What older games did you play for the first time in 2014?

Chrono Trigger, Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne, Demon's Souls, Deadly Premonition, Persona 3, Persona 4, Catherine....

This was definitely the year for RPGS and Atlus for me.

Binding of Issac, which is friggin' awesome.
Mario and Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story, which is the second best mario rpg ever.
Professor Layton and the Curious Village, which is quite nice.
Rhythm Heaven, which is cool.
And I played the first episode of Puzzle Agent this very day. It's a lot like Layton.

SMT: Nocturne and Digital Devil Saga: Avatar Tuner. Nocturne is, I think, one of the best games ever made, or at least one of the best I've ever played. DDS isn't quite as good, but it's still pretty interesting and has got some good story themes going on in it.

@historyinrust: It's not a great game but as a fan of the comics i loved it enough to go through eavh mission and earn a judge dredd rank for 100% arrest rates to unlock all the deathmatch characters. Still think its a hidden gem.

I played me a lot of CastleVania.

It warms my heart to see so many finally experience the glorious anime bullshit that is Metal Gear.

I finished Final Fantasy IV and VI.

Silent Hill 2 and 3, they were great.

Persona 3 FES, also great.

Game played (percentage finished):

• Metal Gear Solid (80%)
• Resident Evil (5%)
• Medal of Honor: Frontline (15%)
• Super Mario World (5%)
• Jak and Daxter: TPL (10%)
• Banjo Kazooie (5%)
• Doom 64 (10%)
• Goldeneye (55%)
• The Legend of Zelda: OoT (5%)
• Super Mario 64 (5%)
• The Legend of Zelda (2%)
• Zelda 2 (2%)
• Star Wars: KotOR (10%)
• The Sims 2 (?%)
• Killzone (5%)
• Crash Bandicoot: Warped (5%)
• Demon's Souls (98%)

There are a ton more that I started up but never got far enough to create a save worth mentioning. What can I say, I went from the Amiga 500 to a PC... But Goodwill stores and outlets have been great for finding this stuff. It doesn't all hold up, but what is still good is still really good.

I played for the first time Pandora's Tower and Fragile Dreams: Ruins of the Earth, that I recall. Also Forza 2 and Gran Turismo 5, and FIFA 12.

Fez and in the process of Deadly Premonition

Phantasy Star Online: Blue Burst took over my life for about a month. I'd only played the original 4, JRPG Phantasy Stars, and that was actually back in the 80s and 90s when they came out. It was a real nostalgia trip in some ways, and something completely new but dated in others. Interesting game.

System Shock 2. Had a blast with it.

Digital Devil Saga 2. After only ever playing a little bit of DDS1 years prior I decided I was going to use the January slump to play through Digital Devil Saga. I started a new game of DDS1 and played through it and then moved straight onto DDS2, it was a great way to experience that story. Awesome game/pair of games.

Sleeping Dogs and the first Assassin's Creed. And while I technically have played them before, I finally went back and finished everything in Oblivion that I'd never completed (Shivering Isles and Thieves Guild/Dark Brotherhood), and I'm working towards finishing Darksiders.

@zolroyce: Arresting people is super cool in that game. Dredd is like a great video game property that has never been utilized properly. I hope Rebellion try to do something with it in the future.

In spite of my user name, I had not played through Persona 3 and 4 until this year. I had A LOT of free time in the middle of 2014, and had a blast with the portable versions of both games.

Made a little progress through my Steam backlog, alphabetically. So now I can confirm that Bastion and Batman: Arkham City are indeed great games. Borderlands 2 was... alright (with the Tiny Tina fantasy-RPG DLC being surprisingly excellent). Assassin's Creed Revelations was very forgettable.

I remember being in junior high school and staying up late on Christmas vacations playing Sly, Ratchet and Jak games. I would love to go back and play them again but I'm afraid the crushing waves of nostalgia and the realization of a childhood now over is going to make me cry.

Spec Ops: The Line

Mirror's Edge

XCOM: Enemy Unknown

Tales of Vesperia

Red Dead Redemption

The Witcher 2

Far Cry 3

Resident Evil 4. I quite enjoyed it.

Pong

Pokemon Pearl, Pokemon Soul Silver, Pokemon Platinum, Pokemon White, and Pokemon White 2.

