Multiplatform Personal 2014 Game of the Year [Archive]

Forbiddenwar

2014-12-08, 10:52 AM

What is your 2014 Game of the year? For this thread, list the games that you started in 2014 and enjoyed the most, not necessarily the best games that came out this year.

For example, the game I enjoyed the most in 2014 has to go to Dark Souls: Prepare to Die. After finishing the game once, I found myself not interested in playing anything else, which has never happened to me before. I ended up spending 4 months on that game, finished New Game + and got both endings.

A close second has to go to One Finger Death Punch. So much fun for so little cost.

Zevox

2014-12-08, 11:01 AM

Seems kinda off to say any game you started this year counts, when the whole point of a Game of the Year in concept is to be about new games - older ones would just be candidates for their respective years.

Anyway though, for me, Bayonetta 2. That game is just amazing: fantastic gameplay, great music, great level design, great boss fights, just a ton of fun throughout the whole thing. I honestly have no significant criticisms of it whatsoever. It's my new favorite action game, finally outdoing Devil May Cry 3, something not even its predecessor did in my mind.

Well, assuming the one new game I still intend to get this year, Guilty Gear Xrd, doesn't somehow outdo it, anyway. But I don't see that happening. Much as I love my fighting games, the only one that's ever been good enough for me to consider it game of the year material was Persona 4 Arena, and as I don't quite think Ultimax makes the cut this year, I don't see Guilty Gear managing to be better.

Forbiddenwar

2014-12-08, 11:36 AM

Seems kinda off to say any game you started this year counts, when the whole point of a Game of the Year in concept is to be about new games - older ones would just be candidates for their respective years.

True but that system always leave people like me with nothing to contribute. See, I hardly ever buy a game the same year it comes out. Too expensive and I already have 200 games I still haven't played. So this is the broke version of this list.

Tengu_temp

2014-12-08, 11:59 AM

Game I started playing in 2014, but which didn't necessarily come out in this year? Dark Souls. It's just a great title, both in terms of gameplay and atmosphere - well, the PC port is kinda ****, especially if you don't play on a gamepad, but putting up with it was totally worth it.

Game which came out in 2014? Probably Dark Souls 2 - yeah, getting a bit monothematic here. FTL Advanced Edition, if it counts (because I played normal FTL before), is a strong runner up.

CarpeGuitarrem

2014-12-08, 03:15 PM

Weirdly enough, I don't think I have that many games which fit this. Mainly because my game-playing tends to spraaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaawl.

Huh. Looking it up, though, Transistor and Banner Saga both released in 2014, and I finished both of them this year. So I guess those count. I wonder if FTL falls into that bucket as well--I bought it a while back but didn't play it until recently, though I have yet to succeed at a run.

Also, I've been playing the most recent build of Sunless Sea on and off, more recently this past week--previously, I hadn't really been doing much in it. So that half counts.

Out of all those, I'd have to narrowly give it to the Banner Saga over Transistor. Transistor's gameplay is far more interesting, but Banner Saga hits an absolutely incredible elegaic tone with an unforgettable soundtrack.

Sylthia

2014-12-08, 06:05 PM

2014's not quite as crowded a field for me as 2013 was. Of the new games, I'd probably say Tales of Xillia 2. I spent a lot of time replaying games that I played first in 2013 or earlier.

Hiro Protagonest

2014-12-08, 06:09 PM

Considering the only game I started and finished (not quite actually, I'm on the final boss battle and haven't felt the need to do it >_>) this year was Arkham Asylum, and I didn't like that as much as City, I don't really have one.

I started Witcher 2, but I'm just most of the way through Act 1.

Teleglitch is also something I haven't managed to get very far in, due to being a roguelike. It's fun but not my favorite genre.

I played a few multiplayer FPS as well. Insurgency is a good game.

I'll have to say Katawa Shoujo. Doesn't actually have any gameplay, but the stories are great and I actually finished it (well, 2/5ths of it).

