Top 5 Games I Played in 2015

Note:  This is a list of the best games that I personally played in 2015.  I didn't play all that many games in 2015.  Keep in mind, I don't play yearly releases, so you won't see Call of Duty or Assassin's Creed on this.  I also don't own an Xbox One or a Wii U.  So here we go. 

5.  Final Fantasy XIV:  Heavensward 

Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn's expansion, Heavensward, turned out pretty well.  I spent a lot of time in 3.0 and had a pretty good time.  The story was really good, and the new skills for the classes were all pretty useful and fun to use.  The new classes are hit and miss, but a nice addition nonetheless.  I'm not a big fan of the new content in 3.1, but there's still time for patches and new content.  FFXIV is still my go to MMORPG.  

4.  Mortal Kombat X 

Mortal Kombat X was a nice surprise.  Building on everything that made Mortal Kombat 9 great, the game managed to keep my interest much longer than most fighting games tend to do.  The fatalities are brutal, the fighting system is smooth and fun, and it's visually stunning.  Were it not for some somewhat laggy online modes and a pretty bad story mode, this game would surely be higher on the list.  

3.  Fallout 4 

Many will probably be surprised to see this at number 3 and not number 1 on my list, but it actually has nothing to do with the quality of Fallout 4.  It's an amazing game, there were just 2 games this year I liked better.  Fallout 4 is massive, there's tons to do, and it added a rather nice building system that makes picking up all that junk actually worth doing.  I'll admit I don't think Boston is quite as interesting to travel around as Washington DC was, and the story isn't quite as good in this one either, but it's still a great game and you should play it.  

2.  The Witcher 3:  Wild Hunt 

The Witcher 3 is a fantastic western style rpg.  In fact, it may be the best one ever made.  It's massive, it's pretty, and it's story may be one of the best ever told in a video game.  Though I wouldn't say it has the best combat in the genre, it's still smooth and everything is incredibly customizable.  Any other year, this would be my game of the year, bar none.  However, it was another game that filled my soul with determination...

1.  Undertale  

Undertale is special.  I paid $9.99 on Steam for one of the best gaming experiences I have ever had.  Undertale will make you emotional.  There are multiple ways to play through Undertale, and each one makes you feel different, but very strong emotions.  How Toby Fox managed to do this with paint art and an old school jrpg styled game, I will probably never understand.  He did it, though.  With paint and Game Maker, Toby Fox made the best game of 2015.  I can't recommend this enough.  You'll laugh, you'll cry, and if you're not careful, you might even "have a bad time."  If you haven't played Undertale, stop what you're doing, open Steam, download it, and play it.  It will run on almost any machine  Works on Mac too.  You have no excuse. 








Honorable Mention.  Dragon Age:  Inquisition

Dragon Age:  Inquisition is definitely a good western styled rpg.  It has nice visuals, fluid and fun combat, and a decent story.  Unfortunately, it also came out the same year The Witcher 3 did, a game that outclassed Dragon Age in almost every way.  It's still worth playing, though. 

Disappointment of the Year.  Metal Gear Solid V:  The Phantom Pain

I didn't completely hate Metal Gear Solid V.  In fact, the opening is the single best opening to a video game ever.  It is absolutely wonderful.  However, I spent the next 10 hours or so running around a desert doing boring side quests.  Given, the gameplay is very innovative and gives you many different ways to tackle each mission, but it wasn't enough to keep my attention.  I quit playing it.  I may not even go back to it, unless someone can convince me it's really worth it.  

So that's it!  What were your favorite games of 2015?  Feel free to comment here or on Facebook.  Thanks for reading!  

Review! Far Cry 4

System:  Playstation 4 (also available on pretty much anything that isn't handheld)
How far did you get:  One campaign completion, did most of the important side stuff, didn't touch multiplayer

 Far Cry 4 is in a different position than Far Cry 3 was.  Far Cry 3 came off the heels of the frustrating Far Cry 2, and set a very high bar for the series.  Far Cry 4 comes off the heels of one of the best games of 2012, and unfortunately feels a bit like a rehash. 

Most of the things that were great about Far Cry 3 are still here, but that's a double edged sword.  While it's a beautiful game, controls well, and hits most of Far Cry 3's high marks, I still felt like I was playing something I've already played before.  This works for competitive games like Call of Duty, but the large and detailed campaigns are Far Cry's focus, and doing the same thing again is going to get boring after a while.

