2014 "Of The Year" Awards Part II

2014 Worst Entry to a Franchise

Assassin's Creed: Unity

Assassin's Creed is my favorite franchise and it has completely gone off the rails with Unity. Telling a smaller in scope story than previous entries, it follows a young man (Arno) who is orphaned as child and taken in by a powerful man and his family during the French Revolution. Creating a literal interpretation of Romeo and Juliet that skirts the outside of the French Revolution rather than embedding in historical fact a la Assassin's Creed III, the narrative is thin but has some emotional connection. Broken in every, Unity continues to be buggy months after release and multiple patches. Unfortunately the common issues that have affected the franchise, ie jumping off a roof to your death and other mechanics are still present, diminishing the series further. Hopefully Ubisoft takes the horrible launch and fiscal ramifications of this game to heart and rethinks their current design by committee methodology.

2014 Best Entry to a Franchise

Wolfenstein vs Alien:Isolation

Wolfenstein: the New Order is a surprising and delightfully entertaining continuation of the service, picking up where 2009's Wolfenstein left off. Tight joyful shooting combined with sheer ridiculousness killing power makes the player a one-man army in contrast to the grim and not glum story that deals with loss. Set in a wonderfully realized post-WWII where Germany has conquered the world with magic and nuclear weapons, Wolfenstein is a gory treat.

Alien: Isolation rejuvenates the moribund Alien franchise, wiping the painful memories of Colonial Marines from the mind. Taught and replete with atmosphere, Isolation follows Amanda, the daughter of Ripley, in search for her mother. Stuck on a dying space station and hunted by everything including the single titular Alien, Isolation masters the sound and visual design of the first film, creating tension from the throbbing heartbeat of the ship. Best experienced in small portions as it is too long and somewhat repetitive.


2014 Best Moar Betterer

Borderlands:The Pre-Sequel vs Second Son vs Far Cry 4


If you love you some Borderlands then do I have a game for you. Best experienced as co-op mixtape of Borderlands greatest hits mashed up with low gravity and no atmosphere,the pre-sequel is this years Dead Island:Riptide





Infamous: Second Son is a gorgeous next gen update to the Infamous series. Graced with beautiful animation and design, the mechanics and narrative are derivative of the earlier games leaving it pretty but empty.

Far Cry 4 is essentially a reskin of Far Cry 3 which not a bad thing. Lean on story but better than the bro-tastique Far Cry 3, FC 4 is satisfying fun and the least broken Ubisoft game this fall.





2014's 2011 GOTY I (will) never finish

All of the emergent stuff I love in Far Cry 3 exists in Skyrim, or so I am told. After dozens of hours of meandering from town to town I have seen precious little of the living world, and too much of dungeons and castles. I fear like Oblivion, this game may simply one day disappear from my collection.

Its saving grace has been the endless mods that allow me to remove the annoyances that rob the game of joy (encumbrance) and improve on what exists (visual tweaks). It is a visually stunning game with some truly terrible melee combat.

2014's Game That Was Better On PC 

Almost Everything

Going into the second year of the new console generation PC is already ahead by leaps and bounds. Console has become the place I rent games I intend to buy and play at higher resolution with better textures. Ubisoft remains the biggest offender in horrible PC ports, with Unity and Far Cry 4 being flaming piles of garbage on the platform. There has never been a better time to be a PC gamer.


2014's Most Pleasant Surprise

Sniper Elite 3

Burdened by a terrible narrative Sniper Elite 3 brings classic stealth gameplay a la Splinter Cell with refined graphics and the Mortal Kombat style x-ray kills. Brutal, gory and difficult, I expected Sniper Elite 3 to be a diamond in the rough and instead was treated to a satisfying stealth action game.




2014's Game of the Year

Middle-Earth: Shadows of Mordor

Not only is Mordor a great open world game filled with tight combat mechanics and extremely convenient traversal, it is the first truly next gen game due to the Nemesis system.

Allowing the player to dynamically affect the armies of Mordor by picking off or taking control of orcs through the hierarchy, Mordor becomes as much or as a little as the player puts into it. Enemies are not only unique and almost never repeat, the named orcs, remember the encounters the player has with them and how they resolved, including mocking you for running away or dying.


Mordor was easily the most fun game I played this year with a great narrative wrapped around pitch perfect mechanics.