Half-Glass Gaming [Episode 25] : 2015 Game of the Year Special
This week, we’ve got a jam-packed, double-stuffed episode because we wanted to dig far deeper into this whole Game-of-the-Year phenomenon than 45 minutes would have allowed. That’s right, folks, this is our longest episode yet.
We talk about all the drama from this year’s award shows, including Hideo Kojima’s absense, Geoff Keighley’s impassioned speech on that topic, and why the frick the game awards happen at the beginning of December every year. Also, what does “Game of the Year” even mean? We have thoughts and opinions, dear friends.
Once that conversation’s been had, we toss the greatest game hits from 2015 into the fighting pit and watch them duke it out. We’ve got The Witcher 3, Bloodborne, Metal Gear Solid V, Undertale, Life Is Strange, Until Dawn, Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture, Fallout 4, and so many others. 2015 was a ridiculously good year for video games, wasn’t it?
And we’re not quite done yet. We decide to finish things up by using Julian’s time travel skills to go back to the year 1995 and see what was happening in the gaming sphere back then. Put on your flannel shirts and your Jnco jeans, because we’re going totally 90s on your asses.
Quit reading already; you’ve got listenin’ to do!
Here’s a complete list of games we mention in this episode:
- Donkey Kong Country
- The Witcher 3: The Wild Hunt
- Gwent
- Bubsy in Claws Encounters of the Furred Kind
- Bubsy 4 (never actually made)
- Siphon Filter
- Bubsy 3D
- Alpha Waves
- Crash Bandicoot
- Super Mario 64
- Tomb Raider (PSOne)
- Turok: Dinosaur Hunter
- Xenoblade Chronicles X
- Yakuza 5
- Ni no Kuni II: Revenant Kingdom
- Uncharted 2: Among Thieves
- Her Story
- Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain
- Metal Gear (series)
- Silent Hill (series)
- Life Is Strange
- Prune (iOS)
- Sunless Sea
- The Beginner’s Guide
- Grand Theft Auto (series)
- Red Dead Redemption
- Batman: Arkham (series)
- The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
- Fallout (series)
- Grand Theft Auto V
- The Witcher (series)
- Undertale
- Minecraft
- ARK: Survival Evolved
- No Man’s Sky
- Fallout 4
- The Long Dark
- DayZ
- Darkest Dungeon
- Underrail
- The Last of Us Remastered
- Super Smash Bros. (2014)
- Far Cry 4
- Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture
- SOMA
- Monster Hunter (series)
- Phantasy Star Online
- Splatoon
- Call of Duty (series)
- Call of Doody (heh heh heh)
- Star Wars Battlefront
- Rocket League
- EarthBound
- Shin Megami Tensei (series)
- Dishonored
- Until Dawn
- Infamous
- Fallout 3
- Mad Max (2015)
- Just Cause 3
- Bloodborne
- Contradiction (2015 FMV game)
- Super Mario World 2: Yoshi’s Island
- Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy’s Kong Quest
- Chrono Trigger
- Worms (1995)
- Angry Birds
- Twisted Metal 2
- Super Mario Kart
- Command & Conquer (PSOne)
- Twisted Metal
- Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness
- Chrono Cross
- Virtua Fighter 2
- Tekken 2
- Tekken 3
- Street Fighter V
- Shaq Fu
- I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream
- The Dig
- Myst
- Clock Tower
- Silent Hill
- Terranigma
- Secret of Mana
- Illusion of Gaia
- Ristar
- Comix Zone
- Tales (series)
- Tales of Zestiria
- Rayman (1995)
- Rayman Legends
- Rayman 2: The Great Escape
- Rayman (series)
- Kirby (series)
- Kirby’s Dream Land 2
- The Witcher 4 (hypothetical game)
- BioShock Infinite
- The Last of Us
- I Am Alive
- The Witcher 3: Blood and Wine
- Firewatch
- The Witness
- Persona 5
- Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 4
- Nier
- Nier Automata
- Far Cry Primal
- Horizon Zero Dawn
- Assassin’s Creed (series)
Retrovolve Staff
At Retrovolve, we love discussing, studying, and playing retro games, though not necessarily in that order.
I think Josh may have mentioned an extra-long episode to me, but I forgot it completely so this still was a surprise. I can’t really speak to the best games of this year, but my favourite games of 1995 are Yoshi’s Island and Ristar. Terranigma is another favourite, as I mentioned before, but in my part of the world it wasn’t released until 1996. It’s possibly my favourite game of that year, however.
Thanks, Jimmy! Glad you tuned into our extra-long special!
Thanks, Jimmy! Glad you tuned into our extra-long special!
Witcher 3 was ace but its complete and utter lack of dungeons bugged me. Dying Light and Fallout 4 were good too. Need for Speed would be my favorite if there were fucking multiplayer lobbies!
Witcher 3 had dungeons! It had a bunch of underground elven ruins you had to delve at various points in the story. But yeah, it was definitely sparse on dungeons. I can only think of a few off the top of my head, which is practically unheard of for an open world Medieval RPG.
Since everyone’s stating their favourite games, I’ll add mine to the pile. I’d be lying if I said Fallout 4 wasn’t a little disappointing, but the shooting and VATS were so much better. I can explore or build bases for hours. I actually think that Rocket League is the game I’ve put the most time in with its multiplayer and new cars. I agree that Until Dawn was also awesome. It out “heavy rain”s Heavy Rain.
“It out Heavy Rains Heavy Rain.” Great line! And so true!
Lots of good games this year. I wouldn’t call it the best, but if I were a developer, Life Is Strange is probably the game I would’ve liked to make. I enjoyed SOMA a lot more than you guys did. The atmosphere was incredible and I loved the thought-prokoving story. Since you mentioned IHNMAIMS, it reminded me of the works of Harlan Ellison. I haven’t tried Sunless Sea yet, but I’m definitely interested now. Mandi’s recommendations are always good.
You can probably tell what my most anticipated 2016 game is based on my avatar. Heh.
Well, IHNMAIMS is based on a Harlan Ellison short story, and the game itself was written by him. So it’s not just reminiscent of an Ellison work, it *is* an Ellison work 😛
– The Reverend
Uh, I know what IHNMAIMS is. I was saying that SOMA reminds me of Harlan Ellison’s work.
Oh, sorry! I misread what you were saying. My bad.
– The Reverend
I didn’t think 2015 is so great. AAA is no good now, just sequels and remakes and I don’t want to just play indie games. I liked maybe 5 games.
This reminds me of the Giant Bombcasts where they talk through their list making process, but you don’t have a list. Are you going to add one? I guess Witcher 3 is probably GOTY.
To me Bloodborne is the most innovative game for gameplay… the different way weapons works makes it like a new game especially with trick weapons. For me its still the Game of the Year even though Witcher was good too.