2015: My Gaming Year In Review

2015 was not a banner year for me gaming-wise.  Compared to all of last year, I've already finished 2/3 as many games less than two full months into 2016. I can blame the slow gameplay of the second half of the year on crazy overtime at work. But even on days when I got off work on time, I just felt drained, with very little desire to do much of anything. I rarely even had energy to sit and watch a movie for two hours, much less play a game that requires active interaction. And don't get me started on my lack of drawing.

Apparently, I did not keep track of where I was gamerscorewise last year, probably because I didn't make my yearly write-up until May. I'm doing a little bit better this year, as it's only February. As it stands right now, I'm at rank 20 on PSN,  about 37% of the way to rank 21. I've ranked up at least once since the year began. So, we'll say I started at rank 19. On Xbox, I currently stand at 212, 880. I'm going to say I started the year at an even 212,000. This will be good starting point to track my progress next year.

Overall, I finished only 24 games; a significant drop from the 44 of 2014 - which was already half of what I achieved in 2013. The console breakdown of these:

8 were on Xbox One.

7 were PS4 games.

6 PS3 games.

1 Vita game.

1 Xbox 360 game.

1 Wii U game.

Only 4 of these were games I had started playing before 2015.

I did manage to grind out 4 platinum trophies from these games.

I list these games as finished once I've completed the main storyline. For games without a definitive end, I call it finished once I reach a certain level or achievement percentage. And I also count episodic games as multiple individual games if they have separate achievement/trophy lists (I started doing this to psych myself into finishing more games... didn't work).

The complete list, by date of completion:

Saints Row IV - PS3 - PLATINUM  (previously played on 360)

Saints Row IV Re-Elected - Xbox One

Far Cry 4 -PS4

Saints Row Gat Out Of Hell - Xbox One

Lego Batman 3 - Vita - PLATINUM

Lego The Hobbit - PS4 - PLATINUM

Back to the Future Episode 1 - PS3

                I did get 100% of the trophies for this episode. But that's hardly reason to celebrate.

Unfinished Swan - PS4 (previously played on PS3)

Uncharted 2: Among Thieves - PS3

Toy Story 3 - PS3 - PLATINUM (previously played on 360)

                This is the rarest platinum trophy I achieved in 2015. Playstation says only 1% of gamers who played the game got the trophy.

Angry Birds Star Wars - PS4

Samurai Warriors 4 - PS4

Borderlands The Pre-Sequel - 360

                I had actually blogged about not buying this game, but I received it as a gift. And I didn't even play it until after I picked up a copy of the Borderlands Handsome Collection. So I played through the old version first so I could transfer over my save.

Bejeweled 3 - PS3 (previously played on 360)

Lego Jurassic Park - Xbox One

                Would have 100% the achievement list for this, but a glitch prevented me from getting one cheevo... although I did get the achievement for 100% completion.

Batman Arkham Knight - Xbox One

Halo 3: ODST - Xbox One (previously played on 360)

Halo 4 - XBox One (previously played on 360)

Hyrule Warriors - Wii U

Lara Croft and the Temple of Osiris - PS4

Gears of War Ultimate Edition - Xbox One

Back to the Future Episode 2 - PS3

Lego Marvel Super Heroes - PS4 (previously played on PS3)

                I actually got the platinum trophy for this, but it happened after the new year, so that counts towards 2016.

Rise of the Tomb Raider - Xbox One

I really don't have much to say about the games this year. I know I enjoyed most of them I finished (with the exception of the Back To The Future episodes... between the constant loading, the bland artstyle, the underwhelming storyline, and the overall boringness of the game... I did not like the game at all. Thankfully, I did manage to finish it in 2016 - spoilers for next year's recap!), but they seem to mush together in the memory of afterwork blahs. I know I liked Arkham Knight and Samurai Warriors 4 a lot. Look forward to playing Batman again on PS4, and Samurai Warriors 4 Empires comes out soon...

My biggest disappointment for 2015 was a game I didn't actually finish: Just Cause 3. I was really looking forward to that game for a long time, but there were a lot of little things in that game that cramped by enjoyment. Not the least of it being the lack of co-op that had been long rumored. But when I got to a story mission that glitched out, causing me to stumble like I was being shot every time I moved, I gave up on the game completely.

As far as working on my backlog... it was a terrible, terrible year. Only 5 games (including the 2 BTTF episodes) were older than 2 years. I've bought far more new games than I finished. While I can almost guarantee I'll buy more games than I finish again this year, I do vow to make it a bit more balanced. So far in 2016, I've already finished 3 games that were over 5 years old.

While I'm hesitant to make grand goals for the year, as I'm always failing spectacularly at them practically moments after posting said goals... I do want to work on finishing long overdue games. Games that I haven't touched on the 360 achievement list from years ago. It will involve tracking down games I don't own, but I'm pretty sure they'll be dirt cheap. It will probably be more difficult to get rid of them than to find a copy to begin with.

That's all for now!