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My Favourite Game Every Year Since 1995

I still remember the day my Dad brought home a PlayStation One.  It’s my earliest memory, and one of my most nostalgic.  Ever since then, I’ve fallen in love with video games - so much so that I’ve also taken to making a few throughout the years.

Nonetheless, I’ve decided to compile a list of my favourite game each year, since the year I was born.  It’s important to note that this list is not my 22 favourite games of all time - just my favourite game of each year.  It’s also important to note that I did not play all of these games during the year that they were released, quite a few of them are games that I’ve played for the first time in the past few years.  Either way, here goes.

1995 - Rayman

Rayman is a really significant game for me.  It’s the first game I ever played, and one that I haven’t touched in years.  I’m looking forward to downloading and replaying it on the Vita sometime in the future.

1996 - Crash Bandicoot

Crash Bandicoot is the game that reminds me most of my childhood.  I’ll never forget the countless hours I spent playing it in front of the TV.  Funnily enough, it wasn’t until recently that I actually replayed it with a cousin and beat it for the first time.  I’m really excited to play the remastered trilogy when it releases later this year.

1997 - Crash Bandicoot 2

Crash Bandicoot 2 was a step up from the original game in almost every way.  I remember the day I saw it on display in the store.  Back in those days it was hard to keep up to date on all of the latest releases without the internet, so it completely caught me off guard.  I didn’t even know the sequel existed until I saw it in the store.  I’ve still not beaten it to this day, partially because I didn’t have a memory card at the time and couldn’t save my progress.  I got close a few times though.

1998 - Half-Life

This is one of the games on my list that I didn’t play the year it came out.  For me, this was the game I played during my first year of college after moving away from home.  It’s easily one of the best shooters I’ve ever played and I can’t wait to play it again.

1999 - Spyro 2: Gateway to Glimmer

I remember playing this game at a relative's house for the first time.  It’s a fantastic platformer that’s still fun to go back and play today.  If you’ve never played a Spyro game, this is definitely the place to start.

2000 - Wario Land 3

Wario Land 3 isn’t just one of my most nostalgic games of all time.  I honestly think it’s the most underappreciated game ever made.  I rarely meet people who have played it and those who have can only say positive things about it.  It’s easily got to be the best game that was available on GameBoy Color.

2001 - Metal Gear Solid 2

Metal Gear Solid 2 changed up so much from the original game.  If you were invested in games culture back in the day, you’ve probably heard that this was incredibly way ahead of its time.  Everything from the gameplay to the social and political commentary that this game provided was unlike anything people had ever seen before in a game.  It wasn’t afraid to step outside the box and it very much deserves its place on this list.

2002 - James Bond 007: Nightfire

Nightfire wasn’t just a great Bond game, it was arguably the best multiplayer game on the PlayStation 2.  I’ve spent hundreds upon hundreds of hours playing the multiplayer mode in this game with friends and bots.  It also packed a pretty good story mode - but the big reason it’s made the list is the incredible multiplayer.

2003 - The Simpsons: Hit & Run

As a child, I was definitely never allowed play Grand Theft Auto games.  The closest I ever got to an open world crime game was Hit & Run, which also had the benefit of being a great Simpsons game.

2004 - Metal Gear Solid 3

Damn, Hideo Kojima knocked it out of the park with this game.  I played Metal Gear Solid 3 for the first time last year and it’s easily one of the best action games I’ve ever played.  Not only does it have a thrilling story set during the Cold War, but its gameplay is beyond anything I could have ever expected to see on the PlayStation 2.  The ending even made me shed a tear.

2005 - Resident Evil 4

Resident Evil 4 is one of my favourite horror games.  Its world is so engaging and its gameplay is unbelievably tense.  If you know anything about this game, you probably know that its controls are very clunky - but the game uses them to its advantage to make encounters with enemies more terrifying.  I’m not a fan of some of the boss fights but the game totally makes up for it with its gameplay, level design and upgrade systems.

2006 - New Super Mario Bros

Although I never owned a Nintendo DS, I got the chance to play this game years later on my brother’s system.  I fell in love with this game instantly - it’s graphics may be extremely ugly by today’s standards, but the gameplay and level design are near-flawless.

