How would you rank 2016 in gaming?

[Igor-Rowan]

If you are a retro gamer, then 1994 is probably your favorite year: Megaman X, Doom II, Sonic 3, Super Metroid, Killer Instinct, Warcraft, Tekken, Earthbound, Earthworm Jim, and Donkey Kong Country.

If you are a modern gamer, then your favorite year is likely 2007: The Orange Box (Half-Life 2: Episode 2/TF2/Portal), Super Mario Galaxy, Bioshock, Assassin's Creed, The Witcher, Call of Duty 4.

This year we had a lot of meta games (Pony Island/Superhot/Welcome to the Game/Inside/Firewatch), lots of remakes (Ratchet & Clank/Star Fox Zero/Shadow of the Beast/ports and HD re-relases), of course, lots of shooters (Overwatch/Battlefield 1/Battleborn/CoD: Infinite Warfare/Titanfall 2/Mafia III/Gears of War 4, DOOM), some VR games. I would say the year was good, not the best or one of the best, but better than some years of the 2010s.

PS.: In other news, the video game movies continue to suck: Ratchet and Clank, Angry Birds, Warcraft, Dead Rising: Endgame, Kingsglaive: Final Fantasy XV, and Assassin's Creed. Each one was more panned than the last.

 

[Silentpony_v1legacy]

I'm not sure how 2016 stacks compared to other years, especially if I'm nostalgic for games like GoldenEye, which was only good because I was 7 and hadn't played anything more advanced than Tetris.

But I can tell you 2016 was a viral year, where hype and marketing trends sold games weeks, if not months or years before anyone ever played it. The actual games are seemingly irrelevant next to their hype, and their rabid fanbases.
Every major AAA release, and even shitloads of the major indie games, were financial, if not critical, successes long before anyone ever played them.

And that's not good because most of them were shit, and the devs still made money.

 

[KissingSunlight]

This year, I officially sworn to skip this current generation of consoles. I played console games less than I had before. I think I only play through one game this year. I did play a lot of Candy Crush. I refuse to pay anything for it. Eventually, the game cut me off. I did sample a few RPG games to see what people like about the genre.

Recent years that were better, I would say the early 2000's when I bought the first Xbox. Near the end of that decade, around 2008, with Xbox 360 & PS3 that was the zenith with consoles. I don't play PC or Nintendo games. I might have to consider checking out Steam and other places where they have indie games. However, I am leery of risking my PC just to play games on it.

 

[Adam Jensen_v1legacy]

It's about the same as 2015. I barely played anything new because The Witcher 3 has ruined the rest of games for me. Not just because it's a much better game than anything I've ever played, but because of CDPR business model as well. I barely buy games when they're new these days. I wait for all the content to be released and all the bugs to be patched up. I mostly replay older games and I'm actually happy to be able to do that and not feel like I'm missing out on anything new.

 

[CaitSeith]

I rank it as an "okay" year. We got good stuff, but I didn't see anything timeless (maybe except Overwatch, but I'm not fan of online multiplayer FPS). In fact, a couple of timeless delayed games got released with varied results. Fable Legends got cancelled this year, so that was kinda of a bad thing, sorta.

In the Steam indie library however, it was a lousy year. 38% of the games in the whole Steam library was released in 2016. That's 4,207 games this year (3,786 shitty ones, if Sturgeon's law prevails).

 

[TheVampwizimp_v1legacy]

It's about the same as 2015. I barely played anything new because The Witcher 3 has ruined the rest of games for me. Not just because it's a much better game than anything I've ever played, but because of CDPR business model as well. I barely buy games when they're new these days. I wait for all the content to be released and all the bugs to be patched up. I mostly replay older games and I'm actually happy to be able to do that and not feel like I'm missing out on anything new.

I'm the same way, minus it being anything about Witcher 3 which(er) I haven't played. The new Deus Ex is the only game released this year that I purchased, and I haven't even finished it yet. It's just so much smarter to wait a year for the game to actually be complete, and cost less, and have fewer bugs, and avoid the ridiculous hype machine, especially when replaying old favorites is still rewarding; hell, I spent more time playing Skyrim yet again than anything else this year.

