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TonyBlue87

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Game of the Year 2014 Users Choice

This was the year in which I finally pulled the trigger on a gaming PC, and I haven't regretted it for a moment. It ensured that I could play current releases that may have been excluded from any of the consoles, gave me a chance to go back and play better versions of games I enjoyed on the previous generation, made for an incredible Extra Life stream, and justified the 800+ games I've purchased from Steam bundle websites over the past few years.

I HAVE NO SELF CONTROL IN THE FACE OF BARGAINS!

That's why I found myself a bit surprised to find that there weren't a ton of options to choose from as far as this year releases go (as a matter of personal preference, that is). Maybe that comes from a matter of perspective of revisiting such a huge library of older games, but fortunately I have my 3DS to help round out some of the edges. This year has been rather tumultuous for gaming in general, but we're still gonna have fun, damn it!

(Special mentions to Wolfenstein: The New Order and Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes. The former was the game that proved my PC was worth the price when I first got it, and the latter confirmed that said PC is going to serve me well in the future.)

List items

  • It is an amazing time to be someone who is into space stuff. Films like Gravity and Interstellar are bringing space to the big screen as it's never been seen before, and games like Elite: Dangerous and No Man's Sky are putting us in the pilot's seat. My gaming history was impacted greatly by Colony Wars back on the PS1, and I have been waiting for more than a decade for a game to capture that same feeling of exploring and fighting through space as a small blip in a massive universe.

    Elite: Dangerous is that game.

    When you really boil it down, Elite's gameplay is incredibly rudimentary: go to a station, get a mission, fly to another system to kill/deliver something, go back to the first station to get paid for that mission, repeat. And yet I find myself spending hours at a time searching for wanted pilots with high bounties and warping as quickly as possible to systems where the larger game world story is happening, hoping to influence things in whatever small way I can.

    The sights and sounds of Elite: Dangerous capture exactly what 10-year-old me thought space travel would be like. The game isn't perfect, but it is the game I have been waiting for. That is more than enough to make it my "Game of the Year."

  • I got about a third of the way through this game on PS3, and eventually fell off for other games. Getting my PC put me back on track with a far better version of the game, and I blasted through it over the course of a week thanks to having been trained thoroughly by the previous Souls games. Once again I traveled down through the depths of defeated frustration up to the peaks of victorious jubilation in the ways that only the Souls games can lead you. There were a lot of smart changes made this time around (like understanding what any of the menus meant), and while the game may not have carried as much of an impact as the previous games, it left me with a great feeling of accomplishment knowing that I now have all 3 games securely under my belt.

  • RANGAH!!!

    I'm that guy who cleared out the entirety of Sauron's Army before even knowing there was a second location with its own separate army. That's how engaging the Nemesis System was for me (that and not wanting to see more Gollum nonsense). It may seem like a small detail, but the facial animation of each captain and warchief made every encounter feel like I was facing a living, breathing character.I lost multiple fights to the same captain, resulting in him making it all the way to warchief status. I really felt my failure in stopping his rise to power, and it was infinitely more satisfying to finally put him down. He wasn't even a story character, but he meant the most to my personal story.

  • At the time of writing this, I believe I'm about 5 missions into this game. The rest of that time has been spent exploring, hunting, climbing towers, and clearing outposts. I'm sure I'll get through the story eventually, because I definitely want to see how it all pl-- oops, hang on, I need that tiger for a new wallet...

  • I really did not expect this game to do much for me. Reviews have been middling, and a lot of folks lament the lack of "crazy" in the original Remix games. Maybe the concept of the game is a harder sell on the Wii U, but Ultimate NES Remix is a perfect fit for the 3DS. Applying the WarioWare format to classic NES games is incredibly engaging when you can pop open your 3DS for 10-15 minute chunks of time. Add the constant flow of unlocking new games and stages, and you have an awesome time-waster comprised entirely of some of the best classic games ever made.

    Here's hoping for an Ultimate 2 featuring more third party games.

  • Kirby always seems to get so few chances with each new generation of consoles, but his latest adventure on the 3DS showed that the classic "Kirby's Adventure" formula still totally works. Triple Deluxe is super fun, absolutely gorgeous, and scratched that nostalgic itch I get every year for some old school pink puff action.

  • There are bugs and giant robots. You have 2 guns. Go kill the bugs and robots and you'll get better guns to kill bugs and robots with. Also, you can blow up all the buildings with reckless abandon with your 2 guns while trying to kill bugs and robots. You want to fly around while killing bugs and robots? You should play as the Wing Diver.

    Always play as the Wing Diver.

  • I stand firmly with Mr. Scott in the "Alien or Aliens" battle, and this game captured the environment and atmosphere of that universe perfectly (for awhile). I spent the first 20 minutes of the game exploring the first ship's interior, grinning from ear to ear at all the control panels covered in hundreds of blinking lights that can't possibly serve any practical purpose. I had some serious issues with the main game's save system, but then I played the Last Survivor DLC and got the crap scared out of me. This game nails it when it counts.

  • I dove from the top of a Ferris wheel, just missing my opponent with an elbow drop and instead crashing through a poorly constructed pier into the sea, all while dressed as a drunken Pikachu.

  • It's basically Pong with baseball bats, but then that ball speed hits 300+ and each hit freezes the action just a little longer. Waiting for those big hits to finish adds a primal fear to every match, and you don't start breathing again until someone finally gets knocked out. It was these moments that made this game a huge hit during our Extra Life stream this year, and it is easily one of the best "fighting" games I've ever played.
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