EWB Game of the Year 2014

[Plubby]

Hi all,

The end of another year approaches and it is time for us to reflect upon gaming's highs and lows. It's time to vote for the 2014 Game of the Year! Rules are as follows:

1: We are nominating a maximum of ten entries per member. The title in position 1 receives 10 points, less 1 point for each game down until 1 point for position 10. You may vote for fewer than 10 games. You may not distribute your points for positions not filled among games you did vote for. Lukie, I am talking to you, voting for Don't Starve 10 times.

2: I am using the following point weighting system: The total number of points received by a title, multiplied by the average number of points per occasion it was voted for. Ties will be broken by number of 1st place votes first and by total nominations second. I feel this system is best suited to making fine gradations of close vote-getters. Happy to discuss this in private message if required.

Quick example:

Title A receives two first place votes and a seventh place vote. It receives 192 points under my system (24 total points multiplied by an average points per nomination of 8)

3: All games released since the creation of the last voting thread (2 December 2013) are eligible. I'll be using the first release date listed in Wikipedia for this purpose. Expansion packs/DLC should be considered as a standalone title (Brave New World for example should be considered on its own merits) and will make a game eligible if it changes the core game that was released. Happy to discuss this via PM too if you think it needs to be changed.

4: Animated discussion and debate in this thread is allowed and encouraged. Please try and keep any debate in at the least a seperate paragaph to your list so I can notice them, and if you're the type who likes to explain their choices, by all means do so - but try and use some formatting wherever you can so I can again distinguish choices much more easily.

5: Nominations will close in a couple of weeks, likely on the 19th of December depending on my schedule. Votes may be edited up until that date, no need to post to let me know. I'll not be recording votes until then so feel free to edit away until I announce close of nominations.

Other than that, go nuts!

[Benji]

How are we doing episodic content like Telltale's games? For example, Wolf Among Us and Walking Dead Season 2 started last year, but had content released this year.

[Bobfoc]

I'd love to vote on this, but there are still several eligible games I'd like to play, but won't get the chance to until after this year is over. It's always the same for me. I'm probably only just ready to put down my favourite games from 2011, let alone 2014.

[Plubby]

I haven't played either title, but if it's episodic in the same way that the Half Life 2 episodes are, then I'd consider them seperate games.

[Benji]

Also, are remakes and/or remasters counted? I assume remasters would be and remakes wouldn't?

[King Ellis]

Eh, we don't want GTA5 to win for it's remaster and have Sousa call us all dumb again.

And I think I might have actually played enough new releases this year to actually form a top 10 for once. Stone the crows. Though, one or two of those might be a bit iffy since something like Volgarr the Viking is new to the One in 2014 but first released in 2013 for PC so...*shrugs*

[Robsturgh]

How are we doing episodic content like Telltale's games? For example, Wolf Among Us and Walking Dead Season 2 started last year, but had content released this year.

Most sites seem to do it from whenever the finale was released, seems to make sense.

[Benji]

1. The Wolf Among Us (10 Pts)

2. Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII (9 Pts)

3. Pokémon ORAS (8 Pts)

4. Walking Dead: Season 2 (7 Pts)

5. Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel (6 Pts)

6. Football Manager 2015 (5 Pts)

7. DA: Inquisition (4 Pts)

8. Assassin's Creed: Rogue (3 Pts)

9. Watch_Dogs (2 Pts)

10. Civ: Beyond Earth (1 Pts)

My list is literally just games released this year that I've played and weren't just plain ports. 10, that's it. I can't remember a weaker year in recent gaming history. Four of these games are essentially either remasters (Pokémon) or re-skins of previous games (FM, AC:R and Civ), and two of the games on there - despite their quality - are a pair of the buggiest games I've ever played (Dragon Age and Watch_Dogs), so low is the bar for video games this year. Even if I had money for a PS4/XBO/WiiU, I'm not sure there'd be much of a change in the list.

Lightning Returns being so high will surprise some, but following an initial bout of hating it, I grew to really like the game, and once I found out that the clock doesn't really affect as much as it seemed, it became significantly more fun. Wolf Among Us getting number one spot was a no-brainer. Amazing story that never felt like it truly had a "correct" answer, and it's massive a shame it may wind up as the forgotten Telltale game with the Borderlands, Game of Thrones, and Walking Dead games in their franchises.

