Is this the worst year in gaming so far?

I don't want to sound pessimistic nor am I one of those "everything was better before" guys but I believe this year has been extremely underwhelming and disappointing.

If not the worst year in the last ~ 15-20 years perhaps the second worst after the disastrous 2012. The best games that year were Journey and Dishonered... That really says enough imo.

This year the GOTY is Shadow of Mordor, like seriously? THAT's the GOTY winner? Its a great game and all, I'll give it an 8/10, but 8/10s (in my book) rarely make GOTY candidates let alone GOTY winners.

And don't get me wrong, I'm not disagreeing with Gamespot, I actually do not think there was a better game than Shadow of Mordor this year. (except maybe Ground Zeroes, but I'm a Metal Gear fanatic, I'm trying to think from an objective stand point)

I mean let's look at previous years:

2013: The Last of Us, Bioshock: Infinite (two of my all time favourite games), Grand Theft Auto V

2011: TESV: Skyrim, Arkham City, Gears 3, Uncharted 3, God of War 3, Portal 2, Dark Souls etc

2010: Red Dead Redemption, Mass Effect 2, Starcraft II, Super Mario Galaxy 2, etc

2009: Uncharted 2, Arkham Asylum, ACII, Dragon Age Origins, Demons Souls etc

2008: Metal Gear Solid 4, Fallout 3, LittleBigPlanet, GTAIV etc

2007: Super Mario Galaxy, Bioshock, Mass Effect, Halo 3, Crysis, Portal, Call of Duty 4 (yes it was an amazing game) etc

2006: Gears of War, Okami, Zelda; TP, Company of Heroes, TESIV: Oblivion (this was by far the worst year IMO, before 2012 and 2014 came)

2005: God of War, Shadow of the Colossus, Resident Evil 4, etc

2004: Half Life 2, GTA: San Andreas, MGS3: Snake Eater, Halo 2

2003: SW: KOTOR, Zelda Wind Waker, SSX 3, etc

2002: Metroid Prime, GTA: Vice City, Kingdom Hearts, Morrowind, Splinter Cell etc

2001: MGS2: Son of Liberty, Grand Theft Auto 3, Ico, Halo, Vagrant Story, Devil May Cry, etc

That's about as far back as I bothered to go, probably missing some great titles from each year but those were the most significant that spring to mind. To me 2014 and 2012 were by far the worst years in gaming while 1998, 2001,2004,2008 and 2013 really stand out to me as exceptional years. Especially 1998 and 2001.

well TLOU got 8/10 and it was a GOTY candidate

No.

Year of the flops

The fact that 2012 is missing from your list is telling

No new game released this year tops GTA V // TLOU. Other than that I think the year has been ok.

What are you smoking? It has been great, sure it been big disasters like Drive Club, MCC, AC:Unity but we have also had great games.

Just take few from top of my head:

Dragon Age Inquisition, Far cry 4, Bayonetta 2, Mario Kart 8, Dark Souls 2, Super Smash Bros, Alien Isolation, Child of light, Warlords of draenor, Shadow of Mordor

Read it again, I included 2012. Dishonored & Journey.

Reading: it helps :P

For everyone but Nintendo fans.

No. It was a great year for gaming. Much better than 2013. But definitely not as good as 2011, which was one of the best years for video games.

Doesn't sound convincing at all and kind of proving my point. There's been 4 WoW expansions yet I didn't include a single one of them in my list of great games (2001-2013) because I didn't need to as there were so many other better games. Had I put Burning Crusade in 2007 and Lich King in 2008 I'd also have to put another 10-12 games...

Same applies to Mario Kart 8 and Super Smash Bros. So meh. Far Cry 4, is a decent game but in the same ballpark as the other Far Cry games; belongs no where near a list of " memorable" games.

And Alien Isolation... a 6/10? We're bringing 6/10 games into a years list of best games?

I'll give you Bayonetta 2, Shadow of Mordor, Dragon Age and Dark Souls 2 (didn't this game come out in 2013? If so it doesn't count but if it was a 2014 then that's cool) which doesn't hold a candle to any of the other years I listed except 2012 and 2006 IMO.

Thank god for Shadow of Mordor getting GOTY and not Bayonetta 2, kinding rendering its 10 moot.

If alm you do is play on next gen consoles, sure.

