Games of the Decade: 2014

This evening I am going to go see Star Wars Rise of Skywalker, and I am sure tomorrow I will be posting my thoughts about it. However this morning I am going to continue our journey down memory lane as I talk about the games that were important to me over the last decade. Each time I think I am walking into a slow year… I sift through the titles that released and keep finding things that were extremely important to me. Let’s get started.

Elder Scrolls Online

Elder Scrolls Online – PC
I am not sure if there are words to express how important this title is to me. I could have in theory included this game on 2013, because it also played heavily into that year for me as I began testing it in February. I’m a member of the Psijic Order, the original team of testers that stayed with the game as it progressed through various phases and I am super proud to have stomped a bunch of bugs… or at least reported them prolifically. This game mattered me to not only because it is Elder Scrolls a setting that I adore, but also that one of my good friends worked on it. While this didn’t turn out to be the “WoW Killer” like I had hoped, it is a game that I keep revisiting to spend time wandering through its amazing storyline. In fact it seems like it might be time to dust off my characters and pay another visit over the holidays.

Transistor

Transistor – PC
This game was the game that more or less inspired the AggroChat game club concept. It was a title that spontaneously we all happened to be playing at exactly the same time, and then as a result we recorded what felt like three full shows worth of discussion as we dug deep into the title and our feelings about it. We tried to make this function artificially as we constructed the concept of the Game Club, but it never felt quite as fresh or in the moment because there was always a time when more than one of us were never really that into the chosen title. Supergiant Games is a phenomenal studio and I am willing to play pretty much everything they put out. Transistor was this fluid fusion of music, story and interesting ARPG gameplay that created a total package that we all kept returning to over and over. Collectively we deemed this to be the game of 2014, and it still holds up. I would have loved to have played this on the Switch as it is now my modern platform for this type of game.

Wolfenstein: The New Order

Wolfenstein: The New Order – PC
I love Wolfenstein as a franchise and I have been a huge fan since I first got my hands on the original Apogee title from a shareware disk sold by the local bookstore. I obsessed with the game and editing new levels for it, and then as each new game has released I have spent time playing it. After Return to Castle Wolfenstein the quality of the games fell off significantly, so I was completely excited to see a brand new game being worked on by Machine Games a Zenimax studio. This game is both a sequel and a re-imagining of the entire experience and I loved every moment of it. The screenshot is from one of my favorite sequences where you are scaling the side of the eponymous Castle Wolfenstein, but the images never quite do it justice. There were so many really cool big set pieces in the game, and it wove with it a really interesting storyline that provided the action I craved and the character development that Kodra craved. It is a magical time when a game is planted firmly in both of our wheelhouses.

Divinity: Original Sin

Divinity: Original Sin – PC
This game is going on the list for a few reasons, but not because I necessarily played it over and over and managed to find deep revelations in it. The first reason why it is on the list is because it presents something that has never really existed in my memory before this game, a two player classic PC role-playing game experience. You can start the game as either one character with a swappable NPC, or you can have two different players controlling each character that is on screen and as a result end up having competing goals and objectives. The other reason why it deserves to be on the list is the sheer depth that this game has. You will go insane trying to track down every single thread and quite honestly this paralysis lead me to not get terribly far in the game as a whole. When I encountered the first town I effectively spent all of my time doing what seemed to be a near endless number of side quests and completely tilting my way out of the main story. I want to revisit this game but set some guidelines about what sorts of quests I am willing to partake in.

Destiny

Destiny – PS4
Destiny is the reason why I bought a Playstation 4. It was the single game that was willing to sell me on purchasing a console and I did so more or less to play in the Alpha that was exclusive to that platform. I saw in this game so much promise that I absolutely wanted to be in. However the initial game-play experience was a little lacking for me and I bounced out of it only to return when Taken King released. From that point forward however there has never been a time when I have not at least been playing Destiny a little bit, and I never quite realized just how much this franchise would come to dominate my game time. I love everything about this world and its rich lore… and the subtle mechanical differences between each weapon that make them all feel so unique to me. I view Destiny and Destiny 2 as a continuum and together they are probably my favorite game of this decade.

Where Bel Was Mentally in 2014

It was a really interesting year because it marked the birth of our weekly podcast AggroChat. It also marks the year that I officially transitioned into management or at least was an official supervisor. Diablo 3 Reaper of Souls also dominated my play time, but since I had already talked about it in 2012 I figured that was probably enough of that. It was a pretty good year and considering we record AggroChat 280 this weekend, we set up a firm foundation that seems to still be working.

On Secondary Sin

Blaugust Post #23

Divinity Original Sin: Enhanced Edition is coming out “soon” on PC and the current console generation. I never finished it, but I am a big fan of the original release. Owners of the original will receive the enhanced edition for free, which is in line with what they’ve done for their previous games.

On Secondary Sin

A sequel, Original Sin 2, is now on Kickstarter. It’s one of the cases where simply promising more of the same would probably get me interested, but it looks like they’re doing a lot more than that. One of the best features of Original Sin is the ability to disagree with your partner, which results in you playing Rock Paper Scissors against each other. Points for winning are determined by your persuasion stat, and the first to 10 gets to determine what the party does.

On Secondary Sin

Original Sin 2 seems to expand on this concept, and actually let the party work on objectives at odds with each other. No word on if it will allow what Tam refers to as the “GM Victory”, but I honestly kind of hope so. It also expands co-op to include up to 4 players.

On Secondary Sin

They’re also tweaking the battle system, which was already one of the best turn-based systems I’ve seen in a long time. Given the character I played the first time around (a ranger-type) I’m not sure a cover system is going to be terribly helpful, but I’m willing to give it a chance. More interactions mostly increases the potential for unintended hilarity. And I appreciate that there are more options for the player than just humans.

On Secondary Sin

I haven’t looked forward to a Kickstarter game this much in a long time. It smashed its funding goal on the first day, so it seems likely we’ll be playing this at some point next year.