If Dragon Age: Inquisition hadn't been so incredibly buggy, it would've made a run for the top spot, but I can't in all good consciousness call a game that has so far frozen on me in the double digits in the 20 hours I've played "Game of the Year".

If we're allowing remakes like FFX/X-2 collection then that'll slot into my #2 slot and knock Beyond Earth out of it.

[JasonM]

1: Wolfenstein - Everything a shooter should have, and a pretty strong story to boot.

2: South Park - The streak of shitty South Park games has ended, and man was this game a fun romp, Basically a 12 hour long South Park episode.

3: Wolf Among Us S1 - Brilliant game, and I loved every minute of Bigby. Can't wait for the eventual second season.

4: The Walking Dead S2 - Once more, the second season blew me away more than the first did. Great characters all around, and some gutwrenching moments.

5: NBA 2K15 - I love me some basketball, and NBA 2k15 on PC is pretty fucking fun.

6: Borderlands: Pre-Sequel - More Borderlands action, more loot, more ridiculous fun, and you can play as Claptrap!

7: Football Manager 2015 - Shit's fucking crack.

8: Banner Saga - Simply a great game, great storytelling, and one of the better games I've played all year.

9: One Finger Death Punch - No story, No graphics. But the dream of being a kung-fu stick-figure finally fulfilled. This game is fast-paced, stressfull, and just generally a load of fun to waste a few minutes... And you only need two buttons for it!

10: Watch Dogs - It wasn't as good as the hype, but it was still an interesting concept. I personally love cyber thrillers, and whilst everything could have been better, it was still a pretty fun game.

Not made the list...

Metal Gear Revengeance

Tales From the Borderlands S1 & Game of Thrones S1 (Only one episode out, it will get on next years list...)

[King Ellis]

EDITED on 30th Dec:

1. Plants vs Zombies: Garden Warfare [Multi]

2. Soccer Physics [Web]

3. Assassin's Creed: Unity [Multi]

4. Titanfall [Multi]

5. Destiny [Multi]

6. Forza Horizon 2 [One/360]

7. Max: The Curse of Brotherhood [Multi]

8. Earth Defence Force 2025 [360/PS3]

9. Soulcalibur: Lost Swords [PS3]

10. Sunset Overdrive [One]

Original list if Plubby considers this closed by now and wants to go on what I originally had:

1. Plants vs Zombies: Garden Warfare [Multi]

2. Soccer Physics [Web]

3. Assassin's Creed: Unity [Multi]

4. Destiny [Multi]

5 Forza Horizon 2 [One/360]

6. Max: The Curse of Brotherhood [Multi]

7. Earth Defence Force 2025 [360/PS3]

8. Titanfall [One/PC]

9. Soulcalibur: Lost Swords [PS3]

10. Sunset Overdrive [One]

NOTE: I may amend this at some point if I squeeze in another game or two, will alert you if I do.

Thoughts, spoilered for length:

I feel like I say this every year but if I was going purely on time spent and amount of fun, FIFA would probably win out purely for Pro Clubs but it just doesn't feel right to vote that as GOTY, especially when it's always such a buggy release, he says with no sense of irony given his inclusion of Unity.

And if we were to go on things I've played this year irrespective of actual release dates, Hitman Absolution would get near the top too with a little Force Unleashed II and Shadow Wars thrown in. Going through the list, it does kinda smack of 'defaultism' with these being the only things I've played this year and a few of them having some faults to them/

I loved the original PvZ and though the 2nd game left a sour taste in the mouth of a lot of people, I think Garden Warfare has been a worthy addition the franchise. The characters have always had oodles of charm in PvZ with their designs, sound effects and animations, and taking the world into a new genre has only added to that by adding in new attacks and stuff like character customization. EA has drawn the ire of the gaming community for years, decades even, you need only look at the yearly 'worst company' votes to see that but I feel they should be commended for this release, especially when they've just gifted it to PS4 players. The continued expansion of microtransactions into full retail games is worrying but I feel examples like this are the right way to do it. Even though it's entirely multiplayer, I don't feel you can gain an huge advantage over others and you could argue that it has served to subsidize the amount of free DLC that has been released over the year so EA and Popcap deserve praise for that. The game is just a really fun class based shooter and even though I'm not usually massively into multiplayer, especially when I don't have you guys playing with me, I still find it fun to play, especially Gardens & Graveyards where attack/defending bases offers up a change from just straight up deathmatches and the different maps offer up unique scenarios and set pieces that keep things fresh.

