- Oct 20, 2014
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- Bloodborne -- This is my game of the century. The atmosphere and graphics are great but the control is what really makes it for me. The game is really hard but when you die you always feel like it's your fault vs so many other games where you feel like you're wrestling the controls (eg like in God of War where I got killed so many times by Sigrun because I'd accidentally go into Rage mode while trying to make a quick dodge since it uses L3+R3 for rage mode). Then Maria and Orphan of Kos are two of the greatest boss fights I have ever played. Note the complete version is a must just for those two boss fights, though the rest of DLC is good too. A clear 10/10 for me.
- NieR Automata -- I love the variety in this game. It's mostly a semi-open world hack and slash but it mixes in some space shooter sections as well as a few 2D sidescroller hack and slash sections. On top of the fast paced combat there is such an interesting story written here and the music is great too. One of the few games I have ever played that I'd rate 10/10. You know you'll always get a great story with Yoko Taro's games, but seeing Platinum come and add their patented coked up mouse in blender combat (credit to Honest Game Reviews for that line) really takes the game to the next level. If only we could have had this combat in Nier Gestalt / Nier Replicant last gen.
- Dying Light -- It starts slow for the first couple of hours, but once you're able to start getting sickles and swords it becomes such violent fun hacking zombies to bits. I love how it's made to look like a 70s B-movie from the film grain to the music to the one dimensional characters. And the parkour is awesome, especially at night before you have built your character strong enough to fight off the volatiles. Note the complete version is a must for the ending.
- Persona 5 -- Pretty funny game with interesting combat and a world of style, from the art to the brilliant acid jazz soundtrack (this has by far my favorite soundtrack in any game I have ever played). The first couple of hours of tutorial and exposition are like pulling teeth, just like Persona 3 and Persona 4, but the game is great after. The characters aren't as interesting as Persona 4 and the story isn't as good as Persona 3, but the combat, dungeons, and art style are greatly improved. Easily my favorite turn based RPG since Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne on PS2.
- Super Mario Odyssey -- This is one of the most fun and creative games I have ever played. I loved the way 2D sections were worked into this game. And the control is so good too, I can't believe they were able to make findings moons and purple coins so much fun when collectibles are usually such a drag just meant to pad out most games that have them. The highlight for me was definitely the festival in New Donk City. Even if this was the only good game on Switch I'd have been happy to buy one just for this brilliant game. Easily my favorite Super Mario game since Super Mario World on SNES. Tough call between World and Odyssey for my second favorite Mario game (the NES original SMB1 will always be my number 1 in the series).
I'm interested to see what others love this gen and why. I should also add I loved God of War despite the control scheme that made rage mode too easy to accidentally go into, but it has been such a great generation that it got edged out from my list. I didn't want to make it sound like I didn't like the game just because I felt like I was wrestling against the controls in the Sigrun fight (and this game really deserves to be played on Give Me a Challenge or higher because the combat is excellent, and Sigrun is pretty hard to kill at the two highest difficulty settings).
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