Wow... 2016 is coming to an end. Already! Maybe I'm getting old, but it felt like one of those years that just flew by. And what a crazy year it was for gaming. As a pretty much exclusively PC gamer, I saw some really wild developments this year. I guess the biggest one would be the real deal retail release of virtual reality as a thing that is now kind of, but not totally, normal for people to have in their homes. Indeed, the Oculus Rift and HTC Vive along with PlayStation 4's PSVR and Samsung's GearVR are all making VR gaming a more normal reality. This year also saw Nvidia and AMD both put out super beefy and super cheap graphic card lines - most likely to help usher in the "VR revolution." Additionally, this year saw a shift in the way console makers seemed to view PC gaming. Microsoft seems to be pushing towards a shared ecosystem for Xbox One and Windows 10, while Sony has launched the PlayStation Now streaming service for Windows that allows PC gamers to play PS3 games. Even Nintendo... well, I mean Nintendo saw a hit with Pokemon Go and is bringing a Mario game to iOS and Android. So that's something.

Anyway, enough rambling I suppose. Within all that craziness I also played a lot of games this year. So let's take a look at the ones that really stuck with me. There's some surprises here, and some totally obvious ones. But these are the ones I honestly played and enjoyed the most. So here we go!





Raise your hand if you saw this one coming. The first XCOM game that Firaxis released was one of my favorite games of all time. It is still my most played Steam game with a staggering 168 hours clocked. I had anticipated its sequel for a long time, and yet upon its release I had a strange feeling of apprehension. There was no way that XCOM 2 could be as good. Could it? What I found out was that somehow XCOM 2 was better than the original game in pretty much every conceivable way. They managed to fix things that weren't broken and still make it amazing. I highly recommend this one to fans of strategy or killing aliens.



Alright so it's kind of cheating to call Skyrim a 2016 game. I get that. But I didn't get around to playing it until this year, and certainly we can get away with calling this new Special Edition a new release. Right? Great. Skyrim is (still) incredible. It is quite possibly my favorite RPG of the last decade. Probably it is. The proof of just how much I adore the world of this game is that I never utilized fast travel. Instead, I found myself so in love with the game that I'd happily (and slowly) traverse my way from checkpoint to checkpoint. Many of my favorite moments of Skyrim were the ones I stumbled upon by accident. Most importantly, this is one of the games that I have no expectation to uninstall any time soon. It's the sort of game I'll come back to every month or so and sink more hours into at a leisurely pace.


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I don't own many virtual reality games so far, but House Of The Dying Sun is the one that has really given me the experience that I had hoped for. A game that is all well and good outside of VR becomes a totally "OMG THIS IS REALLY HAPPENING" moment inside VR. Basically, this is a more action-paced take on something like Elite Dangerous or Eve Valkyrie. Missions are fast paced and thrilling. There's nothing quite like flying through space and looking straight up at stars or seeing the bright flash of an enemy ship exploding and reflecting off the cockpit windshield.



This is the game that finally cleaned me of my Hearthstone addiction. Duelyst is not as immediately inviting, but once it clicks with you, it becomes totally compelling. Instead of just being a card collecting game, it also incorporates a game board. This means that you'll be playing pieces in some elaborate game of chess. Think of like a cross between Magic The Gathering and Final Fantasy Tactics. What's really great is that while it's free to play, it is constantly getting updated with new cards and features. I've played many hours this year and had a blast without ever spending a penny. Highly recommended.



This is the game that came bundled with the Oculus Rift. And while it might seem odd to show off virtual reality using a 3D platformer a la Mario 64, it's actually brilliant. Using your head as a camera is totally natural and makes blaming the camera angle obsolete. Lucky's Tale plays wonderfully. Though never truly challenging, it is a fantastic game to get you comfortable with VR. My wife was especially impressed with this one as well.



Last year I had Cities Skylines. This year Planet Coaster is my comfort game of choice. I have no interest in theme parks personally. But man, building one slowly is so zen. I've lost (literally LOST) hours in this game placing happy little trees around, planning the best flow of gift shops and snack stands, and of course, riding the attractions in first person mode. You can make this game as intense as you like. I've never bothered building my own ride from scratch, but you can. Or you can import ones from the Steam Workshop. You can even add your own music for each ride!



While I admit that this one feels a little "same-y" when compared to its predecessor, I still had a great time with it. I really think that Crystal Dynamics has done awesome things with this series and they have really made me a fan of Lara. There's something very satisfying about the ease in which you can hunt with the bow and arrow or cling on to a wall with a spike. If you like Tomb Raider games, then you should definitely like this one.



Alright I think we *kind of* expected this to be good. I mean, Wolfenstein: The New Order was great. But... wow. We didn't see Doom (4) coming did we? This game was everything we could have wanted Doom to be in the 90's had our PC's just had the power to deliver such a thing. It's loud and brash and violent and non-stop, but also excellently paced with well-thoughtout level design. Really, any fan of Doom or just 90's FPS games owes it to themselves to play this one.



Off all the games I played with my buddies this year, it was Killing Floor 2 that really did it for me. Sure it's basically just a revamped Killing Floor. And sure, that game owes a lot to Left 4 Dead. But man, what a great game this is. The guns! The Zeds! The buckets of blood! Oh and of course it's a game that thrives on teamwork and strategy all the way down to preserving bullets and knowing which weapons to upgrade and when to use them. I suspect this will remain a co-op staple for some time to come.



And finally there's this. A digital remake of an old Choose Your Own Adventure book. But it is so much fun! It's simple as heck, but really makes you want to keep trying. Luckily, doing so will unlock new adventurers. At its most base, Warlock is a game of making decisions, but it also incorporates some neat, little strategy battles and boat loads of charm.

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