melmer

Its beginning to look a lot like GOTY

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I have played nothing of worth this year

Okay, thats a lie...

Good:

  • Mario Kart 8
  • Bayonetta 2
  • Last of us: Left Behind DLC
Not as good, but still good
  • The Evil Within
  • Metal Gear V: Ground Zeroes
  • Wolfenstien
  • Far Cry 4
  • Destiny
  • Broken age ep1
  • P.T
Haven't played yet, but have feeling is good
  • Dragon age
  • 80 days
hmm, maybe that would suggest its too early for GOTY

Edit: total forgot about destiny, Metal Gear V: Ground Zeroes, The Evil Within and P.T

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Shantae is my GOTY, and nobody else fucking bought it.

 

What platform is that on, again? I'm definitely interested in playing what Thumbs think are GOTYs.

 

As for me, I haven't given it much thought. Right now it'd be between Wolfenstein, Destiny, COD: AW, South Park and Professor Layton vs Phoenix Wright. That said, I haven't played all that much from this year yet... even just on my PS4 I have Shadow of Mordor, Dragon Age, Transistor, and Metro Redux all hanging out waiting to be played and I feel like any of those could be eligible for my personal contention (except maybe Redux, because do HD remakes really count?)

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I think the only games I played much of this year that came out this year were Transistor, Broken Age Ep. 1, Shovel Knight and Mario Kart 8. I enjoyed all of them a lot, but Transistor tops the heap easily. In fact, it will probably take a place among my favourite games of all time.

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I bought Shantae, and it's all right, but it's not on my list of GOTYs. (I'm a little disappointed in it! I was hoping for a more robust experience, but it seems a little sparse!)

 

Right now, my list entails:

Monument Valley

Mario Kart 8

Super Smash Bros. WiiU / 3DS

Shovel Knight

Donkey Kong Country Tropical Freeze

 

I really liked Mario Golf: World Tour, as well, but it wasn't as good as it could have been. Also, I haven't played Captain Toad: Treasure Trackers or Ultimate NES Remix, two games I'm hoping to get later this month. 

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God this is difficult, i've added and amended my list several time already. I've end up with a list of like 10 games that i enjoyed playing this year and no stand out GOTY. All of them tends to be flawed in someway which stops me from doubling down.

 

I think my ultimate GOTY of the year goes to: Bayonetta 2  Mario Kart 8

 

Even though i wish it could be a bit more chaotic and 2/3rds of the roster are balls, its just so damn pretty

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Dark Souls 2 frosts the cake for me.  Honorable mentions would go to:
 
Binding of Isaac: Rebirth
Banner Saga
Transistor
South Park: The Stick of Truth

 

I think the only games I played much of this year that came out this year were Transistor, Broken Age Ep. 1, Shovel Knight and Mario Kart 8. I enjoyed all of them a lot, but Transistor tops the heap easily. In fact, it will probably take a place among my favourite games of all time.

 

I'm glad to see someone else giving some love to Transistor, it got a pretty lukewarm response from a lot of people.

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It was a great year for local multiplayer stuff. I really enjoyed Sportsfriends, Nidhogg, and Towerfall: Ascension and I've heard good things about this year's Mario Kart and Smash. Look forward to playing those whenever I pick up a Wii U.

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Shantae is my GOTY, and nobody else fucking bought it.

 

I bought this! It was good! Then, unfortunately for it, Pokemon and Smash happened at the same time. (and the Wii U I bought for Smash came with 3D World, which I've also been playing)

 

I'll get back to it.

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It was a great year for local multiplayer stuff. I really enjoyed Sportsfriends, Nidhogg, and Towerfall: Ascension and I've heard good things about this year's Mario Kart and Smash. Look forward to playing those whenever I pick up a Wii U.

 

I wish I had more opportunities to play Sportsfriends, because that would probably make my list as well. Did Nidhogg come out this year?

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Jeez, Banner Saga was this year, wasn't it? That definitely goes into my shortlist. I go along with the praise for South Park: The Stick of Truth as well.

 

Games no one else has mentioned yet that I feel are contenders include:

 

Hearthstone

Shadow of Mordor (was mentioned but in the context of not having played it)

Divinity: Original Sin

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This hasn't been a great year for me personally.  Too little time and money have led to me not playing much new stuff.

 

I played Transistor and Shovel Knight, but I didn't really care for either one.  Transistor in particular disappointed me.  I don't think its bad and I love everything about it except playing it.  That's mostly because the gameplay doesn't appeal to my personal taste, especially compared to Bastion which does.