Voting for Soccer Physics has an element of tongue in cheek to it but at the same time, I think it stands out to me amongst a lot of games that I'm kind of indifferent to and might only be here by default. There's some obvious humour in the way the game plays, seeing your two players flinging themselves around wildly and some of the strange modifiers the game offers up like no head mode or using an American football instead of a normal soccer ball. But there's also a genuine sense of exhilaration when you manage to score a wonder goal or miraculously save one from going in, or indeed, inadvertently put it in the back of your own net due to how out of control things can be. Reminds me a lot of Slime Soccer, I think it could be improved by aping it some more by including a tournament mode or by letting you pick your own country like 'Seth Africa' instead of just getting random shirts (or skins) in each game.

Unity is probably ranked higher than it deserves to be but it's something I've spent a lot of time with, never ran into many massive technical problems (more minor niggles) and had a lot of fun with playing through the story and touching upon the co-op. For a game that is meant to be about stealth, I do think it doesn't punish you enough for not sticking to that and it's way to easy to get out of bad situations but I suppose you can argue that it's my choice to do that. Just going back to Hitman, it's a simple way to do it and maybe not everyone will care enough to do it but that had a series of challenges to complete by not killing people, going after only your specific target so there were incentives to being sneaky. It's still satisfying here to sneak around, picking people off, set up distractions etc and the game looks very nice and it's cool to see the vast crowds of people and the diverse things you'll see amongst them like arguments, people burning effergies, people dancing etc etc. Not particularly enamored with the story though.

Destiny felt very solid in terms of the way it played and I liked how everything worked in terms of going to different planets, getting missions and bounties, collecting new weapons etc etc by the time I got through the story, I just didn't feel like keeping the game just go around grinding to get more weapons and stuff since I can always just play Diablo for something like that and get my shooter fix elsewhere. That led to me trading it in for Forza, a fantastic looking game, you need only look up stuff like the photo thread on NeoGAF and see what people have managed to come up with using the in game photo system, looks really cool when the rainfall starts in game too. But, I dunno, I just feel it too is just lacking something.

Max: The Curse of Brotherhood sneaks in having being released late last year, picked it up as a freebie through GWG on the One. Pretty bland platformer at first but picks up as you start gaining the different abilities for your marker and the puzzles start coming in. Nothing ever overly hard but might take a minute or two to realise what the solution is, giving you an 'aha!' moment or a slap your forehead for not being able to not spot something immediately obvious. Game looks nice, kinda Pixar/Dreamworks like and the enemies have some charm to them, mainly the smaller versions of the large beast that chases you, it's cute seeing them trying to reach for you when you're on a rope. The big guy though puts me in mind of the image I have of Limbo, not that I've played it but I've always heard about the spider in it and the big guy chasing you throughout the game makes me think that's how Limbo is.

I do love me some EDF and it was nice to see Sandlot come out with another after a few years away following 2017 but despite the variety of new weapons and character classes added, I don't feel it was a big enough upgrade following 2017 and the charm of that game had been lost a little. Interested to see how they handle the remaster they're doing on PS4 and if they really step their game up by releasing a new title on the new generation in the next few years. Titanfall is still early days for me since I've only had it a week or two but I like the horde mode they've implemented since launch, it's fun fighting with and against the Titans and there's some neat stuff in the game to help even scrubs like me when it comes to competitive multiplayer.

