The Annual Top XX Games of 20XX Thread

[schinderhannes.999]

The Annual Top XX Games of 20XX Thread

Yep, one of those.
Length of the list, whether there's any numerical order to it or not and further elaboration on the how and why is entirely up to you.

I already made up my mind for 2014 since, as far as I'm concerned there's nothing relevant to my interests coming out in the remaining 18 days so here it goes:

1. Legend of Grimrock II
   
2. Wasteland 2
   
3. Thief
   
4. This War of Mine
   
5. The Vanishing of Ethan Carter
   
6. Shadowrun: Dragonfall - Director's Cut
   
7. Alien: Isolation
   
8. Transistor
   
9. Wolfenstein: The New Order
   
10. Shovel Knight

Honourable mentions:

Blackguards
Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance
The Banner Saga
Sniper Elite III
Gods Will Be Watching
Lethal League
Planetary Annihilation
Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor
Shadows: Heretic Kingdoms
Dead State

 

[Phinnway]

Hmm... Haven't played that many new games this year. There is quite a few games I've been waiting until Christmas to buy. And I bought Divinity Original Sin but haven't gotten into it enough to include it on my list My top 5 games I played this year includes...

1. Dragon Age Inquisition
2. The Witcher 2
3. Crusader Kings 2
4. Super Smash Bros Wii U
5. Counter Strike Global Offensive

Honorable mentions:

Europa Universalis 4

Games I have yet to buy includes:

Endless Legend
Mount & Blade Viking Conquest
Metal Gear Rising Revengeance (I don't have a controller so I'm not sure about this one.)

 

[sidspyker]

I didn't play too many games this year, mostly because there weren't too many titles that interested me(yet again). I'll just list the games I had the most fun playing this year, in no particular order.

Metal Gear Rising Revengeance - Easily the best action game ever hands down, matched only by the older DMC titles.

Sniper Elite 3 - They took SEv2 and overhauled it in ways I wanted, a semi-sandbox WW2 sniping simulator with multiple barebones objectives, co-op with @Kinley makes it 10x more fun >_>

Shadow of Mordor - complete sandbox fun, feels like an AC game done right.

Far Cry 4 - Really fun shooter, improves in subtle but noticible ways over its predecessors and has a great OST as well as licensed music.

Honourable mentions:

Wolfenstein TNO - Neat game but fell very short of my expectations. Plays like a modern shooter, the exact opposite of what I had hoped. Best cutscenes in videogames I have seen so far.

Ryse - I didn't expect I would be listing this game at all, but I was genuinely surprised that it had SOME redeeming qualities. Ignoring the horrendous FOV, the combat is pretty great with very fluid and authentic feeling animations even if some moves don't fit the era. I'm not a fan of QTEs at all but this is one game where QTEs are 'done right' the other being Arkham Origins' Deathstroke bossfight. It's flawed but I had decent amount of fun with it.

I still have a few games on my list which I intend to play:
Valkyria Chronicles
MGS V GZ
One of the EDFs(I'm not sure which)

 

[ReptilePZ]

Not that many great new games that I got to play this year, so here's my top... 4.

1. Divinity: Original Sin - Oldschool yet innovative. Difficult but fun. Lighthearted but complex. It's all you could want from a role-playing game.
2. The Wolf Among Us - Limited gameplay and a fairly predictable story with little to no C&C, but the world and characters were excellent. Would love to see them build upon this with a more complex sequel.
3. Shadowrun: Dragonfall - Have yet to finish it, otherwise it probably would have been second on the list. It's a great turn-based RPG. Doesn't do too many things differently, just a competent RPG, a huge improvement over Shadowrun Returns, great expansion pack.
4. Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft - Free to play and great fun. It's fairly casual, but it's still very enjoyable. The best example of a computer card game, taking advantage of both aspects.

 

[randyrhoads]

Didn't play many games this year but here it goes

1. Shadow of Mordor - absolutely amazing game, surpassed my expectations, I'd give it game of the year.
2. Far Cry 4 - fc3 was immense and somehow they improved on every aspect of it, very very good game
3. Risen 3 - just cuz Piranha Bytes
4. AC:U - despite problems its still quite solid

 

[volsung]

The title of this thread is confusing. Technically it would only apply to years like 2011, 2022, 2099 But assuming you meant two independent x's (20xy) shouldn't we post 14 favorite games for 2014?

