2014 Games of The Year
When I sat down to compile this I thought I would struggle, there weren't loads of big tentpole releases in 2014. This was the year that first person shooters the failed to inspire me at all, Destiny and Titanfall just felt like more of the same and something I am not interested in. In the summer I was going through my collection I looked at my aging 360 and realized there was nothing I wanted to go back to. I had never gotten around to playing Yakuza, Ico, MGS4 to name a few on my PS3 but the 360 had nothing left to offer. So, for the first time in a generation I traded, it was purely a price decision but I was now the owner of a Wii U. Christmas this year was spent playing Mario Chase and MarioKart; laughing out loud with my parents and my brothers children, none of which are serious gamers. Wii U may be considered a failure by some but Nintendo still hold the best parties.
In 2015 the games I am most excited to play are Splatoon and Zelda (unless no mans sky arrives). I am sure MGS5 and Uncharted 4 will convince me to finally get a PS4 at some point but Microsoft, right now you have nothing for me. I
As with last year I am sticking to the no early access or unfinished episodic games rule. Which immediately takes out 2 of my top 5;
Kentucky route Zero is still stunning, I can't wait for it to finish so I can give it a position it deserves and the additional releases have been interesting experiments, enriching the world.
For me, the game of 2014 was Day Z. In the spring I could play for hour upon hour just to exploring this world, finding a pristine scope or backpack, interacting with players friendly or not. I even spent hours watching YouTube and twitch, something I have not done with any other game before. I was enjoying the culture of playing day z as part of a community. I even considered joining a guild of sorts. But then and almost without warning it got dull. Not just for me,other players and YouTubers also moved on. The long walk from Cherno to Berizino just became an inevitable death march, patches added more items but the new mechanics were too slight or just not interesting. While zombies aren't a threat and truly game breaking bugs have gone from cute to irritating. I want dayZ in my life but it's going to have to win me back if my /played is going to get anywhere 200 hours!