Most of what I play every year is older games. Function of backlogs and sales. Counting only things releases in 2011 and earlier

• Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light
• Q.U.B.E.
• To The Moon
• L.A. Noire
• Rocketbirds Hard Boiled Chickens
• Dungeons and Dragons: Shadows of Mystara
• Dungeons and Dragons: Tower of Doom
• Saints Row 2
• Bioshock
• Braid
• Hydrophobia Prophecy
• DLC Quest
• Venetica
• Rochard
• The Shivah
• The Deponia games
• Kung Fu Panda
• Costume Quest
• Civilization V
• Grotesque Tactics
• Spelunky
• Grand Theft Auto IV

I made a start on Demon's Souls. Beat Sleeping Dogs, Metro 2033 (but not quite there with Last Light), Okami and ICO.

I recently played Syberia (1 and 2) and the first Commandos. Both were great experiences. Oh, and Mirror's Edge, which was also very cool. I do have to say I got all of those games for a very low price on Steam and I had little expectations. Also, nothing I play is ever from the year I live in. I rely on sales and I don't have the time to actually keep up anyway. So everything I play is basically an 'older' game.

A bunch, but the one real standout is the incredible Blood Will Tell from Sega.

Earthbound! What a game

Fist of the North Star Kens Rage. Genius!

MGS 1-3 (before Metal Gear Scanlon was a thing, which makes that even better) and Icewind Dale.

Played through the entirety of Nier this year. Liked it way more than I was expecting to.

I finally got around to playing Far Cry 3 on PC that I scored for cheap a year or so ago. It's a great game, but for an OCD gamer it's kind of a double-edged sword. I ended up obsessing over skinning and crafting to upgrade my satchels, and had nearly fully upgraded all my shit before I even left the first island. I had no use for money for most of the game. It's definitely a game that suffers from an overabundance of stuff. Once I bought all the maps, they were littered with chests and relics. It was just kind of overwhelming, so I just said screw it and mainlined the story to wrap up the game. And that ending...yeesh. Overall though I liked it, and will probably play 4 at some point.

A bunch of old stuff. Early Ultima, Might and Magic, Wing Commander games, old Sierra point and clicks...been digging into old games like crazy. Going to play the first Alone in the Dark sometime this weekend.

• Demon Souls
• Dark Souls
• The Sly Cooper Collection - Sly 1-3

I blew through Dark Souls the beginning of this year. I played through Persona 4 Golden and I'm pretty close to beating Persona 3 Portable right now.

My girlfriend and I played a lot of Zelda this year. We beat Majora's Mask and Windwaker HD. We're currently working on Twilight Princess on the GameCube.

Other than that I beat Bastion, Max Payne 3, Far Cry 3 Blood Dragon and played lots of Forza 4 and Civ 5.

Hm, not much for the first time.

I guess I did play Persona 4 Golden, which is going back a few years AND is the first JRPG I've actually liked.

That's Nier for ya. Neat game.

• Mercenaries - Thought it was alright, but didn't get too far in it
• The Suffering - I remember playing the demo along time ago and the game was just as great as I remembered the demo
• Outlaw Volleyball - It's a good playing volleyball game
• Dead or Alive Xtreme 2 - Bad game
• Stranglehold - Pretty good
• Deathrow - Another game I remember playing the demo when i was younger and it is still awesome. I hate the action camera though, so those special stages suck.

MGS 1-3. Pretty into it. Gotta finish up and play 4 some time this year.

God bless Metal Gear Scanlon for finally giving me the impetus to get in on that series.

Bastion. Really good indie game, and it can get really difficult if you want to go for some of those Steam achievements. Don't think I'll get them all, but it's really fun.

Also freakin' Vib Ribbon because of the whole E3 debacle. Really cool. Can get really difficult though and I'm not really good at rhythm games. But damn if the soundtrack is amazing. The beat is strong but the night is long.

Started and finished the PS1 version of Final Fantasy I on my PSP. And started FFII, but couldn't get past the tedious skill-up system after boosting myself up a bit. I'll probably continue it eventually though.

I played through Dark Souls, Megaman X, and Metal Gear Solid 1-4. Working my way through Mario Galaxy right now.

The Last of Us, Sleeping Dogs, & Retro City Rampage.