Ogremindes

2014-12-08, 06:51 PM

Rune Factory 4. When the eu version was cancelled I imported it, along with a US 3ds. Worth it, even knowing it's now (re)confirmed for eu e-shop.

GungHo

2014-12-09, 09:08 AM

Divinity Original Sin

thirsting

2014-12-09, 09:46 AM

Divinity Original Sin

This, almost. Then realised the one game I've played most and had had most fun with has been Hearthstone. I'm finally turning into casual adult gamer :smalleek::smalltongue:

wumpus

2014-12-12, 06:31 PM

Kerbal Space Program

A nifty little game that is not your brown fps. Build rockets, fly them, watch them blow up, and add more boosters. Don't worry. It's just rocket science. Warning: game is still (barely: last rev before beta) in early access. Don't purchase unless you would be happy as-is (and I am willing to recommend it as-is).

Note: I may be a bit casual for this (my other games have been long-going MMOs), but this stands out as being both great and a new and different game than the last 30+ years of gaming.

Vaz

2014-12-12, 06:47 PM

Borderlands; the Presequel and Rome 2 Total War have been my most enjoyed games this year. Rome 2 has had the Emperor edition making it count IMHO.

Forbiddenwar

2014-12-12, 08:07 PM

This, almost. Then realised the one game I've played most and had had most fun with has been Hearthstone. I'm finally turning into casual adult gamer :smalleek::smalltongue:

Hearthstone may have started casual but now it seems as hardcore as DOTA with twice the rage. At least for me. I quit after realizing that it would take 3-4 hours to complete a 2 win daily quest. I no longer have that kind of time.

Psyren

2014-12-13, 11:21 AM

Inquisition - Bioware had a lot riding on this and they knocked it out of the park, with the best romances and banter of any single Bioware game to date (multi-title romances have it beat though), best combat of any dragon age title, plus the lore revelations have been stunning. The fact that it's both a critical and commercial success has been icing on the cake.

Though I will admit, had I played Divinity that might have been my number one with all I've seen and heard. Just haven't been able to get it on sale.

Driderman

2014-12-13, 11:34 AM

I suppose if it has to be the game I enjoyed the most in 2014 it'd be either Civ 5 or Planescape: Torment. Which seems a bit odd since none of them are even from the 2010's :)

Sylthia

2015-01-01, 11:13 PM

I started them at the last minute in 2014, but it still counts, I suppose.

We picked up South Park: The Stick of Truth and starting playing WoW:Warlords of Draenor, both have proven to be rather addictive.

Cespenar

2015-01-02, 01:16 AM

I played a huge bunch of games this year, but The Wolf Among Us would probably get the cake. I mean, they arguably just up and invented a new style of adventure (?) games that have more actual roleplaying in them than 99% of other roleplaying games.

Second runner would be, if not for actual quality but then for the surprise factor, Legend of Grimrock 2. It was pretty good, and surprisingly improved a lot of stuff over the first game.

Cristo Meyers

2015-01-02, 12:23 PM

Played quite a few pretty good games this year, hard to pick a single one.

Season 2 of The Walking Dead started off hobbled by needing to measure up to its excellent predecessor and, while points for trying, didn't quite make the cut. A very good game, but by the end I had simply stopped caring instead of being engaged. Maybe the game's point was to break the player, but that's not a particularly satisfying ending.

Assassin's Creed: Unity is, I think, the best AC yet (caveat: I was spared the issues that many others reported). Combat is truly dangerous again bar a single broken trick, the new set-up for assassinations was the right kind of open-ended, and Paris was both beautiful and massive. The problems? Whenever it went off the rails, it really went off the rails: if the game wanted you to go through a particular path then you were going on that path. Really jarring in an otherwise very open game.

