Must play games of 2014 so far?

2014 has been kind of lackluster so far, but I know this Fall a lot of interesting stuff is coming out. Is there anything I have to play from this year before then?

Divinity and Dark Souls 2 have been the highlights for me this year. I think the DLC releases for DS2 was the perfect amount of time between initial launch and extra content. Been really enjoying them so far. However, I'm not the type to NG+, so my replay value has been in doing All Bosses "speedruns."

In the single player arena, Wolfenstein, Banner Saga, The Wolf Among Us Season 2 (now fully out), The Stick of Truth, Transistor, Xenonauts, GRID Autosport, Valiant Hearts, Divinity, and Super Time Force are out on PC this year so far.

That's not a ton if single player video games on PC are your primary source of entertainment, and I'm sure a handful of those aren't your cup of tea, but I'm still not sure I'd call it lackluster just yet. We've got a third of the way to go.

Diablo 3 Reaper of Souls is great if you like the loot hunt, Beyond Earth is out next month and looks amazing if you like Civ.

Shovel Knight.

Transistor.

Well new games sorta new I'm playing is Diablo 3 (regular don't have reaper waiting for sale), Batman Arkham City, Teamfortress 2.

I'm also playing warcraft 3 the frozen throne ladder :).

A million times this.

Wolfenstein: The New Order is also an excellent game well-worth playing.

I might add Enemy Front to this list. It's certainly not original in any real way but, the level design harkens back to the old days somewhat. You can be stealthy or loud, both work equally well, and the gunplay is satisfying.

I think you either meant season 1 or Walking Dead season 2

Wolfenstein The New Order, just going to throw that out there every single time. Its the one game that pops into my head instantly with this question.

I've played mostly old games this year, including ones released this year that are remakes/ports. Wolfenstein is the only new game I've really put time into and thoroughly enjoyed.

Just started playing Wolfenstein, and I'll happily throw my hat in for that game. Somehow feels throwback and modern at the same time, in all the right ways. I've also really enjoyed Transistor.

Three games from this year which have really stuck with me so far are The Stick of Truth, Wolfenstein and Valiant Hearts. I had high hopes for Transistor, but the storytelling just wasn't as graceful as in Bastion.

5 games I would play this year so far.

Divinity: Original Sin (40 hours +)

Shovel Knight (6-7 hours, took me longer since first game of its kind I played)

South Park: Stick of Truth (if you like that humor, 10 hours)

Transistor (5 hours)

Diablo 3: Reaper of Souls (tons of hours)

With alot of games comming out over the next few months, the games that'll stick with me

- Shovel Knight, oldschool game done right, //Megaman with a shovel.

- Dark Souls 2, a sequel that improves on some mechanics with a solid pc port, but in my opinion overall fails to surpass the previous games.

- Transistor, very different gameplay from Super Giants first game, Bastion. Even though i was a huge fan, this games story connected with me far better. And the NG+ is well worth playing through.

- Invisible Inc. (Steam early access) Basically a roguelike-stealth X-COM with a smaller crew.

This said, i have had a slow gaming year, so alot of games i've missed out on.

Hey, Ether One is pretty good.

I want that Reaper of Souls expansion so bad.

I have been telling people to play Wolfenstein if they are looking for a game to play. I loved that game.

But yeah, 2014 has been drought-tastic. I get that there is a TON of indie stuff, but I have more interest in the ideas behind a lot of indie stuff these days than I have in actually playing the games. I let Jeff and co. do that for me :)

Risen 3 for me - but that may not be to everyone's taste.

Divinity was okay too I guess, got tired of it after a while though.

Jazzpunk and FRACT OSC for me.

Been working my way through my backlog & finally got around to playing the Wolf Among Us, it really is one of the best games of the year so far. Also the Stick of Truth was one of the few games I've pre-ordered, as I figured the devs plus the writers of South Park being involved justified it without getting any spoilers from reading reviews. It turned out to be a great purchase too as long as you enjoy the show.