I was not expecting the Last of Us to be any good because it's got zombies in it. But when I played it I discovered the game was not about zombies, even though they were in it. It even made me emotional at the beginning. Toward the end I was tiring of the gameplay and wanted it to finish, but there were a number of memorable areas/levels. The bundled DLC was also very well executed. If you haven't played this game you should probably think about doing so. (9/10)

Sleeping dogs turned out to be quite good, despite being a shallow kill-fest with repetitive mechanics and uninspiring mission design. The hand-to-hand combat was responsive and the driving mechanics for the most part worked for the mission design. I haven't bothered finishing the bundled DLC, which was not at all interesting. (6/10)

Retro City Rampage was not any fun to play, but I must give the developer a gold star for their creative abuses of intellectual property. Avoid this game, unless you are looking for a constant stream of nostalgic references, it's like a movie that is full of cheesy one-liners.

Lots actually. It was a good year for getting around to things I've put off for WAY too long.

• Nier
• nearly all of the older Ys games
• ACIII
• Persona 2: innocent Sin
• Legend of Grimrock
• The Room
• Final Fantasy VIII, IX, XII, and XIII-2
• Ghost Trick
• Hotline Miami
• Another World
• Marc Ecko's Getting Up
• I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream
• the entire Soul Reaver series
• Miasmata
• Parasite Eve
• Freedom Fighters
• Sanitarium
• Master Reboot
• Year Walk
• Mars: War Logs
• my entire October (Clock Tower PS1, Clock Tower 3, Silent Hill 4, Rule of Rose, Haunting Ground, Fatal Frame III)
• Baldur's Gate

Currently enjoying Final Fantasy 10 on Vita. Played and finished Chronotrigger (finally - after years of intending to...). Played and finished Ys 7.

Never really tried JRPGs until last couple years, I've been consciously slotting them in anytime a gaming drought occurs.

Far Cry 3

Mass Effect

Guardian Heroes

Shinrei Jusatsushi Taromaru

Virtual Fighter 2

More than I can remember, but a special mention to WWE '12 and '13, and a thanks to Dan for recommending me '13 in particular. I'm having an absolute blast playing through the Attitude mode and basking in nostalgia. (also, all these years since Wrestlemania 2000 and I swear Ken Shamrock's AI is still out to get me)

MGS 1,2,3&4. Dark Souls. Demons Souls. Persona 4. Assassins Creed 4. Dragons Dogma. Bayonetta. Spec Ops: The Line. Metro: Last light. And a few others that don't immediately spring to mind at the mo'.

Viewtiful Joe. Which was great and i'm looking forward to playing the sequel. BloodRayne Betrayal. Which was suprisingly good and I especially liked the last boss. BloodRayne (it was 39p!) I... had some fun playing this game. It was basicly Max Payne 1 with vampires and nazis and also featured early performances by Laura Bailey and Troy Baker before they starred in everything.

Most of the games I played and beat this year were released before 2014. That's mostly why I've been having trouble cobbling together a GOTY 2014 list!

Batman: Arkham Origins

Unfortunate how bugs killed this game's reputation. Only played it after all the patches were out, and it only froze on me twice on a loading screen, and my saves weren't screwed. It actually has the best plot out of all three Arkham games! The boss fights are also generally superior to the rest of the series, except none quite reached the level of the Mr. Freeze fight in City. Multiplayer is pretty fun, too, if it doesn't freeze on you or resets your progress. Too bad there's probably no hope for a better iteration of it because of how WB/Splash Damage royally bungled its launch.

Binary Domain

Fun shooter with surprisingly endearing characters and themes that made me go "Hmmm..."

Braid

Can't believe I waited so long to play this masterpiece. Deserves all the praise it gets. I pat myself on the back for figuring all the puzzles out on my own!

Darksiders I and II

Enjoyed these two very much, even though II kinda dragged and had a disappointing ending. It's unfortunate the creators don't own the IP anymore, but I'm probably still going to play a third one if it's a continuation.

Deus Ex: Human Revolution

Loved it, but man was everyone right about the boss fights sucking ass.

DmC

Enjoyed it, but I just played through it once. Like the style, but the boss battles were very disappointing.

Dragon Age: Origins

Absolutely dug it. Got the Ultimate Edition so I played every piece of content. Already started DAII!

flOw

Pretty.

Flower

It was just okay for the first two levels, but by the third one, I was hooked. Exceeded my expectations by the very end!

inFamous 2

Only inFamous game I've played. Really liked it! I might check out Second Son once I get a PS4 because of this experience.

Journey

Played it 5 times, and each experience was unique and memorable. Now one of my favorite games ever. Beautiful.

Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light

Played through the entire game with my girlfriend, and it was a blast every step of the way. Certainly filled the puzzle platforming void 2013's Tomb Raider forgot to do. Looking forward to playing Temple of Osiris next year!