Which brings us to Lord of the Rings: Assassin's Creed edition, otherwise known as Shadow of Mordor. The Nemesis system is something I think more games should look into: it's a great addition to the game world and goes a long way to creating the kind of dynamic world I've been wanting. Hunting your targets is great...for the first half of the game. After that they get too many resistances or outright immunities and the only way to reliably take them out is to run in and stab them until they stop moving. A great effort and a worthy used game purchase.

If I had to pick a single one, it'd have to be Dragon Age: Inquisition. LadyMeyers and I were looking forward to this one all year and we weren't disappointed. I love the characters (except Sera), the environments, the setting, it had a lot to live up to but it somehow managed. I will say though, that whomever decided Dragon Age needed jumping/climbing over terrain for collectibles needs a swift kick in the head...

Mx.Silver

2015-01-02, 03:13 PM

I don't think I played a single game that actually came out in 2014. Well, there was Shadowrun Returns: Dragonfall. Not entirely sure that counts though. Nor would I be entirely comfortable assuming it's the best the year had to offer even if it did.

Anyway, stuff I actually played that might make the cut.

Persona 4 Golden, while perhaps somewhat overhyped and as such being a little underwhelming in parts, is still Persona 4 despite any misgivings I have (mostly on the thematic writing front). So it being on the list probably isn't that surprising.

A distinctly more surprising inclusion on the list is Fate: Extra. As in, the PSP spin-off of the Fate VN/Anime franchise. I wasn't entirely sure what to expect going in, but it wasn't anything quite so mechanically elegant as what I found (probably because 'mechanically elegant' is not something you'd associate with a combat system almost literally based around 'paper-scissors-stone', and yet it works).
It's not to say it's without its fair share of faults, but it's unique in enough ways - especially compared to a lot of JRPG conventions - to more than compensate for that. Also not at all averse to making the player feel bad about their actions - something which is a bit of a theme on this list.

Case in point: The Walking Dead (season 1), about which I don't feel much needs to be said at this point. Not that I was able to say much beyond '...damn' when playing it anyway, which was sort of the point.

The indie brigade entry is horror-adventure game The Cat Lady. While I have some reservations about the ending, the rest of it is quite memorable. Also some points for having what may be the least 'videogame protagonist' videogame protagonist.

- Honourable Mentions (which I've yet to play enough of)
Tactics Ogre: Let Us Cling Together. Like Final Fantasy Tactics: War of Lions but with a vast reduction in 'infuriating design choices'/
Spec Ops: The Line. It's like a psychological horror game pretending to be a shooter. Also likely to be the most disturbing/horrifying game that I've played this year that I could generally recommend to people (that qualifier is important).

[..]best combat of any dragon age title,

I'm not sure that's much of an achievement, all things considered.

Cristo Meyers

2015-01-02, 04:21 PM

Persona 4 Golden, while perhaps somewhat overhyped and as such being a little underwhelming in parts, is still Persona 4 despite any misgivings I have (mostly on the thematic writing front). So it being on the list probably isn't that surprising.

Ah, yes, this year was the year I finally got to play Persona 4. It was nice to have a game exalted as much as it is actually live up to its hype. Looking forward to 5 coming out this year.

The indie brigade entry is horror-adventure game The Cat Lady. While I have some reservations about the ending, the rest of it is quite memorable. Also some points for having what may be the least 'videogame protagonist' videogame protagonist.

I'd heard about that one, but passed it by. So it's worth a look after all?

I'm not sure that's much of an achievement, all things considered.

Agreed. Inquisition is unreservedly my game of the year, but the combat is not what I would consider good by any means. It's just no longer the painful, time consuming slog that Origins was. It's still nowhere near good enough to make me want to play on anything other than casual so it's as minimal as possible.

Hiro Protagonest

2015-01-02, 04:35 PM

Agreed. Inquisition is unreservedly my game of the year, but the combat is not what I would consider good by any means. It's just no longer the painful, time consuming slog that Origins was. It's still nowhere near good enough to make me want to play on anything other than casual so it's as minimal as possible.

I heard it was worse, that you had to constantly use command mode to not make your allies completely break the strategy.

