1. Alien: Isolation ; I had high hopes for this game since it was first announced and shown, but I was always a little nervous about it; like it was too good to be true. A triple-A survival horror game with little emphasis on combat -- in 2014? Yeah, right. It will end up being all action-y, just wait and see. You'll truly feel like you're fighting for survival, when being stalked by an unstoppable enemy with nothing to defend yourself with? Nah, there's no way they'll pull that off. The creature's AI will undoubtedly suck, you'll be able to predict what happens, it'll end up being really scripted, yada yada yada. Oh, and it's an ALIEN game??? Yup, it's totally gonna suck. But lo and behold, Alien: Isolation is everything it was cracked up to be, and then some. It is survival horror at its finest, emphasizing the need for patience and careful decision-making, and the result is a game that is incredibly tense throughout and, at times, downright terrifying. The persistent threat of the Alien (as well as the not-as-deadly-but-still-really-fucking-creepy Working Joe androids) coupled with a fantastic representation of the original film's sci-fi aesthetic works to create an unbelievably strong atmosphere, taking this relentless cat & mouse game and making it a truly heart-pounding experience. It's the scariest game I've played in quite some time, and it was probably the most challenging game I played all year. But in spite of the sometimes unforgiving difficulty, the game and its enemy AI was absolutely fair, and my ability to survive through to the end really felt largely predicated on the slow and methodical play-style that the game allowed me to carry out. It's not perfect, but Creative Assembly delivered about as well as you could have asked for in making Alien: Isolation feel like a true fight for survival. Of all of the great games I played in 2014, this is the one that made the biggest impression on me, and the experience that I had is one that I expect will continue to resonate with me for a long time. It's the real deal. (Creative Assembly, PS4)



2. Bayonetta 2 ; The original Bayonetta is one of my favorite games of the prior generation, and up until that point was certainly my favorite character-action game. The combat mechanics offered a ton of variety that was all easy and fun to pull off, in turn encouraging you to try just about everything at your disposal. It was amazing, and I didn't think it was possible to perfect it any further. Well, I was wrong. Bayonetta 2 not only plays better than the first game, it actually plays a lot better. There's more variety to the gameplay on top of a foundation that was already quite varied, while combat is faster and smoother and just feels great overall. Each new enemy encounter is a lot of fun, and it never gets old because of how many different abilities you have (all of which are equally awesome), and because of how enjoyable it is to have all of that power while never feeling overwhelmed at the same time. The ease and intuitiveness involved with mixing up your arsenal is very liberating, making it more possible now to dominate as Bayonetta while doing it just as stylishly as she does it in the cinematics. The sequel also trims out a lot of the filler that the first game had, smartly focusing on making the whole experience faster and crazier. Hands down, it's one of the best-paced action games I've ever played. I didn't find the humor to be at the level of the first game, but in every other respect, Bayonetta 2 is a resounding improvement over the original. I've never had more fun kicking ass in a video game. (Platinum Games, Wii U)



3. Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor ; There are a number of reasons why I did not expect to like this game nearly as much as I do. I've found open-world games to be largely underwhelming and disappointing over the past couple of years. Ubisoft's open-world games, most notably Assassin's Creed, I have burned out on completely. I do like the Batman combat, but after Arkham Origins I've begun to tire out on that series as well. I have no real interest in the Tolkien universe; I saw the Lord of the Rings trilogy and thought they were fine films, but I'm hardly what you'd consider a fan of the material. On the surface, Shadow of Mordor is all of those things wrapped into one game. Best case scenario, I expected my time with it would be no different from any other recent open-world game: I'd climb a tower or two, see my map get cluttered with an overwhelming amount of icons, feel compelled to do those quests and find those collectibles so that I could look at the map again and be able to think at the same time, lose interest fast after doing a handful of them and realizing that it's straight filler and busy-work, before finally saying "screw it" and start doing only the main story missions, only to find out that the story sucks and the missions are little more than tutorials for the side content that I already lost interest in. The weird part is, that's not an entirely inaccurate description of the game, but a funny thing happened in the end...I completed it 100% and loved just about every second of it. Huh, what?! It just goes to show what can happen when your game is built on super-tight gameplay mechanics and numerous in-game systems constantly interplaying with each other -- the experience can be fun and engaging and addicting and satisfying, even if the content itself isn't interesting on its own. Shadow of Mordor does borrow from Assassin's Creed and Batman and others, but it implements everything the right way, making sure that it's fun to play first and foremost. Its one big new feature, the Nemesis system, is what puts it over the top for me. For the first time in a while, it was nice to have an open game world where my actions could make a tangible influence on it, whenever and as often as I wanted to. Whether it's the main missions, the side missions or any of the in-between traversal, there's always an element of spontaneity and fluidity in play that makes even the mundane into something compelling and fresh. It's not the most ground-breaking game of 2014, but damned if it isn't a well-made one. (Monolith, PS4)



4. Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze ; When describing Rayman Legends' placement on my Best of 2013 list, I mentioned how with platforming games, the phrase "more of the same" is often much more of a compliment from me than a pejorative, especially when you're following up a great experience that I want more of. That same adage applies to Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze, and once again, it's a good thing. A very good thing. Like Bayonetta, Donkey Kong Country Returns was also one of my favorite games from the previous generation (as well as one of my absolute favorite 2D platforming games ever) and getting a sequel to that on the Wii U is undeniably great, but saying it's just more DKC Returns is selling it a bit short. Let's get the obvious stuff out of the way: You've got the visual overhaul, with Retro's always-top-notch art now looking better than ever in high definition. The controls have been improved over the Wii game. There's more variety, with new playable characters and new types of stages -- underwater and ice (and get this, they're just as good as the other stuff!) -- that each make a substantial impact on the traditional gameplay. And let's make no mistake about it: David Wise's soundtrack is an unequivocal highlight, and is without question the best collection of music I've heard in a game all year. But it's the little things that make this game great too. Like how each level is filled with all sorts of calamity taking place in the background, and how each world tells its story through the sequencing of these stages and everything that's going on within them. Or how the game progresses in such a way that it consistently gets better and better until the very end. And while I found Tropical Freeze to be a little bit easier than Returns, the flipside is that I had a more enjoyable time 100%-ing this one. It's challenging and on rare occasions it even gets frustratingly hard, but going for completion was always a "fun challenge" through and through. Ultimately, it's not as impressive of a game now as Donkey Kong Country Returns was back on the Wii, but that doesn't mean it can't still be one of the very best games I played all year. And through the first three-fourths of the year, it was the best. (Retro Studios, Wii U)



5. Wolfenstein: The New Order ; This is, without a doubt, the surprise of the year. I had absolutely zero hype for this game, didn't give it much of a look when it came out, and only picked it up after hearing a lot of positive word of mouth regarding it. Well, "word of mouth" was certainly correct this time, because Wolfenstein: The New Order is a really good game. Developed by former Starbreeze employees that worked on Escape From Butcher Bay, Wolfenstein is a throwback of sorts to games of that era, of pre-Modern Warfare FPS games that wouldn't hesitate to sacrifice ultra-realism in the interest of fun. The shooting feels great, as do the stealth mechanics, and each mission practically can be played with either approach or a mix of both styles interchangeably. Each level is designed smartly with multiple routes that you can take and oftentimes allowing you to be as stealthy as you'd like, but the game doesn't miss a beat once everything degenerates into a shootout. With tight mechanics, a satisfying and rewarding perk system and pretty good pacing (it's far from being non-stop shooting), The New Order easily does enough to be an enjoyable gameplay experience. But on top of all of that, it has an unexpectedly well-written narrative that includes a number of characters that I actually cared about, elevating B.J. Blazkowicz's latest exploits to the point where I felt like I was fighting for a lot more than simply killing Nazis and saving the world. It's the best first-person shooter I've played in several years. (MachineGames, PS4)



6. Super Smash Bros. for Wii U ; Back and better than ever, the latest Smash Bros. for the Wii U checks off nearly every box that a 2014 Smash Bros. has to. Multiplayer has been a blast, both online and locally, and the sheer volume of modes and customization options available in both realms is staggering and very much welcome. Whether I'm looking for complete and utter chaos or a more purist-route at any given time, it's all there at my fingertips and has been a ton of fun in the short time I've spent with it so far. And let's not forget about the single-player, which is filled to the brim with content and sports dozens of challenges that I suspect will keep me busy for many months and years to come. With the newest entry into the franchise, Super Smash Bros. for Wii U maintains the series standing as one of the most fun multiplayer experiences and a celebration of all things Nintendo. (Namco/Sora, Wii U)



7. Shovel Knight ; Much more than just a trip down memory lane, Shovel Knight is what you'd expect from a NES Mega Man or Castlevania-inspired game made in 2014. It hits all of the sensibilities of that era, nailing the retro visuals and sound in such a way that brings back fond childhood memories, highlighted by a delightfully addicting soundtrack. While respecting the games of that era, Shovel Knight also takes into account all of the lessons learned in the 20-some-odd years since, settling for gameplay that manages to strike that delicate balance between being too simple and being too challenging. It's an unabashed love letter to old-school video games, true, but above and beyond the nostalgia factor Shovel Knight brings more than enough to the table to stand tall among its modern peers. (Yacht Club Games, Wii U)



8. The Evil Within ; What to make of The Evil Within? This latest journey through Shinji Mikami's nightmare world is not perfect by any stretch. But it's still a very satisfying survival horror game that hits most of the right notes, and is excellently-paced from beginning to end. You're never doing the same thing over and over for any significant length of time, as the game is always shaking up the gameplay and locales in such a way that is consistently interesting and rewarding. It's a double-edged sword, because while the game never feels repetitive at any point, the roller-coaster ride it takes you on doesn't really allow for much suspense building, which is paramount for a horror experience. I also found the inclusion of automatic checkpoints to be a disservice to the game, working against the survival/stealth gameplay by discouraging player creativity and greatly reducing the overall tension. Flaws aside, The Evil Within still brings a lot to the table in the gameplay department. It's remarkably well-balanced, where you have barely enough ammo and/or health to get by if you play perfectly, and at no point did I feel overpowered like I did in Resident Evil 4. But in those instances where you don't make the most of your resources, there are plenty of other avenues that the game allows you to take, including stealth, utilizing environmental traps, crafting a wide variety of crossbow bolts, or evading enemies altogether. And I'd be remiss if I didn't mention the boss fights, some of which were among the most frantic and terrifying enemy encounters I've come across in a long time. In the end, it doesn't re-invent the wheel and a lot of what this game does great has been done before. But if you liked something like The Last of Us, and wouldn't mind playing a darker, scarier version of that (with some REmake and RE4 sprinkled in), you could do far worse than The Evil Within. It's a really good survival horror game, if still falling short of being another "Mikami masterpiece". (Tango Gameworks, PS4)



