Games of the Year 2016
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)