 

Monument Valley was pretty great.  Short, sweet, beautiful.  Same with Hitman GO.

 

Broken Age was great but I'd rather wait until I've played both parts.

 

Shadow of Mordor is maybe the best thing new thing I played.  It's quite good and the nemesis system really helps keep things interesting.  My biggest complaint is that the system doesn't go far enough.  There's a good amount of potential there and I'm interested to see what can be done with it in the future.

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My list is pretty bland, but currently it goes a little something like this:

 

Dragon Age Inquisition. I love a good WRPG. 

Rogue Legacy. I'm late, but it came out this year for my platform(s) of choice.

Mario Kart 8. Fallen out of favor recently, but I had a lot of fun.

BoI: Rebirth. Straight up fun. 

SSB4. I'm loving it, but playing on my own is no where near as fun as playing with people.

 

Bayonetta 2 is still in my back log, so my opinions might change once I bury into that. I'm also working through Shovel Knight, which is pretty OK. Nothing outstanding though.

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I've lost track of what was released this year. Really loved Transistor, even though I found the deliberately ambiguous nature of the storytelling/story frustrating.

Thanks to Dota 2 I still haven't played a lot of stuff i have (jazzpunk, dreamfall, betrayer).

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Baby Game of the Year (ie: games my son loves to watch me play):

Spelunky - I got back into it in a serious way when it came up on PS+. The Daily Challenge is a boon; a self contained, more or less timeboxed bit of video game experience I can look forward too every day (and hang my head in shame when I fall on some spikes in 1-2).

Runners Up:

Ultra Street Fighter IV - still my favourite fighting game by a WIDE margin. And, for some reason, my kid LOVES it. Like, he literally never gets bored of it. And gets angry when it isn't on the screen.

There is no 2nd runner up. All other games are anathema to my son :P

Train Game of the Year (ie: games I play on the train)

Monument Valley - Gorgeous and entrancing. Playing a level is like working through a moderately Sedoku puzzle: it isn't trivial, but you won't get frustrated.

Runners Up:

Shovel Knight - Does exactly what it sets out to do and does it well; recaptures what you remember good Capcom NES games were like.

Desert Golfing - fart noise baboo (but it really is fun).

Old Game of the Year

Dark Souls - I'm the most original guy in the world! Hey you guys, have you ever heard of DARK SOULS!!?! But, for real, this is probably the best game in the last 10 years.

Questionable Game of the Year

Metal Gear V: Ground Zeroes - While this game did some really gross things and while it is a premium demo and while you can "finish" it in 20 minutes, it still did something I didn't expect: made be genuinely pre-MGS2 levels of excited for an upcoming Metal Gear game. And I LIKED Metal Gear Solid 2 for the record, so that's no some kind of ironic joke.

Game that Doesn't Belong in its Own Category and I Just Liked and Also Actually Came Out This Year of the Year

Destiny - I'm honestly confused by the hate this game gets. Why were people expecting some magnum opus narrative experience? Have people played Bungie games before? The gameplay solid. More or less flawless. It serves a very similar role in my library as Spelunky: a game that serves up a nice chunk of gameplay every day. I also love that a game with progression also does not cut you off from content you've already played. My biggest issues with games like Diablo or Borderlands is that a single session played without your friends completely destroys the balance, and if you play together, the game just becomes trivial for them and a waste of time for you. In Destiny, you can be 20 levels apart and the high level player can jump in with their lowbie friend and still have a good time.

Runner Up:

Dark Souls 2 - while the lesser of the series, it is still a phenomenal game which gripped me from start to finish.

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I wish I had more opportunities to play Sportsfriends, because that would probably make my list as well. Did Nidhogg come out this year?

 

Yeah, back in January. Towerfall was released last year, but was an Ouya exclusive at the time, so I consider that a 2014 release also.

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What platform is that on, again? I'm definitely interested in playing what Thumbs think are GOTYs.

 

3DS and Wii U. The 3D is really good and it's only twenty bucks.

