Games of the Year 2014
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)