9. Sunset Overdrive ; Give credit where credit is due: following the soulless and generic Fuse, Insomniac really goes for it all here. If this were "Silliest Games of the Year 2014", it would probably take the top spot. They're swinging for the fences, and well...there are quite a few whiffs, but they knock it out of the park when it matters most. Sunset Overdrive fully acknowledges that it's a video game, and this sort of breaking-the-4th-wall humor permeates throughout the whole game. Is it always funny? No, plenty of the jokes fall flat, but enough of them do work that it justifies their total commitment to it. The punk rock aesthetic is a bit one-note, but it fits for what they're going for. Which is to say that the goal was to make this the loudest, most vulgar statement that they could possibly make, and by and large it's a success. Yes, it's still got a lot of the trappings of an open world shooter that are mostly run-of-the-mill. Plenty of missions are throwaways. But as with the humor, Sunset Overdrive hits when it matters most and above all else, I had a great fucking time while I was playing it. Traversing a game world has never felt so great, and by grinding, bouncing, air-dashing, and wall-running my way around such a hyper-stylized city, it has never looked this great either. It didn't matter if it was the 13th collect-a-thon mission to that point -- I wasn't doing it to get my completion % up, I kept on going because I was having fun. Finally, the game brings the spectacle and bombast in spades at the biggest moments: the boss fights. By making the most of the large open world environment and all of your high-flying abilities, each boss encounter ranks as one of the more memorable moments of the year for me. They perfectly capture the level of audacity and ridiculousness that Sunset Overdrive was striving for. (Insomniac, XB1)



10. Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker ; One of my favorite games from last year was Super Mario 3D World, and one of that game's biggest strong suits was that I rarely felt like I played back-to-back stages that were too similar. The Captain Toad stages that were mixed in among the more traditional Mario platforming levels were a part of that game's impressive variety, and with Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker, that same philosophy is still in tact but with those types of levels now in the forefront. In many respects, it's a Mario-quality game where the platforming element has been stripped away, and yet it manages to be nearly as fun regardless. The bulk of the stages are very well-designed, in that they are able to be completed in only a few minutes each, but are loaded with all sorts of surprises that demand 2, 3, and sometimes more replays. It's incredibly fun and satisfying to search every nook and cranny of these stages, especially when eventually finding a secret that was very cleverly hidden. As an appendix of sorts to 3D World, this could have been a phoned-in effort, but all of the super creative level designs and puzzles you'd expect from an EAD Tokyo game, it's all here on full display. And like all of Nintendo's first party stuff on Wii U, it looks stunningly good in HD. When this game was first announced at this past E3, it was a pleasant surprise and immediately became one of the games I was most looking forward to playing. My one concern was whether a full game made out of these puzzles might possibly wear thin, but in hindsight that was a pretty silly thought: these guys have been making 3D Mario games. They know what they're doing! (Nintendo, Wii U)


Honorable Mentions:

x. D4: Dark Dreams Don't Die ; Well, I've gotten my Swery fix for the year. Imagine Deadly Premonition without the open world and combat, just the cutscenes. And instead of tackling Twin Peaks, this time around he's taking on Memento. That's D4 in a nutshell...if you like Swery, this is for you. (Access Games, XB1)

x. Far Cry 4 ; I probably would have gotten more out of it if I hadn't just played Far Cry 3 earlier in the year, as it's very similar to its predecessor. But that also means that it's still pretty darned good. (Ubisoft, PS4)

x. inFamous: Second Son ; At the time, traversing the environments in inFamous were the most fun I've had in an open-world game in a while, but then games came out that did it better (Mordor, Sunset). Still a very solid game, and provided my first "next-gen moments" from a visual standpoint. (Sucker Punch, PS4)

1. Wolfenstein: The New Order ; Wow, did not expect that this game would be my GOTY when I started playing it. Before I knew it I was hooked. Razor sharp gameplay was the biggest thing that drew me to plow through this game in a frenzied weekend. I don't actually spend that much time playing games, but this one had me sitting down for rare 3+ hour sessions multiple times a day until it was all done. I didn't think it would be possible for a game about shooting nazis to be so damn fun, but brilliant gunplay and tight level designs made it so. I loved the optional stealth gameplay mechanics, because unlike other games which feel very pass or fail with their stealth, in Wolfenstein you could always just resort to good ol' shootin' when stealth failed, and like I said the gunplay was on point. One last thing I really enjoyed was the writing, which very expertly jumped back and forth between believable drama and unexpectedly charming joy for killing nazis. It's a bizarre mix of themes, but the game handles it with aplomb. There's really nothing I didn't like about this game.

2. Mario Kart 8 ; My girlfriend requests that we play this game. She's not a gamer. We can both have fun playing it at the same time because our performance in the game is not tied to each other. It's also a beautiful looking game (best looking game of the year IMO). I also really love that you can do 2 player local online multiplayer, and hope that other games incorporate this feature in the future .

3. Bayonetta 2 ; A refinement of the previous gold standard in the character action genre. Bayonetta 2 is also reassurance that money is not everything when it comes to games, and that there's still room for passion projects in this industry. This game is one hell of a feather in Nintendo's cap.

4. Project Diva F 2nd ; One of my favorite franchises, this game is a great mix of classic Miku bangers and new songs, making it perhaps the most musically diverse Project Diva game ever released. The gameplay is also as addictive as ever, and the star notes seem somewhat less miserable than they were in the previous game. I'm glad that SEGA is bringing these to the west.

5. Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze ; It's more of the same, but in this case you really can't have too much of a good thing. This game maintains the challenging, exciting gameplay of the previous game, while getting a fresh coat of paint on the more capable Wii U.

6. Super Smash Bros. for Wii U ; An absolutely immense game. Nintendo provides content on a level that few in the industry do these days. It's also super fun to play and basically a love letter to Nintendo fans everywhere.

7. TxK ; A brilliant arcade game by the quirky Jeff Minter. Visuals, sound effects, and music blend together perfectly with frenetic gameplay.

8. Destiny ; I enjoyed the time I spent with this game, and am looking forward to a sequel that corrects its flaws. If that game came out sometime in the future it might be at the top of a list like this. Destiny is the Borderlands that I wanted, that is to say a co-op loot shooter with good gameplay. Unfortunately they dropped the ball a bit when it came to the loot portion, and A LOT when it came to the breadth of content in the game.

9. Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes; This game makes me want to buy MGS V: The Phantom Pain on day 1. So, mission accomplished?

Will work on my list asap (I still have to play DA:I).

Just my opinion, but imo including Remasters in the main category is a mistake.
They should be limited to honorable mentions.

Just my 2cps.

1. Dragon Age Inquisition ; The best game i played in the year, excelent dialogs, party members, graphics, art and exploration. All i ever wanted in a modern RPG.
2. The Evil Within ; a love letter to the old horror games, with a mix of stealth, action and the secret sauce of Mikami.
3. Far Cry 4 ; Like Far Cry 3, it's fun, unique in his way and beautiful.
4. Super Smash Bros Wii U ; a fun brawler, with a ton of content
5. Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor ; Fun and new, like Batman Arkham Asylum. I don't like too much the tolkien's world, but Shadow of Mordor make me give an another chance to Tolkien's.
6. Diablo III: Reaper of Souls; i love the farming in this game, i spend hours finding new items and inventory.
7. Wolfenstein: The New Order ; a old shooter in the modern times, it's live Inglourious Basterds, with robots.
8. Alien Isolation ; the game who captures de essence of Alien, a real survival horror game .
9. Mario Kart 8 ; clever, simple and effective, i don't like too much the racing games, but this game has something unique.
10. Dark Souls 2 ; i didn't play so much this game like Dark/Demon's Souls, but i liked the hours i spend in the game.

Cheesemeister said:

Added.

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What about Insurgency? Doubt it'll get many votes though.

1. Bayonetta 2 - Absolutely incredible, and this is coming from someone who did not like Bayonetta 1 at all. Possibly the greatest action game of all-time.
2. The Evil Within - This game gets a lot of hate for all the wrong reasons. Technical issues aside, the level design is absolutely incredible and everything about it is just top notch.
3. Hyrule Warriors - If you're a huge Zelda fan, want to fuck shit up, and do not own this game, you are doing it wrong
4. NES Remix 2 - Like a WarioWare, but with some of the greatest games of all-time.
5. Azure Striker Gunvolt - As a huge Mega Man and Inti Creates fan, this felt like a huge breath of fresh air after Capcom murdered the Blue Bomber
6. Grand Theft Auto V - I'm not sure if this counts, but as someone who never played the last-gen version, this game is honestly the most fun open world game I've played since San Andreas
7. Fantasy Life - 200+ hours and counting
8. Pokemon Omega Ruby - I do not like Pokemon. But I love this game because it fixes all the jank from Y, and for the first time since Gameboy, it feels like Pokemon is getting with the times.
9. Super Smash Bros. Wii U - To be honest, the single player content is extremely disappointing, but it might be the best Smash in terms of its mechanics, controls, and it has some of my favorite stages in series history.
10. Bravely Default - The ability to turn on/off random battles and speed them up to make them go by within a couple of seconds alone is enough to put this in my top 10.

Extremely Tentative.

