Every year the Push Square Team gets together to vote for the site's PlayStation Game of the Year. While we usually keep these polls secret, we're putting the spotlight on some of our authors this holiday so that they can highlight some of their personal favourites from 2015. Today it's the turn of Sam Brooke, as he argues that open world ain't getting old just yet.
Fifth Choice: Mad Max
I feel that Avalanche's overlooked video game adaptation of the Mad Max series was pretty short-changed, considering it has so much to offer. Sure, it isn't the most innovative game, but goddamn if it isn't fun. The car physics are crazy, the battles are explosive, the graphics are beautiful – as evidenced by my huge plethora of screenshots – and the world truly feels like one of madness. What Mad Max does so well is mix outlandish combat with a chilling, creepy setting, and the game offers many an excellent moment – battling in a crazy storm never gets old.
Fourth Choice: The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
I've never been partial to RPGs, but the Witcher 3 really knocked it out the park for me. The combat felt weighty and effective, and the world was absolutely packed with entertaining quests to go on. The story went to some insanely dark places – the Bloody Baron story, especially – and I loved The Witcher all the more for it. Not only that, but CD Projekt Red's generosity really made the game appeal to me – especially because developers like that seem few and few between these days.
Third Choice: Grow Home
You know when a game has one mechanic that just feels perfect? Grow Home gave me that feeling thanks to its stellar climbing system; the momentum system felt excellent, I always felt in control, and it pretty much allowed you to climb anywhere that you wanted because of how well-made the game was. Sure, it was only two hours, but it had the P.T. feeling – a very short, yet almost perfect, slice of polished, refined gameplay. Here's hoping that Ubisoft keeps making small titles like this.
Second Choice: Rocket League
Rocket League took a simple concept – football with cars – and developed it into an exceptionally fun game that I played for hours on end. It's got an excellent physics system that allows for some crazy goals and saves, and can pretty much turn even the biggest sports hater into a hollering fanatic in minutes. The constant new content also helps, and the new Mutators have made the game's fun possibilities increase tenfold.
First Choice: Just Cause 3
You probably saw this coming from a mile away – but in all seriousness, I can't stress enough how happy this game has made me. Just Cause 3 took its predecessor and literally improved every single goddamn thing. The driving feels great, the gunplay is improved, the bases are well-designed, the fun-factor is far increased – you get the idea. Honestly, I could give you a 100-point list on why I love this game and still not be done. Sure, it's far from perfect, but it focuses on fun, and isn't that what we all want?
Are you feeling the heat of Sam's explosive selections? Do you concur with his choices? Blow up some red barrels in the comments section below.
Comments 30
G*dd*mn? No need for profanities guys! Tasuki, give em one of your "watch your language"s please.
Interesting list. Although I never would put JC in my top 10, mainly because of the technical flaws, I understand that it's the best thing out there if you're fan of the genre. I do feel the same bout TW3 and Rocket League though, and I'm almost ashamed to say that I'll try Grow Home later this week; haven't played it yet, like so many Plus titles, but this sounds promising!
After playing and beating JC3 on the PS4, I think the technical flaws have been overstated. The only really bad part for frame drops is when your blowing stuff up in the capital town, load times are roughly in the ballpark of Fallout 4 and Witcher 3, which is expected. By all accounts it's a playable game.
JC3 is that 7 or 8 game that could still very well be someone's game of the year.......it's not perfect, but I had more fun with it than Arkham Knight and the back half of MGS V. The fact that JC3 refuses to take itself seriously may be it's best trait.
Now that's what I call a great list! No Fallout 4 crap!
Apart from the Witcher 3, nothing else would make my top 10. I don't think Mad Max lived up to my expectation and premise it was sold on. I am not saying its bad, just not as good as it could have been. Just Cause 3 has the same issues I had with Just Cause 2 - Its just too repetitive and mindless. Whilst it can be 'fun' to blow 'stuff' up, I find it gets very boring very quickly. I can't say any 'Indie' or 'budget' (whatever you call those similar priced games made by established studios/publishers - like AC:Chronicles (Ubisoft), Lara Croft and the Temple of Osiris (Square Enix/Crystal Dynamix) etc) would ever make my top 10. They may have some elements that could challenge a AAA game but often lack in far more areas and considering the games that can be bought now for the money - even if they are 'old' now, offer much more. The few I have downloaded (thanks to PS+) have never lasted me more than an hour at most. I appreciate that many others may get a lot of enjoyment from these but personally I think the 'best' of these wouldn't beat an 'average' AAA game when it comes down to deciding what game I want to play. The fact I would rather play 'mediocre' and/or older AAA games than than these shows why I wouldn't rate them in my top 10.
