It started with so much promise...
New consoles, new generation, new year. It was all looking up 11 months ago. We were about to see what these new bad boys could do. Just imagining the amazing graphical fidelity and new styles of gameplay was enough to make many of us open our pocketbooks to be a part of 8th generation of gaming.
And lets not forget our old consoles were likewise entering the swan song period where some of the best games usually release. Think of Chrono Trigger on the SNES. Paper Mario and Conker's Bad Fur Day on N64. Chrono Cross and Final Fantasy IX on PS1. Rogue Galaxy and Persona 3 & 4 on PS2.
But sadly, 2014 has been disastrous for us gamers. That's not to say there haven't been some surprises along the way. I'll be detailing a few of the brightest stars at the end of this list. But first, join me on this journey as we recount the epic failures, dashed hopes and demoralizing disappointments of 2014. What awfulness it is to dream of what might have been...
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JANUARY's biggest disappointment: Assassin's Creed Liberation HD
January is a sparse month for gaming since it comes right after the holiday season but even still, AC: Liberation HD was easily the worst home console AC game ever made. But I've heard some of the handheld AC games are even worse...
FEBRUARY's biggest disappointment: Thief
Dishonorable mentions:
Lighting Returns: Final Fantasy XIII
Rambo: The Videogame
Castlevania Lords of Shadow 2
Thief was one of my favorite PC games back in the late 90's and to see this franchise butchered like this makes me want to hit something. Garret deserved better, dammit! Also, what the hell happened to Castlevania and Final Fantasy this gen? For shame!
MARCH's biggest disappointment: Titanfall
Dishonorable mentions:
Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes
Now here was a game that was supposed to show off what next-gen could do. But IMO, Titanfall ended up not even being as good of a multiplayer mech game as Hawken, an indy game that came out 2 years ago! And to my eyes, Hawken even has better graphics. Epic Fail! But special mention goes to MGSV: GZ which was like a slap in the face to this Metal Gear fan. We deserved better than a $30 demo, Konami.
APRIL's biggest disappointment: The Elder Scrolls Online
Dishonorable mention:
The Amazing Spider-Man 2
After Fallout 3 and TES V: Skyrim, I believed that Bethesda could do no wrong. On paper, a Skyrim MMO is gold. But its also true that there's a lot more to MMORPGs than what Skyrim had. But who knows? It might get a lot better over time. But you know what WON'T get better over time? The Amazing Spider-Man 2. That's what.
MAY's biggest disappointment: Watch Dogs
In hindsight, I should have seen this coming. This was the game that was held up as the example of what next-gen should be. A benchmark as it were. It was gonna release 6 months after GTA V and supposedly show Rockstar how it was done. It's our fault really. Expecting Ubisoft to outdo Rockstar is like expecting a bottle rocket to outshine NASA. Now that I think about it, Ubisoft hasn't really blown my mind since... Splinter Cell Chaos Theory... in 2005. Yep. :/
JUNE's biggest disappointment: Murdered Soul Suspect
Dishonorable mention:
Transformers Rise of the Dark Spark
So I recently played Ghost Trick Phantom Detective on the DS and I loved it! I was told by many websites that M:SS was gonna be like a HD version of Ghost Trick. They lied and I hate them all. End of story. Also, Transformers: Rise of the Dark Spark was a huge let down compared to the last few Transformers games, War for Cybertron and Fall of Cybertron.
JULY's biggest disappointment: Sacred 3
SHOCKER: giving a great big middle finger to fans of the last two Sacred games is a really bad way to build a franchise.
AUGUST's biggest disappointment: The Walking Dead: Season Two
Okay so this might be a bit of a controversial choice. I loved the first Telltale game and I was expecting them to really go above and beyond the quality of the original and instead I just got more or less the same. It's not terrible but I wanted a better story and less bugs.
SEPTEMBER's biggest disappointment: Destiny
Dishonorable mentions:
The Sims 4
It was almost unthinkable: Bungie letting us down? Preposterous! Tyrion Lannister boring us to tears? Ridiculous! But here we are. Many others have touched on this, so I'll leave it at that. But I have to say that releasing 20 "expansion packs" for the Sims 4 and nickel and diming us is a great way to kill a beloved franchise. Thanks EA! What will you think of next?
OCTOBER's biggest disappointment: WWE 2K15
Dishonorable mentions:
DriveClub
The Evil Within
Jagged Alliance: Flashback
Lords of the Fallen
I'm a huge fan of the old N64 wrestling games like WWF No Mercy and WrestleMania 2000. I've kept up the with the Smackdown games even though I haven't enjoyed them very much. But that all changed this year. 2K striped out tons of features for NO REASON at all. Add in a weak roster and fewer CAW slots and I'm done with this series. They could have just re-released 2k14 and it would have been leaps and bounds better than this. Also, the other dishonorable mentions were no where near as good as the series' they are copying.