1. Bravely Default ; Despite the endgame repetition, I still managed to have tons of fun with this modern classic. It took some great aspects of Final Fantasy V's Job System and threw in a neat twist on turn-based battles by allowing you to "stock" and spend turns. This idea opens up potential strategic options by letting you time your defense and unleash all-out assaults. Much like FFV, the Jobs are fairly well-balanced, in that they all have their situational uses and are worth building up for each of your characters. As for the story, while it does have plenty of literal repetition in the latter half, I was engaged enough with the characters and world to continue on. Without getting into spoilers, I quite enjoyed the little changes in this segment, as they gave some extra insight into the characters.
2. Mario Golf: World Tour ; When this was first revealed, I was happy to see that Camelot was back, but not too happy to see that the portable series' traditional RPG-esque Story mode had been pared back to a simplified Mii-focused, equipment-based system. While it is pretty simple compared to previous entries, there is still plenty of depth in the form of unlockable courses, equipment, and challenges. But what more than makes up for the Story mode's simplification is the new Online Tournaments mode, which provides even more challenges and unlockables each week, along with the ability to make your own tournaments and play in user-created tournaments. Despite some GUI quirks, this Tournament focus makes this Mario Golf quite the addictive title.
3. Wolfenstein: The New Order ; When this was being previewed, it was tough to see anything special about it, outside of the alternate-history storyline concept. When it came out, however, it was clear that this interesting concept had the great gameplay to back it up. The focus on stealth (with great shooting mechanics to seamlessly back it up) works so well that it was no surprise when I later learned that ex-members of the Riddick team worked on this. A lot of things in it feel similar to the fantastic Escape from Butcher Bay, especially when prisons are involved, to the point where it almost feels like a spiritual successor.
4. Yumi's Odd Odyssey ; Finally, after decades in Japan, Umihara Kawase comes over to the US with a fine platforming game in tow. The mechanics can be tricky to learn, but when you've got a handle on the controls, you can solve some challenging platforming obstacles to reach the exit(s) of each level. Plenty of unlockables, including costumes and classic music tracks, serve as quite the motivator to see all of the branching level routes. The online leaderboards are also a nice touch.
5. Theatrhythm: Final Fantasy Curtain Call ; Theatrhythm returns, and brings with it the complete collection of songs and characters from the first game, along with songs and characters from outside of the primary FFs. But the real star of the show is the new Quest Medley Mode, which serves as the new primary mode, replacing the Chaos Shrine from the first game. It distills the RPG idea into some semi-random SMB3-style World Maps, with branching paths that allow you to effectively choose which songs to play. There's enough randomness to keep this mode fresh each time, as you unlock new quest maps when you complete quests or StreetPass. The new button controls are another high point, as they work with the mechanics quite well. Highly recommended, even to those who may have passed up the original.
6. Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance ; Released on the PC this year in a pack with the DLC, it's easy to see why people were raving about this excellent action game last year. The mechanics are simple to grasp, and the gameplay and settings are varied enough to where you'll never be bored. Combine that with bizzare and awe-inspiring boss battles, the visually addictive Zandatsu mechanic, the light touches from the main MGS series, and a rocking soundtrack, and there's no problem recommending this to anyone who wants a different kind of action,
7. Octodad: Dadliest Catch ; This game endears from the get-go, with your octopus trying to accomplish common household tasks, such as chores and grocery shopping, in a bright world full of references (including a VGCW shout-out) and funny dialogue. While it does falter a bit later on, the addition of the "shorts" DLC expanded the parts that people loved about the game, an octopus trying to make it in the modern world.
8. Jazzpunk ; Absolutely bonkers. There is no other set of words to describe a game that mashes together video game references (including Street Fighter, Wave Race, and Quake), spy parodies like Naked Gun, and all other sorts of assorted randomness. And yet, it all manages to work out quite deftly. This is one title that must be experienced for yourself.
9. Assassin's Creed Rogue ; It sounds cliche, but if you really liked ACIV: Black Flag, you'll have a good time with this, since it's pretty much the iterative sequel of Black Flag. It has the same out-of-animus mechanic (Game Tester for Abstergo), pretty much new skins on the same weapons, and a similar focus on ship-sailing. It does make a few changes, however, mostly with the environment, as the North Atlantic and River Valley are quite different from the Caribbean from both a visual and gameplay perspective. There are also a bit more missions in open areas, giving you options to approach your targets.
10. Card City Nights ; A jazzy soundtrack, plenty of references to the developer's other titles (including the pleasant Ittle Dew), and a lengthy single-player featuring a fun card game, make this worth a look, particularly on tablets, where the touch controls are quite effective due to CCN's board-game nature.

Honorable Mentions
x. South Park: The Stick of Truth ; Witty writing, even for people with only a passing familiarity of the show, backed up by solid turn-based battle mechanics and plenty of side-quests. Definitely worth checking out, even for casual fans of South Park.
x. Alien Isolation ; I didn't get too far in it, since I generally don't care for horror games, but what I played was oozing with atmosphere, both as a horror title, and as a Alien adaptation. The build-up to the Alien appearing is incredible, with the game building tension through encounters with looters and androids until the Alien finally appears. When it's searching an area, it behaves unpredictably, even doubling-back after leaving a room, making it the clearest threat in the game and forcing you to dart from hiding place to hiding place to survive.
x. Valiant Hearts: The Great War ; An adventure-lite game that explores the rarely-visited-in-games time of World War I. It makes full use out of its bleak setting, even providing historical facts and collectables based on real objects used in the war. The characters you play as are interesting to follow, as besides fighting in the war, they all have personal goals that transcend the war and are well-fleshed-out. It all leads to one of the more memorable ending sequences out there. It does suffer from a few flaws though, such as overly-simple (some a bit tedious) puzzles and some bugs where the music cuts out or an event doesn't trigger. Still, if you have even a passing interest in World War I, it'd be tough to find a game that handles the subject better.
x. Terra Battle ; Sakaguchi returns with a fun semi-strategy RPG. Maneuver your units to pincer in enemy units, with bonus attacks from "connected" units. Plenty of gameplay with a full campaign and side-battles. Plus, the F2P aspects are generous enough that they won't bother you that much.

1. Dark Souls II; It's not as good as Dark Souls, but it was still the best game of the year. I think I may have got as much pleasure out of pointing out its flaws as playing it, though. Didn't we all? We're such a tough audience.
2. Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze; Retro nails it again. Yes, I'm still pissed they made another fucking Donkey Kong game, but I forgave them for the couple of days it took me to 100% it.
3. Earth Defense Force 2025; How can anyone not love shooting giant bugs? And with a jetpack this time (or again, for long time fans, which doesn't include me).
4. Super Smash Bros. for Wii U; Smash is back, baby! This game is what Brawl should've been. By which I mean "fun", of course.
5. Wolfenstein: The New Order; The scenario is ridiculous, but it makes for a great "you vs. everyone" shooter. Highly enjoyable!
6. Far Cry 4; I haven't played a Far Cry game since the first. This one is really fun. Plenty to do, nice breathing open world, good game mechanics. I'm having quite a blast. It has some funny bugs, too.
7. Mario Kart 8; The best Mario Kart in years.
8. Shovel Knight; What a fun little game! It's better than most NES games.
9. Alien: Isolation; I thought the game got a bit cheap and padded out near the end, but overall, it was a satisfyingly tense experience.
10. NES Remix Pack; A fun retro romp with decent challenge.

Honorable Mentions
x. Shantae and the Pirate's Curse; it's a fun little game, but I have to admit, I would like it less if it nearly every character weren't a super hot anime girl. :^p
x. Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker; Surprisingly fun, if a bit easy.

Man, I don't think I played enough games this year to come up with a list. Between a set of tumultuous personal issues and starting a new job/relocating to a new city, games weren't really a focus this year. I may throw together a quick list at some point but it won't be as robust as my lists for the past two years, which is a shame.

KefkaPalazzo said:

1. Dragon Age: Inquisition
2. Sunset Overdrive
3. Bayonetta 2
4. Middle Earth: Shadow of Modor
5. Valiant Hearts: The Great War
6. Dark Souls 2
7. The Wolf Among Us
8. South Park: The Stick of Truth
9. Donkey Kong: Tropical Freeze
10. Forza Horizon 2

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Friendly reminder of this rule: "You must have at least one comment in your ballot or it may not be counted. The comment must be more substantial than "GOTF lol" or what have you. Posting without comments may also subject you to a ban."

Didn't see a "will do comments later" thing so I figured a few people might find it useful.

1. Kentucky Route Zero Act III ; The concert with Junebug and Johnny was the coolest sequence in a game this year, and one of the best ever.
2. Dark Souls II ; It's not the next Dark Souls, but it's more Dark Souls, and that's good with me.
3. Bayonetta 2 ; Previously I was good with Platinum making a game and moving onto something new, but Bayonetta 2 suggested even Platinum can benefit from additional focus and refinement. The best of its kind.
4. Transistor ; Plenty of games explore the relationship between narrative and gameplay, but few are reluctant to give all of its finer details away. Transistor does just enough in either category, but leaves a tremendous amount of room to speculation and experimentation.
5. Nidhogg ; The perfect fighting game. High stakes, low barrier of entry, wide gulf of strategy, and totally different from everything else out there.
6. Luftrausers ; A modern arcade game, defined by an exclusively awesome mechanic and allowing the player to push and twist it as far as it can go.
7. Cloudbuilt ; Hard has hell, but intimately focused on its craft. Very pretty too.
8. Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII ; A huge mess of systems and ideas expressed in the visage of a Final Fantasy game. Enjoyment could go either way, but I loved it all.
9. Hohokum ; Best soundtrack of the year. I get slightly upset when people label Hohokum as a meandering zen like experience without objectives, because there's a tonof shit to do in the game.
10. Eidolon ; Pacing's off, but I found Eidolon to be excellent at telling a myriad of stories without defaulting to linear distribution.

Enco said:

What about Insurgency? Doubt it'll get many votes though.

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Fuck, I totally forgot that came out this year. Amazing game.

Cheesemeister said:

P.T. is not eligible, effectively being a demo.

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I would argue that PT is a full game to hype Silent Hills and not a demo. Especially as the content of PT is not a direct excerpt from Silent Hills.

1. Velocity 2X ; I bought the original game as a birthday present to myself last year. the game was so good. I was very hyped when i heard of the sequel. FuturLab has proven themselves to know their genre, and to know their game. V2X is a very enjoyable sequel, building on the mechanics of the previous entry, and adding new features. A Vita's best friend.
2. Kingdom Hearts HD 2.5 ReMIX ; This collection of 2.5 games (see what i did there?), with the first international release of the Final Mix content for both Kingdom Hearts 2 and BBS is fantastic, and i guess the Re:Coded scenes are alright too for a story standpoint. Very polished, and just as I remember, but with the addition of new features, HD, visuals, and, most importantly, a revamped soundtrack courtesy of The Video Game Orchestra. Both games included are probably the best entries in the series, and the game mechanics are left as they are, so returning players will feel right at home.
3. Final Fantasy X HD Remaster ; I first played this over a decade ago on my brother's PS2 and i was very amazed. before this i had played 9, and 7 before that, but this new game was on a whole new level, giving a really good 3D world, and VOICES, which was so cool. This remaster respects the original game, but adds in retouched textures, and reworked soundtrack that i think is fantastic, plus new content that never made in to the Americas for us to enjoy. all in all, a very good package and value.
4. Divinity: Original Sin ; This is the game that Larian had always wanted to make, but were told wouldn't be successful in this day and age. months later and they have been proven that their game is good. Released from Early Access at the end of June, it remained at or near the top of the Best sellers list on steam for a fairly long while, a spot which it very much deserved. The game is a return to gameplay of old CRPGs. You create your characters and are put into the world. There is a story to guide you, but you can simply wander the world as you please. Combat feels good as a turn-based system. I would recommend you pour several dozen hours into this.
5. Sniper Elite III ; Sniping's good business, Mate. To quote IGN, this game is "immensely satisfying." Improving on the gameplay of SE v2, the devs found the right mixture of stealth gameplay, sniping, and the occasional hairy situation. You are thrown into the deserts of 1942 Africa as a sniper. You snipe things, and they die in wonderful ways.