Being a gamer is a double edged sword these days. There are more and better options than ever before, but the dominant business models have made it such a freaking hassle to actually get the best experience out of your purchases.

 

[josemlopes]

It was a weird year, no real standout but I did apreciate some focus on making some series more focused on a specific product instead of trying to target a "wider audience".

Even if Rainbow Six Siege came out last year it was basicly at the end of it and it has grown a lot since then, its still multiplayer only and rather different from its origins but its very much after its own thing.

Then we have Hitman, another game that took its time and chose a different business model, one that well played could mean having the focus on the game instead of on marketing or inflated budgets in cinematic gameplay with expensive animation and voice acting. I think they did a good job and we ended up with a game that even for some is better then Blood Money.

And finally DOOM, a game that suprised me by how focused it was on its singleplayer offering. It still was rather different from the original concept of the old games but a good game in its own way and not muddled with poor decisions. Yeah, the multiplayer sucks but the singleplayer was good enough.

 

[DeliveryGodNoah_v1legacy]

It was a year of disappointments for me.

Deus Ex: Mankind Divided was alright, but had optimization issues and other technical problems that marred my enjoyment long before they attempted to patch these things out.

We all know how No Man's Sky turned out.

Titanfall 2 is great, but is hindered by poor marketing and a stupid release time.

Mafia 3, again destroyed by technical problems, but also an inferior game compared to it's predecessors.

Mirror's Edge Catalyst I'm pretty sure many people forgot even came out this year. It actually turned out pretty good though.

Homefront: The Revolution was doomed from the start and I should have known better.

This year even managed to screw up a "remastered" version of Bioshock, from freaking 2007 until very recently.

Probably the only game I was blown away by was how much I enjoyed Overwatch despite myself originally assuming it wouldn't have been my type of game. I've played it literally every night for at least 2 hours since it came out (with exceptions during holidays and vacation, and even then I went to conventions with gaming, so I didn't exactly escape it)

And while I've bought every single one of these games I've mentioned, I only felt compelled to finish Titanfall 2. The rest are still sitting in my library plagued by performance issues and technical inconsistencies that bother me enough to not want to finish them.

So I'd rank it pretty low I'd say. I mean, the hype was certainly there, no denying that, but dramatically underdelivered.

 

[Fox12]

I'd sum it up as monstrously disappointing. 2015 gave us Undertale and Bloodborne, an extremely solid year by any standard. This year was supposed to be incredible, with FF15, Dark Souls 3, Persona 5, and I believe Nier Automata all coming out around the same time. Unfortunately FF 15 and Dark Souls 3 were monstrous disapointments, and Nier and Persona both got delayed until 2017. The result was a pretty disappointing run of titles. Still, at the risk of being jinxed, 2017 looks pretty good.

 

[Athennesi]

Overall: "Danger" of hype( NMS, in particular), poor pc optimization, and the whole AAA becoming tiresome, homogenized ( Mafia III) and selling less and less.

Great year for FPS, but AAA needs more new IP's and more invention. Someone wake me up when Cyberpunk 2077 comes along.

 

[Evonisia]

Bland, average and likely won't be reflected much on apart from some notable disappointments ("No Man's Sky" and "Mighty No. 9") and the occasional game that more than 6 people liked such as "Overwatch".

Other things like rubbish overload of indie games on Steam began both before 2016 and likely will be worse in future years, so even in terms of shittiness, it's not noteworthy.

So it's probably in the middle by virtue of not being good enough and not being bad enough to care about.

 

[RedDeadFred]

Probably pretty average. People always complain every year, but I really think they're just not looking hard enough or wearing their nostalgia goggles.

Doom
Dark Souls 3
Stellaris
Overwatch
Watch Dogs 2 (I was not expecting this game to be so good)
Thumper
Inside
Blood and Wine

Obviously it's just my opinion, but those were the 2016 games I bought, and I thoroughly enjoyed them all. I also played a bunch of stuff from earlier years that was pretty terrific too. Overall, I might actually consider it to be one of my better years for gaming.

