Well, this is just about it for 2015, and man, it was quite the year. We had some big name material come out, and some very strange things in general happen. So with 2015 drawing to a close, I figured I'd take a look back at the year and point out some of the nifty, some of the weird, and some of the things I'd rather not have seen this year.

Konami

You can't talk about a year in gaming without talking about Konami, a company that reports suggest is run much in the same way some prisons are run that decided it was a smart business decision to alienate and humiliate its biggest creative force. From its dustup with Hideo Kojima that lasted most of the year--with a crowning point hitting at the 2015 Game Awards show when it refused to let Kojima accept the award for the game he had a huge hand in developing--to the revelation that it didn't have much in the way of titles in the pipeline and were likely to be putting more attention on the pachinko machines and other gaming properties. A distressing notion, given how many were looking forward to another Castlevania or the like, but given what it took to get these titles--hearing about Konami's "Internal Audit Office" was a bone-chilling revelation--I think we all may be inclined to live without.

Fallout 4

This game made fall almost unbearable, as the calendar turned over page after page between E3 2015 and November 11. The first round of Fallout that had been seen since Lonesome Road closed the book on official DLC for Fallout: New Vegas, it was wildly anticipated, frequently speculated upon, and generally beaten to death by the time it actually arrived. When it did, wow. We had weapons that dealt in fire and ice, several melee weapons, some expanded mythos, and we were just getting started. The first DLC has yet to arrive, and so too the mod support, and there's going to be plenty of fun to go around.

Console expansions

Changes aplenty hit the two major consoles; with modifications for the Xbox One dashboard, and a look at what was coming at the PlayStation Experience event, there was no doubt that the consoles were working hard to keep up with the changing times. Even as Michael Pachter put out an eyebrow-raising pronouncement back in late September that the console era was coming to an end, it seemed clear that the consoles weren't taking it lying down. With backward compatibility, speed boosts, and modified interfaces on tap, consoles were as ready to go as ever.

2015: A Huge Year

There's no doubt that 2015 was a monster year for gaming. With a host of new games, some unexpected surprises, and some things we'd all rather forget, it was a year packed with news and excitement. Even E3, hitting in the middle of the year, was just one more in a string of exciting events, and it was much like the rest of the year: all about the games. What will we see in 2016? Come back tomorrow, because that's just what we'll be talking about.