1. inFamous Second Son; Best entry in the series. Absolutely loved this game even though I didn't played much of first two infamous games. Amazing graphics and fun gameplay made it my GOTY 2014.
2. Dragon Age Inquisition; I was waiting for a good rpg for almost a year and thank god a wait is over. Still I have yet to finish this game but I doubt that rest of the game will change my mind.
3. Destiny; The most fun I had in MP game since Bad Company 2. Really addicting game. If not for little content it would be my goty.
4. Far Cry 4; I'm always open for more FC3
5. Shadow Of Mordor; Best AC game by date.
6. Driveclub; One of the most anticipated PS4 games. Was the reason I picked up PS4 at launch and even though game was delayed still after all this wait I can say that this is best racing expierence and fun I had since Forza Horizon. Weather patch was just icing on the cake.
7. Transistor; My top 10 for soundtrack alone.
8. inFamous First Light DLC; More infamous is always good but to play as Fetch was the highlight of this game.
9. Metal Gear Solid Ground Zeroes; At last MGS game with great controls.
10. The Last of Us Left Behind DLC; Best dlc I ever bought. Well until First Light was released.

1. Dragon Age: Inquisition ; Huge Dragon Age fan. 120 hours and still going strong. Tons of content, great characters, great graphics and art design.
2. The Last of Us: Remastered ; One of the best games of last gen in 60fps. Enough said.
3. Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft ; Even though I suck balls at this game I can't stop playing. So rage inducing and yet so addictive.
4. South Park: The Stick of Truth ; Best licensed game and best fanservice ever.
5. Destiny ; Solid game with some deep flaws. Gameplay good enough to overcome the problems.
6. Infamous: Second Son ; Looks incredible. Plays great. Just needed better side missions.
7. Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn; Plays amazingly well with a controller. If only I had more time to play it.
8. Mario Kart 8 ; Pure fun. Best looking Nintendo game ever. Great online. Battle mode a travesty.
9. Valiant Hearts: The Great War ; Great look. Educational. Good story. Dat ending.
10. Hotline Miami ; Incredible soundtrack. Addictive gameplay.

Honorable Mentions
x. The Walking Dead: Season Two ; Disappointing after that amazing first game. Telltale formula getting away from gameplay and more into cutscenes with choices. At least the story and characters are still solid.
x. Outlast ; Don't really care for horror games but it was free and I enjoyed it.
x. Don't Starve: Console Edition ; First crafting game that has held my attention. Plays great with a controller.

1. Divinity: Original Sin ; Not just my favorite game this year, but on my short list of favorite RPG's ever.
2. Elite Dangerous ; The most immersive game I've ever played.
3. Might & Magic X ; The impossible game. A grid movement, turn based blobber released by megapublisher Ubisoft? And it's amazing? How the fuck did this happen!?
4. The Legend of Grimrock 2 ; The template for how a sequel should be done. Improves on everything from the first game and is one of the best real time blobbers ever.
5. Wasteland 2 ; A great CRPG, lots of great choice & consequence stuff. Great writing. Had a blast with it.
5. South Park: The Stick of Truth ; One of the best licensed games I've ever played. It does a phenomenal job of putting you right in the middle of the show.
6. Blackguards ; A deep, challenging SRPG with a great complex character development system.
7. Lords of Xulima ; Haven't finished this yet, but what I've played so far has been excellent.
8. Xenonauts ; A fantastic attempt at remaking X-COM with a modern interface. Makes for a nice companion game to XCOM.
9. Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance ; I forgot this came out this year on PC. Fantastic character action game.

Cheesemeister said:

Is it playable content, or horse armor? Yes if the former, no if the latter.

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Woot.

1. League of Legends (2014 content) Ultra Rapid Fire was the most fun I've had in a long time. Azir, Braum, Gnar, Kalista, Rek'Sai and Vel'Koz were all released this year
2. Dark Souls 2
3. Valkyria Chronicles
4. The Swapper
5. Transistor
6. Lords of the Fallen
7. METAL GEAR RISING: REVENGEANCE
8. Child of Light
9.

WIP: Almost done I think

-- The List --



1. Dark Souls 2 ; the boss design and level design is the least refined in the Souls series and I still played it for 150+ hours. The story is overcomplicated and the least interesting in the whole series, yet I still played it for 150+ hours. It has that terrible soul memory mechanic that ended up doing more harm than good but hey, 150+ hours. It has a fucking spider dungeon created with the soul purpose of torturing my soul with dozens of jump scares, spiders falling off the ceiling, crawling out of holes and a fucking giant room made of spiderwebs with a mega spider boss that shoots laser beams and poops at you. And why not, from, go ahead and put one of the most important vendors in the game in that area, just to fuck with me, I'll take it with open arms. Despite its greatest efforts to make my life a living hell, I still played the game for 150+ hours.

That's how strong the Souls formula is and why despite of being the weakest entry in the series, developed by From B team and all that, it's still an amazing game capable of creating those moments of tremendous triumph the series is known for. Yeah, they're far less frequent, and I would probably have placed this game much further down my list if the DLC (specially the first one) wasn't so good, but in the end Dark Souls is the one non-League of Legends game I played the most in 2014, the only one I found myself wanting to beat more than once (super short games like Abyss Odyssey don't count lol) and the one I simply enjoyed the most.

Good job B team, you did it. Here's hoping the 2015 update that's adorably landing on my birthday makes enough tweaks so that Dks2 gets to be all it can be.

But seriously From, for the love of god, take it down a notch with the spiders.



2. Shovel Knight ; not much to be said about Shovel Knight other than it's just a perfectly crafted piece of happiness wrapped in videogame form. More than a nostalgia Megaman-like game, Shovel Knight is a love letter to videogames, period. It's impossible not to have a massive grin when playing this thing, it's just so damn charming and it plays so well!



3. Valkyria Chronicles ; I love love stories and I love war stories and I love anime and this game is a wonderful mix of all three. It's sometimes dark and it's sometimes so very anime but it's easily the best WW2 story (c'mon, you may call it Europa all you want, but it's WW2) I've seen in gaming. I loved the protagonists and I loved how the story unfolded, as predictable as it was. Mechanically it's not the deepest SRPG but they switch things around often enough and don't drag it too long as for you to get bored of it. It also has unlocking-through-gameplay character bios which I always enjoy a lot.

And you know, those cutscenes are just gorgeous.



4. Always Sometimes Monsters ; I dunno why I waited until the last minute to play this, ASM is as zkylony as a game can get to the point it might as well be biographical lol. Themes like alienation and poverty and coping are very compelling to me and ASM tackles them in a very human and awkward and funny and mostly clever way. It's dark but it's not really depressing, and it gives you just enough agency so the story really feels your own. It's another not-enough-time-for-anything kind of a game, but it's not as oppressive as something like Cart Life or Papers, Please. ASM gives you some breathing room so you can actually make your tough choices based on your roleplaying rather than a timer.

I decided my character would be a smoker and I spent all the game low on cash because of it. It got to the point where I had to choose between eating something I found in a dumpster, selling my two packs of smokes to buy a sandwich or going to bed hungry. There are so many opportunities to lose your humanity and do a bit of evil. Just take those 20 bucks, these people don't need them. Tell someone to fuck off. Lie. There are some not-as-great parts near the final stretch (I really hope one day they do a director's cut version with multiple endings) but the game was filled with moments like those and I had authored all of them myself.

I so wish games didn't explicitly mention their title tho, specially when it makes no sense like ASM's.



5. Dead State ; there's so much Fallout in this game I can't help myself from loving it. It's very rough on almost every aspect, from the wonky pathfinding, to the nightmarish inventory screens (to be fair most RPGs suffer from this) and the scripting errors but still, Fallout is a formula I very much enjoy. It does a lot of things well, with a very rewarding sense of exploration, some cool ai interactions when playing around with the sound mechanics and just the generally fun gameplay flow of looting stuff, recruiting people, and watching your home base get fat.

This game needed a couple more months in the oven but it'll be great after some patches. It'll never be a truly polished game, it's an underbudgeted overambitious indie game, but it's got its heart in the right place and it's the first Kickstarter game I backed I'm this content with.



6. The Legend of Heroes: Trails In The Sky ; the story is a bit uneven but on its better moments it really took me back and reminded me why gaming made me so happy in my teenage years during the PS1 era. There's just something about the rough PSP graphics that was so very endearing to me. I found the combat system to be very underdeveloped, I hated (most of) the side quests and there's a chapter I wish they had cut entirely, but I just loved meeting new NPCs, exploring new towns, the politics, the conspiracies, the village BMGs, the it's-ok-he's-adopted wincest! I can't make up my mind if I think TiTS is a good game or not, but I'm excited for TiTS2, that much I can say.



7. Kentucky Route Zero Episode 3 ; Cardboard Computer sure likes taking their time with these games, do they? Anyways, the latest episode had some very memorable moments as usual and continues to be as hypnotic as ever. I've had the pleasure of playing all the other short games they've been releasing and they're all very enjoyable as well. I just wish they would hurry the fuck up with the new episodes, this release schedule is too hard on people with terrible memory such as myself.



8. Divinity: Original Sin ; I loved this game initially, but I felt my interest fade as the game went on, with combat becoming very formulaic (despite my better attempts at being terrible at character creation) and later towns failing to match the quest and npc richness of the first one. Also puzzles, oh dear those fucking late game puzzles. Still a pretty solid game, I loved the teleporting pyramids, playing detective for the first half of the game, creating two main characters with completely opposite personalities that were always RPSing over every little thing, talking to cats, the early combat encounters, the crazy observatory hub thing, etc. etc. There's something very compelling about the way the systems interact with each other in this game, letting you break it in interesting ways like literally putting a locked treasure chest in your inventory and carrying it with you until you get enough lockpicking skill to be able to open it.

I really wish they had doubled down on those things as the game went on.



9. Abyss Odyssey ; the first ACE Team game with gameplay strong enough to match the visuals, I had a lot of fun beating the game over and over on release. As usual the bizarre art direction is what wows the most, but the combat is deep and challenging while remaining accessible for the button mashers like myself. I'm hoping one of these days they'll release a more meaty update that'll lure me back in.



10. Super Time Force Ultra ; funniest game I played all year, I love games that wear their silliness with pride. Just long enough, too. No wasted TIME.

