2014 on a personal note was good year for me. A change of job was necessary, so i promised myself the year of 2014 would involve less work and more leisure time for myself. It so happens the perfect job came about which would offer an increased cashflow and less physical work. Having more time on my hands I thought I'd use it to catch up on my back catalog. This resulted in me purchasing a PS3, Wii U, and an Xbox One throughout the year; necessary due to my now dead PC. The year of the consoles begun.
Having missed out on PS3 Exclusives for the last decade i made it my first purchase of the year and binge played them over the Holidays. A Wii U was bought in June for the sole purpose to play the new Mario Kart, and an Xbox One was bought at the back end of the year as i felt i was missing out on 'Next Gen' gaming with no PC.
Without my PC in tow i got to work on my back catalogue. First stop, Playstation exclusives! Having ten games purchased on the day the console arrived i thought i'd begin working from oldest to newest. I thought It'd give me a better appreciation of how the games were improved upon between releases, and i don't think i could go back to an older version after playing an improved version of the game. Standouts were The Last of Us, Uncharted 2 & 3 and Shadow of the colossus. The Last of Us in my eyes was a masterpiece, writing was on point, characters felt like real people and even for the stick the gameplay gets, the push and pull feel to areas always felt exciting to me. Uncharted 2 & 3 are the closest you'd get to an action move as a game. Shadow of the Colossus was beautiful with fun mechanics, if frustrating at points, and felt like such an original game, a game that had great new ideas with not any games like it.
My Wii U got underused with only Mario Kart 8 and Zelda being played, nevertheless two great games. A similar story with my Xbox one, Halo, COD, & Ryse: Son of Rome were completed. These three games however were less loveable than either the Wii U or PS3 games, graphics really don't make the game.
A couple PC games were finished on a friends system he let me use. Bioshock Infinite, maybe one of my favourite games ever, and Borderlands 2, I love loot!
Games completed in 2013 (11), games completed in 2014 (26). Four of the games being released in 2014 (Games in bold)
10/10 - The Last of Us, Bioshock Infinite, GTA V
9/10 - Uncharted 2 & 3, Borderlands 2, Mario Kart 8, Shadow of the Colossus,
8/10 - Uncharted 1, Infamous 1 & 2, Mafia II, South Park, Zelda: The Wind Waker HD
7/10 - Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons, Journey, Max Payne 3, Zelda: Skyward Sword,
Halo Masterchief Collection, COD: Advanced Warfare, Batman: Arkham Origins
6/10 - The Stanley Parable, Ico, Ryse Son of Rome
5/10 - MGS4: Guns of Patriots, Heavy Rain
With only completing 4 games in 2014 my backlog for this year was enormous, and in 2016 there's 21 down, with 8 to go. 2014 had lots of good games but only a couple great ones in my eyes, my GOTY Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor, and Mario Kart 8. The good games making a solid top 10, with probably the only contentious game being Watchdogs, a game for no good apparent reason i really really liked. Wolfenstein, a great comeback for an old franchise. InFamous and Sunset Overdrive both very entertaining superhero games, please give either of these developers a big superhero franchise, they'd both nail them. Transistor, a charming game by SuperGiant Games. Alien isolation was enthralling, a game hasn't made me this scared in a long time, sadly i just lasted too long and lost its shock value in the late game. Breaking into my Top 10 is Shovel Knight, a game i tried a couple times on keyboard and mouse and failed on, until i used my Xbox One controller and found the satisfyingly smooth experience. The biggest disappointments came in the form of Dragon Age: Inquisition, A series that has one of my favourite games of all time in it, Evil Within, Bayonetta 2, and D4. None of these four games were bad i just had higher expectations for them, and was let down by their final product; expecting them to rank much higher in my list.
I should probably mention i keep track of every game i play, the console, date completed and a score out of 10. I started doing this at the start of 2013 and it's now become an obsession.