There are a few differences, but most of them are not for the better.  The setting is fine, but the story in Far Cry 4 is far less interesting.  The character you play as is painfully dull and puts you in the shoes of an obnoxious yes-man.  The two characters who send you on main story missions are both insane, and ask a ridiculous amount from you, and you're character just accepts it all.  He doesn't even ask why, he just does whatever they say.  The only reason you're in Tibet to begin with is to bury your mothers ashes at the specific place she asked, and without a single question, you agree to join a civil war.  Yeah, ok.  The side mission characters come off as so cartoony that you can't take any of their missions seriously.  The only character in the game that has a pretty great personality is the main villain, and he's criminally underused.  The only really interesting side missions come from putting a painting back together.  Each time you get a piece, you are taken to the spiritual world of Shangri-La.  You get to use some pretty cool powers here, and it has it's own story.  It also has the only real final boss this game has, and actually has real battle mechanics to figure out.  It's trippy, visually interesting and better than the main game most of the time. 

I didn't play the multiplayer component, but one pretty great thing added to Far Cry 4 was campaign co-op.  You have to unlock it about an hour into the game, but you and a buddy can join up and work out strategies on taking over base camps.  That's a welcome change over Far Cry 3's broken extra co-op missions.


Far Cry 4 is Far Cry 3 with a slightly shinier coat of pain, better co-op, and a bad story.  It's a competently made game and it is fun, but innovation seemed to be overlooked, which is too bad considering the series seemed to be going in the right direction.

Rating- 70/100 

Review! Grand Theft Auto V

System:  Playstation 4 (also available on PS3, Xbox One and 360, and soon to be PC)
How far did you get:  One campaign completion, messed around with online

Grand Theft Auto V (GTAV from here on) might be the single best reviewed game ever made.  Due to the depth and scope of this game, it's no surprise.  The only games that rival GTAV's size are MMOs and Bethesda's bigger games, but GTAV has far more variety and things to do.  You could be playing a third person shooter, a stealth game, a driving game, or even a sports game at any point in GTAV.  On nearly every block of Los Santos, there is something for you to do.  Every bit of it is absolutely beautiful to looks at as well.  I played the PS3 version a bit before picking up the PS4 version, and though the PS4 version is noticeably better looking, the PS3 version is still impressive as long as start up load times don't bother you too much.  Some of the things in this game even look real.  Take a few minutes to stare at a road sign.  It's something you probably don't pay much attention to in game like this, but if you spend some time to enjoy the scenery, you might be surprised in what you see. 

What GTAV does not do particularly well is being the best at any of it's many gameplay styles.  It's best gameplay style, third person shooting, is well done but it's certainly not better than the best third person shooters out there.  The controls in the game have a natural lag to them, which is something you should be familiar with if you've ever played a Grand Theft Auto game.  It's a realistic feeling, but it can take away from the fun as well.  Car controls are competent, but trying to shoot while driving is incredibly awkward and the game makes you do it in the campaign on a few occasions.  Flying vehicles are all a pain to use.  I avoided them at all costs when traveling around, but the game makes you use these as well.  The stealth gameplay was fairly well done, if not a little too easy.  This does not apply for the police, however.  Those guys are relentless, and added a pretty nice amount of excitement to the game.  Most of the sports games worked fine, but games that are made specifically for these sports are far more in depth.

There are a ton of side quests, giving you the option to spend well over 100 hours in the campaign if you wanted to.  However, the "strangers and freaks" you do these missions for were clearly set as side mission characters for a reason.  If you're going to spend time doing side quests in GTAV, be prepared to do a lot of pointless and boring missions for people who aren't that interesting.  The online component has you doing these kind of jobs as well, though they've added heists as well.  GTA Online is a pretty impressive thing for Rockstar to take on, but I didn't find a lot of things I wanted to do there. 

GTAV's biggest selling point for me is it's story.  You play as three different characters, each with different attitudes but with the same goal.  Franklin surprised me a lot.  He's the guy from the hood, but ends up being the smartest and most leveled headed character of the three.  Michael has the most interesting history, and it's fun to see what hijinks he gets himself and his friends into next.  Then there's Trevor, the comic relief of the bunch.  He's a horrible person, but it's hard not to root for the guy when he's killing off people even more obnoxious than he is.  The ending I received was pretty surprising, too.  Grand Theft Auto isn't known for giving you a happy ending, but that's what I got. 

If you're a fan of the series or like open world games in general, you're going to find plenty to do in GTAV.  A good portion of it is worth playing, though I did find myself wondering if what I was doing was just busy work quite often.  It is the best Grand Theft Auto though, and worth checking out. 