-- Honorable Mentions --
x. League of Legends ; I dunno if it counts, but the fact that I still play this game after more than two years means that I love it despite hating it. Didn't put it in my list because I don't want to argue if it's eligible and I don't want it to take the spot of a game that I actually want to highlight. League more than a game is a social thing for me, anyways, running into a losing streak often dictating my mood for a couple days, or just brimming with hype for the next new champion or skin to come out, or hanging out with friends, getting drunk and watching worlds finals together, and all the friends I've made over at the League thread.
x. Mitsurugi Kamui Hikae ; I enjoyed this game way more than I had any right to. There's not much depth to this pantyshot Dynasty Warriors-esque thing, but it played tight enough that it got a bunch of hours out of me. This almost made my top 10... so many kyas kyas kyas!
x. The Banner Saga ; the production values were phenomenal and for the most part the Oregon Trail+TBS combat gameplay was fine, but can't say I agree with a lot of the design decisions they made. The final boss fight was also patched like a week after I beat it to make it a lot less annoying but by that time the damage was done...
x. Gods Will Be Watching ; this is a game about horrible scenarios, both of the unfair and the random kind. Unfair and random are two bad traits in videogames and as such Gods Will Be Watching is a very frustrating game to play. I think being able to more quickly skip animations and dialogue and better feedback for your actions could've gone a long way in making the game easier to endure, but this is what we got. The story and the art/audio are all very good tho, and thankfully you can toggle RNG off and set the game to easy and play it that way (kudos to the devs for that), so I would argue it's still worth playing. There are some ludonarrative dissonance issues in playing the game this way but if you can pretend this is supposed to be very difficult and stressing you'll be ok
x. Broken Age Act 1 ; it's definitely charming and beautiful looking but the first act definitely feels shallow. I usually don't like games having multiple protagonists because the attention is split and neither character gets too much development but I have hopes Act 2 will be much better. The last part of Vella's side felt really adventure game-like and was very enjoyable, I want more of that.
x. Bioshock Infinite: Burial at Sea ; going back to Rapture is delicious fanservice and the second act specially was very cool gameplay-wise, rolling back to the finite Bioshocks' style of blending light stealth mechanics with more claustrophobic combat scenarios. I didn't understand anything about the story but I approach Bio games with my heart rather than my brain <3

-- Nopes (other games that could've had a place in my list but didn't) --
Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance: as a Platinum fan I thought I was gonna love this game but turns out I hated most of it. I didn't like the scenarios or the enemies and I hate counter-based combat systems. The boss fights are excellent tho. Really one of the biggest letdowns of the year for me.
Murdered: Soul Suspect: I got it as a gift and I love the idea of it, playing an ex-criminal ghost detective sounds fucking awesome, but the execution is honestly pretty terrible. I don't like collectibles and basically that's all there is to this game, with some awful "stealth" to make you wish you were at the collectibles section again. I want to keep playing it for the story because Ronan's such a cool character (I hate his maniacally obsessive girlfriend tho) and the setting's also pretty interesting but ehhhh.....
Valiant Hearts: Something in french: I think this game meant well but I hate non-puzzles with a passion. The story was very touching when the crazy german bad guy was off screen, it made me cry at the end and everything, but as far as videogames are concerned, Valiant Hearts is a total mess. Should've done without the non-puzzles, I love walking simulators like Gone Home, at least those don't pad out the game for 10 hours for trite gameplay.
Transistor: as a huge lover of Bastion, this was my disappointment of the year. I'm still wondering if I didn't really "get it". As expected the art and the soundtrack are fantastic, and I really liked the universe they built for the game, but the gameplay never clicked with me, I didn't ever find a way to translate all its complexity in something that felt interesting. I'll probably play it again in a few years and love it.
Wasteland 2: didn't get to play more than a few hours, which is nothing for this kind of game.
Killer is Dead: didn't play it, sort of interested tho. I get the impression it's the commercial Suda making this game, not the Killer7 Suda, but have to try and see.
The Last of Us: Left Behind: I liked it, but the whole thing felt a bit manipulative. The Last of Us was a done game for me in my head, I already love Ellie, I didn't really need Left Behind. Props to Naughty Dog for inclusiveness in TLOU in general tho.
Knock-Knock: played it for a bit before they patched it to be a bit more forgiving. I really should go back to it, I love the IPL guys.
Claire: haven't played it
South Park: I love Obsidian but I can't decide if I have what it takes to dive into a South Park game at this point in my life.
Bayonetta 2: I don't have a Wii U. I wish I had a Wii U
This War of Mine: looks super promising, but haven't gotten around buying it yet

many more that i'm forgetting!

1. Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze
2. Mario Kart 8
3. Super Smash Bro. 4
4. Bravely Default
5. Bayonetta

1. Rogue legacy; It just perfectly clicked with me while I thought I could not go back to pixelart games.
2. South Park: The Stick of Truth; The only game in this list that I actively tried to sell to my friends.
3. Dark Souls 2; Not Dark Souls, but still damn good.
4. Child of Light;
5. Might & Magic X: Legacy
6. Diablo 3: Reaper of Souls; D3 Vanilla was more interesting, but ROS is better.
7. Broken Age
8. Divinity: Original Sin
9. Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor
10. World of Warcraft: Warlords of Draenor

So P.T. is ineligible?

Finally that time of year again!

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1. Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc ; This game opened my eyes to the world of VN's. I fell in love with all of the characters and constantly wanted to find out where the story was going. This game isn't just one of the best games I played this year, but one of my favorite games ever.

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2. Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair ; Weird to have both this and the first game come out in the same year, but I'm glad they did. Dangan 2 builds on some things from the first game, but I found myself not liking it quite as much. I still love it enough to put it at number 2 however.

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3. Mario Kart 8 ; Mario Kart 8 is so close to being the perfect karting game. The graphics are beautiful and the gameplay is top notch. Certainly the best Mario Kart imo.

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4. Super Smash Bros. For WiiU ; Smash Bros. for Wii U is almost everything I wanted in a Smash game. My favorite characters got the balancing I wanted and I even found a few new mains.

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5. Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes; Ground Zeroes is a fantastic game. I bought it on launch for full price and I don't regret it. I cannot wait for Phantom Pain.

Great year, imo.

1. Dark Souls II ; I love Dark Souls. I don't really know what else to say.
2. Alien: Isolation ; Insane art direction. Unique gameplay. Great Alien fan service. I loved it.
3. P.T. ; That first big *wow next-gen* moment for me. Totally creative & I loved that it was a viral campaign for Silent Hills, too.
4. Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker ; Pure, beautiful joy.
5. Vib-Ribbon ; Been waiting to play this game for so long... & I love it so much. The music & aesthetics are perfect, imo.
6. The Last of Us: Left Behind ; Super heartfelt, I actually prefer this to The Last of Us campaign.
7. Destiny ; Most fun I've ever had playing a game online with friends.
8. Bayonetta 2 ; The rest of the game didn't quite live up to the prologue, but it was still amazing & I couldn't stop playing it.
9. Persona Q: Shadow of the Labyrinth ; I don't like it as much as a main Persona game, but it's still really fun & I love being in that universe with those characters.
10. Tomodachi Collection ; I love "chill-out" games like this, where you kind of just observe weirdness.

Honorable Mentions
• Super Time Force
• Hohokum
• Freedom Wars
• DRIVECLUB
• Mario Kart 8
• Super Smash Bros.
• Hyrule Warriors
• Short Peace: Ranko Tsukigime's Longest Day
• Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc (Haven't finished Goodbye Despair yet)
• LittleBigPlanet 3

Didn't play many games this year, especially the first half.

1. Alien Isolation ; It took me on a fucking journey. The sound design was fantastic, the visuals were perfect and exactly like the first movie, the gameplay was just as good as it should've been, the alien AI was smart mixed with a bit of randomness which made it even more fun and the atmosphere was top-notch and tense as fuck. At the end it felt like a true Alien movie, but instead of just watching it, I was trapped inside of it.

2. Dark Souls 2 ; It had a really slow start for me but I ended up loving it. Not as good as the first one or demon's but still a very good sequel.

3. The Evil Within ; I didn't expect this game to be scary in the same way P.T. was. I knew that it would focus on survival on a horror setting rather than scaryness, so it didn't bother me at all. The gameplay was as tight as you should expect from a Mikami title. Some of the boss fights were great and tense, the pacing was really good with some different types of chapters. I just wish the whole game would've been more like chapter 9 and 10 (especially the last one) because holy crap, C10 was what I really really wanted from this title and I got it. I recommend everyone to play on Nightmare difficulty 'cause holy shit, it's the game at its best.

4. Super Smash Bros Wii U ; I only played the demo of the 3DS version but didn't get it because of the controls, so I'm glad I waited for the Wii U version. It's a really great game, just as fun as you should expect from a smash game and the gameplay was a perfect mix between Melee and Brawl's. The 8 played mode is fucking crazy, the online works fairly well and some of the new characters are really fun to play. My only complaints are the stage selection and some of the "clone" characters.

5. Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance ; Fucking monsoon boss fight is the best. Fun and crazy game, but a little too short.

Honorable mentions:

x. P.T.
x. Mario Kart 8
x. Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes
x. Outlast: Whistleblower

JetBlackPanda said:

So P.T. is ineligible?

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It's up for discussion. If you want to vote for it, go ahead, and we'll decide on eligibility later.

1. Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze ; How do you improve upon the best 2D platformer ever made? By bringing in David Wise to do the soundtrack, that's how!
2. Rusty's Real Deal Baseball ; This baseball-themed minigame collection features some of the most fun and creative minigames ever, with outstanding use of 3D and gyroscopic motion controls bringing them to life. At first I was skeptical about the "haggle in game to lower the real life price" model, but it was happy to learn that it was implemented as part of the game's narrative and getting the best prices was trivial.
3. A Story About My Uncle ; A 3D platformer with high speed parkour action involving grapple beams and rocket boots. What else even needs to be said?
4. 3D OutRun ; This Japanese exclusive totally changed my outlook on the original OutRun. With stereoscopic 3D visuals, an updated 60 fps framerate, new music tracks and a series of unlockable vehicles with more forgiving controls, I was hooked on this for weeks.
5. Shovel Knight ; This was an outstanding modern take on retro gaming, which got almost everything right.
6. Rabi Laby 3 ; The amazing Rabi Laby series comes to a sad end (apparently) with the 3rd installment. It's more of the same to be sure, but that's not a bad thing when the core mechanics make for such deep and well-crafted puzzle solving.
7. Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker ; WOW is this game beautiful! I must admit I'm a little let down by the low challenge (for most of the game), but it sure is a great game if you just want to relax, unwind and stare at some pretty graphics.
8. Yoshi's New Island ; After playing this, I was shocked at the poor reception it received. Despite the game's opening song sounding like a really long series of farts, it plays even better than the original YI (thanks to the gyro-controlled egg aiming), and features some creative platforming setpieces which make it a worthy addition to the series.
9. The Legend of Dark Witch ; An excellent Mega Man meets Touhou meets Gradius style game, with TONS of postgame content. A steal at only 4 dollars.
10. Kirby: Triple Deluxe ; I was a bit letdown by the complete lack of difficulty involved in getting 100% completion, but this still pushed most of the right buttons for me as a Kirby fan.
x. Yumi's Odd Odyssey ; The Japanese version was my runner up for GotY last year. I bought the US version to support the series, but I don't feel it would be fair to vote for it a second time.

Dishonorable mention for Azure Striker Gunvolt. This was one of my most anticipated games of the year, but any positive aspects that the game might have had went immediately out the window due to it running at only 30 fps. WTF was Inti Creates thinking? Mega Man style gameplay at 30 fps DOES NOT WORK.

