Benny

17. PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds

A game that feels like it has been around forever (because it has been being played in an early access state by literally millions of people), PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds is already a rip roaring success story even before it’s “finished”.

It’s initially hard to see how it has become quite so popular with every irritating YouTube “personality” and game streamer under the sun, as there is something just delightfully old school about its sim-like design when compared to contemporary online shooters. It harks back to the old days of PC gaming and to highly realistic and open sims like the S.T.A.L.K.E.R series, and feels like something gamers of a certain age would appreciate more than the crowd that have cut their teeth on the Call of Duties of this world. And yet, far from being a niche title loved by enthusiasts, PUBG (pronounced “pube-gee”), has taken the world by storm.

Even if initially put off by the poor looking graphics and janky looking movement and controls, once you try a few games and die a few times you begin to realise how you might be able to survive for longer, and it starts to demand just one more go…

You learn which weapons are good in a firefight and which are better used in a pinch. You learn how to pick your landing point to have the best chance of survival or which is likely to be a bloodbath. You learn how much noise you are making at various distances as you run, walk and crawl across the map. You learn the distinctive sounds of each weapon and whether someone armed with that gun can be safely taken on with what you have or if it’s better to creep on by.

Ultimately, you die, you learn, you die, you learn hopefully a bit better. It’s a cycle of play that sounds simplistic but it’s every little element and how it all comes together that is what makes PUBG so compelling.

The periods of silence in PUBG are often more interesting than fighting, as you scramble to loot as much as you can early on and not be spotted by anyone armed to the teeth. You find yourself listening intently to the distances and direction of gunshots, or for the tiniest patter of footsteps that indicates someone close by.

The moment by moment fear of whether someone has spotted you or heard a footstep can sometimes be more affecting than the best survival horror games, as the enemy is another human being, and far more intelligent than any AI stalker, requiring genuinely clever thinking and reactions, and being caught unawares is often a heart stopping moment of sheer panic and elation. Or deflation.

And that is where PUBG will often not be for everyone, or even for people who love it on a bad day, because it is an extremely demanding game to do well at, both in what it requires from a player in awareness and positional sense, and also in precision and knowledge of the mechanics of your toolset. That quite apart from sheer balls and guile at times as well as, to be honest, a bit of luck too.

It definitely can be a rough ride, and it’s still a work in progress, but PUBG is genuinely an experience you can’t get anywhere else.

Well, unless you play Fortnite I guess.

18. Final Fantasy XII: The Zodiac Age

It’s been a funny old story with Square and their rereleases and remasters, and the the godawful phone ports of older Final Fantasy titles certainly did not inspire confidence. Happily though, enough care has been taken with Final Fantasy XII: The Zodiac Age and it holds up surprisingly well today. I never finished it back in the day, but was always a huge fan of its programmable battle system, and it deserves to find a wider audience if just because it was a bit of a departure from many of the familiar elements of the Final Fantasy series. It ranked 60th on the Rllmuk top 100 games list, so it’s not surprising to see the remaster have so many fans this year. Here’s what I said in my original review:

“I never actually completed this, which is criminal, as a little research shows I was more than half way through the game. RPGs require a lot of staying power, what with most breaching the 30 hour mark, but if you have limited time I cannot recommend this iteration of the Final Fantasy series enough.

Eschewing the random battles typical of every other entry in the series up to this point, and even subsequent releases, Final Fantasy XII feels like an RPG that has been refined into something rather different. The battle system is a thing of beautiful and elegant design. The level of customisation options, and very novel simple programming system you can set for each character that allows the amount of battle interactivity and choices to be fully customised, makes the game feel more in common with complex strategy RPGs than the typical Final Fantasy fare. The influences in the game from Vagrant Story are very apparent in both this level of complexity and even the inspired art design.

If you are not normally a Final Fantasy fan but have any interest in RPGs in general, this should be one of your first ports of call, as it is a rare prize: a franchise title (of one of the most long running no less!) that dares to try to do things differently.”

19. Gran Turismo Sport

I have a confession to make: I have never liked the Gran Turismo series. I could just never get on with the realistic handling and punishing gameplay (as it seemed to me at the time). Not having a particularly big interest in cars, despite the sheer number that were unlockable I couldn’t really see what all the fuss having so many in a game was about. Having seen the structure of GT Sport, with its licenses and the way the content is drip fed I can’t say it is a game that will finally get me into the series. However, for many of you it was one of your games of the year:

englishbob: “The kick up the arse it needed (less grinding) but a long way to go, but will get better in the next 18 months”

f2097: “It is really hard just picking five games this year. After reading previews about this being online only, light on content, no campaign etc.. There was no way I was going near this. Then the demo came out. The magic at the heart of the series is still there. I bought the game, loved it and like FFXV and Driveclub all the missing things have started to appear in the game. I can't go back to GT6 anymore it looks and plays rough compared to this.”

Sun Tze: “The online really works well, the rating system is a welcome addition and the cars and tracks look glorious. Still not my favourite racing game but what it does it does really well. Menu music and livery editor are excellent. Support so far is good and can't wait to see what tracks/vehicles are added over this year. ”

Qazimod: “GT Sport has problems. The focus of the start of the campaign feels like a bunch of licence tests, which were some of the most tedious parts of any Gran Turismo game for me, and when you finally get into the meat of the main game, you find that you’re either on a credits grind for new cars, a dice roll for loot box content with each daily workout, or an online massacre against people who are much better than you. Okay, maybe that last one is just me. Despite all of this, I still find myself coming back to GT Sport over and over again. The daily workouts may sometimes have bad rewards, but they’re over in a flash and incentivise continued play. The cars can get pricey, but there are loads of opportunities to earn credits. Above all of this, the cars just feel satisfying to drive. I’m not a big sim racer fanatic so I don’t have a lot of things to compare it to, but each car has a nice sense of weight and momentum, and you have to fight to get the most speed from each corner without pushing your luck too far and ending up in a barrier. Even against the AI, you can bump up the difficulty and expect an engaging test of your ability to tame the car and the track. In the end, it is just Gran Turismo again, but anyone who’s a fan of the series will accept that and enjoy the racing experience and the thrill of chasing more credits in order to get hold of a new shiny toy which can be thrown around the various tracks.”