push before release and then…no one was playing it, kind of a vital part in a multiplayer game.
Last year I said this year will be the year next gen gaming really takes off, it still feels like the releases are sluggish. Maybe it is taking longer to develop the AAA games, not like the PSOne days of smashing out 3 top Final Fantasy games and Vagrant Story in the space of 2/3 years. That said, quality over quantity will always shine through, except in the case of Destiny which completely lost me this year.
I’m wondering this too, I’ve barely heard any hype about the game since it came out. I was so excited for this game, but since it came out I have been so busy playing other games that I still haven’t picked it up. But then when I finally finish playing the witcher I’ve still got so many other games to play and an even bigger backlog of half finished games. Sigh…
The only games I’ve played this year are Destiny and Watch_Dogs. Destiny has consumed all my my time and I’m completely burned out on it. Watch_Dogs has been okay, mostly. I’m not finished with it yet.
I’m looking at some of the other games people have mentioned playing this year and none of them interest me. I never managed to get into the Dragon Age series so Inquisition is out – and it seems that after being initially impressed most people aren’t that enamoured by it. Then along came Witcher 3 which seems to have followed a similar trajectory.
So all I’m really looking forward to is Fallout 4. It’s already my Game of the Year. It’ll probably be a buggy piece of dog shit at launch and it’ll still be my game of the year.
Hopefully with the consoles being so similar to PCs in hardware it’ll be a heck of a lot easier for Bethesda to test the game and iron out bugs. I think Todd Howard’s already mentioned how different it is to the PS3 & 360 in a good way and that that’s allowed stuff like bringing mods over
Could ya tell that to the folks at WB games, mind you pretty sure they just did no PC development and focused solely on the consoles then tossed it to a 3rd party 8 weeks from release and said make it work….
Bethesda’s latest releases have been pretty solid ports imo – Skyrim and wolfenstien were both fairly solid on the PC (well from my limited anecdotal evidence they were)
EDIT: I don’t play those games like evil within and 1866 or whatever it was so can’t comment on them.
The first half of the year has been fantastic for catching up on older games. Apart from Guilty Gear Xrd Sign and a few niche titles the first half of the year hasn’t really been that notable for me. As unpopular an opinion as it will be, Bloodborne disappointed me, mainly because it wasn’t what I’d hoped for and I’ve found that the Souls series just isn’t that exciting for me any more.
Strangely enough, the June/July period has actually been a period where the year starts picking up for me with several mid-tier titles piquing my interest. The coming months also have several big ticket titles that I am looking forward to.
This year has been great so far! Really enjoyed Bloodborne, Dying Light and Arkham Knight. Had some fun with The Order: 1886 and Evolve despite eventually trading them in. And this past week has been filled with lots of Rocket League awesomeness. Nothing comes close to my love for Witcher 3 though… Still my Game of the Year.
Excited for Mad Max, Taken King, No Man’s Sky, Fallout 4 and hopefully a few pleasant surprises. And still yet to get in on Life Is Strange!
Only really hit up two games so far this year Batman Arkham Knight and Witcher 3. Personally, I am really impressed with both of them (and I don’t mind the Batmobile).
My picks would have to be the witcher 3, dying light, cities: skylines, and farming simulator 2015 so far- what can I say, I love sim games. I couldn’t stop playing fallout: shelter… for the first week anyway. Haven’t checked back on it in a few days. Probably in chaos as we speak.
Looking forward to mgs V, fallout 4, battlefront, and hitman. Keeping an eye out on rainbow six: siege too.
Eh. Frankly, the first half of this year’s let me save for the second half of this year. Grim Fandango’s rerelease was the standout, with Broken Age’s completion and Cities being notable, but I’ve mostly been playing Civilization 5.
Still, it’s let me build up some savings for the latter half of the year – Fallout’s Pip-Boy edition, Rock Band 4 with a new guitar, the expansion to Civ: Beyond Earth and Master of Orion on the way. Oh, and now that I’ve got a reason to buy one, a new console, too.
Bloodborne, Captain Toad, Yoshi’s Wooly World, Arkham Knight (even on PC) , Majoras Mask 3D – all great games I’ve played this year.
Plenty of good games so far this year, and I don’t think I’ve played half of them.
Arkham Knight, Rocket League, Helldivers, Borderlands: Handsome Collection have been the main 2015 games I’ve played.
I’ve also caught up on some titles from the last few years though, with Far Cry 4, Wolfenstein the New Order. Still want to do Dying Light, Advanced Warfare soon.
Damn I need to play more games 😛
This year is much better than 2014 for me.
Dying Light
The Order 1886
Bloodborne
The Witcher 3
Ether One (when it works)
Rocket League
TESO
My 2015 in PS4 gaming so far:
Bloodborne took over my life for weeks, but since I’ve finished (and somewhat decoded its epic story) I’ve no interest to NG+ until the expansions.
Dying Light was the pleasantest of surprises, and arguably does parkour better than Mirror’s Edge (sacrilege!)
MKX – a surprisingly fun and accessible fighting game for those (like me) who like watching fighting games on YouTube but don’t have the time to learn about animation frames and hit boxes or whatever it is the pros talk about.
RE: Revelations 2 was the best RE since 4! Highly recommended.
The Order: 1886 SUCKED SO MUCH. Don’t even buy it on sale, don’t even DL it when it inevitably becomes a PS Plus freebie in a few years.
Currently, utterly hooked on Life is Strange (seriously play this Twin Peaks/Veronica Mars/Broadchurch homage right now).
Also have Witcher 3 and Arkham sitting on the pile waiting to be played, as well as the FFXV demo. Overall, Insanely good year so far!
I definitely did not find Dying Light’s parkour in any way comparable to Mirror’s Edge.
It felt the same as Assassin’s Creed, tap one button to success.
The year started out strong with Captain Toad and Monster Hunter 4. And then Splatoon happened. Game over.
Haven’t really got much else this year I don’t think, still got Codename STEAM, Kirby and Yoshi sitting there waiting to be looked at. I’m sure they’re fine.
Witcher 3 is currently my GOTY. Haven’t invested so much time in a game for years.
I’ve also had a lot of fun with Ori and the Blind Forest recently. The aesthetics and soundtrack really immerse you in the world. Not to mention the Metroid-esque platforming goodness.
Helldivers is one of the best co-op games I’ve played in a long time, even with randoms. The Starship Troopers vibe helps too.
Arkham Knight is on my to-do list…
Witcher 3 is GOTY for me also. I haven’t played a game that I have enjoyed this much since WoW Vanilla days!
Splatoon – They only reason not to vote for it is if you havn’t played