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Standout games:

 

Endless Legend

Dungeon of the Endless

The Evil Within

Divinity: Original Sin (haven't finished it, but feels like it will end up here)

80 Days

 

Totally solid games:

 

Wolfenstein

Jazz Punk

Nidhogg

Towerfall

Road Not Taken

Monument Valley

 

Games that did a bunch of great things but had problems:

 

Alien Isolation

Shadow of Mordor

Thief

The Banner Saga

The Novelist

Abyss Odyssey

Wasteland 2 (haven't finished this, but it definitely feels like it belongs in this category)

Sir, You Are Being Hunted

 

 

Games I was looking forward to that ended up being disappointing:

 

Transistor

Civilization: Beyond Earth

Planetary Annihilation

Watchdogs

 

And finally, the game I don't know how to feel about:

 

Betrayer

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This was a really slow video game year for me, mostly for financial reasons. The majority of new video games I've played this year have been in the last couple months (since I have a new job now) and have been on Nintendo systems (which is kinda weird).

 

So my GOTY list is less like a best-of and more like a comprehensive list of games I've played at all.

 

Top GOTY: Smash 4

Maybe I'm in some sort of starry-eyed honeymoon period with Smash 4. Will I think so fondly of this game in a few months? Hard to tell. But whatever is happening between me and this game right now, it's glorious. I think about it constantly. Actually, it might be a problem.

 

Runner up: Hearthstone

I don't play this anymore, and I don't really intend to pick it back up. But I can't deny how much I played this game over the first half of this year. It approached Civ levels of time monopolizing. 

 

Linear, Narrative-Driven Game OTY: Broken Age Pt. 1

It is also, full disclosure, the only linear narrative-driven game released this year that I remember playing. 

 

Phone Distraction OTY: Desert Golfing

You know what this bullshit is.

 

Little League Style Participation Trophy Award : Crypt of the Necrodancer

This probably wouldn't make my list if I'd played many more new games this year. It's very stylish, it sounds great, and I had fun with it. But really it's on here because it was the only new game I played in July/August/September.

 

Games that I haven't spent enough time with to rate include: Pokemon ORAS (which is just more Pokemon XY and probably wouldn't end up on the list anyway) and Shantae & The Pirate's Curse (which I've enjoyed so far, but I'm only three levels in).

 

This year had loads of games that I'm still interested in playing, and look forward to buying at a discount over the course of next year: Transistor, The Banner Saga, Jazzpunk, Monument Valley, Shadow of Mordor, 80 Days, Dragon Age: Inquisition, Divinity: Original Sin, DK: Tropical Freeze, Captain Toad, Mario Kart 8, probably others.

 

...If I intend to play all of those, I may not have time for next year's new games, huh?

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I'm disappointed by all the people who weer disappointed by Transistor. Not that I don't understand the complaints, I just like it when people like the things I like and it bums me out when they don't.

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I'm disappointed that I ended up finding Transistor disappointing too! It's frustrating!

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I really wanted to like Transistor given how much I like Bastion.  I love the art, sound, and music, I think they're beautiful in the normal Supergiant way.  The gameplay just never clicked with me the way I was hoping.  I don't think it's a bad game, it's just not a game for me.

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To copy and paste my 2014 list:

 

Bravely Default Demo (3DS, 2014)

2048 (iOS, 2014)

Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance (PC, 2014)

The Banner Saga (PC, 2014)

Broken Age (PC, 2014)

Bravely Default (3DS, 2014)

Dead State (PC, 2014)

The Last of Us: Left Behind (PS3, 2014)

Resident Evil 4 Ultimate HD Edition (PC, 2014)

Titanfall (PC, 2014)

BioShock Infinite: Burial at Sea - Episode Two (PC, 2014)

Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes (PS3, 2014)

Dark Souls II (PC, 2014)

WATCH_DOGS (PC, 2014)

Nidhogg (PC, 2014)

Wolfenstein: The New Order (PC, 2014)

Always Sometimes Monsters (PC, 2014)

Dark Souls II: Crown of the Sunken King (PC, 2014)

The Sims 2 Ultimate Collection (PC, 2014)

Dark Souls II: Crown of the Old Iron King (PC, 2014)

WWE SuperCard (iOS, 2014)

Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor (PC, 2014)

Sunless Sea (PC, 2014)

Hack ‘n’ Slash (PC, 2014)

Valkyria Chronicles (PC, 2014)

Massive Chalice (PC, 2014)

 

I am also still hoping to afford at least one of either Persona Q, Far Cry 4, or Game of Thrones before the year is out. 2014 is definitely the first year in a while without a major standout! Even though my relationship with it soured harshly by the end due to getting humiliated in PvP and hating the DLC, I'd probably have to go with Dark Souls II, but fair dues to Wolfenstein.

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