Top Five Games of 2015

Oof, 2015 up already, eh?

2015 has been a fairly solid year for gaming, with ups and definite downs, so here now I present to you, my top 5 games 2015!

You know it's serious when I take 5 minutes to make an original banner

5-Hotline Miami II: Wrong Number

You'd think you can go about as deep as you can go with a top down, retro 2D Vice themed shoot'em up gorefest with the original Hotline Miami, but the boys at Devolver prove there's still far more to offer with this very strong sequel.

A great soundtrack by most of the original crew and a lot of new favorites, a far deeper story than it's younger brother, and an even higher replay value for those looking to uncover the true secrets of the sinister operations of Miami's (and indeed, the world's) dark, dark underbelly.

Number 5 goes to you, Hotline Miami 2!

4-Batman: Arkham Knight

Boy, this one REALLY came back from its disastrous PC launch earlier in the year, and I was very, very close to refunding the unplayable experience and sweeping the Arkham series under the rug. And boy am I glad I didn't. Once Rocksteady got its act together and fixed what it could, Arkham Knight became one of my grandest 2015 experiences.

A roller-coaster of feels, anger, suspense, and a surprising amount of laughs made this trip back to Gotham one to remember. As a fan of the graphic novels, the characters, events, and easter eggs in this one made me quite hungry for more.

But please, please. No more Riddler trophies.

Always good to be home

3- Darkest Dungeon

If there's one thing I love more than an absurdly, stupidly, disgustingly bullshit difficult roguelike game, it's a Lovecraft themed absurdly, stupidly, disgustingly bullshit difficult roguelike game.

Darkest Dungeon is easily my most unforgiving gaming experience of 2015, this "turn based" 2D roguelike provides a very erratic, non formulaic dungeon crawling experience. Very punishing in its trials, very greedy with its rewards, the world of Darkest Dungeons will make you appreciate brief moments of respite as you would an eternity of it. And ANY game that can push you to that precipice is one worthy of going down as one of the best indie games in history.

Just give me achievements, make my anguish worth it!

Grim respite is better than no respite, thank the Underscape

2- Dota 2

The free to play sequel to the grandaddy of the MOBA genre I can safely say will ALWAYS be on any Top Game list I create. Having clocked in the most hours on Steam on this bad boy, Dota 2 still holds up as the superior MOBA game on the current playing field, that's not to say the competition is moot, with Smite and Battleborn coming into the fray, Dota 2 will have to step up its efforts to stay in the modern market.

And they've done that well, a slew of new content (At its foundation, the Reborn overhaul) has been released this year with many promises of more to come. Including heroes, maps, game modes, and a far more extensive Steam Workshop coop effort!

It's frustrating, it's a potential friendship ruiner, it's Dota 2, at number 2!

While TARS (Founder of the blog and other half of the LPQ Podcast) destroys towers, I engage in heated debate with the team

1- World Of Warcraft

What better way to end 2015 than to have completed all the content the latest WoW expansion has thrown at you, and you're primed and ready for whatever Blizzard has to throw at you? Very little, that's what.

Warlords of Draenor shaped up the majority of my 2015 gaming experience, after the less than satisfying Pandaria predecessor, Warlords went back to what we love about Warcraft, a great story and a straight to the point, nothing fancy good time. Providing a range of activities to suit many gamer needs from roleplay, to building your own garrison, and of course, raid crawling to your hearts content.

Here's hoping Legion won't be a colossal failure, because I've invested far too much life into World of Warcraft to start resenting it now!

My Goblin, Spellshank Backshanker (A name you can trust) with Y'rel, Khadgar, and Grommash