Guitar Pornography

The daring escapades of one man and his exploration of the musical world. Packed with whimsy, wonder and the occasional gif, Guitar Pornography is the blog for those who know that music is more than just an arbitrary standard to be judged by, but instead is a mix of emotions, skill and content. Lists will be ongoing and reviews will be by demand, so please, fill the inbox and give this poor wanderer something to ponder.

[summerofanime]

The Official Summer of Anime IV List!

Below is the official anime list for Summer of Anime IV (2017). Sitting at 145 titles, there’s plenty of anime to delight your senses and surely something for everyone. Each anime series is worth 4 points for its respective 11-13 episode seasons, with their total worth posted next to them and all OVAs/films and Special Prize Anime have an attached points value. If a series currently has an ongoing season and we have failed to address this next to it, please note that it is not worth points this year. Otherwise, have fun guys and happy watching!

TV Series - 4 Points Per 11-13 episode season

91 Days (4 points)

A Lull in the Sea (8 points)

Amagi Brilliant Park (4 points)

Angel Beats (4 points)

Another (4 points)

Aoharu x Machinegun (4 points)

Black Bullet (4 points)

Black Heaven (4 points)

Boogiepop Phantom (4 points)

Chi’s Sweet Home (4 points)

Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion (16 points)

Cowboy Bebop (8 points)

Cute High Earth Defense Club LOVE! (8 points)

Danganronpa (8 points)

Darker than Black (12 points)

Deadman Wonderland (4 points)

Denki-Gai (4 points)

The Devil is a Part-Timer (4 points)

Descending Stories (8 points)

Dusk Maiden of Amnesia (4 points)

Engaged to the Unidentified (4 points)

Erased (4 points)

Flowers of Evil (4 points)

Food Wars (12 points)

Flying Witch (4 points)

Gabriel Dropout (4 points)

Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex (16 points)

Girls und Panzer (4 points)

Golden Time (8 points)

Gun x Sword (8 points)

Handa-kun (4 points)

Hatsukoi Monster (4 points)

Interview with Monster Girls (4 points)

Jormugand (8 points)

Kamichu! (4 points)

Kamisama Kiss (8 points)

Kids on the Slope (4 points)

Kill la Kill (8 points)

Kiss Him, Not Me (4 points)

Kuroko’s Basketball (24 points)

Kuromukuro (8 points)

Love, Chunibyo and Other Delusions (8 points)

Love Live! School Idol Project (8 points)

Magi: Adventure of Sinbad (4 points)

Maid-Sama! (8 points)

March Comes in like a Lion (8 points)

Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid (4 points)

Mob Psycho 100 (1 season)

Morose Mononokean (4 points)

My Hero Academia (4 points)

Mysterious Girlfriend X (4 points)

Natsuyuki Rendezvous (4 points)

Natsume Yuujinchou (24 points)

Neon Genesis Evangeleon (8 points)

NieA_7 (4 points)

No Game No Life (4 points)

Noein (8 points)

Noragami (8 points)

Now and Then, Here and There (4 points)

Oh! Edo Rocket (8 points)

One Outs (8 points)

One Punch Man (4 points)

One Week Friends (4 points)

Orange (4 points)

Outlaw Star (8 points)

Paradise Kiss (4 points)

Parasyte - the maxim - (8 points)

Persona 4: The Animation (12 points)

The Pet Girl of Sakurasou (8 points)

Ping Pong: the Animation (4 points)

Prison School (4 points)

Princess Tutu (12 points)

Ranpo Kitan: Game of Laplace (4 points)

ReLIFE (4 points)

R.O.D the TV (8 points)

Rokka: Braves of the Six Flowers (4 points)

Saga of Tanya the Evil (4 points)

Say, I Love You (4 points)

School-Live! (4 points)

Scum’s Wish (4 points)

Seven Deadly Sins (8 points)

Shigirui (4 points)

Shiki (8 points)

SHIROBAKO (8 points)

Sket Dance (24 points)

Space Dandy (8 points)

Special A (8 points)

Spice and Wolf (8 points)

Steins;gate (8 points)

Sweetness and Lightning (4 points)

Tamako Market (4 points)

Tanaka-kun is Always Listless (4 points)

Terror in Resonance (4 points)

Uta no☆Prince-sama (16 points)

The World Is Still Beautiful (4 points)

Watamote (4 points)

We Were There (8 points)

Yona of the Dawn (8 points)

Yu Yu Hakusho (36 points)

Yuri!!! on Ice (4 points)

OVAs/Movies

A Letter to Momo (1 point)

A Silent Voice (1 point)

Akira (1 point)

Angel’s Egg (1 point)

The Anthem of the Heart (1 point)

Aura: Koga Maryuin’s Last War (1 point)

The Boy and Beast (1 point)

Children Who Chase Lost Voices (1 point)

The Cockpit (2 points)

The Comic Artist and His Assistants (2 points)

Gunbuster (2 points)

Hal (1 point)

Harmonie (1 point)

Hotarubi no Mori e (1 point)

Komori-san Can’t Decline! (1 point)

Macross: Do You Remember Love? (1 point)

Mangirl! (1 point)

Mardok Scramble (2 points)

Megazone 23 (4 points)

My Neighbors the Yamadas (1 point)

My Sister Momoko (1 point)

Oshiete! Galko-chan (2 points)

Pale Cocoon (1 point)

Porco Rosso (1 point)

Samurai X: Trust and Betrayal (2 points)

She and Her Cat: Everything Flows (1 point)

Shelter (1 point)

Space Patrol Luluco (2 points)

Tantei Team KZ Jiken Note (3 points)

To-Y (1 point)

Tokyo Godfathers (1 point)

Tonari no Seki-kun: The Master of Killing Time (3 points)

When Marnie was There (1 point)

Wish Upon the Pleiades (1 point)

Your Name (1 point)

Special Prize

(Please note: We here at Summer of Anime advise parental discretion when viewing Special Prize anime as their content may be too mature for some audiences)

Aki Sora (4 points)

Bananya (8 points)

Comical Psychosomatic Medicine (4 points)

Gakuen Handsome (8 points)

Generation of Chaos (1 point)

I Love You, Suzuki-kun!! (1 point)

Odin: Photon Sailer Starlight (3 points)

Skelter Heaven (2 points)

Super Lovers (16 points)

Wonder Momo (2 points)

[guitarpornography]

Versus Steam: Game of the Year Award: #1

As 2017 is already putting out some interesting games, I’m a little wistful for all those games I received in 2017. While I can look forward to everything from Resident Evil VII to Persona 5, there’s always some magic to be had in those things we’ve shared with others, all those individual moments that made gaming special for the year past. While Inside was the best game I played in terms of both narrative and mechanics and Overwatch was the most engrossing fun, I ultimately decided our number one game based on a simple fact: if I had to recommend a game to people, had to tell them how special it is and how excited I am by its existence, it would have to be this one. Our Versus Steam #1 Game of the Year is…

Developed and Published by: Night School Studio (PC, PS4, XBox One)

Oxenfree is such a potent reminder of my days long past, those last washes of youth lapping at the shores of my life. In 2016 I turned 30 years old, which is such an oddly daunting thing to have happen and it amazes me that I’ve been playing games since I 3. That is twenty seven years of my life and I’ve yet to see my love of the hobby flag even a little. And Oxenfree is both a reminder of this and how my life evolved through these lines and into the one it became. Our main characters, Alex, Ren, Jonas, Nona and Clarissa are in the throes of their own youths, a complex weave of friendships and rivalries that so perfectly encapsulates youth. Alex and Clarissa are natural enemies, the pair strained over the death of Alex’s brother who was also Clarissa’s boyfriend, making them feel more apart from their grief rather than being brought closer together. Complicating this is the arrival of Jonas, the new step brother of Alex who is still feeling her out before immediately being trust into her social circle. And of course, Ren, who feels a lot like a much younger version of myself, who wants to make all their friendships stronger while also hooking up with Nona. It only took a few minutes of playing Oxenfree for me to immediately feel as if I knew all these people, feeling the echoes of my own lost youth in the complicated lives they’ve made for themselves that have so much in the way of stakes and yet so little in the grand scheme. I remember those feelings of longing to be accepted, to understand why vitriol is directed my way and how the curiosity of love could make you completely crazy and throughout the game we get to see this play out, see how their closeness is marred or brightened by the attempts at maturity. And really, that’s one of the best selling points i can give: these people come to be your friends and you come to care for them and want what is best for them, even if its hard for them to put it rationally. The dialogue and acting makes each character feel so natural and vibrant and while they at first play to stereotype, they broaden out immensely, making their story arcs sharply defined in the face of the odd situation they’re thrust into.

And while Inside was probably the most genuinely creepy game I played this year, Oxenfree does not disappoint in this department. While I spent the whole first paragraph rambling about how I loved the characters and how natural they felt, the situation they’re in is so far from natural it's amazing the team behind the game could pull this all off. I won’t completely spoil the game’s story, but let’s say the Scooby Gang’s trip to Edwards Island soon features mysterious radio static, alternate dimensions, ghosts and even some light time travel. I have a very natural appreciation for the story of this game because of how the larger story arc does eventually mirror the character arc of Alex, both seeming to center on grief and regret. Alex’s loss of her brother has left her a lot more hollow and withdrawn than she readily admits to and it becomes apparent that the forces keeping the group on the island are malicious for their own regrets, forcing them to suffer as they do. This leads to a lot of rather… disturbing moments, when times seems to fluctuate in and out of possibility. At one point Alex is sent rushing to a nearby fort to rescue Clarissa, only to save her and have the ghosts loop time back, so Alex ends up too late and finds Clarissa hanged. This is just such a potent element of the story, the idea that every triumph can be ripped away and replaced with a grizzly reality, or that failure can be reset to disorient and leave them in emotional distress. Only Alex ever really sees these effects and though resolved, it plays to her grief so much, the inability to actually save people when it matters, making the climax of the game especially potent. I definitely can’t spoil that but lets say its both very sad and very uplifting at the same time.

And naturally if you’re going to have a neat little narrative bow, the game itself must be presented strongly as well. More or less, Oxenfree acts as a point n click adventure in a very traditional sense, tasking players to travel to different locations and use different objects to solve puzzles. While none of this is groundbreaking, Oxenfree does add an interesting twist of including a radio whose frequencies are able to do various things in the world, such as unlock doors or commune with the ghosts around you, making a need to pay attention to details in the background necessary. This also adds a very nice way of adding ephemera to the world, as the radio seems to find strange snippets of things from time to time that we get hear remnants of the island’s past. There is also dialogue choice to be had, allowing players to really get into the head of Alex and respond to her friends and her enemies. Do you really want to confront Clarissa or get closer to Jonas or do you want to be aloof? More caring? And I would also mention the visual design as one of the game’s key elements, as the aesthetic is very well done and contributed mightily to the atmosphere. I would describe the art style as being a kind of lineless comic art painted in washed out flats, but I’m not even sure if that’s correct, as the characters really stand out from the backgrounds, Edwards Island coming to feel rather massive from the amount of hiking you have to do in it. Edwards Island reminds me at times of Silent Hill (the radio stuff isn’t helping with that comparison), feeling ominous and dangerous without really being dangerous in and of itself, like the mouth of some greater entity. It all kind of pulls together to make a narrative experience we inhabit wholly and become enraptured in by the same way the characters interact with the world through our use of the mechanics. The end result is a game that left me so happy and haunted when I finished it, so wistful to see these characters go and so happy I got to spend time with them.

