A Year in Review - 2015

[kashell]

December is here, and that means we are just a few short weeks away from the start of a new year. I thought it would be fun to see everyone's highs and lows during their gaming throughout the year. I'll list some categories; feel free to add some of your own if I miss one.

Favorite Game Released in 2015: What game came out this year that you enjoyed the most? As long as it was released in 2015, it counts for this category.

Favorite Game Played During 2015: What's your favorite gaming experience from 2015? It could be the same as the first category, but since most of us here enjoy older titles, I'm anxious to see what game was released earlier than 2015 that you enjoyed.

Least Favorite Game Released in 2015: What game was all kinds of awful that got released this year? Keep this part civil, darlings. <3

Least Favorite Game During 2015: Similarly, what title (current or old) left a sour taste in your mouth? Again, it could be the same as the previous category.

Favorite Gaming Moment in 2015: What moment in a game you played this year sticks out the most as being awesome? Try to keep the spoilers to a minimum.

Proudest Gaming Accomplishment in 2015: Did you do something that took a lot of hours, work, patience, etc? Share it!

I guess I'll start. ^^()

Favorite Game Released in 2015: Atelier Shallie: Alchemist of the Dusk Sea. This game does everything right as an RPG and as an Atelier title. The gorgeous graphics and fantastic music are a great starting point, but playing through it is such a pleasure. I had so much fun with this game that I didn't want it to end.

Favorite Game Played During 2015: This was a tough call. I went back and forth between Lufia 2, Suikoden V, Dark Souls, Romancing SaGa 3 and Luminous Arc 2. However, I have to give this one to Dark Souls. Holy hell, this game is more difficult than a Tough Mudder and more rewarding than crossing the aforementioned race's finishing line. Death is part of the experience and makes every victorious circumstance feel like a supreme accomplishment.

Least Favorite Game Released in 2015: Lord of Magna: Maiden Heaven. The sad thing is, it had a solid concept: beautiful women, action-oriented but turn-based combat, and wonderful translation by XSeed. It just felt so underwhelming and disappointing. Omega Quintet and Tales of Zestiria are runners up for this category.

Least Favorite Game During 2015: Shining Wisdom. I will always favor 2D sprites over 3D polygons, but great graphics don't save a game from hideous mechanics. I know that the Sega Saturn's RPG selection is more about quality than quantity, but yikes. This one could have stayed in Japan. ...IMO.

Favorite Gaming Moment in 2015: The moment that sticks out to me the most this year was from Rule of Rose. At one point, Jennifer finally stood up for herself and the stuff that followed made the struggle worth it.

Proudest Gaming Accomplishment in 2015: I think I'm most proud of earning the platinum trophy in Guilty Gear XRD Sign. It took so long and, if not for the kindness of other gamers on other forums, I would never have earned it. I'm really proud of this.

Anyways, that's me. I'd love to see everyone else's!

[greensoap]

Favorite Game Released in 2015: Mortal Kombat X. I had been hyping for this game for so long, I even preordered it, and oh man was it worth it. I've played it for countless hours, and I invite some pals over to play like every weekend. It's just awesome

Favorite Game Played During 2015: Jet Set Radio. I finally picked this game up with the HD remaster on Steam. Despite its clunky controls and sometimes awkward camera, it's still great fun much like its sequel, which was the first game I ever played.

Least Favorite Game Released in 2015: Battlefield Hardline. The beta was pretty fun, but wow this game flopped hard. Hardly anyone plays it now, like more people play Battlefield 3 than Hardline! Like are you for real? Well, I got the game after the beta. It was active for a couple of weeks, but then it just died. Everyone realized it sucked balls, and moved back to Battlefield 4 or 3.

Least Favorite Game During 2015: RoboWarrior (NES). I've had it for a while, but me and some friends finally decided to beat it, and wow... It really is one of the most frustrating games I have ever played. It's like Bomberman on a time-limit with a level design that makes no sense, and a bunch of cryptic nonsense. We did beat it though, thankfully.

Favorite Gaming Moment in 2015: When I beat the Joker. I actually did it. No guide, no nothing, just trial and error. Me and my friend were at the Joker for like 3 hours before we finally beat him. Well at least we became masters on the level before the boss ^^

Proudest Gaming Accomplishment in 2015: Beat my previous Shadow Warriors (NES) PB, which is now at 13:48. Also beat Cave Story+ on Hard Mode and got the best ending, which is something only 0,6% of the Steam owners have done. Not sure which of these to pick, so..