Rating:  82/100

Top 5 Games I Played This Year

Note:  There are several games that could have been on this that I did not get my hands on early enough to finish in time to make this list.  I imagine a game like A Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds probably would have made my list, but I've only played it through the first dungeon.  I don't have any of the new consoles yet either, so none of those appear here either.

A couple honorable mentions:

DMC: Devil May Cry:  A really fun hack and slash action game with some wacky scenery.

The Stanley Parable:  I just finished this game today and it comes highly recommended.  I've never played anything like it.

Now, for the list!

5.  Dragon's Crown (PS3 and Vita)

Dragon's Crown blended side scrolling beat em ups with western style rpgs in a way that only Vanillaware could have made work.  With the addition of co-op multiplayer that has cross-play between the Playstation 3 and Playstation Vita versions, this one is really hard to put down.

4.  Fire Emblem: Awakening (3DS)

The best entry is a series already filled with greatness, Fire Emblem: Awakening took the route of perfecting the strategy rpg, rather than reinventing it, and it paid off.  There are hundreds of hours you could put into this game, and it's easily the hardest game of the year to put down.

3.  Shin Megami Tensei IV (3DS)

Not only is it a long time coming for a new game in the main series, but it feels like a return to it's classic jrpg roots, after playing all the spinoffs for the past 10 years or so.  Considering the game is huge and could easily be billed as Pokemon for adults, it's a wonder why more people aren't latching on to this series.

2.  Bioshock Infinite (PC, Xbox 360, PS3)

A twisting and emotional story, frantic gunplay and a beautiful world make Bioshock Infinite a hard game to ignore for anyone's best game of the year list.  First person shooters like this make you wonder how other franchises can churn out the same game every year and get away with it.

1.  Final Fantasy XIV:  A Realm Reborn (PC, PS3, soon to be PS4)  

I could write pages about how much I love this game.  It's everything the original game was not.  While you could criticize the game for not doing very much different for the MMORPG genre, the game has managed to perfect nearly everything it borrows.  With a huge world, gorgeous landscapes and tight controls, any fan of MMORPGs or Final Fantasy will feel right at home in Eorzea.

So what games did you like this year?  Anything I overlooked?  Something I didn't play and need to? 

Review! God of War: Ascension Campaign

System:  Playstation 3
How far did you get:  One completion

NOTE:  This review is for the campaign only.  I wanted to try out the multiplayer, but I received the game through GameFly and it requires an online pass to play online. 

When any series decides to go back and make a prequel, it's usually a sign that you ought to be concerned.  Very rarely have I ever played a prequel that was on par with the mainline games.  I've rarely seen a good prequel in films, for that matter.  While God of War: Ascension does feel a bit stunted, I'm not sure it's fair to categorize in this way.  It's still a good game in it's own right. 

The game takes place before the first God of War, following a blinded Kratos on his search for the truth.  It's a really basic story and really doesn't add anything to the lore.  The "amnesiac hero tries to find himself" story trope has been done to death, and isn't done differently here.  The cast of enemies aren't particularly interesting, either.  I don't remember any of their names, and the large monsters they summoned were cool to see, but forgettable. 

Combat and visuals is where this game shines.  It's slightly disappointing that you spend most of the game attacking with magic enhanced versions of the same weapon, but you do pick up other weapons that can be used temporarily that are pretty useful.  Once you level up your magic abilities, you can do some pretty devastating attacks that not only do a lot of damage, but look pretty amazing too.  It doesn't really play any differently than the other God of War games, but that's not really bad a thing.  The series is known for having very fluid and fun combat, and this game upholds that. 

God of War: Ascension is stunning to look at.  It doesn't amaze quite the way God of War 3 did, but this can be attributed to having played God of War 3 already.  This game looks a lot like God of War 3, and that's a compliment.  The kills are gory as ever, and I actually like some of them in this game better than I do in God of War 3.  Split heads, guts pouring out of cut open enemies, and mangled body parts make for a disgusting and fun time. 

The puzzles in this game were actually really well done.  Throughout the game, you receive items that can be used to help you figure out these puzzles, and some of them were quite clever.  An amulet you receive can make the backdrops heal or decay, and another item will allow you to create a clone man to hold some things in place.  I got frustrated a few times, but that's a sign of a good puzzle. 

Though God of War: Ascension could have used some better writing, it's still an epic looking and fun God or War game.  If you're into the series, there's no reason you should pass it up, but if you're new to it than I'd recommend starting with the the God of War collection or God or War 3, as they are slightly better than this game. 

Rating:  75/100. 