2007 - Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare

This was my first modern-FPS game and the story experience completely blew me away.  Modern Warfare’s campaign has moments that are totally unforgettable.  Even though the story is short, it packs in a variety of set pieces that combine great gameplay with huge cinematic moments.

2008 - Fallout 3

When I first played Fallout 3, I had absolutely no idea what I was getting into.  The game spends the first hour telling a contained story inside a Vault - in which the people living there have never seen the outside world.  I still remember the moment I left the Vault for the first time - it was so unexpected and it completely blew my mind.

2009 - Uncharted 2:  Among Thieves

The first Uncharted was a game-changer, and the first game I had ever played with cutscenes edited and pieced together so flawlessly like a film.  When Uncharted 2 came out, it blew the first game out of the water.  It upped the stakes, the set pieces, the character development and everything else in such an unexpected way that it became an instant favourite of mine.  Plus, the entire train sequence was way beyond its time - literally unlike anything I had ever seen in a game before.

2010 - Heavy Rain

Heavy Rain was my first choice and consequence game.  I was fascinated by the idea of making decisions that could completely change the course of the game.  Admittedly, when replaying this game years later it really shows its age - but at the time it was such a fresh idea for a game that all of its problems didn’t seem significant at all.

2011 - The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

Skyrim was my first Elder Scrolls game, and it won’t be my last.  It took a lot of the elements that I adored from Fallout and painted them all over a ‘Lord of the Rings’-esque world.  I spent countless hours in this game and have replayed large portions, and I still discover something new each time.

2012 - The Walking Dead

Telltale’s The Walking Dead wasn’t my first Telltale game (that would be The Wolf Among Us), but it’s definitely my most memorable.  It’s another choice and consequence game, but it’s divided into five ‘episodes’ which last around two to three hours each.  The story is so engaging, and the characters are all very interesting - but what stood out the most was the tension.  No character felt invincible, and in some cases you have to make major decisions within seconds that would probably take hours to fully contemplate.  Plus, the impacts of your decisions carry over to the sequel.

2013 - The Last of Us

The Last of Us is, without a single doubt in my mind, my favourite game of all time.  I have far too much to say about the game to condense to a few sentences - but it has the most tense gameplay and best story I have ever experienced in a game.  I still remember heading out on my 18th birthday to buy it, and coming home to play it with friends and cousins who were up for my birthday.  We all sat there and played through the opening chapter - and were all choked up afterwards.  No game has ever made me well up as much as The Last of Us, and no game has ever given me so many goosebumps when shocking things happened.

2014 - The Last of Us: Left Behind

Although 2014 was a pretty quiet year for gaming, my favourite game regardless was the Standalone DLC to my favourite game.  Left Behind tells a prologue story to The Last of Us that gives a lot of background context to events referenced in the main game.  Because it’s so short, there’s not much to say without spoiling it - but if you’ve played The Last of Us (and you should), then this is definitely worth playing afterwards.

2015 - Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain

I had a really tough time picking a favourite from this year (Fallout 4 nearly took the spot), but ultimately, my pick for 2015 has to go to the final Metal Gear game by Hideo Kojima.  Not only does The Phantom Pain have the most complex gameplay systems I’ve ever played with, but what really stands out is how it expects the player to be patient, intelligent and creative.  I never felt like there were limits to what this game would allow me to do.  In every single mission, the game expected me to use intuition to figure out solutions to the problems it presented.  After playing The Phantom Pain, I found it difficult to go back to games that held my hand.

2016 - Uncharted 4

The last Uncharted game was one of my most anticipated games of all time - and it did not disappoint.  Uncharted 4 pays homage to the original Uncharted trilogy while also raising the bar to a level that was practically unheard of beforehand.  It’s story is fantastic, and does a great job at fleshing out the characters in ways that differ from the previous games.  The attention to small details is also phenomenal - leaving the player with an experience that is totally immersive.

