Firewatch studio Campo Santo offers a number of physical items for purchase based on, and taken from, the game: T-shirts, posters, stickers, and a "Crime By the Numbers Notebook Pack," a bundle of ten blank notebooks based on the Crime By the Numbers novels found in the game. The front covers are illustrated by Firewatch visual director and artist Olly Moss, while the "back-of-book copy" was written by studio co-founder and writer Sean Vanaman.
The idea was to create "exact replicas of the type of pulp paperbacks you’d find in a supermarket and then carry with you out to the woods," as Vanaman explained in a recent blog post, including a mail-in order form for other novels—all of it, including the publisher, entirely fictitious. But a few months ago, someone named Ryan rolled the dice: "Much to our delight," he filled out the form, enclosed $4.50, and mailed it off to the studio.
"Yes! A compliment and an excuse to spend days on a one-off, never-to-be-reproduced piece of merchandise for a fan. Our favorite type of mail," Vanaman wrote. "Plus, if you’re Jake, you now have a reason to head to Craigslist and buy an expensive large-format photo printer at a deep discount. Should we be working on our second game? Absolutely. Could we spend a few dozen hours of time on fulfilling Ryan’s order instead? You betcha."
The team created a brand new Red Panda Romance novel (although I'm assuming it's another notebook) entitled Love at First Site. "Love at First Site finds Gina Goodspeed in Orange County, CA as the newly appointed foreman (forewoman, more like!) of Twin Hills, the Southern County subdivision of tomorrow," the breathless back page says. "Randall, the site's chief construction worker, wants nothing more than to bring his new boss's vision to life, stud by stud. Will the heat of backbreaking labor be eclipsed by the fire of a budding job-site romance? Or will the pressure of the job drive a nail through Gina's determination?"
The book was sent off to Ryan (who withheld his last name, which presumably complicated the shipping process), along with a letter from Red Panda boss Conrad Hummel—also fictional—explaining that, unfortunately, this is the last copy of Love at First Site to come off the press, and also the very last book in the Red Panda warehouse. "In other words, we’re never going to make one of these again for literally anyone," Vanaman warned. "Unless you’re Stanley Tucci, we would definitely do it for him."
The ending isn't perfectly happy, although Campo Santo clearly had fun with the whole thing. "We never head from Ryan Real-Last-Name-Witheld (oh God, I hope he got it) and he never posted this anywhere on the internet so we thought it was time to share it with you," Vanaman said. "We hope you enjoy the fact that we made it as much as we enjoyed the actual making of it."
Eerie puzzle platformer Inside [official site] has nabbed four awards as the winners of this year s videogame BAFTAs were announced at the annual ceremony in London. Firewatch and Overcooked were also lathered with attention, winning two awards each. But some skinny bum in a dirty shirt called Nathan took home the Best Game award for something called Uncharted 4, which is, like, probably not even that cool, chuh. … [visit site to read more]
Although the Britain of tomorrow will be merely the county of Kent surrounded by 100-foot high razor wire, I am confident that the BAFTAs will endure forever. Long-established and highly coveted by the black tie crowd, they’re one of those award shows which tend to reward the already successful, which can make them rather safe and predictable. Still, bar a deluge for PS4 system-seller Uncharted 4, this year’s crop of nominations isn’t quite as staid as it might have been.
The darkly delicious platform adventure Inside [official site] is the PC title that scores the most winks. I can get behind that (though John very much would not), but it’s good to see the likes of ABZU, Stardew Valley, EVE Online and Hitman nominated, alongside the more predictable likes of Dishonored 2, Firewatch and Overwatch. Mind you, I think pretty much every game that pierced public consciousness last year has some kind of nod here. … [visit site to read more]
If you're playing a first-person game in 2017 your character probably has hands. Let's not take this for granted; in Half-Life 2 we picked up cups and threw them at combine soldiers using magic. Hands in first-person games are great. They can gesture, hesitate, declare intent, swear, punch—all the videogame things. They affect the world and communicate at the same time. I want to see Gordon Freeman's fat wiggling fingers wrap themselves tightly around the cup, and then splay outwards upon release, perhaps curling again to form a thumbs-up as the mug clatters off the soldier's stupid face.