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Shadow of Mordor is an action adventure game in the same vain as the Batman Arkham Series but set in Middle-Earth instead of Arkham. You play a Ranger who is possessed by one of the forgers of the rings which gives you supernatural Elf powers. It does well what Arkham does well, the combat is fluent and it makes you feel like a badass when chaining kills together. Satisfying Ork killing at it's best. Chaining together bow, dagger and sword attacks to brutally finish off enemies. With more powers able to be unlocked as you proceed which levels up your ranger giving you new and more efficient ways to take care of enemies. The combat however isn't the star in this game, that goes to the 'Nemesis System'. The Nemesis system is a game changer, a completely unique system that turns this game from a good into a great game. Creating a pyramid system that has ranks of Ork, from Grunt to Warchief. This system allows for a dynamic living world, that what you do as the Ranger carries some weight. Turning Orks to your side, gaining rivalries with orks that have killed or escaped you, or even fighting battle scarred Orks you’ve defeated before, back from the dead for more. Each Ork has different traits which requires different tactical approaches to defeat them, such as arrow invulnerability, fire resistance, fire weapons, and many many more. Everything about this game was very good until the cop out of a final boss. QTE is not a way to end a game. Platform: Xbox One Date Beaten: 19th March 2015 Time Taken to Beat: 20h Rating: 9/10 2014 rank: N/A 2016 rank: 1
Mario Kart does what not many games can do to me, give me that feeling of nostalgia from my youth while introducing new concepts making it feel new and fresh. This iteration of Mario Kart is potentially my favourite, up their with Double Dash for the Nintendo GameCube. A close call but the nostalgia Double Dash brings back for me may slightly eclipse Mario Kart 8. The more I play this game with friends it may change that though. What I've always loved is the choice these games give you, the choice of tracks, karts, and characters. Bringing in old favourites as well as new additions to the franchise such as link and animal crossing boy. Not only does this game allow for just choices in karts it allows you make alterations on the vehicles to fit the style your after, or statistical changes if need be. Choice also comes in the form of what control scheme you wish to use, but not giving you an advantage or disadvantage if you choose one over the other. What makes or breaks these games though is the choice of tracks and Mario Kart 8 hits it out of the park with choice. The tracks not only have fun interesting gimmicks throughout them but allow for varying routes to be taken and landscapes which evolve over a race for variety from lap to lap. Sadly what detracks from this game is the lack of a dedicated battle mode. The battles take place on the race tracks rather than specially designed arenas. These arenas allowed for intense battles to take place and you could tell they were crafted for that sole purpose. Played either as a single player or multiplayer Mario Kart 8 is a gem, bringing back all those nostalgic feelings of my wife while improving concepts from previous iterations Platform: Wii U Date Beaten: 19th September 2014 Time Taken to Beat: 11h 26m Rating: 9/10 2014 rank: 1 2016 rank: 2
The best phrase to describe this game is a 'Very satisfying romp', having the ability to kill futuristic robot Nazis while dual wielding the biggest guns the game offers. Wolfenstein takes place in an alternative reality where the Nazis have won WW2. No sign of Hitler though, the power behind the Nazis is ‘Deathshed’ the man behind them developing far superior technologies that helped them crush the Allies. A true villain! The serious nature of the story combined with funny dialogue gives the players huge juxtaposition. Treating serious dialogue mixed with comedic nuances, in a world that takes you through death camps and worse. Wolfenstein manages to treat these events with respect and is one of the few games that could pull this kind of gruesome scenario off while highlighting how bad the world could be. Outside of missions the home base emphasizes this comedic attitude with an awesome Easter egg, of you playing an old Wolfenstein games in a dream like scenario. Wolfenstein combines this story with enjoyable, if not revolutionary gameplay. Having the ability to dual wield weapons makes you want to go all out guns blazing DOOM style, but if you went this route you'd learn quickly that this is the way you kill yourself in Wolfenstein. BJ Blazkowicz can no doubt deal some major pain but also with a relatively low pain threshold BJ is easily killed, getting taken out by a few shots by some enemies. This requires the player to have a more of a pop and shoot attitude to gameplay which feels counter intuitive to what you want to do, nevertheless it still felt smooth and intuitive. Otherwise Wolfenstein did offer some choice in how you approached scenarios, if you wished the stealth approach was an option, potentially going through large sections of areas unspotted. This style never felt like it fitted into what ‘Wolfenstein’ is, so I chose guns blazing in most scenarios. The only time I chose this style was when trying to unlock the upgrades. The upgrades were implemented in a style I liked, making you complete odd kills, such as knee slide kill 5 enemies, or kill a certain amount of enemies without reloading. I enjoyed changing my style of play to unlock these, making some scenarios have an extra difficulty level. Wolfenstein manages to create a believably grim world with a comedic edge that elevates this game above your basic Nazi killing FPS Platform: Xbox One Date Beaten: 27th February 2015 Time Taken to Beat: 13h Rating: 8/10 2014 rank: N/A 2016 rank: 3