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I tried PlayStation VR

I’ve always been skeptical about Virtual Reality gaming.  I’ve never been intrigued by the Oculus Rift or the HTC Vive, and I tried out Google Cardboard once but the experience was very mediocre.  That’s when I heard the about the development of the PlayStation VR (codenamed ‘Project Morpheus’ at the time).  To be honest, I never expected much.  I always thought it’d be a technology that would be like the Nintendo Wii or Xbox Kinect - something that would gather huge amounts of attention for a year or two and then would be forgotten about.

Just over a week ago, the review embargo lifted for the PSVR.  It turned out that critics adored it, with a lot of them calling it ‘the future of gaming’.  I didn’t believe any of the reviews, I thought people were just overhyped about it.  And I’ve never been so happy to be so wrong in my life.

I got to try out the PSVR, and I can honestly say that I believe Virtual Reality gaming is here to stay.  I don’t think it will ever replace gaming on a TV, but it is definitely going to be a big deal.

Headsets like the Oculus Rift cost over €600, and require PCs with values beyond €1,000.  VR gaming isn’t cheap - but Sony have managed to cut corners and are retailing their headset at €400-€500.  It’s not just cheap, it’s comfortable - so comfortable, in fact, that I forgot I was wearing the headset because its weight balances perfectly on the head.  The only downside to the headset is the resolution.  You can definitely see the pixels if you pay attention to them (reference: screen-door effect), but once you become immersed in a game they stop being noticeable.

I got to try out 4 different games/experiences during my demo.  The first was ‘Ocean Descent’.  It’s basically a virtual diving experience.  You stand in a cage underwater surrounded by turtles and jellyfish until eventually a shark shows up.  It was genuinely scary, but I loved it.  Anytime the shark swam near me, I was flinching and ducking slightly.  It felt real.  Not real in the sense that it felt like I was really underwater, but it felt like I was really inside a videogame.

Next up, I got to try London Heist.  This was my favourite.  I played a scene where you’re in a van during a highway chase scene, and you have to shoot down the enemies who are chasing you in black jeeps and on motorbikes.  The move controllers felt great, especially the triggers for firing weapons.  You could also interact with objects, one of the first things I did was open the van door and stick my head out.  I know it was just a tech demo, but it was an incredible experience.

I also got to play a skateboarding game where you roll downhill and turn by tilting your head - but I didn’t really enjoy that one.  It didn’t feel immersive and the motion controls for the head didn’t feel great.

The last game I played was Battle Zone, in which you sit in a virtual tank and drive around shooting other tanks.  It was quite fun, but not nearly as fun as London Heist.  Although I was so immersed that I tried to lean on something that wasn’t there.

All in all, I’m super impressed by the PlayStation VR.  I couldn’t stop thinking about it all day after I had played it.  I’m definitely going to be picking one up at some point, but I’m going to wait until there’s a better selection of games.  It costs €400 for the headset and another €100+ for the accessories required to play most games.  Maybe there will be a price drop in a year’s time or a bundle that includes the accessories.  Until then, I think I can wait.

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Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty

Metal Gear Solid 2 is a step up from the original game in almost every way.  Everything from the scope and setting to the gameplay is far beyond the standard of the original game.  However, does this necessarily make it better than the original?

The game throws you into the shoes of two playable characters - Solid Snake, who was the hero of the first Metal Gear Solid, and newcomer Raiden, who you’ll play as for the vast majority of the game.

I’m going to avoid treading on spoiler territory as I really think that this is a game you should go in blind for, but honestly, I don’t think the overall story is quite as compelling as the first Metal Gear Solid.  Not to say that it’s bad - but it has so many plot reveals and developments that it becomes insanely complicated towards the end.  Immediately after finishing the game I had to go online to try and piece together what had happened.  However, the story isn’t bad - it’s just different - and that can be a positive or a negative, depending on how you felt about the plot of the first game.

I’m not saying that this game isn’t worth playing though, because trust me, it absolutely is.  The gameplay mechanics are an enormous step up from the original.  There are so many new and complex systems that add a new level of depth to the game.  Depending on which difficulty you select, it will either feel significantly easier than the previous game, or significantly harder.  I played through the game on the Easy difficulty setting, which was great, but I definitely recommend playing on Normal difficulty to add more tension to the experience.

