This is the shittiest upcoming Holiday Season in the history of gaming.

[jakonovski]

I was going to make a Frank Zappa joke but I see you guys went full scat.

[Rokal]

I think there's still a few things worth being excited about.

-Shadow of Mordor was better than AC has been in years.

-DA:I is apparently everything DA fans wanted it to be.

-Bayonetta 2 was fantastic even if it's not on a platform you use

I'm also really looking forward to Captain Toad's Treasure Tracker, which fleshes out the best part from my favorite game last year into a whole game.

Most of the AAA console/PC releases from the past 2 years have been awful, boring, or both. The last 2 holiday seasons have been pretty decent for Nintendo platforms though.

[Rendakor]

Did you actually play Bayonetta 2? Been looking for some impressions from f13ers; I loved the first one and now that there are a handful of Wii U titles I was thinking about pulling the trigger.

[Rokal]

Yeah, I'm about 3/4 through it. The weapon balance is better this time around and the production values are higher. If you liked the first one you really can't go wrong.

[Rendakor]

Cool, thanks. Hopefully I can catch a Wii U on a decent sale this weekend.

[Sky]

I was going to make a Frank Zappa joke but I see you guys went full scat.

[jakonovski]

I'm a proud member of the Eurodance generation.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y6oXW_YiV6g

[Yegolev]

[Samprimary]

So what's the extended argument that 2014 was just a shitty year in games overall

[Paelos]

Seemed fine to me, but let the hate flow.

[schild]

So what's the extended argument that 2014 was just a shitty year in games overall

I bought 5 games and 2 came with the Wii U i bought only for Mario Kart 8.

[Phildo]

Maybe there's a causal relationship with you being married now.

[schild]

Jenny plays as many games as me. She bought 4 or 5 games for herself this year.

[Yegolev]

I don't have time for more new good games than what I have already gotten this year.  Mordor somehow fell off my rotation, probably due to Destiny in which I'm only lv28 (although that honestly doesn't accurately indicate time spent in this game).  I have a friend with three lv30s, but he is a single childless waiter.  Now I'm embroiled in Dragon Age MP since I unlocked the Elementalist.  This short list is all it takes to consume my free time, which is inflated since I generally get 4-5 hours of sleep every night.

I'm fine with this year's crop.  You can't have a Borderlands 2 every year.

[Phildo]

Getting Endless Legend for half off yesterday is probably going to carry me through to the end of the year.  I'll actually take a look at the Dragon Age MP this weekend, too, since at least I know one person who's playing it.

e: Schild, just because she games doesn't mean that she's not also distracting you from spending more time gaming than you would otherwise.  I imagine you didn't get much gaming time in over the last few weeks, after all.

[schild]

e: Schild, just because she games doesn't mean that she's not also distracting you from spending more time gaming than you would otherwise.  I imagine you didn't get much gaming time in over the last few weeks, after all.

16 hours playing Hex over the weekend disagrees with what you said.

[Lantyssa]

It was pretty lackluster.  I had stuff I played, but nothing that excited me like years past.  In fact, I went back to older games a lot more this year.

[jakonovski]

MGSV Ground Zeroes just came out on PC. That may save a boring Boxing Day.

[Yegolev]

I tried, but I don't like any of those games.

[Velorath]

So what's the extended argument that 2014 was just a shitty year in games overall

Metacritic scores are a bad gauge of quality but just use this as a list to remind you of everything that came out this year. Now take out all the ports (and mobile games if you're so inclined).

[Margalis]

If I made a list of my top 10 games this year half of them would be VC GBA games.

Metacritic scores are a bad gauge of quality but just use this as a list to remind you of everything that came out this year. Now take out all the ports (and mobile games if you're so inclined).

Mobile games (and to a lesser extent indie darlings) get a free pass from critics so it's worth taking them out. It's like comparing a group of students graded on an A-B curve to a group of students graded on an A-F curve.

[Rendakor]

Is that Metacritic link using US release dates to quantify what came out in 2014? Excluding ports, I've only played 2 of the games on the first page and only have any interest in 2 more.

[schild]

Can't sort by user ranking and the score is so tiny. For something that matters so much, it's hard to believe Metacritic isn't in bed with publishers to remove outlier scores that bring down the average.

[Falconeer]

Interestingly enough, if I use the Metacritic page to see what came out in 2014, and I filter them by PC games (things seem to be even worse for consoles), turns out Dark Souls 2 is the highest rated game and ultimately what made 2014 for me.

And I am not counting Smite because it has been in Open Beta since 2013 even though official release happened in 2014, but that's the best PvP/arena game of the year.

Honestly, is that enough to save a year? Probably not. It's telling that I have to fish in the indie department to pull out the other things specifically from 2014 that I loved: Divinity Original Sin (which I'll admit I haven't actually played), This War of Mine, The Long Dark or Sunless Sea which aren't even out yet. Legend of Grimrock 2, which is a carbon copy of a game that came out 25 years ago. Special mention for The Crew for the sheer immensity and detail of its game world. Alien Isolation, maybe? Haven't played it. I guess Dragon Age 3 could be in some lists, but I am not sure it'd make it in mine.

Yeah, overall hard not to call it a very slow year. Just get Dark Souls 2 and carry on.

[Zetor]

As a glorious PC master race specimen, the only AAA game this year that managed to get and keep my interest was Dark Souls 2. Other than that, it's indies all the way down. I found Shadowrun Dragonfall, Divinity:OS and Blackguards fun (in roughly this order)... Wasteland 2 would be in the running too, but it's way too janky.

[Velorath]

One could make the argument that the Wii U had the best lineup this year, with Mario Kart, Smash Bros., and Bayonetta 2. I don't necessarily think it is the best lineup, but a case could be made and that's bad enough.

[Jeff Kelly]

Notable Wii U 2014 releases:

Bayonetta 2
Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker
Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze
Mario Kart 8
Super Smash Bros. WiiU
Hyrule Warriors

[Yegolev]

Arguably best.

[Lantyssa]

Which is amusing now as people were saying the Wii U was a terrible console.

[Sky]

Video games are dead.

[schild]

Which is amusing now as people were saying the Wii U was a terrible console.

Is and always was a terrible console. Bad consoles can have great games. Even the Atari Jaguar had Cannon Fodder.

[Rendakor]

That Wii U list is great, but it's pretty much all Nintendo has left. Mario Kart and Smash Bros are both one-per-system, and Bayonetta 2 is the one third party title anyone gave a shit about on the console. I'll be surprised if they release 3 more games on par with the above over the lifetime of the system.

[Lantyssa]

I'm not commenting on its quality directly.  Just that it was lambasted, yet seemed to have gotten the best games of the year.

Perhaps it's more sad than anything.

[Yegolev]

More sad.

[Falconeer]

Ugh, depends who you ask, really. Out of that list I would only play Bayonetta and Hyrule Warriors and it doesn't seem like they were GOTY material anyway. I do not represent the planet, but I am sure I am not alone in not caring about the millionth rehash of Nintendo's old glories and platformers with Nintendo graphics, Nintendo style, and Nintendo target demographic.