However as this and other peoples lists prove, my opinions are obviously different. Its apparent from reading these, that the PushSquare staff have very different opinions too - I can't think we have seen to many games appearing on multiple lists.
@Boerewors I write this with no negative feeling, but is goddamn really that strong a profanity?
@Churchy
Says the guy called Churchy :')
You had me till Grow Home... Urgh that game was so trash imo.
@Cron_13 I agree. Grow Home was one of the worst gaming experiences I've had this year. I tried for an hour to have fun, at all, but I couldn't succeed. The game felt very unfinished to me. It's a divisive game, I guess.
happy to see Mad Max on your list, it is really a great game played it 50 hours and enjoyed every minute of it.
@Boerewors Haha, now that was a slice of genius. As my last name is Churchill I often forget about the religious aspect of the name (usually I get jokes about WW2 or car insurance!).
@Boerewors Sorry if I offended you with that, I'm not religious so that word never really felt bad to me. The Witcher 3 and Rocket League are both excellent, and while Grow Home isn't for everybody, I'd recommend that you try it.
@sub12 I think so too, plus the new patch really improved load times and framerate for me. Some people seem to forget that the Witcher 3, while not having load times, was still pretty buggy on release, but sadly that's the state of the industry these days. I agree that JC3 is far from perfect, but it topped my list because I've never had more fun in a game than I've had in JC3
@Frank90 Thanks! I haven't managed to play Fallout 4 yet due to my huge backlog, but I'd certainly like to.
@BAMozzy It's cool, we all have our own opinions. Glad that we can agree on how great The Witcher 3 was though!
@Cron_13 @Kidfried I find that smaller games like Grow Home are often pretty divisive because they're usually pretty niche, so not everybody enjoys them. At least you tried it though!
@THEONE19 Thanks! I feel that Mad Max was criminally underrated this year, plus it probably suffered a lot from releasing so close to Metal Gear Solid V. Still, it's a really fun game
@Neolit Thanks! It was a game that I really didn't expect anything from and just blew me away because of how well-made it was.
I'm here to respond to any other comments! Just to say, it was really hard picking 5 games, so here are some of my honorable mentions, because this year was amazing:
N++, Bastion (Since it launched on PS4 this year) WWE 2K16, Life is Strange, Tearaway Unfolded, Gauntlet: Slayer Edition
What a year!
@Anchorsam_9 Interesting list, Sam. It's refreshing to see some otherwise overlooked titles on there. Very nicely written, too. 👍
@TheMightyPunram Thanks! This year was huge for releases, what with MGS V, Battlefront, Fallout 4, Black Ops 3, and other big games, so there have been tonnes of overlooked games that need more attention drawn to them.
Dont u guys think tht Just cause 3 has HUGE frame drops ? And those 90 second load screens after death are a joke!
@Davros79 I've only gotten frame drops in the big city, but the loading times were abominable on launch. Luckily the new patch seems to have fixed things for me, but it's a shame that such a great game was so shoddy in the technical department
Never thought I'd see Grow Home in someone's top 5! (mainly because it's an awful game)
Saying that, it's good to see all the Push Square guys have such varied top 5s...even if they are all wrong
@Anchorsam_9 Its great that we have such a difference in opinion and that there are games developed for that variety. I enjoy seeing what others enjoy even if I don't see those games in the same way.
I also think its great that we have the freedom to express our opinions on this without fear of ridicule. Its great to be able to discuss our differences and maybe even see things from a different perspective.
Just because I may agree with a lot of people that the Witcher 3 is the Game of the Year or disagree with others who pick different games to me entirely, it doesn't mean those that prefer something else are 'wrong', mistaken etc but equally right.