Hands in games keep getting better. Last night I was playing Resident Evil 7, a game that repeatedly tries to murder your hands. They are stabbed, smashed, chopped up with such violence that it's a relief to watch Ethan pour soothing healing juice all over them. Resi 7 wants you to love those hands. When you go near a wall they go up and press up against the surface as if to say 'careful, dear player'. The block button sends them up in defensive claws. 'I've got this,' they say, 'we can catch that chainsaw for you.' Thanks hands, you're the best.
Of course they never feel like my hands, but this is the other fascinating thing about hands in games. Sensibly, you don't generally get the chance to see other people's hands up close for extended periods. They're amazing, precise, fantastically articulate tools, and I love the way animators bring them to life. Resi 7's engine is really good at modeling the way light interacts with different surfaces. Ethan's hands seem luminous and alive when they pass through the torch light. Thin and pale, they show how hands can capture an entire game's aesthetic. Compare Resi's realism to Henry's big cartoon hands in Firewatch.
I don't find myself embodied in a 1:1 sense by hands in first-person games. I feel like a tourist, borrowing someone else's arms. There are drawbacks. The way Half-Life 2, Amnesia and pals give you telekinetic powers provides a more direct connection to the game world, and elaborate hand animations effectively put a little cutscene between you and the object you're trying to manipulate. Alien: Isolation strikes a good balance. The complicated locks and terminals of the Sevastopol demand some small manual actions from you, so it feels like you're doing the work rather than someone reaching around to do it for you.
Hands are good at being silent actors too. Use the insect swarm plasmid in Bioshock and your shuddering, convulsing palm communicates the deep discomfort that only comes from having an arm full of angry bees. Think of the scene when Booker reaches out to catch Elizabeth as they tumble through the sky-city—a truly heroic hand moment. Let's put ours together, and applaud the artists and animators putting so much effort into digitising our hams. Also, check out our round-up of the loveliest hand animations in PC gaming, complete with gifs of course.
Campo Santo's deep-woods adventure Firewatch was one of the most visually stunning games to come out in 2016, and it was also a big success. It sold 500,000 copies in its first month of release, and yesterday the studio revealed that sales have since surpassed the magic one-million mark.
A quick look at SteamSpy reveals that roughly (and quite possibly more than) half of that total comes from PC gamers, nearly 550,000 of whom (plus or minus a few thousand) own the game on Steam. At risk of stumbling into stereotypes, I'd say that's not entirely surprising: Games like Firewatch—I'm reluctant to use the term "walking simulator," but there it is—are generally seen as more suited to the indie-friendly confines of the PC than they are to consoles.
I will also say that it's a well-deserved milestone. We liked Firewatch quite a lot when it came out, and more recently awarded it our Best Writing prize for 2016. Plans to make it into a movie are still underway; plans for a special Million-Seller Greatest Best Hits Firewatch Edition, however, are not.
Our Game of the Year awards get more difficult to pick every year. With approximately 38% of all Steam games released this year alone, playing them all is impossible, but we do our best to review a cross-section of releases we think will both appeal to our audience and represent the majority of quickly multiplying corners throughout all genres in PC gaming. Last year, we cut off the list at scores above 80%, but because there were so many games that made the cut, we’ve upped our standards to 84%. These games were reviewed by many different people with varying perspectives, but all according to our reviews policy. As such, try not to sweat it when scores don’t correlate across the board. And if a favorite game is missing, swing by our reviews page to find it or let us know in the comments.
Release date: Nov 11, 2016 ▪ Developer: Arkane ▪ Our review (93%)
Despite some technical troubles—which are steadily being patched out—Dishonored 2 is one of our favorite games of the year. It's no secret that we're big fans of systems-driven games at PC Gamer, and we've celebrated Metal Gear Solid 5 and the new Hitman thoroughly for that reason. Dishonored 2 is another for the list, even better than its predecessor and one of the best stealth/action games we've played.
