5punk

Damn, it's 5punky awards time again. That came around quick. Place your nominations here for the single player game of the year. This is the game which you have enjoyed the most on your own. Videogame that is, not that one you play with your finger in the bathroom. That's just dirty. I'll put voting polls up in the new year.

Ooh, I had no idea until I started looking at a list of things released this year. My nominations would be (in no particular order):

Monaco - I know its really more of a multiplayer game but I mostly played it by myself.
Gunpoint - Really rather a decent little puzzle game, made excellent by a good sense of humour
Gone Home - I know some people argue whether this is a "game" or not. I call those people stupid. I'm not sure I would describe it as fun exactly, but I certainly enjoyed the experience.
Saints Row IV - Unlike the above, this is definitely a game and is definitely fun. I don't think it was quite as good as SR3, but that was partly an issue of impact: having played SR3 I was more prepared to expect the crazy.
Bioshock Infinite - I didn't actually rate the shooty gamey parts of this *at all*, but the story was fascinating. Convoluted as balls, and yet I have yet to hear anyone pick a story hole that cant be explained away.
The Wolf Among Us - Its only had the one episode released, but I am actually enjoying it more than The Walking Dead (possibly due to zombie fatigue). I'm not sure that this will leave me an emotional wreck like TWD, but its got me gripped none the less.

I nominate Battlefield 4, because I am very predictable.

Saints Row IV

For single player, but not multiplayer?

Whoops, I wasn't looking close enough at the thread title, I thought this was just for GOTY not single player GOTY.

Biocock infinite. Deliberately avoided hype, played it and thoroughly enjoyed it.

GTA V now they've pretty much nailed all the frustrations I had in previous releases is a more enjoyable ride than Saint's Row VI, but I have to give my nomination to The Last Of Us. "Enjoy" is probably the wrong word given the gritty emotive content of the story, but it has certainly been my most remarkable in-game experience this year.

It's kinda telling that most of the games I checked through that were single player were smaller titles, often indie-made.

The Stanley Parable - Fantastic remake, literally had me putting the mouse down and wheeling away from my desk before I could stop laughing. Narration, timing and soundtrack's just excellent.
Papers Please - Something I can only play for little stints, but it's a beautiful game with wonderful written dialogue. I gather it also has lots and lots of different endings. Corrupt soviet block border control officer? Yes please.

Weirdly I was only able to play Mass Effect 3 at the start of the year when I built my current PC, as it didn't run on my old rig. Unfortunately that was a whole year after its launch, so I'd be kinda pushing it a bit trying to get that on the list.

I really wanted to be able to say Sim City, but after a good go at the game (and to be fair, I put a decent number of hours into it, so worth the purchase price) I just couldn't stick with it. The plot sizes are just too small. To Maxis' credit they've done a pretty good job at patching it since and have added a lot of good features, but it looks like they're on the DLC train now and EA's steering. Fingers crossed that they'll sort out their GlassBox engine and make it scale up for the next SC release.

I also wanted to be able to say Half Life 3, but.. Y'know how that goes.

I remember they stated that limited plot size in SimCity was due to the technical limitations of some peoples' PCs. Which was a pretty arrogant statement on the surface, when pretty much every other PC game just puts in scalability options. But then I read on PCGamesN that it was actually a limitation of the 32-bit architecture, and that if they had used 64-bit they could have made the cities bigger. Which is interesting, and actually makes far more sense. I wouldn't have expected them to make a 32-bit and a 64-bit version, and they would maximise their coverage with the former. Personally I think they should have gone the other way for game quality, but I can understand the decision. If only they would have credited us with a little technical acumen and explained it properly, then maybe the launch would have been met with slightly less vitriol (although the DRM still made it a shit launch).

My nomination would have to go to The Last of Us.

It absolutely blew me away. Best game I've played in a long long time.

I'll also nominate Gone Home, mostly for an honorable mention.

I'd have to say Saint's Row IV I think, it's the newest release that has grabbed a lot of my time. Ask me about Starbound in the New year though...

I can't believe Aliens: Colonial Marines hasn't been mentioned yet

Bioshock is the only singleplayer game I gave any attention to. Nothing else grabbed my attention this year at all.

GTA 5 followed closely by Last of Us.

Polls are up! Get your votes in before the 7th.