How to Beat Titan Hard Mode in Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn

This guide is going to seem amusing coming from me, as I have not actually beaten Titan on hard mode.  The reason I'm making this is because I, personally, am perfectly capable of beating Titan on hard mode.  I know this because I dodge everything and am usually amongst the last living characters in my group.  The reason I haven't beaten Titan on hard mode is because of my fellow group members.  I'm not going to give you a step by step guide on how to beat him.  Instead, I will inform you as to where most people screw this up, and tell you how to not be one of those people.

1.  Before you do anything, head over to youtube and watch a video on this fight.  Watch it several times, until you are familiar with his rotation.  If you have to, watch it a few times, queue for it in the duty finder and try it yourself, then watch the videos again so you are more familiar with what is going on.  If you know what he's about to do, it's much easier to dodge it.

2.  Dodge.  Every class needs to know this.  If you are a tank, it's still imperative that you dodge landslide.  After Titan's first Geocrush, the sides of the arena are knocked off, and you can be knocked off.  Everyone else must dodge everything except tumult, and the only reason you don't dodge that is because you can't.  Landslide is very easy to dodge, but weight of the land can be tricky.  This is why it is helpful to know the rotation beforehand.  If you know weight of the land is coming, make sure you're not standing too near other people, and go ahead and get a head start running.  You'll get out every time, I guarantee it.

3.  Make sure you are zoomed all the way out.  This is necessary to know the order the bombs are placed, and it helps you notice when someone else is captured by a granite gaol.  You should probably be playing this way anyway, but the game doesn't set you up this way, so I feel like I should mention it. 

4.  Speaking of granite gaols, make sure you destroy them quickly, with the exception of one.  During the heart phase, do not destroy the second one.  You will not have time.  After the heart is dead, then you can destroy the second gaol.  The first gaol in the heart phase is especially important to destroy as soon as possible. 

5.  If you are damage dealer, you must live until after the heart phase.  The heart phase is a dps race, so you need to be there for that.  Don't expect a raise, as they are very difficult to pull off in this fight.  They can happen, and you might get lucky, but don't count on it.  Oh, and if you get knocked off, you can't be raised.  It's preferable for you to live until the end, but if you die during the final phase, it's still possible to finish Titan.

6.  If you are a healer, you must live until the end of the fight.  If either healer dies, it's a wipe.  You'll have to constantly be healing everyone thanks to tumults, and during the last phase Titan will start using mountain buster, which will do a very large amount of damage on the tank.

7.  If you are a caster (healer or black mage) and you find yourself standing in something, stop casting and move.  I'm going to reiterate a particular part of this:  STOP CASTING and move.  This is important for healers as they must live to the end.  It's important for black mages because they not only need to make it to the heart phase, but they also have less hp than any class in the game and not getting hit by anything is going to be a necessity.  I would know, I play a black mage.

So watch the vids, memorize the rotation, and take my advice.  I need more people who know how to win this fight, because I'm getting really frustrated losing over and over again, knowing it was because someone can't move out of attacks or simply don't know what to do.  The fact that the hardest part of this fight is finding a group of people that can actually do it is really, really obnoxious. 

One more bit of advice.  Be geared for this.  Have all of your darklight gear, and try to at least have a primal weapon or a crafted ilvl 70 weapon with materia on it. 

Thanks for reading, and good luck finding a decent group for this fight! 

Edit:  I have defeated Titan!  My tips still stand :)  

Review! Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn

System:  PC (also available on PS3 and soon to be PS4)
How far did you get:  Main story completed, Level 50 Black Mage, Level 15 Archer, Level 47 Botanist, Level 46 Goldsmith

Final Fantasy XIV version 1.0 was released back in 2010 to almost universal disgust.  Personally, I spent about a month trying to figure it out, but getting nowhere.  Quest lines were difficult to find and follow, crafting was confusing, and the combat was incredibly bland.  The disappointment was heard by Square Enix, and they chose to shut the game down in December of 2012, with the promise that the game would be back, new and improved.

I wasn't going to play Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn (FF:ARR from here on).  I didn't think the framework was good enough for them to be able to salvage this game.  After reading that beta testers were enjoying it, and remembering how much I love Final Fantasy, I decided to give it a shot.  Am I ever glad I did.

Square Enix didn't just build on the framework.  They completely turned FFXIV upside down.  The graphics aren't even the same.  They decided to use a more animated look, and the game is better off for it.   The battle system is flashy and fun.  Crafting makes sense now.  The quests are now laid out in a way that makes sense.  Everything that made FFXIV version 1.0 terrible is now fixed.  Even after playing the game since early access, I still can't believe how good this game is. 

