2014 Wrap-up

There wasn't really a game I thought was deserving of being called the best game of the year until december month, when I finally played Transistor. Oh, my, Transistor. Oh my. Well, to be fair, I did miss out on a lot of games this year which I wanted to play. In fact, I believe that if I were to have made a prediction at the beginning of the year as to what games would make it to my top ten, I think a lot of them would have consisted of games I've barely touched upon. The Witness would be there for sure (which didn't see the light of day 2014 - better luck next year Jon, I'm sure we'll be BLOWn away!) The Vanishing of Ethan Carter seemed very promising too, although I don't think I actually knew about the game a year ago, and decided on playing it when it hits the PS4 with a friend instead of playing it with low fidelity on my pc. Then there's the Dreamfalls, The Wolves Among Us, the Walking Deads, the Kentucky Route Zeros - episodals which I haven't played because I'd rather do them all in one go when they're a wrap. Both The Longest Journey and The Dream Machine have taken many years to finish, and I've decided that waiting is better than playing a bit here and there.

Dragon Age Inquisition is another game that would have made the top ten prediction, although by now I've accepted that I won't be playing that type of game much more anyway - sad but true. I'm opting out of the 50hour+ games, and going for stuff such as Consortium and Unrest for my rpg fixes. Shadowrun too, for next year. Well, sure, I'll be playing Pathologic and the new Planescape game, which will both be very long games, but mainly I'm just opting out of games which have a lot of filler and to me meaningless violence/gameplay. Perhaps it's no coincidence that two of this years biggest disappointments for me have been The Banner Saga and Wasteland 2 - both oldschool computer RPGs which I helped kickstart. The Banner Saga was simply too epic for me, too abstract, with too little emotion. It has the same problem as had the "Choice of" games, which seemed very interesting to begin with (interactive novels which lots of choices, yey!) but then got me not caring at all about the characters and my motives. Wasteland 2 on the other hand... well, I did play 40+ hours of it, almost finished it actually. But it just wasn't worth it. I know I love those types of games and just using them as escapism, but it wasn't a memorable experience in the end. It gets an honorable mention, basically.

Perhaps I should be skeptic when it comes to my hopes for the old-school pc rpgs that are coming in 2015, but I can't help myself. Pillars of Eternity and Torment: Tides of Numenera are two of the games I'm looking forward to the most next year. Then there's the aforementioned The Witness, the PS4 exclusive Everybodys Going to the Rapture, the X360 exclusive Ori and the Blind Forest and Quantum Break, the remakes Grim Fandango and Majoras Mask, the follow-up Metal Gear Solid 5, the question marks Sail Home, Outer Wilds, Gorogoa and Life is Strange, the kickstarter successes Pathologic (O_M_G!), Ice-Bound (by my favorite creator of interactive fiction, Aaron Reed), That Dragon Cancer, The Sun Also Rises, Epanalepsis, Moon Hunters, the kickstarter non-successes To Azimuth, The Black Glove (Bioshock without combat encounters), and Late to The Party (same guys that made Unrest).

So anyway, speaking of being late to parties, I gotta go. Here's the list of my favorite video games for this year.

2014

Missed Out On, Want To Play

[R]espawn
Amphora

Bayonetta 2

Beeswing

Blood & Laurels
Broforce/Expendabros

Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker

Chariot

Consortium

Contact Cowboy

Donald Dowell

Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze

Dragon Age Inquisition/Dragon Age Keep
Dreamfall Chapters: The Longest Journey - Episode 1

Game of Thrones (Telltale Games)
Goat Simulator

ibb & obb (Sparpweed)

Hidden in Plain Sight

Kentucky Route Zero: Act III/Here And There Along The Echo

Marginalia

Mario Kart 8

Quora

Screencheat

Shadowrun: Nightmare Harvest

Shadowrun Returns: Dragonfall – Directors Cut

Speedrunners

Soul Axiom

Super Smash Bros

Tales from the Borderlands: Episode One - Zer0 Sum
Tennnes

The Deer God

The Sensational December Machine
The Talos Principle

The Terror Aboard The Speedwell (Javy Gwaltney)

The Vanishing of Ethan Carter/The Vanishing of Ethan Carter Prequel Mini-Comic

The Wolf Among Us: Season 1

The Walking Dead: Season 2
Thief Town

Void & Meddler
Framed

The Sailor's Dream

Republique

Revolver360 Re:Actor

Honorable Mentions

// / I’m Really Sorry About That Thing I Said When I Was Tired and/or Hungry (Deirdra Kiai)

02:22AM/Text and Drive: Friendship Never Dies (Albert Lai)

4PM

A City Sleeps

Among the Sleep

Arboretum (Matthew S. Burns)

Bezier (Philip Bak/Niine Games)

Cave! Cave! Deus Videt – Episode 0

Crawl

Cyborg Goddess (Kara Stone, Kayte McKnight)
East van EP/Oracle (ceMelusine)

Echo of the Wilds (Anthony Case)

Error City Tourist/Black Pyramid/Abstract Ritual (Strangethink Software)

Five Nights at Freddy's (Scott Cawthon)

Geometry Wars 3: Dimensons
Girls Like Robots: Nerdfest

Grim Express

Initation/The Way of Yiji (Schizoid)

Lethal League

Level 2 The Virus Master

Luftrausers

NaissanceE

Neverending Nightmares

On August 11, A Ship Sailed into Port (Cameron Kunzelman)

Project Temporality

Rehearsals and Returns

Sleep When Exhausted (Benjamin Willems)

Spelunky

Starwhal: Just the Tip

The Lion's Song (LeafThief)

The Banner Saga

The Uncle Who Works For Nintendo (Michael Lutz)

Three Fourths Home/Letters to Babylon

Tradesmarksville (Molleindustria)

Universal History of Light/The Serpent/The Transgression/Happy Memories/wear & tear/Place and Time/ Vigil (increpare)

Wasteland 2

You Won't Tell Anyone, Right? (Oxeren)

Zest (Richard Goodness)

Close Calls

Broken Age: Episode 1

Chyrza/daymare #1: "ritual"/Dust City (Kitty Horrorshow)

Dog of Dracula 2: Cyber Monogatari

Elegy for a Dead World

hets (ditto)

Journal (Richard Perrin)

Laza Knitez!!

Monument Valley

Octodad: Dadliest Catch

South Park: The Stick of Truth

Sportsfriends

The Journey Down: Chapter Two

Year Walk

10 Bernband (Tom van den Boogaart)

9 P.T (Silent Hills Playable Teaser)

8 Niddhogg (Messhof)

7 Shovel Knight

6 You Were Made For Loneliness (Tsukareta)

5 Towerfall: Ascension

4 Glitchhikers (Silverstring Media)

3 Jazzpunk

2 Unrest

1 Transistor