@BAMozzy Yup. It's better that everybody has different opinions because it opens up plenty of opportunities for debate. Plus it would be boring if everyone loved the same games!
@mrobinson91 It seems like the most divisive game on the list, which I get. What's your top 5 then?
@Anchorsam_9 where's Fifa? Good list - but your love for rubbish games is evident here.
Grow home???
Received Just Cause 3 for Christmas and I'm very much looking forward to giving it a try! Nice list Sam
@Churchy
What you're trying to say is you look like a bulldog?
J/k. I was just being sour over a ban I got earlier this year on PS for saying something along the lines of Goddammit. The thing was that I didn't get the ban for cussing, the moderator just didn't like what I had to tell and decided to ban me for saying something like goddammit (I don't even remember). I got unbanned because I blamed the language barrier ( ), but it was just silly, especially because that meant I was banned on NintendoLife too for some reason.
So every time I spot profanity in one of the articles I throw in a "watch the language" just like the one I got that got me banned. I'm in my thirties...I know...
@themcnoisy
I don't see MGS V on the list, so it's not that bad!
@Anchorsam_9 mine would have to be....
1) The Witcher 3
2) Rocket League
3) Tales of Borderlands
4) Elder scrolls online
5) Borderlands The Handsome Collection
Would be boring if we all had the same....IMO just shows what a good varied year of games it's been.
I would go with...
1. Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
2. Rocket League
3. Fallout 4
4. Wolfenstein: The Old Blood
5. Just Cause 3
@themcnoisy FIFA is definitely good, but not GOTY material. In my opinion PES plays a bit better too, but I prefer FIFA because the licenses. Also nobody plays PES!
@Quintumply Thanks! Quite a few of the technical problems have been fixed, which is good - though blowing up anything in the city leads to framerate drops, which is a shame.
@sub12 You know it Good list, too - I've yet to play Fallout or Wolfenstein, though, although I really enjoyed The New Order
@Mrobinson91 Definitely. Whatever genre you like (RPG lovers especially) you had a good year in 2015
@Boerewors Not very smart gloating that you got unbanned for blaming the language barrier. If you do receive enough warnings for language then there should be no language barrier excuse. Just because the word is not offense in your native language doesn't mean it's not in others and since we are a world wide community we need to keep that in mind. Also @Boerewors IIRC you were banned due to your frequent use of the f--- word after several warnings, we won't just ban without a warning unless of course you really break the rules i.e. spamming torrent sites, post nude pictures those kind of things.
As for being banned from Nintendolife it's because Pushsquare, Nintendolife and Pure Xbox combines all user accounts, so if you get a banned on one you are banned from the other two as well.
Hopes that clears somethings up.
@Tasuki
Even if I was dropping occasional f-bombs, which I don't do that often when I come to think of it, if you "warn" people without telling them, they aren't likely to improve on their behavior. You just remove sh*t you find offensive at that moment and tell people to watch their language in the same comment... How many times have you re-read comments you placed hours ago?
The reason why I censor myself when saying sh*t is because I recall I made a comment about Sony serving it and instead of gamers standing up, they just dig in. On the very same day editors were using the word "crap" in the exact same context, but that seemed to be okay.
It just wasn't your best call I guess, although I totally understand you disagree. Anyway, I'm back and censoring my sh*t very carefully!
Currently playing through Just Cause 3, which is insane fun! Its great to play an open world game where you can just go nuts, cause havok & be rewarded for it!
I wanted to like Grow Home, loved the visual style of it. But playing it was a very frustrating experience. I finished it, then happily deleted it. These wonky physics games drive me nuts! (How anyone could enjoy Surgeon Simulator is beyond me! Deleted that one yesterday lol)
Good top 5, plenty of game's to get stuck into there.
@Boerewors Well, if anything, I've probably got more hair than a bulldog. Although I will give a crack at a car insurance quote if you're in an emergency.
Ah, I see. I swear a huge amount (a lot of people in the UK do despite the foreign stereotypes about the British being refined!) so I don't really have much of a gauge on what is considered a swear word and what isn't! Either way, it's a good site so I don't mind adhering to it - I figured early on it's a place that doesn't use much "bad" language.
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