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Stephen’s Sausage Roll – Games of 2016
I mean, I don’t know what I expected. How could I? The only thing I had to go on was that Stephen’s Sausage Roll was a "fun but difficult puzzle game." I couldn’t even tell what was happening in the screenshots, but I was intrigued nonetheless. It turns out that I needed a dose of…
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Firewatch – Games of 2016
Firewatch was the first game that I did a Spoilercast on, so it holds a special place in my heart. It was also the first game to get released after the start of my gaming renaissance, so part of my fondness for the game revolves around being able to talk about games again. Hearing the…
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Batman: The Telltale Series – Games of 2016
Hoo boy, what a weird year for DC. The good news for video games is that all of its tv and movie efforts made me starved for some likable Batman. I’ll admit that I’m kind of an easy mark at this point, but when Telltale announced its Batman series I kind of assumed I’d just…
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Thumper – Games of 2016
It’s funny how many different rhythm games I used to play. Recently, the genre has been a bit flat. Thumper actually looked too simple from its screenshots and I didn’t have high hopes. Once I played Thumper, it made me feel claustrophobic and hopeless. It’s uncomfortable and oppressive. It’s also unforgettable and thrilling. I don’t…
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Necropolis – Games of 2016
I really like Necropolis as an indie redemption story. When the game was announced as a souls-inspired roguelike, I thought it sounded rather ambitious. I knew that it was technically possible, but making a difficult dungeon crawler with randomized elements puts the fun factor at high risk. After a rough launch, Necropolis bounced back with…
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Homeworld: Deserts of Kharak – Games of 2016
I love the Homeworld franchise. Something about watching a Destroyer unleash a barrage of missiles while squadrons of fighters and frigates buzz around like righteously pissed off hornets is mesmerizing. So I was nervous when Deserts of Kharak was revealed because there was no space to speak of. Everything was on the ground. Thankfully, Homeworld…
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Oxenfree – Games of 2016
Oxenfree had a lot working against it even before I played it. I had cooled on narrative games prior to its release and word of mouth was pretty mixed. For some reason though, it stuck out enough in my memory that months after release I randomly decided to play through the entire game in a…
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Final Fantasy XV – Games of 2016
Contrary to what my opponents may think when they engage me in predictive conversations about upcoming major video game releases, I really do enjoy being proven wrong. Well, I enjoy being proven wrong when the result is that a game turns out to be quite awesome when I thought the opposite would happen. To that…
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Owlboy – Games of 2016
We’ve been on a journey, Owlboy. At your announcement you established a new bar of excellence in art that I didn’t think was possible for indie games. As the years went by, other games came out and raised that bar and made me question what was taking you so long. In the end, a development…
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Hyper Light Drifter – Games of 2016
2016 saw me play a wider variety of games than probably at any time in my history, including this frustratingly difficult pixel art game with absolutely no dialog. I tried really hard to love Hyper Light Drifter but ultimately couldn’t do it. …Which is a shame, because the atmosphere of this game adopts the creepy…