Games of the Year ’14

Staff Top 10 Lists

William

2014 was a weird year.  As both a consumer of gaming products and as the editor of this site, its hard not to look back at the year that was with a little bit of disgust.  Games I bought were broken.  Games we reviewed were broken as well, in some cases, their problems persisted for months.  I’m not sure why, but it seems like a lot of people were ok with that.

I don’t think there’s any other industry that is so unregulated as to allow the sale of a completely broken product, misrepresented by marketing, where consumers are essentially made to wait for something that works.  As a site that reviews games these situations put us in an odd position.  I’m not going name names here, but simply put, the products that reached consumers were not the products we reviewed in some cases.

With so many games seeing disastrous launches, it’s beginning to paint a picture of developers and publishers that might not have been ready for the release of the Xbox One and PlayStation 4.  I mean, just look at the massive changes that the Xbox One made this year, that console is something completely different than what was launched in 2013. While that’s a great thing, the whole situation smells of a product that was rushed to market.

We buy these new consoles for better experiences and at least Microsoft and Nintendo delivered on that front.  Sony’s exclusive line-up was paltry compared to years past, but hopefully they’ll make up for it next year.  It was also the year of the remaster.  I double-dipped a number of times this year, if simply because they were the best games available at the moment.  Some of these remakes were exceptional, and made it on to my Top 10 list.  Probably because there were so many games that I was looking forward to that got delayed into next year.

Though despite major releases seeing a delay, the myriad of bungled launches, and some disappointments (Destiny), there was still plenty to enjoy in 2014.

10.  Dark Souls 2

9.  GTA V

8.  Titanfall

7. The Last of Us: Remastered

6. Super Smash Bros. (3DS)

5. Sunset Overdrive

4. Threes

3. Hearthstone

2.  Middle Earth: Shadows of Mordor

1. Dragon Age: Inquisition