Release date: Nov 3, 2016 ▪ Developer: Sports Interactive ▪ Our review (85%)If you’ve ever played Football Manager, then you already know what to expect in the latest version. It’s a refinement that makes important information easier to access so you spend more time living the stories of your teams instead of processing dense screens of statistics, but it doesn’t entirely upend the formula. Why would it? Football Manager 2017 is the best entry in a well established series, so far unparalleled. If you want to manage some football, Football Manager 2017 is the way to go.
Release date: Many ▪ Developer: IO Interactive ▪ Our review (84%)
We were all a little surprised when we found out the new Hitman would be episodic, but as Phil says in his review of the full first season, pulling back on Absolution's story focus was a boon. While there's still a story, what's at the heart of new Hitman is "a standalone series of sandbox murder playgrounds," as Phil put it. Blood Money fans should be pleased.
Release date: Oct 28, 2016 ▪ Developer: Respawn ▪ Our review (91%)
With the addition of a single-player campaign and no season pass to divide the community, Titanfall 2 sheds two common complaints about the original—and also does what it does fantastically. "If this were a game from the late nineties or early noughties, we'd likely look back at the mission 'Effect and Cause' as one of the greats of the genre," wrote Chris in his review. The multiplayer is better than before as well, but there's one worry—Titanfall 2's population could suffer from its proximity to Battlefield 1 and Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare. Let's hope it doesn't.
Release date: Oct 21, 2016 ▪ Developer: DICE ▪ Our review (89%)
The leap back in time to WWI had good results, as Battlefield 1's focus on infantry combat pairs well with more meaningful planes and tanks, and its finicky guns slow things down a little, giving us more time to move and more pride in our good shots. The campaign is enjoyable too, which hasn't quite been the case in a Battlefield game for some time.
Release date: Oct 21, 2016 ▪ Developer: Firaxis ▪ Our review (93%)
There's of course room for improvement, but Civilization 6 is nevertheless the "ultimate digital board game," as we put it in our review. It's the most transformative version of Civ so far, changing the rules of city-management and tweaking just about everything else. And Civ 6 will only get better with expansions and user-made additions—even though the mod tools aren't out yet, the modders are already at work.
Release date: Oct 11, 2016 ▪ Developer: Failbetter Games ▪ Our review (90%)In any Lovecraftian narrative, the descent always gives way to more unspeakable madness and horror, which is exactly what Zubmariner accomplishes. As an expansion to the oceanic exploration text adventuring of Sunless Sea, it sends the player beneath the waves and on the path to unraveling the mysteries of the flooded world. As scary as it is, there’s nothing spooky about more of an already excellent thing.
Release date: Sep 27, 2016 ▪ Developer: Playground Games ▪ Our review (92%)
One of the best racing games on PC, with a huge open world Australian playground (that's also full of irritating personalities) and over 350 gorgeous cars. As it's published by Microsoft Studios, Forza Horizon 3 is only available on the Windows Store—but at least Chris managed a smooth 60 fps, and didn't have many technical issues despite the Universal Windows Platform's rocky start.
Release date: Aug 30, 2016 ▪ Developer: Blizzard ▪ Our review (90%)
Legion had a lot of work to do after the disappointing Warlords of Draenor, but even before all its pieces are in place, it succeeds. The quest writing, new order halls, and improved class identity are all high points. "For the first time, I don't just feel like I'm playing a druid—I am a druid," wrote Steven in his review.
Release date: Aug 25, 2016 ▪ Developer: Metanet Software ▪ Our review (92%)
A refined action platformer with tricky, floaty jumps, 1,125 levels and a level editor—so there's no risk of being left wanting. Shaun has played over 300 hours of the original PS4 version, and put another 20 into this new PC release. "In some ways N++ feels like the end of the action platformer, like an exhaustive final document, a catalogue of its emotional highs and lows," he wrote in his review. It's safe to say he liked it a bit.
Release date: Aug 23, 2016 ▪ Developer: Eidos Montreal ▪ Our review (88%)
Andy wasn't super impressed by the story, but Mankind Divided's detailed vision of a future Prague, new augmentations, and level design earned it high marks. "Everywhere you look there are sentry turrets, security bots, criss-crossed laser tripwires, and patrolling guards," Andy wrote. "Getting inside, stealing the particular item you’re looking for, and escaping unseen was hugely satisfying."
