Every year we have many things in the gaming world that won’t make us cheer to the Dark Lord Cthulu but will give us a nice smile and a moment of feel good sentiment. Below is a list of these kinds of moments in 2015.
Multiplayer patch 1.04 in Bloodborne
From Software released a Lovecraftian nightmare of a game that was brutal, moody, tense and an overall great experience to play in Bloodborne. The major issue that fell with it was the difficulty to get a multiplayer game going with one of your friends due to having to be within 10 levels of them in the game. Now I understand that this is a game that is designed to beat you down until you love it but, by removing the level restriction, it made it a more fun experience to share with a friend. Being able to have more moments screaming things like “Oh God, I’m on fire” and the laughing that goes with it makes this a delightful update to an already great game.
Rocket League
This game was one of the free games for PS Plus subscribers back in July and was the sleeper hit of the year. This ingenious take on soccer touted fast pace games, tight controls and a physics engine that allows just enough tomfoolery for the highlight reel, allowed Rocket League to become one of the major players since the Summer. The DLC was never game-breaking and just made your cars look cooler (who doesn’t want to use a Delorean time machine to play soccer) for very reasonable prices. When you throw in all the free content still being added such as the Winter themed hockey games with a giant puck, Rocket League becomes something new for people who would have never thought their favorite game in 2015 was a sports game.
The Multiplayer Betas Galore
Now, hear me out on this. The betas being put out on consoles are not betas, but over glorified demos being called betas. They are marketing tools to get us to invest in a game before we have played it and if we enjoyed it, would pay to play more. This year has had many betas go out, but titles such as Star Wars Battlefront and Rainbow Six: Siege, stick out. The reason this is a positive is because these were multiplayer only games that gave players a chance to get a feel for them before buying. With the big budget AAA games coming in at $65 to purchase in the United States at launch, it can be hard to decide if you want to blindly make that buy. These betas are helpful in making that call and overall helping makes sure we are informed before the purchase.
Mario Maker‘s Success
2015 was a good year for Nintendo because they finally released the killer game needed for the Wii U, Mario Maker. With its customizable levels, ability to upload your own and play levels your friends and favorite YouTubers made, Big N finally looked like they have turned a corner with the Wii U. This, however, is not the reason it made this list….its success will bring imitators, imitators that, I hope, will refine and outdo what Nintendo started. Think about the ability to create your own campaign levels in Call of Duty, your own single player speed run challenge levels in Star Wars or maybe just a full blown game in Megaman. With consoles getting closer and closer to PC standards and with companies like Bethesda announcing upcoming Fallout 4 mod tools coming to consoles, the future looks pretty bright all thanks to the House that Mario Built.
So, Did the Stash miss anything? What, in the gaming world, brought you a nice smile this past year? Let us know in the comments below or on Facebook and Twitter.