Cristo Meyers

2015-01-02, 04:53 PM

I heard it was worse, that you had to constantly use command mode to not make your allies completely break the strategy.

Hadn't noticed that, but like I said: playing on casual. So even if they were it wasn't breaking anything.

Mx.Silver

2015-01-02, 05:25 PM

I'd heard about that one, but passed it by. So it's worth a look after all?

Well, that rather depends on what your thoughts on unusual, rough-around-the-edges adventure games are (note: not point and click, the mouse isn't used). I also wouldn't describe it as being scary - as it's psychological horror with emphasis on the 'psychological' part - so if that's what you're looking for you'd probably be better served by something like Lone Survivor*.

If neither of those are downsides for you though, then yes it's worth a look. It's not particularly expensive either.

*I don't personally like Lone Survivor - hence why it's not on the list despite my having played it this year as part of a 3-4 game horror binge - but I think that's because I'm not the right audience for it

Cristo Meyers

2015-01-02, 07:04 PM

Well, that rather depends on what your thoughts on unusual, rough-around-the-edges adventure games are (note: not point and click, the mouse isn't used). I also wouldn't describe it as being scary - as it's psychological horror with emphasis on the 'psychological' part - so if that's what you're looking for you'd probably be better served by something like Lone Survivor*.

If neither of those are downsides for you though, then yes it's worth a look. It's not particularly expensive either.

Sounds like it might be worth a look for me than.

*I don't personally like Lone Survivor - hence why it's not on the list despite my having played it this year as part of a 3-4 game horror binge - but I think that's because I'm not the right audience for it

Same here. Though there was an element of hype backlash for me. It'd come highly recommended, but when I started playing it was just...bland. I couldn't get into and and ended up stopping after maybe an hour.

Poison_Fish

2015-01-02, 08:58 PM

If I go by playtime, it would be Planetside 2.

But what I really love this year was Endless Legends. Here is a 4x that decided to take some risks to the 4x formula, and while it wasn't perfect at release, it was fun and I like when something new is done.

Close runner ups would be: Banner Saga, Brothers: A tale of Two Sons, Dark Souls 2, and Transistor

DodgerH2O

2015-01-03, 12:47 AM

Personally I'd go with FTL: Faster Than Light. Even though I've spent more hours on other games there's something about Roguelikes and procedurally generated worlds that I enjoy. I particularly like how each type of ship lends itself to a playstyle but the random equipment can lead to inventive combinations that take me out of my comfort zone.

Wasteland 2 is shaping up to be quite good, but I didn't technically start it in 2014 so...

GloatingSwine

2015-01-03, 07:00 AM

I'd say Dark Souls, but I technically started it before 2014 (even if I only got as far as Taurus).

So I'm going to cheat and say Demon's Souls which I did start in 2014

Mx.Silver

2015-01-03, 07:46 AM

Same here. Though there was an element of hype backlash for me. It'd come highly recommended, but when I started playing it was just...bland. I couldn't get into and and ended up stopping after maybe an hour.

In my case I didn't find it bland so much as annoying. It's a problem I have with a lot of conventional horror games because I'm the sort of person who finds scarce resource, high lethality combat frustrating rather than tense. The way Lone Survivor vacillates between whether you're meant to avoid its combat or not really doesn't help either. I was also picking-up some rather discouraging hints about where the story was going to end-up, although I never played far enough into it to see whether those my instincts were correct on that.

JBPuffin

2015-01-03, 10:38 AM

DA:I definitely takes a high-spot, beating Transistor for 2nd. Transistor was a lovely short-but-sweet techno-fantasy RPG thing...fun times, whatever it was. DA:I has proven to be fricken' incredible...but there's a clear winner, if only because I finished it:

THE MASS EFFECT TRILOGY - That's right, b%$#@&$, all three games. The fish-faced leader Jonathan Shephard had a blast - I'm going through again just so to say I've done all the sidequests :smallbiggrin:.