Oh well. Good games I played released this year:

- Shadowrun: Dragonfall
- The Banner Saga
- Wasteland 2
- Blackguards (late 2013)

To be played:

- Warlock 2
- Age of Wonders 3
- Divinity Original Sin
- Legend of Grimrock 2

 

[schinderhannes.999]

And there I was thinking that practically everyone and their mother was familiar with the Year X trope.
Plus it's extremely economical. Assuming that this forum is still around in 2099, of course.

 

[Scholdarr.452]

So my personal list for 2014 (all played on PC). I've also played a lot of older games but I just wrote down the new ones here. I'm also quite sure that I've forgotten some games...

Great games:

• Divinity Original Sin
• Wasteland 2
• The Banner Saga

Good games:

• Shadow of Mordor
• Sniper Elite III
• Fifa 2015
• The Walking Dead S2
• The Wolf Among Us
• Assassin's Creed Unity
• Dragon Age: Inquisition
• Shadowrun Returns

Ok games:

• Jagged Alliance Flashback
• Grim Dawn (EA)
• Tropico 5
• SimCity
• Far Cry 4

Backlog/yet to play:

• The Vanishing of Ethan Carter
• Styx: Master of Shadows
• Sherlock Holmes: Crimes and Punishment
• Game of Thrones
• Tales of the Borderlands
• Dead State
• This War of Mine
• Risen 3
• Europa Universalis IV

 

[hardom]

The games I PLAYED this year rank:
1.Dark Souls 2
2.Risen 3

looking my library those are the only games I bought of this year (I bought: metro which was from 2013 and amalur from 2012 this year but weren't launched in this year) , perhaps I will buy DA:I soon

 

[vivaxardas2015]

Well, for me in 2014 there were quite a few good games, but none was truly great. Some indi games were nice, but they are not AAA, so for me they do not count.

These I played and liked, but they lacked WOW!!! moment their predecessors had.
1. Dark Souls 2
2. Far Cry 4

Just a regular stuff, nothing to write home about:
1. ACU
2. ACR
3. Risen 3
4. DAI

 

[daddy300]

I am getting old because I wasn't impressed by anything this year.

Infamous Second Son and Oddworld: New 'n' Tasty were great fun but I haven't completed it.
Dragon age, Watch dogs and Middle earth were average at best (same sh*t different painting)

 

[volsung]

@saoe

There were some pretty good games this year, but it all depends on preference. The problem is games like DA and Watch Dogs are aimed at teenagers, and you are getting older

 

[Scholdarr.452]

Some indi games were nice, but they are not AAA, so for me they do not count.

???

That makes me sad.

 

[ApuLunas.211]

championship manager 01/02

 

[Sana_mia]

Best new game for me was:
South Park: stick of thruth. First game that had a reason to be locked at 30FPS, because yes it was more cinematic and closer to the series looking the way it did. It was fun, touched on a lot of the series history and made me laugh because of the stupidity of it.

I'd say Divinity: Original sin was a close second... except never finished it. In and by itself it was a good game, just some things pissed me off. Like the re-load for better loot, re-load for better merchant shit. some things annoyed me enough to not finish it.

Third DA:i, just too much side quest, side.area. side story to be really good. The polish is still missing and the controls are created by a 5 year old. It's by itself a good game just PLEASE cut out 40% of the side bullocks fed-ex quests, the lvl caps, the shitty no selecting your own stats, the horrendous RNG crafting. AND hire someone who can pull a good side story out of their asses... I know even I can do better than that, while drunk, sleep-deprived and running D&D for 16 hours straight.

Styx masters of shadows wasn't bad... Well at least way better than that thief crap.

Otherwise hmm not played much new stuff... Watch dogs thingy was on the list of should probably play till it was clear it sucked. same for AC:unity... awaiting AC: Rogue on PC for more pirate action in 2015.

 

[Sagitarii]

Was about to make a thread like this.

2014 wasn't a great year, but certainly it made the choice quite easy. I played quite the few games this year, these are the awards (not always praising the game).