And that is it for this year’s list. Oxenfree is my game of the year. And yet when I look to the horizon, I’m excited to know what else can excite me like this, what else can delight and amaze me like this. Games surprise me with what ends up being special to me, as I’m never going into a game and guessing “yes, I will like this game because I will relate and like the characters and the atmosphere will be that weird creepy kind I love,” but instead word of mouth tells me that I have the possibility to enjoy it. Perhaps nothing I’ve said about Oxenfree has lit your brain on fire to play it, but you will be missing out on a game that is overwhelmingly engaging and so rich in story and character development, so tense and disorienting and so wonderful and uplifting.

[guitarpornography]

Versus Steam: Game of the Year Award 2016: #2

Sorry for the delay in these posts, as I’ve found myself rather busy of late. I’ve mentioned before that it is rare for me to play games for extended periods of time, as I usually like to move on to fresh games with their own interesting twists. However, certain games draw me back to them in rapid succession, making me want nothing more than to be entwined in their worlds for extended periods of time, drinking in their aesthetics and seeing just how far I can stretch my paltry mortal skills. While Dark Souls III made a valiant attempt at being my most played game of the year, there was one notable, notable exception that I spent so many hours playing, so much time exploring and being intensely drowned in fun by. Our Versus Steam #2 Game of the Year Award goes to…

Developed and Published by: Blizzard Entertainment (PC, PS4, Xbox One)

While I’m sure many of you played this and knew it was going to be excellent, this one surprised me a lot. Not that it would be good, as Blizzard is way too solid of a company for much in the way of poor quality to come out of it, but more the fact that I enjoyed it so much. In all honesty, I don’t really care for multiplayer games very much. I rarely want to extend my gaming experiences past their narrative conclusions and on the rare occasion I do, I find myself growing bored by them quickly. So the fact that I still  commit a good amount of time to a game that is exclusively multiplayer surprises and delights me quite a bit. I’ve been trying to piece together exactly why and I think a lot has to do with just how much variety I experience I have when playing it. While I have more than a few friends I play with regularly, I do a lot of public matches with randos, meaning any one game of Overwatch can have an extreme set of circumstances come to life. So many of my games have resulted in me seeing victory come down to the wire, with only a strong push preserving our narrow lead and forcing the withdrawal of the enemy from our point of control. Other times, I see myself pushed into oblivion, all of my actions futile in the face of superior foes and causing me to salivate for just one more match to avenge my loss. The rush I experience from simply playing the game is fierce, the desire to present actual skill and pull a victory out, to crush my enemies, drive them before me and receive the lamentations of the women. I feel like there is just so many little factors that contribute to each game, from character choices to deployment of skills that inviting myself into the public space with it means I am going to have a particularly interesting time regardless of the outcome. But when those rare times do come and I manage a Play of the Game, the electricity is real, making all my turmoil feel extra rewarding. I’m sure I could have this experience with a lot of multiplayer games, Overwatch is the one that actually engages it for me and makes me crave to feel the rush.

And by golly, I love the characters. Slotted into four main character archetypes, each one has their own distinct style that makes playing them rewarding. I tend to naturally gravitate towards playing either Tank or Support, as I find both more in tune to my style, but I feel like there’s something for everyone in this game. Prefer a fast style with lots of quick twitch shooting? Play Tracer. Want to drop in and cause inordinate amount of damage in close range? How bout Reaper or Genji? Or do you just want to stand still and be unto death? Then let me tell you about Bastion. My personal favorite hero to play is Zarya, a rather muscular woman armed with a gun I would describe as being not unlike the Ghostbuster’s weapon of choice. Linked with this, the character can dispense shields to themself and their allies to absorb damage and translate that to damage for the plasma cannon, making either the constant beam or lobbed grenades more potent. As Zarya is rather slow, this can be a dangerous game of gaining just enough damage to make life extremely difficult for opponents before reeling back to safety, drawing them in a kite along with you. But when here ultimate hits, it is so ludicrously game changing, drawing all enemies in an area to a stationary point and giving you a bit of a shooting gallery to play with. I’ve ensnared the bulk of enemy teams multiple times, allowing us to just play target practice till they’re all gone. While Blizzard is constantly tinkering with balance and the meta changes rather frequently, almost any hero can be of use out in the field so long as you’re willing to use them. Even characters I rarely play like Hanzo or Winston offer a lot in their toolkit, giving you a push to figure out exactly what their deal is and how it might be advantageous to use them at times. This is made all the more apparent as a player can switch characters during a match, if the enemy is presenting some sort of glaring weakness or you want to prioritize objectives in a different way. It can be just balls to the wall fun to see what works with what and I continue to experiment with it to this day.

And with solid mechanics in place, aesthetics take center stage, as all of the characters and environments are gorgeously designed. Seriously, I cannot stress enough how pretty this game is. All of the characters are presented with a cartoon-like aesthetic and a sheen I would describe as not being unlike sculpted clay. Each one seems lovingly crafted to give them a very distinctive personality just from their appearance, and its a delight to see them in motion, especially during introductions. I’m also tickled pink to see Mei accidentally icewall herself up on the rare occasion I play of the game with her and get a sly smile from the badassery of McCree. I’ve heard it said that hte most important part of character design is that they be immediately identifiable by silhouette and this is something that Blizzard has taken a step beyond. I would also remark that the level design is top notch, as the multiple routes of progress on a given level are what gives the variety a chance to take hold. While I would say the location choices are a bit on the generic side, each is lovingly crafted and so immediately recognizable in what can happen on it, making zipping around the field of play a headlong dash into ludicrous madness. My personal favorite remains Watchpoint: Gibraltar which somehow morphs from a forward base to an industrial area and into a carved out cave base in just a few meters of space, with the verticality giving a tremendous bonus depending on the character you’re playing as. Sometimes I just gawk in wonder at the skybox above before I fire another rocket into a crowd of idiots and delight in how chaotic everything is and yet how easily I can tell what is going on, which is exactly what this sort of game needs.

This is the first game on this list that has made me want to play it by dint of writing about it, and as soon as this post goes up I shall return once more to its depths. For the most part, I wonder if I had not found Overwatch if I would have liked another multiplayer game as much and my tendency is to say no, simply because most lack the comic book flare that makes all the silly tussling that I’m engaged in feel both filled with variety and so easy to pick up and play. While I may have been called a n00b on occasions, my experiences have been overwhelmingly positive with the community, driving me to figure the game out for myself and pour hours into its gorgeous world.

[guitarpornography]

Versus Steam: Game of the Year Award 2016: #3

As I mentioned before, picking between my top three was very difficult this year. In my hands I had a great narrative, great mechanics and one that had a little bit of both, so I waffled as to which was most important to me. To this game’s credit, I don’t think it can get much more perfect and its very cryptic delivery of story with tight mechanics was a treat to behold. I’m sure you’ve seen this one on a lot of lists but my Versus Steam Game of the Year Award #3 goes to…

Developed and Published by: Playdead (PC, PS4)

Inside might be perfect. Like seriously, I have no criticism whatsoever for it and all the criticism I have seen has been related to taste rather than actual flaws in the game. When Playdead hit the scene way back when with Limbo, the stark presentation and contrast of a small boy in a big scary world took on a life of its own, creating a lot of imitators though many lacked the heart Limbo had its core. Refining this formula, Inside is a vision that I would say is similar but ultimately more effective, giving a surprisingly crushing weight to the proceedings. I mentioned a while back that 2016 was not a great year for horror games and while I believe this to be true, Inside had me so disquieted and disturbed throughout its playtime that I could hardly stand it. Colors are a muted affair, existing but feeling rather flat, something reflected in the details on characters who seem often more like simulacra rather than actual people. The 2D perspective stretches endlessly giving both a sense of desolation and oddly claustrophobic feeling to anything that encroaches it, making us immediately aware of our frailty in the face of our ordeal. Many of my favorite sequences take place underwater, where a strange long haired creature lurks, desiring nothing more than to drown us. While we can trick it to get aware, its amorphous presence flits like a dart through the water immediately driving tension to such a large degree. So many times I felt like I was in immediate danger, which is rarely a feeling I get from a game, but Inside has managed to make me feel afraid for my player character, to want to succeed just in the nick of time so I can move out of the darkness and back towards the world of light, no matter how far away that might be.

I’d speculate as to the story, but as omni-present as it is, the actual details are obscure. From what I gather, some sort of… something has occured, leading to the authorities to try and corral the boy, as well as many lifeless husks of people which can be controlled by remote. While we see them studied, they also seem content to simply let them fester along with a number of other body horrors, culminating in an ending that is both weird, disturbing and oddly sweet in the satisfaction it gives. I am so curious as to what exactly has happened to this world, what calamity could have befallen it to allow for this seeming disregard and absence of human life. We start seemingly hunted by the government or some such people, but so quickly fall into a world of disease and mutation, little of it making apparent sense. Why are there so many lifeless bodies and why can we control them? Why are large areas flooded and filled with the long haired drowner? What does the ending mean exactly and what has befallen the rest of humanity? I’m no stranger to cryptic stories and this one really does push all my buttons in just the right places, driving a lot of inquiry in my mind while conceding the thematic concerns may be easier to understand than I think.

As you might expect, Inside is very similar to Limbo mechanically, though with a few of its own twists. As a physics puzzler, it's up to the player to more or less figure out how to progress out of an area, with most of our tools of pushing, pulling, running and jumping being handed to us at the outset. While at times this can be a simple chase, at other times it's a matter of navigating the verticality of an area to develop a way forward, to find switches and routes past danger or towards some new mechanic we can use. I mentioned the lifeless people before and at times in our journey we can come across these special helmets that allow us to control them, using their different heights or location or numbers to work past areas that would be too troublesome for a young boy to navigate. This reminded me a great deal of the Swapper in execution, these tight puzzles about being able to think on different planes but with the same movement restrictions being placed on each. In one sequence we’re even given full reign of a herd without being made to be stationary, making for an interesting take of corralling and moving the necessary number of them needed to further open up the level. Of course, secrets abound in Inside, making the exploration and use of the mechanics much richer since we can find a mish mash of previous ideas brought together in these areas. I remember one in particular requiring the use of fire, something I don’t remember before or after, so even within its depths, Inside was adding more to its repertoire. While I failed a number of times, this was almost always due to thinking as Inside does such a good job presenting its toolbox to you and it remains tight throughout the game.

Seriously, I’m expecting this and Doom to be on most game of the year lists. I’m curious where Playdead can really go from here, as they have created such an amazing niche for themselves with both story and mechanic and yet seem so endlessly creative in what they can actually do. Inside is a testament to the way games can be built to be better on the backs of their predecessors, leaving a haunting impression of the world in its wake and so many secrets to unravel within one’s own heart.