There’s a new first person mode in the game which makes weapons so much easier to work with.  You can also walk up behind guards and hold them up.  A huge change in the game is that a guard's body doesn’t disappear, so if you knock someone out of kill them, you’ll have to make an effort to hide the body in an empty room or in a locker.  If guards find one another unconscious, they’ll wake each other up.

Another huge change in the game is how advanced the guards are.  When a guard sees you, you have mere seconds to take them out before they call for backup, which is a bit of a pain because it takes a lot longer in this game for the alert status to clear.  But that’s good too because it’s more incentive to play the game with stealth.  

If you take out all the guards in an area, another backup squad will show up to investigate why they haven’t been responding on the radio.  They’ll scout out the entire area, checking every room and sometimes the lockers - you’ll have to be very careful in order to avoid being caught.

There’s also another ensemble of villains in this game, although they definitely do not compare to the villains in the first game.  The villains in this game are generally more cartoonish than the first game, with the exception of Fatman, who has one of the best boss fights I’ve played in a long time.

The story in general is a lot less grounded, and there’s a few uninteresting plot lines such as the romance story between Raiden and his girlfriend.  Especially compared to the first game, the dialogue often feels less meaningful and more cringey, but the story can still be interesting enough to progress the game forward.

All in all, Metal Gear Solid 2 is a great game and if you were a fan of the first then I definitely recommend playing it.  But as a standalone game, I don’t think it’s worth playing unless you’re familiar with the characters.  The ending will mostly likely leave you with a dozen questions but these will more than likely be answered in the chronological sequel.  For Metal Gear fans, this is a must-play, filled with references from the first game and a hugely improved gameplay system.  For everyone else - you might want to try out Metal Gear Solid 1 instead.

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Heavy Rain (PS4 Edition)

When I first played Heavy Rain back in 2010, I was blown away.  Before then, I had never experienced a game that had such a great cinematic story to tell, along with multiple endings based on your choices throughout the game.

For it’s time, it was a great game, and it instantly became one of my all time favourites - but now that the PS4 remaster is out, does this game still hold up after six years?

First, I’ve got to get this out of the way - the story in Heavy Rain is one of favourite stories in any video game.  Playing as four different characters helps pace the story really well, and the constant tension in knowing that your decisions have consequences is amazing.  There are 22 different endings in the game, so the story can change direction in an instant.

It’s essential that Heavy Rain has a great story, because apart from the story itself - the game is a technical mess.

I replayed this game with the remastered version on PS4, and I was shocked at how many of the original’s games problems were still all over the so called ‘updated’ version.  Besides a few visual upgrades, the game is no different, and in fact, is sometimes visually and audibly worse than the PlayStation 3 version.

In one of the big scenes near the start of the game, the audio was completely distorted, and the video looked extremely compressed.  The laziness of the port was so brutally obvious - a lot of the cutscenes in the game where the player doesn’t interact with anything are clearly just pulled from the PS3 version and thrown into the PS4 version, with some compression added.

That’s not nearly where the game began to annoy me though.  The audio and video cuts between shots are extremely rough, and a lot of the time character’s dialogue will cut out mid-sentence when another character’s dialogue interrupts.

The voice acting is also a tragedy.  A small few characters have fantastic performances but the majority of characters not only have really awkward voice acting, but really cringe worthy dialogue.

This takes you completely out of the moment when you’re playing the game - and throws the momentum of the story off course.

There’s also a lot of bad audio mixing, like when you can barely hear anything some characters are saying because the music volume bounces from really low to ridiculously high and overpowering.

But let’s try to talk about some of the positives of the game - because I want to be clear, the game is still worth playing if the story is enough to keep you engaged.  There are a lot of emotional moments and tense scenes where you have to make quick decisions - and the way that the story unfolds is mind blowing.

Maybe I’m noticing a lot more technical faults this time around because I’ve already experienced being engrossed in the story and am more focused on gameplay this time, but there’s no denying that the faults are there.