Games where you play as a Superhuman, either a hero or villain have always appealed to me, having the ability to devastate areas with unique powers and transverse terrain in a variety of ways gives me that giddy feeling. This is exactly what InFamous games have done for me in the past and this is where Second Son exceeds its predecessors! Second Son makes doing the small things fun, things that would normally be boring fetch quests turn into just another excuse to traverse the city in cool ways. Combine that with faced paced combat situations and satisfying boss battles, Infamous gave me one of my favourite gameplay experiences of the year. The character and story side of InFamous was fairly good, enough to keep my interest over the course but not a great enough story for me to remember it years later. When games are designed for the player to have fun with, rather than an overtly serious tone, it’ll always make the game appeal to me. I will always choose the fun gameplay over a game with story but no game-play any day! Platform: PS4 Time Taken to Beat: 18h Rating: 8/10 2014 rank: N/A 2016 rank: 4
Another game in the same vain as InFamous. Have Fun! and use everything at your disposal to do so. Like Infamous Your pretty much a superhero, unlike inFamous your fighting hordes of zombies infected by an energy drink. The premise and story is ridiculous, but the gameplay is a riot, with the ability to grind on everything gives a great flow to combat. An underappreciated gem! Platform: Xbox One Time Taken to Beat: 16h Rating: 8/10 2014 rank: N/A 2016 rank: 5
Purchased this game in the most recent steam sale. And wow am I glad I did. I was hesitant in playing this game to begin with as I wasn't to keen on Supergiant games last release, Bastion. It received critical acclaim from pretty much every outlet but something just didn't click with me. I appreciated aspects of it without it amazing me. My expectations therefore were relatively low on Transistor, and boy did they get blown away. Charming is the word I would use to describe Transistor. A stylish Cyberpunk Turn-based RPG with a female protagonist. It ticks all my boxes! Transistor follows Red, a performer in cloudbank, who is attacked by the process, a robotic force that is controlled by a group called Camerata. The story begins with Red pulling the transistor out of a lifeless body, the consciousness of the body is then transported into the Transistor. The Transistor then acts as a guide as the man's consciousness talks as a narrator throughout the game while also building a relationship with Red. The plot is very well told through this narrator type character, similar to the narrator in bastion. I'm glad they used this device in Transistor as it allows for a more personal touch for the player as well as being able to build a relationship with Red. It wasn't a incredible plot that I will remember for years to come, but the ending, where so many games fall down was very well done in Transistor and it left me with a warm feeling once finishing. That warm feeling was built up throughout the game with the awesome music (of which I bought the soundtrack), and the striking visuals. Both of which create a tense atmosphere allowing the player to feel at ease or in danger depending on the scenario. The Danger in this game is the Process, a robotic army controlled remotely by the overseeing bad guys. They are taken down in a Turn based combat where you spend turns to fill up the action bar, once the action bar has been spent a cool down period is used where most attacks can't be used. The most interesting thing about this combat is the types of Functions available and the combinations you can use. You have 4 function slots each with passive and persistent slots. The ability to combine any of the functions you obtained in any of the slots allows a lot trial and error gameplay. When you find an effective combination the satisfaction is immediate and allows for experimentation and replayability. Transistor came as a big surprise to me due my average reception of their critically acclaimed title Bastion. With the combination of replayable turn-based combat allowing endless variations of attack function, charming characters, beautiful world, and satisfying narrative, Supergiant games have made a little gem. A short but succinct story with immense replayability I would recommend this game to everyone. A must play and one of my favourite games of 2014. Platform: PC Time Taken to Beat: 6h 42m Rating: 8/10 2014 rank: N/A 2016 rank: 6
I never followed any of the hype for this game so it had nothing yet really live up to in my books; I never even watched any trailers or gameplay of it. So when I picked it up for $10 from game I got a pleasant surprise and couldn’t really understand where all the hate was coming from. I guess if you get onboard a hype train, you’re always going to be disappointed. You play Aidan Pearce, a normal looking guy, who lives in a pretty normal Chicago, but you’re actually a hacking mastermind, able to control everything with one click of a button. The one button to hack everything felt over simplified but served its gameplay purpose, and I can’t complain that I didn’t have fun with it. The hacking is the tool which Aidan Pearce uses to take down ctOS, this story was fairly intriguing up until a point, and it however outstayed its welcome, feeling it had to clean up all these side stories. If it had ended after a large chase that made you use everything you had learnt up to that point to escape, I would have been satisfied. The gameplay is what it is! A competent third person shooter and driving simulator which has a novel hacking components, allowing you to hack camera, lights, bollards etc…. The hacking is where it thrives, using objects to distract or kill enemies in order to sneak by, using all your skills to prevent confrontation. Some moments however force you into confrontation, in a small room with overpowered enemies; luckily these are few and far between. A good start to the series that just needs some refining, hopefully Watchdogs 2 will be its Assassins Creed 2 of its series. Platform: Xbox One Date Beaten: 9th March 2015 Time Taken to Beat: 26h 44m Rating: 8/10 2014 rank: N/A 2016 rank: 7