Release date: Aug 18, 2016 ▪ Developer: Codemasters ▪ Our review (87%)
After last year's disappointment F1 2016 deserved some skepticism, but Codemasters came through—F1 2016 is "the most well-featured, authentic recreation of Formula One ever created, and it’s a genuinely good PC port," wrote reviewer Sam White. Better physics, better AI, and new details hoist it above the series' previous missteps.
Release date: Aug 3, 2016 ▪ Developer: Ghost Town Games ▪ Our review (86%)If you need to test your friendships, Overcooked is the game for you. A top down co-op cooking game, Overcooked places up to four players in crazy kitchens and throws an endless series of dishes their way. Getting a high score requires close, coordinated teamwork, but the moment communication breaks down, things can get messy. Tom calls it, “the perfect balance of chaos that can be conquered with skill,” and “hands down one of the best couch party games ever made.” Overcooked is a guaranteed recipe for fun. And disaster. And absolute despair. If you have the company, don’t miss it.
Release date: Aug 2, 2016 ▪ Developer: Giant Squid ▪ Our review (88%)James calls Abzu “an expertly directed psychedelic marine tour without a single UI or text prompt telling you where to go or what to do, purely driven by curiosity.” You control a diver and explore big, colorful underwater scenes, interacting with a wide assortment of sea life while unraveling a quiet story with an environmental message. Accompanied by an inspiring score from Austin Wintory, Abzu is an easy emotional journey to recommend.
Release date: Jul 22, 2016 ▪ Developer: Chucklefish ▪ Our review (84%)According to Chris, Starbound is the charming and deep space exploration sandbox we were promised during its prolonged Early Access phase. It’s not perfect, lacking in combat systems and it’s still pretty cryptic, but “Starbound is otherwise a great pleasure, full of verve and laden with seemingly endless diversions and self-directed projects that you can lose yourself in for hours or days at a time.”
Release date: Jul 22, 2016 ▪ Developer: Quicktequila ▪ Our review (84%)
The follow-up to the great Lovely Planet, Lovely Planet Arcade strips the Y-axis from its precision, small-level shooting, meaning you can't look up and down. It's very different from its predecessor, but the essence of what makes it fun is still there: "the thrill of executing prescriptive shooting challenges with nearly zero room for error," as James put it in his review.
Release date: Jul 5, 2016 ▪ Developer: The Game Bakers ▪ Our review (86%)
Furi has "a ludicrous premise, strenuous combat, loud neon synth jams, and saturated color palette"—but also restraint, says James. A series of bullet-hell hack n' slash boss fights train you in simple combat techniques: slash, parry, shoot, and dash. Some bugs and difficulty spikes held it back a little, but Furi is still one of our favorite surprise hits of the year.
Release date: June 6, 2016 ▪ Developer: Paradox ▪ Our review (88%)
You’ll find some cracks in the simulation, but how could there not be a few holes in such a sweeping, complicated scenario? Hearts of Iron 4 is “a beautiful, thrilling wargame” that presents the entire globe as it was at the outbreak of World War 2—and everything that happens from there is up to you and the AI.
“The AI may not always be sensible, and maybe combat doesn't always seem quite historically accurate,” wrote Rob in our review, “but then, you might be playing a version of World War 2 where Italy broke away from Germany to create a new Roman Empire with Yugoslavia, and the Soviet Union was plunged into civil war and Stalin was deposed by 1942.”
Release date: May 24, 2016 ▪ Developer: Blizzard ▪ Our review (88%)
A great team shooter that emphasizes positioning, teamwork and tactics over agility and marksmanship, but still leaves room for players to grow in the latter department. There are still character tweaks to be made to ensure they’re continuously viable and fun and all create interesting dynamics, but it’s the sort of game you could tweak forever. Overwatch can't replace Team Fortress 2 for us, but it’s certainly recaptured the experience of getting a bunch of friends together for night-long sessions of the current top shooter. Competitive mode is out now, and we’re keen to earn some golden guns.