[guitarpornography]

Versus Steam: Game of the Year Awards: Runner-Ups

Rather than do this after the list or right before the number one game as I originally planned, I found myself thinking this placement would make the most sense. Honestly, the top three for me were difficult to order, as I could easily pick each as my favorite game of the year based on how I was feeling at any given moment. Though I’ve finalized a proper ordering, you could easily just consider them my Triforce of Game of the Year as each offered something amazing that I really want to talk about. However, I did play plenty of other games this year, though I’m sure I missed more than a few. So if you don’t see a game you loved in this post or the three that follow it, send me a message to let me know. I’ve also decided to categorize this with some silly award titles, befitting just why they deserve mention. Without further ado…

Versus Steam’s “The Last Game I Cut Out of the Top Ten” Award

Developed by: Stoic

Published by: Versus Evil (PC, PS4, XBox One)

Oh, I feel so bad about leaving this one off the list proper. When The Banner Saga won my Game of the Year Award back in 2014, I was immediately excited for the sequel and Stoic did not disappoint. Picking up immediately where the last one left off, the player continues the rocky road of managing life versus managing strength, resulting in a tumultuous trip in which every decision feels weighty. The art style continues to be gorgeous and the consequences the first game have a real impact on characterization, adding layers of depth to characters that were already pretty complex. Where it fails is in what we might call Trilogy Syndrome, as the second part of any trilogy has to shoulder a lot of weight in setup, without giving any sense of finality. While The Banner Saga 2 has an exciting climax, it’s hard to piece together what it will all ultimately mean for the series as a whole and it makes it very hard to say that that is satisfying. Still, the epic journey is on display and with characters starting more powered up, the layers of strategy have increased in building a team for the field. And as always, the aesthetics of the game are top notch to a degree I cannot express with a mere picture or sound clip. They must be seen in motion.

Versus Steam’s “This Game is Soooo Long but I’m Really Enjoying What I’ve Played So Far” Award

Developed by: Square Enix Business Divison 2

Published by: Square Enix (PS4, Xbox One)

I cheated a few years back and included Dragon Age: Inquisition on a Game of the Year Award list, but I had been drawing towards what I felt was the conclusion, making me comfortable with putting it on the list. With Final Fantasy XV, I feel almost like I will never actually finish this game, since I’m always getting sidetracked from any sort of story progress. But I like what I have played so far. The world is huge and full of interesting, though not wholly fleshed out things and the mvoe towards an active battle system has encouraged me to explore more, as it gives a sense of urgency during random encounters rather than a feeling of being stopped. The visual design is stellar and while I at times feel lost for context, I become more and more drawn into the characters we have as our protagonists, making the road trip we’re playing through feel very lively and fun. My only major disappointment thus far has been the game's tendency to kind of phone in motivation for people, assuming we’ll understand why they do things based on what they do rather than adding weight to their emotional states or follow-ups. But this is the first time my beloved Final Fantasy has provided me with much of anything I’m interested in since Final Fantasy XII, so I am most thankful for that.

Versus Steam’s “You Will Not Believe This Shit” Award

Developed and Published: by DEVGRU-P (PC)

So you’ve been assigned to a tank training school in Japan, only to find out that it's really just a normal highschool run by the military and the tanks are in fact, cute girls. I cannot begin to express how novel and enjoyable the premise of this game is alone, as my head immediately tries to imagine actually using one of these girls in combat, piggybacked to them with shells being fired from their normal sized mouths. If it sounds ridiculous, its because it is, but that’s all the fun. I’ve really come to enjoy streaming visual novels and dating sims over the past year because they can be so silly and enjoyable (not to mention its fun to read the dialogue aloud in funny voices) and Panzermadels may be the most fun I had with this. The only thing that really hurts the the game is the fact that it has a short length and scenes that are constant to all scenarios, making some stretches kind of dull since you’ve seen it before. But the tank waifus are cute and FOR ODIN’S SAKE! THE PINK HAIRED TANK IS A RUSSIAN TSUNDERE! WHAT MORE DO YOU WANT PEOPLE?!

Versus Steam’s “I Put Way Too Many Hours Into this Game” Award

Developed by: FromSoftware

Published by: Namco Bandai (PC, PS4, XBox One)

Seriously, the amount of hours I’ve poured into multiple playthroughs of the game proper and yet additional hours dedicated to PvP is quite robust. I didn’t include Dark Souls III on the proper list mostly from the vague feeling that I was enjoying it because it was Dark Souls more than that I was enjoying it because it was an awesome game, but all the key ingredients are there. The story is vague and obscured, referencing events of the first game but never firmly latching on to anything but glimpses and providing a lot of other fan service for us die hards. The combat is slightly faster than before, echoing a bit of Bloodborne in making sure your aggression never fully wanes. The boss’ are a mixed bag, though Dancer of the Boreal Valley, the Nameless King and Champion Gundyr are among my favorites to ever be in the series. It all works just how I want my Souls game to work and I love the addition of Weapon Arts to the game for adding a wrinkle in PvP. I know people love to Estoc spam there, but I keep managing to catch them off guard with Weapon Arts they’ve never or rarely seen, making it a very satisfying experience.

Versus Steam’s “I Didn’t Actually Play This, but the Let’s Play I Watched Made it Look Awesome” Award

Developed and Published by: Front Line Games

I don’t normally watch a lot of Let’s Plays, though Maize ended up cropping up (hahahahaha) on one ot the few channels I follow and i must say, it was one of the funniest games I’ve seen in a long while. Built as a first person puzzle game, the player guides themselves through a farm that secretly houses a science base and well… sentient corn. Along the way they pick up an angry Russian Teddy Ruxpin knockoff as a companion and things keep spiraling out of control from there. This joins a handful of games I really just want to recommend based on the crazy things I saw happen in them, but this is so much dependent on the irreverent humor. Passive aggressive post-it notes fill the lab, as the seeming madness traces its roots in all sorts of ways, most notably the thickness of the corn and the seeming lack of objective for interacting with them. While the puzzles seem on the easy side, it looks like such an enjoyable ride and I cannot wait to play it for myself.

All of the above games are ones I would recommend for you to check out, even if they’re not quite the niche you’re looking for usually, since they present a wide range of styles to experience maybe for the first time. Still, we have three more actual awards to give out and I promise, they’re gonna be good ones.

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Versus Steam: Game of the Year Award 2016: #4

Have you ever tried to describe fun to someone? It’s an odd thing to do since all the feelings associated with it are rather nebulous. While I could sense that fun is the feeling of joy and catharsis that comes from an activity, I feel like I’m piling up adjectives rather quickly more or less for the sake of doing so. But for all my pretensions about video games as art, I tend to neglect to directly say that a game’s art can come from how much fun you have with it. And this is where my love of video games originally extended from: the point where watching things I interact with move on the screen and I am able to create an action, which in turn creates fun. If this seems like a weird set-up for our Versus Steam #4 Game of the Year Award, it is because it speaks so much for itself.

Developed by: id Software

Published by: Bethesda Softworks (PC, PS4, XBox One)

If this doesn’t appear on most Game of the Year Award lists, I will eat my non-existent hat. First person shooters are such a bread and butter genre for gaming and I know what I like in mine: fast, frenzied gunplay, seemingly overwhelming odds, a cavalcade of ways of dealing death and just enough story to let me know why things need the bullets in them. Doom delivered this for me almost to a T, but let me talk about something kind of offbeat that really caught my fancy: I like the fact that the upgrade system is useful but largely arbitrary. I don’t know when every shooter decided it needed an RPG-like upgrade system in their makeup, but it's always struck me as being completely superfluous. Why would killing something make my gun stronger unless this is David Brin’s The Practice Effect (hello obscure sci-fi reference)? The necessity of this seems to be giving the player some sort of triggered reward for playing, as if doing the basic mechanics of the game or finding currency is reward enough to simply make the load a little lighter. Doom has this element as well but in a way that makes more sense to me. Most weapons the player acquires have the ability to have one to two secondary fire modes and the bulk of the upgrade system comes from unlocking these and then upgrading them, with their final evolution coming from use of the secondary fire. While some of these are downright silly to use, others make chaotic fights more enjoyable, as the more ways to deal punishment, the better. The fact that you can more than fully go without them is nice, but I enjoy the fact that rather than make it a reward for playing, they come about as an increased toolset that you are able to use more usefully if you so choose. The rail gun’s alternate fire is very powerful, but starts off leaving the player stationary, so being able to upgrade it by doing my killing business so I can move is a big bonus in encouraging me to use it. The assault rifle’s micro rockets are a hoot to explode demons with, but when they become unlimited, it's even more joyous to run and gun with. Rather than just be an extra thing, upgrades are a way to make the killing more enjoyable rather than less cumbersome in their use and this is such a little nitpicky thing, that it should speak volumes about the rest of the game.

...which of course is awesome. Gunplay in Doom is outstanding, with almost everything having a rather satisfying feel to its use. The shotgun feels meaty in its blasts, while the chain gun feels fast in shooting, slow in carrying and unwieldy in firing. It's a nice touch that the visceral satisfaction of each weapon feels appropriate and the hellspawn you face are a wonderfully varied bunch to soak up the fire. Of all the enemies in the game, I was most unusually vexed by the standard imp, which slings fireballs at the player while crawling all around the scenery. While my usual strategy was backpedal with some spray and pray, the more mobile enemy type could give me fits and whittle my health down quickly. While not an imposing challenge, they’re matched to plenty of enemies that are willing to and will be up in your grill the entire time, chasing you relentlessly or firing huge blasts at your direction, requiring the added mobility you experience. Unsurprisingly, this is very reminiscent of the original Doom with all the chaos transpiring on screen, making shooting not about precision, but instead about overall damage, cutting down what you can without jumping in the center of it. I was also pleased to see health and armor are not regenerating throughout and guns never be reloaded, making things even more frantic as you search for ways to stay alive without ever breaking up the feel of actually staying alive. Coupled with the inclusion of the “instant kill” chainsaw, which costs fuel but can get enemies to drop ammo in copious amount and the glory kill system, which rewards the player for getting an enemy on the verge of health, and a fight becomes a lot to take in: a big mass of enemies of all stripes trying to kill you, the ability to fight them off but not without the risk of resources and plenty of in a pinch fire power to pull it off with.

Now normally, I like to spend a great chunk of these write-ups talking about story and Doom has one for sure. Is it one you’re really involved with? Not… really. Don’t get me wrong, almost all actions are driven by the Doomslayer and his quest to make demons not be alive, but the overarching story is more of a pissing contest that the Doomslayer wants no part of, but is invariably drawn into. I’m sure you’ve heard about the opening segment but it bears repeating about just how cool it is: the Doomslayer is awakened and an NPC begins telling him why, only for him to rip the monitor off the wall so he doesn’t have to listen and gameplay begins. This devil may care attitude is such a wonderful change of pace, as a larger struggle over occultism and energy harvested from hell has so very little to do with what the player is actually doing, making the Doomslayer a player surrogate, caring more for destruction than reasoning. The odd thing is how much this does in making him an interesting character, as we can easily see his viewpoint about how killing hellspawn and shutting down things at any cost might outweigh political posturing. Id does a great job of programming a lot of little gestures that bring across his tough and focused persona, like a revenant bent on achieving his one goal and kind of just going along for the ride for the rest. I’m told the story is well fleshed out in ephemera one can find about the levels but the game is all meat and blood, so the amount you want to engage the brain should be left to such an arbitrary standard rather than forcing the player to deal with it.

The irony of me being really into something so largely gameplay heavy is not lost on me, but dammit the game is fun and acts in quick witted ways I enjoy. While I can definitely enjoy most shooters, it feels like its been awhile since I’ve gotten so into the chaotic feel of combat, the whirling dervish of death I can become at the right moments. Doom provided me a fairly challenging, but ultimately satisfying way to engage all my visceral instincts and I really appreciate the depth of ways to execute the same general ideas. While certainly old school in feel, Doom is all for the power of smarter faster feel a new game can provide and along with Shadow Warrior 2, has shown me that shooters can still be the crazy fun rides I love them as.

