The Buttonsmashers Game of the Year 2015

It’s about that time of the year, that time when we celebrate the games that monopolized hours upon hours of our time, while giving us some of the best experiences possible via the Video Game medium this year. During 2015 we The Buttonsmashers Editors played, and reviewed more games than we’ve done during any other previous year, and that was due to there being so many great titles available to us from so many great publishers/ developers. Today we’ve taken the liberty to pick out the best of the best for 2015 for you. Each editor has chosen their individual top 5 games and at the end we’ll have the overall game of the year winner.

Here are the top 5 choices from The Buttonsmashers Editors

Qudduws (Handheld/Manga/Anime Editor)

• Tales of Zestiria (PC)
• Rocket League (PC) – first impression
• Oreshika: Tainted Bloodlines (PSV) – First Impression
• FIFA 16 (PC) – first impression “FIFA 16 is the best FIFA game to date, both mechanically and visually”
• Yakuza 5 (PS3) – Review

*Notable mention: Way of the Samurai 4 (PC) – First Impression
*The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt (PC)

Jorge (Japanese Games Editor)

• Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain (PS4)
• The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt (PS4)
• Fallout 4 (PS4) – First Impression
• Undertale (OS X)
• Super Mario Maker (Wii U) – first impression

Zach (PC Games Editor)

• Tales from the Borderlands (PC) “Telltales Games continues to amaze us with their wonderful take on the Borderlands franchise”
• Rocket League (PC) – first impression “The most surprising success out of 2015”
• Fallout 4 (PC) – First Impression
• Party Hard (PC) – First impression
• NBA 2k16 (PC)

*The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt (PC)

Tim (PlayStation Games Editor)

• Fallout 4 (PS4) – First Impression
• Party Hard (PC) – First impression
• Tales from the Boarderlands (PS4)
• Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain (PS4)
• Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask (3DS)

Jessica (Indie/Retro Games Editor)

• Pillars of Eternity (PC)
• Oceanhorn (PC) – Review “The Wind Waker of the PC”
• The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt (PC)
• Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain (PC)
• Guild Wars 2: Heart of Thorns (PC)  

Kriston (General Editor)

• Destiny The Taken King (PS4) – Review
• Just Cause 3 (PS4)
• Call of Duty Black Ops 3 (PS4)
• Fallout 4 (PS4)- First Impression
• FIFA 16 (PS4) – first impression

Kirstyn (General Games Editor)

• The Elder Scrolls Online (PS4)
• Destiny The Taken King (PS4) – Review
• Bloodborne (PS4)
• Dying light (PS4) – Review
• The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt (XBO)

Roger (YouTube/Games Editor)

• The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt – first impression
• Bloodborne (PS4)
• Undertale (PC)
• Metal Gear Solid V: Phantom Pain
• King’s Quest: A Knight to remember

*Notable mention: Killing Floor 2 – First impression

GAME OF THE YEAR: THE WITCHER 3: WILD HUNT

The Witcher: Wild Hunt is a story-driven, next-generation open world role-playing game set in a visually stunning fantasy universe full of meaningful choices and impactful consequences. In The Witcher you play as the professional monster hunter, Geralt of Rivia, tasked with finding a child of prophecy in a vast open world rich with merchant cities, viking pirate islands, dangerous mountain passes, and forgotten caverns to explore. When we first got the third installment in The Witcher series we were not really impressed due to a few bugs, and issues with the PC version, but not to long after that developer CD Project Red worked out the kinks, and stunned us with the great support that they offered to the game. The Witcher 3 is also one of the few games in recent memory to be shipped with free DLC. In the end even though we liked quite a lot of other titles this year there is only one that deserves to be called game of the year, and that is The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt.