What is your console Game of the Year

[Wingznut]

However you want to list it: Each console, multi-platform, a single game, one for each console, remastered editions... Whatever.

 

[Wingznut]

I'm going with Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor. I haven't had this much fun with a game in years.

Honorable mention goes to The Walking Dead Season Two (although the first episode was released in 2013, the bulk of the game game out in 2014), Forza Horizon 2 and Titanfall.

 

[Rhezuss]

It might sound a bit silly and not playing lots of consol games...but after buying a Wii U I have to say Darksiders 2.

Best surprise of the year, completely didn't expect that from the game after playing and not much liking the first one.

A perfect blend of the old Tomb Raider + Zelda exploration/treasure finding + RPG elements and loot

 

[Lil Frier]

I'm not too sure on what I'd pick. I'll have to break this down a little for both of my consoles (Xbox One and Wii U).

Xbox One: Sunset Overdrive was probably the most fun game I played all year, but its brevity hurt it. Mordor had fun A.I. that made it feel like a unique experience, and it was longer than Overdrive, but it sorely lacked difficulty and had a bit of a letdown at the end. Halo: TMCC is great when it works, but that's all too infrequent a scenario. CoD had an OK campaign, but it still suffers from the same logic failures (bad hit detection, unbalanced weapons) that it always has, and the multiplayer maps are atrocious. I've barely touched Metro: Redux, so I can't give any assessment there (other than that the controls are a bit awkward and the beginning part is slow). Madden 15 was the same game as always, and it got boring pretty quickly. The Evil Within had horrible pacing and didn't offer any real story, so I gave up about one-third of the way into it. Titanfall was mostly a dud, as the campaign was pointless and puzzling, and the online play was just so-so. Watch Dogs was pretty fun, but was short and lacking in replay value. Kinect Sports Rivals was OK at times, but got infuriating when its inconsistent tracking went awry (which was a frequent issue).

I'd probably rank these games: Mordor, Sunset, Halo (solely for the campaigns) Watch Dogs, CoD, Madden, Titanfall, TEW, Rivals (leaving Metro out due to lack of time with it)

On the Wii U, it's a much shorter assessment. I got my console mid-year and picked up 2013 releases New Super Mario Bros. U and Super Luigi U with it, but I'll ignore them for a 2014 review (same for Super Mario 3D World). Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze was OK, but without 3-player co-op, it barely got played and was traded in. Mario Kart 8 was a blast for co-op, but the online play is very limiting. Super Smash Bros. is really fun, but the lineup of characters is limited in usability (lot of throwaway people), and the control scheme with the WiiMotion Plus (since switched to a Pro controller) is terrible.

I'd probably rank these games: Kart, Smash, Donkey Kong

Overall, it'd likely be Mordor as my top game, with Kart and Sunset in a close race for second/third.

 

[poofyhairguy]

As in released in America in 2014?

Then Bravely Default easily.

 

[purbeast0]

forza horizon 2 or killer instinct. those are the games i put the most time into this past year for sure.

 

[IHateMyJob2004]

Based on what I have bought:

Alien Isolation - Not the greatest game but it is actually kinda scary. They nailed it in terms of environment and feel.

 

[Imported]

Based on the number of hours I've put in..

MLB The Show 14 and Madden 15.

Good to hear about Mordor.. picked it up cheaply over BF.

 

[gorcorps]

I'll probably say Infamous: Second Son. It's not that it's spectacular, it's mainly because everything else I played wasn't any better. At least Infamous was fun enough to play to completion twice over to get the platinum trophy.

Diablo 3 release for the PS4 is pretty close. I was surprised how well it worked on the console, and how much fun I had playing through the campaign. D3 has the benefit of a lot of hours of potential gametime too, where you don't really get that from Infamous.

Watch Dogs wasn't bad, but most of the side events were boring so I ended up just rushing through the story to finish it. Not a bad start to a new franchise and I think the 2nd one will be pretty good (similar to Assassin's Creed 1 to 2)

Mordor has been pretty good, but it hasn't grabbed my attention like others. I just need to give it another go.

Destiny has been a disappointment to me. The amount of grinding that's necessary for very little payback is a real turn-off given how little I get to play. I was hoping to get my MP shooter fix from it as well, but it's just not fun. Others get a kick out of this type of system, but it just wasn't what I was looking for.

TLOU remastered was the biggest disappointment. I held off getting it on the PS3 hoping for a PS4 release, which finally happened. After playing 4-5 hours of it I was really bored. Traded it in while it was still worth something.

 

[Lil Frier]

I always kind of chuckle when people talk about Assassin's Creed like that, just because of how different my opinion of those games is. I really liked the first game, beat it and had fun. However, the second game, I only made it about halfway through before giving up because of how bored I was with such a shallow, redundant combat system. Everyone talks down the first game for legitimate issues they have with it, while second game gets praised as arguably the best in the series, while I loved the first and found the second so...tiresome...that I gave up on the series after it.

As for Destiny, I only played the beta, so I can't discuss the game too deeply. I admittedly had low expectations for the game at the start, but that's mostly because I opted to not follow it in the media, so I didn't know what I was going to be getting. Some concepts were intriguing, but it ended up being that Destiny was one of the most boring gaming experiences I've had in a long time. It was like The Evil Within, where I never felt like there was a point to the narrative, but it was so antisocial for a game pegged as a pseudo-MMO that I just found myself not caring about anything those around me (the few who were there) did.

