This year has had some high points. There's no denying it. Shadow of Mordor was pretty good. I'm enjoying the GTA5 re release on my PS4. Wolfenstein managed to be a nice surprise.

All that being said though, a huge part of this year has been layers upon layers of disappointment. Halo: Master Chief Collection, the long running Assassin's Creed series, InFamous:Second Son was much less than it's predecessors managed even though it looked pretty.

Between the extremely piecemeal way some folks are trying to sell games now and so many various problems, I just don't think I can really get behind a Game of the Year list this year. It'd be full of asterisks. Too many games that were twice the hype for half the game (Destiny), games that tried something new with old concepts and left me wanting more (Titanfall), games that frankly should have been delayed (Master Chief Collection, Assassin's Creed), and even the games that I ended up liking were still hampered by a feeling of franchise malaise (InFamous) or just plain old missed opportunity (Sunset Overdrive).

This year has been a mixed bag. Elation, disappointment, happiness followed by heartache. It just feels like making a list of "Best of" would be disingenuous and hollow.

About the only game that really grabbed me with no caveats this year was Civ: Beyond Earth. Never having been very interested in Civ, this was my first one. Adding aliens and terraforming made it appeal more to the sci-fi nerd in me. I'm much more interested in science fiction than history, so I decided to finally give Civ and honest try. And I really ended up having fun with it. My PC has been giving me trouble of late, otherwise I'd probably still be playing it. Maybe next year I can finally get a new machine and give it another go. In the mean time I guess I can play on the Wii U. Mario Kart 8 was pretty great. So those two are my games of the year I guess. Congrats Sid Meier and Nintendo. You guys managed to make a couple of true gems this year. Kudos.

How about you? How was your year of gaming? Do you share my disappointment or am I being too dour? I'd love to hear how other folks have felt about this year in gaming. And if you've got a GotY list going, how about a link? I'd love to take a look. :)