Here are the 10 best games I played in 2014…

 

10. Jazzpunk

A generous farce. All you grim videogames, take note.

9. Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker

A topological delight. The game Monument Valley wishes it could be.

8. Kentucky Route Zero, Act III

The year’s most resonant game about debt and regret in modern America.

7. Wolfenstein: the New Order

A first-person shooter that knows itself. Confident, committed, adult.

6. Hohokum

Restless and rigorous, gorgeous and dream-logical, completely itself.

5. 1001 Spikes

Fathers and sons and hardcore platforming.

4. Left Behind (The Last of Us DLC)

Ellie is seen.

3. With Those We Love Alive

“Every day is damage.” And yet.

2. 80 Days

A world text. And one of the best works of interactive fiction yet.

1. Desert Golfing

All there is.

 

And here are the 10 worst…

 

10. The Sailor’s Dream

Dishwater.

9. Transistor

Don’t let your sword/lover narrate your story.

8. Framed

Beware slick. Beware cool. Beware rudimentary sequence puzzles. What a wasted premise.

7. Mountain

As David Letterman likes to ask: Is…this…anything?

No.

6. Lara Croft and the Temple of Osiris

A straight-up incompetent game.

5. Ultimate NES Remix

Almost a crime.

4. Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor

Brutality made personal. Nemesis, please.

3. Far Cry 4

Developing nations are not your playground.

2. Destiny

All debasement in the end.

1. Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes

The work of a man who puts bombs in vaginas.

 

(originally posted to Twitter on February 12, 2015; the 100-word reviews these draw from are here; other years can be found here)