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happymeowmeow

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GOTY 2014

A strange, transitional year for videogames, both personally and the industry as a whole. Games still being developed, companies still deciding what exactly they are trying to sell people. Major releases turned out to be decent, but disappointing. For the most part I played games on my 3ds, PS3, and whatever will still work on my aging PC. AC Black Flag was as good as people said! (but of course, this is not 2014 material). It was also a decent year for 3ds games, not really a fan of smash bros or that would be on there because it's certainly a well made game.

I usually decide my GOTY on a gut feeling after playing the whole game, and there's no doubt in my mind it was Shadowrun: Dragonfall-Directors Cut this year.

I finally did get a PS4 this december, and a few games I've played on it have made it to this list: Transistor (couldn't play it on my PC) and Far Cry 4. I've got a few more on backlog so this list may change.

2014 games I still want to try are here, as usual fairly large list.

List items

  • Science fiction RPGs, one of my favorite sub-genres, are very rare. Quality ones like this one doubly so. The writing and overall design of Dragonfall make it my game of the year, hands down.

  • A main draw of the Kirby series is the consistent polish and charm. Triple Deluxe has that in spades and has become one of my favorites of the franchise. It doesn't break any visual ground as say Epic Yarn, but graphically is one of the better looking 3DS games I've played. All of the forms have now been given a fairly complex set of powers and Kirby can now become an "Ultra Kirby" who vacuums everything in his path, which becomes an interesting twist for puzzles and boss battles.

  • I admit I'm biased on this one, loving the Persona and Etrian Odyssey series. But what could have easily been a half assed fanservice game is instead an impressive hybrid of both games. While most of the game has a framework of an Etrian Odyssey, I'd say Persona Q leans towards the Persona side on its content because so much of the P3 and P4 games are here: persona fusion, shadows, exploiting weaknesses, cutscenes with teenagers acting wierd and awkwardly talking about dating sensei, dungeons themed on culture festival exhibits, etc.

  • Full disclosure, if I hadn't have gotten this for free with my PS4 I probably wouldn't have bought this. After not enjoying Far Cry 3 at all, I went in with low expectations, and surprise (or maybe not for fans of this series) I'm having a blast. Superb open world game. So I have to ask myself, what's changed since FC3? Part of it must be my own tastes, maybe I'm more open to open world games. Far Cry 3's characters and story were terrible, FC4 has improved a lot in this area while there still is much room for growth. The graphics have also improved since FC3 on my PS3. Also, loved the Shangri-La missions.

  • Another successful hybrid game who's sum is actually better than it's parts. If you're curious about how they merged these two games, there are seperate Layton style puzzle and Phoenix style courtroom drama sections, with characters from both games making appearances in each. As expected the courtroom parts are extremely amusing, and the fustration I often felt in PW games is relieved by hint system which is activated by those familiar Layton coins you've collected.

  • It's obvious from the start that the main appeal of this is going to be its weirdness. The game itself is not terribly complex, but its just so good at being random that it's hard not to love it. Best described as an apartment complex simulator where you create all the inhabitants (or download a friends). Then you spy on their bizzare lives and interact with them. Look at some youtube videos for examples of how weird it gets. One of my favorite features is getting Tomodachis to marry (which is the most difficult mini-game in the game) then sending their hybrid offspring out into the world via streetpass. Reggie and Samus Aran have pushed their 4th child out of the nest now, Lil' Metroid. She sends me postcards from her travels through other peoples 3dses.

  • What immediately grabbed me about Transistor was the music and gameplay, but it took me until the last third of the game to really like it as a whole. What threw me off is how the world seems like a barely populated sketch of something that could be there )and of course I suspected this was intentional)and it isn't until the end that things really get interesting.

  • I guess I'm still a sucker for Borderlands because there isn't a huge difference between this game and Borderlands 2 but I still played the crap out of this game. The addition of low gravity and vacuum environments is pretty neat but feels like something that could have been in a DLC pack. I didn't expect this to be basically Australia on the moon but it totally works for Borderlands.

  • This is a budget chibi-robo game which consists of mini-games and a few small set pieces to explore chibi-robo style. This time you've been conscripted to save a failing museum of random junk by collecting or buying photo plates then taking a picture with the 3ds camera that roughly fits the plate. The 3ds camera is terrible and the detection software follows suit, but when it works it's an original, charming experience. Which captures the heart of chibi-robo all the way. Despite the technical shortcomings I found myself invested in this game because of its weirdness and charm (a common thread in my favorite games, I've noticed).

  • Mixed feelings about this one. The graphics and gameplay were great, but as it became more and more obvious that they were going in a MMO direction of grinding and repetition, my interest waned. Was also very impressed by how well the PS3 version played.
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