The other disappointment was The Crew. I skipped Horizon 2 because I thought The Crew had more potential, and I liked their concept of social racing and a huge map to explore. I then played the beta, spent about an hour or two on that, and tossed any hope for the game out the window. The story seemed ridiculous and illogical, the driving physics were sub-par if you put them against Forza Motorsport 2, let alone Horizon 2 or Motorsport 5. The visuals were OK, nothing amazing, but the in-game character models (meaning outside of the cutscenes) looked horrid. It was a game I was really excited for, and it totally let me down in every way.

 

[zerocool84]

It's not an easy answer for me. Maybe Dragon Age, and maybe Shadow of Mordor. Honestly though no game this year has totally blown me away. Played a bunch of fun games but nothing made me feel like it was a great game.

 

[Drako]

I'm going to go with Diablo III, just because I played it the most, which usually means I enjoyed it the most. :hmm:

 

[rga]

I'd vote for Infamous: Second Son.

 

[cmdrdredd]

Dragon Age on all platforms.

 

[Subyman]

No huge stand out for me, but Dragon Age, Mordor, and Banner Saga were all great games.

 

[purbeast0]

i do agree with the other sentiment that there isn't really a hands down flat out GOTY this year at all. i only put the games i did because they are the ones that took most of my time when it came to gaming.

 

[Bman123]

I've played the last of us online more then all my other games together this year. Nothing is really goty material to me.

 

[TeknoBug]

Major gaming sites are putting Shadow of Mordor as GOTY, not my cup of tea.

I'd say Forza Horizon 2 for XB1, TLOU (although remasters aren't eligable for GOTY) for PS4.

Other than that, can't think of any other.

 

[mmntech]

2014 has been kind of a lacklustre year for gaming IMHO. There's nothing that's really jumped out at me. Actually haven't bought many new releases this year.

Infamous: Second Sun is probably one of my favourites as well. Though I wish there had been more side missions to do. I'd put Mario Kart 8 up there as well. I only got to play it briefly but it was a blast.

 

[xantub]

If south park is from this year, then South Park. If not, Bravely Default.

 

[poofyhairguy]

If south park is from this year, then South Park. If not, Bravely Default.

Good point.

 

[Tweak155]

I liked Shadow of Mordor but I never finished it. The controls could use some improvement and the story was just boring. The atmosphere and graphics were really good though.

If I had to pick, I'm gonna go with SSB. It's just very addicting. Mario Kart 8 was good, but I don't think I'd call it GOTY. The multiplayer SUCKS.

 

[Lil Frier]

People are saying that games haven't been all that great this year, compared to the recent past. This baffles me. What was so amazing from, say, the previous 2 years, when compared to 2014? From 2012-2013, I only purchased a total of 6 games, though I got 5 games in 2014 that were 2012-2013 releases. What's more, I would only say that maybe 6-7 of those 11 total games were ones that I really liked (MLB 2K12, Halo 4, Black Ops II, NSMBU, Powerstar Golf, FM5, and maybe Defiance--if it wasn't bogged down by old console hardware).

In 2014, I've played/liked many more games. On the Wii U, I got MK8 and SSB, which I liked, and DKC: Tropical Freeze, which I traded in (also picked up Fire Emblem on the Virtual Store recently, but I won't count that). On the Xbox One, I have gotten Kinect Sports Rivals, Watch Dogs, Titanfall, The Golf Club, Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor, The Evil Within, Sunset Overdrive, CoD Advanced Warfare, Madden 15, Metro: Redux, Halo: TMCC, and Monopoly: Family Fun Pack. Of those Xbox titles, only 2 (Rivals and TEW) weren't really enjoyable to me. I've barely touched Metro: Redux, so I won't count that one way or the other.

Point being, in 2 years, I picked up 6 games, then grabbed 5 more from that time frame in 2014, and I liked 6-7 of those 11 games. In 2014, I picked up 15 games, 12 of which I enjoyed. Of course, my opinion isn't everyone's, I just look at what's launched from 2012-2014 and wonder why people keep calling 2014 a weak gaming lineup. I think 2015 (where Dying Light and The Division got pushed to, along with games I'm not looking at like Arkham Knight and Evolve) will top 2014, but I certainly don't think that 2014 was weak.

 

[Sulaco]

2014 was a largely forgettable year, game wise, for me.

Granted, there are several "big name" titles I've held off on and will likely get for Christmas (Mordor, Alien Isolation, NBA 2k15), but what I have played has been fairly ho hum. At least, not in your typical "GotY" category.
I bought The Evil Within on launch night, it started out superbly, but I felt lost direction and steam half way through, and never really recovered. It's not a bad game at all, but I could definitely been more focused and better. It was however quite a bit more enjoyable than Watchdogs, which was largely a joke.

Right now it's probably The Show '14. I don't like giving GotY awards to sports games unless they're dramatic improvements over anything we've seen, but The Show was just so damn fun and near balanced out of the box, I simply got lost for MONTHS in it. I picked it up in May, and played it through October. I usually tire of baseball games right before football season starts (in August, if not before), so that's saying something.

 

[cmdrdredd]

There were lots of great games this year. Dragon Age, shadow of mordor, forza horizon 2, mlb the show just to name a few I enjoyed.

There were lots of remasters and re-released though which may have muddied the waters. For some, the best game they played this year on ps4 or xb1 may be a game that came out on a previous console last year. Last of Us and GTA5 are great games IMO but I can see where people may feel that the better games they tried were not exactly new.