With all the announcements made during E3 last week, I ended up with a mixed state of emotions. We had the great, especially for Xbox One owners such as myself thanks to backwards compatibility and PC mod support, as well as the unveiling and launch dates for Fallout 4. Then there were the bad moments such as the Shenmue 3 e-begging, oh I’m sorry, I meant Kickstarter campaign. I’m sorry if you all don’t agree with what I am saying here, but for Sony to announce a Kickstarter during their press conference, it just leaves a bad feeling of a potential trend that might harm this industry.

And for those of you who don’t believe me, look up Project Cars 2.

I could go on and on about how I felt about that, and how I feel that Yu Suzuki, who admittedly was one of the best developers of the mid to late 90s, might have just won my award for Sellout of the Year but you can just hear my rant during the E3 GiN Lounge episode for that. It’s time for me to move on, and with the end of the first half of the year, I wanted to give my opinions of the best games that I played this year. Again, I must mention these are the games that I played, so if someone you played is not on the list, save the hate mail for someone who did play it.

Before I start with the list I did want to add an honorable mention, which I am going to give to Elite: Dangerous. I’ve always been a fan of space exploration and trading games, especially Wing Commander: Privateer. However don’t even get me started on how bad Privateer 2 was, and it still made me mad that Privateer 3 was cancelled (thanks so much for that, EA!).

But I know the series was originally inspired by Elite on the BBC Micro and ZX Spectrum (and the C64 in the US,) however I never played it. I’m glad that Frontier Development released Dangerous for a whole new generation of explorers, and now with it available for Xbox One via their name Game Preview service, I have spent the most time since E3 exploring a galaxy of 400 billion star systems. But I’m sure many of you are asking me why I am giving it an honorable mention instead of a Top 5 title? Simple. As I said earlier, the Xbox One version is in preview mode and is currently a work in progress. There are a lot of bugs that need to be resolved, the worst for me being the ##MINORFACTION listing in the bulletin board that makes these missions non-selectable. I hope that Frontier fixes this soon because if they do, the way things are going so far, it might end up being in my Top 5 by the end of the year.

And yes, playing The Blue Danube during docking sequences is a nice touch.

And now, for the Top 5…

#5 – SID MEIER’S STARSHIPS (2K – PC, played via Steam)

When Beyond Earth came out, I found it was a decent total conversion of Civilization V, and I was curious to see how they would expand on the BE universe. What we got here is an enjoyable budget tactical strategy game featuring the eight Beyond Earth leaders expanding beyond their new home in a quest to conquer the galaxy. Fleet combat combined with simple resource management and games that can be finished quickly make for an enjoyable experience. I’m hoping they can expand on the universe even more in the months to come.

4. WOLFENSTEIN: THE OLD BLOOD (Bethesda – Multiplatform, played on Xbox One)

As if Wolfenstein: The New Order wasn’t a great game to begin with, we are treated with a standalone expansion that takes the game back to its roots. In fact, we are brought back to where the series began, escaping from Castle Wolfenstein after being captured, but ends up in a surprise twist that takes the Wolfenstein series to a whole new direction. And now, both New Order and The Old Blood are available as a combo pack for a low price. I strongly suggest picking it up.

3. MORTAL KOMBAT X (WB Games – Multiplatform, played on Xbox One)

After the excellent Mortal Kombat reboot back in 2011, I didn’t think they could be able to recreate success twice, especially when you consider that MKX can be considered a retelling of Mortal Kombat 4, which is where I felt the series started to go downhill. Thankfully that is not the case. Even with the controversy involving “easy fatalities” and removing pit fatalities, the return of brutalities and the most gruesome, yet equally innovative fatalities ever seen in an MK game more than make up for it. And yes, Jason Voorhees makes for one hell of a Kombatant!

2. THE ELDER SCROLLS ONLINE: TAMRIEL UNLIMITED (Bethesda – Multiplatform, played on Xbox One)

Yeah, yeah, I know what you’re all thinking. “What is Todd doing playing an MMO? I thought he hated MMOs?” Yes, this is an MMO, but no, it is an MMO that I actually enjoy. For starters, they removed the monthly paywall, making the game more accessible to everyone. Secondly, this game feels less like an MMO and more like the Elder Scrolls games that I know and love. In fact, this might be the most fun I have had with an MMO style game since Phantasy Star Online on the original Xbox. And thankfully, all the login issues that occurred at launch seem to be a thing of the past because logging in is much faster, and now is the perfect time to jump into Tamriel.

1. THE WITCHER 3: WILD HUNT (WB Games – Multiplatform, played on Xbox One)

Comparisons to Skyrim aside, no other game has shown so much on such a small budget like what CD Projekt Red did with their open world masterpiece. I admit I never played the first Witcher (due to PC system requirements issues) and only touched the surface of Witcher 2, but CDPR was smart enough to make Witcher 3 accessible to everyone, newbies and veterans alike and brought a very inviting world to explore. Even after nearly 60 hours of gameplay in, I feel like I just got to the heart of the story (I just arrived in Skellige.) That just shows much deep the Witcher 3 experience is. I still feel it’s too different from Skyrim to directly compare them, but it is equally good. In fact I think the only game that might beat out Witcher 3 for GOTY voting might be Fallout 4.

But that will have to wait until the end of the year. So far, we’re off to a good start. I’m sure at least one of these games will stay on the list. And maybe Elite: Dangerous might get on there as well.

Currently Playing: Elder Scrolls Online (Xbox One,) Elite: Dangerous (Xbox Preview Program)

Waiting For: Batman: Arkham Knight