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Versus Steam: Game of the Year Award 2016: #5

While the last cycle of consoles was largely dominated by cover based shooters and first person action ‘em ups, I’m not really sure if our current generation of games is being dominated by any one particular genre. Sure, there are trends everywhere. Sandboxes seem to rise up for seemingly no reason other than to be big, MOBAs seem to crop up more and more and survival crafting tends to slip into just about anything, but there’s always a balance to this, largely due in part to the rise of the indie market. I like games that are different and I like games that I find emotionally resonant, so it's nice when the limits of what can actually be are tested in such a way to make this possible, even if I can’t quite decide if this will be a continuing trend for the market. Our Versus Steam #6 Game of the Year Award for 2016 may have seen similar life in other games, but created something very much its own…

Developed by: Campo Santo

Published by: Campo Santo/ Panic (PC, XBox One, PS4)

I like walking simulators. I’m not ashamed to admit it. I really enjoyed both the Stanley Parable and Gone Home and I liked Dear Esther’s storytelling even if I wish it had something to do with player interaction rather than randomness. But as of right now, I would say that Firewatch tops my list as the best in the genre. Through and through, Firewatch is a game about experiencing what is happening in the world you inhabit and reflecting on the contrast presented between the idyllic and the dark. I’ll break this down into two easy to understand parts: the aesthetic design and the storytelling. Holy crap, Firewatch is a gorgeous game. I don’t know if I can immediately think of a game I found more gorgeous than Firewatch, with its setting of Shoshone National Forest presenting a breathtaking view of nature. Something about the color pallet choice makes everything seem so vibrant, with the game’s day and night cycle presenting a wonderful cinematography to the affair, as the world is one of blissful stillness. Throughout our treks, we make our way around the various vistas, seeing the intrusion of human life but never fully seeing it encroach upon the verdant tangles, as the mysterious air of the natural world is our most constant companion. In a great design choice, all humans we encounter along the way are only seen silhouetted at distance, making them feel like shades of something apart from the forest and allowing us to more strongly feel their presence as different from what should actually be there. Music and sound effects, though sparse, contribute along with this, largely making everything feel wistful and even at times pastoral, as if we’ve slipped away into a world apart from the modern one. But as I said, the key to this is the contrast it builds to the story and that’s where things get more complex…

Our protagonist Henry is a man on the run; not from any authority but rather the fact that his life is slipping away as his wife is being lost to Alzheimer’s disease. The chance to take the Firewatch is a chance to be alone from a world that is no longer kind to him and in turn, to forget his own demons for a while in solitude. However, Henry is not truly alone in the wilderness, as his direct supervisor Delilah is in contact with him regularly and soon their relationship blooms as both are willing to confront their own mistakes together. This would seem almost like a grand metaphor for the setting, the sense of rebirth that comes from nature and how experiencing it allowed Henry to center himself and rebuild his life. But that’s not exactly what ends up happening. I won’t spoil it for those of you who haven’t played it, but Firewatch is a story with a lot of dark underpinnings that go unexplained. While the natural world we experience is beautiful, the humans in it are not perfect, starting at being crass and littering and eventually running into much darker themes of tragedy and grief. There’s always a sense of us being kept in the dark, that we are now in an idyllic prison waiting for some shoe to drop even though we cannot fully expect what it will be. Henry and Delilah’s relationship is jovial and eventually caring, but it seems more tinged by need to have someone else rather than a serious want to be around another person, something made more obvious by their actual physical distance. Delilah seems to come almost unhinged at time, some sin tainting her talks with Henry and further contaminating the wilderness around them. The natural world is beautiful but the human world is extremely flawed, leaving us with a sense that no matter how isolated we try to become we can be both saved and damned by other people anyway.

That is not to say that the story is without a sense of poetry, as I genuinely came to care about Henry and Delilah. Voiced by Rich Sommer and Cissy Jones respectively, the pair really comes to life and feels about as real as any video game characters I can remember. Henry seems to have a bit of self-possession in his performance, but his constant need of acknowledgment and somewhat short temper show a man who is kind of desperate and Delilah comes off as both playful but I also want to say guarded. Neither is willing to be more than pleasant until it becomes apparent that these facades come from the same place. I really enjoyed the interplay between the too, the jokes and funny remarks that kind of stem from their growing closer, but for me, the best scene comes from them not really interacting. SPOILER ALERT but one night Henry receives a radio call from his wife Julia and the two are able to catch up a little and depending on player choice, can sort of spark the love over obligation of their situation. But it turns out that its not Julia on the line, but instead Delilah with a sleep addled Henry allowing this play out in his dreams. Its heartbreaking and a real moment of honest humanity for Delilah that she does not disabuse Henry of his illusion, seeming to understand his guilt and pain from being where he is. I love how much personality is on display for the pair and it made me genuinely more curious about various aspects of the story, something that has led me into a great deal of fan theories regarding it.

I suppose your mileage with Firewatch is going to be dependent on your appreciation of narrative over mechanic, but even that seems to have a bit of a chance at emergent gameplay. It’s my hope that Firewatch provides a benchmark for not just walking simulators as games, but also for maturity in narratives, as Firewatch is very much an adult story that doesn’t upon the cheap thrills of adulthood to cut its teeth. A beautiful sightseeing tour, stepping into the boots of Henry is a heavy experience to undertake but even as the darkness bears down upon us, there’s always a voice in the distance to guide us back.

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Versus Steam: Game of the Year Award 2016: #6

I don’t know about you guys, but I am just sick and tired of the working world. Video games are one of my outlets to escape for a while and really lose myself in an experience. That being said, I’ve played many games over the years that have been a slog to get through, with each minute spent with the game becoming an immense grind just to see where it all ends up. While I’m usually happy to see this sort of thing to completion the escapism I feel is kind of lost and I’m left wondering as to what the experience ultimately meant. Of course, some games can make this daily grind feel both rewarding and relaxing, like a gentle breeze providing wonderful relief in the heat of the day to day world. Our Versus Steam #6 Game of the Year Award goes to one such game…

Developed by: ConcernedApe

Published by: Chucklefish Games (PC, PS4, XBox One)

Having been a Harvest Moon from way back in the day, I shouldn’t be surprised just how much I enjoyed Stardew Valley, as its oddly languid gait is both of a product of intense routine and relaxing stimulation. Having inherited a farm, the player character is tasked with getting it up and running to their satisfaction. This seems like a rather loose goal, but the demands of farming means a continual push to better your resources for efficiency and what you ultimately find rewarding to do. In my real life I am an amateur brewer, so when I found out I could make Pale Ale in Stardew, I was more than happy to climb on board. Stardew does take a few cues from modern survival games, as I found my ability to build kegs for such an operation not immediately accesible, requiring both a recipe I could only obtain once I was a good enough farmer and needing particular ingredients that would require harvesting and mining to complete. This sets about the key ingredient of Stardew, the delay of gratification in the face of hard work. I chose the goal I wanted, namely to become a beer baron and then used my time to make it possible, farming enough hops to make my Pale Ales when time came and getting the bars smelted and oak resin collected to eventually make the kegs. Almost anything that is farmed requires the player to start small and telescope into a larger operation, automating certain parts of work (namely watering) in order to give one more time to increase other aspects, including befriending your farm animals to make them produce more richly. It all kind of feeds together giving me a reason to do the basic work, a means to become more efficient (and richer really) and then a further goal to expand upon once my farm had passed the first mark.

However, there is so such more than farming in Stardew Valley. Off the top of my head, here’s a list of things I did in the game: go mining, fishing, cook, adventure in dungeons, make friends, get married, rehabilitate a recreation center, expand the house on my property, name and collect various animals, etc. etc.. There really is such a breadth of things to do during the normal course of a day that it's a wonder I ever had as much time to do what I did. The community center the player is tasked with reviving was at the center of a lot of my activities, as they ask you to gather certain resources to trade with them in order to see it blossom once more. Some are easy, like money while others, such as the fishing ones, required me to intensely focus on various seasons and spots to bring in the necessary fish for it to work. Each of these activities is balanced with a sort of mini game, allowing for interaction from the player in their tasks. Adventuring was always my favorite, as it gives you the most to do, both breaking rocks for minerals and possible escape routes and monsters to fight that would otherwise attack you. Each layer of the mines was more chaotic and more varied in what it could possess always making me curious if my stamina would hold out long enough for me to get to the next floor I could exit without losing progress. But even when I had completed this to my satisfaction, having gained some impressive treasure, I still had a full load of fish to collect that I had otherwise ignored. While the game sort of progresses to year two with some finality, the game remains open to you to continue in whatever way you like.

And this brings it to the thing that impressed me most in Stardew Valley: the absolute sense of community that comes from the village you’re in. As I mentioned, I kind of finished up with most non-farming continuity before the two year mark, so I made it my absolute goal to befriend as many people as I could. And what better way to befriend people than mayonnaise? Seriously, as a gift, I'm fairly sure only two people disliked it. I learned the habits of my fellow towsnfolk, learning when to greet and speak to them and provide them presents and as your friendships with them progress, you get to learn more about them as people and receive help from them and they in turn from you. This can also blossom into romance if you should so desire, with eligible bachelors and bachelorettes about town eager to return whatever affection you give them. I married Maru early in my playthrough (though I eventually accidentally adultered with Penny. Oops.), letting me see even further into her life and to have her become part of the larger tapestry of my farm. The town is rich with traditions that such things are made for, including the Flower Dance which occurs early in a playthrough typically leaving one alone but when a year rolls by, you can be awash in suitors asking for your hand in dance. I had so much learning about the lives of the townsfolk, even if some were on the darker side of humanity and this made me more excited to enjoy the various work I was putting towards these events. Although I may have left for a while, there is still many old friends I need to check back in on before too long.

I know plenty of people now that have gone back to Stardew Valley and started whole new farms and whole new lives and I’m curious if and when that itch will hit me. Above all else, Stardew Valley is a relaxing game, asking the player to grind for sure, but at their own pace and for their own goals. While there are certain things to strive for, their necessity only sets up the chance to create new rewards and goals, all the while fostering a kind of life amongst the digital flora and fauna. Perhaps my grandfather was wise to leave me his farm, for it was just what I needed in my life.

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Versus Steam: Game of the Year Awards: #7

I’ve looked back on my lists over my Game of the year lists recently and wonder sometimes about the headspace I was in when I put them together. While a moment in time might have me thinking one way, with time and reflection my opinions have grown and changed. While Thomas Was Alone ranked fourth on my list for 2012, I still recommend it to people to this day as its brilliant storytelling and simple design speak volumes about how I think video games can be pushed as a medium. And not only that, I only honorable mentioned Spec Ops: the Line, despite the fact that it is one of the most haunting storylines I have ever played through. 2016 was kind enough to give me a game that not only reminded me of Spec Ops: the Line’s chilling march into the horrors of war, but did so in a package that was both engaging and strangely fun. Our Versus Steam #7 Game of the Year Award goes to…

Developed by: EA DICE

Published by: Electronic Arts (PC, PS4, XBox 1)

Was it just me or was EA a lot less… evil this year? As I’ve heard plenty of reports about just how good Titanfall 2 was and with a few steps away from the microtransaction train, EA seemed more focused on releasing good games first and worrying about their sustainability as a market later. Battlefield 1 was a game that drew my attention immediately as not only am I fan of the Battlefield series (I have played way too much Battlefield 3 in my lifetime) but its chosen topic of World War I fascinates me. World War I may be one of the biggest global conflicts I know very little about, remembering only bits and pieces of its history from my high school days and lacking the luster of glory that was World War II, has not been as regularly portrayed in media. Diving into the experience is to enter a world of confusion and obfuscated meaning, as each of the soldiers we inhabit during the six campaigns is but a single piece of the cogs of war, feeling the loss of balance that comes from such a massive conflict. I mentioned Spec Ops: the Line in my preamble very strategically as Battlefield 1’s opening segment may be the most haunting moment in a game for me since I played through Spec Ops. SPOILER ALERT I suppose, but we first take the role of a Harlem Hellfighter during a battle against the Germans in France. As shells explode around us and we try to keep our positions until our tanks can provide support, the world around us churns up, exploding into seemingly endless waves of enemy soldiers. While we can thin the herd, more always seem to be arriving bringing with a maelstrom of flames and gas, the smoke on the horizon barely letting us see the spectre of death haunting the hills. And then you die. I don’t remember exactly how many times I died during this segment but it was at least a handful but rather than simply restart, a graphic pops up on screen listing the name of the soldier you were playing as, as well as an epitaph of their life span. And this will happen each and every time you die. You will look directly at the  grave of the man you played as and have to resume the battle as a new soldier on the field. I find this such a poetic image of what this war must have been like, to simply be a part of a larger force stripped of individually, but DICE pulls us back to show us that these soldiers were people fighting for something whether they understood it or not, experiencing hellish conditions for some treaty signed far away from their homes and how quickly they could be snuffed out of existence. Though there’s always a sense of rah-rah patriotism in the portrayal of war, Battlefield 1 slows this idea and puts magnifying glass on the fact that war is goddamn unimaginably terrifying and so dehumanizing in the face of its larger meaning. And this moment hung over me like a spectre throughout my playtime with the game, that no matter what I did, I was just a piece of something much more terrifying go on around me.

I don’t want this to sound as if Battlefield 1 is a totally grim experience, as many of the segments are themselves fun to play and possess different tones to reflect the fact that different soldiers would have had different experiences depending on how the war went for them. The Friends in High Place segment strikes me in particular as somewhat lighthearted for its gentlemanly approach to how aerial combat was like in a time of limited aviation. While the character of Clyde Blackburn is quite rakish in his manners, he quickly finds himself in over his head in a world he is not supposed to be. Yet there is always this sense of wonder when it comes to the flights you take part in, this wonderful chaos that comes from above the clouds as you try to survive and forge camaraderie with your copilot , that we are doing something the world has never seen before. And even if we are insignificant in the larger face of the war, we make huge differences in saving lives we will never know. Battlefield 1 makes glory this strange endeavor between individual action and the larger outcome, with a soldier’s personal story being capable of something amazing and yet so haunted by the fact that they may have made it out but their friends haven’t. There are so many moments I had during the game where I felt utterly badass in what I was achieving, so strong and powerful (hello first part of Avanti Savoia) only to quickly be subsumed once more. I think part of this stands in its difference to the modern warfare games that have glutted the market for so long, as we’re never meant to feel fully at ease. Though we are capable of making a difference, it is but a drop in an ocean. But what is an ocean if not a multitude of drops?

It is worth noting that the six campaigns all have a remarkable different tone in terms of gameplay. While Friends in High Places is all about flight, Through Mud and Blood has us in control of a British tank unit, while Nothing is Written is more stealth focused. The player has the option to more or less drop in and out of the gameplay types they enjoy the most, able to skip larger segments if they don’t tickle their fancy, though there is a certain amount of bleed between play styles in each. Personally, I found Avanti Savoia to be my favorite as the segment is split between being a body armored behemoth mowing down waves of soldiers and being a vulnerable man desperate to find his brother, but constantly being intercepted to help various allies fend off the enemy at key points. It’s wonderfully chaotic and rather succinct, like a more victorious version of the opening segment. As you might imagine, weapons in Battlefield 1 are not the mobile death machines of its modern predecessors but rather, cumbersome affairs that often fire slowly or require intense usage to achieve the desired result. It is so harrowing to be stuck with a bolt action rifle when enemies are bearing down on you, making you think quickly about cover and strategy in mowing them down, while bayonet charges feel so exhilarating and yet so dangerous to try and execute in close quarters. All of our tools of war feel very different and DICE wisely gives us a chance to play around with them as we see fit. While our tank is strong, another tank will make it difficult to sustain an assault and since repair is achieved most quickly outside the tank, we become very vulnerable when our armor is lost. While a machine gun nest might be the most expedient way to send bullets towards the enemy, the stationary nature makes it vulnerable in its own way. DICE makes the use of the tools of the war both chaotic and varied, a fine reflection of war itself and a very engaging way to play.

I can’t even really speak to the multiplayer of Battlefield 1 since my time with it has been so limited, but I’m very curious how the slower pace of the weapons matched to the tumultuous nature of battle would mix with other humans behind the helm. Battlefield 1 is not a game whose campaign ever really made me feel good, but it did make me feel engaged and contemplative. While first person shooters are so ubiquitous to the gaming culture now, they rarely focus upon the fact that war is such a mess to be involved in, how clumsy the use of lives can be. We come to know the lives of so many different soldiers throughout the course of the game, to understand them better only to see some of them die, some of them survive, but all of them changed in a small segment of something spanning the globe. I hope this is an upward trend for EA because if they continue to release products like this, they will have my full attention for years to come.

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Versus Steam: Game of the Year Awards 2016: #8

While there are many game series I enjoy, what does one do with games inspired by the niche they’ve created? While I’ve railed against the trend within horror of JUST being Amnesia or JUST being Slender, is it impossible for a game with these lineages to succeed or even transcend? While originality is so wonderful to see, there is a comfort in immediately knowing the form of something, even if its face has transformed into something new. With that said, our Versus Steam #8 Game of the Year Award goes to…

Developed and published by: Ska Studios (PS4, PC)

It’s Dark Souls. Or more accurately, it's Dark Souls as a 2D game. I hate to spoil my own list a bit here, but I didn’t end up picking Dark Souls III for my list this year despite rather enjoying it and I think part of this comes down to the virtues that Salt & Sanctuary holds. I’ve played through Demon Souls, Dark Souls, Dark Souls II and Bloodborne near countless times now. Hell, I recently started replaying Dark Souls II again for some reason and while Bloodborne did a lot to help reinvigorate the style for me with its quicker pace, I’m almost too familiar with the works now that it's hard to re-engage with wonder like I did playing Dark Souls for the first time. This is what Salt & Sanctuary felt like to me, like I was meeting an old friend who, though quite different from how I remembered them, was still immediately placeable in my mind. The switch to the 2D plane allows Salt & Sanctuary to deliver upon the promise of quick twitch, brutal gameplay while adding a wrinkles that takes one out of their veteran style, forcing them to readapt to the restriction of movement around them. Too often I would find myself wanting to roll away from danger, only to find the obstacle I was avoiding too close or too large to get away from adequately, inviting them to draw my blood upon the floor. The lack of movement into the foreground causes one to think differently, remembering a challenge more akin to a classic platformer, where the ability to move left to right can only be confounded by immediate awareness. While this might seem a safer environment, the trust in immediate perception is all too apparent, as any enemy able to engage outside our sightline has us at our mercy. Thus do we relearn to move with fear and righteous fury all over again, rekindling the flame that seemed so familiar.

Perhaps mentioning it was akin to a platformer in some ways is what accounts for the fantastic level design of the game. Able to move freely into the vertical, the player finds a world that seems to be teetering all the time, both literally and figuratively. Starting out on a salt stained beach, the map opens up into a castle which itself is layered into both a crypt below and an aery above, before giving way to even more tangle of mass. The feeling of exploration is immense, as seemingly any route could lead the player to new adventure, even if that adventure is falling to death. I found myself ta times wanting to take a leap of faith not knowing whether it might mean finding an NPC, plummeting to near death in a new area or simply meeting a challenge I wasn’t ready for. In service of this, enemy placement is key, as they too are aware of their surroundings, willing to potshot or harry should the chance be given. Though not impossible to meet, this adds a key strategy to placement within the world, as levels can mean protection enough to survive melee until we can move on to the other half of the odds. This is not a world without comfort however, as the player is able to find sanctuaries along the way and through allegiance to various gods, invigorate them with various NPCs such as blacksmiths or guides. These pockets of warmth make the strange world feel more engaging, allowing us a sense that our flicker is not alone in the vast darkness and that aid may yet come, and aid of our own choosing at that. This overall freedom to explore comes at the price of immediate safety and yet is so thoroughly a part of the larger adventure, giving us a new way to feel part of a greater struggle.

What is curious however, is the visual style of the game. As I designed my character, who ended up starting out as a cook of all things, was the cartoon-esque aesthetic of the humans in the world. Though castles look like castles and enemies can be sufficiently horrifying, all humans have this wonderfully cartoonish touch to them, as if they’re the strangers in the matched design world they find themselves in. While the tone of the game rarely meets this design choice, it gives a sense of our own separation from the dreamlike world of the island, that what we are experiencing is more akin to a nightmare. As the bosses become stranger and more ravaged by death and taint, we still manage to become singularly human, something only NPCs share with us a trait. I wonder to what level this is thematic, that we are different in this world, something the story only briefly touches upon towards its end. Though obfuscated, this feeling of difference fuels our quest of survival throughout and while I can make my pink haired frog looking guy, he is the only thing I know thoroughly to be vibrant in a world drowned in dark,

I’d also mention Castlevania as an inspiration for Salt & Sanctuary, and for those of you who are worried, it is indeed hard as balls. While I will forever love and treasure Dark Souls, Salt & Sanctuary was, for me, a Dark Souls game that did something different that I needed to reinvigorate my love of all it's tropes. I love the brutal difficulty, the obscure story, the maddening monsters and bosses, the gear and stat micromanaging but I’ve done that many times before. Salt & Sanctuary asks me to remember all these things as it gives it a fresh lay out for me to bang my head against the wall for over and over.

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Versus Steam: Game of the Year Awards 2016: #9

The idea of objectivity in presenting these awards is a fallacy. While I can think something is perfect from an intellectual standpoint, my heart does not always provide consensus, instead using more anomalous terms like fun or emotional to give me a greater sense of my actual enjoyment. While I use all these ideas to form my opinions, it ultimately becomes difficult to say why I rank things as I do. But with this award, I felt quite differently as all the flaws I was so clear to point out were really just being used as a distraction to myself to downplay how much I inherently enjoyed the experience. While far from perfect, the Versus Steam #9 Game of the Year Award goes to…

Developed by: genDesign/ SIE Japan Studio

Published by: Sony Interactive Entertainment (PS4)

To say I’ve waited a long time for the Last Guardian would be an understatement. In the time since it was announced, I’ve graduated from Grad School, gotten a full time job, moved across the country and watched a whole generation of consoles grow, wither and die. But the Last Guardian was always at the back of my mind, hoping it would enthrall me as Shadow of the Colossus, one of my favorite games of all time did. While not quite the stunning experience as Colossus, the Last Guardian did many of the wonderful things we have seen these games do. Playing as a sort of combination of Colossus and Ico, the player takes control of a lost nameless boy thrust into a grand, yet empty palace of sorts and tasked with escaping. To help with this, the boy meets a giant fluffy bird dog with whom he learns to cooperate in his escape, Trico. If ever there was a point where Last Guardian falters, it's that Trico’s AI is… unpredictable. While he seems to know largely where to go, he can be unruly, even after the ability to give commands comes into play. I recall a section where I needed him to dive and take me with him through water requiring an inordinate amount of time because I simply couldn’t get him to do it properly and every time we failed he would return to dry and sun himself. However, I think this is meant to be part of the larger charm of the game and Trico. Trico is an animal, a beast who follows its own desires for pleasure and survival and only through understanding with it and therefore, the mechanics of the game, do we progress. While Trico may be wont to do as he pleases, his cooperation can be brought about, making the grandiose architecture but a plaything for his large frame. I took such great pleasure from being able to count on Trico to get me where I asked and even when he seemed confused, I could nurture him towards progress, allowing the puzzles a rather organic feel as part of the world’s designs. They’re not contraptions to be unraveled, but rather just a larger world a boy would have trouble navigating and Trico is the friend we need to succeed.

