These are the 5 worst games I played last year…

Dishonorable mentions: The Division, Rise of the Tomb Raider

 

5. Firewatch

Preposterous plot, narrow outdoors, grating banter. It doesn’t get a pass just because it tries to be ‘adult’ or ‘literary’.

4. Abzu

A bog standard, by the numbers art game. Except also claustrophobic, monotonous, and aesthetically obnoxious.

3. Uncharted 4

Still simplistic, still imperialistic, still a snore. Fancier graphics and seeming maturity only make it worse.

2. Dark Souls 3

A singular series completes its devolution into typical game franchise. Hollow, self-obsessed, tragic.

1. Final Fantasy XV

Stupid, plain stupid. An embarrassment. Only the gamer in us could treat this as anything but nonsense.

 

And these are the 10 best games I played in 2016…

Honorable mentions: Curtain, Super Mario Run, Bernband

 

10. Clustertruck

Dynamic, breathless, hilarious. Has the speed & constant on-the-fly decisions of Doom, but without overstaying its welcome.

9. The Great Palermo

More than Odin Sphere or FFXV, this is a real celebration of food, its connection to place, its power to transform.

8. Lovers in a Dangerous Spacetime

My fav co-op game has you sharing a game body, yet somehow remains intuitive. A mad scramble delight.

7. Islands: Non-Places

Defamiliarizes spaces of waiting, spaces between. Unfolds the hidden lives of things. The most gorgeous monochrome.

6. Overwatch

I played all the major FPSs of 2016 and this was the best. I love the focus on characters, combinations, coordination, charm.

5. Panoramical

Redefines the win-state as creating something evocative, something beautiful. And there are so many win-states.

4. Assault Android Cactus

First panic then pleasure then pleasure in panic then skirting that edge to perfect S chains. Also, best androids.

3. Inside

Best spiritual sequel to a bad game. Coherent, unflinching. Takes seriously a horrifying idea: there is no escape, no outside.

2. Kentucky Route Zero, Act IV

A requiem for the haunted, the homeless, the faded and forgotten.

1. The Last Guardian

Virtual beings who frustrate & resist us. Who are untamable, defiantly other. This is the future I want for videogames.

 

(originally posted to Twitter on January 12, 2017; other years can be found here)