How was 2016 for you in Gaming?

cherryghost

This year for me has been a year of surprises, mostly better-than-expected sequels.

This year its become apparent that some of the bigger companies are turning their head back to the 'listen-to-the-consumer' type thing, instead of throwing heaps of DLC on their games and expecting gamers to eat it up.

Activision surprised me with their free COD DLC, Codemasters games are back-to-what-made-them simulation games instead of their psuedo-sim usuals. Ubisoft are giving away games, stalling on yearly rollouts of their their big IPs. Companies are spending more time and care on PC ports (generally speaking). EA has had some aggressive pricing on their base games and I commend them for that (Mirrors Edge 2 at 15 quid already on sale!).

The big Switch reveal by Nintendo was something of a disappointment but I eagerly look forward to their January update. The demise of the Wii U was the 3DS's gain with some really great new games and record software sales.

Am also somewhat disappointed wih PS4 Pro, expected a bit more power for what's inside it. Microsoft for me made some big progress with PC/Xbox playing together in friendly environment. Been playing Forza Horizon 3 on PC with my Xbox buddies! Can't really complain there.

So how has 2016 been for you and what are you looking forward to in 2017?

Penn

Didn't get to do a lot of gaming in 2016 as I had a lot else on. But still played some great games this year, particularly Overwatch and Uncharted 4. 2017 looks to be insane though. Some great looking games coming out.

Generic Dreadhead

I'll let you know in 15 months when the Re-Mastered version comes out

gizmo

I spent most of my 2016 playing the best games 2012 had to offer so I'm looking forward to the gems of 2013 in 2017.

In short, this continues to be my life, albeit for different reasons.

TerrorFirmer

Spent most of it playing Fallout 4, really, with a fair bit of Battlefield 1 since that came out as well - was also a late comer to Halo 5, played that in system link co-op, which was a huge amount of fun. Lot of time put into some old classics as well - Company of Heroes mostly. I find I've largely lost interest in games, so it does take a particularly brilliant one now to draw me back in - so it's been a decent year in general with FO4 and BF1 to largely keep me occupied on the gaming front.

Sabre0001

There was Doom and Titanfall 2...So yeah, pretty good!

lawlolawl

I completely changed my outlook on gaming in 2016.

Gone are the days of backlogs and having to play everything that anyone even suggests might be kind of decent. I'm much more discerning now. Deleted literally tens of games from my Steam account because i realized i had no interest in them at all.

I only really play the "best in class" of stuff now because i've realised that i was wasting my gaming time playing games that were sub-par or "good, except for X, Y and Z". Give me a good 3 or 4 hour game over 40+ hours of tedious grindy, map-littered-with-icons nonsense.

2016 was also the year i became a VR convert. This tech is a real thing now and it might not take over but it is going to be huge for gaming in general.

Mr E

I got a new PC a few months ago so I've been playing catchup! My old one could only really handle the indies.

I've been playing (and loving) more intensive games like Doom, Titanfall 2, Hitman, Rise of the Tomb Raider and Mad Max.

circadian

Don't really have time for gaming anymore but this year I enjoyed Doom, The Division, Rocket League and despite all the bad press No Man's Sky which suits my drop in drop out easy going gaming at the minute.

Den14

Dark Souls III, Warthunder and played Half Life 2 which I never played before until now - very enjoyable. Not a huge amount of gaming this year due to the new pitter patter of tiny feet which have kept me busy!

Dark Souls 3 and Dishonored 2 were among a short list of squeals that didn't disappoint me.

Played some great indie games this year like Oxenfree, Firewatch, Virginia, Grow Up (not really an indie I know) Hyper Light Drifter, Dex , Party Hard.

Grow up I really loved, you get short tutorial and shown the objective and the game basically says now get there.

Surprise of the year was Hitman. I was so against the episodic release but finally caved and got it soon after episode 2 was released and ate my hat, really enjoyed it

super_furry

Great year for a fan of shooters. Overwatch, Titanfall 2 and Doom all stole days of my life.

johnny_ultimate

Probably the single most 'vintage' year for gaming I can remember, a damn fine year where even the AAA sphere offered some very pleasant surprises.

My favourite two games came at either end of the year, both after lengthy gestation periods. The Witness was a design masterclass, engrossed me dozens of hours with its stunningly realised island, thematic nuance, but mostly those glorious puzzles. The Last Guardian, on the other hand, was everything I could have hoped for and frankly quite a bit more from Fumito Ueda and Team Ico's third game.

They were far from alone, though. It was an exceptional year for the indie scene: Inside, Stephen's Sausage Roll (a puzzle game so immensely satisfying and challenging it demands more attention than it got), Kentucky Route Zero Act IV, Hyper Light Drifter, Quadrilateral Cowboy and Islands: Non-Places were some particular highlights, but games like Virginia and Firewatch were also really engrossing and clever efforts.

