Just a few days ago, I was hanging out in San Francisco. It was a looooong 10 days out in the Bay Area, though a really fun one.
One consequence of coming out for game of the year, however, was an inability to collect material for Worth Reading. It's why some sections have been cut, and others are light. It didn't feel right to just find a bunch of junk--it's not what the feature is about.
You'll start seeing what we worked so hard on later this month. It's pretty goofy, and there are some surprises no one's going to see coming. It's always been a pleasure to participate in game of the year, and though 2014's crop of games were a bit underwhelming, there's no better group to complain and celebrate them with than my buddies and colleagues at Giant Bomb. Onward, my friends!
You Should Read These
There's probably two reasons why 2014 has felt weird. GamerGate, of course, ranks pretty high. It's a dark cloud that's moved on from most people's lives, but continues to encircle many others. To pretend it no longer exists it to simply admit you're ignoring it. I'm not sure when the industry will ever recover from its damage. It'd help if 2014 was a year in which video games were artistically impressive, and while there were plenty of games I enjoyed playing, it's hardly one I'll strongly remember a decade from now. Are games just in a funk? Will things break differently in 2015?
"With few outsiders left to fight, perhaps it was inevitable that video game players and creators would turn on one another. Before this year, the large and disparate group of people who love video games embraced the fiction that we all belong to a common subculture. Video game players supposedly liked not just the same games but also the same movies, the same books, the same fashions, the same highly caffeinated drinks and the same nacho-cheese-flavored snack chips.
But as video games have undergone a kind of Cambrian explosion in diversity of form, the medium has become too large to be contained by its old stereotypes."
If You Click It, It Will Play
Tweets That Make You Go "Hmmmmmm"
Criticize the things you love. Criticize the things you spend 100+ hours playing. Criticize the things you do nerdy painted journals about.
— Janine Hawkins (@bleatingheart) December 10, 2014
Jerry and friends are forced to play Smash with Newman, who has the only Wii U Gamecube controller adapter. Newman forces items on.
— esports Seinfeld (@esportsseinfeld) December 8, 2014
Excellence From Giant Bomb's Community, Courtesy of ZombiePie
- bdhurkett watched every Mario Party stream and documented every stat you would want to know.
- takua108 hosted a Windjammers tournament with Giant Bomb users and fellow game enthusiasts
- SamFo started a thread for realistic, fun, ridiculous predictions for the next year of gaming.
- Dhalsim is now over 62-years-old, and you can read all about the character on his wiki page.
Oh, And This Other Stuff
- Laine Nooney wrote about the world's first erotic computer game.
- Susan Ardent argued Danganronpa presents a compelling tale about hope and depression.
- Andy Baio explained how his attempt to take his child through gaming's history worked out.
- Janine Hawkins examines the feminine clothing of Dragon Age: Inquisition.
- Ken Birdwell chronicled how Valve developed the revolutionary video game Half-Life.
- Bob Mackey spoke with Koji Kondo about his legendary career at Nintendo
- Brendan Sinclair wondered about what we might consider acceptable censorship.
- Stephen Totilo tried to play WWE 2K15 as a convicted murderer and was eventually banned.
- Anthony Burch managed to beat Far Cry 4 with permadeath, no bullets, no mini-map, and no shops.
- Brandon Orselli spoke with designer David Jaffe about feedback, GamerGate, and much more.