1. Dark Souls 2
2. Towerfall: Ascension
3. Infamous: SS
4. South Park Stick of Truth
5. Outlast
6. MGSV: GZ
7. Watch_Dogs
8. DriveClub

1. Bayonetta 2 ; Perfect sequel.

2. Dark Souls II ; Better than DS in some ways worse in others. Gameplay is still miles a head of it's competitors.

3. Infamous: Second Son ; First 8th gen game to really wow me.

4. Dragon Age: Inquisition ; A return to form for Bioware, the patches made a huge difference.

5. Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor ; Suprise of the year.

6. The Evil Within ; Great survival horror game, shame about the performance.

7. Terra Battle ; Like a mini game from an old Final Fantasy. Generous system for a F2P game.

8. MGS Ground Zeroes ; A paid demo that left me feeling a little ripped off but hugely excited for MGS 5

9. Destiny ; Amazing when you are shooting things, crap everywhere else.

10. Atelier Escha & Logy ; Good addition to the series.


Honorable Mentions
x. Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft ; Simple but fun.

1. Valkyria Chronicles ; I already liked the dreaded second game entry and thus enjoyed the nice pc port of the first one even more. One of the few games I played in a rush and even got 100% cheevos. Fantastic game.

2. Banner Saga ; Very interesting game, super nice style, story and world. Albeit a bit short and one easy "exploit" that bothered me.

3. Freedom Wars ; Very fun, kept me playing a lot longer than Monster Hunter.

4. Banished ;

5. Endless Legend ; Good game, although I still prefer CIV V more than everything else.

1. Bayonetta 2; Platinum did it again. Perfect action experience by any means. Graphics, controls and -especially- enemy designs. One of those rare games I didn't want it to finish.
2. Mario Kart 8; First ever HD Mario Kart and again last game has topped the franchise. Anti-gravity is an amazing addition and Koopa bros are what I have wanted since first game. Upcoming DLC will make the game even better.
3. Super Smash Bros Wii U; There is only one direction Smash Bros series can go: upwards. Again, just like Nintendo's two other Wii U games this year, game has no single flaw. Perfect mechanics and balance and craploads of stuff to do.
4. Soul Sacrifice Delta; The first game was amazing, this pseudo-sequel is even better. Battle system is one of the best in the genre and overall design fantastic. Still playing the game, still amazed by it. And dat soundtrack.
5. Sunset Overdrive; Insomniac delivers again. Colors, crazy guns, lunatic world and endless fun. What more can I ask.
6. Infamous Second Son; Just like Insomniac, Sucker Punch also one of this year's deliverers. Much better than other two prequels and Seattle is amazing. city really felt alive.
7. DanganRonpa THH; One of the best VN/Adventures I have ever played. Shouldn't say more, everything I can say is full of spoilers.
8. Donkey Kong Country Tropical Freeze; After playing Retro's DK games every 2D platformer feels meaningless. Even New Mario games.
9. Freedom Wars; MH style with awesome guns. Setting and story much more interesting than every other game released in 2014.
10. Dark Souls 2; Ok, maybe I'm unable to finish the game because of my poor skills but that doesn't mean game was groundbreaking. Dark Souls 2 proudly deserves last spot on my list even though it whopped my ass several thousand times.

Runner ups:
xx. Toukiden Age of Demons; What happens if master of hack and slash guys Omega Force creates a MH clone? Something better than MH of course. The game can be bought only for amazing soundtrack and oni designs.
xx. South Park Stick of Truth; Much funnier than Parker and Stone have put out in 4-5 years.

1. Far Cry 4 ; While it didn't mix up the formula of my 2012 GOTY Far Cry 3, the wealth of content, cooperative play, incredible visuals, and incredibly varied gameplay make this my personal GOTY.

2. Wolfenstein: New Order ; One of the biggest surprises of 2014. A classic first person shooter with great gameplay choices, and a story/cutscene direction that is better than it has any right to be. The best FPS campaign I've played in years. Has everything I would want from the genre.

3. Sunset Overdrive ; After the mistep I'd rather not talk about, Insomniac is back with one of their best games yet. Openworld-superpower-parkour-crazy-openworld games have somewhat become their own genre, and Sunset is possibly the best of the batch. Great humor, impressive visuals, and just all around FUN gameplay thanks to Insomniac's nack for great weapons and enemy design.

4. Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor ; The biggest surprise of 2014. I can gladly add this game to the very short list of phenomenal licensed games. While it's a game that draws very obvious influence from other popular series, it does everything it does very well, and the Nemesis System is a truly unique idea.

This *Reserved* games seems really popular. Better give it a look to see what the fuss is about.

Gonna keep working on this, placeholder. List is gonna be Nintendo-Heavy since I only own a Wii U and PC right now.

1. Donkey Kong Country Tropical Freeze ; The best 2D platformer since Super mario world. It does everything it does so well.
2. Smash Bros for Wii U ; Better balance and overall design than Brawl, tons of modes, huge soundtrack, tons of control options. Still probably won't replace Melee because of the sticky landings unfortunately, but time will tell.
3. Threes; Game design elegance. Minutes to learn, a lifetime to master. Only one song, but it's a doozy, made me listen to all of Big Giant Circle's catalog, as should everyone cause it's fantastic stuff!
4. Kentucky Route Zero Act 3; This was the highlight episode so far in a series with the best writing of any game I've ever played. A specific moment was the most memorable single moment I've had playing a game this year, people who have played it will know what I'm talking about.
5. Towerfall Ascension ; Outside of Smash, my most played multiplayer game this year. Everyone should check out Matt Thorson's freeware stuff.
6. Mario Kart 8 ; Finally nerfed the blue shell and added better item balance in general, plus it's gorgeous.
7. Shovel Knight ; Dat Soundtrack! Dem rainbow statues!
8. Tri: Of Friendship And Madness; More people need to play this game! It's a first person puzzler with completely unique mechanics. If you like Antichamber or Portal then try it. Least favorite aspect was the story/narrator, but they're not offensively bad.
9. Full Bore ; Did you like Fez? Then you should check out this game, it's more focused on the gameplay than Fez, but with less meta-game. The soundtrack is a really great bluesy-rock guitar thing.
10. Super Time Force Ultra; "Single player co-op" is the best description of this game I've seen. Coordinating with your past and future selves to get all the glorbs/watchers is where the "real" game is.

Honorable Mentions
x.11. Lovely Planet; Tight.
x. The Fall; This is how you do feminist themes in games.
x. 12. Endless Legend; Beautiful art design, unique factions.
x. 13. Road Not Taken; Really cool mechanics.
x. 14. Fract OSC; Great music and world
x. 15. Luftrausers
x. 16. Nidhogg



Nuclear Throne was my most played game BY FAR this year and I think it's better to get in on it while it's in early access since the game changes every week like clockwork, but I guess I have to wait to put it on next year's list.

I still need to play Bayonetta, and I'm part way through Captain Toad. Captain Toad will probably bump something off.

1. Middle Earth: Shadows of Mordor
2. Wolfenstein: TNO
3. Sunset Overdrive
4. NBA Live 15
5. Forza Horizon 2
6. Destiny
7. Advanced Warfare (single-player)
8. Madden 15

1. Dragon Age Inquisition ; The clear front runner for me. Amazing graphics, writing, soundtrack, and gameplay. The only thing that slightly holds it back issome glitches but the best game I played in 2014.

2. Destiny ; I finally burned out on the grind of this game, but the actual ganeplay itself is fantastic. I soent so much time with friends playing Strikes and Raid.

3. Wolfenstein The New Order ; Pure FPS bliss, and a shockingly well told emotional story.

4. Middle Earth Shadow of Mordor ; The Nemesis mechanic is as amazing as it sounds. Great combat and story as well.

5. Watch Dogs ; Awesome open world and great mechanics. Needed better characters and story.

6. Diablo Ultimate Evil Edition ; Amazing co op RPG experience and the Reaper of Souls expansion added a ton.

7. Infamous Second Son ; Amazing graphics and fun gameplay. Just wish it was longer and had a more living city

8. COD Advanced Warfare ; One of best campaigns in the franchise and Spacey does amazing.

9. Alien Isolation ; An amazing game for fans of the franchise, captures the mood perfectly. Truly scary as well.

10. The Evil Within ; Old school horror with a fresh coat of paint. Awesome enemy designs.

Honorable mentions ; Master Chief Collection, AC Unity, Far Cry 4. All games that I haven't had near enough time to judge yet.

Karish said:

1. Middle Earth: Shadows of Mordor
2. Wolfenstein: TNO
3. Sunset Overdrive
4. NBA Live 15
5. Forza Horizon 2
6. Destiny
7. Advanced Warfare (single-player)
8. Madden 15

Click to expand...

Should I give a try to Live 15?

1. Grand Theft Auto V ; I waited eighteen months for this and I think it was worth it. To me, one of the drawbacks of a title like this is also one of the reasons why it's so much fun. It's that it commands a lot of your attention and is filled with a ton of things to do. For me, GTA is becoming a once in a generation kind of experience since that's about the one time I'll want to experience it. But when I do, it's worth the time investment. I didn't really like the fourth entry so this turning out to be my favourite since Vice City was a pleasant surprise. I prefer my third person games and it's how I played this, but even then, I was very impressed by the first person viewpoint implemented. The only thing that comes to mind now is to see something like that in VR. It would be quite incredible.

2. Driveclub ; Weather, fantastic visuals, plenty of courses, and fun gameplay make this one of a very select few racers I've enjoyed in single player. This title has had a lot of controversy surrounding it, but it's developed into something I really enjoy. It's very much something I can comfortably put on here and there when I have a little bit of time and have a race.

3. Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor ; This one is a bit of a surprise. I had no intention on playing it, and decided to pick it up randomly, for reasons I can't even remember now. I'm not a huge fan of open world games. I prefer my linear stuff. But the combat in this game is very satisfying. It's Batman in Middle-earth, but it works extremely well, especially once you have the higher level abilities unlocked and are able to string killing blows more frequently. Add that to the fact that the game isn't unnecessarily long, and it was simply a very enjoyable experience.

4. Infamous: Second Son ; This was the first game on current gen consoles that really impressed me. I didn't even bother completing the first Infamous, and I skipped the second, but Second Son kept my attention. It's lacking in variety to an extent, but the powers are fantastic to use, and the game is a lot of fun. It's not frustrating or too difficult to get through so it's a comfortable game to play. Superhero games are a very mixed bag because you often end up with something mediocre or something that isn't fun to play. Second Son manages to avoid that, and it genuinely feels like Sucker Punch is a step or so away from creating something really special. Oh, and the game is gorgeous.