Was there also a mountain of shit and overhyped garbage? Sure, but that always happens. If you don't fall into hype, you'll probably come out of every year feeling about the same. Also, before someone jumps down my throat, I'm aware that NMS wasn't a failing just because of hype and was also due in large part to the lies of the developers. That isn't anything new though. Developers have lied many times before and they're going to continue to do so in the future.

 

[Neurotic Void Melody]

Serviceable? I dunno. Kinda weird to strip things down to meaningless time chunks and judge them individually so. But humans will be humans I guess. It has been functional...? I feel no passion for this to make any entertaining opinions.

 

[Neverhoodian]

If you are a retro gamer, then 1994 is probably your favorite year: Megaman X, Doom II, Sonic 3, Super Metroid, Killer Instinct, Warcraft, Tekken, Earthbound, Earthworm Jim, and Donkey Kong Country.

What, no Tie Fighter or X-COM?

But yeah, it's hard to beat 1994 in my book.

Honestly, I'd say 2016 was a pretty good year, at least for myself. Not the best year by any stretch of the imagination, but a decent haul regardless. I finally got a PS4 this year (my first PlayStation console at that) now that it has a demi-decent game library, and I've had lots of fun with games like DOOM, Overwatch (finally, TF2 has decent competition) and No Man's Sky (that's right, I like it. Sue me). Even my toaster of a laptop has gotten some love thanks to indie titles like Stardew Valley and Halcyon 6.

 

[FakeSympathy]

Better than 2015.

It had so many great new games. Civ 6, XCOM 2, Uncharted 4, Dark Souls 3, just to name a few. But as it is with every year, we had some crap games as well. NMS, Ghostbusters, Mighty No.9, Homefront Revolution.

 

[Saulkar]

Ehhhh, it was okay... I would definitely say I got a couple of decent games out of it but they were all reduxes (Turok, Battlezone 1998), and damn good ones. DOOM was the only AAA game that I bought new and had a blast with it and that is about it for me this year. Here's hoping that 2017 shapes up at least.

I barely played anything new because The Witcher 3 has ruined the rest of games for me.

Quick question, I want to play the previous two Witchers in order first and I am worried that skipping them will ruin their gameplay because I hear that each consecutive one vastly improves upon its predecessor in every way. Would you say that this is the case? Should I even bother forcing myself to play the first one because it feels more like a chore or does it get better after the first few hours?

 

[Chanticoblues]

Apart from Furi and The Witness, I haven't played any 2016 games that weren't free. Still, based on the amount of stuff I'm interested in, I'd say it was better than 2014 and 2015.

Still haven't had a year in the last little while that can go neck-and-neck with some of the great ones from the 4th and 5th gens.

 

[FakeSympathy]

Ehhhh, it was okay... I would definitely say I got a couple of decent games out of it but they were all reduxes (Turok, Battlezone 1998), and damn good ones. DOOM was the only AAA game that I bought new and had a blast with it and that is about it for me this year. Here's hoping that 2017 shapes up at least.

I barely played anything new because The Witcher 3 has ruined the rest of games for me.

Quick question, I want to play the previous two Witchers in order first and I am worried that skipping them will ruin their gameplay because I hear that each consecutive one vastly improves upon its predecessor in every way. Would you say that this is the case? Should I even bother forcing myself to play the first one because it feels more like a chore or does it get better after the first few hours?

I missed the first the one, but played the second and third game. I would say your experience will definitely won't be ruined. The game has nice index for people and events. Even if you didn't read those, the dialogues in the game will bring you up to speed.

 

[Drathnoxis]

Hahaha 2007 is still "modern" gaming? that's 10 years ago now, in another 2 years it'll be closer to your "retro" gaming golden year than the present day.

OT: I can never participate in these in these sorts of discussions because I'm too cheap to buy games new. I don't even have a current gen console and am working through my backlog for old consoles.