[bikingjahuty]

Favorite Game Released in 2015: Yoshi's Wooly World

Favorite Game Played During 2015: Sin and Punishment (N64)

Least Favorite Game Released in 2015: Another round of copy and paste EA sports titles :p

Least Favorite Game During 2015: Star Wars Demolition (Dreamcast)

Favorite Gaming Moment in 2015: Discovering that emulation is just as fun as the real deal :p

Proudest Gaming Accomplishment in 2015:It's more of a collecting accomplishment, but I completed by PS2 collection by obtaining every game I had originally wanted when I started collecting for it. Wild Arms 5 was the last title I needed and now I have it.

[rayne315]

Favorite Game Released in 2015: Fallout 4 is my favorite game released this year. I have probably sunk 100 hours into it already and have no plans on stopping till I get the platinum trophy, maybe not even then. (Not much to compare to though as I really have not picked up and played too many titles from this year, I think my this year titles list is a whooping 6?)

Will hopefully be replaced with Yoshi's wholly world If the holidays are kind to me.

Favorite Game Played During 2015: This is going to be more of a favorite system than game But. I have a lot of good games that I played for the first time ever in 2015. My favorite would have to be Metal slug 1st mission for the neo-geo pocket. It was just the right amount of difficulty for me and what I was playing it on was Just such a nice system. I never knew just how much the nice clicking of an 8 directional analogue stick would ever possibly add to the game I was playing but I just couldn't set it down. riding around in tanks and fireing freely in 8 dirrections was so much fun and at times I would find myself running back over terrain and jumping and fireing guns just to be able to feel the care that was put into that system. and now I know why neo-geo's were the rich kids system.

other than that for things that I had previously played before 2015 my favorite game I played this year would be final fantasy 3 (6) nothing like an engrossing story to always remind you why you love rpg's in the first place.

Least Favorite Game Released in 2015: dying light is my least favorite game released this year. This is not because it was a bad game but because I never really got into it, and the fact that I own so few games released this year. Its story line was not all that captivating, and pissed me off. The feeling of barely being able to take out 1 zombie before a horde of them showed up was terrible for low levels. the exp gained was too GD small and made it way too grindy for my liking of a zombie game. And the fact that I had to wait almost 6 hours from insert of disc till everything got fired up and that it took ~60GB to download was just outrageous and added to the reason I only played it for 3 days.

Least Favorite Game During 2015: well now I have the regrettable decision of saying that I went out and bought Balls of Fury for the wii at a garage sale sometime in the summer. I played it for all of 5 minutes before I pulled the cord out of my wii... you heard me I did not eject the disc and turn off the wii, I did not turn it off and pull the cord. While the system was still running I went up and pulled the cord from the socket. I really cant remember what was so bad about it that It caused me such a reaction but I did not re-hook up that particular wii till forgot about the incident and went out and found a copy of xenoblade chronicles that I wanted to play. I don't even think I ever bothered to log It into here to be honest.

Favorite Gaming Moment in 2015: Sad as it is to say my brother noticed that every character in Runescape got re-set back to zero about 2 weeks ago. So my Brother, 2 of my cousins, my mother and myself have all been playing Runescape again challenging each other to out perform each other in various tasks. As a little back story on why this is my favorite is because all of us used to play together all the time 10+ years ago and its just a bit of nostalgia for me.

Proudest Gaming Accomplishment in 2015: My proudest gaming Accomplishment came from me finally beating that GD turbo-tunnel in battle-toads.

[weirdfeline]

Tearaway Unfolded | The return of 3D platformer greatness I've been waiting for.

Grand Theft Auto V | The greatest game ever made.

Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 5 | The half-assed return of one of my all time favorite gaming series.

Game of Thrones (Telltale) - "Iron From Ice" (episode 1) | A pathetic excuse for a video game. Horrible graphics, horrible story, horrible gameplay.

Experiencing Tearaway Unfolded for the first time.

Getting the platinum trophy in one of my most favorite games, Plants vs. Zombies Garden Warfare.

[kamikazekeeg]

Favorite Game Released in 2015: Think I've settled on it being Fallout 4.  Despite some of its faults, it's mostly everything I wanted from a sequel to two of my favorite games.  I have 100 hours in it, and I plan to put even more with multiple playthroughs.

