#The best video games of 2016 series

You define HankвЂ™s relationship with Delilah by the ways you choose to respond to her, and in doing so, ask yourself the same question youвЂ™re ultimately asking of Hank: Why are you alone right now? 4 hours.ДЄvailable on: PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PC, MacOS Throughout the course of Firewatch, she is FrankвЂ™s only human contact, a voice on the radio that is both co-worker and tether. But more important than that story is HankвЂ™s relationship with his dispatcher, Delilah. At first, Hank doesnвЂ™t have much to do вЂ¦ and then things start getting strange. It casts you as Hank, a man who, in the throes of a midlife crisis, becomes a fire lookout in the Wyoming wilderness following the Yellowstone fires of 1988. 3 hours.ДЄvailable on: PC, MacOS, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, AndroidДЇirewatch is a game about loneliness. A terribly smart, surprisingly funny, nigh-perfect game. As you run the gauntlet, you must solve tremendously fun, mind-bending puzzles that bend physics to make you a superhero. The premise is simple: YouвЂ™re Chell, a prisoner of Aperture Science Center, and you are given a portal gun by GLaDOS, a misanthropic artificial intelligence with a weird sense of humor.В GLaDOS promises you cake if you take the gun and become a portal-jumping guinea pig, death if you do not. 3 hours, 30 minutes.ДЄvailable on: Xbox One, PlayStation 4, PCДЄ modern classic, Portal is the gold standard for tightly focused, well-designed, idiosyncratic video games.

Inside is an astonishing achievement of aesthetics and art direction, with fantastic and unsettling sound design, a moody, creepy vibe, and a final-act twist so surprising youвЂ™ll want to tell everyone you know about it. Outrunning the boyвЂ™s pursuers is only the start to the disturbing and macabre adventure - eventually, that boyвЂ™s going to find something. These are complete experiences, and some of the best games in recent memory.Д«est played in one sitting, Inside casts you as a nameless boy on the run from men who seem to have taken him prisoner. The 21 titles on this list span all manner of tones and genres: There are games where you shoot and games where you fight, games that are spooky and games that are funny, mysteries and parodies and really good stories - and every one of them can be completed in the time it takes to watch a couple of movies or the entirety of a British television show. Thankfully, short games are just as plentiful as massive ones, and no less compelling. Think of all the shows and movies and books and general human interaction you could enjoy in 100 hours!

#The best video games of 2016 series

This week weвЂ™re providing a series of Vulture Hacks: expert advice, gear guides, and recommendations to help you maximize your entertainment experience.Д¬onsidering how oftenВ video-game marketing proudly touts more than 100 hours of gameplay content, itвЂ™s understandable if certain would-be gamers assume they donвЂ™t have time to pick up a controller.