Game of the Year / Year in review 2014

I didn't think there was enough of us here to do our usual voting on categories, so as 2014 is coming to an end, why not let us all just list our most favourite games of the year, and why. Just simply say whatever you feel about this years gaming - if that is a list, or an essay, or however you want to sum up your gaming year. 

I just wanted to get this rolling - I'm going to go have a think and come back to mine later.

My GotY is Destiny. No competition.

Generally a crap year for gamers and gaming I think.

• Broken games
  
• Unfinished games (related to above as well)
  
• Game delays
  
• Gamergate
  
• Poor reviewing of games
  
• Re-releases/remasters
  

Pretty bad year for all kinds of reasons, many of which Marky mentioned but to which I'd add the growing number of ever bigger patches needed by games to make them work properly, which ironically makes my choice pretty straightforward. Out of the new games I've played this year Far Cry 4 is by far the most I've enjoyed from start to finish so I'll go for that. Honorable mentions also to Alien: Isolation and Wolfenstein: The New Order.

Certainly not been the best year, for many of the reasons mentioned by others.

February:
Due to my initial reluctance to pick up a PS4, I used those funds to finally pick up a Vita and truth be told (despite Sony treating it like a red-haired bastard step-child) that's probably been the best decision I've made all year. As well as a decent enough backlog to catch up on, this month also bought us Ys: Memories of Celceta, a great game although one I still need to get back to. This was also the month where I was forced to kick off against reviewers (especially those who clearly can't play games) after the brutally unfair IMO reviews of Castlevania: LoS 2, a game that was far better than those fucktards would have you believe. This month also boasted the HD re-release of one of my favourite ever Gamecube games, Tales of Symphonia and replaying the game again sure didn't disappoint.

March
This was the month I had been most looking forward to when the year kicked in and that excitement was due to the presence of one game, Dark Souls II. Unfortunately this just hasn't grabbed me like the previous games, yes, it's decent enough in its own right but it's just not a very good Souls game. Something just felt off and the lack of real input from Miyazaki was really felt. It's telling that I still can't bring myself to finish the game. 

May
A release packed month and one of the better ones of the year for me. The likes of Drakengard 3, Bound by Flame, Soul Sacrifice Delta and Murdered: Soul Suspect all provided me with plenty of enjoyment, despite none of them being perfect. Unfortunately, May also bought us Watch Dogs which, whilst not completely terrible, was a chore to play through and it really didn't stand a chance to live up to the hype and man, it didn't get close.

June
A rather generous birthday gift from my Mum resulted in my finally making the jump to PS4 although decent games were still thin on the ground but at least I finally discovered the joys of Resogun and inFamous: Second Son (basing a game in Seattle is always going to score developers a few bonus points).

August
After the usual shitty Summer drought, August finally gave us Tales of Xillia 2. As it happened, despite loving the first game and being appreciative of the fan service in this one, the lack of new areas and all too frequent re-use of assets meant that I really didn't stick with this for long.

October
The time when most gamers are gearing up for a rash of holiday releases was a fucking thread-bare period of pure nothingness, so it was a pleasant surprise to discover Shadow of Mordor. And what a pleasant surprise it was, certainly one of the better games of the year IMO. We also got Lords of the Fallen this month and this was everything that Dark Souls II should have been. Yes, it was a little glitchy, not quite as challenging and a little shorter than it could have been but the game was still an absolute delight.

November
Also unusually threadbare, but this month also gave me two more considerations for my potential GotY. Those games were the brilliant Tales of Hearts R and Dragon Age Inquisition, however, neither of those have yet been completed so I'll avoid naming my GotY due to my failure to find time to complete them. We also got Far Cry 4 in this month, however, I can't comment on that too much as I only acquired the game a few days ago.


Game of the Year
I've not in a position to name one this year for reasons mentioned above but I feel that those bolded games are deserving of a notable mention. Disclaimer: I know there are also some games that I've forgotten to mention above so despite 2014 being a pretty lacklustre year for gaming, I've just about managed to find enough to get me through it.........but only just.

Great post TPM.

Entertainment wise, I think 2014 has been a bit of a wash out. While I have had a very good year personally, when it comes to entertainment, I visited the cinema less, and bought less games in a year than I think I probably have. Certainly film wise, 2014 has been a shocker. But I stray off target a little, but the point remains, gaming wise, it's also been a bit crappy. I was going to do a top 5, but I can't really find five games that I feel deserve to be included in such a list, as it would indicate a greatness that they do not achieve. It's due to this that games like AssCreed: Black Flag and Lego Marvel were being played by me this year, and were so much better than anything else I've played released in 2014. I was even super late to the party with Sleeping Dogs, which due to its PS+ release, I only played this year and was utterly charmed by. But even so, there were a few titles that managed to make themselves noticed as a cut above the rest.

The main game I will remember from 2014 is without a doubt Alien Isolation. I didn't expect much from this game due to the poor name the Alien series has in gaming at the moment. But this game just works. It's brilliant. It's edgy, tense and suspenseful. Granted, it does nothing new. The premise is pretty much Dead Space, with it just being hooked on to the Alien license. The genius is in how they managed to program that alien to be so powerful and random. At times, it may seem unfair, but that alien feels like a credible enemy, that learns and hunts you down. Knowing it is in the area is terrifying. The other major plus for this game is its absolutely spot on referencing of the original film. I feel this game has the best graphics in any game I've played, which only helps in making you feel like you are living in Ridley Scotts movie. With all the homages, nods and recreations of the series, this game has been the best thing I've played from this year.