And as I was writing the last paragraph I realized an important fact: I am anthropomorphizing Trico. By the end of my experience of my game I no longer saw him as an AI construct or even as a dumb animal, but rather, as a friend I could count on. Throughout the game Trico and the boy build this beautiful wordless relationship, one that comes from need but grows into the sense that that need is more kindness than desire. Trico’s design is wonderful, as his face and body language is so expressive, reminding me so much of the affectionate ways cats and dogs can act, just with more of him to give. I felt such ownership of him, even if I was so small, because he was willing to protect the boy with all his might and seemed to grow genuine worry for his safety as the game went on, grabbing him out of the air or overcoming his fears to do what was necessary to save him. And in turn, we as the boy would do the same, removing spears from his hide, soothing him and even nurturing him back to health and giving him back his vibrancy. The wonderful symbiotic nature of this encouraged me to worry whenever peril arrived not for myself, but for Trico as I WANTED him to be safe and happy and on my journey with me. No matter how dark the road became I found safety in his presence and a sense of awe in the kindness that seemed to come from his carriage, resulting in several moments of genuine heartache. It was not an easy road, but I would not have wanted to have gone it with anyone else.

As you might expect from the former Team Ico, both story and world building for the Last Guardian is sparse and yet, so fascinating in what is presented to the player. By story’s end, we’re given some idea as to why we’ve ended up there and what exactly Trico is, but even with the present narration, much of what happens is left to the player’s imagination. Looking at the environment, I can’t imagine what sort of people or creatures would have built it, nor can I give a palpable origin to the knights that haunt the levels trying to grab the boy. And yet, with each beat the story manages to oscillate between personal and oddly legendary, as if we’re part of a larger fairy tale which we do not wholly see the form of. Rather than cater to a larger morality as Colossus does, my own theories point more to idea of a natural magic vs human world sort of story, though even this is merely based on observations of the journey. What does result is a profound sense of wonder, the idea of being caught up in something bigger than ourselves, but with its emotional grounding, the Last Guardian delivers a story of many facets to be enjoyed.

And you’ll cry. At least three times during the game it got me so damn close to crying that I could feel that hot burn crawling through my skull. As I’ve said, the Last Guardian is not perfect in any way shape or form, but it engaged me in all the right ways. The idea of being scared and alone and then forging a bond with an unruly animal, only to find out how much we need each other to save our lives in the larger, magical world we only see pieces of works for me and that it can strike profound emotion in me is all the better. Perhaps the wait may not have been worth it to some, but this was a legend I was happy to write along side them.

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Versus Steam: Game of the Year Awards 2016: #10

And thus do I return to my glorious once a year blog postings to ramble about video games! Huzzah! While 2016 was far from a perfect year for gaming, I was excited to see a real movement and effort from AAA developers to make games that were both exciting and more broadly interesting than their once a year offerings. In fact, the biggest disappointments of the year seem to have come from smaller devs, with games like No Man’s Sky and Might No. 9 seeming to have ruined more kids days than anything the big boys managed to cook up. This is not to say the indies were without their bright spots. Far from it… and in fact, our number 10 game of the year award goes to one such game…

Developed and Published by: Blooming Buds Studio (PC)

Horror games get stuck in my craw very easily these days. What’s there not to like? There emotional content is visceral and cathartic and their presentation is so dependent upon atmosphere that it becomes very easy to get lost in their presentation. That being said, while there were plenty of great games with horror elements (which you’ll see a few of on this list), I felt as if there were very few great horror games this year. Calendula is an odd duck because its overall gameplay design is meta-textual, asking players to not so much enter into a world of the unreal made real but to willingly unravel the layers of it so you can enter. Presented as an unplayable game, Calendula asks the player to solve a series of puzzles and untangle its interface in order to see snippets of a game within, solving puzzles related to actual game design. While we’ve seen some of these elements before (hell, Pony Island came out this year) Calendula feels rather fresh for the way it makes its gameplay so disquieting. We know something bad is lurking under the layer of puzzles and yet to actually play the game, we have to willingly investigate it. While a typical horror game asks us to surrender to our fear once, Calendula, in essence, asks us to do it multiple times, to see the way the world of the actual game is changing and becoming more difficult to comprehend with our visions of reality. It all works well, with the puzzles being engaging and the outcome being intense.

The actual game, if we can call it that, is where the meat of Calendula’s story comes into play. Oh yes, there is a story. Presented as visions of a nightmarish world of reds and blacks and piercing whites, we never truly know what we’re supposed to be seeing, coupled with some otherwise striking imagery of disquieting sights. I’m reminded of a scene from the Office of all things, in which Gabe discusses how true horror comes from images of the surreal and grotesque presented without context and how our minds need to fill in a narrative gap does the work of horror for it. While it's easy to say why a thing looks scary, and especially easy when it appears that you’re walking through hell like you do in Calendula, being kept off our balance creates a sense of narrative disconnect that so strongly inspires fear. While I can try to unify these things in my mind with the text of the menu based puzzle system, I cannot truly know what it all means, why I am seemingly guilty/not guilty for some affront and why peeling back the layers is so important without experiencing the chaos of narrative breakage. That the ending does such a good job of solidifying all of this with an answer, though not one that is concrete and without need of speculation, is quite amazing and rather engaging.

It should be noted that the visual design of Calendula is rather stellar as well. I won’t say it's particularly robust in any respect because after all, you’ll be looking at a menu for a large amount of time, but it functions well, using a sharp sense of contrast to build it’s tiny glass world. Things flicker and images spill onto the screen in regularity, making you immediately speculate as to their function within the layer of menu you’re in. While it would be seemingly easy to ignore these if you’re some sort of master of game menus, they add a type of pulse to the world, the idea that the game itself is alive and that the bleeding red is in fact the heart of malice we’ve been sucked into. Broadening the gameplay, a sense of placement from the visual design makes the menu feel more robust for puzzle work, while still claustrophobic in what it conveys. It is the gateway to a different world, but must function as a world of its own.

I’m curious to see if there is going to be a trend of meta-games in the future, as their uniqueness has been seen before but not fully explored. As a horror game, Calendula is magnificent for feeling like I’m purposefully unlocking a trap so I can step into it, while still sending me into a world that feels like 10 seconds clips from the mind of a crazed person. And with the ending so open to interpretation, Calendula is a robuster tapestry than one could expect, as those who have delved into its arcane mysteries gather beneath the blood red moon to divine them.

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Saying Goodbye to Lemmy

I haven’t written about music in quite a while. And that’s not just by sheer laziness, but an almost total burnout to hearing and experiencing music at this point. I still hear music almost everyday and I listen to a plethora of things at work, but it's hard to say… it's like I haven’t really thought too much about music the way I used to in almost two years. But I’ve been shaken from my struts in a way I wasn’t expecting. It’s almost funny talking about Motorhead as a band. As much as I loved them, they never really changed much, never wanted to be more than a goddamn good rock n roll band. I ve spent so much of my time on this blog praising and delving into the arcane secrets of what makes music tick that it makes little sense to me to say one of my favorite bands of all time is the most simple and pleasurable acts of music that ever occurred, but it’s so true. Because to me, that’s what Lemmy was. Lemmy was rock n roll.

I had heard Motorhead songs before I got to college, but it was always what you expected. “Ace of Spades,” “Too Late, Too Late,” “Overkill,” the things on other soundtracks or covered by Metallica. I had been deepening an existing, but small love of heavy metal at this point but I didn’t know just how deep it would all go. It wasn't until 2005 that I would see Motorhead live for the first time, during their tour for Inferno with my friends Dave and AJ and I was just… well.. dumbfounded. The show was kind of shitty. The Trocadero in Philly had a major problem of having sound wash out if you went anywhere near the front and bearing up against the railing meant I could barely tell songs apart unless I caught their rhythm. But I’ll never forget the moment when Motorhead stopped being louder than everything else and played “Whorehouse Blues” and I could hear Lemmy’s voice, all that deep growly, mournful, angry, intense thing only he can do. And I knew I adored Motorhead then. What I had been sampling to that point was to be for me.

We had two record shops in that college town and I remember them so vividly, strolling in and buying whatever tickled my very varied fancy at the time. But always I was buying Motorhead albums. At this time, I own all of their studio albums save Bad Magic on disc and most of their live albums and it all started there. But what really makes my heart all nostalgic is that sense of community that came among my friends for listening to those albums. Some have moved on, some still embrace this type of music but in that moment it meant so much to find people willing to experience and love and share something that wasn’t quite within the normal listening purview. We all had the same experience and no matter where life took us from there that still means a lot. But I kept going deeper in, kept hearing more and more and exploring albums I head weren’t great or were weird. And learning about the band.

By 2010, it was undisputed fact to myself and my friend Dave that Lemmy was god and we went and saw the Lemmy documentary at the same Trocadero where I saw Lemmy for the first time. It’s an odd view of a legend, one that should seem sad but it can’t be. This a man that lived his life the way he wanted to the entire time. Even though he lived in a small apartment, he was always close to where he wanted to be, always making music that meant the world to him to perform. Was it deep, enriching stuff? Rarely. But Lemmy always performed it like it was the coolest, most death defying act ever. And it made me feel so confirmed to hear all these famous people I cared for or didn’t care at all for confirm my opinions.

But now it's 2016 and Lemmy’s been dead for ten or so days and I live with this weird lump in myself. It’s the same lump I felt when Kurt Vonnegut died, where something I found so wondrously unique is suddenly something I can only share and experience in retrospect, knowing that each moment I chase can never be part of a larger, more beautiful ongoing story. And it hurts. Oh god it hurts. It hurts knowing that I had such a beautiful sound in my life. Lemmy and Motorhead remain one of those sacred jewels of music where nearly every album is perfect. I trashed Snake Bite Love on this very blog and yet “Joy of Labour” is one of my favorite songs the band had has produced. The worst Motorhead has produced stands so far above so many other bands. There are so few dips in their song catalog, it's scary. Their best is the lifeblood of music, that point where all control breaks down and you are one with the melody and rhythm at once, screaming the lyrics in a primal roar while you tap your foot. Listening to “Trigger” now is like re-experiencing one of of those moments where everything about heavy metal makes sense and you just wonder why you weren’t ready to just let go before hand and give into the natural drama of a song. And we can go back and back further still. You know what deep cut I really love? “All for You.” I’d put it as being the perfect dance song, it's just heavier than normal. And I love “Walk A Crooked Mile,” for putting a mile on my face for the thought of a ten person Lemmy chorus doing the overdubs. But even as I stretch into my mind of weirder Motorhead songs, it was always Lemmy, it was always Motohead. They always who they were.

I don’t play either guitar or bass all that much these days and when I do, its rarely the things I cared about during days. But Motorhead and Lemmy are an indelible part of my life. They are the movement of my life, the understanding that complex parts of my life can give way to the best and hardest parts in simplest terms. Lemmy was a man who I’m proud to have caught a pick from and happy that he got to live life on his own terms and even more exuberant that his music let me know that there’s something beyond pretension, that music is joyful, sinful, wonderful act meant to stir up the blood first and foremost and let the rest happen later. When I got the tattoo on my right shoulder of Motorhead’s Rock n Roll album cover I knew I wanted it not because it was my favorite albu mof theirs (its not) but that I loved the band and what they carried to me would always mean part of myself, that I could keep driving and finding my own dirty path. That Motorhead meant a lot me and Lemmy was a goddamn god. That all our sounds and emotions and nonsense could still have a musical vibe too intense to deny.