5. Super Smash Bros. for Wii U ; I've only had this for a few days, but my first experience with it is memorable enough that it gets this spot. I won't forget that day. My first Smash since Gamecube, and whilst I'd never play this alone because I'd get bored very quickly, I think it's a lot of fun with a group of people. It's a great local multiplayer game, and I'm always happy to have more of those. Overwhelming at first, but eventually you get used to the craziness. I also love the fact that there is a huge roster and a lot of stages. Pretty perfect for a casual player like me since I'm impressed by silly things like that.

That's my list and I don't think it'll change. I have Assassin's Creed: Unity and Dragon Age: Inquisition waiting for me, but I'll probably only get to one of them anytime soon. If I like it enough, I'll probably edit this list and include it where I feel it fits. Nothing as magnificent as The Last of Us this year, but then I could say that for most years really. Overall, not too bad.

Will an ordered list be counted okay if I use that instead of manual numbers?

Surprised to find I've mostly been playing games from last year. GOTY list for this year can pretty much include every game I've played this year. :/


1. Persona Q: Shadow of the Labyrinth ; Throw some social links on it and it would be the perfect Persona game. Great dungeons, tons of character interaction. Enjoyable music and a pleasing aesthetic.
2. Fantasy Life ; Charming little game with so much to do. I played this for about 80 hours and there is still so much I want to do, not to mention the horrifying urge to start from scratch with a character of the opposite sex. Didn't get a chance to enjoy the multiplayer, but the single player is just fine with me.
3. Super Smash Bros. for Wii U ; They did it. Online works great, 8 player Smash is great. For Glory mode is the best thing ever. Zelda might be low-tier, but she is usable for my purposes again. Really pleased with this entry.
4. Bayonetta 2 ; Didn't think this would end up so high on the list, but I guess I forget how shit my list is this year. Not because this is a bad game, but it is not the kind of game I usually play. All the same, this game polishes the original in just about every way imaginable. It didn't challenge me as much, but it was much more fun to play thanks to the significant trimming of instant-lose QTEs. Unlike the first game, I actually do want to replay this and get better at it. Haven't got to mess around in multiplayer, but it looks great, plays smoothly, and has some bad ass fucking boss fights.
5. Tales of Hearts R ; This is a very pleasing throwback to the Tales games that were releasing when I first jumped in. World map, wonder chef, character relationships that actually seem to have a mechanical point. Probably some other stuff. I had a very nostalgic and enjoyable time playing this entry.
6. Mario Kart 8 ; Have never been a big fan of Mario Kart, but I have no complaints with this game. Online works great and it has been good fun with all of my friends. Excellent value on the DLC as well.
7. Tales of Xillia 2 ; A very mixed bag. The content reuse from the first game is almost criminal and really impacted enjoyment. Mix in additional content reuse in this game alone, in making you traverse just about every area twice and just ugh! But, on the plus side, some of the best combat in the series and a sci-fi story that was actually pretty fun. Reusing most of the cast from the first game allowed the opportunity for some decent character development instead of introduction.
8. Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc ; Very engrossing while it lasted, but supremely disappointing when it was over. If I believed life was all about the journey and not the destination, then I would love this game. Alas, I'm not a hippy, but it still deserves points for the ride.
9. Bravely Default ; Another mixed bag. This game probably has the worst cast of characters and possibly the worst narrative of any game I've ever played. I cannot remember another time I have become visibly upset at how bad dialogue was or had to turn a game off because I couldn't stand another word of its stupidity. But, on the other hand... that gameplay. Those endgame boss combo fights. So good. Really made you reach into the job system and get creative (or let people on the internet do it for you). Really satisfying true ending as well, imo. Square, if nothing else, does a decent job at taking advantage of unique aspects of Nintendo hardware and Square managed to do that with the true ending. Definitely deserves a nod for that.


Old game of the year:
The Wonderful 101 - If this game came out this year, it would definitely be my number one pick. I played it this year and it was absolutely brilliant. Controls took a bit to click, but everything else was consistently entertaining and it has one of my favorite endings to any game I've played.

Just nine for now. Maybe I can get around to Bayonetta 2 before the end of the year.
edit 2: forgot resogun was 2013

Cheesemeister said:

It's up for discussion. If you want to vote for it, go ahead, and we'll decide on eligibility later.

Click to expand...

I feel like it's more than just a demo due to being unique, stand alone content, with a start and finish vs. just a slice of the full game. I'd probably vote for it.

I might vote this year once I catch up a bit with some of the PC games I've missed out on. I was stuck with just PS4 most of the year so my current nominees are pretty limited.

Leondexter said:

1. Dark Souls II; It's not as good as Dark Souls, but it was still the best game of the year. I think I may have got as much pleasure out of pointing out its flaws as playing it, though. Didn't we all? We're such a tough audience.

Click to expand...

I really hate us sometimes.

shampoowarrior said:

Will an ordered list be counted okay if I use that instead of manual numbers?

Surprised to find I've mostly been playing games from last year. GOTY list for this year can pretty much include every game I've played this year. :/

Bravely Default ; Another mixed bag. This game probably has the worst cast of characters and possibly the worst narrative of any game I've ever played. I cannot remember another time I have become visibly upset at how bad dialogue was or had to turn a game off because I couldn't stand another word of its stupidity. But, on the other hand... that gameplay. Those endgame boss combo fights. So good. Really made you reach into the job system and get creative (or let people on the internet do it for you). Really satisfying true ending as well, imo. Square, if nothing else, does a decent job at taking advantage of unique aspects of Nintendo hardware and Square managed to do that with the true ending. Definitely deserves a nod for that.


Just nine for now. Maybe I can get around to Bayonetta 2 before the end of the year.

Click to expand...

This is basically one of the main reasons I dropped this earlier this year. Game is so damn childish to me, and I simply couldn't endure that bullshit to get to what is somewhat good about it. This is an old title though, so I don't think it's counted, is it?

Edit:

Ah, it only came out in NA this year. I forget, sometimes, that Europe isn't the world.

edited list 12/31:

1. Super Smash Bros for Wii U ;
2. Bayonetta 2 ;
3. Might & Magic X Legacy;
4. Mario Kart 8;
5. Titanfall;
6. Grand Theft Auto 5;
7. Drivecult;
8. Diablo 3: Reaper of Souls;
9. Wasteland 2;
10. Forza Horizon 2;



There are games that I haven't played through that I am sure would be on here, but it is how it is. Should prolly hold a spot for GGXRD cause I am sure I would put it in there.

1. Marvel Heroes 2015 ; This is my most-played game of the year. At first glance, it's a Diablo clone with Marvel flavor, but it does a lot to set itself apart--including raid content, monthly/weekly events, and unique gameplay styles for heroes (like Rogue, who can actually customize most of her skillset by stealing powers). Being an MMO, the game is constantly in development, so there's always something fresh to experience every month.

2. Super Smash Bros. for Wii U ; Another solid entry into Smash, and IMO, much better than Brawl. Online can still be problematic from time to time, especially with randoms, but local play is as good as ever. They now allow up to 8 players in local, and it is an awesome addition, in spite of how chaotic it gets.

3. Mario Kart 8 ; Mario Kart 8 is yet another Mario Kart game, but the formula works, the online play is great, the graphics are gorgeous, and it has struck a really good balance with items.

4. Valkyria Chronicles ; Having played this for the first time this year, the PC port is all I could hope for. When it comes to gameplay, I like XCOM's style a bit more, but for everything else, I have to give it to Valkyria Chronicles.

5. XCOM: Enemy Unknown ; I really like the gameplay and the mechanics in this game. You can kind of customize your units, and there's some freedom in how your prepare your base, in what upgrades to get, and even in how some missions unfold. It's a really engaging and addictive experience.

6. Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft ; I stopped playing this game because getting cards to compete with can be frustrating and time-consuming, but I can't deny that the core gameplay is really fun.

7. Pushmo World ; This is a really neat puzzle game. The presentation is a bit on the simple side, and the soundtrack seems really limited, but it's all about the puzzle-solving, and in that it succeeds. Though it's simple to control, the puzzles can definitely stump you.

8. Never Alone ; Never Alone tells a very interesting tale about a girl and a fox (or at least I think it's a fox). The graphical style isn't particularly unique, but I really like the designs for the characters, creatures and spirits.

shampoowarrior said:

Tales of Hearts R ; This is a very pleasing throwback to the Tales games that were releasing when I first jumped in. World map, wonder chef, character relationships that actually seem to have a mechanical point. Probably some other stuff. I had a very nostalgic and enjoyable time playing this entry.

Click to expand...

What do you mean? What mechanics does it have for character relationships? I haven't played it but the last Tales I felt did this well (er, the only I guess) was Symphonia with how approval affected your ending/certain scenes.

1. Bayonetta 2 ; The sequel we never thought would happen; and it ticked all the boxes I wanted, providing more and more ridiculous scenarios, an incredible new set of foes and some of the best easter eggs ever. Somehow, they also found time to make it all the more fluid and satisfying to play than its predecessor &#8211; which was no short order to begin with. One fight in particular was the highlight of my gaming year by far, and if you've played the game I'm sure you know EXACTLY what I mean. Hats off to Platinum - and thanks, Nintendo, for making it happen.
2. Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze ; The new best platform game of all time, as long you like 'em tough. David Wise proves that he still has it in droves with a memorable and catchy soundtrack varying from the unbridled joy of Windmill Hills to the imposing beats of the Snowmads' theme &#8211; my two personal favourites. Retro masters the level design they picked up in Returns and packs the entire thing so full of atmosphere, variety and excitement that even when it may at first seem too much for you, you always feel a need to persevere and push through - just to see what's next. Phenomenal.
3. Super Smash Bros. For Wii U ; They fixed up almost every problem I had with Brawl and then added some of my most-wanted characters. Graphically and artistically astounding, and the animations are filled with personality through and through. Most enjoyable online I've played in quite a while, too &#8211; and after Brawl, you don't know how happy I am to say that.
4. Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor ; The Nemesis system is a game-changer &#8211; make no mistake, this will be copied to high hell until we're sick of it. I keep finding myself diving back in for a little bit more, and then realising I have 5 or 6 things I want to do at any given time. Great presentation and a fantastic core mechanic make this one a winner in my eyes.
5. Mario Kart 8 ; Never been much of an MK fan but this was just gorgeous and played like a dream. The online was another great one, as well. Loved playing with GAF OT.
6. Shovel Knight ; Both nostalgic and refreshing at the same time, and so so charming.
7. South Park: The Stick of Truth ; Fun and easy enough to be relaxing and entertaining without the slightest bit of frustration. The whole game was a great little trip into the tv show, and at the end of the day that's exactly what such tie-ins need to be.
8. Child of Light ; Like a playable fairytale. UbiArt continues to amaze, especially on the Vita's OLED.
9. Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare ; THEY DID IT. The new movement options and engine overhaul make this the best Call of Duty in ages &#8211; even though it's tough to convince people that you're not lying after Ghosts last year.
10. Pokemon Omega Ruby/Alpha Sapphire ; A remake of the first Pokemon games I was really old enough to get into fully (although I played Blue and Silver when they came out). A heavy nostalgia vote, but the remake is so well done, especially to someone who skipped X/Y, that I couldn't help but get a little misty-eyed when I stepped out of the truck.