Surprisingly Infamous: Second Son was a major hit for me. I didn't even buy this, and just borrowed it, but a quick play turned into a game where I sank lots of time, and completed it 100%, doing every quest, and collecting every item. It is such a well made open world game, and implements its super powers so well, that it was really good fun to play. It sunk its teeth in, and I ended up loving it. Strange as I had no opinion on the game beforehand, and hadn't even played the previous games. I'm looking forward to the free DLC on next months PS+.

Murdered: Soul Suspect may have been brushed aside by reviewers, but I found it an engaging story, with a unique twist. It was nice to play something more relaxed, more about spinning a tale, discovery and crime scene solving. It was simple fun, and once started, I was hooked. It was all I played until I got to the end, as I just wanted to find out the conclusion. And as I say, it was a nice, relaxing game- nice to play something that didn't just rely on furious button pressing. 

Those were the three games that really spiced up my year. When its only three games, that's pretty poor. The Wolf Among Us deserves a shoutout, and to be fair, I haven't put much time into Assassins Creed: Unity but I am enjoying that very much. 

Multiplayer wise, thank god for the awesomeness that is Battlefield 4. It's the only multiplayer I've played this year, and it helps that it is such a great game, with so much content, and is so rewarding to play. It has kept Marky and I going for many a night of gaming, and its hard to see that ending any time soon. 

While 2014 has had many disappointments and throwaway games I played just to fill in the time, I don't want to dwell on these, but rather look forward to what will hopefully be a much better year in 2015. Already there's three games I know I'm looking forward too and will likely buy on release - Project Cars, Witcher 3 and Batman: Arkham Knight. Plus I'm looking forward to playing coop again in Resident Evil: Revelations 2. I've got enough games to keep me ticking over until these big boys finally get released, and I'm sure they will be worth the wait.

I bought 3 retail games this year:

Watch Dogs, which I played for a couple of hours and put aside
GTA V, which I played for a couple of hours and put aside
Call of Duty Advanced Warfare which I thoroughly enjoyed from start to finish.

I do have Wolfenstein, Sunset Overdrive and Game of Thrones on XBOne but not played them enough yet.

On the Vita I enjoyed the hell out of Steamworld Dig and Velocity 2X.

So I'm happy to award Call of Duty as my game of 2014.

I've probably bought less games this year than in any year since Internet shopping drastically brought down game prices. I've played less too. 

My favourite game that I played during 2014 isn't even a 2014 game - ACIV. Of games that were actually released this year, I'll go for Mario Kart 8 as my favourite. Great karting, great fun (and best DLC ever).

I got Far Cry 4 for Christmas and, 4-5 hours in, that is shaping up to rival MK8 in my 2014 affections

Maybe Infamous Second Son although there has been a lot I have liked.

On another forum I am on it looks like in there little vote   the worst games of the year are going to be Destiny, Watchdogs... If only they were the worst games to come out this year it would have been the best year ever  lol

While there have been less games released this year I've still managed to have a lot of fun playing through a bunch of them. Be they new titles, indie hits or dreaded re-releases/remasters I don't think I have played a truly bad game at all this year. 

The main highlights for me are probably Hearthstone which has gone from strength to strength as they tryout and add new things to the game on a semi-regular basis. The is no real card-creed yet which is great as it means you can still be competative without having to spend a dime. The PS4 version of Diablo III has also seen a lot of hours thrown into it by both me and my wife. We have hacked and slashed our way through the game and are still enjoying it.

On the portable side of things I am regularly playing Final Fantasy X HD on my Vita (save file now nearing the 100 hour mark!) and Velocity 2X was a breath of fresh air and is probably one of the best games I have played in recent memory. 

I would love to talk about how amazing Dragon Age: Inquisition is but I am still only in the early stages of the game. But so far so awesome and it looks like Bioware have gone back to their roots while also try something different.

Destiny was also great initially and I love the core mechanics and flow of the game, sadly they still have to sort out the end game side of things to have something more than just endlessly grinding for gear that is obsolete the second the next batch of new content drops.

This year also saw me buy an Xbox One and Wii U meaning I now own all the current consoles. But despite me initially enjoying. My Xbox One and playing the heck out of games like TitanFall and Ryse I hardly use it for games. Currently it is just a very big Netflix box. The Wii U on the other hand has seen constant usage. It's great for quick and simple gaming and when my wife wants to play something together.

EDIT: also P.T. Everyone need to play P.T.

PT sucked.

I don't know what all the fuss was about with PT either, probably because Hideo Kojima was behind it so it was treated as a piece of genius like everything he does.

PT was scary.  Too scary for me - my wife told me to play something else as I was waking her up with the jump scares!

I thought it was an excellent example of horror atmosphere but the puzzles were far too obscure. I didn't finish it just watched the end on YouTube.

Puzzles were far too obscure. I would go crazy playing a paid-for game that was like that all the way through.


I think I've changed my mind on GotY  - I've been playing a lot of Far Cry 4 since Xmas and it now has my vote.

sorenlorensen wrote:Puzzles were far too obscure. I would go crazy playing a paid-for game that was like that all the way through.

Exactly. The scariness was negated by the obscurity of the puzzles.

MarkySharky wrote:

sorenlorensen wrote:Puzzles were far too obscure. I would go crazy playing a paid-for game that was like that all the way through.

Exactly. The scariness was negated by the obscurity of the puzzles.

But the puzzles were purposely obscure because the point of it was that people would have to work together to figure out how to trigger the ending.