2014 was kind of a weird transition year for video games. I guess we are still in the throes of the console generation switch over and no one has stepped up to wow us and really make use of new hardware and combine that with compelling gameplay. When I went to kick off the annual Game of the Year debate with our writing staff I had to google what the heck came out this year to seed the list. Then, even with my Google results, it was like: does Destiny just get it by default since it’s the biggest “blockbuster” of the year complete with Paul McCartney song? Or wait, can we just give it to GTA V again since that came out for next gen? Our democratic voting was feeling kinda meh on everything as well (thanks congress for setting a strong example) so instead of working out a single game of the year here’s what topped the writing staff’s playing hours in 2014.
I Coulda Been a Contender
Each us had a take on some games we were expecting to love but kind of fell flat. As Sarcasmo put it:
2014 was kind of a weird year for games: they were either extraordinarily good or unbelievably bad, with very few games in between. I played a lot of games this year, and I had to wade through a ton of shit to find the good ones.
Or ZenMonken’s take:
The world of video games had very few unique thoughts last year. Most of the big releases were sequels, reboots or spiritual successors (AC: Unity, Far Cry 4, GTA V, Wolfenstein, Dark Souls II, CoD: Advanced Warfare, DA: Inquisition, Diablo III, Bayonetta 2, Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel, Pokemon Omega/Alpha, Master Chief Collection, Civ: Beyond Earth and basically everything Nintendo has released except for Toad Treasure Tracker). Even the indie darlings Binding of Isaac and Don't Starve had sequels. Most of these were perfectly good games, but it's nice to see just a bit of innovation now and then.
Destiny
We pretty much universally said meh on this one other than Sarcasmo giving it a decent review after some early gameplay: clearly he hadn’t yet put enough hours into it.
I gave Destiny a shot and was wowed for a couple of days by the graphics and story following around robot Peter Dinklage but i got bored fast.-ErinAS
Destiny seemed to be Bungie’s attempt at Halo on the PS4 ported to the other consoles. That would have been fine if the relationship between Guardian and Ghost had any dynamic near that of Master Chief and Cortana. It didn’t. It would have been fine if you don’t essentially play the same exact same 4 locations with the same quests/bounties over and over again to the point of monotony to get beyond level 20 (I am a level 29 Warlock for what it is worth). Is the multiplayer any good? I don’t know. I suck so bad I have yet to be on a winning team or have a KD ratio above 0.5. I can tell you I don’t have fun. Then again multiplayer does not count in my assessment. To be game of the year for me you have to have a good single or co-op player storyline that I can invest in. Destiny doesn’t.-ChunkySoup
And my personal is fav Loki’s take on Destiny (among a few others sums) it up perfectly:
There were quite a few games this year that were victims of their own hype. Destiny and its repetitive loot/upgrade mechanics, Watch Dogs and its less than expansive open world sandbox, Destiny and its repetitive loot/upgrade mechanics, Halo Master Chief Collection and its inability to simply work, Destiny and its repetitive loot/upgrade mechanics, Assassin’s Creed Unity and its scary and humorous bugs, and finally Destiny and its repetitive loot/upgrade mechanics. Did I say Destiny and its repetitive loot/upgrade mechanics a few times? Yeah running the same missions with very slight variations for loot that is slightly better or 10x worse than what you have can do that to you. –Loki619
Smash Bros WiiU
Super Smash Bros. has proven to me that I am old. While I was never good at fighting games in general getting my ass kicked by everyone in the Nintendo universe became so frustrating I have not played it in months.-ChunkySoup
I kept meaning to buy this game since I liked it on the Gamecube but then I looked over at my collection of dusty WiiU titles and thought about how it kinda used Amiibos and I do not need to collect more action figures so I couldn’t bring myself to buy it.-ErinAS
Sunset Overdrive
Sarcasmo gave Sunset a price drop review and we were all pretty much in agreement:
Sunset Overdrive is fun but in small doses and doesn’t keep me coming back for more. Another game that tries too hard to be smart and funny and doesn’t quite pull it off. It was like the developers took Borderlands “Bajillion guns” idea, tried to make them more outlandish and then kept piling on the ridiculous. Games are like cooking. Not enough spice and its bland (Destiny), too much spice and it’s overpowering and not appealing (Sunset Overdrive).-Chunky Soup
A teddy bear with a gun inside your gun might be the first sign you are trying too hard…
Onward to our favorites of 2014
ChunkySoup GOTY - Valiant Hearts: The Great War
Ubisoft Montpellier
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MP8q5F6dFqQ[width=650,height=366]
Valiant Hearts is not the best side scrolling game of the year but, as I noted previously, I tend to lean towards story more than flash. Valiant Hearts tells the story of a family and three friends as they tried to survive the horrors of the first world war. This games art style is the perfect blend of serious and cartoon. The story it tells of the atrocities people faced during those years tugged at my heart strings. The character dialog is this awesome mumbled dialect that is unintelligible yet conveyed emotion and ethnicity. This is not COD, this is not a glamourous re-enactment of the glory of war. Valiant Hearts gets down and dirty with the real casualties war creates yet through its art and dialog never becomes morose. For me Valiant Hearts: The Great War is the Game of the Year.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MP8q5F6dFqQ[width=650,height=366]
ErinAS read this review, watched the trailer, cried a lot then immediately logged into steam to purchase this game.