Release date: May 31, 2016 ▪ Developer: CD Projekt RED ▪ Our review (94%)
With Geralt's journey into the sun-drenched vintner lands of Toussaint, CD Projekt RED capstones an RPG masterpiece, defining a standard for interactive storytelling. The Witcher 3's Blood and Wine expansion follows Hearts of Stone in adding new gear and combat abilities as well as stitching together small yet eventful scenarios into a greater web of intrigue. The wonderfully paced narrative of an ostensibly routine whodunit set in Toussaint's fairytale countryside reflects what makes The Witcher games so great: a politically divided world, superb dialogue, and distinctly memorable characters.
Release date: May 24, 2016 ▪ Developer: Creative Assembly ▪ Our review (86%)
The Total War series and the Warhammer franchise share a love for massive armies crashing into each other on an epic battlefield, but the latter also includes wizards with fire for hair and smelly sentient fungus. That results in more distinctly characterized armies in Total War: Warhammer emphasized by the Warhammer universe’s magic spells and flying units—all added strategy layered on the Total War pedigree of positional and tactical superiority.
Release date: May 18, 2016 ▪ Developer: Misfits Attic ▪ Our review (86%)
Piloting drones through abstract maps of derelict spaceships might not sound tense, but Duskers can be nightmarish. “Frantically typing commands into the console when things suddenly go sideways makes me feel like I’m really huddled in a darkened dropship, alone, desperately trying to save my drones and by extension myself,” said Chris Livingston in his review. Watch out for aliens.
Release date: May 12, 2016 ▪ Developer: Square Enix ▪ Our review (85%)In the last few years, Square Enix started plugging the gaps missing in the Final Fantasy series availability on PC, with varying degrees of commitment. Not every port has been stellar, but X and X-2 HD both function pretty well, albeit not particularly well with a mouse and keyboard. They’re among the more divisive entries in the series and haven’t aged perfectly, but looking back, Sam still thinks, “Spira is a wonderful world that’s well worth exploring, and X and X-2’s different approaches to combat systems are both deep and exciting.”
Release date: May 12, 2016 ▪ Developer: id Software ▪ Our review (88%)
Doom's reverence of a primordial aspect of FPS design—killing—borders on comical exaggeration with its fountains of demon blood and a main character who communicates by punching things. That fittingly fuels fast and fun combat indulging the nostalgia of id's run-and-gun lineage without smothering its metal brutality. Doom's first major update since launch adds a Photo mode for screenshots and ups the classic feel with an optional center-aligned weapon model.
Release date: Apr 28, 2016 ▪ Developer: Mohawk Games ▪ Our review (88%)Imagine an intro to marketing class, streamlined and condensed into a sweet, chewy bubblegum format—and set on Mars. That’s Offworld Trading Company, a strategy and management sim where you take control of a business dedicated to supplying new human colonies. Matt praises the unknowable depth and feedback in his review, stating ‘There’s a simple, tactile joy of seeing every a nudge of the finger explode into a flourish of numbers, but a deep and lasting satisfaction from knowing every profit was carefully engineered.”
Release date: April 27, 2016 ▪ Developer: Counterplay ▪ Our review (84%)
Hearthstone blazed a path by making digital card games popular on PC, and many competitors have followed in the years since. But none of them have broken so far away from the pack as Duelyst. It’s a tactics game and a CCG mixed into one, wrapped up with some of the best pixel art animations and character design of any game all year. It’s easy to pick up, but the addition of movement to largely traditional card game mechanics give it an amazing amount of depth that has kept it as one of our favorite card games all year.
Release date: April 19, 2016 ▪ Developer: Stoic ▪ Our review (86%)
We loved the original, and the sequel is even better. The Banner Saga 2 is a weighty tale of survival, and a brutal strategy challenge. Some interface issues carry over from the first game, but as our reviewer put it: “Yes, there’s still room for improvement, but this is a smart, worthy sequel: denser, richer, more complex and yet more intimate. Even if you’ll feel in dire need of a stiff drink once this second act draws to its devastating close.”