Importantly, Mini Metro achieved its ultimate form in its magnificent mobile version.

But 'twas a grand old year for AAA games too. My tolerance for mediocrity has decreased significantly, but Rise of the Tomb Raider I'm pretty sure was the only middling effort I played. Titanfall 2 was a 'Valve quality' shooter much to my pleasant surprise after its ****ty beta test; Overwatch was Overwatch; and Doom's sheer mechanical confidence helped it overcome some more pedestrian design & art choices. Three great shooters - and all for very different reasons - in a year must be some sort of welcome record for recent years? (I haven't played Battlefield 1 incidentally, but not a major fan of the series). Dark Souls 3 was only slightly underwhelming after the sucker punch that was Bloodborne, but still without equal. Uncharted 4 couldn't escape the series trappings, but set a welcome new benchmark for graphics (technology and art design alike) and blockbuster storytelling anyway. X-Com 2 needs more of my time, but it's refreshingly punishing.

And there's still a dozen or two notable games I just haven't gotten around to.

Probably more that I'm forgetting, but I think that just illustrates what a ****load of great games were released this year. There really were lots of positive signs from the small indie experiments to the AAA blockbusters. And sure, like every year there was waves of crap, but it felt easier than ever to not have to settle for something 'alright' or worse. A year is a relatively arbitrary gauge for things, but given 2016 was a political, social and cultural cluster**** for so many reasons at least video games had a good one.

Rezident

Brilliant,

Hitman
XCOM 2
Dishonored 2
Titanfall 2
Deus Ex - performance issues aside

Some legends were Remastered, excellently, and loads of cool little games like Superhot, Firewatch and Pony Island.

Plus all the ones I haven't even played yet like battlefield 1 and
Overwatch and co. Game on.

Retr0gamer

Not a great gaming year for me. I kind of fell out of love with the triple A game. I just figured I'd been playing these games for the sake of playing them and not actually enjoying them. Their ridiculously bloated length wasn't helping matters when I've less time to play games now. The one exception was Doom which was an absolutely blinder and one of the most mechanically confident games outside of Platinum or Nintendo. I enjoyed Dark Souls 3 but it never scaled the heights that the best of that series climbed.

It's been another year where I've moved further and further away from the consoles. My PS4 probably hasn't been turned on all year. It just doesn't make sense when you have a gaming PC. My WiiU has been played a bit, mostly to finally finish Bayonetta and also to chip away at Xenoblade. My PC has mostly been used to play indie and weird Japanese releases which have enjoyed some incredible releases this year on the platform.

Handhelds, where I usually game the most have been neglected and I've played no new 3DS games despite it being a very good year for the console (I'm still trying to get through DS classic Etrian Odyssey).

I guess the big thing this year for me has been trying to be more creative and I've been working on my own game for the last 5 months (although I'm taking a break now for the last month) and doing so hasn't left a whole lot of time for playing games.

bigphil2

Highs: Dark Souls 3,Battlefield 1,Doom,Uncharted 4 and Inside

Lows:No Man's Sky,Mafia 3

Stone Deaf 4evr

Its been a year of returns for me, went back to Dark souls 2 after giving up an hour into it previously, only to grow to love it almost as much as its predecessor. Also got back into destiny with the Rise of Iron expansion, hopefully I'll level up enough to get a carry through the raid over the christmas break. Other returns were to Battlefield 4 and Dying light, sinking more time in to the endlessly satisfying multiplayer and excellent single player expansion respectfully.

Other than that, I found myself playing Halo 5 all year long, something I definitely didn't see coming when I purchased it, but its such a tightly tuned area shooter with great mechanics and reward system.

other notable mentions were the excellent 'the fall' & 'the swapper' ,
It was also a year for amazing sequels, Rise of the tomb raider, titanfall 2, Battlefield 1, gears 4 and the icing on the cake for me - the witcher 3, which I finally finished up last night.

I've also managed to make somewhat of a dent in my backlog of games purchases (games free with gold don't count imo!), so yay for that.

All in all, despite much reduced overall playtime this year, I'm happy with what I managed to get through.

ibFoxer

2016 in gaming has been very multiplayer focused, mostly due to lack of time to put into something like Witcher 3 or so. There have been some quality moments in Destiny since the release of RoI, and 99.9% have involved someone from Boards. Similar for The Division, especially since the release of Survival. Add in a very small bit of time (so far) in Titanfall 2, with the only single player campaign attempted being Gears 4, and it's clear that multiplayer was king, but I will say 2016 was less about the games and more about the people I was playing with, and I am definitely okay with that.