Despite all the negative things I’ve had to say though, this game is still absolutely worth playing if you never experienced it before - but if you already own a copy on PlayStation 3, don’t bother upgrading to the PS4 version.  Replaying the game on the older console is a far better choice than spending money on a poor remaster.

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New Super Mario Bros

New Super Mario Bros for the Nintendo DS is another fantastic addition to the Super Mario Bros franchise.  It’s the perfect blend of both classic and new - it borrows just enough from the older games to provide a comforting sense of familiarity, while at the same time making an effort to reinvent the Mario 2D platforming genre.

The story has never really been important in the Mario games - yet again, the princess has been kidnapped and it’s up to you to rescue her.  By making your way through all the levels and beating the boss at the end of each world, you’ll eventually make your way to the final castle where you’ll battle Bowser.

Because the story is kind of irrelevant to the game - it means there’s way more focus on gameplay.  It plays like most other Mario games, but with a few different items and powerups which make the game a lot easier.

The graphics aren’t anything special, but then again - it was the Nintendo DS - you can’t expect much.  Unlike the older 2D Mario games though, this one has definitely not aged well.  The 3D-style graphics don’t hold up at all after 10 years.

All that aside though, the gameplay is great - and Mario controls really well.  The game is overall pretty easy to beat but the challenge begins when you try to 100% the game by collecting all of the star tokens and finding all of the secrets it has to offer.  You could easily beat the game in a day if you binged on it, but you’re very likely to come back to try to improve on your completion.  In fact, two of the eight worlds in the game are skipped in a normal playthrough, and have to be unlocked by other means.

The soundtrack to the game is also great, it seems like a bit of an odd remix of the older themes at first, but it definitely grew on me as I played through the game.

The one big flaw with the game though is the save system.  It’s not too much of a problem but most of the time, you can only save the game after beating a boss level, either halfway through a world or at the end of the world.  You can also save the game when you spend Star Tokens though, so people who are aiming for collecting them all will actually find the game a lot easier in this aspect.

In the end, New Super Mario Bros is a fantastic game.  It’s got fantastic gameplay and controls and the new style is refreshing.  If you have a Nintendo DS lying around or a 3DS at home, it’s worth picking this game up if you can get it for a good price.

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The Walking Dead: Michonne

The post apocalyptic world that Telltale has built through it’s Walking Dead games is engaging and unpredictable.  You never know what’s going to happen next - and that’s where the series shines.

Telltale’s new miniseries, The Walking Dead: Michonne, stays true to the world that Telltale have built.  But it doesn’t come without its problems.

The lead character Michonne is great - she’s strong, smart and really mysterious.  The story that the characters get thrown into is tense - and the characters you’ll meet along the way are also fantastic.  The encounters with other characters can be challenging, especially when you have to call their bluff.  The game is great at creating a dark sense of unpredictability - which adds to the constant tension that builds into the climax.

You’ll make plenty of choices in this game that have consequences.  Even the smallest of choices or dialogue options can determine which characters live or die.  I found myself struggling to make some really heavy decisions on the spot, which had brutal consequences.  In some cases your actions may seem like the right thing in the spur of the moment, but can come back later to haunt you.

There is a huge problem with the game though.  Michonne constantly experiences flashbacks from the past which really start to get in the way of the momentum of the story.  You’ll find yourself caught up in the action, only to be spontaneously interrupted by repetitive flashbacks.  Michonne is far more interesting as a mysterious character - and the flashbacks seem to exist to try and flesh her out.  It’s a shame that these were included in the game, as it really took away from my enjoyment of the game.

Although I have to say, I loved the 1 hour episode length, as opposed to the 2-3 hours per episode in the other Telltale games.

Whether you’re a fan of the Telltale Walking Dead games or new to the series, I’d recommend playing this game if you can buy it at a sale price.  But do keep in mind that you’ll be able to beat all three episodes in just three hours.

All in all, The Walking Dead Michonne is a solid entry in the series, and I enjoyed the majority of the playthrough.

