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In 2015, I lamented a sharp drop in my yearly games played, from 100+ to 29. Ouch.

In 2016, I managed 45. So... still not great. But less not-great! I'm getting more un-non-great.

And, yeah, I did fall critically behind on my glogging for most of October, November, and December; 14 of those games didn't get glogged until the last week of the year. It was, and still is, a struggle to write stuff up when there's so much Skyrim to do.

If I had to pick a theme for my gaming habits this past year, ... I really don't know that I could. (Gun to my head, I would probably get shot.) My 2016 held a pretty even mix of originals (24) and franchise entries (21), with some replays (4) but mostly in the form of remasters (3).

So I think I did alright. Could have done worse, anyway.

Platform breakdown:

  • PC: 36 (41 games, 3 DLCs, 1 demo)
  • PS4: 4 (actually six, but I didn't bother glogging about playing through Uncharted 2 and 3 again)
  • Android: 3 (more than any previous year)
  • 3DS: 2 (and they were both picross games!)

Pleasant original experiences

  • Aviary Attorney: "It's smart, funny, and almost entirely logical, despite ... birds."
  • Her Story: "[...] organically stumbling upon story beats is satisfying in a really unique way."
  • Last Word: "You gain experience by winning arguments. If that isn't one of the coolest game ideas you've ever heard, then, you're wrong."
  • TIS-100: "[...] successfully replicates the euphoric rush of fixing some ugly code and watching the computer tear through its task."
  • The Witness: "The island itself is one big, gorgeous, baffling puzzle."

Unpleasant original experiences

  • Bear Simulator: "I felt like a chump after I scaled a hill and crossed a river using a makeshift log bridge, then found absolutely nothing on the other side."
  • Murdered: Soul Suspect: "Murdered doesn't just lean heavily on its poorly-told story, it has thoroughly underwhelming game mechanics to boot."
  • Pony Island: "[...] Pony Island's neat premise wears out its welcome well before the end."
  • Remember Me: "[...] it all feels tepid, like a halfhearted imitation of other AAA games."
  • Toren: "[...] a story that just doesn't go anywhere; an obtuse fable that twists and writhes in its own nonsense."

Satisfying sequels

  • Deus Ex: Mankind Divided: "[...] Deus Ex: Mankind Divided has a lot of fun in it, if you're into exploring finely-detailed game worlds and scouring over their lore."
  • The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim - Dawnguard and Dragonborn, and even Hearthfire: "[...] a solid addition of questing and exploration to Skyrim's already-impressive world."
  • The Jackbox Party Pack 3: "I drew a Pac-Man ghost, and wrote "Eat a bag of dicks," and now my friend owns that on a t-shirt."
  • Uncharted 4: A Thief's End: "When Drake careens down a steep slope, grapples to a tree branch, swings across a ravine and narrowly avoids a grim fate by jamming a piton into a sheer cliff, it's just ... man. It's exhilirating."

Disappointing rehashes

  • Batman: Arkham Origins Blackgate: "More than a poor Batman game, and more than a poor game in general, Blackgate is confusingly bad."
  • LEGO Marvel's Avengers: "[...] while this game doesn't literally re-tread Super Heroes' ground, it feels an awful lot like it does."
  • Pokémon Picross: "[...] in terms of overall design, the game assumes that I'm not interested in solving puzzles, which is very distasteful and off-putting."
  • Wolfenstein: The Old Blood: "[...] there isn't any grand narrative payoff to defeating a room full of crazy enemies. There are only more crazy enemies."

Ongoing obsessions

Anything cool coming up in 2017?