LIMBO

Neat aesthetics, but it was just an okay puzzle platformer.

Lone Survivor: Director's Cut

Probably the only survival horror game I will ever finish because I can take the 2D graphics without shitting my pants. What a mindfuck that was. It doesn't change my mind about how frustrating the usual survival horror mechanics are.

Machinarium

It's got a cool visual design. That's about it, really.

Metro: Last Light

Atmosphere up the ass, and it was fun knifing blind guards. Not that big fan of the shooting, though. Played through the whole thing with Russian VA, so I guess that kinda helped????

rain

Good short adventure that has its fair share of thrills. Thank god that it ended the way it did.

There are enough tragic indie/small video games out there! It's okay to have happy endings, too!

The Swapper

Great game, and I consider it an achievement on my part for solving all the puzzles without any help!

Remember Me

So much potential in this game. A more polished combat system, more varied combat sequences, more memory remixes, and a more serious treatment of its plot and moral implications would've made this a 2013 GOTY contender. Still enjoyed it for all its flaws. I'll definitely check out Life is Strange.

Sleeping Dogs

An open world crime game that has more developed fighting mechanics and a memorable cast? Should have gotten more recognition when it came out! Did not like how the story ultimately unfolded though. Its grounded narrative shouldn't have concluded in such a neat fashion.

Spelunky

I get the addiction now. Brilliantly designed, but I just had to beat Olmec once (took almost 300 tries!). Might pick it up again sometime!

Super Mario 3D World

Finished every level with at the very least 2 other people, played the majority of it with 3, and busted a gut countless times because of the hijinks we all got up to. It's the simplest distillation of the concept of "joy" in video game form. In retrospect, it should have been in GB's Top 10 list last year!

Thomas Was Alone

It's alright.

Tokyo Jungle

Only really fun with a friend. Would probably enjoy it more if the entire story mode is playable by default. Survival is too repetitive.

Vanquish

Good game, but I didn't get the urge to play much of it after finishing the story like Metal Gear Rising. Not as over-the-top badass, too, which is disappointing.

XCOM: Enemy Unknown

Awesome and addictive. But man, Classic difficulty kicked my ass too much when I started that, and I also made the great decision to go Ironman for that, too. Had to call it quits after 4 or so retries without much progress. I'll definitely revisit it when I get Enemy Within next year.

Also replayed Arkham Asylum, City (my only platinum!), Brothers, and Hotline Miami. All great games, considering I almost never replay games I've finished once.

I do kinda regret spending a bit too much time on old games. Should have maybe used some time to play the big games like Dragon Age: Inquisition, Wolfenstein, and maybe Far Cry 4. Ah well, they'll be on my 2015's 2014 GOTY list!

Isaac , Splinter Cell Blacklist , Outlast . All fantastic games ..

Games I finished

• Metal Gear Solid 1
• Metal Gear Solid 2
• Metal Gear Solid 3 - Played through all of them just before Metal Gear Scanlon was announced, which was quite a coincedence. I enjoyed all three games a lot, though MGS4 is still my overall favorite.
• Silent Hill - Or it was last year, I can't remember. Solid game!
• Persona 4 - One of the best games I've ever played. It almost made me fall down an anime/Persona fanservice hole, but then I didn't.

Games I started, but couldn't be bothered finishing

• VLR - I like the puzzles, but the artstyle is bad, the visuals bland, the characters are all pretty boring, other than the overall structure of the game, the narrative is WAAAAAAY to exposition heavy and OH MY FUCKING GOD THE WRITING IS ATROCIOUS! Who came up with those awful sex jokes?).
• Persona 3 - I actually ended up probably getting halfway through the game, then summer vacation ended, and I had to put it down. It's a good game, not nearly as enjoyable as the fourth one, but still decent. I'll probably return to it in 2015.
• Persona Arena - Much like Persona 3 I just didn't have the time to finish it, because summer vacation was over and I haven't returned to it yet.
• Metro 2033 - I don't enjoy playing on a PC, so I never got around to finish it. It's a cool game though
• STALKER 3 - I booted it up, spend 5 minutes in the world, panicked and closed it down. I adore the original STALKER and think I'll just keep the series as a fond memory.

I played through MGS2, 3 and 4 this year, mostly because of Solid Scanlon.

Also, Resistance Fall of Man which does not hold up well.