PC:

Divinity Original Sin

Ethan Carter

The Talos Princinciple

Legend of Grimrock 2 (i should play that)

etc

Wii U:

Bayonetta 2

Super Smash Bros

Mario Kart 8

Donkey Kong TF

etc

Multiplats:

Dark Souls 2

Far Cry 4

Shovel Knight

South Park TSoT

Wolfenstein TNO

Transistor

Titanfall

Metal Gear Solid V GZ (short has ****, but for the right price, the gameplay is awesome)

Games that i haven't played but want to, and got good reviews:

Forza Horizon 2

Dragon Age Inquisition

etc

So, no

Not for me, it's been a great year.

This year blew away 2013 like it was not even there.

I actually quite liked this year. Sure it didn't have too much quantity, but the quality of some of the games this year were top of the genre level.

I thought 2012 was the worst in recent times.

I disagree with much of that list of games in those years... Tomb Raider should be in it for 2013, it was probably one of the best games of that year. Also where is Saints Row 3 and 4, those games were epic. Also in 2010 there should be Civilization V, maybe the greatest turn based strategy game to ever be made.

I agree, Shadow of Mordor is a boring and short game, but theres so few games this year this is how it got goty i guess. I think Southpark could have got GOTY if the gameplay didn't suck so much, everything else in the game was unique and interesting.

Dark Souls 2 was nominated for best 360/Ps3 game here at GS so pretty much believe it came this year. Only point proved is you have a very different taste than mine in gaming. It is no point argue about if an opinion is right or wrong, i get it YOU didnt like this year of gaming.

No

Been a great year for me Last of Us was great on PS4. I loved playing it in 1080p 60 fps. Dark Souls 2 was awesome I put 400 hours into it. I just finished Bayonetta 2 and it's one of the best action games ever made.

I'm still scratching my head trying to figure out how Shadow of Mordor beat Bayonetta and Dark Souls. I've lost all faith in the gaming media they're on the payroll of someone. Maybe Nintendo should have paid for more advertising on Gamespot.

There were better games on PC (sans Bayonetta 2) by a wide margin.

It is better than 2008 and 2013 for sure.

RPGs actually got good again this year, thanks to a lot of kickstarter goodies.

No.

I think it's a weak year overall, but it still had some genuinely well made stuff, and Bayonetta 2 is the type of game that would be excellent regardless of how many great games are in a year. Divinity, Wastleand 2, Alien Isolation, and Shovel Knight have been worth it as well.

That said not gonna lie, with the games you chose to pimp out for respective years I would take both 2012 and 2014 over 08. MGS4 was disappointing as hell, and Fallout 3, GTA4, and Little Big Planet suck, by any measure in their respective genres.

Not if you own a Wii U.

Where are all of the amazing racing games like Forza Horizon, Dirt 3, Burnout 3?

Notice its the people who game primarily on a PS4 who keep making these threads?

2014 has been a great year for me.

Well, 2012 and 2014 were the years that Forza Horizon and it's sequel came out.

Conspiracy? I think so.

I can understand thinking this if you only own Sony consoles.

It's always a great gaming year on PC.

Wii U has done pretty well too.

Maybe if you only owned a PS4 or Xbone. I'm going to be buying light in 2015, because I still have so much 2014 shit to play. Still haven't touched Bayo 2.

you don't seem trustworthy

I started gaming in the early 80's (on PC) and I think its fantastic atm.

If your primary system is a ps4, Xbox, or handheld, then yeah this year sucked.

Tons of great games on PC as usual, and the Wii U seemed to get a great lineup of exclusives too.

I thought it was a great year. titanfall and sunset overdrive are better then anything from 2013 (IMO) plus the MCC (even if it got a 6 on here) is a collection of 4 amazing games. Watch dogs was decent. wolfenstien was awesome, Shadow of morridor was awesome, More then enough good games came out if you own every system. The people complaining seem to have only a PS4 which was basically just relying on multiplats so they missed out on the top 2 games this year.

good thing your opinion doesn't matter

Odd you'd post on a gaming site if you hate gaming. Never seen a single DLC that you had to pay for, don't like don't pay for it. What are you paying $65 a month for? People love to forget how many bugged games there in the 80's and 90's and how fucking tough it was to get fixes, nevermind messing around with DOS to get the bastards working.

^ i knew lostrib was stupid but i didn't expect a mod to be taken on a ruse cruise by so blatant a troll

The same nonsense is posted constantly by other posters on the board all the time, so no idea if trolling or not.

@princeofshapeir: the word you're looking for is bored

Yes. 2012 actually had some games I enjoyed though (Transformers: FoC, SASRT, and Halo 4). This year had what, an AoM and Strider 2 re-release? Terrible.

his name is "jimmy_russels" and he has a matching avatar

No. stop having this discussion over and over again.

This was the worst year generally in everything