Rest well warrior king. You meant so much to me Lemmy. And I’ll miss you greatly.

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Versus Steam: Game of the Year Awards 2015 - Honorable Mentions

I’d be remiss if I didn’t take a chance I wish was more necessary more often and talk about games I just couldn’t rationalize or decide on or just really desperately wanted to play but just didn’t have the opportunity to engage in. So say it with me one last time: 2015 was a great year for games. So while I may still feel up to some full reviews later on some of these, let me talk both about specific games I liked but maybe didn’t love as much and those that show trends I want to encourage.

Developed by: Kojima Productions (PC, PS4. XBox One, Xbox 360, PS3)

Published by: Konami

I don’t claim to know what is wrong with Konami at the moment. They cancel a game that got endless good will from its exciting demo for seemingly no reason (Silent Hills) and let one of the few aueteurs left in gaming with Hideo Kojima walk out the door. But man… what a swan song for Kojima at Konami. Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain is a game I am actively still playing and while I’d feel comfortable having had it on the list if I were further along, it's a game that seems to sidetrack me endlessly. The volume of side ops is overwhelming to the point where no matter how intrigued I am by the story I just need to take the time and see if I can make this much more money or get this many more resources or find this many more men to add to my staff. And I think that’s one of the biggest praises I can sing of the game as a whole, it's a sandbox game where the different aspects feed the others. Doing sideops helps you develop tools for story missions and build rapport with buddies, which also goes the other way. And while stealth is the main modus operandi, the Phantom Pain does little to tell me I’m wrong for loving blowing shit up.Don’t like the way a guard camp looked at you? Screw it. You developed a rocket launcher for a reason. The Phantom Pain has done such a good job updating a series I adore and while my quibbles with nonsense story still exist, the game is rock solid mechanically and so much fun. Assuming the game doesn’t utterly poop itself going onwards, I could easily see it having made my top ten list.

Developed by: Bethesda Game Studios

Published by: Bethesda Softworks

Another series I’m a fanboy of, so let me air my grievances first before I get into lavishing praise: I miss the Fallout sense of humor in this one as everything was almost always super serious, questlines weren’t built enough to make them feel varied so I got really bored with everything but the main story towards the end, the settlement building system was too fiddley to be a central mechanic and I really wish Bethesda had done more with the respective endings to make them feel significantly different in terms of morality. Gray is fine, but more in the New Vegas vein what with the context and all. Ok sorry. This was the last game I cut from the list in favor of Fran Bow because I had to ask myself a question? Which game would I be more likely to recommend to people? But don’t get me wrong, Fallout 4 was a massive triumph in a lot of ways. The world was crisp and well thought out, with a larger story built into the roots of simply traveling from area to area. Decisions were weighted and full of consequence since they always seem to affect people besides yourself. The new power armor system is great, letting you really build something unique to your play style, even if you’re too scared to use cores like myself. The new perk tree is intriguing and fun to fool with for what you want? Axe murdering psychopath? You can build it easier than ever! Science loving debate club captain? You can build it easier than ever! I feel like Bethesda built such a nice framework that just couldn’t support itself and maybe DLC or a New Vegas-esque spinoff with make it feel more vibrant, but Fallout 4 is the game I spent the most time with in 2015 and it's certainly worth your time.

Developed by: CD Projekt RED (PC, PS4, XBox One)

Published by: CD Project

You’d think for my abject praise of Pillars of Eternity, I’d be all over Wticher 3 but no… I am insisting to myself I play The Witcher and The Witcher 2 first before engaging the experience. And while I’m glad to know the game itself is apparently fantastic I wanted to highlight this game (and Dying Light as well, though I figured this was a better exemplar thanks to quality) because of something I wish more game companies would take to heart: good post launch support. I understand the desire to get a game out, start making money and fixing things as you can later. I mean, we had the PC launch of Arkham Knight this past year afterall, but that’s example of how truly screwed the industry can get. Too much of gaming’s focus now is based on selling us shit that isn’t even out yet, let alone the heart of the game. I hate being asked on the rare occasion I pre order to also pre order a Season Pass because I don’t know how wrapped up in the game I’ll be. I’m taking a sixty dollar chance already and you want me to go all in on an unknown quantity? But the Witcher 3 and Dying Light are examples of companies that have done everything in their power to reward the trust of their buyers with post launch support. The Witcher 3 is awash with possible story DLC but has kept a steady stream of free cosmetic DLC and patches ready to keep customers satisfied as the experience goes forward. Dyling Light is much the same, offering new content for people willing to stick around for free and saving the bigger things as the paid add-ons. It shows a respect and love of customers who might appreciate these games as living breathing experiences they’d like to continue and I’m happy to see it. A season pass will only ever make sense if it follows a game with good post support and now we know two companies committed to making such a thing.

Developed by: Rumpus (PC)

Published by: Deck13

Another adventure game? Yes please. You know something is great when I’m railing the fact that the game is far too short and damn it’s next installment structure! Seriously, if you like adventure games and what I already have talked about on this list tickled your fancy, check out Bertram Fiddle. It’s so full of puns and hilarious sight humor that I was brimming with chuckles the entire time. While puzzles are on the easy side, the world it creates is so fun and vibrant. I can’t sing the praises of its art style enough looking like a Cartoon Network feature come to life. And the voice acting is an utter delight making me guffaw heartily when my trusted cycloptic sidekick Gavin’s response to being asked to use Bertram’s wife was,”If I could I would, sir,” even if it was a canned response. Each scene just breathes with this delightful sense of playfulness that makes you just want to see what Bertram might say about each new sight, just in case he has a weird anecdote or a ribald pun to throw in. With an Episode 2 kickstarted I can wait for more, but dammit, it breaks my heart to have to, since it hasn’t laughed so much in quite a while.

Developed by: Monolift Soft/ Nintendo SPD (Wii U)

Published by: Nintendo

Like a drop of water laid across the tongue of a man wandering the desert, so too are I and Xenoblade Chronicles X. This year’s “Damn, I wish I owned a Wii U” Award Winner, what little time I’ve gotten to steal with it at a friend’s house tantalizes me for more. My JRPG sense has been resurgent recently and Xenoblade is proving such a robust update to the formula, giving a micro manager like myself so much to play with while still providing a large world to explore, a well thought out narrative and GIANT GODDAMN ROBOTS! Maybe I’ll get more time with it soon? If not, know I want it something fierce.

O’ll stop at five even though there are still so many good ones to speak on. I suppose genre is always a defining for what each of us might seek from a game, but I adore the fact that I’ve seen almost all my favorite genres crank out something truly wonderful. While the reasons vary for not including each of these on my Game of the Year Awards list, I’d be quite the fool to know why they mark a positive trend for gaming, why we should encourage game companies for more of these. I hope 2016 makes my Runners Up list even more daunting and necessary of extension, because the future seems oh so bright in the faded light of the year gone by.

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Versus Steam: Game of the Year Awards 2015: #1

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it once more: 2015 was an absolutely fantastic year for games. And while I’ve had an ample number of games to pick from and discuss, I’ve had to think really hard about exactly what it is I want from a game. The thing of it is, picking something as a favorite isn’t always about objective quality or some complex set of metrics but instead, an intangible quality you feel resounding from it. I try my best to put these feelings into words, but language is limited in what it can describe, what it can make real between different people. So what I’m left with is a game that gave me everything I wanted in such an honest fashion, a game that made me feel good to have finished and excited to experience again and share with others. This year, I award Versus Steam’s Game of the Year Award to…

Developed by: Tendershoot/ A Jolly Corpse (PC)

Published by: Devolver Digital

Dropsy is a game about the moment when cynicism is lost and true empathy takes hold, allowing us to see the world with all the love we can muster. The world we start the game in is one of bitterness and sadness, with people in it barely relating to one another, let alone our hero. Years before, Dropsy watched the circus he lived in burn down, costing his mother her life and leaving his father a physical shell and to add insult to injury, was made the target of blame for the incident, drawing the ire of all the town’s residents. Every person we meet in Dropsy is in some form of malaise, sad because something is not going right or because the world has treated them harshly. And yet Dropsy never flags from his quest to set the world around him right through the power of hugs, never shies from confronting those who reject him. Instead, Dropsy simply finds the source of their frustration and gives them new hope and when that is finally done, hugs them tenderly for allowing him to be in their life. And I think that’s the heart of the whole game, the idea that there can be a pure sense of optimism, a pure sense of love. Dropsy at no point during the game acts simply for himself. He never discriminated against man or beast or object, but instead, listens to them, finds out what’s wrong and does everything he can to solve it. Whether it’s a little thing like planting a new flower for a little girl who is sad to have seen the previous one die or a big thing like restoring a preacher’s faith by showing her those that actually need her help or a quiet thing like giving an old man the chance to remember his dead wife, Dropsy simply does it, receives his hug and moves on. And what really refreshes me is when we see these moments of kindness for Dropsy repaid. Watching the townspeople rally to protect Dropsy when all seems lost for him again is powerful and even more than that, seeing supposed monsters rushing to him with love because he had given them love in the past confirms the idea that it's our hearts that truly matter. And while all that seems so simple, our world isn’t built for the idea of pure goodness. We’re not wired to give and give and give simply because we can but instead to question and propose things as questions of morality. But not here. Dropsy is the space where we can express our purest hearts and see why we should strive to do so.

This is especially brought across in the game because of the lack of words used in it. At no point during a playthrough will you see anything written out or said, but instead you experience a mix of spoken gibberish and written confusion. People in the world of Dropsy express themselves with little thought or speech bubbles with a simple picture inside, signaling what it is that is on their minds. I like the wrinkle this adds to puzzle design aspect of the game (oh yeah… Dropsy is a point n click adventure by the way), as discerning an answer is more about conceptualization than step by step logic. Early in the game we have the chance to meet an older woman who is guarding an area of the map and she will not let you pass. Her speech bubble shows a vampire and indication that she is against them but it is not immediately apparent what you’re supposed to give or do for her, since the game’s map seems to distinctly lack vampires. Do you try to scare her with a vampire costume you’ve acquired or do you pay attention to the trappings around her that exhibit the way she expresses her anti-vampire rhetoric? You have to actually think about why each of these characters is expressing what they express and find the solution that will make them happy again. Sometimes it's easy and other times it requires some actual thought but always the goal is to make you understand just as Dropsy is doing. And thematically, this seems to be the point, the point of pure emotional event horizon. Dropsy senses this feeling and wants to make it as right as he can, so we in turn must use our own empathy to do the same thing. While most puzzles are solved out of inventory, others can be around the use of the different skills Dropsy’s animal friends have and further still, can require a chain reaction in who is being made happy. I wouldn’t call the game a great challenge but it understands how to connect its wordless thought to actual deed to player satisfaction and back again, making it feel extremely complete.