Before Alien Isolation was released I'd never seen an Alien film before, yes embarrassing I know. So this game not only opened up a game series for me but a plethora of entertainment, mainly the films though. I can safely say Alien is one of my favourite films of all time, even after nearly 40 years since its release, it remains timeless. And what this game does well is give you the feeling of the original movie! Feeling scared and hunted, and at any moment you could get caught out in the wrong place at the wrong time by the Xenomorph. So after I'd finished watching all 5 Alien films I got to work playing one. Alien Isolation takes place 15 years after the original and you play Ripley's daughter, who responds to a distress call of her mothers, but all doesn't go to plan and what hunted her mother now hunts her. As you experience life through Amanda Ripley's eyes the first things that becomes apparent is the atmosphere the game build through stunning visuals, being loyal to the films and the ambient and immersive sound design which makes you always feel on edge, even when the Xenomorph is nowhere in sight. This atmosphere creates a terrifying experience for the player as you sneak your way through the remote trading station, Sevastopol. Playing with headphones on exemplified these feelings, making me jump on multiple occasions with my heart beating out of my chest. If this game was a VR game, it would have probably killed me! The gameplay is very simple you sneak about the station being hunted by a Xenomorph then androids. This gameplay fits this game perfectly, it exemplifies the perfect hunter that is the Xenomorph, and if you make a mistake the Xenomorph will brutally kill you. The perfect hunter. Alien Isolation does equip you with a few weapons in your arsenal if you get stuck in a tricky situation for a quick escape into a cupboard or under a table. This makes up for about ¾ of this game, the final ¼ changes this formula and hands you a flamethrower. The flamethrower kills the tension giving you a tool to confront the Xenomorph, no longer do you have to sneak about, you just have to spray the flamethrower every time it approaches you. This portion went on for far to long, giving you a fake out ending on multiple occasions. This doesn’t spoil the game it just gives you a sour taste once finished. Alien: Isolation stays true to it's roots creating a beautifully intense atmosphere that truly gives the ultimate Alien experience Platform: Xbox One Time Taken to Beat: 22h Rating: 8/10 2014 rank: N/A 2016 rank: 8
I love South Park, and I love the Stick of Truth. It perfectly blends the tone, comedy and visuals that make South Park so iconic with an old school turn based RPG, to create an interactive South Park experience. Having Trey and Matt team up with Obsidian was a match made in heaven. This 'Episode' of South Park takes place with you (The player), playing as the new kid in town. Upon arriving you learn about an ongoing battle between Cartman's Human forces and Kyle's Elf Forces fighting it out for an artifact of limitless power called 'The Stick of Truth'. The game then plays out from there with you as a pawn for the satirical story that unfolds. It manages to incorporate the same dark humour and satire seamlessly into the story and gameplay. I don’t feel like I can say much more about South Park, but that it’s the perfect game for a fan of the series. Platform: PS3 Time Taken to Beat: 11h 44m Rating: 8/10 2014 rank: 2 2016 rank: 9
My first console was an N64, so I missed the whole NES and SNES era of games. Mainly the 2D 8 bit platforms that was so popular during this period. So I have no nostalgia for these types of games, with the only 2D platformer I played being Super Mario Land for Gameboy. This is where Shovel Knight changed how I view 2D platformer. I got it for my birthday and tried playing it with a keyboard and failed to get into it, it wasn’t until I plugged in a controller where I started to really enjoy this game. Shovel Knight isn’t about the narrative or story, your trying to save your beloved and in order to do so you have to do X, Y, and Z. Shovel Knight is about the gameplay, the characters, and the beautifully rendered new age 8 bit art. The gameplay is fluent, responsive and effective; it’s all about learning the enemy’s patterns and taking advantage of their weaknesses with your Shovel, and your upgradable powers. The powers allow you to throw projectiles or phase shift to become invincible for a short amount of time (Incredibly overpowered Phase Locket), and many more. The powers use mana so must be used sparingly for difficult situations. The Shovel doesn’t only act as a weapon but also a platforming tool in certain areas, even allowing you to kill chain enemies with a downward dig. The system the game revolves around is a Dark Souls punishment and reward system that allows you to reclaim lost coins if you manage to make it back to your death site. This currency penalty would be rewarding if there was anything to spend the coin on, as after one play through you can easily unlock everything. They also allow you to destroy checkpoints if you wish for more coin, but destroying that checkpoint results in you having to start at the previous one if you die. All good ideas, but with no incentive they weren’t used often in my play through. The level ingenuity, great music, beautiful design of levels and characters combined with a solid 2D platformer has given me a new genre and avenue to explore in gaming, opening up my eyes to how fun an experience they can be Platform: PC Time Taken to Beat: 9h Rating: 8/10 2014 rank: N/A 2016 rank: 10