That's probably the most overhyped game I've seen in a long time.
I played about 10-15 hours on PC and saw nothing that blew my mind. Cyberpunk was one of those games I knew in my heart could never truly live up to the hype it had and I think that's why I never bought into it. That was a case of "we really thought it was would never realistically happen until it did happen."Ĭyberpunk 2077. I think people were more psyched for the idea of a dead franchise getting a second wind, but the game itself wasn't really hyped in the leadup to its launch. I just expected more Shenmue and that's what I got. I didn't go into it expecting it to be a game changer.
To me, it was just more Shenmue and gave me exactly what I expected from it.
Now the game itself?.definitely flawed, but I'll admit I enjoyed it for what it was. That's why people were reacting that way. Trust me, I'm one of those people, but even I thought Shenmue was dead and buried and SIII would never realistically happen. Because it really was a holy shit moment. But my favorite video games are where I feel like I'm fighting for something other than myself, and Homefront: The Revolution would be the shooter best positioned to deliver that.That was more a case of people wanting it to happen but never truly believing it realistically would happen.that's why you got the emotional response you got to it. Of course, it could also turn into a big shoulder-shrug of a game if the missions are repetitive and the gameplay isn't distinctive. Homefront is another THQ orphan, and many have done well, showing how that house had some great concepts sapped by blithering ownership decisions. I want to see how Dambuster Studios brought this thing to term despite that. Since then, Crytek went through a painful overhaul, jettisoning Homefront and its developers. But my most anticipated game is Homefront: The Revolution, because this is a project with some dirt under its nails. I adore what Firaxis and 2K have done with the XCOM games, and Firewatch looks like it could be something truly memorable. It's put-up-or-shut-up time for No Man's Sky. Even that thought can't curb my giddiness to find out.
It might finally offer relief for the list of questions burning through my brain with each new game. It might continue the tradition of building a complicated, connected world. Persona 5 will bring back dungeon crawling, social simulation and teenagers doing remarkable things. Through spinoff games and side stories, the Persona universe continues to build in complex and fascinating ways. With Persona 4 and its definitive edition, Persona 4 Golden, Atlus refined the initial genius of Persona 3. It was a major turning point for the franchise - the mark where Persona adopted the social system that now acts as its backbone.
Persona 3 was special to me, but it also meant something for the series at large. Forget saving the world it made the mundane magical. Despite its dark, sometimes gut-wrenching story, I related to it in a way I never had before with a game. At times, it felt like a (highly supernatural) mirror to my own life: dating, making friends, trying to get good grades in school. Persona 3's mix of high school life and dungeon crawling hooked me hard as a teenager. So yes, my most anticipated game of 2016 is the one I haven't discovered yet, that hidden gem waiting to pounce from the shadows, the creation that still lurks in the back of some hopeful game developer's mind. That sounds a bit like hipster bullshit, but honestly, those are the titles that stick with me. I love games that don't just play with the notion of storytelling and player interaction, but also with the very definition of what it is to be a game. I may not have selected Her Story as the single best game of 2015, but it was hands-down the most intriguing. The games that end up ensnaring me are the ones that come out of left field. I love the ideas behind The Division Firewatch is beautiful the idea of Crackdown on a current system gives me goosebumps and I hope that Star Citizen may finally come into its own in 2016.īut ultimately, as in years past, those hotly anticipated games rarely end up being my favorites of the year. Here's the thing: Every January, I enter the year anticipating a slew of big blockbuster titles. Picking a game that hasn't been announced, or maybe has been, but hasn't popped up on my radar, might sound like a cop-out, but it's not. That game I haven't heard of yet that everyone will argue shouldn't have won best game of 2016.