And of course no discussion of Dropsy would be worth anything without mentioning the game's aesthetic qualities. I got the feeling based upon my first encounters with Dropsy that it was some sort of horror game and indeed, Dropsy has a pretty ghastly visage and some horrific nightmares to explore. But the psychedelic landscape and character model give way to a wonderful sense of vibrancy. With a color pallet awash with bright hues, the world of Dropsy seems to come to life, with each new area popping with its own distinctive flavor. Graveyards look desolate at a glance, while a corporate building seems all white and sterile and even more still, a beautiful sunset actually captures the fading glory of dusk. And to the benefit of this, the animations themselves are just perfect. Dropsy moves with a delightful bounce and wobble and characters seem to come in and out of speed in away that reflects their personality perfectly, most notably the town’s angry cop. Almost every detail in a scene you might need for a puzzle is immediately apparent without having to have it highlighted for you, allowing gameplay to flow quite naturally. And the music… it's simply dazzling. Almost any genre is represented in one form or another and gives the animation yet still more sense of movement, as if the world itself is in time to its sound. At no point during Dropsy did I ever get the sense I was in a static world waiting for my involvement, allowing everything to breath in the natural way it does. And while it does house some horrible and depressing sights, these give way to the sense of wonder that comes from exploring avast world.

There were plenty of game with great stories this year and plenty of games with great mechanics, but Dropsy was the game that me happiest that I played it. It’s combination of emotional honesty, beautiful style and thoughtful optimism stuck with me from the moment I finished and made me long for a world where such things come true. And indeed, it’s not something I’ve ever seen presented in a game, let alone this earnestly. I hope each of you thinks about what I’ve said about Dropsy and take your own adventure with him, finding out that love and happiness are things to be shared no matter what and that your own heart still has the strength to be capable of it.

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Versus Steam: Game of the Year Awards 2015 - #2

If you haven’t guess this detail, I have neither the time nor the money to play every major new release during a given year. While I’ve done my best to ensure majority of games that are supposed to be good, I doubt if I’ve even scratched the surface of what other possible titles lay out there. Still, it’s a nice community to be a part of when one of the emphasises placed by it is to spread the word about games that aren’t the biggest, that aren’t made on exorbitant budgets, making for maybe one or two releases a year that scream out for everyone to check them out regardless of genre or form. And this year’s indie darling, is a true gem…

Developed and Published by: Tobey Fox

What does one even say about Undertale at this stage of the game? I’m not kidding when I say that nearly everyone in my immediate gaming circle has not only played it, but created their own checklist of loves to sound off to friends. And I won’t deny that there’s good reason for this. What Undertale creates is a work of metafiction so powerful and emotionally wrought that investing oneself transcends the conventions of mechanic and action while still informing them. But what I want to bring up first is a point that I really wish was brought up more often: difference. I knew a few things about the general structure of Undertale before playing it, most notably that you could perform either a pacifist or a genocide run during the game. And I was summarily threatened that if I ever played a genocide run, my friend would disavow me altogether (hi Jay!). But that’s the thing I don’t most people are thinking about, the fact that the pacificistic emotional journey is only made possible by its difference to the possibility of being a genocidal maniac. Moral choices have become such old hat to games that actually I’m surprised that most games simply don’t ask us at the beginning how we plan to approach the game, boiling good and evil into its most basic forms. But to be truly good or truly evil, one must have an idea of what is being sacrificed at the expense of the other. Choosing to be good isn’t just about not killing everyone, but actively choosing the fact that we must sacrifice the easy, knowing route, to forgive the fact that even choosing not to attack does not grant us immunity from an enemy’s wraith. Choosing to be evil doesn’t just mean killing everything, but also knowing we will be losing all the wonderful people we’ve met along the way, losing the chance to see the larger world. While it’s easy to say that someone should do a pacifist run, it denies the fact that that can only exist thanks to the possibility that in ignorance or haste or choice we could do a genocide run. It’s the moment of choice that’s important, where we decide for ourselves to see what we can cultivate but perhaps is even more clever for making a genocide run a permanent part of the game, something that can’t be undone by finishing the game. The taint of sin hangs on us afterwards and nothing short of editing the game’s files can fix it. It’s a remarkable set of ideas about what we can do with the world and flaunts game conventions at us to get us to think about it, even if it is in self-reflection.

But if you come for the moral dynamics, stay for the amazing characters. I won’t give up Chloe from Life is Strange as my character of the year, but for one Chloe, Undertale is comprised of a veritable world of interesting characters. There’s Dr. Alphys, the nerdy dinosaur who just wants to be in a story, even if it’s not her own and even if anime is not real life. There’s Undyne, the fierce warrior who lives to fight and fights to… well… fight some more because come on, fighting is cool. There’s Sans, a skeleton who is full of practical jokes and puns, and may also be secretly terrifying. There’s Papyrus, the pompous skeleton who wishes to be a royal guard but is either too arrogant or too stupid to actually set traps or attacks in a way that works. And of course there’s Goatmom a.k.a. Toriel. I… look, I’ll be honest as I can right now. Earlier this year, my own mother passed away after a long battle with cancer. It’s been hard to know exactly what to feel, even if the undertow of sadness is there lapping at the sands of preparedness. And though I still have my family and my love for my mother will never disappear, the absence I feel in my life is palpable, a grim shadow I can always feel out of the corner of my heart. Toriel is an adorable character, picking up our lost human child and babying them through traps and puzzles on our way to their home, constantly checking in on us and baking us goodies. And when at last we decide we can leave, Toriel stops us knowing the world that is waiting for us is a cruel one that may destroy whatever goodness we inhabit. And so we fight her only overcoming her by using the same lessons about mercy she tried to teach us or completely denying her and destroying her. But to that point Toriel was our point of home and even as we leave, there’s a sense that part of her must carry with you through the game. That’s so indelible for me, the fact that my own mother and what I’ve learned from her is part of me, that it informs everything I do, even when I lash out against it. Goatmom is that same sense of home, but in a videogame.

And I think I’m just going to stop there. While I could probably drone on a bit more about various other likable parts of the game, I feel as if I’ve stated what captured both my mind and my heart during it. I always try to clash with the popular thing, but for once, I’m glad I was all in. And while not flawless (I’m not getting into this right now…), Undertale is everything we can ask a narrative and more, an interactive narrative to be. It has heart, it has intellect and it fills us with great determination.

[guitarpornography]

Versus Steam: Game of the Year Awards 2015 - #3

You stand alone a darkened path, the light of your torch barely casting the outline of the eldritch forest. All along your journey you have seen horrors that haunt the shadows you cast, never knowing why they exist nor indeed why you are on this journey. You only know that you must press on into the void, for somewhere amongst the blackness made whole might lie the faintest glimmer of truth, the glimmer of safety. Into peril you travel once more, for it is your only destiny to be lost among these tangles.

Developed by: FromSoftware (PS4)

Published by: Sony Computer Entertainment

Trying to explain to someone who doesn’t like FromSoftware’s action RPG titles why we play them is an exercise in futility. Why do we choose to play games we know are actively difficult and often times frustrating? And yet the gamer community has rallied to them in a surprising way, with FromSoftware’s precious title Dark Souls standing as a kind of rallying point for those of us who see things differently. A few years back I rated Dark Souls as an experience a 9/10, which now to me seems callous since it is a game I love endlessly and regularly restart replaying and while Dark Souls 2 was enjoyable, it lacked the creativity and roundedness of its predecessor, leaving me wanting. Bloodborne is the game I waited for to quench my thirst for the precarious world of life and death. While akin to Dark Souls, so much of Bloodborne is crafted in the fiery creativity that could create such an ashen world. We are the Hunter, one sent into the maddened city of Yharnam to find the Pale Blood and yet, beyond that, so much of Bloodborne is shrouded in mystery, our purposes and role in the world left to our own discovery. And what this, the whole package of Bloodborne creates, is one of the best examples of horror we can imagine. We are constantly in the dark, constantly confronted by our own unknowing and forced to act irrationally because of it. The world is twisted and strange, full of monstrosities bent on tearing us to shreds for the sake of doing so and all we can do is hope that we strike first, that we see them first and thus spare ourselves the chance of dying and returning from the safety we have carved out along the way. The few people we meet who retain their sanity are either cryptic or uncaring, demanding things of us without revealing their personage or indeed, offering us their safe haven. It is all a maddening labyrinth of pain and darkness and its so goddamn wonderful. Every single shred of what Bloodborne is as a game is atmosphere, from music and aesthetic to gameplay to design to narrative to characterization. Each moment aches with how singular a unit it is a game, never asking us to segment anything for to segment it would be to completely deny its existence. And when it's over I was left feeling hollow for having survived it and enthralled to return and bathe in its radiance once more.

And while that may be the poetic side of it, what truly enamors me of Bloodborne is the resurgent creativity it brings. I will not and pretend I was clamoring to pick up Bloodborne without knowing my love of Dark Souls but while the two are similar, Bloodborne does much to both forge its identity and revitalize the parts of Souls I loved. Combat is an oddly paced affair for Bloodborne, somewhere between the slow caution of Dark Souls and a rather quickened pace, often jerking between the two rapidly. Enemies are generally fast, moving at ravenous lurches towards you and since so many weapons are weighty, the danger is often imminent, making it a game of understanding when your window exists or otherwise minimizing the damage. Aiding this are two possible methods, the use of a parry gun, allowing you to slow down your attacker or a jump to react a pace quicker than the pursuer, but as each is limited, it is a game of knowing when to use which. Two many times my hubris was my undoing and I thought a single silver bullet from a pistol was enough to stop a crazed best, only to find it engorging me and large chunks of my health, when a quick backstep would have let me swing into a full attack. And while Bloodborne is more limited in the equipment one may use, ths tradeoff is a wonderful sense of purpose in what you select. From the second I got it I was in love with the Kirkwall Hammer, a large stone hammer whose shaft houses a sword, allowing one to switch between the pair or even further, two use each half for comboing, a new feature to this type of game. Each weapon feels unique and useful and totally suited to what you may want to play as, taking away a need to micromanage before a playthrough with the weapon rather than stats dictating how you wish to make yourself in the world. I never felt pigeonholed into being anything other than how my gaming style dictates I be and it was truly wonderful to feel so powerful at times after so many moment of vulnerability and to always remember when I fucked up, it was indeed myself that fucked up.

Though these moments of power are extremely fleeting and they are indeed fleeting, what they create is a glimmer of player competency within the darkened world, something sorely needed. If ever Bloodborne had something I could point to as an impetus to play it and indeed, finish the game, it would be the game’s numerous bosses. I don’t even know how to describe them. Ranging from huge, strange dripping creatures to crazed humans mad on power, each is so distinctive and so fully meets the old adage that a boss should be an exam for what we’ve learned up to that point. I recall a fight amongst graves with a hunter who was also a wolf and how his speed so quickly overwhelmed my poor power based hammer wielding hunter, until I was able to parry and space him into oblivion by simply know that his speed was no match for the ability to stun and range. It was a beautiful feeling since I had ground my teeth on him for so long and playing onward I got to see every combination of speed and power you can imagine, always studying first and drinking in the lavish detail of the designs as I did so. By the time I was done, I could do little more than awe at those things that towered over me and fell beneath my might. For that is Bloodborne’s greatest gift. To struggle so much, to awe in the face of terror and overcome it is to feel not unlike a god.

I’m saddened to hear Dark Souls 3, releasing in only a few months, may be the last game of this type that FromSoftware does because they are damn good. Damn damn good. And while I may have screamed and hemmed and hawed at the challenge, I enjoyed so much of and enjoyed even more later the contemplation of lore I got to share with fellow players. It is a horror game first and foremost, but Bloodborne offers us all a chance to reclaim the light and conquer the world throughout experience and if that doesn’t make it the best console exclusive at the moment, I don’t know what does.