Mordor's pretty good, Don't Starve isn't terrible, Child of Light held my interest for a while...but the top three are the top, bar none.

Psyren

2015-01-03, 10:48 AM

Mass Effect Trilogy came out in 2012, so it wouldn't be eligible for this year strictly speaking :smalltongue:

Gamerlord

2015-01-03, 10:53 AM

Wolfenstein was the best shooter of last year in my opinion, combining game-play that managed to blend most of the good bits of old and new shooters with an interesting setting and writing that surprisingly didn't make me want to stick sharp things in my ears.

Wasteland 2 was pretty fantastic, albeit marred by questionable choices in some character building mechanics, an abysmal camera, and brain-dead AI.

Shadow of Mordor is another one obviously (Which is weird because I never really enjoyed any Assassins Creed games except for Black Flag), It's one of the few open world games where I actually enjoyed all of the side-activities and collectibles and went out of my way to do them all (Well, except for the critter hunting/herb collection, those were just silly.) And if a game ever needs to steal a mechanic, please, someone steal the Nemesis system.

And I am just about two missions away from finishing up Hacking Minigames Simulator 2014 Alien Isolation, which I feel despite all the bugs, a pretty dull story, waaaaaaaaay overstaying it's welcome, and perhaps having it's difficulty descend into frustration on occasion (There is a large chunk of the game where if the Alien sees you, you might as well just load your last save, because short of it's AI bugging out there is nothing you can do) needs to deserve an honorable mention just for so perfectly capturing the aesthetic and actually managing to be pretty scary most of the time.

Forbiddenwar

2015-01-03, 01:01 PM

Mass Effect Trilogy came out in 2012, so it wouldn't be eligible for this year strictly speaking :smalltongue:

For this thread it is eligible, any game you started in 2014 counts

Grinner

2015-01-05, 07:22 AM

Shadowrun Returns.

The writing really made this game. Sharp-witted and believable, I couldn't wait to continue playing. In fact, I mowed through it in a couple days.

Because of the way combat works, moving around some levels is a pain. If there are any hostiles on the map, combat mode is activated, even when there are no enemies in sight. This was its biggest flaw, since it would take half an hour to get through some fairly inconsequential sequences. The developers could really take a page from Geneforge here.

Also, decking seemed a bit problematic, since decking was required only a couple times. Don't play as a decker.

I wasn't a huge fan of the modding tool, either. It was slickly designed, but there were certain unnecessary limitations. You were basically stuck making only Shadowrun-themed mods.

Eldan

2015-01-05, 07:40 AM

I don't remember playing that many different games this year. Probably Europa Universalis IV, which I've played tons.

I can only remember a handful other games I started this year. The Walking Dead, which was... I don't know. Nice? But not as fantastic as everyone told me it would be. I like story-based games, and it is nicely written, but overall, it doesn't seem extraordinarily good to me. And I can never play it for more than half an hour or so before I get bored. I didn't think I'd say this, but I think I like a game with more game than that. I don't know why. I liked Dear Esther.

Uhmmm.. what else did I play? I reinstalled both Skyrim and New Vegas at some point, thinking I'd finally do the main campaigns instead of just ******* around on the map and never did. Played some more Team Fortress. Gah. I really don't recall what else I played this year.

ObadiahtheSlim

2015-01-05, 08:04 AM

Well I got the most enjoyment out of Crusader Kings 2, although that game has been out for a while now. For games released in 2014, I'd have to go with Shadows of Mordor.

DigoDragon

2015-01-05, 09:58 AM

Seems kinda off to say any game you started this year counts, when the whole point of a Game of the Year in concept is to be about new games - older ones would just be candidates for their respective years.

Perhaps, but that would mean I'd personally never have a 'Game of the Year' as I don't buy games until they've been out for over a year or two. For example, I only started playing Fallout 3 last October and found it to be one of my personal favorite for 2014. :smallsmile: