The Ten Best Games of 2015

It's that time of year again. Those of us who review film, TV, video games, or whatever can possibly be reviewed, look back on the last 12 months and try to pick their favorites. Again, we're asked a direct question that can be hard to answer: Was it a GOOD year? I'll say this: It was better than 2014, a year of growing pains for the next-gen systems. I'll also say this: Not really. The year started strongly with some must-play titles releasing in the first six months, but most of the year-end titles disappointed to varying degrees. Yes, a few of those titles are on the list below, but they never really competed with the top two titles for Game of the Year like we hoped they would. And a few of the year-end titles ("Star Wars: Battlefront," "Rainbow Six: Siege," "Assassin's Creed Syndicate") were straight-up disappointments. Let's think positively. Let's hope 2016 starts as strong as 2015 did and keeps it up from there. And let's celebrate the year that was with its ten best games.
Runner-ups (alphabetical): "Assassin's Creed: Syndicate," "Battlefield Hardline," "Just Cause 3," "LEGO Dimensions," "LEGO Jurassic World," "Life is Strange," "Madden NFL 16," "Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain," "NBA 2K16," and "Wolfenstein: The New Order"

The Order: 1886. Sony

10.  "The Order: 1886"

Yes, it's too short. Yes, it's repetitive. I agree. So, why did it make this list? It's this simple: Very few games this year excelled at world-building. When I play a narratively strong game like this, I want to enter a different world. Think of Rapture in "Bioshock" or the universe of the "Mass Effect" games. The world of "The Order" is fully-realized and immersive. In fact, it's disappointing that we never saw DLC for it and that the game has been poorly received to the degree that a sequel is unlikely. Never say never.

Guitar Hero Live. Activision

9.  "Guitar Hero Live"

I would have wagered that "Rock Band 4" would have been the more creatively vibrant of the two music games released this year. I would have been wrong. While "Rock Band 4" is undeniably fun, it is also undeniably a retread of what the franchise has done before. In fact, it's almost impossible to differentiate from "Rock Band 3." It's not unlike a remastered last-gen game now available on the next-gen. On the other hand, the people behind "Guitar Hero Live" considered what the PS4 can do that the PS3 cannot, and offered a unique experience with live performers instead of animated ones and streaming music channels to play along with. I'm not convinced the new fret system is superior to the old one, but "Guitar Hero Live" took a dead franchise and rebuilt it from the ground up instead of just reviving it. 

Game of Thrones. Telltale Games

8.  "Game of Thrones"

Telltale Games is arguably the most important video game company working today. They have two games on this list and I'd call both must-plays. At times, this was the superior of their two 2015 offerings, but the end left enough cliffhangers and question marks to drop it to 2nd place and a few spots down this list. It's still an incredibly satisfying piece of storytelling, a game that doesn't just recreate what works about the George R. R. Martin books and HBO shows as much as it is feels like another chapter in this multi-character tale. The decisions forced upon you in "Game of Thrones" are some of the most memorable in any game this year. Most often, there's not a "good" choice to make--just bad and worse.  

Call of Duty: Black Ops III. Activision

7.  "Call of Duty: Black Ops III"

Another year, another "CoD." I totally get many gamer's exhaustion with this franchise, one that doesn't take enough creative risks, especially when it comes to map design, and I'm not here to proclaim "Black Ops III" as the breakthrough in multiplayer gameplay that Activision touted it as being. All I'll say is that "Black Ops III" remembered to be something that too few multiplayer games were in 2015: fun. With the addition of new specialists and their unique weapons, "Black Ops III" delivered the most robust multiplayer game of the year. It's the one I've gone back to the most, and I can't wait to see what the map packs bring. I still think these games fall just short of their potential, especially in the campaigns, but for sheer playing time value, I'd be dishonest if this wasn't on the list. 

Fallout 4. Bethesda

6.  "Fallout 4"

Speaking of playing time, it's easy to plug dozens of hours into this excellent RPG, and that's just time spent looking at your inventory. My experience with "Fallout 4" has been an exercise in the scales of video game justice. On one side of the scale, there is the sheer scope of this game, one of the most impressive worlds of the year, and the emotional gravity of the main story. On the other side, balancing it out, is the repetitive combat, dull crafting, and unacceptable degree of glitchiness. Every time I felt like "Fallout 4" was going to transcend its flaws and become an honest GOTY contender, something would annoy me. Still, it's an incredibly enjoyable experience, the kind that can really drain your time. Especially when you spend two hours looking at your inventory. 

Until Dawn. Sony

5.  "Until Dawn"

In 2015, after three decades of gaming, I'm mostly looking for video game experiences that feel unique, that redefine the way I play games. Is "Until Dawn" as ambitious as "Fallout 4" or even "Black Ops III"? Hell no. But I enjoyed every single second of it because it felt like something I wasn't used to playing in today's market. That's something that a lot of people forget about video game critics. We play almost everything. And so a truly strange title like "Until Dawn," which is essentially a hybrid of "Heavy Rain" and "Scream," stands out more. It helps that I'm a big horror fan, catching many of the references made by Larry Fessenden and his crew. I would absolutely love it if enough people played "Until Dawn" to inspire sequels and copycats. We need more games that expand what we expect when we hold a controller in our hands. 

4.  "Batman: Arkham Knight"

I know. I contradict myself. While most of the best games of the year expand the language of their form, sometimes you just want an old-fashioned action game done right. Enter the folks at Rocksteady and the best pure action game of the year. I played almost every minute of "Arkham Knight," save for a few Riddler trophies still circulating around town. And I enjoyed almost every minute of it (save for some of the tank missions perhaps). The narrative of "Knight" really gets what makes a great Batman game work. It incorporates a number of major and minor DC characters, and the way The Joker has been reimagined as a crazy devil on Bruce Wayne's shoulder is hilarious and truly insightful into what makes the Dark Knight tick.  

Tales From the Borderlands. Telltale Games

3.  "Tales From the Borderlands"

Telltale Games revolutionized the downloadable title with "The Walking Dead" but 2015 saw them top their greatest achievement to date with this amazing sci-fi/comedy/action/adventure. At first, I kind of just presumed that "Tales" would preach to the converted, working as a playful adventure for fans of 2K's "Borderlands" franchise (of which I am undeniably one). I was wrong. "Tales From the Borderlands" stands completely on its own, whether you've ever even played a "Borderlands" game or if you hate one. The storytelling here actually most recalls Joss Whedon's "Firefly" in its blend of comedy and space action. And then, out of nowhere, it gets actually moving. I'll miss these characters more than any others from 2015.

2.  "The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt"

In terms of world creation, nothing in 2015 comes close to "The Witcher 3," the year's best RPG. The characters and narrative of "Wild Hunt" are strong enough to earn the game a spot on this list, but it competes for GOTY for another reason: more than any title this year, I felt like I was a small part of the universe of this game. I felt like NPCs were living their own lives and that danger lurked around any corner. Deep into the game, "The Witcher 3" has new things to show you, new worlds to explore, new enemies to fight, and new allies to make. It is as dense and complex as your favorite fantasy fiction, complete with fantastic combat and inventory mechanics to boot. It's one of the best games of the '10s. 

Bloodborne. SCEA

1.  "Bloodborne"

And then there's pain. Again, video game critics get accustomed to playing games in a certain way, often to do so quickly so they can move on to another assignment. It's often when we can get truly immersed in a game's world and forget about the review we have to create that a title rises above the pack. Few games of this generation have been as addictive as "Bloodborne." First off, good luck playing it casually. It's a game that demands concentration and strategy in a way that few action games do. And once you immerse yourself in the world long enough to not die every 2 minutes, it gets under your skin. There are parts of "Bloodborne" that are honestly terrifying. Most of all, it's a game that rewards success in ways we just don't see enough. Look at the titles above. I have probably killed 100,000 enemies in various games this year, but it's the victories against the bosses of "Bloodborne" that felt like actual accomplishments. 

Monitoring DNS Traffic for Threats

Here are several methods to monitor DNS traffic for security threats.
Firewalls
Let's begin at the most prevalent security system: your firewall. All firewalls should let you define rules to prevent IP spoofing. Include a rule to deny DNS queries from IP addresses outside your allocated numbers space to prevent your name resolver from being exploited as an open reflector in DDoS attacks.
Next, enable inspection of DNS traffic for suspicious byte patterns or anomalous DNS traffic to block name server software exploit attacks.

Documentation describing how popular firewalls provide this feature is readily available (e.g., Palo Alto Networks, Cisco Systems, WatchGuard). Sonicwall and Palo Alto can detect and block certain DNS tunneling traffic, as well.

Intrusion detection systems
Whether you use Snort, Suricata, or OSSEC, you can compose rules to report DNS requests from unauthorized clients.

You can also compose rules to count or report NXDOMAIN responses, responses containing resource records with short TTLs, DNS queries made using TCP, DNS queries to nonstandard ports, suspiciously large DNS responses, etc. Any value in any field of the DNS query or response message is basically "in play." You're essentially limited only by your imagination and mastery of DNS. Intrusion prevention services in firewalls provide permit/deny rules for many of the most common of these checks.

Traffic analyzers
Use cases for both Wireshark and Bro show that passive traffic analysis can be useful in identifying malware traffic. Capture and filter DNS traffic between your clients and your resolver, and save to a PCAP file.

Create scripts to search the PCAP for the specific suspicious activities you are investigating, or use PacketQ (originally DNS2DB) to SQL query the PCAP file directly.

(Remember to block your clients from using any resolver or nonstandard port other than your local resolvers).
Passive DNS replication
This involves using sensors at resolvers to create a database that contains every DNS transaction (query/response) through a given resolver or set of resolvers.

Including passive DNS data in your analysis can be instrumental in identifying malware domains, especially in cases where the malware uses algorithmically generated domain names (DGAs). Palo Alto Networks firewalls and security management systems that use Suricata as an IDS engine (like AlienVault USM or OSSIM) are examples of security systems that pair passive DNS with IPS to block known malicious domains.

Logging at your resolver
The logs of your local resolvers are a last and perhaps most obvious data source for investigating DNS traffic. With logging enabled, you can use tools like Splunk plus getwatchlist or OSSEC to collect DNS server logs and explore for known malicious domains.
Passive DNS replication
This involves using sensors at resolvers to create a database that contains every DNS transaction (query/response) through a given resolver or set of resolvers. Including passive DNS data in your analysis can be instrumental in identifying malware domains, especially in cases where the malware uses algorithmically generated domain names (DGAs). Palo Alto Networks firewalls and security management systems that use Suricata as an IDS engine (like AlienVault USM or OSSIM) are examples of security systems that pair passive DNS with IPS to block known malicious domains.
Logging at your resolver
The logs of your local resolvers are a last and perhaps most obvious data source for investigating DNS traffic. With logging enabled, you can use tools like Splunk plus getwatchlist or OSSEC to collect DNS server logs and explore for known malicious domains