Looking back at the "best of" (part 1, part 2) and "worst of" (part 1, part 2) lists for 2014, it dawned on me that I never really talked much about the games I played in 2014 or what I thought of them. Yeah, I did a few reviews throughout the year but I never really had enough time to review every game I played. If I did, then I wouldn't have any time to even play the games in the first place, which just causes a paradox of problems.

Let's fix that right now with a quick recap of some of the games I played throughout 2014. This isn't going to be a comprehensive list by any means. I will at least try to go in chronological order of when the games came out, which is typically about when I played the games.

January
  • Next Car Game - I did a brief look at this game. It was in Early Access then and I believe it's still in Early Access now, only now it's called Next Car Game: Wreckfest. It was fun then. It's still fun now. Nothing really much to say since it's still in development.
  • Loadout - I happened to enjoy playing Loadout. It was a F2P shooter with over the top cartoony gore and extremely lewd characters. It was fun in that you could create tons of combinations to form truly unique weapons and classes. Unfortunately, the group that I typically play games with never really played it so I also stopped playing it over time.
  • Trove - This is Trion Worlds' take on Cube World (ha ha, remember that game?). Sadly, after my look at the alpha release of the game, I never really went back to it. I just don't like getting attached to a game so early in development because chances are progress will be wiped or mechanics will change and starting over repeatedly isn't my idea of fun.
  • Octodad: Dadliest Catch - Ehhh. It has charm but it just didn't grab me.


February
  • CastleMiner Z - Well this game was just terrible. That is, of course, just my opinion.
  • Rambo: The Video Game - I planned to do a video about this game. I believe I even had it recorded and there was some reason why it never saw the light of day. I think the audio was corrupt or something. Whatever it was, it was a sign that even though I often play some terrible games just for the hell of it, this one was just too terrible to even put up as a joke.
  • Nether - I did a whole gameplay series on Nether. It was fun, but it was also very rough around the edges and still lacked a great deal of content. I should check that out again some time to see how much progress has been made since I last played it almost 11 months ago.
  • Go! Go! Nippon! ~My First Trip to Japan~ - I just don't even.


March
  • South Park: The Stick of Truth - Great game but I never cared enough to finish it.
  • Resogun - Yeah, this came out in 2013 but I didn't have a PS4 until March 2014. This game is GREAT! I normally hate shmups but damn this is a lot of fun.
  • Titanfall - Fun, but the playerbase died off too quickly (especially on PC). My Titanfall review was quite positive and probably would still be positive now but I had to uninstall since it took forever to find games.
  • Threes - Simple mobile game, good for a few minutes here and there.
  • Luftrausers - Fun for a few minutes here and there.
  • Vertiginous Golf - It was some weird steampunk style mini-golf game. It had some neat ideas and course designs, but was (and is) an Early Access game with room to improve.
  • Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes - Made some changes to the franchise I don't necessarily agree with, still enjoyable. Perhaps a bit too short even with the many hours I got out of it.
  • Infamous: Second Son - Loved it. First Platinum trophy I ever earned.
  • Stick It to the Man! - I tried to like it but I couldn't get past the writing and visuals. Nothing about that game really clicked with me though I know others loved it.
  • BioShock Infinite: Burial at Sea Episode 2 - Rather disappointing and kind of took away from the base game's ending.


April
  • Viscera Cleanup Detail - Fun with friends but only once or twice. It's more akin to work if playing on your own.
  • The Golf Club - A fantastic golf game with a ton of replayability due to the user created courses.
  • Goat Simulator - This was a lot of fun but I only played it a couple of times. It's something you show your friends a few times and that's pretty much it. I haven't tried it since they've added their MMO update so I cannot comment on that.
  • Mercenary Kings - A bit like Monster Hunter. Fun but I simply did not have the time to really dig into it.
  • The Elder Scrolls Online - You know what? I really liked this game. It certainly had some issues but I'm eager to play this again once it drops the monthly subscription fee.
  • Tabletop Simulator - An insanely good game. You can literally play just about any tabletop game ever or make up your own. The Steam Workshop integration makes this very easy to do.
  • Dark Souls 2 - I liked it even if I wasn't very good at it and quit trying to make a video series out of my gameplay after just three terrible videos.
  • Daylight - This was a terrible game.
  • Rogue Legacy - A very difficult "rogue like" game. Some of the controls can be frustrating to deal with.
  • Trials Fusion - A game worthy of the "Trials" name. Which reminds me, I have a lot of DLC tracks I should check out.