Release date: April 11, 2016 ▪ Developer: FromSoftware ▪ Our review (94%)
James calls Dark Souls 3 “the most focused, potent game in the series” in his review. It has diverse and numerous enemies, masterful combat and world design, and a dense, mysterious story to every inch of stone. Most importantly, it’s not good simply because it’s hard.
Release date: Mar 28, 2016 ▪ Developer: Gunfire Games ▪ Our review (84%)VR is still lacking a deep, directed experience that begs to be played in the steadily growing medium, but Chronos might be the closest we’ll get for a while. It’s a full blown action adventure, taking cues from The Legend of Zelda and Dark Souls with punishing 3rd person sword-and-board combat and winding monolithic level design. It also makes clever use of VR in ways that can’t be replicated on a monitor, but they’re best experienced firsthand. Wes is dying for more, saying, “It’s a rare thing for me to be halfway through a game and already excited to play a sequel.” Let’s hope Oculus moves enough headsets to make it happen.
Release date: March 24, 2016 ▪ Developer: Amanita Design ▪ Our review (87%)
The greatest work so far from Czech indie studio Amanita Design. It’s a point-and-click adventure, but puzzles aren’t as important here as imagery, metaphor, and surreal weirdness. “They're also so surreal that when I did something right, it was sometimes impossible to tell exactly what I did, or why it was right,” said Andy Chalk in our review. “I crept up behind a glowing, golden gazelle, leapt upon its back, and went for a wild ride along the side of a mountain.”
Release date: Mar 22, 2016 ▪ Developer: Out of the Park Developments ▪ Our review (89%)There’s no baseball management sim that comes close to the batting average of Out of the Park Baseball, and while it may not feel like a complete reinvention of the series, it’s still the best in the business. In our review, Ben says, “A wealth of up-to-date licences and attribute ratings make OOTP 17 an essential purchase for the devoted player, while newcomers will swiftly grasp, and love, its relentless brilliance.”
Release date: March 21, 2016 ▪ Developer: Double Fine ▪ Our review (87%)
Day of the Tentacle is great. Day of the Tentacle Remastered is that great game, remastered, and is also great. It holds up over 20 years later, and the modernization gives us an appealing opportunity to take another trip through time. “You can still play your old copy in DOSBox or ScummVM, of course,” noted Andy in our review, “but if you want a more streamlined, modern experience, with some fascinating insight into how the game was made, the remaster is worth investing in.”
Release date: Feb 25, 2016 ▪ Developer: Superhot Team ▪ Our review (84%)
Time moves when you move in Superhot, a shooter distilling its mechanics into a polygonal portrayal of bullet-time. It doesn't take long to complete, but clearing a level without dying in a single hit is a challenging demand of mental forethought echoing the zen-like state of FPS professionals. A VR version of Superhot for the Oculus Rift is in the works, so you can make those Matrix moves in your living room without looking too ridiculous (or maybe not).
Release date: Feb 18, 2016 ▪ Developer: Spike Chunsoft ▪ Our review (86%)
As a visual novel, Danganronpa's length is matched only by the ridiculousness of its premise. That 15 of Japan's most gifted students could get trapped into playing a murderous game of "Guess Who?" by a mechanical bear is certainly a very anime concept. But through that goofy setup, Danganronpa takes a dark turn and displays a real gift for taking absurd characters and making them endearing—which makes it all the more gut-wrenching when they inevitably die. There's a reason that in our review, Andy said, "the story is so compelling that I barely noticed that all I was doing was clicking through lines of dialogue."
Release date: Feb 9, 2016 ▪ Developer: Campo Santo ▪ Our review (85%)
Great dialogue, excellent voice performances, a minimal soundtrack, and some beautiful visuals brought real life to this first-person adventure game. Set in Wyoming, you play the glum and haunted Henry who is spending a secluded summer as a firewatchman. While the conclusion of the story doesn’t live up to the compelling setup, the believable relationship between Henry and Delilah, another park ranger, more than make up for it.
