Episode 77: 2015 Top Games and 2016 Predictions

With our year-end wrap-up, we bring you our biggest episode ever. This certainly isn't normal. Next week should see the return of our usual "about one hour" episodes, not this "more than two hours" beast of a show that took forever to edit and post. This was mostly due to combining our 2015 wrap-up with our 2016 predictions and game hype, plus the inevitable extra-long discussions that result from having my friend Bill sit in as a third chair host. Starting with our usual off-topic segment, Addie talks about her gaming-related Christmas gifts. Then Bill and I briefly discuss a book we both read recently -- Ernest Cline's follow-up to Ready Player One, called Armada. Before we get to our usual segments, we revisit our 2015 predictions to gauge how well each of us were able to see into the future of 2015. On the whole, fairly well as it turns out. After news and listener email (which includes the first round of gaming predictions for 2016), we talk about what we're playing. I skipped myself this time, since it has mostly been Xenoblade Chronicles X (WiiU), which I hope to wrap up and talk about next week. For Addie, it's Lego Dimensions (PS4), which was a Christmas present for all three of them; speaking of which, Heath and Hadleigh include their Mini-Gamers Episode 8 this week, with what they're playing plus their own 2015 top ten lists. Game discussion with Bill starts next, but spills over into several later segments. This includes more back-and-forth regarding Fallout 4 (PS4), a recap of my earlier disappointment over initially getting the bad ending in The Witcher III (PS4), Bill's thoughts on what makes good and bad achievements and trophies, and more. We also talk about our most anticipated games expected to release in 2016, plus our favorites from this year. We wrap up the show with our 2016 gaming predictions. We'll look back at them a year from now, to see how well we did. If you want to add your own predictions to ours and those from this week's listener email, just write in! We'll read your predictions and emails next week. Have feedback? Write to us at podcast@vggpodcast.com Find links and show notes at http://www.vggpodcast.com