May
  • Bound by Flame - It was a bit of a "run of the mill" action-RPG style game. It was great in parts but it could have been so much more. (Review)
  • Wolfenstein: The New Order - Probably one of my top favorite games of the year and almost certainly the best FPS of the year. I never in a million years would have ever thought I'd be saying that about a Wolfenstein game, but here we are.
  • Watch Dogs - I think I stopped playing this after just a few hours. I found nothing redeeming about this game except that it could sometimes look pretty at night while it was raining.
  • Among the Sleep - I had hopes for this one but it ultimately came up well short of delivering a solid horror experience. I'd still recommend it if you can find it cheap now though. (Review)
  • Turbo Dismount - You crash various vehicles in a variety of maps and see the physics do their magic on your vehicle and the virtual dummy. Not much in the way of a "game" here.


June
  • Shovel Knight - A solid platformer with solid controls that rightfully punishes bad play.
  • Sniper Elite III - Disappointing when stacked up against the first two games. It's still not a terrible game but it wasn't as good as its predecessors (in my opinion).
  • PixelJunk Shooter: Ultimate - A PS+ offering. It was alright.
  • The Last of Us Remastered - I never played the game on the PS3. I played it on the PS4 and enjoyed it quite a bit. I still have not finished the Left Behind campaign yet, however. I don't feel like there's any real rush for me to do so either.
  • Spintires - An (IMO) underrated off road driving simulator.
  • Trine 2: Complete Story - Another PS+ offering. I never really got into the Trine series. The game looked beautiful though. Again, just personal taste.
  • Divinity: Original Sin - If you enjoy games like Baldur's Gate or the Ultimata series, you'll love this. It's a difficult but thoroughly enjoyable RPG that demanded far more time than I had. If I had more time, I'd be all over this in a heartbeat.


July
  • Strider - A PS+ game. I didn't like it. I was never a fan of the Strider franchise, so maybe that's why.
  • TowerFall: Ascension - Another PS+ game. It's great if you have friends nearby to play it with (or via the PS4 SharePlay feature).


August
  • Road Not Taken - It was free on PS+. This puzzle focused game really wasn't for me.
  • Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare - One of the best class/team based games released this year. I still adore this game now. It also scored quite high on our old scoring system.
  • Infamous: First Light - I actually felt this played better than Infamous: Second Son. I also enjoyed this enough to 100% it for the Platinum trophy.
  • Mountain - I stopped climbing that mountain after my one and done video.
  • Madden NFL 15 - My first Madden game in years and the first one for a new console gen. It looks great and plays great. I'm sure Madden NFL 16 will look better and add in some minor feature just to differentiate itself but this one should hold me over for a while.


September
  • Velocity 2X - Part top-down shmup in space ships, part puzzler, part side-scrolling action puzzler. This PS+ game came as a surprise with how much I enjoyed it.
  • Dead Rising 3: Apocalypse Edition - It wasn't bad and seemed to be about in line with the previous games as far as enjoyment went. The performance wasn't always the best though.
  • Destiny - For a game that I hate, I sure can't seem to stop playing it. It was disappointing in so very many ways, but in a year where "looter shooters" were either this or Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel, this one wins hands down simply due to the great shooting. That's it. That's literally it. That's literally all Destiny has going for it.
  • Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor - If it wasn't for this game's second half and the "branding" ability, it would have been a sub-par experience. The first half was bland and I'm not just talking about the environment and visuals. I honestly cannot understand how this game won so many "Game of the Year" awards last year. I really don't.


October
  • Alien: Isolation - I enjoyed Alien: Isolation. It was a shining gem in a year of disappointing horror game releases. My only gripes were that the save system could have been implemented better and the game seemed to go on for just a bit too long.
  • Pix the Cat - A trippy little game that I initially liked but never really went back to playing after a few times with it.
  • NBA 2K15 - I hate basketball but I played a game of this on PC and it seemed alright. It was new sports game on the PC that wasn't golf or some weird "sim" style game, so of course I had to try it.
  • Spelunky - I played it off and on for a bit after it came to PS+ as a free game. This normally isn't the type of game you'd find me playing but I have no complaints about it. I know it reviewed highly over the months.
  • Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel - Once you beat the game once, that's pretty much all you want to do. The story was lacking. The loot was lacking. The end-game content was essentially absent. The story actually got a bit better in the little bit that I played of the second playthrough thanks to some added humor from Tiny Tina, but even that couldn't push me to keep playing.
  • Ryse: Son of Rome - I downloaded it and played through it on the PC. It looked pretty but the gameplay was shallow.
  • The Evil Within - You could almost taste my disappointment with this game. All this hope and anticipation for the return of survival horror and we got ... this?
  • Civilization: Beyond Earth - 13 minutes. That's how much time I spent with this game to realize there was just too many things mechanically wrong to even attempt to play this. This is after having spent at least 40 hours (Steam failed to record all of my time playing) in Civ 4 and Civ 5 previously.
  • Lords of the Fallen - I wish I had more time for this game. It was scratching that itch that finishing Dark Souls 2 left earlier in the year. At launch it had a number of technical issues and I never found the time to go back to play it as I wish I could. It was like Dark Souls "Lite" but still offered a decent challenge for fans of the genre.


November
  • Depth - Played the beta. You can be a shark and eat people. Eh.
  • SteamWorld Dig - It was alright. I was debating on buying this for a while but it came free on PS+. You dig, you get resources which allow you to dig more, and so you dig some more. It has some periods of puzzle solving and action but it's actually quite relaxing.
  • Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare - The best Call of Duty game in years. The Exo suits add in some much needed vertical gameplay and movement to the series and I will be disappointed if future games in the franchise don't have similar movement mechanics. Plus, how can you not love virtual Kevin Spacey?
  • The Binding of Issac: Rebirth - I probably wouldn't have played this if it didn't pop up on the PS4 as a PS+ offering. I'm glad it did though because it's one of those games that I can pick up and play for a bit when I have a half hour chunk of time. Each boss kill still feels like a small victory each time.
  • Assassin's Creed Unity - A technical mess at launch. I tried to look past those and play the game but I really couldn't do it. Some of the gameplay changes that I noticed in my time with it were nice and I would like to go back to that game but not any time soon. It also still included a lot of the "Ubisoft open world" gameplay that every other Ubisoft open world game includes that I just cannot stomach any more.
  • Dragon Age: Inquisition - I hope this game is a sign that BioWare is back on track. It is perhaps my 2014 GOTY. I'm now cautiously optimistic for the return of the Mass Effect franchise.
  • Far Cry 4 - I just don't see how this was too different from Far Cry 3. Plus it yet again has the damned "Ubisoft open world" staples that I'm super tired of seeing in their games.
  • Grand Theft Auto V - Still the most immersive action based open world game out there right now.
  • Geometry Wars 3: Dimensions - I was a fan of Geometry Wars Retro Evolved on the 360 and this scratched that itch nicely.


December
  • I Am Bread - I was bread. I played it once and beat the first level. That's about all I cared to play.
  • Secret Ponchos - It came out as a PS+ game. I played a few rounds of it online. It never really clicked with me so I removed it from my system.
  • Titan Attacks - It was like if Space Invaders took crack. I played it once and decided that was enough for me. The gameplay never really elevated much beyond the "Space Invaders" style for my liking.
  • The Crew - Ubisoft open world gameplay but with cars. Meh.
  • Driveclub - Received this for Christmas and I'm glad I stopped waiting for the PS+ version to come out. It's a very solid racing experience with visuals that are second to none.


I played some other games here or there throughout 2014 but did not include them because I either forgot about them or they were older games that didn't come out in 2014 and weren't worth mentioning.