Release date: Feb 4, 2016 ▪ Developer: Firaxis ▪ Our review (94%)
Sid Meier once described a game as a "series of interesting decisions." And in our review, Tom said that "XCOM 2 is the purest expression of that ethos that Firaxis has yet produced." From the moment you first take up arms against your alien oppressors, XCOM 2 hits you with a relentless barrage of choices so jaw-clenchingly difficult you're going to need a cigarette after each one. The lives you sacrifice for the greater good will be etched in your mind, and the temptation to reload an old save will be overwhelming. If you can resist and embrace consequence, XCOM 2 will transform you into a grizzled commander through the fires of conflict.
Release date: Jan 26, 2016 ▪ Developer: Thekla, Inc. ▪ Our review (89%)
The Witness is brilliant in its simplicity. It speaks in a language without words, but uses shape and form to impart philosophical ideas that will change the way you see its world. Repetition is a stern yet fair teacher, and engaging with that silent discourse as a student begins to unravel the relationship entirely. But The Witness can also feel frustratingly vague. As Edwin said in our review, "what it ultimately seeks to offer is a vantage point, a perspective on life's mysteries, rather than answers." But even if you don't like the answer, The Witness proves questions are worth asking.
Release date: Jan 20, 2016 ▪ Developer: Blackbird ▪ Our review (90%)
To take Homeworld and put it on the ground seems “almost sacrilegious,” wrote Rob Zacny in our review. But it works. “It's not only a terrific RTS that sets itself apart from the rest of the genre's recent games,” he said, “but it's also an excellent Homeworld game that reinvents the series while also recapturing its magic.” Deserts of Kharak is both approachable—less about production, more about tactics—and another example of all the life still flowing through the RTS genre.
Release date: Jan 19, 2016 ▪ Developer: Red Hook Studios ▪ Our review (88%)
Darkest Dungeon is cruel, probably too cruel. It's a dungeon crawler that doesn't deal in stats and loot alone but also trades on the mental well-being of the heroes you send into its festering crypts. But these heroes don't return stronger for their troubles; they come back battered and broken, a liability you're much better off dismissing. Beneath all that doom and gloom is an innovative take on turn-based RPGs that weaves the positioning of party members with an unconventional class system, that inspires experimentation despite the constant dread of what will happen if you fail.
Release date: Jan 19, 2016 ▪ Developer: YCJY ▪ Our review (90%)
Our reviewer loved how Aquatic Adventure “fast-forwards through the Metroidvania template, stripping it down to its most essential parts: exploration, atmosphere, and player growth”. It’s an underwater take on the classic genre, where you putter around gorgeous pixel-art environments, collecting upgrades, taking out challenging bosses, and try to decipher how earth’s oceanic apocalypse came about. You also get to swim out of a giant sea worm’s ass, a necessary experience.
Release date: Jan 4, 2016 ▪ Developer: Daniel Mullins ▪ Our review (91%)
Pony Island is so dependent on its little self-referential gimmicks that it’s hard to explain without giving it all away. In a sense, and because there’s a pun to be made, that makes it a one-trick pony, but it does a great trick. One of its pranks near the end of the game is so devious we won’t likely forget it soon. If you like Undertale or The Stanley Parable, you’ll probably enjoy Pony Island.
One of my favourite things about end of year lists on RPS is they never match the personal list of any individual writer. They’re a compromise between us all, an erratic, uncoordinated vote where consensus sees games of real worth rising to the top and filling our annual advent calendar. It makes for a list that’s far more broad and useful to the largest number of readers. And because it’s driven by nothing other than what we’ve all enjoyed that year is equally likely to be filled with the tripliest of As and the most obscure of indies. Still though, it leaves me wanting to say, “But! But there are THESE games too!” So below is my list of >my favourite games of 2016, far less useful to far fewer readers, but goodness me, a collection of games that deserve adulation.> … [visit site to read more]
Where we are, it’s cold outside right now. So cold that we’re all huddled around the fire, unwilling to explore the winter world. Our Advent Calendar celebrates the best games of 2016 and behind the 21st door you’ll find…
It’s the best use of nature in a game…Firewatch [official site]!