Least Favorite Game Released in 2015: I've gone off on Xenoblade Chronicles 3D quite abit, so I won't say anymore on that lol

[ignition365]

Favorite game released in 2015/Favorite game played in 2015:  Tie between Fallout 4 and Metal Gear Solid V

Least Favorite game released in 2015: I'm going to go with Fatal Frame V, strictly for the fact that no physical version was released, and Nintendo stuck with a full physical retail price point.  $59.99 + tax for a digital title on a platform that is best known for it's weak handling of digital content?  No thanks.

Least favorite game played in 2015: Tri-Force heroes.  Stupid story, weak gameplay for a full priced game, and 1 player or 3 player only, no 2 player.  Regret buying this game entirely.

Favorite gaming moment: The one gaming moment that sticks with me best from this year is playing through Her Story, piecing together that story was fantastic.  It made me truly appreciate the indie scene and now I'm buying Steam games.

Proudest gaming accomplishment: I would say finally convincing my wife to play Fallout New Vegas, she played it on the 360 around the time the anthology came out, but then she decided to play on PC to use mods and through that process realized that she actually likes FPS games, but can only play with keyboard and mouse.

[thewelshman]

Favorite Game Released in 2015: Moe Chronicle or Ar NoSurge Plus. Moe Chronicle got a lot of flak for being the type of game that it was, but it was a solid dungeon crawler with a lot of funny moments. Was happy that it got a physical release for China that had English subs, and even more happy that the sequel is coming out. Ar NoSurge Plus was just a great game to experience without having to do tons of exp grinding or needing to have played the VN prequel.

Favorite Game Played During 2015: Final Fantasy VI, and Chrono Trigger. Easily my two favorite games and always played at least once annually. I started doing most of my gaming on the SNES, and these are gold for me when I want to break away from trophy hunting or just want the retro feel.

What's your favorite gaming experience from 2015? Playing a ton of Gears of War 3 with my son and making memories. He finally realized it was better to be with me than against me, lol.

Least Favorite Game Released in 2015: Mind Zero or Operation Abyss: New Tokyo Legacy - They're not horrid games, just not what I could get into at that time. I think they were a little bit of a let down after playing Moe Chronicle, so I went on to play Ar NoSurge Plus, and Lost Dimension.

Least Favorite Game During 2015: Fairy Fencer F - Just was a very forgettable game all around. I never felt like I cared for any of the characters and its been extremely hard to get back into it for the final trophies.

Favorite Gaming Moment in 2015: Starting up Final Fantasy Type-0 on my new X-box One. Though, I wish I would have gotten a PS4 instead, I have to admit I was very excited to finally get a current Gen system. I am happy to say this will be replaced once I buy the Uncharted PS4 Edition this week.

Proudest Gaming Accomplishment in 2015: Getting the Gears of War 3 achievement "Time to Re-up!" It's not a difficult one, just time consuming and I'm proud to have gotten it while playing with my kiddo.

[kamikazekeeg]

Favorite game released in 2015/Favorite game played in 2015:  Tie between Fallout 4 and Metal Gear Solid V

It would've been a closer battle between those two for me, but all the cut content from the game kinda soured things for me.  I really like it and there's a lot to enjoy, but it's so clearly unfinished.  Even with that, it's basically my second favorite game of the year.

[telly]

Favorite Game Released in 2015: Surprisingly to me... I didn't play a single game released in 2015!  My most current game beaten was Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor.

Favorite Game Played During 2015: Suikoden II was probably my favorite of this year. I really enjoyed that game more than I thought I would. BioShock Infinite and Chrono Cross were really good too, and are my close seconds.

Least Favorite Game Released in 2015: See above ^^

Least Favorite Game During 2015: Definitely Star Wars: The Force Unleashed II. Really the only "bad" game I played this year, but man did I not enjoy it. At least the platinum was easy to grab. Ace Combat 2 wasn't great either, but the music is so good that it gets a pass. 

Favorite Gaming Moment in 2015:   Beating Silent Hill 3 was definitely the most fun albeit terrifying thing I've done this year. I've already ranted here and on the podcast on how scary the hospital alone was for me. Beating the game, even though it was only on normal mode, felt like a massive event.

Proudest Gaming Accomplishment in 2015: Owning 100 games? If I counted my hardware I'd have over 100 items but I only have games listed here for now.

