With the year coming to an end, I figured it's time to make a thread about the best games released in the past year. For a change I feel like I've actually played a decent amount of new games this year. I also have a few I really ought to play more soon™, that probably would've been worth mentioning if I had more playtime.
Anyway, here's Zyc's picks for some of the best games of 2015:

Cities: Skylines

Cities: Skylines is what SimCity should've been (or so they say, I've never actually tried the new SimCity). Cities: Skylines is a simple, but very entertaining city-builder game. And best of all; it comes with mod support. The game looks beautiful as well, especially after the patch released along with its first DLC, After Dark, which introduced a day-night cycle.
Once you get into the basics, you'll quickly find that expanding the city and increasing your income is far from the most challenging aspect of the game. It's rather the traffic-management you'll be struggling with, clearly indicating Colossal Order's experience with their Cities in Motion series. While it's not necessarily something you'd expect to be spending a lot of time with in a city-builder (although admittedly an effective road network is very important for a growing city), it's very satisfying when you finally manage to disolve that kilometre long traffic jam that has plagued the city for months.


Life is Strange

This one came as a surprise to me. Life is Strange was the first episodic game I've played and having to wait for each new segment was kind of annoying, but at the same time very rewarding. LiS is an emotional roller coaster and is to date the only piece of narrative that has genuinly made me feel bad after I've finished an episode.
Life is Strange follows high school student Max Caulfield, who recently moved back to her hometown to attend the highly regarded Blackwell Academy. To start with it's just the usual high school drama happening, but shit soon gets serious and Max has to save the day with her newly found ability to rewind time. This game deals with a lot of serious issues and gets really dark a few episodes in.


Fallout 4

Well, duh, it's Fallout. Fallout 4 was my second most wanted game (after S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2) and it was really just a matter of time before it was coming. I didn't expect it this soon though. While there has been a lot of little changes from its prequels, I don't think any of them have been for the worse. The main story is mediocre, as usual in Bethesda games, but the rest is great.


Dirty Bomb

While it's strictly speaking not released as such yet, Dirty Bomb entered open beta this summer. Dirty Bomb is a fast-paced multiplayer shooter, bearing similarities with Team Fortress 2. Each team consists of between five and eight players and you get to pick three mercs for each match. Currently there's 18 mercs to choose from, all with different abilities and weapon loadouts. While the game probably is far from perfect, I've had a lot of fun playing it. And it's free-to-play (for better or worse), so if it sounds like something you'd be interested in, you can just download it.


Honourable Mentions
Of course there's been more good games released this year, but that I haven't gotten around to play enough yet.
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt: Supposedly one of the best games of the year and four hours in, it looks really solid. Hopefully I'll have time to play this more very soon.
Pillars of Eternity: An old school RPG which looks really cool. I've only just got it, so can't say much yet.
Darkest Dungeon: A 2D dungeon crawler with a dark sense of humour. Members of your group of mercs can not only die indefinitely, but may also go insane and start hurting other group members or themselves.

For now, my best 3 games of 2015 would be (ordered by ranking)
- Pillars of Eternity (I'm biased here because I honor the choice to reintroduce values of traditional games and that, they did flawlessly)
- GTA V (simply nothing to critizice and A LOT to love)
- Starcraft 2 - LotV (No idea why I put it here. I guess I must've finally accepted that it's not the continuation of the sc1 I loved but a modern RTS, with all implications. And as that it's currently the best there is.)

I haven't played Witcher 3 or Fallout 4, so I'm expecting to replace one of these with SC2 once I have. I doubt they can top the other 2 for me.

Witcher 3 > Fallout 4

Just Cause 3 has been my most favorite game of 2015.
Wingsuits, Parachutes, and grappling hooks combined with explosives, high octane action, and even more explosions just made my year. I like it better than MGS 5 and even Fallout 4, and I put at least 80 hours into those games too.

Just got Undertale today. This game is pretty dang cool, and it has an awesome soundtrack.

I really, really like Life Is Strange. I'd say Life Is Strange is far better than Telltale Games' Walking Dead. Your choices do matter, unlike The Walking Dead. In The Walking Dead, whoever you pick to live will die off in the next episode. The Walking Dead gives the illusion of choice, while Life Is Strange's choices do matter. I like how the ending of Episode 2 will affect Episode 4, so it's not an illusion of choice that made it seem meaningless. I remember I felt excited and became ready to start playing Episode 4, only to be disturbed by Episode 4's ending.

Assassin's Creed Syndicate is great, and I appreciate it quite a lot. While the franchise is criticized for annual releases, and the glitchy launch of Assassin's Creed Unity (Which is fixed by now), Assassin's Creed Syndicate is almost flawless in my opinion.

I like Rise of the Tomb Raider, but I didn't go to far because of other games. I will continue to record gameplay footage as soon as I come back to that game.

Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Siege is extremely, extremely addicting. I'm currently on clearance level 91.

I bought the following 2015 games on Xbox One:

• Assassin’s Creed Syndicate
  
• Batman Arkham Knight
  
• Borderlands The Handsome Collection
  
• Dead or Alive 5 Last Round
  
• Dying Light
  
• Evolve
  
• Gears of War Ultimate Edition
  
• Halo 5 Guardians
  
• Metal Gear Solid V The Phantom Pain
  
• Mortal Kombat X
  
• Rise of the Tomb Raider
  
• Saints Row IV Re-elected
  
• Star Wars Battlefront
  
• State of Decay Survival One Edition
  
• The Witcher III Wild Hunt
  
• Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Siege

I'm missing out on Fallout 4 and Just Cause 3.

On PC I bought:

• Starcraft II Legacy of the Void
• Toxikk (Still in beta, I believe)

Skyrim was pretty cool.

How come you buy all those games on Xbox One instead of PC, Krayzee? Don't have a good enough one?

I need to go all out big budget on PC. Plus, many PC games will be functional as a console port. If the game is meant for consoles first, then I'll get it on consoles. If the games are developed by game developers such as Valve and Blizzard, I'll aim for PC.

On my Xbox One, I have an Astro A40, Astro A50, battery recharger, a 65" TV, and an external 5TB Hard Drive formatted for Xbox One to keep my experience great.

Interesting philosophy.

I personally tend to always go for the PC option when there is an available option simply because I want the PC gaming environment to dominate the console one. Unfortunately that means suffering through some pretty ugly ports.

I simply can't justify the cost to myself of purchasing a console when my PC outperforms them in spades.

Now we have games such as Doom, Overwatch, and Mirror's Edge Catalyst as upcoming games that will probably perform fantastically on PC, and yet I will be playing them on Xbox One. Blizzard Entertainment's Overwatch is something I would appreciate using a mouse and keyboard, but I may play it on Xbox One instead.

You're 4 years late.

Since they released Fallout 4, I am curious about the next Elder Scrolls. I would imagine the resources they will have for voice dialogue for the races you pick for your character.