We loved the warm writing in Firewatch so much we had to give it an award. Our games of the year are chosen by the staff through voting and debate, with commentary written by its biggest proponents. We'll be posting the rest of our awards and personal picks daily as we approach the end of the year, and you can see all of the awards so far here.
Chris Livingston: Typically, I’m not a great listener when I’m playing games. I managed to save the world in both Oblivion and Skyrim without ever letting an NPC complete an entire sentence. When forced to listen to NPCs rambling on with important information, I’ll jump around, climb on furniture, throw objects around—anything to pass the time besides simply standing in place. And listening to someone talk via radio while I’m trying to enjoy myself is both an incredibly common feature of games and one of my biggest pet peeves. Can I hold a button down to skip a cutscene, or tap a space bar to get someone to shut the hell up? If so, I’m thrilled, and if not, I’m annoyed. Rarely does a game come along where I want to stand there simply listening to people talk, and almost never do I find myself wishing the characters in a game would talk even more than they already do. It happened in the Mass Effect games—nothing excited me more than returning from a mission to find fresh dialogue options available—and it happened in Firewatch.
I can’t recall a game that so quickly had me invested in the story and characters. There’s the gut-punch of the opening choices you make to set the stage, brilliantly presented as a series of simple text-based prompts that still manage to be emotionally powerful. This leads to wonderfully written dialogue between the game’s two main characters, bolstered by the fantastic voice performances—I would go so far as to say the best in a game, ever—by actors Rich Sommer and Cissy Jones.
I stalked glumly through the park, angry with myself, not even wanting to play if she wasn t going to talk to me, but not wanting to stop playing in case she called back.
Keeping the characters restricted to only communicating via radio was perhaps done out of practicality—Campo Santo isn’t a huge studio, and introducing a fully animated NPC into an open world surely adds tons of extra work and all sorts of logistical challenges—but it’s perfect for Firewatch. It makes the players rely on their imaginations when it comes to Delilah, a more powerful tool than any mo-cap rig can muster, and as the guy who never listens I found myself hanging on her every word. At one point in the game I pissed her off with one of my dialogue choices, and she stopped talking to me for a while. It made me truly miserable to be suddenly cut off from her, and I felt real regret in what I’d said and wished I could take my words back. With her silence stinging, I stalked glumly through the park, angry with myself, not even wanting to play if she wasn’t going to talk to me, but not wanting to stop playing in case she called back. That’s the power of words, when they’re thoughtfully written and skillfully performed.
Though the plot itself eventually wanders into fairly ridiculous territory, the realistic and believable relationship created by the writers and performers remains strong throughout, full of humor, longing, regret, and sexual tension.
Samuel Roberts: I loved exploring Firewatch's hot Wyoming wilderness, but it's the performances and writing that really made this worth talking about this year. Probably the most mature depiction of a relationship I've seen in a game.
Tony Ellis: As well as artfully recreating the beauty of America’s national woodland on screen, this game also creates a world in your head. It’s a more nebulous but equally fascinating and changing landscape, woven out of Henry’s evolving relationship with someone who exists only as a crackling voice on his walkie-talkie, and their shared, increasingly paranoid conspiracy theories. While the story ends in a pretty silly place, as Chris notes, the way this internal terrain maps onto the beautiful Wyoming wilderness as you play makes for a unique and remarkable game.
Tim: Sometimes, when I’m editing our Canadian news writer Andy Chalk, who I’ve never met in real life, I like to pretend we’re like Henry and Delilah, only communicating via Slack rather than shortwave radio. There’s a powerful pull to the idea of two lost souls, not quite knowing each other, bonding against a backdrop of some potential crisis. In Firewatch’s case, a sinister conspiracy—or is it!—and in Andy and mine’s, another delay to some Ubisoft sequel to write up. Still, however classic the scenario is, what brings it to life in Firewatch is the warmth and humanity of the writing, which linger in the memory long after the ending fades. Also: I’ve heard a lot of people grouse about the ending, but the low key lack of resolution felt just about perfect to me. Or at least it certainly felt like real life.
For more on Firewatch, read our full review, check out the game's lovely trees, and discover some of the other best short games you can play on PC.