ZenMonken GOTY - South Park: The Stick of Truth
South Park Digital/Obsidian Entertainment
My absolute favorite game of 2014 would have to be South Park: The Stick of Truth.
The Stick of Truth had it’s narrative seeds planted in a 3-part episode arc in South Park at the end of 2013 about the kids getting split between two factions: Those that wanted a PS4 on Black Friday and those that wanted an XBox One. It was a great story and an in-no-way-subtle Game of Thrones satire that paved the way for an even better game.
Something about Stick of Truth was just so completely charming. It made me happy from start to finish. The gameplay was solid and unobtrusive, the experience was heavily seeded with perfect references to the show’s 17 year history and the story was engaging and true to the source material. Stick of Truth proves more than any other licensed game that a good show can be made into a good game, but it has to have the talent from the original thing PLUS real game designers. What Obsidian did with the world of South Park alongside Matt Stone and Trey Parker was Perfection.
ErinAS GOTY - Scurvy Skallywags for Android
Beep Games
I was kind of with ZenMonken on Stick of Truth. It was the only console AAA title I even gave consideration to and I did really enjoy it. But ultimately I couldn’t bring myself to give it GOTY since it didn’t match up to the caliber of last year’s nominees like Bioshock Infinite, GTA V or The Last of Us. So instead I’m gonna go way to the other end of the spectrum with my pick.
When I thought long and hard about what I spent the most hours playing in 2014 I remembered there is one game I play pretty much every day. And while I kinda feel dirty for choosing a free to play mobile game as my GOTY, in my defense:
a. I think the industry is finally almost over that stigma
b. It was designed by my all time favorite game designer Ron “Grumpy Gamer” Gilbert
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n1NkxsNJ3xQ[width=650,height=366]
Full disclosure: since ethics in journalism is a big 2014 theme, I did beta test this game when it was being ported to Android (my name is in the thanks credits). But no nepotism (we had another writer review the iOS version before I played who didn’t love it as much as me) or even complete Ron Gilbert fan-girling here, I just freakin’ love this game.
Google play doesn’t record how many hours you have played a game but several months I’m later still playing for that last completionist achievement to retire after I’m 50. For me its a Tetris-level addiction, but instead of falling blocks when I close my eyes to sleep, I often see purple cross-swords and piles of coins sliding around to match.
Gameplay is your basic match 3, which I’ve been meh on, but this one also has added game elements that are more RPG-like. You defend your pirate from monsters on the board (the matches move the characters around) and collect items to build ships, satisfy quests, or purchase weapons. There’s also a story to go along with it all where you are trying to save a theater from calamities, and you have to collect clever pirate punny sea shanties for the show. You never feel like you have to spend money to play as, if you are patient, enough you can just wait for your daily loot drop or your lives to regenerate. I did sometimes give in to my inner need for an oompaloompa now though.
Spoilers for some of the shanties you’ll collect
L0KI619 GOTY- Forza Horizon 2
Microsoft Studios/Turn 10
The one game, IMHO that dodged the hype bullet and really stood out was Forza Horizon 2. This game allowed you to step outside of the FPS arena, strap yourself into a 220 mph rocket and drive ANYWHERE in the European sandbox world the game is set in. Unlike Forza Motorsport 5 that was more of a simulator, FH2 brings more arcade fun to Xbox One racers. Don’t want to follow a specific route to get to the next venue? Drive through European fields of wheat, weeds, wildflowers, and grass. Tired of racing in the solo campaign? Play a virtual game of tag online with other racers. Feel like hitting a turn at 70 mph? Do it with the best drift that you can manage. FH2 brings on the fun!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AX7r61fyltc[width=650,height=366]
Another improvement over Forza Motorsport 5 is the drivatar system. In FH2, the virtual representations of your friends aren’t assh0l35 that t-bone you at the START of the race or emulate bump cars shortly after the start of the first lap. The drivatars are surprisingly more pleasant in FH2 although there are a few exceptions - Major Nelson’s drivatar has sideswiped me or cut into my lane on more than one occasion.
If you get a chance and want a break from the FPS grind, pick up Forza Horizon 2 and have some real fun!
Sarcasmo Jones GOTY - Far Cry 4
Ubisoft
My favorite game of 2014 was the one game that Ubisoft got right: Far Cry 4. Ubi gave us a cool protagonist, an interesting and personable bad guy, and they expanded the fun stuff from previous games then covered it with drugs, booze, guns, and wild naked titties. I had a blast infiltrating fortresses, hunted endangered species to near extinction for a better wallet, kidnapped a bad guy from his own party and then drove around with him in my trunk, and lobbed grenades at DC Jamison while he swam around in a river looking for a fish to skin...good times. Far Cry 4 is one of those games where the player can be attacked from any direction at any given time and getting to the mission was an adventure in itself. While a game like Forza Horizon 2 will certainly win out on longevity, Far Cry 4 was always fun, all of the time. If there’s a better reason than that to play a game I’d like to know what it is.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yb3h21kK-c4&oref=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtu...
No real winner
From reading summaries, if we really made everyone vote, I think Forza probably would have come out on top as it was a runner up on a lot of lists and no one had a disparaging word about it.
2014 wasn’t necessarily a bad year for gaming, it just showed how varied the gaming landscape is these days and the usual heavy hitters still seem to spreading themselves a little thin trying to satisfy the market on both new and old gen consoles for another year. Cheers to 2015 being the year I finally feel like my PS4 and XBone are more than a BluRay player and pass through to my cable box.