Honorable Mentions
x. Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes ; My favourite demo ever, even though I paid £20 for it. Can't wait for TPP.
x. Super Smash Bros. For Nintendo 3DS ; It would feel wrong having two Smash games in there, but I can see I'm going to absolutely bleed time into this thing any time I travel. It's just an amazing little package, and a perfect companion to its' big brother. So glad it happened &#8211; and I didn't even know how much I wanted it until I held it in my hands.




Kind of a great year for Nintendo; although it may well have just been a rough year for everyone else.

Ah... The sign that Christmas is nearing: the anual GOTY thread on GAF. hehehe I have a shortlist of 26 games to nip through and shorten and then write something about the "winners". It was a great year for me in terms of gaming software. Still haven't bought new hardware. Two years in a roll.

1. Dragon Age: Inquisition ; So much to do, enjoyable RPG elements, solid writing, superb visuals. I put around 90 hours into it and loved every minute.
2. Rogue Legacy ; Borderline genius rogue-lite platformer. Addictive and rewarding.
3. Danganronpa: Trippy Happy Havoc ; I'm a secret sucker for visual novels and I love me some escape game stuff. Danganronpa caught me a bit by surprise with how thought-through and engaging it was.
4. Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII ; What can I say, I'm a Final Fantasy guy. I actually thought, XIII was okay and I liked XIII-2 a lot. Lightning Returns has good combat, cheesy but acceptable writing, good soundtrack. Had a fun time with it.
5. Transistor ; I'm still listening to the soundtrack quite often. Great game.
6. The Evil Within ; Maybe it wasn't the big comeback-to-horror for Mikami that I hoped it would be, but I liked it! Immersive atmosphere and solid gameplay sealed the deal for me.
7. Child of Light ; Loved it. Excellent visuals, very easy but enjoyable gameplay, nice soundtrack.
8. Lords of the Fallen ; Propably my biggest surprise this year. Bugs and performance aside, the combat was great, the art design appealing. A fine game. I'm happy for the developer that it turned out to be profitable.
9. Outlast ; Great scares and atmosphere. Played it with a friend. We had a great time.
10. The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth ; My go to game for that spare ten minutes. Will be for a long time.

1) Dragon Age: Inquisition ; This is definitely a return to form for Bioware. The system is good and the world they've designed is much better than the previous game. There is a ton of content here too.

2) Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft ; I can't honestly count the hours that I've put into Hearthstone. It's a great card game. I like the system a lot but I am a bit luke-warm on the newest expansion so far.

3) The Last of Us: Remastered ; A great game made even better. I still enjoyed going down the road again.

4) Dark Souls 2 ; I am a pretty big Dark/Demon Souls fan and I liked it, just not as much as Demon Souls. I am looking forward to a new-gen Souls game for sure.

5) Transistor ; A great indie. The world sucked you in. The soundtrack was amazing too. I can't remember a game where I actually wanted to read all of the text and info on the characters. A great example of a game where it created the world and let your imagination go.

6) Bayonetta 2 ; A great game too. This beats out Bayonetta for sure. And I still love the style this game has. It's great that Nintendo released it. It's a shame that it didn't get a wider release on all consoles though because I think many are missing out.

7) Far Cry 4 ; A great open world game. FC4 is another game that keeps you playing until you realize that it's 2:00 a.m. and you're still in the middle of the jungle in Kyrat.

8) Infamous: Second Son ; I liked both the game and the expansion a lot. The world was a little lifeless but I loved the photo mode and kept playing it for hours. One of the few games I beat twice this year.

9) Super Smash Bros. for Wii U ; It's a great party game. Tons of characters and tons of fun too.

10) Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor ; This was great fun but let's be honest, they could have changed the system a bit from Batman, couldn't they?

Message me if there's anything wrong with the formatting or ballots and whatnot

10. Persona Q: Shadow of the Labyrinth ; I'll leave this as number 10 because I absolutely refuse to let something like a Persona spinoff encroach further on my beloved Etrian Odyssey by ranking it high. See, I'm like a dad that still wants to see his deadbeat son make it in life. Son, I don't want to see you end up real successful but at least successful enough that you have a roof on your head.

The Boost system is actually cool. Lemme explain. Hit someone with their weaknesses, HP and MP costs are down to 0 the next turn. If you get hit while in a boosted state, you lose the gains and costs come back and they're high to begin with. Mostly everyone has pitiful mana reserves so that's where sub personas come in. They're like the back up supplies except you tap into their supplies first so they're not really your back up tank but I digress because it's not like it really matters, get what I'm saying? So yeah they're your backup and they got their own set of HP and MP and they heal every battle. I kid you not. If you aren't dumb and have a smidgen of luck, you won't even need to tap into your main HP and MP. You can beat your enemies for free basically. You know what this means? You should be leaving the labyrinths when you run out of item space, not because you're in danger of wiping out. That's cool and not cool at the same time.

9. Titanfall ; I didn't even get to play this for a whole day. Where am I at, 20 hours game time? Game just died to me because I had no one to play with. Sucks, of course, being the only person in my area with an Xbox One. Who knows what my friends are even playing.

You play on foot and when enough time passes, wizardry happens and you call upon your Titan. With the lore passed down to you by the forefathers of ages past, you fuse with said Titan and you're now an avatar of great destruction but it actually doesn't last that long because we all know the biggest things in the world has that tiny defect that makes them all fall apart faster than you can say "Titanfall"

8. Professor Layton vs. Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney ; We got one good text-adventure game this year. Thank heaven for this joint. I'm guilty of buying Layton games but never actually playing them so having actually finished this Layton-lite game is a miracle. Layton-lite because the puzzles are easy.

There was this twist in the middle of the game and I was like "yo, for real? No way" then stuff happened and I was like "alright, bro"

Capcom needs to stop hating because I need more Ace Attorney games with Maya in them.

7. Bravely Default ; Isn't this that game where, in people's minds, the second half of the game invalidates the first half of the game just because they didn't like it? Oh yeah, it's this game. I loved this game because it was easy to break and it's got all these cool features like turning off encounters that pretty much should be a staple in JRPGs. I like JRPGs but almost all of them are so bloated with unnecessary baggage like 13127803% encounter rates. It's even got a fast forward battle option. How sick is that?

Agnes gets all the hate but she's voiced by the lovely Erin Fitzergald and she does incredible work.

I forget all the broken tactics but something about Time World and jumping or something? So nice.

6. Theatrhythm Final Fantasy: Curtain Call ; Rhythm game. You tap stuff. This is the part where I write cheesy stuff like this game is a reminder of the good 'ol days when Final Fantasy used to be good and that the music is the perfect vehicle to remind us of those days or something like that.

Burned out on this super fast. No one's actually insane enough to marathon a rhythm game, eh? Oh right, me.

5. Mario Kart 8 ; I can't find that long post I wrote about this. Dudes claimed I was mad salty claiming that being 1st in the previous race is the best weapon you have in the next race. It's true though. Perfectly true.

4. Sunset Overdrive ; Switched to playing as the chick right away. The only exposure I've had to this game's main dude are the promotional ads and trailers. And I'm good for it. The main chick, she's spunky. She's got chops. And she has the right amount of passion. Gee, I just described her like she was in an erotic video. My bad, boo. You're great and the game you're in is great.

3. Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze ; Oh yeah, this is another one of those games where the level design is totally unfair and that you need to memorize where obstacles are because the game doesn't telegraph them for you. That's a load, by the way. This game is totally tough but totally fair. Nothing in this here game will blindside anyone. It's all on you.

David Wise the Wise though. This guy.

So this game is the best 2d platformer ever made. Good going, Retro. You're right there with my number one. In my head, and I totally see it like this is there's a party with a bunch of devs and I like to see devs as a single entity. So anyway, there's a bunch of people there and here's Retro acting all cool and some just gonna try and mellow Retro out and they're like "why are you acting so cool when you got no right to be" and Retro be like "I'm straight, homie. I did Tropical Freeze" and that's it, game over for those guys who confronted Retro.

2. Atelier Escha & Logy: Alchemists of the Dusk Sky ; Absolutely awful game after your first run because you're locked out of story progression until the days pass. You're given a main missions with oodles of tiny optional quests and you have 90 days to finish each main one. Even on the first playthrough, there's lots of time to finish all those quests. On your second run, you're OP. You'll be finishing these same missions even faster than before. Oh yeah you can play as the girl or guy but story-wise with a few changes in character perspective, the story at its core doesn't change. The story, what is the story? I forget but it doesn't really matter.

The settings? It's pretty dark. Not like "wow this is evil" dark but dark as in dark dark. They aren't that memorable as a result. Oh man I don't remember anywhere. Yikes.

Music's good. The opening plays real loud though and I don't like loud it is. Trippy though with the kaleidoscope flower patterns and the music is in sync. Makes me feel like I'm taking crazy pills. And it has weird close ups of Escha like devs stop doing that to Escha, you freaks. She's pure.

The crowning achievement this game has, apart from Escha and how adorable she is, it fixed Ayesha's garbage tier alchemy system. Fixed how, I couldn't tell ya. All I know is that I enjoyed it much more this round so hats off to Gust.

And speaking of hats, here's Escha and her cute hat. You can't retain information better than someone saying the same thing over and over.

Click to expand...

1. Bayonetta 2 ; I'm not touching this one. This game is perfect. This is the game to end all games. If I were a game dev, I would scrap whatever project I've greenlit and make an imitation out of this. Because heck, even a fake copy of Bayonetta 2 with 0.01% of the quality is better than anything that will ever come out.

So this right here is the greatest character action game of all time. Best action and platformer games of all time in the same year. Unbelievable.

And that's all Queen Bayo wrote.

Honorable mentions go here.

x. Pokemon Alpha Sapphire ; The best gen gets a remake. After the slight X/Y misstep, GF would needed to have tried excruciatingly hard to mess this up. They didn't mess up though.

x. Tales of Symphonia Chronicles ; DotNW is one of my favorite Tales and I didn't get to replay it. Oh well. For all the 30 vs 60 FPS I've seen for this game and from me included, I forgot all about it because I didn't even notice it. I think my eyes are broken now.

x. Tales of Xillia 2 ; Genocide is not okay, people.

x. Halo: The Master Chief Collection ; This game worked for me. I only did ever play campaign so.

x. Atelier Rorona Plus: The Alchemist of Arland ; remake of that game that originally brought me to my knees and wept to the Lord why I didn't get started on this series sooner

and here's a pic of all the retail games I bought this year
just gonna link it though since it's kinda ginormous: here
doesn't include the digital games but man I've spent some mad cash this year too.