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Metal Gear Solid

Video Review available here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ynt6ZSAKXv0

Metal Gear Solid is without a doubt one of the best PlayStation One games of all time.  It’s extremely rare for a game that’s nearly 20 years old to age so well, but Metal Gear Solid’s tense gameplay combined with a fantastic story make it an absolute joy to play, even for people who never got to experience this game when it was a new release.

A lot of players will be turned off instantly by the outdated graphics, or the fact that you need to use a previous generation console to play, but trust me, this game is well worth your time and money.

Despite the game having old graphics, the controls are tight, and it very rarely feels like you’re playing a game from three generations ago.

You’ll spend probably about half of your gameplay time sneaking through heavily guarded areas, looking for items that will help you progress while avoiding detection.  When you first start playing the game, it throws you in the deep.  There’s no tutorial explaining the controls or how the game works - it expects you to learn the ropes yourself.  And although this is so daunting at first, once you’ve learned the basics it doesn’t take long to get the hang of the game - although I definitely recommend looking up the basics online before you start playing, or at least playing the 10 short training missions from the main menu.

One of the only problems I actually had with the game is the fact that it doesn’t hold your hand at all.  If you don’t decide to explore every corner of the map yourself, you’re likely to miss out on some items which are really important to progressing through the game safely.  Without these items, you’ll likely get stuck at some of the more difficult sections.  At one point, the game told me I needed a particular item, and it took me a very long time to realise that I had to trace my steps back through all the areas I had already cleared in order to get the item.  This wasn’t too much of a pain though because the areas I were returning to had changed slightly - some with more guards, some with different guard patterns.

Another problem that a lot of people will have is the fact that you spend about 50% of your time with the game watching cutscenes or listening to dialogue.  While this didn’t bother me, it’s definitely going to turn a lot of people away.  I loved the story though, so this wasn’t a problem for me at all - plus, the characters in this game, both heroes and villains, are some of the best characters in any video game to date.  The voice acting is also superb which is particularly commendable because back in 1998 this was very uncommon in video games.  Metal Gear Solid wasn’t just a great game, it was groundbreaking in the way it told the story.

In the end, this game is so good that I’ll definitely be returning for a second playthrough in the future.  The gameplay is slightly dated, but it’s nowhere near unplayable.  The difficulty is quite challenging but almost always rewarding - and the story is so engaging that you won’t want to put down the controller.  You can get the game really cheap digitally on the PlayStation Store for the PlayStation 3 or PlayStation Vita, so I definitely recommend checking it out.

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Here’s the thing about Journey.

Here’s the thing about Journey - many different people will have many different experiences with the game, and it all comes down to one very important factor - whether you play alone or with a companion.

When I started to play the game for the first time, I wandered and floated through the stunning landscapes on my own.  After about 20-30 minutes, I began to grow a little weary.  Despite the game being absolutely gorgeous, it was missing something.  That’s when I met my companion.

An anonymous traveller appeared out of nowhere.  At first, I was confused.  I had no idea if this traveller was AI or another player.  I jumped to Google to find out, and to my satisfaction, I realised that this was another player.

For those of you who don’t know how Journey works - the game matches you up with another player who remains completely anonymous.  You may stumble across each other and interact briefly, or you might end up sticking together and completing the game as a pair.

The only form of communication you have with this other player is pushing the circle button to play a sort of ‘musical note’.

For the first few minutes I spent with this anonymous companion, I assumed it was just going to be a brief encounter.  I had only been playing for a short while and did not expect them to stick around for long.  However, we ended up sticking together for the entire game.  Without spoiling anything, it was fantastic, and I definitely credit that to my luck in finding such a great companion.

It’s a strange feeling as you play through the game with a companion, bonding with them by exploring stunning environments together and only communicating with a single note - but that’s where the game really got to me.  I realised near the end that this person I had bonded with was going to disappear when we completed the game, and that would be the end of our journey together.  It was kind of heartbreaking.

But in conclusion - I know many people who have played the game and not enjoyed it, and every single one of them played the game alone.  The experience is totally unique and special when you play with a companion.  Bonding with someone anonymously in that way was totally amazing, and for that reason, this game deserves to be played.