Ben-DutkaNo matter how you slice it, 2014 was a disappointment.
Even though we always have plenty of games to play (something the youngsters don't fully appreciate), 2014 was billed as one of the best years in gaming history. It didn't turn out that way.
In doing up the Game of the Year nominees today, I realized just how big of a letdown the past year has been, especially if we consider the expectations for 2014. Many of the most anticipated games of the new generation just didn't blow us away; starting with inFamous: Second Son and Titanfall earlier in the year and moving through Destiny , Driveclub , The Evil Within , and Assassin's Creed Unity later, the year simply didn't deliver the defining experiences it promised.
On top of which, the constant delays took their toll. Without the likes of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt , Batman: Arkham Knight , Evolve , Battlefield: Hardline and The Order: 1886 , we were left with mostly uninspired, technically unstable games. We caught a few glimpses of greatness in games like Unity , Watch Dogs and Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor , and Dragon Age: Inquisition and Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare were both great. Even so, it's really not what everyone had anticipated.
The question is, will 2015 be the year 2014 should've been? Uncharted 4: A Thief's End , Bloodborne and The Order lead the PlayStation charge, along with the aforementioned titles. Plus, you've got Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain , Final Fantasy XV , No Man's Sky , Rise of the Tomb Raider , Mortal Kombat X , Halo 5: Guardians , etc. Maybe that's the year that will make us all happy to be new-console owners.
What do you think?
I can't complain about 2014 actually. Yes. I agree it wasn't 2013 but I've still been overloaded with greatness. More than I can keep up with.
I got lots of play time from these 2014 games and enjoyed most every minute.
Infamous SS
Titanfall
Transistor
MGSV Ground Zeroes
Destiny
Drive Club
CoD AW
Assassin's Creed Unity
Dragon Age Inquistion (unexpected surprise by me)
Ultra Street Fighter IV (yea, I know. expansion pack)
Sure. I didn't get a PS4 until right around when Infamous SS launched so that platform didn't feel as stretched out for me.
I played games from last year that I didn't get to as well. Games like Gran Turismo 6, Tomb Raider DE, Rayman Legends, Injustice, and Black Flag. Many of these launched LATE last year too. I'm sure I wasn't the only one trying to catch up. All of which were great games.
While Destiny wasn't the game I imagined it would be, Destiny was still a massively addicting game, moreso than any other game I've played outside of a NG or DOA in a long time…. in fact, I'm beginning to feel it's faint beckon again.
EDIT: wait. I played KZ Shadowfall. I found that to be dissapointing.
Last edited by Temjin001 on 12/31/2014 10:26:41 PM
Me too. Which is a shame because I love KZ2 and 3.
I think MGS5 GZ is on sale for less than $7 right now. Well worth the price.
Last edited by Jawknee on 12/31/2014 10:27:28 PM
yea, I managed to play through MGSV GZ already but I would like to hit it up one more time.
I will say Sony themselves didn't do as well with their year one compared to past gens.
For PS3 year one we had hits like these from Sony.
Resistance FoM
Motorstorm
Heavenly Sword
Ratchet and Clank Future
Uncharted: Drake's Fortune
There's probably others but that's what comes to mind right off. Either way, Sony really delivered back then.
Last edited by Temjin001 on 12/31/2014 10:35:28 PM
http://twvideo01.ubm-us.net/o1/vault/gdceurope2014/Presentations/828884_Alexis_Vaisse.pdf
The future for gaming does look bright.
I'm real excited about this report. It's by a lead Assassin's Creed programmer. I worried Ubisoft wouldn't harness the PS4's GPU compute elements as they should for future games. As we can tell from this (get to slide 121, once the Compute Units are properly harnessed, even by third parties, we should make massive strides) third parties are working to dig deep.
PS4 games really should dominate. Like I pointed out a while ago, the bottleneck for AC Unity was the PS4, not the XO due to how the game was implemented. The small discrepancy in performance boiled down to the XO's small cpu advantage. But this report shows clearly that once the hardware is properly implemented, the PS4 will most always blow the crap out of the XO when it needs to.
Last edited by Temjin001 on 12/31/2014 10:43:13 PM
Yea I didn't play any of those games in the PS3's first year. I didn't even know about Uncharted until 2 was announced. My PS3 sat untouched until MGS4 and CoDMW were released. The PS4's first year I felt it got more use. Between BF4, MGS5 GZ and TLOU Remastered I'd say my first year with the PS4 was well spent.
Last edited by Jawknee on 12/31/2014 10:40:55 PM
you can add the original Ratchet and Clank from the HD collection. Just finished it.
I'm ready for the remake. The game can really really use a complete overhaul. It'll be nice.
Last edited by Temjin001 on 1/1/2015 12:46:11 AM
The remake should be tasty. I really enjoyed A Crack in Time. One of my favorite PS3 games. The hover boots were excellent.