"I expected nothing and it's my Game of the Year" award: Wolfenstein: The New Order
Followed by: Divinity Original Sin

"Actually a great RPG" award: Divinity: Original Sin
Followed by: South Park, I guess

Update/DLC of the year: FTL: Advanced Edition
Followed by: Goblins vs. Gnomes

Best Soundtrack: Wolfenstein:The Order
Followed by: Transistor, Vanishing of Ethan Carter

Best Visuals: Vanishing of Ethan Carter
Followed by: Far Cry 4, Ryse: Son of Rome

Best open world game: Far Cry 4
Followed by: Shadow of Mordor

Best indie game: This War of Mine
Followed by: Vanishing of Ethan Carter



"I expected nothing and I'm still disappointed" award: Dragon Age: Inquisition
Followed by: Watch Dogs

Biggest mess of a game: Watch Dogs
Followed by: Dragon Age: Inquisition

Most boring game of the year: Ryse: Son of Rome
Followed by: Civilization: Beyond Earth

Worst thing to happen to gaming this year: Polygon and the rest of gaming "journalism" (technically)
Followed by: Denuvo (technically)

 

[ShoMee]

Biggest mess on launch: Watch Dogs
Followed by: Dragon Age: Inquisition

I object, sir! These so called Annual Awards are rigged! It is clear as day that the committee was partial to Ubisoft and dogs (as opposed to cats) when the obvious winner should have, without any doubt, been none other than Ubisoft and their AC:Unity. They deserved the credit and it was taken from them. Much sad, very dizappoint.

:cheers:

 

[Sagitarii]

I object, sir! These so called Annual Awards are rigged! It is clear as day that the committee was partial to Ubisoft and dogs (as opposed to cats) when the obvious winner should have, without any doubt, been none other than Ubisoft and their AC:Unity. They deserved the credit and it was taken from them. Much sad, very dizappoint.

:cheers:

It would probably go to Unity, if only I played it and witnessed the horror. But I didn't, so it goes to Watch Underscore Doggies.

 

[schinderhannes.999]

As for 2015...

01. Pillars of Eternity (+ The White March, Pt. I)
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02. UnderRail
​

03. The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt (+ Hearts of Stone)


​

Still too much padding, too much hand-holding and too much pointlessly and awkwardly automating things which wouldn't be that bad if not just some but all of it were optional and could be bypassed without having to resort to mods. Not like as if mods could fix the more serious flaws like the near meaningless save import feature, the absence of proper story-branching (the sort that locks and unlocks entire alternate questlines of the main story, remember those?) or the subpar PC porting not taking full advantage of the upper end of the performance spectrum anyway.
Bit of a shame since apart from those few shortcomings Wild Hunt is definitely worth of all the praise it got and is still receiving with Hearts of Stone and likely will receive with Blood and Wine.

Probably too late for Wild Hunt (unless it gets the 'Enhanced' treatment as well someday) but for Cyberpunk 2077 I'd like to see way more of CDPRED's 'Rebel' stance (not just in terms of being anti-DRM) and even much less pandering, playing it safe and trying to appeal to a (console) mass market with unnecessary streamlining or dumbing down of established (cRP)gameplay mechanics among other things. Leave that to BioWare and Bethesda please.


​

04. The Age of Decadence
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05. Soma
​

06. Shadowrun: Hong Kong
​

07. Stasis
​

08. Hard West
​

09. Satellite Reign
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10. Armikrog
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Honourable mentions:

Hotline Miami 2: Wrong Number
Prison Architect
Anno 2205
Mordheim: City of the Damned
Blackguards 2
Grey Goo
Titan Souls
Wolfenstein: The Old Blood
Axiom Verge
Bedlam

Dishonourable mentions:

Batman: Arkham Knight
Mad Max
Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain
Wasteland 2: Director's Cut
Sword Coast Legends
Fallout 4

 

[ReptilePZ]

Hmmm, trying to think what I played this last year that's new... Not much, really.

1. The Witcher 3 - Obvious choice, instant classic.
2. Tales from the Borderlands - Probably the best Telltale game to date, surprisingly enough (though I still personally prefer TWAU). Don't like Borderlands or its writing, still really enjoyed this game. A lighthearted action-comedy plot with some very cool set-pieces. It also featured some more actual gameplay elements than other recent Telltale titles, which was nice to see.
3. Fallout 4 - It's Bethesda's vision of Fallout. They actually have decent gunplay this time around, so the random exploration was quite fun. Basically, it's to Fallout 3 what Skyrim was to Oblivion. And it is to the original Fallout what the new Syndicate was to the original - a decent shooter but not really what the original was. Luckily, I enjoyed the shooting enough to keep me interested.
4. Pillars of Eternity - A modern take on the cRPG genre. It has a lot of depth and is a lot of fun. Would have been higher on the list if it didn't rely so heavily on retreading old ground.
5. Blues and Bullets, Episode 1 - Only 1 episode out of this Telltale-esque game, but it was very promising. It has a nice noire setting/aesthetic. Oh, and Doug Cockle (Geralt's VA) voices the main character, which is interesting. A nice detective noire story with some occult elements. Let's just hope the next episodes don't disappoint.