We still have two more months of 2014 to go but I have the feeling that even more disappointments are on the way. A certain assassins franchise is releasing not one, but 2 games this month. And you know what happens when publishers bet on two horses at the same time, right? Yeah...
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So now let's look at the best surprises of 2014:
South Park: The Stick of Truth
Dark Souls II
Mario Kart 8
Divinity: Original Sin
Wolfenstein: The New Order
Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor
Legend of Grimrock II
Bayonetta 2
All of these games are from franchises that have something to prove: South Park has had nothing but crappy games since the mid 90's. Lots of games are copying the Dark Souls formula. Mario Kart was thought to be well past it's prime. Divinity has always been in the shadow of other franchises like Diablo. Wolfenstein hasn't been relevant in a decade. Lord of the Rings games have been mired in darkness this whole generation until one developer marched happily into the darkest place of all: Mordor. Legend of Grimrock II needed to be so much more than the original's throwback to early CRPGs and Bayonetta 2 had to justify it's exclusivity to Nintendo.
That "something to prove" made these games something more than we were expecting. They rose above their predecessors and boldly struck new ground. They redefined what the series was and reinforced the quality of the franchise.
Masterfully done! Bravo!
*claps respectfully*
I just wish more games this year had followed your examples...
Microsoft announced its financial results for Q3 of fiscal year 2026, including an update on its gaming Xbox business and more.
Not looking good. Hopefully Asha Sharma is able to turn Phil’s disaster around.
To me it's still quite remarkable how they can cash-in 5.3bn in revenue in a single quarter, since their hardware is basically dead.
The stock mark is what makes Microsoft remarkable, They have convinced every institutional and retail investor to just keep piling money into them. Like many big tech giants they are just a big growing pyramid scheme. As long as people keep dropping money into ETF's that cover the market Microsoft will always be liquid. At the same time it is completely stifling innovation and competition. People need to start being more discreet in how they invest their money as it's killing the system.
Riiiiight because people will just flock back to them for one or two games per year.
15+ years of bad performance is what they call irreparable in business. It is time for them to sell off the assets and get out of entertainment.
These declines are on the back of extra revenue received from releasing games like Forza horizon 5 on PlayStation. So I’m being sarcastic here when I said they should go back to exclusives. Killing off a revenue stream from Ps5 sales will only make things worse
The charity event will be streamed live from Gamescom in August.
Thanks to the slip-up of an artist working on the title, we now have more evidence that a new Injustice game is in the works.
While I do agree that this year was particularly underwhelming in the video game department thus far, I have to disagree with a couple of your choices for "dishonorable mentions."
First, Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes was probably one of my favorite games this year. I don't know whether or not you've played it, but I'd like to know why you categorized it as you did and what you think about it?
Second, Watch_Dogs. By no means was Watch_Dogs a phenomenal game, and it was among one of the first this year to suffer from over-hype, but I thought it was an all around decent game. The mechanics were solid, the story was OK, and some of its ideas could lead to far more successful sequels.
For the most part though, this year has been very "meh" when it comes to video games. Granted, I'm still looking forward to Assassin's Creed Unity, regardless of all of the negativity surrounding it. Also Little Big Planet 3, which I've waited for since they released the Vita version. Not to mention Far Cry 4 and Dragon Age: Inquisition. We still have some time left in this year, and at least, from what it looks like, 2015 will have some good games in store for us.
I loved playing MGS:GZ and still do. Most of us already knew it was going to be a short prologue, because that is what prologues usually are. Still imo, it's nice that we had the chance play a part of MGSV year earlier before TPP releases.
A part of me kinda hates it because I want to know the rest of the story ;). It always ends way too fast lol :(. But I have played it a lot more than some other full priced PS4 games released this year.
Anyway, a good list you posted. I agree with most I have played, but there's many games I haven't played. For that I'm glad, after hearing people being disappointed over some games like Destiny etc.
"So now let's look at the best surprises of 2014: "
I would add Alien Isolation to this list. The game has been fantastic imo, best Alien game so far.
Ahh jagged alliance, I never realised they made another one. Due to where you placed it I'm guessing it was a let down? Sad times, jagged alliance 2 sapped so much of my spare time when it came out, the king of turn based strategy/rpg
Alien: Isolation needs to be added to the surprises for this year.
This article is the snuff porn of whiny, entitled gamer rants with some added scat.
Granted, some of these games like Destiny and Driveclub are genuine disappointments, but a lot of the games you listed are either good games that just got too much pre-release hype (Watch Dogs, Titanfall), or games that nobody with more than two brain cells thought were going to be good (Lightning Returns Rambo, Transformers).
And how is it "surprising" that games like Bayonetta 2, Dark Souls 2, and Mario Kart 8 ended up being great? It's not like Nintendo EAD, Platinum, and From Software are known for churning out shit.
Still, this blog was some fine masturbatory grandstanding Jedi. I bet the vein in your dick was throbbing the whole time you were typing it. You have a bright future as a game journalist....