The top ten games of 2014

Games
21

How is the online experience for Smash Brothers? Both technical wise, and fun wise (not being full of hardcore asshats exploiting the same overpowered characters and playing nothing but no item Falco mode).

Infested Planet I had fun with for about an hour. What killed it is discovering that 90% of the options aren't worth using. Grenades + cybernetic early game, minigunner spam mid to late game. There's no other strategy in the game that comes close to spamming as many minigunners as possible and backing them up with a heal pod.

22

2014 was a year in boardgames for me, mostly. Totally agree with Mario Kart and Brawl, and I'm interested in Bayonetta. The WiiU just charmed me in general. Endless Legend mostly bounced off me, too, for whatever reason, I may try again down the line. The Crew sounds great, although more the type of game I'd prefer to play on consoles. (And the WiiU is the only current gen I have) Perhaps I'll try the Windows version.

23

I figure it's as good an excuse as Diablo coming out on PS4.

24

Should I buy this game?

25

Not even close. There was nothing comparable in Marvel Heroes last year to what happened with a) the Reaper of Souls expansion (adventure mode, Act V, Crusader, auction house coming out, level cap raised, paragon levels) and b) how Blizzard adapted Diablo III to console systems (controls, interface, local multiplayer, nemesis system, etc.).

26

I like the fake-out with the Far Cry 4 pic starting the list and then not being on it. ;)

27

I would disagree. Marvel Heroes probably can't compete in terms of non-character playable content released in 2014 (although there's been quite a bit - raids, the Industry City patrol, several new terminals, Shield Holo-Sim, various new encounters in existing content), but 14 (maybe more, actually, not sure) new character classes, the omega system, cybernetics, login rewards, team-ups, shared quests and a bunch of substantial mechanical overhauls to things like stats make a pretty fair bid to compare to Diablo's upgrades, in my book.

Certainly enough to be talking about it in this company, even if it doesn't rate as high on your list as it does mine. And personally, the changes to Diablo III made it a game I enjoyed going back to for a while, but it didn't have anywhere near the same staying power as Marvel Heroes for me. Fundamentally, I'm more interested in trying out new classes and power suites than I am in the loot grind, and even with the major loot overhaul I still find MH's loot more rewarding than Diablo III's, which is interesting mostly when it comes to legendaries. Those certainly drop a lot more often now (I actually see them!) but not often enough to be the only thing I'm playing for.

28

Actually, I've never once gone online with Super Smash Bros. I'm just not that interested in getting my ass kicked by people who are good at the game. Same with Mario Kart, by the way.

As for your comments about Infested Planet, that wasn't my experience at all. Part of the beauty of the game is the different ways the aliens can evolve to throw you off any particular build order. But if you've managed to find the secret to "breaking" the game, I guess we can see your name at the top of the challenge scoreboards, right? :)

29

Hey, hold on a minute, mister! The "overrated" list will be along next week! :)

What were the notable DS releases from last year? I played Super Smash Bros. (ugh!), Bravely Default, and that Fantasy Life game. What did I miss that should have been on the list?

30

You're asking me if you should buy what I chose as the top game of 2014? Really, McMaster? Dude.

31

Oh, wait, are we talking about whether you personally like Marvel Heroes or Diablo better? Because I don't have a dog in that fight.

But if your argument is that Marvel Heroes changed as significantly in 2014 as Diablo, and therefore felt like a brand new experience, I'm open to hearing you try to make that case.

32

Love these year-end lists. There aren't any other games journalists whose recommendations make me buy games on the spot.

33

I don't feel that Diablo felt like a brand new experience. I feel like it felt like a game that had been significantly improved in a bunch of ways, and the same goes for Marvel Heroes - I just listed a whole swathe of major improvements that they made in 2014, which had as much or more impact on my enjoyment of Marvel Heroes as the changes to Diablo did there. I'm not trying to argue which game is better, and certainly not which you should like more, just that your rationale for including Diablo on a 2014 list could stretch perfectly well to Marvel Heroes.

34

Again, not even close. Gazillion has done a stellar job throwing new content into the game, but it's by and large the same gameplay. You've got to be chugging some serious Marvel Heroes Kool Aid. Lemme see your tongue.

Yep, just as I thought. Purple from all the Kool Aid!