Destiny was so misrepresented by its creators.
World – very misinterpreted. I like to think if we were told the game was an fps with some freedom it would have gotten a better response.
I wasn't excited for Destiny until after the alpha and beta so I couldn't remember what Bungie was saying about it. The article headlines do seem to have dressed it up pretty nice, but whether that was Bungie's fault or excited gamers I can't recall or can't tell.
The back of the Destiny box does advertise itself in having like a "rich story" or something. Which was just not true.
EDIT: Oh yea! I played through Splinter Cell Blacklist and Super Mario Galaxy 2 this year too!
Last edited by Temjin001 on 1/1/2015 6:28:01 PM
All I know is between the PS4 and the Wii U releases, 2015 is going to bleed me dry. So many great games coming out. 2015 might be the best year this generation.
I really have no complaints about 2014. The media is making it out to be bad because once again the media hypes everything from here to the moon. The only thing I took away from this year is I will no longer by every game I want on day one.
As far as the games go though the games that were supposed to deliver pretty much did and there were a few sleeper hits. I still have a backlog than I won't get through before The Order comes out. So for me I chalk that up as a good year.
Good lesson to learn about not buying on day one. I screwed myself on that with The Evil Within and Dragon Age. *facepalm*
We have it so good as gamers I just can't complain much. Most games are really incredible, even the lesser rated ones. I just think the general web-posting gamer though is extremely picky, opinionated and horribly biased, quick to complain and difficult to please.
Last edited by Temjin001 on 1/1/2015 3:14:48 PM
World – I'm with ya. I pretty much used to buy every game I wanted day one because I had only some, actually very little worry I was going to get a buggy, non-finished, game. Now days though even dating to the last year of last gen, that confidence has been lost. There are those developers though that I know I can trust.
Temjin – It's true. I get on Metacritic and most every game that was supposed to deliver has an 80+ rating. I'd consider that successful. Sure there were some hiccups and blunders but that happens every year. I think when we look at all the delays that's why it seems underwhelming. But when we look back on it later 2014 will be considered a good year. Not great. The games that got delayed are pushing that status but it could potentially make 2015 one of the best.
yea, Bigrailer, but I'd say even the ~70'ish games were nice. I enjoyed Destiny, Drive Club, and AC Unity a lot more than the majority of critics.
True that.
I look forward to see if Nintendo brings the new Fatal Frame out, and makes it good. As well as the new Zelda and maybe a new Metroid Prime.
Sony's gone nuts with games this year though. I will have to buy less this next year since I'm not even done with games from this year.
I've also given my piece on 2014. Good year. Could have been better but with hyped games being letdowns or being straight up forgotten… At the VGAs when they mentioned Titanfall I was like "wtf is titanfall…" I have 132 screenshots of various glitches I've encountered so far in Unity, which has caused me to rage that I've had to stop playing it off and on. Broken glitchy boring mess of a garbage truck game. Coop works beautifully though which makes no sense.
There is a new Fatal Frame coming to the Wii U. Just a question of if it will be localized or not. Nintendo definitely needs to announce a new Metroid. Prime 4 would be best but I'd take a 3rd person adventure too.
Last edited by Jawknee on 12/31/2014 11:23:55 PM
A new side scrolling platformer Metroid for 3DS would be welcome too.
any Metroid would be nice right about now. Get this. I was at Target today and they actually had a Samus in stock (last one) of the Amiibo figures. I've been to several places and usually see empty spots for Samus. I didn't buy it but it's been sorta tempting me for some odd reason. I guess it'd be nice to have a quality looking video game icon sitting on a shelf of mine somewhere…
Anyway, hopefully Nintendo gets the memo that people want more Metroid.
Last edited by Temjin001 on 1/1/2015 6:55:50 PM
there was no shortage of games i was really excited for in 2014 but i found that i didn't enjoy all of them as much as i expected
Hmm no 2014 was fated to be a transitional year because of the next gen consoles, so I never expected a killer line of games, it was a decent year that I close with the awesome Guilty Gear Xrd, 2015 gonna be one of the best years of gaming 🙂
yeah i think this year will defintely be a better year to be a next gen console owner i should be the year that 2014 wasn't should be a great year
happy gaming
I hope so, if not I will quit gaming…
I have a Wii U. I had a great time in 2014. 🙂 But I also played Destiny for my ps4. Only game on it worth a crude. Greatest FPS ever!!
Yes, yes it will be! I really hope Persona 5 squeaks in this year too.
IT just might be that the gaming industry is starting to plateau with this medium. You can only do so much new and different and then you have to go back to older games and make them…. new. Kinda like fashion, every 30 to 40 years it recycles style and design.
Not sure where its headed other than just a focus on better storytelling.
We shall see. I admit though, I enjoy my games, but I am getting bored far to quickly now. Too much of a good thing I guess.
Keep playing!