The only other years I can think of which would probably top it for me are 1998 and 2001 (Metal Gear Solid 1 & 2, Silent Hill 2, Half-Life, Resident Evil 2, GTA 3, Max Payne etc) but this year is really turning out to be something special.
Already we've had:
- The Witcher 3
- Bloodborne
- Life is Strange
- Until Dawn
- Ori and the Blind Forest
- Grim Fandango: Remastered
- Cities: Skylines
- Journey on PS4, GTAV on PC.
and each one of those have been fantastic. Really, by the end of the year I reckon every single game in my top 10 will be GOTY material. Crazy. They're getting hard to rate now
Her Story, Everybody's Gone to the Rapture & Satellite Reign have also been very, very good, and I've yet to play a couple others (like Pillars of Eternity) too...
- The Witcher 3 was incredible and basically set a new benchmark for RPGs and storytelling. That game evoked so many different emotions in me throughout my 150hrs in there, some of which I haven't really experienced in a game before. I can say the same thing for Life is Strange as well tbh, though not to the same degree.
- Cities: Skylines is probably the best city builder/management game I've ever played when taking into account the mods (and upcoming expansion too), and I never thought I'd say that again, especially after SimCity. So glad to have been proved wrong on that one!
- Life is Strange & Until Dawn (likewise with TW3) have done great, great things when it comes to player choice. I mean, hell, every single character in Until Dawn can die. Literally life & death choices, and no cheating your way out of it (at least with UD) as it saves your actions & choices on-the-go.
- Bloodborne. My biggest surprise of the year (as I hadn't yet played the Souls game from my backlog at that time). Hardest & most challenging game I've played ('cept for Dark Souls 1 now, which I finally played just recently!) but absolutely loved everything about it. <censored> glorious. Give me Dark Souls 3 already!
- Journey. It's all in the name, really. Played this for the first time this year when it was remastered for the PS4 and it was one of the most beautiful experiences I've ever had in a game, quite unlike anything else out there. Will go down as one of my favourite games of all time, for sure.
- etc..
MGSV is out in just 2 days for one. Reviews have been incredibly positive (currently sitting at 95 on metacritic), not like I expected any different. This has been my main contender for GOTY with TW3 throughout the year so Tue can't come soon enough. There aren't any other game series I can think of which have stayed consistently amazing throughout the years like MGS has and from all the impressions I've been reading (from both critics & players), TPP continues that and goes out with a bang. Roll on Tuesday!
Then there's Fallout 4, Hitman, SW Battlefront, AC Syndicate and a several others as well (Persona 5 too hopefully!). Man... this year is insane (if they deliver too), and 2016 seems really damn promising too lol.
If you haven't played some of the above then you might disagree with me here I guess, but I encourage you to pick some of them up before the end of the year if you can. Really missing out on some real gems there otherwise. - If activity levels pick up (gone back to be really, really quiet again) and I can afford, I may do another little giveaway for Christmas if I can. We'll see, my Ori giveaway didn't go so well...
2015 - truly great time to be a gamer