35

It is true that 2014 was relatively poor for the 3DS as well, but i don't recall any of its games included in previous top lists either...

From the games you played, Smash Bros is already kind of included, Bravely Default is Overrated (too much repetition and not enough genuine challenge) :) , but Fantasy Life is definitely better than at least a couple of your entries...

I am surprized you didn't like it more. It is actually a family-friendly handheld Skyrim. A nice charming main story that is easy to complete and acts more as a tutorial, plenty of things to do, many different classes to master, and a wonderful crafting system. Plus really great production values for a handheld game and an incredible localization.

Maybe you didn't like its presentation style, or you thought it is just another run-of-the-mill jrpg. But it is not. I have been playing "hardore" crpgs for decades, and i was plesantly surprized by this title. When i look at its metacritic score, i think this is one of the most underrated games of recent years. Maybe not the best rpg ever made, but in a dissapointing year like 2014, how many games were better than it?

80 days? 80 days is just an interactive novel.

The Crew has many problems.

Diablo III is a boring click-a-thon. Just because it is addicting, doesn't mean it is a good game, or fun. Drugs are addicting as well... Plus, it is not a 2014 game...

Endless Legend is just a boring micromanagement chore. It has many gameplay elements that don't mean a thing. There are few actual decisions you get to make that matter. Plus its AI is worse than Civ. You criticize Civ poorly for poor AI and meaningless choices (i agree), but then when a Civ-clone with more of the same problems comes around, is in Top 10 of the year? Just because it has different races? Yeah i get it, instead of mastering one single micromanagement formula to win deity every single time, you get to pick which slightly different micromanagement formula you will use before the map is generated...

Another game that is seriously lacking is Xenonauts. I really like older Xcom games, but this one is just a bad imitation. It just tries to capitalize on the nostalgia of gamers. It is not that good. Too much tedious after a while.

Infested planet i haven't played.

Age of wonders has good AI? Seriously? Since when? All it does is cheating. Spamming wave after wave of units and rushing. Actually, both this and Heroes of Might and Magic 6 have the same problem: No strategy, just rush before you get rushed. Really boring and tedious game, the building element serves no purpose, might as well make it tactical and acquire units with "points".

Beyond Earth is actually far better than both strategy games you included on the list. Of course, it has no good AI as well, but it has different strategies to pursue and many choices to make, Plus far better production values. I don't believe it belongs to top 10 games of the year, but in a list that includes those other two? Come on...

A strategy game is about thinking and well... strategizing. If all you do in a game is following/micromanaging a winning formula that is the same every time, where is the strategy?

Now, for a game that i believe you overlooked:

Alien Isolation. The most revolutionary survival horror up until now. Instead of being just an action/adventure game with some horror surprizes and/or over the top gore, it actually is scary all the time. In proper difficulties, you are even scared to walk. Plus pretty faithfull to a movie classic. It has some flaws, but it definitely belongs in Top 10 of the year...

36

Just want to jump in and comment that you should really give the online in Mario Kart a try. It's fun chaos. I'm a mediocre player at best ( I don't have 3 stars on all the 150cc yet) But I find the online enjoyable. i win some, I lose some, and on the rare occasion when I see someone doing better then they should, I just log out and re-log into a different group. The sheer chaos of the item drops is both frustrating and game balancing at the same time. I find it's definitely worth dropping an hour or two into from time to time.

But then I take a perverse pleasure out of beating people with my fat little Mii dressed in the Kirby racing suit.

37

Diablo III still is by and large the same gameplay too, by that metric. The loot is better tuned and you don't have to navigate the campaign linearly (after the first time) (both things that weren't issues for MH to begin with), but I'm still fighting the same monsters and bosses with the same sets of skills. Nothing fundamental has shifted in that.

But of course that's unnecessarily reductive. Diablo has certainly undergone major changes and they make for a game that's much more rewarding to play. All I'm saying is that Marvel Heroes has too.

38

Yeah, I probably should have had you do the list for me, right? What was I thinking???

39

So, like, no then?

40

Diablo 3:UE on the 360 was the biggest surprise I played this year, after being disappointed with the previous console port. Maybe Blizzard fixed the pacing of the game, making it far less repetitive and linear.