On paper, it isn't that much different from any other MMORPG you may have played.  It borrows nearly every concept from other games.  However, it's refined all of them into near perfection and leaves out all the bad stuff.  Did you like the world events in Rift and Guild Wars 2, but didn't much care for the weapon switching and obnoxious combat?  Check out FFXIV: ARR's FATEs.  Very rarely are they in the way of other things you may be doing, and they are a lot of fun.  In fact, I'd say about half the community spends most of their time creating FATE parties and just running around looking for new FATEs to do, and there are a lot of them to do. Some FATE's even offer unique rewards, like minions and gear. 

The combat is similar to what you may be used to in games like World of Warcraft.  You map your skills to your number keys and let the attacks fly.  It seems fairly well balanced, though there is no way to know for sure currently, as there is no DPS counter.  Difficulty for world leveling is done fairly well.  Tanks don't die because they have a lot of HP and high defense, healers can heal themselves, ranged damage dealers kill things before they get hit and melee damage dealers do a lot of damage and can take a few hits, too.  These are things you've seen before, but it's still fun. 

Classes are done slightly different in FFXIV: ARR than most MMORPGs.  You don't really need more than one character, because your character can learn to do everything.  This includes all combat classes, gathering classes, and crafting classes.  All you have to is switch your weapon.  Gathering and crafting classes are actually classes all on their own, and are leveled just like combat classes, including their very own gear sets.  It's refreshing to play an MMORPG that will allow you to take control of everything yourself, if you're willing to put an extreme amount of time into it. 

The game doesn't have PvP yet, but it seems to be in the works.  The Duty Finder has a PvP option listed, and my Black Mage has spells that seem pretty useless in PvE, but would be very useful in PvP. 

Story quests follow a path the helps you see most of the areas in the game.  They take you to different areas in the world, and offer you a few side quests in each quest hub.  Each quest hub also has a Levemete, which is a place you can do levequests.  Levequests are short extra quests you can take to grab some extra XP when you find yourself a bit too low of a level to handle story quests.  You get a certain amount of allowances on these quests, though you probably won't blow through them until you start crafting.  Yes, you get levequests for crafting and gathering too. 

The Duty Finder is a tool that works similarly to World of Warcraft's Dungeon Finder.  You can use to queue for dungeons, primal battles, and guildheists.  Dungeons are exactly the same thing you've played in any other MMORPG.  Primal battles are fought against a single large enemy, and are unlocked through the main quest.  Guildheists are mini-dungeons, where you have one objective that you must complete with a group, and they are based on your level. 

That seems like a lot of ways to get XP, doesn't it?  Well, there's more!  You can also use your hunting log to kill certain enemies and gain extra XP.  About halfway through leveling, you'll gain access to one of the main companies, which has it's own hunting log to do, as well.  If that's not enough for you, you also get a sizable amount of XP just by exploring all of the areas of the game.  It has an achievement system, too.  

FFXIV: ARR is visually stunning.  While it's probably not on par with Guild Wars 2 or Rift on a technical level, I found it to be much more visually appealing.  It's an incredibly colorful game with a wide variety of things to look at.  Every race is very distinct, all of the armor properly reflects the class wearing it, and the enemy designs look great. 

The music and sound are great, too.  Check out a couple of tracks I personally enjoy.  The first is the theme for the main city Limsa Lominsa, and the second is Cortheus, a snowy tundra found in the 35-40 level range. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qQHAUw3wb9U
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vbtWmze50ag

Crafting and gathering are a bit of a pain right now, but that has a lot to do with an undeveloped game economy.  Unless you have leveled all the gathering classes to level 50, crafting is going to be pretty annoying, and gathering takes a very long time to level.  I will admit that even though gathering is a long process, it's still not quite as bad as in some other major MMOs.  Crafting is fairly fun to actually do, as you have to try to even out quality and actual progress when making something.  Gathering, on the other hand, is busy work and nothing else.  Gathering is probably the only thing I've done in the game that I didn't particularly care for, as it's not only a boring time sink, but the rewards are pretty low as well.

In it's current build, FFXIV: ARR is the best apology I've ever gotten from a gaming company.  They turned something that was complete garbage into the best MMORPG on the market, and that not only takes time and dedication, it also takes respect for it's fans.  For the first time since FFX, I feel like Square Enix heard our cries and honestly wanted to make a game we would spend hours in.  I have, and will continue to do so. 

Rating:  96/100