Also I just picked up Company of Heroes 2 the Western Front Armies, it's still a bit early to tell but I'm guessing it's going to be the replacement to the first Company of Heroes I was hoping for.

I thought I posted in this sucker already.

Wolfenstein for me is the number uno must play videojame of 2014.

1001 Spikes is underrated I think.

Dark Souls II

Yup.

2014.

@fennefoss: what's the playtime for tansistor? been thinking of it.

Time to look up the review for it.

I need to play this. So far the top is still Jazzpunk with Wolfenstein coming a hot second. Personal opinions though...

EDIT: I CANT DELETE THE GIANT SPACE. IT DOESN'T APPEAR IN THE EDITOR!!!

4-5 hours, but that doesn't really matter. The story is amazingly well done and the combat is very interesting even if it has a decent amount of flaws.

Nothing so shockingly good that I can say everyone needs to play it. Dark Souls 2, Diablo 3 RoS, Transistor, and Shovel Knight are ones I would hate to have missed though. All four have been the only games I've really enjoyed so far this year.

@corruptedevil: Cool. Checking out the quicklook now. $20 isnt bad overall. Def on the list for humble or steam sales unless i have extra cash at some point.

@cirdain: Yep, white spaces have just started to appear under images (as of a couple of hours ago) :|

White?!? Heathen.

The Banner Saga came out right at the start of the year and I really enjoyed it. An interesting story/world with some pretty satisfying combat and a gorgeous art style.

I really enjoyed Whistleblower, the first DLC for Outlast. I actually thought it had a more interesting premise than the original game and did the whole horror rollercoaster thing better.

Strider certainly wasn't amazing, but I think it was a fun little Metroidvania game that did pretty much everything you want from that kind of game well enough.

Divinity: Original Sin was an excellent classic RPG with some fun but challenging combat, interesting quest design and some beautiful visuals. Well worth checking out, and not as intimidating as Patrick was making it out to be.

It seemed promptly forgotten after it came out but The Banner Saga may be my game of the year so far. The combat doesn't reinvent the wheel or anything but if you like X-COM or Fire Emblem, it's pretty much in the same ballpark. The storytelling is a little uneven with the way that characters just seem to come and go at random but it's got a great, dour atmosphere and builds a really interesting world that's able to separate itself a bit from just being a generic fantasy land.

South Park is probably right up there with it. It's pretty much baby's first RPG but it's a genuinely hilarious video game and when the hell does that ever happen?

Other than that, not much as grabbed me so far this year. Walking Dead Season 2 was good, I still go back to Threes every once in a while, my addiction to Hearthstone has pretty much evaporated at this point. I keep hearing how great Divinity is but it didn't grab me out of the gate. I know I just need to sit down and dedicate some time to it, though. I paid 40 bucks for the damn thing and made it like halfway through the tutorial dungeon.

@milkman: I really enjoyed the South Park game. The gameplay was extremely rudimentary but still pretty fun. I think your enjoyment of that game depends entirely on your appreciation/tolerance for South Park's brand of humor, which I happen to enjoy (or used to, at least).

I'm actually kind of surprised how little people talked about that game after it came out, though. A lot of really insane shit happened in that game, but I guess that's par for the course for South Park.

@fennefoss: I don't know if I'm in the minority for really not liking Dark Souls 2. After Dark Souls 1, DS 2 just felt extremely shallow and an oddly by-the-numbers sequel to such a unique game. I almost feel like the ability to fast travel ruined it for me.

Unless I'm forgetting another game, Plants Vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare is the best multiplayer shooter on PC to come out this year.

Wolfenstein, unless you meant best multiplayer shooter.

@corruptedevil: Yup, was specifically thinking multiplayer shooter.

Divinity is probably my pick for the year.

I've had some fun with lichdom battlemage, it does have some progression issues though.

Otherwise same as everyone else, revisiting Diablo 3.

Seems like more than ever the steam store is flush with small releases and less than ever is there anything compelling.

It's definitely been a good time for back logs.

Was broken age this year? I enjoyed that also.

Wolfenstein

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