[ignition365]

Favorite game released in 2015/Favorite game played in 2015:  Tie between Fallout 4 and Metal Gear Solid V

It would've been a closer battle between those two for me, but all the cut content from the game kinda soured things for me.  I really like it and there's a lot to enjoy, but it's so clearly unfinished.  Even with that, it's basically my second favorite game of the year.

Which game?  I know people say about cut content in MGSV, but from what I've read, Kojima-san didn't like that Chapter 3 stuff, it tied off a few loose ends, but still left a bunch of stuff unanswered regardless.  The ending was rather anti-climactic action-wise.  But the last 3 story mission tugged at my heart strings a little.

As for Fallout 4, they always cut content and kind of leave it in files to be discovered later on.  My only disappointment was the only 1 faction can live through the ordeal... at least from what I've read.  I'm hoping I'm mistaken.

DERP: I went back and read your original post.  I put as much time into MGSV as I've put into Fallout 4 so far, if not more.  I really loved MGSV, it was the first MGS game I played through to completion.  I'm actually planning on doing a chronological run through of the franchise once I get a PVR or Capture card.  I'm almost certain I put over 100 hours into MGSV before I finished playing.  I don't know if there is a way to check play time.  I've put in a little over 90 hours into Fallout 4 and I'm getting ready to do my usual thing.  What I do is, when you hit that point where the game actually branches off because you have to side with a faction (a la New Vegas) I create a handful of save files, for integrity more than anything, and then I run through strictly the story missions and beat the game X amount of times, decide my favorite choices, and then load back to my original save and do all of the side stuff and make decisions and such until I'm thoroughly finished with the game.

[kashell]

I am really enjoying reading all of these responses.

@thewelshman: Mind Zero was released in 2014. But since you suffered through it, I'll let it pass. ^.~

[ignition365]

Proudest Gaming Accomplishment in 2015: Owning 100 games? If I counted my hardware I'd have over 100 items but I only have games listed here for now.

I didn't think about that, I'd say hitting 2500, but I still haven't fully inventoried, I have a lot of non-games stuff, and probably have stuff listed that I don't actually own. 

I pick up DS cases from Gamestop with manuals and cover art, and I set aside the cases for the games that I want to get one day, problem is my wife grabbed those, threw them on the shelf and added them to the collection saying we own them... and then there are the games I know I own, but can't manage to find.  I got 2 of the DS Castlevania games in a mystery box, can't for the life of me find the loose cartridges.

[rayne315]

Proudest Gaming Accomplishment in 2015: Owning 100 games? If I counted my hardware I'd have over 100 items but I only have games listed here for now.

I didn't think about that, I'd say hitting 2500, but I still haven't fully inventoried, I have a lot of non-games stuff, and probably have stuff listed that I don't actually own. 

I pick up DS cases from Gamestop with manuals and cover art, and I set aside the cases for the games that I want to get one day, problem is my wife grabbed those, threw them on the shelf and added them to the collection saying we own them... and then there are the games I know I own, but can't manage to find.  I got 2 of the DS Castlevania games in a mystery box, can't for the life of me find the loose cartridges.

At least she is pro-active. like I put in the general thread a week or two ago I had added 140+ games that were unlogged sitting on my shelves. Based on my collection size that means I forgot almost 15% of my collection, but still took the time to alphabetize them all.

[ignition365]

Proudest Gaming Accomplishment in 2015: Owning 100 games? If I counted my hardware I'd have over 100 items but I only have games listed here for now.

I didn't think about that, I'd say hitting 2500, but I still haven't fully inventoried, I have a lot of non-games stuff, and probably have stuff listed that I don't actually own. 

I pick up DS cases from Gamestop with manuals and cover art, and I set aside the cases for the games that I want to get one day, problem is my wife grabbed those, threw them on the shelf and added them to the collection saying we own them... and then there are the games I know I own, but can't manage to find.  I got 2 of the DS Castlevania games in a mystery box, can't for the life of me find the loose cartridges.

At least she is pro-active. like I put in the general thread a week or two ago I had added 140+ games that were unlogged sitting on my shelves. Based on my collection size that means I forgot almost 15% of my collection, but still took the time to alphabetize them all.

Yeah, tis a similar thing.  I get new games and I immediately put them on a shelf.  When I had like 100 or so games, I was putting the new games in a pile, testing them, inventorying them, and then putting them on the shelf.  At this point, I probably have a high percentage of games I own that don't work at all.

I've stumbled upon 4 so far.