Soulcalibur, even if it is a dreaded F2P title, is fun to boot up every now and then as it's a different breed to the usual fighters I play like SF or MK just because of the weapon system. Being able to earn new items to customize your character and use surplus stuff to boost the items you do want to use is a nice system, even if it is a bit grindy and frustrating as you try to find the items you want. Rounding things out, Sunset Overdrive I only played from the free day a few weeks back but it just rubbed me the wrong way. Maybe I was just rushing myself and being able actually sit down and play without the time restraint hanging over me might help but the zombie like enemies are something I've grown to really resent following games like Saints Row 3 and Crackdown 2. The sense of humour didn't click with me either. Seems like it'd be a solid enough game to playthrough but I didn't get the strongest of first impressions, maybe I'm just a little burnt out from that kind of game since I do play alot of sandboxy stuff.

[Benji]

Between Unity, Watch_Dogs and DA:I, it's been a bad year for buggy releases.

[King Ellis]

Halo MCC, Drive Club...

Even the Crew, which admittedly I haven't heard any massive issues with it, did need a day one patch to fix actually being able to join a crew. YOU HAD ONE JOB!

[Plubby]

Also, are remakes and/or remasters counted? I assume remasters would be and remakes wouldn't?

If it is just a HD remaster, then no, it doesn't count. If it adds content, it does.

[ChrisSteeleAteMyHamster]

This is probably the slowest year of video game purchases I've had since I was 18. In fact probably since I was 16 as I had more disposable income then doing one day a week in a Chinese Takeaway than I do now with a full time job, a two year old and living costs. Growing up sucks.

Anyway, I can't afford the PS4 and I'm too old to get such expensive things for Christmas/birthday these days. Indeed I'm probably only a year or two away from socks and handkerchief territory.

But what DID I buy and enjoy?!

1. Don Bradman Cricket

2. Football Manager Classic 2014 PSVita

3. Watch_Dogs

Hah! I'm an old, poor man.

Danganronpa games would probably have figured highly if I had the cash. Otherwise it's just been a case of playing through all my older games that I never finished or played enough. To be fair it's probably been good to have the year out to do that. I'd have liked to play Murdered: Soul Suspect too as well as Alien: Isolation.

[ndqw]

1. South Park: The Stick of Truth

2. Always Sometimes Monsters

3. Oppression Quest

I think those are the only games that came out this year that I played.

Edited December 12, 2014 by ndqw

[Ruki]

1. League of Legends (Season 4!)

1. Persona Q

2. Dragon Age Inquisition

3. South Park: The Stick of Truth

4. Final Fantasy 13-3

5. Bravely Default

6. Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes

7. Shadow of Mordor

8. Watch_Dogs

9. Titanfall

10. Mount Your Friends

I wish I could put Fire Emblem Awakening on the list

[TKz]

1. Dragon Age: Inquisition (10 Pts)
2. Wolfenstein (9 Pts)
3. Shadow of Mordor (8 Pts)
4. Alien: Isolation (7 Pts)
5. Bayonetta 2 (6 Pts)
6. Titanfall (5 Pts)
7. Shovel Knight (4 Pts)
8. Fantasy Life (3 Pts)
9. Metal Gear Solid: Ground Zeroes (2 Pts)
10. Lego Batman 3: Beyond Gotham (1 Pts)

If I actually manage to finish Dragon Age: Inquisition (seriously, this game has so much content), I'll probably be able to shuffle Lego Batman and Fantasy Life up a bit, as they've taken a hit from DA: I soaking up all my time. Bayonetta 2 thus far gets a vote entirely based on how much I've enjoyed Bayonetta 1 on the Wii U. >_>

There's other bits I've played this year, but it's stuff I caught up on. Metal Gear Revengeance, for example. I'm not voting for Bravely Default as it as on my list last year and came out here 2013. I'm sure there's some title I'm forgetting...

[Ruki]

Did Bravely Default come out last year? Shit. I checked the list of games that came out in 2014 and it was on there. Will edit it!

Edit: Oh, apparently it came out in NA in 2014. Keeping it there then!

[Plubby]

1. League of Legends (Season 4!)

Sorry Ruki, I can't in good conscience allow that. It's not a new release, nor a re-release with new content. Any new content has been via patches.

[Plubby]

Did Bravely Default come out last year? Shit. I checked the list of games that came out in 2014 and it was on there. Will edit it!

Edit: Oh, apparently it came out in NA in 2014. Keeping it there then!

Further, to this, Bravely Default had its releases after 2 December 2013 (5, 6, 8 Dec and some in 2014) and as such is eligible